#sage's first cyoa

[sagemonsters]

Alright so

After some thought, I think making a massive prehistoric fantasy monster romance CYOA saga with probably 200+ sections for my first ever CYOA is maybe possibly just a teensy bit not a good idea. However, I do want to turn Tekka, Miethe, and Khirs into their own CYOA someday. Just… not right this minute.

However, I have reached 100 followers here on tumblr, something I never expected to do, and I'd like to celebrate that with some delicious monster romance. How about a (smaller, with just 1-2 love interests) CYOA story using the poll feature to decide which path the story takes? Let's test this.

The poll CYOA will probably use the prehistoric fantasy setting unless y'all rebel against it and want something different. Although I'm really vibing with prehistoric fantasy at the moment, I can switch gears to something different.

[primojade]

𝐎𝐃𝐈 𝐄𝐓 𝐀𝐌𝐎.

❝ loving you is the highest crime I'm willing to commit. ❞

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 | in which Scaramouche reveals you the reason why he hates you so much. But in the silence that comes after his hatred is revealed, and from the unspoken words that never leave his lips, would it be too selfish to ask for something more than this? 

𝐂𝐖 / 𝐓𝐖 | GN!Reader x Scaramouche; angst with an open ending; mention of kidnapping; could be read as romantic or platonic; a "what if" route in the Fallacy of Love CYOA series; spoilers for the Sumeru Archon Quest; cursing; SAGAU themes (but not the creator thingy) more of this AU in my masterlist if you want to read them!

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒 | Uhhh look, I have no idea if Scara could go out of his robot without breaking those stuff in his back? But let's pretend that he could for the sake of the plot xD also, tell me if you want a part 2 cause this one felt kind of a cliffhanger to me hahaha. 

The first time that the game revealed his true colours, you knew that Scaramouche was not one for pleasantries. Perhaps he would if the situation calls for it, or if it means getting his way into tricking his enemies into lowering their guards down before he swiftly strikes them down. But in terms of normal conversations, he was like a person who wouldn't hesitate to call you 'fucker' or something insultingly similar.

He canonically called us 'suckers'. You inwardly snickered at the memory when you first heard it. It was kind of surreal, you know. Back then, you were hoping and praying to Hoyoverse that Scaramouche would be playable and don't let him end up like Signora. And now, he was almost playable!!

Only if you yourself weren't isekicked in Genshin Impact in the first place…then you'll be rejoicing in getting this angry purple guy with mommy issues into your party. And if you weren't thrown in Teyvat, you wouldn't also ended up in this…peculiar position.

"You…" Scaramouche's thunderous voice echoed in the vast chamber, his magnificent robot hovering behind him in a threatening manner. The artificial light that casts over the massive room gives highlight to his ethereal features, giving you time to admire his otherworldly—albeit angry—beauty. It was as if he was planning to skewer you alive with his sharp gaze if you wouldn't give him your full attention. "...You aren't afraid of me at all…"

You couldn't help but to feel shock at his surprisingly accurate observation. While it was true that you were kidnapped by the Sages and their minions, you almost immediately relaxed the moment you heard Scaramouche was the one who ordered it. After all, you knew his lore in-game at the very least and what will happen in the Archon Quest so it wouldn't really matter if he kidnapped you or what.

The Traveller and Nahida will come and defeat the false god, restore the Dendro Archon's reputation and power, save the Irminsul, and the Traveller was once again being crowned as a hero of a nation. That was written in the 3.2 version of the game.

Scaramouche is written as a villain who was destined to be defeated. But in the end, even he would probably be redeemed and would inevitably befriend the Traveller since he will become a playable character.

"...Duh, what are you talking about? Can't you see I'm shaking?" You felt a cold sweat on your back as Scaramouche inched closer to you. Though he was on the smaller side of the male characters, his charisma and appeal isn't lost to you. Especially now that he was glaring at you as if he was ready to plunge you away like what he did to the Traveller in the fighting cutscene. 

"No, that's not it…" Scaramouche gritted his teeth, before he grabbed your collar and forcibly made you look straight into his burning eyes. "...that look in your eyes, that way you're looking at me right now…I despise it, I loathe it more than I despise the Traveller and everyone in this world!"

"Wha—?"

His hand on your collar tightens when you start to struggle under his hold. "Everything you told me, every expression you gave me…I remember it all. Everything was etched into my mind and I…I won't ever forgive you!"

“What in the name of the Archons are you talking about?” Even if there was a pit starting to form in your stomach, and even if he started to shake you out of sheer rage, you forced yourself to not waver under his maddening gaze. 

You have no idea why he hates you so much, nor the sins you seemed to unknowingly commit to him. You were not like the Traveller who could go head to head with him and actually defeat him. You were not like the gods that abandoned him, nor the Harbinger that used him. In fact, you are a nobody to him. Nothing but an addicted gamer of Genshin Impact that was isekai’d in Teyvat for some cruel, unknown reason.

So, why does he hate you so much to the point that he ordered you to be kidnapped just to spit in your face how much he despises you?

“—Back then, when I invaded your mind, you confidently told me that everything I did would be futile and pointless, so it's best if I gave up my plans to save myself of the pain," intense anger bled through his tone, the venom on his voice made you tremble inside.

You remember that. It was during the part where the Traveller touched Haypasia and Scaramouche connected into their mind. But to your surprise, you were also connected to him. Although everything played out just like what happened in the Archon Quest, you still tried your best to convince Scaramouche to stop whatever he was doing—just like the Traveller.

You said it out of pure concern for him. As much as you want everything to play out what it was meant to be, a small part of yourself didn't want to see him suffer with your own eyes when Nahida and Traveller defeat him and take the Gnosis that he treasures so much from him.

You don't want to see him so miserable and lifeless as if his very soul had been ripped apart from him. You especially don't want to see him plummet down from his 'godhood' with no one to catch him as he falls—just like a discarded puppet that he so believed he was.

Still, you don't understand his spiteful words towards you.

"—but now, I understand." There was a sudden calm in his voice that made you slightly nervous, like a brewing storm ready to swept you away. With a harsh tug of your collar, he leaned forward until his face was mere inches away from yours. You couls feel his ragged breathing, his gritted teeth, and his anger. "...you have no right to judge me, mortal. You have no goddamn right to judge people like that!"

You felt as if Scaramouche threw a bucket of cold water into you. 

"I…" Judge you? You wanted to say, but all you've managed was to look at him with wide, horrified eyes as realisation slowly dawns on you.

Genshin Impact is a video game with a strong plot and fictional story, played by millions of people across the world. Scaramouche is one of the villains, the antagonists, who has done nothing good to the main character. He was someone who was just a mere supporting character in order to make the plot interesting, someone who, just by existing, is a catalyst to the plot of Sumeru Archon Quest, who had a sad backstory in order to grab the heartstrings of the players. 

A cash grab for the simps, to cruelly put it.

Scaramouche could never win this battle because that was how this world was set. He could never have the Gnosis because he was written for something much different. 

No matter how hard he tries, no matter how much he struggles, he will only just be hurting himself because his actions are futile for the future had long since written.

The villain role that was given to him is fixed and cannot be changed.

"You were looking at me, thinking that my actions are useless, that I would never become a God, that I will become even less than what my creator thought of me when she abandoned me!" Scaramouche shouted at you and with so much vigour, he finally let go of our collar. Your knees gave out and you were left kneeling on the ground with a daze expression. "—when you were looking at me, gazing at me with those sympathetic eyes as if I'm someone who challenges the absolute impossible!"

No, its…its not like that. 

But you felt sympathetic and empathetic at Scaramouche because just like you, he had no chance of winning this battle. He was not the main character. He was a villain, a supporting role, like yourself. 

This is a world inside a sick game, where each playable character was moving and making choices based on what was programmed of them. They have no control of their choices because that's how the game's flow works.

But all this time, maybe unconsciously, you were seeing—judging—everyone you met here because you knew they were not real. They were programmed characters made to entertain the gamers. 

But Scaramouche…

The Balladeer was so different as he himself shattered your little world. His blazing purple eyes even bluer than what you expect. 

And he looked so real. So human-like and yet god-like at the same time. 

"—I will become a god," he said with finality, so sure of himself that you almost believe him. He turned his back on you and walked towards the giant robot hovering in the distance, the elegant flutter of his sleeves was so real. "—And I do not care if it will be useless. Because unlike you who easily give up, I make my own decisions and I will forge my own future the way I want it to."

As you listlessly watched the Traveller and Nahida slowly but surely defeat Scaramouche's god-like form, watching the familiar battle scene of the Shouki no Kami unfold before your eyes just like you see back in the screen of your device, for the first time since you arrived in Teyvat, you realised that perhaps, despite his artificial origins, Scaramouche was the most human of them all.

...One that you have no right to judge so rashly as he continued to struggle and fight under the harsh thumb of his cruel fate.

𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒 | I had this brainrot a lot because I know that a lot of us must've thought along the lines of 'i can't wait to beat up scara' or something along those lines lmao. Ik cause i'm the same LOL. But what if this behaviour had bleed into you when you were isekai'd? Like ofc they are all video game characters, they are programmed and coded to act like what the script told them to, but I felt like Scaramouche fit the trope that wouldn't just give up easily even if the 'ending was already decided' so that's why he hated the reader because he thought that they were judging his actions as useless and futile, even if the sentiment comes from good conscience in our part! I just hope I manage to deliver the feelings well because im not really good at describing stuff 🤡🤡💀

TAGLIST (open! Send a dm or ask to be added :3) | @xinii , @maehemthemisfit , @abvolat , @crazypriestess , @ghostsaysno , @kittence , @unabashedlyminiaturetyrant , @xiyanin , @toasterinabathtub , @sketcheeee , @fuoon , @luvwukong , @salty-salty , @rosebatsc , @inky8 , @thegeekact , @almighty-raiden-shogunate , @isuckat-avery-thing , @perhapsabitgirlypop , @2cuteforyourlies , @stxrgxzxr , @elsoleil , @tsukkinoyya , @mkaella , @celi-alika , @tiffthescales , @blurr3db3rry , @messyserver , @shadowmist0706 , @chin-chii , @observation-subject-753 , @clovers-anxiety , @shizunxie , @lleoll , @shoujishu , @uwu-panic , @forgotten-blues , @chaneylovesfangirling , @enma-reblogs , @cookielovingalien , @iruiji , @samarill , @definitionofsadness , @spynerr , @bigcandlesmolbrain , @universal-rose , @feverish-dove , @inlovewithwaffles , @jar-03 , @swaggyb0ke , ... (if ur username is bolded, it means i cant tagged u :(( maybe its in ur settings? Also lmk if i missed anyone cause im such an idiot sometimes shsh)

[sagemonsters]

interest check for new project

Would anyone be interested in a CYOA digital zine? I’m thinking something that’s Stone Age fantasy in the same vein as Fire and Ice (1983) and the Planegea setting for D&D 5e—basically something that involves dinosaurs, mammoths, magic, undead, and an untamed landscape full of wonder and danger all at the same time in one glorious, anachronistic stew.

(I have a weakness for stonepunk fantasy settings, okay?)

The reader steps into the role of a shaman’s apprentice who is tasked with retrieving a ceremonial artifact from a dangerous location. Along the way, you will meet some enemies of your clan—do you attempt to parlay and make peace, do you sneak around them, or do you try to fight?

Likewise, you’ll also find a portal to a strange, poisonous jungle full of the ruins of a past civilization more technologically advanced than your own—do you stop to gather artifacts for further study, do you hurry past as fast as you can toward your goal, or do you begin a spell or ritual attempting to communicate with the spirits of those who once lived here?

I could go on. The point, though, is monster romance. The reader will meet three nonhuman love interests and get to travel with one of them + earn (or potentially lose!) their affection during this quest. There will be a plethora of endings to achieve.

Realistically speaking this is more of an RPG Maker project (or a visual novel) than anything else and I feel like I’m biting off a great deal more than I can chew for a first CYOA story—but aiming high is how you learn, right? So, I’m going to do it.

Love Interests

First of all, I want to make love interests that are (mostly) original and not just creatures that are copy/pasted from extant modern cultures. Example: harpies come from Greek mythology, so I’m not really a big fan of them for this particular project, but I think a pterasaur-based monster person would be really fun.

Actually, you know what, I’m going to use that.

Tekka Stoneclaws (they/them) is a brightly colored, pterasaur-esque person who is a great seer and wielder of magic. They call upon the power of Sky, the mercurial deity of all celestial objects.

Meithe Half-Tooth (she/her) is a smilodon-esque person who has one broken front fang and fights her enemies through means of physical strength. She calls on the power of Stone, the stalwart deity of the earth.

Khirs One-Eye (he/him) is a theropod-esque person with a (potentially cursed) obsidian knife that he obtained through unkind means. He fights, lies, and betrays to make his way through the world, and calls on the power of Shade, the ever-hungry deity of midnight.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Ofc it needs waaaayyyyy more work than this, but I’m really excited! I’ve never written a CYOA story before, so it will be a long time in the making, but I’d love to share the process and finished product here on tumblr. Please do let me know your thoughts!