TAKE X (6-5-17: The End)

> Palmer: Suggest that Meion edit it.



Krytikas sets the book down on a nearby table. "Now, one of us needs to change everything back," she says, turning to look at the rest of you.

You pull out a cup of coffee and take a sip. "Why not Meion?"

Ione nods. "I agree. He seems like the single best option."

"Very well. Do you feel comfortable with that, Meion?" Krytikas asks.

Her question is met with a smile - one bigger than Meion's normal grin. "Naturally!" he says. "Now that we have the book, I can have this wrapped up in... ... oh no."

You follow his gaze. He's looking at the table where Krytikas put the book.

The same table that is now very obviously sans book.



Your name is Sienna Travler.

You've just stolen the entire history of Ennen.

(If Shadan were here, she'd certainly be impressed.)

Not only can you now completely remove the threat of the One Goddess from your life once and for all, you can do what you'd never even dreamed:

You can take her place.

Where do you start?



Your name is, once again, Palmer Deadman.

"Where do you start" is, coincidentally, the same question that you need to answer.

>Palmer: Uh, Krytikas, is anyone currently hiding their location from us?
>Sienna: ...Where do you start? Aside from the One Goddess trying to kill you, it's weird how much of history seems like pretty much what you'd have wanted to happen if you were in charge. What do you want to accomplish, besides be her?

Sienna: Step one, remove the biggest threat. Render the One Goddess powerless. This way, if she realizes what you're up to, she'll be less capable of standing up to you; and, if one of your "allies" discovers you before you're done, you can bluff credibly if you only made that one change.

And maybe hide a big deposit of gold or something somewhere that only you can reasonably access. You know, as a plan B.

Palmer: Maybe now's the time to check out that door that was bugging you before. The thief might be hiding there.

This is totally not a thinly-veiled excuse.

> Palmer: Ask Krytikas if anyone's hiding from you.



"Travler took the book," you say. "Krytikas, is there anyone keeping their location a secret from us right now?"

Krytikas closes her eyes a moment to think. "Hmm... Oh, she's a sly one. I think I get it."

"What's she done?" Ione asks, her eyes narrowed.

"She's not keeping her location a secret."

A moment passes, punctuated by you sipping your coffee. "Come again?" you ask.

Krytikas looks sidelong at you. "Sienna isn't hiding her location. She must have known that I could see secrets."

"Ah." Ione clears her throat sheepishly. "That would be my fault. I gave her a crash course on the different members of the pantheon while we were in Vandrio."

You frown. "She's not hiding her location? What does that mean?"

"There's a loophole in my domain," Krytikas says. Her expression is as unreadable as always, but she seems... frustrated. "I call it the 'I would have told you if you asked' exception. If you're not intentionally keeping it a secret, it's even odds as to whether or not it shows up in my library."

"And what about Travler's plan?" Ione asks. "Is she keeping that a secret?"

"Worse," Krytikas says. "She's... improvising."

> Palmer: Begin the search.



"There's no time to lose," Ione says. "We need to find her."

Meion raises a hand. "I have some information that might help you. One of the records here is of doors in the Centrality opening and closing. No doors have opened or closed since you all entered the library."

You look at the library door. It's still open.

"That means that wherever Travler is," Krytikas says, "it's a room with an open door."

An open door...?

Hm. You wonder.

You make your way out of the library.



The door's still open. You peek inside.



...There's nobody in here. But, this room...

...What is this room? It looks like you just stepped into a forest. You've never been here before, but you recognize every nook and cranny...

> Sienna: Remove the biggest threat.



Now that you think about it, you know exactly where to begin.

You flip the book open to the last page with writing on it, and you add a single sentence with a flourish:

"And then the One Goddess was no longer a goddess."

There's no flash of light or anything, but you can still tell, somehow, that it worked.

Bonus scene unlocked!



Your name is Sienna Travler, and you finally have rendered all these idiots irrelevent. Now you just need to find that rat Krytikas, and--

--what? Something feels... wrong. Like... a large chunk of you just got hollowed out. You haven't felt this way since...

It hits you.

You haven't felt this way since before you hijacked that god. You try to warp back to the Centrality, but it doesn't work.

You get out of here. You're pretty sure you know where Krytikas was headed.



"Update," you snap.

The Miracle Man hops to attention. "They put the orbs on the pedestal and went in. It leads to the Centrality. Nobody's come out since."

"Who went in?"

"The masked guy, the woman in the suit, the short one in the robe, and... Travler."

That settles that. Looks like you've got a trip to the Centrality in the very near future.

...Well. Fuck. Um. I mean, Justice I saw coming from a mile away, but nobody in-character had any reason to suspect her, so... shit. Sorry, Shadan. I guess Justice passed her Bluff check back on the mountain with the baked Lycus thing.

But, uh, oops, our main protagonist is dead, that's a problem. Probably... we probably should have figured out an exit strategy for that fight.

It's okay! We can fix this! All we need to do is count on, uh, Sienna motherfucking Travler to have an ounce of consideration for another living person. Or... okay, no, that's unrealistic. Maybe have her inadvertently rescue people in the process of pursuing her own goals.

>Sienna: Depowering her isn't good enough- can you use that book to retcon stuff? Make it so that the One Goddess lost the fight on the mountaintop, so that she's down for the count? You probably don't want the person who managed to become the One Goddess in the first place coming after you with a vengeance.

There is no Justice, just Injustice ;-;

>Sienna: just happen to write that the Miracle Men suddenly developed a taste for the One Goddess (who is not a goddess)

Not a command, but what exactly is that hiding behind the bush?

Also, if Justice is really a Miracle Man, or posessed by one, or whatever, why'd she wait til now to do this? Why not do it before they transported?

The One Guy: Since neither of those questions are likely to be answered in-adventure anytime soon, I'll address them here.

Behind the bush is where Blue's corpse got stashed after the One Goddess killed him. The ammons are still keeping an eye on him, just like Sienna told them to.

"Justice" didn't make a move until now because she was entirely outgunned - from the moment when Shadan brought her back to the rest of the group, she'd been surrounded by a bunch of others. It wasn't until Sienna, Palmer, Ione, and Krytikas all left the island that "Justice" wouldn't get completely blown out the minute she decided to make a move.

> Sienna: The One Goddess should have lost the fight.



You watch as words appear on the pages of the book.

"...that settled that, the One Goddess thought as she stepped through the portal to the Centrality."

That's not good. It won't do you much good if you get rumbled before you can finish your business here.

Just as you have the idea of writing something to fix this problem, the book stops updating. Seems like it knows when you want to edit it.

"But, as it happened, the One Goddess actually lost the fight on the mountaintop," you add.

You think for a moment, then continue. "Also, the Miracle Men had turned on her. Who knew, right?"



Your name is Palmer Deadman, and you've just stepped back out of that weird room. You don't much care for how familiar it seemed. It was... offputting.

You know Sienna isn't in that room, anyway. The question in front of you is where to check next.

> Bonus scene unlocked!



Your name is Sienna Travler, and you... you don't know how it's happening, but you're actually losing. You need to--

--what? Something feels... wrong. Like... a large chunk of you just got hollowed out. You haven't felt this way since...

It hits you.

You haven't felt this way since before you hijacked that god. You try to warp back to the Centrality, but it doesn't work.

Time to flee. You're pretty sure you know where Krytikas was headed.



"Update," you snap.

The Miracle Man does not hop to attention. Instead, it just eyes you.



Then it turns on you. You manage to scoot out of the way just in time. Looks like a trip to the Centrality is in order - sooner rather than later.

Oh, hey! Nice! Um, well, Shadan's still dead, not totally sure how we can convince Sienna to fix that one. Not particularly in her interest.

...

>Hey, you should probably hop to assuming the One Goddess's powers sooner rather than later. You can't rely on that void cloak business to hide you forever.

>Palmer: Call out "Sienna, where are you?" If she hears you and refuses to answer, that means she's keeping her location a secret.

I guess she could whisper or something, but if she doesn't think of that in time, she'll tip Krytikas off.

> Palmer: Call out for Sienna.



Krytikas catches up to you. "Any luck?" she asks.

"None yet," you say, "but I have a plan." You take a deep breath and yell, as loud as you can, "SIENNA! WHERE ARE YOU?"

> Sienna: Assume the One Goddess' powers.



You're about to write down the only other sentence that will actually matter: "And then I, Sienna Travler, had all the powers the One Goddess lost."

Before you can do it, though, you hear Deadman's voice. "SIENNA! WHERE ARE YOU?"

Of course you don't respond. That would be stupid.

Except... Wait.

You feel like you just got found out.

> Palmer: Put the pieces together.



"How's that?" you ask.

Krytikas thinks for a moment, then gives you an impressed look. "Well done. She kept her location a secret, so... I know where she is. Let's head to the gym."



"There she is!" Krytikas says.

"AND THERE YOU RATS ARE!"



"I'M GOING TO MURDER EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!"

Uh, Houston? Three guesses as to what we have.

>Palmer: CAFFEINE BARRAGE, GO

(also fogel that was a friggin brilliant idea, great work)

> Everyone: Keep her distracted while Meion gras the book.

>Followed by a miracle

> Palmer: Keep them occupied.



You were really hoping you wouldn't come up against the super-powered Travler face to face. If she's looking straight at you, it becomes really difficult for you to avoid being seen.

Though maybe you can use that to your advantage.

"Hey," you say as you pull out a cup of coffee. "How about a nice... punch?" You quickly throw it at the old Travler, followed by another at the new Travler.

You also take the moment to nudge Krytikas' foot.



Luckily, Krytikas catches on and flees the room while the two Travlers are distracted by your barrage.

"Punch?! That's not even the right line for that setup!" the old Travler howls.

"Yeah! If you're throwing coffee at someone," says the new Travler, "you go with something like..."

"'Hope you like it strong!'" they say in unison.

The new Travler glares at the ex-goddess, a spark of recognition beginning to gleam in her eyes.

> Meion: Solve the problem.



Meion isn't one of the playable characters! You can't select... well...



Y'know what? Just this once, we'll fudge the rules. Don't tell anyone.

Your character select screen currently shows the following:

Meion, a librarian

> Select Meion.





Your name is Meion. You can sense the presence of the book on the history of Ennen once again. In your mind's eye, you can see every word, every character, just as clearly as if you had the book in front of you.

You wield in your hand your metaphysical pen, able to etch anything into anything.

What do you write?

Well, first, let's retroactively justify this tweaking of the rules. "Meion became a playable character" just to keep things aboveboard.

But, uh, hm. Most important right now, besides maybe "Both Travlers' arms and legs suddenly fell off", is "The new Travler disregarded the feeling of familiarity she felt" because boy would it be a bad thing if they decided to team up.

>Anyone who wants to write into this book needs Meion's permission

Safeguard it for the future.

> Meion: Safeguard the book.



Before anything else, you make a quick note inside the front cover: "This book can only be edited after the fact by Meion, the God of Knowledge and Records." Now, if the worst happens, they won't be able to edit the book again.

> Meion: Don't let them cooperate.



Next, you think you should throw a wrench in what could be a nasty development. "But the human Travler had no recognition of the shade after all."

Them recognizing each other could have been disastrous.

> Palmer: Keep up the distraction.



As you're about to throw more of your empties at the Travlers, the newer one cracks. "Enough of this! You're just in the way!" She snaps the book open and begins to write in it, but her expression quickly turns sour. Her eyes track to the ex-goddess. "What... did you... do?!"

The goddess snatches the book out of her hands and looks inside the front cover. Then she slowly looks upwards to you, fire raging in her eyes.

You're not entirely certain what is going on.

"This is YOUR fault!" the goddess cries. "You! Deadman! EVERY SINGLE TIME! How do you keep DOING this?! Every time I get something good, you manage to WRECK IT ALL!"

The goddess is holding the book in one hand. This is prudent to mention because her other hand is suddenly wreathed in flame. "If I can't use this book, then I'll incinerate it! If I'm going down, you all are coming with me! NOBODY ONE-UPS SIENNA TRAVLER!"

> Meion: This isn't good.



You have to think quickly. You can feel things beginning to unravel.



The facts are these:

Stopping them from working together didn't stop them from both being threats.

Something needs to be done to fix everything. From the beginning.

Otherwise Travler will keep on doing this over and over again.



You flip the book open. It's only barely legible at this point.

Stop the goddess from coming back to the Centrality? No, Sienna would still be a problem.

Stop Sienna from getting the orbs? Then the goddess is still in power.

No, you'll need to go back further...

Undo the edits the goddess made in the first place? No, because then the original Travler would be on a path to do the same thing.

You need to find some way to neutralize her as early as possible to prevent any chance of something like this happening again.

Your eyes widen, and you begin flipping back through the book.



You find the correct page and start writing. You just hope you have enough time--

uh

UHHHHH

> Be

Not sure if we're supposed to be coming up with Meion's clever solution here, or if he already came up with it and we're just waiting to see what's next.

If we need a clever solution... "Sienna Travler was born with an ordinary level of magic affinity, and had no rare special mimicry powers nor any particular reason to go mad with power" or somesuch? Totally undo her backstory? That could have some weird knock-on effects...

otherwise,

>Take 1

Or.... >Take 0, perhaps

"..."

Well, we're in a place. That is, I guess, a pretty solid improvement over all of existence being incinerated by a petulant ex-goddess. Uh, who exactly are we right now?

Are we in... a better place?