May 23, 2009 at 3:18 PM
Join Date: May 23, 2009
Location: Wales (Cymru)
Posts: 10
Age: 30
Yeah, so I'm late to the party by some time.
Back in August '08, I downloaded Cave Story, but unable to get the English patch to work, gave up playing at Grasstown, as I couldn't understand what I was meant to do. So anyway, two weeks ago, I got round to trying the English patch again, and managed to get it working. I immediately became addicted to Cave Story. The plot carried be away. It was absolutely breathtaking, and I felt sucked into Quote's world. When I finished Hell, I was incredibly pleased, but also somewhat saddened, at the thought, I wouldn't see the characters again, and at the somewhat uncomplete ending to Cave Story. (Ballos's "negative energy" was dispelled? Wut?)
So, I've decided I'm going to start writing a Cave Story fan fiction. It's probably going to be awful, which is why I'm posting it here. You guys have spent much more time with the game than I ever have, and probably know it like the back of your hand, so I'll most likely get corrected on something every two sentence, meaning this won't end up as a complete wreck, yay. Anyway, updates for this are likely to be erratic depending on how much time I have. I may also randomly finish in the middle of the paragraph - when I can write, I will write, but when I can't, I won't, or it just feels forced. Also, there aren't double breaks to indicate paragraph change - I'm c+ping this from a Word document where the paragraphs were indented. Here goes the first part:
PROLOGUE
<FAC0024*Bzzbzbzztbz*<NOD<CLR>
TEAM 9 ANNIHILATED
<NOD>
FAILED TO DESTROY TARGET
<NOD<CLR>
CURRENT FORCES
INSUFFICIENT
<NOD<CLR>
RETREAT
<NOD>
RETREAT!!
<NOD<CLO>
<FON0258:0016<FL+0828<FL-0824<MNP0257:0007:0018:0000
<CMP0040:0015:0030<CMP0040:0016:0030
<CNP0258:0184:0000
<ANP0258:0010:0003<WAI0128
<ANP0258:0020:0000<FOM0016
<WAI0020
<ANP0255:0010:0000
<ANP0450:0030:0002<WAI0040
<DNP0500<BOA0200<CMU0022<BSL0000
<CNP0450:0180:0002<ANP0450:0040:0002
<ANP0410:0020:0000<END<SHARDIK_ENERGY_VALUE:0>
<LIFE_SUPPORT_VALUE:1>
Water gently caressed the metallic corpse, lifting the broken limbs and shattered frame. Gentle currents softly began to move it onwards, a slow journey through this subterranean world.
Red lights flickered and flashed briefly, erratically illuminating the shutters and machinery that covered the walls of the cave. Eventually, they blinked out one by one as the water engulfed them, brief sparks attesting to their demise. The labrynthine caves sunk into darkness.
A few splintered parts from what must have been some humanoid robots floated past, debris from some catastrophic event. However, the corpse appeared to be the only whole robot. Well, given a fairly forgiving definition of whole.
The body continued its journey for some while, floating onwards, onwards through the caves, covered by the darkness. Finally, it was washed ashore onto a small sandy beach at the edge of the subterranean river, the water gently lapping the steely body.
Suddenly, the harsh scrape of rusted metal moving. Shattered eye pieces flicked open, spilling a violent red light onto the cave.
<ANP0410:0020:0000<END<SHARDIK_ENERGY_VALUE:1>
<EMERGENCY_INTERNAL_FISSION:00FF>
//recharging
The strange robot attempted to move its arm, a brief spasm juddering it, thanks to a herculean effort on its behalf. Then, tired by its exertions, it lay still at the edge of the water, the crimson gaze still staring, as energy slowly returned to the core of its body.
Much time passed. The robot did know how long. Hours, days, weeks? In the caves, there was no time. Only eternity. Once, a violent earthquake threw him further away from the water as it rocked the caves. There was the sound of distant cave-ins. To the robot, it made an interesting diversion from the darkness. After all, what is there for the nearly dead to fear?
Then, suddenly, it knew the time was right. Synthetic fibres pulled against each other, pseudo-muscles righting its body, pulling it upwards as it leant forward, then slowly stood up. Unused to such physical motion, it collapsed once more. A few memories flickered through. Where was its hat? The robot then saw it, similarly tossed up on the shore with various other bits of debris – it was a high-crowned hat, with an up-turned wide-brimmed, made from fibres that appeared like straw, but had a far harder consistency and smoother texture. The words “sombrero” sprung to its mind from somewhere, dredged from the darkness of its mind. It picked up the hat, placed it on its head, and attached the barboquejo, fastening it to his chin.
There was a rumble from its jaw, a grating jerk, then some strange sounds were vocalized, an incredibly low-pitched, rumbling stream of syllables. It shook its head slowly from side to side, then tried again.
“He-llo. Wor... World.”
The jaw quirked up into what could be a smile, a smile scared at appearing in such an unfamiliar place. The robot then stood up once more, and switched its eye-beams to a more pleasing shade of mild yellow, causing a gold reflection to come glinting off the water. It stumbled over to the water, before seeing its image mirrored among the ripples.
It was in a sorry state. A gaunt and dented exoskeleton composed of metal was covered in rust and shattered in many places, even melted in some. A strange kind of blue algae covered much of its body, discolouring the metal of its face, and completely disfiguring his sombrero. Rivets had become disjointed at many points.
It brushed aside some of the algae, clearing the area around its eyepieces, then caught sight of something in his reflection, a few black lines etched onto its hat. It placed the hat in the water, scraped more of the algae off, letting the water take some of the dirt with it, then returned the hat to its head. Now the script was clear in the reflection, and the robot read it.
“Sha... Shar. Shar-dik. My. Name. Is. Shar-dik.”
That sounded right. It sounded as though it was his name. His? Yes, he was male, or had a male personality. For he was Shardik, of Team Nine, the... Team Nine, the... no, the memories were gone once more, disappearing into the murky depths of his psyche.
Shardik stood there for a while, thinking. Who was he? Where was he? His mind was darkness. There had been Team Nine, whatever that was, and there had been a hat, but nothing else could he remember. So, what now? He was in a cave system of some sorts, on his own, in the dark, with no memories of who he was. The way Shardik could see it, there was only one option.
Shardik began to walk along the shore.
His memories were hidden, but he would find them.
Lurking. Lurking in the shadows
The sound of a multitude of claws scrabbling over damp stone. A darting flicker of movement.
The Thing watched him come, thousands of segregated eyes watching his approach a thousand times over. Its mandibles snapped excitedly in anticipation of the feast, the enzymes that produced its toxins firing into overdrive. The long, segmented body began to pick up speed, moving faster, and faster, the victim still unaware that The Thing was bearing down on it.
The Thing was so hungry. So hungry. Since the quakes, the island had been quiet. Too quiet. No longer could it scavenge the remains of broken and mutilated Mimigas that had been brought here, the sewers of the caves. It had been starving. And here, here was delicious, suculent food. It may have some sort of metallic carapace, but The Thing was more than capable of piercing that to get the juicy, sweet innards. It would suck them through its mandibles, and gorge once more.
Back in August '08, I downloaded Cave Story, but unable to get the English patch to work, gave up playing at Grasstown, as I couldn't understand what I was meant to do. So anyway, two weeks ago, I got round to trying the English patch again, and managed to get it working. I immediately became addicted to Cave Story. The plot carried be away. It was absolutely breathtaking, and I felt sucked into Quote's world. When I finished Hell, I was incredibly pleased, but also somewhat saddened, at the thought, I wouldn't see the characters again, and at the somewhat uncomplete ending to Cave Story. (Ballos's "negative energy" was dispelled? Wut?)
So, I've decided I'm going to start writing a Cave Story fan fiction. It's probably going to be awful, which is why I'm posting it here. You guys have spent much more time with the game than I ever have, and probably know it like the back of your hand, so I'll most likely get corrected on something every two sentence, meaning this won't end up as a complete wreck, yay. Anyway, updates for this are likely to be erratic depending on how much time I have. I may also randomly finish in the middle of the paragraph - when I can write, I will write, but when I can't, I won't, or it just feels forced. Also, there aren't double breaks to indicate paragraph change - I'm c+ping this from a Word document where the paragraphs were indented. Here goes the first part:
PROLOGUE
<FAC0024*Bzzbzbzztbz*<NOD<CLR>
TEAM 9 ANNIHILATED
<NOD>
FAILED TO DESTROY TARGET
<NOD<CLR>
CURRENT FORCES
INSUFFICIENT
<NOD<CLR>
RETREAT
<NOD>
RETREAT!!
<NOD<CLO>
<FON0258:0016<FL+0828<FL-0824<MNP0257:0007:0018:0000
<CMP0040:0015:0030<CMP0040:0016:0030
<CNP0258:0184:0000
<ANP0258:0010:0003<WAI0128
<ANP0258:0020:0000<FOM0016
<WAI0020
<ANP0255:0010:0000
<ANP0450:0030:0002<WAI0040
<DNP0500<BOA0200<CMU0022<BSL0000
<CNP0450:0180:0002<ANP0450:0040:0002
<ANP0410:0020:0000<END<SHARDIK_ENERGY_VALUE:0>
<LIFE_SUPPORT_VALUE:1>
Water gently caressed the metallic corpse, lifting the broken limbs and shattered frame. Gentle currents softly began to move it onwards, a slow journey through this subterranean world.
Red lights flickered and flashed briefly, erratically illuminating the shutters and machinery that covered the walls of the cave. Eventually, they blinked out one by one as the water engulfed them, brief sparks attesting to their demise. The labrynthine caves sunk into darkness.
A few splintered parts from what must have been some humanoid robots floated past, debris from some catastrophic event. However, the corpse appeared to be the only whole robot. Well, given a fairly forgiving definition of whole.
The body continued its journey for some while, floating onwards, onwards through the caves, covered by the darkness. Finally, it was washed ashore onto a small sandy beach at the edge of the subterranean river, the water gently lapping the steely body.
Suddenly, the harsh scrape of rusted metal moving. Shattered eye pieces flicked open, spilling a violent red light onto the cave.
<ANP0410:0020:0000<END<SHARDIK_ENERGY_VALUE:1>
<EMERGENCY_INTERNAL_FISSION:00FF>
//recharging
The strange robot attempted to move its arm, a brief spasm juddering it, thanks to a herculean effort on its behalf. Then, tired by its exertions, it lay still at the edge of the water, the crimson gaze still staring, as energy slowly returned to the core of its body.
Much time passed. The robot did know how long. Hours, days, weeks? In the caves, there was no time. Only eternity. Once, a violent earthquake threw him further away from the water as it rocked the caves. There was the sound of distant cave-ins. To the robot, it made an interesting diversion from the darkness. After all, what is there for the nearly dead to fear?
Then, suddenly, it knew the time was right. Synthetic fibres pulled against each other, pseudo-muscles righting its body, pulling it upwards as it leant forward, then slowly stood up. Unused to such physical motion, it collapsed once more. A few memories flickered through. Where was its hat? The robot then saw it, similarly tossed up on the shore with various other bits of debris – it was a high-crowned hat, with an up-turned wide-brimmed, made from fibres that appeared like straw, but had a far harder consistency and smoother texture. The words “sombrero” sprung to its mind from somewhere, dredged from the darkness of its mind. It picked up the hat, placed it on its head, and attached the barboquejo, fastening it to his chin.
There was a rumble from its jaw, a grating jerk, then some strange sounds were vocalized, an incredibly low-pitched, rumbling stream of syllables. It shook its head slowly from side to side, then tried again.
“He-llo. Wor... World.”
The jaw quirked up into what could be a smile, a smile scared at appearing in such an unfamiliar place. The robot then stood up once more, and switched its eye-beams to a more pleasing shade of mild yellow, causing a gold reflection to come glinting off the water. It stumbled over to the water, before seeing its image mirrored among the ripples.
It was in a sorry state. A gaunt and dented exoskeleton composed of metal was covered in rust and shattered in many places, even melted in some. A strange kind of blue algae covered much of its body, discolouring the metal of its face, and completely disfiguring his sombrero. Rivets had become disjointed at many points.
It brushed aside some of the algae, clearing the area around its eyepieces, then caught sight of something in his reflection, a few black lines etched onto its hat. It placed the hat in the water, scraped more of the algae off, letting the water take some of the dirt with it, then returned the hat to its head. Now the script was clear in the reflection, and the robot read it.
“Sha... Shar. Shar-dik. My. Name. Is. Shar-dik.”
That sounded right. It sounded as though it was his name. His? Yes, he was male, or had a male personality. For he was Shardik, of Team Nine, the... Team Nine, the... no, the memories were gone once more, disappearing into the murky depths of his psyche.
Shardik stood there for a while, thinking. Who was he? Where was he? His mind was darkness. There had been Team Nine, whatever that was, and there had been a hat, but nothing else could he remember. So, what now? He was in a cave system of some sorts, on his own, in the dark, with no memories of who he was. The way Shardik could see it, there was only one option.
Shardik began to walk along the shore.
His memories were hidden, but he would find them.
Lurking. Lurking in the shadows
The sound of a multitude of claws scrabbling over damp stone. A darting flicker of movement.
The Thing watched him come, thousands of segregated eyes watching his approach a thousand times over. Its mandibles snapped excitedly in anticipation of the feast, the enzymes that produced its toxins firing into overdrive. The long, segmented body began to pick up speed, moving faster, and faster, the victim still unaware that The Thing was bearing down on it.
The Thing was so hungry. So hungry. Since the quakes, the island had been quiet. Too quiet. No longer could it scavenge the remains of broken and mutilated Mimigas that had been brought here, the sewers of the caves. It had been starving. And here, here was delicious, suculent food. It may have some sort of metallic carapace, but The Thing was more than capable of piercing that to get the juicy, sweet innards. It would suck them through its mandibles, and gorge once more.