Paradoxcicle - Blip_x - Multifandom [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Chapter 1: Everything Goes Wrong

Chapter Text

"-and I will slime you later!"

Click.

Charlie pressed the button to end stream and took a sip of his water. He had to end a little earlier so there was still time to get ready for tonight, but he didn't stream for too long anyways so he was sure his viewers wouldn't mind.

About an hour to go until he needed to be there; that was pretty good, honestly. He still needed to get changed and, y'know, actually get there, but that part wouldn't take too long. First he wanted to check the arrangement he had, though.

◯ Slimecicle Today at 17:02
Hey so am I still good to pick you up tonight?

◯ ranboo Today at 17:04
sorry late response was messing with moonzt but yes if its still alr!

◯ Slimecicle Today at 17:04
No worries I'll be there >:)

He put down his phone and stretched his hands over his head before he stood up from the desk. Being in LA was great, it was good to be able to hang out with everyone in person, going out for dinner tonight sounded like it would be really fun! Nothing too fancy, although admittedly the place they'd be going was a little fancy. Meeting up with everyone would be worth it, though.

What should he wear for it, though? Charlie hopped up the stairs and pushed through the door to his room, sighing as he tugged his wardrobe open. It was so hard to decide when it was kind of a formal event. He was gonna be among friends, so it didn't really matter- he was sure they wouldn't mind even if he came in a shirt and jeans, but he'd rather give the impression he put some effort in.

Oh, that was weird- was this shirt a little bit...wet? He was pretty certain all his clothes had been dry when he put them back in his wardrobe this morning. It was soggy enough that it stuck to his fingers a little as he pulled away too. He supposed he must not have checked them well enough. Huh.

Well that sucked, but there wasn't any time to redo his laundry now, he'd have to make a mental note to take care of that afterwards. Most of his other stuff was dry, so he laid out a nice shirt and jacket on his bed, then he heard something moving around downstairs.

There wasn't anyone staying in his house right now.

Oh no.

Charlie crept up to his door, peeking through into the upstairs landing and at the top few steps that were still visible from this point. There wasn't anything out there, but he continued hearing the occasional bump and step downstairs, even clearer now that he was closer to the door. Oh god. Not good.

What did he do now? Did he call the police? But then he'd be dealing with them and he'd end up being too late to pick up Ranboo and Moonzy- wait, was that really more important right now, what if this guy was here to kill him?!

Probably not, he's probably just getting robbed, which is still pretty bad actually, but not quite as bad. Wait, maybe it's a bird or something, he left some downstairs windows open, so it could've gotten in through there! He could check first, at least. If it was just some animal there was nothing to worry about, none of his plans would be delayed, everything would be good. If it was an animal. Which he really, really hoped it was.

Charlie took a breath, stepping cautiously towards the banister and leaning over it to steal a glance downstairs. There wasn't anything he could see from here, but the noises continued.

"...hello?"

Charlie immediately cursed himself and stepped back from the stairs, his hand being drawn up unconsciously to cover his mouth. What was he, a horror movie protagonist? Not even the protagonist, that was the kind of thing someone did before they died in the opening scene, before the title screen had even played. And, much to his delight, the noise downstairs had completely stopped. Great. This was awful.

Damn it, he couldn't even call the police, he'd left his phone on his desk downstairs. Not that they'd get here in time to stop him from getting himself killed. Surely there was something here he could grab for defense- a lamp? Sure, a lamp. He pulled it off a table on the landing and gripped it tight in both his hands, embedding the design of the neck into his palms in an effort to stop them from shaking.

It was just a robber. He was just getting robbed. He'd go downstairs, and they'd run out the way they'd come, and it would all be good and he could go to dinner as if nothing at all had happened.

He swore under his breath as he took the first step down the stairs, wishing to be anywhere but this. The last noises he'd heard were from the kitchen, so with each step he took his eyes were focused in that direction, looking for movement or shadows or someone pointing a gun at his face because maybe that was gonna happen as soon as he made it down these stairs. God he was so f*cked.

Bottom of the stairs, lamp in hand, he looked left and right. Nothing. Whoever this was, they were probably still in the kitchen, so if he wanted to know what was going on he'd have to go there himself.

"Listen, I've called the police and I know they're not far from here. I don't want trouble, so if you could just, y'know, get the f*ck out of this house, that would be great," Charlie spoke to the silence, shaking more with each word until he could barely speak by the end. But he thought the message had probably still gotten across, despite the continued lack of sound from anyone besides him.

He raised the lamp higher, took another step, then another. He would've appreciated the silence if it weren't for the noise that came before it. Something was definitely here, around this corner, and now it was probably waiting for him. He should definitely just go to the door and f*cking run. They'd understand if this made him late for dinner, anyone would understand that, but did that mean he was just supposed to turn his back to this person in his house and practically hand the property to them? He didn't have his phone or wallet, how was he supposed to get any help when he got out the door?

He could face this intruder down, or he could just give up on everything and probably live on the streets forever or something. Those were the only outcomes he could imagine from this situation. He had to do something.

So Charlie ran.

The keys were by the door and he jammed them into the lock enough that he thought he was about to break them, but through his panic he managed to twist the lock open and flung his front door wide to give him a way to get the hell out of-

"Oh, hello-!"

Charlie shut the door.

Haha.

Hahahaha.

What.

No, no, that's not- oh god, he's hallucinating. He's fully f*cking hallucinating. It's a Wednesday afternoon and Charlie Slimecicle has lost his mind.

That wasn't- no, that wasn't what he saw, there was no f*cking way. Does adrenaline do this to you? Make you hallucinate- he didn't even want to say it, because that would be acknowledging it, and he couldn't acknowledge something that wasn't real.

But wait, this was a good thing, right? The person in his kitchen wasn't real at all, he'd have to have been imagining that too! So he'd go into his kitchen, and there wouldn't be anyone there at all. Great, problem solved!

Confidently, maybe overconfidently, Charlie left the door behind and strode back to take a good look at his definitely empty and fine kitchen, that would have nobody in it. And he was right, there wasn't a single person in there. Instead there was some thing, staring, smiling, standing on his kitchen counter and looking him dead in the eyes. Unblinking. 2 f*cking feet tall.

"Goobleck :)"

Charlie screamed and launched his lamp right at its face.

With a disturbing squelch, the lamp embedded in the horrific creature's goopy skin and gradually sunk out as it was pulled by its own weight back to the ground, leaving a little goopy puddle as it hit the tile floor. The solitary creature remained completely unfazed. Charlie was horrified.

Oh god. This was real. That was real. What the f*ck.

"Heehoo"

Charlie screamed once more into his hands and stared, wide-eyed, towards his intruder. He could try to tell himself that at least this wasn't the worst case scenario, at least he was alive, but it was a little hard to think of anything other than an overlapping crowded mess of oh god oh f*ck what the f*ck oh god oh no oh no no no

His phone buzzed in the other room. He would rather look at his phone that acknowledge this situation, so he left, and looked at his phone.

◯ ranboo Today at 17:19
CAT

📄 unknown.png ↓

◯ Slimecicle Today at 17:19
Haha :)

Charlie was crying.

He wasn't, like, scared or anything- okay, he might've been a little bit, but that wasn't really the reason he was crying. He was mainly crying because it was beginning to dawn on him that this was not a situation that would resolve itself before his dinner at 6pm tonight, and maybe not for the rest of his life either. He might never live normally again. Because f*cking Goobleck was currently stood on his kitchen counter and if it wasn't obvious, that was not something that was supposed to happen. Ever.

He was gonna go to jail. He hadn't even done anything but this would probably end in him going to jail.

This wasn't gonna go away on its own. He needed to do something, even if he had no idea what that could possibly be. He steeled himself to step back in the kitchen and see that thing once again.

There was one thing he hadn't noticed before about the purple glob with legs and a radioactively green face, that Ranboo's cat pictures might have calmed him enough to be able to take notice of rather than just panicking and running away. Goobleck was wearing a shirt, for some reason. A shirt that read YES, THEY'RE NATURAL with an image of two D20s. Goobleck had stolen his shirt.

f*ck this, he couldn't look at that thing's eyes and constant smile any longer before it drove him insane. What was left to do? The door? Oh sh*t, the door. It was still closed, he hadn't let himself in like Goobleck despite Charlie leaving the door unlocked. But that just left him standing outside, and Charlie didn't really want that guy standing in front of his door for anyone to see if they walked past his drive.

Okay, whatever, he was doing this. He could do this. This guy was gonna exist whether Charlie could see him or not, he couldn't try to just apply baby object permanence logic to make the situation better for himself. Maybe he could..? No, no, shut up, just open the door before anyone else gets drawn into dealing with this mess.

"Oh, hello again-?"

"Shut up Gillion," Charlie grabbed the fish man's hand and dragged him inside. He stuck his head outside to check left and right if anyone else was there who had seen him, or any other creatures hiding around his house, but the coast seemed clear- thank f*ck.

He slammed the door and sunk against it, dropping to the floor with knees to his chest and head in his hands.

"Um...is everything okay down there..?" Gillion hesitantly asked him.

Charlie, slowly, pulled his hands down his face so that they pulled his lower eyelids down with them a little, and he raised his eyes over each part of Gillion before he landed on the face. Thankfully he wasn't in full armour, but did that really matter when he had green skin and was built like somebody who'd been weightlifting since the age of 5? He was exactly as Charlie thought he'd be, messy hair behind a crown of coral, fins on either side of the eyes that were staring right down at him.

He would've loved to laugh and tell Gillion, 'wow, great cosplay,' but he was a little beyond that point right now.

Instead Charlie settled on saying, "no."

"Oh, well, um...sorry if this is a bad time, but I was brought here by this little creature who seemed quite intent on coming to your door," from his side Gillion produced a pouch, similar to the one that held Pretzel but instead it contained a small, purple...smiling...

It was another Goobleck.

"Oh, god," Charlie put his hands back over his face.

"Wait, do you recognise this creature?" Gillion held the Goobleck closer to Charlie.

Charlie pushed himself against the door to be further from it, "yeah, too well. And you don't, because you never met in the campaign...what the f*ck is this?" he suddenly directed the question at Gillion, taking him by suprise.

"Um- that, uh- I was hoping that's what you'd tell me," Gillion smiled at him nervously, drawing the Goobleck back.

Charlie took a breath, holding it in as he blinked and stared past Gillion at nothing in particular. He very slowly exhaled. Then he laughed, just a little, but enough for Gillion to hear.

"Are you-?" Gillion began to ask, but Charlie cut him off.

"This isn't- no, this is stupid, this is so stupid!" Charlie smiled and flung his arms up, making Gillion jump, "why am I even entertaining this, you're not real, you're just a f*cking character, you don't even exist!"

Gillion looked confused, and a little offended, "I think I'm pretty real, actually."

"Yeah, of course you are," Charlie dragged himself up the door, stumbling a bit against it, "Gillion Tidestrider, Champion of the Undersea, Hero of the Deep-"

Gillion continued with him, voice uncertain, "...Pigeon Lord, The One, Warrior of Rock and Roll..."

They started to slow down until the two of them faded to silence, Charlie realising he'd gotten the point across, and Gillion indeed getting the point. His eyes had drifted to the floor, confused, maybe scared, but gradually they rose again to meet Charlie's, nothing but condemning, "who are you?"

"I'm Charlie," he stared back at Gillion with baseless confidence, "and I made you."

"You did not make me," Gillion shook his head and broke their eye contact to look at his house.

"That's the only reason you're here, because my brain made you up, and now for some reason it's putting you in front of me," Charlie reasoned, ignoring Gillion, "so I'm just gonna get on with my day, because I have dinner, and I'm gonna go to dinner and forget that any of this ever happened."

"That sounds healthy," Gillion remarked.

"Coming from you?" Charlie sighed and walked past Gillion to pick up his car keys from where he'd left them on a side table in the kitchen. He wasn't even going to look at the central counter, because Goobleck wasn't real so why would he be looking at something that wasn't there and didn't exist hahaha who would do something crazy like that?

"Goobleck is very real :)"

"NO," Charlie yelled, maybe a little too loud, whipping his head around and pointing the end of a key directly between Goobleck's unblinking eyes, held in a tight, shaking grip.

"I am going to go," Charlie commanded as if his words would make it so, "I am f*cking leaving and I am going to dinner, because I have plans to have dinner. Like a normal person. Because normal people go to plans and talk to friends and don't get caught up talking to characters in their f*cking house!"

By now Gillion had followed him to the kitchen, and the second, smaller Goobleck he had been holding slipped off his hand and scampered across the floor towards the kitchen counter. Charlie watched, not out of desire but moreso a morbid curiosity, as the Goobleck reached its bigger counterpart and as the two touched they merged, with a strange radioactive-like light, shifting into one another and becoming whole. And by the end of it, one Goobleck remained, standing there, smiling.

Charlie wanted to throw up.

Before dinner? Haha. No. That wasn't a normal thing to do. He just needed to hop in his car and go pick up Ranboo and Moonzy, because he'd had a normal afternoon after ending stream with ample time to prepare and now he was ready to get on his way to dinner. He had to get to dinner. He had planned to get to dinner. And nothing in particular had happened here which should reasonably stop him from going to dinner.

Charlie's eyes focused on nothing as he went through the motions of walking, opening the door, closing the door, walking, opening his car door, getting in his car, closing the car door. By the time he was sat in the front seat with his keys in the ignition he wasn't really sure if he could remember the process of getting there. But he was there. Time to go to dinner.

Oh, wait, he should check his phone! Maybe Ranboo had sent an update. That would be important to check before he left. And indeed there was a message when Charlie opened his phone.

◯ ranboo Today at 17:28
u setting off soon?

◯ Slimecicle Today at 17:32
Yep! Omw!

Charlie looked up from his phone. Then back down at it.

◯ Slimecicle Today at 17:33
:)

He was already a bit behind schedule, so he should probably set off. He felt like he could barely hear the car starting as he turned the keys, but he felt the rumble and pressed down on the pedals to get it into action.

The drive to Ranboo's house seemed to pass without happening, if that made any sense. He didn't even realise it when he'd already pulled up to the front lawn. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to be driving when his mind was thinking of so many other things, but he wasn't even sure what he was thinking about. He could call this off if he wanted to. He knew his friends wouldn't mind, surely.

And admit that there was a problem? Give in to this thing impacting his life? If he could just get on with his normal life, that he'd been living fine so far and would continue to live happily with, then it would be like there wasn't even a problem, because if he didn't acknowledge it, it stopped being a problem.

That sounded like the kind of thing his therapist would get concerned about. Maybe this really wasn't a good idea. Maybe-

"Hey, Charlie, you made it!"

Moonzy's voice was enough to make him jump pretty noticeably despite being muffled through the glass.

"Oh sh*t, sorry, shoulda tapped or something," Moonzy laughed and let themself in to the back seats. There was a click from the back of the car that they seemed to take notice of too before Ranboo got in from the other side.

"What was that?" they asked him.

"Charlie's trunk was still open a little bit, didn't know if you knew so I wanted to make sure it was locked," Ranboo explained, "everything good?"

Charlie took a moment to realise the question was directed at him, "o-oh, I- was I kinda late? Sorry, got caught up, we should still make it to the booking, I-I think. Didn't really check the car before I left, heh."

"Oh, no worries man," Ranboo assured him.

"Yeah dude, let's just go eat!" Moonzy excitedly announced and Charlie laughed along with them.

"Yeah, let's go!" he got the car moving and they were all on the way again.

Another step down. This was fine. This was going fine.

"Charlie?"

"Huh? What- oh, yeah?" he realised Ranboo must've been asking him a question.

"Oh, sorry, don't wanna distract you from driving," Ranboo realised.

"No, no, sorry, I was just zoned out," Charlie assured them.

"...At the wheel?" Moonzy asked.

"Uh-" Charlie didn't really have a response to that.

"N-nevermind, I was just gonna ask, is that the shirt you had on stream earlier?" Ranboo continued.

Charlie quickly glanced down at himself, "oh god, yeah, it is, I'm so sorry I completely forgot I was gonna change-"

"Oh dude don't worry," Charlie could hear a grin in Ranboo's voice and looked in the overhead mirror to see them displaying their own shirt with something written on it, which he couldn't read in reverse, but he could see the picture of Garfield below it pretty clearly.

"We're not taking it too seriously," Moonzy added, wearing something a little more formal than the other two but to be fair that was a low bar at the moment.

Charlie laughed and continued driving. He'd definitely been imagining a worse response in his head, this wasn't too bad at all. See? Nothing to worry about, it was all normal. Like nothing had ever happened.

"heehoo"

Charlie slammed on the brakes.

"Whoa- hey, you good, dude?" Moonzy started a little annoyed as she'd been thrown at the back of Charlie's seat, but then turned to concern as they wondered why they'd braked at all. Charlie had heard a thud in the trunk as it happened.

"I- squirrel. I saw it- run across, I mean, it ran across, so I- f*ck, sorry. f*ck."

Ranboo exchanged a glance with Moonzy, "I guess we don't wanna crash into anything on the way, don't worry about it."

Charlie was worrying about it, "yeah, I won't," it was in the trunk. That noise had definitely come from the f*cking trunk.

But he just kept that in his mind for now as they started back up- they must've been about halfway between Ranboo's and the restaurant now, maybe even closer. He'd check the trunk when they stopped, and maybe throw whatever he found in there into a vat of acid. That was an exaggeration. Unless there was a vat of acid nearby, in which case he would definitely be throwing Goobleck into a vat of acid.

Charlie parked the car. They were at the restaurant.

"I think Yakko and the rest are already there, we can probably just head in," Moonzy told them. The three got out of the car but Charlie started going towards the back of it first.

"You alright?" Ranboo checked.

"Yeah, just making sure everything's still in my trunk, you guys go on ahead," he nodded to them. Ranboo and Moonzy nodded back, and Charlie tried not to pay much attention to the looks on their faces as he reached tensely towards the trunk of his car.

But he didn't have to reach any further, because the trunk was already opened. Just a crack, not enough to see inside, but hadn't Ranboo said he'd closed it?

Okay, it could just be a technical issue, then. The lock mechanism on his trunk didn't work anymore. That was fine. Trunks didn't even open from the inside, so it wasn't like something had broken out. He opened the trunk fully, and it was empty. It was fine.

It would've been fine, if at that moment he didn't feel a wet, sticky substance on his fingers around the lock of the car.

He drew back, and he could see where it had gotten around the plastic and metal, where it looked like it had melted it. He was so, so f*cked.

Out of sight, out of mind, right? Yeah. He didn't even need to think about it, that's how fine it was. Goobleck had probably gotten out of his car and wandered into the woods and gotten mauled by a wolf already. It wasn't even a problem.

And so considering how much this wasn't a problem, he shouldn't just be standing here, he should be going to dinner! They'd all be waiting for him by now. No need to hold them all up over stupid stuff like this.

He closed the trunk, which popped back open again, and headed in.

This really was quite a nice place; it was fairly busy tonight, sounds of chatter and cutlery filling the space, almost to the point it was overwhelming. At least the lighting was dim, reminiscent of candlelight with all the red décor, but that then made it a bit more of a struggle to locate his friends.

Someone waved to him and he traced down the arm to see it belonged to Quackity, who was grinning at him and mouthing something he couldn't hear, probably along the lines of "stop looking like an awkward loser and get over here!" Or maybe not, but it was probably something like that.

He grabbed the last seat- of course he was last to get there, ugh- and sat down. But he'd made it, at least. Nobody would suspect that anything had ever happened.

"Hey, how's it going, Charlie?" Yakko patted his shoulder as a greeting from the seat beside him. Ranboo was on his other side, and around the rest of the table was Moonzy, Quackity and Grizzly.

Charlie laughed in a deliberate attempt to be casual, "yeah, LA's good, I've been alright."

"I think we've all formed a chronic escape room addiction," Grizz informed Quackity.

And the rest of the conversation went from there. It was casual, talking about what they'd been doing, what they were going to do next week. Charlie settled into it and managed to ignore his leg tapping on the floor and the feeling at the back of his mind that this would not last.

Because what did his brain know? The last thing it had been doing was trying to convince him his OCs were real and in his house. And that was just silly.

A waitress approached the table, "are we all ready to order?"

Quackity nodded to her and started off with his order, handing it off to the next person when he was done. Charlie rehearsed his own order in his head in the meantime.

The waitress had stopped at his side of the table, behind him and Ranboo. All the waiters in this place had those trollies with a white cloth over them to carry around the plates of food, and out of the corner of his eye Charlie was noticing a shifting of the cloth draped over this waitress's trolly.

That was weird. There wasn't any kind of a draft in this place.

"Found you :)"

Every muscle in Charlie's body tensed like he was going into fight or flight. But he stayed exactly where he was, not moving besides for his eyes which slowly dragged down to stare at the cloth and the small purple figure peering out below it.

"I will kill you," he whispered.

"What?" Ranboo asked.

"What- huh? Nothing. I didn't say anything."

Ranboo looked at him, "oh, okay," and turned back to the rest of the table, not seeming totally convinced.

Charlie turned back to Goobleck after a moment, keeping his voice even lower but hopefully enough for the creature to hear, "you need to leave, or I will throw you into the soup of the day and watch you dissolve."

"I make soup taste good!"

"Please. For the love of god. Leave me alone."

"You need to help Goobleck! We talk now"

"We talk later. Not here."

"Okay we talk in other room"

"What other-?"

"Charlie, you ready?" Quackity asked.

Charlie's head snapped up. What. Oh, sh*t, his order- that's right, his order, what was it, uhh...

"Uh, yeah, um, could I get this one? Please?" he pointed to an item on the menu that he wasn't entirely sure was what he originally wanted to get. But it was enough for the waitress, who noted it down and started pushing her trolley away. He ignored the way it sounded like she clicked her tongue at him.

He was pretty sure everyone had been looking at him when Quackity asked that, but when he next checked they were back to talking amongst themselves. Only Ranboo gave him a look as they tapped his arm, "are you sure you're alright, man?"

Charlie started to nod before he'd even finished the question, "yeah, I'm fine, I just..."

His eyes drifted back to the trolley as he could see across the restaurant the waitress had left it against a wall, with a few other empty trolleys ready to be used. It was by the doorway that lead to the toilets, and Charlie watched carefully as a little shape slipped out of the bottom of the trolley and made its way towards the toilets. That was the other room..? f*ck it.

"...I just need to go to the toilet real quick," Charlie finished and immediately stood up, drawing a little attention with the sudden moving but he didn't stick around and quickly turned to head for that doorway. He saw that was also where the back entrance was, which he assumed was how Goobleck made its way in here. His vision focused in on it, the noise of the restaurant started to fade and meld into the muffled background before he'd even made it through the door and shut it behind him.

And there he was, away from the noise but under the brightness of fluorescent lights that were almost mocking as they made it all too clear what was in front of him. 2 feet of hazardous goo, and 5'8" of blue-green fish man.

He first turned his attention on Gillion, "you're here too?"

Gillion looked nervous as he saw how angry Charlie seemed with his presence, "I, uh- the creature, Goobleck, it wanted me to come too, in the back of your strange vehicle. I don't like your vehicle, it was very cramped, and also tried to hit me."

"Yeah..." Charlie rubbed his eyes, "well, I'm here now!" he flung his arm out and stared Goobleck down, "you wanted to talk, let's talk. Anything that helps get you out of my life faster."

"You help me be whole again! Goobleck must be one!"

"So, like how Gillion had a bit of you, and then you merged..? Wait, wait, how many of you are there?!"

"Goobleck is many :)"

"You're kidding me," Charlie laughed grimly and put a hand on the sinks to lean against, "I am not f*cking doing that. I'm not helping you with this, I'm not dealing with you for another f*cking day! I never asked for this!"

"I know I'm not the most aware of what's going on here," Gillion confessed, "but you seem quite connected to all this, so it may not be that you have a choice."

"I do have a choice, Gillion!" he insisted, shouting back, "and I am choosing to leave you and all your nonsense here while I go back to my life, and my friends, and not get involved in something that is going to ruin my life!"

One of the stalls opened- Charlie hadn't even bothered to see if there was anyone besides those two in here when he came in. The man looked at none of them, making a deliberate effort to keep his eyes on the ground as he rushed through washing his hands and speedwalked out of the door, the room silent the whole time. Charlie looked at the rest of the stalls, but it looked like they were actually alone now.

"Why are you here? Can you tell me that at least?" after that moment to calm himself down he kept his voice a little more level to ask the question. Gillion looked at Goobleck, assuming he would be the one to answer.

"I am converging :D"

"Nevermind," Charlie sighed, "still don't know if you're real. That guy didn't look at you, maybe he thinks I'm just talking to myself and he's already called the cops to come and get me. I knew this would end in me getting arrested."

Gillion perked up, "nobody's getting arrested while I'm here, I'll make sure of that!"

"Yeah, thanks," Charlie responded, having hardly heard what Gillion even said. These guys weren't gonna leave him alone, that was clear enough. He didn't want this. He couldn't stress enough how much he really did not want this. He liked his life, and his life did not exist on the same plane as Gillion f*cking Tidestrider.

He'd gotten so far, he'd held it together enough to make it here, and now he could feel it crumbling through his fingers in the f*cking restaurant toilets.

The door opened as someone else walked into the room.

"Please, just go awa-" Charlie's throat closed up and cut off his words as his eyes landed on Ranboo, who looked at him in turn.

No, no no no. He wasn't dragging anyone else into this, this wasn't supposed to happen, Ranboo wasn't supposed to be here. But now they were looking right at each other and Charlie had no idea what kind of an expression was on his own face right now, and when he looked at Ranboo's he couldn't begin to imagine what the other person was thinking.

He prayed Ranboo didn't look at the other two, didn't even acknowledge Gillion or Goobleck. Would that be better? Would it be better for him if they were real, instead? He'd know he hadn't lost it, at least. But then this was real, that was his final proof, this was really happening and now Ranboo was being drawn into the mess as well as him.

Ranboo looked to the side and Charlie's heart sank.

"Charlie...who the hell are they..?"

Chapter 2: Home Cooking

Chapter Text

Charlie shook his head, "Ran, please, just go."

Ranboo took a moment to look back at him, as if it needed some effort to draw their eyes away from the other two standing and looking back at him.

"Is that...a-are those..?" Ranboo couldn't find the words to refer to them, and Charlie didn't blame him. Creatures, characters, impossible beings of nonsense destroying his sense of reality? He had no idea himself what to call them.

"Yeah, yeah, they're..." Charlie didn't want to say it, he didn't want to call them... "real."

"Told you," Gillion grinned.

Ranboo visibly flinched when Gillion talked, like he'd been expecting them both to be statues. Maybe that was an easy mistake to make with Goobleck, since the thing never f*cking blinked.

Charlie's attention stayed on Ranboo, "please, I'm begging you Ran, don't get involved in this."

"Definitely too late for that, man," Ranboo told him with wide eyes.

The room fell silent, besides Charlie's foot tapping on the floor. He leant back on a wall and lifted his hands to his mouth, pushing his face against them and muffling the hum that came from his mouth. It probably seemed like he was thinking, but he wasn't thinking. He was just trying not to scream.

Suddenly his hands dropped and Charlie took a sharp breath, "we can just go back to dinner. We can go sit back down and handle this later."

"And, like...ignore this? Charlie-" Ranboo started to protest.

"It's worked fine for me for the past hour!" Charlie quickly interjected to defend his idea but he soon realised from Ranboo's expression he had only made himself sound less credible.

"For the past hour I've been getting more and more worried about you, that's what's been happening. Moonzy too, they were the one telling me to come here to check on you," concern was clear in Ranboo's gaze. Charlie got uncomfortable seeing it and looked at the floor instead.

"And are you glad you did? That you came here?" he asked quietly. Ranboo looked at him a little longer, waiting for Charlie to look back at him again, but eventually they realised he wasn't going to.

"Yeah, I think I am. Because it's pretty clear you weren't gonna ask for my help on your own."

Charlie looked in front of himself at nothing in particular. He couldn't think of anything to say to that, and he didn't exactly like hearing it.

Ranboo sighed, "look, do you wanna explain it to me here," he waved at the surrounding toilets, "or do you wanna go home and run me through this from the start so I can see what I can do?"

"Wh- go home?" Charlie looked shocked at the suggestion, "we haven't even eaten yet!"

"Charlie," Ranboo pointed very firmly at Goobleck and Gillion, "whatever is going on with them is probably a little more important."

Charlie was hesitant to agree despite how obvious Ranboo made it sound. Ranboo seemed to take his silence as a yes.

"Alright, we can go around the back so nobody sees us, I'll text Moonzy too meet us at the-"

"No, no, you can't tell them," Charlie interjected, "this was just gonna be my problem, but now you know, and I'm not gonna have anyone else involved with this by choice because I don't want anyone else ending up like this," he leered forwards and pointed to himself.

"Charlie, I don't care, I'm happier knowing you're not going through this on your own. Well, technically you wouldn't have been anyway," they muttered with a glance to the other two in the room, standing awkwardly to the side, "but we're your friends, that's what I'm trying to say. Helping you isn't gonna inconvenience us."

Charlie still shook his head. This wasn't something he was going to compromise on. He was already guilty to the point of feeling nauseous that he hadn't prevented Ranboo from finding out.

Ranboo picked up on that, "alright. If that's what you want, we can head out; I'm sure Moonzy's happy enough to stay here with Quackity and the others, and if we don't come back I'm sure they can catch a taxi or something."

Charlie just nodded, hearing the words without completely processing them. He just knew they were going home, and he didn't want to do that, but Ranboo had made it clear that he kind of had to now, so...

"And hey, no more zoning out on the road, please?" Ranboo walked up and lightly poked Charlie's shoulder, "I'll do that every time I think you're not paying attention."

"You're gonna end up hurting your finger," Charlie joked, to which Ranboo gave him a look and he cleared his throat, "um, yeah. I'll try not to."

Ranboo volunteered to lead the group of four to escape, making it out that they'd have to be very sneaky to avoid detection, but in actual fact their path to the back entrance was pretty out of sight of the rest of the restaurant, so there wasn't much to worry about in terms of being seen. It was still fairly light outside and so they tried to get in the car quickly, but both Gillion and Goobleck struggled a little with the concept of car doors so Charlie and Ranboo had to let them in first before they could get in the front themselves.

Charlie didn't waste much time starting the car and getting them moving out of the car park. In the rear view the restaurant got smaller, and smaller, what could've been a night with friends shrinking out of view until he couldn't even see it. It felt a little childish, reminding him of a kid being driven away from a birthday party. He stayed quiet and kept focused on driving as Ranboo had requested, but he could see his friend in the corner of his eye glancing at the back seats.

"Hey, Charlie, is that your shirt?"

"Hm?" Charlie looked over to check what he was talking about and remembered that Goobleck was indeed still wearing his YEAH, THEY'RE NATURAL shirt, "oh, yeah. It stole my shirt."

"Do they have...names..?" Ranboo looked between Goobleck and Gillion.

"Goobleck :)"

"Yeah, the one that stole my shirt is Goobleck," Charlie clarified.

"And my name is Gillion Tidestrider, Champion of-! Um, nevermind actually, just Gillion Tidestrider. Gillion is fine too," Gillion told him.

"Wait, that's-" Ranboo turned his head back to Charlie.

"My D&D character, yeah," Charlie finished, "and Goobleck is another character I made to fill in for Gillion when he went to the dunjon."

Gillion jumped forwards and gripped the back of Charlie's seat, "who told you of that?!"

"I literally made it happen! I told you, you're a character, and can you please not grab my seat like that while I'm driving," Charlie requested.

"Oh, uh, yes," Gillion slowly leant back, but then went forward again as he remembered he had more to say, "that's not an explanation, though! I don't know what you mean, I'm not a character- and how is it that you're driving with that wheel? There are no sails or animals I could see to pull this vehicle along."

"Gillion I will explain to you how engines work one day," Charlie promised, not really meaning it, "but right now I'm more interested in knowing how you think you got here."

Gillion thought about it for a moment, "well, I...I was with Chip and Jay on our ship, and nothing really seemed out of the ordinary. Then I think I felt a pull, or something like it, like I was getting dragged somewhere. And then...this place."

"You just kind of appeared here?" Ranboo asked.

"Pretty much," Gillion shrugged, "but the little Goobleck was with me when I got here! It kept talking about reuniting, or becoming whole, or something, but I just followed it when it started moving and it took me to your house!"

"Yeah I don't fully know Goobleck's deal. Don't know if I wanna know," Charlie explained to Ranboo, "but there were two of him, and they merged, and now we're back to one."

"Should I be, like..." Ranboo lowered their voice to a whisper, "should I be careful around these guys?"

"Around Goobleck, probably. Do not touch him. But Gillion's fine, he's just a big fish," Charlie assured him.

"Yup, that's me," Gillion agreed.

"And if anyone else shows up..." Charlie grumbled, hating the idea but having gotten to the point he at least needed to consider it. Denying it altogether was fun and all, but if Ranboo was here he should probably get more prepared for a worst case scenario. If this did become dangerous he wanted to make sure he was protecting Ranboo from the worst of that by at least being prepared.

"Who else is gonna show up?" Ranboo asked when Charlie didn't finish his sentence, saying it with a hint of nervous laughter as they weren't quite sure what to expect.

"I...I don't know. I hope no one, but nothing I want seems to be happening right now, so if you see anyone weird, or anyone else that looks like me, just...keep your distance."

Charlie glanced briefly at the back seats, "hey, Goobleck, surely you've got a way to know how many of you there are, right?"

"One of me for each of you!"

"So, like, three?" Charlie based his guess on the amount of people in his car, assuming that was what Goobleck was referring to.

"No no, you :)"

"What-?" Charlie took a hand off the wheel to point at himself, "like- just me?"

When he looked back at Goobleck it looked like the creature's eternal smile had grown a little wider.

"Ffff*ck okay," Charlie put both his hands back on the wheel and forced himself to pay attention to the road despite how much his brain wanted to think about other things.

He could only assume that meant his characters. One Goobleck for each of them; it made sense why Gillion had come into this world with one of them, then. And that Goobleck had lead him to Charlie. So there were gonna be more like Gillion, and they were gonna come to him whether he liked it or not.

"Is there anyone we could go to that would know more about this? I mean, probably not, this is insane, but it's still a thought," Ranboo suggested.

"Well I don't think I know anyone studying the science of fictional characters coming to life so no, not really," he dryly responded, then looked back at Ranboo, "sorry, I didn't mean to say it like that, I just- I don't know, man. I don't know what to do about any of this."

"That's fine, we'll figure it out," Ranboo tapped his arm.

Charlie tried to smile, "yeah. Yeah, I'm sure we will, somehow..."

Now there was some kind of a goal, at least. Unite the Gooblecks and run into who-knows-how-many of his characters along the way. Maybe once it was done everyone would go back where they came from. He could hope.

It seemed to take longer to get to his house than it had taken getting to the restaurant, although maybe it was because this time he managed not to zone out. For the most part. Hey, as long as they didn't crash, he was sure it was fine.

With the sky slightly dimmer he could see that some of the lights in his house were left on. He couldn't remember if he'd left them on or off when he'd left the house, so Charlie just assumed it was fine.

"And this is where Gillion turned up at my front door," Charlie introduced like a tour guide as they stepped out of the car, and then realised they needed to help the two in the back get out of the car.

Ranboo shut the door behind Gillion, "and Goobleck was just inside already?"

"Walls are not an obstacle :D"

"That's...worrying," Charlie looked at his house, hoping he didn't notice any Goobleck-sized holes in the side of it. But the only entrance he could see was the front door, so he just had to hope Goobleck had found a less destructive way in.

He unlocked it and stepped in, happy to find he had locked it on the way out. He let everyone else in too, resisting a sudden and almost primal urge to shut the door on Goobleck and see if it would split him in half, and hung his keys back up.

The first one he turned to was Ranboo, "I can still take you back to your house whenever you need, just tell me."

"Right now I'm not planning to go until this is figured out," Ranboo established without any space in his tone for argument.

"It's probably not gonna be quick," Charlie sighed and gave in, "but alright. If that's what you wanna do."

Ranboo nodded and stepped further into the house. Charlie looked at them from behind, guilt sticking onto his face like it was built into his skin. It didn't matter what Ranboo tried to assure him of, Charlie was responsible for dragging someone into something that could probably definitely get dangerous- the fact he had no way of knowing how dangerous was not great at all. They weren't even the legal age to drink yet, of all the people that could've got caught up in his mess!

Ranboo recoiled suddenly mid-step and walked back to Charlie to whisper, "it's just us four that are supposed to be in your house right now, right?"

Charlie looked at Ranboo and responded in a low voice, "what do you mean by that, Ran?"

"I mean that I think there's someone in the kitchen and I'm not sure there's supposed to be someone in the kitchen," they spoke quickly, glancing behind himself in the direction of Charlie's kitchen.

"Did you- did you see them?" Charlie looked that way too, hearing some small noises when he listened for them.

"Just the shadow. I'm guessing it's..." Ranboo trailed off, knowing they had both likely made the same assumption. Another character.

Charlie took a breath and stepped forwards to be slightly between Ranboo and the kitchen, although neither of them were particularly close to it yet. If he could figure out who it was, he could know the best way to approach this situation, or they could know if it wasn't a danger at all. However they probably needed to see them to know that, and Charlie didn't want to go any further.

"I can handle this intruder if they are a threat," Gillion announced and drew his sword- oh sh*t he had a sword.

"N-no, we don't wanna kill them, Gill," Charlie objected and held his hand out to put Gillion's arms down, but then looked again at Destiny's Blade and decided he did not want to get within swinging distance of that thing.

He decided that without anything they could do before they saw who this was, the only thing left to do was see them. Then an actual plan could be formed about handling it, as long as this wasn't one of his characters that incinerated people on sight. Charlie was pretty sure he didn't have one of those, though.

He started taking steps forward, each one getting gradually smaller as he approached so that he could keep the least amount of himself visible when he at last laid eyes on this person. He could see a shifting shadow, then the legs, the waist...oh no. It didn't take long to figure out which one this guy was. A bright green slime-coated suit was a bit of a giveaway.

"Oh, what's this?" the demon unfortunately managed to take notice of him despite Charlie barely poking his head around the corner, "a new intruder has stepped foot in my cabin!

"This- this is a house, this is my house," Charlie tried to correct him.

"Aren't you renting it while you're in LA?" Ranboo tried to correct in turn.

"Ranboo do you think the slime demon from the 1800s understands Airbnb," Charlie glared over his shoulder, where he could see Ranboo now looking into the kitchen with him, having walked up since there was no immediate threat presented by this guy.

"He understands eBay. Kinda," Ranboo pointed out.

Charlie tilted his head, recollecting the things he'd said as this character. He supposed he had made it canon that eBay was the only website in the 1800s. Maybe he should've made it canon he always carried gold bars around with him too, that would've been super convenient right now.

"What're you guys doing? You gonna come in here or what?" the demon looked at them standing awkwardly beyond the threshold to the kitchen.

"Are you gonna do something like, I dunno, a cooking show the moment we get in there?" Ranboo accused.

"Pfft, what? No," the demon grinned as he looked nervously to the side, "anyways you should check this fridge."

Charlie gritted his teeth, "if you have put a massive f*cking jar of pickles in there I swear to god."

Ranboo gave the demon an actual response, "uh, no thanks. Listen, we're just looking for another guy like this," Ranboo stepped out of the way to point out Goobleck, "have you seen one or, like, do you have one right now?"

The demon's eyes lit up with something between mischief and malice, "a new ghoul! Oh, Ghoulbleck, you're gonna love this."

The demon turned around and everyone's attention was drawn to the little purple glob perched on a counter at the edge of Charlie's kitchen. It was easy to locate, at least, but given how the demon had already given it a ghoul name Charlie wasn't sure he would just hand it over to them. They might need to do something more than ask if they needed these Gooblecks to reassimilate.

"Should I...should I kill it if it's a ghoul?" Gillion asked, raising his sword again slowly.

"No, no, please just put the sword away," Charlie begged.

"Okay, uh, demon- mister demon man, um," Ranboo began with trying to address him.

"You can all call me G'lop," he raised his chin haughtily.

"Right. G'lop," Ranboo repeated; it didn't sound too out of place for a demon, "well, I think we need your ghoul, if that's alright with you."

"My ghoul?!" G'lop shouted back, "no way, Ghoulbleck's all I got after my otha' ghouls went missing!"

"Ghoulio and Ghouliet," Charlie murmured to himself as he recalled what he could about this character. At least it was one Ranboo knew too- the slime covered demon from Generation Loss, obsessed with making those unfortunate enough to wind up in his cabin cook for him with...less than desirable ingredients. Considering how he was stood in Charlie's kitchen, he could only assume that was his plan right now too.

"If we," Charlie cut himself off and pinched the bridge of his nose, he couldn't believe he was about to say this, "if we cook for you, can we have your ghoul?"

Ranboo turned to Charlie, "cook?! I don't know how to cook!"

Charlie shushed them, "well he hardly minded when you gave him stale marshmallow fluff last time, so we can probably just pretend to know what we're doing, y'know?"

Meanwhile G'lop was looking very excited, "oh, a cooking challenge? We might be able to make a deal with that..."

Charlie took a breath and addressed Ranboo, "alright, I'll-"

"Don't even try it," Ranboo interrupted and stepped into the kitchen before he could, "you're not doing this alone, literally the only reason I'm here is to help you."

Charlie groaned, "okay fine. But you two," he pointed aggressively to Goobleck and Gillion, "stay here, because I do not trust either of you in a kitchen."

He had no way to tell what Goobleck thought of that order, but he could see Gillion looked a little downtrodden by being told to stay out of it. It was for his own good, not that he realised that.

When Ranboo and Charlie at last stepped foot in the kitchen G'lop began to laugh, like they'd brought some curse upon themselves by crossing that threshold. They probably had.

Being closer to him now, it was starting to dawn on Charlie how weird, and a little uncomfortable, this all really was. He was looking at someone with his own face- his face from a year ago, sure, but if it weren't for the shorter hair and glasses and big slimy demon horns he might've had an even harder time reminding himself this wasn't a reflection. He could watch himself on video and rationalise that just fine, but being stared at by a fully real version of himself was starting to f*ck with him.

He wasn't supposed to see something like this outside of mirrors and videos. As much as he knew he couldn't change this situation, his mind still found difficulty in accepting it as it was. There was something so inherently wrong about being stood in a kitchen with himself.

Maybe he could just think of it like twins, right? Sure, he could think of it like twins. There's someone in his house that looks exactly like him and that's a fine and normal thing to be happening right now and nothing that he needs to scream into a pillow about.

"Alright, so, is there anything in particular you want?" Charlie asked.

"Charlie," Ranboo looked at him with disappointment.

Charlie looked at them, "what?" until a moment later he had the same realisation, which coincided with G'lop's laughter growing louder.

"How about something with a little slime in it!" he told them.

"Yeah, I kinda walked into that one," Charlie muttered, disappointed with himself.

"Do you have any slime in your house..?" Ranboo asked him.

"We'll find something that's close enough," Charlie assured him and went over to the fridge. He hoped he still had some food, nevermind slime.

He could mark off his two main fears as he opened it up and looked at the contents; it wasn't empty, nor had all the contents been replaced by bugs and giant jars of pickles. However he still wasn't sure what food he could make with the things inside. Would G'lop enjoy a pound of chicken? Maybe not.

"I guess we can try something with...this?" Charlie hesitantly held up a yogurt. He figured it might appeal to the demon texture-wise.

Ranboo shrugged, "sure. I'll get a bowl."

The stakes didn't seem all that high, but as time went on dumping random, slightly out of date ingredients into a bowl with G'lop grinning and staring into them from the other side of the kitchen, Charlie started to get the weird sense there was a time limit on this. Although that was probably down to how much he wanted to get out of this situation, and quickly.

Charlie went to reach for a spoon but when he looked at his own hand he found it skidding precariously close to Ghoulbleck, who he was sure hadn't been there before. He scowled at the creature, "what's your deal? Aren't you all supposed to want to merge together into one super-Goobleck, or whatever your final goal is?"

"Ghoulbleck :D"

Charlie rolled his eyes and grabbed the spoon. He supposed this Goobleck was happier playing demon's pet than it was converging with the rest of them.

Eventually Ranboo built up some kind of a meal within the plastic bowl they'd pulled out of Charlie's cupboards, Charlie meanwhile had been focused on damage control. He spent some time persuading G'lop not to dump flour on every surface in his kitchen, and kept the flour as hidden as he could the instant the demon took his eyes off it.

"Is this good enough?" Ranboo whispered to Charlie, both of them looking into the bowl, staring down at their unholy creation.

"I really hope so," Charlie looked up at G'lop, "alright, it's done. I think."

G'lop approached them, finger tenting, "oho, what have we here..."

He didn't seem disgusted, at least, "it's your meal, that we, uh, 'cooked'," Charlie informed him.

"Interesting, interesting," G'lop muttered to himself, taking the spoon they'd used to stir their concoction together and lifting up a mound of the stuff. The consistency with which it dripped back down made Charlie recoil.

"...do you want us to airplane it for you, mister G'lop sir?" Ranboo nervously asked.

Charlie whipped his head round and whispered through his teeth, "why the hell are you offering?"

"Maybe it'll make him like it more, I dunno!" Ranboo whispered back in an equally hushed and aggressive way.

When the two of them turned their heads back to G'lop, the demon was squinting at them, "how'd you know about that?"

"Uh- well-" Ranboo stuttered, "y-you just seemed like the kind of guy who'd like that, y'know?"

"Hm," G'lop spent a few more moments peering intensely at Ranboo, in which it felt like both them and Charlie were holding their breath, but at last he looked away, "alright. Pretty good intuition, because you'd be right- although, now that I don't have my old ghouls, I'm startin' to think I should try these things myself. Learn to live without my ghouls, in case I'm not gonna see 'em again."

The demon leant closer, hoping to be out of earshot of Ghoulbleck as he whispered, "no offense to Ghoulbleck, but I'm not sure if that one even knows what a plane is."

"I don't think it knows anything that's going on right now," Ranboo agreed and glanced over his shoulder at the smiling, blank-eyed creature.

"Alright, well, here goes..." G'lop slowly raised the spoon up, 'food' dripping down from it. Charlie closed his eyes- he couldn't watch, it felt like a crime to do so, nevermind the tension.

He thought he could hear the demon taking a bite and braced himself. It was literally impossible to predict if this guy was gonna like it or not, because what they had made was terrible, but that might've been the exact thing G'lop was looking for. The demon hummed, considering the taste, and Charlie opened one eye. He didn't seem to dislike it..?

"Hm...very interesting..." G'lop told them.

"In a good way?" Charlie was hesitant to ask.

"I can't say I've ever had anything like this before, but..." G'lop kept them in suspense, "...I like it!"

Charlie released his breath, "oh, thank god." There probably wasn't much the demon could do if he didn't like it, but Charlie didn't want to find out what he would've done anyway.

"So we can have Ghoulbleck now?"

"Just get outta my sight," G'lop dismissed them. They were more than happy to do so, Ranboo heeding Charlie's warnings when he went to pick up Ghoulbleck and using tongs to grab the creature, so that there wasn't any contact with their skin. It seemed pretty unbothered by having its head squished between the metal grippers.

"Alright, so are these guys just gonna merge, or..?" Ranboo looked to Charlie for an answer, holding the smaller Ghoulbleck above Goobleck. Gillion was watching curiously from the side.

Charlie shrugged, "that's what the first one I saw did."

After a moment to consider, Ranboo released the tongs and looked down, slightly horrified, as the two Gooblecks once more merged into one.

"...ew," they commented.

"Yeah," Charlie agreed, "but that's one more down. Can you try and like, sense them or something, Goobleck? Give us an estimate of how many more f*cking times we're gonna do this?"

"Goobleck can sense itself! I am of several Gooblecks :D"

"Several? I thought you were only three, or something. One for me, for Gillion, and for G'lop," Charlie counted them up on his fingers to make sure.

"Not all Gooblecks came to me with friends!"

"W-wait, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Uh, guys," Ranboo interrupted their talking, "can we go sit down or something before we get any big revelations?"

"Oh, yeah, probably a good idea," Charlie nodded and lead the four of them through to his living room. When he first got to this house he thought there was an excessive amount of couches and chairs around the TV, but he was feeling more thankful for it than ever now that the amount of people in his house was growing by the hour.

He was going to take a seat on one of the long couches, however was stopped quickly as soon as he noticed another presence on it.

"Oh...hey. This your house, by any chance?"

A humanoid with purple tinted skin was sprawled across the entire length of the couch, one eye white and one eye black with dark stripes spreading from it. Their tail flicked in time with them taking a bite out of the bag of chips in their hand. Literally through the bag- plastic and all. It threw Charlie off for long enough that they could get a few more words in, "cool place. Your food is strange, though."

"That's- I knew there was less stuff in my cupboards," Charlie muttered. Ranboo nudged him to prompt him for an explanation, "oh, right, uh, Ran- this is Xiv. Xiv, this is- you probably don't care, actually."

"Not really," Xiv confirmed, taking another bite.

Charlie sighed and tapped his foot on the floor, "alright- okay, can anyone else in my house please just f*cking reveal themselves already? That would be great!"

Honestly, he didn't want there to be anyone else, because it was really concerning how many people had made their way into his house without him having any idea. At least Gillion had had the courtesy to wait at his front door to be let in. But after a few moments of tapping restlessly on the ground and waiting, suddenly there was another figure right next to him.

"Agh- sh*t!" Charlie stumbled back, seeing that Ranboo had been taken by surprise too. The man- probably boy, now that Charlie got a look at him- didn't seem too surprised by this response and just raised a hand.

"Hey, uh, William. That's my name, I mean. I didn't really know when to- y'know, when to announce myself, but I figure you guys kinda have an idea of what's going on, so I didn't wanna stay in the corner the whole time," William Wisp explained, avoiding eye contact with any of them.

"Were you serious when you said all that about being a character?" William continued, glancing at Charlie.

"Oh, so you've been in my house all day," Charlie said casually, as though he wasn't moments away from taking the pillow behind Xiv's head and howling into it, "that's cool. That's great. Uh, yeah, everyone in my house right now besides Ranboo should not be here, for multiple reasons. Is this what you meant when you said several?" Suddenly he turned back to Goobleck, picking up their last conversation.

"Their Gooblecks accompanied them! Other Gooblecks came alone!"

"Yeah, I had one of those guys with me," William added, "it lead me to your house and then left me here when it went to go...merge."

"So you came with yours...but others came alone?" Charlie thought out loud.

"It was kind of optional to follow him, so I guess if there's others like me, they might have just not followed," William suggested.

Charlie pointed a finger at him, "right. And so there's more Gooblecks in the Goobleck than there are characters here, because some of them are just...out in the world right now."

"But why is everyone arriving here with one of those creatures?" William asked with a tone to suggest he was asking himself as much as he was throwing it out to the rest of the room.

Meanwhile Gillion had walked over to Xiv and asked quietly, "could I get one of those?"

Xiv shrugged, "there's plenty in the kitchen, grab yourself a whole packet."

"Alright!" Gillion nodded and left the room while Charlie and William continued to discuss.

"I've been thinking that too- I mean, what's so special about Goobleck?" Charlie asked back.

"You said we're your characters, right? Ignoring the existential horror of that idea, doesn't that mean you know everything about Goobleck?" William sat down and put a hand under his chin. Ranboo did the same on another chair, Charlie resorted to pacing instead.

"Yeah, I guess...the last thing he did in our campaign was split himself across the multiverse."

William looked up, "doesn't that sound kind of relevant to this?"

"Yeah, but how? Do you think he's got some agenda trying to converge everything? The only thing he seems interested in is putting himself together," Charlie looked down at Goobleck, who was more than happy to not contribute at all to their conversation.

William hummed and lowered his chin further into his hand, "well...what if it doesn't even want to? Like, it just has to be doing all this, involuntarily."

"But then we still don't know why," Charlie countered, searching for any kind of emotion in Goobleck's eyes that would give them an idea of what he was thinking, but finding absolutely nothing.

"Goobleck must be the reason we're all coming into your world, at least. I don't get the idea that thing has any malicious ultimate goal, so I can only assume that this is being brought on by something else- like, the universe? This is- maybe it's the universe righting a wrong, like he wasn't supposed to be split into the multiverse, so now he's getting dragged back together again."

Charlie clicked his fingers; it sounded like William was onto something, "and all of you are getting dragged along with him like collateral damage."

"Right! But then, what's it gonna do when Goobleck is whole again? Are we all gonna get sent right back to where we're 'supposed' to be?"

Charlie sighed, "I can only hope so. Righting this wrong might put everything back how it's supposed to be."

Xiv lifted their head up, "alright, so can you two stop playing detective and just do it already?"

Charlie stopped mid-pace, surprised since he'd almost forgotten they were there, "oh, uh- yeah, guess we should."

"How do we find characters that aren't with a Goobleck?" Ranboo looked up and asked.

"Maybe if we know who they are we can come up with ideas," Charlie suggested and jogged back into the entrance room to tear out a blank page from the guest book and grab the pen beside it, "didn't think I'd regret playing so many characters."

He was a few steps from the living room when sounds from the kitchen grabbed his attention, followed by Gillion's voice.

"Oh no."

"Gillion, please tell me you didn't-" Charlie thought the worst he could walk in on was a trashed kitchen and broken appliances, but the only mess he found was the single towel on the floor, which had been turned a worrying shade of green. All that stood by it was Gillion, the demon nowhere in sight.

"Gillion," Charlie said disapprovingly as his gaze slowly rose to look at the fish man.

"I- I didn't know he'd do that! He kept trying to fight me, i-it was something about seeing who was more moist, so I- I just-" Gillion tried to explain himself, gesturing at the towel.

Charlie wasn't even annoyed. Or disappointed. He didn't know what he was anymore.

"Oh, sh*t, is he dead?" Ranboo walked in behind Charlie.

Charlie approached the towel and picked it up with a slight grimace on his face, but at least there wasn't a face he could see on the towel. He laid it down on the kitchen counter and stepped back.

"If he starts talking we'll figure out what to do with him then."

He then turned around and walked back into the living room. Gillion and Ranboo shrugged to each other, then followed him through.

Chapter 3: On the Hunt

Chapter Text

"Alright, here's our list," Charlie announced as he firmly placed the paper down on the living room table they were all gathered around. On it were about a dozen character names, with some less certain names scribbled at the bottom for those that they weren't sure counted as his characters; mostly one-off things he'd done for streams or videos.

"And we have to find all of them?" Gillion asked.

"Well," Charlie drummed his fingers on the table, "I think all we have to find right now is the Gooblecks. But if all of these characters are out there, then I'm also a little worried about what they're doing in LA. And also, like with G'lop," he glanced towards the silent kitchen, "maybe the Goobleck they came with has decided to just not rejoin all the other Gooblecks. Which is super convenient for us. So we might need to track these guys down."

"You're the one who knows them all, so..." William looked the list up and down, "any ideas where any of them are?"

"Maybe, but I'm not really certain on any of them...did you guys wake up anywhere in particular?" Charlie asked everyone.

William raised his hand a little, "I, uh, I was just in some kind of dark alley."

"Not sure about where, but I did have someone approach and ask for a photo with me. Am I famous in your world?" Xiv asked, not having moved from their position spread out on the couch.

"They probably thought you were cosplaying," Charlie informed them and looked at them and Gillion, "which is a decent cover story for you guys, I guess. But I'd rather you stay here so you don't get kidnapped by the government or whatever the f*ck they do with aliens and stuff."

"You're sure we can't come with you and help find these other people?" Gillion asked.

"Yes," Charlie said sternly, "I'm sure."

"I've got an idea for finding them," Ranboo spoke up. Charlie looked their way and waited to hear what it was, "well, Xiv got noticed in public, and so considering that a few of your characters don't exactly look normal, you think we might find anyone talking about them online?"

Charlie glanced at the names on the sheet, "I really hope not, but I think you're right, some of these guys might've already gotten themselves in the news."

"I'll check Twitter, you see if anything comes up on TV," Ranboo pulled out their phone.

"Wait, Ranboo, I know you want to help, but I'm not sure in a good conscience I can subject you to that..." Charlie overdramatically took ahold of Ranboo's hand.

"I'll be safe, I promise," they laughed and went back to their phone to type something in. Meanwhile Charlie picked up the remote and hovered over the power button.

"Now, for everyone who doesn't know," he announced to the room, "this is a TV. It's gonna light up and there's gonna be pictures on it so please don't freak out and smash it, thanks."

He clicked the button and immediately went to a channel showing local news, in hopes that something might come up about strange characters wreaking havoc in the city. He didn't want that, actually, but it would at least be a clear way to know where they were.

"And I thought there would be no magic in your world!" Gillion proclaimed, staring in awe at the man on screen giving an overview of the coming weather.

"Yeah, sure is magical," Charlie agreed, too tired to try and explain to Gillion the electrical intricacies behind the function of a TV.

The weather report finished and transitioned into the news, which was quite convenient timing for them.

"Well, it's been quite the unusual day here in LA- and that's saying something, considering what other things we've covered in this show!" the reporter laughed, "but today there seems to have been bad luck in the air as traffic was overwhelmed by cars slipping off the road on straight-ahead streets, and a series of break-ins have left store owners confused and concerned over the safety of their businesses. We go now to the manager of a small chain who was witness to one of these break-ins earlier today."

Oh god. It was everything he had hoped it wouldn't be. Charlie read the smaller details scrolling across the bottom of the screen- slippy roads despite seasonal weather, sewage leaks suspected to be the cause, and organised riots? Multiple stores face smashed windows and trashed shelves on same day. He let out the biggest sigh of relief when one of them clarified that no casualties had resulted from the road conditions. Sewage leak? That had definitely just been a trail of slime left on the asphalt by a rogue Goobleck.

"Yeah, it was a little past closing time," Charlie's attention was drawn away from the reading as an older man, labelled the store manager, began speaking to the camera, "an' I just hear this crash, I don't know what's going on, but I see this guy behind one of the shelves digging around and I try get his attention but he clearly don't wanna talk. I woulda chased him out if it weren't for that crash, I dunno if he shot through my window or what, but I wasn't stickin' around to find out."

The footage changed back to the reporter at her desk, "authorities have assured us that they are working to reduce further damages and find what the reasons behind these continued break-ins are. We will have more as the situation develops. In other news, beloved local bird 'Coco' has-"

Charlie picked up the remote and rewinded to the previous report where they had shown pictures of the aftermath of the stores being broken into, then paused and stared at the screen.

"Notice something?" William checked with him after a few moments of silence.

"None of your guys are known for weilding guns, are they? That wouldn't be good," Xiv added.

"No, I don't think it's that," Charlie dismissed- he really didn't enjoy the idea that Xiv had more put in his head that one of his characters might've somehow acquired a gun, "but I think there might be something in these photos. The cops wouldn't know what they're looking for, but..."

Charlie leant closer. The photo was dark and details were hard to make out, but he could tell the shelves in frame were full of egg cartons, and so he could only assume the mess on the floor was a pile of broken eggs. In the other photos from different stores it was the same. Damage centralised in the egg aisle.

This wouldn't really mean anything to the police, of course, but Charlie took another look at his list of names and there was one that was definitely sticking out in his mind.

"Alright, so...I was in a Minecraft server," Charlie began his explanation, "and in that server there were eggs, but they were characters. And I went on a bit of a downward spiral, and might've tried to kill all the eggs, and now...this has happened."

"And you think this is your guy from the Minecraft server?" William asked.

"It's my best guess," Charlie sighed and looked towards Ranboo, "any luck?"

Ranboo's eyebrows were pushed together, "no, nothing they weren't saying on the news, but...I've just got this from Moonzy."

Considering the worried tone in Ranboo's voice, Charlie quickly looked to the phone he was holding out and the text displayed on it.

Heyv you need to coem over rn i got a lift goem but donethifns really wrong

God i cant tiepw rm

Type

Fick

f*ck

"What the f*ck..." the words were quiet, an involuntary response as Charlie read their messages. He cleared his throat before he actually thought of what to say, "that seems, uh, bad- that can't be related to this, can it? I mean, why would anything be showing up at your house?"

"I don't know, but we're going there right now," Ranboo didn't leave any space for discussion and pocketed their phone, stood, and backed out of the room towards the door. Charlie couldn't say he wasn't worried either, so a moment after Ranboo he too stood up and followed suit.

"Ooh, road trip?" Xiv chimed in.

"No," Charlie put a hand out, "it's bad enough you guys were out earlier today. If we need you all we can't have you getting arrested or government-FBI-kidnapped because I'm not breaking you out of a government building, so you guys can just chill out here where random members of the public aren't gonna see you."

"Should I join, at least? I can help, and I look human enough," William offered.

Charlie considered it. It didn't seem like Moonzy was in a normal scenario, they could do with help. But he didn't need that, did he? I mean, come on, William was a kid, surely he didn't need to be asking for help from a kid and putting him in danger just to save his own ass. No, Charlie didn't need that.

"No, we'll be fine," Charlie decided, and went after Ranboo who had already gone through the door.

Charlie called after him once he'd left too- he didn't lock the door, he figured with five (four?) other people inside there probably wasn't a need- "they said they're back at your place, right?"

"Yeah, they're typing better now, apparently Quackity gave them a lift home, but then something happened- they're not really being clear on what," Ranboo caught him up as the two of them took their seats in his car.

Charlie turned on the ignition, "so the situation's a bit better if they're typing easier, right?"

"I'm hoping so," Ranboo was only half paying attention, still focused on the ongoing texts with Moonzy.

Charlie nodded, "okay, uh- seatbelts."

"Can you just set off already," Ranboo did oblige and fasten their seatbelt, but gave Charlie an irritated look in the overhead mirror as he adjusted it.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right," Charlie sighed and rolled the car out of his drive. He'd done most of the pre-driving checks anyway, now he just needed to make sure he didn't crash or break the speed limit in a panic to get to Ranboo and Moonzy's house.

It was starting to get a little darker in the streets now, although with it being close to summer they still had quite a bit of time left until sunset. Charlie tapped his fingers on the wheel. He didn't want to be out looking for these guys in the dark, but he didn't want to leave them wreaking havoc until tomorrow morning.

"Any more news?" Charlie asked midway through the tense and silent drive. It was closer to his house than it was to the restaurant, at least, but getting there still took a while.

"It sounds like they're fine now...but I still wanna go check in on them, at least. And figure out what the hell is happening since they're still being vague as f*ck about it," Ranboo glared at his phone as though Moonzy might sense their annoyance through it.

"They've probably got a reason to be- I dunno, we'll find out when we get there," Charlie tried to assure them. Ranboo didn't give much of a response; Charlie could feel the worry emanating from the seat beside him.

He thought more as the journey went on, "you guys live kinda close to where all the shops were getting broken into..."

Ranboo looked up, "you think that's what happened? One of your characters broke into our house?"

"Well, no- maybe, I dunno, but I was more thinking along the lines of going and checking that out after we make sure Moonzy's ok."

"Are we prepared enough to find whoever it is?" Ranboo faced back towards the window, scanning the people they passed by for horns or wings or anything that might signify them as another character.

"I really don't know, but...if the police find them first, and find a Goobleck too, we're probably not getting it back. Not easily, at least."

"And we need all of them, right," Ranboo repeated what they'd established before as their best idea for how to end this, "okay, yeah, we can try and look for them tonight. Try not to die too."

"Yeah, that would be good," Charlie laughed meagerly. It didn't really feel like the situation to be laughing in, but he always found himself laughing when he was stressed nevertheless.

Ranboo and Moonzy's house was a welcome sight, and Charlie immediately tried to take in everything from the outside that he could. The door was shut and some of the lights were on- he supposed that was a good thing?

Ranboo didn't even wait for Charlie to be at a full stop before unclipping his seatbelt and storming out of the car, "I'll come back when everything's good. If you hear me scream then come in after me- wait, actually, don't do that, call for help if I scream. Just wait out here on, like, lookout, or something."

"Yeah, got it," Charlie gave a thumbs up.

"And, uh," Ranboo suddenly turned again and poked their head through the passenger door, "if I take a while without coming back we're probably just talking in there so don't get worried about that."

"Don't take too long, I'm not looking for this other guy in the dark," Charlie gave a stern look.

Ranboo shrugged, "I'll try not to," and shut the door.

Charlie slumped back into his seat. Well, he was here now. This was great. Having a great time being sat in his car.

Well, he couldn't really complain, he's self aware enough to know he would've done a similar thing. Moonzy said it's fine, so it's not like they need a bunch of people suddenly marching into their house to check in on them. Ranboo can handle this in the same way that Charlie can handle his own problems.

No scream. That's good, at least. Charlie started tapping on the steering wheel, looking at the front door of the house. Then at the sky- not long until sunset.

Ranboo told him to wait here. Even if it was night soon he couldn't just leave, that would be kind of a dick move.

But Ranboo was fine, right? He was in his house, with Moonzy. And Charlie's the one who knows the best ways to deal with his own characters. He'd be saving Ranboo the trouble of having to help.

Whatever. He'd be quick. Quicker than Ranboo was being, anyway.

Charlie tried to recall the locations reported on the news as having been broken into while he set off towards them- like he said, they weren't too far from Ranboo's house, and broken windows would be a sign he was in the right place- as long as they weren't the broken windows of a different shop that some other guy had happened to break into on the same day. He'd just keep an eye out for the broken eggs too.

When he saw police lights in the distance he took that as a sign he was close, and hopefully closer than the police. The next, much clearer sign, was a loud crash down the street. Uh, maybe too close.

But there was the broken glass he was looking for- however, that didn't seem to have been the source of the sound. It had sounded more like shelves collapsing on each other, so it would seem as though his target was already wreaking havoc inside.

As Charlie drove up to the small store it began to dawn on him that, if this was his guy, then his guy was smashing windows. Was it better to theorise he was doing it with his bare hands, or with a weapon?

Whatever, Charlie could handle his own characters, of course he could. If he couldn't do that then what the f*ck could he do?

Nobody was on the streets when he stepped out of the car. He supposed it was late, this was a quiet street anyways and all of the stores had closed at least an hour ago. Nobody to see him dragging a clone of himself out of the smashed up store. Nobody to help when said clone of himself stabbed him through the gut with an improvised weapon.

Maybe best not to think about that possibility.

Charlie pushed himself forward and peered inside- it didn't seem there was anyone there. Was he too late? But he'd just heard a crash, surely that had come from here!

He looked a little closer and could see the damage, knocked over shelves and marks on the walls, eggshells still dripping down from where they'd been flung onto the drinks refrigerator's glass door. Fresh, but still no assailant in sight.

The he noticed the destruction formed a trail, leading itself through the store towards a door at the back, which hung ajar. Charlie chose not to acknowledge the way in which it looked to be pried open with force.

He crept through the hole left in one of the windows, careful to tiptoe around piles of broken glass inside. As he made it further, he found himself having to avoid eggshells as well. This would've been carnage, if it weren't for the fact it was literally just a bunch of broken eggs all over the floor.

Charlie paused to assess before he got much further. Seeing food on the shelves was reminding him how he hadn't eaten any dinner, and while he might've been able to forget about that in lieu of, well, everything else, he couldn't avoid a darkness creeping in to the edges of his gaze. He seriously couldn't go a few hours without nearing the point of blacking out from not eating? Well fine, he'd just take a small snack from the shelves in here. He was sure the owner wouldn't mind.

Besides that, now that he was here he could hear muffled destruction continuing in the back room, but he felt there should've been a sound here that wasn't present. An alarm, right? A whole window was smashed, shouldn't an alarm be going off?

He found his answer quickly. Yes, an alarm should've been going off, but it couldn't exactly do that when the box it came from was smashed to bits. Hm. Not good.

Either this guy had learnt from the last stores what an alarm looks like, or he'd just gone to break it as soon as it started blaring noise. He hadn't heard it, but if it had really gone off when he was too far away in his car to hear then the police would have to be pretty close by now. They weren't here yet, so maybe that suggested the former? He could hope. He didn't want to get found standing in the middle of a crime scene right now. Or at any other time, really.

And either way, that alarm was f*cking smashed. Charlie doubted he could do any similar amount of damage with his bare hands. He already wanted to be armed, but now he knew he needed to be.

This was just a general store, so mainly food, but at the end of one aisle was cookware too. His fingers were drawn most to the frying pan- a solid chunk of metal could get this over with quickly, worst comes to worst. Hey, if he gets this done quick enough then Ranboo might not even realise he'd been gone!

Yeah, as if.

And if anyone was about to criticise him for not taking the knife on the shelf next to it- he didn't really know who could possibly be looking in on this scenario to judge him, but there was still an urge to defend himself- he was not about to stab a version of himself with a sharp f*cking knife.

And also the packaging looked really hard to open, and also noisy, so there. Nobody could possibly accuse him of being a dumb horror side character now.

"Why are you-"

Charlie pushed a fist into his mouth to restrain a scream and swung the frying pan directly at the source of the voice, narrowly scraping the nose of Xiv.

"-getting the frying pan..." they finished, pushing his weapon down and away from their face slowly with one finger.

"Wh- you-" Charlie said in a muffled whisper that was barely intelligible through the knuckles he still had in his mouth to keep himself quiet. He didn't get any further as he went silent when he saw Gillion stumbling through the broken window as well, then giving them both a thumbs up and a grin when he got balanced again on the other side.

"Your trunk's open," Xiv proudly informed him, knowing already what his first question was. Charlie rolled his eyes and put both his hands back down, and noticed in doing so that the knuckles on the hand that'd been in his mouth were bleeding slightly. sh*t, he didn't even realise he'd bitten down on them.

Xiv tilted to the side to look behind Charlie at the back door, "what are we doing here, going after that guy from the TV thing?"

"Yes, so would you please be quiet?" Charlie hissed, "why the hell did you come?"

"Because," Xiv mimicked Charlie's whisper and hunched over pose to mock him, "I wanted to have a little fun, and I told Gillion he should come too, so he did."

"Your version of fun is gonna screw us all over if anyone sees you two. Do you think I can't do this myself?" Charlie accused them.

"When did I say that? Although I would like to watch you try, to be fair," Xiv shrugged.

"If this person is a danger, I-" Gillion cut himself off, realising he was getting louder, and reset himself to a whisper, "I will fight at your side..."

"No, no. God, can't you just be where you're meant to be for once? I said to stay at home- I don't need anyone else here telling me how much I'm not strong enough to handle my own issues. I can handle this."

"Yes...sure..." Xiv raised their eyebrows at Charlie.

"f*ck off," he groaned, "you wouldn't exist without me, be a little more thankful. Now listen, I'm gonna go handle this because I'm the only one here who knows how to take care of this guy, and you two are going to stay here."

"Yes sir mister ultimate creator sir," Xiv mocked. Gillion looked a little more apprehensive.

"I'm sure I could still offer some help..."

Charlie glared at him, "the only help you characters should be offering is bonuses to my dice rolls in D&D. I should be able to do everything I need to in my own life."

Maybe that was a little harsh. But he'd already turned around, and didn't look back once as he went to the door and pushed its mangled handle. No going back from here.

And what was his plan from here, exactly? He'd claimed he was the one who knew how to handle this, but with the wreckage of the back room slowly revealing itself to him, he very quickly needed to confront the fact that he did not have a plan.

This is his character from the QSMP- egg-obsessed, daughter-grieving Charlie. Judging by his current actions, he's been pulled from the point in the story where he's trying to get Juanaflippa revived, right? If all the eggs die, they all get revived, that was his logic. That has to be why he's going on an egg crushing rampage.

So maybe he lies- tells his character that she's alive, that Juanaflippa has already been saved. Then there's no need to be going around wrecking everything, and no need to hit him over the head with a frying pan. Great!

And not sarcastically, this time- he had a plan, and he was putting his skills to the use. Wow, this would probably all be fine after all.

God, he really was a horror movie side character.

Not even two steps in the door shut itself behind him. He'd taken those first moments looking around to take note of how much bigger this back room was than he was expecting it to be, plus the strage green glow this whole area had to it, and not taking enough notice of the shadow being cast in front of him in said green glow. If the shadow was in front, then the source was...behind..?

By the time he'd connected those dots, he'd already been hit with a sudden sharp pain and sent to the ground.

"Gh- y-" he couldn't even raise the noises escaping his mouth to above a mutter as his muscles seized upon themselves. That didn't feel like any electric shock he'd ever had before, though.

"Y Y Y 00u arr3,,e," a glitchy speech reached his ears and as the control of his limbs returned to him he twisted his head as far round as he could to get a sight of the figure looming behind him.

Green, bright neon green, was the immediate draw of his attention. Enveloping the figure and leaving barely a single human feature in sight, hordes of ones and zeros spread and overlapped and obscured the other man. This wasn't what he'd planned for. Oh he was so f*cked.

"Ano o 0tth3r," the figure finished.

"A-another what?" Charlie strained and slowly got back up as it seemed he wasn't attacking again for now. This was still his QSMP character, but he was nowhere near correct with the timeline. He'd already been completely corrupted by the code of his fake daughter, maybe even beyond repair judging by the current look of him. And that's why he was really going after eggs- that's what the codes all did, indiscriminate violence against their kids.

Another- Charlie really hoped that didn't mean another target.

But his character didn't bestow him with so much as an explanation, instead choosing to raise a hand. Charlie watched, crawling to get as much distance between them as he could, as the figure's fingers distorted under a glitched mess of black and green and stretched, becoming long, deadly claws. Charlie crawled faster.

The character- what did people refer to him as, Codecicle? Sure, he'd go with that- Codecicle swung his hand down in a messy attack that went by Charlie's legs and dug into the floor instead. In the precious seconds Codecicle spent tugging his own hand out from the ground, Charlie used his hands and feet to scurry faster behind the cover of a table covered in boxes.

He felt his palms slipping across the floor and glanced down and at the whole floor in general, seeing all of the eggs that lay splatted across it. Damn, now this store couldn't even restock all their eggs.

Nope, not important, please stay more focused on not dying- Charlie forced himself back to the present and raised up the frying pan he'd kept in his hand. With how much he was shaking and how tight his grip had remained, he wasn't sure he could let it go right now even if he wanted. Which he most certainly did not.

"Fl1111 paa4,,"

Charlie's head turned at the sudden noise. He peered around the edge of the table he was sat with his back to, seeing Codecicle searching around shelves and boxes. The words were hard to make out through the crackling interference in his vocal chords, but Charlie had a decent idea of what had been said.

"Fl...Flippa..?"

Mistake.

Codecicle was upon him in a second, hurling himself with wild abandon at Charlie's table and throwing the boxes on top onto the floor. Charlie jumped away and pushed himself against the wall, holding the frying pan in front of his chest. He'd meant for it to be a weapon, but a shield worked too, he guessed.

He had to calm this guy down, somehow, because there wasn't any other way out of this now. He was pretty literally backed into a corner.

He knew this guy, he could think of something. Something, something- there had to be-

"J-Juanaflippa...you're m-my egg..." his voice was weak, but he tried not to shake as he began to sing to Codecicle. To his shock, but also utter relief, it made the man hesitate.

"...and I- uh, I want y-you back so bad I-I beg..." Charlie continued, scanning Codecicle for any sign of an incoming attack, but the frantic movement of ones and zeros seemed to be slowing down in fact.

"Jua4na a fliip4,.. y y0u do fl1pps," slowly Codecicle began to join in as Charlie continued, struggling a little to keep the rhythm of the song with the addition of words that kept jumping and interrupting themselves with noises a human should in no way be able to make. But this seemed to be helping, he wasn't dead yet, so he kept going.

"But all I can do..." Charlie stopped pressing himself so hard against the wall, his throat less tight. He was doing it. He'd said he could deal with his own problems and he was. He was handling this great!

"1ss s .. mi15ssscli i ckk," Codecicle's singing slowed, even more than it was already, and Charlie knew something was wrong. The glowing numbers around his body crackled.

"H-hey, it's...it's alright..." Charlie told him, still holding the frying pan firmly over his important organs. Apart from his brain. That one totally wasn't important.

"I I I I I," his body jerked and stuttered, his clawed hands eventually raising to his face. Charlie watched intently as it looked like the code was clearing, and for the first time he could actually get some kind of a look at Codecicle's face. He could make out the rim of glasses, reflecting the specks of neon green light swirling around them. And below them, he could see what he thought were tears- not completely sure since the colour of them looked unnatural, but he didn't know what else they could be.

Charlie tried to smile- anything to get the other man to calm down, "it's okay, it's alright...it's all okay now..."

A pupil flicked up to meet the gaze of his own, glowing so intensely green that Charlie resisted an urge to look away under its glare. Despite that it still seemed distant, almost looking past Charlie, who continued to watch as Codecicle opened his mouth.

"I-I...misclicked..."

Charlie gulped. What was he meant to do? Deny it? Agree? In the end he did nothing except look at Codecicle, the two having hardly a meter of space between them, as his distant gaze sharpened and the crackle of static returned to his form. This time when he looked at Charlie, he knew the glare was being directed right at him.

"ff fli1 p paaAA4A," Codecicle's growl turned to a screech as the code around him reached a new intensity, flashing green and black, green and black, making it almost impossible for Charlie to see the nightmarish claws he was raising over his head.

"oh SHI-"

Thud.

~

"His loss, I suppose," Xiv shrugged and slid down the wall to sit by Gillion.

Charlie had just gone through the door and pretty rudely slammed it behind himself, leaving Xiv and Gillion on their own in the front of the store. Gillion had sat down right after, staring somewhere in the middle distance.

"Hey, don't take it personally. I'm sure that you'd be of great help," Xiv lightly elbowed Gillion, "he's just a little, how should I say...up his own ass?"

Gillion laughed a little, but it was pretty weak, "no, I don't think it's that..." he opened his mouth again to continue, but found nothing to say, so like a fish gulping for air he closed it again.

"Is it the character thing?" Xiv provided for him when he couldn't find the words to say it himself.

"Well, I suppose, yes," Gillion looked at Xiv, a little wide eyed, "you're aware of it too, right? How are you so calm in the face of this claim, that we're all just...characters?"

Xiv sighed and looked straight ahead again, resting the back of their head on the wall, "um, well...I don't care, that's about it."

Gillion laughed at the claim, "you can't be serious? I mean, I found it hard enough to believe such a thing, and now that I do, I still hardly know what it means. Am I going to stop existing suddenly when I stop getting thought about? I feel rather fragile if I only exist in the head of a man I've never known..."

They both looked up suddenly as it sounded like something hit the floor in the back room. Xiv just shrugged it off when they didn't hear anything else, though.

"Listen, Gillion. I didn't grow up with people who cared about me. I was less than even a character, my own flesh and blood saw me as nothing more than a battery. I only ever existed because I was going to be used as a battery. Now, let me ask you...am I a battery, Gillion?"

Gillion looked nervous to answer, "well, I- I wouldn't have thought so, but, I've only just met you, so-"

Xiv smiled and rolled their eyes, "let me rephrase. Do I look like one of these to you?"

Xiv suddenly pulled out a packet of some little cylinders and displayed them to Gillion. On the top he could read AA BATTERIES (20% extra free!).

"Those are...batteries?" Gillion read the words again, but found no mistake in his reading.

"I know, I've never seen something that looks like this before in my f*cking life, but this world is weird, so-" Xiv cut themself off, waving their hands, "besides the point. Do I look like these or not?"

"Well...no."

"Right, I don't. But how am I not a battery if that's all I was made to be, when that's all I was supposed to be, right?"

"I, uh- I'm not really a philosophical fish," Gillion admitted.

"But you don't know what you are, right? You've thought all this time you were- uh-"

"Gillion Tidestrider, Champion of the Undersea, Hero of the Deep, and, um, so forth."

Xiv laughed, "yeah, that. But now, you're being told that you're not any of that. This whole time Charlie's been saying that over and over again, you're just a character, blah blah, leave me alone I'm better than you, that kind of thing," they mocked.

"But you want to know why I don't care about that?" Xiv continued, "because I know I'm not a battery, Gillion. So it doesn't matter at all who thinks I am one."

Gillion tilted his head, "I don't think I fully understand...at the end of it all, I am just a character. The life I had wasn't really real, this was."

Xiv took his hand and held it in theirs, "he told you you're not real. Do you feel real?"

"I..."

Xiv held his hand tighter, "can you feel this? Feel your temperature change, how mine is affecting yours and yours is affecting mine?"

"Y-yes, I can feel that..."

"And that feeling is real. You're here right now, real, physical, holding my hand. Let me ask again. Do you feel real?"

"I...I suppose that I do."

Xiv released his hand and leant back, trying to be subtle when they wiped some residual moisture off on their legs.

"Then you're real."

Gillion's eyebrows pushed together and he said nothing.

"Why are you confused? You feel real, so you're real. Simple as that."

"Can it really be so simple?" Gillion looked back at Xiv, doubtful.

"It doesn't matter what that guy in there told you you are," Xiv pointed towards the back room just as they heard some things falling over, which they chose to ignore, "if that's all you were supposed to be. Because you know who you are, far better than even the one who created you. He can list as many of those dumb titles to you as he wants, he might know you, he might have built you and given you your life, but put some emphasis on the word given, because it's yours now."

Xiv sighed, "if I was what I was always made to be, then I'd be in a vat right now fuelling the power of a madman. But I didn't like my fate, and I didn't respect the one who gave it to me. I don't have an identity through how everyone else saw me, it's enough to know myself and follow who I am.

"What the f*ck does it matter if you're a character, Gillion. You're still you. You're you."

Xiv was going to ask if those were tears or just his natural moisture, but decided against it. After a moment Gillion fell onto Xiv, in what could technically be called a hug, and Xiv reciprocated it as best they could with their limbs trapped beneath the fish man.

"Seriously, that guy's been a real dick considering you haven't done anything to him. Don't take what he says to heart," Xiv told him. They felt Gillion nodding against their chest.

And then, almost on signal-

"oh SHI-"

Thud.

"Okay, we should probably go help before he gets himself killed," Xiv begrudgingly decided.

~

Cold. So, so cold.

Screaming. He could hardly hear it.

He fought against the current. Useless, useless.

He could've. If he tried harder. If he was better.

He could've, could've-

~

A small sensation on the side of his face. Another. Another. Getting stronger. Or was he just regaining feeling?

Charlie tried to open his eyes, although it was an effort to do so, and he couldn't easily see the world around him when he did. It came into focus very slowly, so much so that he thought his contacts might've fallen out, but eventually the figure crouched in front of him was clear enough to discern.

Another sensation. Oh. He was getting poked.

"Xiv..." he tried his best to say their name, but it came out a little slurred.

Although he was clearly awake, Xiv still poked him again, "good morning! Any nice dreams?"

"I dinntdream ofnnythng," he grumbled and pushed against the floor to get into more of a sitting position, at which point Xiv finally stopped poking.

"Great, that's great...I'll be honest, I didn't do much, I just made sure you weren't dead. Gillion over there took care of your little problem, so once you can actually talk again, he'd probably appreciate some thanks. And I'd appreciate you giving him an apology."

Charlie looked at Xiv, using all his mental energy just to take in their words, then looked for Gillion. He was on the other side of the back room to them, and he was stood with another person.

Charlie had assumed when Xiv said 'took care of' they might've taken more drastic action against Codecicle, but he seemed relatively unharmed next to Gillion. Charlie could even see his face again, the code looking to him like a muddier shade of green that was reduced to a patch on the top of his head and on one of his shoulders. It still completely consumed his arms, but at least they were normal hands again and not monstrous claws.

Codecicle caught Charlie staring at him and looked back, a difficult to read expression on his face. Charlie's probably looked pretty clearly scared and scrutinous, but Codecicle looked like there was something he wanted to tell Charlie. Whether that was an apology or more glitched screaming, he couldn't tell.

"An...apology?" Charlie asked Xiv, who'd zoned out and didn't immediately realise what he was asking about.

"What? Oh, yeah, apologise. Seriously, Gillion has been having an existential crisis over there and you have done everything in your power to make it worse for him. It doesn't seem he'll be the one to ask for an apology, so I can do that for him. Go apologise."

"Can you give me, like, a second?" Charlie pleaded, feeling a ringing in his head.

"If you can talk you can walk," Xiv completely ignored his request and hopped to their feet, then pulled Charlie up too by his arms.

"I don't think that's- okay," Charlie didn't get a chance to protest and just focused instead on remaining upright until the room stopped spinning around him.

Apologise? He thought on it more as Xiv lead him across the room. What exactly was he meant to be apologising for here?

Alright, maybe he'd been a bit harsh for shouting at Gillion earlier. But he kept insisting on getting involved, so Charlie thought it was only fair to insist that he didn't.

He was handling the situation fine, anyway! Well, he did see the irony in that considering a minute ago he was fully unconscious on the floor, but what he meant was-

Oh, nevermind. Even if he wasn't sure what to apologise for, he should probably still give them some kind of thanks. Whatever they'd done to diffuse the situation, it had worked.

Speaking of, "what did you guys do?" Charlie asked now that he'd stumbled his way to the other side of the room.

"Oh, y'know, we just saved your life," Xiv shrugged.

"Yeah, I gathered that part," Charlie frowned.

"I tried not to kill you..." Codecicle added, looking off to the side.

Charlie looked at him, slightly bewildered, "you did? I couldn't tell!"

"I-I wasn't exactly in control of myself, pendejo!" Codecicle defended, "I was for like, a second back there since you reminded me about Flippa, but it was kind of hard to think of her and not get angry again..."

"And getting angry makes you try and claw my face off," Charlie assumed, and it seemed like he was right.

"I tried not to use the claws," Codecicle muttered, but it didn't do much to affect Charlie's attitude.

"But as for the question," Gillion brought them back to the initial topic, "I came in and hit him on the head and that solved the problem!"

"And- and that just worked?" Charlie looked at Gillion, and at Codecicle. Charlie had used what he knew to try and defend himself, he'd sung the song of this character, and now Gillion was here hardly putting a thought in and solving the problem immediately?

No, don't get mad about it. He had to remember that, ultimately, this was a good thing. Even if Charlie hadn't been the one to do it, the problem was solved, and he wasn't dead in the back room of a random LA store. Gillion deserved his thanks. And maybe also an apology.

"It hurt," Codecicle complained and rubbed the back of his head, trying to avoid the parts still flickering with ones and zeros.

"But yes, it seemed to do the trick. For whatever reason," Xiv shrugged.

Charlie looked at Gillion and made a request, "please don't make it a habit to hit people on the head to solve problems."

"If it's broke don't fix it," Xiv countered, taking Gillion's side.

"That's not-" Charlie tried to correct them but was quickly cut off.

"I solve problems the best way I see fit!" Gillion defended himself, "and sometimes violence just happens to be the answer."

Codecicle half raised his hand, taking advantage of the gap in conversation to say something, "excusez-moi, can I just ask, uh, how did you know about my daughter, by the way?"

Charlie got the sense that question had been on his mind for a while. He started thinking he should make a script for explaining all this since he'd be saying it to every other confused character they came across.

Xiv just patted him on the shoulder and gave a cryptic answer before Charlie could try, "oh, we've got a few things to talk about, friend..."

Charlie waved his arms out, "okay, let's just- we've still got a whole car ride to get home, let's just answer all the big questions then. Right now I wanna know if you've got a Goobleck in here and then we can get out of the active crime scene."

"Um...is that like, an item, or-?" Codecicle's eyes flicked around, looking for something that might fit the name 'Goobleck'.

"No, it's- it's like a, uh, a little guy. Made of slime. Big eyes, about..." Charlie motioned his hands uncertainly to approximate the size of the creature.

Codecicle's eyes lit up- which made Charlie flinch back a little, since last time he'd lit up an even brighter green it hadn't been a good thing- "oh, si si si, I know what you're talking about! I don't call him that, but yeah, he's been following me around. I'm sure he's somewhere back here..."

Codecicle began searching around the wreckage of the back room, Charlie also joining him with renewed excitement knowing they might find the next Goobleck. Well, no, that made it sound like he would be happy to see Goobleck. What he meant was that he was excited to get this over with.

"I guess he could've gone out back," Codecicle thought out loud as he reached to push open the door that presumably lead to a street on the other side. Back rooms usually lead to that, right? That's where they got the deliveries, and took out trash, and...

When the door opened there was a warm, yellow light that pushed itself through. It might've been pleasant, if it weren't for the immediate discomfort Charlie felt.

It wasn't unreasonable that it was the light of sunset, but there was such an artificial quality to it Charlie knew that couldn't be the case. The electrical hum he could hear from the other side sent a chill through him.

Codecicle was looking through the door cluelessly. Xiv wandered over curiously and peered through, then turned back to Charlie, "is this supposed to happen in your world?"

Charlie shook his head. He didn't even have the energy to be annoyed that yet another problem had appeared right before his eyes, he was just tired.

Of course, of course it couldn't be as simple as being in a back room. The glimpses he could catch of it over Codecicle's shoulder were more than enough for him to know exactly what this was.

Yellow wallpaper, carpets, and bright, fluorescent lights. They were staring into the f*cking backrooms.

Chapter 4: Rooms of which are located in the Back

Chapter Text

"Okay, well...we can probably go without one Goobleck, right?" Charlie smiled nervously at the other three to try and convince them. Xiv looked unimpressed.

"Are you scared of this- this weird looking room..?" they asked him, then looked back at the room as they continued, "what is it even meant to be?"

"It's, like, a maze," Charlie explained, "and we need to get Ranboo rather than get lost in a maze so I'm just gonna go through here and..."

Charlie started narrating his actions as he crept back to the entrance to the front of the store and turned the handle, but found that he'd rather not continue to narrate and admit out loud what he'd found. It was all he could do to look at it, anger and despair washing over him in an instant, leaving a muddled sense of exhaustion in their wake. Another yellow room.

Although these rooms were a little more red-tinted than he remembered them being. He was sure they didn't look this orange in his videos.

"I guess that's not good," Codecicle observed, seeing that Charlie's door had lead to the same sight.

"You know how I said these rooms are like a maze?" Charlie sighed, staring into the endless empty halls that had appeared in his path as though he was staring down an old foe, maybe because that's exactly what these rooms had become to him.

"Yes?" Gillion prompted.

"Well, by that I mean it's an infinite maze. Without an exit. By that I mean you should've never followed me in here because now we're all completely f*cked," Charlie slammed the door shut and remained in that position with his hand on the door, facing away from the rest of the room.

"Don't turn this on us! Would you have rather died in this room?" Xiv put their hands on their hips.

"Maybe death is preferable to the backrooms," Charlie mumbled.

"What?" Xiv asked.

"Nothing," Charlie's head raised up and he turned to look at everyone else again, "uh, nothing, I didn't say anything. I was just thinking about, y'know, getting out of here. And how we can totally still do that."

Xiv squinted at him, "mhm."

Charlie brushed off their gaze and went to join them and Codecicle at the other door, "I doubt anyone's coming to get us, so I guess we should go in ourselves and try to find something that'll help."

"Looks pretty empty in there," Codecicle was apprehensive to go in.

By now Gillion had walked up to the other three and was peering over them into the other room too, "ooh, cool..."

"No, not really," Charlie broke it to him.

Xiv elbowed him, "hey, let Gill have this one."

Charlie sighed and rubbed the spot where they'd elbowed him, "okay, whatever, let's just go looking for the exit."

Xiv muttered something about having not hit him that hard and Charlie crossed the threshold into the rooms that he'd never be rid of. In the games he'd played there had been exit doors or elevators or whatever on each of the floors so he was keeping his eyes out for one of those. His mind was so busy thinking about how this place would definitely have an exit door, he could barely even hear the thoughts about how those exit doors never lead to an exit. Maybe it was deliberate that those thoughts were getting drowned out.

Positive mental attitude, and all that! Wasn't he being so positive by denying the existence of his glaringly obvious and severe problems? Wow. He was truly a hero right now.

Hearing the door to the store's back room swing itself shut sent an uncomfortable spark down his spine, but he knew there wasn't anything useful they could do in that room anyway. Both the doors out of there just lead to this place. They would've been doomed no matter what.

But then Charlie felt his stomach twisting on itself, and it dawned on him that the granola bar he'd snatched from the store shelves and eaten a little while ago was doing less to hold him over than he would've liked. Ah. sh*t.

Depending on what version of the backrooms this was, maybe he'd get almond water. It was hardly a pound of chicken, or a whole quiche, but if it gave him a little more time before he fully blacked out, he'd take it.

The four of them had been silent since he'd started leading this little group through the identical wallpaper labyrinth hellscape, and Charlie got the sense they were just trusting him to lead them through (which they really shouldn't have been), and so they weren't offering any advice, since how the f*ck would they offer advice on traversing the backrooms?

But not having them backseat him was nice, he supposed. Aha, now this was where he'd show them! They'd interrupted when he was trying to take care of Codecicle, but this time he couldn't possibly be proven weaker than his own characters; he knew the backrooms, whether he wanted to or not. He could be in control this time.

...Was this what Xiv was talking about? Maybe he was a little harsh on these guys. He was just trying to deal with his own problems, that didn't seem like such a controversial thing. But he looked over his shoulder at Gillion- who was looking around, completely enamoured by the endless orange-ish halls- and sighed. He'd apologise. He'd find the right time and he'd do it.

For a while now they'd been walking in silence, maybe something brought on by the uncomfortably quiet setting more than anything. It sounded far too loud and echoey when Gillion finally broke the silent streak, "so, uh...this is a big room."

"Yeah, it's the backrooms," Charlie deadpanned.

He could feel an immediate sensation of eyes on the back of his head and spun to face Xiv before they could elbow him in the back. They tried to pretend their elbow had been out for other reasons when Charlie saw it, comically whistling and looking to one side.

"So, are we like, nearly there?" Codecicle asked, the last in their little parade, stood behind Gillion. Xiv was closest to the front behind Charlie, who got the sense they were doing it just to keep an eye on him. A reassuring thought. Not.

Charlie cleared his throat, "uh, it's- it's not exactly easy to tell. I've just been hoping to hear something, or like...see something..."

Codecicle squinted, "do you know where we're going?"

Charlie put his hands on his hips and opened his mouth, then after a moment closed his mouth again.

"Oh, mierda, we're lost?" Codecicle put together, flickering more green.

"Well- okay," Charlie put a hand up, "important clarification, we were lost the moment we ended up in this place," he took a breath, "butyeahwe'recompletelylost."

Xiv scowled, "I am not dying in a place like this, Charlie."

"I-I wasn't planning to either! Listen, guys, I know this place, and I know that if we walk around it for long enough then eventually we will find something," Charlie insisted.

"We'll find an early grave?" Xiv remarked.

Charlie put his hands over his mouth and looked up at the dull, dropped ceiling. It looked almost like he was praying, but he was really trying not to scream. When eventually he looked down at Xiv he interlaced his fingers besides two which he pointed towards them, "you are not helping."

Xiv didn't seem to care too much about that fact.

"Okay," Charlie clapped his hands together and looked at the other two, "let's just keep going, we can walk and talk and we're not making much progress by just standing here."

"Were we ever making any progress..?" Codecicle sounded doubtful.

"Don't ask me that question if you don't like the answer," Charlie finger gunned him and started walking again.

The only thing fuelling him to continue was delusion, and he knew it. Whether they were walking or standing still, the outcome was still the same, the walls were still the same, that endless goddamn buzzing was still the same. But at least if they were walking it felt like they were getting somewhere. Even if they weren't.

He found himself wishing Tom or Ranboo were here for a moment, then cursed himself for the thought. So what if they made him laugh in those backrooms videos, pulling them into this just to make himself feel better would be a sh*tty thing to do.

"Halt," a firm hand suddenly tugged Charlie's sleeve back, with an authoritative voice that Charlie felt he couldn't go against. He saw it was Gillion holding him back, but Gillion was looking elsewhere, searching the halls around them.

"What is..?" Charlie didn't finish as Gillion released him and put a finger on his lips, the other hand going to his sword hilt.

"Footsteps," was all that Gillion whispered in return.

Xiv and Codecicle had already stopped a few steps back, looking around the same as Gillion but seeming less certain where they were meant to be looking. They probably couldn't hear the steps, and at first Charlie couldn't either, but then they got a little louder, and a little louder again. Getting closer.

Gillion slowly turned and looked at Charlie, talking very quietly, "do these back room mazes of yours happen to have anything dangerous in them?"

He'd never played a backrooms game where something wasn't trying to kill him, "nothing too dangerous..."

"Hm," Gillion's hand clasped onto the handle of Destiny's Blade.

All four of them had now caught on to the direction of the source, and stared it down. Whatever thing this was it would have to round the corner and show itself soon. Charlie didn't want to take his eyes off it, but for a moment he looked at Gillion. Gillion, who'd already saved him once today, and was ready to do it again now. Just for once Charlie wanted to be able to show he could do this. But, maybe...

"Hey, uh...if you're a monster, can you just make it clear if you're a sound one, or a movement one, or like...a f*cked up microwave?" a new voice asked them from around the corner.

Oh. Nevermind then.

"Um...I do not think we are monsters," Gillion called back.

There was no response besides the footsteps resuming, and then a head popping out from the corner they'd all been looking at. Well, it was definitely another of Charlie's characters, that was clear. Although it did make him a little more uncomfortable that this one didn't have glasses, making him look even more alike to how Charlie looked currently. Even more like a walking, talking mirror.

There was immediate relief on this Charlie's face as soon as he looked over the four of them and he stepped out fully from behind the wall, "oh, oh my god! Other people, I haven't- I haven't seen another living person in...I don't even know how long, holy sh*t!"

He then did a double take on Gillion and Xiv, recalculating his use of the word 'person', but all he did was shrug, "eh, I've been dealing with giant ear things, you're human enough."

"So you don't mean us any harm?" Gillion double checked.

"What? No, not unless you're tryna f*cking eat me, or something," he looked over his shoulder, then back to them casually, but his fingers nervously fiddling with the camcorder in his hands didn't give the impression of being calm and collected.

"Okay, uh, before we get onto anything else, can you just tell us your name?" Charlie really hoped that it was anything other than Charlie because he didn't have a clue what other nickname he could give to his backrooms character.

"Oh, right- it's Robert 'Slimecicle' Chen!" he puffed out his chest and announced, probably so energetic because this had been the first time in a while he'd been speaking to people.

Charlie just looked at him blankly. Did he...did he name one of his characters Robert?

Wait, he remembered now- this was a pretty recent video, that was just the name of the character in the game! The character who'd been chased around the backrooms endlessly and died gruesomely multiple times...right. The constant fiddling and looking around seemed more reasonable all of a sudden.

"Hey, you never asked my name," Codecicle interjected.

"Oh, I've just been referring to you as Codecicle in my head," Charlie admitted.

Codecicle gave him a mildly vexed look, "my name's Charlie."

"Yeah, well, my name's Charlie too, so that's gonna get a little confusing," Charlie pressed his mouth into a straight line, a little like the polite cat meme. After a moment he had another thought, "I mean, It's either that or El Backflipo."

Code-flipo-whatever considered it a few seconds, "...I kind of prefer El Backflipo."

Charlie sighed, "yeah, of course you do."

Meanwhile Xiv had approached Robert (still felt weird calling him that. It was way too normal a name for one of Charlie's characters) and jutted out a finger at his camcorder, "and what's this device you have?"

"Camcorder! Well, it's..." Robert scratched the back of his head, "I brought it here with me, and I've been filming- just for like, documentation, y'know. If anyone found my body."

A brief silence. He cleared his throat and continued, "uh, but, anyway, I think if something bad happens to the camera- this is gonna sound weird," he waved a hand out to emphasise the disclaimer and laughed nervous, "it's weird, but, uh, I think if something happened to the camera...it might happen to me too."

"Just a feeling?" or has it happened before, Charlie left unspoken. Robert looked at him, a moment of silence as they analysed one another.

"Yeah. Just a feeling I had," Robert said slowly, considering each word.

"I'm guessing he's lost in here with us too," Backflipo observed.

"What? N-no, not lost, I just-" Robert's mouth opened and closed without sound as he tried to think of what to say next, "listen, I-I know this place by now, and I know that if we walk around it for long enough then eventually we will find something that can help get us out."

Xiv and Backflipo looked at Charlie so harshly it felt like they were putting him on trial for something. Hey, so what if his own characters thought like him? That was kind of to be expected.

However in this situation it wasn't really helpful, "yeah, we've been doing that too," Charlie told him, "it hasn't exactly gotten us anywhere."

"It got us here! And now we have a new ally," Gillion reframed the situation.

"Yeah, and I found this weird guy too a little bit ago, I'm sure he can help," Robert started digging through his backpack, which looked to be mainly filled with batteries and a waterproof camera cover, and took out a Goobleck.

"Oh!" Charlie exclaimed, not expecting that reveal to be so abrupt, "that's actually kind of what we came here for."

"Sure, I guess," Robert held it out, "don't really know what you'd want with him, but he's friendlier than the other stuff in here."

Charlie's hand hesitated over the thing, "wait, you're just...holding it?"

"...yeah?" he looked at Charlie, then at the Goobleck in his hand, "it stung a little the first time I picked it up but like I said, seems pretty harmless."

Charlie slowly withdrew his hand, "yeah, you can probably...keep him in your backpack. For safekeeping and all that."

Robert shrugged and put Goobleck away again.

"Wait, was that what you meant earlier? What did you call him- Goobleck?" Backflipo asked.

Gillion nodded, "indeed, that is the creature!"

"Oh, that's actually not what I was thinking of at all, then."

"What did you think we were looking for?" Charlie asked him.

"Uh...similar," Backflipo tilted his head, "but a little more like a-"

"gegg"

All of their heads darted to the source of the noise. A small, green egg with glasses stood looking up at the five of them, a slightly wet, gooey trail on the carpet behind it. There was a fairly long silence, save for the zoom in sound on Robert's camcorder.

"Oh. Welp, mystery solved!" Backflipo gave a thumbs up.

"He's here too?" Charlie despaired.

"Uh, hold on," Xiv stepped forward, noticing something. He expected it to be something about Gegg, but they stepped past the egg and poked out a foot to point at the slime trail he'd left, "he got in from somewhere. Think this leads back out?"

Charlie was a little surprised by the feasibility of the idea, "yeah, I- I guess we can give that a try."

The next few minutes were spent retracing Gegg's steps, getting annoyed when they reached a place where he'd crossed over his own path or gone in a circle, arguing over taking shortcuts, and ultimately just trying not to get lost despite having a clear path of wet, slimy carpet to follow.

Robert had an attempt at making conversation along the way, "so, uh, what uh- what brings you guys here?"

"Good one," Xiv smirked.

"Destiny!" Gillion answered, making everyone jump with the sudden volume, "sorry- destiny has brought us here, is all I meant to say..."

"Same as you, we opened a door that didn't lead where it was supposed to, and by then it was too late," Charlie explained, continuing to look ahead.

"How did you know that's how I got here?" Robert sounded a little concerned.

"Don't worry," Xiv patted him on the shoulder, "I'm giving you and flip guy the whole run down once we're back in the car, since our driver there doesn't have the best track record for, how shall I say...letting people down easy."

Charlie could feel the spite directed at him like spit in their words. Yeah, he still needed to apologise. He got the message.

"By the way," Xiv continued, walking by Robert, "are you going to have your device on this whole time? It's recording what we're doing, right?"

"Yeah, that's...how a camcorder works," Robert gave them a look, not understanding how Xiv didn't know a single thing about cameras.

"Hm..." Xiv tilted their head and looked closer at the lens.

"Uh, too close," Robert pulled the camera back a little. Xiv looked at him and narrowed their eyes. This whole time whenever Robert had looked at them it seemed off. Like his eyes weren't really focused on them, just facing in their vague direction.

Xiv put their hand over the camera lens.

"sh*t-! D-did the lights go out?! No, no, not this guy..." Robert immediately started freaking out and spinning his head in either direction, but his eyes weren't catching on anything.

"What's happening back there?" Charlie looked back as they heard him shouting, the other three (four including Gegg, he supposed) having walked further than Xiv and Robert. Xiv still kept their hand on the lens.

"I knew you had some kind of magic in your world! This is a bit of a weird use for it though," Xiv observed.

"W-what the f*ck are you guys talking about? We need to find somewhere with lights, now!" Robert continued to panic until Xiv finally removed their hand from the lens and he stopped, "oh."

The rest of them just looked at him.

"Were the lights...not off for you guys..?" he asked.

The rest of them shook their heads.

Robert nodded slowly, "alright. Uh, haha, well, that means we're not in danger! So it's fine! Haha..."

"Can either of you please tell me what just happened," Charlie shot a glance at Xiv in particular as they seemed to have more of an idea.

"There's some kind of enchantment on his device," Xiv tapped on the camcorder with a sharp nail, which made Robert flinch, "so he's seeing through the circle part on the front. Your depth perception must be pretty awful..."

"I guess the found footage perspective was literal," Charlie thought back on the game he'd played. It made some sense when he thought about it- going through a water tunnel without waterproofing the camera killed him, but putting waterproof gear on the camera limited his vision, so he kept it off until it was necessary. For some reason that camera was intertwined into his character's life, but mostly his vision.

When he spoke Robert looked his way, and Charlie noticed too how the camera and head turned in sync, and the eyes didn't exactly line up with where he was, "okay, so, maybe my entire realm of sight depends on a sh*tty handheld camcorder, I was trying to keep that to myself for a reason," he told them while not-so-subtly inching the camera away from Xiv.

"Hey, we're not gonna take advantage of you, don't worry," Charlie tried to assure him.

"Literally the first thing they did was take advantage of my weaknesses as soon as they figured it out," Robert pointed at Xiv, who started whistling and looking another direction as though they hadn't heard.

"Okay, we won't," Charlie indicated himself, Gillion and Backflipo, "if it makes you more comfortable we can keep Xiv on the other side of the group."

"I wasn't going to do anything else, anyway," Xiv shrugged and followed Charlie's suggestion, walking to be nearer to the front of their group than the back. Nobody besides Gillion seemed to completely trust their words.

With that settled they got back on track, following the trail in a more awkward silence. Robert had been trying to keep up some energy, but now he seemed much more reserved at the back of the group, keeping a tight grip on the camcorder. Charlie really hoped they reached the end of Gegg's trail soon because he didn't know how much longer he had until that dull electrical buzzing drove him insane.

He also wasn't quite sure how long it would be until he blacked out from not eating. The constant walking wasn't doing him any favours, and it must have been approaching night time by now. Ranboo definitely thought he was dead.

"Oh," Gillion picked up the pace without warning and jogged ahead, Charlie seeing what had caught his eye when he caught up. At last the slime trail ended, going under the bottom of a closed door brightly labelled 'EXIT' with the neon sign above. Charlie hoped that sign was a law the door below had to follow.

"Oh sh*t, oh my god, it worked!" Robert perked up.

"Hold on, we haven't opened it yet," Backflipo warned.

Charlie was ready to get the f*ck out of this stage of their adventure, so he didn't hesitate to step forth and shove it open. Unbelievable relief hit him when fresh air entered his lungs- it was surprising how much he could appreciate the outside air after having gotten used to the unending dank smells of musty carpets.

The Gegg trail had worked, he almost couldn't believe it. All of them filtered out into the street, the top of houses lit with the final embers of the day, the road before them coming under the light of street lamps as they blinked into life (were they usually so red-tinted?). He saw his car a little further down the road- hadn't he parked closer to the store than that?

When Charlie looked behind him, he saw it was because they weren't coming out of that store at all, rather the one next to it. He opened the door to that one again just to check something, and when he did, the backrooms were gone. It was just an empty store shut down for the night. With an unlocked door. That would be fine, probably.

"Alright, let's just get out of here," he commanded the rest of the group, seeing most of them were still gazing out at the street in wonder. Robert in particular seemed amazed.

"Wait, hold on, where is this? I came in from a school, this isn't- this isn't where I was..."

"Yeah, you, uh...you're in a different world now. You'll be fine, come on, let's go," he started walking to the car and hoped the rest would follow. They did eventually, with uncertainty.

Charlie sighed when he saw the trunk left open. He was gonna need to fix that lock at some point, but for now it could wait. Hold on, did he have enough seats? Were they gonna have to put someone in the trunk just to get them all back?

He had five seats in the car, and the passengers now included himself, Gillion, Xiv, El Backflipo, Robert and Gegg. Goobleck didn't exactly count if he was being carried in Robert's bag.

That made six, but Gegg could probably sit on someone's lap, so it could work...until they got to Ranboo's house. How the hell was he gonna try and get Ranboo in here? There was no chance Moonzy could come too even if they wanted to.

Could he afford to drop his characters off at his house, then go to Ran's? They'd been waiting way too long already, by this point Ranboo might've assumed Charlie had died. He didn't want to waste more time before he got there.

Oh, his phone! He hadn't even thought to check his phone that whole time. Sure enough, there were a dozen notifications waiting for him. He stood by the door to the driver's seat and quickly scrolled through them.

◯ ranboo Today at 19:51
h
bdsbsn
cmk
m

◯ ranboo Today at 20:15
cahrlie
charlie
charlie
charlie
HELLO??????
where did u go dude

📞 Call Ended

a few seconds - 20:32

◯ ranboo Today at 20:41
ok ur really staruting to worry me
tell me where u are man
hello???

📞 Call Ended

a few seconds - 20:46

📞 Call Ended

a few seconds - 20:47

📞 Call Ended

a few seconds - 20:49

Whoops. That wasn't good.

He typed a quick message to confirm he was okay and put his phone back in his pocket. He needed to sort out where everyone was sitting now.

For the journey there, at least, he could assign everyone a seat. He'd cross the Ranboo bridge when they got to it, hoping that their overloaded car didn't collapse the metaphorical bridge.

"Robert," he called out, "you're in the passenger seat, out of everyone you're the most normal looking."

"Thanks..?" he seemed very uncertain if that was a compliment, but was more preoccupied looking at the car anyway, tracing a hand along its side as he walked to the passenger door. He hummed to himself, "I don't think I've ever seen a car look like this..."

"Oh, I guess it's technically from the future for you," Charlie supposed. When was that camcorder supposed to be from, the 1990s? This guy might get a few surprises from seeing the modern era.

"W-what?" Robert looked at him, shocked, but then glanced down to the corner of his vision, "oh my god it's 2024."

"I guess the camcorder's date updated," Charlie figured that's where he was looking. One benefit of seeing through an old thing like that, at least, was that it displayed the date and time for you. Charlie would still prefer to see through his own eyes, though.

"I'm getting the middle seat," Xiv announced, opening the door to the back seats as soon as Charlie had unlocked them. Gillion went in on their left and Backflipo on their right, Gegg on Backflipo's lap.

With all of them now in the car Charlie briefly checked his phone again. Ranboo had acknowledged the message, but he didn't press the notification to check what they'd said. He'd get to their house soon enough.

"Okay, seatbelts," Charlie commanded, then saw he got some clueless looks from the back seats, "oh, uh- the little belt things? The black strips that go over your body? They clip into that red button on the other side."

Gillion and Xiv still weren't exactly sure what he was describing, but Backflipo helped them put theirs on. When that was done he got the car in motion, more than happy to drive in the opposite direction of the crime scene. All that for one Goobleck...he wanted to bang his head against the steering wheel. But he kept his head up, looking at the road, trying not to zone out like Ranboo had told him. That had become a much more difficult task as hunger was still relentlessly gnawing at his consciousness. But he just had to make it home, then he could grab whatever junk they hadn't used in G'lop's cooking challenge. He could make it until then. He kind of had to, literally nobody else in this scenario would he trust to drive his car.

"Whose Goobleck did we end up finding, anyway?" Xiv mentioned.

"Oh, that's a good point," Charlie glanced towards Robert's backpack, from which he heard a muffled heehoo, "I assume Robert's, since he was the one to find it. Did you ever have a Goobleck, Backflipo?"

"Uh...my memories are a little hazy from when I was freaking out and the code got the better of me. I don't really remember having one," Backflipo shrugged.

"Yours probably came back on its own, then," Charlie assumed, "so two down, technically!"

"So are those things, like, collectables?" Robert asked.

"Well," Charlie thought for a moment, "they kind of are, actually. If only they told you how many there were left like most collectables do."

"You get told how many there are nowadays?" Robert asked, "I'm pretty sure the number of pogs is infinite at this point."

"Oh, you weren't talking about video game collectables," Charlie realised that he was talking to someone from the 90s, which made it incredibly jarring to hear 'pog' being used to reference something other than the modern definition. He kind of missed those stupid little plastic circles to be honest.

"Nevermind, then," Charlie decided he didn't want to spend this whole car journey explaining modern day video game mechanics to a version of himself that had been shot forward from 30 years in the past.

As they continued he noticed that whenever he checked the overhead mirror he caught Backflipo's eye, and he seemed to be grimacing back at him. That was weird.

"What? What is it?" Charlie finally asked.

"H-huh?" Backflipo was caught off guard as he saw Charlie staring him down through the mirror.

"You keep looking at me like that, what's your problem?" Charlie groaned.

"Wh- I-" Backflipo looked out the window and grimaced, "I really tried to keep the damage minimal..."

"You-!?" Charlie stopped himself and took a breath, "you...came at me...with claws."

"I was trying not to! I made sure I hit you with the back of my hand at least, so that there wasn't, uh, as much," Backflipo couldn't finish the sentence, once again unable to conceal the cringe in his expression when he looked at Charlie's face.

"Okay, jesus, just tell me how bad the damage is," Charlie ordered him, slowing down the car.

Backflipo hesitated too long over an answer, so Xiv leaned forward and patted Charlie's shoulder, "just try to be happy you've still got your eyes."

Charlie gawked at them and fully stopped the car, "th-that doesn't help?!"

When it was clear nobody was giving him a straight answer, Charlie gave in and tugged the overhead mirror to face himself. When he saw the top half of his face in it, he couldn't restrain a shriek.

"I-I wouldn't have done it if the code wasn't-" Backflipo tried to explain himself.

"Back of your hand my ass," Charlie cut in, spinning around in his seat to glare at Backflipo without a mirror between them, "I've been walking around like this, this whole time?! No f*cking wonder my face has been stinging, there's three massive gashes going straight through it!"

"At least you're not dead!" Backflipo retorted.

Charlie barely seemed comforted by that answer and looked back at the mirror, "christ...oh, sh*t, my eye's red."

Was it okay to get blood in his contact lens? That probably wasn't the most important thing to be considering right now. But it explained some things, namely why everything had seemed to have that red tint, why Backflipo's code parts were a duller green. He'd been looking through his own blood ever since he got knocked out.

The three claw marks in his face looked like they didn't reach bone, at least, but how the hell hadn't his face been burning with the pain? Even now all he could feel was a sting, even as he shakily raised a finger and grazed it against the wound.

"For some reason your world doesn't like when I use magic," Xiv told him, "but I could heal it a little bit. Enough to stop the bleeding and the pain, at least."

Charlie sighed and put the mirror back in its position. Not much he could do about that.

"Thanks," he said to Xiv after a pause.

He put his hands back on the wheel, just then taking notice of the blood on his knuckles he'd been completely blanking from when he bit them. sh*t, he'd gotten blood on the steering wheel...another job to take care of once all this was over with.

They set off again, Backflipo now decidedly looking out of the window rather than at Charlie. There wasn't much more conversation before they got to Ranboo's house.

The lights were on, which was about all Charlie could observe from the car, but it seemed like a good sign. He opened his phone to tell Ranboo he was here but in the corner of his eye he saw the door opening before he had the chance.

Ranboo ran down the drive to his car, and Charlie noted his steps looked a little strange- he hoped they hadn't injured themself somehow while he was gone.

Okay, yeah, that was pretty rich considering the state he was in, but Charlie was concerned about his friend's health, sue him!

"Charlie! Ch- what the f*ck?!" Ranboo yelled when he got to the side of the car.

Charlie waved a hand and dismissed the horrified look Ranboo was giving him, "okay, so, I got into a little trouble, but I sorted the problem out and got another Goobleck so it's all good. You figure out what Moonzy was talking about?"

Ranboo was taken back by how quick Charlie's diversion was, "n-no, we're talking about this first, don't change the subject- what the f*ck did you do?"

"Hey, he's the one who did it," Charlie pointed over his shoulder at Backflipo, "not me."

Ranboo blinked at him in pure astonishment.

"You- Charlie."

"Whaaat?" Charlie avoided Ranboo's accusatory eye contact.

"Oh, whatever, as long as you say you're fine. We're going to the hospital tomorrow though. Anyways, uh, Moonzy, yeah- it was just kind of a misunderstanding. Everything's good with that now."

Charlie nodded, "cool, cool. So...I guess you're coming back with me. Uh..."

Charlie looked at the back seats, and Ranboo also noticed the issue.

"Do you want to just come back for me..?" he suggested.

"Well, I- if I do any more driving today I feel like I might pass out. Uh..." Charlie looked at Gillion, "this feels kind of wrong to ask, but you've been hiding in my trunk twice today, so..?"

Xiv defensively put an arm in front of him and made a face of exaggerated offence, "you want to put him in your trunk?!"

"You literally told him to do that exact thing an hour ago."

"It's okay!" Gillion told them, "I shall face the beast once more to spare Ranboo from its fate."

"I don't drive that badly," Charlie muttered.

Gillion exited the car (with a little assistance from Ranboo outside opening the door) and seemed more than happy to be taking another ride in Charlie's trunk. Ranboo took his place, glancing nervously at everyone in the car who wasn't Charlie.

"So, um...who are the new guys?"

"Passenger seat is Robert, he's uh, yeah," Robert waved as Charlie introduced him, omitting the backrooms part, "you know Xiv," Xiv grinned at Ranboo a little too aggressively, "and next to them is El Backflipo, my guy from the QSMP. Oh, and uh, Gegg too, I guess," Backflipo didn't give much of a response, but the Gegg on his lap made some word-adjacent noises and pulled out a green sign that just said 'gegg'.

"Where'd he get that from?" Xiv asked, seeing as the sign was almost as big as Gegg's body.

"I'm not sure if I wanna know," Charlie told them, and put his keys in the ignition.

One of the lights in Ranboo's house kept flicking on and off irregularly. Charlie didn't take much notice. Probably power issues.

Chapter 5: A Weird Night in LA

Chapter Text

It was definitely night by the time they got back. Charlie managed the drive okay, but he really needed to eat something as soon as they got in.

Some of the downstairs lights were on. Wait, who was left in the house? Charlie looked at everyone getting out of his car and realised the only ones not with them were William and Goobleck. Leaving those two alone together had probably gone fine...

Charlie walked up to the door, followed by Ranboo, a purplish tiefling, a code-corrupted human, a small egg with glasses made of slime, a man from the 1990s with a camcorder for eyes and a plasmoid in his backpack, and a sword-wielding fish man.

"Cicadas are loud tonight," Charlie casually commented and opened the door.

He saw William standing by the kitchen only for a moment before the boy took notice of the door opening and went invisible. Charlie sighed and stepped in, leaving the door open for everyone behind him to follow, "you didn't burn the house down, so whatever you did while we were gone I can't really be too upset."

Charlie waited and eventually William reappeared, a few steps from where he'd gone invisible, "I-I tried to stop it moving around too much, but, when I went in, it was..." his eyes travelled to the kitchen, telling the rest of the story.

Charlie accepted that whatever he was about to see wouldn't be pretty and stepped over to the kitchen.

To be fair, it wasn't that bad, there was just a thin layer of slime dripping down from every single surface. And there at the middle of it all was Goobleck, holding onto an apple from his fruit bowl that was slowly dissolving in its hand-tentacle, perched proudly on the kitchen island.

"I mean...I'm kind of impressed," Charlie tilted his head. He was getting a bit too used to his life descending into nonsense around him.

"There was also this guy on the couch, I swear he was there a moment ago but now I can't find him, he just kept talking in this weird accent about doctors, or something?" William waved his hands exasperatedly as he explained; he'd clearly been having a great time without everyone else.

Charlie put a hand on his chin, "was he talking about his prescription..?"

"Uh, yeah, actually," William nodded.

"Right," Charlie looked in the kitchen and noted the green towel had disappeared too, then looked at Ranboo, "I assume that was the Generation Loss guy again. Probably good you weren't here at the same time as patient Charlie."

"Are you implying I was gonna cut him open again?" Ranboo sounded offended.

"I'd hope not on my couch!" Charlie responded with a laugh as he walked into the kitchen, just trying to ignore the mess for now and go straight for his fridge. It seemed unharmed...maybe Goobleck didn't figure out how to open it.

He pulled out his supply of ground chicken and threw it into a pan on the stove, almost robotically, like he'd done it a dozen times before. Well, not 'like', he definitely had, more than a dozen times.

While waiting for it to heat up he looked over his shoulder, catching the eye of the six people looking back at him, "oh, sh*t you guys need food too."

"You probably don't have enough chicken for that," Ranboo told him.

"Yeah, I know," Charlie pulled out his phone, "what takeout are you guys feeling?"

~

Meanwhile, in LA...

Quackity drew the blinds and turned on the TV as he lay back on his couch. The channel was already on the news, something about a wolf running loose, but he started flicking through the other channels to see what else was on.

It was good to just wind down for the evening after he'd been with friends. It was a shame Charlie and Ran had to go before they'd even eaten, Moonzy assured everyone they had been fine, though, so Quackity could only assume it had been for the best. And everyone else had been great company, he couldn't complain.

What was this, a new game show? Looked interesting. The host looked weirdly familiar, though...

Thunk.

Quackity span around and paused the TV. What the f*ck was that.

It sounded like something had fallen in the other room. That wasn't a totally abnormal thing to happen, but Quackity had his reasons to be a little more paranoid about it than most. He adjusted his grip on the remote to be ready to smack something over the head with it, and slowly stood up from the couch.

It wasn't completely silent, there was something moving in the other room, but it was such a weird sound he couldn't put his finger on what. It sounded kind of like dripping. Maybe he'd just left a tap on? That was wishful thinking.

He steeled himself to face whatever it was and stepped firmly around the corner.

"Oh, Quackity from Las Nevadas, I knew I'd find you eventually!"

Halfway through the slime creature's talking Quackity was already backing up against the wall behind him and screaming.

"Quackity from Las Nevadas why are you screaming," the humanoid creature tilted its head, smiling at him.

Quackity caught his breath, chest heaving and voice shaky, "what the f-f*ck?"

"It's me, Quackity from Las Nevadas! You know me!" the thing insisted.

"No the f*ck I do not, what the f*ck are you?!" Quackity pointed the remote at him, wielding it like it were a deadly weapon.

A piece of slime dripped down from the creature's imitation of hair onto his floorboards, "I'm a person :)"

For some reason Quackity doubted that claim. He continued to keep his distance as his mind raced with ideas of what to do now. Whatever this was, it sounded like Charlie, and he couldn't deny it looked a bit like him too, despite being green and transparent and dripping down onto his floor. More specifically, it sounded like the character Charlie played back on the Dream SMP.

"Uh, okay, this is a really weird and elaborate joke," Quackity looked around the room as though he might find some hidden cameras in it.

"Quackity from Las Nevadas, I'm not a joke! I'm real meat and bones!" the thing continued to insist its fleshiness. Quackity's lip curling was enough to show he wasn't convinced.

"Quackity from Las Nevadas, you look different. And so does this place. Where are we?" it continued talking at him.

"We...we're in LA. Los Angeles," Quackity hesitantly answered.

"Oh, I get it now! You're not Quackity from Las Nevadas!" Quackity swore if he heard it address him as that one more time he was chucking the remote into its goopy face, "you're Quackity from Los Angeles! This makes so much sense!"

"This makes no f*cking sense," Quackity glared at it.

"Sure it does! I was incinerated painfully in searing lava until I almost ceased to be, but I've reawakened somewhere new with a new Quackity instead of whatever horrific consequences may have awaited me in another life!"

Quackity grimaced. Yeah, that other story had ended really well for them.

He shook his head- what the hell was he thinking? That hadn't happened, that story wasn't real- that whole thing had been made up on a Minecraft server. That character was fiction.

This guy, on the other hand, was standing in his house and staring at him with big wet eyes- literally wet. Su maldita casa. Mierda.

"Okay, I-" Quackity couldn't hold in a stressed laugh that made him sound a little deranged as he continued waving the TV remote threateningly, "you need to get the hell out of my house, or I am gonna call... someone."

"But Quackity from Los Angeles, you told me the house always wins."

"Wh- what the f*ck are you-? That doesn't even apply here!"

Quackity pinched his nose and took a moment to think about this. This guy sure did sound and look a lot like Charlie, if he ignored the slime part. Was this the real reason Ran and Charlie had gone early, they'd gone to dress Charlie up for this really f*cking weird and elaborate prank? No, that wasn't even a possibility at this point. Not when the guy he was looking at was fully transparent.

"f*ck this I'm calling Charlie," he decided and walked to grab his phone while the person-impersonating slime mound turned in place to follow his movement.

Charlie, however, didn't pick up.

-hey, this is Charlie, I can't pick up right now, so call me later! Or DON'T, if you're a loser, haha.
...
I should probably redo tha-
BEEP

"Why do you have my voice in a little slab?" the slime thing asked, watching through the doorway Quackity had gone through to get his phone. He preferred having this distance between himself and the thing.

"Hey, Charlie, uh," Quackity ignored the question, "do you happen to know anything about things made of slime with your face and voice breaking into people's houses? If so then please, PLEASE," Quackity got much more aggressive and clutched the phone, then cleared his throat and went back to using a polite phone voice, "please call me back. Thanks."

He put down the phone. Charlie might not respond to that until tomorrow morning. He couldn't really ignore the guy standing in his hallway until then.

He looked at the slime thing again after a while of avoiding eye contact. It smiled back at him innocently. He squinted at it. It squinted back as though doing so was a friendly greeting.

Quackity tried to just think this through logically. First- was this even real? Well, that restaurant was pretty decent, and he hadn't heard of food poisoning hallucinations ever being this bad, so it probably wasn't that. He was also pretty sure he wasn't on drugs right now, so what his eyes were showing him was, for better or worse, probably reality.

He couldn't even consider it being a costume, not when he could see his shelves through the thing's head. So then this was real, Charlie's Dream SMP character was just...in his house. Outfitted in his tie and overalls and everything. Quackity was starting to feel underdressed in his sweater.

"I..." Quackity put a hand on his forehead and grimaced, "do you wanna, like, sit down or something?"

The creature's eyes lit up, "so you're happy for me to stay in your house, Quackity from Los Angeles? Yes, hold on, we should greet each other properly after so long!" he looked down.

Memories rushed past Quackity's eyes like war flashbacks, "NO NO NO, NO CAVES UN MALDITO AGUJERO EN EL CULO DE MI SUELO," he screamed out in sheer panic.

The creature looked up at him, "uh-"

"Don't-" Quackity took a deep breath, "don't dig a hole in my floor and tell me to dap you up or I swear to f*cking god, Slime."

Slime. That's what he'd called this character, right? It felt a little weird to be calling him Charlie, so he'd stick to that name for now.

"Well, alright then. Maybe another time!"

Quackity ignored that and grabbed a tablecloth on his way back to the hall Slime was stood in, "let's go sit down, you're sitting on this."

"Okay!" Slime agreed without question and followed him to the couch. Quackity laid the cloth on one side as a barrier between Slime's, well, slime, and his furniture. He sat down and unpaused the TV, but realised he couldn't really pay attention to a game show right now, so he just switched it back to the news to at least have some background noise he could ignore.

"So. You're from Las Nevadas. From the Dream SMP," Quackity initiated it like it was an interview.

"Yes, and you are... not Quackity from Las Nevadas?" Slime checked.

"No. I'm Quackity from the real world."

"Hm...Quackity from Los Angeles sounds better."

Quackity sighed, "alright. Anyways, do you have any idea how you got here?"

"Well, I was just in a little hole in the ground, and when I came out of the hole I was in this place!"

"...helpful," Quackity remarked, "okay, so-"

"Hey, you still haven't told me about my voice in your slab. You're not making super mini clones of me, are you?" Slime asked with a playful smile.

"No, that was a phone, I was calling..." Quackity paused, considering the possible consequences of telling this guy there was a real equivalent to himself in this world, or if he could even conceptualise that, "it's, like...so I'm different from Quackity from Las Nevadas, you understood that, right?"

Slime nodded.

"Okay, so there's one of those for you too, and his name's Charlie. There's one for pretty much everyone you knew, actually, Ranboo and Tommy and all those guys. But they're not like, super traumatised or anything in this reality."

Slime tilted his head (some of his head dripping onto the cloth with the movement), trying to follow along, "and you guys are trying to sabotage one another's business and small nations, or..?"

"No, no, none of that," Quackity waved his hands, "no wars or anything. We just...hang out."

Slime seemed to be struggling with such an otherworldly concept. It made Quackity laugh a little, seeing him staring ahead as the cogs struggled to turn in his head.

"You want me to grab you a drink or something?" Quackity jokingly suggested.

"No- actually yeah, maybe, it's just that," Slime looked at him, "I actually lied to you earlier, Quackity from Los Angeles...you see, I do remember horrifically melting away in lava, but I remember what happened after that, too. I confronted you and took one of your lives, because I wanted you to become better than you were. But I can see you're not Quackity from Las Nevadas, you've already learnt the lessons he needed to, so I don't need to throw you off any buildings. I'm glad you've changed from what he was."

Quackity blinked at him.

"Uh, yeah, that- t-that's great, man," he looked at his windows with a newly unlocked fear. It's a good thing he learnt his lessons, Christ...

"But then...if you're not establishing a gambling empire then what are you doing, Quackity from Los Angeles?"

"Well now you're making me feel lazy for not having made a gambling empire- but, uh, I have been doing something, it was a project called the QSMP. You like information, don't you? Hold on, I'm gonna find a clip compilation, you're gonna love this sh*t."

As he was about to pull one up on his TV, his attention actually caught on what the news was talking about for a moment.

"-student and teacher found doing dangerous science in the school after dark, as of right now it is still unknown if either was actually enrolled in the school they were discovered performing their experiments."

"What the f*ck is up with this city tonight," Quackity muttered and searched for a QSMP clip compilation.

~

A little earlier, in LA...

"I really do not get why you're not even a little excited about this. Come on, it's science! Everybody loves science!"

"I don't think you'd be saying that if you saw my last experience with a science lesson..."

"Oh, don't be such a downer. You know, you really do remind me of someone else."

"Hey, I am like nobody else, I'm a unique individual. Chad Bussy doesn't follow trends."

Ms Gilbert sighed at her companion, "yes, you're just like him."

The school had been locked down for the night, the hallways eerily empty and dark, but as Ms Gilbert stopped before a double door she pulled something from the bag at her waist that attached itself to the door and within a few moments the locks were gone and the doors swung open before her.

"Now, I've put the one I had in a small case in here for safekeeping, you take yours out too and we'll put them on the centre table here," she instructed Chad. It was less of a classroom and more of a big supplies room that they found themselves in, but it made it easier for Ms Gilbert to keep her science experiments where none of the kids here would've found it. She rifled through a cupboard and emerged with a large beaker placed over the top of a wooden board, like a cup on paper trapping a spider, but rather than containing a small insect this contraption was holding a slimy purple creature with a wide smile.

"Now, I can't tell if its name is Heehoo or Goobleck, as those are the only two sounds I've heard it make," Ms Gilbert placed her Goobleck on the table, "but I think I prefer the sound of Heehoo."

Chad shrugged, not really caring either way what they were calling the identical purple goo that he fished out of his backpack and slapped down onto the table.

"Don't hurt it!" Ms Gilbert chided him.

"I'm not convinced this thing feels pain. If only I could be the same..." Chad looked to the side wistfully.

"Yeah..." she sighed and shook her head. Of all the people she could find with another of these creatures, did it have to be someone like this?

Well, no use complaining, she'd take what she was given. And looking around this room, she had been given quite a lot to toy with.

"Alright, let's see...I wonder what a little hydrochloric acid will do to our friend Heehoo here."

"Couldn't that, y'know, hurt it?" Chad pointed out, watching Ms Gilbert retrieve a bottle labelled 'HCl' from a shelf and remove the beaker from over the top of her creature.

"That's the joy of science, only one way to find out!" Ms Gilbert smiled and released some drops from the pipette over Heehoo's head.

At first nothing happened besides the liquid absorbing into the slime and disappearing, but slowly there was a fizzing that began around the area the drops had hit and bubbles began to raise to the surface.

"Oh, this is what you'd call efferves-!"

Ms Gilbert didn't get to finish her fun fact, as suddenly the Heehoo exploded.

There was no movement or noise in the room for a few seconds afterwards, save for the slow dripping of slime bits from the walls. Ms Gilbert eventually took off her glasses to wipe the slime from them and smacked her lips, "well. Whatever hypothesis I had, I was wrong."

"I think some got in my mouth," Chad grimaced and stuck his tongue out.

"Oh we should definitely get that washed out," Ms Gilbert advised and pulled him over to the sink.

Once all the Heehoo residue had hopefully been gotten rid of, Chad turned to Ms Gilbert, "are they gonna kick us out of school for this? I really wanted to graduate this year..."

Ms Gilbert patted his shoulder, "oh, don't worry, I don't even work here."

The doors abruptly slammed open and a figure on the other side shone a torch in their faces despite the lights in the room being turned on, "hey! You're not allowed to be in here!"

"Uh- uh- smoke bomb!" Ms Gilbert exclaimed and threw something down on the ground which exploded into a cloud of purple smoke, confetti and glitter. The officer ran in to grab at where they'd been, but Ms Gilbert and Chad had disappeared.

"sh*t, where'd they-?"

"Oh man, I'm NEVER gonna graduate at this rate!" The officer heard a distant yell.

"Hey, get back here!" they chased after the source of the noise, leaving the slime-coated room behind.

Whilst one of the Gooblecks sat unexploded on the table, the chunks of the other one strewn across the room began to move with more of a purpose, down the walls, across the floor, up the cupboards. Another mound began to take shape, gaining size as the slime collected itself and grew, rising up like some unholy hand to the heavens.

The smile took shape before the eyes, and as the body finished growing and the last few drops made their return to the central mass, Goobleck's smile grew a little wider.

"Heehoo :D"

~

Fighting against the current, again.

But it was cut short. Something pulling him.

Salvation, or perhaps a worse fate.

He'd know soon.

~

Meanwhile, in...not quite LA...

Charlie's eyes started to open. Why were they closed? Had he been asleep?

Charlie thought back to what had last happened. He'd been making food for himself and the others had ordered some takeout, and while they waited for that everyone had settled down in his living room. They'd turned on the TV, and then...

Oh, he hadn't eaten in time. He'd fully blacked out on the couch.

But what he was resting on right now was, notably, not a couch.

Charlie lifted his head off of something hard, and found he was slumped over something a little like a podium. No, it was a podium- he was behind a game show podium.

The lights and colours in here were so bright he couldn't identify anything that wasn't right in front of him for a few moments. He wiped away the drowsiness in his eyes and squinted to try and make out a figure, a picture, anything, and the first thing he found himself looking at was the podium beside him. That was probably the most eye catching thing because the person standing at it was staring right back at him.

"Uh...Charlie..?" Grizzly was almost whispering it, his concerned look at Charlie interspersed by nervous glances at the surrounding room.

"Wh- wait, what? Grizz, what are-?" he wasn't supposed to be here, Grizz was supposed to have gone home after dinner, why was he- why was he here?

Any remaining lightheadedness was purged as the adrenaline took action in Charlie's brain. He looked at the colourful walls, the rows of chairs before them obscured by studio lights, the brightly coloured shirt he couldn't remember putting on, then back at Grizzly. They both had them on, Grizz's green and Charlie's yellow (weird, he would've assumed he'd be in green, but whatever).

"Grizzly, where the f*ck are we?" he asked, although it came out like more of a command than a question. He needed to know where they were.

"I- you think I know?" Grizzly spat back, but it seemed it was mostly the panic making him act hostile.

Charlie looked around once more, his eyebrows scrunching up. There was something about this place, "i-it...I dunno, it looks familiar, I just don't-"

"Ohmygodd...ssshutthef*ckupp," a voice drawled from behind Grizzly, words slurred and muffled. Charlie saw Grizz's eyes widen before he turned and Charlie leant over the front of his podium to get a view of who had just spoken too. Both of them saw Bizly, in a blue shirt, leant over the front of his podium and looking like he was still asleep.

"Bizly!" Grizz hissed through his teeth, shoving the man's shoulder.

"Huh..? AH-!" Bizly yelped and staggered back until he hit the bright blue wall behind him, "what- what the f*ck?"

"Morning sleepyhead, we don't f*cking know," Grizz told him.

"Are you guys- so did you just wake up here like me?" Charlie asked them.

"I was...I was just on my couch, when the f*ck did I..?" Bizly held a hand over his chest, catching his breath and looking around the room in a strange mix of awe and horror.

"Well I don't f*cking know how I got here, so I guess," Grizzly replied to Charlie.

Charlie had a thought, "were you guys watching TV by any chance, before you ended up here?"

Both Grizz and Bizly took a moment to remember, but they nodded.

"You think you know what's going on?" Bizly asked him, practically begging for an answer.

"Well, no, not really," Charlie admitted, "but that might start to explain how we got here, at least..."

Then there was a fourth voice from a fourth podium that the other three hadn't yet noticed, "man, haven't had a dream as vivid as this in a while."

Everyone leant over their own podiums to look at Condifiction, standing with his hands on the sides of his red shirt and seeming overall pretty content with the situation he found himself in. Quite the contrast to the worry plastered onto everyone else's faces.

"Condi, hate to break it to you, I don't think this is a dream," Charlie told him.

Condi raised an eyebrow at him, "yeah, right. Sounds like something someone in a dream would tell me," he crossed his arms confidently.

Charlie gave up immediately and went back to looking at Grizz and Bizly.

"So, like, plan of escape?" Grizz asked.

"Um...I don't see any doors," Bizly observed with a growing anxiety. That definitely wasn't a good sign.

"Did someone put us here? Why would they drop us in a game show set and just leave us here?" Grizz thought out loud. Charlie had similar questions, and a dozen more on top of that. The only thing he was certain of was that this was to do with one of his characters.

He knew this place was familiar. If this was who he thought it was...this might go very bad very fast.

"HELLO!" a fifth figure on the stage appeared from nowhere and flung his arms wide. All four of his onlookers screamed.

"-and welcome...to GET!" he continued, looking the other way at the nonexistent audience.

Bizly doubled over, balancing himself with a hand against his podium and catching his breath again, "oh...oh my god!"

"Jesus, who the-?" Grizz began to ask.

"I'm your host, [REDACTED]," the other man continued, still not looking at any of them.

"That...wasn't a word..." Bizly was eyeing the host with the utmost caution, as though he'd start attacking the four of them at any moment.

"And these are our contestants!" finally they could see his face as he span around and waved his arms out to them all.

Grizz, Bizly and Condi looked at him for a few moments, his uncomfortably wide smile, his eyes with an almost inhuman quality to them. He didn't seem to be blinking. Then, in sync, the three of them turned to Charlie.

"Uh, I can- I can explain!" Charlie stuttered and laughed, looking at them and then the 'host'- an almost perfect mirror of himself, besides the glasses and shorter hair, in a morph suit suit. His nervous smile fell to a nervous frown, "yeah, no, nevermind, I can't give an explanation for this."

A character from a Sorry Boys video? Oh, f*ck there were a lot of those. Maybe this guy could count for all of them, couldn't he? Charlie was close to praying for that to be the case.

"Ooh, all eyes on you, Yellow One!" the host pointed to Charlie, "mind giving your introduction to start us off?"

"Uh- hey, uh, actually, I don't think any of us signed up to be here, or like, wanted to be here, so uh," Charlie gave the other three a look for them to back him up. Although still uncertain, Grizz and Bizly nodded to the host in agreement with Charlie, Condi still seeming uninvested in the whole thing.

"Yeah, no, I do not want to be here," Bizly emphasised.

"You all want to go?" the host looked at them with over-the-top shock and sadness, "but surely you're all dying to get your grabbers on today's prize!"

"We really don't-" Charlie tried to stay focused on his commitment to get everyone the f*ck out of here, but his words ended up stuck in his throat when the host put his hand behind his back and took out something that he presented to them.

"Oh, sh*t, Goobleck? What's he doing here?" Condi tilted his head.

Oh, f*ck. He needed that. If they were missing just one piece, Charlie might never get these characters out of his life. But...

"Last place, however," the host lowered Goobleck, "will be receiving...The Slush," he spun around with his arms wide, encouraging the audience to give some kind of a reaction, but there was no audience to speak of in the rows of empty seats. That didn't seem to discourage the host, though, as he had that same, stretched smile when he turned back to his contestants.

"That doesn't sound too bad..." Bizly said.

Grizz rubbed his eyes, "Bizly, when have you ever said that and it's turned out to be anything other than bad?"

"Well, this time hopefully!"

"Now, usually on our shows the third and final fate is given to our middle contestant," the host ignored their bickering, "however this time we will have two to share that same fate, together! For performing neither best nor worst, they shall be made to never wake again!"

Bizly's jaw dropped. Charlie felt like doing the same. Oh, f*ck.

"T-that- haha, no, you've gotta be joking, this is all," Bizly looked around the room, "I get it, i-it's all a big joke, that's great, but you gotta sign forms for this y'know, you can't just drop me in here."

"Sure thing man," Condi told the host, "threaten me all you want, I'm not even gonna remember most of this when I wake up."

Charlie exchanged a glance with Grizz. He didn't think this was fake. Charlie knew it wasn't.

"Charlie...what the f*ck do we do..." Grizz muttered through his teeth as though they would get caught for conspiring against the game show. Charlie got the sense that there wasn't much they could do to stop the host from hearing them anyway.

"We- I don't know, but we've got to leave. You guys need to get the hell out of here, somehow..." Charlie glanced at the ceiling, at the walls, looking for anything that could assist an escape.

"You guys? What, you still wanna stay here to get your Goobleck?" Grizz joked, then his face dropped when he realised he was right.

Charlie grimaced, "yeah, I- I do kinda need that thing."

"Charlie. This is insane. He pretty much just said he's gonna kill us! And you really can't tell us why he looks exactly f*cking like you and is holding your D&D character?"

"Grizz, I want you to look at this whole situation, I want you to look at me, and I want you to tell me that any explanation I give you will make this make sense."

Grizz tilted his head, "okay, yeah, fair..."

"Well, I suppose we've spent long enough on all this," the host started talking again, "introductions can be delayed for now as I'm sure we'll learn plenty about our contestants as they take on the first challenge: BUGS!"

"Ew," Condi commented.

"What does bugs mean..?" Charlie asked, not really wanting the answer.

"You will all have five minutes to find all of the bugs hidden around you! Keep your eyes peeled for all those critters, they're closer than you think," the host ominously warned them.

"D-do we start now?" Bizly asked hesitantly.

"No, you started ten seconds ago!"

There was a second or two as everyone processed what that meant, and then everyone quickly stepped away from their podiums and started looking. There wasn't any kind of a mad rush to find the bugs, but they felt threatened enough to act a little frantic as they upturned the set in search of insects.

"Are we seriously doing this?" Grizzly asked Charlie as he was picking up chairs and looking under them, Charlie meanwhile crouched down to search the floor by the stage.

"I'd feel scared of there being consequences if we didn't do it, so as long as we're getting on with the challenge it's buying us a little more time to find another way out of this," Charlie figured.

"I don't wanna find any bugs..." Grizz complained.

"Yeah, I don't either," Charlie realised, having not put much thought into what he'd do once he actually found a bug and only having focused on finding the bug in the first place.

Across the room he could hear the scraping of furniture and equipment as Condi and Bizly searched too. At least those two seemed resigned to assuming this was all a dream or a joke. Grizzly meanwhile had the expression of someone who fully believed if he didn't make the right choices in this situation he was never waking up again.

That wouldn't be the case. Charlie told himself that, at least. Because letting any of his friends pretty much die in here wasn't an option. There was going to be another way, he'd make sure they didn't end up victims of his problems. And he'd get that Goobleck, too.

"Oh!" he heard a shout from Bizly, "guys, they're just plastic! Haha!"

Charlie squinted past the lights on stage and saw Bizly holding up a plastic beetle the size of his palm. There were multiple sighs of relief in the room at that information; finding fake bugs was certainly preferable to real ones.

"Quick mid-challenge interview!"

Charlie screamed and fell over, the host having appeared right in front of him when Charlie thought he was still on stage. The host ignored his frightened response and continued, "how are you feeling about the challenge so far, Yellow One?"

Charlie couldn't help but glance down at his bright yellow shirt when he was addressed like that. His eyes also darted to the similarly neon shirts his friends were in, which were feeling more like prison uniforms than fun costumes. He supposed that was how they were being identified now, too.

Charlie cleared his throat, thinking about the question he'd been asked, "oh, uh- I haven't found any bugs, so, y'know," he half-smiled and half-grimaced.

"No, you haven't," the host agreed, followed by an awkward silence as Charlie wasn't quite sure how to respond to that and the host just continued smiling at him. Some of his characters smiled too much for his liking.

"They're closer than you realise," added the host, not once breaking eye contact.

"Y-yeah, I know, you said that," Charlie continued the eye contact too, but only because he felt slightly threatened to do so. It continued a little too long before the host at last backed up and left Charlie by himself. Did he pass the interview? He hoped so.

He also had no idea how long he had left to find bugs and, as the host had lamented to him, he had zero so far. He wasn't certain he even wanted to win, he didn't know what position he should try to aim for, even if he ended up second whoever was in third was coming down with him. The only option was to find another way, in whatever way he could. God, how the f*ck was he gonna do that?

He noticed to the side and almost behind the stage there was a couch facing the wall, like it had just been dumped there. When he went to look closer he saw similar things, chairs and furniture upturned and strewn about for no apparent reason. And when he leant over the couch he saw a cricket- a plastic one like Bizly's, but still close enough to looking like a real one that he picked it up with caution.

Holding it out like a biohazard he continued on, checking the rest of the assorted furniture but getting no luck with finding a second. Before long it was over, anyway.

"Alright, your time is up! Please return to your podiums with your sick, disgusting, putrid little bugs!"

They all stepped back on stage at the host's command, carrying varied amounts of bugs. Charlie's nerves increased as he saw everyone else seemed to be cradling multiple. Damn it. Maybe he'd have a better chance in the next challenges.

His fist had closed around the cricket without him even noticing, but he very much noticed the squirming in his palm a moment after.

The feeling of an insect squirming and writhing beneath your grip is a very specific one, and it is one that made Charlie yelp and furiously shake his hand to make sure the bug was gone. Even after watching it crawl off into the darkness he could still feel his body shivering with repulsion that wouldn't go away.

"Ohhh, looks like one of you couldn't find a single bug!" the host pointed in Charlie's direction, "that will cost you."

"...cost me, like, points?" Charlie asked when the host didn't specify. The host continued to look at him. Charlie felt a sense of dread creeping up his spine.

"So, onto round two!" the host suddenly moved on and looked elsewhere, "this challenge...is...BATS!"

"I'm sensing a theme and I don't like it," Grizzly crossed his arms.

"So do we just find bats this time?" Condi asked.

"What, you think I'd do that? You think I'd recycle puzzles? Like some...puzzle recycler?" the host sounded offended by the accusation, "no this is a whole new challenge! For this one you must identify which of the drinks you are given is the correct one!"

"The f*ck does that have to do with bats?" Bizly dumped all his bugs on his podium since that challenge seemed to be done with.

"And who came first for that one, by the way?" Condi followed up and put down his own bugs, a similar amount to Bizly's. Grizz only had a couple, and Charlie of course didn't have any anymore.

"Uh...I dunno, you seemed a little more exited about the whole thing, so," the host shrugged and pointed unenthusiastically at Condi. Condi, meanwhile, was very enthusiastic and pumped his fist in celebration of the win.

"He's way too happy to be here..." Grizz muttered.

"No more delays!" the host called out, "your next challenge begins now!"

Charlie looked around for the drinks and found they were already in front of him on the podium, with one set each on everyone else's too. There were four differently coloured drinks and a note, which he thought he should probably read first.

"Charlie," Grizz hissed to get his attention as he was picking up the note, "I looked around the walls and there's a vent that might lead somewhere else, we might be able to use one of the chair legs I took apart over there to pry it open."

Charlie looked and saw there was indeed a chair that had half fallen over, with a pair of its legs beside it. Damn, Grizz had been pretty serious about finding a way out of here- wait, he'd done that and found more bugs than Charlie? What the hell, man.

"Okay, but this guy probably won't just let us do that," Charlie said with a quick glance at the host, who seemed to be paying more attention to the other two swirling their drinks and reading the note.

Grizz nodded, "I know, we're gonna need a distraction-"

"Hey, no exchanging of notes or whatever you're doing!" the host interrupted them, "this is an individual challenge, may I remind you that you're all competing for our prize."

Charlie and Grizz exchanged one last look, almost enough to communicate words with how well they knew each other. Grizz was committed, and Charlie knew they had to get out of here before anybody got hurt. He needed Goobleck, but not at such a high cost as this. When there was a chance, he'd make a distraction.

They returned to their challenge for now, though, not wanting to do anything that drew any more suspicion. Seeing the white note in such a sickeningly oversaturated room prompted the realisation that, oh yeah, it was white- it didn't have a dull red tint to it anymore, and when Charlie raised a hand and touched his face, he found it wasn't completely f*cked up by giant claw marks anymore. Well, that was a bonus, even if everything else here was terrible.

But anyways, the note, he needed to get on with reading it already in case there was some kind of time penalty on this. He was already the last to get to actually reading the thing.

Before you sit four drinks of foul concoction,
However only two shall spell your doom.
The smell of a lover's gift is not a wise option,
For gifts hide tricks under light of the moon.

Find solace in the cup of your likeness,
And the same in that of which shares your soul,
But remain wary of denizens of midnight darkness,
Those fallen to its whims are but a tool.

"So is one of these gonna be, like, poison?" Condi asked.

"You may want to be careful with whichever one you pick," the host cryptically answered.

"Heh, sick," Condi replied.

Bizly, then Grizz, then Charlie leant over their podiums to stare at Condi with the most what the f*ck expressions they could muster.

"Never drunk poison in a dream before," he shrugged to them.

"?!" was the closest approximation to the noise Bizly made at that statement.

"Condi please do not go out of your way to drink the poison," Charlie begged him.

"Sounds like something someone in a dream would say," Condi smirked.

"Condi!" Grizz shouted at him.

"Well I'm sure there's not actually poison," Bizly assured himself, "the bad option is probably just something really bitter that tastes like sh*t. So still should try to avoid that."

"Sure thing man," Condi chugged one of the drinks.

Charlie screamed.

But, after a few seconds, he was remarkably still alive. Charlie was ready to collapse and never wake up again after seeing that.

"Jesus f*cking Christ Condi, what the hell are you thinking?!" Grizz berated him.

"Damn, dream drinks taste weird," Condi mentioned casually, entirely ignoring the concern of everyone else.

"Is it better or worse to let him think this is a dream if he's gonna be this reckless..?" Charlie stared at him, in awe and horror of the gamble he'd just taken.

The host clicked his fingers and Condi's tray of drinks disappeared, "one has passed! No cheating off his choice, the rest of you."

Oh, sh*t, Charlie hadn't even paid attention to the one he'd drank. But now the host had put the idea in all their minds- whoever drank next, they could pay attention to which drink they took, and the outcome. And if Charlie had dragged them all in here, into a situation where they had a 50/50 of drinking goddamn poison, he was sure as hell taking that gamble before he let anyone else.

His incompetence wasn't going to kill anyone else.

Oh, sh*t, he'd crumpled up the note- whatever, he could still read it. He needed to check out these drinks to figure out which one he was taking. Time to lock in.

Top left looked silvery and misty, like some kind of liquid metal- immediately not getting a great vibe from that. He could kind of see his face distorted in the surface reflection though, which was interesting. Top right was just red- vibrant, opaque red. When he tapped the glass it seemed to move with a kind of thick consistency. Ew.

Bottom left was a dark, smoky liquid, but still transparent enough that he could see some bits of glitter floating around in it. Bottom right, the last one, looked the most normal- it might've seemed like just a glass of water if it weren't for the things growing on the inner side of the glass. It didn't seem to be mould, but the shape kind of reminded Charlie of mushrooms that grew on the side of trees, except they looked a little too colourful for that too.

Okay, the note said about smell for one of them, right? Even if it was really vague...'lover's gift'? What the hell was that supposed to be?

Maybe he'd get an idea if he just smelled some of them. He recoiled as soon as he leant down to smell the top left one, getting the unexpected scent of body spray, but the top right was sweet in comparison. Charlie hoped that meant it was some kind of berry smoothie, rather than the alternative, based on its colour. Bottom left had some kind of a smell to it, but he couldn't really place it, and bottom left hit him with a sudden whiff of salt that almost made him back up a second time.

Okay, okay, think...lover's gift, that made him think of Valentine's Day, and the cliché gift for that was always chocolates. Salted chocolate was pretty popular, right? Wait, roses were also a lover's gift kind of thing, and the top right had definitely smelt flowery. Did people give their partners body spray as a common gift? Oh god he was definitely overthinking this.

Alright, whatever, he could focus on the clues for one that wasn't gonna kill him instead. A cup of his likeness, huh? Was that like, which drink represented him the best? He was made of blood, so if that's what the top right one was meant to be, then...but maybe this was a way for the host to insult him by calling him a plain glass of salty water. And something that shares his soul- wouldn't that mean the same f*cking thing?

He had to pick something. Just think it through logically, he could eliminate the ones that were most likely to kill him. Denizens of midnight darkness...the darkest drink was the bottom left, and that kind of reminded him of midnight, the glitter being all the stars, right? And a lover's gift was probably going to mean something like roses, so- if he was right- that would eliminate top right. Okay. The metallic one and the salty one were safe, then?

Charlie quickly checked what Grizz and Bizly were doing. f*ck, Bizly was reaching for a glass it was the...wait, Charlie didn't have that one. What the f*ck was he grabbing?

Bizly's tray had the metallic one, the red one and the dark glittery one too, but whatever he was holding right now was green with specks of gold in it. Charlie checked Grizz's too, and he had a different drink as well- it was full of shimmering opalescent colours, as though shreds of holographic material had been sprinkled into it.

Why were they different? Charlie knew he didn't have the time to figure that out, if he was gonna show them which one to drink it had to be one that they had as well. And if it was poison, well, at least they'd know which one not to drink. He only had one left to choose.

"Bizly!" Charlie shouted, to stop him from drinking what he'd picked up and to get him to look at the one Charlie had picked. Grizz looked too, and Charlie could see the objections just about to strike from their tongues, but he drank the silver liquid before they could say a word.

Charlie started coughing, and everyone panicked.

He quickly put a hand up though, the other over his chest as he tried to explain, "it's o-" he coughed, "it's okay, I, I-" he coughed a few more times, "I just swallowed it wrong, it's-" another cough, "it's fine."

"Right..." Grizz stopped looking like he was preparing for Charlie's funeral, but he was still waiting a bit longer before he drank his too. Charlie got it, poisons probably didn't work immediately, but it felt weird that his friends were waiting to see if he lived or died right now.

"Another has passed!" the host announced, clicking his fingers and making Charlie's drinks disappear.

"That was stupid, man, you couldn't have just waited for me to try mine?" Bizly looked annoyed, but he couldn't hide the traces of relief in his expression.

"Whatever, just get your drink," Charlie sighed, catching his breath between small coughs.

"Which we totally don't know will work, because we didn't see what other people picked," Grizz deadpanned, picking up the metallic drink.

"Uh huh," Bizly agreed, doing the same, and hesitating a moment before the glass touched his lips. But in the end he gave in and drank it.

The taste was pretty sh*t, by the way. Charlie wished he could describe it more than that, but it tasted more like an abstract concept than anything else he could compare it to.

"Wow, you've all passed the second challenge," the host told them, "so now I guess we're onto our last one of the night before we get those results."

Charlie glanced at the vent Grizz had found. They needed a chance, and soon.

"This final challenge will test you at your core, and show us who you really are," the host grinned at them, as if he hadn't been doing that enough already, "your final challenge...is..."

Charlie considered making a run for the vent right then and there, by the time this last challenge started it might be too late, but the next time he looked at it the vent wasn't there. Neither was the wall it was on, or the chair nearby that Grizz had taken apart. When he looked back in front of him there was no stage, or podiums, or lights, and all five of them were now standing in the grass on a riverbank.

"W- uh, wait, what-? Huh?" Bizly put his arms out as he looked left and right at the new surroundings. Grizz and Condi were a little more accepting that this was just what was happening now, although Grizz was noticeably annoyed by the nullification of his escape plan.

The clouds overhead spread their reach to every inch of sky, keeping it all a dull, colour-choking grey. The grass was a dark yellowish-green, with the rushing waters reflecting the same lack of colour hanging in the sky. All around was the same field of grass, a perfectly level ground for miles and miles. It was open to the point it became claustrophobic, suffocating. Charlie's fingers hovered by his own throat.

"RIVER!" the host finally announced the name of their final challenge.

"Damn, you broke the alliteration," Condi complained.

Grizz wasn't too worried about the naming conventions of their challenges and focused on the content instead, "and what do we have to do for this one?"

"I'm so glad you asked!" the host replied, as if he wasn't just going to explain it anyway, "it's simple, really, you just need to cross the river and get to the other side! That shouldn't be a problem for you."

"Yeah, it...shouldn't," Grizzly eyed the river suspiciously. It wasn't too wide, and although it was deep he doubted the waters would go higher than his chest if he stood in it. Surely there was going to be a twist, or something, otherwise what the hell did the host mean when he talked about testing them at their core?

Crossing a river wasn't something any of them should panic about. Then Grizz looked at Charlie, who was mid-panic attack.

"Oh, f*ck- Charlie, you okay?" Grizz was immediately at his side, trying to get his attention, but Charlie was staring at the river as though he could see nothing else.

Grizz held onto one of his hands, "dude, hey, I'm here, it's okay. I-I dunno what's going on but I'm here, alright?"

Charlie continued taking quick and unsteady breaths, hand tightening around Grizzly's. Grizzly continued to hold it, even when the strength Charlie was clutching with began to hurt.

"What's wrong, is he okay?" Bizly had taken notice by now, and even Condi looked a little concerned despite his conviction in this all being a dream.

"Hey, this is still a competition," the host reminded them.

"f*ck off," Grizz spat, barely even looking his direction. He wasn't gonna leave his friend like this just because they were in a stupid game show.

Charlie couldn't breathe. Well, obviously he could, because he was doing so and doing it very fast, but he could hardly tell that he was getting any oxygen from it, his lungs felt full of cement rather than air. Everything felt heavy, the world itself seemed to be crushing him at every angle. Suffocating. No, it wasn't that, it was drowning.

The river ahead of him was metres away but the rush of water crashing against the banks and dragging rocks and dirt along with it was loud enough to overpower every word from Grizzly, who was only inches away from him. Charlie held tight to anchor himself, to stop him from being dragged away with the waters, but they already enveloped him and muffled his senses. He couldn't do anything- he could've, he could've done it, the waters dragging them apart, it was only a matter of time, a little faster, a little closer, he was there again and he could've-

No, he wasn't. He wasn't there. For the first time Charlie took a breath and actually felt it hit his lungs. He wasn't in the water, he was standing above it. He wasn't there. He needed to breathe.

He could hear Grizz again, "hey, look at me- are you okay?"

It took longer than he would've liked to process the question, but once he did he nodded. He shut his mouth, forcing himself to breathe through his nose and normalize the speed at which he was doing so.

"Yeah, you don't look it," Bizly frowned at him, "is it the challenge? The river doesn't seem that fast, it should be alright."

Grizz nodded to Bizly, "yeah, if you're scared about that we can go across together and-"

"No, no, no, I- ahaha haha, no, I'm not," Charlie sharply drew in a breath, "I'm not doing that. That river can go to f-f*cking hell."

"If it makes you feel better, I can go in first to show you it's okay," Condi offered.

"No," Charlie glared at him, voice cracking as his throat shook, "no you're not."

"Charlie it's really not gonna be that bad," Grizz put a hand on his shoulder and smiled, nerves still coming through in his expression but he tried to be as comforting as he could manage.

All of a sudden the host was standing between him and the river, leering forwards, "yes, it's just a river. Why are you letting it get to you?"

There was a knowing undertone in his words, a hidden mockery of Charlie that made him bristle, "what the f*ck do you know?"

"Nothing at all. I'm just telling you to cross a river. Can't you do that, Charlie?" the host feigned an innocent cluelessness and tilted his head to the side. Charlie hated the way he addressed him.

When all Charlie did in response was look back with hostility, the host continued, "it's not as though there's anything important in there, take a look," he stepped to the side to give Charlie a view of the river.

Charlie saw something in the river, and he screamed into his hands.

He stepped away and in the opposite direction, he couldn't look at that, couldn't be near it. Grizz followed him.

"C-Charlie, what's wrong? What's he talking about?" Grizz evidently hadn't seen the same thing, he tried to put a hand on Charlie's shoulder again but Charlie shook him away.

The host leaned in on his other side as he continued walking away, "if you don't deal with this then they're only going to use it against you, you know."

Charlie slowed down, a hand still over his mouth muffling his words, "just stop, I- I'm never going back there, never-"

"Then you're weak! Aren't you? You can't even get over a simple thing like this," the host berated him.

"Leave him alone!" Grizz snarled, switching course to grab the host's shoulders instead and shove him back.

Charlie stopped and angled his head a little, so that he could see the host in the corner of his eye. The air had suddenly dropped a few degrees, and the sky turned a shade darker than it already was. There was no way that meant anything good.

He could see the host, very slowly, raise his head and look back at Grizzly, "for your own good, I think you should stay out of this."

"Shouldn't this be a competition?" Grizz spat back, ignoring the way everything seemed a little more off-putting, "it feels like you've only ever been paying attention to Charlie this whole time, and not for any good reason! I guess maybe it's something to do with you looking the same, but I don't know what's going on with that, so I'm choosing to ignore it!"

The river had stopped flowing. Charlie wouldn't have minded that if it didn't make everything so unnervingly quiet.

"Because he is the one who needs to learn how to face what is ahead!" the host pointed a finger at Charlie, "but currently he is refusing to learn."

Bizly stormed up to them, "I don't know what the f*ck is going on and I haven't for a while, but I'm pretty sure if something's going wrong here, then it's your teaching that's the problem! How the hell am I supposed to believe that giving my friend a panic attack is his problem?!"

"I think you are all forgetting," the host cracked his neck, "who here is The Host."

"We don't care, your game show sucks, old man!" Bizly told him.

Grizz spoke in a lower voice, "hey, don't call Charlie old."

"I am choosing to view that guy as a completely different entity to Charlie, I don't know what his deal is," Bizly explained himself.

While those two bickered, The Host had begun slowly raising off the ground as the wind picked up around him. Bizly was first to notice, and upon seeing his concerned expression Grizz turned to look too, a similar fear slowly dawning on him. Condi was as unbothered as ever, although this recent development did seem to make him pay more attention.

"You should not disregard the will...of a God," The Host warned.

"Okay, uh, I can see you're a little annoyed," Bizly laughed nervously, "whatever you're about to do, have you considered maybe...not doing it?"

The Host co*cked his head to one side and disregarded Bizly, "I gave you a simple challenge, and you run from it, tail between your legs. Do you have nothing to say for yourself, Charlie?"

Charlie raised his eyes to look at the twisted reflection of himself, floating a few metres from the ground on which the grass was all blowing towards him as though he were the epicentre of a hurricane. His eyes were black, but Charlie knew they were staring down at him.

"How is this supposed to help me?" Charlie asked, voice tearful, "how is putting me back there going to help me?"

"Because they will find your weaknesses and they will not show any mercy using them against you. Are you going to allow such a trivial thing as that to hold so much power over you?!" The Host flung out both his arms and the motion brought wind whipping past Charlie's head. He winced but kept his footing.

"It's not f*cking trivial!" Charlie shouted over the noise of wind building in his ears.

The Host was quiet a moment.

"Maybe I've been too merciful," he commented, barely loud enough for any of the four below to hear, but Charlie caught the words just as something shifted beneath him. In the time he took to look down, the earth had opened up, and he fell.

"Charlie!" Grizz screamed and ran to where his friend had just been standing, but looking down into the hole in the dirt he could find no trace of him, just a pit that lead to darkness and the distant sound of running water.

"Grizz, don't-" Bizly warned, knowing what was about to happen, but Grizzly was already stepping into the hole, only stopped by the dirt sealing itself back up beneath his foot.

"This is his trial, and he will face it alone," The Host told them.

"No the f*ck he will not," Grizz's eyes were wide and furious, unwavering as he whipped his head back around and drilled his gaze into The Host.

"He will overcome it, or he will drown to it," The Host continued indifferently.

"I'd have killed you by now if you didn't look so identical to Charlie!" Bizly shouted up at him.

"Yeah man you're kind of being an asshole right now," Condi agreed.

The Host rolled his eyes, "of all the people to be dragged along into my realm, it really had to be such a stubborn group..."

"Bring Charlie back here or I am gonna kick your ass so hard you're not even gonna have an ass to kick anymore!" Bizly continued to shout.

"You think you mortals can threaten me?!"

"You f*ck with our friend you f*ck with all of us, bitch! Damn right we're gonna threaten you!" Grizz flipped him off.

Condi added, "even with this being a dream you're still pissing me off, so I can probably lucid dream a way into beating the sh*t out of you."

The Host still seemed thoroughly unamused, "there is not a single thing you could hope to do that would even affect me in the slightest, so if you want to get out of this with your lives I'd suggest you shut up and-!"

He had been raising his voice, anger increasing as the winds whipped up faster around him, but it was all cut off in an instant as a massive burst of light was brought down upon them all and a deafening crash to go with it. But when the light faded they were all okay- the three on the ground at least. The Host was nowhere in sight, the place he'd last been hovering over now covered in a large scorch mark, grass still sizzling and embers drifting in the calm air.

Bizly looked at Condi, "that you?"

"I'd like to think so, but no, I don't think so," Condi admitted.

"Guys," Grizz drew both of their attention back, but he was looking up, and when the others followed his gaze they found another figure in the sky, slowly drifting down to them.

"Oh, no, is there another one?" Bizly groaned, not certain if they'd have the luck that a second Host would get conveniently smited like the first one.

The fact that he looked like Charlie too wasn't any help to their concerns, but he was dressed in normal, if not slightly regal-looking, clothes when he landed and took a few steps across the ground.

He looked up and smiled at the three before him, "hey guys!"

Grizz narrowed his eyes, "wh- Charlie..?"

"Uh, well, technically yeah," he shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck, "but probably not in the way you mean. I guess I'm like. God Charlie. That sounds pretentious..." the God reconsidered and tapped his foot.

"Well, if you're not our Charlie, can we at least have our Charlie back?" Grizz requested, although it came out as more of demand.

"Oh sh*t, yeah," God Charlie clicked his fingers.

"GUH," Charlie suddenly appeared on the ground, coughing up water with his body completely soaked. He tried to kneel but his limbs shook too strongly and he fell back down onto the grass after hardly having been able to attempt it.

"Charlie!" Grizz, Bizly and Condi called out, running over to crouch at his side. They helped lift him up to at least a kneel as he continued to lurch forward and hack up mouthfuls of water.

God Charlie stayed at a bit of a distance from them, talking even though it seemed unlikely anyone was listening, "I was gonna try and avoid using that much force, I haven't used a command like that in a while," he glanced at the patch of scorched earth, "he kinda forced my hand though, so, y'know. His fault really."

Charlie seemed to be spitting up less water at least, and he took a strong breath in as soon as he could, which then seemed to cause a coughing fit and he struggled to get much more breath in for the next few moments as his throat felt like it was tearing open.

Bizly tried to wait until Charlie was in a better state to speak, but he couldn't help but ask, "f*cking hell, man, what just happened?"

Charlie's hair was stuck to his face and trickling water down his neck, but he could still glare through what was hanging over his eyes at Bizly and tell him hoarsely, between coughs, "not t...talking about it..."

"Okay, fair," Bizly shrugged, his expression and worried looks at Charlie betraying his supposed calmness about everything.

Once Charlie had his breathing back in rhythm the next issue was his shaking and the fact he was still, head to toe, drenched in water.

"I'd give you more clothes, but none of us have much," Grizz scowled and pulled at the green fabric of his shirt.

"Well this is new, Grizz doesn't want to get shirtless?" Condi joked.

Grizz laughed, and so did Charlie. Which made him start coughing again.

"Oh sh*t, sorry, I'm too funny," Condi told him, making Charlie laugh again between coughs, so Grizz hit Condi on the arm.

"Hold off on the jokes for a minute at least," he groaned. Condi put his hands up in surrender and didn't say anything more.

God Charlie hopped over, "oh, I can actually do something about that!" and clicked his fingers again, at which point a large cloak spawned around Charlie, who was quick to wrap it tighter around himself.

"What other tricks have you got? Can you get us the hell out of here?" Bizly looked up at him.

"Yeah, sure," God Charlie lifted a hand to click his fingers again.

"Wait, maybe not right-" Bizly put a hand up to stop him but at the sound of the click he, Condi and Grizz disappeared.

Charlie looked at where they'd just been, alarmed, "w-where-?"

"They're back at home now, don't worry, I didn't send them anywhere like...that..." God Charlie looked down at the dirt like he was seeing through it and grimaced. Then he looked back at Charlie and continued, "as if it was all a dream! Although, they might realise it was something more than that once they find out they all just had the exact same dream...but that's a problem for you, not me!"

Charlie groaned and put the cloak over his face.

"Oh, sorry," God Charlie crouched down to be at his level, "I would help, but I kind of only have the right to interfere when it's on the level of another god. Otherwise I'm just another mortal."

Charlie wiped the hair out of his eyes, "then c-couldn't y-you have dealt w-with this god s-s-sooner?"

"Hey, I'm having to adjust to a whole new world right now, gimme a chance!" he complained, "plus you've got plenty of friends already, I know you don't need me helping."

"And w-which world d-d-did you come f-from?" Charlie raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, well, it was one with those guys too," God Charlie glanced at where the other three had been, "I dunno what you'd refer to it as, but we were all gods, and then it...fell apart a bit."

Charlie nodded. He was pretty sure he knew what that character was.

"Sorry to be keeping you, but you can't really blame me for wanting a little chat with the guy who made me a god," he smiled sheepishly.

Charlie tilted his head, "t-that makes me s-s-sound w-way cooler than I a-actually am."

"No way! You're cool as hell for making a guy as perfect as me," God Charlie puffed out his chest.

"Y-you are d-d-definitely not p-p-perfect," Charlie laughed.

God Charlie gave him a look, like he'd just fallen for a trick, "exactly, and neither are you. So stop acting like you need to be, you're not a Mary Sue, and you're certainly not a god."

Charlie blinked at him, taken aback by the sudden switch in humility.

"Hey, you hungry?" God Charlie asked before he could respond, and pulled out an apple. Charlie's hand went for it- he still hadn't eaten, after all- but he stopped himself abruptly and pulled back. Apples never meant anything good in relation to this guy.

God Charlie smiled and put the apple away, "haha, sorry, I just wanted to try that one. Orange you glad you didn't fall for it?" he pulled out an orange.

Charlie laughed but shook his head, "t-that w-was bad." However it did make him realise that he'd barely been making any puns this whole time, he'd been so stressed out. It was in character for God Charlie to be doing it, at least.

"Alright, I should probably send you back to your world so you can eat some real food," he stood back up.

"Uh, w-wait," Charlie looked up at him, "d-do I n-need a Goobleck from you? A-a-and the o-other guy."

"Oh, yeah, I'll get those dumb little guys to you. Wishing you luck on collecting them all!" God Charlie grinned at him, but then his face dropped a little, "and, uh, hey...I'm glad to see the Grizzly in your world is doing okay."

Charlie nodded. The two of them exchanged a melancholic smile, and God Charlie clicked his fingers.

~

❍ Weds dinner chat 🤓 ›

◯ quackity Yesterday at 16:02
Okay so we're all still good for dinner tomorrow night right?

◯ Slimecicle Yesterday at 16:10
Yeah I'm still giving ran and moonzy a lift too

◯ quackity Yesterday at 19:36
Well hopefully everyone else shows up too since they're IGNORING ME

_________________________________________________

◯ GrizzlyPlays Today at 01:41
yea :)

◯ ranboo Today at 17:53
were on our way with charlie

------------------------ NEW MESSAGES ------------------------

◯ yakkocmn Today at 21:15
GUYS I GOT f*ckING ATTACKED BY THIS WOLF ON THE WAY HOME??? LIKE IT DIDNT BITE ME OR ANYTHING BUT IT KEPT GROWLING AND MAKING NOISES I JUST TRIED TO GET AROUND IT BUT IT WAS SO f*ckING WEIRD
hello??
if you guys have already gone to bed you're gonna make ne feel really bad abt my sleep schedule
f*ck it i'm going on twitter the people need to know abt this because that was WILD
literally haja
GRIZZ I CAN SEE YOU'RE ONLINE STOP IGNORING ME

~

❍ 🐭🦉🪵🎩 ›

◯ GrizzlyPlays Today at 21:17
hey so

◯ bizly Today at 21:17
oh god dont even say it
you didnt just have a dream did u

◯ GrizzlyPlays Today at 21:18
so that actually just happened
the game show and everything

◯ bizly Today at 21:18
bro i couldve gone ahead and lived my whole life thinking tgat was a weird dream whyd you gotta vring it up

◯ GrizzlyPlays Today at 21:18
BECAUSE WHAT THE f*ck
CHARLIE when you're ok because i don't want u to answer if you're still going through sh*t BUT WHEN YOURE OK CAN YOU PLEASE TELL US WHAT THE f*ck

◯ bizly Today at 21:19
hey condi i see you online you better get in here and suffer with the rest of us bitch :)

◯ Condifiction Today at 21:20
No idea what you guys are talking about i just had a completely unrelated weird dream
On an also unrelated note is anyone close enough to go check on charlie right now

◯ GrizzlyPlays Today at 21:20
I'm trying to dm him right now but yeah if he's not online soon i might go over
because again, i cannot emphasise this enough, WHAT THE f*ck

~

Meanwhile, back in LA...

Charlie woke up. He curled his fingers on the hand under his head, and when he was sure they were clutching onto the fabric of an arm rest rather than the wood of a sh*tty podium, he opened his eyes.

He was laid sideways, head having fallen onto the arm rest of the couch, with the little living room table in front of him and the TV beyond that turned on. All the takeaway food was here, stacked onto the little table as best as it could've been, although in the corner of his view he saw two black and green hands- though they still looked a bit like claws- holding onto another box that evidently hadn't fit on with the rest of them.

Charlie groggily raised his head, whatever was on the TV still a muffled background noise, but he could make out Ranboo's words a little easier, "oh, hey man! Sorry we started without you, I put your chicken in a bowl there."

As soon as Charlie saw the bowl Ranboo was indicating he grabbed it and began eating directly out of it with his hands. Ranboo gave him a bit of a look for that, but shrugged it off and turned their attention back to the TV.

"What're we watching," Charlie mumbled.

Ranboo looked over, "huh? Oh, we were watching some game show, but we didn't know what it was and you fell asleep so we switched to a random drama."

"Brad, I...I have something to tell you."

"You know you can tell me anything, dear."

"It's...it's that I...I...."

"The Confessions will return after these short messages."

"NOOOO," Gillion howled at the screen when the woman's confession was cut off, "now we'll never know what she was going to tell him."

Gillion, sat on the floor, leant back grumpily against the bottom of the chair Xiv was sitting on, then put a handful of rice from one of the takeout boxes in his mouth. Backflipo was on a bean bag by Charlie's side of the couch, and Ranboo was sat on the other side of the same couch, with William and Robert taking up the other chairs in the room. Gegg and Goobleck had also taken to being on the floor, with a barrier of cushions put between them and the food table.

Charlie could feel that his face was scarred again, but at least he was dry, and he'd gotten his food. Despite all that, he still felt cold. There was a chill deep in him that wouldn't go away.

When curling in on himself didn't do much to help it, Charlie wordlessly leant over and rested his head on Ranboo's shoulder.

"Knowing shows like this they're probably gonna stretch that reveal out for another two episodes," Backflipo told Gillion.

Xiv patted Gillion's head, "I'm sure that it will all end fine for them anyway."

Gillion pouted and mumbled, "they had better...they're perfect for each other."

"Are we not gonna address the werewolf reveal in the previous scene?" William asked everyone.

"Can't believe you guys have werewolves nowadays," Robert took a bite out of a chicken wing, "the future is crazy."

Ranboo readjusted to let Charlie rest on him. Charlie still felt cold.

Chapter 6: Ad Break

Chapter Text

"This isn't like you. This isn't the Brad I know, Brad."

"I know, dear...because I'm not Brad at all."

GASP

"This whole time...I've really been......"

"To be continued next time, on The Confessions season 7."

"This sh*t sucks," Backflipo commented. Across the room, Gillion was trying not to cry.

Xiv leant over to Ranboo and whispered, "do I tell him it's fake, or will that be an even worse revelation for him?"

Ranboo shrugged, trying not to disturb Charlie with the motion, "we should probably just let Gillion have this one."

Gillion sniffled, "how are they ever going to end happily together if they're keeping so many secrets from each other..."

"It's alright Gill, they'll figure it out one day," William reassured him.

"Probably the day they run out of budget," Backflipo remarked.

"What is that show even about?" Charlie mumbled.

"I'll be honest I stopped paying attention to it a while ago," Ranboo admitted, picking up the remote to see if there was any information on the show they were watching.

While the adverts played Charlie pulled his phone from his pocket to check if he had any important notifications. Despite having eaten and regained some stamina, the amount of unread messages that lit up in his face made him immediately turn the phone off again. He did not have the energy to deal with that right now.

Robert leaned over his chair and angled the camcorder over it to look down at Goobleck and Gegg, "do you guys need to eat too, or like...are you good?"

"Goobleck probably ate everything it needed when it ruined my kitchen," Charlie at least had the energy to be spiteful again.

"Yeah, they'll be fine," Backflipo shrugged, "I think the more important thing is that we don't have any drinks."

Charlie grumbled and lifted himself off Ranboo, "yeah, I should probably do that."

He probably should've been more awake at this point, but his dream (it had been more than just a dream or a nightmare, but what the hell else was he supposed to call it?) had left him with residual exhaustion in the real world. Standing up off the couch was an effort, but he managed it.

"Want me to come with?" Ranboo offered.

"No, getting drinks is easy enough," Charlie glanced at everyone else in the room, "I've got water, some soda and alcohol, and a bit of juice left. Any of you guys want anything in particular?"

Charlie mentally noted down everyone's preferences as they told him and stepped over the cushion barrier, then around Gegg and Goobleck, to get to the door.

"If there will be many to carry, I can assist!" Gillion startled Xiv as he jumped up.

"Gillion, it's..." Charlie's first instinct was to disagree, but he hesitated, and maybe with a little influence from the glare Xiv gave him, he reconsidered, "sure, just please don't break my glasses."

Gillion smiled a little wider at that answer and navigated his way around the back of the couch to get to the door as well. Charlie was ready to go right to the kitchen and make a start on cleaning up some of Goobleck's slime mess, but when he opened the door to leave he couldn't get through due to the presence of two identical slimy creatures.

The two Gooblecks at the door made their way into the living room as if Charlie had opened the door specifically for them, and rejoined the bigger Goobleck.

"Even more? Mio dios, they never end," Backflipo observed.

"Oh, yeah, two other ones came in while you were asleep," Ranboo explained, "no idea whose they were, or whose these ones are for that matter..."

"I might have an idea about these two," Charlie tilted his head, thinking back to what the God had told him, but for the other ones he just pursed his lips and shook his head "but yeah, not the other ones. Oh well. The more the merrier."

"Do you feel merrier?" Ranboo said with a joking tone.

"I feel..." Charlie thought, biting down a smile as he considered all the ways he could say no to that and the far fewer ways he could say yes. In the middle of considering his answer his attention was brought back to the TV.

"Howdy. My name is Colonel Cornelius Cornwall-"

"I feel like leaving!" Charlie finished his sentence abruptly and left the room in an obvious hurry, Gillion trailing behind him on the way to the kitchen.

Before he could get any drinks, Charlie grabbed a clean towel from under the sink and wiped a patch of his counter clean of goo. It seemed greener than he would've expected considering Goobleck was mainly purple on the outside, but he didn't want to consider whatever that meant. They just needed some sodas and waters, so Charlie then grabbed a few glasses from his cabinet and started filling them from the tap one by one, and placing them down on the little dry patch he'd made.

Gillion watched him from across the kitchen, surprisingly quiet for what Charlie had come to expect of him. Charlie tried to look at him from the corner of his vision, but then gave in and turned his head fully, "hey..."

Charlie swallowed, not sure what to say next but he'd already started so he needed to think of something. He looked down, thought for a few moments, then looked back at Gillion, "uh, are...are you alright?"

Gillion looked surprised at being asked the question, "well, um- yes, I'm doing alright."

Charlie said nothing, he just turned his body to face Gillion and crossed his arms, leaning back on the counter behind him. He regretted it when he felt goo soaking into the back of his shirt, but he just tried to ignore that for now.

"Okay, well," Gillion looked away, feeling pressured into expanding on his thoughts, "I suppose it's just that I...hm...I am sorry if we are bringing problems into your life. I will try to help where I can in order to alleviate that, but only if you will allow me to."

Charlie opened his mouth and shut it again, then rubbed his eyes, "Gillion, no, that's...I should've been apologising to you, I should've done that by now, I was just so caught up in-" Charlie cut himself off by waving his hand out, "no, no excuses or anything, I'm sorry- that this is the first time I've ever been asking how you're doing, that I was pretty insensitive last time. You can help, man, I appreciate it."

Charlie knew that wasn't a perfect apology- of course Gillion would be better at that too- but he could be happy it was at least a start. And at least he wouldn't have Xiv breathing down his neck quite as much. But of course that wasn't the main reason, he wanted to make things right with Gillion at last.

In a few steps Gillion crossed the kitchen and Charlie couldn't even react before he was pulled into a strong hug. His arms hovered awkwardly in the air, unsure where to go. He was going to try and back out of it before the fish man could squeeze his lungs too hard, but another sensation came to Charlie's attention first.

It was warm. This was warm.

Ever since the river water had plunged into Charlie's lungs it had frozen that feeling into his chest, a sinking coldness he couldn't break away from. For the first time in a while, he stopped feeling it. He just felt Gillion, and his hug, and the warmth.

Charlie's hands twitched in the air, and then wrapped around Gillion in return.

They were there for a little while. Charlie knew Gillion wouldn't be the first to let go. It was only when his doorbell rang that he stepped away.

"What's that? Do you have an alarm for intruders?" Gillion asked him, hands immediately going to the sword.

"No, no, it's just the door, please stop being whatever the sword equivalent is to trigger happy. Hilt happy," Charlie invented the new term for it and stepped towards his front room, but he saw Ranboo had already gotten up and was going to answer it for him.

He stayed at the edge of the kitchen and looked around the corner at the door, he couldn't help but be anxious about who it was. It was likely someone with the wrong address or a random salesperson Ranboo would turn away, but this late at night..? Not completely out of the question, but it was still unusual.

That made it all the more feasible this was another character instead, perhaps they and their Goobleck had gotten lost on the way here and that's why they were so much later than everyone else. It would be one less character to deal with, but Charlie still couldn't get himself to be excited about that.

"Um- oh, Ran!" the other person's voice came through as Ranboo cracked the door open a little and peered at the visitor, "is Charlie here with you? I'd just come over to check that everything's alright."

Ranboo was hesitant, "I'm not sure that right now is a good time. He's fine, but I don't think you can really come in-"

Charlie jogged over to his door, having recognised the voice, "Grizz, hey! What the hell are you doing here?"

Ranboo stepped back from the door a little to let them talk but Grizzly remained on the other side, "Charlie! We were trying to message you but you weren't s-"

Grizz stopped, very suddenly, as his eyes landed on Charlie's face. Charlie took a moment to recall why that would be. Oh yeah. He looked like a wild bear had mauled him.

It got very quiet as Charlie wasn't sure what to say to explain the state of his face, and Grizz was completely speechless, shock and horror leaving his mouth hanging slightly open. They could all hear as the door to the living room creaked open and Xiv's voice called out, "hey, so, how do we change the TV? We don't really like this new thing it's showing."

Before Xiv finished Ranboo had shut the door in Grizzly's face.

"Hey, Ran!" Charlie complained.

"We can't get anyone else involved in this, right?" Ranboo justified, "What's he gonna do if he sees Xiv?"

"He's pretty much already involved," Charlie sighed, "there was a whole thing, it's fine if he knows at this point. Plus he drove all the way here, I'd feel bad leaving him on my doorstep."

Ranboo hummed, considering it, lips probably pushed together under the mask, and eventually they reopened the door.

Grizz immediately looked at Charlie's face again when he could see it and he grimaced, "oh god, okay, I wasn't just imagining that. That's real."

"Yep," Charlie tried to grin without it looking like he was in pain, "just uh, fell over. Onto three massive claws. Probably gonna get some cool looking scars from it though, right?"

Grizz didn't give any kind of agreement to that statement and continued to look speechless, "I- I just- how the f*ck-?"

"Wanna meet the guy who did it?" Charlie pointed over his shoulder towards the living room.

"No. Well yes, actually, I wanna give them a piece of my mind," Grizz glanced to the living room, then back to Charlie, "I mean, you seem to be doing better. Except for the...all that," he waved hand in the direction of Charlie's face.

"We should probably go back inside and talk," Charlie told him and lead the way back into his house. There was some discussion they could hear from in the living room, as everyone seemed to be trying to figure out how to change channels. If they broke the TV, Charlie swore to god...

Gillion poked his head around the corner of the kitchen, "a new guest! Do we need to make another drink?"

Grizz stopped instantly, eyes widened more than Charlie had ever seen them before. He thought the man might be about to faint, but Grizz somehow remained standing.

"He's- he-"

"Yeah, Gillion's in my kitchen, it's no big deal," Charlie waved a hand.

Grizz whipped his head round to face Charlie and gawked at him, "yes, big deal, very big deal! How are you-? What? How is this even..?"

Grizz's eyes flicked between Charlie and Gillion, his words failing to form more and more with each look. Maybe they were giving him too many questions to comprehend, or the nonsense of it all was just interrupting his brain function.

"You've probably already figured out that dream wasn't a dream, huh," Charlie rubbed the back of his head, "yeah, this- it's been going on all evening. You just got pulled into that one for some reason."

"Did Gillion..?" Grizz looked at Charlie's face and didn't finish.

"Huh? Oh! No, no, Gillion didn't claw my face off, that was..." Charlie glanced at the living room and took a breath, "okay, so...if you just want to leave after you've seen all this then that's fine- actually, please do that. I would much rather you just stay away from whatever is going on here. But, if you want to help, then I...I won't stop you," Charlie didn't like saying the words, although at least he could get himself to say them this time rather than the fight he'd put up with Ranboo, "but again. I really don't want you potentially getting hurt over something that's all to do with me."

Charlie hoped the blood on his face would be enough of an incentive for Grizz to leave before he'd even got a look at everyone in the living room, but Grizz barely seemed to consider any other option, "is Dakota here too?"

Charlie sighed, although he understood it would probably be difficult in Grizzly's position to just walk away from this. He just would rather that he wasn't collecting friends into the mess like he was collecting his characters. They could've been having a much calmer evening if it weren't for his problems overflowing into their lives.

"No, I think it's just all my characters," Charlie told him.

A head popped through the door to the living room- literally through the door- "Dakota?"

They all looked over at William, who'd overheard the mention of his friend's name.

"Will!" Grizz shouted back in amazement, subconsciously switching into the voice he used for Dakota Cole.

"Oh what the f*ck who are you," William looked like he immediately regretted checking out who their new visitor was.

"I'm, uh, technically Dakota Cole," Grizz half grimaced, realising how weird this situation was.

"You're like, twice his age," William commented, unconvinced, but continued, "and yet you sound exactly like him..."

"Hey, rude!" Grizz continued in Dakota's voice.

"Uh, Grizz, you wanna help me bring some drinks through to my living room so we can chat in there?" Charlie asked, since right now they were all just stood in his hallway.

"Uh, yeah," Grizz followed his lead, although both he and William struggled to take their eyes off each other, both perplexed by the very existence of the other. Ranboo went with Charlie too, so that the three of them and Gillion were all gathered in his kitchen.

"Ohhhh god, what happened here?" Grizz looked around at the slime dripping from every surface.

"Goobleck happened," Charlie grumbled and got another glass for Grizz, "water, soda?"

Grizz took a moment to acknowledge the question, "oh, uh, water's good- w-wait, hold on, so Goobleck's here too? How many-?"

"Goobleck, Gillion, William," Charlie interrupted and started counting off his fingers, "Xiv, my QSMP character, f*cking Gegg, my character from the f*cking backrooms," Charlie emphasized, he could still hardly understand that one, "but yeah, we think Goobleck's the main reason that all of this is happening."

Grizz absorbed that information for a few seconds, "Xiv's here? Wait, which one attacked you?"

Charlie nodded to the first question, "uh, the attack was my QSMP one," Grizz started walking towards the living room, "dude, hold on, he's fine now! Oh my god, you were ready for that."

"Anyone who f*cks with you has it coming!" Grizz told him, and Charlie wasn't convinced he'd ever gotten out of character as Dakota, "I was ready to fight with that game show guy and I'm ready to fight now. What was his name...kh something. Khra-"

"Don't say it!" Charlie jumped, almost dropping the glass in his hand, "dude, you're gonna f*cking summon him, don't say his name."

"That's how it works?" Grizz looked worried.

"I don't f*cking know and I do not want to find out," Charlie scowled and went back to his tap and filled the cup.

He was pretty sure he'd gotten everyone's drinks at last, so he picked two up and gave them to Ranboo, then gave one to Gillion since he was a little less confident in the slippery fish man's abilities to hold onto cups. He picked up a further two and brought them to Grizzly, with two final glasses on the counter left for himself to carry.

"Ssssso," Grizz tapped his fingers on one of the only dry patches on the counter behind him as Charlie walked over, "this is just happening now."

"Yeah," Charlie sighed, "hopefully it's over soon."

"Wait, are you kidding? This is sick!" Grizz told him, then reconsidered, "well, I guess you haven't had the best experience so far, uh...but dude, that's Gillion Tidestrider! Right there!" Grizz tried to point without spilling the glass of water he had in one hand. Gillion seemed happy with the recognition, if not a little confused.

Charlie couldn't help but laugh a little at his excitement, "yeah, I guess...I think the surprise has worn off for me."

Glasses in hand, everyone returned to Charlie's living room, and Grizz entered for the first time. Charlie started to realise just how weird it was that there were two people that looked like him and a further three that sounded like him sitting in his house, gathered around a table of half eaten takeout food. He looked over at Grizz's reaction. The man was trying to look calm, but he was failing miserably and instead resembled a deer stunned in headlights.

The only space left in the room seemed to be on the couch, so Grizz took a seat between Charlie and Ranboo, and Gillion was happy enough to sit on the floor again. Xiv was trying to figure out the TV remote, but all they had done was increase the volume of the cooking show that had started playing, which only made Backflipo shout at them more to change it. He squealed and fell back onto his beanbag with his hands covering his eyes when they cracked another egg on the edge of a bowl.

"Ah, mierda, mi huevo!" he continued to groan various foreign language phrases, some of which Charlie wasn't sure he'd ever learnt. Ranboo leant over and took the remote, switching to the next channel over, which was airing a documentary on abandoned buildings in the US.

"No thanks," Robert turned away from the liminal, empty rooms being shown. They changed it again to a game show.

"I've had enough of those for one day," Grizz told them.

Ranboo rolled his eyes and switched it once again, ending up on a ghost hunting programme.

"Well that's just kind of disrespectful," William commented and looked in disdain at the unusual ghost hunting tools the hosts had laid out.

"Let's just put it on the news," Charlie decided, "then we can figure out if anyone else is rampaging through the city. I'm pretty sure none of my characters have an irrational phobia of the news."

"Goobleck-"

"No you don't," Charlie interrupted Goobleck, "Ranboo switch it to the news."

Ranboo did so and turned the volume down a bit so they could talk in the meantime, only paying attention to the news stories if anything stuck out as particularly Charlie-character-related.

"Alright, so," Charlie started digging around underneath the takeout food to pull out the list he'd written earlier of his characters. It was a little stained and crumpled now, but it did the job.

"Main objective right now is to find all the Gooblecks," Charlie started explaining to Grizz to catch him up, "and each of my characters in this world have one each with them. Backflipo and Gegg shared one, I guess," Backflipo waved with his slightly clawed, black and green hand, and Grizz hesitantly waved back.

"Goobleck must be whole :D"

"Yeah, he's been telling us that the whole night," Charlie added.

"So you've got a hit list of your own OCs," Grizz observed.

Charlie laughed, "I guess it is like that, yeah. Sooner we get them all, sooner this is over with- but we're gonna try to avoid killing them, y'know."

"So do we know who our next target is?" Grizz leant over the list of names.

"Well, I think I know where this guy might've ended up," Charlie pointed at one name in particular. 'Bruce Trayne'.

"Oh hey, that's one I know!" Ranboo chuckled, "man, that campaign was kind of a fever dream."

"Hey, don't worry, most of them are," Charlie reassured him, "you did a pretty good job putting up with our bullsh*t."

Grizz sighed as he read Charlie's writing, "let me guess, is there a clue in his name?"

Charlie suppressed a laugh, "what? No. You know me, Grizz, I'd never do something like use wordplay in my characters' names. That would be dumb."

Grizz looked at half of the characters in the room.

"Okay, yeah, he's probably at a train station," Charlie gave in.

"Which one, though?" Ranboo asked, putting a hand in their pockets but not taking anything out.

"Lost something?" Charlie asked.

"I- yeah, uh, my phone...it's fine, it'll just be back at my place. You got any way to look up the train stations nearby?" Ranboo took his hands back out of his pockets

"Yeah, no worries," Charlie took out his own phone and looked on his map for the closest locations. He caught another look at his notifications when he turned it on and just tried to ignore the building mountain of messages he hadn't even looked at.

"If we wanna try and be efficient we could look for more than one in a single trip," Grizz proposed, scanning the names and pointing at 'Trog Lougferd', "there's probably a snow sledding place or something like that in LA, you know."

"Oh man, that campaign isn't even out yet. Plus I don't know if I wanna meet that guy in person," Charlie told him.

"You wanna meet this guy instead?" Grizz pointed to where Charlie had written 'that judge who boiled boys'. He was hoping one character from the Sorry Boys counted for all of them, because he'd played some characters in those videos that he definitely did not want to meet face to face.

"Alright, we can look for Troy too," Charlie conceded and opened another tab on his phone to look for snow sledding, or at least snow sports places nearby.

While he was plotting out some places they could drive to and check out tonight- he'd love to rest, but realistically he wasn't gonna get any peaceful sleep until this was done with (he also dreaded to imagine the chaos that could be caused in the 8 hours he was asleep)- the others got to talking amongst one another. Ranboo seemed quiet on the other side of the couch, but Charlie could only assume he was paying attention to what was being talked about on the news.

"Who do you think in this room would win in a fight," Backflipo asked them all abruptly.

"...like, all of us fighting at once?" Robert looked at him.

Backflipo considered the logistics of his hypothetical, "uh, probably tournament style."

"Is there an option to not be in the tournament?" William requested.

"Nope, your family's held hostage, gotta compete," Backflipo told him.

William grimaced, "right..."

The family threat didn't seem to be that successful with everyone in the room, but Xiv was still willing to go along with the idea, "I would like to say how I'd destroy all of you with a powerful spell, however my magic's been more difficult ever since I've been in this world. I could still perhaps take out Robert with my bare hands."

"Hey-! Actually, yeah, that's fair," Robert's head and camcorder tilted to the side as he accepted hypothetical defeat.

"Oh, I haven't been able to cast much either!" Gillion agreed with Xiv, "there must be some ancient wards in place here to limit our powers..."

"So it's not just me?" William spoke up, "I thought it was a little tougher to go intangible. Doesn't stop it from happening accidentally when I'm surprised and stuff though..."

"I at least have a chance then if all the magic users are debuffed," Grizz sat up, "although, saying that...not sure I have much else going for me compared to you guys."

Between Backflipo's claws and Gillion's big f*cking sword, there wasn't too much Grizz could see himself doing in a fight to the death.

"You could squash Gegg probably," Backflipo told him, "but yeah, I feel like it would probably come down to me and Gillion in the end."

Xiv snorted, "and you think you stand a chance against him?"

Backflipo opened his mouth to respond before he'd even thought of what he was going to say, "hey, I- y'know- listen, getting hit over the head last time was a fluke, if I was actually trying I know he wouldn't take me out again that easily."

"I think your mere hands would do little against Destiny's Blade!" Gillion boomed, drawing his sword and holding it up.

"GILLION," Charlie immediately looked up from his phone and glared at him. He was as worried about someone getting injured as he was about Gillion scratching up the walls and furniture. Gillion pouted and put the sword away.

"So yes, I think Gillion wins," Xiv leant back confidently in their chair, Gillion grinning from the praise while sat on the floor in front of them.

"Uh, so," Ranboo got some words in now that the conversation had died down, "do you think this might be important?"

The question was mostly directed at Charlie, who saw he was referring to the current story on the TV:

Dozens scammed out of train tickets by mysterious ticket inspector impersonator.

Charlie scowled, "damn it. What station is that?"

~

"Hey teach, do we really gotta keep running this far into the woods?"

Ms Gilbert, out of breath but trying and failing to pretend she wasn't, looked at Chad Bussy over her shoulder, "you never know when they've stopped chasing you, Chad! This counts as your gym class!"

"School closed hours ago, so did the cops probably!" Chad told her.

Ms Gilbert slowed down and put a hand against a tree when she finally stopped, leaning against it as she tried and failed to act cool and not as though she was completely out of breath, "yeah, I...I guess you might...be right...whew, haven't done cardio like that...since my Zumba days!"

"Ms G...are we going to jail?"

"We have been...running from the cops...for the last hour...specifically...to avoid that outcome..."

"I didn't even get into this much trouble when I did all those drugs," Chad worried.

Ms Gilbert's head snapped to him, "you what?!"

"H-hey, Dr Hilton was cool with it!" Chad defended himself.

"Chad, drugs are bad for you! Goodness, what were they teaching you in your last school..." Ms Gilbert shook her head.

"Uh...not a lot, really."

There was a quiet howl that both of their heads turned to. It was hard to tell how far it was, but the fact they were hearing that in the woods at night was far from a good thing.

"Oh god, they've sent the dogs after us, I'm going to jail," Chad put his head in his hands and crumpled into a ball on the floor.

Ms Gilbert squinted into the distance to look for whatever had howled, but the evening light was almost completely gone and the woods quickly receded into total darkness. She started digging in her bag and managed to pull out a pair of head torches, although when she turned one on it turned out to be a colour changing torch with no option to make it stay white. The woods would have to be RGB tonight, then.

She handed one to Chad, "not on my watch. I'm not letting any trouble come to my students."

Chad slowly accepted it and strapped it around his head. Ms Gilbert helped him up and continued, "now, if I've got this right, that's no police dog at all. That howl could only belong to a wolf, although I'm not certain enough what species."

"We're in here with a wolf?" Chad whined, even more afraid than he was before.

"Hey, from the sounds of things, it's at least not a pack of them," Ms Gilbert tried to get them to look on the bright side of things. That was unfortunately difficult when they were in the middle of the woods at night and the only brightness to speak of was from two RGB torches on their heads.

There was another howl, and it seemed to be closer this time.

"Alright, it's approaching, that's not a problem," Ms Gilbert told them, voice lower, "we just need to keep our ground and not run away."

"W-we're not running away?" Chad repeated, not sounding like he had much faith in the idea.

"If you turn your back on a wolf it'll just chase you, you need to keep looking at it and back away slowly," Ms Gilbert informed him matter-of-fact-ly.

"Wouldn't it be better to just run before it got here..?"

"Hm...yes, that might've been a good idea."

Unfortunately, it was a bit too late for that idea, as Ms Gilbert was now looking at a black wolf stepping out from the dark and snarling at the both of them.

"M-Ms G?" Chad took a step back.

"Don't worry, Chad," she put a hand in front of him defensively, "I can handle this."

"You can handle the wolf?" Chad didn't sound like he had any faith in that idea. Ms Gilbert disregarded that and carefully stepped forward.

She slowly raised a hand up at the still snarling wolf and steeled her expression, holding her position even as it started letting out some strange sounding barks.

"Sit."

Chad grimaced and muttered, "there's no way that's going to..."

The wolf sat down.

Ms Gilbert smiled and proudly put her hands on her hips, "would you look at that! If you can teach a kid, you can teach a wolf!"

"I don't think that's- okay," Chad gave up on trying to disagree with Ms Gilbert.

She crouched down by the wolf and easily began scratching its ear, the wolf having suddenly become completely docile. It seemed more than happy to receive the attention.

"You got a name, buddy?" Ms Gilbert leaned her head over, seeing the wolf had some weird kind of collar on. There was indeed a name, or something like it, embedded on the side- '5LArf C. I. Nubilus'.

"Did this thing come out of an evil science lab or something?" Chad asked, still keeping his distance but he was able to notice from there just how weird this wolf looked.

The wolf raised its head and Chad tensed, expecting it to howl, but he couldn't really describe the noise it made as a howl.

"Sleeeaarff"

"What the f*ck," Chad breathed.

"Slarf it is, then!" Ms Gilbert patted the wolf's head, "you're coming with us on our field trip, buddy!"

"Wait, hold on, what? W-we can't bring that thing with us!" Chad protested, reeling back when Slarf growled at his shouting.

"Sure we can! Ms G accepts students of all shapes and sizes," she told him wisely.

"...and species?" Chad added.

Ms Gilbert nodded, "now come on, no time to waste! Let's get out of this forest and see if we come across any more students."

Ms Gilbert lead the way, with Chad trying to stay close to her and as far as he could get from Slarf. He loved the darkness and general angst and all, but he didn't really want that to lead to him getting mauled. If this was the kind of classes Ms Gilbert liked to teach, he sincerely hoped they didn't run into any more 'students'.

Chapter 7: Back on Track

Chapter Text

Charlie laid out his hastily sketched map of Los Angeles on their table, having dumped the empty takeout boxes and moved all the ones with food remaining in them to the side. A train station and its route was outlined, as well as every nearby winter sports location. Now that he was done looking at maps to copy down locations, Charlie opened Twitter, both hoping and dreading to find any more information on other characters. The most they had gotten on the TV news was a location for Bruce, other than that it was just stories on road conditions and a fight outside of a club.

He knew he'd been getting messages, but Christ that was a lot of notifications he saw as he opened the hellish app. In case there was anything to learn from that, Charlie quickly scrolled through his mentions, and was not at all happy with what he found.

"Oh sh*t, Grizz," Charlie got his attention, the other man having been staring in awe at the fact Xiv Baldur's Gate was sat almost right next to him but trying not to make it too obvious.

"What-? Oh," Grizz immediately stopped when Charlie held out his phone for him to see the photos people had been tagging him in. The one he'd stopped on currently read 'GUYS TELL ME YALL CAN SEE THUS TOO IM TOO HIGH FOR THIS sh*t 😭😭😭', with an attached image of the person's TV, showing a game show with Charlie front and center.

"How the f*ck are we supposed to explain that?" Charlie looked at Grizz.

He opened his mouth but hesitated over what to say, "we, uh...well, how much did people see?"

"Uh..." Charlie scrolled through, cringing at the amount of photos that had been posted, although when he paid attention to the accounts it seemed they were at least from the same few people, "some of the pictures have us in front of the drinks...doesn't look like there's anything of the field, though."

"What are you guys talking about?" Ranboo asked.

"Nothing," they responded in unison and continued looking at Charlie's phone.

Grizz put a finger on the screen, "wait, what's that one say?"

The post he'd stopped on read 'wtf I tried rewinding and the show just isnt there?? I literally have the photos I swear this show was real but istg its just gone from my tv'. Charlie looked at the replies too, one reading 'damn i wish i could've watched that but i think that channrl is only west coast :(('.

"Wait, hold on, Charlie...you think we can just gaslight all of them?" Grizz looked at him with a devious glint in his eye.

Charlie's immediate response was to laugh at the concept of gaslighting his fan base, but after a few moments he started to see the reasoning behind it, "oh, sh*t, maybe... I mean, it looks like only people in LA could see it, and even then the only proof is those photos, so..."

"I am going to lie to so many people on the internet right now," Grizz took out his own phone.

Together Charlie and Grizz worked to create a narrative that a game show with someone who looked a lot like Charlie had been taken out of context, and that the videos had been edited with his audio from old collabs with friends. Charlie replied to one of the photos going along with the joke: 'Can't wait to see everyone at the TV awards this year', then replying to his own tweet with 'For everyone wondering no that isn't actually me, they wouldn't have let me in the studio because I'm too cool and also they have me on several lists'.

He put his knees up to his chest as he awaited the response to see if it had worked or if he'd just turned their little problem into a dumpster fire. Grizz meanwhile was making an edit of one of the clips someone had posted, with audio very obviously from one of his own videos.

"Do you think this is the sh*t PR teams go through every time a celebrity posts a bad take," Charlie looked at Grizz with a nervous grin.

"Hey, maybe that's my career path if streaming and everything falls through, I'm pretty decent at this," he shrugged. Charlie appreciated that he was at least seeing the good in the situation.

Grizz made his post and turned off his phone, "I think that's all the damage control we can do for now. Where were we?" he laughed at how sidetracked they'd gotten all of a sudden from their plan to drive in search of Gooblecks around LA.

"Right, right," Charlie leant back over the map, "we can get a start with trying to find Bruce and Troy, if we wanna save as much time as we can we should probably get going now and look for more information on any other characters on the journey."

"Who's coming on the road trip? We want to save enough space in the car for the ones we find, y'know," Ranboo pointed out.

Charlie exchanged a glance with Grizz, "it's just me and you that can drive..."

"You were driving around earlier, right? I can do it this time," Grizz offered.

Charlie nodded, after all he really didn't want to drive any more tonight if he could avoid it, and Ranboo agreed too, albeit more hesitantly, "hm...alright."

"Do you wanna just stay at home to look after these guys, Ran?" Charlie asked, "I know that's kind of a big ask, actually, but they might need it."

"Hey, we don't need una niñera!" Backflipo shouted back in offense.

"A babysitter," Charlie translated for everyone, having at least learnt that one from Duolingo, "and yes I think you probably do."

"I mean, they could take care of each other though, right?" Ranboo looked at the different character in the room.

"Will's pretty much already a babysitter for Vynce and me- uh, Dakota, I mean," Grizz pointed out.

"Not out of choice!" William argued, but then leant back in his chair and muttered, "but yeah, I do have experience."

"So I'll come too," Ranboo decided, "seeing as things could get dangerous."

Charlie tilted his head, "well, I'm not gonna say no, so I guess...and I'm checking the trunk this time!" he stared accusingly at Gillion and Xiv, "so none of you guys try to hitch a ride again."

Xiv put their hands up, "I would never."

"Some day I shall best that beast you call the trunk," Gillion swore.

"Y'know, I think you might like my friend Vyncent if you ever met him," William told Gillion, "you give me a similar vibe."

"Alright," Charlie sighed and picked up the map and list of names, and also a half empty box of fries for the road, "let's go then. Sooner we do, sooner we'll be back."

"Alright!" Grizz seemed far more pumped than the other two about the road trip they were about to go on, "oh, what if we find Peter at some point? It would be so cool to meet him."

Charlie reached the front door and unlocked it, "no, no way I'm letting you anywhere near him if you're gonna act anything like Rumi did with him."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Grizz said in Rumi's voice.

"Hey, uh," Ranboo interrupted, "what happened with Peter and Rumi?"

"Nothing," Charlie and Grizz responded in unison.

Grizz unlocked his car which he'd parked beside Charlie's and added, "Peter's probably just somewhere with a bunch of rocks anyways."

"That doesn't exactly narrow it down," Charlie sighed and opened the door to the front passenger seat.

"Oh-" Ranboo raised a hand as if they were going to say something, but stopped and shook their head, opting to just take his seat in the back of the car without any further discussion.

"Oh, wait, hold on," just as everyone was getting their seatbelts on Charlie got back out and jogged around to the trunk. Ranboo and Grizz heard it open and close, then Charlie returned with a thumbs up, "okay, good to go."

"Alright," Grizz laughed and started the car.

It was pretty dark out now, Charlie looked at the digital clock on the dash that read 21:44 and pursed his lips. He was hoping it wouldn't be the case, but it was starting to seem possible they would still be hunting these Gooblecks into the early hours of the morning. If he didn't pass out from hunger or exhaustion before that point.

They were heading to the train station first, since that's the only location that had been confirmed for them by the news. They just had to hope Bruce hadn't actually caught a train yet and wasn't halfway across the state.

"I didn't even check what I meant to online," Charlie sighed and turned his phone on to look at any discussion of weird happenings in the LA area. It was still a weird feeling that he was hoping both for and against finding anything.

Oh, Quackity had called him? He supposed he should check if he'd left a message.

BEEP
"Why do you have my voice in a little slab?"
"Hey, Charlie, uh, do you happen to know anything about things made of slime with your face and voice breaking into people's houses? If so then please, PLEASE- please call me back. Thanks."
BEEP

"Was that Quackity?" Grizz asked.

"Yeah, that's a voicemail he just left me," Charlie leaned his head back and sighed, "f*ck...guess I should call him back."

Charlie was, frankly, not a fan of how the number of friends getting involved in this situation was building and building. If he himself didn't want to be involved, he knew they probably wouldn't, although Grizz was weirdly excited about all that was going on. But what did Quackity say- one of them had broken in to his house? He really hoped the fact Quackity had called him was a sign he was okay.

He rung the number and his phone rang once...twice-

"Hey, man!"

"Oh, Quackity, hey!" Charlie responded.

"So I guess you got my message eventually?"

"Yeah, uh, sorry about not getting back to you," Charlie rubbed the back of his neck and looked out the window, "it's been a bit of a crazy night over here."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Charlie could almost hear Quackity rolling his eyes from the other side of the phone, "so can you actually tell me what this guy's deal is? We're just sitting on my couch right now watching random videos."

Charlie heard another voice coming through on the phone, "Charlie from The Phone, have you ever done gambling?"

He then heard Quackity shushing someone, "uh, ignore that."

"I'm guessing that's him. Yeah, don't worry, I know what's up with those guys, for the most part. Does he happen to have a little purple slime creature with him?" Charlie asked, feeling like a weird branch of tech support.

There was a little silence from the other end as he could vaguely make out Quackity muttering his question to the other person with him, and Charlie then heard his own voice responding, "oh, yes! I taught it how to gamble, it was very good at it!"

Judging the silence that followed that, Quackity was also taking a moment to process the information, and Charlie eventually responded, "please don't tell me you sent your Goobleck to a casino."

"The house always wins!"

Charlie groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, "great, we'll go look for that one next. Do you need us to come collect the guy that broke into your house, by the way, Quackity?"

"Well, we're kind of just chilling at the moment, so if you're already in the middle of stuff you don't have to, but I kind of want to know what the f*ck is going on with all this, Charlie."

"Thing is, I don't really know, but I'll hopefully have it sorted soon. And I've got some help with that too," Charlie smiled at Grizz and Ranboo.

"That's good...I guess," he heard Quackity sigh, "as long as you say you're sorting it. I'll be at home with this guy if you need anything."

"Yeah, hopefully nobody else shows up at your house."

Quackity laughed, "yeah, I'd like that."

"Alright, have fun. Uh, bye," Charlie ended the call a little awkwardly and went to pick up the list of names and cross one off. He could be pretty certain that was his character from the Dream SMP.

"New location acquired," Grizz commented like it was a video game achievement. Charlie glanced at the sat nav, seeing they were already pretty close to the station. With the time left he quickly looked up nearby casinos to mark on their map.

The station looked pretty empty when they got there, which might've been good or bad for them, Charlie wasn't really sure. Grizz could at least find a spot to park pretty easily and they all stayed in the car after he'd done so, ready to discuss their plan of action.

"So-" William suddenly became visible in the back seat opposite to Ranboo. Everyone else in the car screamed.

"I waited for you to stop the car at least!" William defended himself against the glares he was receiving.

"Why are you here?" Charlie asked him, "you were meant to be at home with all the others!"

"Well, yeah, but," William pulled his hood further down his face, "they all started talking once you'd gone, and I didn't know anyone, and it just felt awkward and I didn't know what to do so I left and nobody really noticed anyways, then I got in here because I like, technically know you," he looked up at Grizz, a little pleadingly, "and that's the best I've got right now."

Charlie couldn't just send him back home now they'd gotten to the station, but this wasn't exactly optimal for their conservation of space in the car, "this does only leave us with one spare seat."

William sighed, "it's fine, I can go in the trunk, I understand."

"No need," Grizz told him, "I've got three more seats in this bad boy that fold up from the trunk!"

"Oh, sh*t, really?" Charlie wouldn't have expected it from size of his car, but that definitely made things easier.

"And hey, you can probably help, William," Grizz told him, which Charlie was about to protest since they didn't even know right now what the plan was and who they'd need to find Bruce, but he saw William look the slightest bit happier after Grizz's offer, so he didn't say anything.

Charlie turned his attention to the station instead, scouting out the different stops and the amount of trains present at the moment, "well, first we need to figure out what we're doing. Last we saw on the news he hadn't been apprehended, so he might still be in here somewhere hiding from the cops. I don't think Bruce will have gone too far from the trains."

"And how are we finding him if the cops can't?" Grizz asked.

"Same thing with Backflipo, we know some things they don't, so let's use it to our advantage."

"Hopefully not exactly like Backflipo," Ranboo said.

Charlie winced with the reminder of why all the yellow lights around here still looked a little orange, "yeah..."

Ranboo put a hand on his chin, "well, I ran the campaign with Bruce and the others, and in the end his whole motivation was to kill the trains, so do you think he might've moved onto that now that he's stopped pretending to work here?"

"We could always go ask the people who work here if they've seen anyone weird," Grizz suggested.

"I dunno if they'd just give that information to random strangers," Charlie said.

"If he hasn't been apprehended he's probably not out in the open," Ranboo continued theorising, "my best guess would be that he's on one of the trains doing whatever he considers killing it. Probably one that's not going anywhere too, since they'll have less security if it's a train stopping here for the night."

"And how are we supposed to get on a train? We can't just pick the locks to break in, Ran," Charlie told him.

Grizz turned to William with a smile, "one of us doesn't have to."

William looked nervous as everyone looked at him but he nodded, "uh, y-yeah, I guess I could sneak into one of the trains if you needed."

"And then you can come back with a way to open it for us from the inside," Grizz added, "hell yeah, we've got a plan! Teamwork makes the dream work!"

Charlie felt a bit targeted by the last sentence, but Grizz was right, working together was making this sound easier than going out on his own had been.

"Just look out for someone short with big glasses and a conductor's hat," Charlie told William, "he should be pretty obvious."

"Alright, I'll see what I can do," William sighed and left the car, going invisible as he approached the station. That just left Charlie, Ranboo and Grizz in the car to wait for his return. Charlie went back to the map, tapping it with his pen.

If William's search came up empty and Bruce wasn't here, then they could probably check the other closest stations, but anything beyond that wouldn't be possible in one night. He was hopeful that the security in this world was better than it had been in Bruce's, and so they'd at least stopped him from getting on a moving train and he was indeed on a stationary one as Ranboo had said. That was still a crime, and they'd be committing the same crime by sneaking on to the same train, but that was totally fine and not at all stressful. How many crimes could he commit in one night, Charlie wondered. He was sure he'd technically done a few already.

"So we're checking out winter sports places next, then casinos...weirdest road trip I've ever been on," Grizz commented amongst the silence.

"They say a lot of things are slippery slopes into gambling, but they never expected the slopes themselves," Charlie grinned.

"Really?" Grizzly tried to act disappointed but he still smiled at the joke, "if that's the case then maybe we'll find Troy at the slots too."

"Oh, he'd definitely be hitting the slots if they accepted cogs, and he'd lose all of them in ten minutes tops," Charlie confirmed.

"Okay," William appeared once again without any warning in the back seat, making Charlie yelp and the other two flinch noticeably, but they didn't have quite as intense a reaction as they had last time. He didn't acknowledge the response and continued, "I think I've found our guy."

"Oh, sh*t, alright," Charlie was surprised at how fast that had happened but it was welcome news.

"You could've at least opened the door to let us know you were back," Ranboo complained, moving away from the opposite car door they'd pressed themself against.

"People get used to it eventually..." William told him, "and, uh, he was in one of the trains that's stopped in the station, hitting the engine with a stick and talking to it."

Charlie sighed, "sounds about right."

"Let's go before he breaks anything," Ranboo decided and stepped out of the car.

All of them made their way into the station and, after checking nobody was close enough to hear, William whispered and pointed, "it's that one there. I can get one of the windows near the front open, I think it's big enough for people to get in through."

The other three nodded and followed his directions, making their way around to the side of the train out of view of the rest of the station. The amount of people here at this time was sparse, but they were still playing it safe.

After a few tense moments a window creaked open, and William waved his arm out to beckon then in. It wasn't a comfortable entrance by any means, but it was just big enough for them all to wiggle in and fall down into one of the front carriages of the train.

On the inside the bonking noise from the engine room was more easily audible, and Charlie could almost hear someone talking but couldn't tell what they were saying.

"Sounds like you," Grizz confirmed his suspicions as he stood and dusted himself off.

"Then that's where we're headed," Charlie put his hands on his hips and took a breath, steeling himself to enter.

"He just fought trains, he won't wanna fight us," Ranboo hesitated, "right?"

Charlie waved a hand, "yeah, we'll be fine," and hid the unconvinced expression on his face by turning away and opening the door to the engine carriage.

It was dark and empty, besides of course for the short man holding a stick over his head and then whacking it down on the inactive engine.

"Did you do it?" he asked the engine aggressively, "are you the one who killed my parents, huh?"

Charlie sighed. He only had himself to blame for making such strange characters, but he could still be annoyed with the outcome.

The sound of his entrance alerted Bruce, "halt! You- are you working with this train?"

"No, we- no," Charlie gave Bruce a baffled look at how dumb that question was, "we're here to stop you from getting yourself arrested, and also to ask if you have a purple slime creature with you."

"Slime creature? Ha, that's stupid, those don't exist," Bruce claimed confidently, definitely overconfidently as he then proceeded to crouch down and pull out a spanner that was stuck into the head of a Goobleck next to him, "thanks for holding that bud."

Charlie heard Grizz laughing behind him, "yeah, that checks out."

Charlie looked at him, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Grizz shrugged guiltily, "I dunno, you just sort of have a type when it comes to playing some characters."

"Congested?" Ranboo said.

Charlie couldn't help but burst out laughing, "I- yeah, haha, I guess I've ended up playing a couple of congested characters- that's a pretty f*cking weird niche to have."

"But you play them well!" Grizz patted his shoulder, "as demonstrated here..."

They both looked back at Bruce, who had started hitting the engine with the spanner.

"Okay, alright," Charlie stepped up and took the tool from his hand, "that's a bit loud, and we're trying not to get arrested. Listen, I'm sure this train isn't the one that killed your parents, that's probably still in your world, and the best way to get back there is by coming with us."

"Hm," Bruce squinted at Charlie, looking a little annoyed that his tool was taken, but he raised an eyebrow, "so you know the train that killed my parents?"

Charlie could hear Grizz trying not to laugh behind him but ignored the other man, "yes, and I can tell you for a fact that it's not here."

"As long as I can get revenge at last," Bruce nodded.

"And, uh, we might also need your 'bud'..." William added, pointing to Goobleck who'd had the spanner embedded in his head replaced with the stick, but not really seeming bothered by the impalement.

"Hey, that's my official train association officially mandated tool holder right there, I'm not just giving him away!" Bruce protested.

"You literally just made that up," Charlie told him.

"...Nuh uh."

William walked up and picked Goobleck up, Charlie being too late to warn him about skin to slime contact with the creature. He saw William wince and check his hands for what had hurt, but he then shrugged it off and said to Bruce, "we've got an even bigger tool-official-mandate-whatever at home, you know. You'd like that one way more."

Bruce seemed pretty easy to convince, "oh, man, that sounds pretty good...I'm sure they'd give me a raise the moment they saw me with that!"

William just went along with it, "yeah, sure. Let's just go before anyone checks this train."

Charlie was more than happy to do so and they all headed back to the window they'd wiggled in through. Hey, that had been pretty easy! Bruce was easier to handle compared to Backflipo, that was for sure, but it might've been a whole different story if nobody had been able to let them in from the inside.

Returning to the car was smooth, if not terrifying. It felt embarrassing to admit that with the fact that every single one of his characters had done something far more dangerous or illegal than breaking into a train and then leaving, but for him this was pretty new! Every time he saw someone in any kind of uniform his heart rate doubled, but those tended to be the same times Grizzly cracked a joke to the group and eased the tension. Charlie wondered if that was why he was doing it, because he'd noticed Charlie's breath hitching in his throat and his fingers tensing on the cloth of his own shirt, but he couldn't be sure.

When they shut the car doors and cut off the outside air, it felt like he could finally breathe again. Another one down, he reminded himself. One less to find. And countless more waiting for him...

"Okay," Grizz drew everyone's attention and put his car into gear, "next up, Troy time."

~

The Walmart was pretty empty, but even by night time there were still a handful of customers walking around. Those customers didn't stay long when a teacher, a 'drug-doing' student, and a wolf walked in together.

"Okay, let's just get a few things for the road. I may be pretty equipped, but I don't have food and drink for three people on me at all times," Ms Gilbert told the other two.

"People?" Chad questioned her use of the word.

"No being rude to your fellow student!" Ms Gilbert pointed a finger at him, "you may look different but you all deserve food, wouldn't you say?"

"I- I guess, but I figure he'd be just as happy with like, dog treats or something," Chad looked down to see Slarf's reaction to the word 'treat', and he did perk up upon hearing it.

"Well, I'll see what I can get," Ms Gilbert told them and headed into the lunchbox foods aisle.

She dropped a few things into her basket, checking the back of the boxes as she went, "you don't have any allergies, do you?"

Chad grinned, "I'm allergic to bullsh*t," Ms Gilbert glared at him and he cleared his throat, "uh, no, not that I know of."

Whilst Ms Gilbert was looking at some healthy snacks, Chad grabbed a few boxes of lunchables and snuck them in too. Slarf had bitten onto a bag of pretzels from a lower shelf and started shaking it in his mouth like a dog toy.

"Oh, I wonder if they have those good chips that I like," Ms Gilbert said to herself and headed to the end of the aisle to look for employees to ask. However, for some unknowable reason, the employees here were avoiding getting closer to her and her group. She wondered what could possibly be scaring them away, meanwhile Slarf was trying to start a fight with the cartoon dog mascot on a packet of biscuits behind her.

Continuing through the store she eventually stumbled upon someone in uniform, but seeing he was already talking to someone else she hung back a little until they were done, totally not intentionally listening in on their conversation in the meantime.

"Kid, I'm sorry, but," the man in uniform seemed middle aged and tired, wearing a name tag with 'Mark Thompson' and another tag with 'Manager' below that, "we don't have any fancy dress costumes like that at the moment."

"You don't understand!" the kid, maybe 18, protested with theatrical hand gestures, "it's the biggest role I've ever had, and the play must only be days away at this point! Surely there's something here."

Mark scratched his neck and looked around, "uh, I'm sorry, but- oh, ma'am! Is there something I can help you with?"

Ms Gilbert locked eyes with him and took a moment before responding, "oh, um, yes! Oh, not if you're dealing with this gentleman first, though, I can wait."

"I, uh...I don't think I can help him," Mark muttered to her.

"What are you two discussing?" the kid pointed to them.

"Just...adult things," Ms Gilbert waved a hand, "what is it that you're looking for, um..?" she paused, inviting him to tell her his name.

"It's Romeo, and I am in need of a costume, I simply can't perform my role without it. But it is being withheld from me!" Romeo pointed a finger up sternly.

"Well, what costume is it? I could help find something similar if they don't have the exact thing here," Ms Gilbert offered.

"A tree," Romeo told her. Chad laughed, then tried to blame it on Slarf when Ms Gilbert gave him a look.

"A tree, right," Ms Gilbert returned to the subject. She quickly scanned the clothes aisle Romeo was already stood in, but hardly saw any costumes, nevermind one as specific as a tree. She pursed her lips and looked back at Romeo, "maybe we could compromise on a similar outfit?"

Romeo looked offended by the suggestion, "there is not a chance I will compromise on this! With even a single prop out of place our performance of Rats could be ruined!"

"Hey, don't get so stressed out over it," Ms Gilbert reassured him, "in fact, this shouldn't be your responsibility at all. Your school's theatre department shouldn't be requiring you to get your own costumes, even if school funding is less than optimal, they can't just push their financial struggles onto the students. Tell you what, I can come have a word with your school if you need me to."

"I do appreciate your offer, however," Romeo looked to the side, "at the moment I'm not exactly sure where my school is. Apparently I'm in Los Angeles, but I've never heard of a place like that."

"Wait, you also have no idea how you got here? Same!" Chad held up a hand to high five Romeo, who hesitantly returned it.

"I suppose I don't remember having come to LA, and things here are a little different than they should be," Ms Gilbert agreed.

"I know, right?" Mark put a hand on his chin, "people keep telling me I don't work here, and calling it 'Walmart' instead of Ye Olde Mart of Wall. Paul hasn't even shown up and I'm sure he had a shift today. I don't know what to make of it all."

Ms Gilbert addressed them all, "well, if we're all in agreement over that, I say we stick together until we figure out what's going on. It's a strange assortment, but there's no class too unusual for Ms G to handle!"

The positivity in her outlook seemed to spread to the rest of the group and she soon had them all following after her, on their way to find answers, and perhaps a place to sleep too considering the sky was almost pitch black by now.

An employee tried to stop them as they were going out of the door, "um, excuse me miss, you need to pa-"

Slarf turned and growled at them, and in an instant the basket of stolen food was forgotten about. They definitely weren't getting paid enough to get mauled by a wolf over a few snacks.

"H-have a nice night..." the employee gave a noncommittal wave as the entrance to the store closed and cut off the clicking cicadas and cool night air.

Chapter 8: Snow Problem!

Chapter Text

They'd tried to pick a location that wasn't far away, but the drive to the winter sports place they suspected Troy had visited still took a little while. Charlie drummed his fingers on the side of the passenger door, and he could hear Ranboo behind him clicking their tongue to fill the silence. He could faintly hear emo music too, coming from the headphones William had put on over his hood. Bruce seemed the only one not bored, as he was just staring somewhere in the middle distance, with a weird sort of smile but otherwise blank expression. Charlie caught a glimpse of him in the overhead mirror and was a little concerned.

"Alright," Charlie cleared his throat, already feeling awkward for breaking the silence, "you guys wanna play any car games? Since we're not doing much else."

William slowly took his headphones off, "like, eye spy kind of things?"

"Oh, that's a classic one," Grizz agreed.

"You spy the f*cking road," Charlie told him, "drivers aren't allowed to play the games too."

"What?" Grizz said with a level of offense that Charlie couldn't be sure was fake or not.

"And also eye spy might not be the easiest thing to play at night," Charlie grimaced a little and turned back to William. It was definitely past 10 PM by now.

"I can still see plenty out of the windows," Bruce grinned; despite his great vision, he was unable to see the problem for everyone else.

"Well we don't have 60 feet of dark vision like you Bruce," Charlie sighed. He remembered that fun fact about the character, since he'd almost derailed Ranboo's whole mystery campaign with his impeccable sight. Hah, derailed. Maybe he wasn't too stressed for puns after all.

No, he was still very, very stressed. But, admittedly, he was feeling better. Things were going pretty okay right now, and it felt like his goal of getting every Goobleck scattered around LA might actually be achievable, maybe. Despite it being his own problem, sharing the trouble with friends hadn't been as disastrous as he'd been making it out to be in his head. He hadn't become completely worthless as a person for getting help from others, who could've expected such a twist?

"There's those number games like 21," Ranboo suggested as an alternative to eye spy.

Charlie shrugged, "yeah, that works."

For the rest of the journey they tried to keep themselves busy with games, which got weirdly competitive despite the core of the game just being listing numbers. Goobleck tried to join for a little bit, but failed to understand that 20 didn't come after 3. And despite needing to keep track of numbers in the game, the four players all failed to keep track of who'd won the most overall. Bruce claimed he had, and nobody had the energy to disagree with him, so truthfully or not he was named the victor of their short journey game session.

They had finished discussing the winner as Grizzly came to a stop in front of the winter sports building marked on their map. The immediate problem everybody could identify was that it was closed. Obviously, it was past 10 PM by now, but it was still an annoying roadblock.

"So it's probably gonna be harder to find anyone that can help, but I'll try find some night guards on patrol anyway," Grizz went over the plan that they'd discussed a little earlier in the journey, "maybe they can tell us about a rich brat they had to kick out earlier."

"We're relying on the fact that my character was enough of a nuisance for them to remember him," Charlie laughed.

"Won't be hard for Troy," Grizz smiled at Charlie and went to open his door.

"Oh, actually, should I come with you?" Charlie offered, "just in case you happen to...run into anything."

"Run into someone with your face who's gonna try and kill me?" Grizz finished the thought for him. Charlie couldn't really deny that was what he was worried about.

"...It's a possibility, y'know," Charlie shrugged and looked to the side.

"It should be safe now though," Ranboo interjected, "I mean, is there anyone besides the guy we're looking for who'd somehow end up somewhere as specific as a big winter sports building?"

"Everyone's been scattered all over the place so I can't really rule out the possibility," Charlie tapped his foot and looked for anyone along the street they'd parked on, but it was empty.

"I don't mind the company, you might as well come," Grizz waved a hand, "maybe you'll need to back me up if the night security is big and scary."

Charlie laughed, "sure. Alright, are you four gonna be okay while we're gone? Promise I won't be too long."

Ranboo raised an eyebrow at that claim but shook their head and moved on, "yeah, yeah, we'll be fine."

"Maybe in the meantime you guys can figure out how to set up the back seats for whatever passenger we end up with next," Grizz suggested.

Ranboo took a glance over the back of his seat and despite only his eyes being visible, that was enough to show everyone the sudden dread that came over them.

"It's not that complicated!" Grizz insisted.

"It'll keep us busy, that's for sure," Ranboo tried to at least focus on the benefits.

Charlie stepped out onto the street, and Grizz started walking around the car to join him. Some lights lit up the exterior of the building, the most eye catching being the giant illuminated letters high on the wall before them displaying the name of this winter sports place. It was good they didn't need flashlights with them, but Charlie didn't understand why this place would need to be so lit up when it's closed and the city around it is likely asleep.

Charlie would've liked to be asleep too, but here he was, decidedly not. It was fine, he probably had like, an hour left to eat something before he passed out again. But as appealing as sleep was, he remembered the last 'dream' he'd had and quickly changed his mind on that. He could stave off hunger and exhaustion long enough to avoid being in another game show. Or...worse.

Grizz got to the sidewalk, but paused before they started walking together, "oh, uh, are you sure you want to be the one backing me up? I just realised, the whole..." Grizz waved a hand around his own face, "this?"

"The-? Oh," Charlie was going to ask for an explanation of Grizz's vague question, but he raised a hand to his own face and was quickly reminded of the scar texture his fingers ran across, "yeah, that...I mean, Xiv healed it a little, so I don't look too f*cked up do I?"

"Yeahhh," Grizz agreed uncertainly, "people have scars, you know, it's fine, it's not like they'll immediately think you're a murderer or something."

"Why do you say that like they'll immediately think I'm a murderer or something?" Charlie wasn't put at ease by the uncertainty in Grizz's tone.

"They won't, let's just go," Grizzly pulled Charlie along, neither of them convinced but rolling with it anyway.

They could hear some scuffling in the car fading as they walked away, and Charlie noticed Grizz wince when there was a shunk. Hopefully that was the sound of the back seats being pulled into place, and not literally anything else.

They passed under the illuminated name of the building, Snow Problem!, as they walked around its edge in search of someone who they could talk to, and Grizz tilted his head to look up at it, "you ever get scared when you go under these things, that one's gonna just suddenly fall down on top of you?"

Charlie looked at him, shocked, "well, yeah, now I am!"

Charlie stepped around Grizz to be on his other side and further away from the giant illuminated letters that could possibly fall on him while Grizz tried to defend his statement, "well, no, I'm just saying-"

"Yeah, and you just saying it has given me a new phobia," Charlie laughed, although still being a little freaked out.

Grizz dismissed his fears and the two walked on past the looming presence of Snow Problem! and Charlie could ease up a little. He still gave Grizz a glare every now and then for the completely unnecessary scare.

There was nobody in sight along this side, and the doubt began to form that this random sports building might not have night security at all. There wasn't really anything in sight besides a side entrance they were coming up on. Probably locked, so there wasn't much point-

The doors clicked and slowly drifted open.

Charlie stopped in his tracks, a few steps from the door, and watched Grizz hesitate before stepping closer. He then turned back to Charlie, raising his eyebrows.

"No," Charlie answered without there having been a question, "we are not breaking and entering that is literally a crime Grizzly."

"Hey, I didn't break anything, did you?" Grizz put his hands up.

"You know what I mean!" Charlie glared at him.

"If they've left the doors unlocked here then I feel like Troy's probably already inside," Grizz argued.

"Left- did you not see what it just did? That door unlocked itself, they didn't leave it open! Something's probably waiting in there to kill us!" Charlie hissed the last part through his teeth as though whatever was on the other side might hear him.

"You are way too paranoid about this," Grizz told him, which Charlie very much disagreed with, "if the door opened itself maybe that's just a sign we should go in."

Charlie reeled back, "I get that this whole situation is weird, but I don't see any scenario in which this isn't a trap, man."

Grizz pulled him back, "you're the one who wants the Gooblecks."

Charlie grimaced, "yeah, I am...ugh..."

"So..?" Grizz motioned towards the door.

Charlie put a hand over his face and muttered to himself, "I knew this was gonna end in me going to jail."

Grizz kept looking at him expectantly, and Charlie eventually gave in, "fine. If anyone catches us, we tell them we were just looking for someone to ask for help or something, alright?"

"It's not like we're going in to rob them! Unless they've claimed Goobleck as their property," Grizz shrugged.

"This is still definitely a crime," Charlie scowled but stepped up to the door nonetheless.

Inside, they had entered into a hallway. The lights, motion activated, clicked a few times before they began to buzz and light up the space to their left and right. It was an empty hallway full of doors, which was probably just here to fulfil the legal requirement of having a fire exit within reach of all the rooms in the building. Kind of ironic that they needed to prepare for fires in a building that's whole purpose was to be cold.

Besides the doors there were a few windows on the wall opposite Charlie and Grizz, through the one closest to him Charlie could see the bottom of a ski slope. It was a little hard to make out, but there were still some dim lights on the inside that somewhat illuminated it.

"Let's check in all the windows first to see if we see anyone," Charlie suggested, glancing back at Grizz before he went further down the hallway to check the next one. Grizz nodded and did the same in the opposite direction.

Charlie hadn't realised how long this hallway was at first but as he walked down the lights continued turning on, revealing more and more doors and windows to pass by. At a certain point he could've sworn he'd walked past where the outside wall of the building should've cut it off.

But he stayed more focused on the windows he was looking through, seeing ice rinks and slopes and circuits, but no people within them. He continued on, lights clicking on ahead of him, until all of a sudden they lit up something in the hall itself.

Charlie came to an abrupt stop. It wasn't that he'd seen something that scared him, but he was looking at something that was very, very wrong, and Grizz was looking back at him the same way. Because it was Grizz, standing before him, in the direction opposite to the one he'd gone in.

"Please tell me you just ran around really quickly to meet me at this side," Charlie begged.

"Wait- but you-" Grizz was still confused, looking behind himself, then back at Charlie and pointing to him, "you went the other way, right?"

Charlie's face dropped, "oh, no, this might be bad...this might be really bad."

"You know what it is?" Grizz looked hopeful that Charlie would have an idea, but from Charlie's reaction he was also dreading what this turned out to be.

"Please, god, don't tell me this is the backrooms again," Charlie put one hand on his waist and the other on his head.

"Again?" Grizz raised his eyebrows.

"It's been a long day," Charlie sighed.

"Well, we're not like, trapped here now, are we?" Grizz looked at the hallway behind him again that stretched on into darkness.

"No, there's- there's always a way out," Charlie didn't sound that convincing, but he did believe there would be some way to get out of here. If this was some character somehow changing the world around it (which was a worrying concept, but there wasn't much he could do about it) there was no way they'd just end up in here with no escape. Even if they needed to do some game or challenge to get out...Charlie felt a shiver run down his spine.

They were both alerted by another voice, muffled as it was coming from another room, "aw dude, these slopes are harshing my vibes, man."

Charlie and Grizz exchanged a knowing look. That was easier than they'd been expecting.

Charlie was first to push open the closest door and get immediately hit with the chilled air from inside that rushed out into the hallway. He could hear Grizz behind him react to the sudden cold too. His feet fell onto solid ground but the walkway he was on wasn't far from the icy terrain that curved up towards the incredibly high ceiling. He could see most of the lights above them were off so the white slope wasn't blinding, in fact it was a little difficult to make out the dips and ramps in the terrain as the shadows blended them together, but it was much easier for him to see the man stood along the same walkway as him, equipped in his red uniform with maybe as many sponsors as Charlie had characters, and slinging his steam sled over his back.

"Oh, finally," Troy rolled his eyes when Charlie stepped in, "you here to get this thing working, dude? Seriously, I've been here trying to practice for the big game but your stupid ramp lift whatever isn't even moving! I've probably been here days, dude, I'm gonna miss the game."

"You h-have been here a few hours at most," Charlie said, judging by the time that everyone else had started appearing in his world.

"Ey, Troy, remember me?" Grizz stepped out from behind Charlie, speaking in the voice of Runt, his rat humanoid from the same campaign Troy was from.

Charlie whispered to him, his voice involuntarily shaky from the cold, "I d-don't think the voice is enough when you don't look anything like a p-pink rat person."

Grizz looked unfazed by that, "it's a pink rat person with an iconic voice, though!"

"Uh, you sound kind of like some kid I know, I guess," Troy didn't seem too surprised by the voice, and Charlie heard Grizz offendedly mutter "kid?" to himself in Runt's voice, "I love voice impressions as much as the next guy, dude, but aren't you here to fix your dumb machine already?"

"What, that machine?" Charlie extended a shaky finger towards the seat lift going up the far wall that brought people to the top of the slope. Or, it would've, if it was moving, but this place closed hours ago so it wasn't much of a surprise that they'd turned it off for the night. Troy nodded.

"Yeah, we're not repair guys," Charlie told him, "this place closed hours ago, we're j-just here to k-kick you out. And whoever else might be in here."

He added that last bit as an afterthought, because Charlie started to realise that Troy couldn't have been the one making hallways loop on themselves, he never had any powers like that. Which meant there might have been yet another character in here with them that they'd yet to find.

And then, almost like it was on cue, another voice emerged. But this time it didn't come from a clear person, rather the speakers set up at the corners of the room that inevitably echoed around a little in the open space.

And at first it wasn't even a voice, but rather the muffled sound of crying.

"Uh..." Grizz looked up and spoke over the echoey, slightly distorted sobbing in the room, "hey, man, you okay?"

"Dude, who is this guy?" Troy pointed up at the speakers, sounding annoyed, "if he's about to try and kick me out of my domain too right now I am seriously gonna freak out."

"We'll know which one he is soon..." Charlie said, somewhat ominously.

The crying subsided a little and they could hear the voice through the speakers clear his throat, "oh, uh, I should really try and stop doing that before we go live- uh, hello! And welcome, to the Labyrinth of Ceaseless-! Wait, no, this isn't...is the maze supposed to look like this?"

"I d-don't think any of us are gonna know that," Charlie answered, assuming this guy could still hear them from wherever he was.

"Well, whatever, I guess the maze is always full of surprises...ahem, uh, I am Mr Cicle!" although he pronounced it like 'cycle', "and welcome, all of you, to the Labyrinth of Ceaseless Agony!"

"Couldn't you have just run a normal maze?" Grizz looked disappointed at Charlie.

"The name is an exaggeration, it's f-fine," Charlie tried to reassure him, although the Maze of Ceaseless Agony wasn't exactly a good thing as he remembered it either.

"And by all, I mean all," Mr Cicle continued, "being invisible isn't going to save you here."

Everyone was confused by that statement, until its intended target made himself clear, "sh*t, it was worth a try, I guess."

Charlie looked at the newly visible teenager, "William? You were s-staying in the car, why the hell are you here?"

"They're not gonna realise I'm gone anyway," William defended, "I really didn't want to stay in that car, Bruce is...worrying."

"As long as Ranboo's still there..." Grizz tried to reassure himself that when they returned to the car it wouldn't have been completely destroyed.

"Well I suppose it's good that you know each other, because you're all gonna need to work together to escape! In this room, you'll need to...well, uh, I haven't really seen this room before, so I don't exactly know. Oh, hold on, I have this in here with me now, maybe he knows!" there was the sound of some moving around that came from the speakers, then another voice.

"Heehoo :)"

"I think we just use the door to escape, dude. That's kind of their whole purpose," Troy pointed out.

"Well, you can try, but the maze has all sorts of tricks, so I'm sure that-!"

As Mr. Cicle continued his monologue, William walked up to the door they'd come in from and opened it. Mr. Cicle stopped and the speakers were quiet for a few moments.

"Uh, w-well, to beat the maze there's still plenty more to be done! You won't find the peril and sacrifice ahead of you so easy!"

William sighed, "alright, give me a minute," and went intangible through another wall.

"Wh- hey, wait, hold on a second! Where's he going? You can't just go through the walls of a maze! Tell him, creature thing!" Mr. Cicle sounded annoyed and there were more noises of moving from the speakers.

"You all in maze. This is a-maze-ing :D"

"What? No, why are you even here?" there was a sigh and a wet squelch as Mr. Cicle presumably dropped Goobleck back on the floor.

Grizz muttered to Charlie, "where was William going?"

"He seemed to have a plan. Sort of..." Charlie didn't really know, he just looked off at the wall William had disappeared into. Meanwhile, with the three of them standing confused at the bottom of a sledding slope, the speakers continued projecting all across the room.

"Usually this goes a lot different, I don't really...I'm not really sure why the maze looks like some...snow mountain thing? I mean, sure, whatever, y'know, but like- this doesn't exactly give the Labyrinth of Ceaseless Agony vibes I usually try and work with."

"I- well, it's still cool," Charlie assured him- despite an unnervingly consistent joy in the character's tone, he couldn't help but think he sounded a little disappointed.

"Thanks, but it's really not. I don't think I can emphasise the Ceaseless Agony part of the Labyrinth quite enough," and the continued joyful tone certainly wasn't helping to emphasise that point.

Then, another voice, harder to hear and much more like William's, sounded over the speakers, "oh, this is where you are? Weird spot to be hiding in."

There was a scream, a crashing sound, and then William's voice again, but clearer this time, "oh, this is your microphone?" then there were two very loud noises.

"Ow, hey- the heck was that?" Grizz flinched and went to cover his ears.

"Oh, sh*t, forgot you guys would hear me tapping on it. Sorry," William paused. Then tapped on it again.

"Stop!" Charlie shouted back.

"Okay, okay, I'm done now," the quiet laughter in William's voice didn't convince anyone, "I found the room this guy was hiding in, do I bring him back to you guys now?"

"Bring me out?" Mr. Cicle repeated, as though the suggestion was a joke, "I have been here for a time beyond what is worth measuring, and throughout all that nobody has ever beaten this maze! You can't just bring me out, that doesn't make sense!"

"There's a door right there," William told him, "did you just...not notice that? This whole time?"

"Well- that's- this isn't how the Labyrinth of Ceaseless Agony usually works," Mr. Cicle told him.

"It is now. Come on, let's go, bring your little creature thing too," William's voice started getting more distant from the mic again.

"Goobleck :)"

"Yeah, that's the one," William agreed and after the sounds of footsteps and a door closing the speakers went silent again.

Troy turned to Charlie and Grizz, "so, is this like, a normal thing for repair guys, or..?"

"Again, n-not repair guys," Charlie sighed.

"But at this point maybe we would count this as normal," Grizz tilted his head.

"Would you say we're becoming...maze-ters of this?" Charlie asked.

Grizz looked back at him, "well we're certainly not mastering puns, that's for sure."

"Hey!" Charlie lightly punched his arm in offense.

They were waiting there a few more minutes, Troy occasionally perking up to say things that ranged between confusing and very incorrect, and Charlie was mainly just trying to focus on not shivering too much. He might've gone back into the hallway outside, if he didn't trust it to do more dimensional f*ckery and spit him out on the other side of the building.

Then the door he kept eyeing opened, and William returned followed by someone else. Oh, and Goobleck.

The first feature Charlie was drawn to on Mr. Cicle were his glasses, with green lenses and additional smaller ones attached at the sides. His striped waistcoat and green shirt were also pretty eye-catchingly saturated.

"Oh, I've- I've never actually seen the people that get trapped in the maze in person before. This is new," he told them. By the sounds of it, 'new' things were quite the rare luxury to him.

"Might be because you're n-not in the maze anymore, welcome to the real world. W-well, almost, once we get out of this building," Charlie told him.

Mr. Cicle gave him a look, "what do you mean by real world?"

Charlie opened his mouth, but then took a second to actually think about what he was going to say, "it's...more real from our perspective. Just d-different from yours, is all."

Charlie caught William giving him a look for that, as it was a very different explanation to the one he'd heard Charlie giving to Gillion back at his house hours ago. He couldn't tell if the look he got was more surprise or relief, but it seemed to be a good thing, and Charlie felt a bit better about it too.

"Okay, great talk," Troy clapped his hands together, clearly bored by the conversation of the others, "if we're getting out of here to get to the big game, can we just do it already?"

"When did we s-say we were going t-to the game..?" Charlie looked at Troy in exhaustion.

"Yeah, sure, we should probably go," Grizz moved past that point, "as long as that hallway out there doesn't have us eternally trapped."

"You better not have c-cursed us by saying that," Charlie said, hoping he hadn't also cursed them by saying that.

But, when he went to open the door that had shut behind William and Mr. Cicle, on the opposite side of the hallway he found himself looking straight at the fire exit they'd come in through.

"Oh. Convenient," Grizz said over Charlie's shoulder, "wait, maybe we should check if anyone else is-"

"Nope," Charlie interrupted, knowing Grizz's suggestion was likely a joke but there was no way he was turning down the exit that had been put right in front of him. Without even looking left or right down the long hallway he went straight forwards and pushed through the doors, finding the chilled night air much more manageable now.

The five others followed, Charlie making sure everyone was out of the building before he shut the door behind them. To be fair, it could've gone much worse. It was still more of an adventure than he'd been wanting to find, though.

"This is..." Mr. Cicle muttered to the sky, staring up at the light polluted darkness above. It was a shame how difficult stars were to see in LA with all the street lamps.

"Freedom, I guess," Charlie finished for him. He smiled as he saw the wonder on Mr. Cicle's face, unable to take his eyes away from the night sky.

"They were never supposed to be in the maze after the sun set..." Mr. Cicle thought out loud, "so I was never really looking after that point."

"Yeah, you'll get over it, night is boring if you're not drunk anyways," Troy patted Mr. Cicle's shoulder, shocking him out of the trance he seemed to be in.

Grizz was already walking ahead, clearly anxious to get back to his car and check no severe damage had been done in the process of setting up his back seats. Charlie remembered something he'd made a mental note to ask before they set off so he quickly called out before he forgot.

"Oh, Grizz?" Charlie got his attention.

"Yeah?"

CRASH

That- that wasn't- that shouldn't have-

Charlie blinked, but the sight before him remained the same, despite all odds, despite all sense and probability. Not another inch of his body moved, not even his lungs, he couldn't tell if his heart was beating. He could feel fight or flight kicking at his muscles but they were stiff against the adrenaline and he stayed as he was, only staring.

Staring at Grizz, and the giant metal 'S' that was a quarter embedded in the concrete behind him.

Grizz had been walking under it. A few steps more and it- he-

If Charlie hadn't called out and stopped him, then right now, Grizz would've been-

Oh god, he was gonna puke.

Grizz didn't look much better, his face white and jaw hanging open as he looked over his shoulder at the wreckage inches from his heels. That thing had shattered concrete. He should've been f*cking dead.

Charlie threw up.

He didn't know if it was the cold or the adrenaline or the fact that oh god Jesus f*cking Christ, he almost just watched someone DIE, but his whole body was shaking and he couldn't stop himself from spilling his guts onto the sidewalk. That was some Final Destination sh*t, and as far as he was aware, he didn't have a character in that f*cking franchise!

After checking he was all in one piece, Grizz's eyes turned upwards to the empty frame for the letter 'S' above, and the name beside it that now read now Problem!

"Yeah, no kidding," Grizz muttered to himself, a grim laugh coming over him. He probably looked insane for laughing after being a meter away from getting violently crushed to death, but jokes about his mortality were easier than acknowledging the fragility of it.

William ran up to the wreckage, easily the least fazed by the crash besides Goobleck, and looked up too, "that can't be right...there's no way that was just bad luck, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, a fear of giant letters falling from the sky is irrational for a reason," Grizz replied, still not feeling like he was totally in his own body, "are you trying to tell me someone did that?"

"Someone, something..." William muttered. He looked back at the giant 'S', "maybe we just go around the giant death traps for now."

"That is a good plan," Grizz nodded to him and happily took plenty of steps away from the building's wall.

Charlie, Troy and Mr. Cicle caught up to them, Charlie being the first to talk in a mess of stuttering over his own words, "sh*t, holy f*ck, a-are you- is everything-? W-what just-?"

"I-" Grizz looked down at himself, just to confirm, "I'm alive, that's," he looked at the 'S', "yeah, that. That just...oh god."

"Let's- f*cking- let's just get to the car, alright?" Charlie looked at Grizz, the former still terrified and the latter horrified.

They all walked hurriedly to his car, with more than a few tense glances thrown at the rest of the illuminated letters, but none of the others fell down, and everyone was keeping a good distance from them anyway.

Grizz flung open the side door and Charlie caught his eyes analysing all the rest of the car before they landed on Bruce and Ranboo, "uh, hey guys. Did you figure out the back seats?"

"I- yeah, I think, but uh," Ranboo looked at how stressed Grizz and the rest of the group seemed to be, "are you guys okay?"

"No. Here, shift the seat down, we'll fit some people in the back," Grizz quickly moved on from his answer and assisted Ranboo in pulling the side seat down to allow Mr. Cicle and Troy, with Goobleck between them, to shuffle into the back. William took his seat on the middle row again and Charlie and Grizz got back in the front.

Grizz held tight on the wheel before he'd even started the car, and Charlie knew he was just trying to stop himself from shaking.

"You want me to drive?" Charlie offered.

"You're not in a much better state than me," Grizz laughed, but it sounded a bit forced. Charlie couldn't really say he was wrong.

"So this isn't like one of those van rides where they give you candy, right? Because dude, I took a ride in one of those one time- not good. They didn't even give me any candy," Troy jutted in.

"No, it's nothing like that, we're just gonna bring you to a casino," Charlie phrased it like that was the much better alternative, then spoke to Grizz, "which I was gonna ask about earlier actually, before...uh, yeah, anyways, do we need to gamble when we go into a casino, or can we tell them we're just there looking for a friend?"

"If it's Goobleck in there they might pay us to be getting rid of him," Grizzly proposed.

"Goobleck disposal service," Charlie laughed, "that's us now."

Grizz smiled and got the car moving, leaving now Problem! behind. The distance made the problem itself seem further away.

It wasn't.

~

Ms Gilbert and her 'students' sat spread across two benches in a quiet area of the city. There were a few more interesting individuals they'd encountered since having grabbed their snacks, however the group hadn't really gotten on well with one called Keith, so he'd since been left on the side of the road after Slarf had gotten a good bite into both his ankles.

On one bench was Ms G, Chad Bussy and Romeo Juliet with Slarf at their feet, and on the other Mark Thompson was sitting with two other men who'd introduced themselves as Mr Perfect and Br'aad.

While Br'aad was eating one of the raisin boxes Ms Gilbert had handed out, Mr Perfect was instead reciting a multitude of quotes about work-life balance to Mark. Mark was listening intently to every word, occasionally commenting on how he should be saying some of these things to Paul.

Chad had happily taken one of the lunchables he'd added to the basket and even threw one of the little meat circles down to Slarf in the hopes it would be taken as a peace offering. Instead he was now getting looks from Slarf that made him feel like the wolf was expecting more little meat shapes, but he'd already eaten the rest of them, and so now he was kind of fearing for his life.

Ms Gilbert reached down and petted his head, an action Chad was sure would result in his hand getting torn off if he tried it, and she thought out loud, "I wonder what trouble this little friend of ours was getting into before we found him...his ears are in quite the state."

Chad could only imagine the amount of fights this wolf had ended up in to get its ears so scratched up, and he really didn't like imagining it, "maybe that's something we're better off not knowing, Ms G."

"Oh, I'm sure it can't be that bad," Ms Gilbert told him.

At that moment Slarf raised his head and began making some strange noises- maybe they were supposed to be barks and howls, but they didn't sound much like how a normal wolf should ever sound.

"Wh- what is he doing," Chad tried to lean away.

Romeo leaned in, "could it be, is he trying to speak?"

"I don't want him to speak can he stop doing that immediately please," Chad grimaced.

"Let Slarf speak his mind, Chad!" Ms Gilbert told him, "this could be very important for him."

Chad had a million disagreements with that, but he kept his mouth shut and just listened as Slarf told his 'story'...

~

Slarf's story, 3 hours earlier...

The setting sun cast a fiery light through the trees that came down to the earth below in flickers like embers, red lights that danced and sparked amidst the high tensions on the forest floor. Concealed under foliage, and yet feeling as though they bared themselves to the world as they set the stage for war.

Slarf held himself with confidence, and not without reason. These forests were his home, the very scent in the trees being that of his territory. And Slarf valued his home as he did his life. For his kin he would lay his own body down in its earth to ensure their path to tread was soft. He was prepared to bare his fangs, so that his children may use their own for nothing more than to feast on the prey he returned to them.

And he knew his own land, he knew it well. And he knew this beast before him; only that it did not belong here.

Maybe, though, he could see himself in this thing, and that was why he hesitated. Its darkness and scarred nature, the battles it had no doubt endured before the one it faces today. In the darkness of eve and its own shadowed nature it was almost nothing more than a silhouette, but the embers of dying sunlight caught the contours of its body, revealing a ghastly shape.

Three heads, grafted together onto a single form, barely able to be called a body. Empty sockets held the absence of eyes, but Slarf felt a gaze upon him nonetheless. Those skeletal heads must have been something more than bone, Slarf knew plenty about what bones should've looked like, how they felt as he held them in his jaws and how they snapped as he bit. No bone he'd ever torn from flesh had had a colour so black. Still, he snarled, a grim, bestial smile. He trusted black bone would break just the same.

The beast before him shifted and raised its skulls to let out its cry of war, "Wimothy!"

Slarf's ears twitched in excitement. A battle it wanted, a battle it would most certainly get.

"Sleeeaarff!"

And then the two launched, declarations made that could not be taken back. Until there was a victor, bloodshed would reign.

Slarf raised a pawful of claws and slashed them down upon Wimothy, he could've sworn there were sparks as nail hit bone, forging his blades as he fought with them, and Slarf felt it digging in to the surface. But the first strike was only one of many, and Wimothy wasn't far behind as Slarf was hit by a solid impact to the side and sent sprawling through the air until he hit a tree. Bark flaked off as the wooden structure warped from his impact, and Slarf then fell down to its roots.

Wimothy might've expected that would be enough to decide the victor, and he could be forgiven for thinking such as the force he'd hit Slarf with was certainly enough to put most animals out of a fight. But Slarf growled, and raised his head. He wouldn't be forgiving Wimothy for thinking so little of him.

He stood and spread his paws before him, pressing them down and leaving marks in the dirt. He'd admit, that hit had done him damage, but now Wimothy had played his hand and Slarf knew what to expect of this enemy. He'd taken down bison, this overactive skeleton was nothing.

Slarf leapt, striking again, but this time mindful of Wimothy's own attacks. He'd use his smaller body to the advantage, scurrying around to avoid the incoming hits and staying in areas where he couldn't easily be reached. And from there he still found himself in the perfect spot to dig his claws in, scratching and tearing, digging into bone until at last he found a chunk coming loose in his grasp, the sharp end of a rib snapping from the body and Wimothy letting out a cry in response.

He couldn't be certain the cry was of pain or anger, it wasn't like any Slarf had drawn from the throat of his prey before. That only enticed him more, sparking the hunter in his instincts. New prey, a novelty. The thrill of the hunt was always sweetest the first time, and in his thousands of years prowling the land he'd only become accustomed to that taste. But now, with the shriek that had just pierced his ears, Slarf had the confirmation that this was something different. He felt such a rush, he felt like a pup again. This was what he lived for, after all, it was one of the first things he'd known in this world. A fight like this; it was truly a gift.

So he continued, relentless, scratching and tearing and snarling until bone gave in to claw and Wimothy's continued attempts to throw Slarf to the ground remained useless. He'd done plenty of damage but nothing critical- until, at that moment, he saw the opening he'd been awaiting. Wimothy's middle head tilted to where Slarf had just been, before he'd jumped onto the tree just behind the skeletal beast, but in his efforts to search for where the wolf would strike from next he had only offered the back of his skull to Slarf's jaws.

Slarf didn't dare hesitate and bared his fangs, ready to bite down on Wimothy with all the strength he had. It was so close, he could almost feel it between his teeth.

He was prepared to avoid another hit, but the last thing he expected was to be interrupted by an explosion without a source, sending him spiralling through the air until his spine hit another tree.

He still tried to see a positive, even as he felt something in his back and shoulders bending further than it should've, because whatever that was, surely Wimothy had gotten caught in its blast too. However, no such gift awaited Slarf when he raised his head to regard his enemy once more. The explosion hadn't hit Wimothy, somehow it had come from Wimothy.

"Wimothy blast!" the creature yelled victoriously, and whilst Slarf had no idea what that meant because he was a wolf who couldn't speak the English language, Wimothy's arrogance transcended language. If he thought one little blast could put Slarf down, Slarf was more than happy to prove him wrong.

His sights still set on the skull he'd been inches from tasting, Slarf pushed himself on; hurt as he was he wouldn't let up until the end. Until bone crushed between his teeth he wouldn't dare show weakness.

Wimothy, taken aback by the wolf's resilience, couldn't react fast enough before Slarf leapt and grabbed on, climbing his jagged ribs like a ladder, his enemy made his playground. He danced around Wimothy's sight, staying avoidant of anything that would hit him off; if he were sent down to the forest floor again, he feared he might stay down there this time. Wimothy tried to shake him away but Slarf held on with claws that would've been strong enough to pierce skin if this unnatural creation had any.

At the same time the skull's jaw unhinged to yell in defiance, Slarf's own was wide, and before any explosion or hidden tricks could get in the way he threw his fangs down upon the skull he had been waiting long enough to break.

For all the strangeness it this creature, at its core it was the same as any other that Slarf had since defeated. This was like any other skull, and it would break all the same. So Slarf bit down and was rewarded with that long awaited crack.

Wimothy cried out once more and white light erupted from his body. To protect himself from this unknown new ability Slarf returned to the forest floor and backed away, knowing he had done severe damage either way and whatever Wimothy was doing was unlikely to save him. The light enveloped Wimothy, leaving him as an obscure silhouette Slarf could just barely keep his eyes on. Then, from the light, came noise.

"Thank you, small beast from the woods...you may not have killed me, but you have given me a taste of the sweet release I was looking for...I wish you the best in what awaits you..."

Slarf, of course, was a wolf, and didn't understand a word of what was just said to him. He just knew his enemy was still before him, so he decided to bite onto one of Wimothy's lower ribs and try to shake it furiously in his mouth while growling and snarling.

"Ow- okay, sh*t, I'm leaving, god!" Wimothy said his final goodbyes and as the light faded away, so too did he. Slarf was left alone, another foe defeated, and this territory remained his for another day.

It began to feel emptier than it had even before Slarf had come across Wimothy, though. What was he to do now?

The fire of the sunset had all but disappeared, extinguished by black night, the earth beneath the trees left a dark and solemn place. It was quiet, almost too quiet, until eventually Slarf's ears twitched and pointed in the direction of footsteps. Two travellers setting foot in his territory, it would seem.

He set off towards them, howling into the night. Friend or foe, he would just have to find out.

~

Ms Gilbert sniffed and wiped a tear from her eye, "wow, I can't believe you did all that, Slarf..."

Chad looked at her, then at the wolf who, for the past ten minutes, had been doing nothing but make weird f*cking whimpering and howling sounds.

Romeo was nodding too, "my word, what a story. I didn't think a tale without rats in it could ever be so good."

Chad blinked at him slowly. Did these people regularly just...talk to wolves? Honestly, he was a little jealous. But maybe he didn't want to know what it translated to whenever Slarf was barking and growling at him.

Ms Gilbert patted Slarf's head proudly, "when I get my stickers back I'll give you a gold star for crushing his skull!"

Wide eyed, Chad span around to her, "he f*cking huh?"

Chapter 9: Shattered Worlds, Crossing Fates

Chapter Text

"I think I'm probably gonna stay in the car for this one," Grizz told Charlie, who was just about to open his door. Charlie was going to ask why, but immediately was brought back to the CRASH of the big metal death trap that had almost crushed him at the last place. Right, Grizz was probably still on edge from that. Charlie was even still a little nauseous.

"I'll come with," Ranboo said, and Charlie nodded to him.

"Yeah, alright. William, are you coming with us now, or are you gonna sneak off in five minutes and join us that way again?" Charlie remarked, given that it was now twice that William had snuck somewhere without telling anyone.

William looked a bit embarrassed to be called out like that, "well, it's a casino, and I don't have any ID, so I don't really have any choice with this one."

Yeah, that was fair. Even if Goobleck had somehow gotten in, William would probably get kicked out sooner or later, or at the very least attract unwanted attention.

The casino they'd stopped outside of was close to Quackity's house, as they assumed Slime had sent his Goobleck off to gamble shortly before breaking into Quackity's. This seemed even more of a gamble (haha) than finding Troy at a random sledding slope, but they had indeed found Troy, so maybe there was a bigger chance to find Goobleck than Charlie thought.

And speak of the nepo-baby-devil, "hey, dudes, I'm just saying, you're gonna wish you had me in there too."

"Troy, why the hell would we need you and your stupid sled in a casino?" Charlie stared him down from the opposite end of the car.

"Stupid?" Troy gawked at him, "oh, dude, you did not just say that."

Charlie rolled his eyes, "Troy, you're not coming in the casino with us, we'll be fine."

Jeez, he felt like a parent dealing the five most dysfunctional kids in the world. Bruce and Mr. Cicle weren't even children but he still had that same responsibility to take care of them and make sure they didn't stick a fork in an outlet, or rather in this case prevent them from spiralling into a gambling addiction upon stepping foot in a casino. He wasn't exactly sure where Goobleck sat on the age scale but given they were only at this casino in order to retrieve a Goobleck, it wasn't much different from everyone else.

But now it would be Grizz's responsibility for as long as Charlie and Ranboo were in there looking for Goobleck, which Charlie hoped wouldn't be long, but he knew by now that was a useless thing to hope for. As long as nobody got hurt, he was resigned to the fact he'd keep getting drawn into these character side quest-like adventures.

So he and Ranboo left the car, Charlie firm in his decision to not let anyone else come with, and Ranboo eagerly backed him up. The doors to the casino were wide open and inviting, sound and lights projecting out disruptively into an otherwise quiet night. A few people were inside, though their faces and hands were attuned to the machines so he doubted he'd get any weird looks from them, or that he'd even be noticed at all. Maybe Goobleck was sitting at the slots and nobody had even batted an eye.

The two of them stepped in and onto the patterned carpets that were probably disgusting beneath all the bright colours and shapes, and took in the musty, gross air. Christ, Charlie would probably take freezing his balls off in Snow Problem! over this constant overstimulation. But whatever, they were here now.

There was a staff member or two in uniform walking between the machines, which filled a fairly big room that meant a lot of the machines were hidden behind other ones. For now they'd probably avoid the staff in case they asked any questions about what he and Ranboo were doing here, but as a last resort they might need to ask someone if they'd seen a slime creature wandering around the area.

Ranboo sparked up some conversation as they both walked further in and poked their heads around corners, "so I guess the idea is that everyone goes back to their own worlds once we're done with this, huh."

Charlie took a moment to process the question over the ambient noise of music and button pressing and dopamine farming sound effects from the machines, but eventually responded, "hopefully. I don't exactly have a backup plan, but if we need one, I'll figure it out when we need it."

"What happens if any of them don't want to leave?" Ranboo asked.

"Uh, well...why wouldn't they? I mean, this isn't the world they belong in, y'know. I don't really see why anyone like Gillion or Backflipo would rather be here than back home with the people they know."

"I guess you know them better than I do," Ranboo shrugged and laughed. They looked back to the doors and at Grizzly's car for a moment, seeming to be in thought, "probably a good thing you didn't bring any of them with you in here. I hope they're not too much of a trouble getting in the way of Grizz."

"Oh, he can manage them," Charlie tried to have faith in his friend, but he did realise that was a lot of his characters to be taking care of at once back there.

At that point Charlie came upon a chair facing away from him, which at first looked empty, but something slightly dripping over one edge gave him other thoughts. He walked up to it and, peering over the back of the seat, looked down on a little Goobleck very happily tapping buttons that were doing nothing at all. Thank god it had no concept of money, or of gambling for that matter. Goobleck was probably just mirroring what it saw everyone else doing without any idea why.

Ranboo picked up on Charlie's find and walked over, "oh, would you look at that."

Goobleck remained oblivious, slapping goo onto the buttons that had probably stopped working by now. It didn't seem anyone had noticed him due to being small enough to be concealed by the back of a chair, but Charlie wasn't sure how they were getting him out. He was still intent on not touching these things, but there wasn't anything he could see that could be a barrier between his skin and Goobleck's slime.

"Uh, hey Ran, is there any chance I can use your mask as a glove for picking him up?" Charlie asked.

"I figure there's probably something better than my mask that you can use..." Ranboo readjusted the mask at its mention. That was fair, but Charlie really didn't know what else to use. He looked around again, in the hopes that he'd see something he hadn't before, and technically he did- although it wasn't something he could pick up Goobleck with.

Someone stood out from the few figures walking around the casino floor, as he didn't show much interest in the machines. There was a beanie covering the back of his head but when he turned Charlie saw it was Quackity, looking around the casino like he and Ranboo had been.

Charlie, after taking a moment to confirm that really was him, waved to him and called out, "hey, Quackity! The hell are you doing here, man?"

Quackity looked around more intensely as he heard his name and eventually locked eyes with Charlie, and ran over, "hey, what- I could ask you the same thing! What are you doing so close to my place?"

"Looking for the Goobleck you told us about! Found him, by the way," Charlie pointed to the Goobleck, smiling wide as ever as it mashed buttons.

"Oh, well-" Quackity stopped what he was about to say for a few seconds as he looked at the creature that was Goobleck. Somehow it was an even weirder sight than Slime, but he tried to shrug it off and continue, "well, that's what I came to do, I was thinking you'd be looking in places closer to your house. Trying to cover more ground, y'know."

"Covering more ground doesn't really work when you don't communicate the ground you're covering," Charlie pointed out. Quackity dismissed that by making a talking motion with his hand.

"Yeah, yeah, well we're here now, so...what do you even need that thing for?" Quackity looked at Goobleck with mild disgust.

"We need to gather them all to save the universe," Charlie spoke as though he was making it up, even though that was pretty much exactly what they were doing. The whole situation sounded made up.

"But Charlie doesn't wanna touch them," Ranboo added, "so now we need something to grab it with so we can get it out of here."

As he said that, one of the staff members walked up with a bar tray holding a few drinks, "hey, would you gentlemen like anything to drink?"

They were only small, a few shot glasses with some red- presumably alcohol- held in them. Obviously they wouldn't just be handing out champagne glasses for free, but offering a little bit of alcohol on the house probably went a long way to keep people in here spending their money.

"Oh, um, well, I can't, but uh," Ranboo awkwardly turned down the offer and looked to Charlie for his response. He wasn't driving, he supposed...

"Uh, thanks," Charlie also felt a little awkward taking a glass from the tray, but it felt rude not to. That was probably the intention, and he'd just fallen for it. Oh well, he knew he wasn't here to gamble anyway, that was Goobleck's job, and the staff member hadn't noticed him since he was still hidden behind the seat back.

Charlie looked at the drink between his fingers. Staring down into the red, a sense of unease began to build. He couldn't place where the feeling came from, which maybe made it worse. He just knew that this was familiar and not in a good way. This drink...did it smell sweet?

If it was rude not to take the drink, it would be even worse to take one and then just give it back. It was only a little bit, anyway. Even if it was rat poison this wouldn't be enough to kill him. Wait, why the hell would it be rat poison? You're being cautious over nothing, just drink it.

Yeah, this was nothing. It was fine. He should just-

"Oh sh*t, shots!" the glass was pulled from his hand and thrown back into the mouth of Troy Lougferd.

Charlie didn't even know how to react. Ranboo and the staff member's heads turned at the same time to give Troy the same look. They clearly hadn't intended nor wanted Troy to drink that. Charlie hadn't either.

"Troy, no! Oh, Jesus Christ," someone else called out, but they were too late. William ran up and saw the empty glass and despair filled his eyes.

"You guys? What the hell are you doing here, didn't I say to stay back?!" Charlie looked at the two of them. These things never listen. The staff member walked away with the remaining drinks on their tray, probably to go call security on the two kids that had just ran in to the casino.

"Ohhh sh*t, what was that?" Troy swayed a little on his feet and looked at the empty glass.

"Oh, Charlie, didn't realise you were looking after your...nephews..?" Quackity looked between Troy and William, then at Charlie, clearly confused.

"No, they're not-" Charlie sighed and cut himself off, sounding clearly annoyed, "this is William and this is Troy- you already met Slime, didn't you? He's one of my characters and so are these two."

"And so is...that?" Quackity raised an uncertain hand to point at Goobleck.

"Yes, that too," Charlie waved a hand, "it's a whole thing, just trust me, you don't wanna know. But you guys," he turned back to Troy and William accusingly, "should not be here!"

"What? Can't hear you," Troy said. Was he already wasted just from that? Maybe alcohol in this world was stronger than what they were used to in Wonderlust.

"I know, yeah, but something's happened!" William insisted, ignoring Troy and looking a bit worried. And considering his face was almost always bored and neutral, this probably meant he was very worried.

"What?" Charlie asked, "what could possibly-?"

"Dako- I mean, Grizz, he got shot at!"

Charlie and Quackity raised their eyebrows, "he what?!"

~

Grizz blew out a breath and drummed his fingers on the handle of the car door. He was feeling restless- wonder why, not like he was in a near death experience fifteen minutes ago or anything.

Still, despite the energy that felt trapped in him, he would rather be in here than with Charlie looking for another Goobleck. What William had said really made its way under his skin, the anxiety in him mixing with that well of energy and making something he'd decided to call anxiety, but fast. He felt like he should be running from something, run run run run, but nothing happened. So he tried to ignore the anxiety, but fast, and kept tapping his fingers.

"There's no way that was just bad luck, you know that, right?"

That's what William had told him. So what, was there some guy in LA dropping giant letters on random passerby's? Whatever it was, he wanted to stay off the streets for now, just in case. He felt a little safer being in a car full of other people. Although those other people were currently entirely preoccupied with an argument about trains, and maybe a bit about sledding. Grizz wasn't sure, he wasn't really paying attention.

As he continued to think about nothing in particular, Grizz looked out of the window- very dramatically and wistfully, of course. His side of the car was facing away from the casino, so there weren't any bright lights or really anything at all, just a dark street dimly lit by street lamps.

Because of that he found himself looking at his own reflection more than anything, which seemed to become much clearer against the darkness. He wasn't sure he liked looking at his reflection, since he looked like a bit of a mess right now, but he struggled to make himself look any better.

He struggled to make any visible change in his reflection, really.

And then his reflection blinked.

Now, blinking is a pretty normal thing. Not something you'd usually worry about. But as your eyes are closed, you never really see yourself blink.

So when Grizz saw his own reflection blinking back at him, and felt his chest drop just as it might when slipping on the edge of a cliff, as it might when facing the error message and realising you haven't saved in five hours, as it might when realising you sent that message to the wrong person, as it might when seeing your own face blink at you- when he saw that, he worried about it. He was, in fact, petrified.

The next thing he saw was his own mouth opening, and he was pretty sure that if he hadn't moved at that moment he would've been dead.

Because, at that moment, something shot through his window and in an instant made a hole that came out of the opposite passenger door, and if his head was in the right position between those points he was sure it would've made a hole in that too.

He looked back at his 'reflection', a twisted visage of himself staring back at him. This was wrong, this was so wrong.

"Holy sh*t, what was that?" the conversation in the back had stopped at the sound of breaking glass but William soon broke it to ask what was on their minds. Grizz was pretty sure he'd be attacked again before he could answer that question and he knew he wouldn't be that lucky again, he needed to do something.

He couldn't move, he was confined to the f*cking driver's seat and that thing standing outside was blocking his only exit. Was there something he could do, anything? Oh wait, there was something.

As he saw his reflection moving again, Grizz opened his door and slammed it right into that thing's face.

"I don't know!" he yelled back to William, having a moment to do so now that the thing outside was reeling back, but he knew he didn't have that long.

He couldn't stay in the car like a fish in a barrel, he needed to get out even if that meant getting closer to that thing. At least then he might have a chance.

He jumped out and heard another door of his car opening as someone else followed suit, but he didn't dare look, taking his eyes away from the threat reeling over its (hopefully) broken nose for just a moment could kill him. It was quickly recovering from the hit he'd given it with his car door, too. Its head slowly raised back up and Grizz could see his own eyes glaring up, more hateful than he could ever imagine himself being.

What the f*ck was this thing?

It was going to attack again, he could tell, but what was he going to do? Whatever that thing attacked with he couldn't even tell where it had shot out from before it came out the other end of his car, if he tried to punch it in the face he'd probably be dead before his fists landed.

Could he even do anything? There had to be something, something-

"Get ready to meet your maker, foul beast!"

Light, blinding light, began to burst out from behind Grizzly's twisted copy, and another dimmer light came from below. The latter was fiery red, contrasting the bright white to create a harsh silhouette of Grizzly's copy as it turned its head down to see the source, a red crack in the earth splitting and opening wider as more ominous light crawled out. And then something more than just light emerged.

A dark tendril lashed out and took hold of a leg, then more and more, all latching on to the twisted reflection and beginning to drag it down into the earth, the red light consuming it. Grizz could only watch, astounded and horrified, barely convincing himself that this wasn't just an absurd hallucination.

And then it all disappeared, all light receding and the hole in the ground resealing itself as though it were never there in the first place. And in the absence of the light he could see a figure, holding a hand to his forehead. Grizz blinked as his vision tried to adjust and when he could make out the man's expression he seemed to be in some kind of a struggle- wait, were his eyes black? No, that must've just been his eyes adjusting still, when Grizz looked again the man's eyes were perfectly normal.

William came up behind Grizz, drawing his attention away from scrutinizing the other man, and Grizz could also hear some kind of struggle from in his car. He looked through the window and it seemed like Bruce was trying, unsuccessfully, to stop Troy from climbing over the back of the seats to get out.

"Did- did he just-?" William looked between Grizz and the spot on the floor where the earth had just opened up, but now there was no trace left of such a thing, so William could be forgiven for wondering if it had even happened at all.

But Grizz knew what he saw, "yeah. Guess we don't need to worry about that now though."

Then his eyes returned to the figure, and Grizz saw he was being looked at in return. The more he looked at that face the more certain he became of who he was looking at. Even though technically he'd never seen this man in his life, those round glasses and wide, naïve eyes could only belong to one character.

"Peter, you- you saved me," Grizz told him, subconsciously shifting his voice to sound a little more like that of his character Rumi.

Peter seemed to look at him apprehensively for a few moments before tilting his head and responding, "I thought it was you Rumi, but you, uh...you're looking a little different since I last saw you."

"Well I'm-" Grizz paused and considered the different ways he could go with this, and decided to go the fun route, "merely a new disguise to fit in with this new world!"

"Oh, good idea, hold on," Peter agreed and started messing with his hair to try to change it. Meanwhile William leaned closer to Grizz.

"You sure you're okay?" Will asked, "what the f*ck was that?"

"Charlie might have an idea," Grizz suggested for the second question, "but don't worry about me, I'm fine. Peter handled it well, didn't you, Peter?"

Peter looked up, confused at the mention of his name, "uh, do I need a new name for my disguise too?"

It really wasn't much of a disguise, he'd just made his hair slightly messier. But Grizz tried to be supportive, "no, no, I think that disguise is wonderful on its own, Peter."

"You're fine?" William parroted back to Grizz, "dude, your head is bleeding."

Well that was the first he'd heard of it. Grizz saw Will flicking his eyes nervously to the side of his head, so he raised a hand to touch where it looked like William was glancing to. It was just his ear, he hadn't felt anything wrong yet so surely it was just-

Oh, no, that first shot hadn't missed him, it had grazed right past the side of his face. Grizz got confirmation when he drew his hand back and saw red on the fingertips. He hadn't even felt it, but he was bleeding.

"That's...probably not good," he stated.

"No, no, definitely not," William contended, "alright, sh*t, uh...I'll go get Charlie, alright? You just stay here with Peter, I guess, and try not to get shot again."

"Alright, easy," Grizz told him sarcastically. He barely stopped himself getting shot at the first time- he didn't stop it at all, in fact, he had been caught in the attack. Until he looked in a mirror he didn't know if it was only minor damage, or if he was going to have to say goodbye to one of his ears forever.

By this point Troy had succeeded in his battle to clamber over the seats and he joined them outside. He looked at William, "wait, are you going in? Because I'm coming with if you're going in, bro."

"Yeah, sure, strength in numbers," William didn't put up much of a fight and hurried into the casino, Troy following him in.

Grizz reluctantly walked up to the wing mirror on his door to get a look at the side of his head. He realised that when he knew the extent of the injury he still wouldn't be able to do anything about it, he didn't have bandages or medical knowledge on whatever the hell type of wound this counted as.

Oh, it had hit his ear alright. It went through the side and seemed to have... melted some of the flesh around it? Hey, maybe that was supposed to happen, he wasn't a doctor. He was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to, though.

Peter stepped closer, "hey, Rumi, do you...know where we are? I don't think even Exandroth is sure."

"It's a different world than the one we know," Grizz answered vaguely, "but I'm glad you're here. You got here in the nick of time to save me, that's for sure..."

Peter smiled but then his expression shifted and for a few moments he put a hand over his face, until eventually he turned back to Grizz with a completely different expression, "I think you mean I made it in time to save you."

Peter's eyes- no, Exandroth's eyes, which were now a pure black with a golden rim around the pupils, like eclipses contained within him- regarded Grizz analytically before looking back up to meet his eyes, "you seem nervous. Aren't you used to seeing me, Rumi? Well...your soul would seem to match his, but you're not him, are you?"

Grizz shifted uncomfortably, "oh, looks like you caught me...haha, I mean, I'm technically Rumi, but that's probably not...what you..."

Grizzly trailed off, feeling the intensity of Exandroth's gaze burning into him. This was the one that had just banished someone to the depths of the earth right in front of him. He felt a little more nervous talking to this one than he did with Peter.

"What is your name, then?" Exandroth asked.

"I mean, I go by Grizzly, I guess," Grizz didn't meet his eyes. It was becoming a worry that he would be literally burned into if he did. Come on, when was Charlie gonna get back? He'd probably be better at dealing with this guy.

"Maybe keep that one a secret from Peter, then. He'd be all miserable again if he found out you weren't Rumi. And I hate dealing with him like that..." Exandroth scowled.

"Sure thing Exandroth," Grizz nervously agreed. Then Exandroth gave him a suspicious look, and his nervousness turned to fear.

"I don't recall you being told that was my name, mortal. Did Rumi tell you of me? What exactly is your relationship with him?" Exandroth pushed for further answers.

Grizz leaned away, frantically trying to think of what the biblically accurate angel possessing a medieval rock nerd's body would want to hear that would stop him from getting smited. Unfortunately, that wasn't an easy task.

After a moment he started looking around for distractions instead, something he could use to change the subject entirely. And he found one, or rather a few of them, running towards him from the direction of the casino.

"Oh, Charlie!" he called out, completely ignoring Exandroth's questions.

~

Charlie didn't slow down until he'd reached Grizz, standing by the side of the car, joined by a new figure. Charlie quickly identified him as Peter, although the black eyes implied it was probably Exandroth using the body at the moment. He didn't spend much time caring about that, though, he was much more concerned about Grizzly.

"Grizz, you- what f*cking happened, oh my god!" he looked horrified as he saw the blood dripping down from one side of Grizz's face

"Just fell over, onto a bullet or something, y'know," Grizz repeated the excuse Charlie had given for his own scars. Touché.

Charlie glanced at Exandroth, "did he..?"

"No, he uh, he saved me, actually," Grizz explained, "I don't know if it was even one of your characters, Charlie, he...he looked like me. He looked exactly like me."

Charlie mirrored the concern on Grizzly's face as he heard that. He didn't remember having played Grizz as a character before, nevermind a Grizz that shot people.

Saved him? Exandroth saved him?

Of course. Because of course Charlie hadn't. Of course Charlie couldn't do a f*cking thing.

"Whoever attacked you, he might not be the only one," William stepped in to the conversation, "with this and what happened back with the sign falling...this is deliberate. And I don't think just one guy could've followed us from Snow Problem! to here."

"So...there's a group of people trying to kill me," Grizz raised an eyebrow at William.

Ranboo, Quackity and Troy approached the group, Quackity holding Goobleck in his beanie and trying not to let him spill over the edges. He was the first to speak, "oh, sh*t, why do you all look sad? He's not dead, is he?"

Grizz, obviously still alive, shook his head at Quackity, "no, but it looks like I might be soon."

"What- what the f*ck do you mean by that?" Quackity looked at him, "don't just say scary sh*t like that! The f*ck do you mean?"

"William's probably right. Someone out there is trying to kill me," Grizz grimly told everyone. Charlie shook his head but didn't say anything. Why would anyone-? No, this didn't make any f*cking sense.

"Should we be out in the open right now?" Ranboo asked, looking around nervously.

"No, we need to go home, we're done here," Charlie decided. He shouldn't have let it get to this point, Jesus Christ, he could've come outside to his friend's dead f*cking body, he should've never let it get to this point.

This was what he was trying to prevent. But he'd let it happen, he'd let his friends get hurt, he hadn't stopped them getting entangled in his goddamn mess.

And now somebody or something was trying to kill Grizz. Christ. Jesus f*cking Christ.

They were just streamers, not government agents, not assassins or anyone else who signed up to play with death for their job, they were just people. Dear god, Grizz had almost died.

Look at him. This is all your fault.

"I, uh...I'm not sure if it's safe for me to drive you back," Grizz admitted, "I'm starting to feel lightheaded now."

"That's fine, I can do it if I need to," Charlie told him, "Quackity, are you...is it okay for you to drive Grizz home?"

"Wait, my house or your house?" Grizz asked, "hold on, I'm not going back in my own car? What's the plan here, dude?"

Charlie looked a little overwhelmed by all the questions, "listen, I- there won't be enough space in the car if Peter is coming too now, and I doubt Quackity wants any more characters coming home with him."

Quackity nodded, "yeah, about that, I brought Slime with me in case we met up and you wanted to trade or something. Except I wouldn't be getting anything, you'd just be getting Slime, so it's not really a trade actually."

"Uh..." Charlie glanced back at Grizz's car, counting the seats and the people in his head, "yeah, no, if Goobleck sits on someone's lap I guess we can fit him too, it's probably safer to have him at my house than yours."

"Oh, you're just trying to separate me and Peter, aren't you?" Grizz joked, "what do you think we're gonna do?"

"Hopefully nothing but I don't trust either of you," Charlie said.

"You don't trust me?" Grizz laughed, assuming that was just an exaggeration. Charlie didn't respond though, looking serious, as though that question had made him consider something.

Grizz looked at Charlie, the other man avoiding eye contact, and asked again, "wait, you actually- Charlie, you don't trust me? What do you mean?"

"I don't trust you not to die, Grizzly!" Charlie yelled back, desperate, "if you keep hanging around me and my problems then it seems like they're just gonna f*cking kill you, I can't let that happen!"

"And what about you, man?" Grizz looked at him sternly, "and what if I'm still in danger when I'm not with you?"

He won't be. For some reason, Charlie was certain of that.

"I don't know, Grizz. I don't f*cking know what to make of any of this, I'm not good at investigating," he looked at William, "I'm not good at protecting you," he looked at Exandroth, "this is all I can do."

"Charlie," Grizz gave him a look. Concerned, conflicted, worried, reproachful- a lot of things. Charlie didn't want to see it.

"Just go home, Grizz," Charlie told him, "I'm handling this myself. It's gotta be almost done by now anyways."

"So, um, am I taking Grizz and Ranboo?" Quackity asked.

"I think there's just enough space for me to take Ranboo back to his place too," Charlie told him.

Ranboo nodded, "alright."

"So you're gonna be on your own?" Grizz drew back Charlie's attention.

"There's like, fifty other people in my house right now. I'd hardly call that alone."

Grizz looked like he didn't really agree with that, but Charlie knew the decisions were made. He was going back home alone, or as alone as he could be given the situation. They weren't dying. Not one more person was f*cking dying.

Why does this scare you so much?

Because he failed the last time.

"Charlie?" he looked over and saw that William was trying to talk to him, meanwhile everyone was moving to their designated cars and Troy was rambling about something completely unrelated. Charlie must've zoned out or something.

"Uh- sorry, yeah, let's go," he nodded and stepped up to the car as Grizz went towards Quackity.

"The keys are in the ignition," Grizz told him as he went past. Charlie felt like he was doing something wrong.

Don't look so conflicted. You know this is the right thing.

As he stepped in he saw the holes in the windows. Christ...

He wasn't even there when his friend was being attacked. Would he have been able to do anything if he was there? If he was there instead, would Grizz right now be...?

He started the car up and waited for everyone to get in. Troy seemed completely oblivious outside, not getting back in until William was literally dragging him through the door. He was really proving Charlie right for thinking these guys never listened earlier. Well, they should still be able to hear literally, this was taking it a bit far.

At last Troy seemed to acknowledge what was going on and hopped in too, Exandroth going into the back with him and Mr Cicle. Alright, who were they missing now...

"Hello Charlie from The Phone!"

"Ah- sh*t!" Charlie startled as Slime was suddenly right by his door and smiling back at him.

"Quackity from Los Angeles told me to bring this with me. Is this what you call a gift?" Slime asked, holding out the Goobleck still cupped in Quackity's beanie.

"Uh, yeah, sure, just take a seat back there," Charlie waved a hand at the last free seat beside William and Bruce on the middle row. Ranboo had taken up their place in the passenger seat.

Slime nodded happily and followed his directions, once he was sat down Goobleck moved out of the hat to rejoin with the other Goobleck on Bruce's lap.

"Seatbelts," Charlie sighed. Once Ranboo was home he'd feel better about it. Keeping them away from himself kept them safe.

It was better that they were gone. Nobody to get hurt, nobody to get in the way.

If he failed anyone else, would he even be worth the air he was breathing?

It was his problem. He could handle it all himself.

It wasn't as though he felt like he was breathing anyway, his lungs were filling.

All of these characters were here to make him feel worthless. He didn't need them.

Water flowing in and stopping his breath, sinking him, dragging him down.

You can do it all on your own, can't you, Charlie?

He couldn't breathe, did he even deserve to?

It'll be over soon.

"Charlie?"

Charlie looked up. It was Ranboo talking to him.

"Are you...gonna get out of the car?" Ranboo asked.

Charlie looked around. The car was stopped in front of his house. Oh, he'd driven back already. He hadn't even realised.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry," Charlie shook his head to dismiss the confusion. He'd driven home, what was there to be confused about?

He was back home. They'd be done with this soon.

~

"Do you wanna stop at the hospital before you go home?" Quackity asked, wincing as he looked at Grizz from the corner of his eye.

"You're not taking me home," Grizz told him, serious but with a hint of mischief still peeking through.

"Are you sure, man? That thing's gonna get infected if we don't at least get it checked out," Quackity warned.

"Okay, yeah, I guess we can sort that out quickly, but I'm not just leaving Charlie alone. He's gonna be in danger too, by his own logic."

"Yeah...I mean, f*cking hell, I know we're in America and everything but you got f*cking shot?" Quackity still sounded in disbelief about the whole thing despite the wound being right next to him.

"It wasn't a bullet. At least I don't think it was," Grizz said.

There was a brief silence as the two of them thought and Quackity continued to drive, having redirected to the hospital rather than Grizz's house.

"Yeah, I think I see what you're saying, though. Charlie didn't seem completely okay back there," Quackity agreed.

"I've just gotta trust he can hold out until I've got my wound taken care of," Grizz sounded reluctant to wait that long, "maybe we can send in someone to spy on him for us."

Quackity laughed, "we don't have access to the secret service, man. He'll be fine, I'm sure."

Chapter 10: Overflow

Chapter Text

There were noises coming from the kitchen.

Xiv had volunteered to go investigate. By which they meant they'd volunteered to walk behind Gillion and look at the threat while he was the one to go beat it up.

"It's not necessarily a threat!" Robert argued with them, although keeping his voice low just in case there was something to be scared of, "you can't just send Gillion in to hit a completely innocent thing with a sword."

Gillion shook his head to dismiss the worries, "although my magic is weakened, I can still tell good from evil. I will know the moment I step in there whether I need to strike this thing down."

"Sure, it's totally as black and white as that," Backflipo subtly stepped away from Gillion. He might've been nervous about which side of the coin Gillion would determine him to be on.

"Well, if you two are so opposed," Xiv looked at Robert and Backflipo, "would you rather go in yourselves?"

Xiv smiled at the resulting silence, "I thought not. Gillion is free to make his own choices."

"...that you persuaded him to do," Backflipo muttered at Xiv.

Xiv brushed off that comment and put a hand on Gillion's shoulder, "alright, let's go then. It may just be another weird Goobleck, after all."

Their first assumption was that it was a Goobleck even though the main one was still with them, but that idea was completely ditched when they got closer and heard a quiet "ekekekekeke" in the room. When Goobleck laughed it sounded a lot more like "heehoo" and a lot less like a little mischievous gremlin, so it was likely something else.

However, when Gillion carefully rounded the corner and looked in the kitchen, he saw nothing. Xiv poked their head out from behind him and couldn't spot anything either, "huh...weird."

But the sound continued, still coming from somewhere in the kitchen, "ekekekeke..."

"Show yourself, intruder!" Gillion called out, startling Xiv, "oh, sorry."

The sigh he got from Xiv was more of a response than his intended target gave. There was still no intruder in sight.

Gillion saw nothing to do other than walk further in and keep his hand close to his blade's hilt.

"We mean you no harm, unless you mean us harm, in which case we mean you a lot of harm," Xiv told the unknown foe.

They were admittedly getting tense with the continued lack of a response. Xiv glanced back and saw a camcorder being held around the corner to look at them, which they promptly flipped off, and then saw another hand coming around the corner with the same gesture.

Gillion meanwhile stayed focused on the room ahead of them, however he failed to see what was about to hit him.

"Nice juicy ankles ya got there!" The voice suddenly said something new just before Gillion felt something hitting the fins on the back of his legs and he stumbled over, just barely catching himself on the kitchen counter to stay upright- which didn't work great, since all the surfaces were still slimy and slightly green.

"Ow, my juicy ankles!" He cried out, then questioned why he'd called his ankles juicy.

"Gillion! Wait, sh*t, what happened?" Xiv helped him rebalance and looked around, but once again found nothing.

"I didn't see, but it- something hit me!" Gillion's hand was ready to draw Destiny's Blade, but he still didn't draw it yet. Those hits had been annoying, sure, but not particularly hard. He was still willing to give this thing the benefit of the doubt.

"Where am I, where am I? You'll never know!" the voice taunted, joyful at their confusion.

"Step out here, you coward! I'll get you for that one..." Xiv stepped in front of Gillion with a wide stance. Was it invisible, was it good at hiding? Where the hell could it even be?

"Hey, look down."

Xiv laughed, "I'm not just letting you sneak up on me that easily."

"Well, your loss," Xiv heard, and then felt as something hit against their ankles and their legs buckled. Gillion just managed to hold onto their arm but Xiv still ended up suspended at a 45 degree angle, their head facing down at the ground. The ground on which they could now see a slimy little man, barely a foot tall.

"...you," Xiv snarled and threw their free arm down to grab at it, the little man barely jumping out of the way of their sharp nails.

"Just try and grab me, I'll slip between your fingers!" he boasted. Xiv took that for the challenge it was and on their next attack swung their hand back to grab instead of swipe at him, which was a success, but maybe too much of one.

As Xiv gripped tight they were met with an uncomfortable sensation of slime squishing in their palm and their hand loosened slightly in uncontrollable discomfort. That was enough for the slime man to do as he'd said and slip out, making a run for it in the other direction.

"Oh no you don't! I've done this with worms and I can do it with you!" they yelled after him, pulling out of Gillion's grip and crawling across the floor with unreasonable speed.

The slime man seemed to pick up on this and dove under the kitchen cupboards before he was caught up to and recaptured.

"You f*cking-! What even are you?" they hissed, pressing their head against the floor to try and see him, "why the hell are you so small?"

"Kekekeke," he returned to laughing as a disembodied voice.

"Stop!" Xiv demanded, but there wasn't much they could do when they couldn't even get to him.

"Lost him?" Gillion walked over and offered a hand to help Xiv back up.

"This is worse than that damn frog," Xiv said as means of confirmation and took Gillion's hand to get back off the floor. They might've been embarrassed, if it weren't for the fact their determination to catch this thing outweighed any lesser emotions like shame or logic.

Logic probably didn't count as an emotion. Either way, Xiv wasn't bothering with it.

"We don't want to harm you, but if you continue hitting our ankles we may have to," Gillion threatened. He watched as Xiv carefully swiped a glass from a nearby shelf and put a finger over their mouth so that Gillion wouldn't comment on it. He silently nodded to them, having an idea of what they might be planning.

"Give me a few minutes and you won't be able to lay a finger on me, I'll be small enough to slip through your molecules!" they could hear his voice having travelled elsewhere in the room, and whilst there was still no visual sign of him, Xiv could follow the source of the noise to get an idea where he was heading.

"You're going to get eaten by a rat before that point," Xiv told him, tensely awaiting their chance to strike.

"Rats have ankles too! Twice as many!" he proclaimed and suddenly a green blur ran out from under a cabinet going right towards Xiv. Unfortunately for him, they were ready, and threw down the glass with force almost enough to smash it.

"Aha!" they exclaimed, shifting their hand to see the man now firmly trapped inside. He didn't look very happy about the situation.

"Wha-? Hey, that's cheating! You cheated!" he sounded muffled through the glass.

Xiv crouched down to get a better look at him, "cope."

He was, indeed, slime, besides one little stick poking out the side of his head, which Xiv assumed he'd acquired by running through the bushes like the little feral creature he was. Gillion approached too and squinted into the glass like the two of them were analysing their science experiment.

"What's its name?" Gillion tilted his head.

"My name," he sounded offended to be addressed as an 'it', "is, uh...Slimecicle, I guess. Can you let me out of here now? I'll try not to get your ankles anymore."

"Try?" Xiv asked, "that's kind of a yes or no thing, I would've thought."

"Ehh, no promises," Slimecicle shrugged.

"No promises, no getting out of your little man jail," Xiv told him.

"Hmm," Slimecicle grumbled like this was one of the hardest choices he'd had to make, "fffine. I promise."

The way he'd said it wasn't convincing in the slightest, but Xiv still hesitantly lifted the glass back up. They didn't want to suffocate him in there- although he didn't actually look like he needed to breathe, it's not like they could see any lungs in there.

Slimecicle happily stretched his arms (a bit longer than normal arms were supposed to stretch) without the cup trapping him anymore. However, he didn't seem so happy when he looked at Xiv and Gillion still leering over him.

"Alright, I'm not being small if you're all gonna be like that about it," he grumbled and walked over to the cupboard by his side.

Xiv got the glass ready again in case he dived under it, but instead Slimecicle hopped up and wrapped his hands around the handle, using it to pull himself up. It took a bit of effort and kicking his legs to try and scramble further up, which resulted in little bits of slime being flung about, but in the end he managed to get up onto the countertops.

Xiv and Gillion stood back up to get a look at what he was doing and when their heads could see over the counters again there was suddenly a dry patch around where Slimecicle was standing. Gillion was pretty sure he wasn't imagining it, but was Slimecicle taller..?

"Hey, did you just...absorb that?" Gillion asked.

"What else do you think I'm doing with it?" Slimecicle replied and walked along the kitchen counter, absorbing more slime and growing taller and taller as he went.

"No mames," Backflipo stepped into the kitchen, having been watching from outside the whole time, "all that slime is... you?"

Slimecicle grinned back at him, and Backflipo looked a little sick.

"I don't know how much worse that is than our assumption Goobleck had made the mess," Xiv also sounded a bit grossed out by the knowledge that they were surrounded by this thing's body. They'd been touching it earlier too...eugh.

"So you've been here ever since we got back?" Gillion recalled how William had tried to apologise for the mess in the kitchen when they'd returned from that earlier car journey they weren't supposed to be on. Wait, William- wasn't he supposed to be here too? Gillion glanced around and confirmed the hooded teenager was absent, but couldn't remember him leaving. Oh well, he was probably doing fine.

"Oh, I've been here longer than that! There's a lot of places in here a guy like me can slip into," Slimecicle, now almost 4 feet tall having cleaned up half of the kitchen counters, looked quite proud of himself.

"Wait!" Gillion had a realisation looking at Slimecicle and gasped, drawing a concerned look from Xiv, "he's wet!"

"He's what?" Xiv looked unimpressed.

"It's been so long since I've seen anyone as moist as me!" Gillion continued excitedly.

"Oh, hold on a second..." Slimecicle grinned, "are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Backflipo began walking away, "nope, whatever mess you guys are about to make I'm not cleaning it."

"You ready?" Slimecicle bounced excitedly on his feet, ignoring the growing concern from everyone besides Gillion. Standing on the counter meant that the two of them were almost at eye level with one another.

Gillion wasn't sure until Slimecicle raised his hand, and then he knew exactly what was happening, "oh, I'm ready."

"Yeah good idea Backflipo I'm leaving too," Xiv quickly started backing out.

"Dap..." Slimecicle started.

"Me..." Gillion joined, raising up his own hand.

"Up!" the two of them yelled, throwing their hands together into an unholy squelch that sent little bits of slime flying in all directions. Xiv and Backflipo got themselves behind a wall in time, but Robert was unfortunate enough to have still been sticking his camcorder around the corner as a bit of slime hit his lens.

He began desperately trying to wipe it off on his shirt, "ew, ew, ew- oh, please don't tell me that's smudged it," he pointed his camera back out and grimaced, "goddamn it, everything's blurry...and kind of green..."

In the kitchen, meanwhile, Gillion was confused why he hadn't been able to grab onto a hand after he hit Slimecicle's, until he looked and realised there was no hand left for him to dap.

"Oh sssh*t, I dapped your hand off- you're never gonna be able to dap up another moisture master again!" Gillion worried.

Slimecicle waved his (lack of a) hand, "pssh, it'll grow back, I've gone through worse. Never had a dap quite as strong and wet as that one though!"

"Hey, pendejos, what the f*ck are you talking about?" Backflipo got their attention and dragged them back to reality.

"Dry guys would never understand," Slimecicle crossed his arms.

"Are you going to come and clean yourself up, at least?" Xiv glared at him, "Charlie's probably gonna try and kick your ass if he comes back to this."

Slimecicle finally took a look at the damage, seeing that little pieces of his hand were not only on every wall and cupboard in the kitchen but there was also a fair bit now strewn across the floor of the hallway outside. He noticed Gegg, too, standing in the midst of the carnage, some slowly dripping from its glasses.

"Oh. Whoops."

"Yeah, speaking of, they've been gone a while now," Robert mentioned, having seen PM 11:09:21 on his camcorder internal clock; almost an hour and a half since Charlie and the others had set off.

"I think that was probably to be expected," Xiv shrugged, assuming they'd just gotten caught up in some kind of side quest somewhere along the way.

Slimecicle hopped down from the kitchen counters and did a little walk around the area, gathering his slime as he went. Backflipo did a different kind of cleaning up by collecting the signs Gegg had started leaving around the house- they seemed to mostly be messages for a presidential campaign, though Backflipo couldn't see who Gegg was trying to appeal to by just putting them around Charlie's house. It also continued to make no sense how that egg kept pulling out more and more signs the size of its body from out of nowhere.

Through the whole process Goobleck was of no help, up until now he'd been absent but as people were trying to walk around he seemed to have decided it was the perfect time to be a 2 foot ball of slime on the floor. It was fair to say that Robert was just a little pissed when he got tripped up on the way to grab a towel to clean his camcorder, almost smashing said camcorder on the ground as a result.

Amidst all that, everyone in the house managed to hear the sound of a car pulling into the front drive. Xiv in particular listened out for the amount of footsteps that came out of the car towards the house, and then questioned if Charlie had come home in a clown car. It sounded like they were about to make a few new friends, that was for sure.

~

Charlie walked inside and decided to just keep the front door unlocked and let everyone else spill in. With this amount of people in his house he doubted he'd have to worry about things like robberies.

Five new characters, plus William and Goobleck and Ranboo, poured past him at either side. It was easy to be swept further in with them, but he stood against the current. He stood there, looking on as the rest of them easily made themselves at home and flooded his entryway with conversation. Noise. There was so much noise, rushing into his ears, muffling his senses. It all bled together into static, obscured of meaning. It was too much effort to make out a single word.

He just wanted it to stop. He wanted to be able to breathe. He didn't want to be here, he just wanted to go home.

Breathe.

Charlie took a breath. That's right, he was home. Seriously, he'd only just walked in the door, why was he making such a big deal out of it? He was fine.

"Uh, hey-" Charlie's attention snapped to the person suddenly talking to him. It was Peter, back to his slightly timid self without Exandroth in control, "wasn't Rumi just here? Where uh, where did he go?"

"You saved him, didn't you? He's fine," Charlie's tone wasn't exactly kind as he told Peter about Grizz- he could only assume that's who he was talking about. His own friend that he was too inadequate to save himself. But of course his characters could; in fiction he could save everyone. That fact was starting to get on his nerves.

"Well, yeah, but where-" Peter tried again to get an answer. Charlie saw other characters near his kitchen and walked off in that direction, stepping over a couple of Gegg's signs on the way.

Everyone they'd left at home seemed to be gathered at the edge of the kitchen- besides William, of course. But they were joined by a new character in his place who immediately reminded Charlie of Slime, but not quite as well dressed. Or as tall, for some reason.

"Wow, you made it back!" Xiv said as means of a welcome. Their tone sounds insulting.

"Where'd you pull the new one out of?" Charlie asked, practically ignoring what Xiv had said. He wasn't in the mood.

They gave him a look, brief enough he almost missed it, before looking down at the new slimy addition to the group, "he introduced himself as Slimecicle, I believe."

"He's moist!" Gillion added excitedly.

"The moistest!" Slimecicle agreed.

"Great," Charlie rubbed his eyes and walked past them, "I need something to eat."

He heard the zoom on Robert's camera as he dragged a yogurt from the fridge. He just needed something to keep him going, he wasn't falling asleep on the couch again.

"Uhh...estás bien? You're not exactly giving off good vibes at the moment," Backflipo told him.

Why should that one care? He doesn't know a thing.

"Yeah, I'm bien," Charlie glared at Backflipo.

"Okay, what's going on?" Xiv took control of the conversation, "you can't just come in here and start acting as though we've all done something wrong."

"Something wrong?" Charlie repeated, "no, you all could never, you're all perfect! That's how I made you to be, wasn't it?"

Goddamn perfect. Mocking every flaw of your own.

"I thought we'd moved past that," Xiv scowled, glancing momentarily at Gillion's reaction. He was just looking back at Charlie. What was that look- pity? How insulting.

"Oh, and moving past it would be so easy for you, wouldn't it? There's plenty I'd f*cking love to just move on from, but unlucky me, I'm a person with problems I have to deal with. All those problems that you would find so easy," Charlie spat back.

"Are you like, drunk, man?" Backflipo winced at him.

"I don't care if he's drunk, just so long as you drop it. This is a meaningless argument to have, Charlie," Xiv looked at him disapprovingly.

"Of course it's meaningless to you. You saved the world, I bet all of my stupid problems are trivial to you."

A field, a river, a god.

It's not f*cking trivial.

"I know I don't tend to give the impression that I care, but all we've been doing for a while is trying to help you. You can't tell us this is just your problem when we all want to get back home too!" Xiv started raising their volume.

"Every single time!" Charlie shouted back, "every time, it's one of you, you're there to shove it in my face- saving me from him," he pointed aggressively to Backflipo, whose code flickered a little in response, "saving Grizz too- you're constantly beating me over the head with how f*cking useless I am! I can't save anyone, can I!?"

"Whoa, save Grizz? What happened?" Backflipo held him up on that sentence.

"What do you think?" Charlie scowled, "the same thing that happens to everyone I think I can protect. Something almost killed him and I was nowhere nearby."

Charlie took a breath. If the rest of the characters in the entryway had heard the shouting, which they most certainly had, they were staying out of it. Even Ranboo hadn't come to check what was happening.

Every character filling this house is just a reminder of your own inadequacies. If you can't even do as much as your own characters maybe you are just worthless.

"What are you thinking about, Charlie?"

He was almost surprised to hear Gillion's voice. The fish man had been quiet so far, Charlie had barely even looked his way. It was so strange whenever he heard his characters calling him by his own name. They were never supposed to address their player.

They were never supposed to be here, in his life. Never supposed to be helping him. Never supposed to be telling him what to do. Never supposed to be saving people and showing Charlie just how easy it was for them. Because it was so easy, so why hadn't he just done it? Why didn't you do it, Charlie?

f*cking Christ, it really was an insult. The fins, and the gills. Gillion could've done it without breaking a sweat. He would've fought that river. So why didn't Charlie?

What are you thinking about, Charlie?

Why didn't he just save her?

Charlie's expression turned resentful as he faced Gillion.

"I wish I'd never made you," he snarled.

He watched for a second as Gillion's eyes widened and then he turned away, heading out of the room. He didn't want to be around these things any longer.

"No need to fight, Goobleck here :D"

Charlie threw his empty yogurt at the face of the Goobleck on his kitchen counter as he left, "I'm going upstairs so nobody try to f*cking talk to me."

There was hesitation, and then somebody's footsteps following him. Typical. For saying they were his characters they sure were sh*t at following his orders.

He passed everyone still stood in the entrance room without a word, although he caught the confused looks he was getting from them. Ranboo looked like he understood, somehow. It was only when he was at the top of the stairs that the one following him spoke up and stopped him.

"That was not what I told you to do."

Xiv was stood halfway up the stairs, glaring up at Charlie. He could only guess they were referring to that 'promise', or whatever it was, that Charlie would apologise to Gillion. That felt so long ago now.

"Why do you care what I say to him? I know how I made you. You didn't get dragged down by caring about people."

"Don't tell me who I am," it was the angriest he'd ever seen them, "I cared about my friends. I cared enough about the one I lost that it hurt. You're far less than that if you don't even care about how you're hurting him."

There it was. Yet another thing that made his own characters better than him. The list never f*cking ended.

"Stop getting involved."

Xiv suddenly looked shocked, but Charlie didn't linger on their expression long. He was just appreciative they didn't try and talk to him any more as he went to his room and slammed the door.

The clothes he was going to wear to dinner were still on the bed. For some reason, when Charlie saw them, he started to cry.

~

Ms Gilbert's class were back on the road again, in search of a place to spend the night. It was already pretty late, but Ms Gilbert wasn't going to have them all sleeping in the dirt.

Mr Perfect offered to pay for them all to go to a hotel, and although Ms Gilbert wasn't sure their money worked in this place they'd ended up in, she very much appreciated the offer. They still needed to find a hotel before that point, though. Which brought them to their meeting with the next unusual character.

"Oh, well fancy that! Y'all heard the news and came runnin', did ya?" a man approached them- which was immediately very strange, because the few people out here at night had tended to stay as far from their group as they could.

"I don't think we heard any news..." Chad took a step back from the man. Wait, did he look a little like Chad? That was kind of weird.

"Well everyone's gonna be hearin' it soon! Green gold, I tell ya! Right under our noses!"

"What exactly is this green gold thing?" Ms Gilbert asked warily.

"Is it, uh, y'know..." Chad looked left and right, "consumable?"

Ms Gilbert hit his shoulder, "Chad, this is not a drug deal!" she then turned and glared at the stranger, "at least I hope it isn't."

"Oh, green gold is better than any drugs, lemme tell ya," the man excitedly continued, "and y'know what? I'm feelin' nice, if y'all promise not to go spreadin' word I might show ya what I've found."

"Um, right. Could I quickly get your name first?" Ms Gilbert requested. Her eyes drifted between him and Chad and she added, "any relation to Chad here, by any chance?"

Chad quickly dismissed that theory, "I don't have any southern identical twins, that's for sure. I'm sure the similar looks are...coincidence."

"A name, huh?" the man started looking wistfully in the distance, "yeah, I used to have one of those. You wanna know what they used to call me? Big Duck, wrangler of the big bucks, that's what. It's been a long time, but maybe with this, I can finally feel like that title belongs again."

Ms Gilbert nodded, only half listening as she was noting something down. Chad looked over her shoulder.

"You're listing all our names?" he observed, "what, so you can report this guy to the feds later, or something?"

"No," Ms Gilbert told him sternly, but after doing so took another look at Big Duck, "maybe. But no, I only intended to make this for taking attendance. It's a nightmare losing kids on school trips, let me tell you."

"I'll take your word," Chad could see the exhaustion in Ms Gilbert's eyes just by mentioning kids going missing.

"You've got my interest, Big Duck," Mr Perfect stepped forward, "take us to see this so-called green gold."

"Oh, a man of business, are we?" Big Duck grinned at Mr Perfect, "let's get goin' then! Can't let anyone else stumble on this find while we're talkin'!"

Big Duck lead them down the street and through a few twists and turns, ending up in quite quiet areas of the city, if this even counted as being in the city anymore. It was almost like they were the first people to walk through in days, it was hard to believe this had been the discovery site of some precious mineral- at least, that's all they could assume Big Duck was leading them to. They didn't have much evidence to go off.

Eventually Big Duck walked around one last corner and threw his arms wide to present what they'd all been waiting for; sitting before them, a massive pile of green slime, taller than the tallest member of their group.

"She's a beaut, alright!" Big Duck nodded, mostly to himself since everyone else was stood looking at the thing before them in shock, "think she was callin' herself Slusan when I found her earlier. No goddamn clue when green gold started talkin', or when it stopped bein' an unstoppable lethal cloud o' gas, but I'm sure the money's gonna keep talkin' all the same!"

Br'aad started walking forwards with a hand outstretched to touch Slusan. Mark Thompson tugged him back with a disapproving look.

"And you're gonna...sell this?" Chad asked through a grimace, trying not to imagine how this was going to work because none of the options were at all appealing.

"This is the jackpot people dream of, friend!" Big Duck patted Chad on the shoulder, who awkwardly stepped out of it.

"This can't be...I thought we'd gotten rid of you for good, Fartbo!" Ms Gilbert pointed her finger accusingly at the slime.

"Who the f*ck is Fa-" Chad turned and looked at Ms Gilbert, who was holding something that looked suspiciously like a handful of five grenades, "-aaAAAH oh my god Ms G, why do you have those?"

Her eyes stayed trained on Slusan, "for cases just like this. I'll be finishing the job here."

"Um, not that I'm an expert or anything," Romeo jumped in, "but I don't think you're supposed to be using those in close quarters combat. You see, we did a play of War Rat, and-"

"Cover your nose!" Ms Gilbert shouted and tossed them at the slime.

"Aren't you meant to cover your ears-? Wait, WAIT-" Chad took too long to realise what was happening as by the time he'd raised his hands near his face he could hear the booms of explosions, and then a lot of wet, slimy noises as green viscera burst out onto every surface and started dripping back down to the ground. Every surface including him, and the rest of their group.

When he next looked at Ms Gilbert she already had her hands on her hips, ignoring how her glasses were completely coated in slime. Then she sniffed the air twice, "hm. Well maybe that wasn't Fartbo, then. Better to be safe than sorry with threats like that."

"I'm sorry, safe?" Chad gawked at her, "did you forget the part with the five grenades?!"

"They weren't proper grenades," Ms Gilbert told him and pointed to where she'd thrown them. When Chad looked he saw some confetti falling down on the completely eviscerated body of Slusan.

"Safe for bystanders, pack a fun punch for the target!" Ms Gilbert continued explaining.

"Yeah, I'm sure Slusan found that very fun," Chad continued to criticise Ms Gilbert's choice of words.

Slarf was quick to get himself clean, shaking the slime off his body and sending more little pieces onto everyone surrounding him, which Chad didn't appreciate. Mr Perfect, meanwhile, had somehow perfectly avoided all of the blast and remained spotless. He then tried to claim that having a good work-life balance was the reason. Everyone was too busy being jealous of him to believe him.

"Alright. Well, that was fun, I guess," Br'aad shrugged.

"Wha- but- my-" Big Duck was just staring at where Slusan used to be, devastated.

"Hey, not everyone wins in business," Mr Perfect approached him with a reassuring tone, "but you can't let the business win over you."

Big Duck looked inspired for a moment, but then thought the words over in his head, "well that just don't make no sense then."

Mr Perfect seemed to ignore that and walked away proudly as though his work was done.

Not wanting the group to be broken up, everyone else started to follow with those already leaving and going back towards the main streets. Ms Gilbert sighed and took Big Duck's arm to lead him along.

"Come on, I'm sure you didn't need that anyway. We still might have no idea what this green gold stuff is, but I think maybe you're better off finding a different trade to get involved in. I'm happy to give some career advice if you're unsure about your next steps!" she offered.

"Um...yeah, I'll...I'll think about it," Big Duck sounded non-commital, but followed anyway, having not much left that he could do with the remains of Slusan.

They made small conversation as they continued their journey, finding it difficult to find topics they had in common to discuss with it being such a varied group. Mr Perfect and Big Duck seemed to have some things to discuss in relation to business and money, although in all other respects they seemed to be the two most polar opposites in the group. Ironically he wouldn't have had much to say to Chad, and the two were still weirdly identical in facial looks.

Even the theatre kid and literal wolf looked like they were getting on with each other. At this point Chad had no idea who the hell they were gonna recruit next.

It wasn't long before he found out, though- because the next ones came running at him.

"Charlie? No, damn it, you're not- ugh," the stranger immediately started addressing Chad, but must have realised he had the wrong guy and put his head in his hands.

"I mean, I used to go by Charles," Chad offered, but that didn't appear to help the other person's mood. There were a few others with him, too. Was he building a group of his own like Ms G?

Two of them did look weirdly familiar, in the same way Big Duck did. Either Chad had some weird extended family, or there was something going on here.

Wait...Chad squinted at the one who'd talked to him. They didn't look like a reflection of himself, but he was still somehow familiar.

"Well, we might not be who you're here for, but could you at least give us your names?" Ms Gilbert asked.

"I- yeah, sure, I guess. I dunno if any of you would know me, but I'm Ranboo. And maybe, if you're willing, we might need your help."

Chapter 11: If At First You Don't Succeed

Chapter Text

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PM 11:22:33
2024 🔋

Oh! Oh. There it went. For a second there his clock was on a cool number. Now it was on 11:22:41. Boring.

Alright, that was...kind of unimportant. There were bigger things happening that Robert should probably be doing something about. If he even could...he didn't know if this was a mess he had any power to solve.

Xiv had told him about it earlier, after Charlie had left with Grizz and Ranboo and before all of that with Slimecicle. How he'd been brought from another world, and in this one he was just a...'character'.

They'd been kind about it, there were definitely worse ways to break the news, and it made a lot of things make sense. He still wasn't exactly happy about it, though. It made him feel powerless- he was just a character, so what was he to do in a world where he was supposed to be fiction?

Better yet, the guy who had 'made' him had just been right here yelling about how he hated his own creations. Robert would've liked to respond with something smart, like "well maybe you should've just made us better then" but he'd just stood and taken it until Charlie had eventually stormed off elsewhere. Xiv had actually gone after him, but it was clear that hadn't gone well as he saw them returning now with a defeated look on their face.

That shifted when they and Robert made eye contact, and Xiv made an effort to put on a smile. It wasn't really eye contact though; Robert could only look in their approximate direction with the eyes in his head and Xiv of course wasn't looking at the true source of vision in his camcorder. He thought they might've been the most likely to, considering they were the first to discover (and take advantage of, but whatever, he'd get over it) his source of vision. But eye contact was what most people were used to, he couldn't blame them for having that as their first instinct.

Most of the people who had been here had cleared out, Backflipo having gone back into the living room to probably watch TV, and who knows where Goobleck, Gegg and that Slimecicle guy had gone off to. But Gillion was still where he'd been for the last while, in the kitchen leaning back onto the now slime-free counters.

Robert couldn't really tell what he was thinking. Charlie had been pretty pissed at him specifically, and Robert hated to imagine what that had been like. It made him all the more thankful he hadn't said something smart earlier and he'd just stayed in the background. To be hated by your own creator...

"I wish I'd never made you."

Those words hadn't even been directed at him and they put a pit in his stomach.

Xiv looked around and it was clear what they were looking for as soon as they saw Gillion. They barely tried to hide the hurry in their step as they walked past Robert towards him, and he could see their tail flicking anxiously behind them.

He didn't know how he could help, and he would've felt bad for listening in, so Robert looked for where else he could go now. He saw Slimecicle walking towards him from where Xiv had come from- wait, no, that wasn't Slimecicle. Unless he'd suddenly put on a shirt, tie and overalls- he was just as green and transparent as Slimecicle was, but why would he have had a sudden costume change?

Maybe he was just hoping it wasn't Slimecicle, because his lens was still a little smudged from that incident and he wasn't happy about it. He would've liked to wash it off but he'd learnt the hard way that the camcorder and water did not mix.

"Wow, I've never met so many people that I don't know in one place! Where did you come from? Have you been part of the fall of a nation?" the newcomer excitedly addressed him.

Okay, this can't have been Slimecicle, he wasn't talking anything like him. They did technically have the same voice, but it was a very different demeanour. Wait, nation? What was this guy talking about?

"I, uh, I'm Robert, from the backrooms, I guess- no, I haven't- what did you say, a nation? I haven't seen the...fall of one of those, no. W-who are you?" Robert stumbled through his answer as he remembered all the things he'd been asked one after another.

"Robert from The Backrooms, I see! I'm Slime from Las Nevadas, however that name is misleading, as I am in fact not slime. I have all my bones and meat," Slime smiled widely.

"I...I'll just call you Slime," Robert replied, already forgetting the full title. That wouldn't be confusing at all, having the two most similar looking people being called Slime and Slimecicle. Jeez, there were enough names he'd had to try and learn today.

Robert glanced over his shoulder at the kitchen they were still standing outside of, and inside Xiv and Gillion were talking quietly. He figured if Slime wanted to talk they should probably do it elsewhere.

"C'mon, let's just go in here," he led Slime towards the living room with a wave of his free hand, deciding against actually holding onto a hand made of slime to pull the other man along.

He glanced at the window on the door to the office as they passed it in case that would also be an available room to talk in, and it did look empty at the moment, but with the computer and monitors set up at the other end he was worried about accidentally getting any futuristic equipment slimed. Seriously, the keyboard and mouse in there were glowing! Technology from the future looked awesome!

Instead he and Slime headed into the living room and saw that Backflipo was already sat on the couch inside, watching the TV. It was still on the news since they'd just left it on that channel and not bothered trying to change it.

"-as police reported finding traces of living matter at the scene of the fight earlier today, however this has not yet given any leads on what happened or who was involved as eyewitnesses to the event remain uncooperative. The club owners have expressed concern over the amount of damage caused in the fight."

"Hey, anything interesting?" Robert asked Backflipo as he took a seat and Slime approached a chair but didn't yet sit down.

"Ehh, not really," he shrugged, "don't we have enough personas here already? I don't see why we need to look for any more, there's gonna be no space," Backflipo looked at Slime and did a double take, "¿Es nuevo?"

"Yeah, another one, I think there's a few more that came back this time," Robert explained. He looked at Slime, still hovering indecisively over a chair, "you okay, Slime?"

"Can I sit down when it doesn't have a towel on it?" Slime looked back at him.

"...yeah? Oh, wait, are you worried about getting it wet or something?" Robert realised why Slime was so reluctant to sit down.

"Oh, who cares about that?" Backflipo interrupted, "f*ck Charlie and f*ck his furniture, I don't care if it gets stained or torn to bits or whatever."

"That's kind of harsh," Robert winced.

"You were there, man, you saw how he was acting," Backflipo told Robert, then muttered to himself, "filho da puta."

Slime shrugged and took it as permission to sit down anyway, so Robert just had to hope whatever material he was made of wouldn't stain. He took a particular interest in the TV.

"Oh, Charlie from The Phone has one of these information boxes too! These are useful for catching up on all the lore I've missed," Slime happily informed the others, then went completely non-verbal as he stared intently at the news headlines.

"Alright. Well..." Robert looked at him, then Backflipo. They both seemed pretty happy in here, but Robert still didn't know what to do with himself.

The three of them passed a few minutes in the living room, but Robert was getting restless, and in the end he sat up from his chair, "I'm just gonna go check on what everyone else is doing. You two have fun in here."

"Gracias," Backflipo didn't look away from the TV as Robert left, and neither did Slime. He didn't really give them a second look either and quickly stepped out into the hall.

Xiv and Gillion were gone from the kitchen across from him. It looked like someone was in the office now too, since the blinds had been put down over the windows. Robert's camcorder zoomed in, but there really wasn't much he could make out anyway through the small gaps in the blinds.

He'd give whoever was in there their privacy. Well, he supposed the only downstairs room left to check was the one connected to the kitchen, which he assumed was a dining room. He was pretty sure he'd only heard Charlie go upstairs, so he wasn't planning to check up there.

"AAAAH!"

He was just about to open the kitchen door when there was a much more attention grabbing noise from elsewhere. It sounded like Charlie's voice, which narrowed it down to precisely every single person in this f*cking house.

As for where it had come from, though, it sort of sounded like it was outside. Robert backed out to the hall and first turned his camcorder to the back entrance, but couldn't see anything out there, and it sounded more like it had come from the front anyway.

And when he turned the other way to focus on the front door, it was indeed left ajar. Someone out there had screamed.

Now, he knew he wanted to do something, but did Robert really want to do something about this?

Because, y'know, that was a scream. That was the kind of scream someone did when they were getting killed by an axe murderer.

He was gonna die. Oh, god, he was gonna die.

But that knowledge somehow didn't stop him from creeping forwards anyway, slowly approaching the front entrance of the house.

It had gone quiet. He was smart enough to know that was a very bad thing.

The first person he saw was a man with round glasses and a bowl cut, standing awkwardly near the entrance.

"Who are you? Did you scream?" Robert asked warily of this new person.

"Wha-? No, I'm Peter, I don't scream, I never scream about things," he sounded very unconvincing. But not dangerous, so Robert eased up a little.

"Then who did?" he asked, pointing his camera around more but not seeing anyone else approaching. With the doors to the other rooms in the house closed, it might've been that no one else had heard the scream. Since it was from outside, it wasn't that loud, after all.

But there was movement upstairs, and while Peter shrugged in answer to Robert's question he heard someone coming closer. Charlie emerged at the top of the stairs, looking down at the door. Presumably he'd heard it too.

"Is everything okay?" he looked worried and his voice was much rougher than the last time Robert had heard him.

"I-I don't know, I just heard that-" Robert started as Charlie walked down the stairs, but both of them stopped at the sign of movement from outside.

Robert saw Ranboo and relaxed. Then he saw everything else and freaked the f*ck out. Because it wasn't just Ranboo, it was Ranboo covered in blood.

Like, jesus christ, f*cking covered. Blood and guts and gore obscured his clothes, dripped from their hair. He just stood there, letting it fall drop by drop onto Charlie's welcome mat.

"R...Ran..." Charlie whispered, horrified.

Normally Ranboo's eyes were expressive. Right now they were just...nothing. Robert couldn't even begin to figure out what he was thinking. When they made the sudden but minimal movement of looking towards Charlie, it made Robert jump.

"You weren't supposed to see this, Charlie."

"Well maybe if you hadn't been sloppy enough to let him scream-" from out of nowhere there was a new voice talking completely casually about this, maybe even petty about it.

"Well maybe if you hadn't been using such a moron-" another, more feminine voice jutted in, sounding fed up.

"Who the f*ck- what are you talking about?!" Robert couldn't decide which question he wanted answered more as he span his camcorder around but couldn't see the source of the voices.

"Look at this mess," the latter voice sighed, ignoring the questions.

"Ranboo, what happened," Charlie meanwhile asked, his fist clutching tightly to the banister at the bottom of the stairs, his knuckles going as pale as his face. He looked seconds away from throwing up the yogurt he'd just eaten. Robert was surprised he hadn't already.

Without saying a word, Ranboo lazily shoved the front door wider open. An invitation for him to see for himself.

"What are you doing?" the masculine voice.

"It's not like I can make this worse. Just make him useful for once and clear up your mess, won't you?" the feminine voice.

"Our mess," the masculine voice corrected mockingly.

Someone stepped out of the nearest door to the office. He was blonde and in some sort of red uniform, his face looked neutral but his eyes had a vacant quality to them. Robert was going to try and ask him if he knew what the f*ck was going on, but he turned and looked at Peter first.

"Uh- hey, I have like, these power things, so I dunno if you wanna try that," Peter told him. Robert couldn't really tell what he was talking about until the man in red uniform raised the knife.

sh*t, wait, he wasn't about to-?

"Exandroth, y-!" Peter's shout ended with blood clogging his vocal chords. Whatever he'd been meaning to do, it had come too late. There was a knife in his throat.

Charlie had been about to take a look out of the door Ranboo had pushed open for him, but upon seeing this he screamed and fell backwards against the bottom step of the stairs. He hyperventilated, then continued to scream, hands grabbing at his own face. A man had just been stabbed and killed in his front room.

Peter fell down as the man pulled his knife out. Robert didn't look at the body. There was a dead man in front of him and he was frozen in place. Moving his chest to breathe felt like too much.

The man with the knife turned to him, and Robert stopped breathing.

"Whoa, bro, are you recording? Sick, you should send that to me afterwards, this is gonna look awesome," the man told him.

"Wh-" Robert was caught off guard enough by the comical voice that he remembered to start breathing again, and decided he should probably start talking, "no, no, it's not- it's off, haha! I'm not recording, you don't need to- please, you don't need to-"

Robert took two steps back and the man took three forwards, "I think I kinda have to, bro, sorry."

No no no no no no no oh f*ck f*ck please no-

He couldn't see the knife once it went past the range of view of the camcorder, but he could sure f*cking feel it.

Metal piercing far further in his body than he'd know how to describe, his nerves catching every awful inch of it. He wanted to scream but the blood choked him. His body was shutting down.

As he lost all feeling, it was almost like he'd never been stabbed at all.

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PM 11:22:33
2024 🔋

"GggAAHHH-"

Robert collapsed to the floor, both hands on his chest as the camcorder fell a little distance away and he could see himself in its view. Alive. He was...alive.

f*ck. f*ck.

His breathing took a bit to normalise, but he got the hang of it eventually. Shockingly, it was easier to breathe without a slice of metal in your lung.

He glanced at the time. 11:23:15. Damn, he'd missed it.

What the f*ck was he talking about? The number on his clock hadn't mattered last time and it certainly wasn't important now. All it did was at least confirm that he was back. That ability still worked, at least.

He was conflicted on whether he should be thankful for being able to 'respawn' or not. He supposed that, yeah, it was pretty useful in this situation. But if he kept dying in horrific ways every time, he couldn't exactly be happy about it.

He startled and backed up when something else crouched down next to him in the corner of the camcorder's view.

"Hey, hey- what's going on?" it was Xiv's voice, oh thank god.

"sh*t, sorry Xiv, hold on," Robert quickly grabbed at the camcorder until he'd gotten a good grip and pulled it over to look at Xiv.

"Yeah, no worries, uh- why are you on the floor?" they asked.

"Uh, just, y'know, uh," Robert's brain was still pumped with too much adrenaline to come up with a cohesive answer to that, "just fell down. Or something."

"Right," Xiv wasn't convinced, "listen, if it's anything about what Charlie said, don't take any of it to heart. He's just being stupid and lashing out for no f*cking reason."

"Uh, alright, thanks," Robert had kind of forgotten about all that, actually. There was something much more pressing that came to mind, "hey, you haven't seen any guys with blonde hair and some sort of red uniform, have you?"

Xiv blinked as they tried to recall, "um, I believe one in the entrance area fit that description as I went past- why, exactly, are you wondering?"

"Just had something I wanted to say, that's all," Robert shrugged and got back to his feet. Xiv did so too and nodded.

"Alright, I hope that goes...well," they sounded a bit suspicious of Robert's intentions, and he didn't blame them. He went forth anyway, towards the entrance room as Xiv had told him.

But when he arrived there was no knife wielding blonde man, there was just a collection of some other people. His eyes caught on Peter immediately. Still looking awkward and unsure of himself, but alive. Thank f*ck, alive.

Ranboo was here too. Robert glared at them. However, Ranboo looked a lot more expressive this time, mostly worried as they weren't quite sure why Robert was staring at him. He seemed fine for now...Robert continued occasionally flicking the camcorder in their direction, but right now Ranboo wasn't giving him much reason to suspect him.

The others in this space of the house were a man with green glasses and a green striped waistcoat, another man with comically large, round glasses and a conductor's hat, and Slime, who looked like he was just about to go in the direction Robert had come from.

"The TV's around the corner to the right, have fun," Robert patted Slime's shoulder and walked past him, assuming that would be enough to keep him occupied.

Without any sign of the blonde, though, Robert decided to check the surrounding rooms. He'd come from the office, so maybe- nope, the office was empty. Besides Gegg, who was stood in the middle of the floor next to a green sign. Robert didn't bother reading it, he'd read enough gegg chamg e world for a lifetime.

He closed the office door and thought for a moment with his hand still on the handle. Where could that guy be? Robert still hadn't checked the dining room, and the ones with green glasses and big glasses were heading into that room now. He'd go in with them.

And what exactly was he doing once he found the guy who'd stabbed him? That's what Robert asked himself, and he didn't have an answer. Really all he was hoping to do was to get answers, so maybe he'd ask some questions or something. Unless that's what got him killed last time.

"You weren't supposed to see this, Charlie."

Those words had given him the impression that knowing things wouldn't necessarily help keep him alive if other people here were trying to keep secrets. Although, with the current impermanence of death, maybe getting answers was more important than staying alive.

Robert really wanted to stay alive, though. Yeah, he knew it sounded pretty easy to just push for answers until it killed him, because he'd just get back up again, but every single time he was still getting killed. He felt his flesh torn, felt his heart stop. Most people just had to feel that once, if ever, and then never again. Robert had, and would, feel it over, and over, and over.

Robert did not want to die if it could at all be avoided, thank you very much.

He stepped into the dining room and, for better or worse, there was no blonde man ready to kill him inside.

"I'd love to have a table like this on my train," the man with big glasses was complimenting the large table at the centre of the room, "but everything would just keep falling off when the train moves because of the inertia."

"Is that what inertia is?" the man in green asked doubtfully.

"Oh, trust me, I know all about inertia," the glasses man assured him. The other man did not look like he trusted his word at all.

"Um, hey, sorry," Robert interrupted them, "would you guys mind telling me your names quickly?"

As much as Robert complained about the amount of names, it was easier than stuff like 'big glasses guy' and 'green waistcoat guy'.

"I am Mr Cicle!" the one in green happily introduced himself.

"Bruce Trayne, at your service, as long as your service involves trains," the other man tipped his hat in greeting.

"Right. I, uh, I'm Robert, and I'm just looking for-" he stopped. He'd heard a noise.

"For..?" Mr Cicle prompted him to continue but Robert didn't respond as he walked up to the table and lifted up the tablecloth.

"Ekekeke- oh, sh*t. Looking for me?" Slimecicle looked back at him.

"It's less impressive and more weird when you're hiding under stuff at normal size. And no, I wasn't," Robert told him.

"Well, you found me!" Slimecicle congratulated him and stepped out from under the table. It was kind of weird seeing him now at an average height after he'd spent so long being tiny.

"Not that I wanted to," Robert muttered, "I probably don't have long now anyways. Where the hell else could he be?"

"Who is it that you're looking for?" Mr Cicle asked.

"Blonde guy, red jacket uniform thing, do you know him?" Robert asked, hopeful.

"Oh, that's...Troy, wasn't it?" Mr Cicle recalled.

"Oh yeah, that's Troy," Bruce confirmed, "he sat in the back with me."

"He could probably be anywhere, though, I didn't know I'd need to keep track," Mr Cicle admitted. Bruce looked like he was about to say something about the use of the word 'track'.

"I'll come up with something," Robert sighed, "thank you anyway. What are you guys doing in here, by the way?"

"Gooping and gunking," Slimecicle told him like it was something really cool, but Robert just had no idea what he was talking about.

"I wasn't planning to stay long," Mr Cicle at least had actual words to say, "I wanted to go outside again and try and see the stars. I think it's been a long time since I've done that. And I'm also starting to feel claustrophobic in here."

"Have fun with that," Robert nodded, "I'll go look for Troy again."

He gave a bit of a wave to everyone as he left and went back into the entrance area. Where he saw Troy walking towards the office.

"Wh- hey!" he stopped Troy but instantly fear shot through him when Troy looked his way. That was him. That was definitely the guy who'd f*cking killed him last time.

Although, something about him wasn't the same. Maybe Robert was just making it up, but he looked more...natural, maybe? He wasn't exactly sure how to describe it.

"We got a problem, dude?" Troy raised an eyebrow.

"N-no, no, no problem!" one difference he could describe a little easier was that Troy didn't have a knife. That didn't stop him from feeling terrified of the man, though.

"Well c'mon, what do you wanna say? Oh, I get it, it's not everyday you see a steam sledding champ like me, right?" Troy raised his chin and took on a pose as if he was in a photoshoot.

"Um- yeah, I..." it didn't seem he was about to get killed, at least. But what was the deal with this guy? Why did he get stabbed the last time, but now he was just...chill?

No matter how different he was acting, he was still a threat. Peter still standing awkwardly nearby, looking unsure what to do with himself, reminded Robert of that. He needed to do something about it so that this time it didn't go quite as catastrophically bad.

"I was just gonna, uh, show you something," Robert said about as confidently as he could while pointing his camcorder at the guy who he'd witnessed and felt killing him. Which was, to say, not very confidently.

"You gonna show me something good, bro? Because I was just on my way elsewhere," Troy challenged.

"Yeah. Super good," Robert nodded. He waited tensely as Troy thought on a response. There was no way this would work- no reasonable, logical, intelligent person would ever trust that-

"Sure, I can take a quick peek," Troy shrugged.

Oh. Alright then.

"Yeah, it's uh, it's just here," Robert lead Troy towards a nearby door, the only one he'd noticed in the house with a keyhole, which he assumed lead to the toilet. And, if his thinking was right, once he opened it...

Bingo. The key was left in the keyhole, on the inside of the door. While he held the door open for Troy, he subtly pulled out the key.

"This is just a toilet, dude. Why are you showing me the sh*tter? Are you about to do something weird?" Troy stepped in and looked around, then looked doubtfully back at Robert.

"What? No, just- just stay in here for, like, five minutes. Something crazy will happen, I promise," Robert lied.

"Ohhh, this is like one of those bloody Mary things, isn't it? Dude, seriously, those don't even work with me, I scare the ghosts off," Troy boasted.

"Mhm okay sure," Robert closed the door and locked it from the outside.

"Alright, whatever man. These ghosts are gonna f*cking get it if they show their faces to me," Troy continued making claims, muffled from the other side of the door. Robert stepped away and let out a breath. Now he wasn't gonna get stabbed, at least, but what was he going to do about Ranboo?

"AAAAH!"

Oh, f*ck. He was too late to stop whatever that was. But it has been a lot clearer this time, maybe because now he was already by the front door.

Peter looked over at him, "that wasn't me. Just so you know."

"Yeah, I know," Robert sighed, "listen, you- last time you said something, what was it, like, Exander? Was that a name?"

"What, Exandroth? I mean yeah, he's here, but I-" Peter's head suddenly jerked back and Robert witnessed as a golden light formed above him and his eyes rolled back, revealing pure black with unnatural golden irises.

"-you called?" another voice came from Peter's mouth, more drawly and significantly less awkward. Now Robert was the uncomfortable one.

"I-I don't think I did, actually," Robert didn't know what he'd just summoned but he immediately was not getting good vibes from 'Exandroth'.

They both heard footsteps, and Charlie appeared at the top of the stairs, "is everything okay?"

"Uh, I dunno if you wanna come down, Charlie," Robert warned him as the front door pushed further open and someone stepped through.

Ranboo looked at him, expressionless. And covered in so much blood.

This time he looked past Ranboo, though. This time he noticed something- probably because he hadn't been looking for it before. Now it stuck out to him as if it was glowing with a 'press X to analyse' sign above it.

On the path up to Charlie's front door, reflecting the light from inside against the dark night surrounding. Green glasses, with a few more little lenses on the side. Just sitting outside, behind Ranboo, discarded. Specks of blood on the left side.

Robert looked up at Ranboo. Okay, sure, they were covered in an unreasonable amount of blood, but hear him out- that didn't necessarily mean he'd just killed someone in cold blood.

Honestly, that made less sense to Robert, because there just wasn't any way that someone could kill someone and look like that afterwards. Even the messiest, goriest, most over-the-top kill couldn't make someone look like that.

That being...man, seeing it the second time didn't make it much better. Robert still felt nauseous with that much viscera splattered in front of him. Jesus, what the f*ck had happened out there?

What was he even thinking about? Right, what had happened- well, in Robert's opinion, it looked more like something had died on top of Ranboo, and that would also explain the emotionless look he was getting. He probably wouldn't know how to react either if something like that had happened.

But then, what had caused all that mess..?

"Oh, man...I don't know what realm you just crawled from, but I'll gladly send you back!" Exandroth only seemed momentarily off-put by the blood before shrugging it away and raising a hand, with small lights forming and dancing haphazardly in his palm.

"Aren't you gonna take care of your mess? Don't let this get out of hand."

"Our mess- and, I would, but I think he's gotten lost somewhere. I don't want to waste the energy commanding someone else."

Those voices again- where the hell were they coming from? At least Exandroth's head turned at their bickering too, so Robert didn't feel like he was going insane being the only one noticing them.

"Of all the people- just take care of it, you useless plastic surgery advert."

"Oh, that's a new one."

"Are we interrupting?" Exandroth mocked, looking around like Robert to find who was talking. He didn't get a response. Robert did.

Take care of him. Then yourself.

Wh- what?

That wasn't him, those weren't his thoughts. But he heard them inside his own head. And he felt a compulsion to follow them.

No, no no-

Something cold pressed into his free hand. Someone unseen had given him something. He tilted the camcorder down but he already knew what it was before the metal blade came into view. Jesus Christ, he was holding the weapon that had killed him.

And now he was going to use it, because there wasn't another option.

No, no, there was, he could just not do it, he didn't have to-

He was already walking forward. Exandroth wasn't looking at him; he was still looking for the voices. He wouldn't even see it.

No no no no no no no NO NO-

Robert wasn't going to think about what happened next. He just did as he was told.

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PM 11:22:33
2024 🔋

"AH-"

Robert's hands were tight, one on the camcorder and the other on his chest. Oh, god.

Oh, god.

Alright. So maybe Troy wasn't the problem. Yeah, focus on that, think of it like a learning experience, and not...

Robert ran to the potted plant next to the back door and threw up.

"Whoa, f*ck, uh...are you okay, man?"

Robert turned the camcorder, his head still slumped over the plant pot in case he wasn't done. It pointed up at William, who was for some reason next to him this time.

"What...but...you weren't here...the last times..?" he gasped out.

William gave him a weird look, "don't really know what you mean by that..."

"It's...it's nothing, don't worry..." Robert wiped his mouth and looked at William with the eyes on his face too. Talking was at least helping to distract from- no, stop going back to that. Stop thinking about it.

"Throwing up in a plant pot isn't exactly nothing," William told him. Robert couldn't disagree.

There's no way he just didn't notice William the last two times, though. Why was he here now?

"Probably food poisoning, from the future food, y'know. Stuff from almost thirty years after my time is probably messing with my gut," Robert quickly made up an explanation.

William shrugged, "yeah, no, takeout definitely isn't the healthiest thing."

Xiv walked up to the two of them, "are you guys- oh, sh*t. That's uh. Not great."

"Sorry, I couldn't get anywhere else in time," Robert stepped away from the plant pot, "but I'm fine now."

He didn't have time to be explaining himself. As he spoke everything around them was getting into motion. This time he needed to make sure things ended better.

"I'm gonna go...look around," he excused himself and walked away without looking back at the confused faces William and Xiv were no doubt giving him. On his way to the front of the house he walked past Slime once again and directed him once more to the living room.

And then Robert was in the front room, and he saw him. He knew Peter would be alive, but it was still such a relief to see him standing there, alive. As if he'd ever be anything else.

Robert cleared the visions of red from his mind, and walked up to him.

"Hey, uh, Peter, was it?" he didn't bother to hide that he already knew his name.

"Y-yeah-" Peter hesitantly nodded.

"I'm Robert 'Slimecicle' Chen. Or, actually, just Robert- I dunno why I keep saying my whole ass name every time," Robert interrupted to introduce himself, "besides the point, uh- why are you here?"

Peter glanced to the side nervously, "well, I mean, I got in a car and we all got out here, so I-"

"No, I don't mean the house," Robert clarified, "I mean, like...why here? Every time you're just standing here for ages. Aren't you gonna look around the house with anyone else?"

Peter blinked, "wh- I, uh, I guess I'm waiting for someone I wanna look around with..."

"And who would that be?" Robert pressed for more answers.

Peter looked down, "well, his name's Rumi, and he's really cool...and I really miss him..."

"Alright, well...how about you wait somewhere else for him? I'm sure he'll find you either way," as long as it got Peter out of here and it got him somewhere safer. Robert felt mean saying he wanted Peter to be somewhere he didn't have to look at him, but that was also part of it. It just kept reminding him of-

Nope. Still not thinking about it.

"Really? I mean, I'm not really sure where to go," Peter looked around.

Robert hummed and came up with a solution, "how about the room down that hall and to the right? They've got a TV in there- not sure if you'd know what that is, but y'know, I'm sure you'd like it."

"Uh...sure," Peter nodded and went in the direction Robert had pointed to. Great, that was one more handled. Now the other one.

The entrance room was empty now except for himself, he'd missed wherever Ranboo had gone off to, but that was fine. He knew where his next target would've gone.

Eugh, not target, bad word choice. It was Mr Cicle, he was looking for Mr Cicle.

Robert shoved into the dining room, "Mr Ci- oh. Uh, where's Mr Cicle?"

In the room with him was Bruce again, as well as Goobleck on the table for some reason. Slimecicle was probably still under it. But Mr Cicle wasn't anywhere in sight.

"Oh, he said something about going outside, or something," Bruce told him.

"To look at stars that one day burn away into nothing :D"

"...okay," Robert might've spent more time thinking about what the hell Goobleck meant by that, but he was too preoccupied crossing to the other side of the dining room and exiting into the kitchen to put much thought into it.

The kitchen was empty- weird, where did Xiv and Gillion keep going?- but he caught sight of movement through the window on the back door and headed straight in that direction.

Outside was much colder than inside- no sh*t, it was night, but it still took Robert by surprise and he had to hold both hands around his camcorder so that his vision didn't start shaking. He slowly pulled the door closed behind him, letting the little bit of light still coming through the window illuminate his surroundings. There was only a little garden area around Charlie's house, and there was a path leading from here to the front, on which he saw someone walking around the corner.

"W-wait, Mr Cicle!" he hurriedly called out and stopped the man.

"Huh? Oh, I don't think we've-"

"I'm Robert," Robert interrupted him, "don't- just, don't go that way. Please."

Mr Cicle looked at the path he was about to follow, and then back at Robert, "and why's that?"

"It's just not good. Like, really. Incredibly not good."

"Descriptive," Mr Cicle commented, but he seemed amused.

"I'm sorry, I can't explain, but please just come inside," Robert requested, "everyone's hanging out in front of the TV, they're having a great time, probably."

Robert paused a moment and tried to listen in since the living room was just past the wall he was standing next to. He couldn't hear the sound of anyone slamming a remote into a TV, so it was probably going fine.

"That sounds great, but I was kind of just planning to stay out here for a while. The sky's pretty, don't you think?" Mr Cicle turned his head upwards.

Robert tilted the camcorder up briefly. He was sure it was, but his bitrate and exposure weren't the greatest for capturing images of the stars.

"Yeah, I know, but..." he sighed, "why are you so interested in the sky anyway?"

Mr Cicle didn't answer immediately, and left the two of them with the sounds of the wind and general night ambience. Being near a city, that meant distant music and shouting. But as easy as it was to pass that kind of noise off as annoying, it was also kind of comforting. With all that noise it was hard to feel alone. There were always other people here, somewhere.

Not that anyone was feeling particularly alone in this house full of a dozen other people. That was a difficult feeling to achieve given the circ*mstances.

"Not having a lid over my head, or walls that are in the corners of my sight no matter what...it's kind of a miracle. It's almost like there's nothing here, just me and the sky. No mazes, no contestants," Mr Cicle eventually answered, and quietly added, "although you're here too now, I guess."

"Damn, don't sound too excited," Robert laughed, and Mr Cicle smiled at his response, "I mean, I'm sorry if I'm interrupting, but I'm serious that I can't let you go that way. It's safe if you just stay inside for now."

"I worried that I'd been inside long enough all the stars would've died by the time I got out," Mr Cicle told Robert.

That was...worrying. But he'd keep trying.

"Well," Robert started, "it looks like they're not, right? And you got out! I'm pretty sure stars take a while to die, and you'll be able to look at them tomorrow night, and the night after that too. If you look at them this much on your first night you're gonna ruin the magic, like playing a cassette way too many times over!"

Robert only half believed in his own reasoning, he just wanted Mr Cicle to be inside. If he went around that corner towards the front of the house, Robert got the sinking feeling that he wouldn't come back.

Mr Cicle seemed to be thinking about that reasoning. Robert really hoped it was enough, because at this point he might just drag Mr Cicle in by the back of his waistcoat just to make sure he was safe.

"I can't look at the sky anymore if I let myself get hypothermia out here," Mr Cicle smiled at Robert. Then he walked back to he door and went back inside.

Now that he'd adjusted, Robert didn't think it was really that cold outside at all. But he missed the comfortable warmth of the house, so he went back inside as well.

Once back in, he could hear some more conversation coming from the living room. That was good, unless it was an argument, in which case it at least hadn't escalated to throwing things around yet. As long as it kept them occupied, though. He just needed it to be long enough for him to figure everything else out.

Which started with the front door, and whatever the hell was about to happen there now that he'd stopped Mr Cicle from being involved. He walked closer to it, wary of the fact it was slightly open, but not enough for him to see anything outside. Robert tried to listen for what was going on, and there hadn't been any screams yet at least. But there still had to have been something happening out there.

He could hear something, just barely. There was clicking, but there was something else to it...he wasn't sure it was just the cicadas anymore.

What the hell are you doing, Ranboo? What happened out there?

Nobody was around. Just him, the door, and whatever was beyond it. And all those things were slowly getting closer as Robert went step by step, camcorder in both hands. What was there to do other than find out? He'd made sure everyone was safe, now he had the opportunity to get to the bottom of this.

It might've taken him f*cking dying two times, but just outside were the answers he'd wanted. He'd open the door, he'd go outside and he'd see.

Considering whatever was out there was covering Ranboo in blood each time, it was reasonable that Robert was a bit hesitant to take a peek.

Put he pushed through, past his nerves and over the threshold, and as he stepped out of the house he at last caught sight of

PLAY ▶ 🎙️

PM 11:22:33
2024 🔋

"f*ck!"

He didn't even get to see it! Before the camcorder had even adjusted to the darker lighting something had come out of nowhere and killed him, he barely even felt it before he was dead!

Well, it was a better way to go than the previous time. He was still pissed about it though.

Thinking back on it, there was still something he'd gained from that one. He hadn't heard a scream at any point, so that kind of confirmed it had been coming from Mr Cicle. So would Ranboo have even come in covered in blood that time? Well, he wouldn't get to know the answer to that one, because he'd f*cking died.

You know what? He kept missing things that were going on while he was trying to do other stuff, so this time he was just gonna stand here. Just watching what went on. Then he would know exactly what was going on for next time.

He didn't really want to die if he could help it, but...if dying this one time would help him not die in the next attempt, he supposed it was worth it.

It also meant he would be letting other people die. That was equally unappealing. But they'd keep dying anyway if he didn't figure out how to stop the source of the problem.

And what would that even be? He'd figured it wasn't Troy, since he'd been forced to do the same things Troy had. Did that mean it was Ranboo? But Ranboo didn't do anything to kill him the first time. And what about those voices, what the hell was up with them?

That's what he was standing here for. That's what he was hopefully about to find out.

And, while he was here looking around, he quickly noticed something.

"Oh, William, you're...here," he noticed the teen just standing in the corner.

William looked around nervously, "I-I can go if you want me to-"

"No, you're fine, I just..." Robert's voice went to more of a mutter, "I really just didn't see you the first two times, huh."

"Yeah, I get that a lot," William sighed.

By now Xiv had walked by and gone into the kitchen. From here Robert could see quite a lot, he could see the edge of the front door and some of the entrance room down the hall, and he could see Slime coming from that direction too. This was probably the best location to catch what was going on.

Slime opened his mouth to say something, but Robert interrupted, "Robert from The Backrooms, yada yada, you should go check out the TV in that room I'm sure you'll love it."

Slime nodded like that was a completely normal way to have a conversation and headed into the living room.

"So uh...what's with the swearing earlier?" William asked since they were both still stood together in the same area.

Robert thought for a moment. Keeping an eye on things didn't take much effort, so he could probably maintain a conversation in the meantime. But then he needed to figure out what he was going to say to that.

"I was, just, y'know, stressed out. It's a stressful situation," Robert wasn't exactly lying by saying that.

"I- do you wanna talk about it?" William asked.

Yeah, he kind of did. But Robert didn't really know if he could.

"You know that Groundhog Day movie that came out a couple years back?" he'd come to accept that no one would believe he was in a death time loop before he'd even tried explaining it, because Robert himself hadn't believed it when he'd died the first few times. But he realised it was still probably worth a shot, after all, there were plenty of other absurd things already going on.

"I think that one was before my time," William told him.

"Okay, well..." oh, screw the metaphors, "I'm in, like, a time loop thing. Y'know, I keep dying, and then coming back, it's a whole f*cking thing."

For a few moments William was quiet, "so like...that one with all the aliens and then France explodes? I don't remember it that great, we just talked about it one time in history."

"...I think that one's past my time," that description definitely wasn't bringing anything to mind, "wait did you just say France is gonna explode in the future?!"

"No, no, that was just in the movie! Arkansas though...yeesh," William winced.

"I'm not even gonna ask," Robert sighed, "but yeah, I guess, that's my deal."

As he said that, Robert noticed the blinds to the office closing. Damn it, he'd missed seeing who was in there- although he hadn't noticed any movement in there until it closed, so maybe the person had been staying out of view anyway.

"Huh...right..." William was nodding and started muttering things to himself that Robert couldn't hear, "oh, actually, I saw something about this! Yeah, someone said they had a codeword or something, and so if anyone in a time loop came up to them and said it, they'd know it was because they'd told them that in a previous loop."

"Do you have a codeword, then?"

William paused, "w-well, no."

"Can you just take my word for it this time round then?" Robert asked.

"I guess..?" William sounded very uncertain in his answer.

"It's fine, I dunno what you'd even do about it this time around," Robert admitted, "I'm not even doing anything, I'm just waiting here to see what happens."

"So you're trying to figure out what ends the loop, right? I could try and help by looking around and reporting back," William offered.

"Oh, yeah, that would actually be pretty helpful," Robert nodded, "I haven't really checked upstairs yet, you could go see if anything's happening up there."

William seemed happy enough to go with that plan and went invisible halfway to the stairs, since stealth would probably be useful. Just in case.

Around that same time the door from the kitchen to the dining room opened, and Mr Cicle walked through, not paying much attention to Xiv and Gillion, who weren't really paying attention to their surroundings in turn. He barely acknowledged Robert as he went straight to the back door to look outside.

Robert wanted to stop him, but he had to remind himself this wasn't going to lead to anything anyway, he'd already given up on this attempt. This was just for information. So Mr Cicle left, and Robert steeled himself against the knowledge of what was to come.

Shouldn't Xiv and Gillion have left by now? He was pretty sure the kitchen had been empty by this point all the other times. He literally had a built in clock, he should've been timing these things.

Maybe they'd left after Mr Cicle, he still had no idea where they went anyway. Where could they have gone? He'd been in the dining room, the living room, outside too, and the office was occupied. Where was left for them to be going each time?

How interesting.

Robert whipped his camcorder around in both directions- he'd heard something but he had no idea where from. He recognised it, too, that was the masculine voice from each time Ran had come in covered in blood. Why was it here now?

"Are you- are you talking to me? Where are you?"

I don't think that's important. I'm much more interested in talking about you, which is pretty rare for me.

"That's...weird. What do you want with me?" Robert was feeling more and more uncomfortable, like he was being watched but couldn't find the one watching him no matter what.

I want to know more. You say you've died and come back, have you?

"So you were listening to that," Robert felt more justified in the bad vibes he was getting after that. Spying on other people's conversations was definitely a red flag.

I'm glad I was. Something like that could have been a big problem for our plan.

Damn it, why couldn't he hear where this guy was coming from? It wasn't like he was coming from every direction, somehow it was like his voice was coming from nowhere at all.

"You're being real weird and vague right now," and Robert didn't exactly feel safe. Xiv and Gillion were right there, he should go and tell them-

Where are you going?

"Nowhere," Robert quickly responded and stopped walking towards the kitchen. He was hoping that not being able to see the source of the voice meant he was somewhere he couldn't be keeping an eye on Robert. That hope was quickly dashed.

Come on, you don't want those two getting involved. This is between us.

Robert looked back in the direction of Xiv and Gillion. He actually really did want them getting involved right now, believe it or not.

"Sleep."

There was immediately a few things different about that word. First, it had actually sounded spoken, from some direction behind Robert. However there was something else to it, it was reminiscent of how he'd been forced to do what Troy had done, but this time Robert knew it wasn't being directed at him.

That might've been in part due to the third thing, that being Xiv and Gillion abruptly falling to the ground, unconscious.

"What the f*ck?!" Robert ignored the source of the voice for now as he ran into the kitchen to the side of the sink where the two of them had fallen down. He couldn't calm down until he'd made sure they were both still breathing, and even then they were still f*cking unconscious so he wasn't exactly happy.

"Better to take them out before they proved a nuisance," the same masculine voice but different again, much more normal, and much closer.

Robert stumbled up and went to spin his camcorder on the source of the voice, but a tight grip suddenly took ahold of his wrist and he lost his hold on the camcorder long enough for it to be grabbed right out of his hand.

"No- hey!" Robert shouted out fearfully, and then saw...himself.

The one holding his camcorder was pointing it right back at him.

"Making a little vlog out of this? I'll keep hold of your toy for now," the voice without a face mocked him. Robert saw his own chest rise and fall, saw himself gasping for words that wouldn't form like a goldfish out of the tank. His own eye in the palm of another.

He was looking down on himself, he could see Xiv and Gillion still below him. He didn't like imagining what the height of the person before him was based on this angle.

"See, it just wouldn't do for someone with this power to 'reset' getting in the way. All our progress going away because you don't like it? That would be such a shame," the voice continued monologuing.

"G-give that back," was all that Robert could bring himself to say. He couldn't see the response he got but the way his vision started shaking have him the impression the other man was chuckling at him.

"Or what? You're gonna be in our world soon. Don't worry, I'll keep you safe," that promise had never been such a threat. Jesus Christ, he was gonna be forced to stay alive, and something told him he didn't want to be living in whatever 'our world' was.

He'd f*cked it up now, he shouldn't have said a thing. He was going to live through the world in which Mr Cicle died on the front porch and Peter was stabbed in the entry hallway. Against his will he was going to see it all. He closed his eyes but his lens shutter stayed open.

"Who are you, then?" he just wanted to know, his life being held in the hand of someone he'd never even seen was terrifying him.

"Oh, I think you know who I am, bro," the voice claimed.

"Well not if I can't-" wait. This guy was assuming Robert could see him to know who he was. This guy didn't know about the camcorder.

The sink, he was by the sink. And from this angle, as much as he hated it, he could see the bowl left in it. Soaking dishes was always useful for getting rid of bits of food, but he had never felt as relieved to see a bowl full of water as he was right now.

"Can't what?" the voice asked.

He started raising an arm. Wait, sh*t, wrong arm- looking at his own body was making this confusing.

Was he really about to do this? Well yeah, it was the only option he'd been left with, but god was he starting to feel an overwhelming amount of dread building on him. He was about to die again and he was about to do it himself.

He couldn't fail. He couldn't chicken out. The longer he stayed alive the closer he got to a checkpoint after the damage to everyone else was done. He needed to do it now and change this.

"Not if I can't...uh..." Robert grabbed the bowl, "get you wet!"

"What-"

Robert flung the bowl forwards.

Chapter 12: Try, Try Again.

Chapter Text

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PM 11:22:33
2024 🔋

Okay, first of all, awful one-liner.

Also, not doing that again. Ever. It was weird to say, but he much preferred getting killed by something else to doing it himself.

Still, thank god that had worked. That had almost gotten really bad, and he didn't feel as though he'd earned much for his troubles. So much for that being his information-gathering run. He really wasn't the guy who should be handling this.

Especially now that he'd gotten a taste of what was behind all this. Whoever that guy was, Xiv and Gillion hadn't even been able to do anything, and he couldn't do anything except f*cking short circuit himself, and even that was a challenge! Oh, god, they were f*cked.

Maybe not. Because now he knew, so he could try something better- but he still needed to be careful. Getting stuck in a situation like that where he didn't have a way out in time; if he'd been the one sent to sleep instead, that would've been it. By the time he woke up, there would be a new checkpoint and he'd be irreversibly surrounded by corpses. No way out of that.

So he wouldn't tell anyone, but at the same time, he definitely needed their help. He'd just had his eyes held over his head like a toy stolen by a bully. It was infuriating how easy it was to be taken advantage of with this stupid camcorder linked to his being. He'd missed seeing what was outside the front door, and now this. If it didn't kill him, he'd have crushed the thing.

Xiv was coming this way already- as if he was surprised, as if this hadn't already happened four times over. If they could help him, that would be crucial, but how could he go about convincing them without telling the truth out loud?

"Xiv, hey," he stopped them just as they were about to look in the kitchen for Gillion. Xiv gave him a quizzical look.

"Oh, yes? You look stressed- is it about what Charlie said? Listen-" Xiv was probably about to give some decent advice, but that wasn't at all what Robert was worried about, so he stopped them.

"No, no, it's just about, uh...I think I've found something that's at the root of all this, but I need help if we're gonna take it down."

"That's vague and sudden and kind of an unreasonable discovery to make in the two minutes I was gone," Xiv criticised.

"Well, yeah, no, it is, but can't you just trust me for now?" Robert tried not to sound too desperate.

"Wait, question, is it a hag?" Xiv raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, no? Well, maybe, actually," Robert considered it since he hadn't actually seen who it was yet.

"I've had some experiences with hags, man," Xiv tapped on one of their eyes with a pointed nail, and Robert realised the eye was fake, "f*cking Klip got a magic one but it's whatever I guess," they mumbled afterwards.

"Who?" Xiv gave him a look, "n-nevermind. But, I'm serious, I need your help. It's like, secret stuff I can't say out in the open, y'know?"

Xiv sighed, "I suppose I can at least hear you out before I decide."

That wasn't a no! Robert nodded and went on, "okay, well, I don't know everything about them, but I have a pretty decent idea they're in there."

Robert pointed to the office, not making his movement too obvious. It was the only place that made sense, after all. He'd pretty much eliminated every other option for where this guy could've been coming from, unless he was in the walls or something, in which case Robert had no idea what to do about that.

"And so you want me to go in and just, attack, or something?" Xiv asked.

"...yeah," the plan sounded dumber when they explained it like that, "but hopefully not just you! I'll go around trying to get other people too. Then we can make sure we deal with this."

Xiv shrugged, "well, let's see how many others you recruit, then. I'll think about helping too."

That was a pretty non-committal answer, but Xiv was walking into the kitchen before Robert could counter it. Gillion would be pretty useful if they were storming into the office to take care of whoever was in there, but Robert wasn't going to go in and interrupt to give his pitch again. Especially since every time he looked at Gillion, the man still looked like he was processing a lot. Robert kind of wanted to let him deal with that first.

He knew who to go to next instead. William, still stood in the same room, and Robert still couldn't believe he just hadn't noticed him the first two times. And Slime too, although he was coming to Robert himself.

"Wow, I've never met so many people that I don't know in one place! Where did you-?"

"Robert, I came from some backrooms somewhere, listen Slime- do you fight, at all?" Robert interrupted him. Slime didn't really seem like the type to fight considering the overalls and tie he was dressed up in, but Robert thought it was worth a shot.

Slime seemed conflicted, "not out of desire, only because I had to. I try just to watch."

"Well...if there was someone in this house trying to kill everyone, would you count that as a scenario in which you'd have to?" Robert tried.

"Is there?" Slime looked back at him with wide, curious eyes.

"Uh- well-" Robert glanced briefly at the office, the blinds not having been put down quite yet. But was there still a chance they were being listened to?

Unfortunately Slime noticed where he was looking and started walking in that direction.

"H-hey, wait," Robert held him back, cringing a little as he struggled to grip onto a slimy arm, "that's why I'm saying you've gotta be able to fight. It's not safe, trust me."

"I won't be quite as good without a thousand clones, but...if I need to help, Robert from The Backrooms, I'll help," Slime nodded.

First hags, now clones. Robert seriously couldn't predict what weird lore these guys were gonna drop next.

But that was a yes, as far as Robert could tell! He was actually getting somewhere!

"You guys are gonna fight someone?" William surprised Robert as he was suddenly beside him.

"For a good reason," Robert clarified, "the guy I'm talking about sucks, trust me. You think you can help too?"

William considered it, "I mean, I can, but are you really not gonna tell us who it is?"

"They wanna like, take over the world or something, we don't need to know who they are to know we need to stop their plans," Robert reasoned.

"Yeah that's a pretty evil thing to be doing to be fair," William agreed.

"Can he help too?" Slime pointed out Goobleck, who was looking up at them from a spot nearby on the floor. Robert was starting to think he really just wasn't perceptive if he hadn't noticed William or Goobleck being here.

"Goobleck help!"

"Sure, Goobleck can help," the more the merrier, Robert supposed. The more they had, the better their chances were of taking this guy down before he used magic or whatever to knock them all out.

Robert went over names in his head to figure out who to ask next. He decided to pay a visit to the living room and poked his head in the door.

"Hey Backflipo, do you wanna fight a guy with us?"

He saw a black and green thumbs up raise from behind the back of the couch. Sweet, that one was easy.

Next he went back to the kitchen, going around the side of the centre countertop that Xiv and Gillion weren't at to get to the door. He caught some words in passing like "doesn't deserve sympathy" from their conversation before he went into the dining room.

Inside was Bruce, Mr Cicle, and surprisingly, Gegg. Robert didn't recall him being here, but in the end he wasn't the most important creature to be tracking the movements of.

"Hey, you guys- Slimecicle you too, you can come out from under the table- could you guys help with something?" Robert put out his request. Slimecicle poked out his head from under the table and glared at him.

Bruce had a better response, "well I can fix your train, I can kill your train, I can do pretty much anything."

"...unfortunately not a train, but the killing could be useful," Robert admitted.

"Um, what does that mean? What exactly are we helping you with?" Mr Cicle asked.

Robert glanced at the door he'd shut behind him, and the other closed door on the other side of the room. He still couldn't be sure he wasn't being listened to, though, "okay, so, there's someone in the house that's planning something pretty bad, and so we need a few people to y'know, stop that from happening."

"And who are you to know all of that?" Mr Cicle crossed his arms.

"I'm Robert, hi. Robert 'Slimecicle' Chen," he gave a little wave, then pointed a finger at Slimecicle, "which, actually, is a really weird coincidence with your name. I'm sure that's nothing though."

"Yeah, I know plenty of guys called Slimecicle," Slimecicle agreed, and Robert couldn't tell if it was a joke or not.

"Okay, okay, but why do you know this?" Mr Cicle questioned.

"That's-" Robert was about to try to explain himself, but he was quite thankful to be interrupted, because he wasn't really sure what to say.

"Hold on, the egg is telling us something guys," Bruce put his hands out and directed all their attention to Gegg, who had put a sign on the table and was fervently writing onto it. Robert could hear something. Was it playing music?

We are being faced
with a threat. Must
we have all the ans
wers to know the

truth? Would you
stop a war to ask why
it is being fought?

Perhaps better men
would, but worse men
are those with their live
s at the end of the day.

Sometimes to know why
is to have already lost.
We must trust, and fight
for those that we will tru

st.

Robert read, and then reread the signs. Was this egg shaped creature a president or an army general in its last world? Either way he felt kind of ashamed that the egg made of goo was far better at persuasion than he could ever be.

"I...guess that's true," Mr Cicle tilted his head.

"So you'll help too?" Robert tried not to sound too desperate.

"I can assist where I can," his tone still sounded hesitant, and his agreement wasn't the most commited, but Robert would take it. Time was pressing on, too; he probably needed to get this plan in motion soon.

Bruce already seemed happy to lend a hand, and Slimecicle didn't look bothered one way or another, so Robert returned to the kitchen, bringing the four from the dining room with him.

Xiv and Gillion noticed the small crowd he was leading and Xiv commented on it, "oh, so you were actually serious about that."

Robert nodded, "you gonna join?"

Xiv shot Gillion a bemused look and shrugged, "sure, it's something to do."

Gillion also agreed, "I can lend my aid in whatever you're doing!"

William, Slime and Goobleck were still near the door to the office, and Backflipo had at some point wandered out of the living room to join them. At this point it was just Peter, Troy and Ranboo who weren't present, and if Robert was honest, he'd rather just leave them out of it this time. This many people already felt like overkill, but better safe than sorry.

He stepped up closest to the office door, its window covered by the blind from within. He turned his camcorder and the group was looking back, all eyes on him. Damn, he felt like some kind of leader. This was pretty cool.

"Alright, whatever is behind this door has been the root of a lot of problems. I don't know what we're about to see but there's no way all of us won't be enough to face it. Is everyone ready?"

The group nodded back to him, some less certain than others, some with an expression to suggest they thought all this was a joke. They'd see soon that it wasn't, he knew that.

Robert turned back to bust open the door to the office, but conveniently it opened for him.

Wait, not convenient. Bad. That was probably bad.

It had only opened a crack, all of them still unable to get a proper view within, but whoever had moved it from the inside began to speak, "all of this for me? You really shouldn't have."

Now it was the other voice addressing them, the feminine one, with a mocking undertone. It was playful in a way that made Robert's skin crawl. Clearly it had had that effect on everyone, as the unbothered looks drained from people's faces. It was unnerving how a voice that didn't sound threatening in the slightest still had some quality to it that put every single one of them on edge.

"Who-?"

"Wrong question, Robert," he did not like that she knew his name, "you won't like the answer to that one. Or, you won't understand, at least. But really, I appreciate all this effort. It's not every day that such a feast marches up to your front door."

"Then what are you?" Robert rephrased.

"Worse question. But I can give you the answer, if you really like."

Robert didn't like that at all. In fact he hated all of this and really didn't want to be at the front of the group right now. This wasn't going to lead to anything good.

"Shame. I wanted to play a little longer. But I suppose none of you were ever necessary. Tell your gods I said hi."

The door burst off its hinges and

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PM 11:22:33
2024 🔋

Wh-

What?

What even just-?

He hadn't felt anything kill him. He'd just seen something. He'd seen...

Damn it, he knew he'd seen it that time, why couldn't he remember what came out of the office?

It was like he wasn't letting himself remember it, like he was blocking out the memory. But that didn't make any sense.

The reason all these attempts weren't useless was because he was at least getting information, but that became redundant if he couldn't even remember the most important thing from his last death. Come on, he had to remember.

It had been so sudden, he was sure it was big, too. Not at all what he would've associated with that voice he heard. It was red, yeah, he was pretty sure it had been red.

Or...was it, like, pinkish? Was it even one colour? The image in his head kept changing, trying to form and then falling apart as none of the pieces fit, too contradictory or vague to mesh together.

Damn it, he had to remember, surely, he'd seen it.

The image was just at the edge of his mind, as he kept trying it got a little clearer, he remembered some other feature that had been blocked out of his mind. He didn't stop to consider if that had been for a good reason. Why would he?

Because nothing bad could come from remembering, he needed to know. He'd almost remembered, the image was right there, he could almost see it.

If he just tried harder he could recall it, how it was moving, how it sounded, how it sounded like agony incarnate, how it was moving like no living thing ever could, how it looked like

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PM 11:22:33
2024 🔋

Alright. Maybe he stopped trying to remember it. Maybe some things were best left forgotten.

Speaking of that, this attempt...let's just skip this one. It went fine. Nothing went wrong. Robert actually was trying to forget it because nothing happened, it wasn't even worth remembering.

So yeah. Let's just move on to the next one. Nothing to see here.

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PM 11:22:33
2024 🔋

Okay, so those last two...didn't go so hot. After the penultimate one he'd decided to not try to remember what that thing in the office looked like, since that had pretty immediate consequences, and as for the last one...

Yeah. He didn't want to think about that one.

But this one was sure to go better! Better than the last two, anyway. Because Robert had a plan.

A plan totally not based on fixing the mistakes of any unspecified previous attempts. Because nothing in particular had gone wrong on the last attempt. Nothing that he was going to acknowledge, at least.

That plan involved going in the office- okay, hear him out, that might immediately sound like a really bad idea, especially with what happened every time with the office prior.

...yeah, it really did sound like that.

Anyway, Robert was already going into the office before Xiv had even reached him. He'd made his decision at the end of the last attempt, for no reason in particular. He was commited, and he was doing it right.

The office was empty right now. He didn't linger in it for long and went to the closet at the back, went inside, and shut the door.

To an outside perspective, it might be pretty confusing what Robert was doing. Which was a weird thought, because there wasn't any outside perspective, and Robert really didn't need to be explaining himself to anyone right now, but waiting in the dark silence of a random closet in the house of a complete stranger that had apparently created him gave him a little time to think about what had lead him here.

Whatever was behind the things that kept killing him and everyone else every single time, it was centralised in here. He was sure of that. As for if that ended up being the masculine voice, the feminine voice, Ranboo or even Troy, Robert was yet to know. But, by being here before they even knew he was here, he stood a chance at finding out.

Was this reckless? Oh, yeah, definitely, he was aware enough to acknowledge that already. And like he'd said, he really didn't want to die, he wanted every attempt here to be his last, but in this case, he'd be willing to make an exception.

He also maybe deserved it a little bit.

That sounded bad. He had a reason, alright? He just didn't want to think about it.

Oh god, he was gonna have to think about it, wasn't he?

Well, on the last one, he'd started by talking to William. They needed another way to get to the bottom of what was going on in this office, and invisible going-through-walls powers seemed pretty useful for that goal. William had been happy to help before too, even without that time loop codeword thing he'd mentioned.

So Robert made a plan with him, for him to just scout out the office and figure out what the deal was. No big deal. Well, there was a big deal, he was getting to that.

Oh, whatever, he'd just say it. William had died. Robert had sent him into the office, and he'd died.

He felt, to put it lightly, sh*t. He'd sent the kid in, knowing damn well the kind of danger lurking in this office, and just assumed it would be fine because of his powers. He didn't see it happen, but he'd heard her voice.

"Invisibility is cute, but I don't think it's doing as much as you think it is."

The blinds were closed. But he could see the blood splatter onto them.

So that's why he was doing it himself. If, or more likely when, this went wrong, he'd at least retain the information he heard. And he wouldn't be getting some kid to do it for him and get himself killed.

Was it apparent enough why he didn't want to think about the last one now?

He stopped that train of thought now, anyway, as he heard movement from the room beyond. Footsteps coming in, and blinds being pulled down. That confirmed his fears. There was no backing out now.

He couldn't see a thing from this closet, the slips of light around the edge of the door weren't even enough to let him see the shadows of anyone moving by the door. If someone was stood right outside, he didn't think he'd have any idea. So he kept his breathing quiet, and held tight to his camcorder.

"All this interesting equipment...how do we use it all?"

It was the feminine voice again. Just hearing it made Robert freeze up. He had to remind himself to start breathing again.

"Well usually with those you're supposed to-" the masculine voice started.

"Rhetorical," the feminine one responded, as though it was something she'd already said a dozen times.

"Where's your toy?" the feminine voice followed up with a question.

"Something I said made him want to go talk with Charlie. Wording is a tricky thing."

"Then get better at it so he doesn't cause any problems. Charlie needs to be in the right state of mind."

Robert assumed it was only those two in the office right now, it didn't sound as though there was a third presence. That was until a door opened and closed, and he heard another set of footsteps. And then...

Clicking.

He was sure those were footsteps, right? Not a horde of crickets and cicadas making their way inside? It had to have been another person, but could a person even make noises like that?

After a few seconds it stopped. He still couldn't forgive himself for sending William into this. He couldn't even see what was in the room and he was terrified of it.

"Do you have to do it like that?" the masculine voice sounded irritated.

"It's faster. I don't see why you care, anyway."

The third person still hadn't spoken, unless that's what the clicking had counted as. Robert listened in closely in case there were any subtler sounds he was missing. Breathing.

He was missing the breathing. That was coming from right next to him in the closet.

Robert did well not to scream, but the muffled thud he made against the wall as he backed up from the noise was far less than desirable. The office was silent. Oh f*ck, they'd noticed.

Well, it was over. Robert hoped for a swift death at least, then he could get back to his next attempt sooner.

What was he saying? He didn't want to die at all! But there was really no avoiding it now. There wasn't a single scenario in which he made it out of here alive.

Footsteps approached his location, and he pointed his camera a little upwards at whatever was about to open this door. With his luck, that would be pointless, he'd be dead again before he could conceptualise the thing before him.

The door opened, light burst in, and Robert was alive. He wasn't facing some imperceivable horrifying visage. He was instead faced with...

Oh, how did he even describe this?

A tall man, who he could only assume to be the owner of the masculine voice, stood silhouetted before him by the lights in the office, however they weren't strong enough to conceal the man's features. Which were, to say the least, interesting.

It was mostly just the expression. His lips pursed, his eyes slightly squinting down at robert and one eyebrow raised disapprovingly. He looked like the product of far too much Botox and the makeup he was wearing made him appear far too pale, as though he hadn't seen a glimpse of the sun in decades.

Robert had been expecting something horrific. He had an image in his head of something he couldn't even remember in its full form because it had f*cking killed him. All the blood, the fear, the clicking, and now he was faced with...

"Edward, stop pouting at the man and take care of him already," the feminine voice demanded.

"Just making sure his last sight is a good one," Edward smirked, talking to the other voice but not breaking eye contact with Robert.

"It really isn't," Robert argued.

That wasn't what Edward wanted to hear.

PLAY ▶ 🎙️

PM 11:22:33
2024 🔋

Definitely not the best way that could've gone. But hey, pissing off that Edward guy before he died was a little bit worth it.

It was totally worth it, actually. And certainly a big improvement on the last one-liner he'd tried. Robert was glad he was the only one with that memory, though he'd rather not have that one at all.

So what was he trying now? He didn't know who the f*ck or what the f*ck was breathing in that closet with him, and he didn't like the idea of trying that spot again. Damn it, he just wanted to see what was happening, but being anywhere in that room was sure to kill him.

Well...he didn't have to be in the room. Not every part of him.

He just wanted to see? There was a way Robert could achieve that. Camcorder eyes were a nuisance, but this time maybe he could play to their strengths.

Not much time to spare, so Robert quickly went to the office once more and went up to Charlie's desk. The colourful lights over his keyboard and the box of tech under his desk really made this look like something from a sci-fi flick and he was now realising a camcorder from his era really did not fit that vibe, but he'd just have to fit it in as best he could.

Robert decided to hide it behind the stem of a monitor and amongst a couple of random objects left on the side of the desk, like a stapler and a couple of dice. They were probably there for some reason, but Robert didn't have the energy to figure out why.

An unfortunate drawback of hiding his own eyes was that he couldn't take a look at how good a job he'd done, but he trusted himself. This would be fine, he was sure.

(Robert was not sure of anything at all)

When he'd done as best as he thought he could, Robert quickly left, banged into the wall, missed the door handle a couple of times, and then left. Watching himself doing the whole thing made it ten times worse.

Hey, if anyone else tried controlling their own body from an outside perspective like that one Alone In The Dark game, they'd definitely struggle just as much. It's not something you'd ever have prior experience in, that's for sure, so Robert wasn't accepting any criticisms on his clumsiness while controlling his body from the other side of the room.

There was a bit of a problem once he'd left, though. That being that his eyes were still in the last room.

But that was fine, he could feel where the wall was, and he didn't want to stray far anyway. If he sat totally inconspicuously by the side of the office wall, maybe a bit further away from the door, he could try to listen in and look in on them.

He knew William was still near the part of the house he was standing in, watching him blindly fumble across the wall until he'd made some distance from the door. Xiv and Gillion could probably see him too. But that was fine, as long as he didn't slip on an unseen Goobleck- out of sight, out of mind.

And so he stood there, leant back super casual against the wall, waiting for movement to enter his sight. Soon enough, it did.

They came in through the far door, the one closest to the entrance to the house, and Robert wondered how they'd gotten past the people in there. Peter hadn't moved from there without Robert being the one to prompt him, after all, but he'd never mentioned anything like this.

First of all he saw Edward walking in, and man that was still a face unlike any he'd ever seen. He still had that exact same expression. Was his face, like...stuck like that..?

But what took much more of his interest was the entrance right after, and once again, it was not at all what he was expecting.

Despite his fears, all she seemed to be was just...a girl. Some young kid with a ponytail and a sci-fi shirt. And that was the source of the voice that made him feel so uneasy at his core? That just didn't match at all.

"All this interesting equipment...how do we use it all?"

Her voice was a bit muffled through the wall, but he could see and hear her now. She'd come up to the desk and run a finger over the keyboard, coloured lights reflecting in her glasses, and for a moment Robert's heart caught in his throat as her analytical gaze passed over the desk and he was almost certain she'd noticed his sh*ttily concealed camcorder. But in the end she must have missed it, as she stepped away from the desk without comment or so much as a double take.

"Well usually with those you're supposed to-"

"Rhetorical."

She and Edward continued to talk just as they had the last time, but now being able to see it gave Robert a little more insight. Edward held himself very formally, posture and movement like he was in presence of royalty and not just a girl, but he still stooped down a little when addressing her to highlight the height difference.

The girl, in comparison, was acting like this was her own house. Slumped shoulders, lazily casual pace as she wandered around, and the looks she gave Edward were annoyed but ultimately not too bothered.

"Where's your toy?"

"Something I said made him want to go talk with Charlie. Wording is a tricky thing."

The girl rolled her eyes, "then get better at it so he doesn't cause any problems. Charlie needs to be in the right state of mind."

What did they mean by all that? What did these two want with Charlie?

Three, now, as the door opened again. The next person to enter the room...

Ranboo.

He looked completely unfazed by the other two. All this time, had Ranboo been working with them..? Robert didn't know them, but Charlie seemed to trust them deeply. He could maybe hope it was a double cross, that Ranboo wasn't really working with them, that he was just-

Ranboo pulled their mask down and Robert saw mandibles.

Like, bug mandibles. Insect mandibles, on their face. And a moment later he started clicking.

Not good, not good, very very very not good. That wasn't supposed to be there. Robert was not a fan of that being the way it was at all.

And then when Ranboo stopped, the girl started clicking instead. It felt like it took far longer to come to an end than it had the first time. Seeing it had not made Robert any less afraid.

"Do you have to do it like that?" Robert felt inclined to agree with Edward's criticisms.

"It's faster. I don't see why you care, anyway."

The girl went back towards the computer and Robert's heart rate significantly sped up, but for now his hidden camera still remained undetected.

"It'll be good to give your toy a toy, don't you think?" she suggested absentmindedly.

"What, a weapon?" Edward asked in turn, "I think he's happy enough with just that sled."

"Something extra would still be useful. And we need to take care of those ones in the kitchen anyway. There'll be a good knife or two in there."

"There's still others hanging around. I'm not wasting my energy on more than I need to," Edward told her. Robert's heart beat harder against his ribcage as he could only assume that was in reference to himself. He was helpless stood where he was. There could be a knife at his throat and he wouldn't even know to defend himself.

Those ones in the kitchen- that had to be Xiv and Gillion. Had Edward been knocking them out every time? Was that where Troy had gotten that knife from the first time?

Suddenly, a silence. Both Edward and the girl looked up like they'd heard something. Robert just barely heard a knock at the front door, but for a moment he was terrified that he'd been caught.

"Late arrivals to the party," Edward commented.

"I don't think they have invites," the girl smirked. Usually that would be a playful, humorous expression, but on her it seemed more like the last thing you'd ever see as god laughed at the joke your life had amounted to before ripping it out of your hands.

She looked at Ranboo, who pulled his mask back up, "we can go take care of them."

Wordlessly Ranboo left the office, and Robert could just barely hear the front door opening and closing.

Ranboo had been outside to 'take care of' someone. Multiple people- Edward had said 'arrivals'. So all that blood he was going to come back with...it really was what Robert was hoping it wasn't all this time. Someone else was about to be splattered across the pavement outside. Now Robert needed to know who.

"Yeesh, I thought I'd dealt with that lot," the girl complained.

A few moments later, the door opened again, and Robert watched as Troy very casually sauntered into the office. He was completely unbothered by the two other figures in there with him. The girl seemed bothered, but not surprised.

"And what's he doing here?" she asked, unimpressed.

"He took my freaking sled, bros," Troy complained, "said he didn't wanna talk to me."

"I didn't even tell you to do that," Edward said.

"Well, yeah, but it's all my fault, and I also needed to make him feel worthless, so how else was I gonna do that?" Troy replied.

Edward took a long breath, "why are you taking everything I say like a command? This has never been a problem before, why is it JUST you?"

"Because Troy Lougferd is always unique, one of a kind, bro," Troy crossed his arms like he'd just said the coolest thing ever.

"Because Troy Lougferd is stupid," the girl corrected, "now are you getting those two out of the kitchen or not? We've just run into a bit of trouble," on cue Robert heard the scream from outside, then the girl continued, "and some extra hands could be of use."

"Like I said, there's still another one out there, I don't want to be wasting my blood while it's already so limited," Edward countered.

"Suck it up. Shouldn't you be good at that?" the girl smirked, "and before you comment on how strong I am and how I should be doing it myself, let me remind you that I am saving my abilities for something we both know is more important."

The girl looked towards the desk. Just having her look in his general direction gave Robert chills.

"Not the exact words I would've used..." Edward muttered.

The front door opened, and Robert heard talking from across the house.

"R...Ran..." Robert could barely even hear Charlie's whisper, maybe it was only because he'd heard it once before and knew what it sounded like. He sounded horrified.

"You weren't supposed to see this, Charlie," came Ranboo's response. At least it wasn't just clicking again.

"What a mess," the girl muttered with a scowl. Robert knew she wasn't talking about the blood. She didn't seem the type to be remotely bothered by that.

"Well maybe if you hadn't been sloppy enough to let him SCREAM-" Edward sounded just as petty as Robert remembered him being the first time.

"Well maybe if you hadn't been using such a MORON-" the girl put a hand on her face and sighed, "Just get the kitchen knife already. I'm guessing Charlie only heard because HE left the door open."

The girl pointed the accusation clearly at Troy, who put his hands up, "hey, I'm not saying anything."

Oh, sh*t, now Edward was coming this way. There wasn't a chance Robert could hide while he couldn't even see himself. f*ck it, he'd finally gotten the information he needed anyway to end this. First, he needed to end this.

He'd like to say he hadn't thought this through, but he knew this was coming. He'd make sure this was the last. One final death.

Edward stopped when he heard the shuffling along the outside wall, and watched curiously as the door handle rattled for a few seconds. Oh, sh*t, it was push. Robert stumbled in and 'looked' around, although moving his head was just a performative effort.

"Oh, uh, hey guys, I just left my camcorder in here, so if you don't mind I'm just gonna-"

Robert wouldn't recommend the experience of watching from a third person perspective as the man that was Edward grabbed his head and slammed it against the wall behind him, strong enough that Robert just barely got a look at his own skull cracking before it all went black.

PLAY ▶ 🎙️

PM 11:22:33
2024 🔋

Well, it didn't go black, it went back to the walls of Charlie's house at 11:22:37 PM. Damn, he'd missed it again.

Alright. This was the last time.

He'd died because Troy had stabbed him, Troy had stabbed him because Edward had some control over him and wanted Robert dead, because he'd seen something he shouldn't have, because he'd come to the front door and seen Ranboo covered in blood, because Mr Cicle had screamed and been killed, because Mr Cicle had seen the other people Ranboo was sent out there to kill in the first place.

If nobody came to the door. If Ranboo never had the reason to go out there. Then nobody would die.

So Robert would beat the 'late arrivals' outside to it, and he'd stop them outside before they ever got to the door. And they'd figure out what to do from there.

Robert went to the front of the house with renewed determination, generally happier to have his camcorder back in his own hand. He really hoped he never had to do that one again.

He walked past Xiv and Slime, and saw Ranboo and Peter in the entrance room, with Bruce and Mr Cicle making their way towards the dining room. He tried not to give Ranboo too much of a glare as he walked past and generally tried to act as natural and unassuming as he could. He couldn't draw any attention or-

Rattle.

Oh. The door was locked. How the hell was he supposed to get out if the door was-?!

Oh. The keys were right next to the door. Whoops.

Robert turned the camcorder slightly in Ranboo's direction, and saw he was getting a quizzical look.

"Need some fresh air," Robert explained himself, taking the keys and putting them in the door. Ranboo shrugged their suspicions off easily, and Robert tried not to look too relieved when they looked the other way.

Outside was dark- duh- but Robert couldn't make out any shapes of other people approaching the house. What time did the knock on the door happen? Damn, he told himself he should've been keeping track.

He shut the door behind himself at least, so that Ranboo or Edward or whoever else was involved wouldn't hear what was going on. He supposed he just needed to wait now.

He held his arms closer to his body, feeling the chill of the night, and he still put both his hands on the camcorder so that it didn't shake, but it was nothing unmanageable. It must have been sometime near summer, judging by the mild chill.

Robert walked a little down the drive, seeing Charlie and Grizzly's cars. Grizz hadn't come back with them, though. He thinks Charlie had mentioned something about him getting attacked, but that felt like so long ago now. He hoped Grizz was doing okay.

There was a third car parked kind of near Charlie's drive, but Robert could only assume that belonged to a neighbour.

Huh, weird. Was Grizzly's trunk broken too? Robert pushed it closed, but once he did it clicked into place. Weird that it had been left open, then.

Charlie's, of course, was still open; he'd complained about people hitching a ride in his trunk. Although the intricacies were harder to make out in low light, Robert could tell there was some damage to the lock itself. He tried closing Charlie's trunk anyway, not having much else to do, and after a moment it swung back open. Hopefully he didn't have anything important in there, but it didn't look like he had.

Robert heard voices. Quite a few, actually. It sounded like a group.

He backed away from the cars put himself between the people and the door. He could just about see them now, several silhouettes were coming his way. It was times like this he was reminded why this vision was a curse, because in the low light they were just kind of a messy blob slightly darker than the surroundings. His resolution wasn't nearly good enough to count the exact number there were. He tried to zoom on them, but that didn't do much either.

But Charlie's house had some lights on the outside, and a little bit coming from the windows, so features began to dredge from the darkness as the people approached.

However, seeing the face of the one at the front of the group suddenly made this situation a lot more complicated, because Robert found himself looking at Ranboo.

"Ra- wait, but, you- wha-?" Robert couldn't let himself finish as one question on his tongue was interrupted by another and he held out a finger towards the Ranboo in front of him, and then pointed it back at the house he thought Ranboo should've been in, and then at Ranboo, and then the house, and then-

"Jeez Ran, you haven't said a thing and you've already scared him," the person next to Ranboo, still a little hard to make out, nudged them playfully.

Oh, wait, this was it, wasn't it? Ranboo knew he wasn't just going outside for 'fresh air', so somehow he'd circled around the house and he was about to kill Robert or worse for knowing too much. sh*t, he'd really wanted this to be the last one.

"Please don't kill me with your weird bug mouth," Robert pleaded.

For a moment all was quiet, and then Robert heard a small laugh. It wasn't really mocking or anything, it was just Ranboo laughing before he said, "I'm guessing you just had a bad experience with someone who looks like me."

Looks like? Robert took another look at the Ranboo in front of him. His mouth was...pretty normal. They didn't have a mask and there did seem to be a bit of damage on one side, but it was remarkably not bug-like.

This was definitely Ranboo, but...somehow, was this a different Ranboo?

"I think you broke him," the person next to Ranboo whispered.

"Can he put the camera away..?" Robert could just barely hear the uncomfortable mumbling from another member of the group.

"Whatever, this is the house, right?" another person in the group asked. This and the last one must've been more characters because they had Charlie's voice, "let's go in already."

"Wait, hold on you can't-! I-I don't know what's happening here, but I'm pretty f*cking sure all of you are gonna f*cking die if you go up to that door!" Robert warned them.

"Right..." Ranboo nodded slowly, "I think we both owe each other an explanation."

Chapter 13: Where in the World has Ranboo Been?

Chapter Text

Ranboo got in the house and shut the door behind themself. There wasn't anything immediately giving red flags...although maybe the lack of activity was a red flag itself.

They weren't too careful as they looked around the house. Why would he be? It was just him and Moonzy in here, and they just wanted to find them soon and find out what was going on. Moonzy had said not to worry but they should've realised that Ranboo couldn't really stop doing that until he was sure Moonzy was alright. Especially with how concerning those earlier messages were.

This would take too long if they were just looking room to room, "Moonzy?" they called out to the rest of the house. Ranboo was sure they could've heard that from anywhere in here. But he got no response.

Okay, yeah, worrying. Definitely worrying.

But Moonzy had just told him it was fine, and they had those messages to prove it, if for whatever reason he was staring to doubt it. It was probably that they just had headphones in. Which, combined with them being vague as f*ck about whatever the problem was over text, would make Ranboo a little annoyed with them whenever he found them.

Which would hopefully be soon. Because they still hadn't found them. And they were getting even more worried.

Ranboo passed by a door leading into a little storage room and decided to open it just on the off chance Moonzy was hiding in there. They weren't, and it would've been pretty weird if they were, so Ranboo felt weird for having genuinely considered that an option at all.

They left that door open and stepped through the next doorway in that hall that lead to the kitchen. Finally they saw Moonzy, just standing there across the room, looking at something in the other direction.

"Oh, my god, there you are!" Ranboo called across the room, "you didn't hear me earlier? What were you doing?"

...again he got no response. Even though Moonzy was right there, clearly they should be able to hear him.

"Moonzy?" they called out to them again. Nothing.

The air in the room felt still. The continued silence was starting to bite into Ranboo as though the temperature was dropping. It wasn't anything they could put their finger on, it was just a lot of small things his mind was picking up subconsciously that made this situation feel wrong.

But despite that, and despite all the base instincts in his body telling him to leave right now and not a moment later, Ranboo stepped closer.

Moonzy's head snapped to him and Ranboo screamed and backed themself into the wall behind them. They meant to apologise for screaming at their friend but took another look first and his mouth dried up before he could say a word.

Moonzy's head was backwards. And they didn't have a mouth.

"W-what the f*ck," Ranboo didn't even choose to say the words, they just came out involuntarily. How the f*ck else was he meant to respond to this?! What the f*ck was he even looking at right now?

Going back to the mouth thing, that might've not been totally accurate, because it looked like Moonzy did technically have a mouth, although it seemed to be somewhat melting off of their face with weird inhuman attachments at the side, almost insectoid looking.

Moonzy didn't give a response. Still, even now, they said nothing, but they were looking Ranboo dead in the eyes and he felt like he was staring death in the face.

Was this the 'misunderstanding'? Maybe this was just an overreaction, swearing and screaming at their friend was pretty rude if Moonzy had just gotten severely injured and needed help getting to the hospital. Yeah, that didn't explain the head being f*cking backwards, but what was Ranboo supposed to make of that?

This was clearly their friend, that was Moonzy's face- for the most part- couldn't he just give them the benefit of the doubt? They hadn't done anything, just looked at him. Looked at him in the most concerning, inhuman way possible, but again, what the hell was Ranboo supposed to make of that?

"Moonzy, you...are you okay?" they supposed that was an important question to ask, because they certainly didn't look like it.

Finally Moonzy opened their mouth- finally they were gonna say something!

Clickclickclickclick

Oh. Oh no.

Oh, no no no, what the hell was this- this wasn't a joke, Ranboo knew that, but that made the alternative so much worse. It was only because of everything going on with Charlie that they could believe their own eyes and ears at all. He couldn't recall Charlie having ever played Moonzy as a character, or even Moonzy having done so, so was this actually them? Had something just happened to them?

If there wasn't a way to get normal Moonzy back then Ranboo swore to god he was gonna kick Charlie's ass until there was a way.

Moonzy was still clicking, and slowly walking closer to Ranboo, stumbling a little with each step as if they weren't used to their own body. Ranboo took a step back towards the door.

"You're kinda scaring me, man," Ranboo adding some actual words made the situation a little more bearable than just being there listening to endless clicking.

"Are you okay?" Ranboo repeated the earlier question, but he wasn't sure why he tried. The clicking continued, Moonzy kept getting closer.

"Moonzy, please, just- say something," Ranboo pleaded with them.

"Moonzy," they got no response.

When they were in the doorway and Moonzy was about a meter away, Ranboo had the sudden instinct to get something between them. He swung the door open as a barrier, and once they did there was something poking through from the other side.

Ranboo didn't even know what it was, he knew it hadn't been there literally a second ago but they didn't even catch where it came from.

It had gotten halfway through the wood between the glass windows on the door, splintering it apart and making cracks in the glass with how it had warped the structure. Ranboo looked past the cracks and saw Moonzy looking back. No more clicking, but their mouth was opening again.

Oh, f*ck, that was coming from their mouth?

Ranboo stepped away, and at a good time too, because just as he did another of those things was fired at him, this time hitting the glass instead and going straight through, then embedding in the wall behind Ranboo. They could feel the wind as it went by their cheek. Far too close for comfort.

Ranboo stood frozen, because that had almost hit them, and if it had hit them they would've been dead. That was not the kind of reality you had to face every day. That was not the kind of reality you ever wanted to face.

Moonzy made a scowl at the two misses and started reaching for the door, at which point Ranboo realised now was really not the time to be standing in place having a crisis, he needed to f*cking run. Moonzy or not, Ranboo wasn't planning to get shot through the face today, no thank you.

They backed out of the kitchen and decided quickly to make a break for the door. With any luck Charlie would still be there and they could just drive until the problem was far enough away to be ignored.

The problem then grabbed Ranboo by the wrist, which was a difficult thing to ignore.

Moonzy held Ranboo back, grip tight as though rigor mortis had set in. Being held at arms length probably meant the next attack wouldn't miss.

There was no way, right? There was no way Moonzy was actually trying to kill him right now?

Ranboo struggled for as long as they could convince themself it wasn't a useless effort, which wasn't long. He couldn't form a single coherent thought uninterrupted by howls of confusion and fear, his head was a mess.

He didn't want to die. What was going on? He was gonna die- no, no- there had to be something- there was nothing, he was about to die. Just think, think- and what good is that gonna do?

Why are they looking at him like that?

Moonzy...that's you, right? Why were they trying to kill him? Ranboo didn't want to die.

Moonzy's 'mouth' was opening again. There wasn't time, not to think, barely even to act, but Ranboo needed to do something if he ever hoped to make it out of here.

They tugged Moonzy closer, the sudden jerk of movement taking them by surprise and they stumbled forth, losing their aim. From there Ranboo wrestled out of their unusually strong grip too and pushed Moonzy towards the storage room they'd left open. Despite everything that had just happened, Ranboo couldn't help feeling bad about it, but Moonzy would probably understand when they were back to normal.

Right now, though, Moonzy was not understanding. Ranboo stepped back to grab the door and Moonzy's eyes snapped to him, scathing and practically burning into him. They slammed the door without time for second thoughts and pushed against it from the other side to make sure it didn't reopen.

Something slammed itself against the other side, Ranboo couldn't be sure if it was another of those bullet things like what had hit the kitchen door or Moonzy hitting it themself. Then another, then another, and suddenly Ranboo found themself with only a door between them and something feral, something battering against the other side with ferocity and violence, clicking and screeching, and Ranboo hated how through the cacophony they could hear remnants of Moonzy's voice.

Ranboo pressed himself harder to the door as the assault continued, they were terrified that any moment the hinges might be about to tear off. They couldn't even visualise what Moonzy could've possibly been doing on the other side, because whatever was fighting against that door didn't sound f*cking human.

Stop, stop, please stop- he couldn't take it, that sound, the unrelenting banging and clicking, something still trying to break free. That was meant to be Moonzy- how the f*ck was that meant to be Moonzy?!

Ranboo slid down the door, back still pressed hard against it until they were sat on the floor. They couldn't stand anymore, the whole world felt like it was falling away, the thing behind him still beating against the door and the heart in his own chest beating on his ribs like it might break those too. If this door opened again Ranboo knew they were going to die. It needed to stay closed. He had to keep it closed.

They just sat there trying to breathe for a short while until they suddenly remembered that might be easier without the mask and pulled it down. With each breath his chest was shaking, uneven and unable to stabilise. And then they were just there, breathing, sat on the floor with his back to something horrifying.

Think, think- Charlie, he'd text Charlie- they still had their phone, and Charlie was just outside!

Ranboo fumbled with his pockets to get his phone out and almost dropped it as a particularly loud bang on the other side of the door made them jump. Despite a very shaky grip they kept ahold of it and navigated to DMs, which took about five times longer than it should've with how they kept pressing on the wrong things and panicking to try and get back to the right thing, only causing more mistakes.

◯ ranboo Today at 19:51
h

No, sh*t, they didn't want to press send-

bdsbsn

His fingers couldn't find the right keys and they couldn't backspace the wrong ones, they couldn't even write a word, they just needed to write a word-

cmk
m

Ranboo threw their phone across the floor and screamed into their hands. They couldn't do it, they couldn't type, he couldn't control his own fingers and he was still shaking so much, just stop, stop.

But the world continued. The clicking and banging and animalistic writhing continued against his back. Their hands, their whole body didn't stop shaking.

Was that Moonzy? God, please, he just wanted them to be okay. Whatever this was they wanted it to be over. Why was this happening? Why the f*ck was any of this happening?!

Someone else was coming closer. Had Charlie heard, was he coming to help? Maybe he'd know all about what was going on here, then it would all be fine.

They leant down to pick up Ranboo's phone, and as they stood back up Ranboo's eyes followed them up, taking in the figure. It wasn't Charlie, that was quickly apparent. They were taller. They had a Garfield shirt. Ranboo already knew they were about to see something they didn't want to when they reached the face.

And man was that an understatement. Dysphoria was one thing, looking at yourself and knowing for a fact that the thing standing there is not you, that was a whole new nightmare.

Because this person was not Ranboo. And yet Ranboo met their eyes, and found he was staring directly at himself.

"Don't mind if I take this, do you?" the stranger with his face asked.

Ranboo couldn't reply. He didn't know what to make of this, of any of it. Jesus Christ, was this how Charlie felt when they found each one of his characters? This was awful.

"You got pretty far, but you're not getting in our way anymore," their doppelganger told them, and hearing his own voice in recordings was weird, but hearing words he'd never even said was worse. Ranboo didn't know what that meant, and they sure as f*ck didn't want to.

They couldn't move from the door, couldn't speak, could hardly breathe. They were just stuck, forced by no-one but themself to watch as the reflection of himself casting a shadow onto him raised the hand not holding their phone and pulled down the mask.

Ranboo's eyes widened in horror. Everything else was such a perfect painting of his visage. His mouth, however, was more akin to if someone had punched a hole in the canvas.

Skin and bones that punctured outside of where they should've been, inhuman, insectoid. It was half like his face had melted off and half like it had been torn open messily and grotesquely. It was just like Moonzy's. And if Moonzy's behaviour was anything to go off, that meant Ranboo was about to die.

They didn't like being so accepting about that, as if he'd wanted this at all. Death was always such a far away idea and now it was in his home wearing his skin. It was opening its mouth and it was about to shoot them through their skull.

Ranboo couldn't even scream. It would be over before he could make an attempt to beg for his life. Was that someone else coming up behind the clone-?

BONK

The replica Ranboo keeled over as something hit the back of their head, and when they tried to look back up they found the same thing hitting them from below on the return swing. He was already struggling to stay up, but just for good measure there was another swing and hit that sent him to the ground, unmoving.

"Oh...oh god..." Ranboo stuttered out, because it sure as hell looked like that thing had just died.

"Ranboo!" but there wasn't time to consider that, because the new arrival knelt down at his side and Ranboo saw it was Charlie! ...for some reason wielding a frying pan. They couldn't be too mad about that though, since it had clearly done a decent job as a weapon.

"I- Charlie, I thought- why are you-?" Ranboo didn't know whether they wanted to know more about why Charlie had come into his house or why he'd suddenly put on a bulletproof vest and some glasses, but they didn't get to ask anything before Charlie tugged them up by their shaking hands. To be fair, Charlie looked pretty shaken up too.

"Oh my god, oh- okay, we just gotta- we can't talk here, we gotta get somewhere better, this is-" Charlie kept looking left and right, as well as occasionally at the body on the ground, thankfully still unmoving, but as for how long it stayed that way they didn't know. Ranboo knew he was moments away from getting killed by him, but they still kind of hoped that guy wasn't dead.

Oh, sh*t, speaking of not being dead, "wait, the door-!"

Ranboo didn't finish the sentence and quickly turned back to slam the door onto a hand trying to reach out of it. Goddamn it, it still had the nail polish Moonzy had put on for dinner. A few hours ago he'd been helping them apply it.

With the hand wedged in the door still keeping it open, another hand started reaching out to scratch at the wall outside and open it further. Ranboo pushed harder but something about seeing his friend's hands reaching out made them hesitant to push with enough force to crush them.

Then a third hand started reaching out of the room, and Ranboo began to reconsider if this actually was his friend.

But Charlie saw the issue and ran up, pushing against the door with enough force to make the hands recede and resume their scratching and banging from the other side.

"W-we still need to get out of here," Charlie told him, "on three we run, okay?"

"Run? Run where?!" Ranboo assumed he'd be shot down before they made it halfway down the hallway.

"Got any doors with a lock in this place?" Charlie asked through an exasperated smile. He looked just as stressed about all this, but somehow he was getting through it a little easier.

"We, uh, y-yeah, the office just there- it's like an old door, so it- it has a lock with the handle," Ranboo explained, pointing very briefly to a door a few metres away, then immediately moving their arm to be back against the door.

"Then on three we go. Don't f*cking trip or anything, man," those words seemed to carry more weight to them than Ranboo had the energy to realise at that moment. They were more preoccupied with thinking about every way this idea could and would go horribly wrong. Tripping was definitely up there.

"One, two..." Charlie didn't give more time for discussion and started leaning away from the door, readying to go. Ranboo knew that the moment they left this door it would come bursting open and release the horrors within. He just tried to trust Charlie would know what he was doing.

"Three!" Charlie had already started stepping away from the door before he finished the word and so had Ranboo, eyes going tunnel vision on the door ahead. It was akin to a tunnel in the sense that they were the rabbits running to the opening and there was a giant metal train coming up behind them at 100 km/h, intent on smashing them to bits.

There definitely wasn't time to look back, despite how much the grotesque noises emerging from the storage room elicited a grim curiosity. They just ran, and ran, got inside and once Charlie was too slammed the door, twisted the key left in the lock and kept their hands on the door a little longer just to be safe. They'd made it. But he still wanted to be sure that thing couldn't break through.

The door to the office didn't have any windows, which made it just as terrifying as the last time when the hitting and clawing and scratching came from the other side, but Ranboo gently released his grip and the door held, the lock still being enough to keep it shut. They released a huge sigh of relief with more air than he realised he'd been holding in his lungs, and felt safe enough to turn to Charlie.

Charlie was grinning...weird. It was even weirder when he started to speak.

"Glad you finally figured out how doors work, Rangus. Better than tearing gross holes through my walls," he'd very abruptly taken on a New York accent, and Ranboo recognised he was talking like the demon in Generation Loss, for seemingly no reason at all.

"Wh- what?" Ranboo was just confused, "Charlie why are you talking like that?"

'Charlie' raised an eyebrow, "didn't I already tell ya I go by G'lop? Guh-lop, get it right."

What-?

Oh. Oh yeah. Characters.

Jeez, Ranboo had almost forgotten the whole situation they were dealing with. The new outfit made sense, then, this was exactly what Charlie had worn in the third episode of Generation Loss, frying pan and all. The axe probably would've been more useful.

But why was he the demon now? That still didn't make sense. He supposed it didn't really matter, though, as they had much bigger problems, as they were constantly being reminded of by the banging on the door.

"Alright, well, what do we do now?" Ranboo span around and surveyed the room, "there's not much we can do in here, but we can't do nothing."

They had used this office for some streams but now he mostly used the upstairs rooms, so this had become more of a spare room with shelves full of miscellaneous paperwork and a single monitor computer that didn't get that much use. There were windows too, facing the side of the house, but they didn't open.

Did they wait for it all to blow over? That seemed unlikely. The two out there seemed pretty intent on finishing the job. They'd made themselves safer only by backing themselves into a corner with no way out.

"Ranboo..."

"Charlie, you...you're back," although Ranboo could see now that it wasn't the Charlie he was expecting at first. When he looked back the man wasn't grinning anymore, and he'd ditched the accent. This was episode three Charlie, and he looked just about as scared as Ranboo remembered.

"Ranboo, oh my god, I-I," Charlie looked at his own body as if checking it was still there, "I thought I'd died, I thought you- but you did it, you, you got to the button! We- oh my god, I can't believe it, w-we got out!"

He looked back at Ranboo and the overwhelmed smile on his face dropped, but not in a bad way, just in shock.

"Holy sh*t, your- your mask. You got your mask off," Charlie told him. Ranboo instinctively put a hand on his mouth, and felt that the cloth mask was still drawn under his chin so they could breathe. But that wasn't the mask Charlie was talking about, he must've been talking about that steel one.

"...yeah," Ranboo nodded to him hesitantly. What was he supposed to say? Charlie thought he was The Hero, so...Ranboo supposed they should play along, for fear of breaking this man's reality more than it already was.

"I never...saw your face before..." Charlie's voice was almost a whisper. He couldn't take his eyes off Ranboo. It was like...Ranboo didn't know what to compare it to. They were being looked at in a way they'd never been looked at before, like they were a ghost, like they were the most important thing in the world.

Charlie blinked the tears out of his eyes and at last broke his gaze away, looking around the room like Ranboo had, "o-okay, um, we're still not exactly safe though. I-I dunno what the f*ck those things out there were and I don't wanna be anywhere near them."

Ranboo saw Charlie's hands go over his chest as he said that. Judging by his expression, what he was thinking about wasn't anything good.

Then, to both of their suprise, the banging on the door stopped. The slow clicking continued, but gradually receded elsewhere in the house.

Ranboo stepped closer, cautiously, and listened for further clues on what was happening. Charlie stayed back, watching nervously.

It was quiet for a few seconds, Ranboo wondered if Moonzy had just left completely. Then something cut through the silence, a sharp, familiar hiss.

"Whoa dude, you got a cat through there?" Charlie asked, except with a voice like that Ranboo suspected it wasn't the same version of him.

"What are you, the patient, now?" that would've been episode two, and Ranboo still had no idea why he was switching between these characters on a whim.

"Yeah dog, I'm patiently waiting for my appointment. Is this what hospitals are supposed to look like?" Patient Charlie looked around, disoriented.

Ranboo just dismissed that, as whatever was happening there was a far less pressing issue than whatever was going on with Moose.

That had to have been Moose, Ranboo's cat, they knew what he sounded like. He didn't tend to hiss, maybe he would if he was playing with Momo, Moonzy's cat, but considering the circ*mstances Ranboo was a little more concerned over it being something else.

Opening the door would be stupid, that was a fact, and Ranboo knew it. This room might've been a dead end, but out there was death itself.

But then that also meant Moose was in danger out there. Ranboo wasn't stupid. But they also weren't not stupid.

Ranboo, knowing he might regret this one way or another, unlocked and opened the door.

Silence had become a warning. Ranboo couldn't feel safe when it was all quiet in the hallway, it just meant that they couldn't find the danger, that it was hiding from them. Moose wasn't quite as silent though, and the next hiss was coming from the living room.

Ranboo checked down the hall quickly before proceeding. The body of their copy had disappeared. sh*t, that didn't mean anything good.

Now on the lookout for two people in his house trying to kill him, Ranboo made his way to the living room, slowing each time they thought something was about to jump at them from around a corner, but otherwise wasting little time on getting to the situation.

Charlie didn't look like he wanted to be following this idea at all, but he followed closely with Ranboo regardless, holding his frying pan up and ready to strike.

Ranboo risked a look into the living room once they reached it. Inside was Moose, on the back of a couch, but Moonzy was there too. They didn't notice Ranboo looking in and continued creeping forwards, towards Moose. Moose hissed, back arching, running out of space to back up to before he reached a wall.

"Ranboo," Charlie got his attention as quietly as he could, "please, don't be a hero."

That was probably good advice, but since when has he followed that? Ranboo tried to give Charlie as reassuring a look as they could before stepping in and making their presence known.

"H-hey, Moonzy! Look over here!"

That definitely felt like the place for a cool one liner, but Ranboo had nothing. If anything they'd just made it more obvious that there was no real reason to look his way, but they were indeed looking, and well sh*t what was he supposed to do now?

Ranboo supposed since they'd lucked out of the last encounter, his luck was probably running out on this one. At least they'd go out saving Moose, who had already dashed out of the room between Ranboo's legs.

"Mind if I borrow that?" Ranboo heard someone asking behind him, and before the question was finished they saw Charlie's frying pan get taken from the corner of their eye, and by the time they turned their head to fully look the new person was already raising it over his head.

Moonzy was just about to open their mouth and land the killing shot when they were interrupted by a face full of metal.

BONK.

Moonzy and the frying pan clattered to the floor, but Ranboo was looking elsewhere, at yet another person who had inexplicably appeared in his house.

It was Charlie, but it must've been another character. This one had glasses, bent and cracked, with plasters and bandages scattered across his body and pretty torn up clothes too. Physically he looked pretty messed up, but somehow his expression was less bothered than the Charlie who'd just had his frying pan stolen.

"Zombies don't know when to quit, do they?" the new Charlie asked like it was a regular Wednesday afternoon.