pf

Prophecy Approved Companion

A75/100

Web serial by Tevagah

Published off-site20,862 words · 11 chapters · 2020

Qube was designed to die. As the cheerful childhood NPC companion who helps the Player learn the world at the start of the game, it was only natural that the big bad would kill her at the end of the tutorial, kicking off the Player's quest for vengeance. The only problem: no one told her that. And this particular Player doesn't like to play by the rules. Being a chaos-loving gremlin, he glitches her out of her programming and drags her along on various adventures — grappling with friendly sharktopuses, Evil Emperors, and the question of what it means to be a person. As Qube breaks the world in increasingly strange ways while seeking to be the very best Companion ever, she slowly realizes that her reality is not quite what it seems. A loving parody of old-school games and every player who has ever thought "what happens if I do this."

Books · 3

#1 The Chosen One

Goodreads4.16· 487

Qube was designed to die — the cheerful childhood NPC companion whose death at the end of the tutorial kicks off the Player's quest for vengeance. Except no one told her that. And this particular Player is a chaos-loving gremlin who glitches her out of her programming loop and drags her along on his adventures. Together they grapple with friendly sharktopuses, Evil Emperors, and the question of what it means to be a person — while Qube breaks the world in increasingly strange ways in her quest to be the very best companion ever. All the while, she slowly realizes her reality is not quite what it seems.

#2 The Chosen Two

Goodreads4.40· 184

Having completed the first three temples and collected some of the gems needed to defeat the Evil Emperor, the Chosen One and Qube must now navigate an increasingly broken game world. New hurdles abound: the Player wrestles with the possibility that his companions might be sentient, Qube tries her hand at solo adventuring, and the rest of the party begin to awaken — not all of them happily.

#3 The Chosen Free

Goodreads4.58· 139

As Qube and her companions reach the end of the now thoroughly broken game, they must come to grips with the nature of their reality and the world beyond. Interested parties from the real world clash with our heroes as they scramble to defeat the Evil Emperor in time and reveal the secrets they have been keeping from one another. Born of AI, these video game characters must decide what it means to be free.