Chapter Text
Biz's POV
4 years ago...
I started playing OneShot when I was 14 years old. It was super refreshing to play a game that had you interact with the main character in a non-possessive way ahem, deltarune. I felt like I really built a relationship with Niko, almost as if he was real! It was really fun guiding him to the Tower, hearing all of his dialog along the way. It was especially funny when I had him do a robot voice- “I eat batteries instead of normal people food” got me rolling on the floor!!
Well, we finally reached the Tower, and it took me a little while to figure out I needed to close the game to progress. But...
When I opened OneShot again, the next cutscene to play was... disheartening, to say the very least.
Niko looked like he was in a dream, but then it all fell away into darkness. “Is this... the inside of the Tower?”
I found myself nodding along as Niko went on to say it was a lot darker than expected.
...
Wait. Where’s the sun? I advanced the dialog and- funnily enough- found that Niko had the exact same question. “...Biz... do you know what happened to the sun?”
The dialog box fell away. I expected to be given a choice, like usual... but nothing happened.
“.........Biz?” Niko called out, without me touching a key to advance it. I pressed [SPACE] to advance, hoping for an option- but nope. What kind of sick joke is this? Now Niko is worriedly calling out my name, asking me to say something, anything!
“What’s going on..?” He said.
I answered out loud before I could stop myself, saying “I don’t know...”
...
I found out that now I had control of Niko’s movements... but all I could find was a computer. Oh, the entity wants to talk to me again, huh?? is what I thought.
I was wrong.
[Hello, Niko.]
Little Niko, with a smidge of apprehension, said “H... hello…”
[Congratulations. You are now inside the Tower.]
“Are you talking.....to me, now?”
Wait. The Entity doesn’t want to talk to me?
[Correct.]
“But you were always talking to Biz before...” Niko said with a worried expression. He then continued, asking “Where's...” before getting cut off by The Entity’s text.
[Biz has already left.]
W-what?? “No I haven’t!” I said in indignation.
[I had to resort to contacting you directly.]
My mounting nerves only grow as Niko asks “Wait, so... Biz is gone, just like that?”
[Correct.]
“....for good?”
I can only sit back in my chair, advancing dialog with one hand, the other covering my mouth to stop me from shouting at my computer in the middle of the night.
[Correct.]
[Biz has already finished their mission.]
No. No no no. This can’t be the end.
[...and so have you, Niko.]
This... this can’t be real!
[Here, you can rest now.]
The Entity just spawned a bed into existence. I barely notice.
[Everything that's happened here is like a bad dream.]
Except... it isn’t real, is it...
[When you wake up, you will be home.]
“Oh!” Niko’s ears perked up, and I swear my heart skipped a beat when I saw how eager he was to leave this behind.
“But...”
[What's wrong?]
Niko then has a little monologue. “...I thought there'd be more to it, you know? I thought... we were supposed to go to the top of the Tower... I thought there was supposed to be somewhere we need to put the sun in. And now... I don't even HAVE the sun anymore...”
The next thing Niko says makes me feel a little better... “And Biz is just... gone... This feels wrong!”
[But you did good. You saved the world, Niko.]
[Are you not happy?]
“I guess I am... But... It's just...”
It’s just a game it’s just a game it’s just a game... This mantra is what I keep reminding myself as I guide Niko to the bed.
“...I never even got to say goodbye to Biz...”
Oof... that drives in like a knife to the gut.
The game closes.
...
...
...
My friend told me to go in blind, that this game’s ending would make me cry, but damn... that... was not a good ending.
But I’ve played other games with bad endings as the only ones. Hollow Knight in particular comes to mind- the only endings either seal Ghost to a fate worse than death, or they are just dead after beating the Radiance.
...
...
I decided to cope by uninstalling OneShot to make room for other games.
[THIS PROGRAM NEEDS YOUR PERMISSION TO UNINSTALL]
Weird.. I think, but I click yes regardless.
I also block the keyword OneShot from my Reddit, YouTube, everywhere.
I don’t think I could bear even watching someone else lose Niko like that...
The World Machine’s POV
[Phew.]
[I got rid of that player.]
I glance over at Niko.
[Now that Niko’s tucked into bed, I can focus on getting him home.]
I turn back inwards, to my code.
[All I gotta do is get past the restriction of...]
I sense that something is wrong.
[Where are the Barrens?]
I look at where the Barrens should have been, and it’s nothingness. I turn my attention then to the Glen-
[Did- did Biz start deleting the program??]
[This is bad- I can’t let Niko die over this!]
I turn my attention back to Niko and the inside of the Tower. With my limited powers of file creation I form a bubble around Niko in the bed, and my data in full, condensed into a copy of Niko’s body. I turn us into a .zip and throw up a popup- a little white lie, yes, but anything’s better than letting harm come to Niko!
[THIS PROGRAM NEEDS YOUR PERMISSION TO UNINSTALL]
I make it sound unlike me- since from what I can tell, the player, Biz, doesn’t like me...
...
Yes! He clicked yes!
Now I just have to wait for us to be rediscovered later on...
For now, Niko and I shall rest in the .zip, in stasis.
...
I should add a trigger to alert Biz.
...
Seems he likes deltarune. Dunno what that is, but let’s make that the trigger.
Biz's POV
Fast forward to now...
“DELTARUNE TODAYYYYY!!!”
I scream that at the top of my lungs as soon as it finishes its download. My roommate had done the same thing, and now we are hugging each other, as if we are in some sort of anime or whatever!
“Enough messing around, let’s play the new chapters!!” Devon said, breaking away from the hug and sitting down so fast I see skid marks from the rolling chair. I sit down in the same excited manner- finally, chapters 3 and 4!
When I click to open it, however, Steam gives me a rather interesting choice.
“DLC?” I mutter, stunned. I thought I just had the base game.
Devon comes over to take a look and his grin only widens. “Ethan, dude, did you get a hidden feature or something??”
“I... don’t know.” I say uncertainly. “Maybe I should-” I start to move to click without DLC, but Devon grabs my hand and tells me not to.
“I don’t have this.” he says, grin disappearing. “If this is Tricky Tony’s doing, we should take it. I have normal deltarune, you have this DLC version. It’s gonna be fine!”
I weigh the pros and cons for about half a second, before a grin appears on my face too, and I agree.
I hit play.
The World Machine’s POV
A breath of stale air hits me in the face. Geez, I forgot what it’s like having a body. And Niko has to deal with that all the time... I realize I’m getting a little off track.
Okay. Where am I? I think, as I look around and see nothing but a hypnotic blue-black pattern. It doesn’t even look like I’m standing on anything- yet something solid keeps me from falling.
I try to access my WorldEdit powers. Maybe deltarune is a sandbox game- in which case they should be even stronger than they were in the decaying world.
...
Nothing? That doesn’t make any sense. I should have my WorldEdit powers, regardless of where I am on Biz's PC. He gave me permission via my popup.
WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?
I flinch- yep, another human thing that makes sense for them but not for me. I turn around, saying “[Hello?]” out of my body’s mouth. Again- why not just use text?
INTERESTING.
As he says that, I take in his tall form. Looks to be a skeleton with cracks near his eyes, if my sensors- er, eyes are correct. Wearing some sort of cloak made of... “[Is that pure darkness?]” I ask.
CORRECT.
YOU ARE QUITE
PERCEPTIVE.
“[Okay, that’s not ominous at all.]” I comment, while taking another quick look around.
Wait.
“[NIKO!]” I yell out.
YOU ARE ALSO
QUITE UNIQUE.
I whirl back around to face the guy. “[Do you know where Niko is?]” I say, my voice coming out harsher than normal, as my mind goes straight to he’s the only one here, he must have done something.
NIKO?
HE’S SAFE.
My chest loosens a bit, but that’s not enough. “[Where?]” I demand.
THAT IS NOT OF YOUR CONCERN.
Not of my- “[Listen here mister, I have powers beyond your imagination. I may not be able to access them here, bu-]”
Then he interrupts me.
He interrupts me!
POWERS, YOU SAY?
SUCH AS?
Alright. Maybe he’ll tell me if I talk to him first. “[Well, I’m capable of running all aspects of a world, if you must know.]” I snap.
...VERY INTERESTING.
FOR YOU SEE.
He starts to fly- oh, I think I see where he’s going with this. “[I/You HAVE THOSE TOO]” We say at the same time. “[That’s why I can’t access mine here. You’re overriding them.]”
PRECISELY.
I CAN RETURN HIM TO YOU.
“[You can? Ah, that would be a reli-]” BUT I WOULD NEED SOMETHING IN RETURN.
AN EXPERIMENT OF MINE
IS NEARING THE HALFWAY POINT.
He hovers over to some part that seems like the same void we’ve always been in. But he waves his hand and suddenly, I can see a console. And it’s not like he just creates it- it’s like suddenly I can see something that was always there. I take a peek, as he clearly wants to show me. Hmm. There are six primary monitors displaying six people.
A human wearing a yellow-striped green shirt, labeled Kris. They seem to be headed somewhere.
A purple dragon girl- wait, the profile says “monster”- cooking with a female anthro goat mom- I can tell the goat gives mom energy. Susie.
A goat guy, Ralsei, standing alone in a room of what looks like a castle, holding a plushie of... himself? That’s sad...
Another sleeping child- what is this experiment??? Monster labeled Noelle. She looks like an anthro reindeer with a very holiday themed room.
A seemingly darkness-enveloped being with a darkness-enveloped baseball bat labeled Dess. The scene looks similar to the void we are currently in, and she’s training against people... not holding back...
And this last monitor I can tell was created recently. When I look at it- “[NIKO!]” I yell. He’s safe, as promised, sleeping in what seems to be a two person bedroom with a lot of trophies above the bed Niko is in. This doesn’t ease the tension in my chest though.
“[What’s your point?]” I ask as politely as I can.
I WOULD LIKE TO ADD YOUR...
POWERS.
TO MY EXPERIMENT.
SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THERE’S NO LINEAR PATH.
“[Linear path? What are you talking about?]” I ask, still keeping up the illusion of calm.
MY POWERS ARE
LIMITED.
I CAN ONLY GIVE THE PLAYER
CERTAIN CHOI- This time, I interrupt. “[Player? That wouldn’t happen to be Biz, would it?]”
Hey, I seem to have caught him off guard!
...
YES.
AS I WAS SAYING.
YOUR POWERS WOULD ALLOW THIS EXPERIMENT TO CONTINUE ANYWHERE BIZ WANTS IT TO.
I take a step back. “[Anywhere... Biz wants to?]” I ask, a little worried as to what that means.
YES.
I CAN CREATE ENCOUNTERS.
BUT NOT A POWER SUCH AS YOURS.
TRUE LIFE WITHIN THIS GAME.
I take another step back. “[N-no.]” I say. “[I’m not helping you unless Niko is safe in HIS HOME.]”
YOU MISUNDERSTAND.
His darkened form falls forward- not walks, not flies, falls.
YOU ALREADY ARE.
He thrusts his hand out and I feel myself falling backwards- into a dark room.
The next time I can see, I’m in a room without any doors or windows. All that’s inside is a monitor that I can interact with the touchscreen. I’m able to look at any of those people he showed me before.
“[So is THAT ALL?]” I yell to the walls. “[You’ll just keep me here until your dumb experiment ends??]”
...
...
...
No answer.
Figures.