WRITE A SHORT STORY GODDAMNIT\n\n* A body. There is something creeping on it. You can look at your closest friend, and describes it only as a body\n* You feel inadequate. \n* You speak to POWER, who says that there are too many unnecessary things. Must trample the weak. \n * But offers to help you create a cure anyway. It can make a portion. It only requires your blood. You cough up something black.\n* You speak to GRIEF, doesn't want anyone to die.\n * It can create a cure, and makes a portion from your arms. New, twisted ones grow from the stump, and it says only those cursed hands can truly create miracles.\n* You speak to JUSTICE, who requires you to pluck out your tongue. Then, enact vengeance. You know it's wrong. Your friend is ill, not killed. Your arms move on their own, and cut apart a helpless human.\n* You return with the cure, which is the heart. You give it to the body, and it does revive. You take it far away so it doesn't have to look at you, and you return.\n* You meet with JUSTICE, who congratulates you on becoming a hero by saving a life. You have no tongue to protest.

GRIEF: Yes...for the sake of life, we shall.\n\nGRIEF: For the sake of your life, as well.\n\n[["What do you mean?"|grief3-1]]

You approach the quivering mass that is GRIEF's body. The tree seems to beckon at you, and for a moment you fear for its stability.\n\nGRIEF: You...aren't good enough.\n\n[["What?"|grief2-1]]

GRIEF: Excellent. Let us begin.\n\nGRIEF's body shakes a moment, and then begins enveloping itself around you, as if pulling you into a deep embrace.\n\nIt's terribly warm, and terribly sad. Its body trembles, exposing the bone holding it together.\n\n[[Embrace GRIEF.|grief5-1]]\n[[Wriggle away.|grief5-2]]\n[[Stand absolutely still.|grief5-3]]

GRIEF: Allow us to explain. We wish to take your human flesh that will eventually fail you, since it can be used to prolong other lives. We will use it to produce the part of the cure to prolong the life of the one you hold dear.\n\nGRIEF: But we do not want you to become a sacrifice for this. We want you to live. We can provide you with new flesh, one that behaves more like the will of the gods.\n\nGRIEF: This flesh will surpass that of a human's. You will enjoy life far beyond a normal human's, and we wouldn't have to grieve for you.\n\n[["Very well."|grief5]]\n[["I don't like this..."|grief5]]

You are at the crossroads near the edge of the world. The room is a bit cramped, but it is familiar to you.\n\n<<if $visits eq 1>>You remember vaguely coming by once, a long time ago. At the very least, you remembered how to get here. A roof is better than nothing. The rain shows no sign of stopping.\n\n<<endif>>Your best friend's [[body]] lies on a mat in the far corner. On the other side, there is a [[folded up table|mirror]] with a surface of cracked glass.\n\n<<if $sawBody eq true>>The creeping veins seem to expand as you look. You have to find the rest of the ingredients for the cure.\n\n<<if $visitedpower eq true and $visitedgrief eq true and $visitedjustice eq true>>You feel complete.\n\nThe cure is available to you.\n\n[[Give the body the cure.|ending]]<<else>>You feel inadequate.<<endif>>\n\n<<if $visitedpower eq false>>[[Go to the lake that bubbles with black mud like tar|power]]<<endif>>\n<<if $visitedgrief eq false>>[[Go to the tree that grows down from the sky|grief]]<<endif>>\n<<if $visitedpower eq true and $visitedgrief eq true and $visitedjustice eq false>>[[Go to the edge of life|justice]]<<endif>>\n<<endif>>

You make all kinds of incoherent sounds as the pain assaults you. In the background, you can hear GRIEF's pleased voice.\n\nGRIEF: Do not worry, human. The pain is temporary. Life is miraculous.\n\nYour arms fall off entirely. Mercifully, the same does not happen to your legs. GRIEF leaves them as husks, then fills them with the flesh of gods. They are misshapen, but they are functional. \n\nThe pain disappears. You pull away from GRIEF at last.\n\nYou look down at the stumps that were once your arms. \n\nGRIEF: And that is that. We appreciate your willingness to embrace life. The medicine from your flesh shall be delivered to your beloved soon.\n\n[[Return to the safehouse.|rest]]\n\n<<set $visitedgrief = true>>\n<<set $corruption += 1>>\n<<set $visits += 1>>

champion of molten flesh\n\nA story about asking the gods to help cure an illness, and then accidentally becoming a hero along the way.\n\n[[Begin.|intro]]\n\n[[Content Warnings|warnings]]\n\n<<set $visits = 0>>\n<<set $sawBody = false>>\n<<set $corruption = 0>>\n\n<<set $visitedpower = false>>\n<<set $visitedgrief = false>>\n<<set $visitedjustice = false>>

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It's wet. The water is dripping down into your eyes now, but you don't care. It was raining outside, and the water didn't stop you from running.\n\nA body lies on draped across your shoulder, barely breathing. You slow down, catching your breath. \n\nA human being is heavy. Especially so if they are not holding up their own weight. You eventually stop, and unceremoniously end up dumping the body on the floor. It's too much for your shoulders. \n\nBut you made it. Indoors, away from the rain. Here, there is a place to rest. Here, there live the old gods who would know how to find a way to make things right.\n\n[[You rest.|rest]]\n\n<<set $visits += 1>>

You look at the surface of the table. There's no room, so there's no point to unfolding it. But the surface is shiny, even with all its cracks, and reflects your image like a mirror.\n\n<<if $visitedpower eq false and $visitedgrief eq false and $visitedjustice eq false>>You look weary, but well. Strong, even. <<if $sawBody eq true>>It seems that touching the creeping veins had no ill effect on your appearance.<<endif>>\n\nYou look the same as you always have, and that is somehow relieving.\n\nYou stare at the mirror a while, as if overtaken by a sense of longing.\n\n<<elseif $visitedpower eq true and $visitedgrief eq false and $visitedjustice eq false>>You've changed, but you can still recognize yourself. There are nasty boils and twists running down your arms and neck, but they don't hurt. They are the scars from when you had all the blood taken out of your body. \n\nYour wrists still have markings on them. Your eyes have begun to change color, tinting red. Your expression is solemn, but resolute.\n\n<<elseif $visitedpower eq true and $visitedgrief eq true and $visitedjustice eq false>>The being reflected in the mirror resembles little of a human being. Your face and torso have remained unchanged, save for the nasty boils running all across your body from when the blood drained out. You arms are little more than masses of flesh, exposed muscle and bone twisted into various shapes at odd bends. Your legs, too, have become twisted and misshapen, but you can walk if you grit your teeth. A strange black liquid drips periodically from what used to be your arms. \n\nStrangely enough, it isn't painful. Your arms twitch and wander about on their own. You no longer let it bother you.\n\nYou have a grim expression on your face.\n\n<<elseif $visitedpower eq false and $visitedgrief eq true and $visitedjustice eq false>>By the time you've gotten a look at yourself, new flesh had grown over the stumps that were your arms. They are more like slabs of muscle than properly formed limbs, and they don't move properly, but they're there. Your legs are starting to deform as well, but at least GRIEF was kind enough to let you keep enough of them to walk back.\n\nYou smile. You haven't forgotten what it feels like yet.\n\n<<elseif $visitedpower eq true and $visitedgrief eq true and $visitedjustice eq true>>You take a look at yourself one last time.\n\nYou no longer recognize the being in the mirror.\n\nWhatever remains of your hair has turned stark white, and your eyes are a piercing and deep red. Your face is as grim and determined as ever, and seems almost locked into a menacing and terrifying expression. Your presence seems to demand silence, even just from a reflection.\n\nYour body has healed. You have limbs again, though they tend not to be in your control. You can will your legs to move if you concentrate, otherwise they naturally flow across the ground and take you wherever they want. Your arms seem to have a mind of their own, and you are afraid to cross them.\n\nIt is fitting, indeed, for an avatar of false vengeance.\n\n<<endif>>[[Return.|rest]]

POWER: There are so many humans that are weak, dependent on others for survival. That miserable wretch you barely keep alive back at the edge of your world, for example. The weak cling to the strong, dragging everyone down, causing nothing but misery and violence. It would be better for all involved if they simply disappeared.\n\nPOWER: Or if we could use them for something actually useful.\n\n[["Use me instead."|power4]]\n[["I agree."|power3-2]]\n[["That's wrong!"|power3-3]]

You reach the void at the end of the world. There, you see a creature with the head and torso of a young woman, and sores and limbs not unlike your own. The arms and legs seem to flow into each other, but in a much more well-shaped manner than GRIEF's body ever had. In a way, she may even look pretty.\n\nYou recognize her as JUSTICE.\n\n[[Talk to JUSTICE|justice1]]

POWER: You fancy yourself a hero, do you not? Protect those you love, even when they will destroy you.\n\nYou start to respond, and stop. You need the cure. POWER may still be able to provide it, if you can appease it.\n\n[["I need your help."|power4]]

All at once, the tendrils from all corners of the lake stab into you at once, all over. They burrow into your limbs, tearing through your clothes, they embed themselves in your chest and stomach and back and shoulders and neck, they settle on your face and shoot themselves into your ears and down your throat through your lips.\n\nThere is there terrifying sound of sucking liquids. At the same time, it feels like your body is being filled with something burning. Involuntarily, you lash out and writhe, and POWER's grip is firm.\n\n[[Scream|power5-4]]\n[[Endure|power5-5]]

You try violently to shake yourself free, focusing on ripping your arms out from POWER's grip. You fail handily.\n\n<<display power5-3>>

POWER's arms shoot out, grasping at your limbs, your neck, your head. All seven of them, in a terrifyingly graceful movement.\n\nOne takes the top of your head, pulling your head back. Two settle on your shoulders, pushing you down to your knees. Two grab at your arms, stretching them out behind you. The final two hold down your feet, even though the lake was doing a fairly good job of that.\n\nOut of the corner of your eye, you see the lake move. What seem to be countless black tendrils rise from the edges, and propel themselves in your direction.\n\n[[Struggle|power5-2]]\n[[Be still|power5-3]]

POWER: You lie. Otherwise, why do you care so much about keeping that dead body alive?\n\n<<display power3-3>>

POWER: I am not negotiating. \n\nPOWER: On second thought, there is no need to negotiate in the first place, is there? I can simply take of your body and blood however I want. But I am not so cruel.\n\n[[Attack!|power4-3]]\n[["...I accept."|power5]]

You prepare, and suddenly leap forward at POWER.\n\n<<if $visitedgrief eq false>>You ball your fists up, and swing them directly at POWER's face.<<else>>You swing your fleshy limbs at POWER's body, maintaining surprising control over them.<<endif>>\n\n-- and then stop.\n\nPOWER: What was it that you were trying to accomplish, human? Be grateful that I still honor our end of the deal.\n\nYou hear a voice worm into your soul.\n\n<<display power5-1>>

You grit your teeth, as well as you can with the tubes in your throat and sucking out your gums.\n\n<<display power6>>

POWER: Rest assured, there are ways to keep a human alive without blood. I could fill your body up with the mud of this lake. You would no longer be fully human, but you could keep your existence. I do not enjoy killing those who prove their usefulness.\n\n[["What other options are there?"|power4-2]]\n[[Attack!|power4-3]]\n[["...I accept."|power5]]

champion of molten flesh

POWER: Very well. Hold still. Or not.\n\n<<display power5-1>>

POWER: A cure? I can easily create one. But I have no desire to give it to you. I would rather see you all dead.\n\nPOWER: Then again, you can be useful to me as well. Very well. I can part with a portion. In return, I demand all of your blood.\n\n[["...all of it?"|power4-1]]\n[["Isn't that fatal?"|power4-1]]\n[["What other options are there?"|power4-2]]\n[[Attack!|power4-3]]\n[["...I accept."|power5]]

POWER's face becomes a smile. It is not the happy kind of smile.\n\nPOWER: What use is that? There are billions of you humans. One or two is inconsequential to me.\n\nPOWER: Always these annoying things, bustling about here and there. The world is full of useless and unnecessary things. It would be better if we got rid of them entirely.\n\n[["What do you mean?"|power3-1]]\n[["Help me."|power4]]\n[["I agree."|power3-2]]

You wade into the lake, and the mud seems to seep into your pores. It stings terribly. You trudge your way over until you reach POWER.\n\nPOWER: What is it that you want with me, human? You seek strength?\n\n[["Yes."|power3]]\n[["The strength to save someone."|power3]]

You examine the body in the corner of the room. It doesn't look good. The breathing is shallow, and every now and then the face twists in pain. There is the unmistakable smell of dying.\n\n<<if $corruption eq 0>>The edges of the exposed fingers and the area around the closed eyes have turned an ugly shade of purple. Creeping tendrils of purple and red swirl out from them, creating creeping veins on the hands and face. \n\nIt looks a bit like the edges of a spider's web. The veins glow softly, as if taunting you.\n\n<<elseif $corruption lte 1>>The body's hands, eyes, and ears have turned entirely purple, the creeping veins extending up the arm, threaded around the nose, extending to the mouth. Small tendrils have started to appear at the neck, and you do not want to see what has happened to the body underneath the clothes.\n\nBut it's okay. Your friend is still breathing. You can still make things right.\n\n<<else>>The creeping veins have extended all the way up the arm to the shoulder, and almost the whole face is covered in a mass. The right eyelid seems to have been sewn shut, the mouth has been woven over with purple and red pulsating veins. You hear a soft gasping that quickly dies.\n\nThe tendrils rising from the neck and chest are getting awfully thick. The chest seems to glow in time with your heartbeat. It's awfully fast.<<endif>>\n\n<<if $corruption lte 1>>You gently hold your friend's hand. The hand grips back at you. The places covered in red and purple are terribly hot.<<endif>>\n\nYour heart sinks for a moment. [[You have to find a way to fix things.|rest]]\n\n<<set $sawBody = true>>

The <<if $visitedgrief eq true>>second<<else>>first<<endif>> old god you visit resides at the edge of the lake filled with thick black mud like tar.\n\nIt is there, waiting. A head and a face, though all separated from each other. The face is absolutely serene, and doesn't seem to even register your presence. Seven arms, all detached, float around the head.\n\nYou recognize it as the being named POWER.\n\n[[Talk to POWER|power2]]\n[[Leave|rest]]

This story involves depictions of blood, death, large amounts of violence, implied mind / bodily control, and needles.\n\nIt was written as an exploration of body horror, and that it remains.\n\n[[Return|Start]]

You scream soundlessly.\n\n<<display power6>>

GRIEF: We would rather you not die. We would rather your friend not die. But we have too much on our minds, and we cannot help as much as we'd like.\n\nGRIEF: There is something we must take from you. We request you give up the flesh of your limbs, in exchange for the miracle that is the continuation of life.\n\n[["...what?"|grief4]]\n[["I don't quite follow."|grief4]]\n[["I refuse."|grief3-2]]

The <<if $visitedpower eq true>>second<<else>>first<<endif>> old god you visit resides at the bottom of the tree that grows from the sky.\n\nA great mound of what seems to be ooze held together by strips of bone sits there, weeping. The ooze flows and ebbs, but inexplicably is held up. Five eyes roll around in it, all surrounded by water. It is crying profusely.\n\nYou recognize this as the spirit named GRIEF.\n\n[[Talk to GRIEF|grief2]]\n[[Leave|rest]]

After an interminable amount of time, the sounds and the pain stop.\n\nThe tubes that rose from the lake shudder a moment, and rip themselves away from your body, leaving large sores and blisters. All too rapidly, the wounds seal into ugly scars. \n\nYou cough, and out comes a black mud. It disappears seamlessly into the surface of the lake.\n\nPOWER: You kept your end of the deal, and so I shall keep mine. Here is what you have been seeking.\n\nYou obtain a few glistening black pearls. You should crush them and let them sit for a moment before use.\n\n[[Return to the safehouse.|rest]]\n\n<<set $visitedpower = true>>\n<<set $corruption += 1>>\n<<set $visits += 1>>

You prepare the cure.\n\nThe glistening pearls are scattered into dust, the flesh and fog made into an elixir. You give it to the body to drink, and it does so far too hungrily.\n\nYou wait.\n\nIt takes a few moments. The purple veins that have covered the whole body begin to shrivel.\n\nThey shrivel, and shrink, and then crumble away entirely. The body breathes, much more steadily this time. It sleeps a deep, peaceful sleep.\n\nYou take it away, far away so that you can never see it again and it can never see you.\n\n[[Return to the safehouse.|ending2]]

You hold out your arms, and gently wrap them around GRIEF's body. The ooze of the body flow around your arms, holding them in place, but it's a strangely pleasant feeling. \n\nYou feel as though you are sinking into a cloud, for a moment.\n\n<<display grief5-4>>

GRIEF: No...we cannot allow it. We cannot allow you to willingly accept death, even for the sake of another.\n\n<<display grief4>>

You don't move. The flows of GRIEF's body seeps into you, filling up the spaces under your arms, between your legs. You breathe, and it feels slightly suffocating.\n\n<<display grief5-4>>

You attempt to slide out of GRIEF's grasp, but the spirit holds onto you tightly, until your arms are pinned at your side. Its hold grows awfully constricted, and you can barely breathe.\n\n<<display grief5-4>>

GRIEF: We believe you. But we still cannot see this as virtue.\n\nGRIEF: We mourn for those who die. We honor noble sacrifices. But they bleed in one over another. We want to cherish each and every life, but there are far too many of them.\n\nGRIEF: We would rather nobody died.\n\n[["Then please, help me."|grief3]]

At once, you feel a sharp pain in your thigh, your upper arm. It feels like someone stabbed you deeply, then scooped out all the muscle and bone.\n\n[[Scream.|grief6]]\n[[Cry.|grief6]]

GRIEF: You humans...why must you all be so soft and fragile? You put all your love and care into them, and still they die and leave you behind.\n\n[["We make do."|grief2-2]]\n[["There's more to it than that."|grief2-2]]\n[["I need your help."|grief3]]

JUSTICE awaits you at the end of the road.\n\nJUSTICE: Excellent. You have returned, champion, just as I hoped you would.\n\nJUSTICE: You have accomplished a lot. You've saved a life, you've gained strength, and you've banished true evil.\n\nJUSTICE: Congratulations! You have become a true hero!\n\nYou look onwards with the same grim look as always, and nod gently.\n\nYou no longer have a voice to say whether she is right or wrong.

JUSTICE glides across the ground, into the fog in the distance. Your legs automatically move to follow her, and the void parts to let you through.\n\nYou walk a few moments.\n\nJUSTICE: To cleanse your soul of evil, you must perform an act of righteousness. You must right the wrong that caused you to become evil.\n\n[[.....|justice6]]

JUSTICE: I do not care for your words or your evil actions. Begone, you villain.\n\nJUSTICE's limbs move faster than you can see, and before you know it her body takes up your whole vision. \n\nShe wraps her arms around your head, covering your eyes and your ears and your nose. You suffocate for a moment, and open your mouth to gasp in air.\n\nShe takes two more limbs, pry your jaws apart. \n\nJUSTICE: It is done.\n\nThe limbs retract. You fall to the ground, on the parts of your legs that were once knees. Thick black mud drips from your mouth. \n\nYou cannot speak.\n\nJUSTICE: There is one more thing you must do. Follow me.\n\n[[...|justice5]]\n[[...|justice5]]

JUSTICE: This is the human that caused your misfortune. The one that spread the sickness to the one you hold dear.\n\nJUSTICE: As the source of this evil, he must be destroyed. You who became evil from that influence, must destroy him.\n\nYou doubt JUSTICE's words. You have never seen this man before.\n\nYou aren't entirely convinced that even if JUSTICE was right, the man was acting of any malice. Sickness easily spreads, after all.\n\n[[Cut him apart limb from limb.|justice8]]\n[[Slice his stomach so the innards fall out.|justice8]]\n[[Crush his body into a fine paste.|justice8]]\n[[Impale him multiple times and let him bleed out.|justice8]]

The void parts fully, and you see before you a man.\n\nHe is naked, kneeling on the ground, thick chains binding his neck and his wrists to the ground. He lays there unmoving.\n\nYou notice the edges of his fingers. Purple veins creep up towards his hands, pulsing.\n\nYou feel a certain amount of empathy with the man.\n\n[[......|justice7]]

JUSTICE: Greetings, you who were once human. I do not normally deal with villains, but I cannot turn away one who seeks righteousness.\n\n[["Villain?"|justice2]]

JUSTICE: Do not try to poison me with your hateful thoughts. I am absolute, and I must move forward without wavering at all to find the good in this world.\n\nJUSTICE: You who embody the world's evils, I have a proposition for you. Combining my power with GRIEF's and with POWER's, I can completely remove the ailment that plagues the human you have in your possession.\n\nJUSTICE: In return, I require your hateful tongue, so that you may not speak such poisons forevermore.\n\n[["Let's talk it out."|justice4]]\n[["I refuse."|justice4]]\n[["Very well."|justice4]]\n[["..."|justice4]]\n[["It doesn't matter what I say, does it?"|justice4]]\n[[Run away|justice4]]\n[[Attack JUSTICE|justice4]]

JUSTICE: Yes, villain, by which I mean you. After all, you are ugly, you have suffered considerable hardship and pain, you have very little will left of your own. Terrible things have happened to you, so you must've done terrible things to deserve that.\n\n[["Bad things can happen to good people."|justice3]]\n[["That's not..."|justice3]]\n[["You're right."|justice3]]

Diana Liao

Your limbs move on their own. Your thoughts take on a deep anger and vengeance, despite yourself.\n\nYou cut the man apart, the fat and blood making arcs in the air. It is somehow beautiful.\n\nJUSTICE stands aside you, watching in acceptance.\n\nYou stop. Your mouth has been sewn shut. You look at JUSTICE with a steeled expression.\n\nJUSTICE: Wielder of strength, champion of want. You have been cleansed. You are no longer monstrous, but an avatar of vengeance itself. It is high praise.\n\nJUSTICE: Return to your human. It is yours to do as you please.\n\n[[Return to the safehouse.|rest]]\n\n<<set $visitedjustice = true>>\n<<set $corruption += 1>>\n<<set $visits += 1>>