???’S POV
“Hmmmm this isn’t too good, still a sad ending, at least I don’t like it.” The woman said towards the screen which is showing two groups of people. One consists of five persons, all with various characteristics, such as vampire wings, cat tails, elven ears, oni horns, and a dwarf. They are all lying on the ground seeming to mourn. While the other shows a woman sitting on a throne giving orders, she has dark hair, dragon horns, and wings.
“What can we say, at least in this one none of them died. So surely this one is better than the others no?” a man who is standing next to the woman said. In which she shook her head.
“ I don’t want good, I want the best, I am bored here and if they are separated there is no way we could even get what we wanted!” the woman said as she looked at the other screens.
On one of the screens, it is the same 2 groups of people, except this time they are… somewhat together… dead… with their heads on a spike and a lot of demons surrounding them celebrating.
Then there is another one, where only the dragon survives, crying while inside a cemetery, in front of her is the tomb of the others from the group.
The woman has been following the progress of this certain group of people, and at the very end of it, whether they are alive or not, the woman archived their progress, listing down the endings that they have reached.
Most of the endings will always have one or more of them die, whether through the same enemies or through other reasons. A complete wipeout isn’t too rare too, within the runs, it has already happened at least 50 times and is increasing.
In fact, this is the very first time, that all of them survived, despite one of them has been corrupted. But even this isn’t the best scenario that the woman wanted. So once again, she let the wheel of fate run again, letting the same exact events run again.
“ Tsk, this time it’s the couple, I hate the troupe where couples die together, it's too overused…” the woman said as the screen stopped at the remaining four standing in front of 2 tombstones, the tombstones of the vampire and the oni.
“I think you already tried enough, there is no way that fate can be changed this easily. It is already their fate that they will not endure the calamity together.” The man said as he poured a cup of tea for the woman.
“I know that, but I am still going to watch it again and again anyway, after all, tell me something else that I can do here.” The woman snarled at the man as she said this, clearly unhappy by the man’s words.
“Fine… your reaction to them is also a way for me to pass the time too anyways.” The man said as he left the room.
The woman grumbles and watches the next few iterations, it all ends almost the same, and someone from the group dies and deviates from what she wanted. The first incident where the dragon got corrupted is too rare. Most of the time the dragon would request the others to put her down.
“ I wonder if it's because of something that happened at that timeline that is different…” the woman decided to check back on what happened in that timeline, yet she couldn't really find any differences, all events that happened in that timeline also happened at many others.
Frustrated the woman decided to just watch a few more iterations before she went to sleep. That is when she noticed another anomaly.
“This time it is the vampire that got corrupted… and she corrupts the oni and brought her to the other world… the cause of this… is the dragon. Hmm, but the dragon didn’t do anything that is different from the previous… no, she did something different, in both cases she is more isolationist. Is that the difference? I am not sure…
“Hey, Giles help me check the difference between these two.” The woman yelled and the previous man came in.
“Hmm, if I have to say, the personality of both these two iterations is shaped by the dragon’s life on Terra… since the events that happened, there is a reason for her wanting to do everything by herself. Maybe if you can influence her before then maybe the outcome can be different?” Giles said to the woman.
“I wonder… You know maybe you are right, let me slowly nudge her in her previous life then. Hopefully, the others won't catch wind of it.” The woman said before she moved the fingers and then she watch another iteration runs.
“Hmm it seems that adding events before they all move to Astrea is a bad idea, it seems unless the group is killed specifically, and they just won’t head towards Astrea at all. I guess I have to change my plans, let’s see what will happen if I delay their first deaths… nothing, it doesn’t matter much, but if I speed up… also nothing. Which means the only variable here is the dragon. The rest doesn’t change the wheel of fates at all.” The woman said while thinking of a better way to change the story.
“How about changing when the dragon dies?” Giles suggested, which the woman promptly does, in exchange, the outcome is indeed different.
“Interesting, changing the timing of her deaths will affect how she functions in Astrea, but it still didn’t give her the isolationist attitude though. But… delaying her death can make her stronger at the other side that is an interesting note…” the woman said as Giles notes down the effect.
“Say, do you think the family will affect her? Cause right now we are not changing anything else.” The woman says Giles thinks a bit before answering.
“I think it might have caused the effect too, or maybe it is multiple reasons, but we should test it out to see if it affects her,” Giles said.
“ You know what, screw this, let’s just add tons of tragedy, I am sure that this will make it work this time!” the woman said as her fingers move between invisible screens, so many things adjusted that it makes Giles sweat.
‘Poor lad… or lady… both works, I pray that you won’t resent us for this…’ is what Giles think before the woman finishes everything and finally lets it play again.
“I am eager to know the result of this iteration. You better give me a good show, my little dragon~” the woman said as she watched the screen plays.
Here's hoping that she's not the universes proverbial punching bag this time around.
Well I feel like you might be disappointed
@Benokelvin Fair enough.
The main criticism I really had about the previous iteration is that it felt forced even in the context of being a story about a character who is driven crazy.
Everything from the reason they were left behind so long to the reasons why they went through so much bullsh*t felt less like the organic progression of in story events and more like you as the author artificially forcing everything to happen so your character could end up exactly the way you wanted them to be and end up in every bad situation you wanted them to end up in.
@Benokelvin
Forgot to add this.
There's also the fact that the morbid interest of looking at a character suffer can only last so long.
@Black-Sky-Order well the first part of the suffering is needed, but after that, things changed, she is no longer passive but has been changed to be aggressive