#055 – I didn’t expect this at all
I was so glad that past had left random cut marks on trees to mark my path. It made returning to the egg cave a whole lot easier. It also didn’t feel like it took anywhere as long to get back, probably because I actually had a clear destination in mind this ti.
I’d passed several life ooze lakes on my way, and now that I wasn’t in a rush to find food, I couldn’t help but wonder where these had co from. Had sothing or soone created them? Were they natural? If so, how had they co to be? I could attest to the fact that the stuff didn’t rain from the sky during rainfall, so… what gives?
Maybe that was just the result of centuries of still lakes of water mixing with ambient Ether or sothing? It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing, honestly. Although, just how long had that taken…?
“Oh! We’re here, chat!” I exclaid as I finally ca close to the familiar small cave. “Man, it feels like it’s been forever since I’ve been here.”
trelipideliberitation: yeeeeeeee
RetconRanger: Is the egg still there?
bloopbooper: bloooop! ٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´-
“No idea. Let’s see…”
I climbed into the cave and sure enough, the half-cracked egg was still there, exactly as I’d left it. Granted, I didn’t quite rember the exact positions of all the smaller egg shards on the ground, but I had stream history now. I could easily check.
SpoOo0oOon: looks like the phoenix hasn’t co back
uptonMIKE: or it covered its tracks
I opened stream history and rewound all the way to the point where I’d left the egg last ti to explore. Sure enough, everything looked more or less identical. I idly put a bookmark there, naming it ‘Leaving spawn #2’, and closed it again.
“Yup, I don’t think anyone else has been here. Unless the phoenix is ga sneaky.” I frowned at the egg for a mont. Then I shrugged, took off my backpack, opened it as much as I could, and approached the egg with it, intending to stuff the egg inside.
“Damn, I can’t believe I used to fit inside this… It’s so small now,” I murmured, once again realizing just how much I’d physically grown because of the blessing.
I stopped in front of the empty eggshell and gently placed my hand on it, feeling a strange pang of… nostalgia? Sentintality?
It was really weird, considering I’d left it behind pretty much imdiately after hatching. I hadn’t been nearly enough to get attached to it… But then again, I had no idea just how long I’d been inside that egg. Well, stream history went all the way to a few hours before hatching, but when I opened it up again to see what was there, I was pretty disappointed. Most of that ti was just darkness and so muted rumbling sounds–
“Hold on…” I stopped in my tracks and frowned as I rewound a few seconds and strained my ears to listen better. “Is that… Is that soone talking…?”
trelipideliberitation: oh shit the phoenix
bloopbooper: boop?! ( ˶°ㅁ°) !!
RetconRanger: Oh, yes. It sounds like it is.
The voice was sowhat androgynous. Maybe leaning on the female side. It was honestly really hard to tell.
I kept rewinding the few seconds, but I just couldn’t make anything out, even after maxing out the volu on the thing.
SpoOo0oOon: is the phoenix talking to the egg?
SpoOo0oOon: like a baby in a stomach?
uptonMIKE: maybe just monologing like a villain
My expression warped at that. There was sothing so incredibly weird about that. Sure, I looked like a kid and sure, I had hatched from the egg that the phoenix supposedly made, but…“Yeah, probably just smugly telling I’m gonna have a bad ti or sothing.”
But then again, even if I couldn’t tell what they were saying, their tone didn’t sound antagonistic.
RetconRanger: Give a mont.
RetconRanger: I will try to make sense of it.
“Okay…? Oh, are you gonna use your audio editing software magic?” I guessed while I sat down and went back to petting the eggshell.
RetconRanger: Yes.
“Alright! Thanks, Ranger!”
I sat back and while I waited for Ranger to co back with so results, I finally stopped rubbing the egg and awkwardly managed to stuff it into my backpack before picking up the pieces and taking them as well.
Then I sat back, found a relatively smooth part of the wall where I could lean, and looked out of the cave.
“I wonder what it’s gonna be…” I mumbled, as people in chat speculated.
Thinking about it, this could very well be my first lead to… well, everything. I still had no clue why I was in this world, or why I’d been reincarnated by a phoenix. But if we made out what they were saying, we might be able to glean so answers…
But then again, maybe the phoenix had anticipated that I would look back through stream history and there wouldn’t be anything useful.
But that was assuming the phoenix had known that I would get the Strear racial skill. Which would an that they had to have manipulated the system itself. Or at least predicted which racial skill I would get.
The system had said ‘calibrating’ before it had given that skill, so I had to assu that there was a variety of different racial skills I could have gotten.
Or all of this theorizing was pointless because the phoenix was the one who had set everything up, including all the red herrings.
RetconRanger: Okay. So, it sounds like an adult woman and the tone is sowhat sorrowful. But she’s not speaking in English.
I groaned and rubbed my forehead.
“Of course, it’s not in English… Dammit. I guess it’s still sothing…? The phoenix is likely a woman and… was sad to reincarnate ? Probably why ‘I’m sorry’, I’m guessing…”
I deflated with a sigh.
FouxMoux: heya
FouxMoux: what’s up?
“Hey, Foux… We just found out that there was soone talking to while I was in the egg… But it’s hard to hear and it’s not even English. Can anyone figure out what language it is?”
trelipideliberitation: subtitles
trelipideliberitation: turn on subtitles
I froze.
“Oh my god! Of course! The subtitles! I’m so dumb!”
As an odd feeling of hope began to well up inside , I quickly went to my nu, turned the subtitles on again, changed them to English, and rewound the stream history to the very beginning.
Then I sat back and listened.
The mont I heard the first signs of a muffled voice, the subtitles appeared in my vision, and I couldn’t help but breathe in in anticipation.
‘Hello, Nana… Ugh… I didn’t think this is how it would all turn out. I really should have expected this, but…’
Oh shit. The phoenix knew my na. Or rather, knew my Vcuber na and decided to call that? Why…?
There was a long pause but I patiently waited as the supposed Phoenix found her words.
‘It’s strange… It’s been so long, but I can rember it so clearly. Back when… I was in your position.’
Hold on, what? My position? What was that supposed to an?
I stared at the words as several different emotions boiling inside my gut.
Was this implying that soone had done the exact thing to her? The whole forcibly reincarnated in another world?
‘Sorry, I’m really bad at this, huh…? I guess I should give you a talk like the one I got.’
Oh god. That was exactly what she was implying here. What the hell?!
‘Hello, Nana. I am your mother… of sorts. A different kind of Mother.’
I clenched my teeth but didn’t dare to tear my attention away from the subtitles in front of .
‘I… don’t really want to do this, but I think I have to at this point. I’m sending you on a grand adventure. It’s going to be hard. Very hard. So hard that you will want to give up many tis along the way. Like at the limit breaks. Especially at the limit breaks. They are the absolute worst! The second one in particular… God, I hope you’ll make it out with your sanity intact.’
A chill went down my spine.
I’d subconsciously known that sothing would force to do the limit break sooner or later, but if even my kidnapper talked about them like that, I couldn’t help but feel dread.
And she was implying that I definitely would have to do not just one of them, but all of them?
My hands tightened into fists.
‘But you can’t give up! I an… I still don’t really know what the point of all of this is, but she told it’s necessary. And sure, she could have been lying… She had been tricking this whole ti, after all, but well…’
What the hell? Had the phoenix been coerced into this whole sche then? Why would it be necessary? Who was ‘she’?
‘I hate all this. I hate how I still don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing! I hate the Fate Weaver! I hate–’ The sentence cut off and there was silence for a while again.
The Fate Weaver.
Was ‘she’ the Fate Weaver? The one who forced the Phoenix to reincarnate ?
Who was the Fate Weaver anyway? Were they who I thought they were, or was it all a coincidence, after all?
The silence continued and I was about to speak up, thinking it was over, when the muffled voice ca back, and with it, more subtitles.
‘Sorry, I’m just… frustrated.’
I could tell that much…
‘I know that you can hear , Nana. I an, you probably won’t understand what I’m saying, at least not right away, but just know that I believe in you. You can do it!’
Hold on, what? How could she possibly know that I would be able to understand eventually? Had she known about the Strear skill, after all?
‘I’m sorry… and good luck!’
There was a muted swooshing sound and then silence.
I waited a good few minutes after that just to see if the subtitles would pick up anything else, but that seed to be the end of it.
I closed my eyes, and took a shuddering breath, before opening them again.
“...Well! I guess I have another reason to avoid the limit break for now,” I said with a forced cheer. My trembling voice probably didn’t convince anyone.
trelipideliberitation: holy shit
trelipideliberitation: so fate weaver is the enemy not the phoenix
SpoOo0oOon: that poor phoenix
SpoOo0oOon: it sounds like they were coerced
bloopbooper: bloop…(⊙_⊙)
uptonMIKE: I wouldn’t jump to conclusions yet
FouxMoux: wow that’s a lot to unpack
I deflated, failing to retain my cheer, and sat there in stunned silence for a mont, thinking about everything I’d just heard.
“...Chat, I don’t know what to think. I feel like everything just got way more complicated. I got so answers but even more questions now.”
trelipideliberitation: so progress at least?
FouxMoux: maybe it’s so kind of inheritance thing?
“Inheritance?” I mumbled, still feeling a bit shell shocked.
trelipideliberitation: oh yeah like this is not the first ti this happened
FouxMoux: from soone to phoenix to you to soone else again
FouxMoux: when you are done with your adventure
I cringed.
“What. You think that when I’m done with… whatever I’m supposed to be doing, I’ll be coerced to kidnap soone from Earth and reincarnate them here? And then they would go through everything and kidnap soone, and then they would kidnap soone, and so on?”
FouxMoux: yeah
SpoOo0oOon: that’s horrible
FouxMoux: maybe not earth
“That’s ssed up… I don’t even know why I’m doing this. The phoenix didn’t know why she was doing this. Just that ‘she’, whoever the heck that was, said it was necessary.”
trelipideliberitation: I’m guessing that was the god
trelipideliberitation: fate weaver or whatever
uptonMIKE: maybe you’ll figure it out by the end
“Yeah, that’s what I’m assuming as well… Eh, nice that you believe in , Mike, but I wouldn’t be so sure…”
trelipideliberitation: okay maybe that IS the point
trelipideliberitation: ur supposed to figure it out and then the cycle ends
“I an, I guess? But that’s assuming there even is a cycle to begin with.” I shook my head with a sigh. “Either way, if there’s one thing that I took away from this, it’s that the Fate Weaver cannot be trusted. She’s said that the Fate Weaver had been tricking her all along, so…”
uptonMIKE: and that limit breaks are bad
“...And that Limit Breaks are really bad. Especially the second one, apparently.” I shuddered as I thought back on what the Phoenix had said. “I don’t know about you guys, but losing sanity doesn’t sound very appealing to .”
trelipideliberitation: I still wonder what exactly they are
FouxMoux: weren’t there three of them?
FouxMoux: why is the second one worse than the third?
“Not doing it right now, Trelip. It didn’t win the poll.” I huffed. “No idea. And I’m not going to theorize about it. I don’t even know what exactly they are about.”
But obviously, I would have to do it eventually. Everything just beautifully pointed in the direction of doing the Limit Break. So much so that I was suspicious whether it was a plot by the Fate Weaver as well…
Ugh, I was becoming a conspiracy theorist.
“Okay!” I clapped my hands. “So in summary: The Phoenix needs a slap in the face for dragging into this and then all the hugs for whatever poop she had to go through, and the Fate Weaver – if that’s who ‘she’ is – needs a good butt kicking and cannot be trusted.”
trelipideliberitation: lol
trelipideliberitation: good summary
uptonMIKE: I would be wary of the phoenix still
uptonMIKE: even if she didn’t want to she still did it
I pursed my lips and frowned.
“Good point, Mike. She might be… like a conscript. Unwilling, but still an enemy. Or sothing like that?”
uptonMIKE: yeah exactly
“Right…” I sighed. “Well, on that cheerful note, I guess it’s ti to get going again.”
I took one last look around the cave, rembering the first ti I’d woken up in this world, then got up and walked outside.
“Sooo… Which way should I go? If I rember correctly, the spaceship is that way–” I pointed in one direction. “–and the water park is that way.” I pointed in the opposite direction.
I looked up and squinted at the sky, trying to rember where the sun set.
FouxMoux: spaceship west waterpark east then
I humd.
“Yeah. I guess there’s two more directions left to explore then… Let’s poll it! You decide, chat! Do I go north or do I go south?!”
I quickly set up the poll and then sat down. As I waited for people to get their vote in, my mind wandered back to what I’d read the Phoenix say.
Mother.
Hah. Apparently, I had crappy parents even for my reincarnation. How ironic. Well, at least the Phoenix was sowhat apologetic, unlike…
“Alright! What do we have? Hmm… Huh, looks like north is winning by quite a bit. Well, north it is then! Let’s go, chat!”
I stood up, turned north, and began walking.
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