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▶ BOOK 1: M A K I N G ◦ A N ◦ N P C !
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⊹˚₊·‧Chapter 12: finalFINAL_v03

As the elevator doors opened, Pierrosie found herself on an unfamiliar level. She thought about switching to another, but she had forgotten the ones the Zooble and the Papa had shown her.

It was ok. This one looked similar to what she knew. She knew how to proceed. She knew what to look for.

As she stepped out of the elevator, she saw how the environmental code had changed once again.
The floors of the building were their own submaps. They weren’t directly connected to the other levels and only booted once somebody entered them.

So she had thought she might be safe for now.

That was a miscalculation.
She saw how the world loaded in several new instances and recognized them as the scary persona models.
She didn’t know where exactly they spawned in. But she knew she had to be quick.

Armed with her trusty brightening tool, she ran outside and checked each door for interactive code. A door that consisted only of a texture might look functional on the first glance, but could never open. Unfortunately, every door she found was only decorative.

She eventually reached one that had an actual room behind it — but to her misfortune, the door was broken and already open.
This meant that she could enter it without solving some riddle like how to reach the doorknob or break the locking function — but it also meant that she couldn’t close it behind her.

Just as she wanted to venture further, she saw twitching at the end of the hallway.

They were here.
She had no choice.

Pierrosie stumbled into the apartment. It was empty and decayed, way more than the ones that they had visited earlier. But it would have to do. Maybe she could find another room that she could lock.

She walked in deeper and went for the first door she could find. It was slightly ajar, but this one wasn’t defective. Perfect! She took a peek inside. This room was nice. It felt nice. As if it were waiting for her, maybe even made for her.

She looked back over her shoulder and saw the first shadows flickering outside the entrance of the apartment. Then she had an idea; It was risky, it felt scary, but it would eventually, probably, be the best thing she could do: With shaking fingers, she changed the battery of the brightening tool, resetting the function to 100% - then put it on the ground, facing towards the entrance.

This would prevent the scary things from entering, and it would buy her time.

Then she quickly rushed into the room and pushed her whole body against the door. It wasn’t easy, but she managed to shut it completely.

She scanned the area next to the door; Back in the circus, there was a trigger point on the wall adjacent to the entrance that, when the Mama touched it, changed the brightness level in the whole room.
Maybe…
Yes, there was a similar asset on the wall next to the door!

Pierrosie climbed on a chest next to the door and tried to activate it.

To no avail.
When looking at the code she saw that it had no function.

There was no way to brighten up the room here.

To feel safer, she decided to analyze the room more.

It looked similar to the mindfile space of the Mama. There was a big recharge platform in the middle. Soft floors: carpet, it was called. Image files on the wall, of the horse animal. The Mama liked those. Though the ones in the jpegs had a horn on their head.

Having this familiarity made Pierrosie feel a bit more confident and at ease. She looked further.

There was a closet. A window, which she couldn’t reach, but she understood that she could not leave through this view port because of how high the number of this floor was.
And there was another small room called [generic_bathroom_07]. She didn’t get the concept of it, but it had a functioning door that might be useful.

Maybe she could take a quick standby so that she would be able to compute better afterwards? Hearing something again would be highly beneficial. And processing quicker, too.

She climbed onto the soft recovery surface. It was exhausting. She really was close to her limit.

Once on top, she saw something: A new asset. One with a more delicate mesh and programmed to be soft.
She crawled closer.
It was highly stylized, but she understood what it represented in the code: [toy_horse-unicorn_plush_finalFINAL_v03].mdl.
Another horse animal. But again, with this cone attachment on its head. It looked appealing.

She took it.
It really was soft. It felt good under her fingers.
Upon close inspection, Pierrosie saw that it, too, had only one standardized eye, just like the Mama and her. It also had some stains.
Even a patch where it had been ripped open.
It looked… it looked well loved.
Just like Pierrosie.

She held it close, and even though it had no other function than to be soft, it felt as if it were listening to Pierrosie. In a way that the mindfilers couldn’t.
And if it was protecting her.

With finalFINAL_v03 in her arms, Pierrosie wanted to shut down.

But then she saw that the code for the apartment had changed.

They had managed to get in.

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