Chapter Text
Taka tak-tak tak tak-tak tap.
Done.
The adopted god rolls his chair back and admires the work he created. Another reality, another universe he wrote into existence. A tired smile crept onto his face as he rereads the work, making sure the grammar was correct.
It was beautiful. The young god saves his work and turns off his computer. He knows Mother is going to call him and his sisters to come eat soon.
Sure enough, the moment he opens his room door-
"Children! Dinner's ready!"
Mother's voice calls as he approaches, already on his way to the table. Not a minute later, the young god sits and beams as Mother brings the food over, who in turn smiles at her adopted son.
She opened her mouth but was unable to get a word out as her other two children, his sisters, arrive, taking their places.
"Greetings Mother. Hello Kree."
"Hi Mother! Hey little brother~."
The adopted god, Kree, rolls his eyes. He's used to Venus, goddess of space, teasing him. Said sister just scoffs while Aeon, goddess of time, smiles and shakes her head.
"It appears our brother has grown accustomed to your salacious ways, sister."
"Ugh. That's no fun. Whatever happened to all the times I made him blush or embarrassed?"
Kree giggles at the sisters dynamic. Where Aeon is orderly and compliant, Venus is more chaotic and rebellious. Both are required for universal balance. Plus, they both give good feedback whenever he creates a world.
World...
He frowns, looking down at his plate, a sad reflection staring back at him. The adopted god loves his sisters but he wishes they would let him play one of their games and explore one of their worlds. Kree let out a sigh which caught the attention of Mother, who turns to look at him.
"Sweetheart? Is something the matter?"
The young god's head shot up as he smiles to mother, hiding the startled reaction he had.
"Not at all, Mother! Just lost in thought for a moment."
At that, Kree reaches over to grab a bread loaf and promptly put it on his plate, cutting it in half. Venus smirks, having a raunchy retort at the ready.
"Oh~. How naughty~."
The young god's eyes go wide as he let out a choked sound before swallowing the bread bite, looking unamused at the time goddess. Said goddess laughed.
"Vee!"
"There he is!"
"Venus Lovelace. Please do not embarrass your brother at the dinner table. Kree Age Shawn. Do not acknowledge your sister when she teases you. You know she only does it to get a reaction out of you."
Both gods eyes widen upon hearing Mother's scolding tone before bowing their heads and saying in unison, "Yes Mother."
The rest of dinner goes by in near silence, with the only exceptions being small talk and the sounds of silverware scraping food open. When the meal concludes, Kree stays back to help Mother clean the dishes. As the two scrub the dinner scum, Mother speaks with a smirk.
"You know, if there is something on your mind, you can always tell me, right?"
Kree freezes in place temporarily before letting out a sigh, he knew there was no lying from Mother. "I... I didn't want to say this, not while Aeon and Venus where present... But... I've always wanted to see the world they made and play on. Cause, they sometimes want to play with me on my worlds, so... why can't I with them, you know?"
Mother smiles toward her adopted son, resting a hand upon his shoulder with a finger to her lips, discreetly telling him to keep a secret.
"I understand sweetie... Tell you what, if you manage to sneak into their room, you have my permission to play on whatever world you'd like. Plus, they hardly sleep in their own room anyway due to how messy it is... but you never heard that from me, ok?"
The young god beems as he places a finger upon his lips, returning the gesture.
Understood, Mother!
Later that night...
All is quiet on the cosmic front as one young creating god lies awake. He soon gets out of his bed and quietly makes way out his room. He grins, pure silent joy plastered on his face. Because tonight was the night. The night he finally gets to see, for the first time, his sisters world.
Eventually, after slowly sneaking across the floor. He found it. The door to their room. It was a simple red painted door with a knob on the left. The young god inhales and slowly exhales as he grips and twists the knob before stepping foot into his sisters room.
The moment he was completely in, he looks around in awe as there was soo much stuff everywhere. So many cool collectables ranging from a strange golden covenant sitting on the bed, to a weird octagonal shape reading in all caps "arret" with small holes in it, Venus and Aeon had just about anything and everything!
By far, the thing that awed him the most was how infinite the ceiling is, as though it were an entire galaxy staring at him. To the side, Kree notices a swirling bright vortex spewing out items, probably from where the sisters get their cool merch from.
Before the young god could get to lost in his star-struck awe, he hears the familiar sound of a screen clicking on. He turns and, sure enough, sees a cathode screen tv glowing in all its retro glory. Like a moth to a lamp, he is drawn in to the glow, sitting crisscross applesauce before the tv as an intro begins to play.
"Legend tells of an ancient artifact that can grant a woman's wish...
THE SKULL HEART
However, if she is impure of heart her wish will be corrupted and she will be turned into an immensely powerful, twisted being of destruction...
THE SKULLGIRL
A new Skullgirl has risen; who will defeat her and claim the Skull Heart?"
At that, a brief flash by of the characters in game, some of them Kree saw from the merch scattered around, before the title of the game appears, appropriately titled "Skullgirls".
The gaming god picks up a nearby controller, switching the weird box shaped controller out for the more comfortable one in his hands before pressing the A button and is immediately brought to the file select screen.
His mouth hangs open in awe as the smooth patient jazz plays in the background, as if waiting on him to make his choice. With file one being his sisters file, Kree goes with file two and begins.
After toying around with the tutorial and getting used to the controls, he exits and selects story mode. Being an animal person, he decides to select Ms. Fortune. Upon selecting the character in question, a cheery upbeat announcer calls out "MS. FORTUNE!" before she lets out a purr, as if to say 'who me?'
Kree then begins her campaign...
"All right, this is it."
He hears as she, Ms. Fortune speaks. The young god sweating slightly from besting the Skullgirl, Marie.
"I... I can't do it. I have so many friends in Little Innsmouth! … Terrible as it was, what happened happened, and made me who I am today. Changing that would be... wrong."
The frame changes to one of Nadia smiling, her eyes still closed.
"That's what the Skull Heart is here for, isn't it? To tempt us into doing the wrong thing! Marie said her wish was similar, and look how she turned out! This stops here!"
Kree's eyes widen as he watches Fortune reel her leg back and destroy the Skull Heart with a kick. With the last of its breath, the accursed macguffin mutters out something about this being a temporary setback and that this world will always be full of skullgirls.
"Hmph, all that for a life lesson? How annoying. Well, better go check in on everyone back in Little Innsmouth… and get some food. I'm exhausted."
The young god let out a snort at the comedic cat's last line. He was about to get up, having thought everything was said and done, before hearing said kitty speak up.
"Mew Nyan, I'm back! I'm starving! It's time for that free meal you promised! Bring me the full Lucky Family Banquet!"
At that, an elderly catfish-looking fellow, Yu-Wan, comes forth looking worried.
"Nadia! There you are! Minette has ben kidnapped! All of the River King's daughters! And others, too! Little Innsmouth is in a panic!"
"What?! Who would dare do such a thing?!"
Fortune-tly, at Nadia's outraged question, a man with black hair wearing a brown fedora appears.
"That's where I come in. My name is Irvin. I'm a private detective. The River King hired me to find his daughters, so if you have any information that might help, I'd appreciate it if yo shared it. The proprietor of this fine establishment was telling me that there have been numerous mafia sightings in the area recently. That's the only lead we've got, but kidnapping certainly fits the mob's M.O. We're at a loss as to why they'd be targeting Dagonian women, though."
'Yeesh, got anymore lines in there detective motormouth?' Kree rolls his eyes as Nadia finally gets the chance to speak up anger crossing her features as she says something about the Mafia and that maybe Marie was right before the scene changes.
"Irvin, I'm coming with you. Those black-hearted bastards already took one family from me, and like hell I'm going to let them do it again."
With that, the scene changes one last time as Nadia Fortune speaks her final line of her story campaign.
"Hang in there, Minette -- we'll find you!"
Kree sits there, dumbfounded as the credits begin to roll before skipping them, being brought back to the menu. He blinks before feeling his eye twitch. The ending felt very unsatisfying but surely that was just the one time... right? The young god, exits back to the file select screen and, against his better judgement, picks his sisters file, wanting to watch the other cutscenes.
…
Some time later, the young god finishes the last cutscene... and boy is he not happy. Every. Single. One had an unsatisfying end and the few ones that potentially had a good
ending either had a twist that ruined the moment or were just deranged! Kree grits his teeth before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
"This... This is unacceptable. Something must be done. Something must change... but what?" As the young god begins to ponder, the opening cinematic begins to play once more.
"Legend tells of an ancient artifact that can grant a woman's wish..."
Wait... a woman's wish... Kree's eyes widen as he grins with glee. Of course, it makes sense, in order to fix something, one must first break that something. In this case, Kree will have to break the rules of the sisters world. He looks around swiftly, as though his head were on a swivel, when he finds an item that might work. He picks up what appears to be a hybrid of controller and keyboard. The latter being the most important part.
He swaps the controller he was using for the keyboard-controller hybrid before selecting the last empty file. He inhales and exhales before warming his hands up. Once done, he opens up console commands, and begins to live up to his namesake by creating.
After mere minutes, he finishes. Now, to give a name for his vessel, his creation. Kree scratches his head as he tries to come up with a name.
'Let's see here... Something simple but not too noticeable... Kind of like Aeon's name... Aeon... A-eon... A on... Ar on...'
A lightbulb goes off in the young god's head as he types the name of his creation before sending it. He then leans back and watches the progress bar fill up, his creation entering the world. Upon the progress bar reaching one-hundred percent and flashing a checkmark, the creating god gives a two finger salute with one thing on his mind.
'Good luck, Aaron.'