— Dawn of the Apocalypse (Part 1/2: Regrettable Deals) —
How long had it been since he had seen the sun? This question floated though the little wizard’s mind as he laid down in his void.
This was a final test, but to them, it was more of a punishment. The thought of one day being included in Magnificus’ deck had been keeping him going, but it was quickly losing its charm.
“Please…just let this be over.” They would mutter to themselves. “I don’t care if I fail or not…I just want to be free.” But alas, these pleas were never heard. No one seemed to care for the poor, poor wizard.
Until one day, something responded.
Reality itself seemed to warp as a red mass of pixels slipped its way inside the wizard’s void. The trek seemed to have exhausted the thing, so it sat as still as a statue. But that didn’t stop the wizard from noticing it.
He was very tempted to rush over and start poking and prodding the thing, but a part of him wondered if this was another part of the test. They wanted freedom, yes, and passing their test might just be their ticket out of here. After what felt like an eternity to the little student, the mass finally uncurled itself, revealing a humanoid figure.
It snapped it’s fingers, and a static-covered card appeared in its hand.
̴“̷I̴ ̷c̸a̴n̷ ̵d̷o̸ ̸m̶a̷.̵.̴n̶y̸ ̷g̶r̴e̵a̴t̷ ̶t̸h̵i̷n̶g̶s̷,̴ ̵l̵i̵t̸t̸l̴e̸ ̶o̵n̸e̵.̴ ̴Y̷o̴u̸ ̷n̴a̴m̸e̵ ̷i̶t̴,̷ ̷a̷n̶d̸ ̵i̶t̶’̸s̸ ̴y̵o̸.̸.̸u̵r̴s̴.̷”̴
The wizard’s eyes widened. “A-Anything?”
”A̷n̵y̸t̴h̷i̴n̵g̴.̵”̵
He didn’t need to think about his choice at all. He already knew what he wanted.
”I wish to be free! To see the sun once more! To-“
“̷C̸o̴n̶s̶i̴d̵e̶r̸ ̸i̷t̴ ̵d̸o̸n̶e̸.̸”̶
The entity offered a hand to the student, who quickly shook it. Before they could let go, however, a shooting pain shot up the wizard’s arm.
”O̸n̷e̷ ̶l̴a̷s̶t̵ ̵t̸h̷i̵n̴g̴.̴ ̶T̷h̴i̷s̸ ̵m̸i̵g̸h̷t̷ ̶h̷u̷r̶t̶ ̷a̵ ̴b̸i̷t̸.̴”̶
The void was spinning faster and faster now, and the entity was just a red blur of light. Quickly pulling away, the unfortunate victim of the rogue data only made it a few steps away before collapsing. With another snap of their fingers, both the red creature and the student were gone.
One down. Three to go.
——————————————————————————————
When the Prospector first noticed the red light, he had been doing what he was always doing: mining for gold. He had stepped away for a few moments to catch his breath when an unnatural voice called out from behind him.
“Huh? Who goes there?” The Prospector responded, startled. Normally his faithful hound would have alerted him to any approaching stranger. Why was she so quiet?
“Show yerself!”
A red figure with a snakelike tail slowly emerged from the trees with its hands in front of it.
The Prospector swung his pickaxe down, before freezing right before it hit the rock. After a few moments of hesitation, he put the tool down before looking back over at the red figure.
“If you can keep your word, I suppose I can help ye.”
“I̸ ̴A̷L̵W̶A̵Y̶S̵ ̷k̸e̶e̷p̶ ̸m̴y̶ ̵w̴o̵r̷d̶.̶”
The red figure extended a clawed hand, and the Prospector promptly shook it. He only realized that something was wrong when a burst of pain shot up his arm. He didn’t even hit the ground before the world went dark, the last sounds he heard being the laughter of that red entity.
Two down, two to go.
——————————————————————————————
It was yet another standard work day for the Melter. However, there was an almost palpable taste of dread in the air, like the very factory itself was waiting for something bad to happen.
Suddenly, something caught the bot’s synthetic eye. Instead of the usual metal, a card, completely covered in static, was slowly traveling down the conveyor belt.
"What a peculiar sight. Hm..."
They knew that they should have just left the card where it was. Who knows? Maybe P03 would finally be satisfied by it. But curiosity was getting the better of them, and before it could leave their room, the Melter snatched the odd card.
Two different voices seemed to come out of the robot as they turned to face the sneaky individual who had somehow managed to slip their way inside the Melter's room.
The red figure was standing there, leaning against the conveyor belt like he owned the place.
The Melter hesitated, the flame on their head flaring up for a moment.
"I...am not going to answer that question. Now leave me alone! I must be getting back to my work."
The red figure nodded, before turning to leave. But right before he passed through the door, the entity said one last comment.
He stuck his hand out towards the Melter.
"S̸o̴.̶ ̴D̶o̵ ̶w̴e̴ ̸h̸a̶v̴e̶ ̴a̴ ̴d̶e̵a̶l̷?̴"
The robot considered their options...before eventually shaking the entity's hand.
"NONONO-"
Before it could even react, they abruptly fell to the ground.
Their system was practically screaming at them about corrupted files. But before anything could be done, the unfortunate machine shut down, leaving Ol_card to pick up his static card before walking out of the room with the Melter disappearing shortly afterwards.
Three down, one to go.
——————————————————————————————
In the human world, the smell of ash and burnt machinery lingered around what remained of GameFuna's location in ███████. One of the few things that survived the blaze that had been extinguished mere hours before was a computer and the red floppy disk that had been inserted into it.
On the screen, a new female challenger appeared. She stumbled around aimlessly as if it were her first time walking, before eventually finding herself on one of the many bridges that connected all of Inscryption's islands together.
She left the centre island and decided to travel to the right, completely oblivious to the red mass of pixels that was silently following her.
Entering what was once the domain of beasts, the new challenger discovered that it was now full of terrifying monsters which promptly chased her out. But when she went to cross the bridge once more, the red mass appeared out of nowhere before sprinting into her, causing the screen to go black.
An act 2 battle initiated itself, with the red mass at one end of the table and the frightened new challenger at the other. The challenger used her generic deck to the best of her abilities, and was actually winning.
Despite appearing to not be very familiar with this world, the challenger certainly knew how to play Inscryption. She was just two points of damage away from beating this...this monster. It was all going so well.
...until Ol_card played his signature static card, that is. Once it was struck it rapidly duplicated itself, before the scale took a nosedive in the unfortunate soul's direction.
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You remember the devlogs from Kaycee’s Mod? Well, here’s my spin on them for the Apocalyption AU. If they were real, they’d be accessible without Kaycee’s Mod (though still needing to be unlocked.)
— Devlogs and DATA (Part 1/2) —
LOG 1
Today I finally get to do something meaningful with this company. From the day they hired me, all I got to do was bug hunt and playtest weird games from franchises that no one has even heard of.
I know that I’m not the most experienced coder out there, but come on! I can do so much more than what they’re letting me.
Anyways, they’re letting me work on this new project. Inscription, I believe it’s called? I know virtually nothing about it. But hey. I’m sure It’l be more fun than reporting glitches all day.
LOG 2
It’s been a day or two since I started working on Inscryption, and I have to admit: it seems promising. I mean, how many virtual card games are out there? At least it’s not an UNO clone.
I’ve only done small things so far like making sure that certain animations display properly. It’s another 2D game, just like GameFuna’s previous works, but it looks like some 3D stuff will be implemented later on, which is cool.
I’m considering poking around the files when I get the chance. Wonder what other neat stuff I can find in here before it’s inevitably left on the cutting room floor.
LOG 3
So, I was looking through some folders when I found this file that looked out of place. It was labelled as ‘OL_CARD.zip’, so I decided to unzip it. What I got was a single exe file that did nothing when opened. Must’ve been a card placeholder or something?
Anyways, I left it alone because the last thing I want is some higher-up getting mad at me for ‘tampering with the game.’ Besides. I kinda want to look into it some more.
Now all I gotta do is find it. Call me crazy, but it’s not in the folder I last saw it in. I swear, I’m gonna be seriously angry if this is some virus.
LOG 4
ITS FUCKING ALIVE HOLY SHIT
LOG 5
Note to self: redo log 4.
I still don’t know what’s going on, but when I booted up Inscryption, there was this red mass of pixels right outside Leshy’s cabin. I tried interacting with it, and a text box full of gibberish showed up.
I decided to ignore it and check up on the scrybe, and I found that Leshy seemed…off. His personality still isn’t very fleshed out, but he seemed to be on edge. The other NPCs in the area were, too. That’s when I shut off the game.
But that damn red thing was on my desktop now.
It couldn’t open a text box with Inscryption closed, so it opened Notepad instead. Let me copy and paste what it said.
H̷e̶l̴l̷o̶ ̴t̴h̴e̸r̸e̵!̸
̵:̸)̶
I wish I was making this up. Is this some kind of advanced AI? If so, why are they keeping it hidden in this random-freaking file tucked away in the back of a card game?
I have so many questions. And a part of me wants to ask this thing for answers.
LOG 6
Out of every single employee, I’m the one who gets the haunted game. Seems about right considering my luck.
Well, I’m not sure if this thing is a ghost or not. I’ve been talking to ‘Olcard’ by adding text into the code, and it’s been responding with those bugged text boxes. At least it’s getting better at using them.
Whatever it is, it’s really curious about the game and its development. I’ve asked my fellow coders if anything similar is happening to them, and they all give me weird looks. I’m half expecting to wake up any minute now.
I’ve finished up Leshy’s area and I’m working on Grimora’s next. Olcard gave me some good tips when I got stuck, so I think keeping him around a little while longer wouldn’t hurt anyone.
Here’s the last six devlogs written by my version of Kaycee for the Apocalyption AU :)
— Devlogs and DATA (Part 2/2) —
LOG 7
I found that a portion of my Inscryption-related files got corrupted for some reason, so I moved Olcard’s file to my desktop as I restored my backup. But then I came back to my computer after a small break to see him literally googling things. Like. What?
I moved his file back to Inscryption, but that didn’t stop Olcard from ‘exploring’ my computer. We had a chat in notepad about why I don’t want him to do that, and he seemed to understand.
I know he’s ‘special’ and all, but I won’t hesitate to send Olcard to the recycling bin if he keeps this up. The higherups are starting to notice me and I don’t want him blowing it.
LOG 8
Olcard’s been messing with my computer again. I remember closing everything before turning it off after work yesterday, but when I turned it on this morning, both the search engine and Inscryption were open.
According to the search history, Olcard was brushing up on his spriting knowledge. I almost didn’t want to see what changes he made to the game, but I knew I had to for the sake of my job. Long story short, he messed with some of the Challenger’s sprites. Now this wouldn’t be concerning if it wasn’t for the fact that he completely covered their faces in red.
Olcard must’ve known that I would be mad, as I couldn’t find him anywhere on my computer. This is getting ridiculous. I think I’m just going to keep working on dialogue, and deal with undoing his tampering later.
Speaking of Olcard, I caught a glimpse of him on my desktop for a split second. I might be wrong, but he looked a little bit different.
LOG 9
Olcard definitely looks different. I managed to keep him on my screen long enough to talk to him. He’s still a mass of red pixels, but he’s definitely got arms and what looks like a singular leg now.
You know what? I’m just going to include the conversation we had. It speaks for itself.
Pardon my language, but what the fuck? I don’t have a working microphone on this thing AND the webcam is covered up! How did he know I had a water bottle with me?! It might have just been a lucky guess. Yeah.
I think I’m going to move his folder to the recycling bin, but not emptying it. That should get my point across.
LOG 10
I think it worked. I haven’t heard from Olcard in a few days, and I haven’t found any new corrupted files or tampered sprites. Maybe I should just go ahead and delete him. I mean, he was helpful at first, but as of recently all Olcard did was get on my nerves.
I’m being asked to help test out the mox mechanic. Don’t get me wrong: I hate playtesting, but I feel like I’m in need of a change of pace. I think I can finally put this weird AI thing behind me now.
——
So I’m about to play a few rounds with Magnificus, and I noticed a new, completely static covered card in my starting hand. I played it, and it crashed the game. Now Inscryption refuses to start. Great. Just when my luck was starting to turn.
LOG 11
I managed to get Inscryption to run again, and I only have one thing to say: what the heck is happening? Some NPCs have gone missing, and there’s zero trace of them anywhere in the files. And all of the scrybe’s dialogue keep mentioning ‘the red’ or ‘the data.’
The higherups are asking for a status report. What do I say? “Oh, the Prospector, the Melter, and one of Magnificus’ students went missing, and now Inscryption is starting to look funny. Everything’s a-ok here!”
The game refuses to close, and I’m stuck playing it normally. The bridge is broken in three spots, leaving me with only one option: Leshy’s zone. But the trees have multiplied on the overworld map, and it looks like there’s more than just a cabin now.
I’m not dealing with this. If this is what Olcard wants the game to be like, he should have asked me to make a mod once it’s complete. I did what I should have done a long time ago, which was unplugging the computer.
But it didn’t turn off.
LOG 12
He didn’t let me in the cabin. Told me to wait, so I did. I waited until everyone left the building. Can’t believe this guy is making me work overtime. I am beyond mad at him at this point and can’t wait to finally erase this jerk (after having one last talk, of course.)
As I finally was let into the cabin all the lights in the building turned off, leaving the computer monitor as my only light source. The power had been iffy the last few days so this was just a coincidence, right?
I didn’t see Leshy anywhere inside the cabin. Instead, a red person with an animal-like head was in his spot. I audibly muttered a “who the heck-“ and to my surprise, the figure answered me.
Part of me wanted to rush up to the computer, it’s fan droning louder and louder in the pitch-black space, but I resisted. Well, I resisted long enough to write this down on my phone.
I’m not going to pass up the chance to give Olcard a piece of my mind before emptying the recycling bin. I’ve had it with him. This ends today.
