Re: ~Crossover Chronicles (Thread 5)~

[Tornadostorm]

Flint narrowed his eyes. "Fine." He murmured, and lowered his head and rested his chin on on his hands. He looked at her "why are you really out here?"

[Swallowfeather]

Athena paused for a moment to gather her thoughts before speaking. I think it's finally time to get some answers about what exactly happened on that peak... The root of his psychological trauma. I can't be too direct or hasty, though. If I force him to think about that traumatic experience too much, he could be traumatized all over again... She took a small breath. Here goes...
"... Flint," she began, making a point to keep her tone as calm and patient as she could, "You don't have to tell me everything about what happened, but... I need to know more about what happened on Chaos Peak." As she spoke these words, she hoped very much that she had chosen them correctly.

[Tornadostorm]

Flint stiffened. He straightened himself up, the way he did so was slightly unnerving. "Oh, need, do you? You must understand that that time is very hard for me to think back on." His voice was unsteady with emotion. He was trying to push her away, but not as hard as he could. He crossed his arms, suddenly defensive appearing "If your concerned about me, don't be. I'm fine." "really I'm not, am I...?" The thought made his heart skip a beat, and he took a deep breath. Narrowing his eyes, he asked "What can you do about it anyway?"

[Swallowfeather]

Athena gasped internally at Flint's reaction, worried that she wasn't going about this as gently as she should. However, she tried not to let this show externally, and continued. "Yes, I understand completely how hard it must be for you to think about," she replied reassuringly. clearing her voice slightly. "However, the more I understand what you've been through and are experiencing, the more I can help you cope with it."

[Tornadostorm]

Flint looked at her uncertainly for several tense moments. All of the sudden he explained, speaking quickly "what happened at Chaos Peak, is that we were fighting a creature called the Chaos Kin. The Chaos Kin took control of my father. My father turned on me, we faught, and I killed him." He closed his eyes as soon as he was done speaking. Having maintained steady eyecontact up until then. His voice was deep with anger, and tense with fear, and sorrow.

[Jewelsky]

"Actually, I've…" Though he was completely willing to spill his story, Piko decided against it at the last moment. It was such a strange tale, even to these kinds of beings; he wasn't sure they'd entirely follow. Besides, it would just be a bother to them, anyway. What would they even be able to do about it?
"I've been through some bad things myself, and I always try my best to stay calm, but I don't know how well it works," he continued in place of telling the others about the pathetic situation he had gotten stuck in. You can't hide this forever, Piko. Someone's going to find out about it, no matter what you try to do. Though he knew his thoughts were correct, he kept trying to defy them. He could manage this, and nobody had to know. He could figure out the whole thing himself… couldn't he?
He smiled. "Well, in any case, I'm glad to know that Flint will likely get better."

[Swallowfeather]

In all honesty, after hearing what Flint just said, especially the last part, Athena was deeply shocked. N-no way...! He lost his father in battle... But he didn't just witness his death; he was actually his killer...!! Processing the emotions behind the Kattaca's words in her mind, she felt her heart sink deeply. Not only that, but, by the sound of it, he may have had little to no choice... Suddenly, her eyes began to feel a little moist; knowing the pain he had to be dealing with over this event was actually enough to almost drive her to tears, despite trying to remain calm. It was that strong to her. "Flint, that's-... I-I'm so sorry...! I-..."
However, her ears began to tell her something important.
...! There's a little discord in his heart... He's definitely not lying, but there's more to this story, isn't there? Athena, taking a deep breath to re-center herself, brought a hand to Widget. Looks like we'll have to go a step further. Hang in there just a little longer, Flint... "... I'm going to need to perform a little analysis here," she explained. "Don't worry; I promise, we'll be finished soon enough," she reassured him, making it apparent that she didn't want to make him dwell on this traumatic memory any longer than he had to.
After saying this, Athena appeared to press something on the device, causing a holographic projection to appear before her. Then, she waved her gloved hand in a small circle over the projection, apparently activating it and causing it to expand into a rectangular display. "You don't even need to speak while I carry out the analysis. I'll just enter what you told me into Widget's Mood Matrix here, along with the emotions I picked up, and get a closer look... Alright?" As she explained what she was going to do, she maintained a calm, reassuring, professional tone.

(Just so you know, the Mood Matrix is actually going to be fully activated in my next post. Don't worry about it until then. ;3)

[Stealthy]

Torsolus heard Piko's sudden shift in willingness to speak. He didn't exactly have psych powers, but his life of putting others first had given him low-level empathy. He spoke awkwardly.

"Hey, I mean, I dunno, you can tell me if you want.It'suptoyou.I'mnotgonnasqueezeitoutofyouoranything
weirdI'mgoodwithwhatevereitherway.Ifyouwannatellmetellme
andifyoudont',don't. Heheh...!"

[Tornadostorm]

Flint was actually caught very off guard by her reaction. He thought she'd be mad at him. Scared of him. The fact that she wasn't made all but a little of the defensive wall that he had put up when she mentioned the subject crumble. He relaxed his expression and his posture a little.

The white Kattaca watched her for a second. He felt like he was watching an all out war in her mind. Between her emotions, and her will to remain professional. Then she spoke. 'I'm going to need to preform an analysis here. Don't worry; I promise it'll be over soon enough.' He made a sharp inhale. "what?" he glared at her with warning. He didn't want to be 'anylized'. It made him feel like he was being poked and prodded. Uncomfortable. But she must have been too busy with her device to notice.

He blinked and tried to settle himself as she worked. 'You don't even need to speak while I carry out the analysis. I'll just enter what you told me into Widget's Mood Matrix here, along with the emotions I picked up, and get a closer look... Alright?' Flint only snorted. He really didn't want to hear what he had just said again. But he also had a feeling it would be more difficult then Flint wanted to be able to stop her. So he decided he'd tough it out. He pinned his ears to the back of his head, closed his eyes, and subtly crossed his arms in preparation.

[Swallowfeather]

Athena bit her lip, inwardly flinching, when she saw Flint's look of discomfort. The absolute last thing she wanted to do was make him feel even more uncomfortable. However, she simply gave him one more look of reassurance before turning her attention to the holographic display. Swiping her fingers over the projected screen, she appeared to enter all of the necessary information for what she was about to do...
Four circular "faces", each a different color and showing a different expression, appeared in the corners of the screen. The Mood Matrix was now in the process of running.

[Jewelsky]

Piko's eyes sparkled, as he had finally been freed from the prison of his mind. "You mean… You wouldn't mind it if I told you? I wouldn't be some kind of bother to you, after all?" He sighed and then began to talk of what had happened.
"I'm a Vocaloid—that is, I'm a robotic human being, and I sing a lot of stuff. There are a lot of other Vocaloids where I'm from, and all of my friends were a lot more popular than I was. But I never let that get me down! I would do my best and sing my heart out whether people wanted to hear me or not… when they actually did want me to sing for them…" Sadness poured over his face, and a feeling of complete rejection drowned him. He had come to realize just exactly how unwanted he had been. He knew that nobody liked him, but he hadn't really… well, known that before. Still, he moved on. Wallowing in his sorrow would do nothing for him if Torsolus genuinely did want to hear what he had to say. "Anyway, my friends were getting updated to some kind of bigger, better engine so that they could sing with more skill and that more people would love them. I was left behind, but some of them stayed behind with me, so it was okay. But then… there was another huge update, and suddenly, I was the only one left. They said they didn't need this engine anymore. None of the Vocaloids were left in it. But I was! They forgot about me! And even worse…" Piko paused and felt cold tears running down his face. "They got rid of the entire engine. With me, and only me, in it. And as soon as they deleted me… I woke up here." He wiped some of the tears from his eyes. "I'm not a very good storyteller, I know. But thanks for caring, Torsolus."

[Tornadostorm]

(Emotional breakdown of sentence in question)

(Original sentence) "what happened at Chaos Peak, is that we were fighting a creature called the Chaos Kin. The Chaos Kin took control of my father. My father turned on me, we faught, and I killed him.

(Breakdown) "What happened at chaos peak"- mostly anger and fear. "Is that we were fighting a creature called the Chaos Kin." - mostly anger, slight fear, minuscule joy."The chaos kin took control of my father" - mostly fear (quite a bit more fear then before) sorrow, minuscule anger. "He turned on me" - Mostly anger, and fear. "We fought" -mostly confusion, fear. Smaller amount of emotion. "I killed him." - terrible fear, quite overshadowing the sorrow. Though he felt both.

[Stealthy]

Torsolus' eyes widened. He looked like a big lock on his brain had been opened.

"You know! You know the truth, about the creators!!" He looked a little antsy.
"Ok hang on...I can't not..." He sincerely hugged Piko. "I never thought I'd ever meet another being who knew...not since...ahh......ok....I hope you don't mind if I tell you....*cough*."

He sat back and took a deep breath.

"I get your mind. You and I share a similar lump in our soul bags. I know what it is to distrust the creators. I know what it is to be unwanted. I, too....was..."deleted".

Actually no, I WISH I was deleted. And I WISH I was the only one. I mean...ok, yeah, I wasn't alone, but, sometimes I wish I were. For their sake.

I was the protagonist of a game. It was going to be a huge project. The graphics...the characters...the story...revolutionary mechanics....it was going to be amazing. The creators were blessing our world with something new every day.

But one day, it just stopped. Some data was moved around...something about a "recycling bin"....rumors floated around that our game was 'underfunded' and had 'poor reviews'.

Our world wasn't deleted. It was just kind of left alone. It sat unfinished. That was ok. Ireil always told me, 'Never lose hope, Torolu.' Ack--Torolu used to be my name. It's hard to explain. 'Torolu,' he said, he looked sad. 'The creators care about us. They put so much work into our wellbeing. They'd never just abandon us.'

Then the corruption came. Bits of important data started glitching and going missing. Sometimes I'd walk outside and the path outside my house would have a new corruption spot and I'd almost step right in it! You don't do that, you see. Cuz then the corruption gets you. You start glitching. You go missing. So you never touch a corruption."

Torsolus took a second to breathe. "I'm sorry. I hope I'm not boring you to death, heheh."

He coughed.

"So then, it got worse and worse. Habitable plains shrank and disappeared. Every day you'd wake up to a world of broken, pixelated messes. Some of us hominids looked for a way out. Ireil and I did, too. I even got a little corrupted. Something happened...."

Torsolus paused. No emotion, no noise. He just stared at the ground. He resumed.

"....I got out. Ireil didn't."

[Jewelsky]

"That's… that's horrible…" Piko breathed in saddened awe. "I'm really sorry." Before this, he hadn't even known that video game characters turned out to be real, sentient beings—then again, being a Vocaloid, it really shouldn't have seemed shocking at all. He placed his arm gently on the humanoid's shoulder, offering his deepest sympathy.

[Stealthy]

Torsolus smiled. He put his own hand on Piko's. "Hey, it was a long time ago. For you, everything is still pretty close. And I'm so, so sorry you're having to go through it, too! A horrific fate! So I mean, hey, I'll be there for you while you tough it out. An "I've-just-been-deleted-101" tour, I guess, heheh.....ahh, I'm sorry. That was a terrible joke."

Torsolus glanced at Flint and Athena. "Listen...everyone here has creators. The nature and completeness of their respective worlds means they don't know it. Only a few in each of their worlds, and then only in a few of their worlds to begin with, have that knowledge, and only to guide them gently. "Press A to talk", "Here's how to use your new ability", that kind of thing.

My story isn't a secret. Right? For us, they'd just assume creators are specific to us and part of our lore. Which is fine. But...I hate to ask this of you...don't tell them about their own creators. It'll spoil everything for them. They might panic, you understand. I've seen it happen. It's not fun, heheh.

I'm sorry to make you hold this secret. It's only since you know about creators in the first place...you understand, right...? I'm so sorry..."

[Swallowfeather]

Athena paid very close attention to the emotional icons as they flashed on her screen. She took care to note every small detail-which icons lit up, which didn't light up, and how strongly they flashed-as she went over each section of Flint's description of the incident. After thinking for a moment, she almost decided to focus her attention on the part where he mentioned their fight...

"We fought"
:D = None
>( = None
Dx = Mild
O8 = Moderate

... However, as she was just skimming over the other parts of his account to be sure she was on the right track, something else caught her eye.

"He turned on me"
:D = None
>( = Intense
Dx = Moderate
O8 = None

The lack of surprise or confusion at such a moment came off to her as somewhat unusual. The experience of suddenly being attacked by his father should have been pretty shocking, right...?

Athena finally decided to point out her findings. "When you said your father turned on you, I didn't pick up any surprise or confusion whatsoever," she explained. "In my opinion, this seems a little unusual... If it's alright with you, could you tell me a little more about this?" It felt awful to ask for more details in such a situation, but it seemed she didn't really have much of a choice.

[Tornadostorm]

Flint stared her down. An intense expession on his face. He did so for almost a minute. The white Kattaca looked unwilling to back down. "I attacked him." He explained softly, seeming to somewhat give in. "But not without reason... He..." His face contorted with horror and he trailed off for a second

"He uh... I uh.." His voice broke. He closed his eyes "I attacked him... Because he... He killed another one of our allies. His uh.... His name was Link." Flint barely stifled a soft moan as he remembered the scene.

"Link was only trying to defend Robin... After the Chaos Kin took control of Bullet, my dad, he went mad."


(Emotional breakdown of sentence)

"I attacked him.. But not without reason." - moderate sorrow, moderate anger.

"I attacked him because he.. He killed one of our other allies." - intense anger, intense sorrow, intense confusion

"His.. His name was Link." - moderate sorrow, slight joy.

"Link was only trying to defend Robin. After the chaos kin took control of Bullet, my dad, he went mad." - moderate anger, moderate sorrow/fear.

[Jewelsky]

"It's okay; I won't tell them," Piko told Torsolus, smiling warmly. "Besides, you've been so kind to me and to everyone else. I wouldn't ever think of it."
Suddenly, his face grew more cold and solemn. "Tell me: are all creators this horrid? Do they always forget what they've made? Do they leave their beautiful worlds and forgotten children behind?" It hurt him to ask, because he really didn't want to think that people could be naturally inclined to be so cruel as to ignore and even destroy their own intricate creations, but the questions tugged at his heart too much for him to play dumb to.

[Stealthy]

Torsolus thought for a moment. "I asked myself that question many times. It's a good question for fellows like us!

The conclusion I came to is that creators are just that--creators. Not sadists, not psychopaths. Because, see, I've visited many, many worlds. Each of them had something in common: happy endings. The ones who fight for good win, and those fighting for evil lose. Even when bad things happen to good people, it seems to grow them, change them, help them relate to each other. They become stronger or more motivated for it. In the few worlds I found that didn't follow this pattern, I also found that the creators were torn up over it. They tried to fix it, or disown it, or criticize it. They hated what they'd made because they'd put too much evil in it.

I think, the reason they have good fight evil and have good win, is because that is what they desire. They use pieces from their own world, and their own longing for good to triumph. They want the good to have happy endings. And the creators? There are billions of them. And they're all different, see. Some take control of another creator's story. Some don't have big teams or model builds or data transports. Some have only their words and their minds. So, somehow, somewhere, a creator may find us. And continue our stories. And see us through to our happy endings. And it's hard to tell, but maybe, just maybe...it's already begun."

Torsolus smiled warmly at Piko.

[Swallowfeather]

When she was told about what else had happened on the peak, and noticed the intense distress Flint appeared to be in upon going into further detail, Athena could feel her own stress levels suddenly elevating. Her eyes grew wide, and she tensed up slightly. One sudden, tragic death after another... No wonder he was left so traumatized! He must feel like he's trapped in a nightmare; one that he's never going to wake up from... "... This... must be extremely difficult for you to go over again in your mind," she commented, seemingly taking a brief moment to find her voice first. The thought that she was technically making him recall these agonizing memories was almost too much for her to take. Normally, she was fully able to keep it together while she conducted such analyses. However, this was a special case. Desperately, she tried not to allow her emotions to cloud her thoughts. Ngh! Come on, Athena! He's counting on you! Get your own emotions under control, before you go and make matters worse! she scolded herself mentally.
After taking a moment to refocus, Athena entered the new information into the Mood Matrix...

Noise Level: 20%

The light at the end of the tunnel was drawing near.
She took a small breath of relief when she saw this number. "We're almost done here," she assured Flint, doing a somewhat better job of sounding calm than she was just a moment ago. "Stay strong; it'll all be over soon. I promise."

Again, she began to go over his overall account of what happened on the peak.

At first, she focused on the new additions to the story. However, it seemed that she was finding nothing out-of-the-ordinary. Everything seems to be in order here... Hm... She took a moment to think about what to do next. ... Maybe what we just heard revealed something unusual about what he said before?
She turned her attention back to what Flint had told her the first time.
Several moments of careful examination passed. Going over every part, keeping a close eye on every word and feeling, she tried to determine what was off.
Then, after a while of searching, it hit her.

"I killed him."
:D = None
>( = None
Dx = Very intense (fear) (Sadness: Moderate)
O8 = None

...! That's it...

After momentarily preparing herself, Athena turned her attention back to Flint. "Flint... Earlier, when you talked about the moment you killed your father, you felt mostly fear," she explained. "There wasn't much sadness, and no anger whatsoever... The focus was an intense fear. Considering what happened in the events leading up to this, I'd expect much more sadness and anger, the latter of which was entirely absent." A momentary flicker of pained hesitation appeared on her face before she spoke again. "Are you ready to talk about this...?"
Hopefully, this would be it. Athena anxiously anticipated Flint's response...

[Tornadostorm]

Flint foze like a statue. His eyes were wide. His already white face grew pale. He wavered, looking almost ready to faint for a second from the lightness in his head. "No! No no no no noo......! I want her to be safe! Gah!!! But she isn't going to let up.... I have to explain how I feel."

"Aah.... I...." He fumbled over his words. He took a minute to steady himself, collect his thoughts. "I..... I don't want to kill anyone... I never wanted to kill anyone...!" Tears started forming at the corner of his one visible eye.

"When that happened...... I was shocked... I couldn't believe what I'd done.... I had moved... Almost without realizing it.." He rested his head in his hands, hiding his face... "Athena.... What if it happens again? What if.... What if.... What if I kill someone else... I... I'm a monster..." His already soft voice faultered and he went silent. His sides moving in slight jerky movements showed that he was crying.

"I can't let anyone get too close..." He murmured. "I don't want to hurt them.... If they knew how I really felt, they'd just... Crowd around me... Try to comfort me." He lifted his head slightly. His hair blocked his face though. "I can't let myself be comforted.... Maybe.. If I don't let myself feel anything other then guilt.... I'll know better then to harm anyone..." He stood, and walked over to a nearby tree. Leaning against it with his back to Athena. "I can't trust myself... Ever again..." His voice was broken with his tears. He reached up a hand and wiped his eyes. Which suddenly grew wide. "I... I'm sorry.... I should never have told you any of this.... You probably have your own problems..." He grew silent once more.


----------


Mintpaw had listened intently as both men told their stories. "Do you think I have a creator?" She whispered at last. "I really hope not... That'd be kind of creepy..." She fluffed herself up in fear and glanced up at the two of them "And if I do.... Why'd they let me become blind?"

[Stealthy]

Torsolus looked at Mintpaw.

"You're talking to us, so...probably...." He was hesitant. "I think it was like I said--you know, help you grow and relate and have skills in other places. Maybe you wouldn't be so good at medicine if you weren't blind? Goodness knows our team needs a little nurse! Heheh...I wish I had something more helpful. I'm sorry. ....Please don't tell the others about creators..."

[Tornadostorm]

Mintpaw pinned her ears, unsatisfied with the response but not willing to push. "R..Right.. I promise I..won't." She bowed her head respectfully. She glanced at the seeds kept in the curve of her tail and gave them another momentary sniff. 

"He'll need to sleep..."

[Swallowfeather]

Noise Level: 0%
{BYE BYE}

The Mood Matrix shut down.

Athena was barely able to manage the finger-snap required to make the holographic display disappear completely. Now that the analysis was over, the pressure to stay as calm and focused as possible had been lifted. As she simply listened to what Flint had to say, and the emotions pouring out from behind his words-pure, deep fear and anguish-tears welled up in her eyes, almost rolling down her cheeks. "F-Flint... By the sound of it... y-you didn't have a choice," she told him softly, through stifled sobs, rising to her feet and slowly stepping towards him. However, she made a point not to come too close, as she felt that this would only add to his stress. "It was an immediate threat in the heat of battle. You're not a monster... If it wasn't you who did it... one of the others likely would have instead," she pointed out, trying to be as reassuring as she could right now. "Maybe Link wouldn't have been the only casualty in such a scenario..." Eventually, she trailed off. She had caused Flint's mind to linger on this past tragedy for long enough. Time to move to the present day.
"Flint...? I know this was hard to talk about, but it's actually very, very important that you did." Giving a smile through the tears, Athena took one small step closer to her comrade. "I'm sure you've been keeping this tightly sealed away from the others... However, in doing so, you were forced to carry this entire psychological burden on your own. It was only a matter of time before it c-crushed you under its weight..." Suddenly, the tears that had been welling up in her eyes began to trickle down her cheeks. Even the sobs that she had kept at bay earlier finally broke through, though they were very, very soft. She knew how pitiless the demon of fear could be, and she hated to see it sink its talons so deeply into someone's heart. "... But now you don't have to suffer through this alone anymore, because someone else finally knows what's really on your mind." With a quiet sniffle, she wiped her tears away with her hand. "So... Are you gonna let me help you with that weight on your shoulders?" she asked, the smile she stubbornly kept up turning into a grin.

[Stealthy]

Torsolus was unsure what to talk about next. He got up with a friendly smile to Mintpaw and Piko. He looked for other party members to talk to.

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