#osc crap

The world seemed normal in Gemory City. Yes, it was named and built over a cave that legends told about odd creatures roaming the place, but those were just myths. Nothing more.

Microphone was no exception to the normality. An eighth grader going to Gemory East Middle School. Every day she’d go to school, ride the bus back to the apartment she lived in, and do her homework, as expected. She seemed mostly content with her life, except for one thing.

On the east side of the city, nothing really happened. If you wanted adventure, downtown is where you’d go. If you found anything in the east side of Gemory City other than the apartment complexes and stores like Objectica Markets and the generic convenience store, you’d likely be dreaming.

Back to Microphone, she had two main friends on her side. Knife, a member of the district’s fighter’s team, and Pickle, Knife’s main friend who stuck by his side no matter what. Acquaintances were large and many of the people there. There were a couple that stuck out, like the popular girl Taco. She always had the newest things, and she had a personality like no other. 

Depending on who you were was how this personality felt. It was more negative to some kids, positive to others. Microphone was more on the negative side, although she did have feelings for her. She seemed less wavered by the personality compared to Taco’s looks. Her shell was adorned with stickers with stars, all pink and black. She had faux hair, which usually was something plushie objects would use to look cooler. She was bold in her choice of fashion.

As Microphone walked to her locker for the day, she could hear some yelling from across the hall. It was Knife calling for her. He likely had some adornment like spikes on him, and wanted to show those off. Walking past a lot of the other objects made his presence feel less and less unusual. There was a mirror with a ton of bracelets, exchanging some with a coat. The coat had a couple pins on it. Everyone expressed themselves differently here, compared to the rival school, Thorn Local.

She continued to walk down the hallway when the bell rang. The final bell. Kids who had eighth period in a class rushed out. Everyone going to their lockers. Tonight was a basketball match against Thorn Local. It wasn’t anything new, just the basketball kids running to the gym. 

Microphone eventually reached her locker, which was next to Knife’s. Pickle ran up to the group. “What do you guys have going on tonight?” She asked, hoping at least Pickle wasn’t busy. Pickle piped up. “I’m going to get the new Ninison console today! I’m so excited to try out the new Flipbook thing on it. I heard you can connect to other devices and share animations you make!” 

Microphone was excited too, and for the same reason. She was going to get the Ninison DualWield 2L. She had saved up for the release, but didn’t have enough to get it until now, four weeks after the launch. “I was going to do the same thing,” she said, “Do you want to go get our consoles together?”

Pickle thought for a moment. “I’m good with that.” “Is around six tonight okay?” Microphone asked. Pickle nodded, a sign that he was ready to leave, and an approval. Microphone grabbed her backpack, and headed out to the bus.

The rest of the time until the selected time was uneventful. Most chores were done at the time except for a couple that didn’t need done at the moment. Microphone then went to her parents to tell them that she was going to get the console with the money she saved.

Taking the bus to the store wasn’t much. Meeting up with Pickle outside of the local game store filled Microphone with excitement. The entire reason she wanted the DualWield 2L was so she could make animations with anything but the family computer. They talked for a moment before going inside.

There wasn’t much of a line at the register, except for a couple of paintings buying a couple of games for the Rune, Ninison’s current standup console. Looking at the colors of DualWield was mystifying. Microphone specifically wanted the Raspberry color, to match her room’s look, with dark colors and pink.

Walking up to the counter, she talked to the worker. “Is there any games you’d recommend for people who are starting with a DualWield?” The worker thought for a moment. “There’s always a puzzle game we bundle with DualWields. You’d be eligible. Is there anything else in specific you’re looking for?”

Airy fell asleep, staying in the cabin until morning, and still stayed inside for most of it. He didn’t feel much different, just the pain of the wound. It was still bleeding, but he had to go outside to go get a couple stems to wrap around the wound. Eventually, around the time the sun got above a lot of the trees, he stepped outside to take in fresh air.

Walking over to a plant he found with a wider leaf, he took a stem from another plant and a leaf from it, wrapping it around his arm. He winced as he tied the stem shut. It took some of the blood away, enough to keep it from dripping, but the pain was still there.

Walking over to the cave, Liam was discussing something with the contestants. Likely a reminder on how to function as people. Airy, walking in, stepped near the microphone and spoke.

“Hello contestants. I notice you all are discussing things. There is no competition for today, as I’ve gone through an… unfortunate circumstance.” The contestants cheered, free from another competition filled day.

Liam looked over to Airy. He was still cross about the night before, but not enough to not care for his well-being. “What even happened last night? I heard you grab the axe and walk outside. It was strange.”

“Because I… saw something. I went to go see what it was and got bit.”

Airy shuddered recalling the jaws of the beast and how they chomped into his arm, enough to cause it to bleed even now. The foam dripping from them didn’t even come to his mind.

“If you’re not worrying, I’m not either,” Liam sighed before walking off.

Airy mainly spent the day working on The Plane’s database, working on fleshing out the profiles of the contestants with notes. As well, he tried to make it look slightly nicer, although it barely even worked and for the most part made the database look worse.

As night fell, he lit a fire again and decided to keep it lit until it burned out in case the creature came back. He made sure the fire was smaller when he went to sleep, as not to set the surrounding woods on fire.

Whilst dreaming, he noticed a silver wolf in the corner. It had the same yellow eyes, still glaring at him. He was unnerved, but it never really interfered with the dream. It just sat there, watching, waiting. The thing it waited for never came as Airy woke up earlier than usual.

Airy went to gather reeds in the morning. Walking across the plank, he felt slightly uneasy, but not enough to waiver his cautious mind. Looking at the reeds, he picked all he would need for the day and went to look for food for the day.

Going on the usual trail, he noticed some scraps of fur on the ground, likely remnants of the creature’s hunting. Whatever it was, it was still scaring off prey, and with the coming wetness, it would be making things harder.