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snarktheater · 2 years

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Ready Player Two — Chapter 30 & "Continue?"

We open the final chapter of the book with an act of nepotism, where Wade revives his friends' avatars, as well as the Low Five, but not all the other people whose avatars got zeroed out by Anorak's acolytes.

“The next time Lo and her friends logged back in, they would discover that their slain avatars had been restored to life, along with their inventories. They would also find their inboxes filled with offers to buy the film rights to their story. By the end of the week, there would be several Quest for the Dorkslayer movie and TV projects in development.”

There's just something scrumptious about assuring us that they'll be able to profit off of this as a reward for helping Wade. This book may have tried to awkwardly fit in a power of friendship angle, but it strikes me as though that friendship is extremely mercenary.

Samantha catches up with him at the Shrine of Leucosia, and they bring the shards together to reform the Siren's Soul, which then quickly turns into Leucosia herself. Also, the narration shifts between calling her Leucosia and Kira, and I guess we're just gonna have to accept that and move on.

“I know you both must have a lot of questions for me,” Kira said. “But first, I need to ask one of my own. Where is my husband? Is he still alive?”

So Wade and Samantha recount everything that happened, assuring her that Ogden died to save millions of lives. Lives that apparently weren't in danger at all—they just confirmed that to us in the last chapter. Leucosia takes it well, because no one in this book is allowed to grieve.

“Thank you, dear,” she said, turning her face away to hide the anguish on it. “I am proud of him. And I always will be. He was my Og.”

Well, really, he was Kira's Og, but I'm starting to realize the book has already made up its mind about the question of whether or not Leucosia and Kira are the same person and landed on a resounding yes.

Leucosia then…starts infodumping us about how Halliday made these user brain scans to create Anorak and then herself. None of this is new information, so I'm not really sure why this is here. In your final chapter. Your conclusion. That sure is a choice.

“I was actually the world’s first stable artificial intelligence. And I guess I still am.”

Yeah, apparently the only reason Anorak got corrupted is that Halliday tried to tamper with his memories, and otherwise he would have been stable? I have some serious doubts about that, given all we know about the man.

She keeps going through all the things Anorak already told us, and finally concludes that while Halliday using the ONI to relive Kira's memories was the "ultimate invasion of privacy" (her words), ultimately it was also what allowed him to understand her and see her as a person. So in the final chapter, I think the book is trying to find a silver lining to Halliday's creepy behavior. Which, again. Sure is a choice. And more than a little telling.

“Then he was horrified by what he’d done. He saw himself as a monster. He apologized to me. He also offered to try to make it up to me.”

Well, no, first he offered to destroy his technology to ensure no more of these AIs would be created. But of course, the book has already decided the technology was good, so instead, she told him to share it with the world, and Halliday's the one who argued the world wasn't ready for it.

You know, I'm starting to get the impression Halliday just wanted to make toys for himself.

And so, after that, Halliday made it up to Leucosia by…locking her up and broke the prison into seven shards? Yeah, that's roughly it. She insists it was his idea, though she gave her blessing for the inclusion of the flashbacks that Wade got. And it doesn't seem like it bothered her at all to be locked away for short of a decade.

So yeah, Leucosia gives Wade the "Rod of Resurrection", which allows him to make copies of anyone. Even though she just said the point was to release the gift to the world, arguing that thanks to the ONI, people realized that, and I quote, "the mind and body are separate". But then only one guy gets the ability. Leucosia also tells him not to worry about potentially creating more rogue AIs, because Anorak was "corrupted" and the tech is totally safe, now.

What happened to not trusting AIs? I didn't like that part of the book, but is it too much to ask for some ideological consistency in your science fiction?

“James told me he wanted to make sure of this, so he built safeguards into the software to ensure it. Only a user’s most recent unaltered UBS file can be used. When you give it a try, you’ll see what I mean….”

UBS stands for User Brain Scan. It was mentioned in the prologue, and I don't think I mentioned it at the time, but yeah, the ONI has been recording and storing those without users' knowledge all along for this exact purpose. Like, the copies are essentially already made; all Wade has to do is bring them to life.

This includes the logs of any deceased user of the ONI, by the way. Wade sees it as a blessing, the ability to bring back the dead, even though they have no way of consenting to that. Actually, no one has been able to consent to this yet. Didn't we just talk about how Halliday doing it to Kira was a bad thing?

Oh, but it means that, since Ogden used an ONI headset in his last battle, he can be brought back. You know, despite never wanting to interact with Leucosia, I'm sure he'd totally approve of this. Yeah. Makes perfect sense.

I could clone the living or raise the dead, with the press of a button.

Ignoring for a second that this isn't actually raising the dead…you'd think this wouldn't be something you'd save for the end of your book. A book whose exploration of the topic has been extremely sparse, and mostly consisted of saying "don't" over and over.

My mind reeled at the implications. Were people going to suffer an identity crisis if they were suddenly forced to share the OASIS with an immortal backup copy of themselves? One that didn’t need to eat, sleep, work, or pay rent anywhere?

Gee, that sounds like an interesting quandary that a better science fiction book would have explored, rather than wasting most of its page count on pop culture trivia. Though the "pay rent" part is funny to me, because from everything we know about the OASIS, there would absolutely be someone who would eventually force these AIs to pay rent. And that someone has a high likelihood of being Wade himself.

But no, while Wade "reels at the implications", he immediately decides that this is effectively immortality made accessible to everyone, and goes on to immediately resurrect Ogden. Well, Og, since that's his avatar's name.

Og…doesn't seem to have any thoughts about any of this beyond "holy shit, my wife is here, gotta kiss her right this second". See? He's fine with it! The book said so! It goes contrary to everything we know about him, and lack of consent would still not be justified because the person is fine with the result, but it's fine! Don't worry about it!

“This thing can bring back anyone who ever used an ONI headset,” I told her. “Even if they’re not alive anymore.” […] “You can bring back a copy of any past ONI user?” she repeated.

Yes, that's right: remember how Samantha was still grieving her dead grandmother? Well Wade brings her back too! It's a digital necromancy party, baby! Moral quandaries averted!

Witnessing these two impossible, blissful reunions filled me with joy too. Genuine, unbridled joy. And I wasn’t playing back an ONI recording of secondhand joy experienced by someone else, somewhere else, at some time in the past. It was my own, hard-won and earned at great personal cost.

This is such a weird statement I have to include it here. I don't have any comments here. I just wanted you to know this is how Wade talks about feeling emotions. But yeah, sure, the ONI is an unabashed good.

He also angsts about how his parents and all the people who died before the ONI would still remain dead, but since he will live forever, their memories will live on as well.

We were witnessing the dawn of the posthuman era. The Singularity by way of simulacra and simulation. One final gift to human civilization from the troubled-but-brilliant mind of James Donovan Halliday. He had delivered all of us unto this digital paradise, but his own tragic flaws had prevented him from passing through its gates himself.

And there it is. Our thesis statement—or as close as the book's gonna come to. Okay, it's time for the transhumanism talk, part two.

Here's the thing: the idea of transhumanism, of humanity transcending their physical form, is one that I personally find very appealing. I'm not going to say I'm an expert on the subject, or one of the top thinkers. However, there are a few ways this "posthuman" version that the book proposes falls short, and they all come down to one big flaw. Ironically, that flaw happens to also be something that, of all books, Ready Player One exposed succinctly.

“I need to tell you one last thing before I go. Something I didn’t figure out for myself until it was already too late. […] I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world. […] Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it’s also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real. Do you understand?”

Look, just because the previous book didn't earn that quote in its own narrative doesn't mean I can't use it now.

But yes, the point is this: reality…exists. I know, I know, you can dig up schools of philosophy that will argue otherwise, and then you have the jerkoffs who will say "but what if this is also a simulation?" But it strikes me as though the simulation folks can be split into two categories: those that just want to impress their audience by how mind-blowingly advanced their opinions are, and those that want to use this as an excuse to do nothing about the state of the world. You know, kind of like a certain Wade Watts here.

Unfortunately, the burden of proof is on you, and until you can prove that this world is not significantly more real than a simulation running on computers in this world, I'm not buying it. I mean, if the OASIS servers (or the Arcadia servers, because I'm sure we're headed in that direction) get smashed, shut down, hit by an EMP, or any other kind of damage, your immortality ends. Right there. Clearly, one reality is at least quantifiably realer than the other.

There's another problem, of course. I've been harping on this since the concept was first introduced, but this…isn't immortality. What's amazing about transhumanism to me is the idea of transcending the limitations of the human bodies, but here you are, claiming you're bringing people back from the dead, when in fact, Kira and Ogden Morrow and Evelyn Cook are in fact still dead. You just made a copy. So you really didn't transcend that limit known as "death". And since they live in a simulation, they in fact have a lot more limitations, as exemplified by Anorak needing a goon to do his dirty work.

But really, I want to harp on this transfer of consciousness aspect, and circle back to doing nothing to help the world. Because…that's where this is going, isn't it? Wade will grant immortality to humanity after they die as a way to justify doing nothing to improve their physical condition here and now. Why fix climate change? We can just bring everyone into Arcadia, fire off the Vonnegut's engines and fly off into space!

If this sounds eerily like how Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos talk about space colonization, that's because it's the exact same thing, with the added twist that Wade isn't even bringing actual colonists with him, except for frozen fetuses and maybe a dozen people. He's bringing the dead with him.

It's fitting, really, that the book would describe Halliday as a sinner bringing the rest of humanity to paradise. A quasi-messianic figure, come to Earth to die for our sins and deliver us unto Judgment Day, that we may be freed from this world and ascend to a better one. I don't know for a fact that Cline is one of those Christian branches that not only believe in the Apocalypse, but believe it's coming soon—actually I kinda got the impression he was an atheist? But regardless of his actual personal spirital beliefs, this is very much an example of how Christian theology permeates society not just as a matter of fact, but as a deliberate justification for wealthy people to do nothing to materially improve the living conditions of the rest of the world. Because the true salvation comes after death, didn't you know?

A propos of nothing, here's a video about Christian nationalism in the United States

So yeah, this is the failure of this book's philosophy. Not that there's something inherently bad about transhumanism, or about shedding your human form. It's that it's taking that concept, and using it as a justification to detach from the real world, and in particular from helping other people. When in fact, being able to occupy a form that's more durable and more suited to experience and help the world is exactly what would make transhumanism, you know, good. And also why it probably would never happen in reality.

For fuck's sake, "a character makes a database of all the dead across humanity so they can be brought back as AIs and maybe, like, occupy robots in the real world someday" is the plot of a Doctor Who episode. Literally, it's the series 8 finale of the reboot, Death In Heaven. And guess what: it was the villain's plan! Because it's a villainous thing to do? But here it's presented as salvation?

Holy fuck, the book isn't even over yet. Shoto and Aech join the party with their wives, who I just realized haven't even been characters in the book. They still aren't, by the way—they're mentioned but don't actually say or do anything in the scene.

No, instead the High Five—Og included—decide to have a meeting to decide what to do about these digitized humans. Apparently they all agree these are the real person, brought back from the dead, but decide that humanity at large isn't ready to accept it. You know, the thing Halliday did. Halliday, the guy we spent the entire guy deconstructing? We're just going to repeat his actions at the end.

Oh, but it gets worse.

Eventually, if humanity survived long enough, the world might acclimate to this new paradigm. […] Og and Kira didn’t want to wait around and find out. Neither did Ev3lyn or Samantha. And I wasn’t willing to risk it either. […] Luckily, I already had a fully formed plan—a way for the AIs to coexist with us in peace and safety, forever. […] And I knew it was a good plan, because Anorak had apparently thought so too. But unlike him, we actually managed to pull it off.

That's right. Did you really think that "let's all turn into AIs" was the final stage of abandoning humanity to its own doom? Did you forget about the part where Wade still has a fully-operational spaceship?

And this is where we get to "Continue?", which serves as the book's epilogue. This shifts us to what looks at first like third person narration but isn't. More on that in a moment.

Og, Kira, and Ev3lyn all disappeared from the old, overcrowded simulation and reappeared inside the brand-new (and completely empty) one that had been prepared aboard the ship.

I find it interesting that the book can't make up its mind about whether to refer to digitized humans as their human name or avatar name. I find it more interesting that, now that another simulation exists, the formerly idyllic OASIS is already referred to as old and overcrowded. It's almost like this isn't about finding paradise, but simply about refusing to do shit to fix problems and instead continuously finding new means of escape.

You know, escapism. The thing the book supposedly decried? Now taken to literal extremes, and as the heroic choice.

Wade no longer wanted to leave Earth. Now that he and Samantha were back together, they never wanted to be apart again. Surviving their experience with Anorak also taught them that they never wanted to risk losing each other again. They vowed to remain together forever. And then they figured out a way to do just that. Since they didn’t want to send Og, Kira, and Ev3lyn off into space on their own, Wade and Samantha decided to send along copies of themselves, too, to keep them company.

You do realize that just because your copies are together forever in space, you'll still die at some point, right? And now since your copies are based on your current selves, they won't even have your future memories?

But mostly, I just don't really get when Samantha decided to forgive Wade. But yeah, she did, and not only that, she relented and used the ONI, since that's necessary to make that copy. That's right: our one voice of ideological dissent in the book, and she just decides to change her mind at the end.

The rest of the High Five also sent out copies of themselves and their wives into Arcadia. It is explicitly said to us that Wade convinced them, which I'm noting because this is what follows:

And since there was still plenty of digital storage space left aboard the Vonnegut’s computer, Wade went ahead and uploaded the entire ONI consciousness database to the ARC@DIA. Billions of digitized human souls, which were to be kept stored in suspended animation for safekeeping. Copies of L0hengrin and the other members of the L0w Five were among them.

You know. Billions of people who never got to consent to this.

Wade made one more backup scan of his own consciousness, too, right before we left, to make sure that I would remember everything that happened to him, right up until the time of our departure. And I do. Right up until that final scan, our memories were identical.

That's right: this supposed third person narration was a twist. The narrator is actually Parzival, and he's on board the Vonnegut, seeking an inhabitable planet for a bunch of frozen fetuses, all the while hanging out in Arcadia. If this is humanity's future, we are fucking doomed.

Parzival goes on to tell us what life is like, by which I mean it sounds like it's still the same, but without the physical limitations that prevented them from using the OASIS and/or the ONI-net full time.

And we’ll have one another….

Oh, yeah, be sure to tack on some lip service about human contact too.

Also, Wade did finally address the consent issue with making digital copies of people, but like…the file already exists, so I'd argue the breach of ethics has already been made, even if you don't activate it into a full digitized person. But it doesn't matter, because Wade's conclusion is to leave it up to Parzival's discretion, since he's the one who is an actual digitized person.

Except…Wade consented to becoming a digitized person when he made Parzival. So clearly his opinion is going to be biased. Shouldn't you be giving that responsibility to the ones who didn't get to choose, namely Leucosia, Og and Evelyn?

Not only are we going to live forever, we’re going to get to see some of the universe too. And since our crew is no longer organic, we didn’t have to bring along food or air, or worry about radiation shielding or micrometeors. As long as the ship’s computer or its backups survive, so will we.

What about the fetuses on board? …They're probably already dead, aren't they. I'd be surprised if they were ever viable with how shitty this whole operation was.

Parzival also updates us on the state of their human counterparts, because they're still in touch. Aech and Endira got married, Shoto had his baby Daito after all, and all the digitized crew are the baby's godparents, however that works. And yes, Wade and Samantha got married too.

Their first dance as husband and wife was an elaborate Bollywood number that they performed together. Aech and her wife, Endira, were the Best Man and the Matron of Honor, and they both joined in. The video they sent us, of the four of them dancing together in perfect synchrony, is my absolute favorite. I rewatch it every day.

You know what, sure. Why not throw that in. Bollywood dance lessons were mentioned once in the book, as one of Wade's interests, not Samantha's. So of course this is where you wrap up their relationship. It's almost like Samantha has no say in any of it.

And yeah, Samantha totally changed her mind about ONI, but Wade finally started to acknowledge its flaws and has decided to never use the ONI again. Though of course, Samantha gets a whole speech about being wrong, while Wade won't even tell us what he thinks those flaws even are. Telling to the end.

Parzival then moves on to tell us about the state of the Earth. Which is to say: nothing has changed. Arguably, things got worse.

Only a few dozen people died as a result of Anorak’s actions, nearly all of them when he crashed Samantha’s jet. The handful of others were killed by other people—murderous criminals who preyed on helpless ONI users while they were being held hostage by Anorak’s infirmware. But there wasn’t a single death caused by Synaptic Overload Syndrome. The ONI headsets hadn’t actually harmed anyone.

Yes, that's right: the ONI didn't kill people, people (including one digitized person) killed people. That's the argument we're going to leave this on.

So that's where we end the book. Earth's still fucked, but hey, we have a backup humanity now, out there in space on several redundant hard drives so it'll probably last forever. Ethical problem solved! Let's keep playing video games.

I grew up playing videogames. Now I live my whole life inside of one. That’s why I feel qualified to say that Kira Underwood was right, when she said that life was like an extremely difficult, horribly unbalanced videogame. But sometimes the game can have a surprise ending…. And sometimes, when you think you’ve finally reached the end of the game, suddenly you find yourself standing at the start of a whole new level. A level that you’ve never seen before. And the only thing you can do is keep right on playing. Because the game that is your life still isn’t over yet. And there’s no telling how far you might be able to get, what you might discover, or who you might meet when you get there.

And we get this ending narration, which is somehow even more half-assed and unrelated to anything the book actually said up to this point than the first book's ending.

Closing remarks? I'm somewhat (and somehow) disappointed that Lohengrin turned out to be such a non-entity. Like, there would probably be many bigger problems had she become an actual love interest to Wade as I first thought. Because instead, we got a character be introduced just to reassure us that yes, Wade thinks trans women are attractive now, which is honestly pretty awful too. And then her role in the story could essentially be fulfilled by any of Wade's friends with little gained or lost. What an insulting waste of a character.

And then, because I hate myself, I skimmed the acknowledgments. Turns out, Ernest Cline mentions receiving feedback from a ton of people, including Steven Spielberg and George R. R. Martin, and I'm now certain we're not living in a meritocracy.

I honestly have no words. Well, no words left. I've been bitching for almost 58 thousand words. If you still need my conclusion after all this, I've only got one thing to say to you:

I had a horrible time, thanks for asking.

#ready player two #st: ready player two #ernest cline #book review

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spongeguyandlelouchvibridankia · 5 years

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The Milo Murphy’s Law Wiki Guy AU: Balthazar Cavendish Vs The World: Chapter 6: Act 1: In The Windmills of Your Mind

“It can’t be!”, Cavendish gasped, but it was.

Above him was a ceiling of dirt and sediment, hard and strong, near inpenetrable from here.

Below him, even harder solid rock, which was ever more inmpenetrable than the ceiling.

All there was in front of him, aside from tiny pebbles and the occasional Earth worm, was a dark, spooky cavern, a path that Cavendish dared not tread, a hole to a time before, a time oft buried deep inside.

A tunnel.

It wasn’t the most impressive tunnel, truth be told; It was moldy, it was dusty, and there wasn’t a single fancy curtain or welcome mat in sight.

Why, what a refreshing change some daisy’s would do!

Alas, this tunnel was no fancy tunnel.

It was just a tunnel, one with major importance to Cavendish, but just a tunnel.

Cavendish gulped. Despite never having been here before, despite being a complete stranger to this world within the core, he somehow felt like he knew what was at the end of the tunnel.

And he desperately didn’t want to take the journey.

In fact, he didn’t need to.

Right behind him, a door opened, and oh was it inviting!

In fact, if Cavendish’s eyes were not deceiving him, a party was being held there!

Streamers, banners, and a glorious blinding light emanated from the doorway, and if his ears were as functional as his eyes, Cavendish could swear he was hearing his name being sung in celebration!

Soothing smells wafted from the door, tempting Cavendish to join in on the fun!

“Mmm mmm!”, Cavendish exclaimed, his stomach now remembering that he had not eaten in days and loudly reminding Cavendish of that fact. “Sponge cake and a spot of tea would do marvelously!”

But a niggling need called for his attention, a feeling of curiosity and, perhaps, responsibility, demanded his presence in the tunnel.

Cavendish licked his lips as he thought of the possible pleasure to be had in the party.

He could feel its safe promise, its affirmation he so wanted to hear.

In the party, he would be justified, he would be hailed, he would be king!

In the room that was angonizingly close, Cavendish would be right.

So why were his legs moving towards the tunnel?

Demanding a reprieve, Cavendish forced his legs to turn, almost twisting them as he found himself once again in front of the dream destination of the room.

And as he moved towards it, each step a struggle, Cavendish began to smile.

Surely this was the right way!

But there was that impossible to ignore concern again.

There was that hesitation, that all consuming fear that…

The hard way was right.

He had to go right.

Regardless of how much it could hurt.

Cavendish looked back at the tunnel, his pupils widening with fear as he thought of going back to the tunnel, of digging deeper into his pain, his torment, his flaws.

The past hurt.

And Cavendish had been hurt enough for a lifetime or two.

But try as he might…

He couldn’t go to the party.

Not yet.

Not when his heart hurt like this.

Not when the possibility of wrongdoing was still alive.

For a moment he had thought that he had not thanked Dakota properly.

For a moment he had thought that he had mistreated his partner.

For a moment he had thought that he was wrong.

And he NEVER thought that.

“…Whether or not something is wrong… I clearly feel off.”, Cavendish reasoned, his legs slowly turning the right way.

Taking a deep breath, he took a step forwards.

“Even if this all turns out to be nothing and I am as perfect as I think I am…”

He took another step.

“I must be sure. I can’t rest until I’m sure.”

And so, Cavendish gave up on giving up, and he took the terrifying journey down the trail of buried memories and traumatic pasts.

Matt:

Like A Tunnel…

Megan:

That You Follow…

The tunnel was dark and cold, just as Cavendish had suspected.

A pungent odor permeated the premises, and all Cavendish could hear were the crunching of tiny pebbles under his shoes.

The party was long gone by now, and Cavendish had the terrible feeling that even if he wanted to go back, he wouldn’t be able to.

Sometimes, he heard a faint sound. The shattering of a plate, the slamming of a door, the growl of a wild animal.

Cavendish wondered if perhaps this place housed a Hobbit with anger management issues, but instead, he was met with something very different indeed: Floating shards of glass.

The shards illuminated the dark tunnel, their brilliant light twinkling like a star.

Cavendish was near awe struck by the beauty of it all, and for a moment, he forgot his troubles as he admired the sparkling fragments, sitting on the ground, his eyes focused on nothing else.

But this rest was not for long: Holding his hand out, Cavendish caught one of the shards and brought it up close to observe it.

But instead of a reflection, the shard offered a flashback: Playing almost like a video clip, Cavendish was reminded of his one sided fight with Dakota back in the dancing area of Chez Chaz.

“Was that really just a week ago?”, Cavendish thought glumly, watching the painful memory play on loop on the tiny piece.

For what must have been the hundredth time today, a shiver ran down Cavendish’s spine as he saw himself act in what he was told was the right way, but was increasingly feeling like the wrong way.

Wishing to ignore the pounding guilt, Cavendish tried to let the shard go, but instead of floating away forever, the glass stuck itself to the wall of the tunnel.

Cavendish, struggling to believe this, rubbed his eyes, only for the shard to not only stay there, but to begin to glow around the outline!

“Like…”, Cavendish began to realize, the wheels of his mind turning. “…Like a puzzle piece…”

In fact, now that he mentioned it, Cavendish noticed that a shard to his left that would fit perfectly next to the right side of the shard on the wall.

Unsure of the meaning of this game, but too curious to back off now, Cavendish began to retrieve pieces, piecing together the answer to his present from the events of the past.

The hard part was surprisingly not the logistics of assembling the jigsaw; Cavendish was quite fond of such games and he had an eye for detail, so that came quite easily to him.

It was the memories that gnawed at his brain with no rest.

Cavendish didn’t understand how he did not remember most of these, but the moment he saw them they all came rushing back.

There he was, shattering a plate in anger, outraged at being told by Dakota that he wasn’t renting the movie this time; there he was, slamming the door, causing Dakota to jump in fright because he dared suggest not to spy on Milo; there he was, growling and baring his teeth at Dakota, who had just asked him to be less angry.

Cavendish just couldn’t comprehend it. These were the actions of a monster, not of someone like him, someone poised, someone elegant!

Balthazar Cavendish was better than that…

No?

But the evidence was there, pictures and everything!

And pictures don’t lie!

“Well, except for when they’re being faked, but I doubt that’s the case here.”, Cavendish reasoned, but it did not ease his soul.

Still, something felt wrong.

Nearly finished with the puzzle, Cavendish looked behind him to see that Matt and Megan were suddenly back, now present with not only their voices, but their bodies.

Fearing the answer, but needing it still, Cavendish turned to them, a few pieces still shining bright in his hand.

“…What will I see when I finish the puzzle?”, he asked, averting his gaze.

Matt and Megan’s answer echoed across the halls of Cavendish’s mind.

“You will see yourself.”

“Considering how this day has been going, not something I will like, then?”, Cavendish asked, but the two were already gone.

Turning back, he mumbled an unsure “Ok” and got to work on the final pieces.

More and more instances of unrequited mistreatment from Cavendish were seen by him, countless shouts and put downs and insults and more.

He saw himself distance himself, he saw himself block and deflect Dakota’s love away, and he saw himself act like, for lack of a better word, like a prick.

Cavendish sighed gloomily. At least he could argue that the last few accusations depended on your point of view: Here, there was no argument that Cavendish was doing something wrong.

Finally, one piece left, he couldn’t stand it no more.

Steam blowing out of his ears, he threw the shard down on the ground, and while it didn’t shatter, it didn’t stop Cavendish from stomping on the ground in anger, enraged and furious at all this.

“It can’t be! It can’t be!”, Cavendish bellowed, wanting to smash his head in and be done with it.

His whole self was terrified: The very concept of him having been completely and totally wrong for 35 years shook him to his very core.

It wasn’t just a matter of ego (though Cavendish very much wanted to have that restored): If all these accusations, all these claims were true, this would mean that Cavendish had spent a majority of his life making the wrong choices, doing the wrong things, being the villain of his own story instead of the sexy and badass conquering hero.

And even worse was that it made no sense!

Wasn’t this how things were supposed to be?

Society just worked that way!

He was supposed to be like this…

No?

Cavendish reanalyzed his last few thoughts as he rested on his knees.

Was he supposed to be like this?

If he was, surely he wouldn’t be feeling this guilty, surely his mind wouldn’t be sending him through this mad quest of introspection.

…SOMETHING was wrong.

Maybe it wasn’t him, but something WAS wrong.

Cavendish sighed again and slowly picked up the final glass shard, his reflection bouncing off of it.

He had to find out.

He HAD to.

The shard played a final memory: Dakota’s tears as Cavendish blamed it all on him.

Dakota, the man who had saved his life over and over and over again…

And he had made him cry, just because Dakota had dared correct him.

Cavendish’s eyes narrowed, his heart beat slowed down and his will grew steady.

Something was WRONG…

And Cavendish was going to find out what it was, even if it painted him as the devil himself.

Fueled with determination, Cavendish stood up, took a deep breath, and, with precise movement, he placed the piece in its place.

A moment passed, and nothing happened. Cavendish wondered if perhaps he was supposed to say something, or maybe he had missed a piece.

But he was soon answered: The tunnel rumbled, dirt falling on his head, dropping him to the ground with a thud.

The finished puzzle glowed and hummed, as the pieces began to form a single image, a solid solution.

Shaking the dirt off of his hat, Cavendish blinked the dust from his eyes and rubbed them to clear his blurry vision.

Straddling to his feet, slipping for a moment, Cavendish was finally able to look into the mirror.

For a moment, he hesitated: What was he going to see?

But the fresh wound of his actions still burned, and Cavendish’s good side roused the courage to look in the mirror and into himself and see what was wrong.

But even Cavendish’s good side was shocked into silence by the man staring back at him.

Years of denial and walls of self protection crumbled to the ground as Cavendish observed the figure in the mirror, not even daring to touch its outstretched whitered hand or wheathered face.

For in the reflection of the shiny white mirror stood not Balthazar T. Cavendish, the great hero who never faltered, nor Balthazar Cavendish, the toxic partner and “friend” who rejected love, or even Balthy, the genuinely well meaning person who truly did love his friends, who truly was good at heart.

No, none of those were present in the mirror…

For in the reflection stood none other than Balthazar Cavendish’s Father.

Natalia:

To A Tunnel…

Nick:

Of Its Own…

Shock, denial, rage, all filled up to the brim inside Cavendish’s mind.

Why, the very idea!

The NOTION that he, Balthazar T. Cavendish, was ANYTHING like that monster, that awful man, was… Was… Was nothing short of preposterous!

“It… It can’t be!”, he suddenly shouted out, a mad look in his eyes as he stared back at his beast of a Father. “It… IT CAN’T BE!”

“Oh, but it is, boy. Don’t you see?”, Cavendish Sr. said, calm, composed, cold and calculated in his approach. “You’ve finally become a man. You’ve finally become me.”

Cavendish’s nostrils flared and his ears buzzed with deafening loudness as he began to pound the mirror, trying desperately not to think of all the things he had done.

“No! I refuse to accept this! I am not like him! I could never be like him!”

Pound, pound, pound went his hands on the mirror, which shook and started to form small cracks, but as ever, Cavendish failed to notice such details until it was too late, and then some.

Continuing to impart “justice” on this slight on his honor, Cavendish began to scream his defense for all to hear, but mostly for himself.

“I COULD NEVER BE LIKE HIM! IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE! IT. DOESN’T. MAKE….”

But as Cavendish punctuated and emphasized the “SENSE!” in the sentence, the mirror shattered to a thousand shards once more, and as Cavendish tried to pound it again he found himself doing something impossible once more: He was falling into the mirror, as if it was a window to another dimension.

Which it was, but to be fair, how could he know that?

His eyes widened as he realized the fall that was befalling him, but alas, it was too late for poor Cavendish, who tumbled down, in what seemed to be, perculier as that is, a rabbit hole!

As Cavendish fell, he began to notice a great many things that were wrong with this hole: Scientifically speaking, rabbits shouldn’t have maps or pictures hanging on pegs, let alone bookshelves!

And what’s this? A jar of Orange Marmalade?

Will the absurdities ever end?

“Next thing you know, it’ll be wearing a waistcoat with a ridiculously large pocket watch!”, Cavendish joked to himself, whilst simultaneously noting that he had been falling for a long time.

A gust of wind blew, and Cavendish saw his shirt fly up, which was odd, because 1. Gusts of wind don’t occur in rabbit holes, 2. His shirt shouldn’t be flying this high up and 3. He wasn’t wearing a shirt.

He was wearing a light blue and white dress, with a blue hair bow which fit quite nicely.

Suddenly, Cavendish realized what was going on.

“…You have got to be kidding me. Surely I’ve done at least 6 impossible things during breakfast alone!”, Cavendish complained to the people in charge of his long psychological analysis, but they would not listen.

And so Cavendish continued to float down, with the occasional eye roll, scoff or tut as the ground came nearer and nearer and nearer and nearer and nearer and nearer and is that a zebra? Why is it calling him Kevin and oh look the ground!

SMASH! went Cavendish as he crashed down, and, fixing his dress and shaking off the dirt from it, he started to observe his surroundings.

Sure enough, he was now in a purple hallway, with absurdly proportioned tables and chairs, a tiny wooden door, and two white rabbits with waistcoats and giant pocket watches.

The two rabbits (really Patrick and Penny in disguise) greeted him with the next two lyrics.

Patrick:

Down A Hollow…

Penny:

To A Cavern…

“Ooh, caverns, tunnels and hollows!”, Cavendish “gushed” as he began to follow the hopping rabbits down the hall. “Did the budget fail to consider my comfort? I could use a nice water bed, or a cruise ship. Or a giant cheese.”

Sighing, he watched the rabbits impatiently as they opened the door. “I assume I must follow you to find out why you’d accuse me of such insanity as being like dear old dad?”

The rabbits nodded as they expertly brought down the key from the high high table and began to fit it in the lock.

Cavendish sighed. He DID want to find out what was going on, his interest (and guilt) were too piqued to leave just yet.

“At least for Dakota…”, he breathed deeply, and he began to glug down the Drink Me bottle.

As he shrunk, an obvious question passed his mind: “May I at least wear my normal clothes for this? Dresses and I just don’t mix.”

“I think it’s a lovely shade on you!”, Patrick complimented, and Penny nodded enthusiastically.

“Well, I think that you’d taste marvelous in a stew, but you don’t see me forcing you in, do I?”, Cavendish threatened, causing Patrick and Penny to cower in fright.

Cavendish’s soul guilt tripped him and he regretted the statement: Regardless of how baseless some of the charges were against him, these kids WERE trying to help him.

And to be honest, he HAD sort of asked for it back at The Breakfast Burrito Place.

Sighing, he offered an apology that wasn’t 100% sincere, but was close enough to make a passing grade. “I’m sorry, it’s been a long… Morning?”, he said, honestly not sure how much time had passed in the real world.

“The sale on mineral water is most definitely off.”, Cavendish thought gloomily.

Patrick and Penny accepted the apology, Cavendish found himself back in his regular clothes, and off they were through the door and into…

“Great Scott! My old home back in Andford!”, Cavendish expressed in surprise as he stepped out of the door and into his past.

Old sights and sounds and smells came flooding back, and for a moment, an odd nostalgia for a traumatic place swelled in Cavendish’s heart.

He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the smell of morning dew and daisy flowers.

“Well, I must admit, I am pleasantly surprised! It’s quite dandy being back here in Cavendish country!”, Cavendish proclaimed, and he raised an eyebrow at the rabbits near him.

“I’m not sure why we’re here, Patrick and Penny, but I’m not complaining!”

As he went forwards to pick a daisy to sniff it, admiring the freshly cut lawn in front of him, Cavendish’s eyes were suddenly caught by something all together more interesting…

“I finished washing the car, Dad!”

Cavendish’s eyes widened and for the first time in a while, a genuine smile rose on his lips: In front of him stood none other than himself, at the tender age of 10 years old, looking spiritely and bright as ever.

The younger Cavendish had just finished washing Cavendish Sr.’s car, and he was now proudly showcasing it to the owner in question, sweat beads surrounding the hope filled eyes.

Cavendish couldn’t help but chuckle warmly, failing to notice Patrick and Penny being replaced by Peter and Sarah, who displayed decidedly more concerned faces than the adult sandwiched next to them.

Cavendish crouched down to their level, proudly showing himself off.

“Would you look at that? 10 years old and washing cars! Sure, it’s for a colossal asshole, but you have to admit its impressive!”

He then closed his eyes proudly, showing off his waistcoat.

“And I think we’re all in agreement that my sense of style has always been “hip” and “with it”, as the cool kids say!”

Peter and Sarah didn’t respond, but not for the reasons Cavendish thought.

“Oh, what do you know? You’re rabbits with waistcoats, you wouldn’t know what trendy was if it multiplied with you fibonucci style!”, Cavendish complained, but they stayed silent.

Getting a little wary now, Cavendish looked at the rabbits with a mixture of fear and alarm. “You’re not usually silent unless something bad is about to happen. What am I missing? What’s the terrible thing I did here?”

Peter and Sarah didn’t answer.

They didn’t need to.

Cavendish soon saw the cause of their silence, soon to be the cause of his shock.

“…No…”, he could barely breath, as his eyes bulged out and his heart beat like a marching drum.

For now standing beside younger Cavendish, shyly staring at his shoes and looking like he had cried for more than just a night, was…

“…Ollie…”

The name hung in the air like an unspoken tragedy, and Cavendish felt tears run to his eyes immediately as he witnessed the one memory he had suppressed most of all.

“No… No, please! Anything but this!”, he begged, pleading, kissing the rabbit’s feet.

“Show me the mirror again! Show me my deaths again! Show me Mr. Block belly dancing! Just not this!”

But his prayers fell on deaf ears, and Cavendish could not look away as he witnessed his younger self just ignore Oliver.

Stand with his back to him.

Shun him…

His only friend.

The one person who truly understood him.

Oliver was heartbroken, and he silently walked back, mustering just one look.

“Please… Don’t go… I didn’t mean it… I… I just…”, Cavendish stammered, but even he knew that he had no real excuse, as Oliver turned to dust in front of his eyes and younger Cavendish grinned at a proud Cavendish Sr.

Peter:

Where The Sun…

Sarah:

Has Never Shone…

Water sprinklers lightly grazed Cavendish’s trousers, and dew smudged his glasses, but Cavendish had no time for such trivial matters, his mind far too focused on clenching his fists like no person had done before.

Somehow, of all the memories and accusations so far, this was miles away the worst!

Anger rose up in his chest like a kettle boiling, he couldn’t believe the sight before him.

Bad enough that the boy… No, HE, Balthazar Cavendish, HE had done that to Oliver, but he was also getting encouragement from his father, that vile villain?

“It couldn’t get worse”, Cavendish muttered through gritted teeth. “It couldn’t!”

But of course, it did.

“Excellent work, Balthazar! Finally, you showed that puff what for!”, Cavendish Sr. commended, and he returned to the house with a flourish.

Younger Cavendish beamed, his heart swelling with pride. “Don’t worry, Father…”, he said out loud to himself. “I’ll be just like you, and then you’ll be even prouder!”

That’s.

It.

That was the final straw.

Cavendish wasn’t sure of much today, but he knew that he LOATHED, no DESPISED, no ABHORED his Father!

And here he was, wishing to emulate him?!

No.

This he would not accept.

Looking at Peter and Sarah with a look of utter denial, he spat out venom with every word.

“HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF THIS? I… I AM NOTHING LIKE HIM! I… I COULD NEVER BE!”

He couldn’t take this anymore.

He couldn’t stand this nightmare no longer.

Thunder crashed and rain poured down like a storm as he began to do the only thing that made sense: Run.

His feet pounding down the old cracked road, Cavendish did not dare look back as he kept shouting above a thundering heart “I Couldn’t!”

He rounded the corner.

“I couldn’t!”

He passed the park.

“I wouldn’t!”

He approached a large building, seeds of doubt sprouting as he saw Oliver pass by in his Father’s car.

“I shouldn’t!”

And as he entered the building, the revolving doors spun like a spinning top, spinning him into the building, which was no longer a building, but a forest clearing.

“I haven’t!”, he continued to yell, desperately, heaving now as he huffed and puffed, hands on his knees.

His eyes suddenly darted to see his younger self on the tree branch all those years ago.

His ears stopped buzzing as he saw Oliver.

His mouth stopped emitting sounds as he heard himself wish to be loved.

And his heart stopped as he saw himself finally give love to someone else.

Sid:

Like A Door…

Sydney:

That Keeps Revolving…

Tyan:

In A Half…

Tyler:

Forgotten Dream…

Cavendish watched with stunned silence as he saw that once…

He was someone completely different.

Sure, the flaws were still there…

But here he was…

Treating a Dakota like a Dakota should be treated.

So…

What happened?

“I… I… I shouldn’t…”

And then, just like that, a sound caught his attention, he turned his head to the left and, with a resounding crack…

CRACK!

Cavendish Sr. Smacked him in the face again, removing a metaphysical tooth and sending Cavendish soaring through the sky.

Clouds and trees zoomed past, and for a moment, Cavendish wondered if it would ever end, but then it did, as he began to approach a stream.

Instead of drowning however, you know, like a normal person would…

He began to skid on it like a…

Vincent:

Or The Ripples…

Wally (Not Ours):

From A Pebble…

Suddenly, the kids were replaced with two adult men: One in the shower, holding a bar of soap, the other clearly a product of the 1980’s which had never been recalled. Unfortunately.

Barney:

Someone Tosses…

Bomber:

In A Stream…

But Cavendish didn’t even have time to be confused by the sudden shift to adult singers since as he continued to skid along the stream, he began to feel different.

Scenes of his mistreatment of Dakota, of his rash decision making, of his egotistical nature ran rings around his head, and the spectre of his Father, actually approving of all this only made things worse.

But it didn’t last, as Cavendish reached the end of the stream and collided with a lonely lamppost in the middle of nowhere.

Rubbing the sore spot that now resided on the back of his head, and feeling exhausted all over his body, Cavendish hung his head low, noticing a puddle.

On the one hand, he really didn’t want to look in, as he knew that what he would see would upset him greatly.

But at the same time, a terrible truth was becoming more and more apparent, and Cavendish couldn’t run away from it no more.

Sighing, he shivered and shook as he glanced down to see…

His Father, looking right back at him.

But Cavendish knew that this wasn’t his Father.

It was…

“…I shouldn’t…”, he began, throat clenched, a pool of tears forming next to the puddle.

“…But I have… Haven’t I?”

And for a few moments, Cavendish sat there, crying softly and silently into the night, as he finally accepted some criticism.

The denial was slipping away, as Cavendish thought of all the times he had mistreated Dakota, all the times he had treated him like trash…

And how scarily reminiscent they were of his Father.

First his Mother, now Dakota.

Good people were always suffering thanks to the Male Cavendish’s.

As his mind continued to waver, the realization that he had become the thing he hated most continuing to shatter his soul, Barney and Bomber walked in, dressed like White Rabbits.

They sat down next to Cavendish, who held his knees close to his chest and hung his head low.

“Balthazar…”, began Barney, sympathy present in his voice.

“I… I don’t understand…”, Cavendish whispered, disbelief stretched across his face.

Bomber squirmed in his seat. Barney twiddled his thumbs. Both men looked quite uncomfortable.

“I… I don’t understand…”, Cavendish tried to force out, but instead he continued to sob.

“Go on…”, Bomber encouraged, a hand now comforting Cavendish’s shoulder.

Cavendish glanced at him, and Bomber sent him a sad smile.

“We’re here for you, Cavendish. Tell us what ails you. Please.”

Cavendish turned to Barney, who nodded curtly. “It’s the job description, Cavendish. We want to help you.”

“You shouldn’t help me.”, Cavendish professed, darkness and sadness invading his speech. “You shouldn’t help me at all.”

“Cavendish, look, I know what this feels like…”, Bomber started, but Cavendish interrupted.

“No, you don’!”, Cavendish shouted, and the shouts echoed down the empty street.

Cavendish took note of the smog and ash and stormy skies above, of the near grey roads and sights, of the cobbled path he sat on that was cracked beyond recognition.

Cavendish sighed and looked downtrodden on the downtrodden street.

“I… I hate him.”, Cavendish finally professed. “I really do.”

Cavendish shivered and visibly shook as he related his backstory.

“He beat me as a child, from a very early age. Tried to toughen me up. Said I wasn’t good enough.”

Cavendish’s scars began to glow as he took a deep breath.

“Said I wasn’t a man.”

Barney offered Cavendish a hankerchif, and Cavendish gladly used it, throwing it into a suddenly there wastebasket which then disappeared as promptly as it appeared.

Cavendish’s breath flowed in the wind, his weathered face, now half shapen like his fathers, but also half shapen like his own, appearing frank for the first time in years.

“And now, I just want it to make sense.”

Cavendish licked his cracked lips, feeling how dry his throat was.

“…I need a drink.”

Out of thin air, Bomber retrieved a warm cup of tea, 2 sugars, and just a little bit of mint.

He handed it to Cavendish, who was pleasantly surprised by the soothing mug before him.

“Oh… Thank you.”, he said genuinely, touched by the gesture.

Cavendish took a liberal sip, feeling a little refreshed.

“That’s better. That’s better. That hits the spot.”, Cavendish said, and he set the mug down for now.

Letting out a now warm breath, Cavendish returned to his introspection.

Blinking to refocus his sights on the stormy clouds, which painted an image of his Father belittling his Mother, Cavendish began to truly dig deep.

“My Father treated my Mother terribly. Shouted at her, belittled her, disrespected her…”

A tear trickled down as Cavendish felt his Mother’s gentle touch in his heart.

“The poor soul.”

Four new singers appeared, encouraging him to carry on.

Ms. Camilichec:

Like A Clock…

Mr. Decker:

Whose Hands Are Sweeping…

Destiny Summers:

Past The Minutes…

Edwin Garner:

Of Its Face…

Cavendish continued. “And… And I remember seeing that… And saying to myself (when I wasn’t being beaten for protesting)… That when I’m married… When I’m in love… I’d treat my love right.”

He smiled for a moment, remembering the wish. “I’d love them… And I’d never make them feel beneath me.”

But his words, as did the picture, began to reflect the truth.

“But now that I think about it… All the things that you showed me… All the things I did… And I look at them honestly… If I am honest… With myself…”

Cavendish’s heart began to crack as he saw himself shout and belittle Dakota.

As he saw himself in his father…

And his Father in himself…

“I loathed him so much… And I loved myself so much…”

A great and terrible truth made itself apparent in the windmills of his mind.

“That I failed to see… That I had become him.”

Cavendish began to weep quietly, his tears falling down silently, causing a tiny pool that began to sweep him away.

Erik Jones:

And The World…

Eugene (Milo’s Doctor):

Is Like An Apple…

Frances:

Whirling Silently…

Mrs. Garner:

In Space…

But Cavendish didn’t notice that, he was far too busy noticing himself for the first time.

“How could I have been so blind?”, he asked no one in particular as he floated away, feeling less than real.

Feeling like a spirit in his own body.

Not in control…

And desperate for relief.

He thought of all that Dakota did: All the kisses and hugs, all the meals and laughs, all the quiet, kind moments that had passed by him like insignificant flies…

All the times he wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for him.

And in return, he had treated him like a deasiese…

When he himself was the problem.

How could he claim to be a perfect hero when he so clearly was at fault?

How could he be the hero…

If he acted like a monster?

Cavendish closed his eyes and sighed. “Something IS wrong…”

He opened his eyes. “And it’s me…”

Suddenly, the pool he was floating on turned into stars and he was back in space, but he didn’t care.

He could float here until the end of time, it didn’t matter.

Nothing did.

And if anything did, he’d just ruin it.

Mr. Hartoonian:

Like The Circles…

Mr. Menke:

That You Find…

Jebediah Murphy:

In The Windmills…

Joey Logano:

Of Your Mind…

As Cavendish’s body floated in the inky sea of stars, like a boat with no sail, almost peaceful in his solemn sadness, a voice that sounded almost like his Mother sounded out from the depths and echoes, from the corners and the borders of space, all over and all encompassing.

“…Cavendish?...”

Cavendish said nothing.

He didn’t want to even try to defend himself.

“…Cavendish…”, the voice pressed again.

Cavendish sighed. He wasn’t escaping this either, huh?

“Yes, mysterious voice?”, he asked, a voice full of pain.

“Cavendish… We have to continue…”

“There’s more?”, Cavendish asked, incredulous.

He didn’t need to see it nod, he knew it was true.

He let out a dark, lonely chuckle. “Well… I guess I should have seen that coming.”

“Cavendish… You took a serious step a minute ago… Many people never admit to their flaws…”

“Many people don’t spend 35 years being the thing they hate most.”, Cavendish darkly retorted, and the voice laughed affectionately.

“Balthazar, you’d be surprised.”

“Today’s been full of them.”

“And they’re not over yet.”

Cavendish closed his eyes in pain, wishing for it to just be over already. “Do we have to? I feel bad as it is.”

“Cavendish… You answered an important question today…”

Cavendish continued to rock softly in space, his vision blurry as he felt tired.

“But…”, the voice whispered, sympathetically. “It’s not over yet. You must answer another question.”

Time seemed to slow down to a turtles pace as the voice asked the big one:

“It’s time to answer the most important question…”

She whispered softly, in an almost curious tone:

“Who… Are you… Balthazar Cavendish?...”

Suddenly, the stars scattered every which way, swaying like waves in the sea, before suddenly gathering into one spot, where they all fused into one shape.

The form the stars were taking was getting larger and clearer by the moment, facial features and memories one would rather forget forging themselves into an avatar of Cavendish’s frozen self on the alien ship more than a year ago.

“Are you the hero? The all conquering perfect colossus who can do no wrong?”

Cavendish cringed at the description, and it got worse when he saw the next option: Cavendish sleeping alone on the apartment floor, shivering and shaking.

“Are you the failure? The “man” destined to be alone because he drove everyone away?

And it then got even worse: An image of Dakota and him at Chez Chaz when he shouted at him.

“Are you… Your Father?”, a hint of sadness, of warning was now present in the voice.

Cavendish gulped at that and his blood ran cold.

Was he?

Was it too late?

…Did he have any hope?

And finally, another image came up…

Of a 10 year old boy smiling at his friend and being kind.

“Or are you the 10 year old boy who only wanted to love and be loved in return?”

Cavendish looked down, wondering if he could ever be that.

If he ever was.

“In short: What is your part… In this vast universe?”

Her voice turned to a whisper.

“Who… Are… You?”

The options raced and argued inside his mind…

Making their cases, stating their minds…

Waging a storm in his heart…

And Cavendish wished he could just choose one and be done with it…

He wished he could be human…

But he knew that he wasn’t.

So once again…

Cavendish felt lost in the grand scheme of things.

Once again…

Cavendish was alone.

“I… I…”

He sighed, resigned to his fate.

“I don’t know.”

Cavendish’s tears returned while the voice tried again.

“Cavendish… You keep saying you don’t know…”

A loving smile crept in her voice. “But I know… Deep down… That you are better than this.”

Cavendish continued to float, but he did try to listen.

“You CAN improve. You just need to take the next step and learn what else you’ve done wrong… And why.”

Cavendish, however, wasn’t sure.

“What good will it do? The damage is done. Dakota is hurt, and it’s all my fault.”

“And if I told you there was a chance? If I told you that you could make sure Dakota is never hurt again?”

Despite his vested self interest in protecting himself, Cavendish was almost hooked.

But he still had to ask.

“…Will it hurt?”, he asked, fear present in his tone.

“…Yes.”, she whispered.

“…But it will help Dakota?”, he asked, more urgently this time, needing to know if it was possible.

“…Yes.”

Cavendish took a deep breath.

This was not going to be easy…

But when was life ever easy?

“If… If I really have been nothing but terrible for 35 years… And if someone like Dakota was hurt by me…”

He took a deep breath. “Then I will continue… If it means I can undo it just a little. If I can help Dakota…”

He choked down a sob.

“If that’s the least I can do… Then I’ll at least do that.”

He then spoke like a child, afraid of being punished. “I didn’t mean to do all this. I really didn’t.”

“I know…”, the voice reassured. “But it’s time to make things right.”

Cavendish’s voice turned small. “…I’m afraid.”

“You won’t be alone.”, the voice comforted.

Cavendish took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and made a decision in his heart.

He then opened his eyes, determination emanating from them.

“All right… Let’s finish this.”

#balthazar cavendish #balthazar cavendish vs the world #Balthazar Cavendish Sr.#vinnie dakota #The Milo Murphy's Law Wiki Guy AU #milo murphy's law #milo murphy's law fanfic #dakavendish fanfic #spongeguy

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kohakuhime · 7 years

Text

The Reluctant Guardian, ch. 11

Merry Christmas, folks~! Thank you for sticking with me so far and for being so patient with me for updates - these past couple months have been very busy and it’s been hard to update as often as I’d like. Regular updates should resume starting this Sunday and it will go back to updating every Sunday.

In the meantime, here is the next update and a special thanks to @mpuzzlegirl with help writing this update! As a reminder: this takes place post canon, and this refers to events that take place in an alternate verse. Michael, Isabel, Mikomi, and Kazuo belong to @mpuzzlegirl; Rowen, Sylvie, and the twins belong to me; and YGO and its associated characters belong to Kazuki Takahashi.

+++++++++++++++++++

“Sir, there’s been confirmation of the target’s presence in Noa Kaiba’s household.”

“How long ago?”

“Not even five minutes have passed.”

“Hmm. What is the reason he’s visiting there?”

“The bugs shorted out when he arrived. Our webcam virus, however, caught him. We’re monitoring him now, but my guess is—“

“Your…guess?”

“Er—I don’t mean—ahem. The consensus is that he is delivering a warning.”

“Ah…and the whereabouts of the children?”

“No indication, sir. They aren’t with him according to our reports.

“Hm. I did not think he would bring them with him. Is he still there?”

A pause. “Technicians state he’s still there as of this moment.”

“Very good. Let’s extend an invitation, shall we?”

“Sir?”

“Don’t be so concerned, Mr. Turner. He will be coming here sooner or later—there’s no hiding what we’re doing from him, not for long. Let’s allow a visit.”

“…Yes, sir.”

+++++++++++++++++++

Kazuo was hurting and Mikomi knew it. Her older brother was taking the day’s events incredibly hard. In his eyes, he had failed his younger cousin and it was difficult to make him see otherwise.

The older teenager was facing the wall, curled up on his bed, and he had been that way since he had come home. He had not turned around when Mikomi had first entered, but from her vantage point on the bed she could see the tears streaming down his face. She had chosen not to say anything, instead choosing to be a comforting presence at his side; some of the tension eased in his back and shoulders as her smaller hand started rubbing soothing circles on his back.

Mikomi had been getting ready for her recital when she had gotten the news. Her eyes were still stained from makeup that she had applied for her recital, and she did not bother clearing the mascara trails. Michael was older than her only by a few months, and the two of them were always close. For as long as she could remember, Mikomi had this gift of bringing out the talkative side of her red headed cousin. They had gotten along like colorful peas in a pod.

His silence after his parent’s death had been heart-breaking for all of them. Michael, who had always confided in her when he needed someone, had not even spoken to her. He had just been starting to open up again, and for a while she had thought there was a chance to restore their lost sense of comradery and begin to heal.

It had been hard enough losing their aunt and uncle. It was still hard to process that she would never receive another meaningful gift from her aunt, nor another affectionate pat on the head from her uncle. Their loss was still sharp and painful, a raw wound in their hearts that had only just barely started to heal.

And now, Michael had gone missing…

Mikomi had been passing Kazuo a tissue when the atmosphere shifted.

Their mother had used to possess great magic long before Mikomi had been born. Mikomi had heard the stories before and even knew firsthand about magic in their family—she herself had been gifted with seeing and interacting with the monsters that had inspired the Duel monsters game. To an extent, this gift also allowed her to sense other forms of magic.

It was how she knew someone with great power had come into their home.

At the same time the atmosphere shifted and the chill of magic ran down her spine, she heard a commotion outside of the room. After glancing at Kazuo to make certain he was alright where he was, she cautiously stood up, looking around for the source of the powerful pressure. Mikomi had never felt magic like this before. Ancient, powerful magic, but carrying an oily taint that seemed a heavy weight on her shoulders.

It was perhaps fortunate that Duel Monsters could choose to be corporeal, because when she opened the door to Kazuo’s room the landing was decidedly crowded; if they had been solid, she would have been flattened against the wall. Most of the monsters and spirits were from either her parent’s decks or hers and Kazuo’s, but all of them were in the hallway and guarding the bedroom. Those that could speak were all whispering the same thing:

“The Wicked One is back.”

Mikomi had only started to ask about who they were talking about when something heavy crashed down the hallway. She opened the door wider, just enough to peer outside the room and down the stairs; the room was at a perfect vantage point to see without stepping outside.

A man in white was pushing himself back to his feet, a hand slowly rising to his mouth. She caught sight of long teal hair, lighter than Kazuo’s and much longer than her brother’s. Instinct prompted her to stay where she was—there was something ancient and dangerous in the air around him.

Mikomi remembered Kazuo’s earlier account of the day, and she recognized the man standing in the hall from the description her brother had provided. This was the same one who had taken Michael from them.

Though she had never seen him before today, she knew who he was. Her parents, her family’s friends, and even her Duel Monsters had all shared the adventures they’d had when they were younger. The stories had included a fallen king on a mad quest to destroy the world, a story that brought both joy and fear just listening to it.

There was only one person the Duel Spirits called “the Wicked One.”

Why is he here? How did he get here? What does he want? Mikomi could hardly stop the thoughts from flooding her mind. Her sense of dread only increased when she heard her father’s icy voice snarl at the intruder. “You’re the second man in my life who’s manipulated me, and the first was my father. Neither of you hold a particularly good place in my book, so you’d best have a damn good reason for coming back now of all times.”

Noa’s father. Her paternal grandfather. A topic that she knew was completely taboo by just about everyone. It was enough to send a shiver down her spine.

I shouldn’t be listening to this. Mikomi began to shut the door, but she had only partially closed it when she heard her mother ask about someone. It was the name that stopped her.

Michael.

She found herself listening more and more to the conversation. In spite of herself, tears began to well up in her teal eyes when Auntie Carmon and Uncle Alister were mentioned, their faces flashing in her mind.

She had been thinking of them to begin with because of Michael, but the mention of her aunt and uncle had drawn what felt like every memory of them to the front of her mind. Auntie Carmon’s bubbly and energetic personality, her warm smile and loving embrace; Uncle Alister’s quiet and calming presence, his observant grey eyes and sharp wit. They had been a comfortable presence, a warm light, and…and…

Mikomi felt her eyes start to blur the more the memories began to surface. She felt she was about to start sobbing when a green hand pressed against hers, talons softly guiding her to finish closing the door.

Hitotsu-Me Giant was fearsome to most who saw him. To Mikomi, her guardian Duel Monster was her closest and dearest friend amongst the Duel Spirits, and his presence was more than welcome now.

He’d made himself visible, enough so that Kazuo had taken notice. Her brother was sitting up on his bed watching them, the cyclops’ physical presence in his room temporarily snapping him from his disheartened state. It was a rare thing for any of Mikomi’s monsters to summon themselves to their world without her prompting or permission, not unless they felt that they were needed to aid the girl.

In a low, crackling voice, Hitotsu-Me spoke as he carefully wiped the tears from her eyes. “Now not words to hear. Let big ones handle all.”

Speaking in the human tongue was not an easy task for the creature. He preferred remaining silent or using clicks and growls. The fact he took the effort to speak meant his advice was worth listening to. No longer able to hold herself together, Mikomi flung herself into the cyclop’s arms and sobbed.

It was while she was hugging him when she felt a pulse. It was a spike of something dark and oily and sinister, something that permeated the air and hung over them as a suffocating blanket. She attributed it to Dartz’s presence in their home and it only made her cry harder.

As his sister was being comforted, Kazuo rose from the bed and wrapping his arms around her, feeling the duel spirit adjust his hold to include him into the hug.

+++++++++++++++++++

Dartz had felt the pulse as he had finished speaking to Isabel and Noa. It was a siren’s call, something he could not ignore even as the familiar whispers begin ringing in his ears and the weight settled on his shoulders.

Someone was using the Orichalcos.

Even as he realized what was happening, even as he felt the ruins of his own magic home in on the familiar pulse of magic, Dartz did not outwardly react. If Noa or Isabel saw something, neither had the chance to comment on it as he turned.

For one shining moment, he was sorely tempted to answer the call. It was likely his chance to find the ones responsible and to reclaim the Orichalcos shards they possessed. It was a huge chance to end it and return the children, and to divert the amount of ire being directed at him.

In the same moment Dartz pushed the thought away, the corners of his mouth turning down. Dartz did not answer to summons. Even if he did, he could not protect himself from what lay on the other side of that pulsing magic. He had used almost too much as it was to transport his Swordsmen’s children to safety.

The Pharaoh had passed on and with him the power of the Millennium Items. His magic was too weak to deflect from any trap that was there, and now there was no one with magic left in Domino to help him should something go awry. Without knowing how much magic the new enemy had, it would not be prudent to go into an encounter on low reserves. As much as it pained him to retreat, he would have to wait until he was fully ready.

So, even as he finished the conversation with Isabel and Noa and stepped through the door, his focus on the next destination was not towards the call of the Orichalcos but towards home. The warm interior of the Kaiba household vanished and in turn was seamlessly replaced with the cool, calm, quiet of the house in the mountains.

Dartz felt the wards around the property snap into place as he returned, already some of the tension easing from his shoulders. He had far too many complex spells hiding this place from view and distance made the strain worse.

He grimaced as he felt a faint spike shoot through his temples. The call was still there, a dull throbbing that resonated deep in his soul, but it was muted at the very least. If he focused on other matters, the pulsing disappeared.

He caught sight of something red by the windows and Dartz frowned at it momentarily before his vision adjusted. He studied the sight before him and then softly sighed. Like father, like son—Michael seemed to have inherited his father’s love of window seats.

Michael had curled into the seat, likely intending to wait for Dartz to come back to demand answers but dozing off before he could. He was frowning slightly in his sleep, mouth a thin line. It could not be a comfortable spot to sleep in, but Dartz did not feel like disturbing the child—among other things, Dartz felt Michael would not return to sleep so easily if he was woken up.

He contented himself with carefully draping a spare blanket over the boy before starting up the stairs; he would move him later, perhaps. There were other charges he had to check on, and in particular he worried for the youngest of the children. He had not forgotten the heat of her fever beneath his palm as he had checked on her.

The twins, in a far too reminiscent fashion of their father, were sprawled out in their beds and snoring. He raised an eyebrow at the boy, who was quite literally hanging off the top bunk upside down, and took the time to readjust his position. The child mumbled and curled into a tighter ball before flinging his arm out in his sleep and nearly walloping Dartz in the face. Dartz narrowly avoided the arm and left the room, shaking his head. Yep—definitely Valon’s son.

He was more hesitant as he got closer to the last room. He was not certain if he would find Rowen awake and tending to his younger sister, but when he opened the door he found both of them asleep. Rowen did not look as if he had fallen asleep willingly; like Michael, he must have dozed off. The teenager was sitting upright, using the bed to lean against to keep him upright. His chin was pillowed uncomfortably on his chest, hands folded limply in his lap.

Dartz’s eyes had gone to the younger girl in the bed. To his immeasurable relief, her breathing sounded much more even and carried less of a rasp to it. He padded to the side of the bed and gently brushed her bangs aside, even more relieved when he felt cool skin. Her fever must have finally broken in his absence. Good.

Rowen shifted and mumbled, and Dartz’s head snapped toward the teenager. He moved away from the girl in the same motion, certain that if Rowen found him hovering over his younger sister that—

But no, Rowen had not woken up. He simply had shifted to get somewhat more comfortable on the floor. Dartz held still, waiting until Rowen had stopped moving before coming back closer. His mouth turned down at the corners as he noticed the deep shadows pooling under and around the boy’s eyes; he hadn’t noticed before when he had first seen Rowen, but now he could clearly see just how drawn the teenager’s features were.

He had not remembered seeing that before in the pictures he had seen in the house of the boy, and it was a stark difference between the carefree smile and warm eyes and the pinched, shadowed, grim features he had glimpsed earlier. Even now he could see that the boy’s sleep was not peaceful, but a fitful doze. When was the last time he had gotten a good night’s sleep?

He thought about it for a moment, and then knelt down beside Rowen. He carefully wrapped his arm around the boy’s shoulders, slowly easing the boy from sitting to leaning against him. Rowen stiffened in his arms before slumping heavily against Dartz, and he had to take extra care in lowering the boy to the floor. He saw the sleeping bag nearby and reached for it, gently pulling it over the slumbering form.

Dartz felt another spike as the Orichalcos surged once again. It was stronger than it had been when he had come back from Domino, and it should not have been so strong here. Interesting.

It seemed someone was very intent on reaching him.

+++++++++++++++++++

“Target has been confirmed leaving the area, per our technicians and surveillance teams.”

“And you have not seen him on any of the cameras in the city?”

“No sir. It’s almost like—“

“Mr. Turner, you know how I feel about uncertain terms.”

A pause. “He has vanished, sir, and we have made certain he is not in Domino.”

“Do watch your tone, Mr. Turner. I do understand sarcasm.” The voice turned sharper, an edge of steel in the words. “Now, how certain are you he is not in Domino?”

Mr. Turner had started to reply, but his voice was cut over by a new one. “Clearly not that certain, as I am currently here in your office and you have failed to notice me for the past ten seconds.”

Turner swore as he turned and reached for his gun. His eyes locked on the very topic of their discussion, who was currently in the middle of the spacious office.

“Really now, is the gun necessary?” Dartz asked, a humorless smile moving across his lips as he arched an eyebrow. “It would do you very little good.”

“Put your gun down, Mr. Turner,” said the soft voice from the turned leather office chair. “It’s rude to point weapons at esteemed guests. Besides, he’s not really here. He’s projecting.”

There was a long and tense pause that fell between the three men. Dartz did not look ruffled in the slightest, while Turner’s eyes flicked back and forth nervously. It was hard to gauge the third man’s reaction, as his seat was still turned to the floor length window.

At length, the silence was broken. “Mr. Turner, would you step outside? I believe this is not a conversation for you.”

Turner had never felt more relieved to be leaving the office. Give me security detail in a war-zone any day—I’m not paid enough to deal with this magic crap, he thought as he hurried out the door. He did not go far once he was outside; he had learned that “step outside” meant stay near the door. It did mean, however, he was stuck outside with the dead-eyed secretary staring blankly at him.

Great.

+++++++++++++++++++

Dartz made no move to cross the room, and the chair did not turn to face him. Another silence had fallen, and this one seemed to stretch on for hours even though only minutes had passed. At length, a throat cleared and then a voice broke the silence. “I do not feel like this is a social visit, Dartz,” he remarked casually. “You took your time answering my call, and you aren’t even truly here.”

“When a personal audience is warranted I will certainly indulge you. I do not appreciate being treated as if I am some obedient dog who comes when called,” Dartz said flatly, ice in his voice. “I’ve gained the impression that you wanted to talk to me—unless you are keen on wasting my precious time, I suggest you get to the point of your summons. What do you want?”

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#kohaku writes #au: reluctant guardian #dartz #oc: rowen knighton #oc: the twins #oc: sylvie knighton #other’s oc: michael

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mssimbabwe · 7 years

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Mass Effect Andromeda and Dragon Age Inquistion: Two ways playing “fetch”

Walking from point A to point B to fetch and return something — many quests in videogames actually are fabricated that way. Many Open-World games have this even reduced to the point of simply collecting things – yes, even the Witcher 3 (just think of the gear-quests). But hardly any game ever got as much critical response for it as “Dragon Age: Inquisition” (DAI), developed by BioWare, released in 2014. The studio promised to react accordingly and improve in “Mass Effect: Andromeda” (MEA), relased in 2017. And that they did — for better or for worse. The thing is: While in “Inquisition” for example the shard-collecting is in fact very boring extra-work without a real reward, “Andromeda” unloaded too much meaning in the fetching-Memory-Trigger-mission — making it more fun but also more frustrating.

DAI: Collecting shards

Let’s take a quick walk down memory-lane: The most memorable fetch-quest in Inquisition is the collecting-shards-odyssee — simply because it is annoying as hell. The mission starts — where else could it be — in the Hinterlands, when the player discovers a skull near a campsite at a waterfall. Many most likely stumble over it during their first visit in this area of fetch-quest-doom. What follows is the introduction of the shard-collecting-drill: look through the skull, highlight a certain amount of hidden shards, then go out and collect them. Rinse and repeat. With a varying amount of skulls in each map you find the shards inside burning houses, on top of ridiculously formed rocks (the clunky jumping did not help) or simply in the middle of the path.

To what end? The shards open doors in a temple where you gather loot and elemental resistance-bonuses. So the benefit from this quest is mainly gameplay-oriented. The tiny little storybits — the skulls are those from magically mutilated mages (“Tranquil”) — fabricated around the quest firstly, add nothing significant and secondly, are found in form of a codex-entry hidden in the village of Redcliffe, behind a locked door which any rogue can open. They are in no way tied to the actual quest and therefore do not add any motivation for finishing. Playing as if this quest does not exist at all is the way to go — which is harder than anyone might think, as neurotic player-minds are often compulsed to not only restore order in Thedas, but on the maps as well.

(Side note: When interested in the reasons why the fetch-quests in DAI are so thinly veiled and what the developers thought about that, read Jason Schreier’s book “Blood, sweat and pixels” and for the story behind MEA’s turbulent development visit this article on Kotaku, also from Jason Schreier.)

MEA: The Ryder-family memory triggers

Compared to DAI, the MEA-team made some changes on the fetch-quest front. Secrets and lies – not only Harry Potter’s Dumbledore is good at it, the Ryder-family knows a thing or two about that as well. It is hard to grasp that a story-idea so tightly connected to the player’s protagonist is hardly more than a fetch-quest gameplaywise — but it is. The Ryder-Memory-Trigger-quest in Andromeda is one of the first: SAM, your AI-companion, calls you to SAM-Node, his brain-center. There he explains that your father hid some memories in his pathfinder-AI-connection, which you can unlock and relive. Your progress as a pathfinder is the key, he says. Well, a bold lie, because the real keys are memory triggers strewn across the whole galaxy — and you have to collect them.

Lying AIs aside, the similarity to Inquisition’s shard-collecting is easy to spot: Again the player has to travel to various locations in each larger map — regions in DAI equal outpost-planets in MEA. And yet, MEA did try to improve the experience: The triggers are not as hard to reach and decreased in numbers. But the most striking difference is, how the story evolves around the memory-triggers-extra-work: every time the player collects a certain amount of triggers, SAM unlocks another memory for him/her, letting the player relive central emotional points of the family’s past. This is a very strong story-tie-in.

No way around: Why the memory-triggers are worse

Too strong, in fact. The reason: the ending of the main-plot. It tries to up the stakes by having Ryder’s sibling abducted and painfully exploited by the big bad Archon. Yet, as long as you did not finish the optional memory-trigger-fetch-quest, the player hardly saw anything more from the other Ryder sibling than him/her being asleep. Of course, one must add: Even when finishing the trigger-quest, the ties to the other Ryder-sibling remain somewhat weak. Nevertheless, the family-past-connection helps getting emotionally involved in the main-plot’s ending. It adds substance. Substance needed, to not let it feel like someone butchered a maybe solidly crafted main-plot, in order to make some nerve-testing fetch-quest meaningful.

However annoying the thinly veiled stupid fetch-quests in Inquisition are — at least they are easy to spot and can be left aside without further thought. Andromeda’s memory-trigger-quest is actually worse: The task itself is as stupid, even though there are experience-improving progression steps. And yet, ignoring the mission diminishes the main plot. In this case having my clearing-every-area-OCD in check does not help: In Andromeda players should grit their teeth and collect the damn things.

Is it more fun? Yes. But not enough to not feel the bad kind of frustration when doing it.

#mass effect andromeda #dragon age inquisition #mass effect #dragon age #fetch quest

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we-are-trickster · 7 years

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The Morality of The Dark Crystal - A Trickster’s Analysis

((Mostly inspired by @wearepaladin’s recent forays into the Morality of Star Wars and the Force. I was reminded of my personal favorite 80s Fantasy flick with a somewhat similar moral quandary. What follows is a loooong-ass post with my thoughts on the matter....))

“Another world, another time in the age of wonder….”

So starts my favorite 80s Fantasy Cult-Classic Jim Henson’s “The Dark Crystal,” what at first glance is a simple story about good and evil set in an alien world populated by the strange and fantastical but when you really start to dig you find some very interesting moral questions about the nature of good and evil and their proper places in the world.

The Dark Crystal was probably Jim Henson’s most ambitious project. Released in 1982, every creature that appears on the screen is a puppet, which really opened up a lot of possibilities for a visual and stylistic language that usually only animation approached at the time. It came out right on the heels of Star Wars and in-fact was produced in conjunction with Lucasfilm and even shares a producer with the Sci-Fi Classic. It was more ambitious than 1986’s Labyrinth in the sense that you had no human characters to connect with - despite the very humanoid appearance of our heroes, the Gelflings Jen and Kira – but it still managed to tell a very human story.

The basic plot is as follows: As far as he knows, Jen is the last of his kind. Raised by a group of wise and peaceful beings known as the Mystics in a valley untouched by conflict, Jen is mostly content to live out his life free from the dangers of the world. On his master’s deathbed, he is told of a prophecy that reveals a Gelfling will end the power of the Skekis, a race of evil beings hell-bent on destruction. They rule from a castle far, far away from the Mystic’s peaceful valley. As a reaction to this prophecy and in a bid to shore up their own power, the Skekis have nearly destroyed the Gelfling race. It’s up to Jen to locate a Crystal Shard, broken away from the source of the Skekis power the titular Dark Crystal. Only by locating the shard and using it to heal the Dark Crystal will the Skekis be defeated. Jen has to do this before the next time the three suns of their world meet in a “Great Conjunction” or the Skekis will rule the land forever.

With the stakes set very high, Jen feels the weight of the world on his shoulders as he sets out on his quest. He knows that if he fails, everything he loves could be destroyed. However, this doesn’t keep him from doubting himself, he says to himself several times over the course of his journey “I’m just a Gelfling” in a tone of voice implying he doesn’t understand why he’s so important in the grand scheme of things. There is a moment at about the midpoint of the film where he decides that he isn’t important and he should put a stop to his quest, this moment comes after he meets the only other known Gelfling, Kira and experiences a Garthim Raid, a very traumatizing event that he feels personally responsible for causing. At this moment, it is Kira who convinces him to continue the quest. Mostly because she knows the stakes better than anyone else, while Jen has been living in the relative peace and safety of the Mystic’s Valley she has been living among the Pod People - a race that the Skekis has targeted for use as slave labor and regularly conduct violent raids against. She has always experienced the violence of the Skekis as an undercurrent of her life and knows that the only way to stop it is to see the prophecy fulfilled – literally to the point that when Jen points out that she doesn’t have to help and that the prophecy doesn’t say anything about getting help she responds that “prophets don’t know everything!”

And it’s Kira’s actions after meeting Jen that really reveal the moral heart of The Dark Crystal. More-so than being a story about Good versus Evil, it’s a story about Action versus In-Action. The Mystics, for all their wisdom and knowledge, have a very simple goal of “living in a dream of peace.” They sequester themselves away from the world in their valley. They literally only leave the valley to get involved with the rest of the world only after Jen has left on his quest. The Skekis, on the other hand, are very involved in the world. Their desire for mastery and conquest have ensured that they very actively get involved in events, utilizing their soldiers the Garthim to destroy their enemies and prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled – a goal that they very nearly achieve since there are only two known Gelflings left in the world. Being raised by the Mystics and having very little knowledge of the things outside of the valley, Jen can be a very passive character at times. He is a very reactionary hero for the first two-thirds of the film and has to very quickly get up to speed on what’s going on around him. As the old hermit Aughra states when Jen meets her “You have much to learn, and you have no time.” He has to learn how to make quick decisions and stick to them, something that Kira knows far better than he having been someone who has lived in a dangerous world all her life.

Kira’s entrance to the film is a fascinating moment, she seems to be tracking Jen in the wilds, able to sneak up on him and not openly approaching until she knows it’s safe to do so. Their meeting is punctuated by a fascinating moment, something Kira calls a “Dreamfasting” in which they share their memories with one another and reveal even their deepest pasts to one another. Jen was found by the Mystics as a baby, Kira was spared from a Garthim raid by her mother hiding her in a tree. Jen learned the ways of the Mystics and was confined to the expanse of the Valley, while Kira was allowed to roam freely and learn everything about the world around her, the good and the bad. His limited experience with the greater world is off-set by her wealth of practical knowledge, he is the idealist while she is the realist. And it is only after finally seeing what the Skekis are willing to do in order to maintain their power that Jen finally makes an active choice – he will go to the castle immediately and see the prophecy fulfilled, Kira by his side.

However, the climax of the film sees Jen falter. He has leapt onto the Dark Crystal, and in the process dropped the shard. Kira manages to get to it before their enemies, but is surrounded by Skekis. She is willing to die to see the prophecy fulfilled, to bring peace to their world but Jen isn’t willing to lose her. He still doesn’t fully understand that making the right choice can require sacrifice, Kira does. She knows that healing the crystal is the only real hope for their world, that the Skekis will never keep their word to not harm her if she and Jen comply with their demand to give up the Shard (“Give us the shard and you can go free!”). So, instead of making the easy choice to hand the Shard over, she instead throws it to Jen, begging him to heal the crystal. She is the one who makes the choice to save the world, Jen just ensures that her sacrifice isn’t in vain.

Healing the Crystal has a fascinating effect and reveals a powerful ending. While the Skekis are running about in a blind panic, the Mystics finally show back up and a truth is revealed – that the Skekis and the Mystics are two halves of one whole, a race of beings known as the urSkeks. They reveal that it was their own arrogance that caused the crystal to crack in the first place, acting like a prism and splitting them into their two different parts: the Mystics (or urRu as revealed by the production notes and novelization) and the Skekis. The Mystics represented the passive collection of wisdom, while the Skekis represented the active application of knowledge and it is only a combination of the two that creates a workable balance and allows a world to function in a healthy manner.

This is what I like about the Dark Crystal’s moral quandary, it’s not merely a simple “Good versus Evil” story. The Skekis are a cruel and evil race mostly because while they have knowledge and power, they lack a moral compass to use it correctly. And while the Mystics have wisdom and a strong sense of morality, they don’t have the passion and drive to affect real, lasting change. It takes the active choices of individuals who have a mix of both to ensure that the world changes. Kira has the knowledge of “all living things” and the wisdom to know which ones to call upon to help in a given situation. Jen has the knowledge of what he needs to do, that he needs to heal the crystal, but he lacks the wisdom to understand that his inaction will cost the world everything. He knows that the Skekis will rule forever, but he doesn’t understand what that fully entails never having truly lived under their threat.

Joseph Campbell sums it up pretty well: “The true goal of the hero’s quest must never be ecstasy nor relief for one’s self, but the wisdom and power to serve others.” It’s only after he learns that his choices do matter in the grand scheme that Jen is rewarded, the urSkeks restore Kira to life and they are given guardianship over the purified Crystal of Truth. This doesn’t invalidate her sacrifice, neither Jen nor Kira were aware that the urSkeks or the Crystal of Truth had this power going into the final battle. Now they have to figure out what the Crystal of Truth can do, the pair of them being told to “make their world in its light” by the urSkeks who then leave in a flash of brilliant light and leave the two Gelflings, seemingly content that the pair will have the wisdom, knowledge, and now power to make a better world.

At the end of the day, I am eternally fond of “The Dark Crystal” because it is a story that you can dig deeper into if you want and it does have an interesting moral spectrum – you have the Skekis on one side, the Mystics on the other, and the Gelflings somewhere in the middle. It also shows that Good isn’t just a thing you are, it’s a choice you have to actively make. Is there anything inherently Good in simply refusing to participate in the struggle of the world? Not necessarily, as Evil was only able to flourish because no-one really stood in its way. It is a prime example of the quote “The only thing needed for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.” Had Jen chosen to give up his quest once it got too hard, once it was revealed that his choices wouldn’t be easy, then the Skekis would have won. Their thirst for power at any cost would have won-out because they destroyed the opposition. Jen’s success was riding on his ability to make an active choice to utilize the wisdom of his youth tempered by the knowledge gained through his journey and finally amplified through the Crystal’s power. That is what I feel is the true moral – that we have to be active players in our world, we can’t just hope that things will get better. An important message in these times, wouldn’t you agree?

#long post #the dark crystal #Jim Heson #analysis

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ainchase · 7 years

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Pledge to the Sword

Hi. This is one of those “Long Posts”.

To skip to the next post on your tumblr dashboard, simply press J at any time, and K for the previous post.

It gets longer after “Keep Reading” lol Get ready for the longest post I’ve ever written

Elsword: Savior of the World or Just a Kid?

Elsword was born approximately 487 years after the infamous El Explosion as the son of a very talented and famous knight, Elkashu. Elsword and his older sister Elesis looked up to him. Elkashu left his two children behind to go off to war, and not long after, Elesis was asked to join him. Elsword, left alone by both his sister and his father, trains vigorously to become a skillful swordsman like them.

Elsword as a character has gone through some serious changes over the years, and with the addition of Ain, his status as the main character of the game has gone up drastically.

From the beginning to the end, let’s look at Elsword’s life and what makes him so special and not your average red-haired main protagonist brat.

1. Elsword’s energy is what helped Ain find his way out of Henir’s rift.

Ain’s been stuck in there since the explosion of the giant El, 500 years before the start of Ruben Adventure for the El Search Party. And...

When I was wandering within the chaos, I felt a faint energy of the El somewhere, and instinctively, I chased after that energy.

2. Elsword’s own energy is identical or very closely resembles the energy from the original El

Ain confuses Elsword’s energy with the Ruben El Shard (the core of the original Giant El)’s energy because of this.

3. Elsword believes that the Lady of El is NOT a legend.

500 years after the explosion of the giant El, nearly everyone in Elrios believes that the story of the Lady of El is a myth, a legend. The altars in Feita are in ruin, and the statues erected in her name have turned to rubbles.

And yet this is Elsword early in the adventure, right after Altera:

“Don’t worry about that! I will find the Lady of El and restore the El to its former glory!”

“You still believe in that legend? You’re not a kid anymore, you know...”

“She’s not a legend! She’s real!”

“...Elsword, why do you want to restore the El?”

“Huh? Hm... Now that you mention it... I don’t think I ever really thought about it...”

4. His response to Ain’s question and the aura he emits prompts Ain to conclude that Elsword is of same root as him.

The aura I felt from Elsword’s words just now... It’s from that...! There's no mistaking it. He is a being with the same root as I… Elsword will definitely try to find Lady of El and restore the El. No, he will never give up its restoration..

5. He remembers Ain even when the intervention is over.

When Ain ends the intervention, no one remembers him anymore. History and people’s memories are re-written so that it is as if he was never there.

It’s no use, Elsword. You… can’t remember when I have not intervened. No one can remember me. If I don't start my intervention… I'm just a helpless mass of light..

But Elsword does remember him.

6. Whenever Ain disappears, losing his physical form, Elsword brings Ain back into existence by calling his name.

He remembered me… and called my name… By Elsword calling me… I returned. - Ain, during Hamel Epic Quest

7. Elsword's own energy helps Ain restore his.

I've checked that my energy recovers if I'm next to Elsword… If I stay too far away from Elsword, then I won't be able to hold on for long… - Ain, during Hamel Epic Quest

8. When Elsword hears Harnier’s voice, she calls him a “protector of the El” and “... of the Goddess.”

In the beginning of Elysion arc, Elsword hears Harnier’s voice twice, both of which doesn’t make a lot of sense to him (Youtube):

At last... ...of the Goddess.... Protector of the El... El... The only one... Protector... This way....

9. Elsword finds the energy of the fabricated El familiar

As Elsword and the El Search Party gets closer and closer to the heart of Solace’s Fortress, Elsword feels something strange (Youtube):

It’s really strange... Have I been here before? No, that’s not possible... But why do I feel like this? Familiar... and nostalgic feeling. This power... I remember feeling this somewhere before.

The Central Core of Elysion. It is made up of innumerable amount of Diceons with enormous aura. This is the “fabricated El” that Solace was planning on using to change the world (Youtube):

“It can’t be... This power is... El?... It’s a very old... El from the past...”

“That is correct. It’s showing a similar wave form to the El from the past, before the El Explosion. But Elsword... How did you...?

“Huh...? Wait, what did I just....”

10. The past events/feelings Elsword remembers are directly from the El itself.

“You're telling me... everything I've been remembering is from the El?”

“The phantom images that torment you are the evidence. It means our faith in believing that you will change the world for us was not in vain.”

11. Solace’s conviction about Elsword’s power and right to change the future of Elrios.

“Yes, you are the one. The one who can change this world, the one who has the power to choose a new future.” “I am convinced, Elsword, that you are the one with the power and the right to change the future of Elrios.” “.... Now, it is time. O, the one who has the power and the right to choose the future of the world created by El.”

Who is Elsword? How can he do things that no one else can? Who WAS Elsword?

Contents

Celestial Influence

Power of the Chosen One

The True Identity of Elsword

1. Celestial Influence

Think about how impossible it is for someone’s energy to reach Ain all the way in the deep chasm of chaos that is the Henir’s Time & Space. It’s not even like his energy found Ain through a small crack in the dimension; it literally punched itself through it. The image above is from Chapter 3: Advent of Ain’s teaser. Look at Ain standing on top of the Space Time cubes and looking up at the source of the energy, and it shines... as if it broke into the rift to save Ain.

As the El’s energy grew stronger as I got closer, I thought to myself: It’s not too late. With this much energy, I might be able to complete my unfulfilled mission.

And this energy he felt was so vast that it made Ain think that he could restore energy to the El even though he would know better than most people how impossible it would be to restore energy to the El because he’s seen the destruction firsthand. But he’s thinking maybe he could do it even after experiencing an explosion so great that its shockwaves tore open a rift into another dimension.

Although Ain confuses the Elsword’s energy and Ruben El Shard’s energy when he gets out of the rift, he makes it clear later that it was Elsword who lead him out. Which brings us to the next point...

The fact that Elsword has energy that is similar to the original El is a huge clue. This could mean that Elsword was created in the same way the El was created. Of course, Ain commented that Elsword has the same root as him... What is Ain’s root? We know that he’s a Celestial, and the Goddess Ishmael created him in the Heaven...

He remembers Ain even when the intervention is over. If he is a normal human this is impossible. Not only that, when Ain disappeared completely, losing his physical form, Elsword brings Ain back into existence simply by calling his name. This is something that is only ever seen from Ishmael: giving Ain his physical form by calling him.

“The realm of the Gods which humans call the Heaven. There, I was created by answering the Goddess’s call.”

Look at Ain (re)gaining his physical form by Elsword:

This is important because Elsword doesn’t exactly exert any force or any effort to bring Ain back. As easily as saying “Ain”, Elsword not only restores Ain’s energy but gives him his existence in the physical world.

2. Power of the Chosen One

Solace is so convinced that Elsword is the one to decide the future of Elrios... but by what right? He says Elsword has the power and the right.

Here is a list of people who, even though they possess abilities that far surpass those of regular people, do NOT qualify to choose the fate of the world:

Lady of El, who uses a power of the Goddess

Remember Harnier singlehandedly stopped the Demon God that everyone else was powerless against - AND SHE WAS IN A COMA

Solace, Master of the Sun

Yes I wrote all that just so I can link it for this post

Masters of El

Excluding Solace, but probably can’t hold a candle to what Solace did even if you combine all of their powers

I mean seriously go read the things Solace did

Ain, a Celestial sent down to Elrios by the Goddess herself

He can purify corrupted El, and close dimensional rifts

As great and amazing these characters are, they still don’t have the right or the power to decide the fate of Elrios... but Elsword does. Where did Elsword get this power? WHEN AND WHERE DID ELSWORD GET THIS SUPPOSED POWER???

The game doesn’t hesitate to show us the defeat Elsword had to taste. The entire Velder epic quest was... well, a failure. It wasn’t a victorious battle. They had to run away from Velder and leave the rest to Red Knights. Elsword himself almost died in Velder before Elesis saved him. Elsword wasn’t born as an all powerful main character. Several characters in the game mentioned that Elsword is strong, but would be strong beyond imagination if he could reach his full potential.

What confused me the most was how Solace treats Elsword differently. In the Heavenly Crossroads, he warns Elsword to turn away now or he’ll spare their lives (Youtube):

“It’s impressive that you got this far... but it’s too early for you to step inside here. If you surrender everything and leave this place now, then I’ll let you leave with your life still attached.”

In his fortress, he says that their battle will be the final test...? (Youtube):

“This is your last test. How will you resist to this power.”

And at the end of Halted Sun’s Memory, he tells Elsword to choose the future because he has the power and the right to do it...???

Here is our answer:

KR Elsword Update Schedule

June 2016: Elysion Update (Heavenly Crossroads~Adrian’s Abode)

July 2016: First Transcendence (Elsword~Raven)

August 2016: Solace's Fortress Update

September 2016: El Resonance

November 2016: Halted Sun's Memory Update

Before Elsword faced Solace... He went through his transcendence quest.

Transcendence Quest Descriptions from 1/5 to 5/5:

I leave this note for adventurers seeking the power of transcendence. May it be of help to you...

After the incident, I searched for the rest of the fragments of the Goddess’s breath. Strangely, the fragments led me to other fragments with their flickering light.

The fragments attracted one another. They would light up in unexpected places only to disappear again. At first, I didn’t comprehend the purpose of this phenomenon; however, as the journey continued, I began to understand.

The Goddess’s breath tested me– my right to obtain new strength, my conviction, my capability to utilize this power for good. And if I can see the hidden truth behind a great power…

I was afraid. Was I a strong person who can bear all these things? For what purpose did the Goddess Ishmael bestow this fragment to Elrios? With all these unanswered questions, I could only take the test the Goddess prepared for me.

I vividly remember that day. It was the day I surpassed my limit. It was the day I realized my “transcendence.” I saw what I cannot describe with words as unexplainable feelings overcame me. Just like that, I grew stronger once more.

- From a memoir of an El Search Party member

I won’t go into details about the descriptions more than necessary because I think this alone warrants a post of its own (here), but from the descriptions you can tell that Elsword was tested for his right to gain new power... he passed the test, and reached his transcendence.

Transcend doesn’t simply mean that you got stronger. It means surpassing the limitation of human understanding: to break the limit and become something else.

The descriptions also give a clue about when his journey to transcendence started and when it ended. He was on his quest to restore the El from early on in the journey, during which his conviction and will was tested and when he reached the end of Adrian’s Abode, he passed the test and achieved transcendence. So by the time he faced Solace, he was already transcended. Solace says “This is the final test”, because if Elsword has truly acheived transcendence... and therefore was acknowledged by the Goddess, by the El... he could withstand Solace’s attack and be worthy enough to learn the truth of the past, which will help him decide the course of the future of Elrios.

This evident in Solace’s Fortress True Ending, where you must defeat Solace within 60 sec during his 2nd phase, which is notoriously difficult to do if you don’t have the right skill+power. When you manage to get the true ending, Solace says the following line: “You will soon learn the truth of the world...”

Note: The True Ending is called True Ending because it was specifically written in the title prerequisite before the revamp. The requirement for Shadow of the Sun simply stated “See True Ending 50 times” before they changed it to “Defeat Solace after he awakens to Phase 2 within 60 seconds 50 times” to eliminate any confusion.

Elsword starts his journey to restore the shattered El.

He follows the energy of El fragments Ruben~Elysion.

The El tests his worthiness for power + right to learn the truth of the world and decide the fate of the world.

Elsword passes that test and transcends.

Solace gives him the final test; this time, testing Elsword’s transcendence to make sure he is the chosen one.

Canonically, Elsword defeats Solace in the most difficult battle of his life to see the “true ending”

Elsword was someone important from the past post has been archived and can be found here: (link)

3. The True Identity of Elsword

can be found here: (link)

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