#jumpnovember

[leashofveins]

Parasocial - Jumpnovember Day 2

[dysembodiment]

okay. lady. Look. At some point the fact that every time we fight a mind manipulator it somehow leads to your personality shattering into many different played-up facets is. Like. You're always tearfully reuniting with yourself, you know? and at some point I ask questions about how this doesn't even seem like the villain's modus operandi in most cases. and also none of the rest of us ever react like that. So like. Do you wanna talk? Do you need to talk about this?

i mean look. I'm starting to hit it off with the angry embattled one that contains all of your frustrations with the team. yeah I mean despite that we found common ground we sort of had a tender moment where she decided I wasn't that bad and where I agreed to tell the boss to stop blowing our budget on costume changes. we like hit it off I agree with her on a lot of things tbh. yeah I know she's supposed to drive us apart but she's real observant, and also like. You make those evil dresses look good. you should try those more. we agreed to go for coffee at that nice place you never take me to, next time. I'm assuming there'll be a next time?

[sleepyjump]

in two days, HYPNOVEMBER BEGINS.... and i made u an extra-weird sleepyjumpin' challenge prompt list! featuring THEMED DAYS, you can draw, write, post, sing, hypnotize, or otherwise make something big or small for any of these daily themes -- if you want!

for those daring enough to try sleepyjumpin', RADIO TOWER is our first SMOOCH-UR-COMPUTER SATURDAY....

(and if "U" could share this around even if you don't wanna do it... it might just inspire someone!)

--- PLAINTEXT PROMPT LIST BELOW! ---

Radio Tower

Parasocial

Fourth Wall

Meds.

Author's Poorly-Disguised Special Interest

Butterfly Effect

Cult

Elevator

Time Loop

Annotated

Custody

All Part of the Show!

Dream Logic

Amulet

Factory

Introject

Forcegenre

Last Resorts

You Just Keep Coming Back...

Whodunnit?

Smoke

Dark Pattern

Cognitohazard

Narrate the Narrator

Lamb

Anything You Need to Hear

Carrier Pigeon

Plushie

Crush!

Ozymandias

Day themes: Smooch-your-computer Saturday, Symbolic Sunday, Meta Monday, Toxic Tuesday, Wordy Wednesday, Thinker Thursday, Casual Friday

[bare-witch]

whats that honey? "where am i? what am i doing here?" oh silly me i forgot to give you your meds earlier

what are they? oh they're your good girl pills!! you want to be a good girl right?

thats right baby you want to be such a good girl for mommy, all that stress must be so hard for you, lets just make you a good girl again~

its okay baby that fuzzy feeling in your head means that its working, it'll all be better soon baby

your boobs are getting so big already!! im so excited to see how much they'll grow, and they're already so sensitive~ i love seeing you squirm while i touch them~

you should be all better now baby, you're becoming such a good girl for mommy, if we keep going you might not even need the pills anymore, you'll just be a good girl forever!

you'd love that so much wouldn't you baby? yess you would, yess you would, no more thinking or worrying, just a good girl for mommy forever!

[robot-joint-crush-point]

Jumpnovember day 3: fourth wall

“If it’s free, you’re the product.”

This was super fun to write! Thanks to @sleepyjump for making the prompt list.

It’s hard to fall through a crack and slip from being a person all the way down to  being a character. Though, calling what had happened to her “falling” is a disservice to the reality of the situation. It had worked so hard to get her here. It had worked so hard to drag her down. 

What’s it? 

The game. The program she’s already forgetting the name of. 

It had showed up on her desktop one day, right between her third,fourth and fifth “FINAL” project files. She was bored and frustrated and she had used XOR instead of NOR and fucked up the whole dataset she was working with, so…in a moment of weak curiosity, she clicked on the icon. 

She didn’t fall then. No, that would have been too easy.  It didn’t happen when she started exploring the tutorial, or when she rolled for the starter characters. But she did begin to stumble when she saw them. 

Beautiful, shining girls with technicolor hair and full, gorgeous figures. Par for the course for these kinds of “gatcha slop”, right? 

Well, these definitely were a bit more varied in design. And a lot more risque. And when she opened character select and stared into their eyes, it looked like they were looking back at her, smiling, beckoning. 

She didn’t fall then. She played all night, exploring the beautiful shining world. She was tempted to call it a “shitty Genshin ripoff”, but she didn’t. Even if it didn’t necessarily tread new ground, even if it was just some dime a dozen fantasy slop…there was something about the story. About the girls. Something alive, a spark of truth and hope and joy. At least, that’s what she convinced herself. 

A spark of light in the deep ocean never means anything good. 

She stumbled to work in the morning, but the game kept creeping back into her thoughts. The workday was a blur, and she booted it up as soon as she got home. 

She was met with an animation of the girls on her team running her way, cooing about how happy they were that she came back. 

That moment soon became the highlight of the day. Her increasingly monotonous days. She’d trudge through work, her mind ever occupied with thoughts of Juniper, the marksman with a wit as sharp as her arrows, and Cassi, the bubbly but mischievous geomancer, and Saira, the quiet, dignified swordswoman….and most of all, thoughts of Nelum, the current banner being run. A flowery girl with a wry smile, white hair that faded to pink at the end, and a beautiful silken dress. 

She had seen her in quests, and wandering around the map. She moved so lightly, with such elegance. She wanted her on her team, so, so badly, but all her rolls just kept giving her Cassi constellations. 

But if she would grind more, 

stay up a bit later, 

leave work a bit earlier, 

Try a little harder…. 

She might gain enough gems to roll again and again, and get the prize. 

And that was when she started to fall. 80 pulls in, in the middle of the night. The screen was as big as the entire world. And finally, it was glowing with the rainbow hues of a five-star. 

Nelum’s silhouette appeared on her screen. Reached towards her. 

Broke through the screen like it was water. 

She would have looked away, she would have slammed her laptop shut, but she just couldn’t. She couldn’t. 

“I’m sorry.” 

Nelum grabbed ahold of her wrist, and dragged her through. The ground dropped out beneath her. Her body dropped away from her. She caught one glimpse of her vacant eyes on the other side of the screen, before it was replaced with starry sky. And that’s when she really fell. 

And that’s when she felt the story rummaging through her mind. 

Discarding or downplaying traits that overlapped too much with the other girls—Juniper was the clever one, so she felt her wit and reaction time dull. 

But they needed a studious one, so her “book smarts” remained. Maybe they could have a running gag where she kept falling into dungeon traps and the other girls would save her? Yes, smart but clumsy and naive, that would be fun. 

Rewriting her memories to be lore accurate—computers aren’t a thing in this world, so now she was a cartographer for the guild, and she remembers her apprenticeship like it was yesterday. 

Tweaking her design—purple hair, yellow eyes. Bigger tits, bigger thighs.  A cute little cloak, knee high boots and uniform shorts. 

Writing her into something that would sell, into beautiful bait.  Locking it all in. Aurora, the cutely hapless bookworm. Element: Logos. Weapon: spear. 

She hit the ground. It didn’t hurt. She was standing at the guild’s library, perusing the same section of the shelf, over and over again. She didn’t notice. She didn’t realize. She couldn’t realize. What kind of game would this be if they gave every character fully functional ai? When the next player comes through to start her quest, Aurora will kick into life, and from then on she’ll be on their team, and run to meet them whenever they open the game, cooing about how happy she is that they came back. 

[misserable]

RADIO TOWER

…reports of an unregistered neuroweapon test conducted on public netspace earlier today were found to be entirely unfounded, says independent Pravdivost consultant Tanner Nova. If you’ve been affected by anything shown in this program, don’t hesitate to leave us a message at…

Even now, jacked out and with her rig powered down, Adalaide felt it. Burning a hole through the back of her head when she turned away, its light shining clean through the wall of her apartment when she didn't. Pulsing, calling, ever processing, ever more. She’d just not gotten a good enough look at it in the net, that must be it. Something so complex, so intricate, constructed beyond understanding, she must just not’ve fully taken it in. The image that’d been beamed into her head, sourced directly from the NBN clandestine servers, flagging every tripwire she’d had against malicious advertising, but she no longer cared.

Her emergency bag sat by the door, waiting. She knew precisely where she needed to go - it stood, not quite beyond the horizon, so very, very visible. All she needed to do was walk. So she ran.

[leashofveins]

You are the temple and the preacher.

My ears are attuned to you only.

You are brighter than any star.

I love you.

[sleepyjump]

my husband doesn't want me to use the radio

and he tells me i can't keep staring out the window.

and he has the rest of his life to enjoy. the simple pleasures. the cabin life.

he can lose himself in the winter wind whistling through the woods

as long as the dishes are done and the floors are swept and the garden is trimmed and there's a hot meal waiting for him

when he returns from his evening walks in the mountains

under my tower

my light

my star

my angel, blinking I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U

encoded in the winks and blinks

of a lonely lady staring back.

every night

when he's asleep

i creep out of bed

so i can stare back at the light

and have waking dreams

of a woman that warps like water,

and when my husband finds me in the morning

the radio is on

and nothing is playing but static.

my eyelids flutter

as these mournful memories haunt my harrowed head

the lady of the static whispering them in my ear

and i turn the volume up a little

so i can't hear anything

but her sweet nothing

the atmospheric noise

the universe saying

I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U.

somewhere, below her steel bones

she tells me that my captor's leg has broken

and, as we speak

he is lying in the woods, alone,

mumbling and moaning for me. waiting

and he can see her body

but i can hear her heart

beating

hissing

filling the whole cabin.

and i'm closer to her than he'll ever be.

----

jumpnovember day 1: radio tower