OMNIA: Chapter 8: Three Unwise Men

[thetoastking]

"Har de har har. Anyway i guess i'll ask since you don't seem to be giving the direct truth... that and you probably shouldn't spoil the question that is bugging me IF it truly destroys my drive to stop "The Corrupt God" or whatever. So i'll ask you something which will probably have a stupid answer or breaks it all. Are you absolutely sure you control EVERYTHING?

I'm fairly sure I CAN.

But in truth, I don't.

Controlling everything would be boring.
There would be no room for creative freedom.
We'd all be slaves to a single whim, and with no freedom, people no longer wish to participate.
So it's not a matter of whether or not I DO control everything, it's a matter of what I DO NOT. Can you understand this?

I.
Am God.
Here. I CAN control your actions.

But I choose not to.

Because you are much more entertaining...

With the illusion of freedom gently stuck in your head.
So here's what's going to happen. I am going to snap my fingers, and only one of you will remember this. You will know, because you will find your pocket to be lined with a small fortune for being such a sport. It is up to you to distribute this wealth, if you so please. The rest of you, unless you explicitly remember this (and you won't), will wake up on a small shipyard, snapping out of a dream. You have traveled out of the tent city to this place to catch a ferry towards Bolet in order to hunt down the first Memory Crystal. Before we part, I shall allow you to say one last thing. A sort of... Complaint line, if you will. Fire away.

[flyingBrick]

- "Your Majesty, since you couldn't answer my first question, would you be so kind as to concede me another one?

How can one know who not to trust?"

[Adept]

Hmm... What's it like to be made out of toast? Totally serious and important question right here.

[Travosh]

Misquoting is fun! Do it far more often, it'l send the others into a tizzy.

[thetoastking]

- "Your Majesty, since you couldn't answer my first question, would you be so kind as to concede me another one?

How can one know who not to trust?"

Heh heh. The funny thing is... You don't.

What good is a life without some surprises? You're going to run into the nicest people you'll ever meet, and they'll stab you for a dime. The worst scumbags could very well give you unparallelled riches, the richest gentlemen could very well be evil as shit. Also, I did answer your first one, just not in the way you expected. In any case...

Hmm... What's it like to be made out of toast? Totally serious and important question right here.

It's a lot like you being made out of flesh. How's that feel for you? Your meat and bones are my breading and crust. Besides. I'm made out of Quantum. I've simply chosen to form it into this shape.

Now! Let's get this show out of here before I run into a metaphorical brick wall as to where I can move this story.

[Xander]

"How can you justify the deaths of countless beings? For your "story"? For the sake of some "Plot"?! They may be nothing more than characters in a tale you wrote to you, something you made up, but to us, they're real, not some toy to be played with and then tossed aside when they're broken! And what happens when your "story" is over?! Are we to just wait until you next pick up your pen? Wait until some nameless disaster written by you comes to claim our lives?! WAIT UNTIL YOU DECIDE THAT WE ARE NO LONGER WORTH BEING A PART OF YOUR STORY?!"

[Askia]

"does this story even have a happy ending?"

[thetoastking]

"How can you justify the deaths of countless beings? For your "story"? For the sake of some "Plot"?! They may be nothing more than characters in a tale you wrote to you, something you made up, but to us, they're real, not some toy to be played with and then tossed aside when they're broken! And what happens when your "story" is over?! Are we to just wait until you next pick up your pen? Wait until some nameless disaster written by you comes to claim our lives?! WAIT UNTIL YOU DECIDE THAT WE ARE NO LONGER WORTH BEING A PART OF YOUR STORY?!"

Bravo. Really. give yourself a pat on the back.
The King slowly claps, growing ever the larger, the room vanishing to pitch black while he seems to vanish, save the mustache.
You found it. You found out the greatest truth in the entire universe. Congratulations. You know the meaning of life now. You know now that all religions are complete billhonky. You know that you are fabrications of my mind, and the words of others. You know that your existence hinges upon my desire to create you. You know that your combat is pre-staged. The events are already determined. But, most of all, you now know the truth. That yes, that is correct. Everything. One. Hundred. Percent. I can justify the destruction of the beings you call real because to me, they are words. They are ink. Digital Pixels on a screen. With a swift movement, their lives are gone. Their house is on fire. I created them. They did not exist without my intervention, and with it, I can remove them from existence. Death simply is a return to the pixel-hand which manufactured them. THAT is how I justify it. Rebirth, as something better, or something worse. But yes... You are right. That is essentially what happens, though you are never aware of it.

"does this story even have a happy ending?"

Does it have a 'happy' ending? That... Is for you to decide. The story certainly has AN ending, whether it remains to be happy or not is ever-so-slightly in your hands. Now...
The being vanishes. A glowing red hand hovers above the group. A single word echoes through the void before the great Snap.

Minds tampered with. Pockets filled with fortune. Who remembers what happened? What would they do with this knowledge? Who knows...? Probably the king. He wrote the damn story. In any case, the four snap out of what seems like a dream, looking to find that they have arrived in the great port of Poreal (not to be confused with the hair care product).
Oh Jin. You're so good at that Mandolin. You're like that hero guy! What's his name?
James. The legendary bard of the universe.
Yeah yeah! Him! I bet you could beat him in a guitar battle with that music of yours.
Somehow, I doubt that.

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At this point if you don't have a PM from me (i know who you are), then your mind has been erased of this event. If you did get a pm, it's up to you what you do with that. You could reveal it, but your companions wouldn't know who you talk about. In any event, sorry for the wait, between graduation (woo!) and work, it's been pretty busy recently. Updates should be a bit more frequent and less meta now. Save for the small fortune and death-bomb I-nonono king, don't tell them about the doomsday device, don't don't don't.

Keep posting. Toast king, I'm done here.

[Saint Game]

Pardon me good fellows, would you know where to find the leader of this prosperous port?

[Travosh]

Challenge him to a guitar battle. You know you have to. For family honor.

[Adept]

And do either of you know of any captains who are taking passengers and heading to Bolet?

[Askia]

thoughts:"So how are we supposed to get on a ship anyway? better let the merchant take care of it"

> wander around

[flyingBrick]

But Travosh, I'm currently not in possession of a guitar!

Truly I have failed my ancestors.

[Travosh]

We have an inventory god! Can't you just ask him to yank one out of some poor sap's pockets?

[thetoastking]

Pardon me good fellows, would you know where to find the leader of this prosperous port?

Jin! Jin! Oh em gee! Jin! He's talking to me! To me, Jin! Finally! Yes my lord, I do know!
Are you faking another revelation from your God in order to attempt to make me jealous somehow?
No, silly! He's actually talking to me this time! Something about the mayor here? I think he wants to know where the mayor's gone!
I'd love to bark an answer to the wind, but you and I both know you're totally-

And do either of you know of any captains who are taking passengers and heading to Bolet?

... Well I'll be damned. It's my patron god. Alright fine. I owe you 5 coins.
Yay!
Lord, while I have no idea why you want to know why there's transport boats heading out, I do know you're too late. There was a large mob coming from kathmandu. They all swarmed here and went off in seperate directions, mostly to the eastern continent. Why would you want to go to Bolet of all places? That place is a fucking war zone now.
They want to go to bolet? But I thought they could look wherever they wanted!
He's wondering if there's transport to bolet. They're probably guiding someone near us, or they wouldn't bother contacting us.
... Are you faking, Jin?
Oh ha ha. Very funny.

[Xander]

"A warzone? Well that's fan-fucking-tastic. As if things weren't hard enough already, we've gotta make our way through a warzone."

[Saint Game]

I don't think you answered my question. I would like to know where the mayor is. And we're guiding those four over there. the group with the creepy puppet.

[Sinjin]

"And let's not forget the fact i'm pretty much a WAR MACHINE FUELED BY MAGIC! Oh dear lord it's like this world wants me to go submit to my antronarch self."

"If you need me i'll be sitting on this patch of grass being the emotional twat i usually am."

[Adept]

Yup, we're guiding those 4. And what's up with Bolet? The corrupted?

[flyingBrick]

- "Howdy folks. My name is Rick Flynn, traveling salesman, and these are my friends, Lucian, Sitrah and Cassius. We're currently on a mission for the gods, a pilgrimage if you will. It's the desire of the gods that we get ourselves to Bolet as quickly as possible. However, we've been out of the loop for the last few months, so we're not aware of what happened at the western continent. We would be very grateful if you could help us find a boat that can carry us across the western sea. Or even just get us up to speed with the latest news. What is going on at the West? What happened to the mayor of this town?"

EDIT: Disregard that, too late.

[thetoastking]

I don't think you answered my question. I would like to know where the mayor is. And we're guiding those four over there. the group with the creepy puppet.

What, them? My lord, I don't want to doubt your infinite wisdom, but... Really? They seem weird, lord. Oh well. So like, the mayor! Yeah! Oh gosh. Jin, where'd the mayor go?
And let's not forget the fact i'm pretty much a WAR MACHINE FUELED BY MAGIC! Oh dear lord it's like this world wants me to go submit to my antronarch self.
If you need me i'll be sitting on this patch of grass being the emotional twat i usually am.
He went to talk to those pirates. But, my lord, are you sure-

Yup, we're guiding those 4. And what's up with Bolet? The corrupted?

I guess that solves that. Like I said earlier; Bolet is in a state of war.
A warzone? Well that's fan-fucking-tastic. As if things weren't hard enough already, we've gotta make our way through a warzone.
Indeed. You see, when the First happened, corrupted flooded the land. This place was a small enough port to avoid their destructive path, but the other continents weren't so lucky. In the subsequent weeks that followed, the Second hit Bolet, where corrupted flooded En-Mass towards it. Oddly enough, they were defeated by the shootan; but something weird happened.

The shootan that lived there began to grow complacent. Angry at one another. They began to fidget, and act bizarre. People who left shortly after the attack said something in that city was making them angry at one another. Sure enough, a couple days later, a full-on Civil War erupted between the North and the South, causing the once peaceful city to attempt total destruction against one another. I can't remember the full details. Something about coats? I don't know. But it's insane to head to Bolet if you have any sanity or any Shootan with you. whatever's in there seems to only affect Shootan, as everyone who wasn't shooting was either shot or escaped. They said it was insanity there. So, I don't know why you'd ever want to head to Bolet, but if you do, a crew of pirates is currently docked here. The mayor's talking to them about their travels; Trying to get us some information about the outside world.

As for you four, you're pretty lucky, even if you are a bit... Handicapped? I hope your gods steer you well, cause in bolet, if you aren't with them, you're against them, and that usually means you get shot.

[flyingBrick]

- "Good then that we don't have neither shootans nor sanity. Could you point us at the general direction of these pirates?"

YO-HO! YO-HO! A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR RICK!

[Xander]

"I hate to think what could be happening in Jimen-Sei..."

[Travosh]

Who needs sanity when you've got me? Never met an insanity driven lunatic I didn't enjoy!

[Adept]

Probably some other work of Corruptor there. Thanks for the information, Jin!