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Be Careful How You Treat Your Characters (MPC 41 Azure/Bone)
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Jun 7, 2017 22:03:03 GMT
The bros cringed at recalling the description of Alicia's injury. After hearing from Maia that "Alicia got hurt," the two almost broke her phone from the combined weight of concerned calls coming her away. Needless to say, it wasn't really a topic that they had much desire to hear about again. It was enough to inspire Isaac to turn around and hug Alicia back, and for Elliot to join in holding her tightly as well.
Hell, it even shook me up a bit. It was one thing to read about that happening, but physically seeing the person that it happened to up close and personally? That was another thing entirely. It was way harder to be comfortable with an idea like that when a face could be put to it.
"I'm really glad you're okay," Elliot said upon hearing this, a soft yet worried smile on his face.
"She's incredible, isn't she?" Isaac added, listening to Az commenting on his own creation. "Thanks for helping us meet her." He didn't want to say writing her. It was clear that would be way too awkward of a statement for his comfort. Nevertheless, he had to give some credit to the person who brought her into existence, right?
"Hey, don't worry," I said to Kisara, smiling a little. "Alicia's gonna be okay. And if this chucklehead ever has any ideas otherwise, I'm going to make sure he knows just how bad of an idea it is." If Az could make that kind of promise for my characters, then I could totally do the same. "I'm pretty sure if we both keep an eye out on each other's writing, we can make sure things don't end up getting too out of hand."
And then everyone started looking really sad. Isaac looked over the assembled group, a bit of confusion on his face, as he asked "Wait, is everything okay?"
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Jun 8, 2017 0:49:07 GMT
”… As okay as it can be on my end.” I admitted with unease. ”I myself am fine but… Well for the last several years I couldn’t say ‘Everything is alright’. It’s a long story and I’d rather not drag the mood down further. I just hope nothing happens while I’m here.” Then again, I suppose I shouldn’t have to worry about timing given a certain other truth but… I couldn’t help myself. It’s my nature.
”Her condition has worsened, hasn’t it...” Sol suddenly asked. No, stated. To ask would imply he didn’t know the answer. I nodded softly in return and he huffed. ”Damnit all… the one place where I could bring some measure of comfort and happiness and yet even existing their for more then a few minutes, which isn’t enough time to do anything permanent for context, would render me a powerless and withering husk. For once even I am restricted to mere well wishing for your mother.” He scowled visibly, frustrated at his inability to act upon my situation.
I shook my head and smiled. ”Let’s get off that, nothing to be done about it like this.”
“Well, if we’re going to change the topic, I have something in mind. There’s a question that’s been asked without being answered. About how often Sol does things like this. Devon? Care to go back and answer that now?”
… Well fiddlesticks. I knew in my heart I couldn’t get that past her, and sweated, looking away. S-Something else! Anything else!” I deflected as best as I could but… well it was inevitable now. ”The answer is kinda scary to be honest...” I finished muttering under my breath.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Jun 8, 2017 1:35:31 GMT
We all fell quiet as Az mentioned things back at home. There was really nothing to be said that hadn't already, countless times. As much as I wished that there was something, anything which I could do, for now listening was the only real course of action. He requested a change of topic and I was all too happy to oblige. Something told me the worries that would pour out otherwise would be best kept private.
For example, the answer as to how often Sol made this happen. Azure had been cagey about that beforehand, and while I was content not asking it seemed not everyone was feeling the same way. "Yeah, I've been wondering that too," Isaac said, eyebrow raised curiously. "But I mean, we've only got one author each, right? And I don't remember seeing these guys before. Hell, I don't remember being this pissed at these guys before, either."
"Yeah, I've never been here either. I'd be way better at apologizing if this wasn't my first time," I added.
"Maybe he brought them in before, then wiped all of our memories about it?" Elliot offered, all too helpfully. The looks that both Isaac and I shot him basically warned him to never suggest that again. Not because he may have been wrong, although he likely was, but because good god the possibility was horrifying. "I mean, I don't think he'd do that," Elliot added, voice taking on a somewhat sheepish tone.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Jun 8, 2017 2:09:15 GMT
”… Goddamnit Elliot… Fine, I’ll answer the bloody question. I’ll just let you know, I was avoiding it for a reason.” I shot with a sigh, throwing a miffed ‘you asked for this’ look to everyone involved. ”Here’s the skinny of it: I do not know how many times he does this. Why do I not know? Because frankly Sol at absolute maximum power is all kinds of bullshit strong. More explanatory, Sol is an absolute master of the mind; conscious, unconscious, and subconscious. Memory and emotion manipulation is a parlor trick for him. Weaving entirely new lives for someone is something he could be doing for fun if he was malicious instead of benevolent. Time and space are mere annoyances to step over, and he could make a metaphorical pretzel out of the space-time continuum if he had the inclination to do so, while being able to resolve any paradoxes that should occur from such blatant messing with time lines and such.” There it was, out in the open for anyone to consider.
Already it was having an effect, Alicia slowly looking towards Sol while pale-faced, wide-eyed, and tight lipped. Kisara, naturally, shrugged it off and Sol himself was once more smirking smugly. Stupid dragon pride being stoked by the acknowledgment of what he could do, but chooses not to. I presumed Bone, Isaac, and Elliot would have similar reactions of shock and horror already, but I might as well drive it in deeper.
”Yes, that does mean he’s very much capable of memory wipe. Or worse he could retroactively erase the meeting from time itself if he so desired. And no one here can stop him. He can’t be restricted in anyway because his chaotic nature erodes any such bindings. The only way to stop him from doing something is to convince him to stay his hand. Now do you see why I was being so cagey about it before?”
“C-Clear as crystal...” Alicia choked out, shivering a bit. A brave and heroic woman she may be, but even she could easily see just how outclassed she was and that knowledge chilled her to the bone. It was certainly made worse by the additional revelation of him being unaffected by any limiters, knowing that all the times before where he said he ‘couldn’t’ do something was in actuality a refusal to interfere in the ongoing events.
”Phenomenal Cosmic Power, big softy at the end of the day who wouldn’t hurt a fly needlessly.” Kisara quipped, snuggling up against the great wyrm in question.
”Seriously? You referenced Aladdin at this time?” I deadpanned asked of her.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Jun 11, 2017 4:12:44 GMT
What.
"What!?"
"W-what?"
Well, at least we were all on the same page about this one. The three of us shot each other worried, uncomfortable looks, not even sure what the hell we could say about this. There was fear in my eyes, confusion in Elliot's, and a fire in Isaac's. After a lot of awkward looks to and fro, it was finally Elliot who broke the silence.
"He-" he started, shooting a nervous look towards Sol. "He wouldn't do that, right? No, no, there's no way!"
"Are you kidding me?" Isaac asked, the exasperation in his voice practically flopping onto the floor. "Are you saying if this happened before, he just . . . re-gave me that whole crisis of faith? Seriously? What the hell, man?"
"Yeah, even I gotta say that's pretty screwed up-"
"Oh, you don't get to talk!" Isaac blurted. Right, I probably deserved that. "I mean, I don't think he did. But if he could just make me think it didn't happen, how am I supposed to know that for sure?"
"I mean, Az never told me about that," I mentioned. "If he wrote Sol doing that, then surely I would've known, right?"
"You would," Isaac said. "Until him writing that got erased from both of your memories."
"But there'd be records, right?" I asked. "And if Az didn't write it, then does that mean it never ended up happening?"
"Maybe he erased the browser history," Elliot helpfully pointed out.
"No, no, you can't erase it that precisely. Can you?" I countered.
This was a disaster.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Jun 13, 2017 1:37:35 GMT
”And this is why I didn’t want to answer the question...” I muttered to myself as everything metaphorically went to hell in a hand basket. As I anticipated, none of them took the bomb well. It prompted too many impossible questions and ultimately useless finger pointing. Now how was I going to pick up the pieces?
”I suppose taking to the metaphorical field is long over due at this point.” Sol suddenly commented, drawing my attention. Oh goody, the main reason for this mess was finally going to speak up in earnest about it it seems. ”The answer is, unfortunately, yes. I will have to erase the vast majority of these events once all is said and done. It’s not my usual M.O. but their reality’s rules forbids these things from permanently taking root.”
Somehow, I expected he’d do a memory wipe, but… what did he mean that our reality forbade it? ”I presume you’re going to explain again? How meta is this gonna get?”
Sol laughed and smiled at me. ”Very meta. I’ll simplify it as best as I can but do try your best to keep up regardless.” Clearing his throat, the dragon took a claw and seemed to be sketching in the air, leaving behind glimmering lines as he went. What he made almost looked like a massive… solar system of sorts? Or was it like the diagram of an atom? There was a huge central sphere and multiple rings surrounding it. Each of those had other spheres on them… which in turn also had rings with spheres and it very quickly became a mind numbing mess that I did my best to avoid once he finally circled it off and cheekily added an arrow extending from the circle marked ‘repeat ad infinitum’. Basically implying the diagram could be extended endlessly beyond what was depicted… and that was worrying.
”What I have here is a highly simplified diagram of the greater scope of the multiverse. What we have here in the center is the core reality, the most mundane possible example of life where even the concept of magic, psionics, and any other supernatural occurrences not only can’t happen but cannot even be conceived. Mainly because sapient life presumably doesn’t or can’t live there. It’s the place where probability is, how to say, neutralized. Extending out from it is all other realities, where probability begins to factor in depending on how far away one is from the core reality. Devon and Joseph’s reality is only about four, maybe five, ‘steps’ removed from the core, meaning theirs is a fairly ‘normal’ reality. The laws of physics are hard and slow, magic exists only as deceptive sleights of hand, and science only crawls forward as the years pass. Things like Digimon, dragons, spirits, and other such things can be conceived but are ultimately exist mostly in the realms of imagination there. Anyone touched by the supernatural cannot last long there under normal circumstances.”
Yeah, I can see why he only asked us to try our best to keep up at this point… ”And no, I’m not touching on unnatural circumstances. We’d be here for weeks and still not scratch the surface. Moving on, the reality we currently exist in is much farther away from the core reality, as many as twenty ‘steps’ removed. But even this only allows for some malleable nature and one or two massive changes to an otherwise ‘average’ reality. In this case, this manifests as what we call the Digital World and Digimon, one large change, and easy access between the two should one be chosen to become aware of the world in question, a moderate change. This is a world firmly grounded in a ‘science fiction’ section of the multiverse, which is why magic, while not exactly unknown, is hardly plentiful, generally appearing as stylized Digimon attacks or small tricks if one were so inclined.”
At that point, he took the moment to mark two more circles on the complex diagram, presumably marking our two realities that he was referring to. This was getting maddening. ”Naturally, the farther removed from the core you become, the more inexplicable things can pop up around you. Thirty ‘steps’ removed could see the existence of wizards and sorcerers. Forty and perhaps a non-sapient dragon species could be make for a good pet. One hundred ‘steps’ results in beings with the potential to grasp at a fraction of my true potential, though they are few and far between, valiant heroes who crusade against evil and dastardly villains that dare threaten the world’s peace. My little slice of the multiverse is anywhere from seven hundred to one thousand ‘steps’ removed from the core.”
”Your point being…?” I asked, rubbing my forehead as a headache came on.
”Getting to that.” Sol shot back lackadaisically ”My point is that the farther you remove yourself from the core, the more powerful you can become, the more you can experience, the more you can grow. But… coming back to your home though, if you start throwing powers deemed unnatural by your local reality, you start damaging it and yourself. The more people know you can do this and have witnessed you do it, the greater the damage becomes. You can leave a mark with such powers, but you can’t be connected to it directly and anything done cannot permanently affect the reality.”
”… That’s why you’d need to do a memory wipe, huh?” Alicia suddenly asked, and I looked to her in surprise, the woman gazing at the earth and sounding somewhat distant.
”Not… completely. I can leave impressions. Distant and hazy recollections of something beyond your understanding occurring, of feeling rage or sorrow, but nothing specific. I’ll trick the mind into extrapolating from there into something that is ultimately not what happened, but close. It’s a loop hole I’ve found in the laws of the realities. The devil is, literally, in the details in this case. As long as the exact sequence of actions is not remember even for a second, no one is penalized and reality doesn’t start breaking under our feet. And if you’re wondering why it’s not breaking while we’re talking about this… well I’m cleaning up after myself the second it happens, invoking time paradox to confuse reality itself into not noticing what’s going on until we finish here and I can exploit the loop hole, thus setting everything right once more.” The dragon fell silent and sighed to himself, smiling sadly.
”So… not a memory wipe, just… memory adjustment. I admit that I’m not all that comfortable with that either but… it’s better then the alternative.” I quipped with a sigh of my own. Gee, wonder where Sol picked up all his sighing from.
”You’ll probably get it in your head to write about what happened as a hilariously catastrophic ‘what-if’ with your friend, Devon...” Sol noted with a wink at me.
I couldn’t help but shudder at the idea, eyes going wide again.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Jun 13, 2017 4:05:53 GMT
Isaac sighed deeply as Sol admitted that this whole day would be wiped from the memories of everyone involved. "I knew it," he muttered, a disappointed glower on his face. "I freaking knew it. So why'd you pull all this together if you were just going to make it all un-happen, anyway? At least these guys say they're trying to make our lives better. Not that I believe that, either."
"Speaking of, you should probably consider running," I said to Alicia, hoping I could slip that one past Az while Isaac was busy rambling.
Unfortunately, Isaac's rambling stopped when Sol decided to explain the nature of the multiverse. I knew that there was no way Isaac would survive that one intact. Surely enough, I could practically see Isaac's eyes glazing over in real time as Sol described this atom-like structure of levels and shells. Elliot tried his best to follow along, but he was still so young. Even though he listened avidly, it was clear he was struggling a little to keep up.
As for me? Well, it was all pretty clear on my end. Start with so much restraint there isn't even anything to exist, and each step of the way remove another one. Keep going until you've moved from no possibilities to every possibility. On this day, I took heart knowing that I was smarter than a pair of young teenagers.
The real confusing part was the fact that breaking the rules caused reality to rupture at the seams, but that was probably the difference between struggling against a restraint and moving unhindered from one rearing its ugly head. Apparently, so long as nothing was brought from the world of more to the world of less, everything would be A-OK.
"I don't feel any more powerful, though," I said. "And I'm pretty sure if we could Digivolve or anything like that, you would've let us know that little detail a few splitting headaches ago. So what's the harm in us remembering on the way there? It isn't like we can do anything about it, right?"
I knew as soon as I said it that I was going to be proven wrong on a massive scale. That's just how the cards fell these days.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Jun 13, 2017 4:40:20 GMT
Taking a moment from the mess that was going on, Alicia glanced over to Bone at the suggestion. “What for?” she whispered a to him, apparently catching the intent of trying to hide it from someone. I had heard it too though, as I could keep tabs on two different speakers with some trouble and admittedly missing a few words here and there, but just whistled a bit softly, looking away. It would certainly be a real jerk move to go and… well… do all that to her now. Though… oddly enough now that I think about it I heard all of them loud and clear without any mix up. How… strange.
Sol meanwhile, sighed softly, noticing how he lost Isaac and Elliot. A pity, but he had done all he could. The complex version might’ve left someone bleeding from the ears in all honesty and that was a pretty big problem for quite obvious reasons. Then the dragon spirit grinned at Bone and raised one finger.
”Give it a couple more minutes and you’ll probably start noticing it. You’re both still adjusting to suddenly losing many restraints and in a short while you’ll start polarizing towards variations of the capabilities on offer here, depending on your preference. Or at random if you don’t know the local cosmology. For example, Devon is starting to gain traits and familiarity of a Spirit Wielder, his particular favored method of expressing the nature and power of Digimon. Such as a sharpened cognition to pick up details at a glance or whisper that would be necessary for adjusting rapidly enough to a Digimon form.”
What.
”Habada-what?” I sputtered out, shaking my head. ”What are you talking about?”
”And that is not something I can really explain all that well. More in line, this segways into why I need to perform an erasure before you guys get sent home. Just by my dragging you here, a piece of this reality has grown and attached to each of you, an invisible, undetectable, and impossibly small piece. Should I send you back without performing an erasure, that piece will continue to grow and express itself within you despite no longer being on it's home reality. And if you weren’t aware of it, a Spirit User could, potentially, wind up suddenly transforming when put under significant enough stress, or a Tamer would instinctively call forth their would-be partner, from thin air if need be. It would be chaos and panic in the area, worse if you’re caught on surveillance cameras, which would spread the news even farther. Then, your reality would realize something is out of place and try and clamp down on the anomaly, I.E. you two. But since those restrictions strictly exist to prevent forbidden material from coming in, it becomes confused when it detects such material already within itself. Until you learned to control and suppress it yourself, your body would begin tearing itself apart at the atomic level and your reality would, for lack of a better word, glitch out and start cracking.”
Sighing softly, Sol rubbed his head and shook it. ”The erasure will cut that off long before it begins to truly manifest. That will save you much undo agony and stress. Of course, there is a way to avoid the alteration but I am certain neither of you will take it.”
”… It’s staying here for the rest of our lives, or until we learn to control it ourselves and can go back safely, isn’t it?” I spoke up, cutting Sol off. The dragon in turn nodded to me.
”Hit it on the nose. You would have to abandon your old reality and take to this one as your new home. That, in turn, brings its own host of problems though, namely the fact that neither of you have a paper trail here due to obviously not being born here.” Sol answered, the great wyrm resting his chin in one hand.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Jun 13, 2017 5:26:49 GMT
I didn't have the heart to tell Alicia what that 'what for?' actually was. To anyone reading this, I hope you agree with me in saying Az should be ashamed of himself. Seriously, buckle yourselves in, guys. It's gonna be a real mess. I thought I was bad to my characters, but this guy! Still, if I let Alicia knew, even with the memory wipe I'd just feel unnecessarily cruel. I'd also be spoiling Az's plots, and that would be rude on several levels. Instead, I just shook my head and said "Trust me."
It wouldn't stick, would it? After all, my brilliant loophole of 'just stay normal' didn't seem to actually hold up to any evidence. According to Sol, the world would rub off on us too strongly, and if not given the chance to forget what we learned we'd simply end up dragging parts of this reality into one which couldn't adequately handle it. Elliot and Isaac exchanged a look, clearly still lost, while I tried to mull over this new piece of info. All respect due to Sol, I did not like people muddling with my mind. Especially when they interrupted a perfectly good nap to do it!
Thankfully, at least one of us had ideas. "Couldn't we just keep their Digivices away from them?" Elliot asked. "I mean, we all need those to transform, don't we? If they didn't have theirs then it'd be no big problem, right? Sure, if they were Tamers or Generals it'd be a lot more of a problem, but I'm sure all three of us teaching them to be Spirit Users could make that less of an issue. I think."
"I just don't get how security cameras help reality," Isaac added."It's reality, for crying out loud! Why does it need security cameras?" He seemed a little miffed that Sol dodged his question on 'why,' but at least he was distracted imagining the Earth itself peering into security tapes to try and find out about strange anomalies.
That said, as much as I disliked having my mind meddled with, I disliked having myself torn to atoms or forced to live in a strange land even moreso. Part of me wanted to leave well enough alone, but part of me was just too insistent on finding a way to reconcile all of this. I remained deep in focus, keeping quiet for the time being as I tried to think of anything to work with.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Jun 14, 2017 5:52:23 GMT
I sighed softly and shook my head, rolling a thought around in my head. ”Isaac, cameras help reality by spreading awareness of the unnatural and forbidden powers. And as awareness of those powers grow, the greater the ping it makes on whatever the equivalent of radar a reality uses. Bigger ping means reality notices the abomination more clearly and quickly and moves to erase it that much sooner. Right Sol?” I turned to the dragon after offering an explanation to Isaac on why the cameras mattered in this scenario.
”Precisely, got it in one.” Sol confirmed with a nod of his head and a sad smile. Seemed he had his own wishes that even he couldn’t achieve thanks to how the multiverse apparently worked. One of those was almost certainly finding a way to more easily allow those of us from the more restricted realities easily visit the outlying ones…
”Ah… One problem with that Elliot. At the end of the day, all the Digivice types, save perhaps the Xros Loader, are ultimately just tools of convenience and safety. Digimon carry within them the potential to evolve already, and will become capable of doing so without aid if denied it long enough. Such is also true for Spirit Wielders, should they have their totems separate from their D-Scanners by some means. The Digivice in question gives a jump start to a Digimon’s or Spirit Totem’s potential to invoke evolution. D-Scanners further more shelter Spirit Wielders from the worst of the shock of, say, suddenly changing from bipedal humans to quadrupedal beasts or gaining wings to fly with. Power will seek ways to adapt if the possibility existed in any way, so while it would stave off transformations for several years or more even the end result does not change and it winds up being a simple stop-gap measure.” The dragon explained and once more, carefully, poked a fairly big hole into the proposed idea.
”At this point, let’s just cut to the chase. Do we or do we not have a simple way to reconcile what’s happened here?” I snapped a bit harshly, before immediately wincing at how I sounded. Hopefully nobody would hold it too much against me.
”Long story short? As much as we would want to have something of that type available, the fact of the matter is we’ve already exhausted all potential loop holes. And then spent a good seven decades digging for any other leads only to come up empty-handed. We either do this the long way or we don’t do it at all.” Kisara noted, sighing after her first piece since she’d last fallen silent.
”… Well, let me be the first to say that that bites. Really badly. Though… admittedly, if I didn’t have three very big reasons for wanting to go back in a hurry...” I paused and looked around me, taking a seat and huffing. ”I… would be tempted to stay for an extended period of time. I mean, frankly, I’m always jealous because you guys have such exciting lives. Dangerous, sure, but if I could do amazing things like what you three-” With that I gave an acknowledging nod to all three Spirit Users in this group at the moment. ”-do at just about any time you want? I’d put up with some close shaves and the occasional life changing event.”
I at least caught Alicia off guard with that, as she did a double take and looked at me. “Wait, what? Do you even know what all we’ve gone through?” She questioned, apparently forgetting that I wrote about her for the time being. I decided not to reply that, yes, I was aware of exactly what had happened. The D-Reaper for Isaac and Elliot, Alicia’s own upcoming disaster of a ‘hunt’, lots of things. I’d like to think I have the strength of heart to come out the other end still in one piece. Maybe I do? Maybe I don’t? There would’ve been only one way to know for sure though.
”Okay, for all my power… that did actually catch me off guard...” Sol bluntly admitted, though he showed little of his surprise. The only physical hint that he was shocked was several rapid blinks in a row.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Jun 19, 2017 5:48:06 GMT
That made sense. Maybe. Kind of? Isaac really wasn't sure. "So it's basically, the more people aware of it, the bigger a ripple it causes?" Isaac asked, trying to understand just what the heck was going on. "Guess I get it. I was figuring that, like, life and existence and all of that junk would just snap into focus as soon as something was up."
Unfortunately, that was far from the only thing which would be a problem. Apparently, if the Digimon and totems weren't catalyzed through a Digivice, they would still be able to activate unprompted. That would be a problem. It didn't help that, while Elliot was totally down with taking away a hunk of plastic, metal, and circuitry, kidnapping a living being was a bridge too far for him. "So I guess there's nothing we can do, huh . . ." he said, looking down dejectedly. "I'm sorry. I was really hoping to come up with something."
Great. Now I made my own character feel bad.
"So that's it, then," I said. If I let everybody assembled just keep trying to poke at loopholes, they'd only further upset themselves. "We're here, and now none of us are going to remember that we were. I'm glad we were able to see all of this, at least."
"Is anybody going to tell me why the heck you did this if nobody but you's going to remember?" Isaac asked, clearly miffed at his question being ignored for so long. Sol worked in mysterious ways, true, but the needless stress that those mysterious ways caused really cheesed him off!
"I wish I could say the same as Az," I said, sighing somewhat. "But I don't think this life's as cut out for me as it is for you. I'm way more comfortable reading about it than living it. And I think I'd get way too homesick by, like, week one for comfort." To be fair, this wasn't really cut out for my characters either. But hey, I'm sure if Elliot had the same choice that I did, he'd take it.
"Thanks for setting this up for us, at least," I said to Sol, mustering up a small smile.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Jun 19, 2017 6:51:08 GMT
” Pretty much...” Sol answered softly to the younger Sunderland. Arguably, though, with one of these two it wouldn’t really be quite as much of a kidnapping given my admissions. Still, I had reasons I had to go back. No enjoying the wild and biz-
”We are NOT getting anywhere NEAR a reference to that show!” the dragon spirit, suddenly focused on me, snapped without prompting. ”That way lies incurable madness.” He must’ve read my mind now…
”I admit I don’t know much about that show aside from Stands being ludicrous but...” I began before paling and shrinking back as Sol gave me a frankly terrifying evil eye. Considering he turned the eye he was giving it with completely pale white for emphasis was just extra icing on the terror cake. ”Hokay, no more talk about JoJos...” I squeaked out in fright.
The dragon sighed and spared me further terrifying nightmares of evil glaring dragon eyes in the future. Shaking his head, the spirit then had an evil thought as he grinned at Isaac. ”What, can’t an ancient spirit have some fun every now and then?”
I stared at him. Alicia did the same, and topped it off with a blink. Kisara stifled some giggling and covered her mouth with a hand to hide her grin. Sol was utterly and completely impassive as he allowed the moment to go uninterrupted by further commentary from him. It became more increasingly obvious to me that he may have actually said that specifically to get a rise out of Isaac.
Regardless of the result though, Sol finally broke the moment for good with a hearty laugh, ”Okay, okay, I’m so sorry, that was just an admittedly cruel joke. On to the actual reason, I swear.” Sitting back, the dragon hummed to himself. ”As has been clarified before, this will be more memory alteration then actually memory erasure. You’ll know you’d had a once in a lifetime meeting. You’ll recall the feelings from your crisis of faith. You’ll have the closure of knowing, one way or another, it was resolved. This much goes for all three of you. For our dear writing friends here, the vague impressions will inspire further writings, and bring comfort to their hearts on bleak days where the world seems to weigh down on them. Most importantly though...?”
Sol grinned again, looking each of the Spirit Wielders one after another. ”Digimon and respective totems respond best to stress and the resolution thereof. I realize this seemed quite cruel, but for those of you who have already suffered terrible events-” The dragon paused to level a glance at the Sunderlands, smiling. ”- and those who will soon face trials and tribulations of life changing scope themselves...” Now he turned his gaze to Alicia who also squeaked under the look. ”The development you will still gain from this event, forgotten or altered as it will be, will spur you on to grow beyond what transpires, and the machinations that seek to drag you down. I strive to make everything I do mean something important.”
Well… Alicia just got direct confirmation that I had some pretty messed up schemes in store for her. To her credit, the only thing she did was shoot me a dirty look after Sol’s explanation.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Jun 21, 2017 22:41:08 GMT
"What." Isaac paled slightly as Sol made his response. No. He couldn't be seriously. Sol would do this time and time again, just for his own amusement? "No! I mean, you can. But not with people's minds! Do you know how sick that is? God, if that's what you do for kicks, how do I know you're not always messing with Alicia's hea-"
Thankfully, this little rant was interrupted with a hearty dragon's laugh. Immediately Isaac broke out in a blush, seeming to shrink slightly where he stood. "Sorry," he said, voice as sheepish as your average pasture. "Your deadpan delivery's just too good. You really had me fooled there." Sure, Isaac was normally far more trusting in Sol, but finding out that the entire nature of his reality was basically at the hands of a clown like me had him very on-edge today. Hopefully, this would finally snap him out of it for good.
The actual reason was far more noble than what the bros were worried about. Apparently the memory manipulation wouldn't be a full wipe, but instead leave feelings of comfort instilled in all of us. The bros were visibly relieved after this, and hell, so was I. While I really didn't think that my struggles compared to anything that I was putting them through, it was really nice being able to just kick back, relax, and cling to some helpful reassurance.
Elliot nodded, standing up a bit more straightly and smiling. "Well, thank you," he said. "I know this was a lot for us to swallow, but I'm glad it can help us push through everything that's been weighing on us."
"Yeah. We're already at the end of the line with our spirits, right?" Isaac asked. "Maybe, one way or another, this is going to finally give us to strength to reach that last step beyond. And then we'll really be able to do right by the people important to us."
It was all so inspiring. Although . . .
"You're still totally enjoying yourself, though. Aren't you?"
What? Somebody had to ask it!
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Jun 22, 2017 2:04:00 GMT
”Again, terribly sorry for the bad joke.” Sol repeated with a soft smile. ”And hey, I’ve had to practice my poker face against enemies that were so good at cold reading people, you’d think they were actually telepathic. It was perfect my deadpan delivery or pay the price. So don’t kick yourself for not seeing through it. Most people can’t.” The dragon shrugged at that, before crossing his arms again.
”All’s good Elliot. Sol is also really good at reading when people are physically or emotionally capable of overcoming a surprising scenario. He wouldn’t have made this all happen if he had even the slightest thought that someone might break under the strain.” Kisara then grinned at Isaac and laughed. ”Oh, poor, poor Isaac, don’t you know? The destination of one journey is merely the beginning of the next. Such is life in its entirety.”
I couldn’t help but smile a bit, though I kept quiet for the time being. Bone, on the other hand, decided to inquire if there was a particular secondary reason. Namely, that part of Sol’s motivation was, in fact, amusement.
The dragon looked my fellow author over and visibly appeared to mull the question over in his head. At first I figured he was going to answer, but he surprised me by staying silent, merely flashing a big, smug and toothy grin at Bone.
”… Well I suppose we have to take that as a ‘I plead the fifth, here’s a super obscure hint indeed.’” I quipped in turn, shaking my head with a grin of my own.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Jun 22, 2017 2:42:29 GMT
"Hey, don't worry about it," Isaac said, smiling somewhat weakly. "I was the butt who jumped to conclusions on that one. And hell, I can get down with learning to mess with people just to avoid getting my butt kicked in combat. That's, like, two lessons for the price of one!" Considering Isaac was the guy who tried to improv a ghost into screwing off, he was so up for Sol's school of getting out of trouble.
At least Sol was able to understand the situation before it got out of hand. "I knew he'd be keeping an eye out on us," Elliot said. "Still, I gotta admit, you startled me too!" It was better than some of the times that Kisara startled them, though. Sol was funny, but Kisara could be terrifying!
At Sol's response of a cheeky grin, I couldn't help but laugh. "You dick," I said. At least he had good reason for it, even if he was totally using the torment of lesser being for his own amusement. I turned to Azure as he commented on the "subtlety" of that hint. "Yeah. Reeeal subtle," I said.
"Still, I think this turned out better than either of us expected, right?" I added, quite relieved. When I first came here, I honestly expected to get my butt kicked by my own characters. Having this day turn out so pleasant was a really nice surprise, even after all of the scares along the way.
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