Nemesis Quest follows really a really bad man and his downward spiral. It feels like the world is ending, like you're devouring yourself. Is it strange to say that you like it?

Archive: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=NEMESIS+Quest

I aim to update on weekdays around 4:00 PM UTC. I will update more often if there's a clear consensus or I have the time.

XXX

POWERS

>What Doesn't Kill You (Sally)
Serious wounds don't stop you.

>Make Them Disappear (Mall Hobo)
You leave no forensics.

>Behind the Veil (Lasker City Hooker)
See the Veil.

>You Should be Dancing (Rupert)
The power of suggestion.

>Speak of the Devil (Valerie Hedgepeth)
Appear where they least expect.

>Make them forget (Valerie's Daughter)
You are hard to identify.

>The Sacred Form (Nathan Harper)
A transformation, powerful and deadly. Needs to be fed.

You used to be such a nice, quiet boy. Then your shitty Dad used to beat the hell out of you and do worse to your sister, so you gave him a twelve gauge lobotomy, if only that had been enough to kill him. Now you kill people. Well… we kill people. It's a team effort. Some other shit happened after that, it's old news and a little fuzzy, but as a consequence you're New and Improved, if you consider murder, cannibalism and, incest to be an improvement, but who am I to judge?

Now you're the reason women don't walk alone at night. You're the one people whisper about. No self-respecting woman would ever be caught in your company, but I guess Miss Ellen doesn't qualify as a self-respecting woman. Not anymore.

Once your high school teacher crush, now she's like you. Something More than she was. Something Less. The small shackle tattoos on her wrists and ankles mark her as property, an owned thing. A Vessel of something far more powerful. The Thing in the Lake. A Slave of Truesdale and the Lake cult.

You sit across from her in a smoky highway bar. A biker bar. It's nearly deserted, especially since it's not quite sundown, though time is increasingly relative. A handful of greasy bearded dudes in leathers sit in a booth on the far end of the bar. They're visibly armed. Like you, they have boot knives. One has a revolver in his back waistband.

A grizzled bar tender that looks like road-dried jerky with a bad bleach job occasionally brings them beer.

A TV over the bar is tuned to a dead channel.

PLEASE STAND BY

"What does it feel like for you?" Ellen, Miss Ellen, asks. She tucks back an auburn curl. Her eyes, undeniably pretty, are empty. They're different than your—and your sister's—pale, cold eyes. Ellen's are sea green and deep, hollow, like something vital was carved out of them. With her tight pencil skirt, form-fitting blouse and blazer, she looks very out of place. Business professional has no place in grimy Americana.

"What does what feel like?" you ask, eyebrow raised. The burnt side of your face is toward the bar. Though you keep all your attention on Miss Ellen, gaze flicking between her eyes and her cleavage, you don't fail to notice that the bartender keeps staring at you. Funny. There are armed Hells Angels knocking back afternoon brews and you're the one she's afraid of. You guess her instincts are sharper than they seem.

"Being a Vessel," Ellen says without missing a beat. "For me it's… like I'm drowning. Cold."

You don't tell her that you're not a Vessel. You're something worse, more broken. You're NEMESIS like your jacket says. Anti-life. Inhuman. But it's a good question. What does it feel like for you? You don't really feel many strong emotions, not like you used to. You don't feel fear anymore except when I'm not around. Maybe you miss it.

Maybe you don't.


>I feel hate and hunger. That's it
>It feels good. I'm stronger than ever. More than I was.
>It feels like I lost something. Something important.
>Write in.

>>6355123
>I feel hate and hunger. That's it

Hey NEMESIS wb!

>>6355127
Thanks! Good to be back. It's been a rough/busy few months. Honestly not much better than it was last year, but I'm pushing through.

>>6355123
>>It feels good. I'm stronger than ever. More than I was.

>>6355123
>Write in.
>I feel involved. Present. Even when it's in the driver's seat.

>>6355123
>I feel hate and hunger. That's it

>I feel hate and hunger. That's it
>>6355127
>>6355281

writing

You consider it for a moment, but we both know what you feel.

"Hate," you say, tracing beads of condensation across the lacquered tabletop. "I feel hate and hunger." You shrug. "That's it."

Ellen accepts this without comment. You wonder what the old her would say to something like that.

"How did you get like this? Did Truesdale do it?"

You shake your head. "No. Candi did this."

"Candi?" Ellen sounds shocked. More shocked than she should, which is saying something because that should be pretty shocking. "Your sister?"

You nod and take a sip of your beer. "Yeah."

"How?"

You pull back a leather sleeve and reveal a carved up forearm. Red and white scar tissue crisscrosses your skin in overlapping runes and sigils, partially covered up by tight burn scars. "Doodling."

Ellen stares. Not shocked, not horrified, just… like she's studying someone's handiwork. Subconsciously touching the small rune tattooed on the back of her neck. "How did she know to do that? I mean… is she one of them?"

You shake your head. "My sister is…" A freak. A slut. Your personal sex toy. A pain in your ass. The only person you really care about. All of the above? "Different. She just figured it out I guess." No sense telling her about Virginia, not yet anyway.

Ellen nods, takes all this in. She looks a little distance, her eyes focused on the scuffed table. She drinks her own beer, lost in thought. "I thought only they could do that…"

"They probably think that," you say. A subtle reminder to her not to blab about this.

"That's how they brought Ken back," she says. "I mean… I don't need to tell you that. They did something to him. Invoked the Lake Thing. He's… a puppet now." She rubs her arms, looking suddenly colder than normal. "I think he's all gone."

"Good." If Ken's strings are being pulled by an eldritch drowned god then, as far as you're concerned, that's an improvement.

Ellen smiles faintly. Is she amused by your lingering vendetta? "You really do just feel hate, don't you?" she says.

"Can you blame me after what they put me through?"

"No," Ellen says. Her gaze lingers on the table for a moment before flicking to yours. "I like it." She looks away again. "Like I told you, I just feel cold all the time. Like being underwater. You're not like that you're hot."

"Hot?"

Her lip twitches slightly closer to a smile. "Like heat," she says. "Like… a fire."

You snort softly and smell gasoline and cooking skin. "Figures."

"How did that happen?" she asks, looking back at your face, studying it like a map. "You weren't burned like that until the very end."

You hear yourself screaming. You hear another voice. A voice telling you… but the memory won't come. Like the Ouroboros tattoo on your chest you share with your sister, it's a mystery to you. "I don't remember."

She accepts this. "Things start to slip away like this. It's funny. It's like…" she lifts a hand, studying immaculately manicured nails. "It's like we can't hold it all inside us anymore. It all just trickles away."

You have noting to say to that.


>Tell be about Selene and the apostates Truesdale hates so much.
>How did Truesdale do this to you? How did he make you a Vessel?
>I'm going to kill Truesdale and set you free one day
>Write in

>>6355506
>How did Truesdale do this to you? How did he make you a Vessel?

>>6355506
>>How did Truesdale do this to you? How did he make you a Vessel?

>>6355587
>>6355784

Writing

"How did Truesdale do it you?" you ask.

Ellen takes a steadying breath and downs the rest of her beer, head back, neck exposed like a prey item. You watch her throat work with a clinical interest. You can almost see the vein in her neck pulse. You can practically taste her blood, hot, thick, and sweet.

She sets the bottle down on its side and then spins it on the table. It vibrates, humming softly as it rolls in tight circles. "Some kind of ritual. He marked me." she shows you a wrist. "He said… I could consider it a mortgage. Maybe I could pay it off one day."

You think of the exorbitant mortgage Candi has been paying Truesdale for the Mercer farm. You wonder just how many slaves Truesdale has.

"I don't think he meant it," she says, casting her eyes to the side, a mix of sadness and shame. "I think I'm like this forever. Until I'm all tapped out." A long pause. "I thought about killing myself but… I was afraid of what might happen to me once I die. I was afraid that Thing in the Lake would get me." She shivers slightly, hugging herself against a deep, bone-chilling cold. "Plus…" she trails off.

"Plus?" you prompt.

She spins the bottle again and shakes her head. Doesn't want to talk about it. "It's … not something you should worry about."

You suspect it has something to do with your next question, the obvious follow up. "You had a choice though, right?"

She nods.

"And you chose this?"

Ellen nods again, watching the bottle flash and spin.

"Why?"

She doesn't say anything. Doesn't move. The bottle gradually loses momentum until it's pointing straight at you. She looks up at you through thick lashes. Her hollow eyes glazed with sadness.

"Me?" you ask.

Ellen looks away again and folds her arms in a way that pushes up her breasts. "Kyle, you should have stayed far away. You were safe."

"I don't need you to protect me anymore, Miss Ellen," you say firmly.

"I'm not protecting you," she says. "I mean… I was, but not anymore. He said…" she bites her lip, stopping herself.

You could try to force her to tell you, put some power in your voice and make her speak. Maybe. But you don't need to. You have old fashioned force of will. "Tell me," you say, voice low, a command. A threat.

She does. "Truesdale showed me what he was… what he could do, the power he had," she says, speaking slowly, deliberately. "He told me some of the things he'd done, the things he'd gotten away with. He told me that… no one would miss me." She says these things matter-of-factly. "I wasn't afraid… I mean… of course I was," she says. "But when he told me that someone had to do it… someone had to submit and if I didn't… he had someone else in mind."

"Candi," you say, the answer snapping into your mind.

Ellen nods sadly.

"You did this to keep her safe from Truesdale."

Again, she nods. Of course, the tragedy here isn't just what Ellen put herself through, it's that it was for nothing. Candi was never safe. The entire time Ellen's body was a Vessel for Truesdale's captive god, Candi's body belonged to Truesdale's asshat son, Chip. Ellen sold herself for nothing.

Those are the facts, but you're not a creature of fact. You're a being of hate and, brother, you feel it. Red flashes in your mind. Muscles tense, jaw aching, hearty burning, roaring, raging. You could sever flesh and rend bone right now. You're hungry.

"He wants her, Kyle," Ellen says softly. "I wonder if he knows what she can do." Her eyes flick to the scars on your arm. "I don't know why, but he wants her."

Does he know Candi made you what you are? Does he think Dad did something to her to make her special? Dad's Pretty Little Vessel is in high demand it seems.

"That's why I stayed," Ellen says. "That's why I let him do this to me. That's why I don't run away or try to fight back. I can't. Do you understand now?" she shakes her head in impotent disgust. "That's why you should leave while you can, and take Candi with you. Get out of here."

You say nothing. Nothing human would pass your lips if you opened your mouth right now.

The bikers stand up a moment before the TV crashes to static. They pay, tossing some bills on the table, and leave. The bartender shuts the TV off, giving you and Ellen another wary glance before cleaning up.


>Thank you for everything you've done, Ellen. But I need you to maintain the illusion a little longer.
>He doesn't really understand, but I'm the one he should be afraid of. You don't have to worry about him.
>I think Candi can help you. Maybe we can set you free. Maybe you can work for me.
>Write in

>>6355871
Tough call. So Truesdale has always wanted Candi as a Vessel, and we already know The Lake Thing wanted her through their father. Or at least what was left of him at that point lol. But he has Chip keep a leash on Candi for years.

Truesdale can also just force Ellen to talk about our conversations as it stands. Or could Candi give Ellen something to resist that power. He also needs Ellen as the Vessel for the Lake Thing to give favors to his cult and keep them in line, especially Selene and her apostates that want to free the Lake Thing. So if Ellen didn't show up he'd start hunting.

But hes also extremely paranoid by the weakening of the veil, the death of Chip's buddy by monster which he suspects is either Kyle or other forces, and his own rebellious cult. Would he be distracted enough to mistake who has taken Ellen, maybe his rebel cultists took her for themselves. Or he could try to grab Candi as a replacement.

Could we have Candi help hide Ellen. Try to frame the Selene Cultists as having taken her to be their Vessel, and maybe for killing Chip's friend. Convince Truesdale to start a purge so he can get his Vessel back. We get to kill and weaken the Lake Cult. Hopefully keep Ellen safe. Keep killing Chip's friends occasionally.

What would it take to really set the field for the Lake Cult civil war if not that.

>>6355871
>I think Candi can help you. Maybe we can set you free. Maybe you can work for me.
We already have Truesdale a little paranoid, so we can start moving to further destabilize him.

>>6355871
>I think Candi can help you. Maybe we can set you free. Maybe you can work for me.

Ellen could use some time with the fire. Let Kyle protect Ellen this time, as he did against the nightmare.

>>6355887
Yeah I'm leaning that way. See if she agrees here or needs some firm convincing lol. I guess if the scheme goes badly enough theres always the Forest Thing blood.

>>6355871
>>I think Candi can help you. Maybe we can set you free. Maybe you can work for me.

Tbh I say we should go for the head and kill Chip. Not only that, let's ask Virginia if he has a strong enough Soul, and sacrifice Chip so Ellen can stop being a Vessel, just like she offered to Kyle

I have a feeling that maybe there's some bullshit about Kyle being offered this because he's "less" than a Vessel or a while different thing. And on all this shit, I don't even think Virginia has explained fully what Kyle is, and what different there is between a “Nemesis" and a Vessel.

Is it something easy like just a butched ritual to turn someone in a Vessel? Mu theory is that, the reason why Kyle is called Nemesis instead of Vessel is because of the butched Ritual: Because Candy didn't knew what she was doing during the ritual, whatever spirit that was in Dad was transferred, but there's a big difference

Because Candy didn't knew what she was doing, my theory is that somehow the spirit that's inside of Kyle was "detached" from Temu Cthulhu, that's why Kyle monster form looks more like a bloated body of a Horse/Werewolf thing, instead of the Monster in the Lake. There's still the properties of the God of the Lake taint (The bloated body of a decomposed corpse, milky eyes, putrid smell), but because of Candi, and her rituals being from the perspective of the God of the Woods, she ended up morphing and changing the very same essence of the spirit (And that's why it has body parts of horse/wolf/whatever, instead of having gills, fins or a light like an angler fish).

That's why he's being called Nemesis: the God of the Lakes can feel and smell the God of the Woods presence and taint, even if the spirit was originally of the Lake. If this wasn't the case and Kyle was a fish-people, he would maybe be called something like Traitor, Nemesis is someone who you've been fighting for some time already, and if anything, unless there's something like a God of The Hunt, or God of the Moon that we don't know of (maybe Lake and Wood are the only gods in this universe, or the ones that have presence in the Town), it doesn't make that much sense.

>>6355930
Like you said calling someone Nemesis should mean an old enemy not really a traitor.

Those Lake spirits seem to think Kyle should somehow owe allegiance to the Lake Thing, which if the Woods Thing lost the war I could sorta see that. A bunch of drowned werewolves as Wood spirits corrupted by the Lake Thing in their defeat.

The Woods Thing is "dead" so I figure it lost the war with the Lake Thing at some point in the distant past. But somehow the Lake Thing still ended up sealed away so who knows.


But how much of the current situation is fucked up because of Candi's ritual with an absolutely falling apart notebook and self study. Or that the magic in question might have relied on local wood spirits that are all fucked up. Or that Kyle was basically gonna die. Then some sort of secondary ritual with the Ouroboros tattoos. Candi can command him near or far, can sense what hes up to a bit, if hes hurt. Her somewhat unexpected desire to drink blood which is more of a Kyle thing as a sign of Kyle's influence flowing into her.

>I think Candi can help you. Maybe we can set you free. Maybe you can work for me.

Writing. Might be delayed. We'll see!

You smile. For many people, having you smile at them is an unsettling experience. Miss Ellen is either too dead inside or too trusting of you to feel the fear she probably should. "I'm not going anywhere," you say. "In fact, I think Candi can help you."

Ellen blinks. "Help me?"

"She made me this way, didn't she?" you say, spreading your arms. "She might be able to set you free."

Ellen doesn't dare believe it. You see her consciously reject that possibility. Still, her eyes seem to glitter with a sliver of hope. It hurts that residual humanity inside you to see one of your favorite people reduced to the mentality of whipped dog.

"You could work for me," you suggest. Your tone is casual, but the implication is not.

"Work for you," she repeats. "Do you really think I could?"

You'd love nothing better. Humanity and altruism aside, you're stacking the deck in favor of your Cult. Cut the Smileys from their god and maybe pocket your own powerful piece. Sniping Miss Ellen from under Truesdale's nose, stealing his Vessel would only further destabilize his cult. Without their caged God, what do they have?

"Of course," you say.

Ellen tamps her hope down again, sits back in her chair and shakes her head. "No," she says softly. "No, he'd… track me down somehow. He'd find me and then… things would be worse. For everyone."

You know from experience that things can always get worse. "He'd have to get through me," you say, feeling like a hero for a moment. Wow, that's a strange feeling. You haven't felt like a hero in a while. Not sure if that's my fault or yours, but I think you lost the thread there at some point!

Miss Ellen smiles at you. It's a slow, timid thing, but it comes out all the same. "You're going to take him down, aren't you? You're going to destroy them." Her words come out bland, almost dreamy, like it isn't quite real, like it doesn't quite matter.

No reason to lie. If she's a spy or something, she has more than enough evidence to bury you. "Yeah," you say. "I'm going to destroy them."

You pay your tab and leave together. The night air is hot and still. It doesn't get hot here this time of year, but it's hot like the gravel lot itself is leaking heat. A long, empty rural highway runs through the pine-shrouded woods beside the bar's parking lot. No cars pass. No crickets chirp. No owls call. It's dead quiet but the crunch of rock beneath your boots. Somehow Ellen keeps her balance on her stiletto heels. "I don't want to bring you any trouble," she says softly.

No point in answering. Your life has been nothing but trouble.

"It's late," Ellen says, looking up at the faintly yellow overcast night sky. "I can take you home."

Home. If Ellen is going to cut free from Truesdale, she's going to have to avoid him somehow. No doubt he'll go looking for her, maybe with supernatural means. You're pretty sure Candi and Virginia can do something about that, maybe, but she'll need to hide the old fashioned way too.

"Probably not safe for you to go home once you cut ties," you say.

Ellen stops at the car and looks at you curiously. "I don't have anywhere else to go," she says.

"Stay at your home tonight," you say. "Act like everything is normal before I can figure out what we need to do to un-Vesselize you."

Ellen flashes another weak smile. "Okay. Thank you, Kyle."

As she drives you home, racing through the night with suicidal abandon, you're considering options. She's right, once she crosses Truesdale she'll need a place to stay. To hide. Somewhere safe.

If you want to keep a close eye on her, there's nowhere better than your house. It's already pretty crowded, and it will probably be the first place Truesdale will check, but at least you'll know she's defended.

You might also leave her with a trusted member of the Woods cult. Ralphie comes to mind. He's trustworthy and has no clear ties to her.

Another possibility, even less suspected, would be to have her stay with Annie, but you don't have any direct leverage over her. It would require you to work out an arrangement with her, but it would also probably be the last place the Lake Cult would look.


>Make plans for Ellen to stay at your house
>Plan to send Ellen to stay with Ralphie
>Plan to have Ellen stay with Annie
>Write in

>>6356205
Hmm I'll think about it. Originally I was thinking our house because it's already got magic wards and stuff. Or maybe Virginia's house or camping by the alter. Places for magic. When Kyle went into the mine did Candi lose track of whatever bond is between her and Kyle, could work for Ellen.

Ralphie or Annie might work tho.

>>6356205
>Write in
Virginia's house
Unless someone has a better idea I'm in no rush.

Seems like a place Candi could use her magic on against being found, and nightmares. We already bought a bunch of camping stuff months ago for Virginia. Ellen just needs to hide there until Chip/The Lake Cult show up to his house looking for her and don't find her. Unless there's any other hitch in this plan.

>>6356205
>Make plans for Ellen to stay at your house
Think of the hijinks...
Ralphie's isn't secure and Annie's family are full on cultists right

>>6356518
If I remember, I think Annie's parents do show up the civilian level gatherings. Lakeside parties or w.e they were called. I don't think they were part of the inner circle that actually goes into the hidden alter? But it wouldn't be that hard for Annie to have her own place I'd imagine.

No update today. Very busy. Will try to get it out tomorrow, sorry!

>>6356564
Thats okay Nem its a rough season