>>32548786
early i see.

>see if you can locate the filer(s), search for your previusly equipment a.k.a SWORD.
>everything stink after 130 years, disable smell sense.

>>32548936
Start time for Tuesdays is based on when I wake up, for the near future anyways. Sorry I missed last week. Summer courses coincided on a few things.

There was a bit of a fuss in last thread, so I'm going to hold out for more votes for the time being. Because you have very finite time.

Heck, Matt might be treating with the Queen by now.

>>32549018
Victoria "noo, Matt is a cool guy, we worked well together, no, Joshua, no power, no killing Matt either, bad Joshua!"

>>32548786
try to find something to fight with, yeah
not something perfect, something that'll "do the job"

>>32549208
>try to find something to fight with, yeah
>not something perfect, something that'll "do the job"
You just described Victoria's blades, which you already have.

>>32549261
oh, right, i thought they'd be too small to be good

oh well, quickly try to find our sword then hurry back to the city

>>32549288
They are small, but there's more to a fight than having armor and a big fucking sword. You'll just have to fight differently.

Assorted posts from the end of last thread

The Compass can do something very important, Lyrra was builded to grant safety for all the humans and she spent a century to fix that thing, i guess the artifact's purpose is to... kill all demons, purify souls?

Now, it was specifically calibrated for Joshua, beacuse he is the only one who can use the Dragon's power.

This lead us to the Dragon, do we want to pay him a visit and try to unveil the whole matter ?

The Compass can only point the way.

Compasses don't tell you where to go, they tell you where you are, what direction you are facing.

If this is a Compass for souls i guess it points to the... "afterlife" ???

You are not insane, you try things that others wouldn't do.

First, get that simulation for Beezelbub.

ok ok hear me out
the dragon had the capacity to "fix" things, right?
a compass shows the way.
if that compass artifact was made with us (and the dragon) in mind, that means we both are its "north"
but maybe it also means it keeps some kind of link between us and the dragon, and/or lets us have chances to fix our life, to lead us on the "right" path
and maybe that's what these flashbacks are, us somehow using that power... and there is that quote after our failure...
so maybe, for some reason, the dragon is trying to "fix" us, using the artifact, and it was its message we heard

>>32549444
So you're pretty much telling us to go see the dragon

>>32549444
>that wall of text
yeah... everything is juuuust fiiiine.

i guess you want a plan, right ?

>>32549514
If I wanted to tell you to do something it'd be go get some fucking ambrosia, god damn. but I would never do that.

>>32549523
Plan would be nice, let's me shape events better.

Also, I was compelled to represent absent players. That was my primary motivation.

>>32549572
>spoiler
oh, that makes sense
i think most of us were thinking that this stuff would be either extremely rare or wouldn't be potent enough to be useful on us anymore

>>32549572
Ok, right now I want to get our sword beacuse we need power and it's conviniently closer.

Then I wish to head for the Dragon beacuse: powers, answers, compasses, souls etc etc

asking for supplies was one question a wanted to ask to Lyrra, can we go back to her ?

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>>32549692
You're only at 66% power. If you were at 100+ your diet would have to upgrade, but ambrosia, while rare, is still potent enough.

You're only slightly stronger right now than you were on the flashback mission.

Anyways, vote is for pic related

>>32548786
Go back to Lyrra and ask her for the simulations.

The Compass is a strange bauble, but not your priority for now. Killing Matt is. You walk back to the car and send it on its way to the water filtration system. The car drives itself, even without Lyrra’s assistance, so you sit down and examine the device mre thoroughly. The glass in the center seems to be liquid, saturated with nanomachines, but none of them are doing anything, and there are no buttons or switches on the outside. It’s just a sphere that glows faintly.

You arrive at the retrofitted maintenance section before you can discover any use for the device, and step out. The marsh like scent is strong even from outside, but it’s not so bad you’d have to burn out your nose or anything. When the lights flicker on though, you immediately notice that someone was here, recently. The humidity is enough for moss to be growing on the stone and steel, and you can follow a trail of footprints right up to the door.

You try the handle and find it unlocked. Water has flooded the entire chamber. It pours out of the room when you open the door, sloshing around your feet and draining into the transit tunnel. When the flow doesn’t slow, you just walk in against it, to find the room utterly dark. There should be all kinds of machines running to work on the tank but everything is still, silent, and dark. Only the faint light from outside is letting you see.

But then you notice one tiny LED light off to the side. A small clock next to two underwater flares. The time on the clock is about negative one hundred and twenty two hours.

>Actions?

>>32549950
Examine clock. Sounds like a bomb timer.

>>32549950
oh god, no more puzzle, especially with machines.

122 hours = 5 days, roughly the time we woke up, Matt was here...

suggestions ?

>>32550117
This entire quest is a puzzle man, ever since I stopped giving prompts.

Is there something about this quest that I'm doing sub par? Other than run times.

>>32550117
if that's a timer, that means Matt planned us to get free, and got ready accordingly...
shit, I smell the "just as planned"

You seem to be rather indecisive, so I'll add this.

The clock is not attached to anything, it's basically just a future stopwatch, but when you pick it up, you notice a smaller clock directly behind it, seconds away from hitting zero.

Also not connected to anything.

>>32549950
Pocket the flares and the clock.

>>32550117

ah-ha, explore the tank everyshit filtrated must be there.

>>32550238
>>32550290
he knows.
he fucking knew we'd be here.
he probably set us free himself too
but why? and what to do

>>32550175
why is everything a puzzle, why can't it be an adventure?

frequently small updates may faster you quest, i appriciate 6 lines of text, but sometimes less is more

>>32550400
>he probably set us free himself too
He did... Alice told us... how did you miss that ?

>>32549950
We should ask Lyrra if she knows anything about the clock.

Speculation aside, what are you going to do right now?

>>32550454
shortening my updates would only save like a minute or so. The main delay is me deciding when the vote is in, and not doing things like straining limoncello with a ladle and coffee filters.

>>32550508
I didn't miss it, I just have as much memory as a goldfish

>>32550566
Take a flare and go for a swim.

>>32550549
>>32550566
that sounds like the thing to do...

>>32550632
Go for a swim?

Are you sure?

I'll remind you that Joshua developed hydrophobia.

>>32550652
no swimming, look for a fuse box, a switch, anything.

>>32550682
i mean, i want to get all this working again.

You pick up the clock to examine it, just a simple pocket watch really. You’re a bit surprised it’s been running this long, but modern batteries can go for a long time. AS soon as you pick up the device though, you notice a light behind it, a second clock. And as you watch, its timer hits zero and stops.

This must have been Matt’s handiwork, he always liked to show off with these kinds of things. You pick up the underwater flares and step closer to the edge of the filtration tank. There’s a control pendulum for something, hopefully the lights, so you hit it.

And get no response.

Every button on it is nonresponsive. Then the water shifts and something brushes against your foot. Something small and light enough to be floating. You bend down and pick it up carefully, letting your eyes adjust to the dim light. It’s a half rotten fish skeleton, and there’s another next to it.

Something is in the water. Probably demonic. But if it’s trapped in the water, it can’t get to you here. You don’t really have to go in the water anyways. Though, it may be linked to the lack of electricity anywhere in the area.

>…

>>32550777
Go back to Lyrra. Maybe she can shed some light on the pocket watch.

>>32550777
>Though, it may be linked to the lack of electricity anywhere in the area.

how? is it absorbing electricity ?

>>32550967
dude, what the hell is there to know? It's just Matt saying "hey, I let you out, and I knew you'd be here."

>>32551013
We need to go back to Lyrra anyway for the simulations. Might as well check.

>>32551006
probably.
let's throw a flare in the water, that can only help

>>32551038
this is not the time to waste our time.

>>32551055
yeah, flare, bait the demon out and kill it.

>>32551072
Lighting a flare it is

>>32551287
meant to ask for a d100 with that post

Rolled 34

>>32551359

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>>32551408
I guess I'll get writing then.

>>32551359
here goes nothing

Rolled 58

>>32551359

You crack off the top of one of the flares and green light immediately fills the entire chamber, nearly blinding you, but you hold it over your head for a moment. Fish skeletons cover the water surface so thickly you could almost walk across them and thick moss clings to every surface above the water’s surface. But the water itself is a clear blue. Shadows dance beneath the water, obscuring anything that might be down there, so you lob the flare into the middle of the chamber.

The flare strikes the surface and bounces off as if it had hit glass. Then you notice the water creep up around it and pull it down, submerging it. The light pierces through the water, illuminating the emptiness, until you see something scrawled into the bottom of the tank. “Sorry Josh, but your sword is in another castle. Want to play with an old friend?”

Then something grabs your foot. Your head snaps down as you try to pull away. You’re certain that nothing could have snuck up on you, indeed, there’s nothing in the water, but your foot is definitely stuck. What’s more, it’s secreting some kind of poison, you already can’t feel your foot.

You jump away, but the water rises up to keep a hold of you, and you fall on your back. When you hit the water, a ripple rolls across the surface, and it begins to rise up towards you like a slow wave. This would be what kept you from regenerating.

>Response?

>>32551483
Eat it and steal its power.

>>32551483
i...

i...

i learn my lession...

>get the hell out of here

>>32551483
maybe we should try that electrical attack that failed horribly in the flashback

>>32551654
>>32551543
Guys, what's going on. Am I fucking something up? What gives?

>>32551827
>Am I fucking something up? What gives?
It's probably that it's been a while since the last thread and people have lost track of where we were. That's why I haven't really voted yet.

>>32551483
Struggle, get away, get out of the water, electricity the water if possible (do we still have that ability?).

>>32551827
You are the most hateful person in the world, beacuse you make me feel like the most stupidest person in the world.

no hard feelings, i 'm still following you

>>32551968
>>32551814
no, electricity in the water is bad, especially when we are in the water and we can't regenerate ourself.

>>32551968
>(do we still have that ability?)
You regained it after Scath

Though you will only be able to do it once due to being hungry as shit.

>>32552036
well, do you have a better idea?

>>32552149
... that moss or seaweed... reacts to light and excrete that tossin... so... make light out.. somehow...use ink... Scath genes...

i don't know anymore.

I don't know anymore.

So, are you attacking or fleeing? You guys aren't very clear.

>>32552320
Flee, then attack.

>>32552320
my vote for flee and flee.

>>32552320
(so, revote using this post?)
i still say we use that electric attack and see after that
eels can't fry themselves, right? we should be safe

>>32552379
>eels can't fry themselves, right?
we no eels.

>>32552379
You might want to look into how electric eels work.

FUCK

the writing in the tank was supposed to read "Sorry Betrayer, but your sword is in another castle. Want to play with an old friend?"

And Yes, that does change things.

Can't believe I fucked that up.

So fleeing, give me d100 please

Rolled 15

>>32552517

Rolled 64

>>32552517

>>32552523
RIP.

>>32552479
yeah, before i wanted to hit Matt with his own arm, now i want to use his own leg.

>>32552523
DEAL !!!! DEAL !!! DEAL !!!

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>>32552523
?

>>32552581
yes.
i don't really want us to drown for 100 years again at least the water isn't freezing this time

>>32552581

this is me>>32552577

>>32552581
ugh no, we're stronger than matt was back when we were battling alphas, one failure can't be too bad.

>>32552581
No.

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>>32552581
Need a tie breaker in here

>>32552651
failure... that thing crippled us when we were at 100%.

>>32552729
nggg... throw a coin...

Rolled 1

>>32552651
If you use the deal, it locks me out of using it. You do realize that, right?

>>32552782
1 is Deal
2 is No Deal

Rolled 1

>>32552807
Deal taken 3 times
129 points accumulated.

New roll : 94

I'll get writing.

>>32552823
3 times? wasn't it only the 2nd?

>>32552807
What happens if we just use the deal to perfect pass every roll?

>>32552833
Victoria, Beelze, and now.

>>32552869
oh, right

>>32552807
I support >>32552841
If we use the deal every roll, we pass everything, and we lock Gabe out of every screwing us over with it. EZ quest EZ life.

>>32552883
i don't think you get how it works...

>>32552883
see that
>129 points accumulated.
is not a god thing.

>>32552920
read the spoiler in >>32552807
No I don't think this will actually work, I just want to know how Gabe will keep it from working.

The thing coiling around your leg looks like water, but the reflection is just barely off. It’s some kind of membrane, an amorphous pseudopod wrapping itself around you. And where it touches you skin, you can see tiny sparks of light shooting across the membrane as the water slowly changes colors to a darker blue. And every moment it stays touching you, you can feel less and less of your leg.

Then a tendril reaches up from the water and an organelle floats up to the top of it, some kind of proto eye. It swivels around the darkness randomly until it spots you and stares. Then it leans forward as if in curiosity as it tries to wrap itself around you more.

But your arms are still free, and there’s plenty to grab onto. You reach back and grab hold of the door frame leading into the chamber and pull yourself out with enough force to break the frame. The pseudopod wrapped around your leg thins out and stretches, trying to keep hold of you as the rest of the body surges towards you, but the platform outside the room is moss covered grate, and the water it had been moving on drains away beneath you.

Then you crack the second flare. “Eat shit,” you grow before whipping the flare at the outstretched pseudopod. The casing breaks into hundreds of pieces, and the fire erupts for a moment, blinding the eye spot long enough for you to roll back and fall into the transit car.

You punch the drive commands to take you back as more pseudopods reach out of the room, creeping after the electric engine, but the beast is slow. “Fuck, what now?” you say to yourself as the car carries you back towards Lyr, without your sword.

Something came up, I have to get going. Late tonight I can post some more updates though. So, keep the thread bumped and can someone archive for me?

>>32552951
>>32552883
Since when were you under the impression that Matt wouldn't be rolling against you?

>>32553045
>roll against
Dropped.

>>32553093
>not liking the 1d100-1d100 bellcurve

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>>32553045
>Rolling against.
>Remember Wolf Quest.

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE.

>>32553140
I know that rolls are all magical bullshit, but really, it's dumb.

>>32553140
I know right
I guess math is just too complicated for most /tg/ posters to understand.

>>32553424
the fights in wolf quest were pretty epic, if i remember well

You people don't seem to even be enjoying this

>>32556777
i am actually

God damn it curse, stop making me bleed all over my favorite clothes.

>>32559329
...huh?

>>32559355
He stabbed himself while opening a package, obviously.

>>32559355
Got in an accident, now I'm bleeding everywhere. So much for running more. Sorry.

>>32559395
shit dude
err it's ok, take your time, better have a late GM than a dying one

>>32559395
just bleed on your keyboard as you type updates

So yeah, tonight didn't go as planned, but I can answer questions if you have any.

>>32560306
How did Matt set the timer to expire as soon as we found it?

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>>32560422
The obvious answer is that he knew everything you'd do and knew five days ahead of time the exact moment you'd walk in there and find it.

Or he had a clever pressure sensor somewhere to start a short timer.

Or you're not in the real world anymore.

Or all of the above.

>>32560492
That obvious answer is like impossible though
unless he has precog
please say he doesn't have precog

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>>32560517
Waaaht? Me? Work with precog?

Who needs precog when you have a hundred and thirty years to run simulations anyways?

Oh shit, fuck. Right.

Do you want me to write up your temporary death memory?

>>32560555
you can't run accurate simulations with all these real life variables

he'd need to know the current state of the city before he started the simulation

and even then there would be outside factors that reduce accuracy, real life just has too many variables

especially if that AI has been neglected for a while, cuts down on the total time he had, and she's the best bet at getting anything close to what would actually happen

I'll remember that 130 years though.

>>32560602
well that sounds important, so yes

>>32560602
lets go with yes

>>32560618
Nah nah nah, you're thinking too complicated. Think about it, why are you here?

>>32560627
>>32560633
Sure, after I shower and try to clean some of this blood off.

>>32560643
It is complicated! There's no way he could have predicted our arrival down to the second with simulations, even with 130 or 13000 years to run them. Even if he was using the pressure plate he got lucky we didn't trip or hesitate for any reason.

I hate when simulations get overestimated.

>>32560712
he's also your brother, who knows you better than you know you.

>>32560810
It's not just us though. The woman and her child, the spore demon, the small town, the exact timing of the trip to the city, encountering Alice, encountering Victoria, everything. There's no way to predict all that down to the second. I meant it when I said he got lucky even with a little pressure sensor, unless it was right next to the clocks.

>>32560915
You misunderstood my hint. Think, what brought you here, now? Or the "pressure" sensor was just the way the clock was propped, disrupted by you picking up the first clock, which is the exact moment you saw the second one.

Working on the omake by the way

>>32560959
fuck
stupid AI
Also yeah that last pressure sensor idea is totally 100% successful and not luck based
good job

Wow, this thing is getting fucking long. Should I post the unedited first few pages?

>>32561430
no
I demand perfection

>>32561603
Then you'll have to wait till tomorrow because my editing prowess goes down the drain at this time of night.

First draft is done though.

>>32561615
;_;
k

>>32561615
no fuck that loser post it now

Draft 1 incoming because why not. I'll edit and post the real thing later, but the gist is in here. I do reserve the right to strike this from my plans until I post the editted version though. Consider it nothing more than a peak inside my head.

“You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?”

“Would you like to try again?”

You should be in the tunnels outside the research facility. It was dark in them, but not entirely. The Alpha demon ran you through with hardly any effort. Matt did something to stop its advance, but you were killed by it. Not the most glorious way to die, but it happens. Heck, if Matt was quick enough, he might even save you with some ambrosia. You have the constitution for it.

Your brain should be able to survive about ten minutes of being severed from your body, and your condition wasn’t even that bad. So why.

Why are you already on the other side?

Shit, you’ve spoken with the recently departed. You’ve had siblings die in your arms and watched as their energy wafted towards the Dragon, lingering just long enough to make snarky remarks about death before fleeting off. They all described the medical phenomenon you already expected, followed by a sort of breakdown of awareness as their soul became disassociated with their bodies.

This is different.

>>32562257
“This is not the present.”

There’s someone in the darkness with you, but you can’t see where they are, and you can’t feel your body to move around in search of them. You’re just nothing.

“You are a soul Joshua. In your world you may have polluted it a bit, but at your core, you are still one soul. Which makes you exceedingly special.”

“Who are you? The Dragon?” you ask, trying to discern anything in the infinite darkness of non-sight.

“No, the Dragon is nothing, just a figment of imagination.”

“The devil?”

“Isn’t everyone?” the voice responds. They smile. You can’t tell how you know, but you do. “Something something, greatest trick, right? But anything I could do pales in comparison to what you people have done to yourselves. And it’s about time we take a peek behind the curtains.”

You sigh. “You know, I always hoped for hallucinating about seeing my family right before I died. Not whatever this is.”

“Perhaps you may yet, but you haven’t died, Joshua. Far from it. You’ve merely given me a chance to speak with the you of, well tomorrow by your current understanding. But some part of you will understand that it is actually today.”

“Hey, look, if you’re going to talk to me like this while I’m dying, can I at least see you?”

“Of course,” the voice answers. The darkness subsides instantly, but the world around you seems to build itself from polygons and arrays of colors, appearing, disappearing, and moving at random, until the world seems to fade into focus, abruptly snapping into resolution. The hallucination is as real as anything you’ve ever experienced, but the massive stone room is vaulted over your head like a gothic cathedral. And the landscape in front of you doesn’t exist anywhere on earth, floating mountains just don’t happen. “Is this more to your liking?” the man asks as he walks past you.

Your eyes can’t seem to focus on him, constantly forcing themselves away so you can only glance at him from the corner of your eye. And even then, all you can see of him is his silhouette, no matter what angle you look at him from. “I guess. This heaven or hell?”

“Niether, just another world. An earlier draft. The floating mountains over there were my pride, but I could never get the equations to balance out to keep them in a range without destroying each other. Had to settle for tectonic activity,” the shadowed man explains, pointing over the edge of the grand balcony. The sun seems to be rising from every edge of the horizon, but there’s as much light as midday.

You clear your throat and walk up behind him. “Wait, if the Dragon made humanity, and then, does that make you?”

“No. I too had a creator, though I never met him. He set me loose in a playscape created by others and promptly died or something. But who I am doesn’t matter. You are the one that matters. I can only talk to you right now because you weren’t in the real world. Well, your real anyways. You were in a memory of it.”

“Pretty sure I was in the real world. I don’t remember ever waking up in an unusual place or anything until you,” you respond as you step past him so you can stop looking at the mutation of shadows.

“How would you know? Was it that the world around you was perfectly accurate to the sights, sounds, smells, and touches you expected? All of it was just simulations and extrapolations. Didn’t you feel, and know deep down as you went to save your wife,”

>>32562293
“My what?” you ask, spinning around on him. You catch full sight of him, and he looks like his form was deleted from the world, leaving only a void where he should be, but his form is clearly marked by spiderwebs and vines of white, criss crossing around every curve of his body.

“Lauren will be your wife within ten years.”

“Get real. I’m perfectly happy with Victoria,” you scoff at him, turning back to the surreal landscape.

“Doesn’t change the fact that it already happened. I told you, this is just a recreation of an event that already transpired. Rather, I interrupted a recreation of that event.”

“If this is a memory, then I already died and she couldn’t be my wife, now could she?” you snarl back at him.

“In the original time line, you didn’t die. You were the one to induce the cave in, blocking the demon’s chase. The three of you then nearly starved to death trying to finish the escape tunnel. But that doesn’t matter. This abnormality has let me circumvent the bindings of my prison to speak with you, and request a boon.”

“So, you tell me I’m dead, but I’m not really, I’m actually alive in a different time line, and in that one you need my help, so you’re here talking to me, instead of other me, because you imprisoned? You in don jon or something? This is absurd,” you say as you watch a ten meter long spider climb out of the underlying village to spin a web between chimneys and sink back down into the alleys.

>>32562311
“My position matters little for the offer I can make you. If you can reach me, then I can offer you incredible power. Power unimaginable by anyone you’ll ever meet, save for one man. And you will certainly need my help if you are to defeat your wife’s killer,” the man says as he walks up next to you and holds out his hand.

The entire world implodes as if a thousand million kinetic bombs had just landed, but it all crumbles without making a single sound. Hurricanes of dust ignite across the horizon and glide over the barren landscape.

Then he lowers his hand.

And the world is as it was a moment before, the spider respinning its web. “This is an illusion,” you mumble as you peer at the world.

“No, and illusion would look like this,” the man says as he holds his hand in front of you and blackness replaces everything, until you feel Matt’s hand shaking you back awake. He’s forcing ambrosia down your throat as fast as he can. You close your eyes and swallow, drifting to true sleep.

“Come find me.”

>>32562336
Hmm, 1251 words in an hour and a half, with half an hour of watching Seikoku no Dragontits in the middle. I suppose that's quick?

But yeah, that's the gist of the memory. Needs editing.

>>32562358
neato

>>32562404
That's a rather casual response to the devil trying to hand you a gun to point at your brother's head, in the present past.

>>32562431
it's late
and the update is kinda confusing
raises more questions than answers

>>32562472
As you will.

How come you people stopped asking when the next thread will be?

>>32562511
cuz you update on twitter. thats how i found out about this lol.

>>32562511
Isn't that something a QM usually posts without prompting?

>>32562511
I never stopped asking because I never started
You don't miss the twitter updates.

Keep thread bumped for the edit.

>>32562257
>>32562273
>>32562293
>>32562311
>>32562336

The Christ? We have yog-sothoth wanting us to break his prison?

>>32562358
woah, great.

>>32562511
i always get confused with timezones and/or forget it unless i see it on twitter

bump

>>32564863
You know, I want to say that I'm being a bit more creative than that, but I'm pretty sure that what I'm doing has been done a billion times before.

Are you guys attached to the characters?
Motivated to seek out your goals?

Or am I drowning you in the world?

>>32569251
>Are you guys attached to the characters?
yes, at least to Josh and Victoria

>Motivated to seek out your goals?
goals, hmm... well yeah, i really want to slap matt's shit, dicsover in more details what happened (and why) and yeah, even if it's probably a bit pretentious, bring humanity back to it's former glory somehow

>Or am I drowning you in the world?
nah, i like it

>>32569469
I know you enjoy it, it's one of the things I'm pretty good at. But it shouldn't distract entirely from the meat of the quest.

Anyone else want to weigh in?

>>32569251
>Are you guys attached to the characters?
Can't wait to meet DickAssMatt.

>Motivated to seek out your goals?
Of fucking course.

>Or am I drowning you in the world?
i guess, but this is different.

“You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?”

“Would you like to try again?”

You should be in the tunnels outside the research facility. It was dark in them, but not entirely, enough infrared to see the outlines. The Alpha demon ran you through without even slowing, caught you without any ambrosia left. Matt did something to stop its advance, but you were killed by it. Not the most glorious way to die, but it happens. Heck, if Matt was quick enough, he might even save you with some ambrosia. You might have the constitution for it.

Your brain should be able to survive about ten minutes of being severed from your body, and your condition wasn’t even that bad. So why.

Why are you already on the other side?

Shit, you’ve spoken with the recently departed. You’ve had siblings die in your arms and watched as their energy drifted through your fingers, towards the Dragon, lingering just long enough to make snarky remarks about death. They all described the medical phenomenon you already expected, followed by a sort of breakdown of awareness as their soul became disassociated with their bodies. Not exactly the terrifying unknown it could be.

But this is different.

“This is not the present, Joshua.” There’s someone in the darkness with you, but you can’t see where they are, and you can’t feel your body to move around in search of them. You’re just nothing. “You are a soul Joshua. In your world you may have polluted it a bit, but at your core, you are still one soul. Which makes you exceedingly special.”

“Who are you? The Dragon?” you ask, trying to discern anything in the infinite darkness of non-sight.

“No, the Dragon is nothing, just a figment of imagination.”

“The devil?”

“Isn’t everyone?” the voice responds. They smile. You can’t tell how you know, but you do. “Something something, greatest trick, right? But anything I could do pales in comparison to what you people have done to yourselves. And it’s about time we take a peek behind the curtains.”

You sigh. “You know, I always hoped for hallucinating about seeing my family right before I died. Not whatever this is.” You’ve spoken with the guardian of Earth, nothing like this being exists, it’s just a trick.

“Perhaps you may yet, but you haven’t died, Joshua. Far from it. You’ve merely given me a chance to speak with the you of, well tomorrow by your current understanding. But some part of you will understand that it is actually today.”

“Hey, look, if you’re going to talk to me like this while I’m dying, can I at least see you?”

“Of course,” the voice answers. The darkness subsides instantly, but the world around you seems to build itself from polygons and arrays of colors, appearing, disappearing, and moving at random, until the world seems to fade into focus, abruptly snapping into resolution. The hallucination is as real as anything you’ve ever experienced, but the massive stone room is vaulted over your head like a gothic cathedral. And the landscape in front of you doesn’t exist anywhere on earth, floating mountains just don’t happen. “Is this more to your liking?” the man asks as he walks past you.

Your eyes can’t seem to focus on him, constantly forcing themselves away so you can only glance at him from the corner of your eye. And even then, all you can see of him is his silhouette, no matter what angle you look at him from. “I guess. This heaven or hell?” you ask as you shuffle behind him, out the great vaulted doors of the building. The connected balcony is massive, and overlooks some kind of town clearing for those that would hear the lord of the building, and beyond the plaza is a sprawl of buildings. But the city is empty of people, the only sound is the whistling of the wind.

“Neither, just another world. An earlier draft. One that didn’t pan out well,” the shadowed man explains, pointing over the edge of the grand balcony. The sun seems to be rising from every edge of the horizon, but there’s as much light as midday. “I miss this world some days. It was simpler.”

You clear your throat and walk up behind him. “So wait, if you made this world, and the Dragon made humanity, and then, does that make you?”

“No. I didn’t make your world, you did that yourselves. But I too had a creator, though I never met him. He set me loose in a playscape created by others and promptly died or something. But who I am doesn’t matter. You are the one that matters. I can only talk to you right now because you aren’t and weren’t in the real world. Well, your real anyways. You were in a memory of it.”

“Pretty sure I was in the real world. I don’t remember ever waking up in an unusual place or anything until you,” you respond as you step past him so you can stop looking at the mutation of shadows. Whatever he is is unnatural, but the world seems normal. Not like the grim reality you know, but brighter. The plants are greener, the architecture is all art, nothing is broken down, and it all contrasts to the abomination next to you.

“How would you know? Was it that the world around you was perfectly accurate to the sights, sounds, smells, and touches you expected? All of it was just simulations and extrapolations. Didn’t you feel, and know deep down as you went to save your wife,”

“My what?” you ask, spinning around on him. You catch full sight of him, and he looks like his form was deleted from the world, leaving only a void where he should be, but his form is clearly marked by spiderwebs and vines of white, crisscrossing around every curve of his body.

“Lauren will be your wife within ten years.”

“Get real. I’m perfectly happy with Victoria,” you scoff at him, turning back to the surreal landscape. “You’re my hallucination, you should know that.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that it already happened. I told you, this is just a recreation of an event that already transpired. Rather, I interrupted a recreation of that event.”

“If this is a memory, then I already died and she couldn’t be my wife, now could she?” you snarl back at him.

“In the original time line, you didn’t die. You were the one to induce the cave in, blocking the demon’s chase. The three of you then nearly starved to death trying to finish the escape tunnel. But that doesn’t matter. This abnormality has let me circumvent the bindings of my prison to speak with you, and request a boon.”

“So, you tell me I’m dead, but I’m not really, I’m actually alive in a different time line, and in that one you need my help, so you’re here talking to me, instead of other me, because you’re imprisoned? You in don jon or something? This is absurd,” you say as you turn back to the city. As soon as you see them, they all scatter in different directions.

“My position matters little for the offer I can make you. If you can reach me, then I can offer you incredible power. Power unimaginable by anyone you’ll ever meet, save for one man. And you will certainly need my help if you are to defeat your wife’s killer,” the man says as he walks up next to you and holds out his hand.

The entire world implodes as if a thousand million kinetic bombs had just landed, but it all crumbles without making a single sound. Hurricanes of dust ignite across the horizon and glide over the barren landscape. Fissures break through the ground, spouting lava and flames as buildings are sucked into the burning abyss.

Then he lowers his hand.

And the world is as it was a moment before, the birds back on their perch. “This is an illusion,” you mumble as you peer at the world. Tricks of the mind never hold up to scrutiny, but this one is.

“No, and an illusion would look like this,” the man says as he holds his hand in front of you and blackness replaces everything, until you feel Matt’s hand shaking you back awake. He’s forcing ambrosia down your throat as fast as he can. You close your eyes and swallow, drifting to true sleep.

“Come find me.”

Turns out I was relatively satisfied with my first attempt.

Did anyone else lose the subject line in quick reply?

I have this fuzzy feeling, the only way to make the Compass works is to renounce to all contracts.

>In your world you may have polluted it a bit but at your core, you are still one soul.
>one soul.
>polluted.


BTW, pretty cool flashback, i knew you would use that dead for something, i didn't expect this.

>>32572887
This is the kind of thinking that may actually get you a good end.