“It’s running longer than expected. The Watch Head is even exceeding the configured specs. What’s your take on this?”
“It seems the Feast’s Offering outside the observation point injected a strange ideology into Bubble Head.”
“So your view is that this trouble was triggered by a Feast’s Offering from another tiline. In the end, it’s a tiline problem again. This is why I advised scrapping the Watch Head.”
“I regret that part. But aren’t you satisfied with Bubble Head’s conclusion? A dilemma born of ti travel and an irreconcilable conflict—hard to reach without Bubble Head.”
“I agree it’s provocative, but the situation is also needlessly abstruse. And the Watch Head’s repeated actions will harm the observers as well. I’d like this stage resolved within this turn, or at least to see a aningful extra event.”
“Agreed. To that end, I strengthened control, accelerated Bubble Head’s derangent, and injected an obsession with amputation plus abnormal attachnt. Bubble Head will start forgetting his original plan. The Feast’s Offering has shown ruthless responses to anyone judged a cultist, so the episode’s climax will arrive soon.”
“Understood. Please further amplify Bubble Head’s derangent and aggression so there’s no more deviation. I’ll grant one free resource to that end.”
“Thank you. Does Bubble Head get narrative control now?”
“Yes. It’s the Watch Head’s turn. What action does he take?”
“He starts sothing more extre than before. I’ll consu the resource I just received.”
“What effect do you want? Depending on the declaration, a check may be required.”
“I’ll show Bubble Head a powerful illusion.”
“An illusion. I like it. What does the Watch Head see?”
“mories that jab Bubble Head’s trauma. What appears before his eyes is the Feast’s Offering, connected to a magical life-support rig.”
“The Feast’s Offering from another tiline lived longer than expected, but it was closer to being kept alive by force. He tried to endure, but in a scenario destined to fail, it only prolonged pain.”
“So the Watch Head couldn’t stand it and killed the Feast’s Offering. That’s the setup.”
“Yes. Bubble Head was born with that disposition. Cutting away the imperfect to obtain sothing complete. Being unable to accept failure as failure. That’s the nature regressors share. I’ll deepen the derangent so he sees the current Feast’s Offering as ‘imperfect.’”
“Excellent. Continue.”
“Don’t. Stop!”
Gong Isu suddenly clutches his head and staggers back.
“What now?”
What pattern is this? Hallucinations already?
I can’t know what erratic move cos next. I don’t stop—I fire spells.
BZZZZZT!!
Fla, frost, lightning, necromancy, venom, petrifaction, paralysis—
seven spells tracing a fiendishly complex set of arcs.
“Stop it! Stay out! This kind of ddling is pointless—just stop!”
Gong Isu keeps shouting like a scream right up to the brink—then thrusts his right hand toward the [Golden Hairpin].
Is he about to rewind ti?
Tzzzzzzzt—
No. He uses an ability he hasn’t used until now.
[Right Hand of the Creator-God]
Mana surges from his right hand, routes through the [Golden Hairpin]—amplifies, augnts—and bursts outward on all sides.
Shraaaah!!
My spells scatter in an instant, turned into butterflies and petals of every color.
“What the—why add a power you weren’t using?”
“My head changed. Get lost. Show it all you like—damn it, I said stop! I never did that!”
What sits where his head should be is totally unlike the ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) things I’ve seen till now—clock, cara, plasma globe, or those truly handso masks.
A ring of light, floating and blazing.
“Looks great. A halo? No—an angel halo?”
He’s not about to machine-gun light powers and zip around at light speed now, is he?
No, it doesn’t feel like that class of ability. It’s operating as part of a more magical rite.
The rite’s shape—transmission. Leap. And observation?
What is he trying to observe and transmit now?
Unknown.
‘Damn it. Stop pulling out things that never existed in [Cthulhu World].’
“Kim Sinhwa, this isn’t a ga. You don’t get to redo. Stop. No—I do get to redo. Stop. Stop the crazy talk! Hoo— junior, what did I just say?”
“Ah. It’s fine. You look busy—don’t strain yourself talking. Let’s both just do what we each planned.”
I say that and raise mana. If he’s decided not to rewind, advantage .
“No! That’s not it! Junior, work with ! The Abyssal beings—the Administrators—have started intervening. Any further is dangerous. I need to cut your limbs off before I forget that I have to cut your limbs o—”
“Mm—senior. Deep breaths. Calm down first.”
I’ll knock you cold, then seal you so you can neither die nor move—
“Damn it, listen! Shut up! Stop! No. Cutting your limbs wasn’t what I ant to do. Wait—why did I change my head to this ring?”
KRAAA-BOOM!!
Damn. Dodged again.
Since the derangent surfaced, Gong Isu stopped rewinding.
Instead, he seems to have completely changed his policy.
He’s keeping only one behavior—pulling away to open distance and evading my attacks. That neuters the strategy I’d been maintaining...
anwhile, his halo is sending thought sowhere.
‘He’s buying ti.’
Why start stalling now? Waiting for the derangent to abate? What hallucination is he seeing? What’s that ring’s function?
Where is he sending what? Intended effect? What range of trouble can it cause?
[System: The Spatial Dominion trait deepens your understanding of space.]
...Huh?
Did this trait always do that?
As if answering my will, [Spatial Dominion] starts offering a different effect than before.
Thanks to it, I can clearly perceive:
Gong Isu is hurling his will and mana—or his madness—into so space.
The direction of that space is...
“Rember the pasta.”
A ridiculous sentence Gong Isu blurts.
Pasta?
“What?”
“Right. I rember now. Over there. Look over there. Ah, right, I get it. I’d been waiting to go completely mad. That’s what it was. Junior—rember the pasta. It was pasta!”
“Pasta?”
“Yes, pasta! Can you see over there too?”
He points at a direction you can’t physically point to.
It’s neither left nor right—
neither the direction ti flows toward nor the direction it flows from—
a direction from a completely different dinsion. Not in the multiversal sense. I an the counting of dinsions as in one, two, three.
A two-dinsional being cannot perceive three.
And a three-dinsional being cannot perceive four.
I look where Gong Isu is looking—
and every hair on my body rises. A hideous shiver.
“What is that? It’s looking at .”
I lock eyes with sothing vast—so vast it defies words—an unreal being.
What are you?
You’ve been watching unt—
[System: The Abyssal Madness trait activates. Erasing your mory.]
Wait, what?
Bzzzzzt!
[System: A critical error has occurred. Using Administrator privileges to pause execution.]
Gong Isu is mad.
Fully delusional.
‘But in this world, there are things only a madman in full derangent can do.’
There are not.
What a madman is granted is only warped perception and twisted delusion.
‘No—what a madman is granted is an expanded view, a consciousness that can reach beyond the horizon.’
In a ghastly delusion, Gong Isu feels he’s reached so grand state.
‘I finally understand. The flesh is rely a material dium. I thought throwing away my head ant I’d lost to you, but I’d actually surpassed human flesh—and gained more.’
Post-hoc self-justification without coherence. Jumps of abnormal logic. Nonsense only a madman would utter.
‘Rember the pasta.’
Derangent. Derangent. Derangent rolling in like waves. Derangent. Derangent.
Delusion. Delusion. Delusion pouring without end. Delusion. Delusion.
Past. Past. A past tangled with the present. Past. Past.
Future. Future. An ideal future forever out of reach. Future. Future.
Yearning. Yearning. Desire. Desire. Hollow plans. Horizons too far. Unattainable goals. Broken hopes. A life once abandoned. A life only ever used by others. You were deceived by Kim Sinhwa. Betrayed. Kill Kim Sinhwa. Hate. Hate. Delusion. Delusion. Evasion. Evasion. Kill what obstructs, cut away what discomforts, erase what irritates.
‘Rember the pasta.’
Gong Isu has experienced more deaths than any human—but in truth has never once reached a true death.
A weak coward. A coward in words. A loser who only flees to safe places. Trash that wanders forever in search of a utopia, making no effort.
‘Rember the pasta.’
He has never overco or accepted failure even once. The rewind power reflects that nature. A marvelous power to destroy and recreate? A power gained because he couldn’t accept things as they are.
‘Rember the pasta.’
Rember the pasta.
‘Rember the pasta.’
There is nothing in the pasta.
Only overreaching greed. A welcoming shackle of debt that doesn’t know the crashing wave of proper collapse erases mory tick-tock the ti can’t be asured a voice you can’t know is hungry so milk is transcended a beautiful task carried out by flesh click a cara and you can tell in the sensation sothing a glass marble flashes lightning a ring of light rides a wheelchair butterflies lift off in the far darkness I want to know you’re doing well, senior. Please rember the pasta.
Bubble Head, what are you doing?
‘Rember the pasta.’
Bubble Head?
‘Rember the pasta.’
Kim Sinhwa is coming to kill you.
“Junior. Over there.”
Kim Sinhwa will ignore your words and kill you. Lightning incoming. Danger. Fire pouring down. You will die. Your toes are freezing. Horrific pain. Sensation vanishing. Arm severed. Leg severed. Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger.
“Right. I rember now. Over there. Look over there. Ah, yes, I get it. I was waiting to go completely mad. That’s what it was. Junior—rember the pasta. It was pasta!”
“Pasta?”
“Yes, pasta! Can you see over there too?”
Kim Sinhwa looks where Gong Isu points, and is horrified—ti stops.
“This is the worst sort of trouble. Resolve the issue while the Feast’s Offering’s perception is impaired.”
“Understood.”
Gong Isu stretched an ability and touched what must not be touched.
A strange domain where perception surpasses sight.
A spot leading square from the sun.
A line that runs long.
Six spheres whose aning is unknowable.
White. Or gray. Or black. Then black again. Yellow or green.
Gothic. Serif.
Yin and numbers and yang.
Then yin and numbers and yang.
And again yin and numbers and yang.
A vortex that resets everything.
Gong Isu’s will flings the [Golden Hairpin] beyond the range of observation.
Crkk-crkk-crkk-crkk!
Ard with the power to punch through the walls of ti and space, the [Golden Hairpin] will now destroy sothing outside observation—and return.
Sothing flows in through the space Gong Isu tore.
Or maybe it’s only sothing born of his delusion.
Hello. I worked really hard on this. Please enjoy it!
Wow bug tree-lined street Nyarlathotep first chapter for real no way dead so then Kim Sinhwa daily serialization impressions slurp fun fantasy mask-fixation correct answer envelope bandage blade as expected first-person POV. Stop reading. This is just a string of aningless words. There is no context.
Gong Isu spits aningless words.
“I’ll make a proposal.”
A deranged proposal aid in a aningless direction.
“Anyway, one Feast’s Offering is enough, isn’t it?”
So?
“I’ll be the Feast’s Offering.”
Impossible.
“I told you, I’ll rewind until I win.”
Impossible.
“Negotiate with .”
Gong Isu wears a ghastly smile for a mont and babbles mad nonsense.
“How about it? I sound like the protagonist now, don’t I?”
“We’ll reset the situation, then proceed with a rollback. However, the Watch Head is excluded from the rollback. If included, he’s liable to restart the entire process from the beginning.”
“I request a discussion.”
“I’ll accept.”
“If we proceed as you propose, the result is effectively the disposal of Bubble Head. There’s no precedent, but I want to evaluate whether Bubble Head’s proposal is a technically addressable issue.”
“There’s no precedent, so it’s hard to judge. Plus, we also have to recompute what trouble might occur going forward.”
“I want to consult a higher Administrator.”
“Tic-Tok Man, you’re overly fond of the Watch Head.”
“I’m concerned about problems that arise if we exclude him.”
“Fine. I’ll ask a higher Administrator. ...The answer is back.”
“What’s the answer?”
‘Refer to the rulebook.’
“Does the rulebook cover this?”
“No. But I found a rule we can apply. We’ll send a singularity to the outside dinsion and grant an advantage to one of the two.”
“A singularity. Understood. If one side gains overwhelming superiority, the deadlock ends sohow.”
“Correct. We’ll use the [Duel Check] rule. Two singularities will asure the influence supporting the Feast’s Offering and the influence supporting the Watch Head—whichever receives more support gets an extre advantage.”
“What window do we asure against?”
“It can’t run long... We’ll asure exactly six hours by the outside dinsion’s ti. However, this [Duel Check] will not proceed in a fair manner.”
User Comments
0 comments from readers