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celtic-crossbow · 7 months

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Whumptober 2023

No. 6 Made to Watch Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Fem!Reader Setting: Alexandria Era Warnings: Attempted SA, blood, injury, violence

“Y/N!” Daryl pushed and kicked at the gate separating him from you. The hinges were giving but not nearly fast enough. The men from the warehouse you were scavenging were merciless in their actions, punches and kicks landing on any part of your body they could meet. The archer was seeing red, screaming in frustration when your assailants stepped away from you, looking quite satisfied with the damage they had caused.

You reached for the handgun they had forced Daryl to toss over—along with the crossbow and knives— but a boot came down on your hand, forcing a hoarse shout from your throat. Why weren’t they just shooting you both?

“Daryl.” Your voice was weak and strained, the single whisper sending you into a coughing fit. You curled in on yourself with a groan while the three men whispered among themselves.

“And he can watch.” A pointed chin was jerked toward the archer. The biggest of the three strutted down toward your feet, facing Daryl and undoing his belt. The hunter’s blood ran cold.

“Don’ fuckin’ touch ‘er!”

“Oh, I’ll do much more than touch.” A wicked grin exposed rotten teeth before he spit in Daryl’s direction. “And you have a front row seat, friend.”

“Our way of saying ‘thank you’ for bringing us this fine piece.”

Daryl growled and backed up before lunging at the gate. It pushed forward but didn’t give. “Ya let ‘er go. We’ll be on our way an’ never come back ‘round.”

“Is that right?” The third man asked, spitting off to the side. Daryl nodded, remaining still in case any act of trying to break through would cause them to retaliate. His eyes flicked down to you, watching everything around you from your spot on the cold floor. You were still curled up, both arms wrapped around your middle. The three goons looked at one another, seemingly mulling it over.

Then they began to laugh.

“Are you crazy, man? You know how hard it is to find good pussy now?” The big man pointed at you. “And I can guarantee that’s some good pussy. She yours?”

“She ain’t property, shithead.” Daryl hissed. His knuckles were turning white from the death grip he held on the chain link. When the man made to turn away, the archer began to climb, going stock still when he heard the loud crack of a gun and ricochet of a bullet hitting the concrete. Wide blue eyes zoned in on the gun now pointed at your head.

“Get on down, fella.” Daryl did as he was told, hands up the moment his boots hit the ground. “Now, the way I see it is you got three choices. One, you can try that shit again, and we’ll put a bullet in her head and then one in yours. Two, you can stand there and let us have our fun. We may even give her back afterward. Can’t promise she’ll be of any use to you, though.” Daryl was shaking, fists clenched at his sides. “Or three. You can leave. No harm, no foul. But we’ll keep her.”

“Fuck you.” You spat from the ground. The man above you gave you a look that broke into the most malicious expression of intent you’d ever seen.

“Oh, you will be, sweetheart. Me and my boys, here.” You held your rage in your eyes, never giving an inch before he looked back to Daryl. “What’s it gonna be, man?”

The archer said nothing, but his eyes said everything. Someone was dying there today.

“Let him play his little game.” The big man scoffed. He made his way to you in three strides, grabbing a fistful of your hair to pull you up from the floor. “We’ll play ours. If he tries anything, shoot him. Marvin, hold onto her hands.”

You struggled in the largest man’s grip. Harry, you had learned from the nonsensical conversation they were having while binding your wrists. The one with the gun on Daryl was David.

“If you want to keep all your teeth, I suggest you don’t try to bite.” Harry warned, not giving you much time to process before his mouth was on yours. He reeked of stale beer and tobacco and tasted worse. Your first instinct was to clamp down on his foul tongue, an instinct that you had to fight. You refused to reciprocate, simply allowing him to kiss you while tears leaked from the corner of your eyes. Daryl would save you. This would be over soon.

“Ha! He left!” David chortled, just before you felt a tight grip on your ass. Harry pulled his mouth away quickly, and you fought the urge to gag.

“Wait your turn!” Harry spat, pulling you closer so he could reach over your shoulder and shove the other back. When David continued the shoving match, you were roughly thrown toward Marvin and then pushed to the floor for him to attempt to break up the argument.

Your entire body ached but that pain was nothing compared to the agony in your chest as your eyes remained frozen on the empty spot where Daryl had been standing. ‘He left me. He…he left me.’ With a sob, you forced yourself to your hands and knees, crawling toward the concealing darkness of the warehouse’s inner walls.

“Where do you think you’re going, princess?” A large hand twisted into your hair and wrenched back your head, forcing you up on your knees to relieve the pressure.

“Please. Please, just let me go!” You begged. Your hands held tightly to Harry’s wrists while he dragged you back toward the other two men.

“Oh, honey, there is no way we are—” He fell silent. An engine roared in the distance, the sound becoming louder at an alarming rate. “What the hell?” His grip disappeared, giving you one opportunity. The concrete stung your palms and knees but this time, you made it to a dark area of empty crates and shielded yourself behind one just as the rusted cement truck barreled through the gate. Sparks flew from the exterior when the onslaught of bullets hit, the windshield shattering.

David didn’t move in time and was crushed beneath the tires. Harry and Marvin continued to fire even after the thing had crashed into the wall, partially breaking through to the outside. Your breathing picked up when Marvin grabbed the door handle and pulled back to find…a walker tied to the steering wheel and a brick on the accelerator.

“Put that thing down!” Harry hissed at the same time his friend fired into the corpse’s skull.

While he reached in to switch off the engine, movement caught your eye. Your chin quivered, the whimper that left you impossible to suppress.

Daryl was picking up his crossbow and knife, flipping the latter in his hand to quickly throw it. Marvin dropped like a dead weight. Harry watched his friend fall from the door of the truck before he spun and looked around wildly. The crossbow was already aimed and Daryl was stalking forward, the weapon trembling.

“Where is she?!” The bowman roared.

“I-I-I don’t know! I swear, I lost track of her!”

A bolt pierced his shoulder.

“Wrong answer! Where is she?!” Crossbow forgotten, Daryl was pointing your handgun at the man (when had he pick that up?!), nearly on top of him now.

“I lost her!”

A bullet to the leg. You flinched when the gun fired and Harry screamed, the large man who had loomed over you now reduced to writhing on the cold floor.

Daryl now cast a terrifying shadow over him. “Did ya kill ‘er?”

“No! No, we didn’t touch her!”

“Oh, but ya did.” You hardly recognized your partner’s voice, spitting venom with every syllable. “M’gonna ask one more time.” The gun pressed into Harry’s forehead. “Where. Is. She?”

“Daryl.”

His head snapped up, eyes searching frantically before landing on you, just beside the crates and still on your hands and knees. Harry had a single moment to appear relieved as Daryl began walking away, but the gun was lifted and a single shot was fired into the man’s head without the archer so much as looking back.

You reached one hand out for him, releasing a sob the moment his fingers wrapped around it. Daryl kneeled in front of you and pulled you against him, relief evident on his face.

“Thought I lost ya.” He murmured into your hair.

“I thought you left me.” You admitted quietly, losing the battle against the tears stinging your eyes. He pulled you back, willing you to look at him. When you managed to, you found those electric blue orbs filled to the brim with unshed tears and so many emotions that you felt suffocated by the intensity of his gaze.

“Never.” He brought a hand to your face, careful of the bruises and cuts. “M’never leavin’ ya behind. Y’hear me?” You nodded softly and then again with more vigor, letting yourself be pulled back into his arms.

“I wanna go home, Daryl.” You whispered, your hands fisting into his vest. “Please, take me home.” Adrenaline began ebbing away and you found yourself growing more tired by the second. You barely noticed when he swept you off the floor and began carrying you out.

“Take ya anywhere ya need, Sunshine.”

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foxilayde · 7 months

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Collisions in Entropy [Peter Roiter x Fem!Reader]

Summary: You were drawn to him like gravity. Like the only two bodies of mass on a lattice field, dipping in the center like marbles, stretching the fabric of time with the weight of yourselves and converging at the center into a singular point.

Length: 5.5k

Warnings: 18+ MINORS DO NOT INTERACT. Romantic smut. Oral: f receiving. PiV.

Author’s Note: I couldn’t stop thinking about Peter making it to Rome and then confining himself to wait out his remaining days like an invisible stranger, careful not to disturb this timeline. I like to think his curiosity couldn’t keep him away from a special event he never got to see firsthand. Enjoy!

The wedding of Callum Roiter to Rebecca Bradley took place at Creeksea Place in the Essex countryside on Saturday September 30th 2023. Is taking place, rather. Currently taking place. Peter Roiter arrives in a rented grey suit and gate crashes his own parent’s wedding, 13 months before his birth.

They’re taking the photographs now, the photographs that will adorn the walls of his childhood home. The same photograph he will accidentally shatter In 2032 while playing cricket in the house. He recognizes the angle of the pink jaunty bouquets up in the air, the collection of color in a joyous line on the red brick footbridge beside the white gazebo, a bridal party draped in lavender taffeta posed in what looks like “a silly one” where they lovingly encircle the blushing bride—Rebecca Roiter née Bradley.

The camera flashes weakly against the midday light and at the same instant a bridesmaid looks in Peter’s direction and smiles.

He’d cut his palm on that picture frame—the shattered one—the bridal party laid in fragments in that parallel future time. He looks down at his hand and the thick scar is still there. He wonders if the Peter Roiter who will be born 13 months from tomorrow will get the same cut. If he will hit the cricket ball in the same exact angle, turning his head to the same exact call of his mother’s voice from the other room. “Peter!” Crash. A vortex.

That’s what had ruined the photo in the end. Not the shattered glass, but the blood. Will this timeline’s Peter Roiter grow up and do what he’s done? Do it exactly the same? Blood and shattered glass in the parlor. Blood and shattered glass in the terminal 4 bathroom.

He’s never been to a wedding like this before. Never even heard of one with so many people, unrestrained smiles, photographs, laughter, dancing… nowhere outside of a movie, that is. His own wedding to Helen was private, as most weddings in 2050 were. Out of necessity. Sweet and civil. She held peonies and they danced to Marvin Berry in the backyard, underneath the stars and the patio lights. He has an insane urge to make a toast to the people of 2023 and tell them, “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”

They’re so unaware. Unbothered. It’s beautiful to see. Like the carefree cheers-ing that must’ve been happening on the Titanic cruiseliner 10 minutes before they collided with an iceberg.

He doesn’t feel sorry for them. He is jealous. They’re feting in the last roaring moments of civilization, right before the interminable lockdowns will begin. He conservatively guesses that half of them will be dead within the next ten years.

He stays as invisible as he can, observing his parent’s tender happy moments from afar. They’re so young. He’s nearly old enough to be their father.

During the ceremony he sees both sets of grandparents for the first time in his life in person. Maybe that should be his alibi instead of “cousin of the bride”, he’s much more believable as “colleague of the father of the groom”. If only he could remember what Grandfather Roiter did for a living… insurance, maybe?

He won’t stick around long enough for anyone to ask just how he knows the lovely couple anyway. He’ll stay invisible for now, just another speck in this world that doesn’t belong to him.

This timeline might be defunct anyway, he may very well be cautiously tip-toeing around what he only assumes is a sleeping beast, but may in fact be nothing more than a carcass. Peter errs on the side of caution anyway and sips champagne from the further-most table.

Callum Roiter, looking everything like the father of his childhood, stands from the center of the high table and clinks his crystal glass. His cheeks look hurt and shiny from smiling, he holds his new wife’s hand and makes his toast, he thanks the guests for coming and makes a joke about how more guests might’ve showed up had they hosted the ceremony on the Boleyn Ground. He’s so young. So untroubled. The trip to Essex was worth every potential risk to the balance to see the joy in his parent’s eyes in real time. He feels supremely lucky to be a product of such an astounding love.

And then Callum raises his glass higher, winks to Rebecca and announces, “and lastly, a great big thank you to American psychologist Doctor Eliza Knight,” There is a knowing laugh amongst the wedding party who are privy to the story of the bizarre phone call from a Dr. Knight. “Without whom, I would have never met my beautiful bride. Wherever you are, love, cheers.”

“Cheers” the crowd responds. Peter downs the rest of his glass, “to Beatrix,” he mutters.

“You know what that’s about, don’t you?”

It’s the first time anyone has addressed him all day. He hadn’t seen her approach. The young woman from the bridal party. The one who smiled at him as the flashbulb went off. Pink roses, purple gown, shards of glass, blood, and a cricket ball.

“What’s about?” His voice slips into the Essex dialect like it’s nothing. He wonders how much of that is the chip and how much of it is his real voice— the one his mother and father taught him to use. He looks down at his lap when the woman sits beside him.

“The American doctor story.”

Oh he knows. He’s heard the tale his whole life, moreover he’s overturned timelines and sold out the souls of billions for the American doctor in question. “No,” he says to the pretty bridesmaid. “Would you let me in on it?”

*******

“Can’t believe you haven’t heard it before,” you smile, “would have thought Cal and Bex told damn near everyone in England by now.”

“Must be a good one.” He says with almost no defensiveness. Almost.

He’s cute. Older than you. A little scruffy, but in a very pleasing way—slightly overgrown at the nape of his neck and shadowed in the roughness of his sharp jaw. His eyes are kind though. So hopeful, sweet, and terribly familiar.

“Come outside with me and I’ll tell you, it’s getting warm in here.”

He glances to the high table, there’s a line forming of folks offering their congratulations along with envelopes of money to the young couple. He nods to you, leaving his grey rented coat on the back of the chair. He offers you his arm and you take it with a “thank you”, leading him to the French doors and stepping out onto the grounds.

The air is late summer. Warm and green. A million twinkle lights glow along the pathway to the pond, the place where you’d first laid eyes on him this afternoon.

“What’s your name?” You ask, trodding slowly towards the gazebo, your arm still in his. His forearm is warm under the white cotton dress shirt.

“Oliver.”

“Hmm.” You smile.

“What?” Defensive.

“Could have sworn it was something else.” You goad.

You can feel his pulse pick up from your fingertips on the crook of his elbow.

“What’s your name?” He counters.

You ignore him. “I didn’t bring you out here to tell you my name, I brought you out here to tell you a story, remember? Do you want to hear it or not?”

Peter breathes deep as if he’s winding up to tell you something but all he does with the breath is exhale and nod, “Please.”

“Last year, November the 23rd, 2022, to be exact, both Callum and Rebecca got a mysterious phone call from a Doctor Eliza Knight, a psychoanalyst from America, telling them that she knew their son. That he was a 39 year old time traveler sent from the year 2062 named Peter Roiter and he claimed to be on a mission to save the world. What do you think of that, Oliver?”

His grin is tight, dismissive, “sounds like a nut job.”

“The odd thing is, Callum and Rebecca had never met each other before. Doctor Knight gave each the other’s information and told them it was crucial that they meet and fall in love and have this child. Peter.”

Peter says nothing.

“So they do get together. Because of the absurdity. They go out for a drink, out of curiosity, to laugh about the madwoman who told them they were going to raise the messiah of the twenty first century.”

Peter leans against the railing of the gazebo and glances back to the house where the party is winding down. “And the rest is history.” He nods toward the red bricked abode.

“That’s not all,” you smile conspiratorially.

“No?”

“No. See, I looked into it, just to check to see if there was a Doctor Eliza Knight, and there is… or there was.”

He remains silent and surreptitiously fingers the raised scar on the inside of his hand while you talk. Nervous habit.

“See, the very next day after she made the phone calls, Doctor Knight walked into an airport bathroom in New York City and disappeared… disappeared! They checked all the security footage. She walks into the restroom and never walked out. They did find her clothes, and a shattered syringe full of blood that wasn’t her own, a tape recorder in a trash can. But her? Nowhere to be found. Can you believe it? The very next day after calling Bex and Cal. That’s insane, right?”

He nods, lost in thought across the lake.

“It’s funny, most people get a real kick out of that anecdote. I was excited to tell you. Brought you out to the dim ambiance and everything.”

“It’s a great story. Really. I’m just tired is all.” He folds his arms across his chest and looks at you with a believable amount of sleepiness.

“You’ve heard it before, haven’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“That would be one explanation for your boredom— you know the story by heart… How do you know the bride and groom, Oliver?” You nearly whisper, stepping closer to him.

“Who are you?” He backs away a step, bumping into the rim of the gazebo and catching himself on a polished beam.

“Peter, you’re about to upset a very fragile ecosystem that we’ve been curating. I had to get you out of that party, I hope you understand.”

“We?”

“Peter, if you care about the future, you need to kiss me right now, in the next five seconds, it’s our only chance.”

Peter doesn’t hesitate. With a look of solid determination he takes two steps towards you, cradles your head in his hands and presses his lips to yours, kissing you with reserved lips that didn’t match the committed blaze in his eyes. You break the kiss in near disbelief and regret.

“That was mean, I’m sorry.”

Peter’s face scrunches and he takes half a step back, letting you fall out of his grasp.

“What? Wait, tell me who you are, what’s going on? Did the W.H.O send you? Do you have a message for me? Did the project work? Any word on Beatrix?”

You press your fingertips to your lips and your eyes widen.

“Are you fucking with me?” You accuse.

His face drops from hopeful to incredulous and the two of you stare at each other with mutual suspicion for a beat.

He licks his bottom lip. “Why did I need to kiss you? Who are you?”

“I’m… I’m a friend of Rebecca’s. I… hang on, are you— is your name really Peter? I just called you that because… because of what the doctor told Bex…” you can hear your heart hammering in your ears.

Peter’s eyes narrow, “you were teasing me?”

“Holy shit. The… the doctor? The story? Peter Roiter?”

Peter remains stock still, his back rigid, gritting his teeth.

You clap your hand over your mouth and laugh. “Oh my god! Bex is going to murder me if she finds out I snogged her son. This is so weird.”

“How did you know?”

“I didn’t! I mean, god, no one actually believes that story about the doctor, do they? it’s insane! something straight out of a movie! I figured they met each other on tinder and wanted a cuter “how’d you meet?” Story and made this one up for clout or something, but… then we were taking photos today and you were lurking in the back of the setting up, lurking the back of the ceremony, sitting all by yourself in the back of the reception— not talking to anybody… which is exactly what someone who isn’t trying to alter a timeline might do. What am I saying? And god you do really look like half Bex and half Cal… it’s uncanny.”

“You can’t tell anyone about this, you understand?”

“Tell anyone? No one would believe me if I did! I don’t even know if I believe me! Besides, I’m not joking about the whole ‘Bex would kill me’ thing, I’m kind of skeeving myself out right now. I mean they’re both fit and well obviously,” You gesture to Peter up and down before slapping your forehead, “oh my god, I need—I need to shut up.”

“Wait, wait, wait, just calm down. Okay. I need to—look, if this isn’t a dead timeline, I can’t have you treating Cal and Bex’s son any differently than you would had you not learned that.. that I’m him. So—“

“Hang on, dead timeline? What the hell does that mean?”

“Is the name not obvious enough for you?” Peter begins to pace around the pergola, the valley between his brows growing deeper by the minute.

Your eyebrows shoot up, “well excuse me for not understanding your sci-fi speak, Mr. Coherence.”

“Dead timeline. It means the statistical likelihood of salvaging the future of this particular timeline is… astronomically low. If this is a dead timeline, then there is a near 100 chance humanity will be destroyed within the next 40 years.”

“Oh god.”

“It might not be. There’s no way of knowing right now.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“It could be a loop timeline, in which case, it’s important for you to—“

“Not treat the forthcoming baby Peter Roiter any differently.”

“Exactly.” He breathes with relief.

“Even though he will apparently grow up to be a man who potentially puts me and everything and everyone I know and love into a dead future or whatever you called it.”

“That’s not—“

“It’s fine, Peter, the less I know the better, right?” You shift in your heels and lean against the polished railing. “Might make it difficult to take him out for ice cream knowing that I snogged him at his mum’s wedding. Bleeding Christ, I really am sorry about that.”

“You’re surprisingly easy to convince. And you’re taking this extremely well. I’m not used to that— people believing me. And it’s fine, its my fault for being here, for following you outside. I promised I wouldn’t interact with anyone and now we’re getting… inextricable.”

“I don’t know why I believe you. I mean I know it’s crazy, it’s the least likely explanation for all of this, but I just feel like, I have to believe you. I just… have to. Now that sounds crazy.”

He shakes his head. “I really thought I was being stealthy coming here today. It was probably a mistake.”

“Well, if we are in a loop timeline, as you called it, I don’t think there can be any mistakes. And if we are in a dead end, then the mistakes don’t matter, right?”

“Who are you?”

You tell him your name. He shakes his head with that same worried valley between his brows.

“I don’t remember you at all from my childhood. Or hearing about you from my mother. I’m not even sure you were in the photo that I broke.”

“The photo that you broke? What photo?”

There’s a sudden cacophony from the French doors where you exited the reception with Peter. A group of groomsmen stagger out, each with a champagne bottle in their hand, singing what you can only assume is a fight song from Cal’s alma mater.

Peter runs his thumb and forefinger over the stubble surrounding his lips. Those lips that you made him kiss you with. God, what is happening?

“C’mon,” he mutters placing a hand at your lower back and guides you to the path by the pond, further away from the celebration. “Just being cautious.”

There’s a bench aglow with twinkle lights near the pond, out of view of the estate house. It feels good to sit and take some pressure off the silk heels you bought special for this evening. You slip them off and let your feet rest on the cool grass.

“What photo were you talking about?” You ask.

“The bridesmaid photos with the bouquets on the bridge. I grew up with that photo in my house. But one day I was playing football— no, it was… it was cricket. I was playing cricket in the house and the photo shattered. I cut my hand trying to hide it from my mum, look.”

You take his hand, inspecting his palm and turning it over. He continues. “But I don’t recognize you. From the photo. I don’t think you were there. You weren’t looking at the camera. You were looking at me.”

“I don’t see a scar.”

“What?”

Peter pulls back his hand.

“It is kind of dark out, so that could be why.”

“Wha…” Peter holds his hands up to the twinkle lights in the willow branches above the bench. He shakes his head. “This doesn’t make sense.”

“Deja vu.” You whisper.

Peter’s hands fall from inspection, he rubs his fingers together at his sides. “What did you say? Did you say Deja vu?”

“Yeah. I’ve— I’ve been here before. This has happened before. With you. What’s happening?”

Peter sits back down next to you on the bench, grabbing your upper arms with insistence. “Are you messing with me again? Are you screwing with my head?” He’s breathing fast. He looks scared.

“No! No, I swear Peter. This just… feels so familiar. Do you feel it? The smell in the air, the champagne bottles popping, you checking your hands in the light, the kiss in the gazebo… what’s happening? What does it mean that I’ve felt this before?”

Peter lets go of your arms and runs his thumbs across the smooth insides of his knuckles. “It means… it means it’s elastic. This timeline is still alive. I’m not in a loop, I’m not in a dead end. Something is happening… or something will happen. Either way, we’re all still breathing…” Peter laughs quietly for a few moments before silencing himself with his own hand. “Somewhere, somehow, in the past 20 minutes or so, a vortex was formed— a shift in the timeline.”

“What does that mean? Is that good or bad?”

Peter shakes his head. “I don’t know. We—us in the future—don’t even fully understand it. It’s a technology we discovered from elsewhere in the universe. I’ve been thinking lately that we don’t have the receptive capacity to understand the dimensionality. Like trying to conceptualize a tesseract.”

“What are you doing here? Still trying to save the world?”

“No. That window closed. Or at least, I thought it had.”

“So your window is closed. You didn’t succeed?”

He stares into your eyes for several beats. He thinks about December 31st in Rome. How he waited on platform 23 at the piazza di Spagna until the last train came it at near midnight. And how he walked around the Villa Borghese alone when security shooed him away from the station, he walked back to the red tiled hotel alone. A doomed mission. He must’ve passed at least a dozen kissing couples that night ringing in the new year.

“No. I didn’t. I’m sorry.” His apology feels personal.

“It’s okay.” You say with a small voice, placing a hand on his knee. “So, now what? Do you go back, to your original time, the future?”

“Can’t go back. Can’t go anywhere. Even if I could, there’s no one to retrieve me.”

“So you just live out the rest of your days here in 2023 onward?”

Peter bites his lip and looks out over the pond. “Yeah.”

“What happens when baby Peter Roiter is born?”

“You’re too quick, you know that?” Peter snorts and shakes his head.

“I watch a lot of sci-fi movies,” you smile, shouldering off your lavender shawl and pointing out your tattoo. “See. It’s a—“

“DeLorean.” He traces his finger over the small line drawing tattoo.

“A 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 to be exact.” You grin proudly.

Peter swallows and traces his finger down your bare arm, making your hairs raise.

“You got it the day of your 18th birthday. You had a fight with your father and you got it on a whim. You were so angry at your father that you cried when you got it and when the tattoo artist asked if you needed a break from the pain you said—“

“How do you know this, Peter, you’re scaring me.”

“You said, I’ve had worse.”

“Peter—“

“I know you. We’ve been here before. This bench. The lights, the way they glow on your skin.” He swipes the side of your face lightly with the back of his unblemished hand.” He gulps. “I kiss you on the gazebo by the pond, I kiss you under a willow tree far away from the house, I—“ he shifts closer, his forehead nearly touching your own. “I carry you like a bride up the stairs and I kiss you in a room with golden leaves on the ceiling.”

You shift closer to him, your noses touching.

“Don’t you remember?” He asks, cupping your cheek. “No matter where I go. There you are. Entanglement.”

“I remember.” You nod. “Tell me, Peter. Tell me what happens when you’re born.”

Peter cradles your face in both of his hands and pulls back a fraction of an inch, eyes flickering between your own before he sighs and shuts them in a near grimace.

“I die.” He kisses you. And its so different from the kiss on the gazebo. Your little lie, your little trick in back there that got him to kiss you the first time. A lie— or so you thought at the time. Something made you say it to him you’re sure of that now. The deception was compulsory. It wasn’t why you led him out at the time. But now it its.

As sure as he knows the date of his own birth, he knows he will die. In almost exactly 13 months. Or sometime before; but never after. They didn’t teach him every facet at The Project, mainly due to their own ignorance; and he wouldn’t have to face his demise if he had only taken himself to the extraction point… but that had been out of the question. And what is he doing now? With you on this bench? 100 yards from his newlywed parents. This is a new dream he is fulfilling, the erasure of his scar, these new-old memories, the fulfillment of a loop.

Your silk shoes abandoned in the grass, he scoops up your knees onto his lap, he holds your face so tenderly and kisses you, and kisses you, and kisses you beneath the willow tree.

He carries you like a bride to your bedroom at the top of the stairs. If any party stragglers notice you, you aren’t aware. You cling to Peter with your face buried in his neck, holding to his broad shoulders, your bare toes make brushing contact with the walls of the stairwell as you ascend. You don’t need to tell him which room is yours, he’s been here before hasn’t he? You certainly have. In a dream. In another life.

He lays you gently on the bed, kissing up your ankles, sliding the satin of your sheath dress up your legs as he goes, crawling up and up and up you, his lips trailing over the rise of your knees with abject devotion. His strong hands splay and scoop under your dress, under your hips, to grab your lace panties. He looks into your eyes from where he kisses the crest of your thigh when he slides the material down your legs and tosses them to the floor.

“How could I have forgotten you?” He whispers with a longing against your skin, pushing your dress up until it pools in a satin puddle at your middle. He kisses the tip of your hipbone before he settles between your thighs, his stubble scratches pleasantly at the sensitive flesh when he runs his nose along the junction of your hip and thigh.

Cradling your hips in his palms, he shrugs your legs over his shoulders. He’s still fully dressed, the only disrobing he did of himself was the grey jacket abandoned on the the back of the far-table chair in the reception hall downstairs, and the blue tie he loosened and discarded somewhere near your panties. His disguise.

He crawls up further onto the bed to fully press his face into your sex. He latches onto your puffy cunt with his kiss-swollen lips and licks you open with messy, savoring swirls of his tongue. His mouth hot and slick, chin and nose pressing into you with a rocking hungry motion. You don’t intend to cry out at the sensation but he’s making love to you with his mouth like it isn’t the first time and you have no choice but to strangle your own keen of pleasure and fully and gracelessly recline on the bed, the prop of your elbows unable to hold you up through the slick furnace of pleasure that is Peter Roiter’s mouth.

You scrunch your eyes closed and bite your bottom lip when his tongue focuses in on your clit, hot mouth still sealed around your pussy, he lathes you with stern and steady lashings to your point of pleasure. Your hands fist in the pool, of silk at your belly. He sighs hotly into you and works his own fingers through yours, loosening your grasping hands from your dress. He laces all his fingers flush with yours, soothing the sides of your palms with his thumbs.

He never stops the hot assault of your spread sex with his tongue. Your grass stained heels rest lightly on the taut warm linen of his dress shirt. You can feel the way the muscles back there flex, your feet sliding every so slightly when his hips buck gently into the mattress. You don’t open your eyes until you’re desperately close to cumming in his mouth and when you look up all you can see are flashes of gold.

Your hips lift off the mattress with the arch of your back and the contraction of your thighs. You let out a long low keen and his face tilts up to follow your clit, sucking you lovingly, his hands gripping more tightly to your own than ever before.

“Peter,” your lips tremble, you slowly open your clamped shut eyes.

There it is. The gold leaf ceiling glinting in warm yellow light. Just as he said. Just as your remember. You stare dazedly at it and you know in less than a moment Peter will crawl up your shaking sweating body and place a kiss on your lips. He does. You grab him by his thick curls and push and pull and twist him in a debauched kiss till he’s flat on his back and you’re on top. His mouth is hot and sticky and so, so giving.

He runs his hands lightly over the open back of your dress. You only unbuckle him enough, and shimmy his trousers midway down his thighs, to get him inside of you. When you sink down on him he holds your forehead against his and gasps in disbelief.

“I—“ He chokes, catching his breath and fighting his eyes rolling back so he can get a good look at you when you take him all the way down.

“What?” You smile, stroking his cheek.

“I— I’ve missed you. Ahh.” He grabs you hard then, sitting up slightly and clawing your dress strap down so he can bite and suck the softest parts of your chest.

You cradle his head there, grinding into his lap slowly, gasping softly at the feel of him inside you.

“You won’t disappear, will you?” You whisper in a daze of pleasure.

No, he chants against your breast.

“No, no, no. I can’t lose you.” He holds you tight to him like he means it.

Peter has pulled the top of your dress down to your waist now and his hands roam freely over your back, plotting the elevated terrain of your shoulders, the valley between your breasts, and the maps of rivers at your wrists.

He lays fully back down and takes you with him. You smile against his kiss.

“Getting tired, old man?”

“Mmm, I’m younger than you—technically— negative one years old next month.” He bites your ear. You laugh. He thrusts up into you. You moan and clutch him by his clothed shoulders.

Peter cups your cheek in his hand. The one with the missing scar. You turn your face to kiss his unblemished palm. You rock on him slowly, his mouth parts in bliss.

“Does this mean anything can change at any time?” You ask, glancing at the inside of his hand.

“Yes but that’s always been a given.” Cheeky.

“No, I don’t mean just anything. I’m not talking about normal changes, I concerned about—“

“Dissolving out of a photograph? Ceasing to exist?” He teases, flicking your tattoo.

“Or Chuck Berry never writing Johnny B. Goode?”

“Who?” Peter delivers in convincing deadpan curiosity before breaking out into a beautiful grin.

You pinch his side. “Rat.” You can feel the intensity of his jerking response to the pinch where he’s buried warmly inside you.

Peter nods, “I don’t know. I hate saying that I don’t know and I hate that worried little look on your face, but I promise that it doesn’t change anything. We are here and like it or not the only thing certain is change.”

“The mortal agreement.”

“There is one thing I do know. No matter what I change, no matter where I go. I find you. Even when I send you away, you bounce back. Right back into my arms. A less scientifically minded man might think that love has it’s own special inter-dimensional set of physics. We just… keep extracting entropy from a closed system. No matter how hard I break the billiards they fly right back to the center of the table in formation. Not always in the same order, but… still… accounted for. I thought it was fragile, like butterfly wings, you know? But I’m learning it’s durable. It’s elastic, alive. And you always bounce back.”

“Sounds less like time travel and more like pattern reconfiguration.”

Peter tucks your hair behind your ear and drinks in your face, nodding thoughtfully. “Everything you say. Everything you’ve said. It’s all like something that’s on the tip of my tongue.”

You grin, bending over him, taking his pretty face in your hands, you kiss him and suck his tongue into your mouth, bobbing your mouth on the tip of it suggestively, “is it?” You smile. He’s still hard in you. You hope he never stops. This is how you should have every conversation about everything from here on out. Joined together, the beast with two backs as Shakespeare would say.

“I don’t want to cum.” He groans into your mouth, “when I cum I’ll have to stop being inside you, and I don’t want that, I want to live inside you.”

Call it the contrarian in you, but the admission only makes you want to force it out of him against his will. To make him fall apart precisely because he said he was trying his best to keep it together.

You clench, ride him, and moan into his ear until he’s nearly tapping out from ecstasy and when he comes he calls your name.

“Oh no.” You gasp, looking around worriedly.

“What? What is it?” Peter halfway sits up, adrenaline opening his eyes fully.

“Do you think your parents heard us?” You grin teasingly.

Peter sighs with relief and shakes his head, kissing your cheek and crushing you against his chest in a hug.

You don’t worry about tonight, the shoes you left outside, the rented jacket in the reception hall, or what will transpire in the next 13 months. Everything will bounce back in the end.

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

Tagging everyone who interacted with the post asking who was interested in this Peter Roiter fic:

@ozarkthedog @toracainz @mundivagantsoul @ominoose @astroboots @orestesimp @spacecowboyhotch @steven-grants-world @convrsation16 @onefinnedwonder-fm @grumpyeagleandfriends @miguellohara @winchestershiresauce @user215sstuff @greg-drunk @poeedameronn @piptoost @danilovesyarn @toracainz @red-hydra @motleyfolk @ladywillowgrey @munasolid @karoblaer @theaterm @howellatme @mistaknight @dailyreverie @guruan @lunar-ghoulie

Usernames that have been crossed out, I was unable to tag, check your tumblr settings to receive tag alerts.

#Case 63 #Peter Roiter x you #Peter Roiter x Reader #Oscar Isaac #fanfiction #fan fiction #reader insert #self insert

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bulkhummus · 11 months

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some opinions on the latest arc and episode 230

While there are some things I enjoyed about this new episode and arc, it felt rushed. I hate to be critical of a show I love, but we all know the level of work they're able to produce, and the hype around this arc felt like it deserved more than the effort it seemed to receive. I of course thoroughly enjoyed a bit of background on Carlos (and some of the fun stuff the episode did) but getting over the shock value of this information left me feeling conflicted. I think what it comes down to is two things. The arc was rushed, and the things that have just have naturally progressed did not.

They didn't give any of the hard hitting moments enough planning/time/space to have the impact they could have had. We did not see any of the build up of Carlos becoming fed up with Janet and the University. All of a sudden he was. We did not have time to feel conflicted about Carlos leaving town for an unknown reason. All of a sudden he did (and returned mid episode). Cecil's town, the very thing he exists for, is literally nearly gone and he doesn't give us an ounce of poetry or prose to describe how he's feeling? On his radio show? We're just told that it is. This episode in particular just felt like people talking at me instead of telling me a story. The only moment that I felt held any weight, that moved me as a piece of writing, was the moment the child of the glow cloud outwardly processed their grief that their parent would not be returning and implications about predecessors taking on the role/title of those that died which is very interesting (for Carlos, for Cecil, as a concept in general). I, quite frankly, don't care about what they THINK science and life is. Show me through actions they take that demonstrates it. Show me through action and progression.

It has never been more apparent to me than this episode that they write episode by episode instead of considering the full scope of an arc and what it means for their characters. If you are going to adapt the structure of your show to write a mini arc, you can't approach it the same way. And they KNOW this. Writing episode to episode is a delight when its new stories and one offs and bits and pieces. Writing an arc implies some sort of episode to episode progression of a building plot. They've done it before, beautifully even (Of Love and Horror, Egemony, A Matter of Blood, the Lee Marvin episodes to name just a few) and yet this arc was disjointed and felt flat. I've read their books. I've read other things they've written. They're capable of adapting stories into a more "linear" plot with an unreliable narrator. The writers just didn't give it the time and space needed to develop a story that felt natural.

Which leads me to my next point. Natural progression. I've said before I have never once looked to Night Vale for any sort of continuity (it's a show that defies it which I LOVE) but there is a difference between continuity and being sloppy. It doesn't work when half of your arc seems to be you trying to figure out what the hell you're trying to say. A lot of the major points in this latest episode were directly contradictory. We were introduced with the idea that Carlos was sort of afraid of Janet and by her being there. All of a sudden, with no moment that tips him over the edge shown, he stands up to her because he was arrested? We were introduced to the idea that Carlos was deemed a failure by the university, and yet the scientists were quick to leave Lubelle's side in the end. The town was showing clear disdain for him, and not one character stepped up to offer some delicious conflict and tell Carlos it'd be better if he left? To his face? I don't even want to delve into the handling of Blakes character, because quite frankly, he did nothing for the plot because he was tossed back and forth between writers to do what they wanted him to do in that episode (is he against janet, with her? does he hate Carlos? like Carlos? which is it? its not unreliable narration) The arc was framed by Carlos' time spent at the University, about him becoming a Night Vale citizen in his literal anniversary speech about living ten years in Night Vale, and yet, there was no satisfying exploration (I'm not even asking for direct REASONS) as to why he might have left, why he never went back, or any of his involvement there. Saying it was all about love just... Isn't enough for me. Not when Carlos hasn't interacted with his town to demonstrate that life he's built, or how much its hurting him that they're rejecting him again. Not an ounce of how this has effect he and Cecil's relationship (again, Cecil is a chronic over sharer).

It slowly became less about delving into Carlos as a character and his relationship to this town, and processing perhaps grief from the DOW, and more about the shock value of losing beloved characters with no satisfying consequence or action. And then there was little things, specifically in this episode 230. If Janet announces something and it's framed in a way that it should upset Cecil (her telling him about the DOW) then he should have some sort of response to it. Even one line. Nothing. On HIS radio show. Not even a pause where it's made known that he HEARD her.

The whole arc just felt like it was trying to do much and gave itself a time restraint. They are the writers AND producers. No one is forcing them to stay within an episode limit. Especially not when it was hindering their ability to tell a good story.

And I think that's the kicker for me. It didn't feel like an episode of Night Vale. Sure they've played with format before, but this episode (230) didn't even remember that the show is built around Cecil telling stories. Even the episodes that have played with format/structure in the past have involved Cecil telling a story. Through his perspective. Voice appearances always offered some sort of relief to his bias as an unreliable narrator. There are so many interesting ways to incorporate voices instead of just some weird back and forth between two characters. Frame it as an on air interview where Cecil can't get a word in. Frame it as angry voicemails. Have Carlos tell us he's leaving via voice memo, and Cecil dealing with that ON AIR. Stop explaining what is happening and SHOW Us. You expect me to believe, a show that is so heavily influenced by its narrator time and time again, that Cecil was not angry? Was not heart broken? Was not begging Carlos for answers about anything at all? Annoying need to know everything anxiety riddled Cecil Palmer?

They're good writers. And I don't expect every episode to be like, life changing, but again, with an arc that was so heavily anticipated by everyone for so many years, it feels like a disservice to create a story that feels so thoroughly at odds with itself in tone and direction. I hate to sound so critical because I LOVE Night Vale with my whole heart, you guys know I do, but I can be critical of it when it's merited too. And I will continue loving it despite being critical, but I just wished the writers would slow down and maybe, I don't know, read some of their old episodes. And who knows! Maybe it's not over. Lubelle is not confirmed dead, Carlos having an interest in the DOW still is concerning, his parent was mentioned as some point of interest etc etc etc. Like there's a lot they can still do with it, but they just have to, you know, do it.

#sorry if this got a little rambly its real late by me #I just was really hoping they weren't going to rush the ending of this #and it felt like it WAS and ending #even if it wasnt #I just love Carlos so much #wtnv #welcome to night vale #wtnv spoilers

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iamvegorott · 4 months

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What about Marvelsepticeye for the flower giving? Jackie getting Marvin flowers would probably be interesting XD

Jackie stepped out of the flower shop with a little bouquet in his hands. Some red, orange, and white tulips were wrapped and tied with a green bow.

“Should I get a card?” Jackie asked himself as he took his phone out. “That might be weird.” He added to himself.

He and Marvin had dinner plans at Marvin’s place, and while it wasn’t an anniversary or holiday or anything special, Jackie felt like getting Marvin a little gift.

“Shit!” Jackie cursed when he saw the time and that he had a missed call from Marvin. “Time to take a detour.” He lifted his hood over his head before slipping into an alley, calling Marvin as he climbed up the side of the building.

“Do we need to reschedule?” Marvin said when he answered the phone.

“Nah, nah. I’m on my way as we speak.” Jackie started running, jumping across the roofs.

“Please tell me you’re not building leaping while on the phone.” Marvin sighed.

“What? No. I’m just, like, jogging.” Jackie fumbled over his few steps after landing on a sloped roof.

“Honey, you are a terrible liar.” Marvin clicked his tongue.

“I am no-ah!” Jackie’s shoes didn’t have enough traction, and he slipped. He rolled off the roof, landed on the closed lid of a dumpster, and rolled some more until he was down on the ground.

“Jackie? Jackie, are you okay?” Marvin asked. Jackie grunted a little as he sat up, feeling a little sore but mostly unscathed. He put the phone back to his ear and softly chuckled.

“I’m always okay.”

“You fell, didn’t you?”

“Technically, I rolled.” Jackie stood, hugging the bouquet to his chest, and stepped out of the alley, looking around to scheme up his next mode of transport.

“Would you just walk the rest of the way here like an average person?”

“But that’s so slow.”

“Jackie.” Marvin’s voice was a warning, but that flew right over Jackie’s head as he saw a large bus coming down the road.

“I’ll be over soon.”

“What are you-” Marvin’s question got cut off by Jackie hanging up.

With an almost too-excited chuckle and grin, Jackie took off for the bus. He caught up to it fairly quickly and, gripping the bouquet very tightly, grabbed the back of it and climbed up until he was sitting on top. He had a prideful gleam as he crossed his legs and rode along, watching the roads and reading the street signs until he saw the name of Marvin’s street.

“This is my stop.” Jackie hummed and stood up. “Thank you, bus driver.” He waved at the bus before bouncing off of the bus and landing on the street. “Marv’s place is over-” Jackie yelped and stumbled back, nearly avoiding getting hit by a car. “Rude.” He finally took the hint to get out of the road when several cars honked.

Jackie jogged to Marvin’s front door and knocked. While he waited, he finally looked down at his flowers, and his eyes widened. The bouquet was not able to handle the fall, the climb, and the scramble from the street. There was only one orange tulip remaining, standing straight as if by either magic or spite.

“You really need to-are those flowers?” Marvin’s sass became a question, and he put a hand over his mouth to try to hold back a giggle.

“These are why I’m late, but…they-uh-they didn’t like the trip.” Jackie weakly laughed.

“Well, if someone would just walk or take the inside of the bus, more than one little guy would make it.” Marvin teased and took the surviving tulip. “But it’s still very sweet.” He added as he tucked the flower behind his ear and kissed Jackie’s cheek. “Thank you.” Jackie just did a little goofy giggle and looked like a love-struck puppy. “Come on, dinner’s getting cold.” Marvin playfully rolled his eyes and tugged Jackie into his place by his hand, closing the door as soon as he was in.

----------

@bookwormscififan @brokentimewatch

#anon #marvelsepticeye #flower gift blurb #veggie writes #jackie is such a goof and i love him XD

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huffle-dork · 17 days

Text

Swap Across the CrystalVerse Chapter 18: The Bad End

Read Swapboys | Crystal’s AUs| You've reached a Bad End (Also on AO3!)

Read SITCV | SATCV Masterpost | AO3 Link

The sun has truly set by this point, and the street lamps are the only source of light. This is a street of shops, some of which are opened but many of which are closed. Chase had explained to the visitors that the city issued a curfew a while ago and that was why people were rarely out.

Bro lingers outside a technology shop, its display window filled with monitors. The others huddle in an alleyway across the street, with Raven using their invisibility spell to hide them.

Bro anxiously watches the streets, eyes flickering back and forth as he tries to look for any sign of... well anything. All while trying to look casual while scrolling on his phone. But, he's not taking anything in. His stomach is churning uneasily. His instincts are going crazy- constantly shouting at him that something is wrong. He has to try to make this convincing though... just enough to throw this awful Anti off guard.

"Chase! Other Chase!" Jack's voice comes from right next to him.

Bro startles and nearly drops his phone, but just manages to catch it. "J-Jack?!" he whispers in confusion. "I... I thought you were gonna stay with Alt-"

"I'm sorry," Jack gasps out. "I-I'm sorry, I-I tried to help, I tried to--but they--they got to him, Chase, th-they got to him, h-he's under their control now, he's coming here, he's going to--"

"What?!" Bro gasps, his blood going cold and dread gripping his heart. "No no- no...!" He looks around in panic, "H-How soon?!"

"I-I don't know. Pretty soon?" Jack guesses. "Time is weird in the Place. Your villain is coming too, M-Magnificent? Other than that i-it's Voice and Error. I could--I could try to uncorrupt them, but it usually takes a while, you'd still have three others to deal with, a-and obviously I-I can't deal with Magnificent."

"I wouldn't want you to deal with him..." Bro mutters. "We can handle him... it's the others I'm worried about. And now... A...Alt-" He swallows thickly, his body feeling heavy. "... r-remind me what I need to know about the corrupted. They... they don't feel pain, right?"

"They don't," Jack confirms. "They're stronger and faster, but you're some sort of superhero so they may not be stronger or faster than you. They all have a handful of special abilities. Voice can conjure knives from nothing and stop time on anything he touches, and Error has these sharp glitches all around him that can cut you. I-I don't know what Alt can do. I saw him also conjure a knife but that might just be something he can do normally? I-in Marvin's case he kept his magic after being corrupted, it just changed slightly, I-I bet that's what's happened with Alt."

"Y-Yeah he could do that before... Okay... I... I can deal with his magic." Bro pushes his hair back and breathes out a shaky sigh. Then he angrily smacks the back of a fist against the glass behind him. "Fucking bastards-! Our plan basically does nothing now... we just are here like sitting fucking ducks-!"

"What? Oh. Because I was supposed to get him out during the distraction," Jack whispers, sounding guilty. "I'm sorry. But, uh, at least you'll be able to take them off guard? I don't think they're expecting a superhero."

"Pfft... yeah... maybe." Bro sighs, massaging out his wrists. "The second I see that motherfucking Anti, I'm punching him into oblivion. I want him to fucking feel it for hurting my brother...."

"Well, technically you'd be punching Voice, he is like me and can't be touched," Jack says. "But I'm sure JJ wouldn't mind. He hates him."

“‘Course he is- fucking cheater.” Bro mutters, “JJ didn’t do this so it’s not satisfying to punch him….”

"Well, if it comes down to punching Voice or getting stabbed, I'm sure he'd understand," Jack comments. "H-hang on, I'm gonna tell Chase and the others about all this."

“Okay…” Bro sighs, clenching and unclenching his fists- looking out for trouble.

He doesn’t have to wait long. Only a few minutes later— WHOOSH! Something comes streaming through the air towards him.

Bro is caught so off guard- he’s almost able to dodge but the knife sinks into his lower calf and he cries out and falls to a knee.

Someone laughs. Down the street, he sees a man standing there, all colorless except for the red strings around his wrists. He gives Bro a little wave. "Hello, Chase. It's been a while. Did you think I wouldn't notice? Or did you think your friends there would protect you?

Bro staggers to his feet and glares at the monochrome man. But then he grins, his eyes glowing blue. “Oh no- we were hoping you’d notice. I have something for you, bitch!” He kicks off the ground with a burst of speed and goes to try to punch him in the face.

However, Off to the side, Magnificent appears and blasts Bro off course with a burst of magic.

Bro shouts and goes skipping across the road for a second before he pushes himself back up. “M-Mag?!”

“Hello Fantastic! Almost didn’t recognize you~” Mag giggles, “did you forget about me?”

“Honestly I’d hope you’d give us less trouble considering we saved your sorry ass!” Bro shouts at Mag.

Magnificent just giggles with a shrug. “And miss all this chaos? You don’t even know me~”

Voice's eyes widen and he steps to the side--but his dodge proves unnecessary as Magnificent appears. Anti laughs. "Oh! Clever, but you're rushing a bit, aren't you? Hello, CHASE. Nice to meet you." He pulls a knife out of nowhere and lunges for Bro.

Across the street, Error is leading Byte to the alleyway where the group is hiding.

Byte excitedly clings to Error- ironic considering how they were not too long ago. “Do you see them??” He whispers.

"I don't see them," Error whispers, taking a blade out of his pocket. "But I can hear them." In the alleyway are faint footsteps and rustling of clothes."There!" Error shouts, jumping forward knife-first.

Raven yelps and drops the invisibility spell. They shout something--or sing? It sounds musical--and sends out a bolt of blue magic.

Byte glitches out of the way and laughs wildly. “Magician! Hehehe I’m one too! you’ll be fun to fight!”

Jackie gasps as the fight starts and sees Byte talk. “N-No…! Alt?!”

Byte turns towards Jackie and grins, wide and manic. “That’s not my name anymore! Now it’s Byte!” He giggles and glitches back and forth before stopping, appearing right in front of Jackie.

Jackie shivers as he sees his unnatural glitching eyes.

“Hold on J̵a̴a̷a̶a̴c̴k̶i̷e̴e̷e̴ ~ I’ll come fight you in a second!” Byte whispers then just as fast as he came he skids in front of Raven and laughs. He tries to wave out magic at them- but finds that he can’t. He blinks and looks at his hand in confusion. But then he shrugs, finding he can still make his knives as he goes to lunge at Raven.

Raven yelps, starts to say something that causes a flickering blue shield to form--but Byte is too fast, and his knife slashes through the shield and across Raven's chest. They gasp and stagger back, and someone else lunges forward, waving a knife.

Meanwhile, a gunshot rings out.

The bullet whizzes right past Error, whose eyes lock onto where it came. He grins. "Hey, Eyes! So you're here anyway!"

Chase aims his gun at Error, hands shaking slightly. "I-I-I know this won't hurt you," he says, "but I'm still sorry." He shoots again.

Bro focuses back on Anti and yells in surprise, trying to block the knife by making an x over his chest- but his knife easily slices across them. Bro bites back a pained noise then grits his teeth. He hops into the air then uses the momentum of coming from above to try to punch Anti even harder.

Anti dodges out of the way, leaping to the side. "Impressive--but too slow!" he laughs, and tries to grab Bro from behind.

Bro ducks and then tries to sweep out his leg to knock Anti over.

Another dodge, as Anti just barely steps over Bro's sweeping leg. He growls, a raspy, angry sound, and tries to grab him again.

Bro leaps into the air and hovers out of Anti’s reach. He growls, a dangerous light in his eyes. He builds up power again and tries to kick him from high up.

Anti sidesteps easily, laughing. "All that power and yet--!" He conjures another blade and throws it towards Bro.

The blade slices across Bro's side and he cries out and then growls at Anti. "Y-You won't win this. Fucker- I'm not gonna let you get away with hurting my brother!" He yells, building up power in both of his fists as he launches himself at Anti and tries to tackle him to the ground.

If Mag still needed to eat, he'd be eating popcorn on the sidelines right now- delighted by all of this.

Back in the alley, Byte’s eyes light up, both figuratively and actually as he sees Raven get cut. He laughs wildly and lunges to try to grab them again but gets stabbed by someone else. He looks down at the knife in his shoulder then giggles, “That doesn’t hurt! That’s fun! My t̵u̸r̷n̶!” He flips his knife and aims to slash at their neck.

Error stumbles back as the bullet hits him, but quickly recovers and lunges forward, grabbing Chase. "Come on, Eyes! Think about what you're doing! You wanted this!"

"N-no!" Chase gasps. "You don't--don't understand! I didn't--I just--"

"Come back," Error whispers, almost sounding like he's pleading with him. Chase hesitates--and then Byte attacks one of the team.

The man jerks backwards, letting out a strangled scream as a bleeding line appears across his throat.

Byte laughs wildly as the blood appears.

"No!" Raven gasps, grabbing him before he falls backwards. They close their eyes and start singing something under their breath, blue light wrapping around the wound.

As Raven grabs the man Byte yells in anger, “Hey! I wasn’t d̵o̷n̵e̶ ̵y̶e̸t̷!̷”

Chase gasps and rushes over, yanking his arm free of Error's grip, and attacks Byte from behind, trying to hit his head with the butt of the gun.

Byte tries to lunge after them- but senses Chase behind him. He glitches back around and catches his elbow and throws him back into the wall, grinning ear to ear. “Oh!! You’re Chase! Other Chase- not mine! Ohhh… I wanna kill you but Anti said not to.” He pouts slightly then flips his knife around. “I’ll try to keep you in o̷n̵e̸ ̵p̸i̷e̴c̷e̵ ̸ then~!” He tries to stab Chase in the stomach.

Being up this close- Chase can see… something that’s crawling along Byte’s skin. It’s black and glowing- a mass of what looks like purple and green veins but- it almost looks like… it’s shifting. Sometimes looking like ones and zeros- sometimes ending in a circuit pattern. It doesn’t seem like Byte is aware of it- it’s mostly on his neck- but it’s starting to peek out from beneath his sleeve. It feels… dangerous.

Chase's eyes widen, momentarily distracted by the strange pattern thing, but comes back to his senses in time to lunge to the side, barely avoiding the knife as it scrapes across the wall where he'd been standing.

"Be careful, Byte!" Error shouts, punching back one of the others as they try to attack him. Another one lunges for him and he spins around, slashing their stomach.

"Aw! But you got to slice that guy!" Byte whines. He flashes his eyes towards Chase and giggles as he tries to grab him again.

But, suddenly Jackie come out of nowhere and tackles Byte to the side. He holds him down by his shoulders, breathing heavily. "A-Alt! C'mon dude- snap it of this! This isn't you!"

Byte squirms but just laughs in Jackie's face. "Yes it is! It's me! This is how I wanna be i̴n̷n̴n̷s̴i̵d̴e̷e̵e̷~!" He giggles darkly. He tilts his head at Jackie as if studying him before he grabs him and pulls him close, grinning wide and manic. "Anti said I could kill you- so maybe I will!" He glitches out of Jackie's grip and then appears behind him, stabbing him in the back and driving him into the ground by his foot.

Jackie screams while Byte laughs loudly, stepping on the fresh wound. "Hehehe! You're not very strong are you~? That was too easy!"

Chase's head snaps to the side. His eyes widen and he tries rushing for Alt again--but Error tackles him from behind, knocking him away.

On the street, Anti tries to dodge but Bro's flying is faster than he can run. He gets knocked to the ground, Bro pinning him to the sidewalk.

"How devoted," he spits. "I'm so GLAD he has someone like you, REALLY." He wraps a hand around Bro's wrist.

Bro grits his teeth, raising his wrist to start punching the snot out of Anti. Even though Bro's wrist feels stiff where Anti grabbed onto it. His skin and the cuff of his jacket sleeve are turning shades of gray, slowly spreading.

Then, his head snaps to the sound of Jackie screaming. He pales and completely abandons Anti- going to tackle Byte to the ground. "H-Hey! What the fuck are you-?!" He cuts himself as his breath is knocked away- seeing first hand what being corrupted has done to Alt. "No... no A-Alt...!"

Byte squirms and glares at Bro with hatred. "That's not my N̸A̴M̷E̶!" He kicks Bro off of him- and the hero is too stunned to see it coming.

He flies off and Byte glitches to his feet, studying Bro with a tilt of his head. He grins again, laughing. "Oh! You're the spare!! You're the Chase Anti said I can kill!" His grin turns deadly as his eyes glow brighter. "G̸o̸o̴d̴.̴ I wanna see how a hero bleeds~!" He glitches back and forth across the alley and then appears on top of Bro, ready to stab the knife into his chest.

But, then- he suddenly cries out in pain and clutches at his neck- his knife cracking into glitches as he crashes to the ground. His body glitches wildly- now tainted with purple and green light.

Bro blinks in confusion and then hurries to kneel down by him. "A-Alt?"

"W-W-Why did that h-h-hurt?!" Byte pants out, his voice jittering and breaking like a broken computer. He's holding a hand over the corruption. Bro can see the black mass now solidly on Alt's hand and growing- glowing brightly. "I-I'm not sss-s-supposed to f̸-̵f̷e̶e̷l̸ ̷that...!"

Error is trying to drag Chase down the street, but he stops when he hears Byte cry out. He immediately looks over. "Byte... it... hurt?" he whispers, confused.

While Error is distracted Chase easily slips out of his grip, getting farther away but looking back at Byte and Bro in concern.

Jackie has been trying to push himself up and then crashing back down as moving makes his back flare up in agony.

While everyone else is distracted, Raven rushes for Jackie and starts singing that same soft song. Blue light covers the stab wound, slowly healing it.

Jackie sighs in relief as Raven heals him and can finally push himself up. He feels his back and then smiles at them. "T-Thank you..." He turns back to the chaos with wide eyes.

Anti also gets to his feet, rushing across the street after Bro, but stops once he sees the coloring on Byte's skin glow. "What is that?" he gasps, and looks back at Mag. "Magnificent? Do you know?"

Byte is glitching like crazy, gripping at his neck as that weird corruption spreads even more. He glances up at Error and Anti and tries to reach out to them. "A-A-Anti! Err-rror-! H̴-̸H̶e̷l̸p̸!̶"

Magnificent teleports over and kneels down by Alt.

"G-Get away from him!" Bro tries to shout.

Mag pushes him back and looks at Byte's neck. He's eyes widen and he looks at Anti- "I... I'm not sure. It looks sorta like the corruption I do... but it definitely isn't."

Byte reaches out and grabs onto Mag- "M-Magnificent...!"

Mag cries out as he's grabbed- the corrupted virus quickly spreading onto his wrist now too. He pries himself away from Byte and clutches at his wrist. It burns-! Magnificent himself seems to glitch like Alt- but not in any way he can control. He shouts out in pain, his voice sounding corrupted and digital now too. "W-What the fuck is this?!"

Bro backs away from Alt and Mag with wide eyes. He hardly notices his stiff and graying wrist.

Error and Anti are staring in horror. "It... it's going to be okay, Byte," Error says. He hesitantly walks forward. "We just need to--"

Suddenly, Anti grabs Error, pulling him back with wide eyes.

"Wh--Anti, we need to--"

"Don't get close," Anti hisses, backing up and pulling Error with him.

"But he needs--"

"Don't get close!" Anti snaps. "We're not getting infected with that!" He drags Error down the street, well out of range.

Jack, previously lingering to the side, steps forward, going past Chase and towards Alt. 'I... maybe I can...' But he hesitates.

Byte looks at Anti with betrayal in his eyes. Then he growls, unsteadily glitching to his feet and trying to go after him. "Y-Y-You did this to m̵e̶-̶!̶ You can't l-l-leave me like this!" His voice is caught between desperation and anger. "Anti- p̶l̵e̴a̷s̸e̶!̵"

Anti flinches a little at Byte's words.

Bro tries to grab Alt by the hoodie to hold him, "A-Alt! You can't go back to him- please just...! We can find a way to fix this!"

Byte whips on Bro and growls, grabbing his wrist and throwing him back. "STOP CALLING ME T̸H̸A̴T̴!̶"

Bro cries out and grips at his wrist, the same thing that happened to Magnificent, happening with him- except so much faster and more severe. It eats up at his face, turning his sclera green as he gasps and cries out- his body glitching and corrupting. He staggers back then falls into a glitching heap, jerking like he's being shocked.

"Chase!" Jackie cries and pushes past anyone in his way as he crashes down next to Bro.

Byte's eyes widen as he glitches back. The spirals in his eyes flicker slightly. "C-Chase...?" Alt whispers.

Error reaches out--but then the infection spreads to Bro, and Anti grabs him, pulling him back. He turns and runs, dragging Error with him, who just can't bring himself to fight him.

Magnificent is curled up on the ground and just barely sees Anti and Error running. "C-Cowards-!" He yells after them before crying out as more glitches take over and force him to curl up more.

"Chase!" Chase gasps, rushing forward. "I--other me, a-are you okay?!"

Bro doesn't seem like he can hear anyone, screaming as the corruption tears into his body- static tears race down his cheeks. His cries crack and fizzle like a broken machine as his body glitches painfully and he presses his face into the ground, trying to find some kind of relief.

Raven also rushes over. They reach out for Bro, but Chase grabs their wrist, stopping them. "N-no wait, we have to be careful," he says. "We d-don't know how it spreads!"

Jackie wants to help but he's also scared of catching this. He looks up to Alt and pleads. "A-Alt please! You need to wake up! You have to f-fix this!"

Byte is breathing heavy, static and white noise roaring in his ears. He cries out as another wave hits him too, making him curl up and grab his stomach. He can feel it- it's spreading fast across his body. He's scared- he's been abandoned and he's alone and he hurt-!

Jack gasps and rushes forward. 'Alt? Alt, can you hear me?!' he asks.

...no- no he's not alone. Byte sees the white glow from Jack and his eyes widen. "J...Jack...?"

'Alt, w-we need to fix this! I think--I think maybe I could help.'

Chase glances at Jack. "Are you sure, Jack? You're talking about--what you did with me, right?"

'M-maybe, uh, maybe if we get rid of that, then this will go, too,' Jack says. 'At the very least, we'll have one less thing to worry about.'

Byte breathes, like he can't believe he's there. He looks down at his corrupted hands and watches as they glitch- some pixels bright and colorful- some dark and corroded. "...you can.. g-gl-glitch too... right?" He breathes.

'Yes--yes, a-and that can help you, I think,' Jack says. 'If you'll let me.'

Byte breathes shakily and slowly nods, "... -g-glitch at the same time as me...! I think.,.. I think we c-c-can fix this... t-together...!" He looks back towards Jack, the effect of the corruption in his eyes seeming to flicker out completely- showing Alt's glowing scared eyes underneath.

Jack nods. Something in his heart twists. 'Okay. On three.' He reaches out to Alt. 'One... two... three!'

Alt reaches back out and glitches at the same time as Jack.

The two masses of glitches collide- and unlike Anode- they don't try to pull apart. They swirl together as if in a unified dance. They combine completely and glow bright like a star.

From the light- a body reforms, floating slightly off the ground. The light floats in the silhouette of a man and two green and blue impressions of wings unfurl from their back. The wings glitch with the body and then the light fades and shows the body in complete color. They look more like a solid Jack- his green black scar stark on his neck. White static overtakes part of his body- but most notably the right side of his now freckled face. They slowly open their eyes- the right one a green scleraed eye, the left one bursting with green white light and sparking like a storm.

They blink slowly and then bring up their hands to look at them, eyes widening. "Woah..." they breathe, their voice ghost-like and echoing.

Chase and the rest of the group stare, in awe, at the transformation. "...Jack?" Chase whispers.

They shake their head. "No," they say. "Not Alt, either. Someone... else. A... Cathode." Cathode--the opposite to an Anode. This feels so different than that did. More solid, despite their more ethereal state.

Jackie’s jaw drops. “What the fuckkkk?” He squeaks. “I… I didn’t know Alt could do that!”

Cathode gasps and looks around. "Chase?! Bro?!" they rush to his side.

As Cathode rushes to Bro’s side, Jackie backs up, making sure they have enough room.

Bro whimpers and looks up at Cathlode with tearful eyes. They widen slightly as he takes in the blurry image. “…a..alt…?” He breathes.

Cathode looks pained and remorseful as they gently take Bro’s cheeks-

“Wait! C-Careful!” Jackie cries.

Cathode laughs and shakes their head. “It’s okay Jackie…” They gently tilt Bro’s feverish face towards them and then touches their forehead to his. Tears bubble from their eyes and fall onto his skin. The flashing veins of binary and circuitry flare to white and blue- then fade away as if they were never there at all. The skin looks a bit purple gray where the corruption was for a second- like a nasty bruise. But soon enough that fades too.

Bro stops glitching and becomes solid again as he slowly relaxes, breathing easy again. His eyelids flutter and then he blinks up at Cathode- back to full awareness. Though- he looks very confused about what he’s seeing. “…did I die?” He asks dazedly.

Cathode laughs. "No, Chase, you're okay. I-I'm so glad you're okay. I'm... do you remember Amp? From that world with the good Anti with the scarf? The same thing just happened." They lean forward and hug Bro. It feels less solid, more soft than a regular person, as they're not quite there.

Bro blinks even more and then stiffens slightly as he's hugged. Then, he soon melts, hugging them back as best he can. "...I..I'm so glad you're okay....!" He warbles out, relief so strong it brings tears to his eyes.

Cathode chuckles, "That's supposed to be my line, dummy."

Then Cathode leans back, and their eyes fall on Magnificent. "I guess we have to help him, too," they grumble.

Magnificent wasn't nearly as bad as Bro- but he is quietly glitching in the corner, corruption slowly spreading on his skin.

"...he helped do this to Alt..." Jackie mutters darkly. "I say let him suffer."

"... We can't do that Jackie..." Cathode sighs, "As tempting as it is. He still needs to go home- to your dimension." Cathode glitches over and floats down next to Mag.

Magnificent looks up and... almost looks pathetic. He weakly tries to bare his teeth but Cathode just rolls their eyes. They lash out and grab his wrist and then bring his face close to their as they whisper darkly, "...I hope this will be a lesson for you Magnificent. Don't come back here." They wipe a glowing white tear off their cheek and then spread it across a patch of Mag's corruption. It fades away like Bro's did and the ghostly fusion drops Mag to the ground. Magnificent takes deep, feverish breaths as the pain starts to leave him.

Now that Bro seems better- Jackie is next to hug him. He nearly tackles him to the ground, clinging to his shoulders. "Chase you scared me so fucking bad...! I'm so happy you're okay..."

Bro blinks then hugs Jackie back, "I'm okay dude... I'm okay..."

Chase shakes his head. "This is so fucking weird."

Cathode laughs. "I can imagine." They look down at their hands, briefly closing their eyes. Memories and emotions swim together. Part of them feels this is familiar. Part of them remembers something like this happening before.

Inside, there are the faint remnants of green strings clinging to their consciousness. Before they can separate, they have to get rid of them.

"You didn't deserve any of that," they whisper. "Tell me you know you didn't deserve any of that. Are we... evil? No. It is your choices that make the difference, the ones you meet in the future. Not where you came from. Tell me you know this."

Cathode hesitates, regular tears slipping out from under their closed eyes. "I... I..." They swallow shakily. "...I know..." Their voice gets choked up. "it hurts- it hurts knowing p-part of me did... want what he gave me... but I... I didn't deserve that... I didn't..." They hang their head and hiccup a bit, pressing a hand over their left eye. "I'm not evil..."

Their see-through wings curl up around them- like they're protecting them... or attempting to give them a hug.

A few tears fall from their eyes. First the left, then the right. "I'm not evil," they say again. "I know. I know." A deep breath. And then they laugh. "I don't want to let go..." They wipe their eyes. "But I can't stay forever. We need to take care of ourselves, okay? ...Okay." And they close their eyes. White static fizzles as the two halves fall apart from each other.

Jack lies on the ground, staring up at the sky. He blinks his eyes, trying not to cry too much.

Alt is curled up, hugging his arms- his shoulders shaking. His hand and his neck have that dark purple bruising on it- the last sign of his corruption. But the virus is gone.

As soon as Bro and Jackie see the static separate- they don't give Alt much time to himself. They immediately throw themselves at him and hug him. Bro is crying- squeezing his little brother tightly. Jackie is trying his best to hug them both.

Bro eventually lets go long enough to look at Alt's face, searching it with worry. "...y-you're you again, right?"

Alt smiles weakly at him through teary eyes. His eyes are normal, even if there's dark bags under them. "...i...I'm me."

Bro laughs and squeezes Alt again and for once Alt doesn't try to glitch away. He clings to Jackie and Bro's arms and lets himself cry.

"I wanna be sooo mad at you, lil bro-" Bro mumbles, "But I'm just so happy you're okay..."

"Scare us like that again though and I-!" Jackie tries to scold but it falls short and he laughs, "... I'll think of a threatening punishment for that later so... don't scare us again!"

Alt laughs wetly, nodding against them.

Jack sits up. He lets Alt have this moment with his friends for a while before he clears his throat. "I-I'm glad you're okay," he whispers. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop it from happening."

"Jack says he's glad you're okay and he's sorry," Chase repeats--a translation that turns out to be unnecessary, as Alt could hear Jack's words just fine. Something about fusion must have allowed Alt to hear him.

Alt blinks up and looks at Jack as he speaks, much to his friends' confusion. He then chuckles lightly and looks to Chase. "i-it's okay I can still hear him..."

"...Alt can see Jack??" Bro gasps.

"Well.. guess that makes sense-" Jackie comments quietly, "How else could they... steven universe like that?"

Alt weakly glitches over to kneel next to Jack and smiles sadly, "Hey... If I can't blame myself for getting caught... you can't blame yourself for not stopping it. We both did all we could."

Jack blinks, surprised. He smiles a little. 'W-well, I guess that makes this easier. Alright. We'll promise each other that we won't blame ourselves.'

Alt smiles back and nods, "Okay... good." He shrugs with a laugh, "We shouldn't give Anti that satisfaction anyways. Fuck him."

Jack glances at Bro and Jackie. 'Oh... yeah, didn't you realize? I was the one guiding you guys to the underground entrance when you first arrived and that whole thing with Error happened. Alt could see me then, too. I wonder why. Maybe because we're... similar.'

Alt smiles at Jack. "Yeah... guess we are. Or maybe its cuz you can glitch too."

Bro blinks towards Jack, "oooh- that... really makes that make a bunch more sense. I wondered how Alt just suddenly seemed to know things-"

Alt laughs, "I'm not that good-"

"Steven Universe, huh?" Chase mutters. "My kids loved that show. Haven't had much time to catch up on it, being... underground and all. But yeah. That was a, uh, fusion thing, wasn't it?"

Bro blinks more at Chase, "ohhh yeah! It is just like fusion!" Bro laughs. "Man- we should marathon that sometime."

"Oh- Kelsie would adore that." Jackie replies with a smile.

Alt chuckles, "heh... that might be nice... someday."

He then frowns and sighs. "...I'm sorry he still has... everyone though. Part of me hoped... maybe we could have at least gotten Error back... I... I dunno."

"Heh... uncorruption isn't something that happens right away," Chase says, smiling sadly. "There's a whole process that Jack has to do. And, uh, I-I didn't want to go through with it at first, until he and some of the voices helped me out. So... even with your guys' help, it wouldn't be that easy. But I'm happy that you guys wanted to help."

Alt looks sad but he nods, "Yeah... I.. If I could I would free all of them... I... I can't stand to see what Anti did to them." The sight of Cat in particular lingers in his head as he unconsciously touches his neck.He looks towards Mag who is resting up against the wall now- deliberately not looking at anyone. "...we need to get home..."

'Yeah, I guess you do have to go home,' Jack sighs. 'It'd be nice to talk with you about other-universe stuff, but I don't think this universe is safe right now. Maybe... maybe you can come here some other time, and things will be better. They're definitely better than they were before.'

He sadly smiles Jack, "...I wanna talk too I... It's not every universe I meet someone else who... gets it. You know?" He looks dejected at his lap. "...But I don't wanna risk Jackie or Chase getting caught..."

A green glow appears down the street. It gets closer, and closer--until it's revealed to be Sam, shrunk down to the size of a golf ball.

'Huh? Sam?' Jack blinks. 'What're you doing here?'

Alt's so caught up in his thoughts he glitches in surprise as Sam suddenly appears. He looks bewildered- but then a hazy memory comes back up... Memories from Amp and- a bright green glow inside Anti's hideout. He slowly smiles. "H-Hi Sam...! I... I never got to see one of you up close before..." He whispers.

"Omg- tiny Sam..!" Bro gasps with a smile.

Sam flies over to Alt, bopping against his pocket.

'Oh. They want to see the thing you're using to travel through universes.'

Alt jolts and glitches a bit when he boops his pocket. But, then he blinks and pulls out the TRVLR for him to see. "Oh! Well uh... here, little dude." He gets more comfortable and powers it on with a quick zap of electricity.

Sam flies closer. There's a red bubble in the center of the TRVLR's menu, indicating the time-space warning Alt say when arriving in this world. Sam touches the tip of Their nerve-tail to the screen, pressing the Settings bubble. They scroll through all the tiny, complicated text in here, seeming to read it. Then They exit out and look up at Alt.

'Uh... Sam says that... some parts of the device--the... TRVLR? Some parts are broken,' Jack explains. 'Namely, the, uh, firewall? Defender? Antivirus? The software that protects the device. They say that needs to be fixed. And after that, you need to fix the... what the fuck does that mean, Sam? Huh. Okay. The 'ripple minimizer,' They say. Apparently it's something that keeps you from causing big ripples when you jump between universes. Which is important, because some creatures and technical devices can pick up on ripples and know you're coming. That's how They knew you'd be here.'

"That's great to know, but can these guys fix that?" Chase asks.

Jack shrugs. 'Maybe not. But it's what Sam said.'

Alt's eyes widen as Jack explains and he looks down at the device. He frowns and then glares at Magnificent before addressing the others. "Yeah we...knew it was broken. Just not how cuz... we can jump fine. Or... we could until..." He makes a face as he counts, "5 worlds ago, I think. Mag most likely broke it. ...its a long story." He frowns and flips the TRVLR in his hands as he thinks. "... I dunno how to fix it though. I didn't make it... some company called IRIS did- it didn't even work until I put my magic into it. I didn't even know we... we had a ripple minimizer!"

"All these big fancy tech words hurt my head..." Jackie mutters.

Jack laughs at Jackie's comment. 'I know, right? Sometimes Sam starts talking about stuff I really don't understand, and it really hurts my head to think about.'

"Well... I don't think there's anyone here who's capable of fixing it," Chase says slowly. "I've never heard of an IRIS. What, like the part of the eye, or like the flower?"

"Iris is a name," Raven comments, speaking up for the first time since the fight. "In fact, one of the Council members is named Iris."

"...I don't know what that has to do with this science device being made by a big company, though," Chase says. "Because we don't have any big science companies here. Or at least, not big companies that can make things to travel through worlds."

"I mean... is that really a big deal? The ripples?" Bro asks, "it's not like we go into these worlds secretly now. It was actually kinda nice to have Sam do all the prep work for us this time." He laughs.

Alt sighs, "... I dunno... it could be bad. If the ripples cause detection... what if alerts something bad like... another Anti? There might be some that do even worse things..."

"It's possible," Chase says slowly. "But... like I said, there's no one here who can fix it. So... all I really think you guys can do is keep going until you either get home or find somewhere with people who could fix this stuff."

"Yeah sounds like you guys don't have a company like that here. Thank god- those things already suck in our universe. And you guys deal with enough crap..." Bro sighs.

Alt nods, gripping the TRVLR, "...I think we're almost there... at least- according to something a friend said." He replies to Chase.

"Well that's great, then." Chase gave Alt a thumbs-up. "Almost there is great."

Sam bobs, agreeing with Chase. They fly a bit closer to Alt, briefly bumping against his forehead. And in that moment, Alt--even though he doesn't know how to detect power like Magnificent does--gets a flash of a very strong magical signature. Something sour, almost to the point of acidity, and sharp.

{YOU CANNOT WORRY ABOUT EVERYTHING, ALT BRODY,} a voice says in his head. {YOU CAN ONLY TRUST YOU ARE CAPABLE OF HANDLING IT. AND YOU ARE CAPABLE, EVEN IF YOU DO NOT THINK SO.}

Alt blinks up as Sam flies over to him. He tries not to jolt or glitch away especially as Sam's magic signature washes over him. But, he relaxes at hearing their voice and he slowly nods, smiling. "...okay... I... I'll try to remember that. Thank you, Sam."

"...bro did you just have a telepathic convo with a floating eyeball-?" Jackie comments. "... that sure was... a sentence. This has been such a crazy adventure." He laughs lightly, shaking his head.

Jack blinks. 'Sam talked to you...? You must be pretty special, it took me forever to learn how to listen to Them. I mean, I've known Them for years and only recently started hearing Their voice.'

Alt smiles, flushing slightly. "... maybe. It might just be cuz they let me."

"God, fucking tell me about it," Chase mutters, responding to Jackie. "Don't get me started on us finding Sam for the first time. Then Marvin and his magic, then JJ and his weird time powers. You get used to the fucking bizarre stuff after a while, though." He gives a little laugh.

Jackie chuckles, "Yeah... Meeting these two and then finding out Henny can do that... time shit- feels real weird being that normal guy, huh?" He lightly hits Chase on the shoulder in a friendly gesture.

Chase looks the guys over. "So... are you gonna leave now? Like, right now?"

Bro looks around and then sighs, "yeahhh... probably. Alt is right- we probably scared Anti off for a bit but... it's not...safe here. Even if we wanna help."

"And we can't really- cuz this fucker would probably just make it worse," Jackie grunts, pointing a thumb behind him at Mag. Magnificent weakly hisses at him.

"Yeah... we should... go." Alt sighs, glitching to his feet.

"I'll tell Stacy you guys all left," Chase says. "She'll probably be a bit upset that she missed it, but she's a pretty practical person, so I think she'll get it." He smiles a bit, expression soft. Then he shakes his head again. "The rest of us will head back to base once you guys are gone. Just in case he comes back to check if I'm still here."

Jack stands up as well. 'It was nice meeting you guys,' he says. 'Always good to talk with more people. Especially you, Alt. I didn't realize I could do that fusion thing. It was interesting.' He gives him a small smile. 'Take care of yourself, okay? All of you.'

Alt nods and smiles back. "Yeah...Take care of yourself, too. I... I hope you all figure this out soon... and free the others. They.. they don't deserve this... No one does."

Bro smiles and gets to his feet, looking towards everyone who came. "Thanks for all your help guys... you all helped us get Alt back and... I can't thank you enough for that."

"When you finally beat Anti- give him a good punch in the face from each of us, okay?" Jackie grins. "Or... whatever will actually hurt him."

Chase laughs. "God, if we can, we'll definitely punch him."

Jackie grabs Magnificent by the arm and tosses him towards where Bro and Alt are. Magnificent makes a face but stays quiet. Bro and Alt exchange glances and then link up hands with Jackie.

Alt gives one last look at everyone and smiles gratefully. "...maybe we'll see you again... when it's better. Keep strong until then, okay?"

'Good luck,' Jack says. 'And... thanks. I think we'll be able to make things right.'

And then, Alt hits the jump button, preparing for whatever comes next.

The group falls, and by now they are used to the way it is interrupted. Their course shifts, adjusting, like a comet being caught in the gravity of a nearby star. Pulled towards it. Pulled towards their destination.

#SATCV #SATCV Bad End #alt anti #corrupted alt #byte alt #bro fantastic #swap magnificent #jackie mann #i love love lovedddd alt and jack working together as Cathode :')#the moment of jack trying to uncorrupt alt makes me tear up ugh i love them

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ikanasocking · 1 year

Text

A change in perspective

And another story. A little bit differend but it was still fun to write it. For the first tf I had no images, but I am sure you can use your imagination :)

Days turned into week, weeks into months. The new socks of Ikana had only a bit of humanity left. Jan was adjusting well to the permanent smell and weight on his body. In the beginning he hated, begin unable to move and forced to experience all the new sensations. But with the time his protest and these thoughts were stomped away by the feet he now served. On evening Ikana was sitting in his room and played with his feet.

“You know, Jan. I could maybe turn you back into a human”, he said and grinned.

“What being human again? I would not want this. I am a pair of socks and live only to serve your feet, master”, Jan thought.

Even thought Ikana was not able to understand him, he was sure, that Jan would not want to be human again.

“But why should I give up on such a good pair of socks. I will keep you where you are. But maybe there are others that could join you. Maybe some of your friends. I bet they would be nice to wear as well. Or maybe we can do other things with them. Who knows? I will maybe find someone.”

With that Ikana got up and put on some new clothes, his shoes and then left his flat. Jan enjoyed being in his dark and smelly prison again. It was rare that his master left the flat in the early evening. He did not know where they were going but as long as he could absorb all the sweat and comfort his master’s feet, he was happy.

Ikana went to a bar that was nearby. Lately they were rather rare. Not a lot of people were visiting these places and the owners did not earn enough. He came here regularly once a month. It was a nice place to find some fine men, to take home and play with them. But today it was nearly empty. Ikana took a seat at the bar, ordered a drink and after receiving it, he looked around. Nearly every men here had already the pleasure spending a session with him and some of them averted their eyes, when he looked their way. It filled him with pride, that they did not forget him. But there were new faces as well. And who would have thought that two of them he was familiar with. Patrick and Marvin, two of Jan’s friends and bully’s as well. Maybe this evening would be a very pleasant one. Ikana waited for the two men to get up and leave. But they did not. Not until he got up to go to the bathroom. Both men must have noticed him and who he was. They followed him. With a grin Ikana noticed his followers. He still went into the bathroom and positioned himself behind the door, so they would not see him, until he could use his powers on them.

Not long after, the door swung open and both men entered the room. To their surprise no one was there.

“Where is he?” asked Patrick.

A boy with brown, short hair and green eyes. His figure was a little bit above average. The stomach was flat and the beginning of a six-pack could be seen. Marvin on the other hand was a very scrawny guy. His hair was brown as well but a little bit longer. His eyes were blue. Ikana could stand neither of those two.

“He has to be somewhere here. There is no other way out”, Marvin said.

“Oh that is right, my boys. I am right here. Nice of you to come here to spend some time with me alone. But why not take that to my flat?” Ikana said and both men looked at him.

He could see that his words began to change something in their heads. Even thought they were not drunk, like Jan was, they were very open to his suggestions.

“To a flat? Sure, why not?” Patrick asked and Marvin looked at him surprised.

“What? We came here to ask him about Jan, since he was the last guy who saw him. He”, began Marvin.

“We can still do this at his flat. Why beat up someone in public, when you can have privacy?” Patrick asked.

“Well I did not thought of that”, Marvin said.

“Nice. Since we all agree, let me just finish here, and then we can go. If you like you can already take care of the bill and meet me outside the bar.”

Patrick nodded and left the bathroom. Marvin followed him and kept looking at Ikana. He just smiled innocent and then continued with his business.

“This will be so much fun. Patrick is so open to my voice. Marvin on the other hand, oh I will love breaking his resistance and make him change his mind”, he said and then left the bathroom.

He went straight to the exit. Outside both men were waiting.

“Shall we?” he asked.

Together they went back to his flat and entered. Patrick and Marvin were not taking of their jackets or their shoes.

“What are you waiting for? You should get comfortable. It will be a nice evening with just the three of us”, Ikana suggested and Patrick began to undress immediately.

Marvin was hesitant but after seeing his strong friend obeying the order he did as well. Ikana watched them at first, imagining what he could do to these two pretty men. Then he began to undress as well, freeing Jan of his prison. A little bit disappointed by being out of the shoes, Jan noticed that they were not alone. He knew these voices. Patrick and Marvin. His master had caught someone else. But what would he do with them? Maybe turn them into shoes? Or something entirely different?

“Take a seat, boys. I will be right with you”, Ikana said.

He went into the kitchen and grabbed something to drink for the three of them. When he came back, he found Patrick and Marvin arguing over something. As he entered the room, both went silence.

“What is the matter? Did I disturbed you?”

“No we were finished”, Marvin said.

“Really? Were you finished, Patrick?” he asked and Patrick looked at him.

He had no choice but to tell the truth.

“No. Marvin was discussing with me, how we should approach asking you about our friend and where he is. He wanted me to beat you up.”

Ikana could see panic in Marvin’s eyes. Of course he was not as open to his voice as Patrick was.

“Oh my. That is a rather violent approach. I could just tell you where your friend is. He is here, right with us”, Ikana said and took a seat next to Marvin.

“What do you mean? Jan is not here”, he said and Ikana laughed.

“Of course he is, sill. Here he is”, Ikana said and laid his feet right in Marvin’s lap.

“What do you?” Marvin began but wen silent when he realized it.

“Jan is you socks?” Patrick asked.

“Yes he is. I am sure he is happy, since he wanted to be at my feet forever. I just granted him his wish.”

“What kind of sick weirdo are you?” Marvin asked and pushed Ikanas feet away.

“How rude, Marvin. This is not how you treat your master”, Ikana said and put more of his magic in his words.

He could see how they began to pierce through Marvin’s resistance. But that was still not enough. But he got closer.

“You are not my master”, Marvin said.

It was obvious that he was unsure if he would speak the truth here.

“That is a shame. Maybe Patrick is more open to me. Are you?” Ikana asked and a big smile appeared on Patricks face.

“Yes, Master”, he said.

“That is a good slave. Come over here and let me play with you.”

Immediately Patrick went over and kneeled in front of Ikana. He lifted his feet and Patrick began to play with them.

“What are you doing Patrick? Stop doing what this faggot tells you to do”, Marvin said.

“Why would you say something like this? He is our master. We have to do what he tells us”, Patrick said with a dreamy voice.

“But we are not gay. Gay people are nothing more than”, Marvin began before Ikana shut him up with a kiss.

Much to his alarm Marvin enjoyed the feeling of the lips on his own. The playful tongue that was invading his mouth. It felt completely different but was way too good. Ikana broke the contact and looked at Marvin. Now the last bit of resistance was broken. Excellent. Now he could begin with his second part.

“My my, Marvin. I never took you for the homophobic kind of guy. Don’t you think we should change your attitude?”

“My attitude?” he asked with low voice.

“Of course. Tell you what. You will have a few days with me and then you can decide if it is really as bad as you think it is.”

“I would never do this”, he stammered and Ikana smiled.

“Of course you would. Patrick, be a dear and go fetch my special guest on my bed, would you?”

Patrick stood up with no hesitation and left the room. A few moments later he came back with a teddy bear. He was as tall as his arm was long. His belly was nicely filled and round. Ikana took the teddy and handed it over to Marvin.

“Here my friend. You should cuddle with him, while I play a little bit with Patrick.”

Marvin took the bear and began cuddling with him. Ikana grinned and then looked back at Patrick.

“Come here slave”, he said and Patrick came over.

“Tell me. Do you like my feet?”

“Yes master. I do.”

“Good. Would you like to join Jan?”

“No master. There is something I am more interested in.”

“Oh and that would be?”

“Your penis”, he said in his dreamy voice.

“That is also fine by me.”

Ikana stood up and pulled his trousers down. Below there were some nice grey boxers.

“Now come and show me how much you want it”, Ikana said and Patrick wasted no time.

He went over and began to play with his master’s penis. At first it was flaccid but became erected pretty fast as Patrick seemed to do a good job.

“Oh yeah. Keep on going slave”, Ikana said and Patrick followed the order.

After some time he began to bury his face in his master’s crotch. His brain send waves of pleasure through his body. His own dick began to get hard and pressed against the constricting fabric of his own shorts.

“I am sure you can do better. Why not use your mouth?” Ikana asked and Patrick obeyed.

Of course his mouth was way better for pleasuring his master, then his hands. He began to suck his master thought the shorts and enjoyed every second of it. But just like Jan, he had fallen into the trap. Slowly his body began to change. But this time it began at his fast. The fabric of the shorts were merging whit his lips at first. Shortly after his whole face was covered by the fabric. He wanted to stop, when he noticed something was wrong, but found that he was unable to move away. More and more of his body was eaten up. As the fabric hit his feet his whole body was absorbed into his master’s shorts. Patrick tried to move away or shout for help, but nothing came out of his still full mouth.

“You are complete now”, Ikana said and came.

A wave of cum hit Patrick and went straight into his open mouth. His whole body began to absorb it and the taste of his master’s cum was now in his mouth and would not go away. He mouth was still forced over Ikanas penis. His nose in his crotch hair. He had to inhale the smell of his master all the time. Marvin looked over to Ikana while he pulled his trousers back up. He was happy, since he got another one of his past bully’s now in his shorts.

“Enjoyed the show?” Ikana asked Marvin who was still holding on to the bear and tried to hide a visible bulge in his pants.

“No”, he said.

“You are a terrible liar. But never the less. I guess it is time for you, now. Like I said, I will show you how nice it can be to be with a man. Being embraced in cuddles and getting kissed from him. The bear will help you understand all of this”, Ikana said and sat down again.

“What?” Marvin asked and threw the bear away.

“Oh don’t worry. It will be over faster, then you think. Tossing the bear away is of no use. The effect has already started to take place.”

“What do you mean?”

Marvin looked down at his body and wondered what he could mean. But shortly after he noticed it. His belly was beginning to expand. Further and further. His clothes began to shrink and not shortly after they even were too small.

“Impossible”, Marvin said and tried to stop his belly from expanding by pressing his hands into it.

The growl of a bear escaped his mouth. Embarrassed he put his hands over his mouth.

“Oh don’t worry. This will be normal for you pretty soon”, Ikana said and pressed his hand into the fat belly of the boy.

Another growl escaped his mouth. Finally Marvin’s shirt gave up completely and ripped into pieces. His pants followed as well and his shorts were next. Emberrased he tried to hide his crotch so Ikana could not see his erected dick. But much to his surprise there was nothing. At least his hands could not find it. His body told him, that he was hard, but there was nothing.

“A teddy bear does not have a penis, Marvin. You will not need it in the future.”

The changed continued. The rest of Marvin’s body began to expand and puffed up. After that his feet began to change. All of his toes merged together leaving him with a very round foot. Brown fur began to spread over it and soon after, Marvin had two cute bear feet. The fur crept up his legs and changed them as well. They became smaller und rounded as well. His crotch did not change much, since it already had. It was just covered in fur. His belly as well. His bellybutton and breast did disappear before the fur covered up everything. Then his arms shortened and became rounder as well. His fingers merged as well. His hand puffed up and soon he had sweet teddy bear hands. There was only his face left. But the fur did not intent to stop. It began to cover his neck and after that his face. Marvin felt his nose changing. It became triangular and black. After that he felt a pulling sensation before a small muzzle formed. His ears were next they became round, covered in fur and then crept to the top of his head. His mouth became a sawed line, in his face and at last, his eyes were turning black. Now the teddy bear was ready. Marvin could feel, smell, hear and see everything but could not talk. The fur on his head mimicked his former hairstyle. Ikana took him up and looked at his new bear.

“You turned out nicely. Now you will appreciate the touch of a man.”

With that he went to bed and began to cuddle with Marvin, while he fell asleep. Marvin was horrified, because he began to enjoy the feeling of being squished to the body of Ikana.

A few month later:

Patrick had gotten used to being Ikanas shorts. He had no other choice then to suck off his master, from time to time and by now he did it gladly. Marvin on the other hand was still sceptical about the contact with his master. But it was now, way easier for him to adjust and enjoy the nightly cuddles. Ikana was right. He began to appreciate the touch and care of his master. He was even sad, when he was not around or did not cuddle with him. A few more months and Marvin would love being a bear. Ikana was curios of who he would get next, since guys were already looking for his first slave, maybe for these two someone would come as well.

Part 1: https://at.tumblr.com/ikanasocking/from-bully-to-socks-first-of-all-i-wanted-to-try/hh9a0pqu7k3f

Part 2: you are here

Part 3: https://at.tumblr.com/ikanasocking/keeping-old-friends-close/46gdv1aqk19t

#inanimate transformation #teddy bear tf #underware tf #mind control

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iamfruitie · 7 months

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Kinktober 2023 Day 11

Blindfold

Marvin sat down on Jackie’s thighs, looking down at his favorite hero, loving how his chest was moving with his heavy breaths, the rest of his bare body showing that he was already enjoying himself as well.

Who knew tying one of Marvin’s scarves around Jackie’s eyes would get them both so worked up?

“Comfortable?” Marvin asked with a slight purr in his voice. He giggled when Jackie only nodded his head. “You can talk, darling. You’re blindfolded, not gagged.”

“Oh, yeah.” Jackie softly chuckled.

“You’re are so cute.” Marvin poked Jackie’s nose and couldn’t help from giggling again when Jackie wiggled it like a rabbit. “Remember to tell me if it’s too much, okay?”

“Okay.” Jackie smiled.

“And you can touch me as much as you want.” Marvin took Jackie’s hands and placed them on his thighs, knowing that was one of his favorite places to squeeze and hold. He loved the thighs, and he also loved the ass. “There you go~” Marvin said when Jackie did as expected, sliding his hands to squeeze his ass. “I bet you can feel everything so much more, can’t you?” He gently dragged his nails along Jackie’s sides.

“A-Ah~” Jackie’s back arched slightly.

“Yes, you can.” Marvin dragged his nails back down and got the same reaction, feeling Jackie’s body twitching under his touch. “You’ve earned some extra loving.” He leaned over and kissed Jackie’s chest, smiling when the hold on his ass got much tighter when he rolled his tongue over one of Jackie’s nipples.

“Fuck, Marvs.” Jackie couldn’t help from bucking his hips up and, with that strength of his, caused Marvin to bounce and land further up Jackie’s body.

“Am I going to have to tie you down for this?” Marvin teased with a little laugh.

“Maybe.” Jackie chuckled with him.

“We have all night, baby. We might have to resort to that later.” Marvin snapped his fingers, having a hair-tie appear in his hand. “And I know what I’d like to do next.” He put his hair into a ponytail, usually liking when Jackie watched him do that since he usually only had his hair up for two reasons, cooking and sucking dick.

“Is it bad that I’m really excited?” Jackie asked.

“Not at all. That means I’m doing this right.” Marvin kissed Jackie before moving down, gently nipping at his hip to tell him where he was.

“Oh!” Jackie gasped, hands unconsciously going to Marvin’s head, feeling that there was a ponytail. “Hoh, shit~” Just feeling the hair was enough to get him to shiver.

“I bet you won’t last long. You’ll be cumming in my mouth in record time~” Marvin slowly stroked Jackie’s cock with his hand as he spoke, watching Jackie chew his lip, and a muffled groan rumbled in his throat. “Don’t hold back, sweetie, I don’t mind if you fuck my throat.” He popped the head of Jackie’s cock into his mouth right after that, groaning at how his hair got tugged.

“F-Fuck~” Jackie found himself closing his eyes regardless of the blindfold. Marvin hummed and started bobbing his head, looking up and getting the wonderful view of Jackie squirming; the uncovered parts of his face were flushed red, and he let out a good, low moan. Marvin went faster, easily taking all of Jackie into his mouth, relaxing his throat, and happily letting Jackie help move him as well. “Shit~!” Jackie proved Marvin’s previous comment correct, thrusting up and cumming fairly soon. Marvin swallowed as much as he could before pulling away, giggling a little hoarsely as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He gave himself a second to clear his throat and swallow again before speaking.

“Good boy.” Marvin praised and sat up fully, having Jackie rest his hands on his thighs again. He glanced down and smirked, seeing how the praise had Jackie hard already. It was always so much fun when your partner had nearly endless endurance and stamina. “Ready for more?”

“Hell yeah.”

#marvelsepticeye #nsft #kinktober #kinktober 2023 #fruitie writes

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hidingoutbackstage · 4 months

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Just thinking about how Claire experienced unimaginable horrors constantly and regularly witnesses the deaths of people she bonded with, but she never gets the time to mourn them, usually because she has to fight for her life and the life of someone else she’s protecting, and how that feeds into her survivor's guilt. Additionally, even when seriously injured, she doesn't even have the time to stop and assess her own wounds before fighting or taking care of somebody else

In Resident Evil 2, at only NINETEEN years old, a college student with no military or cop training or experience goes to a city she knows to look for her brother who’s been MIA for a bit and accidentally gets trapped in a nightmare. She’s forced to find a way out alive, while also protecting and eventually saving a little girl who is completely reliant on her.

And two people’s deaths on that mission, Marvin and Annette, have an impact on her. Marvin is nothing but supportive of her, and he’s doomed from the moment he meets and saves her. She’s unable to do anything to help him, and the entire time it’s like waiting for a clock to count down until Marvin’s dead. When she moves on, she has to leave him behind, and if you go back, he’s a zombie, his fate is sealed. Claire can’t deal with her ally being dead because if she hesitates or feels emotional, she’ll die, so she just has to move on or kill zombie Marvin.

Annette is obviously a worse person than Marvin by a fucking mile, but her death still impacts Claire because despite her reluctance, she still DID help save Sherry, she told her daughter that she loves her even if she’s been a bad mother, and she gets a good-bye with Sherry. Claire, who lost both of her parents in an unknown way, HAD to have felt something at watching a mother say good bye to her daughter before dying in front of her. And Claire doesn’t have time to deal with her feelings because she still needs to get herself and Sherry out of there.

Code Veronica is the most obvious example of Claire losing an ally, but I’m gonna mention Rodrigo first. She doesn’t watch him die, Chris does, but after he helps her escape prison and they have a nice allyship when she gets him what he needs, afterwards she has to leave and has to leave him behind to certain death.

The other person she watches die in front of her is probably the most well known. Steve. Love him or hate him, he meant a lot to Claire. His last words before dying to his injuries were that he loved her and he’s sorry he couldn’t do more. Claire gets a moment to mourn him, but not long enough, as she and Chris are still stuck in the base that they need to escape. And in the moment she’s in intense mourning, she’s given NO comfort, because her brother can’t get into the room with her and offer her even a hug. And we KNOW Claire kept Steve’s memory with her decades later, because in Revelations 2, she references something Steve told her all those years ago.

Infinite Darkness doesn’t have her lose an ally, but you know what’s traumatic? Looking for a person you think is a lead on your case, and finding the scene of a brutal suicide.

In Revelations 2, literally every other innocent person she ran into inside Alex Wesker’s evil torture house dies from fucking fear. And she can’t process any of that or even really show too much emotion regarding that since she’s trying to be strong for Moira. Also, you know, Neil’s betrayal is pretty fucking shitty for Claire, but again she can’t process it, she just has to kill him.

Heavenly Island we return to actual allies dying in front of her. Inez, her fell TerraSave member, someone who is just as headstrong as Claire and someone who is obviously a good friend, gets fucking killed defending her fellow survivors, and she dies in Claire’s arms.

Also like. 90% of the young women on that island are murdered and she’s powerless to stop it. Also I’ll say it, Marilou is assaulted and nearly killed, which Claire also can’t help or offer the girl comfort since they have to either run or kill Julie.

Even Death Island, even though Taylor was a fucking asshole, Claire still failed to save him and he was shot and died right next to her while she was in a jail cell about to be infected herself. When Becky saves everyone, once again no processing time, no time for relief.

I think Degeneration was the exception, but still she had to put Rani’s feelings and safety before her own, something that someone as kindhearted as Claire Redfield wouldn’t hesitate to do, but something that probably still weighs heavily on her psyche.

#sid rants #sid bitches #did y’all see the post i’m criticizing? did you see?

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writing-nebula · 6 months

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Aura: A World Unseen. Chapter 2 - Whispering Shadows

Note, this chapter is nearly twice as long as almost Everything Else I've ever written for Aura- so hopefully it's all enjoyable!! ---------- Honestly, Anti hadn’t meant to skip lunch. Really, he hadn’t! But Mark and Amy were still here, and as much as he loved hanging out with Mark, the man was just so loud, emotionally. Sometimes it was too much to handle. So when lunchtime came around, and he could feel Mark’s eagerness like the thrumming of a heartbeat, he planned to just stay put until he’d calmed down, and now, well- it was almost time for dinner. “Chase is definitely gonna be on my ass if I skip two meals,” he muttered to himself, and finally got up from his laptop, taking a moment to stretch before leaving his room to head downstairs, checking in on everyone as he did. A wave of happiness flowed up from the living room, broken up by little shards of excitement here and there- that was probably where most of them were, though he had no clue what they could be doing. And then… Daggers of irritation from the kitchen, which meant Henrik got stuck cooking again. Best avoid it if he didn’t want to get dragged in. Anti reached the bottom of the stairs, planning to peek into the living room and see what was going on- His foot missed the last step, a blaze of panic ripping through him so sharply it hurt, tearing a hole in his chest, leaving him gasping for breath, his ears ringing. What- who- I can’t- Anti wasn’t sure how long he laid there before a voice faintly registered nearby, worry swirling around him like a breeze He tensed when his shoulder was touched, but the hand was like a soothing balm, cooling over the burns from before and loosening his chest, letting him gulp in air until the dizziness- that he hadn’t even noticed a moment ago- started to fade. “That’s it, just breathe…” The hands pulled him closer, wrapping him up in a hug, and Anti buried his face in the other’s shirt, trying to hide from the lingering flames dancing at the edge of his mind. Block it out, remember what Marvin taught you- just try to block it out… Finally, when he was sure he’d be able to handle it again, Anti pulled back, relieved when there was no effort to stop him. “...Thanks, Jack.”

His creator smiled at him, his relief alone making Anti smile back. “Of course- sorry it took a while to get to you, nobody realized you were over here at first.” Honestly, he had no idea how long he’d been there, but now he was pretty sure he didn’t want to know. “What happened?” he asked instead, trying to look past Jack into the living room, “I felt…” Panic wasn’t a strong enough word for it- it was a moment of raw fear. There was a ping of confusion, then understanding, and Jack murmured an apology, though Anti didn’t really hear the words of it. “That was, uh, Mark and Amy, probably. I had a dizzy spell a few minutes ago, they both freaked out when I hit the floor.” “Oh,” that would explain the suddenness of it- “but then- that means there’s someone new?” Now excited- and feeling less shaky- Anti pushed himself to his feet, smiling hopefully when the human joined him. “Who is it? A fan ego? I know there are some out there you like-” He cut himself off when he registered the confusion now drifting out from the living room, and from Jack himself. “...What is it?” “...See, we don’t know who or what appeared,” Jack told him with a frown, looking around them for a moment. “Nothing changed in the room, and if you were the one that made noise out here…” “We’ll figure it out after dinner,” Chase cut in as he left the room, catching Anti’s eye, “it’s almost ready, and some people missed lunch.” Anti smiled sheepishly, but Chase just ruffled his hair and gently pushed him towards the kitchen. “Move, kid. And you’d better talk to Hen, make sure you didn’t get hurt.” “Okay, okay-” Anti chuckled and obediently headed for the kitchen, smiling faintly at Mark and Amy when he saw them. …It felt way too strong for just two people, though…

Henrik checked him over, declared he wouldn’t die, and they all sat down for dinner shortly after. Dinner itself was as usual- with the addition of everyone trying to figure out who or what had arrived of course. Anti mostly stayed out of the conversation, because he was really hungry now that there was food, and even in a crowd confusion and curiosity were fairly easy to ignore, like waves lapping at the sand. …What wasn’t easy to ignore was the faint but swiftly-building tension in the air, the nervousness coiling around him like rope, the fear that made his hands shake, his chest tighten, made his pixels buzz with static because something’s wrong, every instinct screaming danger- “Anti!” He nearly fell out of his seat when a hand touched his arm, a glitch ripping through him as he jerked back from the touch, only to realize how lightheaded he felt- Something’s wrong something’s wrong something’s wrong- And then all at once the feelings dropped away, just vanished from the air around him, but the lightheadedness was worse, and all he could hear were quick, sharp gasps- “Kid, it’s just me, I got you-” There were hands on his arms again, but this time he registered the familiar worry, and then he opened his eyes- when had he closed them?- he found spots dancing in his vision, and as the tightness in his chest faded he realized oh, I’m the one gasping. He drew in a deep breath, hearing static laced through it, and the instant wave of relief would’ve made him laugh, if he hadn’t been too busy reminding himself how to breathe. “ Jeeze, kid-” Chase huffed when Anti could focus on him, “You gotta stop scaring us like that, one moment you’re fine and the next thing I know you’re over here hyperventilating-” Anti smiled weakly, exceedingly aware of how quiet the room had gotten. “Sorry, I-I don’t know what happened, there was just… A lot, suddenly…” “And it’s gone now?” Jackie checked, sat on Anti’s other side. …It wasn’t, he realized. It was still there, just… Distant, dulled. Buzzing in the background like an irritating insect. It could have something to do with whatever ego appeared, so if it’s still here, that’s a good sign. “...Mostly?” he ended up saying, giving him a little shrug, “it’s kind of… in the background now, like I’ve been able to do for most of you guys’ feelings.” “Admittedly, that doesn’t assure me much,” Marvin huffed, “this emotion power you have seems to be getting stronger- how have the wards on your room been working out? Have they been blocking anything?” Anti hummed, trying to nudge the still-worried Chase away, “Kind of? It’s weaker when I’m in there, but I still feel things sometimes- when Jack is recording I feel him a lot, especially with Mark around.” Both YouTubers looked guilty, but Anti quickly shook his head. “You guys are just doing your job, and they’re not bad feelings, I can deal with some wayward excitement once in a while no problem.” “Still, ” Marvin pulled a book out from somewhere and started to flip through it, “it’s nothing I’ve ever come across before, so even with my spellroom I’m struggling to figure it out-” “Excuse me,” Henrik waved his fork in Marvin’s direction, eyes narrowed, “No spellbooks at the table, we’ve talked about this- yes, Anti’s thing is weird and interesting, but we are still eating, and you can discuss it after dinner.” Jamie nodded along, frowning, and Anti chuckled at the flash of irritation from Marvin before returning to his own food, trying to push the faint but still present fear to the back of his mind. We’ll figure it out when we find whatever appeared, I’m sure. No need to worry them more.

After dinner, they all scoured the house, looking for signs of anything new- new objects, anything that could’ve appeared with a new person, any doors that hadn’t been there before. But they didn’t find a single thing out of the ordinary. Marvin couldn’t even sense any kind of magic that would be able to hide somebody so thoroughly. “-and even if that random surge of emotion was related, if you can’t feel it strong enough to pinpoint them, it doesn’t do us much good,” Marvin sighed when Anti brought up his theory, “for all we know, they ran out of the house when we were busy, so we’ll just have to wait and see what comes up.” Anti almost mentioned that the feelings had been fluctuating while they searched, but- they were so faint now, like Marvin said it wouldn’t do them any good. Besides, if they’re that scared, it might be best to just wait for them, wherever they’re hiding… So when they gave up on the search- despite Jackie’s protests- Anti headed right up to his room, looking forward to the respite it would hopefully give him. …Except, standing in front of his door, it was stronger. Not nearly as bad as before, and it was still strangely muted, but definitely the strongest he’d felt it since dinner. And when he entered his room, the feeling increased tenfold, which should be impossible, unless… …unless it worked both ways. Which meant he was right. There’s someone in here. Anti took a deep breath, trying to push away the fear and apprehension that kept squeezing, tightening around his chest like a vice. It’s not me, it’s not mine- it doesn’t matter how much of it there is, I can handle some fear these days, no problem at all- He took another deep breath, letting it out slowly. He shut the door behind him. “...I know you’re there,” he started quietly, not wanting to startle them, or be heard from outside, “I don’t know why you’re hiding from everyone, but I’m not going to tell them.” Anti paused, searching the room, but there was no sign of anyone, nothing out of place. The fear eased up, though, and he almost whined in relief, feeling his shoulders slump. “I won’t tell them you’re here, but you can’t just hide in my room forever, okay?” he continued, talking a few more steps into the room and slowly turning around, hoping to see something.“Not without calming down, at least. I can… Feel you, and it’s a lot more than I usually deal with.” He waited again for a response, but when there was nothing he just sighed and headed for his little desk, opening his laptop back up in hopes of distracting himself. When he pulled up YouTube, he felt the fear in the air receding further- to be replaced by a faint spark of curiosity. …Okay, I can work with that. “What do you wanna watch?” he asked aloud, not really expecting an answer but figuring they’d make their opinion known somehow. “Minecraft, indie, FPS? Horror maybe?” …Nothing, though the curiosity was still glimmering- how could one person feel so much- He started to say something else, ask another question, but it stuck in his throat as he abruptly became aware of a presence behind him, leaning over his shoulder like it was trying to see the screen. Oh fuck what the fuck- Anti searched the reflection on his screen a bit frantically, but saw nothing behind him, he just… Knew. Okay, fine, if you wanna be creepy to the guy trying to help, then I just won’t talk to you. Petty? Absolutely, but he figured he had a right to be petty if he was going to deal with an invisible person in his room. So he just put on Jack’s Detroit: Become Human playlist, and tried to relax. …I just wish I had any clue on who it was…

—

Admittedly, trying to sleep in a room with an unknown, invisible person whose emotions were weirdly strong was easier said than done, and Anti was pretty sure he looked like shit when he went downstairs for breakfast, but thankfully everyone seemed to take the excuse that he just hadn’t slept well and didn’t pry any further. He said he wouldn’t tell anyone, and he meant it- at least until he figured out who it was. So he kept his mouth shut and went about his day. Joining the others when they searched for the new person again, spending some time helping Marvin in his spellroom, playing with his cat, getting into a very intense game of Uno with Jackie, Chase, and Jameson-

(Jameson had won, but Anti was too thrilled that he was comfortable enough to be competitive with him to be salty about it) He had plenty of things to keep him busy, and more than enough reasons to stay away from his room, so as the day went on he mostly forgot about his invisible roommate. No emotions struck him as foreign, nothing new or different made itself known around the house- it was like they didn’t exist at all. …Until Anti went back to his room for the night, and the moment the door was shut, it all came rushing back- almost literally, curiosity and confusion surrounding him, pushing at him like a mild tornado. Anti almost ran right back out the door. But he took a deep breath, tried to focus on the static crackling up and down his arms for a moment, and stepped further in, trying to let the torrent wash around him instead of against him. He didn’t try to speak until he was sitting at his desk, and by then the waves had calmed somewhat, though he still felt the presence somewhere nearby. Waiting. Anti let his breath out in a sigh, then turned a hesitant smile to the room as a whole. “Thank you for calming down, um… How was your day?” …No audible answer, but maybe… Anti closed his eyes, letting his static fade out so he could try and seek out the emotions instead of ignore them. The curiosity was still there, prodding at him like an impatient kid- but now it was joined by a prickle of nerves, like all the hair on his arms standing up at once. The air also felt strangely heavy, thick with something he didn’t quite recognize… “You’re… wondering what I did today?” he guessed, opening his eyes again, “and nervous that someone will find you here?” The briefest flash of pride was confirmation enough, but Anti couldn’t help but frown. “Mine was fine, I guess, but I asked how your day was, not…” The heavy feeling returned, and for a split second the room seemed to go grayscale, every color sucked away at once. He blinked once, drawing in another breath, and it returned to normal. “...You were bored,” he realized, and the moment he said it it made sense- of course they’d be bored, he was cooped up in a room alone all day. Another spark of pride- whether they were aiming it at him or just proud of themselves, who knew- and Anti nodded, turning to open his laptop. “Well, I usually stay up watching YouTube for a while longer, so you can watch with me. Just- give me some interest if you see something you like, okay?” He paused for a moment, but no emotions stuck out at him- just the same feeling of something over his shoulder returning. So he just started scrolling through videos, hoping he’d actually get an answer this time. (he didn’t, but they didn’t have any protest for RE7, so he counted that as a win)

—--

Anti slept much better that night- honestly, a lot better than he usually did- but he couldn’t say exactly why. There’d been… Some sort of buzzing in his room all night, similar to his static but somehow more, and that was the last thing he remembered hearing before he drifted off. Maybe it has something to do with them…? He wondered when he went down to breakfast, distractedly greeting the other egos as he helped himself to some coffee. If they're helping me, maybe that means they're getting less freaked out? Maybe they'll talk to me soon? Worry suddenly curled around him, so thick he could almost taste it, and Anti pulled himself out of his thoughts to frown at Chase, coming up next to him. "You really need to relax, your emotions are doing that weird cloud thing." The other ego didn't bother to make excuses, just making a face at him. "Yeah, yeah, I know- I just… this whole situation about the new ego is rubbing me the wrong way, is all." He sighed, grabbing a mug for himself. "None of us remembered much when we appeared, barely knew our own names- so why would whoever it was hide from us? You said you felt emotions, so it's clearly a person, and last night Marvin said he felt magic from someone other than him, but couldn't track it. That's probably why we never saw the guy, but… I dunno." Anti hummed along, wanting to offer him something, but he didn't know enough to be sure of anything. "You could do a little more research into fan egos, see if any of them have any particular powers?" He suggested, leaning against the counter to put a little distance between them- it was always harder to filter things out in the morning, and Chase was particularly open today. "I mean, clearly we aren't dealing with Robbie the zombie," he continued with a chuckle, "but there was that guy from Glitch in the System- Mack, I think? Maybe see if fans have expanded on him, they're good at that." Chase didn't respond right away, staring at the coffee machine as he drank what must've been half the mug, but when he went to refill it Anti felt the worry recede a bit, no longer filling the room, and he relaxed as Chase nodded. "...Yeah, that's an idea," Chase finally muttered, "and honestly, maybe there's been a new one lately- we assumed he had to be giving the thought attention now, but that might not be it…" He clapped a hand on Anti's shoulder, a tired smile on his face, and murmured a "thanks, kid," before walking away. Anti took a moment to feel proud of himself before going to make some toast, wanting something he could take up to his room. I guess I could ask them about that too- even if they don't know much, they should at least recognize their own name, right?

Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, but they certainly didn't recognize any of the names Anti had tried. Robbie was out, not that he'd expected it to work anyway, zombies weren't known for their ability to turn invisible. Mack drew a blank too, which he'd been a bit more hopeful for, but Bing got a little spark of interest for them- though, admittedly, that could just mean they preferred the search engine, and Anti didn't judge people's browser choices. …Not out loud, anyway. So he'd given up on that for the moment, instead trying to sit down and finish up a project he'd been too distracted to do the past couple days. He'd managed to pick up some work doing freelance coding- nothing huge, but it was something to do, and it felt nice to buy his own games, and pay Jack back just a little for all the kindness he'd shown him. So he got that finished, sent it off to the client, and browsed through YouTube a bit, idly noting that the Presence was behind him again. If you're that bored, then just tell me what you want to see! He huffed to himself, resting his chin on his hand. A notification popped up, and a glance at it revealed that Jack had started streaming, with 'special guest' Markiplier. That had him grimacing, wondering how Mark had gotten in without him noticing- he'd feel him soon, that was for sure, especially if he and Jack started to play something. With that in mind, he went to find something to distract him from the bursts of emotion that would drift past the wards, something stupidly amusing that he could zone out with. They probably wouldn't be streaming for too long, anyway.

—

They'd been streaming for four hours, and at this point Anti could hear them yelling at each other- playfully, of course, but still frankly impressive considering the soundproofing in the recording room. "Should see if Marvin can magically soundproof it," he chuckled to himself, scrolling mindlessly through his Steam library. The emotions hadn't actually been too bad, mostly just excitement and joy blazing through the house like a flame, occasional frustration wafting off like smoke, so it wasn't too hard to force it to the background. That being said, he wasn't sure just how much was being blocked by Marvin's wards, so he wasn't eager to leave the room until he had to, just in case. He'd just settled in playing some Viscera Cleanup Detail when the Presence appeared again, startling him so bad he nearly jolted right out of his chair. "Fuck, don't do that-" he snapped, shooting a quick glare over his shoulder even though he knew there was nobody visible. "Give me a little warning, that's not exactly the most comfortable feeling!" No response, of course, but he did feel a little prickle of remorse, so he let it go and turned back to his game with a huff, planning on ignoring them as was starting to become usual. But then he felt a chill, a shiver of magic up his spine, the buzz from last night echoing in his ears- And Anti found himself holding his breath as the semi-annoying phantom sensation became the very very real feeling of somebody actively leaning over him . it's a hell of a time to stop being shy why the fuck-

"...What are you doing now?"

Anti's racing thoughts screeched to a halt, and he exhaled sharply, turning his gaze down to the desk. He felt frozen, fixed in place, and it wasn't because the guy finally spoke- the question startled him, sure, but it was reasonable enough, he probably couldn't see the screen very well. No, the problem wasn't the question- it was the voice . Calm, but deep enough for a faint rumble in his chest. Smooth, but not soothing- more cold . The faintest of echoes ringing in his ears, two voices just below the first- similar , but different. ...I know that voice. It was something he had no doubt in, a fact as irrefutable as his own name. Something he couldn't deny if he tried. I know that voice, I- I know who that is- But that doesn't make any sense , why would he- why would Jack's power summon- Anti drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, suddenly hyper aware of the confusion still lingering around the room- confusion that had been there from the very start, and barely faded since then. …I know who he is, but… he doesn't, does he? "I'm playing a game," he replied carefully, worried that he'd vanish again the moment he did. But the figure stayed where he was, even making a soft noise of acknowledgement. Anti took another deep breath before he looked back up at the laptop. There, reflected in the screen, he saw a silhouette. Broad-shouldered, a little taller than him, wearing something all white- a suit, if he remembered correctly. The buzzing crackled around him, and he saw wisps of red and blue and gray in the corners of his vision. It's really him . He almost laughed at the confirmation, because this was absurd, this was absolutely nowhere on the list of things they were prepared for- because why the hell would they? He wet his lips. Tried to find the perfect words, and failed because he never once thought he'd need them. …I guess I'm winging it, then. Because there's no way in hell I'm just letting this go now. "It's uh… nice to meet you properly, Dark," he murmured, smiling at the reflection, and the figure behind him startled back, the buzzing getting louder and the faint haze of anxiety thickening- "Yeah, I'll bet you're confused as hell," Anti hummed, "but I can answer any questions you have- because I know who you are, Dark. Whatever you're confused about, I can explain to you." He paused, waiting to see if Dark would disappear again, honestly expecting him to- but after a moment, the buzzing quieted down once again, and he took that as a sign to turn around, finally looking at him properly. Back straight, arms folded behind his back, white suit pristine, not a smudge or wrinkle in sight. His aura swirled around him, and the room around him was gray, as was he- the only color visible other than the shards of blue and red was the dark crimson of his eyes, staring at Anti like he could see right through him. Anti just smiled in return, watched Dark seemingly falter at how genuine he was. "My name's Antisepticeye," he introduced himself, and chuckled when recognition flashed clearly across his face. "Yeah, we know each other- well, sorta, it's a long story." Darkiplier certainly wasn't anything they expected, but… He turned out okay, didn't he? Why couldn't this work out for them too? I'll make sure it works. And I'll make sure he doesn't suffer the same way I did. ------ Previous - Next

#writers of jack #awakened aura #jacksepticegos #jacksepticeye #antisepticeye #darkiplier #markiplier #chase brody #all the egos are here #most of them just don't do a lot in this chapter

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crystalninjaphoenix · 1 year

Text

Shadow Play

Paranormal Preteens AU: Episode Seven

A JSE Fanfic

This is scheduled to go up on Christmas Day my time, so happy holidays everyone! Here’s the gift of a fanfic that takes place as far from Christmas as possible XD The boys decide to check out some rumors about weird mushrooms in the park, and Chase sees something strange. Afterwards, Jackie has a suggestion for the others, and Schneep ALSO sees something weird. Enjoy reading ^-^

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“It’s a bit cloudy. Are you guys sure you want to go to the park? It might rain.”

“It’s not that cloudy, Mom.” Chase stared at the sky through the car window. Sure, there were some gray clouds, but not nearly enough for rain. Probably. “Besides, we already promised.”

“Well, alright.” Mom nodded. “In that case, call me when you want to be picked up. Or I guess you could take the bus. What are you planning on doing anyway?”

“Just, uh, hanging out. Skating and throwing balls and stuff.” Chase twisted around in his seat to look at Schneep in the back. “Right?”

Schneep nodded silently. At some point during the drive, Chase’s skateboard had fallen over and was now partially resting against his legs. Chase didn’t expect to actually use his board, but it was good cover. But he thought there’d be more use for his baseball bat and Nerf gun. After all, it was clear that anything could be useful when dealing with the strange things they were finding.

“Sounds fun,” Mom said. “Just be careful. Wear your helmet.”

“I got it, Mom.”

“She is right, you know,” Schneep said. “Helmets are important. They protect the brain.”

“I know, dude.” Chase definitely knew the importance of wearing his helmet after his last wipeout. The one that happened at a park not too different from the one they were heading to now.

Mom dropped them off at the corner, leaving them with a “Have fun, sweets,” before driving away. Chase waved, then stood and stared until her car turned the corner. Then he spun around to face the park. “Okay, we gotta find the guys,” he said. “Where are they?”

Chase wasn’t too familiar with this park. There were only two in the city, but most people preferred the bigger Hollewych Park to this one, St. Alodia’s Park, known casually as “the other park.” It was alright. It had a playground, some trees, and a few benches. But it was smaller, and it wasn’t as clean. No matter where you stood, there was usually at least one piece of litter in a twenty-foot circle around you. Chase heard some rumors that teenagers liked to use this place to drink underage and do other delinquent stuff. But there was no proof.

“There.” Schneep pointed to the playground. “I see the twins in the jungle gym. That is what the bar dome is called, ja?”

“Bar dome.” Chase giggled. “That is kinda what it is, huh? But yeah. Jungle gym. C’mon, let’s go talk to them.”

The playground in the other park consisted of three slides—one metal, one plastic and short, and one tube—a bunch of swings, and the jungle gym, which was made of interlocking bars in triangle shapes. All of this sat on a patch of sand. The twins, Marvin and Jameson, were currently sitting in the center of the jungle gym. It looked like they were digging.

Chase walked right up to the jungle gym, dropped his skateboard and helmet, and banged on one of the bars, producing a hollow metallic sound.

“Holy shit!” Marvin shouted. Jameson jumped and almost fell over. The two of them turned around and saw Chase and Schneep. “Oh hi guys! I didn’t hear you! JJ, did you hear them?” Jameson shook his head. “We didn’t hear you!”

“You didn’t hear us?” Chase repeated. “We weren’t trying to be sneaky.”

“What are you doing?” Schneep asked.

Making a hole, Jameson said.

Schneep blinked. “Why?”

“Bored,” Marvin simply stated.

“Uh...okay.” Chase decided to move on. “Is Jackie here yet?”

“He forgot something in his car,” Marvin said. “Hey, isn’t it weird how when you dig enough, the dirt starts to get wet? Why is that? Is this that groundwater we heard about in the water cycle?”

Yes, Jameson said.

“England is a rainy climate,” Schneep added. “So there is more of it, too.”

“What do you think the rainiest place on Earth is?” Marvin wondered. “I bet it’s like... Canada, or something. Or is it mostly snow over there? Oh! No, I’m dumb! Rainforests! They’re named for it! So that would be in like, South America or something, right? The Amazon? Did you know that the Amazon was named after a group of people in Greek mythology? They were a bunch of girl warriors.”

“Cool,” Chase said idly, looking around the park. It was pretty empty, but he could see Jackie’s green hatchback parked nearby. He could also see—“No!” he gasped, and started climbing into the jungle gym. “Everyone be really quiet!”

The others looked at what he’d noticed. Three girls on scooters—purple, green, and pink—were riding along one edge of the park. It was Heather Westing and her two sidekicks. “Oh, that’s the girl you hate, right?” Marvin asked.

“Shhh!” Chase hissed. “We’re far enough away that they might not notice us if we hang out in here and get really close to the ground.” By now he was inside the gym. “Schneep, get in!”

Schneep followed Chase inside, though he didn’t look too enthusiastic about it. Then Chase dropped to the ground. He gestured for the others to do the same, which Marvin and Schneep did. Jameson, meanwhile, looked down at the sandy ground and pulled a face, not too eager to get sand all over him. He would tolerate sitting, but not lying.

The three girls were passing by. Chase heard Heather say something. Curly Hair laughed, followed a second later by Pink Glasses. Then they paused scootering, just as they were within earshot. “I mean, who wears a cape just around?” Heather was saying. “Mom says that one was gonna be held back a grade but the other was too smart and the parents wouldn’t let them be apart. I bet the tiny one is gonna be held back. He can’t even speak English right!” She laughed.

Curly Hair laughed again, but Pink Glasses said, “I mean, he probably didn’t grow up speaking English. I think that if we went to another country we wouldn’t...uh...” She trailed off as Heather and Curly Hair stared at her. “But, uh, you’re right, Heather!” Pink Glasses hurried to add. “And your shirt is really cute today.”

“Aw, you’re just saying that,” Heather said, smiling. The girls started to scoot again, and she continued. “I always knew that he was gonna end up around people like that...” Her voice slowly trailed away.

It took a moment before Chase sat up. He couldn’t help but think that the three girls had stopped there on purpose. That...maybe they weren’t exactly hidden.

Something in his chest was aching.

“So she’s like, a prick, right?” Marvin said, sitting up straight. “That’s why you don’t like her? It’s not fair that she gets a scooter, then. Scooters are too cool.”

“Uh...yeah,” Chase said uncomfortably.

“She is a Stück Scheiße,” Schneep said, expression perfectly deadpan.

Jameson, halfway reaching out to put a hand on Marvin’s shoulder, suddenly wheezed and leaned to the side, a big smile on his face. Marvin looked at him, confused. “What?” When Jameson signed something too quickly for Chase to catch, Marvin’s eyes lit up. “Oh my god. Schneep!” He laughed, leaning to the side with the force of it. His shoulders collided with Jameson’s, who was still silently giggling.

“What?” Chase glanced back and forth between them. “What’s so funny?!”

Before anyone could explain to him, a hollow metallic sound came from nearby. The four all looked over to see Jackie standing by the jungle gym, on the other side of the bars. “You guys having fun in there?” he asked.

“Jackie!” Chase quickly stood up and ran over, slipping out of the gym. “What’s up?!”

“Not much, little man. I brought these.” Jackie held up a fistful of fabric. Bandannas, in various colors.

“What’re those for?” Marvin asked, standing up and staring at the bandannas.

“Well, we’re here looking for those weird mushrooms, right?” Jackie said. “That girl at the pool said they made people feel woozy. I thought that maybe that was because of spores or something. So we can use these to cover our mouths. Have you guys seen anything, by the way?”

None of them had, so they all climbed out of the jungle gym and talked about where to find them. “Are we sure that girl was talking about this park?” Schneep asked.

“Yeah, she said the other park,” Chase said. Schneep looked at him, puzzled.

Also, Marvin and I looked around the first park, Jameson added. We didn’t see anything weird.

“I did that, too,” Jackie agreed. “Nothing.”

“What do we know about these mystery mushrooms anyway?” Marvin asked.

“Not that much,” Jackie admitted. “I tried asking about mushrooms in the park, but, uh...” He hesitated. “People just...got really concerned... about that. A guy asking about mushrooms with, uh... special properties. It was... awkward.” The other four stared at him for a solid minute, all utterly confused by what he was trying to say. So he quickly changed the subject. “There’s nothing in the newspapers or the online local news, either.”

But they do E-X-I-S-T, Jameson insisted. Marvin and I asked people, too. We heard stuff. Right, Marvin?

“Yeah.” Marvin nodded.

“Who did you ask?” Jackie looked confused, and a bit worried.

“Anyone,” Marvin said. “Like, people in the library, people in the park, people at Zelly’s. A few people said that there was a spot in the park where they started to feel weird. And, like, hear things.”

“So you just walked up to random guys and asked about mushrooms,” Chase summed up. “Um...okay. I guess it worked.” He never would’ve been able to do that, too afraid of what people would think. But the twins were already strange, so what was one more thing to the pile of stuff that was going on with them?

“Mushrooms grow in places that are shady or dark,” Schneep said. “And it helps if it is a bit wet, too. The ideal temperature is twenty-one degrees Celsius. They cannot produce food with sunlight like plants, so they usually grow on things and get food from them. That is how things decompose.”

“Whoa, how do you know that?” Chase asked.

“I looked stuff up,” Schneep explained. “On the computer in your home.”

“Ohhhh. Yeah, I should’ve done that this time.”

Maybe they grow around the trees, Jameson suggested. In the shade. We should check the R-O-O-T-S.

“Sounds like a good place to start,” Jackie said. “Alright. We’re already kind of near one corner of the park. We’ll start here and go that direction.” He pointed to the left. “Then we’ll circle around the park until we get back here. Everyone take a bandanna. Wrap it around your face, just in case.”

The four boys all hurried over to take a bandanna from Jackie.

“We’ll go faster if we split up,” Marvin said, his voice muffled under the purple cloth he’d already wrapped over almost his whole face. Jameson reached over and pulled it down, as it was in danger of covering Marvin’s eyes. “All of us by ourselves?”

“I’d be fine with that,” Chase said. “Schneep, are you fine with that?”

Schneep hesitated, then nodded. “Is fine.”

“Alright, then.” Jackie clapped his hands once. “We’ll split up. Shout if you see anything weird. Or come find everyone else. Got it?” The others made various positive noises. “Alright. Let’s go team!”

This was not as exciting as fighting a ghost or water monster, but Chase still felt a little thrill as he ran off. After all, who knows what’ll happen when they found these weird mushrooms? Maybe they’d fight some kind of mushroom giant! Or living plants! Oh, that would be so cool!

But the thrill quickly started to fade. He couldn’t find any weird mushrooms growing around the roots of the trees. Even though he circled each trunk twice, just to double-check, there was nothing growing in the ground except straggly clumps of grass. Once he’d gotten to the other corner of the park, he sighed and sat down on the ground, leaning back against the bark of a tree. It was hard to breathe with the bandanna, so he took it off. Just a little bit. Just enough for his nose to poke over the cloth. The others could keep searching. He’d come running when he heard them shout.

As he thought that, he heard... something. A voice. But it wasn’t shouting. And it sounded a lot closer than the others should be. He sat up straight. It almost sounded like it was coming from...above him?

Chase looked up. And he saw it again. The shadow.

Its knees were wrapped around one of the tree branches, leaving it upside down and looking a lot more...real. The last two times Chase saw the shadow, it was definitely just a flat shadow. Now, it was like a person made out of darkness. Slightly translucent. But definitely there. He could see the folds of clothes, and hair that dangled downwards as the shadow hung from the branch. But strangely, the face still looked flat and featureless.

“Hi.” The whisper definitely came from the shadow, despite the lack of a mouth. Chase didn’t say anything back, frozen and speechless. The shadow giggled. It reached up and plucked a small stick from the tree, which it dropped.

The stick fell straight down. Chase’s eyes followed it—and saw the stick land right on top of a cluster of mushrooms. He glanced up again, but the shadow was gone. So he looked back down at the mushrooms.

These had to be what they were looking for. Chase hadn’t seen mushrooms before (except for pizza toppings), but he was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to be green. The mushrooms in the cluster ranged from as small as a coin to as big as his hand. He was surprised he hadn’t noticed them when he sat down. They also looked somehow... fuzzy. When the stick had landed on top of them, it had sent a small bit of that fuzz into the air.

Chase blinked. All of a sudden, he felt kind of dizzy. “H-hey guys?” He looked around. The others weren’t in eyesight. “Guys!” he shouted, starting to stand up.

As he shifted position, he put his hand down on the ground. Except he missed the ground, and planted his left hand solidly down on a few of the mushrooms. More fuzz spurted into the air, and his vision tilted and wavered. “Whoa!” He lost his balance and fell onto his side.

Then he heard a voice again. Not like the shadow’s whisper. And not any of the others who’d come with him. It was a grown-up’s voice. A familiar one. “Hmmnh?” Chase lifted his head, confused, and blinked slowly.

“Did you fall down, sport?” the voice asked. “Come on. Get up again. You can do it.”

Through the fuzz drifting through the air, he saw the blurry outline of a man standing nearby. The man walked over, without the sound of footsteps, and knelt next to him, without leaving impressions in the grass. Even though he was right next to Chase, the man still looked strangely blurry. But Chase could make out brown hair, a beard, and blue eyes in the same shape and color as his.

Chase blinked. What was he doing here...?

“Alright, I’ll help.” The man offered a hand. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell Mom you were hanging out near weird plants. It’ll be our secret.”

This was impossible. But...still, Chase reached out, ready to take that hand.

“Chase!”

The shout came from behind him. Chase turned his head, rolling over where he was lying. Jackie was running over, followed by Schneep and the twins. They must have heard him shout. He gave them a little wave, then looked back over. But the man had vanished.

“Are you okay?” Jackie asked, crouching to the ground. “You sounded kind of freaked out. Here.” Jackie held out his hand, ready to pull Chase up.

Chase stared at him. Then mumbled, “I wasn’t freaked out.” He sat up straight on his own, without Jackie’s help. “I found the mushrooms,” he explained, and pointed at the cluster of green fungi. “You’re right, they make you feel...weird. Hey, uh, did any of you guys see that?”

“See what?” Jackie asked.

“We just saw you,” Schneep said. “Are you...okay?”

“Yeah. Uh, yeah.” Chase nodded slowly. “I just got dizzy. From the mushrooms.”

“What’s that stuff floating in the air around them?” Marvin asked.

“Those are probably spores,” Jackie answered. “You know. What we’re trying to avoid breathing by covering our faces. Chase, yours slipped a little and left your nose uncovered, so you must have breathed some of them. That’s why you got dizzy.”

“Oh. Right, yeah, that makes sense.” Chase hurriedly adjusted his bandanna and stood up. Jackie stood as well, and the five of them stared down at the little cluster.

They’re smaller than I thought, Jameson said.

“Yeah,” Marvin agreed.

“So we know they’re here now.” Jackie put his hands on his hips. “How do we get rid of them?”

“Oh! Chase and I brought things, actually.” Schneep pulled off his backpack and opened it up. He took out a few plastic bags, like people put sandwiches in. “We can pluck them and put them in here, then throw them away.”

“But do we wanna touch them?” Jackie looked pretty reluctant to do that. Or, probably. It was hard to read his facial expression with the bandanna.

Wait, Jameson signed, and opened up his own bag. He pulled out—

“What the hell is it with you and knives?!” Jackie cried. “That’s the third time! Oh my god, are you just carrying that loose in your bag?!”

“We thought we’d have to fight off giant fucking mushroom monsters or something,” Marvin said defensively. “But it works out, right? We can cut the stems with the knives!”

Jackie blinked. “Knives. Plural.”

The twins nodded.

“Okay. Fine.” Jackie’s voice sounded kind of strangled. “Guess this might as well happen. This is already so goddamn weird.” He exhaled, then decided to move on. “Next time, you have to at least wrap them tightly in something, alright? Otherwise you can cut yourself when you feel around in the bag.”

Jameson nodded, and handed the knife he was holding to Marvin. Promise. We brought five today. One for everyone!

“F-five...” Jackie stopped working for a moment. Then he exhaled again, louder. “Okay. Fine. Everyone take one. Be very careful!”

A minute later, all of them were awkwardly crouched around the cluster of mushrooms, trying not to touch them or breathe too much as they carefully sawed at the stems. Whenever the mushrooms jostled even a little, they let out more pale green spores. Luckily, though there were a lot of them, they weren’t able to get through the bandannas. Everyone was still worried about touching the fungi, but Schneep suggested putting their hands inside the plastic bags as some sort of makeshift gloves.

It was easy to get rid of the tops of the mushrooms, but getting rid of the stems proved more difficult, as they were firmly rooted in the ground. Eventually the four younger boys gave up on uprooting the last stems and left the work to Jackie. After about five minutes of digging and cutting, they could find no more mushroom bits, and the parts they had were sealed inside a pile of plastic sandwich bags, leaving only a hole at the base of the tree that was almost ten inches deep.

“So...it was a big cluster,” Marvin said. “Just in a vertical area, not a horizontal one.”

“That was...easier than I thought,” Schneep said slowly.

“Easy? We...we just spent like...twenty minutes on this.” Jackie, as the one who’d done a lot of the difficult digging at the end, was a lot more tired than the others. Also out of breath. He had to take a moment to recover.

“Yes, but last time we fought a bubble monster,” Schneep reminded him. “That was hard. You got stuck underwater. We had to climb the slide.”

“Well...I’m not complaining.” Jackie used the tree to climb to his feet. “There’s still a lot of...a lot of spores in the air. Let’s get back. Grab the bags.”

The group retreated to a safe distance, taking the plastic bags with them. Do you think it’s safe that all the S-P-O-R-E-S are still around? Jameson asked.

“I guess we’ll see,” Jackie muttered. “If we come back here in a week and there’s even more mushrooms, then no.”

“It’s, uh...probably fine.” Chase gripped the bags he was holding tightly. He watched as the mushrooms inside, though uprooted, still gave off a weak puff of fuzz.

“How do we get rid of these?” Marvin asked. “Do we just...throw them away?”

“I do not think that is safe,” Schneep said. “What if someone found them in the trash? Like the trash man? Or wild dogs?”

“Okay. Do we bury them again, then? Like we did with the ghost hoover?”

“That seems...bad,” Jackie said slowly. “Maybe...we burn them? Here, give them all to me. My house has a fireplace. We’ve never used it, but it’ll be safer to do it there than in, like, the middle of the park or something. I’ll wait ‘til Dad is asleep, then sneak down and dump them all there.”

“Are you sure?” Chase blurted out. “I mean, do you know how to use a fireplace? Can you figure it out?”

Jackie laughed a little. “I appreciate your worry, but it’ll be fine. I’ll be very safe, and I’ll wear the bandanna in case of spores. Though I think they’ll probably go up the chimney.”

Seems like the best idea, Jameson said.

“Alright.” Jackie nodded. “Let’s carry these to my car, then.”

“Oh! Question.” Marvin raised his hand. “Can we all go to Zelly’s after this? For ice cream? Jameson has money!”

Jackie laughed. “Sure. It’ll be a celebration.”

“You should work at Zelly’s, Jackie,” Schneep said. “They want help.”

“You mean they’re hiring? Huh. Maybe. I could use a job.”

They started walking back to the car, but Chase lingered, looking down at the plastic bags. In his arms. He grabbed one with a lot of the mushroom tops in it—the parts that let out the most spores. And he hurriedly shoved it deep into the largest pocket of his shorts. Then he ran after the others.

++++++++++++++++++++

A week passed. The group went back to the park one more time and confirmed that there were no more mushrooms growing. Once they were sure, the twins convinced Chase to let them come over to his house for dinner and video games. They wanted to keep working on that game they started a few weeks ago, on the day when the monster dog broke into the house. Chase agreed, but he reminded them not to go into his room. And when they came over, he made sure that the plastic bag he’d taken was hidden in his closet. He didn’t want to risk anyone finding it.

Mom was home when Jackie and the twins came over, but she was busy in her bedroom office, and said the boys could hang out, as long as they didn’t do anything too dangerous. She trusted Jackie to watch them.

“This level is fucking impossible!” Marvin declared. “How the fuck am I supposed to do this?!”

“You know, there’s a glitch you can do where you skip it,” Chase said, leaning over the back of the sofa and reaching for the controller in Marvin’s hand.

“Don’t touch.” Marvin easily moved the controller out of reach. “Just tell me how to do it.”

Isn’t it C-H-E-A-T-I-N-G to use a glitch? Jameson asked.

“It’s fine,” Chase said, shrugging. “He’s been stuck for a while. Kind of weird. This part isn’t that hard.”

“Well fuck you too.” Marvin made a face at him. “How do I do it?”

“Alright, go back over to that wall...”

“Schneep, do you think it’s alright to sit that close to the TV?” Jackie asked. “It’s like, bad for your eyesight, right?”

Schneep, sitting on the floor with his plushie bat in his lap, shook his head. “I already have glasses, so it’s already done, right?”

“I...don’t think that’s how it works.” Jackie drummed a random pattern on the armchair cushion with his fingers. “Things can get worse.”

“Then I will wear stronger glasses.”

“Alright. Fine, up to you.”

Meanwhile, Chase had finished guiding Marvin through the glitch—narrowly avoiding sabotage from Jameson, who tried to lean over and jostle Marvin when he was half-done—and now a cutscene was playing. Oh no, it’s this fight again, Jameson said, a look of dread on his face. You have to do it twice?

“Well, yeah, one time with each of the characters in it,” Chase said. “It’s easier with this guy, though.”

“If you guys are about to do a boss fight, do you mind pausing so I can ask you all something?” Jackie said.

Marvin paused the game, and everyone turned to look at Jackie. “Yeah?”

“Okay. So.” Jackie paused, then gave an awkward little laugh. “So, my dad’s been saving up for a while, and he told me he wanted to go on a camping trip with me. And that I could invite my friends, too, said he would rent a spare car and tents and stuff. I already invited all my friends who are, like, my age, but I asked him if you guys could come, and he said yes. So...I know it might be a little weird, but do you guys want to come?”

“Camping?” Chase stood up straight. “For how long?”

Where? Jameson asked.

“When?” Marvin added.

“Will we need things?” Schneep said, looking a little worried.

“Uh, ten days from now,” Jackie said. “There’s a campground in the forest around town, he said it was a forty-five minute drive, but I don’t know how accurate that’ll be. It’ll last two nights. And you don’t need to bring any supplies, but it would probably be good to have sleeping bags and toothpaste and stuff like that. You know.”

“Why did you ask us?” Schneep wondered.

“Well, uh...” Jackie laughed awkwardly again. “I-I don’t know. It just seemed like a nice thing to do. After all the weird stuff apparently going on, I thought, uh, maybe you guys would like to...do something fun. That’s not related. H-have any of you been camping before?”

“I think we went once,” Chase said slowly. “When we still lived in America. I was, like, four or five or something. Schneep?”

Schneep shook his head. “Mama und Papa do not like to travel anywhere.”

“We’ve never gone camping,” Marvin said. “But sometimes when we went to visit our grandma, she used to live in this, like, farm-like area that was kind of nowhere. She wasn’t a farmer, but there were still only a bunch of fields and bushes around the house, and we used to go exploring. Sometimes, like, all day. Right, JJ? Remember that?” Jameson nodded.

“So this’ll be new for all of you.” Jackie smiled a little. “It’s fun. We go camping all the time. Or, well, it’s...been a while...” He trailed off, looking very sad for a moment. Then he moved on. “So we have a lot of stuff, and Dad and me know how to set up a tent and campfire and all that.”

The four others exchanged looks. “Sounds fun!” Chase said cheerfully. “I mean, we’ll have to ask Mom, of course—”

“Do you think she will let us?!” Schneep squeezed his bat tight, voice nervous.

“Yeah, probably. We’ll have to go shopping for sleeping bags. I wonder where we can go do that?”

“I wanna go!” Marvin said. “I bet when you’re out in the forest you can feel magic, cause it’s supposed to come from nature.”

Jameson looked concerned. Do you think Mam and Dad will let us go for three days?

“Uh...we’ll have to be really nice about it, but probably? Yeah. Probably.”

Chase snorted. “Your parents let you wander around town alone, but they won’t let you go camping with a bunch of other people?”

It’s how long that can be the problem, Jameson said. And how strange the place is.

“Jackie’s dad will be there, and a bunch of older kids, it’ll probably be fine,” Marvin said. “And campgrounds have other people, right?”

“Right.” Jackie nodded. “So...if you guys are excited, I’ll tell Dad that you need to ask your parents, but you all want to go.” He took out his phone to send a text message. “Is that good?”

“Yeah!” Chase punched the air. “Whoohoo! We’re going on a trip!”

“Heh.” A tiny smile drifted across Schneep’s face. “I hope it will be fun.”

“So are we gonna meet your teenager friends, Jackie?” Marvin asked. “Are they cool?”

“Well I mean, objectively, they’re dorks,” Jackie laughed. “But they’re cool dorks.”

“Nice.” Marvin grinned, then turned back to the television. “Okay, I’m gonna press play now.”

The next couple of minutes was taken up with Marvin playing the boss fight, occasionally interrupted by more of Jameson’s attempted sabotage. In the end, he was triumphant. “It’s no use! It’s no fucking use!” he shouted, laughing. “You’re dead! You’re motherfucking dead! I win! My win!”

“Oh, a B! Nice.” Jackie nodded.

So it’s Chase’s turn now, right? Jameson asked.

“Oh, you don’t wanna play today?” Chase said.

Maybe after you. Your character’s story is a lot cooler.

“If you think this is cool, you should see the game he came from.” Chase vaulted over the back of the sofa, landing in the perfect spot in between the twins, who both scooted away to make more room.

Schneep stood up, carefully unfolding his legs. “While you switch, I am going to put Mitternacht in my room. Okay?”

“Is that the bat?” Marvin asked. “That’s cute!”

Schneep laughed. “Yes. Thank you. I will be right back.” He turned and headed towards the stairs. As he climbed them, the sound of the boys and their video game slowly faded. Not completely going quiet, but the words and noises blurring together. They continued to blur as he walked towards his bedroom doorway. Then he paused, and walked down the hall to the upstairs bathroom. Might as well, while he was away from the others. A couple minutes later, he walked out again and back to the open doorway.

The light in his bedroom was dim. Aunt Jess had recently taken him shopping for some things for his room, and that included a set of curtains: blue, with a pattern of white stars. Though the curtains were pale in color, they were thick and did a good job at blocking out the light from the window. Still, the room was bright enough to see a figure sitting on the edge of his bed. Someone must have followed him up, and decided to go into his room when he went to the bathroom.

“Chase?” Schneep asked. No, wait, it was too tall, and it wasn’t wearing Chase’s cap. “Jackie? What are you doing in here?” That was—it was rude, to go into someone's room without asking. And he didn’t like it. He didn’t like the jumpy feeling of fear it gave him when someone else was in his room. So he reached over and flipped on the light switch, ready to tell them to leave.

But even when light flooded the room, the shadowy figure was still just a shadowy figure.

Schneep froze, staring at it. It was like a person made out of darkness. It was three-dimensional, but didn’t look entirely solid, with Schneep being able to partially see the pattern on the curtains through its body. He blinked, squeezing his eyes shut and then opening them wide. But the shadow was still there.

The shadow stood up. It hadn’t left any impressions in the covers of Schneep’s bed. “Hi, Henrik,” said a whispery voice. It sounded like it belonged to a boy, maybe one around Jackie’s age. Then it started to walk forward.

Panic filled his chest, then his throat. Then it burst out as Schneep screamed.

The shadow stopped, as if surprised. And it giggled. The light overhead flickered, turning off, and when it flickered on again, the shadow was gone.

“Schneep?!” Footsteps running up the stairs. Chase crashed into the doorframe next to Schneep. “What is it?! What happened?!”

“Es gibt—d-da war ein—” Schneep pointed urgently at the spot where the shadow disappeared, hugging his plush bat close. “Ein—ein Schatten!”

More footsteps up the stairs. Jackie, followed shortly by the twins. “What happened?! Jackie gasped. “Schneep, are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost.”

“Ghost!” Schneep gasped. “Ghost—Geist—Schatten—shadow! There was a shadow!”

“A shadow?” Chase’s eyes widened. “Like...like a shadow of a guy, but there wasn’t actually a guy there?”

“Ja!” Schneep nodded vigorously. “It was—it was a pop-up shadow! A person made of it! H-he said ‘hi Henrik’ and walked to me! Then I screamed, a-and he laughed, and he is gone now!”

Someone stepped into Schneep’s line of view. Jameson. Take deep breaths, he signed. Like this. And he started breathing, showing Schneep what to do.

Schneep mimicked him, focusing on the movement of his chest. He felt his heartbeat in his ribs and neck, going fast but gradually slowing.

“Are you good?” Jackie asked.

Schneep nodded.

“So... someone else saw the shadow guy,” Chase mumbled. “Good to know it’s just not me. But, uh, not good. That he freaked you out.”

“What’s this guy’s fucking deal?” Marvin asked. “Is he following us? Haunting us?”

“He was just...there,” Schneep said, vaguely gesturing into his room. “I think it was...on purpose. That he was here. He knew my name.”

Chase shook his head. “I don’t know what’s going on. But I think...we’re gonna have to figure it out eventually."

#jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye fanfiction #jacksepticegos #septic egos #septic egos au #jacksepticeye au #chase brody #dr schneeplestein #jackieboy man #marvin the magnificent #jameson jackson #antisepticeye #brigid writes fanfiction #pnptau

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showfallsquigandiris · 7 months

Text

/Video input received/

/Source: HS: IR-15/

/Starting transcript/

…

[The camera is pointed at the Hot Topic entrance from a bit of a distance, and shifts to be slightly at an angle as Iris lets out a shockingly quiet hum.]

Iris: [muttering] Now, what’s the best way to let Prixxy know I’m here without accidentally scaring him…

[The camera sees as there's movement coming from the back of the store, then can see Jasprix through the windows as he hesitates in moving away from the back door, checking and typing things on his phone occasionally, before he finally comes to the front and stops, looking down at the package on the floor with weariness.]

[It takes a moment, where only his tail moves side to side, before he reaches down and picks up the paper on top of it. He relaxes as he reads it, though he also looks mildly upset. He sighs, and looks up, looking around the hallway.]

[Everything blurs for a second as Iris slightly jolts, before she makes a sound mimicking a cough. Her right hand can also be seen giving a slight wave at the edge of the camera’s frame.]

[Jasprix hears the sound, and he looks immediately towards the camera. He looks relieved, and tired, and waves back at her. Glancing back into the room momentarily before he changes the wave to something that says he’s asking her to come over, instead of saying anything from a distance.]

[The camera approaches Jasprix at a brisk walking speed before stopping just outside the entrance.]

Iris: [quietly] Didn’t expect to be here right as you found, uh, that.

[The view tilts as Iris motions her head towards the kit of medical supplies.]

Jasprix: [shrugging] I didn’t think you were still around, but uh, thanks. For the note, and offer, I guess. These are… probably more recent then what I used, but I… didn't have a way to get more. Um, how was the… party?

[He’s more nervous then he usually is, shifting in place where he’s stood in the entrance, glancing back to the closed door occasionally as he talks, fingers tapping on his phone and the note.]

Iris: Not quite as fun as the ones we occasionally have on the Island, but also not nearly as horrible as I expected. I don’t think you really missed out on much though, plus this one really annoying Doctor was there. Literally came with a clipboard and was writing stuff down the whole time. But uh, enough about that, uh, how are you… holding up?

[At the mention of the Doctor, Jasprix’s ears had gone up and he looked terrified, but he relaxed when she moved on from that.]

Jasprix: Kind of glad I got called to an HR meeting that wasn’t entirely real, don’t like being in places with a lot of people anyway, they can get grabby. Um. I’m okay? My boyfriend is injured as all fuck right now and can’t move that well, and is kind of barely awake, but I’m… dealing with it. I wrapped him up, hopefully he won't get an infection, but I can’t heal him faster and it sucks.

Iris: Yeah, from what that tripod caught it looks like you did a pretty good job. Although, you know, like I mentioned in the note, I do have medical experience so…

[As Iris trails off the camera just slightly shifts before briefly just being aimed at the floor.]

Iris: But uh, obviously only if you can convince Marvin which uh, I’d imagine won’t be easy.

Jasprix: …Yeah, unless you have a way to make his neck not hurt as much right now, I don’t… really think he wants anyone else near him. I don’t either, and I think if you tried to touch him or do any Doctor shit right now I’d probably snarl or attack you or something and I don’t wanna do that and risk hurting him more. Is…is there any cold stuff, or anti-inflammatory whatever in the box, that would work on his neck? I’m afraid of touching something and hurting it worse, but I want to at least try to heal it faster.

[Iris lets out a hum as the camera is briefly shaken by a nod.]

Iris: Yeah, there’s some anti-inflammatory medicine in there. And speaking of all the…

[As Iris pauses for a second, her hand can be seen pointing at her own neck.]

Iris: … neck stuff. I’d recommend coming up with some way to secure those wires, at least for sure during this initial adjustment period. Something tighter like bandages or using small amounts of medical tape, which there’s also plenty of in there, would probably be better. But I’d also get if Marvin wouldn’t want anything tight or… hm, restrictive around his neck, so you could just use like, a scarf or some other loose cloth to cover it.

[Jasprix looks nervous, but he nods in thought.]

[Iris shifts with a small sigh, her hand briefly in frame on the left edge.]

Iris: I uh, the reason for this is to just help prevent anything from touching or even snagging on the wires more directly as it heals up. Hah, uh, sorry for just throwing that at you all at once.

Jasprix: It’s…fine. I think I have a few scarves, if he doesn’t wanna try the other things. Um, thanks, for helping. Maybe… maybe when he’s a little better he’d agree to letting you near him, but I don’t know right now. But I’ll see about the tape, or the scarves, because those things getting snagged probably would be… bad. For both of us, even if it was accidental. I don’t want to risk it, or him.

Iris: Yeah, while obviously I don’t know exactly how those wires of his work, doesn’t immediately stick out as any standard implement I’m familiar with, though maybe that’s just because I’m mostly used to Security related implements.

[Iris coughs once more, the camera flicking away to the left for a second.]

Iris: Sorry, back to Marvin specifically, I can’t imagine those wires are just for looks, and considering they’re all around his neck it’s uh, not a reach to assume they also probably attach to some very delicate internal things, both up and down. I might be able to make a better guess if I saw them directly but uh--

Jasprix: You're not going to be able to get near him right now without him freaking out and probably opening the stitches. You can’t, you can't do anything with the collar thing Iris, if you read the transcript you know what HR said about it. If it gets fucked with then we are both fucked!

[Iris’ hands raise up, briefly moving towards Jasprix before they stop and just hover in the air.]

Iris: [slightly panicked] Hey Prixxy, uh, chill. I never said anything about actually messing with it. Couldn’t even do it right now even if you’d want me too, not at all equipped to do invasive surgery at all. And we’d probably need to either go over to the medical wing or somehow otherwise make an equally sterile environment and-- I uh.

[The camera is aimed directly at Jasprix’s eyes, his pupils having quickly shrunk to needle-like in fear.]

Iris: Sorry, sorry just-- you don’t have to worry about me even trying to mess with it. I-- I was just saying if I got a closer look at them, I might be better able to tell their exact purpose and how exactly it’s all… connected and shit. Didn’t uh, mean to make you panic.

[One of Iris’ hands drops to her side while the other still hovers, slightly twitching, before slowly lowering to rest on Jasprix’s shoulder. His eyes watched it the whole time, but he didn’t move away after.]

Iris: I wouldn’t do anything that’d make things worse, I promise you that Prixxy.

Jasprix: I… thanks. Thanks Iris. Sorry I snapped at you, this is just… still new and really delicate. It’s hard to really tell, right now, what might happen. I’m just trying my fucking best here, and I know you probably are too. I have to be careful, it’d be really bad if anything happened to disobey what they said, especially with not knowing what that thing even does fully. I don’t want it to be used at all.

[The camera shakes as Iris slowly nods. Her hand gives Jasprix’s shoulder a light squeeze before letting go.]

Iris: Yeah, yeah. Oh and uh, that reminds me. Bos- Sa- ugh, Squig, wanted me to pass along that she wishes Marvin a quick recovery, congratulations on the relationship finally actually happening, and that she really wishes she could help more but uh.

[Iris waves her hand around a bit before continuing to talk.]

Iris: The whole explanation is long and honestly a bit confusing, but basically if she tried to get involved in something like this, it would raise some eyebrows with certain people that would probably only make things end up worse. Which you know, is not what any of us want.

Jasprix: Yeah I uh, get that. I think Squig’s only worry would come from the CEO or Hetch or the Founder, or whoever else is on her level, I guess. But um, tell her thanks? I appreciate it, really, and maybe Marvin would appreciate the sentiment too, if he could right now, but I’ll tell him that theres plenty of people happy he’s alive and hoping he gets better. So, um, thanks for that. I’ll remember to call you if I do ever need help.

[Iris gives an affirmative hum with a quick nod.]

Iris: Yeah, I’ll be hanging around the area for probably a bit longer, might occasionally go back out to Lostfield but you know, I won’t be a whole few hours away. Holly, the kid that was just kind of dropped on me to mentor, accidentally started a testing phase early but…

[For a brief second, in the corner of the frame, footage from another camera appears. It’s small so not much can be made out aside from two figures in a dark room. Before the secondary footage is quickly dismissed.]

Iris: She seems to be doing fine on her own, plus it’s not like I’m the only other person involved in testing, so it’s not like she’s actually completely without any help. So you know, no real obligations to immediately get back to.

Jasprix: Thank you.

[Jasprix moves out from the doors entrance, and hugs Iris tightly, her arms hover awkwardly for a moment before returning the hug. After a few seconds, theres some sniffling and whimpers.]

Iris: [quietly] oh--

…

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#showfall ask blog #encoreverse blog #showfall media #transcript #iris #jasprix

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