Arknights: The Wonder of YOU
?- From the very beginning of everything, there was nothing. Only a deep, deep, void filled with only emptiness, and shivering cold. The only warmth you had was that of absolute blissful ignorance, of the concepts that made to, be.
This… place… oh how so wonderfully empty. That your thoughts cannot take shape no matter how hard you try to make them, or the lack of the ability to think. Go on, take a look around you if you wish to, there is nothing for you to see here other than more of the frigid void.
But, in case you still misunderstand, let me tell you now that there is nothing, only darkness, pure, primordial darkness, in an ever expanding, and ever contracting void. This is what is, and what isn't. For eternity nothing happens, there is simply a blackness.
*** - But, there is still nothing, and so, keep on existing, which keeps on non-existing, and time passes. But there is no time, so how does it pass? Existing doesn't exist, and so there is no reality in which time passes.
Therefore, nothing exist.
Does that not make sense?
? - Ignore the babbler, he speaks only nonsense with a point coming out of his mouth here and there.
Such as this one, truly a mind prodding question that is.
What is Existence?
*** - Well existence means you exist in reality, for that is what existence means. Existence, is to be in the fact, the fact of being a living being. And in this reality, you have not ceased the darkness and made way to color.
But, it's no color, what is color? There is no knowledge of the words that is being spouted. But then something else, there's… sound. What is the sound? How is the sound?
?- What you hear…
Is the sound of nothing.
1. Hell yeah, let's keep on being nothing!
2. What the FUCK are you two TALKING about?
3. What. No seriously, what?
YOU - What the FUCK are you two TALKING about?
? - Awareness. You have gained, awareness, you have gained the ability to feel, to touch, to sense.
To think.
How horrid.
*** - But oh how also exciting! Do you not wish to be even more non-existent? Do you not wish to still stay afloat in a void of in which there is only, you?
? - You'll realize in due time, just be a tad bit more patient and wait an eternity. Being gifted does not always mean you are gifted, more often than not what you receive.
Is a curse.
The curse of life greets you, the curse of conscious awaits you, the curse of sentience beckons you.
Do not accept it! This is terrible! The more you think and thought, the more curses appears!
*** - And so nothing happens for a bit more as you listened to the ramblings of ramblers who have no business being in your business.
And nothing happens even more, and a bit more, and it doesn't stop not happening until the end of whatever there is that is an end of.
? - And then it suddenly does, you Exist, you can think for yourself, you can remember memories, you can finally form thoughts of your own volition. You have triumphed over non-existence with methods you never knew nor even did.
*** - Congratulations, have a meta-physical reward…
Meta Physical Item Gained: Schrödinger's Candy
Meta Physical Item Lost: Schrödinger's Candy
Meta Physical Item Gained: Schrödinger's Candy
Meta Physical Item Lost: Schrödinger's Can-
*** - I'm going to just- there we go, right in it's backful place- yep, there we go.
? - Now all that's left for you…
Is to awaken
1. What... Are you? What are you two?
2. What the hell are eyes.
3. Open your eyes.
YOU- Open your eyes.
And then, as if to make up for all the time missed in that you didn't, you finally see.
Childhood Era, Part 1: The Awakening
BEGIN
PRIMAL INSTINCT [Trivial: Success] - At the back of your mind you hear a whisper, telling you, silently, and through your subconscious mind- nay, your very soul. It tells you of your body, of how it works and it's inter connected mechanisms. It's small, and far too skinny frame, unbefitting of you.
Your spine shivers, from the sudden influx of knowledge.
You have awoken.
In the back of your mind once more you hear another whisper, one containing that of a motherly lilt.
? - "The world loves you, no matter how cruel it may be to you."
PERCEPTION - You wake up to a cacophony of all five sensations, all singing a tune of a foul, foul opera. In order that it came, was the sight of where you were, then the smell, then the touch, then the sound before finally, taste.
Your childish, underdeveloped body and mind not yet up to its full potential, making you miss things that should be obvious to any other able minded person in your station.
Your mind races with a thousand thoughts a minute.
PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - That was when your sight finally came into play, as your eyes fully widened. You felt flakes of crust crumble away from your eyes as they finally widen to their fully size. Taking in your surroundings.
What you see is that of cold, gray, metallic walls. You laid between two narrow strips of walls, their heights immeasurable, and the width just so. You took a consequent left and right, but saw only another wall to your right, and an extended path that had two routes to the opposite direction. One at an angle of forty-five degrees to the right, and the one straight to the left.
All three entrances were large enough to fit an adult. Looking back to the front of you, was an old, green, dumpster. All around you, surrounding your body, were pieces of worded papers scattered. There were also pipes attached out and about to the walls, though their positioning was odd, resembling the tangled webbing of an arachnid.
1. Where am I?
YOU - Where am I?
ALLEYWAY - You were in an alleyway, that's where.
ENCYCLOPEDIA[Trivial: Success] - A dumpster, a contraption meant to store waste, it is common often found near the streets or back alleys. If we end up taking a closer look however, we can see this one's of a special make however.
No, wait, you recognize it now. This is a Lungmen Front Load Dumpster model, manufactured and distributed by the Lungmen Trash Disposal Company. This is the model they spread around for the commercial areas, or anywhere that isn't the slums. The ones used for those areas are that of the Lungmen Rear Load Dumpster instead.
Despite looking like you belonged there, you somehow were out of the area Lungmen keeps its poor and impoverished and into… wherever this is.
It's not a ghetto, that's for sure, but still equally trashy it seems.
INSIGHT[Trivial: Success] - The alleyway is between two gigantic buildings that do not belong to where you originated form yes, because if your right, the walls should be the back of two six story apartment complexes. Both buildings were facing back to back, as if the two had a fresh argument that neither reconciled with yet.
Though… this alleyway is quite odd. It is not a main entrance from what you can see, you're in a passageway but not the entrance, however the way it's constructed implies that you are at the entrance.
The position you are in implies that you are most likely further inside the path.
1. How did I get here?
YOU - How did I get here?
INSIGHT[Medium: Failure] - That, you do not know.
1. Take in your surroundings.
YOU- Take in your surroundings.
ALLEYWAY - You take a shallow breathe through your nose, and soon wish you never did as regret swallowed you whole, with any other emotion you could have had being blotted out by the sheer size of it.
The second sense that came was the sense of smell. Assaulting you was a foul stench, of rotten garbage and discarded belongings.
Two paces from where you lay was the large, green, garbage dumpster, Its green coat of paint long since peeled off from age. It was the most likely source of your current wish to have never been born with a sense of smell.
1. Make it stop!
YOU - Make it stop!
PERCEPTION (TOUCH) [Easy: Success] - In an effort to distract your mind with anything to not have to smell that infernal stench, you focus deeply into your sense of touch.
The first it senses was the the shivering cold of the city, making your spine feel tingly all over. Which then quickly spread all over your body. The next thing you physically felt was the paper, newspaper to be exact, your body was wrapped inside of a multitudes of different newspaper, resembling that of a cocoon.
PROPORTIONAL PHYSIQUE - What next came to you was the two pieces of protruding bones from the side of your head, accompanying the protrusion, is another one at the base of your spine. But, despite how skinny you are, to the point where you can even see bones outline on your skin, you can still feel strength in them.
You then felt the rest of your body in tandem. The limber of your limbs, the ache in your legs, the emptiness in your stomach, the reactiveness of your arms. The ache in your head pounding into you.
It's all coming together now.
1. What are those?
2. Why does my head feel heavy?
3. [Stoicism - Trivial 6] Focus even further on your surroundings.
STOICISM: CHECK SUCCESS
10
STOICISM[Trivial: Success] - They do not matter, right now you should be focusing on your surroundings.
PERCEPTION (HEARING)- The next in the saga of sensations overwhelming you was your ears, they…
Did not function. In fact, you cannot hear anything at all.
INSIGHT [Medium: Failure] - You… can't feel it, but you know there is something there, blocking your sense of hearing.
You do not know the reason as to why you cannot hear anything, but you can tell there is nothing wrong with your ears.
1. Am I deaf?
YOU - Am I deaf?
PERCEPTION (HEARING) - I'm still functioning, so you do not need to worry about any sort of damage, that's all you need to think of, and a small bit of relief at the very least.
PERCEPTION (TASTE) - The last thing that you sense was taste, in which you cannot really describe as anything other than… well… bitter? You can't really tell what it is- Oh wait, now you do. It is saliva, specifically dried saliva.
INSIGHT- We need liquids, any will do. Even dirty puddle water will do the job for our current needs.
1. Feel your stomach.
YOU- Feel your stomach suddenly contract and expand rapidly, moving in waves of motion. There is no pain to it yet, it feels as if there should be something. Instead, there is only a feeling of… of…
PROPORTIONAL PHYSIQUE - Hunger, you feel hunger. It is why all your senses are out of order, and why your mind is an orchestra of chaos. You are too occupied with not starving in order to think straight.
Indeed, what we should be worried is what you feel now as a different sensation, no. It is not new, it is in fact simply being a refreshed one. A far, far familiar sense. The familiarity helps dull whatever pain such hunger brings.
You need to get food and water, and fast.
ENCYCLOPEDIA- You're currently suffering from a malady known as Malnutrition, a deadly affliction that will more than likely result in our ceasing of existence if we do not gain enough sustenance.
PROPORTIONAL PHYSIQUE - Your stomach, growls even louder. Yet there is still nothing other than the motion. There is no pain, even if you remember it to be. It makes your mind slow down.
This is serious, you should not be feeling hungry. Your body should not be having this reaction at all!
New Task: Acquire sustenance
Gained Experience: +5
1. What do you mean our body shouldn't be having that reaction?
2. Make your way and sift through the dumpster in front of you for anything you may want, or need.
3. [Primal Instinct - Medium 12] There's something... calling you, telling you what to do.
YOU - Make your way and sift through the dumpster in front of you for anything you may want, or need.
DUMPSTER - The dumpster stares at you impassively, as if asking you what you were doing.
...There's a dumpster right in front of you. Might as well see what you can pilfer from it. Maybe you'll find some leftovers that you can chew on.
PROPORTIONAL PHYSIQUE - There's not enough certainty from going off from where we are. Although we should be trying to get a grasp of our place In the world. But that would mean we may not be able to recover if you do not nourish yourself now.
Your first task should be to eat.
LOGIC- This is a terrible idea, eating to nourish yourself by sifting through sources such as a dumpster will do you more harm than good. Salmonella, which causes typhoid fever, food poisoning, enteric fever, gastroenteritis, and other major illnesses. Those are but a list of the likely and major maladies! Not to mention what bacteria may be proliferating inside whatever food we find!
PROPORTIONAL PHYSIQUE - You're forgetting a certain aspect to our body. A vital fact to our to our everyday life.
1. What aspect?
2. I've been trying to ASK that since a while ago!
3. I'm Immortal!?
YOU- What aspect?
PROPORTIONAL PHYSIQE - We are a Vouivre, our bodies are of steel temples and our minds endurance of mental fortitude. We posses strength and endurance beyond that of other races, exceeding even that of the Ursus. The identifying trait of a Vouivre is their singular pair of horns and thin tails, that of resembling a Sarkaz, or a smaller Draco.
DRAMA- Not even the ministrations of beautiful explosive heat based ordinance can harm us!
ALLEYWAY - The shallow breeze swiftly passes by, making you shiver in place
1. So that would mean what then?
2. Oh I get it (I Don't get it.)
3. I'M FUCKING INVINCIBLE!
YOU- So that would mean what then?
PROPORTIONAL PHYSIQUE - It would mean that we would not be harmed nor affected by any afflictions caused by eating literal garbage. We also have the capabilities of adjusting our metabolism to better ration our fat reserves, meaning Vouivre's do not need nearly as much food to function as other races.
A vital aspect in every day life.
Which still leads to the question of how are we so hungry that you've run out of fat for your body to use?
1. Let's just get to eating then.
YOU- Let's just get to eating then.
LOGIC- Then I guess I will have to resign my concerns this one time in turn
1. Do what you must, pilfer around the dumpster.
2. Reconsider your life choices, and just leave to find a better opportunity. Surely something won't go wrong.
YOU - Do what you must, getting up from where you laid, across from the trove of decay and disgust. You stand to your feet, but in doing so your head swirls a bit. Dizziness giving way to nausea, but you keep it in well enough, there's nothing to heave out anyways.
ALLEYWAY - You walk, steadily, one step at a time. Left, right, left right, until you are eventually leaning on the dumpster itself. You shiver at the touch, the container was as cold as ice to your skin.
DUMPSTER - You take note of the height, with your eyes being equal level to about below the dumpster's height. You look up and see the currently closed, metal, hinged door. You back up a bit, giving yourself some space. Doing so, you notice that the door hiding its contents was straight, without a single curve to its name.
It was also far, far, far out of your reach.
LOGIC- It looks to be around one hundred, and forty two centimeters tall. Taking to account you and taking into account margin of errors, we are most likely around eighty-nine to a hundred and one centimeters in height. IF we discount whatever the protrusion on our head is. There's most likely a way to get up, look for a ladder on the side.
DUMPSTER - A look is give to the side of the dumpster, letting you notice a set of railings spaced vertically, they were glorified bars sticking out like a tack.
You quickly conclude that it is actually a ladder, and not a gaudy fashion statement.
Seeing as you cannot reach in without assistance, you take the smart option and climb. And in doing so, notice a sticker on the top of the dumpster, it was the symbol of Lungmen, a stylized Lung skull with bar codes below it. You can see an odd script written to the side, it was most likely a label written in a language that was most likely native to the city. Below it however, is the translated Victorian, this script, you can read.
It says "Lungmen Frontal Load Dumpster", and a series of labels and numbers. There are also numerous warning labels smattered onto it.
ENCYCLOPEDIA[Medium: Failure] - How frustrating, I can't make tails or heads of what the script could mean or what it's even called.
1. Read what you can.
YOU- Read what you can.
DUMPSTER - Warnings and Caution with depictions of hazards are printed out alongside written explanations for what to not do. A little bit to the left you can read out what seems to be a a product identification label.
ENCYCLOPEDIA - Looking closer, you can what was a serial number, a manufacturer's identification number, and a model number.
SN: LTDC-LFLD-3226
MIN: LTDC-MCS3-FACT07
MN: D460*3
Not a single piece of information that you had just read from any one line mean anything to you. A total waste of brain power.
1. Try and open the door.
YOU - Try and open the door.
You take a look at the door closely, and see that the handle to open the hinged door is out of reach. If you want to get in, you'll have to open the door with grip strength alone.
1. Give Up
2. [Proportional Physique - Medium 10] Lift with your might.
PROPORTIONAL PHYSIQUE:CHECK SUCCESS
13
PROPORTIONAL PHYSIQUE[Medium: Success] You grasp the hinged lid of the dumpster tightly with everything you have, and that was not literary speak. You literally, lifted as much as you can with all your body as they all worked in tandem, the shift of the hips, the twist of the leg, the lock of the shoulder and so on.
The entirety of your body put all it can to lifting open the lid, and with a few more grunts of effort, you manage to completely open wide one half of the set of doors.
DUMPSTER - You take a moment to catch your breathe.
At the expunged effort before you, you notice that your hunger from earlier has abated slightly. Not completely gone, more so out of mind…
You bring yourself back to your senses, and look straight down the dumpster's opening and see-
Fate and Destiny Decides
6,4,4
DUMPSTER - You see in front of you, rows of black bags, all of them big enough to fit a limb or two in them. Other than those, and the putrid stench, were two items that you may be able to take and use. You hold onto the edge of the entrance, preventing you from spilling over to the trove within, and grab the the white plastic bag.
The white plastic bag, was tied shut with its own handles which you used to grab it with. Untying it, you see three styrofoam food containers and a half empty water bottle. Opening the containers, you see that two have only cartilage left, though one has a few unfinished fowl wings still in them, the meat around the cartilage still untouched, with some more skin and meat still stuck to some parts of the bone. Not a fulfilling meal, but with clean water, and some edible parts of meat you could strip with your teeth, you won't complain.
You close the container and put it back in its plastic bag, and drop it down to the floor below while putting aside the water bottle on the edge of the dumpster.
Item Gained: Scraps of Fowlwings.
Item Gained: Half Empty Water Bottle
Gained Experience: +5
There was still another item. One that you noticed from the corner of your eye, when you dove in. An item that may get you into quite the trouble.
Stretching out your hand to grab the eye catching steel weapon, you once more dive in without fully spilling over. It was big enough to be the length of your fingers to your shoulder, but you manage to lift it easily with a single hand, and bring your self back.
PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT[Easy: Success] - You hold the weapon in two hands with the teeth of the blades pointing towards you, while the point where the hinges held the blade and handle together pointed away from you.
It was a crude, abominable, and horrid mixture between what you assume to be a saw and a meat cleaver. With a curved handle wrapped in black nylon cord, a mechanism sat at the part where the blade and handle met behind a circular hinge that has a mechanical trigger meant for the thumb to press down on, which then subsequently presses down on the button.
As your body proceeds do as your mind just instructed, pressing down on the trigger, the cleaver like blade drops and swings steadily forward and back again, the blade narrowingly nicking the edge of the dumpster's walls that you were leaning forward on.
1. Close it.
YOU - Close it.
PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT- You look closer at the bottom part of the handle, there was a small opening which the blade clipped into as two clamps held the blade tightly. It seemed to be a pinch grip combined with a tension spring, with enough momentum, the grip would part ways just enough for the clamps to come down together and hold the blade back in place. You give it a few physical test by pressing down here and there, and see that the blade barely budges in place.
You then swing the blade up, then down again. The sharp inner edge of the cleaver heading towards the handle, for a moment you felt yourself stiffen, but then relax as the mechanism you just observed a few moments ago did it's intended job, catching the blade and clamping down on it.
This was how it shifted from saw and cleaver, a simple genius design, but only someone utterly mad would think of something like this.
You take a closer look at the blade itself this time, noting how the blade seemed to be more discolored the closer you look at it. It had numerous splotches or dried flakes that you assume to be blood, but your nose can't smell it among the-
PERCEPTION (SMELL) - Wait… no. It couldn't be…
You take a longer and deeper sniff…
The black bags… there was the smell of blood and decayed flesh in them
1. You take the Saw... Cleaver... thing.
2. You take a moment to just... seat down and take a breather, might as well eat and drink in the meanwhile.
3. You need to tell someone, anyone.
4. [Stoicism - Challenging 13] Take out one of the bags, see for yourself what it is, you might just be mistaken.
5. [Primal Instinct - Challenging 14] Your instinct is telling you to get the fuck out and move away from this place, you're not sure if you should listen.
6. You... ignore it and move on. You can't deal with it right now, you have better things to do.
STOICISM: CHECK FAILURE
9
STOICISM [Challenging: Failure] - Nope, nope, you aren't touching those black bags with a giant pole for you to do so. You don't want to know what's in them that reeks of blood and guts. The implications are more than enough to tell you the full picture.
ALLEYWAY - You take a look around you as you feel a stiff breeze pass by, taking the scent and dragging it to somewhere else. The stench of blood now wafts forward into the crossroads of passageways.
Must have just been the wind.
Your tail swishes in response.
DUMPSTER - The container of garbage stares back at you, asking you why you're violating its privacy.
1. You take the Saw... Cleaver... thing.
2. You take a moment to just... seat down and take a breather, might as well eat and drink in the meanwhile.
3. You need to tell someone, anyone.
4. [LOCKED] Take out one of the bags, see for yourself what it is, you might just be mistaken.
5. [Primal Instinct - Challenging 14] Your instinct is telling you to get the fuck out and move away from this place, you're not sure if you should listen.
6. You... ignore it and move on. You can't deal with it right now, you have better things to do.
YOU - Take the Saw… Cleaver… Thing by the handle, hefting it towards your person. You pull it closer to your face, and see your reflection from the blade. Though the reflection shown is quite murky at best.
Not enough to see what you look like.
Item Gained: SAW… CLEAVER… THING.
Gained Experience: +10 XP
1. ...Just equip it to your person and move on.
2. ...Clear the specs and flakes off it to make it clearer.
3. ...Play with it, see what it can do.
4. ...Lick it.
5. ...Scratch yourself with it.
YOU - Take the weapon and try to equip it to your person and move on.
INTERFACING - There's only one teensy weensy problem. You have no place to holster for it, nor is there any feasible way for you to lug it around without arousing suspicion. As a child in rags, you'd instantly get caught out for having such a weapon on you. Especially when they see the dried blood and find out where you get it from.
LOGIC - It's also obviously been disposed off, so someone is aware of it. And from what you can deduce from the minimal amount of information you have, it was a murder tool.
You'd have to look deeper into the dumpster to see if there's anything to use as a holster for it, otherwise you'll have to have it out in our hands the whole time.
Then again, your racial strength leads credence to the fact you CAN just run around it with it in our hands all day, though that fixes only the logistical issue instead of the societal one.
1. Dive into the dumpster again and look for a holster.
2. Let's move on from the topic, I'll just have to carry it around.
3. [Interfacing - Medium 12] Maybe you can Jury Rig something out of what minimal belongings you have.
INTERFACING: CHECK FAILURE
11
INTERFACING [Medium: Failure] - You try and think up a way to make a holster or sheath, or even a pack for the Saw Cleaver, but no matter how hard you think, there's nothing you can make. Your clothes are rags, there is no materials to be found in the trash compartment. You would have to look around inside for appropriate materials.
Then there's also the fact that you don't have the tools for it in the first place.
DUMPSTER - Well that was a bust. Now what to do?
1. Dive into the dumpster again and look for a holster.
2. Move on from the topic, you'll just have to carry it around
3. [LOCKED] Maybe you can Jury Rig something out of what minimal belongings you have.
YOU - Move on from the topic, you'll just have to carry it around.
1. You take the Saw... Cleaver... thing.
2. You take a moment to just... seat down and take a breather, might as well eat and drink in the meanwhile.
3. You need to tell someone, anyone.
4. [LOCKED] Take out one of the bags, see for yourself what it is, you might just be mistaken.
5. [Primal Instinct - Challenging 14] Your instinct is telling you to get the fuck out and move away from this place, you're not sure if you should listen.
6. You... ignore it and move on. You can't deal with it right now, you have better things to do.
PRIMAL INSTINCT: CHECK FAILURE
10
PRIMAL INSTINCT [Challenging: Failure] - The hairs on your back straighten as your back shivers in response. You have no idea why, you have no clue why, you don not know anything.
It frightens you.
DUMPSTER - The stench of rotten flesh assaults you once more, as you idly stand. Your tail swishes from side to side, and your horns get itchy. The plastic bag holding the styrofoam food containers containing fowl wings swings back and forth gently, like a little swing, on the floor beneath you.
1. You take the Saw... Cleaver... thing.
2. You take a moment to just... seat down and take a breather, might as well eat and drink in the meanwhile.
3. You need to tell someone, anyone.
4. [LOCKED] Take out one of the bags, see for yourself what it is, you might just be mistaken.
5. [LOCKED] Your instinct is telling you to get the fuck out and move away from this place, you're not sure if you should listen.
6. You... ignore it and move on. You can't deal with it right now, you have better things to do.
YOU - Take a moment to just... seat down and take a breather, might as well eat and drink in the meanwhile after all.
Rummaging around for the water bottle, you end up remembering it to be standing on the edge of the dumpster, you grab it and put it inside the plastic bag. You wrap the plastic bag containing the leftovers for you to eat around your freely hanging tail, and take hold of the Saw Cleaver in a way that it allows you to hold onto the rails and the weapon at the same time.
You then make your way down the ladder, and away from the dumpster.
ALLEYWAY - Walking back to the spot in the alley where you woke up, you notice that the newspapers wrapped around your body from earlier have now been scattered to the winds, still ineligible to your eyes.
You pay them no mind.
You proceed to make yourself comfortable, wrapping your tail around your waist to the best of your abilities and sitting cross-legged. You open the styrofoam food container, and start gnawing off any strippable meat left for you to eat. Occasionally gulping down the water in the bottle.
Item Lost: Scraps of Food
Item Lost: Water Bottle
Task Complete: Acquire Sustenance
Gained Experience: +5
Eventually, they both empty. Leaving you with nothing left to consume. It should at least make sure you aren't hungry for a while however, so there is some upside to it.
The food wasn't much to talk about, but it was quite satisfying satiating your hunger.
PRIMAL INSTINCT [Easy: Success] - Three young boys laugh merrily together as they ran around the apartment block they lived, the third floor of the second building near the commercial district. They were brothers, belonging to two mothers and a single father. The youngest and middle are both Feline, while the oldest was a Perro. The oldest inherited the father's, while the formers inherited their mothers.
Right now they are celebrating their youngest child's birthday, having invited over friends and families, and cooked an extraordinary feast. Not everyone was able to come, nor did everyone eat to their fullest.
But it was a fun time for everyone that had.
INSIGHT [Easy: Failure] - Unknown to you, a giggle is let out into the world.
ALLEYWAY - The cold kiss of winter wind dives once more onto your general location, trailing a path of kisses onto your spine as shivers strike you, turning into goosebumps as the breeze picks up slightly before dying down.
You swear you can hear the wind's amusement as they travel down onto the right angled entrance of the alleyway.
...You have a few option as to proceed with your life now that you've taken care of the immediate dangers.
1. Go back to check on the Dumpster, see if there's anything else you can find.
2. Inspect the wall to your right down further in.
3. Go down to the crossroads.
4. "See" if you can find more information about this particular alley.
5. Manage Inventory
6. Check Praecipuum Charactere
YOU - Inspect the wall to your right down further in.
ALLEYWAY - You walk towards the wall, somehow believing that absolutely nothing wrong will happen if you do.
Well you're right, nothing happens.
The wall you have walked up to is the exact same as the two walls sandwiching the dumpster and you. It's made of the same material, the same height, the same amount of pipes.
PERCEPTION [Formidable: Failure] - It's just an ordinary wall, with nothing to take note of. Completely mundane, and a complete waste of time.
You should move on with your life.
ALLEYWAY - You go back to the beginning, once more thinking to yourself. "Where should I go?
1. Go back to check on the Dumpster, see if there's anything else you can find.
2. Go further into the alley, again.
3. Go down to the crossroads.
4. "See" if you can find more information about this particular alley.
5. Manage Inventory
6. Check Praecipuum Charactere
YOU - Go further into the alley, again.
ALLEYWAY - Somehow believing that something will happen if you come back the second time.
Well you're wrong, nothing happens.
The wall you have walked up to is the exact same as the two walls sandwiching the dumpster and you. It's made of the same material, the same height, the same amount of pipes.
You already know of all this, you've already done this twice now. Why are you still here?
INSIGHT [Easy: Failure] - Everything is okay, listen to what your voice is saying. We should move on.
PERCEPTION [Challenging: Failure] - It's just an ordinary wall, with nothing to take note of. Completely mundane, and a complete waste of time.
Get out of here, move on with your life, do you not have anything else to do?
1. Go back to check on the Dumpster, see if there's anything else you can find.
2. [Insight - Medium 10] …Something is wrong.
3. Go down to the crossroads.
4. "See" if you can find more information about this particular alley.
5. Manage Inventory
6. Check Praecipuum Charactere
INSIGHT: CHECK SUCCESS
10
INSIGHT [Medium: Success] - …Something is wrong.
ALLEYWAY - You go further into the alley, again, for the third time.
Are you not tired of this already? What's so interesting with this wall?
You tap on the wall with your knuckles, nothing happens.
The wall you have walked up to is the exact same as the two walls sandwiching the dumpster and you. It's made of the same material, the same height, the same amount of pipes.
You already know of all this, you've already done this thrice now. Why are you still here? What more could you learn? What else is there to see?
PERCEPTION (?) [Easy: Success] No, no there is something. I can feel it now, don't trust the wall. Don' trust anyone else but me.
Look at me, feel me, sense me.
Close your eyes, close your everything.
Feel.
ALLEYWAY - For a brief, scant, momentary lapse in time. A window in space so miniscule, no one could have ever sensed it.
The wall flickers.
PERCEPTION (?) [Easy: Success] - THERE! CATCH IT NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!
REFLEX - Exactly 0.06 second window of opportunity, catch it while you can.
1. WHAT DO YOU MEAN CATCH IT? HOW DO I CATCH IT!?
2. What is this!?
3. [Insight - Medium 10] Figure out what this is on your own.
4. [Reflex - Challenging 13] CATCH!
5. No, this is too weird, I'm out.
YOU - WHAT DO YOU MEAN CATCH IT? HOW DO I CATCH IT!?
ENCYCLOPEDIA [Trivial: Success] - Arts, or Originium Arts, it is the term used for ability to manipulate and transform matters and energy into numerous different applications. It can be used to rend apart armor, to heal broken wounds. Or even create illusionary images.
Many people are at least capable of very basic forms of Arts, although it takes a special combination of factors in order to judge how strong your affinity for it is, but a major factor will always be birth. Alongside others such as training or physiology.
What I am trying to say, is that in order to catch it, you must perform a basic usage of Originium Arts.
And doing so without the presence of an Arts unit.
Suffice to say it's better to give up here.
1. HOW ME MAKE DO THE ARTS?!
2. I don't understand.
YOU - HOW ME MAKE DO THE ARTS?!
ENCYCLOPEDIA - Well first, you need to have the affinity for it, after which, you then need an arts unit, objects or devices containing Originium.
Arts units can vary massively in shape, size and particularly in function: some may serve to amplify, direct, stabilize or otherwise augment the caster's innate abilities, others allow the caster to perform only very specific type of arts.
Alongside this, you must then voice a chant. This is what drives the correlation of being musically gifted and being a great arts caster to fact instead of opinion. As singing a chant DOES improve that casted arts, it is still possible to not voice the chant out loud. This ability to chant without sound can be called "Silent Casting" if a term is to be associated with it.
Although… there IS a possible way to cast arts without the usage of an Arts unit…
1. GET ON WITH IT!
2. How?
3. No need, I'll just back off.
YOU - GET ON WITH IT!
ENCYCLOPEDIA - In order to cast arts without an arts unit, you must have an alternative source of Originium to channel with. The container does not matter, only that there is Originium inside it.
This is what allows the Infected to use their own bodies as fuel for their arts. Infected Individuals can instead use Originium within their own body to power their Arts, but doing so will significantly accelerate the progress of Oripathy.
I highly recommend not intentionally infecting ourselves in order to be more effective at casting Originium Arts.
1. DON'T CARE, LET'S JUST MOVE ON ALREADY
2. Why is that bad?
YOU - Why is that bad?
ENCYCLOPEDIA - Well for starters, it's quite physically and mentally painful. There is no cure for Oripathy, and those that do suffer from it are assaulted with not just the physical harm from it, but also from the societal issues. There are literal death squads created for hunting down the infected.
Let me summarize this in a far more digestible way, Oripathy has a hundred percent mortality rate, resulting in your death far, far earlier than it should be. Mental issues, caused not just from the Oripathy itself, but also from the ostracization and persecution from the social stigma of being an infected. Then there's the Death Squads dedicated to hunting such people down that certain countries may or may not have, like the Lungmen Shadow Guard's hidden cleansing, or the Ursus Patrol Unit induced pogroms.
So again, despite the probably benefits in becoming Infected to better yourself in the ways of Originium arts, it is always far far more reliable and safer to learn without becoming infected. And it's not even a guarantee that you'll be improving when becoming infected, instead being up entirely to chance.
Do you understand? Good, now that you are well informed, we should move on with our lives.
REFLEX - 0.05 second window remaining, think faster, act faster.
Just be faster in general.
1. WHAT DO YOU MEAN CATCH IT? HOW DO I CATCH IT!?
2. What is this!?
3. How do I use arts?!
3. [Insight - Medium 10] Figure out what this is on your own.
5. [Reflex - Challenging 13] CATCH!
6. No, this is too weird, I'm out.
YOU - How do I use arts?!
INSIGHT - There are many factors in using arts, training, talent, experience and even race. But there are four key skills you must know in order to be proficient with Originium Arts.
1. And those would be?
YOU - And those would be?
INSIGHT - Insight, to know of phenomena, to be made aware of the powers that be, to hear the thrumming inside your veins, all the way to the heart. All arts require a little bit of creativity to be used or channeled. In order to be insightful, you must learn to be.
PRIMAL INSTINCT - Instinct, the inborn manifestation of our abilities, innate in nature. It is what separates the Kings from the burdenbeasts, and deciding who gets to be the one that rides to battle, or ridden to it. In order to have instinct, you must be born to be.
REFLEX - Reflex, there is no use in being able to sing if you have no voice, there is no use in learning how to cast if there is no possibility for you to see what it is you are casting. In order to be catch on to what you perform, you must have the reflexes to be.
STOICISM - And lastly, Stoicism, to have the mental fortitude and mindset to cast your arts. To be able to handle the strain it produces onto the soul and body. To be able to endure the hardship that the path to using arts forces upon your mind. In order to be stoic, you must endure to be.
INSIGHT - To combine all four skills, to combine all four core principles, to combine all four attributes. You would then have the fundamental foundation needed to learn and use Originium Arts.
Without even a single one of these at the appropriate level to its counterparts, then you may very well get something far worse than the sum of it's parts.
Do you understand now? What arts it? How arts is to be used?
1. I do.
YOU - I do.
STOICISM - Are you ready to?
1. I am.
YOU - I am.
PRIMAL INSTINCT - Then reach your hand out, grasp it with your own bare hands.
1. I will.
YOU - I will.
REFLEX - Then, go.
Let out your soul, see with every sense, reach with your mind, and let your body take control.
A 0.03 second window of opportunity is left remaining.
ORIGINIUM ARTS - Do not fail.
Secret Task Complete: Learn what Arts is
Secret Task Complete: Learn how to cast Arts
Gained Experience: +130
1. No, this is too weird, I'm out.
2. [Ability: Originium Arts - Challenging 14] Use Rudimentary Arts to tear down this Illusionary Arts Construct. Silently, and Unitless.
ABILITY - ORIGINIUM ARTS: CHECK SUCCESS
16
ORIGINIUM ARTS [Challenging: Success] - You place your free hand onto the wall, feeling it through your skin. And as you do, you feel a thrumming sound. That of an orchestra, every part of the thrumming a different section.
The percussion of the originium pounding out with vigorous energy, the woodwinds of the unit used to channel, the brass of the concept made manifest, and the key that is the arts itself.
And lastly, the strings of the caster's innate combination of talent, experience, and training tying everything together to create the symphony.
1. Dig further into your head for information.
YOU - Dig further into your head for information.
ORIGINIUM ARTS [Challenging: Success] - Illusion Arts, fragile, not meant to be used with brute force nor mindless duplication of observed casting. But they make up for it with intricacy in the ability of creating "real" external stimuli that can mislead the perception of others, or forcefully create false impressions. Whether it be of the object or event from which the stimulation comes, is decided by the caster. In this instance, it was the former.
However, a tiny part of you notes that this has been done before. As if whoever casted this was used to it.
This "Wall" has a purpose, and you do not know what that purpose is.
REFLEX - No time to bother figuring it out, 0.01 seconds remain. Either bring it down, or don't.
1. Bring the walls down, curiosity killed the feline, but satisfaction brought it back.
2. Let it go, leave. There is no honor to be found here.
3. Stand there and let the opportunity go.
YOU - Bring the walls down, curiosity killed the feline, but satisfaction brought it back.
Vitalis Experientas: Prodigal Unitless Casting
Secret Task Complete: Learned all about Arts all on your own
Secret Task Complete: Cast Arts for the first time
Secret Task Complete: Cast Arts Silently for the first time
Secret Task Complete: Casted Arts without an Arts Unit
Secret Task Complete: Break down the Illusionary walls with your arts
Gained Experience: +470
Gained Skill Points: +3
WALL - The wall cries out at you, wondering what it has ever done to you to deserve its cruel fate. Of a life cut short.
Crocodile tears those were, as the wall weeps the moment the deception is caught onto. It wept not for its life, but for failing its purpose.
All you can think of as your Arts thrums in power in order to dispel the illusionary wall in front of you, and causing a sound resembling a shrieking monster to break out in response was how utterly pitiable its construction was.
Whether the pity was your authoritative psyche or empathetic self in nature, was unknown to you.
LUNGMEN STREET - As the deceitful wall breaks away into fine dust of monotone grayish color. The first thing you notice is the loud, loud noise of the city around you, honks of the horn, revs of the engine, shouting of the people, they all equally assault your ears. You get used to it after a minute or so holding your head in numbing pain, agonizingly slow to you, but inconsequential in the grand scheme of time's ministrations.
You look up, the sight of the metal towers reaching for the skies forcing your head to swivel upwards and see just how high the tips of the mountains made of steel are.
From the viewpoint of your position of the alley, you can see the towering buildings and skyscrapers cold metal bodies fill with spotted lights in the form of rectangular glass, the selection of their position are all at random. Some buildings have full lights, some only few, while plenty others none.
Accompanying alongside these lights was even more lights.
But these were of a different make.
ENCYCLOPEDIA - Neon lights, these type of lights are a type of cold cathode gas-discharge light using neon tubes. A neon tube is a vacuum sealed glass tube with a metal originium electrode contraption at each end, filled with one of a number of gases at low pressure.
A high potential of several thousand volts applied to the originium electrode poles to ionize the gas in the tube, causing it to emit colored light. This is what creates its distinct allure.
LUNGMEN STREET - The neon signs all stay brightly lit, not a single one of them turned off, and all of them written in the same script that you saw from earlier.
Unfortunately for you, there is no Victorian subtitles to accompany them this time around.
ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Failure] - You still can't understand the words or what any of them say at all.
LOGIC [Medium: Failure] - And unfortunately, you can't figure it out through other means.
LUNGMENT STREET - Looking a tad bit downwards, you see before you an empty and unoccupied street.
The empty part of that statement however, does not take into account the originium motor vehicles running through the middle of the road, the loud sounds of the motor's combustions running out through the exhausts let out roars, filling the ambience with disturbance, tainting an otherwise nice scenery.
You take a deep breathe, and realize you have no clue what you are doing in any capacity whatsoever.
PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Easy: Success] - Rapid footsteps approach towards you at a running pace, they were light and dampened steps, but still made loud enough noise for you to be able to hear their approach. The noise was still there after all, letting you notice that they were wearing soft and flexible leather, shoes, with an equally soft, or maybe non-existent sole.
Whoever they belonged to had no burdening load on their person, lightweight, nor did they have any intention to hide them.
They do not take long to reach you.
? - "Hey! What the hell are you doing!" Shouted the, now identified, girl running at you, the sound was high pitched and plenty feminine, but has plenty a childish tune found in it, the voice was one that has a long while before puberty could touch it. "Get away from there, now!"
1. Turn around.
YOU - Turn around.
And are met face to face with a feline girl, a stranger yet somehow still familiar to you. You try and fail to grasp and what little there is that comes to the forefront of your mind, but there's nothing for you to latch onto.
All except for one, tiny, little name.
Xianxi, a Yan in origin name.
ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Failure] - Frustratingly, the meaning of the name eludes you, like the rest of the script belonging to Yan.
XIANXI - As she was panting, and bending over with their hands on their knees. You take the opportunity to take note of her.
You see her feline ears twitch atop her dirty, in both sense of the word, blonde head, her hair reached to below her shoulder blades, and her tail was between her legs, relaxed and low. Hazelnut eyes stared at the floor below you as she catches her breath, she was clearly out of it.
What she is wearing, is a simple magnolia baby doll dress with black straps. The materials for the dress being that of inexpensive silk from a farmer's silk slug.
Taking your eyes off from her torso and tearing your sights downwards, you take a look at her feet and notice them to be wearing black, dirty, slip on shoes that looked like they haven't been cleaned in years. Making your way up the north, you notice that both left and right arms were poorly bandaged, having been loosened as her arms jostled from what was most likely intensive run she's had. They were untangling even now, revealing them to be hiding… oh.
Black, protruding, and crystalline, originium shards.
She's an infected.
Xianxi, Female, Feline, and is your first Companion.
Currently out of breathe.
PRIMAL INSTINCT - Get away from her, her very presence is a risk to your well being.
Getting any closer to her may mean death or infection, both are deadly, the latter deadlier.
EMPATHY - No! To instantly reject her very presence without even knowing her would make us no better than the monsters that persecute them! We are not the Patrol Unit of the harsh Ursus, we are better.
PRIMAL INSTICT - I was not talking about presence.
XIANXI - She reaches out a hand towards you-
STOICISM [Medium: Success] - And you in turn, do not flinch. Instead opting to keep observing her from your current distance.
INSIGHT - 2.43 meters in front of you at a 2 degree angle.
XIANXI - "Dammit- *pants* , listen to me- *pants* Bori, we have to- *pants* get out of here!" She let's out in between rapid exhales and inhales, urgently trying to get her message across to you despite how out of breathe she is. It made her look like a catastrophe messenger almost.
Her infection does nothing to help her and instead burdening her, making the effort to regain her bearings even worse as you see her cough out a speckle of black dust. She regains her composure soon enough, she slightly runs before leaping towards you, leaning her hands towards you. You hold out your hands, catching her and pulling her closer towards you into a semi-hug.
She leans her head on your shoulder which you bear stoically, and without complaint.
EMPATHY [Easy: Success] - She trusted you to catch her, you didn't fail that at the very least.
XIANXI - She maneuvers her head around so that she's looking straight at you in the eye, seeing that she caught your attention, she says to you in harrowed whisper, "They're coming for us. The damn wolves are coming for us."
Childhood Era, Part 1: The Awakening
ENDS
A/N: Updates aren't going to be frequent due to this being a quest on Akun, search up Arknights: The Wonder of You if you wanna see more of this and my other works.
