r/whowouldwin • u/Proletlariet ​ • May 22 '23

Event Character Scramble Season 17 Round 1A: Crimson Butterfly

Round 1A is finished and the thread is locked! Please use this form to vote. Voting ends 48 hours after it began. You MUST vote if you are competing!

Round 1A includes Matches 1 through 8 on the bracket. Check to see if you're in before you write.

The Character Scramble is a long-running writing prompt tournament in which participants submit characters from fiction to a specified tier and guideline. After the submission period ends, the submitted characters are "scrambled" and randomly distributed to each writer, forming their team for the season. Writers will then be entered into a single-elimination bracket, where they write a story that features their team fighting against their opponent's team. Victors are decided based on reader votes; in other words, if you want people to vote for you, write some good content. The winner by votes of each match-up moves on to the next round. The pattern continues until only one participant remains: the new Character Scramble champion, who gets to choose the theme, tier, and rules of the next Scramble!

The theme of Character Scramble 17 is Silent Hill. Round prompts will be based on scenarios and setpieces from classic survival horror games, which participants’ characters will be forced to endure all the while avoiding the terrifying Slasher characters also submitted this season.

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Round 1A: Crimson Butterfly

Fleeing from their encounter with their Slasher in R0, your team find themselves in the oldest part of Scramble Hill where the roots of its curse run deepest.

Their presence disturbs more than just the rotting timbers of the old fashioned buildings. The dead of Scramble Hill begin to stir. Their baleful spirits have been consigned to linger there for all eternity by the town’s curse, and over their long years stuck in this purgatory they have grown more and more desperate for an escape.

One of the oldest and most powerful of their number--your opponent’s Slasher--has whipped the restless bunch into a fervour with the promise of a solution; they believe the only way to bring their souls to rest is to reenact a ritual of sacrifice that once kept the curse at bay. Unfortunately for you, they require a living vessel to complete it. And they won’t take no for an answer.

Your team’s Slasher has other ideas. Whether the ritual works or not, they’re not taking any chances. They will stop at nothing to interrupt it before it can be completed. They might even go as far as to protect your Survivors from the restless spirits. Or just as easily decide to preemptively kill the would-be sacrifice themselves.

Round Rules:

  • Key Points: Your team is being haunted by the ghosts of people who’ve died in Scramble Hill, including your Opponent’s Slasher. They want to force your team to complete a sacrificial ritual to end the town’s curse and put their spirits to rest. Your Slasher doesn’t want the curse to be broken, so they’re dead set on interrupting the ritual. For more details about the setting and circumstances, keep reading.

  • Beyond the Spirit Gate: The barrier between the human and spirit worlds is blurred in Scramble Hill, but it is still not easily breached. Ghosts are out of step with mortals---you can’t fend them off with fists and bullets. Normal people need a tool just to see and interact with them; a special flashlight lens, an occult symbol, a camera obscura. Ghosts, on the other hand, can touch you just fine. Your team will need to find something to ward them off if they hope to survive.

  • Crimson Sacrifice: The rite the spirits wish to perform requires two living participants, one of whom is forced to ritually sacrifice the other. The ghosts will possess the living bodies of Survivors (yours, your opponent’s, up to you!) and use them as their pawns to carry out the ritual.

  • Master of Ceremonies: Your opponent's slasher is the one officiating the Crimson Sacrifice. Who are they? A priest? A cultist? A former victim of the ritual? Are they a ghost themselves, or merely being possessed to do the bidding of one?

  • Over YOUR Dead Body!: Regardless of if it could truly break the curse, your team’s Slasher won’t allow the ritual to be completed. They’ll do whatever it takes to interrupt it. Whether that means protecting your team members from the restless spirits, or preemptively killing the would-be sacrifice themselves.

Normal Rules:

  • There was a hole here. It’s gone now: The environment of Scramble Hill is disorientating and hostile: creeping industrial rust, out of place landmarks, stairs and corridors to nowhere. As much as Slashers might pose a threat to your characters, the town itself should feel like an antagonist.

  • Fear of Blood creates Fear for the Flesh: This is a horror themed Scramble. You don’t have to try to scare the reader with your stories, but they should include spooky elements. Scramble Hill is full of things that would make a normal person shudder. How do your characters react when they encounter them?

  • We're safe... for now: This is the story of your characters’ survival against terrifying forces. This means that however scarred and broken they emerge, they’re going to make it out alive. Even if your characters have only a small chance of victory, write that small chance happening!

  • If I kept it, I'm not sure what I might do…: Survival Horror is all about scavenging for something, anything you can use to stave off the monsters in the dark. You are absolutely encouraged to write your characters gaining or losing equipment/abilities/injuries/sanity. However, your opponents are not expected to keep track of these in-story changes and vice versa.

  • The only me is me. Are you sure the only you is you?: Give a brief summary to introduce your characters at the start of your post. Be sure to mention things like powers, personality, history, just stuff that the average reader should know before reading.

R1A Dread Pool

This round, you may draw your opponent's Slasher from either the character they adopted in R0 or one of the following Dread Pool picks:

Round 1A will run from Monday May 22nd to Friday June 9th Thursday June 15th and end at 11:59 PM Central Daylight Time on the dot.

In recognition of confusion over previous deadlines, we're switching to a compromise time zone that works better for most Scramblers. For reference, that is 12:59 AM on the 16th EST or 5:59 AM BST.

To make things even easier, check out this site to convert the deadline to your timezone.

The universal code is - 1686286740

Copy this and paste it into the "Epoch to human time" slot.

Character limit is 5 full length Reddit comments, or 50k characters.

While it is fine to go a little bit over, anything that far surpasses this limit will be disqualified. This limit does not include intro posts, or analysis of the matchup.

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u/Ultim8_Lifeform ​ Jun 15 '23

Logan had given up struggling against his binds. It wasn’t out of exhaustion or anything. In fact, he was pretty sure his healing factor restored his energy faster than he spent it, but he’d quickly realized that he could struggle for a week straight and do little to damage his silver chains.

And so he waited, staring angrily at his newest captors and waiting for an opportunity for action presented itself.

After lifting him into the sky, Avacyn had carried him to a massive rectangular building, half a dozen stories tall. Logan could only assume that it had been a factory of some kind before being abandoned, with pipes and other pieces of machinery littered all over the massive open area. From there, Avacyn had left it to her cronies to tie him to a metal pole in such a way that his claws could never cut him free.

Speaking of her cronies, dozens of the plagued were standing in front of him, surrounding a massive bonfire that they had constructed in the center of the room. Logan’s lungs burned from the smoke, but his captors didn’t seem to be bothered by it, nor did Avacyn herself, emanating an ethereal light as she floated above the fire.

Logan had no idea what the angel’s goal was, but she seemed to be waiting for something.

Suddenly, a set of twin doors swung open on the opposite side of the room. In came another large group of sickly looking people, at least tripling the number of Avacyn’s followers. A couple of them seemed to be carrying either dead or unconscious bodies, but Logan didn’t pay attention to that. Instead, he watched as a familiar girl in a yellow coat approached the fire and looked up at Avacyn.

“Mistress Avacyn,” Jubilee said with a proud smile. “We’ve done what you requested of us.”

“Even faster than I had expected.” Avacyn’s voice reverberated through the room, making Logan shiver. “I’m impressed, Jubilee.”

Avacyn outstretched her arm, casting beams of light from her fingertips over the sickly group. In response, each of their eyes glowed softly with light before fading back to normal.

“T-Thank you, Mistress!” Jubilee said with elation, seemingly energized by the light.

“That is but a taste of the peace I can offer you, my disciples.” Avacyn declared. “The corruption that plagues you has weakened your bodies and spirits to the point that your fellow man has exiled you here. But they are the ones that are truly rotten. The disease of a traitorous and cruel heart is not something that can be remedied through medicine. No, only death can remove those sins from this plane. But their demise is to your benefit. Behold!”

Avacyn gestures to where Logan was bound. “Even after exposure to the rat plague this mortal remains incorruptible. Not even I can combat the rot as well as he does, but that is about to change. With these sacrifices you have offered me, my powers will be multiplied, and I will be able to absorb this mortal’s life force and bestow it upon you, the faithful. Those that are called ‘weepers’ will rise from their pitiful state and return to the world that rejected them.”

As she spoke, Avacyn’s followers placed the three captives in chairs in front of the bondfire, tying them down with ropes. Logan hadn’t noticed before, but the largest of them had pure red skin, like a devil. However, it was the blue haired girl besides him that was the first to awaken.

“Nghh… Wuh?” Her eyes fluttered open, revealing one gray and one bright yellow iris as she quickly noticed the ropes tying her down. “What the hell!?”

“Don’t struggle.” Jubilee said with an almost sadistic smile, revealing a set of sharp fangs. “You are in the presence of the glorious and holy Avacyn! She will-“

The girl flexed, easily snapping her restraints. She didn’t look it, but she was strong. Avacyn said nothing, simply tilting her head as the girl delivered a swift roundhouse kick to Jubilee’s ribs and ragdolled her through the bonfire.

Jubilee shrieked, moreso from anger than actual pain as she leapt back into the flames. She struck at the girl with sharpened fingertips, but her ex-captor easily backflipped out of the way. She leaned down and picked up a discarded piece of long metal just in time to jam it in Jubilee’s mouth as she attempted to sink her fangs into her.

Logan could barely track the fight, both girls moving at impossibly high speeds. He could only assume that whatever light Avacyn had given her followers strengthened them immensely, but he couldn’t begin to guess what the blue-haired girl’s deal was.

Jubilee’s jaw still latched to the piece of metal, the other girl began to rapidly spin her around in a circle until the momentum lifted Jubilee’s legs off the ground. Then she released, sending Jubilee screeching into some wooden crates.

The rest of Avacyn’s followers gave each other apprehensive looks. Eventually one of them let out a ear piercing cry, bearing fangs just like Jubilee’s and signaling for the others to charge.

“Enough.” Avacyn ordered, her aura becoming even brighter than the bonfire. “You may disengage.”

The sickly group nearly tripped over themselves as they backpedaled back to where they had been standing before. They were desperate to follow her orders, almost terrified not to. The girl looked up at Avacyn with a cocky smile.

“Yeah, you definitely look like a final boss type.” The girl said. “Any chance you could open a window in here? I can taste the lung cancer.”

“I'm afraid the only cancer here is you. State your name, mortal. How is it that you can defy my disciples so?”

“Heh, Mizuki’s the name and kicking ass is my game. Now, how about you let my dad and Corvo go before I give you a live demonstration. Actually, scratch that. I’ll skip straight to the demonstration!”

Mizuki launched off the ground, spinning her body like a top and slamming her heel directly into Avacyn’s cheek. The angel’s followers let out wails of anguish after the attack landed, but Avacyn herself didn’t seem too bothered. Logan’s eyes widened as another glowing silver collar materialized in Avacyn’s hand, which she immediately thrust forward to latch around Mizuki’s neck.

“I see.” Avacyn mused as Mizuki fell to the ground, the silver chain in Avacyn’s hand barely long enough to prevent the collar from suffocating her from hanging. “If you are the spawn of that mutant, your unnatural strength and speed are to be expected. I’m curious if your life force is equally more impressive than a typical mortal.”

Mizuki shouted in pain as the collar began to grow brightly, eventually sending light spiraling up the chain and into Avacyn’s hand. The intensity of the angel’s own aura increased even further as she absorbed the light.

Consequently, Mizuki wasn’t doing so great. It didn’t appear Avacyn had been exaggerating about draining her victim’s life force. The girl’s eyes sunk further and further into her skull as her skin grew pale. Her legs wobbled, but she likely knew if they gave out she would be hung by her chains.

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u/Ultim8_Lifeform ​ Jun 15 '23 edited Jun 16 '23

Beside her, the other two bound men began to rise from their slumbers.

The red skinned man who was apparently Mizuki’s father cursed. “Shit, hang in there Mizuki! We’re coming-“

“Remain seated.” Avacyn ordered, sending two more collars snaking through the air until the attached themselves to the other captives. Near instantly they began to glow as well as Avacyn began absorbing each of their life force.

Logan desperately looked around the room. He needed to find an escape plan. It wouldn’t be much longer until Avacyn would potentially be powerful enough to overcome his regeneration. But what could he do?

In the corner of his eye, he spotted a familiar figure climbing out of a pile of destroyed crates, her fangs still visible as she breathed heavily. Jubilee… what the hell had Avacyn done to her? She might be the key to his escape if he could figure out how she was being controlled.

“Jubilee!” He said, just loud enough so that only she could hear him over the jeers and cries from the other weepers.

She turned to him and smiled, leaping up onto the platform where he’d been bound. “Hey Logan. Miss me?”

“Avacyn’s done something to you. Help me out so I can help you!” He struggled against his chains.

“Help me?” Jubilee laughed. “I thought I wasn’t your problem? I wonder what’d make you have a change of heart now?”

“Dammit kid! We don’t have much time!”

“No, you don’t have much time. You say Avacyn’s done something to me? Yeah, she’s saved me. For the first time in months I feel strong, I feel in control of myself. I don’t have to worry about dying at any time. I asked for your help and you tried to abandon me, so if you’re asking me to betray her for you, I think I’ll pass.”

Logan slumped his head. She was right, and he knew it. He had no reason to expect she would do something like that. Suddenly, the building shook, dust falling from the ceiling. Avacyn looked around in confusion, stopping the draining of her hostages for a moment. Then another impact crashed into the building. A series of cracks spread across the wall to Logan’s left. Some of the weepers abandoned the bonfire, tentatively approaching the damaged stone.

Then the wall exploded inward. Fragments of heavy rock shot through the room, taking out some of the weepers as they cried in surprise. Logan instantly noticed the wet smell of Dunwall as the smoke escaped through the fifteen foot wide hole, where a monster now stood.

It looked like a wolf in the broadest sense, with a snout and teeth and claws, but everything else looked almost alien. It had eight piercing red eyes, staring into the building and snarling threateningly as it bared its glowing claws. On its back, it had what almost looked like butterfly wings dragging behind it, the kaleidoscopic patterns giving off a faint glow.

Then Avacyn attacked, hurdling her spear like a missile towards the creature. Faster than should’ve been possible for a creature of that size, it dodged to the left and leapt upward towards the angel with its claws outstretched.

Avacyn’s eyes widened in shock as the hulking mass of fur slammed into her. She let out an uncharacteristically shrill scream as the monster swiped her out of the air and into the bonfire, cratering the ground and scattering the weepers.

Suddenly, Logan felt the pressure on his neck lessen as Avacyn’s silver collar vanished. He glanced at Jubilee, who looked back at him.

“…”

Jubilee lunged, stabbing her nails directly into Logan’s throat. He let out a wet gurgle as a fountain of blood sputtered from the wound and stumbled backwards. Her claws still in his neck, she tackled him off the platform towards the destroyed bonfire.

His instincts told him to unsheathe his claws and slice his attacker to ribbons. But despite the pain he suppressed that feeling. She was a scared little girl who, if she was telling the truth, had helped Logan when he couldn’t help himself. He wouldn’t abandon her again.

That said, she was still continuously slashing and biting into his flesh. Roaring, Logan grabbed Jubilee and slammed his forehead into hers, resulting in a resounding clang. She flew backwards, crashing into the wall right next to the wolf monster’s hole.

Jubilee dropped from the crater, falling to her hands and knees. Her breathing was heavy, shaking her head as of to remove the daze. However, all she could muster was one more hateful look at Logan before collapsing.

Sorry, kid.

Corvo heaved, his body still weakened from whatever Avacyn had done to him. Even without the collar actively draining him, he barely had the strength to stand. He’d been tortured and beaten plenty over his life, but he’d rather do it all over again than experience Avacyn’s abilities.

“Mizuki! Damn! C’mon, Mizuki! You gotta wake up!”

He turned to Hellboy, who was kneeling over and shaking Mizuki’s limp body. The young girl had been exposed to the light much longer than he and Hellboy, and her body reflected that. She was ghostly pale, with her eyes sunken so deep into their sockets that she looked like a skeleton.

She was motionless, still alive at the moment but her breathing was faint. No matter what Hellboy did, he couldn’t resuscitate her, but that didn’t stop him from trying. Corvo wore a grim expression, doing his best to cut down any weepers that came close but knowing that it ultimately wouldn’t matter what he or Hellboy did.

Mizuki was on death’s door.

The bonfire, or the area that used to contain the bonfire, erupted with golden light. Avacyn blasted off the ground, dragging the wolf creature behind her. She flew through old machinery and metal support beams, but was unable to shake her attacker.

“Infernal werewolf!” She screamed, slashing the wolf’s forearm with her spear.

Finally it released its grip, crashing into a group of unprepared weepers. The creature roared, waves of bright red energy spreading from its form. The few remaining weepers that managed to escape its crash landing were incinerated upon contact with it, and Corvo and the others likely would have met the same fate if the waves hadn’t stopped mere feet away from them.

Hellboy didn’t react at all. It was as if he and Mizuki were in their own little bubble, incapable of being contacted by the outside world. He embraced her tightly, his face obscured by her body. Corvo noticed that she was no longer breathing.

“Hey, you guys need to move!” A voice called out from behind them.

Corvo turned and, immediately upon seeing the voice’s face, brandished his sword threateningly. “What are you doing here?”

The scruffy, bearded man raised his eyebrows. “What do you- oh. You’re the guy from the basement. Don’t worry, I’m on your side, or at least we’re all against the angel.”

The room was filled with Avacyn and the wolf’s battle cries. The wolf clawed the air, sending more beams from the glowing tips. Avacyn nimbly weaved around the blasts before chucking her spear and impaling the wolf in the shoulder, causing a cry of pain.

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u/Ultim8_Lifeform ​ Jun 16 '23 edited Jun 16 '23

Corvo sighed. “What’s your name?”

“Logan.”

“Logan, I’ve still got business with you later, but for now I agree that Avacyn’s our first priority. And if the enemy of our enemy is our friend…” Corvo stared at the wolf, who was now at a distinct disadvantage and was doing everything in its power to avoid being captured by Avacyn’s silver collars. “We better jump in.”

“Damn right.”

For a second, Corvo thought the bonfire had reignited. An intense heat washed over his back from where Hellboy and Mizuki had been. He turned, widening his eyes at Hellboy, who stood over the body of his deceased daughter. His muscles bulged, the stumps on his forehead replaced with proper curved horns as heat emanated from his body.

“And we better get going quick, cause I’m seein’ red and I can’t promise you’ll be safe once I lose it.”

Avacyn had her back to them, spear back in hand, having finally managed to get a collar around the wolf’s neck and begun slowly draining its lifeforce.

Hellboy unholstered a pistol from his coat, unloading a shot into Avacyn’s right wing. She let out a pained cry, but remained floating even with the injury. She whirled around, an enraged look in her eye.

The trio separated as she lunged towards them, Corvo going left and Logan and Hellboy going right. She focused on the duo, slashing her spear in their direction. Hellboy blocked with his stone hand, allowing Logan to leap over him and plunge his claws into Avacyn’s gut.

The angel gasped, gritting her teeth and backhanding Logan across the room. Corvo and Hellboy prepared an attack with their blade and fist respectively, only for Avacyn to dash into the air and instant before they landed.

The wolf, now free from his chains thanks to Avacyn’s lack of focus, leapt and snatched her leg with a clawed hand. No longer strong enough to support both of their weight, Avacyn crashed, creating a sizeable crater in the stone.

Avacyn struggled against the wolf’s grip, but was unable to free herself. Hellboy blurred past Corvo, leaping into the air and rearing his stone fist to pound the angel’s face in. Avacyn’s face twisted into a manic grin, thrusting her spear directly through Hellboy’s chest.

She laughed. “Mutant fool, your anger means nothing in the face of- ERGH”

Rather than struggle, Hellboy had pulled the spear further into the wound, allowing him to close a stone fist around Avacyn’s throat. He said nothing in response to Avacyn’s jab, slowly squeezing tighter and tighter. For the first time, Avacyn showed true fear in her eyes.

She extended her other arm sideways, her fingertips glowing with ethereal light. All around the room, similar glows burned to life. Corvo quickly realized that they were coming from the weepers, rapidly trailing from both the dead and living towards the fallen angel.

“She’s trying to empower herself! Finish it, now!” Logan shouted from across the room.

Corvo didn’t need to be told twice, rushing towards the pile of bodies and brandishing his blade. He narrowly outpaced the light, severing Avacyn’s hand at the wrist an instant before it reached her. The angel screamed as Corvo twisted the sword, thrusting it into her open mouth.

A quiet gurgle escaped Avacyn’s lips as she slumped over. Finally, dead.

She released her spear, allowing Hellboy to fall to the ground. Corvo rushed to his side, kneeling over the dying man. He placed his hands on the spear and prepared to pull it out.

“Leave it.” Hellboy waved him away. “I’m finished either way.”

Corvo wanted to reassure him that everything would be alright. They’d find a way to heal him somehow. But that would be an obvious lie.

“Not exactly the way I expected to go out, but I’m glad we managed to give that damn angel a taste of her own medicine.” He coughed weekly. “Corvo, I’m about to join Mizuki.”

Corvo nodded.

“You’ve got a fire in you Corvo. Do with it what you see fit, but promise me something. Protect Luka, that boy’s in some deep shit, and he’ll need people on his side.”

“I will.”

Hellboy leaned his head back, a smile on his face. “And give the Lord Regent hell for me.”

Hellboy let out his final breath, a satisfied look on his face.

Corvo sighed, standing up and retrieving his blade from Avacyn’s corpse. The force of his pull loosened the wolf’s grip, who had seemingly been knocked unconscious during the end of the fight, causing the angel to ungracefully tumble to the ground. He folded his sword into its condensed shape, and was about to turn away when something caught his eye.

Damn.

Dammit all.

Shit.

Inside of the wolf’s paw, a familiar symbol glowed with faint blue light. It was the mark of the Outsider, in the exact same position as…

As if on cue, the wolf’s body began to glow, being encased in a rainbow crystal before finally dissolving into the air. Once it had all vanished, all that remained was the limp body of Luka Redgrave.

Hellboy was beginning to understand what Hellboy had meant. According to religious doctrine, the Outsider’s mark granted the heretics that possessed them with an unfathomably power from another realm. However, this manifested within each person differently. For Luka, it seemed he was transformed into this beast. ‘Deep shit’ didn’t even begin to describe it.

“That our wolf?” Logan’s voice called out.

Corvo turned to his unlikely ally, who had been kneeling next to the weeper with the yellow coat and was now walking towards him. “I don’t think we need to worry about any of her followers, she completely absorbed the power she’d given them before you finished her off. If any of them survived… the plague will do its job soon.”

That was one good thing, at least. “Are you fit to carry him?”

“I’m as fit as I always am.” Logan shrugged, glancing down at Luka’s unconscious form. “You know him?”

“I’ll tell you when we get to the pub.” Corvo sighed. “And then you and I need to have a chat.”

Logan groaned. “Figured as much.”

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u/Ultim8_Lifeform ​ Jun 16 '23

“Horrible. Truly horrible…”

George stared at the videograph recorded by his clockwork soldiers. After they had detected a massive energy surge in the Flooded District, George had immediately sent them to investigate. But what they found was incomprehensible. Corpses upon corpses, carnage everywhere.

At first he had suspected that somehow the weepers had somehow detonated an explosion within the old factory. But the evidence didn’t line up with that hypothesis. Most of the weepers suffered no burn marks, and somehow the hole in the wall had been created by an inward impact rather that outward.

Then he noticed something, pausing the recording. The footage displayed the body of a mysterious winged woman. The clockwork soldiers had examined her extensively after determining that she was the source of the energy surge.

She possessed an outward stab wound in the back of her neck, suggesting that she had been stabbed in the mouth. Just who was this woman, and what had happened to her? He had already ordered his assistants to begin running tests on the body, but what he saw now filled him with more dread than anything they could tell him.

On the woman’s left calf, there was a black symbol, identical to the one on his own hand. It was the mark of the Outsider, meaning this woman wielded the power of the Void. Had she killed all these weepers? But then what killed her? Had the weepers gotten lucky and finished her off or had something even stronger done that? All this destruction couldn’t have been caused by an individual, could it?

Dozens of other questions raced through George’s mind. He felt sick looking at it all. He glanced down at the mark on his hand, but now it only reminded him of the corpses.

George made a decision. This mark of his was dangerous, and those who possessed it could not be allowed to roam free. What if they unleashed their abilities in Dunwall proper upon civilians?

He would track down those inhuman creatures before they could harm anyone else. He would capture them, remove the mark or eliminate them, and save the empire by those touched by the Outsider’s influence.

But what about him? Could he truly be trusted with this power? No, of course not. Once the others had been removed from the equation, he would then remove himself.

But there was much to do until then.

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u/Ultim8_Lifeform ​ Jun 16 '23 edited Jun 26 '23

Epilogue

"Hello, Corvo."

Corvo's eyes shot open. He found himself standing in the middle of a simple, rocky platform. As far as the eye could see there was Void, various grays and darker grays swirling amongst each other. In the distance, a massive creature with six fins sprouting from its sides swam through the air as if gravity were merely a suggestion. Corvo had read about them, but to finally see a whale in person...

He shivered, the very air sapping the heat from his body.

However, even more concerning was the stranger who had spoken to him. Pale and eyes that were darker than the Void around him, the man offered him a bemused expression before disappearing in a cloud of darkness.

"You've certainly had an eventful few days, haven't you?" The man's voice spoke from Corvo's right, causing him to whirl around and face the stranger. "First your Empress is felled and her daughter is lost somewhere in the city, then you take the fall for it all. And the first thing you do upon escaping is let the family of the one who saved you die. I do hope you can improve your performance in the future."

Corvo's alarm was replaced with anger as he reached to his side to retrieve his blade. Unfortunately, his hand grasped nothing but empty air. The man said nothing, merely continuing to watch him with those pitch black eyes.

"Who are you?" Corvo growled.

"Come now, Corvo." He said, the slightest hint of a smile still on his lips. "You've been mentioning me all day. Perhaps this will stir your memory."

The man flicked his wrist, and suddenly a burning sensation covered the back of Corvo's left hand. He grimaced, watching as a glowing symbol flared to life with bright orange energy. Suddenly, Corvo felt a pit forming in his stomach as dread filled every inch of his body.

"Your the Outsider."

"In the flesh." The man nodded. "Well, perhaps that's not entirely accurate but you get the idea."

"What do you want from me?"

The Outsider frowned. "They always ask that. 'Who are you? What do you want?' Don't worry Corvo, I'm just giving you something long overdue."

Once again, the Outsider vanished, only to continue speaking from behind Corvo. "As I'm sure you're already aware, those who bear my mark can call upon forces from beyond your world. I won't spoil too much, but let's just say the amount of people in Dunwall with that ability at the moment is... concerning."

"So why give it to me?"

"I've had my eye on you for some time now. One way or another, you will play a pivotal role in the days come, along with Mr. Redgrave. However, I am already far too involved in Dunwall's events as it is. That's when I thought of a solution. This mark that I've given you is unique."

"What do you mean?" Corvo narrowed his eyes.

"If you have a surplus of trash, you need someone to collect it, do you not? Consider yourself my trashman. Kill someone who bears my mark, and I will transfer their abilities to you. Use it well, and you may become stronger than any of them."

"You seem awfully confident that I'll help you."

"In the end, you may do as you wish with what you've been given. However, you may find that confrontations with the trash unavoidable. You are planning on removing the Lord Regent after all."

"Great, anything else?"

"One last thing. Consider this my apology for my lack of punctuality." The mark on Corvo's hand glowed gave off a bright white glow. "Avacyn has been around far longer than this newest batch, but you still fulfilled your roll of slaying someone with my mark, so one of her abilities is now yours. Use your newfound powers well. Grow your arsenal. I look forward to seeing how you do."

Before Corvo could respond, the Outsider vanished in another puff of black smoke, this time for good. He glanced down, staring at the Outsider's mark that had faded to a dull, dark color.

Just like Luka's... Corvo thought.

Suddenly, Corvo's vision began to dim as the Void began to close in around him. He rapidly looked around, but there was nowhere to escape from his simple platform. He sighed, staring into the Void as it rapidly approached and consumed him.