Zodai

Alright, I'm 2,271 words in myself. This seems like something that might take some degree of time, and I'll be keeping a close eye on the specific deadline of seven days/168 hours from the original challenge post. Generally it should be well enough, though week 2 ended a day before the scheduled end from my timezone, so it helps to clarify our understanding. For now, here's the first chapter. It should suffice as an entry in the event the remaining text is not complete in due time. If the formatting makes it hard to read, let me know and I can send you the source document over email. The increased font size is for the sake of readability, let me know if I should change it back. ~~~ --Chapter 1. Visnovellian Night. The First Symphony. April 16th, 11:30 PM. Half an hour until the date changes, and that shit informant still hasn’t arrived. Where the fuck is he? We were supposed to meet here an hour ago! I could be at the brothel right now! I could be having drunken sex! Do you realize how rarely I get to do that!? The lamp on the other side of the street is flickering between light and dark. Howling wind blows across the road and kicks up the dirt at my feet. One by one, the windows go black as the few remaining everymen turn in for the night. Except for that guy on the third floor, though. Why do you keep going after my daughter? Get your own for once! A field of stars twinkles in the sky up above. I’m usually indoors this time of night, so it isn’t often I get to see them like this. Like the far-off cities to the north, a sea of lights outside of a man’s wildest imaginations, sitting there in plain sight. A miracle of the world, passed by without so much as a glance. 28 minutes to midnight. The Clock Tower of the Golden Witch shines just as bright as ever. High above every other building in view, like a sparkling beacon to those prancing fuckwits in the shiny clothes. Chances are they’re drunk as usual. Golden drapes adorn the tower with a fine sheen, and if you looked closely enough you could see spots of blood on the walls, artifacts past of one of their crazy ‘games.’ You would be hard-pressed to find an actual corpse nearby, though. My blade rests firmly in its sheathe, tied to my waist and ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Were this last month I’d have my gun as well, but some fuckwit decided to mess around with it and it blew up in his face. My hair rests in front of my eyes (I hate those fucking haircuts) and my mustache rests upon my lips (I fucking hate shaving) like a migrant worm begging for warmth. My body is covered in a black trenchcoat – useful for keeping out of view, but I’ve been standing here for so damn long my legs are going to snap if they don’t get to kick someone. The rest of my clothes isn’t really worth mentioning – a brown shirt with long sleeves, and some black pants I bought last Christmas. They’re sturdy and can take a punch, but aside from that aren’t really exceptional in any way. Footsteps. Someone’s coming. I duck into the alleyway for a moment, and peer over the wall to get a good look. A young man, about four years younger than me. A brown coat like something out of a Sherlock movie and a black ponytail waving around behind his head. Sweat drops from his face and his breath is in short spasms. The kind of man who trips over his own shoelaces at least four times a day, then stops to tie them together in the middle of a barfight. Is that the informant? He seems kind of small. He’s wearing a red scarf like the informant said he would, but I can’t tell if he’s actually the one. Where has he been all this time? “Karkhan! Mr. Karkhan!” The boy screams out into the night. And then, he reels backwards and falls to the floor. Because I punched him in the face. My fist reels back into position. “Rule number one. Do not make me fucking wait.” I look down at him two feet back, flailing around on the ground with blood coming out his nose. The guy started squirming around like a worm burrowing back into the ground. What the hell? He’s starting to get up, but he still looks like something I’d have flushed down the toilet right now. “U-um…I would much prefer if you didn’t do that again, Mr. Karkhan.” He said. I step close and shove myself into his face. “Rule number two. There are very few people who can call me by my last name, and you aren’t one of them. I don’t want that shit spoken anywhere in a hundred miles from me. Understood?” “Y-Yes, Raevan. Understood.” If memory serves me, the kid’s name is Johnathan. Johnathan Hendriat. The guy couldn’t harm a fly if he tried and his only redeeming quality is how easily he can hop around without getting himself killed. Our second time cooperating together since the start of the new year. First time we ended up running around with some underground mafia conspiracy – his wife and daughter abandoned ship after I said the guy had died in a car accident, and wouldn’t you know it the guy shows up in a full-body cast at my doorstep a month later. He has a knack for proving people wrong about that shit. If you thought it was impossible, he’s probably done it. And who needs the family, anyway? His wife was even more of a shit than mine! “So, what is it? I’ve been waiting here all day so you’d better make damn sure it’s important. Feels like my balls are freezing off here.” I mean that as literally as possible without putting my masculinity in danger. It’s the middle of spring but for all I know it could start snowing any fucking second. “M-My apologies, I was deciphering the texts and didn’t notice the time, and then there was the dragon and my taxi was late-Anyway, come with me! There isn’t much time left!” The kid runs off before I can grab him. “What the hell are you talking about!?” The shit talks so fast I can barely hear him, and he dashes down the alleyway like a rabid squirrel who just drank a lifetime supply of coke. “The dragon! It’s here!” “Are you in middle school, you little shit? Where are you going!?” Are you shitting me? Are you fucking shitting me? This is the kind of shit I tell my daughter so she doesn’t wander into the brothel! What the hell is he talking about!? Johnathan runs up the steps to the fourth-story balconies. The wood creaks and bends under our feet as we dash past. The window drapes are blowing around in the air and clothes hung out to dry hangs above the streets below. We’re making so much damn noise I’m surprised the whole city isn’t up in arms over us. “I’m serious! It’s almost here!” The kid’s eyes are lit up like a fucking lighthouse of all things. “Could you stop running and tell me what the fuck it is you’re talking about!?” “I’m talking about a dragon!” “THEY DON’T FUCKING EXIST, SHITHEAD!” “Well you didn’t spend all night on those documents, did you?” “I DON’T FUCKING CARE, THEY DON’T FUCKING EXIST!” The sound of the golden bells rings across the town. The Clock Tower of the Golden Witch looms high into the sky. Midnight has come, as the last remaining vestiges of the night fall into silence. The stars shine brightly in the sky, brighter than anything human hands could ever have created. Sparkling above like an incontainable force that, no matter how we may try, holds a power that cannot be held. April 17th, 12:00 AM. Midnight. It’s about this time that all the night owls head to bed, and all the brothels stop accepting new customers to give the overnight fuckers some peace. The time where modern society loses its focus, and the world regresses to its most base form under the cover of the dark. Nobody can hear your cries, and nobody can hear you scream. Such is the nature of the depths of the night. A roar. A terrifying howl from beasts unknown, unheard of by the reasoning of modern society. Like the cry of a banshee the size of ten-thousand men, a titan unmatched by human potential. A deep, penetrating roar that sends shockwaves through the city and would drive a mortal man to insanity. A paralyzing chill runs through my spine like a single bullet, and the bones in my body tense up with an indescribable strength beyond mortal comprehension. “It’s here, it’s here, it’s here!” Johnathan runs ahead like a toddler on Christmas morning. That damn ponytail is fluttering about and his speed increases even faster than it was before. Keep running, my body says to me. If you don’t, you’ll miss the main event. It cries out like a child desperate to satisfy his curiosity. My feet run ahead with momentum far beyond my ability to stop it, as if the hands of fate itself have pushed me onto a path of no return. It isn’t that our fate is pre-determined, it’s simply that our ignorance doesn’t allow us any other choices. And so, at long last. Our tale has finally begun. The green beast rushes forth. Emerald scales cover its body like the finest jewels, and its’ eyes a raging fire that has burned from the moment of its birth. Great wings, each large enough to cover a two-story building, flap back and forth with an effortless motion. Each gust of wind pushes it forward, flying through the air as an explosion of air blasts out behind it. A single one would be enough to destroy a small building if the events of the night were not commanded to stay hidden. The inhabitants of the town stay asleep in their beds, unaware of the majestic beast bursting forth right outside their doors. “Gangamamer. The mythical beast of new beginnings.” Johnathan’s voice is barely audible. His eyes are transfixed too strongly to speak. The beast is real. There’s no other explanation for this. No figment of mere imagination could cause one’s body to tremble so strongly, to strike fear in one’s heart with such simple movements. And yet, only something outside of our known reality could be so beautiful to begin with. A blind man would call it a nightmare. A deaf man would call it a treasure. But nobody can ignore the beast’s immense power, at a scale unheard of by all of mortal society. The clock tower’s golden glow reflects off the creature’s emerald skin. Each individual scale a great emerald in its own right. Even a single one could buy a small country if you found someone willing to purchase it. The dragon rushes across the air with such speed, and yet there is not a scratch on a single one. It deftly turns across the buildings, like the swiftest eagle in all the world, rushing across the town without so much as glancing the buildings with its’ skin. I’m surprised we’re able to keep up. We’re probably only able to see it because this isn’t anything more than a midnight stroll. The thought that something could move even faster threatens to snap my mind in two, but no other explanation comes to mind no matter how hard I think. Gangamamer. It’s here. Right before our eyes. A fucking dragon. Can you believe this shit? This is the kind of stuff people tell their kids so they don’t fuck something up. Children’s tales, nothing more. Lies and follies to get the little brats to behave instead of running around the city like mindless midgets. It’s not supposed to even exist in the first place. If you’re going to choose something to turn into a real thing, why not choose something easier? Like a little fucking fairy that goes around flashing her tits to growing adolescents or a little elf that delivers beer to people’s houses? But this? A fucking dragon, of all things? What are you on? Of all the mythical creatures in the land, this is the one you decide to bring to life? A fucking DRAGON? Did you smoke too much pot today, you little shit? Did you leave your sanity at the door and lock yourself up with little girls until you found something that sounded like a good idea? The beast rushes forward. With one final flap of its wings, it bursts into the air. The dragon blasts into the sky, disappearing once more. Faintly blinking off in the distance, until it joins the starts high up in the sky. I stop, and rest my feet. How long was I running for? I don’t know. My vision is blurry and full of dust, and my ears ring and ring like there’s no end in sight. It’s like I’m drowning in my own sweat with my legs threatening to snap in two if I take so much as another step. Johnathan plasters his body along the floor. His fingers are twitching like they have a torrent of energy with nowhere to go. His breathing is repetitive and loud, but his eyes haven’t dimmed since the moment we first laid eyes on it. They’re twinkling like the brightest stars in the sky. I open my mouth after a few minutes’ rest. “So, you little shit. When the hell is that thing showing up again?” There’s a bit of time before his reply, caught between desperate breasts as he tries to fill his lungs. “Don’t know yet. It’ll be a long time before the whole document is deciphered.” “Well, see if you can sort it soon. We’ll need it.” “Oh? You actually took an interest in it?” He genuinely looks kind of surprised. “Damn fucking straight, kid.” I smirk. “We’re going to catch that bastard. One way or another.” And so, the first night comes to an end. Our story has begun.

At this point I've begun to stop assuming I'll finish everything I get. Personally I say we've been so focused on value and maximum playtime that it's actually making games less fun because we're looking at them from a completionist perspective. If we keep playing it should be because the game has done enough to engage us, not because we feel we're not getting our money's worth if we don't. Makes them less fun as a whole when we should probably use that time playing games that are more worthwhile on their foundations alone.

I OBJECT! GTA'S PS3 Version does not have first-person view! THEREFORE, THE AFOREMENTIONED EVENTS COULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED! *THUNDERCLAP*

SHOOWWWWWWWW USSSS!!

Yes, it was good. Takes a bit to really get started, but it's good.

I saw Birdman last night, and that it was WEIRD AS FUCK. Seriously, that's some Umineko-level shit right there, if I do say so myself.

I think I'm going to wait until one of the Steam Sales to grab it for me. Probably the Summer sale, or maybe the Spring one if I think it's cheap enough at the moment.

Link not found, seems you gotta fix it.

How about the torrent stuff? Did you remember to stop seeding and set it to read-only? That's the only thing I can think of that might be related but I can't say for sure. I'll be following the thread. This is a rare case that genuinely interests me. Good luck.

Confession: I want to make a heart-felt reply but the only thing that comes to mind is 'Congrats on the sex.' How are things moving forward? Does this mean you'll be seeing her more often then? What of the other relatives? How is everyone else reacting?

Question! How will this impact OELVNs with threads on Fuwa? Are the OELVN projects part of the LC as well? Probably not, though it's good to ask, but how will communication between the OELVN devs and the LC be handled? What kinds of things would need to be discussed between the two to get things moving smoothly?

No, TBH most of the original art is quite difficult to look at. You could probably get used to it if you tried hard enough but it's easier to just use the console port sprites.

Thank you. I'll try to get it up soon. ~~~ WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT! I HAVE COME TO ANOTHER REALIZATION! Can it reference scenes that are implied to possibly take place in the future, even if they didn't or might not happen at all? I'm probably over-worrying since it isn't a strict one but I can't say for sure. ><;; ~~~ IT HAS BEEN COMPLETED! I REPEAT, IT HAS BEEN COMPLETED! I'm not entirely sure if this is in coordination with the rules or not, but if it's not I can quickly do something else. If it is, then hopefully this does well.