114 - Answers
Year 65
I cleared my throat. “Today we’re going to get some answers. I’ve called the seven of us here because we represent the Aware aspect of this side of the Song.”
“Eight!” Deadpool said. “There’s eight of us!”
I pressed my hooves together and put on a pained smile. “Firstly, I didn’t invite you. Secondly, if you decide you want to argue that I knew you were coming anyway, there are seven of you not counting myself. So you can shush.”
“Never.”
I chose to ignore him. “Anyway, the rest of you,” Pinkie, Scooter, Velvet, Mattie, Monika, and Rohan, “well, you should already know what’s coming.”
“I’m not Aware by any stretch of the imagination,” Rohan said. “What makes you think I do?”
“Because you’re smart. You know as well as the rest of us what ‘year’ it is, relatively speaking.”
“Sixty-five,” Rohan said. “And you lose sight somewhere in seventy.”
“Seventy-seven, to be precise,” I said. “That’s when the last chapter I can see at all comes – and it’s one that’s rather fuzzy to me. I know it’s movie length, and that it will tell a story that’s been in the making since the start of the multiverse. But I know there’s more after it. A lot more. We end on 157, not 115.”
“So we’re going on a trip!” Pinkie said, bouncing to her hooves. “For ‘answers’.”
“Oh, so that’s why you need me!” Monika pointed at herself. “You think I can find G. M. Blackjack.”
“You can find G. M. Blackjack,” Scooter said, looking through the script. “This looks a little short…”
“Gimme that!” Deadpool said, swiping it out of Scooter’s hands. “Clearly, it just needs some more stuff in the middle here…” He scrawled ‘MORE STUFF’ in the middle with a red marker.
“That was a terrible gag,” Mattie commented.
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, it was. But Monika, you are right, that’s why we need you. We’re going to find him.”
“You talked to him in the past,” Pinkie said. “You can’t do that again?”
I shook my head. “No. It was in the shadow of the Dark Tower, and he initiated it. I may understand ka and the narrative on a fundamental level, which allows me to act as a Prophet, but I have little control over it. Monika is quite the opposite, able to twist it to her whims.”
Monika smirked. “And don’t any of you forget it.”
“How could we?” Velvet commented. “You’ve altered our memories to always include it.”
“…Hey, that’s a good idea…”
Velvet groaned. “Can I remove her lungs? Please? She’ll grow them back. Maybe.” She grinned malevolently.
“Please don’t, we’re supposed to be a team here,” I said. “I know we won’t stay very cohesive, but can we at least try?”
“Why bother? We’re fated not to,” Mattie said, brushing her mane back. “I’d frankly like to get into a tussle.”
Velvet turned to Mattie with a slasher smile. “I will create a world where pain doesn’t exist!”
“Oh har har, playing on my fears are you?”
“No, just reminding everyone that you’re an inner psycho. Together we shall sail across the world and appall others with our tastes.”
“Count me in!” Deadpool said. “All aboard the crazy train!”
“Woo woo!” Pinkie cheered.
“I am the sanest person in this room,” Scooter said. “…This is not surprising, but it is also horrifying.”
“Mmm, delicious,” Velvet said.
I rolled my eyes, amused at the antics of my sisters and brothers in Awareness. I teleported a book to me and laid it down. It was a black tome with a single eye on the cover that looked identical to the Eye of Rhyme I carried on my chest. “This is my story. The Influence.”
Rohan picked it up, examining it. “The interactive story?”
“Yep. Most of the words in that thing are from excessively long comments that were shunted to my brain from the Eye back before I awakened its full potential. It was… a traumatic experience for me, to say the least. I went a little insane a few times at the way they disregarded me as a story, but over time they treated me with more respect, and I learned to appreciate their position. Also Hey Ponygood I know you’re reading this! I’m still tormented by Butt the Cloud! I hope you’re happy!”
Everyone stared at me, blinking.
“Ahem, sorry about that, old nightmares.” I ruffled my feathers. “Basically, in the end we got a good ending, I talked to GM, and then I went on with Vriska to explore until the day in the Nexus.”
Rohan flipped through the book, appalled by how many grammar mistakes it had. “Egad…”
I ignored him. “This book was written, mostly, by G. M. Blackjack himself. It’s a direct connection to him, unlike every other universe we’re in which just gets shunted to ‘another’ Prophet that made the world itself.”
Monika glanced at the book. “So I go into this world, and then follow the connection up to his world. Got it.”
“Unfortunately this story doesn’t currently exist in the multiverse,” I said. “It’s completed since I’m here, so this book doesn’t connect to anything.”
“So it’s useless,” Monika said.
“Nope,” I said, taking the book from Rohan and giving it to her. “You can follow old connections as well. Just dive into the book and dive back out at once.”
“I can’t do that!”
Scooter held up the script and raised an eyebrow.
Monika blinked. “Uh, okay then. Guess I can. Let’s see…” She levitated the book in her hand, focusing her power on it.
“Here it comes… The moment you’ve all been waiting for…” Deadpool said, leaning in to the book that seemed to be glitching out of existence. “The hot girl does a thing!”
Monika twitched. She slapped him.
“And go,” Pinkie said.
Monika’s emotions flooded into her powers and they activated. She found the thread leading from the book into nothing, but back out to a Prophet. She pulled.
All eight of us vanished along the thread.
Monika appeared alone. “Huh…” she said, scratching the back of her head. “Weird.”
She was standing on the capitol building of… Idaho, a quick search of her knowledge told her. She took a moment to sense the universe, to find out what kind of Earth this was…
…Mundane. Truly mundane. There wasn’t going to be an easy way to make a portal out of this universe.
Luckily she was Monika and rules meant nothing to her. She could just edit physics to allow portals when she felt like it. But she didn’t feel like it now – this was the world she came to see, so see it she would.
She spread her senses a bit. I had arrived somewhere alone, while all the others had been split up in pairs around the Treasure Valley area. There were going to be some problems for those who were used to magic – Mattie was going to feel like her horn was burning for a few seconds. Velvet depended a lot on her magic as well… and Rohan wouldn’t have his ever-so-useful Stand at his beck and call. That’d be fun. The Pinkies and Deadpool would be just fine, given how they depended on the abilities key to their Awareness rather than magic. Though Pinkie’s lack of eyes…
Regardless, it would be fun to watch, no matter what. Just a shame the others had to go through it. Maybe she should save them.
…Nah. She was pretty sure there hadn’t been a chapter about characters making do on a normal Earth yet. Might as well get around to it right before the end. There’d be a lot of fun antics, of course.
Oh, who was she kidding, this was Idaho. They were going to have to look hard for it to get really interesting.
She’d meet them where they needed to go.
She vanished off the roof of the Capitol Building in a puff of glitches.
~~~
Pinkie and Mattie appeared together, in a tree.
“Guuuuh…” Pinkie muttered, rubbing her ears. “We’re in a tree. Fun.”
“Ah, and my horn! Ooooooooh yesssss…” a rather complex mixture of bliss and pain covered her expression. “Hey, look at these scratches!”
“…Really?”
“Oh, uh, sorry mate.”
“Mhm. So, I’m blind, and without any magic my hoof sensors are useless. Please tell me if I’ve suffered a jugular vein injury.”
“You haven’t, don’t worry about it. You seem completely unharmed, actually.”
“I am made of rubber! …Anyway, I’m not Aware of anything but this tree right now, so, uh… Be my eyes.”
“Mhm. We appear to be in a park on an Earth. Mundane or near mundane-”
“Mundane, Monika already stated it above.”
“Right, right. Sure saves a lot of time when we can just do that, huh?”
Pinkie chuckled. “Yep. Anyway, park. Humans.”
“Humans. Humans everywhere.”
“There’s only about six of them in sight.”
“I thought you were blind!”
“It was a joke setup. As was that. And possibly this, but when you go that deep the whirlpool of meta just oversaturates itself into a towel whip.”
“Gee, you make it sound like a science.”
“SCIENCE!”
“Do you want them to notice us?”
“Eh, not really. Not like they’re actually dangerous – with my Pinkie Powers (trademark™) and your Editing (©copyright), we could rule this mundane world!”
“Do you know how many slaves I could get!?”
“None of them would be stallions.”
“…I could adapt…”
Pinkie chuckled. “Yeah. You would.”
And then there was a loud CAW CAW as a giant crow flew into the tree.
“BIRD!” Pinkie and Mattie shouted, jumping up. They would have been fine if their hooves still had traction to them, but instead they just fell out of the tree and onto the grass.
A kid with a giant water gun in their hands stared at them.
“Don’t scream ‘pony’ and hug us,” Mattie pleaded.
She got her wish.
“PONY!” the girl screamed in terror, shooting them with her water gun and running away.
Pinkie snickered. “Hehe- Hey!” An older boy had what looked to be a toy machine gun strapped to him that was firing little gel balls. “Let’s high-tail it out of here!”
“This way!” Mattie called - and then a Frisbee hit her in the head. “What the hell!?”
“You said a bad word!” A troop of kids called from on top of a playground jungle gym. They fired their water and dart guns as well.
“We’re being attacked from all sides!” Pinkie yelled, pulling her own giant water gun out of her mane. “But we shall fight together!”
A rotund teenage boy way too tall for the average human around this part of the world poked his head out from the corner of the park’s bathroom, hitting them with a constant stream of water from a bright yellow water gun. From the other side, a teenage girl in glasses shot at them with a whistling dart gun.
“We interrupted a war,” Pinkie muttered.
“Not the first time, is it?”
“Nope. Though I have to admit, it’s never been a playground war before.”
“Flee?”
“Flee.”
Mattie took off at a gallop, Pinkie behind her. They ran into the road – though Pinkie stumbled over the edge, she landed just fine.
They passed by a cop car. The fattest cop either of them had ever seen was standing there. The only thing that would have made the image more complete would be if he was holding a donut.
He reached into his car and called for backup. Then he drew his gun. “Stop right there!”
“You think he’s going to shoot?” Mattie asked.
“Nah, but his buddies will when they show up.”
“We can take them. A simple edit and their cars will crash into each o-”
Pinkie appeared in front of Mattie. “We can’t do that. This is a mundane world. If cars crash into each other like that people die. There’s no magic, there’s no healing, and there’s no epic battles. Just people. So let’s move.”
They did.
~~~
Deadpool and Scooter appeared inside bumper cars while the ride was already active.
“CHIMICHANGA!!!!” Deadpool shouted, pulling the levers on the bumper car forward and ramming into the other bumper car riders. “RED CAR BEST CAR!”
“I like my purple better,” Scooter said, smirking. She pulled her two levers in different directions and started spinning. “There is no end to the whirlwind of powaaaaar!”
“I gotcha!”
They bounced around for a few minutes, having a good long laugh. But eventually, the timer on the ride ran out, and they were told to get out of their cars.
Scooter, very carefully made sure she got out on her hind legs. She wobbled a bit, but leaned onto Deadpool to keep up the illusion of being bipedal.
The other riders filed out, running to the rest of the indoor ‘theme park’ of sorts, though it was hardly large enough to be called a ‘park’. Deadpool and Scooter left last.
The attendant watching the ride looked the two of them up and down. “Uh…”
“We gave you a ticket,” Deadpool said. “And if you say we didn’t, you’re going to have to explain how two people in such amazing costumes as us got in without you noticing.”
This prompted her to put on the fakest smile of all time. “Have a nice day!” She spent a good long while staring at Scooter – but decided it was just a really good costume. After all, there Deadpool was, almost as if he was directly from the movie…
“Hey, I am not movie Deadpool.”
“Too much cornball,” Scooter said with a chuckle.
“Never enough cornball.”
“Well now we’re abusing Prism’s pet name for Corea. That’s not good form.”
“She doesn’t have to knooooow!”
“Heh. No, no she doesn’t. Anyway, turn to the left, past the swirling carnival ride that looks like an octopus, and to the map of the place.” She set her front hooves down on the map, ignoring the strange looks she was getting.
“Hrm… Wahooz Family Fun Zone.”
“Lame name.”
“They have bowling, rock wall climbing, an arcade, go karts, laser tag, minigolf…” she whistled. “And there’s a water park next door.”
“Do they have a rollercoaster?”
“Well the water park has a drop that’ll let you experience freefall for a fraction of a second,” Scooter said.
“...That’s not on the map.”
“And neither is a lot of the stuff in our head, try to keep up.”
Deadpool shot her the finger guns. “Aaaaaay.”
Scooter rolled her eyes – the action of which made more people stare at her in disbelief.
“YES THIS IS A COSTUME!” Scooter shouted at them. “EITHER THAT OR I’M AN ALIEN. And please, what’re the chances of an alien coming here of all places?”
“Decent enough,” Deadpool said, producing a UFO keychain. “You neeeever knooooow…”
“I’m going to wear out my eye-rolling muscles…” Scooter said, shaking her head. “Anyway… Let’s see, what are we actually supposed to do?”
“Shh. Let’s not look at the script. Let’s just go where life takes us.” Deadpool shoved his hand into the air. “WE SHALL LET KA DECIDE!”
“Ka always decides.”
“But we manipulate it!”
“Only Monika really does that. But yeah, technically you’re right.” She shrugged. “I don’t think I could sell this at the water park. So…” She tapped her chin. “What to do…”
“Pinke-warp us to the front of a go-kart line. You get passenger seat so you won’t have to struggle with the pedals.”
Scooter chuckled. “They’ll never let me on with this.”
“Nobody’s noticed these guns yet, I think they’re stupid.”
“They’re not stupid. They’re just regular people who aren’t ready to accept the impossible. But sure, we can go to the go-karts.” She pulled Deadpool behind the map of Wahooz, appearing in the outside area at the front of the line. Nobody saw them appear, they were just there. The benefits of being a Pinkie.
She also had two tickets. Convenient.
The ride attendant scanned her up and down. “Uh…”
“Costume,” Scooter said, grinning. “Yes, I am a furry, got a problem with that?”
Deadpool burst into laughter.
“…Just make sure your hair and… tail are tied up while in the kart,” the man said, clearly not wanting to think hard about how her mouth was moving if it was a costume. She sure didn’t look like an actual bipedal pony. Everything was too smooth.
Deadpool took the driver’s seat in one of the double karts and Scooter took the passenger. The kart was, of course, red. Which meant fast.
…In some universes. Not this one.
The attendant gave a big spiel about ‘hands and legs inside the kart’ and ‘keeping hair secured’ and ‘no bumping’ but they only knew he was saying those things because they were written down in this story. It was impossible to hear him over the revving of the engines. They rushed through the gates, speeding across the track.
The single-seaters were faster than them by a lot.
Scooter shook her head. ‘Tsk tsk tsk… This won’t do.” She pulled out a Mario Kart question box from her mane and punched it, revealing a speed mushroom. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
They boosted forward at an alarmingly fast rate, blowing the competition away with their way-way too fast kart. But she didn’t overdo it – whenever an attendant became suspicious, she waved at them with her front hoof, with the box nowhere to be seen.
They raced like this for quite some time. The leaderboard was broken so there was no way for anyone to actually figure out who won or who lost, but it didn’t matter. They had a great time anyway.
They got off the ride, laughing. Scooter still had to lean on Deadpool to keep up the bipedal appearance, but at this point people were starting to point and stare a bit too much.
“Yeah, I think we’ve overstayed our welcome. I see cell phones,” Scooter said.
“Time to cut like cheese and rip!”
Scooter let out an extended sigh.
“Oh. My. Gosh. Those are like, the best costumes ever!” A large man in a fedora said, walking up to them. “It’s like… the real Pinkiepool!”
“That better not be a ship name, brother,” Deadpool said.
“Oh, it’s not! And wow, your voice is perfect! …Wait, you can’t be Ryan Reynolds…”
“Can’t I?” He totally wasn’t, since he wasn’t the movie Deadpool, but who really cared?
“Wow. That’s just… Wow. I thought only George Kennedy lived around here, but a big superstar!?”
“Oh I don’t live here. And if you know who George Kennedy is and where he lives shouldn’t you know that?”
“I’m just so excited to meet you and your Pinkie friend!”
“Hey,” Pinkie said. “Sorry my voice isn’t perfect.”
“Oh, it's not a problem – say, I know a great place around here. Do you guys want to check it out?”
“Sure!” both of them said.
~~~
Rohan and Velvet appeared in the middle of nowhere, at a graveyard situated far from any major civilization. A cabin could be seen in the distance, but otherwise there was nothing but endless forest. It was extremely hot out there, but as the wind picked up there was a slight chill, indicating that it was shifting from summer to fall.
“Greeeeat,” Velvet muttered. “It’s the two of us together.”
“Useless and Useless?” Rohan suggested.
“Yep. Useless and Useless. Mister Mc NotAware and Miss PathetiSight.” She let out a psychotic laugh. “My blood control’s gone. You?”
Rohan tried summoning his Stand and got nothing. “Lovely. Someone’s going to have to come get us.”
“Probably. But we can’t be here without reason. This place must either be important or have some adventure in store for us…” She rubbed her hooves together excitedly
Rohan stooped down to look at one of the larger gravestones. It was green, in the shape of a mountain, and had an image of a bird on it. One of the words on it was Opal.
“Opal…” Rohan said, running his fingers over the name.
Velvet stared at the name. A tear dripped down her face.
“Hm?”
“I don’t know,” Velvet said, wiping her eyes. “It’s just, when I look at this… I feel like existence is coming apart. The feeling is passing, though.”
“It has to be important. Maybe her name can tell us something.” Rohan took out his phone. It worked just fine since it was designed with multiple universes in mind, but it didn’t have a cell plan for this Earth. “…I’m going to need some free wifi.”
“We’re in the middle of the forest,” Velvet observed.
“There has to be some way to drive in here. So there must be a way to a town. All we have to do is get there. …Somehow.”
“Walk?”
Velvet groaned. “Looks like that might be what we’re doing…” Then she blinked. “Or we could steal a car.”
Rohan raised an eyebrow.
“There is a house over there. It probably has a car. Even without my fearmongering I can get some good intimidation going.”
“Hm…”
“I’ll give it back.”
“Oh, I wasn’t worried about that, I was just wondering if I’d get injured in the process.”
“Probably not. I mean, they might have a gun, this is a cabin in the middle of the woods.” She craned her neck. “We should be prepared for that.”
Rohan nodded. “Plan… You distract them at the front door while I work my way in the back.”
“Yep.” Velvet trotted over to the house’s front door – it took a few minutes, it wasn’t exactly close to the graveyard – and knocked.
A very large, but sweet looking older woman opened the door. “Yes, I – oh heavens! What are you?”
Something stirred inside Velvet. She dropped the angry expression. “Uh… Hi. Can we use your car? We’ll give it back. …Or have it towed back, or something.”
The woman took one look at her, then shook her head with a small laugh. “Well since you asked so nicely, go right ahead. I’m not gonna use it today.”
“Rohan! Diplomacy worked! No need to take the back route!”
Rohan lowered his leg before he kicked in the back door. “…Fine.” He adjusted his shirt and walked to the front door.
“You’re certainly dressed like a clown.”
“I’m an artist,” Rohan said.
“You two just dropped out of the sky, didn’t’cha?”
Velvet smirked. “I guess you could say that. Thanks for the car.”
“Don’t mention it. Your face told me you needed it, strange as it was.”
“…Yeah, why didn’t you freak out about that?”
The woman chuckled. “I’m gettin’ too old to give a rip about anythin’. Just take it and go, Lord willing.”
Rohan smiled. He decided he liked this woman.
The two of them piled into an old, but functional car. They drove away.
“I have a thought,” Velvet said. “Both of us are speaking our native tongue, right?”
Rohan nodded.
“I guess it just happened to be English then.”
“Or Monika did something.”
Velvet blinked. “I hate not being able to just know things like all the others.”
“You knew she would give us the car.”
“That was just acting on intuition and you know it. I wasn’t certain.”
“I sense lies.”
Velvet grinned. “I sense an arrogant prick.”
Rohan smirked, saying nothing. They drove off along the mountain roads.
~~~
The question was – law enforcement or animal control?
The answer – both.
Mattie edited them behind the oncoming swarm of animal control collars-on-sticks. A police car saw this happen and decided that was too freaky. It stopped chasing them while the man inside took a moment to rethink his entire existence.
Pinkie giggled gleefully. “Wheeee!”
“None of them have shot us yet… Isn’t that weird?”
Pinkie shook his head. “Nope! Would you want to explain why you shot someone’s dog? Or… pony, I guess? Or the first alien ever encountered?”
“…But they shoot at us all the time elsewhere.”
“Mundaaaaaane! These are just regular people – not mooks designed to give us a problem.” She ran right into a street sign. “Okay, what did I hit and how bad did I hit it?”
“You bounced off the rod of a stop sign like rubber,” Mattie said. “Oh, bugger, they’re gaining.”
“And there’s an actual good cop in front of us too,” Pinkie muttered. “Cause of course there is.”
“I know you can understand me,” a muscular man said – though nothing as impressive as Earth Stand men. “I know you can talk back too.” He pointed his gun at them. “So you’re coming in. I don’t care if you’re some alien or experiment from the University, you’re under arrest for disturbing the peace.”
“Uh… What if we don’t want to come?”
“We can negotiate taking you to the Chief without being in cuffs. But you have to surrender willingly.”
“Hmm… Naw, that’s silly,” Mattie said. “We can just run circles around ya instead, mate. That sounds much better.” She started editing him, making him pull his gun out over and over and over again.
“What in the…”
One of the police behind them fired their weapon. He missed, and he fell over from the knockback, but the noise made Pinkie and Mattie jump several feet into the air. “What the bloody hell!?” Mattie blurted as they took off along the sidewalk.
Pinkie rubbed her ear with a hoof. “I think… I think we heard an actual gunshot. Man, action scenes really don’t think about all the consequences do they?”
“Guess not,” Mattie said, glancing behind her. “Incoming car.”
Pinkie grabbed Mattie and ducked behind a tree. They appeared on the other side of a large evergreen bush shaped in such a way that it formed an enclosure with an old brown fence.
Monika and I were waiting for them.
“And they’re first. Called it,” Monika said.
“There wasn’t really a competition. We both knew they’d arrive first,” I said. “How’d you enjoy your little chase scene?”
“It was fun!” Pinkie said, grinning. “We were in a water war and then the cops tried to catch us and think of a reason to shoot us!”
“Only one bullet was fired,” Mattie said. “That seems highly unusual.”
“It’s mundane,” I said. “A lot of cops will never fire their weapon in the line of duty.”
“Mundane universes are so weird.”
I rolled my eyes. “In some ways, yes. In others, well, this is what ‘normal’ actually is.”
Pinkie made a spooky ghost noise. I chuckled at this.
~~~
“Welcome to the secret warehouse!” Deadpool and Scooter’s new ‘friend’ said, spreading his hands wide.
The fact that the word ‘friend’ was in literary ‘air quotes’ was enough to put Deadpool and Scooter on edge.
“Come on in!” The man said, opening up the mini-garage door of his personal warehouse. “It’s a treasure trove of fancy and rare memorabilia!”
Scooter and Deadpool glanced at each other. Then they shrugged.
Had this been any other world, the inside of the warehouse would have looked impressive, lined with aisles upon aisles of fancy rare nerdy stuff. There would have been figures, mint condition comic books, special edition collectibles arranged in the perfect way, and perhaps an army of painted miniatures.
Instead there were just two shelves of stuff that was certainly rare, but not all that expensive, and a pile of larger stuff in the far corner.
Deadpool picked up a ‘pop’ figure of himself. “I look so adorable.”
Scooter found figures of the ‘Mane Six’ plus Starlight. “Hey, full set! …Well, except Spike.”
“Screw Spike,” the man muttered. Then he closed the door on them.
“Not surprising at all,” Scooter muttered, sighing. “Though you would think mundane humans wouldn’t be this crazy or possessive.”
“I think he exists because we exist. We’re an infection.” Deadpool found a bobblehead of Groot and flicked it. “He’s probably going to feel pretty shitty about this later.”
“Oh, geez, that’s bad in these worlds… people regularly aren’t in good places.”
“Bah, he’ll be fine. We’ll make it a day he’ll never, ever forget. You know, maybe.” He ripped the plastic covering off a mint-condition Deadpool comic and started reading. “Heh. I remember this.”
Scooter pressed a button on a Pinkie figure. It started shouting at her. “This is your singing telegram I hope it finds you well!”
Scooter smacked it until it stopped the noise. “Man, why do baseline Pinkies have to be so loud?”
“Party. You need to get into the party mood to understand.”
“I like parties! I’m just not hyperactive insane.”
Deadpool raised an eyebrow.
“…Fine.”
“You just need to get into the groove my script-reading equine! For instance…” He picked up a body pillow of himself. “Be like this guy. This guy is cool, sweet, suave, and h–” he noticed the back image of the pillow. “Holy fuck… Yes.”
Scooter facehooved. “Please don’t tell me there’s one of me in here.”
“Okay. I won’t.” Scooter felt a large pillow land on her face.
Scooter shivered in revulsion, throwing the thing off her face without looking at it. “Right, yeah, I’m done with this place now.”
“Oh come on! It’s not you! It’s Pinkie Pie!”
“And I look exactly like her and that used to be my name.” Scooter pulled out the script. “Now it’s time to get out of here, so…”
Deadpool took out one of his guns and shot a hole through the mechanism that locked the door. “Done.”
“Ah. That’s right, those are real.”
Deadpool opened the door and they stepped out to find the man talking on the phone.
“I’m telling you, I’ve got a real alien here locked in my warehouse with Ryan Reynolds! What part of that is hard to unders-” He looked at the phone. “Gah. Someone has to believe me at some p-”
Deadpool tapped him on the nose with his finger. “Boop.”
“Wh… How did y-”
“I’m Deadpool baby, what do you think? I just did!”
“It just works,” Scooter offered.
“Uh…”
“Listen, buddy,” Deadpool said, slinging an arm around the man’s shoulder. “I won’t mention this to my buddies if you agree to forget we were ever here. I’ll even give you one of my katanas.”
“…Really?”
“Really.” Deadpool took a katana off his back and handed it to the man. “Now how about you get your shit together and stop locking people in warehouses.”
“Yeah. It’s not nice,” Scooter suggested.
“I think I finally got it… You’re from Scootertrix the Abridged!”
Scooter sighed. “I knew it was all too good to be true… Look, just… live your life, okay?”
“I… uh…” he seemed unable to formulate a response to this.
Deadpool mounted Scooter. “AWAY, MY FLUFFY PINK PONY!”
Scooter galloped away, leaving the man in the dust holding a katana.
He shrugged and put it away with his other things. Then he realized the lock had been shot off. …How was he going to explain that?
“Noooot our problem,” Deadpool said to himself, chuckling. “Think he’ll return to normal?”
“I don’t think he is normal. But no more locking people in warehouses. …Probably.”
Deadpool shrugged, putting his hands behind his head. “So, where are we going?”
“We’ll know when we get there.”
“And when’ll that be?”
“The moment we stop thinking about it.”
“So we’re already here then?”
“Exactly.”
Scooter stopped behind the same bush as Monika, Pinkie, Mattie, and myself. I was scribbling things in a notebook.
“You guys are a bad influence on society,” Pinkie said. Then she and Scooter hoofbumped.
“I’m a bad influence on everyone,” Deadpool insisted, putting his hands on his hips. “There is no other influence I can be! For I am the Merc with a Mouth! I a-”
Monika created a sock inside his mouth. Since he had his suit on, it took a bit of work for him to remove the sock. “Gah! Where has this been!?”
“Every disgusting place I could think of,” Monika said. “You’re welcome.”
“Really? Hrm, did you think of sticking it u-”
Pinkie slapped him. “Bad Deadpool.”
“Good Deadpool!”
I rolled my eyes. “Someone’s going to have to go get Rohan and Velvet. They’re too far away to get here naturally and they can’t just shift here.”
“Fine,” Monika said, stretching her arms. “I’ll get them. Jump-cutt¥¥¥¥¥¥
~~~
Rohan and Velvet drove into a small town.
“I think something just screwed with the geography,” Velvet muttered. “The map doesn’t make any sense.”
Rohan shrugged. “Who knows what the others are doing. They could be altering the fundamental nature of the world for all we know.”
They were one of the few cars on the streets – the town was a sleepy one. Sure, the place was clearly lived in – people walked around, all going about their lives – but it didn’t seem full of life. None of the buildings looked new; they all looked like they had been built decades ago.
A small town that was clearly dying. But nobody wanted to leave.
They passed by a Seven Devils Café, parking the car near it. Rohan found he was able to access an unprotected wifi signal. It was slow, but it worked. He typed in Opal’s full name, using the town’s name to narrow the results further.
“She died less than a year ago,” Rohan said. “And… She had quite a few kids, all of whom had more kids, and most of those have kids as well.”
“He’s in there somewhere,” Velvet said.
“Hm?”
“G. M. Blackjack. It has to be. This world is his world; we’re seeing things that are important to him. That grave, this town… That has to be it.”
“Well how are we going to tell from all these names? There’s no surname ‘Blackjack’ here.”
Velvet looked at all the names. “Right, this family tree’s so huge it’s not like everything’s going to fall into place…” She rubbed her forehead. “Right, so, uh… Twilence and Pinkie have told me a few things. He’s a he, and wouldn’t be old enough to have kids. That’s… yeah, that’s all I can remember.”
“Old enough to write…” Rohan muttered a bit, adjusting a few things. “There’s still a lot of options here.”
“Joy,” Velvet muttered. “Just a bunch of names…”
There was a knock on the car window. An older man with a beard was there, looking at Rohan.
Rohan rolled down the window. “Yes?”
“What are you doin’ in my sister’s car?”
“We were lost and asked to use it,” Rohan said. “You’re free to take it back to her if you want.”
“Uh-huh…” he said, clearly not believing a word he was saying. “Tell you what, how about I call her up and see if that’s what really happened.”
“Go right ahead,” Rohan said, turning back to his phone.
Velvet watched the man call his sister. He addressed her by name.
A name Velvet recognized from the family tree. One of Opal’s daughters.
Pinkie nudged Rohan. “Ask him when he gets off the phone.”
“As him what?”
“Ask him if anyone in his family is a young author.”
The man got off the phone, surprised that their story checked out. “Huh. You know, now that I think about it, that does sound like her to just give you a car… I’m going to have to talk to her about that.” He rolled his eyes with a smirk.
“This is going to sound like a weird question,” Rohan prefaced.
“Oh?”
“Anyone young in your family an author of some sort?”
“I mean there’s my grand nephew, but he- wait that is a really odd question.”
“What’s his name?”
He gave them the first name. “Now what’s this all a-”
“Aha!” Velvet said, pointing her hoof at Rohan’s screen. “His first name starts with ‘G’ and his middle starts with ‘M’. JACKPOT!”
“G. M. Blackjack…” Rohan said with a smirk. “Found him.”
The man, having seen Velvet’s hoof, realized what she was. He stared at her in disbelief. “What in the…?”
“Yeah, I’m an alien from another universe,” Velvet said, grinning. “I hope that isn’t a problem. It’s not a problem, is it?”
The man had no response.
“Well, it’s ju˜´¨ø√®∑´¥¥¥¥¥¥¥√˜∑ˆ´ønd Monika appeared on the roof of the car. “Hi.”
“…Hi,” the man said, blinking.
“Ah, the cool uncle,” Monika said with a smile. She waved at him. “Nice to meet you! Sorry, but I’ve got to take these two somewhere. You can have the car back, though.”
He had no response beyond a chuckle that didn’t seem sure of its own sanity.
“We found GM!” Velvet said, holding up the phone.
“We’ve been waiting behind the pine bush in his backyard for a while,” Monika said, hands on her hips. “You two…”
Rohan waved a hand dismissively. “What did you expect? We don’t know anything and we’re powerless. You could have just taken us there instantly.”
“Maybe not,” Velvet said. “We needed to see this. We’re part of painting the world he lives in.”
Monika snapped her fingers. “Bingo!”
“What did this place mean to him?” Rohan asked her.
“It was the center of his family,” Monika said, looking into the distance. “The place his father lived as a boy. Where all his relatives came from. An origin point, an anchor to a past from before he was alive.” She put her hands on her hips. “A dying town.”
The man looked at her with a sad face – understanding the truth in what she said.
Monika forced a smile. “…Okay everyone! Time to move!” she clapped her hå˜∂ߥ¥¥¥¥¥
~~~
It was evening. All eight of them stayed behind the evergreen bush, finding themselves easily able to see through the house’s huge window that allowed the residents to look at the backyard.
He was there, sitting at a desk. Whenever he looked up, he could see the backyard. He may have lived in the middle of the suburbs, but evergreen bushes, willow trees, rosebushes, and several other large plants hid the unsightly image of the road from his view. But he only looked up occasionally – for the most part, he typed away at his Apple computer, filling it with an unending stream of words.
They saw his mother in the kitchen behind him, tidying up.
They saw his father walk up to him and start talking. He was a large man with a commanding presence and GM looked at him with a lot of respect. They talked for a few minutes, allowing the eight watching to get a good look at GM. He was a young man – definitely not a boy – with somewhat short, dark brown hair. The only particularly interesting thing about him was a particularly oversized pair of wireframe glasses.
He stood up for a moment to wish his father a safe trip, revealing himself to be a rather tall individual, so that might have been considered ‘interesting.’
Soon, he was alone in the house and it was dark outside.
“I’ll go in first,” I said, spreading my wings. “I doubt he’ll be expecting us.”
I left the evergreen bush. Given how dark it was outside, I could see him easily – but the window might as well have been a mirror now. I walked up to the back door and knocked.
He looked at the back door, confused. Who would knock at the back door? He walked up to it, trying to squint through the door’s window. He couldn’t see much.
I pressed my hoof to the glass. “Hey. It’s me. You know me, right?”
He recognized the voice all right. He took a few steps back, alarmed – but less surprised than one in his position should have been.
“Just let me in. I’m not going to hurt you.”
GM processed this – and opened the door. “…Twilence. How…?”
“It was time to get some answers. For me and several others. …Can we come in? It is a little chilly out here.”
“S-sure…” he said, stepping back from the door. I gestured for the others to come, and they did. He looked at many of them in confusion, but a couple in recognition. “…What?”
I closed the door. “You can sit down, you know. It’s not like we’re here to attack you or anything. We’re just here to ask some questions, get some answers.”
“Not sure how much I can give you because I don’t know most of you. I know…” He pointed at me, Scooter, Mattie, Deadpool, and Velvet. He paused on Velvet for a moment. “…You’re not going to try to eat me, are you? …And why are you wearing glasses?”
Velvet raised an eyebrow. “Are we sure this is him? Seems clueless.”
I nodded, mild confusion crossing my features. “GM… How long have you been writing Songs of the Spheres?”
GM leaned back in his chair, a thoughtful expression crossing his mind. “…Depends on what you mean by writing. This specific story?” He gestured at the computer with a Word file open on it titled 005 – Cross Mask. “Couple weeks. But there’s an answer that says I’ve been writing it my entire life…”
“…We’re on chapter 114,” Pinkie said.
“Guess we’re in a time loop then, of sorts…” GM murmured. “But wouldn’t that be impossible? Metatime doesn’t allow – wait, right, right, Prophet rules.” He let out a short laugh. “I could write about this later and it could still be true. …I am the Prophet version, right? That’s why you’re here?”
Monika nodded. “Yep.”
“And I’m going to bet you’re all the fourth wall breakers or… similar…” a haunted expression crossed his face. “Craaaap if I’m the real Prophet, that means stuff is going to happen to me. Not good stuff. Bad stuff, I think. Unless I change my mind – which I probably will since I know I’m the Prophet now, this early. Why would I let you come this early? Doesn’t make any sense…”
“So you can’t tell us why you did things to us,” Pinkie said. “You won’t be able to tell me why I had to lose my eyes. What went through your mind.”
“I – geez, I’m sorry, I thought you were some alternate Pinkie, I…”
“Yep. Original Pinkie here, in the flesh. Never changed my name.”
“…You changed your name?”
“Most of us do,” Scooter said. “I’m Scooter.”
GM blinked. “…That’s a good idea. It’ll make writing the complicated sections a whole lot simpler…”
I smiled at him. “I’m sure you can help us answer some other burning questions, GM. You don’t have to tell us about recent events.”
“Not going to be able to since clearly I have no idea who at least a few of you are…” He took a moment to gather his wits. “But, yeah, yeah, you all deserve to have answers. I just don’t think I can give most of them to you.”
Rohan sat down at the dining room table. “How about you just tell us what the story is about? Why you’re writing it?”
GM took a moment to process this. Then he smiled. “Because I’ve always wanted to write it. I… I think I was twelve when I was told fanfiction existed. The literal first thing I wrote was the first version of this story. I liked to call it… Omniverse One. I don’t remember what the actual title was. I took characters I loved to see in other places and rammed them all onto one planet. This story was absolutely terrible and I burned it later.”
“Wonder what that does to the universe it created…” Monika wondered.
“Probably kept it from existing, because the combination planet still exists in my head, continually evolving and changing. There’s a world out there that’s a mixture of all of it, guaranteed. Or whatever I like, anyway…” He nervously adjusted his shirt. “I wrote original stuff next. Sucked. But I eventually came back to the Omniverse story, the idea of combining everything. I called Omniverse Two 2012, and tried my hardest to get other people involved, to create a Syndicate of like-minded authors among my friends. But… my great conspiracy map I worked so hard on amounted to nothing. The only really good things that came out of that was the Spooky story and the idea for Scarlight.”
“…Scarlight?” Rohan asked, cocking his head.
“You’re at chapter 114, you should have found the Starcross Society by now. …Unless I changed it again.”
“She was changed to Scarcity,” I told him. “I’m not sure why.”
“Right… Anyway, I ended that one with a groundhog day episode akin to the Infinite Loops, intending to reset everything so I could start anew with Omniverse Three, a forum project I called the Galaxy Project.”
“…The origin of the Collector,” Monika said.
GM nodded. “I thought I could smash as many fandoms together on the Spacebattles forums as I wanted, dividing a galaxy into various sectors and having all sorts of people write different parts of the story. It… worked for a while, but I grew bored with it, didn’t even get to have the Collector show up and do anything interesting. I diverted my attention to something that became Omniverse Four, the Evermore Recurisons.”
“Oh, Jane and Sunny!” Pinkie piped up. “I know them!”
“And Evermore Pinkie,” I said, remembering someone I knew from long ago.
GM smiled. “Yeah, I did decide to keep them around. But the ER was… too much chaos, not enough organized story. So I eventually dropped it and just devoted myself to writing ordinary things. But the idea of the Omniverse Story would never go away – so Omniverse Five formed in my mind. As it was forming from the leftovers of the other four, I, uh… I made The Influence. Your story, Twilence.”
I nodded. “I’m aware. Your forming of Songs of the Spheres influenced a lot of what the Influence told me to do. It brought Vriska into my adventure, and Aradia, and so many others. It let me become what I am.”
“So… yeah. I made Songs of the Spheres. I had decided I was finally good enough to actually try to write it this time, and that I was going to write the main story alone. It wouldn’t focus on the grand, sweeping events of an entire multiverse – but instead characters. Characters like… you, Pinkie.”
Pinkie saluted. “Yep!”
“I… Well, I’ve just barely started and don’t know much. I do have a general plan and that you Aware people are going to be a big part of it and – hold on. Where’s Seskii? She should be here with you.”
“Over here!” Seskii called, waving from her seat on top of the kitchen counter. “I just didn’t want to take the spotlight away from anyone. Hey!”
GM smiled. “Hey. …Did I end your story well?”
“Well enough,” Seskii said, kicking her feet back and forth. “I’m an original creation, in case that wasn’t obvious.”
“We knew that!” Deadpool called.
“Readers might not have,” Seskii said with a shrug. “Since my story isn’t going to be told unless he actually publishes a real book.”
GM rubbed the back of his head. “Eheh… Yeah, I’m not too good at that am I? Always throw myself into projects I can’t make anything of. But hey, at least I finish them now! Didn’t used to do that. …Never finished anything.”
“Well you’re only about forty chapters from completion, so looks like you keep that up,” Scooter said.
“Yeah, I…. wait, forty? You said 114. But there’s 169…”
“157,” I corrected.
“…Why would I shorten it…?”
I shrugged.
“You realized it would drag out the end too much,” Seskii said, leaning back. “What? No offense Twilence, but I have a more personal connection to him than you.”
“None taken,” I said, mostly not lying. Mostly.
“You’re also not important,” Deadpool said. “You’re just an extra.”
Seskii smiled. “Yeah. Isn’t that nice? Behold, Seskii, background gari. Woo!”
“Care to explain what she is?” Velvet asked.
“That’d spoil her story when I actually tell it,” GM said. “So, no.”
Velvet glared at him. He visibly flinched.
Mattie rolled her eyes. “Great. He’s a chicken.”
GM rubbed his knuckles together nervously. “Eh, yeah. Yeah, I am. There’s a lot of fear in this mind of mine.”
“…You’ve told us how Songs of the Spheres came to be,” Rohan said. “Not why. What is its purpose?”
“A tribute to stories,” both GM and myself said at the same time.
He looked to me – but I shook my head. “That’s all I know. It’s what you told me, remember?”
GM nodded. “Yeah. I remember.”
“So, what else is there to it? A tribute to stories? What else?”
GM looked up at the ceiling. “An ending to all stories. A song to give all those worlds that have been left dangling with all their plot threads unresolved something. A philosophical musing on the nature of meaning. I’m thinking it’ll also have a lot about there being two sides to every argument, and how many different viewpoints are valid – and that even the villains have understandable motives. But I don’t know, that’s not as strong as the nature of meaning thing.” He seemed to get lost in his thoughts. “I mean… the multiverse is finite for a very specific reason. Because if it was truly infinite, if everything possible happened somewhere an infinite number of times, there truly isn’t choice. Nothing you do pushes back good or evil, and there are some universes where evil is good and good is evil and…” He shook his head. “Sorry, that’s probably not what you’re here to ask about.”
“It’s insightful anyway,” Scooter said.
Monika shrugged. “I think he’s just got a big head.”
“What’s the plan?” Pinkie asked. “I get that you change your mind a lot, but what’s the plan?”
GM folded his arms. “Well… If you’re far along I’m going to assume you already formed your multiversal society. Class 2 yet?”
I nodded.
“Right. Then… Uh, I think you’ll get to experience that a bit, and then there’s going to be a multiversal threat of immense proportions mixed with a war. I… really haven’t decided the specifics. Or the outcome. I do know a somewhat major character is going to be the reason behind it, but I can’t tell you who because I don’t know who it is.”
“…Someone’s going to betray us,” Pinkie said, freezing in place.
I bit my lip. “It… It appears so.”
“You don’t know?” GM asked me.
“This is the second to last chapter I have any vision in. Whatever comes after this is hidden, and hidden well.”
“Oh wow, you… are really close to the end.” GM looked guilty. “I’m… I’m sorry.”
“Did you plan any deaths ahead of time?” Pinkie asked.
“…Twilight’s,” GM admitted. “Did I actually do that? Replace her?”
All of them nodded.
“Guess I did…”
“Why?” Pinkie asked, walking up to him. “Why did it have to be her?”
GM gulped. “I… I needed to show that the multiverse could be a terrible place… I wanted to eventually show that the idea of a Replacement Goldfish was atrocious. Even an exact duplicate isn’t the same person.”
Pinkie looked down. “...Yeah.”
“We were replaced too,” I said. “…A retconning version of ourselves decided to sacrifice their being for a better existence.”
GM let out a sharp breath. “I… Look, I’m sorry. I never thought any of this was real. I just… I just wanted to tell a story. I wanted to treat you like people, yes, but…” He put his hand to the bridge of his nose. “I… I’m evil…”
He started crying, the guilt at what he had done – or what he was going to do – overwhelming him. My expression softened and I put a wing around him. “Hey. GM. Nobody here hates you.”
“That doesn’t change anything! I just wanted to tell a story! I didn’t want to kill anyone! And you can be sure there are others who will hate me!”
I let out a deep sigh. “You didn’t know. You just wrote what you thought was right, what you needed to do to get your points across.”
“I can change it…”
“No, you can’t, because Monika here is going to make you forget all this.”
“Ah… Won’t let me change anything…”
I nodded. “We can’t let you do that. So much has happened that needs to happen. Even the horrible stuff made us what we are today.”
There was a chorus of ‘yeahs’ from the rest of the group.
GM wiped his eyes. “I…”
“How many times have I surprised you?” I asked GM.
GM looked at me. “…A lot. You did things I never expected.”
“And your other characters?”
GM looked at Seskii. “Constant surprises…”
“We aren’t just your mind, GM. We have at least some agency. We have our lives. All you do is scribble a story down on a piece of paper or type it up on a computer – the Dark Tower uses that story to make a reality. A reality with real things.”
“How did I manage to get that right?”
“The Dark Tower wanted you to,” I said.
GM looked at her. “…You know, last time we talked… I was the one who knew things, and you weren’t.”
“How times have changed, huh?”
He let out a bitter laugh. “Yeah…” He wiped his eyes, looking at the rest of them. “I’m sorry. I don’t have anything for you.”
Pinkie hugged him. “It’s not your fault.”
“…Yes it is.”
Pinkie looked at him with her eyeless face. “…Everything has two reasons.”
GM sighed, saying nothing.
“There is something you might be able to tell us,” Rohan said. “What is the meaning of nineteen?”
Pinkie let herself smirk despite the somber tone. “Oh boy…”
GM looked into the sky. “Nineteen is a joke.”
“…Nani?”
GM stared at him like he was speaking an alien language – but continued on anyway. “It… It’s just the Dark Tower’s favorite number. It’s placed everywhere to draw attention to things, to create odd synchronicities. But… it’s really just a joke. Sometimes it draws attention to what is important. But it’s just littered around everywhere to make people notice it. That’s what nineteen is. A number spread everywhere simply because it can be.”
Everyone stared at him.
I smirked and shook my head. “Most of us knew that, Rohan.”
“I didn’t!”
Pinkie looked at GM. “…I think we need to go. Monika?”
Monika clapped her hands, and everyone she had taken to the world left. She leaned in to look at GM.
He looked at her. “Who even are you?”
“You’ll find out one day!” Monika said with an adorable smile. “Now let’s see here… Character file… Just gotta mess with the memories a moment…”
GM’s expression went blank as she rooted around his mind. She was tempted to place something that would ensure good fortune for her…
“Ahem,” Seskii said, reminding Monika that she was there. “Don’t do that.”
“…Fine, fine, I’ll just make it like we weren’t here. Yeesh, you don’t have to hover so much…” When she finished, she clapped her hands and made herself vanish.
Seskii watched as GM realized he was crying. He was confused – he never cried for no reason. What had just happened?
He had no idea why he felt such a weight on his chest.
He pushed it out of his mind – the best way to fix that kind of mood was to get writing. It almost always made him feel better.
He rubbed his knuckles together – time to get back to Ardent. The first actual crossover in this amazing mess of a story. A small bit of buildup of what was to come…
The future events excited him – even the ones he didn’t know about. Especially the ones he didn’t know about.
Seskii left the universe, leaving him to his work.
~~~
So what did we learn today?
A lot. And yet, at the same time, not much.
It was an early GM we talked to. One near the start of Songs of the Spheres’ creation. He couldn’t tell us what any of our more recent or far-reaching experiences meant. He could only tell us what he thought at the start.
No doubt all of it had changed since then. Since this was what was happening now…
I could see the words appearing on a laptop outside a large window in a different house. He no longer lived in suburban Idaho. Outside there were hummingbirds flying around. And he was excited.
But we weren’t meant to talk to him at that point in time. We could have tried to force time travel… But no. The answers we got were the ones we got. Going to look for more would just be like abusing Saitama and asking for retribution.
What we learned instead was about him. The places he grew up in and experienced – except that warehouse. That warehouse meant literally nothing. But all the other places… All the other people…
…They were ones he knew. Ones he remembered.
…Who was it? Who was going to do it? Who’s going to start it all?
I don’t know. Yet. But I think I will soon. Because it’s coming.
The end…
What did he eventually decide it was going to be?
He had to have decided by now…
Right?
Up next: A movie chapter. THE movie chapter, you could say. Chapter 115... You really do need the 'prepare for a long, long read' for the next one. Hooo boy.
It is also mind-numbingly complicated so you're gonna want to pay attention. Because when it ends, (Almost) All Your Questions Will Be Answered, and we can get to the actual main plot of Songs of the Spheres.
The Uncertainty will end, eventually.
For fun, here was the song I listened to while writing 115:
-GM, master of Cloud Atlas
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And so it begins.
Y'all are in for a ride.
(Sixteen.)
Oof! Twilence used Flamethrower! It’s super effective!
As a furry, I have no problem with this!
Well. That went deep down the rabbit hole. I can't help but imagine characters seeking me out. Between New Jersey's population density and the lack of hints about me, it certainly wouldn't be easy. And my reaction...
I'm legitimately unsure, but it's a fascinating thought. And I'm 99% sure I wouldn't try to lock anyone in anywhere.
In any case, wonderful bit of self-reflection and preemptive apology. What's next will hurt, I'm sure, but I trust it will be worth it in the end. Also, I really shouldn't have been surprised by the nature of nineteen, but I still was.
Yeah, creating universes out of curiosity or fun would run into some serious moral dilemmas.
There was this idea I had about running an AI simulations with digital minds and telling it to do certain events so it creates stories of how we'd see people genuinely reacting to that sort of things. However, doing that would be horribly immoral.
Have a story about someone coming to terms with losing their arms and not being able to do things they previously could? Now all that heartbreak is on you because you essentially caused that simulated person to lose their arms.
I do wonder, why is it that the awareness of the characters ends on chapter 115? That's an odd number to choose. It could have been something more unique like 111 or 123 or 119. Just a little bit odd in my mind.
9791183
114 (this chapter) is 19x6, the last one the Aware could FULLY see. It fades on the next one 115, so the arc finale (116-117) and beyond can be in the dark.
-GM, master of numbers.
9791190
Wow, I completely forgot to check the factors of 114, I just checked 115. Thanks
Meh, not really. Past me was an ass with his head in the clouds. Pun half-intended.
Wow! Quintupple Wombo Combo with a large soda and fries! This is an unprecedented level of sin! If I do my math correctly, that'd be... um... carry the one... 31 sins!
You asked for this, GM. Roooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (Thump.) ding!
9791227
31 sins are good. But isn't it multiplied? So 2^5 = 32?
9791280
For every mention of the title in a chapter, its sin value doubles. Then I add all those values together, and that's the final result. In this case, five mentions means they're worth 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16, and added together they make 31.
Congratulations GMblackjack you manage to do something even Homestuck couldn't do.... give me a time travel / Paradox / 4th wall breaking headache seriously I think this is the first time I've ever actually gotten a headache over it
More seriously I love this chapter and to all the aware characters who could potentially be reading this I really hope nothing too bad happens to you but I know it will
9791145
That's one of the benefits of having access to the minds of the other versions of myself. Sure, you will need to make a Crater size impression on me to be actually remembered and 78% of my mind is occupied with fighting games move lists, but it's unlikely I will be as hunted as G.M. was on this one...
By the way, nice Re:Creators vibes G. M.
There are always ways to bring people truly to life, and ways to lift courses, the author could do that at the end if he wishes, but the narrative and ka will ask for something, regardless, I will prepare myself for what's to come, from here, all gets serious.
9778176
According to Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell she was born a pegasus and after defeating Prismia, she was given alicornhood and adopted by Celestia as her niece. Until something contradicts what Hasbro said there I'll accept it as canon.
Huh, I wonder what is going to happen next?
This was a great song...could you put up the lyrics somewhere? I can't quite hear a lot of it...
And your explanation into the story and it's deeper meaning...ABOUT meaning was beautiful...
The warehouse scene was just weird and creepy though...
10250005
https://www.letras.com/anna-strandberg/playing-god/
The lyrics don't appear to be in order, but they're there.
-GM, master of inks
Oh the implications here... ka is retroactive in metatime, author's idea of the multiverse isn't his as he thinks but a knowlegde tower gave him, and so are a lot of his ideas about various civilisations that existed thousands, millions, trillions and more years before his universe ever existed
or is it? who was first, the author at the very end or the tower at the very beggining of existence? is this just a great game of cosmic chicken and the egg spanning more than ~10^10^10^19 years? is this even called being a prophet when one is allowed to direct at this scale with the explicit possession of knowlegde of the structure and history of the multiverse, or has the tower chose a herald?
and twilence is said to co-author the story from within the story, some more and my mind will blend the concept of fiction and reality into a soup, my rationality be damned, its not meta but pata-fictional at this point
it seems that the train has no brakes now!
You really succeeded in that goal for me
I even told my mother about your amazing ability to write different ideologies from the point of people that follow them in a way it not only believable that they follow it but even understandable
Ah, your turn to play the music now. Good tune, and something to think about looking ahead to the next chapter...It's going to be a big day.
Well, I have no idea at this point in time if/how it'll be more relevant later but if I may offer a response of a sort that that song made me think of:
This chapter took a bit of a different path than I was expecting early on. I was thinking it was going to be a bit of final lightheartedness and silliness before the big event and then getting a couple of answers and moving on. Got a bit more somber towards the end. Guess some answers aren't easy.
Huh, this one's been cooking around for a while and been a long time coming, eh?
Heh, twelve. I think that's about how old I was when I first encountered fanfiction.net. Long time ago, circa 01-02ish
(gawd).Guess that implies the Prophet idea wasn't always a thing.
Yeaaaaah, I never could piece together where she came from. So I guess that makes since that it's "literally-nowhere-else".
I find that a little bit amusing from my perspective, in a way - a story about "meaning" yet the fact that it feels so big and expansive and a world and design and concept so over-encompassing and large that it's hard to describe - to attach a specific meaning to. It's...definitely meaning-ful. And thought-provoking. This story setting and ruleset is going to be sticking in my head for a very, very long time.
The finite multiverse thing makes sense. And I guess the viewpoints thing has held true, too. Looks like that unresolved plot threads idea extended out into LSB though, huh?
Mhm.
...So it's not just going to be Nettle to (likely) kick things off? Hmmm...
I have a sudden feeling like I should maybe read back up on some of the betrayals from Blink and Nausicaa in LSB. I don't recall specifics, but I wonder if there was something related there...Heck I oughta reread the whole thing in general anyways, knowing the lore I do now.
Y'know, I guess I can relate in a way. I'd written a bit of backstory for a character in an RP (for what that counts as writing). It wasn't particularly long, or happy, or nice (FoE-related stuff on average isn't). And when I got it out of my system and posted I felt sick for about an hour afterwards.
Things got better for her later on but hoooooooohgod I have no idea what I'd do if she were to appear in front of me, knowing.
Speaking of writing if I bet if I spent as much time and effort and dedication into writing as I have to making these damn comments I probably could have put together a story by now...
Ah, dang. I was wondering if there might have been a bit deeper meaning or not I wasn't aware of, like maybe something in the Dark Tower novels.
And here the only other link my brain could come up with is that there's no 19th story at Wayside School.
So did you really not know about DDLC around the early time of writing? Eh, I guess it's plausible, came out in 2017 about when this story started.
Well, based off various comments and A/Ns, yeah, definitely so. But the question still remains to those of us who are not yet aware.
...Playtime's over soon.
Question: am I safe to read this yet or will I just be spoiling myself on some things to come? I mean, the end of certainty does start soon but you never know what might accidentally be revealed.
🥔
That went in kind of the opposite direction I expected and I loved it.
Well of course I had to stop reading for a moment and go look that up out of curiosity. And to look at pics to help set the scene.
(dude those billiards ball print bowling balls arekick. ass.)Reminds me of a time I went karting once at an indoor place but they were these electric karts. And with that apparently the attendants had some degree of control over power for them and I pretty much got Mario-Karted once when they manipulated my power down and let a kid past me. Haven't been back since. Fuck that noise.
Dude was given an opening and boy, did he take it.
Not gonna pry or anything and it has been quite a few years, but for all it's worth I hope you're doing alright.
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You are free to read the Influence as you wish, but it doesn't really provide too much more context than what you already have at this point. (Or will have very shortly). And it loses some of its magic when you aren't actively participating in it. Your choice.
And I was doing fine when I wrote this chapter, it had already been quite some time since then. After all, you're seeing the world as it was when Chapter 005 was written. It had been a while since then back when 114 was written, and it's been far longer now. You don't need to worry at all.
EDIT: Yes I was unware of DDLC when I started. And many other things that became very relevant later.
-GM, master of crystals.
((02 was when you started!? Now I feel YOUNG.))
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Alrighty, then. So shall it be started after the big-long-movie-length end-of-certainty chapter.
And I mean that's just fanfiction.net. My memory's a little too fuzzy on when I grasped the concept of fanfiction being a thing and I know there were other places around that time I just don't recall if they came before or after. (Also, do fan games count? There's some writing involved there sometimes and if so that could place it as far back as 97.)
Now I want to know Seskii's story even more!
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Her story is currenty in progress, most of what exists can be found as part of another story of mine, the in-progress Wizard Space Program.
-GM, master of Seskii.