Voices

Voices was an adventure by Professor. Its protagonists are some of the most straight-played examples of the Voices in My Head trope. This article is out of date, as it only covers information regarding the first chapter on MSPAFA. The rest of Voices continued at http://www.windowchronicles.com, before being cancelled on 12/2/2010https://web.archive.org/web/20110104195035/https://windowchronicles.com/voices/"12/2/2010: This is not news I want to impart. As you've seen, however, I have spent the last four months struggling to keep Voices moving, making promises to update and finding myself forced to break them. The glory days that made this comic great were, in fact, a very brief window of time during which I was able to add to it four to six times a day. This was beautiful, and I regret to have bitten off so much more than I could ever hope to chew. In reality, Voices should have ended with chapter 1. It was a good story and I told it. Continuing was a mistake, and it has been hard. I've never been able to live up to my output during Voices' start, and I am consistently unable to further it at all. Instead of saying, again, that I can do this, that I'll get back on it, that, don't worry, it's all okay, I'm going to tell you the truth. Ever since Chapter 1 ended and that sweet window passed, Voices has been a struggle to keep aloft. I think, in some part, I built this website with the hope of inspiring myself to fight through it to the end. But it's a story too long to tell. I don't want to do this for the next decade. Let's just remember what was, and appreciate it. I am sorry to have promised so much and given so little. It is simply unrealistic at this point for me to continue lying to myself and to you that I can see this endeavor through. My update rate is several times a month now and will only get worse- so I am stepping away to concentrate fully on my life. I can't thank you enough for supporting me, though. I'll never forget what you allowed me to create." due to real-life pressures. 
== Mechanics==
The readers act as the titular Voices, communicating directly with the protagonists, acting as advisors and observers to varying degrees of reliability. In addition, each new protagonist has been marked by a successively higher roman numeral in the top-left-hand corner of most panels, along with a graph which appears to gauge some kind of mental activity corresponding to their psychic skill - Osiris has Psychokinesis, Teiuc has Cerebravoyance, Peregrine has Metapathy, and Violet has Teleprojection. Certain diagrams have indicated that these four are not the only Gifted, and there appear to be four more undiscovered. The numeral and graph is not visible to the protagonists; however it shows when characters are dying (the edges start to black out) and also which characters can presently hear the voices.
Executives, on the other hand, are indicated by indices.
== Plot ==
====Prologue====
We meet the first protagonist (Osiris), who immediately explains his gift of hearing voices. The voices are revealed to be the readers, who tell him to try and fight his restraints and medication, examine the room, and suchlike; mostly with little success. He escapes into the facility, and uses his telekinetic powers to destroy an Omega Zapper.
The second protagonist (Teiuc) wakes up to having dreamt about Osiris' escape, and reveals that hearing voices, while abnormal, isn't wierd enough to care about.  Teiuc (who is very attached to her name, despite the voices' attempts to christen her otherwise) explains she lives in voluntary isolation with her cat, Specter, from New Wuhan, but travels there at the voices' insistence. She snoops into Xern Inc. and fights Di Yu's monstrous hydracat called Whiskers. Specter is killed in the fight but Teiuc uses her Cerebravoyance skill to seek out the beast's heart and slay it.
thumb|left|The Top Four Executives of Xern Inc.
Protagonist III (Peregrine) wakes up to the sound of unfamiliar voices, who quickly explain to him everything that's happened. In turn, he explains he is Captain of the Empyrean Pirates, a group of hunted rebels who are trying to take down Xern and the World Government through guerilla tactics. Peregrine and his shipmate, Tangle, catch a bullet train into Wuhan to infiltrate Di Yu's base, but are stymied by Di Yu's guards.
Perspective is shifted to the fourth and final psychic, who is thoroughly incarcerated. Xern's 4th executive has placed her in Di Yu's care, claiming events far beyond Di Yu's comprehension are occuring, before the voices return to First/Osiris.
====Chapter 1====
He has been recaptured but is freed with the help of a violet wisp which turns out to be the fourth psychic's doing. Exploring the level he is trapped on, Osiris inadvertedly unleashes a pack of Omega zappers onto his floor.
The voices find themselves back in the company of Teiuc. She is trapped in a room herself, but has had been freed by Fourth (Violet). In her escape she acquires a guard's gun and a battery, before finding out she's still in the computers as an employee and shuts down the defenses. Osiris and Teiuc finally meet for the first time but soon they are assaulted by the elevator bot, the Alpha Zapper. They fight the bot together, but Osiris is caught by one of the tentacles and slammed into the wall. Teuic turns on the deck's defenses and the manual override and shoots the Alpha Zapper down. Osiris is badly injured but Teuic thinks she can help him.
Back in the company of Peregrine we learn he evaded the guards. After some speculation on what he should take on his inflitration, the voices assist in more puzzles, and let him access the weapons storage. Perspective shifts to Specter, who has acquired some new, deadly skills after Di Yu experimented on him. The cat regroups with Osiris, Teiuc, and Peregrine, who devise a plan to take down Di Yu and destroy his weapons; as well as get First out of there safely.
Fourth, or Violet as the voices have taken to calling her, is on the uppermost deck, or at least her body is. She's strapped to a bed immobile, but can still communicate with her Teleprojection. She escapes her room with this power and makes her way to Di Yu's throne room with Specter's assistance. There they meet Peregrine and Tangle, and Di Yu reveals he has been observing the psychics all along. The trio do minimal damage, until Violet infuses her energies into Peregrine's railgun and they fire a decent shot at Di Yu. Osiris deals the final blow, knocking the Executive through the skylight, but not before Di Yu mortally wounds Tangle. Using his Metapathy, Peregrine instructs Slice to get the ship to Xern Inc's roof, so the team can escape. Di Yu rises with a sword, and kills Tangle, starting the fight again. Only when they work in tandem to distract him does Violet finally get to stab him through the head, and send him plummeting to impale on his own throne. Slice arrives in the Empyrean and spirits the Espers to safety, where they hold Tangle's funeral and decide which Executive they will take on next.
== Characters ==
===The Gifted===
*Osiris Elvis Maxwell Ozymandias Bulkhead T. Gale - A (probably) insane young man who finds comfort and companionship in the multitude of voices that surround him. He is "First" of the four psychics, and has the power of  Pyschokinesis.
thumb|Teiuc and Specter.
*Teiuc - A young woman who saw Osiris' escape in her dreams. She is "Second" of the four psychics, and possesses Cerebravoyance, which allows her to see things not normally visible. She has a rather no-nonsense attitude towards her voices and their stupidity. She appears to be something of a recluse; and has a pet cat called Specter, who she can utilise as a second pair of eyes. She used to work for Xern Inc.
*Captain Radical Peregrine - The self-assigned codename of the captain of the Empyrean Pirates. Captain has a cybernetic eye which acts as a port to his ship's control systems. He is "Third", and posesses "Metapathy", which can project thoughts onto others. This includes all of the voices. He does not normally hear voices but takes the ones he gets (and their extensive knowledge of goings-on in Xern) as good luck.
*Violet - The fourth psychic, she has the power of Teleprojection which lets her control an out-of-body violet spirit. It appears her powers were acquired through experimentation, rather than a natural gift like Teiuc's or Peregrine's.
=== Xern Inc. ===
*Dr. Abaddon - The 4th Executive of Xern Inc. He keeps in close contact with the other Top 4, along with a mysterious being speculation has labelled simply as "The Professor."
*Father Inferi - The 5th Executive of Xern Inc.
*Di Yu - The 12th Executive of Xern Inc. He used his powers to research biological abominations and weaponry.
*Sheol - The 14th Executive of Xern Inc.
=== Other characters ===
*Slice - An Empyrean Pirate, he controls the ship's evasive systems through two cybernetic plugs in his head.
*Tangle - An Empyrean Pirate, he controls the ship's automatic weaponry. The son of the legendary Silver, he was killed by Di Yu.
*Whiz - The weapons or repair guy on board the Empyrean.
== Tropes ==
Color by Technicolor - Mostly monochromatic, the adventure occasionally uses red, blue, or violet for effect.
Convenient Amnesia
Dashing Sidekick - Specter the cat.
Dreamatic Interlude - Osiris' entire escape was supposedly this, but Teiuc's Cerebravoyance indicates it may not have all been in her head.
Hello, Insert Name Here - Most of the "voices" call Osiris whatever they feel like. Several even change their term of endearment from suggestion to suggestion.
Voices In My Head
You Are Now This Guy - Or rather, "you are now one of the voices in this guy's head."
You Can't Do That, Stupid! - Both Osiris and Teiuc have a signature look for really bad suggestions. Osiris just looks bemused, Teiuc looks disgusted.
Category:Adventures
Category:Professor Adventures