Reformed Insanity

***Note: this is an alternate ending***

*This ending has elements of the Universe of Fake Existence and the Universe of Love.*

Unlike the original ending, Mind doesn't accept the key from Dennim and doesn't die. She believes she shouldn't "run away from home" and cause her mother that kind of stress.

Mind and Dennim keep talking about how they can solve her problems, but she doesn't like any of his extreme suggestions and prefers he not mention them again, rendering him useless. Years pass without resolution.

Mind's abuse continues, which bothers Dennim, as he knows he's able to do something about it, but Mind won't have any of his solutions. When Mind turns 18, she becomes even less eager to consider them when sees her chance of escape in her mother's plans to marry her off. Mind's mother arranges meetups at their house for her and some wealthy boys to meet, but her father sabotages the event by chasing away the men with backdoor threats. Dennim asks Mind if he should dress up and present himself as a candidate for her, but she doesn't trust that the plan will work and knows her parents will look into his family background to see if he's legit. While he tries to argue he's a good actor, she asks him not to cause himself trouble.

After 2 more years of failure, Mind's mother discontinues the matchmaking practice on advice of her husband and Mind becomes distraught over having lost the only peaceful escape available. Dennim tries to make her see the gravity of the situation and suggests she should run away with him, but Mind repeats that she can't because of her mother. She asks what this solution will do to his own life, to which he replies her future is his. She is flattered by his comment, but unable to accept his request on a whim.

Later that night she collects her courage and decides to meet up with her mother downstairs. She sneaks past her father reading in the living room and finds her mother in the kitchen, still gloomy for failing to find her daughter a partner. Without anything leading up to it, Mind slowly approaches and reports her father's abuse to her one last time. Hoping she's believed now she's an adult, she eagerly awaits her mother's response. But as the woman turns around to face her daughter, she sees that it is drenched in fury over her repeated accusation, and Mind is scolded for badmouthing her "generous, hard-working" father. Mind's mother then starts speculating that she spread the same lies to the candidates and is the reason that send them running, but Mind swears she didn't speak about this with any of the boys. Her mother shows little support and starts shifting the narrative; asking her if she came to tell her this thinking it'll solve her unweddable status, upsetting Mind even more.

Realizing there's no use in continuing and she has ruined their relationship even more, she bails on the conversation and speeds off to her room. Mind's father notices her pass by and asks his wife what happened, who approaches him in tears and starts complaining about how Mind keeps seeking attention by accusing him of serious crimes. Mind's father becomes alarmed by this and tries to mask his rage by saying she shouldn't judge their daughter so quickly and there's probably a reason for her behaviour. He slyly offers to go upstairs and comfort her, and Mind's mother allows for it. When he enters Mind's bedroom, he sees her window is wide open and she's nowhere to be found. He inspects the open window and notices fresh, foreign tire tracks on the ground below. He concludes she is no longer in the house.

Mind and Dennim are driving off in a car spawned by him, and Mind asks what his plan is. He says he'll take her to the other side of the country and buy them a home with his savings. Mind asks if he is fine spending it on her, to which he responds he saved it for her. She doesn't understand what that means and feels strange for agreeing to a plan that involves so much sacrifice from his part, but thanks him greatly for it anyway. But before she can finish her last sentence, the side of their car gets hit by something, cutting their escape short and resulting in a fatal collision.

Dennim stands up right after the crash and tries to comprehend what has happened. He spots Mind lying on the ground near him, immobile, with a long piece of broken metal stuck in her forehead. Upon seeing her body, he feels like he's about to lose it and goes to see who's to blame for their accident. He sees Mind's father's car crumpled up against his, with his dead body inside. Dennim becomes so enraged over failing to save Mind, he rips Mind's father's corpse to pieces in his moment of insanity. His appearance and size starts changing with every second he's exposed to the reality of the situation, until he's turned into an enormous beast, devoid of a conscience or human sensibilities. Dennim stomps off to wreak havoc on the first civilization he'll meet on his path, leaving Mind behind at the crash site.

Not long afterwards, an oldtimer vehicle stops at the crash site and an old man with his servants get out to check out the wreckage. The servants are shocked to see the damage and try to lead their lord away from Mind's body still lying out in the open, but when the man gets wind of her, he starts shouting that it's his daughter. The servants try to explain to their demented master he is mistaken, but he refuses to listen and orders them to save her.

The servants become nervous by his loud demands of collecting a stranger's corpse and are unsure on how to handle the outburst. One of them suggests they should take Mind with them to soothe their lord for the time being, but then immediately call the police upon arriving home. The others feel urged to agree to the plan and they hesitantly cover up and move Mind's body into the car.

Upon arriving at the mansion and laying Mind down on her destined bed, one of the servants claims to have seen her limbs twitching and believes she's still alive. When the other servants go check, they discover it to be true and quickly try to call an ambulance; but get no response. Their lord then reminds them that he has a private doctor living nearby and they should call her.

When the doctor arrives, she informs them that the likelihood of Mind surviving is close to non-existent, and she has limited tools to help, as no one is able to contact or reach the hospital for an unknown reason. The man starts crying and offers her millions in exchange for her life, guilting the doctor into trying to repair a woman stuck on her last breath. Because there's little drugs available and the metal in her head took a long time to safely remove, the doctor is forced by the old man to be a resident of the mansion for as long Mind refuses to wake up. But when she starts worrying more and more about the dying landscape and lack of contact from the outside world, she runs from her responsibility and is never seen again. After the servants share the same worries, they also abandon their senile lord, leaving him to care for Mind, stuck in a life-threatening coma. The man's devotion manages to keep her alive, despite not having the tools needed to do so.

Because the rampaging Dennim has fully claimed the world, modern civilization is destroyed and the man is unable to have medicine or groceries delivered to his house. While he's able to perceive the skies that are turned red by Dennim's influence, his own mental health issues give him little perception of time, and he thinks the absence of contact is the result of bad weather. The urgency to go out and investigate is small, as the man has a large storage under his house packed with food, basic supplies and a generator that provides electricity, keeping him and Mind alive; but clueless about monster Dennim's existence and takeover.

It takes years for Mind to finally wake up from her coma. While her caretaker is ecstatic to find her awake, Mind appears still and lifeless. She shows no signs of knowing who she is, or caring for it, and is mostly seated down and staring into nothing. Most of Mind's caretaker's conversations are completely ignored by her, but he stays optimistic and gives her everything he thinks she wants.

When Mind is 30 years of age, though, he thinks her reluctance to socialize or leave the bedroom is because she feels lonely, and he tries to arrange something for her supposed birthday. But as the outside world is forever unresponsive, he's unable to call his friends or family over for a surprise party, and instead goes outside to look for random strangers to invite over. The man's now 80 year old body doesn't get him far, but he quickly finds a lonesome puppy randomly walking the plain fields. Without giving it a second thought, he hastes himself towards the dog and picks him up. The puppy appears confused by his unannounced abduction, but lets it happen.

Content with the find, the man takes him back to Mind's bedroom and offers him to her as her birthday present. Even though she shows little interest in the new face, he thinks he did good and leaves her alone to play with the dog. The dog inspects his new enviroment, but then immediately runs over to Mind when he realizes she is in the room. Her eyes slowly move down and she stares at his face for a while, whereafter she comments to herself that the dog looks familiar. The dog takes the sudden sound of her voice as an approval and jumps up on her bed to lie on her lap.

The next day Mind's caretaker shows up to bring her breakfast and asks if she settled with a name for it, phrased as *"Do you know what you're going to call him?"*. Mind absentmindly repeats the last two words of his question and he mistakes it for the puppy's name, who is then called "Callim" from that moment on.

Despite Mind's inability to socialize or emote, she is unconditionally loved by her new father and pet dog.

After another 20 years pass, Callim dies of old age and Mind's caretaker follows shortly after, while trying to bury him in the backgarden. Mind is left standing in her room, staring through her window and looking at a large figure heading towards the house. The approaching giant carelessly destroys half the mansion with its large foot as it continues its journey to the South, causing Mind to fall down to the first floor, but waking up cured from her vegetable-like state. With her basic brain functions returning, she still finds herself not exactly knowing who she used to be, until she remembers her dog and how his appearance always sparked an old memory. His likeness to Dennim makes it possible for her to recall him and her entire past with it, as he's been fully part of it, deeming Mind fully cured from that moment on. She starts wondering about the car crash and what happened to him afterwards.

She then recognizes the destruction surrounding her and becomes curious about what the meaning is of the giant that passed by. Before getting too invested, she remembers her caretaker went downstairs to bury Callim and she runs over to see if he's alright. She finds him dead next to an unburied Callim, but is able to conclude his passing is tied to natural causes. She expresses her sadness to the two deceased bodies for being an emotional drain and thanks them both for their love. She covers them up with a blanket and decides to enter the poisoned landscape to look for Dennim. She borrows her caretaker's car and clumsily attempts to drive it to her old home. When she starts to recognize the hills, but finds nothing but rubble, she's left to assume her house has also been destroyed by the giant at one point. She decides to look for the nearby city, hoping to find answers and information about Dennim's whereabout.

The road eventually stops at a giant hole in the ground and Mind can't continue her search. While she's never been to the city, she soon figures the hole was probably the city once, and starts wondering how much of the country has been destroyed. She gets out of the car and inspects the hole. As the accident has occurred and worsened during the 30 years she's been clueless and bedridden, she becomes discouraged when considering the possibility of finding Dennim, and doesn't know what to make of her future now there's no home to go to or create.

While she strolls around the area, she notices a pattern in the large shallow craters surrounding the hole and sees they lead to the South. She guesses they are the giant's footsteps and wonders if he's heading South because it's still untouched. Next to one of the craters she finds a dirty stuffed animal, and she recognizes it as the one she used to have when she was young. She ponders about the likelihood of someone having the same toy and becomes more hopeful by the thought of Dennim having dropped it recently.

She takes the stuffed animal with her and decides to head South as well, hoping to find Dennim and other survivors, before the destructive giant reaches them.

Her technological ignorance causes her car to quickly break down when she forces the old vehicle off-road as an attempt to drive around the giant's presumed whereabouts, whereafter Mind has to continue on foot.

She's relieved to find a mostly intact city shortly after, but is unable to find life. Her calls receive no response and she's left wondering if she's too late. The area suddenly turns dark and starts to rumble, and when Mind directs her eyes at the sky, she sees the giant getting up from behind the abandoned buildings in response to the noise.

Mind tries to run, but her actions are aborted by the heavy gusts of wind caused by the giant's movements, and she is launched all over the street. The stuffed animal she stuck in the belt of her dress flies off and catches the giant's attention. His first response is anger, confusing Mind, but when he turns his eyes back at her, he turns silent and watches her for a while. After a few seconds of nothing being accomplished, Mind attempts to speak to the calmed creature.

She picks up on his interest for the stuffed cheetah and offers it to him as an attempt to ensure her safety. As the giant gives no response, she starts talking about how it looks like a toy she used to have and thinks it belonged to a friend she lost long ago. The giant still gives no response, but Mind perceives his locked-on stare as curiosity for her story, thus continues socializing with the intimidating, silent figure.

When she talks about herself and her current quest, the giant reacts in ways she's not sure how to interpret, but before she can decipher his opinion, one of his large hands start approaching her with a thundering sound. Before the miniscule woman flies off again, he grabs hold of her and gently caresses her head with the tip of the fingernail of his other hand.

Mind doesn't know what to make of this action and tries to ask for an explanation, but has to settle with his usual response. He locks his unblinking eyes onto her and continues obsessively petting her. While his fixation for her face worries her, she wonders about the creature's true nature and sense of morality if he's able to treat someone like this.

She changes the subject and asks him why he destroyed the land, but as expected, he doesn't reply. She starts to wonder if he's able to speak or can understand her, but eventually sees the similarities in his limited social abilities to hers when she was still bedridden.

Mind introduces a method for them to communicate and uses his urge to pet her for it. To her surprise, he follows the instructions that ask him to stroke the top of her head to signify a "yes" and her chin as a "no". After a series of questions, she learns that someone wronged him and is the cause for his destructive anger. More questions are asked about his origin, but he can't clarify his humanity, where he came from, or admit to be a demon. He tries to reveal to her early they are the same person, but she doen't understand his gestures or the insinuation.

Mind reminds "sir Giant" that she is looking for someone as well, and asks if he would help her if she decided to help him find the person who hurt him. Before he can show a sign of having understood the offer, Mind considers it settled and gets ready to head back out on the fields. But the wind gusts caused by the giant's large posture make it hard for her to keep her feet on the ground, and she decides to comment on his impractical size. The giant picks up on her complaint and engulfs himself in black smoke, whereafter a smaller variant of him stays behind. Mind is impressed by this portrayal of his powers and welcomes the new him.

She asks if he has other supernatural powers and is able to take her to the crash site where she originally lost her conscienceness. He silently teleports them away from the city, back to the hills, at the foot of a small rusty wreckage covered with tall grass. Mind sees there's not much to investigate or discover, thus decides not to and considers it a dead end. She asks her new partner if he's able to sense her friend anywhere and take her to him, but he appears unwilling to communicate with her about this. She decides to go back to the city on foot, hoping to find any further clues leading to Dennim on the way, but reaches her destination without success.

Back in the city she decides to take a break and spend the time attempting to get more information from the giant about his personal strife. While he again shows no signs of comprehending her questions, their laid-back presence draws the attention of the city residents hiding underground. They peek out their heads and witness the old woman chatting it up with their shrunken terrorizer.

The mellow interaction hosted by Mind motivates them to come out and approach her with questions on how she managed to tame "the beast". Mind doesn't understand what they mean by that, but the giant reacts negatively to their boldness to come close and lunges at them. Mind quickly calls after him, whereafter he stops the attack, confusing the spectators even more.

Mind explains that the giant is a misunderstood person who's looking for someone who harmed him, but the people show no sympathy and are skeptical that this is the reason for his overall behaviour. Next they start expressing their suspision for Mind, as they find her care for- and power over- the beast to be strange. She defends herself by telling them she's been in a coma for most of her life and was not aware of the giant's existence or his influence.

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