Philip Begel

I certify that the work included in this portfolio is my own original work. Work included which was
conducted as a part of a team or other group is indicated and attributed as such- the other team
members are named and a true description of my role in the project is included.
11/3/2015

Philip

Philip Begel
Signed by: philip

PORTFOLIO
Oculus Rift Perception Lab ........................................................................................................................... 3
You Exist: Design Document ........................................................................................................................ 7
-Game Design ............................................................................................................................................ 8
-Screenshots ............................................................................................................................................ 11
-Story/Concept Art .................................................................................................................................. 24
Textats App: Design Documents ................................................................................................................ 64
-Proposal ................................................................................................................................................. 64
-Functional/Non-Functional .................................................................................................................... 65
-Storyboard ............................................................................................................................................. 68
-Wireframe .............................................................................................................................................. 74
-User Evaluation Report .......................................................................................................................... 85
Research Essays .......................................................................................................................................... 91
-Consciousness ........................................................................................................................................ 91
-Love ...................................................................................................................................................... 101
Creative Writing ....................................................................................................................................... 112
-Game Mechanics analysis .................................................................................................................... 112
-Terms and Mechanics .......................................................................................................................... 112
-Villains of Honor Pt. II .......................................................................................................................... 120
-Villains of Honor Pt. III ......................................................................................................................... 130
-The Skullduggery Scheme .................................................................................................................... 137

Oculus Rift Perception Lab

(Philip Begel - research associate
Brent Hickey - research associate
Tanner Pearson - research associate)

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TOP

You Exist: Design Document

TOP

Philip Begel (Team Leader, Lead Writer, Lead Gameplay Design, Art Design)
Mark Hansen (Gameplay Design, Dungeon Design)

You Exist

Title screen (will draw in character on the tallest cape)

-Game Design

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GAME DESIGN
You Exist is a game about a character who finds that the world around him is
suddenly disappearing. Upon learning of this he returns to his home only to find it succumb
to the same fate. A woman with a great power gives the character an item that allows him
to restore the missing pieces of the world. The character goes on a journey to recover the
missing pieces and seek the answer for why it even occurred.
Imagine a universe where the Big Bang never occurred and you get this world; a
separate dimension with nothing, no life, except the raw energy of the universe. Call it the
Aether. When the central characters entered this universe, through their physics
experiment, they were able to create from their imagination anything they wished and thus
the physical world of this universe was born.
The core concept is that the player must navigate dungeons to recover the pieces of
the world that will then be restored physically on the main map. When the player returns
from a dungeon, their deeds will be rewarded immediately with the restoration of parts of
that area. The character is free to explore and interact with the newly restored area to
discover any background information or relevant story tidbits or hidden items.
The unique features of this game are its careful attention to story, simple dungeon
design and immersion in the world. The dungeon employs a fog of war system to keep the
maze hidden from full view so navigating it is meant to be quick, but a wrong turn could

result in your health degenerating all the way. A trial and error method would have to be
employed to make it through the levels effectively. There are power-ups along the way that
assist in navigating the maze so that a player can strategize how they wish to approach that
particular maze. Games that are similar in attention to story would be Final Fantasy where
there are multiple story events in the game and also a feeling of immersion in the games
world thanks to the interesting locations and well written dialogue of NPCs. The game Dark
Cloud (dungeon gameplay) is similar to how we are creating our mazes and the idea of a
world that your character needs to rebuild. A concept from that game is how you can rebuild
the world and then explore it creating a sense of accomplishment and connection with doing
the dungeons so that you can further explore the world and finish it.
Key challenges the player faces in the dungeons are navigating the mazes within the
time limit, utilizing power-ups effectively, and knowing when to fight a monster or run and
find a different route if time is an issue or you arent powerful enough yet to kill it (hack and
slash method).
The player interacts with the game through the restored areas which are towns or
cities that they rebuild. They can explore them and talk to NPCs as well. They also interact
with the dungeon in picking up power-ups and recovering the pieces of the world.
The player advances the story by completing the entire dungeon set for a particular
area, which restores that area in full and ends in a story event. This repeats for all the areas
until they reach the last area and it ends in a story event with the player making an
ultimate choice considering everything theyve learned about the story while playing.
Each maze is one level. Collecting all the pieces and finding the exit portal are the
parameters for winning. Once you win you are transported back to the main area where
that portal is now gone and you may either jump into the next portal or see what you
restored in that previous dungeon. The level is a maze, which you must navigate to collect
the pieces of the world and then find the exit portal, but there are challenges along the way.
A fog of war to make the maze more difficult to traverse, a degenerating health pool, and
potential patrolling monsters that block paths that can be hack & slashed with a powerful
enough weapon or can alternatively be avoided in some cases. Weapons can be upgraded
by finding better ones in a treasure chest in the dungeons or perhaps found in the new
areas that you restore. Having a better weapon makes getting rid of monsters found in your
way much easier and faster than before.
The game is designed for an audience that likes to explore a made up world. It isnt
about a game such as Robot Unicorn Attack, which is a game I love, but its purpose is not
to be a game you just pick up to play because its a fun waste of time. This game is meant
to be a somewhat intellectually stimulating game about a strange world and you can explore
its backstory freely to ultimately aide in your decision in the final moments of the game.
RPG lovers would appreciate this game most likely while people who are looking for a Robot
Unicorn Attack style game would find it less appealing.

[Main Area] ----portal to dungeon-- [dungeon 1] ----complete dungeon, return to --

[Main Area] ----repeat for dungeon 2
[Main Area] ---- [Final Dungeon] ----return to- [Completed Main Area]
After completing main area ---[Story Event]----involves showing text over new art to
showcase the world

Sample Level Map:

IN-GAME -Screenshots:

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-Story/Concept Art (All art by Pete, Concepts by Philip)

TOP

Prologue:
What if man was given the ability to make their dreams become reality? But what
if some menonly had nightmares?
The lands are disappearing, countless people vanishing
The paths to the other worldsAbolished
You are returning to your home, traveler,
To see that if it has yet yielded to the same fate.
When you find out it has,
What will you do?

Prologue screen grotto

Part of the world being Abolished

Part of the world being Abolished

Background and History

Lindlum

Character returning to Lindlum after seeing other places Abolished (above)

Within the valley

Returning and seeing Lindlum is gone

Creator: The Eminence

A village of composed of a wise, shamanistic culture in-tune with their natural
surroundings. They believe in their omnipotent God, The Eminence, whom they

attribute all natural forces to, including their souls. Their peaceful lives allow
them to take a rational approach to the mystical world around them and ponder
the philosophical implications of humanitys existence without condemnation.
Upon Restoring the village from its Abolishment, talking to the people reveals
they are shocked to learn that they were sealed away or that such a thing could
even occur. They mention how the tales of the Abolishment only started a few
months ago coinciding with the disappearance of their Creators presence in the
world. They take a heavy interest in your newfound ability and its potential
connection to their Abolishment.

Castlecity of Vainglory

Landscape of the countryside surrounding Vainglory

Vainglory, residing at the top of the cape (same one as in title screen, much has changed)

Gates of Vainglory, whats left after its Abolishment

Beneath the castle, an unnatural setting consisting of a grassy plain along the grotto and an escape pod

Creator: The Man/The Lady

This overpowering castle-city stands atop an otherworldly, lush cape overlooking
the cyan sea below. The Man first appeared in this world at this site and created
Vainglory. Upon restoring the town, the citizens are found unfaltering, having
grown up with seeing so-called divine creation before their very eyes before,
causing them to be devout, religious zealots. The people attribute all occurrences
that have happened as Judgment from their God whose name they only refer to
as Ash Zephyria. They believe He is the one and only true God to serve and their
religion in honor of Him has no place for amendments. They beseech you to serve
their God and reminisce about the times He and The Lady used to reside in the
castle giving them an almighty sense of comfort and safety.
Magnapolis: The Invincible City

The crystal pillars on the coast of the city

The City from the ocean

The City in all its glory

Showing its distorted dimensions

Creator: The President

A utopian city built from the extraordinary, collective intellectual capabilities of

the human mind through science and imagination. The Invincible City is built of
luminous blue skyscrapers, translucent, irregular pathways, and ingenuity. The
streets are kept so clean the long robes of the national dress will not get dirty.
One can travel the city by zeppelin or floating plate lifters. Most shopping is
handled by computers, with no physical shops in the shopping arcade.
Upon restoring the city, the nobles are not surprised by the Abolishment and
seem to know exactly what the nature of it is and even your own very ability. It is
known that their leader, The President, was open with His people and encouraged
them to continue the quest for humanitys ever expanding knowledge and
question their existence. The people find your journey pointless and have nothing
substantial to say to you without their leader whom they admired passionately.
They mention how they witnessed the disappearance of their leader recalling how
The Man and The Lady arrived once and proceeded to see their leader. Soon
after, bursts of light expelled from his palace and settled at the skirts of the city
and coastline, becoming the crystal pillars. They believe it was His raw power that
condensed to form them; their only worry was where the rest of Him and His
power went, as if The Man or Lady had taken it somehow.

Cursed World: Xorn

A seemingly beautiful overworld, but with a sinister surface

A depiction of the forest

The floating castles

Inside the forest

A view of the only town when it used to have zeppelins flying from Magnapolis

The towns true nature

Creator: The Dark

Miasmas of ill intentions gather in this place; never once was this world anything
more than a cursed and wretched pit. Pilgrims of Dark; grotesque, nightmarish
creatures roam the charred earth here. The features of the land share the same

pleasantness as its inhabitants. Floating castles line the infinite night sky and a
silent town lies by the water.
Never is this place restored, for it should never be. This was the first place that
The Man Abolished. Only traces of it remain on the outskirts of the other worlds
that happened to creep into worlds with life, clinging onto something to continue
spreading their corruption.

The World
In Schrdinger's cat experiment, the theory is that the cat is both dead and alive at the same time until
someone looks into the box. The act of someone observing the cat, whether it is dead or alive, observes
the cat into existence. This same principle was applied to the scientific experiments of the central
characters. They tapped into a verse that had never been observed before. Once they went further into
it, they were able to observe into existence anything they could think of. This had a cost; however, in
many aspects. The most jarring aspect was that this hole in between dimensions that they had opened;
stayed open. As long as they continued to create in the new world, the opening grew. A black-hole
formed on the Earth side, while many white holes remained at the points where the central characters
emerged all connecting back to this single black hole. When the 5 central characters (called Gods by the
people) tapped into this world they all appeared in the same dimension along the same plane; however,
they were all in different sections of it.

The Man observed into existence a great rocky cape with piercing blue waters
below so that is what manifested. The rest had other ideas. Upon exploring
(observing) further and expanding their physical territory they eventually all ran
into each other. At first, it was a golden age for their research, but soon they
deterred from their original goals. They not only had the power to observe into
existence anything, but also to return these things back to the Aether where they
originated. They turned on each other and Abolished the new territories between
their starting worlds where they overlapped each other. Each world observed by a
certain character can only be influenced by that character so long as they live.
One character cannot create (observe) in another characters own physical
territory. Killing a god is as normal as killing a human, but it is harder to kill
someone who has such power especially in their own world, but it is possible. The
Lady, The President, and the Eminence all killed The Dark for the greater good.
The Lady betrayed The Eminence. The President committed suicide.

Characters
The Man:
Foresees the physical consequences behind expanding this New World they
observed into existence in the form of the black hole that will result in Earths
eventual demise. Doesnt believe that Earth is expendable or that this New World
is the next frontier, but instead believes that if such fringe science is possible then
there must be a being greater than himself or any human to be able to create a
complex universe where his own Earth resides. He finds it unnatural for humans
to try to play with this power given the feebleness of human nature that he has
witnessed first-hand. When humans gain absolute power they will be pushed to
the edge of their conscious capability and become corrupt. He seeks to abolish
any remnants of his and his fellow scientists presence in this world in order to
not muck across the laws of the cosmos any further.
The Lady:
Believes in creating a new world where humanity can prosper beyond any
limitation combining the ideas of The President and the practicality of The
Eminence, but without any of their weaknesses. Uses you to show The Man that
humanity can still be made pure despite the extremities theyve witnessed by The
Dark and The President.
The Eminence:
Believes in applying the laws of nature we know to create, and simulate, a new
civilization, but doesnt care for the individuals, only research and pushing the
limits of what is possible in this world. Would destroy civilization again and again
like some sort of Olympian god in order to secure humanitys continued existence
in a perfect world of his creation.
The President:
He believes in applying humanitys vast intellectual capability to its eventual
progression to immortality. He struggles with achieving this through scientific

means, as the initial and only means before they discovered the power of
observing things into existence, which can fulfill all those wishes and beyond.
Unlike the others, who avoid contact with their creations, he actively engages in
heavy talks with them, but upon beholding the capability for humans to use their
gift for corruption and absolute power, he died to avoid himself surrendering to
it, as well.
The Dark:
He believes and revels in absolute power and pushing the limits of what is
thought possible. Goes beyond the ideas of The President and wants to push
humanity to a new form that could have the potential to spread to all the corners
of this cosmos; a beautiful new step in our evolving legacy towards immortality.
His actions did not go unnoticed and he was killed by The Man and The Lady. Yet
are his ambitions for this world so powerful that even they cannot be
extinguished?
You:
Whats there to say about you? You dont really have a purpose unless you want
one. You think you were a resident of the town of Lindlum since you have a
mother there, friends and people who know you. But this is a world where
anything can be created; and so were you and your memories and everyone elses
memory of you. Your purpose was just to be used as the player in a game
between two people who are toying with the fabric of the verse. Will you choose
to stitch back the fabric you have trespassed as The Man believes, abolishing this
world and ending your existence, or will you try to make this world a new home
for humanity to flourish, prosper and start anew as The Lady believes?

Terms
Aether: The substance of the verse outside of any physical space. Powers
drawn from it are called the Soul.

Cosmo FRAGMENT: Anything that has been Abolished such as a person or a

place is transformed into this raw material of the verse. Some Cosmo fragments
are lost for good as they have completely faded or were returned to the Aether.
Others lay dispersed around the worlds waiting for someone with a Great Soul to
gather a Cosmo fragment and restore it.
Cosmo Crystal: The raw power of the Aether in what is called a Soul
eventually condenses to form this raw, hardened and unusable state of the Soul.
Only someone with a Great Soul can draw from the power of a Cosmo Crystal.
Abolish/Abolishment: The original 5 characters, or Gods, have the power to
create as they please and also to erase anything they please, too. This process is
called Abolishment: to destabilize the molecules used in any creation and return
them in a raw form back to the Aether, but some are not gone forever, they are
sealed away in the power that removed them in the form of a Cosmo fragment.
Restore/Restoration: All these Abolished creations can be Restored by the
same power to bring back the molecules to their original physical space. A Cosmo
fragment can be Restored and its contents will return to their prior physical
space.
Soul: The power of the verse that the central characters draw upon to construct
the world. The Soul is a source of power that the created-people have, but theirs
is too petty to have any power to manifest physically like those with a Great Soul.
The central characters have a Great Soul, which is the power they gained when
they entered this world. Anyone with this power can do extraordinary things.
Death - Upon death a Soul would not have any unexpected effect. A persons soul
would return to the Aether. However, upon dying while containing a Great Soul
the host can choose to do two things:
1) They can choose to do nothing as the raw power of their Great Soul pours
out of the confines of their physical vessel (the human host) and condenses
over time into a hardened raw material, the Cosmo crystal. The host will die
and their extraordinary power, without an arbiter, will remain in this

unbreakable state forever. No matter who held the Great Soul, they will
remain in a sort of ethereal limbo tied to it, powerless and unseen by the
world.
2) They have the option to take full control of their Great Soul as its arbiter
and leave their physical body completely, eradicating the body. This is a
dangerous state for they have no true control over the magnitude of their
power now, but it is also their weakest state for their power will be
constantly fading so long as they are not in an adequate, or prime, physical
vessel. If they continue to let their Great Soul dwindle they will eventually
fade away for good; themselves and their great power, lost forever. To
avoid this they may take on another physical host. Regular humans are not
prime choices since after a time the Great Soul would consume them
entirely and they would wither away. If they do happen to find a prime
host, then they could manipulate that host or even take over their body,
ridding it of its previous inhabitant. A physical object would do perfect.
Since the power is evenly dispersed a small object would do better than a
large one. Once inside this object they are imprisoned until someone picks
them up giving them the same advantages as if they found a prime host. In
all cases, the host is able to utilize the Great Souls power within
themselves or the item depending on the condition and either way it will
severely take a toll on their mind and body if they are not prime hosts.
The Great Souls of The President, The Eminence, and The Dark were all examples
of what happens when the physical vessel dies or is abandoned. The President
and The Eminences raw power poured out of their body, but instead of being lost
forever, another person with a Great Soul guided the pure power into a new
physical vessel: a crystal figurine for The President and a smooth orb for The
Eminence. Only The Dark understood that they could relinquish their bodies for
good and hold onto their newfound power, which he did, but with his power
fading he was forced to find a new physical vessel and The Dark chose a sword.
-The Smooth Orb:

An odd stone containing a fiery heat. Well suited as a ring. Our deeds will

come back to us in some form or another, both good and bad. A powerful soul is like a curse.

-The Crystal Figurine: A massive crystal in the shape of a dragon. Our deeds will come back to
us in some form or another, both good and bad. A powerful soul is like a curse.

-The Blade of Xorn: A blade with teeth on all sides and exquisite deadly features. Our deeds will
come back to us in some form or another, both good and bad. A powerful soul is like a curse.

Gameplay
Mechanics:

Maze exploration
Time limit based (health degeneration)
Only a small portion of the map is revealed around the player
Player navigates environment to collect Cosmo pieces to restore them
Power ups assist with speed, health gains, and field of view
Collect all Cosmo pieces to unlock portal to complete level
Based off the concept of Dark Cloud: Gameplay
Dark Cloud 2 gameplay: Building the world

Environment and Game Goals:

World is empty
The Lady sends you to places that are on the verge of being completely
Abolished and tasks you with recovering the scattered Cosmo pieces that
are found there
Each collected Cosmo piece will restore physical aspects of the world such
as people and buildings
The Lady opens up portals at the site of the town and each one leads to a
dungeon. Completing it results in returning to the upgraded town
Purpose of the game is to navigate the dungeons to recover Cosmo pieces
and restore the world
As an area is being restored the player can explore and interact with the
world as a reward such as exploring buildings or interacting with NPCs
Completing each area progresses the story with an event

Physical Prototype:
A physical board of a standard dungeon in our game drawn on paper. It is a maze
that the player starts at the bottom of and has to collect the 3 Cosmo pieces
scattered around the maze, signified by the treasure chest icon, to advance. The
player moves at a fixed rate. They only have 1 minute to complete the maze to
mimic the health degeneration and we place another board over the player with a
hole to simulate the limited PoV of the player. There are 2 power-ups scattered
around as well that will either add an extra 30 seconds to your time allotted or
increase the players speed shortly.
Testing Results: Participants found the game simple but still had trouble
navigating the maze. The managed to do so in under a minute, but many
struggled and had to do it over again. The maze was longer than they thought and
when they realized that they needed all 3 pieces to complete the level they
suddenly were aware of the pressure to win. We saw that they were actively
navigating the maze to find the pieces and the exit and the fog of war truly added
a layer of complexity to the level.
Future innovations:
Add monsters to make level more challenging that the player would hack
and slash through? Costs time to fight a monster so could do that or find
another way around them?
Monster may drop a key that is necessary to exit the dungeon?
Better weapons could be acquired throughout the game to deal with
monsters more easily?

SCHEDULE
Task

Task Description

Time Estimate Date Completed

People
Assigned

A brief name that

describes the
current task.
Examples include:

A
more detailed description
of each task. Examples
include:

This is an
estimate of how
much time you
think this
task will take.
Typically this

Which
person or
persons are
assigned to
the task.

This is the date by

which the task
should be completed.
If you have
already completed the
task, just

will be
expressed in
total hours. For
example, if two
people will do
the task, and
you think it will
take them 2
hours to
complete the
task, then
you would write
4 hours as your
estimate (2
people *
2 hours). If you
have already
completed the
task,
write down the
actual time it
took you to
complete the
task.

note "completed" in
this column.
Remember that this is
not your only class,
and you have exams,
papers, projects, etc.
due in your other
classes as well. Note
that your
computational
prototype (with
working mechanics in
their setting) is due in
section week 6, so the
tasks for this must be
your first priority.
Then the playtestable
version (ready
for others to play
through) is due week
9 and the final game is
due week 10.

Create sprites and

objects in Game
Maker

Find sprites online or

make ones

8+ hours

Between weeks 6-7

Mark/philip

Create maze sprites

Icons to be used in the

maze

2 hours

Between weeks 6-7

mark

Create maze
room/background

The background of the

maze

2 hours

Between weeks 6-7

mark

Create town/city
sprites

Icons to be used for the

town/city

2 hours

Between weeks 7-8

philip

Create layout of
towns/cities

Place the sprites in

appropriate places to
make an interesting place

3 hours

Between weeks 7-8

philip

Place NPCs

Place NPC sprites

throughout the town/city

2 hours

Between weeks 8-9

Philip

Create NPC paths

Give them paths to walk

on

3 hours

Between weeks 8-9

philip

Input NPC dialogue

Give them things to say

4 hours

Between weeks 8-9

philip

Create scripted
events (5)

Transition scenes that

showcase artwork and
have dialogue

4 hours

Between weeks 7-8

Philip/mark

Create main area

room/background

Place a background for

the main areas

2 hours

Between weeks 6-7

philip

Link main area to

dungeons

Place a portal icons that

1 hour
link to the dungeon in the
main area

Between weeks 6-7

philip

Create health
degeneration in
dungeon

Acting like a time limit,

1 hour
when health degeneration
drops to 0 you lose.

Between weeks 7-8

Mark

Create power-ups in Power-ups such as

dungeon
moving fast, gaining full
PoV, or adding health

1 hour

Between weeks 7-8

Mark

Create fog-of-war in Player can only see

dungeon
whats in a small
circumference around
them

2 hours

Between weeks 7-8

Mark

Create pieces to
recover

Icons for the main

2 hours
objective of the dungeons
to be placed around the
maze

Between weeks 7-8

Mark

Add monsters

Potentially add monsters

to make mazes more
challenging

Add hack & slash

Employ simple hack &

slash action that the
character can use to get
past monsters

Perform playtesting

Playtest the game with

5 volunteers, while
team members watch and
take notes.

Week 8-9

Write
final documentation

UNDER CONSTRUCTION:
Character Interaction when they collect a piece of the world
Character Sketches

Dialogue
Prologue:
What if man was given the ability to make their dreams become reality? But what if some menonly
had nightmares?
The lands are disappearing, countless people vanishing
The paths to the other worldsAbolished from existence,
Ive watched you return to your home, traveler,

To see that if it has yet yielded to the same fate.

When you find out it has,
What will you do?
Middle prologue:
The castlecity of Vainglory, a world conjured by the man
Once full of life
Only to be abandoned; Abolished.
What lies beneath Vainglory, Is a mystery of its own.
End prologue:
The crystal pillars glare as you pass them
To enter a place from where one comes all
Where time and space can be controlled
Where industry has prospered
Where life never stops, humanity raced to achieve wonders.
The invincible cityMagnapolis.

Lindlum:
We know The Eminence changes and recycles. Every night has its day.
Even forever must come to an end.
The odds will be against you, but you are a true hero. Open now the portal, and

reap what you find there. Our restoration...Our reason for existence...
I sometimes wonder to myself that time is not absolute, but elastic...
Relative and subjective... That there can be individual differences caused by
changes in time... Perhaps the same people
and life-forms can even exist in several different space-times. An
independent time that flows with a will of its own...? Hah... What
nonsense...

Dude: My father once told me about a conversation he had with a man from a faraway place called The
Invincible City who recalled an experiment called Schrdingers cat. He told me One cannot get around

the assumption of reality if only one is honest. Most people simply do not see what sort of
risky game they are playing with reality reality as something independent of what is experimentally
established. Their interpretation is, however, refuted most elegantly by your system of radioactive atom
+ amplifier + charge of gun powder + cat in a box, in which the psi-function of the system contains both
the cat alive and blown to bits. Nobody really doubts that the presence or absence of the cat is
something independent of the act of observation.
You: So our actions observed the cats condition into existence?
Dude: Maybe thats the basis of your power?

The Lady (beginning):

YOU: HEY, who are you? #Did you see what happened here?"
THE LADY: I did not, I'm sorry. Was this your home? #I am merely an...observer."
THE LADY: I am here to see the devastation #He has caused first hand...The Man"
YOU: Someone did this? That's impossible."
THE LADY: He isn't 'someone' anymore; he is beyond human."
THE LADY: He is making his way around the worlds, Abolishing #all life. He will erase this entire world
soon enough."
He goes from city to city casting away all life #within in the form of Cosmo fragments."
These fragments hold all the life that used to flourish in those places."
YOU: Where does he send them...the people?"
THE LADY: They get flung into the Aether. After some time, #they are gone forever."
Before then; however, they remain reclaimable."
THE LADY: There is a power dormant within you. You have #a prime soul, able to wield its power. Take
this orb."
With it you will #be able to interact with the Cosmo fragments left behind by The Man."
You will be able to Restore the power #within each Cosmo fragment back to the physical world."
They are found in the lost spaces between worlds. Slowly fading #with the rest of the land around them
back to the Aether."
This town once existed, but now it is an unstable place since #Abolishment occurred."

I come to places that generate portals to other fading worlds; #to close them; to bring some peace to
these defiled lands."
"Enter a portal with your new power and Restore your home.#Once on the other side of a portal your
lifeforce will drain."
Beware, you will go mad stuck in between the fading physical world#and the Aether. Collect all the
fragments and you will be able to escape."
Ever so rarely such fragments are found much closer than #through a portal. I was looking for any that
might be here."
There is but one single fragment remaining on the plateau behind me."
See what your power can do. I will unlock more portals #for you if you succeed. Good luck."

This orb you now possess is a weapon that represents considerable power...Your
actions may either save or destroy life. Wield it with full knowledge of the
consequences!

The Lady (Restored):

Lady: I see you have succeeded. It is good to see life here once more.
You: I couldnt have done it without you and this orb... how am I able to wield it?
Lady: It once...belonged...to The Eminence, a Great Soul. The Man will have taken notice by now.
Go to Vainglory and Restore it like you did here. Only then will the path be open for you to confront the
one who did this to your home.
You: What should I expect when I meet him?
- The man will beset you with tricks and lies. His words will ooze with poison. Remember your purpose
and you will succeed. He will say anything to stay alive.
-- Those who do not want to die will always find a way to live. The man holds a sword called the Blade of
Xorn. The legend goes it once belonged to one like us, called The Dark. The Dark created a world where
miasmas

of ill intentions gather. Never once was this world anything more than a
cursed and wretched pit. Pilgrims of Dark; grotesque, nightmarish creatures
roamed the charred soil. The features of the land shared the same pleasantness

as its inhabitants. Floating castles lined the infinite night sky and a silent town lies
by the water. Never will this place be restored, for it should never be. It was the
first place that The Man Abolished, long ago. Only traces of it remain on the
outskirts of the other worlds. Remnants of it happened to creep into worlds with
life, clinging onto something to continue spreading their corruption.
They say The Dark did not vanish when the Man killed him, but he became one
with his power within the blade. Who knows if the man holds onto the weapon as
its jailor, or as The Dark reborn once more?
In the events that will pass, keep that orb close. As you Restore worlds your
connection with the orb will grow. Should you find yourself in an equally
desperate situation, that orb will embrace your soul if you tell it to. Others who
have had a Great Soul in the past did not know thisnone of us did.
Anyways, I have opened a portal past here.

Magnapolis:

So you came through that portal? The Man, The Lady, The President...Are you any different?
The Project was a success. We are here are we not? At what cost, though. We are living in a
dream that has resulted in a nightmare. Was the Project not a success then?
The Man and The Lady once came to see Magnapolis for themselves. That was the last time we
saw The President. All that remains are the crystals of his power surrounding this city.
...Maybe we are just puppets, created to serve other humans.
"They learned about our lifespan... We can live only for less than 100 years."
"The President said he knew how to extend our life spans, to be immortal like him, so everyone
followed him..."

Gone is the Invincible City of Magnapolis as conjured by The President, and all
the dreams and ambitions of its people.
To observe things into existenceIts power, which was beyond human
comprehension, cultivated dreams...
In turn, love and hate were born...
Only time will see how it all ends.
...All of our history...Our art and science...All for nothing...

The Man brought you here. This is the last breath of true civilization analogous to Earth. It will
soon be Abolished, as well. This isnt our home. We are all from Earth.
Why do you not try to stop The Man from further destroying the worlds!?
"What can we do? After all, we are made this way."
"What's it all for!? Get to the point already!"
"How come I grew up in Lindlum if Im from Earth!?"
"I'm alive! I have a soul! Why is everyone here so..."
"Because you are...special."
"What!?"
"We are mere vessels. You have been given a greater purpose. That orb you carry is of
significant value."
"The will of The Lady is absolute...will you be her champion?"
"The Lady? The woman who I saw in Lindlum?"
"The Lady watches over these worlds. Her mission is to restore the people from the Aether.
Everyone."
"R-Restore the people? You mean people besides the ones Ive helped?"
"They are merely vessels. So am I, and so are you. She will give us the freedom to exist. Such is
the restoration of the people of these worlds."
"The President is waiting for you. Come..."

"I hope we can become strong like you someday..."

Its hard to be a god. This is what remains of the mind of The President; all the knowledge of this
world. Please take a look if you please. Once you are finished you should seek the Man and
make your choice: take your place among the gods or among the Abolished.

Vainglory:
"Does the water where youre from ever stay still?"
"...? Water flows, doesn't it?"
"The water of Vainglory was always still..."
"Hey, did you know that time flows, just like water?"
"So, water and time both flow in Lindlum...?"

"......"
"Looks like they're off to a good start."
"Hmph... It's like watching kids play."
"It's not their fault..."
"They've only just begun to live their lives..."
"...Can lost time be recovered?"
"I don't know... But there's only one thing we can do."
"Of course."
"We must protect them from anyone who tries to take their time away from them!"

The Man (first time):

I just want to go home. But she wont listen
So you are the boy restoring worlds. If she would just stop challenging me Id be home by now. She has
placed a lot of faith into you.
Faith in destroying a monster who Abolishes worlds.
Careful, monsters are dangerous. They eat little boys who walk into their dens.
I was lucky enough to be away from Lindlum before you Abolished it. I am here now, representing the
people you had erased from existence. I have Restored them with my power. With it, I will Abolish you.
You think you were lucky, hm? Go home, boy, while there is still time for you to enjoy in this world. Your
family and friends are back with you. Hold on to them. Soon, I will Abolish them all once more and
everything will return to the Aether, as it should. As it was intended.
We were a peaceful place until you decided to Abolish it! The Eminence would never intend for that!
"You are completely oblivious."
"Just like a newborn child."
"You don't know why you were given life, or for what purpose you exist..."

"You simply shout to emphasize your life...your own existence."

"You are completely oblivious."
For what purpose are you doing this!?
These worlds are unnatural. You wish to see what we have created here? The true prowess we have
achieved? Then go through this portal, I will show you a world where humanity thrived to an extreme.
Life is meaningless there. Once you have seen it with your own eyes; return to me and if you still hope
for my cessation of Abolishment, then I will listen.

The Lady (end choice)

We cant ever leave here. This place is more than just a dream; we would never be able to live normal
lives again on Earth.
-This is my home. This is the place I call home. The man is still looking for his birthplace. But he already
has a home.
-Even if I were created to serve one purpose alone, I do not regret being born to this world.
- I created you, you never even existed, I gave memories to all the people in Lindlum about you. Even
your mother is not your real mother. But once I gave her the memories and to you too, it became real.
Everything here was conjured up by us yet is it not real? If I have failed with you then I will try again with
another.
WHITE FADE
END END
The Man: Behold the Void...
The lady: You spend so much time herewatching the Great Void like its going to disappear on you.
Why dont you just enter it; go Home and leave this world to me
The man: You know I cant do that.
The lady: Do you know what it feels like to be Abolished? Herehave a taste!
[after the WHITE FADE it reveals the Lady has Abolished the mans power, abolished as a gigantic cosmo
fragment basically]
The man: What a stupid display of your power. Get out of my way, for good.
[He runs over to reclaim his power and as he passes the lady he stabs her with the blade of xorn. She
falls and he continues to get his power. She uses all the power she can aggregate, and teleports them far
away from vainglory, leaving the mans full power trapped as a Great Cosmo fragment, beneath

vainglory, blocking the access to the Great Void from the grotto. They are next seen at the base of a tree,
sitting on opposite sides; The Lady wounded and the man unhurt.]
THE MAN: Your game was risky. You killed the boy when you brought us here. Was that all he was to
you, a long con to blindside me? I didnt expect such /inhumanity/ from you*sarcasm+
THE LADY: Why did you ever even come with me? You could have returned to the lab and never looked
back upon this world. Wouldnt you have been happier then?
THE MAN: No, Kate, I wouldnt have been happy. I came here to find you; only because, I wanted to go
with you. You remember our first quarter at UC Santa Cruz? Your stare took my eyes hostage when I first
saw them. The brightest mind shone through those emeralds. Thats why all this work was made
possible! But your vision, Jonathans vision, James vision and Roberts vision, were ultimately flawed.
You cant make this a new world. I will return everything weve made here back to where it belongs. We
need to stitch back the verse of which we have trespassed on. I will do this, with or without you, Kate.
And that does not make me happy.
THE LADY: (coughs blood) Even with The Eminences power along with mine, it wasnt enough to
stand against you.so I used the boy to try to get through to you. But you saw no compassion, no pity as
a god! (coughs blood). The Presidents and The Darks power that you held onto were the only thing that
stopped me attempting to take your life all this time. Now, Ive finally separated them from you. Even
your own very power is safely Abolished in a Cosmo fragment. You are just a simple human here now.
The irony suits you. The depths of Vainglory are their final resting place, blocking the Great Void hah. No
matter what you do, you will never get back there; I will always find a way to stop you.
The man: [gets up] And if you should ever stand between me and the gateway back home once more, I
wont hesitate to finish the job.
The lady: You know I will recover from this, thats why you havent killed me yourself. You wont do it.
Youd rather I die with the Aether closing in on me, Abolishing me like all the rest.
the man: Fine, live in your created fantasy land. I will have no part in it. Sweet dreams.
[man leaves heading back towards Vainglory, a long road on foot]
[Pans back to the lady]
(The ladys thoughts: Goodbye, Saeed. Our parts in this world are over, yours and mine, but The Boys
has just begun. )

The Man (End choice; against The Man):

-reveals the lady created you, gave you the orb and basically used you
text[0]="THE MAN: She has cultivated you for her own design."
text[1]="A mere creation as all the rest."
text[2]="You are but a pawn in our game."
text*3+="The conditions: toying with the fabric of the verse."
text[4]="Come with me, stitch back the fabric we have trespassed on."
text[5]="Leave these humans. There is nothing left for them but despair."
text[7]="Well...now you should be fully aware #of the meaning of your existence..."
text[8]="YOU: !?"
text[9]="Yeah, I'm aware of all the laughter, all the tears #I've shared with the people I grew up with in
Lindlum."
text[10]="THE MAN: Forget all that. You are destined to live #among the stars for all eternity."
text[11]="You have the power, the position, and the motive to do it."
text[12]="YOU: I wouldn't want that kind of power... #if I only had a place to call home..."
text[13]="My brothers in Lindlum, James, Blair, Annie, #Ron, Raphael, Elder and...Mom..."
text[14]="My home is with them in Lindlum!"
text[15]="If you say I have a motive, then it's to punish #all of you who brought pain to my friends!"
text[16]="I should destroy you! That's reason enough for my birth!"
text[17]="THE MAN: Regrettable... I thought your soul would be #perfect for a new angel of death..."
text[18]="YOU: I AM the new angel of death! Yours!!!"
text[19]="THE MAN: Don't you know what it means to meet your maker?"
text[20]="YOU: Shut up! I've heard enough of your crap! #I'm taking you out, right here, right now!"
text[21]="THE MAN: Foolishness... Beings that are born of dreams must return to them..."
text[22]="The body becomes a vessel, which greets a new soul...
You will be returned to the Aether. As will everything in due time."

WHITE FADE

Lady (end)
The Eminence believed in applying the laws of nature we know to create, and
simulate, a new civilization, but he didnt care for the individuals, only research
and pushing the limits of what is possible in this world. He would destroy
civilization again and again like some sort of Olympian god in order to secure
humanitys continued existence in a perfect world of his own creation. I made
sure he would not grow to attain such a state of power. I bestowed it upon you to
make the right choice. To Restore your world.
I thought all The Eminence wanted was world peace... but he just wanted a piece of
the world.
Power is beautiful and I have the power. To steer this world into a utopia for
humanity with the vision of The President and the will of The Eminence.
You: Then what do you need me for? Im not like you. I dont have this unlimited
power. I cant make a difference.
Oh child, just as you touch the energy of every life form you meet, so, too, will their
energy strengthen you. Fail to live up to your potential, and you will never win.
Make your choice.

Man (end)
Sometimes I lose my sense of how long its been.
I just want to go home. Ive always wanted to go home. Id Abolish all of this
world in one swoop of cataclysmic proportionsbut then she, too, would be
swept along with it.
We observed this world into existence with our very breath. Energy seeps from
other sources of energy. This place is no different. As long as we remain here, a

black-hole will form and Earth will eventually demise. Earth is not expendable for
this New World. This is not the next frontier. If such fringe science is possible then
there must be a being greater than ourselves, you, I, or any other human to be
able to create a complex universe where my own Earth resides. It is unnatural for
us to play with this power given the fragility of human nature. I have seen what
we are capable ofWhat The Dark, The Eminence, The President, were capable
of. When humans gain absolute power they will be pushed to the edge of their
conscious capability and become corrupt. I seek to abolish any remnants of mine,
and my fellow scientists presence in this world in order to not muck across the
laws of the cosmos any further.

Music
Art
All art by Pete (concept by Philip):
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5_vBKVtbrLPM09PZWdZYmxVYU0&us
p=sharing

MAGIC (unrelated sidenote, not in game)

What if people of my made up universe, through exposure to the Great Soul, could
somehow develop abilities similar to what only those with the Great Soul could
achieve? They wouldnt be as good, but whatever they can do would be enough to
be called magic by them.
Mental Stats:

Intellect: Intellect represents your raw intelligence and ability to think logically and solve problems.
Intelligence represents your characters knowledge of physical spells. Characters high in this stat will be
able to effectively use powerful Physical Magic and not waste energy in doing so. This is the preferred
attribute for those who want to be able to use the strongest available magic to obliterate their enemies.
Intuition: Intuition represents your ability to perform on instinct and whatever "feels" right. Those with
high intuition know that their instincts won't fail them in most cases.
Willpower: Willpower represents your mental fortitude and ability to resist attacks on the mind and
horrific or stressful situations. It also represents your characters natural common sense, so to speak.
Characters high here will make better judgment calls based on the current situation.
Charisma: Charisma represents your force of character and personal magnetism.
Magical Stats
Rules on Magical Stats: All people possess magic, it is inherent. However, not all people are especially
skilled. Each type of magic has many passive benefits, for example you can use your physical magic to
enhance the speed at which you run, or you can use your mental magic to shield yourself from probing.
Magic is based off of manipulating energy to achieve a desired result. Magic is dealt with in terms of
force, the higher level of force the more it drains from you. Force that exceeds your magic stat will do
actual life-threatening damage to yourself, and higher force will drain you more thoroughly. Not using
magic for a time and allowing the mind and soul to rest is the only way to "restore" your magic.
Magic: This represents your control over magic as a whole. The higher this stat, the more effective your
character is at manipulating raw magical energies in an effective manner and using only what is
necessary to achieve the desired results.
Physical Magic: Physical magic governs the area around you. The basic function is telekinetic effects;
which deals with the exertion of your will upon the physical world. This includes basic telekinetic thrusts,
pushes, and manipulations, to more advanced techniques such as specialized force on an object (cutting,
slashing, etc), heat and cold manipulation (exciting the molecules in the air or slowing them down),
summon pillars of flame from the earth, send mini-tornadoes at foes, and ultimately use the most
damaging magical attacks among other such effects. Physical magic takes a toll on your physical body;
those with higher toughness and physical magic aptitude are able to use it longer. Overuse of your
physical magic can drain your energy or even cause physical wounds to manifest themselves on your
body,
even
resulting
in
your
death.
Mental Magic: Mental magic represents your proficiency with mental magic, which deals with exertion
of your will upon the minds of others. Abilities such as telepathy and mind control fall under this
category allowing you to place magical barriers, heal grievous wounds, or assault an enemy's mind.
Using mental magic drains your mental energy, causing you to become unstable or burned out, and
having a high willpower helps you resist the effects of using it. Overuse of your mental magic can cause
you to lose your grip on reality, even driving you temporarily or permanently insane.
Soul Magic: Soul magic is the most powerful and the most dangerous. It reaches into the aether and
draws raw and untainted soul energy into the world. Two basic forms of soul magic are aether

projection, detaching your spiritual consciousness and projecting it into the aether where you can
observe and move quickly (albeit leaving your body unattended) and aether sighting, which allows you
to enter a mode of viewing where you perceive only living creatures or plants and the very ley lines of
magic. Soul magic can also be used to summon aether forms, concentrated soul energy that has taken
on its own sentience and shape, into the world and bind it to you for a brief period of time. It also allows
you to shape raw aether to blast away at your opponent's soul in an attempt to defeat or even slay
them. Soul Magic takes a toll on your soul itself, and those with strong charisma and soul magic aptitude
are able to use it longer. Overuse of your soul magic causes your body to stop functioning as well, until
you no longer have enough of a soul presence to keep it functioning enough to keep you alive. Drained
soul energy manifests itself through sluggish movements as the body begins to shut down, no longer
recognizing the presence of a soul or lifeforce within it. Those with more experience and self-assurance
are generally regarded to have stronger souls and be more resistant to its adverse effects.

TOP

Textats App: Design Documents

Human Computer Interaction- -Proposal

TOP

Group Members:
Philip Begel-pbegel@ucsc.edu (Creative Design, Concept Design)
Azad Balabanian (User Interface Design, Graphic Design)
Danica Pok-dpok@ucsc.edu (Android Programmer, Documenter)

1. What is it for? What does it do?

Its a phone app where the user can see the statistics of their texts. The app
displays statistics, such as people users texted most and words used most in texting.
It also has options for the user to call or text someone they havent contacted in a
long time.
We are developing an application for Android which records useful text message
statistics about their conversations with their contacts. The data will including things
such as, frequency of contact, rate of reply, most words used, average length of
message, and etc.

2. Whats wrong with existing ones?

There are no apps that has texting statistics. This fills in a very niche market of users
who are very data centric and would like to inquire more about their day-to-day
behavior. Therefore, this can help the user see the people they texted most frequent
and those they havent contacted in a while. Also, given the prevalence of fun apps
like Snapchat, this fills a similar sort of category of apps that simply are there to
entertain us through interaction with friends.

3. Who your target users are? Where are you going to recruit them?
The target demographic is anyone who likes to see more data about themselves. In
this day and age of the quantitative self where we have access to a lot more sensor
data about our behavior, it is easy to put that data into a chart to show interesting
trends about ourselves, and in turn, help better our lives.
Since this is project with a limited time span, our target users are going to be college
students with Android phones to make the recruitment process simple, however
anyone else from a different age demographic is welcome to help us test it.

The target users are teenagers and young adults. Since most teenagers and young
adults are more into texting, this app can aim towards them. We can recruit some
young adults at our university, and teenagers are recruited in high schools.

4. How do these users do the things your proposed system is supposed to facilitate,
usually?
At this time, without any apps in the marketplace that show users text message
statistics, users have no real way of knowing any concrete information about their
texting behaviors without simple guessing. Our app will fit in nicely to the evergrowing number of self-inquiring people who would like to take a peak behind their
own behavior.

5. What tools do you need to build that system?

In order to build the system, all we need is an Android Studio. The Android Studio is
a downloadable, free application that can help build Android apps.
To prototype it we would just need photoshop to make the different screens or
animations that may be involved. Or just pen and paper drawings.

-Functional/Non-Functional

TOP

Danica Pok -dpok@ucsc.edu

Azad Balabanian - azadbal@gmail.com
Philip Begel - pbegel@ucsc.edu

Project overview: An Android app which analyzes the users text messages and presents relevant data
like frequency of contact, most words used, etc.

Requirement Gathering

Competitive Analysis
Relationship app
Weakness: very specific, limited interactivity,
broad answers in analysis, design looks outdated
and terrible, developers have abandoned with the
upkeep of the app.
Strength: effective and fun

Example:
Relationship Analysis: overall rating: 3.9 (571 ratings)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=john.gafford.whoLikesMeFree&
hl=en

IDEO Methods:
Fly on the Wall/Shadowing: observations done by the team to deal with the design of
the app by looking at usability, accessibility and affordance in users interactions with
other social apps
Surveys and Questionnaires: We will gather a consortium of potential users and ask
them questions about their text message history. We will then contrast the differences
between what they think they text, and who they text it to, compared to what the data
actually says. After presenting the data, we want to see if the apps functionalities were
intriguing, or at least, thought provoking.

Requirement Summary:

Functional:
High Priority
A complete list of all contacts listed and sorted by contact frequency
name (Reason: Users need to know who they are contacting)
profile picture (Reason: Users are able to link name to the face)
Score associated by texting frequency (Reason: users can compare
weekly scores to other contacts quickly)
top 3 contacts (Reason: Users able to see the people they contacted the
most)

contact search functionality (Reason: Users will be able to look for a

specified contact instead of scrolling through all the contacts)
Detailed stats per contact
percentage: amount of texts sent to that contact from total texts
(Reason: Users are able to see frequency of who they texted most
often)
word usage: list most common words used (Reason: Users are able to
see what words they used most often)
time of day: histogram bar graph displaying most common time that
contact is contacted by the user or vice versa (Reason: Users are able to
see how often they texted in a certain day and at what time)
call/text contact from the app itself (Reason: User has the option to
text/call the person they either havent contacted in a long time or just
texting or calling a person they want)
Authentication for app to look into users text data.(Reason: This is to ensure
the user know that the app uses their personal texts data.)
Low Priority
memories: a short text exchange from the past. (Reason: User is able to
remember some of the text messages. It is to reminisce and remember those
good old days (or bad))

Non-functional:
system shall be an application usable on an android device
High
Priority (Reason: Android device allows user to give permission to interpret text data)
system navigation by taps/clicks should open relevant screen and work as intended
giving user a sense of flow in what they want to see.
High Priority:
(Reason: Users are able to navigate fluidly to different statistics as they either tap or
click them)
System effectively uses users text data and contact info data:
(High Priority) Reason: It is to help generate the statistics, such as percentage, words,
etc. to display to the users. Then, that can help presenting it to the users.

in generating percent texted

in generating words used
in generating time of day most texted
in generating memory conversation
Selecting call will call contact. High Priority (Reason: User has the option to text the
contact just by clicking the button, and it is an easier option than just going to contacts.)
Selecting text will text contact. High Priority (Reason: User has the option to text the
contact just by clicking the button, and it is an easier option than just going to contacts.)

HCI

Memories should refresh. Medium Priority (Reason: To promote user to return to the
app once weekly stats are given)
All stats should refresh weekly High Priority (Reason: To generate new set of data for
that week(or the one prior) that will be relevant to the user at the present moment)
Log of previous weeks. Medium Priority (Reason: to compare stats from week to week)
Great system performance High Priority (Reason: to have the app and its functions run
smoothly without overloading the CPU)
Text data remains private and only usable by the app for its purposes
High
Priority (Reason: Privacy is important to the users, and it is to ensure that their text
messages are not displayed elsewhere besides the app)
Reliable program that gathers data and displays statistics High Priority (Reason: to have
the app and its functions display efficiently and accurately)
Data integrity will be sound. High Priority (Reason: users data needs to remain private)
Usable and appropriate for teens and up. High Priority (Reason: Kids shouldnt be
texting)

- -Storyboard

TOP

Project: An Android app which analyzes the users text messages and presents relevant data like
frequency of contact, most words used, etc.

Group Members:
Philip Begel -pbegel@ucsc.edu
Azad Balabanian - azadbal@gmail.com
Danica Pok -dpok@ucsc.edu

User playing with our interactive InVision app demo

Storyboard:
1.

2.

3.

4.

6.

Texting Statistics App Wireframe

TOP

Project: An Android app which analyzes the users text messages and presents relevant data like
frequency of contact, most words used, etc. Reveals simple statistics of ones own texting activity with
individuals in their contacts; specifically those who the user finds relevant.

Group Members:
Philip Begel -pbegel@ucsc.edu
Azad Balabanian - azadbal@gmail.com
Danica Pok -dpok@ucsc.edu

The app main page will provide access to a settings page, search, contacts list, and different
screens to display the statistics of the text messages, such as most used words, total percentage of all
text messages, bar graph of the texts sent by time of day, memories of old text messages, and shared
photos and links.
When users download the app, the users permission will appear that allows the app to access
users text message data.

Color Palette

[SPLASH SCREEN]

After downloading the app, a splash screen will appear that will display the icon of the app.

[MAIN PAGE]

Once users tap on the the splash screen, the main page will appear. The main page contains all
the contacts list, the contacts score, a random text of the day, and the total texts sent/received of each
contact. A messaging icon is also next to each contact that opens the default messaging app. On top of
the app, there will be a search function and an options menu. The options icon, which is right next to the
search icon, will contain a settings menu. Tapping the expand icon next to the Text Message of the Day
expands the message if necessary.

[SEARCH PAGE]

In the search, users can look up names of the contacts instead of scrolling down to search for it.
Tapping the contact expands the statistics as explained below. Tapping the x-icon returns to the main
page once youve tapped search.

[SETTINGS PAGE]

The options icon will contain a settings menu. The settings menu allow the users to choose their
preference, such as displaying the amount of top friends, sorting the contacts either by alphabetical
order, score, or recently contacted. They will also be able to sort the statistics by either Weekly stats
(stats for that week) or Total stats (all text data; this is the default).

[CONTACT PROFILE]

In the main page, if the user taps on the profile picture then it will display the contacts profile
picture, their score, their rank relative to other top contacts and last time called/texted. It will also give
users the option to text or call the specified contact. If the person decides to call the person, it will lead
to a calling screen. On the other hand, if users decide to tap on the messaging screen, it will lead to their
messaging screen, and they can send texts to the specified contact.

[STATISTICS PAGES]

If the user is on the main page, they can click the name of the contact that shows their score and
amount of text sent/received. Once clicked, the screen will expand and displays the statistics in different
panels. Thus, the user is able to swipe through the expanded screen to see the percentage of the texts
of all contacts, frequency bar graph, most used words, memories, and shared media.

The bottom of each panel has a share icon and colored nodes to show which screen you are on.
User can swipe or tap the nodes to go from page to page. Share option will allow user to share a
particular statistic to a social media such as Facebook.

Tapping the contacts names will collapse the statistics pages (returning to the main page).

[STATISTICS PAGES: PERCENTAGE]

This shows the percentage of texts with contacts using their total texts sent/received with each
individual. In the pie chart, the specified contact that the user tapped on will be highlighted showing
that compared to other top contacts, the user texted for this percentage of the time this week with this
individual.

[STATISTICS PAGES: BAR GRAPH]

The bar graph shows the frequency of texts exchanged between the user and a contact by
amount of texts during different times of the day (morning, afternoon, evening, late night).

[STATISTICS PAGES: MOST USED WORDS]

The most used words screen contains the words that the user and contact exchanged most. It
will also display how many times the users use that word. Words, such as a, the, of, is, etc. will
be filtered. Additionally, the user is able to decide to delete the words on the screen, and it will then
push words below it on to the top. Therefore, it displays more words that users used. However, once
user exits the screen, it returns to the default.

[STATISTICS PAGES: MEMORIES]

The memories screen will show old conversations exchanged between the user and a contact for
a particular date. The refresh icon will display a different message from a different day.

[STATISTICS PAGES: SHARED]

The shared screen will display all the photos and links shared between the user and the contact.
Users can click on the link, and it will redirect them to the links website. Tapping a photo will pop-it out
and expand it and tapping the back arrow will return to the shared media tab.

-User Evaluation Report:

TOP

1. Users Demographics:
We had 12 participants between the ages of 18 27; 7 males and 5 females. We did
not use any statistical sampling method to recruit participants apart from convenience and
the snowballing effect. The first testing day (March 14, 2015) was conducted in the Porter
3rd floor lounge, where we went around the floor and asked those that had expressed
interest in participating in our study. Word of mouth helped us recruit even more participants
of varying expertise and interests. The second day of testing (March 15, 2015) was held in
an off-campus Apartment complex inside one of the investigators friend apartments. We
gathered one user at a time to participate in the testing.
2. User Tasks:
When the participants arrived into the testing room, they were given a very basic
verbal introduction as to what the app is about (the purpose being, mimicking how a user
would read the description of an app before downloading it). Then, they were given 5 - 10
minutes to play around with the app, encouraged to touch and test every button they could.
The point being, to see if every button is understandable, and every feature reachable. We
told them to limit their interaction with us in this stage, so that they can have a pure
experience of exploring and experiencing the app, gaining what they can with only their own
understanding of the system. After which, we gave them a survey that helped them solidify
their thoughts and ideas about the app, in a ranking method, as well as some room for free
writing about how certain features functioned, looked, and what features theyd like to see.
To strengthen our functionality of the app and the users experience with the app, we also
conducted an interview afterwards that expanded upon the survey.
3. Usability Testing Method:

We used the question-asking protocol method. We figured that asking users questions
after testing our app can help solidify the problems users experienced. Additionally, users
are able to verbalize their opinions and criticisms they may have about the app. Questions
we asked the users are:

Would texting statistics be interesting to you? If so, why?

How was the interface of the app?
Was it easy to navigate through the app?
What are some of the problems you encountered in the app?
Is it too much reading? If so, how can we reduce the reading so it wont be too
crowded?
What would you like to see implemented?

4. Data:
Processed Data:
User Related:
12 participants; (7 males, 5 females)
Age Range: 18-27
Rating Scale:
(1-3) Strongly disagree/disliked/bad/not often
(4) neutral/somewhat often
(5-7) strongly agree/liked/good/very often
Quantitative: Averages of all the users; 84 possible points total for any given question (7
points maximum per 12 users)
Qualitative: Comments section available under several questions for users to add their
input.

Survey
1. I am an avid texter: 82% (69/84)
2. I consider texting important for myself: 81% (68/84)
3. I have a basic understanding of statistics: 83% (70/84)
4. I consider texting important in maintaining my relationships: 78% (66/84)
5. Seeing in depth statistics about my texting activity would interest me: 75% (63/84)
6. I understood the layout of the app: 89% (75/84)
7. I understood what each button I pressed did: 88% (74/84)
8. I understood how to navigate the app: 89% (75/84)
9. I understood every feature of the app: 79% (67/84)
10. I liked the layout of the features of the app: 82% (69/84)
11. I liked the colors of the app: 81% (68/84)
12. The font is simple and easy to read. 95% (80/84)
13. I found the profile page to include useful information: 53% (45/84)
Users written comments: they did not find this page since it was only accessible by pressing
on the contacts profile picture, not on their name.
14.
15.

I understood what each setting manipulated on the settings page 88% (74/84)
I used the Search feature to find a contact 88% (74/84)

Users written comments: Search functionality

a.
A little buggy. They have to press twice in order to search.
b.
Shows two of the same contacts
16.
I find the call/message button useful. 80% (67/84)
17.
I could see myself using the call/text button to contact my friends through the app:
82% (69/84)
18.
I find the profile picture useful in helping identify the specified contact: 88% (74/84)
19.
I understood what each statistic was about: 83% (70/84)
20.
I gained a glimpse into the relationships of the prototype users contacts: 87%
(73/84)
21.
I would share a statistic using the share button to social media, email or text: 48%
(40/84)
22.
I understand how each statistic was generated. 70% (50/84)
23.
I understand how the top contact is calculated: 79% (67/84)
24.
Looking at statistics between myself and others gives me useful insight about my
relationship with them: 82% (69/84)
25.
More insight could motivate me to contact them more 75% (63/84)
26.
In the percentage tab, it was easy to know what the pie chart represented. 68%
(57/84)
27.
In the percentage tab, I know what the percentages of the sent and received
represent. 66% (56/84)
Users written comments: Most users were confused about the percentage tab.

a.
The bug in that tab was noticeable. (sometimes pieces of the pie chart disappears,
and it reappears when switching to another tab)
b.
Additionally, they didnt know how the percentage were generated
c.
the percentages did not match the pie chart
i.
they find that part confusing especially in the send/receive percentages
ii.
Also suggestion: should label the pie chart better. Too much text for users to read,
and it confuses about whether the text refers to the pie chart or not.
28.
In the Most Used Words tab, I understand what the numbers are corresponding to
each word. 94% (79/84)
Summary of User Interview Questions:
Why texting statistics may be interesting:
Curiosity
Knowing how much they text and limit themselves in texting
Maintain relationships with other contacts
Know who they contacted the most
Quantity of texts with someone
Significance of relationships with people contact
More communication with the contacts
Interest in data gathering
Layout of final system and prototype:
Layout of final system: simple and easy to navigate through it
A little too crowded.
Suggestion: have icons for message and call button
Top 5 contacts on top seems redundant since it shows all the
contacts.
Percentage tab; easy to look at, nothing too flashy or showy
Most Used Words tab: should align the numbers to the right. It will be
nicer to look at.
Should have an exclusion field. Filter the basic words such as
hello and what
In the statistics page, there is a bug: showed two search bars and two
settings page.
Settings page: easy and simple to understand. Buttons are pressed,
but no feedback. It is key to give feedback in case they did something
to the system.
Back button for the settings page doesnt work.
Call/Message button
Give users feedback on if its pressable. If users pressed on it,
highlight the button. The users were confused if they clicked on
the button or not.
o Layout of the prototype
It was easy to look at, not as crowded as the final system
Colors are nice. A few suggested a different color
Several users didnt know that the profile picture is clickable

Few suggested giving it a background highlight color.

Like the features presented, especially the swiping through the
features.

Suggested Features:
o Emoji feature
o Displaying only top contacts
o changing color scheme
o Adding favorite contacts
o Statistic showing recent texts compared to all texts
Overall thoughts:
o The system is good, but the final system needs more bug fixing
o Would be great to have real users data and test it on the users Android phone
o Layout is simple and easy to navigate through it
o Should have more hints/feedbacks to know what users can and/or cannot do.
o Icons can be used for the message and call button.
This can help minimize users reading.
o Font is easy to look at and colors are simple (not too bright nor too dull)

5. Conclusion:
Most users pointed out a few problems that were critical to creating a seamless user
experience. First, the percentage tab had some bugs where it was displaying inaccurate
chunks for the corresponding percentages, or even showing multiple chunks which
shouldnt exist. Another issue users ran into was duplicate contacts and its effect on the
Contact Search feature. By having duplicate contacts, the system was displaying two
different sets of data per contact.
The biggest problem in terms of features was that a lot of users did not stumble upon
the Profile page, where it showed the contacts rank, profile picture, and the ability to
call/message them. This was due to the accessibility being not apparent.
Overall, 75% of the participants found statistics about their texting interesting, which
was a big validation of our efforts. 89% of users liked the layout of the app, and 95% of
them found it easy to read and understand. The features that we were able to include in our
final system were very well received, with the Most User Words garnering a 94% approval
rating. 82% of users reported that they would be inclined to call/message contacts after
seeing statistics about their relationship, meaning that by the insight that Textats provides
can actually influence people in their relationships.
For our qualitative data, users were enthusiastic about the app and found the user
interface friendly. They enjoyed the idea of seeing a specific contacts number of sent and
received messages. Additionally, they knew what each button pressed did and knew how to
click or tap certain buttons. They also understood the overall interface of the app, and no
extra information was needed to explain to them.
However, we noted some improvements that can be implemented. For example,
users noted that the interface of the main page is too crowded, and it had a lot of reading.
User made a number of suggestions to the app, which we fully considered. Some users
suggested using icons for the call and messaging options. This helps in users recognizing

the icons and not having to spend time reading the labels of the call and message options.
Other users suggested displaying only the top contacts, having an emoji feature similar to
the function of the Most Used Words category, a customizable color scheme, and a favorite
contacts preference.

Research Essays

TOP
Philip Begel

The Stream of Consciousness

Now this is the situation. Normally both of your asses would be dead as fuckin' fried chicken. But you
happened to pull this shit while I'm in a transitional period. I don't wanna kill ya, I want to help ya.
~JULES, Pulp Fiction (Diner scene)
JULES: I'll just walk the earth.
VINCENT: What'cha mean walk the earth?
JULES: You know, walk the earth, meet people... get into adventures.

What is consciousness?
This iconic scene from Pulp Fiction has one of the main characters, Jules, realizing that after
almost being killed that day, he needs to take control of his own life and that there may be a greater
purpose for him then just being a cold-blooded thug. He is in a transitional period and wants to, as he
says, walk the earth. Jules has realized that he just wants himself and everyone at that moment to be
cool and let him do something with his life. This illustrates a good example of what consciousness
function is in our everyday lives, what its like to be alive.
Blackmore begins her book with describing overtly philosophical themes like dualism, monisms
such as identity theory, functionalism, mysterianism, eliminative materialism, panpsychism, and neutral
monism. Even though she is a scientist, the chapters of the book are presented with the scope of core
philosophical puzzles brought up by these themes. In studying the mind, mystery is often found
uncomfortably close so the science of consciousness is less than perfect, but Blackmore gives us many
accounts of mental research to dampen this notion.
The greatest product of our minds is the ability to imagine and innovate or create. Imagination is
the awareness being experienced in our own minds. By saying mind we can mean it to equally mean
the act of what it is like to be, or consciousness as we perceive it. How do we know or can say that we
have this but no other animals? And also if we do have consciousness then where is it inside of us?
Finding Consciousness
For the first question, how do we know we have consciousness, we have to take an evolutionary
approach. Natural selection is a process which shapes the bodies of creatures as well as their behaviors.
It is a collection of reactions. A wild creature will face all sorts of environmental stimuli honed by
millions of years of trial and error to create instinct. Biologist Niko Tinbergen was fascinated by the
behaviors of animals and he systematically experimented for the triggers for their behaviors looking at
the colors, shapes, smells, sensations and patterns which formed the root of instincts for many animals.
Tinbergen successfully isolated the traits which triggered certain instincts and made an interesting
discovery in that the instincts had no bounds. Instinctive responses would still be produced by
unrealistic stimuli.
Once the researchers isolated the instincts trigger they could create greatly exaggerated
dummies which the animals would choose instead of a realistic alternative. Songbird parents would

prefer to feed fake baby birds with mouths wider and redder than their real chicks. They would abandon
their pale blue eggs with gray spots and sit on black and polka-dotted fluorescent blue dummies. The
hatchlings themselves would ignore their own parents to beg fake beaks with more dramatic markings.
Seeing red made male stickleback fish ignore real rivals to attack wooden replicas with brightly painted
underbellies. Tinbergen called these supernormal stimuli: a hijacking of animals instincts beyond their
evolutionary purpose. Tinbergen and his students created supernormal stimuli to study the animals they
were researching, but there was already a creature actively building supernormal stimuli to use on itself;
human beings.
With instincts evolved for hunting and gathering, most humans today find themselves in a very
different environment. While our technologies and population densities have undergone amazing
change in such a short time, evolution has not had a chance to keep pace. Our brains are the same as
our hunter-gatherer ancestors. The instincts that were once so common and essential to our survival
now tug at us from all angles in a world of supernormal stimuli. We can eat refined foods far sweeter,
saltier, and fattier than anything available to our ancestors. We sit motionless for hours watching shows
of imaginary characters lives. Sometimes we even immerse ourselves in their world as in video games.
We have pornography available to anyone who wants to see it and a range of other distractions eager to
hijack our attention. Supernormal stimuli also give rise to what Blackmore describes as
memes, which are ideas, stories, skills, habits or any kind of information that is copied from person to
person. Blackmore quotes Dennetts view of consciousness in regards to memes describing a person as
the radically new kind of entity created when a particular sort of animal is properly furnished or
infested with memes and a human mind as an artifact created when memes restructure a human
brain in order to make a better habitat for memes. Certainly we have enough spare time, enough
spare wealth to indulge in some of the pleasures supernormal stimuli and thus memes can give us, but
how much is enough? Supernormal stimuli work on humans because, like all animals, we have basic
instincts hard wired into our brains. A reptile brain still sits deep with us and its influence is far greater
than we care to admit. Faced with supernormal stimuli we may feel that willpower is pointless and that
the selfish genes and memes have truly built a successful biological robot for their purpose. However,
we are gifted with another layer above the primitive, unconscious brain. Another piece of circuitry able
to override or redirect the instincts our unconscious, automatic, and instinctual brain shouts at us. The
conscious self and its thoughts; or the mind as we know it beyond the memes. We are the only creature
that can bypass the unreal and choose the real. This choice requires a large dose of willpower. Only
those who can see the supernormal can learn to begin to walk the earth like Jules.

To paint a picture, imagine consciousness as the stream it is commonly alluded to. We cant see
the end or beginning of the stream nor the banks surrounding it, but we know we are within. We know
because we can feel in this exact moment anything we desire. Thats how we know we are real. The
stream contains individual raindrops and each one represents an individual. Some are human like Jules,
some are dolphins, and some are ants. Every living creature is represented on this picture. The bigger or
smaller the raindrop, the different the perception and experience of consciousness will be. We are only
experiencing what it means to be alive from the confines of our raindrop of consciousness. There could
be a raindrop that encompasses the entire universe and that being might have an awareness of its
consciousness with a perception we cannot even imagine. They may study us and see us as we see
atoms; tiny particles that behave a certain way, but unknown in why they act the way they do. Unless
we can actually shrink ourselves to their size and experience life at their magnitude and state, we are
hopeless to know, without a doubt, why atoms behave the way they do. We can only observe properties
and behaviors and make predictions.
The element of consciousness is what instills meaning in life. In the ultimate display of irony, if it
doesnt exist we could be nothing more than biological puppets of our selfish genes. Jules would
continue to be a thug as he has always been. If this is true, an ontological crisis would result from the
revelation and defile our sense of purpose and meaning. While true, I dont believe it to be the full story.
The reasons for the emergence of consciousness may be due to the selfish genes, but the meaning we
draw from it is what is most significant. So where is consciousness inside of us if we believe we have it?
Where is Consciousness?
Consciousness is a concept like values or morals. We havent yet accepted it as being a humanly
constructed idea through society, gender and culture. We think its a tangible real thing inside us. To
explain this we need to look at what the structure of the brain science has shown us so lets look at the
local influences of consciousness.
Consciousness on the Local Scale
The size of our raindrop of consciousness is based on self-organizing processes. All the systems
in our universe come together through this self-organization phenomenon. The results are emergent
properties like the shape of a galaxy, our economic structure, the interactions and patterns of ants and
bees, the instincts Tinbergen studied and even the brain. The brain self-organizes and gives rise to the
emergent property of consciousness. However, the idea is not that consciousness is made by the brain,

but that it becomes aware to us by the result of the brains self-organizing system. There are forces
beyond our brain that shape our cognition, behavior and consciousness on a grand scale like evolution,
culture, language and local scale forces like social interactions and our cognitive and neural processes.
These all interact to make our consciousness what it is. Jules awareness of consciousness is influenced
ultimately by the grand scale factors, but in the moment at that diner, his local factors are attempting to
have an influence on the grand scale factors. Consciousness is an always changing emergent product
that differs depending on our exact circumstances that are affecting our behavior and the past that has
given us instinct, culture, and language. We as human beings have the interesting emergent property of
a high conscious meta-awareness unseen in other animals.
The self-organizing system of the brain is made up of modules that have had different purposes
evolutionarily. Through trial and error and millions of years, our awareness emerged as a by-product of
having to manage these properties. Our body is also another module that our brain is managing and
being influenced by in turn, as well. Embodied cognition refers to exactly this in how our body is part of
our mind, as a result, and not separate from it. With awareness comes the study of science that has
shown us that consciousness can be split into the conscious and unconscious. The unconscious is how
our body works automatically and carries out its functions on the actual cellular level in the brain or
body. No level of awareness has been evolved to self-monitor automatic aspects of the brain and body
as it would seem evolutionarily like a bad move for the selfish genes to have one heavily influential,
executive control center. Awareness started off with unconscious awareness, which regulated our
bodies and instincts for survival that consequently led to a conscious awareness of the present moment
for even better survival purposes. We may have had to control our breathing at times or think quickly
about how to get out of a situation using more than just instinct, but actual creative problem solving.
Our perceived consciousness was then just the combination of both aspects of the unconscious and
conscious resulting in our awareness of the perception both aspects bring to our idea of self. That is
what it means to be alive. The conscious is capable of being aware of the unconscious influences, but it
is not a slave to the instincts embedded within. This rejects the Cartesian Theater idea that Blackmore
describes where information simply comes into awareness, whereupon I can experience and act upon
it, but the unconscious can influence information in return as evidenced by subliminal perception.
Blackmore gives an example of Cricks astonishing hypothesis: that you, your joys and your sorrows,
your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more
than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. Conscious
experience, reduced to this approach, is the behavior of neurons, rather than being caused by it, or

interacting with it. However, our awareness of consciousness as a whole is certainly affected by external
influences. Take Jules case, where the pressures of society and evolution can have a circular causality in
that we can use introspection like manipulating memory, scientific knowledge and our imagination to
change our behavior and affect the grand scale factors as Jules feels he is doing by walking the earth.
Nowadays, with no present danger in our everyday lives, we are able to use our awareness to
try to behave with good intentions. Its function is simple; experience life and be alive; or simply
experience consciousness. What we do with our awareness of consciousness is up to us. Once we realize
theres no meaning inherent to it, we need to make meaning and create something. We are free to do
whatever we want. Most of us want good things so we do good to be good. Holding onto certain values
and morals is essential to maintaining an awareness that develops with positive intentions for a better
world for all of us. The conscious self is one aspect of our awareness of consciousness and the
unconscious, another. Both are part of the same thing: our overall awareness of consciousness and
experiencing being alive. We need to stop thinking and start creating; thats the purpose of
consciousness.
Awareness of Consciousness and Self
Blackmore discusses the viewpoint of Humphrey who proposed that natural selection favored
those of our ancestors that developed self-reflexive insight, an inner-eye. Similarly, she mentions how
Dawkins speculates that, Perhaps consciousness arises when the brains simulation of the world
becomes so complete that it must include a model of its own. Humphrey claims that it is a self-reflexive
loop whose function is to give humans an effective tool for doing natural psychology. Steven Mithen
goes on to say that since awareness is not a unique feature of the human brain as even an ant is aware
or a lion then their conscious awareness extends only to social interactions. . The difference comes in
with the degree of this awareness. Humans are conscious of all sorts of things and it is this broadening
awareness that he sees as critical in the creation of the modern human mind. The self-organizing
systems of ants show they have enough awareness to only react to environmental and internal stimuli.
Other animals rely heavily on instinct still like Tinbergens songbirds. It would seem that theres a point
where the modules of a system develop or evolve where they function at their best in the environment.
As a result, a central awareness forms that gives the illusion of a single self. That self is constructed by
the very modules its made up of. As things happen to those modules, the self changes; constantly fluid.
Blackmore calls the construction of self the center of gravity narrative. She goes on to quote Dennett
again saying, our selves have been created out of the interplay of memes exploiting and redirecting the

machinery Mother Nature has given us and the self is a benign user illusion of its own virtual machine!
Memes may play a large role in constructing the self, but ultimately what is at the core of things is the
pure awareness of conscious self that is in charge on the level of what it can do in the world; the choices
it makes. However, its choices and actions are really just the expression of the selfish genes to be both
passed on and to make the best possible organism that will survive. As a result, we have the
perpetuation of the biological, unconscious self (selfish genes) and our conscious mind that is the result
of the modules and processes created by the biological self. The self that is represented in the real world
is the only self that anyone will ever see or know because only an individual could experience what its
like to be oneself. We use our time to entertain ourselves in this world, like studying, making music,
making art, or trying to solve mathematical equations of the universes properties. We study the
patterns and try to make sense out of them. Our free will is two-fold in this case, we do have a free will,
but its definitely not completely free from the objective, absolute standpoint. You is defined as the
emergent awareness creating this idea of self, which is itself created by both the unconscious and
conscious aspects of consciousness. You are free in terms of the amount of decisions that could be made
by you and only you at that present moment in time with your brain chemistry. We use this free will to
do good to be good, create, and love. In this view, as Blackmore describes, creativity is how we bring
together memes to make new ones. To do this we need the motivation to learn necessary knowledge
and skills, the ability to process masses of information unconsciously and the intuition to pursue our
creative passion.
The self is fluid and constantly aware and imagination is the result of the constant awareness,
which can lead to the idea of memes taking over our selves. We create an idea of self from this emerged
awareness and mistake it as a separate entity entirely that we call consciousness and wonder what it is
or where it is. Awareness of consciousness leads to us imagine and construct a sense of self. Taking
memes out of the picture, we create a narrative utilizing memory and many other influences that affect
our self. With the self we can create concepts like consciousness and attribute it to ruling our entire
system when it is really a tug of war between our grand scale factors and local factors that we are
reciprocally causing and being influenced by.
Drugs demonstrate this tug of war idea as their local influence can affect the way we view the
grand scale factors. Our idea of self can be altered by using drugs or life changing events that have us
rework our self-narrative. When our brain chemistry changes, our state of consciousness is altered,
whether dramatically (hallucinatory drugs like LSD) or slightly (feel good drugs like marijuana), and we

are aware of a new state that inspires a feeling or emotion. We experience a different awareness of
consciousness entirely. We can do this on a local level by using our imagination, our own in-store
chemical changer where we can imagine many situations that will actively change our brain chemistry,
subtly, as cognitive psychology research has shown. The connections in the brain can be played like a
piano to orchestrate different tunes in the symphony of the mind, or awareness of consciousness. They
can produce different states in the emergent consciousness by tinkering with the complex programming
of the brain. The mind can be fooled because it isnt conscious of how it comes to be. For example, the
reality we believe we are looking at through our eyes is actually a model of reality displayed in our
brains like the phenomenon of change blindness. As Blackmore points out, this leads to the question of
whether our visual experience is a kind of grand illusion, lacking the depth, continuity, and qualitative
richness which we attribute it to appear to possess.
The point is our consciousness has adapted to this environment we live in, on this rock in space.
Every insect or other animal has developed like this. Their awareness is still on a basic level of instincts
and social interactions and hasnt had the evolutionary time to achieve or begin a meta-awareness of
itself. All self-organizing systems, given time, might be able to do this in some way.
Consciousness on the Grand Scale
It might be best now to travel to the macro level and see consciousness in the scope of the
universe itself. If the universe is supposedly infinite, both outwards towards the farthest reaches of the
observable universe and inwards towards the complex workings of atoms and quantum particles, then
there must exist something that perceives consciousness at every level that the universe has.
Everywhere you look goes infinitely into space. We cant comprehend that, but these fractals are
everywhere. Emergent awareness of consciousness at each level of the fractal is possible. We are at the
this specific level right now as an averagely 5-ft tall human being with a 3-lbs brain and all our awareness
of conscious perceptions are confined to this particular set of variables that allow us to exist and
experience life, or consciousness, as we know it. This is our raindrop. Consciousness is all around us, and
the act of those able to perceive consciousness and experience it allows them to do and create with
whats available to them. This can continue down to a cosmic or atomic level. Some being of stellar scale
beyond us in our universe could be of such a magnitude and part of a self-organizing system we cant
even comprehend. Just like how an atom weighs Avogadros Number, we could be that same concept to
something with an awareness of consciousness many times our magnitude due to the increasing
complexity of their self-organizing system.

We cant even be sure what kind of universe we live in or if it is even called a universe. What we
can do is take evidence of our world and make a prediction from the data. We know that humans are
the most intelligent species in our universe (that weve encountered), that we fear death, hate evil, and
cherish love. We know we arent perfect. History plays an important part in understanding the present
and future, and thus we could conclude our reality is for a purpose that would benefit the future of
humanity. Even with the knowledge we have, guessing at something outside the box of our universe we
are in is probably a futile task. This is the problem of the infinity of fractals and beyond. We can guess at
the purpose of the universe, but if there is a purpose for that purpose, ad-infinitum, then to determine
the end all be all purpose of reality is beyond hope.
Why do we have Consciousness?
Consciousness continues on a spectrum flowing through the interactions of evolution down to
our neural levels and we are just one aspect of this spectrum. Why do we have it? Nature through
physics, which is ultimately studied by biology and chemistry, had millions of years to develop from a
primitive vessel of consciousness as a microorganism and develop over millions of years symbiotically
and alongside millions of other organisms that ultimately created a sense of consciousness. Life has us at
the tip of the spear now. What comes ahead is only a mystery and we can only look back at the past.
What matters is in the present and what we do. So do good to be good and create something.
New discoveries in science bring us closer to the truths of reality, but each discovery also tends
to open the door to new mysteries. It is in this gap that philosophers can explore the realms of
possibility. As we climb the tree of knowledge, it is important to keep an open eye on the fence that
defines the garden we explore. Consciousness is simply the perception you are experiencing with your
brain. Our brains evolution of consciousness has resulted in the brain being aware of itself and certain
things it can have control over consciously versus the rest being controlled automatically, unconsciously;
two parts of the same overall self. If this premise is not believable, consider any optical illusion that
transfixed you with its magic. They are first-hand proofs of the tricks the brain is capable of making to
the mind just like how awareness is a trick the brain is consequently creating as a result of the
complexity of the combination of all its modules. Consciousness is not separate, but part of the system,
not some mystical soul or spirit. We are simply aware of it.
We can look at the implications of consciousness from many perspectives. We can learn a new
perspective from other people with different awarenesss of their consciousness without having to be

inside their skull to understand them. A neuroscientist would say that just because some animals can
see into further areas of the color spectrum than we can, does that less colorful reality make our life any
less than it is? The depths of your brain run the show for the most part and different diseases, mental
disorders, traumatic incidents, and much more can influence and change the output of a person, their
personality and their identity. All neuroscience can continue to tell us, objectively, is that we are not
who we think we are.
In answering the meaning of our existence a philosopher would start off with 5 simple words. I
think, therefore I am. It is not possible to deny your existence. You reading this paper confirm your
being; your emotions, your thoughts, your breathing. Even if we live in a grand illusion that Blackmore
proposes that is masked by perceptual trickery, the fact remains that we still perceive. This gives us our
lives back as we all exist by the nature of our thoughts. How can we take this existential view and equate
it to our core sense of meaning? Humanity has been on a lengthy search for our purpose and meaning in
life. Jules began to contemplate this notion at the end of Pulp Fiction and decided to walk the earth to
find it. In life, we may face the inevitable conclusion of the futility of finding meaning in this world and
just having a passionate love for what we have and makes us happy. Or we may have a longing
depression at the lack of a cosmic truth. The interpretation of life is up to the person who lives. In the
end, we must accept that we might never learn the truth of why we exist, what created us, and what is
beyond us on the grand or local level. Ironically, as we are now all revealed to be actors and actresses on
lifes stage, it is Shakespeare who provides the question we all must answer in light of this new
understanding: To be or not to be, that is the question. The fact that you have the right to answer this
question is liberation.
A cosmologist may take an even more simple approach with a cosmic perspective. Neil deGrasse
Tyson offers a more popularized optimistic alternative as he says, I feel big because I am connected to
the universe and the universe is connected to me.
Blackmore describes mindfulness in open meditation where the aim is to remain fully present in
every action of every moment of waking life, and even during sleep. This Zen perspective resonates with
me, and gives me the most resounding sense of comfort I can imagine when taking in all this
information. Many know that meditation is the characterizing aspect of Zen. You look deep within your
minds in an attempt to find emptiness, but find quite the opposite. When one sees the nature of their
chaotic thoughts, they can realize how little in control they truly are. Understanding this internal
monologue allows one to find life in the present moment, in each experience as they come. Living for

the future or the in the past is not living at all. We can learn to accept the beauty found in the present
moment, and let go of the mechanisms torturing us in a grapple between worry and desire. In the end,
all that matters is the experience. If you feel love, then you are in love. It might be better to accept that
what we experience now is as real as it will get. Acceptance of the circumstances would be necessary if
we wanted to live with our sanity intact. Then we could shape it within the bounds of the possible. The
theories on the nature of consciousness are thought-experiments in a long line explaining that nothing is
what it appears to be. It is teaching you to question your assumptions. Live true to yourself. Pulling back
the veil shows that consciousness is the emergent property of humanity as a whole and merely led to
our awareness of being alive and nothing more. This shows we were all fools for thinking anything
different. The way to live now is simple, for each moment, with no expectations, no bias. Love what you
have, right now and create something.
TOP
Philip Begel

Shrek is Love; Shrek is Life.

Love conquers all, as said by Virgil. The discussion of love is complex and very abstract
for the most part. The nature of love makes talking about it in day-to-day interactions produce
many proverbs that end thought on the matter. A famous proverb regarding love would be The
Beatles' "All You Need Is Love. Aristotle defines love as "to will the good of another."
Philosopher Gottfried Leibniz said that love is "to be delighted by the happiness of
another." Biologist Jeremy Griffith defines love as "unconditional selflessness". Love has a
diversity of uses and meanings that when combined with the complexity of the feelings
involved, make it unusually difficult to define in a casual way in comparison to other emotions.
We can conceptualize love as referring to an experience one person feels for anything, like
another person. This mysterious feeling has the result of us seeing love as an "international
language" that overcomes cultural and linguistic separations. Love is certainly an important
aspect of our existence as human beings, but it should not be the ultimate goal for people. This
international language idea is what distorts the experience of the usefulness of love and lets
it take over our lives. Love, like anything, needs to be held in the right degree of significance
and expressed with the right person in a healthy way. The expression of love needs to be done

right and to understand that one needs to know where love comes from and what it does for
us.
Classifying and Exploring Love
There are many classifications of love. One is impersonal love like the love for an object
or idea to which one may be deeply committed and greatly value. Theres also the love of
animals or activities that one bonds or identifies with. The kind of love most significant to us,
though, is interpersonal love. Interpersonal love refers to love between human beings. Such
love might exist between family members, friends, and people we deem significant others. How
do we begin to explore what this mysterious feeling of love is at all?
Looking at the linguistics of what we mean when we say love has shown us that
describing and defining love in day-to-day language is a difficult task. In English, we use the
word "love" very often, but we mean so many different things by it that it can be quite
confusing. Other languages sometimes have a wider choice of words. For example, in the Greek
language, they distinguish at least four different ways as to how the word love is used that are
similar to the sorts of love we experience. Ancient Greek has four distinct words for love: agape
(unconditional love), ros (love with a sexual passion or more broadly the appreciation of
beauty itself), phila (affectionate regard such as in friendships), and storg (kinship or family
love). The sort of romantic love we are used to would be Eros in Greek. However, the 21st
century has created an abundance of complexity to the variations of romantic love that just
saying love does not define the situation we are talking about sufficiently.
Throughout history, philosophy and religion have done the most speculation on the
phenomenon of love. In recent years, the sciences of psychology, anthropology, neuroscience,
and biology have added to the understanding of the nature and function of love. Explaining love
to somebody who had not themselves ever experienced love or being loved would be very
difficult because to such a person love would appear to be quite strange if not absolutely
irrational behavior. Many different theories attempt to explain the nature and function of love.
Popular psychology theories attempt to account for the existence of love, which the vast
majority consider love as more of a social and cultural phenomenon. There are also biological

theories, which hold that love is part of the process of natural selection. There are even those
that choose to believe spiritual theories which may consider love to be a gift from a god, for
example, and may simply consider love to be an unexplainable mystery, very much like
a mystical experience.
Biological Perspective
Looking at biological theories first, Lewis (2000)s, A General Theory of Love, models of
sex tends to view love as a mammalian drive, much like hunger or thirst. Seen purely as a drive,
Helen Fisher divides the experience of love into three interrelated systems for mating: lust,
attraction, and attachment. Three distinct constellations of neural circuitries and three
behavioral patterns are associated with these three romantic styles. Lust evolved to imitate the
mating process when there was a feeling of sexual desire. Attraction (romantic) evolved to
determine what specific partners mates find attractive and pursue, conserving time and energy
by choosing. Attachment evolved to have reproductive mates cooperate until their parental
duties are completed, which involves sharing a home, mutual defense, and feelings of safety
and security (Fisher et al, 2002). Humans are dependent on parental help for a large portion of
their lifespans so attachment love can be seen as a mechanism to promote parental support of
children for this extended time period.
Lust involves the increased release of chemicals such as testosterone and estrogen and
behavioral effects rarely last more than a few weeks or months. Attraction is specific to the
individual and their romantic desire towards a specific mate, which develops out of lust. Recent
studies in neuroscience as discussed by Robert Winston in his book Human, 2004, have
indicated that as people fall in love, the brain consistently releases a certain set of
neurotransmitters including dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. These stimulate the
brain's pleasure center and lead to side effects such as increased heart rate, loss
of appetite and sleep, and an intense feeling of excitement. This system can generally last from
one and a half to three years even. Emanuele et al, (2005) reported the neurotrophin protein
molecule known as the nerve growth factor (NGF) has high levels in early stages of romantic
love, but these return to previous levels after one year.

Since the lust and attraction systems are both considered temporary, a third system is
needed to account for long-term relationships. Attachment is the bonding that promotes
relationships lasting for many years and even decades. Attachment is generally based on
commitments such as marriage and children or even based on things like shared interests.
Winstons Human describes attachment as having been linked to higher levels of the amount of
the chemicals oxytocin and vasopressin compared to the amount short-term relationships have.
So biology has shown how love can be viewed simply from the chemical perspective, but
the implications dont really resonate with our conception of love in our everyday lives. Social
and behavioral sciences have also delved into the nature of love and have proposed taxonomies
on what love is and the specific types or varieties of it. A popular classification scheme was
developed by psychologist Robert Sternberg (1996, 1998).
Psychological Perspective
The Triangular Theory of Love
Sternberg conceptualized love in terms of three basic components that form the
vertices of a triangle: intimacy, passion, and commitment. The intimacy component is the most
expansive component. It is primarily emotional in nature and involves feelings of warmth,
closeness, and connection in the love relationship. Intimacy starts from an initial disclosure to
somebody and leads to a strong communication. It involves a desire to promote the welfare of
the other person such as emotional support as they are seen as having value or being special in
your life. You feel happy with this person, can rely on them and can share your possessions,
even yourself, with them. The key to successful intimacy is to not lose the autonomy you
already have of your own life. Too much intimacy and autonomy is lost and problems arise in
the relationship.
The second component, passion, is motivational and consists of the drives that are
involved in romantic and physical attraction like intense longing or union to be with another.
Sometimes too much intimacy loses aspects of what makes passion successful. The best way to
keep passion alive in a relationship is intermittent reinforcement where there are rewards or

things to look forward to in the relationship that arent always constant. This will drive passion
up as sometimes waiting a little for something desired in a relationship is a good thing, as well
as mixing things up, occasionally.
The commitment component is largely cognitive and represents both the short-term
decision that one individual loves another and the longer term commitment to maintain that
love.
According to Sternberg, these three love components differ with respect to a number of
properties, including stability, conscious controllability, short and long-term goals and
physiological arousal. The features of intimacy and commitment are usually quite stable in close
relationships and tend to endure whereas passion tends to be less stable and predictable.
People possess a great deal of conscious control over the commitment that they make to
relationships and possess at least some moderate degree of control over their feelings of
intimacy. However, people actually have very little conscious control over the amount of
passion that they experience for their partners as it can come and go. Short and long-terms
goals dictate that commitment will be highest for long-term goals and low for short-term.
Intimacy and passion are variable with long or short-term goals and stay at moderate levels.
Physiological arousal is high for passion and can be felt somewhat moderately during intimate
moments, but our awareness of commitment to a relationship tends to be something we arent
fully conscious of or feeling all the time.
Types of Love Relationships
The three basic components of love combine to produce eight different love types. Nonlove (no intimacy, passion, or commitment) describes casual interactions that are characterized
by the absence of all three love components. Nearly all our casual associations or
acquaintances we meet day to day can be defined as non-love. Liking (intimacy alone) describes
relationships that are essentially friendships containing warmth, closeness, and other positive
emotional experiences, but lacking both passion and commitment. Infatuation (passion alone)
describes an intense, love at first sight experience that is characterized by extreme attraction
and arousal in the absence of any real emotional intimacy and commitment. Empty love

(commitment alone) describes relationships that the partners are committed to each other and
the relationship, but lack an intimate emotional connection and passionate attraction, which
can be often seen at the end of long-term relationships. Romantic love (intimacy + passion)
consists of feelings of closeness and connection (liking) tied with a strong physical attraction
(infatuation). Companionate love (intimacy + commitment) is essentially a long-term, stable,
and committed friendship that is characterized by high amounts of emotional intimacy, with a
love for one another and, subsequently, a commitment to remain in the relationship. This can
be often seen in best friendships that are nonsexual or in long-term marriages with faded
sexual attraction.
Fatuous love (passion + commitment) describes relationships that base their
commitment to each other on passion rather than on deep, emotional intimacy. These
whirlwind relationships are typically unstable and at risk for falling apart. Finally,
consummate love (intimacy + passion + commitment) results from the combination of all three
components. According to Sternberg, this is the type of complete love that many individuals
strive to attain, particularly in their romantic relationships.
Because the three basic components of love occur in varying degrees within a
relationship, most love relationships will not fit cleanly into one particular category, but will
reflect some combination of categories. The triangle of love can be seen as fluid. It can be
shifting to a certain degree at one end of the triangle or in their amount of love, depending on
the person. As a result, triangles can be different in their shape and area. The area, or size, of
the triangle can be different depending on what amount of love the actual person has. Two
people can have the exact same values in a triangle for the basic components yet with differing
sizes. This shows they have the same love goals towards each other, but dont love each other
equally. Another aspect could be that both partners could have a triangle shifted towards
differing ends showing that one person is more committed, for example, and the other less, but
with the same amount of love for one another. This could be the reason certain relationships
run into hurdles; they love each other differently, but dont reinforce enough that they do love
each other equally. Sternberg developed a 45-item scale to assess the three basic elements of

love in 15 points sections dealing with each component. According to Sternberg, high scores in
all three components would indicate consummate love. However, uneven or low scores do not
necessarily mean that a relationship is not strong. All relationships have ups and downs, and
the nature of a relationship may change over time, but this scale can simply be used for a rough
assessment of ones love state.
Prototype-theory
If Sternberg has described what love can be reduced to psychologically then how do
everyday people define being in love, naturally? According to Rosch (1978), many concepts or
categories of things, like love, have certain characteristics that we are able to put in hierarchal
order that epitomize the degree that these characteristics resemble the prototypic member of
that category, like what we believe constitutes true love. A prototype is the best and clearest
example of the concept such as what we think when we are told to the think of a dog or an
apple. We think of the appliest apple or the most classic dog. Individuals use prototypes to
help them decide whether a new item or experience belongs or fits within a particular concept.
In trying to decide whether or not the man is in love with his significant other, he might
compare the feelings (e.g. happy when shes there, sad when shes not), thoughts (e.g. thinking
about her all the time or their future), and behaviors (e.g. making time to be with her, doing
everything with her) about her he has experienced during their relationship with his prototype
containing his mental model of being in love (e.g. being in love means missing each other,
imagining a future together, and spending a lot of time together).
If what the man is experiencing matches his prototype, he is likely to conclude that he is,
in fact, in love with his significant other. Fehr & Russell (1991), for example, asked men and
women to generate as many types of love as they could in a specified time and then asked
another sample of individuals to rate these love varieties in terms of prototypicality or
goodness-of-example. Of the 93 subtypes generated, maternal love was rated as the best or
most prototypical example of love, followed by parental love, friendship, sisterly love, romantic
love, brotherly love, and familial love. Passionate love (infatuation) was considered one of the
least prototypical examples of love.

Fehr (1988) also identified many prototypic features of love as opposed to a general
type. He asked one group of participants to list the characteristics of the concept of love and a
second group to rate how central each feature was to the concept of love. Features were
considered prototypical to love included trust, caring, honesty, friendship, respect, concern for
the others well-being, loyalty, and commitment. Features that were considered unimportant to
the concept of love included see only the others good qualities, butterflies in stomach,
uncertainty, dependency, and anxiety. Aron & Lori (1996) extended Fehrs work by exploring
the underlying structure of the prototype of love. Interestingly, they found evidence that the 68
prototypic love features identified by participants in Fehrs (1988) study could be reduced
reliably to the three dimensions proposed by Sternbergs triangular theory of love: passion,
intimacy, and commitment. Remarkably, Sternbergs theory appears to truly correlate to the
love experiences that many people describe and reflect the three basic dimensions he
proposed.
Different approaches to love as in biology or psychology have shown that scientists
recognize the important role that love plays in human life and all have offered their theories
about its nature. Some have specified types or varieties of love while others have attempted to
delineate the nature of love by examining peoples common understandings of love and their
love

experiences.

As

biology

shows,

love

is

certainly

influenced

by

hormones/neurotransmitters (such as oxytocin or dopamine), neurotrophins (such as NGF), and

even pheromones. Psychology shows how people think and behave in love is influenced by
their conceptions of love. This body of theoretical and empirical work reveals that there is not a
unique way of loving, but there actually exists multitude of ways. Love is truly a versatile
experience.
The Nature and Function of Love
What can one do with all this theoretical and empirical work on love? We can
appreciate love for what it is and have a better insight into it, but the key insight I propose is
that it would be foolish to attribute love as the end all, be-all of life; that it is the greatest thing
we can feel for one another in order to be happy. Its best to have a clear and realistic

understanding of love. We cannot idealize love as the solution to all of our problems as then we
overestimate it. As a result, our relationships pay a price. When we believe that all we need is
love, then like Lennon, were more likely to ignore fundamental values such as respect,
modesty and commitment towards the people we care about. As long as people feel an inkling
of love that goes towards their prototype, they believe it will solve everything in their life.
Healthy relationships require more than pure emotion or proud passions. We can intuitively
understand that there are things more important in our lives and our relationships than simply
being in love. The true success of our relationships hinges on these deeper and more important
values.
The problem with idealizing love is that it causes us to develop unrealistic expectations
about what love actually is and what it can do for us. We want to see the prototypes we hold
value for and the types of love manifested in our significant other. It is similar to the problem of
the unequal size or shape of love triangles Sternberg talks about. These unrealistic expectations
can then sabotage the very relationships we hold dear in the first place. Love does not equal
compatibility. Just because you fall in love with someone doesnt necessarily mean theyre a
good partner for you to be with over the long term. Its possible to fall in love with somebody
who doesnt treat us well, who makes us feel worse about ourselves, who doesnt hold the
same respect for us as we do for them, or who has such a dysfunctional, unhealthy life
themselves that they threaten to bring us down with them. Its possible to fall in love with
somebody who has different ambitions or life goals that are contradictory to our own, who
holds different philosophical beliefs or worldviews that clash with our own sense of reality. Its
possible to fall in love with somebody really doesnt give us the happiness we want from love.
That may sound paradoxical, but its true in the rampant love crazy world we live in. When
looking for a partner, you must use not only your heart and fall victim to biologys grasp, but
your intellect, as well. Of course, you want that feeling of love inside, but you also need to take
a step back and evaluate a persons values, how they treat themselves, how they treat those
close to them, their ambitions and their worldviews in general. The result being if you fall in
love with someone who is incompatible with you then youre idealizing that love conquers all.

Just because youre in love doesnt mean it will solve all the relationship problems you
have with each other. Love makes us feel like we are overcoming our issues, when on a
practical level, absolutely nothing changes. Lust makes us feel good in the short-term,
attraction kicks in and commitment may develop that doesnt fulfill us. Love creates this roller
coaster of emotions, which can be intoxicating. Each high will feel even more important and
more valid than the one before, but unless you have a stable, rational foundation that youre
aware of, then that rising tide of emotion will eventually be washed away.
Love is not always worth sacrificing yourself. As the Greeks call agape, unconditional
love can be seen as one of the defining characteristics of loving someone. Maternal love is even
considered the most prototypical love. You are able to think outside of yourself and your own
needs to help care for another person and their needs as well. Realistically though, when
talking about this type of love exactly what are you sacrificing, and is it worth it? In loving
relationships, its normal for both people to occasionally sacrifice their own desires, their own
needs, and their own time for one another. This is normal and healthy and a big part of what
makes a relationship so great. However that same love becomes problematic when it comes to
sacrificing ones self-respect, ones dignity, ones physical body, ones ambitions and life
purpose just to be with someone. A loving relationship is supposed to enhance our individual
identity, not damage it or replace it. If we find ourselves in situations where were tolerating
disrespectful or abusive behavior then were allowing our love to consume us. This is a negation
of ourselves and can potentially leave us as a shell of the person we once were.
This comes down to the question of why do we tolerate behavior in our romantic
relationships that we would never ever, ever tolerate in our other close friendships? Its simple,
because were in love!
The only way you can fully enjoy the love in your life is to choose to make something
else more important in your life than love. There must be a passion you have that is not your
significant other, something that makes you unique and gives your life purpose. Placing that
significance on your significant other, as we call them, gives the concept of love power over
you instead of you over it.

Throughout life, we will fall in love with a wide variety of people; people who are good
for you and people who are bad for you. Love can find you when youre young and also when
youre old. Love is not unique or special and is definitely not scarce. This illusion of scarcity
could be why we fall in love so easily and destructively.
Love is a wonderful experience that life has to offer and something that everyone
should aspire to feel and enjoy. The experience of love can be like any other experience,
healthy or unhealthy. Just like a poor grade on an exam, it cannot be allowed to define us, our
identity or our life purpose. We may strive for consummate love, but we cannot let it consume
us. We cannot sacrifice our identities and self-worth because the moment we do that we lose
what love is and we lose ourselves.
A man may have an obsession with the fictional character Shrek. He may consider Shrek
his significant other. In trying to decide whether or not the man is in love with his significant
other he might compare his feelings (e.g. talking about Shrek makes him happy), thoughts (e.g.
thinking about Shrek all the time), and behaviors (e.g. collecting Shrek merchandise and
fanfiction) about Shrek that he has experienced in his relationship with his prototype of being
in love. This extreme example shows how the man idealizes his love for Shrek above all else,
and Shrek becomes his life.
Theres more to life than love. You may love Shrek, but your love for him shouldnt
consume your life. Love is beautiful and great, biologically and psychologically necessary, and
maybe even spiritually. Love should be cherished and considered significant, but love does not
conquer all. Life is full of love, so find love in everything you do and the happiness you strive for
will follow.

Creative Writing

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Philip Begel

Chrono Trigger Game Mechanics Analysis

The game I will discuss the mechanics of is an old Squaresoft (currently, Square Enix) title called Chrono
Trigger. Chrono Trigger is about a group of kids in a pre-industrial, peaceful world when one of the characters
builds a teleportation device that goes wrong and instead of sending you across the room; it sends you through
time, which is actually accidentally what happens to one of the main characters! The main characters have to
travel through time to save this character and then fix any disturbances that they create through their time-travel
meddling. A key mechanic that keeps people playing the game and coming back is the rich writing of the game. The
game has a deep mythology to it and every plot point reveals more and more about the grand scale of the game
and where your characters fall on it. This mechanic is accomplished through unavoidable, scripted dialogue
exchanges between characters usually after your characters defeat a boss, thus moving the plot forward. Minor,
but also interesting dialogue can be found through interacting with characters that are unrelated to your main
quest, which leads to the second game mechanic worth noting which is travelling through the games over world.
Your characters can explore the towns, countries or worlds that they visit and interact with the people there.
These seemingly insignificant dialogue exchanges between your characters and the games inhabitants provides a
deeper connection with the game world and keeps you invested in the story and gives more credibility to the
immersion that the game creates.
The last mechanic that this game uses, which is actually their main gameplay mechanic, is how they
handle battles. This game is an RPG so it doesnt employ a hack & slash style or act like a puzzle game or like a
shooter. Instead, they continue the age old RPG tradition of turn-based combat. Unlike previous games that had
done this, this game did something unique. Enemies are visible on the screen roaming the dungeons of the game.
If you are able to run past an enemy without them spotting you then you effectively skip that enemy. Doing this
creates a dynamic with wanting to either fight the enemies you see or running away. Fighting them would net you
experience, items, and money while not fighting them would save you time getting past the dungeon. When you
do fight an enemy, the screen does not change and go to a battle screen like other RPGs do. Here, the battle is
fought on the game screen and your characters engage in battle mode and you are able to use their special
abilities and items.
The dynamics created playing Chrono Trigger give the game that fun factor that is so vague in describing
games. Exploring the world, reading the fantastic dialogue, and navigating through dungeons however you like
creates an atmosphere for a long and adventurous game that, similar to its story, is timeless.

Character Sheet, Terms and Mechanics

-Brief summary of involvement in story and physical appearance-

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Cadan Strom:
The prince and heir to the throne of Vainglory. He carries the weight of many others on his
shoulders because of him being the Remluon child as well as bearer of a legendary item known as the
Invincible. He has messy brown hair that spikes out naturally on the sides and emerald green eyes. His
face is very soft and not as rough as many other males. A teal-green jacket with white undershirt and
battle pants are his garments originally but in the later installments he wears a dark blue cloak with

extravagant teal-green under armor. His sword is the first and last of its kind; a blade made from the
Necron crystal.

Ramoth Strom:
The King of Vainglory. A very good man liked and respected by many. He originally came from
Faldagard and fell in love with the Queen of Vainglory thus he is not of true Strom blood. He is shrouded
in a mystery that only time can answer, for he was murdered yet is somehow alive; once wielder of the
legendary item Mourn, and had an eye for what was to come to equal Void. He has short messy black
hair, brown eyes and an olive green cloak with an official Vainglory armor set underneath emitting a
white tinge. In the later installments he has longer hair and sports a black coat with matching black
boots, shirt, and leggings. After his loss of the Mourn blade he took up a twin to Cadans own Necronmade sword.

Michela Strom:
Wife of Ramoth and mother of Cadan. She was killed the night Cadan was born by an intruder
and since then has left both Ramoth and Cadan with a new sense of justice. She may have influenced
another man tooShe has long brown hair and is very petite and her blue eyes, nose and jaw form a cute
mouse-like figure.

Thea Codreanu:
Cadans love interest during youth and later his wife who dies under mysterious circumstances.
Her death is what could have reignited Cadan to return to the journey he set out on. She has bushy
blonde hair with a good physique usually wearing short shorts and a t-shirt with vest which houses her
knives.

Melfice/Rex Regis Peverell:

Leader of the people of Portus Caelus before its demise. He was also a Remulon Child and saw
visions of the future that led him to create a list of names of future Remulon Childs ending on one
named, Cadan Strom. Rex Regis was the name of his famous set of armor with emerald lined dark gray
plates over black garments. He is a bald man with a very stern face who wields two large fist weapons.

Lloyd Insontis:
Lloyd is a peculiar man caught up in the events that take place. Not much is known about him
but he did say he was a protector of the Remulon Child, but a protector from whom? Lloyd wears a thin
black tunic with silver designs on it and matching black pants, boots and gloves. He also has a silver belt
which holsters his very strange sword that looks like its a piece of a destroyed metal. Lloyd has a light
face with blue eyes and messy silver hair.

Vossler Reyes:
Vossler is the General of the Vanguard and has a close yet love-hate relationship with both
Cadan and Ramoth. He continues to pursue this closure nonetheless. He wears a dark blue cloak with an
official Vanglory armor set underneath that has a blue tinge. Vossler has short brown hair and eyes that
connects with his small beard and mustache, which makes him look very intimidating. He has a gigantic
sword that he can never sheathe due to its shear mass and size of 6ft.

Elvira Peverell:
A woman who is a fugitive in Vainglory yet remains there. She assists Cadan in his travels and
they seem to develop a relationship, which is a suddenly broken by Cadan attempting to kill her!

However, she continues to search for him; for answers. Elvira has silky neck length brown hair and a pale
face. She has an entire battle outfit created just for her special ability which consists of black plate
gloves, boots and shoulder pads with small spikes extruding from them all with red linings and a black
leather chest. Her armor also has a design of red circles on all the pieces which glow brighter when she
uses her abilities. She sports two light and small twin swords. Malak is her father.

Belisaurius:
The top lieutenant of Malaks in Hazzard. He was a true fighter and leader for the organization. He
appears to assist Avalon as well. Belisaurius has combed black hair to attempt to hide his balding head
and a goatee. He wears an indigo coat and uses a pinwheel with a katana as his weapon choice.

Emelious Peverell:
A boy who apparently has landed himself as a pawn in a giant chess match oblivious to himself.
He is the wielder of the Mourn blade years after Malak or Elvira. On his 17th birthday everything changes
for him and constant attacks and harassment come his way. He is a fine soldier in Avalon and he might
be the one to end the war once and for allEmelious has golden brown hair that spikes out naturally and
over his forehead nearly touching his hazel eyes. He is clad in white armor mixed with leather garments.

Emil Orban The Crusader Peverell:

Known as Orban by most but eventually called The Crusader for being the unofficial leader of
Avalon. He only sends and receives order but never makes an appearance at the bases. He fears his life
may be in jeopardy should he leave the safety of his home, wherever that may be. He commands Daravis
and his three lesser forms somehow without being the wielder of the Mourn blade. He has short brown
hair that naturally points up but he wears a horn plated helmet over it, nearly covering his hazel eyes,
with an impressive plate outfit with skull designs and spiked shoulders with red gems. However, most
impressive of all is his weapon, Tenblade, which is a long pole arm that is said to have ten uses for
combat. He is the son of Malak.

Elodie Strom:
She is the princess of Vainglory and daughter of Cadan but some know her as the Informant to Avalon.
She betrayed her father after suspecting him of the murder of her mother, Thea. Now she fights in
Avalon to defeat her father and rule the kingdom the way it should be. She has neck length blonde hair
put back in a pony tail and sharp piercing blue eyes. Her weapon of choice is a spear.

Craven Clausen:
WYATT:
Maxx Bleys:
Croyles:
Matisco:
Ornlu:
Cadeyrn:
Vectis:
Daravis:
Mace:
Tiberius Skye:

Giltia Erizal:
Elphias Erizal:
Lara Peverell:
Ariel Insontis:
Ravennox Delnarius:
A champion High Rhon who fought alongside Prince Malfazar. Betrayed by his own friend, he
now seeks to find out who he once was due to his memory loss. He spent the last months trying to
escape the Carnath Prison which he was sent to. With the help of others he made it out but at the cost of
his own mind and bodyAs an Uldra he has a soft patch of blonde hair and the typical very muscular
arms and common less than average human height, but as a Rhon he has a shoulder length blonde hair.
His choice of weapon is magic, which he uses a staff to channel through.

Vorkemis Selma:
Another champion High Rhon who fought alongside Prince Malfazar, however, met the terrible
fate of death from a deadly elixir, only to return as a Vurtne. Being one of the lucky Vurtnes, he has
retained his state of mind therefore still being alive. He seeks to find his son and vengeance on the man
who he called friend for betraying him like this. He wears a facemask and has a set of spiked shoulder
pads with torn leather garments that support his twin daggers.

Ahune Glacies:
A master of spiritual communion at the Vale of Trials who assists Ravennox. He is of the Tera
Neja and wears a beige robe and holds a walking rod.

Warchief Zulkin Ghorkk:

Warchief of the Dane and becomes a good friend of Ravennox. He is also of the Tera Neja and is
seen with black curved shoulder pads with a battle harness and leg plates and a large axe on his back.

Rastlin Rec:
A veteran High Rhon fighter for Prince Malfazar. He also fought with Ravennox and Vorkemis in
many battles. Unfortunately, an unknown source foretold of his two former friends plotting against his
master, Malfazar, therefore Rastlin told Malfazar about what he heard and so the two champions were
secretly eliminated. But Rastlin has seen what terror he has done by sending Ravennox and Vorkemis
awayHe wears a matching set of armor that is a very dark shade of red which has lighter red linings on
this heavy plated armor. He wears his dark orange hair in a pony tail and has a goatee. He wields a
majestic, long bladed sword.

Malfazar Arizon:

The Prince of the High Rhoni of Kalice. With the destruction of the Dimidium, the High Rhoni
have been searching for something to quench their thirst for magic and with Malfazar as their leader his
only choice was to assist Lord Solan for Solan had promised him a new magic source for the High Rhoni
that awaited in the world beyond Kalice; Portus Caelus . Malfazar wears a scarlet robe with yellow
patterns and linings and a dark red cape over it to further enhance his status. He has shoulder length
blonde hair and green eyes. His weapon of choice is his magic which he channels through his many rings.

Solan Dalomere:
Of the Iceglow Sylurion, he committed crimes hundred of years ago under control of the Great
Leviathan, becoming one of its Destroyers. He was defeated and locked away but has since now escaped.
Ready for revenge he seeks to destroy the Great Leviathan once and for all. After the failure at Xadornar,
he sought refuge in the world of Portus Caelus along with Prince Malfazar and Lady Elynth. He has a very
strong build enhanced by his violent blue skin color usually wearing only a kilt and harness on his chest to
support his staff-sword. He has a number of tattoos scattered around his body.

Countess Elynth:
Leader of the Lunaro, she led the first party to find the Rysamant only to end being transformed
into these creatures rejected by everyone else. Now she assists Lord Solan in his quest so as to eventually
venture to Portus Caelus to find last missing piece of the Rysamant, the Crystollus. She looks like a typical
Lunaro except that she is considerably larger than most and carries several pieces of jewelry. Her weapon
is a bow n arrow that can be used as a melee weapon as well with its bladed sides.

Clouded Colossus:
A Destroyer of the Great Leviathan. It destroyed most of eastern Kalice but when the Great
Leviathan lost its grip on it suddenly the dreaded Colossus was now free. Now it only wishes to redeem
itself for all the damage it has causedbut is it somebody we already know? A very heavy looking armor
is worn by it with silver linings around the black coloring.

Atticus/Void Peverell:
A mystical warlock of an untold past. He somehow knows everything that will happen and tries
to set things right by changing history as he sees it in order to better it. He assists other characters for his
own grand scheme. He has a dark purple cloak and a heap of leather under garments, boots, and belts.
He has long graying hair and a very pale face. His choice of weapon is both magic and his scythe.

Faris Erizal:
A warrior who has tried to bring peace to the land she lives in. She will stop at nothing to bring
justice. The daughter of an honorable family that served well in past wars, which became the leader of
the Knightdom of Aurora, called the White West by the inhabitants of Kalice.

Deltiac Skye:

Fariss childhood friend and prince of the Duchy of Syndrath. He became a great fighter and
manipulated those above him so he could rise up to the top on his own eventually. He has short brown
hair slicked back and golden armor with the crest of Syndrath on it.

Mercen Tolles:
Leader of the former Pria Knights that fought under Valens before he became corrupt. Mercen
and his band of knights, now called Nex Solum, had their fair share of crimes during the wars and though
Mercen only does all this to get to Valens, his crimes are still there and he has been charged with death.
Mercen and the rest of Nex Solum follow him to Kalice where Valens has escaped in order to hunt him
down. Mercen wears an army green cape, gray scarf with matching boots and gloves and has short,
messy blonde hair.

Malak/Valens Peverell:
A Destroyer of the Great Leviathan. His past is a mystery that is intertwined with Voids
somehow and pursues Cadan for an unknown reason or purpose. He later became the head Arch Knight
of the realm of Aurora but now the mastermind behind a war stirring the peaceful and magical realm. He
begins his own strange scheme that all the characters get involved in. Faris, Deltiac and Mercen will stop
at nothing to find him and bring justice to him for what he attempted (or succeeded?) to do to Aurora.
He wears a dark purple knights robe with the crest of Portus Caelus on it and matching golden plated
gloves, shoulder pads, boots, and belt. He has naturally parted dark brown hair that shows signs of
graying. His weapon is the Mourn blade.

Napdynis Nap Selma:

A Rhon who is the son of Vorkemis. He has been looking for his father ever since he learned that
he disappeared. He was trained under Rastlin because of the guilt Rastlin felt after his betrayal, though
Rastlin knew where Vorkemis was and what he wasNap has short spiked blonde hair and wears an
average travelling outfit consisting of leather garments.

Skanon Paquier:
A Vurtne and a former great engineer of Malfazars that Ravennox and Vorkemis met while in
the Carnath Prison. He has travelled a great road in his life and seeks retribution for being betrayed by
Malfazar. He taught Ravennox all that he remembers before his memory loss about engineering. He
wears a dark blue robe and uses a staff as a weapon.

Betwol Drakkosh:
A young Uldra kid that Ravennox saved. He became like a little brother to Ravennox over awhile
and so he learned all that he could from him. He has black hair and a budding beard and wears a leather
battle harness with double hatchets on his sides.

TOP

Continents:

-Maev-

-Aurora-

-Kalice-

-Portus Caelus-

Realms:

-Vainglory-

-Knightdom of Ash Zephyria-

-Duchy of Syndrath-

-Federation of Tavrobel-

Crystal Technology:

-Necron-

-Dimidium-

-Rysmant-

-Crystollus-

Magic:

Aurora Government:

Avalon:

Overall Story Explanation:

Soul:

-Fusion-

-Possession-

-Passing-

-Release-

Powers of the Entities:

-Invincible pendant-

-Leviathan ring-

-Mourn blade-

-Pendragon trinket-

-Architekt-

The World of Kalice (Villains of Honor Pt. II)

TOP

Ravennox:

A champion High Rhon who fought alongside Prince Malfazar. Betrayed by his own friend, he now seeks
to find out who he once was due to his memory loss. He spent the last months trying to escape the
Carnath Prison which he was sent to. With the help of others he made it out but at the cost of his own
mind and body

Vorkemis:

Another champion High Rhon who fought alongside Prince Malfazar, however, met the terrible fate of
death, only to return as a creature of the undead. Being one of the lucky Forgotten, he has retained his
state of mind therefore still being alive. He seeks to find his son and vengeance on the man who he
called friend for betraying him like this.

Ahune:

Ravennoxs Shaman master at the Vale of Trials.

Warchief Zulkin:

Warchief of the Dane and becomes a good friend of Ravennoxs.

Rastlin:

A veteran High Rhon fighter for Prince Malfazar. He also fought with Ravennox and Vorkemis in many
battles. Unfortunately he saw a vision of his two former friends plotting against his master, Malfazar,
therefore told him about what he was and so the two champions were secretly eliminated. But Rastlin
has seen what terror he has done by sending Ravennox and Vorkemis away.

Malfazar:

The Prince of the High Rhoni of Kalice. With the destruction of the Dimidium, the High Rhoni have been
searching for something to quench their thirst for magic and with Malfazar as their leader his only
choice was to assist Lord Solan for Solan had promised him a new magic source for the High Rhoni that
awaited in the world beyond Kalice; Portus Caelus .

Solan:

Of the Iceglow Sylurion, he committed crimes hundred of years ago under control of the Great
Leviathan, being one of the first of its Destroyers. He was defeated and locked away but has since now
escaped. Ready for revenge he seeks to destroy the Great Leviathan once and for all. After the failure at
Xadornar, he sought refuge in the world of Portus Caelus along with Prince Malfazar and Lady Elynth.

Elynth:

Leader of the Lunaro, she led the first party to find the Rysamant only to end being transformed into
these creatures rejected by everyone else. Now she assists Lord Solan in his quest so as to eventually
venture to Portus Caelus to find last missing piece of the Rysamant, the Crystollus.

Lloyd aka The Black Monster

Another Destroyer of the Great Leviathan. He destroyed most of eastern Kalice but when the Great
Leviathan lost its grip on most of its subjects Lloyd became free. Now he only wishes to redeem himself
for all he has done to this world.

Void:

A mystical warlock of an untold past. He knows all and sees all. He somehow knows everything that will
happen and tries to set things right by changing history in order to better it. He assists other characters
for his own grand scheme.

Faris:

A warrior who has tried to bring peace to the land she lives in. She will stop at nothing to bring justice.
The daughter of an honorable family that served well in past wars. She lives in Aurora, called the White
West by the inhabitants of Kalice.

Deltiac:

Fariss childhood friend and prince of Zelanokar. He became a great fighter and manipulated those
above him so he could rise up to the top on his own.

Mercen:

Leader of the former Shrine knights that fought under Valens before he became corrupt. Mercen and his
band of knights, now called Nex Solum, had their fair share of crimes during the wars and though
Mercen only does all this to get to Valens, his crimes are still there and he is charged with death. Mercen
and the rest of Nex Solum follow him to Kalice where Valens has escaped in order to hunt him down.

Valens:

The last Destroyer of the Great Leviathan. Once the head Arch Knight of the realm but now the
mastermine behind a war stirring the peaceful and magical realm of Aurora. He begins his own strange
scheme that all the characters get involved in. Faris, Deltiac and Mercen will stop at nothing to find him
and bring justice to him for what he attempted to do to Aurora, however.

Napdynis Nap:

Son of Vorkemis, has been looking for his father ever since he learned that he disappeared. Was trained
under Rastlin because of the guilt he felt, though Rastlin knew where Vorkemis was and what he was.

Skanon:

A great enginneer that Ravennox and Vorkemis met while in the Carnath Prison. Has travelled a great
road in his life and seeks retribution for being betrayed by Malfazar. He taught Ravennox all that he
remembers after his memory loss.

Betwol:
A lone orc boy that Ravennox saved. He became like a son to Ravennox over awhile and so he learned
all that he could from him.
Great Leviathan:

An unknown creature residing at Xadornar, in the cold north. It was once entombed in the Rysamant
which originally resided in the Queendom of Relm on Portus Caelus . The people of Relm tampered with
the power of the Rysamant releasing the Great Leviathan and causing the destruction of their
civilization. Somehow the Great Leviathan was sealed in the newly formed land mass of Xadornar,
created by some remains of Portus Caelus , and could only reach out to certain powerful individuals and
control them to do its bidding to ultimately release itself once again.

History of the Sylurion, Lunaro and High Rhoni:

The Iceglow Sylurion hail from western Kalice in Zaccaro. These people are magically gifted with nature
and the spirits and they heard word of a powerful magical substance somewhere in what is now The
Nexus, in central Kalice. Going there they discovered the Rysamant, and by getting to close to it drew its
powers. It turned the Rhoni magical properties against them creating despicable creatures. They were
called the Lunaro and were shunned by the rest of the Sylurion. Seeking revenge on the Rysamant and
the Sylurion, the Lunaro attacked the place where the Rysamant was but strangely it reacted and
imploded destroying itself forever. Only 2 pieces of the Rysamant managed to break off before the
implosion and were blasted thousands of miles away. One was called the Dimidium and it landed in
northeastern Kalice at present day Lindlum. The other piece, only known as the Crystollus, was said to
have traveled to the floating continent of Portus Caelus . The Lunaro, defeated, retreated into the sea
plotting what they would do in future years. Many of the Sylurion traveled to where the Dimidium was
said to have crashed and there a city was built. Over the years the Sylurion at Lindlum changed in
appearance due to the exposure of the Dimidium. They became light skinned and developed many
colorful hairstyles. These were called the High Rhoni over the next millennia.

The Forgotten & the Undead Invasion:

With Lloyd as a Destroyer under the Great Leviathans control, he killed thousands of people in eastern
Kalice. All of their life essence was reborn as minions of the Great Leviathan. Because of all the power
the Leviathan put into Lloyd to make him take the form of the Black Monster, it had a power surge
and briefly lost control of Lloyd and thousands of the Leviathans minions (called Vurtnes). The Vurtnes
that were suddenly in control of themselves became known as the Forgotten.

The Unity:

Created after the destruction of most of eastern Kalice consisting of the Iceglow Sylurion, humes, and
Ingeper. They joined together to battle against the forces of the remaining Vurtnes and the humes long
time enemy, the orcs. They are currently leaderless because of their recent kings death fighting against
the Black Monster.

The Dane:

A faction of those considered barbarians by the Unity consisting of Orcs, High Rhoni, Goblins, and the
Forgotten. Lead by Warchief Zulkin.

Storyline Outline:

Ravennox at the Vale of Trials. Find out about his memory loss. (he is an orc)
Fights with Master Ahune to defend the valley.
He sends him to Danokar to deliver a letter to Zulkin.
On the way he gets begged to find a missing boy, Betwol.
He finds Betwol in Toiskar Ridge and saves him.
Later Betwol escorts him to Danokar.
Ravennox meets Zulkin and he gives him a mission to go to Vorph Foothills.
Accompanying him will be Huin, Glacia and Trokas.
They make their way there talking about things such as the lands to the West and begin the fight
the moment they arrive.
Betwol makes an unexpected appearance so Ravennox saves him again.
They overtake the fortress and claim Vorph Foothills.
Zulkin praises them and even Betwol.
Suddenly a veiled man walks in the room, unnoticed by the guards and warns them of the
troubles to west, in Ghrunth Mountains.
Zulkin takes the veiled strangers warning and sends the party to Ghrunth Mountains, on the
western continent; because he has a base there he has not heard word of for a long time.
On their way to the port city, Ravennox recognizes a boy training. It is revealed the boys name
is Napdynis. Ravennox cant figure out though how he recognizes him so the boys master asks
them to leave them. Before they leave the boy tells Ravennox he might have known his dad
whom he is looking for.
Ravennox and co take the ship to the western continent and set off northwards to the snowy
peaks of Ghrunth Mountains.

They arrive only to see a barrage of destruction yet no dead bodies.

A resistance force captures them and it is revealed they are the last survivors here of the Dane
base.
Jinkor, the leader, tells of undead creatures being their enemy.
The undead come and so the squad goes to attack them.
Ravennox has a moment of engineering genius and creates a contraption to be used to close
the mountain pass by means of an avalanche.
Huin charges to the pass to fight off the undead as Glacia remains in the tower to cover the
others. Trokas and Ravennox head in separate ways to place the device. Trokas is killed but
places the device before falling. Ravennox places it and runs towards the pass as the tower is
seen to be overrun with the undead.
He leaps to the pass and Huin catches him and there they meet the supposed leader of these
undead, the Black Monster or Nightmare.
They fight it ending in Huins death and the creature suddenly has a breakdown and runs away.
All the surrounding undead suddenly are human-like instead of savage as before.
Ravennox carries Huin to Glacia who is now undead and chooses to remain there to lead these
lost people.
Ravennox heads back with Huins body to the port but faces the challenge of carrying Huin,
which is when Betwol appears in a flying machine with Master Engineer Skanon.
Ravennox asks how Skanon can be an undead as well and he brings up Malfazar and his
experiments about curing his people of their magic addiction. He mentions Malfazar resides in
Portus Caelus at the moment.
This sparks more memories for Ravennox. He heads back to Danokar to report and Zulkin gives
him the Ankh of Life.
Ravennox makes his way to the skystation which will lead him to Portus Caelus and to more
answers.
Begin Aurora storyline
Introduce Faris, Deltiac and Mercen.
Show the war happening with the battle at Tavrobel first, then Faris and Deltiac infiltrating the
enemy camp, then fleeing through the mountains, finding the Crystal Tower, then arriving in
Rubedo for information, then fighting back for Tavrobel at the Gates of Ciel Aut and finally
reclaiming it, then going through the sewers to reach Zelanokar and face off with Valens who
will take the crystal Faris has and will then flee.
Mercen is taken by officals and sentenced to be beheaded. Faris and Deltiac have a subtle
arrangement to save Mercen and it works. They arrive at the Crystal Tower and see the portal
made by Valens.
Mercen goes in pursuit first
Faris and Deltiac say they will come shortly after
Begin Lloyd and Void story
They meet with Mercen and they save Tempesaero from an attack by Valens.
Eventually Lloyd becomes an unofficial leader to Tempesaero. Void attempts to convince him to
pursue Valens to Portus Caelus .
Lloyd refuses so we see Void tells Valens to attack the city which he does and ends up with
Mercens death. Fortunately he is revived, but as a Forgotten.
This sparks Lloyd so he pursues.
Mercen covers himself up with cloth to hide his appearance and takes over ruling.

Meanwhile in Portus Caelus , Ravennox will meet Vorkemis and they both seek to kill Malfazar
after Ravennox has his flashback.
Begin flashback story with what happened to Ravennox and Vorkemis.
Starts out with Ravennox, Vorkemis, Malfazar, and Rastlin holding a base to try to battle the
Vurtnes.
They are surrounded on 3 sides by the undead armies and flee south to a safe base but
Vorkemis stays behind to defend the village, which is his home, and supposedly dies.
When they reach their base they meet Lady Elynth who asks if she can help Malfazar
Although hesitant at first, he agrees.
Together they all fight and learn about problems in the undead base. Machines breaking and
explosions. This can only be Vorkemis doing
So they ready an attack on the undead base.
They are victorious and are reunited with Vorkemis.
Elynth tells Malfazar that her master could help him get what he wants; a cure for the High
Rhoni magic addiction.
Malfazar gives in and is taken to Lord Solan who needs his help in taking down the Great
Leviathan at Xadornar.
The 3 leaders, accompanied by Ravennox and Vorkemis, attack Xadornar, but the Champion of
the Leviathan appears and fights them all. It leaves Solan for dead and leaves.
The 3 leaders and co flee to Portus Caelus to avoid the Great Leviathans wrath.
On Portus Caelus Malfazar begins experiments with Portus Caelus energies to make a
concoction that can cure them. Many failed experiments were sent away
Rastlin then has a vision supposedly of Ravennox and Vorkemis fighting against Malfazar so he
immediately tells his master of this vision.
Malfazar begins plans to solve this. A scene is shown where he hands a parchment to a mage
named Axi who is to capture Ravennox.
Malfazar, going somewhat mad at this point, orders Ravennox to deliver a message in Western
Kalice. And he sends Vorkemis to look into something that may be brewing in his old hometown.
They both go to these separate spots and are ambushed. Ravennox is struck by Axi and taken
by Carnaths into the mountain prison.
Vorkemis is ambushed by Rastlin who feeds him one of Malfazars elixirs to combat their
addiction but it only begins to transform Vorkemis into something vile. He too is transported to
the mountain prison a continent away.
Go through the resistance storyline
Escape and have Ravennox be struck by a powerful spell turning him into an orc and losing his
memory. He ends up getting blasted near Vale of Trials.
End flashback
They rally an attack on Malfazars castle, Pandemonium with the aid of Lloyd.
In the end Malfazar dies. They face off against Rastlin, but he flees after. Malfazar left a
Verdant Sphere and a vial filled with the essence of the Dimidium.
Ravennox and Vorkemis show the Verdant Sphere dropped by Malfazar to Zulkin and he tells
them what this object is used for.
They find out Malfazar still lives.
Only Lord Solan and Lady Elynth hold the key to finding Malfazar (which in turn will lead Lloyd to
Valens he believes.)
They all begin an attack on Lady Elynths lair and she is defeated and drops a vial filled with the
essence of the Dimidium just like Malfazar did.

They assault Solans Aether Castrum.

Lloyd meets his secret agent there, Varedis, who joins in.
Lloyd meets Valens here alone and they talk. Valens hints about the reenergizing of the
Dimidium and leaves
They kill Solan but before he dies he gives Lloyd an item which combined with the Verdant will
defeat Malfazar by absorbing his power.
Lloyd builds an army from whats left of Malfazars, Elynths and Solans forces on Portus Caelus .
Eventually the battle begins in Lindlum at the remains of the Dimidium. Mercen arrives with
reinforcement. Faris and Deltiac also arrive.
They battle against Valens but he enters the Dimidium Dome for safety.
Betwol and Skanon take charge of the battle happening on the outside.
Ravennox, Vorkemis, Napdynis and Rastlin (who reveals here what he originally foresaw) face
off against Malfazar
Lloyd, Void, Mercen, Faris, Deltiac and Varedis face off against Valens and the power of the
partially recharged Dimidium.
Malfazar is defeated but makes one last blow to Vorkemis who gets badly injured as Ravennox
and co make their way down to get to Valens.
As Ravennox sees Vorkemis get up and come down he is stabbed by an unknown assailant.
Vorkemis dies and Ravennox goes to fight Valens with the rest.
Eventually Valens is defeated.
He reveals to Ravennox that he taught the spell to the overseer mage at the prison
He wishes to release Ravennox of his curse and so he does but at the same time switches their
bodies.
Valens, in Ravennoxs returned elvaan body kills Ravennox in Valenss old body.
They leave but the ankh of life reacts and Ravennox awakens.
Void and Valens (in Ravennoxs body) have a talk about the plan and what to do with Lloyd.
Void says he will take care of it
Lloyd is sealed in a chamber far beneath Aether Castrum leaving Ravennox (Valens) in charge
The battle against the Great Leviathan starts up.
The real Ravennox gathers his old friends who believe it is really him and assault Aether
Castrum and eventually reach Valens
At the same time Void heads to Xadornar to fight the Great Leviathan.
Information about Void is revealed. (Begin semi flashback about Portus Caelus in Voids
perspective this time [same flashback from Part 1] )
Meanwhile as they fight Valens he reveals his plan to them.
About using the Dimidium and the Mini-Rysamant to channel the Crystolluss power through
Portus Caelus and destroy the Great Leviathan forever
They defeat Valens but he reveals that the spell has already been channeled and is making Lloyd
immobile in the bottom chamber.
They free Lloyd and Valens forces them to fight the Leviathan while he continues to channel the
spell. Valens recasts the body switching spell and conjures a portal.
Meanwhile the Unity and the Danes arrive at Xadornar to help fight the creations that the
leviathan spewed.
The heroes are teleported to Void and fight with him. The Danes are wiped out and Mercen
becomes weak.
Portus Caelus comes crashing down upon the Leviathan.

Void shields everyone killing himself supposedly

Valens dies along with the rest of Portus Caelus and Mercen dies with Valenss spell coming to
an end.
Our heroes get transported to safety on the mainland.
Ravennox, Betwol, Skanon, and Lloyd watch Portus Caelus destroy Xadornar.
Suddenly Ravennox has been stabbed and falls to the floor. A narration by Ravennox shows
that he was meant to be the next Destroyer like Solan, Void, and Lloyd.
The very last scene shows a man walking away in the snow with a blood-stained sword, a
gunblade and is shown to be Cadan.

Valenss plan analysis:

Void engages Valens in a plan to destroy the Leviathan. It starts that Valens needs to supply both sides
of the initial civil war in Aurora and crash the economy. After this the two regions will be united in
Aurora for stability and then present day he gathers an army from the once warring region with Aurora,
Zelanokar by manipulating their King. Once the army was raised he would attack and as Void told him,
the one with the Mini-Rysamant will show themselves, who is Faris. After taking the item from Faris he
opens a portal at generated by the now fixed Crystal Tower and arrives in Kalice. Void begins his part by
making Lloyd a power to be reckoned with for the Unity. But Lloyd refuses to pursue Valens to Portus
Caelus so Void plots with Valens a big attack on Tempesaero and Mercen is killed. Though revived, Lloyd
is enraged and follows. Void and Valens know that now fate will intervene in the form of Ravennox and
Vorkemis and guide Lloyd to supremacy of all of Portus Caelus. Once Lloyd becomes a great commander
and Ravennox an important figure as well, Valens executes his plan to use the vials of the Dimidium
brought from Portus Caelus to reenergize the Dimidium in Lindlum. As planned all the characters arrive
to stop Valens but he only needed Ravennox to come. Knowing that he could not get close to Portus
Caelus ever again at the place he was now and situation he was in Valens performed a spell to switch
bodies with Ravennox and killed him on the spot. The battle was over and Valens was free but he was
not in control of Portus Caelus, which he needed to be. So Void took care of Lloyd by sealing him up
inside Aether Castrum. With Lloyds public death, Ravennox was happily pronounced the new leader.
With his new status he began the final stage of his plan which was to use his new power of the Dimidium
and the power of the Crystollus on Portus Caelus to channel it through Portus Caelus and charge it
straight to Xadornar. The Mini-Rysamant was essential because it held a supreme amount of power to
make sure the exposure from channeling didnt kill Valens. The channeling continues as the real
Ravennox and co arrive to stop Valens. He reveals the truth and then releases Lloyd for he unknowns
reasons and opens a portal to Xadornar. He tells them that the Great Leviathan cannot be allowed to
send any of its remaining minions to this place so he needs them to attack the creature in time for the
spell to finish. Valens, weak and dying, finishes the spell and Portus Caelus destroys Xadornar and the
Great Leviathan for good.

Villains of Honor Pt. III

TOP

Characters/Terms:
Note: Maxx Bleys & Captain Croyles, Matisco, Cadeyrn, Vectis, Lucco

Vosslers Flashbacks:

Meeting with Skanon

Overhearing conversation bewtween Void and Ramoth (also revealing the origin of Void
name)

Him and Ramoth fighting and then Vossler saving Ramoths life as they defend Prince
Deltiac.

Being told by Elvira to save Queen Elodie and the entire story of what really happened
that night.
Storyline Basics:

Begins with the telling of the story of the 4 Entitys

Then goes right where Part 2 left off at the beach event after the Leviathan gets
destroyed.

Elvira, Lloyd, Ravennox, and Void head to the Vainspire to the Maev continent.

There Elvira sees the crystal operating to the Aurora continent is working again and we
see a flashback to when she and Cadan were here several years ago and Cadan betrayed
her and fought her. In the end Elvira was cast into the Aurora side of the transporter
while Cadan remained in Kalice. (revealing how the crystal in Aurora was destroyed in
Part 2)

End Flashback and they go through the portal.

17 years later

Shows Bloodbane telling the riders to go.

Switch to Emelious in the tunnels of Vainglory training when he is greeted by the 3

riders who he has never met. (Var, Edd and Isa)

They tell him to not stray off his path and never question the will of Bloodbane.

They then disappear and Emelious is found by some guards who chase him.

He runs out of the tunnels and into the streets and is saved by Lloyd and Ravennox.

Ravennox tells Emelious they have an assignment at the Omegaspire thanks to

information supplied by the Informant who Emelious expresses hatred to.

They make their way there and meet up with a team in order to get inside and add
another relay point.

Part of the team that helps them are Bleys and Croyles.

They succeed and make their way back to HQ.

At HQ Boss Mace tells them the crucial missions they just performed, under Bloodbanes
direct order, at Omegaspire & Ultimaspire, were successful.

Emelious asks why they risked their necks and gets told to know his place.

Speaking of which, Mace tells him that his little stunt earlier in the tunnels almost cost
them the operation being known, but thanks to the Informant it was cleared up.

Emelious once again shows annoyance to this Informant.

Mace reveals to him that the Informant has come under high suspicion and will need to
be rescued immediately and since Emelious has such a lovely relationship with them, he
should be on the rescue team.

So Emelious, Lloyd, Ravennox and the rest of the team head to the airship which will
take them to the Castle.

Mace comes onboard and goes through the plan: Using a hijacked theatre ship they will
perform a play called Your Own Bluebell which docks right in Vainglorys courtyard
where King Cadan himself will be attending as well as his daughter Elodie. The team will
slip into the castle and look for the Informant and get them out of there and onto the
ship which will then leave without any problems hopefully.

They set off and enter Vainglory Castle where they are checked thoroughly and let
through.

Cadan is seen in a high seat but his daughter is not near him, but you can see Vossler.

Emelious, Lloyd and Ravennox sneak into the castle as the production begins and look
for the Informant in the castle lobby. A hooded person is seen behind a corner and they
meet the Informant.

They make ready to head back to the ship but are stopped byElvira who talks to
Emelious about his AWOL father and mothers early death.

This enrages Emelious and he fights Elvira

Suddenly Vossler comes into the picture and stops the fight. He is about to fight the
crew when Elvira attacks him. The rest run away.

They flee onto the ship but Cadan seems to have known something was up and orders
the ship be shot down. Emelious and co. get on the walkway quickly as it closes. Vossler
runs out shortly after and heads to one of the chains attached to the ship and clings on.

The ship starts its engines and takes off slowly but Cadan pursues on foot only to be met
by Lloyd who was held back. They fight as they race towards the ship before its gone for
good.

The ship gets to the castle walls eventually and Lloyd and Cadan dash up the tower and
run along the wall and Lloyd jumps and makes it and then Cadan does but is struck hard
by a spear in mid-air from the Informant and falls back on the wall.

Vossler is shown climbing up and eventually safely onto the deck.

Vossler asks if Elodie is alright and Emelious realizes the Informant is none other than
the daughter of their enemy, Cadan.

Elodie and Emelious are left alone and she asks him what Elvira meant by his words to
Emelious. Emelious says his father and mother are gone he fights in this rebellion
because he was told this is what they wanted and he always wanted to know more
about them. He asks why Elodie has betrayed her family like this but before she can
start Emelious sword begins to glow and there is a flash and Emelious falls to the floor.

17 years ago

Elvira, Lloyd, Void and Ravennox are in the countryside of Vainglory in a town discussing
where Cadan might be now and what hes up to.

A local child named Craven tells them that Cadan came not that long ago and was
headed to the city. Most likely to claim his seat as King of Vainglory.

They all agree that would not be good seeing as he has some awful agenda planned
based on his recent actions.

They need to warn the current head of Vainglory, General Vossler, of Cadans
inadequacy. Void says he knows someone who can help.

They all goes off into the woods.

They arrive in a village here and Void tells them to wait.

He knocks on a door and we see Ramoth come forth. Void tells him to warn Vossler that
he is coming and to act accordingly.

17 years later

Emelious wakes up on the cabin floor seeing the ship is going down.

He gets up prepares as they crash into the woods on the far outskirts of the city.

He makes his way outside to see his team is mostly alright but Elodie is missing.
Together(him, Lloyd, Ravennox and Vossler) go into the woods to find her.

Vossler receives the medicine necessary to heal anyone taken by this forest.

She is eventually found in one of the trees hands. As a sort of toy.

When they take her from it, it enrages and the whole forest seems to react and so they
run.

As they escape the woods it comes even more alive to kill them and Vossler is shown
being taken by the woods.

He throws them the medicine he was given before being consumed by darkness.

Emelious, Lloyd, Ravennox, and Elodie head to the Gaping Chasm as a means of
avoiding the main path to their destination, the Border Town of Corduba.

At the end of the cavern all the members hear a loud ringing and fall asleep except for
Emelious who sees his sword glow again and goes into the past once again.

17 years ago

Elvira and co are surrounded by Vosser inside the city. Vossler tells Elvira that if he ever
saw her again he did say he would take her down.

Flashback even further (27 years ago) to show what exactly Elvira did.

Shows Orban from Part 1 crying at the dead body of the General previous to Vossler. He
is holding Xorn.

Orban sees Elvira and tells her he was paid a lot of money by some man to get this
sword but he cant go through with it.

So Elvira tells him she will take the blame and runs.

She is pursued eventually and then captured.

As she is being taken to the prison she is saved by Malak, her father.

Malak talks with her and tells her to warn Vossler about something terrible happening
tonight and afterwards she should seeks aid with someone named Skanon, a great
engineer who was in town.

Flashback back to Elvira and Vossler.

Cadan is shown watching nearby.

Ravennox manages to fight some of the elite guards off and rushes towards Cadan who
disappears into the tunnels. Void pursuits as he sees Lloyd trying to fight off the guards.

17 years later

Vossler is outside the forest having been saved by Craven from before, now all grown up

They travel together an alternate route to Corduba, but are met with resistance by
Wyatt.

He attacks them and gives Vossler a message before knocking him out.

Craven escapes and heads to the Gaping Chasm exit but Wyatt catches up and they
fight.

Craven hurts Wyatt a bit releasing the loud noise.

Craven runs over to Emelious to wake him up and then runs out of the place.

Emelious awakens and investigates the now light ringing only to see a man named
Wyatt is responsible with his little pet. Emelious fights them and wins and Wyatt runs
away.

Finally they arrive at Corduba where they stowaway on a cargo ship headed to the city
thanks to Bleys and Croyles being there.

They reveal this to be their second mission objective given by their unnamed employer.

On the ship they see mini replicas of what look like Proto. But they are inoperable.

The ship takes off and as they are in the air Wyatt attacks again and they fight.

They beat him and chuck him off the ship but he does not appear to be human and
chases them in the air!

They take manual control of the ship and fly it for the main pass through the mountains
that separate the kingdom from countryside.

They make it through while Wyatt crashes.

They land and make their way at last to Avalons HQ.

Mace is proud of them so he instructs them to head over to see Ornlu, one of the
leaders.

He also mentions the 5 leaders being: Deltiac, Bloodbane, himself, Ornlu and the
Unnamed Seat.

He explains its the position of an old leader who died, whose position was never
filled.

Afterwards they head into the city to make their way to Ornlus section of Avalon.

-placeholder for anything that doesnt fit anywhere else in the story-

After passing the factory they arrive at their destination.

Inside Ornlu greets them and is in fact Ramoth!

Only Lloyd notices this but keeps quiet.

Ramoth tells them that Vossler has been taken prisoner in Aevum Catacombs

He orders them to find and break him out. Ornlu also accompanies them.

Along the way they save Craven from Wyatt and Craven joins them after learning they
are going to save Vossler.

Bloodbane is shown, still atop the same ledge, and he tells the 3 riders to pay them a
visit.

They enter the tunnels shown in the beginning where Emelious was.

In the tunnels they see a massive door which they dont know what for.

The riders appear and fight the party continuously taunting Emelious and picking on
him the most.

Eventually they disappear.

The party breaks into the catacombs and we see them go through it until finally
reaching Vosslers chamber.

Unfortunately Elvira was there waiting for them and fights them. She as well taunts
Emelious and ridicules his parents for leaving being cowards, leaving the war effort.

They must leave the prison before more guards come so they try to run away (from
both guards and Elvira)

Ornlu and Vossler see each other briefly before Ornlu says he needs to find Bleys and
Croyles before leaving and runs off.

Near the end Craven gets caught but for some reason Elvira fights off the guards to
release him.

As they enter the tunnels outside the prison they find their ways blocked and stumble
down some loose passage finally arriving with a thud at the bottom.

Ravennox recognizes this cave and we see a flashback.

17 years ago

Ravennox chases Cadan down the tunnels and into a non-built area.

There he confronts him. Cadan is at a ledge much higher than where Ravennox is
standing.

Cadan uses a spell and Ravennox is knocked out.

At that moment Void shows himself.

He talks to Cadan about this being the only chance he had and they were coming.

Cadan tells him to give it to him then but Void says it will be the last they see each
other.

Void throws the Ring of the Leviathan to the ledge Cadan is on and then he forces the
rocks above to fall on him, thus killing him in time for Ravennox to wake up and see
the tragedy. Void was gone.

Tears can be seen in Cadans eyes as he escapes while guards take hold of Ravennox.

17 years later

The Skullduggery Scheme

TOP

Main characters:
Tristan Rhinn
Alec Abrafo
Elma Rhinn
Sonya Abrafo
Detective Justin Maverick

Outline:

Starts off with showing the kidnapping of Sonya Abrafo

Police tell Alec and Tristan that their daughters have gone missing

Tristan is depressed about it but Alec is crushed and extremely sad.

Tristan and Alec talk about the disappearances and about their companies futures and Alec
shrugs him off

Alec thinks about the last time he saw Sonya and we see them together in a flashback

Justin Maverick is introduced. He is watching a video on a mini laptop that we cannot see but we
can hear. We distinctly hear a woman screaming.

He puts the video away in his bag and enters the office of Alec.

He asks Alec some questions about Sonya and Elma, Tristans daughter.

Switch to Tristan in his office and we see books about medicine booklets about Japan.

Tristan looks at Elmas picture and thinks about her and then looks out of the window of his
office and sees Alec looking back.

Alec is shown harassing the police but they dont have anything that can help him

Justin comes over to Alec and reveals to him that Sonya was coming to see Alec that night but
the security guard for that night was not present. A Japanese man called Hiro. Alec asks Justin
why he was helping him so much and he tells him eventually of how he lost his son and he felt
the need to help.

Alec tracks down Hiro and asks him where he was that night.

Hiro says he was there that night, denying Alecs accusations.

Alec didnt care if Justin lied to him or not but this was his only lead so he pounced on Hiro,
punching him repeatedly.

Hiro finally succumbed to this torture

He told Alec that someone over the phone promised to give his whole village, in Japan called
Imachio, enough money to live a grand life if he did not come to work that night

Full of motivation and hope at last Alec calls for an unscheduled and an off-the-manifest flight to
Japan.

Switch to Tristan who has to deal with his companies problems while Alec leaves his company
unattended. He meets with Alec and convinces him to let him have control over the company
for the time being to set things on track again. Alec hastily agrees and then leaves to catch his
private flight.

Tristan begins takeover preparations and then starts to talk to the board about future plans
including space travel, alternate source of fuel and the economy. (we see the basis of why
Tristan wants to merge the two companies)

One of the men on the board asks: This must be hard on your wife. Tristan replied with: Shes
dead.

A flashback occurs with Tristan and Alec the night Tristans wife died and shows a different side
to him.

Alec arrives in Japan after a long flight and heads to this village Imachio.

Once there he asks around for the family of Hiro

He finally finds them and talks to them about this money that was meant to be sent to them

Their son translates what Alec says to Hiros wife.

The wife says if Alec is with that woman that came by and Alec lies and says he is and hes just
here to make sure everything is OK.

Alec asks if the woman left something to contact her with and the wife gives Alec a phone
number she left but had been told it would be out of service very soon.

Alec thanks them and leaves. Sure enough the number is out of service but it looked like a local
number so he goes to nearby phone stores. They all have no record of this number until he
arrives at one particular store.

This store has the number on record and gives Alec the new number registered after that one
after Alec tells them that his wife changed that number on him and would kill him if he forgot.

He calls the number and a woman picks up with a surprised hello.

He tells her that he is with the family she gave the money to and that there was a major
problem

She asks how he got this number and he says that he had to track it down for they are in
imminent danger.

Confused she agrees to meet with Alec outside of the city.

Alec waits for her and then she arrives

He is greeted by a Mr. Abrafo? from behind him and turns to see the woman is Elma.

Shocked Alec asks what she was doing here.

She asks him the same and he tells her about her being missing

She tells him that its a bit complicated why she was here.

Alec demands the truth and she tells him that her old boyfriend would beat her and she couldnt
go to the police because he had blackmail on her

So her father helped her by changing her name and appearance and flew her here recently to
get away from him.

Alec asked her what the blackmail was but she refused to tell him. He asked if she knew where
Sonya was and she said she didnt.

Im sorry. He says. For what? she replies and he knocks her out with a quick punch.

-This part will be about how he gets her from that knock-out point back to his hotel and then on
the plane back home, also note that he tranquilizes Elma-

Meanwhile Tristan is shown making more plans for the companies. We see a flashback of Tristan
and Alec when they were a bit younger and starting out the companies. They are at Tristans
mansion with their daughters who are little girls at the time. Sonya is shown running up to go to
the Private Tower but Tristan stops her.

Alec arrives back in Chicago.

He takes a still unconscious Elma in a large bag to his mansion.

He takes her to a room upstairs and locks her in.

Looking for guidance he calls Justin.

Justin tells Alec to visit him at his place so Alec does.

Here Justin takes a video out of his bag and gives it to Alec.

We see here what Justin was watching in the beginning of the story.

The scene is described but only at the last line do we see: the bug-eyed face of Tristan Rhinn.

Justin tells Alec to go now and Alec leaves

Alec sees the surveillance video which shows him everything.

He leaves Elma at his house, still tranquilized, and heads over to Tristans mansion.

He breaks in and eventually finds Sonya in the Private Tower that was mentioned earlier in the
story. He unplugs her from the machine she is hooked up with and takes her to his car and
drives back to his home.

Meanwhile Tristan comes home only a few minutes later to see his house trashed and looks at
his own security cameras to see it was Alec.

Tristan pursues Alec to his home. There Alec brings a now sort-of-awake Elma to his living room
leaving Sonya in the car as he retrieved Elma, laying her on the couch making preparations to
bring them to the authorities.

Tristan crashes through the door demanding to know what is going on. He sees Elma and Sonya
and he realized he has been caught.

Alec points the gun at Elma to shoot her.

Tristan makes a speech about what his plan really was. That he was drugging her up slowly at his
home to eventually have her be found somewhere in downtown to make it look like she was
just on a drug spree. And his own daughter could stay in hiding from her crazy boyfriend as long
as she wanted. He then goes on to say why he did this to Alec, which was to gain control of his
company and make the world a better place. As a final plea he tells Alec that Sonya was on a life
support machine that was regulating the amount of the drug going through her blood and now
she was unregulated and would die soon if not admitted to a hospital in the next 30 or so
minutes.

Alec, mind confused and enraged, says, I saved my daughter, you failed yours and pulls the
trigger. Elma falls to the floor with a bullet through her head and Tristan lunges himself at Alec.

They fight for a couple of seconds before a gunshot is heard and Alec falls to the floor, dead.
Justin is standing in the hallway with his gun and looking right at Tristan.

Justin reveals how he knew it from the start and used Alec as a puppet to get to the truth.

The conversation between Tristan and Justin reveals that Tristan had been in debt a couple
years back and these people threatened to kill him and Elma if he didnt get the large amount of
money which he didnt have at that time.

Elma, wanting to save her and her fathers life killed their son to get the life insurance policy to
pay it off.

This made Justin crazy and he tried to kill her but was sent to jail and only now had been
released.

Once Tristan found out he sent Elma away to keep her safe and Justin pretended to be the
detective he once was to find her at last.

Though she was dead in front of him not by his hand, Justin felt justice had been served, but
now needed to serve it to Tristan, the man who sent him to prison, the man who committed this
inhumane crime for his company, and the man who would give back Justins life as a high ranked
Detective.

He was about to pull the trigger when Tristan fought back and they brawled for awhile before it
looked like Justin had the upper hand with Tristan in a tight bear hug from behind and the gun
pointing slowly towards Tristan. Tristan then grabs the gun and pulls the trigger as it reached his
collar bone. The bullet went through him and into Justin killing him as it went into his neck.

The scene goes black. The last scene is a news story playing on TV. The anchorwoman tells how
the police have uncovered Alec to be the true villain and that he had kidnapped the two
daughters and kept them at his house. They connected his strange trip to Japan with the large
sums of money going into the anonymous banking account there as his own instead of Elmas,
saying that it was his getaway place and that his motif was to drain all the money from his

company to live a wonderful life in paradise with billions of dollars. They say that Alec shot Elma
and then Justin who tried to stop Alec. And then he shot Tristan point blank in his collar bone
and as Alec turned to leave Tristan shot him in the back.

The final scene shows Justins car outside of Alecs house and one of the policemen, Hiro, finds
the mini-laptop with the video surveillance on it.

Then the audience can interrupt what happens as they like. Either Hiro will turn over the tape
and Tristan will get convicted for the crimes or he will remember that Tristan was the one who
probably helped his family and that Alec did beat him up badly a few days back and not turn over
the tape.