Author's Note

Journey to the Soul (Part 1)

A name entry screen appeared.

"Just stick with the defaults for now. We can change them on Empathy mode."

"I thought Maria was the main character. Why'd Emily show up first?"

"Emily's introduction is the catalyst for what follows. She's one of the deuteragonists."

"Ah. Gotcha."

"When I told you the concept started as two separate stories, Emily was the protagonist of the second. It was originally titled 'Bleeding Machine' after a Cast From Eden lyric. Her parents Robert and Chelsea were originally intended to be killed off by a pack of feral wolves, but Spike thought the whole dead parents shtick was played out since it's in every anime these days."

"Fuckin' weebs, man."

"Emily's controllable on the field during the intro. This part of the game is set in '97 at the beginning of October. Her birthday's on Halloween, so this is just before we get into the real meat of the game. The beginning takes place in Arkansas, one of the states in Earth's North American lore."

The first cutscene showed Emily being awakened by her father. He had curly, dark red hair with glasses.

"Graphics are cool. Kinda has a late PS2-early PS3 feel."

"For some reason, Robert stops wearing the glasses after they move. They just disappear from his face for no reason. That was an inconsistency from the comics I kept in. Wanted to stay faithful to the source material. It didn't disrupt the flow of the story, anyway."

"Probably just got contacts or laser surgery."

"Yeah. We'll go with that."

Rainbow assumed control of Emily. Her first objective was simple. All she had to do was retrieve Emily's clothes and get changed.

"You don't actually see anything, right?"

Twilight rolled her eyes.

"No. The screen cuts to black like Resident Evil 2."

"Just checkin'."

Rainbow pulled out a black shirt, a puffy silver jacket, navy blue jeans, socks, shoes, and a black belt with a silver buckle.

"She'll tie the back of her hair after she's done changing. I put in a little animation for it before you take control again. It was a bit tricky 'cause of the hair physics."

"I'll bet."

Before moving on with the game, Rainbow took some time to take everything in.

"So this is like a small cottage like the ones from the 1600's?"

"Yeah. Chelsea and Robert moved outside the city for a quiet, peaceful life. Emily was conceived, born, and raised here."

"I'm diggin' the music. Nice and soothing with a heavy edge."

"It's from a newer band called Volumes. The 90's stuff kicks in during the wolf attack. From there on, it's pure, unadulterated metalcore until the ending."

"Gotcha. Givin' the player a reprieve from all the dark shit."

"Exactly."

When Emily was done changing, Rainbow left the bathroom.

"I set up the game with an interactive progression system. It won't force you to continue the story until you trigger cutscenes with other characters by pressing the X button near them. I did it that way so you could explore and complete any side-quests in the area before you move on."

"Can you come back and do them later?"

"Yeah, but it's easier to do them as they become available."

"Fair enough."

"Check under Emily's pillow. There's some extra money for shops later. It's measured in the North American currency of dollars."

"It's pretty cool how you mixed pre-established lore with an original story. Makes it feel more real."

"You can explore outside. There's a tree where the attack will happen during the next cutscene. Check the trunk and you'll find an energy drink."

"What's it do?"

"Restores a small amount of your evolution points."

"Guessin' that's this game's version of magic."

"Yahtzee."

"Are there any health items right now?"

"Not until you take control of Maria. There's three energy drinks in her refrigerator and a suture under the right bathroom sink."

"Gotcha."

Once all the items were collected, Rainbow triggered the next phase of the game by speaking with Emily's parents. Not long after breakfast, Emily was hounded by three wolves under the same tree a good ways off from the house. One of them jumped her, leaving a bite wound on the arm she used to defend her face. The child narrowly escaped with her life intact.

"That survival instinct is some powerful shit."

"That was the whole point. She wanted to live. That's a trait often forgotten by the modern world."

"I hear ya. You either have the world at your hooves or you're broke and hungry. It's hard to find a content middle ground."

"But she did."

"Talk about a stroke of luck."

"Check the computer. Robert'll send an SOS to Maria and transition you to her part of the game."

"Gettin' close to the first battle?"

"Eeyup."