anemoarchonhoe - Tumblr blog

anemoarchonhoe · 5 months ago

Text

Self aware au, but it's just a generational curse (wuwa edition)

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Clubs are, obviously, very loud.

Enough for you to bust out the silencing headphones, anyway. Maybe you’re just sensitive.

Your friends are off mingling with the raving crowds, leaving you to watch their drinks. It feels like you’re the only person afraid of their drink getting spiked.

You sip at the glass of water you ordered, you’ve been out with these people enough to know you’re going to be driving- nevermind. The last person you know has also run off with a random girl.

The lights flicker as you survey the crowd, counting the people in your group. When the number never moves from zero, you pack up your stuff and leave the establishment.

Yes, you took your friend’s car. She shouldn't have given you the keys if she didn’t think this would happen. It has the last six times.

You throw your stuff into the passenger seat, taking a moment to text the group chat where you were going and who’s car you had, and take off in the direction of the nearest Dominos.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

The cashier looked at you weird when you ordered an entire pizza for yourself, but fuck them. It’s not like the pizza is big in the first place.

You sit in a booth, munching on your pizza when a person walks by your table, drops something and leaves. Not even giving you the chance to even swallow before they’re gone. You’re looking around to see if anybody saw that before your eyes settle on the letter.

Taking another bite, you decide that it’s a problem for later.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Later is now unfortunately.

You arrive home and throw your thing haphazardly onto the floor before rushing to the bathroom to take off all this makeup. No matter how long it took to apply, the process to remove will always be ten times easier. The clothes, not so much.

It takes about ten minutes for you to get comfortable enough to tackle the letter. You’re sitting with a blanket around you on your couch, letter in hand. It’s flimsy and open, easy to remove the contents inside.

It’s not even a letter, just a paper that says,

I know what you are ;)

You blink once. Twice. Thrice. Then stand to go burn the paper.

Your phone turning on is what stops you.

The screen displays what looks like an ad for something called Wuthering Waves. Which wouldn’t bother you much if, you know, your phone wasn’t out of battery.

You watch the ad in its entirety, watching as your phone powers back off.

The paper is still burned in the end.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Wuthering Waves. New game that came out in the recent year, having many compliments from those who’ve played. The group does not include you, however.

You’ve never heard of this game until yesterday, with that incident of the ad.

So obviously, you had to check it out.

Since it’s relatively new, it doesn’t take forever to upload onto your device, roughly about an hour, maybe less. You left halfway through to get something to eat before returning to a fully loaded game.

Your first question is probably why they make you choose between two equally pretty people, that is not fair. What happens to the one you don’t choose, they just cease to exist? No, they must both be there for a reason, so the one you don’t choose is used for something else in the plot line.

Right? You’ll be sad if you pick one and you never see the other again.

Sighing, you pick the male and put in the desired username before leaning in your chair to watch the cutscene.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

It’s fun. That’s all you’ve gathered so far. Really, it’s fun.

So why does it feel like your brain is going to pop every time you meet someone new?

Hell, meeting Scar was the absolute worst. Not that he's a bad character, it’s just that you had to pause the game and clutch your temples from the wave of pain that overtook you the moment he came on screen. Even after the pain had subsided, the feeling of something never left you.

Doesn’t help that the characters tend to differentiate from you and the Rover as if you’re two different people. Staring right into the camera like a children’s episode when they’re addressing you.

It’s something you feel you will have to get over fairly quickly.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

And you did, four months you went, ignoring every little odd thing that was thrown your way. You played near daily, and if you didn’t, you’d receive something in the mail asking if you were alright.

The person changed but it was pretty much the same message every time. You try not to deviate from your schedule in order not to cause any unnecessary worry.

The characters themselves treat you as if you’re just another Rover. Rover himself treats you as a close friend.

Rover hasn’t directly spoken to you so you have had to make due with charades on his side. Everyone else speaks to you comfortably, even the more untrusting characters. Which is weird, but okay.

Have you told anyone? NO.

Are you gonna tell anyone? NO.

What are they gonna do, believe you? Yeah right.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Everything came crashing down on a random Monday.

You hadn't even noticed it was thanksgiving season until your mother called you in the middle of a gaming session.

“You’re coming over for Thanksgiving week, right?”

Like the entire week?! OF COURSE NOT-

“Yes, mom, I will be there. I promise, now let me pack.”

FUCK.

A whole week at your parent’s house?

You’re gonna go insane.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Day one wasn’t too bad, other than the abundance of emails and texts sent by-

Well, how do you explain to your family that your game is sentient and texts you like an overbearing mother? That’s right, you don’t. You’re gonna sit in the living room, socialize with people you don’t remember and act as if your phone isn’t being bombarded with texts.

You’ll make it through the week just fine.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Thanksgiving becomes fun when dinner time hits and the gossiping aunties start chatting. This time, however, you don’t think you like what they’re talking about.

“You know, this time of year never fails to remind of Old Coot Curtis.”

“Oh, stop talking like we’re a part of some small town down west. But why?”

“Well, it’s right around the time he went missing. And little Aiden too. So did Nora.”

You start to eat your food a little bit quieter when your dad starts to add his input.

“Ladies, why on Earth are you talking about those things on this fine day? It’s Thanksgiving, not time to reminisce about past events.”

Your aunts grumble to themselves before moving topics to things like new boyfriends.

How odd, you’ve never heard about someone going missing in your family. And to think, it wasn’t just one, it was three.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

You’re beside your mother in the kitchen, drying and putting away dishes she gives you. She’s humming softly to a tune from the radio in the living room.

“Hey, mom?”

She hums.

“What happened to Curtis?”

Your mother laughs, accidentally spraying water onto herself.

“Now, [Name], don’t listen to what any of those women have to say. They all have their own opinions, none of them right, of course. But, Curtis was a cousin of yours. He disappeared back in 2012. He was, well, a coot. Started talking nonsense about this game he played, something about how the characters would talk to him and other things.”

She reaches over you to grab another dirty plate, seemingly not noticing the way you’ve positively frozen. Your mother just continues to speak about your cousin, unknowingly describing your past few months.

“Yeah, he was crazy. Then, he disappeared into the blue. Same thing happened to Aiden and Nora too. Hell, even your great-grandfather.”

“...Really?” Your horrid attempts at sounding natural somehow fly over your mom’s head.

“Yeah! Said that the cards of his favorite board game would change near daily to talk to him. He disappeared too, although, he probably just just walked out on the family, bastard....”

You just listen to your mom as you numbly wash and dry the dishes.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Are you gonna disappear under mysterious circumstances like everyone else?

The question kept you awake that night, and made sure you didn’t even need coffee for the road back home. It’s been a good minute since you’ve been emailed or been texted by-well. Them.

Never have they shown any sign of aggressives towards you, hell, you’ve been friends for the better part of the year.

You sit in your car for about thirty minutes before you get out of your car to enter your apartment.

And immediately notice the sound of waves.

Door slammed back shut, you’re out of here.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

You have been messaged about sixteen times, and that’s just from guessing the amount of times your phone had vibrated.

You’re willing to bet that most of them are from a specific group of people. Why the government won’t take restraining orders against a certain man named Scar, you’ll never know. Bastard decided to attach to you the same way he did Rover. Fun.

“Excuse me? It seems like it’s urgent….,” The person runs off after you turn to glare them. Can’t people just let you avoid things in peace?

You sigh, and open your phone.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Your apartment seems normal, but you’re positive it’s anything but.

The sound of waves greets you once again, but a quick check around your apartment tells you that nothing could be making the noise. It’s only by luck that you catch a glimpse of your ceiling.

Your ceiling is….how do you say this? An ocean. Just like in Wuthering Waves. How fun.

It’s not raining down on you or anything, not even affecting the temperature of your apartment, it’s just there.

You need some sort of liquor for this.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Liquor was not acquired, unfortunately. You kinda want to talk to sentient game characters while drunk. So it will be a sober occasion.

Logging onto Wuthering Waves is second nature at this point, but the ambient noise is not. The closer you get to entering the game, the more the waves crashing against each other grows.

An ambience fills your room, not unlike the music you would find in ambience videos. Speaking of those videos, your room combined with the rolling of the waves makes you feel as if you’ve put one on in the background.

You decide not to question where the ambience is coming from exactly because you think you’ll go insane.

Rover and his female counterpart greet you on their rock in the middle of nowhere, the woman unmoving while Rover beckons you forward with just a flick of his wrist. The screen adjusts itself until it feels like you’re standing right in front of him.

Even after everything you’ve learned, the sight of your friend makes your face turn fond.

Rover’s head tilts a bit, a questioning look over taking his features. You tilt yours in turn. To your surprise, his face fills with amusement, like he could see the action when every other time, it took verbal speech to solicit a response.

It’s obvious he, and most likely everyone else, are evolving.

He reaches out to you like always, and the screen goes blank.

You get comfortable in your chair and begin to go through the daily motions of the game.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Just like every day, the characters approached you and Rover normally. Unlike everyday, it became much and much more apparent that everyone could see you, not the npc’s, just the resonators.

Which is a relief.

“Hey, Rover?”

The camera pans by itself to face the man himself.

“Can you see me?”

Rover makes a so-so, then makes a hand gesture for you to follow him. He then walks off in a different direction.

How do you even-How are you supposed- Oh, it still moves even though he’s not the focal point anymore, okey, great to know.

Rover leads you through the streets(not even giving you the time to accustom yourself to the new camera controls, this man is on a mission, damn-), stopping in front of the Magistrate building, asks for Sanhua(which apparently he can just do), and-poof- she’s right around the corner.

What the heck? Fine, ok.

Anyway, Sanhua approaches the both of you, looking quite pleasant if you say so yourself. She greets the both of you normally before giving you a once over.

You know, the type of look that someone gives someone else when they’re checking them out, looking up and down? That, but the person who’s doing it could kill you in like two point five seconds.

Suddenly, you’re glad that you’re on this side of the screen.

“Somehow, you’re nothing and everything I thought you to be.”

You swivel in your chair as if cameras are going to magically appear in your room, before facing Sanhua.

“So you can see me?!”

She hums contemplatively. “Not quite. It appears blurry, but not how most appear to me. Your figure is clear to me except the moments when you ‘glitch’. Before, however, we could not see you completely. It was only until recently that the area around Rover, or whoever you were accompanying at the moment, would become more and more pixelated.”

Rover nods along to Sanhua’s words.

You let the explanation sink in before realizing-

“Wait, let me go change, these clothes are shit. I cannot believe I let you see me like this-”

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

Today wasn’t so bad. It was fun, at the very least.

You actually interacted with the people ‘you accompany’, learning that most of them didn’t mind your little impromptu adventures. Well, except Mortifi and Baizhi, but that's because they’re working people so-

You had given Rover a tired goodbye, with him telling you to stay safe until tomorrow. You got ready for bed and just threw yourself in.

Finally, your own bed after a week of being your parent’s felt like paradise.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

You wake slowly to the crashing of waves around you- you’re not opening your eyes.

You swear to everything that exists, if you’re anywhere but your bed, you don't know what you’re going to do.

Fuck, you’re not in your bed.

In fact, you’re kinda just floating in the dark water, which you hope is clean. Despite everything, you haven’t been more relaxed in a while. The feeling of being underwater and weightlessness makes you drift back to sleep.

Nevermind, it seems that the sun has sent you a wake up call. From below?

You maneuver yourself to face underneath to find a Tacet mark glowing dimly beneath you, brightening the closer you drift closer to it.

The soft rocking of the waves pulls you into the embrace of unconsciousness before you can see what happens.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

You roll over in your bed to meet-stone?

The memories come back to you and you practically break our back with how fast you sit up.

Where are you!?

…

WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?!

To put it simply, you’re wearing the most techwear outfit you've ever seen, hell, you could be a Wuthering Waves character-

No.

Nuh uh.

You look around the cavern scenery, experience a strong wave of deja vu, then put your head in your hands.

It appears that, yuh huh.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

You’re either dead, dying, or got isekai-d.

The cavern is the same of which Rover awoke in himself, and so you took the same path he did to get to civilization.

Your little trip through the ocean had not only equipped you with new clothing, but also with a gourd and a glider.

Do you know how to use either of those things? No, but you’re gonna figure it out.

Gliding should be easy, right? Rover got easily enough, but then again, he’s the main character.

You shrug and deploy the glider. Then you mutter a prayer and jump.

Holy shit, it is that easy! The wind does most of the work, you just have to make sure you’re not leaning one way or another.

You make sure to steer clear of where the Tacet field ley at the beginning of the game(even if it’s not there anymore) before looking around and realizing-.

You don’t know where you’re going.

A huff of frustration.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

This world is so weird. You go one way and suddenly you’re deaf?!

Yeah, you try to pick a direction and every time your ears would start to ring until the world went quiet. This happened many times until you found yourself on a path towards who-knows-where.

You've noted that you would have to listen for the same ambient noise that appeared in your room in order to see if the path you were on was the correct one. The ambient noise along with the distant waves lead you all the way to the gates of Jinzhou.

The next hassle of this horrific day is, how are you going to get past the gate officials?

They don’t let you in, of course they don’t, because you don’t have the appropriate credentials. But how do you explain that, up until a few days ago, you were just a voice to some of the most influential people they know?

Oh, you’re saved! Just beyond the gates, you can see Rover, who’s being held back from by Sanhua and–Jiyan?! What the fuck’s happenning–Oh, Rover look’s both pissed and worried at the same time.

The more you look, Jiyan and Sanhua aren’t really holding him back, just making sure he doesn’t pounce on the poor Magistrate official. From what you can see, Sanha is also arguing with them, albeit more officially. Jiyan just stands and glares at them darkly.

You can see all the resonators you’ve met in different places, close enough to hear and assist if needed, but far enough to not be considered a part of the argument. They look rather bothered as well.

“What’s happening over there?” You ask one of the gate officials who had also been watching the argument with interest. Thankfully, they had let you hang around the gate after you told them a friend had been coming to pick you up at the gate with proper credentials.

“Some old-minded coot that thinks the resonators are going to band together to ‘rule the world’. I don’t even know how he got into the Magistrate with that attitude. Doesn’t help that Rover has been on edge lately. Most of the resonators in the city have been lately. Something about a friend that he hasn't seen in ten days. Rover got pissed when the guy told him that if that person was also a resonator, they should stay missing. Got most of the resonators mad with that one.” He informs you, never looking away from the interaction.

Somehow, ‘the ten days’ and ‘missing friend’ part flies over your head completely.

“This whole thing has been going on for the better part of the hour, but it can’t be categorized as a disturbance yet, so nobody’s stopped it,” Another official adds, offering you some sort of snack when Sanhua takes a step forward.

“Pretty sure that guy just insulted the Magistrate herself.”

You wince and the officials nod along with you.

You wiggle away from the officials to approach another who hadn’t looked that interested in the interaction to ask her on how to operate your gourd. She had shown you how to shoot a simple message to the only person you could, Rover.

Wiggling back in between, the gate officials while also making sure that Rover can see you, you shoot him a simple message,

Look towards the gate

By some universal influence, he looks at the message and confusedly looks towards the gate. He surveys the gate before his eyes land on you. You wave awkwardly and watch as his face brightens, the worry and tension practically evaporating off of him.

Now he’s sprinting towards you.

It is at this moment that you connect the dots and realize that it was you that was the missing friend and that it was you who was missing for ten days, floating around in the ocean without a care. Not that he knows that.

The argument was happening far enough from the gate for you to warn the officials tiredly, “You might wanna move, I don’t think he’s gonna stop to say excuse me.”

Thank goodness they listen, because your friend fucking hug-tackles you to the hard ground.

159 notes · View notes

anemoarchonhoe · 5 months ago

Text

━━ welcome, rover .

Waking up in a foreign world with no memories and hostile natives isn't what it's made out to be, especially when you have a sassy voice telling you to jump off a cliff.

self aware!wuthering waves au (kinda.)

contains: male!rover, elements of sagau, ooc!chixia, canon divergence, based off of beta wuwa

wc: 2.2k

a/n: i wrote this on the plane while having motion sickness so uh sorry if it's bad but i had a vision... this is based on the old version of wuwa btw !! where everyone was kinda hostile towards rover so that's why chixias more antagonistic bc i heard she was kinda mean in the og... rover might be ooc too bc honestly my experience w wuwa is... limited due to the lagging but i hope i did him decently enough !! if he doesn't have sass that's uhm. that's my bad. anyways self aware beams your wuwa

When Rover awoke on that new world, the first thing he'd seen was a heated glare.

Alright, maybe “glare” wasn't the right word. It was moreso wariness, or distrust. Narrowed eyes, hostile and defensive body language, and hands hovering above where he assumed was their weapons holster - it was obvious that to the locals, he was an unwelcomed guest.

He'd barely regained enough consciousness to comprehend the language - their words were twisted, alien, yet he could somehow still understand them - before he was barraged with an onslaught of interrogations: Who was he? Why was he here? What were his intentions? Why was he alone?

And of course, when faced with all of these questions, his recently wiped mind went blank - that tends to happen when you have amnesia. Unfortunately for him, that answer wasn't exactly satisfactory. It was painfully obvious from their expressions that no one believed him when he explained that he didn't remember anything, not even his own name.

The redhead was the most aggressive - Rover was sure she would've already started getting physical had her companion, a darker-haired woman dressed in blue, not kept her in line. While the others weren't exactly kind to him, they still remained civil… or at least, as civil as they were willing to be.

In the end, the third woman, this one with sharp eyes and presumably the medic of the group, managed to convince the other two that Rover was telling the truth after a brief examination. It was then, and only then that the interrogations stopped, and Rover could finally have some time to himself as the three women discussed what to do with him.

As the details of their conversation faded into the background (he heard a lot of fancy terms that he wasn't familiar with), Rover decided to take a look around.

He'd landed in the middle of a forest, which didn't strike him quite right - out of everything, the one thing he clearly remembered was being underwater. But as he surveyed his surroundings, only looming cliffs, thin trees and swaying grass greeted him.

He winced, his head throbbing suddenly. A stabbing sensation struck through his head like a bullet, and then there was warmth, spreading through his body like sunlight.

“..ey. Hey!”

Rover blinked. The redhead planted her hands on her hips, irritation evident from her scowl.

“We’ve decided what to do with you,” the woman in blue said softly, holding an arm in front of the redhead to calm her.

Rover tilted his head innocently, prompting her to continue.

“We'll take you to the city,” explained the medic. Her voice was just as frigid as her gaze. “There, the officials will examine and determine whether or not you're a threat.”

“I’m-” Rover started, but caught himself. “Okay.”

The medic nodded, then bent down on her knees. Noticing her outstretched hand, Rover realized she was offering to help him up.

He stumbled as she pulled him to his feet. His legs felt like jelly, pins and needles pricking at him as they slowly woke up. For a second, he'd thought he'd fall over.

But then the warmth came again, and this time, with a voice.

“Steady. Easy does it.”

Sudden strength surged into his legs, and he stabilized himself, the pins and needles fading away.

“There you go.”

He looked up as if expecting someone to be there, but predictably, all that met him was a vast blue sky.

“Are you looking for me?” He heard the voice laugh, a clear, bell-like sound. “Maybe do that later, you're making yourself look funny.”

With a start, he realized that the voice was right. The three women were giving him weird looks, and his hand was still intertwined with the medic’s.

Hastily, he yanked his hand away, a sheepish chuckle escaping him as he rubbed the back of his neck. The redhead scoffed.

“Yangyang, this guy’s got a screw loose or something…” she muttered to the woman dressed in blue. Yangyang sighed in agreement, turning on her heel and walking away.

“Bear with it for a bit, Chixia,” she replied. “We'll drop him off at the City Hall, and they'll take it from there.”

Chixia didn't look happy with that, but she relented nevertheless.

“Wow.”

Rover flinched as the voice spoke again, this time closer to his ear.

“They do not like you at all, do they?”

Obviously not, Rover thought incredulously, but can you blame them?

He'd noticed it a while ago - the three were clearly on edge. Something was going on on this planet, something bad. Having an unpredictable factor such as him probably wasn't helping.

“Good point.”

So you can hear my thoughts. Rover huffed as he pulled himself up a cliff, vines scratching at his arms. The route the locals had decided to take wasn't a kind one.

“Well, yeah. How else are we supposed to have our super-secret confidential shittalking sessions?”

Rover paused. What?

“Don't worry about it.”

No, what'd you say-

“I said don't worry about it. Now keep climbing, they're leaving you behind.”

Easy for you to say, Rover thought indignantly, but did as the voice said nevertheless. He quickly caught up to the group, the medic raising a brow as he fell into step beside her. Thankfully, she didn't say anything and only kept her gaze straight ahead.

“Hey, I'm not the one who's being marched to officials for an inspection. And I don't have a reputation I need to maintain.”

Rover hated to admit it, but the voice had a point.

What are you, anyway? He walked past a small pond filled with fish. His hands twitched with the urge to jump in and grab some, but his first impressions were already bad enough as is.

“I'm God, actually.”

Rover deadpanned, unimpressed.

“Jeez, tough crowd.” The voice shifted, moving from his right to his left ear. “But seriously though, I'm human, just like you.”

If you were, I'd be able to see you.

“Fair enough,” the voice mused. “But I really am human. I just… happened to wake up invisible and connected to you.”

Rover grunted as he vaulted over yet another cliff. Very convincing.

“Says you.” He could practically hear them rolling their eyes. “At least I remember what my name is.”

That one hurt more than Rover would've liked to admit.

“...Sorry.” Quieter now, almost meek. “That was out of line.”

Rover closed his eyes briefly, breathing in as subtly as he could before opening them again.

It's fine. You didn't say anything false.

“It was still insensitive.”

Rover sped up. It happens to the best of us.

The voice went quiet, leaving Rover to the slight howl of the wind and the sound of boots crunching against sand. But they hadn't left entirely, no - Rover could feel a presence to his left, subtle but impossible to ignore.

“So you don't remember your name, huh?” Chixia said suddenly.

“No,” Rover muttered.

“Guess that just means we'll have to give you one. Or I could just keep calling you ‘Weirdo’ in my head.”

Rover’s eye twitched. “Let's not.”

Chixia grinned back at him, but the smile didn't ease his nerves at all - on the contrary, it made them worse.

“Why not? I think it's pretty fitting.”

“Chixia,” Yangyang warned, which Rover was grateful for. Had he retaliated, things wouldn't have ended well for him.

Chixia shrugged, crossing her arms behind her head as she sauntered off.

“I must apologize for her.” Yangyang turned to him. To his surprise, she seemed genuine. “Chixia usually isn't that rude, it's just that, well…”

She trailed off, uncertain on how to continue. Rover shook his head.

“It's fine,” he assured. “I can tell that you're all anxious.”

Yangyang’s shoulders slumped. “Is it that obvious? But… yes, you're right. Life hasn't exactly been calm as of late, with Tacet Fields appearing left and right.”

“Tacet Fields?” Rover repeated, tilting his head.

“It's easier to demonstrate than to explain,” the medic cut in, stepping forward as the cliffs and trees opened up. Rover followed her gaze to a darkened field, corrupted by dark matter and with a star-shapped scar at the center.

Abyss-like creatures prowled the corrupted zone, covered in dark armor, scales, and/or fur. They spoke to one another in gargled gibberish with voices that sent chills down Rover's spine.

“Those are Tacet Discords,” Yangyang explained. “They’re born from the distorted frequencies that result from the Tacet Field.”

“Ew.”

Welcome back, Rover greeted, to which the voice didn't respond.

“They're ugly,” they commented instead, scrutinizing the Tacet Discords one by one. Rover silently agreed. “But there's a few pretty ones I can see, like that wolf.”

Rover stared at said wolf's sharp canines and ravenous glare. Pretty… isn't what I would call them, but suit yourself.

“There’s a whole swarm of them out there,” Chixia observed, breaking through their conversation. She stretched her arms as if preparing for battle. “Can't get to the city without getting through them first.”

“Hm…” Yangyang contemplated to herself, before looking up at Rover. “Say, uhm…”

She hesitated, not knowing what to call him.

“Rover.”

His mouth moved on its own as his voice mixed with the voice's. Yangyang blinked, startled.

“I… I thought you didn't remember your name.”

“I don't,” Rover spoke without meaning to, like a puppet on strings. “It just… came to mind.”

Yangyang didn't look convinced, but she let it go.

“Alright, then, Rover, do you know how to fight?”

The feeling of being puppeteered left him as the voice became separate once more.

“Yes,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady.

What the hell was that?

Yangyang smiled. “Good, because we'll need to clear that Tacet Field before reaching the city.”

He nodded, understanding the implications. “I'll do my best to fight alongside you.”

“I don't know what that was,” the voice replied, and sure enough, they too sounded unsure. “I just did what the system told me to.”

The system? Rover questioned, but received no answer.

Rover heard a pistol click behind him as Chixia readied herself. “Don't try anything funny,.”

“I won't.” Operating on instinct, Rover drew a blade of his own. Chixia chuckled.

“We'll see about that.”

One by one, the group jumped off the cliff, deploying a glider so as to land safely below. Rover was the last to go. As his feet skidded at the edge of the cliff, sending pebbles flying down, unease swirled in his gut.

“Hey,” the voice said gently. “Don't worry. I'll help you out.”

What… Rover furrowed his brows, frustrated at how little he knew. What are you?

“Like I said, I'm just another person who ended up stranded here. I have a feeling we're going to be stuck together for a while, so I suggest you get used to me.”

Then, Rover sighed, at least give me a name. You said you remembered yours.

The voice paused.

“[Name],” it finally said, the name foreign to Rover's ears. “That's my name.”

“[Name],” he murmured, feeling it roll off his tongue. “We should get going, the others are waiting. You said you'd help me, right?”

“Yep. Just jump off the cliff and extend your left hand up to glide.”

Rover paused. Aren't these called intrusive thoughts?

“Just do it.”

Taking a deep breath, Rover looked down at the jump before him nervously. Closing his eyes and mentally praying to whatever god was listening that he wouldn't end up a black puddle on the forest floor, he lept.

Mechanical wings unfolded above him in a series of clicks and whirrs, a handle extending down for him to grab onto like his life depended on it. Peeking open his eyes, he let out a sigh of relief, feeling a small breeze brush against his face.

“See?” Although not obvious, relief bled into [Name]’s words as Rover landed safely on his feet. “You can trust me.”

A small smile slipped onto Rover's face, the first since he'd woken up.

“I guess I can.”

The glider folded in on itself, replaced by his blade as he joined the others.

“Took you long enough,” Chixia commented, but for the first time, it wasn't with ill intent.

“Sorry,” Rover replied. “But I'm here now.”

“Enough chitchat,” Yangyang called up ahead. “They've noticed us.”

Sure enough, the Tacet Discords were turning towards them, snarls twisting where he assumed their mouths were. The corruption worsened, dark energy forming in black smoke.

“Let's see what you're made of, Rover,” said Chixia, expertly spinning her pistols. Yangyang had already drawn her sword, and Baizhi, the medic, had summoned a pearly dragon-like creature to fight alongside her. [Name] didn't say anything, but he could feel their energy beginning to seep into his muscles, ready to aid him in battle.

Rover pointed his blade towards the Tacet Discords.

“Let's go.”

reblogs w comments are appreciated !!

tags: @sh0jun, @themoderatelyawesomeninja, @xphantasmagoriax, @rainswept, @lucensei

@akutasoda , @naraven , @scribs-dibs

853 notes · View notes