#toby fox has me by the balls with this game

[ghostplasmas]

I need to ramble incoherently for a minute, Cause this game. This fucking game. I was but a tiny child (9-10) when it came out, and it has caused my brain to become a nuclear wasteland. I've been asked about how I write characters and how I keep them in character, and I 100% blame undertale for how I write and understand characters.

I've always loved the multiverse theory. I ALWAYS have, and Undertale combined with my brain in a way that made that obsession with universes and shit absolutely wreck how I view media and the world around me. The multiverse to me is no longer just "an alternate version of you", because you, as an individual, are not that important on a cosmic scale. In fact, you're the least unremarkable thing in existence. So why would the multiverse just be earth? Repeated over and over and over again? Why do the bounds of reality have to be the same every time?

Undertale ended up convincing me that the characters in every media I consume are, on some level, real- that- While I'm reading their story, they exist in a multiverse outside our own. Their stories are real, maybe not down to the exact wording, but they do in fact exist on a cosmic scale. Your actions might just be tied to a game or a book, but you're still seeing these characters that originally come from an alternate universe on your screen or in writing. They're real, even if in this reality, they aren't.

Every time I write, I'm not writing a character, I'm writing a person. Someone who has friends and family and morals. Someone who has gone through traumatic events, someone who has gone through highs and lows, a person. Even if a character I'm writing has a very standard one note trait, the character themself is not one note. I can't stop myself from giving them morals, from making them complex, because they aren't just a character to me, they're a real, genuine person.

Toby Fox is a master at making simple characters complex and interesting, of making each character stand out and act as a person, as well as creating games, worlds, that accept that they exist alongside our universe, inadvertently making it so that everything that happens in the real world is diagetic to the world of his games, and that has done irreversible damage to my psyche in a way that makes this entire post redundant because I can barely even get my point across without sounding like I'm tripping balls.

Toby Fox you fucking mad man. I hope that your woes are few and your bitches many.

[alexbutrandomthoughts]

Thanks for answering my ask....If you don't mind me asking (again), what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....

OKAY SO I MAY HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS WAS IN MY DRAFTS CUZ I WAS BUSY IN UNI AND THEN IT JUST GOT ERASED FROM MY MEMORY I AM SO FUCKING SORRY I DIDN'T MEAN TO LET IT STEW FOR SO LONG

1) Haikyuu!!

Honestly this is just a comfort show for me. No matter how many times i rewatch it, it's always like the first time, even if you know what's about to happen, you still cheer and clap and groan in every match. Just AGAIWBAIWBSKBDIS such a good anime, i bawled my eyes out when i finished the manga, honestly this will go down as one of my favorite anime ever (update: watched the movie, it's good but man i wish we had whole season)

2) Undertale/Deltarune

I cannot beat the weird kid allegations, toby fox has me by my (totally legit) balls. Istg toby fox drugs his games, or else idk how to explain how am i keep coming back to this (lies this franchise and story is just pure masterpiece)

3) Fnaf

Yeah definitely doesn't help the weird kid allegations. Well you know what they say, when you start getting into fnaf you sign off your life into eternal servitude. I would describe my relationship with Fnaf as - toxic ex i keep coming back to. Somehow 8 years of this bullshit and we're still going. Counting animatronic toes and reading yet another wtf is this book

4) Bungoe Stray Dogs

Sighhhhhh. The gayssssss. THE GAAAAAYSSS. But nah honestly it just has everything to get me on the board. The drama, mysteries, pretty WOMEN, silly characters, gut wrenching angst, and of course gay ass mfkas. The manga is better though. I don't consider this a masterpiece (not by a lOng shot) but it a good show to watch and talk about, the characters are all fun and silly, cliche at times but nonetheless entertaining and the fan work is just CHEF'S KISS

5) Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

This is a relatively new one but GOD. DAMN. HOW DOES JUST MAKE THIS MASTERPIECE. IT'S SO GOOD. THE EMOTIONS THE PLOT THE CHARACTERS. HOW DOES ONE EXECUTE EVERYTHING SO PERFECTLY AND JUST LEAVES YOU CRYING AND SOBBING MESS BUT IN A GOOD WAY. Genuinely consider this one of the modern classics that will be talked about in years to come. Exploring the how would an immortal perceives time, is not something everyone (or anyone) really explores in fantasy stories but damn frieren absolutely slays with it. Not cherishing the people she was with only to realize how much they meant to her when it was too late, and they're already gone, is just so. UGH. AND THEN SHE SLOWLY LEARNS TO CHANGE AND APPRECIATE THE WORLD AND PEOPLE AROUND HER WHILE GOING THROUGH THE OLD MEMORIES IAISBSJSBSNSNKS. anyway. I do recommend frieren (they better announce that second season)

6) The Apothecary diaries

Also one of the recent ones. What can i say when we get an imperial china not china setting, with inner palace politics, hierarchies and murder mysteries, packed with probably the greatest female protagonist we had in how many years? How can not love it? Maomao my personal spiritual animal. She is just such a compelling character and breath of fresh air in anime community cuz god knows we need more of em. She just feels so real compare to what we usually, she is just one or the girls and that is beautiful. There are of course others aspects of this show that i like but honestly she is probably the main reason this show is just UGH so good

7) Stanley Parable

Okay, this is a bit of an odd one, but hear me out. This game is so GOOOOD. I remember playing way back when, and it was just so different than anything else that was coming out at the time. The meta narrative of this game was truly amazing, the amount options we had and so many interesting dialogs, the THINGS TO EXPLOREE. I also just loved the narrator, he is so goddamn funny, the banter with Henry (even though it's one sided) is still great

These are the ones i can think of, honestly, there are probably others but i cannot remember them rn

[callmearcturus]

im the patron saint of stoking petty fires so i'd love to hear your beef with TLOU and ND (which. idk what that is? my brain keeps trying to call it New Degas). feel free to rant

(hey this is a WHOLEASS RANT about how much i hate TLOU! if you even remotely like those games, maybe don't read this!)

my god. lottie. /drags hands over face. you need to understand that this is the beef of a person who has not played TLOU, will never play it, and haaaaaates it regardless. when TLOU2 won GOTY at the fucking game awards over more deserving titles with less fraught developers, i was incensed. i hate this games in the same was a child would hate broccoli. except instead of being good for you, broccoli is an emblem of everything wrong with the gaming industry, up there with Red Dead Redemption (which I fucking hate too).

Oh and ND is Naughty Dog, the developer of TLOU. Also there is some fucked up labor shit and sexual harassment shit at ND.

But what it comes down to is

I fucking hate prestige games as a genre. I hate what they have done to the industry. One of the markers of TLOU and ND's work is that they have codified what the Sony Studio Game has to be, and it's these incredibly cinematic, incredibly filmic, hyper-photorealistic dramas that want so fucking bad to be movies, I don't know how anyone talks shit about Kojima's movie boner while these fucking things are being made.

The cost that the rise of TLOU has wrought on the industry pisses me off to no end. Developers, especially the ones who work with Sony bc this is very much the House Brand of Playstation, fucking brag about "oh yeah we spent 6 months building the rig to animate this character's hair" and "we modeled these horses with such precision their balls get smaller in the cold" and "this lighting engine accounts for the dew point of the scene which we also coded an engine for"

all these things feel to me like feats of crunch, of throwing money at problems that don't exist, because it's a fucking blurb to tell IGN to hype your game, not anything the actual game benefits from or needs. making games is already such a fucking labor intensive artform and this shit feels like adding completely unnecessary complication in pursuit of a perfect simulacrum of reality.

i also hate the violence of them. i feel like ND thinks it's sooooo fucking ahead of everyone else. look at this, look at how BRUTAL it is, look at Ellie slit a human's throat in high definition, doesn't that make you feel something, GAMERS?

bitch, no. it doesn't. because that's one of the two verbs in these fucking games. you kill people or you watch a cutscene. and making players go "oh shit are we the baddies" has been an extremely common trope for years. Spec Ops The Line was 11 years ago, bruh, you need to learn a new trick than "making the player feel bad about violence, ooooooooo spooky". it's our ONLY. FUCKING. VERB.

they pour so much effort and money and time and labor into these games, these apex projects, and their verbs are the fucking same as the first goddamn Halo game. you kill things or you watch a cutscene. you just made the violence more visceral.

in the gaming industry, the people who really make shit that changes the landscape are people who try for something more worthwhile than "here, now you can play this gory movie." it's shit like new vegas asking me to make complex ethical decisions backed by hundreds of years of context and history. it's hades teaching players that failing is its own reward. it's toby fox using pixel art and a leitmotif to make me feel something. it's spiritfarer trying to teach people not to fear death and that kindness is important even at the end of everything.

i am philosophically opposed to the Sony Studio Model, to Naughty Dog, and to TLOU. I think they are holding the industry back. they're mediocre games because they're trying to be movies, and their mediocre movies because they're supposed to be games. I haaaaaaaate them.

[greetings-inferiors]

I think ‘city of tears’ has narrowly beaten out ‘undertale’ as my favourite video game theme at this moment.

I LOVE undertale. It instantly lifts my mood, is such a storytelling masterpiece, perfectly conveys the tale of the underground while also being masterfully simple, Toby fox’s magnum opus by a long shot, it isn’t even close, and that’s saying something considering just how star studded his discography is -

But city of tears is just so tragic, never fails to make me ball, especially marissa’s solo - whereas undertale sounds like the monsters telling you the history of the underground, the city of tears sounds like the kingdom itself weeping - but it’s also triumphant. It’s beautiful. It’s the jewel of hallownest. It’s still standing, amidst the death and destruction, a shining beacon to all in the kingdom

And it’s weeping.

I really can’t put into words just how heart achingly beautiful and sad and uplifting and tragic and joyous this one theme is, and hell, I can say the same thing about undertale, I honestly think they’re equal, but god - city of tears makes me feel things that I didn’t even feel in my original playthrough. Listening to undertale makes me reminisce about the past, but city of tears not only does that but makes me feel more every time I listen to it. Every time I cry harder than the last.

I’m not expecting silksong to have another city of tears, just as I’m not expecting deltarune to have another undertale.

But if either of them can have a moment that is even a fraction as beautiful and artistic and deeply moving, then they will be incredible.

[sudoscience]

Finished The Indigo Disk last night, so time for some more PokéThoughts:

For costing more than half the price of the base game, I feel like the story could have been longer. I'm certainly not done playing the DLC yet (still haven't caught the Loyal Three, for example), but I finished the story in ~2 days. The base game probably took me about a week? To be fair, I did start the DLC with a full team of Lvl 100 Pokémon, so that probably saved me a lot of time.

Similarly, for being called "The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero", you really don't spend that much time in Area Zero. Again, this is likely due to having a late game, high level build. Part of the reason it took longer in the base game is because you don't have Koraidon, so you can't just jump and fly to get where you need. Also, I just immediately used the warp point to get to Research Station 4 instead of walking through all of Area Zero again. I hope I didn't accidentally skip any fun interactions, but with how much Game Freak tries to railroad you into doing the plot how they want you to (see my previous post about the DLC), I feel like if there were any cutscenes there, then you just wouldn't be able to use the warp points for... reasons.

That being said, what time you do spend in Area Zero is just as awesome as the first time you go there in the base game. The new music is great, too.

Speaking of new music: Celestial (Remix by Toby Fox)?! Leave it to Toby to make an Ed Sheeran song actually good, I guess.

Performance wise, it's comparable to the base game, maybe slightly better? Only clipped into a mountain once. Haven't noticed any other glitches so far, but it does occasionally seem to run a bit sluggishly. (And it continues to suffer from a lack of voice acting.)

Koraidon can fly now!!! Wish there was an option to invert the y-axis, but it can fly!!! Also, you can BE your Pokémon now!!!

Spoilers?

I like how they tell you Blueberry Academy is in Unova, but it's not, like, attached to it at all. It's just an island. They could have said any region, and it would have had negligible impact, imo. (But I am saying this as someone who hasn't actually played Gen V, so maybe there were things I missed.)

Well, okay, I think it did have one effect. I haven't played B/W, but I know Unova is supposed to be based on America, so when one of the NPCs mentions "BBQs", I was like, "Oh, that's cool. They have barbecues here instead of picnics." Nope! Stands for Blueberry Quests.

Terapagos being tiny when Kieran first pulls him out was the funniest shit

It broke the fucking Master Ball?! It can do that?!

Still not sure I really understand how the Stellar Tera Type works. I know it's not every type at once. I'm not sure how that would work either. Wouldn't they just cancel each other out?

I don't feel like the game did the best job of communicating how much time had passed. Carmine (and later, Kieran) always being like, "You really kept me waiting". I literally did not??? But also, Kieran saying, "I looked up to [Player] for so long", meanwhile I'm pretty sure that, at most, one in-game week has passed since I first met him. I guess if I had played the first part when it first came out, it would've felt like a longer time. (It was probably supposed to be at least a few months in-game.)

Also makes it a little hard to buy into his motivation being his desire to beat me in battle. Wait, maybe that makes it more believable, actually. "You're still bitter about that?" "Yeah? It was just last week..."

But, again, I would be perfectly happy to let him have Ogerpon. He has a personal connection to it! If I keep it, it's probably just going to stay in one of my boxes. (It is pretty cute, though.)

Despite the lack of hugs, I found the ending acceptable. I do still wish you could have hugged Kieran, though. Or at the very least, when he says, "Can we be friends again?", you should have been able to say something like, "What do you mean 'again'? We're still friends!"

[chemicalbrew]

1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 11, 17 for music asks!

1. A song you like with a color in the title

Blue Room-

Okay, let me think, actually.

Coconuts - Silver Lights

Daft Punk - Indo Silver Club

Pendulum - Still Grey

ODESZA - White Lies

White Lie in Black from Xanadu Next

Blue Lake from Brandish 3

Blue Moon from Brandish VT specifically

Aoki Shizuku (Azure Droplets) from Trails to Azure

Soaring Through Azure Sadness from Gurumin

Depeche Mode - Blue Dress

Spacious Blue Sky from Trails of Cold Steel

The Red Locus from Radiant Historia (this OST has at least six songs with colors in the title LOL)

Itoki Hana and Toby Fox - Skies Forever Blue

there's so much blue on here, even without Blue Room lol

2. A song you like with a number in the title

Katana ZERO-

don't worry, I'm thinking.

Sanctuary Zero from Tower of Heaven

Swedish House Mafia - One (TIMELESS STUFF this vid is ingrained in my soul)

Blur - Tune 2 (NOT Song 2)

Exhausted 3 from Drakengard 3

4 Minutes Before Death from Ghost Trick

Dave Brubeck - Take Five

Moby - 7

Probability of Precipitation 10% from Trails from Zero

Fourteen Residents from OFF

Mikito-P - 39 Music!

Itoki Hana & Toby Fox - 74

ATOLS - $149

Daft Punk - Revolution 909

Rigёl Theatre - RiET-949

The Race of a Thousand Ants from OFF

Gorillaz - 19-2000

kemu - A Tale of Six Trillion Years and a Night (linking a human cover for you)

5. A song that needs to be played LOUD

Breath of a Serpent-

okay, the bit is getting old.

Daft Punk - Superheroes, the go-to answer

any of the battle music from Drakengard 3, literally ANY. here's one. I am so normal don't worry about it.

Pendulum - Crush

Pendulum - Under the Waves

Pendulum - Hold Your Colour

Cibo Matto - Birthday Cake (I know this one from Jet Set Radio)

To the Edge from FF14 (by Masayoshi Soken)

6. A song that makes you want to dance

Hit the Floor.

Not even crossing out any more.

Hit the Road from Road 96 (by The Toxic Avenger)

MGMT - Electric Feel

Morandi - Afrika

Room 5 feat. Oliver Cheatam - Make Luv

Mystique - Brand New

Forest Funk from Super Meat Boy (I need to look into this game more fr)

9. A song that makes you happy

90% of what was mentioned above. Cop-out answer, but I'm already linking a ton.

When I'm sad, I usually listen to whatever I'm currently obsessed with anyway. So right now, that would be

Can't Do by Everything Everything. (thank you lol)

11. A song that you never get tired of

Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You

The Ones - Flawless

Happy Shabby Life - A Daytime Stroll in Scarecrow Field from Chulip (yes, that's the title)

Moby - Natural Blues (the 2006 version, every other one sucks ass and dick and balls and everything)

Blur - Intermission

17 was done already <3

[a-shrieking-cloud-of-bats]

man why do indie devs keep releasing games that have bugs in them on launch

they must be doing it specifically to piss me off

I better yell at them

it is a wonder that most indie games do not have larger bugs on release; indie development is not a profitable business by any measure

you gotta hit it real big to get anywhere with it

it says a lot that the only two devs I can think of that actually managed to launch a career off of it are toby fox and the faith guy

even project moon which is a fairly popular game developer all things considered needed to make a gacha game to keep the ball rolling

every other indie dev has to scrape by with kickstarter campaigns and day jobs and even then that’s sometimes not enough

[self-loving-vampire]

"The protagonist kills everything in their path" is also not the norm in RPGs and I kind of dislike that implication about the genre and the way some people just take it at face value by treating Undertale like it's deconstructing the genre or something.

Even back in the days when RPG stories were basically non-existent beyond "defeat the evil wizard" or "get the magical artifact" and you were expected to fight lots of monsters to get anywhere, you are often not just killing everything on sight. Dungeons often included at least some non-combat encounters as well.

For example, the first Wizardry games back in the 80s included peaceful monsters that could shift your party to evil alignment if you attacked them. Some of these were silly in later games too.

Wizardry 7 goes even further by having rival adventuring parties on a quest to gather the same items you were after in that game, and rather than just having to fight them they could be negotiated with.

The Ultima series (possibly the single most influential RPG series along with Wizardry) went even further with its fourth game by introducing an eightfold karma system tracking virtues like compassion and self-sacrifice. Compassion in particular is increased by letting some kinds of enemies flee. This was still in the 80s as well.

And as the genre advanced non-combat options and friendly NPC interactions became increasingly common. Fallout, for example, is a notable step towards providing multiple potential solutions to obstacles, many of which are not violent.

So I wish people were more aware of the history of the genre rather than just taking Undertale to be some kind of unique subversion of something that was otherwise mindless. Otherwise you get the same kind of energy as western parody VN developers who think Japanese VNs are all shallow and generic compared to their own super special takes on a genre that they don't seem to have much love for.

There's also a point here that is worth noting:

they say ‘well, how can toby fox tell me it’s Bad of me to play his game in a certain way when he programmed it’ when–yknow, i think that the game is wildly aware of that tension, that it is entirely artifical and all freedom exists within the limitations of what has been drawn for you–undertale is very explicitly asking ‘is doing things just because you can do them a fun way and satisfying way to engage with art?’. again, that requires that there be things in the game you can do that aren’t fun or satisfying! (and i mean to be clear i think undertale drops the ball on a lot of its themes, but this isn’t what gets talked about in the type of criticisms i’m talking about)

The thing is that when a game actually has a prepared response for a course of action, it generally falls under the intended range of play. As Dan Olson said: If there is crafted content on the other side of your misbehavior then it is not actually misbehavior.

To be honest, doing fun things unselfconsciously and being amazed that the game is actually reacting to your choices actually is a satisfying way to engage with art. In fact, it's one of the single greatest strengths of the medium and what pulled me towards RPGs in the first place. That kind of thing is the best and I specifically seek it out.

undertale and spec ops the line have faced some of the most annoying backlash ive ever seen from people who read imaginary didactic takeaways into the text and then got mad at them

[venus-vodka]

my deltarune phase came back in full force after chapter 2 tbh

[whumpster-fire]

A Curated Selection of Tweets from Dread Lord K'thyzyxathrax The Soul Flayer's account @KthyzyxathraXXX

Dread Lord K'thyzyxathrax the Soul Flayer is an evil overlord, accomplished lich king, and one of the most dangerous necromancers in the world. He is also terrible at using Twitter. These are some of his recent misadventures.

CW for dark humor, satire, genocide references, animal death,

The Sans Undertale Incident

I fucking hate all you people trying to "destigmatize" skeletons but especially Toby Fox. People dont even think a walking skeleton is scary anymore. Fuck off its a dead guy walking around with no muscles or tendons. This is an abomination against Gods and nature.

~~

I'm trying to strike terror into the populace here and you are making my job way harder. I'm not saying challenge doesnt breed innovation, wait til you see the shit I have in my dungeon rn, just sayin if I hear one more Sans Undertale joke some of you are gonna have a bad time

~~

Curator's note: replies omitted but you can imagine what they were like

Motherfucker. He says that? How the fuck was I supposed to know, I don't play your stupid preschooler video game about being nice to people.

~~

Shut up all of you. I am not your funny video game skeleton teenager. Power Word: BLOCKED

~~

The next motherfucker who remixes my ominous entrance music with Megalovania will be slowly flayed alive over a hundred year period, and also sued for copyright infringement.

The Mortuary Supply Drama

Since Charnel Chuck's Mortuary Supply Co. has refused to lift my "lifetime ban" on the grounds that they only approve of necromancy for "peaceful purposes" and with the "consent" of those whose remains are being used and have deleted my 1 star Yelp reviews (1/3)

(2/3) I have no choice but to take my grievance to Twitter. Your "code of ethics" is completely discriminatory against my desire to use undead to murder people. Go fuck yourselves. Your business is shit and even if you lift my ban I will never patronize your establishment (2/3)

(3/3) again after the way I have been treated. Your customer service is appalling. And another thing, any "lifetime" ban on me should have expired like a thousand years ago so double fuck you. @CharnelChucks www.CharnelChucksMortuary.com follower horde ratio them. Get their asses

Curator's Note: A followup tweet also posted the address of the business in question. This has not been reproduced due to our policy against doxxing, although it is available on their website.

(4/4) fuck I didn't add enough parts. Your products are also shoddy and overpriced and your storefront is inappropriately brightly lit for your industry. I hope your vampire customers sue you for using fluorescent lights.

(5/4) @CharnelChucks unblock me you fucking cowards. I saw that fucking statement you made disavowing all association with me, and you have no room to talk shit. You still sell products over Amazon.com after the scandal over them staffing their warehouses with (5/4)

(6/4) reanimated corpses of employees who said the word "Union" on the messenger app. Y'all can't take a stand for "respecting wishes of the deceased" and "ethical necromancy" while picking and choosing which evil overlords you work with. Also you refused to honor (6/4)

(7/4) your buy-2-get-1-free sale on crematory urns on my order of 600 urns. There was nothing on your sign about a 3-urn maximum. You assholes owe me $79,999.76. I'm opening my grimoire right now and looking up Power Word: Go Fuck Yourself

The Washington Monument Restoration

To everyone tagging me while they watched the evening news last night:

1: I didn't do it, that was my friend @CardinalCarnage

2: I wish I'd thought of it first, that was fucking hilarious, and I'm impressed with him for getting two 50' solid marble orbs onto the National Mall

~~

3: The Washington Monument was supposed to have balls and a glans in the original plans, but the confederates got custody of the balls in the civil war and at the time an aluminum cap of that size was too expensive so it was downsized.

~~

So actually it's a restoration not a defacement.

4: If you want to see what defacing a monument looks like it wait 'til you see Mt Rushmore

~~

I didnt fucking do anything to Mt Rushmore you idiots, they literally carved it into a sacred mountain just to be dicks to Native Americans. Fucking mortals. But hey thanks for the idea

~~

As an evil overlord I think carving your face into the monument of a people you conquered and oppressed is a pretty swag move but doing dead guys' faces instead of your own is just sad.

~~

I was thinking about re-carving all the major statues into my own face when I take over America but since I'm skeletal people will probably just think it's the same guys except accurately depicting how they look now since they're dead. But then again thats also a power move so still considering it

~~

Retweeted from @CardinalCarnage:

No, I only did the Monument, @KthyzyxathraXXX deserves full credit for filling the Reflecting Pool with blood. Nice job bro, my cultists think it's really cool and so do the boys in Hell

Thanks. Turns out it takes a lot of people to fill that with blood. Really wish there was more of it per body, had to keep healing the sacrifices because I didn't bring enough.

Vulture Culture, The Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and Cincinnati

Really loving the Vulture Culture pinterest boards for inspiration when making new unholy abominations. Newbie necromancers take note: don't limit yourself to using human remains, you will stifle your creativity.

~~

Been making so many "pets" lately I'm actually running out of space, so I'm adopting some of them out. I made this little fella from roadkill on I-64. He's free to a good home. I am not responsible for odor or leakage of putrefying bodily fluids onto your carpet.

~~

Replying to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

Yes those are crow skulls. Nicely spotted!

~~

Replying to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

I didn't sign any goddamn migratory bird treaty.

~~

Replying to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

Fine, I removed and destroyed all the bird parts. JFC tell your followers to cool their jets. I cant believe I found a government body more annoying than the IRS

~~

Tweet made at the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Come get your game wardens. Sorry not sorry but they wandered into my labyrinth of terror and fell in a spike pit. You have 1 week to recover their bodies or I'm using them.

~~

Replying to OSHA:

Don't you fucking start. It's a dungeon it's supposed to be full of deadly booby traps. If you tell me I'm supposed to have railings on a spike pit I installed with the express purpose of people falling in it and dying you'll be first to go when I conquer this wretched land

~~

Replying to OSHA:

No I'm not fucking removing them. Shove a traffic cone up your asses. No weight that's the DOT's thing. What do you even do again?

~~

Really disappointed in the lack of adoption offers. How can you resist a face like this? Yeah the flesh is peeling off. I think the kids today call that Skrungly.

~~

Man this hobby is really addictive. Fuck I'm supposed to be raising armies and pillaging cities but I just spent the last 4 hours sewing a dozen raccoon arms to a dead coyote's neck.

~~

NVM I gave it a petrifying bite and a chain reanimation spell so killing two birds with one stone. Might also transmit rabies. Oh this is gonna be FUN. USFWS don't @ me because I said "killing two birds"

~~

I meant P U T R E F Y I N G bite. Fucking autocorrect. Petrifying bite and chain reanimation would be useless.

~~

Check this out. This buck's antlers carry a whole rack of Multiple Indepently Maneuvering Possums.

~~

Really Autocorrect? You correct Petrifying but let Indepently slide? Whatever. Anyway got a pretty good army going after all. Those possums are MEAN. City of Cincinnati pray to your impotent Gods because I'm coming for you. That'll teach you to lose the superbowl.

~~

Yeah, yeah, I only got as far as Covington and Newport. Fuck off, I know most of you have never invaded a metropolitan area. This was easier in medieval times when infrastructure wasn't so car dependent. 40k casualties is still a productive weekend

~~

I can cross running water just fine. I stopped south of the river on purpose because seeing the other side reminded me of how much Ohio sucks so I decided I don't want it.

~~

Okay fine. I swore a blood oath to never set foot in Ohio again after losing a hundred bucks on the superbowl this February. Exact wording was "until an Ohio team wins a Major League Sports championship" so in practice never.

~~

Catapulting diseased corpses across the river is fair game. Have fun with that.

~~

@CardinalCarnage appreciate the offer but seriously don't worry about it, that city sucks anyway. Just gonna let it go, pretty sure making "Ohio" no longer exist as a political entity cancels the oath anyway so shouldn't be too long even if their teams keep sucking ass

[tsskyx]

Unmeta

You know what’s ridiculous? This post was originally supposed to be an essay, an entire thesis backed with unshakable logic that I wanted to become my magnum opus. But as it turns out, I’m pretty terrible at doing that sort of thing. The first day I’m full of enthusiasm, while the next day I reread what I wrote and I delete it all again. It’s terrible.

For this reason, I’ve decided to just start with the opinion part. Instead of laying out the facts and easing the reader into it, I’ll just blurt everything out in one go. Instead of neatly organizing everything, I’ll write my thoughts as they come to me.

(Update for 2/Oct/2021: I no longer remember when I made the first draft of this post. Maybe it was in 2018, maybe even as early as 2017. Who knows. This post existed in my drafts since forever. It is time to finally publish it. It contains very little information, very little evidence for anything or logic or facts, it’s just a one big opinion piece that I began writing years ago out of frustration. Frustration not aimed at the game itself, nor at Toby or anyone else, but at my inability to decouple the “meta” from Undertale and thus causing me to disassociate from the characters that I loved, when I didn’t plan to do so. All I ever wanted is to make sense of the Undertale world, instead of giving its inhabitants a meta-existential dread. In a nutshell, for the Undertale world to be self-contained, the 4th wall must stay intact, and the mechanics of the UT world mustn’t resemble a video game. That’s basically the gist of this post. Proceed with reading.)

You know Undertale meta? All the 4th wall breaking stuff and whatnot? The stuff that makes the game so awesome?

What about it you say?

It’s not real. I don’t think it is. It cannot be.

Tell me, has Undertale personally impacted you? Was it more than just a game to you? I know for a fact that for many people, it was much more than that. So tell me, is it fine by you that despite presenting itself in this way to us, it still sort of cops out of this at the very end? (By which I mean, when we learn that we aren’t Frisk. That we’re just someone controlling them.)

Some say that this cop-out, this act of “disassociation”, is necessary for our psychological journey to end. And I agree. We cannot dwell on this forever, else we lose our minds. But what I meant is something much more... materialistic.

Let’s take Oneshot, a game that’s arguably even more meta than Undertale. Oneshot embraces the 4th wall. It labels us a god. It portrays the game itself as an in-game machine. And yet, it feels real. Despite all this ridiculousness, the story feels real and possible. Kind of like The Matrix. Perhaps think of everyone in Oneshot except for the main character as a Matrix program, while Niko is the only user hooked up to it. It still feels real, because Niko is real, because there exists a real world they can to return to.

But Undertale floats somewhere between being real and being a fairy tale, a mere bedtime story. The reason is its lax handling of the 4th wall. Say, if Undertale were to be considered a “real” possibility, as in, entirely fictional, but still believable, kinda like The Matrix, kinda like any science fiction, or just fiction in general, what would it be like?

I’ll tell you, everything would have to be real, everything would have to look exactly how we see it. There’d need to be turns, there’d need to be save files, there’d need to be so many bizarre things, it probably wouldn’t take long before the NPCs themselves realized their own nonexistence, probably around the time they developed computers and video games. It’d be so similar, they’d have to be either stupid or under some kind of spell to not realize that their entire world is just one giant video game. Especially Flowey. Some say that he has already realized this, as his dialogue hints towards this. Which puts a super unfortunate spin on his condition. Furthermore, the entire game could be described through its Game Maker code. No need for laws of physics, just observe the if-else statements!

It would also mean that Frisk is controlled by a third unknown entity. If we were to take everything we do to Frisk at face value, it must all be them. Except... after a true reset, everything gets reset, even things about Frisk, such as them expecting the whoopee cushion prank. So... Frisk isn’t in control. But Chara isn’t either. Take for example the final fight against Asriel. Chara appeared pretty enthusiastic during it. What if someone were to reset the timeline during the fight? Either it wasn’t them who did so, or they were just pretending to be entertained, or perhaps they aren’t the narrator in the first place even.

No matter what, there will always be an instance where Frisk forgets, and where Chara doesn’t do something when they could have. Once you mess with the game enough, their personalities stop making sense.

This gradual breakdown of the narrative as I keep attacking the logic of it from every direction imaginable is a symptom of something far bigger. The fact that unlike The Matrix or Oneshot, there is no “real world” in this game. The virtual part of it is what the game is trying to make us focus on. It’s all there is. There is not even a hint of “another” world in the game, a world that wouldn’t be governed by these terrible rules. And even if there was one, even if you consider what Sans said to be that world, even if you considered Deltarune to be that world, there is still no guarantee that everything will be okay. What if the characters - your friends, aren’t real in this actual real world, what if they’re all just computer simulations? There’d have to be an entire population hooked up to a virtual reality for everyone to be “safe” as I’m putting it in this hypothetical real world, which sounds not only ridiculous, but like a direct ripoff of The Matrix.

The game has made Frisk the main character. Why, when making Sans the main one, the one who at least has a possibility of coming from a “real” real world, would be far more logical?

Because it lacks logic. Undertale is an experiment. Toby Fox is not a genius. He was just messing around, he didn’t think of literally every tiny little logical detail (contrary to what some individuals would like to think), he just explained enough for most of the story to make sense. But, no matter how you spin it, this fundamental flaw will always be there. The story tries to merge you and the protagonist, before disassociating you from them. Even if you always were disassociated from them, how can the in-game world be real, when other aspects of your reality weren’t disassociated yet? Where’s the disassociation for battles and turns, for save files and time travel, for stats and everything? How can Undertale claim to be complete, when it isn’t? ... Perhaps because it is not claiming to be. It’s an experiment after all. And I don’t mean “incomplete” as in a single update / new game can fix it. I mean the premise itself is already broken from the start. And while there are many fictional worlds which function on a similar level of meta, Undertale is the only one that appears to irk me mad. I don’t know why. Maybe I love the characters. Maybe I love them very much. Maybe I love them so much, that I wanna write a fan fiction about them. And maybe, just maybe, this tiny little issue is making this dream of mine impossible. Undertale is a story conveyed through game mechanics. Choosing any other medium breaks everything down and the author needs to invent their own rules. There’s simply no way around it. Unless someone has the balls to program a fan game of their own, there’s just no way to resolve this without adjusting the canon a little bit, to make it “a little bit more sensible” as some would put it. Just a small nudge, a lil’ nudgie wudgie to the canon mechanics AAAAAND we’re in fanon territory. Excellent, better go all out.

Here’s my head canon, my little “adjustment” of the canon rules. Thanks to it, I can once again think about Undertale as a real world, I no longer need to philosophize over the meta like I did above, I can all put it past me:

Saving, loading, resetting? Regular sci-fi time travel.

The save file? The parameters of the time machine.

LV and EXP? Another set of properties of the machine, though it could be properties of the soul too. I’m undecided on that note. But either works, that’s what’s important.

Chara destroying the world through LV? No, screw that, Chara merely tuned Frisk out. And the black void was the inside of their mind as Chara denied them access to their own body.

The intro? Literally never happened, no one “saw” it. (The past was still real. It’s just the intro that never existed.) The outro? Literally never physically occurred, Frisk wasn’t “stuck” on the ending credits, unable to go further, fuck that.

Flowey? No screw everything meta about Flowey, there exists a perfectly logical explanation to everything he says, and if not, such as in the genocide run with him hinting towards people watching but not acting... he never said that in the first place!

Same with turns, the battles don’t actually look that way, there are no turns, what Sans perceives and abuses as such is just an illusion, the actual battle against Sans is absolutely fluid. And him pausing at the end and not letting us go is him keeping his guard up, until falling asleep and giving us an opportunity to sneak near him and strike. We don’t need turns to explain it. And what he said about turns... just ignore it! Ignore everything that directly proves me wrong! Because resolving that fucking conundrum IS more important than being logically consistent, and you can’t change my mind on that. Screw logic when the foundation of the entire fandom, of every UT-related fiction, is at stake here.

And I shall call this philosophy... the Unmeta. Because it attempts to undo the meta. Hence, “unmeta” for short.

[proxylynn]

Lynchtale: File Name Game of Death #6

Chapter 6: Like any realm, there are many layers of unknowns.

WARNING: THIS IS A MATURE STORY THAT WILL HAVE BLOOD, GORE, PSYCHOLOGICAL SURVIVAL HORROR, HEAVY CURSING, AND LIKELY SEXUAL THEMES/BONING. I DO NOT OWN UNDERTALE, THAT BELONGS TO LORD TOBY FOX. I DO NOT OWN DEAD BY DAYLIGHT, THAT BELONGS TO BEHAVIOUR DIGITAL INC.. I DON'T OWN THE AU'S THAT SOME OF THE CHARACTERS COME FROM, THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS. I NOW OWN THE IDEA FOR LYNCHTALE, WHICH USED TO BELONG TO PUNNYSIDEUP (AKA. SANSFULPUNS). I ALSO OWN MY SELF-INSERT OC ANOMALY LYNSIE AND A LOVE OF FAN PARODY. IF YOU'RE STILL READING THIS, THEN CONGRATULATIONS ON EITHER BEING ONE WITH STRONG DETERMINATION OR AN ENDLESS WILL TO OVERCOME THE CHALLENGE OF STOMACHING WHAT I HAVE IN MIND. EITHER WAY, IF YOU LIKE THIS AND/OR MY OTHER CONTENT. SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. HAVE FUN SINNERS. ^_^

[SOMEWHERE IN THE ENTITY...THE ARCHIVES OF THE OBSERVER]

(Arcus 01)

I would start at the beginning, but I don't know when that was or how long ago I was banished to this prison. What I know is I've been observing and studying the inner workings of this Entity that had once been...well...an obsession. How ironic that I should be sentenced to live out the rest of my days in the very thing I sought to destroy. An obsession turned prison...as all obsessions are, I suppose.

(Arcus 54)

The atmosphere of the realms is dark and grim to say the least but also...ever changing. I've already remarked that the atmosphere is misty even foggy at times and that this fog feels alive. It seems to contain swirls and streams of memories or imprints of beings from multiple terra worlds. It is as if The Entity absorbs all the psychic energy and thoughts of beings it snatches as it journeys through the endless cosmos.

I've used the Auris to study the black fog and have come to three observations that will prove invaluable to finding a way home. First, the fog is rich in Auric particles leading me to believe this dimension is more conscious than it is material. Second, I should be able to manifest anything I am able to pull from rifts in the fog using techniques passed down from my family. Third…The Entity is far more ancient than we ever suspected back home and most of our theories and conjectures were wrong. The rich presence of Auric particles and cells suggests it is one of the Original Ones—an Ancient.

(Arcus 129)

A knock at the door and an invitation attached to a bottle of whiskey waiting for me at the foot of the door. I kneeled to inspect the invitation. "You are cordially invited to The Entity's Birthday". The Entity has a birthday? Am I losing my mind...my grip on reality...whatever that actually means here...Is this some kind of a prank by a marooned soul?

(Arcus 142)

The Entity is the cosmic embodiment of evil. Back home we witnessed how its very presence turns worlds inside out...how it seems to remove or extinguish any sense of empathy or compassion within communities...how it brings people to the brink of madness and...well...pushes them in. Now I understand it does all this in order to rip victims from their lives and have them play out an endless trial of terror that it presumably needs for its own survival. And there, perhaps, lies the key to its destruction...if an Ancient can be destroyed at all.

End the trials. Destroy its ability to sap dark nectar from victims like a cruel parasite feeding from a flower. At least the Archives affords me a better understanding of the Entity...why it moves from universe to universe, picking victims off and devouring worlds as though at a cosmic buffet. What I have yet to conclude is whether it is attracted to worlds that are brimming with darkness and madness or if it is in fact the catalyst of such darkness and madness.

(Arcus 182)

I have discovered structures within the realms of The Entity that remind me of home. It is possible others from Terra Primus have found themselves marooned within The Entity. These Survivors could have with them knowledge to free me from this tower and possibly ideas on how to escape this infernal dimension. As far as I know...we were one of the first of the many worlds to begin unraveling these great cosmic mysteries and proving that planets and solar systems were...well...alive. These discoveries led to entire paradigm shifts that unlocked for us our ability to travel from dimension to dimension. Where once we thought our knowledge was absolute...these discoveries showed us how little we actually knew about the world.

(Arcus 223)

I felt an uncanny and unseen presence in The Archives as I contemplated The Entity. I could hear the labored breathing of Killers standing outside my prison. I looked out into the dark, raging Fog and saw nothing...Either The Entity is aware of my presence and is preparing to send Killers to put an end to my plans...or the memories of Survivors are somehow merging with my personal memories and these sounds are mere side effects of overusing the Auris. In the end, it doesn't matter. If I could end The Entity I would even if it meant my own demise. My life is little to pay for the salvation of the worlds it will destroy.

(Arcus 293)

Things could have been worse. I could have been banished in a dimension without Auric Fog containing the memory imprints of countless victims, memories that keep me entertained and busy with my coin and spirit collections...and the music...the variations from parallel worlds...it helps pass the time. In a twisted way I think what I'm admitting is that I'm glad The Entity takes what it wants when it wants from the omniverse.

(Arcus 328)

There is a curiosity at the core of every thinking person. A need for knowledge from uncharted and unknowable territories, but what is discovered in those blank spaces of the abyss...of the cosmos are things far too immense to understand. Things better left unobserved lest they undermine our sanity. Better to embrace ignorance than face the truth of our insignificance in the grand scheme of it all. Against the vastness of the infinite we are mere microbes swirling in an endless, indifferent cosmic stew. I say stew...but The Entity is probably more of a blood pudding.

(Arcus 345)

I have recently wondered if Survivors realize the titanic significance of their thoughts and feelings, and of how The Entity uses them to furnish the trials. Thoughts and feelings that bring me glimpses of what it's like to have lived on a parallel world as someone else. It helps pass the time.

(Arcus 437)

I'm going to have a couple shots of whiskey from Terra 917, experience a few Memories, then head to bed. The warmth of spirits from 917 have always had a way of lulling me away. While it is true this is a cruel fate...an even crueler fate would have been to have been imprisoned here without the Auris...without the ability to manifest and create and enjoy. It feels strange as this may seem as the nexus of creation...able to travel Memories and cull from those Memories without restraint. Helps pass the time. Definitely helps pass the time.

(Arcus 557)

All planes of existence are a unique mix of conscious Auric particles and material particles. The Entity is almost certainly pure consciousness...The observable fact of existence is the material world responds to and changes with consciousness...collective consciousness is the key...The body, the home, the trial—all of it is an expression of The Entity's unconscious need for fear and terror.

The distinct observation in the specimens chosen by The Entity is that they all come from worlds that have failed to understand the metaphysical relationship between their thoughts and the world they live in. This is not by chance. It is, to my mind, self-preservation. Victims who know this truth and have honed their ability to manifest could be poisonous to The Entity. This leads me to believe The Entity is attracted to dark worlds because darkness and chaos are clear indicators that inhabitants have failed to connect the dots between the collective consciousness and the health of their world. The conclusion, then, might be that The Entity feeds off ignorance.

(Arcus 571)

Gut-wrenching shrieks echoing through the Fog disturbed my sleep. I woke up, put on some slacks, clambered to the roof with some whiskey, and hit golf balls into the abyss. There's something about hitting iron and wood into oblivion that's calming, even therapeutic. I must have hit a thousand golf balls before the yelling and screaming finally subsided and I called it a night.

(Arcus 572)

Someone left a bucket of golf balls at my door with a note: Best Balls Ever! Upon further inspection I realized they were hardened eyeballs. Fossilized eyeballs collected no doubt throughout the lost Realms. I didn't realize eyeballs could be fossilized or that they make, dare I say, decent golf balls. I actually wouldn't mind another bucket. This must be a gift from my mysterious friend.

(Arcus 632)

Through a rift I believe I culled another memory of Vigo manifesting reality within The Entity with something reminiscent of the Auris. How he came to understand the machinations of The Fog is both puzzling and inspiring. It suggests to me that perhaps this place enhances one's connections to our infinite selves throughout the omniverse.

(Arcus 723)

I pity Dwight. It's as though every action he takes brings the opposite of what he intends. Trying to help his fellow employees from an abuser he ends up shutting down the entire operation, leaving many in a far worse situation than they ever were in. Granted, spiking a narcissist's drink and watching him unravel was worth the price of admission. The many memories of Survivors struggling with narcissists have led me to the conclusion that there are only three possibilities when relating to a narcissist. Enable them. Run away from them. Or...destroy them. But beware, narcissists take everyone with them when they go down.

(Arcus 731)

Hard to tell when one day ends and another begins. The tower and the library help me cope, but it's hard to forget the truth of my situation even for a moment knowing everything I have is a lie. I have access to anything I want and yet I have nothing. The survivors continue to undergo the trials with the most brutal of killers. I continue to search the fog for the memories of those who found a way to escape. It sometimes feels like a futile search. But then again...I've got time on my hands...lots of time...

(Arcus 767)

The Auris was little understood back home, and to be fair I wasn't given the chance to explain its merits to the council. Had they taken the time to understand they would have realized that though I had no verifiable explanation for how the Auris works...I had theories, and the most reasonable was that the Auris works on the basis of the Trinitarian — the Trinitarian of Creation — a concept long held by our ancestors and forgotten throughout the ages. But the concept isn't complicated, isn't witchcraft, isn't a secret. It simply suggests that it takes two things to create a third. A father and a mother to create a child. An idea and passion to create something new, something real, something lasting and meaningful. A thought and feeling. Therein lies the best theory of the Auris and how it is able to create with Auric particles.

The failing of other pioneers back home is they believed thought alone was enough when in reality it is only half the equation...the other half is emotion, for it is feeling and passion that fuels the fires of creation. The Auris amplifies and manifests and forges something new using the mold of thought and the fires of passion. Or...I've been here too long and I'm grasping at theories to pass the time.

(Arcus 789)

Emotion. Passion. Interest. They are the spark, the undefinable force that enables creation. You cannot manifest anything if you are not filled with emotion about it. The Auris was ridiculed because the council lacked understanding. This might be the whiskey ruminating but...art is not created by thought alone but by thought and feeling working in harmony. Feeling is everything...Feeling is the most important aspect of bringing anything to life. It is the fuel that makes thought and intention reality.

(Arcus 893)

Several Survivors went mad trying to escape the trial. They had with them memories of previous incarnations so that one Survivor began dashing his head against a wall convinced he was reliving a nightmare he had just escaped. The other Survivors drowned him in mud to shut him up. It seems to me Survivors are torches growing dimmer and dimmer with every trial. Some stop to feel altogether and are doomed to The Void. Others go raving mad and need to be silenced by others.

(Arcus 968)

Strange, luminous markings left in the Trials for Survivors and Killers that help me navigate and study Rifts with greater ease. Someone is trying to reach out to me. Tampering with The Entity. Using tricks to secure my attention. To let me know I'm not alone. To let me know I'm not the only one able to manifest within The Entity. Yet the knowledge of living dimensions and Ancients is knowledge few have developed among the infinite Terra worlds within the known galaxies.

(Arcus 1032)

Jumbled experiences of brutal Killers and weird rituals of godless brutes from worlds too dark to care. I jerked myself straight out of one memory that pulled me into a cavern of bodies with an odor so repugnant I was retching for hours. I still have that horrible taste in my mouth and shudder at the thought of that smell, that horrible smell, rotting humanity. What foul creature of a man had made this festering hole his lair is beyond me.

(Arcus 1043)

I look and observe the realms of The Entity with eyes that see disharmony, chaos, fear, and terror... and yet I acknowledge I may be swayed by appearances and that there may be another truth beyond the veil and it feels futile if not absurd to try to put to words what I am seeing.

(Arcus 1118)

There's nothing like silence to drive you mad. I stared out into the endless ocean of Black Fog surrounding me and quickly realized how incredibly small and insignificant we are. Dread and despair soon overtook me and I began to realize how arrogant we were back home to try to define and describe these living cosmic entities. We thought we had figured most out. We barely scratched the surface.

(Arcus 1256)

Discovered new memories of Trapper which shed some light on his descent. The question I am asking myself is: Did The Entity begin to corrupt him before he was snatched for the Trials or was all that anger and bloodlust a result of his harsh upbringing? Either way I would not expect him to comply with another authority figure even if that figure was an Old One.

(Arcus 1513)

I have used the Auris to explore the memories of an unknown survivor who comes from a world where, from what I can gather, a cult for The Entity exists. It's not a surprise or the first time I've seen such a thing, but the memories suggest she was a detective of sorts trying to prevent a cult sacrifice before she was snatched for the trials. I'm not sure what happened to her and will have to explore the fog to unravel more.

(Arcus 1672)

I have culled imprints of a killer I have yet to observe. My best guess, judging by the nature of the crimes, is this brute is from Terra Dark. She lured men with love, robbed them of their savings, and fed them to her pigs. Lovely. Efficient. And resourceful. The impressions of the memory are as follows...

...He stands framed in the doorway with flowers. A stupid smile on his dumb face. He has no sense that his days are numbered. Lonely soul made the trip for a wife. He thinks he'll get everything for a ring. Her land. Her farm. Her savings. Won't happen. Won't go as planned. Not as he planned, anyway. It didn't for all the other lonely souls who answered her classified ad. She peers at his eyes and thrills at his ignorance. His long, dumb face. His false sense of superiority. He wrote her a poem. How sweet. She'll cram it down his throat when he's convulsing on the floor. She takes his poem and asks about his money. He has it with him. Packed his savings in a bag and made the journey for a new start. He'll get more than he bargained for. Way more. To the bank with his money. To the pigs with him.

(Arcus 2903)

I rose early to experience a few deaths in The Archives I recently captured from The Rift. I had some milk from Terra 728. I listened to a radio show from Terra 232. Horror stories and tales of terror. I read a new version of Dante's Inferno from... I'm not sure where...I thought of home, had some whiskey, and slept for what felt like an eternity.

(Arcus 3212)

From a window I see something moving with an uncanny light. Through the black fog it shines there, beckoning me. And yet, I cannot leave. I cannot move. I can only bring things to me through the Auris. What light is this? Is it a creature sent by The Entity? Is it a survivor? Or perhaps it's a marooned soul from back home searching like myself for a way back. An unnatural wind whines and I stare at the moving, hypnotic light, a hideous watching eye, trying to reach out to me, trying to tell me something, trying to convey something in its strange, rhythmic movement.

(Arcus 4902)

Life is not life in this prison, and death is not an escape. It is merely the start of a new trial and most survivors are aware they are caught in something they will never understand. Why this is all happening is no longer obvious to me. The truth is...I don't know what to believe anymore...The Entity is...not what it is...or what I thought it was...

(Arcus 7294)

I woke up soaked in blood with no recollection of what transpired the night before. The blood dripped off my nose and chin. I felt my forehead and scalp to discover a deep, stinging gash. Accident? Self-inflicted? Nightmares of The Fog? Creatures of the abyss? I didn't know. Later by the bed I discovered a purple mound of flesh and gore. I cleaned the slop and tossed it out the window into the abyss from which it had come.

(Arcus 7456)

I am taking notes under incredible mental strain. I have had flashes of Survivor memories overrun my senses all day, and I am trying to focus on home and gather myself. I haven't used the Auris for some time and yet I have been pulled in and out of these lives randomly. These records... these archives will, I imagine, help me remember myself, should the Auris nudge me into the abyss.

(Arcus 7547)

Whiskey deep into the night. A strange aftertaste...a flavor from a world which makes the best whiskey. Whiskey dreams are some of the most pleasurable. Dreams of home, with friends and family, enjoying time lost. When my senses returned, I realized I had turned my palace of a prison upside down. I remembered none of it. Everything, a drunken blur. So many paintings and statues I had created from memories from other worlds...shattered...I'm losing my grip on reality and maybe that's a good thing. One day merges into the next and I'm lost in a storm of whiskey, screams, and endless streams of broken memories.

(Arcus 8876)

It's always entertaining to watch a Survivor try to escape with a femoral artery lacerated. Some victims actually get quite far before shock and cardiac arrest overwhelm them. They fight and struggle for life as if death were final. Perhaps this is the reason The Entity wipes the slate clean with every resurrection. The unwavering belief that death is real gives weight and gravitas to the trial... to the experience. Otherwise Survivors won't care. Wouldn't run. Wouldn't feel. The fear of death is the pulse of life and believing death is real gives emotion to the experience. It, in other words, feeds The Entity.

(Arcus 9082)

Hillbilly has quite an arm. A farmer made his way out of a barn and with one well-aimed blow with a spade, his head was severed from his shoulders, and two spouts of hot blood burst from his body like geysers. Hillbilly watched the headless man stagger stupidly and collapse in a growing puddle of steaming blood. I have to admit I've gone through this memory more than once. It's one of my favorites. I find Hillbilly disturbingly amusing and the illusion of death fascinating...at a distance.

(Arcus 9873)

King has this way of doing things that are quite amusing. One of my favorite memories I return to time and time again whenever I need a lift is Memory 2332 - Gasoline Man: King grabs this man who skipped a few payments on a loan. He drags him by the hair and throws him in an alley. He grabs a metal gasoline container and douses the 'sod' with its contents and lights a match. He stares at him through the flickering flame as the man screams in terror. He watches him beg for his life. Then he flings the match. The man's eyes pop out of his head as the flame hits his chest and falls to the floor with a sizzle. King tells him to make his payment or next time he'll use real gasoline. Brilliant.

(Arcus ??????)

A new tome of memories has appeared in my library. This one full of blurred pages and faded images. It will take quite some work to clear the fog for these to make some semblance sense. The newer parts that are clear tell of a Survivor I hadn't seen before. Such a strange woman. The Entity is rather active with her unlike the others. Even going so far as to taint her into being a monster. I pity this woman. It is one thing to have always been a monster...it's entirely different being forced to be one. Still...I will admit to being intrigued by her situation. For this is the first time there is a soul stuck between the two sides. I should get started soon. I want to see how she ended up like this. I want to know how she handles it. How she manages to deal with the monsters...and with the Entity itself. I just pray that I can keep myself sane long enough to find these things out.

[ELSEWHERE IN THE FOG]

We've been walking for some time now.

After a less than jolly wake up I've been restrained by Chops' weapon's chain, my arms locked behind me with the safe end while the other stabby end is in his hand, and he's been dragging me into the fog ever since. Before, however, Legion reminded my dumbass what we were doing...going to visit the Doctor to check out my weird soul. Seeing that guy once, even while not in a trial, was enough to make me less than willing to go to him or his realm, hence the chaining. Chops having to be in control of the body to keep me on this makeshift leash means the others aren't around. The shades of the Bones, Boo, and Dead Eye lagged behind us the further away we went from the chalet until they faded altogether once we pasted the border of the realm.

Now we wonder about the fog. A killer leading a reluctant dog to a kennel of death. Needless to say, I don't make things easy for him.

"quit draggin' your feet!"

A hard yank has me trying to resist spinning to the ground like a drunken jackass.

"Or what? You'll kill me? Big freaking deal."

Being a smartass earns me some comeuppance in a speedy punch to the gut.

"disrespect me and i'll give ya one hell of a bad time. got that, meat?"

I want to vomit but there's nothing in me to puke up.

"now, come on..."

He starts walking and a small tug has me following on instinct.

"we're almost there."

"*coughs* Are guys even sure he'll be helpful? He could just take me and dick you over."

He growls.

"ya think we can't handle that quack?"

"I didn't say that. I'm just saying we shouldn't just show all the cards we're holding right away."

"it's not like we got much choice. ya don't wanna go to the void, do ya?"

I shiver.

"yeah, didn't think so."

"Still...I don't trust this."

"good..."

I look at him funny.

"keep on your toes. especially around the quack."

There's that odd tone like how Bones had when he mentioned the Doctor. I got a feeling they had a bad experience with him before. Our ceaseless wondering continues. My mind begins to make shapes in the swirls of fog, heh, reminds me of my youth seeing things in the smoke at church...Wow, I'm fucked up. Either way, imaging things keeps my brain steady. Helps me forget the reality I'm in for a while. It's been my coping mechanism for god knows how long. And once I'm in it for long it gets pretty hard to be drawn out. Though...I'm not far gone enough to not notice this faint sound. It's soft. Almost...Almost like humming? Looking around shows nothing. Nothing except me...and him. Can it be...?

Being a curious yet cautious punk, I move in close behind him and...music? A dark and depressing mix of power ballads and gloomy melodies.

"The hell...?"

With my hands not a usable option, I bite the end of his hoody's hood and pull it back. The exposure of his skull angrily surprises him yet not as much as I am to see earbuds in the acoustic meatus of his head. When did he do this? Was I that distracted?

"the fuck ya doin'?!"

"Dude, you have tunes?"

He takes one out to better hear me.

"what?"

"How long have you been holding out on me? Do you know how boring this silence is?"

He chuckles while putting the bud back in.

"why else ya think i've got this on?"

He attempts putting his hood back on but I annoyingly hit his shoulder with my head.

"bitch!"

"Share!"

"fuck you!"

"I'll leave you alone if you do."

He glares.

"or i can kick the shit out of ya and not."

I scoot in front of him.

"Dude, come on...Do you really think it'll be that easy?"

His glare intensifies. I give a hopeful smirk with a small shrug. His response is to yank the chain and grab my face while my body went on "keep steady in one place" mode like a moron. His distal phalanx tips dig into my cheeks like the claws of a pissed-off cat.

"*harsh* i ain't like bones. i ain't gonna treat ya with kid gloves. piss me off, i'll beat ya to an inch of your pathetic life. the only thing stoppin' me is how much i don't want to drag your half-dead ass to léry's."

Léry's Memorial Institute...another realm the Entity told me of.

A research facility should be a place where minds grow, where learning happens. But the Léry Memorial Institute is quite the opposite. It's a place where the human brain is turned into something unpleasant and broken. Nestled in a sleepy woods three miles south of Michaelstown, Illinois, the Léry Memorial Institute started its life out as a hospital specializing in the rehabilitation of GI's returning from the Korean War. The mansion built in the late 1800s and its massive lot were donated by the previous owner to be transformed into a medical facility. As an army hospital, it always fell under different laws and rules to other hospitals and in 1967, it effectively became a front for the CIA. Under the Stewardship of Otto Stamper, the old army patients were shipped out and a huge fence erected around the property. Around this time, the public was refused access to the patients and the whole place was shrouded in secrecy. By 1970, the Institute was fully transformed into a CIA black site with special requirements to develop cutting-edge interrogation techniques and they employed a wide range of different doctors and specialists to help them. The Institute thrived through the 70's growing to a staff of hundreds, filling the main hospital, and several out-buildings. Documents and evidence about the Institute are scarce as the government condemned the entire building in 1983, even razing most of the building to the ground in what seemed to be planned explosive demolition. Even now, the events that lead to the closing of the Institute and what happened to the staff and patients is shrouded in controversy and mystery. Snippets of information in heavily redacted documents tell the story of some kind of incident or event, but even the most tenacious reporters have failed to unearth any real evidence of conspiracy or wrongdoing. You can still see what remains of the shell of the main hospital facility, standing defiant against the ruins that surround it on what is still US Military land.

"now take this as your only warning. i ain't playin' games."

He sinks the digits in more, adding pain into the threat to drive the message home. The effect he wants from me is submission. My real reaction...A blank expression of indifference. Why give in to him? Fear? So what. Fear means nothing when death is nothing. Sure there's pain but whatever to that.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're kinda cute when being tough?"

Honestly, this was better than what my brain wanted to say. He, however, didn't take this as a compliment and promptly uses that weapon to cram it deep into my side at an angle to scrap down my hip. Needless to say this gets a better response for him to take and my roar of pain gets muffled by his tightening grip.

"don't fuck with me, bitch! unless...ya don't want me to let ya heal? ya do want to be able to do that...don't ya?"

The feel of steel on bone makes it hard not to whimper while nodding.

"then you're gonna behave...right?"

He twists the blade. Seriously, is that signature Legion move? My wincing is high and nodding fast.

"prove it."

This confuses me.

"let's play a game..."

He yanks the blade out. If it wasn't for his hold I would've jerked to the ground.

"if you can do one little thing...i'll let ya be free."

His smug slyness is too obnoxious to miss while he lets my face go. Giving me creepy feelings.

"And what might that be, sir nice guy all of a sudden?"

He stares off, either thinking or listening to the others in his head.

"first a set of rules...ya can only obey instructions and ya must do everything i say. ya can't do anything unless i give ya the okay. ya can't speak unless spoken to. and ya gotta keep eye contact unless i say."

Creep levels are growing.

"do ya have the balls to agree?"

I sigh. I'm slowly bleeding out, what choice do I have?

"Sure. If it makes things easier."

His sharp-toothed smirk is sending chills of regret through me.

"good...on your knees."

I can't help the "I fucking called it" face and groan.

"Dude...Really?"

He backhands me fairly hard.

"i said, on your knees!"

I spit some blood out and hate my life more than I already do as I slowly do as commanded.

"smart girl."

He puts the bloody blade in my face which is conveniently at hip level for him.

"ya made me dirty my blade. be a good kitten and clean it for me...slowly."

I grimace at the obvious pseudo-sex act he wants me to do. The only upside is I don't mind the taste of my own blood. So, with much resentment for everything, I slowly lick the weapon. Being mindful of the very sharp slightly nicked blade.

"slower. really give it a fine shine."

I huff through my nose while really dragging my tongue along the metal. It helps to think of it as a weird popsicle. At least this can't last much longer...I hope.

"not bad, kitten. looks very nice. but..."

He kneels, taking a harsh grip of my hair and taps the tip of the blade on my lips.

"i think it needs a final deep wash. open your mouth."

This can go horrible real fast, yet I hesitantly open up. The look he gives, lidded sockets and licking his teeth with a red gel-like tongue...The fuck? I have so many questions! Either way, my creepy meter is maxed out and broken.

"don't move. we wouldn't want to make it dirty again."

He seems to like this control as evident by the meticulous way he inserts the murder weapon and tests just how far he can get it to go before something happens then pulling it out methodically slow, only to repeat it all over again. Feeling all sorts of uncomfortable my ability to look at him reaches its limits. This turns his building desire into a rage and his pulling of my hair borders on scalp ripping.

"look at me!"

The snap makes me jump, nearly stabbing the back of my throat but I do as told. Like the bitch I am.

"don't ya fuckin' look away from me. got that?"

I nod very very very carefully. Seeing I've lost my dignity, which is understandable with this shit going on, his domination lust kicks back in to do some overly prolonged and humiliating oral knife play with awkward staring. The longer this goes on the more carnal he looks. His breathing, how the fuck a skeleton breathes I know not, is getting labored and a tinge shaky. The grip of my hair lessens to light kneading. And the sounds that leave him...It's so dirty. I want this to stop. I feel like just ending this by slamming myself on the damn thing! Until, thankfully, he finally gets his jollies and removes the weapon with a long drag across my tongue...only to then lick it himself much to my disgust.

All this over wanting to listen to his music?!

"mmmm...that was fun, kitten. good job."

Glad you're happy while I'm kneeling in the growing pool of my life juice...jackass.

"Mew."

His pleasure flips quickly to normal edgy jerk.

"ya had to ruin it."

"Sorry."

Why the fuck did I apologize?!

My automatic apology impulse does seem to do some good by not making him forget the reward for playing his game. A small bit of fiddling around my back ends with the chain going slack and my hands becoming free.

"i was gonna make ya sweat for a bit, but then ya would've probably bled out and ya know my feelin's about dealin' with ya like that."

Once more, a member of the Legion has upheld to their word to me instead of pulling that "I lied" bullshit most schmucks would do. And once more, this has an effect on me and how I look at Legion.

"Thank you."

I begin to rub the wound and seal the damage while he sets his weapon back into its normal state.

"don't thank me. just hurry up."

Even if that was a dick thing to say, it was a nice dick thing to say. I will remember that.

With my wound healed and blood no longer draining into the fog, I stand yet feel off. Probably the emotional scarring of him humiliating me. But there's no time for that. So I bottle it up like all my other negative shit. I'm sure it won't be affecting me in any way now. Most likely I'll cry about it later but for we have a mission to complete.

As if nothing has happened we walk once more, side by side. And again he listens to whatever music he has. He ignores me for the most part which makes listening to the faint tunes a bit easier. Suddenly...I recognize the song that kicks in...Nirvana: Heart-Shaped Box. Must resist...Would he even...Fuck it! Not like it matter.

"♪She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak. I've been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks. I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap. I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black. Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint. Forever in debt to your priceless advice. Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint. Forever in debt to your priceless advice. Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint. Forever in debt to your priceless advice...your advice...♫"

I pause when I notice the beat is gone. I look out the corner of my eye and don't see him. Turning my head shows he stopped a bit back and is looking at me oddly.

"Uh..."

"ya know this song?"

I rub the back of my head.

"Only when the song plays. I'm not good at recalling lyrics alone."

He's slow to approach and I'm unsure when he messes with something in his pocket. But then I hear the song again.

"♪Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet. Cut myself on angel hair and baby's breath. Broken hymen of your Highness, I'm left back. Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back. Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint. Forever in debt to your priceless advice. Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint. Forever in debt to your priceless advice. Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint. Forever in debt to your priceless advice...your advice...♫"

As the music jams solo he smirks and returns to trekking the fog, grateful I'm not butchering the song. Not to be left alone I follow and keep enjoying the music.

"♪She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak. I've been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks. I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap. I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black. Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint. Forever in debt to your priceless advice. Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint. Forever in debt to your priceless advice. Hey! Wait! I've got a new complaint. Forever in debt to your priceless advice...your advice...your advice...your advice...♫"

I don't think he minds indulging my karaoke, not while the real thing blares in his skull and I maintain similar pitch to make it hard to distinguish. He probably likes that I'm not being such a pain in the ass while distracted like this. And distracted I am as we continue. The only thing that breaks me from my song and shameful weak dance is the random feel of something tapping my skin. The feel of cold accompanies the tingles. Slowly this oddity becomes clear...snow.

A large gate, the ones that humans must escape in, comes into view as the snow blows into the fog. This is the entrance leading to the building that is Léry's Memorial Institute. The cold is fitting here. Like an unseen bait. The cold lures you towards the false shelter where no good can be found.

The old building we find has it's doors open, inviting the foolish inside. A scientific center of some sort, full of discarded equipment. Some I recognized, other items are new to me. It does have that been abandoned feel to it, the kind that tricks you into letting your guard down. I don't question how the Entity manages to bring places like this here, there's no point to that kind of thought anymore. I have to put my curiosity on hold for now. There is danger in this place and I can't afford to be enchanted now. Inside are small areas like waiting rooms and resection desks, but also traces of something dark. As we tread the halls, beds that probably did not hold free people are scattered about. Corridors lack the warmth that comes from normal care facilities. I feel most uneased. Its maze-like features might trap me for good if Chops wasn't guiding me. What kind of shit went down here? Do I even want to know the reason why there are jail-like bars housing the area we're headed? Probably not.

This place hums with power. Electricity is everywhere and dirty tools are found laying around. This facility screams of a place where all methods are acceptable, go or bad. Whether the "subject" is alive after the procedure is not important. If these walls could talk all you would hear are screams and tearful waling. A passing glance of one room shines the smallest semblance of peace, some sort of library or study houses normal furniture along with numerous amounts of books. Nothing else remembers all those who lost their minds and their lives in there better than archives. Nothing...except the one who is called Doctor.

Pass the bars of no return leads to a noisy circled area. A medical viewing theater with massive electricity generators, holding chairs, tool cabinets, multiple large monitors playing random static images hang from the center, and viewing stations above. Every nerve I have is on alert. Get the fuck out of here, is what my brain tells me, but my body refuses to obey. Chops can feel my nervous deer energy and clutches my arm, it helps ground me better than trusting my legs to not book it.

"🕈☜☹☹ 🕈☜☹☹ 🕈☜☹☹📬📬📬" (WELL WELL WELL...)

I had forgotten the Doctors voice, it tends to happen with only one meeting, even if it's rumbling with dark authority. But his intimidating presence is something I'll never forget as he effortlessly strides into here. The fusion of sparking wires integrated into his bones, the painful contortion of his face to the point his skull is cracking, even his professional attire looks like he wants to bring pain not healing. He's creepy as creepy can be.

"✌☞❄☜☼ ❄☟☜ ❄☟☜✌❄✋👍💧 ✡⚐🕆 🏱🕆☹☹☜👎📪 ✋🕯💣 💧🕆☼🏱☼✋💧☜👎 ✡⚐🕆 🕈⚐🕆☹👎 ☺🕆💧❄ 🕈✌☹😐 ✋☠❄⚐ ❄☟☜ ☟☜✌☼❄ ⚐☞ 💣✡ ☼☜✌☹💣📬 ✌☠👎 🕈✋❄☟ ❄☟☜ ☟🕆💣✌☠ ☠⚐ ☹☜💧💧✍ ☜✞☜☼ ❄☟☜ ✋☠❄☼✋☝🕆✋☠☝ ⚐☠☜ ✡⚐🕆 👌⚐✡💧 ✌☼☜📬" (AFTER THE THEATICS YOU PULLED, I'M SURPRISED YOU WOULD JUST WALK INTO THE HEART OF MY REALM. AND WITH THE HUMAN NO LESS? EVER THE INTRIGUING ONE YOU BOYS ARE.)

Chops' grip on my arm tightens and for good reason. Be it a gift, or a curse...The Entity has ignited a corrupted and inexhaustible spark in The Doctor’s heart which allows him to generate electro-convulsive power at will. His insidious treatment corrupts the minds of those it touches. Victims shocked by the corrupt spark begin to lose their grip on reality and, with repeated exposure, inevitably succumb to madness. I have difficulty keeping my sanity as it is. This is a monster that toys with it for fun.

"we ain't here for your high and mighty bull, ya quack. so knock off the schtick."

Chops' take no shit attitude makes the Doctor sneer.

"❄✡🏱✋👍✌☹ ⚐☞ ✌ ✡⚐🕆❄☟ ❄☟✋☠😐✋☠☝ ❄☟☜✡ 👍✌☠ ☺🕆💧❄ 👎☜💣✌☠👎 ❄☟✋☠☝💧 ✌☠👎 ☝☜❄ ✋❄ 👌☜👍✌🕆💧☜ ✋❄ ☞✋❄💧 ❄☟☜✋☼ ☠☜☜👎💧📬 ✡⚐🕆 👍⚐💣☜ ���☠❄⚐ 💣✡ ☟⚐💣☜📪 🕆☠✋☠✞✋❄☜👎📪 ✌☠👎 👌☜☹✋☜✞☜ ✡⚐🕆 ✌☼☜ ☜☠❄✋❄☹☜👎📬📬📬🕈☟✡✍ 🏱☹☜✌💧☜📪 ☜☠☹✋☝☟❄☜☠ 💣☜📪 ✡⚐🕆 👍⚐👍😐✡ ☹✋❄❄☹☜ 💧☟✋❄📬" (TYPICAL OF A YOUTH THINKING THEY CAN JUST DEMAND THINGS AND GET IT BECAUSE IT FITS THEIR NEEDS. YOU COME INTO MY HOME, UNINVITED, AND BELIEVE YOU ARE ENTITLED...WHY? PLEASE, ENLIGHTEN ME, YOU COCKY LITTLE SHIT.)

Wow, this is awkwardly giving me TV high school drama flashbacks.

"this..."

I'm pulled more into view.

"ya said ya wanted to understand what makes her tick? well now's as good a time as any."

A look comes to the Doctor's eyes. A gleam I don't like.

"👎⚐ 🕆☠👎☜☼💧❄✌☠👎 ✋☞ ✋ 👎⚐🕆👌❄ ✡⚐🕆🕯☼☜ ⚐☞☞☜☼✋☠☝ 💣☜ ❄☟✋💧 ⚐🏱🏱⚐☼❄🕆☠✋❄✡ ☞⚐☼ ☼☜✌💧⚐☠💧 ❄☟✌❄ ✌☼☜☠🕯❄ ❄⚐ 💧✌❄✋💧☞✡ 💣✡ ⚐🕈☠ ☠☜☜👎💧📬" (DO UNDERSTAND IF I DOUBT YOU'RE OFFERING ME THIS OPPORTUNITY FOR REASONS THAT AREN'T TO SATISFY MY OWN NEEDS.)

Why did he have to word it like that?

"it's her soul. it's been touched by the entity. i'm sure a smart guy like you would love to check it out."

This resets the Doctor's mood into a more serious one.

"💧❄☼✌🏱 ☟☜☼ ✋☠📬 ✋ 🕈✋☹☹ ☼☜❄🕆☼☠ 💣⚐💣☜☠❄✌☼✋☹✡📬" (STRAP HER IN. I WILL RETURN MOMENTARILY.)

The Doctor leaves us and Chops pulls me to one of the five chairs.

"W-Wait a sec..."

"don't start actin' up now."

He shoves me into the seat and begins restraining my limbs...with oddly no effort from me to stop him.

"we don't need ya bein' a pain. not here."

"I'm not. I just want you to do something for me."

"i ain't doin'..."

"Promise you'll kill me if things get bad."

He pauses.

"don't be so dramatic."

"No, I mean it. I get the idea you know how bad things can get here. Just..."

"i don't make promises, meat."

"Then hold up to our deal! I have your back and you have mine."

He growls.

"I'll owe you for it. Nothing will be off the table. I promise."

"🏱✌❄☟☜❄✋👍📬📬📬" (PATHETIC...)

Fuck.

"☼☜💧⚐☼❄✋☠☝ ❄⚐ 👌☜☝☝✋☠☝ ☞⚐☼ 💣☜☼👍✡ 👌☜☞⚐☼☜ ❄☟☜ ☞🕆☠ ☟✌💧 ☜✞☜☠ 👌☜☝🕆☠✍ ☟🕆💣✌☠💧 ❄☼🕆☜☹✡ ✌☼☜ 🕈☜✌😐 👍☼☜✌❄🕆☼☜💧📬" (RESORTING TO BEGGING FOR MERCY BEFORE THE FUN HAS EVEN BEGUN? HUMANS TRUELY ARE WEAK CREATURES.)

Chops backs up as the Doctor returns wheeling in a worrisome looking cart, taking his time to set up some sort of equipment.

"👎⚐☠🕯❄ ❄☜☹☹ 💣☜ ✡⚐🕆🕯☼☜ ☞⚐⚐☹✋💧☟ ☜☠⚐🕆☝☟ ❄⚐ ☞✌☹☹ ☞⚐☼ 💧🕆👍☟ 🕈⚐☼👎💧📪 ☹☜☝✋⚐☠✍" (DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE FOOLISH ENOUGH TO FALL FOR SUCH WORDS, LEGION?)

Chops scoffs, dismissing and distancing himself from this.

"☟🕆💣✌☠📬📬📬" (HUMAN...)

And it begins.

"👌☼✋☠☝ ⚐🕆❄ ✡⚐🕆☼ 💧⚐🕆☹📬 ✋ 💣🕆💧❄ ☜✠✌💣✋☠☜ ❄☟☜ ☜✠❄☜☠❄ ⚐☞ 👍⚐☼☼🕆🏱❄✋⚐☠📬" (BRING OUT YOUR SOUL. I MUST EXAMINE THE EXTENT OF CORRUPTION.)

"I..."

"she don't know how."

Okay, it looks like I don't get to speak for myself.

"✡⚐🕆🕯☼☜ ☺⚐😐✋☠☝✍" (YOU'RE JOKING?)

Doctor looks at me and I shrug, making him rub his face with a long sigh.

"☹☜❄ 💣☜ ☝🕆☜💧💧📬📬📬☠⚐ ⚐☠☜ ☟✌💧 ☜✠🏱☹✌✋☠☜👎 ☟⚐🕈 ❄⚐ 👎⚐ 💧⚐📪 👍⚐☼☼☜👍❄✍" (LET ME GUESS...NO ONE HAS EXPLAINED HOW TO DO SO, CORRECT?)

I nod.

"pretty much it comes out when she is or believes to be near death."

He approaches and presses a single static charged bony digit to my chest.

"☞⚐👍🕆💧 ⚐☠ ❄☟✋💧 🏱⚐✋☠❄📬 ✋💣✌☝✋☠ ❄☟☜ 💧⚐🕆☹📬 🏱✋👍❄🕆☼☜ ✋❄ ☹☜✌✞✋☠☝ ⚐🕆❄ ☞☼⚐💣 ❄☟✋💧 🏱⚐✋☠❄📬" (FOCUS ON THIS POINT. IMAGIN THE SOUL. PICTURE IT LEAVING OUT FROM THIS POINT.)

I feel like a child being talked down to while being told how to do something brand new yet expected to know already. I, resentfully, comply and close my eyes. Following the instructions as given. I feel his finger leave but the electric sting remains. In fact, it gets worse as time goes on. My fingers twitch and lock up trying to claw the armrests. A sudden flash gets my eyes to shoot open as pain strikes my exposed soul that is now being caught his is charged grasp.

"❄☟✌☠😐 ✡⚐🕆 ☞⚐☼ ✡⚐🕆☼ 👍⚐⚐🏱☜☼✌❄✋⚐☠📬" (THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION.)

I don't get to say anything before he removes it and my body goes limp in place. Great! Now all I can do is watch. Watch as he takes it over to that weird cart...and suffer in silence.

"☞✌💧👍✋☠✌❄✋☠☝📬 ✌ 💧⚐🕆☹ ❄☟✌❄ 🏱⚐💧💧☜💧💧☜💧 💣🕆☹❄✋🏱☹☜ ❄☼✌✋❄💧📬 ✋ 🕈⚐🕆☹👎☠🕯❄ ❄☟✋☠😐 ✋❄ 🕈✌💧 ☼☜✌☹ ✋☞ ✋ 🕈☜☼☜ ☠⚐❄ 💧☜☜✋☠☝ ✋❄ ☞⚐☼ 💣✡ 💧☜☹☞📬" (FASCINATING. A SOUL THAT POSSESSES MULTIPLE TRAITS. I WOULDN'T THINK IT WAS REAL IF I WERE NOT SEEING IT FOR MY SELF.)

Chops looks at me, earning him my weakened glance, and then moves to witness the Doctor's work.

"how bad is it?"

"👍⚐☠👍☜☼☠☜👎✍" (CONCERNED?)

"*scoff* if she hollows away than i don't get my rights."

"☞✌✋☼ ☜☠⚐🕆☝☟📬" (FAIR ENOUGH.)

I can feel pricking. Sharp pricking.

"❄☟☜ 💧👍✌☼💧 ✌☼☜☠🕯❄ 💣✌☠✡📪 👌🕆❄ ☼✌❄☟☜☼ 👎☜☜🏱📬 ✌ 👍⚐💣💣☜☠👎✌👌☹☜ ☜☞☞⚐☼❄ ✋☠ ☼☜💧✋💧❄✋☠☝ ❄☟☜ ☜☠❄✋❄✡ ☞⚐☼ 💧🕆☼☜📬 ❄☟⚐🕆☝☟ ✌ 💧❄🕆🏱✋👎 👍☟⚐✋👍☜ ❄⚐ 💣✌😐☜ ☠⚐☠☜ ❄☟☜ ☹☜💧💧📬" (THE SCARS AREN'T MANY, BUT RATHER DEEP. A COMMENDABLE EFFORT IN RESISTING THE ENTITY FOR SURE. THOUGH A STUPID CHOICE TO MAKE NONE THE LESS.)

Doctor moves over to a cabinet and collects a small kit, letting me see my soul strung up with tiny hooks to hover over a bowl. I don't like this.

"✋☞ 💧☟☜ 👍⚐☠❄✋☠🕆☜💧 ❄☟✋💧📪 ✋ ☝✋✞☜ ☟☜☼ ☹☜💧💧 ❄☟✌☠ ✌ ☟✌☠👎☞🕆☹ ⚐☞ ❄✋💣☜💧 👌☜☞⚐☼☜ 👌☜✋☠☝ 👍⚐💣🏱☹☜❄☜☹✡ 👍⚐☼☼🕆🏱❄☜👎📬" (IF SHE CONTINUES THIS, I GIVE HER LESS THAN A HANDFUL OF TIMES BEFORE BEING COMPLETELY CORRUPTED.)

"ya sure?"

"❄☟✋💧 ✋💧 ☠⚐❄ 💣✡ ☞✋☼💧❄ ☜☠👍⚐🕆☠❄☜☼ 👎☜✌☹✋☠☝ 🕈✋❄☟ ❄✌✋☠❄☜👎 💧⚐🕆☹💧📬 ❄☟☜☼☜ 🕈☜☼☜ ⚐❄☟☜☼ ☟🕆💣✌☠💧 ✌☠👎 ☜✞☜☠ 💣⚐☠💧❄☜☼💧 ❄☟✌❄ 🕈☜☼☜ ☹⚐💧❄ ❄⚐ ❄☟☜ ☜☠❄✋❄✡🕯💧 💧👍✌☼💧📬" (THIS IS NOT MY FIRST ENCOUNTER DEALING WITH TAINTED SOULS. THERE WERE OTHER HUMANS AND EVEN MONSTERS THAT WERE LOST TO THE ENTITY'S SCARS.)

"ya mean this shit happens even to us?"

"👌⚐✡📪 ✡⚐🕆 ✌☼☜ ✌ ☞⚐⚐☹ ❄⚐ ❄☟✋☠😐 🕈☜ ✌☼☜ ✌👌⚐✞☜ 💧🕆👍☟ ❄☟✋☠☝💧 🕈☟☜☠ ❄☟☜ ☜☠❄✋❄✡ ✋💧 ✋☠✞⚐☹✞☜👎📬 ✋❄ 🕈✌💧 💧⚐ ☹⚐☠☝ ✌☝⚐📬 👌✌👍😐 🕈☟☜☠ ❄☟☜ ☜☠❄✋❄✡ 🕈✌💧 💧❄✋☹☹ ☜💧❄✌👌☹✋💧☟✋☠☝ ☼🕆☹☜💧📬 ❄☟☜☼☜ 🕈✌💧 ✌ 💣⚐☠💧❄☜☼ 😐☠⚐🕈☠ ⚐☠☹✡ ✌💧 ❄☟☜ 💧💣✌💧☟☜☼📬 ❄☟☜ 💧💣✌💧☟☜☼ 🕈✌💧 ✌👌☹☜ ❄⚐ 👎☜💧❄☼⚐✡ ✌☹☹ ⚐👌💧❄✌👍☹☜💧 🕈✋❄☟✋☠ ✌ ❄☼✋✌☹📬 ✋☠👍☹🕆👎✋☠☝ ❄☼☜☜💧📪 🕈✌☹☹💧📪 👌🕆✋☹👎✋☠☝💧📪 ☜❄👍📬 ✋❄ 🕈✌💧 ✌ 👌☜✌💧❄ ☹✋😐☜ ☠⚐ ⚐❄☟☜☼ ✌☠👎 ☜💣👌☼✌👍☜👎 ❄☟☜ ☜☠❄✋❄✡ 💣⚐☼☜ ❄☟✌☠ ✋❄ 💧☟⚐🕆☹👎🕯✞☜📬 ❄⚐ ❄☟☜ 🏱⚐✋☠❄ ❄☟☜☼☜ 🕈✌💧 ☠⚐ 🕆☠👎⚐✋☠☝ ⚐☞ ❄☟☜ 👎✌💣✌☝☜📬 ✋❄ 💧🕆👍👍🕆💣☜👎 ☜✌☼☹✡ ⚐☠ 👎🕆☼✋☠☝ ❄☟✋💧 👎☜✞☜☹⚐🏱💣☜☠❄ 👍✡👍☹☜📬 ❄☟☜✋☼ ☼☜💣⚐✞✌☹ 🕈✌💧 ✌☹💧⚐ ☞⚐☼ ⚐❄☟☜☼ ☼☜✌💧⚐☠💧📬 ❄☟☜✡ ☟✌👎 👌☜👍⚐💣☜ ❄⚐⚐ 🕆☠☞✌✋☼📬 ❄☟☜ ❄☼✋✌☹💧 🕈☜☼☜ ✌❄ 🕆☠☜✞☜☠ ⚐👎👎💧 ✋☞ ✌ 😐✋☹☹☜☼ 🕈✌💧 ✌👌☹☜ ❄⚐ ☼☜💣⚐✞☜ ✌☹☹ ⚐☞ ❄☟☜ ☜☹☜💣☜☠❄💧 ✋☠ ✌ ☼☜✌☹💣📬 ❄☟✋💧 🕈✌💧 ✌☼⚐🕆☠👎 ❄☟☜ 💧✌💣☜ ❄✋💣☜ ❄☟☜ ☜☠❄✋❄✡ ☼☜💣⚐✞☜👎 ❄☟☜ ☟🕆💣✌☠🕯💧 ✌👌✋☹✋❄✡ ❄⚐ 👍☹✋💣👌📬" (BOY, YOU ARE A FOOL TO THINK WE ARE ABOVE SUCH THINGS WHEN THE ENTITY IS INVOLVED. IT WAS SO LONG AGO. BACK WHEN THE ENTITY WAS STILL ESTABLISHING RULES. THERE WAS A MONSTER KNOWN ONLY AS THE SMASHER. THE SMASHER WAS ABLE TO DESTROY ALL OBSTACLES WITHIN A TRIAL. INCLUDING TREES, WALLS, BUILDINGS, ETC. IT WAS A BEAST LIKE NO OTHER AND EMBRACED THE ENTITY MORE THAN IT SHOULD'VE. TO THE POINT THERE WAS NO UNDOING OF THE DAMAGE. IT SUCCUMED EARLY ON DURING THIS DEVELOPMENT CYCLE. THEIR REMOVAL WAS ALSO FOR OTHER REASONS. THEY HAD BECOME TOO UNFAIR. THE TRIALS WERE AT UNEVEN ODDS IF A KILLER WAS ABLE TO REMOVE ALL OF THE ELEMENTS IN A REALM. THIS WAS AROUND THE SAME TIME THE ENTITY REMOVED THE HUMAN'S ABILITY TO CLIMB.)

Wait...Didn't I climb a tree in my first trial as well as the watchtower? Such a memory has Chops look back at me. Not like I can answer him. I only hope he doesn't mention it. My breath suddenly hitches. Something is digging into me.

"whatcha doin'?"

"❄☟☜💧☜ 💧👍✌☼💧 ✌☼☜ ☹✋😐☜ ✋☠☞☜👍❄✋⚐🕆💧 💧⚐☼☜💧📬 ☞⚐☼ ✌☠✡ ☟☜✌☹✋☠☝ ❄⚐ ❄✌😐☜ ☜☞☞☜👍❄📪 ❄☟☜ ✋☠☞☜👍❄☜👎 ❄✋💧💧🕆☜ 💣🕆💧❄ 👌☜ ☼☜💣⚐✞☜👎📬 ✋ 💣🕆💧❄ 👍⚐☠💧☜☠❄☼✌✋❄ ❄⚐ ✌✞⚐✋👎 🕆☠✋❄☜☠❄✋☠✌☹✡ ☟✌☼💣✋☠☝ ❄☟☜ 💧🕆☼☼⚐🕆☠👎✋☠☝ ☟☜✌☹❄☟✡ ✌☼☜✌💧📬 ☠⚐🕈📬📬📬☹☜✌✞☜ 💣☜ ❄⚐ 💣✡ 👍☼✌☞❄ ✋☠ 🏱☜✌👍☜📬" (THESE SCARS ARE LIKE INFECTIOUS SORES. FOR ANY HEALING TO TAKE EFFECT, THE INFECTED TISSUE MUST BE REMOVED. I MUST CONSENTRAIT TO AVOID UNITENTINALY HARMING THE SURROUNDING HEALTHY AREAS. NOW...LEAVE ME TO MY CRAFT IN PEACE.)

The annoyed arrogant tone Doctor has pushes Chops aside. He grumbles and walks off out of sight.

"✡⚐🕆 ☟✌🏱🏱☜☠ ❄⚐ 👌☜ ✈🕆✋❄☜ ☹🕆👍😐✡📪 ☟🕆💣✌☠📬" (YOU HAPPEN TO BE QUITE LUCKY, HUMAN.)

Really? I'm paralyzed while you do fuck all with my soul. How am I lucky?

"✋☞ ✋❄ 🕈☜☼☜☠🕯❄ ☞⚐☼ ✡⚐🕆☼ ☼✌☼☜ 💧⚐🕆☹ ✌☠👎 🕆☠✋✈🕆☜ ☺⚐✋☠✋☠☝ ⚐☞ ⚐🕆☼ ☼✌☠😐💧📪 ✋ 🕈⚐🕆☹👎☠🕯❄ 👌☜ 👎⚐✋☠☝ ❄☟✋💧 ✌💧 ☝☜☠❄☹✡ ✌💧 ✋ ✌💣📬📬📬⚐☼ ✌❄ ✌☹☹📬" (IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOUR RARE SOUL AND UNIQUE JOINING OF OUR RANKS, I WOULDN'T BE DOING THIS AS GENTLY AS I AM...OR AT ALL.)

So not because of me. Just what I have and what you think I am. I hate it...I hate it when people do this. I am not something so basic. You can't label me with just word of mouth or a passing glance. That is how THEY handle me. The users. I won't be used. I won't be taken advantage of. I won't be hurt again!

"🕈☟✌❄ ❄☟☜ 👎☜✞✋☹📬📬📬✍" (WHAT THE DEVIL...?)

It seems my angsty angst is stirring my soul. Something the Doctor doesn't care for.

"👍☜✌💧☜ ✡⚐🕆☼ 💧❄☼🕆☝☝☹✋☠☝📬 ❄☼✌☠💧☞⚐☼💣✋☠☝ ☠⚐🕈 🕈✋☹☹ ⚐☠☹✡ ☟✌☼💣 ✡⚐🕆☼ 💧⚐🕆☹ ☞🕆☼❄☟☜☼ ✋☠ 💧🕆👍☟ ☞☼✌☝☹☜ 💧❄✌❄☜📬" (CEASE YOUR STRUGGLING. TRANSFORMING NOW WILL ONLY HARM YOUR SOUL FURTHER IN SUCH FRAGLE STATE.)

I am in less than a cooperative mood now and my wide-eyed leer at him is meant to make that clear. But the Doctor is in a zero-tolerance mood himself and comes at me with a glare that hurts to make.

"👎⚐ ☠⚐❄ ❄☜💧❄ 💣☜📪 ☟🕆💣✌☠📬 ✡⚐🕆 🕈✋☹☹ ☠⚐❄ ☹✋😐☜ ❄☟☜ ☼☜🕈✌☼👎 ☞⚐☼ ☜✌☼☠✋☠☝ 💣✡ ✋☼☜📬 💧⚐ ☟☜☜👎 💣✡ 🕈⚐☼👎💧📬 ☼☜☹☜☠❄ ✡⚐🕆☼ ✌☝✋❄✌❄✋⚐☠ ⚐☼ ☜☹💧☜📬" (DO NOT TEST ME, HUMAN. YOU WILL NOT LIKE THE REWARD FOR EARNING MY IRE. SO HEED MY WORDS. RELENT YOUR AGITATION OR ELSE.)

Dark rage. I can feel it building. Across the room, my soul flashes sporadically and the scars brighten their intensity. This displeases him and he rubs his hands together, building a surge of electricity.

"❄☟☜ 🕈☜✌😐 ✌☹🕈✌✡💧 ☟✌✞☜ ❄⚐ 👌☜ ☠☜☜👎☹☜💧💧☹✡ 💧❄🕆👌👌⚐☼☠📬" (THE WEAK ALWAYS HAVE TO BE NEEDLESSLY STUBBORN.)

With one hand, he palms my head and sends that charge through my system. My body jerks violently. Faint sounds escape my stiffened vocal cords. Tears begin to swell in my eyes and burn. He stops when the flickering of my soul ends and looks down upon my smoking form.

"✋ ☟✌✞☜ ☹☜✌☼☠☜👎 ✌ ☝☼☜✌❄ 👎☜✌☹ ✌👌⚐🕆❄ ☟🕆💣✌☠💧 ✋☠ 💣✡ ☹✋☞☜📬 ☟🕆💣✌☠💧 ☟✌✞☜ 👎✋☜👎 ✌❄ ✌💧 ☹⚐🕈 ✌💧 🗐📄 ✞⚐☹❄💧📬 ❄✋💣☜ ✋💧 ✌☹💧⚐ ✌ ☞✌👍❄⚐☼📬 ✌ 👍🕆☼☼☜☠❄ ⚐☞ 📁📬📂 ✌💣🏱☜☼☜💧 ☞⚐☼ ✌ 💣☜☼☜ 📄 💧☜👍⚐☠👎💧 👍✌☠ 👌☜ ☞✌❄✌☹📬 ✌💧 ✞⚐☹❄✌☝☜ 🖬 👍🕆☼☼☜☠❄ ✠ ☼☜💧✋💧❄✌☠👍☜ ❄☟☜ 👍🕆☼☼☜☠❄ 👎☜🏱☜☠👎💧 ⚐☠ 👌⚐👎✡ ☼☜💧✋💧❄✌☠👍☜📬 ❄☟☜ ✋☠❄☜☼☠✌☹ ☼☜💧✋💧❄✌☠👍☜ 👌☜❄🕈☜☜☠ ❄☟☜ ☜✌☼💧 ✋💧 ⚐☠☹✡ 📂📁📁 ⚐☟💣💧📪 🕈☟✋☹☜ ✋❄ ✋💧 ✌☼⚐🕆☠👎 🗄📁📁 ⚐☟💣💧 🕈☟☜☠ 💣☜✌💧🕆☼☜👎 ☞☼⚐💣 ☞✋☠☝☜☼ ❄⚐ ❄⚐☜📬" (I HAVE LEARNED A GREAT DEAL ABOUT HUMANS IN MY LIFE. HUMANS HAVE DIED AT AS LOW AS 42 VOLTS. TIME IS ALSO A FACTOR. A CURRENT OF 0.1 AMPERES FOR A MERE 2 SECONDS CAN BE FATAL. AS VOLTAGE = CURRENT X RESISTANCE THE CURRENT DEPENDS ON BODY RESISTANCE. THE INTERNAL RESISTANCE BETWEEN THE EARS IS ONLY 100 OHMS, WHILE IT IS AROUND 500 OHMS WHEN MEASURED FROM FINGER TO TOE.)

Is this bastard really lecturing me right now? Everything hurts. Everything burns. I'm moving but not of my own accord.

"✌ 👍🕆☼☼☜☠❄ ⚐☞ 📂📁 💣✌ ⚐☼ 📁📬📁📂 ✌💣🏱☜☼☜ 🏱☼⚐✞✋👎☜💧 ✌ 💧☜✞☜☼☜ 💧☟⚐👍😐📪 👌🕆❄ ✋❄ 🕈⚐🕆☹👎☠’❄ 👌☜ ☞✌❄✌☹📬 ✌💧 🕈☜ ✌🏱🏱☼⚐✌👍☟ 📂📁📁 💣✌ ⚐☼ 📁📬📂 ✌💣🏱☜☼☜💧📪 💣🕆💧👍🕆☹✌☼ 👍⚐☠❄☼✌👍❄✋⚐☠💧 👌☜☝✋☠📬 ✋❄ ✋💧 ✋💣🏱☜☼✌❄✋✞☜ ❄⚐ ☼☜✌☹✋☪☜ ❄☟✌❄ 👌☜👍✌🕆💧☜ ⚐☞ ❄☟☜ ☟☜✌☼❄’💧 ☹⚐🕈 ☼☜💧✋💧❄✌☠👍☜📪 ✌ 👍🕆☼☼☜☠❄ ⚐☞ 💣✌☝☠✋❄🕆👎☜ ✌💧 💧💣✌☹☹ ✌💧 📂📁 💣✌ ❄☟☼⚐🕆☝☟ ✋❄ ✋💧 ☜☠⚐🕆☝☟ ❄⚐ 😐✋☹☹ ✌ ☟🕆💣✌☠📬 ☟⚐🕈☜✞☜☼📪 ❄☟☜ 👍🕆☼☼☜☠❄ ☠☜✞☜☼ ☼☜✌👍☟☜💧 ❄☟☜ ☟☜✌☼❄📪 ✌💧 ❄☟☜ ☼☜💧✋💧❄✌☠👍☜ ⚐☞ ✡⚐🕆☼ 💧😐✋☠ ✋💧 ☟✋☝☟☜☼📪 ❄☟☜☼☜👌✡ ✌👌💧⚐☼👌✋☠☝ ❄☟✋💧 👍🕆☼☼☜☠❄ ☜☠❄✋☼☜☹✡📬 ✋☞ ❄☟✋💧 🏱✌☹❄☼✡ 👍🕆☼☼☜☠❄ 🕈☜☼☜ ❄⚐ ☼☜✌👍☟ ❄☟☜ ☟☜✌☼❄ 👌✡ ✌☠✡ 💣☜✌☠💧📪 ✋❄ 🕈⚐🕆☹👎 ✌☹💣⚐💧❄ 👍☜☼❄✌✋☠☹✡ 👌☜ ☞✌❄✌☹📬" (A CURRENT OF 10 MA OR 0.01 AMPERE PROVIDES A SEVERE SHOCK, BUT IT WOULDN’T BE FATAL. AS WE APPROACH 100 MA OR 0.1 AMPERES, MUSCULAR CONTRACTIONS BEGIN. IT IS IMPERATIVE TO REALIZE THAT BECAUSE OF THE HEART’S LOW RESISTANCE, A CURRENT OF MAGNITUDE AS SMALL AS 10 MA THROUGH IT IS ENOUGH TO KILL A HUMAN. HOWEVER, THE CURRENT NEVER REACHES THE HEART, AS THE RESISTANCE OF YOUR SKIN IS HIGHER, THEREBY ABSORBING THIS CURRENT ENTIRELY. IF THIS PALTRY CURRENT WERE TO REACH THE HEART BY ANY MEANS, IT WOULD ALMOST CERTAINLY BE FATAL.)

He takes hold of my shoulders, temporarily ending my harsh twitching so my head doesn't bash itself.

"🕈☟☜☠ ❄☟☜ 👍🕆☼☼☜☠❄ ✋☠👍☼☜✌💧☜💧 👌☜✡⚐☠👎 📂📁📁📁 💣✌ ⚐☼ 📂 ✌💣🏱☜☼☜📪 ❄☟☜ 💣🕆💧👍🕆☹✌☼ 👍⚐☠❄☼✌👍❄✋⚐☠💧 ✌🕆☝💣☜☠❄ ❄⚐ ✌☠ ☜✠❄☜☠❄ ❄☟✌❄ 👎⚐☜💧 ☠⚐❄ ✌☹☹⚐🕈 ☼☜☹☜✌💧☜ 💧✋☝☠✌☹💧 ❄⚐ ❄☟☜ ☹✋💣👌💧 ❄⚐ 👌☜ ☼☜👍☜✋✞☜👎📬 ❄☟✋💧 ❄☜☠✌👍✋❄✡ ✋💧 ✋☼⚐☠✋👍✌☹☹✡ ✌ 👍⚐☠💧☜✈🕆☜☠👍☜ ⚐☞ 💣🕆💧👍🕆☹✌☼ 🏱✌☼✌☹✡💧✋💧📬 ✌❄ ❄☟✋💧 🏱⚐✋☠❄📪 ❄☟☜ ☟☜✌☼❄ ☜✠🏱☜☼✋☜☠👍☜💧 ✞☜☠❄��✋👍🕆☹✌☼ ☞✋👌☼✋☹☹✌❄✋⚐☠📪 ✌☠ 🕆☠👍⚐⚐☼👎✋☠✌❄☜👎 ✋☠❄☜☼💣✋❄❄☜☠❄ ❄🕈✋❄👍☟✋☠☝ ⚐☞ ❄☟☜ ☟☜✌☼❄’💧 ✞☜☠❄☼✋👍☹☜💧 ❄☟✌❄ 🏱☼⚐👎🕆👍☜💧 ✋☠☜☞☞☜👍❄✋✞☜ ☟☜✌☼❄👌☜✌❄💧📪 🕈☟✋👍☟ 👍⚐🕆☹👎 ☼☜💧🕆☹❄ ✋☠ 👎☜✌❄☟ ✋☞ ☟☜☹🏱 ✋💧 ☠⚐❄ 💧🕆💣💣⚐☠☜👎 ✋💣💣☜👎✋✌❄☜☹✡📬 ☞🕆☼❄☟☜☼ ✋☠👍☼☜✌💧☜ ✋☠ 👍🕆☼☼☜☠❄ ❄⚐🕈✌☼👎💧 📄📁📁📁 💣✌ ⚐☼ 📄 ✌💣🏱☜☼☜ 🏱☼⚐👎🕆👍☜💧 👌🕆☼☠💧 ✌☠👎 🕆☠👍⚐☠💧👍✋⚐🕆💧☠☜💧💧📬 ❄☟☜ 💣🕆💧👍🕆☹✌☼ 👍⚐☠❄☼✌👍❄✋⚐☠ ✋☠👎🕆👍☜👎 👌✡ ❄☟☜ 💧☟⚐👍😐 🕈⚐🕆☹👎 ☠⚐🕈 💧⚐ 💧☜✞☜☼☜ ❄☟✌❄ ❄☟☜ ☟☜✌☼❄ 🏱☹🕆☠☝☜💧 ✋☠❄⚐ 👍☹✌💣🏱💧📬 ☜✠🏱⚐💧🕆☼☜ ❄⚐ 💧🕆👍☟ ✌☠ ✌💣⚐🕆☠❄ ⚐☞ 👍🕆☼☼☜☠❄ 👍⚐🕆☹👎 ☹☜✌👎 ❄⚐ 👎☼☜✌👎☞🕆☹ ✋☠❄☜☼☠✌☹ 👌🕆☼☠💧📪 ✌☠👎 ❄☟☜ 👍☹✌💣🏱💧 💣✌✡ ☹☜✌👎 ❄⚐ 👍✌☼👎✋✌👍 ✌☼☼☜💧❄📬 👎☜✌❄☟ ✋💧 🏱⚐💧💧✋👌☹☜📬 ☟⚐🕈☜✞☜☼📪 ❄☟☜ 👍☹✌💣🏱✋☠☝ 💣☜👍☟✌☠✋💧💣 ✋💧 👎☜✞✋💧☜👎 ✋☠ ✌ 🕈✌✡ ❄☟✌❄ ✋❄ ✋💧 💧🕆☼🏱☼✋💧✋☠☝☹✡ ☹🕆👍☼✌❄✋✞☜📪 ✌💧 ✋❄ 🏱☼⚐❄☜👍❄💧 ❄☟☜ ☟☜✌☼❄ ☞☼⚐💣 ✞☜☠❄☼✋👍🕆☹✌☼ ☞✋👌☼✋☹☹✌❄✋⚐☠📬 👍☟✌☠👍☜💧 ⚐☞ 💧🕆☼✞✋✞✌☹ ✌☼☜ 💧👍✌☠❄📪 👌🕆❄ ☼☜👎☜☜💣✌👌☹☜ ✋☞ ❄☟☜ ✞✋👍❄✋💣 ☼☜👍☜✋✞☜💧 ✋💣💣☜👎✋✌❄☜ ✌❄❄☜☠❄✋⚐☠📬 👎☜☞✋👌☼✋☹☹✌❄⚐☼💧 ✌☼☜ 🕆❄✋☹✋☪☜👎 ❄⚐ 💧✌✞☜ 💧🕆👍☟ 💧☟⚐👍😐📫✋💣🏱✋☠☝☜👎 ✞✋👍❄✋💣💧📬" (WHEN THE CURRENT INCREASES BEYOND 1000 MA OR 1 AMPERE, THE MUSCULAR CONTRACTIONS AUGMENT TO AN EXTENT THAT DOES NOT ALLOW RELEASE SIGNALS TO THE LIMBS TO BE RECEIVED. THIS TENACITY IS IRONICALLY A CONSEQUENCE OF MUSCULAR PARALYSIS. AT THIS POINT, THE HEART EXPERIENCES VENTRICULAR FIBRILLATION, AN UNCOORDINATED INTERMITTENT TWITCHING OF THE HEART’S VENTRICLES THAT PRODUCES INEFFECTIVE HEARTBEATS, WHICH COULD RESULT IN DEATH IF HELP IS NOT SUMMONED IMMEDIATELY. FURTHER INCREASE IN CURRENT TOWARDS 2000 MA OR 2 AMPERE PRODUCES BURNS AND UNCONSCIOUSNESS. THE MUSCULAR CONTRACTION INDUCED BY THE SHOCK WOULD NOW SO SEVERE THAT THE HEART PLUNGES INTO CLAMPS. EXPOSURE TO SUCH AN AMOUNT OF CURRENT COULD LEAD TO DREADFUL INTERNAL BURNS, AND THE CLAMPS MAY LEAD TO CARDIAC ARREST. DEATH IS POSSIBLE. HOWEVER, THE CLAMPING MECHANISM IS DEVISED IN A WAY THAT IT IS SURPRISINGLY LUCRATIVE, AS IT PROTECTS THE HEART FROM VENTRICULAR FIBRILLATION. CHANCES OF SURVIVAL ARE SCANT, BUT REDEEMABLE IF THE VICTIM RECEIVES IMMEDIATE ATTENTION. DEFIBRILLATORS ARE UTILIZED TO SAVE SUCH SHOCK-IMPINGED VICTIMS.)

Why couldn't I be fortunate enough to blackout? Why do I have to be aware of all this?

"❄☟☜ ☼☜🏱☜☼👍🕆💧💧✋⚐☠💧 ⚐☞ 💧🕆👍☟ ☟✌☼💣 👍✌☠ 👌☜ 💧🕆💣💣✌☼✋☪☜👎 ☹✋😐☜ ❄☟✋💧📬📬📬📂 💣✋☹☹✋✌💣🏱 ✋💧 ☜✈🕆✌☹ ❄⚐ ☺🕆💧❄ ✌ ☞✌✋☠❄ ❄✋☠☝☹☜📬 🗄 💣✋☹☹✋✌💣🏱💧 ✌☼☜ ☜✈🕆✌☹ ❄⚐ 💧☹✋☝☟❄ 💧☟⚐👍😐💧 👌☜✋☠☝ ☞☜☹❄📬 👎✋💧❄🕆☼👌✋☠☝📪 👌🕆❄ ☠⚐❄ 🏱✌✋☠☞🕆☹📬 ☟⚐🕈☜✞☜☼📪 💧❄☼⚐☠☝ ✋☠✞⚐☹🕆☠❄✌☼✡ 💣⚐✞☜💣☜☠❄💧 👍✌☠ 👍✌🕆💧☜ ✋☠☺🕆☼✋☜💧📬 ⌛📫📄🗄 💣✋☹☹✋✌💣🏱💧 ☞⚐☼ 🕈⚐💣☜☠ ✌☠👎 🖲📫🗏📁 💣✋☹☹✋✌💣🏱💧 ☞⚐☼ 💣☜☠ ✋💧 ☜✈🕆✌☹ ❄⚐ 🏱✌✋☠☞🕆☹ 💧☟⚐👍😐💧📬 💣🕆💧👍🕆☹✌☼ 👍⚐☠❄☼⚐☹ ✋💧 ☹⚐💧❄📬 ❄☟✋💧 ✋💧 ❄☟☜ ☼✌☠☝☜ 🕈☟☜☼☜ ☞☼☜☜☪✋☠☝ 👍🕆☼☼☜☠❄💧 💧❄✌☼❄ ✌☠👎 ❄☟☜ 💣🕆💧👍☹☜💧 ☹⚐👍😐🕆🏱📬 🗄📁📫📂🗄📁 💣✋☹☹✋✌💣🏱💧 ✌☼☜ ☜✈🕆✌☹ ❄⚐ ☜✠❄☼☜💣☜☹✡ 🏱✌✋☠☞🕆☹ 💧☟⚐👍😐💧📪 ☼☜💧🏱✋☼✌❄⚐☼✡ ✌☼☼☜💧❄📪 ✌☠👎 💧☜✞☜☼☜ 💣🕆💧👍☹☜ 👍⚐☠❄☼✌👍❄✋⚐☠💧📬 ☞☹☜✠⚐☼ 💣🕆💧👍☹☜💧 💣✌✡ 👍✌🕆💧☜ ☟⚐☹👎✋☠☝ ⚐☠🖴 ☜✠❄☜☠💧⚐☼ 💣🕆💧👍☹☜💧 💣✌✡ 👍✌🕆💧☜ ✋☠❄☜☠💧☜ 🏱🕆💧☟✋☠☝ ✌🕈✌✡📬 👎☜✌❄☟ ✋💧 🏱⚐💧💧✋👌☹☜📬 📂📪📁📁📁📫 🗐📪🗏📁📁 💣✋☹☹✋✌💣🏱💧 ⚐☼ 📂📫🗐📬🗏 ✌💣🏱💧 ✋💧 ☜✈🕆✌☹ ❄⚐ ✞☜☠❄☼✋👍🕆☹✌☼ ☞✋👌☼✋☹☹✌❄✋⚐☠ 👎✋💧❄🕆☼👌✌☠👍☜📬 💣🕆💧👍☹☜💧 👍⚐☠❄☼✌👍❄🖴 ☠☜☼✞☜ 👎✌💣✌☝☜ ⚐👍👍🕆☼💧📬 👎☜✌❄☟ ✋💧 ☹✋😐☜☹✡📬 📂📁📪📁📁📁 💣✋☹☹✋✌💣🏱💧 ⚐☼ 📂📁 ✌💣🏱💧 ✋💧 ☜✈🕆✌☹ ❄⚐ 👍✌☼👎✋✌👍 ✌☼☼☜💧❄ ✌☠👎 💧☜✞☜☼☜ 👌🕆☼☠💧 ⚐👍👍🕆☼📬 👎☜✌❄☟ ✋💧 🏱☼⚐👌✌👌☹☜📬 📂🗄📪📁📁📁 💣✋☹☹✋✌💣🏱💧 ⚐☼ 📂🗄 ✌💣🏱💧 ✋💧 ☜✈🕆✌☹ ❄⚐ ❄☟☜ ☹⚐🕈☜💧❄ ⚐✞☜☼👍🕆☼☼☜☠❄ ✌❄ 🕈☟✋👍☟ ✌ ❄✡🏱✋👍✌☹ ☞🕆💧☜ ⚐☼ 👍✋☼👍🕆✋❄ 👌☼☜✌😐☜☼ ⚐🏱☜☠💧 ✌ 👍✋☼👍🕆✋❄📬 👎☜✌❄☟ ✋💧 ☝🕆✌☼✌☠❄☜☜👎📬 ❄⚐ 🏱🕆❄ ❄☟✋💧 ✋☠ 🏱☜☼💧🏱☜👍❄✋✞☜📪 ☜☹☜👍❄☼✋👍 👍☟✌✋☼💧 🕆💧☜👎 ☞⚐☼ ☜✠☜👍🕆❄✋⚐☠ 🏱🕆☼🏱⚐💧☜💧 🕆💧☜ ✌ ✞⚐☹❄✌☝☜ 🕆💧🕆✌☹☹✡ 🕆💧☜ 📄📪📁📁📁 ❄⚐ 📄📪📄📁📁 ✞⚐☹❄💧 ✌❄ 🖮 ❄⚐ 📂📄 ✌💣🏱💧📬 ❄☟☜ ✞⚐☹❄✌☝☜ ✋ 🕆💧☜👎 ⚐☠ ✡⚐🕆 🕈✌💧 ☜✠✌👍❄☹✡ ⌛ ✌💣🏱💧📬" (THE REPERCUSSIONS OF SUCH HARM CAN BE SUMMARIZED LIKE THIS...1 MILLIAMP IS EQUAL TO JUST A FAINT TINGLE. 5 MILLIAMPS ARE EQUAL TO SLIGHT SHOCKS BEING FELT. DISTURBING, BUT NOT PAINFUL. HOWEVER, STRONG INVOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS CAN CAUSE INJURIES. 6-25 MILLIAMPS FOR WOMEN AND 9-30 MILLIAMPS FOR MEN IS EQUAL TO PAINFUL SHOCKS. MUSCULAR CONTROL IS LOST. THIS IS THE RANGE WHERE FREEZING CURRENTS START AND THE MUSCLES LOCKUP. 50-150 MILLIAMPS ARE EQUAL TO EXTREMELY PAINFUL SHOCKS, RESPIRATORY ARREST, AND SEVERE MUSCLE CONTRACTIONS. FLEXOR MUSCLES MAY CAUSE HOLDING ON; EXTENSOR MUSCLES MAY CAUSE INTENSE PUSHING AWAY. DEATH IS POSSIBLE. 1,000- 4,300 MILLIAMPS OR 1-4.3 AMPS IS EQUAL TO VENTRICULAR FIBRILLATION DISTURBANCE. MUSCLES CONTRACT; NERVE DAMAGE OCCURS. DEATH IS LIKELY. 10,000 MILLIAMPS OR 10 AMPS IS EQUAL TO CARDIAC ARREST AND SEVERE BURNS OCCUR. DEATH IS PROBABLE. 15,000 MILLIAMPS OR 15 AMPS IS EQUAL TO THE LOWEST OVERCURRENT AT WHICH A TYPICAL FUSE OR CIRCUIT BREAKER OPENS A CIRCUIT. DEATH IS GUARANTEED. TO PUT THIS IN PERSPECTIVE, ELECTRIC CHAIRS USED FOR EXECUTION PURPOSES USE A VOLTAGE USUALLY USE 2,000 TO 2,200 VOLTS AT 7 TO 12 AMPS. THE VOLTAGE I USED ON YOU WAS EXACTLY 6 AMPS.)

He lets go and looks down at me, my twitching is slightly less crazy.

"✋ 🕈✋☹☹ ☠⚐❄ 👌☜ 💧⚐ 😐✋☠👎 ☠☜✠❄ ❄✋💣☜📬 💧⚐ ☹☜✌☼☠ ☞☼⚐💣 ❄☟✋💧📬 👎⚐ ✌💧 ❄⚐☹👎 ✌☠👎 ☠⚐ 🕆💧☜☹☜💧💧 ☟✌☼💣 🕈✋☹☹ 👌☜ 👎⚐☠☜📬" (I WILL NOT BE SO KIND NEXT TIME. SO LEARN FROM THIS. DO AS TOLD AND NO USELESS HARM WILL BE DONE.)

He returns to his work on my soul, confident that he won't be needing to discipline me again. This is hell. I'm a drooling broken rag doll that feels pain all over. Even my tears are of little comfort, they feel like acid rolling off my skin. Chops returns sometime later, probably heard the loud crackling of Doctor's electrocution, drinking what looks like a can of pop. Did he find a vending machine? Lucky fucker! The Doctor doesn't pay him any mind, so he shuffles around and looks everywhere like a paranoid sheep. Why so jumpy, bonehead? You're not the one being operated on and fried. When his eyes land on me he seems to stare a bit more intently than expected, maybe seeing something I can't.

"the fuck happened here?"

"✋ ❄⚐☹👎 ✡⚐🕆 ❄⚐ ☹☜✌✞☜ 💣☜ ❄⚐ 💣✡ 🕈⚐☼😐📬" (I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE ME TO MY WORK.)

This ticks Chops off yet he avoids bugging the Doctor. Instead, he approaches me while chugging what's left of his soda. God, what I wouldn't give to have that right now.

"ya look like shit."

Really? I couldn't tell, dumbass.

"pissed him off, didn't ya? what is it with ya and doin' that?"

This coming from the guy that made me give his knife fellatio.

"wanna know somethin' messed up? whatever he did to ya was him goin' easy. if he really was pissed, you'd be fried like overcooked bacon."

And that is supposed to make me feel better?

Due to fucked up nerves and steaming tears I haven't moved my eyes or blinked in awhile. The lack of attention his way has him moving to be in my face and staring into my pained orbs.

"ya didn't go overboard and make her brain dead, did ya?"

He ponders aloud.

"carryin' her ass back isn't somethin' i wanna do."

The Doctor pauses.

"🕈☟⚐ 💧✌✋👎 ✡⚐🕆🕯☹☹ 👌☜ ☹☜✌✞✋☠☝ 🕈✋❄☟ ☟☜☼✍" (WHO SAID YOU'LL BE LEAVING WITH HER?)

I had warned him of something like this happening.

"and what? ya expect us to leave her here?"

"✡⚐🕆 💣✋💧🕆☠👎☜☼💧❄✌☠👎📬📬📬" (YOU MISUNDERSTAND...)

The sound of building charge hits our senses and before Chops can react it's cast across the room, sending Chops flying.

"💧☟☜ ✋💧☠🕯❄ ☹☜✌✞✋☠☝ ☟☜☼☜📬 🏱☜☼✋⚐👎📬" (SHE ISN'T LEAVING HERE. PERIOD.)

I so freaking called it.

Not one to take a hit and flee, Chops gets back up. Standing his ground and snarling like a mad dog.

"ya think ya can take what's mine? nah, motherfucker, that shit ain't happenin'."

Now that things have escalated, the Doctor fully faces Legion.

"🕈☟✌❄ 👎✋👎 ✡⚐🕆 ☼☜✌☹☹✡ ☜✠🏱☜👍❄ 🕈☟☜☠ ✡⚐🕆 👌☼⚐🕆☝☟❄ ☟☜☼ ☟☜☼☜✍ ❄☟✌❄ ✋ 🕈⚐🕆☹👎 ✌✋👎 ✡⚐🕆 💧☜☹☞☹☜💧💧☹✡ 🕈✋❄☟ ☠⚐ 💣⚐❄✋✞☜ ⚐☞ 💣✡ ⚐🕈☠✍ ✡⚐🕆 ☟✌👎 ❄⚐ ☟✌✞☜ 😐☠⚐🕈☠ ✡⚐🕆 🕈☜☼☜ 🕈✌☹😐✋☠☝ ✋☠❄⚐ ✌ ❄☼✌🏱📬 👌🕆❄ ✌ ❄☼✌🏱 ⚐☠☜ 💣🕆💧❄ 💧❄☜🏱 ✋☠ ❄⚐ ☝☜❄ 🕈☟✌❄ ✡⚐🕆 🕈✌☠❄☜👎📬 💧🕆👍☟ ✋☝☠⚐☼✌☠👍☜ ✋💧 👎☜💧☜☼✞✋☠☝ ⚐☞ 🏱🕆☠✋💧☟💣☜☠❄📬" (WHAT DID YOU REALLY EXPECT WHEN YOU BROUGHT HER HERE? THAT I WOULD AID YOU SELFLESSLY WITH NO MOTIVE OF MY OWN? YOU HAD TO HAVE KNOWN YOU WERE WALKING INTO A TRAP. BUT A TRAP ONE MUST STEP IN TO GET WHAT YOU WANTED. SUCH IGNORANCE IS DESERVING OF PUNISHMENT.)

"*growls* bastard!"

Rage has Chops throw his blade at the Doctor. But the mad man doesn't move. He simply catches the metal weapon and electrocutes it, causing great pain to Chops.

"☼☜💧🏱☜👍❄ ⚐☞ ⚐🕆☼ 🏱✌❄✋☜☠❄💧 ✋💧 ✌❄ ❄☟☜ 👍⚐☼☜ ⚐☞ ⚐🕆☼ 🏱���✋☠👍✋🏱☹☜💧📬 ⚐☠👍☜ 🕈☜ ☟✌✞☜ ☜💧❄✌👌☹✋💧☟☜👎 ✌☠ ☜☞☞☜👍❄✋✞☜ 💣☜❄☟⚐👎 ⚐☞ ❄☼☜✌❄💣☜☠❄📪 🕈☜ 👍✌☠ ☞⚐👍🕆💧 ⚐☠ ✋❄💧 ☜☞☞✋👍✋☜☠❄ 💣☜✌☠💧 ⚐☞ 👎☜☹✋✞☜☼✡📬 ☟⚐🕈☜✞☜☼📬📬📬❄⚐ ✌✞⚐✋👎 ☼☜☹✌🏱💧☜ ☞☼⚐💣 ⚐🕆☼ 💣⚐💧❄ ❄☜☠✌👍✋⚐🕆💧 💧🕆👌☺☜👍❄💧📪 ✋ 🕈✋☹☹ 🕆💧☜ 💣✌✠✋💣🕆💣 ☹☜✞☜☹💧 🕈☟☜☠ 🏱☼⚐👍☜☜👎✋☠☝ 🕈✋❄☟ 👎✋💧👍✋🏱☹✋☠✌☼✡ ✌👍❄✋⚐☠💧📬" (RESPECT OF OUR PATIENTS IS AT THE CORE OF OUR PRINCIPLES. ONCE WE HAVE ESTABLISHED AN EFFECTIVE METHOD OF TREATMENT, WE CAN FOCUS ON ITS EFFICIENT MEANS OF DELIVERY. HOWEVER...TO AVOID RELAPSE FROM OUR MOST TENACIOUS SUBJECTS, I WILL USE MAXIMUM LEVELS WHEN PROCEEDING WITH DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS.)

Chops doesn't look so good and I'm helpless to aid him. Legion isn't built to deal with the Doctor, a killer that can work in short and mid-range. At best Chops has speed on his side especially if he goes into Feral Frenzy, but two things are against him. One is that Feral Frenzy only lasts a short while. And two, the electricity generators in the room might enhance the Doctor's power indirectly.

"❄☟☜ 💧❄✋💣🕆☹🕆💧 💣🕆💧❄ 👌☜ 😐☜🏱❄ ✌👍❄✋✞☜ ✌❄ ✌ 👍⚐☠✞🕆☹💧✋✞☜ ☹☜✞☜☹📬 💧✋👎☜ ☜☞☞☜👍❄💧 ✌☼☜ ✞☜☼✡ ☼✌☼☜📬" (THE STIMULUS MUST BE KEPT ACTIVE AT A CONVULSIVE LEVEL. SIDE EFFECTS ARE VERY RARE.)

"*huff* fuck you!"

Doctor charges to shock the weapon again but Chops yanks it harder than the Doctor expects, regaining

it. With the blade back in his hands Chops gets ready for the Doctor's next more. A smart play since he's at the home-field disadvantage.

"✋☞ ✡⚐🕆 ❄☟✋☠😐 ✡⚐🕆🕯☹☹ 👌☜ ✌👌☹☜ ❄⚐ ❄✌😐☜ 💧🕆👍☟ ✌ ☼✌☼☜ 💧🏱☜👍✋💣☜☠ ☞☼⚐💣 💣✡ ☝☼✌💧🏱📪 ✌☹☹⚐🕈 💣☜ ❄⚐ ☼☜📫☜👎🕆👍✌❄☜ ✡⚐🕆☼ 💧✋💣🏱☹☜ 💣✋☠👎📬" (IF YOU THINK YOU'LL BE ABLE TO TAKE SUCH A RARE SPECIMEN FROM MY GRASP, ALLOW ME TO RE-EDUCATE YOUR SIMPLE MIND.)

"if ya think you'll have a chance like that again, you're in for a hell of a bad time"

Wait...Again? Now I'm really sure these two have a bad history.

Doctor releases the charge across the ground in a wide blast. Lucky for Chops, he enters Feral Frenzy and the speed boost he gets allows him to miss the attack with a quick leap. Activating Feral Frenzy causes The Legion to enter a deadly rage...for ten whole seconds...unless he's got add-ons to increase the duration and shorten cooldown time but even then that's only by seconds.

"✋❄🕯💧 ❄✋💣☜ ☞⚐☼ ✡⚐🕆☼ ☞⚐☹☹⚐🕈🕆🏱 ❄☼☜✌❄💣☜☠❄📪 👌⚐✡✏" (IT'S TIME FOR YOUR FOLLOWUP TREATMENT, BOY!)

The Doctor does have unlimited ammo with his electric powers however he does have to take a few seconds to charge up each time. Chops knows this and his knife doesn't have such a drawback. But if he swings while in frenzy and doesn't hit anyone he will lose frenzy, getting disoriented as the rage subsides. So Chops uses the cover of all the clutter in the room to his advantage to keep from being vulnerable as Doctor follows, trying to get decent shots. I can't move to see everything but I can see what Chops is doing, it's a very smart move. He's keeping the Doctor's attention on him, luring him around the room in a complete circle. The Doctor doesn't realize the plan till Chops is near it...My soul.

"👎⚐☠🕯❄ ✡⚐🕆 ☞🕆👍😐✋☠☝ 👎✌☼☜✏" (DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE!)

Doctor blasts Chops square on the back and he's slammed into a partition wall. By now frenzy has ended and needs a twenty-second cooldown, providing he doesn't have an add-on to shorten that. Monsters have fast recovery abilities and Doctor knows this. It's why he wastes no time to begin stomping on the smaller skeleton.

"✡⚐🕆 ✋☠💧✋☝☠✋☞✋👍✌☠❄ 🕈⚐☼💣✏ 👎⚐ ✡⚐🕆 ☟✌✞☜ ✌☠✡ ✋👎☜✌ ⚐☞ ❄☟☜ 💧✋☝☠✋☞✋👍✌☠👍☜ ❄☟✋💧 ☟🕆💣✌☠ ☟⚐☹👎💧✍ ✌ 💧⚐🕆☹ 🕈✋❄☟ 💣🕆☹❄✋🏱☹☜ ❄☼✌✋❄💧 👍✌☠ 🏱⚐💧💧☜💧💧 🕆☠❄⚐☹👎 🏱⚐❄☜☠❄✋✌☹✏ ✋❄ 👍⚐🕆☹👎 🏱⚐💧💧✋👌☹✡ ☟⚐☹👎 ❄☟☜ 😐☜✡ ❄⚐ ☜💧👍✌🏱✋☠☝ ❄☟✋💧 ☟☜☹☹✏ ✌☠👎 💧⚐ ☹⚐☠☝ ✌💧 ❄☟☜☼☜🕯💧 ☜✞☜☠ ✌ ☞☼✌👍❄✋⚐☠ ⚐☞ ✌ 👍☟✌☠👍☜ ✋☠ ❄☟✌❄ 🏱⚐💧💧✋👌✋☹✋❄✡📪 ✋ 🕈✋☹☹ 👎⚐ ✌☠✡❄☟✋☠☝ ✌☠👎 ☜✞☜☼✡❄☟✋☠☝ ❄⚐ 💣✌😐☜ ✋❄ ☟✌🏱🏱☜☠✏ ☠⚐ ⚐☠☜ 🕈✋☹☹ 💧❄✌☠👎 ✋☠ 💣✡ 🕈✌✡📪 ☠⚐❄ ✡⚐🕆📪 ❄☟☜ ⚐❄☟☜☼💧📪 ❄☟☜ ☟🕆💣✌☠💧📪 ⚐☼ ❄☟☜ ☜☠❄✋❄✡✏ ✋ 🕈✋☹☹ 👌☜ ☼✋👎 ⚐☞ ✡⚐🕆 ✌☹☹ ☹✋😐☜ 👎✋💧☝🕆💧❄✋☠☝ ✋☹☹☠☜💧💧☜💧✏ ✋ 🕈✋☹☹ ☠⚐❄ 👌☜ 👎☜☠✋☜👎 ⚐☼ 💣✡ ☠✌💣☜ ✋💧☠🕯❄ 🕈📬 👎📬 ☝✌💧❄☜☼✏" (YOU INSIGNIFICANT WORM! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF THE SIGNIFICANCE THIS HUMAN HOLDS? A SOUL WITH MULTIPLE TRAITS CAN POSSESS UNTOLD POTENTIAL! IT COULD POSSIBLY HOLD THE KEY TO ESCAPING THIS HELL! AND SO LONG AS THERE'S EVEN A FRACTION OF A CHANCE IN THAT POSSIBILITY, I WILL DO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN! NO ONE WILL STAND IN MY WAY, NOT YOU, THE OTHERS, THE HUMANS, OR THE ENTITY! I WILL BE RID OF YOU ALL LIKE DISGUSTING ILLNESSES! I WILL NOT BE DENIED OR MY NAME ISN'T W. D. GASTER!)

He has a proper name? I mean, it's dumb to think he didn't, but then why do the others just call themselves by the names the humans or the Entity gave them? Monsters make my brain hurt with the number of questions they stir up. But if that's the case, what's Legions' real names? It can't honestly be Bones, Chops, Boo, and Dead Eye...Can it?

Feeling his physical brutality was sufficient enough, the Gaster rubs his hands and charges up a large amount of electricity. Not sure they can actually kill each other but the power could be enough to incapacitate Chops for an unknown amount of time. However, Chops has the strength to throw his blade once more. The Doctor hardly moves to avoid the hit and is overwhelmed with smug superiority.

"✌ 🏱✋❄✋☞🕆☹ ✌❄❄☜💣🏱❄ 💣✌👎☜ 👌✡ ✌ 🏱✋❄✋☞🕆☹ ☞⚐⚐☹📬" (A PITIFUL ATTEMPT MADE BY A PITIFUL FOOL.)

"*strained* heh...wasn't aimin' for you."

Gaster turns with alarm to see the true target of Chops' attack.

"☠⚐⚐⚐⚐⚐⚐⚐⚐⚐⚐⚐✏✏" (NOOOOOOOOOOO!!)

The blade impaled itself in my soul, a sly move aided by my silence. Gaster attempts to keep it from shattering but such damage is beyond even his skill. Needless to say, he's not happy about it.

"🕈☟✌❄ ☟✌✞☜ ✡⚐🕆 👎⚐☠☜✍✏" (WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!)

Chops picks himself up as I feel the cold embrace of death taking me.

"*grunt* remember, meat...ya owe me."

My eyes roll into the back of my head and everything goes black.

[AT THE SURVIVOR'S CAMPSITE]

Another cycle of feeding comes for the Entity, thus a new day. Five trials. Seventeen of the eighteen Survivors are called out for the hunt, some sent out twice. Five Monsters are sent out to sacrifice the human meat. The Entity being hungrier than usual typically does two or three trails per day. Something must be coming. Something it is storing extra soul energy for. The eve of Hallows is approaching. Soon...Very soon. The flowers will bloom once more. But not yet.

By what they guess to be night time comes around, the humans at camp are frazzled from the frantic trials and lack of prep time given. Most are glad it's over and they were only sent once. Others wish the lucky ones would go jump off a cliff. Tough one has been more annoyed than ever. One that's gathered information from the others that his lady wasn't sent to the trials. David King sits and stares into the campfire, doing something some of the others would doubt him able to do...think. Something doesn't feel right. His instincts tell him so. Why wasn't she back by now? She had to be held somewhere. It made sense. He didn't know a lot about her but he knew her well enough to know she wouldn't join the monsters willingly. She's a tough girl, not a killer. Maybe it was the Entity. Damn thing seems to toy with her more than the rest. Maybe it was trying to keep her as a monster to make her a permanent Killer. Well nuts to that! He ain't letting that happen. Granted, he can't run off to look for her without the chance of being attacked by one or more of the monsters. Not like he can't handle them. But there are the rare few that even he can not power his way through. Like that one that got him in the woods...Shape...that thing is like a tank. You can punch a tank but it's only going to hurt you more. Or the Huntress. He's never taken on a woman before in a real fight yet that freaky fish is solid muscle wielding hatches and an ax. Yeah...fuck that fish bitch and her stupid humming. Still, there had to be something he could do other than look into the foggy woods while pacing like a dog waiting for someone to come home. He just didn't know what that something was, much to the unease of the group.

Suddenly there's a shift of the wind. The fog appears to pool within the safety of the camp. They knew what this was, a human was dead and coming back. The dead always returning in fog while the living run back on their own, except the ones that escape in the hatch. Either way, David was quick to rush to the form emerging from the darkness. She was still for a few moments once her body reformed. But when she gasped to life, it was obvious that something happened again to shake her to the core. As much as wanted to do something, a part of him told him to give her a moment, and yet the other part of him wanted to...

"D-David?"

Why did his name sound good in her voice?

"Welcome back, Luv. Miss me?"

He never really had friends. Not real ones, anyway. He had an entourage. A group of sods enjoying the high life with his credit card. If you were to ask them if he was good with women, they'd laugh and tell you he's too much of a shithead to keep one for long. They'd be eating those words if they saw this. him offering his hand to her like a gentleman and she sincerely smiling.

"Yeah...I did."

She takes his hand and he figures it's now or never to seal the deal before something else happens to take her away. He pulls her to her feet and away from camp...into the woods. Not that anyone seemed to stop this.

"David? What are you doing?"

"No worries, Luv. Trust me."

He leads her not too far from the camp. Just far enough to be hidden by the fog but close enough to make a quick retreat if something is wandering about.

"Dude, what is up? Because I'm not in a good mood for messed up shit right now."

So something did happen. Better go about this with the utmost caution, care, and respect. So what pray tell is the move he aims to use? Well he goes for the very sweet...Grab the face and smooch move. Because that never fails to sweep the ladies off their feet and let her know she's yours. This couldn't possibly bite him in the ass.

...She breaks the kiss and punches his shoulder rather hard, enough to make her knuckles pop.

"The fuck are you doing?!"

Is...Is she serious? Has she been blind to his past advances?

"Ya 'ave no idea 'ow much I've missed ya."

She gives him a funny look.

"David, my guy, gonna be real right now. I like you. You're a decent guy and I respect you. But I was just royally fucked up and I'd thank you kindly if you'd just not hit on me for the next couple minutes. Please?"

Damn it, how can he say no to her for being honest?

"Alright. I'll lay off for now."

She frowns slightly.

"Wanna...Hold me for a bit?"

Compromise? Accepted! He takes her into his arms and she snickers thinking him silly. Yet she nestles into him, enjoying the comfort.

"This good?"

"Yeah. This is nice. ...Did you really miss me that much?"

He strokes her hair.

"Is that 'ard to believe?"

"I wasn't gone that long."

"To me ya were."

"Heh...That was cheesy."

"It ain't easy bein' cheesy."

"*giggles* Oh my god..."

She gives his cheek a quick peck.

"You're such a dork."

She's being affectionate? Maybe she's become comfortable now. This deserves a test.

"Luv..."

"Hmmm?"

This time he goes for a less forceful approach. A gentle tilt of the head, a soft caress of the cheek, a slow lean in for the kiss, and say something as fancy as his name.

"I want ya."

Brilliant!

She exhales from her nose and slips out of his hold.

"Sorry. But I don't know you well enough or have the feelings to do what you want of me. Besides...I'm not here just for you or your needs."

Damn it! Why is this so hard?!

"Fine. Ya want to know me better? Ya know I come from money, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I was disowned."

"...Why?"

"I beat the shit out of my old man."

"The hell you did that for?"

"Because the bastard was goin' beat my mum."

Her expression looks like she was hit.

"It was one thin' when 'e'd go after me. But I'd be damned if that cocksucker touched 'er. I'll never understand why she stayed with 'im."

"David...I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It ain't worth feelin' bad about."

"But..."

He goes for a kiss and sticks the landing...on her forehead.

"It's sweet of ya to care, Luv. Really it is."

If at first you don't succeed, sway them using tragic personal information of a sympathetic nature.

"It's your turn. I told ya somethin' to better know me. Now ya tell me somethin' to better know ya."

Her face blanks.

"There's nothing to really know. I'm as basic and boring as you can get."

"Really? Ya can't think of just one thin' ya can trust me with? Ya know I'm not one to blather on to anybody but ya."

"There's not much to tell that I haven't already."

"Come on..."

"What do you want me to say?! How I was conceived to save a failing marriage? How in the seventh grade three boys tried to assault me and all the school gave me for compensation were museum tickets, which, I still have back home? That I've attempted to end myself multiple times? And as of recent, that I'm a pawn in a twisted game I can't figure out how to play. There! That good enough for you?"

The heck is she going off for?

"Oi! Don't get your nips in a twist."

"Then don't hound me!"

"Look, thin's ain't that bad once ya get used to them. the trials..."

"I wasn't talking about the trials!"

Her body began to tremble and she held her head in pain, eyes tearing up. Maybe now wasn't the best time to try moving things out of the friend-zone.

"Luv, I didn't mean to..."

"No...No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to explode like that. Not on you. *sigh* I don't want to take things out on you. It's just...I'm so messed up right now."

Doing something smart, he lets her go. Better luck next time. For now she needs space and for him to be her buddy.

"Anythin' I can do to make ya feel better?"

She steps around a bit, fidgeting with uncertainty.

"Want me to leave ya be?"

She stops.

"Could we...stay here a bit longer? Maybe tell dumb stories for the hell of it?"

That made him smile.

"Sure."

He sits down and pats the spot beside him. Her attitude does a 180°, practically jumping to his side and getting all close. Maybe she was making it up to him for snapping. Because when he took the chance of putting his arm around her waist she didn't tell him off or move it.

"Sorry again for being a bitch."

"You're fine, Luv. I don't blame ya. Couldn't 'ave been easy out there with them monsters."

She rests her head on his shoulder.

"Can we not get into that, please?"

"Sure thin', Luv. Just relax and let me take care of ya."

A soft coo-like sigh leaves her.

"Thanks, David."

"Anytime."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Did you, I don't know, bring me out here to fool around or some junk?"

David has a choice here, he can either lie to play it cool or be honest...He picks the latter.

"Not gonna lie...Was hopin' to get some snoggin' action with ya."

She slaps his knee playfully.

"I so called it."

"Heh, am I that easy to read?"

"I'd say like a book but you're more of a comic strip, complete with pictures and action bubbles."

"But can ya blame me?"

"Nah. You've made it clear that you like me. Wanting more isn't something to feel bad about. Just let me deal with my crap and then I'll be okay with thinking about normal stuff...like macking on tough Brits."

A playful smirk comes to him. This is a different kind of fight, yet one he believes he can still win. She wants time? Time is all any of them have. He can afford to wait. You can bet on that. Always bet on King.

[ELSEWHERE IN THE FOG]

Chops finally made it back to Mount Ormond Resort and relinquishes control of the body to Bones. This was more stressful than he was willing to deal with for a moment longer. So his ghostly ass makes its way for the second floor to unwind. Meanwhile the other three try to deal with what has happened.

"well that went about as well as expected."

{it is not like we did not get the things we wanted out of it.}

Dead Eye muses behind his leader much to Bones' disgust.

"are you referring to the doc treating her or that shit you got chops to do?"

Dead Eye's grin stretches wide.

{both.}

Bones groans.

"that's exactly the kind of shit that makes me not give you the body."

{you act as though i do not get results. she needed to be taught a lesson. pets need to know their place.}

Bones rubs his sockets as Dead Eye chuckles to himself, moving to another part of the room.

{denial does not suit you, bones. you were having just as much of a good time as we were.}

Bones slumps against his seat.

"*mumble* freaks..."

{um...bones?}

Boo fiddles with his hands timidly.

"what?"

{uh...so...did the doctor do anything we went there for?}

A good legitimate question.

"from what i could tell. he scraped a bunch of junk out of those scars. if they didn't refill when she died then she's probably got some more time than she did before. which is good for us."

{because she'll be cooperative in trials?}

"that and it gives us more time to train her..."

{i knew you were into it.}

Dead Eye mocks and Bones snarls.

"train her to use her power, you crazy bastard!"

Dead Eye laughs to himself. Bones goes back to ignoring he exists, thankful that Boo was so normal by comparison.

{are you sure we can do it?}

"ugh...we don't have much choice. if she corrupts completely before we get our rights than we look like idiots for trying. and then we'll never get respected by those assholes."

{when should we start?}

Bones pauses for thought.

"let's give it a go the feed cycle after next. meeting up again so soon after this shit won't be good for either of us."

{sounds good.}

"and you're teaching her."

This shocks Boo.

{w-what?}

"you know damn well why. if it helps, i'll switch with you if needed."

{okay...thanks.}

"don't thank me. we both know we can't trust those two to do it."

{i don't know. chops was doing okay till...yeah...nevermind.}

{you fear that which you do not understand...}

Dead Eye pops up behind Boo and the poor guy jumps across the room.

{fear is the path to acceptance. fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to denial, denial leads to bargaining, bargaining leads to depression, and depression leads to acceptance. so while you fear me now, i know that one day...you will be just like me!}

{no! i'll never be like you!}

{search your feelings; you know it to be true.}

{no!}

Bones cringes. He's surrounded by insane dorks.

{hey, fuck-face...}

Chops calls out from above.

"what, ass-clown?!"

{...why do ya think the quack was collecting that soul shit?}

To that Bones had no answer. Gaster is a crafty enigma. His twisted logic can lead to many paths, most of which are insane and convoluted. Though what he said is something to dwell on. Can her soul really be their ticket out of here? So many questions. So little answers.

[moonaft]

The Winter Long - Reread

Rosemary and Rue

A Local Habitation

An Artificial Night

Late Eclipses

One Salt Sea

Ashes of Honor

Chimes At Midnight

Interlude : Full of Briers

As always, spoilers up to The Brightest Fell and October 2018 for the Patreon stories. No spoilers for Night and Silence, and at this point I think I’ll have finished the entire reread by the time I get my copy. Which is just as well.

First off, ‘the winter long’ is one line after ‘rosemary and rue’. Is the final book going to be ‘Grace and Remembrance’? 

I really like TWL. This was a good book, filled with shifting allies and cameos by my favorite people. It’s probably my favorite after The Brightest Fell and not just because of Simon. 

I am going to ignore the fact that the knowe is called ‘Muir Woods’ even before it was named that in 1908. Maybe? Maybe Arden took up the name really quickly. I can’t find a mention of it by name in Patrick’s first short story and I can’t dig up “In Little Stars” right now to check if it was called Muir Woods back then. Patreon’s search sucks.

Onto the ball! A good ball, in which no one gets poisoned or nearly assassinated and Toby doesn’t commit murder. Yeah, if I was her I also wouldn’t want to go to fancy balls. She takes after Sylvester in that regard. 

Speaking of, hi Sylvester! Hi Li Quin!

Arden has social anxiety and needs more friends than Madden. I am surprised no noble Daoine Sidhe have come a-courting. At least she’ll get Walther and Cassandra to take jobs at court soon. 

I love Arden subtly copying Quentin in table manners. 

Are Raven-maids and -men the opposite of Selkies, born birds and need the feathers to transform?  Jazz takes off her band to turn into a raven. Amandine doesn’t, but presumably her magic can force the transformation regardless. Though Amandine does imply that destroying the band will keep her as a human. 

Yes, it’s time to put everyone to bed. Meanwhile, Toby gets to pull some all nighters.

Hello, Simon.

I love how no one has questioned where he was since Late Eclipses, and that only as a brief mention. He’s the tragic backstory, not meant to show up in the present. Oleander was that too, but now she’s dead and can’t hurt anyone anymore. 

Yeah, she was really not expecting that. Why is it that the bad things only happen to Toby during the books? From the plot summaries, the time between the books is the only time she gets to relax.

Yes, that’s not Sylvester. 

It’s sad how much Toby has internalized him as her personal boogeyman. Dugan, Riordan, Samson, the false Queen could all be fought. It wasn’t easy by any means, but here Toby’s given up without a fight which just doesn’t happen. She’s already determined this is a fight she can’t win. 

I love that the first thing Simon does is praise her. He genuinely does not mean her ill-will.

So Simon has not seen Evening in years prior to TWL and did come to warn Toby about it. Or, turn her into a tree for a hundred years, but to him, that is helping. Evening didn’t send him so he must have gotten word somehow that she was returning. Where was he all those years?

Hello Jazz, you have great timing. Sorry that you are once again attacked in your own home.

Simon didn’t come in limping – Toby turning his spell back against him must have hurt him badly.

Why exactly does Simon have so many transformation spells? Is this his own flower-based transformation or something he got from Evening? It could be his own – he once transformed Patrick’s suit into something more modern and there’s no indication that eventually failed. And why fish? Could he have transformed Patrick into a fish so he and Dianda could spend time together in the Undersea without breathing spells? That would be so cute.

Good job on using your cats to warn Tybalt.

I think even May gets over her feelings by the time of TBF, or at least, she’s willing to let him try so they can save Jazz.

All in all, Simon’s going to get what he wants by the end of this book, namely, Toby’s safety. Sure, he’s elf-shot but so’s Evening. It’s TBF where he’s going to get his ass kicked repeatedly.

Same, Quentin – I too have an endless supply of songs about boats. Five bucks says you’re singing “The Mary Ellen Carter”.

Tybalt probably would still shred Simon to pieces given the change but he’s out of the picture for all of TBF.

Why do you think you can predict what Simon’s going to do, Toby? You know literally nothing about his objectives. He’s also willing to answer what he can of your questions and tell you things without being asked.  

The knowe is willing to let Toby through, and she is family. Would the knowe have let Simon through because he helped build it? What about August?

Way to mess it up, Sylvester. You definitely should have told Toby about Simon before you sent her after him. But that’s in the past and doesn’t matter, does it, Sylvester? Just like September, just like August. It can’t hurt you anymore, right?

I do believe the twins were close once, and by 1840 that’s no longer the case, but it doesn’t matter until 1906. You didn’t help enough to find August, or you encouraged her too much, it doesn’t matter. Simon wanted you to hurt the way he hurt, and if you can’t see that, you have forgotten too much.

Yeah, I can’t imagine Simon hurting Amandine unless it was in direct defense of August or Toby. Sylvester, you should know Amandine’s not going to let him back into her life without August present. You should know this, why don’t you know this?

Tybalt, you told them to run, that is not the Torquills’ fault. Hey, remember that decree that says if you want to marry one of the three, that one can’t refuse?

“I need you to live long enough to be cannon fodder when Simon decides to attack.” Quentin loves you too, Toby.

You are missing a vital, vital piece of why Simon was running around with Oleander. He’s not doing it for shits and giggles, Toby.

Poor Luidaeg. It sucks having the answers and not being able to tell them. Toby’s doing better on the questions this time around.

“At least we know that Simon won’t be able to come after us there.” One small problem with that, Toby.

Does each Library have its own library card, or is it an all access pass?

Mags definitely wanted Toby to show up after Simon left. Whoops. And Toby, you still owe her your mother’s history.

Hi again, Simon. Maybe this time you can actually talk?                                                                        

Yeah, the arrangement with Oleander is definitely non-con. Everyone is glad she’s dead except probably Evening.

Simon has three modes in this book: what he thinks will help Toby, what Toby thinks is helpful, and what he does as a servant of Evening. This is the middle interaction – useful information, no one is transformed or hurt.

Toby, remember you still owe Mags info on your mom.

Amandine definitely ruined your life, Toby, even if you don’t want to admit it.

Good job on raising the dead, Toby.

I guess Evening is a vampire? There’s at least one Snow White legend like that.

“Your lover was a Selkie; he told me quite a bit after he died.” How- What- Did the Luidaeg summon the night haunts to talk to Connor?

How long had Simon been sitting on Toby’s doorstep? He must have gotten straight to Shadowed Hills to get the roses and then back to her place. To the rose gardens at least, he couldn’t have gotten into the halls themselves.

This is the other thing – Toby stops again to ask her personal boogeyman for help. She trusts him enough to do that, which is something we don’t see anywhere else in the series. To be fair, Simon does keep insisting that he’s there to help, which is something no other villain does.

And Simon’s convinced she’s going to die.

May’s benched again, which is a recurring theme that she specifically acknowledges. Let this girl have a field trip with Toby.

Although not into the ocean because that’s where everyone ended up! Hi Dianda. Thanks for saving Toby from drowning.

I wonder what would have happened if Toby told Dianda that Simon gave her the warning. Probably nothing good – here’s yet another trusted authority figure who knew about that relationship and didn’t tell her.

Hello Evening. Hate to see you again. If only Dianda could punch you in the face.

Here her magic is roses and snow but I swear I’ve seen it described as roses and apples somewhere.

So where was she these past few years as she recovered? Does she have another knowe?

So why is Marcia not affected by Evening’s magic? Evening doesn’t recognize Marcia as anything other than changeling, I think. But Evening wouldn’t care that much. I really really want her to be Titania. Maeve would be cool too, but I want her to be Titania.

Good thing no one drowned in that little episode, including Tybalt and Quentin.  

Hi Raj! Everything’s ok!

Props to Toby for being willing to burn the Library down to get it to close, and kudos to Mags for listening to her.

And Simon’s playing double agent on the phone. Toby couldn’t have gotten through this book without him.

Toby hasn’t actually slept since before the Yule ball. How many days and nights has it been since then?

So why did Evening get Quentin sent to Shadowed Hills directly after Luna and Raysel’s return? How did they break free?

Riordan was once in Alameda – how did she move down to Dreamer’s Glass?

And how did Sylvester know they were coming? Simon must have told Evening, or maybe Evening assumed Toby would show up.

Hi Etienne, Bridget and Chelsea!

Yes, leave the boys behind to play Xbox games. Good plan.

Luna does have several points about Evening, Raysel and Karen. Why, exactly, does Stacy have two Seer daughters? She is also smart enough to get her favor from Toby before telling Toby what’s going on.

Is Toby going to have to do a favor for every ally she has?

You can take the Daoine Sidhe out of the Torquill but you can’t take the fox-fur hair and golden eyes.

Poor Raysel. I hope this helps her.

Huzzah, Toby gets to sleep!

Hello again, Simon. OK, Toby doesn’t think he told Evening that she called Shadowed Hills. And he’s back at the house.

There’s something to be said for the image of Simon petting Toby’s rosebush-cat for hours.

Yes, everyone needs group therapy, which clearly doesn’t exist in Faerie.

Correction: there’s nothing in his blood now that she could change. If Toby knew enough to look, could she tell immediately? Maida told Toby that she was once a changeling, and now Toby can look at Quentin and see those watermarks. She has since looked at Sylvester and Simon and been unable to tell that they had human blood once, but Toby misses a lot.

Hmm, Toby is not this… intimate with anyone else. Mind walking while riding Simon’s blood? She’s never done this with living people before. I think if he can be saved in the end, it will involve something similar.

Yep, the non-con is strong here. Simon is a fascinating villain.

So what exactly was Simon planning here? Toby is not a tree. She’s out for several hours and up again. Was Simon buying her time?

Hi Luidaeg! Glad to see you up.

Titania also sounds like a shit mother.

Septiminus was Evening’s grandson. He certainly didn’t get his coloring from her.

“Most of her children died young.” But there were enough grandchildren to establish several Daoine Sidhe lines. Aethlin and Maida aren’t closely related to the Torquills or Dugan or Rhys or Riordan.

Maeve took what vengeance she could against Titania for the Luidaeg’s binding and we don’t know what that is, yet.

Ok, yes. This is where the Luidaeg says Evening’s signatures are apples and roses. Her own magic is brackish marshes and ocean air. Toby doesn’t ask about this.

Elizabeth Ryan would probably argue that the Luidaeg stole her heart but she isn’t here right now.  

I am pretty sure Evening is older than the Luidaeg, but the Luidaeg implies Maeve could have had children before her, just not through Oberon. And none of them are living now.

The Luidaeg knows who Amandine’s mother is and can’t say.                                    

Yes Evening, we know you don’t like Dianda and Patrick’s marriage. You can shut up about it now.

Is Dawn one of the things the Luidaeg can’t talk about? She is not mentioned at all in this book, least of all by Toby.

And Simon’s under Evening’s control again. Poor Tybalt.

And Toby’s covered in her own blood again.

Dammit, Sylvester, Simon’s better at giving Toby answers than you are.

Yes, which of the Queens owned that key? And what exactly is it?

Oh you still don’t know better by now, Toby. You are still somewhat blind to what’s going on around you.

Nice job breaking Evening’s spell, Toby.

Oh Simon, you were so close.

Being stabbed with Simon’s elf-shot laced blood is enough to take out a Firstborn but somehow drinking Nolan’s blood didn’t put Toby out.

Though being asleep isn’t going to stop her…

Naww, Tybalt and Toby are cute together.

Man, I really want to see Dianda and Patrick’s reactions on learning that Evening is the Daoine Sidhe Firstborn. And why does no one seem to recall Dawn? Is there a world-wide “don’t think about it” spell? If so, who could cast it?

[nameless-articles]

A Delayed Topic: Budgets in Video Games

I’m naked in my Japan dorm eating Pocky, yet I’m disappointed in myself. Not because of my current activities, but because in waiting (really working on other projects) to write my article on mid-tier budgets I missed the boat before other big-name video game people sailed off on it. Nonetheless, it’s a topic I’ve had on my mind for a while now, and to scrap the project just because some other people have tackled it would be silly. So without further ado, I present to you my thoughts and hope for video game budgets going forward (though of course whatever I have to say will have little influence on what publishers do).

A while ago, my brother and I got into a heated discussion over the price of video games. He believes sixty dollars is too high a price for a newly released game, while (though of course I’d much rather pay less) I find it to be a fair price. However, for any readers ready to judge my spending habits, I should remark that I only buy perhaps one or two new games a year (in actuality, I haven’t bought a newly-released game in 2018). It takes a game a fair amount of effort to win me over enough to drop money on launch; the best way for a game to earn goodwill is to be created by a developer that has a good track record. While some people find this habit (that of buying games from trusted developers) as a risk not worth taking, I have only been truly upset over maybe one new game purchase in my life (that honor goes to Mass Effect 3). In my experience, that game has stopped me from not only waiting to buy future Bioware titles but has stopped me from buying them altogether. In the long run, I believe the customers’ (not as individuals but as a collective) happiness will determine whether a developer will succeed or fail. That being said, it isn’t stopping publishers from doing everything in their power to fight that reality. There’s only so much we can say about predatory practices in video games. At their core, these practices are forced into a game with little consideration for how it affects the mechanics or overall flow: The majority of modern AAA games are designed to make money, nothing else.

The question is not “does the price of the game reflect its quality?” Video games are art, and, with no malice, if a painting can sell for millions I don’t see why video games can’t do the same. That might seem like I’m arguing against my point, but I’m not. For us to consider games a form of art, we need to reconsider how we view the cost of that art, and the cost of art is not solely determined by the work put into producing it.

Take Battlefront II for example, by technical merits it is quite the achievement and all the detail packed into it must have taken the developers countless time to create, yet I wouldn’t consider paying over ten dollars for it because, as a customer, the experience on offer is not one I value greatly. On the other hand, if the asking price for Drakengard 3 had been eighty dollars, I would’ve at least considered it. I don’t believe this is how most people think of games, despite having often heard claims that people would’ve spent two hundred dollars on Skyrim if they could (although given the recent controversies concerning Fallout 76 that might’ve been a bad idea, too). Most people make such claims with one particular game when they have become infatuated with it (someone might make that argument for me), but I think the scope of this lens should be broadened to every game we consider purchasing.

Of course, we need to consider the mass-marketed and laborious nature of video games. Visual art like painting and photography can afford to have higher prices precisely because they are limited in quantity. In addition, video games take countless hours from multiple people through different departments, and they all need to be compensated somehow. No developer should expect to work for free (that said, practices like crunch time which recently got brought up again for Red Dead Redemption 2 still occur), and I am all for making sure they get their fair share.

However, a significant chunk of a big games budget is spent on marketing the game, with less than a majority fraction going to actual development, and this trend is only growing. While I understand the importance of giving your game a good amount of coverage, the fact that more money is spent letting people know a game exists rather than ensuring the quality is a recipe for mediocrity, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. I want to give the video game industry the benefit of the doubt and believe the goal is to create a product worthy of the consumer’s money, but trends like massive marketing budgets and locking in game items on the grounds of player choice speaks more to the capitalist perversion of the craft. It might sound like I’m taking video games too seriously, but I believe we are seeing a shift in the industry that is going to change the way video games take risks, and I would argue in a manner that is ultimately limiting the artistic possibilities of the medium.

With budgets as inflated as they are, these projects can’t fail. I don’t mean fail the way publishers mean fail, wherein they expected a decent game to become the next Call of Duty or where only a couple million sales means the investors didn’t make the massive profits they expected (though still made a profit). Big budget games are less likely to try out new and experimental ideas because more often than naught consumers want something they know rather than new mechanics or odd stories. While this has always been the case to some degree, games like Metal Gear Solid 2 are less likely to be created today than they were two console generations ago. Ironically enough, Death Stranding is looking to be such an experience and the only reason it’s able to do this is because the game is being designed as a console exclusive, which Sony banks on selling more consoles than actual units (in the sense that the game might sell a couple million but many of those buyers will probably get one of their consoles just to play it). Games like Bloodborne are meant to give people a reason to own a console by pushing that system as the only means to get such an experience (in some sense it matters less how that game sells). Of course, Sony is expecting a Hideo Kojima exclusive to sell very well, but they are still taking a huge risk by giving him a good amount of money considering the kind of experience it seems to be (at this point, a story-based open world exploration (admittedly this is not the most unique general premise but the story seems to suggest otherwise)). We could never expect a publisher like EA or Ubisoft to take such a risk, though to give them credit they do bankroll much smaller games that tend to mechanically and narratively experiment more than the Battlefields and the Assassin’s Creeds that give EA the profits to test things out on a smaller scale.

It might sound like I’m giving these larger publishers some slack, but I think this approach is still rather tamed and limiting the possibilities video games have. I don’t see this setup of high-budget-destined-for-profit games to pay for the experimental smaller games as giving the most variety of gameplay and narratives. I think it’s better than only big budget games, but these other projects tend to be closer to indie games, which, though they have their place in video games, have to be limited in scope and technical prowess in order to exist. For example, Undertale is an amazing game that I’m glad exists, but imagine what Toby Fox could do if he had a couple million to spend rather than fifty thousand. These are the experiences lacking in the industry, multi-million dollar budgets with the heart and mindset of an independent project. This isn’t to say such experiences don’t exist at all, but that I believe they offer the best compromise between publisher greed and developer freedom. While this might have already been expected, I’m going to talk about how Drakengard 3 is close to an example of such a product.

While full of plenty of flaws and lackluster gameplay elements, the entirety of the Drakengard/Nier series is enjoyed on a cult level because it offers something that is hard to find in other games: that is, a balls to the wall crazy story that, for the sake of the memes, really makes you think. I find the lore of the series interesting, but I mainly play them because they offer stories that for once give me a chance to reflect on my own perspective and have me consider why I believe what I believe. Yes, games like that exist elsewhere, but there is a specific type of craziness and intrigue that comes with these games that I have yet to see replicated in other series (by all means, feel free to mention some). Back to Drakengard 3 in particular, I’ve already talked about why I believe the final boss is one of the best moments I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Such an ending risks alienating countless players, and it’s the kind of choice you’d probably never see attempted in today’s AAA titles because it’s far too risky. However, you’d also never find it in an entirely independent project, because they lack the funds to even try and attempt an ending of that scope. For that reason, I believe the AA (a couple million, maybe ten or twenty million at most), offer the best space for games that want to push the artistic bounds of the video game medium.

One argument to be made against this proposal is the fear that such games won’t have the level of polish present in higher budget titles. While this can be true, it doesn’t account for what the reality was two generations ago. Games like Metal Gear Solid 2 and Silent Hill 2 (it just seems like the second game is always the best of a series) were expensive in their day, but even their budgets look small in comparison to what’s being spent on games today. While the graphical prowess of AAA games has increased vastly since then, do modern games come across as mechanically or narratively more engaging than two generations ago? I tend to think not, though games like Nier: Automata give me hope that interesting narratives can still be constructed and built upon in a world of higher budgets. Nier is by no means a high budget game, but it costs more than anything an independent studio is able to muster, while at the same time turning a profit for their publisher and bringing their developer from the brink of death. All while giving players an enjoyable and engaging game.

There’s been the idea floating around that games need to cost more than $60. The rising costs of video games is the main culprit, proponents of an increased price say, however I want to lay blame on the consumer for a moment. Gamers appreciate flashy graphics, and these graphics don’t come cheap. It makes sense for publishers to make certain elements of a game top priority if players demonstrate that these features are the sort of things they want to see. Most consumers want more of the same, yet love to complain that every game is trying to be the next [insert current leading genre here]. Players flock to these games, at least enough to allow publishers and developers to make a quick buck off of making such a game.

More than any other artistic medium, video games are highly iterative, which can be to its advantage at times. However, as a result trends take awhile before they die, and in that time there will be countless games of a popular genre that take up time, money, and space from games that are doing different things. Consider how many forgotten first person shooters existed last generation, consider how many forgotten open world games exist this generation. Now imagine the countless battle royal games that are either out or coming out in the future. All of those games devote resources away from a potentially game-changing project. I’m losing focus a little bit, but it’s worth remembering that the problem is not merely concerned with budgets.

In order to give players what they want, publishers and developers have to find monetization methods to make these games and make a profit for their investors, for whom (unfortunately) the creation of big budget games is often times merely a profit-driven endeavor. Money has always driven the creation of art, and only recently crowdfunding and other supportive methods have taken off. However, the vast majority of the population isn’t rich enough to support multiple games with thousands of dollars like some of these investors can, so until then this method of game production will persist. Since players are (rightfully) against a flat price increase of video games, we’ve seen growing use of microtransactions and lootbox systems that, as anyone should know, do not justify the cost of what they give but rather subsidize the other costs of the game. Players buy these microtransactions, and in some cases the overall amount spent on in-game microtransactions have earned a company more money than other games or even the game its sold within. Publishers know this, which perpetuates the cycle of spending more money on marketing to ensure they can get enough whales that will sink a ton of money into the game so they can make their profit regardless.

The saddest part about the current situation is that it might not even be enough to “vote with your wallet” as is often repeated, because most players don’t engage with these monetization practices, but those who do engage in such a way that it’s worth it for the company to alienate a vocal minority of their players in favor of exploit the small amount of players who will pay to play. A complete boycott of these games might not be enough to convince publishers to change their monetization methods. At this point, they know how much money they can make through the nickle-and-dime processes that even if games had a higher starting price it would hardly incentivize them to drop it altogether. Given the number of deluxe and super deluxe editions many games release with which only give access to maybe a few other missions and cosmetics for a quarter of the cost of the real game, some might argue is already the case.

Why did I bother writing all this if the outlook appears black. I’m certain no developer will ever read this, and given my general reach on this site is minimal at best, it’s very unlikely that this will get any traction that leads to some grander change. Still, I find it important for people to see and understand why games are monetized the way they do, and in this instance the burden is on the consumer to inform publishers the kinds of experiences we want to see. I’m fully aware that what I want from video games is not what other people want to see; if it was, then there would be no reason for me to make this post. But I do find the experiences I want lacking, and I believe more AA budgets will give the best range for those types of experiences that will push gaming in a new direction. It is not the Red Dead Redemption 2’s of the industry that will revolutionize gaming, but the smaller, humbler experiences that will shape the artistic future of games to come.

There is still much room for video games to develop as a medium. Whether it’s in traditionally controlled games or virtual reality experiences, there is still plenty for us to learn and develop how the immense amount of player-controlled interactions influence the final product. Expensive-to-make games cannot afford to fully explore these bounds, making them the least opportune avenue to expand, reshape, or break how we understand player interactivity in an artistic sense. While there are developers who do push bounds on higher budgets, most do nothing that hasn’t already been done (sometimes even better) by a project on a lower budget. I guess what I really want to say is that I want something to challenge me and my understanding of player agency as much as the Drakenier series, and I doubt it will be something that cost over fifty million that will change that.

P.S. I understand that what I seek for the future of games, whether narratively or mechanically, is not necessarily the priority of other players, let alone publishers and developers. Perhaps in the future I’ll go more into what I look for in video games, and why I enjoy playing the games that I do.

[advocatewrites-blog]

Into the Unknown Part 4 Chapter 4

Into the Unknown

Fandom: Undertale, Coraline (book), Over the Garden Wall, Paranorman, Gravity Falls (season 2)

Characters: Frisk, Norman B., Dipper P., Mabel P., Coraline J., Wirt, Greg, the Cat, the Frog; Sans, Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Asgore,; the Other Mother, the Beast, Agatha P., Bill Cipher, Asriel D., Chara D.,

Pairings: Not the focus. Alphys/Undyne, with mentions of Papyrus/Mettaton, sans/Toriel/Asgore, and Wirt/Sara. Due to the nature of Undertale and the dating segments, there is also interpretable Papyrus/Wirt, Undyne/Mabel, Alphys/Dipper, Napstablook/Norman, Mettaton/Norman, Mettaton/Mabel, Sans/Dipper, Sans/Norman, and Sans/Greg.

Rated a high +K for violence, mild language, horrific elements that may be disturbing to younger readers,  mentions of child abuse and bullying, character death that is sometimes permanent, and mentions of suicide that may be triggering. These elements remain relatively unchanged from their source material, which most all are for children, but discretion is advised nonetheless.

Disclaimer: Undertale was created and owned by Toby Fox. Coraline was created by Neil Gaiman and owned by Bloomsbury and Laika. Over the Garden Wall was created by Patrick McHale and owned by Cartoon Network. Paranorman was created by Sam Fell and Chris Butler and owned by Laika. Gravity Falls was created by Alex Hirsch and owned by Disney. Any other work mentioned or homage are property of their respective owners. This is a fan-made, nonprofit work that only seeks to entertain. Please support the original franchises.

Chapter 4

“OHHH YES! WELCOME BEAUTIES…TO TODAY’S QUIZ SHOW!”

Spotlights engulfed the lab. Two disco balls dropped from the lighting fixtures and engulfed the three into multicolored lights. Confetti fell from somewhere. Dipper knew that he was not going to like whatever happened next.

“OH BOY! I CAN ALREADY TELL IT’S GONNA BE A GREAT SHOW!” said the robot. “EVERYONE GIVE A BIG HAND TO OUR WONDERFUL CONTESTANTS!”

A fake, monotone clapping noise echoed from the robot’s soundboard as more confetti poured onto them.

“NEVER PLAYED BEFORE GORGEOUS? THE RULES ARE SIMPLE. ANSWER CORRECTLY.” said the robot. “OR YOU DIE!!!

Mettaton attacks.

“LET’S START WITH AN EASY ONE!!” said Mettaton. “WHAT’S THE PRIZE FOR ANSWERING CORRECTLY?”

“Uh…” said Dipper. “A new car?”

“THAT IS INCORRECT!!!”

A lightning-bolt shaped bullet shot from Mettaton’s microphone and collided with Dipper’s Soul.

“Are you okay?” Mabel asked.

“I’m fine,” said Dipper. “Not sure how many of those I can take. We’re gonna have to be smart about answering them.”

“Alright,” said Mabel. “Making things up is my specialty!”

“GLAD TO HEAR IT GORGEOUS!” said Mettaton. “HERE’S YOUR PRIZE: WHAT IS THE KING’S FULL NAME?”

Dipper actually remembered that one. Papyrus had said it, Undyne had said it, and the turtle that sold them things had said it even though he insisted on calling him “Ol’ King Fluffybuns”.

“Asgore Dreemurr!” said Dipper.

“CORRECT! WHAT A TERRIFIC ANSWER!”

“I was going to say Doctor Friendship…” said Mabel.

“NOW ENOUGH ABOUT YOU. LET’S TALK ABOUT ME! WHAT ARE ROBOTS MADE OF?”

“Metal and magic!” said Mabel.

That one had come pretty quickly, but Dipper figured that it was easy to guess.

“HERE’S AN EASY ONE FOR YOU: TWO TRAINS, TRAIN A AND TRAIN B, SIMULTANEOUSLY DEPART STATION A AND STATION B. STATION A AND STATION B ARE 252.5 MILES APART FROM ONE ANOTHER. TRAIN IS IS MOVING AT 124.7 MILESPERHOURTOWARDSSTATIONBAND TRAINBISMOVING-AT253.5MILESPERHOURTOWARSSTATIONAIFBOTHTRAINSDEPARTEDAT10:0AMANDITISNOW10:09HOWMUCHLONGERUNTILBOTHTRAINSPASSEACHOTHER?”

“32.058 minutes!” said Mabel.

Dipper had no idea how he could even solve that one, let alone Mabel.

“NEARLY RAN OUT THE CLOCK THERE, GORGEOUS! BUT THAT IS CORRECT!”

“You spent the entire time asking the question!” said Dipper.

“DO YOU WANT ME TO TAKE BACK YOUR CORRECT ANSWER?” Mettaton asked.

“We’re good!” Both the twins said.

“EXCELLENT! BECAUSE FROM HERE ON OUT THEY’RE ONLY GOING TO GET HARDER FROM HERE!” said Mettaton.”NEXT QUESTION: HOW MANY FLYS ARE IN THIS JAR?”

“54!” said Mabel.

“WHAT MONSTER IS THIS?”

“Mettaton!”

“BUT CAN YOU GET THIS ONE? WOULD YOU SMOOCH A GHOST?”

“Heck yeah!”

“WHAT A GOOD ANSWER! I LOVE IT!!!!” said Mettaton. “NEXT QUESTIONS: HOW MANY LETTERS ARE IN THE NAME METATTON NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN…”

“56!”

“That is correct!”

“How are you getting all of these?” Dipper asked.

“Alphys is telling me,” said Mabel. “But the smooch a ghost one was all me!”

Alphys froze.

“ALPHYS…” said Mettaton. “WERE YOU HELPING THE CONTESTANT?”

“U-u-uh, I was—” Alphys stammered.

“THAT’S ALRIGHT,” said Mettaton. “I’LL GIVE THEM AN ANSWER YOU’RE SURE TO KNOW THE ANSWER TO! WHO DOES DOCTOR ALPHYS HAVE A CRUSH ON?”

The two twins froze.

“Could we…not answer that one?” Dipper asked.

Entry no. 34

During our game of multi-dimensional chess, Bill mentioned something interesting. A Kingdom of Monsters. He seemed hesitant to discuss more; although it seemed more out of ignorance than ill-will. After some prying, he managed to bring up some key points. Sometime before Gravity Falls was inhabited, humans lived with monsters. A war broke out between the two races, leading to the monsters becoming imprisoned underneath a magic suppressing barrier. Bill mentioned that he had tried to enter the kingdom several times to look for someone to help him build the portal, but he kept being chased out by some “annoying dog”.

Whether or not he meant to, Bill has just made a phenomenal breakthrough with my research. Is this Kingdom of Monsters the source of all weirdness in Gravity Falls? Or even the world? Maybe there can be a direct link between the monsters in the forest and the monsters underground. Furthermore, if Bill really wanted to find a scientific mind in the kingdom of monsters, there could be someone else working on a portal right now.  Someone else I could compare notes with!

I expect the portal will be finished by tomorrow. Perhaps once Bill can enter our dimension, I can welcome him to Earth properly with a little hike.

It was much later, after the quiz show and after a cooking show and after a news show, when sans made himself known and invited Dipper to dinner.

“where’s that sister of yours?” he asked.

“Well…”

“‘A tragic tale of two lovers, torn apart by the tides of fate’…” Mabel read off of the poster in front of her. “That sounds right up my alley!”

She ignored the fact that 75% of the poster was Mettaton’s face. It would be nice to see him actually acting, and not just the elaborate set pieces he set up when he wanted to kill them. She would have to make a mental note to come back and catch it once Mettaton had calmed down a bit.

Mabel was so lost in thought that she did not notice where she was walking next. She stopped as she noticed she was on stage.

“Oh,” said Mabel as realization dawned on her.

“OH? COULD IT BE…” Mettaton’s voice echoed through the stage. “MY ONE TRUE LOVE?”

Mettaton descended down the fake balcony with all the grace of a vacuum cleaner. The song’s opening covered most of it up. He dropped the hem of his bright blue ballgown and began to sing.

That was when Mabel knew that this was really right up her alley.

“guess it doesn’t really matter,” said sans. “so, what do you know about a talking flower?”

The atmosphere grew suddenly very heavy. Dipper swallowed before he spoke.

“We found it in the Ruins,” said Dipper. “It’s this little gold flower named Flowey—“

“really?” said sans. “couldn’t think of a better name?”

“I didn’t name it!” Dipper said. “It calls itself that!”

“alright. tell me more about flowey mc flower face.”

“Well, when we left the Ruins, he talked about a lot of weird things,” said Dipper. “Stuff like how he was the one that would inherit this world...and how we weren’t the ones he was looking for…sans, how many humans have been in the Underground before us?”

“haven’t you heard undyne, kid?” sans asked. “there’ve been six humans in the underground. not including you two.”

“And is that where you got the lamps?” Dipper asked.

sans fell silent.

“Look, if we’re going to work together, we need to be 100% honest with each other,” Dipper said. “I won’t…judge you if you did something bad. Just be honest with me.”

Sans did not say anything for a moment. Just when Dipper was about to speak up again, he chuckled lowly.

“don’t judge anyone, you say? kid, that’s a good one and you don’t even know why yet,” said sans. “alright. there have been a total of 12 humans in the underground. i’ve seen six. just not at the same time.”

“So there’s a way out of the Underground then?” Dipper asked.

“sure there is. but that’s not what i’m talking about,” said sans.

“Well, what do you know about the other humans?”

“i’d say most weren’t older than you,” said sans. “all came from the ruins, all left through new home. all came at about the same time. don’t know what happened to them. don’t think they knew why they were here, either.”

“Well, do you think that flower might have something to do with it?” Dipper asked.

“don’t know. never seen ‘em before,” said sans after a minute. “well, if nothing else, this run’s been good for information. anything else you need to know?”

Dipper opened his mouth for a minute. But there was not anything else he could think to ask.

“great,” said sans. “if you get to the castle, i won’t stop you. but try and think about what you’re getting into, alright?”

It was only when sans got to the fichus in the corner that Dipper found what he wanted to ask next.

“What do you mean, ‘this time’? You keep talking about ‘this time’ and ‘these runs’, like you’ve already seen all this before!” said Dipper. “What are you trying to hide? I won’t be able to help you if you don’t tell me everything!”

“listen, kid,” said sans. “it’s not gonna matter. even if i do tell you everything, you’re just gonna disappear again. and there’ll be another kid waiting for me at my station. or maybe something worse. i’ve given up trying to change this.”

Dipper’s mouth hung open as he tried to think of what to say. Everything that sans said ran through his head. And then he realized.

“You’re a time traveler?”

The light in sans’ eyesockets went dark. He did not say anything.

“Why didn’t you just say that?” Dipper asked. “Maybe we can help you! Are you with the same agency as Blendin? Is there actually a Time Baby?”

“well,” said sans. “you’re close. if there’s a time traveler, it’s not me.”

Dipper probably had more experience with time travel than the average person, but it was still limited. There was stuff in the journals and the science fiction books he read, but most of what he really remembered came from the 80’s movies Mabel watched. There was one he remembered quite well, about the crabby man who was stuck in the same day repeating over and over.

“Oh,” said Dipper, because he was not sure what else he could say.

“if that’s all you have to say, kid, then i better head out,” said sans. “it’s almost papyrus’ bedtime, and he gets cranky without a bedtime story.”

“We’ll find a way to fix this,” said Dipper. “Mabel and I. We have, uh…experience with this kind of thing.”

“i mean, you probably won’t,” said sans. “but thanks anyway.”

He walked past the fichus in the corner and disappeared.

It took Dipper longer to leave. Too much was going through his head, not just about what sans had said but how he looked when he said it. He was going to have to set things right. There was no way around it.

When he did stumble out, he was surprised to find Mabel.

“Hey Dipper!” Mabel said. “I just finished up Mettaton’s play! How was your date with sans?”

It barely fazed Dipper to hear it called a date. His mind was on too many other things.

“Do you remember what the Journal said about time travel?” Dipper asked.

“Hmm…I’m not sure about the Journal, but there was that Blendin’ guy,” Mabel said.

“That’s what I was thinking too,” said Dipper. “No matter how we get back home, we need to remember to find a way to contact him.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Mabel said. “I’ll make a note of it in this cool notebook I bought from the turtle!”

[sage-nebula]

I don't think Cheritz would nix the free talk in particular, just that there are probably talks about the characters and the story beforehand and if the voice actress said "Oh, Rika never did anything wrong" then Cheritz would have said something if they disagree. I'm not saying romantic relationships can't be abusive, but considering how many people are surprised and consider V admitting it's never love only obsession a retcon, it's clear the abusive nature come as a revelation to them. (1/2)

So I feel it's fair to call Another Story handling a text-text in particular. Because before there's more posts of how V and Rika should have stay together and how their love is beautiful, nowadays those people still exist but they are in the minority instead of the other way around. And this is it from me, sorry for pestering you I just don't know if I should give Cheritz credit for writing a good female villain when they probably don't mean it.

Once again, just quoting to show specifically what I’m replying to.

“I'm not saying romantic relationships can't be abusive, but considering how many people are surprised and consider V admitting it's never love only obsession a retcon, it's clear the abusive nature come as a revelation to them.”

I’m going to have to disagree with you here. I am one of the people who has said from the beginning that V saying that he was only ever “obsessed” with Rika and didn’t actually love her was bullshit, and that it was a retcon Cheritz wrote in order to make the player feel more special and important.

As I said, Rika being an abuser has been text-text since Original Story. Those who missed it either did so because they weren’t paying attention, or because their reading comprehension skills aren’t where they need to be for this game. Again, I recognize that phrasing it like that sounds mean, and I’m sorry, but it’s the truth of the matter. There has never been any question that Rika was abusive to both V and the Choi twins, as well as to the Believers that she (forcibly or otherwise) brought into Mint Eye. That has always been glaringly apparent.

However, in Original Story, it was also glaringly apparent that V genuinely did love her. The two of them were in a romantic relationship. We see this in the way he talks about her in the five original routes, we see this in the flashbacks we get of the two of them. The only way in which it comes across as an “obsession” is the way that he can’t detach himself from her, and that in itself reads as a trauma bond rather than some weird, objectifying obsession. V entered into a romantic relationship with Rika because he was attracted to her. He pursued that romantic relationship with Rika because he loved her. And ultimately, he found himself unable to leave that romantic relationship despite how abusive it was because of trauma bonding, as well as heaps upon heaps of guilt and abuse-induced responsibility. All of this is present in Original Story. That was what we were meant to take away from that relationship.

However, Cheritz seems to be aware of how entitled and desperate to feel special many of their players are. For many players, the idea of being someone’s second love feels . . . demeaning, or insulting. They feel as if they’re getting “sloppy seconds,” or as if they’ve come in “second place,” as if they’re “second choice,” et cetera. None of that is true, of course, and it’s a sign of immaturity if someone genuinely feels that way. But it’s how a lot of people in this fanbase feel nonetheless. This is why you see people who want both Choi twins obsessed with MC (and that if the twins do repair their relationship, said relationship is always secondary to the love / lust they feel toward MC), as well as people who are legitimately jealous of Elizabeth 3rd for receiving affection from Jumin. Players in this fandom don’t like the idea of their chosen love interest having someone else that’s important to them in their lives. They get jealous over the fact that the Choi twins are each other’s family, and that Saeyoung especially is desperate to save Saeran. They get jealous over the fact that Jumin really cares about his pet cat. And they especially don’t take well to the idea that their love interest (V, in this case) could have possibly loved another woman before meeting them. At least in the case of the Choi twins and Jumin those “rivals” are platonic, but to have a legitimate romantic rival? Oh boy.

So Cheritz did what they felt was in their best interests to do: They invalidated V’s relationship with Rika by saying that it was never actually love, therefore it’s not fair to say that V’s first love was Rika. Instead, that honor can go to MC, just as it goes to MC for literally every single other character in the game despite how absurd that is (except for possibly Jaehee, who mentions dating in the past, but then, Cheritz doesn’t allow her to be a canonical romantic interest). By invalidating V’s relationship with Rika like this, they make the player feel special and important, and remove the risk of the player feeling jealous, insecure, and upset over the fact that they weren’t V’s first love, even if they are his last. It’s petty, childish, and frankly bad writing, but it is what it is nonetheless, and seeing how immature this fanbase can be at times (again, I’ve seen people say they are jealous of a cat) . . . I can’t say I don’t understand where Cheritz was coming from, even if I don’t agree.

(I especially don’t agree because they wrote it in such a way that tried to frame things as, “V was just as guilty for how badly this relationship turned out as Rika was,” which is nonsense. V was an abuse victim. He was an abuse victim who tried very, very hard to change his abuser for the better (e.g. suggesting she go to therapy, trying to encourage her to keep going), but ultimately he failed, as abuse victims do, and that’s not his fault. I’m so beyond tired of the victim blaming in both this fandom and that route. V made mistakes with regards to the twins, most definitely, but he was not in any way at fault for how Rika turned out. Rika’s decisions are her own, not V’s. I really wish this wasn’t so hard for this fandom to understand.)

“I just don't know if I should give Cheritz credit for writing a good female villain when they probably don't mean it.”

If someone carelessly tosses a bowling ball down the lane and gets a strike, do you give them credit for the strike even though they weren’t trying to make it?

If someone randomly hits notes on a piano and ends up creating a pretty melody, do you give them credit for creating the melody even though they weren’t trying to make beautiful music?

If someone gets behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated and mows someone down, do you charge them with involuntary manslaughter even though they weren’t trying to kill anyone?

Just because someone does something by accident doesn’t mean they didn’t do it. It’s important to acknowledge that they did it by accident---you wouldn’t call the person in the first example a skilled athlete, you wouldn’t call the person in the second example a brilliant composer, and you wouldn’t charge the person in the third example with first degree murder---but you still acknowledge the end result. You acknowledge that it was a strike, a pretty melody, and involuntary manslaughter. That’s what I’m saying happened here. Rika is an unapologetic, fantastically written villain even if Cheritz wasn’t trying to do it. They might not have been trying to write her that way, but they still did, and that should be acknowledged. The only time you want to actually withhold credit is if something isn’t actually what it might appear to be on the surface, such as people who try to give Toby Fox credit for nonbinary representation in the game Undertale. Yes, Chara and Frisk are both referred to with they/them pronouns. However, Toby has gone on record as saying that this is only because he wanted to leave their gender up to the player, and when pressed about it, has specifically said that he doesn’t want to talk about gender representation in Undertale and hard passes on any questions posed to him about it. Toby didn’t intend for either Chara or Frisk to specifically be nonbinary in Undertale, he has made that quite clear, and thus he shouldn’t receive credit or accolades for doing so. But this situation with Rika is different from that. It’s not a matter of Cheritz trying to get props; rather, it’s a matter of analyzing their character based on things the character has said and has done, and enjoying (or not enjoying, ymmv) the character from there. It’s a different matter entirely.

Hope that helps.