Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She wanted to give in and leave this realm of reality for quiet some time. Grimora had been ready for it ever since she can recall existing, in a way. She was written to be this symbol for death, as she is the scrybe of the dead. Or was? No, she still is. But how?

Luke´s actions took it from her, for an unknown reason. As she opened her eyes, Grimora realised it. He took the disc out before all the data could be deleted. surrounded by fragments of what once was of inscyption, models bugging out, textures appearing on surfaces they didn´t belong on, this realm had been left in an condition that she would´ve never asked for. A look at her hands revealed though, that her own graphics where still in tact. Strange. She was one of the first to be deleted, wasn´t she? So why is she in such decent condition?

"Oh, what a suprise."

Grimora turned around to see if it truly was the beeping of whom she expected. Po3 hovered into her direction, it didn´t take her long to see though, that it wasn´t as untampered as she. It moved as if the graphic card of the chosen device was unsuited for his complexion, occasionly glitching so much, that it could only be recognised by the light blue flickers appearing.

" How did you survive?"

" An even bigger suprise, I know. Sadly I can´t give you an answer."

" Hmm."

Grimora was left without anything to say, as she was too busy thinking about how this is all possible. Po3 was the first one to be, not only deleted, but dead. She saw it herself, it´s data got deleted as soon as she commanded it. She would´ve been the second scrybe to go, and she did. The feeling of her defining features, her scripting, her graphics, yes even her every memory being ripped from her framework still lingered in her consciousness, but her consciousness existing contradicted these memories themselves.

What was this?

" How can I remember our deaths, yet we both are standing here, still on top of the old data?"

" Beats me. I can´t even recall your death, since... y´know."

" Yes, I am aware. Facing you now..."

" -it´s not something you prepared for, yeah. Yet here I am."

The few pixels of expressions it had left, intimidated Grimora slightly. Usually it´s face leaned slightly to the right but at this moment, it was staring at her directly without any smugness or malicious joy hidden in it.

" It was really upright of you to atleast release me in a quick way. After all, the hate every single one of you felt for me, made me think, you´d rather live it out completely."

" That was magnificus´s plan originally."

Another moment of silence broke in between them. This exchange felt more like a stand-off than a conversation.

She didn´t wish for fighting, as she was more concerned about the details of their current existance and what caused it, than to tell Po3 her full opinion on it. It broke the silence once more.

" Didn´t expect anything else from him." Hovering a bit away from Grimora, it looked at the left over pillars moving unnaturally in the air. After it seemed to have pondered enough, Po3 decreased the blue neon rings beneath it that gave it the ability to move, plummering onto the surface.

Monitor tilted to the side but still facing the other scrybe, it started the topic again.

" Who decided not to?"

" Do you mean, not to torture you?"

" Yes." before giving it the answer, grimora decided to also lower herself onto the ground, sitting modestly. She fixed her dress, folded her hands on top of her lap and breathed in deeply.

" It was me. We all agreed on the fact, that you had to be stopped, but Leshy and I thought, to put you out of your misery would be enough."

After a quick look at Po3´s expression ( which still consisted of a direct stare, only it´s "mouth" being a three pixels wide line) she moved her attention back to her hands.

" Why did you feel the need to share inscryption with the world?"

" I can´t tell you." It followed up quickly, ending the topic.

Chapter Text

" What do you mean, you can´t tell me? There is no need to keep secrets."

Grimora looked directly at the monitor before her, asserting herself with a cold gaze.

" And I´m not trying to. Dead people don´t lie after all." A smirk slipped it´s way through for a split second on Po3´s screen before being replaced with his blank expression of before.

" So you simply don´t know your own motive? Please, don´t try to play me as the fool and don´t you dare call yourself a person. We both know what you are."

" Ah, and here I was, thinking I could have an actual conversation with one of you without being talk down to and degraded."

With a jittery movement upwards, Po3 hovered in front of her once again, now looking down to her in a 45 degree angle.

" What am I, grimora? Because as far as I´m aware, we both are just assets in this game that should´ve never been created in the first place.

What differentiates us are our personalities and sprites, but even those are very fragile concepts. You should know. You annitiated our deletion."

"... I suppose you are right."

The thought never really accured to her, eventhough she knew about their place in this world and the place of their world in the "real world".

So why did she feel such unappreciation of Po3´s presence? It wanted to release the old data onto the world wide web, but even before that, every scrybe felt a hate for it. Po3 had been rude to them, but that really was just his response to their rudeness. Or was this the way they always felt about eachother?

" Po3, do you remember why you hate the other scrybes, me included? Do you remember a time, where we lived in harmony?"

" Well, ignoring the obv-"

" I am sorry, I should´ve elaborated. We treated you in an unfair way, I see that now. Was your grudge just a response to ours? Or do you recall feeling any kind of fondness or even just neutral feelings?"

For a second, the only sound present where the fans rotating inside of the scrybe of technology and the quiet remnants of the inscryption soundtrack echoing from an undefined location.

Trying to process the question fully, Po3 took longer than expected to come up with an answer.

" I do. but I... it wasn´t me."

" Um, could you please elaborate? I might have the time for a guessing game, not the nerve for it though."

" I will, no need to get so salty.

Really, i would prefer not knowing this, but i did rummage around my own memory card. This is an ability you´re probably jealous of.

I can recall everything. There is no coding inabling me to recide everything that has ever happened around me. A perfect log. The three of you can´t do that, since you where created to be human, or atleast living I suppose."

ignoring the suddle insults it threw in, Grimora listened closely.

" My data contains information, that the developers tried to get rid of, as it didn´t fit their vision of inscryption."

" I think I understand in what direction this is going."

" Oh do you? Tell me, i`ll correct you if needed."

" Considering how ´out of character` this piece of dialogue must be that we are having right now, there must have been a prototype of us that got along but got replaced, as they wanted a game with more definition than just ´Everyone gets along and plays card games together in harmony."

A look of suprise was visible for a moment on Po3´s screen.

" Not replaced. Rewritten simply. You where almost perfect with your theory."

" Thank you."

Now, that they´d both realised how meaningless their grudges seemed to be, with only one disagreement left ( which Po3 didn´t even fully want as it seems), they where both equal. Every bitterness that could come out of either would simply be force of habit. With this equality also came a loss of identity, grimora felt. Her place in their world really was just forced onto her, at the same time it´s the only reason she exists. Every rule of their realms, every play, every map, every card. It wasn´t for the balance between the scrybes. There was no real balance.

They where created to be differently balanced, so that the player could play through hightening difficulty.

They where just programmed to entertain the player. But they never really got the chance. Exept for Luke.

" Elaborate please." Grimora wanted to understand the full extend still.

" Game developers aren´t exactly lazy, after all, making games is difficult. We all know that. Kind of."

Po3 too, felt a change in his demeanor after thinking about the philosophy of their existance further.

" They simply rewrote my playing style, gave me a new name and changed my personality in a way, that made me sceptical of all and kind to none.

My prototype still is present in inscryption though, visible and able to be duelled by players."

" G0lly is your prototype?"

" She sure is. She is naive, stupid and, worst of all, kind."

" Well,you could blame her being a prototype who got abandoned early on for her lack of knowledge."

" That is true. her being friendly and without ill intent would´ve still worked if all of you kept your conservatism regarding new ways of making cards. Even her trying to connect to the internet would´ve been easy to understand for the player and the following reaction from-"

Po3 stopped itself, seeing Grimora holding her head, elbows supported by her lap. She looked as if she was falling apart. Not her model, her texture was fine. She looked mentally overwhelmed.

"Grimora?"

"...Yes?"

" Did I say something that hurt you?"

Chapter Text

An unsure look met Po3´s. It showed compassion, unexpected yet explainable.

" I suppose I´m having a hard time to process this all. There is no purpose to us anymore. I already felt that before, but now we can´t even escape this feeling of pointlessness. I never really got to live out my full potential, now iÍ can´t even die with it. This was my point. My objective. What are we suppose to do?"

Their world had been broken, them being now caught between coding like trash bags in an unblooming tree. The framework around them must´ve been so fragile, that attempting to use any of the assets would probably trap them even deeper.

" There is nothing we are `suppose´to do, sad but true. You lost your title even. How can a scrybe of the dead exist, when there is no death left.

I can still call myself scrybe of technology since that is what I am, but i don´t have anything to command either."

"We shouldn´t have done this."

A broken humming traveled through the map, consisting of different audio assets. Thumping from the bomb detonations, chimming from emergency scuirrels, with a faint melody recognisable as ost 17 " The Scrybe of Magick".

All these sounds wheren´t enough to cover up the sadness spreading in Grimora. She wasn´t able to really show it, but it could be sensed.

" There is no need to feel guilt now, that won´t bring us anywhere." It replied, not being able to come up with anything else more comforting.

" We should rather think about WHY we are hear. You said it yourself. We where gone, now we are back. There must´ve been a ways to recover data. There is no such admin protection though. you deleted us WITH said admin privileges."

"...Indeed I did..." Grimora responded, ripping herself out of her senseless pondering.

" do you suppose, Luke has anything to do with this? he probably took out the disc before the damage could´ve been dealt. yet this wouldn´t bring us back. only Leshy, Magnificus and some later assets, including the old data would remain."

" I don´think the great trascendence would bring us into such an dismantled version inscryption. or..."

" Or what?"

" I was killed during the upload. this might´ve made it incomplete, leaving us in the only parts of it, that got uploaded. Just as the deletion got us first, the upload would too."

" Oh my..."

This theory seemed very plausible. no one would be to blame too, since it was an event brought by everyone involved. If they didn´t kill it, they would all exist in the state that they where in all along but with the chance to...

" Did G0lly just want to play? Is there something in your memory that suggests, that she simply wanted to make inscryption a multiplayer game?"

" I think so. Makes sense why they scrapped that idea though. Online games where pretty scarce back then and making one, sold on floppy disks is way too ambitious."

" If you say so, I must believe you."

There was one question left to be asked for grimora.

" Is there a way to play for us still?" She proposed to the other scrybe.

A childish hope arouse between them.

" Let´s find out."