The phone rang, and Octavia answered.
“Hey, babe!” came the boisterous voice from the other end of the line. “You up for sushi? Jam Session was telling me about this new place downtown-”
Octavia cut in quick. “Vinyl, I…I’m sorry, I can’t.”
“Hey, it’s fine! What do you want? Just pizza or something? I can bring something by if you-”
“Vinyl,” she whispered urgently, “she’s…she’s coming over.”
A mile away, Vinyl Scratch held her phone in silence for a moment. “Your mom?” she asked, suddenly serious.
Octavia nodded even though her girlfriend couldn’t see her. “I…I just got a text a few minutes ago. She wants to inspect the apartment.”
“Again?!”
“Yes, apparently.”
“I can’t believe this! You know she’s just bossing you around, right?”
Octavia’s fingers trembled. “I, I know but I-”
“I’m coming over.”
“What?!”
Vinyl glanced around for a taxi. “You heard what I said, I’m coming over! I’ll tell her to buzz off!”
“Vinyl, you can’t!”
“This crazy lady has been running your life since before you were born, Octy! I’m not gonna just stand here and-”
“Vinyl, you’ll only make it worse!”
Another silence. Vinyl sighed.
Octavia continued. “You know she doesn’t know about us. If she saw you-”
“What, she’d figure out that you’re gay?”
“Yes, actually! And I can’t face that right now! I just need her to-”
The door buzzer suddenly sounded, and a haughty voice came through the speaker. “Octavia! This is your mother.”
Octavia whispered into the phone. “Oh god, she’s here! Listen, I- I can’t talk right now. I love you!”
“Octy, wait!”
Octavia ended the call and rushed over to the door switch on the wall. Eight floors below, another buzzer sounded and Larga Melody entered the building with an air of disdain.
The wait was agonizing for the young cellist. Minutes ticked by and she wondered how long it would be, how long it could possibly be. Over and over Octavia looked around frantically, wanting to fix something, wanting to re-prop the pillows on the couch or adjust the curtains, but feeling terrified that her mother might intrude in the middle of it. She knew her place: Standing at attention like a servant, her clothing neatly pressed, waiting just behind the door, listening for the knock.
Larga Melody was unaccustomed to delays.
The knock came, and Octavia immediately opened the door, trying to be graceful and hasty at the same time. For a moment they merely stared at each other. Octavia’s fingers trembled against the doorknob.
“Good afternoon, mother.”
“Hardly,” said the newcomer.
She swept into the room and gestured for her daughter to sit on the couch. Octavia closed the door and did as instructed, wordlessly.
After a few moments she could bear the silence no longer.
“I-I hope my accommodations are to your liking, mother.”
“Your accommodations,” sneered Larga, “are the least of my concerns right now.”
Octavia tried to hide her heavy breathing. Larga looked down at her with an unflinching stare.
“Do you have any idea how hard I’ve worked to preserve our family’s reputation?”
The cellist shook her head.
“Your father surely tried his hardest to ruin our good name, wasting money on those scam artists! I’m the one who put it all back together again! Do you realize the fragile state this family is in?”
“I-I understand mother.”
“Then praytell, dear daughter, why were you seen at a concert last night with some harlot?!”
Octavia went rigid. Her thoughts raced.
Larga continued. “I’d heard rumors, of course. But I was too generous. Too trusting, apparently. It wasn’t until a few days ago that I finally deigned to hire a private detective.”
She reached into her coat and produced a series of photographs. She dropped them on the coffee table, and Octavia looked down in horror.
There she was with her girlfriend at the Screaming Riot concert, the both of them dressed in crop tops and dancing shoes. In one picture, Vinyl put an arm around her. In another, they kissed.
Larga leaned over. “Do you deny it, dear daughter? Have I confused you with someone else?”
Without warning, Octavia’s phone rang. She had forgotten it; it lay next to her on the couch, the screen visible for all to see.
“INCOMING CALL…Vinyl Scratch (bae)” A picture of a blue-haired girl accompanied the words.
Larga’s face contorted as she stared at it. Her eyes darted back to her daughter. “Disgraceful. Reprehensible. I don’t want you to see that girl ever again. Do you hear me, Octavia?”
“But-”
“DO YOU HEAR ME?!”
[CHOICE]
Octy stands up for herself. (Hero)
Vinyl stands up for Octy. (Chaos)
Octy’s mother wins. (Villain)
[ENDING A: HERO]
For a moment, there were tears in Octavia’s eyes. She thought of meeting Vinyl. Confessing her feelings, their first date, their first kiss. She thought of concerts and walks and late nights crying in her girlfriend’s arms. She thought of how strange it had been to finally hope for something, and she thought of all her hope being taken away, forever.
Her hand closed tightly around the phone. And she found a wall of steel in her heart.
The words came through gritted teeth. “No, mother. I won’t leave her.”
“You think this is a negotiation? You understand who pays for this apartment?!”
Octavia jumped to her feet, the phone in one hand “YOU CAN HAVE IT FOR ALL I CARE!”
She found herself grinning madly, her face filled with rage and grief and a strange new sense of invincibility. She took the call, staring at her mother all the while.
“Vinyl, I’m living with you now!”
“YES!” came the beautiful, shocked voice from inside the speaker. “Holy crap! Meet me downstairs!”
Octavia didn’t hesitate. She took her cello from the corner of the room, still in its case, and rushed out the door. Larga cried after her, but Octavia didn’t care.
She rushed down the stairs, not wanting to wait for the elevator. She was weeping when she found Vinyl, and the two of them embraced with an intensity she’d never known before.
“You good?” said Vinyl. “You need anything?”
“No,” she replied. “Let’s go.”
She wanted to move, to shake off the dust of this place and all it represented.
There was nothing behind her but a lifetime of regret, and nothing ahead of her but a world of possibilities.
(+1 page for Heroes)
[ENDING B: CHAOS]
Octavia began to cry. She silenced the phone. “I-I hear you, mother. I understand.”
She thought of meeting Vinyl. Confessing her feelings, their first date, their first kiss. She thought of concerts and walks and late nights crying in her girlfriend’s arms. She thought of how strange it had been to finally hope for something, but now reality had returned at last.
There was nothing she could do.
Larga spoke in a near-whisper. “I wonder if you do. Do you understand what sort of person that girl is? I knew it from the first moment I saw her. Apart from being a delinquent lesbian, she’s obviously a flake! She doesn’t care about you. She doesn’t care about anyone. She’s a disreputable party girl who never once bothered to-”
WUB!
The noise pounded through the side of the building, shocking them both.
WUB! WUB! WUB! WUB! WUBWUBWUBWUB!
Octavia rushed to the window, opening it as fast as she could and looking down. Eight floors below, on the street, blocking traffic, stood a blue-haired girl on what appeared to be some sort of mobile soundstage, hitched to the back of a truck.
Vinyl Scratch looked back up at her and screamed into the microphone. “OCTY! YOUR MOM SUCKS!”
Octavia screamed back at her, caught between confusion and delight. “What are you doing?!”
“I CALLED IN SOME FAVORS!”
A van pulled up alongside the truck and a group of musicians jumped out, instruments in tow. They jumped onto the soundstage with Vinyl and quickly began plugging in their instruments.
Octavia stared. “Is that…Screaming Riot?!”
“YEAH! NOW GET DOWN HERE. WE NEED YOU TOO!”
The lead guitarist hit an intense chord, and Octavia found herself grabbing her encased cello from the corner. Larga yelled something, but somehow Octavia couldn’t hear. She ran through the doorway, never looking back.
Vinyl began to sing as her girlfriend raced down the stairs.
“There’s a girl you need to know!
She’s the star of every show!
With a heart so awesomely true!
And a radical kisser, too!
She’s the raddest coolest babe that I ever have seen!
She’s the one I wanna be with if you know what I mean!
YEAH! OCTAVIA! YOU’RE THE ONE I REALLY LOVE!
OH, YEAH! OCTAVIA! LIKE AN ANGEL FROM ABOVE!
YEAH! OCTAVIA! SO LEAVE THE PAST BEHIND!
OH YEAH! OCTAVIA! COME SEE WHAT YOU CAN FIND!”
Octavia burst through the front door, barely breathing. Vinyl leapt off the stage and held her tight. She shouted above the din. “I love you, babe! I love you!”
Octavia cried with joy. “Vinyl! My Vinyl!”
Vinyl pulled her to the soundstage. “Let’s get going before she follows us!”
They clambered onto the trailer and Vinyl signaled to the driver.
Octavia took her cello out of its case and looked around at the band members. She laughed at the absurdity of it all. “Vinyl, I don’t know how to play this song!”
“It’s cool, babe! Just make it up!”
The truck pulled away, taking the radical lovers into a new life. Together.
(+1 page for Chaos)
[ENDING C: VILLAIN]
Octavia began to cry. She silenced the phone. “I-I hear you, mother. I understand.”
She thought of meeting Vinyl. Confessing her feelings, their first date, their first kiss. She thought of concerts and walks and late nights crying in her girlfriend’s arms. She thought of how strange it had been to finally hope for something, but now reality had come at last.
There was nothing she could do.
A mile away, Vinyl looked at her phone. She wanted to do something, anything, but…Octy had said that she’d only make it worse. Maybe Octy knew what she was talking about.
She mussed up her own hair in frustration. “Arrgh!”
She sighed.
Maybe she’ll call later, she thought. Maybe…maybe I should just wait.
The silence continued.
The silence continued.
The silence continued.
The silence didn’t end.
(+1 page for Villains)
#ABOUTTHEEDITORS - About the Editors
Sonicsuns swung his glowing sword, deftly severing an “ed” from what was supposed to be a present-tense verb. He looked back at the rest of his party, surveying their work.
“UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” groaned Note Worthy as she punched a new comma into place, “I can’t stand Arial!”
RQK grabbed a story in his gauntlets and magically marked it. “Sorry, that’s just the standard. At least the Print Book will be in Libre Caslon.” The marked story glowed blue and bolted through the sky, destined for the legendary Ready to Publish folder.
Shade Hunter added comments to a story that didn’t make any sense. In a moment it disappeared back to the folder from whence it had emerged. He looked around the area. “Hey guys?” he said, “Does anyone notice something’s off?”
The living skeleton Undead Rattler paused in his work, as did the spectral Ghost Note beside him. “Yessss,” whispered Ghost Note, “...ssssomething is amissss…”
“Aw, crap,” said FTS57, “this is one of those off-the-wall stories, isn’t it?”
Just then, Wolfheart Griffon swept down from the sky, propelled by powerful wings. “Friends! Editors! I bring news!”
Sonicsuns called out. “What of it, Wolfheart?”
“It appears that we are trapped in a story written about ourselves! This entire piece is a tribute to the editing team!”
Sonicsuns considered his sword. “Well, that explains that.”
“What’s more, many of us are using ostentatiously embellished vocabulary which does not adequately depict how we converse in reality!”
Overlord Pony raised his magic scepter. “No matter! We must edit these stories as duty compels!” A glowing spiral emerged from the scepter’s crown, enveloping nearby tales and searching them for bad tabbing.
Ellywn86 spoke next. “But if we are in a story ourselves, could it be that the story we are in is also in need of edits?”
They all looked at each other.
Suddenly the earth shook beneath them, and the world began to tilt. Untold stories went tumbling with them, smashing into each other and causing strange new errors. The mighty editors struggled to survive the onslaught.
The WOrlD began to tweeest! Erors wer piling upp!
“We’re coming to the end!” said Celestilune.
It was true! The CHOICE block was just a few sentences away!
“And apparently the narrator is talking to the audience now!” said Note Worthy, trying to grip the ground as it tilted.
RQK did likewise and looked ahead. “Shouldn’t there be a chaos option?”
“No,” said Shade Hunter, “the alignments are off-balance. Too many stories with chaos endings, or at least that was the balance back when this story was first drafted. We needed a couple hero/villain stories to even it out.”
Sonicsuns yelled to them all. “Hang on, everypony! Here it comes!”
[CHOICE]
Fix the errors! (Hero)
Ruin everything! (Villain)
[ENDING B: HERO]
A flash of light consumed the area. A moment later, the world reappeared. Sonicsuns and his faithful editors found themselves on level ground. They watched as the mangled stories drifted back into their original forms.
The font had changed. “Garamond,” said Note Worthy appreciatively. “At last.”
The mighty editors continued their work, policing tense changes and misplaced punctuation. They spotted logical errors, offered ideas for improvement, and enjoyed each other’s company along the way.
Sonicsuns paused and took stock of it all. He knew that there were many attendees who would never think of the editing team. Their work took place behind the scenes, largely unnoted and unnoticed. And yet they touched the lives of every reader.
Sonicsuns addressed his teammates. “Thank you,” he said. “I’m glad you’re with me.”
(+1 page for Heroes)
[ENDING B: VILLAIN]
NOoooooo!!1 The villians! Their attaking every1 with their rouge angels of satin! The Lavender Unicorn went there, and she breaks the face of TIME!
The tabss r wrong! Somepony fix the tabbbbsssssssssssss
She went to the market and she buys a sandwich and she said “this wasn’t a sandwich” and the shopkeep had said “yes it is” and she says “nu-uh” and he dinosaurs.
Double spaces all the way cross the shy!
WA WAAAA
SO INTENSE
Its starting to look like triple quad spaces oh noooooooooooo000000000000000000000000000000000000000000oooooooooooooooooooooo000000000000000000ooooooooooooooooo000000000000oooooooo000000o00000000o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0ohohohohohhohohohohohohoh;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
That’s not a semicolon! Those aren’t even semicolons! Stop speaking GREEK!
I have an idea!? Lets use character from GEEK MYTHOLOGY! STAN LEE SHOWS UP AND HE-
CTRL-A
DELETE
(+1 page for Villains)
