digibutter.nerr

[Tayl]

{{Let's peak into the mind of one of our lovable villains, shall we?~}}

Umbra's story began with something similar to the Oress Holder's. One day, she woke up confused in the empty building claimed by the Manipulator, Halyn. The only thing she could really manage to recall is who she was. At that point, she was confronted by Halyn herself. The quirky Manipulator explained to Umbra that she was playing a game, and she needed Umbra to be her partner. Still completely lost, Umbra was at no liberty to say no, so Umbra agreed and became Umbra's Manipulated. As time passed, Umbra learned that Halyn, being a Manipulator, was able to bend and twist Reality. But to become a full-fledged Manipulator, they had to undergo a test. One segment of the test required a Manipulator to take a Real Person and show them the real purpose of the Reality they resided in.

So, Umbra learned everything. About Them, about Real People, and the fact that the only reason they exist was to be experimented on by Them. She also learned that as a 'Manipulated', she gained some of the abilities that Halyn possessed, specifically the opening of voids leading to Noshara; AKA nothingness.

Years passed, and the duo had spent their time setting things in motion, starting things that would later become good or bad things later on in their lives. While the two excelled all expectations set for them, Umbra was secretly traumatized by the fact that she lacked any independence, that she was just playing puppet for Them. This fact slowly drained her sanity, and she hatched a devious plot to rid herself of everything, even Them.

Umbra opened up a void that she intended to consume all of Entirety, therefore ending all of existence. Obviously, that didn't turn out too well. The void had consumed nearly all of the Test Reality when it's progress suddenly ceased, and the void disintegrated, bringing the Reality to it's former status. Halyn appeared in front of her and explained that Umbra wasn't in charge of anything, and no matter what she did, she never would be. Regardless of anything else that could happen; Umbra, Halyn, and everyone else in their Reality would only exist as test subjects, and nothing more. By this time, Umbra's life force had been completely drained by summoning a Void of such size, which caused her demise.

Of course, the story doesn't end there.

Umbra, like anyone else in the Reality who died, wound up in Neren's Reality. After getting her life reviewed as per usual, Umbra was surprised to hear she had to go back to life; she apparently had more 'work to do'.

She ended up waking up in a deserted mansion, which she decided to claim as her own. She spent a long time contemplating what Neren meant when she mentioned she still had work to do.

Years passed, and Umbra's life remained boring and uneventful, aside the occasional visits to Halyn. Over the years, Halyn adopted four new Assistants to help with her work, whom she became very familiar with, and two new Manipulators had passed the Manipulator test. The first was Niya, who had been through a situation similar to Umbra's, and the second was Verity, who seemed very intent on learning about Them. Halyn even claimed that Verity's behavior was somewhat unnerving, especially seeing that Verity didn't even need a Manipulated to pass the Test. But Umbra thought nothing of it.

Until, of course, she heard the big news. One of Them, the one that was in charge over her Reality, had quit and hid in the subconscious of an unknown person. This meant that the position was open, and any Real Person in the Reality could take Her place.

Halyn visited Umbra one day, and told her that Verity was intending on killing off every Real Person in order to impress Them, not to mention she'd eliminate her competition in the process.

Umbra thought it over. It was certainly something she could do herself. Plus, if she became of of Them, she'd finally have some control. She'd never have to play marionette again. So, she decided she'd beat Verity to the punch. Only problem was, she couldn't tell who was Real and who wasn't. So, the Oress were born.

The Oress were designed to be randomly distributed to Real People, to mark them, so Umbra would know they were Real, and could effectively kill them off. Of course, she knew They would see that as unfair, so she gave the Oress special abilities in order to give them a fighting chance. Umbra figured that the creation of the Oress was safely within her power.

WROOOOOOOOOONG

The creation and distribution of the Oress was a success. However, it used up just as much energy as creating the void had. It didn't take very long for her to collapse and, well, die. Again.

Umbra had her life reviewed again, and expected to not be granted life this time. She assumed that creating the Oress was the big thing she was supposed to do. Apparently it wasn't; she still had more work to do. Umbra was left confused, again, but decided against questioning Neren. So she went off to Vitara. But before Vitara brought her back to life, Vitara gave Umbra a specific date to kill her on, mentioning that they'd meet each other again soon.

Upon awakening, Umbra was greeted by Bunny with the simple phrase of: "You should really stop dying." :3. The mysterious yet lovable rabbit explained he was here to check on 'stuff', and to make sure everything was going as planned. Bunny left after, but it wouldn't be the last time she saw the :3-faced rabbit. When Bunny wasn't visiting others, he would often drop by Umbra's Mansion.

Not wasting any more time, Umbra got straight to her quest. She introduced herself to the Oress Holders as their creator, briefed Cel, and started the bloodshed. Halyn's Alliance, Verity, and even some of the Oress joined in on the chaos.

She picked Ciess and Shan, two of the Oress Holders, to be her loyal companions. Shan was probably the most obedient and trustworthy of the two, but he never spoke, and only followed Umbra's orders as if he had nothing else to do, as if he had no form of self-appreciation, which she found annoying. Ciess would follow all orders, but she'd constanty question things. Ciess had the desire to know everything, which, ironically, was a goal that Shan had pretty much reached (having the Oress of knowledge and all). Really, Shan talked too little and Ciess talked too much. But, as irritating as they were, they exceeded all of Umbra's expectations when it came to killing people off or spying and stuff.

One day, Umbra was wandering around for no particular reason. Suddenly, she felt an odd presence while passing by an alley, which she proceeded to wander into. She found a young girl huddled in the corner, who immediately begged for mercy. Umbra wasn't really interested until she noticed the girl, Ara, had odd markings all along her arms. The markings seemed eerily similar, so similar that the sight of the markings almost disturbed her. Upon noting them, Ara explained that they must mean she's some horrible demon, or, at least, that's what her abusive parents said. Umbra took pity on the poor girl and allowed her to stay at her mansion, if not just to find out what the markings meant. She never did.

Bunny's visits became more frequent, him often hanging out at Umbra's place for days at a time. Of course, Umbra never questioned his actions. No one did. Because Bunny is Bunny, and Bunny's the kind of bunny you just don't question.

During the period in between all three of her assistants joining and the decline of the Reality's state, Umbra's health was far from it's best. She'd often find herself the victim of constant fevers and head-splitting migraines, both of which seemed to appear from nowhere. During these sudden illnesses, her sanity would often be eaten away at by traumatic hallucinations. The fevers, headaches, and hallucinations faded over time, much to her relief.

Over the next year or so, the Real Population dramatically decreased. All of the Oress were gone, as was Ara and a few other non-Oress. Things were boring, the only thing there to lift the gloom were Bunny's visits, which had become less common.

One night, there was a knock at her door, which was odd, because the people who would've bothered visiting her were all dead.

Standing at the door was Fray, Halyn's newest Assistant, who had joined them not long after the killing had begun. But there was something off about her. 'Fray' explained that it wasn't really Fray speaking to Umbra, rather, it was Her in Fray's body. Turns out that when She quit, She decided to retreat into Fray's subconscious, which She describes as "interesting". So, She could take control of Fray's physical being whenever She saw fit. The thought of that disturbed Umbra somewhat, while Umbra was merely influence by Them, Fray was actually being physically controlled by one of Them.

She explained that it would all be over soon. A matter of days, actually, until someone would be victorious. She also mentioned that Umbra was doing a 'very good job', and would be happy to see her become of of Them.

While Umbra's only question was what the 'work' she had to do, She refused to answer, only saying that Umbra would figure it out eventually. With that, She left, leaving Umbra with only more questions.

Eventually Umbra shrugged these questions off, knowing they'd all be answered soon.

The next day, Umbra went for her final target, the only person left aside from her. It was none other than Verity; the one who started it all.

For Umbra, everything was going along perfectly. By the time Verity was clinging to life, Umbra barely had a scratch on her. But Umbra never made the finishing blow. She claimed that it wouldn't matter if Verity was killed or not, because Umbra was doing something wrong, hence why she had to come back to life so many times. Obviously, what she needed to accomplish couldn't be done if everyone in their Reality was gone, right? Verity, on the other hand, was apparently doing everything right, but what she was doing differently was the thing that Umbra couldn't possibly accomplish if everyone was dead.

Somehow confident that everything would start over again (which is, of course, what happened), Umbra killed herself on the spot, leaving Verity as the last one standing.

She awoke again in an all-too familiar setting. But Umbra wasn't concerned in the slightest. She got it. She finally got it. She had finally come to realize what she had to do.

"Hello, Miss Umbra, nice seeing you...again. You know how the procedure goes, yes?"

"I say we skip the reviewing. Because we all know what the end result will be."

"Pardon?"

"I have more work to do."

"...That's right."

"Well then, let's not waste any more time, hm?"

"As you wish. I'd advise you not to mess up this time, though."

"Oh, don't worry about me. I've got it all planned out..."

questions/comments/cheese in a can~?

Also, this didn't turn out as well as I hoped. That's what I get for writing late at night. D:

Oh well, 'least it got the point through. Not as emotional as Cel's, but still interesting, I'd hope. I'll probably go back and edit it later...

[bobzearth42]

Wait, so, how'd Umbra end up in the Bitlands again if she was simply sent back into her reality? 3:|════׀

[Dark Prognosticus]

Love it. I always liekd the plot you had going. :3

Also, I finally see why bunny is so awesome. I never liked him all that much, but now I know he's a lot mroe important than he let on, from the looks of it.

[Macha]

and now I am curious about Bunny. :3

Argh, I love these backstories.

[Tayl]

[Black Yoshi]

Well, that sure explains a ton about Umbra's personality. And Ignis is totally getting used. <.<

[Tayl]

tee-hee~

Also, is it a bad thing if I've got more stuff planned out for Umbra's side of the plot than Cel's side at this point? D:

I probably have enough time to write up one more of these before I go with my Dad places...but, who's mind should we peer into this time?

Dicro and Fray have quite the backstory to them, but all I've done with them so far is introduce them. Then there's Niya, but she'll probably only be a 'major' character in these early stages of the plot (I've only got one more planned appearance for her, but maybe I'll have her stick around Castle Oress while Bunny's with Umbra).

HMMMMMMMMMMMMM

[BAMFing ARCHER]

Once again, you've outdone yourself with this. Great job, Tayl.

Enuo would be really pissed when he finds out he's being used. This'll probably result in RAAAAEG from him and several meteors around the neighbourhood.

[Tayl]

I wouldn't exactly say they're being used...they just think they're helping Umbra kill people 'cause they like killing people without actually knowing the real reason why they're killing them.

...

wait

[Captain Blue]

I just realized...Bunny makes me think of Data from Megaman Legends...which makes me want to see if Bunny knows the Data Dance.

[Tayl]

I added some stuff because I was bored and RPOT is being slow. ):<

I added a little more about Ciess and Shan, what had happened before the period before everyone was all dead, and, of course, how Umbra herself actually died. I made a couple little edits, too, but they were just the revision of various sentences.

[Frozenwinters]

dskljffdakdsf NEREN WHY ARE YOU SO MYSTERIOUS??!?!?!?!?????!?!?!?!?!?!1/?!/1???!?1 >:CCCCCCCC

I missed this. Also Aita is not being used. She is actually using Umbra for her strawberries. Duh.

[Tayl]

PLOT TWIST?! O:

Also, I wouldn't say that Umbra is using her current assistants anymore than her previous ones.

...Oh.

[Frozenwinters]

[Tayl]

Possibly...

Everyone was sent to the Reality the Bitlands is in to start over. Apparently their first try wasn't good enough for reasons that no one is sure why. So they'll be using the Bitlands to do it all over again. Fun, fun.

Basically, the Bitlands can expect chaos and insanity.

Well, more of it, anyways.