***Note: This is a bonus chapter and is not necessary to understand the rest of the story. You may skip this chapter and go straight to Chapter 10 if you wish to ignore my unprofessional rambling.***
So, you may be wondering why there is this random ass chapter before Chapter 10. You also may be thinking "The hell Blue? I thought this was an update, why are you getting my hopes up for nothing?" Look at the pretty, bolded sentences above and continue on in peace.
This is a special chapter! I've gotten such lovely reviews recently, I thought I'd give everyone a little shout out with a special supplementary story as suggested by Alkirian. This chapter is going to be all over the place - little skits from my own personal day, a short story about Truth possessing Irish, and replies to every comment and a shout out to every. single. follower. Without farther ado, let the bonus chapter commence!
Key:
Shout Outs
Names of Followers/Reviewers
Skits
Story/My Commentary
Hollywoodling X 80 - you were my first reviewer for this story, and it meant a lot to me that you took time to ask for more. I hope you like the rest of the story so far - all 70,000 words more!
Alkirian - You are by far one of my favorite reviewers. You always review, no matter how boring the chapter, and my updates seem to make you so excited that I look forward to waking up early after I post a chapter to read your reviews. You always give me a good assessment of how you as a reader respond to the story and my plot choices, giving me room for improvement while praising my progress. Thank you so much for all of your encouragement and time!
reula - You're such a sweet reviewer, you always are right to the point and super nice! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review, it inspires me to write more!
To be blunt, Truth was not fond of crossing through the Gate into the human realm. It was exhausting, painful, and most importantly time consuming. Truth had grown aware of the passage of time during its brief, flickering moments with the creature the girl referred to as 'Lucha'. Time frightened the timeless being, as swaths of its knowledge were hidden even from Truth itself. Truth's knowledge of how time effected it being one of those missing pieces of its intelligence. This was not to say that Truth was not all knowing, for in the Gate there lay a vast wealth of this wisdom was held. It was simply impossible for a being, even one such as Truth that was composed of pure energy, to contain the entirety of that awareness. And this gap in knowledge made Truth afraid.
Despite this, there was a need for it to be present in the girl's life, as a foreign entity such as herself possessed knowledge beyond what Truth had revealed to the humans in its domain. The girl was strange. She had no recollection of how she came into existence in Truth's realm, and in turn, Truth could not probe her mind to see her memories. This unnerved the powerful being, as she imposed a great imbalance of energy between the many universes that lay beyond Truth's own. The child also had an understanding of concepts and theories not yet even comprehensible to the humans on the other side of the Gate, making her knowledge dangerous to the stability of the countries throughout the land. Even more a threat was her knowledge of future events. Truth had spent its entire life constructing a seamless timeline for the humans under its guidance to follow, and much of that timeline was still unknown to Truth itself. Yet the girl foresaw decisions of freewill that the Truth could not predict, and she planned to serve as a different influence on their future decisions, thus radically altering Truth's carefully planned out existence of the world.
In an effort to incorporate the girl into a plane of existence she was familiar with to prevent her from causing a severe imbalance on Truth's side of the Gate, it decided to send her to the human world, where it had hoped she would remain oblivious to the set timeline. However, her actions and planning proved her very much aware of the time line, making her a danger to the existence of the entire universe. In an effort to curtail her meddling, Truth first crossed that Gate to posses her companion, a small, fluffy creature with a very short attention span and little energy to compensate for in the exchange across the Gate. The first attempt was the most difficult for Truth to approach - never in its conscious existence had it ever cross the Gate or interacted with the physical world of the humans. Thus, the first attempt was slow to occur, resulting in Lucha's declined health and eventual possession. This first possession proved fruitless, the girl not understanding Truth's presence. The second was unintentional, as the exit of a human soul from earth during Truth's return to the Gate forced it to posses the creature and allow the soul passage.
Now the girl proved an even greater threat than before, as the time requiring her action approached. The companion animal's energy had simply dissipated from the world, making the vessel invisible to Truth. This meant that there was only one option left - the girl herself. Truth was not completely adverse to the idea - it merely proved another challenge to its knowledge. However, the prospect of using enough energy to force her soul from her body and to possess the vessel without damage to the balance was a daunting task. The transaction took time, and Truth would be unable to communicate with the girl whilst her soul was in the Gate and access to her memories would still be limited.
Nevertheless, it was risk that needed to be taken if the timeline was to be preserved, though Truth for once had no idea how to stop the impossible situation of the girl known as Irish from impacting the lives of the humans under its watchful eye.
Well, that was uneventful and boring. Change scene!
Why I Would Lose the Spelling Bee:
Judge: Your word is "Xanthosis"
Me: X-A-N-T-H-O-S-I-S
Judge: Very good, your next word is "Misspelled"
Me: M-I-S-P-E-L-L-E-D
Judge: I'm sorry, the correct spelling would be M-I-S-S-P-E-L-L-E-D
Me: *screams like a pterodactyl and uses Oxford English Dictionary as tissues*
For Truth, 'waking' in the body of a human was quite different than possessing an animal. After the ordeal of exchanging a portion of its consciousness for the human's soul, there was the matter of possessing the body, which was normally not too difficult considering Truth took a humanoid form regularly. The action of gaining full control of the body was another story. There were so many nerves and internal functions that had to be taken into account in order to keep the host alive, not to mention the hippocampus was a major problem for some reason. Truth could not understand why the nerves stopped firing when it came into contact with the small organ, and no matter how hard it tried, the nerves stayed still, as if in a stasis. Truth took into review the organ's functions: long term memory, spacial navigation, and a smaller role in emotions. That portion of the brain being in a stasis would not prove a problem, considering the spacial navigation could easily be overcome by Truth's knowledge of the world around it.
Moving on, as it would be quite dull to discuss every little nerve ending Truth had to adjust to in the vessel it was possessing, Truth finally managed to operate the girl's eyes, opening them together then one at a time to test the mechanism. Luckily it seemed involuntary actions such as blinking and breathing were still being regulated by the medulla and brain stem, so Truth wasted little time concerning itself with how the body automatically yawned in response to Truth's possession of it. The task of correcting the girl's posture was not too difficult, though it took Truth a moment to ponder why and how she managed to fall asleep in the chair despite the perfectly good bed nearby. Of course that assumption was made from Truth's observation that humans tended to sleep on mats or squishy things instead of the hard ground. Unable to comprehend that need or longing, Truth ignored the ability of humans to sleep nearly anywhere they could.
Another reason why the girl had not taken to the bed instead of the chair was the other human lying in it. Truth was aware that two humans lying on the same sleeping material together often incited courtship and mating, but it was also aware that unlike most animals, humans seemed to prefer a more emotional connection prior to sharing bedding with another. It was quite strange, the possessiveness humans had of their bedding - was it truly that precious of a commodity? Or was it an inbred greed for comfort? Though curious, Truth ignored those thoughts turning instead to the action of standing. Its first attempt was clumsy and complicated by gravity, which caused the form to nearly crumple to the ground, but was it saved by the chair. This was a problem for Truth, as it never had to compensate for a gravity it did not control. Thankfully, the girl's muscles seemed used to the pressure and strong enough to properly support her weight, allowing Truth to get wobbly to its host's small, slender feet.
Truth stood there and waited to move. And it waited, and waited, and waited, until it realized it had not moved at all. Searching its memory, Truth realized that humans did not have the capability to will themselves into motion, and instead had to constantly struggled against opposite and opposing forces in order to move and simply exist. Truth decided that it would not spend very long possessing the girl, as all of the friction fighting her existence must have been exhausting. Noting the thick layers of muscle along the girl's legs, Truth tested contracting and releasing them, which proved to produce a result similar to the 'walking' it had observed humans doing to fight the crushing gravity. The being set the vessel's foot on the ground in front of it, and then tried to take a step. Truth discovered yet another difficulty - it had forgotten to transfer the girl's weight gradually to the other foot before fighting against the atmospheric pressure. Face down on the hospital floor, Truth realized this was going to be harder than it looked.
JenaUchiha: I love Mary Poppins too! :) Oh, and you're welcome for the shoutout and cookies, it was awesome of you to leave a review!
Guest (1) (2): Hey, thanks for pointing out those errors! Oh, and sorry about not clarifying the WWE in the story, it was still really nice of you to review!
RandomNerdOntheInternet: Thanks for the compliment, I was worried I was making it too convoluted and complicated but all of the pieces will come together (eventually)! As for the update, I hope you liked it. As a side note: This story does have a chapter by chapter outline and an end, so I hereby promise updates will be at longest monthly and at shortest weekly, until I have completed this fanfiction.
Lunar Loon: Thanks for the recovery wishes! I'm feeling a lot better already and I can (hopefully) get back to writing weekly updates within the next month or so. I'm glad you like Irish's shenanigans, but it's just a matter of time until things take a turn for the worst, in case you were thinking being stabbed was the cruelest torture I had in mind for her. ^_^
Me Introducing My Pet Chickens to a Friend
Me: So, the yellow one is Alfreda, that red one is Barbraque-
Friend: Are they all horrible food puns? That's just cruel.
Me: Well, Facebwak, Eggdar Allen Poe, and Mother Clucker aren't food related.
Friend: Let me guess, the rooster is Cluck Norris?
Me: No it's John HanCock, but thanks for the suggestion!
Slowly getting back to its feet, Truth finally got the hang of walking just before a female human entered the room. Truth avoided looking at the woman, focusing too much on putting one foot in front of the other without crashing to the floor again.
"Ma'am, are you alright?" The nurse asked, watching Truth stumble as if its host was drunk.
"M'fine," It slurred, the complex vocal system difficult to control. The nurse watched with a furrowed brow as the girl walked into the door frame before giving a sigh of laughter. "There's a door 'ere." Truth mental chided itself for sounding so unintelligent - of course there was a door there! The spacial navigation aid the hippocampus provided would have been useful, but it seemed Truth had to get along without it.
Truth soon discovered a stair well that led both downward and upward. Recalling the view from a window it had seen in the hospital room earlier, Truth decided to descend down the stairs in hopes of discovering an exit to the building. The first step was a failure, the host missing it by a few inches and falling few steps before Truth could manipulate her arms to grab hold of the banister. Truth was so done with physics right then, but the sounds of approaching footsteps spurred it to stand up straight instead of leaving the host girl clinging to the railing for dear life. Another woman wearing a white uniform similar to the one the human from earlier donned in the hospital room walked past, giving a concerned glance but said nothing as she continued her decent.
After a few trial and error tests with the new perception with the lack of spacial navigation, Truth somehow managed to get the girl down the stairs and to an exit. It walked by the front desk, where a mousy woman peered over a stack of files.
"Miss, are you alright?" The lady asked, her chair squeaking as she stood to see the girl better. Her head swung from shoulder to shoulder, and her thin legs trembled as if she were about to collapse. The girl staggered a few steps before holding up a shaking finger, her half lidded eyes showing a pale violet laced with red.
"I-" The girl hiccuped, Truth cursing the involuntary action before continuing the statement. "Am fine," The woman at the front desk simply stared as Truth forced its vessel to stumble as quickly as it could out the door.
CupcakePride101: Aw, you're so nice! And yes, ferrets are very cool pets - though they do need a lot of attention. And yeah, too bad Lucha's gone - but hey now Truth can possess Irish and screw around with the plot even more! As for breaking up the paragraphs, I'll try my best. I do most of my editing on my laptop, so what looks like a three line paragraph to me that makes me feel bad about not writing more probably looks like a hellish block of text to you mobile readers. As for the errors, I've been trying to be good about going through and editing before and after posting (though that last one was edit free because I felt like I was leaving you guys hanging - but don't worry! I think I fixed it up. Maybe.) But seriously thanks for the review! You have no clue how happy it makes me to get feedback like that :) I also apologize in advance for the long response, it's only 6 lines of text to me but I felt that breaking up the response might be confusing.
UncleSugarLoaf: Thank you so much! I always feel a bit self conscious about my descriptions because they always seem to come out way too long, but my goal of making the world seem as lifelike to you readers has been accomplished, so not all is lost! As for the Maes content, you are welcome! I was recently rewatching the series before I started this fanfic, and this one time I just realized how little screen time Hughes got (I mean, 9.5 episodes out of 64? And not even being in some of them? That just isn't fair for one of the most impactful characters of the series). As for the dark side of his personality, I just couldn't see a war veteran with little to no dark thoughts or regrets. And props to you for being a roleplayer! The layout I just wanted to keep as close to the time period as possible. I mean, clearly this isn't a little 1914 suburb, Winry wears a miniskirt for crying out loud! But, I felt that the majority of the population wouldn't be parading around in modern clothes, so I decided to give it more of an old timey setting. And don't worry about long reviews! I mean, like seriously, it makes my day to see a review like yours. I think, "Holy carp fish, someone spent time from their day typing this beautiful review with their own fingers?" Totally awesome. And I like your puns, I hope you liked mine! (P.S. Yes, most of my pet chickens are actually named after food, carry on).
CalicoKitty402: Yes. This is many things.
Guest (3): You are correct, Hughes will not die. At least not on the day he canonically dies. I mean, he clearly doesn't have a philosopher stone so he's going to die someday.
Sky65: Aw, thanks for the review! I'm glad you liked the chapter :)
This is the end of review responses (July 30, 2016)
Things Customers Have Actually Asked:
*in reference to a carton of cherry tomatoes* "Are these tomatoes or cherries?"
"This red tent is misleading,"
"Would a world government work better?"
*in reference to our large abundance of late autumn harvest* "Was there a vegetapocalypse? Or is it the last of the season?"
Truth knew exactly where the girl's dwelling place was, as it was Truth after all. It sluggishly made its way to the little apartment, ignoring the odd stares and occasional murmurs of passing police officers. Truth knew its form was bound to appear odd, but even it was becoming conscious of the way the girl's body stumbled and swayed, the being possessing it unused to the several different functions it was responsible for.
At the door of the apartment, Truth listened to the sounds on the other side. Giggling, laughter, and some rather cult-like chanting. Truth knew humans had odd traditions, but what it saw when it opened the door a crack surprised even it. Gathered around a flaming food item in a dark room, the humans huddled together singing the haunting song.
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Elicia, happy birthday to you! Happy birthday Elicia!" The group sang in tandem, the younger humans laughing and trying to remain focused despite the obviously envied baked item sitting just feet away from their mouths. It often impressed Truth how well humans could restrain their natural impulses for the sake of their 'humanity'. It was odd, but amusing. A small female human right in front of the cake was doing her best not to lick the icing, but at the end of the song, she drew a deep breath and inefficiently managed to blow out the three flaming candles on the cake. Clapping ensued.
The group of humans dispersed throughout the room slowly, gradually collecting a slice of cake. Truth avoided being handed one of the delicate ceramic plates, as its host was barely able to walk without being crushed by physics.
"Irish!" A happy voice exclaimed, an arm suddenly wrapped around Truth's shoulders. "You finally decided to show up, what took you so long? Oh, it was that boy wasn't it? I'll just have to give him a piece of my mind - hey, you feeling alright Mac?" Truth was flustered by the rush of words from the man. Clearly its host - Irish or Mac? - knew this individual well for such intimacy such as mate choice to be discussed during a casual meeting.
"I am well," Truth stated, the words flowing a bit more cohesively with all of the practice it had put in during its trek to the apartment. "I am...confused. What is all of this?" The man - Truth quickly recalled it was Maes Hughes, its host's target in her scheming - shot a surprised glance in Truth's direction.
"It's Elicia's third birthday! You spent almost the whole week helping Gracia get ready, remember?" The end of that sentence was stated with concern, Truth immediately noting an impending awkward situation.
"Ah, right. Where I am from...birthdays are not celebrated like this." Truth clumsily explained, looking about the crowded room for an escape from the conversation. Maes Hughes furrowed his brow and towered over Truth's host, looking intently into its eyes. Truth had pushed the knowledge of its host's new features into the back of its memory, as keeping her upright and the possession lucid was a difficult task.
"Are you sure you haven't been drinking or somethi-"
"Daddy! Daddy!" The young female human from the table called, rushing up to Maes Hughes and wrapping her arms around his leg. "Mike and Timmy both wanna play with me! But Timmy wants to play trucks and Mike wants to play the lava game..." She pouted, her father immediately scooping her up in his arms before setting her down and walking over to where the two boys had engaged in a heated battle of hand symbols. Truth was relieved for the lack of attention, and used the lacking spotlight to walk around the bustling relatives and slowly made its way to a hallway that seemed to lead to a set of doors. Truth referred to its observations to recall Irish's preferred bedding and sleeping quarters, an easy feat for a nearly omniscient being.
The hallway was nearly within reach, the only obstacle being that Maes Hughes seating in a chair nearby talking with another girl who had his daughter on her lap. Truth managed to sneak behind a cabinet filled with dishes and silverware, when the dialogue between Maes Hughes and the other girl - Winry Rockbell - caught its attention. They spoke of emotions and the opposite sex's perception of the resulting actions and absent words coming from those emotions, such as pain. Truth enjoyed eavesdropping on this conversation, as it gave some depth to the flat and cynical point of view Truth had on the lowly creatures.
The seriousness of the scene ceased, Elicia asking to be set down to play with some young male humans. They began to fight over who got to play with her, as was the case earlier that allowed Truth to escape from its own conversation. Maes Hughes suddenly stood, pistol drawn from his belt and cocked it, though from the hollow sound it most likely was not loaded.
"Alright boys, you try anything with my daughter, and you will answer to me," He growled, though Truth could detect some jest in that statement. Winry Rockbell stood, accusing his actions of speaking too loudly. Truth made a note of Maes' protectiveness of his offspring, and scrutiny of her possible future mates. Human behavior was such a strange and wonderful exposition.
"Big sister Mac," Truth jumped, the innocent voice of the child shocking it from its observation. The boys had been frightened off by her father, the girl instead deciding to seek out another play mate. Of course, that happened to be a possessed Irish.
"Can you play with me? Please?" Despite Truth's clouded judgement of the phrase 'play', it gave an unsure nod before being led away by the hand. Truth had to stoop partially so that the short human could keep her death grip on its host's hand.
These are the follow thank yous (as of July 30th, 2016). Those with a * have also favorited this story. Thank you for your support.
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Truth'a concept of 'play' was quite different from Elicia's definition. From Truth's perspective, 'play' was usually a physical encounter that prepared the young for future struggles, such as competition for a mate, or attacking prey. Elicia, however, was intent on engaging in a more psychological form of this concept, in which Truth was supposed to imagine impossible scenarios - something the logical entity found quite difficult. But, Elicia was steadfast in her decision to imagine Truth's female host as a knight while the young female child imagined herself as a princess.
"But Elicia Hughes, historically, females in this area did not participate in society as any major political influence, and were never officially knighted-"
"Big sister Mac! Save me from the evil dragons!" The child shrieked, running away from the boys who had no gotten Maes' earlier warning. Truth internally sighed, moving its host so that her arms blocked their path to the small female child.
"Rawr!" They growled, one of them falling to the ground with a hand clutched to his chest. "The knight of Princess Elicia has struck me down! May my brothers succeed where I have failed!" Truth recognized the boy vaguely from its view into the future. He had the makings of a great epic writer in him.
"Present time!" Gracia Hughes called, all of the children becoming alert and standing very still to listen before racing out of Elicia's room to see...whatever it was. Present time? As in their perception of time as it passed relative to their consciousness? Truth could not be sure, and was most certain they did not gather to observe the passage of time. Suddenly reminded of the passage of time, Truth picked up one of the play mirrors the child owned. It wanted to observe if there had been any severe physical repercussions to its host by this passage of time for the both her body and Truth.
The image reflected in the mirror was horrible. Her hair was whitened, and her skin pale as the void itself. Had its host really aged so much? This startling revelation was interrupted by laughter in the kitchen, bringing Truth back to focusing on the 'present time' statement. Truth glanced back at the mirror, and realized it had panicked over nothing. It had ignored their previous exchange by accident, and overlooked the details of the deal. Of course her hair and skin would be pale, the deal had been an exchange of transportation and knowledge for her melanin. The constant flow of knowledge through Truth's consciousness could be quite confusing at times.
The 'present time' situation was more complicated than Truth had anticipated as it pushed its thoughts of creating a more efficient storage of memories for itself. Elicia was tearing through colorful paper wrapped around boxes with ribbons added for what Truth could only assume was aesthetic pleasure. Though however befuddled it was to the mechanism of wrapping...whatever it was only to destroy the wrapping to reveal it. Perhaps some satisfaction came from the 'discovery' of the gift. Truth hung close to the back of the crowd, observing many different items be removed from boxes and colorful paper. Eventually the crowd dispersed, and Truth was left almost alone with the young female child.
"Look! Look! Big sister Mac, look!" Elicia Hughes ran up to Truth's host, a dress held up to the girl's small frame. It was pink, as were most items the girl owned. "Look at this pretty dress mommy gave me, don't you like it?" Truth was confused, more than usual. Present? Gave? Where was the exchange? Did most humans have only a vague grasp of equivalent exchange?
"I...like it," Truth said slowly, looking for an escape to think over the new information. "Why would she give it to you? What have you done for her?" This also confused Elicia.
"Uh, it's my birthday! People give you presents on your birthday, silly!" Truth understood a little bit better. Presents were physical objects given without a return to the giving party. This made little sense to Truth's complex thought process, but it disregarded this gift giving occurrence as human ignorance to universal laws, as per the norm.
"Oh, of course," Truth said, locating the door quickly. "I must leave now, please alert your parental guardian of my exit if you see fit," Elicia stood there, head tilted to the side brow furrowed and eyes concerned as her close friend exited without another word.
Truth was beginning to feel tired, the drag of the ether beginning to catch up with the entity and its host. All but falling down the stairs and through the front door of the complex, the host clumsily navigated the darkening streets. A soldier and her partner approached.
"Sir, are you intoxicated?" She inquired, to which Truth gave no answer. Clearly its host was merely exhausted, not drunken. "Sir-" The woman stopped after forcefully turning Truth's host to face her. Truth had unintentionally brought its host's hands up in defense, but due to its failing perception of space and, in effect, timing, got the position of the hands incorrect. Instead of facing outward, they were placed upon her own breasts.
Though the officer immediately spluttered a mortified apology and quickly sped off, Truth was more interested in the small, swollen mammary glands. They were so squishy and soft. Almost comforting and familiar. After what would be, in hindsight, an embarrassing few moments of groping its host, Truth continued on its way to the hospital. Its host barely in sync with Truth's energy, it quickly abandoned her in the same uncomfortable chair position she was found in.
Truth drifted back to the Gate, content with the information it had gathered and the stimulation it had experienced. Creepy and freaky as always.
Okay, just as a final note: I am looking for someone to beta* this story. If you do see any grammatical errors, plot holes, the dreaded Mary Sue-ism, or OOC-ness, etc. send me a PM or leave a review! Thank you all so much for your support and reviews, it really motivates me as a writer to keep writing! Like, seriously, thanks a bunch!
*The author 'Eclairs and Flower Crowns' of How to Screw Yourself Over is also looking for a beta. Just shoot them a PM if you're interested or just read the story - things are starting to get interesting :)