#mspfa nightfall

So essentially what was going to happen next was Vriska, John, Liz, FDave and the rest of the remaining kids regrouping and coming up with a plan to get the Ring of Nightmares back from Cristyle, since it is the only way they know of to subdue her, since killing her is near impossible due to her shape-shifting also regenerating her. Fdave, as a last resort, also asked Aradia to come to Earth to try and help them go back in time to fix this, with the understanding that this timeline would be doomed. Aradia shows up, and immediately points out that “time here feels funny”. She explains that it feels like time here is in motion, but somehow senses that in the background everything feels… stilted. Aradia brings out her time travel devices, activates them, and they explode into white bolts that shatter the space around them. Looks like going back in time is not going to happen.

This plan to catch Cristyle ultimately fails, but Terlock appears before our heroes and reveals how they can beat Cristyle: Hades. His void powers allow him to significantly reduce the powers of those around him, hence why they’ve had so much trouble fighting him in the past. This is also why Cristyle constantly berates Hades, essentially she knows he could kill her if he wanted to.

Hades ultimately ends up pulling a Zuko like pretty much everyone predicted! Though his motives are not to save earth in the long term. His home planet is still very much in jeopardy. Rather he realizes they have a common enemy in Nero and agrees to help thwart him.

Cristyle meanwhile is pretty hellbent on getting vengeance on Vriska somehow. She saw the future where Vriska kills her beloved sister Sylja, and wishes to inflict the same pain upon her, before killing her. In the future, (That FDave hurriedly sent her to, to get her out of the way)  he actually returns to the ship flying overhead, where Raven, the Shinobi (and Witch of Time) who is being held captive there. She takes the Scarf of Time, and the dagger pulled from Sylja’s chest, and Nero finds her. He identifies that dagger as one Sylja had stolen from him, and instructs Cristyle to fuse the Scarf and the dagger, take it back in time, and kill John with it.

Meanwhile, Vriska, John, Liz, Fdave, assisted by Hades, Kate and Gary (who have intel on Cristyle’s whereabouts) are able to track down Jade and Roxy, wake them from their slumbers with Hades’ help, and have them rejoin the group. They come up with a plan now that Hades is on their side to travel back to Cyronilla, find the device Nero was planning on using to overclock Cristyle’s powers, and destroy it. Sylja steps in and provides them with a visual of the location of the device, and it is revealed to be none other than a Quest Bed, one with the Heart symbol imbued upon it. 7 more quest beds are in the room, one for each of the following symbols: Void, Mind, Doom, Time, Space, Light, and Breath. The Time and Doom quest beds have blood stains on them.

Nero later finds out about Sylja’s involvement with giving information to the kids. He speaks to her, and informs her that once Cristyle is no longer useful to him, he has no reason not to kill her. He essentially threatens her with Cristyle’s death after the invasion unless she tells him what she told the heroes. And she gives in. Cristyle is informed about the heroes plans, and blows up Hades’s moon base, including all of his transportation equipment and essentially his only way to access Cyronillia, essentially killing their plans to destroy the Heart quest bed.  Also all the cows he had been harboring died too, which enrages Hades, his disdain towards his sister has now been elevated to outright hatred.

Now the only course of action the heroes have is to simply prepare for the invasion. Sollux, Equius, and later Kanaya and Terezi after the threats on Alternia are dealt with, show up, and start preparing weapons to take down ships all over the earth. What they end up making are a network of giant pylons which will defend the planet once they invasion begins. Fdave notes that this timeline has completely veered off from what he remembered. He has no idea of what’s to come, except for the date that Nero and his fleets are set to arrive. They continue to try and track down Cristyle, but she is uncharacteristically keeping her profile low.

Meanwhile, Rose is continuing her adventure through Nero’s castle. There is a lot of running around, guards looking for her. She finds Nero’s room. There she finds Sburb Artifacts. There is a also Lord of Doom outfit. Rose eventually finds her way to Raven’s chamber. Raven talks to Rose, and explains that she’s been captive here for thousands of years. She directs Rose to her journal from her Sburb days. Raven then asks Rose to kill her to spare her misery of existing in this state, and to save Earth. She explains that the Shinobi have been using her powers to travel to Earth and will use them for the final invasion. Rose asks if that means dooming the Shinobi to being sucked into the black hole, and Raven explains that there are plenty of viable planets in their own universe, and Nero’s decision to take over Earth was based on an old prophecy that he was stubbornly following. Rose makes up her mind, and decides to let Raven die. Raven explains that in her suit, there is a magical ring, the counterpart to the Ring of Nightmares, that is keeping her alive, and that Rose must remove it.

Nero however, steps in at the last moment and completely loses his cool seeing Rose about to kill Raven. He throws Rose against the wall, and as his rage builds, the ground around them begins to shake. Outside, the black hole that has been looming over the plan suddenly begins to violently churn and expand. It is Raven who then speaks to Nero, in a calm and lucid voice. She instructs him that he needs to regain his composure, otherwise they will all be destroyed. Nero is at a complete loss for words, stating that this was the first time Raven spoke to him sincerely in ages. Outside, the Shinobi are panicking.

Raven asks Nero to let Rose go. Nero agrees to her wishes. “As you wish, my love” He says. “Child, there is a ship on the far balcony. You may use it to return to your home” Rose, with Raven’s journal safely hidden from Nero, takes the ship, and returns to Earth and rejoins the rest of the kids.

Vriska and John’s relationship continues to advance. They pretty much have nothing left to do except wait for the invasion, so John asks Vriska to a dance held by his school, with the understanding that this may be their last chance to live out sort of a normal life and have a normal relationship.

Cristyle decides that now she will make her move. When Vriska goes off on her own, Cristyle sneaks up behind her, and stabs her through heart with a kitchen knife. Vriska falls to the ground and dies, and Cristyle uses the resulting blood to take Vriska’s form and return to the dance, Nero’s time dagger in hand. Vriska of course, having suffered a blindside death of neither heroic nor just leaning, revives, and realizes that Cristyle can now take her form. She rushes back to the party just in time to see Cristyle dancing with John, and holding the dagger behind his back. She pierces John’s back with the dagger, and what happens John is enveloped in a red crackling light, and he vanishes. Vriska sees this happen and goes into a fury, attacking Cristyle with everything she has. Cristyle eventually returns to her normal form and nearly kills Vriska again, this time with the circumstances of her death potentially being heroic, until FDave and Hades step in and join the fight. Cristyle realizes she is in trouble, and escapes the situation. (this whole scene was actually partially story-boarded in a scrapped flash animation)

Vriska is now completely distraught. John is nowhere to be found, they have no idea what happened to him, if he is alive, or if he can ever be retrieved. The only real reason she had to be on Earth has been taken from her. She begins to spiral into a depression. FDave steps in after Vriska cuts her hair short, just as the Vriska from his timeline did after everything started to go south. He sees this as an omen that nothing has chance, and he steps in to talk to Vriska. He explains to her than in his timeline, Future Vriska, even after John and everyone else died, fought up to her very last breath to try and make things right. He tells her that he knows her, and he knows that she is never one to give up, and has it in her to do whatever it takes to find John and save Earth. He then tells her the story of what happened in his future, and how Vriska sacrifices herself to save him so he could go back into the past and make things right. This whole backstory was also a flash, and I had started story-boarding 4 years ago and had been slowly adding to over time. It is largely unfinished and there is a lot of gaps, here it is: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6yfr3mmnw02hsg6/DaveVriskflash.swf?dl=0(warning: there is some mild flashing colors in this animation that I hadn’t removed yet)

Rose, meanwhile has begun pouring through Raven’s journal, and it is her account of the Sburb session as it happened. Tens of thousands of years ago, the Shinobi had played a Sburb session and created their current universe. The players consisted of Raven: the Witch of Time, Zarlo, the Knight of Space, Icarus: the Heir of Light, Shawntie, the Seer of Breath, Hades: Prince of Void, Cristyle: Thief of Heart, Sylja: Sylph of Mind, and Oren: Lord of Doom.

Rose is very confused by Hades, Cristyle and Sylja’s names being in this journal. As far as she could tell, the three siblings where fairly young and had no involvement with the Sburb game. The Shinobi described in this book where clearly different people with their similarities to their modern counterparts only superficial. Rose reads on and finds that as with any session full of teenagers, a lot of drama ensued. Their was a power struggle between Shawntie, Oren, and Hades. All three of them wanted to be in charge of the team. Oren was the reincarnation of Orpheus, who was essentially Shinobi Jesus, and believed that he was entitled to lead them all to victory. Shawntie however despised Oren and felt he didn’t live up to who Orpheus once was, and asserted that she had to work to gain her prestige unlike Oren who has born with it. Hades, however saw the instability in the two of them. He knew that Oren was deeply insecure and mistrusting, and Shawntie was headstrong and stubborn, and offered to lead the group, as he was the true heir to the Throne of the Shinobi before their home was destroyed in The Game. Oren despised the two of them, Shawntie whom he had never gotten along with was ruthless in her criticism of him, and Hades he despised for more complicated reason.

Oren had grown up believing that he was the prince of his people set to inherit the throne. In reality he was a decoy prince, places their in order to protect the true blood heir, Hades (Sort of like how in the prequel Star Wars trilogy, Padme was the real queen, while the Queen Amedala we saw was just a decoy). When Oren discovered that he would not inherit the throne he began to mistrust everyone around him. He loathed Hades, feeling that he was not raised to be ruler, and therefore has no claim to the throne. Even after it was revealed that Oren was the reincarnation of Orpheus, the savior of the Shinobi, they refused his claim to royalty, stating that Orpheus was not a figure meant to lead, but a figure of self sacrifice for the greater good. Oren was intended to step aside and allow Hades to be the true ruler. Then Sburb happened and all of that stopped mattering.

There were also some LOVE TRIANGLES going on with the 8 Shinobi! Oren was in love with Raven, who wanted nothing to do with him. She saw just as plainly as any what an insecure backstabber he was. Cristyle became enamored with Oren after discovering he was Orpheus’s reincarnation. Sylja was in love with Cristyle, because as a orphaned child, Sylja grew up on the streets, cast out by society. It was Cristyle who was the first one to show her kindness and would offer her food and money any time they encountered each other. They became good friends, but Cristyle was completely unaware of Sylja’s affection for her.

There’s a couple Shinobi I haven’t talked about much yet, as they are kind of irrelevant to the grand scheme of things, but in summary of each of the 8:

Oren: The reincarnation of Orpheus, though thus far he had been failing to live up to it. Hades: The levelheaded and wise beyond his years Prince of the Shinobi.  Cristyle: The intelligent and charismatic hero, her drive and resourcefulness she chose to use for good.Sylja: The soft-spoken and shy orphan girl, shunned by society but brought into the friend group by Sylja. Shawntie: The brash and stubborn leader type. Raven: The bookish and withdrawn spell-caster, and unknown to her, the reincarnation of Eurydice, Orpheus’s beloved wife whom he failed to save in the past. Zarlo: The trickster, used to work in a circus.Icarus: The engineer, is lucky there is no sun in Sburb for him to fly too close to.

So the stage is set, the 8 Shinobi play out their game. Everything is going according to plan, with the Shinobi making good progress in completing their assigned trails and whatnot. As Oren is progressing towards his Denizen encounter, he finds that the way is blocked with 8 locked keystones, each one corresponding to the Aspect of each player in their game. He activates the Doom keystone, and realizes he needs to bring each of the other players to unlock their keystones so he can progress. He manages to convince each of them to activate their corresponding stones, up until he gets to Shawntie. She refuses to help him out, and Oren becomes enraged. They argue, and in a fit of hysteria, Oren kills Shawntie. He is horrified at what he’s done, and hides her body away.

Some time passes and Oren ends up alchemizing a dagger. But, as soon as he picks it up, it begins to emit red sparks, flies out of his hand, and John appears! This knife is piercing his chest, but their is no blood and he doesn’t appear to be harmed.

Rose, upon reading the book, realizes what happened to John, that he was sent back in time to the point in time where the dagger he was stabbed with was created.

John quickly befriends Oren, and soon realizes that he has been sent to a Shinobi session. However, he doesn’t realize that he has been sent back in time. He believes that these Shinobi are currently in the process of playing Sburb, believes that the black hole devouring Cyronillia is Sburb’s way of destroying their planet. John realizes that if he helps the Shinobi complete their session and create a new universe, they will no longer need to search for a new home and can leave Earth alone.

So John proceeds to help Oren, and they locate his quest bed. John explains that when he is ready, Oren must die on this bed in order to resurrected in his God Tier form, and that each of his friends must do the same. Oren, realizes his session might be doomed since Shawntie is dead, and he keeps quiet about this. He doesn’t want John to know he killed her.

John eventually explains to Oren that his home is under attack by his people. The Shinobi want to make Earth their new home. John talks about Earth extensively, and how much he loves it and how much they sacrifices to get their new home. Oren listens intently. He doesn’t comment about how his home was destroyed, and internally he starts to piece things together…

Eventually Oren takes John to the temple with the aspect Keystones. There is one left, the Breath keystone, and John, as an Heir of Breath, is able to activate it. Oren thanks him, and John explains to Oren that he is about to face Yaldabaoth, the most powerful Denizen. However, before they part ways for Oren to face his Denizen, Shawntie appears, inexplicably revived. She explains that Hades found her, and had revived her dream self. She has come back for revenge, stating that Oren is a danger to their entire session and attacks him. Oren and Shawntie fight again, with John being knocked out trying to mediate. Shawntie is victories this time, landing a fatal strike on Oren. She leaves him there to die.

John wakes up while Oren is bleeding out, and realizes they can’t beat their session without him. He carries Oren to his Quest Bed where he dies, and moments later Oren is resurrected as the fully realized Lord of Doom. Oren thanks John for reviving him, but something in Oren has changed. He tells John that he is going to kill Shawntie, and John tries to stop him. But, Oren pulls the knife from John’s chest, and he fizzles out in a burst of sparks. He takes the knife, hunts down Shawntie and kills her.

Upon finding out what he had done to her, the rest of the Shinobi turn on him, but they are outmatched. His paranoia and spite got the better of him, and one by one he killed Hades, Sylja, Cristyle, Zarlo, and Icarus. Even Raven he decides is better off dead than knowing the atrocities he’s committed. However, as he watches her bleed out, he decides he can’t let her die. He brings Raven to her quest bed and she revives as a God Tiered Witch of Time.

Oren falls to his knees before her and cries, completely overcome by guilt and horror at what he has done. He pleads with her that he will do whatever it takes to atone for his crimes. He will do whatever it takes to set things right. He says he will find a way to save this session, create a new empire, and he and Raven can rule together for the rest of their immortal existence. But Raven refuses, and leaves him alone to rot in this failed session.

Left with no other choice, Oren returns to the gate John had helped him open and proceeds to make the trek to the center of his planet down a spiral staircase to confront his only remaining hope: Yaldabaoth.

Yaldabaoth explains to Oren that his actions have doomed the session, but he offers him a choice. If Oren is successful in defeating him, Yaldabaoth will grant him one of two options:

1) All of Oren’s friends that he killed will be revived and able to complete the session and move on create a new world, at the cost of Oren being forever trapped in the core of his planet in the session for the rest of eternity.

2) Oren may complete the session by himself, but the new universe he created will be doomed from the start. The soul of Orpheus that he had betrayed will slowly consume everything until all that Oren had worked for would be destroyed.

Oren, being unable to cope with the idea of sacrificing himself, chooses the 2nd option. He kills Yaldabaoth, and the choice he made is set into motion. Oren proceeds to the new Cyronillia, and creates a new empire in which he is the sole ruler. The black hole that Yaldabaoth promised is created, only known to Oren, and it slowly begins to expand threatening to devour everything. Raven attempts to thwart him, and he captures her and holds her prisoner, hoping that one day she will come to see him as he sees her.

Oren, still struggling with the guilt, reverses his name to Nero. He wants to leave the past behind him and start over as a new person. He knows that Shinobi souls reincarnate, and hopes that as his old friends reincarnate he can make things right with them. But time and time again, as his friends reincarnate, he repeats the same mistakes. He can’t let go of his disdain of Hades, he is terrified to let any new version of Shawntie live past childhood in fear that she will grow up despise him and try to kill him.

It is Sylja who is the most problematic for Nero. As a Sylph of Mind, for some reason Sylja is able to remember every past incarnation of herself, and thus she remembers the atrocities Nero committed. She has been responsible for every uprising against him, and after so many failed uprisings, Sylja lost hope and vowed to never speak again.

Over time Nero grows more and more jaded. And he becomes more and more desperate to find away out of the thrall of the black hole. It is his encounter with John that gave him hope of escape. To Nero, John was a walking prophecy, that one day his empire would seek out a planet in another universe known as Earth, and he would make his new empire there. And thus, he begins his plans to take over. Nero over time decides to take on three children (Shinobi don’t reproduce normally, they are created in a DNA pool and given to Shinobi who are fit to raise them). The three children Nero happen to receive are Cristyle, then Sylja, then Hades. Maybe now that his old friends are finally this close to them he can keep an eye on them… Maybe raising them is how he will atone for killing them in the past, he decides.

So back with the heroes, Rose is now informed about the Shinobi session, and knows what happened to John. And, just in time, John appears back in the school gymnasium, and returns to the group. Vriska is overjoyed, and imbued with a new sense of hope. Rose informs them all of the story of Nero and the session.

And here is where I stop writing for the time being, as this “Broad strokes” summary has ballooned out more than I anticipated. I will try and have the rest of out as soon as I can, don’t be afraid to keep bugging me about it!