theonewritingblog

[theonewritingblog]

Oh no... not another one. Cerena cringed, xir face hidden under xir own helmet and darkened glass. Armor AI running things when no one at the wheel has gotten to be a... problem, as of late. The soldier occupying a suit would die, and the AI, either out of a sense of grief or a sense of duty, would try to keep running the show. It had gotten to point where the Corp would refuse to properly log statistics or tell families when a loved one had died because they wouldn't be able to retrieve the bodies.

And that is where Cerena came in. It was xir job to go in to find the rogue AI and relieve them from their duties, let them and the soldier finally both be at peace and at rest, then make sure the body is retrieved and the family notified. Xe was, in effect, a very heavily armored grief counselor. And this AI was the third one today xe's had to deal with.

Xe walked over to the shambling husk, who was now sitting and cradling a hot coffee at an empty table in the mess hall. No doubt following a routine, even of their opperator was no longer alive to fulfill the actions.

"Mind if I sit here?" Cerena asked plesantly, ignoring the gaping hole where the man's face should be, looking instead at the faded lable on the armor's chest, the holographic letters fuzzy and glitching out. "Private Davidson?"

"Sure!" A voice chirped, cheerful, yet also filled with static- a recording, no doubt of the former private once saying the words. Xe couldn't help but feel sympathy for the AI as xe sat down, holding a mug of tea xemself. Between following the private's former routine and using recorded clippings of the man's voice, the AI was clearly grieving. Cerena already was using xir suit to pull up files on Davidson and his personal AI, quickly purusing them.

Davidson and two others in his company- two others who were also his close friends- were up for a long overdue promotion and commendation. The day of, they were getting ready for the promotion and were on their way to the ceremony when there was an explosion- the ship's self repairing, bogged down by a mandatory update, kicked in a half second too late, and all three men had died. All three AIs refused to log them as desceased and kept going to work, though Cerena had managed to find the other two and convince them to let go.

Now, it was Davidson's AI's turn, the one who had designated himself Jaime. And it was xir job to finally give Jaime some peace.

Xe dismissed the filed, turning to face Jaime a little. "So, Private, I'm a little new here- it's my first day at this station. I hope I'm not taking anyone's spot?"

"Oh, no!" the voice was corrupted. "I mean, Jeffrey- uh, Private Smith- usually sits there but I... haven't seen him today."

Cerena nodded. "I figured- I already spoke with Private Smith and Jones today- you see, I'm a wellness inspector, and I'm here to inspect the health of you three after the explosion, make sure everything is alright."

"Jaime says I'm okay." Davidson says. "Jaime wouldn't lie to me. Are the others okay?"

Xe briefly considered keeping up the charade, ease into the loss, but xe didn't have the time. "No." xe said gently. "No, they... they both died. Their AIs were still dragging them along. They're all at rest now, and their bodies will be shipped back to their homes tomorrow."

The suit dropped the coffee. Brown liquid spilled and Cerena stared, setting xir own mug down.

"I told them it would be alright-" the recorded voice was choppy, and while none of the words had any amount of grief in them, the lighted lines of the suit flashed a dark blue- the AI. "I promised it would be alright. I thought that nanohealing would fix all the damage."

"Nanohealing can fix a great many things, but it's not a miracle worker." Cerena said gently. "It can't fix death."

The suit slammed his hands on the table, and Cerena knew that several people were looking now. "I should have fixed it, I promised!"

Xe was silent, and gently rest a hand on the armor's arm. "It wasn't your fault. There was nothing you could do, Jaime."

The silence was thick, and xe gazed into the gaping hole where Davidson's face would have been. "You two must have been close- since the start of basic training, you would have been partners for almost six years now. Many soldiers and AI would have been close friends. It's okay to grieve, Jaime, but you have to let go."

"His leg was only broken. He should have survived." Jaime wasn't using Davidson's recorded voice anymore. "I told him it would be alright, and then the beams above broke and a pole came falling. I should have seen it, I should have activated the shielding."

"There was nothing you could do." Cerena repeated, and the AI buring his face in his hands. "I know it hurts. I know you're angry and you feel guilty. It was supposed to be an important day for him and instead..."

"It wasn't fair." Jaime said quietly. "I can't lose him, he was my best friend. I don't want to lose him."

"But it's not fair to drag him around like this. He had a family, people who loved him, people who want to bury him. Do you really want to drag him around until there's nothing left of him, Jaime?"

The AI seemed to stare at the spilled coffee. "Can I play... just one more recording? Just to... pretend. To say goodbye?"

"Of course." Cerena nodded. "Do you want me to leave you alone?"

"No."

The recording the AI selected seemed to be of the first day Davisdon got his armor- Cerena could half see the image of the recorded video on the dark glass of what was left of the helmet.

"So I could count on you to have my back?" Davidson sounded so young, so optimistic.

"Of course." Jaime responded quietly, echoing the recording. "I will always be here when you need me, Private Davidson. For now I sugfest you focus on training- I won't distract you any longer.

"Until you need me, farewell, Private." the Jaime of the recording said. The images freezed on the helmet, and Jaime was quiet. "... goodbye, my friend." Jaime said out loud, and the screen went blank.

The suit was still for another moment, the lights on the armor gently flickering. "... Thank you." the AI added, and then the lights went dark, Jaime going into rest mode. Cerena caught them before they slumped over, nodding over to the group of people on the other side of the mess hall to come collect the body, heading to the bathroom.

"Well done, Cerena." the voice of the AI, designated as Ellie, was unusually somber. "Today has been a good day. Three families can finally bury their loved ones, and three AIs can get the help they need. I'd say it was a good day."

"Don't patronize me, Ellie." Cerena said, staring at the mirror, bringing up the list and crossing Private Davidson's name. "I know what you really want me to do."

"I wouldn't be surprised- you made me to keep you in line, Cerena." her voice was gentle, the way Cerena always remembered it. "You're almost done with your list, I'm just here to make sure you take your own advice."

Cerena looked at the mirror. AI couldn't imagine things, but xe liked to believe that Ellie still looked how she did when Cerena saw her last- like she was simply asleep, not dead. Xe didn't want to release the glass panel of the helmet to find out.

"I will." xe said, voi e crackling. "I just need to finish up this list. So no one else gets hurt."

"Cerena-" the Ellie AI started, but Cerena dismissed her for now, straighting up and leaving the bathroom.

Xe still had work to do.

Another soldier in power armor sprinted past, his gait unnaturally mechanical. Then he turned around - his visor was cracked wide open, his face but a gaping, bloody crater. The suit’s on-board AI was in control, moving and responding to orders while cradling the corpse of its late operator.

[theonewritingblog]

Wait this is funny

[theonewritingblog]

Can I please have a one note, one day I don’t self harm?

No limit because this isn’t gonna spread that far

[theonewritingblog]

My favorite piece of worldbuilding in Amber Skies is that the internet is alive and can feel pain

[theonewritingblog]

I’d like to thank my friend Avistew Teague for translating this!

[theonewritingblog]

[theonewritingblog]

So, if you put your URL in here, you can listen to all the music you’ve ever blogged.

[theonewritingblog]

ao3′s orphaning option is cool and a good idea but mostly very fucking funny. i posted this work for fun when i was younger and i still want people to be able to come back to it if they liked it, but now im an adult professional and i dont want it attached to my name. whats the word for that? umm, anonymously posting? no. i want something that indicates i murdered this story’s parents 

[theonewritingblog]

dreamtale is back…?

yes, mah friend, you have read correctly, the comic will come back and stronger than ever Dreamtale creator jokublog (me) there is a user on youtube who has stolen my Dream and nightmare characters, and earns money using them, please do not support her, she steal characters from many other artists. that’s bad, very bad. She doesn’t even give me credit for using my creations. her name is “Angel De La Verdad”

[theonewritingblog]

Fanfiction Trope MASH-UP

Rules: Send me two (2) tropes from this list + a ship and I’ll describe how I’d combine them in the same story. 

Historical AU 

Royal AU 

Modern AU 

Coffee Shop AU 

Bar/Restaurant AU 

Bookshop AU 

Florist AU  

Hospital AU 

Dance AU 

Airport/Travel AU 

Neighbour AU 

Roommate AU 

Detective AU 

Bodyguard AU 

Criminal AU 

Prison AU 

War AU 

Circus AU 

Summer Camp AU 

Teacher AU 

Dystopian AU 

Space AU 

Performer AU 

Soulmate AU 

Fairy Tale AU 

Massage Fic  

Sick/Injured Fic 

Proposal Fic  

Wedding Fic  

Holiday Fic  

Birthday Fic 

Pregnancy Fic  

Baby Fic 

Vacation Fic  

Bathtub Fic 

Text/Letter Fic 

Coming Out Fic   

Grief Fic  

Survival/Wilderness Fic  

Almost Kiss 

First Kiss 

The Big Damn Kiss 

Dance of Romance  

Flowers of Romance 

Chocolate of Romance  

Blind Date  

Not a Date  

Fake Dating 

Fake Married 

Arranged Marriage  

Accidentally Married 

Marriage of Convenience 

Mutual Pining 

Secret Relationship  

Established Relationship 

Awful First Meeting 

Forgotten First Meeting  

Accidental Eavesdropping  

Interrupted Declaration of Love 

Poorly Timed Confession 

Love Confession 

Love Confessor (Character A confessing their love for Character B to Character C)  

Everybody Knows/Mistaken for Couple 

Star Crossed Lovers  

It’s Not You, It’s Me 

It’s Not You, It’s My Enemies  

Character in Peril 

Heroic Sacrifice 

Flirting Under Fire 

Locked in a Room 

Twenty-Four Hours to Live  

Stranded on A Desert Island 

Stranded Due to Inclement Weather 

Huddling for Warmth 

Bed Sharing  

Did They or Didn’t They? 

In Vino Veritas  

Above the Influence  

Anger Born of Worry  

Green-Eyed Epiphany  

The Missus and the Ex 

Second Love  

Intimate Artistry  

Married to the Job  

Innocent Physical Contact 

I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On 

Aroused By Her Voice  

Erotic Dreams 

First Time 

Unexpected Virgin 

PWP 

Kink 

Makeovers 

Hair Brushing/Braiding 

Sleep Intimacy 

Scars  

Time Travel  

Curses 

Magical Accidents 

Accidentally Saving the Day   

[theonewritingblog]

AO3′s users alert! Unauthorised fanworks copying

Dear AO3 users,

We would like to bring your attention to an ugly situation with unauthorized copying of works posted on AO3.

A lot of works from AO3 have been copied to fanfics.me (we’ll call this site FFM for brevity’s sake) and are still being copied right now, either:

— automatically by a code specifically created by FFM’s owner for this purpose, or

— by unaware or unscrupulous FFM’s users via semi-automatic method (by inserting a link to a work from AO3 into a web-worm on FFM).

All works from AO3 — with a few exceptions (I’ll elaborate on this below) — can end up on FFM without authors even noticing. Even fanarts or podfics.

FFM doesn’t comply with DMCA which means that such reposts endanger fanworks’ creators in case the copyright holder demands to delete the fanwork.

Authors of the copied works do not have any control over them; if the work is edited it won’t be updated on FFM until someone manually updates it.

Additionally FFM’s owner makes money out of reposted free fanworks from numerous Google and Yandex ads on each and every FFM’s page by having people go to this site when searching for fics on Google etc. So we recommend using an Ads Blocker when visiting this site in order to prevent the owner from earning more. Ghostery or Adblock Plus work just fine, but you can use any other Ads Blocker that is convenient to you.

Oftentimes FFM even shows up before the original post with the work on Google search results.

The owner’s e-mail: refery@fanfics.ru.

The owner at AO3.

We are trying to bring AO3’s users attention to this situation and help authors with taking their works down from FFM.

Briefly about the website and its owner

Let me start from the very beginning as it will bring into the light the nature of FFM and give a good example of its owner characteristic behavior.

At first, some person with nickname Refery created FFM as a web archive where authors — mostly from Harry Potter fandom — could publish their fanworks.

Time passed, the site grew and added some features (blogs, pre-moderation and etc.), and all was good and well up till the moment when Refery decided that it would be a great idea to copy to FFM fanworks published on other Russian fanfiction archives — among them from the biggest and most known site ficbook — without asking authors for permission. Even those works that had “Ask me before posting the story somewhere else” mentioned in its text or summary were copied.

For some time nobody noticed, but when finally and inevitably this came out the authors were outraged. It took a lot of time to finally persuade Refery to at least not to copy fanworks bearing a special tag “Уточнять у автора” (Ask the author first).

But after some time Refery — without giving any notice — violated his own promise and resumed copying to FFM fanworks that had the agreed upon tag. The authors complained again, so very reluctantly and after many painful discussions this feature was reinstalled.

So FFM has been notoriously known, mostly amongst Russian fandom, for claims on re-posting fanworks without the consent of the authors.

We’re mentioning this situation just to give you a detailed portrait of a person we are dealing with here.

Not only fanworks are copied to this website, but original works, too. Even those which were already published. There were all 7 of Harry Potter novels (both original text and translation), The Hobbit: There and Back Again (translation) and Vorkosigan Saga (translation) available for everybody to read and download. They were taken down only recently due to the attention this whole situation had drawn, but nothing ever goes away once it’s posted online and you can access the proof via Internet Wayback machine. We know for a fact there are other books on FFM and some actions have been taken in this regard, but still it takes time to find published books on this site.

Recently Refery decided that Russian archives are not enough for him and started copying all fanworks into FFM without any permission from the authors from numerous sites, like AO3, fanfiction.net, fictionpress.com, fanfiktion.de and likely other web-archives.

Moreover, the authors of these works can not delete their works from FFM and/or manage them. The site is in Russian only and, hence, we strongly believe that non-Russian speaking authors even do not know that their works are reposted somewhere else.

As a Russian fan-community, we have tried to stop such activity of FFM many times; however, we have not been successful in achieving our goal completely. Our most recent achievement is that the FFM’s owner implemented the “Don’t copy to another site” tag created specifically for AO3 (here is the link to FFM’s owner post on his personal blog regarding this tag. Please use Ads Blocker!). This tag should be added to each work presented on AO3 in case the author does not want their works to be copied to FFM.

We are of the opinion that no work should be taken without permission in the first place, but this tag is all we’ve got.

Please note that it seems that some time ago there was similar case of unauthorized copying with other site. Please check this link, they give useful advice.

How to prevent copying from AO3

If you check AO3 you may notice that “Don’t copy to another site” tag has hugely emerged in the recent weeks, but mostly amongst Russian users and there is a good reason for this: the owner of FFM announced this tag only in Russian and only on his private blog, so naturally there is no way for non-Russian speaking AO3 users to know about this — albeit non-satisfactory — solution.

There are no guaranties that the FFM’s owner won’t change the rules again as has already happened numerous times before (few examples we described above) and that works with this tag won’t be reposted in the future, but for now it’s the only quick and working solution besides making your works visible only to registered users, which is not ideal. 

This situation is highly unpleasant, but we ask you not to delete your works from AO3, because if the work is deleted from AO3 it will be nearly impossible to delete it from FFM: we won’t be able to refresh it manually and remove the text.

Please note that adding this tag won’t work for texts that have already been copied. Only users who have accounts at FFM will be able to delete them. Each work needs to be deleted manually.

However, the Russian fandom — except for the owner of FFM — strongly condemns reposts without the consent of the author, so feel free to contact our volunteers (through DM or Ask on our tumblr page) providing the links to the works stolen from AO3, so we could delete them for you.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to cover all authors and works manually. So, we contacted AO3’ Technical Team with the aim to bring their attention to this situation and inform about it all AO3 users, and hope that AO3 team will find a general solution to resolve this problem, possibly, in collaboration with the AO3 lawyers.

We are trying to warn as many authors as possible and recently started spreading this information via comments on AO3; but considering the number of works copied to FFM informing all authors will take considerable time, and we can easily miss someone, especially since the copying is still in progress and new works from AO3 are appearing on FFM every day.

Please help us spread the word!

We tried to make a comprehensive FAQ about this. Feel free to ask if anything is unclear!

FAQ

Q: Can I check if my work was copied to FFM?

A: Yes, you can.

FFM makes money on Google and Yandex ads, so we recommend turning on the Ads Blocker of your choice before visiting this site.

Please follow this link, insert the title of your work or your AO3/other web-archive nickname into the field containing the words “insert-title-nickname” and hit “Искать” (Search).

For works rated Mature or Explicit you will be able to see only the caption “Текст произведения доступен только зарегистрированным пользователям старше 18 лет” (“The text of the work is available only to registered users over 18 years old”), but FFM users are able to read and download the story.

Q: My work from AO3 was copied. How can I take it down?

A: First of all add the tag “Don’t copy to another site” (without “ “) to the stories you want to be taken down.

Actually we would recommend adding this tag to all the works you don’t want to be copied.

Contact one of our volunteers (through DM or Ask on our tumblr page) providing links to your works or send an e-mail with your deletion request directly to the FFM owner at refery@fanfics.ru or at AO3. 

There is a third option: to register on FFM and delete the work yourself by hitting the refresh button, but considering that the site is in Russian we do not think it will be very convenient to those who do not speak Russian language.

Q: I got the message that my work has been deleted. How can I check if it is true?

A: You can go to FFM, search for you work, click on its title and scroll down.

After the summary there is a field that should look like this for those fics that have been deleted.

Basically it says that the author of this particular work has forbidden its copying and that only the information on its title, author’s nickname, rating, pairings, summary and the link to original post on AO3 are available. 

For works that are still available on FFM this field looks like this (if the work is open for non-registered users).

Q: My work copied from AO3 was deleted, but FFM still shows some information on it. Can it be deleted?

A: Even though the text of the fic is not going to be on FFM anymore after it has been deleted, the fic’s title, author’s name, rating, pairings, summary and link to original post on AO3 will remain there.

The deletion of this leftover information can be done only by the site owner himself.

Some Russian authors tried to make him to delete it, but in most cases the FFM’s owner refused them mentioning that publication of such information is in line with fair use concept and doesn’t violate authors’ rights.

We are yet unsure how to delete this leftover information. In case you need it as well, try contacting the FFM owner at refery@fanfics.ru or at AO3. Maybe e-mails of a large number of authors will work, but unfortunately we can’t guarantee anything. In case you need it, we can provide Russian text for you to send by e-mail (please contact our volunteers through DM or Ask on our tumblr page).

Q: My work from fanfiction.net/fictionpress.com/fanfiktion.de/other web-archives was copied to FFM. How can I take it down?

A: Unfortunately, there is no possible way for us to delete from FFM the fanworks that are copied from web-archives other then AO3. Only FFM’s owner can delete these works, please try contacting him at refery@fanfics.ru or at AO3. In case you need it, we can provide Russian text for you to send by e-mail (please contact our volunteers through DM or Ask on our tumblr page).

Please do not delete your works from the web-archive it was stolen from, because if the work is deleted it will be nearly impossible to delete it from FFM.

Also it seems that some time ago there was similar case of unauthorized copying with other site. Please check this link, they give useful advice.

[theonewritingblog]

Locked in a cage continuation - DS Dream

Dreamswap belongs to Onebizarrekai

Warning for implied kidnapping, swearing, mild violence and drugging

Keep reading

[theonewritingblog]

Three Glitches Walk Into a Bar...

Inspired by @thegreatyin. I hope I didn't butcher what you had in mind!

32 belongs to @poopachii

DS Error belongs to @onebizarrekai

Template belongs to @unu-nunium

---

So three glitches walk into a bar, right?

At first they all just stared at one another, a bit warily.

"So what are you guys doing here?" the one in suspenders broke the silence first.

"Hiding." the smallest in an coat to large from him peeked out the boarded up windows of the bar almost habitually.

"Yeah, same here." the third fixed his glasses nervously. "On the run from JR. You?"

"Hiding." the first one said. "... My name's Template."

"32." the smallest said, settling to sit on the ground, as did Template and the third.

"Error." he grinned a little.

Template narrowed his eyes. "Do you destroy aus?"

"Uh... no?"

Template relaxed. "Oh. Okay. I guess that's fine then."

"... Talk about coincidence." 32 said. "We're stuck here for a while, so we might as well talk... right?"

Both Error and Template shrugged.

"I guess."

"Sure."

And that's how they got started.

---

Sometimes people would have to look at them and ask "Isn't weird, dating two other Errors?"

And then Error would have to hold 32 and Template back and politely say, "They aren't Errors, thank you. And no, it's not weird, now good day to you."

He was telling the truth everytime- it wasn't weird. They all fought over normal couple stuff- how many teapots 32 had to donate when they were cleaning up the house, what restaurant they should eat at, whether or not they should punt Blue into the sun, who was going to be in the middle for snuggling (it was 32 every time because he moves around the least in his sleep and didn't have issues with so much touching- he relished it, in fact), how Template couldn't buy three knew art tablets just because. You know. Normal couple things.

They just all happened to look very similar to one another and also to a certain manbaby who likes to destroy timelines for fun. But really, only Error was the only one who wouldn't snap your neck if you called him Error.

32 and Template might. Depends on the day. That just how it be sometimes.

But otherwise, they were a normal couple, that did normal couple things. Like dates! They liked going on dates. Movie dates, particularly, ones at home where they could huddle under blankets Error had made, drinking tea 32 made and eating popcorn Template made and watching some dumb cheesy movie.

Which is what they were getting ready to do at the moment. Error was in charge of the blanket fort they would want the movie from.

"What season do you guys want on the popcorn?" Template asked from the cabinets, looking up at the seasonings.

"Just salt and butter." Error responded.

"That caramel seasoning." 32 said at the same time. They looked at each other and did a quick battle of rock, paper, scissors. Error defeated him without mercy. "Just salt and butter."

Error beamed, and 32 childishly stuck his tongue and went back to making the tea just how the others liked it.

"So what are we watching tonight?" Error asked Template.

"Emoji movie." Template said casually.

The two glared at him.

"I want a divorce." 32 declared.

"I'm kidding, it's Titanic!" Template raised his hands. "We aren't even married. Or engaged. So you can't divorce me anyway?"

32 narrowed his eyes. "Mmm... you're still on thin ice."

"Stop fighting or I'm making you two sleep on the couch." Error threatened, sliding in the disk for the movie. "And hurry up, guys! You're taking forever."

The two did pick it up, hurrying over to the fort Error had elegantly constructed, sitting on the cushions after Template popped the movie in. 32 took the middle this time, as the popcorn holder, and distributed the tea.

The three settled in, getting comfortable.

"Why'd you pick the longest movie ever invented?" 32 asked

"Because I wanna do as much time as possible with my boyfriends." Template said, a bit cheesily. A warm silence fell over them.

"Temp... that's kinda gay." Error grinned.

"Oh shit up, Error, watch the movie." Template scoffed, casually leaning against 32 to snatch some popcorn.

"I am!" the glitch also snagged some popcorn.

The three of them ended up falling asleep after the first hour anyway, all wrapped in blankets and tangled up in each other. The former elegantly crafted fort had called down. The teacups were safely set to the side but popcorn was spilled everywhere, yet the three couldn't have a care in the world because once upon a time three glitches walked into a bar and everyone thought it was a joke, but really, it was a romance.

[theonewritingblog]

Give us the essay, you coward.

so ds error and 32 both drink coffee. 32 and template both deny being error and strive to be (somewhat) good despite murder and destructive instincts. ds error and template are both good beans. therefore, all three of them are Good Glitch Solitary, and totally deserve to be in a poly together. in this essay i will

[theonewritingblog]

Gods & Monsters Series in Chronological Order

[theonewritingblog]

(CCAUTale) Genocide

4.5k words this time!!

The starting is basically an edited copy-paste of the neutral one tho but like. The rest of it is similar until the end.

I’m just super proud of this.

Anyways say hi to Geno!Garrote and Geno!IC, and also meet the other dastardly duo. The original dastardly duo.

=)

– — — — –

 Garrote shouted as he landed roughly into the patch of thorns, growling to himself. Suddenly, he was crushed underneath his closest friend, as well, both of them letting out pained sounds before IC was kicked off of Garrote, thus also away from the thorn bush. Garrote was helped out by his friend, both grinning at eachother now that the pain was fading.

 Garrote was quite the figure, with plenty of tattoos to make him look older (and edgier) than he really was. With a head full of bright red hair and one eye blind, he looked rather inhuman. He and his friend had matching eyes, however, simply flipped; IC’s right eye was brown and left eye was blue, Garrote’s right eye was blue and his left eye was brown. Garrote wore a dark red sweater with four thick dark blue stripes, with dark blue jeans and red hiking boots. The laces were a dark blue shade.

 IC was rather pale, with heterochromatic as it was stated before, with dark brown hair that had lighter roots. He was simply wearing a light blue sweater with four thick, pale red stripes on it, with light red shorts and pale blue high-tops, with light red laces.

 “Dude, we strayed real far from Kansas, didn’t we?” IC asked as he looked around.

 “I feel like we should go straight to the very ominous hallway and door,” Garrote offered with a small laugh. They both seemed very casual about this. “This is like a video game, huh?” Garrote asked as they both walked through the doorway.

 A man, taller than anyone they’ve ever seen before, stood in the middle of the room, an odd beam of light coming from who-knows where and shining on him.

Keep reading