#playtesting this fic idea by making a snippet of it and posting it to my tumblr

[ultimatelyunassuming]

CW: there are talks of death in this. There is a ghost involved who died, it is not a shown death. Also there is a scene in a hospital with a guy in a coma, he wakes up though. Want yall to be informed before reading.

"Can you come by the office at 9 today? I'm in pretrial meetings until then."

"Alright! It's a deal!" Maya chirps over the phone, the speaker crunching her cheery voice. "Okay, sis, see you soon!"

Mia smiles. "Yep, I'll be waiting." She snaps her phone shut, sitting down next to Diego Armando's comatose body. "Looks like I'm going to be busy today, Diego." She leans back in her chair. "I really don't want to do this, having to sneak around and smuggle evidence underneath Redd White's nose. If it was up to me, I'd drag that man to court and prove to everyone how much he corrupted our legal system." She sighs. "I don't have enough evidence to do that, though. I need something big, something... Something concrete. I just need a crux to this entire conspiracy, one key, important piece of evidence before I can pull him into court." She turns to Diego, letting the room fill with the beeps and whirrs of the hospital. "You would've been able to find this missing piece," Mia mutters to herself. "If only you were awake." She stands up. "Well, I better get going. Goodbye Diego, I'll see you later." She bends down and gives Diego a kiss on the forehead.

As she leaves, she could've sworn she saw Diego's hand move. Must be wistful thinking.

~~~~~

Mia stands in front of a graveyard, a flower and a newspaper clipping in her hand. 'Paul O'Ticien, an upstart politician has died after his affair was leaked to the press'. The flower is wilting, the petals becoming sandy and brittle. Mia knows that Redd White was involved in this situation, whether it be leaking Paul's love life to the news, or killing him. She just needs confirmation.

Mia opens the gate doors, gritting her teeth as it creaks open. She takes a breath, in and out, and takes a step in. Graveyards are a familiar place for Mia, especially this graveyard. She's been here many times. She keeps her head down as she follows a dirt path, her heels sinking into the pale ground with every step she takes. Voices mummer around her, and Mia feels the stare of many eyes upon her. "I am here for Paul O'Ticien," She firmly says. "Not for anyone else. I'm sorry." After she says that, she hears the chatter and the stares fade away. "Thank you."

After a few minutes of walking, Mia arrives at Paul's grave. She leans down and places her flower on top. "Paul O'Ticien, I need to speak with you."

Mia feels a chill as a gust of wind passes by her. Wind swirls around Paul's gravestone, getting faster and faster, until it disperses. A figure looms over the gravestone, a long skinny man leaning on the grey stone. He's wearing dress pants and a blue, cross hatch button up, a red tie wrapped around his neck. "You wanted me, Mia Fey?"

"Yes," Mia clutches her magatama. "I'm sorry for your loss. I, er, brought you a flower."

"Oh, really?" Paul looks down. "Oh, you did." Paul floats through the gravestone. He bends down and outstretches his hand. His fingers floating through the plant and grabs something within the stem. He pulls, a faint outline of the flower within his hands. "What a lovely gift. A flower close to its death." He tucks the plant behind his ear. "Is that all?"

Mia shakes her head. She takes out a pen and paper. "No. I have some questions about your life-."

"I'm not going to tell you about my affair."

Mia's eye twitches. "My questions aren't about your affair, it's about Redd White."

Paul's lips twists into a frown. "Oh, that son of a bitch!" He spits. "That no good, rotten, goddamn, bottom feeder, soul sucking, self centered, world destroying dick! Redd White is lucky that I am dead, if I was still alive I would've killed him before he killed me!"

"So, Redd White killed you?"

"He did. He blackmailed me, he leaked my affair when I tried to enact policy he didn't like, and he killed me once he realized that this rumor wouldn't stopped me."

"What was your relationship with Redd White?"

"Bad."

Mia waits. "Is... Is that all? There has to be more, you can't just say that it's 'bad' and leave it at that."

"I can."

Mia's eye twitches. "You can, but you really should say more. I'm a lawyer, Mia Fey of Fey & Co. Law Office, I'm trying to gather a case against Bluecorp and its founder, I really need your input so that I can gather more evidence."

Paul hums. "I don't think a testimony of a dead man can be used in court."

"Well of course it can't, I'm just trying to find leads to evidence. Like, for example, maybe a voicemail with a conversation between you and White, or maybe a note from Bluecorp. Does anything come to mind when I say this?"

"Hmmm....." Paul taps his chin. "Perhaps. I believe if you find my phone, you could find the last conversation I had with White. If my wife haven't thrown it out already."

Mia finishes scribbling on her notepad. "Thank you so very much! I'll be back once I have your phone."

Paul cocks his head. "You're coming back?"

"Of course," Mia puts her notepad back into her purse. "If I'm going to root around in your phone contacts, it'd be shitty of me to do it on my own. And besides, nobody turns into a ghost for no reason, I want to help you pass on."

"Oh. That's nice of you." Paul says. "A nice, lawyer, that's a first."

Mia smiles. "Thank you."

~~~~~~

"Crap, crap, crap, I'm late!!!" Mia runs, her heels clacking on the pavement. She got so caught up in trying to find Paul's phone that she lost track of time, and she didn't even find the damn thing!

She rushes down the street, passing the hotel next to her office. It's only been.... Er..... Mia checks her watch. 9:07. It's only been 7 minutes, things should be fine! Maya's 16, she can wait a little bit by herself. She has a key to the office, she'll be ok! And besides, she's not going to care if you're a little bit late.

She arrives at the door, panting to herself. Ughhhhhhhh, she's never going to run again, she's so tired. Mia needs a minute to compose herself.

"Er, chief?"

"P-Pheonix?" Mia whips her head around. "What are.... What are you doing here, I th- I thought you went home for the night."

"We were going to go eat dinner with Larry Butz today." Phoenix says. Crap, another thing Mia forgot!

"Oh, okay," Mia wheezes.

"Are you okay? You look..... Winded."

"Yeah, I am. I was doing work, and lost track of time, and had to hurry back for Maya."

"Maya... That's your sister, right?" Phoenix asks. Mia nods. "We should probably enter the office then."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, just......... Ugh, give me a minute." Maya takes a few deep breaths in. "Okay, okay I'm good, let's go in."

Phoenix takes out his keys and inserts it into the keyhole. ".... That's strange, it's already unlocked."

"Maya has a key, she's probably inside already."

He hums, acknowledging her comment. He pulls the door open. "The lights are off."

"Weird, Maya should be there...." Mia sniffs. "Do you smell that?"

"Yeah, it smells a bit coppery...." Phoenix takes another whiff. ".... No it's... It's blood!"

"Maya!" Mia rushes in. "Maya, where are you? Are you okay?!"

"M... Mia?" A small cry came from the backrooms.

Mia rushes to the backrooms and flings the door open. "Where are you, what's going on?" She turns her head and sees her sister. She's hunched over a figure, tears in her eyes. Below, there's a tall man leaning on the wall, nearly collapsing in on itself. His wild white hair fans out from his head, clumping together, staining red from blood. His red button up hides the blood dripping from his wound, occasionally staining his beige vest. His black tie is hanging lose from his neck, partially undone.

"Chief, what's going-!" Phoenix enters the room and sees the dead man. "Wh.... What...?"

Maya looks between Mia and Phoenix. "I.... I didn't...." Maya faints.

"Chief...?" Phoenix turns to Mia.

It's her time to be the boss. "Phoenix, please take Maya out of here. I'll.... I'll call the police in a minute." Phoenix nods as he heads over to Maya. He picks her up and brings her out of the room, the door shutting behind him.

Mia takes a shakey step. "This... That can't be him." She take another step, and another. He's wearing his lucky outfit, the same outfit he wore to Mia's first trial. The same outfit he wore when he drank his last coffee, the same outfit he wore when he was brought to the hospital, the same outfit he wore for 5 years, the same outfit. Mia clutches her magatama, staring at the dead man before her. "This shouldn't be possible. You're supposed to be in a coma. You- You're supposed to be in a hospital, you're not supposed to be dead in my office room." Mia blinks away tears. "D.... Diego Armando, I need to speak with you." Her voice is shaking.

The smell of blood in this room thickens. A scream is let out across the street. Blood drips from Diego's head, slowly, staining the carpet on the room. The silence sticks to this room, clinging to Mia's heart.

A ghostly arm bursts from Diego's chest. Another hand follows after, flailing around trying to find a perch. The hands grab his torso and pulls, peeling Diego's soul from his body. His head is pulled away, following the ghost's torso. With one final tug, Diego is dislodged from his body. "Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhellllo, Mia," Diego croaks, voice raw, his tongue foreign in his mouth. "Luh, lan, loonng time, no seeeeeee. It's beh, it's been a while."

Diego is dead. Diego was poisoned, was in a coma for five years, and died in Mia's office. Mia takes a step and feels her heel snap in half.

[astronomicartz]

Okay so, since I’m not sure if it’ll ever get fully written, my fic/au idea goes like this:

Act 1 starts off based on @randomgamefan’s excellent Playtester AU, since I’m a sucker for the whole “protagonist gets sucked into media” premise. (In this one, Luke’s an only child after the death of his sister and doesn’t have much contact with his family.) Luke’s computer crashed and G0lly’s upload failed, but one rushed copy did manage to be created on Luke’s computer, a sort of imperfect cut and paste of the original Inscryption; all that remains on the floppy is the OLD_DATA… but that doesn’t mean the copy is free of it. Luke wakes up generally confused, meets the Scrybes, and finds out he’s in the game... or part of him at least, according to Grimora.

(He was never shot. When he viewed the OLD_DATA, he couldn’t eject the floppy in time and it took his mind, leaving his body comatose and crashing the computer. Since he never called the press, Amanda wasn’t alerted for the last resort and she took the disk and his evidence once the house was empty.)

He tries to help out, but what little working relationships the Scrybes had before are completely shot through now, and the damage to the game, a mysterious illness, and other strange occurences aren’t helping matters. Cue some detective work while trying to play peacekeeper, filler slice of life, a massive battle with the source of the illness, and finding out how to get Luke back into the real world. Outside the Scrybes’ knowledge, during the process of getting him home, Luke tries to bring them with him by focusing on all his encounters with them.

Act 2 is where things gets fun and where the idea for this whole thing originated! Luke wakes up from his coma and rushes home once he’s discharged. He finds his house neatly ransacked but empty, until he checks the floppy disk drive and finds four official-looking Inscryption card-game cards depicting a three-legged stoat, a face-marked stinkbug, a one-eyed wolf, and a moss-covered grizzly bear… and they can talk (P03 is so pissed about being a stoat again and it wants everyone to know it; Leshy is living the dream). More than that, they find out that the Scrybes can exit their cards as the beast they’re depicted as during the daytime, and assume their true forms during the night. After fixing the computer, the rest of the game’s characters can all still be interacted with and use the floppy drive to interact with the real world (though with a time limit).

I call it the Roommate AU! This part is basically funny slice of life, small conflicts, and relationship building, while also setting up the pieces for Act 3. Including but not limited to:

- Trying to keep a frequently-wandering Leshy out of sight of the neighbors before they call animal control

- Stoat-P03 using a Roomba as transportation

- Luke waking up to find Grimora holding a seance in his living room and immediately going back to bed

- Decorating Magnificus like a Christmas tree

- Found family and the requisite angst and comfort that comes with it

Act 3 is where everything comes together for one last big conflict that requires all that built-up trust and teamwork to overcome. The details of said conflict are still up in the air, but would likely include GameFuna really coming after Luke after one too many close calls rather than being the looming but indulgent threat from the previous act, making a true Inscryption game using all of the Scrybes’ expertise, and other things.

There we go! I’m currently writing some bits and pieces, but for now it’s just ideas. I’ll probably post some drawings/snippets if people are interested. Feel free to ask me about it!