breakdown
"You sure you're going to be alright?" Scriff asked Craggy.
I was stuck. Like, physically, Craggy was still holding me tight and I had kind of resigned from trying to struggle free, it wasn't worth the effort and she was just so much stronger than I was. I wasn't worried about her crushing me or anything, most of my worry was that she had her fingers resting across my back like she was going in for more scratches, and I was still kind of shaken up by what had happened with Shim. "Craggy?" I asked her.
"𝒴𝑒𝒶𝒽?"
"That's not your font, Craggy," Scriff said.
"You see it, too?" I asked.
"I think? They kinda made sense, I think. I kinda understand what they meant. You didn't?"
"I mean, it's a lot to take in."
"And everything else today wasn't?"
Yeah, she's got me there.
"But Craggy, how are you feeling?"
"𝒮𝓆𝓊𝒾𝓈𝒽𝓎."
"Well, you just hang in there. Are you going to be able to work in this state?"
"𝒩𝑜𝒷𝑜𝒹𝓎 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓀 𝒾𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓉𝑒. 𝒩𝑜𝓉 𝒦𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓊𝒸𝓀𝓎, 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓉𝑒."
"...I'm so lost, Craggy."
She turned, and I was starting to get a bit uncomfortable. I could get either arm free, though. "Um, Craggy, could you, um, let me go?"
"𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃'𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒻𝓁𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎..."
"I promise I won't."
"𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓉'𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒷𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝓂𝑒."
"...Well, I'll tell you what, Scriff, she's definitely not fit for work at the moment."
"Should we take her home?" Scriff asked.
"Well, I mean there are a few people who could help us..."
"and here you are," Bit replied.
"That was... jarring, I'll say that," I replied.
"ah, so you have picked up a bit of metamancing during your sta... what in the world are you two doing here. you," she said, pointing at Scriff, "i already told you i don't know a peppino."
"We're actually here for our friend. We ended up meeting Shim--"
"a good young lady, though maybe a little overzealous."
"Right, well, um, she was actually rather abrasive towards us and used this weird sound blast thingy on Emmi and Craggy, and this big girl's been out of it ever since. She's normally pretty aloof, but she's been making no sense and won't let go of Emmi."
"I lost sensation in my arms quite a while ago," I added.
"...huh, i haven't heard of anyone using a sonic weapon. and of all the people to use it... shim... are you sure it was her?"
"Yeah, definitely," Scriff replied.
"...and your friend is currently affected?"
"Yeah."
Bit shouted some stuff I couldn't make out, and then slumped back in her chair. Craggy suddenly let go of me and I scrambled up, trying to get blood back through me. After a short moment of stretching, I looked back and saw light pouring out of Craggy's eyes. "So wh--"
"Shh!" Scriff interjected.
Suddenly the light shut off, and Craggy was staring at us intensely. "Ｉ ｔｏｌｄ ｙｏｕ, ｓｈｅ'ｓ... ｕｈ, ｈｏｗ ｄｉｄ ｗｅ ｅｎｄ ｕｐ ｈｅｒｅ?"
I turned around. Bit was sitting in the chair, a look of shock on her face. "𝚒'𝚟𝚎... 𝚒'𝚟𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎..."
"Are you alright?" I asked.
"𝚗𝚘... 𝚗𝚘, 𝚒 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚊 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚝𝚎, 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜..."
"We can go get you help, I know just the person!" I replied.
"And what does this have to do with me?" Memmi asked.
"Again, with the jarring transitions. Look, I need your help. I... I don't need your help, but someone does, and they sent me."
"Show me the victim."
"It's your sister, Bit."
"Bit... what's happened?"
"𝚢𝚘𝚞... 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚋𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐? 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗--"
"Than run a town currently engaged in twenty years of peace? It's fine, the afterward can wait. What happened?"
"𝚒 𝚙𝚞𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚍... 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚍𝚒𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚢, 𝚒'𝚟𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚒𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎, 𝚒𝚝'𝚜..."
"Diabolical energy... where from?"
"𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚌 𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚙𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚣𝚒 𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚘𝚠𝚗𝚜, 𝚊𝚌𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚎. 𝚒 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚜𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝚊 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚎𝚡𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚍."
"A... I'd need more information. You, young one, where was this?"
"Just outside the Retconology lab Richard, Simon, and James run."
"...Hold on."
"--and I told you, no... we... we got a jarring transition from Memm—whoa, okay, it's just me. Um, hi... I'm Richard from Retconology, we're studying the decaying husk of evil underneath draftware."
"The what?"
"So, let's start at the beginning. afterward is a story and its deemed canon because its author feels that way about it. There is a group we've been watching, The Watchers, who supposedly are writing their own prequels and sequels that change the entirety of the story, retconning it straight out of existence, and then they'd get full control of the story, its characters and elements, they get to do whatever they want with it."
"You mentioned this to me once before, Suzy."
"Excuse me, I and the other Retconologists have shouted this at the statue of the author for months on end and we've only been told we're insane ramblers."
"I'm... I'm not the author," Memmi replied, "and you were insane ramblers."
"But you trust Suzy?"
"...She's the protagonist. Read every word above, they've all been connected to her."
"Not all of them," Richard replied.
"Pardon?"
"See, the word counter we've rigged up says we are about 16,500 words in, but if you tally up every word up to this point, we're easily 2,000 words short. This implies the existence of non-canon chapters. Whether they're going unpublished or they do exist but are being hidden or corrupted, I don't know, Memmi. But Emmi here? She said that she sees hexadecimals in her sleep, that might have the answer, might lead us to the truth, to those hidden chapters, there's more to this story than we understand."
"...Insane ramblers, I told you."
"𝚒'𝚖 𝚐𝚕𝚊𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚞𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚜𝚘𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚜𝚊𝚢𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝚒 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎"
"Bit, I... you there, sir, I'll take your comments to heart, but I don't know if there's anything I can do about that. Begone."
"Dude, I'm getting whisked away. I wonder if my line will get cut off at a great moment--"
"You two Lizi... I don't know what to tell you, I guess head home."
"Are you feeling better, Craggy?"
"Ｗｈｅｎ ａｍ Ｉ ｎｏｔ ａｔ ｔｈｅ ｔｏｐ ｏｆ ｍｙ ｇａｍｅ?"
"...Like the last few hours of today."
"Ｔｈｅ ｗｈａｔ?"
"It's nothing."
"And you... I don't know what to tell you. Things are serious, more serious than I could have imagined. Two decades of peace is about to come to an end, and we need to act, but for the time being, I need to take care of my sister. Whatever cursed energy that Shim hit one of you with that caused all of this... she's never done anything like that. That was... out of character, frankly. I need to figure this out, but I also need to help her out and run the afterward. For the time being, two of those are on hold, I apologize."
"...I... Oh, I really messed things up, didn't I?" I asked.
"Nonsense, you're just a catalyst in this, but a catalyst to its end as well. Follow it to its end. Maybe there's some truth in those ramblers, maybe not. It's up to you to make a decision and follow through with it."
"Me? That's a lot of responsibility to throw on someone who doesn't even really know who they are!"
"Eh, the last time we did it, it worked out alright."
"And what makes you think it'll work that way again?"
"It's the same author at the helm."
ns 18.68.41.137da2
