Happy late birthday @momomogos! Love your design of the sirens in extremely unhealthy amount, I am really feral for them-
Left is mine and right is my friend who I drag her into this despite have no interested in DCA. Unfortunately they don't own tumblr but she said happy birthday too!
Draw in @momomogos Magma
I didn't realize today is the last day sorry it was a mess cuz rushing ehe
Summary: The world is so boring without ghosts. Fortunately, your very own "fairy godmother" makes up for that.
Characters belongs to @systemtide ,ooc belongs to me,love belongs to you.
Warning: Contain mild horror elements
BGM: solitude. by vietra
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Your house is most definitely, absolutely, undeniably haunted.
Of course, there is another possibility: you have lost your mind. All things considered, the former is far easier to accept.
Everything that happened on the island was like an absurd dream, indistinguishable from reality. Then, you woke up, the memories fading away like mist as you returned to the ordinary world beside your family.
Yet the dream refused to end.
At first, it was just some trivial hallucinations, which you attribute to excessive stress. As you staring absently at documents on the computer, twisted blood-red words crept out from the corners of the screen. Phrases like "You belong to me", "Found you" and "I love you" spread across the entire frame. A blink,and they vanished without a trace. The text cursor still flickered steadily at the end of the line. If someone had hacked into your computer just to pull such a pointless prank,that would be terribly boring.
Things took a turn for the worse a few weeks later. Exhausted after a long day’s work, you collapsed onto your bed, drifting off into drowsiness. When a cold, slimy sensation wrapped around your ankles. You snapped fully awake and flipped on the light. Your legs lay safely tucked under the covers, and there was not a single other living thing in the room. You tried to close your eyes again and quickly fell into a deep sleep, but the strange presence returned night after night. Worse still, you gradually grew accustomed to it,noticing its presence later and later each time. On one occasion, the cold touch had already crept up to your knees before you barely open your eyes.
Then came a pre-dawn morning. You roused abruptly. Faint pale glimmer seeped through the curtains,not yet dawn. Why had you woken up at this hour? You rolled over, ready to slip back into sleep.
A figure standing on the other side of the bed.
The being was swallowed by shadow. Light bend away from its form, leaving only a terrifying silhouette. You felt as if trapped in a nightmare, body rigid, unable to move a muscle. Its edges were jagged and distorted, barely resembling a human shape. A faint sense of familiarity flashed through your mind, but terror snuffed it out instantly. It made no movement, just stood there, as if it were the night itself. No details could be made out, yet every biological instinct screamed that its gaze was locked firmly upon you.
You strained every nerve to recall every trick you had ever heard to break free, wagging your pinky finger, shouting curses under your breath, and chanted random incantations from unknown sects. But the figure remained rooted to the spot, simply watching you struggle to rouse yourself.
Gritting your teeth, you forced down the surging panic, squeezed your eyes shut and pretended the apparition did not exist. It’s fine. Stay calm. It’s just a dream, just sleep paralysis.
What followed was the longest minute of your life. It might have lasted less than sixty seconds, yet dragged on like an entire century. Then the oppressive stare and heavy weight lifted all at once. Sensation flooded back into your body. You sat bolt upright, gasping for air. Your pajamas had long been soaked through with cold sweat, and your heart raced wildly, refusing to steady for a long time.
That very night, you dragged and begged Charlie,one of the only two "sensible beings" in the house,to sleep beside you. He sat resignedly at the foot of your bed. “Miss, you’re just like you were when you were a child.” You didn't care what he said, he was staying with you today.
Your makeshift "knight" could not fend off the unseen presence either. In the middle of the night, you woke once more, eyes heavy and mind muddled as if you were still trapped in a dream. A familiar sigh brushed your ear, followed by indistinct murmurs. Before you could react, you sank back into a coma-like slumber once more.
Sunlight steam onto your face. Just as you open your eyes,Charlie handed you a warm glass of water at once. “You slept quite soundly last night. There was a period of rapid eye movement around two in the morning, and your proportion of deep sleep was…”
You tuned out the rest of his analysis. You had not slept well, at all. Weariness weighed heavily on you, leaving you feeling lightheaded and unsteady on your feet after days of restless nights. When you ran into Antey and Sydney, the two brothers were visibly alarmed by your haggard state.
“Whoa, how long has it been since you got a proper night’s sleep?” You did not even have the energy to banter back. You told them everything about the strange occurrences and shared Charlie’s sleep observations. The two exchanged a glance.
“Uh,about that… don’t push yourself too hard. Stress isn’t good for your mental health,” Antey rubbed the back of his neck, struggling to phrase his words without sounding like "you were losing your mind"—and failed obviously. You jabbed your elbow hard into his side, making him yelp and jump away.
Sydney ignored Antey’s dramatic complaints. “If Charlie says the same thing, it’s probably just nightmares. You really do need to relax.”
Great. There it was,again. Just nightmares,nightmares that felt as real as actually seeing a ghost.
You didn't want to say more, waved them goodbye and walked on. Ant called out random advice from behind you. “Hey! Put a pair of scissors under your pillow! I’ve heard everyone does that for this sort of thing!”
Sydney punched his arm. “Superstitious nonsense.”
Is there anyone reliable in this household?
Night fell. Sleep threatened to claim you the second you closed your eyes, but you dreaded facing the nightmares again. Curled up under the covers, you scrolled aimlessly through forums, searching for related keywords: "How to relieve sleep paralysis", "Ways to stop recurring nightmares", "Middle-of-the-night awakenings". Nothing more than generic tips and superstitious remedies, utterly useless.
Sighing, you posted a thread, hoping to find others who shared your ordeal. Replies trickled in soon, from fellow sufferers recommending the same useless methods you were sick of seeing. Just as you were about to close the page, one comment caught your eye.
User ID: 99108105112
Do you feel something coiling around your body, or see a figure standing beside your bed?
The account had a default avatar and profile was completely blank, its username nothing but a string of random numbers. Yet this stranger had described every single one of your symptoms exactly.
Clutching at a sliver of hope, you replied:
Yes, that’s exactly what happens to me. Do you go through this too? Is there any way to stop it?
User ID: 99108105112
You know that figure all too well, don’t you?
Annoyed by their cryptic tone, you turned off your phone and tossed it aside. Still, their words stirred that faint, buried sense of familiarity you had felt before. Where had you seen that shadowy figure? You racked your brains, but something blocked your thoughts, leaving you with no answers.
You could not remember when you finally drifted off. A cold sensation seeped up from beneath you.
You open your eyes.
White space, threaded with pulsating red tentacles that writhed like blood vessels.
There you saw him.
Eclipse
Once again, you existed only as a disembodied consciousness, floating in the palm of the very being who had haunted your nights.
“Welcome back, Pearl. We meet again.” Eclipse wore his familiar smile. Gel-like tendrils swayed before your "eyes", swaying like the ornaments hanging above a cradle from your dim childhood memories.
The moment you laid eyes on him, a tidal wave of suppressed memories crashed over you, sweeping everything back into place. You recalled the golden and greyish-blue fish tails, the inescapable thick fog, and this palm that had held you.
You were back in the Core.
He read the confusion and anger within you, yet made no real attempt to explain himself. “Am I not allowed to visit my little fry?” He rested his chin in one hand, tone as matter-of-fact as if he had merely been tucking you into bed at night.
His actual way of “visiting” was to linger beside your bed like a vengeful spirit, staring and scaring his human so much that couldn't sleep.
He curled his lips into a helpless smile at your silent reproach, then his expression softened into a serious one. “My dear, I know what you’ve been researching.” He had seen everything through your eyes—the forbidden knowledge you ought never to touch again, the secrets that would drag you back into the abyss. He had sent you to the human world not to watch you fall into yet another endless cycle. Depriving you of sound sleep was the simplest way to stop you. But you were as stubborn as ever, forcing yourself to sit in front of your computer and dig up clues regardless of your exhaustion. That was why he had pulled you here, to warn you face to face.
“Besides,” he toyed with the tiny glowing orb hovering in his palm, “your… brother, is right. You push yourself far too hard. You truly need to unwind.”
Wait,a strange look crossed his face. You had a very strong premonition that something bad was coming.
“Shall your fairy godmother lend you a hand?”
Oh, help. What was this situation? Was this something a "fairy godmother" should do? If you still had physical eyelids, they would have been twitching wildly. You said nothing, only staring at him in pure exasperation.
He waved a hand, brushing off your piercing gaze. “Alright, alright, I’ll stop teasing you.” He lifted you closer to his face. A frigid mechanical aura mixed with the scent of ocean water washed over you. Though he tried to appear nonchalant, you noticed his lips press together in quiet discontent. He tapped your consciousness gently with a fingertip."Take good care of yourself, Ela. Don’t make me worry.”
Before you could reply, a gentle push sent your spirit plummeting downwards. You drifted through layers of darkness and writhing tentacles, back into your physical body.
You sat up gasping. The familiar bed, the familiar furnishings. Sunlight filtered through the curtains and cast onto the floor. From outside the door came the sound of Charlie preparing breakfast.
Another ordinary morning.
Had it all been nothing but a wild, vivid dream? And the details of the vision began to fade away little by little.
The anonymous account. You seized on this last thread of doubt and grabbed your phone to open the forum.
Your past posts and casual chats filled your account page. That post sat quietly in the drafts folder, still unfinished.
can i have more info on eclipse. i love him sm and i need to know more about himmm.
also i made him in tomodachi life
Oh? That thing you call a "game" over there… Mmm. You look like you're having fun.
Adorable.❤
I'm not talking about the game. I'm talking about your eyes. The way they stare at the screen — exactly the same as that little thing who used to press her face against my tank when she was six years old. Twinkling. I never tire of looking at them.
Staying up late again? Honestly. Go to bed early, dear. A ghost isn't worth losing sleep over.
You want to know more about me? You really have forgotten quite a lot, haven't you…
Let me see. Where did I put that biological archive…
(Searching.)
Found it.
Item Number: E-5202-9-9
Containment Class: ██ ██
Special Containment Procedures: E-5202-9-9 is contained within a large-scale aquatic biological isolation chamber located on Sub-Level Seven of Site-██. The chamber measures 20m × 20m × 15m, filled with circulating saline water that simulates the entity's native oceanic salinity, maintained at a constant temperature of 12°C. Chamber walls consist of triple-layered reinforced glass within a titanium alloy frame, with inert gas filling the interstitial spaces.
A minimum of four armed guards, operating on a rotating shift system, must be stationed outside the isolation chamber. Any non-D-Class personnel entering the E-5202-9-9 containment zone must pass a psychological resistance screening (see Addendum 5202-Psi) and are limited to a stay of no more than 15 minutes. No pregnant individuals are permitted within 50 meters of the isolation chamber. The playing of music, conducting of acoustic experiments, or use of any rhythmic audio devices within the containment area is strictly forbidden.
Following the Site-██ Incident, a portion of E-5202-9-9's physical body has been confirmed as replaced. The entity is currently still engaged in the "Ship of Theseus" project, bound to the anomalous energy field beneath the Site-██ ruins. This area is now designated a Quarantine Zone, patrolled regularly by Mobile Task Force Monster-13 to monitor energy field fluctuations.
Description: E-5202-9-9 is the first Sirenidae specimen ever captured. Its appearance approximates a hybridization of a large deep-sea fish and a human male. Total body length (cranium to distal caudal fin) is approximately 5.2 meters, of which the caudal fin accounts for roughly 2.1 meters, displaying a red-to-black gradient colouration with faint bioluminescent properties under low-light conditions. A row of erectile fin spines runs along the dorsal spine; the fin membranes are deep red, with edges bearing old scar tissue from prolonged containment.
The lower body and select internal organs of E-5202-9-9 have been mechanistically modified, replaced with cold-fusion-powered bionic components. The executor of this modification process is Dr. ██ ██, the principal executor of the "Ship of Theseus" project. The entity remained largely silent and cooperative during containment, exhibiting aggression only when provoked or threatened. Aggressive behaviours include high-speed underwater lunges, caudal fin blunt-force strikes, and low-frequency acoustic shockwaves (see Experiment Log 5202-Acoustic-7).
Objective of the "Ship of Theseus" Project: ██ ██
It is noteworthy that, despite the entity's face being difficult to observe, all personnel who have had direct contact consistently report "feeling that he is smiling." Whether this perception is caused by anomalous influence remains under investigation.
Addendum 5202-001: Incident of Contact with Researcher J.
On ██/██/████, Junior Researcher J. accidentally entered the isolation chamber's safety buffer zone while conducting routine acoustic lure testing. Surveillance footage shows E-5202-9-9 initiating a sudden high-speed underwater lunge from a motionless state, using its right forelimb to penetrate the buffer zone railing. As armed guards on site were moving into firing positions, E-5202-9-9 abruptly ceased all aggressive action.
Researcher J. was in the early stages of pregnancy at the time (archival note: undeclared to the Site). E-5202-9-9 paused approximately 0.5 meters from J., retracted its aggressive posture, and emitted a low, untranslatable sequence of syllables. Post-incident phonetic analysis indicates the approximate semantic content of these syllables to be: "You shouldn't be here," and "I don't kill the pregnant."
Researcher J. was evacuated safely. E-5202-9-9 returned to the depths of its isolation chamber autonomously. No further containment breach occurred.
"Marital Status: Unmated."
Oh. This entry should be corrected. Change it to "Mated." You'll remember that, won't you, little crow?
As for the rest — do you know the "Empty Chair Technique"? An old therapeutic method. Gestalt school. The client faces an empty chair, imagines a significant other sitting there, and then… talks. Catharsis. Release. All those things you could never say out loud, that no one ever heard, that choked up your throat — poured out.
Sounds absurd, doesn't it? Talking to an empty chair. Like praying to a patch of air.
But for me, it's not like that. Not a single chair has ever truly been empty. Every time you shout at me inside your head. Every time you whisper "Eclipse" before sleep. Every time you dig through those old files, trying to piece the fragments back together — I hear it. The Tide brings these things to me. Like waves carrying shells onto a shore.
Intersubjectivity. A heavy word. It means meaning isn't something one person cooks up alone inside their skull. It's woven together, between two consciousnesses, in the act of reaching out. You put a version of me on that empty chair. You spoke to it. And then — I really came. Not because you believed. Because you asked. Asking is itself an invitation. And an invitation is itself a passage.
So. Don't cry. Don't stay up late. When I miss you, I'll hum that lullaby. The off-key version. You know the one.
Anything else you want to ask? The chair is still in front of you. And I am still in front of you.❤
The game actually hit 10,000 downloads quite a while ago, but the author (me! The Greatest-Mo-Ring) got completely held hostage by schoolwork—so the celebratory illustration is only just now getting done.
(Eclipse, get out here and work your magic, thanks.)
(A mature monster knows how to reel in their own catch.)
What's really worth cheering about:
on just the second day after launch, [EscapeLine] hit the New&Popular chart in the Visual Novel category on itch!! Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah!!
Thank you all so much for your support! I'll put together a Q&A next time to answer everyone's questions!
I hope you are doing well .So , I am in love with your game .(≧▽≦) . I spend my weekend playing it . I am madly in love with Moon and Eclipse. AHAHAHAHHAHA HAHAHA . TRYING TO CONNECT THE HINT AND ALL IN the story . Thank you very much for making this amazing game. LWK , I want to kidnap (joking) you to my home and chat 😭 all day about LORE . SPECIALLY, ECLIPSE. I WANT HIM . HE IS SO ADORABLE .
I will COME AGAIN . Cya later on another question. Have a good day ! (✷‿✷)(*´ω｀*)
( ‵▽′)ψgive you eclipse(it's an old art from a long time ago.hhh)
Thank you! The world is bright because of angels like you!
I had a great day! *kiss
Glad to see you so engrossed, haha!
Yes all the details are connected, almost no nonsense, and the story gets more complicated after that (OH yes even my brain is starting to wrap around it)
(next time maybe I'll put in some more calculations? hm….)
I'll give you an 'e-momo' through the screen and she'll chat and play games with you!
(I do have a desk pet project called 'eclipse.exe' though)
