oh, oh im back btw :)

HELP THE PEOPLE ON THE BRIDGE==>

You rock forward, your eyes focusing on the bridge. You let out a sigh of relief. The whole bridge hasn’t been destroyed, but a huge chunk of it is gone. Plenty of people escaped the explosion, but a few cars have fallen into the water. Other cars cannot leave.

You are frozen. Everyone is frozen. A loud sound grates against your ears and you finally put a face on the feeling that possesses you. Sometimes you overeat without meaning to, and you chew up a bite of food, and find that you cannot swallow it. That’s how this feels. Your throat constricts, your jaw tightening. You realize that you have been holding your breath, and nobody moves. 

The good news is it doesn’t look like Apophis is fully free yet. The bad news is that it looks like it won’t be long. There’s other bad news too, the people stuck in cars in the sound and also trapped on the island. A veritable cornucopia of bad news. You feel your body running for the water, pushing past monsters and people, getting down into the freezing water. The broken bridge crackles with red energy, like napalm, and gives off a little heat. But you’re still absolutely freezing. You don’t need your magic powers to make this prediction: pneumonia. You giggle to yourself, a little crazily. A nearby boat, a water taxi, putters beside you and you hear voices babbling. No time to focus on them. Wren is beside you suddenly, her jaw tight with determination. She hates swimming, and here she is, swimming with you, to help these people. Everyone else joins in time. Swimming toward the cars, splash, splash, etc. 

And then a Ryan bursts out of the water, panting and bucking. Clearly not Ryan-Prime, the guy you beat up and shoved in a basement. This one is still a kid, sixteen, with the short but still oily hair Ryan had at that point. Pimply, pale, cruel-looking, and utterly, pitifully, terrified. He has the look of a wounded animal in his eyes, and his skin is glowing a light red. His eyes are a burning red, and a long, half-molten spike has ripped through his face, over his left eye. He looks up at the bridge, at the rubble.

Ryan-Clone: D-did I d-do that?

Wren: C-c-cold….

Sam: Yeah, you did, kid. 

Wren: I-it’s okay though. L-l-look. We just need to get those folks out of their cars and then we can go to the shore.

Wren extends her hand to the shaking teenager, and his eyes flash with light. He snarls pathetically.

Ryan-Clone: Don’t touch me!

Wren: Okay, well, being transgender is not contagious, man :|

Ryan swims away, towards the shore, his body twitching and rocking.

Tracy: Okay. Not important now. We have people to save.

They dive, and you do as well, holding your glasses in your hand tightly. You try to look through the brackish water, but all you can see is pain, so you feel your way over to the car, yanking the door open and helping someone out, swimming them to the top. You blink, and see that you’ve rescued some pretty African American woman in her thirties, with short, curly hair and huge hipster wire-framed glasses. She coughs, grasping your hand tightly, and then high tailing it back to shore. Your friends swim up with a few young kids and their college-aged older sister, and an older man. Sam swims up alone.

Sam: G-guess R-ryan hit a car. Burnt it. Scrap metal. Nobody’s coming out of it. 

YOU: Oh :(

Antimony: I can help fly the kids to shore so they do not have to swim.

Antimony has only just begun to follow through with that line of action when a monster bursts out of the water, swimming surprisingly quickly towards your group. You slug it in the face and it begins to sink, but it grabs you, pulling you down. Uh oh! Uh oh! Water! In your nose and mouth!

Diana is incapable of acting at this moment! Choose a new character to occupy!

~~

She isn't dead, don't worry :P 

@azalea: the concert was incredible! it turns out that 50% of tMG fans are transgender high schoolers and college students and the other 50% are fifty year old dads, and there's little gradient space between those two groups XD they played elijah, MY FAVORITE SONG, FROM MY FAVORITE ALBUM, AS THE OPENER. tMG? more like omg! ... i'm sorry. bt also john made direct eye contact with me for like five minutes at one point, because i was literally jumping for joy during Heretic Pride, and he smiled at me and i almost fell down. when they played This Year, and No Children, everyone was screaming along, it was insane. best concert i've ever been to, hand on the bible.

and now, the terminal :D

~~

BE TRACY ==>

You are now Tracy Peixoto. From your perspective you’ve always been Tracy Peixoto, etc. etc. 

You want to help people. Really. That’s the one thing you earnestly want. You’re a healer, in every sense of the word. And It hurts, you know, to heal people, but currently you’re of the opinion that other people are more important than you are, so that’s alright. So when Diana, your friend, is grabbed by one of those fish-person abominations and dragged underwater, you don’t hesitate to pass the child you’re holding off to your boyfriend… Sorry, husband, wow :D and prepare to grab her.

Wren notices that Diana has been pulled under, and she just starts screaming, in rage and terror. She dives under the water, thrashing madly, high on adrenaline and protective instinct. She’s probably more of a danger to Diana than anything else like this, so you dive under the water. The salt makes the fresher markings on your face burn with fresh agony. 

That’s something else. When people look at your blackened arm, at the scars that grow and spread across your face and chest, they ask “does it hurt.” And you say no, because you don’t want their pity, at all. And the arm doesn’t hurt, because it can’t anymore. It hurting feels normal, comforting. It’s only the fresher scarring. But that’s your problem, that’s your cross to bear. You blink through the salty water, hands grasping out for Diana. The faint green glow works fairly well as an indicator of where she is. Wren is swimming down too, thrashing and panicking. You grab her hand and guide her towards Diana. She feels the warm green light cascading off of Diana, and that seems to calm her down a good deal. She grabs Diana’s shoulder, and you grab Diana as well, straining to free her from the grasp of the monster holding her. It reaches out and scratches your face, rather hard, breaking skin. But releasing this arm means Diana is looser, and Wren Wrenches her loose. Diana desperately kicks herself up for air, and you begin to follow. Wren appears to be tearing into the monster with unimaginable ferocity. 

You kick up above the water, and it isn’t like that’s too hard, really. It’s pretty shallow. Which also sucks, since it means Diana just almost drowned in, like, six and a half feet of water. Diana turns to you with a horrified expression.

Diana: Wren!

YOU: I think she’s fine, Diana.

Diana: But- 

YOU: Trust me. She isn’t in any danger. That thing that hurt you is.

Antimony starts flying over from the shore, where she’s been dropping off the people you helped save.

Antimony: What happened?

Alex: Diana got grabbed by one of those monster guys. Pulled under.

Antimony: Deen! Are you okay?!

Diana: Yes. 

Antimony: Where is Wren?

As if to answer, Wren bursts up out of the water, a crazed look in her eyes. She pulls her glasses out of her pocket and puts them on, smiling widely.

Wren: Deen. You’re okay.

Diana: Yes. Thank you, both of you.

Sam: Hey uh sweet moment but just wanna say, everybody who fell in the sound is out now, can we get to shore, please? Look I’ll even say pretty please.

Alex: Yeah, Sam’s got a point. Less chance of being drowned on the land.

Sam: Hey did you hear that, I’m right, my biggest opp says I’m right

Alex starts to say something, but then just giggles and rolls her eyes at Sam. Something you’re very familiar with. You have to do that quite a bit. You love your wife. 

As you swim to shore, you hear the sound of helicopters above you. Swooping down like vast, predatory birds, humming and buzzing. The small crowd of people who failed to cross the bridge prior to it kind of blowing up give a little cheer as the helicopters descend onto the bloated, water-logged shore. A no-nonsense older man in a suit barks orders at the crowd, ushering them into the five helicopters. You and your friends get to shore, Wren and Diana panting heavily. The two sit on the shore, leaning against one another. Wren clears her throat. 

Wren: I remember the parable now.

Alex: What?

YOU: The parable she was trying to think of. Earlier today. 

Alex: Dude, “today” has literally lasted forever. I don’t have the room in my brain. 

Antimony: Tell us your parable, Wren :) 

Wren: Okay. There was a captain, many years at sea.

Diana: Living the life of a sailor.

Wren: Rugged and free, yeah, but no, this isn’t that. Anyway, there was a captain who spent many, many years hunting a great whale.

Alex: Wait, is-

Wren: I’m telling a story Alex. Anyway, this captain searched for years and years, hunting it, gradually driven mad by his own obsession. He killed a bunch of other sailors in the process, because of his mad obsession. He lost a leg, an eye, and he kept going

Alex: This is just-

Wren: And eventually, he finds the whale! His nemesis! And it kills him. His obsession kills him, and he is pulled to the bottom of the ocean!

Alex: YOU ARE JUST RECITING THE PLOT OF MOBY DICK

Wren: Hehe, yeah :P 

Sam: Dude, that was an awful story, that wasn’t encouraging at all

Wren: Sure it was! We’re the Whale. 

Diana: What?

Wren smiles.

Wren: Apophis is obsessed with us. With hurting us and destroying us. He’s wounded. I mena, He was a god, and now He’s hurt to the point of having to use an edgelord as his pawn. And fish people. We’re going to beat him. Besides, we have an army of clones. He might be dangerous, but… I think He’s doomed.

You nod. Hm. That would make a fair amount of sense. 

YOU: Yes, besides, He’s already fought countless iterations of the Six. And they’ve… Or… We’ve reincarnated every time, every bit as strong as before, meanwhile, he stays hurt. 

Sam: Yeah I can’t wait to blow up a god.

Antimony: I am still not certain that It is a god. More like a being from a different plane, like what we might be perceived as if we could interact with things in the second dimension!

Sam: Okay no arguments there I promise it's just a word

YOU: I think Diana and Antimony dislike the religious implications, given their faith.

Diana: Yes, a little bit :/

Alex: Sort of seconded.

Sam: Oh! Sorry, yeah, okay. Noted. 

Hm. What do you want to do now? You could look for that clone of Ryan, check in with the Suits, go off to fight Apophis, or do something else, if you can think of anything.

i have talked about it, but only very briefly, and so there’s no problem with going over it again! i can talk about characters whose faiths are not stated in universe! (to be clear, if something isn’t said in universe, it’s not canon, it’s my interpretation. i’m just the writer!)

Diana and Antimony are both Catholic, like Diana’s parents. They are pretty firm in their faith! All the Hawthornes are culturally Jewish, as Sketch was an Ashkenazi Jew. Only Alex is practicing, and she honestly isn’t that involved in her faith, it’s more something for her than anything else. Wren is Agnostic but culturally Jewish. All that is spelled out in canon, somewhere :P 

I think that Sam is pretty clearly Agnostic, but he just has no patience or energy for any religious belief. Tracy is maybe Lutheran, but probably not actively religious. I don’t know about Ryan.  Probably also Lutheran. The area Emerald Springs is (very loosely) based on has a massive amount of Catholic and Lutheran Churches, so most characters are probably either Catholic or Lutheran, or at least have family members that are. Will and Bill are both Buddhist, if that interests you, but they’re minor characters so. That’s not strictly canon, bc the JK Rowling way of characterizing characters in comments that are never confirmed in canon makes me mad, but in my head all these characters have rich private lives ok

But yeah the part now ok!!!

~~

CHECK ON DIANA’S PARENTS==>

You scan the group entering the helicopters for Mr. and Mrs. Zhu. There are quite a few people here… Maybe fifty, counting the suits. But you glimpse Mr. Zhu. He has his Hawaiian shirt on and he’s missing an arm, so he sort of stands out, even in a group as strange as this. You nudge Diana.

YOU: Do you want to say goodbye to your mom and dad? 

Diana: Yes, for sure!

Wren: Yeah, talk to them. 

Antimony: I will as well. Hopefully it does not seem weird :/ 

Diana: Why would it?

Antimony: I am not really their daughter? I always feel kind of weird. Like, a pretender. I… I do not know. 

Diana: :(  Antimony, they still love you, and see you as a daughter!

Antimony: Well, they say they do, but, you know. They are not going to say bad things to me. They are good people. It is not anything they have done. They are very accepting! I just feel wrong. When I talk to them. 

Wren hugs Antimony.

Wren: I kind of have some experience with that sort of feeling. Being an impostor. You know. 

You shoot a look at Sam, because he is about to make a joke about impostors, and among whom they may be. He shuts his mouth.

Antimony: Yeah. I am not very upset about it, but-

Wren: Regardless, you know. If you want to talk about it, ever, I am very willing. 

Diana: Likewise.

Antimony: It is really not a big deal! But okay. 

You wave to Mrs. Zhu, and she nudges Terrance. He waves back, kind of goofily. 

Terrance: Hey guys. Hey Dee. 

He looks at Antimony.

Terrance: Hey, Annie.

Antimony smiles widely. She and Diana walk over to their parents. Terrance hugs them both, as tightly as he can with one arm, and Danielle affectionately squeezes their shoulders, smiling sadly.

Danielle: We wish we could stay and help.

Diana: Absolutely not! Apophis would target you, to try to hurt us!

Terrance: Yeah, we know. Besides… Your dad was never any good in a fight. Even at my prime!

Sam: Nah man you were alright.

Terrance: How would you know?

Sam: Vision quest

Terrance: Oh. Huh, alright.

Alex: You’re a pretty chill guy, aren’t you, Mr. Zhu?

Terrance: It’s how I don’t go crazy!

Danielle: We wanted you to know that we believe in you. It has been a pleasure to watch you grow up into who you are today.

Diana: This… This may be the last time I see you-

Terrance closes his eyes, clenching his jaw tightly.

Terrance: Kid…

Diana: And if it is…

Terrance: Kid, don’t, please don’t. 

Diana: No, this is important! I want to thank you. For being such good parents, and for accepting me, and for helping Wren so much. I guess… I take having good parents for granted. Not everyone has that.

You nod, your hand tensing against your leg. That is true. Not everyone has that.

Terrance: It’s been a total pleasure raising you, kid. I, I mean it. And you too, Antimony. For the shorter amount of time we’ve gotten to know you.

Antimony: Thank you. Seriously. 

Diana: I am going to cry!

She says that while smiling. Which is a little weird. 

Danielle: But none of you kids are going to die, okay? So all this sentiment is just an appetizer for the true sentiment that will come later, when we are all together again. 

Diana: Right!

Danielle: Promise me. Promise that you are beyond death.

Diana: Geez, okay mom, I’m beyond death. 

Some suit guy taps the two on their shoulders. They guy has some pretty wacky uncombed hair for a man in black. He’s also speaking in a thick, deep-voiced californian accent.

Slacker Suit Guy: Uh, so we’re about to take off, guys. If you could all get in-

Alex: We’re staying.

Slacker: Huh. Oh, dude, okay, you’re the guys.

Wren: … Yeah? I think? Pretty, pretty vague phrasing?

Slacker: Alright, well. Good luck. 

Terrance: Hey, Wren, you take care of Deen and Antimony, okay?

Wren: They’re pretty self-sufficient, sir. But, you know. I will do my best. Take care of them. Yeah.

Antimony: We will take care of her as well. And each other.

Sam: We kinda all look out for each other. 

Terrance smiles.

Terrance: That’s good, man. That’s good. Keep each other safe. 

Danielle: And I will get you all food once this is over! 

Slacker: Okay, we gotta go. 

The two head into the helicopter, and the copters begin their roaring preparations to take off.

Okay. Okay! What now? 

FIND THAT CLONE OF RYAN==>

You need a copy of Ryan, probably. Or, an Apostate at least. And since your current one is all Evil And Stuff, well, you’ll take a pre-character-development-Ryan over a crazy evil basement demon Ryan. You glance over at the copse of trees ahead and to your left, and see a faint red light coming from it. There!

YOU: I think we should pursue that clone of Ryan.

Sam: Yeah, we need an Apostate.

Diana: Yes. I genuinely feel bad for him, you know?

Antimony: He is… A sixteen year old kid. He looks so… So little, and so young. I think I might feel, like, a motherly impulse?

Alex: Well, he is kind of getting away. So. We might want to do something about that?

You gear up to start running, and then you are running. All of you. Into the trees. You call Ryan’s name, scanning the woods for the clone. The faint red light is a pretty helpful indicator of where you need to go. Antimony is still hovering, so fortunately she’s able to keep up with your group without being carried. It still upsets you that you couldn’t truly, fully heal her. Something about trauma inflicted by Apophis. It’s like he abides by separate narrative laws from you or something. It shouldn’t upset you so much but… There’s one person in the world that you cannot heal. Covered in scars you can’t heal, walking with a limp you, again, cannot heal. It drives you crazy. 

YOU: Ryan! Come back! We’re going to help you, I promise!

Ryan-Clone: LEEMEE LONE!!!

Wren: Ryan, you don’t have to do this alone! I know what you’ve gone through is terrible, but we could really use your help in knowing what to expect!

Ryan-Clone: Yean, I’m sure you really COULD use me!

Wren: Ok, that’s not fair!

Diana stops suddenly, and your group kind of collides into itself. She grabs Wren’s shoulder, and looks at her, pale and sweaty.

Sam: Dude… You alright?

Diana: Uhh. No? Sudden rush of Seer-level dread? Something is going to happen.

Alex: Oh Jeez :/ 

Diana: Ughhh

Alex: Antimony, are you-

Antimony: Consider the subtleness of the sea.

Wren: What?

Antimony’s eyes are glowing green, no pupils in sight. Her face is in an almost skeletal grin.

Ryan-Clone: Is she okay?

Antimony: How its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.

Alex: She’s quoting Moby Dick too? Do you guys have meetings where you work out your cryptic behavior to ensure it remains consistent? Before you-

Diana: OW!!! MY BRAIN!!!

Wren: Honey, are you-?

It happens again. A clawing feeling in your stomach. You’re being pelted by hail. It’s getting very, very dark. Water is flowing up to your ankles, which is a little worrying… You look back and see the water flowing up from the shore. Wind tears through your hair. 

Sam is saying something, but you can't hear anything. The sky is black. You hear something… Oh! It’s you, screaming.

The Ryan-Clone is running back towards your group, a look of terror on his face. He enters the crowd with the hope of avoiding any threat, probably. The supernatural terror consuming your groups seems to lighten slightly.

Wren: Apophis is getting out, isn’t He? Uh… Diana, are you alright?

Diana: Yes… Uhm. Antimony? Are you-?

Antimony: ONE REVOLTS. FIVE FIGHT. ARMIES BECOME DUST BECOMES SAND BECOMES GLASS. THE WORM IS FREED. EVERYTHING I SAID WAS TRUE. THE TRAITOR MADE HIS TREACHERY KNOWN. THE ORACLE HAS FALLEN. THE APOSTATE HAS REVOLTED. ONE WAS BLINDED, KNIGHT, BUT ONE WATCHES. AND NOW, NOW THE SKY WEEPS. NOW THE SUN SETS. 

She turns to you, eyes aglow, grinning like mad. Her voice is a monotone shriek, and a peal of mad laughter escapes her.

Antimony: AND NOW, NOW YOU STAND. LEANING TOWERS. SIX, SIX IS FOR THE DEAD. YOU UNDERSTAND NOW. FIGHT. 

Antimony falls on her face. Wren picks her up.

Wren: I… I think she’s unconscious! 

Sam: Aw man…

Alex: I guess that prophecy she gave us all those years ago was pretty helpful… You know. In retrospect. Now that we’re capable of understanding what she said.

Sam: Huh yeah. Still uh, not exactly helpful in the moment. Too cryptic

YOU: That seems to be a running theme -_-

The clone of Ryan looks at you shakily.

Ryan-Clone: I’m, I’m sorry I ran, and yelled at you, I’m just… It’s been a lot. As far as I can remember, I was just a kid, and… and now you’re all adults, and I’m not the real me, and I’m so, so tired, and so hungry and I want to go home, but I can’t probably-

Wren hugs him tightly, and he makes a face that indicates to you that he is trying very hard not to cry.

Wren: You’re okay. You’re okay.

Ryan-Clone: Please don’t touch me. I can’t… I can’t handle it.

Wren lets go of him, and he steps away from her. You’re struck by how young he looks.

Ryan-Clone: I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I’m such a screw-up, and that I hurt you all when I was younger. And that the real me probably kept hurting you. And that I’m going to hurt you in the future, if I even live long enough. I wish I could just be someone else.

Diana: Maybe you can!

Ryan-Clone: What?

Diana: After Antimony and I split, she developed an identity of her own! We’re no longer in synchronicity, and you are not in sync with Ryan either, kid! Your life, your future… It is your own to live! 

Ryan-Clone: Uh… 

Diana: You should give yourself a new name! It could be anything! That is what Antimony did!

Wren: Yeah, me too.

Ryan-Clone: Uhh

YOU: Me too. Just. Throwing that out there.

Sam: And you chose well.

This clone of Ryan needs a new name! You, the readers, can submit one!

~~

Um we are approaching the end of chapter two of act three :O

I started reading this from the very begining...but there is 700 comments and I probably couldn't read it all in time! I really want to "join" so could you please summarize it for me?? Thank you :)!