“Honestly, I could name a thousand reasons: I don’t like Prometheus, and I don’t trust him to mold me like a piece of clay. I’m not you, and I don’t want to be— hell, I don’t think I’d even deserve to be.”“You wouldn’t-”“There’s only one person in the world I’d want to trust my soul with,” you interrupt, “And it isn’t your dead boyfriend. I have things I worked hard for that I want to keep, people who I really want to stay dead, and I owe a debt of gratitude to the Architect for giving me this opportunity in the first place. I like power, I like having more than other people, but, more than anything…I want to be free, and I want to be myself. If that means I don’t get to be happy, then, fuck it, who even needs to be? I have a more powerful impetus.”You spread your arms wide, the fake soul of the fake you conjured by the Grand Art creaking and chipping beneath the pressure exerted by your real might, crimson light pouring through the breaks like water from the cracks in a porcelain vase. Arms painfully burst from your back, skin tearing and blood pouring out from the ruins of your tattered sweater. The limbs flex their freshly minted muscle, caressing the soft, tender pink skin, newborn, almost infantile despite their long, sinister build, You topple forward for a moment the weight cracking your spine under its crushing weight until your body reorganizes itself, reinforcing and regenerating shattered bone and torn sinew with metal and divinity, your skeleton shivering and popping as your new anatomy settles into place.“...I see. Well, it was a free choice, a true choice, so a number of possibilities exist. I guess this just happens to be one where things turned out wrong.”“You’re too vertical, both of you,” you sneer, “Your world is dead. The man who killed himself was someone you never knew, and he died for someone he never met. As far as I’m concerned, all of those “what if”s are only as real as any other predictive model. A glorified simulation, really. Well, if it’s any consolation, I believe your wish to have been granted before you ever made it: you have never been me, and you never will be.”The other you remains silent, but you press on, the constructed world tearing away as your Impetus overrides the Grand Art, its caster no longer present to protect it from your will. Your body lifts into the air, scarlet fetters burst from your fingertips, slowly taking the qualities of the Sunset, first hard to notice, vermillion and magenta, then, less subtle, gold, lilac, blue, white, black. The chains bind to the fabric of the incomplete reality itself, each wild movement of your arms tearing out another piece.
>>6322582“You should know, I’m not entirely without heart,” you smile, hovering over the visibly rattled woman beneath your feet as you rend the scenery around you asunder, “I shall remember this world, and I shall sing for it. The musicians of a devoured world have showed me that I owe you that much.”Your mouth opens, releasing a melody touched with a gentle sentiment you can hardly relate to even as it flows from your lips. The girl below falls to her knees, vacant eyes staring up at you as you sing to her a dirge for a dream denied.~You awaken in the maelstrom of orange flames, a vacant Marie standing behind you, lost in the illusions of the fire. You consider rousing her, snapping her illusion automatically, but the connection between her soul and yours has grown close enough that you can feel her will, both the might of her resolve and the outcome of its direction. You nod to yourself— though unintentional, the setup of the Grand Art really helped you sort yourself out. You sincerely hope that Marie’s side has done the same.She snaps to attention in a matter of seconds that felt like minutes, scratching her head as if to knock off the useless thoughts clinging to her head. She smiles at you in a deliberate act of reassurance, straightening the collar of her shirt and dusting off her vest before turning her attention back to you, offering the spindly fingers of her pallid hand to you. You take them in your own, the coldness of her skin a soothing relief amidst the heat of Prometheus’s forge, walking lockstep towards the center of the maelstrom. “Once we step forward, there’s no going back,” she glances down at you with her pitch-black eyes, the direction of her gaze known only to you through intuition and body language, “Not like there’s much point asking now, but are you ready? I’m sure we could diffuse it if you wanted, but I doubt you’d suggest it even if you were unsure about this.”“I think I am. I don’t think I was, deep down, but after what I saw in Prometheus’s world, I think I have the grit to take the leap. After all, no matter what happens, I’ll still have you. That’s… enough. It’s more than I’ve ever had before this, anyway.”She grins, sixfold wings exploding from her shoulderblades, iridescent feathers shining like amethyst in the raging conflagration.“I’ll see you on the other side.” Marie declares, fearlessly taking the first step forward.~
>>6322583So, you’ve finally prepared to cast off your mortal shell.”I don’t think I agree with the framing.”This is a metamorphosis. An apotheosis. It’s what your destiny has been building up to.”Even in a matter of souls, it feels like her hands are keeping me in the right shape. Similarly, I hear my own voice guiding her, a song of Marie Karmenov to keep her in lockstep with her own existence It’s all very… tactile. Even if I go to higher places, I don’t want to forget the sort of being I am deep down.”I thought you above such trivial sentiments. When we met, you seemed to resent the weaknesses of the flesh as much as I disdained my own lot amongst the screaming of the King.”Maybe once. Still, I’d be real disappointed if I never got to try that pumpkin cheesecake.”What?”Oh, I have a friend who really likes Olive Garden. It’s a restaurant. They have a seasonal pumpkin cheesecake, but I didn’t get to try it since it hasn’t been fall since the last time I went. I think I’d like to see another fall.”You shall forget such a desire the moment you lose your shell. This has always been the case.“You don’t have the sample size to determine that.”I have seen more gods than you, Child of Ruin.”Maybe, but if you really were that good, you’d have noticed…”I already lost my Anchor.~
>>6322584“So, the time has finally come for me to pass on?”A derelict throne stands before you, once in an inky void stained deep in the Colors of the King, now that high See resides in an ocean of flame, jaws, eyes. In a place so long beyond the passage of days, the light of the sun finally graces the old king’s eyes, the blinding light shining directly into his face.Seems that way. You reply, an unwitting gravity leaking into your un-voice despite the nonchalant tone you intended. I can’t imagine you have hard feelings.“On the contrary,” he chuckles, ignoring the burns blooming on his skin as fire laps at his withered flesh, seemingly reveling in the heat of the blaze and the warmth of the sun alike, “I am eternally grateful to have granted the privilege of seeing one more sunrise.”It’s a sunset, you correct, slightly annoyed that yet another person has mixed it up.“I suppose you must be right, but, to me, it is not,” Kieldrich decrees, clutching the hilt his rusted blade as he straightens his back, propping himself into a more kingly position before continuing, “Be it the grand construction of a proper throne room, or a temporary camp set up on a tent in the front lines, the Grand Seat of Malgha is always to face the Painted Aperture, the place from which the divine sun rises into the heavens. Ultimately, our family and our kingdom is one bound by faith and pact to the Light. As such, it is said that the master of Malgha must always be prepared to greet that holy radiance.”Touching, but a sunset fits better here, you insist, This is, after all, an end for you.“Maybe,” he smiles, “But it is also true that you have brought the first day to this wretched, endless midnight since that beast consumed my people. Isn’t it fitting to call that a sunrise?”You really are a stubborn bastard.“Such is the duty of a King. Still… I am weary. More than weary. Fatigued beyond description. I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for granting my world this peace.”I did it for me. Any benefit you might get is entirely incidental.“Even then. Thank you.”You turn away, watching the old fool melt into the burning water slowly encompassing his throne. It’s a waste of time to argue with someone so inflexible.~
>>6322586You know, You hear Marie’s un-voice echo through the burning abyss, There’s still enough fire here to… do something with it, if you wanted.What do you mean?The Grand Art. It’s broken and without will, but it’s still broadly intact. If you wanted to make some quick edits, it should be doable.Wouldn’t that affect us, too?It shouldn’t. Otherwise, the Grand Art would be at risk of a grandfather paradox which, well, I’m not sure how that works but it’s gotta be pretty bad, right? As it stands, we’re between realities, an outside space, so we’d be exempt from any ripple effects from the alterations.So you’re saying..?It’s pretty simple. All you really need to ask is—Do you have any regrets?>Yes, but I don’t see much point in dwelling on them>No. Everything that happened was important to put me where I am today>Obviously. Now that you mention it, I might as well patch up a few things… (specify)>Write-in This is a thread made mostly to keep the quest from getting bumped off before I finish it, and to leave a place for a bit of q&a and art requests after the narrative is finished. As always, here are the usual links:>Past Threadshttps://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=Olympus+Incarnation+Quest>Rentry masterlink, includes character sheets, shop information, inventory, and general informationhttps://rentry.org/olympus-quest-links>Inquiries: olympusqm@gmail.com
>>6322588>Yes, but the pain, the mistakes, they're all an important part of me, of us. There are a million versions of our stories, but only this one is ours.
>>6322588>"Hmm... Maybe let's behave godly. This isn't about my regrets, but let's reset the world to the point since before the Incarnation system started. The world was never kind to us, but with the Incarnation system it became an even worse place to be. There'll still be an Andrea in there with her own shit to deal with, but I'll not magic her to be happy. The system is the King's fault and the Architect's mistake. Also let's remove the horse armor DLC."
>>6322588The only thing I can think of is the deer, not that I'd change the choice, but it did move us forward, pushed us into the person we had to be to get here. There were others that were similarly impactful to our growth, but unlike those, the deer wasn't a threat we had to deal with, or someone who fucked us over before. I suppose, there is at least a shred of appreciation for that. Maybe enough to manifest her back into existence. After all, it's not like we can do anything else with this art, it's basically free.Though I'd also ask Marie if she has anything she'd like to change as well.(Not a concise write-in, but I do hope it gets the point across.)
>>6322731I could get behind that. Not as an edit to the past, but as an addition to the future.
>>6322588>Obviously. Now that you mention it, I might as well patch up a few things… (specify)Revive our brother.Revive our uncle, and give him to Dorota.
>>6322731>>6322742I advocated again and again for an attempted revival because I thought it was also part of godhood to create life or bring someone back. Of course, as an excuse for righting that regret.But now... I feel like it's a bit disingenuous, that's why my write-in is an all or nothing.that is to say, we retained our human desires, like wanting to eat food. If we leave the world as it is right now, I'd also really like to go back and stomp around a bit, maybe do a last livestream, just gloat a bit.
>>6323390I do not agree with your method, but I do see your point of wanting to have a place to stomp around and have a place to hang out. I do feel that undoing stuff is not ideal on a large scale, it feels like it makes everything fake, especially if you include our minions, or Pendrix, as part of our human desires, which I do. We would be effectively unmaking them.Instead, if would go for a middle ground. Remove obstructions. To be fair, I don't see many, mostly the chinese leader (mostly because Ate can't do anything about her, but Pheme can), so that could be solved by Marie saying so, just making it so that the dear leader was never born. The only other possible threat would be the space colony, but I'd say we can destroy it for fun in collaboration.
