03-15-2016, 04:11 PM
With Ronald behind him, Seventeen made his way further into the Ashen Steppes. If what Joe the Magikoopa had told him was accurate, he’d eventually stumble upon some sort of tower owned and operated by an entire kingdom of anthropomorphic turtles. While the machine-hybrid wasn’t entirely certain that sounded like an appealing place for a non-reptile, he knew he didn’t feel like stumbling his way through the white world another time, especially if those angry-looking people had resorted to fisticuffs.
As Seventeen carefully made his way across a landscape dotted with small heat vents, fissured earth, and the occasional pocket of active magma, his thoughts turned inward. What the hell is this place, anyway?
He knew that he was in a place called the Ashen Steppes, and that the volcano world was a component of ‘the Omniverse.’ At the helm of the Omniverse was the all-white man with the smile and the weird, disembodied voice. Was Omni the guy in charge or was he just some sort of weird manifestation of this world?
Is this just another one of those simulation-based challenges?
Back in his world, there’d be a great rise in ‘reality shows’ during the last years of his mortal life. Rich entrepreneurs would pour a lot of money into designing fancy locations and then drop people into strange situations. Nine times out of ten, the ‘contestants’ were supposed to kill each other. Most of the time, that’s how things worked out in the end...
What was that guy’s name? Seventeen scowled at how bad his memory had become since his death. Axel? Damon? …Brim? The machine-hybrid knew it would come to him sooner or later.
“I wonder if this is any different.”
The cyborg paused for just a moment and let his words hover in the air around him. He hadn’t thought of it before, but what if this was just another one of those events? Perhaps some smirking executive in an expensive suit was watching him through a hidden camera and waiting for him to trip into a pool of lava. Was his best friend lurking behind a bush somewhere, waiting to pop out and reveal that he’d signed him up for some inane adventure game?
I wouldn’t put it passed Kirano… He’d be all over this type of thing.
Unfortunately, the more Seventeen thought about it, the more he started to doubt the hypothesis. How many television producers had enough money to build a device that could function in the vicinity of a collapsing galaxy? If someone was trying to make money from him, they probably would have had Ronald betray him. What was more conducive to ratings than a saucy betrayal from someone you trusted?
Wonder if that means I’m stuck in this place.
If all the Omniverse had to offer was a bunch of volcanoes and turtles, Seventeen knew he was going to be in for one hell of an existence. Sadly, the reptiles with the cartoonish features were probably the only clue he had to get to the bottom of the situation. All he had to do was find whatever tower Joe had been talking about prior to their separation.
As he weaved his way across a landscape marred by smoke-laced fissures and bubbling pools of magma, Seventeen’s started to daydream. In his mind, he was back to a simpler time—a moment in his life when all he had to do was keep track of a group of misfits and outcasts. A mansion in the woods had been their home for a few years, and during that time, the little collection of aliens, golems, robots, and amnesiac human had made the North Quadrant their playground.
Like many things, time had spelled an end for all good things. One by one, the faces around the picnic table had vanished into memory or oblivion. The true killer of friendships is time, and near the end of his mortal life, the table had been empty save the cyborg’s girlfriend, two small children, the girlfriend of his best friend, and the small child who bore his father’s moniker. The gloomy woman, her eyes betraying just how deep the sadness ran, would never find happiness. While Seventeen made true on his promise to find his best friend, Kirano and Phoebe never repaired the gulf between them.
What had once been a lovely couple had been sundered by time apart.
The pair faded from the vision in Seventeen’s head, leaving behind only the android’s immediate family.
His girlfriend had been a rock in his life for a long time. In his worst moments, she served to pull him up from the darkness. She’d been an angel when they met, but by the time of his death, she’d become something almost foreign to him. He had never been able to solve it, but he knew that something had taken root inside of her. When his lease on mortality expired, he’d tried to keep an eye on her, but she vanished, leaving behind their children.
The feisty redhead—the woman he’d loved without hesitation—faded from the picture in his head, leaving behind two smiling children.
While fatherhood had never been something on his list of life goals, the machine-hybrid loved the twins with every fiber of his existence—mortal or otherwise. He’d watched over them from the afterlife whenever he could find time. After a few years, a version of his daughter from a darker future had found herself in the past, and Seventeen had done his best job to watch over her as well. They’d been on the verge of meeting in person when the invaders had struck.
Seventeen had gone off to fight the dragon in order to keep the grown version of his daughter safe, and he had accepted his death knowing that he’d taken out the lone obstacle that she never could.
The picnic table was empty, save a scrawny young man with black hair drooped in front of his features.
Even in death, he’d never felt alone, but as he walked across the Ashen Steppes, the cyborg started to understand that he was no truly by himself. No Kirano to share a few beers with. No Paige to scratch his back as they went to sleep. No Piper and Cole to cheer him on as he ran through the backyard with them on his shoulders.
All I’ve got now is a salt merchant and a turtle wizard.
With Ronald off to sell salt, that meant the machine-hybrid would have to go track down the latter of the two. If what Joe the Magikoopa said was true, the Koopa Kingdom might be able to provide Seventeen with some much-needed information.
Hell, he’d take a soft bed to crash on for a day or two.
And some air conditioning, while we’re at it…
As Seventeen carefully made his way across a landscape dotted with small heat vents, fissured earth, and the occasional pocket of active magma, his thoughts turned inward. What the hell is this place, anyway?
He knew that he was in a place called the Ashen Steppes, and that the volcano world was a component of ‘the Omniverse.’ At the helm of the Omniverse was the all-white man with the smile and the weird, disembodied voice. Was Omni the guy in charge or was he just some sort of weird manifestation of this world?
Is this just another one of those simulation-based challenges?
Back in his world, there’d be a great rise in ‘reality shows’ during the last years of his mortal life. Rich entrepreneurs would pour a lot of money into designing fancy locations and then drop people into strange situations. Nine times out of ten, the ‘contestants’ were supposed to kill each other. Most of the time, that’s how things worked out in the end...
What was that guy’s name? Seventeen scowled at how bad his memory had become since his death. Axel? Damon? …Brim? The machine-hybrid knew it would come to him sooner or later.
“I wonder if this is any different.”
The cyborg paused for just a moment and let his words hover in the air around him. He hadn’t thought of it before, but what if this was just another one of those events? Perhaps some smirking executive in an expensive suit was watching him through a hidden camera and waiting for him to trip into a pool of lava. Was his best friend lurking behind a bush somewhere, waiting to pop out and reveal that he’d signed him up for some inane adventure game?
I wouldn’t put it passed Kirano… He’d be all over this type of thing.
Unfortunately, the more Seventeen thought about it, the more he started to doubt the hypothesis. How many television producers had enough money to build a device that could function in the vicinity of a collapsing galaxy? If someone was trying to make money from him, they probably would have had Ronald betray him. What was more conducive to ratings than a saucy betrayal from someone you trusted?
Wonder if that means I’m stuck in this place.
If all the Omniverse had to offer was a bunch of volcanoes and turtles, Seventeen knew he was going to be in for one hell of an existence. Sadly, the reptiles with the cartoonish features were probably the only clue he had to get to the bottom of the situation. All he had to do was find whatever tower Joe had been talking about prior to their separation.
As he weaved his way across a landscape marred by smoke-laced fissures and bubbling pools of magma, Seventeen’s started to daydream. In his mind, he was back to a simpler time—a moment in his life when all he had to do was keep track of a group of misfits and outcasts. A mansion in the woods had been their home for a few years, and during that time, the little collection of aliens, golems, robots, and amnesiac human had made the North Quadrant their playground.
Like many things, time had spelled an end for all good things. One by one, the faces around the picnic table had vanished into memory or oblivion. The true killer of friendships is time, and near the end of his mortal life, the table had been empty save the cyborg’s girlfriend, two small children, the girlfriend of his best friend, and the small child who bore his father’s moniker. The gloomy woman, her eyes betraying just how deep the sadness ran, would never find happiness. While Seventeen made true on his promise to find his best friend, Kirano and Phoebe never repaired the gulf between them.
What had once been a lovely couple had been sundered by time apart.
The pair faded from the vision in Seventeen’s head, leaving behind only the android’s immediate family.
His girlfriend had been a rock in his life for a long time. In his worst moments, she served to pull him up from the darkness. She’d been an angel when they met, but by the time of his death, she’d become something almost foreign to him. He had never been able to solve it, but he knew that something had taken root inside of her. When his lease on mortality expired, he’d tried to keep an eye on her, but she vanished, leaving behind their children.
The feisty redhead—the woman he’d loved without hesitation—faded from the picture in his head, leaving behind two smiling children.
While fatherhood had never been something on his list of life goals, the machine-hybrid loved the twins with every fiber of his existence—mortal or otherwise. He’d watched over them from the afterlife whenever he could find time. After a few years, a version of his daughter from a darker future had found herself in the past, and Seventeen had done his best job to watch over her as well. They’d been on the verge of meeting in person when the invaders had struck.
Seventeen had gone off to fight the dragon in order to keep the grown version of his daughter safe, and he had accepted his death knowing that he’d taken out the lone obstacle that she never could.
The picnic table was empty, save a scrawny young man with black hair drooped in front of his features.
Even in death, he’d never felt alone, but as he walked across the Ashen Steppes, the cyborg started to understand that he was no truly by himself. No Kirano to share a few beers with. No Paige to scratch his back as they went to sleep. No Piper and Cole to cheer him on as he ran through the backyard with them on his shoulders.
All I’ve got now is a salt merchant and a turtle wizard.
With Ronald off to sell salt, that meant the machine-hybrid would have to go track down the latter of the two. If what Joe the Magikoopa said was true, the Koopa Kingdom might be able to provide Seventeen with some much-needed information.
Hell, he’d take a soft bed to crash on for a day or two.
And some air conditioning, while we’re at it…
![[Image: 17.jpg]](http://omniverse-rpg.com/images/17.jpg)