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| There's a closed bedroom door in a dark room. |
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| It creaks open, just a little. A bit of light spills in, and with it, Sunny's head pokes in. |
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| * why are you here, sunny. |
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* Clip let me in.
* They're real fuckin' worried, you know.
* Where's your mum and dad, anyway? |
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| * ...overseas. with family. |
| Moon-Soo is hunched over his computer. His fur is scruffy and uneven. He's lit up by the glow from four different monitors and the little screen of the game console on his desk, gutted with wires spilling out in all directions. |
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| * Happy birthday, by the way. |
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* You got a party this afternoon, in case that slipped your mind.
* Not a roof-raiser, just a couple mates and a cake. You'll have a good time. |
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* i can't.
* i need to understand this. |
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| * Mate, whatever is you're fuckin' Googling over there, I guarantee you: it can go on ice for three hours. |
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* Come on, mate, at least poke your head out.
* Venture outta this dank fuckin' shoebox you've made a cloister of.
* This place is a fuckin' mess, you've got fuckin'... |
| Sunny spots a laser pistol on Moon-Soo's bedside table. |
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* ...Jesus, is that a laser gun?
* Why the fuck do you have a laser gun? |
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| * it was in cliff's ship. |
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* That's "how" you have a laser gun, I asked "why".
* And what's that you're hunched over? A new modding project? This can't be that-- |
| Moon-Soo turns to face Sunny for the first time since she started talking. |
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* i am warning you, sunny. you can leave this room now, and live the rest of your life in blissful ignorance. you'll be better off for it.
* leave me be. |
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* Compelling proposition.
* Counterpoint: Fuck no? |
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* i'm serious.
* do you really need to know. |
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* Yeah, I fuckin' do.
* Fuckin' spill it. What's all that shit on your desk. |
| Moon-Soo has the console plugged into his computer running debug functions on the multimonitor setup. Lines of code speed past hex editors and open spritesheets, and a strange fractal pattern in the center of it all. |
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* everything we've ever done. everything we are. all of it.
* it's lines of code on cliff mason's game console. |
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* we're clockwork.
* we exist for someone's entertainment.
* here to make someone else feel better on a gloomy day.
* the amazing story of jasper the exorcist, on a magical journey to save the day, and we just facilitate it.
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* ...
* Yeah, I can see why you're freaking out a bit. |
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* excuse me??
* that's all you have to say??
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* Fuckin' sue me, orright, life's been taking some fuckin' turns as of late.
* I'm all filled up on jaw-dropping revelations. |
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* i don't think you realise what i just told you, sunny.
* you and i are fictional characters. we're NPCs!!!
* our entire existence revolves around jasper mundy's daddy issues!
* the only person who is even real in this entire town is american spaceman cliff fucking mason!
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| * If it eases your demons, I'm pretty sure he's "fictional" too. |
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* So, while I was on my little odyssey out in the fuck-knows-where, I met this freaky angel bitch, Nix.
* Delightful little shit, her.
* Anyway, she gave me the rundown on this videogame she was playing, about this brick shithouse space ranger cunt who kills a billion aliens...
* ...kept calling him "Cliff Mason". |
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* And the funny thing is, right, is that that angel girl?
* Got a feeling she wasn't precisely "real" herself.
* Cause, see, I met this fella in the world before that, top bloke actually you’d like him, name’s Jiro-- |
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* jiro??
* from jasper's game???
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