[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/vQOmUnK.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/4z2wNC9m.jpg?1[/img][/center] [color=MediumPurple]"Well,"[/color] I say to myself as I'm herded toward the large stage in the middle of the park, my words completely drowned out by thumping bass that makes my intestines rumble, [color=MediumPurple]"So far everything about this is awful. So at the very least, I was right."[/color] From what I've gathered on my very few trips outside in the month or so I've been in Jump City, it's that the people here are massive neophiles. This close to Silicon Valley, and with a few of the biggest video game developers in the world setting up headquarters here, they get first access to the latest gadgets, the newest games, the hottest toys before everyone else gets them. And they've been conditioned to eat it all up, kids and teenagers and young adults throwing billions of dollars at big tech corporations who lure them in with gaudy, flashy events like....well, like this one. Trained like a city full of Pavlov's dogs. Ring the bell, and watch them all salivate. I'm here out of obligation, because Mister Abel more or less guilt-tripped me into trying to have "fun" with other people my age. Having grown up around cultists who think that melting their brains with psychotropic drugs is the same thing as contacting higher dimensions, and then having a completely different group of cultists kidnap and try to murder me, I'm not exactly jumping with excitement over the prospect of being surrounded by a bunch of....[i]normal[/i] people. I'm just here to take a picture or two for photographic evidence and buy one piece of overpriced merchandise to prove to Mister Abel that I had a "good time." For as much as I absolutely do not want to be here, just getting in was an ordeal. I was stopped at three different checkpoints: once by the event staff to make sure I didn't have any symptoms of the crud, a second by the JCPD to turn my backpack inside out to make sure I wasn't sneaking in a gun (or worse, food or water that isn't from the concession stands), and a third by some private security goons called HIVE who frisked me for reasons they didn't bother disclosing. Those last guys in particular seemed to take their time in patting people down, and even inside the event, they have guards patrolling around the stage like they're overseeing a maximum security prison. Speaking of the stage, two massive screens show off the new Control Freaks console and a clip-show of what I assume are the upcoming games, while on the stage itself, some technicolored [i]thing[/i] fumbles through [url=https://youtu.be/pPw_izFr5PA]the worst music I have ever heard.[/url] A throng of people-- most of whom look to be about my age, barely old enough to have a driver's license-- gyrate and dry-hump amidst a storm of seizure-inducing lasers, strobes, and fog. If they're not drunk or high, then they're doing a good job of pretending to be. For a second, I'm reminded of the degeneracy I saw at the party my "father" Sebastian took me to in Los Angeles the night he tried to put a knife through me. And to think, this is all just to sell some crappy-- [color=DarkOrange][i]God, Allie is so hot in that dress. I've gotta--[/i][/color] [color=HotPink][right][i]--can't believe I let them talk me into this, but--[/i][/right][/color] [color=FireBrick][center][i]--see him around Jackie again, he's fucking dead, I'll--[/i][/center][/color] [color=LawnGreen][i]--guess another drink couldn't hurt, as long as I don't--[/i][/color] [color=LightSeaGreen][center][i]--anyone actually like this guy's music? How do you--[/i][/center][/color] [color=Goldenrod][i]--can't believe this is what my career has come to. I was [u]Hamlet[/u] at Juliard, for God's sake! Now I'm up here peddling this puerile dreck for--[/i][/color] [color=SkyBlue][right][i]--best song I've ever heard! How can anyone not like--[/i][/right][/color] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/vfpd6ky.png[/img][/center] [color=MediumPurple]"Nnngh! What....what the hell?!"[/color] Voices, all around me, come crashing in. At first, I think it's just a part of the music. But I know better. I've had...'episodes' for the past few weeks, ever since Sebastian and his band of creeps first came for me. I'll think someone's talking to me, but they won't move their lips. I'll suddenly have picture-perfect recollection of places I've never been, people I've never met. Someone will start shouting down the block, and I'll be the one who starts to feel angry or afraid. Internal monologues, half-formed prototypes of sentences, bits of songs, images of memories and fantasies and secret fears. It's pushed by a wave of emotions, raw and unchecked by rationality, strengthened by the hormones of a few thousand excitable, horny, angry, tortured, oblviously happy, and terminally insecure teenagers. A pure, unfiltered deluge of thought overwhelms me. It's all I can do to stay on my feet. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/e1KRpkv.png[/img][/center] A voice that sounds like an avalanche roars over everything. [color=MediumPurple]"....who.....what are you--"[/color] [color=YellowGreen]"I, uhhhhh, I said my name's Alex,"[/color] says the boy standing in front of me when I open my eyes. He's grotesquely overweight, with long stringy red hair done up in a top-knot, a patchy beard with bushy mutton-chops, a long black trenchcoat, and an ill-fitting T-shirt with the logo of something called 'Pretty Pretty Pegasus' on it. [color=YellowGreen]"But, erm, online I go by Count Del Freako."[/color] [color=MediumPurple]"....uh-huh....,"[/color] I nod, barely giving him any attention as I struggle to get my bearings. [color=YellowGreen]"I, well, uh, I saw you looked like you could use some assistance,"[/color] he says, [color=YellowGreen]"and I thought I could see if there's, uhhh, anything you need?"[/color] I take a few deep breaths, then shake my head. Mister Abel said I should try to make friends. [color=MediumPurple]"It's...fine,"[/color] I say. [color=MediumPurple]"Just a migraine. So, um.....'Count Del Freako'......do you play video games?"[/color] Even if I didn't just have another episode, I am still awful at small talk. [color=YellowGreen]"Yeah, I mean, I'm a pretty big gamer, I guess,"[/color] he says, trying to play it cool. [color=YellowGreen]"I've had all the Control Freak consoles since first-gen. I'm ranked number one on Freak Fest All-Stars Melee for the region, won a couple of big-money tournaments, so my mom lets me pretty much do whatever I want now. I mean, it's not a big deal or anything, I could teach you--"[/color] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/umoVo83.png[/img][/center] There it is again. The voice like the ground splitting open. Like Hell opening up wide. It's in my head. [color=YellowGreen]"--cus, like, All-Stars Custom Brawl was basically made for babies and casuals, the kind of losers who play with items on. But, I mean, if you like it, it's cool, I just like the more technical--"[/color] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/umoVo83.png[/img][/center] Shut up...... [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ZF8HQmC.png[/img][/center] .....shut up...... [center][h2][b][color=DarkRed]YOU ARE MINE[/color][/b][/h2][/center] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/VOyhs3R.jpg[/img][/center] [color=MediumPurple]"SHUT UP!!!!"[/color] [color=YellowGreen]"....okay, sorry. I'll.....I'll leave you alone,"[/color] Alex shrinks away, before muttering to himself [color=YellowGreen]"[sub]....fuckin' bitch, why don't girls like nice guys like me?[/sub]"[/color] I stagger away, trying to find somewhere to clear my head. Everywhere around me, there's more brain-dead guys and vapid girls spewing their triteness into my thoughts. Those armed guards from HIVE patrolling around the stage keep staring at me. And that godawful music won't stop. It's too much. Finally, I stagger into a bathroom, and splash some cold water on your face. [color=MediumPurple]"....calm down,"[/color] I say to myself, [color=MediumPurple]"You're going to be okay.....you're going to be okay....."[/color] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/F8fNffkm.jpg[/img][/center] [color=MediumPurple]".....everything's going to be okay....."[/color] [hr] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/DxUIER1.png[/img][/center] [i]Kathas and Palamar have fallen. Myrynnian has become a cauldron of nightmares. And now glorious Tamarus herself is in ruins. Citadel drones strafe the city streets, disruptor bolts reducing warrior and innocent alike to dust. Green-skinned stormtroopers from the Gordanian hordes kick down the doors of living quarters, dragging women and children away to be used as slaves and chattel. Maltusian Psions send out blasts of despair and fear to demoralize and disrupt our lines, in order for them to be crushed and swept aside by hulking crag-faced Branx warriors. Multi-limbed horrors from the Spider Guild climb across the city's broken towers, snatching up unlucky souls in their slavering acidic jaws. Flames engulf the Royal Palace. The Floating Gardens where we had played as children, the Hall of Glory where we trained as warriors, the Temple of Knowledge where we had learned as scholars, and the Inner Home where we had grown as family. All now are shattered and burned, the people inside either dead or dying. [color=Violet]"I want you to know, dear sister,"[/color] Komand'r says, a cruel smile on her face as she tightens the electro-leash around my neck, [color=Violet]"that this is all your fault. You could have stopped any of this from happening. All you had to do was kill me when you had the chance."[/color] [color=Orange]"I showed you mercy,"[/color] I spit, still full of futile defiance. [color=Orange]"I am no monster."[/color] [color=Violet]"Oh?"[/color] She asks, chuckling as if the comment itself were absurd, before lacing her voice with venom. [color=Violet]"And what would you call a creature who drains the love of her parents, so they have none left over for their other daughter? What would you call a being who sucks out the adoration of the masses, forcing her equal to be forgotten and left behind? What would you call a [b]thing[/b] who has spent her entire life hoarding glories and honors and affection and attention for herself alone, while letting her sister rot in the shadows?! What, Kory, would you call that...if not a monster?"[/color] She leads me out to the front steps of the palace, where the few surviving people of the city of Tamarus have been corralled by the Citadel soldiers. [color=Violet]"I have suffered the agony of humiliation all my life, sister,"[/color] Komand'r scowls, as a pair of Citadel soldiers force me to my knees. The crowd looks on, hollow-eyed and defeated, as she retrieves a weapon from an eager-looking officer: a Neural Lash, a weapon that is considered a war-crime to even own, let alone wield. [color=Violet]"It is well past time you knew what that was like."[/color] She winds the lash back to strike.....[/i] ....and I wake, the escape shuttle still traveling at several orders of magnitude above the Speed of Light. [color=SkyBlue][i]BE ADVISED, YOU HAVE EXITED HYPER-SLEEP DURING JUMP MANEUVERS,[/i][/color] the navicomputer warns. [color=SkyBlue][i]PROLONGED CONSCIOUSNESS DURING HYPERSPACE TRAVEL CAN RESULT IN NEUROLOGICAL DISTORTION. YOU MAY EXPERIENCE DISORIENTATION AND MEMORY LOSS UPON RE-ENTERING PHYSICAL SPACE. ADMINISTERING ANESTHETIC....[/i][/color] [color=Orange]"Just a dream,"[/color] A sharp needle jabs into my arm, and I feel myself drifting back into unconsciousness. [color=Orange]"Just a little further now....I will be okay......I will be okay...."[/color] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/SRBES4mm.png[/img][/center] [color=Orange]".....everything will be okay...."[/color]