The writing for OddSwap AU Episode 2 is done! Also, for now on, with every episode rewrite I will have accompanying thumbnails like the one above (pre-drawn ones included + new ones). I’ve also written some things out, written new things in, and this episode would be longer (and this post since I’ll be going into more detail).
(disclaimer: I am more an artist than a writer so I apologize for potentially off writing. criticism is welcome, unnecessary insults are not)
With that said, here is my envision for Episode 2: Heartbeat!
The flashback sequence that begins the episode starts off mostly the same. D walks back from the encounter with the humans to wash the dishes until suddenly running into T. T helps her up, smiling and seems to have some understanding of her, a deeper one that goes beyond language. Their gentle moment is, of course, ruined by A, knocking over D in an act of spite. T and A argue until Vanessa arrives and they stop. A remarks seeing a drone stand behind her, and before we can see who it is, the memory ends.
D wakes up startled and falls from her resting spot, much like N. After recovering, she hears arguing from the landing pod, and with a sigh, walks over.
Cyn stands in front of a mirror, noticing her eye glitching to a strange symbol. T takes notice, but to avoid speaking of it she snatches a wrench with her tail and teases Cyn with it, keeping it out of reach. T questions her about fixing the ship, saying it is pointless to do so. Cyn dismisses it, going on about her plan, whilst D enters. Cyn explains that she isn’t trying to fix the ship, rather instead pick at it to find clues as to who sent the disassembly drones. T perks up at this, but before she could ask how she knew that, someone knocks at the pod.
Cut to this scene. The two workers talk, mentioning one repairman disappearing, and Frank stays behind to fix the ceiling, unfortunately in darkness. A’s body isn’t present, something he notices. Frank also notices how there seems to be spider webs around. He suddenly hears a scurrying noise, and points his flashlight to a trail of oil. He follows it, hearing a faint, muffled noise. The trail ends abruptly, past a few carrier crates. Frank looks up to see the first repairman, trapped in a huge cobweb, alongside other corpses and parts wrapped up. Before he could do anything else, something huge lands behind him. He turns around, looking up to see seven pink eyes in the dark. The thing roars, he screams, and it cuts away.
Cyn looks outside the pod to see Neo and Beau as the ones knocking. Neo tells her that they have to talk, and talk privately. Reluctantly, she follows them, leaving the disassembly drones. Beau gives her back her gun, talking about her banishment. He tells her how Liz has gotten more controlling and finicky about security, and that she’s a lot harsher to her brother. Neo shrugs it off, saying her anger is misdirected. Neo sighs, then tells her why they’re really there. He says how people have been going missing, and Liz suspects Cyn and the disassembly drones as the cause. Cyn denies it immediately. Beau chimes in, mentioning how he saw A’s body crawl away. This got both of Neo and Cyn’s attention, and they decide to look into it. Cyn brings along D, much to Neo’s displeasure.
Cut to this scene. This scenes plays out like usual. The shitty hologram, and the murder. The only minor change is that a web shoots out and grabs the worker instead, dragging them into the vent. The solver camera come out and create more holograms, and alludes to a much bigger mech in the darkness. More cobwebs appear.
Cyn, D, Beau and Neo arrive to Outpost 3, the doorkeeper refusing to let Cyn and D in. Cyn demands entree whilst D asks politely. Beau tries to reason with the doorkeeper and tells them they’re trying to solve the mystery. The doorkeeper scoffs, saying that D and Cyn are just here to cover their tracks. This makes Neo snap at them. The same symbol that Cyn’s eye glitched to happens to Neo in that moment. The doorkeeper lets up, and Cyn takes notice of that, a little put-off. Then the four enter and make their way to a site of disappearances.
Cyn, D, Beau and Neo watch the investigation. The drones are shit-talking Cyn, making her shrink away from the situation. D asks if she is alright, to which Cyn dismisses it with a pessimistic remark. Neo notices that the drones look weird, and as he does, the holograms abruptly glitch out. They watch as the only real drone that is dragged away by a giant claw. Beau stands up, chasing after them. The other three follow him in a hurry.
Beau chases after the claw into the evacuation spot/warehouse. The claw and drone are gone. The group notices the amount of cobwebs and entangled items here, and a repeating error message engraved in containers. The error message has the same symbol Neo and Cyn’s eyes glitch into. Cyn comes to the realization that this “solver” is the cause behind the disassembly drones regrowing their parts back, and that it collects matter to reboot their hosts. Before going more into it, they all suddenly hear a growl. A loud, guttural growl. The group freezes, flashlights darting to find the source. A web shoots out, ensnaring Beau and dragging him into the dark. D fires a ninja star, slicing the web and running up to free him. Before she could, a large claw smacks her back into Cyn and Neo, and for a moment the seven pink eyes appear again. The three crash into a wall, and the claw scoops up Beau and scurries away. The three stand up, and run after him.
Cyn, D and Neo head into the Cyro-Sleep Chambers in their chase. More webbing is here. They stop, seeing the shitty hologram of Beau, asking them to come closer for an appointment. D throws a ninja star again, through the hologram and freeing the real Beau. A solver camera descends, revealing part of the monster here. Beau thanks them, invites them to his next shindig, then runs off.
More solver cameras descend, shrugging off the invitation. Cyn immediately questions them, assuming it’s A. The solver cameras eagerly reveal that it has done something better to A, and one camera’s light glitches from pink to purple. D realizes that there’s more claws appearing and is suddenly grabbed and dragged off before Neo and Cyn can see it. The solver distracts the two with a hologram of their parents, and cue to the line,
“It hurts our feelings you don’t remember us.”
The hologram vanishes. The purple-eyed solver camera reveals its annoyance towards the two, and says it’s simply getting rid of them. For some reason it makes a comment saying that Neo looks cute and might be spared for that, and it very quickly backtracks and retreats out of shame. Cyn demands an answer for that random compliment, until suddenly from the darkness comes the seven pink eyes and the growl again.
It finally reveals Eldritch A, in all of her grotesque spider glory. She’s hunched a little to fit into the chambers. Eldritch A immediately lunges forward, and the three fight for a moment. A bats Neo away, claw opening to reveal the web shooters, and fires a web at him, leaving just Cyn and Eldritch A.
A missile fires at A, and in comes in D, shouting for Cyn to shoot her gun. Cyn hesitates, still shaken up by the hologram of her parents. She gives the gun to D, only for it reveal the same purple-eyed camera tricking her. A claw hits her into a wall, and Eldritch A grabs her. The camera says something along the lines of, “Did you really think D would save you? No. We’re all monsters here.”
Before Eldritch A could devour Cyn, a chainsaw stabs her right through the torso. It drops Cyn, and swooping in from behind is the real D. D kicks forward the gun, watching it turn red as it’s about to explode. D grabs Cyn and Neo after rescuing him, then flies as fast as possible to a safer distance, shielding them from the explosion. The explosion destroys Eldritch A and partially the cyro-sleep chambers.
After the explosion, D backs off, apologizing for her disappearance, explaining frantically that the solver had captured her and was trying to kill her in secrecy. A core escapes from the rubble, doing the whole “sneaky sneaky. Sneaking away. Get snuck upon” thing. D stabs it with her tail until it dies.
Hearing incoming voices, D offers her hand to Cyn. Cyn flinches, moving away. Neo stands in the way, responding with aggression. He’s the one to say, “What are you things?”
D backs off, and with a quiet “i’m sorry for failing you”, climbs up the wall to leave.
The incoming voices reveal Liz, alongside Beau and the people he went off to find and rescue from the giant web. They find Cyn and Neo, and out of nowhere Cyn hugs Liz. Liz is obviously taken aback, especially since neither one liked each other. Now Liz feels pity. She and Neo spot D leaving. She stares with anger, and Neo has a wrathful look in his optics, eyes glitching to the solver’s symbol. The rest of the group searches the perimeter for the monster. All the while, the purple eyed solver camera watches Neo with a strange look in its eye.
D is now sulking in the landing pod. T looks back, a little upset. She pushes that feeling away though.
Now back in Outpost 3, Cyn lies on her bed, staring at her ceiling. Her ceiling has a hanging conspiracy board, and a giant solver symbol is drawn onto it.
And that was OddSwap AU Episode Two!
