Halos And Hellspawn

Do You Trust Me? Pt. 4

A/N: Here we are! Second to last part!

Link to Pt. 3: http://skinnyscottishblokeaddict.tumblr.com/post/155699231442/do-you-trust-me-pt-3

Link to Pt. 2: http://skinnyscottishblokeaddict.tumblr.com/post/155686403892/do-you-trust-me-pt-2

Link to Pt. 1: http://skinnyscottishblokeaddict.tumblr.com/post/155650933267/pizsospa-cmon-little-dude-you-can-trust-me

Mark finished waving and took off his headphones as he stood and turned. "Jack! What's up, dude? You didn't tell me you were coming over today." "Howya, Mark? I haven't seen you in ages," Jack said, walking over and giving him a quick half-hug. "Oh, fine, fine, lots of Subnautica recently, it's driving me nuts," he laughed, turning to smile at you. "Who's your friend?" You managed to stutter out a "hello". Mark raised an eyebrow at Jack. Jack put his hands in his pockets. "They're actually the reason I'm here." His smile faded and he sighed. "He's stronger than we thought. And he almost got out, so...I pulled them in here." Mark's smile dropped immediately. "Oh...Oh, so you're...?" He turned to look at you, and you nodded awkwardly. "Uh, from...'out there'. Yeah."

Everyone was silent for a moment before you added, stupidly, "I love your videos." Mark shook himself a bit and smiled again. "Well. It's nice to meet a fan, doesn't happen very often." He glanced over at Jack, still addressing you. "Did he explain about Personas?" "Yeah. I did. Let's not start that again." Jack put an arm around you. "Can you help me get them home safely?" "Well," Mark considered, going over to his computer and starting to look for something, "I mean,  I've done it before. I don't see why not." "What happened before?" You asked, walking up behind Mark to see what he was doing. There was a lot of code on the screen, much like outside. Mark seemed to be looking for a specific line of it. Mark and Jack seemed to shift awkwardly. "Well...you weren't the first target of a Hyde Glitch." "Hyde Glitch?" "It's what we're calling Anti and all them," Jack explained. "Like Jekyll and Hyde. They're...broken versions, of us. Bugs in the system." "There's more of them?" "Lots more." Mark didn't look back at you, but he frowned. "One for almost everyone." "Oh..." You thought back to all the drawings and edits you'd seen on tumblr. "Oh. So...there's Anti, and there's-" "Dark. Yeah. He exists." Mark nodded solemnly. "But he's not as strong as Anti. Glitches like Dark, and Natemare, MadPat, Virus Cry, all of them...they're weak because they've not got a single form." "Sean's a good guy, and October was fun, but..." Jack crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head slightly. "Well, putting Anti on the channel, pulling him into the limelight..." "We knew it was gonna be dangerous." "Because he exists online..." The realization was hitting you like a ton of bricks. Jack nodded. "Sean doesn't know about this. So he didn't think he was doing anything wrong. But the more Anti actually appeared in videos, the more he got a voice-" "The stronger he got here," you finished for him, leaning back against the foam padding on the wall. "This is our fault. We egged him on. I...I wrote stories, I've got friends that made art..." "It's not your fault." Mark seemed to have found what he was looking for, and turned to smile at you reassuringly. "You didn't know about this place either. You didn't think any of it was real." "But it is, and..." you looked over at Jack, "A-and you got hurt because of it. He-he slit your throat, but how-?" "The vlog that went up after," Jack interrupted, seeing how upset you were, "It cancelled out 'Say Goodbye'." He didn't say it, but you could guess that that didn't mean it hadn't hurt. It felt like your stomach was falling into your shoes. Mark coughed, and you and Jack gathered by the computer. "Alright," he said, pointing at some white text, "so, when Ethan was here-" "Ethan came here? Like, my world Ethan?" Mark nodded. "Yeah. When he first came out to LA, he was watching one of my videos, making sure his edits were good. He heard me say something to him after the outro. And then...I mean, I assume it was basically the same thing you did. Dark started trying to get at him, I pulled Ethan in." You shook your head. You could practically picture it, Ethan confused as hell, staring at Mark in shock. "But you got him home alright. I mean, he's putting out videos now. And Dark's not out there, so...How'd you do it?" "Well, like I said, Dark isn't as strong as Anti, so it was just a matter of putting him behind a firewall. After than, we...well, I spent hours trying to figure it out, digging through code and trying to find out if it'd happened before. Ethan was a little shocked, so...but he wouldn't have known what to do either. Eventually, I found this," he tapped the white text again. "Ethan's access code. It's what let him get in." "We still don't know why he could," Jack added, "We don't know why he's the only one, until now, that could hear us. Maybe it's something to do with you guys on that end, some power you have." "But how does that help me get out?" "Well," Mark pulled open a drawer and pulled out a flashdrive, plugging it in. He tapped a few keys and a loading box popped up. "I found his code by accident. Noticed it was different, pulled it up. And my camera was still plugged into my computer, and when it popped up, a box came up with the option to 'return message to original sender?'. Ethan was the one who figured it out. He was the message, and the sender. So, we figured, what's the worst that could happen? I'm pretty good at recovering lost data..." Jack shifted and you glanced at him. Mark continued, eyeing Jack. "Um, so we figured, what was there to lose? I hit send, and then...flash, bang, he was home." "And that was it?" "And that was it." "So I could go home right now?" "Well, no," Mark rubbed his neck awkwardly. "You've gotta go from your home port. Meaning..." "Meaning we walked all this way to be told we have to go back to Jack's place," you said, scrubbing a hand across your face. "We traveled all this way to have someone who's a hell of a lot better at code than I am get the right code," Jack corrected, then, shuffling his feet awkwardly, "And...I wanted to give you a chance to meet him. I figured...You probably like his stuff too, and it'd be nice..." You smiled slightly at him. "Thanks, Jack." "It's my fault Anti got to us, though." Mark's voice was suddenly sharp. "Anti followed you?" "We ran into him halfway here, but...I think I slowed him down," you said. Mark blinked, confused. "How?" "I don't know, I just...pushed him. And he turned a little red." Mark shot a glance at Jack, who shrugged. "Well that's...interesting. You, uh, seem to be able to manipulate code. Which I suppose is good." You could see why that would make him uncomfortable, so you stood away from the wall again and made your way toward the door. Jack took the hint. "Well, we should be going." Mark nodded, pulling the flashdrive, which'd just finished downloading the code, out and handing it to you. "Be careful out there." "You too," you said. Mark smiled. "All things considered, it was nice to meet you." You returned it. "It's good to meet you too, Mark. I've watched you for such a long time." You laughed a little. "This feels surreal." Mark opened his arms and raised his eyebrows, and you took the invitation and hugged him tightly, muttering a thank you. "It's my absolute pleasure," he chuckled, hugging you tightly before patting your back. "Now go on. Have a safe trip-" The lights dimmed. Everyone froze. "We should go. Now." Jack grabbed your arm. Mark let go of you quickly and went to open the door. It wouldn't open. And then there was giggling.

"This way!" Mark dove toward a door on the other side of the room, you and Jack hot on his heels as the lights flickered and his computer screen began to glitch, dark green code starting to scroll by. He shoved the door open and you ran into his VR recording room. He shut the door behind you and ran up to the headsets. "Lucky I've got two of these," he said, tossing you the Vive and giving the Oculous to Jack. "Put 'em on." "What?" Something pounded on the door. Mark shot a glance at it, then ran over to the computer in this room and started typing furiously. "Mark, we can't just leave you with him," Jack said angrily. "Just put on the damn headsets, I'll be fine." "A firewall won't stop him." "But it'll slow him down." Mark waved him off. But you were still lost. "Wait, how is this supposed to-?" "Virtual Reality," Mark said, stepping back toward the door and, to your surprise, pushing aside a panel on the wall to reveal its coding. He started pulling and moving it like Jack had back on the mountain. "In your world, it's only a metaphorical escape. But here, everything's virtual, so..." "So it'll really get us out of here." You grinned. "That's brilliant." You nodded to Jack and the two of you got ready to put the headsets on. "He should follow us," Jack said, and Mark nodded again. "I can keep him out until then. I'll be alright." "Thank you, Mark." He gave you a short wave over his shoulder before going back to keeping Anti out. "See you in the comments." "See you there." There was a scream of frustration from the next room, and you and Jack put the headsets on.

Suddenly, you were back at the base of the mountain, back on Jack's side. You could almost see his ravine from there. "We haven't got a lot of time. C'mon." Jack led the way, and the two of you ran. You made it about half way before the dark green text was everywhere, forcing you to skid to a stop. "No, no, no," Jack muttered, "He's boxing us in." And the giggling started up again. You watched in horror as Anti pulled himself out of the ground again. He looked even glitchier than before, the only solid thing about him his face, grinning disturbingly. The rest was switching alarmingly quickly between green code and sickly green skin. It looked like he couldn't keep a solid form. "YOU!" His voice was high and sharp, layered as if there were four of him speaking at once, tone shifting all over the place. "You're mine!" "Get bent, Anti," Jack growled, and he turned to you. "Get around him. Go. I'll keep him here." Before you could protest, he dove toward Anti, knocking him flat on the ground and shouting in pain as he started to glitch out as well. You were frozen to the spot, couldn't do anything but watch as they struggled. Jack had Anti pinned for a moment, but then his legs were swept out from under him and Anti was on top, holding him down with one arm and using the other fist to swing at his face. You screamed as it crunched against his cheek and Jack let out a yell that was half pain and half defiance. He face was glitching where he'd been hit, going between code and bruising. But he took advantage of Anti reering back for another hit to shove him away, so hard that he slammed into the wall of the mountain base, hissing angrily. You ran toward Jack. "No! No, you've got to go!" Jack stood, swaying slightly, and shoved you back toward the ravine. "I won't leave you here!" "I'll be okay!" "You're lying!" Jack grunted in annoyance and shoved you again. "So what if I am? Don't you want to go home? Please, just-" Anti cackled, making you and Jack whip around to look at him, just in time for him to dive toward Jack, who pushed you roughly backward. "Idiot, IDIOT!" Anti crowed. And he seemed to dissolve, nothing but code, and Jack struggled as it started to seep into his skin. He screamed in pain, just managing to keep standing. "GO! JUST GO! RUN!" You couldn't if you'd wanted to. But you couldn't move to help him either. He screamed again, clutching at his head, doubling over on his knees, his whole body glitching out. "No...NO!" And he collapsed. "JACK!" You ran toward him, all fear and panic, all thought for your own safety gone. You just needed to know he was okay. Your knees thudded sharply against the ground and you cupped his face with your hands. "Jack, please. Please wake up. Please. You can't leave me. You can't leave them. They need you, Jackaboy, c'mon." He grunted weakly and you let out a short sob. "Knew you could...do...it..." He was laughing. And when his eyes opened, they were black.

Made a Darkiplier Playlist, if anyone’s interested.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXTbogGI5MFHsOLVc8ECZ5FS8MSeU_Uu9

I’d add my theories to this but frankly...

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

oh fuck.

Just wanted to say, thank you, Jack, for everything you do with the Egos. This is by far one of the most amazing stories I had ever seen, and one of the most long-lasting. These characters, completely original and complex in their own way, interact not only with you and each other, but with US. DIRECTLY. It’s amazing! I’m in the story that I’m helping to tell! This is exactly what fiction is supposed to be, an interaction between creater and audience, and almost no other medium allows for this level of interaction. Thank you for working so hard on these amazing characters and their stories, and for interacting with us to give us more to work with and expand the story even more, and for allowing us, the fans, to make this story bigger than any of us could ever dream. 

That being said, please please know that whatever you want to do with these characters will be fun for us. Small glitches? Awesome! So fun to catch! The occasional spoofy moment in videos? Wonderful! It’s fun to see our faves cameo! Small parodies with the different characters? Great! Hilarious! Serious works that take longer to put together? Oh hell yeah!! It’s all part of the fun of this unusual story, big or small. 

You don’t have to go all out to make something fun, and you don’t have to make a lot of things, either. There’s no quotas, it’s all just something to enjoy, together. We love it, and you, and are just happy to be sharing in the creative process. We’ll happily support whatever you want to do with them, and if you want to take a break? Take it! We’ll fill in the gaps with fanfics, art, edits, and memes while you chill out and just enjoy the creations. <3

Expectations

I wanna talk about the egos for a second. 

They have been by far one of my favourite things that have ever come out of this community and my own brain. I love characters, I love story and I love a good mystery so to have our own lore and plot in this community based around content that I put out there is nothing short of surreal and amazing. Recording let’s plays is awesome but this was something I created and put out there intentionally with high hopes and no one else at the time was doing it and it went over super well. It was incredibly creatively fulfilling. 

However in the mix of all this has come a lot of frustration and headaches too. I am constantly beating myself up over not doing more with them and putting things off because what I want to do with them is so fucking ambitious that I stop myself from trying sometimes out of fear of not living up to it and messing the whole thing up. I feel like I have one good shot at a story with them and don’t want to put out something that doesn’t make sense or is safe or is just badly written and kind of lame. I want it to be GREAT but that’s a really hard thing to do, especially when almost the entire creative process for all of this is resting on me. It doesn’t have to of course but it’s my baby and I want to treat it well so I get frustrated when things don’t go EXACTLY how I want with the characters.

Not only that but people fucking LOVE these characters (which is the sweetest thing in the world) so I want to do them justice for all of you as well. Use them as a way of telling a good story with characters you can relate to and designs/imagery that inspires you. Sometimes those expectations aren’t met or are set WAY too high, far too early and what comes out disappoints some people or isn’t exactly what you wanted either. This constant cycle and back and forth in my head has been a huge creative and motivational road block for me. I have ideas and plot points and places I want all this to go but trying to get there has proven hard for me because again, I don’t want to fuck it up. The stuff that I’m trying to do is also just taking so fucking long to talk through. 

This is why teases have been slow and sparse. All of this is way bigger than I thought it would be initially so thank you for that. I love these characters so so much and I want to see them fly high. I do love all the theorising though and the stories people write about them and how creative you all are. It inspires me. Keep theorising, keep having fun, keep your stories going. I want to have more fun with it and not put so much pressure on it all anymore. 

Hey guys?

Here’s my idea about the ending of today’s video: Jack’s supposed to have been in a coma right? According to Chase. So...

What if we’re seeing what Jack saw in his coma?

Tea. (Headcanons)

(A/N These are some of my headcannons told sort of in the form of a plotless oneshot. Add to it if you want!)

There's one thing the Doctor adores no matter what regeneration he's on, and that's tea. Whether it's good ol' classic English tea (Ten drank it all the time), or green tea (Good old Twelve), or herbal teas(Eleven was wont to try all kinds of teas, a new one every day), or gunpowder tea (Nine had a bit of a bitter streak when it came to this), he always loved it, and he liked to share that with his companions.

Everyone liked the classic stuff, but each had their own favorites.

Rose, through her time on the TARDIS, came to really enjoy raspberry tea with honey and lemon juice, which the Doctor would make for her after every adventure. She brought her favorite brand to her mum's apartment, but Jackie said she "didn't trust these ruddy alien teas. What if they poison me or somethin'?"

Martha had a soft spot for orange tea, especially with lavender or jasmine, and her favorite brand was one from the 25th century on Earth that boasted helpful hypermetabolic antioxidants, though the Doctor protested it didn't help her health at all. She liked it anyway. They "debated" the point thousands of times during their long tea-and-chat sessions in the console room.

Donna was quite fond of coffee as well as tea, and took it black, occasionally with sugar if she was just relaxing and chatting with the Doctor. She made him try her coffee once, but he spit it out so violently she called him "Old Faithful" for a week straight. After that, the Doctor insisted on making and drinking only his own beverages, and Donna cracked a smile every time they met in the morning for drinks and biscuits.

Amy liked really strong teas of lots of varieties, including some alien types found across the galaxy from Earth in the 47th century, while Rory just liked his classic tea, one spoon of sugar and a little milk, please. Neither liked when the Doctor attempted to make their tea, so Amy often ended up getting annoyed at them both and sitting them down while she did it, correctly. The boys were smart enough not to argue.

Clara really rather enjoyed oolong and green tea, but would try basically anything the Doctor brewed for her, so they spent hours in the TARDIS kitchen laughing and taste-testing.

The Doctor also let everyone pick their own mug, because of course the TARDIS had an almost endless supply of them, and he gave each of them the mugs when they left him.

His were: in his ninth incarnation, a simple black mug with a swirling blue and gold design; in his tenth incarnation, a rather large blue mug with about a thousand quotes in brown ink scrawled all over it (from him, and his companions, and Shakespeare, and Agatha Christie, and a thousand others) in very small, cramped handwriting (he had about three because he kept running out of space); in his eleventh incarnation, it changed every time he drank tea, sometimes white with a red bow tie, other times pale pink with a black fez silhouette, other times something completely random; and in his twelfth incarnation, a star scattered black mug with the TARDIS' outline.

Rose's favorite was a pink mug with a half-heart shaped handle, which the Doctor bought her "as a joke", and sometimes teased her about, but she was happy with it. Tentoo had it in his pocket when they went to Pete's world, and gave it back to her as a birthday present the next time it came around. She was thrilled.

Martha's was a pretty green Japanese tea cup, with Kanji lettering on the side for "Health". It was wrapped up in the gift pile at her wedding to Mickey. There was no giver name. She cried when she opened it.

Mickey got one that said "The Most Brilliant Idiot To Every Live" in small, cramped handwriting. He cried, too.

Donna would never understand where the fairly plain brown mug that read "Life's an adventure if you get your arse out of bed long enough to have one" came from. All she knew was that it arrived at her door one day, and Shawn didn't know where it came from, and it was her favorite. It made her happy, but she never understood why.

Amy's favorite mug was intricately sculpted to a tree with a fairy sitting in its branches that Rory bough for her on a planet with actual, live fairies. Rory's was one Amy had given him, with a little cartoon of a Roman soldier, bought from the gift shop of a certain museum, that had the title "The Centurion".

They cried when a package containing the mugs arrived on their doorstep in the 60s.

Clara's favorite was bright red with gold glitter and the outline of a leaf on it. The Doctor swore he'd just picked it up somewhere, but Clara just smiled and nodded, happily running a finger over the hand-painted leaf.

The end of the world didn’t look anything like we thought it would. There were no fires. There was no screaming in the streets. No gunshots aimed at brick facades teeming with armies of the unruly dead, or extraplanetary life that had for some reason decided that humanity was to be systematically eliminated. There were no world leaders corrupted by their position into beginning nuclear Armageddon. No, it was nothing like that.

The end of the world was…quiet.

I wrote a book!

Hello! So for the better part of a year, I've been working on a science fiction book titled Artificial Intelligence, and it's been through beta reading after beta reading, edits, re-writes, and so much more, and it's finally published and available for purchase on Amazon. I'm so incredibly proud of this story, and I just wanted to share it. It's available in eBook form and a paperback physical book! Here's the link!

(Cover by the lovely @stitchtehhedgehog on Instagram)

Like I’ll take all of that, just less tears pls and thank

Hehehe.

Same.

should anyone be interested, and because these are actually writing/artsy related. go for it! i’ll answer to the best of my ability. :)

identity ask.........oh shit

if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?

have you ever found a writer who thinks just like you? if so, who?

list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with.

do you like your name?  is there another name you think would fit you better?

do you think of yourself as a human being or a human doing? do you identify yourself by the things you do?

are you religious/spiritual?

do you care about your ethnicity?

what musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime?

are you an artist?

do you have a creed?

describe your ideal day.

dog person or cat person?

inside or outdoors?

are you a musician?

five most influential books over your lifetime.

if you’d grown up in a different environment, do you think you’d have turned out the same?

would you say your tumblr is a fair representation of the “real you”?

what’s your patronus?

which Harry Potter house would you be in? or are you a muggle?

would you rather be in Middle Earth, Narnia, Hogwarts, or somewhere else?

do you love easily?

list the top five things you spend the most time doing, in order.

how often would you want to see your family every year?

have you ever felt like you had a “mind-meld” with someone?

could you live as a hermit?

how would you describe your gender/sexuality?

do you feel like your outside appearance is a fair representation of the “real you”?

on a scale from 1 to 10, how hard is it for someone to get under your skin?

three songs that you connect with right now.

pick one of your favorite quotes.