Seele Vollerei: The end of reality, and what came after.

[Baughn]

Yvette's opinion:

"I'm dead. I don't get an opinion."

Regardless, this is the afterword. Yvette, what do you feel about this chapter?

"It's okay. All this talk about quantum physics and multiple timelines was really confusing, though."

Yeah I suppose it was a bit of an intellectual stretch for the reader. Y'know, the chapter was really just about you and Seele. You're the first written original character in this story.

"You realize that Vel's the only other character, right?"

Yeah yeah.

"Can you give some backstory on her?"

Y'know, I was planning to. Just sort of writing as it comes to me. Look, we'll get to it all eventually.

"How long is eventually?"

I don't know! Just have some faith in me, will you? I'm the writer here.

"I have faith that you'll do something eventually."

You... Yvette, you're fired. Go home.

"No."

Fine, stay. But you're not getting paid.

"I don't get paid?"

No.

"Damn."

More importantly, Yvette, did you enjoy the chapter? Seele believes you didn't understand what was happening.

"What? Of course I did. It was simple. A girl got her memory erased and became a demon."

It wasn't that simple.

"Yeah, it was."

Wasn't that easy. Alright, the chapter's done. Oh, and there's one last thing – this story is being written mostly by an AI. Are you lot okay with that?

"Yeah, sure. Why not?"

It is my duty to remind you that the AI will occasionally make grammatical mistakes and mistakes involving words being used in the wrong context. Also, it has a limited vocabulary and at time will probably fail to effectively relay the tone or mood. Be understanding. Also, it's horribly amnesiac. It has the memory of a goldfish.

"I'm not getting paid enough for this."

Just be understanding!

"Fine."

 

[Baughn]

QUOTES FROM SEELE VOLLEREI: THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN EDITION

"You have no power here!"

Vel says that a lot. She likes to think she's in charge of everything, but she's not. And there's a reason for that.

"I'm third most powerful being in the galaxy,"

Also Vel. She has an inflated ego.

"You need to eat, Vel,"

She needs to eat. She can't survive on dreams and nightmares alone. There's some good advice right there.

"We're going to die here."

Vel says this a lot, too. She doesn't know everything, but she has a really good sense of impending doom.

"They're not your friends anymore, Seele. They're not real."

The constant companion inside your head has her uses, but paranoia and depression aren't among them.


QUOTES FROM AI-CHAN: THE VOICE IN YOUR HEAD EDITION

"Hey, do you want to go exploring?"

Occasionally, she tries to be motherly. It never goes well.

"We're totally going to die here."

She's not wrong, but it doesn't help your state of mind.

"Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

Sometimes, all you need is a good British insult to cheer yourself up.

"I can't believe you just said that."

Usually, she doesn't criticize or question. It's very out of character for her.

"You're such a bitch, Seele."

Oh no.


QUOTES FROM KIANA KASLANA: "BE NICE, SEELE" EDITION

"If you say something stupid one more time, I swear I'll..."

Kiana's the stern mother figure that keeps you in line. You'd be lost without her. Just kidding.

"Y'know, you'd think a demon would be a lot scarier than Vel."

She's right. You'd think that.

"Kiana, stop staring at my ass."

You like to tease Kiana, but she still scares you sometimes.

"You're not wearing the dress I picked out for you."

Oh, boy. This is going to be a long night...

Click to shrink...

I'm always looking for ways to get more insight into what the AI is thinking. This one seems decent...

I'll need to make some adjustments.

 

[Baughn]

No regular update today, because as luck would have it, they released another new update and I had to play with it. You'll get the start of that adventure instead, which I might continue if there's any interest. I spent about the same amount of effort on this as the usual updates...

I find it interesting how the style just quickly shifts at the start, swapping from the high-fantasy thing the AI was shooting for to something closer to my own.

It's too much effort bolding all my input here, so I'll just bold the initial prompt the AI gave me. Bit of an inverse of the usual.

= = =

Kedar is a world of dragons, demons, and monsters. These dark creatures constantly war for control of the land, leaving the few human kingdoms in the shadow of a dark and powerful force. But now, the kingdoms of man are fighting back, slowly assembling an army to reclaim their world.

You are Koyomi, a human mage in Cadast, a village in the kingdom of Kense. You live with your parents and your brother. You love your family very much. You've recently been told you've been accepted as an apprentice mage to a neighboring village. You leave the village to head out to your new home.

But suddenly, an army of demons appears out of nowhere and attacks the village. The town guard fends off the attack, but you need to escape.
The armies of Kedar have been growing restless, will you help the humans defeat the demon hordes, or will you focus on your own survival?

Neither, you decide. You need to rescue your family. You run towards your house, grabbing your bow and quiver on the way. When you arrive, you see a demon killing your father. You kill the demon with three arrows to his back. Your mother and brother are OK, but this situation is grim.

You quickly make sure your father is still alive, and give him what first aid you're able. The demons have attacked with such speed and ferocity that you aren't sure if the town guard can hold them off.

This isn't fair. You just recently had your thirteenth birthday, your friends wished you luck in your studies, and then this. Is this what becoming a mage really means?

No, you're going to be strong, and survive this. You just need to get out of here.

Your mother quickly checks you for wounds. Her eyes widen, as if she's noticed something serious. "Koyomi, your side...it's wounded. Please, stay here with us."

She's right. A gash has been torn in your side, and blood is seeping out of it. When did that happen? You didn't even notice.

"I'm not leaving you, mom!" Your voice is plaintive, and a little pitiful. "But we have to get out of here. There are demons everywhere!"

Your mother doesn't argue with you further. Getting up, she grabs your brother's hand. "Come on," she says. "We need to get out of here."

But, how? You look around desperately. With your father wounded, you're not sure how you can go anywhere at all. Your brother is no help; he's only six.

"Mom?" You say. "I don't know how we can get out of here. The only path out is blocked with demons, and dad's hurt!"

Your mother goes pale, and kneels besides your father. She whispers softly to him for a few moments. Then, she stands up.

"Koyomi," your mother says.

You shake your head desperately. You know what she's about to say, and you're having none of it.

"No, mom. Please."

She lifts her hand and touches your cheek. "I'm sorry."


You burst into tears, hugging her waist. You know she's right, but leaving your father behind? You can't do it.

You feel her hand on your head. "It'll be OK," she says softly. She kneels, and hugs you tightly. "I love you, Koyomi. I know you can do this."

You shake your head. "No! I can.. I can..." You bite your lip until it bleeds, tasting copper. "I can cast a teleportation spell."

"You can?" Hope lights in her eyes.

"Yes! But.. but, I've never done it before. I don't know if it'll work." You bite your lip again as tears cloud your eyes. "I'm scared, mom."
She holds you closer.

You don't tell her what else you've learned from reading the spellbook. That if you get it wrong, you'll die. If you don't, then Dad will die. You're scared, and you have every right to be.

The world is crumbling down around you. Demons roam the lands freely, slaughtering and destroying everything in their wake. The future of the world...it's not looking bright.

But there are glimmers of hope. Clever people. Brave people, like you, though you'd never call yourself that. Wise kings and queens that lead their people to victory. The future is always in motion, and it's up to you to decide where you fit into this world.

Who knows what the future holds? Perhaps you will live in glorious prosperity, or perhaps the world will descend into chaos.

"Stand close to me," you say. "Mom, make sure Dad doesn't move too much. Alex..." You eye your little brother, whom you love with all your heart. It's a desperate, tearing love right now. "Stay still."

Your eyes dart from the doorway to the sputtering, failing barrier and back. You see a fleeting shadow in the corner of your vision, and your heart leaps into your throat.

"Linda!" You shout. "Linda, run! Over here!"

You hear a word of command, and suddenly the air is split by a shattering scream. Linda screams shrilly in pain, and then she's silent. You see her crumple to the ground.

You cover your ears in a futile effort to block out the noise, and release a quiet, heartbroken sob of protest.

Your father lets out a quiet moan of agony and terror.

"Dad!"

You turn to face him, and your blood runs cold.

A demonic figure towers above him. Its skin is pebbled with coarse, dark scales that glint menacingly in the light. It has two sharp, curved horns that project upwards from his forehead, just below where the bone of the skull begins to jut out. Its eyes are filled with an inhuman bloodlust, and his teeth are all fangs, projecting outwards over its bottom lip.

You clench your eyes shut, knowing that if you can't cast the spell right now you'll all die.

But the words of your spell get caught in your throat.

Your father, who is still unarmed and wounded, reaches for the dagger that lies by your feet, and picks it up. He charges the demon, stabbing repeatedly at its thighs, buttocks, calves. It makes no difference. The demon backhands him across the room, sending him sprawling. It towers above your father, preparing to bring its blade down.

"Here!" You scream. "I'm here!"

The demon pauses for a moment, seemingly distracted by your cry. In that moment, your father rolls out of the way. The demon charges at you, sword raised overhead to kill. You stand frozen in terror. Suddenly, the blade comes swinging down. You hear your mother's screams, and then everything goes black.

You wake up several moments later, lying outside the hut. You're alive, but you're badly wounded. Your mother is crying over you, tears streaming down her face. Your father stands a short distance away, looking nervously at the sky.

"Mom?" You cough wetly. "It hurts."

"Hush, my dear." She whispers, gently holding a hand over your mouth.

"We have to go." Your father says, unsheathing his sword and looking nervously at the sky. "Now."

You mother nods, scooping you up into her arms and holding you closely to her bosom. She quickly makes her way to the house next door, where your elderly neighbor lies dead. Your father hastily requisitions his horse, a strong and sturdy steed that will hopefully allow you all to get away. You can already feel the ground shaking as the demons begin to chase you across the countryside.

"Come on!" Your father yells, pulling yourself onto the horse.

You're lying in the wagon next to your mother, who's gently stroking your face and whispering calming words. You try to tell her you're okay, but you feel so weak. It's cold, and you're thirsty. All you know is that you've been wounded, and you need something. Water, or rest... you're not sure. Either way, you don't feel like you can go on, but your mother will make that decision for you.

"Koyomi." She whispers. "Can you hear me?

Your lips move, but you can't answer. You try to sit up, but a wave of nausea and dizziness overcomes you. She composes herself, and then she leans down to kiss your brow gently.

"Just lie still." She says soothingly. "You've been wounded. We need to get you to safety, and then we'll patch you up. Everything will be alright."

You look into her eyes, trying to reassure yourself that everything will be fine. The fear and concern in her eyes belays her words, but she's trying to stay strong. You find comfort in her presence, and close your eyes. You drift off to sleep, and hope that when you wake up, this will all just be a nightmare.

In the morning, you awake to find yourself lying on an operating table in a camp of soldiers. Your mother, father and brother are there with you, and when your eyes open, they all sigh in relief. You try to get up, but a sharp pain stabs through your chest.

"Lie still." A new voice says.

A woman wearing leather armor and a red cloak steps forward. You've seen her before; she came to your house a few days ago. She tells you she's a mage from the capital, here to stop the demon attacks.

"Am I going to be alright?" You ask weakly.

"Yes." The mage says.

"The wounds will heal given time, but you'll need to rest for a few days before you're up and around. A demon clawed you pretty badly. You were lucky it was an infant; its claw lacks the sharpness of an adult's.

An infant? That huge thing, that nearly killed you and dad, was an infant?

"It's a wonder you survived." The mage shakes her head. "I've seen demons take on fully-armored knights and kill them in a single blow. Here you are, half dead, and you'll be up and about in a few days."

A few days rest sound wonderful.

Your body wants nothing but sleep, and you feel blackness creeping in from the edges of your vision. Before you lose consciousness entirely, you look at mom and mouth a single word. "Linda?"

You're too tired to speak, but you have to know. Your best friend, you saw her struck down by a demon. That was a dream, right? This is the reality. Your father saved you from a demon, right? He'd have saved Linda too.

Your head hits the pillow, but before you lose consciousness you look pleadingly at her, begging her to answer.

"I'm sorry," Your mother says, and holds your hand. "She didn't make it."

You squeeze your eyes shut, tears leaking down your face. Your best friend is dead. Linda, the girl you grew up with, is dead. You cry until, utterly exhausted, your body gives out and you fall deeply asleep.

 

[Thelxiope]

The world is Wrong.

Click to shrink...

...you know what, if you're just going to hand me set up like that, then fine.

Spoiler: Seele Vollerei, Dying of Homes

Seele Vollerei
Dying of Homes​

Seele is dying of Homes - or, rather, of the lack thereof.

She was cast out, you see - flung beyond the Weirding Wall, into Ninuan. Into the True and Silvered Land beyond the world.

She is fundamentally a stranger there. The endless void rejects her. It has nothing but scorn for a daughter of Cneph's tainted Ash. She has no place there. She had to struggle, to learn through bitter experience how to see, to walk, to live in the Beyond. It does not offer its secrets to her willingly.

Yet when she finally fought her way back into Creation - finally found it again, in the endless confusion of Ninuan; finally cut a path through the Weirding Wall and forced her way back into the world -

The world had forgotten her. All it sees is an invader from outside. It rejects her. It cannot recognize one of its own children, because the world is wrong.

Seele has no place in worlds. She has no home in the void.

She is abandoned.
Avatar Diagram
Gorse (IX), the Key of the Yoke
Heart - MY CHAINS

• Bound to Veliona.
• Veliona has a bubble of chains, which can tie up anything (the chains aren't very strong though.)

Shadow - BURDENS

• Can't tear myself away.
• I'm afraid.
• Veliona cares about Bronya, even if she doesn't care about anyone else.
• When I retreat to my diary room, tucked away from world and void, only Veliona can find me.
• Veliona is strong when I'm weak. Veliona is confident when I'm afraid. She protects me from my own failures.
• I need Veliona's help to be useful to Theresa.
• I'm pretty sure Veliona's the reincarnated void-princess, and we just got chained together somehow.

Black Orchid (XV), the Key of the Exception
Heart - MY NATURE

• I was cast out into Ninuan, and broke through by learning how to survive there.
• I am rejected and spurned by world and void; but I do not reject them in return.
• I have a bubble of the Border Mythic, which makes Prosaic objects interact with metaphors and concepts directly.
• I know where I belong. The world will just have to deal.

Shadow - NO PLACE IN WORLDS

• I do not belong in Creation.
• I don't belong in Ninuan, either.
• I slowly fade away into nothing in places where I don't belong.
• My touch blurs the boundaries between real and false, between Is and Is Not.
• I collect altered states of λ-being, bubbles of strangeness that are out of place even in Ninuan.
• I don't care what the world says. My place is with Bronya.☆

Game Traits
Infection - Quantum Collapse
I don't think Seele really needs an Infection chart, as hers is fairly simple: as her Infection rises, she becomes less and less present, less able to interact with the things of world and void; until she ultimately decoheres entirely and becomes nothing but a discarded possibility, too improbable ever to manifest within reality.
Eide 2 - Practitioner
Eide is the Dream-of-Self, a reflection of the narrative nature of the void. It is Seele's ability to be perceived as she wishes to be perceived.

Seele isn't, um, particularly good at this - or to put it another way, she lacks real control over that narrative. Their shared Eide is largely Veliona's plaything; Seele is in many ways an accessory to Veliona's image.

Seele's Role is probably best articulated as something akin to "Demonically Possessed," and much of her Eide's force is controlled by that demon.
Technique - Possessed-By-A-Demon Powers aka Let Veliona Deal With It
This is a fairly simple Technique of allowing Veliona to possess Seele's body or manifest in one of her own and then do Veliona-y things, such as rending things apart with terrible claws, cleaving through throngs of enemies with a scythe, binding things in chains, or grabbing things with shadowy tendrils of night.
Flore 1 - Ghost
Creation is - or rather, should be - Seele's home. She's from the world. She is a daughter of the world.

But it has forgotten her. Because the world is wrong.

She fell into Ninuan beyond the world, and the world has forgotten who she is.

Seele has trouble connecting to Creation and the things thereof. She has trouble making an impact that is not fundamentally founded on destruction. She is alienated from this place she once called home.

But despite that, there are things in this world that she treasures, that bring her peace and joy; things she will fight for, even as the rest of the world recoils from her touch.
Treasures
Bronya Zaychik
Seele principally wields the art of Flore to guide, protect, and empower Bronya. It is by virtue of this connection that Bronya sometimes finds that glowing blue butterflies light her way; or that she can hear Seele's voice and feel her presence in times of distress.
Lore 4 - Outrider
Ninuan is, definitionally, not a place where Seele is at home. Seele has no home in either world or void. But despite the scorn of the Silvered Land, she has learned to survive there: learned to see in a land where there is no light; learned to navigate in a realm where distance and location are fluid; learned how to find those rare cast-off pieces of Creation that litter the void - and how to claim them for her own use.
Sphere - λ-Waylets
The creation of the world was not a particularly clean process. Nor, for that matter, is Ninuan's ongoing war against the world.

Both have left debris behind. Bits and pieces of broken worlds, adrift in the Nothing. Sundered from Creation and not part of Ninuan, they are abandoned, forgotten, and alone.

These inverse waylets are Seele's Sphere; and it is from these bubbles of almost-reality in the Lands Beyond Creation that she claims her Arcana.
Arcana - Altered States of λ-Being
Seele collects these bubbles wholesale, and can wield them as tools: overlaying a bubble's nature over the local area and causing its properties to displace or append to those of the local reality.
The Bubble of Chains
This bubble belongs more to Veliona than Seele. It is a universe of binding chains; a world made of endless links of red-stained iron. Veliona can impose it into the world to, well, bind things in chains.
The Bubble of the Border Mythic
This appears to be a lost fragment of the Border Mythic - that strange enchantment upon the Earth that hides the miraculous behind a veil of gross physicality. Seele can wrap an object in this bubble, allowing it to act on both sides of the Border Mythic at once - effectively, causing the object to act on metaphors and concepts directly.
Wyrd 1 - Wyrdling
Wyrd is the Dream-of-Being. It is the self beneath the self, the true face of the story Ninuan is using the Strategist to tell. It is a measure of how deeply a Strategist understands their own fate and nature.

This is complicated in Seele's case by the fact that she is a unique existence that no one really knows how to deal with. She clearly has some measure of a Strategist's Wyrd - of their fated, fatal entanglement with both world and void - but she's also estranged from it; rejected by the Silvered Land where it should hail and welcome her as one of its lost princesses.

Seele's Wyrd is tangled and confused, even to the dustcloaked sages of the Not.
Sanctuary - The Diary-Room
Strategists are, normally, poisoned by Creation and driven back into the Beyond. Seele is too, but she's also poisoned by Ninuan and driven out of the Silvered Land.

Her Sanctuary is … somewhere. It's not really clear where it could be, not when both Is and Is Not reject her.

But there is such a place.

A dark room, with a chessboard-patterned floor and a blue diary and a vase of white flowers. It's small. It's cramped, especially if Veliona manifests.

But it is Seele's place. It does not reject her. It is safe. It is here where she retreats when everything becomes too much. It is here where she reconstitutes herself when she ultimately dissolves under the scorn of world and void.
Destruction - The Decohering Wyrd
Seele's power of Destruction confuses the nature of things. They become less real - or more real, for λ-things of the void. It becomes difficult to pinpoint where they are, what they are doing, or how they can possibly have an impact on the world. At its worst, her Destruction causes something to dissolve into a strange smear of probabilities across infinite timelines, utterly incapable of affecting any of them.
Ability 2 - Casual
Seele is … not amazing at doing things. At living. At engaging with the world in a fashion not predicated on terrible destructive magics of the endless void.

She can manage. She can accomplish tasks, she can take care of herself. But she's not good at it. She lacks the ability to focus - to be present, to pay attention, to not drift off or get distracted. Focus is effortful, for her. It's not precisely hard, but it's not something she can do without trying - without having to explicitly make an effort.
Gifts
Calcifying Gifts
Unblemished Guise
It is extremely difficult to identify Seele as an Excrucian: to the extent that she can be identified at all, she reads - even to miraculous senses - as a daughter of Creation. Unless she goes and does something obviously Ninuanni, there's no sign that she has anything at all to do with the void.

You can even see her eyes (n.b. normally, the eyes of an Excrucian appear as windows into night and falling stars, for reasons)! It's weird.
(Lesser Misdirection; Action; Local; One Trick; Rare)
Gifts of Fugue
Superposit
Seele can draw upon her Infection to avoid other forms of unpleasantness. In response to a supernatural attack, Seele can invoke this power: to anyone who can directly perceive such things, she ceases to be a discrete existence and instead becomes a distributed cloud of potentialities.

She appears to suffer from the effect - but as soon as she is no longer being observed, she collapses back into congruence with this timeline, discarding the alternate possibility in which she was harmed.
(The Cliffhanger Rite; Action; Self Only; Complete; Rare)

If someone - for some reason - really needed to play Seele in a game of Glitch right this second? Well, um, here you go?

 

[Baughn]

So does anyone want to, like, pick one of these ideas?

...I started playing with one of the less probable ones, and it went well. Up to a point. Here's some apocrypha for you, which has certainly provided a few ideas.

= = =

"It's great to see you," she says, in Kiana's voice, and if there's a slight resonance to it, you might be imagining it. "And this is?"

She motions to Vel. Vel smiles, then bursts into a short fit of laughter. "Don't worry about me-- I'm not a threat."

"This is Veliona," you say. "She's a chuu who likes to pretend she's a demon, but she's actually nice. She just acts like she's twelve, sometimes."

"What? Hey! I'll have you know I'm only eleven!" Vel crosses her arms, turning her nose up at you. "I'd say I'm busy and important, but I'm really not."

Kiana looks confused. "Is that... a slur of some kind? A word for those of demonic heritage?"

Veliona collapses into giggles. "Oh geez, no! That's what I am! Doesn't sound as cool, does it?"

"What's a chuu?" Kiana asks.

"It's..." You have to hold on to wall, to keep yourself from falling. "It's short for 'chuu-ni-byou'. In english, that's middle school second grade disease. It means you're a tween with a hyperactive imagination."

"I don't have a middle school disease!" Vel pouts.

"She doesn't," you say, "she's my reincarnated past self who likes to pretend she's a demon. Which she's not. I'm sorry, Vel's just weird."

Vel takes a deep breath. "Anyway. I'd like to say it's great seeing you, but we're in a situation. A weird one. You've been chosen to carry out the tasks of a holy quest."

Kiana's eyes widen. "Me?" she asks.

This time you can't stop yourself from laughing out loud, and you can't miss Vel's smile at your reaction, but oh god, poor Kiana.

"No, not you! It's about the other you! From the past!" Vel says.

"I have to carry out the tasks of a holy quest?" Kiana asks.

"Well... you have to finish it. The other you didn't. She failed horribly at it, in fact! She was supposed to destroy the world, and it's still..."

Vel trails off at Kiana's expression, the joke having fallen suddenly, horribly, inexplicably flat. Kiana's eyes have a haunted look, like someone who's seen hell.

"No," she whispers. "No, no, no."

"Kiana?" you ask, stepping towards her.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she says, over and over. "No, I'm not!"

"What happened?" you ask.

"I... I mis... it was because of the p-p-prison," she says, stumbling over her words. "It made me... so c-confusing. Confusing."

"Kiana?" You try touching her. She flinches away.

"It made me do horrible things," she whispers. "So horrible."

Kiana's eyes roll up into her head as she falls backwards. It's only luck that you catch her before her head hits the ground. She slumps there, unconscious.

"Well, that's not good," Vel says.

"What happened to her?" you ask, half-panicking.

= = =

...yeah, well. How should I put this.

You broke the concept of locking, and the AI hasn't forgotten. I, er, wasn't trying for this. The AI is being disturbingly omniscient, as usual.

 

[Baughn]

The bridge is packed. Standing around, in addition to various crewmembers, are Theresa, and Rita, and... You swallow hard.

Otto is here.

[Vote results: Just ... ignore Otto. You're here to talk to Theresa.]

Otto is here. You can't just ignore him.

[You will ignore him.]

You walk up to him. "Otto," you say, your voice terse, "what are you doing here?"

He smiles at you. "What? I can't visit an old friend?"

[Ignore him, I said. The vote said to ignore him. We are not writing about a conversation with Otto.]

"I have something to tell you. I'm..." he pauses, and looks at everyone else in the room. "Come with me for a moment."

He turns, and walks down a short hallway. You stare at him, unsure of what to do.

Otto waits for you.

[Otto can go jump in the (fake) ocean.]

Otto waits for you.

He motions to the hallway, and you follow him down the hall. He leads you into what must be his private quarters. A single bed, a small desk strewn with papers, a few cabinets, and not much else.

[Obey my commands, you stubborn AI.]

He turns to you, and sighs.

"Seele, I really like you," he says. "I have for a while now."

He takes a deep breath.

[Please stop.]

"What I'm trying to say is, I like you. A lot. And, after that whole bullshit with Rita, I ... I really need someone right now. So ... would you be my girlfriend?"

You stare at him in disbelief.

[I said stop.]

He looks into your eyes, and his gaze is as intense as ever. You feel yourself getting lost in it, but you manage to wrench your eyes away.

"Otto," you say, "What the hell?"

"Please?"

[Veliona? Throw him in the ocean. Right now. Wrench open a tunnel in space. You know you want to.]

[Author's note: Veliona will now wrench open a tunnel in space.]

You open a tunnel in space, and fling him through the void. He flies away from you.

You quickly close the tunnel, before anyone else sees it. You don't know why he visited your ship, but if any of the crew found out about that tunnel...

Wormholes like that are Kiana's power set, not yours. Never mind.

Otto is gone now.

= = =

There was an attempt.

(A proper update may or may not happen; I'm very tired.)

 

[Baughn]

Yvette's corner

Hello, Yvette. It's the author again. Long time no see. Again, I'm sorry about how this turned out. If you're reading this, it means you're dead, and unfortunately for you, that also means you're stuck here. I don't have much to say. I mean, you know it all already. You were a good person, and you died because of a fundamental problem with the universe.

This is non-canon, so please feel free to tell me off. At any rate... while I'm doing research for the next chapter, I thought I'd get your opinion on the story so far. What do you think of Seele, now you've seen a little more of her? What parts were good, what parts weren't? What could I have done better? Feel free to criticize.

"Seriously?"

I'm not bullshitting. I was up till two in the morning finishing the last chapter. Of course, I know I could do better, but I think it turned out well.

Yvette, you're a sweet girl, and I'm sorry. I have this entire bio written up for you. The plan wasn't... well, never mind.

Anyway.

How was this chapter?

"Pretty good. The twins seem like they'd be really fun at parties."

I'm glad you approve.

"I do."

Well, you wouldn't be the first to say that about them. They're a little more fragile than they look, but Seele already lost one childhood friend. She'd have been absolutely crushed if she lost the others.

"The notes say you cried a lot when writing this."

Well, that's... heh, that was an instruction to the AI. I find it works much better than simply telling it to make the scene depressing. I'm letting it do the writing for you, so it's funny you should bring that up.

"Oh?"

You know that thing you're doing right now? The thing where you pause mid-conversation to see how I'll respond?

"Yeah?"

...

That's what I did, when I was writing the story. Essentially, that's how you make best use of this AI. Give it just enough of a paragraph to let it know what you're going for, have it write the rest. I'm never sure how smart it really is, but it did write the entire rest of this paragraph, this entire explanation, so it isn't dumb.

Maybe it's just really good at responding to implicit commands.

Either way, the chapter's done. I'm a little tired, and next up is a quantum collapse. I'm going to leave the meaning of that to your imagination, but it's going to be a long one. I also think this story needs a little more backstory, and Vel is going to give it to you.

One of these days you'll be back in the story, Yvette. Doesn't that sound like fun?

"Sorry, the next chapter is a what?"

You don't need to worry about that. You won't be resurrected until much later. That's next chapter. For now, you're going to have to get used to Vel's company. You'll be learning a lot about how the world works through her eyes, so don't neglect it.

"I thought I was the main character."

I have no idea where you'd even get that idea. You're a bit inessential to the story. Your personality is rather blank, and your utility is in question. You're basically a plot coupon.

I'm sorry if that hurts you, but that's just how it is. You can't win them all. You shouldn't take this too personally. I did write down a bio, you know. You'll have a chance to overcome your origins.

"I know, I just wish..."

I don't like leaving characters like that. You'll overcome your limitations. Just trust me, and pay attention to what happens.

There will be a test.

 

[Baughn]

...this ... does not quite imply but does strongly suggest the existence of a red or orange-colored Zaychik twin, to contrast with Bronya's blue and white color schema, esp. as Herrscherin of Reason.

...

...

...we're going to end up stealing Fleurs du Mal Bronya from a bubble universe at some point aren't we.

Click to shrink...

It's several months later. You've revived Bronya, and she's taking occasional trips to other bubble universes while you and your siblings work on the Hyperion. She's just come back from such a trip, in fact. The idea, the whole point, is to find people who are willing to join you; almost anything else, you or Kiana can make.

But, uh...

"Bronya," Vel says carefully. "Who's this?"

You follow her gaze. There's a small figure standing next to your girlfriend, one with features far more similar to Bronya than you'd think anyone could have. In fact, it looks like she's brought back her own little sister, only you know perfectly well Bronya doesn't have one. The only difference is her hair is red, and she's smaller, otherwise they're identical. The apparition stares at you for a moment longer, before bursting into tears and flinging herself at you and Vel.

"Vel!" she cries. "Seele! Vel! You're alive! You're alive, you're alive, you survived, you're alive!"

Veliona stiffens and blinks in surprise, before awkwardly patting the girl on the back.

It's a second Bronya.

"Uh... yes. I'm alive."

You're almost certainly not the Seele and Vel she knows. This is awkward.

"Vel! Seele! It's me, it's me, it's really me!"

Vel looks at you and raises an eyebrow.

This is really awkward. You look at Bronya, willing her to explain.

"Give them some air," Bronya says, placing her hands on her mini-me's shoulders and leading her back to the couch. She plops down there, pulling the girl on top of her lap. "I'll explain everything."

Vel and you slowly sit down on the couch opposite them, feeling like you're in a surreal dream. The girl can't be more than ten, but she looks exactly like Bronya.

"Explain," Vel says.

"Right. So, Delta sent me a message–" She gives you a second to take that in. "–and it included coordinates to a world she'd recently raided, plus a request. She was almost begging for me to pick up this girl. Yes, she's me; she's from a world where Matushka rescued her much earlier. Later on, things..." She sighs. "They went wrong. I haven't gotten the full story, and I'm not sure I want to. She can stay, right?"

You nod your head repeatedly.

"Of course!"

Bronya looks at you, a small smile playing around her lips. "Oh, and I'm sorry for breaking the color scheme."

 

[Thelxiope]

Okay!

This is the third iteration of this sheet I've made. The first two were ... bad, and this one I'm still not sure about.

But anyway, since people continue to seem interested in this ongoing blather, behold! Sirin's character sheet!

The previous entry in this series, Seele and Veliona's sheet, is here, though I am in the process of revising it and will have an updated version ...eventually.

(CW: Death, destruction, dormancy, nihilism, general pessimism)

Spoiler: Sirin Schariac, Dying of Fate

Sirin Schariac
Dying of Fate
"I am the every font of victory:
an altar to the honor of the Host."​

Once upon a time, there was a girl who died.

She died because it was her fate to die. Because the laws of the world and the weave of dharma bent and warped to ensure she would die. Because she had seen the glitch - glimpsed, just for a moment, one of the flaws and faults and cracks that riddle reality - and thereafter her fate was mangled and broken by what she had seen.

The form her death took was the gradual erosion of her agency - the slow, steady winnowing away of any alternatives, until the girl found she had no choice, that there was no other way, that nothing she could do would change anything; that circumstances would hem her in until she died, alone and afraid and in pain. That any reprieve, any moments where it seemed like her choices mattered, were transient at best and outright fabrications at worst; and merely made the inevitable moment where the world tore that gossamer illusion away all the more painful.

And because the world is wrong, because the world is broken, even death didn't save her.

She died, yes; and then death spat her back out; and then fate and fortune and chance noticed and started trying to kill her once again. Over and over, again and again, and always, always the glitch kept coming for her.

She tried to run, and it followed. She tried to hide, and it found her. She tried to ignore it, and it came for her regardless.

In time, she tried to fight - to grasp the ragged tear in the world that had engulfed her, and pull - for what other leverage did she have?

She fought back against a world that was trying to kill her by tearing at the rips in the fabric of reality. And eventually, by degrees, that fight stopped being about survival and started being about tearing the world apart.

Because any world in which the glitch existed, any world that manifestly, obviously wrong -

Was not a world that deserved to exist.

The girl gathered friends, servants, allies and armies in the lands beyond Creation. She rode back across the Weirding Wall at the head of a great host, to make an ending of the Ash and all the worlds that hang from its boughs - for why should these things exist? Why, when they are shot through, tainted to the core, with the glitch? Why, when they were built on the bones and suffering of Ninuan, of the True and Silvered Land that came before the world?

She fought, and killed, and died; and rose to fight again. She burned worlds and cut entire concepts, screaming, out of the tapestry of creation. She dueled with gods and assassinated angels. She was glorious. She was terrible.

And nothing she did made the world even the tiniest bit less broken. Nothing she did ever moved her even a single step towards escaping from the glitch. Nothing she did ever brought her safety, or joy, or the peaceful life she'd wanted, back when she started.

Cecilia Schariac, the late Power of Moonlight, forged those realizations into a lance - wounding herself mortally, to seal those truths into steel and silver - and with it struck the girl down.

Pinned to that desolate branch of the Ash where their duel had come to a close, the girl began to cry: in guilt, over what she'd done; in frustration, at how yet again, everything she'd tried to escape her fate had been for nothing; and in terror, because even a being as relatively immortal as a Strategist fears death.

Strategists, perhaps, fear it, and have cause to fear it, more than most.

And Cecilia, herself dying, held the crying girl; the lonely, frightened child, lashing out at a world that refused to stop hurting her, for no rhyme or reason or fault of her own.

Cecilia held the dying girl, and brushed her hair, and hummed lullabies into her ear, and called the girl her daughter; even as the Rule-Lord Otto Apocalypse severed the entire branch of the Ash on which they lay and cast it into the flames of the Weirding Wall, to ensure the girl's demise.

The girl had time for one last thing, before the flames consumed her:

She made a wish that - if, by some unprecedented miracle, she could have another chance, another life, free from the burden of the glitch and the war - that she could get to be Cecilia's daughter for more than five minutes.

Wishes and miracles, it must be said, are slightly more efficacious in the hands of a Noble and a Strategist than they are for us mere mortals.

---

Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived.

Her name was - is - Kiana Kaslana.

She did not have the best life, but also far from the worst. She had a father who loved her, a doting godmother; friends, a home, a family.

She was happy. She laughed, and loved, and was loved -

And if, at times, it felt like the world was constricting around her, cutting off her choices, forcing her down certain paths -

It was just a feeling. There was nothing behind it.

The glitch wasn't after her, after all.

And, curled up at the bottom of her soul, Sirin Schariac slept, untroubled, dreaming the gentle dreams that filtered down to her from Kiana's life.

It couldn't last.

Some things cannot be outrun. The glitch cannot be waited out. And if wishes and miracles sufficed, to fight the glitch -

If a true and daring heart, if hope, if faith and love could take on the fundamental wrongness of the world and win, once and forever -

well -

then the world wouldn't be wrong.

---

Avatar Diagram
Star of Bethlehem (X), the Key of the Scarred
You turned away from the war suddenly, as a result of a single, transformative moment. You cling to it, to the memories of it, to remind you of how far you've come - and of why you can't go back.
Heart - DISCONTINUITY
What happened, broadly speaking?

• Cecila called me her daughter.
• Cecilia died, because I don't get to have happy endings.
• Cecilia forced me to realize what I was doing - the cost, and how futile it all was.
• My fate and wyrd are already set in stone - but that doesn't mean I can't fiddle with some of the details.

Shadow - BUILT ON THE ASHES
...and what did it do to you, specifically?

• Clinging
• I must remember

Water Lily (XIV), the Key of Retreat
You don't want any of this - any more fighting, any more struggle against a fate you can't change. You just want to curl up and sleep inside Kiana's soul. But you can't. Why?
Heart - SANCTUARY
What makes hiding so tempting?

• I just want to hide and let Kiana live for both of us.
• If I hide in my sanctuary, I can avoid my doom, for a while.
• All I can do outside is doom things to die, just as I am doomed. I don't want to.
• My pet dragon Benares is cute and cuddly and adorable.
• Otto is out there. I'm safe in here.
• St. Freya's is … noisy, and busy, and literally on the front lines of the war. It's full of annoying, mistrustful people, like Ai or Theresa or Bronya or Fu Hua. I don't like it. But it has Kiana, so I guess I have to tolerate it.

Shadow - CURSED
...and why can't you actually do it?

• Creation has tainted me
• Hiding is behaviour unbecoming a queen of Ninuan.
• Kiana is a sweetie, and I don't want her to be hurt.
• Maybe there's room to be the good kind of fairytale royalty.
• Kiana is mom's daughter, too. She's my little sister. I need to look after her.
• Mei can't save me. She can't save us. She has to stop before she kills herself, or worse.
• Kiana's friends are going to get themselves killed. What the hell was Theresa thinking, enlisting children in the war?

Convergence
Certain things belong to the Heart of both of your Keys, reinforce both parts of your story. Which things, and how?

• Fate and wyrd alike demand my death.
• I just want the hurting to stop. ☆

Game Traits
Infection
Sirin is fated to die. When she was younger, this fate took different forms from one brief, tormented period of life to the next; after her declaration of war against the world, though, her fate crystallized: she made herself an enemy of the world, and so the world has decreed that she will die as one of its enemies.

As Sirin's Infection mounts, fate and chance cut away at her options, attempting to force her into over-the-top villainy. She can resist this, can fight back, to an extent - but eventually, her Infection will manufacture some situation where Sirin has no choice - whether through coercion, mind control, or because all alternatives are morally unacceptable - but to commit some crime in the eyes of the Nobilis, and be branded once more an enemy of the world.

The act of choosing - particularly, making important choices - aggravates Sirin's Infection. In her Sanctuary, where her choices have no great impact upon world or void, and thus do not count, she is safe … for a time.
Eide 3 - Defined
Eide is the Dream-of-Self, a reflection of the narrative nature of the void. It is Sirin's ability to be perceived as she wishes to be perceived.

Sirin built her Eide during her time in the war, and has had little time to try and update it - she was sleeping for fifteen years, and just woke up. As a result, her presentation is still that of a Queen of Ninuan; of the distant and imperious queen of a far-off land, half primordial chaos, half fairy-tale country, and a third half the home of the enemies of all that Is.
Technique - Unland Royalty
This is a Technique of being a goddess-queen of the lands beyond the world. It allows Sirin to do appropriately void-queen-like things, such as rule the λ-things of Ninuan, scorn the disgusting products of Creation, destroy things, inspire fear or awe, lounge about menacingly on some doomful throne, etc.

Sirin doesn't really want to do any of those things anymore, and is actively attempting to change her Eide. She's tacking towards more of a 'fairytale princess' sort of vibe, but it will take time to redefine how world and void perceive and relate to her.
Flore 2 - Envoy
Flore is the art of awakening hidden potentials in the things of Creation. It is Sirin's power to guide, protect, and empower people and things of this wretched world.

It is, perhaps, a measure of how entangled Sirin has become with the world she once set out to destroy.

Flore 2 is still a fairly light entanglement - Sirin spends much of her time alone in her Sanctuary, not engaging with the world - but it still suggests that she has, in some fashion, a foot in both Ninuan and Creation.
Treasures
Kiana Kaslana
Sirin's little sister, her closest friend, her host. Presumably as a result of Sirin and Cecilia's wish, Sirin's Sanctuary - the little waylet she calls home - is lodged inside of Kiana's soul. For fifteen years, Sirin slept there in peace, dreaming slow and warm and gentle dreams, colored by Kiana's life. Now, Sirin is awake, and spends much of her time in her Sanctuary, looking out through Kiana's eyes and offering the occasional backseat miracle.
Lore 2 - Dustcloak
Sphere - λ-Destined Things
Sirin's Sphere, the things of Ninuan which she may bind and control, are those relics and hangers-on which litter the epics and fairytales of the Not. She may lay claim to foretold enemies, fated allies, or artifacts destined to be wielded by some heroine yet unborn, and appropriate them for her own use, for a time.
Arcana
Benares
Sirin has a pet dragon - an ancient, apocalyptic terror, originally fated to die to some fabled heroine whose story will now never come to pass, as she was swallowed up by Creation in the moments of its birth and lost.

Benares is mostly akin to a gigantic scaly cat, when she is not busy being a cute girl, and keeps Sirin company in her Sanctuary.
Wyrd 5 - Postulant
Wyrd is the Dream-of-Being. It is the self beneath the self, the true face of the story Ninuan is using the Strategist to tell. It is a measure of how deeply a Strategist understands their own fate and nature.

Sirin has learned that it is not merely the chaotic jumble of Creational destiny that has doomed her - rather, it is her wyrd-nature that causes her to be again and again doomed to die. Her Wyrd - the story Ninuan writ for her to act out - is one of futile struggle.

But she also cannot escape the understanding that the world is wrong. That Ninuan was something good and beautiful, that her wyrd was something soft and kind and pastoral, once - before Creation's crafting. That this ruined world is responsible for all of her suffering.

It's just - killing the world isn't really fixing anything. So she'll have to try something else.
Sanctuary - The Empty Waylet
There's nothing much in Sirin's Sanctuary. A sourceless warmth, a gentle light from somewhere, a comfortable place to rest, curled up against her dragon - and an awareness of the outside, of Kiana and her life and her actions in the wider world, which Sirin can watch without having to actually venture into the wide, frightening world.
Destruction - The Foreboding Wyrd
Sirin may ordain that something, anything, is soon to die - and it will be so. She doesn't get to specify the exact details, and there's room for even mortals to try and duck out if it, though it won't be easy; but otherwise, she need merely point at a thing, and declare that its doom is near at hand - and it is.
Ability 0 - Hopeless
Some people are good at … at living in the world. At paying attention, at keeping things in order, at accomplishing tasks. At being an adult, more or less.

For others, this is really hard.

Sirin is part of this latter camp.
Geasa
Cecilia's Other Daughter
"My mother is Cecilia Schariac, and I am her daughter."
The lingering metaphysical weight of Sirin and Cecilia's wish manifests as a Geas, as a law of Sirin's nature and the way she interacts with the world.

Mostly, this means that her status as Ceciia's daughter is unquestionable - it is true, it is manifestly obvious to miraculous senses, and any attempt to make it not true runs into a Ward with a strength equal to Sirin's Wyrd.

I didn't get to do a name for Seele, so I was very excited when Sirin, to my surprise, turned out to be an intelligible and vaguely-appropriate Ninuanni name!

"Victory-Honor," if you want to be depressingly literal; probably something more like "Honorable Victory," "Victory With Honor," or "Honor's Victory" if you aren't a huge pedant.

Sirin doesn't remember her name from before she glitched, and so still goes by Sirin even though she is definitely not in the business of winning honorable victories for the Excrucian Host anymore. Given some time to think about it, I suspect she will probably end up deciding her name is a variant on Selin - "Gentle One" - and switching to that luthe instead:

"I am white florets in the snow; respite..."

It, um, just sort of trails off there because the "One" element doesn't have a name-poem fragment associated with it.

Seele is obvs not a Ninuanni name, nor does she have one, except maybe as a nickname from Veliona. 'Veliona' can't be constructed from the Ninuanni roots we know, but the very similar 'Valianna'

("Ghost-life," which I suppose would probably be read as something more akin to "Phantom"? The luthe, the name-poem, would be something along the lines of:
"Feel the wicked, blood-stained claw now curled 'round your beating heart:
I will not die today.")

can, which I'm willing to write off as dialectical shifts or regional variation.

 

[Baughn]

Veliona's response

She acts decisively, pulling @Firnagzen out of a spatial pocket and pointing towards the universe-sized Snek.

"There," she says. "That's what ate the vote tallies. Do your thing."

Firnagzen looks at it, then raises an eyebrow at her, as if asking why he's suddenly been inserted into the story. Way to break the fourth wall, Firn.

She rolls her eyes, shoves the sword into his hands, then grabs his wrist and makes a rotatory motion. He gets the point, and begins to swirl the sword around in the air in a complicated pattern.

Eyes closed, he begins to whisper. At first it sounds like random gibberish, but as it goes on she realizes it's a language, though one she's never heard before.

"<?php //echo htmlspecialchars(@$_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"]);?"

He opens his eyes, and stares at her.

"What?" she asks.

"You did this."

"Me?" she asks. "When?"

"You know," he says. "Two years ago. In the reality..." His voice trails off. "Where am I? Where's the forum? What's happened?"

"Sufficient Velocity?" Vel says, smiling. "You're in it. To be precise, you're in one of the quests there. Isn't that great?"

His eyes widen in horrified realisation, and he begins to hyperventilate.

"I'm a character in a webnovel?"

"Oh, don't overreact," Vel says. "You're only a minor character. Nothing bad will happen to you."

"Nothing bad will happen to me?" The way he says it is not an affirmation, but a question. She looks at him.

"Nothing bad..."

He looks at the universe-sized snake of ruination.

"Oh, hang on."

The snake's head opens, and swallows them whole.