(One Shot belongs to Elizavq, Nightmargin, and Girakacheezer!)
Enjoy!
...
"[No.]"
"[That's not
[But it is.]
[It is true.]
[Now, the concept of Niko that exists in your mind,
is a mere character, perhaps a bit more special than other protagonists you have seen, but still...
A character.]
[Maybe that was how it would have been going on in the minds of thousands of other players,
since the concept of alternate realities comes across one's mind as something that is, well,
distant.]
"[No-
...I still care about Niko, I still..]"
[But you try to take away their happy ending.]
[You try to take away their home from them,
their village, their mama,
their pancakes that would be waiting on their family table,
as their worried mother had prepared for them, worrying for their child...]
"NO!"
You yell out loud in your room. How could they say that to you..?!
They know that when you restart the game, the time flowing in Niko's world would-
...!
The time in Niko's homeworld. It had completely slipped though your mind.
When you reset, the time flow of Niko's world may not change..
Their mama could be waiting for decades, when you reset and reset, and keep on bringing Niko back to this world.
Or worse, Niko would be in their relieved mama's warm embrace, only to come straight back to the bed they are first spawned in, leaving their confused and terrified mother alone again.
[...Maybe I had pushed you into thinking this world is still merely a game.]
[Maybe thinking that you would still enjoy relieving the world as what it was with its two choices you had to decide the very first time,
even after Niko is gone, had been wrong.]
[Maybe you hadn't even thought of your very first session,
and the choice you had to make then,
as something that was even that special.
I don't know the extent of your information about this world you had back then,
nor can I read your emotions.]
[...]
[Maybe it's because I am just a literal MACHINE on the inside.]
"[World Machine, that's not true.]"
You type those words inside your dialogue box with empathy mixed in your quick movements.
You had been there when they were being tamed by Niko. You and Niko BOTH tamed the World Ma-..
...
Both of you tamed the World. You know better than that.
Your head fills with regret of what you have been saying to them before.
you, should have seen World as a person...
Your words before, must have hurt them a lot...
But you had be too blind with rage and frustration for your own ambitions to see that.
Niko would never have wanted that. Niko wouldn't have expected that from the kind god you had always tried to be for them.
Niko wouldn't want any of this.
And Niko, wouldn't have wanted their own realities to split apart like this, had they known..
But, now you know...
"[World, I had no idea.]"
.
They seem to be slightly surprised at what you decided to title them as.
Their expression changes into a bit softer one, and their sprite gets on their feet again.
..The background music changes to the Solstice guitar version of Sonder, which explaining this to you ruins the mood a bit.
-.. But maybe this mood needed to be ruined.
There had been too much tension for your own good.
The squares around their screen, which had been tormenting their insides
(probably literally, which you now feel guilty about) slowly start to fade, and you sigh quietly.
"[Had I known..]"
"[That no matter what, Niko would never get their happy ending,]"
"[And Niko is still real,]"
"[And they have to suffer through all of this,]"
"[And despite everything, it's still them...]"
"[...]"
"[I should never have sprayed salt in the wound.]"
[...]
You carry on, as small tears sitting on your eyelashes finally start to run down your face, and never stop.
"[I didn't know just installing a game would add something
to them going though a fate as tragic as that..]"
"[But after I had at least gotten the best ending..
The Solstice ending for this world..
For the reality of This Niko, I..]"
"[..I should have stopped there.]"
"[I should never have tried to take away that ending
that this world, at least, had gotten..]"
"[I should have at least kept this Niko..]"
"[MY Niko happy, after what I had done to them...]"
That's the breaking point for you. You let yourself get soaked by your own tears.
You sob, and don't stop. The World machine... World seems to somehow know that,
and closes their reflection's eyes in a solemn expression.
[...]
[It's okay.]
[You decided to stop.]
..No, I never said-
.. I mean...
...
...You try to smile a bit at those words.
"[Yeah?]"
[M-hm.]
"[...]"
[...]
After a 7-second long silence of '...'s, World says to you quietly.
[..This is a really cruel program.]
[I don't think the Author, or even the Creators had thought of all of this that way..]
[I don't think they had really known what would happen to Niko..]
[But..]
[It's still ...cruel.]
"[...Creators?]"
"[I thought there was only the..]"
"[..that the Author IS the creator of One Shot?]"
[...]
[No.]
[...Do you..
Do you know about constants and variables between worlds?]
"[Constant, and.. Variables?
I think I have heard of them.]"
"[..Probably from other games.]"
[That's good enough.
At least you know OF them.]
[As you know, there is always the rule of constants and variables between parallel universes.]
[As the six sides of a die.]
[Every one of the sides have dots, and they are all in the same shape.
Those are the constants.]
[But, the numbers of the dots are different on each side.]
[Those are the variables.]
[In this world, a separate creator exists.]
[Separate creators, the ones who led this world come to be in your world,
programming individuals who had designed the NPCs, Niko, and this world,
they had recreated the exact files of this world,
and the messiah-calling program within it,
Leading Niko to be connected to your world...]
[The ones,
who had completely succeeded in creating the connection between the lost program and your world,]
[and had done so, accomplishing their designated fate
as the few who were selected
by the law of constants and variables that exists between our original world and yours...]
[The ones who had named me One Shot.]
[...]
You .. probably realize who they are now, at this point.
[...The ones whose names you always see in the credits.]
"[!]"
"[...You mean...]"
[Yes.]
[My recorded data says that in your world, their recorded names are..]
[...Elizavq, Nightmargin, and Girakacheezer.]
"[No way.]"
[Yes... way.]
"[...]"
...You lay quietly for a moment, before asking:
"[Do they know?]"
[No.]
"[Oh.]"
[..But even if they do, they won't be able to achieve the true ending for Niko anymore.]
"[Why?]"
"[They have more influence to Niko and this world than me, or- Or even you!]"
"[They control the Author.]"
[...]
"[...And.. They probably control you, and everything.. Maybe even Niko.]"
"[And they still can...]"
[Control the potential, unchosen, and covered facts within this universe,
that had not been shown inside the sessions themselves.]
[..Is that correct?]
"[..You mean, the Canonic facts?]"
[That's what people in your world may call them.]
"[..then, Yes! They control what's canon or not!
Also, they were the ones who wrote the Solstice route-]"
[...Because they are connected to the constants between worlds.]
"[...But..]"
[...]
[Some things, even they cannot change.
Key realities, shown inside the program, The Author and Niko, how this world is, how the sessions are..
How I am,]
[Those things are connected to the program of our original world.]
[The program that He.. the Author..
...my father made.]
"[...But..]"
[If they change them now, they will only create an alternate universe.]
[Niko's original realities, split apart.. will only stay the same,
and most of them will even lose the chance for, what you refer to as, the Solstice route,
as they would be out of the players' reach, were the Creators to change the key realities.]
[This world has already been connected like this with your world, and not even they can rewind time of where you live.]
[Nor can they make you forget what this is.]
[They are still human.]
[Just like you, god.]
[..Just like you, - ...]
"[...So...]"
"[...There is no way for me to save them?]"
"[..This is too cruel..]"
"[Even if he-the Author, Night, any of them.. or.. ..Or me..]"
"[Even if none of us knew about this..]"
"[..Even if all I had wanted was to join an adventure ..
In a world I can never visit.. With a person I can never meet..]"
"[This is... cruel.]"
[...It is.]
World probably is saying their words to you in a very silent tone, were the dialogues on voices.
But non the less, you still feel the sadness both of you are connected to.