Toxoglossa 2014/04/21(Mon)19:49 No. 571882 ID: 0b90a3
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After driving for a while you pull up to the VA hospital. What happens next is a blur of checking authorization, signing in, going through scanners, emptying pockets, rechecking authorization, and wandering through a labyrinth of identical beige hallways. By the time you've waved through security you're unsure if you came here to see someone or to launch a missile.

Toxoglossa 2014/04/21(Mon)19:49 No. 571883 ID: 0b90a3
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Finally the two of you are escorted through a door into a small room with an obvious one way mirror, a metal table and a few chairs. After a minute Dale is let in through a door on the other side of the room.

Dale
"Beth! So great to see you!"

He gives you a hug. He's smells a lot better and feels less scrawny than the last time you last hugged.

so how's it been?

>>571883
Compliment dale on his scars
They look good on him
He looks badass.

tell him he smells a lot better and feels a lot less scrawny than the last time you guys hugged. I know I like it when someone tells me that.

>>571883
Ask him about the other world. Also ask him how it feels to have literally saved the universe.

lets keep it simple first. ask how sleeping feels.

>>571894
That.

This is way too late to say but back at the manticore fight centrifugal force was used... Thats incorrect, thats the owtward force, and can just be called by regular force. CentriPetal force is what keeps you going in a circle but i mean almost everyone majes the mistake, i used to even do it but just a tip. The more you know!

Toxoglossa 2014/04/23(Wed)10:18 No. 572057 ID: 0b90a3
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Beth
"Hey Dale, great to see you! You're looking way better than last time I saw you, and your face is healing nicely too. How's it feel to finally be able to get some sleep?"

Dale
>"Ha, yeah thanks, they've been letting me use the gym here. Sleep has been... weird. While its great to finally be able to rest, I've been way more busy asleep than awake. But how about you? What have you been up to? How's Jeff doing? I haven't heard from him in a while."

Toxoglossa 2014/04/23(Wed)10:18 No. 572058 ID: 0b90a3
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Beth
"Well, Lately I've been working for the Red Brick Foundation on the recovery operations. Its mostly logistical stuff now: moving people to emergency shelters, helping them get set up, distributing donations and food. The first couple days were really intense though. There were a lot of people who had barricaded themselves inside when the Cacophony swept through town; we're still digging through the rubble. Still, I'm doing something and helping people, which is all I've ever really wanted to do."

Toxoglossa 2014/04/23(Wed)10:19 No. 572059 ID: 0b90a3
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Beth
"The reservation was pretty much completely flattened, but fortunately a couple neighboring communities have been able to accept most of the survivors. No one is happy about being relocated though, and there's been a lot of pressure to quarantine the site for research. The whole thing's gone political, but Jeff's mom has years of experience fighting for them in the state senate. She's got a whole army of advocates working to make sure the area doesn't get stolen from them. Unfortunately its complicated by the fact that so few people know what actually happened."

Beth
"I wish we could just come out and set the record straight."

Dale
>"I know, but between the misinformation and secrecy, I don't know who would accept it."

Am not sure the general public is ready for the fact that everything almost got eaten by monsters.

That and if anyone is crazy enough to mess with the book they might all wake up again. So keeping that info under wraps would be important. One crazy doomsday cult gets access to the library and everybody is fucked.

Were you able to rescue the professor? Or did he go to sleep along with the stuff attached to him?

>>572059
So has the government completely accepted the explanation of the fact that there are cosmic horrors out there and in our dreams and that one is just waiting to wake up to eat us for breakfast?

What has Dale been doing in the library? Telling people not to touch the books? Are the bugs and crabs still there?

What has Dale been doing in the library? Telling people not to touch the books? Are the bugs and crabs still there?

What has Dale been doing in the library? Telling people not to touch the books? Are the bugs and crabs still there?

Beth doesn't even know what's in the dreamworld. She'd just wind up asking directly what's in there.

Honestly the only way you're gonna get everyone to accept the explanation is if the gods themselves revisited the world in public view. We know that at least one exists, since the old lady gave Dale a message from one.

>>572071
I'd love to see how the religions of the world would react to that happening.

I may just be paranoid, but the fact that we haven't seen Dale's pupils make me suspicious there's going to be some sort of twist where we (the audience, at least) see he has Cuttlefish Eyes. I've seen too many horror stories not to suspect a supposedly happy ending that gets a last-minute twist that screws everyone over.

>>572107

stop ruining the twist ending with your paranoia, man.

ask Dale what he's been busy with, and if he's been getting any shit from the government guys. tell him that if they do, you'll kick 'em in the nuts.

Toxoglossa 2014/04/23(Wed)17:26 No. 572119 ID: 0b90a3
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Beth
"Speaking of secrecy, you said that you've been 'busy'. Can I ask what you've been up to in the other world? Did you ever get your professor out of there?"

Mary shakes her head.
>"We haven't gotten him loose yet, but they've been analyzing the claw you cut off of Radula. There's apparently thousands of different toxins in there, as well as things that no one really understands yet. Eventually they hope they can get him out of there using what they learn. He doesn't seem to be in pain at least, its like he's asleep just like everything else there."

Toxoglossa 2014/04/23(Wed)17:26 No. 572120 ID: 0b90a3
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>"As for what we've been doing..."
Dale looks over his shoulder at the mirror and then shrugs.
>"There's three projects we're working on in there."

>"With all of the people that we have now, we're working to map as much of the other side as we can but as far as we know it's infinite in size. Just exploring and documenting the place is incredibly time consuming, but we're learning a lot. For one, it seems that something else built the library, something that wasn't part of the Cacophony."

Beth
"Something else? Like the Thunderbird?"

Dale
>"And probably others, yeah.

Beth
"Have you seen any signs of them? Do you know what they are?"

Dale
>"They haven't shown themselves yet if they're still around. Whatever they are, the books make it pretty clear that they're responsible for creating the universe. It seems that they're still in hiding though: either they're still scared to reveal themselves or they are aren't allowed to get involved."

Toxoglossa 2014/04/23(Wed)17:26 No. 572121 ID: 0b90a3
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Dale
>"There's also a few 'readers' in the group, and they've been combing through the library for more information on, well, everything really. There's so many books, each one is about a different universe with a different history. Apparently some of them are really weird, but there's quite a few like ours. We're finding answers to questions that we never thought of asking and seeing futures we never imagined. Every one of them ends the same way though..."

Beth
"The awakening, right?"

Toxoglossa 2014/04/23(Wed)17:26 No. 572122 ID: 0b90a3
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Dale grins.
>"That's where we come in..."

Are you changing other universes books then? Can the devouring be reversed?

" Whatever they are, the books make it pretty clear that they're responsible for creating the universe. It seems that they're still in hiding though: either they're still scared to reveal themselves or they are aren't allowed to get involved."

Or maybe this is what the universe is supposed to be like, or maybe they dont care, perhaps the cacophany is there darling pet, and the universe here to feed it, perhaps life is a error that should not exist and drawing attention to it will result in its erasure, maybe all this is just a extra-dimensional cooking show, and now its ready for eating..

Do not for a second believe that you or your reality is in anyway special or reserved or able to understand the slightest hint of the true reality, the only sane thing to do is remove all reference to your universe from the library and return, never to leave.

But if you must go on, if your damned curiosity and arrogance pushes you further i say only this, you where warned.

>>572122
Wait, is he going to try to edit every book, to save their universes just like this one has been? So that the Cacophony never eats anything, it only sleeps? Did they figure out if it's possible to do that without a direct connection to the brain like his leech? Speaking of which, I presume he has a metal plate in his head now.

>>572125
We uh, know the gods are in opposition to the Cacophony, it's in the Radula chapter.

>>572127
And do we know where the gods came from? or there true motivations? when dealing with Lovecraftian horrors you cant trust Anything.

>>572128
...just read the chapter.

Oh wait here's a great line. "Not content with saving one universe, huh?"

>>572131
Oh im sure this will be a happy ending and that the gods are on the level, its just best to never assume any kind of victory or honesty when dealing with unknown factors like gods and lovecraft monsters. as for the other universe's make sure you do the research before walking into one, you don't want to accidentally walk into the one ruled by Ultra-mecha-death-Hitler..

so why can't you put in a leech in a book that says "someone cured AIDS, cancer and world hunger in 2014"?

>>572191
Presumably the universe only directly effects the behavior of the Cacahphony. It seem like it might be theoretically possible with multiple edits to edit the Cacaphony into actually being helpful, but that may or may not be worth the risk.
...Now that I think about it, we might want to consider the eventual heat death of the universe, and the fact that we might have an opportunity to address that now (though any answer to that would need to be very carefully thought out).

>>572201
we don't know if heat death is a thing. the universe was actually made by gods. heat death occurs when the universe keeps expanding. if it stops expanding (perhaps cause the gods planned it to stop) it wont suffer heat death.

Toxoglossa 2014/04/24(Thu)18:37 No. 572273 ID: 0b90a3
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You are now Radula
Tongue of the Un-speaker
Voice of the Anti-word
Messenger of the Name-eater
Hand of the Reason-thief
Injector of the Mind-venom-blessing

Currently, you are wandering the glorious Library of the Cacophony. However this particular section is strangely unfamiliar. You find this extremely disconcerting as you should know every inch of the infinite Library, it is part of your duty to do so.

Still, you are convinced that if you continue searching you will find something you recognize.

Toxoglossa 2014/04/24(Thu)18:37 No. 572274 ID: 0b90a3
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You are Radula
Tongue of Un-reason
Name of the Anti-voice
Messenger of the word-eater
Hand of the Speaker-thief
Injector of the Mind-bessing

You are starting to get a little worried, admitting to yourself that you might be a little lost, then denying it. A creature such as yourself does not get lost, you are just confused. After all of that nonsense with the missing book, it only makes sense. To calm yourself you pull a book off of the shelf at random to read, perhaps that will help reorient you.

Odd, for some reason the pages will not allow you to read them. Your claws tap against the resin in frustration as row upon row of flatworms glare back at you full of secrets.

What we've been doing...

Toxoglossa 2014/04/24(Thu)18:37 No. 572275 ID: 0b90a3
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You are Radula
Messenger of the Un-Word
Voice of the Mind-venom-blessing
Hand of the Anti-Reason
Speaker of the Name-speaker

No, wait, that can't be right.

You drop the book on the floor. Surely, one of the many armed titan-guardians will come to re-shelve it momentarily.... Then you can follow it back to familiar territory. It occurs to you that it has been some time since you last saw any of the other custodians of the Library.

...is editing the books...

Toxoglossa 2014/04/24(Thu)18:37 No. 572276 ID: 0b90a3
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You are Radula
Voice of the.... Word....thief
Speaker of the Reason-un-blessing?
Voice of the.. did you already do that one?

You continue walking. Its odd, If you had ever experienced a dream in your existence, you might have described this part of the Library as dream-like. But you have not, so it is merely... odd.

...and giving as many universes a chance as we can. Its an enormous task...

Toxoglossa 2014/04/24(Thu)18:42 No. 572281 ID: 0b90a3
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You are Radula
The messenger.

You aren't sure where you are supposed to be going, or why its so important. All you are sure of is that...

...but by doing so, we're hoping to eventually get help from other realities.

Toxoglossa 2014/04/24(Thu)18:42 No. 572282 ID: 0b90a3
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You are Radula

and make sure

Toxoglossa 2014/04/24(Thu)18:42 No. 572283 ID: 0b90a3
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You are...

it never wakes up.

You are lost.


End of Epilogue.

I plan on posting some of the production ideas as well as discussing some of the potential paths of the story in the discussion page. If you have any questions or comments I'll address them there or you can hit me up on IRC

*applause*

>>572283
Sweet dreams.

Thunderous claps.

aw, poor Radula :c

Fucking bravo

This was an excellent story. Couldn't be more happy to have participated.