SUNDAY JULY 31ST, 2011
(Ground and Pound)

12:22 AM
Buck wasn't ready to go in yet, so we agreed to scout ahead.
Past the drawbridge, past a dark entrance tunnel, the ceiling gives way to an open-air interior inside the castle walls.
A fleet of stables on our left, a whole cottage industry of dyes and textiles on our right. Tubs of goop big enough for several to stand in.
Few people were still around, having heard the fight going on at their front door. There were some old women, horns on their heads too, stomping their feet in the goop, and some making odd crafts, who eyed us with disdain but paid us no more attention.
The faint thumping of Legsteps caused a woman to raise her fist at the air and shout something in a foreign language. Probably a curse, a demand to turn the music off.
We've found no guards yet, though. No cause for hostility.
Donnie took a look at the stables and found perfectly ordinary horses, goats, pigs. But there's also one other type of animal she'd never seen before, looked like a big cat with udders.
Taking the left turn to reach the stables, then turning right again, we're faced with a long path lain with red carpet, passing four big doors on both sides, leading up to a door as big as the castle entrance. That's the keep with the big spire. I'm pretty sure that's where our boss battle's hiding.
The door will not open for us. No door will, in fact.
So, we're in a big open-roof h. Entered on the bottom-right. Stables on the bottom-left. The textile workers are in the curve on the right. Final stretch is top-left. And, this being a castle, the tall walls have battlements where I keep expecting to see guards looking down on us from above.
But nothing.
No dead bodies lining the streets. No massive instruments of war staring us down to shoot flaming cannonballs. No crowd of people gathered around wizards warning against witchcraft, pointing at us in righteous indignation. I was even partly expecting an entire army of giant halberd horsemen, looking angrily in our direction, as soon as we came in.
Donnie and I took the peace as an opportunity to rest up. We found a pile of hay and sat together, taking in the sights, watching the black grid in the sky drift slowly in a direction, like clouds.
We settled on our plan for the Cipher: We'd get to the king, maybe ahead of Buck if at all possible, and explain our situation. We'd neutralize Buck together and ask the king for a way out. My sword's gotta be good for something.
Then we got to talking about the history mentioned in parchment 3.
This world went through a red sky. A 'plague' came through their doors. It dethroned their-- took their God, and turned an entire kingdom into walking piles.
Neither of us is sure whether that's the fate that awaits our world, but it's gotta be talking about the same kind of thing.
This kingdom went through the Rapture.
And our gods are frightened for their lives.

12:32 AM
Buck has joined us.
"Did you two see that creepy fuckin' hallway on the way in, off to the side?"
Creepy hallway? o_o

12:36 AM
Back at the entrance, in the dark entrance tunnel, we had obviously passed an open door. Looking through it, there's just a distant lantern on a table on the other side of black passage.

12:37 AM
As we approach the table, we can hear something whirring and tapping. Music preparing to drop.
The table has a piece of parchment on it, and a lever.
"Good cavaliers.
You stand within Castle True.
After the plague that befell my land, I had my most trusted diseuse cast her Rhetorics on the castle to disguise its nature, as mine people deserved not to have to see themselves as they now had become. However, only the true are permitted entrance to my throne room, and so my door is sealed as long as the disguise holds. You will have to see what lies beneath the veil.
Once you pull that lever, it will begin.
Can you put a price on peace?"
...we're looking at each other.
the music is. bubbling under the surface.
Donnie's reaching for the lever.

12:39 AM
hard guitars. chugging monotone.
blasting drums. syncopated.
freaky shrieking synth.
techno horror metal.
the lights are on. electric bulbs.
now we see the bodies. lining the walls.
they're melted together. people fused at the hip. the head. the arm. the chest. some bodies going through others', some bodies terminating where the next person's body begins. and not a single cut, it's all unbroken skin.
their eyes are open, looking at us. mouths agape, unable to shut.
they are the walls. feet touching the floor.
buck threw up a little.
let's. let's go.

12:40 AM
on the way out, a leg tripped donnie. we grabbed her and pulled her the rest of the way, doing our best to ignore the arms reaching out.
out in the main entrance hall, it's not much better.
the walls here are breathing in and out. not quite regular, but that's worse, that makes it pretty clear there's a will inside there, consciously breathing.
going out into the castle proper, can already see the sky is no longer a grid. it's just bruise and a texture like congealed liquids that don't mix. makes me think of bile and blood pooling around bits of cartilage. no grid. no order.
the castle is shrieking. the old women were leaving us alone out of necessity, as their lower halves are melted into the fleshy ground. they look like slugs. there are guards, plenty of guards, but they were absorbed into the ground, and now they emerge, pushed out by peristalsis, also with melted lower halves, frozen to the spot, only able to move their arms, which they use to aim their bows. I don't want to make out the expressions on their faces, there is no good option.
donnie "let's. get to the. throne room. now."
buck "don't have to tell me twice." big sigh, steeling himself.

12:44 AM
those arrows are not wood, nor steel, they are sharpened teeth.
buck has tipped over a vat of.. clothes dye??? and lifted it over the three of us to form a shield.
one of the old women cursed at us. her mouth opened wider than the vat. I thought she was going to swallow us. instead she launched black phlegm which missed us and sizzled into the ground, bubbling and melting a hole.
go. go. go.
gotta round the corner. get past the... stables.
that's a giant liquid mass of animal. neighing, braying, growling, all at once. body parts swim around in the mass freely.
it's pressing against the gates.
the gates will not hold.
but they're holding long enough for us to read another piece of parchment.
"Good cavaliers.
The red sky brought us a plague of flesh."

12:49 AM
The gates burst.
Goop barrelled out, the animals inside pulling the mass in every direction, ultimately resulting in a writhing flood charging back and forth, hitting the walls again and again. The force of a flood combined with the panic of a stampede of confused animals.
We fucking ran. Ditched the vat.
The mass spilled onto the red carpet first, so we had to turn back and push our way into the peasants' quarters behind the textiles and dyes, slipping past the immobile old women screaming in terror.
A doorway gave way into an interior of yet more gross suffering. Greeting us were more people plastered into growths on the walls, but at least the door shut behind us.

12:50 AM
"guh!"
oh. there's a blacksmith here, one foot fused with his anvil. he's. he's still able to move with it, dragging it screechingly across the floor.
his eyes are frantic, bloodshot. his beard is crusted to his apron.
he wields a large hammer.
and we don't have much space to dodge him without getting within reach of the arms and mouths on the walls.
buck shouted "FUCK THIS!" and grabbed at the blacksmith's hammer.
he can't disarm the smith. it is his arm.
"YOU FUCKING ABOMINATIONS"
"grah!!!!"
hammer broke buck's leg.
okay. donnie. this is easy. there's three of us, and now the blacksmith is distracted. stay calm. and rush him.

12:51 AM
"grrrggl"
sword through the chest. frying pan concussion.
only vomited a little afterwards.
buck thanked us. but I don't know what he can do with his dead leg.
"C'mon, kids... I can still fight!! It's nothing, just a leg!"
he's getting freaked because there is a serious opportunity here.
and we're.. not immediately reassuring him. just looking at each other.
sigh.

12:53 AM
Donnie and I just told him to rest up. We're not gonna leave him, not here. But we found a staircase, and we need to have a look around.
Up the stairs is the battlement, the path atop the castle walls. We have a good view of the scene below.
The rampaging animal thing has scarpered out the castle entrance, leaving a trail of gunk on all the destroyed crates and barrels and detritus. The guards up on the battlements are turned to watch the animals outside the castle, see what they get up to.
Donnie tapped my shoulder, pointed at a lookout tower nearby. She sees a parchment on the doorway.
We've got to get there. But we will have to pass a few guards, and we will be noticed.
..she's pointed at my sword.
Yeah, I guess that's fair.

12:54 AM
the sword slices through the guards like butter!
but all the other guards have noticed us and are taking aim
so donnie's trying to shield against the arrows with her frying pan
and I'm trying to hide behind dead guard bodies

12:55 AM
at least the music is fucking awesome

12:56 AM
hiding in the tower
tip tip tap tap tap
arrows hitting the wall
we made it alright
we still have to get back
but for now we're alright.
donnie, what does the parchment say.
"Good cavaliers.
An existence of pain and torment awaits all who dare challenge the terminal coming. The colossal sirens will sing your doom for the rest of your days, and those days will be long. Dost thou see them out there, encircling my castle? They play an infernal music that is eldritch to our ears. The music waiting for you will no doubt be worse, as every time the music must reprise, it has new values to incorporate, and a new understanding of 'music' to desecrate.
I have spent my later years wondering, in vain, why this is to be. What force stands to benefit from torturing my domain? Does it benefit from torturing thine as well? What laws fuel its sadism?
Your final challenge awaits just outside my throne room, in mine church. Remain mindful. I pray thou aren't digested on the way here."
Wait, but then what was this challenge?
donnie "'Remain mindful,' I suppose? The challenges inside the castle have been much more direct."

12:58 AM
It did ask if we see the sirens outside the castle. We're in a lookout tower. May as well look!
"Yeah, it's the Legsteps. I can see them. Are they breathing fire?"
marching, evenly-paced, along the bay. engulfed in an eternal flame as they blast out heavy screeching metal. the fire shoots out rhythmically, I suspect it's just being propelled by the force of the speakers.
"Better than dubstep, I guess, but so much more destructive. ..oh my god."
what
"Look at the moon."
...oh, that's not a moon. o_o That's an eyeball, staring right at the castle.
"It doesn't look like an animal's eye or an insect's or anything, it looks almost human."
But a lot more complex than a human's. Like this is what our eyes might evolve into, hundreds of thousands of years from now. Multiple layers of iris, veins rotating and interweaving in the white.
"The sky makes me feel like we're inside a giant organ, so that'd be an eyeball in the organ, monitoring--"
okay I don't want to think about that part.
"What, too gross?"
all of this is hitting on a deeper phobia of mine.
"This is how the denizens of this castle have had to live, though. No wonder they needed a veil over reality."
can we just go now?
"Back through the arrows?"
yeah. we've still got work to do.

1:01 AM
Back in the blacksmith's forge.
Had to pull an arrow out of my leg.
Buck's standing, using some wood as a makeshift crutch.

1:02 AM
We filled him in on where we have to go next. We're willing to defend him from incoming arrows, as it helps a lot to have a big dude with us.
He's.. starting to feel the fear.
We're not in a good spot.

1:03 AM
Donnie and I tipped over a wooden table and are holding it to shield us all, to the best of our abilities.
I don't expect this to work the whole way, but.
We've got to try.
We're nearly there.

1:07 AM
slow going, at buck's pace. we're not there yet. not rounding the corner yet, not at the red carpet yet.
taking a quick break.
then back to the grind.
the table's.. sufficing. nobody's been hit yet. we're just freaking out a bit at how close the arrows are getting to our fingers.

1:12 AM
turned the corner.
the red carpet's a tongue.
of course it is.
the arrows have stopped. the guards are just watching us now.
why
oh.
'cause there's two halberd horsemen waiting at the door to the keep, at the other end of this long stretch.
and with the disguise gone, we can see they're morphed into their horses, like hideous centaurs.
their armor is grafted onto their skin, a sharp carapace.
they roar. they hiss. they click. they stare us down.
ohhhh god.
donnie "I'll take the one on the left."
r. really?
"you take the one on the right."
we're doing this?
"don't doubt us now, jordan. we can do this. we have to."
sigggghhhhh. u_u
"buck, you back us up however you can, but we'll keep their attention."
sword at the ready.
"let's rip and tear."

1:13 AM
SLASH
swipe
dodge
NEIGGGGHHHHH
wait
SLASH
WHIIIIIIINNNNYYYYYYYYYY
take the fucking horse legs out
eliminate his mobility
STRIKE at his halberd
pushhh back
sword knocked out of my hands
uh
uh
buck grabbed the centaur's head
exerting great effort
snapped his neck.
"fucking hate these bastards."

1:14 AM
donnie's having some trouble, as she just has a blunt weapon
now we can back her up
slice the horse's legs
buck grabbed the halberd, can't rip it out as it is the horseman's hands but he can hold it still
while I send my sword through his head!!!
and that's how you do it.

1:15 AM
when we were all finished high-fiving each other and letting out our adrenaline, we remembered the next challenge is in a "church" outside the throne room.
there's the closed door to the keep at the far end of this stretch, but there's four sets of doors on either side too.
will have to just try them all.

1:21 AM
first sets of doors were barracks. lots of soldiers grafted to their beds in a big connected system of flesh. shut that door immediately.
second sets of doors were armories. I swapped out my rusted sword for a shinier one. donnie grabbed a big hammer. buck wanted a gun, but they don't have any of those. so he said he's fine with his fists.
third sets of doors, however, were churches. two identical parallel churches. aisles of pews leading up to altars. the right-side church has a priest in a cloak waiting for us.

1:22 AM
"Good cavaliers. You are here to challenge the king. I am Ponos, the king's trusted" deesus? diseuse.
Well. Actually. We're here to protect the king, we don't want to decode the last Cipher.
buck "You what?"
ponos "Your party is not of one mind. This must be remedied, or else you will never make it out of this."
buck, listen, man. yeah. we were never gonna kill the cipher. we're here because you guys, your buddies, were going to do it, and we needed to stop that from happening.
buck "Why the fuck would you lie to us?"
Well, we were hardly gonna be able to stop all four of you! Or even two of you!
"Man, that's... fucked up. You really think the Ciphers are gonna make things worse?"
I really do.
Ponos, can you back me up here? Your world went through a red sky thing, didn't you guys have to do seven big things?
"No?"
donnie "I don't think anyone from this world ever went into the Doors in the first place."
buck "See? If we don't do the Ciphers, this shit's still gonna happen!"
...wait, shit. You're right. That is what we've learned here. How the fuck does all this work?! Why is it so complicated? All these systems, all these sources with different stories!
Goddammit, Tiresias!
donnie "Ponos, sorry, can you tell us what's going on from your perspective?"
ponos "My king has been tasked with serving as the seventh spectacle in an unholy procession, and you cavaliers are the ones we were told to wait for. You are here to kill the king. I am not to stop you in this; my task was to link my Rhetorics to the lever at the front of the castle."
But what happens when we kill the king?
"That is of little concern for me, as my world will be left leaderless and doomed. I suppose the unholy procession will.. continue."
hnng. So, if we don't do this, Rapture will come regardless, as it seems to have come for you guys. And if we do do this, more wacky shit will happen on the way to Rapture.
Is that even really a choice? We're choosing whether or not there'll be a party before armaggeddon.
ponos "Think it through, good cavaliers. I can already identify the flaw in your logic; there is an obvious correct choice. Let this be your final challenge."
fuck. okay. think it through, think it through.
buck "One last party before the end? Isn't that better just for the fun of it? Dutch courage. Where's the fun in just lying down and dying?"
She's saying the choices aren't actually equal, I think, so it's not just a party, it's not just a spectacle.
ponos "I did not say that."
Well. What are you saying?
"I am saying that there is no such thing as 'just' a spectacle. The smallest difference is an opportunity."
donnie "No such thing as 'just' a spectacle. A spectacle is a change, it's a game, it's a chance to stick a wrench in the system."
Well, what kind of perfect apocalypse would allow for that?
donnie "That's your assumption, that Rapture is perfect."
I'm going off of what it's presented to us!
ponos "You are going off of the spectacle, and that is precisely why powerful forces use spectacle. It's the strength of rhetoric. This red sky is powerful rhetoric, it is very convincing, but until you have seen for yourself, you cannot rely on the narrative provided by the spectacle."
....shit.
I get it.
I get it! o:
It's the very fact that this apocalypse is using so much flashy shit that's why we should believe there's a crack we can tear open!
ponos "Well, it's. It's why you should be curious about the possibility of a crack. It is entirely possible that there is no path to victory, in which case the spectacle exists to humiliate you. But the spectacle is a veil, it is an ambiguity. You cannot rely on an ambiguity."
Okay.
So.
So we should kill the king.
"You were not going to leave if you hadn't, regardless. It is my job to open the exit for you."
...you could have opened with that.
"I needed to make sure you were all of one mind. You have made it this far. You have one thing left to do. The king will tear you apart if you have any doubts left."

1:26 AM
Only one thing left to do…
Open the doors to the keep.

1:27 AM
"Good cavaliers…"
There he is.
A giant blue man on a giant throne in a giant chamber.
Hard furry boots. Grey-green robe. Big fucking muscles with which to lift a giant golden mace. Eyes glowing green. The only sign that he's gone through the same flesh-melting as the rest of his people is the fact that his head terminates in a jagged crown of skin.
He sits on his throne, one leg crossed over the other.
The music has stopped. There's Legsteps at the walls, waiting for battle. In between them are stationed golden knights.
"Welcome to the end of your quest. It must have been a great exertion, but I have some say in the structure of my realm here, and my kingdom's fate deserved a witness."
We're so sorry this happened to you.
"Thank you for saying so. May I ask your names?"
I'm Jordan Dooling. This is Donnivan Rand. He's, uh. "Buck Stevens."
"Good cavaliers, thank you." bow. "Before we begin, do you have any questions?"
Uh. Actually, I'd like to know how you ended up as a Cipher. Did someone come and.. tell you that you'd be challenged? How did you take it?
"The news came to me by my own God sometime after the plague of flesh ravaged my people. I had not seen my God ever since that began, and when He returned to me, I could see He was now a vessel of a far greater power. He told me that the will of the Infinite had chosen my world for a higher purpose, that I was to stand guard against coming challengers from other worlds, that I was chosen for this due to my incredible willpower and stature."
Do you.. know why this all is? Why the fights? Why the challengers?
"I was not told, as this was the will of a power I could not understand. Before the red sky, I would have taken the word of my God in trust, but seeing Him as He is now, just a mask for an infinite evil... I have formed my own ideas. This evil took my world, and it chose a form of attack that would overwhelm us. I have little doubt that it is using me as another form of attack against new victims."
I think you're right.
buck "We're not the first ones you've fought, are we?"
"No. There have been others before you. Much time separates the fights, but I have never lost." grimace.
I see.
...okay. I think we're ready.
"I hope that you are."
he's standing up.
"Timor mortis conturbat me." wielding his mace. steel face. "May you fight true. May you will real."
..a health bar has appeared in my vision.
atop it is a name.
KING REAL

1:30 AM
brass horns wobbling through the legsteps, chugging guitar.
King Real's mace shakes the room when he slams it down. his attacks are slow but heavy.
and he can dodge fast.
he's focusing on Buck, whose bum leg keeps him slow.
donnie and I are circling behind the king
oh shit
the golden knights are coming out into the fight
wielding great two-handed swords
fuck
we've got to take care of this

1:32 AM
keeping the knights at bay is working but we can't sustain this
buck can't focus on getting a hit on the king because he's got to play evasive
donnie's taken care of a knight but there's two more coming for her
I've still got three

1:33 AM
I now have two, and they're attacking one after the other
donnie's taken care of all her knights and is going for the king
that hammer must have been a better choice than my damn sword
hrrrrggg fuck OFF you damn KNIGHTS

1:34 AM
okay
couldn't focus on either one but I chipped away at both of them and now they're both dead
just in time to see King Real raise his mace high and bring it down on buck
no scream, just a big crash
shaking the room
goddammit…
bye bye buck.
"Come, cavaliers! Is this the sum of your efforts?"
donnie, we're gonna have to.. be smart
you and me together
one baits him, the other goes for the legs

1:37 AM
we're whittling away at his health bar
one of us runs in front and tries to attack, triggers him to wind up a swing, and the other waits until he's brought his mace down before we swing at the back of his legs
but he's getting wise to this and is swinging his mace from side to side around his legs
gave me a brisk smack to the stomach, knocked me off my feet

1:38 AM
we're still trying our tactic, just gotta watch for when he tries to clear us

1:40 AM
the fucker's JUMPING
donnie dove at me, pushed me out of the way
SMASHHHH as the king lands
I can feel my teeth vibrating
fucking bosses and their multiple attacks…
donnie, what if we traded weapons, could you figure out some sword stuff, I think I could use some upper body strength to bring more force into that hammer

1:41 AM
yes
I am doing bigger chunks of damage with this
he's clearing his legs! dodge

1:42 AM
come, swing at me, big boy!!! c'mon!!! over here!!!
SMASH
donnie's rapidly cutting away at his ankles
the health bar is below two-thirds

1:46 AM
with this swing of my hammer
SMACK
we hit 50%
and now he's stepping back, clutching at his head
"You have some fight in you. This is good... you may actually be able to do this. Understand, cavaliers, I would love nothing more than to find the challengers who might stand a chance against the power that did this to my people, even accepting that this would mean my death. That would be a reprieve I have long prayed for. But you must be vigilant. You must stand firm. You must be ready for anything. The biggest obstacle in your way is your own mind, and so I had lain my challenges along your path with the goal of preparing you."
donnie and I are catching our breath.
"There are eight principles to hone as a warrior: View, Resolve, Speech, Conduct, Livelihood, Effort, Awareness, and Mind. And there are five mental traps you must always engage with: Desire, Cruelty, Sloth, Panic, and Doubt. As the dark forces allowed me to present my kingdom in any way I saw fit, so long as it stood as an obstacle on your path to me, I chose to test you on these thirteen points. Of these, the only ones you failed were Speech and Conduct, though you found the right Speech at the last minute. Conduct was perhaps a tall challenge to ask you to do in this situation, as murder in self-defense is the most obvious choice when presented with my kingdom's knights. Truth be told, I am glad you failed that one. I want you to kill me."
he is kneeling. putting his mace down.
"Do it now. While you still have a-- GURK"
..his eyes are glowing yellow now. wings of light emerge from out his back.
"King Real has refused his duty. I will take his place for him."
and. and who are you?
"I am the Golden Light. I am his God."
he rises to his feet, a golden aura emanating from within.
his health bar is still at 50%, but now the name says
KING REAL, VESSEL OF INFINITE LIGHT
and he's rearing back his mace, but in the wrong direction?
...SMASH
he broke the back wall of the throne room, sent it crumbling down with one swing.
on the other side is a large garden, flowers of flesh and bone in pools of blood. the eyeball moon is perfectly visible, aligned to stare down the center of the garden.
the God-King walks out into the garden.
"Rapture will come, one way or another. The question is if you two will live to see it or die here where you stand."
donnie gave a big sigh. "give me my hammer."
okay.

1:53 AM
Out in the garden now for phase 2.
We've spent some time learning his attacks. It's a lot of the same slow swings, but this time when the mace connects with the ground, there's a circle of flaming light warming up the point of contact.
And now he uses his wings to clear the area around him if we get too greedy taking swings at his feet.
His dodges are much wider now too, he can put a lot of distance between us using his wings to propel him backwards.
The Legsteps have come outside and burst into flames. No more brass horn, just electric guitar.
Gotta stay alert. Gotta do it for the king.

1:57 AM
SWING
stab
SMACK
roll
CRUNCH
bap
SLICE
cut cut cut
DODGE
distract
AGGRESS
groan

2:00 AM
he's raising his mace, glowing very bright
let's uh
let's back off a second
..crack the ground
literally cracks in the ground
GUSH, light pouring out of the cracks, radiating intense heat
okay, this is a new one to watch out for

2:04 AM
"OOF"
fuck
donnie's sent flying
landed in the pool of blood
god-king's stepping up to her
HEY, YOU FUCKER
YOU'RE NO GOD
I'VE SEEN MUCH STRONGER GODS THAN YOU
AND I'M GONNA FUCKING PROVE IT
he's raising his mace, gonna smash her into bloody pulp

2:05 AM
none of my attacks were gonna distract him from an easy choice
so I had to grab donnie and throw her out of the way
which put me in the range of his hammer-smash's glowing light aftereffect
so uh
that fucking hurt
feels like extreme sunburn all over my body
but I'm just feeling pure adrenaline right now
and donnie's still out of commission
so it's just me and the big guy

2:07 AM
I'm doing a lot of dodging, not getting many attacks in, but his health is slowly going down
he's around 30%
I've gotta play it safe enough to not run into the glowies
but I've gotta get aggressive when I think I have an opening

2:08 AM
donnie's over there coughing up blood
jesus
I can't do this
but I can't panic
I need to.. deep breaths…
it's just a dance
just a big dance with an alien god

2:10 AM
donnie's back up!!! wiped the blood from her lips and came to join me in this violent dance
you're in trouble now, you fucking nightlight!

2:13 AM
she's being a lot more careful
that's good
I'll gladly take the risks, donnie can go and punish him for choosing attacks that leave himself open

2:18 AM
15%
he's getting frantic
he's not dodging much anymore
but his strong attacks are happening faster
and the music's getting even more intense

2:23 AM
SWIPE SLASH STAB
HAMMER CRUNCH BOP CRACK
he's down on a knee!! he's fucking staggered!!
get him now!! get him now!!!

2:24 AM
"AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHoooooooooooooooooooo"
light spills out of him in bright lines, percolating and bubbling
and BRIGHT EXPLOSION
leaving nothing left but a silent garden.
but it's strange. this isn't the silence of a battle won.
I can't even hear the sound of my pencil scribbling in the journal.
...behind us stands Cockroach Jesus.
Looking at us with open arms and a warm smile.
He is saying something, but no sound is heard.

(Attached, in the middle of this log, is the note: "It was then, with the defeat of King Real, that the seventh Cipher popped open on my book, and I saw it open by itself. I saw, as the pages turned by themselves, pieces of paper attached throughout. And the pages stopped turning somewhere before halfway through, and it stopped on these words that you read right now. And there, staring me and you in the eyes at different points in time, were new words I hadn't written in there.
Did you ever wonder why you even wear this red glove anymore? The struggle’s over.
Well.
The struggle IS over.
What do you do when the movie’s done? The characters can’t leave the movie theater; they’re trapped within the screen. What happens to them? They never tell you. It’s something you’re meant to either find out on your own or be told by appropriate prophets. Mentors?
To be fair, most aren’t meant for struggle. Movies are meant to remain within the screen with little crossover with reality.
'Reality.'
Let’s not get existential here.
What DO you do when the movie’s over? The story ends when the moral has been delivered; it wouldn’t make a good movie if we saw what happ
Well, specifically, that would be entering a different theme entirely, so
So
so it requires a specific kind of movie. Of story.
So you’ll have to find.. that.
Because your appropriate prophets only apply to the struggle.
No, that’s not true. They keep telling you the answers you seek, but you just can’t accept them. You don’t like the answer. You did what they said only heroes could do, you gave it a happy ending, and now you’re expected to go to the land beyond that happy ending and you can’t comprehend being normal again.
Could you ever? Were you ever given a chance?
This IS your chance.
Is it fair to force the chance upon someone after they’ve been to the furthest corners of trauma with no reintegration process?
Life isn’t fair
Of course life is fair, don’t be silly. Life’s the most fair thing there is. Everything balances out in the end. It’s only in fiction where things don’t, because fiction is rooted in psychology, and psychology isn’t fair. From the perspective of the victim.
Is that why, then? Is that why you can’t accept it? You were presented with a life so tainted in psychology that people are claiming it was fictional, and now you’re at the point where the story’s over and the credits are rolling.
Do you want reality? That’s the ultimate question here. Forget about responsibility and catharsis, and pay no mind to the distant feeling you mistake for living. Tell yourself, tell ME, do you honestly want reality?
Or do you want to go back to purgatory and the chains of psychology?
..well.
You don’t have any choice in what happens, so you’d may as well just ride out the pain and enjoy yourself where you can.
Enjoy. ‘Cause you’re never getting a good night’s sleep again.
And then I heard a Door swing open behind me.")

2:25 AM
A Door opened in the garden.
I can only see blackness inside.

2:26 AM
It is blackness, a great void, though Donnie and I are illuminated by a source we can't see.
We're walking on nothing, towards nothing.
What happens after the Ciphers?

2:27 AM
Another Door led us into a waiting room with golden walls and marble floor. An electronic timer on the wall is counting down from 27 minutes. It's linked to a door that's sealed shut, and a sign.
"DOOR WILL OPEN WHEN THE WORLD IS READY."
Donnie's looking at me.
I guess we'd may as well sit and wait.

2:33 AM
We licked our wounds, looked at our bruises, and rubbed our weary legs.
Still can't talk to each other, but company is company.
She's resting her head on my shoulder now as I write some more.
There's also a big TV on the wall, near the door. It's on. Displaying a screen, "NO FEED."
If this is like San Francisco, the whole world is probably about to watch.

2:53 AM
oh god. one minute left.
..Donnie wants to hold my hand.
okay. :)
we'll face this together.

2:54 AM
Door's open.
Starfield inside.
I can hear my footsteps again. Donnie's breathing heavily.
Into the starfield.
There's someone up ahead.
Someone wearing a fedora. o_o
And.. a... plastic guitar. Guitar Hero III model, Les Paul.
His arms are crossed as we step into place.
...Legsteps with camera heads are in the stars below us, pointing up at us.
The man is reaching for something.
It's a second guitar controller. Another Les Paul.
He's. Handing it to me.
The man is Bones.

4:30 PM
Had to give my journal to Donnie. Only got my journal back now. Boy, do I have some news for you.
Derek Taylor handed me a guitar controller, and as soon as I put on the strap, a giant Guitar Hero highway appeared in the sky above us. With the cameras on us, I imagine the whole world watched in confusion and incomprehensible awe as Bones and I... had a guitar duel.
It was DragonForce's "Operation Ground and Pound."
It was the Guitar Hero III chart.
I was player two, Bones was player one.
The moment the notes appeared, everything I once knew about plastic rock fell right back into place. I didn't think about why any of this was happening. I didn't think about my exhaustion from the long day. And I didn't think about the fact I hadn't tackled DragonForce in at least a year. All I saw was green, red, yellow, blue, and orange.
We were supposed to be dueling, but I found I instinctively raised my guitar up to give Star Power to help him out when he struggled in the solos, even though that's how Rock Band works and not Guitar Hero. And he got what I was trying to do and grinned at me, raising his own guitar.
Together, we were giving the world a soundtrack of power metal.
...but, yeah, I won. Kicked his ass. :3
When "PLAYER TWO ROCKS!" appeared on-screen, Derek and I slipped right into old inside jokes, starting with me hounding him for missing the last note, and him just asking, "did I just score?"
True friendship lasts eldritch boundaries.
Then the Legsteps trotted away, and another Door opened ahead of us. I introduced Bones to Donnie, and Donnie to Bones. And before we entered the Door together, I looked at Bones and asked if he was here to stay this time.
"I could ask the same about you."
And we stepped out into the streets of Los Angeles, Legsteps faintly thumping in the distance.
As if Bones even being there in the first place wasn't enough of a surprise, he took us to a safehouse where two others were waiting to meet us.
"They were traveling together and just kinda ran into me the other day? We got split up when a Door took me to the starfield, but I was planning on coming back to them anyway."
One was another guy, younger than me, with curly black hair and a machete. Name's Danny Finnegan.
And the other was a girl about my age, in a white shirt and sleek black vest and tie, with sandy blonde hair and a.. gardening implement of some sort. Her name's Rauri McGanna. But I know her as Fentzy.
It was. My damn. AIM friends???
I literally could not believe it. Thought this was a Fear playing a trick on me.
We kinda forgot about doing anything and just idly wandered awhile, sharing experiences.
Shortly after the apocalypse started, Derek was intrigued by Xanadu, so he took to the rabbit holes, becoming "a creature of the Doors." He spent as much time as he could within the alien universe, spotting patterns in the passages within, to the point where he began to understand how to predict where he was being taken.
He’s spent all this time avoiding combat when he can, but when he was forced into danger, he made quick use of his personal Les Paul guitar controller. That explains why his is still intact. >.>
Danny, meanwhile, had been staying in the Carolinas before the Archangel took his loved one, and he chased him out west. He spent a lot of that time alone, and ran into Fentzy somewhere in Kansas, the two electing to stick together.
Fentzy, then, started in Connecticut, tried surviving in New York for a while, and left (quite a while before Donnie and I made it there), traveling with her sister Dwyn. Those two didn't care about the hardships of the road so long as they were together, but. I mean, Dwyn isn't here, and Fentzy doesn't want to talk about that. She did meet up with Danny, and the two crossed the rest of America. They were actually trying to get to San Francisco to volunteer with the RAF, but they missed a truck. By the time they got here, San Francisco was just a big crater, and they went to Los Angeles instead.
Donnie and I had to, uh, explain what happened with that.
Meeting up with Bones was purely coincidence. Meeting up with each other was. Meeting up with me was. But, I mean, they'd each met a lot of strangers on their travels, and probably wouldn't have stuck together in the first place, but for the fact that they had been AIM friends.
Anyway. Donnie and I had.. seriously had a long day, so we were given beds in the safehouse and konked out.
We woke up a while ago and began heading out of Los Angeles when Donnie remembered she still had my journal, so here we are!

5:03 PM
Bones has been reading through my journals. He’s asking a lot of questions and sharing anecdotes, and Fentzy and Danny have plenty to say too, so this may take a while.

10:34 PM
We’re quite far from Los Angeles now. Not entirely sure where we’re going, but Bones just started leading us, so I assume he knows where he’s going.

11:29 PM
Bones tells us he’s run into a lot of Fears on his travels, but he generally tries his best to avoid them. He wound up getting marked by the Omen, and he’s sure the Morphs are after him, but that’s about it. Except for “the Neonate,” who he says he’s hunting.
He’s pretty damn good at keeping out of trouble! I must look like the biggest troublemaker in the world to him.
“Man, what you look like to me is a lucky bastard with a great girl by your side.”
You've got me there. For once in my life, it's gone that way. But it never felt right without you around, old friends. :)

(Attached: “we came in? Wait, no, that doesn’t really work in this situation. Damn. Looks like I won’t get to use my trademark wit here. Then what else am I supposed to fill up this space with? Maybe I could talk about Guitar Hero. Yeah, sure, let’s talk about Guitar Hero. The song that Jordan and Derek played here, ‘Operation Ground and Pound,’ is arguably the easiest of the four DragonForce songs available for Guitar Hero III, which raises the question of why it was chosen for such a widely televised battle to begin with. They could have picked something much more entertaining. Then again, it was to be the first of many, so I suppose they wanted to keep the more climactic stuff for later. Which hints at the depressing fact that, for all the chaos and randomness that the apocalypse looks like it comprises of, in all actuality the apocalypse was so rigidly planned that the Ciphers were never gonna offer a way out. It’s debatable exactly how much even the guitar duels offer one. I won’t beat around the bush here: The horrible forces behind the apocalypse were just gloating when they chose that song.”)