Board 8 > The Notes of Cain, Topic 2 [CYOA]

(+) Yeah! (+)

yeah I more just meant for future choices

anyway looks like FAKERU IS THE MAIN CHARACTER
---

I do have a good deal of stuff going on right now in real life (including two new roommates moving into my place), so I'm thinking I may do another week where we only get 1 update this week... but I haven't decided 100% yet or on what day that update would be.

but yeah starting next week I'll definitely go back to 2/week again for sure.

and if I end up writing something tonight or tomorrow we still might get another update on friday. just don't really want to promise anything when I might still have more stuff to do this week and not feel particularly motivated to find extra time to write.

the good news is that after the events of last chapter we have condensed the POVs down again to basically one group, which means we won't have to deal with multiple updates going without seeing the main crew like we did for a while there.
---

Take your time dude.
---

OracleGunner posted...

Take your time dude.

---

I'm so touched. I'm sure Fakeru's suffering, I mean adventures will be exciting and enlightening for us all. :3

Also no worries, sounds like you're really busy MariaTaylor, and besides, quality takes time, I understand completely. :) If it gets hectic and the words aren't coming as easily you don't have to force it. Writing can be a joy but it can also be a nightmare and you don't have to update more than you're comfortable with. :)
I've had fun so far and I hope I can play again the next time you run one.
---

19: My Quiet Friend
20: Total Eclipse
---

Bad end confirmed
---

Welp!
---

Let's see how it shakes out.
---

Excited for sure!
---

Entry 19: My Quiet Friend

Further down the hall, beyond where the smith's wife had been preserved as a natural corpse, the group led by Leone the Cat stumbled upon a secondary study. This one was well hidden and the door had been locked. Even missing a hand, however, Leone was well practiced in the breaking of locks. After the breaking of the seal there was a quiet creaking. The door had swung open softly on its own.

Apparently the hinge had been damaged and only the lock had kept it in place. Still, that alarming feeling of having the portal open on its own, had put them all on edge. Enoch, now, was staring into the darkness of the corridor that led away from this reading room. "Did you hear something there? In the dark?" He was almost breathless at that time.

Jen Lowell barely had time to shake her head 'no' before Leone pushed forward into the next room.

Materials were scattered across the desk in a somewhat organized fashion, almost as if the texts were still in use. There was a collaboration of letters, self-taken notes, sketches of various things, as well as old books. The most bizarre of all was that the paper was not worn and dated in this research room. It was the first thing Leone noticed.

However, compelled to see what these passages contained, Leone neglected to mention that fact. Instead, he went to the side desk and raised his stump -- wrapped in bandages -- before grimacing and lowering the arm he could no longer use. His free fingers came second and brushed across the wooden desk before finding the letter he sought to read.

"Xetni, it says," Leone mumbled to himself. "The formless God."

What was that? Who had been studying such a thing here? What did they hope to obtain from such ends? Surely the notes here contained more information. Perhaps the mystery of this place could be involved. Perhaps he would learn of the involvement of the Thieves Guild and if his brother was implicated in any of this madness.

If that were the case, of course, Leone would have a difficult time deciding how he felt about it.

Be it one thing or another, life in the city was rough. Some liberties with law and morality were needed. That was... a truth that needed to be accepted. But this kind of madness? Releasing beasts from below the crust of the world for strange ends... incomprehensible reasons... it was difficult to know how he felt of such things. They were almost unknowable.

It should have been, Leone realized a moment too late, that he first warned the others that the laboratory was still in use. Without that caution they weren't prepared when the thing came creeping. That noise which Enoch had heard, led here by its still walking master, broke the scene with a chaotic flailing. Leone felt something hard and heavy and wet strike his head. And by the time his gaze awoke he was hanging over the railing in the arms of the fleshy monster.

'This is bad!' Enoch's last words rung in his head, something he had heard in the darkness. Then the sound of Enoch smashing into the wagon from above. So in the end the wanderer had fled. Would anyone come for him now? Oh... Probably... His quiet friend would come for him, as she always did.

As horrors stormed the halls below Torrin fell back a half of a step... and then found his courage. This time wouldn't be like the last time. Not again. He couldn't let it keep happening every time these monsters appeared. After all he had come here knowing the purpose of the mission, and the dangers. If he wanted to lead these people than he needed to lead!

"Fakeru, Kidd, get up there as fast as you can," Torrin commanded them quickly. "If you can safely pry him free, then do it!" As Torrin moved back now, it was more of a strategic retreat. He was moving to the wagon where he could access the supplies and help form a defensive barrier.
---

Aaron, a subdued smile on his face, seemed almost proud of the old man. He grabbed Enoch, pulling him out of the wagon with one arm, and then set him down and shoved he other man forward. Then Aaron, lance in hand, looked back at Jamison. "You're with me. Let's go."

The two moved into position, Aaron with his sure confidence, Jamison with his unsure lack of balance and purpose. The inspector doubted his gun would work on such a monster, as they didn't seem to work so well on most of the things in his hellish world. But perhaps with Aaron standing in front of him things would be different. Perhaps this chapter of their story would have a happy ending for once.

Kidd had already moved to the stairwell and threw himself at it. The nimble navigator, even in his wounded state, was making a quick climb over the ruined wreckage of what had once been the stairs. However, when he looked to his flank, he found that Fakeru was not with him. Instead, he had to look up... to see that she had already begun to float up to the second level without hesitation.

"As fast as we can, right?" Fakeru said to Kidd, glancing back at him for a level of assurance that she, herself, was lacking in that moment. Her body had always carried the courage to push her forward... even at times like this when her mind and her lack of confidence was holding her back.

All she could do now was wish that she had time for Kidd to have gone over the basics of the transmutation crystal with her. Without that she almost felt like she'd be a useless addition to this battle. Yet, at the same time, she couldn't stand by and do nothing.

Kidd, at that time, was having his own thoughts. "If you can do it safely," he reminded her firmly.

But Fakeru didn't know what was safe or what was foolish. Facing an enemy which had never been encountered before left almost no room for sureness. It was all guesswork. This monster of human bodywork, stitched together with too many eyes and no mouth, had the strength to grapple Leone the Cat and hold him at bay. That's all Fakeru knew.

Her sandals were glowing and leaving a trail in the air behind her as she cleared the railing. Then, taking up a position above the enemy, she tried to angle her body to attack safely from above. One of the iron rods that had been pulled off of the wagon was in her hands now. That should give her the reach and the power to do something here!

As glitter and shining lights rained onto the field from above, those on the first floor continued to fight for their lives. Aaron was forced to stand his ground as the first amalgam charged at him. His weapon spun forward and slashed with the tip of the spear as cleanly as possible. The fighting style which he had grown used to, the open charge, needed to be abandoned here.

... But that didn't mean he was helpless. The former soldier possessed a level of skill that even he had almost forgotten. Using his footwork to his advantage he could change his position, causing the opponent to extend itself safely onto his ground, all the while pressuring it with attacks from the outside. One poke or slash from the spear was enough to hold its attention, to be sure, but this was only a stopgap. It was clear his weapon wasn't damaging the large fleshy body enough to counteract its fearsome strength and endurance.

Then, as those limbs continued to swing at him from three or four angles, depending on which way the bizarre artists rendition of human misery was facing, Aaron realized he couldn't do this alone. And it was fine. Because he wasn't.
---

Jamison, realizing his gun would have little effect, had acted quickly with Torrin to grab additional weapons from the wagon. Each of them came forth bearing a two handed crushing implement -- a short handled axe for the old man, while the inspector had grabbed a spiking hammer. The spiking hammer was light enough to wield in one hand, but Jamison held it now in two. His arms were a bit more thin, a bit more weak than someone like Aaron.

Still, holding the weapon in both hands, he released his grip somewhat on the shaft and let the weapon slide forward. The momentum of the first swing brought it crashing down into the enemy with such force that Jamison almost knocked himself off his own feet. The leg of the enemy, extending from the top of its torso, twisted and coiled at him. It was dripping with pus now. Thankfully, the enemy was knocked aside with the blow from Torrin's axe and forced to abandon that punishing counter attack.

Jamison looked to Torrin, giving him an assured nod, and went back into the fray. With Aaron on one side and the other two assisting with flanking attacks the three of them didn't have much trouble defending the wagon and slowly chipping away at the fortitude of this lone monster.

... However.

It couldn't be forgotten that the second shambler had moved into the first floor as well. And, on that open field, if it began to move toward them, they'd quickly be overwhelmed. Creatures of this stature and with strong attacks of this nature could pose a serious threat if they were allowed to attack in tandem. Worst of all, the monster had already taken this idea of going toward the obnoxious foe who was dancing around and slashing wildly with his spear.

Enoch, realizing this simple truth, finished dusting off his coat. His knife spun outward and then he caught the handle in his palm with the blade facing out. Light danced along the edge of the blade and he strode forward... hoping that someone would move in line to support him as he lead an attack against the second foe.

Up on the balcony a brief moment had passed. Fakeru found herself struggling as she lost her magical momentum. Her feet hit the railing and, with those magic shoes, she was able to balance herself on it... but it was a precarious position to continue fighting.

Repeated blows from the iron rod had only agitated the monster. It swung its back limb down, sending Leone into the ground with force, then dragged him forward and lifted him again.

In the following instant the monster threw its full weight at the railing. Fakeru in truth had not expected that. She couldn't have imagined the fleshy creature would dare to risk something so dangerous. From the time she had acted on her own, it was truthfully before Torrin had given her the command to go, she had already been moving forward. It was her body. Her body always did this to her.

Almost as if Fakeru thought she was some kind of hero in her own tale, the main character of her own story, she had thrown herself into harm. Luck had helped her to survive this long and perhaps along the way she had accomplished her share of great deeds. Despite good results it was difficult to argue that she had always made the best decisions in those times.

There was a cracking sound as the metal bolts popped out from beneath her. The section of railing she was standing on wobbled. In truth it wouldn't have mattered if she could have kept her foot. The enemy sent a powerful fist slamming directly into her chest and launched her off of the railing, out over the balcony, and into what would have been a deadly fall below.

Her shoes lit up, causing her to float away slowly instead of crashing straight down.
---

At the same time her luck had finally cashed in at the worst possible time. The railing broke and the weight of the enemy began to buckle beneath those unsteady tripod limbs. She saw faces inside of it, and almost found herself growing a sense of pity for the monster. Had it asked to be turned into such a thing? Surely not.

Above and beyond that, however, was the cat-hooded man clutched in its grip. If the monster fell from such a height there was chance that Leone would also suffer a painful end when that fall concluded. Sucking in a deep breath, a breath of lunacy, a single moment to gather her composure, Fakeru realized she was about to do something stupid again. She was going to attempt something heroic, and save that monster so that she could save Leone.

Fah turned her weight in the air, knowing Kidd would never get here in time to assist her, and pushed with the tip of the iron rod. Was it something a heroic, selfless, main character of some adventure novel might do? And would they succeed at it? The end of the weight served as a nice brace to push back against the enemy. This temporary balance allowed it the time needed to gather its footing and not tumble off of the railing and onto the ground below.

Then, thanklessly, the death grip of the enemy closed in on the iron rod and it bent the weapon even from the mere act of seizing the rod. Fakeru felt herself pulled forward with a yanking force and then stars entered her eyes as the secondary, or tertiary, limb of the enemy swung up to meet her as she was pulled down. Yes, Fah had known all along that she wouldn't be repaid kindly for her services.

But Gods Above and Below, didn't it hurt?

A stream of blood shot out of her nose as she was sent sailing and twirling away through the air. This was likely only made possible, and certainly exaggerated, by the weightless quality of her body. All she could see was a black void which had crept in from the edges of her vision and was only beginning to retreat. Then, face down, she began to fall back down to the ground below. A shower of sparkles raining from above in her wake.

Then, after those, droplets of her blood.

Below she could see Enoch moving into position to attack. With his knife he could barely damage the enemy but he did a fine job of keeping it distracted. He had the agility and the tenacity to annoy it and still manage to duck away from any strike that it threw.

The shadows seemed to dance around the two combatants. It gave the odd impression that both Enoch and the monster were stationary and only the light was bending around them. But at the edge of the melee a timid and soft looking man had moved forward. The weapon in his hands felt heavy and useless. Instead, he was thinking of another weapon he had been given. Owen was thinking of something special that had been entrusted, at the end, only to him.

He saw Tristan's youth... the failed squire who would never become a knight. A boy who learned to favor tales of pirates and bandits turned into heroes. Local legends that were morally gray and represented his own path in life. Well, the one he yearned for most; The ability to rise from the dirt and stand there, making a difference in the world. It felt far more obtainable than the made up fantasy of a knight in shining armor. Tristan had always known that the main characters from those story books weren't real. Real life didn't have such fanciful things. Yet, in the end, he had died without ever realizing his own dream. So where had that left him?

Here. Now. In that secret and small place in Owen's mind, and his heart. The piece of Captain Punch that lived on within Owen. It also contained the piece of Tristan that Punch had kept for himself. And Owen was the only one left to carry on their dreams. If he fell here then it would mean there would be no one to pass on his power to.

"Does it have a brain?" He was thinking to himself. His antennae were twitching.
---

Oh yes it had them. More than one, in fact. Swirling around in some kind of viscous fluid. The neural network which connected those multiple brains floated around inside of a sticky brain sap. All that was contained within its meaty body. Owen could feel that network, following it like a map. He didn't know if he had the power to fight against so many at once but he had to at least try.

The building seemed to melt away in a fashion that surprised even Owen. Had it been like this too when Punch used that power? He couldn't remember, or find those memories, but somehow this felt right and natural. Five they were, like wraiths, but mindless and without a given purpose.

Each had its own features and its own face but those had been cut away at some point. Like they had lost their sense of self when they were stitched together all in pieces. Of course that would make it so much harder to take advantage of their human flaws. Because they had already lost it. That human side of these creatures, of these now errant brains, had been cut out and cast aside before anything else.

It was the only way that mixture of bodies and brains could function when put back together in such a way.

"Five against one, is it?" Owen said, feeling a sense of unease.

Then, at once, Owen realized he wasn't fighting alone. There was a small part of him that had kept Punch alive. And that part of Punch had brought a part of Owen with him. They were shadows at his back, almost like a cloak that he wore, but he could feel those two here with him. A mental spike formed along his side, a solid image to give to his intent. Owen smiled and he didn't really feel so alone. The part of Punch, who had always hated and feared being left alone, somehow appreciated that. And Owen felt himself absorbing that same relief and content relaxation. With his friends at his side... he would make it through this.

Those five wraiths had nothing against that. They were tortured souls whose only wish was to die and be put out of their misery. He began to impale them, one by one, striking them down, drawing the strength out of that monster. Whether he was a young man who had failed to achieve his dreams, or the veteran hero that had finally found rest, or if he was just a bitter man who had been betrayed and ceased to even long for anything... none of that mattered anymore. All he could do was grant their wish.

As Owen stood there facing down the monster, glowing red orbs began to light up inside of its form. Those seemed to signify where those brains where housed. And some of them shuddered and popped. One after a few moments, then the other a bit longer. Yet, as strong as Owen was, it was difficult for him to combat those forces and the strain was showing.

Even in his mental space, where he couldn't sense that his strength was failing, Zephyr could clearly sense that something was wrong. Owen's body had begun to shake and his form was crumbling. It wouldn't be long before Owen fell. And when that happened the badly damaged monster was likely to begin rampaging.

Zephyr thought, however, in that instant, that maybe he could make the shot. He drew his bow and thought about the twisted mountain of flesh. The folds and the cracks, the way the different parts were melded together, and how those hidden valleys contained small and secret ways inside to the deepest part of the monster. Those glowing red beacons were symbols for him. Like small lighthouses that showed him where to shoot.

Though the gap was narrow and the target was small... Zephyr had the unique combination of strong eyes and his own small nature that allowed him to freely make attacks into those narrow gaps. And so, as Enoch held the attention of the enemy, and Owen began to battle it in ways that Zeph couldn't understand, Zeph found the courage to stand up and fight again.
---

Because he knew that taking the shot here, putting his arrow through each of those brains one at a time, and felling this monster... was the only way to prevent anyone else from dying. Zeph was starting to understand that it wouldn't be possible for him to save everyone, everywhere, all the time. He couldn't even guarantee his own safety. Yet, still, it was a simple truth; He had the power to do something now. He could save some of these people right now. What else is there? What else was left to think about?

He loosed his arrow.

"Fah! Ggk-" Kidd scrambled over the top step, landing in a prone position up on the balcony. It had taken him only a few moments to get up to the second floor but so much had already happened in that short time. And the feeling of weakness in his body had kept him from getting there in time to do anything about it. "Shit!" As much as he managed to kick back to his feet and stumble forward, it was a truth that she was going to keep falling no matter what. And it was hard to say if he'd reach Leone in time.

Leone, meanwhile, watching Fakeru float away, felt his eyes flickering. With pain and with memory. What had happened back there in that room? He thought his quiet friend would always come for him, but maybe the same thing had happened to her. Maybe she had died while he was lost in darkness and he had woken up too late to even say goodbye or see her final moments.

As painful as that thought was, he wouldn't have to dwell on it for long. Kidd might not have been able to reach him quickly, but Jennifer Lowell was already there. Strong and sturdy Jen Lowell, the girl who had been born in a miserable place and found the strength to look after herself. There was really no way in hell that she was going to lay down and die that easily. There was no way that she'd fail to get there in time. She had the power to reach him.

Jen weaved forward, her short blade held in both hands. Somehow the wide swipe of the enemy was completely ducked. Rather than being forced back, Jen used this forward momentum to get past the striking range of the enemy and put herself beside the secondary arm which was holding Leone.

Her weapon was pulled back and her berserk gaze was fixed on Leone in a way that made him think he was about to be impaled. The point of that weapon was facing him as well. It was a scary time, even if it was short lived. Then, like a lever or some kind of prying handle, the blade was lodged into the space between the webbed fingers of the monster.

Jen turned her body and lunged backward away from the return strike of the flesh creature. At the same time the weight of her body and the scraping motion of the knife eviscerated the hand of the foe. Its skin split open and it totally lost the ability to maintain its grip on anything.

Leone found himself tumbling to the ground as the air began to flow freely through his body once more. He was no longer having the life squeezed out of him. There was a pain in his head and his shoulder. But, really, there was a pain all over his body at that time.

All he could do was put his back against the wall and look up at Jen as she stood there between him and the monster. Without a doubt, at that time, she was ready to fight. The sounds of battle were subsiding below and it was clear that Enoch and the others had made quick work of the enemy waiting beneath them.

Leone remembered a similar meeting from years ago.

The young girl had found herself confronted with a band of thugs that didn't care that she was a girl, or that she was a child. All they cared about was taking away from her whatever she owned, those guileless robbers. And when they found that Jen Lowell was a miserable girl with nothing to steal that didn't deter them. They instead offered her a blackened eye and a sprained ankle. It was to relieve their anger for not finding any coin or even food on the girl.
---

A tale as old as time in the city of Hendrake.

It was hard to say how far those highwaymen would have gone. The sound of the police bell drove them away thankfully, perhaps saving her life. Though in truth the local inspectors and the fisher knights didn't give a shit about patrolling that part of town or providing aide to the people who lived there. It was Leone's bell that had saved her in a moment of clever thinking.

And as he arrived on the scene he remembered something that had stuck with him even since then. Jen wasn't laying down. She was sitting up, preparing to get back to her feet. Now, as their positions were reversed, he couldn't help but be inspired by her memory and try to show the same courage.

As Leone's hand was gripping for the divet in the wall, trying to pull himself back to his feet to fight with her, he felt his bandaged stump moving to his belt. It wanted to grab for his weapon but that was fruitless. It was something he couldn't do with that hand anymore. "My quiet friend. Wordlessly strong and resolute." Leone was feeling poetic.

The tentacle like limbs of the abomination were swaying with a hypnotic lethality. One strike from those could easily break a human, if it attacked them correctly and hit them in the right spot.

Jen, in that moment, hesitated. It was almost like she wanted to stop and look back at him but she knew better than to take her eyes off the monster. And that moment of hesitation was all it took for something to happen that none of them could have expected.

The monster, filled with blood lust and rage, an idiot with many brains and no sense, sent itself off of the balcony in a surging jump. A twisting mass of limbs fanned out behind it. Rather than staying to fight Jen Lowell it had chosen something else. It had chosen pursuit.

Fakeru spun in the air at that moment, facing upright, just in time to see a dark and heavy shape coming down on top of her. Her eyes grew wide and in the last and final moment she came to a dark realization; This story didn't have any kind of main character. Then there was a heavy crunch as both of them hit the ground together and shattered.

Jamison threw his body in that direction, not sure why. It was a fruitless gesture. If he could have reached her in time there was nothing he could have done to save her from that monster landing on her. It likely would have crushed them both instead. And he never reached her in time anyway.

Instead, Jamison landed on his knees halfway between the cart and where Fakeru landed. A painful noise erupted in his chest and he thought about how stupid it was for things to end like that. Things had been going good for a while, sure. They had killed a few monsters.

Then, looking at the sick collaboration of body art, the broken bones and split limbs, the pool of blood, the collection of hair, Fakeru seemed to disappear within the pile of corpses that had thrown themselves away just to secure in killing her. And Jamison realized that this chapter didn't have a happy ending at all.

[End]

19. Which mystery should we focus on?
A. Find the person who is still doing research here.
B. Investigate Xetni, the Formless God.
C. Try to find out what happened to Dismas and the others.
---

Haha oh man we were literally picking someone to die. =( Imagine if we had let it end in a tie...

A

I'm pretty much good with A or B really. I'm not sure what C would accomplish for us. Was there anything that the Ditch Party left behind that would have been useful to know for the other party?

https://imgur.com/kW0UIot
---

Ya know
I should remember that this is a tragedy, not a romance.

Then again, she did lead to the death of the other monster, and helped Leone, so that is something.

A sounds good.
---

19.A

Seems like a good approach for it. Find dirt on all this nonsense and maybe find some goodies too. The guy researching all this is bound to have some swag!

Jenny and the gang managed to save her husbando!

but we lost another ship
(adds Jamison X Fah to the Wall of Sunken Ships)

Rip Fah

Wonder if that means the stone is lost

MysteriousStan posted...

I'm pretty much good with A or B really. I'm not sure what C would accomplish for us. Was there anything that the Ditch Party left behind that would have been useful to know for the other party?

The notes and some minor(?) lab stuff I think but they are probably gone now?
---

You know, I had a hunch something was going to happening to the chosen main character. Well, at least it was a somewhat quick death.

A
---

I had a small hunch too but I guess I'm glad Zephyr wasn't chosen for that one X_X

I'm cool with A or B yeah.

I'll go A
---

Going with B.
---

A.
---

...I don't trust my decision making abilities here after that, but....

A.
---

That's an odd thing to happen to a main character >_> lol wasnt even the most important character in that chapter.

Rip

Yeah Im not even sure what a good end looks like tbh
---

Cof course
---

This is a Lovecraftian style game it always ends in either defeat or a bitter tasting victory
---

FakeAccount3000 posted...

Yeah Im not even sure what a good end looks like tbh

catastrophy15 posted...

This is a Lovecraftian style game it always ends in either defeat or a bitter tasting victory

I would say the three types of endings to expect from a lovecraftian story are (from good to bad)

1. the character(s) are awakened to unnerving new forms of knowledge relating to things beyond human comprehension. their momentary triumph is undercut by the fact that they must return to a 'normal' life while this knowledge remains burning in the back of their mind and they can never do anything about it, but dreading the implications and what those might entail for the future of the human world. (yes this is the best. coincidentally it's also the most common.)

2. the characters are sacrificed in some way to forces beyond their own comprehension. probably the least common type of ending that I can think of, but it does happen from time to time. I wouldn't consider this one to be the worst just because the death of one mortal character is really a drop in the pond on the cosmic scale. (if you consider different characters in this story can have different endings, maria and cata would fall here)

3. the characters are corrupted knowingly or unknowingly, or perhaps have been corrupted all along, and later act in service to the unknowable forces of the unseen universe. hard to list examples since obviously naming them would spoil the ending of any story I name, but I think this is probably the second most common. this is similar to ending 1 but I consider it to be by far the worst, because it shows an active frame of corruption where humans (usually capable 'main character' type humans) are now acting in service of those dark forces, rather than just 'they exist somewhere out there and there's nothing we can do about it.' has worse long term implications for the health and safety of the human world.

coincidentally, the three endings of bloodborne also reflect all of these ending types! it's one of the ways in which you can really identify the lovecraftian influence of that game.
---

MariaTaylor posted...

FakeAccount3000 posted...

Yeah Im not even sure what a good end looks like tbh

catastrophy15 posted...

This is a Lovecraftian style game it always ends in either defeat or a bitter tasting victory

I would say the three types of endings to expect from a lovecraftian story are (from good to bad)

1. the character(s) are awakened to unnerving new forms of knowledge relating to things beyond human comprehension. their momentary triumph is undercut by the fact that they must return to a 'normal' life while this knowledge remains burning in the back of their mind and they can never do anything about it, but dreading the implications and what those might entail for the future of the human world. (yes this is the best. coincidentally it's also the most common.)

2. the characters are sacrificed in some way to forces beyond their own comprehension. probably the least common type of ending that I can think of, but it does happen from time to time. I wouldn't consider this one to be the worst just because the death of one mortal character is really a drop in the pond on the cosmic scale. (if you consider different characters in this story can have different endings, maria and cata would fall here)

3. the characters are corrupted knowingly or unknowingly, or perhaps have been corrupted all along, and later act in service to the unknowable forces of the unseen universe. hard to list examples since obviously naming them would spoil the ending of any story I name, but I think this is probably the second most common. this is similar to ending 1 but I consider it to be by far the worst, because it shows an active frame of corruption where humans (usually capable 'main character' type humans) are now acting in service of those dark forces, rather than just 'they exist somewhere out there and there's nothing we can do about it.' has worse long term implications for the health and safety of the human world.

coincidentally, the three endings of bloodborne also reflect all of these ending types! it's one of the ways in which you can really identify the lovecraftian influence of that game.

(Not having Childhood's Beginning as best ending type).

Its like you DON'T want to become an eldritch god kid that is also a squid with a waifu doll caretaker or something.
---

should I make the new topic soon-ish, or just wait and make it when I'm ready to post the next chapter? kinda hard to decide since we're close to the end but not too close yet.
---

New chapter, new topic.
---

Childhood's End was a good book
---

Going with B
---

https://imgur.com/dBeWOND

discarded character design

this is probably what a female version of Abom/Valtyr would have looked like, but we got Valtyr so this kind of character wasn't needed.
---

update sometime within the next 24 hours
---

24 hours may not have been exact, but I am most of the way done through an update that I'm gonna post tonight.
---

new topic and new chapter are up

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/76925450

huhuhu
---

save this
---

NEVER
THIS SHALL DIE AN IGNOBLE DEATH

...I think.
---

Oh, like the characters
---

No purge yet
---

I did go ahead and archive the topic already, since with the router problems I'm having it'd be really dumb for me to let it purge and lose it forever.

that being said bumping is always nice since it helps the people who might be behind a chapter or two
---

What if I'm behind like 10?
---

Bump
---

GenesisSaga posted...

What if I'm behind like 10?

well firstly I'd say I'm pretty impressed that anyone was actually reading this without participating or posting much

secondly I'd say... which chapter did you stop on?

and lastly

better hurry up, cause this topic won't last long!
---

GenesisSaga posted...

Bump

---

RIP Joe
---