#hoping next year i can do more pattern background stuff and maybe some more pixels

[sammy-witha-c]

Obligatory Artfight post with some of my favs I did for team Bloom! I had a load of fun this year, really excited to be nearly finished haha. Here’s the credits from top to bottom, left to right, character / piece name to owner(check these people out! they’re super talented).

Besties lineup: @profcarrot on here

Oak and Alden: @spooqy-squary on here

Makana: rhys-sand on Artfight

Metao, Hollis, and Gray: @marblebrains on here

Berry and Jam: @dustandmarbles on here

Brook: Kuleaya on Artfight

[crazy-loca-blog]

Personal thoughts on Bachelorette Party, Ch. 6

Note: As the title says, these are just personal opinions on Choices books and chapters. Of course, you may agree or disagree with them, I only use this platform to express my thoughts on what I read every week and what I’d like to see in the next chapters, because none of my friends play Choices so I have no one to comment the books with.

I’m a little heartbroken, I must admit it. I’ve been all about defending, helping and protecting Aisha because life hasn’t been easy for her and that’s something that annoys me in real life as well as in a pixelated story. Even though the scape scene was hilarious and I can totally imagine my MC running through the Strip in her underwear without many people noticing it (it made me remember my own experience of walking along the Strip in my slippers because my feet hurt… and it was so perfect… until I was entering the casino and saw my favorite singer coming right in my direction… I was so embarrassed, but he just told me “that’s clever! those are the comfiest shoes!”), I’m disappointed with the overall situation. I suspected that she was hiding something, so the fact that the Norwegian mafia was the receptor of the case didn’t surprise me that much. However, it did surprise me that Aisha knew the case had to be delivered the day before and she didn’t say a word about it… and she didn’t even made a minimal effort to find it. Instead, she spent the day partying at the casinos. It’s the freaking mafia, Aisha!

Despite this bitter moment, there were two things that I truly liked about this case drama. The first one was the sense of real friendship. You may see how at first they all are mad at Aisha (who wouldn’t be mad at this?) but after a while, when everyone calms down, we may see them doing what a friend is supposed to do: offering help. They want Aisha to get out of the place where she is now, and I’m pretty sure they really mean it (on a side note, I’m wondering if Skip and his conservative family know that one of Di’s best friends is trans and how/if this revelation may affect their engagement and the plot in future chapters). And the second one… Priya… just because it’s always a pleasure to see her twisted mind trying to get new victims.

Maybe it’s because I was already disappointed with Aisha’s behavior, or because last chapter’s scenes with Aisha or Reed were pretty good, but I also expected more of the scene with Ash. It was really nice to understand his background and why he ended up becoming a hustler. At the same time, it was sad to see that he feels kind of hopeless, and that apparently there are too many people who have promised him things they seem to forget after they leave Vegas. But I missed having something for me to think “wow, he’s a great LI” instead of thinking “wow, he’s definitely BFF material and my MC gives some great pep talks… I hope she can convince him to leave his lifestyle”.

I’ve been noticing a pattern in PB latest releases and I don’t know if I’m the only one who feels like this… have you noticed how they seem to drag things as much as possible, sometimes in very unnecessary ways? Unfortunately, Bachelorette Party is beginning to follow this premise. It’s been at least two or three chapters where I feel like nothing truly important happens. Skip supposedly took a plane like two chapters ago and we still haven’t seen him. We also have two “things to do in Vegas” lists and we haven’t checked any items on any of them since I can’t even remember.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think the book is fun. But I also need the story to keep moving, and now it seems like it’s stuck. Do you wonder why new books such as Platinum and Open Heart and sequels such as Bloodbound 2 have been so successful this year? It’s exactly because those books do the opposite… they go straight to the point! That’s why they leave us wanting more! And Bachelorette Party has so much potential, that it would be sad to see it gets lost in some unnecessary stuff.

[flying-guinea-pig]

Season Finale 4/7

AO3 linky

The previous chapters.

Chapter 4: The Upper Levels

Don't split up. That was the first rule of horror movies. And what did they do? They split up.

She kept her eyes open for anything strange. What did a regular oil rig look like, anyway? Maybe they all had those bands of spidery runes crawling over the ceiling, could be part of the stabilisation spells, right?

Oh. False alarm. It was just cracked paint.

“According to the blueprints, the main computer room should be this way,” Tenney said.

[Ooh!] the Alcor Virus perked up. [Yes, let’s go there!]

Tenney glanced at her over his shoulder. “If you insist on playing with your phone, Ms Adams, at least have the decency to turn off the sound.”

“Apologies,” she said, turning down the volume.

[Did you really expect that to work on me?] The pixelated Alcor asked. He tapped a finger on his chin, then nodded. [But okay. I’ll allow it.]

“How gracious of you,” she muttered, as the words crawled across her screen without those annoying noises.

"Do you think the computers will still work?" April asked.

"Perhaps," Tenney said. "I doubt they will be very informative, however. According to the official report, what little data they could get from them was all scrambled beyond understanding."

"Oh," April said. She hesistated. "Too bad. It would have been nice to have, I don't know, some camera footage perhaps? Old pictures?"

Tenney patted her shoulder, his smile compassionate and heartening. It didn't escape Elisabeth's notice how he made sure to keep his face in full view of the camera guy.

"We can always try," he said. "Perhaps they didn't put much effort in it, since there was already enough evidence of a cult gone wrong. And a lot of progress has been made in sixty years."

[Challenge accepted,] her phone added, vibrating to catch her attention.

"But I have another motive to go this way," Tenney said. "Ah, there it is. Steve, if you will?"

He led them to a room that was barely worth the name. Three massive mechanical things filled it from wall to wall, leaving barely enough room for Steve to squeeze past them. He put the camera down and fiddled for a moment with the machines. They started to hum.

"Voila," Tenney said, and flipped the light switch with flair. Light, cold white and buzzing faintly, flooded the corridor.

"Generators," April laughed, just as Elisabeth realised the same. "That will make exploring the lower levels a lot easier. If all the lights still work down there."

The room next to this one had windows, looking out over the platform and the growing waves. It also had computers, dusty and old-fashioned.

[Put me on top of one,] the Alcor Virus asked, jumping up and down on the screen with excitement.

"Why?" she said. Whispering, since the others were distracted by the view through the windows, but maybe not distracted enough to miss how she was arguing with her phone again.

[No connection, wireless or otherwise,] the chibi Alcor said. [Hasn't been one in ages, I bet. Feels a bit like gravedigging, doesn't it? This is so cool.]

"No, I meant why as in why should I?" The last thing they needed was a demonic virus playing around with the electronics. This place was haunted already, let's not make it any worse.

[I could just jump there anyway, if you don't mind the showy fireworks when I do. You don't mind, right? Fireworks are awesome.]

She glared at his smug smile. Oh look, this room had windows. Open window. Drop phone. Probably wouldn't get rid of him for long, but it would make her feel better...

[Aw, come on... please?]

Those pixelated puppy eyes were truly ridiculous.

The computer started booting up the second she put her phone down on the bulky screen. There was a gasp from behind her.

"Look!" April was staring at the screen. Strings of numbers were scrolling past. "It just... started, all on its own."

"Ah, yes," Tenney said. "This place knows you, my dear. This is clearly the work of a spirit."

"Clearly," Elisabeth muttered.

The screen switched to a desktop. It was relatively empty, with only a few files and a calender sidebar. The background didn't offer much of a clue either, being a random picture of the sea.

Seriously now, what kind of cult didn't even use their demon's symbol as a background? It had to be somewhere!

April made an hesistant movement towards the computer. “Should I- ?”

At Tenney’s nod she sat down. A speck of white pixels appeared in the center of the screen, a blob that grew until it overtook the entire desktop.

[Hello April,] black letters crawled across the white screen.

April gasped.

[We're so glad to finally meet you.]

[There is much you need to know.]

Text and graphs started flashing on the screen, so many it was just a blur of data, before the acrid smell of burned plastic drifted from the computer case and the screen went black again.

Tenney pressed the power button, to no avail.

“Interesting,” he said. “Steve, you got a good view of the screen, I hope? Make sure Monifa gets it and decrypts it.”

“Will do, sir. I’m sending it right now.”

“It looked like… mathematical formulas,” April said, still blinking at the screen. “All those symbols and numbers… Why would they show this to me?”

Tenney patted her back. “I don’t know, Ms Merrick, but if your ancestors go to such lenghts to share it with you, it must be important.”

“Or it’s gibberish,” Elisabeth said. “It could be anything. Your great-grandmothers recipe for stuffed turkey or something.”

“Ghosts don’t expend their strenght sending meaningless messages, Ms Adams,” Tenney said.

Sure, maybe ghosts didn’t. But the Alcor Virus?

She gave Tenney a curt nod – no use in arguing about this, especially since she really didn’t want anyone to know about her possessed phone – and shot the latter a suspicious look as they left the control room.

"That was you, wasn't it?"

[You’ll have to be more specific. What are you talking about?]

"I swear, I'm this close to throwing you overboard."

[Go ahead,] the chibi Alcor grinned. [I'm already in the building. See?]

The lights flickered on and off, in a regular pattern, like heartbeats.

[Whoever these cultists were, they really liked their electronics! Can’t really go deeper than the seventh floor down, though. There’s something blocking me.]

Elisabeth nearly bumped into the others, who’d slowed down when the lights flickered.

April was pale as a ghost herself, clearly rethinking this whole plan to go hunting for her dead relatives’ spirits.

“Have no fear,” Tenney said. He patted April’s shoulder. “This place is watching you, my dear. But you are safe with me.”

Elisabeth made a face as she followed them. An abandoned, probably leaky metal contraption in the middle of a raging sea, with a demonic computer virus and a bunch of ghosts for company. Sure. Safe.

The ‘raging sea’ bit was no exaggeration, unfortunately. A glance out of the portholes showed white-tipped waves under a sky that fit pretty well with Elisabeth’s current mood.

"I don't like the look of those clouds," Steve said, pausing to stand next to her.

She shrugged. Between ghosts and a demon, the weather was the least of her concerns.

"You don't talk much, do you?"

She frowned. "Neither do you."

Steve shrugged, his smile rueful. "It's Tenney's show. I just hold the camera."

“Shouldn’t you go and do that, then, instead of bothering me about the weather?”

He held up his hands in mock surrender. “I’m just saying. We’re not just here to look around. We’re here to make television. So, you know. At least try to participate.”

“I have nothing to add yet,” she said, a bit prickly. “There is nothing demonic going on here.” Her phone vibrated in her pocket. “Nothing demonic at all.”

Steve shook his head. “Fine. Be that way. It’s your job on the line, not mine.”

What was that supposed to mean? Hugh wouldn’t fire her for something like this! Would he? She hadn’t signed up for being an actress, she was an exorcist! And if her boss dared to hold this against her, well –

She took a deep breath. That camera guy was just trying to push her buttons. These kind of reality shows always hungered for drama, didn’t they? And if there wasn’t any, they’d cut and paste their footage enough to manufacture some. She wasn’t going to take this bait, damn it.

[I’m deciphering those files from the computer,] the chibi Alcor said. [They’re encrypted in so many ways! These guys were really paranoid.]

Not paranoid enough to stay alive, it seemed.

Steve was still watching her. Elisabeth kept her eyes on her phone and typed: ‘Anything I need to know? Re: demon?’

Typing worked. That was good to know. Now she could look a little less crazy.

[Nothing yet. This symbol does pop up a lot, but it could be part of the encryption. Still working that one out!]

The screen flashed her an image of something that resembled a flattened X.

[I’m running a few dozen decoder programs right now, just need to find what key they used.]

The pixelated face beamed at her. It seemed just as excited as Alcor was, whenever he was faced with some kind of mystery to unravel.

‘Try Xuerus,’ she suggested.

[… You really have no high regard of cultists, do you?] the Alcor Virus said. [Usually I would agree, but these guys were clever! I never had trouble with deciphering stuff before.]

She slid her phone back into her pocket. At least the Alcor Virus wouldn’t bother her too much, if he was busy with those files. And who knew? Maybe he would find something useful.

“Ah, the mess hall,” Tenney said, at an open doorway at the end of the corridor. “Steve, up front please.”

They waited for Steve to take some shots of the room before entering themselves. The place was a mess, indeed. Benches and long tables. Rotted scraps of cloth littering the floor, the remains of napkins or table cloth or who knew what else.

“Oh,” April said, touching the cracked sheet of plastic on the wall. "There's a bulletin board.”

Age had faded most of the messages. She could make out some numbers and dates - a calender of some kind, probably. In the lower left corner there were two drawings, faded as everything else, but still recognizably made by children. One was just a mass of scribbles. The other depicted blue curls and a black blob in the middle, stick figures on top of it, blue clouds in the sky.

"People lived here," April said, softly. She reached out and touched the drawings. "Children lived here. And then everyone died."

"Your grandmother survived," Tenney said.

"Yes. But by pure coincidence." April took a trembling breath. “I’m sorry, I knew this was going to be difficult but I thought I’d be stronger than this...”

Tenney slid an arm over her shoulders. “Completely understandable, my dear. These people were your family. Do you need a moment to collect yourself?”

April wordlessly shook her head, and Tenney let her be.

They found the kitchen - as deserted as everything else, and with the musty, dusty smell of food that had rotted away a long time ago. From there they went on to old living quarters, tiny bedrooms and communal break rooms.

It was hard to miss the little touches of life, here. The pictures on the walls, the dusty music player. A book had been left on a sitting table, its spine cracked, open and waiting for its reader to return.

Elisabeth carefully removed some of the dust on it. You never know, maybe it was some book on demons, anything that could give a clue about this Xuerus they worshipped.

But no, it was a novel. Just some old romance novel she'd never heard of. Someone had been reading this before leaving it behind, too hurried to put a proper bookmark inside.

"Can I ask you a question?" April said, breaking the silence that followed them into the abandoned rooms.

"Depends," Elisabeth said. "What do you want to ask?"

"Why did you decide to go into demonology?"

She shrugged. Why indeed? No one in her family had meddled with demons, and she had no traumatic tales or - god forbid - Twin Souls obsession to blame for her choice.

"I guess, because I was tired of people being stupid," she said.

April smiled. "You wanted to help people."

Well, yes. Wasn't that the point of everything? "Obviously. Even ignoring cults for a minute, there are way too many demon summonings performed by idiots. They set things loose in this world that are a danger to everyone. We can't let those run around freely." She frowned. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm just wondering," April said, her smile turning bittersweet. "What would bring someone to think demon summoning is a good idea."

"Don't compare me to a cult."

"I'm not, I swear. I know it's different. But don't you think... could this be how they got started? Good intentions, that somehow spiralled out of control?"

"Maybe." Elisabeth didn't really believe it though. You had to be pretty crazy to start a cult. "You know what they say about the road to Hell."

"Paved with good intentions," April said, quietly.

A bit like trying to save your classmate-slash-rival from a demonic possession by revealing it on stage. She cringed at the memory. That had been a bad move. Good intentions, but... not the brightest thing she could've done.

On the other hand, her exorcism had worked, even if only for a second. On the Dreambender himself! It had been a good lesson for her - shows you can get the upper hand on even the most powerful of beings - if you could manage to catch them off guard.

It had also taught her that a large room full of everyone's loved ones probably wasn't the best place to mess around with demons, but to be fair, she wasn't the only one to make that mistake and at least no one had died in her case. These cultists had been less lucky.

Well, there hadn't been any proof yet that these cultists had been murdered by their demon, but really, how big were the odds they all mysteriously died by some other, unrelated cause?

As she looked around though, she noticed more and more signs that whatever had happened, hadn't been part of the plans. There was a bowl of something fuzzy and grey on the table, overgrowing the spoon next to it. A chair had been tipped back. In one of the bathrooms a towel was abandoned haphazardly on the floor, moldy clothes stacked next to the sink.

The current theory seemed more and more unlikely. If the cult had died because of some big summoning that went wrong… well, big summonings didn’t just happen. They needed preparation. you’d expect everyone in the cult to be present for an event like that, wouldn’t you?

Unless something had come through before they were ready for it. In which case it could have been any demon, not necessarily this mysterious Xuerus no one knew about.

Great. This wasn’t confusing enough already. Not that it really mattered, of course. It had been sixty years. Whichever demon was responsible, it would be long gone by now.

---

They took a short break in the mess hall, where Steve cleared a table to do some light maintenance on his camera. The image turned fuzzy sometimes, which really shouldn’t happen. Maybe some settings were off…

“Some flickering lights and a mysterious computer message,” Tenney filled in Francesca on the other end of the phone. “Monifa should be deciphering it now. I expect there’s been some progress with programs like that… How about on your end, anything? Disappointing. Very well, we’ll - no, no, I was actually thinking we’d head down and meet you there. Steve needs to fix his camera – can you repeat that? The line’s breaking up – Wonderful. I lost the connection. Steve, you need to get this fixed.”

“I’ll do my best, sir.” Steve hesitated. “What are the plans? Are we going to reconvene with Francesca’s team?”

“Not yet,” Tenney said. “I told her to go ahead and wait for us on the sixth level down. Smaller groups, that’s the key. There’s so little spiritual activity here, they might get spooked and remain quiet if we’re all together.” He glanced at April. “I doubt they’ll get more than ambiance shots, actually. They don’t have you, my dear, and you seem to be the trigger.”

“Oh,” April said. “I, um, was just wondering if I could use the bathroom, but maybe I shouldn’t go alone then…”

“I’ll go with you,” Adams said. “There should be one next to the kitchen here.”

“Of course, of course,” Tenney waved them away. “But be careful, and don’t wander.”

Adams gave him a deadpan look. “I doubt there’ll be many ghosts haunting bathrooms. But don’t worry, we’ll scream if anything happens.”

As soon as the door fell closed behind them, Tenney turned to Steve and gave the suble hand signal to turn off their cameras.

That never boded well.

Tenney started pacing between the tables, keeping a wary eye on the door towards the bathroom.

"We've been burned on this arrangement," he said.

"We have, sir?"

"We were promised a strong haunting. But there's barely anything here."

Yes, that sinking feeling in his stomach was very familiar. "Are you sure, sir? We’ve come across a spirit already -"

"A mere category one!" Tenney said, with an angry gesture. "Playing around with the lights - that's not the material we need. This is our season finale, Steve. We need something big! Something impressive!"

"We haven't gone very deep yet, sir, maybe in the lower levels, where the bodies are -"

"Yes, yes, I know. There could be stronger spirits there," Tenney said, impatiently. "But if there are category ones hanging around... You know the odds as well as I do. I doubt we will find anything higher than a four, maybe a five if we're lucky. Nearly a hundred and fifty people died here. That kind of brutal murder should have at least spawned a category nine!"

Tenney bared his teeth, his famous smile now a dark grimace. "No, we've been duped. We should have known this would be the case. It's the demon's fault. It must have eaten the souls. And what's left is just echoes. Easily removed. And perhaps a handful of category ones, up here."

That possibility had crossed their minds before, of course. Eating souls was what demons did, and without a soul - or at least a fragment of a soul - it was very difficult to get ghosts of an impressive power level. But with such a large number of deaths, and the fact no one had heard about Xuerus afterwards, which definitely should have happened if the demon had gotten such a power boost... And the malfunctioning drones, of course... Well, it all pointed to a powerful haunting. It should have been.

"And this will not do," Tenney said, determination clouding his face. "It will not do at all."

Steve knew where this was going. And it was really, really illegal. "Sir, perhaps we should take a look in the lower levels before making any hasty conclusions.”

It wouldn't work - he knew his boss - but he had to try.

"I can't sense anything from down below, Steve."

"Maybe -"

"Are you telling me my senses are wrong?"

Oh boy. That sweet tone was usually only aimed at Francesca these days. "Of course not, sir."

"Good," Tenney said. "I've been in this business longer than you can imagine, my boy. If there was something above category five down there, I would know."

He clasped his hands behind his back as he turned to the porthole, to the grey sky and foam-flecked waves. "You have the equipment?"

"Sir..."

"We need at least a category eight if we want our ratings to hold. You know what low ratings mean. No season three."

Steve nodded. He had the equipment. He always did, even if some of it could land him in jail. Preternaturals didn't like it if you walked around with powdered banshee tongue and ingredients like that. That's why Tenney didn't keep it on his own person.

"Good," Tenney said, when Steve took the little container with highly illegal things out of the hidden compartment in his camera bag. "Distract the girls for a few minutes, will you? This episode is going to be talked about for years."