Jade muse sampler (Dimension Shift Excerpt)
So, this is mainly because I wanted to show my Jade muse in action.
So this is also an excerpt from my friend's and my Abyss dual self-insert, "Dimension Shift". The portion in question is post-Akzeriuth, A Summary of Akzeriuth: Kristen tries to delay Luke's destroying the passage ring enough that the party can get there. Fails miserably. In the process, Kristen (who is not thinking straight due to panic) reveals that she knows Van's plan in Van's earshot. Kristen gets a nice slice 'n dice treatment for her pains and is put on Van's shit list. Kristen and Sabrina, our two self-insert-ees, start fighting, because Sabrina didn't want to mess with the time stream and Kristen just screwed it up epically.
So, without further ado...
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Well, questioning their other bedridden comrade was not exactly something Jade was looking forward to. Not that he had any major guilt in doing so - he’d had no qualms with doing much worse things in the past. It was more the acknowledgement that this conversation would likely be a tricky one. He wouldn’t be able to tease, not too much, and would have to be careful with how much he pushed. Anne seemed to be extremely unstable at the moment and emotionally unpredictable. He’d rather not get thrown out by the Yulian City medical staff, and as for the teasing, it’d be just depressing if she were to just die before he got the information he wanted out of her, now wouldn’t it?
He approached the room she’d been put in from Tear’s instructions, just in time to see one of the staff leaving it.
“Are you here to see the girl?” the doctor asked upon catching sight of Jade. The Malkuth colonel wasn’t surprised his intentions were so easily recognizable. Outsiders were hardly common in Yulia City, and there would be little other reason for him to have been over in the residential areas.
“Indeed I am,” he replied, “If that would be all right with you…?”
“You’re in luck, she just woke up. I was going to get some food…” the doctor frowned, “I suppose I could let you in, but she needs to remain calm, understand?”
“But of course,” Jade was a soldier, with training as a doctor (even if it was mainly for autopsies). He knew - from a medical standpoint - what problems stress and overexertion could have on a still-healing body.
“All right,” the doctor sighed, “You can stay until she’s finished eating, but after that she needs to rest.”
“I’ll be sure to be done by then.”
As the doctor strode away, Jade walked through the doorway the man had just vacated.
Anne was propped up a little and looking a little better than she had been when he’d last seen her, certainly a few shades less pale. She also seemed calmer, albeit a bit bored. She stared down at her hands, a faint frown on her face.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything on them,” he commented dryly.
She jumped slightly, head snapping up. “Huh?” she stared at him blankly.
He sighed. Jabs weren’t fun if one did not catch them. “Never mind.”
A faint frown creased her features. “I hate it when you say that…” she said.
He raised an eyebrow. Her and the rest of Auldrant. Really, if she expected to elicit some sort of response from a statement like that, then she would need to start trying harder.
However, her face had fallen, and she was back to examining her hands. For a minute, the silence stretched on awkwardly - or at least awkward for one of them - before Jade finally saw fit to break it.
“I hate to be the one to interrupt the intriguing direction our conversation is currently taking, but I do have a rather limited amount of time and a few questions I’d rather have answered before I leave.”
She fiddled with one of her fingernails nervously. “I know why you’re here.”
Another raised eyebrow, “Do you?”
Anne grimaced, “Well… I think I do.”
An honest enough answer, Jade smirked. Rather open too. She wasn’t very good at exuding the air of being in control of the situation. If his suspicions about her were correct, then that could spell trouble for her in the future, though for now it was to his advantage.
“You want to know how I knew stuff, like Akzeriuth,” she offered quietly, staring resolutely at her hands.
Well, that was one suspicion confirmed. Her actions in the mineshaft had hinted that she had understood more than they what was going on, but he hadn’t been completely certain that she’d actually known. “Among other things, yes,” he’d take the bait for now, though from her it wasn’t really bait but more like a breadcrumb trail, “Such as why Commandant Grants would go specifically out of his way to try to ensure you didn’t survive.”
Anne winced, “I… ran my mouth,” she spoke hesitatingly, “He… he realized I knew a lot more than I should.” Too much did not even need to be added “And… I guess he figured I was better dead than with you guys…”
Jade sighed. He could already tell this would be the sort of thing that would take quite a long time to detangle, probably more time than he had. Right now, Anne’s answers were giving him little usable information, as he had no context to place them in. “Perhaps it would be best if I let you explain yourself.”
She nodded, looking up and meeting his eyes briefly, “I’ll try. I’m… not exactly the best at explaining things.”
“If it’s any consolation, I’m not fond of it either.”
The corner of her mouth twitched slightly. “I know.” Her gaze returned to her hands.
“My name is Kristen,” she said finally, “Anne is… it’s my middle name. But… my first name didn’t really sound very… ‘Auldrantian’ so…”
“’Auldrantian?’” Jade considered the way she’d worded the statement. The word was not one he’d ever heard before, but it was easy to tell what she meant by it. He could take her words at face value, but the meaning that they implied was… ludicrous. Probably better to just sit back and let her explain it. However, the idea that Anne was not her true name made some sense, when he looked back - there would be times when she wouldn’t respond to it as readily, or identify it with herself. At the time, he’d blamed it on absentmindedness, but if what she said was true, it being an assumed name could also account for her delayed responses.
“I…” she hesitated, “This is… this is going to sound crazy…” Yes, they’d already established that, though the “going to “ part was a little belated.
“I’m… not from here. From Auldrant. If… I have no idea what you’ve heard of about alternate dimensions or worlds or anything but… I’m from one. I have no idea how I got here, but… I’m here. As for Akzeriuth…” she trailed off for a moment and closed her eyes, a pained expression on her face.
“Please try to remain calm,” he said dryly, “I’d rather not get thrown out prematurely.”
Anne - no, Kristen - shot him the briefest of glares, before closing her eyes again and breathing slowly.
“My friend has this… theory. She says that… when we read books or stories, or see plays, just… works of fiction… that we’re actually touching other worlds or universes, not just making them up. I knew about Akzeriuth because… I’ve… seen this universe’s story before, or… I guess what used to be its story.”
“Used to be?”
“Well,” she looked at him rather openly, “Now that we’re here, the story’s going to be different, isn’t it? I guess we’re in a sort of… sub-universe, maybe?”
Jade put a hand to his forehead. “You’re the one who presented the idea.” His equivalent of, ‘Why are you asking me?’
“Anyway…” she continued, “Like I said… I don’t know how I got here, but… with Akzeriuth… I wanted to stop it so much, I… I thought maybe I could-“ her face grimaced and she paused for a long time before stammering onward quietly, embarrassment and shame written all over her features, “I thought maybe I could get Luke to trust me… enough that… enough that maybe I could get him to stop long enough for you guys to get there.”
Her eyes squinted shut at this point. “I’m such an idiot. I should have known better that I could override his trust for Van. But I just… dammit…”
If he were less of a monster he might have felt some sort of guilt or at least sympathy for the girl, but unfortunately for her this was not the case. It certainly didn’t stop him from saying, flatly, “So you foolishly attempted to take matters into your own hands, went behind our backs, and withheld valuable information.”
Kristen’s fingers wrapped themselves around her, gripping her elbows tightly. “I-I know! But-“ Her grip tightened, knuckles turning white. “How was I supposed to tell you, would you have even believed me? I… I didn’t want to lose my chance entirely…”
Jade sighed. He needed to back off, for the time being. She was getting wound up, and, in the end... her intentions had been… honorable, all things considered, even if her methods had been questionable and amateurish. And there might be some measure of truth to the idea that she wouldn’t have been able to convince them of her sanity, let alone be believed if she had presented her ideas when they’d first met. After giving her a few moments to compose herself, he opted to change topics, rather than continue this current train of thought. Perhaps it would help her to calm down.
“You said you blurted out information that Commandant Grants realized you had no right knowing. What was it exactly that you said?”
One of her hands lowered to the blankets, fisting in them in the sheets. “I… I’m not sure what I should tell you. I don’t… I don’t want my knowledge to become like another Score.”
“Another Score?” It was an intriguing concept, and what exactly to make of it he had no particular idea. Judging by her expression, she did not consider it a particularly desirable situation.
And sure enough, at his question she shot him an incredulous look that slowly faded to a pensive one. “That’s right… You- The Score… don’t trust it. It’s… bad.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You do realize that you are essentially suggesting I abandon centuries of belief?”
Kristen’s head snapped up, eyes suddenly hard, “It is! You know what the Score said? It said that Luke would destroy Akzeriuth. I’m not saying that what he- that what happened is okay, but you have to see that he had hundreds of different people pushing him and shoving him to do this and he didn’t even know what was going on. He’s a kid dammit, a kid who believed his teacher, you can’t hate him for that-!”
“May I remind you that the topic under discussion is the Score, and what you said to upset Commandant Grants,” he cut her off pointedly. Really, at the rate she was working herself up into a frenzy he was going to get almost nothing more out of her… though admittedly she had given him a great deal of food for thought already.
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... SO YEAH. I know that Self-inserts are the bane of fanfiction but hopefully that wasn't too bad? Maybe?
In any case, this is more of a sampling of how I write Jade than anything.
SO PEOPLE WHO CAN SEE THIS. WHAT SAY YOU.
So this is also an excerpt from my friend's and my Abyss dual self-insert, "Dimension Shift". The portion in question is post-Akzeriuth, A Summary of Akzeriuth: Kristen tries to delay Luke's destroying the passage ring enough that the party can get there. Fails miserably. In the process, Kristen (who is not thinking straight due to panic) reveals that she knows Van's plan in Van's earshot. Kristen gets a nice slice 'n dice treatment for her pains and is put on Van's shit list. Kristen and Sabrina, our two self-insert-ees, start fighting, because Sabrina didn't want to mess with the time stream and Kristen just screwed it up epically.
So, without further ado...
------------------------
Well, questioning their other bedridden comrade was not exactly something Jade was looking forward to. Not that he had any major guilt in doing so - he’d had no qualms with doing much worse things in the past. It was more the acknowledgement that this conversation would likely be a tricky one. He wouldn’t be able to tease, not too much, and would have to be careful with how much he pushed. Anne seemed to be extremely unstable at the moment and emotionally unpredictable. He’d rather not get thrown out by the Yulian City medical staff, and as for the teasing, it’d be just depressing if she were to just die before he got the information he wanted out of her, now wouldn’t it?
He approached the room she’d been put in from Tear’s instructions, just in time to see one of the staff leaving it.
“Are you here to see the girl?” the doctor asked upon catching sight of Jade. The Malkuth colonel wasn’t surprised his intentions were so easily recognizable. Outsiders were hardly common in Yulia City, and there would be little other reason for him to have been over in the residential areas.
“Indeed I am,” he replied, “If that would be all right with you…?”
“You’re in luck, she just woke up. I was going to get some food…” the doctor frowned, “I suppose I could let you in, but she needs to remain calm, understand?”
“But of course,” Jade was a soldier, with training as a doctor (even if it was mainly for autopsies). He knew - from a medical standpoint - what problems stress and overexertion could have on a still-healing body.
“All right,” the doctor sighed, “You can stay until she’s finished eating, but after that she needs to rest.”
“I’ll be sure to be done by then.”
As the doctor strode away, Jade walked through the doorway the man had just vacated.
Anne was propped up a little and looking a little better than she had been when he’d last seen her, certainly a few shades less pale. She also seemed calmer, albeit a bit bored. She stared down at her hands, a faint frown on her face.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything on them,” he commented dryly.
She jumped slightly, head snapping up. “Huh?” she stared at him blankly.
He sighed. Jabs weren’t fun if one did not catch them. “Never mind.”
A faint frown creased her features. “I hate it when you say that…” she said.
He raised an eyebrow. Her and the rest of Auldrant. Really, if she expected to elicit some sort of response from a statement like that, then she would need to start trying harder.
However, her face had fallen, and she was back to examining her hands. For a minute, the silence stretched on awkwardly - or at least awkward for one of them - before Jade finally saw fit to break it.
“I hate to be the one to interrupt the intriguing direction our conversation is currently taking, but I do have a rather limited amount of time and a few questions I’d rather have answered before I leave.”
She fiddled with one of her fingernails nervously. “I know why you’re here.”
Another raised eyebrow, “Do you?”
Anne grimaced, “Well… I think I do.”
An honest enough answer, Jade smirked. Rather open too. She wasn’t very good at exuding the air of being in control of the situation. If his suspicions about her were correct, then that could spell trouble for her in the future, though for now it was to his advantage.
“You want to know how I knew stuff, like Akzeriuth,” she offered quietly, staring resolutely at her hands.
Well, that was one suspicion confirmed. Her actions in the mineshaft had hinted that she had understood more than they what was going on, but he hadn’t been completely certain that she’d actually known. “Among other things, yes,” he’d take the bait for now, though from her it wasn’t really bait but more like a breadcrumb trail, “Such as why Commandant Grants would go specifically out of his way to try to ensure you didn’t survive.”
Anne winced, “I… ran my mouth,” she spoke hesitatingly, “He… he realized I knew a lot more than I should.” Too much did not even need to be added “And… I guess he figured I was better dead than with you guys…”
Jade sighed. He could already tell this would be the sort of thing that would take quite a long time to detangle, probably more time than he had. Right now, Anne’s answers were giving him little usable information, as he had no context to place them in. “Perhaps it would be best if I let you explain yourself.”
She nodded, looking up and meeting his eyes briefly, “I’ll try. I’m… not exactly the best at explaining things.”
“If it’s any consolation, I’m not fond of it either.”
The corner of her mouth twitched slightly. “I know.” Her gaze returned to her hands.
“My name is Kristen,” she said finally, “Anne is… it’s my middle name. But… my first name didn’t really sound very… ‘Auldrantian’ so…”
“’Auldrantian?’” Jade considered the way she’d worded the statement. The word was not one he’d ever heard before, but it was easy to tell what she meant by it. He could take her words at face value, but the meaning that they implied was… ludicrous. Probably better to just sit back and let her explain it. However, the idea that Anne was not her true name made some sense, when he looked back - there would be times when she wouldn’t respond to it as readily, or identify it with herself. At the time, he’d blamed it on absentmindedness, but if what she said was true, it being an assumed name could also account for her delayed responses.
“I…” she hesitated, “This is… this is going to sound crazy…” Yes, they’d already established that, though the “going to “ part was a little belated.
“I’m… not from here. From Auldrant. If… I have no idea what you’ve heard of about alternate dimensions or worlds or anything but… I’m from one. I have no idea how I got here, but… I’m here. As for Akzeriuth…” she trailed off for a moment and closed her eyes, a pained expression on her face.
“Please try to remain calm,” he said dryly, “I’d rather not get thrown out prematurely.”
Anne - no, Kristen - shot him the briefest of glares, before closing her eyes again and breathing slowly.
“My friend has this… theory. She says that… when we read books or stories, or see plays, just… works of fiction… that we’re actually touching other worlds or universes, not just making them up. I knew about Akzeriuth because… I’ve… seen this universe’s story before, or… I guess what used to be its story.”
“Used to be?”
“Well,” she looked at him rather openly, “Now that we’re here, the story’s going to be different, isn’t it? I guess we’re in a sort of… sub-universe, maybe?”
Jade put a hand to his forehead. “You’re the one who presented the idea.” His equivalent of, ‘Why are you asking me?’
“Anyway…” she continued, “Like I said… I don’t know how I got here, but… with Akzeriuth… I wanted to stop it so much, I… I thought maybe I could-“ her face grimaced and she paused for a long time before stammering onward quietly, embarrassment and shame written all over her features, “I thought maybe I could get Luke to trust me… enough that… enough that maybe I could get him to stop long enough for you guys to get there.”
Her eyes squinted shut at this point. “I’m such an idiot. I should have known better that I could override his trust for Van. But I just… dammit…”
If he were less of a monster he might have felt some sort of guilt or at least sympathy for the girl, but unfortunately for her this was not the case. It certainly didn’t stop him from saying, flatly, “So you foolishly attempted to take matters into your own hands, went behind our backs, and withheld valuable information.”
Kristen’s fingers wrapped themselves around her, gripping her elbows tightly. “I-I know! But-“ Her grip tightened, knuckles turning white. “How was I supposed to tell you, would you have even believed me? I… I didn’t want to lose my chance entirely…”
Jade sighed. He needed to back off, for the time being. She was getting wound up, and, in the end... her intentions had been… honorable, all things considered, even if her methods had been questionable and amateurish. And there might be some measure of truth to the idea that she wouldn’t have been able to convince them of her sanity, let alone be believed if she had presented her ideas when they’d first met. After giving her a few moments to compose herself, he opted to change topics, rather than continue this current train of thought. Perhaps it would help her to calm down.
“You said you blurted out information that Commandant Grants realized you had no right knowing. What was it exactly that you said?”
One of her hands lowered to the blankets, fisting in them in the sheets. “I… I’m not sure what I should tell you. I don’t… I don’t want my knowledge to become like another Score.”
“Another Score?” It was an intriguing concept, and what exactly to make of it he had no particular idea. Judging by her expression, she did not consider it a particularly desirable situation.
And sure enough, at his question she shot him an incredulous look that slowly faded to a pensive one. “That’s right… You- The Score… don’t trust it. It’s… bad.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You do realize that you are essentially suggesting I abandon centuries of belief?”
Kristen’s head snapped up, eyes suddenly hard, “It is! You know what the Score said? It said that Luke would destroy Akzeriuth. I’m not saying that what he- that what happened is okay, but you have to see that he had hundreds of different people pushing him and shoving him to do this and he didn’t even know what was going on. He’s a kid dammit, a kid who believed his teacher, you can’t hate him for that-!”
“May I remind you that the topic under discussion is the Score, and what you said to upset Commandant Grants,” he cut her off pointedly. Really, at the rate she was working herself up into a frenzy he was going to get almost nothing more out of her… though admittedly she had given him a great deal of food for thought already.
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... SO YEAH. I know that Self-inserts are the bane of fanfiction but hopefully that wasn't too bad? Maybe?
In any case, this is more of a sampling of how I write Jade than anything.
SO PEOPLE WHO CAN SEE THIS. WHAT SAY YOU.