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omaticwriting · 1 year

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Grand Anomaly: New Beginnings [Chapter 4-of fears and senses]

Two weeks had passed since Eliana joined Daniel and his friends. Everyone decided to stay until Daniel had fully recovered before going onward again, and in that time everyone got to know each other more slowly as each day of the new world around them passes.

Nicolas was reserved, responsible, and observant as ever, keeping an eye on their current camp to make sure things don't go wrong, especially with Eliana and Orbos, each having their reasons as to why. Orbos is an important source of information while Eliana was more so her special need to drink blood, making the group learn how to trap animals for her to drink but at least it's not too bad not to mention him being the cook of the camp as someone has to do it, even if it's essentially just him simply reheating packed food or simply skewering meat over the fire.

Selene and orbos took the role of helping Daniel recover, the loss of blood weakened him greatly but he was glad to have them around along with Eliana who spent time with all three of them whenever she could, she looked a lot happier since they all first found her and all three hoped that it'll stay that way. However the three took the task of being the brains of the camp, with Selene being prepared for many situations, Orbos's vast data and knowledge, not to mention vowing to be a translator for both Eliana and the group to understand each other, and Daniel's curiosity and eagerness to learn they helped make good decisions and learned quite a lot from each other.

Willa had mostly done the tasks outside of camp as she spent her time making, setting, and checking traps, at times during her shit she spooks animals out of burrows and into her traps, which she enjoyed every moment of it. Granted, it was messy and everyone else was doing other important tasks, but that was the fun bit of it.

Now everyone was packing up and getting ready to move on and find orbos's friend. And Daniel now fully recovered, found a newfound sense of optimism, and was ready to continue the adventure. "Alright, I just finished packing, is everyone else ready?" Daniel asked, seeing the group collectively nod; they began to set out north.

...

As they walked down the path, Daniel had many thoughts in his mind, seeing Eliana walking behind him, holding a large canister containing blood, and watching her sip from it on occasion, he couldn't help but protect her much like when his stepbrother did when he was around, except he was the older brother now, bringing a faint smile to grow. But those thoughts would soon be brought to a halt as the scenery changed.

The Forest looked more pristine compared to the surrounding forests, the suns rays were a bright gilded yellow compared to the traditional whitish-yellow they normally see, the greenery was a shimmering emerald green as if the rain had recently passed and the ever peaceful dog of birds and crisp breeze filled everyone's ears, everything was as if they stumbled upon a wonderland but nothing was as it seemed, especially when it came to Nicolas and orbos. orbos knows what exactly is happening thanks to the knowledge he possesses despite his senses tricking him, while Nicolas can only have a faint clue as to what the place truly is. He smelt ash and smoke, his ears hear crackling but not how leaves sound in the wind but rather embers burning away wood, and a faint heat as if he's standing by an open flame and yet his eyes can only see the Forest in front of him.

"We should go around, this place doesn't feel right," he said, with Orbos agreeing, "Nicolas is right, we should leave and go around this place at once," he said with concern in his voice but before he could truly explain the dangers an unfamiliar voice cut him off "hello!" It sounded loud and cheerful, the group looked over to the person who called out.

Their hair was blond but looked rather ambiguous much like everything else about them but they could tell they looked like a farmer of sorts, though Nicolas can see the glassy look in their blueish eyes, for now, he'll look past it and keep his guard up.

"Hello there, I wasn't expecting to meet anyone, especially out here" they spoke, a grins lowly forming, it felt offsetting but at the same time natural "OH! Where are my manners? I'm Soleil it is nice to meet you all" he gave his hand out as Daniel awkwardly shook it and was rather surprised by the amount of energy Soleil had despite their rigid movements.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Daniel, and these are my friends Selene, Willa, Nicolas, orbos, and Eliana," he said as everyone waved, Nicolas more hesitant compared to the rest, eyeing the person up and down, hidden behind his goggles not exactly trusting the person in front of him.

"What lovely names you all have" they gave the group a wide cheerful yet off-putting grin "where are all of you going?" They asked, seeing how everyone had large bags full of items, surely they were heading somewhere or so they believed. "What's it to you? "Willa probed, a brow lifting ever so slightly as this was now getting suspicious "oh, I assumed, seeing you're all carrying such heavy baggage on you" they pointed to all the bags they had, lowering Willa's guard by a bit.

"Oh! Maybe you could stay with me today, you all seemed tired, you need rest, comfort, maybe even a proper meal" they recommend and it seemed rather persuasive. Everyone was tired and they do miss sleeping on a bed "that would be nice but we-"Selene attempted to interject only to be uncomfortably shushed by Soleil "I insist, it's been so long since I had guests, and I am quite lonely" they spoke with a solemn tone turning their face away from the kids somewhat mimicking a frown behind the group's backs.

Daniel felt some twinge of sympathy for the person in front of him, looking at his friends they had similar expressions to his albeit mixed, whilst Nicolas and orbos didn't share the sentiment.

"I guess we could..." Daniel spoke, unsure filling his voice however Soleil looked ecstatic as he turned to Daniel with the same unsettling smile "great! You don't know how much this means to me" they exclaimed, guiding the group into the forest, much to everyone's delight through a soft bed would be nice. camping is nice but a soft bed and a freshly cooked meal were something everyone missed.

"So tell me about yourselves?" they inquired to an almost unsettling degree, Daniel being the first to speak up "I like to watch my dad draw illustrations of buildings," he said before Willa blew a loud raspberry, somewhat disturbing the peace a bit "boooooring!"She exclaimed, causing some confusion for Daniel and his loyal companion who was taking a liking to Eliana who did so in return, and as much as she wanted to join the conversation, only air left her mouth still unable to speak making the young child frown in dissatisfaction, at least Alpine cuddled up with her to make her feel better.

"How is that boring?" He argued, Willa sighed before explaining with an albeit blunt tone "well, watching people draw buildings is boring" Daniel took some offense though he had a feeling it wasn't her intention to, keeping to himself regarding it for now "and what do you want to do then?" he asked, "dunno, gardening is a good one" she shrugged, gaining some odd looks outside of Selene who knew her more compared to everyone else.

"I thought you'd be more into sports or rolling in the mud" Nicolas commented "well now you know" she spoke, a small chuckle and subtle eye movement didn't escape his gaze before watching her smirking as they walked through the beaten path, Soleil looked to Selene who seemed rather focused on other aspects "hey orbos, you were saying something important earlier what was it?" She asked, causing Orbos to snap out of his suspension as he glanced at Selene, maybe this time he won't be interrupted.

"This place was once home to a thriving village before something happened, local sourean knights came to investigate but only found the village and its people burning, leaving no survivors " he explained, his tone more solemn and worried, causing the rest of the group to worry "oh, mind the mekani-sprite, it is true however I can assure you that this happened years before arriving here...granted somethings remain, and are quite annoying, not to mention there are rumors someone has survived" they reassured before seeing the very thing the village left behind.

They were a shadow with only their vague shape of a person being the only thing that they could tell along with large glowing pupil-less eyes that stared ever outward if one were to look at them and white markings scattered around their body. Luckily it didn't seem all too interested in the group more so looking at a stone it merely picked up on the ground.

"Shoo!, shoo! Go away!" Soleil cried out, causing the shadowy figure to look at them, it didn't speak out, merely giving Soleil an annoyed glance before walking away "the nerve of some lost's" they groaned in distaste.

"I'm sorry but what's a lost?" Daniel inquired, his eyes gazing curiously at the now leaving figure, alpine being more on edge, and did all he could to keep his owner and his new friends out of harm's way. "Wayward spirits, they're the ghosts of beings who never had proper rest or were chosen by the star goddess Danica, left to wander until a reaper or a guide returns them to the earth or stars or they regain their memories and become a found" they explained, noticing the sympathy on the young lad they reassured "don't feel bad for them, they don't remember their lives before being alive, and helping them remember won't truly help unless you can find remember " they finished before showing their unnerving grin once more "come along now, we must make a move on" and thus they walked onward, as in the distance a small cozy cobblestone cottage with a red and yellow field of flowers laid on the front yard, with small round windows and a well maintained smoothened Carmel oak porch, a few cattle grazing in the distance. "This way now, we can continue our conversation inside" they gestured as they opened the door for them, watching with a plastered grin as one by one walked inside.

Inside the cottage seemed rather homely, its walls lined with yellows and oranges, decorations from photos to paintings lined the walls, each having something related to fire with a grand fireplace at the center of it all, lighting the peaceful home.

"Now I hope you don't mind, I haven't had the chance to clean," they said, fearing the place would be a mess for them. Luckily much to their relief none mind, although Nicolas and orbos still had their suspicion maybe it was for the best.

"This is a nice home you have" Soleil, grinned at Daniel's compliments before letting the children explore the cottage interior. For now, until dinner in which they began preparing as fragrant herbs and spices filled the small cottage.

Nicolas couldn't help but scoff and gag -too strong- he thought, even if his senses weren't as sensitive as it was before the anomaly, his life before much so being the cook of the camp as well sure affected his way of how perceiving food works, especially given how he used to eat largely bland foods before now which felt a blessing and a curse to his not so sensitive senses.

"Hey Soleil, what's the grub?" Willa yelled from one of the guest's rooms, clearly being able to smell the food from where she stood. It didn't take long for her to get a reply with an ever-cheerful tone "nothing too special, just a simple stew, it should be ready in an hour"

Eliana looked at the décor and the fireplace of the cottage with agitation, the place reminded her too much of the fires that the villagers did to her village, her breath grew more intense as the very air around her felt thin and yet slowly crushing her lungs as she began to whimper as the room began to spin in her mind. Everything became a blur to her, voices became murmurs; it was simply too much to bear before losing consciousness as her senses paralyzed her with fear and overstimulation. Meanwhile, Soleil grinned madly, despite not seeing it they felt it and it brought a sweet taste in his mouth, a mere taste as to what's to come and they have to restrain themselves till then.

Daniel panicked at the sight, being the only one nearby was a very stressful situation, especially with this being a first-time thing "Eliana! Can you hear me? Eliana!" He cried out hoping to get some semblance of a reply or At Least someone heard him and that his friend or Soleil would help but a reply was not given. Daniel struggled to figure out how to calm Eliana down and help her understand as without orbos he couldn't communicate with her but realized Alpine kept her calm. Maybe that can work "elii, I want you to focus on Alpine" he whispered. Not wanting to cause more problems or so he hoped as Alpine lay near Eliana with Daniel gently placing her hand on his fur.

Eliana silently screamed in her mind, the memories of the fires, the people who screamed and called her and her people monsters, and the screams when they were struck, it all came flooding out, her memories burning into her mind like she was back there again, but there was always a faint voice and the sudden feeling of warm fur broke her out, slowly at first but soon her breathing calmed as she noticed the soft cushions on her back and the warm fur of Alpine next to her.

She grunted as she looked at Daniel, his words sounded like unintelligible gargling but at least his face showed concern, allowing her to understand she must have worried him, forcing a smile to let him know she was alright.

Not long after, Orbos and the rest of the crew arrived. Each had a worried expression as they all heard Daniel's distressed call "did something happen?!, are you two alright?"Orbos asked first, clearly worried about the two as Daniel began explaining what happened before their arrival.

"That sounds like a panic attack," Nicolas commented before continuing. "It's hard to explain but essentially it happens when people are under too much stress or something that triggers a bad memory" he explained best he could give as he had a similar experience with things like these.

Daniel nodded, he was a little glad that someone had some experience though he realized Soleil wasn't present but shrugged it off as they might be busy cooking, speaking of which the rich smell of food filled the air and not long a shout from Soleil that supper was ready-made him hungry, though he didn't wish to leave Eliana yet, in case it happens again "hey, Daniel you coming, foods ready" Willa pestered. Snapping Daniel out of his thoughts before answering "I think I'll stay with Eliana".

Willa lifted her brow at that, but soon came to understand why after a glance at Eliana "All alright, I'll see you soon then!" She exclaimed before flying off to the dining hall, Nicolas not too far behind her albeit at a walking pace. Selene, however, looked at Daniel then at Eliana, concern filled her face "I'll be sure to bring some food for both of you" "thanks" was Daniel's only reply. Enjoying the sentiment as he kept an eye on Eliana, clinging onto Daniel and alpine to help anchor herself away from her bad memories, leaving Selene to walk away to join the rest.

"Ah, glad to see all of you," Soleil said. Awaiting at the table, his smile is somewhat more plastered and impatient, at least for Nicolas," hm, Daniel, Eliana, and Alpine won't be attending with us?" They questioned as Selene confirmed his question with a nod "no matter, let's eat" they said with joy as the others sat down, bowls at the ready.

Dinner remained awkwardly quiet as silence filled the table. Willa wanted to speak her mind but the feeling of Soleil made her do otherwise, it just felt unsettling as the seconds went by. She wished she could be in the room Daniel and Eliana were in, at least they didn't have to deal with the crushing anxiety that was happening here.

"You're all oddly quiet," Soleil spoke. Finally breaking the silence, their face forming a frown, now aware of tension in the room they might as well send them all to bed, they waited long enough anyway, however, they noticed Selene helping herself to more of the stew with three bowls in a tray, perhaps that would be for the remaining children in the bedrooms they reasoned, they didn't stop her, the rest needed food anyway however now would be a good time to set plans into motion. With a fluid motion, Soleil stood up and announced to everyone currently present at the table. All the familiar plastered smile on his face that Nicolas now detests "you're all excused, bedrooms area cross the hall"

One by one everyone slowly left the table, Soleil grinned devilishly as they watched them leave, now it's time for their plan to begin. Meanwhile, everyone returned to Daniel who was doing the best he could to be comfortable, as Alpine lay on his chest whilst Eliana clung to both. "So how was dinner for you?" he asked, he so far seemed a little peaceful despite Alpine eating messily of his meal, the floor surrounding the stew bowl was an example of it. "It was bloody tense" Willa exclaimed, her voice seeming a little tense before continuing "Soleil was very tense, you guys think they're up to something?" she questioned no one in particular, which quite shocked her when Orbos and Nicolas exclaimed "YES!" in unison "they've been suspicious to me since the beginning, why hasn't anyone noticed?!" he spoke in frustration. Taking a deep breath he collected himself before continuing "sorry, but this person is bad news we have to-" he stopped, his eyes changed to that of fear "we need to get out of here" he didn't give anyone time to ask as he rushed everyone to the room's exit.

Both His and Orbos' fears and suspicions were given truth as the doorknob felt searing hot as the sound of crackling flame could be heard from the other side. Everyone became tense, Eliana more so as the trauma remained fresh in her mind clinging onto Daniel in hopes this was another dream she could wake from. "I'm sorry for this, it isn't personal" Soleil spoke behind the door, their voice drowned by it, and the fire and smoke which slowly leaked into the room, despite their face being hidden they can tell their smiling, more devilish and dark by their true nature as they continued "but someone has to feed and your bodies and souls would make good fuel for the pyre" they finished as they left, a laugh becoming more distant as the group looked at each other.

Selene quickly scans the room for an exit but the only exit is the only thing keeping the fire out as its black hands claw the door from the small space it can reach before rising towards the ceiling. -Black hands?! That isn't how smoke should work, come on Selene think! there has to be an exit- she thought before coming up with an idea "Willa I need you to phase through the walls, see if there's an exit" she said with urgency, Willa nodded as she put her trust in her friend and with a green glow covering her body poked her head through the walls. "Daniel, I need you to barricade the door, we need more time" Daniel wasn't sure but nodded regardless, holding onto Eliana a radiant grey glow traced his boy as the door was concealed with stone.

While the three continued with their plan, Orbos and Nicolas stood there, a plan hatched without a word spoken, it would be cut short by Willa however "this wall leads outside!" she exclaimed, gesturing to the wall on the opposite side of the door. Selene smiles, gesturing for everyone to stand back, taking a strong stance, her body glowed a powerful blue before tightening her hand into a fist and colliding it into the wall, punching a gaping hole for everyone to escape. running as fast as they all could.

Once outside everyone took the time to recuperate. The cottage is still burning in the distance "okay, what just happened?!" Willa yelled. concern, confusion, and fear on her face. thoughts raced through everyone's mind as to why Soleil did all that but whatever the case they needed to leave and hope Soleil didn't follow. But all thoughts come to a stop as Soleil emerged from the distance, their face showing disappointment as flames ignite the dry grass with every step they took -when was the grass dry?- Nicolas thought before entering the grass was wet and lush, perhaps the fire had something to do with it, but that's for the backburner for now.

"Oh, so it seems you escaped," they spoke with disappointment before giving their signature grin to the group, now more sadistic as they continued "no matter, you won't escape anyway" they raised their hand, and fire erupted around them, the smoke becoming mangled dark claws that grew with every second, Nicolas looked between Soleil and the rest of the group, trying to think of a plan, an idea, anything to buy them enough time to escape, but soon, the only option left presenting itself.

"Everyone, listen carefully," He told the group. His voice was solemn as his gaze never left Soleil which caused some concern, but it got their attention. "I need you all to run while Soleil is busy with me, I'll try to return to you as soon as I can '' he lied on the last, doubting he could, but, anything to help keep their hopes up helps. "oh, no you're not going to play hero, we stick together" Willa argued only to have Nicolas to argue in return "it's better if they take one of us instead of all of us" he narrowed his eyes as Willa tried to argue only to fall short "you better keep your promise or so help me I'll drag you back to earth so I can beat you myself!" Nicolas gave a small smile at the threat as Willa playfully jabbed his shoulder "I'll try" he answered, watching them run to safer ground as an irradiating heat approached Nicolas's back as Soleil stood behind him, he felt the smoke like claws trying to claw its way into his nose, trying to get past the facemask that protected him which seemed quite effective in buying him time.

"Isn't this quite the surprise" Soleil spoke seeing Nicolas by his lonesome? Their face showed disappointment but they couldn't have gone far -disappointing, but he will do- they thought before a swift claw of smoke plunged into his chest, not fully piercing his organs but enough to make him bleed slowly, dragging him back to the cottage with slow and methodical torture.

Nicolas held his breath, the smoke entering into the wounds made every breath like fire, it was hard anyway as his blood flooded into his wounds from his chest -okay, how do I get out of this?- his mind could quickly muster. he knew had nothing but burrowed time and it wouldn't be long before his demise but he had faith knowing his friends would escape...and yet his family had faith in him to come home, much so his friends.

His train of thought would be snapped by Soliel's scream their back burnt revealing a single black dot that pierced through their clothes and skin. the claw began to fade, bringing relief as the wounds closed. Standing up he looked at Soleil with quiet but mighty resolve as he stared on with determination.

"HOW DA-" they erupted into anger. pillars of flames as tall as skyscrapers erupted from their rage, only to be replaced by divine fear, Nicolas stared at him with a confused expression while eyes of lavender stared on and judged them for every action, burning away slowly at their soul before closing, a true sight of divine intervention.

it didn't take Soleil to realize Nicolas has a natural affinity for healing magic, though it is useful but will simply end in a stalemate between them until one tires which seemed rather tedious in their opinion. more so the mark of gods on them alongside their divine intervention. So with a sigh, they spoke, knowing the very gods watched their next action "I suppose we could form a deal, given our circumstances" Nicolas was dumbfounded, why would they strike a deal after trying to kill them.

"It's simple," they continued. "I will provide you and your friend's safe passage, in return, you shake my hand." Nicolas couldn't help but narrow his eyes at the offer, especially when he saw them lend their hand out "what's the catch?" He spoke with distaste before seeing them grin with no sense of disappointment surprisingly.

"Smart child, however, you're in no position to bargain" they spoke with a sadistic grin as Nicolas stares on with contempt but what choice did he have?

"Fine..." he spat out with a sigh. Reluctance and spite coursed throughout every letter he spoke as he grasped Soleil's hand. Soleil devilishly grinned as both their hands burned in an inferno as claws of smoke dug their claws into both parties' flesh as the flame haphazardly cauterized the wounds that went for mere seconds but Nicolas, the sheer agony went on for hours as his eyes glowed from a bold earthen brown to a divine mixture of oranges and yellows but soon became a potent holy lavender much like his eye color, "you're all free, now get out before I find you next moon" being Soleil's last words to Nicolas as they fell to oblivion.

"...s.......olas!......Nicolas!" Nicolas' eyes shot open as he felt a firm punch to his gut, groaning as he stared at everyone, Willa being the one who punched him as she hovered on top of him, a glowing green outline that traces the shape of her body much like her eye...has that always happened when used their powers? Maybe no one noticed till now.

"Why are you here?" He asked, brushing the dirt off him, his voice sounding more blank than it's supposed to, probably just tired. Taking a look around the once-pristine forest now a brown and black barren plain from years of endless desolation, only hidden by the simplest of illusion magic. "After the whole running thing, the sun came up and the whole place just became barren" she answered "had to come to get you after you didn't arrive when the sun rose

"Oh, I see...we should get going then yeah?" He said now standing up, Willa nodding as they both walked away from the desolate ground.

"By the way, what happened between you and Soleil?" Willa asked, causing him to blankly look at her, it felt very off-putting as It went on before Nicolas checked his hand, the one used to shake their hand, now devoid of burns and scars but...his eyes subtly widen as a single small symbol of an eye on his palm. It suddenly opened and stared back before Nicolas quickly closed it as he put it in his hoodie pocket "well...?" Willa pressed on before Nicolas snapped out from his quiet trance

"It's a long story, maybe another time" he reassured, causing Willa to sigh in Disappointment and annoyance but at least understood as they rejoined the others but Nicolas couldn't help but wonder if he could get used to it and that oddly scared him.

#grand anomaly #writing

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trustbargains · 2 years

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gb-patch · 3 years

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Ask Answers: July 10th

I really let asks get away from me lately. I was super focused on working on that Patreon Moment. With that done I can finally think about doing other things, so here’s a new collection of answers!

Thank you for sending in questions everyone ^^.

For the new Patreon moment, will you be able to reference it in step 4? Or just like a tiny nod to it if you pick certain choices?

There won’t be. I’m sorry if you were hoping for that! The Patreon moment is meant to be entirely optional, it’s not something that gets you extra content in the main game.

Is the new CG artist the main one now? :0 I’ve noticed theres been a difference in the art style recently. Is the old CG artist still going to make art for the game? :0

The original artist still makes CGs for the game sometimes, but he mainly focuses on character sprites.

Are you going to put the NSFW our life moment on a website other than patreon? I would love to get it but I can't use patreon atm.

I don’t know. I'm afraid we can't release the Patreon Moment on a normal game storefront because we can't mix 18+ content with our family friendly game. If there's some other place similar to Patreon where it's not the normal type of full-scale public content releases we'd consider using that, but I’m not sure if there is another site that’s better than Patreon in that regard. I'm sorry.

Out of curiosity, in all of your games so far, which characters in each were the most fun to write? They obviously don't have to be your favorite characters!

Buffalo Seer in AFA, really everyone in XOD/XOBD is pretty equally entertaining to write, The Guide in LoV, and Cove in OL!

idk if you accept "personal" questions, but is there anything you've been watching/ listening to lately

Mostly, I’ve been watching/listening to Authortube videos as of late! It’s people who talk generally about the process of how books become traditionally published and/or share their own experience as they attempt to be published. I don’t have an interest in writing normal text based books, but it’s really interesting to hear about that world. I’m listening to a video about royalties right now as I answer these asks.

Will one of the desserts we get to pick be fudge? That'd be such a cute reference!

Haha, yeah, it should. Unless I completely blank on it and forget when trying to include the various referential food options.

I don't know if this has been asked previously but what would be the approximate heights for the presets MC can choose from Step 2 ~ 4? Are there any measurement you had in mind? Sorry if I didn't make myself clear kk I've been struggling with my English lately 💀

I don’t know, ahah. I didn’t have any numbers in mind for that. So it’s whatever you imagine it is!

I noticed a bug with the Patreon moment when it comes to what your character wears. When Jamie and Cove are kissing while my character only had dresses selected, I had both the option to remove the dress or to remove the shirt... Picking one of the options to interact with Cove, after he removed his shirt, it had Jamie remove their shirt followed by ther pants despite only having dresses picked.

Thank you for reporting ^^

I keep refreshing steam to see when the new doc for xobd will be released. I noticed you haven't posted anything about it in quite some time. Would it be possible to ask about a timeline/potential date? (If it's even this year—) I know you and your team are probably working super hard, I'm just super curious! ~Thank you!~

There are more stories done, I just haven’t gotten around to publicly releasing them. Hopefully I will have a chance to spend the time on that sooner rather than later!

hello!! i’m not sure if it’s an update but i’ve just replayed our life and at the end i can’t propose to cove anymore? :(( i’ve actually tried playing twice but the options are not there anymore, did you guys remove the options? i’m sorry if you’ve answered this before!! thank you and have a good one :)

I’m afraid things haven’t been changed or removed, so I think you might’ve accidentally picked the wrong things somewhere along the way and locked yourself out of being able to propose by mistake. Sometimes you meant to say you want to get married but instead you mis-click and have it so the MC isn’t thinking about marriage or something. All I can suggest is starting from the beginning of Step 3 and making sure to follow the steps listed in the FAQ. I’m sorry for that.

Did yall remove some of the options for when youre making out with Cove in the charity moment? I could've sworn you could grab his bonkadonk and its not there anymore

This is the same situation as the above. We didn’t remove things and you’re not wrong that there are sometimes those options. But there are various choices you have to make to get those options and it sounds like you accidentally missed something. If your relationship isn’t long-term, you can’t do it for example.

HI IM SO EXCITED I CAN FINALLY GET THE STEP 3 DLC

Thank you for getting it!

Is Shiloh super totally straight bc I’m very gay and a huge Shiloh fan, would my man make an exception?😩

Sadly, he is one of our super straight characters. I’m sorry.

Hi, I have a very dumb question. In Step 2 does Cove not wanna share his drink with us at the mall (or rather why he stops drinking it) because it's an indirect kiss? Or is it like ...weird to him to share? Because if I remember right he eats off our spoon in the birthday scene right?

Yeah, he’s awkward about it because he likes the MC and it feels very personal to share a straw with his crush.

Hi! If you don't mind me asking, who is the artist for OL2? Their style is so pretty!

Thank you for saying so! This is her Twitter- https://twitter.com/redridingheart

Do Beginnings & Always and Now & Forever exist in the same universe?

Yep! XOXO Droplets also exists in the same universe. It’s one big GB Patch world, haha.

Do Pran's parents regret the way they raised him? Do they feel ashamed of it?

No. They’re the type of people best cut out because they’re not gonna change. Which is why Pran does go very limited contact when he’s an adult.

Hi! I just wrapped up my second playthrough of Our Life, and I absolutely adore it, but I had a question. I went to the gallery and found I was missing 2 CGS (specifically Step 1-3 and 2-3) and I had no clue where they would've shown up. Which moments are those found in?

You get it by telling Cove about his dad offering you money to be his friend in Step 1 and Step 2. You can’t get both in one playthrough, since you can only tell Cove the truth once. I’m really glad you liked it!

Hi hi! Please, how tall is Baxter and Derek? Love the game so much and I can't wait to see more!

I don’t know, aha. I think Baxter was around 5′10 and Derek was like 5′8/5′9, maybe. I really am not one who has specific heights for things in mind.

is adult cove a bottom, top, or switch?

A switch, though would choose the top if he had to pick.

I was wondering if there is a way to transfer save data? Even if through the game files. I wanted to be able to transfer my save data from my desktop over to my laptop so that I could continue playing right where I left off from but I'm not entirely sure how to go about that.

If you save the save folder/persistent data of the game from your desktop and put it into the game folder on your other device, that could work.

Hi! Is it possible for us to know the date when our life: now and forever comes out on steam? Sorry if you've mentioned it before but I haven't seen it and I'm looking foward to that happening and just wanted to know :)

It’s gonna be a long time, I’m afraid. There’s no estimate right now.

I started playing Our Life with my sister a while ago, and I think you guys should know that we discovered your secret. >:)

L from death note and Cove are clearly the same person, and this whole game is just an origin story!!

I’ve never seen that show so I’m sorry to say I don’t understand the connection/reference you’re trying to make. I’m pretty out of the loop when it comes to media. I don’t watch movies or TV.

Will OL2 have options for disabled MCs?

I understand if it's too complicated, just curious

Unfortunately, it’s not really something we have a plan for. We couldn’t finish the game if we tried to include every disability and have it be meaningful. It’d just be too much content to create. But if we decide to only include a few, how would we choose which disabilities get to be represented and which are left out? I don’t know. It’ll probably have to be something we don’t include as an option again, sadly. I’m sorry.

playing our life > anything else

Haha, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

Honestly, I would like to thank Our Life for helping me come to terms with my sexuality. Before, I never would've actually thought that it was possible to like boys romantically and still be asexual. Almost all of the BL visual novels I've read had unskippable sexual content in them and it honestly just didn't click with what I feel. I'm glad I found Our Life. I love the game, the developers, and this fandom so much. Now, I can safely come out as homoromantic AND asexual (at least anonymously here anyway; my parents are still huge homophobes 😂).

Aw, it’s great to hear you felt comfortable being yourself in the game! That’s wonderful. I’m really sorry about your parents, though.

Will the demo for OL2 be on android? Really not sure if I could wait any longer than I have to aha

Yeah, it’ll be available for Android once we eventually release a demo!

Do all these reveals perhaps mean development is progressing ahead of schedule? Please let that be the case I'm already obsessed with Qiu

No, sorry, aha. Art comes along much faster than script/programming-work for us. It’s gonna be a long time before the game is a finished thing you can actually play. But at least we can look at the beautiful images.

Hey! First of all I wanna say I reallllllyyyyy loooovvveeee Our Life and XOXO Droplets! I have over 300 hours of playtime on Our Life… Anyways, I was just wondering, are the Derek and Baxter DLCs going to come out at the same time? If not, which one do you plan to release first? :3

They will come out separately and Derek will be first! Glad you like the game.

I keep replaying Our Life to get every possible iteration and I am loving it <3 I was wondering if Cove gets locked out of his confession because MC was talking to Lee, would it be possible to confess to him in step 4?

Yeah, you can avoid the confession in Step 3 and then get it in Step 4.

Hi, my Cove wears bracelets through step 2 and 3 but I still don't get an option to give him a bracelet? I didn't even know that was possible until I seen someone else ask about it lol

Hm, did you use the Cove creator? Maybe there’s a bug where using the creator to add bracelets doesn’t fulfill the requirement to give Cove a bracelet in Step 3.

Wait, I'm dense, when does Baxter appear in step 2? Is it from big park firework? I feel so bad since i really love Baxter and waiting to buy his dlc.

It’s in the Soiree Moment. You have to be just friends with Cove, indifferent, or crushing but not ask Cove to the dance at all. Then while there you can find someone new to dance with. But if you bring Cove to the dance while crushing, the MC won’t wanna dance with anyone else so you can’t get the scene.

In step 2 when we go to the soiree I made my mc go alone and baxter chooses the mc to dance, i'm curious, why did he pick the mc? sorry if this has been asked before!

Because the MC looked to be around his age, seemed to also be searching for a partner, and had nice legs. A perfect option for him.

I read some of the FAQs, and I saw that we could tell Baxter about the condo that he rented there was previously the mean old grandparents. how do we get the mc to tell him that?

It happens in the DLC Moment “Late Shift”. If you don’t have a job you instead get a longer scene with Baxter.

I don’t know if you’ve addressed this or not, but are you planning on paying voice actors for our life: now and forever?

Yeah, we pay our VAs in all our projects.

hey can i ask how you did the moments thing in ol? im trying to get into making visual novels and while im VERY sure its out of my comfort zone and all that atm i kinda wanna know just for the future, bc im p sure it would work well for something i wanna do :O but its also fine if you cant say for other reasons :>

I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean. Are you asking how we programmed the screen or something script related? Adding Moments like that is pretty straightforward, though. You just have buttons that open to different labels and then the scripts are essentially individual short stories/vignettes. Good luck with your VN!

Since Autumn becomes gender fluid later in the game, will there be a character who remains as he/him to romance in game?

OL1 has the he/him LIs, OL2 is all about other genders.

I don't want to impose on your creative plans, but a parrot could possibly make a good pet in an OL-type game? They're pretty long-lived and likely to still be thriving by the end even if the MC got them back in step 1.

I do appreciate the suggestion, but I’m afraid it’s not likely going to happen. I understand there are technically some animals that could theoretically live long enough to last the whole game that or we could have the MC only get a pet after some years have already passed. But the many things that would have to be considered/accommodated for makes it just something we probably can’t manage adding. I’m sorry.

As time passes will we be able to see Qiu and Tamarack's other stage arts as well?

They are both so cute i can't wait to be friends with them!

Yeah, we’ll show content from other Steps in the future. It’ll be a little while from now, though.

Can you date Cove and still have your family comfort you in the car?

You can’t get Cove’s Step 3 confession scene if you have the family comfort you in the car. But that’s not the only way to date him. You can get together with him earlier in the game or later on in Step 4.

Is Mc always going to be the one walking down the aisle or could Cove do it? Also could you choose to have one of your moms walk you?

No. Cove wouldn’t want to walk down the aisle like that and the MC automatically respects that. And the MC also gets to have their preferences respected, so it’s up to you whether they want to do an aisle walk or not. You also can pick who, if anyone, walks with you.

Once step 4 is out, will you be able to go the whole game on crush/love without either of you confessing?

Yes, as long as you tell the game you don’t want to progress the relationship. Even in Step 4 it won’t force you to officially get together.

Howdy, so in Step 4, there will be any Romance with Derek that is not part of any dlc?

He’s only a friend unless you get his romance story.

Will the step 4 in OL2 be one big step or are you considering moments?

Step 4 is just an epilogue in both games.

hi kind of a weird question but!! we know tht cliff doesn't start dating again but. wht abt flings? like does he ever do 1 night stands or anything? thank u!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nope. Cliff has a very small interest in sex. If he’s not in a real relationship with a partner he’s crazy about it simply isn’t something he feels a need for, so one night stands wouldn’t even cross his mind.

sorry if you've already answered this, but i was wondering if there were plans for there to be bonus love interests in OL2 like how we have derek and baxter in OL1.

Maybe! There are side characters who could be given romance stories, but whether or not it will happen depends on funding and how long everything else takes to finish.

I don't know if i'm allowed to ask about ol2 here yet, if not u can ignore this or answer it later. My question is can you date one of them and be good friends with the other? I don't want to be strangers with the other bcs i love them both a lot :<

Yes you can!

what patreon level do i have to be to unlock the nsfw moment? im on the $5 one right now, will that give me access to the moment, or just access to the moment progress?

That’ll give you access! Tier 2 and anything higher allows the player to download it.

#our life #ask #gb patch #gb patch games #all projects #Our Life Beginnings & Always #Our Life: Now & Forever

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hawksugarbaby · 3 years

Text

Tokoyami x reader- Big city, small pond

Fluff + Nature took back the earth AU combined with fantasy AU

You didn't take a breath before sinking back down from the side of the moss overrun pavement into the flooded road, deepened after many years of abrasion and sinkholes popping open intermittently. Deep enough for anything to swim in at least, though clementine traffic cone's still floated and drain covers for manholes had rusted and chipped away at the side. Litter still filled the bottom of the sinkhole but had all seemed to collect in the deep abysses. Metal benches were still bolted to the floor but had new river weeds and algae wrapped around each section of the skeleton but it was a wonderful place for anything to sit.

Your gills split open on your neck and you walked the depths of the "river" the reflection of miraculously working street signs for takeaways that greedy humans reopened over and over no matter how many times mother nature reclaimed the earth. Your finger's brushed the scales of an orange carp darting past you and you kicked your leg's out, turning them to an iridescent (f/c) fishtail, ending and transforming to human at the hips, your skirt clung to the tail under the water and your flowy t-shirt billowed out when you moved sharply, turning a corner or halting quickly to watch something.

Your tail kicked up rocks and dust which swirled in the water and settled at the bottom again as sediment. You scoffed at a human dropping a paper wrapper into the water that turned too much and landed on the floor, a few balls of red and white paper landing on your arm then tumbling off.

You popped your head up feeling a lily pad drooping down over your hair and covering your right eye. "Hey!" you shouted but the human was on his knees looking into the water in annoyance "Excuse me! I don't appreciate your wrapper dissolving in my river!" you shouted and he lifted his head, ruby eyes fluttered to you pulling the lily pad off your head, flopping it back onto the water where it drifted further away.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to drop it, I was trying to find it now" he sighed in annoyance at the knowledge it was gone. He sat cross legged at the side and tilted his head looking at you. "Mermaid?" it was definitely supposed to be a question but it sounded more like a surprise than curiosity. You rolled your eyes and repeated his word in a mocking tone "oh mermaid? No. I'm not a mermaid, I'm a nymph obviously. How would you like it if i just assumed you were a crow!" you crossed your arms, your tail fins swishing back and forth impatiently. "I suppose I'd be most irritated" he scratched the back of his neck and hung his head.

You sighed swimming closer to the edge and rested your forearms on the kerb next to him. "It's whatever. Not like you city folk would know a difference anyway. Mother nature did all she could to reclaim the earth as hers and you still poison us with your plastic and oil and deforestation" you listed the minimum amount of things humans had done yet it was still enough for him to feel a guilty punch to the gut. "I'm sorry for what my species did to the earth" he spoke on behalf of a race that didn't care. The human race. But it was nice to hear an apology for once instead of someone claiming it wasn't their fault.

"My name is tokoyami fumikage" he held out his hand and you took it, the web's between your fingers stretching out slightly and you analyse him curiously "(y/n) macdonald." he nodded and smiled at you politely "You have a very nice tail" he said unsure how to continue your conversation, it wasn't like he could just ask you to get up and join him for a dinner and get to know you, though honestly he wasn't sure how nymphs worked, for all he know maybe you could? "Thank you. It's my favourite colour!" you grinned swishing it behind you and hopping on the edge on the path with all your strength.

You kicked your tail out and they transformed into legs dipping into the water and creating ripples around your calves and he stared amazed at your split appendages, skirt still hugging your thighs nicely and your t-shirt stuck to you like a puppy with abandonment issues.

"The difference by the way. This is the difference between mermaids and nymphs. Mermaids are usually really rude too" you explained, picking a string of riverweed from your leg and flinging it into the water to drift along the shore or sink to the bottom. He hummed in response since he couldn't agree or disagree, for now he would stay a neutral party unwilling to get on your bad side again. "I see. How did you end up here anyway aren't nymphs supposed to be out in like... rivers and lakes?" he queried and you sighed looking at the murky water sadly, missing the feel of your own river. "Uh, when mother nature decided to shift stuff around and the big tsunami flood thingy came it flooded my river and we all ended up somewhere different. Maybe it was on purpose but I ended up here" you swung your legs in the water tapping the stone ground with your fingers.

You missed the smell of earth surrounding your crystalline lake running off into smaller streams and your favourite river for finding pebbles in. you missed the fluffy flax seed that stuck to you when you were drying off in the long grass by the bank and that floated on top of the water for fish to pop up and suction down into their stomach. You missed your friends mostly, almost sisterly bonds between all of you now severed and spread across all of japan.

"I miss home really. For all I know my friends could be home waiting for me" you exhaled deeply and tokoyami sadly glanced at you wondering how far your legs could take you. "What if I helped you get home?" he asked and you jumped excitedly. "You would really help me! Don't you have school or friends or anything? Are you sure you can help?!" you blabbered for a minute or so about how inconvenient it would be and how you didn't know how far you would have to go until he stopped you. "My school is on break right now so I have about 2 months off before I need to go back. Most of my friends are going to look for a cause of the reclamation too since half our school is unusable since it started so I have no qualms helping you"

You jumped up and down giddy and dove back in the water splashing him with water that rolled off his feathers, soaking the choker on his neck and you apologised. "I'm just so excited to go home! Thank you so much!"

And so began your long journey to your home. You passed hundreds of abandoned buildings crumbling to nothing with vines twisted up the sides and supersized branches through the shattered windows, ivy had crawled up the walls of every structure you passed and you talked aimlessly along the way. "So mother nature is-" "a goddess inside the earth" tokoyami nodded at your explanation and looked around in understanding. One of her creations had destroyed the other, the necessary one, and she was proving that humans were expendable. "I'd be pissed too if my home was being filled with gross plastic." you giggled and smiled thankful that someone finally took you as sane, you were tired of truth seekers who didn't like the truth they gave them. They had too much blame on them so they went to find something else.

A month flew by quickly, you spent as much time swimming along streams that you could but of course not every path was filled with water, so it was a long journey for someone who wasn't used to walking barefoot on the actual ground for huge periods of time.

"What are your friends like?" Tokoyami asked, pushing a bish out the way for you to crouch through and you hummed, "caring. They care about a lot of things like climate change, obviously, but also silly stuff like um the best wood to carve you and your significant other's name in, or which leaves are the shiniest at golden hour. We have to make up fun little games or we'd just get bored" you smiled and he chuckled. They sounded similar to you, pointing out tiny details on your quest like spiderwebs covered in dew hidden in the grass, or perfectly round stone's that were shiny in the sun, it made sense you wanted to get back to them so badly.

The trees opened up to an empty circle of grass and a circle not much smaller of water, flowing over the sides of the bowl into the grass and streams wound along into their own segments of the forest. "Home... i'm home! I'm home i'm home i'm home!" you cried jumping up and down and sprinting into the gorgeous blue water and immediately your legs changed to your (f/c) tail, glowing in the sun as you floated on your back and soaked up the water. "Come in come in!!" you shouted while waving at tokoyami.

You had taken rest stops at old hotels and decrepit houses to check for water and of course food and sleep but there was enough civilization along the way to keep you going. But tokoyami hadn't had a bath, a real bath, one he didn't have to fill with a showerhead, in a month and god he wanted to relax desperately.

He peeled off his sticky t-shirt and hung it over a tree branch dipping into the water and relaxing immediately. "This is surprisingly warm" he muttered watching you splash around joyfully and sunk under the water. It was so clean he could keep his eyes open and watch you dip in and out of the water bouncing like a dolphin.

You swam over to him and he sat back up shaking the water out of his feathers and you smiled hugging him tightly "thank you for taking me here. I wish I could help you get back home but I don't think i'd make it back here myself. You sighed and he shook his head. "It's okay, I have other ways of getting home. I don't have to leave right now. I'll stay for another fortnight but then I probably have to go" he looked at his phone glad he had data and could contact hawks at the click of a button.

In 14 days that went by like rapids over rocks tokoyami had to say goodbye and hawks picked him up from your spot on the way back from a mission. 2 of your friends had also found their way home so you weren't lonely and tokoyami had promised to visit. "Okay and be safe home okay! I hope I see you soon!" you shouted as hawks lifted him into the air and he nodded in a silent agreement and waved.

"See you soon (y/n)!" he shouted back and you jumped in a wave as they disappeared into the bright blue sky reflected in your lake.

"Sooo..." one of your sisters sidled up next to you and you blushed "don't even! I know what you're going to say" you shoved her away and she laughed at you teasintly.

"Soo..." hawks started and tokoyami rolled his eye's "no hawks"

#bnha #mha fanfiction #my hero academia #bnha fanfiction #boku no hero academia #wattpad #mha #boku no hero fanfic #tokoyami fumikage x reader #tokoyami fumigake #tokoyami x reader #fumikakage x reader

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elyvorg · 4 years

Text

Remember that analysis post of mine debunking the ridiculous myth perpetrated in this fandom that Kaito never apologises, in which I discuss how he actually apologises way more than he should? Well, while thinking about and writing that post, I also got curious. What’s the cold, hard data on that? What if I just straight-up counted every single instance of each character apologising throughout the main story of DRV3, in order to be able to indisputably prove at a glance that Kaito is actually one of the most apologetic characters in this game?

…I wasn’t willing to go so far as to play through the entire game again just for the purpose of counting every time a character apologised, mind you. But several months ago, I began watching yet another V3 Let’s Play – and since I was already committed to watching said LP all the way through, I figured I could count all the apologies as it went along and collect that data with minimal extra effort on my part. So here’s the full dataset, at last!

There we go. It is objective and indisputable that Kaito apologises the third-most out of any character in this game, behind only the incredibly insecure Gonta and the still-rather-insecure-and-has-the-most-lines Shuichi. And pretty close behind them, at that!

I noticed a bunch of interesting things while doing this, though, so I can’t resist the chance to break this down and talk about it in some more detail.

Data collection criteria

For the sake of Scientific Thoroughness, I should explain my exact criteria for counting these. Every way of phrasing an apology, be it “sorry”, “my apologies”, “my bad”, etc, was counted. I also decided to count statements along the lines of "I need to apologise for this", because that itself is essentially already expressing the apology, too.

If a character apologises multiple times for the same thing, each of those times counts separately. This isn’t a measure of how many individual things each character apologises for, but rather of how inclined they are to apologise. Even if multiple apologies are grouped together, such as “Sorry… I’m so sorry…” or “sorry, my bad”, those still count as two, because that’s essentially a double-strength apology.

I did not count optional dialogue that was mutually exclusive with other optional dialogue. Which is to say, I didn’t count any FTEs, since you can’t get all of them in a single playthrough, and as much as I might like to insist that Kaito’s and Maki’s FTEs with Shuichi should definitely be considered canon, I’m trying to be unbiased here. I also didn’t count any FTE invitation dialogue, even though you technically can get all of the first parts of those (the lines before you actually make the choice to invite someone) in a single playthrough, mostly because it’d have taken forever to go through them for absolutely everyone.

However, I did count optional dialogue in those bits where you’re free to talk to everyone in the room before advancing the plot by talking to a specific person, because that can all be assumed to be canon. The bonus item scenes also count, because they should be assumed to be canon, too. There may have been some apologies that I missed here, because the LP I was watching occasionally missed these bits of dialogue, and while I tried to check myself for these missed bits, I may have overlooked a few. But if so, it was definitely only a few and not enough to significantly affect the overall picture of the data.

I only counted Shuichi’s and Kaede’s apologies when they were spoken out loud. It’d be unfair to count their inner-monologue apologies as well when we have no idea how much any other character might also be apologising in their head.

The pregame characters’ apologies were not counted, because they are not the same people. I would have counted Tsumugi’s and Rantaro’s apologies prior to the “reset” if they’d had any, since they are already themselves from the very beginning.

Obviously there’s still a lot of inherent bias here towards the characters who get more screentime and more lines, such as especially Shuichi. There isn’t much I can do about that, short of counting the exact number of dialogue boxes that every single character has throughout the whole game and using that to normalise things. As you can imagine, I don’t want to do that. (Though, on the extreme off-chance that someone does somehow happen to have data for that lying around somewhere that they can access with minimal effort, I’d love for them to send it my way.)

Characters who totally never do anything wrong

I was not at all surprised to see that Kiyo and Angie never apologise for anything at all, sincere or not, warranted or not. Psh, what do you mean they might have done something wrong, of course they never do anything wrong ever.

Miu almost ended up on the zero-apologies list, too. Interestingly, the four times she does apologise in canon dialogue are all during the Virtual World trip. Three of them happen when people are frustrated that she isn’t telling them stuff about the Virtual World sooner, and one is for being about to murder Kokichi in the flashback to that. Since she never apologises at all the entire rest of the time, this is a neat sign that she actually does feel pretty guilty about deceiving everyone and plotting to get them all killed.

In another effort to be as objective as possible, I also counted every apology regardless of how sincere it was. However, in Kokichi’s case, I did keep a track of how many of his apologies were actually sincere, out of curiosity. (Other characters may have a few insincere ones here and there, but it only felt worth my time keeping track of that with Kokichi, because he’s obviously the biggest offender for this.) I included this information on Kokichi’s bar of the graph, because I feel that the implication otherwise given of him being the fifth most apologetic character in this game is deeply misleading. If you discount all of Kokichi’s screamingly insincere apologies, suddenly his apology count is just unremarkable background noise on par with most of the others.

It is notable – and also very unsurprising to me – that Kokichi’s five actual sincere apologies are all for things that, according to Kaito’s principles on this, he doesn’t really need to be apologising for at all. They are all within chapters 1 to 3. He never sincerely apologises for any of the many things he actually does wrong that really do warrant being apologised for, because Kokichi is totally never in the wrong about anything, you guys, and he definitely doesn’t ever murder anyone.

Three of those five sincere apologies happen when he’s hit his head during investigation 3 and is dazed and disoriented. Apparently Kokichi needs to be literally injured in order to be made to feel like anything is his fault for more than a brief moment. …That said, that evidently only works for accidental slip-ups that aren’t really his fault at all. Kokichi’s totally-never-in-the-wrong-about-anything defence mechanisms work full time to protect him from ever having to acknowledge and feel remorse for any of his many very real and deliberate misdeeds, even when he’s painfully poisoned and dying.

Kaede

Kaede’s apology count is very notably high for someone who was only alive for one chapter. If she’d stayed alive for longer, she’d almost certainly have rivalled Shuichi for total apologies. (So, technically, Kaito is probably only the fourth most apologetic character in this game. Still, though.)

You might assume that Kaede’s high count here is because of the murder she does, but actually only like two or three of them are related to that. Most of her apologies are evenly spread throughout the entire chapter. Some of it’s just general politeness, but an awful lot of it comes from her being too inclined to feel bad over not being as good a leader as she wishes she was, when she really hasn’t done anything wrong at all. Kaito is right to try and encourage her not to apologise when things aren’t her fault! She of all people needs to hear that!

Chapter-by-chapter

The majority of the rest of the characters aren’t that interesting to talk about. For the most part their low counts are basically just, like, background noise politeness, a vague measure of how polite that character is and nothing more. Very little of those counts has anything to do with how insecure that character is, or any actual things they do wrong that genuinely warrant apologising.

But for the other three of our most-apologetic characters, since they’re alive for several chapters, it’s kind of interesting to look at how their counts fluctuate from chapter to chapter. So here’s another graph, to help me break their huge counts down a bit more.

Shuichi

Despite him obviously having the most lines, I was pretty surprised that Shuichi ended up with the highest apology count overall. I wasn’t even expecting him to top Kaito’s count, let alone Gonta’s.

This conclusion did, however, seem a lot more likely once I’d made it through chapter 1 and seen just how much he apologised during that time. Geez, is that one hell of a headstart for even Gonta and Kaito to catch up to. My surprise over this was probably because, when I think about Shuichi, I usually think about the post-Kaede protagonist-Shuichi (perhaps especially because I usually think about him in a Kaito-centric context, whoops). So it’s easy to forget just how incredibly insecure – and also apologetic – he was in the very beginning.

Shuichi apologises exactly as horribly much as Kaede during chapter 1. Again, this is partly politeness, but also far too much of him having an inclination to feel bad over things that aren’t his fault because of how insecure he is. Kaede and Shuichi basically spend most of chapter 1 constantly apologising to each other for existing, and it’s heartbreaking. Every time I had to add another of theirs to my spreadsheet, I was all, “No! Stop it!”

What I find really fascinating about Shuichi’s count, though, is that he pretty much loses this bad habit entirely after Kaede’s death. Despite him still kind of moping around and struggling to know what to do until Kaito steps in to help, it seems like Shuichi’s resolve to carry on Kaede’s wish and believe in himself more really had already had a tangible positive effect on his confidence!

This also means that Kaito never has any reason to give Shuichi advice telling him not to apologise if he hasn’t done anything wrong, which he absolutely would have done if he’d spent more time with Shuichi in chapter 1 when he was apologising so much. As I mentioned in my original post about this topic, this fact is important.

Shuichi’s counts in chapters 2 and 3 are especially low. This is what background noise politeness from a character tends to look like – and it also pretty clearly proves that his and Kaede’s huge apology counts in chapter 1 are down to way more than them just being generally polite people who are getting the most screentime.

It might look like Shuichi gradually gets more insecure again as the killing game goes on, but that’s not actually quite why his count goes up again like that. Instead, it’s that, when something particular does go wrong, Shuichi still feels inclined to apologise for it a lot more than most people would. Turns out, most of his excess apologies in chapters 4 and 5 are spurred by very specific incidents involving Kaito.

Literally five of Shuichi’s apologies in chapter 4 are over the cell phone incident with Kaito during the investigation. That genuinely did warrant an apology – he should have thought to warn Kaito that he’d be logged out beforehand so he wouldn’t be so startled – but even then, apologising that many times was still rather excessive. Shuichi evidently felt really bad about startling his friend like that in the first place. But it also doesn’t help that Kaito reacted more strongly to it than he should have done, for reasons rooted in his own issues that Shuichi was completely oblivious to, which is probably a lot of why Shuichi felt he had to keep apologising.

Three of Shuichi’s apologies in chapter 5 are over the awkward situation between him and Kaito, albeit directed at Maki and not Kaito. This is despite Shuichi himself asserting that he doesn’t believe he should apologise for his actions in trial 4. Even then, he’s still feeling insecure enough about the whole thing that some unintentional apologies slip out of him anyway, not precisely about Gonta’s trial, but about not being able to fix the rift between him and Kaito. He seems to feel like that’s meant to be his responsibility, when he should be able to realise himself that it isn’t. The real responsibility to fix this is on Kaito. Once again, it’s Kaito’s issues – and Kaito not talking about his issues – that causes Shuichi to apologise for something more than he ought to.

Another three of Shuichi’s apologies in chapter 5 are over lying to his friends at the end of the trial in a desperate attempt to protect Kaito. (…Well, technically all of these apologies are part of the lie and therefore not really him apologising for lying – but his inner monologue confirms that he really is sorry for lying, which is almost certainly why he ends up fake-apologising so much within the lie. More on this principle in a bit when I talk about all of Kaito’s apologies in trial 5.) Again, this is another thing that does genuinely warrant an apology, but probably not three times? And while this one isn’t related to Kaito’s issues, it is still because of Kaito that Shuichi needed to try and lie to everyone in the first place.

(One more of Shuichi’s apologies at the end of chapter 5 is for Kaito’s death, because in his grief he’s hurting enough to have slipped back into feeling like everything is his fault. At least this is just the one, and Maki manages to talk him out of blaming himself any more than that.)

Without these specific incidents that he’s still a bit too inclined to feel bad about, Shuichi’s count would be three in chapter 4 and five in chapter 5. So, basically just background noise politeness again. Maybe he’s being slightly more generally insecure in chapter 5 than usual, perhaps due to Kaito not quite being there for him, and/or the whole despair thing. But he’s no longer constantly apologising for existing to nearly as much of an extent as he was in chapter 1.

Delightfully, in chapter 6, with Kaito’s death spurring Shuichi’s determination into overdrive, Shuichi’s count goes right back down to insignificant background noise politeness. Nothing at all happens to make him feel like he needs to apologise way too much.

This is exactly how I hoped it would end! He is being a hero and none of his actions here are anything for him to make himself feel bad about. Kaito would be proud.

Gonta

Gonta’s background-noise politeness in the earlier chapters is noticeably higher than everyone else’s, because there’s also quite a bit of insecurity and apologising-for-existing going on with him. But it’s still not, like, super high on its own. It might not even be quite as bad as Kaede, even accounting for him getting way fewer lines than her?

His somewhat higher count in chapter 2 could be because of the Insect Meet and Greet, but it could also be because the way Ryoma’s body was discovered made Gonta feel especially strongly that he should have been able to prevent Ryoma’s death.

But then, of course, there’s chapter 4. As you’d imagine, almost all of those are in the trial, and almost all towards the end of it. Poor Gonta. It also doesn’t help that there’s two Gontas in the room for the trial conclusion, and naturally I included Alter Ego Gonta’s apologies in Gonta’s count, too.

Kaito

For the first two chapters, when he doesn’t have any sidekicks and therefore no expectations to live up to as their hero, and/or when he’s not struggling with weakness and worrying that he’s failing those expectations, Kaito’s apology level is just unremarkable background noise like most other characters.

(Well, one of them is actually not background noise and is a meaningful, warranted apology for punching Shuichi at the end of trial 1. But because he correctly doesn’t apologise for this any more than he needs to, it kinda blends in with the background noise.)

Then chapter 3 happens, and, predictably, his count shoots way up. All but one of Kaito’s apologies in this chapter are over being sick due to his phobia. (And if I’d been counting the free time invitation dialogues, there would be another four added on here, again for being too sick to hang out with Shuichi.)

Of his five in chapter 4, one is genuinely warranted (for laughing at Maki’s katana story), and two are over being physically sick, goddammit, Kaito. The other two in this chapter are for letting Kokichi’s taunts get to him, which is also not quite a thing he should be apologising for. Kaito can’t help it if his emotions react in a certain way to Kokichi making him out to be worthless. He can control how he responds to it, but not how he feels over it.

Then there’s chapter 5, which somehow manages to even eclipse Kaito’s chapter 3 count – but most of this is about the trial. Only three of his apologies in this chapter are from the Daily Life. (Naturally, two of them are still over being sick. No, Kaito, stop it.)

Literally half of Kaito’s fourteen apologies in the trial boil down to being sorry for tricking and deceiving his friends. This is something that warrants an apology, according to Kaito’s principles, even though he’s doing this deliberately for the purpose of hopefully saving everyone. He is still choosing to hurt them as part of that, and that hurt deserves to be apologised for.

What’s interesting about most of Kaito’s apologies for this, though, is that they’re technically insincere. He’s apologising for tricking everybody while he’s still tricking them, which sure makes it sound like he doesn’t mean it. This even applies to the majority of these apologies that happen during the bits where he’s speaking in his own voice. Because “Exisal Kaito” is a fake and overexaggerated version of himself that he wants everyone to conclude was really just Kokichi pretending to be him, anything he says during those moments is never going to come across as genuine.

But obviously, there’s not a shred of doubt that Kaito really is sorry for tricking everyone the entire time he’s doing this. It says a lot that during those bits where he’s being himself, Kaito just so happens to have a particularly high density of apologies-per-line. He feels awful for being this insincere and deceptive towards his friends, and he really wishes he could just communicate to them how genuinely sorry he is for all of this. But because he can’t, the next best thing to try and scratch that itch is to just apologise anyway even though he needs them to assume it’s all fake.

Kaito even apologises a couple of times as Exisal Kokichi for lying to them! This is absolutely categorically not something Kokichi wrote into his script, because Kokichi never apologised for lying, not even in a blatantly-insincere-sounding way. Kaito’s desperate desire to express how awful he felt about this was just so strong that it even accidentally slipped into a couple of his ad-libs as Kokichi.

However, while Kaito apologises so many times for this, it’s not because he’s blaming himself a bit too excessively much for his wrongdoing like Shuichi was still liable to do at this point in the story. The only reason Kaito apologises this much for tricking everyone is due to how insincere he was forced to sound almost every time. He kept apologising again and again because each insincere apology never felt like enough, and he desperately needed them to know that he meant it.

When Kaito reveals himself at the end of the trial, he pretty much immediately apologises again for tricking them – once, and that’s it. This time, they know he means it, and that’s all he needs. He’s not going to wallow in his bad feelings any more than that.

This is also the case for the other genuine wrongdoings he goes on to apologise for in the conclusion. Kaito gives a double-sized but still concise apology to Shuichi for lashing out in trial 4 like he’d needed to give this whole time, and then one single apology to his friends for lying to them about his illness. He gets those apologies out like he should, but once he’s done so, he doesn’t linger on them and mope any more than he needs to.

Which is good! Look at Kaito finally following his own advice again and being emotionally healthy about this!

…Except for the part where he then goes on to apologise twice for dying on them. That one is still not his fault.

#danganronpa v3 #danganronpa v3 spoilers #ramble #kaito momota #shuichi saihara #gonta gokuhara #kaede akamatsu #kaito's hero issues #i may be just a little bit bitter about this ridiculous myth #i am also fully aware that i'm preaching to the choir here in terms of people who read my blog #but shush let me geek out about this data anyway

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inkweaver22-blr · 3 years

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Here’s another filler chapter! I like how it turned out so I hope ya’ll do too! Enjoy.

AO3 Link

Scattered Cicadas - Chapter Twelve: Memory Proof

Tang learns a bit about the twins. Being in the same body as them might have something to do with that.

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Tang hid behind some debris in the ruined theater as he watched Macaque approach the shattered Shadow Lantern. He had been hoping to collect the pieces for himself to try and study the artifact’s ability to trap souls. The data he could potentially obtain from it would be priceless in trying to come up with a counter to his curse once he found it’s cause.

But just because they were intelligent, didn’t mean they had common sense. The amount of harebrained plots and ideas they had that blew up in their faces due to not thinking everything through was almost comical.

Abandoning his plan for now, Tang waited patiently for Macaque to leave so he could make his exit as well.

Suddenly the Mayor was there.

Tang tensed in his hiding spot as he watched the man taunt Macaque before surprising the monkey and grabbing him by the throat.

Tang’s pulse raced as he watched Macaque get captured with little effort.

Was this why they never saw Macaque again after these events? Did this happen in every cycle? Just how strong was the Mayor to be able to subdue the shadow demon so quickly?

He needed to get out of here.

Tang froze when he realized the Mayor had vanished without him noticing.

“Now what do we have here?”

Blinding white and blue pain flashed behind Tang’s eyes as he stumbled back. Gasping in panic he looked up to find the Mayor right in front of him, giving the scholar his trademark nonchalant smile.

“Can’t have you running off to spoil the end of the show for the others, now can we” the Mayor said as he held up the Shadow Lantern. “I do love a captive audience!”

Before Tang could react, the lantern was activated, and he knew no more.

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He was in the cave, thankfully. The voices called out in concern. The golden-yellow light wrapped around him.

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Tang awoke with a start, gasping in panic.

Damn that man!

He hadn’t been killed this time, but being a puppet for the Mayor until the cycle ended was just as unpleasant.

The more he learned about him, the more terrifying to Tang he became.

He would have to do his best to avoid him as much as possible from now on.

Once he got his breathing under control, Tang made his preparations for the day and began his remembering ritual.

It seemed this cycle was one where there were only a few changes. Everything seemed mostly the same except for two details.

The first was that Jin and Yin had been good friends with Mei for years, acting almost like older brothers for her.

The second was that this cycle had Fusion.

Tang groaned at this revelation.

There were many strange and weird magics and powers he had come across in the timelines, but Fusion was the most conflicting for Tang.

Fusion was a special ability where two or more beings would physically combine together into a new, more powerful being. The result was usually a much larger combination of the participants that mixed together their physical characteristics and often sported extra limbs and eyes. Whether the minds of the original beings remained separate or fused into a new personality as well as the permanence of the Fusion tended to be randomly determined like most things in these cycles.

The only constant was the need for absolute trust between all parties that fuse.

Fusion was an intimate process as you shared not just a body with someone else, but your mind as well. Thoughts and memories could not be hidden from a Fusion partner. It was an implicit sign of trust, and oftentimes love, to want to fuse with someone.

Forcing two unwilling beings to fuse was possible, but never went over well in Tang’s experience.

Tang didn’t dislike Fusion. It was an incredible experience the few times he had done so with either Pigsy or Wukong. He had never felt so close with anyone as he did when fused with them.

The problem was the curse.

Fusion required trust and the participants working in synchrony to function. His curse made it impossible for anyone except himself to know about it. When fused, his partners would become confused at the strange gaps in Tang’s mind they couldn’t perceive. The disorientation would destabilize the trust between them, causing them to fall out of sync, and result in the Fusion ending prematurely.

The questions he would receive were ones Tang couldn’t answer, and he was usually treated with suspicion and distrust for the remainder of those cycles. The same problem would occur if he refused to fuse at all, as that implied he didn’t trust anyone.

Luckily for Tang, he wasn’t in a romantic relationship with anyone this cycle and hadn’t fused with anyone yet. There was also a precedent this time for some people finding Fusion nauseating, so he could always fall back on that if pushed.

Hoping it wouldn’t even come to that, Tang left his apartment and made his way to work. He began to think of the second change as he walked.

Jin and Yin. The Gold and Silver Demon Brothers.

The two trouble makers loved to spread chaos wherever they went. Even during the rare occasions like now where they were allies. Schemes, pranks, and hijinks were to be expected whenever they were around.

The twins were smart. That was pretty much a given being the former lab assistants of Lao Tzu. Their talent in crafting magical items was impressive by mortal standards.

Tang had to admire their tenacity though. Their determination never faltered no matter how many failures they had. This was particularly handy when they were allies.

The twins’ self destructive tendencies usually got smoothed out whenever they befriended the group as well. Tang was genuinely surprised a few times by what they had managed to come up with when given a proper sounding board to help point out problems.

He may not consider Jin and Yin to be a part of his extended family, but Tang couldn’t help but have a soft spot for them. Perhaps, in time, he could include them. Maybe when their redemption became more common in the cycles.

But for now he was perfectly fine with just being their friend.

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The attack came without warning.

They had all been hanging out at Pigsy’s Noodles when multiple explosions went off across the city. Tang wasn’t sure what happened in all the confusion, but he was currently with Jin and Yin, the three of them separated from the others.

They had been trying to find everyone when the twins had suddenly pushed Tang away from them. There was a loud crashing sound and the air was filled with dust.

Coughing and waving away the dust, Tang stood and looked around. As the smoke began to clear, his heart dropped at what he saw.

“Jin! Yin!”

The twins were trapped under the rubble of a partially collapsed building. Jin’s entire left side was stuck under the debris while Yin was pinned from the waist down.

Neither demon had super strength and were completely helpless. They couldn’t even fuse to escape as they were just out of reach of each other and Fusion required contact.

Tang scrambled over the torn apart street and knelt next to the groaning brothers.

“G-go get help Tang,” Jin said, teeth clenched in pain. “We’ll be fine for now.”

“I am not leaving you two here,” Tang said, looking around for anyone to help, but the street was deserted.

“Come on, we’ll be right here when you come back,” Yin said with a strained smile. “I promise we won’t get up and leave.”

Before Tang could scold him for joking, there was another distant explosion followed by a rumbling sound. The three looked up in horror as the remainder of the building began to sway.

“Shit! Tang you need to leave now!” Jin pushed against the concrete trapping him, but made no progress.

Tang’s mind raced.

None of them were strong enough to push the rubble away. He had no time to go get help before the rest of the building fell. Jin and Yin couldn’t grab each other to fuse.

But he could.

Tang reached out and snatched up the hand of each twin.

“Fuse with me!”

“What?!”

“There’s no time! Fuse with me!”

Spurred on by the urgency of his voice, the twins closed their eyes and focused. Tang did the same and the world melted into gold, silver, and yellow light.

Fusing was always an indescribable experience. Tang felt warm as he felt his body stretch out and merge seamlessly with the twins’. He had no idea which physical traits would be picked from each of them, but their appearance was the least of his worries.

When they opened their eyes, they were standing several feet away from the pile of debris, just as the building began to topple.

“Shit! Go go go,” Jin said from their shared mouth.

They quickly dashed away from the area, their much taller stature allowing them to easily outpace the collapsing structure. Their new body didn’t feel strange in any way, and their combined movements came naturally.

‘Damn, I think my legs are broken,’ Yin said in their shared mind once they paused to take a breath. ‘We’ll have to keep this up until we get to a hospital and unfuse inside.’

‘Pretty sure some rebar had stabbed into my side so ditto on that,’ Jin added.

‘That might be a problem...’ Tang’s nervousness caused their stomach to twist.

‘What does that- Oh. Huh. That’s interesting.’ Jin explored the gaps he found in Tang’ mind with curiosity. ‘Hey Yin, take a look at this.’

‘Whoa. Trippy. Haven’t seen a memory-proof seal like this in a while.’ Yin poked at the spaces gingerly, not wishing to be caught completely in its effects.

‘Look at how big it is though,’ Jin said. ‘You are much older than I thought you were Tang.’

‘No, no, no. His body is definitely only 41 years old. So that means his mind is much older.’

‘Time travel?’

‘That usually has the person physically moving through time, so I doubt it.’

‘How are you two not disoriented by this,’ Tang said as they began to move towards the sounds of the explosions.

‘Should we be?’

‘Oh, yeah, I see what you mean,’ Jin said as he found the context for Tang’s confusion.

The demon didn’t vocalize it, but he projected how he found it interesting that he could get the knowledge on Tang’s past experiences with fusions without the full picture.

‘Oof. Forcefully unfusing and being treated as untrustworthy must suck,’ Yin said.

Tang was about to ask how they were being so unconcerned about this when the context came unbidden from their minds.

Lao Tzu had placed his own memory-proof seals on the twins to prevent them from revealing his secrets. They had to deal with it every time they fused.

Along with that knowledge came the feelings of the desperate need for approval and attention from their master, but never receiving it.

Always having their ideas dismissed. Being told their work was never good enough. Belittling their reliance on one another. Outright destroying their inventions at one point.

‘What an ass,’ Tang said vehemently.

He had worked too hard across the cycles to keep MK from drowning in his insecurities. It was insulting to him that someone he had once respected for their vast knowledge would ever treat anyone like that to make them feel this way.

‘I know, right?’

‘Why do you think we left,’ Jin said.

Tang sent over the context that, while he couldn’t tell them how, he had become an accomplished magician and artificer in his own right.

‘We’re going to make him regret ever dismissing you two,’ Tang vowed.

‘You… You want to take us on as students?’

Tang’s righteous protectiveness over how small Yin had sounded shocked the twins as they felt his warmth of comfort envelope them.

‘I would be honored to have you two as students. There is no way I’d ever let my family feel like they are unwanted.’

‘Family?’

Tang let the context for that free as well as the love he felt for his family, which now included his two new students.

They had to stop walking for a moment as Jin’s and Yin’s emotions caused them to start crying. Tang made sure to keep watch from his set of eyes while they were indisposed.

The joy and appreciation they sent his way in silent thanks was returned with his own.

‘Let’s get you two to a hospital.’ They continued to move once they had composed themselves. ‘I would never forgive myself if I let my favorite students perish from a simple collapsing building.’

‘Aren’t we your only students?’

‘Oi! And what do you mean by a “simple collapsing building''? Are you saying there are other ways you’d let us perish?!’

The master and his students bickered playfully back and forth as they looked around for a hospital that had been undamaged in the attack.

Tang may not have been expecting to add the twins to his family this soon, but he knew he wouldn’t regret it. How he felt for them would live on even past the memory erasing effects of the curse.

Jin and Yin returned the sentiment a hundredfold.

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And thus Tang’s family grows in numbers once more! He’s almost completed the whole set by now.

Fusions are an interesting concept and there are plenty of great designs for different combinations out there. While none of them show up in this chapter, I’d like to give a shout out to @winterpower98, @smallpwbbles, @sketchquill, and @ninja-knox-ur-sox-off for their amazing fusion designs! Go check them out!

Don't worry about that bit with the mayor. It's fine.

Next chapter will be another filler! Until then!

#Ink Writes #Monkie Kid #Scattered Cicadas #Tang #Jin #Yin #Lao Tzu #Fusions #Fusion #winterpower98 #smallpwebbles #sketchquill #ninja knox ur sox off #Tang Monkie Kid #LEGO Monkie Kid

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youvebeenlivingfictional · 4 years

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I’m Always Curious Part Seven

Previous Part | Next Part | Masterlist Notes: Not beta-read. I hope everyone is well :) Thank you to everyone that’s read/liked/reblogged/replied! I really appreciate it! Summary: Maybe it was naïve of me to hope that being back in our time meant that things would go back to normal. Well, maybe it was more naïve of me to think that my ‘normal’ hadn’t shifted within the last few months.

I sighed, dropping my coat onto my bed. I was tired, and covered in more dirt, grime, and sweat than I wanted to admit, but I wanted to get this down before I forgot anything. “Lieutenant’s log... technical stardate 454118.1,” I rattled off, raking my hands through my hair, “I say technical as we are still in the year 1868. We’ve recently completed the first component of our mission and will soon be on our way to 1899. We’ve been ordered by Starfleet to observe the activity of the Leonid meteors in both years to confirm the conditions that they’ve occurred in. We took readings from the Earth’s surface in the midst of Leonid activity in 1868, which was... Breathtaking.” I thought for a few moments, remembering the Captain’s smile turned up to the sky, eyes shining bright as meteors zipped by overhead. I shook my head a little, drawing myself back to the task at hand. “Per the data recorded at the time, the rate reached a thousand meteors per hour at the height of the shower’s activity. We spent the night on Earth, as the increased activity around Earth’s atmosphere hindered transporter capabilities. Captain Pike made contact with the Enterprise at 0800 hours the following morning, and we were able to beam aboard with our equipment.” And we had. I’d been ready to call it a job well done, but Pike had turned to myself and Number One, this glint in his eye, and said, “What do you say we go have a look around?” Number One had declined for the purpose of ensuring the Leonid data transferred cleanly, and Pike had turned to me, brow raised. “Lieutenant?” He’d asked. His words from that morning had rung through my head: “When are we ever going to be here again?” And I couldn’t bring myself to say no. My curiosity had gotten the better of me.

The Captain and I had beamed down to Sandblossom, to a place just outside of town. “We’ll have to be quick,” He’d warned me. But it was everything I’d wanted. I was like a kid in a candy store, looking around. I’d stuck close to Pike’s side as we walked through town, looking into the general store, passing by the saloons and the undertaker’s; we’d been accosted by two missionaries trying to save our souls. Once or twice I’d started to stray too far from Pike and he’d caught me by the hand, laughing that as fascinated as I was, he wasn’t going to leave me here no matter how nicely I asked. It had been a twenty minute excursion - we made no time-altering contact, abided by General Order One, and then beamed back aboard the Enterprise. I hadn’t been able to wipe the grin off of my face while we’d been there, or when we got back. Pike had relieved me of my duty, and I’d just gotten on the turbolift when I’d spotted Number One. The look she’d fixed me with... Was so beyond its usual stern on-duty set. Her brow was furrowed deeply, lips pulled down with disapproval. It was like I was a child and someone had popped my balloon. “End log?” The computer prompted me, shaking me from my reverie. I cleared my throat, walking over to my window and peering out to Earth’s surface. “...End log,” I conceded. We’d be leaving that time and town behind, and it was better if I left everything about it behind as well - along with the warmth of Pike’s arm around me, and his hand gripping mine for just a few moments as we explored. These were isolated incidents. As I undressed and tossed my dirt-streaked shirt on top of my coat, I couldn’t shake the look Una had given me. I wondered if it was disapproval at encouraging mine and the Captain’s curiosity in a time and place that was more dangerous than usual. Time travel was tricky at the best of times; I was sure Starfleet wouldn’t be happy at the prospect of a Captain and one of his Communications officers going for a leisurely stroll for the hell of it. I groaned, scrubbing my eyes with my hands. I should’ve known better - it was impossible to pinpoint what Una was thinking, and I wasn’t sure why I was bothering to try anymore. --

Maybe it was naïve of me to hope that being back in our time meant that things would go back to normal. Well, maybe it was more naïve of me to think that my ‘normal’ hadn’t shifted within the last few months. Normal used to mean that I went about my shifts, occasionally receiving a request from the bridge to look at a recording or a file that had been sent to us from another ship; spending time with Spock and Una and Thira when we weren’t on shift; working through the occasional sleepless night alone in the gym. Normal now was...Astonishing. I was called on by Lieutenant Commander Thaleh more often - when I’d asked why, she’d cited my usefulness to the Captain while she was on leave. I hadn’t had the cheek to ask who exactly had reported on that usefulness: the Captain himself, or perhaps Number One. I had fewer sleepless nights, as my shifts felt twice as busy as they had before, but I didn’t dread them as I’d used to, because I rarely faced them alone. I had a regular sparring partner in the Captain now. I also found myself in his company fairly regularly outside of the gym: on the odd mission, as I had with Uthea C4, or the Anil crew, or the Leonids; now and again he’d dine with myself, Spock, and Una; I wasn’t called to his ready room to confirm report details as I had been when Thaleh was on leave, but sometimes at the end of my shift, I would go to the observation lounge that I’d gone to before with the foolish hope that I’d run into the Captain there - and I often did. -- By the time I was back on shift, we’d returned to our time. The crew breathed a collective sign of relief, congratulated each other on a job well done before it was business as usual. We’d be docking on Earth for a week for a full diagnostic of the Enterprise, as well as for observation of the most recent conditions of the Leonids. I had good intentions when we returned to our time. I hadn’t seen her since I was on the turbolift, nor had she sent me any message, but Una’s look had stuck with me. Somewhere, somehow, I had put a toe out of line. I had to straighten up. I had no intention of being in a command position the way Una and Spock were, but I could stand to conduct myself more professionally. “God, I’m beat,” Thira groaned as she collapsed onto the bed across from mine. I smiled at her. “Will you get to see your family while you’re on-world?” I asked. She nodded excitedly. “My mom’s gonna drive down. What about you?” I shook my head, and her smile drooped a little. “It’s alright, though, I won’t really have time. I signed up for a bunch of workshops and trainings at the Academy,” I added, waving off her concern. “Really? We’ve got a week of leave and you’re going to spend it working?” She asked, surprised. I shrugged. “I’ll have evenings off, mostly.” “Mostly?” She repeated, laughing, “Well, we’ll all grab drinks one of these nights to make sure you don’t overdo it.” I had good intentions when we got back to our time. I was going to straighten up, refocus on my work. That was why I had joined Starfleet -- I loved different cultures, languages. I loved being able to connect. I just had to be careful about how I connected.

#I'm Always Curious #captain pike #Christopher Pike #Chris Pike #christopher pike x reader #christopher pike/reader #christopher pike imagine #captain pike x reader #Captain Pike/Reader #Captain Pike Imagine #christopher pike x you #Captain Pike x You

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kenobis-kyber · 4 years

Text

From the Stars

Here it is the beginning of my first fanfic! So excited to share this with the fandom and would appreciate feedback and reblogs.

Summary: Finding an anamoly in a mostly uncharted region Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi are sent to investigate. Little did they know it would send one of them into a totally unknown experience.

Rating: M

Warnings: Injury, comfort, smut for later chapters

I also want to thank my Group Chat Ladies for encouraging me and giving me the support to get this baby out here!

Chapter 1

The sound of his boots echoed through the large halls of the jedi temple as he made his way to meet his master, Qui-Gon Jinn. Obi-wan was still a padawan, so he was only 20 years old but was certainly wise beyond his years. His steps paused when he saw Qui-gon standing by a large set of doors. The older man deep in thought when his padawan approached him.

“Master” Obi-wan looked up to him as he greeted him

“Ah. Padawan. Come the council wishes to speak with us.” He spoke while he gestured toward the doors

Obi nodded as they opened the doors to a large circular room with the Jedi Masters sat around it. He walked in behind him with his arms tucked into his cloak. Qui-gon and Obi approached the center and made a slight bow waiting for the small green master named Yoda to speak. Obi quieted his thoughts as best as he could, worried that they had done something wrong.

“A mission we have. Anomaly by a sparsely charted section of the galaxy there is. We wish for you to investigate.” The wise jedi spoke. Both Qui-gon and Obi-wan raised their eyebrows in curiosity.

“It seems as though this area is very strong with this force, and it is worth checking in on it. It is very unknown to us and could be risky.” They turned to lock eyes with the stern master and were shocked by his next line. “But we couldn’t think of a more qualified pair than yourselves.” Mace Windu spoke smoothly.

Qui-gon stroke his beard in quiet contemplation. It would be risky but there could be a source of unknown properties that may be useful in the future not only to the Jedi but they rest of the galaxy as well. Carefully he weighed the risks both for himself and his padawan. Finally with a sigh he spoke.

“It is risky but not a waste of our time to investigate. And I think it would be a great experience for my apprentice.” He said while nodding at Obi. Again he turned his attention to the Masters. “When would you like us to leave?” he asked with a slight smirk.

Obi wan looked up at him with a slight worried in his eyes. But veiled his feeling as best as possible. He had never been on such an unknown mission such as this, and wondered briefly if his master lost his mind. But in the long run he trusted his judgment and that of the council.

“Soon as possible, you must.” Yoda spoke with a glint of hope in his eye.

“Very well. My padawan and I will prepare to leave.” Oui gon spoke with small smile.

“May the force be with you.” Mace said with a slight nod of his head signaling that both Jedi were dismissed. Both slightly bowed and turned to leave. When the doors closed behind them Obi wan looked up at his master as they walked.

“Master I am honored with this mission, but I have to admit that I am slightly worried.”

Qui gon smirked with a bit of mischief sparking in his eye.

“What is a discovery without a little danger. You heard the council they wouldn’t even bother to investigate it if they didn’t feel it was worth it.”

“Yes Master. You are correct. It should be quite the journey.” He said a calm settling over him.

They got to their quarters and prepared for the journey. Who knows how long they would be gone or what surprises would await them when the reached their destination, Trusting in the force is the best hope they had for the time being.

A day or so later…

He was unsure of what he was actually doing. He hated flying, and to make matters he wasn’t much of a flyer in his opinion however his master Qui-Gon had different ideas. He let out a steady breath as he could sense they were close. Something slightly pulling him in. And he wondered as he spoke to his master through their communicator.

“Do you feel that master?”

“Yes it is very strange. I don't think I have ever felt such a unique sensation before. Let us get closer but proceed with caution.”

“Right”

They used the force to guide them to the anomaly since this space was sparsely charted. Obi wan let out a breath trying to ease his mind further and be more open to the living force. They approached until the subject was in visible range. Both Jedi were astonished at what they saw. It looked like an ocean at dawn with swirling lights of blue, orange and pinks. It shimmered calmly like soft ocean waves. Obi and Qui gon could feel the pulsating force in it and tried their best to study it. It was unlike anything they had witnessed before. Both men closing their eyes and reaching out as best as they could to this thing.

“Astonishing isn't it Obi wan?” Qui-gon’s voice said breaking Obi out of his trance. “Lets continue to collect to as much data we can.”

“Certainly Master.”

Continuing taking measurements for a few more minutes they sensed a change in the energy around them. It was a strong current washing over them, however it was yanking them down under it like the currents of a violent ocean. This happened so quickly before their instruments could pick it up. It started as a slow hum, gradually louder. They could feel the energy washing over them and it became too much to handle.

“Be on alert padawan. In matter of fact we should pull back a bit since we don't know what is happening.” Qui Gon said with a bit of urgency in his voice. Obi let out a steady breath to focus on the task on hand and grabbed the controls.

They both started to leave when the hum suddenly turned into a loud bang and let out a huge wave of energy. The space they were in shuddered violently. As quick as they could, they piloted their starships as fast as they could before the energy beam could over take them. Speeding away, Obi wan felt a sense of fear as the wave rapidly caught up to him, and started to slowly consume him. His ship rumbled and started to come apart as a light shone bright around him. The last thing he heard before the light consumed him was his masters voice yelling out to him. Before he knew what had hit him there was a large explosion and the world around him went from a blinding light to a pitch black, all was dark. No senses, just blackness and void.

#obi wan x reader #obi wan x you #obi wan fanfiction #quigon #obi wan imagine #ewan mcgregor x reader #ewan mcgregor #ewanfuckinmcgregor #obiwankenobi #jedi

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zabrak-show · 4 years

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Plant Magick | Maul x Reader

Setting: Dathomir and Zanbar

Summary: Reader is a nightsister from Dathomir sent to Zanbar by Mother Talzin to help Maul and the Shadow Collective. Based on the prompt from @botherbother-blog , “ Can I ask something about a witchy reader (maybe a Nightsister?) teaching Maul magick and Maul teaching her martial arts... and the things start getting steamy? I haven’t ever asked a request and I’m not sure if that’s okay, too much or too little, sorry!”

Warnings: Ok, this was my attempt at writing smut, but it’s really just super poetic and not that graphic, because i am the way that i am. and lots of consent cuz that’s what gets me hot. So very fluffy and soft Maul etc. also, the nightsister/nightbrother thing does not make them brother and sister so no incest here.

Word count: 2.4k

Sweat ran down the middle of your chest and pooled where the fabric of your red sleeveless tunic tightened at your breastbone. It was a hot day for Dathomir standards and you were crouched over picking herbs for magick potions. This was a part of the forest to which you were very acclimated, having come here since you were very small. You had learned from an early age to have an appreciation of all the living things around you, there was magick in everything, it was only a matter of learning how to tap into it all.

Mother Talzin was an exceptional teacher, but sometimes you felt like there must be more to life, at least more to learn than what she taught you and all your sisters. You did your best to never let these feelings show. Mother would not appreciate your wandering thoughts. You wiped the sweat from your brow and packed up all your herbs to head back to your clan, making your way down the meandering wooded path, wisps of mist gently caressing you on your bare skin. These small moments all to yourself brought you clarity and peace of mind.

It did not take long to get back to the clan and at once you went into the temple where a foreboding tall figure clad in all red stood over a cauldron.

“Mother, the herbs you needed.” you held up the bag of herbs to the towering pale woman with an oversized forehead and black tattoos accenting her face. She clutched the bag of herbs from your hand at once, held it to her face and breathed deep.

“Yes, I think this should do nicely. Well done, sister (y/n).” she spoke aphrodisiacal as she exhaled. You smiled slightly and started to turn and leave.

“Wait, Sister (y/n). I have a new mission for you.” You turned back to listen to your new instructions.

“Whatever it is, you know I am at your service, Mother.” you lightly bowed as you declared your subservience.

“Yes, there is someone who is in need of our aid. In need of our magicks. I am sending you as you have proven time and time again your loyalty, dedication to the craft, and independence.” her hoarse voice rang out in your ears like the most beautiful melody you’d ever heard. To get such high praise and honor from Mother was unheard of, and to finally be sent on a mission outside of Dathomir. A real purpose to your life at last.

“I am beyond honored.” your inflection was stoic, but you were brimming with joy inside.

Aboard the transport vessel to Zanbar, you learned that you were sent as a mercenary to help defend an organization called the Shadow Collective. Mother did not give you a great deal of information other than you were to find and meet up with a former nightbrother Lord Maul, once you arrived. Your head swam with the possibilities of this mission. You had never left Dathomir and you had never been without your nightsisters presence for more than a few days. It was exciting and terrifying and you couldn’t be more thrilled.

You recognized the nightbrother Maul almost as soon as your feet hit the pavement of the ships’ hangar in Zanbar. Of course you had never met him, but he stuck out like a sore thumb to you, with his unique crimson skin, intricate black tattoos, and crown of horns. As happy as you were to leave home, it was also nice to know you’d be around someone who understood where you came from and your culture.

The other passengers and crew milled about picking up their baggage, meeting up with old friends or scurrying off to maker knows where. You slung your simple black woven bag containing mostly weapons and Dathomirian herbs, across your back to head straight towards the shirtless nightbrother, Maul. Even from a distance you couldn’t help but admire his tattoos. You had a few tattoos as well, as was your culture, but nowhere near the scope of his.

He walked up to meet you halfway and as soon as you were close enough to see just how handsome and chiseled he was, you felt dizzy with desire. You had never quite felt so attracted to someone, but then you had barely met anyone besides your fellow nightsisters and the occasional nightbrother ritualistic mating encounter. His odour was intoxicating, you could smell the Dathomirian magic in his blood, but there was something else darker and stronger with notes of roasted coffee and cedar. Maker, how could he smell so damn good?!

“Sister (y/n). Mother tells me you are one of her strongest witches.” His voice thick like honeyed wine seeping into your ears. You felt yourself blush and wished your skin was as crimson as his to hide your body’s emotional betrayal.

“Yes, well I am at your service now, Lord Maul.” you declared with full confidence, attempting to brush the lustful feelings aside for now.

The atmosphere of Zanbar was not too different from Dathomir, but it lacked the magick lifeblood you were so used to coursing through everything. There were swamps all around the settlement you were staying in and you had decided to venture around to see if you could find any plants to weaponize for Lord Maul. It was a challenge without the help of Dathomir’s magick at your disposal, but you were still able to identify several helpful plants and you busied yourself plucking them from the swamp, humming a little tune as you worked.

A shadowy figure stole your light and you looked back to see who it was. The sun was beaming around them like a hologram making you squint, but the crimson skin could still be easily seen.

“Lord Maul,” you greeted as you stood to face him, still slightly squinting from the sun in your face. He took note and rotated himself to the side of you so that you would not have to stare into the sun to talk to him.

“Are you finding what you need here?” he questioned with genuine curiosity.

“Yes, well, I am finding some things. It’s harder to feel the magick here, I feel like my senses are dulled.” you admitted to him looking into his dynamic golden eyes.

“Hmm.. yes your power does come from Dathomir, it will be hard for you to be away from that. You must learn other ways of fighting and surviving.” his eyes stared deep into your own, not breaking away for a lifetime it felt.

“Mother taught me how to survive.” you said defensively breaking the gaze to look beyond him and crossing your arms in front of your chest.

“She taught you how to survive in her world, yes. There is much yet for you to learn. I can teach you Teräs Käsi, an invaluable combat skill. As a trade... for you teaching me about your magick.” he cocked his head slightly to the side and raised an eyebrow ridge as he waited for your approval. You found it hard to refuse teaching him your magick and you had desperately wanted to learn new things before coming here after all.

“Oh, alright,” you gave in with a smile, “what could it hurt?” This seemed to please him greatly as a sinister smile spread across his face.

“I promise not to make it hurt too much” he jeered and you both made your way back to the settlement.

The next day you met Maul for your first Teräs Käsi lesson in a small training room. You were no stranger to physical exertion and thank the maker for that, because it was a more physically demanding sport than you were expecting. You were dripping with sweat almost immediately, doing everything from push ups, planks, sit ups, fast feet, jumping jacks, and squats. In between each drill, teaching you a new attack and having you try it out on the punching bags and then him. You felt yourself getting dizzy, but you dare not let him show you were tired or wanting to give up.

“Keep fighting! Keep fighting!” he’d yell prompting you to punch him or the bags. You felt your arms get noodley, but you kept throwing punches as hard as you could, pure grit and determination painted on your face.

At last he brought you some water signifying that today’s lesson was over.

“You did very well. You still have much to learn and much strength to gain, but you are a natural fighter.” he sat down next to your sweaty form as you stretched out your sore muscles.

“I did not realize you were going to work me so hard,” you said, still slightly panting from the workout.

“In a fight, you do not get to decide how tired or well rested you are. You do not get to decide when your attacker will stop. You have to keep fighting through it all. Through all the pain, all the weariness, your mind will tell you you can’t go on, but you must. You must train hard so as to not let that voice creep in and tell you to give up. Your body is stronger than your mind will let on.” he lectured as he stared deep into your eyes and studied your face while you took in everything he said and saved it to your brain’s data bank. Not only for the inspiration and wisdom, but how he said it. His voice was smooth and theatrical, emanating a great power and sensitivity. You wished you could sit there all day and listen to his proclamations.

“What kind of magick do you want me to teach you first?” you finally inquired, now that you had cooled down a bit and your breathing was back to normal. He looked at you thoughtful for a moment before answering,

“Teach me about all the herbs you pick and how to make potions from them.”

You found it hard to hide your excitement at teaching Maul about herbs and potions. You took him out to the edge of the swamp to begin your lesson. It was a cloudy day and the swamp was buzzing with life from bugs and small critters that scampered away as soon as they heard both of you coming. You settled on a small clearing above the swamp’s water level so you could sit without getting wet and go over your lessons.

“How do you know what plants will work for what?” He asked before you could even begin.

“Well it’s harder for me here. On Dathomir I knew all the flora and fauna already so I could feel the kind of magic each life held just being near it. The plants don’t have Dathomirian magick here, but I can still sense different properties they hold.” You explained as you noticed Maul’s skeptical look. You held yourself back from scoffing at him for being a typical dense nightbrother and instead offered, “Here, I’ll show you.”

You grabbed your small knife from your belt and carefully cut a few different small plants near you. You held one plant in one hand and with your other grabbed Maul’s hand. He raised a tattooed eyebrow and you simply nodded and closed your eyes. He followed suit and you bore your energy into the plant, a green mist now surrounding the both of you. You held it for a moment and let go opening your eyes, Maul’s eyes still closed and holding your hand. He looked so peaceful and innocent in that moment. You hesitated before letting him know he could open his eyes you wanted to let him remain so pure.

“Could you feel the power of the plant?” You finally asked him, still holding his hand.

“Hmm yes… I sensed it was poisonous in high doses, but medicinal in very small doses.” He carefully answered, looking down at your hands still clasped together.

“Yes! Could you sense what kinds of things it could treat as a medicine?” Your eyes got big as you looked at him with wonder awaiting his response. He squeezed your hand and replied in his cool deep honeyed voice, “heartache.” You couldn’t help but giggle as you squeezed his hand back.

“Well heartburn, but close!” You reassured him.

You spent the afternoon talking plants and potions and magick with the crimson nightbrother. Your face began to hurt from smiling all day, a happier moment in your life you couldn’t recall. The thick fog began to roll in and you started to pack up your books and herb jars. Maul laid back and stared straight up at the sky watching the fog swirl around as it slowly enveloped you both.

You laid back next to him staring up at the fog as it thickened like gravy around you. A hand grasped yours and you wove your fingers between his and lightly squeezed. Your body ached with desire, but you froze to the ground afraid to make a move. The night brother leaned up and over you placing a hand on your face.

“May I?” He practically whispered.

“Yes,” you closed your eyes and met his lips with your own, kissing him deep and passionate. He crawled on top of you, his metal legs cold and harsh against your soft warm legs. You wrapped your legs around his middle pulling him in closer to you and he continued kissing you with a frenzied gusto. You wanted to touch him everywhere and be touched everywhere by him. Your frantic hands caressed his head around his horns, resulting in a purr emanating from his chest and vibrating into your frame, overwhelming your body with pleasure and desire.

He ran his hands all over your body, his strong hands grasping and massaging your sore body. His intoxicating scent of coffee, cedar, and petrol mixed with the plant and soil odors of the swamp in an orgasmic medley. You moaned in pleasure and he started to reach down to your core, but stopped to ask your consent once again.

“Yes!” you breathed into his ear and wriggled out of your clothes. The moss was soft, cool, and gentle against your bare skin and you laid back and guided him into you. He started off slow and rhythmic both of you moaning and grunting with each thrust. You felt yourself melting into him and into your surroundings, becoming the fog or the fog becoming you. Wrapping yourself around your lover, around yourself and everything in between; becoming the earth, the sky, the galaxy all at once. A perfect moment of ecstasy and bliss, you never wanted it to end.

You both lay on the moss bed, bodies entangled, breathing and moving as one, dozing in and out of sleep. Oh to be with this handsome nightbrother forever in a secluded swamp with no one else to answer to or deal with ever again.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

hey thanks again for reading. it means more to me than you’ll know.

toss a heart to your witcher o’ tumblr of thirst

tag list: @brilliantbutbatty @maulieber @emissarydecksetter

masterlist

#darth maul #darth maul x reader #maul x nightsister #nightsisters #nightbrothers #dathomir #zanbar #shadow collective #lord maul #star wars #star wars x reader #fanfic #star wars fic #prequels era #fluff #soft maul #hand holding #poetic sex #swamp

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knifeshoeoreofight · 4 years

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Part 3 of ?

(part 1 here)

(part 2 here)

They fall into a pattern after that. Sid works in the labs during the day, going over previously gathered data and doing just enough to keep Bettman thinking that all is well. Natalia teaches him the staff rotations and camera locations to allow him to reach the observation room without being caught, and they meet up there in the middle of the night to discuss their plans.

Natalia just calls the being “malysh” most of the time, but Sid had wanted to call him with his name. The being had only laughed in a riot of color and explained that Sid had no hope of replicating it with human vocal cords. Much of the being’s communication, aside from color and telepathy, he explained, was subsonic, at frequencies too low for human ears.

“Evgeni,” Natalia says firmly, in order to move the conversation along. “Good Russian name. Can call you Zhenya for small.”

I like it the being--Zhenya-- had replied, radiating mental warmth in response.

“Zhenya,” Sidney had said, testing the sound of it in his mouth. The lights on Zhenya’s body had all flickered in response.

Now, they have the rudiments of a plan. Zhenya needs some of the equipment on his ship, badly.

My kind, he explains. We….adapt, easily. I can stop your gravity and atmosphere... from killing me. But I need my ship.

Their communication comes so much easier now. Sid wonders if there’s some kind of link or connection that grows stronger with use. He knows that it still takes effort and that Zhenya has to rest after long sentences, but the gaps are becoming shorter. Zhenya’s personality, vibrant from the first, comes through even more clearly now. Sid can see why Natalia is so fiercely protective of him, and he aches thinking about the suffering he’s had to endure until now.

I will be able to assume an almost human biological form he tells Sid one night. Tell me...what is considered good, to your species? In a person’s form.

His lights are all soft yellow and his eyes are wide and innocent-looking. Suspiciously so. When he imitates a human facial expression it’s deliberately done.

Sid flushes. “You mean, like, what is aesthetically pleasing? Or um.”

Lights pulse, a rainbow of other colors flickering through the yellow. Your species is very focused on...reproductive availability, correct?

“Oh god,” Sid says, feeling his face heat up even further. “Uh. Well, height is considered pretty important, for guys? And, um.”

Reproductive organ size? Zhenya says, still wide-eyed and butter-yellow with what Sid is beginning to think is faux-innocence.

“Such a dick,” Sid blurts. His face feels like it’s on fire.

Not yet Zhenya sends, smugness radiating from the words like bad cologne.

“You told me last night that your people have monitored our radio and television signals for decades,” Sid accuses. It had floored him to learn, but it explained Zhenya’s ability to speak human languages, albeit telepathically. “You know exactly what is considered attractive to humans.”

I only want to program the DNA successfully, Zhenya claims.

“Uh huh.” Sidney rolls his eyes, but has to smile as Zhenya’s lights edge toward pink. “Sure you do.”

***

Sid has more than a few overwhelming fears about their plans.

“If I disappear at the same time you do,” he says, one night about two weeks in. “They might come after me once I return home. They’ll be watching my place, probably.” He feels terrible even bringing this up. Zhenya and Natalia are both risking so much.

Once I have adapted Zhenya tells him, lights flowing down his skin in a way that seems intended to comfort and reassure. I will still have some of my abilities, and my technology. I will be able to protect you.

“You’ll be staying with me?” Sid asks. “After this?”

Zhenya goes very still. If. If you consent.

“Of course,” Sid says. He feels a strange sense of relief. The scientist in him, of course, wants every opportunity to continue to learn about extraterrestrial life, and the rest of him has begun to grow...fond of Zhenya. His curiosity, his surprising playfulness. His affection for Natalia.

Sid leans his forehead against the glass. He’s exhausted from weeks of fractured sleep and strung out nerves. They’re alone tonight- Natalia’s husband has a cold and she stayed home from work to care for him.

Zhenya leans his forehead against the glass as well, making one of his low, rumbling hums.

It was my dream, he thinks wistfully. All my life. To come and study this planet. I’m not ready to leave it. I just need to be free of this place.

“I know,” Sid says softly, and tries something new. Just like the times he sends thought Zhenya’s way, he tries to send the complicated bundle of emotions lodged in his chest. Fear, affection, resolve.

Sid is all Zhenya sends back, and the glass between them trembles with sound that Sid mostly feels, rather than hears.

He has the strangest sense that there’s more that Zhenya would like to say, but he holds his peace, moving instead to the less emotionally fraught topic of the facility’s containment breach protocols.

***

After a while, there isn’t anything more to discuss. There is only the execution of their plan.

Their saving grace is that due to the paranoia of those running the facility, nothing so much as a laptop camera is allowed in the observation room. They decide then, that getting through the window is their best bet, as they will have at least two hours between guards making security checks of the room.

Sid has access to the equipment storage area for the research department. He manages to steal a reciprocating saw and an acetylene torch easily enough, hiding them in one of the equipment lockers close to the observation room. He packs a backpack with only the absolute essentials, and makes his way to where Zhenya is waiting for him, tense and pacing as they wait for Natalia to arrive.

When she arrives, she wastes no time. She presses a wrapped package of food into Sid’s hands and kisses him on both cheeks. Sid has to swallow and clear his throat before he can ask her how preparations went.

“Pipe is blocked in office block. All cleaning staff go there, big mess.”

Sid nods. They have to get Zhenya out, then time their race to reach the hanger just right to avoid security patrols.

Natalia pauses, then presses something heavy into Sid’s hands, wrapped up in what appears to be a flowered tea towel.

He goes cold all over when he realizes that it’s a handgun.

“I’m take from guard’s room,” Natalia says. Her expression is worried but her gaze is flinty. Whatever it takes, her eyes say.

Sid’s hands shake a little, but he checks the safety, and tucks the weapon in the waistband of his jeans. The reality of it is, he doesn’t know how to use a gun properly, and the guards here are most likely going to bring him down and ask questions never. Some of the tension leaves Natalia’s shoulders though, and that is enough.

The plexiglass of the viewing window proves insanely difficult to deal with. It emits billows of noxious-smelling smoke as it melts, and when Sid has to alternate between the torch and the saw. His shoulders and arms are burning and sweat is running off him in rivers as he grits his teeth and shears through the window centimeter by hardwon centimeter. They’re cutting a diagonal across one of the corners, hoping for the sealant to fail and make for fewer cuts.

His brain is just an endless loop of come on come on come on come on as beside him Natalia starts to murmur what sound like prayers.

A glance into Zhenya’s enclosure shows smoke collecting at an alarming rate. His lights are flickering a sick green-yellow that turns Sid’s stomach with worry.

Finally. He hits the edge of the window and starts in on the massive bolts on the frame, working his way down from the top as Natalia starts in on the ones on the bottom.

They’re not going to have enough time. There’s no way. Sid wedges a crowbar under the edge of the frame and heaves on it, with a strangled grunt. Natalia grabs on as well and they both haul on it as Zhenya pushes on the opposite side.

There’s a horrible squeal of metal on metal, and, miraculously, the frame gives. The plexiglass falls out of it with a thud.

“Go, go!” Natalia cries. She pushes Sid’s bag at him and he throws it over his shoulder. He turns and holds out his arm to support Zhenya as he folds himself through the gap. He’s lighter than he looks, as if he’s hollow-boned as a bird.

Quick.

He extends a tendril to Natalia and she holds out her hand. Sid watches in puzzlement as Zhenya’s lights flare.

It is an honor, Natalia he says.

Natalia’s eyes are wet as she hurries them out of the room and down the long corridor to Zhenya’s ship. Sid can hear an alarm start to blare in another part of the complex.

“Be safe,” Sid tells her with a final kiss to her cheek. She nods, and takes off. She has to make it to an electrical panel that will allow her to throw the fuses for the hanger bay.

Come, Zhenya tells him, and they take off down the endless hall, sirens and flashing lights now blaring around them. Zhenya stumbles, and Sid has to haul him upright.

As if in a slow motion nightmare, just as they turn a corner and the hanger doors come into view, Sid registers a guard standing there, raising a radio to his lips.

Sid reaches for the gun before he can think. Sweat-slick palms, nothing but the drum of his heart in his ears.

He fires. The shot goes wide, the guard swivels, bringing up his own weapon.

Sid fires again. The guard goes down, clutching at his leg. Before he can reach his dropped weapon Sid kicks it away. He wants to lean over and vomit.

Later.

The guard’s key card opens the doors for them, at least, and as they run inside, the lights all go down, save the faint glowing ones on the ship itself.

Past the electric barrier erected around it, up into the gaping entryway that opens at Zhenya’s touch.

Hold on Zhenya thinks tersely at him, as Sid half collapses against a bulkhead, lungs burning.

The ship hums to life, and Sid sways on his feet as it rises into the air. Zhenya is standing inside a curved, organic looking arch, a web of light rising around him as the ship turns, screeching and throwing sparks as it brushes the hanger walls.

The doors are corrugated steel, and Zhenya had told them that his ship can break through. Sid still closes his eyes as he hears the thrum of the engines increase in pitch. Nothing around him had looked anything like an identifiable jumpseat or safety harness, so he just braces himself against the bulkhead.

Then the ship’s sudden acceleration presses him back into the wall like an enormous hand, there’s a jolt, an awful shearing sound of metal on metal, and the floor beneath Sid tilts.

The ship is shuddering, G forces pushing on Sid until the edges of his vision start to go dark. He might be screaming. Everything is sound, and roaring, and pressure. Time itself seems to stretch.

Then, easy as a sigh, the pressure lets him go. The floor rights itself, the engines calm.

Sid is on the floor on his hands and knees, panting for breath. When he can raise his head again, he looks up, out of the cockpit window.

Beyond it is deep, velvety black- too deep and dark to comprehend, spangled with a billion points of light.

The stars.

***

Sid is lightheaded with residual adrenaline and his hands shake with fine tremors. His eyes greedily devour the sight outside as he stands in front of the main viewing-window- the blue of the sky going cold and deep at the very edge of space, the infinite blackness beyond the fragile curve of the earth.

“Zhenya,” he breathes, and turns to look at him.

Zhenya is manipulating the web of light that must make up the controls, but he seems unwell. He’s hunched over a little, and his breathing seems rasping and labored.

Sid realizes, with a flood of guilt, that he’s able to breath perfectly, and that the gravity of the ship, after the press of rapid acceleration had ceased, feels normal to him.

“Zhenya,” he says urgently. “The life support systems. You’ve set them to human parameters, haven’t you?”

Zhenya blinks at him, slow. You would suffer ill effects from my species’s ideal parameters.

“Maybe of atmospheric composition,” Sid says. “What about gravity? Does your species need higher or lower gravity than humans?

Lower.

Sid sighs in relief. “That’s fine then, my species has done great in zero-g, even, without too many ill effects. Go ahead and change it.

Zhenya does something, and Sid grins like a child as his feet slowly leave the floor. Zhenya sighs, taking a deep, rattling breath that sounds, to Sid, relieved.

“This,” Sid assures him,”Is so fucking cool. I’ve dreamt of stuff like this, space and weightlessness, my whole life.”

Zhenya’s lights pulse, and Sid feels a swell of wordless affection wash up against his thoughts.

Zhenya just feels so fond when he looks at Sid. Sid doesn’t know quite what to do with that so he turns to look out of the window again, just in time to see the Baltic Sea slide by underneath them.

Something occurs to him. In all this planning, they hadn’t considered-

“Uh, where are we going,” Sidney asks.

I need time for the adaptation Zhenya replies. I still want to conduct my research. I could take you anywhere. I have earth resources we can use.

Sid has to stare out the window at that a little. Instead of northern Norway, he watches the reflection of Zhenya’s lights, gone gently blue and pink.

He’s sitting in a spaceship. He’s sitting in a spaceship with an extraterrestrial and he’s on the run from a shadowy government organization. He shakes his head.

“I don’t even know,” he says softly, and for some reason, he thinks, “I shot someone today,” and his hands start to shake.

Sidney. Zhenya moves to stand behind him, and he rests one of his long-fingered hands on Sid’s shoulders.

He can feel...regret, he thinks, bleeding across the connection of their minds. He turns to face Zhenya.

“I’m so glad we got you out,” he says decisively. “I am.”

You are… Zhenya pauses. Extraordinary. You and Natalia. You have both risked so much for me.

His eyes are fathomless, his face as unreadable as it ever is. But the pulse of his lights and the warmth in his mind tells Sid everything that his expression won’t.

Sid, for some reason, feels his own face heat. “It was the right thing to do.The humane thing.”

Humane, from the word for your species Zhenya thinks, and his mind does something that feels a lot like the equivalent of a smile. You humans are creatures of such staggering contrast and potential.

Sid can’t meet that steady gaze anymore. He looks out of the window again. Are they over the North Atlantic?

“So this adaptation,” he asks. “What is that going to entail?”

Natalia brought me a hair of her husband’s and one of her own. I will be very nearly as if I had been their son.

Sid shakes his head in amazement and feels a curious sense of loss. All that Zhenya is, all of his otherworldly beauty, compressed into a human shell. Necessary to live on earth and fulfill his dream, perhaps, but still.

I look forward to a mostly human body Zhenya goes on. I will only hold up to the most rudimentary medical scrutiny, but I will definitely stop being killed by your environment—at least not any faster than you. He flickers his lights wryly.

I will need to spend about an earth month in a nutrient bath as my DNA is re-programmed and my body restructures itself. The DNA from Natalia was the final piece, the rest of the scaffolding was already completed as part of the preparation for this expedition.

“You guys really can just rewrite DNA, huh,” Sid says, shaking his head.

Our technology for genome manipulation arose out of necessity, Zhenya explains. My people were dying out. After we discovered space travel, we discovered that almost everything foreign to our planet caused our DNA to mutate. We were fragile. Luckily, we developed the technology before it was too late.

Sid cannot help but think,for a moment, of children dying of cancer. Of his grandfather losing his mind to Alzheimer’s.

I’m sorry, Zhenya says, having probably ascertained some of that from Sid’s thoughts. The ability to accept radical gene therapies and be effectively re-written is a particular trait of my people’s DNA. Our technology would not be of any use to humans, to my regret. You are noble to think of it.

“Ah, well,” Sid says. “We’ll have to muddle through on our own, then.”

Zhenya flickers at him, then tilts his head to one side.

You grow tired, he says. The extensive telepathic communication is hurting you.

Oh. Now that he’s paying attention, Sid can feel the beginnings of a headache throbbing at his temples.

“We never decided where we were going.” He has to laugh a little.

We will stop at your abode, and then-- Zhenya doesn’t finish the thought, but Sid gets a quickly stifled mental flicker of... palm trees?

Wherever you would like, Zhenya defers politely.

“It’s your research trip.” Sid smiles at him. “What was your plan?”

Zhenya’s lights glow excitedly. In my research I encountered several cultural artifacts of popular entertainment set in Miami. One in particular seemed to imply it would make an excellent hiding location for those involved in espionage and covert operations.

“Are you….talking about Burn Notice?” Sid says, and laughs. Why is that so cute? “Face it, you just want to go to the beach, eh?”

Maybe so Zhenya replies, and his mental tone is a warm as a smile, even if his slit of a mouth doesn’t move.

“Sure, let’s go.” Sid winces as a bolt of pain stabs his temples.

Rest, Zhenya tells him both in word and in a soothing ripple of light. I shall take you to your home and we will then travel to our next hiding place after you have gathered your belongings. Please. He motions to an entryway in the rear of the cockpit.

When Sid goes where he’s bidden, he finds a handful of compact rooms. One is dimly lit, with soothing colors playing over the walls and a white, squashy blob the size of a king mattress on the floor.

Just to be sure, Sid hollers up the hall. He doesn’t want to end up sleeping in the equivalent of an alien toilet. When he receives the affirmative that it is, in fact, a bed, he puts down his pack and takes his shoes off, studying the weird, organic shapes of the room’s mysterious furnishings.

He snorts out a laugh when he notices, enshrined in a wall niche, a little collection of earthly looking doodads including, of all the fucking things, a Funko Pop figurine. He goes over to look and the objects make him smile. There’s a pine cone, a dented tin can of baked beans, and a postcard from Seattle. He knew Zhenya was fascinated with Earth but this tenderly displayed cluster of random artifacts just drives it home.

The bed is strange. The surface feels like silicone rubber and velvet had an oddly comfortable lovechild, but it’s pillowy and soft and he drops immediately off to sleep as soon as he lays his head down.

***

Sid.

Sid jolts awake as though his name had been spoken aloud, not just into his mind.

Zhenya is leaning over him.

How is your head?

Sid’s head feels a little like it usually does after a big headache- sort of like it’s a fishbowl made of brittle glass that he needs to be careful with. But it’s manageable.

He rubs the sleep out of his eyes. “Where are we?”

The roof of your apartment building.

That wakes him up. “Okay, nice. Are you coming in with me?”

Zhenya’s lights flicker excitedly. I would love to finally visit a private human domicile.

Sid smiles. The thought was accompanied by the same feeling of giddiness he imagines you’d get from a kid walking into a toy store.

***

Sid’s apartment is thankfully on the top floor, and they get Zhenya inside without incident. Zhenya does something with some sort of scanning device and his thoughts pulse with concern.

We should not linger. This building is being surveilled.

Fuck.

Go Zhenya tells him. I will keep watch.

Sid’s place is dim with all the shades drawn, and the still air with its closed-for-weeks smell adding to the surreality of it all as Sid makes his way through his rooms with a pounding heart.

What do you bring with you when you might be leaving life as you knew it behind for good? He grabs a duffle bag, then decides he doesn’t have time to be tidy and finds a garbage bag in the kitchen. He can organize later.

A couple changes of clothes, his backup hard drive, a photo of his parents. Does he take a bottle of shower gel? It’s not like he’s leaving the planet (ha). There’s going to be a CVS or something in Florida.

In goes his favorite quilt that his grandmother made him. A coffee mug he’s fond of from his sister. A stack of research materials and books that he’d hate to lose. There’s no reason he can’t keep working. A few more things get shoved haphazardly into the duffle and the garbage bag.

Just in time he realizes that he should probably grab his birth certificate and social security card. Just in case he really never comes back. Shit, what about rent? If he keeps paying rent, can the Russian organization that held Zhenya hack in and find out, tracking his credit card usage?

Too much to think about now. He’ll have time. He’s supposed to be in Russia for another month, in any case, and it’s paid in full.

He has everything he can’t do without. He takes a last look around. He has the strangest feeling that he’s never going to see the place again.

He shoulders the duffle and nods at Zhenya.

“Let’s go.”

***

#zvezda #sidgeno #sid/geno #sidney crosby/evgeni malkin #Hockey rpf #dana writes a thing

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lordbloodysoul · 3 years

Text

Name:

Rift Doorman

Title:

“The Layer Breaker” – “Usurper” – “Ever Hunger”

Nicknames:

Rifty / Riff Raff / Tele-Broski (Fresh)

Freak of Nature / Parasite / Anomaly Animus (Error Sans)

Paperworm / Layer Breaker / Clown Vomit (Ink)

Age:

[REDACTED]

Height / Weight:

Varies

Soul Type

“Collective Soul”

// - A Collective Soul shows trades of all known Soul Types and is shielded by a thin membrane of Void. It looks like a blank Soul with a black outline, that has a small pitch dot in its center from which a vibration rolls across the surface of the Soul. Those waves appear in different colors and strokes. To those who are very sensible to Soul Energy, the vibration will sound like an endless army of different voices breathing simultaneously in sync. The rhythm changes with Rift’s state of emotion. It has an aroma/flavour that could be described as “Retro and vibrant”. The feeling it would induces is more reminiscent of Allure and vivid Chaos. Like a puzzle started, but left unsolved. With every piece just raining passed fields of endless colors, trapped within a pool of blackness. - //

STATS:

[REDACTED] // It will show the “ : P “ Emoji //

[REDACTED] // It will show the “ >:] “ Emoji //

ATTACK

[REDACTED] // Just spells out “YOLO” in painfully bright colors //

DEFENSE

[REDACTED] // Just spells out “LMAO” in painfully bright colors//

Doorman-Tier:

Tier A—Strength Level is not readable, due to its current activity behavior.

History:

Rift Doorman was born outside a Universe of the Undertale Multiverse. Its behavior is unusual compared to other Doorman. Rift traverses the Layers of the Timelines in search of something, but without a Universe to akin to, both its Power and Ambition were altered in a dangerous manner. Throughout its travels, this Doorman has eaten itself through various Timelines and Multiverses. However, these places didn’t just disappear, like usually when things are being destroyed through Outcodes or beings from the Anti-Void. They stay mostly intact. Broken like shattered glass, but still existing. Each piece would then connect with another part. A puzzle, that was willingly done wrong, with Timelines and places in Space just overlapping in chaotic patterns. Strings missing, but not forgotten, rules shifted, players removed and entire areas shifted incoherently.

When Rift gained conscious it felt nothing. Devoid of anything, it just drifted. This state changed when it fell into a Genocide Timeline by accident. Within it, Rift faced the Fallen Human in the Judgment Hall together with Sans. As it wasn’t able to feel pain, watching Sans Dust became its first experience with Death. It amused it. Thus it smashed the human child. Seeing as the child’s death was different from Sans’s, curiosity began building up. More so as Sans returned from the dead when the Timeline reset. The battle broke apart, literally, when Rift tried mimicking voices and speech patterns, causing a ear ripping shriek that splintered the very fabric and Layers of the Universe it was visiting. Sans, slain once more begged the creature to stop the child’s madness. Still incapable of understanding why, it understood that this Fallen Human had caused the Skeleton grievance. He understood the visualization of agony and hopelessness, but couldn’t comprehend the feeling itself. Amused by the concept of FIGHT and MERCY, they decided to experiment with it in this broken place. Trapping the Human Child in a never-ending loop of Resets they had no control over. Dying as plaything to the anomalous creature. Rift bored itself over the course of 17.589 Resets, ending the Human Child by eating first their upper body and disintegrating their Soul for absorption. This act loaded the Fallen Human’s Timeline Data Layers into its own being, giving it a broader view on what’s been happening. Still not able to comprehend things, however, Rift left the splintered Timeline and returned to the Layers between.

More travels were its answer. Further down its path, this Doorman entered a Rampage, experiencing many Emotions from interacting with various worlds in different ways. However, it couldn’t feel them at all. It understood. It could see them. Could comprehend what actions would lead to what reaction, but not why it was necessary. Hollow. It was hollow. Like a Black Hole. Just ripping everything apart and consuming it, but nothing could look back or return it. Within it grew a terrible Hunger, which it satisfied by devouring various portions of the visited Timelines and Multiverses. Places, Sections, Memories, People. All fell to its strife to understand. To engage. To be part of something. It began building a sort of pocket dimension in the Layers between the Multiverse, where it gathered things from various Timelines that kept intriguing it. In one already destroyed Universe, Rift recovered a monitor of round shape, still functional. It had the shape of a face, much like all the other creatures it met had. Thus it connected with the screen and used it as a makeshift face-mask, ensuring its actual form wouldn’t freak out too many people.

While striding through the Timelines, absorbing information, energy, magic and various other stimuli into its form, Rift discovered that it was possible to READ these Data and use it. Shaping its attacks in combat into Patterns and Styles unlike anything this Multiverse had ever witnessed. But not only that, it began to hunt and kill other Doorman instinctively, absorbing them into its form as well, leaving their Timelines defenseless. Rift became a true threat to many, just through its curiosity and yearning for understanding. It also began leaving pieces of itself behind in various distorted Worlds, hidden from view. Small Homunculi, holding enough Data and energy to reincarnate it. Rift slowly devolved into a Parasite that endangered the delicate balance of the Multiverse. A thorn in the side of both the protectors of the Multiverse as well as the Vanguards of the Anti-Void. As its shattering of Timelines caused multiple Universes to intertwine with one another. Rift became a target for eradication, even though no one knew about its existence yet.

It was during another stride into another Timeline that it encountered the parasitic entity known as “Fresh”. Their interaction was quite different than what it was used to. And something began to stir within it. Rift felt something. Something that was unfamiliar and strong. It played with Fresh, before that one disappeared to safety, as the creature seemingly grew too attached to them. That escape started it all. A chase that both were not prepared for nor understood. Rift’s conscious was completely fixated on Fresh. It didn’t understand why, but knew it was important. For days, weeks and months it kept chasing them. However, the Parasite didn’t need or wants anyone following them, so they kept fleeing and hiding. Despite their best efforts, though, Rift finds them every single time.

[!!!SPOILERS WARNING!!! - for those who wish to Read the FanFiction or wait till I get around to making the Comic, since the LITERATURE SUBMIT on DA doesn’t allow much creative Freedom, so I have to do a lot of Re-Spacing and Editing on those Parts. This Section will spoil some of the Plot in exchange for Character Build - If you don't want that spoiled, please proceed to the APPEARANCE Section - !!!SPOILER WARNING!!!]

Fresh found himself in a skirmish with Error and Ink, as they both tried tracking him down. They misjudged and thought they were responsible for several Holes within the Multiverse. With no secure escape Route, they were forced into battle, holding their own well. Up until the Anti-Void’s Enforcer, C0D35 Doorman, stepped onto the field. His entire presence alone began to erase the Universe he’s chosen as a battleground. Manipulating Space was practically useless against this foe, as one of C0D35 special abilities was to block all types of magics. Before the fight could harm Fresh, however, Rift shattered the Universe into several pieces. It took Fresh with it and delved through several Layers of broken Code, Timelines and hid them in a small Space it had created from the leftover scraps of Multiverses long forgotten. A Null Space of sorts. Due to the strenuous battle with Error and Ink, the body Fresh had chosen was slowly failing. They had to let go of the host body and seek out another. Rift, even though unable to talk and acting more like an excited puppy, willingly helped the Parasite. It took them to another Timeline to gain a new host body. Fresh, unable to understand or comprehend the motivation of this anomalous creature, decided to experiment how far its warped sense of loyalty would go. Curiosity getting the better of them. Since they couldn’t escape from it for long anyway. Thus the duo began their journey to try and understand what this drive was, where it was coming from and what it all meant. But Fresh already has the slight suspicion that something was off with Rift. Something huge was brewing.

Appearance:

Rift Doorman has no corporeal form. It’s a mass of black noise, free floating energy and magic. The almost cloud-like, dense column attached itself to an egg-shaped monitor. A remnant of a long forgotten Timeline. Due to the vapor form of its body, Rift can change its density and size at will, ranging from grasp-less like fog and air to solid and unmovable like a wall of steel and stone. This Doorman is holding its form together through sound wave. The magic and energy flooding its form gives these waves color and form, embracing its shape and fueling every movement of the mass. This special way of mass control makes it possible for Rift to even split itself into multiple smaller versions of itself. The Energy and Magic coursing through its vapor shape glows in various colors, like a swarm of bugs and fireflies. The ones that are mostly present range from neon-pinkish to eye-stinging green lights. The color of the Emoji faces on its screen are similarly bright and colorful, while the biggest mass of the body is a pitch-black buzzing fog.

Rift uses the screen it found as a makeshift face. By sending energy and magic through it, it channels different words and expressive Emojis, which it uses for communication, since it cannot speak. It developed this form of talking, which is accented with Retro musical tunes and sound effects, due to its own lack of actual vocal cords. Rift can only mimic various words through pitching and dipping sounds and tunes.

Underneath the screen is a distorted black orb-shaped head, with a bright, monstrous white jaw and eyes. The magic, energy and sound waves, which course through the body are accentuated here, pulsing through the big eyes that stare empty into the world. As the delight of murder and fighting was presented with a smile by both his first encountered Sans and Fallen Child, Rift has adopted that same expression into its own. Empty of empathy, reason or guilt. Hollow.

Personality:

Rift is a peculiar Doorman. Even though highly intelligent and fast learning, it prefers to act like an excited puppy or curious child. Devoid of any real emotion to drive its actions, it only acts upon what other people think is the “good thing” to do in a situation. Leaving trails of Chaos and destruction in its wake. Rift’s first real emotion was “a sense of joy” which emerged from killing the Fallen Human in their first ever visited Timeline. After loosing that, it was filled with a Hunger to learn more, experience more and discover why it was unable to understand or hold emotions like other beings do. It likes being lout and giddy, causing confusion and messes all around.

Rift learned from its travels that violence is considered bad, thus it only acts upon it when given a cause or being asked of. Through Fresh’s company, it grew found of their way of speaking, censoring and general demeanor, which they try to imitate. Not always successful. Rift lacks empathy and basic moralities. Doing the right things as much as they can, but never getting appreciation, feelings of guilt or delight out of any of its actions.

It is a slight hoarder, liking to collect various things from visited Timelines and just storing them in their own little Null Space.

Likes:

Fresh

Eating

making music through its distorted Retro Voice (which would probably sound much like the music you can hear in the “Just Shapes & Beats” Video Game – example here )

helping people

playing with Fresh

exploring and learning / education

collecting stuff for its Null Space

cuddling and hugs

dancing

Fighting, when allowed to do so

people laughing and smiling

inducing Fear into ‘evil’ people (it doesn’t understand it, but their expressions give it a sense of ‘delight’, which it can’t comprehend)

Dislikes:

pointless violence

swearing

anyone who tries to harm Fresh

disrespectful and rude behavior

the other Parasites spawned from Fresh

seeing other people go through loss, sadness and hopelessness (it doesn’t understand, but it dislikes their expressions during these moments)

Capabilities:

Rift is a special Doorman. Unlike any other it can and can’t do various things that are unlike its species. Since Doorman are shaped by what their Timeline / Universe needs, their abilities will be manifested into something they can use as an exploit to reach their goal. Rift, however, has neither a goal nor a world for that to work. Being born outside the Multiverse, Void and such, beneath the Layers of the In between, corrupted its whole existence. Thus it learned an ability so variable, loose and dangerous, that Rift managed to break its own power limitations. That ability is ADAPTATION. Through it, the anomalous entity can learn anything that it finds. This ability is limited only by its corrupted special skill, ARCHIVE, which extents its own Data Volume by absorbing that of other objects, Worlds and people. Through these two abilities, Rift extended its repertoire of skills by taking those of others into its own. By devouring other Timeline versions of Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Mettaton, Napstablook and various other monsters, it learned their magics, attack patterns, strengths and weaknesses, accumulating them into its own form and using them against various aggressors along the way. Taking the Souls of the Fallen Children, it enhanced its own Soul Power, HP and influence over various aspects within the Timeline Layers. Even though unable to cause REWRITE or OVERWRITE, its Determination rivals the power output of such abilities, nullifying their affects on its own self. By devouring various Doormen, Rift added their special abilities into its own arsenal. But not only these are something to worry about, since they also absorbed the (apparently) infamous “COLOR PUZZLE”, which appeared in various Timelines. Through absorption of its information, Rift learned to utilize the principle in its own combat patterns, making for, probably, the worst experience of a FIGHT for any genocidal maniac. During a FIGHT Rift delights itself by causing its opponent as much headache and frustration as possible. All its patterns are a mix of things it accumulated from various Timelines, objects and people. The difference to its style is that every pattern follows a rhythm it deliberately switches to cause as much distress as it can. Their own original patterns appears as orbs, bars and string lines, which move in a sort of symphonic flow. It likes to abuse the rules of the infamous “COLOR PUZZLE” into each of their attacks. Goal during these fights are to keep itself busy till its bored. It will reset its opponent back into battle till it can’t get enjoyment out of it anymore. Than the most common outcome is for Rift to grab its foe and devour it (or part of it), just to satisfy its hunger for a bit.

// Attack Patterns for this Character would look like a mix between Undertale and “Just Shapes & Beats Style //

Rift’s voice is a powerful instrument of destruction, as its wavelength and pitch can shatter and fragment entire worlds, when threatened. Most of the time, though its a tool for amusement and distraction as they can’t use it to speak, but make totes rad Retro music and sounds with it.

Due to their body being so fluid, Rift tends to shape-shift a lot. Switching sizes being one of the more common transformations, however, it is capable of turning into practically anything it has a rough understanding off. From people to buildings and even entire landscapes. The greater the scope, thought, the higher the risk of its Soul overloading and damaging it. This skill it uses often to entertain Fresh’s curiosity and help them fight their boredom.

The Doorman is capable of using the Data collected to create completely new Multiverses out of them, which it does by filtering the most intriguing information into its “Null Space”. A collective widespread anomalous space in the Layers in between. Much like the Core Universe, it is a hidden pocket dimension that is unreachable unless you’ve been there once or are aware of its existence. As the Null Space grows, so does Rift’s power, which is connected to it. Would this secluded fragment in the Layers in between be destroyed, the damage to Rift itself would be tremendous. Rift is capable of creating “BACK UP FILES” for itself. So called Homunculi, which it scatters across the various splintered Timelines, hiding them in various objects. Through those Back up Data pieces, killing the Doorman has become nearly impossible. For its adversaries it is even unclear if this anomaly can ever truly be completely killed, since normal, widespread magic and fighting abilities are completely wasted on it. However, Rift is not completely invulnerable. All of its outstanding skills require huge amounts of magic, which it needs to store by devouring and absorbing Energy, Magic and Entities from other Timelines. Starvation is a realistic issue to it, since their moral compass started to change with the appearance of Fresh. Survival becoming an “optional goal” to its primary instinct fixating on the Parasite and its well-being. Rift can be harmed by beings from the Anti-Void as well as Ink, which is why it tries to stay hundreds of paces away from them. Especially C0D35, as his ability, ANNIHILATION, exceeds its coded protection by a margin. When Rift’s Soul reaches critical its body becomes fully corporeal and eats at its own mass till burn-out. The energy and magic from its body will slowly dissolve the very fabric of Reality, Time and Space as it goes on, till everything just becomes absolute Chaos. This meltdown can cause any nearby organism to be entrapped in a cascade of pain and maddening delirium, slowly eating at their very existence. It would cause an unseen apocalypse of shier Madness, but also cause the very Death of Rift, if the burn-out isn’t stopped.

Relations:

Rift has no great attachment to anyone besides Fresh. And even that “affection” is a level of understanding it can’t comprehend. For it, its something that it was born for, but doesn’t know why or what it is supposed to do with it. Finding the answer to this riddle is the only ‘purpose’ it got and after wandering aimless for so long, it decided not to let go of it till it knows.

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Trivia:

The first word Rift ever spoke was “YOLO”, when it read the glasses of Fresh at their first meeting.

There is a Momma CQ version of Rift.

Kid!Rift entire backstory is goign to make people wanna stab me to death. I am sure of that.

Rift’s musical Battle Patterns are inspired by the game “Just Shapes and Beats”

Yes, I am aware that I messed up the Color Patterns of both of my Fresh Designs there. They were both drawn separately before placed in the same picture together. It has bugged me to no end!

Yes, there will be a Momma CQ version of this one coming (probably soon, since I don’t want to loose my shin. It’s not worth making Rifty mad)

Fresh Sans belongs to @loverofpiggies

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#Rift #Doorman #LordBloodySoul #Horrorpuppets #Darktale #Undertale #Underfresh #Fresh #Sans

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jarofrebuke-transcripts · 3 years

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Jar of Rebuke Episode 11 Unofficial Transcript

Season 1 Episode 11: Observations B

INTRO

The following audio recording is classified documentation for case [audio distortion]

GIA

I'm sorry, I'm not sure what that was. This equipment is in dire need of upgrades. This is Dr. Gia Castillo. The following audio recording is classified documentation for case H57. The subject has proven to be a bit... stubborn? Annoying? Well perhaps “difficult” is the best word. Ideally things would just go smoothly so that I could get back to what I was actually hired to do. I have a PhD in zoology, I have spent thousands of dollars for my education and title, but this? This? This is asinine, this is absolutely ludicrous, this is flat out stupid. There's no reason for this much time, effort, and money to be spent on Todd's little pet project. I was hired to examine how pollution and radiation could lead to the creation of these creatures, from afar. The local deer population for example? All of that research was led by me from my lab. Processing the radioactivity readings, exposure rates, things that could have led to the possible creation of the not-dear? In my professional opinion, is quite solid. And now? Now I'm playing babysitter to some… thing that Todd told me to watch over via nanny cam because he's too scared to. I have to play lab partner with something that never even earned its degree, yet still gets the title? I'll have to edit all of that out.

Today the subject took that hellhound on a walk after breakfast, which was then followed by some time watching television, a shower and then a frantic phone call. I won't know who it called until after a system synced tonight to pick up all the data from its phone and audio journal but it exhibited clear behavior and body language of being in quite a panic. It sat down and had started to record a session in its audio journal. While the audio journaling has remained as consistent as before, there have been some changes in its other behaviors. My recent findings have shown that the subject has been quite resistant to Dr. Daman’s sessions as of late. By the sound of its complaints and also of Dr. Daman's reports, the resistance is only worsening. Which led to another observer being brought in not too long ago- Mr. Zimmer. Now that I have the utter displeasure of working with him, my luck only continues to sour. Anyways, through the audio files and also the footage from the cameras, we are seeing signs of something else for us to look into. It taking in that hellhound as a pet of all things was both simultaneously surprising but also not too out of character for what we have seen previously. Creatures like those tend to be drawn to one another. But now there appears to be a third creature of sorts wandering around that particular home. We need to look further into what's captured on our recordings. The subject has mentioned to Dr. Daman seeing shadows around its home so that may be a good start for us. With that hellhound, Grove I believe it's taken to calling it, the team has agreed that it's best if that creature isn't around to further influence the subject. Of course the influence isn't intentional on the hellhound’s part per se, but the subject's empathy towards other supernatural creatures has only amplified since taking it in. That puts quite a hindrance on the goal that we were given by Todd, so it needs to go.

Dr. Daman suggested perhaps staging a sort of “running away from home” that pets tend to do. That may be our best course of action but putting this into action will take more time and planning. And we have also tried to get rid of those black-eyed children that keep tapping on its door. A bit of pest control as Todd calls it but well, in Mr. Zimmer's words- like roaches they don't die easily and they will come back. They seem to become only more adamant about being let into the subject's house. After the subject's investigation of those melon head children in the woods, Todd has decided that it'd be best to attempt to round them up and bring them in as well. Too dangerous to leave them out, he claims. Eating people seems to be the line, but Todd has shown no concern with the creature our subject encountered out in the river. I believe he has a certain disdain for creatures with child-like forms, at least that's a theme I've observed.

[door opens] Ah, what brings me the pleasure of your company?

LIAM

Ah, Gia, hello! I just came to check in and see how we were doing today, do a check in with the patient. How is it doing today?

GIA

That is Dr. Castillo, Mr. Zimmer. It just sat down to record a session of the audio journal. It was rather wise for Dr. Daman to encourage that, giving us a clear look into its thoughts. Of course what exactly it's saying I won't know until later tonight once the cloud collects the data, though it just got off of the phone with someone and has been pacing around the room quite nervously while talking.

LIAM

Fascinating. It's always so adamant about the supposed feelings it has. If I didn't know any better, I would say that it's practically human in every way! Look at it- the stress, the agitation. You know, the way that it so often curls into itself in our sessions truly is human. If only it knew the truth.

GIA

We're here to see how long we can keep the truth from it. I know you're using this to satiate personal curiosities, Mr. Zimmer, but we do have a goal to attain, and we must treat this as if we only have one shot at it.

LIAM

Oh of course, of course. But you can't tell me it's not incredibly curious. It acts so human and doesn't even think for a second that it might not be? Even though it's experienced death, well, far more times than it can count. I've seen it's so-called medical files. Dr. Rahal must really stretch his brain to figure out how to explain it all in a way that doesn't tip it off. And the fact that its body scars like a human body does is also fascinating.

GIA

Considering that Dr. Rahal is being kept on a need to know basis with this case, of course he must get a bit creative with his explanations.

LIAM

And based on those little audio journals, we may need to make sure that the good doctor isn't getting too soft with the patient. We don't have the luxury to empathize with the creature.

GIA

Would you empathize with it even if we did have the luxury?

LIAM

Hmm that's quite an excellent question, though I'm inclined to say no...

GIA

Which does not surprise me, given your reputation. Now if you would excuse me, Mr. Zimmer, I would like to resume my examinations. I'll forward you my notes and findings once I'm done.

LIAM

Of course, of course, doctor. I'll send over my notes from my most recent session with it to you and Dr. Daman at my next convenience. Talk to you later, Gia.

GIA

He is going to break our subject before we can find another one. Bringing him into this project was a ridiculous idea. I get that we're here to see just how human this creature has become, but you can see humanity without shattering one's mental stability. Anyways, this would imply that the creature has become human at all. It's still what it was before just with a human shell. Nothing will change what the creature is no matter how it looks or acts. I'll have to edit all of that out as well.

The subject has now taken to rocking slightly in its seat as it records. Something new that it picked up. There's various reasons that people rock back and forth but if it's picked this up from witnessing someone do this that would make sense. Dr. Daman encouraged it to engage more within the community of Wichton, mostly so we could see how it would socialize, but we didn't expect it to have so much success in doing so. The primary documented friends that it's made have been a few residents in town, primarily a Darius Chapman and a Holly Darling. Also it is reconnecting with its old lab partner, Dr. Milo Lomax, who had never been told the full truth hence why they were separated as lab partners. It has also been spending time with a research scientist from another department, uh, Dr. Jamie Everett. I'm not sure how much she has been briefed on the situation. With the amount of employees here who have been left in the dark on the true nature of this case it's safer to assume that she doesn't know, but I cannot say that for certain. I will need to reach out to Todd to see how deeply, if at all, Dr. Everett is involved.

That hellhound has been sniffing around its house quite a bit lately. Whether it's just part of more canine behavior or if it's more of the cryptid nature, I am not sure. Whatever it may be it's getting in the way of my view. Has it spotted the camera? It couldn't have, it's still just a dog! [clicking sounds] Oh, no, okay. All right, uh well, this is, this is bad. The subject has found the camera! How did this happen, this is... I have to inform Todd immediately, this is not damage control that we can afford to handle poorly! Damn it.

OUTRO

Jar of Rebuke is created and produced by Casper Oliver. Dr. Gia Castillo is voiced by Vanessa Rosengrant. Mr. Liam Zimmer is voiced by Andy “Pixel” Smith. Credits are read by Ashley Craft who has created the podcast official graphics. Episode was edited by Chelsea Finley. Episode was written by Casper Oliver and Jenny O'Sullivan. Music was created by Luke Menniss, spelled m-e-n-n-i-s-s who you can find and support on bandcamp, spotify, and twitch. Follow us on social media for updates. If you've been enjoying us please consider leaving a rating, review or comment wherever you tune in. You can also support us on patreon or pod hero by following the links in our episode description. And special thanks to our patreon supporters Tristan, Perry, Devin, Becky, Nico, Danny and Joyce.

#jar of rebuke #jar of rebuke podcast #jor podcast #jar of rebuke transcripts

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toothlessturtle21 · 4 years

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Nary A Nightmare

Sup, it’s me again, back with another one shot upload. Could be glacier, but was written as a healthy bromance. TW: mentions of guns, temporary disability, temporary sensory deprivation ---

A bullet between the eyes leaves Zane down and out during a fight, leading to some intimate moments between himself and the Earth Ninja as Jay toils away in his wires.

Zane didn't hate many things, or even many people. He considered himself a rational person, who knew that there was a bright side to pretty much everything.

But lying on Jay's workbench with no sight or hearing? That he hated.

He had gotten shot in the head by a lucky burglar who just happened to hit the one member of the team that wouldn't die from a bullet between the eyes. However, just because he was a robot didn't mean he wouldn't be affected. So after being held up on shaky legs and carried home by someone (he was too out of it to say for sure), he was placed on the familiar cold metal of the table in Jay's room dedicated to his inventing. Someone was holding his left hand, his right neatly folded on his stomach. Jay's careful fingers were poking around the wound, sharp stings registering as Zane tried to keep his expression neutral to avoid any hesitance.

Truth be told, although so much pain was ricocheting around his body he felt like he could throw up, he was thankful that it was him going through this as opposed to one of the others being shot dead. The thought of any one of his teammates disappearing so quickly from his life made him sicker than his injury, so he grit his teeth as a new wave of hurt hit him square between the eyes, and the fingers wrapped around his own tightened in response to his twitch.

He assumed the one holding his hand was Cole, because the fingers felt big and calloused from years of mountain climbing and training. The Earth Ninja had always hated to see his teammates in pain, anyway. The hand seemed to flex at the same time Zane felt any pain, as if the person it belonged to was flinching in his place. After a bit, Jay's hands left his head, and he felt his hand being moved off his stomach to his side, and his shirt being slid up to his collarbone. He shivered at the cool air settling over his skin, and Jay opened the torso panel with practiced ease, Zane desperately wanting to ask Jay what was going on for himself.

Zane must've looked in pain, because a hand equal in size to the one holding his own reached up to rest on his cheek, warm and a little rough. The android tilted his head to lean into the touch, mostly to reassure its owner that the gesture was understood. Truth be told, it was nice to have a distraction from the piercing pain in the center of his skull. It was truly bizarre to have two completely opposite sensations occurring at once: the warm fingers cupping his face, and the cold air and quick hands working to map out his chest. Zane wasn't sure how much more of the prodding he could take, and he couldn't help but curl in on himself, Jay forcibly holding his waist down to keep him from jostling any work done.

The hand on his face lifted for a moment, probably out of confusion, as Jay was never shy in vocalizing his frustrations. The Ice Ninja squeezed the hand interlocked with his own, and his face was once again graced by the fingers, and this time a thumb stroked across his cheekbone in an attempt to calm the android down. As Zane was forced to lay there with two pairs of hands on him, he felt like crying, turning his face into the palm on his cheek to hide his trembling expression, and the hand gently massaged the skin it could reach in pity. He wondered what was taking Jay so long to get to the point of the opening of his panel.

His question was answered when one finger circled the power-off switch in the bottom corner, asking silent permission, a signal long since established between the two. Zane grimaced, but nodded as best he could without jostling his injuries too much, and his mind clicked off as the switch was flipped.

He woke up resting on somebody, although he wasn't quite sure who. It took him a moment to realize it, but the sounds of a show playing in the background caught his attention, making him shift hazily, still not running at maximum capacity. The person he was resting on started a little, making a soft noise of surprise. Zane's head was resting on their chest, so he could feel the rumble of their voice as they spoke.

"Can you hear me?"

Ah, it was Cole. But that didn't tell him how he got here in the first place.

"Yes, I can," Zane replied, blinking rapidly. "But I cannot see you."

"Yeah," Cole sighed through gritted teeth, patting Zane on the back twice. "Jay got your audio working again, but he said something was fried in your vision, so he's getting those parts in a few days. You're good other than that, though."

The android deflated once more, and then remembered where he was.

"If you don't mind me asking, why am I reclined on your chest?"

"You looked like you were having a nightmare of some kind when Jay let you come out of sleep mode. You kept twitching a little and making noises. So we just had you lay down on me while you woke up naturally. It worked, so there's something. The others are going grocery shopping, since you can't really cook right now."

Now that Zane thought about it, he did remember what he saw as he began to wake up. He couldn't see anything, and he was forced to listen as his friends cried for help around him, but he was immobile. He shuddered at the memory, but Cole didn't comment. Neither ninja moved, unsure if they were supposed to stay cuddled on the couch or if it was breaking some sort of unspoken bro-code.

"What do I look like now?"

"Huh?"

"Are my eyes themselves damaged, or is it just the circuitry?"

"Oh, uh..."

Zane felt a gentle hand on his forehead, tilting his head back for a better look.

"I mean, maybe they're a bit duller, but that's probably because they're not focusing on me."

"Interesting," Zane nodded, even though his tone implied it was anything but. His system refused to speed up, keeping his processors running at a less than optimal rate, and Zane slumped back into Cole. "Were you the one with Jay earlier?"

"Y- yeah," Cole sounded bashful, and Zane waited quietly for him to continue. "Look, dude, I know you were under a lot of stress and your head probably hurt like a bitch, but hopefully you didn't mind that I was keeping you company. I couldn't exactly ask, y'know?"

"No, I appreciated it," Zane spoke truthfully, and he got the feeling that Cole was dying to ask what he had dreamt about, and what it was like being stuck with no senses other than touch. "It was rather frightening, being alone in my own head."

That caught Cole's attention. Zane was shifted up so both ninja were sitting against the arm of the couch, the android still between Cole's legs.

"What was it like?" Cole asked quietly, his voice much closer to Zane's ear in this new position. "That is, if you don't mind-"

"No, no, I understand. I will indulge your curiosity to the best of my abilities."

Cole stayed quiet while Zane collected his thoughts, hands slightly shaky from the memories.

"A lot of it was pain and worry. Keep in mind that anything I tell you will be clouded by my sensors being overloaded from data. I will admit that I was scared, knowing that what was a moderate fix for me would have been deadly to any of you. Since Jay powered me off when I was still feeling those fears, I experienced distorted "what if" realities while in standby."

"Aw, jeez, Zane-"

"These were only amplified by my partial sensory deprivation, as it were. It was difficult for me to feel grounded in my surroundings aside from the pain, which is why I am especially grateful for your assistance there," Zane gave a small smile, and Cole hummed pleasantly in response.

"I just couldn't stand seeing you in so much pain, it was really unsettling seeing you so... vulnerable. Plus, there was a minute or so after you were shot that we thought we'd lost you," Cole interrupted himself to clear his throat, glad Zane couldn't see the mist gathering in his eyes. "Just please try not to die, okay?"

"Not planning on it," Zane promised, and shifted a little on Cole's chest. "To be fully honest, my systems are not fully up to speed, and I should probably resume a resting state. Since you seem to observe that physical contact lessens any abnormalities in my sleep cycle, would you do me the favor of keeping my company?"

"Is that just a fancy way of asking me to hold you while you sleep?"

"Perhaps," Zane mused, practically hearing the smirk in Cole's voice. "Now if you don't mind, I will be entering standby shortly."

Cole laughed for a second, shuffling them down a little so Zane was more reclined. He wrapped an arm around Zane's back, exhaling deeply as he decided to nap alongside his icy friend.

"G'night, Zane," The Earth Ninja mumbled absentmindedly, and the android nodded minutely into his chest.

"It is the late afternoon, but goodnight, Cole."

The others returned later to find the two snuggled on the couch, none of the crew having the heart to wake either of them up, so they slept peacefully through the evening with nary a nightmare between them.

#ninjago #ninjago jay #ninjago zane #ninjago cole #zangst #fanfiction #AO3 fanfic #ninjago fanfiction #ao3 #toothlessturtle21 writes #temporary blindness #nightmare #bromance

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trendingmanagers · 3 years

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Omni-Channel Marketing Vs Negative Marketing

The whole world is a market. Now it depends on the marketer that how he/she will reach it’s target people and how they will portray their image in front of the people. Now in marketing there’s nothing as right or wrong, it’s the selling technique and the unique though process of the marketer.

Nowadays when the market is highly competitive and people are highly conscious and aware of what to use and what not, aggression is the emotion to be used. The marketer must aggressively advertise the products in order to make space on the heart and mind of the people.

We all must have memories of few advertisements which we might never forget and whenever we go to purchase that particular product it brings back the memories. Now by market I mean to say market place i.e. physical shops and market space i.e. e-commerce, online shopping.

Now, simply going door-to-door or opening a shop in a well-known area is not enough. It’s time for the marketers to put all the basic concepts of marketing on-board like PLC, BCG Matrix, SWOT Analysis, Porter’s Five Force etc. and implement them all together to make a name for themselves.

In my view point, people don’t buy a product, it’s the brand that they purchase. People will mostly be focusing on price and quality and there are mostly two types of customers available in the market i.e. Brand Loyalists or Switchers. Either customers will continue to buy products of the same brand no matter what other brands are offering or they will continue to switch brands if the deal is good enough.

Now the biggest question is how to reach the target audience..... The answer according to me is Omni Channel and Negative Marketing. It will totally depend on the marketer which one to choose and moreover the background of the business. But the biggest problem over here is how to implement these techniques. Talking about Omni-Channel it is hard to implement and most of the times it is the concept which is not clear and without understanding the concept people think that it’s gonna be very difficult and coming back to negative marketing, it’s the lack of guts because of which this concept is not broadly used. There is nothing wrong with this and as the name says negative, trust me when I say it’s nothing but just a twisted method of getting customers and making money.

To explain Omnichannel marketing in very simple words, it is a process where a message is conveyed to a whole lot of customers using multiple channels to create a seamless experience. Negative Marketing is a process where a company portrays it’s product better than its competitors in a comparison in the eyes of the consumers. Now Negative Marketing is not bad bad provided the company can manage the rumors that may arise.

Now here are few simple steps for applying Omni-Channel Marketing:

1. Collecting Data about the Target Audience

2. Analyzing the Data and interpreting the changes in fashion, trends, preferences, taste, mentality and style statement of the customers

3. Proper Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning of the product for the target audience has to be done

4. Analytical Tools to be used and according to that BCG Matrix has to be done i.e. which product is doing good in the market, which product can be in demand in future and which product is not doing well

Steps to implement Negative marketing:

1. Choosing the right customers and differentiating them with the non-targeted ones

2. Putting up a bit of controversy provided the company can handle the controversy and it’s not based on any sensitive topic

3. People like gossips to reduce their stress from daily lives so providing them with a interesting topic to gossip provided a positive solutions follows it

4. Nowadays people have a tendency to put the blame on others and tries to find out a way to outburst their hidden anger so just give them a cause to showcase their emotions

5. Use Negative words for titles- People easily get attracted towards things which are bit out of the box and something which has an essence and intensity to raise a curiosity in the minds of the people.

Now I my personal favorite is Negative Marketing because people nowadays easily forgets about advertisements they see. Each and every day when they switch on a television or something like that they might see 100 of advertisements of various products, Now if this happens they need to be continuously reminded which is again costly but controversy gives certain people happiness and excitement as they have lack of recreation because of their job roles and duties.

They find it interesting seeing other people fight over something and get highly curious about what has happened, who is blamed, if any name of big shots is included in that incident, what can be a probable situation for that controversy etc. They get their mood changed after a stressful day finding such controversy. People draw more attention towards such things and remember them mostly and in such a competitive world the most important activity is to penetrate customer’s mind out of whole lot of competitors and make a permanent place in people’s heart and mind. Just one thing has to be kept in mind that while doing negative marketing people’s emotions should not be hurt i.e. any religious, political etc. topics have to be completely ignored.

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