Ying opened his eyes, and found nothing but blackness. He looked around and blinked a few times, puzzled. Where was he? What was going on? Then he noticed something… a cold, jello-like feeling all around him. He was being dragged downward, and fast. He was back in the tar. Ying began to struggle and flail about as he realized where he was. He held his breath, and tried desperately to claw his way to the surface. He tried and tried, but there was nothing he could do. He kept falling down, down, down into the depths of the void. He began to hear voices, whispers that he couldn't understand. Warped and distorted faces began to form around him. His eyes widened as he looked around at the ever-changing figures in front of him. He instinctively knew what it was. It was the souls of all the people that had died because of him. They were haunting him, bringing them down to live with them in hell. He was running out of air, and he clawed at his throat. He tried blinking, but it made no difference. Down he went, descending further and further until he was finally forced to breathe in…
Ying gasped and sputtered as he woke up. He spent a few minutes catching his breath, and then collapsed back into the couch. That was horrifying.
"Holy shit… cough cough… I really thought I was gonna bite it there. I'm starting to get sick of these dreams, and this couch. I need to make myself a proper room."
Ying's back was killing him, and his neck ached like an old war injury. He needed to move out of this room, and fast. He had found his mission for the day, work on building a permanent bedroom. Ying started the day by brushing his teeth with a brush normally used for cleaning test tubes. It wasn't much, but it was the best he could find. He went and cooked himself some breakfast macaroni, and drank a whole bottle of water. He shouldn't have grabbed this kind, he hated the brand. It always tasted metallic. But water was water. Then he got about to planning his new room.
He spent half the day looking for a good spot. This is where he was gonna sleep for the foreseeable future after all, it needed to be perfect. He searched high and low, but all the rooms were either too big or too weird to be bedrooms. The director's office certainly wasn't an option, he already did not like sleeping in there. He looked everywhere, but nowhere seemed to be what he was looking for. Then he got a crazy idea.
"What about the thin towers up top?" Ying said to himself. "Those look small enough to be rooms."
The building Ying was in was square up until a certain point, and then it tapered off into 3 triangular towers that reached up a good 150 feet. The towers themselves were equilateral triangles that were about 90 feet squared (which is quite small for anyone who isn't good at math), so they would be cramped, but suitable living quarters. To access the triangular buildings, you needed to climb a metal ladder in order to reach the top. Luckily for Ying, he had a way to skip that. Bam, he was at the very top. Ying got a good look around.
It was a pure gray room with cobwebs and dust everywhere. The room itself was fine, but he hadn't accounted for the slanted roof. The entire room was a right angle triangular pyramid. The roof was about 10 feet tall on one side, but it came down to meet the floor on the other. It was about at an 80 degree angle, which isn't great, but at least it looked nice. The roof was glass, so it created a beautiful view. Luckily for Ying, the roof came down to a slant at one of the triangle's points. If it was slanted down to one of the sides, that would make the room truly cramped. Ying got to planning
"Wood there… bed there… dresser can go here… potted plant here… room for decoration here…" He mumbled, getting more excited with every word.
He could see it in his mind's eye. An ideal place to spend his days. Cozy, quiet, and overlooking the city he holds so dear, as well as overlooking the portal, his greatest problem he had yet to face. He made a plan and a list of supplies. First, he needed to clean. This place was dirtier than a carnival aftermath. He began by clearing out the dust and cobwebs with a large toilet scrubber and some isopropyl alcohol. After about half an hour of scrubbing every inch of that room, it looked perfectly white. Next he cleaned the roof. He couldn't have a foggy view, after all. He scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed away at that glass until it shone like diamonds. It really was a wonderful view. While the portal was ominous, and the destroyed city was depressing, it still was incredibly vibrant and lovely when viewed from the right angle.
After cleaning out the area, he warped his way into town, making sure to take his new invention with him. He looked around for a while, and finally found it. A large carpentry facility. He was going to need to spend a while here. Making the measurements, cuts, and all together designing the wood planks for his walls was gonna be time-consuming. He blinked inside and searched around for a while. There was quite the selection of wood. Dark, light, thick, thin, long, short, and even some scrap wood that he could use for other projects. This place was a goldmine of power tools and equipment. He would come back here later for some sawblades and drills.
He spent the next 2 days taking measurements and cutting the planks to size. He had chosen a lovely cut of dark walnut for the walls, and cherry for the floor. Each plank was very long, so they were excellent candidates. After each piece was good and ready, he spent the next day transporting all the wood and some supplies. He carefully took each piece and applied it to the wall with some adhesive. Every plank lined up perfectly. He tediously placed plank after plank, until the whole thing was complete. Since the room was a triangle and the roof slanted to one of the corners, he only had to fill in 3 walls.
Once it was done, it looked quite stunning. He was quite proud of himself. The dark wood accented the colorful world outside. Next, he installed the floor. This was far less time consuming, and only took around an hour. When the whole room was finished, it felt cozy and welcoming. A nice little getaway home that encouraged rest and relaxation. Ying felt pleased. This was an excellent start.
Next, he needed a bed. Now that was gonna be a challenge. After a day of relaxing and playing with Sunflower, He went across town again to find a furniture store. On the way, he got chased by a few gremlins, but he managed to shake them by running for a few blocks. He didn't want to use too many blinks unless he had to. He didn't know the complete limit to his abilities, but his number of blinks was currently at least under 20. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw what he was looking for. A small furniture store. After popping inside, he found it was a small and homely store on one side, and absolutely decimated on the other. It was a miracle the building hadn't caved in yet.
He looked around and spotted exactly what he was looking for. A dark walnut full bed frame with a nice square backboard. This is exactly what he was looking for. He didn't wanna go through the trouble of disassembling it, though… He knew he could teleport anything within a few inches of himself, or whatever he was touching at the time… So…
Ying grabbed hold of the bed frame, aimed, and… ta-da. He was outside, with the bedframe intact.
"Yes!" Ying whispered to himself.
Ying excitedly teleported on top of a tall building nearby. He really hoped this would work. He looked around, and locked on to his lab. He squinted as hard as he could and tried his best to see inside his room. He held his breath, clenched his teeth, braced himself, and…
CRASH! Ying winced as he heard the sound of splintering wood. He looked up. Sure enough, the headboard had completely phased into the wall. Both pieces of wood had exploded into tiny pieces. He groaned. He was gonna have to do that section of wall all over again. In the meantime, he cut off what remained of the headboard. He could live without it. He positioned the bed frame against the back wall.
"Fuuuuuuuuuck!" He yelled as he made his way back to the carpentry store.
It took Ying an extra day to fix the damages done to the wall. He would try to avoid mistakes like that in the future. After he fixed the wall, he went back to the city and spent the next 2 hours in a mattress store. He tried every full mattress he could find, and finally settled on a medium firmness memory foam mattress. He made sure to get some pillows, sheets, and blankets on his way out. He did the same teleport trick with the mattress, making sure to get closer before attempting such a risky jump. It fit like a glove into his new frame. He put on all the coverings, and made his new bed for the first time. He had chosen a white and blue themed blanket, and white sheets and pillows.
He laid down in his brand new bed, rested his head on his new pillows, looked around at his new room, and smiled. After a week's worth of work, he finally managed to build himself a home. Ying never really had a home before. His family home was quite dysfunctional, and he never really felt safe there. After he got emancipated and moved out, he never quite settled down anywhere. He was always moving so he never accessorized. During the late stages of his portal experiments, he slept in his lab. But none of these places really felt like home. This was different. He built this place with his own two hands, and he knew his way around the science building like the back of his hand. He felt comfortable in his own room for the first time in his life.
As he counted his blessings, he began to fade away into a deep sleep. As he did though, his mind went back to Adrian. Why did he keep thinking about Adrian? Ying thought that he had moved on from this. He was about to start thinking about something else when his eyelids became as heavy as lead. He had no strength left after working so much, and he had been forgetting to eat properly during his work. He finally gave in, and let himself drift away as his eyes began to close on the setting sun.