Violation Flemoid/Chex Trek Storyline

Started by wiweeyum, October 21, 2012, 03:45:40 AM

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wiweeyum

Well, I've been digging through and digitally archiving all of my past projects, and there's quite a decent amount of stuff from Chex Trek and VioFlem (both of which are the same thing mostly... just different attempts with clearer goals.) Anyway, I've got two things here for you. First is a link to a public Evernote Notebook I just made with all of my digital copies of all my planning. I hope that the stuff benefits other folks in some way. If nothing else, it'll be cool to sift through and see me and my brothers take on a reinvisioning of the story.

https://www.evernote.com/pub/wiweeyum/vioflem

And since this is the place for Chex Fiction... here's a Copy/Pasta of the entire storyline as I dictated it into a cassette tape recorder, transcribed for posterity. This is one of the notes in the above link. Have fun!

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

The "imperfects" look like cereal. The "perfects" look humanoid, though under their clothes they still look like the cereal that they are. Though originally not intended, the story plays a lot into racism, segregation and different castes. The story makes a political statement regarding the absurdity of racism.

The villain.
Originally, the intention was to create a villain similar to Hitler – videogames, movies, etc, with association and similarities with WWII always sell. That spurred the idea of exterminating a race. With further inspiration from Gataca, there came the perfects and imperfects. Aside from physical appearance, the imperfects and perfects have no difference other than that they are a lower caste. The imperfects don't get government funding for school, thus no public schooling. They primarily get blue-collar jobs – janitorial work, warehouse work. They are stereotyped as being absolutely stupid and not worth anyone's time. An unfair stereotype. However, because of this, they commonly lack any proper education, and do not have easy access to rising in social class. The perfects are stereotyped as being the geniuses, the movers, the shakers. They're welcome in high class society because of their appearance and get education.
This racism existed before the technology boom. When the technology boomed, the imperfects remained in the circumstances they were – the perfects shot up in society. It created a sharply apparent contrast of different ends of a spectrum.

Ceerio.
The villain of the story, originally supposed to parallel Hitler completely, evolved into a more rounded character named Ceerio who's story is shown throughout the game. Ceerio the Cheerio (with the British Accent) is an imperfect – but also an absolute genius. He was raised in an Imperfect family, but they were down-to-earth, and because of choice were as high of class that Imperfects could get. Both parents worked, but their family was close and full of love- a good family. Ceerio was a sharp kid who loved learning, but they could not fund his education and still have their home and cover living expenses. He was a very self-taught kid, and gained a lot of street-smarts. He was a bookworm, and he retained everything he read. He was very good at it and knew how to take what he learned and apply it into life. His siblings weren't as enthused in learning as he was, but he was determined to reach his dream of becoming a scientist. This wasn't possible, because he was an Imperfect. He read any and every book he could get his hands on – old text books – he would go through the trash outside of the universities, and grab textbooks. He'd read them and apply them. He'd work at physically creating what he'd read about and he was good at it. He really clung onto sciences. His dad was very realistic and thus did not support his dream, and urged him to get a job and prepare to support a family – but don't dream the impossible. His mother, who he was really close to, was more supportive, but also cautioned him at the impossibility of reaching his dream. As she'd always taught him to do with his endeavors, he gave it his everything. He figured the only way he'd achieve what he wanted was to have the right connections. He wasn't just going to try to wow people with what he knew and what he could do. He worked at trying to get a job working around scientists, and got a janitorial job in the low security Chex squadron. Gifted with a photographic and auditory memory, passing by conversations and work stations, seeing and hearing pieces – he could, over a period of time puzzle together the information until he had complete pictures. Bit by bit he realized that with the information he was gleaning at the Chex squadron, he was coming up with never before thought of applications for the Zorch. He believed that with the knowledge he'd gained, he could, with much trial and error, he could build teleportation. With all the money he earned, he began to work on this. While there, he started making some friends – easily recognizable face that he had, being the only Cheerio in the Chex squadron – his friendliness quickly made him further stand out. Over a course of several years, he worked on this project in his spare time at home – and he had success. He was eventually able to simultaneously transport a couple molecules from one place in the room to another. Elated, he went to a few of his scientist friend and started to share pieces of his project, just feeling to see what the response would be. The idea exploded and everyone was amazing. The heads of the Chex Squadron immediately found him, bought his project, paid his family a life retirement, and hired him – an imperfect Cheerio – as a scientist, and made him head of the project. He was given military status so they could control him – and he became General Ceerio – powerful – but entirely under their thumb to squish if it became necessary. He understood what was happening, but took it – he was achieving his dream – he was a scientist at the head of the top corporate/government company in the world. He was respected, equal. He realizes their control over him, but never believed it would become an issue because he so fully loved what he was doing for them – he was a scientist! Years pass, and he's further working on this transport project. The government used the transport technology for weapons testing. Without having to leave the Chex Squadron with weapons, they could open a portal and launch a missile on the other side of the world without having to physically be there. Shipment wasn't needed. Ceerio knew that as the government used it more and it became more widely known, it would eventually be made available in every day life. Transportation would become easy. Then, they found out that they could change the portal's destination just by punching in certain numbers – which took away the need to set up another teleporter. With that, they started figuring out that they could travel through dimensions. With this, they discovered the Milk Dimension. It became the new location for weapons testing – and allowed for the testing of bigger and more destructive weapons. Weapons that if tested elsewhere would take out a corner of the planet. It created a power-rush. It caused a lot of scary rumors to emerge about the Chex Squadron's power and weapons might. They became the number one powerful company – closely followed by the Cheerio Elite. Late one night Ceerio was running tests in the Milk Dimension – checking his portal strength, radiation levels, etc. – when, in the milk, he saw a face. He started running more tests, and he realized that it was a cereal. A piece of cereal was in the Milk Dimension. When a piece of cereal sits in milk it gets soggy – this cereal had been sogged. The only possible way for a cereal to get into the Milk Dimension, was with his technology. The only place that his technology was running was within the Chex Squadron. As he looks further into the Milk Dimension, running his tests, he starts finding more faces – more sogged cereal. He realizes that they're all Imperfects. Alarmed, he stays up all night, logging every cereal he finds, searching to find out who they are. Their degrees of soggyness ranged from months in the Milk - to days. He becomes deeply disturbed from finding so many dead bodies of his kind – the Imperfects – and the knowledge that they were murdered with his technology. He takes it badly – losing lots of sleep – and he starts trying to find out what was going on. For over three months, he listens and searches and starts piecing together what he could find. Eventually he discovers that some power-hungry person in the Chex Squadron is murdering Imperfects – he is using sogging as the death penalty in the prisons. Theoretically, the worst scumbags in the world are being sogged – but in the elitist society – the only people who go to prison are Imperfects. The Perfects get away with their crimes. The death-penalty laws have been warped and Imperfects are freely being killed. The prisons are consistently full. People are being arrested and given the death-penalty on a regular basis. Ceerio finds this out, but isn't sure who's doing it. In his sleep-deprived, disturbed state, Ceerio eventually snaps, after seeing more and more sogged cereal that he knows – including his family. He determines to get back at the Chex Squadron.
At work one day, they launched a bomb off in the Milk Dimension, and it did very little damage and was passed off as a weapon of interest. However, it had a unique property that messed with the molecular structure of the sogged cereals in the Milk Dimension. The rotten sogged cereals start coming together to form a living goo – functioning with a sort of hive mind. A hive mind full of unfocused anger and revenge for being murdered. Because he runs the tests, Ceerio is the only one who finds out about this, and he hatches a plan to use this stuff to fight against the Chex Squadron – to make them stop.
Throughout these years, on planet Bazoik, they have this mining facility, and they have a nutritional development center. The Nutrition center is devoted to making more nutritional foods and etc.

Ceerio requests to be transferred to Bazoik – and because his physical and mental states are obviously lacking, they give him leave to get away from the city and such. He requests the help of a few scientists, and promises to keep HQ updated on his teleport technology. He procures the bottom floor of the nutrition center, and he uses it for his teleport research.

The Chex are much like Americans with the n***-Germany militaristic society. The Cheerios are like the Brits – refined, snooty, highclass, with a WWII Russia military.

Eric and Fred Chexter are twins, they are Perfect Chex, and they are best friends. Fred is a great guy, but mentally stunted. He's socially awkward and not very aware of everything that's going on. Eric is the epitome of Perfect – super smart, athletically gifted, friends with everyone. Growing up together, Fred had friends because Eric had friends. They grew up playing military games, and dreaming about the time when they could be in the military. When they come of age, they take the physical and mental tests to get into the military – Eric makes it, and Fred doesn't. Fred tries again – and again- and again – and never makes it in. Eric quickly rose through the ranks and became the leader of a small black ops type commando group. He manages to keep his good nature – still just a great guy. He and Fred don't grow apart much, but a barrier begins to form. Eric is being trained to be a killer, and Fred is just living off memories. They still have a good time with each other, but Eric is frequently gone, and because Fred doesn't have any friends, he starts talking to himself and being his own best friend. Fred's oblivious of the ridicule he's receiving because of his oddities. Eric comes one day to tell Fred that he's leaving on a mission and will be gone for undetermined amount of time.

Fred is fit, outgoing, and never gives up – but he's not good at anything. He does have a knack for not dying, but that's it, and he has nothing else that could get him into the military. Commander Archard is the old military man in charge of all new recruits. He knows Fred very well. Archard knew Fred's parents as well as Eric, who he works with often – but mostly he knows Fred because he's in charge of new recruits and Fred is persistent in trying to join the military. Archard won't let Fred in, much for his own good, and because he has no ability.

One day, Archard calls Fred in. He's frustrated with Fred's persistence and making a joke of the recruitment system, and etc. He gives Fred a job and makes him a Private. He puts him in charge of guarding a storage ship that orbits the planet. Always on his toes, and never a slacker, Fred takes his job very seriously. The storage ship is just that – a storage unit for stuff – not even anything very valuable. He's given a Boot Spoon which is about as powerful as a tazer. Fred is given a mic to use while patrolling, but because of his incessant and unnecessary updates regarding the status of the secure ship, the people on the other end turn down his volume on their side.

As he often did, one day, Fred was dreaming of rescues and dangerous missions, and was diving around the ship making sure it was secure. Then, someone boarded his storage ship. He immediately springs into action and, with his ineffective Boot Spoon, begins to fight the boarding Flemoids. He calls into headquarters with his alert of attack, but they don't hear him. He's still turned down. He's convinced his personal communications are broken, so he runs up to the command center and presses the alarm that alerts headquarters, who open communications. They tell him where a spare mini-zorcher is, and order him to get out of there. He grabs it and starts shooting the flemoids. They hit the walls and splatter everywhere, but quickly reform. He eventually makes it to his ship and escapes.

After this event, Archard calls Fred to a meeting of the United Cereals Council, and has him tell them what happened. All the cereal are represented at the United Cereals Council, but it's held in the Chex Squadron and run by the Chex, and is thus very one-sided. The Chex Squadron makes presents the new dilemma as if it were impossible to overcome. They make the situation sound hopeless, and have Fred tell his story of his inability to harm the Flemoids. Fear is aroused in the council and they ask what can be done. The reply is that they secured the ship and launched the Flemoids into space, and found out from the ships computer that it was from Bazoik. A couple of weeks prior they lost contact with Bazoik and sent in a team of a small group of crack commandos to find out what was going on. We'd heard of fighting on the planet and lost contact with the entire planet. They sent in a probe and it didn't come back. They sent in some military and it didn't come back. They sent in the crack commando team and it didn't come back. They put up pictures of the people they'd sent who hadn't returned, and Fred verbally points out his brother as being one of those lost. Unbeknownst to Fred, Archard has set this up to get Fred to volunteer to go to Bazoik. Fred would be the only one who would go – but to make it politically safe for the Chex Squadron Archard needed Fred to volunteer. They pose the dangers and say that they need a volunteer to see what's going on and to save the people. The response from the Council is incredulous. Fred volunteers. They suspected that Ceerio and his teleporter technology was involved in the goings-on. Next, a Chex scientist named Dwayn stands and declares that he worked with Ceerio before he left for Bazoik. He was one of the few other people who understood the portal technology, though he couldn't advance it. What he did, was change the frequency of the Zorchers, which would teleport the Flemoids back to their dimension when shot at. They give this modified Zorcher to Fred, as well as a mass of communication equipment, cameras, etc. and send him to Bazoik.

He gets to Bazoik and the place is infested with Flemoid. He starts searching to find out what's been going on – and from workers from the Nutrition center who are still alive, he finds out that Ceerio was acting peculiarly, working on weapons manufacturing and such and that he would disappear for weeks at a time, and come back evasive about where he'd been. The 'green things' showed up and they believed it had to do with Ceerio. Fred would always ask about Eric to which the workers would respond positively of his rescuing them and such. He works down through the floors of the Nutrition Development center running into obstructions and problems all the while. He finds a holodeck where the workers would grow their food where he sees a flashback of Ceerio's past. This is the place at which Ceerio would disappear from. He finds that Ceerio set up a portal in an area that he got to through the holodeck. The portal leads to the caverns/mines of Bazoik on the other side of the planet where he set up a secret lab. Fred goes through this and has to navigate through the dark, dank caverns of Bazoik. There are glowing green rivers of slime. He fights a large wall flemoid, behind which he finds a dark tunnel which he enters in.

He's heard about this super weapon throughout and suspects that it's the flemoids. When he reached the wall flembrain he supposed that that was the secret weapon. But he continue to hear about a super weapon even after that. He starts fighting new flemoids – with bionic exoskeleton suits. They move faster, and are overall a lot scarier.

Foreshadowing reveals Ceerio talking to someone else who is very controlling and builds a suspicion that perhaps Ceerio isn't in charge. The other voice insists that Ceerio build the super weapon, which he does against his will.

Fred enters another room and finds Lelix. Who is unrefined. He fights her and loses. He passes out and has a flashback.

Lelix is refined.

Fred fights Giganticus and wins but is immediately captured by Lelix.

Fred is tortured – taunted and beat down. Ceerio and Lelix are there and Ceerio starts telling Fred some of his story.
The building is attacked and it collapses separating Fred from Ceerio and Lelix – he escapes. Ceerio, Lelix, and Other Voice teleport to the ships and they board one and head for planet Ceerio.
Fred also goes through the portal and sees them take off. He jumps in a ship and chases after them. In swoops a big pirate ship – the commander of which is Cap'n Crunch. Cap'n Crunch is a renegade pirate. All the factions on planet Cereal doesn't like him, and they blame everything on him. He's a liberator. He's fighting to get rid of the factions. Him and his crew of Corn Flakes (who are all Imperfects – there are no Perfect corn flakes).
Cap'n Crunch has been watching Fred and joins him to stop Ceerio. Cap'n Crunch knows what's going on because he's been watching Ceerio and them. Fred flies with him and they chase after the bad guys. Cap'n Crunch was sent to watch over Fred by someone. There's a minor space fight. The Soggies show up in this fight and Cap'n Crunch is distracted chases after them. Fred chases after bad guys alone and lands on Planet Cereal. Fred is jumped –FLASHBACK! And he knows that Ceerio is behind it all.
Fred wakes up to find Archard there, wearing a gray hoodie. While Fred was gone, his name was defamed, and everyone believed him to be involved in the Flemoid deal. Eric showed up while Fred was gone and Eric was responsible for defaming him. Eric says that he has a way to stop the Flemoids – and he has an upgrade – Lelix with him. He wants everyone to upgrade to be like her so they can fight against the Flemoids. Everyone loves Eric – he's saved them. Eric parades Lelix around and all the Imperfects quickly jump in to get the upgrade (which is free) and the Perfects follow suit, not wanting the Imperfects to be better. Archard has started a group called the Grays that are going to start a revolution – Cap'n Crunch is with them – and they want to get rid of the caste system. Archard was responsible for sending Cap'n Crunch after Fred.
Flemoids are running rampant across the city, and it isn't safe for Fred to be running around with his name defamed. Dr. Dwayn is also part of the group – and he gives Fred a FlemGun and ZorchGun.
Fred has to make his way through the city. He finds Ceerio- busts into the room and finds Ceerio sogged in a kiddy pool full of milk, Eric standing over him. Eric is responsible for everything. Eric sends Lelix after him. Fred fights her and manages to send her back to the Milk Dimension.
Fred is in the city and is chasing Eric. They end up in the Milk Dimension. Fred fights Eric and Eric explains his story. He went into the military, doing whatever they told him, and going on these missions, he realized he wasn't protecting people – he was basically a hit man, stopping people who could take down the Chex Squadron. This didn't sit well with him, but he wasn't in a position he could do anything about it politically without disappearing himself. He was sent to Bazoik and found out what Ceerio was doing and joined him. He was under Ceerio, helping him, until following his black ops training, he slowly worked his way to be in charge of Ceerio. Eric believes that the government isn't working, and believes that he can do better, and makes Ceerio make a super weapon. Eric wants to control everything and give everyone everything they need, though they won't have any choice. After Ceerio made Lelix, Eric sogged Ceerio, and was using Lelix to take over. Fred wins the fist fight with Eric, and he returns to Cereal. He's regarded as a hero and though it isn't happy, it is hopeful for the future with their new freedom.

noob1234

Really, really good though it gets clouded after hearing about the super weapon...
who the heck is Lelix? (assuming it's that weird female flemoid looking thing...)
and Dr. Dwayn??
And Giganticus?? (assuming it's some giant flemoid)
what does refined mean?
and I'm assuming the sogged mutated cereal became the flemoids, and other voice is Eric...
Assuming the flemgun's for fighting Eric.
LOL, nice inclusion of Cap'n Crunch.
Also, the plot in general is somewhat confusing especially the final wall of text.


MajorSlime

Haven't read the story yet, but just looked at your collection you linked to.


HOLY S***. THAT STUFF IS AMAZING. I love those models and drawings...
So, forgive me if I'm being ignorant, but whatever happened to that project?
Shh!  I'm taking a break from reality.

wiweeyum

Well, let me see if I can't clear up some points here. Firstoff, I have not actually ever read the wall of text above. :) I recorded it on a cassette tape via dictation because I had never gotten the entire story, or even plot points down on paper before. Then My wonderful fiance (at the time) transcribed it exactly as I spoke it. This is because I am really bad at writing. I find it very hard to convey what's in my head into written text. Anyway, I figured I'd post it, and if anyone ended up asking, I'd clear up points and edit the wall above. :) Looks like that happened!

I'll go through and answer your questions out of order, point by point. Good?

Quote
and I'm assuming the sogged mutated cereal became the flemoids, and other voice is Eric...
Correct, the flemoids are sogged "Imperfect" cereals (the ones that look like cereal) that are thrown into the Milk Dimension (a dimension made up of nothing more than swirling wonderful milk) as part of a dark govt. project. The "Imperfect" cereals are second class to the "Perfect" cereals (the ones that look like humans), even though there's nothing different about them aside from appearance. Think n*** Germany.

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what does refined mean?
Eric (Fred Chexter's brother, who are both "Perfect" cereals), decides he's going to stop the political/social slavery by figuring out a way to "refine" flemoid slime into something that looks and acts human. His goal was to create a third species that was even more better than the current "Perfects" so as to make them feel the pain of being second class.

Quote
it gets clouded after hearing about the super weapon...
The super weapon is a point of intrigue throughout the game. You expect it to be a gun, then a giant flemoid, then the weird girl flemoid, then Leelix, and eventually find out it's Eric's "refining" process. You see, he originally started out just wanting to equalize the playing field between "Imperfects" and "Perfects", but after realizing that when he created a "refined" flemoid, they were in his control. So he decided to destroy the entire universe of cereals by throwing them into the Milk Dimension, letting them sog, then refining the collective goop into a brand new race of beings that he could control.

The dirty secret is that both Perfects and Imperfects start volunteering to become refined once they see the first refined flemoid. It is paraded around as the next evolution of growth, and it is open for everyone free of charge! Imperfects finally have a chance to be worth something, and Perfects don't want to suddenly be second class citizens.

Quote
who the heck is Lelix? (assuming it's that weird female flemoid looking thing...)
This is a two part answer, because the story was vague enough that you didn't know that you've asked a two part question. :) Sorry about that.

1. What is the Flem-X?
https://www.evernote.com/pub/wiweeyum/vioflem#b=4ecbeb11-396c-47a2-86e9-77ea6f8f9404&n=2cf2a76c-7837-4ad8-b6fd-2e5e8db56b2c
Flex-X is the first step in refining flemoid slime. It involves making an inner skeletal structure for the slime to cling to in the shape of a human. These are very scary flemoids, and you are lead to believe that this is the "Super Weapon" alluded to throughout the game. While it is true that the Flem-X is in fact the Super Weapon, the thought is misleading because you are lead to assume that Eric is creating an army of the Flem-X's to kill all cereals.

2. Who is LeeliX?
https://www.evernote.com/pub/wiweeyum/vioflem#b=4ecbeb11-396c-47a2-86e9-77ea6f8f9404&n=17b98450-381c-482a-9bef-099f87cd7b05
LeeliX becomes an important character. She is the above spoken Flem-X in 100% "refined" form. She is in fact the Super Weapon, because she's the one paraded around as the Refined Cereal that Eric wants everyone to become. She is Eric's right hand, and does whatever he wants without questioning. Flemoids are nothing more than the collective anger of every cereal that's unjustly been thrown into the milk dimension, operating in a hive mentality. When Eric creates these refined flemoids, their hive mentality is controlled by him, and so the refined flemoids do things with cold efficiency and exactness.

Quote
And Giganticus?? (assuming it's some giant flemoid)
http://www.moddb.com/mods/violation-flemoid/videos/flemoidus-gigantus-reel (Video)
This is a HUGE boss flemoid that takes up an entire room. You're supposed to think this is the Super Weapon for a while. You beat it by running around and dumping zorch on it until a teleport appears below it, flushing it into the Milk Dimension.

Quote
and Dr. Dwayn??
https://www.evernote.com/pub/wiweeyum/vioflem#b=4ecbeb11-396c-47a2-86e9-77ea6f8f9404&n=341ea685-2819-425a-aacd-501e0e0b53a5
Dr. Dwayne is no one any more special than the guy from the intro video. He is in communication with you throughout the game, and will invent things to help your cause. For example, he tweaks the zorchers (normally a tazer) to teleport flemoids back to the milk dimension. He also makes the FlemGun talked about below.

Quote
Assuming the flemgun's for fighting Eric.
Yes, but not only for fighting Eric. You see, when you get off of Bazoik and fly back to Planet Cereal on Cap'n Crunch's pirate ship, you find that Eric has over-run the planet with flemoids and defamed your name. So, in true Half-Life style, you're forced to fight both Flemoids (with Zorchers) and other military cereals that have been lead to believe that it was you that sent the flemoids to the planet.

So, the FlemGun shoots slime out of it and sticks cereal people to walls and floors so they can't hurt you. (Think hostages at the end of Caverns of Bazoik)

It also sucks up flemoids into a tank to be reused as flem slime ammo.

Quote
So, forgive me if I'm being ignorant, but whatever happened to that project?

Honestly, massive scope and lack of direction is what happened to it. While the story is pretty cool, the game mechanics are a little insane. As was the level of quality we were trying to reach. I'm a fairly good project leader, but organizing and running a project this big as a mod, especially when it was very hard to convince people that the content was awesome instead of corny. :)

Additionally, as I was working on this back in 2005 to 2009, a lot of you guys didn't own the games that I was modding... :) and because it was a darker take on the Chex universe, I remember a few of y'all didn't really like it. So, the small community that would understand the references didn't get stoked about it. It was a different game engine, and a really weird take on the story.

So, in general, the whole concept just became less important in comparison to the rest of life. I was tired of being the only one that was 100% behind it for the four years of development. That's all. :)

It's not all gloomy tough. It's been a number of years since then and I'm very emotionally detached from it all now. :) I've grown up since then.

MajorSlime

Actually, I was wondering, would it be possible to use those models in the Chex Quest Skulltag Pack?
Shh!  I'm taking a break from reality.

wiweeyum

You have 100% permission to use anything I've created in any project. Just give credit where it's due. That goes for anyone in any project.

As for actually using the models... I don't know that I have any of them. :/ Erm... what models were you thinking of in particular?

MajorSlime

Shh!  I'm taking a break from reality.

wiweeyum

I'll poke around and see if I can find a copy. It's been a number of years, and as it never made it in game, there's no guarantee it exists in more than video format. I'll let you know!

75

#8
Wiweeyum, I'll have to pass on the commonus model. GzDoom / Zand have no shaders so the shapes in it will go to waste, and also it's a little too scary to fit into the surroundings that come with Chex Quest.

(My mod is Chex (Skulltag) Pack)

Though CM might find a use for it.
"Give us those nice bright colors, give us the greens of summer, makes you think all the world's a sunny day."

You can find me on the CQFF discord: https://discord.gg/AgNhjem

MajorSlime

mmm, k. Just thought it might be cool to have in the pack. I was wondering about the creepiness though.
Shh!  I'm taking a break from reality.