Chapter Text
Act 1:
“help....please....Someone...Help...”
“Please...help...”
“Please....anyone...help...me”
Tears run down your face as you beg on your knees. You're Surrounded by endless lightless darkness and distant little specks of light. What were they called again...?
It doesn’t matter as soon one of those lights starts floating down from their dark heaven towards you. Ah! You remember now...they were called stars...h-how could you forget...how couldn’t you...
You raise your hands as the star descends upon your open palms...clutching the star...it glows so brightly yet gentle...and cold...no something is changing…rotting.
The star starts losing its glow and sheds off its spiky appearance...leaving a perfectly round lightless orb reminiscent of...a black hole. Through the blurry tears, you can make out words but not its meaning...it doesn’t matter…nothing does...
You know what you must do.
You open your mouth, bringing the orb to in front of your face
AND
YOU
BITE-
You wake up.
Eye snapping wide open from the shock of such a weird dream...what were you dreaming about again? Oh well, it was probably nothing...
Half woken from your dream you stare at the mellow sky for a long, quiet moment. Watching as the clouds passes by, feeling the dry grass upon your back, you begin to feel the lulling of rest luring you back to sleep before as you close your eye and-
“-dir!”
“Nadir!”
You hear her shouting your name and the footsteps approaching before slowing to a stop. Soon, a shadow slowly casts over you.
“...Nadir?” ah, i guess your extended nap will have to wait.
You open your drowsy eye and see an upside-down Vera as she stands over you. She smiles at you with her and says “Good morning!” before making a more doubtful look and staring off to the side. “Well, more like, good afternoon i guess...”
Vera quickly looks back at you amused. “Were you taking a nap? That’s just like you...” she sighs a bit, closing her digital eyes with an ever-present smile. “Only you could sleep peacefully at a time like this, hehe!”
You look at her through your messy darkless hair as she continues. “Though, i guess that’s smart...after all, we gonna need all the rest we can get!”
Vera looks to the side once more as her face glooms slightly. “We have to be ready for tomorrow...” she seems to be hyping herself up before finishing. “So we can finally face against the Queen!”
You’re too sleepy to respond back, sleep’s indulging senses beckons you...you close your eye again.
“...”
“...you’re still half asleep, aren’t you?”
You respond back with a grumbling noise.
“Hmm...okay then...”
You hear her step away from you and up north as she calls out “you can sleep for a little longer, but not too long! You hear! Come to the village when you're ready, okay?”
Soon, the sound of Vera’s footsteps disappears as she leaves the Meadows.
You yawn so hard your jaw cracks...And you were having such a nice rest too...
But you can’t spend the rest of the day sleeping! That would be a waste, wouldn’t it?
C'mon! we can’t JUST be laying on the ground today!
Wake up Nadir. You have a country to save.
You begrudgingly get on your feet before wiping the strains of grass off your darkless cloak and stretching your metal joints. Giving your best smile, you head through the meadows and off to the village of Dormont.
As you get closer to the village, you can spot the roofs of various small houses and buildings as well as the largest change god statue you’ve ever seen set in the middle of the village. Normally, most towns and cities your party and you had visited had various statues of the change god of many different sizes, from small enough to fit in the palm of Thad’s hands to being a head taller than Uzi. But this takes the cake, you’re even sure that it’s taller than 2 Uzis. Before you could continue admiring the colossal of a statue, you hear Vera calling out for you.
“Nadir!”
Crossing the small bridge, you find Vera walking up to you. “Nadir, you’re finally up!”
Yup, you sure are. “Hey V!”
“Heh, hey Nadir! So, how was your nap? On a scale of one to ten?”
Hmmm lets see…
“2. A certain someone woke me up…”
“Eh 6. Quite average”
“I’d say a solid nine!”
Ah, Vera’s seems worried now. “Oh was it not a ten because…the end could use some work…?” Oh, you should probably, “We’ll do better next time”. Vera now showing determination as she response, “Yeah! Next time I promise I’ll let you sleep in! So, we can get that elusive ten out of ten!”
Hehe, you can’t help but smile at such silly- “Oh wait! I have something to ask you!!!” Vera is quick to interrupt your thoughts as she just as quickly turns meek. “Um, I have an idea for tonight…since this will be the night before we go fight the queen, so I felt like we should make this night special somehow. So…I was thinking maybe we could have a sleepover?”
“Let’s all eat good food together! Sleep in the same room! Maybe even tell stories!!! That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” Vera says with cheer and excitement.
But…don’t we already usually do that? Well… “okay?”. Vera face drops and her doubt visibly shows, “ah…you think it’s silly, don’t you… I’m sorry, I really was trying to find something we could do tonight and…well that was all I could think of…”. Vera looks off to the side with defeat. “I-it was a stupid idea wasn’t it…maybe we should just forget about it…”
Oh no. That was the Wrong answer! YOUR LACK OF EXCITEMENT MADE VERA UPSET!!! Quick fix it!!!
“U-um No! I think it’s fun!!! I love doing anything s-so uh let’s do it!!!” you panic in hopes of cheering Vera up…her doubt seems to have grown twofold but nonetheless she continues. “Are you sure…? Alright then… Since we’re doing this…u-um could you let everyone know? I don’t think I Could convince them…”.
Well…it WAS your mistake, so you kinda have to now. “Sure V!” Vera breaths a sign of relief and starts again we renewed determination “Okay!” she lightly tapping her own chin in thought. “let me think…Madam Joanna should be in the shop buying items, Thad should be near the fields to the east, and Uzi is at the Favor tree to the west!”. Now excited, Vera continues, “We’re staying at the clocktower at the east of town, so you can just tell everyone to meet there later!”.
Vera finishes and looks at you with a tinge of worry, “…that was a lot of names and places, huh...will you remember?”.
Um Let’s see…gotta remember, store, tree, fields, tower…store, tree, fields, tower…tower? Flowers…uhhhh
“I always remember things.”
“…Probably not?”
Vera gives you a doubtful look, “…okaaay…unrelated to your memory…”, she hands you a piece of paper, “here’s a note with everyone’s location! Just in case…you forget…”.
Yeah, that’s smart. You put the note in one of your cloak’s various pockets. “alright, I’ll see you at the clocktower later then! I’ll be near the library if you need me!”. Vera goes to turn away before suddenly jumping, “OH! And don’t forget to check the change god statue too! For good luck!”, Vera waves as she heads offs to the bench in front of the library.
Welp! Guess you have something to do now…
You take a proper look around Dormont’s center, in the middle stands the large Change God statue, decorated with single-story houses and buildings surrounding the statue with plenty of drones peacefully chatting and wandering around… you wonder how they can act so nonchalant about the end of the world tomorrow.
Normally you would go around to talk and if possible, try to remember them by name…but you guess you can do that first part and finish the second after beating the Queen. You speak to the ‘daydreaming one’ and she talks to you about your fellow foreign traveler, Madam Joanna, and how she acts as the mom of the group…ew. Uzi called Joanna “mom” once jokingly, resulting in a glare that ensured none of you would ever call her "mom", even as a joke…Although she's fine with Thad calling her a grandma, it seems.
Spending the next hour conversing with the ‘running one’ about the mutual love of running (away from your problems)
You leave your fishing spot and wave goodbye to your fishing partner as you head to the Change God statue. Climb up the steps to a small, elevated mound that houses the large Change God statue, decorated all over the mound are smaller statues of various sizes, all with differently drawn-on faces.
Some statues have sad faces, others offer a bright smile, a few are even animated by Craft, and one jumps around and bumps gently into your foot. you stare at the biggest of the statue…The Change God, deity worshipped by all of the country of Copper-9, stands before you.
Reflecting back on your journey…You have trouble believing you're finally here, almost at the end. It was only a few months ago that you met Vera and yet…so much has happened since then…
It was about a year ago now when the Queen appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
Possessing immense Craft power, she spread her Curse across the country of Copper-9, Boot-looping every drone and freezing everything else in its path.
With Dormont's House of Change in her control, she patiently waits, for she knows her Curse can only be reversed if she is defeated.
Her victory would be all but determined, if not for Vera.
Your worker drone friend, Vera, is the only survivor of the House of Dormont after the Queen Boot-looped everyone inside and locked the gates. Everyone says she was blessed by the Change God themselves with the power to fight back the Queen’s Curse.
…making her the only one able to save Copper-9.
When you met her, she was already traveling with Uzi and Joanna, trying to get the orbs necessary to open the House's gates and defeat the Queen.
You were just wandering around when you heard their battle against a strong starveling, rushing in and helping them defeat it seemed like second nature to you.
After seeing your strength, they asked for your help…it was not like you had anything better to do, so you decided to accompany them on their journey.
And only a few weeks later, you met Thad, completing your little party.
You saw a lot of Copper-9’s cities during your travels, some frozen, some not, and did your best to sidestep the slowly encroaching Curse. But still, you all kept going.
Vera, a worker drone, kept going to honor the Change God's blessing, save her beloved House, and save Copper-9. How noble.
Uzi, a changed disassembly drone, came with her after Copper-9’s Worker Defense force themselves refused to help. How kind.
Joanna, another disassembly drone, came to complete her research for the company she worked for. How diligent.
…And because she said that “leaving the fate of a country to a bunch of young ones would make her circuit boards oxidise”.
Thad, a young worker drone, came to save his sister who was frozen by the cursed. How brave.
You're here because there's nothing else for you to do. Afterall, what else is a worker drone like you supposed to do except travel with them?
Once, Vera asked you if you were okay, following them on a journey to save the country.
She felt guilty, felt like she was forcing everyone to follow her on a hopeless quest.
So, wanting to put her at ease, so you said easily and truthfully that traveling with everyone was the happiest you could remember being.
…she looked pretty upset with your answer. Ughhhh why can’t you ever say the right thing…
You cringe just thinking about it, truth be told. Maybe not the most considerate thing you could've said to someone with her problems at that moment.
But either way… tomorrow, your journey will end.
…
Shifting your focus to the present, you look at the giant statue...You should believe something very strongly at the Change God. That's how those work, right? Vera and Uzi taught you before.
Can't just ask for things because the Change belief considers this lazy. It's the Change God, only pure belief and confidence in yourself will do, with the Change God only providing a little nudge.
Arguably, if anyone here was the lazy one…wouldn’t it be the change god…? Oh well, who are you to question other’s beliefs.
Closing your eye, you puts both hands in praying motion and you…"believe strongly", or something like that...
…you become really, really fast.
…you become super duper tough.
…you hit much more harder.
Always attack first. Don't leave the enemy a chance to touch your allies.
You repeat under your breath "super fast, super fast, super fast."
For a moment, you feel the slightest of warmth was over you…you actually feel a bit faster???
You jump in place to see if anything has change, only to end up landing on a pointy rock.
…you didn’t tear up…not at all…
So, you’re not much agile then, huh.
You think that’s enough of that, you thank the Change God for its blessing and quickly run away, crossing it out from the Reminder Note.
Next up on the list is…Joanna! It says on the note that she’s buying supplies from the shop for tomorrow.
heading to the store, you open the door and hear a bell ding overhead.
Inside, you see the shopkeeper greet you from behind their counter and Joanna looking at a shelf of items.
Doesn’t seem like she has noticed you yet, you walk up to Joanna and call her, “Joanna!”. She turns to look at you giving her usual chilling glance, “Oh, Nadir”, her face softens ever slightly upon recognition.
“You look well rested”, she smirks, “Glad to see you this laidback on the day before the end of the world”. she goes back to looking at the items on the shelf, “anyways, how can I help you?”
Oh right! “Clocktower, sleepover!” you say with blunt enthusiasm. Joanna glances at you with a slight disgust, “a sleepover? Urgh... You guys really are kids.” Hehe.
“But we can forget about our problems”, you say cheerfully. “Hmm…I suppose so. Nonetheless, I’ll will be there. Poor Thaddeus probably needs it. Perhaps we all do.”, Joanna looks back at the items thinkingly before smirking once more and putting and hand on her hip as she speaks, “But the room only has three beds, right? I better get a whole bed to myself.”
“Vera and Thad will probably be sharing…”, you responses in turn while Joanna raises an eyebrow and asks, “Vera and Thaddeus? So, who'll sleep on the ground, you or Uzi?”. You put on a thinking face and answer, “hmm…well,”
"I think me and Uz will share?"
"I can’t make Uz do that…so it’ll be me, of course."
Joanna gives you a sly look, “…Fascinating. Anyway, I'll be there. You know, since we already decided earlier we'd meet at the Clocktower and all.”. Joanna looks back at the shelf of items and her checklist.
That is true…You already all planned to meet up at the Clocktower, so was there a need for you to let everyone know...No! you promised Vera you would help her! And what sort of person would you be if you didn’t! Plus, it’s not like you have anything better to do.
“so, we’re fighting the Queen tomorrow…”, Joanna looks at you with a much more serious face as she replies to your incomplete sentence, “We are. I hope you're prepared.”
“The Queen, and the Starvelings his destruction creates... They possess Crafts capable of slowing us down, or even boot-looping our programming completely.”, Joanna has a sombre expression as she remembers the thousands of drones stuck frozen in a boot-loop state. She sighs before continues, “So, as always, we're counting on you and your speed to keep us out of trouble”.
Aw…"...So, you want me in the front again?", you ask slightly reluctant about your role, you won’t deny that it’s probably for the best, but you will for sure lightly complain about it!
“Leading everyone, if possible. You've already proven good at preventing traps and keeping us alive, so I don't see why that has to change.”, She states in a matter of fact manner, she then becomes smug as she continues “And as always, you can count on me to provide everyone with quality intel on any enemies we encounter”.
Joanna looks through the notes in her book, “Everyone except Thaddeus will be on battle duty... But I might ask Thaddeus to do something as well. It might be good for everyone to give the kid something to do...”, she glances at your face and it seems no more needs to be said for your lack of interest in such planning, “...Boring tactics talk, I know. I'll shut up and buy items for our journey to the top of the House.”.
Ho? Have you found it?!? “"Is your field of research TACTICS?", Joanna gives you an unamused look, “Oh fourth-quarter profits. Are you still trying to figure out what I'm researching?”. She shakes her head slightly, “No. my field of research ISN'T tactics. In fact Uzi actually proposed that one last week, late one.”
Aw… just as you thought you had it!!! At least It seems your reaction made Joanna smile? Looks more like a smirk...“Give it up already. None of you will ever figure out my company’s research.” She makes a shushing motion “It will stay a secret forever.”
Hmmm…you’ll find out someday…in the meantime though, ” So random question but, what will you do after?”. Joanna looks at you with only the slightest expression of surprise, “After tomorrow, IF we survive? I wish I had your confidence.” Her expression changes to one of pondering,” hmm…maybe I'll just go home to Ka Bue. I haven't seen my country in many years, and I ought to hand in my report to the company...”.
Joanna flips through the pages of her book, “Before I met Vera and Uzi, my main goal was to travel to Copper-9 and see its many different places, sights, cultures. I've already accomplished this by traveling with Vera, so...”. Hmmm…” Was it all for your research?”. She answers and seems to know that something is coming, “…yes”. Hehe, then perhaps, “Your research into...”
“...travel-ology?”
“...sights-ology?”
“...cultures-ology?”
Joanna groans at your attempt, “Cultures-ology" isn't a field of research, Nadir.”. You can’t hide your excitement at nearly finding out her research, “But it is the field of research you spent your life trying to create...”, you nudge the possibility at her…but she is quick to turn it down, “Stop inventing a backstory for me.”. Awww…welp you tried.
“But what about you, what will you do? If we beat the Queen, that is. Will you go back to your own country, maybe?” You…hadn’t thought of that…to return home after your journey…you-“Come up with my own field of research.”, you say with a playful tone. Joanna only replies with a “Urgh” before going back to item shopping. you wave her goodbye, "see ya at the clocktower!"
You talked to Joanna! Time to cross that off the list. Now who onto next…
Thad
Vera
Uzi
(finish your other tasks)