[IC] - All the World's a Game

[WriggleRid3r]

Ancient City

---

"Reflowering of Gensokyo." Yuuka declared, sending out flower petals to take down the Light orbs. She immediately shot herself upwards, her hand forming a palm strike aimed for John's chin. "Kogeki Ichijuni, Joshohanma!"

[S121]

Ancient City

John could easily see the palm strike coming for him, thanks to his Spartan reflexes, but his thrusters weren't designed for maneuverability. The only thing John could do was quickly raise his overshields to 400% and prepare for the attack.

John managed to move his head out of the way before the palm strike fully landed, causing it to graze the side of his helmet and remove 30% of his shields. John clenched his teeth as the strike grinded along his shields and as he watched the chunk disappear from his shield gauge. Right as the palm strike passed, John performed a palm strike of his own, aiming right for Yuuka's Solar Plexus.

[WriggleRid3r]

Ancient City

---

The palm strike hit square into her hitbox. Yuuka was knocked out as she fell down the Chireiden. The force that she took broke through the ceiling.

[S121]

Ancient City

John felt his heart sink when he saw that he knocked Yuuka unconscious, causing her to fall and break through the roof. John had no idea that he was even capable of hurting her.

"Yuuka!", John shouted as he flew down into the newly formed hole in Chireiden's roof...




Chireiden

John landed in the dark room, right next to the unconscious Yuuka.

"Yuuka, are you alright?", John asked her as he tried to wake her up.

That is when he noticed a second dot on his radar.

[WriggleRid3r]

Chireiden

---

Within seconds, Yuuka gasped, waking herself up. She stared at the ceiling, the rubble, and then at John.

"Weird." Yuuka said to John. "That shouldn't've knocked me out. If anything, it would've left me breathless for a second."

As Yuuka got up and dusted herself, Satori walked into the fray, staring at the broken hole in the ceiling. On her bent right arm rested a fierce falcon. "Oh dear."

[S121]

Chireiden

"I didn't think I hit that hard. I'm sorry.", John said to Yuuka.

John looked up at Satori, then at the giant gaping hole in the ceiling, then back at Satori. John had destroyed a part of Satori's home in the sparring match.

(I warned myself about collateral damage, and look what happened. I was reckless, and I should take responsibility. Satori's probably upset.), John thought.

"I am so sorry. I- I'll fix the damages, or pay for it. I am so sorry.", John said to Satori.

[wonderweiss]

"Actually, this is the most I've traveled using my snake. His name is Manda."

Lujuria sat back.

"... I guess I should tell you what happened when I was alive."

Then, she described everything she saw to Isaac.

"Yea... I only have those images to go on, but you can pretty much guess what the actual story is. Basic 'save the princess from the castle' story."

[WriggleRid3r]

Chireiden

---

"It's fine." Satori coldly replied as she whistled to the falcon. The falcon flew through the darkness in the room to the unknown destination. "I'll take care of it."

"What I want to know is how I've become so weak defensively." Yuuka shrugged. "Is it bcause my soul isn't whole yet?"

[S121]

Chireiden

John thought about the fact that she was not entirely whole. Last John remembered, Youkai were slightly different from humans. While Humans were more corporeal beings ruled by physiology, Youkai were more spiritual beings, hence why they were weak to spiritual attacks. There had to be a way to fix Yuuka's fragmented soul. If there was a way, John would find the solution.

"Is there any way to make it whole again?", John asked Yuuka.






Inside Giant Snake's Mouth

Isaac was silent for a moment, absorbing all of the information that had been given to him. He had to admit, Lujuria did have a pretty rough life. Things were pretty bad in the beginning, got better, then got much worse.

"Rough life too, huh?", Isaac said to Lujuria.

[WriggleRid3r]

Chireiden

---

"..." Yuuka shrugged silently. Satori however seemed to have a better knowledge.

"There's an ancient artifact somewhere in Earth called Soul Vault." Satori informed. "None but one person knew the location... And he is now dead."

[S121]

Chireiden

John slightly sighed after hearing that the man was dead, but perhaps his soul was still in Old Hell. It was a long-shot, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

"Where's the man's soul? Would I be able to communicate to it?", John asked Satori.

[wonderweiss]

"Yea... Hey, tell me 'bout yourself."



King 5: what a reckless girl.

King 7: Agreed. But she does bring some light into the place.

King 1: This time she took it too far. Send in the next one.

King 9: Send in Yuuka.

Komachi: yes sirs.

Komachi took off.



Komachi and her boat appeared next to Yuuka.

"Alright, your turn."

[WriggleRid3r]

Chireiden

---

"I'll be right back." Yuuka saluted John as she boarded Komachi's boat.

"I'll have Rin search for it. I doubt he is of Gensokyo, however." Satori answered.

[wonderweiss]

Komachi took off.



King 1: Ah, Yuuka. We haven't seen you in a while. How have you been since the passing time?

King 5: Nevermind that. Tell me why this yama should or should not be relinquished of her duty.

[S121]

Chireiden

John silently nodded at Yuuka, then turned towards Satori.

"I would very much appreciate that. Thank you.", John said to Satori.






Inside Giant Snake's Mouth

Isaac was a little surprised by Lujuria's sudden interest in his life. Then again, Isaac already knew about her now, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise when she asked.

"Well, where to start?", Isaac asked as he tried to recollect his past.

"Okay, I'm going to tell you about everything that has happened to me up to this point. It's a long story, so bear with me."

"Well, I was born on June 5, 2465. Uh, I never knew my father because he disappeared while on a mission to wherever. My mother was a Unitologist and spent all of our family's savings on a church of insane fanatics. This resulted in me having to go to a lesser college, but I got by. I eventually became a Systems Engineer and worked on the USG Ishimura. That's where I met Nicole, my dead girlfriend. We dated for a while, and when the opportunity arose, I convinced her to go onto the Ishimura for a promising job. Two years later, I get called to go to the Ishimura because of a communications blackout. I also went because I would have had the opportunity to see Nicole again... When we got there, everything was quiet and nobody was around. No sooner did we get there, we were attacked by these.. things. They're called Necromorphs.", Isaac said to Lujuria as he activated his holographic projector and showed her an image of one of the creatures.


(Warning: Gore/Disturbing image.)

Spoiler:

"I had very little to protect myself with except for powertools and whatever else I could find. That is where I found out about this giant structure called 'The Marker'. What it does is that it turns humans into these Necromorphs and causes an event called 'Convergence', a process that sucks in all of the surrounding Necromorphs and creates a moon-sized Necromorph called a 'Brethren Moon'. Anyways, I had to repair the ship while fighting groups and groups of Necromorphs so that we could find a way off of the ship. Along the way, I eventually met Dr. Terrence Kyne and was instructed to jettison the Marker back to Aegis VII. Unfortunately, Dr. Kyne was shot and killed by our computer specialist, Kendra, who revealed herself to be an EarthGov spy. She left me for dead on the Ishimura as she took the Marker and left in a ship, but something strange happened."

"I was saved by Nicole and she instructed me on how to trap Kendra's ship in a gravity well. Kendra escaped in an escape pod, and I returned the Marker back to its pedestal, back on the planet's surface. When I returned the Marker, it let off a giant EMP burst, causing the gravity tethers back on the Ishimura to deactivate and let go of a giant chunk of Aegis VII's land, causing it to slowly fall back to the planet. I was trapped inside of a control room when Kendra appeared again. I wasn't able to do anything but watch as she removed the Marker and told me that she intended on taking it back to Earth, to study it. She then told me that Nicole was dead, that I was insane. She then made me watch video footage of her committing suicide..."

"This might sound.. horrible,... but I'm honestly glad she killed herself. She did so because she didn't want to be ripped to pieces by those Necromorphs. She didn't want to turn into one of them, and I didn't want her to.. die like that. Nobody should ever have to die like that.", Isaac said, remaining silent for a moment as he recollected his thoughts and continued the story.

"I eventually found a way out of the control room and back to the launchpad, where I got to see Kendra get killed by a colossal Necromorph. It attacked me, and I killed it. Before the giant chunk of land hit the planet, I quickly boarded a ship and flew off of the planet, barely escaping. I then began to slowly go insane as I began to hallucinate more and more, seeing Nicole as a Necromorph and her attacking me. I was eventually found by a rescue party after three weeks."

"Of course, I was quickly diagnosed with Dementia and PTSD, and was thrown into a psyche ward, where they experimented on me and used me to create a blueprint to create another Marker. Of course, they never learned from the Ishimura incident and everyone as killed by the Necromorphs. I escaped the psyche ward, got a Rigsuit, and did just like I had done during the previous incident. That's when a woman named Diana told me that my Dementia was going to get worse and worse until it killed me. I quickly joined forces with her and did as she told me, only to be betrayed."

"It turned out that she was a Unitologist, and that the Church of Unitology wanted me so that they could force me to create more Markers for them. They believed that 'Convergence' was the way to salvation, that they would all become one consciousness and live in harmony. They wanted to converge everyone. Not only that, I also found out that both EarthGov and the Church of Unitology were fighting over me because of the knowledge the Marker imprinted in my mind. The government wanted to study its effects and tun it into a weapon, while the Church wanted it to boost their faith."

"Luckily for me, an EarthGov gunship shot all of the Unitologists around me and I escaped down a maintenance hatch. Unfortunately, I came face-to-face with a giant Necromorph, but I used it to destroy the gunship and escaped the creature. After that, a guy name Nolan Stross contacted me. He was another one of the patients in the psych ward, and informed me that there was a way to destroy the Markers. After a while, I came across a woman named Ellie. She didn't trust me at first, but after a while, we all agreed that we needed to work together in order to survive. I made my way through The Sprawl, despite the Titan Station's leader, Tiedemann, separating different portions of the space station. We all joined up eventually."

"It was at that point when I discovered that EarthGov had recovered the USG Ishimura and were repairing it for reuse. I had to take a detour through the ship, but as I went deeper into the ship, I kept having more and more hallucinations, and each time they became more aggressive. I eventually made it out, but Stross finally went insane and attacked Ellie with a screwdriver. I couldn't do anything because I was in a different part of the ship. Stross gouged her eye out, but she managed to escape. I eventually found Stross, and he tried to gouge my eye out too, but I took the screwdriver and stabbed him in the side of the head. He died."

"While I tried to make my way to Ellie's location as fast as I could, I was attacked by a hallucination of Nicole. She demanded to know why I held on to her memory. The reason why was because I felt guilty for convincing her to go onto the Ishimura. She would have been alive if I didn't say anything. I couldn't let her go because she was the only thing that ever mattered to me. If I didn't have her, then I would have nothing left to live for."

"I eventually found Ellie, and we came across a gunship. I tricked Ellie inside and forced the ship to launch from the outside. I told Ellie to leave me, and that I only wanted her to be safe. I didn't want her to end up like Nicole. I was going to a place where there was no turning back. I followed my hallucination of Nicole to the Marker, but along the way I had to fight government agents. There were too many of them, so I cut the power to the entire sector and let the Necromorphs kill them all."

"I eventually found the machine Stross kept talking about, and after having a needle inserted into my eye, I had finally unlocked all of the Marker's secrets in my mind and regained my suppressed memories. I made my way to the Marker, where I found out that enough Necromorphs had gathered to initiate a Convergence event. Before it could finish, I quickly made my way to the Marker, killing swarms of Necromorphs along the way. When I finally got there, Tiedemann shot me in the shoulder and hand with a Javelin Gun. He was about to shoot me in the head, but I quickly pushed the gun out of the way, broke his arm, shot him in the throat with his Javelin Gun, then finished him off with a final shot to the head."

"After getting impaled twice, I found out that I was tricked by the Marker. It used my hallucination of Nicole to lure me to it, where it finally tried to make me kill myself. Do you remember when you and Lucifer entered my mind? I learned how to do that because I was forced into my mind at this point in time. I fought Nicole and an army of tiny Necromorphs, and after a while, I destroyed the neurons in my mind that held the Marker's ability to control me, freeing me from the Marker's control. Because the Marker couldn't make me kill myself, the Convergence event failed and the entire structure was going to explode. I was expecting to die there. I waited for death, but Ellie flew into the giant room and told me to hurry up and board the ship.", Isaac said, taking a small break.

After a brief pause, Isaac readied himself for more talking.

"Ellie and I eventually went into hiding and got romantically involved, but after a while, she left me. The reason why is because I may have broken the Marker's mental hold on my mind, but I still kept having the hallucinations and kept having 'episodes'. She left because of my inability to let go of the past."

"You see, we each lost a part of ourselves during that nightmare on the Titan Sprawl. For Ellie, it was her eye. Luckily, we found a replacement we could afford. Even though the color didn't quite match, at least she could feel whole again. Me? I lost a part of my soul, and there’s not a damn thing I can do to buy that back. I guess, ultimately, that’s why she left me. People want things they can fix, and I’m permanently broken..."

"After a while, I was still depressed over losing Ellie, but one day, my apartment was raided by the Earth Defense Force. They wanted me to go to Tau Volantis, to destroy more Markers. I refused until they told me that Ellie was on the planet, but had gone missing. All of a sudden, the city I was living in was attacked by a militant Unitologist group and I was captured by their leader, Danik. He forced me to watch the entire city become infected by the Marker. He was going to kill me, but I managed to escape. I then fought through the entire city of Necromorphs and met back up with Norton and Carver."

"We then took a ship to Tau Volantis, but our ship was soon bombarded with space mines above the planet's surface. I quickly came up with a plan to save us from the mines, and after it worked, we were soon reunited with Ellie and a group of people. It wasn't a very welcome reunion with Ellie because I quickly found out that Ellie and Norton were romantically involved. Ellie told me about how the captain of the ship kept writing in Marker writing, so I quickly deciphered it and found out about a machine that could control all of the Markers. Ellie then told me that Tau Volantis was the Marker homeworld, and after a consensus, we all decided that we should complete the mission and destroy all the Markers. Unfortunately, the ship was knocked off course and I was separated from the group. I then fell to the planet's surface."

"I have no idea how I survived in just my RIGsuit, but I did. I woke up on the frozen planet's surface, but found that I was suffering from severe Hypothermia. I still survived though, using burning debris to keep myself warm. I soon found the rest of the group and found a RIGsuit that was capable of protecting me from the cold. One of our group members, Santos, found a clue that would help us figure out how to shut off the Marker Controller, so we quickly made our way to the warehouse. Unfortunately, Danik attacked us with some of his men, and I was separated from the group, but I soon escaped from the Unitologists and found my way back. Once we reached the warehouse, we found a huge frozen Necromorph called 'The Nexus'. It had energy signatures that could be traced back to the Machine, but right as we finished triangulating it, Danik ambushed and captured us. He revealed that Norton gave him our location in exchange for a safe trip back home. Danik went back on their deal and planned on executing all of us, but I attacked him and gave everyone a chance to escape and fight back. During the fighting, The Nexus Necrpmorph thawed out and swallowed me. I wasn't planning on dying yet, so I shot my way out of the Necromorph's stomach, but was soon verbally attacked by Norton. He kept blaming me for everything that happened. He then became violent and began to fire at us, so I had no choice but to shoot him in the head. We eventually regrouped with the others of the group, and I tried to explain to Ellie what happened to Norton, but she refused to listen to me."

"Santos found another clue about a device called 'The Codex' and a test subject called Rosetta in a research lab, on a nearby mountain. While we ascended the mountain, we were attacked by another large Necromorph called 'The Snowbeast.' Santos died after Carver sacrificed her by cutting a cargo transport cable in order to save the entire cliffside from collapsing from the Snowbeast, but as it fell, I was taken along with it. I soon killed The Snowbeast by ripping it apart with some nearby engine-powered harpoon guns. I soon reunited with the group, and after we entered the lab, we found out that 'Rosetta' was an alien specimen that was dissected and split up into cross-sections. Once I pieced together and scanned the alien's mind, I gained information about the Codex, the Markers, and the Convergence Event. I then used a machine to look into Rosetta's memories and found out that she was one of the aliens that uncovered The Black Marker."

"The marker eventually gained enough biomass to initiate a Convergence event. What happened in her memory was that the Necromorphs around the Marker were jettisoned into space and were mashed together to create a giant, moon-sized Necromorph. This Necromorph was called a 'Brother Moon'. It was a hyper-intelligent Necromorph that was capable of communicating with other 'Brethren Moons'. Despite the fact that Rosetta's race was facing imminent extinction, they created a city-sized device that froze the entire ocean-planet and stopped the Convergence event. The Brother Moon then stopped being formed and went into hibernation, becoming Tau Volantis's moon."

"Unfortunately, I revealed all of this information in front of Danik, who then stole the Codex. I tried to stop them with the building's decontamination protocol, but Danik and his men managed to escape. Carver, Ellie, and I then tried to escape the corrosive gas, but Ellie was trapped. She told us to go with out her, that we would die if we tried to help her. We closed the doors. I was enraged by the loss of Ellie and worked with Carver to hunt Danik down. We fought groups and groups of Unitologist soldiers, but they couldn't stop us. We eventually stole the Codex back from Danik and entered the buried alien city, where we found out how to use the Machine. After we found a way to the Machine's core, Danik appeared out of nowhere with Ellie as a hostage. As it turned out, Ellie escaped, but was captured by Unitologist soldiers. Danik threatened to kill Ellie if I didn't give him the Codex, so Carver took the Codex from me and threw it to Danik. Danik deactivated the Machine, which then resumed the Convergence Event. The Brother Moon woke back up and began to fly towards Tau Volantis's surface,causing the city we were in to be stripped away from Brother Moon's gravitational field. Danik was so enraptured by his victory that he didn't see a piece of rock falling towards him. He was impaled and killed before he knew what hit him."

"I looked up at the Brother Moon and knew that there was no way that I was going to survive the battle against it, so I kissed Ellie goodbye and told her to escape on a shuttle. Carver and I fought our way through the crumbling city and towards the now airborne Machine core. The Brother Moon swallowed up the core, but we managed to enter the Necromorph. Unfortunately, Carver was swallowed up along with the core and I had to fight the Brother Moon. Using a Kenesis booster, I forced the core out of the Necromorph's mouth and activated the machine, stopping the Convergence event again, as well as killing the Brother Moon. The moon then fell back to the planet's surface. As it fell, I thought about everything that had happened at this point, and readied myself for my inevitable death. Ellie thought I was dead and left, but I somehow survived. I don't really get it, but I somehow survived."

"Not only that, Carver survived as well. After we killed the leader of a new Unitologist group, we captured a ship and went back to Earth, only to find Earth surrounded by Brother Moons. I don't know what happened next because I was then transported to this world."

"I got a job building advanced EVA suits for NASA, and after two years, I was called over to the Pentagon. From there, I met Nitori and Zero, and was sent to Hawaii for an EngiCon. After a day or two, we were attacked by Dante, but soon teamed up with him after Honolulu was attacked by an army of Darkness creatures. Once the attack was over, we quickly went back into routine and left for the EngiCon. When we were there, John approached us, telling us about the Devourer and how he wanted to devour our world. Having experience with things like that, I decided to join, and after a bunch of fighting, we ended up on the Consumer."

"In short, I never knew my father, had an insane Unitologist for a mother, was barely able to afford college after my mother spent all the family funds on achieving a higher rank in the church, and I had to deal with the Necromorph outbreaks three times. Not only that, Nicole died, I went insane, got locked up in a psych ward, and was experimented on. After that, I slowly became more and more insane until I nearly gouged my own eye out with a syringe and had to fight a corrupted version of Nicole inside of my mind. I got into a relationship with Ellie, but due to the Marker's damage to my psyche, I couldn't move on and Ellie later left me. My apartment was later broken in to by the Earth Defense Force and I had to fight and destroy even more Markers. Along the way, I had to go to a freezing planet, Tau Volantis, and suffered from severe hypothermia. I then had to fight an entire army of Unitologists and stop them from activating a machine that would warm the planet and revive a colossal Necromorph that turned out to be the planet's moon. I failed and had to kill a Necromorph the size of the moon. I said goodbye to Elly right after we had reconciled and killed the moon-sized Necromorph. Elly thought I was dead and left me on the planet after the Necromprph fell to Tau Volantis's surface, where I fought alongside Carver, traveled back to Earth, and was eventually transported to the real world.", Isaac finished, taking a deep breath and sighing.

It was as if Isaac had just finished running a marathon. It was the longest he had ever talked, but now Lujuria knew why Isaac was insane.

"And that is the reason why I am so messed up. Any questions?", Isaac calmly asked Lujuria.