Story The Twins: Test of Redemption
- Thread starter PaperLaur
- Start date
PaperLaur
Spazmatism
Yes! In fact, I'll be posting it here before it goes on Fanfiction. I've only posted up to Chapter 3 on FF because I'm editing all the chapters first, as opposed to posting them here where I do pretty minimal editing. It's just another way to get it out there, but this is definitely the best place to read it!
Clancy117
Skeletron Prime
All the way to the end? I have to do nearly all of my web brousing on my Xbox so some sites and videos I try to view don`t always work for me and if you start posting this on another site I may start having trouble trying to read this and may have to stop all together.
PaperLaur
Spazmatism
Yeah, all the way to the end--it's all going to go up on here just like normal.
Microwave (OP-ness)! ❤
Terrarian
I will always love Mercer and Bailey. They're just so peppy! And Spaz is slowly growing on me, I like that he tries to trust people he doesn't know. Keeper is amazing as well, the antisocial jerk he is. Ret... he is VERY tough to like, and that is great. He is a hero of the story, but it still seems like he has some evil tendencies.
PersonaTea
Terrarian
As always, your writing is superb! I really like how you put the small in-game details. As for the fave character, I like the Keeper for some reason lol.
PaperLaur
Spazmatism
Thanks for the comments, guys! It really is a big help. Seriously. They're encouragement for me to keep going on a project I keep worrying is bigger than it should've been, and will take a while anyway...
The twins are kinda meant to be anti-heroes, so I'm glad that's coming out well.
500 THREAD VIEWS HOLY CRAP GUYS THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT.
Also some character art's being worked on and it's gonna be awesome, I'll let you know!
In addition I might make a thingy where the characters can answer questions, just for funsies
BOSS FIGHT TIEM!
I had to scrap and rewrite this whole thing once, explains why this one took so long. It was weird to write, another difficult one.
Er, not sure if I should put a warning on this chapter because "gory Terraria and a little bit extra beyond normal" but it's not descriptive. In fact it's kinda written weird anyway because I apparently forgot how to fights.
Followers: @neoselket , @PersonaTea
Chapter Ten: Eye to Eye
He'll be fine, somebody can probably pay the nurse. Said Nurse, however, is going to be so done with everyone involved in this considering the amount of work she's going to have to do.
The twins are kinda meant to be anti-heroes, so I'm glad that's coming out well.
500 THREAD VIEWS HOLY CRAP GUYS THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT.
Also some character art's being worked on and it's gonna be awesome, I'll let you know!
In addition I might make a thingy where the characters can answer questions, just for funsies
BOSS FIGHT TIEM!
Er, not sure if I should put a warning on this chapter because "gory Terraria and a little bit extra beyond normal" but it's not descriptive. In fact it's kinda written weird anyway because I apparently forgot how to fights.
Followers: @neoselket , @PersonaTea
Chapter Ten: Eye to Eye
Everyone in the little group fell dead silent. Around them, it felt as if the entire town were holding its breath, as the moon--brighter and larger than it should have been--rose menacingly on the horizon to watch their reactions.
Another monstrous roar quickly jolted everyone back into action, however. Spaz eagerly drew his silver sword, scanning ahead between the buildings to try and catch the first glimpse of their foe, as Ret appraised his bow with a disapproving eye.
Bailey's face was a grim mask of determination as she turned to Mercer. "Take Tommy and get to the inn."
He spluttered, "What?! What about you?"
"I know you don't like fighting, someone needs to make sure he's safe, and I want to help--I've got some grenades with me. Don't worry, I'll bail if things get dicey, and Emily's gonna be around. Just stay in the basement, okay?"
Mercer looked as if he were going to protest, but the blue fire in Bailey's eyes silenced him. He sighed and bent to pick up Tommy, the boy's arms quickly fastening around his neck as he stared around in confusion.
"Is the big eyeball coming?"
"Yes, the big eyeball's coming. Er, best of luck, I will be cheering for you!"
"What are we dealing with?" snapped Ret, as Mercer ran off towards the inn.
Elric ran a hand through his beard, muttering to himself. "Ohhhh lard buckets and toad eyeballs, ah...The Eye of Cthulhu is a somewhat regular visitor to our small town, you could say. Spooked us all the first time something awful, you should have heard how loud Stella screamed, I tell you it could shatter--"
"Get to the point, old man!" Apparently, Spaz was eager enough to be a hypocrite.
"Ahem, yes! Well, it's a large eye monster that summons smaller eye monsters to fight for it, and, erm, it may phase through buildings...or the ground...if it likes. Not terribly strong, but always causes a ruckus, always been a bother, too. But with the celestials aiding it..." Elric winced, "We have no idea what it could do."
"Let's catch it before it makes it to town," Bailey stated.
"We're ill-equipped." Ret held up his bow, "This may not be the best--"
"BAH!" Elric shoved his way between the twins, looking between them with owlish eyes. "You two need to be a part of this battle more than you realize! You're after the Wall of Flesh, aren't you?"
"How do you--"
"This is the first step! It drops some valuable treasure to get you better equipment so you can be prepared for whatever comes next. It comes by so often we hardly need it anymore!"
The twins glanced at each other, silently considering. Spaz was plenty fine with taking on the challenge--a perfect chance to prove his skill, and a stronger monster sounded like fun. But he wouldn't go anywhere if Ret didn't approve, and didn't want to risk Ret's life if he wasn't ready. Yet the loot sounded worthwhile...
Ret nodded, and Spaz grinned. Elric nodded rapidly in approval, like a scarecrow whose head was only pathetically connected to the rest of the body and liable to fall at any moment. "Excellent! Spaz, was it? The one with the rat's nest on his head. I have a magic weapon you could use!~"
Ret looked mildly offended, but Spaz barely noticed, eye widening as Elric ducked back into the house. There were the sounds of crashing and things hitting the floor from within, before Elric ran back out, waving a red and blue book above his head. He unceremoniously hurled the book at Spaz, who caught it on instinct, looking it over.
The spine read 'Water Bolt: ranged magic spell tome' in gold script.
Spaz frowned, tilting his head as he looked from the book to his free hand. He squinted his eye in concentration as he tried to channel the magical energy he'd gained from the fallen stars they'd collected.
A blue bolt shot out from his hand, startling him so badly he jumped. He watched as it bounced off the ground and ricocheted between Elric's house and a nearby building several times before finally dissipating. Then he grinned.
"This is the best thing. Let's go, time's wastin'!"
Spaz ran forward with the book clutched in his hand, Ret sighing and muttering to himself before following behind, Bailey lagging after the two. He ducked through the alleyways of Rifdale on a reverse path to the one he'd taken before, barely noticing the people cowering in houses through windows, or Alalia running along a parallel path with a grimace. It wasn't long before they reached the bridge over Rifdale's protective trench, where Keeper was standing, staring straight ahead at the horizon.
"Look what I got," Spaz yelled, firing another bolt above Keeper's head.
Keeper turned to them, looking unimpressed, but nodding. "And you," he said, pointing to Ret, before suddenly pulling the Space Gun out of his inventory and tossing it at Ret.
Ret furrowed his brow in suspicion. "Are you not going to fight?"
"I have better alternatives."
Keeper reached into his inventory and pulled out a glowing orange staff. With a wave, a small, orangeish-brown creature with little wings appeared from nowhere, staring around as if it had no idea what had just happened. Keeper gave a genuine smile, though this quickly dropped as he traded the staff for what looked to be a gun.
Ret stared. "That staff--that's made of Hellstone, is it not? Are you saying that you went all the way to Hell and returned?!"
"I'm more resillient than I currently look," said Keeper, flashing an eerie grin, "Perhaps you'll be lucky enough to find that out for yourselves one day."
Another roar from the horizon. The four looked up into the distance, and at last, it came upon them--an eye the diameter of four men, etched with veins and with a comet-like trail of four faint colors following it. The iris also showed these four colors in a swirling mess--gold, purple, light blue, and dark blue.
"That isn't right," Bailey murmured, "It's supposed to be blue, it's always been..."
"It's allied with the celestial beings," Keeper grunted, "Of course it would be stupid enough to--"
He was cut off as the Eye gave another rumbling growl and charged at them, forcing them to scatter. Spaz rolled several times before leaping to his feet and instinctively firing several magical bolts from his new book. The eye seemed unfazed, and turned to him, iris a solid dark blue. Several needle-like cone and rod projectiles shot from the iris, causing Spaz to cry out and attempt to leap out of the way. One of them grazed the fabric on his shoulder, and he became woefully aware of his lack of armor.
He snarled. I just have to not get hit, then.
The iris turned solid light blue, and a horde of smaller eyes came into existence. Spaz switched to his broadsword as Ret began to back up and fire--the two together took out the majority before they could converge, and Keeper's imp took care of the last few with fireballs.
Spaz's gaze was drawn to Bailey as she shouted a battle cry, hurling what was apparently a grenade straight at the eye. It exploded on contact, seemingly surprising the monster for a brief moment. He also caught sight of Alalia beginning a nature spell from just within the line of buildings, leaves flying through the air around her and granting the party strength.
The iris turned golden, and it charged with a roar, straight at Bailey. Ret quickly pulled her away, causing Keeper to get hit instead, and thrown backwards to the ground. He grunted, then leapt to his feet, firing his laser rifle in a wide vertical spread, eyes crossed terribly in focus on the shots and his target as he slowly advanced back to the front line.
The violet attack turned out to be a stream of purple and blue celestial flames that attempted to spread over them all. Thankfully, it didn't catch the bridge on fire, but it forced everyone back towards the town proper to avoid getting cremated.
"Don't let it get close to the town!" Bailey shouted, tossing another grenade.
"...Maybe we should," said Spaz between blows--the eye was summoning more minions to aid it.
"What?!"
"May not slow it down, but with those buildings--"
Ret's eye widened, "...I can take it from above, that's brilliant!"
Ret immediately stopped firing and ducked back towards the nearest building. Bailey tried to protest, but was soon distracted by another burst of projectiles
"Power, range, summoning, magic," Keeper yelled over the chaos, "The celestials are granting it those powers!...You!" He spoke in an irritated shout, as if the thing could hear him, "Don't tell me you're that stupid--"
It turned and seemed to glare at him, before turning violet and firing a stream of magical flames which promptly caught Keeper's suit on fire. He yelled what the others could only assume were curses as he ducked back, trying to put himself out while his imp angrily retaliated in his stead.
"You don't have to be so touchy, we all know you're a complete moron and that INCLUDES you!"
Sound came from above and behind them, and Spaz could see fire from Ret's Space Gun raining down on the eye. It turned to presumably look at the one shooting it, and Spaz took the distraction as an opportunity to dart in, getting off several strikes with his sword before it noticed him and sent a good twenty smaller eyes after him. Bailey yelled a warning and Spaz ducked out of the way as a grenade sailed into the midst of the eyeball swarm, taking the whole offending party out in one explosion.
The eye seemed to become enraged, turning golden and making several quick dashes. Spaz rolled out of the way while Bailey jumped back. Keeper--no longer on fire--was struck directly, getting thrown back into the building Ret was standing on. He pushed himself up, wiping some blood off his lip and restarting his relentless string of laser fire as if he weren't injured at all, still slowly moving forward with a frightening intensity in his eyes, as if he were enjoying this.
Spaz couldn't blame him. As he threw bolt after bolt, he couldn't help being exhilarated by the feeling of a proper battle against a challenging foe. It was worth risking his life to not have to think about anything else for a while--just function on instinct and prove his own power.
"I'm out!" Bailey called, throwing one final grenade at the eye.
It hit directly, and the eye growled, freezing in midair and beginning to spin rapidly on an axis. Everyone paused and watched aside from Keeper.
"Move, MOVE!"
When the eye stopped spinning, it could no longer be properly called an eye.
It had a hugely impressive set of needle-sharp teeth where its iris and pupil had been, its veins now glowing with the four celestial colors as it opened its gaping maw and roared. The veins turned solid gold.
Spaz would've charged at it if Bailey hadn't grabbed him and started dragging him back. With a nonstop growling, it charged after them, over and over, forcing all the combatants to run as fast as possible away from it to avoid being hit. It phased through houses and ground in chase, and screams could be heard from unlucky town inhabitants who had just had their privacy invaded. Spaz didn't care. He only cared about running, Bailey half-dragging him, feet pounding against the ground and sweat slicking his hair to his forehead, catching blurred glances at Ret jumping between buildings and trying to keep up his fire. His mind was trying to form a new plan of attack in case it kept this up.
They were in the city center when it finally stopped, floating above them to stare directly down. It shot a stream of cones at all of them. One embedded itself in Spaz's shoulder--Spaz simply switched his sword to the other hand and decided he'd ignore that for now. Bailey managed to get away, and Alalia had taken up hiding in a building.
He heard Keeper scream as he was hit a couple of times. The man literally growled like a feral animal, and ran forward with the laser rifle, screaming nonsense at the eye.
He was quickly surrounded by smaller eyes, and these drove him back until his back was pressed against the stylist's shop. Before the eye could do more, however, a rapid-fire flurry of leaves shot into the eye's mouth, and it backed up slightly.
"Go to the nurse! If you are as important as you say you are, you will make our lives even more difficult if you are destroyed now, and I am not watching him die!"
Keeper and Alalia locked themselves in a staring contest for a brief moment, before Keeper turned and ran off down the street, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
Spaz spent a bit too much time watching this, and the eyes converged on him. He yelled and swung his sword rapidly, though made a fatal mistake in getting distracted by the desire to end all of the eye's minions.
He didn't notice the eye itself charging at him until its teeth clamped down on the arm below his already-injured shoulder.
Pain shot through him, and he screamed, instinctively tossing his sword directly into the space above the eye's teeth. The eye let go and drew back in pain. As soon as it let go, Spaz collapsed, dazed and twitching in shock.
He was aware of it hovering over him, maw open wide, ready to go for another bite while he couldn't retaliate. It felt like he couldn't even get his working arm to move, let alone the one the eye had just mutilated. Spaz stared up at it and gave it a weakened smile to match its own.
"C...come at me...!"
There was a yell from above. Spaz tried to find the source, but was too confused to recognize who was yelling until they came into view.
A figure jumped from the building above straight on top of the eye itself. A blur of red and black and gold and blue, it pressed its gun against the top of the eye and kept firing and firing and firing. When it presumably ran out of energy to keep shooting, it tossed the gun aside and pulled out a copper axe, swinging it into the eye with an absolutely furious cry of challenge.
"FOR THAT, YOU'RE GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL!"
Ret continued to beat on the surprised eyeball before it could dash and throw him off. He hit the ground on his back, rolled over, and picked up Spaz's dropped sword in both hands.
Screaming in rage, he ran at it and took a swing.
It was unclear if it was the sheer fury of the strike, or if the eye had already been extremely weakened.
No one particularly cared why.
The eye exploded into pieces with a final, fading roar, its remains scattering all over the town square, along with a pile of purple and red stones.
Spaz was unable to process what had just happened for a few seconds, but when he did, he leaned his head back and laughed.
"Ha!...Sh-showed him..."
Ret dropped the sword, breathing heavily for several seconds. Alalia peeked out of the building she'd ducked into, and Bailey poked her head from around a corner, before cautiously stepping out and gesturing for someone to follow her. A blonde woman in white stepped out as well, looking around disapprovingly at the carnage. Keeper followed just behind, looking tired, but no longer bleeding.
Ret ran and knelt next to Spaz, the look on his face absolutely terrified, and a strange look in his eye--something almost distant. He wasn't staring at Spaz's arm, but at his eye patch, not that the younger brother noticed much at the moment.
"The nurse is going to make sure you're all right."
"...That was awesome."
"Don't scare me like that!" Ret shook his head, "I know she can sew limbs back on, but I'd rather not see any of your body parts rendered dysfunctional."
"I'm fine," Spaz said, with a slightly wider smile, "...Killed it, didn't we?"
Ret glanced over his shoulder at what was left of the eye, "...Suppose so."
"Didn't think you could get that angry. Shows how much I remember. ...Thanks bro."
And then Spaz passed out.
Another monstrous roar quickly jolted everyone back into action, however. Spaz eagerly drew his silver sword, scanning ahead between the buildings to try and catch the first glimpse of their foe, as Ret appraised his bow with a disapproving eye.
Bailey's face was a grim mask of determination as she turned to Mercer. "Take Tommy and get to the inn."
He spluttered, "What?! What about you?"
"I know you don't like fighting, someone needs to make sure he's safe, and I want to help--I've got some grenades with me. Don't worry, I'll bail if things get dicey, and Emily's gonna be around. Just stay in the basement, okay?"
Mercer looked as if he were going to protest, but the blue fire in Bailey's eyes silenced him. He sighed and bent to pick up Tommy, the boy's arms quickly fastening around his neck as he stared around in confusion.
"Is the big eyeball coming?"
"Yes, the big eyeball's coming. Er, best of luck, I will be cheering for you!"
"What are we dealing with?" snapped Ret, as Mercer ran off towards the inn.
Elric ran a hand through his beard, muttering to himself. "Ohhhh lard buckets and toad eyeballs, ah...The Eye of Cthulhu is a somewhat regular visitor to our small town, you could say. Spooked us all the first time something awful, you should have heard how loud Stella screamed, I tell you it could shatter--"
"Get to the point, old man!" Apparently, Spaz was eager enough to be a hypocrite.
"Ahem, yes! Well, it's a large eye monster that summons smaller eye monsters to fight for it, and, erm, it may phase through buildings...or the ground...if it likes. Not terribly strong, but always causes a ruckus, always been a bother, too. But with the celestials aiding it..." Elric winced, "We have no idea what it could do."
"Let's catch it before it makes it to town," Bailey stated.
"We're ill-equipped." Ret held up his bow, "This may not be the best--"
"BAH!" Elric shoved his way between the twins, looking between them with owlish eyes. "You two need to be a part of this battle more than you realize! You're after the Wall of Flesh, aren't you?"
"How do you--"
"This is the first step! It drops some valuable treasure to get you better equipment so you can be prepared for whatever comes next. It comes by so often we hardly need it anymore!"
The twins glanced at each other, silently considering. Spaz was plenty fine with taking on the challenge--a perfect chance to prove his skill, and a stronger monster sounded like fun. But he wouldn't go anywhere if Ret didn't approve, and didn't want to risk Ret's life if he wasn't ready. Yet the loot sounded worthwhile...
Ret nodded, and Spaz grinned. Elric nodded rapidly in approval, like a scarecrow whose head was only pathetically connected to the rest of the body and liable to fall at any moment. "Excellent! Spaz, was it? The one with the rat's nest on his head. I have a magic weapon you could use!~"
Ret looked mildly offended, but Spaz barely noticed, eye widening as Elric ducked back into the house. There were the sounds of crashing and things hitting the floor from within, before Elric ran back out, waving a red and blue book above his head. He unceremoniously hurled the book at Spaz, who caught it on instinct, looking it over.
The spine read 'Water Bolt: ranged magic spell tome' in gold script.
Spaz frowned, tilting his head as he looked from the book to his free hand. He squinted his eye in concentration as he tried to channel the magical energy he'd gained from the fallen stars they'd collected.
A blue bolt shot out from his hand, startling him so badly he jumped. He watched as it bounced off the ground and ricocheted between Elric's house and a nearby building several times before finally dissipating. Then he grinned.
"This is the best thing. Let's go, time's wastin'!"
Spaz ran forward with the book clutched in his hand, Ret sighing and muttering to himself before following behind, Bailey lagging after the two. He ducked through the alleyways of Rifdale on a reverse path to the one he'd taken before, barely noticing the people cowering in houses through windows, or Alalia running along a parallel path with a grimace. It wasn't long before they reached the bridge over Rifdale's protective trench, where Keeper was standing, staring straight ahead at the horizon.
"Look what I got," Spaz yelled, firing another bolt above Keeper's head.
Keeper turned to them, looking unimpressed, but nodding. "And you," he said, pointing to Ret, before suddenly pulling the Space Gun out of his inventory and tossing it at Ret.
Ret furrowed his brow in suspicion. "Are you not going to fight?"
"I have better alternatives."
Keeper reached into his inventory and pulled out a glowing orange staff. With a wave, a small, orangeish-brown creature with little wings appeared from nowhere, staring around as if it had no idea what had just happened. Keeper gave a genuine smile, though this quickly dropped as he traded the staff for what looked to be a gun.
Ret stared. "That staff--that's made of Hellstone, is it not? Are you saying that you went all the way to Hell and returned?!"
"I'm more resillient than I currently look," said Keeper, flashing an eerie grin, "Perhaps you'll be lucky enough to find that out for yourselves one day."
Another roar from the horizon. The four looked up into the distance, and at last, it came upon them--an eye the diameter of four men, etched with veins and with a comet-like trail of four faint colors following it. The iris also showed these four colors in a swirling mess--gold, purple, light blue, and dark blue.
"That isn't right," Bailey murmured, "It's supposed to be blue, it's always been..."
"It's allied with the celestial beings," Keeper grunted, "Of course it would be stupid enough to--"
He was cut off as the Eye gave another rumbling growl and charged at them, forcing them to scatter. Spaz rolled several times before leaping to his feet and instinctively firing several magical bolts from his new book. The eye seemed unfazed, and turned to him, iris a solid dark blue. Several needle-like cone and rod projectiles shot from the iris, causing Spaz to cry out and attempt to leap out of the way. One of them grazed the fabric on his shoulder, and he became woefully aware of his lack of armor.
He snarled. I just have to not get hit, then.
The iris turned solid light blue, and a horde of smaller eyes came into existence. Spaz switched to his broadsword as Ret began to back up and fire--the two together took out the majority before they could converge, and Keeper's imp took care of the last few with fireballs.
Spaz's gaze was drawn to Bailey as she shouted a battle cry, hurling what was apparently a grenade straight at the eye. It exploded on contact, seemingly surprising the monster for a brief moment. He also caught sight of Alalia beginning a nature spell from just within the line of buildings, leaves flying through the air around her and granting the party strength.
The iris turned golden, and it charged with a roar, straight at Bailey. Ret quickly pulled her away, causing Keeper to get hit instead, and thrown backwards to the ground. He grunted, then leapt to his feet, firing his laser rifle in a wide vertical spread, eyes crossed terribly in focus on the shots and his target as he slowly advanced back to the front line.
The violet attack turned out to be a stream of purple and blue celestial flames that attempted to spread over them all. Thankfully, it didn't catch the bridge on fire, but it forced everyone back towards the town proper to avoid getting cremated.
"Don't let it get close to the town!" Bailey shouted, tossing another grenade.
"...Maybe we should," said Spaz between blows--the eye was summoning more minions to aid it.
"What?!"
"May not slow it down, but with those buildings--"
Ret's eye widened, "...I can take it from above, that's brilliant!"
Ret immediately stopped firing and ducked back towards the nearest building. Bailey tried to protest, but was soon distracted by another burst of projectiles
"Power, range, summoning, magic," Keeper yelled over the chaos, "The celestials are granting it those powers!...You!" He spoke in an irritated shout, as if the thing could hear him, "Don't tell me you're that stupid--"
It turned and seemed to glare at him, before turning violet and firing a stream of magical flames which promptly caught Keeper's suit on fire. He yelled what the others could only assume were curses as he ducked back, trying to put himself out while his imp angrily retaliated in his stead.
"You don't have to be so touchy, we all know you're a complete moron and that INCLUDES you!"
Sound came from above and behind them, and Spaz could see fire from Ret's Space Gun raining down on the eye. It turned to presumably look at the one shooting it, and Spaz took the distraction as an opportunity to dart in, getting off several strikes with his sword before it noticed him and sent a good twenty smaller eyes after him. Bailey yelled a warning and Spaz ducked out of the way as a grenade sailed into the midst of the eyeball swarm, taking the whole offending party out in one explosion.
The eye seemed to become enraged, turning golden and making several quick dashes. Spaz rolled out of the way while Bailey jumped back. Keeper--no longer on fire--was struck directly, getting thrown back into the building Ret was standing on. He pushed himself up, wiping some blood off his lip and restarting his relentless string of laser fire as if he weren't injured at all, still slowly moving forward with a frightening intensity in his eyes, as if he were enjoying this.
Spaz couldn't blame him. As he threw bolt after bolt, he couldn't help being exhilarated by the feeling of a proper battle against a challenging foe. It was worth risking his life to not have to think about anything else for a while--just function on instinct and prove his own power.
"I'm out!" Bailey called, throwing one final grenade at the eye.
It hit directly, and the eye growled, freezing in midair and beginning to spin rapidly on an axis. Everyone paused and watched aside from Keeper.
"Move, MOVE!"
When the eye stopped spinning, it could no longer be properly called an eye.
It had a hugely impressive set of needle-sharp teeth where its iris and pupil had been, its veins now glowing with the four celestial colors as it opened its gaping maw and roared. The veins turned solid gold.
Spaz would've charged at it if Bailey hadn't grabbed him and started dragging him back. With a nonstop growling, it charged after them, over and over, forcing all the combatants to run as fast as possible away from it to avoid being hit. It phased through houses and ground in chase, and screams could be heard from unlucky town inhabitants who had just had their privacy invaded. Spaz didn't care. He only cared about running, Bailey half-dragging him, feet pounding against the ground and sweat slicking his hair to his forehead, catching blurred glances at Ret jumping between buildings and trying to keep up his fire. His mind was trying to form a new plan of attack in case it kept this up.
They were in the city center when it finally stopped, floating above them to stare directly down. It shot a stream of cones at all of them. One embedded itself in Spaz's shoulder--Spaz simply switched his sword to the other hand and decided he'd ignore that for now. Bailey managed to get away, and Alalia had taken up hiding in a building.
He heard Keeper scream as he was hit a couple of times. The man literally growled like a feral animal, and ran forward with the laser rifle, screaming nonsense at the eye.
He was quickly surrounded by smaller eyes, and these drove him back until his back was pressed against the stylist's shop. Before the eye could do more, however, a rapid-fire flurry of leaves shot into the eye's mouth, and it backed up slightly.
"Go to the nurse! If you are as important as you say you are, you will make our lives even more difficult if you are destroyed now, and I am not watching him die!"
Keeper and Alalia locked themselves in a staring contest for a brief moment, before Keeper turned and ran off down the street, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
Spaz spent a bit too much time watching this, and the eyes converged on him. He yelled and swung his sword rapidly, though made a fatal mistake in getting distracted by the desire to end all of the eye's minions.
He didn't notice the eye itself charging at him until its teeth clamped down on the arm below his already-injured shoulder.
Pain shot through him, and he screamed, instinctively tossing his sword directly into the space above the eye's teeth. The eye let go and drew back in pain. As soon as it let go, Spaz collapsed, dazed and twitching in shock.
He was aware of it hovering over him, maw open wide, ready to go for another bite while he couldn't retaliate. It felt like he couldn't even get his working arm to move, let alone the one the eye had just mutilated. Spaz stared up at it and gave it a weakened smile to match its own.
"C...come at me...!"
There was a yell from above. Spaz tried to find the source, but was too confused to recognize who was yelling until they came into view.
A figure jumped from the building above straight on top of the eye itself. A blur of red and black and gold and blue, it pressed its gun against the top of the eye and kept firing and firing and firing. When it presumably ran out of energy to keep shooting, it tossed the gun aside and pulled out a copper axe, swinging it into the eye with an absolutely furious cry of challenge.
"FOR THAT, YOU'RE GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL!"
Ret continued to beat on the surprised eyeball before it could dash and throw him off. He hit the ground on his back, rolled over, and picked up Spaz's dropped sword in both hands.
Screaming in rage, he ran at it and took a swing.
It was unclear if it was the sheer fury of the strike, or if the eye had already been extremely weakened.
No one particularly cared why.
The eye exploded into pieces with a final, fading roar, its remains scattering all over the town square, along with a pile of purple and red stones.
Spaz was unable to process what had just happened for a few seconds, but when he did, he leaned his head back and laughed.
"Ha!...Sh-showed him..."
Ret dropped the sword, breathing heavily for several seconds. Alalia peeked out of the building she'd ducked into, and Bailey poked her head from around a corner, before cautiously stepping out and gesturing for someone to follow her. A blonde woman in white stepped out as well, looking around disapprovingly at the carnage. Keeper followed just behind, looking tired, but no longer bleeding.
Ret ran and knelt next to Spaz, the look on his face absolutely terrified, and a strange look in his eye--something almost distant. He wasn't staring at Spaz's arm, but at his eye patch, not that the younger brother noticed much at the moment.
"The nurse is going to make sure you're all right."
"...That was awesome."
"Don't scare me like that!" Ret shook his head, "I know she can sew limbs back on, but I'd rather not see any of your body parts rendered dysfunctional."
"I'm fine," Spaz said, with a slightly wider smile, "...Killed it, didn't we?"
Ret glanced over his shoulder at what was left of the eye, "...Suppose so."
"Didn't think you could get that angry. Shows how much I remember. ...Thanks bro."
And then Spaz passed out.
He'll be fine, somebody can probably pay the nurse. Said Nurse, however, is going to be so done with everyone involved in this considering the amount of work she's going to have to do.
PaperLaur
Spazmatism
Followers: @neoselket , @PersonaTea
Chapter Eleven: Mannerisms
Okay, a bit less actiony of a chapter but I hope it was enjoyable regardless. Have to get some worldbuilding things out of the way, after all, as well as some details that'll become important later.
So what do you think Keeper actually said or did to spook the kid so bad? And what do you think happened to Bailey's older brothers? After all, Randall did promise...You shouldn't make promises you can't keep, you know...
Chapter Eleven: Mannerisms
...
"Up, down, up, d--can you even say there's an up and a down right now, sheesh, this is confusing--hey Randy, how long've we got?"
"Two and a half minutes, I packed extra in case."
"Awesome! We're almost there, anyway. You're gonna love it, sis."
Randall shook his head slightly in amusement, before using the potion's energy racing through his system to flip gravity once again and switch the direction of his fall. His younger brother and Bailey were doing the same up a few yards ahead of him, holding hands to avoid any kind of accident. The morning sunlight this high in the air was warm and intense, and there wasn't a cloud around to block their passage far above the treetops.
Randall found it amusing just how quickly his brother had taken to their new arrival, and how quickly Bailey had taken to them both. To be honest, Randall was surprised at himself--he'd never thought he'd be the kind of guy who'd be good with kids, he'd leave that to Sherwin, who was more than proving himself. Yet oddly enough, they'd easily fallen into the roles of a strict mother figure and a fun dad, respectively. Bailey seemed to like them both, and everyone else in the base. She had few enemies to her constant energy and optimism, even if Randy would sometimes find her sitting on the roof staring off towards the Crimson with a strange look in her eyes.
The brothers had been busy with "hero things", however--the thing living in the Crimson that had been dubbed the "Brain of Cthulhu" needed taking care of, a few times in fact. They'd progressed in armor and were considering heading towards the dungeon. Alalia had kept cautioning them about growing levels of Crimson--always referring to them specifically--but the two had mostly been ignoring her.
Randall was broken from his thoughts and the calm rhythm of flipping gravity when Bailey called out, "Look! Is that a cloud?"
Sherwin began rapidly flipping gravity in the air to remain hovering, then grinned, letting his momentum take him forward upside-down once again. "That's it! We're almost there! Oh, you're gonna love it."
Indeed, directly ahead of them loomed a large shape made up of what seemed to be cloud. As they drew closer, however, it became apparent that it was actually a small structure, with a cloudy base that led up into dirt. On the dirt rested a few trees, as well as a small, gold and blue-plated hut.
"Nyooooooooom!" Sherwin shouted, rather unnecessarily in Randall's opinion, as he performed one final gravity flip and set himself and Bailey down on the edge of the dirt, Randall following seconds later. Sherwin beamed, putting his hands on his hips and looking around. "Welcome to one of Terra's many famed--probably famed--floating islands! We've discovered a few of these beauties, but this one's closest to base--the first one we ever saw. Come on, check out the view!"
Bailey matched the young man's energetic grin and quickly rushed to the edge of the island, Randall hovering behind her and ready to grab her if she lost her balance. Her sparkling blue eyes widened as she peered over the edge into the abyss.
"Oh...my...gosh."
Indeed, Randall chanced a look over, even if he'd seen it before, and it'd take one's breath away. Terra was far, far below, spread out like a hyper-realistic map. Trees stuck up everywhere, visible as little puffs of leaves hanging above the grass. The desert and its cacti were also visible from here, and a great crack split the land--a giant chasm the brothers had explored. Off in one direction, the eerie bloodied grass of the Crimson could be seen, a strange contrast as it blended into the forest on one side and the frozen tundra on the other. Distantly, one could make out the sunlight glinting off the jungle's pools.
The sound of something exploding into bits startled the both of them, and Randall and Bailey turned to see Sherwin, Blood Butcherer sword drawn, now absolutely surrounded by a cloud of feathers. Randall raised a brow.
"Harpies," grumbled Sherwin, "Freaking harpies. Let's go inside before more of the little jerks show up. THAT'S RIGHT, I'M TALKING TO Y--"
A feather zooming towards him at high speed cut off his unfinished insult, and he yelped, quickly gesturing for Randall and a giggling Bailey to come into the little hut.
Randall shut the door behind him, and the three observed the room under the light filtering in from the house's two glass windows. The place was rather modest in furniture, but beautiful in appearance. Gold discs made up the pattern of the walls, and there was a table and chairs of a deep blue to one side. Several banners hung in the room, emblems of the sun and Terra itself on them. The room's centerpiece was a gold and blue-plated chest, which Sherwin now stood near.
"This looks so awesome!" Bailey chirped, running from one side of the room to the other, her mind obviously racing, "Look, those banners would look great in our house--can we make that table, because I really like the blue. The only thing this room's missing is a disco ball or something, just imagine it on those tiles! What's in the chest?"
"We took the contents of the chest some time ago," Randall explained, a knowing smirk crossing his face, "But...I can show you something we made with the help of what was inside."
Randall reached into his inventory, and triumphantly pulled out a balloon floating on a string, which bounced idly against the ceiling as he held it. It was a deep blue color, with a swirling white mass in the center, like a barely-contained windstorm. Bailey stared at it with wide eyes, before Randall handed it to her. "We found a Shiny Red Balloon in that chest. Combined it with a Cloud in a Bottle we found, and, well, we got this. It's proved quite useful, lets you jump higher and gives you an extra lift--please don't do it in here, gravity's reduced and the ceiling's low, you'll hit your head..."
Bailey turned to Sherwin with a pleading look, and he shook his head, "Gotta admit he's right. Once we're back on the ground, okay? I can tell you how you can jump from here with that--"
"Sherwin, we are NOT letting her do that!"
"It's safe! You land fine if you use the--oof, don't give me that look. Okay, we'll show you on the ground, how about that sis?"
Bailey huffed and nodded, her smile coming back as she surveyed the room. Sherwin went to the door, tried to open it, then immediately shut it again at a loud squawk from outside. He groaned, smacking the door a few times.
"Hey! Harpy! Get out of there, I'm not lookin' for your ugly mug. Don't you give me that face!"
He hissed, opening the door just enough to slash at the harpy until it fell into feathers. "Ooookay there are a lot of them out there. We should get going before the potions wear off."
"Aw..." Bailey stared at the ground, "I don't wanna leave so fast..."
"We can come back," Sherwin promised, "Besides, Kyle's gonna get all huffy at us if we aren't back soon. He wants us to head to the Dungeon ASAP..."
"I don't particularly care what Kyle wants," Randall muttered to himself, a dark scowl crossing his face, "At this point he's going to lead us to our deaths. He didn't even want us to go to the Crimson...he's holding us back."
"I know. Later, okay?"
Randall sighed, "Fine, fine. Bailey...?"
Bailey had stopped her constant movement to stare out one of the windows. Sherwin moved to stand next to her, a hand on her shoulder. "Your parents ever tell you about these?"
She nodded, "I wish they could see it."
"Hey, maybe they--uh..." Sherwin trailed off as Randall gave him a significant look--Bailey hadn't told them about where her parents were, other than that they were 'fine somewhere', but he didn't want it getting brought up before Bailey was ready to tell it herself. And Randall got the feeling the prognosis wasn't good.
Bailey didn't seem to mind, though. She remained silent for a moment, before abruptly hugging Sherwin, leaning her forehead against his breastplate. He seemed surprised for a moment, before laughing a bit. "What?"
"I just...uh...thanks for taking me up here. You're the best brothers I never had."
Sherwin was smiling. "Hey, no problem."
"You're not going anywhere, right?"
Randall moved to join the hug, giving a very firm nod.
"Nothing on Terra is going to stop us from being your big brothers. I promise."
Spaz had poked him awake in the middle of the night to inform Ret that he'd woken up and was fine. Ret probably gave a bit too much indication of his relief, as Spaz had complained that the ensuing hug had nearly choked him. The two talked for a bit before going back to sleep, and when the morning light found them, it seemed things had gone back to normal--Ret was the first one up, and was finally able to take a shower properly before Spaz managed to roll out of bed onto his face.
The two had walked down to a lively inn lobby--apparently Bailey, Mercer, and other culinarily-skilled citizens had come together to celebrate the grand defeat of the celestialized Eye with a big, fancy breakfast, served on all the lobby's tables pushed together into a mishmash of styles that would rival Elric's house.
It was that morning that the twins realized what had happened with the fish was no coincidence--Keeper probably had the worst table manners of anyone they'd ever seen. Even without their memories, the two could agree that they doubted anyone else could come close.
Keeper seemed to have something against eating with utensils, as he'd stared at the fork and knife by his place for a solid minute like he had no idea what they were before grabbing an omelete and stuffing it in his mouth whole. He also appeared to have a bottomless pit instead of a stomach, as he constantly complained he was "still hungry" and continued his half-embarrassing, half-hilarious display. Bailey was trying not to laugh, Mercer looked disgusted, and Alalia kept giving him dirty looks--though it wasn't clear whether these were directed at his eating habits or the man himself, as the two had been hostile all morning. Tommy tried to emulate him, choking while trying to suck up a large string of sausages the way Keeper did at one point. Keeper then proceeded to leave the room to be sick, which everyone agreed he deserved.
Ret was simply glad that nothing was trying to kill them--Keeper making an idiot of himself was a pleasant bonus. Spaz ate like a ravenous dog and struck up conversation with everyone nearby, while Ret tried to avoid coming anywhere near any of the people about. It seemed the only citizen who wasn't crammed in the inn's lobby was the missing guide Kyle, and perhaps it was for the best--he couldn't imagine how badly a scrawny Guide would get trampled in the mess.
Ret cleaned his place and took his dishes to the kitchen, where Bailey, Mercer, and a Dye Trader were passing off dish duty.
"There you are," Bailey said with a warm smile as he entered. Ret still wasn't sure if he trusted or liked the woman, but something about her intrigued him, and she seemed to have valuable information. He nodded in greeting, slipping his plate in the sink. "I've been meaning to talk to you about last night."
"Really? What of it?"
"The fight, of course."
She dropped her towel to the counter and gestured for the men to continue, before leading Ret to the smaller kitchen table. The noise of the morning's feast was still audible, but muffled through the walls, and Ret didn't feel quite so suffocated, though he still worried about Spaz doing something stupid like challenging the Arms Dealer to a duel. 'Never bring a knife to a gun fight,' and all that.
"I was watching the whole thing after I ran out of ammo," explained Bailey, gesturing vaguely off in the air to her left, "I saw what you did for your brother back there."
"Oh...that. I, ah, hardly thought about it."
"Hey, call me impressed. I'd know I'd do that if either of the dorks in my family got in trouble. I don't know why Alalia went so crazy. You're not a bad person, I can tell."
Ret shrugged, glancing away, "Perhaps, perhaps not. We cannot know."
Bailey seemed to be searching for something in his eye, with a gaze that made him vaguely uncomfortable. "You and your brother really do make me think of my older brothers, you know...Maybe I just miss 'em too much still. They were close like you."
"Really, now. What happened?"
"...Just...disappeared one day. Twenty years ago, now."
Ret was thoroughly confused. "I...am sorry? Why do you tell me this?"
Bailey shrugged, "I guess if I come on too strong? Maybe? People say I do that. Whoopsie. Just, uh, take care of each other, okay?"
"That was the plan."
A long, awkward silence. Bailey settled her face in her hands, watching him unnervingly closely.
"Uh...so!" Her smile was clearly forced, "Yeah, basically...good job last night. The Eye's never done any of those things before...other than ramming people."
"What is it like normally?"
"It's usually kind of a pushover. Just startles us sometimes. Rammed everything it could and grew a huge set of chompers if we wailed on it enough. We probably could've killed the normal model three times in the time it took you to kill the one...it's got me worried. Those celestial...things. I've gotta ask Elric...At least it was only the one."
Ret was intrigued. "Only the one?"
Bailey nodded, grimacing. "Yeah, we've had some problems with eyeballs. It's getting to be an eyesore." She paused as if waiting for him to react, awkwardly continuing when he didn't. "About a month or so ago, we got attacked by two of it. Well, maybe not the same eye--lric said no. Only difference was instead of blue these things were red and green. Attached by a big...flesh...string...thing. Scared us all out of our pants. Not out of our pants, but you know. Raining down lasers on us and a fire that couldn't be put out...We were actually afraid for our lives."
Ret got the feeling that someone was watching him. He glanced towards the door to see a shock of dirty, brownish hair abruptly disappear around the corner. His eye narrowed, but he slowly turned back to Bailey.
"Did you defeat it?"
"Not all the way, nah. Found out they weren't eyes at all, was the weirdest thing. They were actually big giant metal things."
Ret found himself very interested in the idea of these red and green eyes, though he couldn't place why. He tilted his head to the side, tapping the table idly with a finger. "Metal...? Mechanical?"
"Preeeetty much. The red guy had a laser cannon on the front, and the green one--drumroll please--giant set of chompers. What is it with eyeballs and stupid amounts of teeth? Anyway, the green one nearly burned down the city with cursed fire, and the red one blasted holes in a few of us. Nowhere the Nurse couldn't fix, but...it was a terrible night. Thankfully morning came and scared them off, or else we might not've been here when you got here. I can only hope someone else took care of them."
"What were these made of, do you know?" Ret was leaning forward now, showing more interest than intended.
"Whoah, how am I supposed to? Elric said they were constructed by something else. Said it might've even been done by an Elder God or worse."
"Elder God?"
"Oh, whoops, you would've forgotten. It's--"
"MOMMY!"
Everyone in the kitchen jumped at once, and Bailey shot to her feet. In a blink, she was at the door, where Tommy ran in at top speed, clinging to her leg and sobbing. Ret stood himself, turning to see what had happened. The boy's face--or what he could see of it--was pale and blotchy, and tears were streaming down his cheeks. He was trembling all over, light brown hair slicked to his forehead with sweat. It looked as if he'd woken from a nightmare.
Mercer dropped a plate he'd been rinsing in the sink and ran over as well, eyes wide. "Tommy, Tommy sh-sh-shhh--what's wrong, what happened?"
Tommy seemed to be trying to say something, but all that could come out were incoherent splutters. Footsteps could be heard entering the kitchen, and Tommy immadiately turned around and screamed at the top of his little lungs.
Ret looked at whatever had so terrified the boy to see Keeper standing in the doorway, a slight frown on his face. Bailey quickly picked up Tommy, who buried his head in her chest, his sobs becoming even more violent.
"What...what happened, what--" Mercer stammered, shaking his head, before pointing at Keeper, "Did you hurt him?"
"What? Not at all."
"M-Mommy he said--he said--he's really bad he's--"
Keeper scoffed, "Do I have to go over it again, it isn't bad necessarily. You just see it as awful."
Tommy seemed to ignore him, holding on so tight that his tiny fingers went white. "M-Mommy he told me really bad things he's from a bad place full of bad things he's I'm scared--"
"Again, not a bad place, why is everyone thinking that? What have they been telling all of you?"
"Shut up!" Bailey snapped at Keeper, fire in her eyes, before turning back to her boy. "Are you okay...?"
"H-he..." Tommy's sniffles subsided for a moment, and he screeched the next sentence, "MOMMY, HE'S GONNA EAT ME!"
Every eye in the room was on Keeper, now--even those of the rather out-of-place Dye Trader somehow still drying dishes off to the side. The only sound was Tommy's renewed cries of fright.
"...When did I once say I was going to eat you," Keeper finally said, a hint of irritation in his voice.
The spell was broken. Bailey gave her son to Mercer before anyone else could respond.
And then, the woman walked straight up to Keeper and slapped him across the face.
Keeper shouted in pain and raised a hand to his cheek, bending over slightly and screwing his eyes shut. "That--that was not--"
"What did you tell him?!"
"Just a bit about myself."
"Ha, yeah, right--you traumatized my son is what you did!"
"Not traumatized. Just a little horrified."
"I--you--!"
Bailey seemed to be struggling to stop herself from using words that wouldn't be appropriate around Tommy. Then, before anyone could move, she darted to the drying rack and picked up a frying pan she'd used to cook eggs and bacon earlier. She swung it at Keeper's head with the force only an enraged mother could muster.
Keeper didn't have time to get out of the way, and the pan connected with a loud bong that made everyone who wasn't Bailey wince in sympathetic pain. He staggered backwards and crumpled to his knees, clutching at his head, then his chest.
"By the Elders, woman, do you want to kill me?!" he shouted, looking up to her with a snarl, "If you had any idea who--"
"You. You shut your mouth and don't you dare open it again in this inn. I'm giving you ten seconds to leave and don't even think about coming anywhere near my son again, do you hear me?"
"I--"
Bailey raised the pan, "One...Two...Nine...!"
Keeper backed up a couple of steps, before turning away as if to leave. But he looked to Ret once before going.
"If you get on that topic of conversation again," he murmured so only the other could hear, "I will be forced to make another distraction..."
"TEN!"
Bailey ran at Keeper with the frying pan, and Keeper quickly made his exit, stumbling over his own legs in an attempt to get away from the woman and her cooking implement. Bailey stopped just outside the kitchen until she heard the door slam, then sighed, walked back, dropped her pan in the sink, and moved to console her scared child.
Ret correctly assumed this would be a good time to leave, and ducked out of the kitchen. Most of the earlier crowd had left, but those who hadn't were all silent and glancing between the door Keeper had left through and the kitchen.
Ret easily found Spaz talking to a Demolitionist, and rushed over, grabbing Spaz by the back of the shirt and pulling him to his feet.
"We'll have to blow something up later!" Spaz yelled, before Ret managed to drag him out the door. As soon as Spaz could catch his breath, he turned and stared at Ret. "What? What's with your face?"
"Keeper has a lot of explaining to do, that's what."
"What?"
"Keeper just traumatized a small child."
"Oh, well that's no surprise--wait, what? He's freaky, but not that freaky...?"
Ret explained what had happened as he and Spaz walked down the sidewalk, all the while keeping their eyes out for their bizarre guide. Spaz seemed just as intrigued by the story of the two eyeballs as Ret was, and shook his head at the mention of Keeper's final warning.
"Why doesn't he want us to know, huh?" Spaz asked, "What if we've gotta fight those guys before we take down the underworld thing?"
"Because your next challenge," came Keeper's voice from around the nearest building, "lies in the Corruption. The Great Devourer awaits you..."
"Up, down, up, d--can you even say there's an up and a down right now, sheesh, this is confusing--hey Randy, how long've we got?"
"Two and a half minutes, I packed extra in case."
"Awesome! We're almost there, anyway. You're gonna love it, sis."
Randall shook his head slightly in amusement, before using the potion's energy racing through his system to flip gravity once again and switch the direction of his fall. His younger brother and Bailey were doing the same up a few yards ahead of him, holding hands to avoid any kind of accident. The morning sunlight this high in the air was warm and intense, and there wasn't a cloud around to block their passage far above the treetops.
Randall found it amusing just how quickly his brother had taken to their new arrival, and how quickly Bailey had taken to them both. To be honest, Randall was surprised at himself--he'd never thought he'd be the kind of guy who'd be good with kids, he'd leave that to Sherwin, who was more than proving himself. Yet oddly enough, they'd easily fallen into the roles of a strict mother figure and a fun dad, respectively. Bailey seemed to like them both, and everyone else in the base. She had few enemies to her constant energy and optimism, even if Randy would sometimes find her sitting on the roof staring off towards the Crimson with a strange look in her eyes.
The brothers had been busy with "hero things", however--the thing living in the Crimson that had been dubbed the "Brain of Cthulhu" needed taking care of, a few times in fact. They'd progressed in armor and were considering heading towards the dungeon. Alalia had kept cautioning them about growing levels of Crimson--always referring to them specifically--but the two had mostly been ignoring her.
Randall was broken from his thoughts and the calm rhythm of flipping gravity when Bailey called out, "Look! Is that a cloud?"
Sherwin began rapidly flipping gravity in the air to remain hovering, then grinned, letting his momentum take him forward upside-down once again. "That's it! We're almost there! Oh, you're gonna love it."
Indeed, directly ahead of them loomed a large shape made up of what seemed to be cloud. As they drew closer, however, it became apparent that it was actually a small structure, with a cloudy base that led up into dirt. On the dirt rested a few trees, as well as a small, gold and blue-plated hut.
"Nyooooooooom!" Sherwin shouted, rather unnecessarily in Randall's opinion, as he performed one final gravity flip and set himself and Bailey down on the edge of the dirt, Randall following seconds later. Sherwin beamed, putting his hands on his hips and looking around. "Welcome to one of Terra's many famed--probably famed--floating islands! We've discovered a few of these beauties, but this one's closest to base--the first one we ever saw. Come on, check out the view!"
Bailey matched the young man's energetic grin and quickly rushed to the edge of the island, Randall hovering behind her and ready to grab her if she lost her balance. Her sparkling blue eyes widened as she peered over the edge into the abyss.
"Oh...my...gosh."
Indeed, Randall chanced a look over, even if he'd seen it before, and it'd take one's breath away. Terra was far, far below, spread out like a hyper-realistic map. Trees stuck up everywhere, visible as little puffs of leaves hanging above the grass. The desert and its cacti were also visible from here, and a great crack split the land--a giant chasm the brothers had explored. Off in one direction, the eerie bloodied grass of the Crimson could be seen, a strange contrast as it blended into the forest on one side and the frozen tundra on the other. Distantly, one could make out the sunlight glinting off the jungle's pools.
The sound of something exploding into bits startled the both of them, and Randall and Bailey turned to see Sherwin, Blood Butcherer sword drawn, now absolutely surrounded by a cloud of feathers. Randall raised a brow.
"Harpies," grumbled Sherwin, "Freaking harpies. Let's go inside before more of the little jerks show up. THAT'S RIGHT, I'M TALKING TO Y--"
A feather zooming towards him at high speed cut off his unfinished insult, and he yelped, quickly gesturing for Randall and a giggling Bailey to come into the little hut.
Randall shut the door behind him, and the three observed the room under the light filtering in from the house's two glass windows. The place was rather modest in furniture, but beautiful in appearance. Gold discs made up the pattern of the walls, and there was a table and chairs of a deep blue to one side. Several banners hung in the room, emblems of the sun and Terra itself on them. The room's centerpiece was a gold and blue-plated chest, which Sherwin now stood near.
"This looks so awesome!" Bailey chirped, running from one side of the room to the other, her mind obviously racing, "Look, those banners would look great in our house--can we make that table, because I really like the blue. The only thing this room's missing is a disco ball or something, just imagine it on those tiles! What's in the chest?"
"We took the contents of the chest some time ago," Randall explained, a knowing smirk crossing his face, "But...I can show you something we made with the help of what was inside."
Randall reached into his inventory, and triumphantly pulled out a balloon floating on a string, which bounced idly against the ceiling as he held it. It was a deep blue color, with a swirling white mass in the center, like a barely-contained windstorm. Bailey stared at it with wide eyes, before Randall handed it to her. "We found a Shiny Red Balloon in that chest. Combined it with a Cloud in a Bottle we found, and, well, we got this. It's proved quite useful, lets you jump higher and gives you an extra lift--please don't do it in here, gravity's reduced and the ceiling's low, you'll hit your head..."
Bailey turned to Sherwin with a pleading look, and he shook his head, "Gotta admit he's right. Once we're back on the ground, okay? I can tell you how you can jump from here with that--"
"Sherwin, we are NOT letting her do that!"
"It's safe! You land fine if you use the--oof, don't give me that look. Okay, we'll show you on the ground, how about that sis?"
Bailey huffed and nodded, her smile coming back as she surveyed the room. Sherwin went to the door, tried to open it, then immediately shut it again at a loud squawk from outside. He groaned, smacking the door a few times.
"Hey! Harpy! Get out of there, I'm not lookin' for your ugly mug. Don't you give me that face!"
He hissed, opening the door just enough to slash at the harpy until it fell into feathers. "Ooookay there are a lot of them out there. We should get going before the potions wear off."
"Aw..." Bailey stared at the ground, "I don't wanna leave so fast..."
"We can come back," Sherwin promised, "Besides, Kyle's gonna get all huffy at us if we aren't back soon. He wants us to head to the Dungeon ASAP..."
"I don't particularly care what Kyle wants," Randall muttered to himself, a dark scowl crossing his face, "At this point he's going to lead us to our deaths. He didn't even want us to go to the Crimson...he's holding us back."
"I know. Later, okay?"
Randall sighed, "Fine, fine. Bailey...?"
Bailey had stopped her constant movement to stare out one of the windows. Sherwin moved to stand next to her, a hand on her shoulder. "Your parents ever tell you about these?"
She nodded, "I wish they could see it."
"Hey, maybe they--uh..." Sherwin trailed off as Randall gave him a significant look--Bailey hadn't told them about where her parents were, other than that they were 'fine somewhere', but he didn't want it getting brought up before Bailey was ready to tell it herself. And Randall got the feeling the prognosis wasn't good.
Bailey didn't seem to mind, though. She remained silent for a moment, before abruptly hugging Sherwin, leaning her forehead against his breastplate. He seemed surprised for a moment, before laughing a bit. "What?"
"I just...uh...thanks for taking me up here. You're the best brothers I never had."
Sherwin was smiling. "Hey, no problem."
"You're not going anywhere, right?"
Randall moved to join the hug, giving a very firm nod.
"Nothing on Terra is going to stop us from being your big brothers. I promise."
-:-:-
Ret was surprised he'd managed to sleep at all the night after the attack. Emily the nurse had managed to heal Spaz's arm, and Ret had insisted on being the one to carry his brother back up to their room at the inn. He wasn't certain if it was the strain of the day or his general lack of sleep recently, but he passed out as soon as he hit the bed.
Spaz had poked him awake in the middle of the night to inform Ret that he'd woken up and was fine. Ret probably gave a bit too much indication of his relief, as Spaz had complained that the ensuing hug had nearly choked him. The two talked for a bit before going back to sleep, and when the morning light found them, it seemed things had gone back to normal--Ret was the first one up, and was finally able to take a shower properly before Spaz managed to roll out of bed onto his face.
The two had walked down to a lively inn lobby--apparently Bailey, Mercer, and other culinarily-skilled citizens had come together to celebrate the grand defeat of the celestialized Eye with a big, fancy breakfast, served on all the lobby's tables pushed together into a mishmash of styles that would rival Elric's house.
It was that morning that the twins realized what had happened with the fish was no coincidence--Keeper probably had the worst table manners of anyone they'd ever seen. Even without their memories, the two could agree that they doubted anyone else could come close.
Keeper seemed to have something against eating with utensils, as he'd stared at the fork and knife by his place for a solid minute like he had no idea what they were before grabbing an omelete and stuffing it in his mouth whole. He also appeared to have a bottomless pit instead of a stomach, as he constantly complained he was "still hungry" and continued his half-embarrassing, half-hilarious display. Bailey was trying not to laugh, Mercer looked disgusted, and Alalia kept giving him dirty looks--though it wasn't clear whether these were directed at his eating habits or the man himself, as the two had been hostile all morning. Tommy tried to emulate him, choking while trying to suck up a large string of sausages the way Keeper did at one point. Keeper then proceeded to leave the room to be sick, which everyone agreed he deserved.
Ret was simply glad that nothing was trying to kill them--Keeper making an idiot of himself was a pleasant bonus. Spaz ate like a ravenous dog and struck up conversation with everyone nearby, while Ret tried to avoid coming anywhere near any of the people about. It seemed the only citizen who wasn't crammed in the inn's lobby was the missing guide Kyle, and perhaps it was for the best--he couldn't imagine how badly a scrawny Guide would get trampled in the mess.
Ret cleaned his place and took his dishes to the kitchen, where Bailey, Mercer, and a Dye Trader were passing off dish duty.
"There you are," Bailey said with a warm smile as he entered. Ret still wasn't sure if he trusted or liked the woman, but something about her intrigued him, and she seemed to have valuable information. He nodded in greeting, slipping his plate in the sink. "I've been meaning to talk to you about last night."
"Really? What of it?"
"The fight, of course."
She dropped her towel to the counter and gestured for the men to continue, before leading Ret to the smaller kitchen table. The noise of the morning's feast was still audible, but muffled through the walls, and Ret didn't feel quite so suffocated, though he still worried about Spaz doing something stupid like challenging the Arms Dealer to a duel. 'Never bring a knife to a gun fight,' and all that.
"I was watching the whole thing after I ran out of ammo," explained Bailey, gesturing vaguely off in the air to her left, "I saw what you did for your brother back there."
"Oh...that. I, ah, hardly thought about it."
"Hey, call me impressed. I'd know I'd do that if either of the dorks in my family got in trouble. I don't know why Alalia went so crazy. You're not a bad person, I can tell."
Ret shrugged, glancing away, "Perhaps, perhaps not. We cannot know."
Bailey seemed to be searching for something in his eye, with a gaze that made him vaguely uncomfortable. "You and your brother really do make me think of my older brothers, you know...Maybe I just miss 'em too much still. They were close like you."
"Really, now. What happened?"
"...Just...disappeared one day. Twenty years ago, now."
Ret was thoroughly confused. "I...am sorry? Why do you tell me this?"
Bailey shrugged, "I guess if I come on too strong? Maybe? People say I do that. Whoopsie. Just, uh, take care of each other, okay?"
"That was the plan."
A long, awkward silence. Bailey settled her face in her hands, watching him unnervingly closely.
"Uh...so!" Her smile was clearly forced, "Yeah, basically...good job last night. The Eye's never done any of those things before...other than ramming people."
"What is it like normally?"
"It's usually kind of a pushover. Just startles us sometimes. Rammed everything it could and grew a huge set of chompers if we wailed on it enough. We probably could've killed the normal model three times in the time it took you to kill the one...it's got me worried. Those celestial...things. I've gotta ask Elric...At least it was only the one."
Ret was intrigued. "Only the one?"
Bailey nodded, grimacing. "Yeah, we've had some problems with eyeballs. It's getting to be an eyesore." She paused as if waiting for him to react, awkwardly continuing when he didn't. "About a month or so ago, we got attacked by two of it. Well, maybe not the same eye--lric said no. Only difference was instead of blue these things were red and green. Attached by a big...flesh...string...thing. Scared us all out of our pants. Not out of our pants, but you know. Raining down lasers on us and a fire that couldn't be put out...We were actually afraid for our lives."
Ret got the feeling that someone was watching him. He glanced towards the door to see a shock of dirty, brownish hair abruptly disappear around the corner. His eye narrowed, but he slowly turned back to Bailey.
"Did you defeat it?"
"Not all the way, nah. Found out they weren't eyes at all, was the weirdest thing. They were actually big giant metal things."
Ret found himself very interested in the idea of these red and green eyes, though he couldn't place why. He tilted his head to the side, tapping the table idly with a finger. "Metal...? Mechanical?"
"Preeeetty much. The red guy had a laser cannon on the front, and the green one--drumroll please--giant set of chompers. What is it with eyeballs and stupid amounts of teeth? Anyway, the green one nearly burned down the city with cursed fire, and the red one blasted holes in a few of us. Nowhere the Nurse couldn't fix, but...it was a terrible night. Thankfully morning came and scared them off, or else we might not've been here when you got here. I can only hope someone else took care of them."
"What were these made of, do you know?" Ret was leaning forward now, showing more interest than intended.
"Whoah, how am I supposed to? Elric said they were constructed by something else. Said it might've even been done by an Elder God or worse."
"Elder God?"
"Oh, whoops, you would've forgotten. It's--"
"MOMMY!"
Everyone in the kitchen jumped at once, and Bailey shot to her feet. In a blink, she was at the door, where Tommy ran in at top speed, clinging to her leg and sobbing. Ret stood himself, turning to see what had happened. The boy's face--or what he could see of it--was pale and blotchy, and tears were streaming down his cheeks. He was trembling all over, light brown hair slicked to his forehead with sweat. It looked as if he'd woken from a nightmare.
Mercer dropped a plate he'd been rinsing in the sink and ran over as well, eyes wide. "Tommy, Tommy sh-sh-shhh--what's wrong, what happened?"
Tommy seemed to be trying to say something, but all that could come out were incoherent splutters. Footsteps could be heard entering the kitchen, and Tommy immadiately turned around and screamed at the top of his little lungs.
Ret looked at whatever had so terrified the boy to see Keeper standing in the doorway, a slight frown on his face. Bailey quickly picked up Tommy, who buried his head in her chest, his sobs becoming even more violent.
"What...what happened, what--" Mercer stammered, shaking his head, before pointing at Keeper, "Did you hurt him?"
"What? Not at all."
"M-Mommy he said--he said--he's really bad he's--"
Keeper scoffed, "Do I have to go over it again, it isn't bad necessarily. You just see it as awful."
Tommy seemed to ignore him, holding on so tight that his tiny fingers went white. "M-Mommy he told me really bad things he's from a bad place full of bad things he's I'm scared--"
"Again, not a bad place, why is everyone thinking that? What have they been telling all of you?"
"Shut up!" Bailey snapped at Keeper, fire in her eyes, before turning back to her boy. "Are you okay...?"
"H-he..." Tommy's sniffles subsided for a moment, and he screeched the next sentence, "MOMMY, HE'S GONNA EAT ME!"
Every eye in the room was on Keeper, now--even those of the rather out-of-place Dye Trader somehow still drying dishes off to the side. The only sound was Tommy's renewed cries of fright.
"...When did I once say I was going to eat you," Keeper finally said, a hint of irritation in his voice.
The spell was broken. Bailey gave her son to Mercer before anyone else could respond.
And then, the woman walked straight up to Keeper and slapped him across the face.
Keeper shouted in pain and raised a hand to his cheek, bending over slightly and screwing his eyes shut. "That--that was not--"
"What did you tell him?!"
"Just a bit about myself."
"Ha, yeah, right--you traumatized my son is what you did!"
"Not traumatized. Just a little horrified."
"I--you--!"
Bailey seemed to be struggling to stop herself from using words that wouldn't be appropriate around Tommy. Then, before anyone could move, she darted to the drying rack and picked up a frying pan she'd used to cook eggs and bacon earlier. She swung it at Keeper's head with the force only an enraged mother could muster.
Keeper didn't have time to get out of the way, and the pan connected with a loud bong that made everyone who wasn't Bailey wince in sympathetic pain. He staggered backwards and crumpled to his knees, clutching at his head, then his chest.
"By the Elders, woman, do you want to kill me?!" he shouted, looking up to her with a snarl, "If you had any idea who--"
"You. You shut your mouth and don't you dare open it again in this inn. I'm giving you ten seconds to leave and don't even think about coming anywhere near my son again, do you hear me?"
"I--"
Bailey raised the pan, "One...Two...Nine...!"
Keeper backed up a couple of steps, before turning away as if to leave. But he looked to Ret once before going.
"If you get on that topic of conversation again," he murmured so only the other could hear, "I will be forced to make another distraction..."
"TEN!"
Bailey ran at Keeper with the frying pan, and Keeper quickly made his exit, stumbling over his own legs in an attempt to get away from the woman and her cooking implement. Bailey stopped just outside the kitchen until she heard the door slam, then sighed, walked back, dropped her pan in the sink, and moved to console her scared child.
Ret correctly assumed this would be a good time to leave, and ducked out of the kitchen. Most of the earlier crowd had left, but those who hadn't were all silent and glancing between the door Keeper had left through and the kitchen.
Ret easily found Spaz talking to a Demolitionist, and rushed over, grabbing Spaz by the back of the shirt and pulling him to his feet.
"We'll have to blow something up later!" Spaz yelled, before Ret managed to drag him out the door. As soon as Spaz could catch his breath, he turned and stared at Ret. "What? What's with your face?"
"Keeper has a lot of explaining to do, that's what."
"What?"
"Keeper just traumatized a small child."
"Oh, well that's no surprise--wait, what? He's freaky, but not that freaky...?"
Ret explained what had happened as he and Spaz walked down the sidewalk, all the while keeping their eyes out for their bizarre guide. Spaz seemed just as intrigued by the story of the two eyeballs as Ret was, and shook his head at the mention of Keeper's final warning.
"Why doesn't he want us to know, huh?" Spaz asked, "What if we've gotta fight those guys before we take down the underworld thing?"
"Because your next challenge," came Keeper's voice from around the nearest building, "lies in the Corruption. The Great Devourer awaits you..."
Okay, a bit less actiony of a chapter but I hope it was enjoyable regardless. Have to get some worldbuilding things out of the way, after all, as well as some details that'll become important later.
So what do you think Keeper actually said or did to spook the kid so bad? And what do you think happened to Bailey's older brothers? After all, Randall did promise...You shouldn't make promises you can't keep, you know...
PaperLaur
Spazmatism
600 thread views, and 200 views on FF!
I hope to be able to get some references up soon, and more character bios up later today!
Followers: @neoselket , @PersonaTea
Chapter Twelve: Exploration
Uh, this chapter came out a bit weird in my opinion, could've written better, but I wasn't entirely sure what to do on this chapter for a good week.
Any questions you guys want answers to? Anything you'd like me to elaborate on? Any character you'd like to see developed more? Any theories, thoughts, impressions, feedback? It's all welcome and hugely appreciated!
I also made a little tumblr to work on drawing the boys, collect information and aesthetics relating to the story, and just generally work on their characters. Feel free to ask them questions as well!
I hope to be able to get some references up soon, and more character bios up later today!
Followers: @neoselket , @PersonaTea
Chapter Twelve: Exploration
Spaz had wanted today to be a good day, really he had. And it had been going pretty well in comparison to the previous day, though not much coul be worse than nearly getting your arm bitten off by a giant eyeball. He'd talked to people, unnerved and frightened quite a few of them, and gotten asked about his teeth a good five times. The only one he'd really hit it off with had been the demolitionist, but he didn't mind. It had still been fun going around, having conversations, messing with people. If it hadn't been for that energy release, he probably would've run Keeper through right there.
Not that he didn't still really want to.
Said 'guide' came around the corner of the nearest shop, his Fire Imp happily sitting atop his head, giving them a disapproving look. Spaz glanced over to see his brother clenching his teeth so hard the veins in his neck were showing. He really couldn't blame the other--Spaz hadn't seen what happened, but he was getting frustrated with how much was being kept from him.
"Why can we not discuss whatever we'd like?" Ret asked, a forced calm in his tone.
"Because it could lead to unexpected results, and really, it isn't necessary." Keeper folded his arms in front of himself, looking over them both very carefully. "The thing she was speaking of is a construct of the Lord of the Moon that no longer exists--and, if we are lucky, never will again. I'd advise you to focus on the Great Devourer."
Spaz threw his hands into the air. "What unexpected results? What construct--what--what anything? I'm getting kinda sick of you and all the mystery, you know that? If you won't actually tell us anything, why shouldn't we just run you through?"
"Because you can't actually kill me. And you would fail the test if you were to try."
"Oh really?" Spaz pulled his sword from his inventory, grinning, "Can't kill ya? How's that? Should we find out?"
Keeper took a step away from them, looking unfazed. "Not if you would like to continue living. And not if you'd care to have what the Seer of the Overworld dropped for you."
Spaz immediately forgot that he was trying to be threatening, lowering his sword and raising a brow. "What?"
"Put the sword away."
"But..." Spaz glanced over to Ret, who hesitated for a moment, winced, and nodded. Spaz returned the sword to his inventory with an angry grumble to himself. "Fine."
Keeper nodded in approval, and began fishing around in his inventory for something. What he pulled out was a shield depicting a set of gaping jaws on the front, with the color scheme of the eye they'd fought the previous night. He tossed it at Spaz, who caught it and looked it over confusedly.
"It will let you ram into enemies without taking physical harm," Keeper explained, dryly. A rush of excitement went through Spaz as he immediately set the shield on his arm--useful and looked awesome, all was forgiven.
Next, Keeper retrieved a good amount of purple and red stones he threw at Ret's feet. "That is demonite and crimtane ore. Found rarely underground, and in pockets in the Corruption and Crimson, respectively. Keep it handy. You are going to need it for better equipment..."
Ret picked up the ore and looked it over, examining it from all angles. "So we may make new armor and weapons from this?"
"Not as it is. For the demonite, you will need shadow scales, which only come from the Great Devourer. To create anything with crimtane, you will need tissue samples, obtained from the Watchful Mind who inhabits the Crimson. However, you should focus on the Great Devourer. The Mind was already destroyed long ago, before the heroes of that time were defeated, or so I've heard."
"So what you're telling us is that we've gotta beat up the devourer guy before we can get anything better?" Spaz asked, irritated. Keeper nodded. "So let's go, then! Let's punch it in the face!"
Keeper rolled his eyes. "Not in iron armor. It is fine time for an expedition into the caves for you two. You will need better armor and weaponry if you wish to not become a splatter of organs on the wall, as amusing as that might be to watch. There are some valuable ore pockets in branch mines below town."
"But come on!" whined Spaz, wringing his hands.
Ret quickly put a hand on Spaz's shoulder in that warning sort of way. "I do not think we should go to the Corruption just yet," he said, a clear note of worry in his voice as he glanced at Spaz, then away. "If that is where this beast is...I would like to have some supplies to traverse those chasms. Fine. We will go on our expedition." His eye narrowed, "But you are coming with us."
Keeper turned away. "I will do no such thing. I have already helped more than I should."
Ret gave Spaz a look, and Spaz took the silent cue. He leapt forward, grabbing Keeper around the neck with one hand and holding his sword up to the man's chest with the other.
"Yes, you are. If only to explain."
"You can't kill me even if you tried," Keeper muttered, a dangerous look in his eyes, though he did nothing. "Fine. Return in twenty minutes with whatever you may need. I suggest grappling hooks, torches, and rope. Ask Milton or Mercer. I will be waiting." His eyes flashed a dangerous violet as he glared at Spaz. "Now, put me down. I'd rather not have to kill you right here..."
Spaz met and maintained his gaze for a few long seconds, refusing to be cowed by the frightful aura emanating from their guide. He then released the man and lowered his sword, continuing to squint at him.
"You try and kill us anywhere, you're automatic crispy kebab. Got it?"
Keeper gave a strange little smirk.
"Yes, yes. If you say so..."
Two people saw this view in a way they could truly appreciate--Ret and Keeper, who were using the rope.
Spaz, however, had decided to launch himself off the bridge into the unknown, whooping as he descended before throwing out his newly-bought grappling hook to catch his fall by slamming him into a wall near the bottom, which somehow didn't break every bone in his body due to an anomaly of Terrarian physics. He was now standing on the neon blue grass, staring up at the two carefully sliding down the rope with an impatient look on his face, and occasionally casting his gaze about.
"Come on, nerds," Spaz called up with a smirk, "What's taking you so long?"
"I am being a sane person right now," Ret replied with an irritated grunt as he tried to avoid getting a facefull of Keeper's grimy, ash-caked boots from the man sliding above him. "What if you had missed?!"
"I wasn't gonna miss. You worry too much."
Spaz meant the sentiment with all his heart--he knew full well why Ret didn't want him to go to the Corruption, after what had happened there on the journey. He hoped that this expedition would prove the paranoid older brother wrong, because he sure as hell wasn't going to miss a battle, even if he had to go and start it all by himself.
Ret didn't respond, and the two men reached the ground in silence without incident. Keeper pulled out his staff and re-summoned his Fire Imp, before passing by them and leading the way forward. The trio seemed to be in an artificially-dug tunnel that had a surprisingly high ceiling, likely to allow clearance for the many towering blue mushroom 'trees' that were planted all over the place. There were also blue mushrooms growing out of the ground, as well as some blinkroot and moonglow plants in planter boxes.
The two were walking to a shaft in the ground flanked by a chest and a crafting bench, and marked with a torch. In the chest turned out to be a few explosives, a flare gun, and a stack of flares obviously intended for explorers and miners, which the twins split between them, Keeper taking the flare gun.
Again, Spaz jumped gleefully into the hole, using his grappling hook to propel himself down. The others followed after on the rope.
"Hey, where's your route to Hell, huh?" Spaz asked as soon as Keeper's feet were on the ground.
Keeper glared, "I blocked it off behind me. Solely so you wouldn't try to go down there."
"If you can make it there without armor..."
"I am a special case. Besides..." Keeper glanced away with that same odd smirk, "Accidents could very easily happen down there, and you two are hardly ready to face consequences..."
"He's right," Ret declared, clearly attempting to regain the leadership position, "Let us search for at least silver, though gold would be more useful. Precious gems and materials from cabins would also be valuable."
"The top areas are mostly cleared out," Keeper pointed out, "You may wish to go a bit deeper or mine some of your own shafts. Other than that, I am not helping."
"Fine then," grumbled Spaz, hopping down from the ledge they were standing on and into a small puddle of water in a cavern below. He moved off to the rightmost edge of the cave, ignoring the torches some explorer or other had put down, and began to dig with his copper pickaxe to the side and down in a diagonal. Ret quickly joined in to help, while Keeper stood back, Fire Imp now perched on his shoulder and poking at his greasy hair like a confused child.
"Tell us about the devourer you speak of," Ret demanded, without looking back.
Keeper crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "It is a guardian of the Corruption created a very long time ago to keep its treasures safe. It takes the form of a very large worm with multiple segments that can become cognizant if split apart. There was a time when its soul was copied by the lord of the moon and put into a metal casing that...did...other things, I'm not aware, but as far as I know that has been destroyed."
"How do you summon it?" Spaz asked, trying to sound casual.
"There are Shadow Orbs within the Corruption chasms that contain some valuable treasures. Break three, and it will come after you. It is a protector, a Lesser God as the eye you fought last night was."
"Lesser God?"
The two came to a new cave opening, and Keeper shot some flares over their heads in order to allow them to see. Ret began feeding some rope down the edge so they could descend safely.
"What's a Lesser God?" Spaz asked.
"Bailey said something about the Elder Gods right before her traumatized child came running in," added Ret with an eye-roll in Keeper's direction.
Keeper seemed to think for a moment, the imp flapping up to once again perch on his head. He let out a sigh. "I suppose it can't hurt, better you get it from me. Head down and then I will explain."
Ret completed the rope and jumped down first, Spaz and Keeper following after. Spaz led the group into the cave with Ret carrying a torch behind him. There seemed to be nothing in the area other than a small puddle of water and a bat which Keeper's imp fried to a crisp before anyone could notice it.
"There are many gods of your world," Keeper began as the two started mining again, "It began with...what you would call the 'True Elders'--five of them, who held domain over different things. Even I know little about them...other than the fact that the so-called 'Moon Lord' is one of them, the only one left, and the Crimson and Corruption were created by their hands. Or in the case of Cthulhu...his entire dead body."
Ret lost his rhythm in surprise, nearly whacking an indignant Spaz in the head with his pick. "What?"
Keeper nodded, "The Crimson spread from the remains of Cthulhu after the great war between the True Elders, before one of their own split the remaining three out of five apart into infinite pieces, some of which are now the Elder Gods." Keeper made a face, "The Moon Lord's pieces came back together and he was reborn, much to everyone's regret. The pinhead decided that he wanted to gain dominion over the world. That is why the seals are breaking, why the dark is spreading much too fast, and, I believe, why you are being quite so offensive towards me."
Spaz shrugged. "Nah, we're just being offensive because you're a huge, creepy jerk."
"I prefer to be feared than hated. Anyways, these Elder Gods created the Lesser Gods--including the Overseer, the Great Devourer, the Watchful Mind, the Spirit of the Dungeon, and, well...even the underworld guardian itself." He shook his head, "I believe I am at liberty to tell you that the Elder Gods brought you here..."
Ret had stopped mining entirely, now, and Spaz had slowed down to listen. "Why?" Ret asked, clearly wanting to push this as far as it would go.
"To bring back balance and test you, I already said. They brought me here as well..."
"Why you?"
A bark of a laugh, "I hardly know. I had more important things to do, but they pulled me aside and told me that I was familiar with the prophecy and had to be their eye on you two."
"Are you an Elder God?" Spaz asked.
"No. But that is what I mean when I say I do not help out of the goodness of a nonexistent heart." Keeper anarrowed his eyes. "If not left in check the Moon Lord will conquer everything on or under the surface of this planet. The Elder Gods have a lot riding on you being the possible ones to fix everything. As do I." He gave them a harsh glare. "So do not blow it."
He lapsed into silence, then. Ret tried to ask questions as they continued moving, but Keeper said nothing more, instead staring at his feet with a partly angry, partly concerned look on his face. Spaz was just content with mining.
The two soon broke into another cave.
"Cabin dead ahead!"
Ret lit the way as Spaz carefully moved ahead, kicking open the door to the little abandoned house, dashing forward, and looking through the chest. "One for me, finally!" he shouted, holding up a new Magic Mirror, "Just iron and some dumb potions other than that. Oh, and take some arrows."
Ret grabbed the stack of arrows thrown to him, and the two moved on, soon finding another already-excavated mineshaft.
Much of the journey passed in uncomfortable silence. Keeper kept shooting flares into random places and staring around as if fascinated by the dirt, while the brothers forged on without particularly caring about him. After some begging, Spaz was allowed to use explosives. A good amount of silver was found, as well as a meager quantity of gold and emerald. More cabins were also discovered; Ret was soon geared up with a Cloud in a Bottle and Shoe Spikes, while Spaz took a Band of Regeneration as well as his earlier Magic Mirror find.
The two soon found themselves digging a long shaft that eventually led to some purple stone. Spaz tilted his head in confusion, hammering at the stone with his pick. It didn't seem to bother the strange purple stone at all. He grunted and continued to whack at it with no results, letting out a confused little noise.
Keeper watched this with amusement for a while before speaking up. "That would be ebonstone. You cannot mine that with your current pickaxe."
Spaz dropped his pick, turning around to stare at Keeper with an absolutely disgusted expression. "You couldn't have told me that in the first place?!"
"You didn't ask."
"Is there any way to get through?" Ret quickly interjected.
"Explosives work, but this should lead straight into the Corruption, and going in there as we are is a rather bad idea."
Spaz turned to stare at the wall of purple stone, examining it closely. And there it was again--just knowing the Corruption was nearby caused a pull. His hand slipped into his inventory without him realizing. They had to be at the bottom of those great chasms, right? Which meant the creatures of cursed flames were there. Which meant if he just blew through the wall, he might be able to jump in and attack before anyone could notice...before anyone could do anything. And prove that he could...He wanted to destroy the Corruption, somehow, some way. Control the spread, end it, rule it so he'd have control over it. For some reason, it made him extremely angry just thinking about it.
"Spaz!"
Ret's voice jolted him back to reality, and Spaz suddenly realized that he was holding one of the bombs from the chest. He blinked, staring at the bomb with no idea how it had gotten there.
"Uh..."
"You are not going in there." Ret's tone made it clear that this was final. "Not without me."
"But--"
"We're leaving." Ret turned and stormed off down the tunnel, "This is a dead end and we are leaving. Come on!"
Spaz stared after, before putting the bomb away and, very reluctantly, following, feeling his chest and his head ache as he moved further away. Something in his head just wanted to take it on, desperate, angry, a cry of challenge...
Why was Ret being so stubborn?
He made sure his footsteps were as loud as possible, angry stomps like a petulant child so Ret would know he was not happy.
The two gathered some more gold, delving deeper towards the cavern layer. When the look of the walls changed, Keeper raised a hand.
"You are getting far too deep. I suggest we go back up."
"I suggest we see what's down there," Spaz said, clearly irritated after the ebonstone incident. Anger had been building within him ever since then, as the inexplicable pull back to that corrupted area grew ever stronger and his head hurt worse and worse.
Keeper glared at him. "If you wish to get fried alive, then go on."
Spaz stopped and whirled to face Keeper, a dark fire in his eyes to rival the cursed fire he desired so much. "Look, you told us to pass by like four marble biomes. I'm done listening to you!"
"I have to agree." Ret pressed his lips together. "You are holding us back."
"Holding you--I am trying to protect you against the wishes of the gods, might I add. I am at risk of losing my job, and therefore my usefulness, and therefore my existence."
Spaz glowered. "I wanna go to a marble biome. Hell, I wanna go back to that Corruption and you won't stop me! The whole time you've been staring at dirt and not helping at all. So much for being 'useful'."
"What about wrath of the Elder Gods do you not understand?" Keeper gritted his teeth, "I say we are leaving, and that is final. If you do not want to come with me, so be it."
Keeper reached into his inventory and pulled out a Recall Potion, quickly uncorking it.
Spaz acted without thinking.
He pulled out his sword and lunged suddenly, causing Keeper to cry out and instinctively jump back, dropping the potion and spilling it onto the stone. Keeper looked between the stone and the twins, growling audibly.
"Do you people not hear me. I cannot be killed."
"Spaz..." Ret's voice was now warning, clearly concerned for his brother's safety and state of mind.
But Spaz was overcome with wrath, some stemming from the ebonstone, some just burning rom within his soul. And some seeming to flow into him from an unseen source, sparking his battle energy and causing any rationality to fly out the window. He just wanted to make this guy pay so he could go back.
"Can't kill ya? Sure."
Spaz pulled out a coil of rope from his inventory and gave a downright terrifying grin, torchlight glinting off sharp teeth.
"But we can see how great an escape artist you are."
Not that he didn't still really want to.
Said 'guide' came around the corner of the nearest shop, his Fire Imp happily sitting atop his head, giving them a disapproving look. Spaz glanced over to see his brother clenching his teeth so hard the veins in his neck were showing. He really couldn't blame the other--Spaz hadn't seen what happened, but he was getting frustrated with how much was being kept from him.
"Why can we not discuss whatever we'd like?" Ret asked, a forced calm in his tone.
"Because it could lead to unexpected results, and really, it isn't necessary." Keeper folded his arms in front of himself, looking over them both very carefully. "The thing she was speaking of is a construct of the Lord of the Moon that no longer exists--and, if we are lucky, never will again. I'd advise you to focus on the Great Devourer."
Spaz threw his hands into the air. "What unexpected results? What construct--what--what anything? I'm getting kinda sick of you and all the mystery, you know that? If you won't actually tell us anything, why shouldn't we just run you through?"
"Because you can't actually kill me. And you would fail the test if you were to try."
"Oh really?" Spaz pulled his sword from his inventory, grinning, "Can't kill ya? How's that? Should we find out?"
Keeper took a step away from them, looking unfazed. "Not if you would like to continue living. And not if you'd care to have what the Seer of the Overworld dropped for you."
Spaz immediately forgot that he was trying to be threatening, lowering his sword and raising a brow. "What?"
"Put the sword away."
"But..." Spaz glanced over to Ret, who hesitated for a moment, winced, and nodded. Spaz returned the sword to his inventory with an angry grumble to himself. "Fine."
Keeper nodded in approval, and began fishing around in his inventory for something. What he pulled out was a shield depicting a set of gaping jaws on the front, with the color scheme of the eye they'd fought the previous night. He tossed it at Spaz, who caught it and looked it over confusedly.
"It will let you ram into enemies without taking physical harm," Keeper explained, dryly. A rush of excitement went through Spaz as he immediately set the shield on his arm--useful and looked awesome, all was forgiven.
Next, Keeper retrieved a good amount of purple and red stones he threw at Ret's feet. "That is demonite and crimtane ore. Found rarely underground, and in pockets in the Corruption and Crimson, respectively. Keep it handy. You are going to need it for better equipment..."
Ret picked up the ore and looked it over, examining it from all angles. "So we may make new armor and weapons from this?"
"Not as it is. For the demonite, you will need shadow scales, which only come from the Great Devourer. To create anything with crimtane, you will need tissue samples, obtained from the Watchful Mind who inhabits the Crimson. However, you should focus on the Great Devourer. The Mind was already destroyed long ago, before the heroes of that time were defeated, or so I've heard."
"So what you're telling us is that we've gotta beat up the devourer guy before we can get anything better?" Spaz asked, irritated. Keeper nodded. "So let's go, then! Let's punch it in the face!"
Keeper rolled his eyes. "Not in iron armor. It is fine time for an expedition into the caves for you two. You will need better armor and weaponry if you wish to not become a splatter of organs on the wall, as amusing as that might be to watch. There are some valuable ore pockets in branch mines below town."
"But come on!" whined Spaz, wringing his hands.
Ret quickly put a hand on Spaz's shoulder in that warning sort of way. "I do not think we should go to the Corruption just yet," he said, a clear note of worry in his voice as he glanced at Spaz, then away. "If that is where this beast is...I would like to have some supplies to traverse those chasms. Fine. We will go on our expedition." His eye narrowed, "But you are coming with us."
Keeper turned away. "I will do no such thing. I have already helped more than I should."
Ret gave Spaz a look, and Spaz took the silent cue. He leapt forward, grabbing Keeper around the neck with one hand and holding his sword up to the man's chest with the other.
"Yes, you are. If only to explain."
"You can't kill me even if you tried," Keeper muttered, a dangerous look in his eyes, though he did nothing. "Fine. Return in twenty minutes with whatever you may need. I suggest grappling hooks, torches, and rope. Ask Milton or Mercer. I will be waiting." His eyes flashed a dangerous violet as he glared at Spaz. "Now, put me down. I'd rather not have to kill you right here..."
Spaz met and maintained his gaze for a few long seconds, refusing to be cowed by the frightful aura emanating from their guide. He then released the man and lowered his sword, continuing to squint at him.
"You try and kill us anywhere, you're automatic crispy kebab. Got it?"
Keeper gave a strange little smirk.
"Yes, yes. If you say so..."
-:-:-
There was a rope leading down the side of the town's protective trench, starting only a couple of feet below the bridge. It led down, down, down into what looked to be an abyss, though as one slowly descended, one would begin to see purple grass on the dirt below them--a sure sign that aprotective area of glowing mushrooms had been created both to keep the town safe from evil spread, and to farm the great towering mushroom trees for the valuable food and potion ingredient glowing mushrooms provided (among other, more recreational uses).
Two people saw this view in a way they could truly appreciate--Ret and Keeper, who were using the rope.
Spaz, however, had decided to launch himself off the bridge into the unknown, whooping as he descended before throwing out his newly-bought grappling hook to catch his fall by slamming him into a wall near the bottom, which somehow didn't break every bone in his body due to an anomaly of Terrarian physics. He was now standing on the neon blue grass, staring up at the two carefully sliding down the rope with an impatient look on his face, and occasionally casting his gaze about.
"Come on, nerds," Spaz called up with a smirk, "What's taking you so long?"
"I am being a sane person right now," Ret replied with an irritated grunt as he tried to avoid getting a facefull of Keeper's grimy, ash-caked boots from the man sliding above him. "What if you had missed?!"
"I wasn't gonna miss. You worry too much."
Spaz meant the sentiment with all his heart--he knew full well why Ret didn't want him to go to the Corruption, after what had happened there on the journey. He hoped that this expedition would prove the paranoid older brother wrong, because he sure as hell wasn't going to miss a battle, even if he had to go and start it all by himself.
Ret didn't respond, and the two men reached the ground in silence without incident. Keeper pulled out his staff and re-summoned his Fire Imp, before passing by them and leading the way forward. The trio seemed to be in an artificially-dug tunnel that had a surprisingly high ceiling, likely to allow clearance for the many towering blue mushroom 'trees' that were planted all over the place. There were also blue mushrooms growing out of the ground, as well as some blinkroot and moonglow plants in planter boxes.
The two were walking to a shaft in the ground flanked by a chest and a crafting bench, and marked with a torch. In the chest turned out to be a few explosives, a flare gun, and a stack of flares obviously intended for explorers and miners, which the twins split between them, Keeper taking the flare gun.
Again, Spaz jumped gleefully into the hole, using his grappling hook to propel himself down. The others followed after on the rope.
"Hey, where's your route to Hell, huh?" Spaz asked as soon as Keeper's feet were on the ground.
Keeper glared, "I blocked it off behind me. Solely so you wouldn't try to go down there."
"If you can make it there without armor..."
"I am a special case. Besides..." Keeper glanced away with that same odd smirk, "Accidents could very easily happen down there, and you two are hardly ready to face consequences..."
"He's right," Ret declared, clearly attempting to regain the leadership position, "Let us search for at least silver, though gold would be more useful. Precious gems and materials from cabins would also be valuable."
"The top areas are mostly cleared out," Keeper pointed out, "You may wish to go a bit deeper or mine some of your own shafts. Other than that, I am not helping."
"Fine then," grumbled Spaz, hopping down from the ledge they were standing on and into a small puddle of water in a cavern below. He moved off to the rightmost edge of the cave, ignoring the torches some explorer or other had put down, and began to dig with his copper pickaxe to the side and down in a diagonal. Ret quickly joined in to help, while Keeper stood back, Fire Imp now perched on his shoulder and poking at his greasy hair like a confused child.
"Tell us about the devourer you speak of," Ret demanded, without looking back.
Keeper crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "It is a guardian of the Corruption created a very long time ago to keep its treasures safe. It takes the form of a very large worm with multiple segments that can become cognizant if split apart. There was a time when its soul was copied by the lord of the moon and put into a metal casing that...did...other things, I'm not aware, but as far as I know that has been destroyed."
"How do you summon it?" Spaz asked, trying to sound casual.
"There are Shadow Orbs within the Corruption chasms that contain some valuable treasures. Break three, and it will come after you. It is a protector, a Lesser God as the eye you fought last night was."
"Lesser God?"
The two came to a new cave opening, and Keeper shot some flares over their heads in order to allow them to see. Ret began feeding some rope down the edge so they could descend safely.
"What's a Lesser God?" Spaz asked.
"Bailey said something about the Elder Gods right before her traumatized child came running in," added Ret with an eye-roll in Keeper's direction.
Keeper seemed to think for a moment, the imp flapping up to once again perch on his head. He let out a sigh. "I suppose it can't hurt, better you get it from me. Head down and then I will explain."
Ret completed the rope and jumped down first, Spaz and Keeper following after. Spaz led the group into the cave with Ret carrying a torch behind him. There seemed to be nothing in the area other than a small puddle of water and a bat which Keeper's imp fried to a crisp before anyone could notice it.
"There are many gods of your world," Keeper began as the two started mining again, "It began with...what you would call the 'True Elders'--five of them, who held domain over different things. Even I know little about them...other than the fact that the so-called 'Moon Lord' is one of them, the only one left, and the Crimson and Corruption were created by their hands. Or in the case of Cthulhu...his entire dead body."
Ret lost his rhythm in surprise, nearly whacking an indignant Spaz in the head with his pick. "What?"
Keeper nodded, "The Crimson spread from the remains of Cthulhu after the great war between the True Elders, before one of their own split the remaining three out of five apart into infinite pieces, some of which are now the Elder Gods." Keeper made a face, "The Moon Lord's pieces came back together and he was reborn, much to everyone's regret. The pinhead decided that he wanted to gain dominion over the world. That is why the seals are breaking, why the dark is spreading much too fast, and, I believe, why you are being quite so offensive towards me."
Spaz shrugged. "Nah, we're just being offensive because you're a huge, creepy jerk."
"I prefer to be feared than hated. Anyways, these Elder Gods created the Lesser Gods--including the Overseer, the Great Devourer, the Watchful Mind, the Spirit of the Dungeon, and, well...even the underworld guardian itself." He shook his head, "I believe I am at liberty to tell you that the Elder Gods brought you here..."
Ret had stopped mining entirely, now, and Spaz had slowed down to listen. "Why?" Ret asked, clearly wanting to push this as far as it would go.
"To bring back balance and test you, I already said. They brought me here as well..."
"Why you?"
A bark of a laugh, "I hardly know. I had more important things to do, but they pulled me aside and told me that I was familiar with the prophecy and had to be their eye on you two."
"Are you an Elder God?" Spaz asked.
"No. But that is what I mean when I say I do not help out of the goodness of a nonexistent heart." Keeper anarrowed his eyes. "If not left in check the Moon Lord will conquer everything on or under the surface of this planet. The Elder Gods have a lot riding on you being the possible ones to fix everything. As do I." He gave them a harsh glare. "So do not blow it."
He lapsed into silence, then. Ret tried to ask questions as they continued moving, but Keeper said nothing more, instead staring at his feet with a partly angry, partly concerned look on his face. Spaz was just content with mining.
The two soon broke into another cave.
"Cabin dead ahead!"
Ret lit the way as Spaz carefully moved ahead, kicking open the door to the little abandoned house, dashing forward, and looking through the chest. "One for me, finally!" he shouted, holding up a new Magic Mirror, "Just iron and some dumb potions other than that. Oh, and take some arrows."
Ret grabbed the stack of arrows thrown to him, and the two moved on, soon finding another already-excavated mineshaft.
Much of the journey passed in uncomfortable silence. Keeper kept shooting flares into random places and staring around as if fascinated by the dirt, while the brothers forged on without particularly caring about him. After some begging, Spaz was allowed to use explosives. A good amount of silver was found, as well as a meager quantity of gold and emerald. More cabins were also discovered; Ret was soon geared up with a Cloud in a Bottle and Shoe Spikes, while Spaz took a Band of Regeneration as well as his earlier Magic Mirror find.
The two soon found themselves digging a long shaft that eventually led to some purple stone. Spaz tilted his head in confusion, hammering at the stone with his pick. It didn't seem to bother the strange purple stone at all. He grunted and continued to whack at it with no results, letting out a confused little noise.
Keeper watched this with amusement for a while before speaking up. "That would be ebonstone. You cannot mine that with your current pickaxe."
Spaz dropped his pick, turning around to stare at Keeper with an absolutely disgusted expression. "You couldn't have told me that in the first place?!"
"You didn't ask."
"Is there any way to get through?" Ret quickly interjected.
"Explosives work, but this should lead straight into the Corruption, and going in there as we are is a rather bad idea."
Spaz turned to stare at the wall of purple stone, examining it closely. And there it was again--just knowing the Corruption was nearby caused a pull. His hand slipped into his inventory without him realizing. They had to be at the bottom of those great chasms, right? Which meant the creatures of cursed flames were there. Which meant if he just blew through the wall, he might be able to jump in and attack before anyone could notice...before anyone could do anything. And prove that he could...He wanted to destroy the Corruption, somehow, some way. Control the spread, end it, rule it so he'd have control over it. For some reason, it made him extremely angry just thinking about it.
"Spaz!"
Ret's voice jolted him back to reality, and Spaz suddenly realized that he was holding one of the bombs from the chest. He blinked, staring at the bomb with no idea how it had gotten there.
"Uh..."
"You are not going in there." Ret's tone made it clear that this was final. "Not without me."
"But--"
"We're leaving." Ret turned and stormed off down the tunnel, "This is a dead end and we are leaving. Come on!"
Spaz stared after, before putting the bomb away and, very reluctantly, following, feeling his chest and his head ache as he moved further away. Something in his head just wanted to take it on, desperate, angry, a cry of challenge...
Why was Ret being so stubborn?
He made sure his footsteps were as loud as possible, angry stomps like a petulant child so Ret would know he was not happy.
The two gathered some more gold, delving deeper towards the cavern layer. When the look of the walls changed, Keeper raised a hand.
"You are getting far too deep. I suggest we go back up."
"I suggest we see what's down there," Spaz said, clearly irritated after the ebonstone incident. Anger had been building within him ever since then, as the inexplicable pull back to that corrupted area grew ever stronger and his head hurt worse and worse.
Keeper glared at him. "If you wish to get fried alive, then go on."
Spaz stopped and whirled to face Keeper, a dark fire in his eyes to rival the cursed fire he desired so much. "Look, you told us to pass by like four marble biomes. I'm done listening to you!"
"I have to agree." Ret pressed his lips together. "You are holding us back."
"Holding you--I am trying to protect you against the wishes of the gods, might I add. I am at risk of losing my job, and therefore my usefulness, and therefore my existence."
Spaz glowered. "I wanna go to a marble biome. Hell, I wanna go back to that Corruption and you won't stop me! The whole time you've been staring at dirt and not helping at all. So much for being 'useful'."
"What about wrath of the Elder Gods do you not understand?" Keeper gritted his teeth, "I say we are leaving, and that is final. If you do not want to come with me, so be it."
Keeper reached into his inventory and pulled out a Recall Potion, quickly uncorking it.
Spaz acted without thinking.
He pulled out his sword and lunged suddenly, causing Keeper to cry out and instinctively jump back, dropping the potion and spilling it onto the stone. Keeper looked between the stone and the twins, growling audibly.
"Do you people not hear me. I cannot be killed."
"Spaz..." Ret's voice was now warning, clearly concerned for his brother's safety and state of mind.
But Spaz was overcome with wrath, some stemming from the ebonstone, some just burning rom within his soul. And some seeming to flow into him from an unseen source, sparking his battle energy and causing any rationality to fly out the window. He just wanted to make this guy pay so he could go back.
"Can't kill ya? Sure."
Spaz pulled out a coil of rope from his inventory and gave a downright terrifying grin, torchlight glinting off sharp teeth.
"But we can see how great an escape artist you are."
Uh, this chapter came out a bit weird in my opinion, could've written better, but I wasn't entirely sure what to do on this chapter for a good week.
Any questions you guys want answers to? Anything you'd like me to elaborate on? Any character you'd like to see developed more? Any theories, thoughts, impressions, feedback? It's all welcome and hugely appreciated!
I also made a little tumblr to work on drawing the boys, collect information and aesthetics relating to the story, and just generally work on their characters. Feel free to ask them questions as well!
Microwave (OP-ness)! ❤
Terrarian
Spaz needs to c h i l l. Like holy crap, I would be worried of his mental state as well.
PaperLaur
Spazmatism
As well you should be. Here you thought Ret would be the one to snap in the head and now Spaz is throwing people down holes xD Whoops.
Microwave (OP-ness)! ❤
Terrarian
I still feel that when they get close to the Crimson, Ret is going to lose it. Like, I feel he might explode into a million streams of ichor.
PaperLaur
Spazmatism
PFFFFT. I kinda want to draw that now xD I can tell you that specifically is not going to happen but I cannot tell you if it won't "might as well have happened" considering the state Ret's going to wind up in. You'll get no spoilers from me~
PaperLaur
Spazmatism
The blog's really just a place for me to practice with their designs. I'm already working on character references to put here, but those take a bit more time since I'm trying so hard to get things right. I would've put them up earlier, but the whole thing is I can't really draw. I'm very new at it and still figuring things out, so trust me, you wouldn't have wanted me to try and draw things for the story any earlier than I'm trying now. Hoping that eventually I can do some proper comics or illustrations, but I'm a long way off. I'm also getting my friends to help me. I'm definitely more for the written word than visual art xD
I realized I forgot to link the latest chapter, whoopsie. It's up now along with brief character descriptions for Alalia and Bailey. New chapter hopefully soon because I can't leave it on that kind of cliffhanger xD
Clancy117
Skeletron Prime
I understand. I haven't really drawn anything in years since I left school and never really was any good. Since I joined the forums and seen all the stuff people have drawn on here I haven't done much but TCF has inspired me to draw a little bit. I only have two drawings I've made and one of them I haven't even posted. I've shown more of my little sisters drawings than I have mine. I'm sure you'll do better than me judging by your current artwork on Tumblr.
Clancy117
Skeletron Prime
I was looking forward to reading this to the end @PaperLaur but it seems like that's not happening now. I'm dissapointed.
Last edited:
PaperLaur
Spazmatism
I most certainly plan on it. There hasn't been a day since I stopped this that I haven't thought of it. A lot of things happened in my life around the time this stopped and I've been super nervous to start writing this again after such a long time, but I still have plenty of thoughts in my head I'd like to get out.
(Also apologies to anyone who saw me posting here thinking there was a new chapter, I do plan on doing it Soon(tm) but I don't have it yet, just wanted to respond now so folks know that I'm most certainly still thinking of it)