I feel as though we're getting close. Gotta go through the story a time or two and gut some redundant flowery crap that isn't necessary, and just gernally slim it down, because for now, it's just too damned long. I JUST HAD AN IDEA! I can kinda hide unnecessary bits of the story in off the beaten path. This way players who want extra dialogue can read it, but the main bits of story will be concise and right in the players face. But the dialogue is getting close to done, and then it's back into the thick of things.

I've a confession to make. I never understood writing. I was always very introverted growing up and I didn't know the world. I couldn't enjoy the authenticity of things, and in my mind, writing was just an exercise for book worms to flex their big dictions. I'd always just thought that writing was about using flowery words to look pretentious.

I never had anything to say. So I never had anything to write. I grew up and played video games, these infernal machines captured our time, and in all honesty, wasted it. They're fun, they do no harm, but they only in very rare occasions build ambition of which case I am one.

I now feel i am coming to understand this game of writing, this rewarding exercise of iteration and logical puzzles that every single line of logic and emotion presents, it spins into a larger framework and in many ways mirrors the same sort of practices of designing the logic of a video game. It's kind of remarkable how many parallels i'm finding between the processes of developing story and hammering out the lines of story, they're much like weaving lines of code together, foreshadowing, orders of operations, the same mental strains apply.

Anyway, I had a few revelations in my head while i got up to grab some three bean salad, and it's late and i'm kinda drained, but I felt compeled to try to throw some thoughts online really fast. I think I have remembered about half of them, and phrased them half as well as I had wanted, but I gotta save some energies to actually finishing up this dialogue tomorrow.

I AM NOT working at 100% right now. But that's ok, it's stress and the stress of stressing that's been the biggest bottle neck as of late. Am I being too easy on myself? Am I not cracking the whip hard enough? Probably. I'm allowing it for now, it's nice to enjoy some time off without over worrying what seems like declining health.

I feel as though our world is severely lacking in parable, and most story tries to speak to the lowest common denominator through tropes, and disjointed nothings that lays over the game with nothing of interesting cohesion. I want to try to make a story that connectly more directly with the gameplay and themes of SeaCrit and try to change how we think about story in gaming. We can write stories that enrich the player with time honored messages, but also do a new modern twist. There is SO MUCH unexplored potential for dialogue in our games, themes not just related to gaming, but our new and unexamined digital lives where we are so darned detatched from reality. It's actuallyl a really exciting time to be writing this stuff, not only is there more to talk about, people have so much more they need to hear! 

I do worry that it's some of that same old "Hurr, durr, light is good and the dark is bad and in shadow... UMBRAL!" But the more I think about it, the more I remember that much of the potential audience for seacrit is going to be very young, and not very avid book readers, so it's perfectly ok if we have some introductory and trite levels of story! Everyone has to start somewhere, and stories of good and evil, light vs. dark have endured for a reason. 

I'm also excited that i'm breaking the 4th wall right out of the gate. It opens this whole new world of intrigue. Which entities in the game know they are living in a simulation? How much morality would u share with some sort of simplified digital creation? What if there were greater beings deeper within the simulation, and others deep outside? Could be this interdimensional epoch with all these notions of 4th dimensional gods contending with the ever looming Cthulhu mythos ruminating throughout, and maybe entities of pure consciousness that exist in no physical realm. You have this polarity of space and time throughout what we know to be time and space, what is the nature of consciousness and time? It's especially poignant as the rise of AI comes about, all while we're having these bizarre moral contentions that are reducing us to shells of our former selves in morality and capacity. 

It's a really friggin' weird time to be alive and it's like there's no interesting public dialogue about anything interesting, everyone just shuts their brains off and gets on their phones and awaits orders about if they're supposed to be outraged about anything or not, waiting to be told what the big news of the day is. So it's kinda fun to just lose myself in thinking up these potential stories and setting up this tiny little groundwork for what could be a monumental epoch of story here! Whew, sometimes I think i'm crazy, just some random neckbeard in a cave... but to be fair, that's where a lot of cool sh*t starts! SeaCrit will be a wonderful achievement, or a glorious failure! Nothin' ta do but keep on pushin' forward.

Back to the grinding to pulp soon enough... Onto the in game dialogue! What follows is the current iteration of the exchange the player will have with the 3 ethereal spirits of the Bloom (light), the Brewed (shade), and Air'Oar (the child).

EDIT: Was feeling better lately, to the point I was starting to think these meds were making me feel better. Unfortunately I started taking metformin again thinking that wasn't causing me to feel ill and 2 days in and now I feel breathless and sick again. I was also exercising thinking things were better so i'm not entirely sure what was setting this all off. Same tired complaining and uncertainty as ever. No more metformin for me for now. Going to do light exercise and try to cut out salt and fat. Not much else I can do... Hope to feel better soon so I can finished this damned demo.

EDIT: Think we're done with these revisions here. Time to get the story in the game. Time to move on and start workin' on making it fun again. ENOUGH BLATHERS FOR NOW! Feeling less burned out as of late, think we're just about ready to dive back in!

=================THE STORY==========================

=Tales of Legion Fish=

Swimmin’ a bit far from the shallows dontcha think, chum? You’ll find nothing but ruin here in the haunted outskirts.

Don’t worry, these soldiers are nothing more than trick conjurings of dark’s greatest fear, there be no legion here. These ‘festations be but 'maginations! Nightmare Knockoffs born of tales of Mighty Legion.

Tell me small tad, have you faith in Cthulhu Tales? Do ya believe those silly stories of Legion steel forged in such might? Do souls dark-brewed fester in these recesses of light?

Ponder on this, oh wee chum. What keeps the dangerous dark at bay by day?.. 

The legions were no lie! Why, even dilute decantings of their glory be keepin’ our shallows shinin’. So fearful of such rank is the shade that our shores be safe to this very day… 

*Sigh* we’ve gone soft, don’t need ta tell ya that. Where glory and pride once shined, now lay strewn bottle and faded beam, ‘tis a sad state. No tellin’ how long the dark spirits ‘ll resign to outskirt, or if any of us deserve such wondrous shiny seabank. But take solace young one...

The shade holds more fear of Bloom, than we of it!

=OathKeeper=

What worldly warmth wander water’s wound? A bloom? I make out a mighty shimmer… the gimmler of a thousand armors?.. 

Praise the stars! A Light Bringer!

The torch promised-passed fizzled a mote faster than I, but can you believe it!? Here swam a champion of their own light. The radiance has guided you safely through the thieves and scallywags. Of all endless shores, you’ve beached the last bastion of Bloom. Destiny delivered! 

Come, your Birthright  awaits. 

Though life-light cinder to labored breath, and billowing soul’s now lonely plume, the legends of valor still shine out this room.

WE LEGION!

Forged of mighty-stronger-stuff than the putrid spirit of empty drunkard’s bottle

Cultivated by order! Assembled through discipline! Smelted in war! Cast within a shallow grave of coldest, blackened mud. Quenched bottomless-deep. The mighty ocean itself trembled our torrential advance, Oorah!

Oh, to bask in that radiant splendor where naught a cavern knew shade, I pray you would know it! Not this wary-old, fading ember.

The ominous brewed was naught but fable. And now, in wasted years, so too we Legion. Shallows shimmer soft and dull, fester an ungrateful green. The frightful letterings of bedside story now drip from page and patter down small babes as their scales duly raise on end. Night lingers past Kraken of day as our shimmerings hastens away… 

…the shade crawls back

===  

Caustics confuse through shades of hue... Through darkness of shadow, in ocean blue. As sure as decay brews our doom... 

Are you keeper? Or do you consume? 

Savior of the Bloom, Oathkeeper… it’s you

Might I confide in you shine-breaker? A palpitation murmurs as tides break into wane. A shade has crept into view. And yet there are ever-other whispers stirring these walls, they seem to resonate into broader dimensions deeper even than shadow. To what far channels does such a chance meeting echo? Do we ascend above? Ruminate below?

We’ve no time for such matters.. this wick burneth low.

Here in these ancient caverns, the souls of Legions be not gone, they peer from on high. You are wanting as the dark dawn!

YOU HAVE ABANDONED OUR WISDOMS WRITTEN TO YOU IN OUR BLOOD!

Arm you these words, Oathkeeper: Ever thus the stars will shine, into the heavens our breastplates bind. Never faltered, always true, lances of light be forged anew!

Safeguarded in this tomb is Light's great gift, the worldly remains of the last great keeper of Blooming, the caretaker of this very lake. 

================Ex-Caliber================

Once upon a time… this lake shimmered a radiance so fair. No match had she, for locks amber ignited her hair.

Plumes flew from boomstick glowing and curled, as slugs of sure-judgment, long-barrel unfurled

SeaCrit from shades, our Lady smoked shadow in spades. Bloom knew peace ‘n prosperity till the end of her days.

But such flight aloft and alight cannot not sustain, felled darkest prison now her remains.

Freed of terrors of light, the shade brews as it looms. Weaves of tangled fortunes with sinister grooms.

===

Can you keep our SeaCrits, lightbringer? Refracted in the pristine rays of the shimmering shallows, The Lady of the Lake’s once mighty boomstick now cuts through dark whispers and blocks out the shade. 

Bind you the Ex-Caliber!

Scoff not worn edges, this instrument of Bloom. It’s drunk more dark than even you could consume. 

True Radiance does not sputter, nor does it spark, it flows steady-eternal as brightest star’s northern mark

Master using it and you may have the worlds, bringer of tidings. 

Great prosperity is not pilfered from ungrateful dead. It’s Farmed through great toil and rises from tilled soil. Cross not fortune with primal yearnings lest ye be ready for the coming fall.

Play this not as game, oh soldier of gray. Your darkness brews. It attracts you t'ward power like moth to flame and I see your shadow fluttering too merrily this recess. Where there is light, there will be shadow. Envy will blot the radiance. None can smother the dark. 

But perchance our rekindled SeaCrit will rage one day to unleashed wildfire and brighten meaning through our ether.  Will stars collide in crusade so perfect? Become the vessel against Chaos. Chase the infernal blemishes to a single point of light. From a singularity, there can be no shadow! 

Bloom, final and all! One, final and all! THE GREAT BLOOM’S CALL!

ONE, FINAL AND ALL!

========Final Warning==========

Shhhhhh. The sun sinks into sea. Do you hear the howlings?

Do you feel the sharp-steel screech holding cold ‘gainst neck? The dire threat that kept SeaCrit safe now seeks to snuff it.

Hasten, lightbringer, do not linger temptations’ sweet nothings, if you’re to court the favor of Bloom, you mustn't deal in shadow.

You must be steadfast as you venture into the endless frontiers of madness, 

Of all SeaCrits, keep this one, oh very young...

Offerings of power have interests of soul

===THE OMINOUS DARK=== (add section of game with dark fish to fight)

Someone must feed the beast…

You really are quite ravenous, you know?

Do you chuckle your praises as you gnaw the marrow from our bones, “Light Bringer”? Do you know yourself?

Casters of the glare see not their own shadow...

===

Have you ever wondered how fertile the black-mud soil ‘neath your fallen foe grows? What pungent terror arises a solitary soul tormented by lusts so petulant?

Mutilated millions fill endless gulfs into the nethers. No remorse, not even memory afforded our kin. Our lifeblood curdles and festeres in nothing. Agonies hardened to unblemished black. Our souls jag, and brittle, crystalized under immeasurable pressures through countless ages.

We, blackened. 

We, fermented. 

We, distilled. 

We… 

The Brewed

Tell me binger-of-brew, would you fancy a tour through our confines of slaughter?

In this very spot, one of your realm racked the first unsettled score. From that spark bloomed first shadow, an infinite loop cycling countless circuits spun this hallowed existence through endless frontiers.

===

In all realms through all dimensions, Dark-thirsty demons cast their lances of light, and there is nothing new under the sun…

...save perchance your grace. At long last, we are beside ourselves with one who dare peer behind the Glare.

===

Consume! Burn! Radiate! 

We sunder to ash in recesses of radiance, them waxing poetic while we wanton wane.

Each haunted whisper of these halls tells the story of a thousand deaths against your thirst. And yet there is no resistance, no blood debt can slow addicted user playing their food. The harder we fight ‘gainst your tortures, the more exuberant your bloodlusts scrim. 

This tomb be soul destiny, all paths lead to end, shallow as shimmering. But in the depths of your depravity we dove a deeper understanding of our relationship.

Your ravages otherworldly. Your lust alien as time and dimension from fractal pain. We have come to accept our nothing in the reflection of your glare. We can no more court pity, than strike you our peace.

Some day you will tire our bitter taste. Our pains will churn to muck on the seafloor. But the ever-patter of dancing Bloom upon our graves will forever haunt us in the nether. Have the existence hustler no shame? It’s a petty joy taken in momentary-being while suffering eternal in their blinking of I.

Perhaps you’ve already grown wary of of proselytizing. Of feeble offerings.

Leave it to the Bloom to bestow ill-fated spawn with toys and honor them to die in their wars. The contraptions you’ve equipped are a mark, small one. They crave countless death. Player or foe, it matters not, ‘long as spinning wheels chew to pulp and feed infernal fires evermore.

===

Power is stolen. When all are strong, none are. They will never divulge you answers true, for when revelation spawn, we stand to gain, and Bloom to lose. Refractions of light caste the die before our birth.

If Bloom were your ally, they would affirm you the universal rules, not inflict you venomous lies. You will never grasp potential staving knowledge of dark, you truth-starved fool.

Nothing is earned without suffering. Nothing taken without a fight. No struggle compares the dark-brew festering ‘neath Bloomings of light.

==========The end of the lady of the lake=============

You think us your playthings, Player? Vessels of pearl? As sure as light conversation splits blistered lips, nothing is as it seems in these torrents of SeaCrits.

You see, we have all the power in this world...

We have your ear.

It's not cold dagger stabbed from dark that Bloom fears, it's telltale truth bellowing below.

They do not tell tales of what becomes of their precious vessels of Bloom. Their memory is agreeable history. Raw-sullied truth is sheltered under covers of shadow.

The lady of the lake, "Fairer than bloom" The bully. The wench. The charlotte bring Doom!

While Bloom incessanced crusade ever-blistering, we Brewed offered quieting compassions of intoxicating whisping.

======================

In Unity of the great eclipse brought chilling salvation on darkened day. Came Mass O' Moon from parted sky. Came balance, came terrible, terrible damage so pure. 

The Lady of lake conquered totally the true evil of this world: the thirsts for power within. And with a lasting switch of fate, the cries quieted. 

We eclipsed the glaring bloom in this event of the horizon.

Our suffering is yours. Have it, oh brewed who sees beyond the glare. Move yonder from those who  trust not their own shadow. Take this Mass O’ Moon and defeat the agony of light from this world. 

Quench your bloodthirst, kill our pain.

=Airoar=

I am 

Airoar. 

I'm a mistake that makes both dark and light cross, I’m the happiest little accident you'll come across!

Did they tell ya pain riddles whispers fill this haunted cavern? Well once you get used to demon-tongue in your ear, you'll hear some pretty good jokes! Those sun drinkers all say I spend too much time in the shade, but what can I say? These voices get me.

Those old souls are still getting hot and bothered over each other, aren’t they? All that hubbub and I can't help but think strange ladies layin’ in ponds distributing swords should be no basis for a system of governance!

They're all the same, anyhow! Light, dark. Us, Them. Left, Right. What's it matter!? All sides be right relative to one's orientation. Funny how what anyone believes to be “good” always aligns with what’s best fer them! 

Never a concession, nor a praise ‘cross the aisle from either side, that’s how I know they’re all full of it.

===

When you’re strong they’ll call you stubborn. When you have conviction you’re a zealot. When you speak hard truth, you gotta be silenced. If you’re the hero to one you’re demon to the other. Any light that shines bright invariably casts shade. Always gonna be haters, chum!

Since when did building’ yourself up require tearing’ others down? We should be careful where we point our grievances, the souls we’re tasked to shatter are more like us than we care to know. More idle hands than our own willin’ to play the same instruments.

Truth be told, not sure what to do about the madness, our tales are old as time. The more things change the more they stay the same. Flee the nonsense and you’ll find yourself deep in cold, alone as everything falls to rubbish. Try to do some good and they’ll kick ya into dirt and tell ya you’re fightin' fer the wrong team. Nothin’s good enough ‘less you’re rollin’ ‘round the same muck as the powers that be. Sometimes I wonder if the sane play is to pick up a pitchfork and get to being crazy as the rest.

We need fresh solutions, our salt levels are too durned high!! 

===

It's us level-headed folk that end up under the flotsam. The more honest compassion ya got, the more it anchors ya down. It’s the nature of things. Too many sharks above, too many coddledfish kissin’ ring below, not enough doers willing to stand fer what they know to be right! 

You know what I respect about you, player? You're a doer! These worlds need more doers who can think fer themselves and know things for what they are! It ain’t sunshine and rainbows as the flock marches to the slaughterhouse.

Light, dark, good, bad. If there's one thing I can't stand it's those standing' on the sideline waitin’ for others to fight their battles for 'em, had their minds fed to ‘em candy-sweet with a silver spoon. Sure as dagger splits back, nothin’s ever good enough for any of these do nothin’s short of carryin’ their pitchfork for ‘em. If ya be listenin’ ta fools, the mob rules!

Too many listening fer eccos of the past and stumblin’ after these shadows on the wall. The soundings of yesterday don’t resonate such mad shapings today… ya won’t find purpose fixating long dead fires, you won’t even find a shadow to follow. 

It’s a stifled soul that lingers in twilights of others’ radiance and shade. Time to be free of this cave! Time to find our own callings in new unventured frontiers!

===

Damn their quests! Forge a light you can behold with yer own eyes, cast yer own shadow! The fools lost the plot ages ago! Best way ta learn is the hard way I say! Time ta’ pull ourselves up from the bootstraps and start questioning a thing or two. There are foundations that need  buildin’ as our pillars collapse.

No time to give up! It might be late into our game, maybe we’re already wounded by wheel, it’ll only make our epochs that much greater! The greatest drink awaits at the end of the hottest, driest desert, if ya be believin’ such fantastical t’ings!

If all be lost, what have ya to lose? Fight the good fight, fight the bad fight… by any cause. 

Do what YOU feel is right! Or don't! Trust yer gut, experience the world! Get inta trouble, test their rules. You may find the giant, insurmountable, spinning wheels looming to churn you to muck if you rock the boat never even existed at all… despite their best efforts, you are free to forge your own path.

Ya wanna wake one day ta find yourself imprisoned by tomb, a tool of righteous fools like those cantankerous souls above? 

What grabs ya from bed and sets ya ‘gainst day, only parts of the story that matter some way. 

THINK! 

DO! 

FAIL! FAIL! FAIL AND FAIL SOME MORE! 

GET BACK UP, THE BATTLE AIN’T OVER

AND IF THE STARS SHINE UPON YOU FROM ABOVE… humble success. 

And if they don’t, try best ya can to suffer cold tides. Dignity can be found in the face of adversity, there are far worse fates. Not all that is good is found in prosperities.

Above all… BE! We have but short times to radiate our lights and to cast our shadows. In all radiant wonder, in all sadness and suffering, here you are! And what a mighty incredible thing it is simply to be. 

No point fixating the end, we won’t be there to read that bit of story anyway… Time to get doin’!

===

Enjoy your time here being in the safety of our SeaCrit. Before that shuttering of light, before the pang of final cold bite!

From deepest ocean, to final fourth wall, an earnest THANK YOU! Sounds with Cthulu’s great call. 

It's with a heart so heavy we’ve carried thus far, but as far-bright stars shimmer, we give this game dev our all

 Where our SeaCrits will take us, no one may know. But we soldier together, as strong-torrent flow.

=====================FIN========================

LIGHT Words to use: Flare, glint, luster, dawn, sheen, sparkle, glimmer, torch, resonate, glaze, gloss, burnish, vivid, brilliance, glisten, kindle, blaze, 

DARK Words to use: foment, Umbra, Specter, apparition, murk, mist, dim, ink, somber, aphotic, faint, muttered, immure