#penultimate chapter baybee

[thefandomcassandra]

Broken Bridge (4/5): Gotta Stay Asleep

They say that grief is a wrecking ball. That grief takes the breath out of your lungs and the strength out of your limbs and the will to live out of your very soul. In that moment, a large piece of Helmut Fullbear dies. With the passing of Bob Zanotto, the only light in Helmut’s life goes out.

(Razputin Aquato enters the mind of Helmut Fullbear to help him process his grief and to get his assistance in helping stop the return of Maligula. It doesn't hurt that his husband isn't...dead, per se. The hard part is convincing him of that fact.)

Helmut knows how this goes. It replays in his dreams every night. After all: the man who let his husband die doesn't deserve restful sleep.

Still, with every perverse iteration—caused by the intrusive Alp pushing further and further in—he is less and less sure that the first script was the best script. Maybe the little nightmare is trying to help with rewrites. Maybe they are also fucking it up as they go, so he shouldn't be so damn hard on them.

(They're intrusive. They aren't wanted. They're hurting Helmut!)

(Not like he wasn't hurting himself.)

Helping Maligula, helping them, standing back and doing nothing, trying to introduce themself as if they were an excited fan, trying to take matters into their own hands. What motivates them? What is their drive? What purpose do they serve? Are they there to make Helmut doubt himself?

Without even being aware of it, moving on autopilot as he acts out every moment of this farcical tragedy, Helmut has managed to connect to everyone without noticing. At the corner of his psychic reach, in his periphery, Otto is taut and tense, high pitched red and yellow caution tape and stop signs. Helmut sends out a probing questioning feeling and Otto just responds with a flat feeling of 'don't bother'.

Not anger but frustration. Worrying but no more or less irritable than Otto usually is. That is, until a stray thought ekes through the line.

I don't know if this will help or not but it can't hurt to try, can it?

Ice rips through Helmut's veins. Irritation and fear chokes his throat. The Alp. What the hell are they doing?

Otto jumps, as if that thought has managed to rip through to him. He looks at Helmut with a furrowed brow and tilts his head. Are you okay Helmut?

Hm? Yes. A lie. Are you?

I will be soon. Bitter, terse, sardonic. Good old Otto.

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#psychonauts #psychonauts 2 #jarswap au #broken bridge #the sheepy writes fic #psychonauts spoilers #psychonauts 2 spoilers #penultimate chapter baybee #hype time!!!