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Summary:

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Godly: Failure] - A new noise meets your ears -- speech. The voice is familiar, but you can't pin down how. It contains too many overlapping intonations. It's... feminine, maybe?

SHIVERS [Challenging: Success] - It's her.

Notes:

YOU - *What* is it?

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - It's the *world*, Harry-boy. And you're *made* of it. Every day you're out there you make more of yourself from it. I'm afraid you can't be *unmade* now.

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - You can never forget this shit.

YOU - The rain, the snow... I don't want to. It's beautiful.

LIMBIC SYSTEM - Beautiful? It's *stuck* on loop... whirling, spitting out words and images.

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - You're the son of the World again. Harrister -- a ceaseless agent picking up litter and old newspapers, collecting your little bubble gum wrappers and idiotic picture post cards. Meaningless, meaningless keepsakes.

LIMBIC SYSTEM - Reading your awful letters and *recalling* things, aren't you? The endless names of the world... An address book, you are. The map of a city.

YOU - That's right. I *am* an agent of the world.

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - You'll go insane if you keep going like this. One more day and you'll be in the loonie bin. I just know you will. And for what, brother-man?

---

PERCEPTION (TOUCH) - You come to, cradled in a cocoon of drifting arms and hands.

ENDURANCE - For the last time, you didn't 'come to'. You haven't rested once since you arrived in whatever hell this is -- you haven't been allowed to, between all the death and the panic.

HALF LIGHT [Formidable: Success] - You can't let your guard down. Not here. Not *anywhere*. You should be ready to go for the throat, *always*. Rip your way out of here and start strangling something already.

LOGIC [Trivial: Success] - There is no throat to go for. It's all limbs.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - There's another person caught in the tangle with you -- it's her. You're still holding each other. Her eyes have closed, and her form has started to fray at the edges.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Godly: Failure] - You can't tell whether the pain you felt at the end was real. It *seemed* real, but your body is intact and unharmed -- there are no lingering ghosts of sensation clinging to your skin.

PAIN THRESHOLD - ...None at *all*, actually. You are numb, as you were when you first arrived.

REACTION SPEED [Easy: Success] - 'When you first arrived' -- you can actually *remember* that now. You had forgotten, when you appeared on the path in the woods.

VOLITION [Legendary: Success] - This *isn't* Dora. You're coming to your senses -- just enough to realize that, of all the things she was, a shifting façade of different people's faces and bodies was definitely *not* one of them.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Medium: Success] - But it feels so damn *good* to pretend otherwise, doesn't it? Just a few more minutes...

1. [Continue to hold her.]
2. [Let go.]

YOU - [Let go.]

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Bastard.

COMPOSURE - You let go of her. You're both still suspended no more than a couple centimetres apart, surrounded by hands and arms. She stirs as you remove your hands from her back.

Was I. What you wanted?

1. "Yes. It was bliss, for a few moments."
2. "No. That was hell. You put me through *hell*. Why would you think I wanted you to be like *this*?"
3. "I don’t know. I think I've been trying to answer that question for years at this point."
4. "..."

YOU - "..."

I hope. I made you happy. If only. For a short while.

I. Love you. Don't forget. Okay?

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - After the last word is spoken, arms constrict her body more tightly -- they cover her eyes, grab hold of her chin, grapple her arms and legs. She is dragged away, into the writhing mass.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - You are alone.

LOGIC [Challenging: Success] - She didn't really love you. Don't take it the wrong way -- reality was bending and tearing at the seams, and she was caught up in whatever changes were taking place. She was made to love you, by *something* -- but what?

EMPATHY [Easy: Success] - She *did* love you, as much as any person can love another in a situation like this.

DRAMA [Medium: Success] - She wasn't lying. Not at any point, not about that -- even when you were acting, sire, she was genuine.

INLAND EMPIRE [Challenging: Success] - She loved who she thought you were, on another plane of existence.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - There are many types of love, remember?

SUGGESTION - Speaking of -- Loverboy hasn't spoken up for a while. Is he even still here?

INTERFACING [Easy: Success] - The others are gone -- the new voices stuck in your head. Both Him and the rest. They haven't piped up, and the faint impression they had on your consciousness has receded.

AUTHORITY - He is of no concern, but the others were under *your* care. How could you have let them slip out of your sight like this?

1. I've never actually seen them, though.
2. Even the one that killed me? You sure?
3. I haven't *lost* them, I've just misplaced them. I'll find them again soon, I'm sure.
4. Where did they go?
5. Good riddance. They brought nothing but confusion and pain, and I have enough of that already without more being heaped on.

YOU - Even the one that killed me? You sure?

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Challenging: Success] - That one was dangerous, but you could keep a handle on him if you tried.

COMPOSURE [Godly: Failure] - No, you couldn't. And didn't -- he definitely did kill you that one time.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - Shut up.

AUTHORITY - Better they be under *your* thumb than let loose onto the world.

1. I've never actually seen them, though.
2. Even the one that killed me? You sure?
3. I haven't *lost* them, I've just misplaced them. I'll find them again soon, I'm sure.
4. Where did they go?
5. Good riddance. They brought nothing but confusion and pain, and I have enough of that already without more being heaped on.

YOU - Where did they go?

LOGIC [Impossible: Failure] - You don't know. You've lost time, at some point -- you remember falling into the embrace of the hands with the Princess, and you remember the past few seconds, but whatever happened in-between is unaccounted for.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Godly: Failure] - A new noise meets your ears -- speech. The voice is familiar, but you can't pin down how. It contains too many overlapping intonations. It's... feminine, maybe?

SHIVERS [Challenging: Success] - It's her.

RHETORIC [Godly: Failure] - Again, words are being spoken to you -- and again, you cannot understand them. It isn't sensory overload this time -- it's truly incomprehensible, as if you've only caught half a sentence spliced over itself a dozen times over.

RHETORIC - You *can* tell these are words, though, with meaning. They're too structured to be just random noises -- but you couldn't hope to formulate a response without knowing what's being said.

INLAND EMPIRE [Challenging: Success] - You would need to grow ten more pairs of ears to comprehend this language. It will only get worse with time.

INTERFACING [Legendary: Success] - A frequency beyond human comprehension. A wavelength impossibly long, but unmeasurably short. The resonance tone of your soul.

VOLITION [Medium: Success] - You have a moment to think. Try to shake off the living nightmare you just experienced and pull yourself back together, if only a little.

1. Where am I? This isn't the cabin -- I'm not sure if this is anywhere at all.
2. Where is that voice coming from?
3. [Shivers - Godly 16] Is there any way I can understand her like this?
4. Aren't these the same hands that tore me apart when I first arrived? What if they do it again?
5. [Inland Empire - Challenging 12] Try to remember how you got here.
6. [Half Light - Godly 16] This is the end of everything. I can't just *let* this happen -- I have to fight it, somehow. [Struggle against the limbs holding you in place.]
7. What do I do now?

YOU - Where is that voice coming from?

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Challenging: Success] - In a sense, everywhere. The voice reverberates off the hands encircling you, and you can feel the vibrations emanate from your bones.

ENDURANCE [Easy: Success] - The pressure waves jostle your organs around as they pass through your torso.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Easy: Success] - It would probably hurt, if you were anywhere else.

RHETORIC [Formidable: Success] - There is an upward inflection at the end of each burst of sound. Questions, perhaps?

1. Where am I? This isn't the cabin -- I'm not sure if this is anywhere at all.
2. Where is that voice coming from?
3. [Shivers - Godly 16] Is there any way I can understand her like this?
4. Aren't these the same hands that tore me apart when I first arrived? What if they do it again?
5. [Inland Empire - Challenging 12] Try to remember how you got here.
6. [Half Light - Godly 16] This is the end of everything. I can't just *let* this happen -- I have to fight it, somehow. [Struggle against the limbs holding you in place.]
7. What do I do now?

YOU - Is there any way I can understand her like this?

+1 Skeptic

+1 Cold

+1 Smitten

+1 Hero

CHECK FAILURE

SHIVERS [Godly: Failure] - Not as you are now.

1. Where am I? This isn't the cabin -- I'm not sure if this is anywhere at all.
2. Where is that voice coming from?
3. [Locked] Is there any way I can understand her like this?
4. Aren't these the same hands that tore me apart when I first arrived? What if they do it again?
5. [Inland Empire - Challenging 12] Try to remember how you got here.
6. [Half Light - Godly 16] This is the end of everything. I can't just *let* this happen -- I have to fight it, somehow. [Struggle against the limbs holding you in place.]
7. What do I do now?

YOU - Where am I? This isn't the cabin -- I'm not sure if this is anywhere at all.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Formidable: Success] - In the gaps between interlocked fingers, behind a few layers of flowing limbs, you think you can see the textured blackness.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Medium: Success] - In all directions, the view is the same. There is no ground beneath your feet and no sky when you gaze upward. Any possible vector of motion would be indistinguishable from any other.

INLAND EMPIRE [Legendary: Success] - An eggshell of onyx, a cage of glass. An incubator and a coffin.

LOGIC [Impossible: Failure] - It's the same place you arrived in at the start of all this. You don't know where *that* is, but you suspect it's somewhere deep in the pale.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Medium: Success] - A pinprick of darkness in a sea of dim light.

1. Where am I? This isn't the cabin -- I'm not sure if this is anywhere at all.
2. Where is that voice coming from?
3. [Locked] Is there any way I can understand her like this?
4. Aren't these the same hands that tore me apart when I first arrived? What if they do it again?
5. [Inland Empire - Challenging 12] Try to remember how you got here.
6. [Half Light - Godly 16] This is the end of everything. I can't just *let* this happen -- I have to fight it, somehow. [Struggle against the limbs holding you in place.]
7. What do I do now?

YOU - Aren't these the same hands that tore me apart when I first arrived? What if they do it again?

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Godly: Failure] - They could.

HALF LIGHT [Godly: Failure] - And there's nothing you could do to prevent it. You are at their mercy.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Medium: Success] - They haven't made a move against you yet -- they've just continued to sway, a large chunk of them grabbing on to each other to form the tangle that surrounds you.

REACTION SPEED - But that could change in an instant.

ENDURANCE [Godly: Failure] - They ripped you to shreds before, from the inside. You would die quickly if they were to attack you again.

VOLITION [Heroic: Success] - ...It doesn't matter if you die here.

ENDURANCE - This coming from *you*?

VOLITION - Whatever this is, wherever you are -- it isn't real. This isn't *reality*. Even if it isn't a nightmare, you are still somewhere far, far away.

VOLITION - You have died three times so far, and yet here you are again. Your memories are being fractured, and so too is your psyche -- if you give up, you will be scattered to the wind and returned to the aether. It doesn't matter if you die now as long as you *keep going* -- you can still return home if you can piece together what happened. You are *sure* of this, as surely as the sun rises over the world after the longest, coldest nights.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Challenging: Success] - After life, death -- after death, life again...

Task updated: Return home

1. Where am I? This isn't the cabin -- I'm not sure if this is anywhere at all.
2. Where is that voice coming from?
3. [Locked] Is there any way I can understand her like this?
4. Aren't these the same hands that tore me apart when I first arrived? What if they do it again?
5. [Inland Empire - Challenging 12] Try to remember how you got here.
6. [Half Light - Godly 16] This is the end of everything. I can't just *let* this happen -- I have to fight it, somehow. [Struggle against the limbs holding you in place.]
7. What do I do now?

YOU - Try to remember how you got here.

+1 Have to keep going

+1 Lost in the pale

-1 *Can't* do this again

-1 Lie to the world

-1 Past the edge

-2 Repressed shattering

CHECK FAILURE

INLAND EMPIRE [Challenging: Failure] - You trace the edges of the memory with an outstretched hand, but it still refuses to coalesce.

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Medium: Success] - You weren't alone, in the end.

VOLITION [Formidable: Success] - But you *chose* to let go. There was something that had to be done.

HALF LIGHT - And look what it's gotten you -- you will die your last death a trillion miles from anyone who could remember your name. You are lost.

DAMAGED MORALE -1

INLAND EMPIRE - Next time, Harry. I promise. Just hold on a little longer.

1. Where am I? This isn't the cabin -- I'm not sure if this is anywhere at all.
2. Where is that voice coming from?
3. [Locked] Is there any way I can understand her like this?
4. Aren't these the same hands that tore me apart when I first arrived? What if they do it again?
5. [Locked] Try to remember how you got here.
6. [Half Light - Godly 16] This is the end of everything. I can't just *let* this happen -- I have to fight it, somehow. [Struggle against the limbs holding you in place.]
7. What do I do now?

YOU - What do I do now?

VOLITION - The only thing you can: act as an agent of the world once more. Search the hidden places and find their secrets. You've done it before, remember?

SUGGESTION [Formidable: Success] - You'll tease answers from the space around you, and it will surrender to you what you desire.

AUTHORITY [Formidable: Success] - It *will* be so. You will not be denied that which you are owed.

ESPRIT DE CORPS - You will always have the questions to fall back on. When the whole world peels away, and you are left with nothing but your wits -- you will still try to gather information. To build the case.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - Precious data filed away somewhere safe, until you have enough to break through.

LOGIC - Solving the puzzle one piece at a time.

VOLITION - It isn't healthy. You *know* this. Lists and trees, a coping mechanism -- you're sliding back into the shape of the old you, bit by bit. But this may be the only thing that sees you through this ordeal. If this is what it takes -- you'll do it.

Task updated: Find out where you are

Task updated: Figure out how you got here

New task: What is she?

New task: What is He?

New task: Where do the voices come from?

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - The voice that's been speaking has stopped. All is quiet for just a moment.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Easy: Success] - Then hands press inward against all edges of your body. They move with purpose, single-minded.

COMPOSURE - The meager space you were occupying before shrinks to no larger than the surface of your skin.

INLAND EMPIRE [Easy: Success] - Fingers once again reach through your chest, toward the matter of your soul. It has already shattered -- they meet no resistance.

SHIVERS [Legendary: Success] - They brush against the impression of something dark and cold, but cannot notice its presence.

INTERFACING [Formidable: Success] - What was once a rabid clawing is now a precise operation -- you can feel parts of yourself shifting under a gentle touch. Ferrotape rewritten with nothing more than a magnetized needle and a steady hand.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Heroic: Success] - A key being whittled from bone. You will be made to fit the lock.

LOGIC [Challenging: Success] - You're going to forget again.

VOLITION [Legendary: Success] - But you have forgotten before and persisted still. It will be hard, but you'll come out the other side into a beautiful sunrise. I believe in you.

DAMAGED HEALTH -99

HEALTH CRITICAL!

DAMAGED MORALE -99

MORALE CRITICAL!

PAIN THRESHOLD [Formidable: Success] - It doesn't hurt this time as you drift away. A small mercy at the end of it all.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Medium: Success] - The song begins again as you die. The same one you heard the first time, but strung across a new dimension.

EMPATHY [Legendary: Success] - It's still being sung for another -- but it's also meant for you, now.

REACTION SPEED - You are out of time.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - Everything goes dark, --

ENDURANCE - -- and you die.

---

Notes:

This was secretly a case fic all along.

Exactly 2000 hits as I upload this chapter. I never expected this work to get this much attention -- a thanks to each and every one of you who's read what I've wrote.

I told you it would be short. But I think it was worthwhile, in the end, to do it this way. Wouldn't you agree?