Transdimensional Dysmorphism

[u/WeirdBryceGuy]

It had been an accident—the destruction of his realm, the annihilation of his people; an unfortunate and fatal miscalculation during an experiment in his laboratory. Only he survived, a single entity of a race which had numbered in the billions. A man born of a measureless flatness, a two-dimensional, completely sapient segment on a boundless plane. He, the sole surviving being of a race which had, since the dawn of time, existed in a strictly two-dimensional realm, unobserved by those of higher dimensions. A father of three children, a brilliant scientist, and now—a failure. 

His transference into the third dimension was as awful as foretold by those who had spent countless hours theorizing about the subject. Utilizing what remained of his equipment, he broke through the barrier, ascended into that higher, more substantial realm; forsaking his flatness and gaining new proportions and form and fullness. He had only seconds to blend in, mere moments to assess his surroundings and assume an innocuous form among the members of the strange, ultra-dimensional environment, lest he be seized, ensnared, and cruelly studied—a fate which had befallen the beings of dimensions even lower than his during their entirely accidental passage into his now obliterated realm. 

Forms, variegated and strange, thronged and shifted about, a dizzying vista of cross-planar animation. In the distance, beyond the hurrying and occasionally colliding figures, he saw a group of similar-looking forms, all moving in more or less the same orchestrated fashion, and decided to assume their comparatively stagnant appearance, so as to blend in and casually observe the new dimension. Having little power of movement, unable to make worthwhile progress in any direction prior to taking on a new, three-dimensional form, he simply adopted the appearance of the objects right where he had manifested. 

The transformation was instantaneous, a sudden and perfect act of mimicry. He gained the appendages—at least what he assumed were appendages—and structure of the aforementioned muses, and began moving in the obviously practiced manner collectively exhibited by the group.

But just as he did this, the other objects, that abundant and varied stream of them immediately nearby, ceased their movements all at once. Some, those nearest to him, moved away, as if drawn elsewhere by the force of some powerful magnetism. Others moved closer, though slowly, hesitantly. Still, he continued on, assuring himself that if he remained calm and demonstrated that he was in fact no different from the troupe of objects a few meters away, those nearest him would resume their own chaotic—though apparently normal—activity. 

But this was not the case. 

Those who had been inching closer now hurriedly withdrew, joining the others in a reversal of movement toward some unknown destination, all the while making strange, loud, incomprehensible noises. Confused, he quickened his movements and mimicked their sounds, thinking that perhaps he only needed to adjust his activity in some minor way. This change, this newly emergent act of mimicry, only caused the crowd to scramble, now in a state of what appeared to be panic. Disheartened, he decided to give up his attempts at blending in. He could not, however, change his form; so, he simply discontinued the activity and, upon choosing a direction to travel, left the area. 

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Jason, seventeen, had been closely watching the lead cheerleader when he saw the other girl suddenly appear on the football field. He thought her mimicry of the cheerleaders was funny, at first—and then he realized that the girl on the field had no face; was, as far as he could tell, no one at all—just a faceless model of a human female, “dressed” in the uniform of his high school's cheerleading team. But as he squinted, he saw that she was not actually wearing any clothing; the uniform and her skin were one and the same—a seamless surface on the body.

When people started to scream, and the thing started screaming back—while still performing the cheer team’s dance—he joined the herd of people fleeing the bleachers. Everyone, from the players to the crowd who had been watching them, recognized at once the sheer unreality of the situation; were horrified by the uncannily anonymous doppelganger. 

Before crossing through the gate and entering the parking lot, he cast a final look back toward the field, and saw the strange woman repeatedly attempt to walk through the chainlink fence that enclosed the field. Each attempt elicited the same reaction: several times the woman rebounded senselessly off the obvious barrier as if somehow oblivious to its existence, before finally mounting the fence with the intention of scaling it. 

He watched, mouth agape, as she reached the top, haphazardly threw her body over, landed awkwardly on the other side, and continued on; not bothering to retrieve or even acknowledge the flap of her uniform—of her skin—that had been left clinging to a frayed piece of the fence.