It didn't take long for the group to make their way out of the hall, especially as it had all but emptied of people, with the few remaining wandering around confused. It was with relief that the group stepped out into the open air.
"Ness!" a familiar voice called out.
Ness turned in surprise, seeing Pokey running up to him. He found himself unable to say anything as his neighbor and somewhat friend rushed up. While he was upset that Pokey had been working for Carpainter and had kidnapped Paula, he managed to convince himself that unless Pokey showed continued signs of being antagonistic, then it was probably the effects of the Mani Mani that had made him act that way.
"What a horrible nightmare!" Pokey gasped out. "I...somehow woke up. It was..." He shivered all over, then shook his head. "Ness, let's be friends again?" he asked hopefully.
Ness smiled softly. It looked like Pokey had snapped out of whatever was influencing him, and was actively trying to fight it now. He started to open his mouth to say yes...
Ness couldn't find his voice. He felt his jaw lock. Why couldn't he speak? Why couldn't he even smile? It...it was like the world was squeezing down on his mouth and throat, and he'd think he would choke if his breathing weren't somehow completely normal.
"Please answer me," Pokey pleaded. "I promise to be good..."
Ness struggled to answer...but could say nothing. He could only watch as hope started to fade from Pokey's eyes as he turned and slowly walked away. "...okay..." Pokey said softly as he walked away.
Some distance away, Pokey's posture shifted. When he turned back to Ness, his face was no longer that of a child. A wicked grin hung under enraged eyes. "Hah!" he called out. "I lied! See you, suckers!" Though his words were hurtful, they lacked true hatred behind them as he dashed away.
As Pokey made it out of sight, Ness gasped for air. "W-what was that?" he demanded in fear. "It...it felt like..."
"Like time itself weighed upon you?" Moondancer asked softly.
"...yeah..."
"The events that have happened are the result of a time loop," Buzz Buzz explained. "Something from the relative future altered the past to create the present chain of events. Until that relative future event occurs, attempts to break the time loop could cause drastic harm to the very fabric of time...and likely will be suppressed by time itself."
"But if that's so, then how can we save everyone?" Ness demanded worriedly.
"There will be a moment," Paula spoke up with conviction. "A moment where the loop ends but before it begins. In that moment time has been rewritten once before. If we can reach that moment, we can act. The machine is the key."
"The machine?" Ness and Moondancer both demanded intensely.
Paula seemed to slump in on herself. "I...it was a vision I just had," she explained. "I...I can't say any more than that..."
Moondancer frowned irritably, but Ness smiled. "At least it's confirmation we can succeed!" he declared hopefully. "Come on, let's go check out the Sanctuary."
Despite his words, he paused to gaze at the path Pokey had taken for a time before turning to move on.
Entering the cavern east, they found it opened up into a huge cave with twisting paths. "This definitely looks like a path to a Sanctuary," Ness observed thoughtfully. "Even feels like the path to Giant Step."
"In that case, we should be careful," Moondancer pointed out. "The animals here are likely to be strong from the Sanctuary's proximity, and very aggressive due to the guardian-"
"AHH!" Paula screamed as she leapt back from an aggressive mole that was charging her.
"Stop!" Ness screamed out, trying to halt the mole in its tracks with his PSI.
A tingling wave shot from Ness's outstretched hand to strike the mole. Its entire body locked up.
"Looks like you've learned PSI Paralysis," Buzz Buzz observed happily. "Quite a useful skill. It can prevent a target from moving at all when it works!"
"That could be useful," Ness observed. "Especially if we're facing something I don't want to smash over the head."
Paula promptly sent the small mole flying with her frying pan. "Let's go, then!" she declared happily.
The group carefully wound their way through the cave, working their way towards the end. In addition to the small moles, they encountered green bats and brown bears. The bears proved to be the only foe that was of true concern, as they had immensely powerful bodies and could take a great deal of punishment before the madness was banished from them. Thankfully, there were a few magic butterflies in the cave the left the group feeling refreshed as they passed.
At the end of the cavern, the starburst of light awaited them, hiding the form of the Guardian. "You finally got here," it spoke as they approached. "This is the second 'Your Sanctuary' location, but it's mine now. Take it from me...if you dare!"
The light blazed and revealed a massive mole, its sharp claws and teeth dripping blood. It hissed angrily at them. "Prepare yourself!" it declared as it lunged forward, reaching out with its sharp claws.
"Stop!" Ness called out, thrusting his hands forward and unleashing PSI Paralysis.
The Mondo Mole froze, ending up braced on both fore paws and one hind paw. "Er..." it began as it tried to move.
"Isn't there a way to settle this peacefully?" Ness asked hopefully. "Why are you even blocking me? What's the point?"
"This place's power is not to be trifled with!" Mondo Mole snapped out. "Do you think such power comes cheaply? I will not let you take the power with that attitude!" He wiggled back and forth briefly, then fell over on his side. "Uh...little help?" he asked hopefully.
Paula blinked in surprise. "You...can't move at all?" she asked in surprise.
"Of course not!" Mondo Mole snarled. "I'm paralyzed! Completely numb!"
"Then why aren't you attacking with PSI?" Moondancer asked curiously.
"Because I don't know any offensive PSI!" Mondo Mole declared angrily. "I can make myself stronger and protect myself from offensive PSI! That's it!"
"You mean...you're completely helpless right now?" Buzz Buzz asked in surprise. "You can't attack, and there's literally nothing stopping Ness and Paula from just whacking you with their weapons until you go down?"
"Err...their sense of fair play?" Mondo Mole suggested hopefully.
"Is there anything preventing me from just walking past you to the Sanctuary?" Ness asked curiously.
"Uh...no," Mondo Mole admitted. "Now that the starburst field is down, I...can't really stop you."
"Okay." Turning, Ness walked right past Mondo Mole.
"You're...just going to leave me here?" Mondo Mole asked in surprise.
"Don't worry!" Ness promised. "I'll come back just as soon as I learn how to fix your present condition!"
"...well that's plum nice of you," Mondo Mole muttered as the group passed, unsure if he was being sincere or sarcastic.
In a small clearing behind the cave, a trail of tiny footsteps inscribed a small loop between two trees. As the group approached, the area filled with light and music filled the air. As it did, Ness and Moondancer felt it infuse them. Ness had a brief vision of a baby in a red cap. Moondancer remembered her father's embrace as he told her, "It will be alright..."
As the power of Lilliput Steps infused them, and the song was recorded on the Sound Stone and the Empty Stone, Moondancer could only pray that it would be.
Figures those big ones can Bear alot of damage... Though I'm sure those smaller ones got a Panoramic view when Paula hit them.
Ahh, ain't it great when bosses are vulnerable to status effects?
I JUST made the connection with this chapter title and the last three.
They are the lyrics for the main chorus of THIS song.
I wonder if anyone else made the connection.
...You two seem to think on veeeeeeery different wavelengths.
Hmm... I wanna say that Giygas is forcechoking Ness to prevent him from saying anything at this particular moment, but that seems a bit too nuanced for him in his current state. My guess is that there's a mental block that prevents him from accepting Porky's apology due to his inner self being out of whack.
Um... what?
Well that was a really unsatisfying answer. Yeah, let's not have a conflict that comes from within, let's just have an arbitrary construct directly screw with someone's head in one of the most unimaginative displays I've ever seen. The whole point of changing an event in the past is that a string of events branch off from the norm, which leads to more changes, which leads to more changes, which leads to a changed present, a changed future, all the way up the end of time itself. So if Ness was going to not forgive Porky, it wouldn't be because "Time put a stranglehold on him; lol!" it wold either be because
A. Events lead up to this point prevent him from doing so even if he wanted to (lightning strikes every time Ness attempts to forgive Porky, A fly gets caught in his throat, He gets hit with a rock and forgets who he is for two minutes, etc.).
or
B. Events lead up to this point have altered Ness' state of mind that makes it so he doesn't forgive Porky.
Time isn't so weak that it needs to directly alter someone's actions temporarily because of some arbitrary rule that conflicts with various time travel stories in an attempt at being edgy. It's powerful enough to control everything in the universe's every action just from cause and effect.
tl;dr This was really stupid, and time doesn't work that way. Moving on.
Loop n.: a structure, series, or process the end of which is connected to the beginning.
Not much of a loop then, is it?
According to the wiki, Paralysis prevents the use of attack, but the afflicted can still use PSI, items, and certain commands. Unfortunately, Mondo Mole can only use Offense Up, PSI Shield, or Lifeup, so it's pretty much screwed unless it has a Cup of Lifenoodles, a Horn of Life, or a Secret Herb.
There it is.
Heh.
Hilarious
8513962
I don't want to have to agree here but, yeah that does kinda feel a bit weak for a tatsuo story since the themes seem to be that even though things end up happening in a similar fashion it's usually drastically altered on how it gets there and just saying "Well time did it" feels a bit contrived.
8514420 It would be like replacing the Biff Tannen from Back to the Future with chronic migraines; why have a story with a dystopia where a bully-turned billionaire rules the world has corrupted everything you know and love as a result of a mistake you made, when you could just have Time "nagging" at you to only commit certain actions at the right place at the right time? I'd say it's more interesting to come up with various, long-reaching scenarios that lead Ness to the place where events can be changed, rather than coming up with one situation that completely nullifies any potential attempts at changing them.
Besides, considering there's a PSI move called 4th-D Slip, something tells me that PSI users have the potential to overcome the constraints of time...
8514484
They do.
If they're strong enough.
Ness isn't strong enough yet. And if he did forgive Pokey right here, then he would never grow up to be Greyface. Which means the entire timeline gets broken, and we get Paradox Ending.
8514505 Yeah, which is why Time doesn't directly involve itself in a situation Time doesn't involve itself in. Causality kicks in so that Ness can't apologize to Porky, whether he wants to or not. A fly gets caught in his mouth, booming thunder from a rainstorm that's picked up resounds every time he tries it, an errant rock is flung into the air by a bicycle that impacts his skull so he forgets who he is for 2 minutes, etc.
I have no problem with him getting stopped from apologizing. Just that Time can suddenly stop people from doing things that mess with it directly.
8514526
The problem is that none of those work with how Ness has changed from Moondancer's involvement.
Moondancer and Buzz Buzz can protect him from injury.
Ness has the confidence to actually speak to Pokey.
And if the world acted to prevent him from speaking, he could have just pulled him into a hug to show forgiveness.
Simply put, the only way to prevent Ness from apologizing to Pokey here is if a force stronger than him actively prevented it. In this case, it was the paradox that would have been created had he done so focused on the actual event, endlessly repeating upon him until the moment had passed.
Not Time as a being with a will of its own, but the weight of causality and Paradox.
8514575
{A cyclist rolls by between the two of them before that can happen, and as Ness tries to get his bearings, he trips on an inconveniently-placed rock, which leads him tumbling straight into Moondancer. Porky finally manages to get his own bearings, with Ness embracing Moondancer. With his doubts confirmed, and having nowhere else to turn to, Porky lets in the madness.}
As I said, causality would nip that right in the bud. It's not a singular, undefined force that prevents change in a particular situation, but rather a series of seemingly-unrelated defined events that prevents change in that particular situation.
8514749
And how could that happen without Pokey realizing that Ness is being interrupted, and therefor should wait until he can speak?
The only way this can work is if the situation presents itself such that Pokey can interpret it as Ness making the choice not to talk to him or forgive him. If you can present a circumstantial way that can happen, I would be happy to make those alterations. (And no, the cyclist doesn't work, because their position inside the fence around the Hall doesn't have room for a bike.)
I honestly don't like having it be a visibly external force taking action here either, but it was all I could think of to make it work at time of writing, and the timeline still hinges on Pokey going bad. ...in an odd way, Pokey is far more important to the Mother timeline than Ness is.
8514910 If Porky's so observant as to see he's being interrupted by happenstance, wouldn't he also be able to notice that Ness is having trouble speaking?
But now that I have time to see the scene for myself, they're talking through the little side fencing to the relative-to-the-player left of the house. So in a situation where Ness keeps getting interrupted, he would have to go around it, rather than through it. A sinkhole would be too dangerous, and the Madness would be dissipated by then. There's also a tiny roof above the entryway, so a distraction from above is also out of the question. So the choice-maker would either come from within the house, or somewhere on the general pathway of the house. The biggest idea is that Buzz-Buzz is hovering too close to Ness, so he can't help but say "Buzz off!", but I'm not sure if that would be in character for Ness to make a pun like that (then again, he referenced a show that's not around yet, so maybe...). A different way to do it would be for Porky to take Ness being surrounded by friends as a sign that he's been replaced, so if Ness was, say, being overly friendly to one of his friends, Porky could take that the wrong way (and if it's with Moondancer, that gives Greyface an excuse to be a dick to her in the relative [for him] future).
And yeah, that kind of goes without saying. Ness is probably the least interesting main character in the series, whereas Porky's a veritable treasure trove of speculation, with what he represents and his true motivations between Mother 2 and Mother 3. I mean, don't get me wrong, Ness is okay, but at the end of the day, he's basically Ninten except you focus less on the plot of a kid going out into the world, and more on the feelings of a kid going out into the world (there's nothing wrong with that of course, it's just that I'm more interested in Ninten exploring Maria's Magicant and learning its secrets and lore over the course of a game, than I am interested in seeing Ness explore how he feels about his experiences in a solitary part of a game).
8515000
Thus my conundrum.
The only 'distraction' I could think of that would work is if either Paula or Moondancer somehow injured themselves...but Paula can see how important this is to Ness and would likely keep her mouth shut short of life threatening injury, while Moondancer is presently powerful enough that anything that could injure her enough to need to draw attention would take center stage to everyone, Pokey included. (After all, Ness is at most level 14 or 15, while Moondancer's probably around level 40-45, depending on how many random battles Alinivar brought her into.)
An injury to Buzz Buzz is possible, but with how fragile he is without his shell any injury would be instantly lethal, and even Pokey would hesitate to consider a shout of, "Buzz Buzz, don't die!" as being slighted as opposed to prioritized...especially when Buzz Buzz set Ness on this journey.
Thus the conundrum. Something that would seem natural in that situation, that would make Ness chose not to respond to Pokey long enough that Pokey would feel slighted/ignored/replaced, and wouldn't give Pokey reason to think that something was actively preventing the reconciliation. I couldn't think of anything to make that work.
If anyone can, I'll happily change this part to make use of it.
8515015 Well, Ness doesn't have to attend to them for being injured, per say. It could be relegated to him merely hugging someone else by pure accident, sort of like when the tsundere heroine sees the protagonist in a compromising position with the busty deredere, except nowhere near as ecchi or life threatening. It's why I suggested Ness could trip on something and wind up looking like he's giving Paula or Moondancer a friendly hug. It'd be like Cataplectic Indecency Syndrome, except there's hugs instead of exorbitant fanservice.
8515083
Problem is what would cause that given the situation and the scene? There's nothing there to cause him to trip and fall, or anything like that.
8515109 A rock. Uneven ground. A crease in the welcome mat. Untied shoelaces.
Anything and everything is fair game.
8515128
I'd prefer something that makes the scenario more dramatic than what I've got, not less.
I mean, sure Pokey is messed up with lots of emotional problems, but he's no idiot.
...not to mention Ness is the one standing still while Pokey is the one who approaches him.
8515140 Well, there's that Ness' inner conflict / Giygas force-choke thing I mentioned earlier. It could be argued that either of those two could be a result of causality, and it could provide some serviceable drama further down the line.
Well, he's certainly good at manipulating people, he's just not very mature. He's like a proto-Eric-Cartman... speaking of which...
i.imgflip.com/1ye38d.jpg
8515187
Well, to be fair, I only stated that Ness felt himself being prevented from speaking, and whatever it was doing seemed to have the pressure of the entire world behind it. When Moondancer described it as Time itself, Ness went along with it.
It's very possible the pressure could have been applied by something else that made it seem like that's what happened. Heck, it might turn out that it was Greyface himself that reached back in time to prevent Ness from speaking to keep himself from "becoming a pansy like him".
...gonna spoiler that just in case. The idea has possibilities.
8515203 True, Eric Cartman has been known to screw over himself...
I will admit, for some reason I didn’t like the beginning parts of the story. No clue why, probably just couldn’t get into it. But I have been enjoying the heck out of this story lately. I will be keeping an eye on this one.
Alright, caught up. Sorry I didn't comment as much as I had promised, but there just didn't seem to be much need.
Anyway, I could definitely see a few points that could draw some complaints, especially during the CogDis arc (particularly when you basically just said, "there was a big fight," without going into more than a sentence or two of detail; that's a good way to tick readers off), but things seem to have cleared up significantly now that you're into the game proper.
8515203
Just a thought, but would Ness getting a vision at that point be reasonable? That would result in the blank stare necessary for Pokey to get the wrong idea, and allow for about as much dramatic build-up as you'd want, depending on the vision's contents. Could even be as simple as just giving Ness the idea that Pokey can't be trusted, if you want to keep the idea of something intentionally preventing the reconciliation as opposed to inopportune timing.