Changeling

I hope not!

Can you guess any explanations at all?

I'd think it was to help protect her, but I have no idea?

Half right. And did you miss the end part?!

The everyone else being changed part?

Yeah, cause you said "her"

Oh, was it protect everyone then?

On her part

You'll see

I hope so

"Did I....?" I asked shakily. "Was.... is this my doing?"

Even as I spoke, I knew that the true answer was positive: I'd done this, I'd changed everyone. That's what my ill-thought-out plan of protection had been. If they weren't human, they couldn't be hurt by the price the other Atari wanted humanity to pay.... could they? The simple question, which I was barely aware of thinking, still triggered my ability and it sought answers, and then I knew. Then I finally knew.

I'd been duped.

I'd been horrifically, tragically, stupidly duped. I'd been so idiotic, so caught up in my own ideas and my own chance to be the hero, that I hadn't even questioned it. This had been their plan all along, and even when trying to fight them, I'd been their pawn. They'd intended for me to try to fight them. They'd fed me just enough information, just at the right times, to ensure that I unknowingly went along, and fulfilled the plan which Sky had blatantly refused over and over. All along, the sacrifice had been this - turning every human, refilling our ranks and destroying those who would have destroyed us. Humanity was extinct now. Atari were all that remained.

"I think you did," Laurel answered my question, and I almost leapt. I hadn't realised that I'd spoken aloud.

"I know I did," I whispered. "And.... it's what they wanted."

"What?!" she exclaimed.

"How? And how do you know it?"

I sighed, shaking my head. If only I could take this back, now.... but I couldn't. The fact that I was now allowed to know was enough proof of that.

"I was trying to protect the humans.... I didn't know what I was doing. They were just manipulating me all along. This had been their plan. To turn everyone - so there'd be no humans left."

"None left?" Laurel echoed, shocked, horrified.

"You said it yourself. Everyone's changed. Everyone."

"Can't anything be done?" Daniel asked. I just shook my head. I couldn't bear to voice the answer aloud, and my guilt was just crushing. I still couldn't believe that I'd been such a fool. Such a pawn. Even after everything they'd done, after Sky..... I'd still played perfectly into their hands.

Shaking my head again, I left the room, going back upstairs and burying my head in the pillow as I'd done when I'd first arrived. I couldn't face anyone. That would just show me the evidence of my shame in the form of their new Marks, the Marks they should never have gained.

And that's what I've been hinting for what feels like ages

That's a great chapter Lowri

Really? I thought it was more like the neccessary explanation, everything had happened in the last one.

I liked it But I tend to like the episodes & chapters that finally make everything make sense

You don't like mystery then Pity....

I like mystery that gives me answers quickly

"Don't blame yourself over it."

Immediately, that voice - that instantly recognisable, painful voice - made me spin around wildly, looking around with a wild hope which I knew deep down was in vain. Moments later, it was followed by an ironic chuckle.

"Really, don't think you need to take all the blame and weight for it. You couldn't have known. It was me who didn't warn you."

"Where are you?!"

Even as I shouted, I knew I was just talking to the air. She wasn't there; she couldn't possibly be there.... because she was dead.

"That's true," her voice acknowledged, with a tone which suggested a nod. "At least, I'm dead in some ways... my body is, anyway. But there was something none of us knew about having a blood host..."

"What happened?" I whispered. Suddenly, I realised that it wasn't a real voice I was hearing - not aloud. The voice was present in my mind. It was like she was a part of me now.

"That's pretty much what happened. When they killed me, I immediately found myself projecting to you. But it took this long to have you hearing me...."

I suspected that'd been because the other Atari had been blocking that perception too, as they'd blocked me from realising their true game. They'd known much more than either of us had expected.

"What do we do next?" I asked at last. I wasn't sure if I'd overcome the shock without even realising, or if it was somehow delayed. Maybe life had gotten so surreal that I was willing to accept anything, even this, unquestioningly by now.

"About what?" Sky questioned. "About me? Or about everyone having changed?"

"Both, I guess," I replied quietly. I'd meant the second, originally, but the first question was as heavy. If she'd survived at least partially, did that mean she could return? I knew it was a thin hope.... and yet, now I'd been given some, I was clinging to it.

"I don't know.... I just don't know."

I wondered if that'd be the reaction Btw, the pace is meant to be this insane atm

I like it

I have only read the first posts in this but it is so Awesome! We should Have a world when you play a changeling. I have actually roleplayed a dice-based roleplay called Changeling. But as I said, Awesome series so far.

This is one of the greatest things I have read. I sat half of the night and read this and now during the morning I finished reading the last pages. I love the characters and what has happened so far. Love it.