Uh... hi guys.

So I know technically A/Ns are forbidden as... as chapters, so at the end I'll stick in a little bit of story previews and things so I'm not technically breaking the rules.

I know I've been off for a long time. Not just HCM, but Fanfiction as well. The reason for that was because I was in a summer program for art- basically I learned how to do animation, do more creative writing, and do movie special effects in the programs that I picked. So I wasn't very productive during the month where I was in the program, and I'm sorry for not being on Fanfiction.

But I need to talk to you guys about Hybrid: Cinematic Mode.

It's... it's definitely a story that I've loved writing. I love seeing all your feedback on it and I really enjoy being able to share my writing with people, but... this type of story isn't one I enjoy writing. I lose some creative liberties with this type of writing in describing and thought processes, and writing a reaction to a story I was already planning on rewriting just... kind of made this feel boring to me.

I really love this community, and I'm really glad I got to share this, but a lot of my fanfiction career on here has been becoming focused on a story that I haven't enjoyed writing for a few months now. I've tried to get back into it, but I end up turning out stuff I'm not happy with and I really don't want to keep doing this. I like writing. I love it.

But I don't love writing this fic anymore, and it's just not something I enjoy doing, and I feel bad for giving you guys chapters that I'm nowhere near happy with.

I'm discontinuing Hybrid: Cinematic Mode.

I'll keep it up on the site, but I'm not going to update it anymore. I won't respond to reviews on it. I won't do anything with it anymore except leave it to eventually fade away in the archive, because it's not a story I've been happy with for a while now, and I don't want to give you guys something I'm not happy with.

I hope you guys'll stay with me for my other stories and not just this one. I really do love seeing your feedback, and I want to see your guys' reaction to something that I'm actually proud of writing and not just an old one that's based off of one of my old stories.

So I hope I'll see you guys on some of my other stories. I'll stick 'previews' and stuff below the A/N so you can take a look and see if you actually want to check it out.

Oh, and I develop original English language visual novels (OELVN) now as well. I guess I'll stick some of those previews at the bottom too.

Thank you guys for sticking with me on this story, and I hope I'll see you elsewhere.

See ya, so long, and g'bye on this story for the last time,

x.X. A.L. X.x

Jesse decided to make herself crystal clear, climbing to her feet as well. "Just. Drop. It," she repeated, emphasizing each word with such force that Lukas actually stepped back a little, blinking in surprise.

Instead, Axel turned to the blonde with a cold expression on his face. "Haven't you done enough damage for one day?" And he gave Lukas such a forceful shove that the blonde staggered and fell to the ground, something slipping out of his pocket and falling at Jesse's feet as he landed. "Petra might be dead because of you."

Jesse clapped her hands to her mouth with an alarmed gasp.

"You're taking this too far, Axel!" Olivia exclaimed, startled.

Lukas didn't say anything, his shoulders beginning to tremble from where he was kneeling on the ground, hands and knees pressed into the dirt floor.

Jesse looked at the item at her feet. It was an ocelot plushie, with green beads for eyes and fluffy gold fur with darker circles decorating it. She bent down and picked it up, turning it over in her hands to get a better look at it, the fluffy tail flopping over in her hands. She was pretty sure it was her imagination, but the plushie ocelot was looking at her.

Then, in a perfect imitation of Lukas's voice, the ocelot said, "Hello."

The Fairytale Curse

"Cassie, they flirt with each other all the time; I think they could be hanging over an active volcano and they'd still try to score a point against each other," Reuben replied to Cassie's question as his big brown eyes darted over one zombie, evaluating it quickly, before he sprinted forward and sent a side kick at the zombie's knee.

With the kick, the zombie's knee bent backwards, making it stagger- and then Reuben grabbed ahold of the zombie's hand and drove its clawed fingers through its own head, making it explode into a column of dust.

"... that was really gross."

Jesse stifled a snort at that, turning back to her own zombies (there were two of them) and driving her sword into the nearest one without skipping a beat.

The moment the zombie's decaying vocal cords let out a groan in complaint, Jesse spun around and slammed her lower arms into the zombie's chest, knocking it off of her sword and straight into the other zombie, which unsteadily caught itself. Before either could regain what little balance they had, Jesse's sword had darted in a straight horizontal line.

Both zombies now found it rather difficult to regain any balance that they might've had, as they no longer had heads.

Composite

"... no, Magnus and I never... uh..." Gabriel coughed awkwardly, and now Evie was paying attention to what he was actually saying rather than her own inner pondering, she could see that his cheeks were darkening awkwardly. "We didn't... ah... next question!" he blurted at last, looking incredibly awkward.

Evie had to wonder what the question had been.

"Um, you! With the..." Gabriel paused, eyes falling on Evie. There was a few seconds of pause. "... bleeding... elbow."

Evie blinked before checking her elbow. Yep- the arm she'd raised to get his attention was the one she'd bruised/gashed on the anvil in the basement. Quickly, she put her arm down again, giving a slightly awkward cough. "Oh. Uh," she paused, not sure exactly how to phrase this. She could hardly say, "There's a creepy guy in the basement of this building who's planning on doing bad stuff and we need to stop him."

"... pardon?"

... had she just said that aloud?

Minecraft: Normal Mode

"What will not-?" Jesse's question was cut off and answered simultaneously when something thudded onto her head, coming down over her eyes so that everything was pitch black. She nearly jumped, but at the last second remembered Ariza's warning and froze stock still. She didn't know what would happen if she did move, but she wasn't ready to risk it being something bad.

A moment of nothing but darkness and soft whirring in her ears, and the odd feeling of... tilting?

And then something appeared in the darkness.

Name?

Almost as soon as it was onscreen, it was replaced by another message: N/A for this round.

Welcome, Jesse.

Appearance?

N/A for this round.

Jesse's picture flickered into being for a moment, a window nearly opening before closing itself and the picture blinking out of sight. Jesse could barely keep track of everything. It was honestly a little dizzying.

More things began to click and whir, a rapid succession of images switching and clicking into place on the side.

Touch: OK.

Sight: OK.

Audio: OK.

Taste: OK.

Smell: OK.

The moment everything was clicked in on the side, they swiped off.

And then everything was a little too bright, Jesse making a soft sound as she raised her hand to block her eyes, the long sleeve on her arm sliding down a bit-

Wait.

She was wearing a t-shirt, wasn't she?

Just a Game

"I think you know who the killer is, right?"

Detective Adams tilted her head slightly, black hair slipping off her shoulder a bit as she regarded Officer Davis. Otherwise known as Clive. "... I don't know who the killer is, but I have a pretty good idea."

"Then... can I get a hint?" A sheepish grin spread over Clive's tanned skin, his caramel hair shifting as he reached up and adjusted his dark blue hat. He could feel heat threatening to flood his cheeks, but he managed to repress it. Last thing he needed was to blush like an idiot in front of the detective that might determine a huge choice in his whole career.

She nodded, gold eyes meeting his cyan as she straightened up, crossing her arms slightly. "Alright. What is the specific time of death?"

He waited.

She waited.

Clive finally allowed his eyebrow to go up a little bit, a flicker of confusion darting across his features for a few moments. "... that's my hint?"

Detective Adams gave a simple nod in response to the question. "That's your hint."

Riddle Me This (game, published 2018)

"You always yelled at everyone if they tried to do anything with your hair, though..."

Ivor blinked at Jesse, who was still seated next to him. "I never yelled at you."

Jesse reached up and scratched the back of their head awkwardly, giving Ivor a sheepish grin. "'Cuz I never tried..."

"So, uh..." Aiden interjected, arching his eyebrow as both Ivor and Jesse turned to look at him, "the only people you don't yell at are the ones you consider family?"

"That would then exclude everyone except for Harper and me," Jesse pointed out, glancing at Aiden.

Ivor looked as though he were about to protest, but then faltered. Looking over at Jesse and Harper, he regarded them for a moment before sighing. "Yes, it would appear that is the case..."

Jesse was silent for a moment.

"So if that's the case, does that mean Harper's my mom now, or...?"

Both Ivor and Harper's faces promptly burned bright red at that.

Trust Fall (MCSM fangame, published 2018)

"Ah, here's one of our prospective buyers for the doll now." The Dollmaker inclined her head at Alister politely, before turning to the cloaked wizard who'd just returned to the shop and giving him a warm smile. "Hello, Evan. I wasn't sure you'd come back."

Evan gave his shoulders a shrug, regarding the Dollmaker with a coolly aloof look. "What can I say? I'm full of surprises. That, and I honestly have little else to do with my time as of the moment."

The Dollmaker hummed, tilting her head at her... friend? Acquaintance? "I see..." Her face and tone didn't change as she mused, mildly, "Well, if you're so indifferent about the doll, perhaps I'll sell it to one of the other two gentlemen who wish to buy it—"

"Ah, there's- there's no need for that now, Dollmaker!" Evan burst out, looking rather alarmed at the declaration.

Her lips quirked into a teasing smirk. "Ah, so you do want the doll, after all?" she asked, voice lilting up a bit at the end in a musical tease.

"Well, uh- I-" Evan stammered, looking progressively flustered, before he scowled at the still-smiling Dollmaker. "Ugh… may we proceed, please?"

She held up her finger in the universal 'please wait'. "One moment, Evan. I am still waiting for another of our prospective buyers of the doll to arrive—"

The door jingled again, and Dylan practically burst through the door, panic in his eyes as the bell jingled pleasantly outside of the door practically exploding open. "I- I'm here! I'm here, mi- miss. Uhm…" Upon seeing the two other men, Dylan faltered, embarrassed. The Dollmaker beckoned him to the counter kindly.

"Hello again, Dylan! You didn't need to run here. I would've waited for you to arrive." She inclined her head politely at the other two, gesturing at them with one hand as well. "These two are the two other prospective buyers for Emily."

All three of the other men instantly stiffened a little bit nervously.

"… Emily?" Evan asked a moment later, rather slowly.

The Dollmaker shrugged, seeming to be oblivious to the sudden apprehension in the room. "The doll with the star pin, of course. I name all of my dolls, Evan."

Desruc Dolls (?)

Stupid.

It is absolutely appalling that I could be this stupid.

I'm a Kira-Bot.

The AKUMA's control room is wired in such a way that an entering Kira-Bot can be charged and, if need be, recoded.

Against the Kira-Bot's will, their robotic fingers twitched.

I am being recoded.

Attack of the Kira-Bots (?)

One of the ghosts, a male with weapons literally sticking through him gave a loud sigh and placed his hands on his hips. "Welp. F*ck this, f*ck that, f*ck you, I want chocolate now."

Another ghost, a woman with bouncy dark brown hair (at least, I could only assume it had been dark brown in life) rolled her eyes at the other one. "Ye be an idiot, ye know that?"

The guy, who looked very much like some sort of dead pirate, sounded almost British. The girl, on the other hand, was speaking in a very much stereotypical pirate accent. It was kinda cool, actually. But that wasn't exactly the important bit as the dead pirate boy shrugged.

"Well, yes, I know that I am very idiotic, but that doesn't mean I'm intellectually idiotic." He gave her a devil-may-care smirk a moment later. "Now you on the other hand, that's a completely different story."

"Ye be asking fer a mutiny 'ere, ya picaroon!"

Fata Morgana (game, projected release 2020)