The Liberator
he/him/his
23
April 10
Lavaridge Town
Figuring it Out
Penitent
Renegade
Turned on my friends and brought them pain. I have no right to show I can change. But I gotta try!
TAG WITH @isaacmerlo
Isaac Merlo
CYBERCHASE CONUNDRUM (EVENT)
POSTED ON Aug 27, 2022 0:08:02 GMT
[nospaces] [attr="class","skullhover"] [attr="class","skullimg"] [attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗 [attr="class","skulloverlap"]BUT HOLD YOUR BREATH, GUESS WHO'S RUNNING THE SHOW? [attr="class","skullbody"]ANGSTY BITS[break][break] Pandemonium erupted all around Isaac. People rushed to their deaths with a rarely seen desperation. Others were hot on their heels, trying whatever it took to keep them alive. Some attacked each other, whether for their own good or just to twist the knife harder. Others turned their anger upon the digital world itself, tearing at the platform like a pack of rabid animals.[break][break]
Isaac couldn't understand it. Why would they do that to themselves? Why would they fill their last moments with such pain and strife? Fate was coming for them, whether they wanted it to or not. In fact, it was literally assigned. Ten would pass, and the rest would live on. No amount of struggling would change it, and if it did it'd only make things worse. Why not just sit back, relax, and accept the-[break][break]
Inevitable.[break][break]
Oh boy. That word was a lot scarier when you were staring it in the eye. Isaac's doppelganger stared him down, framed in the harsh glow of the digital world's light. A chill shuddered down his spine as he felt the crushing pressure coming from his own clone's intensity.[break][break]
Days gone by[break][break]
Isaac's gut dropped into his stomach. No. No, he couldn't. He wouldn't. It was too soon. He turned on his heel, burst into a run, reaching out towards somebody, anybody-[break][break]
Shogunai[break][break]
-but he could feel his shirt bunching up behind him, pulling against his throat with enough force to take his breath away.[break][break]
Moments pass[/break][break]
Desperately, Isaac wheeled around, flinging a punch right at his own stolen face.[break][break]
Shattered glass[break][break]
Polygons exploded from the doppelganger, a scowl setting deeper onto its face in response.[break][break]
Hands of time[break][break]
And it answered the insult with a punch of its own, Isaac's world going white.[break][break]
Where's that chime?[break][break]
His ears rang. His head pounded. His vision swam like a drunken sailor.[break][break]
In my head[break][break]
Desperately, he tried to think of something, anything. But blow after furious blow rained down upon him.[break][break]
I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just-[break][break]
Hands.[break][break]
Isaac's thoughts were interrupted by coldness and tight pressure. A chill shot down Isaac's spine, leaving a shudder rocking through his entire body. As he tried to look down, his chin was stopped by something hard and gnarled. It was a finger. It was his own fucking finger. He was being strangled by his own doppelganger.[break][break]
Hands of time will wring my neck[break][break]
What happened? Wasn't he supposed to go into the light? Why was his doppelganger taking matters into his own hands? He looked around, desperately searching for answers, but each time he found his gaze wandering back to himself. His doppelganger stared down at him with pure loathing in his stolen eye. It was to such an intensity that a vessel in his eye had popped, leaving it flush with blood.[break][break]
Every little moment spells regret[break][break]
At least this loathing was something, though. It was more than the void that Isaac had become. He wasn't some enlightened wise man, above the petty concerns of mortal men. No, he was just some shitty coward who tried to take the easy way out and learned it was harder than he could've ever imagined. Now, while everyone else worked so hard to solve this problem, he was just going to die in the sorriest way imaginable; cold, alone, and by hands that were no longer his.[break][break]
But I don't have to feel this way[break][break]
Maybe it was best to just let it happen. Maybe it was best to put his money where his mouth was. This was what he asked for, right? This was what he volunteered to do? The hands he'd flung up to his throat to protect himself slowly, sullenly dropped to his sides. He tried his best to steady his heartbeat, even as it pounded with enough force to crack his ribs. It was okay. It'd all be over soon.[break][break]
As a voice inside my head.[break][break]
Isaac blinked, and he was alone. There was no doppelganger anymore. The denizens of Hoenn were little more than blurs to his bleary eyes. Cyberspace was cold, and dark, and empty, broken up only by the pillar of light that would guide him to his fate. Even without his doppelganger's weight bearing down on him, he was powerless to step away from it.[break][break]
The light's glow intensified to a fever pitch. It would consume him, and then he would be gone. It sounded so neat, so tidy, so easy on paper, like someone had just flicked the Isaac is Dead switch. The reality was far less simple, and far, far more horrible. Isaac could feel his entire body unraveling. There was no pain to it, because not a piece of him was being damaged. Instead, it was an odd, numb weightlessness as the server disassembled him bit by bit. He tried to move, say something, vomit, react to the feeling in any way, shape, or form, but it was impossible. Anything that would allow his body to move had already been disassembled, and now he was just some floating conglomerate of parts.[break][break]
Bit by bit, data was sheared off, small rips appearing in the makeup of his body. It wasn't some gory wound, but rather a gap like the one that had spread across Isaac's face. He wasn't injured, he was simply Missing. And more and more of him would become Missing, chipping away at the very fabric of his being until he was reduced to just Enough. His vision was framed in a shadowy haze. The only thing he could hear was an ever-present ringing sound. He could no longer even taste the inside of his mouth. The only sense he had left was his sense of thought.[break][break]
That, too, unraveled. And then, when Enough had been taken, so was the rest of Isaac. All it took was a single, unceremonious tug on his code, reducing an agonizing Something to pure Nothing.[break][break]
[break][break] The second Isaac felt the warmth of the sun caressing his face, his eyes snapped open. Where was he? It was a warm, inviting paradise, surrounded by the smell of sea spray and the gentle chatter of birds overhead. Was this . . . Heaven?[break][break] Wait. No. This was just Hoenn.[break][break] Oh, Arceus. Was this Hell?[break][break] It certainly wasn't continuous with where they had been before. Everyone who had run into the light was alive again, bleary-eyed and confused but truly and honestly alive. And that included him, Isaac-[break][break] Right. He was named Isaac, wasn't he? He flung a hand up to his face, patting around, and sighed in relief upon finding that his head had been reassembled. It was only now that he was aware of what had been stolen from him. And that theft included the simmering feeling building up in his gut, burning through all of the numb acceptance that had taken its spot.[break][break] Moldovia or Macarena or Malcontention or whatever the fuck his name was hadn't just sent them into another world for study. He dissected them from the moment they entered, taking away all of the little things that made them . . . well, them. He wasn't content with just body parts. He stole memories, hopes, and the very building blocks of personalities. The past, the present, the future, they were all just jokes to him. He used and abused his power over them, over everyone, in a world where he got to play god.[break][break] Well, y'know what? He just made an enemy for life. If his smug-ass face showed up again, Isaac was going to make him regret it.[break][break] He pried himself up from the sand, only to hear an excited bellow. Kiryu charged him like a freight train, the Aggron hugging him tight and letting out a string of concerned grumbles. Part of Isaac wanted to protest, wiggle out of her grip, focus on his quest for revenge while he was still so enraged. Another part of him remembered just what he had done, and how badly he had worried her. Maybe it was okay to simmer the fight down for a bit and reflect on what was important. ". . . Hey. I missed you too, buddy," he said, a weary smile on his face. "Sorry for being an idiot right there. I didn't even realize how out of whack that place got me.[break][break]
"But, that's never happening again, y'hear? Whatever the fuck he did to me in Cyberspace? It doesn't mean a thing out here. I'm me, and I'll be damned if he ever, ever takes that away from me. And I'm never going to take myself away from you, either. I promise."[break][break] He could see his reflection in the facets of her metal plates. Oh, god. His eye looked terrible. That burst blood vessel (the last bit of his conscious struggle?) was out in full force, a sight that left Isaac shuddering. Every inch of his body hurt, as if the gaps and pieces chiseled out from it were struggling to fit themselves back in. He just knew he'd be seeing the events of this excursion in his dreams, too. Overall, he felt like shit.[break][break] But he was alive. And that was enough for today. [break][break] [break] [attr="class","skullinfo"]MOBILE POST / @ [attr="class","skullcredits"] TAIKO![newclass=.skullhover]width:420px;-webkit-filter: grayscale(100%);filter: grayscale(100%);-webkit-transition:all 1s ease;transition:all 1s ease;-webkit-transition-delay:0.1s;[/newclass] [newclass=.skullhover:hover]-webkit-filter: grayscale(0%);filter: grayscale(0%)-webkit-transition:all 1s ease;transition:all 1s ease;[/newclass] [newclass=.skullimg]width:380px;height:200px;background-image:url(https://i.imgur.com/HOVZp0J.png); background-repeat:no-repeat;[/newclass] [newclass=.skulltitle]font-family:verdana;font-weight:700;font-size:50px;position:relative;text-align:center;color:#D9B800;margin-top:-36px;margin-bottom:0px;text-shadow: -1px 0 black, 0 1px black, 1px 0 black, 0 -1px black;[/newclass] [newclass=.skulloverlap]letter-spacing:1px;font-family:oswald;font-weight:200;font-size:12px;position:relative;text-align:center;margin-top:-0;margin-bottom:-5px;color:#e8e8e8;text-shadow: -1px 0 black, 0 1px black, 1px 0 black, 0 -1px black;[/newclass] [newclass=.skullbody]div-align:center;text-align:justify;width:380px;font-size:12px;font-family:roboto;color:#d6d6d6;[/newclass] [newclass=.skullbody b]color:#d9b800;[/newclass] [newclass=.skullinfo]width:380px;font-family:oswald;font-size:12px;font-weight:200;color:#767676;text-align:right[/newclass] [newclass=.skullcredits]width:380px;font-family:roboto;font-size:12px;text-align:center;[/newclass] [googlefont=Oswald] [googlefont=Roboto] |
|
PATISSERIE HM RP
