[Fanfic]:0ff104d-a Megatokyo story - Chapter 3 - Right choice at the right time v1.5

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cidjen
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[Fanfic]:0ff104d-a Megatokyo story - Chapter 3 - Right choice at the right time v1.5

Post by cidjen » Thu Jan 04, 2018 6:32 pm

Silence was only interrupted by the pencil squeaking on a sheet of paper.

He has been immersed in the work on the missing page.
He has been trying to recall the script and the bath house conversation and how that happened. Drawing this was not going well. But with every stroke that added right to the picture, he felt some relief coming. By the time he finished scene planning and wrote the dialogue, it got easier. He noticed movement on the table and bent his neck slightly upwards - he met Seraphim's stare. She was beginning to look less sketchy already. She stumbled towards him with her walking stick, held his hand and smiled. - Still can't talk ?- he asked. She nodded. Then she walked off the paper, sat cross-legged on the right and read the dialogue. When she was finished, she bowed down her head so, that her hair covered her face, and turned her head slightly left-to-right, as if in disbelief. - Pathetic isn't it - he thought, and she looked back into his eyes, stood up, weakly stumbled to his pencil-holding hand, and patted it. - Want me to go on? - he asked. She nodded. Then she turned around on the spot and lost her balance. He caught her just before she hit the worktop. He put her carefully in a little sofa, that used to be a mobile phone holder of old times. She observed him for a while, sent him a weak smile, then turned back and went to sleep. He watched her for some time without any movement.

---

They sat opposite each other in a cafe. He was trying to not look pathetic, but anyone who might have happened to watch this scene, could have seen that Miho is furious. She looked at him, he thought, the same expression in her eyes, as when she first found out, all those years ago.
- You are doing WHAT again? - she asked sternly.
- Filling the gaps in the script - he replied.
- After all these years!
- Almost eighteen. To the day. You know it is always my turn to read the Book on your anniversary...
- And it didn't faze you before, only happened to start now!
- It has always been a burden! Burden of a bad choice! You have no idea!
- I can see... why did you choose that way back then?
- I... I was tired... drawing the Book... for the first time! You know, no one but you, me, the Kobayashi's and Mugi know about this?
- Yuki and Yutaka were pretty much absorbed by her own stupidity, might have forgotten, they never mentioned anything wrong with the book flow. Komugiko did not mention anything either... the hospital treatment at the time when Kimiko performed... might have obscured her memory of the event...
- You mentioned Kimiko... see, I didn't even tell Kimiko! Like, ever... ever... I thought my heart wouldn't make it if I told her then... when you were still hiding, and we didn't know, if this will even work! Everything sort of clicked and I buried it under layers of meta... no one realizes, that there are any gaps...
- So, why start changing this now?
- It was always hard to take for me, when I was re-reading it... but you have no idea what became of my conscience over the years! Believe it or not, I actually have a guardian angel, that is a little angel girl...
- I'm so busy being angry at you now, I can't make my mouth smile to express how laughable this is! A 'little' angel! What size... like a medium-sized anime figurine?
- It's true! I saw her! In fact I still do...! Did you not notice I drew her in the Book too ?
- No...
- Must be something to do with people actively shutting down the perception of what they can't understand... You really did not see a little angel figure I drew in the book ? Then and after, she was often by my side when nobody else, even Kimiko, could have been! Through no fault of any of you, I know you all supported me ever since... but she helped me to make a lot of the right choices in between then and now. You know, without her, you probably wouldn't be here. Without her I would have melted into a pool of tears many times, the pathetic dork I was then...
- Some conscience! - Miho snapped. - Must have been the same that allowed you to start talking to me and continue your little Endgames stunt even after you learned I was a girl!
- The same conscience, that told me, what to talk to you about, as you were in hospital, and needed someone to talk to ! - he snapped back.
Miho sighed, extended her hand to him, put it on his shoulder and smiled.
- I only wonder, why no one else I know, ever confessed something like that... oh lookie here, you see I have a guardian angel perfectly normal look here she is... - she interrupted mid-sentence, seeing his expression - OK, just kidding, I believe you... Piro! do you have to emo like that every time I tease you...
He smiled at her from below his emo hair. - You're forgetting, that I don't do emo any more. - You tease! - she whispered.
- Well don't tease me then - he said with a smile.
- Also we should give up fighting in public like an old couple - she said.
- You're probably right... I'm tired of sending the enforcement division to clean up the missing emotions or what whoever might have overheard.
- True that.
He sat up straight on his chair and continued with a serious note.
- For the last few Cycles, Seraphim... yeah that's her name... was doing really poorly. She never took my turn to read the Book particularly well, but I saw her health deteriorate much faster this time... When I first made the Book, I could see she was taking a hit... you know, she said once way back then, that a poor choice can exert physical pain on the conscience. I saw it taking toll on her, every time there was my turn to read the Book. I could not help but watch her go weaker and weaker. It makes me sad... and afraid of what may happen if she's lost... even my kids say I look like a mop after my turn.
- How is she helping you now, to make the right choices ?
- There is some kind of link between us, so she wrote, when she stopped being able to audibly talk - it is enough to look into her eyes, and then I know.
- How is she now ?
- She is sleeping. Lives in my office. She asked repeatedly for a rehab allowance, but her HQ did not want to talk to her. It looks like they sacked her... But now, it looked like rehabilitation has started, right when I started to draw the missing part of the scene. I can't work on it all the time, it's not ready yet... but ... what....?
Miho stared at him with the scary sight again.
- All these years. Never occured to you, all this could have not happen to any of our friends, if you would have been a little wiser...
- But then I wouldn't have met Kimiko.
- Oh, right...
- And your heart would have not been fixed...
- Yes... and we wouldn't have found me a new story, unreachable to all but the best players, therefore undetectable by the Horde. I know that. I thank the Coders above every day. Where was she exactly, when I pwnzd your emotions back then?
- She was as stunned as I was. She tried to reach her HQ, but there was a great Sun storm, and she could not reliably make it through there. So she acted on gut feeling, consoled me instead of trying to directly hint me. But I was so stunned, I didn't know what I was doing. I think she may be still thinking it was a mistake, that she should have been more decisive.
- Understandably.
- Yeah. The full realization of what happened there... it came back to me actually in the bath house. I saw you, the same teen body I saw two years earlier... almost no change... but a few bruises.
- Yeah, yeah... I know. I knew you knew then ...
- Actually thinking about it now, I realized it fully a little later in the art room... when you obtained the uniform for me. Or a bit on the way to the school too... you dragged me out of the bath house then. Still shaking at the thought of what would have happened, if I did play out the Creepy Gaijin role...
- Well, that was a good choice. It made me abandon the path to your impending doom. In a spot of madness, I suddenly wanted to punish you for abandoning our little family. But through the right choice at the right time, you saved yourself...
- It was the best choice I could make.
- ... and it did not turn out too bad for me either. Short of some atonement and elemental story hygiene, I can now be anything I want, and I am not in danger, and neither is anybody else. Was Seraphim involved in that choice too ?
- No, she wasn't there then. But as she is, as she puts it, 'a case worker', she was able to make me do it by myself. And now she is sick, she may even die... if I don't do anything. I don't want her to die. You owe her a lot too. You know that. Look into your fixed hert, listen to what it tells you.
Miho sat with her hands in her hair for a while, then said:
- Would it help her, somehow if we try to visit them ? Pirogoeth and the child? Find out how are they after all these years?
- I thought about this. I think Seraphim was slightly frightened of this idea. But after thinking about it, I think she actually approves.
- OK. How do we find them then?
- See, now that is a problem. The last of the Endgames servers were shut during crisis of 2008 and 2009. The company ran out of money. There is a legend going round the fans forums, that one instance was governed by much more advanced AI, 'got away' and drifted itself into the computing cloud... now it drifts around, living on any scraps of processing power it can gather, and that it's only reachable through Tor. But no one was able to locate it since.
- Mugi told me that as a fact. But she never was able to recall the Tor address.
- So what do we do now then?
- I think... you should finish the missing drawing. Let the gut feeling guide you. Maybe there will be some hints in the finished thing. If Seraphim regains her voice, maybe she can tell us what to do then. For now, keep low and be careful. I will try to make a few inquiries. Try to look happier for a change.
- Well you see about that... i am too feeling better since I started to work on that story gap. I am not being reckless, don't worry. No one is going to see this drawing, but me and you.
She stood up and stretched. - OK, Piro, nice to talk to you sometimes, but now I must fly... - and in true magical girl fashion, she disappeared, only leaving a trail of sparkles.

-fanfic-by-cidjen-2018-to-be-continued-
Last edited by cidjen on Fri Jan 19, 2018 4:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Слава Україні!
🖕💩🥫🚽🖌️
--------
Translation to polish
and where it happens when I have time to stream

Blessed be those, who, having nothing to say, avoid trying to tell this to the world in their own words - J. Tuwim ( liberally translated )

User avatar
cidjen
Posts: 1224
Joined: Fri Dec 29, 2017 12:13 pm
Location: Too many to fit in this margin area
Contact:

Re: [Fanfic]:0ff104d-a Megatokyo story - Chapter 3 - Right choice at the right time -v1

Post by cidjen » Fri Jan 19, 2018 4:40 pm

Silence was only interrupted by the pencil squeaking on a sheet of paper.

He has been immersed in the work on the missing page.
He has been trying to recall the script and the bath house conversation and how that happened. Drawing this was not going well. But with every stroke that added right to the picture, he felt some relief coming. By the time he finished scene planning and wrote the dialogue, it got easier. He noticed movement on the table and bent his neck slightly upwards - he met Seraphim's stare. She was beginning to look less sketchy already. She stumbled towards him with her walking stick, held his hand and smiled. - Still can't talk ?- he asked. She nodded. Then she walked off the paper, sat cross-legged on the right and read the dialogue. When she was finished, she bowed down her head so, that her hair covered her face, and turned her head slightly left-to-right, as if in disbelief. - Pathetic isn't it - he thought, and she looked back into his eyes, stood up, weakly stumbled to his pencil-holding hand, and patted it. - Want me to go on? - he asked. She nodded. Then she turned around on the spot and lost her balance. He caught her just before she hit the worktop. He put her carefully in a little sofa, that used to be a mobile phone holder of old times. She observed him for a while, sent him a weak smile, then turned back and went to sleep. He watched her for some time without any movement.

---

They sat opposite each other in a cafe. He was trying to not look pathetic, but could tell Miho is furious. She looked at him, he thought, the same expression in her eyes, as when she first found out.
- You are doing WHAT again? - she asked sternly.
- Filling the gap in the script - he replied - my conscience could not take it any more..
- Your conscience! - Miho snapped. - The same that allowed you to start talking to me and continue your little Endgames stunt even after you learned I was a girl!
- The same conscience, that told me, what to talk to you about, as you were in hospital, and needed someone to talk to ! - he snapped back. - Believe it or not, I actually have a guardian angel, that is a girl. She helped me a lot with all this 'girly' stuff. Also she helped me to make a lot of the right choices in between then and now. Without her, you probably wouldn't be here.
Miho sighed. - I know. Although it's hard to believe that Largo had a hamster for his conscience.
- I know, right? - he replied almost cheerfully.
- I only wonder, why no one else I know, ever confessed something like that, oh you see I have a guardian angel perfectly normal look here she is... - she interrupted mid-sentence, seeing his expression - OK, just kidding, I believe you... Piro! do you have to emo like that every time I tease you...
He smiled at her from below his emo hair. - I don't do emo any more. - You tease! - she whispered.
- Well don't tease me then - he said with a smile, sat up straight on his chair and continued with a serious note.
- For the last few Cycles, Seraphim was doing really poorly. I saw her health deteriorate. When I first made the Book, I could see she was taking a hit... she said once way back then, that a poor choice can exert physical pain on the conscience incarnation. I saw it taking toll on her, every time there was my turn to read the Book. I could not help but watch her go weaker and weaker. It makes me sad... even my kids say I look like a mop after my turn.
- Who is helping you now, to make the right choices ?
- There is some kind of neural link between us, so she wrote, when she stopped being able to audibly talk - it is enough to look into her eyes, and then I know.
- How is she now ?
- She is sleeping. Lives in my office. She asked repeatedly for a rehab allowance, but her HQ did not want to talk to her. It looks like they sacked her... But now, it looked like rehabilitation has started, right when I started to draw the missing part of the scene. I can't work on it all the time, it's not ready yet... but ... what....?
Miho stared at him with the scary sight again.
- All these years. Never occured to you, all this could have not happen to any of our friends, if you would have been a little wiser...
- But then I wouldn't have met Kimiko.
- Oh, right...
- And your heart would have not been fixed...
- Yes... and we wouldn't have found me a new story, unreachable to all but the best players, therefore undetectable by the Horde. I know that. I thank the Coders above every day. Where was she exactly, when I pwnzd your emotions back then?
- She was as stunned as I was. She tried to reach her HQ, but there was a great Sun storm and she could not reliably make it through there. So she acted on gut feeling, consoled me instead of trying to directly hint me. But I was so stunned, I didn't know what I was doing. I think she may be still thinking it was a mistake, that she should have been more decisive.
- Understandably.
- Yeah. The full realization of what happened there... it came back to me actually in the bath house. I saw you, the same teen body I saw two years earlier... almost no change... but a few bruises.
- Yeah, yeah... I know. I knew you knew then ...
- Actually thinking about it now, I realized it fully a little later in the art room... when you obtained the uniform for me. Or a bit on the way to the school too... you dragged me out of the bath house then. Still shaking at the thought of what would have happened, if I did play out the Creepy Gaijin role...
- Well, that was a good choice. It made me abandon the path to your impending doom. In a spot of madness, I suddenly wanted to punish you for abandoning our little family. But through the right choice at the right time, you saved yourself...
- It was the best choice I could make.
- ... and it did not turn out too bad for me either. Short of some atonement, I can now be anything I want, and I am not in danger, and neither is anybody else. Was Seraphim involved in that choice too ?
- No she wasn't there then. But as she is, as she puts it, 'a case worker', she was able to make me do it by myself. And now she is sick, she may even die... if I don't do anything. I don't want her to die. You owe her a lot too.
Miho sat with her hands in her hair for a while, then said:
- Would it help her, somehow if we try to visit them ? Pirogoeth and the child? Find out how are they after all these years?
- I thought about this. I think Seraphim was slightly frightened of this idea. But after thinking about it, I think she actually approves.
- OK. How do we find them then?
- See, now that is a problem. The last of the Endgames servers were shut during crisis of 2008 and 2009. The company ran out of money. There is a legend going round the fans forums, that one instance was governed by much more advanced AI, 'got away' and drifted itself into the computing cloud... now it drifts around, living on any scraps of processing power it can gather, and that it's only reachable through Tor. But no one was able to locate it since.
- Mugi told me that as a fact. But she never was able to recall the Tor address.
- So what do we do now then?
- I think... you should finish the missing drawing. Let the gut feeling guide you. Maybe there will be some hints in the finished thing. If Seraphim regains her voice, maybe she can tell us what to do then. For now, keep low and be careful. I will try to make a few inquiries. Try to look happier for a change.
- Well you see about that... i am too feeling better since I started to work on that story gap. I am not being reckless, don't worry. No one is going to see this drawing, but me and you.
She stood up and stretched. - OK, Piro, nice to talk to you sometimes, but now I must fly... - and in true magical girl fashion, she disappeared, only leaving a trail of sparkles.
Слава Україні!
🖕💩🥫🚽🖌️
--------
Translation to polish
and where it happens when I have time to stream

Blessed be those, who, having nothing to say, avoid trying to tell this to the world in their own words - J. Tuwim ( liberally translated )

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