This story is currently under construction. if you are reading this you are taking the risk of thinking the story is stupid.
Ciao
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Where to start with a story… The beginning? No, probably not, because you would be asleep before I got halfway through. The beginning is too early, starting before the eons. Before anything ever existed, before existence existed. Before… well… You get the picture. It was really early on.
So how can we start a story that explains the universe, the mysteries of the cosmos and everything you've ever wondered so simply it's scary…?
Simple, with another question.
I know what you're thinking; 'Wait, wait, wait. Hold the phone right there, missy. You want to explain something with a question? Doesn't that sorta defeat the purpose completely?' Yeah, it does, but then you try and explain everything everyone's ever thought of without screwing up your sentence or fumbling on a word. No takers? Thought so.
No, I can tell you and answer what you want me to. But it probably won't make sense if you don't understand the whole story. And the whole story is long. Very, very long. So kick back, try hard to relax, and watch as the secrets of the universe unravel before your very eyes…
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It starts (or ends, who knows?) unfortunately with the broken heart of a young girl. Was there ever a sadder sight than a girl slumped over a picnic box, weeping her eyes dry? Probably, but then you've never been in her shoes, or if you have you certainly haven't made her decision. He had been late again, but this time he had gone too far. The midnight moon shone over a glittering field of wild-flowers. But this was not really the right mood climate because the date was meant to start at 7:00.
7:00.
Five hours. He left her waiting for five hours.
Too late. Far, far too late.
The story starts with Amy. A thirteen year old girl crying on now cold raisin bread and chewing numbly on the toffee she had made for her true love. The thick and rich caramel taste had some sort of soothing effect on her shredded soul.
How could he abandon you? How could he?
What could be so important he could leave you waiting for so long? So, so long…
The thought influenced the knot in her stomach to tighten and pull, making her want to hurl all over the prepped checkered blanket strewn neatly over the dimpled grass. The tiny dew on the tips of each blade sparkled in the dim light.
The wildlife was gorgeous, no doubt. But the stunning white flowers catching the pale moonlight just wasn't distracting her from the bigger picture. The humungous, obvious, cold picture. The one of him, him, HIM!
He didn't love her, he probably never would. Sonic was a self-centered jerk with a commitment issue and bad hair… But he was her self-centered jerk with bad hair.
And yet there was nothing hard to understand about the constant reply he always supplied.
Just Friends. I just want to be friends…
Why? Was there something wrong with her? Was she ugly, was she mean, was she wrong for him somehow? Could there be any other reason for her being rejected constantly by true blue other than her?
But she didn't want to change herself for him. She loved the eccentric, spastic and laughable Amy she was now. No doubt this was who she was, and that would have to change if she wanted Sonic. So it was an ultimatum. Her, or Sonic?
All this was racing through her mind while she was splayed out over the checked picnic mat, chewing toffee.
Then another thought cascaded through her head, providing an explanation to all of her problems. She dimly remembered Rouge the bat asking her a rather important question;
I'm going to crisis city Ames, you should come for a month or two. It would be good for you.
Go with Rouge to Crisis City. It was cowardly, running away from her problems. Because that was what Sonic was.
A problem, one that she chased.
Crisis City.
Amy packed up the wonderful food she had baked for the occasion into her picnic basket and folded the soft blanket on her lap, but only the tiniest particle of her mind was concentrating on the folding. Most of her head focused on the tiny splatter of tear-drops collecting on the wonderful fabric.
No more tears. No more tears over him. You have to promise yourself, Amy.
What was wrong with her? Why couldn't he just open up enough for her to get in? Controlling, nasty, horrible… She was all of those things to herself, but he had agreed to come here with her. A picnic, he had said, was something he just couldn't turn down. He even offered to bring drinks!
But maybe this was what he wanted. He wanted her to sit here, sobbing until she was empty of tears in her best yellow summer dress and strewn roughly over the grass until she had an epiphany on their status together. Hollow. Devoid. Nothing. Empty. Worthless. A figment of her 'over-the-top' imagination.
The deal had been sealed; she was going to Crisis City. Only for a few months, until she got her bearings back. Because they were well and truly lost.
Collect yourself Amy, let go for a while.
She would be independent, the real Amy Rose. Meet a nice guy who could buy her hot chocolate, come on time to dates, pay her attention and shower her with expensive chocolates on valentines. Be everything she's ever wanted in a man, everything she's ever deserved in life.
But then she would come back after a few months and be a better person. Yes, that was who she was going to be. Because there was nobody better then Amy Rose the hedgehog. Thirteen years old and already making a life choice.
She grinned to herself and the teardrops fell faster than before, hitting the quilt and spreading out along the fibers. She imagined how her eyes must look right now, puffy and red, the jade smears of irises glittering with every marble-sized tear.
Amy stood up on shaky feet and made her way to her tiny pink cottage to pack.
To start a new...
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The waves throbbed impatiently below L.I.M.B.O's private cliff. Lapping angrily up the sides of the rough stone wall and trying furiously to reach the building above. They crashed over each other one by one, but the constant turmoil was no secret to the people in the placid rooms above. They were all too aware of the activity.
L.I.M.B.O was the halfway point, and the portal beneath the oceans top layer was the only running portal to Mobius on Earth. The hole in the fabric of reality was held open by the flickering outline of the green chaos emerald, tied to this dimension by hundreds of skinny, white cords that somehow attached themselves to the gem by the miracle of science.
L.I.M.B.O is an evil place, named after the line between heaven and hell it is the only government funded facility where humans try to cross the breeds. They took Mobian fetuses donated by the poor residents who couldn't afford to feed another mouth and changed them. And changed is an understatement.
From dolphin to hawk.
Cat to mouse.
Lion to bat.
It had all happened here, and it was all too common for experiments to… well… Terminate themselves.
There had been numerous successes here, but a lot more failures. There was a five out of ten chance that if you walked down one of its bleached hallways you could hear the uncomfortable sound of flat-lining blaring out one of the pastel-blue holding pods.
But today there would be more than one death, because today evil was rising. And its first stop was L.I.M.B.O.
One of the CES's (Crossover Experimental Scientists) was walking down the hallway with his eyes glued on the clipboard clutched in his bony hand. He stopped at each room and listened carefully for the beep of a heart.
Bee-beep
Bee-beep
Bee-beep
He grunted charmingly and ticked the paper clipped to the board. Trotting down the hallway he stopped at another door;
Beeeeep
Beeeeep
Beeeeep
Yes, this heart-beat was different. The heart in this creature had to beat extra hard in order to get blood to all four corners of its huge body, even the holding pod had to be enlargened. He ticked the pad with the least amount of enthusiasm ever and moved to the next door.
Silence
What had happened? It wasn't dead, then there would be that loud and obnoxious beep. Could it be empty? Yes, that was probably it. But it was quite surprising; they usually filled them up straight away after an expiration of the previous inhabitant.
Bee-beep
Ah, a sound at last. This must be the experiment where it wasn't a fetus to start out with, quite morally illogical. The child would grow up with knowledge of a past life, maybe not a happy life. But still a life.
Morally illogical says the scientist ruining people's lives…
OUTSIDE
The darkness slid across the ground faster than any eye could track, its slippery form darting closer towards the front doors of the bleach white building. Two guards were blocking the front door, arms crossed and feet apart.
How pathetic.
The slimy mixture separated and moved towards each guard. It pooled around their feet and climbed up their legs, managing to reach up to their waists until they noticed.
"What the-" But it was too late, as the blackness had now climbed over their mouths and blocked out any screams that they might have managed to muster over the fear. Soon there was only the black outline of their bodies, one they had no control over.
The hostage bodies stood rigid and marched in perfect unison through the large entryway, guns forgotten and arms dragging on the floor below them…
The screams of pain shooting out of L.I.M.B.O's white walls were muffled by the blanket of night.
The worst night in hell...
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"Fi! You up yet?" A girlish and high-pitched voice yelled out from outside. Felix Rivvett woke with a start, sitting up quickly and knocking the navy blue quilts off his body quickly. He clutched his chest in shock and patted his hand around the bedside table for his alarm clock.
Instead he hit the growing pile of… Mature magazines collecting in his room. He cussed under his breath and lifted them up one by one in a fruitless search mission for the clock.
He found it and rubbed his eyes free of the milky haze that always followed sleep. 9:00. Wow, he had slept in quite a bit. Felix remembered his best friend waiting outside the window and stuck his head out. Yup, it was her alright. She was dolled up in her usual attire, a frilly dress of some sort (today's was a meek lemon meringue color) and strappy heels. Her pastel pink hair was tied back with a frilly yellow ribbon and her wolf tail swayed behind her impatiently.
"What are you doing here, Jayne?" Felix asked a little whiney, he hadn't had time to put his shoes on and they felt naked and bare on the cold hardwood floor. Jayne was his best friend, always had been since kindergarten. She was the sort of girl that could tell the difference between the color brown and chocolate and never went anywhere without five layers of eye shadow. She was also a year younger than Felix.
"It's strawberry picking day! Remember?" She asked, raising two tiny baskets above her head to show him she was ready. She understood the answer by the dumbstruck look on Felix's face.
"Oh, you know! Last week, when we passed in the hall… Just before you were out of earshot I whispered the date we were going! Remember now?" Felix dropped his head on the window pane and muttered something unintelligible.
"I won't come." He told his eccentric friend. She grinned like she had been expecting this and her pearly teeth curved into something far too evil to match her dress. She crouched into jump position and narrowed her eyes with a challenge.
"I'm coming up there on the count of ten!" She yelled, Felix felt his ears prick and he practically fell of the window pane back into his room.
"Ooooone" Jayne yelled and swung her wolf tail behind her in anticipation. Felix yipped and raced to the pile, immediately bundling as much magazines into his arms as possible. His head jerked around in a search for a place to stash the porn. Ah! The closet!
"Twoooooo" He heard the voice call threateningly from outside. He squeaked in fear and opened his closet up with his elbow. If Jayne ever, ever, ever found out about the mag's then the bantering would start; "Awwwwww, Fi is growing uuuup!" or "Yukky! How can you even look at this stuff? It's duisgusting!".
"Threeeeee" He chucked the stack of magazines in the space and slammed the door shut. There was still a lot left, so he rushed to get them.
"Foooouuur, I hope you're dressed!" She called, Felix scowled and grabbed his favorite bundle of socks. He was trying to pull them onto his feet while sweeping dirty magazines under his bed at the same time. Not such an easy task to accomplish considering he had only six seconds to go.
"Fiiiiiiiiive" Jayne called, Felix could picture her skipping with glee as he sprinted around his room and scattered to get changed. That demonic grin she always managed to sport whenever he was in some sort of panic both annoyed and scared the crap out of him. It was like a bunny assassinating somebody; totally weird and unnecessary.
He tucked a bundle of magazines under his arm and jumped to his chest of clothes… more like socks. He spread them apart to make some room and slammed them into the space he had made. There was plenty more drawers to go. Perfect.
"Siiiiiiiiiix…" She chanted, then without warning; "Seeeveeennn…" He wanted to throw something out the window at her, but the only thing in his hands was porno magazines. Shit, that wasn't gonna work.
He loaded the last magazines into the drawers and sighed with relief as he tried to keep them shut by holding his back up to them. Then he looked at the state of his room.
Oh, holy mother of-
It was chaos, like somebody had thrown a bomb in and then legged it. His quilt and pillows were on the floor, surrounded by a colossal pile of socks that seemed to have a heat haze in the air above them. The drawers to his bedside tables were flung open by last nights feeble attempt to find where he had left his homework, which he still needed to complete by next Wednesday.
Note to self- find homework.
"Eiiiiiiiiight" Her shrilling voice sang from outside. Felix cussed and made his bed, closed the drawers and- despite gagging –managed to sweep the pile of socks under his bed. He then tried to get the pizza slice stuck to the roof down with a broom. No good, it was stuck on there pretty good.
"Niiiiiiine" Felix did a quick check of his room; Cleaned (sorta), porno hidden and pizza slice dangling from roof. Not bad.
"Ten" She said and Felix could hear the soft thud of feet as she landed on the window pane. Jayne slid two fingers under the window pane and yanked it open. It groaned, but opened smoothly. She slid in and surveyed his room suspiciously. Felix was standing, eyes innocent as a doe, in the middle of his room. He was panting like crazy.
"Clean. Hmmm…" She hummed and rubbed her chin. But to Felix's immense relief Jayne shrugged and looped her arm through his; Jayne was a tightwad sleuth and was always suspicious of anything. Her love for drama and soap operas had well and truly consumed her soul.
"We should get moving- heeeeeey, what is this?" She said and rushed over to his bed.
A wedge of a magazine was poking out. Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap… Jayne gasped as she looked at the front cover and a pinkish haze set over her cheeks. She was still for a second and Felix didn't know what to expect; praise, or a whomping lecture about how this was degrading to women.
"FI! My little Fi is growing up! AHHHHH!" She screamed ecstatically and gave him a huge hug; Felix guessed the fact that he was two years older didn't count.
"You like giiiiirrrllls!" Jayne chanted and clasped her hands together. Her blue eyes glittered like diamonds and her pastel pink hair fell over her shoulder. Felix felt his own blush forming as he was cornered.
"Uhhh, that is- umm- yeeah?" He managed to sputter, then did the age old hedgehog habit and rubbed behind his head. Jayne slapped his elbow with a scowl.
"Don't do that, it looks like you have lice. Now, let's go strawberry picking my pervy friend!" She chorused again and wagged her finger in the air. Felix groaned and looked up to the roof in frustration.
"WHY ME!" He yelled, but was shut up by a pizza slice landing on his face. Jayne cracked up and had to sit down. She wiped a tear from her eye and giggled.
"Because your diet sucks, my grotesque pizza-wasting friend! What are you- Ewww, don't eat it! That's sick!"
Friends forever...
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"Father, you must advance the army. Eggman isn't going to wait while we idle over his attack time. I bet my rings his robots are marching closer as we speak!" A young brown deer was pacing on the straw floor. Her mouth was set into a stubborn line and her hands were linked behind her, all of these were signs of the growing frustration in her heart.
"Mistora, you really should calm down. I have Jonas and Frier on this project, there is no need for you to worry with them." A wizened old deer assured cross-legged on a straw mat. His beard was thin and wiry, bundling on the floor when he leant over and his deep, piercing grey eyes looked at his daughter with an amused expression.
"FATHER! This is not a project! The safety of our tribe relies on this victory! And what do you mean Jonas is on it, he wouldn't know an operation if it slapped him in the face! Or kicked him in the nuts, for that matter." Her thick British accent always startled her father and listening to it tended to bring back memories of his wife.
"Mistora, please calm down. Jonas is completely capable of running this operation." He tried to reason, but Mistora simply scoffed and trudged- or rather stomped- out the room.
She found a rock, her rock, outside the camp and splayed out over it like an experiment.
Father, this is too important to leave to Jonas and Frier. We are the last tribe of deer alive. We can't lose this war.
She undid her brown plaid and let her long, brown hair wash over the rock. The deer tribe women had a dress code. Steel bands, colored according to rank over their chest, up their legs, arms and one across the forehead. Each belly-button had to be pierced with a ruby as an indication to the fact they were indeed part of a tribe.
Mistora felt her eyes slowly drift close and the twilight air caressed her into sleep. She couldn't hear the robots advancing in the trees to her left.
If only she had woken...
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Cleo danced down the stairs like a ballerina; her young feet barely tapped the stairs before she took off again. She twirled and spun, a serene smile lit up her young face and her eyes were closed delicately. She held her hands up and pirouetted mid air. It was no surprise everyone in the kingdom was startled by the princesses amazing acrobatic ability.
She certainly didn't inherit it from her mother or father; they were stiff as sticks while Cleo could wrap a hand around her heel without bending her knees. This shocked the King and Queen because apparently being able to fly through the air for longer than two seconds gave her an excuse to drift away from her duties.
"My princess, you must come to your father's study!" A plump purple fox maid called from the balcony in between the matching gold staircases. Cleo just hummed a little louder and did a neat little round-off. The maid sighed and kneaded her forehead with one fist.
"Cleonsara!" She called and the little fox girl stopped dancing. Cleo faced the maid and put her hands on her hips like a true eleven year old. She narrowed her eyes at the maid and tapped her foot.
"Bertha, you know I hate being called that." Her peppy little voice was stern and demanding. "And I do not want to go to daddy's study. I know perfectly well what he wants." She said cockily and crossed her arms with a pout.
"This is not something you can choose, princess. There are a lot of people are counting on you choosing a suitor. You are old enough to wed and your mother is adamant you find a companion. You must remember, your father chose her to marry him when he was only ten. This is very important to her." Bertha tried to reason, but Cleo would have none of it.
"Oh yeah and that turned out well." She scoffed, toying with the massive bell around her neck. The ball inside it had fallen out long ago and now it didn't make any noise. This was a pity, because it used to ring out a beautiful sound.
"The cheek!" Bertha exclaimed and ushered the young girl up. Cleo scowled and hunched her shoulders, but complied. Soon she was at her father's study and her eyes crossed when she read the inscription on the door.
True to thy self
That is thou fox morale
It made no sense, because every fox in this damned kingdom was about as truthful as a coyote. She pushed the door open and Bertha bowed behind her. Cleo almost shrieked with rage when she saw what was inside the office.
Ten of them. Lined up with hopeful looks on their faces.
Boys, all well bred foxes clutching bundles of roses. She scowled at her father hidden behind the queue of suitors.
"Daddy!" She yelled in frustration and threw her hands up in the air. He went though this every year since she was 8. Grab ten of the wealthiest boys off the streets and line em' up. Get her married ASAP. She ground her teeth and a few of the boys murmured to each other.
SUITOR #2 POV
Rumors had been swept around the street many times of the princess's beauty, and her fire. But I had never expected this!
Her long and golden hair was tied back with a bell and cascaded in flowing waves down her back, stopping behind her knees. The short knee-high orange dress with separate sleeves seemed to be designed for only her and her orange strappy heels didn't scrape the bounce in her step.
Her face seemed to be made of porcelain and her lips pouted into a scowl for the King behind me. Her honey smears of irises burned with a brilliant annoyance, like we were a burden rather than a compliment to her. I could feel the burning blush creep onto my muzzle and I looked down at my roses, fidgeting like crazy.
She was by far the prettiest girl I had ever seen and I felt I didn't compare in her shadow.
"Daddy! I'm only eleven!" She yelled with the sweetest voice, like pealing bells. She was only eleven? Really? I was fourteen, and she was three years younger than me.
"Sweetie, you are of legal age of marriage. This means you must find a consort." He said, choosing his words carefully. I saw her eyes widen in disgust and her mouth turned into a little 'o' of horror.
"NO! I want to find a man of my own! Somebody I can love; somebody I chose to love! Why can't I choose?!" She demanded and I winced. Cleonsara was being unreasonable, but she was also right. I guess she didn't get much freedom up in the palace.
NORMAL POV
"I am leaving." Cleo said and stomped out of the room.
"A lot of girls would to anything to have a prince charming, what do you want?" Her father called after her, Cleo growled to herself and resisted the urge to shriek at him again.
"Prince charming aint' so charming when there's ten of him lined up on your doorstep every year!" She yelled back, opening the grand doors to her room.
Happy eleventh birthday Cleo.
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Seth was training in the arena with his teacher, Master Johobei. His hands moved like lightning, touching his left wrist, left palm and right thumb over and over again. In result the air was kicking up dust around his feet and a few wispy tornados were forming out of the yellowish dust. He gritted his teeth in effort as the wind grew stronger, but still as strong as a cool summer breeze.
"Come on Seth, faster. Concentrate and put your mind to it." Johobei urged, he had been training Seth for five years now and the green hedgehogs sponge-like mind never ceased to amaze him. He had only told Seth a week ago about tornado summoning and he could already muster up a breeze. What Seth didn't know was that his teacher was putting a little strain on him by telling the winds to calm down a fraction. This would make it extra hard, but the boy seemed to be pulling through with flying colors.
"Uhn." Seth groaned and tapped faster, the winds livened up and a tiny wind circle was forming around his feet and kicking dust high into the air. Johobei looked on with a bemused and impessed look, stopping his influence over the winds to see how far he could go.
Seth immediately felt the weight lifted off his shoulders and tapped faster again, his hands left impressions in the air where they were before.
A small snake slightly bugger than him lifted up out of the sand, it's wispy form only visible by the sand holding onto it and giving it life. Seth grunted and Johobei nodded, he had taken anothe big step in a short amount of time, this boy was doing well.
Seth screamed when his power hit it's peak and the snake reared with him, writhing as it felt it's masters power being depleted. It screamed a hollow yelp before falling to the ground in a pile of sand and all that was left was a glittering pearl fang.
Seth fellto the ground and panted having pushed himself to his absalute limit. Johobei simply bent to pick up the fang and inspect it with interested violet eyes. He held it up to the sunlight and squinted at it, trying to figure out it's worth. When he was finished he chuckled and put it in his cloak pocket, walking over to Seth.
"Wonderful, my boy! You summoned a small sand snake! You're now officially ahead of your class and the one above it. The spirit-stone it left is not a strong one, but not quite as weak as the ones you could usually get from a beginner. Not to mention it is completely intact! Very good job!" Johobei praised and patted Seth on the shoulder. The green hedgehog grinned and limped over to his friends.
"Heeeey! Nice summoning Seth-boy! All I can muster is a beetle the size of my fist!" A red bat slammed him on the back with one hand and Seth grinned.
"Thanks Trent, whadda ya' wanna do now?" he slurred with a loopy smile. Trent coughed out a laugh and was about to answer when another student burst into the room.
"Yo! Guys! Fin has managed to nick something from Master Reyobei! And it's got girls in it!" He huffed with an ecstatic smile. Trent perked and slapped the junior on the shoulder with a grin. Master Reyobei was very well know as a notorious pervert, bringing in dirty magazines from the outside. "Well you better lead the way!" Seth looked confused.
"Wha?"
But Trent had him by the elbow and was dragging up the stairs to Fin's room. They came to the door and Trent knocked on it sharply. He waited a few seconds and then did a syncronised 'I'm-not-a-teacher-let-me-in' code tap. The door opened and one of the boys inside ushered them in, slamming the door behind them and making his way back to the magazine lying open on Fin's desk. A crowd of four boys were gawking at the rude pictures, Trent joining them, but Seth just stayed behind.
"What is that?" He asked, making his way over to the magazine with a restrited amount of caution. The men on the paper were not like the ones at the school. They had two strange lumps on their chests and a skinny frame, their long hair were conveniently place over their pelvis and the tips of both lumps. Their faces looked different too, were these the strange girl creatures the junior was talking about? Trent looked at him with disbelief.
"You don't know what these are, man?" He asked, Seth shrugged. Fin, the sea-bird who had supposedly nicked the mag was clicking his tounge.
"These are girls, women, chicks! They are, like, the opposite of us! Not to mention Master Reyobei keeps talkin bout them like their so special or sumthin, but doncha reckon they're hot?" He asked, cramming a magazine into his face. Seth gulped.
The creatures, the ones on the paper, were weird and disfigured. But he couldn't help thinking they were pretty.
"Yeah!" He blurted, looking at the picture with wide eyes. Trent high-fived Fin and the boys crowded around the desk again, intent to study these strange beings once more.
Becoming a man...
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Tails placed a little bolt into it's place and started securing it in with his wrench. He was finishing the anual safety check on the X-Tornado. The yellow fox pulled up his check list and scanned over the things to do;
1) Double check bolts
2) Check and unclog radio links
3) Default scanning.
Tick, tick tick. It had taken up a lot of his time but he had finally managed to complete the checks. Tails sighed and tipped up his cap, wiping his sweaty forehead with a rag he was holding which left a dirty smear on his yellow fur.
He made his way to the last canister to do his final check, one that was very unlikely to go wrong. He opened the eski with the key dangling around his neck, dialed in the six digit code inside, did the retina scan, voice check, thumb print and the questionaire needed to be completed before opening the pod.
Inside, sitting in the gel holding them apart were seven black boxes. He pulled out the first and opened the lid; The purple emerald was present. Then the ice emerald. Then the blue emerald. Then the topaz emerald. Then.... Empty.
The green emerald was missing!
And so it begins...
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Pant pant. yay i've finished!
Special thanks to EmpireofShadow, my trusty editor.