canon
We arrived as quickly as we could, to Bit's place. Memmi got the door for us and brought us into the back room. "What's wrong?" Scriff asked.
"𝚒 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖. 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚜. 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢... 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚎𝚡𝚒𝚜𝚝, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚖𝚎. 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚎𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢?"
"Like, here, or...?"
"She means these copies," Memmi replied, handing us a copy of the book.
"𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚍, 𝚒 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚒𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚍, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚒 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕 𝚒𝚝. 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚏𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚊𝚜 𝚒𝚝 𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚏𝚎𝚕𝚝. 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚒𝚜... 𝚒𝚜 𝚛𝚞𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚞𝚝."
I glanced down at the book's cover. The previously blue sky had gone reddish-gray, and now a name adorned the bottom right corner. I think it was a name. Rakonto. I recognized the name, I think I did, but I had no idea where I'd heard it.
"I think I could answer that," Richard said, as he, Simon, and James walked into the back room.
"We came as quick as we could," James said, "it was tough to sneak out undetected but we knew we had to be here for this."
"So you know what this is?" I asked, showing them the cover.
"Rakonto is the leader of The Watchers."
"I feel like we should have gotten more warning," Scriff replied.
"You were given plenty of warning if you had been reading! Secret clues strewn about that lead to hidden chapters of their unreleased drafts, and now they've begun to publish their own."
"Does this mean we lost?"
"Not quite, these copies of this corrupt version of afterward only exist for us, they're not truly canon until the author gives them his blessing," Richard replied.
"I spoke with the author, he said he'd watch out for me!" I replied.
"Ah, interesting! Have there been any other breakthroughs?"
"There was this strange message about a the storyteller, and his door, the watcher. I don't know what that means."
"'His door, the watcher'... James?"
"People who have gone spelunking in the lower afterwards have found an abandoned hospital, and in the room of one of its patients, a Mr. Calvin Riddick, the floor has given way revealing a large iron door nobody has opened."
"Is that them?" I asked.
"We don't know."
"𝚢𝚎𝚜, 𝚒𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚊𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝚞𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎"
"Thank you, Bit. But without the answer to their riddle, we can't get in. You cannot break down that door," Simon said.
"Not that we've tried," James said.
"Not that we've even been down there," Richard replied.
"Why haven't I heard of this door? Could they have only set up in the last twenty years?"
"Stranger than that, Memmi," Richard said, "they've only existed since afterward was completely published. These are characters who saw no time on the page, not given names or pasts, and who wanted a book of their own, so they are working to hijack afterward and now draftware, write themselves in, make the changes they desire, and they've used people recovered from all sorts of dimensional abnormalities to do their bidding."
I somehow was hit with an answer to how this worked. "They find people who were taken out of their dimension, removed from Earth and from time, and promise them they can come back once they finish some work for them."
"And then they never get to go home..." Memmi finished.
"It's worse than that. Amark confirms that the people who wind up on the afterward's beaches with no memory are essentially sleeper agents, they're loaded up with trigger words and phrases so that when the Watchers are free to rise, they already have a battalion of people accepting of their new canon, ready to work for them," James continued.
"So what do we do?" Scriff asked.
"Well, if we can't get to them, if we can't solve their puzzle, then we have to wait for them, and push them back. The problem is we haven't had opposition like this here."
"We have, though," Memmi said, "twenty years ago, give or take, there was The Nexus, an amalgamation of blight that learned to metamance and consumed afterward after afterward."
"How'd you defeat it?" I asked.
"𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚢𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚊𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚢"
"We essentially tore its influence down and pushed it back, and then spent years cleaning it all up," Memmi replied.
"So could you do that with the Watchers now?"
"We could. That's not a very satisfying ending, recreating the ending of the previous book, but we definitely could. The best case scenario is you crack the code on the Watchers' door and tear them down before they get the chance, but if push comes to shove we can just personally retcon them and work to fix the errors they've introduced."
"Sounds like a plan!"
"𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚏𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚍𝚢 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚘𝚘 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐..."
"Bit--" Memmi began, turning towards her sister.
"𝚒... 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚖𝚒... 𝟽𝟺 𝟼𝟾 𝟼𝟿 𝟽𝟹 𝟸𝟶 𝟼𝟿 𝟽𝟹 𝟸𝟶 𝟽𝟺 𝟼𝟾 𝟼𝟻 𝟸𝟶 𝟼𝟻 𝟼𝚎 𝟼𝟺 𝟸𝚎 𝟸𝚎 𝟸𝚎... 𝟶𝟷𝟷𝟷𝟶𝟶𝟶𝟶 𝟶𝟷𝟷𝟶𝟷𝟷𝟶𝟶 𝟶𝟷𝟷𝟶𝟶𝟷𝟶𝟷 𝟶𝟷𝟷𝟶𝟶𝟶𝟶𝟷 𝟶𝟷𝟷𝟷𝟶𝟶𝟷𝟷 𝟶𝟷𝟷𝟶𝟶𝟷𝟶𝟷"
"Bit, no, чσu'rє nσt dσíng thís tσ mє, nσt nσw!"
".. .- -- ... --- .-. -.--"
ᎷᏗᎩ ᎩᎧᏬ ᎦᎥᏁᎴ ᏖᏂᏋ ᏕᏖᏒᏋᏁᎶᏖᏂ ᏖᎧ
eNpzSyxKLU/NyQEADdMDMw==
ᎴᎧ ᏁᎧᏖ ᎮᏋᏒᎥᏕᏂ ᎧᏁ ᎷᏋ!
Ⓘαm𝓣𝑅☿ÏᏁ🅶
ᏖᏒᎩ ᏂᏗᏒᎴᏋᏒ
𝓮𝓝𝓹𝔃𝙎𝙮𝙭𝙆𝙇𝙐/𝙉𝙮𝙌Eᗩᗪᗪᗰᗪᗰᗯ==
My head ｈｕｒｔ, Ｉ ｈａд тѳ fїпд α ρℓαcε тσ
"𝙁𝙡𝙪𝙭? 𝙁𝙡𝙪𝙭!"
54 48 45 20 47 41 54 45 20 49 53 20 4f 50 45 4e
42 45 57 41 52 45 20 54 48 45 20 57 41 54 43 48 45 52
...mytextwasformatted right at the moment but I wasn't too concerned about that. The room had been flooded with brilliant light and so much noise that it hurt to look at and part of me wishes Flux had been still around to help. I picked myself off the floor and looked around. James, Richard, and Simon had all bowed their heads, Scriff was crying, and behind me was a pile of dust in the chair where Bit had been.
"...í... í... í--nσ, í..."
"Memmi, I'm sorry," Richard said.
"What happened?" I asked.
My head still hurt like mad, everything was too bright, the room was still spinning. "Bit... she's... she's gone."
"...Oh. Oh no."
Memmi collapsed in front of the chair and a horrible wailing noise filled the room, obscur𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕞𝕪 𝕧𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕚𝕟 𝕚𝕟𝕜𝕪 𝕓𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕜𝕟𝕖𝕤
I woke up again, this time just outside the shop. Richard handed me a bottle of what appeared to be water. "Here," he said.
"Th... thanks."
"What are we going to do now?" Simon asked.
"This is the fulcrum. Either we solve the puzzle of the Watchers, or we wait for them to make themselves known, hope they can't turn us, and then beat them back down."
"I personally want the first one. Imagine, all that untapped lore under the afterward!" James replied.
"But time's running out. All those sleepy little moments are coming to an end, and we've got to act. It's now or never."
"Yeah..." I said.
I was getting worried. I'd been here for maybe a couple weeks, and I had gone from being naive and clueless to now being a part of trying to stop a terrible revolution and embroiled in a terrible battle. Author, I get it, I only asked for one nice, easy chapter, but this is too much. I don't know if you're reading this... you're writing this, yeah, but are you reading this? Are you there for me? Am I alright? Are you alright? Won't you please? Just?
"Answer me?!"
The three of them turned towards me. I was on the verge of tears. It all felt hopeless.
I heard the door open. "Are you alright, Emmi? You want me to...?"
I nodded yes to Scriff, I just wanted anything. Anything. Any break was more than enough, I just needed someone to know they were there for me. As much as I was turned off of the scratchy thing Scriff learned from Shim, at this moment it was the only real solace I had, I needed something.
There was silence from the three Retconologists. A few moments passed before I heard the door open again. It was Memmi. "I apologize for tonight, I truly do. A part of me knew she was wearing herself down trying to fight whatever she picked up from your friend, but... I'm sorry, I... I truly am. I could have left you all well enough alone, you could have had another usual evening and met me in the morning unscathed... but unfortunately we're not done. You four need to make a decision. Solve the puzzle, eradicate the Watchers, or bide for time, get them up here, and we can dismantle them like we did The Nexus. It's your move."
ns 15.158.61.20da2
