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S didn't want to be written as frantic. They hate the word, but only when it's used to describe them. It makes them feel miscalculated and powerless, like an error message on a calculator.When "frantic" is used to describe others, though, S enjoys the word. They revel in the ruin and suffering of others. But the characters chasing S, the ones they typically combat the most, they weren't frantic. They were the opposite.The creatures that were in pursuit of the panic-stricken nonbinary were highly calculated. They may not have known this place well at first, heck, they can't even exist in it properly, but these are the villains we're talking about. They're so organized and calculating that they take every measure they can just to commit the smallest of crimes, like steal from monstrous corporate companies. Now, before you ask, while the villains are organized as a large work force, Enzo, the King of Darkness and the highest management, does everything in his power to be better than any human-run corporation that just represents a slaughter house where anything but the pigs are slaughtered.But enough about the villains. This ain't about them. This is about my precious little guy, my silly They/Them out causing mayhem, S. Are they my favorite? Of course! Are you kidding me? I have so much gender and body envy over this freaky fella!But S wasn't feeling their typical maniac self right now. They were feeling threatened and afraid. I mean, anyone being chased by these creatures would be. I would hope that I've designed these characters well enough that any human seeing a pack of miscellaneous wild animals would have the "what the heck" thought before starting to book it, because a bird looked at them funny and all the other odd creatures followed its lead to stare at you silently like they weren't all just holding a conversation about murdering someone.While, yes, S knew about these creatures and the characters they were, they were extremely rusty. You see, fifteen years ago, S was considered a threat to the multiverse, the Multiverse Maniac, if you will. They still are, but fifteen years ago, they had run away from the multiverse.In a freak miracle, they ended up hopping multiverses and wound up in a world they knew nothing about compared to their home multiverse. It was a world of realism. See, the world S comes from is a world of magic and cartoons, fantasy and fiction. A world of characters who have super-sanity. But S was seen as an anomaly, knowing things that their own mother couldn't even comprehend about the worlds she protected.But in this new world, they were just weird. They knew random niche things, after all, this was a variation of a starkly human earth. There were absolutely no cartoon magical skeletons anywhere. S soon realized that the boney characters couldn't even exist in this world properly. They had to take on a second form that any character with a spirit had called a spirit animal form, the most realistic thing about these characters. And now they were being chased by those characters, as has already been stated multiple times.S was running through the forest as best they could after taking a fifteen year break. They were trying their best not to trip like any basic-biscuit of a trope on anything just as simple as a tree root or even something as clumsy as their own feet. In fact, their mind was practically buzzing, vibrating, trying its best to mentally stim in a way that kept them from curling up into a sobbing ball on the natural, grassy, dirty ground. Because, S was on the verge of an overstimulation outbreak, a brain-numbing breakdown, an emotional eruption.They were running from these characters who were out to catch them and drag them back to their frustrating lifestyle of the multiverse, yes, but they were also running away from the very help they needed and were getting. S was leaving behind a life of peace and love, they were leaving her.She was beautiful. And kind. So kind that she changed S, but she says she didn't do anything but guide them. S swears that she had to have performed open surgery on their spirit while they were asleep or something, but then she points out that they didn't always feel the way they do now, that it took time. It took them leaving their rough situation to find help.And now they were going back to that hard life style.They were locked in. Well, about as locked in as any person trying to push back the spirit-break could be when they were running for the life they didn't want to leave behind. But they were off their game by fifteen years, one of the creatures was able to come up next to their side.The black wolf with bright green eyes that practically glowed in the night darkness held a steady but fast pace next to S. It glanced up at them and growled as it bared its fangs, its dark grey teeth glinting in the moon light."Back down, Clayface. You know this is useless."S didn't reply, only focusing on running and staying in the game. The creature chuckled somehow."Oh, you've changed. Is this what a decade and a half of being outside of the multiverse does to you?" It grinned. "I wonder what that says about life in the multiverse..."They still didn't answer as the creature stared up at them for a moment, its bright green eyes shifting to look at all of them."... you look different." It muttered after a while. "It's like the humans made you soft. Granted, only you hold the power to change the appearance of your physique, but... you don't look all that threatening. You're shorter. What, got sick of hitting your head on door frames?"S wanted to retort back. Being as tall as they were when they left the multiverse wouldn't have made it hard to go through doors. They chopped off half a foot because they felt like a spectacle in the human world. It was too often people would stare up at S and ask them the age old question of "how's the weather up there?" Originally, S had the idea to say it was raining and spit on them, but the woman they were staying with pointed out that most people didn't have malicious intent when asking the joke. So S resorted to a simple "the air's a bit thin, but otherwise it's a lovely day."And, was that a fat comment? No. The creature is just stating what it sees. S is a shapeshifter, that's how they're able to exist in this world similarly to a human, but that's the thing. They aren't human. Any character seeing S and how they are acting in this alien multiverse, it was like they were trying to go native, like they were trying to blend in. Like they were trying to seem normal, like they belonged. But they don't. Someday they will, but tonight is not that time-"ACK!" S's rambling thoughts were cut off as something came bashing into them, a blur of claws and fur mixed with sharp teeth and vicious eyes. Once it made contact, it wasn't long before the two bodies went tumbling to the ground. S tried to fight, pushing and pulling in an attempt to get away and out from under the creature. But it stayed unmoving as it attempted to ravage them, its bright crimson eyes piecing their spirit, or was it their flesh? S couldn't tell. They knew things were ripping, and it wasn't just their clothes, they could feel it. And it hurt. They cried out in their panic and flailed about, hoping they would hit something, anything, that would deter this creature.Lucky for S, they hit the creature in the throat, hard. It gave an awkward squawk, maybe it was a choke, but S didn't pay attention, they took the opportunity to shove the animal off and scramble to their feet. They swayed slightly but quickly as they stumbled to a tree and leaned on its trunk to catch their breath. S looked up and at the surroundings to see that they themself were now surrounded.Wolves, cheetahs, and birds. Lions, tigers, and bears. Oh my. What did they do? Tick off an entire zoo? No. After all, this zoo was already mad at them to begin with. The villains aren't a fan of the maniac. Most of the characters who have to fight the menace have similar an opinion one would have of a coworker who's just too extra to be anything good. Which, in the line of villainy, means that S is such an atrocious character, that even the villains groan when they have to be sent after the threat and detain them.But aren't the heroes supposed to be the ones saving the multiverse? I mean, kinda. They typically send out a little group to join the villains, but the heroes are a lot less coordinated. They meet the number of bodies they need to qualify as "helping to get S" and then they call it a day. It's usually the same characters who show up every time, but that doesn't mean they're any good. In fact, S's own mother is one of the "usuals" and she is utterly useless when trying to capture them. She can do things like run after them, she even keeps up sometimes. But she can't do things like hit them. If anything, she just talks to them and asks them to stop, a futile attempt to get someone hellbent on destroying everything to back down. S is usually losing their mind when she does these things, but she's either too oblivious or just ignores the situation. Vi has a habit of reading the room very poorly.But the woman who created S isn't here right now. They could tell as they looked out at the creatures. No Swedish Vallhund Corgi. S could tell, the villains weren't messing around tonight. They only brought the characters with "useful" spirit animal forms. Anything that was big and could run fast. Anything that had sharp claws and razor-like teeth. Anything that could kill."Please..." S muttered, just trying to get something out and communicate the mistake that was being made. "Just leave me be." They felt like they were out of breath, gasping between their short sentences.A bird flew and perched on a branch to the tree across from them. It looked down at them, its pale blue eye glowing in the darkness of the canopy."What was that?" Its voice was cold yet firm. "Did someone say something?" Its gaze combined with its words created a freezing spear that sent a shiver through S."P-please! I-I've been good! I haven't killed anyon—""You were given a sentence. You were given multiple sentences. And you still skip out of that prison like you don't deserve a dozen lives in that creator-cursed void." The bird retorted."But I spent a lifeti—""You spent fifty years in that prison void. That's not even a human lifetime. You should know considering how long you've been living with the things...""They aren't things, they're—""People." The birds voice went flat with boredom, like it was losing the nuance of the conversation. "We know, we're fully aware, but coming from you? Why should we care? Especially from your crazed ideals."It's wrong to think this way. It's wrong to have the belief that because a specific person has an opinion that that entire thought, the very concept even, is wrong. Is the bird being racist? That depends.This bird, the corvus with icy blue eyes, is the very king who was mentioned earlier. Enzo, ruler over the villains, was here tonight to make sure things went smoothly. I may have made him seem like he's the best boss to have, but even I'm a victim to thinking so highly of this fictional man. He's still a bad guy.He isn't a dictator over his people, the villains find him quite favorable when it comes to their blights and needs. But it's the... other characters. The heroes.The heroes, as mentioned before are not organized. They're more similar to a loose gang of vigilantes. Now, some of them may have each other's number to communicate, but it's typically a "hey, want me to follow these guys around and keep tabs". I've held similar conversations on a walkie-talkie while I've worked at a movie theater. In conclusion, the heroes are the most basic, two-dimensional, as-simple-as-a-children's-book, standard-issue-comic-book-from-the-youth-section-of-the-shop, straightforward, fundamental, uncomplicated yet rudimentary characters.And they are not here right now. Classic hero move. Frankly, the villains are doing this behind their backs, much to S's misfortune, but—"DON'T come closer!" S's voice rose as they panicked at the creatures shifting towards them. Their hands shook as they tried to motion for the beasts to keep their distance."Or what?" A black jaguar with faint shimmering silver spots asked."You don't seem to be in the position to be backing up your threats." The coal black wolf with green eyes mentioned. The bird chuckled, its voice cold and cruel."You can't summon your halberd, can you?" It cackled, cawing practically. "We should've known. You're helpless! Only running, not even fighting. Here we thought you've changed, gone soft. And maybe you have. But we know. We all know. People act differently when they have a blade in their hand.""Just-! Leave me alone! I'm telling you! I haven't done anything and I'm not going to do anything—""THAT," the bird cut them off, "was the exact sentence you said to me moments before you vandalized my castle.""That was, like, sixty-two years ago! I was, like, really young back then, too!""And my beautiful ashlar stones were covered with bright colorful hues that ruined the aesthetic of my dark brooding halls!" The bird cawed with much excitement."Well, Violet had just taught me what graffiti was, so—""And you decided to test it out on my precious castle walls?!" This was more than excitement now. The bird was squawking and cawing, borderline screeching even."And guess what, feather brain! There AREN'T any walls in a VOID of all places! I would have gone to Vine's, but Violet would a) find out about it quicker, and, b) actually follow through with a punishment and make me be the one to clean it up!" The villains gave a collective groan in being reminded of the thing they hate the most about S. They never have to deal with the consequences. It's always the villains going after them and doing damage control. The dark wolf gave a growl."Will you two shut up?!" It looked back at the bird. "We have a job to do!" Then back at S. "You're coming with us, whether you like it or not. Thrashing in our teeth or unconscious in our maws."All S did was stare at the creatures. Their eyes scoping the collection of animals standing before them. They knew they couldn't run. They could hear the animals behind them breathing. But what S had failed to notice was a single animal that they should've known was somewhere sneaky.And she was dying to get in on the witty back and forth banter.But the coyote was sneakier than S had remembered. In fact, S didn't even see it get up there. Had it been jumping from tree to tree? Did it climb up there? What the heck is a coyote doing in a tree? Doesn't she live in Germany? What is a German coyote doing in California?!And S had all these thoughts, this entire trail of confusion and questions, as a twig fell on their shoulder and they looked up to see the one-eyed creature, its single red eye glowing in the darkness of the canopy.And everything in S dropped. Their expression went from calculative to dreadful. The world went to slow motion as S tried to move any which-where, only going towards the animals. And the creatures pounced on the frantic character.The beasts dived for S, bearing fangs and flashing claws. They had gone from waiting to do their job, to now jumping on it like a spring in a loaded toy gun. But this wasn't innocent like a toy. No, this held the dreadful undertone of the theme of a toy weapon in general. Something that holds innocence and play on the outside, yet holds something dangerous in theme to reality.It's like stuffed animals. What we once feared as primal beasts that hunted us for food, we now have soft plushies made of to cuddle and sleep with. For crying out loud, I have both a coyote and a little crow plush. And both the coyote and the crow are attacking S's head, whether it be biting their cranium to crunch it inwards or plucking their eyes out to blind the character and make them helpless to seeing the advances the other creatures were making.S screamed in pain and agony as the creatures tore them apart. Literally. Limb from limb, chewing on clumps of clay flesh, ripping and tearing at sinew and clothing alike.It was painful.Eventually, the screams turned to gurgles as black ink, the blood that runs through S, began climbing up their throat. And they started to choke on their own tears. Streaks of black going down their face as they tried to move anything they could.But S was losing their body parts. They weren't filled with as much magic as they were before they left. Where severed limbs and body parts used to move after they were removed from the character, wriggling and scrambling, now there were just still clay parts strewn about.And the creatures were undeterred. They only stopped once S had finally stopped moving and making any form of sound. And once they had, it was like my family at the end of dinner.A portal opened and they each took something from the ravaging to bring through the gateway.And piece by piece, S was brought back to the multiverse.
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Her name is Melonie. Melonie Hope Nightshade. And she's only thirteen-years-old. She's also a skeleton. A cartoon magical one.Now, this teen isn't at all angsty or edgy. Her age and her last name may make you believe that this girl has gotta be some level of spooky, especially considering her skeletal appearance, but she's quite the opposite.My skeletons, the skeletons of the multiverse are not inherently scary. I didn't make their base design to be that way. The cartoon magical skeletons that make up the multiverse are just that, magical cartoons. They aren't meant to be portrayed in any realistic way, only being able to exist in this multiverse the way they are meant to be.There's plenty of differences they have than from that of a real one. For instance, they don't have a separate jaw. Their teeth are a single row on their face where a mouth would be. Instead of having eyes like a human, the have eye sockets with pinpricks to glow and act as a pupil to Show emotion. My characters show emotions through many ways, but, yes, they can make expressions. The bone on their face is magical and can move and shift. However, the rest of their body isn't as malleable.I like to compare them to old hand drawn animations. I'm talking late sixties and even through the eighties animation. Maybe even all the way till the 2000's. That older style of animation made it obvious what was to move in a scene and what was not. My characters are like a frame—that isn't to be taken literally—where only part of their body is moving, that is to say, their face and its expressions.Now, some characters have differences, like maybe someone has a broken socket or someone is missing a pinprick, but those are typically dependent on the character. Something that stays consistent, though, is hair. Most if not all of my skeletons have hair on their skulls.Skeletons? With hair?Well, if I didn't lose you at the cartoon part, yes. My skeletons have hair. They can only grow it on the top of their skulls and it's linked to their magic. They can control how fast it grows and the length they want to keep it at. If they want it shorter, they have to cut it, and if they want it a different color, they have to dye it. Now, there are other complications characters may have like faulty magic that causes their hair growth to be sporadic. Fun fact, skeleton hair smells different than human hair when burned. Different skeletons's magic has different scents.Pin pricks can be any shape or size. They're little lights that sit in the socket to convey emotions and sensations. These little shapes of lights are also represented by magic. Magic is, essentially one of two things that make up the multiverse.Code is what makes up matter. Much like the atoms in the matter in our real world, code is strings of numbers and words that come together to form the world these cartoons live in. But the characters themselves are made of both code and magic.Magic is essentially energy. It takes different forms and is what these characters run off of. When Magic takes different forms, it's easy to recognize by something called personalities. In total, there are seven personalities. The colors of the rainbow, red through purple, and even the ultimate personality being gold.Melonie's parents have taught her exactly what I am telling you now. She even knows a little more than what I'm letting on. The girl knows about each personality, including the exact ones that make up her spirit and what that says about her. She's come to learn that her spirit is meant to be a bright light to others and help whoever she needs to. She's much like her father in that aspect.Cadmus is one of the biggest heroes there is. He's best friends with the King of Darkness—much to everyone's disbelief—and he lives and works by a squeaky clean moral ground that other heroes wish they could have. One of those heroes being his wife.Grape is... well, she's fairly well known, albeit for the more gray decisions she's made in her life. She used to be on the top of the ladder with Cadmus, but things got out of hand and she ended up settling down after having a daughter. When Grape was spry, she used to say things about how she couldn't comprehend her heroic and hyperactive self ever settling down to live a slow life. But things happen, and happen they did. She decided it was time to put her villain-fighting clothes in the closet and bring her career to a pause.Besides, in the thirteen years that Grape has been raising Melonie, the little girl has made the mother feel better about herself. She'll never understand it, the thing about her little one that brings out the best in her. If she had to guess, it was probably Melonie's innocence. Grape just found it so... precious and loving. Part of her worried that as the girl grew and became older, she would lose that innocence and wouldn't be loving anymore. But it seemed like Melonie tried her best to hold on.Even in her dream, she was trying to piece together what was happening and how she could help. Even after watching something as horrific as someone being mauled and torn to bits by a pack of wild animals, she felt herself attempting to understand.In her dream, she was seeing a world that looked completely different than her own. Things weren't as soft and familiar, like a shift in style that she could only notice but not identify. These creatures, however, felt familiar. They looked different, definitely, but... they had magic. She could sense that they had spirits, such strong personalities that clashed with this place. This world felt cold, practically, compared to these magical creatures.It was a world with no magic.She was beginning to realize this now. She began to understand that what she was watching wasn't something her spirit had concocted for her to slumber on. This was—dare she guess—a vision. Because after this stranger was pulled apart excruciatingly, it was like her focus shifted. Originally, she hadn't paid much attention to the individual in peril. She had wanted to, trying her hardest to turn her head and look in their helpless direction, but it was like... a movie. Her lime green pinpricks in her eye sockets, the cameras, weren't focused on what was happening to the person. They were too busy showing the scenery, letting her take in the world, forcing her to be in suspense. Melonie didn't understand why her vision was being so vague, but even when it finally focused on the "subject" of the scene, it was all done. There was no subject anymore.Any normal human person would see the aftermath of S being attacked and would get sick or unsettled. There's stuff that looks like blood, but isn't red or has the make-up of it. It's just pitch black ink, and it was everywhere. It was on the tree, the grass, the shrubbery, and the animals.Oh, the animals. It's hard to describe what was happening after the demolition of S. There were so many of the creatures, each an individual character. Some were rejoicing, some were gagging—S tastes terrible—and coughing, and some were just standing around and staring at their unfamiliar surroundings. But everyone's attention was grabbed as the raven cawed, demanding that the animals listen."Alright, you guys know the plan! Grab a piece and move! We need to be out of here before sunrise!"There were collective groans and sighs and other such miscellaneous sounds that only made the raven fluff up more and squawk even louder, practically a shrill cry that made everyone snap to attention."Hey! Shut up, all of you! We had a plan and you imbeciles decided to get a little too excited! Now we have more pieces, and I refuse to hear anymore rattling about it! Now do your darn jobs or so help me creators, I'll put you all on night and morning shifts back to back!"There was significantly less moaning now, this time the creatures sighing and rolling their glowing eyes. Each one went up to the questionable remains of the body and picked up a piece, most of them grimacing or gagging just from being forced to hold it in their mouths—because S tastes terrible. And something in Melonie clicked.What just unfolded was wrong and twisted, she knew that, it was one of the things she understood from the get-go of this vision. But, this entire thing was planned. This group of creatures had already decided in advance that they were going to come out tonight and attack whoever this person was. Melonie had heard their screams, they made her worried about what could cause so much pain, and now it made sense.These were the villains, they had to be.She knows her father, she's met his friends from work, this couldn't have been done with any heroes. Even if they had just one, she would think, this wouldn't have happened the way it did. For all she knew, the villains were starting the process of transporting a corpse, but that wasn't what she could tell.Even before S was mauled into misidentification, she could sense that they also held a magic origin. Granted, their spirit was something she had never felt before, but she recognized that they had one. Even as the black wolf with green eyes carried their severed head by the hair, Melonie could sense there was something still pulsing in there. It just lay dormant as it had lost the battle of fighting off the troublesome transgressors.And Melonie witnessed as the animals left this strange realistic world. Entered one that seemed more peculiar. She recognized it as something her mother had described to her once. A void. This void didn't seem exactly like the one Grape had described, but it was massive and empty so it had to be one.She watched as the wolf set the head down and walked around it, the other animals following suit. And with a flash of bright green light and a whiff of lavender, the black wolf was gone. Standing in its place was a grumpy skeleton that Melonie didn't recognize. Her bones were a dark gray nearly black, and her hair was pitch black. The girl could tell she was evil not just by her upset demeanor but also by her rebellious outfit. It was starkly different to that of something any hero would wear.All the heroes wore colorful and vibrant clothes, the only thing about her clothes that were vibrant was the various dark shades of cool colors that were anything but her shoes and wicked coat. It seemed like the one thing that was bright was the skeleton's face. Her sockets were a bright lime green that glowed and her pinpricks were wonky and mismatching, both of them had a dark denim blue spot although on had a vibrant purple ring around it that complimented the loud green and somehow spoke over it. Interestingly enough, she had markings on her face, nothing the multiverse would consider special, but something still considered iconic. They were just four purple lines, two going down from each socket, that were only slightly more faded than her pinprick-ring."Watch it, guys." She turned back to the animals as she watched them set down the pieces one by one. "I don't need to get a nonexistent-earful from Villy cuz you morons couldn't put together the puzzle you made the freak into." She turned away, muttering to herself. "As is, I'm gonna have to explain to her why we did this so soon..."The animals rolled their eyes upon being called morons, but they kept moving. A portal appeared next to Vine and the animals started filtering through it. It seemed like Melonie was about to follow them, but then the focus turned to a scruffy creature struggling to drag what looked to maybe be half a torso. Melonie didn't know what to think of this animal as it looked terrifying in the world of realism, but once it entered the familiar style, it looked better on the eyes. That's a joke, because the coyote dragging the body part is in fact missing an eye.It looked scruffy, and Melonie knew what animal this was because it looked like a character she used to see in childhood cartoons. It looked like Wile E. Coyote, just on all fours, missing an eye, and more savage. This one didn't seem as clever as an animal who puts together wild inventions to kill a road-runner. It seemed like it was trying to be tough, showing that it could pull this sizable load to its spot in the puzzle of the mangled body.As it tugged and pulled, characters moaned and groaned upon the mess the animal was making, taking no note at how it was pushing the other pieces out of place. It only paid attention to how close the head was to the torso, and once it was in place it dropped the body and trotted over to the portal. Now the scene followed the animal through the portal, moving to a castle that took away Melonie's magical breath.It was grand and luxurious. It was dark shades of blues and purples, accented with the occasional silver and platinum touches. It was a place fit for a king, and Melonie couldn't understand what these vicious animals were doing here.There seemed to be other characters, skeletons, standing around, waiting for the animals to come to them. They were holding bottles full of vibrant green liquid that said "mouthwash". One by one, the animals went up, took some mouth wash, gargled it around and then spit it into a bowl that a second character was holding.The coyote walked up to a character dressed in mostly black, wearing a mysterious hooded poncho with a cap sewn into the hood. She wore a face scarf that covered her nose-hole and down, even draping down her neck and the top of her ribcage. There was a skeleton next to her with long red hair that flowed from her head down her shoulders, and she was the least frightening out of the characters here. She looked like a scientist with her long white lab coat and her petite glasses that sat on the bridge of her nose hole. The hooded character held a bottle of mouthwash and the woman standing next to her held a bowl."Hey, girls! How are my two favorite villainous lesbians?" There was a yip in the coyote's tone, as if jesting to the two skeletons. The one with red hair shook her head with a playful scoff and the one in the dark clothes only narrowed her single pinprick."You better not swallow it this time. It isn't good for you." The coyote only laughed, quite literally, and opened its mouth wide. Melonie felt herself shudder as she saw the teeth of the creature, literal pins and needles that sat in the maw of such a vicious thing. And the character with the hood-capped poncho poured some of the strange green liquid into the coyote's mouth.The animal took the mouthwash in its, well, mouth, and did the standard swishing around to get the bitter clay taste out of its mouth. It also did the one thing the darkly-dressed skeleton told it not to do.With one giant satisfactory gulp followed by one rough slightly less satisfying gasping sigh to everyone else, the creature had swallowed the mouth wash. The red-head gave a begrudging sigh."Kanzler, how many times do we have to tell you?""Don't swallow the mouthwash!" The poncho-wearing skeleton cut in loudly with an agitated tone. The coyote laughed, a yipping cackle behind its voice."I can't help it! I love the way it burns!" The coyote rasped, flashing its fangs in a sinister twisted smile."It isn't even supposed to." The character in the white lab coat grimaced lightly. "It's the kid's brand." The coyote chuckled again, a smaller cackle."I don't care! Give me more!" And the character in the dark clothes widened her sockets realizing the beast she had just fed. She quickly turned heel and started to run, her rubber-soled, black leather boots tapping on the fine marble. The creature cackled with delight, starting to gallop after the character, ready for its terrorizing escapade.The rest of the animals began collecting, actually adhering to the advice and not swallowing the mouthwash. After they had cleaned their mouths, they filtered away.One by one, flash of color after flash of color, a whiff of a smell after a whiff of another smell—like she was perusing the multiverse's strangest candle store—the animals disappeared and skeletons took their places. The skeleton in the lab coat sighed, handing her bowl off to someone else who didn't mind taking it. And she made her way to the black bird with icy blue eyes.There was a flash of dark royal blue and a whiff of something Melonie could only describe as a scene that takes place on a cold night with something burning in the background, and the bird was replaced with a full-grown man. He was taller than most of the other characters, dawning a long dark blue cloak with the hood up. He sighed, tilting his head until there was a crack, and rolling his shoulders, his arms stretching and flexing. Melonie could only see the back of him as he didn't even turn to face the woman who walked up to him."Is your ancient age finally catching up to you?" She asked with a somehow straight look even though there was clearly some teasing in her voice. He groaned as he stretched more, pushing his elbows back to flex enough and earn a pop from his shoulder blades."Creators, Cameo," his voice was tight as he tried to yield more pops and cracks from his rickety body, "I'm not that old.""And yet your body makes the same sound bubble wrap makes when a child gets a hold of it." She glanced away as if what she said was so matter-of-fact. He sighed, dropping his shoulders and rolling his head a couple times before turning it to look at her."It's just some magic cramps. It's been a minute since I last had to be some measly little bird." And he started walking away, the woman following."You may think your raven form to be weak, but compared to a frail finch, any corvus like the one you transform into is far more fit for a king such as yourself.""You're buttering me up." He went up some steps and Melonie saw it now. A grand throne. He sat down on it, resting his hooded head on his propped fist. "What's the matter?" The woman shrugged."Can't a villain compliment and support her boss without having to explain why she's feeding his ego?" The man leaned his head off his hand, dropping it to his lap as he shot her a look of disbelief and suspicion out from his hood that Melonie couldn't see."What is it?""It's Concord." The red-headed one started. "You know she gets depressed when you all leave her behind to go collect S.""We had to this time." He shook his head, glancing away at the fact he had to explain this again. "She isn't exactly practical for taking down the freak when she's in her spirit animal form." He shook his head again, short but sharp, as if he was suddenly bringing a point to his own attention. "Besides! You know this! You were there at the briefing just a few weeks ago. Why are you still coming up to me about this?""Because she's... unnerved when she has to talk to you directly... about work matters." She said it so coolly that any other person would feel understanding even if they didn't know what she was talking about."'Intimidated'?" He asked. She shook her head."That isn't what I said.""Why is she so scared of me? It's just me!" He sounded slightly offended as he exclaimed with his arms motioning to himself."'It's just me', he says," she looked him up and down—from the slight indent on his hood where a crown would sit on rare occasion to the very tips of his elegant and neat medieval-style black riding boots—before muttering loud enough for the two to hear in order to continue, "sitting high atop his platinum throne.""It isn't platinum, it's silver!" His shoulders rose with his lament. "Platinum is too expensive to make a whole throne out of!" He gripped the arm rests of the fancy seat and sat forward with energy. "Besides! The throne is just for aesthetic purposes! It isn't meant to mean anything other than a statement of position! I'm supposed to pose as a manager over the villains, not miles above the rest of the lot of you!" He ranted as he sat a solid three feet higher than the skeleton in the lab coat stood. She turned and looked out at the rest of the villains who were beginning to wrap up their attempts to wash out the maniac from their jaws and were now beginning to stand around and converse. She looked back at the king with a raised brow."'Just a statement'?" He rolled his head as he rolled his pinpricks from under his hood."You know what I mean.""What are you doing!?" Another woman came up with ash gray bones and vicious red pinpricks. Melonie felt like she had personally done something wrong and offended her, but she quickly realized that this was basically a dream of sorts. The man on the throne looked down and around himself before looking back up at her."Sitting.""And why are you sitting!?""Because I wanted to make sure everyone was taken care of before we all ended the night." He gestured to the villains who were now just biding time amongst themselves, and the last of the animals leaving The Prison Void."Get your sad sack of bones out of that fancy chair!" She took a threatening step onto the marble stairs that led up to the throne and the man practically jolted to start to stand up. "For creators's sake, Enzo! Marlie's gonna be up and having breakfast in the matter of a few hours!""That's if the teenager has even gone to bed yet..." He mumbled to himself as he smoothed out the wrinkles in his clothes."What was that?!""Nothing, Darling, nothing." She pointed a stern finger at him as if she was gonna talk louder, but her shoulders wilted and she dropped her hand. With a sigh and a pinprick roll she shook her head and walked away.The man and the red-head stood for a moment, watching her storm off like a light drizzle. He walked down the steps after a while and the woman in the white coat muttered to him."I'll be honest, I gave you that advice and half expected to see you dead the next day."The man laughed, but he stopped, looking at where Melonie would be, and it felt like the world stopped.This was actually happening. The events that just unfolded before her were canon to most timelines. Even the coyote chasing the skeleton with the mouthwash? Yes, even the coyote chasing the skeleton with the mouth wash. But, what wasn't normal was that an innocent thirteen-year-old girl watched the villains do every little thing. And, for some reason, the king sensed that something wasn't right. He was keeping what he was doing a secret from the heroes, but he was doing it behind their backs. And he felt that something—someone—was here to splash water on his paper thin plan to keep it quiet.And whatever—whoever—was paying attention when he least expected it, was going to cause an issue for him in the future.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The sun rose peacefully on the quaint forest. The little critters starting their day to scamper about and do forest-critter things. Grape was also awake, already getting a handle on the day and taking a chance to do some chores before the house really woke up. She was somehow the very combination of the attitude of a night owl yet also the body of an early bird.Cadmus was up not too long after she started moving around, but Grape wasn't paying attention to what he was doing, assuming that he just needed a second to fully wake up before he faced the world. Melonie was a bit different.She woke up about an hour after Grape got moving, which meant Melonie was up and awake at a crisp eight o'clock. She was conscious and scrambling out of bed with a sizable dosage of bed head as she whipped off her covers. She didn't exactly wake with a start, but after taking a moment to realize she was in her own bed, she jumped up to go tell her parents what she had just seen.After clawing from her sheets, she ran out of her room and and down the hall, going right to the kitchen where she could hear—and smell—her mother making breakfast for the house. On a normal morning, Melonie would stop and ask her mother what the occasion was, and the only reason Grape would give was that it was the day after Halloween, but Melonie wasn't paying attention to that right now. Right now she was trying to find any one of her two parents to tell them about the bizarre vision she just had about someone getting mauled by the villains posing as a pack of wild animals."Mom!" She ran up to Grape, and her mother didn't think much of it."What's up, Mel? Want some cheesy-eggs for breakfast? I know they're your favorite." It was true. Ever since Melonie was little, her dad got her hooked on shredded cheese and all the possibilities it held. But now wasn't the time."No! I mean- yes! I mean!" Melonie shook her head and Grape paused with a confused look, waiting for the words to come to her daughter. "Yes, but not right now! I have something I need to tell you!" Grape's look softened as she only thought this as a hyperactive episode of Melonie's. Did she think it was a bit early for one of these? Of course. But the mother inside her assumed it had something to do with the candy from last night."And what's that, Sweetie?" Grape went back to the pan on the stove, closing her eyes peacefully to listen to her daughter rant about the new thing she just discovered. She did it often enough that Grape was used to it and kind of adored it. It reminded her of her husband."It's the villains! They attacked someone last night and I saw it! I know they did!" The girl seemed frantic, but her own version of it.Melonie wasn't a very loud person. She was usually on the shyer side when there were other people around who she didn't know, and even at home she didn't talk too outlandishly. So, Grape's own daughter, a girl raised by herself and her own husband, two of the most well-known heroes, bringing up something about the villains and what they did, took Grape more than off guard. It made her pause, practically freeze. She was stuck holding the pan—mid motion with the spatula to move the eggs, even—and staring off into space to try and explain to herself where this was coming from.Grape decided to chalk it up to Melonie being so young. Children have such active imaginations, don't they? Perhaps she just overheard her and Cadmus talking about his day and Melonie had a dream."Wow, Mel, that's a pretty crazy dream." And Grape went back to the breakfast, keeping it from burning as she said her rationalization out loud to make herself feel better. She had a slight smile on her face as she tried to lean back into the normalcies of the morning. Melonie only became worried, genuine concern shifting onto her face."What? No! It really happened, mom! I saw everything! They-they-they mangled someone! Tore them apart, literally! And then-and then they put the person into one of those abyss things! It was gray and sad!""A void?" Grape asked, confused that Melonie actually knew what she was talking about. She nodded vigorously."Yeah, that! One second all the villains were animals and looked different, the next they were skeletons! There was a coyote and she called these two other characters 'thespians' or something like that?""'Lesbians'???" Grape was only growing more concerned. This was oddly specific and it was beginning to worry her. She couldn't care less about the fact that this was how her daughter was going to learn who lesbians were, but the fact that Grape knew exactly who her precious girl was talking about terrified her."Yeah, something like that! All the animals were using this thing called mouthwash? I don't know what it was, maybe it was a villain thing, but they were totally up to bad things! There was a man even! And he sat on a throne made of silver! Because apparently platinum was too expensive!"Grape slammed the spatula down on the counter and set the pan back on the stove. She knew who that was. She knew exactly who that was. It was—"Oh, did you have a dream about Enzo?" Cadmus came walking in, a smile on his face. Melonie quickly made the connection and nodded."Yeah! He was the king of the villains! But he said he was more of a manager over them."Grape's expression dropped. Something was terribly wrong. Her little girl shouldn't know these things, not about the villains, not about the very man who leads them. It was jarring to Grape. She was more than a concerned mother. Melonie couldn't have known such minute and specific details about the villains without actually being around the villains. It wasn't possible that she got all this from some dream. Did she sneak out last night? But, the castle is miles away, it takes longer than just a night to get there and Grape tucked her in herself. Cadmus chuckled, not noticing the implications Melonie was making and that Grape was picking up."Yeah, he does say that, doesn't he?"Grape had had enough. She turned off the stove, moved the pan off the burner, walked around and past her daughter all the way up to Cadmus, and promptly grabbed him by the collar of his shirt."What are you doing?" She muttered so Melonie wouldn't hear their conversation as they turned away."What? It's just a dream, isn't it?" He wasn't understanding. She sighed and pulled him closer."Cadmus, she just mentioned Kanzler to me. A coyote who addressed two other characters as lesbians? that's too specific." She hissed at him. He rose his shoulders, taking a breath and stretching his teeth as if to say something, but then he paused and thought for a moment."Well, what—"But he was cut off as his phone pinged in his pocket. He quickly plucked it from his pants and looked at it.Enzo: Meeting at the castle at twelve. We need to talk about how S was brought back.Cadmus only stared at the message, his mentality leaving him as he felt Grape twist his collar in agitation. She wasn't usually a violent person, not after she settled down, but when she was younger she was so passionate over such little things. It was one of the things he loved about her, even now. One thing he didn't feel too glad for was the debate he was going to have to have with her."What is he talking about?" Her voice was slick like a knife."Uhm. He, uh- er, Enzo went out with the villains last night, and..." He stuttered. "And, brought S back to the multiverse.""THAT," she tugged his shirt and he flinched slightly, "was supposed to be next month..." He nodded."It was. I just- Enzo got impatient, I-I suppose." He tried to keep his cool. Despite what most people would think, this was perfectly healthy.From Grape's perspective, for all she knew her daughter just witnessed a gruesome murder. From Cadmus's perspective, for all he knew his daughter just witnessed a gruesome murder and maybe even a little more. But something the husband struggled with was portraying his emotions when he was truly concerned. Besides, he knew that whatever Melonie saw last night was probably fine—he rationalized to himself—that what she saw wasn't too graphic, because the little girl seemed pretty fine for the most part."'Impatient'?" Grape asked dangerously. "Impatient causes problems, Cadmus." He nodded."Yes, dear, you're right." He awkwardly put a hand on her wrist holding his shirt. "Tell you what. I'll go to the castle at noon and I'll talk to them. And, I'll tell them that Melonie saw—""No!" She hissed, tugging on him. "Don't tell them, they'll think she's a witness and kill her!" She muttered. They both paused and looked at Melonie outside of their two-character-huddle. She was only standing by the stove, staring at them cluelessly."What's going on?" She asked with genuine concern. Cadmus got very uncomfortable very quickly. Grape just swept it under a metaphysical rug."Uh, nothing, sweetie, I'll finish your breakfast in a minute!" Grape gave the fakest smile she had given in the past thirteen years. The two turned back to their huddle and she gave a huff as she lost the smile."Fine, I won't tell Enzo that Melonie knows." Cadmus mentioned to Grape. She gave a heavier sigh."Okay. That's... that's fine..." She nodded as she let go of his shirt and began to smooth out the wrinkled fabric from the mangling she did. "That's... that's alright. It'll be fine." She finally stepped away from her husband who gave a sigh of relief at the fact that he wasn't going to be treated like a human-sized stress-fidget for Grape. His wife ended up going back to the stove, turning the heat back on and moving the pan to continue making breakfast."Mom?" Grape paused slightly, something in her striking like a a string from a pull-piñata on her spirit. She looked down at her daughter. "What... is going on?" There was doubt in her voice and Grape hated it. She heard this tone in so many people she tried so hard to care for over the many years, and it... it haunted her.All the mother did was set everything back down and hug her daughter, tightly and closely. Melonie hesitated at first, but hugged her mother back. She took a deep breath, taking in her fruity smell. It wasn't until Melonie was just a five-year-old when she put together that her mother liked Grapes and that's where she got the silly name. As a child, the little girl just assumed that it was common that characters were named after the way their magic smelled. After all, she herself smelled like a collection of ripe melons, standing as an explanation for her own name. Melonie. Melon, i, e. They held the hug for a long moment and Grape whispered to her daughter."It's okay. You're okay. And that's all that matters, sweetie." The girl loosened in her mother's arms."You... believe me..." She looked up at her mother. "Don't you...? That what I saw last night actually happened?" Grape nodded, moving a strand of wild hair out of her daughter's face."Of course, Mel. I believe every word."All Melonie did was give a hesitant hum and go back to looking to the side as her mother held her in her arms. The girl didn't know what to think. She wanted to trust her mother, she didn't know what it was, but part of her was against it. She only shook her head, digging her face deeper into her mother's old lavender purple t-shirt as she tried to rationalize to herself her doubt. And it was simple.She was only a teen. Surely, this doubt only came with age. And it too would pass.Grape held her for a long moment before she smelled the eggs. They weren't burning, but they were certainly going to be well cooked. She pat Melonie on the back and slowly pulled away. The girl got the motion and let go, giving her mom another despondent look."Go sit at the table, Mel. I'll give you your eggs in a moment, okay?"The girl muttered an okay and went over to her spot at the kitchen table. Once in her seat, she felt herself begin to stare down at the table like she was being sucked into a vortex.Melonie didn't understand what this feeling was. She was meant to be the happy one, she always was. But it was as if seeing this one course of events unfold last night put a pair of sunglasses on her emotions. She couldn't clearly hear her parents when they huddled like they did this morning, but she picked up bits and pieces.S had to have been the person who was attacked last night. She didn't know anything about who they were except for one thing she heard clear as day, they did not want to be attacked. They were panicked and desperate. Even though they didn't stand a chance against the vicious animals, the villains still attacked. In fact, they did more than they were even supposed to. If she had to guess, they probably only had to incapacitate—a big word for such a young girl, I know—the person, which could even be something as little as knocking them in the head hard enough.Melonie felt herself shaking. She didn't know why she was thinking this way and it was scaring her. It was disturbing being helplessly introduced to a world where a situation like this was beginning to be cracked down on by her own psyche. She didn't want to have these thoughts, she didn't want to turn to violence as the answer, and yet these characters who attacked this random person were so sure, so set, so convinced that this was, in fact, the correct option that they even went overboard. She saw the body, the thing they kept referring to as a "corpse" even though she felt a spirit faintly pulsing in it, displaying that that person was still alive in at least one aspect. And it was that single one that the animals left for that poor soul to cling to.Why? Why were the villains so cruel? Why did they attack someone so savagely? Why? Why?!"Mel?" Grape looked overly concerned and worried. A plate of food had been set in front of the girl and she hadn't even realized, the smell of the well cooked eggs reaching her nose-hole, yet not registering. She felt herself blink back tears as she looked to her side to see her mother and her father both waiting as if they were trying to get her attention for a long moment."Oh, Sunshine..." Cadmus put a hand on her cheekbone, swiping a tear out from under her socket with his thumb. "Come here..." He didn't sound demanding in the slightest. He only sounded welcoming.She leaned off her chair and fell into his embrace, letting the tears fall. She didn't understand her despair and where it was coming from, but her parents were beginning to pick up the weight of what was happening in her teenage head. Grape went into the hug as well, helping console their daughter.The parents shared a look, Grape's sockets oozing with an unspoken concern that only her husband could understand. He sighed and nodded as he caressed his little girl's unkempt sleepified hair, looking down to her as she bawled in his arms."I know, Sunshine, I know." He looked at Grape and his voice shifted from tender to firm. "I'll talk to Enzo."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The last thing S could remember before their consciousness was dodgy at best was when their head was severed from their body. It was like a light was pulled from an electrical socket and the lights were still flickering like a ghost was haunting it. The light? S's eyes. The ghost haunting it? Their cursed will to stay alive and conscious.They remember being set down on the void floor, literally and uncomfortably. It isn't exactly nice to have severed flesh from a wound be touching something so cold and hard like the so called thing the void has called a ground. They remember watching—on and off—as the rest of their body was set down in front of them. Did they notice that the villains got their hands swapped between left and right? Maybe. Did S also expect that Vi wouldn't even notice and end up putting the wrong hands on the wrong arms? Too much so. But, they also saw something peculiar and out of place.S didn't know who the girl was. Well, they did know, but they couldn't recall now. As is usual with life threatening moments like this, S forgets all the important things they know about the multiverse and the way it works. In this moment, they just saw a young skeletal girl who was no older than twelve and was clearly being traumatized. The villains didn't seem to notice her. Maybe they would've acted differently if they knew someone so young and easy to sculpt was taking watch over their transgressions. S felt bad even in their shifty wakefulness. And yet... part of them turned a blind eye.They were used to this. Sure, it was jarring to be pulled apart for the first time in a little over fifteen years, but this wasn't new. These characters had done this countless times before. Granted, not so savagely and viciously, but they still attacked S often. It wasn't too uncommon for them to be dragged back to the prison void missing a limb or two. And whenever S was badly wounded by physical human standards, Vi would come along and patch them up.Violet, or Vi, was the person who created S. It's a long story, but to put it in nineteen words or less: Vi got lonely, so she made a companion for herself and it went terribly wrong over the oncoming years. Is it more complicated than that? Of course, this an entire backstory worth ninety-two years of events. Is that including the original universe? Yes. Are Vi and S even from the original universe? Of course not. Fine, go ahead and correct me and point out that Vi's story started only eighty-eight years ago. Congratulations, you got me by four years. I'm sorry, who's the author again? Oh right. But that isn't the point.The point is, Vi was lonely, fresh out of mourning for the loss of her best friend—a sister, practically—and decided the best chain of options were to create a companion using magic and a sculpture that was a combination of an artistic posing doll that she hand crafted, clay, and paint. Did she design every minute detail of S for their first general appearance? Yes. She took artistic liberty but she also gave artistic liberty. S was given a set of abilities which included but were not limited to shapeshifting to look like other characters and shapeshifting to look like other animals than just their spirit animal form.Of course, there's complications to S's abilities. They have to know the specifics, everything from height and weight down to color and personality. Even when they take animal forms it's as if S has to learn to walk again. They don't even have to be a baby deer to walk like one, they could be a giant stag and they'll have just as much trouble trying to support the weight throughout their body, including their head and maneuvering with antlers.But now wasn't a time to talk about S literally having to learn how to fly whenever they shapeshifted to have wings. Right now is a time to talk about the gruesome way S is returned to the multiverse like a child returning a "well-loved" library book.They barely payed attention as Vine took out her phone, snapping a quick photo and turning back to start texting someone. S knew who it was. They recognized the emojis on the contact as Vi's own handiwork she did whenever anyone gave her the opportunity to let her add her own contact into their phone.Now, to spare you the awkwardness and the confusion about how S feels towards this, I'll tell you about the girls now. Vi and Vine are in fact in a relationship. The multiverse considers it a bit taboo, but not for the standard our own political human society has. They're both women, yes, but it's the fact that Vi is a hero and Vine is a villain. Everyone outside of their relationship and who don't bother to ask see their characters as water and oil. They cannot mix.Vi knows that Vine does very bad and evil things for her job, but she still finds the tall, dark, and beautiful skeleton hot and wants to be with her at the end of the day. And Vine feels that what Vi does isn't even a job in the first place, but she still finds that short, bright and darling skeleton charming and wants to be with her at the end of the day.And where does S stand in all of this?S is, in essence, a stepchild should Vine ever decide to step up and finally propose to Vi after all these years. But they're also the maniac who is solely dedicated to destroying the very multiverse they all exist in. And Vine happens to be one of the main characters who organize and are organized to put a stop to their plans. The two are constantly made to butt heads, S trying to accomplish their goal and Vine trying to keep them from ending all of existence as they know it.Vi is supposed to be the hero, she's meant to put a stop to whatever wrong is happening. But when her girlfriend—the woman she loves the most in the whole wide multiverse—is trying to go out and incapacitate her child—the creation she is supposed to love and care fore more than is standard in the whole wide multiverse—and they're trying to murder the love of her life, she becomes despondent. She does stupid things in an attempt to get everyone's attention and make them stop fighting. When she gets the chance, she'll try and keep up and talk to S when they get out. Most of the time it isn't even talking to them, it's only talking at them. At first, she talked to Vine, too, but her girlfriend was different when it was S than compared to just normal work.When Vine was at work and Vi talked to her, there was typically some witty back and forth banter mixed with flirting and a breed of trauma bonding that only a villain could cook up. But when it was S, Vine was mean, and Vi didn't understand it at first. She still doesn't, but the best she can do is make guesses. She's had ideas that Vine probably is frustrated at Vi because she isn't taking care of her creation, but she only has that idea because another villain voiced that opinion. But even that doubt was quickly snuffed one day as after someone had made that comment, Vine cracked down on them asking if they would hesitate if the only way to stop their own kin from ending every way of life was to kill them.S doesn't understand why it is the way it is. They don't get why the one person their mother had to fall madly in love with was the very skeleton who was always at the forefront of wanting them dead. Sometimes they wondered if all they had to do was act differently and maybe Vine wouldn't hate them so much, and the thing is that S knows. They know about all the possibilities the multiverse holds, that's part of their problem and why they want to destroy it all. They know about the universes where S is just a kid, a creation to Violet, and the Vine in those AUs don't have nearly as much of a grudge as they do in this universe.But S knows, they always know. In this universe, this found family just isn't meant to be. Does it make S sad? On a level. But it makes them envious more than anything. They've had ideas about going to the universe where they're a robot Vi created and just killing the thing. They'd plan on taking its place and playing it off as a Pinocchio situation of "turning into a real person" or whatever. But they can't even get close to that universe without characters being up in arms because that stupid robot has a Prime Spirit that sits in its head and helps it tick.Ugh, creators, they'd have to go and get the spirits.The spirits were the things that S needed in order to destroy the multiverse. But it can't just be any normal background characters' spirits, it has to be the Prime Spirits. In total, there's seven of them, one for each personality. Red through purple, including gold. Unfortunately, S does have to go in order by the rainbow and save gold for last. They roughly understand why they have to be meticulous, but that's only because the creator themself roughly has a justification for their autistic habits. For instance, power-scaling is a very real thing. It doesn't make sense for S to get the ultimate spirit first because it's so powerful it just makes them explode. Even when they get over halfway, if S is missing just one out of the other six spirits, their body develops cracks that shine golden and they become overwhelmed, leading to an inevitable explosion that is the consequence for jumping ahead.Believe it or not, but it's highly common that the villains and heroes pull a switch-a-roo and S just gets so caught up in the moment that they get "lost in the sauce" that is finally accomplishing their goal to destroy the multiverse. You may think S is stupid or dumb when this happens, but I find it common even in myself. Sure, I feel like an idiot when I get so in the flow that I forget to put pickles on a burger, but at the end of the day it's just my job and I can fix it should the need arise. For context, I work at a movie theater, as previously mentioned, and I find that people typically don't give a fuss when you forget something on their burger. Worst case scenario I just show them where they can get the toppings themselves.Is this my way of trying to show you, the reader, that S losing isn't a big deal? Yes. Does this also translate into me portraying that S going and doing the only real job they have isn't a big deal? Of course, because that's the cruel duality that is S's purpose. My characters fight tooth and nail to take S down when they get out, but as we see here at the very beginning of this book sometimes it's uncalled for. It might be hard to believe, but there is a standard when characters fight each other. It's hard to describe that standard, because this is S we're talking about, but even they have a set guidelines of what they can and can't do. Theirs is actually more limited, surprisingly.S can recall the first time they saw their mother livid because of something they did. They were having a bad day and lost it on Vine. Of course the one character they decided to maim was the woman their creator would die for. They ended up completely breaking off and severing one of the villain's arms. They remember hearing her protests and screams, but they only reveled in it. Of course, Vi came running, and S felt something that every child feels when they see their parent more than crossed. They felt genuine fear and their psyche taking a mental note to never make this transgression again. She was practically a blur, using her magic spirit-colored pencils to move faster than they could register in their mind. Vi made quick work of S with a fast head knock to deter them and using another pencil's ability to completely flip them off of the villain. S was so dazed and lost that Vi ended up just dragging them to the prison void herself, seething with tears coming down her usually happy face.Vine is fine, in case you were wondering. S never asked, but both of the girls told them their respective parts to how losing an arm affected her. And, no, it really didn't. Vine is different than your typical skeleton and I'm not going to get into that right now. She still has her left arm and after reattaching it she was only reminded of the encounter by the tiniest scar you could barely even see. She's usually really good at patching herself up so it makes sense that the small green crack isn't too visible when she isn't wearing her long sleeved coat.Speaking of the tall dark and mysterious lesbian, she finished her quick text—probably just a quick update—and started to walk out through the portal, leaving the jigsaw named S in the Prison Void.They were left only for what felt like hours, but was probably not even a full sixty minutes. Eventually Vi showed up and they only got bits and pieces of her putting them back together.S is, in essence, an art project. I explained early how she created them from art supplies and that's exactly what they are. Even in their seven foot tall body, every cubed inch of them is made of clay for flesh, wood for bones, paint to act as skin, and even ink that runs through their veins like blood. Putting S together, even in their ragged state, is as simple as mending a clay pot. Vi simply just has to sculpt them back together, using clay to slip and score parts together.She was talking like she always did when this happened. She was scolding them for being gone, a bit more stern than usual because of how long they were missing. If S was able to talk or even listening in the first place, they would argue with her and have a somehow therapeutic screaming match about how they had to leave. The multiverse had S in a chokehold and there was no longer a desire to stay in it. No, they didn't commit suicide, no part of their story in finding the woman they love required S dying in any sense. However, there was a point when S was too young for anyone to stomach that they decided to tear their own spirit apart in an attempt to "end the pain". I won't get into too much right now, that's material I can save for another chapter.After S was put back together, their limbs connected to their whole torso again, Vi sat there for a moment in an attempt to wait for the character to come to. But even as they felt the magic slowly coming back to their formerly severed parts—a feeling much like when a limb falls asleep and you feel an uncomfortably tight sock tightening more into pins and needles except burning with magical energy—they decided to "play dead" as they would call it. But Vi knew better, instead assuming that they were just asleep. Even she knew that what the villains did was a lot to S. After all, she had to clean them up. And as they laid there motionless on the harsh void floor she glanced over to something a little ways away.Strangely enough, S has a bed in the void. It isn't a normal bed that a human would find standard for a prison. It was just a giant human-sized—that is to say S sized—dog bed. You may think it's unorthodox and wrong that this be the only thing of comfort in the void for S, accompanied by some pillows and blankets, and your opinion is justified. Frankly, it isn't even a skeleton thing, S is just... S. They've been asked about it, but they just say something along the lines of "it just makes me feel safe, like a bird curling up in its nest". And the reason S says that is because the multiverse is dead set on keeping them in that void. They may have lived in the void that is the universe Vi and S come from, but even that doesn't feel like a home to them. The best they can do is have something they can burrow their body into to try and hide from the cruelty the void represents as a prison.Am I making you feel bad about S? Good. That's what Vi is feeling right now. Even as she got up to go grab a blanket for S, seeing the old blankets and pillows that she's had to replace several times while they've used them, taking their rage of being stuck in the void out on tearing the bedding apart, she recalled a sad memory of finding S.It was many years ago, too many for her to even tell right now, and the maniac had been returned to the void. S was fine for the most part, maybe just a little shaken up from something that is quite literally a slap on the wrist compared to tonight. They were just mad, so mad, too mad. She ended up coming to check on them to find S sobbing on the cold floor, surrounded by shredded blankets and torn pillows, stuffing peppered around the fabric massacre like partially melted snow in late day when the sun is coming down from its harsh job of ending the winter weather. She tried to approach them and comfort them, but they turned away only crying more and ranting about an apology for how it's their fault she has to turn a prison into their home, yet all they do is go and destroy everything.Vi didn't exactly know why she was having this memory as she grabbed a blanket from the fifteen-year-long untouched bed. Maybe she was trying to weigh if this was going to be helpful for S or not, choosing her spoons and whatnot. She was probably even trying to figure out that if anything did happen to this blanket how she would replace it. She has a sketchbook full of fun design ideas that she's been wanting to try, but she's never been known for her blanket making.Regardless, she took the blanket and went over to S, their chest finally starting to rise and fall as if they were breathing—even though they don't have to—and she laid the blanket on them. If she could, she would move them to the bed and help them get more comfortable, and maybe in another timeline she does, but right now she just felt... distant. She didn't understand why, but that would just have to be a conversation for another chapter.She moved to leave, a portal appearing as her entrance leading to her own void that she called home. Vi heard S move and looked back to see their back turned to her, their head leaned down to the floor lazily as they didn't have any support for it. Part of her wanted to go and try to talk to them, but she didn't know what she would say. Instead, she hesitantly looked the other way and left through her colorful exit from the void that S struggled to call home.And they laid there quietly as they gripped the soft blanket. For the first time since they were brought back, their body reacted slightly to the situation and they sniffled as a single tear fell from their eye.They whispered to themself, their voice small and frail."I don't want to be back..."
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The three characters sat at the grand table in silence for the first moment after he walked in and sat down. Cadmus knew to never be late to any meeting that Enzo made, but he was at a disadvantage for not being the last one to show up because he didn't work at the castle. He sat there, looking between the two villains in front of him before giving a sigh and finally talking."Let's cut to the chase. How did it go?" He looked at Enzo, expecting the king to talk, but instead Vine spoke up."Wow. No 'how is everyone's day'? Did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed, or something?" She had a slight smirk when he gave her a look she'd rarely seen from him. It was an expression where his sockets shifted slightly and his teeth twitched a little. Most people wouldn't be able to pick up on it, but anyone who knew Cadmus would know he doesn't twitch on good days."It went fine." Enzo answered, grabbing Cadmus's attention again. The hero took an unsure breath, his shoulders rising as he twisted his head."And, exactly how fine is fine?""We took them down. They're in the void right now, taking a nice nap, most likely." The king answered the hero."And, there wasn't anything that went wrong? Everything was according to plan?""Of course." Enzo nodded. Vine coughed and shot him pinpricks with raised bone-brows as if to insinuate something. He looked back at Cadmus. "For the most part." The hero cocked his head and raised a suspicious bone-brow."Pictures or I'm asking Vi for details."Vine moaned and looked at Enzo who had his face in his hand and nodded. She pulled out her phone and started to tap and swipe her way around on the device. Eventually she sighed as she turned the screen to the hero. Enzo looked away as Cadmus stared at the image as Vine held it.The hero felt his thoughts drop like flies sprayed with hair spray that had a lighter held in front of it, it was overkill. This is what his precious baby girl saw? Even if his little Sunshine hadn't seen this, Cadmus wouldn't turn a blind socket."Oh, creators..." He felt himself mutter. He looked at the king. "Enzo... what happened? Why did you do this?" He felt his back straighten as his voice rose. "We had an agreement! We were all going to go and get them! Peacefully, mind you!""Well, there was certainly something piece-ful about it." Vine muttered. Enzo had to cover his hooded face to hide his desire to laugh. Cadmus's disappointed look only intensified as the villain made the cruel joke."Seriously, you two?!" Cadmus was beginning to get upset. Enzo took his hand off his face, reaching it to him in an attempt to calm him. But his attempt was futile as now he was vulnerable to his own emotions and his shoulders began to shake as he let out spurts of laughter."C-Cadmus, please." More laughing, practically a suppressed giggle. "C-calm down.""No!" The hero only seemed more offended. "That could've been handled differently! You all could've waited!""And how do you know it could've been handled differently?" Vine smirked. She had more confidence than she even needed and all because she made her boss laugh. "S can be vicious too, you know.""Yeah, but-!" He stopped himself, looking down and to the side. "It's just—""What if the humans made them savage? I mean, a world of realism can't be as good as it sounds, right?" Vine continued asking the queries of a well versed lawyer."But it doesn't make sense!" Cadmus slammed his fist on the table and Enzo finally stopped laughing. "They were at peace there! We, that is to say the villains and heroes, were going to go and have a word with them! It was just meant to be an attempt to test the waters!""And we did." Vine quipped. "How do you think we got here?" She asked. "Why do you think we're even meeting and talking on a Saturday afternoon? Wouldn't you rather be with your family?" Now she sounded rhetorical, and Cadmus was too naive to tell the difference of a real question and a fake one. He hesitated for a moment, trying to decipher what she wanted him to answer.And for a moment he sat there, just staring at the two villains who seemed nonchalant about the whole thing. After a while, he took a deep breath and closed his sockets."What you've done," he opened them to look at the two villains with sharp pinpricks, "is going to cause the multiverse such a big headache, you'd think we were all dying of cancer."And he stood up.Enzo had wide sockets as he's never heard Cadmus talk like that, and Vine only rolled her pinpricks. She didn't think it was a big deal, this was just big hero talk that didn't mean squat to a villain like her. Her boss on the other hand was getting a chill down his spine. Him and Cadmus were good friends. Whatever Cadmus said, he listened to, and this was no different.And the hero left, walking out of the castle meeting room.Enzo only stared at the door he left through, his mind ticking and shifting, taking everything Cadmus said and turning it upside down to look at it from every angle. The man didn't even notice as Vine's phone pinged and she checked a notification."Son of a..." She muttered a swear under her breath and covered her face as she showed the screen to the king next to her. His shoulders dropped with his dismay and he sighed."They couldn't wait until Monday?" His voice was strained as he rubbed his skeletal temples. The message was clear as day.PRISON VOID EMERGENCY SHUT DOWN ACTIVATED.He gave a heavy sigh."I feel bad calling him back in. I'm not gonna lie, that was a really good line. It really got me thinking." Vine rolled her pinpricks."Shut up and just call your boyfriend already and get him back in here."—————"I'm punching you two the first chance I get." Cadmus had a sour look and Vine was genuinely surprised, her expression of mundane shock before smoothing out to skepticism."Okay, seriously, something's up with you. Did your wife burn breakfast or something? Why are you in such a bad mood?""Because you chuckleheads that call yourselves villains decided to go off and against what was agreed!" He shot her daggers. "Now you're roping me, a hero, into the mess you lot created! Frankly," now he shot daggers at Enzo, "I should speak for the heroes and say that we aren't helping clean up your mess at all. But," his expression relaxed only slightly, "that only gives the other villains more a reason to hate us and call us lazy good-for-nothing do-gooders."Enzo was speechless. All he could do was lean on his elbows as his hands covered his teeth and he only stared at Cadmus vacantly. He had seen Cadmus upset before, but never like this. It was just over little things that neither of them even remembered now. And, honestly? Enzo was dying inside to know what had Cadmus acting so mean. What was so important that has the hero coming into his villainous castle and cutting him down for the villainous thing he did?"Will you shut up and let me talk?" Vine, on the other hand was running tired of his spiels. Sticks and stones and all that. She didn't realize that by asking the hero a simple two-dimensional "what's going on" would yield her such a long and bitter answer.Cadmus rolled his pinpricks and Enzo only widened his sockets. Something was wrong."S is out, and—""Cadmus." The king cut Vine off, talking to the hero in a firm tone. "Really. Truly. What is happening? What is wrong?"Cadmus stopped for a second, looking at Enzo, seeing his concerned yet stern expression and pausing."Because you're talking like you've sat with this all day. When I texted you this morning, you seemed fine. What happened between then and now that has you so worked up? Did Vi talk to you? Who told you?"And something in Cadmus clicked. In a shift that took less than a millisecond, as if time slowed, he heard his daughter. Her quivering voice telling him about the vicious villains. Her tear filled sockets looking at him as she asked why? Why did the villains do this? And for a second he wanted to tell Enzo. He wanted to cut deep and tell his best friend and yet his enemy at work that he hurt his little girl in a way he didn't even know.But then he heard Grape and her concerned motherly voice repeating in his skull, bouncing around. "Don't tell the villains. They'll have her killed." It was outlandish to Cadmus and he was sure the king himself would be offended. He would take a confused look and have that tone of voice that Cadmus thought was silly. He'd say something like "we aren't the mob, she's just a kid" and Cadmus would realize him and his wife's fear was unjustified. And yet, by the display of the poor soul in that prison, it wasn't."Cadmus?" Enzo asked, standing up. Cadmus took it as a challenge and started to stand himself, his expression blank yet dangerous as they both came to their feet. Vine took on a concerned expression as she turned her head to the king, watching as Cadmus barely sized up his opponent."Enzo, I don't think—"But she was cut off as Cadmus put a step back and onto the chair he was just sitting on to launch himself up and onto the lip of the table to then lunge at Enzo. Everything went slow motion again as Cadmus's thoughts were storming in his head. He was questioning the very fabric of the friendship he had with this man. And he was going to punch it into him instead of communicating his emotions through words.Enzo could barely even step back and Cadmus came bolting at him. Both of the men went down, Enzo's chair toppling to the side as his back landed on the floor. Vine instinctively stood up to get out of the way and watched with wide sockets as Cadmus reared a fist back, preparing to hit Enzo. But the king isn't that easy, he simply summoned one of his magic iron shields to cover his face. And Cadmus started to go off on that shield."Hey!" Vine tried to talk over the hero's rampage. "What are you doing?! You aren't supposed to fight him! We're supposed to be the ones having witty back and forth banter!"She took a breath to continue, but she heard the cracking. It was coming from both the skeleton and the metal. He was denting the iron. Enzo struggled to keep the shield from knocking back and hitting him in the face. He didn't even look at the villain next to him when he barked at her."Vine! A little help?!" And just as he said his request, it dawned on her that something was clearly wrong. It was rare that she saw Enzo struggle.Vine hurried over and started to attempt to peel the hero off her boss. She started by putting an arm under each shoulder and pulling. She was able to get him most of the way off before Cadmus slipped from her hold and went back to Enzo. She gave a frustrated sigh as she reached back down."Will you knock it off?! We get it! You two have tension!"Somehow, Enzo found the strength and was able to parry one of Cadmus's attacks. The hero's fist met metal and the king took the opportunity to swiftly shift the shield and cause his knuckles to deflect from the iron. Vine took her own chance and was able to make Cadmus fall off of Enzo. The king quickly scrambled around to try and stand to his feet and create distance, but the hero was a blur to the villain as she watched helplessly as he jumped on Enzo again. This time, Cadmus wrapped an arm around her boss's neck.Now, putting a skeleton in a head lock is just that. There is no suffocating to make consciousness slip from their sockets. It's just uncomfortable. The skeleton being held can't move their head in any way, causing them to be blinded in a sense. In reality, Cadmus wasn't hurting Enzo by putting his arm around the king's neck. The king still didn't like it, the hero now putting both of them in a rough mood as the two stumbled around. Vine only stood on the side and watched."Unbelievable." She exasperated in a sigh as Enzo started to try and fight back, trying to elbow Cadmus in the ribs or stomp on his foot. The two men ignored the lesbian.Eventually, Enzo got an idea and curled forward, bringing Cadmus over his shoulder and making the hero slam his back onto the cold castle ground. Cadmus only had a moment to look up and roll out of the way as an elegant boot's harsh rubber sole came plummeting down and towards his head. The hero took no extra time to hop to his feet and dive at the king again. He slightly hardened his stance, but it wasn't enough for the overly emotional hero to be stopped from taking them both crashing to the ground again. This time, there wasn't as much punching as the two men started pulling and pushing on each other in a more easy wrestle compared to Cadmus's wailing fists."Creators, it's like watching an old western with vaguely queer undertones." Vine took on a slight grimace as she stared at the two fully grown men fighting with their bodies literally on top of each other. "For crying out loud, just get a room!" She shouted over them.Cadmus eventually ended up on top of Enzo's back, his arm hooked around the king's neck again. They were both slowing down and running out of energy, huffing and puffing to catch their breaths. The king tried a final attempt to roll over, essentially trying to crush Cadmus in a sense and get him to let go. And once Enzo did turn the two over, the hero got the message and moved his arm, letting the villain roll off of him as they both gasped for air after their quarrel. And for a moment, they both laid there, trying to recollect themselves."Mm." Vine gave a hum of disapproval as she stood with her crossed arms and looked down on the men. "Mm, mm, mm." She unfolded her arms and put her hands on her hips. "Are we done now? Did we finally get out all of our pent up aggression towards one another?"The two men sat up, staring at nothing at first before looking at each other."What just happened?" Enzo asked."I just beat your sorry bones is what." Cadmus grunted as he got up. Enzo took on a confused expression."No, you didn't beat me." He also gave a disgruntled sound as he came to his own feet. "I beat you!" He attempted to smooth out his rough-housed clothes."Ladies, ladies, please, you're both strong and handsome. Now can we get back to the matter at hand?" The men gave a huff and they each gave a side glance to the other. Vine gave the two a look of attitude as if she was talking to children. "You know? Multiversal maniac on the loose?" The hero and king gave a harrumph each and went back to their places at the table. "Thank you." Vine also sat back down as Cadmus did as well and Enzo put his chair back upright to sit himself."Also, maybe a little heads up before you two let loose in front of me again?" Both of the men rolled their pinpricks as both of them were in a bad mood now. Vine only shook her head. "Great now I've got both of you acting sour—""How many?" Cadmus cut her off."'How many' what? Finally using words instead of fists and now you're being vague." Vine sounded done. She didn't want to have to work with this if the only hero they were talking to was going to be like this."Heroes. How many of us need to show up to clean the mess you made?""That's all it is to you isn't it?" Enzo's voice was cold. "Just a number to meet? You don't even care who shows up, do you?" The king shifted as if to stand, but Vine spoke up."Will you two knock it off?!" She was getting sick of their escapade. "All we're doing is talking numbers! We just need to figure out who to bring!" She sighed as she tried to settle back into a normal conversation. "Whether we like it or not, Villy's gonna get involved.""We should bring a healer." Cadmus suggested."Cameo doesn't do fieldwork." Enzo shut down his idea, but the king was only being unreasonably stubborn."Then I'll give A a call." Cadmus's voice was filled with venom. "You don't want to have your best healer, then I'll bring the best one us heroes have." Enzo scoffed, his teeth in a sneer."Oh, please, the best thing you heroes consider 'healing' is like putting a rainbow sticker on a broken arm. It's nothing compared to what we have.""Then bring Cameo. You want insurance so bad? Bring your best." Cadmus had successfully goaded his friend and current rival. He wasn't at all aiming or meaning to put the doctor in harm's way, but he was hoping for Enzo to realize that this was a mess that he made."If we bring Cameo, we need to bring Concord. It'll get her out of her depressing funk and cheer her up to go after S." Enzo rolled his pinpricks at Vine's comment."Fine! I don't get why everyone gets on my case for making the decision to leave the frail little bearded dragon here. What good is a lizard supposed to be in a world of realism?" The king asked rhetorically. Cadmus folded his arms with a look of attitude."Well maybe if you brought something as cute as a lizard last night, we wouldn't be here right now." Enzo slammed his fist on the table."Will you quit it? I get what you said earlier!""Then fix it," Cadmus leaned towards the king as his voice dropped to a dangerous whisper, "Lorenzo."The name "Enzo" is a nickname that Cadmus gave the king ages before they were even skeletons. At first, he used the name as a symbol to how only him and Cadmus were so close. But after a series of unfortunate events and the two became cartoon magical skeletons, the king decided his friendship was no longer significant with the hero. He introduced himself to everyone who came to be under his rule as Enzo. And to all the heroes who swore to fight Enzo and his subjects he was Lorenzo, the King of Darkness. Cadmus insisted that they were still friends and went against the king's wishes, calling him Enzo every chance he got. After years of Enzo finding he couldn't win in killing such a strong bond, he decided that anyone could call him such a friendly name.But with the special name came a different tone when his birth-given one is uttered. His wife uses it a lot to indicate he's in trouble, and he forgot his friend does it too. It always takes him off guard. The king sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose-hole with his stress."Fine. Fine. Be the only hero that comes and helps us. We'll have myself, Vine, Cameo and Concord, and I'll see if Schatten is up to come with us." He gave Cadmus a defeated look. "The six of us should be enough.""What about your daughter? Don't you need someone to stay home and watch her?" Cadmus asked. Even the hero wasn't going to shrug off Enzo's family. The king shook his head."Leave that to Schatten and I. We'll figure something out.""Fine." Cadmus shrugged. "I just wouldn't bring anymore kids to see what you villains do." He muttered."What?" Enzo asked."What?" Cadmus repeated, shrugging off his own family. But it was fine. Melonie was safe and Grape was going to keep it that way.The girl was going to stay safe.
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Marlie is... a fifteen-year-old, to say the least. Her parents left her to put herself to bed last night, but she decided to stay up and read Doctor Who fan-fiction instead. She was awake when her dad came in to check on her and she did her usual "rag-doll" sleeping position every kid knows when hiding the usage of an electronic device. All Enzo did was whisper a "good night, little Nightlight" and the facade fell.She was happy her dad was home and she showed it by perking up and chirping a "good night, dad!" To which she then realized that her mother was right behind him, staring at her with bright and very awake pinpricks. Marlie wilted with disappointment at being busted for staying up all night, and Enzo face-palmed to show his opinion of the whole situation. Schatten proceeded to give a grumpy huff and simply reminded her daughter that no matter what happened the next day, she had to be awake and there for it.Fortunately for Marlie, she wasn't needed until one in the afternoon.She woke up to sounds and it took a moment for her to register what they were. She could tell the low voice she heard as she trudged out of her room and down the stairs was her dad. She never realized it, but his voice was shockingly similar to that of a gaming YouTuber she watched when she was a tween. Now that I mention it, it's only the way that Enzo talks that keeps her from connecting the dots. If he said certain things and shouted more, she'd probably only laugh and ask him to say something every time she saw him. But, alas, there is no need at all for Enzo to be overly surprised and ask the fabled "was that the bite of '87?!" In fact, the king would only be confused and wouldn't even say it right to begin with. His voice may hold the power, but he himself does not have the understanding.Marlie came walking into the kitchen, passing the hero who was sitting at the dinner table casually. She walked past her parents who were talking to each other and hadn't even noticed her walk in yet. She grabbed a bowl and spoon from a cupboard and a box of cereal from another cabinet. She shifted everything to her left arm and hand and used her right to open the fridge and reach for the milk. Now having her hands full, she shut the fridge door with her hip and headed to the table where Cadmus was. She set everything down and started the process of putting her cereal together and eating breakfast. She wasn't paying attention to any of the adults and barely caught it as Cadmus said hello."Good morning, Marlie." He sounded nice, he always did. Marlie always felt bad, because he was one of the ones she was told—and felt—she wasn't allowed to be rude to."It isn't morning." I suppose she was letting that rule slip today. "It's after one." He chuckled."Yeah, but you just woke up and you're eating cereal. After all, everyone deserves to be told good morning." She took a bite and glanced at his roughed-up knuckles. Cracks with dried light smeared across them.Before I continue this conversation, I need to iron something out. Marlie is like most of my skeletons and has straight and normal cartoon magical teeth. My skeletons are not able to open and close their mouths. Instead of eating the way we do, they eat with magic. All they need to do is put the food up to their teeth and it blips away into magical energy to their spirit. Most of the time, sounds are made as if the food is being chewed. I like to think of it as the same as a popular video game where crunching sounds are made whenever you consume food to replenish hearts and a hunger bar. There are other ways my skeletons eat, like when they have a snack as simple as something they could just toss in their mouth if they had one, they simply throw it in their socket where it dissolves and is broken down in there. But back to the story.Marlie gulped the cereal down so she could ask her question more clearly."What happened to your knuckles?" She quipped before taking another bite."Oh!" Cadmus had a surprised look as he held his knuckles up for himself to see. "I completely forgot..." He then looked at Marlie to answer her question. "I got in a fight with your father a while ago and forgot to patch them up. It's fine though, I'll be alright." He developed a sheepish smile with the last sentence. Marlie scoffed."Dad working on the weekend? Mom isn't gonna be happy." She took another bite and Cadmus also rolled his sockets before looking past the teen and at her parents."Tell me about it..." He saw how Schatten had a hold of Enzo, she was similar to Grape in that sense, and for once he didn't feel bad or the need to get in the middle of what was happening."You idiot!" She was whispering so the hero couldn't hear her squabbling swears which had mellowed out for a moment. "We are not bringing Marlie with us!" Enzo sighed as she gripped his royal shirt. He couldn't care less that his wife was roughing up the fine fabric, but he should've known she wouldn't be for the idea of bringing their daughter along to go fight S and put them back in the void."But it would be good for her—""No, Enzo! It wouldn't!" She tugged him closer to mutter in his non-existent ear. "We were both there for what went down last night. I do not need my daughter witnessing a gruesome murder of any individual, especially one with actual flesh on their bones!" Enzo rolled his pinpricks."Doctor Who has plenty of murder, you know. I'm sure she watched thousands of people get murdered just the other night—""Actually, the other night I was watching The Empty Child. The whole point of those episodes is that everyone lives." The parents looked at their daughter as she spoke up, practically announcing the fact that she was listening in on the conversation even as her back stay turned away. Schatten gave a slight groan and rolled her pinpricks, Enzo glancing up and away in his own pinprick roll before looking back at Marlie."Nice to see you're finally up." Surprisingly, he didn't sound as mad as you would expect a stern parent to be. In reality, Enzo just sounded matter-of-fact. Like if Schatten wasn't going to address their daughter in a good mood, he might as well do it."Though, you could argue that the episodes take place during the Second World War. So, go ahead and count all the poor souls who died during that time period and a point could still be made." Marlie pointed out, still keeping to her cereal and not looking at her parents. Schatten rolled her pinpricks and looked back at Enzo."Regardless, the point is—" Marlie dropped her spoon in her bowl of cereal, vaguely splashing some milk, and moaned."Oh, just bring me along!" She finally scooted her seat back and turned to her parents. "I don't have anything better to do! I finished reading the new chapter of my favorite fic last night and there's no telling when the author's gonna update it again! It could be tomorrow, it could be next year!" She continued as she gave a helpless shrug. "I tried to find more last night, but nobody writes about eleven anymore! And he's my favorite!"Everyone stared at her, her parents listening and Cadmus barely understanding this strange language she was speaking that sounded so similar to English. She rolled her eyes and turned back to her bowl."Besides," she muttered, "it'll give me an idea of what happens when dad messes up.""Wait, what?" Enzo's face scrunched into suspicion. "I didn't mess up! I haven't done anything wro—""Oh yeah?!" She turned back to her parents, pointing a wild yet firm finger at Cadmus. "Uncle Cadmus has wounds on his knuckles and he isn't his happy self today! Even he knows that we as a society don't fight each other on weekends, something you," she pointed at her father, "struggle to come to terms with." She put her arm down and tilted her head with attitude. "So, either you messed up so bad that Uncle Cadmus is so frustrated with you that he would start a fist fight, or, Uncle Cadmus is starting a new bad habit that you're enabling."Once again, the adults only stared. Cadmus was speechless, Schatten looked to her husband to try and mentally communicate with him, but Enzo only looked from Marlie to the hero sitting to her side. Cadmus looked at Enzo and felt the daggers he was staring with."Hey, this isn't a fire that I lighted. I only told her that we got in a fight, and not at all about why."The parents gave a defeated sigh, Enzo's a breath of frustration and Schatten's a breath of surrender."Fine." She muttered loud enough for the room to hear. "Marlie can come along. However, I still need to get ready." She looked at Marlie. "And sleeping in your clothes does not count as being dressed for the next day." Marlie rolled her pinpricks."Fine, I'll go get dressed." She stood up, leaving her half-eaten bowl of cereal, and walked out of the kitchen. She headed back upstairs and to her room where she proceeded to get ready.Schatten gave Enzo a "look" before also leaving the kitchen. Cadmus didn't understand it, but Enzo did. It was a whole sentence. "I wasn't planning to get dressed in my work outfit today, so whoever's blood I spill because I'm overstimulated from my clothes is on your hands." How is this woman communicating an entire sentence to her husband through a single glance? With love. Schatten is a strange character who has trouble showing what we would consider normal signs of affection. But to her, it is normal.Schatten is a character with a busy backstory, even with her time of being exiled to the shadow realm, a place where shadows and darkness can traverse to other universes and locations. It's a rollercoaster, her story, and even she doesn't understand it. One moment she's being told her emotions are her responsibility and she feels that she is a completely different person, the next she pieces together that the person she thought she was is dead, gone, and all she is supposed to be is the shadow of the only living person from the memories she has from a time before she was even alive. Schatten is a representation of the negative thoughts and emotions of the woman who brought her into creation. She is everything that that woman hates about herself.But enough about Schatten, let's look at Marlie.The teen doesn't have much of a backstory yet. The most interesting thing about her from a narrative standpoint is the scar over her right socket. She got it ages ago when she was just a baby. Marlie can barely recall, the only thing noticeable in her memory being the creature that gave her the thing. You might not call it a creature, after all it looked somewhat human—at least humanoid—but that scar was made by a pair of claws that couldn't belong to anything other than human. Another thing that stays consistent is the single red eye-light that Marlie remembered staring down at her.It didn't take Marlie long to get dressed. She changed her sweatpants and graphic t-shirt into cargo pants that had too many pockets for her to use, and a different graphic t-shirt that had a cool skeleton on it eating garlic bread. She stumbled around as she put on her old red high top converse and her dark red hoodie before making her way back downstairs.Schatten was already ready to go, dawning her villain outfit that made her look more like a pirate than someone sophisticated like she felt she was, much to her disgruntlement. People have told her that it's the extra belt that just sits across her body above the navy blue coat with bright red accents. In fact, when others ask why she doesn't loose the extra leather, she just mumbles something about "villains 🤝 leather". It's a mystery how someone can speak emoji's but these are my cartoon magical skeletons. They can read their own subtitles."Alright." Enzo headed to the front door and opened it for the others. "Vine said she'd meet us at the spirit with Violet. Kanzler said she hasn't seen any sign of S, so let's hope they don't come in the next several minutes." Schatten walked out and Marlie did as well. Cadmus did as well, but once the hero stepped through, Enzo stuck his boot out, causing the hero to trip and stumble forward. Schatten looked back with an unamused expression and Marlie looked back with wide sockets.The king ignored Cadmus's dirty look as he shut the front door and locked it. Even when he turned to finish his dissent down the front porch, Enzo didn't give Cadmus the satisfaction of making pinprick contact. The hero rolled his pinpricks as the other man passed him, also following him down the steps to the two girls. Schatten raised a bone brow at the two current frenemies."Is this going to be happening all day? Or are you two going to act your age and stop fighting like adolescent boys?" Marlie chuckled to her mother's suggestion and both the boys mumbled an apology explaining that they'd stop. Schatten turned back around and Marlie caught the men shoot each other a look that muttered "come Monday, you're going down".The woman stopped and held her right hand in a snapping position, not yet letting her fingers move to make the sound. All she did was hold it up to herself and mutter to it, and the hand started to glow a bright wine purple. The color concentrated to her fingertips and she finally snapped them, a spark flying from the friction created. It rose and expanded to an entrance big enough for the two men to go through. The surface of the portal rippled, as if a curtain of magical wine covered it. Schatten turned to everyone else."Okay. Portal's up." She said before turning back to the portal and walking through it. Marlie watched as the men walked up to it and Enzo nudged Cadmus to go through. The hero shook his head with an annoyed look and stepped through the magical portal. The king then looked at his daughter, motioning to the portal. She walked through with less annoyance and he followed after her.And the four skeletons left a world so familiar to the girl, the next one seemed unsettling.And it was.That's the whole point of The Horror Universe.
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This place was spooky.Marlie lived in the middle of the woods, but this place was like a haunted forest. Trees were tall and spindly with dark bark on the trunks and muddled leaves littered the floor. There was a thin fog that posed as an obstacle, yet it felt fake—as if drawn like a cartoon, holding no real threat—but still creeped the girl out enough that she stayed close to her mother."Mom? What is this place?" She turned to the skeleton, but the woman wasn't there. She was met with a tree trunk.Marlie's sockets widened, fear starting to set in. She didn't know where she was. Even when she pulled out her phone that was connected to the multiversal network, she didn't seem to have any bars, on the cusp of having no service to even contact her parents."What the...?" She waved her phone around, even smacking it in the palm of her skeletal hand. She swore she just saw it jump to a full connection, but the screen glitched and gave her a notification that she was off the communications network. She stared at the phone a bit, trying to tap around the screen, but for some reason there was a shortage and the device went dark. She dropped her shoulders and head with annoyance, rolling her pinpricks at her misfortune. Marlie put the device back in her pocket and looked around. All she did was look up and she nearly screamed."Haben Sie sich verlaufen?"He was tall, as tall as the trees, with long spindly arms and legs. He was terrifying. The man reached for Marlie as she started making steps away, her sockets wide with fear."Fräulein?"He sounded nice even with his German. His voice was low and quiet, as if he always talked amongst the leaves. Really, he was a nice guy. His sister—who he is convinced is adopted—eats people, and his brother-in-law is what the humans call Krampus. His little niece has yet to decide what she will do with the life ahead of her, and he doesn't blame the little ten-year-old girl. But even with his horrifying family and his scary appearance, the man only means to assist.But Marlie doesn't know any of this. She only sees a man the size of a two story house and she decides to assume the worse. It's fine, it doesn't hurt the towering man, but it won't help Marlie when she runs away. And she did.She made a break for it, running through the dark forest, bobbing and weaving her way through. The man would have followed her, but in typical cartoon fashion, the fog parted behind her. Something shined on the forest floor and he picked it up. It was small in his clawed hand, like a black slate. He didn't know what it was for a fact, but he had seen his sister messing around with something very similar over the years, though hers was decorated differently. When the man looked out at the forest, the girl was gone. He decided in his better judgement that it would be better to just let his sister know that there was someone out in the dangerous forest who would need help being located without her strange device.When Marlie ran away, she ended up tripping and sliding down a slick slope. After tumbling to the bottom, she sat up, leaves and twigs scattered all over her. She stood up and swept the forest gunk off her and looked up and around.It was mesmerizing as the fog parted to reveal a small grove of trees. There were about nine of them, a bigger one accompanied by eight smaller ones. The teen got up and started to look at them more closely. The smaller ones were lined up, four on each side, and lead up to the biggest tree. They had holes carved into them, deep cavities that went far into the trunk. They were decorated with mouths with sharp teeth and eyes. The expressions shined and danced as red candles with flickering vibrant red flames actively moved inside the carved holes. Red wax even dripped down from the gaping and twisted mouths.Marlie was fascinated as she stared at each one, eventually getting to the center piece at the end of the small walkway. It was a tree nearly double in size to the others. This one was also etched and carved, but its design was grander with more detail and yet no holes to show the inside wood. It was a snarling expression with a grimacing frown and fierce eyes. The girl felt... inspired. Like the tree was glowing and pulsing, beckoning her to come closer. It was as if it was talking to her, whispering that she had to set it free.She reached for the tree and—"I wouldn't touch that if I were you." She snapped out of her trance and looked to see a reasonably tall—yet still freakish—person standing at the opening of the trees. They looked strange with their rainbow tie as they kept their mismatching eyes on her. The person had a smirk that made her shift back into her moody teenaged attitude."And why's that?" She asked."Because," they started to make their way towards her, "I need it." She glanced at the tree and raised a bone brow."You need a whole tree?" She sounded annoyed in a sense. The person chuckled as they kept walking."No, not the tree. I need what's in it." They finally came up next to her. "Inside that thick trunk is The Spirit of Motivation. It's the first of seven Prime Spirits needed to become stronger."And without missing a beat, she looked them up and down, making a show as her pinpricks sifted over every little detail with a judgmental look of a teenager that stung anyone's ego."You look like you need to get stronger."For a moment, the person just stood there, looking at her with a vacant smile as if their mind was busy trying to patch the hole in their egotistical thoughts. After a moment, they finally spoke up."Where are your parents?" They asked, their smile staying as they tilted their head and gave a condescending hum. "Hm? Where are they?" She scoffed and shrugged."Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy." Their eye twitched vaguely."Actually, I'm nonbinary." They said, trying to formulate back and forth banter that her parents would roll with a heck of a lot better. She rolled her pinpricks."It isn't funny nor does it make sense when you correct me over pronouns." She said, folding her arms.I would describe that S's expression cracked, but not like that. Their eyes widened and their lips curled into high corners. Their shoulders only moved slightly as they suppressed a laugh and instead hummed a small chuckle. They put their hands together as they spoke, their tone full of thin patience."Listen, little girl—""Marlie.""Marlie." They shook their head, suppressing another laugh as they closed their eyes. This time outright chuckling instead of humming. "Marlie." Now they opened their eyes and looked down at her as they leaned over the girl. "You know, I've been at this for a while now... nearly quadruple the years you've been alive."She rolled her pinpricks again and took a breath as if to speak, but S put a finger in front of her teeth. Don't worry, it was only hovering. They knew not to touch her."And even with my old age," they continued, "and you're... spry and quite punky teenage self," they nearly chewed the words and spat them out, "we aren't all that different, you and I." S stood upright, no longer leaning down to her level. No, now they just glanced down upon her with a smirk. She took on a puzzled expression as she looked off to the side to think. "Mhmm." Their smug look grew. "Let it sink in."After a moment of her feigning thought she looked up at them with a bored look."You know I have no idea who you are, right?"The question hit S like a ball crashing through a window. As the cartoon they are, they took on a slightly disgruntled expression as they heard the sound of glass breaking and their color pallet shifted for a moment. They shook their head, their design going back to normal as they got on the girl's case."What do you mean you 'don't know who I am'?!" She moved to speak again, but they kept going. "Haven't your parents talked about me?! Am I not important enough that they mention me once or twice in front of you?!""Mom doesn't like it when Dad talks specifics about work when he's home. Especially when I'm awake and listening." She mentioned flatly. S only glanced away in an eye roll and dropped their shoulders."Ugh! Of course!" They looked back at the girl. "I don't understand why that woman fights the uphill battle of that workaholic she calls a husband." Marlie shrugged."Hey, it's Dad. I'd be concerned if he didn't get a bit of an ego because of his job." She muttered. S nodded."Agreed." They then looked down at her. "As explanation, though, my name is S." She widened her sockets slightly in realization."Oh, I guess my parents have talked about you in front of me." She shrugged and muttered. "Even if it was mumbling between each other for me to not hear." S rolled their eyes."I suppose that's how we're similar."She squinted her sockets in a puzzled look."How?""Because." They looked down at her. "You probably would've just spent the day lazing about. Better yet, you would spend this entire two day weekend eating candy and refreshing AO3." She dropped her head with a stretched look as she tried to think of a way to cover her guilt."Alright, fine. But how does that make me like you? What fanfics do you read?"S wanted to laugh. The idea of them getting into reading things dedicated fans write sounded exciting, after all there was entire other multiverses out there. But they ignored the remark, instead giving a heavy sigh and rubbing their eyes."I swear to the creators if I have to spend another two days in that darn void they call a prison, I will lose my ever-loving mind." Their voice sounded strained, like even the thought of waiting until after the weekend was going to drive them back to insanity. And, in a way, it already has. They looked back down at her. "So, I'm deciding to jump the gun.""Wait," she furrowed her bone brows, "so, you're just going out to destroy the multiverse because you're feeling sick of staying in a void?" They rolled their eyes and she continued. "Can't you just, like, put some furniture in it? Spruce the place up? Make it more pleasant?""It's more complicated than that." Marlie took a breath to inquire more, but S continued, cutting her off. "Just the same way it'll be complicated for you." She squinted her expression back into confusion."Me? What about me?""What about you?" They asked as if repeating her question in a more pondering tone. "Well, I suppose it isn't you. That's the point is that you, mentally, aren't available." Her face shifted, as if adjusting the focus on her expression."What?""It's your body. Marlie isn't home! Now it's..." But they trailed off. The girl was beginning to feel impatient."Who?" Marlie asked. "Who are you talking about?" S blinked and look back at her."Nice scar. Looks gnarly or whatever it is you kids say these days." She didn't understand what was happening. After all, S is a very confusing individual. "Does it still hurt?" They asked, their tone dropping slightly and their eyes shifting into a stormy tone."Sometimes?" She shrugged. "It acts up on my birthday a couple times during the day, but that's pretty much it." They nodded."Interesting. I wonder if she purposefully makes it hurt on those days as a reminder, or..." They trailed off again, looking up as they fell into their thoughts. Marlie turned her head at S, as if looking at them from her peripheral would force their words to make sense."'She'? Who are you talking about?"S's expression stayed distant as they pondered. They folded their arms and a hand wandered to their face. Their fingers traced their cheek, scratching it even, fiddled with their chin, and even dragged down their neck. It was like S was fidgeting with the skin on their face by slowly touching it. S stims in strange ways. They were quiet for a moment before finally cracking a smirk and chuckling."Oh, the look she has..." They grinned, their eyes wrinkling. "Such a dirty expression, so furious and mad." They laughed. "But what is she gonna do? She's dead!""Dude, stop talking to the forest spirits." Marlie knew that voice. It belonged to someone she knew a heck of a lot better than this rainbow-tie-wearing nut-job.It was Kanzler, the horrifying skeleton who eats people—as mentioned earlier—and for once she didn't have one of her sharp-toothed grins. She sounded annoyed as her teeth were in a slight frown and her socket was filled with a sense of tiredness that Marlie understood. It was the "work had me up late, and my kids woke me up early to ask for Halloween Candy for breakfast, and I totally let them, much to my husband's misfortune" kind of look."But that's the thing! She isn't one of the forest spirits. She's barely even a spirit to begin with. It's practically a part of her narrative." S had a slight smirk as they watched Kanzler walk over, situating herself between the maniac and the teen, hiding her preparation to be a barrier and protect the girl if need be."Who? Kanzler?" Marlie was still trying to understand what S was saying, trying to piece together their cryptic use of purely pronouns. The spooky skeleton rolled her singular pinprick."Nah, girl. They're just being crazy." She said giving S a side pinprick that glanced them up and down. Hers was less heavy than the teen's, but it still held judgement."Says the skeleton who eats people. Or have you stopped since you've gotten children of your own?" They smirked as she shot them an agitated look that Marlie had never seen on her typically sinisterly smiling face. She pointed a sharp claw at the maniac."First of all, the little nuggets I call my offspring are far different than the little twerps Kradmus picks up." She looked back at Marlie, as if remembering that S wasn't the only one present. "Oh, speaking of family," she handed something to Marlie and she realized what it was, "my bro gave me this and I figured by the Gallifreyan case it was probably yours. Not to mention the girl he described to me had an identical scar to yours.""My phone!" She exclaimed with a smile, taking it from Kanzler's clawed hand. She pressed the on button and the screen came to life. "Hey, I've got a connection again!" She seemed happy, even in her confusion as she noticed something. "And I've got a full charge?" She looked at Kanzler. "How'd you manage that?" The skeleton shrugged."The Horror Universe is a bit wacky. How do you think phones are so dodgy here? But, it's fine, I fixed it. Just gotta give it a piece of the universe code and it'll run like new here.""Does that mean my phone is haunted now?" Marlie raised a suspicious bone brow. Kanzler chuckled."Only if you want it to be.""Nice." The girl smiled as she looked down at it. "Wonder if I could do a seance and talk to it.""Him." The skeleton mentioned casually."Him. Nice." The girl repeated nodding her head with an excited look."Oh, so she can correct pronouns, but I can't?" S asked with attitude. The girl didn't even look up at the maniac as she waved them off."This is different. Learn to take a joke, man." Her smile didn't falter as she stayed staring at her spiffy device. Kanzler smirked."Yeah, it's called 'committing to the bit', you know?""Oh, I'll commit alright." All S did was take on a cocky expression and take a single step, causing three other characters to come into the scene."Stop right there, S!" Cadmus shouted heroically."Don't you dare touch her!" Schatten sounded dangerous as she barked at them. S rolled their mismatching eyes."Creators, guys. I'm not gonna do anything to her." They walked right past the teen and over to the other side of the tree and closer to the glowing expression. "I'm just gonna take this spirit and beat the three of you in the process!" They looked at the other three skeletons who just entered with a coy smiling expression, as if they didn't just admit to the crime they were about to commit. Kanzler's shoulders rose as her voice got sharp."You better not smash through that beautiful face! My adorable and loving husband carved that himself!""Oh, please." They muttered as they tilted their head in annoyance. "I'm not a monster. I know how to appreciate meticulously crafted art." They pat the trunk of the tree. "After all, I am my mother's creation. I have taste."Kanzler gave a sigh. Marlie had a question, and S continued as if reading her mind."No, no, I won't be smashing through this fine woodwork. There's a latch over here on the side that I can just open, and voila!" And while they spoke, as if in an infomercial, S gestured and demonstrated how the iron latch could easily be undone, a little wooden door easily swinging open. They stood, S's hands being splashed with a red glow as they presented their finding with an overly enthusiastic look. The skeletons stared with wide sockets as they realized how simple it was to obtain something so powerful.After a moment, Enzo's expression flattened and he looked at Kanzler."This is what Mr. Krampus himself considers as 'secure'?""Hey," Kanzler shrugged as she slowly turned to look at him, "don't diss my precious lover!" She shook her head. "Let him be his whimsical little-but-still-freakishly-tall self!""It's wood!" The king exasperated. "And there's a door! He made time to create a door for it!" She shrugged."He was thinking ahead! Maybe you should consider trying it sometime." She folded her arms and turned away with a closed socket. Enzo's sockets shifted at her for a moment, just a subtle and simple side to side motion as the gears turned in his skull. After a moment, his expression sharpened."Hey! I'm paying you to fight, not to point out my short comings!""Actually, you're paying me time-and-a-half for having to work on the weekend." She remarked with a knowing grin. "And right now it isn't even for fighting." S shook their head in annoyance."Oops, my hand is slipping!" They feigned and overly shocked expression—mouth open and eyes wide with their left hand on their cheek even—as their right hand crept towards the shining star. Kanzler looked at Marlie with raised bone-brows in an unenthusiastic face."Looks like we should move, kid. This might get ugly."
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"Motivation burns bright. Your eyes turn a red fueled with so much magic, your muscles feel like they could burst, and they will. You need to move and exert the bountiful energy, for risk of your own spirit blowing your head into numerous bits and pieces. Motivation pushes through physical hindrances, the only thing staying vulnerable being your mental state. Stay keen, the only thing that can help you is the next spirit."
The moment S's fingers met the shining star, they were overwhelmed with a rush of sensations. This was nothing new, but it was still a lot to handle. They were burning yet they were energized. They were in pain yet they moved. This is the very essence that is motivation. It's doing the hard things when your body screams at you to just sit down. They wanted to pull out their own hair as their body turned stiff with power, their eyes burning a bright crimson as their pupils practically crackled like fire. But instead, they only clenched their locks and opened their mouth to scream. It had been too long since they last did this, and it was obvious.As S stood there taking in the immense power that was only the first hurdle, Kanzler grabbed Marlie by her hoodie while the girl stared with wide sockets to try and piece together what she was watching. But the teen still moved, even as her feet begged to stay still and observe. Kanzler shuffled her back a few yards and as she passed Schatten she muttered something to the mother."I got the kid, feel free to let loose." Schatten barely nodded as she was focused on S and Kanzler continued to distant herself and the literal minor between the freak of nature that was about to be unleashed.S stood, their breathing labored as their shoulders rose and fell, smoke vaguely coming off of them as if they were smoldering with energy. Their eyes were intense, as if it took strength to not move."Alright." They muttered. "Let's brawl."Enzo was the first to move, a shield appearing on his left arm and a sword appearing in his right hand. He ran to S, coming right up in front of them, and it was like Marlie was watching an anime. I'll describe to you what's about to happen, as I have sat with this idea for the past half-week—roughly—as per my process of concocting chapters and how I want them to run.Enzo saw the fist coming to his left, but he didn't stand a chance to raise his shield as it never even registered in his mind. It baffled him in that split second that S was moving so fast, because they didn't even have the spirit that made them incredibly fast. This was only strength, and in all the brutal honesty, fear flashed in Enzo's sockets. S's knuckles met the fabric of his hood and connected to the side of his head. For a split second that was greatly exaggerated, there was a crack from both the hand and the skull and a gust of force flew out before Enzo went bolting into the ground head first. His face pushed past the leaves and even dug into the dirt, but once his body fell limp and his head turned upright so he wasn't inhaling the earth, it was clear. The villain was out like a light, which is ironic considering he's the King of Darkness and he isn't supposed to represent one in the first place.S was left standing over him, their huffing mellowing out with the use of energy as they stared at his motionless body."He deserved that after last night..." They muttered. Marlie didn't know if she was the only one who heard them or if everyone else just ignored them as they approached S, but part of her became slightly concerned what the maniac meant.Both Schatten and Cadmus came running up to S stupidly similar to the way Enzo had—Emphasis on "had"—and they were both brandishing weapons. The villain held a dagger in each hand and the hero held a spear of crackling light with energy fueled by his emotions.S didn't even need to think as they grabbed Schatten by the collar of her shirt and threw her into Cadmus. He did the heroic thing and caught her, his weapon vanishing from his hands. They both looked at each other, as this was a usual cue for some dialogue, but the maniac came up, shoving a slim brown combat boot into the villains side and knocking them both down.Once they both hit the ground, Cadmus tried to turn and crawl away but S only had to take a couple steps to smash a boot into his leg and yearn a sickening crack. The hero gasped, clutching at the fallen leaves to try and distract himself from the immense pain."You should've been there..." They muttered to him, leaning more of their weight on his broken leg as they twisted the toe of their shoe to hear crackles as bone snapped and crunched. Cadmus nearly screamed as he shouted in pain, gripping leaves, hitting the ground with the side of his fist, clutching his head to try and stimulate another area of his bones as a distraction. But nothing worked."Hey!" Luckily, in the process of S taking their energy out on Cadmus, Schatten had gotten the chance to stand back up. The motivated maniac paused to look at her with bright red eyes, scanning her almost as if they were trying to figure out what she would do. Cadmus was relieved that they stopped and stepped off his damaged leg, but Schatten was terrified, even with her stern and angry expression.It was eerie that S had a calculating expression. This was only the first spirit, motivation. The red one usually—hopefully—only caused S to have an angry rampage, but this one was different. While before it seemed to cloud their thoughts and make them wild, it was like they were a completely different person all together. They were fast and put thought into everything they did, as if their mentality and emotions were rewired to be formed in a different way. And she realized something was off.Schatten was beginning to notice in her mind that this wasn't the maniac she had fought over fifteen years ago. This was someone new, completely built differently. She didn't know this, and she wouldn't realize until after S was dead, but S had a purpose now. When she fought them the half a century she did, they were running circles. There was no meaning behind destroying the multiverse, it meant nothing to S. But now, now it meant peace. It meant finishing the vicious cycle of being brought back to the void they had to rot in.But S was going to beat her nearly to death before they would even consider telling the truth.They took slow steps and she wavered only slightly, trying to stay firm to the seven foot tall beast that approached her. S stared at Schatten, the lighting making their figure dark save it for their eyes that stayed a riled red."Drop them..." They muttered. "And I'll consider sparing your daughter the sight of watching her parents lose another fight." Her expression faulted slightly as she looked back to see Kanzler and her daughter.For a second, Schatten regretted everything from what happened last night until this very moment. The expression Marlie had was of mixed emotions. She was petrified, terrified as she stood still, but for some reason she was mesmerized. It's like when you're watching a sick and twisted scene in a movie where people are being murdered left and right, but you can't look away because the effects have just captured your attention and you can't move your eyes off the screen. And for some reason, the girl couldn't comprehend that this was even a possible outcome. She was on the edge of her metaphysical seat, itching to see how her mother would answer and how the maniac would reply. And it was simple to the villain.She pulled back an arm and tried to plunge a dagger into the maniac's chest. But they grabbed her arm, their grip tightening, receiving another bout of cracking bones. Schatten winced, her expression twitching in response to the pain—but not because she was feeling the pain—as she stared up at them. Without looking, she used her other hand to attempt to skewer their abdomen. Once again, they caught her other arm, causing more cracking and popping as she solidly grunted in pain.S was smooth as they twisted their body, flexing their back and stretching their arms, as they threw her harshly into a tree. Schatten's back bent backwards in a way it wasn't supposed to and it popped, causing her to cry out. She fell, sliding down the trunk as she fell to the floor motionless, her expression stuck in a perpetual wince as she tried to keep a handle on herself as she laid in immense pain.The maniac turned to the girl and horrifying skeleton, taking heavy steps up to the two. Marlie didn't realize it but she was cowering. She was visibly scrunched up and terrified. Kanzler stanced up, summoning one of her big battle axes. Marlie, not knowing what else to do, glanced and noticed the suspiciously knife shaped pocket satchel on the villains hip. Without thinking, the teen grabbed the blade, holding it with a shaky hand. Kanzler looked back but had to do a double take before shooting the girl an offended look."What are you doing?" She hissed in a whisper."Protecting myself?" Marlie shrugged, holding the knife."Absolutely not, not with that! That's Dinnerbone.""You name your weapons?" Marlie took on a confused look."No, I name my silverware!" Kanzler scowled and the teen only looked more confused."Silverware? Why do you keep—"All Kanzler did was shoot the girl a look that said "if your parents never told you what I do, I'm giving them a stern talking to". Marlie just decided to nod as if the dots had connected even though they didn't."Right, right." And she put the knife back in the pouch. Kanzler turned to face the maniac, ready to throw d—S seized her by the neck, her body moving so swiftly upwards that little clouds of dust were left as the axe stayed hovering before falling to the ground, causing the leaves to crinkle underneath it. As she stayed struggling and suspended, the weapon vanished as her concentration was broken. She looked down at them as she tried to get a grip."C'mon, man, just leave us alone! We aren't doing anythi—"But she stopped, a slight wheeze coming as their grip tightened. You can't choke a skeleton, but you can crack their neck which vocally is the equivalent of putting a hole in the side of a plastic straw. That isn't to say that their spines are hollow, but magic flows similar to soda and is just as annoying when it can't continuously reach the entire body."You," they muttered, "bit my head... you were gnawing on my cranium." Their voice was bitter as their nose scrunched with their clenching hand. She grabbed at their wrist desperately."S, please, d-don't—" Another wheeze. "S, th-the kid! Sh-she's watching! P-please!"And for a second, the maniac looked down at the girl. It was a stretch, but she did somewhat resemble that other girl they got a glimpse of last night. They shook their head and expressed deep disgust before deciding to throw the horror skeleton down. She hit the ground and there was a crack as she landed on her arm awkwardly. She winced and S glanced back at the girl."Take this as a warning. Your parents and their little work buddies are responsible for this." They then looked back forward to keep walking as they muttered. "They crossed a line last night..."And with that, Marlie watched S like petrified wood as they left the skeletons, and exited the scene through a shadow casted by a tree.—————Cameo is the doctor of the villains. She was hired by Enzo a little under seventy years ago, and since then has tuned her healing abilities nearly perfectly. I won't get into her backstory now, because this isn't about her. The only backstory-telling I'll say is, yes, she was up at four in the morning to assist the villains once they returned from obtaining S. And, yes, she isn't super jazzed about being called to work outside of her office on the weekend, but as per the contract each villain has, Enzo has a policy that is copy and pasted for each employee. Pay is time-and-a-half when attendance and work is absolutely necessary on weekends and holidays. You might wonder why my characters are so religious about not working on the weekend, after all, isn't there things they go out and do like grocery shopping where there needs to be employees to run the place? And the truth is, yes, you're absolutely right. But the multiverse is strange and there's other universes where it's nothing but a grocery store.Even as Cameo finally came to the scene, she saw that her pay was well worth her time and that she wasn't just going to be standing off to the side. She's one of those workers who works better when there's things to actually do and hates just standing around waiting for something to happen. Concord followed behind her closely, glancing around to make sure nothing was going to jump out at her. She's atrocious for screaming like a little girl when visiting the Horror Universe and its sudden surprises. But the doctor paid no mind as she took one look at who was down and assessed each injury, immediately moving to Enzo and getting to work.She started by moving his hood to see the wound and found that he had a pretty sizable abrasion across the side of his head. Cameo held him and her hands began glowing green, the cracks gradually beginning to mend. After all was said and done, the breakage vanishing with the pain as it left, and Enzo gasped, his sockets flying open and his pinpricks burning bright for a second. He sat up, holding his head as he moaned."Creators..." He muttered. "What gives?""Apparently they were mad at you." She stated coolly as she stood up and moved to Schatten."That wasn't anger, that was just motivation." The king said as he slowly got up himself, trying to get a handle on how to keep his footing."No." Schatten disagreed as she stayed stiff even when Cameo walked up. She used to flinch big time when the doctor would approach her, but even the medical professional didn't understand why. The villain has since gotten better about it, but it certainly helped that it hurt to move. "They were upset. Maybe they weren't screaming at us, but they said you deserved to get clonked out." Enzo rolled his pinpricks."And they're insane. Since when have we started taking what they say at face value?" Schatten shot him a disgruntled look with her teeth pinched upward in her dirty expression. The fact she had to stay still as Cameo put a hand up the back of her shirt to heal her misplaced spine helped Enzo feel confident about talking to his wife in a way that he only held back because of the wrath she could hold."Enzo, I swear to the creators, if you don't get a soul soon, you'll cause our destruction!" She hissed at him, her nose hole scrunching with her frustration."Big words for someone who just got their spine thrown out."Enzo didn't even realize what he had said. The best possible explanation is that it was a reflexive tone he had for talking to employees. The kicker is, though, that Schatten isn't really his employee anymore. She'll do jobs and whatnot, but she doesn't have a steady salary given to her from the king anymore.Everyone froze and Schatten took on a subtle offended and angered look. Cameo paused, staring at the king with wide sockets like everyone else, and even moved her hand away. Enzo turned away, looking off to the side with a grumpy look, completely not paying attention."N—"But the doctor couldn't even utter a word before the world came crashing down on Enzo. Schatten ignored the immense pain her arms were in and got up against Cameo's better judgement. She walked up to the king, grabbed him by his cloak, sharp claws digging into his shoulder as she twirled him around and punched him square in the jaw. He stumbled back before he made it to a tree to lean on. She pointed at Enzo with a sharp finger on the arm she punched him with as he winced and felt his jaw."You're a king! Mother, trucking, act like it!" She said something else, but I don't dare write it here. Schatten's arm stayed pointing, even as more cracks were made and the front half of her forearm swung down, solidly disconnecting and falling to the forest floor. Every skeleton's sockets grew, but hers stayed angry even with their wide and slightly surprised manner. "Well, now look what you've done!" She hissed as she squinted scrutinous sockets at him.Cameo hurried over to Schatten, picking up the broken arm that was separate from the body—which, medically, was concerning—and Marlie even tried to run over, attempting to talk her mom down."Mom, it's okay, Dad just—""Not now, Marlie." Schatten kept a sharp tone, yet it turned flat when saying her daughter's name, as if she was directing her anger and frustration at the only family member who was on her non-existent nerves. "I need to beat some sense into your father.""But, your arm—""Is right here." Schatten snatched her broken arm from the doctor who flinched back in surprise and pointed it at Enzo, the finger even extended. "And I'll even use my dominant one."And where Marlie looked at Cameo to help prevent her mother from beating her father senseless, the only other adult rolled her pinpricks and shook her head as Schatten started to walk towards Enzo."Wait, darling—""Don't you 'darling' me! You messed up!" And this is when Cameo started to step away. Marlie was torn, looking between the only sensible adult who could help her and the two adults who brought her here. The two adults were in fact about to have a one sided fight as Enzo was realizing he had indeed "messed up" and Schatten was about to show him exactly what he did wrong. While hitting him with her own severed arm.Marlie, after swaying to make a not-so-tough decision reluctantly. She started to go with the doctor, walking at Cameo's side."Why aren't you stopping her?" The teen asked. "Aren't you her doctor? Won't she listen to you?" Cameo didn't turn and instead continued walking towards Kanzler who was standing with a limp arm and just absentmindedly scrolling her phone with the one arm that wasn't broken."Something I learned about your mother a long time ago, I'm talking about the third time I treated her, is that when she feels the need to do something, she does it. Even if it means breaking her arm off to punch her husband in the process.""It's just, I've never seen mom act like this." Marlie said, glancing back at her parents with concern."I wouldn't worry yourself over it if I were you." Cameo came up to Kanzler and started to help her take off the big ol' bright blood red sweatshirt the horror skeleton wore. Marlie watched as she carefully moved the limp arm out of the sleeve to show a bare arm and slightly revealed shoulder blade as Kanzler wore a plain black tank top under her sweatshirt. The doctor didn't need to take off the fingerless long sleeved gloves the horrifying villain wore because Cameo found that it was the shoulder that was the issue, unlike Schatten's forearms."... But..." She looked back at her parents again. "I don't want them getting hurt."Cameo didn't face the teen but made an exaggerated expression and Kanzler full on laughed, not even wincing as her damaged shoulder moved."Kid, you don't even know a quarter of it." She put her phone away in her back pocket. "They haven't told you a thing about their romantic journey have you? You haven't noticed how they treat one another?""Romance?" Marlie took on a distrusting and slightly disgusted look. "No, I think I'm good, thanks." And she glanced to the side, not wanting to look at anyone anymore."No, no! It's a real thing! Your mother is very physical when she sleeps. I'm talking punching, kicking, kneeing, pulling, scratching—" The skeleton started to put out a finger for each action, but Marlie stopped her."Woah, woah, woah! How do you know this?! Do my parents just go blathering on about their sleep tendencies, or—"But the teen was only met with silence as Kanzler kept her vacant smile and continued to stare at her. Her expression was unmoving and the message was radio static as Kanzler had no idea how to communicate the many memories flashing through her mind."Scratching, smacking, stabbing—""The point is," Cameo cut in, once again interrupting Kanzler who seemed unphased in her own unsettling way, "your mother, and in consequence your father, is practically a magnet for causing and receiving damage." Marlie looked... mildly disgruntled. Like she was fighting an inner monologue."But, I've never noticed..." But she was beginning to. She was realizing most of the little things that she just chalked up to her mother being her mother and her father being a man of his work.Cameo finished healing Kanzler and turned to see what Schatten was up to, but—"Five more minutes!" The shadow hollered as she continued to chase her husband. He shouted a "five minutes?!" in exaggerated worry, but his feet did all the talking as he continued to go into flight over fight when it came to his wife. Cameo shook her head and looked over at Cadmus.The hero was sitting against a tree as he had dragged himself over to one, and was staying still with a crooked leg. Concord had walked over and cleared some leaves so the two could start playing tic-tac-toe in the dirt. She was sitting with her knees together and only her feet touching the ground in an awkward-looking squat. Deciding she had nothing better to do, Cameo decided to go over and heal the hero."Broken leg?" She asked as she walked over."No, actually, dislocated arm." Cadmus smirked as he continued drawing in the soil with Concord. The doctor shook her head."I don't have time for your jokes.""You've got five minutes." He made a move and turned to Cameo as Concord stared at the corner he had backed her into.Cameo rolled her pinpricks again as she got to work, taking off his boot and rolling up his pant leg. She was about to start arranging his leg back together as it had been put in two, but Enzo came stumbling over."Don't do a good job!" He shouted as Schatten hooked around and got her only in-tact arm around his neck."Ignore him! He's being a boot-sole!""I'm the one who's paying you!" He squawked as he grabbed at her lone arm before the two went tumbling down.Cameo sighed, looking down at the injury that was gonna show up as a contradiction on her paycheck if she didn't heal it a certain way."Hey," Cadmus said, his voice barely a whisper but still low so Enzo wouldn't hear, "how much for you to heal me right?""Okay," Cameo clapped her hands together and gave a strained chuckle that came out as a hum, "it isn't that simple. What do you think is right? Stopping the pain, or making it so you can move properly?" He took a breath as if to talk but she kept going. "Actually, why should I ask? I already know the answer! You're gonna say 'make it stop hurting', and my response would be 'here's a tranquility pill, it'll solve your problem!' But you'll say 'I can't walk with my broken leg, it cracks and gives every time I put weight on it!' And I'll say 'too bad, so sad, you should've specified!' And then I walk away, ticked off for the rest of the day because I had to help a hero!"Cadmus stared and listened to every word. He had an expression like he was actually thinking about and considering everything she was saying, not at all seeming offended by her frustration over having to help heroes. He had ignored Concord and the game of tic-tac-toe that she had restarted, so the villainous lesbian took his hand herself and started playing for him. Was she just playing herself now? Of course. Was she still losing? Most definitely."Okay," he spoke calmly, "how much for you to ignore what Enzo said and heal me like I was a villain?" He sounded nice, and for a moment Cameo forgot why she held a grudge against him. She sighed."One-fifty.""One-fifty?!" He didn't shout—he rarely shouts—but he certainly sounded excited. "How about seventy-five?" In honesty, she was surprised he had initiated bargaining, but Cameo was a villain and she got competitive when it came to showing others up."One-seventy-five.""One-twenty-five.""Two hundred." She was merciless and only going up from her initial price."One-fifty." And he was finally coming to terms with it."No, now it's one-seventy-five." Cadmus gave a heavy sigh."Fine. One-seventy-five.""Alright—" But just as she was about to start mending the broken bone, Enzo stumbled back into frame."I'll pay you triple what he is!"Everyone who was paying attention gave a collective sigh and groan, Schatten growling at him and getting back to beating some sense into the king."You know what?" Cameo muttered just for the hero to hear. "Just pay me the one-seventy-five. He's overpaying anyways with me coming out here on the weekend." And she got to work on his leg.You may be wondering what exactly a cartoon skeleton uses for currency in this vast multiverse, and the answer is more simple than you think. Shape-shifting-money. Enzo loves to fill his castle with too much gold to carry around, but other universes use a more practical and human-familiar dollar bill. The way money is shape-shifted is through characters who who hone their magic in a way to be able to tap into the property of the currency and change the magical make-up of the item and its worth. Is there a way for counterfeiting to be easier to achieve? Surprisingly, no. The money itself holds a magic that can be sensed by any individual who can recognize the special energy. The more energy sensed in the currency, the more legitimate the dollar.It didn't take Cameo very long to heal Cadmus's leg, and once it was done she sat back with a satisfactory hum."Mmhm, there you go. Good as new." She stood up as Cadmus began to roll his pant leg back down and put his shoe back on, making sure to thank her in the process. Once she was up, she turned to have Schatten standing in front of her and in her way to keep walking."Here." She put her severed arm into Cameo's chest and the doctor instinctively grabbed it. "I'm done. You can heal me now." Cameo nodded."Good to know." And she started to lead Schatten away and over to a tree. "Let's get you laid down and situated so I can start."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
S is in no way considered a good father by human terms. Looking at them from a point of humanity and seeing what they just went through this past twenty-four hours, you are meant to conclude that they do not hold the right capacity to be seen as a good parent. But that's only because of what I've shown you.The truth is, S was highly domestic before being brutally brought back to the multiverse. They fell in love with a woman who tamed their anxiety-ridden-tie , and even created a daughter to keep her company after they inevitably left. It's hard to believe that S settled down for a moment and dealt with their mental health for a while, only to be shoved back into the place that gave them the emotional habits the therapist—who was the woman they loved—had to help clear out. Speaking of places that gave them a mental complex....S was sitting in a void that for once wasn't meant to be a prison, despite what people think. No, this one was actually treated and decorated like a home. The "room" they were in now was one of many that their mother had. This one was specifically for all of her artistic endeavors, filled with desks and easels with all manners of projects and supplies. S had wandered around for a moment, picking up blank papers and untouched colored pencils, before finally finding a desk that was a majority cleared off. And they sat down and got to work.I acknowledge the fact that I haven't been describing character descriptions, but that is simply because I want to hit a reasonable word count for each chapter. When I wrote the first manuscript, the first iteration of the timeline I want to show you, I went off on describing clothes and weapons, but didn't elaborate on what these characters looked like as cartoon, magical, or skeletons. But I'll sit down now with S and explain their appearance and clothing style to in turn describe the next character you're about to meet.S is tall. I've already touched on that, but they're specifically a whopping seven feet tall. You may wonder why someone would choose to be so tall, and to that I write: what do you know about destroying the multiverse? You aren't familiar with this world, maybe seven feet is the perfect height for fighting a cartoon magical skeleton. Does it make them a bigger target and thus easier to hit? ... shut up, it's fun. Their outfit is a bit bizarre as well, a classic S standard.S wears a turquoise button-up and dark—nearly navy—blue jeans. They have a black leather belt with a gold buckle to hold up their pants and a magical rainbow tie that they keep neatly knotted around their neck underneath the shirt collar. How is the tie magical? No matter how much of it is covered or untied, you will always see the six colors of the rainbow in equal segments on the fabric. It was a gift from their mother. Their black waistcoat with round shiny gold press-in buttons holds down their tie neatly and nicely and couples sharply with their knee-length black coat. They have slim brown combat boots on their feet over mismatching white and orange or cyan socks that coordinate with their eyes.S doesn't look too strange by human terms. After all, they lived amongst real people and only children made comments on their wonky eyes. Their irises are practically a copy of their mother's pinpricks, their right being a bright orange and their left being a cyan. Their skin is what the humans call "white", though S falls under the category of saying "what am I, printer paper?" They'd even cite the fact their mother used a sand colored pencil when she drew on their skin, not the useless white one that nobody uses on a regular basis without going out of their way.S's hair is black and in a classic style of theirs. They have a widow's peak, somehow also having bangs in the process. It's unnatural as their hairline is perfectly visible and sensible on the sides, but their front, the widow's peak and their bangs, hooks forward. And as far as which side their bangs hook towards depends on which direction they're looking and/or facing. It's like such popular characters like a mouse and their ears, edgy hedgehogs and their fortunate and unfortunate smirks, even Italian plumbers and which way their face looks while running. The hardest part is their side profile, as that's the one time it should make sense and look real. But that's the thing. It doesn't look natural because they're a cartoon.You may think this as a norm for this world to have physics defying hair, but most of the other characters have basic bangs. Their hairstyles are practically cookie cutter as the only contrast is a single stroke that sets the strands differently. As the person who has watched these characters evolved since I was in middle school, their hair has always been a spectacle to even myself. All because I've fallen into a rhythm of drawing their heads and how the locks fall on their skulls, they all feel the same to me. If I feel like it, I might spice it up a bit and add an extra strand if the character deserves a redesign. Speaking of creating....It's baffling when S and the word "create" are used in the same sentence, but here we are. The typical character would assume S was being insane and making a shopping list that lead to the morbid destiny of a destroyed multiverse, but, no, they were actually drawing. S was creating a person. And he was going to hold so much potential.S finished the illustration and sat back to look at it closely, taking a fine inspection of the detail. They had only ever created someone using this process once before, and they hoped that by using inherently magical supplies that this would ease the process. When they created their daughter, they were forced to use basic human supplies and had to leave a lot of the process up for debate, meaning they couldn't choose exactly who she was. No, they aren't complaining, they're just taking advantage of this ability to make chooses easier.The maniac started the process, summoning their spirit and holding the star in one hand and the paper with the boy in the other. S then put the paper partially over the star, just about halfway down one of the smaller points. After crumpling the paper over the point, they grunted and only slightly struggled to break off a piece of paper of the star as it stayed in the drawing. It sounded like the crack made when breaking a chocolate bar, something that isn't considered normal for a spirit. Usually when a spirit breaks, it sounds like glass, sharp and harsh, but this isn't what the moment is supposed to represent. This is starkly different and separate from loss, and it's blatantly obvious as S went from clutching the wad of magical art to cradling it as their partially chipped spirit vanished.They held the paper that began to glow brighter and stared at it, watching the gradual changes. S wanted to calculate what this did to their odds of succeeding, but their thoughts were pushed away. Everything, even the wonder of why they weren't passing out from so much magic being used, was ignored as the ball of paper began to float out of their arms, glowing ever stronger. The colors were changing and shifting, growing larger and developing limbs. It was like the boy came right off the page as he floated there, yet he was made of the balled up paper.His body fully developed, his expression content as he stayed suspended as the glow eventually dwindled. The boy began to drift down, his feet going first as he was put to stand upright, and S reached out for him. The magic dissipated and he stood there, motionless with his precious peaceful expression. For some reason, S felt like crying as they hastily shuffled over and wrapped their arms around him in a hug. They felt their chest rising and falling steadily and deeply against his still body.And for a moment, everything was still, the boy didn't move, practically slumped over S like life wasn't running through him yet. And now S understood why they felt like crying. Tears fell from their eyes and onto his shoulder, and they understood. They didn't see it, but his eyes fluttered open to reveal iris' just like his creators. He felt now as they shook slightly against them. He didn't understand, but he slowly went to wrap his own arms around them. He leaned his head against S's and was only vaguely startled when they spoke."It's okay..." They muttered. "We're okay." They took a shaky and large deep breath before pulling back slightly to gently grab his head and softly connect their foreheads in a symbol renowned in the multiverse as a way to show love."Everything is fine." S whispered. And he understood.He didn't know everything, but it was like he was connected emotionally in a way he couldn't name. Us humans know this as sympathy and empathy, two different things, I know, but just let me write. He felt empathetic because he could tell S was feeling something painful right now. He felt sympathy because he was already thinking in the manner he was created to."What's wrong?" His voice was small, not in volume but energy. S pulled away looking him up and down as they took a deep breath."Nothing you and I can't fix." They said with a sad smile. "Just the two of us."When they pulled away and spoke, he look down at himself. S modeled him after an early design of theirs Vi had put together, something simple and easy to work up and keep track of.He wore a white button-up and medium blue jeans. The boy had a simple black leather belt and black waistcoat with plain black plastic buttons. On his feet, he wore black and white high-top converse tennis shoes.Something strange about any and all creations is age, because they have two kinds. There's the age they actually are, how many years they've existed, and the age they are created to be, how many years they are developed to be in both appearance and maturity. The boy is meant to resemble a twenty-year-old human boy. I don't use the term man because he is yet to be at that point, as is he hasn't seen a big blue sky or a big blue ocean at all. He doesn't even know what the color blue is and that his jeans are the wondrous color.For context, no, S doesn't have the appearance of a twenty-year-old human. They were in the beginning, but that was seventy-four years ago, but don't be shocked, S doesn't age like humans. No, they look to be a human man in his late thirties or early forties. They've grown older, but not elderly like their years would suggest. No, the only difference between them and the boy is that S looks fully grown.After a moment of just staring with teary eyes S pat the boy on the shoulders and pulled away. He watched them begin to walk off."Come with me, kiddo. I've got some things to explain." And so he followed them."In all honesty, I'm surprised you aren't asking a lot of questions. Even your sister did the typical 'who am I', 'where am I', 'who are you', and the such. But that's fine, leaves me more room to talk and I like talking." They looked back at him as he followed them through the scattered desks. "I learned a while ago that I can usually change the outcomes of certain events in some form the longer I talk. More often for the worse, but it's still a change I take into account.""But the point is," they went back to looking in front of themself as they walked, "I can use this time to the fullest." They continued walking, eventually coming to a door. They opened it and went through, the boy following and watching as they went from a void with many tables and unfinished art projects to a living room without walls.It had everything from a rug and coffee table to a couch and a standing tv. It even had an extended kitchen area that had cabinets and counters, a stovetop oven and a fridge. All these things, things that would be considered normal for a house. But a house has walls to display pictures and art, decorations to make the place more of a home. Not to say the void isn't a home, but it certainly lacks the structure to be a building meant to house a nurturing family. A family Vi wants to recreate someday.S ignored the sad undertones as they went to the kitchen area and pulled out a chair for the boy to sit."Go ahead and sit down, kiddo."And he did. He stared up at them as they walked out in front of him, taking a deep breath and starting to pace. After barely a moment of gathering their thoughts they spoke."Your name is T. You are my son." You may read this in a voice of S being in trepidation—like they don't know how to talk to the boy—and I see where you come from. As someone who has written S for the past however-many-years-since-middle-school, I'm so used to using contractions in my writing and dialogue that whenever someone talks correctly, it feels like they don't know what they're doing, because I don't know what I'm doing. But that's the opposite of S right now. They knew exactly what they were going to say and which words to use. The boy furrowed his brows and tilted his head slightly."Tea?""Like the letter. You know, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, and T.""Okay." He nodded before stopping and glancing away as the gears turned. "And," he looked back at S, "what does the 'T' mean?" They shrugged."Whatever you want it to be." They pulled a chair around and sat on it backwards so they could look at him, but still have something to do with their arms as they hugged the back. "You know, my own creator chose my name, but she still lit me have a choice for the matter. My name," they put a firm hand over their chest, "is S.""Like the letter?""Like the letter." They repeated as they nodded. "The name Violet decided to call me was 'Shade'." The boy sat and thought for another second before brightening up, like a lightbulb went off in his mind."Maybe I could be Thade!"S sat for a moment, their eyebrows raised and their expression muttering "maybe that isn't the take-away" as their eye twitched slightly. They opened their mouth but nothing came out. They were trying to shove into their own mind the explanation that he was only young and didn't understand the concept of uniqueness, quite literally."You know what?" They squeaked after a moment, scrunching up their expression and their shoulders. "Why don't you sleep on it? Names are kind of a big deal, so you should make sure you find the right one." He nodded unknowingly."Oh, okay." He glanced to the side yet again before looking back at S. "Well, when can I sleep?"S couldn't help but slap their face in spiteful hindsight. They didn't appreciate that he sounded like a kid on Christmas, and yet all he wanted was a full name. Not even, actually, the boy just wanted something more than a letter."You know what?" They slid their hand down their face before looking at him. "Why don't you listen for a little bit and we can figure this out later?" He nodded. "Good. Now." S hunched forward slightly as they lazily pointed at him. "What do you know about the multiverse?"The boy blinked for a moment before muttering with slight confusion."Bones?""Close enough." S shrugged. "So, the multiverse is comprised mainly of magical cartoon skeletons. I won't go explaining the details of how they work because you'll get to see in while what I'm referring to." [See the entire book leading up to this point.] "But the point is, there's a lot of them, too many of them, in fact. They all come from different universes and all those universes have a bunch of people. Some of them are similar—literal copies of someone from another universe—and some of them are different—completely new and original characters." [See the rest of this book and the stories yet to come.] "And the thing is, there's a problem with having all these characters." The boy took on a concerned expression."How so? Are they just so different that they don't get along?" S couldn't help but chuckle."That's part of it. You see, that's their whole point, some of them even have jobs where that's all they do. They love to get in fights and hurt people. They argue over the smallest things and pit themselves against one another. And you know what they call themselves?" Their voice got low, the boy not even realizing as he also leaned in. "The villains."He didn't understand the word, but it was the way that S said it that sent a shiver down his spine."Are all the skeletons villains?" He asked unknowingly. And unbeknownst to him, S... stretched the truth just a smidge."Yes." They nodded before stopping and thinking for a moment. "Well, kind of. You see, it's not just the skeletons. It's anyone who fights, really. Well, anyone who fights me, that is.""You?" Now he was curious."Yep. See, I'm working on trying to save the multiverse.""'Save'?" He sounded hopeful, and this is exactly what S needed."Of course! I'm out collecting something that will help me basically 'reorganize' the multiverse and the way it works.""'Reorganize'?" That was a big word for him and S realized that."'Fix', basically. If I get everything I need then I'll have enough power to..." and they trailed off, trying to think of a way to explain the process. They would say something along the lines of "wiping out the multiverse", but S needed something that was partially truthful and still wasn't quite a lie. The truth is that once they got all of the spirits, everything they would do could be as small as a whim and it was done. If they wanted to, they could just rewrite every character, but that takes a lot of work. I should know."Change things?" The boy tried to help them finish their sentence and they nodded after thinking for a second."Yeah, that's a good way to put it." And technically, he wasn't wrong. Neither of them were.And this is when you get frustrated and shout at this book about how S is manipulating a poor boy into doing terrible things. And to that I say; "Yes. Yes! Hate the main antagonist, why don't you?! Go ahead! Play the blame game! Walk the same path that all the skeletons do!" Because this story is much like a die. A shiny math rock has many sides, each with a different story to tell. S believes they need to essentially exterminate the multiverse, they express that things need to change to the boy. T believes that anything S is going to do is for the better, he expresses a desire to rewrite what is going to be written. The skeletons believe S is wrong to a high degree for killing everyone off, and those characters reflect their belief through high extremes via their ability to cause harm.But that's only three sides, which isn't enough to create a shiny klick-klack that you could purchase for cheap at a game store. Yes, however, the skeletons split on two sides within themselves. The villains believe S should be met with more power than the maniac presents. If the freak is going to learn, it's through desensitizing them to any form of pain caused by punishment. The heroes believe S needs to find a peaceful purpose. If S can hold so much power and could be trusted, maybe someday they could keep the spirits safe on their own and keep others from taking advantage of the immense power. But the villains only shoot the heroes some disgusted looks as S cackles. There's a reason the heroes don't run things.After explaining The Prime Spirits and what they are meant to do for S, the boy seemed to understand. The maniac was surprised that they didn't have to make a diagram or any visual aid for him to make sense of it all. And the truth was that he didn't care about the colors or abilities, but only about the end goal. He took mental note of where each one was, as that was very pivotal information compared to something as simple as colors. Did he also just not know what colors were in the first place? Of course, but that's okay because he's baby. In fact, he seemed ready to go after S concluded their speech about the spirits. He smiled and stood up, something S seemed surprised by."When are we gonna go get the next spirit?" He asked with excitement. S stood up, looking back at the stove clock. 8:30 pm."Well, it's pretty late, so..." They looked back at him and saw his look of joyous thrill. For a moment, S threw every bit of logic out the imaginary window the void doesn't have, and they decided to run with it. "You know what? Why not. Let's go ahead and go for the next spirit. It doesn't matter if everyone's asleep, that's on them!" They turned to the kitchen. "But you should probably eat something real quick first." And they went to grab some bread to make toast, but the boy reached for a bag of chips Vi had left out."This is food, right?" He was naive as he stuck a hand in the bag and pulled out a bright red puffy chip. S could only stare in realization upon noticing what he grabbed."Wait, that's really—!"But it was too late.You see, Vi has been on a recent spice kick and had gotten her hands on some magical hot chips. She was trying out different kinds and accidentally left a bag of puffy hot chips open on the counter. Why is it important that I tell you these are magical? Because skeleton snacks are typically stronger in flavor compared to regular human snacks. The cartoon characters like to toss whatever small snack they're eating in their socket and let it drift around as the flavor sits and reminisces for them to enjoy. These chips are specially designed to be caked with magic flavoring that sends a nice tingle through the skull of a skeleton. To anyone with an actual mouth with actual tastebuds, it's a lot to handle. And precious baby boy T—the character jokingly given the same bland taste as a Victorian child to start him off gently—just ate a nice big chip with plenty of flavoring to keep any other skeleton satisfied and overwhelm any other character with a mouth that could actually open."Hot...." S finished as he bit down only once, the void going silent as T stood there, holding the bag in one hand and keeping his other up by his head.For a moment, S had the notion that everything was fine and that the boy was just taken by surprise. Any second now he'd remark "wow, that's a lot!" Then put the bag back down and ask S about what else he could have. But once they saw the involuntary tears swell up, the parent knew they had to do something and fast."Ow..." He muttered. "Ow." He finally shifted as he went to rub his eyes, but S caught his wrist before his dusted fingers could make contact as they turned just in time."No, wait! If you rub your eyes, you'll get dust in them!" He gave them a confused and pained look."'Dust'?" He asked."The red stuff." And they showed him his hand. "It's the stuff making your mouth hurt. Get it on your eyes and it's gonna be on your face and hurt even more." T could barely see through the tears as he realized vaguely what S was talking about. He took on a discomforted look as the tears continued to flow."My mouth..." He muttered again. "My mouth." The boy couldn't find the words as all he could do was open and close his mouth. Lucky for him, all he did was blink and S was coming up to him with a glass full of white stuff."Here," they handed it to him, "drink this. It's milk."The boy took it and practically chugged the whole thing. S watched with wide eyes."Careful. Don't wanna get sick." He gave a satisfied gasp once it was all gone and looked at S."I still taste it..." He sounded worried."But does it hurt?""Kinda? It doesn't hurt as much, but it's like my mouth is tingling.""Tell you what," S guided him to a sink, "why don't you wash your hands while I make you some toast? I'll put jam and butter on it to give you a little something sweet to counteract the spicy." He nodded."Okay."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Melonie knew her dad wasn't coming home until much later. She knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but Grape didn't even leave the table when she called Cadmus. He wasn't on speaker, but Melonie could faintly hear his voice through the small device. He said he wasn't going to be home for a while, but that once he got an all clear, he'd be coming back. Grape seemed a lot more fine than Melonie thought she'd be. The adult seemed understanding, albeit a little disgruntled, but she didn't shout into the receiver demanding her husband come home this instant. Instead, she said she understood and told him to stay safe before they both said their "I love you"s and goodbyes to hang up.No, Melonie and Grape didn't eat dinner with Cadmus, and Melonie didn't have both parents tuck her in like they always did. Not that Grape is lacking in love and affection as a mother compared to Cadmus's love and adoration as a father. Melonie just couldn't remember the last time her father was working late and missed putting her to bed. Usually Cadmus was home for dinner, and by the latest he was home in time to give Melonie a good-night klek. A klek is something skeletons do where they bonk their heads gently in symbolism of what humans call a "kiss".You might think they Melonie is too old to be tucked in by her parents, but to that I justify her innocence. She may be a teenager, but it isn't like her mother cradles her into bed. It's simply a nighttime routine. Melonie gets ready for bed all by herself, and when she's ready she hollers for her parents who come and tell her goodnight. I suppose, by definition, it isn't physically tucking her in, they only do that when it's cold because she likes to be bundled up in her blankets. But as someone who is used to being told goodnight every night, I can attest that it certainly makes me feel good when going to sleep. After all, emotionally, skeletons aren't too different than us. ... ignore the villains, this ain't about them.As the girl laid in bed, staring up at the popcorn ceiling, she began to feel concerned. She stayed still as the seconds ticked by, literally. Her clock was the only sound in the room as she stayed awake with despair. She wasn't even counting, but after an hour of her lying there, she heard her father come home.Her parents weren't inherently loud. Her mother gets passionate and her father was oblivious sometimes, but that was about it. Grape greeted him and asked how things went, but Melonie didn't get specifics. It wasn't until Cadmus and Grape went to their room which was just down the hall from Melonie's that she heard some of their conversation clearly, yet faintly."We spent so long looking for them..." Melonie heard Cadmus say. "We waited and waited, but didn't think we had time to guess where they went. There's just so many places they could've gone.""What about the other spirits? Are they safe?" Grape asked."Supposedly. Everyone got back with us and apparently a couple of them are being moved. We talked to Vel, like, face-to-face, and she said she'd move Mindfulness tonight. She also said something about a library, maybe?" He sounded tired."I thought it was already in a library." Grape remarked."Something like that." Cadmus took steps to go in their bedroom, but paused. "Wait, how's Melonie? Did she go to bed alright?""She seemed... okay?" Grape sounded unsure. "She didn't seem herself, but after what she told us about last night, I'd be concerned if she wasn't.""Can I go check on her?" He asked."I won't stop you. She's your daughter, too."Melonie heard his boots on the hallway-tile and swiftly turned over and shut her sockets to give the allusion that she was asleep. Cadmus opened the crack her door was in wider so he could clearly lean in to take a glance. He saw her back turned and decided to leave her sleeping. The father knew she was a light sleeper and didn't want to wake her back up. So he walked away.The girl stayed still as the steps faded onto the carpet of her parents's bedroom and the hallway light was turned off. The voices picked up again, but vanished once the door was shut. She rolled back onto her back once she was convinced the coast was clear.And she just... listened.She heard her bedside clock. She heard her parents muffled voices through the door down the hall. She heard the wind rustling the leaves outside her window. But most importantly she heard her thoughts. It seemed like no matter what she tried to focus on, her mind was hung up on too many things.Why... was her father so late coming home? Didn't he just have to go to a meeting? Why was there a meeting on the weekend? The heroes know... but it wasn't the heroes. It was the villains. Did the villains just do things so differently? Were they opposites? But her dad isn't a villain, what is he doing running around with them? She'd met Enzo before, but he only seemed like a friend. Was he... something else? Did they work together?
"You're going somewhere."
She hadn't realized she was spiraling. It was already midnight and the house was asleep. That is to say, everyone except her. The hall was silent as her parents had turned in for the night and she was left lying in her bed, staring at the nothing that was the popcorn ceiling. She thought she was probably losing her mind from not getting any sleep, so she rolled over onto her side so she could cuddle one of her many stuffed animals and get comfortable.
"Wait."
That seemed louder than her other thoughts. She furrowed her brows and sat up, looking around her room, practically expecting to see someone standing in the corner. But there was no one.
"Please. Come and find me."
It sounded... innocent. Like she used to be, and it called to her."Where are you?" She whispered to the nothingness.
"Your mother's closet."
"Mom doesn't like it when I fiddle around in her closet." Her voice stayed a whisper as she conversed with the disembodied voice.
"That's only because she doesn't want you to find the truth."
"What?" Her bone brows furrowed as she stayed quiet. "My mom isn't a liar."
"Less so to you, you're right. She's been trying to fix that bad habit of hers."
"I'm sorry," she shook her head as she hissed into the darkness, "who are you?" Her question hung thick in the air before the mysterious voice returned.
"Come find me."
She gave a sigh and left the bed to make her way out of the bedroom. She crept quietly down the hall. Once to her parents's door, she hesitated.
"What are you doing? Don't worry, they're both asleep."
This was going against everything she thought of her parents. She didn't think they had secrets, and she wasn't even to her mother's closet yet. But the stillness of the house amplified her uneasiness. Even after Melonie opened the door as silently as she could, she worried less of her parents if they woke up and more so of what she was going to find.She opened the door silently, something miraculous for this old house. Melonie stuck her head in to make sure the voice wasn't lying and it was right. The two adults were out like a light. Both of her parents snored, but her dad was typically the loudest and made more sounds.The girl snuck inside the room and easily made her way to her mother's closet. The nightlight Cadmus was required to sleep with really helped Melonie find her way. The hero of light was quite literally allergic to the darkness. If he stayed in it for too long, he grew weak and sick. Once at the door, the girl reached for the doorknob.
"It shouldn't be locked."
And it wasn't. The voice was right once again as she turned the knob easily and opened the door to walk in. Once inside the closet, Melonie shut the door behind herself. Now she was in total darkness. The only thing that showed an ounce of light was her lime green pinpricks."Now what?" She whispered.
"There's a light on the wall next to the door."
She went to blindly move her hand around to her left, but.
"You're right. It's on your right."
Once she moved to the correct side, she found a switch and flipped it. A single bulb lit the room, bathing it in warm white light. She flinched slightly, her sockets having to adjust to the sudden change.
"Good. Now, down here, in the back."
This voice wasn't sparing any moment as she went towards the back of the closet, staring at the shoes that lined the floor."And, what exactly am I looking for?" She asked as she started to comb through the boots and old converse that she never saw her mother wear anymore.
"A box."
Melonie glanced further into the back of the closet and found some old shoe boxes stacked on top of one another. She was beginning to think she was having a dream about a shoe talking to her, and the girl pulled one off the top and opened it.Inside the box were old pictures, and I mean old. Some were brown and white, some were black and white, some were old and worn Polaroids, some were low quality ninety's-and-early-2000's-style pictures, and eventually the time stamps on all of them stopped as they became better quality. Melonie had no idea how old her mother was in any of these, but she was curious who the skeleton man and human woman was in the first few photos. She wanted to look at them more closely—to really take a moment and see what was happening on this timeline—but the voice got on her case."Not that one." It quipped only slightly in a harsh manner. "It's the one on the bottom."Melonie moved their other boxes, her desire to open each one so strong. She could tell what some of them were as she picked them up. Some held shoes, some more photos. There were a couple that felt heavy like shoes, but clunked around like hard pictures. She wondered if they were books or maybe something else. She heard plastic things that she also had no idea what they were. Some of them sounded small, some of them sounded bigger than her hand. But she forced herself to stay focused.
"That one."
Now Melonie saw it. It was old, older than all the other things with the exception of some of the photos. It was another shoe box, this one of the blander cardboard with no print, but it was covered with corroded crayon and muddled marker. It had hand drawn pictures with shaky handwriting from a young and excited hand. She picked it up and onto her lap and opened the worn lid-flap.
"There. The necklace."
Melonie picked it up to see its beauty more closely. The simple and slightly tarnished bronze star sat on an elegant gold chain. The chain was thin, but well crafted. The star itself was a plain five point star with rounded edges and points. She flipped it in her hand to see an etching on the back of the small charm. It looked like an amalgamation of an upwards A and an upside-down A that could nearly double as a U with a sharp bottom curve. You may read that and think I'm describing a V, but trust me that this is a letter U."Is this yours?" She asked in a whisper, looking up at where she thought the voice was coming from.
"You could say that."
Now it was coming from the necklace as it hung from her hand.
"My name is Audrey, but I can give a proper introduction once we leave."
"'Leave'?" Melonie sounded immensely concerned. "Why do I need to leave?"
"Because I need someone's help to stop what's going to happen."
"What's happening? And- why don't you just do it?"
"I don't have a body. It's hard to throw a punch when you don't have a physical fist."
"'Punch'?!" Oh, she was more than concerned now. She was on the verge of freaking out. Yet she still whispered. "I can't fight! I never fight! That isn't what I do or who I am!"The voice gave a sigh.
"Just- grab the box."
She looked down at the box in her lap full of other things.
"Take it and go back to your room."
She gave a skeptical huff, her shoulders dropping with the muffled stress as she picked the box up in her hands and stood up.Melonie did what the voice told her, turning off the light to the closet, leaving the mentioned closet, closing the door behind her, leaving her parents's room, closing that door behind herself, walking back across the hall, and finally back into her room. After closing her door, she went to her bed and sat down on it. The girl held up the necklace.
"Good. Now—"
"What are you?" She asked with her own version of irritation. "And I mean what are you?" She sounded like a puppy who was barking at her own hiccups. She wasn't loud, but she was frustrated. She didn't know what it was, but she felt... threatened in a sense, like she felt a stern attitude with her anxiety."... a spirit." It was quiet for a moment before answering her question."Like, a ghost?" Melonie asked, tilting her head at the voice with a skeptical bone-brow raised."... yes." It was pausing a lot more than it did before. It was like the voice was thinking before each word."Are you lying to me?" She asked with a heavy tone."No." That was the fastest it had responded since she had came into her room. "And if you'd like I can tell you the truth of what your father was doing today."She sat back, her posture straighter as she looked at the necklace with wide sockets."Were you there? Did he tell you?"
"He told his wife, and her closet door was open."
Melonie took on a look that any child would give that asked, "why is it adults can eavesdrop, but kids can't?" Granted, she doesn't know how old this voice is, but if it was a ghost it must've been pretty old."Something is happening." It started to explain. "Someone is out trying to destroy the multiverse." Melonie took on a concerned look."'Destroy the multiverse'?" She asked. "But, that can't be possible."
"It's complicated. Basically, this person is gathering all seven of The Prime Spirits to have enough power and bend the multiverse to their will. They have decided a long time ago that when they ever have this ability, they would change the multiverse by killing everyone in it."
Melonie put her face at an angle to give the necklace a partial side-eye that was nearly bombastic."Why are you telling me this?" Her voice was high and tight in pitch. "I'm just a teenager, I don't fight! Are you trying to make my newfound anxiety worse?!""'Newfound'?" Oh no. "You've always been like this.""No! I've always been happy! I've always smiled! I only cried when I got hurt on accident! I only felt sad when I watched movies where the dog dies! A Dog's Purpose always has me in an emotional chokehold!" She felt tears welling up.
"Your parents! They knew! They've always known! Even as a baby, you'd have thoughts! And they could tell! They never told you because how do you explain anxiety to a three-year-old?! How in the world does an
infant
develop something as
complex
as a mental health disorder?!"
And everything came crashing down. Melonie threw the necklace across the room and curled up on her bed in the corner. The girl stayed still, yet her body shook with her muffled sobs.Melonie didn't understand. She didn't think her parents shielded her. She thought it was normal, the way her family worked. She thought it was normal for the father in every family to come home in time for dinner at a crisp 5:30 in the evening. She thought it was normal that both parents be there to tell her goodnight. That's all it's ever been! It's only ever been her and her mom during the day, her mother keeping watch. It's only ever been her dad going off to fight evil, her father keeping her safe and protected. Protected. That's all it's ever been, protection."... I'm sorry." The voice was quiet with distance, both from across the room and emotion. "I... I didn't think you even knew what anxiety was..."The girl stayed with her back turned to the necklace. She felt herself shutting down. She didn't want to stop functioning, but she couldn't find the will to say something. Just say something! She was screaming in her head. She wanted to tell the voice that of course she knew what anxiety was, she loved Studio Ghibli and all the lessons their movies taught! She knew! She freaking knew! Yet it all came crashing into her once the dots were connected!Is this what would have happened if her parents hadn't taken such close care of her? Is this the vicious fall that follows her facing the reality of the way she worked? The way her mind was molded into? Yet the brutal truth that she inherently was this way, that nothing caused her to think in this manner?
"... don't beat yourself up... you're parents weren't the best about letting you down gently."
She muttered under her sobs, but the necklace couldn't hear the girl.
"What?"
"I-I'm... only thirteen... I-I'm just... just a k-kid..." She felt herself curl tighter around her own body, her skeletal fingers digging into her skull. The necklace didn't know what to say as it had no choice but to sit with her in discomfort while she spiraled.After a while, it finally spoke up again."I'm sorry." It repeated. "I just... I need someone who will listen." Her sobs mellowed out slightly so she could hear more clearly. "Your mother ignores me, your father is oblivious to me in general. I just... I need help. I don't have a physical body, so I can't do anything on my own.""But why me?" She sat up and looked back at the necklace and gestured to her crying self. "Don't you see this? I can't go out and stop someone who's destroying the multiverse." She didn't sound mad anymore, she sounded sad as her voice was mopey.
"Well, you're certainly better than nothing."
No one said anything, but Melonie had the thought clear as day. It's the thought that so many have had and will have.But she was nothing.And then she would continue to spiral, arguing with herself about how saying she's nothing is wrong and that that means that she's wrong. But if she's wrong then she can't say she's good, and if she can't say she's good then something's wrong. And if something's wrong, then she's wrong.The necklace sighed."None of this is your fault. You aren't doing anything wrong, this is just an unfortunate turn of events. Please, I'm begging you, help me with this conundrum that has the wellbeing of the multiverse at stake." She went quiet again in an attempt to listen better. "I chose you because you're here, yes, but also because you're my best bet."Out of three people.
"Your mother ignores me, and she throws punches first and asks questions later. Your father is literally always distracted—his line is always busy—and he's the most polite out of your parents. But you, you're the best of both worlds. No one's talking to you
and
you're inherently a pacifist."
"And that's good because...?" She croaked in her depressed tone.
"You'll get the job done."
But that's all she was, is all that Melonie had to think for the voice to specify.
"You're special. Your first thought isn't to fight, it's to resolve. You aren't met with danger, you're met with someone who needs help. Character
and
animal. Any living thing."
For a second, she was still and quiet. She could hear things and for once they weren't her thoughts. Part of her wished she was outside because that would make her feel better about her thoughts pausing. Her head was quiet for once, the only thought in her head being a question.
Can
I
do this?
"I just need someone there." The voice continued. "I need someone who can influence the situation in the right way."After a moment, the voice's words sitting with her as her body uncurled and loosened, Melonie sat up. She looked around, her pinpricks eventually falling on the necklace."I suppose..." She started, fighting to not trail off. "I could try."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Melonie was out the door in a solid half hour. Well, it wasn't really a door it was more of a portal, but either way she left her home universe. The necklace explained all the miscellaneous items in the old shoebox and told her what was utterly useless and what would be highly beneficial to bring along. It suggested she use her inventory—something every magical character had—but Melonie had no idea how to access hers. Instead, she settled for an old satchel she had that was decorated with a nice floral design. She assumed her mother gave it to her ages ago, but she couldn't say exactly how long it had been sitting in her closet. But that was no matter the girl cared for because it held everything she needed it to.Once she got properly dressed in her light blue jeans and medium green t-shirt topped with a lighter medium green single-pocket hoodie, she threw on her shoes as she hopped on one foot to equip each one. Melonie then quickly grabbed a book from the box and a mechanical pencil. She shoved the items into her bag and grabbed the necklace that had been moved to her dresser so she could put it on.
"Put me under your sweatshirt. I don't want people seeing me."
"Why not?" She asked as she did what she was told."It's a long story." The voice quipped."Oh, okay." And Melonie stood there for a moment, fully dressed and ready to go in the middle of the night like she was going to go on an epic adventure. And she was. "Now what?" She asked.
"The pencil. Take that and the book."
She pulled them out.
"Flip to page forty-eight."
"The Wings Universe?" Melonie asked after coming to a page riddled with notes and pictures. There were diagrams of characters with wings and different designs ranging from feather to leather and even bone.
"Yes, now take the pencil and write—"
She moved the pencil to the page but the voice became tight with concern."Wait! Not on the page!" She moved the pencil away with surprise. "In the air. It's a magical pencil that can be used in many different ways to make a portal.""Ooh!" She brightened up. "Is this one of those pencils where you can draw a big circle and it'll turn into a portal?" She sounded excited. It was so common in movies and media that portals to other worlds be drawn, and she was always so amazed by the idea."E- Well- Uhm—" The voice stuttered. "Yes, but I don't suggest doing that now. You've never been to this universe, so you don't have anything to imagine in order to guide the portal—""I have these pictures!" She smiled as she tapped the page with the eraser.
"But you don't have experiences. It's better to have interacted and actually seen the universe than to just think of some pages in a book."
"Oh." She didn't sound disappointed as her shoulders fell and she looked at the page, but she certainly lost her excitement. "Sooo... I just write the name of the universe in the air?" She asked.
"Yes. And it's important that you spell it right. Something as simple as an extra letter can take you somewhere else, or even make the portal malfunction and not work properly."
"Okay." She nodded before getting to work writing the tittle of the page in the air. The words stayed suspended in twinkling lime green light before the G in "wings" grew, the hole expanding and swallowing up the words to create a blanket of a big lime green swirl. It reminded her of a drink like milk as it rippled with its opaque and shiny greens."Good." The voice snapped her out of her staring. "Now go through. We should be fine with time for you to go find her."She nodded and crammed her sockets shut as she took a step through the magical entrance. Part of her expected to come out soaked as the swirl was cooling and refreshing against her bones like a nice cold glass of any beverage on a hot day, but when she opened her sockets she realized what she was feeling.It was more than a gentle breeze up here, wherever here was. There wasn't a cloud in the night sky as the moon shined down on the city. It was like a sky civilization as when she looked down over the railing she was next to, the clouds were below her."Wow..." She couldn't help but smile as she looked around with wonder in her sockets. "This place is so cool!" She remarked before happily jogging off to explore."Wait! You need to find Vel!" The voice sounded desperate like it was scared she was going to ignore it."Who's Vel?" She asked as she kept looking around, running up to shop windows to look in them, and restaurants to smell what they had made. She came across a couple bakeries that seemed to be the only places with people in them, as it was so late and they were preparing the morning goods for the day.
"She's the character who keeps care over The Spirit of Mindfulness in this universe."
"Mindfulness? Why aren't we starting at the first one, red?" She didn't stop to talk as she continued to wander and look at the new world around her. "Does this person like to go out of rainbow order? That's strange."
"No, they already
have
motivation."
"Oh." She stopped, her sneakers squeaking slightly as her face abruptly stretched in slight concern once she halted. "That's not good.""No, it isn't." The voice agreed. "That's why we need to find her and fast.""Well, where can I find her?" The girl asked."Find who?"She turned to see a woman with magical bright rainbow wings come descending down. She wore a uniform of some kind with combat boots, dark jeans, a white t-shirt with a logo that said "S.P.A.", and a decorated leather jacket with patches both militaristic and artistic."Sorry if I startled you." She gave a smile as she landed on her feet in front of Melonie. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay." She was about medium in height, but it was obvious that her boots gave her a few inches as they had thick rubber soles and high-ish heels."That's her." The voice whispered, though only the girl could hear it. All she could do was stare in awe at the colorful adult."You know, it isn't often we get kids your age wandering around this late. Can I ask where your parents are?" She seemed nice and Melonie only stared for a moment longer before realizing she had to reply."Oh, uh," she looked around wildly for a second before looking at the adult, "um, I'm not from here. I mean-!" She shook her head. "My parents are at home.""Uh-huh." She didn't look skeptical, but the adult's tone was a bit suspicious. "And where are you from?" She rose a brow with her smile, keeping her kind demeanor as she inquired more."Uh..." Melonie stood in bewilderment as she realized this is where she could get in trouble.
"Tell her you're here to help."
"I'm here to help you." The girl piped up."'Help me'? Help me with what exactly?" The woman seemed curious and confused as she tilted her head with her hands firmly on her hips."The spirit!" Melonie blurted."Hm!" The woman had an estranged smile plastered on her face. A literal child was saying she was here to help her with something as special as a weapon that could end the multiverse when accompanied with others like it. "And, who sent you?" She asked, her voice high with skepticism as she pinched half her face.
"Say Cadmus did."
"My dad!" Melonie felt herself beginning to panic, but the woman only became more confused."She doesn't know who you are or who your dad would be!" The voice was beginning to panic to."And, who is—""Cadmus!" Melonie nearly shouted, but she realized she was being loud and shrunk slightly. "I mean- Cadmus. My dad is Cadmus. He sent me to help with the spirit.""Oh!" The woman brightened with realization. "You're his and Grape's kid! Melonie, right?"Melonie gave a sigh of relief as the woman connected the dots. She nodded and felt her stress lighten."Wow." The adult looked around. "You're a long ways from home. How'd you get all the way out here?" She asked, looking back down at the girl."Oh, well, I used this pencil—" Melonie pulled out the magic mechanical pencil, and the woman gave an excited chuckle."Oh ho ho!" She sounded happy as she saw the relic. "Dude, I remember when Grape would use that thing all the time back in the day! You know," she leaned in as if to share a fun fact, "she said she'd get dreams and that's how she would go to new universes and explore them, writing everything she could down in an old journal!""Oh, this one?" Melonie asked as she pulled out the book she had in her bag. She wanted to instigate more conversation about her mother. Grape didn't lie about any of it, but she would avoid the topic every chance she got."Oh creators!" The woman squealed, taking the worn journal. She immediately opened to the page of her own universe. "Ohhh..." She gave a reminiscent sigh. "I remember drawing these diagrams... You know," she looked at Melonie, "she had so much trouble getting the details right on the wings, she set out to go find the Vi of the universe to do it instead. It took her a whole day just to track me down!" She laughed as she went back to the pages."You're Vi?" The girl asked."Close!" She stayed looking at the page. "I'm a variant of hers, the one with wings." She then looked back down at Melonie and extended a hand. "But I go by Vel around here.""Nice to meet you, Vel!" Melonie felt happy as she shook the woman's hand. This was great! She was here to help and was even making a friend. Vel gave another sigh."I remember her asking so many questions... And she wrote down all of my answers!" She gave a happy giggle. "Oh, so many good memories. She was fun."Melonie smiled, she could've lit up a dark room with how happy she was to hear about her mother. She took a breath to ask about more, but someone came swooping down and landed right next to the woman."Vel." The person only said her name and she knew who it was without having to look up."Sier!" She slowly looked up and turned the book to the tall individual, her pinpricks literally peeling of the page. "Look! It's Grape's old journal!" The person didn't look all that excited.Melonie almost thought it was the same person from her vision the night before. They had the same hair and eyes as them, except they had wings. They else dressed differently with a plain white button-up and no tie or jacket. They had the black waistcoat and dark jeans, but other than that, they looked like a simplified version of the other, but just with wings of black feathers and white bones. Sier took one look at Melonie and looked back at Vel."What's her daughter doing here?" They asked in a flat tone."She's here to help!" She went back to the book. "Also, how'd you piece together who she was so fast?""Because," they folded their arms as they looked back at the girl, "she resembles the King and Chief's daughter, just without the wings." Sier's voice sounded begrudging."Ya know, I had the thought." Vel's pinpricks stayed on the book. Sier sighed and rolled their mismatching eyes before snagging the book out of her hands. "Hey!" They snapped it shut with one hand and held it above her reach. She reached for it with no effort—considering she had wings and can literally fly—just to fail. "What gives?""'What gives' is the fact that you said you'd be home three hours ago." Their voice was slick as their eyes narrowed with annoyance."Yeah, well, I had to move the spirit." Vel shrugged as if to not take all of the blame."Moving the spirit takes four hours?!" They were pointing out her shortcomings and she hated that."Well, I wanted to do a quick patrol before heading home—""Nu-uh!" They sounded frustrated. "You are one of the fastest officers on the force! A 'quick patrol' of the entire city for you is half an hour! A full one at most! You were ditzing around again, weren't you?!" She sighed and rolled her pinpricks."Fine! Maybe I was! But at least it lead me to making a new friend!" She gestured to Melonie with an exaggerated shrug, and the girl gave a mental fist pump at successfully making friends with the woman.Sier gave a disgruntled sigh with a wrinkled face."Urgh! Just—" They put out a firm hand. "Give it to me. I'll take care of it, you go home.""What about her?" Vel put on her best puppy-dog-pinpricks—a phenomena where the pinpricks somehow grow and sparkle as the teeth shrink and pinch upwards in a pitiful frown—and Sier didn't even glance at the girl."Well, I would say you take her back home, but you won't even be back by sun-up." Vel gave them a sad look as her shoulders wilted. "No! Don't give me that look! You'll wake up the entire family just to have a several hour long talk with Grape!""You say it like I'd lecture her...." Vel rolled her pinpricks and folded her arms like a moody teenager filled with disappointment. Let it be known that this is a universe where Vi created S, and that Vel is essentially Sier's mother. The fact the older character is blatantly less mature than the younger is a common trope across the multiverse. Sier took on a stubborn look."Spirit. Now."Vel gave an annoyed look before reluctantly popping a pocket satchel off her belt. She tossed it to Sier and the tall nonbinary snatched it from the air effortlessly."You shouldn't be throwing these around." They said before walking to Melonie and handing her the book, all while keeping eye contact with the woman. "Now go home. I'll be taking her back to her own house and then I'll drop off the spirit somewhere secure.""I was going to just bring it home. After all, you're always there so you could just watch it." Vel give an innocent shrug as she admitted her idea to give Sier the responsibility."Really? Shirking everything onto me?""Yeah, well, you're always telling me that where I put it 'isn't a good spot'." She put her hands on her hips and shook her head as she mocked them. Their look of stubbornness only deepened into a disapproving frown."A museum is the worst place. Everyone's always stealing from those things.""Oh boy, here we go again!" She waved her hands in annoyance."Yes, here we go again, because you're literally a member of the police force! The station is far more secure just from your coworkers alone compared to the random individuals who work night security shifts at some museum!"Vel mocked them even more by swaying her head opening and closing her hand in sync with their words. This was common practice for skeletons when mocking characters with mouths that could open."Meow, meow, meow-meow-meow!" She meowed in annoyance."If you meow one more time—!""Meow! Meow! Meow!" Vel shouted."You know what?! You're so immature, you make up for the fact that you created me as an adult and I never had a childhood!" Sier had the tone of someone who at least knew what taxes were. The woman only squinted her sockets at them."Oh yeah? Well at least I know how to have fun, unlike someone!" And she stuck her nonexistent nose in the air."Go home!" They shouted. "Go home, and go to your room!" They sounded like a strained parent even though they weren't in this relationship. To specify, they aren't the parent. They are still perfectly strained when having to corral Vel verbally."Hey!" She pointed up at them with a stern finger. "You keep talking to me like that, Mixter, and you won't get dessert for a whole week!""I don't care!" Sier exasperated. "I'm an adult! I can fly wherever I want, whenever I want, and buy things myself!" She gave a disappointed snap like she just lost something."Darn! I knew I should've made you ten-years-old for life...""Oh, shut up! Don't be mad that you were following a trend and now you're dealing with the consequences!""Yeah, well—""Go! Home!" Sier cut Vel off and her shoulders wilted with begrudging disappointment."Fine." She skulked as she turned away. "Keep me updated." And she started to walk away. After she continued to walk for a while, Sier called to her."Fly, for crying out loud! I'm giving you thirty minutes! If you don't text me with a selfie as proof that you got home, I'm messaging all of your coworkers to go find you as a missing persons assignment!" She shouted back a "you're bluffing", but they only continued. "You know I have the Chief's contact! I'll even text the King if it'll get you moving!"That seemed to be enough for Vel as she started to fly in the direction of her home. Sier gave a sigh and pulled out their phone, turning back to Melonie. For a moment the girl stood there, not knowing what to think of the conversation she just heard."Sorry about that." They muttered. "She avoids going home at the end of the day..." Melonie only smiled and nodded unsurely."Oh, it's okay." She was being polite to try and make up for her obliviousness to the situation."Can I see that pencil real quick?" They asked as they extended their hand."Oh! Uh, sure." She handed them the old mechanical pencil and they took it.Sier began to write out the words for Melonie's universe—the girl assuming the nonbinary with wings taking her home before taking the spirit somewhere safe—but it was clear that that was a mistake.Sier didn't even finish the first word to "Original" before being taken out and down in a tackle by someone who could double as their clone.
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"Mindfulness resides in the thoughts. Your eyes fill with orange light and you become aware of every. Little. Thing. You see things that the normal eye can't see. You sense the weak points of every. Little. Thing. You hear the entire world around you. You taste the particles that make up the atmosphere. You feel every nerve on your body blaring at you, reporting what is being felt. Every. Little. Part of you feels as if you're going to implode from all of the information. But Mindfulness makes you aware. You're sensitive, yes, but you're also sharp. But that visible wit is useless if you can't execute. Stay moving, the only thing that can help you is the next spirit."
S may not have had wings, but they knew exactly how to throw their own body at someone to totally take them down. Once Sier was in their arms, it was effortless to make them fall to the ground. The pencil went flying out of their hand when S made contact, and once Sier hit the ground, their phone went clattering as it slid across the thick glass floor. S knew what they were here for and was perfectly aware of where exactly it was as they started to grab for the satchel on Sier's hip. But the winged nonbinary wasn't that easy.S had thrown Sier down on their side, causing the maniac to straddle them and reach all the way to the side that was on the ground—Sier's left—in order to snatch the belt bag. So, the winged character proceeded to roll to their right, trapping S's arm under them. The maniac pulled and struggled."Hey! No fair!" S grunted as they tried to free their arm.Sier didn't say anything as they extended their wings, fully smacking S in the face with bone and feather. The maniac rolled off of them spitting and spurting black feathers out of their mouth."Pfft, puh, bleh!" S made sounds as they tried to rid themselves of the annoying puffs of fluff. Once they were distracted, Sier leapt to their feet. They quickly ran over to pick up their phone and the pencil to go back to Melonie."Take this." Sier handed her the pencil as they took deep and tired breaths. "Go home." They didn't take their eyes off of S even as she protested."But—""Go." Their voice was firm. There was danger but it wasn't for her. It was like Sier knew that whatever was about to happen, it wasn't going to be good and it wasn't going to be nice especially for Melonie. Sier finally looked down at her, the urgency clear as day on this night. "Go home."For a second Melonie agreed. She received the message and she was going to do exactly what they told her. That was until S threw a left fist into Sier's jaw, causing the refined recluse to stumble away from the girl. All she could do was watch as she realized who the attacker was."It's you..." Melonie muttered as she stared up at the rainbow tie. S almost didn't hear her before looking down and seeing the girl. All they could do was stare back at her."Wait," S said in a quiet tone, "you aren't supposed to be here."Melonie was about to say something back—anything to start a conversation—but Sier came soaring into S far better than the maniac had in turn just a moment before. Once S was in their arms, Sier wasted no time to take off, practically leaving behind a cloud of dust as they sped up into the sky. Even S seemed to squash and stretch as they were abruptly taken away.The girl could only watch helplessly as the mysterious stranger was taken up, up, and away. She ran to where they had been and looked up, but she was only met with two bodies shrinking into the night sky. She stood and watched as the two minute individuals began to quarrel in the stars, but her attention was snagged away from the fighting as something fell down and smacked against the glass.Melonie recognized the item as the satchel that seemed to be holding the spirit. She even saw a sliver of the orange star as the flap slightly opened to reveal its precious contents. The girl went over to pick it up, but someone snatched it from the glass. She flinched and stood back up."Hey!" Melonie wasn't good with confrontation, and her confidence continued to shrink as the person ignored her. She didn't even get a good look at their face as they continued to walk, completely ignoring her. "Er- Wait!" She stuttered before calling to the individual again, finally starting to run after them.—————T remembered very vividly what S had told him."When I fight that person with the wings, they're going to take me into the sky. When they fly me up, a small bag is gonna drop. When that bag hits the ground, pick it up. Take it and leave. Now, don't run, because that could bring attention to you. Instead, walk. Act casual. Walk to an alley and turn the corner, look at your wrist even, and then you can start running."And the boy listened. He did all of it. He was fully aware of the girl behind him, but he ignored her the entire time. As he walked, she bounced from side to side of him, trying her best to get his attention. Was T frantically ranting to himself mentally the prompt to act casual and not say anything? Of course, he was borderline panicking on a social level that we humans are all too familiar with. Even the girl was confused why this guy was ignoring her. Eventually, he got to a corner. Finally.T didn't understand what looking at his wrist meant, but he did it right before turning the corner, and then he started to run. Once he started running she knew that he was part of the spirit conundrum that was afoot.Melonie tried to keep up, but he was taller and his legs were longer. She resorted to taking on her spirit animal form—turning into a small green and yellow parakeet—just to keep up. The girl easily soared over T and landed and transformed back into a skeleton, landing on her feet as she stared him down- er, up, I suppose. He was significantly taller than her.The boy was hit with a strong whiff of ripe melons and he only had to blink before the girl was in front of him. He stopped and stared at her in surprise before speaking up and asking her wis amazement."How'd you do that?" He had wonder in his voice. In all honesty, it took Melonie off guard. After all, he was in the middle of stealing a piece to the ultimate weapon that destroys the multiverse. However, he doesn't entirely know that. She glanced down at herself before looking up at him with a confused expression."Do what?" Melonie's power was so second nature to her and the smell of her magic was so pleasant, she barely noticed when she transformed. Did this result in her waking up as a bird sometimes? Yes. But her parents were familiar with her scent—as they're both in the canis family themselves—that they always knew it was her."That thing!" T waved his arm up and around. "You turned into something small with wings!""A bird?" Melonie was puzzled. How did this guy not know what a bird was?"Ohhh..." He nodded even though he did, in fact, not understand. "So," he looked up and pointed at the winged nonbinary, "is that person a bird? They aren't small," T looked back down at Melonie as his arm dropped, "but they do have wings.""Uh..." She was the wrong person to ask this question to. "I don't think so?" There was unsurety in her voice. She knew nothing about this world and didn't want to make any definite assumptions."Okay." There was awkward silence between the two before T slowly started turning. "I'm... I'm gonna go now.""Wait!" Melonie jolted forward, jumping in front of him. "You can't leave!""And..." The boy glanced to the side uncomfortably. "Why's that?""Because you..." Melonie sighed. "It's just- that bag." And she pointed to it as he looked down at the satchel. "I know who that belongs to, and I need to give it back to them.""That person with the wings had it." T looked up to see the two nonbinaries duking it out still. The girl nodded."Yeah, that's right! I need to give it back to them before—""But just because they had it," T looked back down at her, "doesn't mean it's theirs." And she saw something in his expression.The boy's brows were furrowed and he had a slight frown. He was thinking about all the things S had told him, like how the multiverse was full of liars and cheaters. Melonie didn't know how to understand this strange individual who didn't know what a bird was, but his face was crystal with the single word it uttered. Distrust."Well, I suppose—""No." His voice was growing firm in his own way, like a lion cub trying to growl for the first time.You might think something so small and unknowing is weak and the girl shouldn't be afraid, but she was. He was tall and easily towered over her. The boy also resembled the freak of creation that was in the process of taking down the main obstacle in the way of the spirit. And for all Melonie knew, he held every bit of ability that the maniac had."This spirit is for S!" He pulled the bag out and away from her, even putting up his other hand to block her path to him. "You can't take it, I won't let you!""But they'll destroy the multiverse with it!" Melonie blurted frantically. The boy only slightly scrunched his body in confusion."No, they're going to fix the multiverse!" T sounded convinced, and she didn't know what to think of it. "Whether you all like it or not!""By killing everyone?" Now she was just confused.Melonie was aware that S was troubled by coming back to the multiverse—to put it lightly—and that there was a small possibility that they could be trying to "fix" it all, but that was the hero in her talking. That was the side of her that felt everyone had some amount of good. But all the adults in her life—ghosts included—were telling her, lecturing her, that this person was out to kill the multiverse. She practically visualized it as S wanting the multiverse's head on a silver platter just because. Everyone made it sound like S had no true reason to strive and bring an end to the multiverse, but Melonie knew that couldn't be the whole truth."No!" T held such sure conviction. "That isn't what they're going to do! They told me themself!""W-well- Mmm..." Melonie started, but cut herself off with an unsure hum. The gears were turning and her anxious emotions didn't know what to think of the ticking.On one hand, S was the liar everyone said they were. On the other, S was just trying to set things right. The girl was really starting to sell herself on the mental narrative that S just wanted to make things good. Besides, who was this guy anyways? He looked older than her, yet he didn't even know what a bird was. Was he a twin? She had the notion that maybe S created him, but she had the feeling everyone would immediatley dawn a look of shocked disbelief when they found out.So she decided to ask him."So... you and S... you're...?""Oh!" T smiled, brightening up the night. "I know this one! S told me!" He seemed so happy to tell her. "I'm their son! S created me!"All Melonie could do was stare up at him. She didn't know why she felt this way, but it all cemented in and made some sense as the next events unfolded.As the girl stood there, as if from comedic effect and timing, the two combatant characters came crashing to the glass floor of the city. They landed on the hard yet somehow fragile ground and literally made an indent with Sier's body. Unfortunately for the refined recluse, S had beaten them to a cartoonish pulp which meant their limbs were mangled in every which way. The maniac proceeded to use them as "cushioning" for their rough landing. You could tell it was difficult because S swayed and staggered as they got up off the defeated character. The maniac gave a heavy sigh as they rolled their head and stretched their limbs."Whelp." They gave a fulfilling breath. "Now that that's taken—"But they were cut off as the winged nonbinary lifted a weak hand and grabbed their ankle. S didn't even seem surprised as they looked down at their foot and moved their sight back to Sier."You know you lost." S raised their brows and gave an unfortunate smirk as they stared down at the flattened feather-head."This... isn't about me..." Sier sounded ragged as their grip vaguely tightened. "This... is about... the multiverse."S didn't reply at first, their reaction only being a twisted expression of disgust and disdain. After a moment, they rolled their eyes and shook their head as they yanked their foot out of Sier's hold and knocked their hand back with S's heel. The maniac proceeded to not say anything as they walked over to the boy and the girl. He got excited."You did it!" T chirped. S gave a smile, some of his joy rubbing off on their exhausted self."We did!" They sounded tired. "You got that bag I told you about?""Of course!" And the boy handed it to the maniac. Melonie felt herself hesitantly put a premature hand out in defiance, but she was only in the background as S confidently took it from T."Thanks, kiddo." And S felt their smile become more genuine—yet staying wholesome—as they opened the satchel and became bathed in orange light. They didn't even look at it that long before plunging their hand into the leather pouch. Where S once had one bright orange eye, now both were alive and searing with magical energy.It's hard to describe in words what S was feeling. In a nutshell, they were overstimulated in a way that only the most sensitive of us humans can unfortunately comprehend. Even Melonie understood what was happening as S fell to their knees and proceeded to curl up on the floor and rock their head back and forth to keep them from cracking."Dad?" T didn't understand. He went to reach down to them, but Melonie put a hand on his arm."Wait, they're overstimulated." How did she know this?"Overstumpulated?" Well he certainly didn't."Overstimulated. It's like..." She tried to gather her thoughts as she began to understand why she knew this. "It's like when things get too loud, or your clothes don't feel right. You can get overstimulated when your senses become overwhelmed.""Oh..." He nodded. "So I shouldn't touch them right now?""Yeah." Melonie gave a nod. "I would just leave them alone right now."And as S laid there, she connected the dots. She did this sometimes. Melonie's laid on the floor a lot throughout the years. She remembers one summer she was so annoyed by her own clothes she just spread out on the tile in just a tank-top and shorts. The girl stayed facedown even as her mom checked on her."N-no!" Sier practically had to strain for their voice to reach the two kids. "You should go give them a hug or something! Touch 'em all over!"Both T and Melonie shared an unsure look, the boy's with more doubt than hers. They eventually looked back at the mangled body that was Sier."No, I don't think I should." T replied to the prompt."Ohhh, you totally should!" The raggedy recluse grunted as they struggled to sit up right. Now Melonie saw it and her eye sockets grew in huge concern.In the process of S and Sier fighting, the maniac threw a punch so hard it spun the winged character's head around a couple times on their neck. Not too terribly long after that, the two came plummeting out of the sky. As Sier tried to get up, she saw the torn skin from their head turning the wrong way too many times."Oh my..." Melonie muttered. "Are you okay?""Peachy." Sier sounded so nonchalant. "Just peachy." They gave another grunt as they stood to their feet, slightly swaying as they went upright.The ragged recluse grabbed their head and started to use their hands to "screw" it back in place. It's not as graphic as you think. Sier is an S much similar to the original in the sense that they're a walking art project. When they bleed, they bleed ink. Sure, it's a pain to get out of carpet and off wood, but you begin to manage when your skin is just a dried acrylic paint texture. Now, Sier did have some gunk on their clothes, unfortunately all of it was their own and none of it from striking S hard enough. There was ink on their shirt collar, some lacerations on the edge of their limbs and torso, and even a wonky leg from landing a little too hard. Melonie found it miraculous that the winged individual could stand and walk over to the two kids."You don't look like a peach." T was so close, barely missing the mark of what everyone was thinking. Just replace "like a peach" with "fine" and he would have been right on point."It's a figure of speech." Sier sounded rough, like their clothes weren't the only thing that was tattered. They looked down at S and started mumbling to themself. "I can't get it out... but I could make it worse for them—"But just as the ragged recluse started to move towards the maniac—even as they ignored T who whimperingly protested—S's once crammed eyes flew open and they looked up at Sier."Move towards me another inch, I dare you."For a second, Sier hesitated, the threat registering and the winged character taking serious note. But their vaguely shocked expression turned into flat disbelief as they continued to move. The ragged recluse assumed S was still feeling the effects of the spirit, as both eyes were still bright orange. But all Sier did was step their foot forward and shift their wings slightly and S was up, ready for a sure strike, their eyes an overt orange.It was like all Melonie did was blink and the maniac was promptly to their feet and holding a golden halberd. Now, it took S effort to move so fast—after all, they didn't have the next spirit, the one that makes them speedy—but the cut was clean. The girl was horrified and yet amazed as the freak easily sliced Sier's neck in two, completely and perfectly severing their head off the their winged shoulders. It was impeccable how S didn't even nick Sier's wings as they rose in a futile attempt to protect themself.The winged nonbinary's head fell to the side and their body dropped to another. Their body remained motionless—a lump of sculpted clay—as their head rolled across the glass ground. Eventually it stopped, their face upright as all signs pointed to a bitter end, but—"Ow..." Sier scrunched their face with discomfort before looking up at S who stood over them. "You suck!""Yeah I do." The maniac had a smirk and the bodiless head scowled at them."There's kids here! You didn't need to be so excessive!" S only laughed at Sier's rhetorical remark."I don't know, I think they had fun." The freak looked at their son. "What'd you think, kiddo?" For a second T looked at Sier, but once he looked back at S, he had a smile."That was so cool! Can you teach me how to do that?" He didn't understand the weight of what S had done.You'll read about Sier and their severed head and freak out for a second. After all, characters losing their heads in books is never a good sign. However, most S' are crafted in a special way that keeps them from dying to most—if not all—mortal wounds. Skeletons are different as their spirit connects their body and keeps it alive. Sever the cable that is between the spirit and the body—essentially the neck—and the body blips away, gone forever. It's only a matter of time before the spirit short-circuits and the head sparks away into death as well.S knew full well that this was dipping the boy's toes in violence. There were going to be plenty of times where he would watch people get hurt, and S was testing T's waters. They knew this would be a perfectly mundane way of introducing him to what could potentially unfold in the future.Melonie was terrified. All she could do was stand there, her spirit quivering as S looked at her. She wanted so badly to be relieved once their eyes went back to normal, but the fact the maniac was still standing sent shivers down her spine. They kept their mismatching eyes on her as they moved to the boy."Let's go, T. We have more spirits to collect." S wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders as Melonie stumbled out of their way. She watched with worry as the two began to walk towards a dark shadow. T looked at the maniac with... hope, of all things."We're going to the next one? Where is it?" He... he really did think S was doing the multiverse some good.S laughed."It's somewhere called The Steampunk Universe, or SPAU for short." They looked back at the girl."I do hope you'll join us, Melonie." S whispered as their final parting words to her before vanishing into the shadow realm.
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A swear is how a majority of the sleeping characters of this story woke up. Well, that is to say the villains did. Cadmus doesn't have a single swear in his vocabulary, and Vi is the mother of the swear-jar concept around these parts. Cadmus woke up to his phone pinging at him at a solid seven o'clock in the morning and he felt disappointment seep in the moment he read the dreaded words.Vel: S got the spirit.There was more, but his groggy sight only picked up the important detail of the wellbeing of the multiverse. Not to say his daughter isn't important, but he didn't get to that part before stumbling out of bed and shooting Enzo a text. After the hero's finger frantically frolicked around on the keys, Cadmus moved to start getting dressed.Schatten kicked Enzo awake, literally, to get the king to check his phone. The villainess is a fairly light sleeper and she can pick up any little sound, identify it in her sleep, and act accordingly. She's part of the reason why Enzo gets up miraculously on time even after pulling a late night shift. He opened his phone, squinting his sockets in an attempt to make out the words. Cadmus's spelling wasn't exactly stellar in the morning."Ohhhhh..." Enzo moaned as he dropped his shoulders along with his head and rubbed his face in disappointment. He turned partially towards Schatten. "S got Mindfulness." He muttered in his groggy voice. She frowned further in her sleepy state."Beating the crap outta you won't do stuff, will it?" Once again, Schatten said something I don't dare repeat because people I know will (hopefully) read this.Enzo gave a contemplative sleepy hum."Mmm... I don't think it will." Even after just waking up, Enzo had his snarky tone. Schatten proceeded to shove him out of the bed, a fate that he anticipated as he moved to land on his feet. Once upright, he moved towards his closet to start getting dressed as he tapped away on his phone."So?" Schatten asked out of his direction, not bothering to look at him. "What's your 'fool-proof' plan this time?""I'm texting Vine and Cameo the news—""Copy Concord." Schatten was nonchalant as she told him who else to contact. Enzo gave a burdened sigh as he dropped his shoulders before turning to her with an annoyed expression."It's been a solid twenty-four hours. She should be fine by now.""Enzo..." She had a stern yet wet tone, like she was warning him. "That isn't how her emotions work and you know it. After all, how long has she been working for you?"He muttered something."You better speak up or so help me—""Sixty-seven years. She's worked with her group for about sixty-seven years.""The point is," Schatten finally turned forward and propped herself up on her elbow to look at him, "you have no excuse to not bring her into consideration. She's one of your best and you have nearly thrown her to the side over and over. If it wasn't for me and the other girls, who knows where she'd be."Enzo sighed as he grabbed the handle to his closet."... yeah. You're right." He swung the door open. "It's just... it's my bubble."Enzo had a habit that he adopted a long time ago. He has a theory it came with his workaholic tendencies, but he gets stuck in his own bubble. He doesn't purposefully do it, it's just the way he thinks. The king has been known to bring others up to his expectations without either individual realizing it. The only people who he lets chew him out for this are his wife and a select few employees who happen to be close to him.After Enzo copied Concord on what had happened, he shot everyone he could a quick message to meet at the castle at nine. It was currently 7:30, so that gave everyone an hour and a half to get ready and be there. He copied Vine, Cameo, Concord, and Cadmus. He proceeded to text Enzo back saying he'd let Vi know. The king gave an involuntary frown of disappointment and uneasiness. He always hated when she came to the castle."Alright." He tossed his phone on the bed as he started to get dressed. "Messages have been sent." Schatten reached over and picked up his device, starting to look and see what he had sent."And why didn't you copy me?" She asked as her wrist went limp so she could more easily look up at her husband. Schatten didn't sound annoyed or dangerous, so Enzo took this as a "matter-of-fact" situation."Well, I didn't know if you wanted to come along. Besides, if you do come, then Marlie should probably come, too." The king remarked. The shadow gave an unamused hum."Mm. Mm, mm, mm. And here we have our problem." She went back to his phone, mindlessly scrolling whatever she could find. "We, that is to say you, haven't talked to her about what happened yesterday." Enzo forced a chuckle to try and make this lighter than Schatten was going to let it be."What is there to talk about?" The king shrugged it off, but she wouldn't let him."What's 'to talk about' is the reason why we brought her along in the first place." Schatten put the phone down. "You may not have said anything about it, but you had that twinkle in your pinpricks.""A twinkle? You know that isn't supposed to be. I'm the king of—""Shut up and let me talk." The shadow wasn't playing anymore and Enzo realized this as he did exactly as she told him. "You had that look you get when you're excited about an idea. You wanted to bring Marlie. You wanted to show her what it's like fighting for the multiverse."He took a breath to say something, his shoulders rising as he closed his sockets, but Enzo was cut off right before his words even started."But your expectations weren't met. You were the first to be knocked out, and the rest of us were thrown down a couple several pegs, too. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the real reason you were in such a mood after Cameo healed you. You were upset that you didn't get your way and were so easily taken care of by S. And S was only one person." He gave an annoyed huff as she pointed out his shortcomings."Okay, fine!" He put out his arms as if to motion to the topic. "That wasn't how I wanted to do things! I didn't want my precious daughter to watch me and the rest of you get clobbered by an abnormally tall freak who wants to destroy us all!""And that's fine, Enzo! You just need to come to terms with it!" Schatten shouted."I am! I am by not talking about it! Let it die with my embarrassment!" He held conviction."Oh, cry yourself a river, build a bridge and get over your darn self!" She swore again. She does that a lot.The two continued to argue like the old married couple they were. Old in the sense that both of them are in their seventies. Surprise surprise, they've only been married for the past twenty-one years, too. Their fifteen-year-old daughter has no idea about their age, not because they keep it a secret. She just never pays attention.Enzo and Schatten continued their arguing and Marlie remained snoozing in her own bed. Even with her mother's loud volume, she took more after her father and preferred to sleep through the sounds of morning. The events of yesterday were more of an unamusing let down to her. Unfortunately for her father, Marlie took more after her mother when it came to being emotionally in touch with others. She saw it to, his excitement to show her. It wasn't hard for the teen to piece together why her dad was bitter after getting beaten both by a deranged psycho who wanted everyone dead and his own wife who wanted the king to act like a an adult.To rub salt in the wound, she got a notification from her favorite fanfic site that one of the works she followed just got an update as the family headed home. The teen remarked this as she went upstairs, smirking as she heard Enzo give a disappointed stomp to turn to Schatten and give her a wild gesture that meant he was dissatisfied with the way Marlie was acting. The mother just rolled her pinpricks and shook her head as the teen went upstairs to fall asleep while reading her fanfics.Eventually, Schatten and Enzo continued the morning. The shadow went upstairs to wake up their daughter, and the king started the process of making toast for the family to take on the go. The two lovers have never taken divorce into consideration, and you may be shocked to find that out considering how much they argue and the way they fight. Enzo has always been a man of words, and Schatten takes after the woman who created her in that she throws punches first and asks questions later. But at the end of the day, the things they use to argue are also a main way they show their love. Even the punching? Don't be ridiculous, her hands aren't just for hitting people! Though she does really love to punch others, and her husband is no exception. He knew what he was signing up to be with for time and all eternity.Schatten didn't have to do much to wake Marlie up. She typically has to just walk to the door, knock loudly on the frame, and start a conversation with her. No, this isn't Schatten being a cruel mother. This is how my own parents wake me up, and just like them, Schatten even asks before turning on the light. Enzo just forgets there's a light switch in the first place. Marlie likes it when he wakes her up because it takes him the better part of thirty minutes to even get her sockets to open."Alright, Mars-Bar!" Her motherly voice projected just on the cusp of being harsh, but still getting the job done to wake up her daughter. "Time to get up! I'm turning on the light!" I suppose Schatten doesn't really "ask", but it's the heads-up that counts. Marlie gave a moan as she pulled her covers higher above her head, eventually shifting her pillow over her head."'S too early..." She muttered loud enough for her mother to hear as the woman turned on the light."It's only eight. Your father would already have one foot out the door to be at the castle by now." Schatten folded her arms."Oh yeah?" Marlie peaked out from under her covers, Schatten seeing a groggy pinprick in the teen's dark window to the bright morning. The girl looked her mother up and down, her sky blue pinpricks she inherited from her father taking note of the villain outfit the woman was already wearing. "And what's stopping you from going with him?""You." Schatten raised her bone-brows and dropped her head to the side. "We decided to bring you along." Marlie chuckled, the small hole of the blankets closing as she shifted back into her dark cover."Uh-huh, right. Cuz yesterday went exactly to plan."Now it was Schatten's turn to chuckle."Ohh, don't get me started." She sounded tired, like all she had done was think about it. "Speaking of 'plan', get ready. We're going to the castle to meet up with the others and hopefully make a good one that'll work." Schatten pat the door frame, her bones tapping against it harshly as she told her daughter what to do."What if I am ready?!" Marlie called after her mother, sticking her head out of the blanket fortress."Then Concord'll like your Lucky Charm pajama pants!"Marlie gave a teenage pinprick roll as she begrudgingly got out of bed to change into a day-worthy outfit to be awake and not sleep in.—————"Bye! I love you!" He didn't look back as he opened the front door."HOLD ON!" She may have only been in the kitchen, but her voice boomed through the house. Cadmus stopped as soon as the door was opened and turned to Grape, as he heard rummaging in the kitchen before she came out and over to him. "Where are you going? What's going on? Why haven't you eaten breakfast? And where in the world is my precious good morning klek?"Cadmus took a breath to answer her, his shoulders rising, but he hesitated. She was cramming too many questions at him and he never knew which to answer first. The hero wobbled his head as the thoughts unraveled. Technically the klek question was the most important, but the one asking where he was going would be the fastest to answer. Both why he hadn't eaten breakfast and what was going on went hand in hand."Too many questions?" Grape broke his undecided hums and head twisting, his face scrunching as he seemed on the cusp of a mental over-stimulus."Too many questions." He repeated as his face went to normal. His wife sighed."What's going on?" Her sockets were soft as she inquired about his situation."S... got The Spirit of Mindfulness last night." Cadmus frowned as he felt guilt from the event."How late?" Grape asked, feeling unsettled by this course of events."Early this morning, I think?" He shrugged. "I didn't read all of what Vel sent me. I texted Enzo and some of us are meeting at the castle to form a better plan.""'Better plan'?" His wife sounded a bit stern. "Cadmus, how many chances does Enzo get to make a 'better plan'?" He shrugged."I dunno, but I have faith in him. He hasn't really messed up this bad before, but I know he can turn it around." And he gave her that look. Grape was familiar with the expression. Cadmus didn't flash it very often but it was something people picked up on easily. His emotions were simple; "I'm scared too, but I trust that good will prevail." She sighed."Alright..." And she looked back at her husband. "But at least let me make you a smoothie or something to take with you. We can't have you passing out from missing breakfast." He nodded."Okay. I'll take a smoothie or something." And he smiled at her.This really was a tender moment, and I'm about to ruin it with an info-dump as she makes him a darn breakfast smoothie.It used to be that skeletons didn't like thick drinks as they didn't filter as easily through their cartoon teeth. But after deciding that they can take magic bites of things like cereal and soup, I find it makes more sense if they just do a combination of eating and drinking. You may think I would approach this as a "they-just-toss-it-in-the-socket" solution but that would be extremely messy. No, they just consume the thick liquid, or chunks in a drink, as they intake it. That's probably only more confusing. To put it in simple human terms that only sound complicated to us in magic terms; they chew as they drink.It took Grape no time at all to whip up a peach and berry smoothie for the hero to take on the go. Cadmus loved peaches, something from his past that he picked up ever since he could remember. Could I use this time to explain how he existed in a "pre-skeleton" life before this? I could. Or, I could use The Legend of The Sacred Grove as a past installment of a future series. Besides, I can't tell the story of Cadmus without his bestest buddy Enzo!The husband took the drink and gave his wife a gentle klek."Thank you." He said. "And good morning." Cadmus went to pull away, but she held onto him. He looked back at her."Just- Be safe." She said. "Whatever you do, be safe." Grape realized how heavy she was making it sound and attempted to lighten the mood. "We really need to get our things together as a society, for when we have a crisis on the weekends." She tried to crack a smile and Cadmus gave a slight chuckle."I suppose we do. But I don't think anyone's running a suggestion box right now." He remarked. She gave a light scoff."I suppose not." She mimicked his tone.Cadmus started to move away again, but paused before he could make it out of the kitchen. The loving husband turned back to his wife."Oh! You don't suppose Melonie is up by now, do you? I don't want to leave without saying bye. After all, she hasn't seen me since yesterday.""Ohhhh!" Grape drew out her realization and shrugged. "I haven't seen her all morning. I figured I'd let her sleep in since it's the weekend." Cadmus nodded."That's fine! I was just curious is all." He turned away. "I should get going then. I'll see you later, Love!" He smiled and waved before turning the corner to head to the front door."Bye Babes!" She called as he left.And the hero left his wife, both parents oblivious to their absent and adventuring daughter.
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Enzo's castle is a place of elegance and prestige. It's comprised of beautiful dark stone with graceful carpets and tapestries. The color pallet is a range of simple blues mixed with the occasional dark purple, and with touches of silver and platinum. But don't let the beauty of this building fool you. It's a place fit for a king, but the villains are also very fond of it. Now, the lovely fortress of darkness was a majority empty—considering the fact that it's a Sunday—but at least one meeting room was being used at the moment.In the room, there were eight characters. Six villains—that's including the villain-to-be—and two heroes. Seven adults and one child. Five openly queer characters and three supposed straights. You might be wondering why I'm pointing out numbers and grouping the characters in labels, and the truth is that I'm just bored. I could categorize them by spirit animal forms—birds, lizards, and canis'—but I get the feeling that isn't what you're here for. After all I'm not being the slightest bit specific. Who's a hero and who's a villain? Who're the adults and who's the kid? Why are there so many queer characters and why are so many of the straights not definitely hetero? I suppose I should just go down the table and point out all the characters to you.Seating arrangements don't matter, though the villains would argue otherwise. The heroes don't care, after all one of the two of them is too busy gawking over all the little details as the artist she is. Enzo was at the head of the conference table and to his left went Cadmus, Vi, and Vine. To his right was Marlie, Schatten, Cameo, and Concord. At this point, you've met most, if not all, of these characters. Though, you haven't seen them all in the same room."Okay." Enzo muttered, closing his sockets to break his stare towards the wall and leaning forward on his elbows. "Let's get this over with.""It's nice to be here." Concord piped up. "I was told you almost forgot me again." She folded her arms and sat back, smirking under her face covering as she reveled in the chaos about to unfold."What?!" His voice was high as he looked at his family. "I trusted you! My loving wife!" Schatten took on a suprised look when he pointed at her."Me?!" She was getting riled up. "I'm not the one who went and snitched!" She looked at Marlie who shrugged."I knew it was gonna get chummy, so I decided to stir the pot a little." The teen smirked as the room reacted accordingly.Concord was entertained, hitting the table with the side of her fist as she held back a hearty laugh and leaned forward. Cameo covered her teeth and seemed to cough in an attempt to hide her giggles. Vine did nothing to hide her amusement, keeping her arms folded as she cackled. Cadmus sat there, smiling as he didn't get the joke, and Vi gave a little laugh at only understanding kind of what was happening. Enzo facepalmed, as he was the one who had to deal with this, and Schatten sighed, as she was the one who raised this teenage reckoning named Marlie."You weren't supposed to say anything." The mother muttered."And you weren't supposed to take my phone away for this. You know what I'm like when I'm bored." Marlie closed her sockets as she bargained. Schatten sighed and pulled the Whovian covered cellular device out of her pocket and slapped it on the table. The teen gave a wry smile as she grabbed it and started to tap around on it."No fanfics. We still want you listening." The mother remarked. Marlie nodded absent-mindedly, already moving towards a Doctor Who themed puzzle game."Alright." Enzo breathed his words as he sighed, sifting a hand through his hair under his hood. "Now, I have a plan, but—!" He held a finger to Vi who sat forward to talk. "I will be the one running this show." He looked at Cadmus. "I started this crisis, it will end under my watch."The hero gave the king a soft look of faith before giving an outright smile of hope. He knew his friend would come through. Unfortunately for Cadmus, he didn't know about the heavy request Enzo was about to make towards mister goody-two-shoes."Concord," she looked at her boss the way she always did when he had that tone, "take Vi and keep her out for a while. I'll message you when she can return.""What?!" The artist exclaimed as the murderous skeleton stood up. The taller lesbian in no way held hurtful intention towards the hero right now, but she's well known for her killing skills. "Wait! Guys! I can be good! I won't snitch!" Concord went over and plucked the short artist out of and started to walk away from the rolly-office-chair she had just been fidgeting in. "Guys, please!" But her pleas fell on deaf nonexistent-ears.Cadmus shot her a look of "sorry, I'll fill you in later", but when the man looked back at the king, Enzo had a "let me talk and then you can figure this out" expression."Vine!" Vi called for her girlfriend, but the villain turned a blind socket. In the end it took Concord little effort to remove the lesbian hero from the room."Let's take a walk." The villain suggested, putting Vi back on her feet once the door was shut."But, Concord!" The hero exclaimed more, her hands contorting with her struggle as she clawed at the villain in a futile attempt to sway her. "I don't wanna peruse this overly fancy building! I gotta be there for the plan! The plan, man!""Has Vine ever showed you all the paintings?""'Paintings'?" Vi got off the villain and perked up. "What paintings? I've only ever seen the dungeon.""Yeah, Enzo has lots of paintings." Concord started to walk down the hall, the artist quickly following on her heels."Oh my gosh, really?!" Vi started to bounce as she followed the villain. "You know, Vine's never given me a tour of where she works...""I'm just showing you the paintings." Concord stated."Okay!" Vi had a big ol' smile as she skipped down the halls.And with that, the short artistic lesbian of a hero was easily distracted from the nefarious plans being made in the conference room by the villainous king.—————"Right." Enzo spoke once the two had left. "Here's the plan." He and Vine stood up, the villainess going to the front of the room. A holographic green keyboard appeared in front of her and she began typing around on it. "There's a reason I didn't want Violet in here, and you better not go running." He looked at the hero with a mundane look of trust."Why?" Cadmus asked. "What could you possibly—"Something flashed on the board at the front of the room and he stopped dead in his tracks. The hero stared with wide sockets as something uncomfortably cold set in."We," Enzo glanced back at Cadmus, "are killing S."The room went quiet. Vine knew, and Cameo knew. Schatten wasn't surprised and Marlie perked up from her phone, now looking at the presentation. Cadmus was speechless as he looked over the diagram of the maniac."You..." He started, still not looking away from the breakdown of every weak spot. "You can't do that." Cadmus muttered, shock still blatantly taking up all of his mind."And yet we're going to." The king said, nodding to Vine.She tapped around as she began to speak."Technically S doesn't have any vital organs or the such, but they do have a spirit just like the rest of us." She tapped a key and the diagram zoomed into the head, showing a skull with a six point star in it. "We break that," she looked at the hero, "and they're gone.""But—!" Cadmus stuttered for a bit. "Why now?! This is terrible timing, you know this!""The only thing terrible about this timing," Enzo cut in, "is that the freak has gotten a taste of freedom. Now they have something to fight for. You saw it with the motivation spirit. S isn't messing around this time." The king had a cold look as he looked down on the hero."More the reason not to kill them!" Cadmus stood up. "They have found a purpose! They have—""A reason to destroy us." Vine interrupted harshly. "Before, there was nothing for them to do after they kill us all. Now they have somewhere to go once they get the job done.""Besides," Enzo added, "what says they'll stop here? I bet with all the power of the spirits, all they have to do is step foot in another multiverse and they could level it all to nothing."Cadmus felt trapped as everyone stared at him. He looked between each villain with the exception of Marlie who was still staring at the diagram. After a moment of him frantically trying to think of something—anything—he decided to ask the question no one but he had."Why?" He looked at the king. "Why am I here? You had Vi dragged out, but why keep me?" The hero's voice was shaky. It was like his tone betrayed him and showed how indecisive he was feeling.Enzo and Vine shared a look before the king nodded and she typed around the keyboard again."The thing is, we have hit S in the spirit before." Vine remarked as a diagram of the spirit alone came up. It was your typical six point star, but it wasn't normal for a spirit. Spirits are meant to be an array of bright colors, but this one was drowned in a dark, almost black, shade of purple. It had cracks of light, but that was it. "But normal and mundane magic weapons don't do anything. None of our weapons have the energy necessary to over power their darkest ambitions."Now everyone looked back at the hero. Cadmus furrowed his brows only slightly in confusion before horror set in on his expression."No..." He muttered. "No!" Now he shouted. "Absolutely not!" He swept a finger across the villains as he tried to stab his point into all of them as he stayed standing. "My spears will not be used for this!" He sounded offended and scared. "My light is not meant to kill!" He glared at Enzo. "You all know this! I do not kill! That is not what the light is for!"The room went quiet as the hero stood, huffing and puffing in his riled fright. After a while, Enzo spoke up, his tone calm to his friend. His voice drifted from the darkness of his cloak as his face cartoonishly hid in the shadow."I expected you to act like this, so I've come up with a way to negotiate the terms of your weaponry." The king extended a hand for Cadmus to take a seat. "Sit down and I'll explain."The hero gave an unsure sigh before sitting himself."Thank you." Enzo continued. "Now, I know you have never done any real harm since you've become a hero, so I understand where you're coming from. But this is something the villains need to accomplish to take out the problem we created.""But killing isn't the way to do things." Cadmus said, his tone firm but tame."And we aren't 'doing things', Cadmus." The king affirmed. "We are simply getting rid of something that could kill us if we don't kill it first.""But—""Nobody wins if everybody dies." Enzo stated and the hero wilted as he looked off to the side. "Us villains and heroes," the king paused slightly, "we're as different as they come. A notion to kill S could never be passed because of all your heroic convictions. We started this behind the hero's backs, and we're going to end it like that.""Then keep me out of it." Cadmus kept his voice firm. "Don't bring us into this all you want, but that includes me.""I can't." The king remarked as he shook his hooded head. "I can't do that, Cadmus. None of us can summon the right weapon to get this job done.""Then..." Cadmus started, closing his sockets before his expression scrunched with indecisiveness and shook with discomfort. "You should've—""What if you weren't the one to make the strike?" Everyone seemed surprised as Vine spoke up."What do you mean?" The hero asked with suspicious confusion on his face. "No one also can touch my spears unless the light lets them.""I have an idea." She said, looking from him to her boss. "Insurance, if you will. All I would need is some of those peaches you two are so stingy about.""Absolutely not!" Cadmus roared as he stood up, slamming his hands on the table. "Those fruits are not to fall in the wrong hands!""'Wrong hands'?!" Now Vine was offended. "I'm sorry, who's the real threat right now?! Let me remind you," she pointed a harsh finger at the diagram, "that one! They're the one we—together—have to fight!"Enzo put a hand out in front of her, his face still hidden even as she look at the king."Vine, it's alright.""No, it isn't! They're just really fancy fruits that you two yahoos killed each other over!" She shot a sharp look at Cadmus. "Lore wise, I can't do crap with those things! I can't handle the power of eating either one of those suckers, so what the blazes am I supposed to do with one?!""I don't know!" The hero barked. "You tell me!""My plan would be to take one or two peaches, those stupid light ones you care about so much, and turn them into gloves!" She shouted back."How in the world are you gonna make gloves out of peaches?!" Cadmus retorted."Because!" She waved her arms around as she began to explain, gesturing aggressively. "I'd take those atrocious apricots and use their core coding and basically make gloves out of that string of commands! Ever heard of fruit leather, you naïve nitwit?!""Don't you call me dumb!" He spouted. "Fruit leather is for eating, not wearing!""Not all of it! Some wonderful weavers make fanciful fruit frills!" She hissed."Both of you stop!" Enzo's voice boomed in the conference room. Even Marlie who was so deep in the drama jumped to look at her father."You!" He looked at Vine. "You're talking in alliterations again, and it's annoying!" I suppose he was doing it, too.The employee gave a pinprick roll as she glanced away in agitation. She didn't like the fact that she talks like a cartoonish villain when she got upset. The fact she was a cartoon and also a villain didn't help. The heroes do it as well, but everyone loves it when they have silly little quirks."And you." Now the king looked at the lone hero. "Sit." Cadmus gave a harrumph and did as he was told."Now, Cadmus." Enzo leaned forward, putting his hands on the table in a wide stance, dropping his voice low so there was focus for the hero. "We need your cooperation.""I can't just give you the peaches." The hero folded his arms with a stern look. The king gave a sigh slightly dropping his head as he turned to back to Vine."Do you need the peaches themselves, or do you just need the code?" He asked. The villainous worker gave a shrug."I dunno. I need to touch the things to get the code in the first place." Vine muttered."But we don't need to keep them. Right?" Enzo asked with a pushing tone. The villainess gave a harsh and begrudging sigh."No.... No, we don't." Vine rolled her pinpricks and dropped her head in annoyance as the king turned back to the hero."Then it's decided." Enzo muttered. "All you have to do is take us to the tree. Can you do that?" He cocked his head as if he was asking a child.Cadmus's hesitation didn't waver. This was going against every bit of wisdom he held. It was a simple rule; no one except him can go to the tree. And chances were, he was about to break that one belief he held so closely."Please, Cadmus." Enzo's sockets softened. "I know why you hesitate, I would too, but we need the code. She'll be the only one to go near the tree, even. I'll stay—""Fine." Cadmus wasn't sure about all of this, but he heard his friend.He heard a tone ages old of a boy who just wants protection for what he loves. Even as the hero looked at the family next to the king, he still connected that this is what it meant to be protected. It meant crossing a simple line that wouldn't be catastrophic at first. Cadmus didn't want to think about the retrospect of breaking his rule."I'll do it." The hero repeated. Enzo nodded."Good. Thank you, old friend." The king turned to Vine."On one condition!" Cadmus spoke up a little louder than he should've. Enzo turned back to the hero. "Marlie comes with us." He gestured to the teen. She took on a confused look and pointed at herself."Me?"He nodded."Don't make her go with those of you who keep track of S. It isn't that I doubt your ability," Cadmus looked at Schatten, "I just... you were all there for The Motivation Spirit." The shadow rolled her pinpricks."Yeah, yeah." She folded her arms and looked at Enzo. "He's got a point, babe." The king only shrugged."Yeah, sure, alright." He didn't care as he turned back to Vine, pulling out his phone. "We're all good, right? Everyone knows the plan?""Yes, but I have a quick question." Cameo spoke up amongst everyone's nods and hums of agreement. "Who all is going to keep tabs on S and corral them?""You," Enzo pointed at the doctor, "Schatten," a thumb to his wife, "Concord, and Vi." He put out another two fingers for those not in the room and held up his hand. "There's going to be four of you, not including those who may join to protect the spirits.""Looking at how long this takes, too, might change how many people show up." Schatten looked at Enzo. "If Concord's with us and Vine's with you guys, you may as well call Kanzler and Starry to jump on the gun with us.""Let's not get ahead of ourselves." The king muttered.
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Today was a safe day. Or so Steam thought. Even as it strolled through the streets of the somehow bustling rustic town, it didn't sense any danger. Steam knew about the multiverse, but it wasn't like it watched the Multiversal News Network (MNN). It didn't know about the impending doom. Not that S is on the news right now. Enzo is still keeping the maniac swept under the rug.Who is Steam? Steam is a robotic variant of S. In this universe, The Steampunk Alternate Universe (SPAU), Vi is a tinkerer who was trying her hardest to make something more than a gizmo. She ended up finding an outlandish inventor who claimed to have captured lightning in a bottle, literally, and together they brought her creation to life. Spri is the name of Steam's mother/creator, and the woman who helped her was Vinyl, this universe's variant of Vine. Lately, the ahead-of-her-time electrician has been trying to work up the courage to ask Spri to marry her. Vinyl is attempting to take that step by asking Steam to leave the workshop for a while so they have a moment to be alone. Just so the robot wasn't wandering around haphazardly, she gave a list of miscellaneous things to get from the weekend market.And the robot was oblivious. Not about the proposal, it's seen the necklace Vinyl was going to use. Magical skeletons aren't too big on rings, so instead they use a wide range of charm designs on jewelry to connote their love for one another. But Steam wasn't paying much attention to who was around it. It happily strolled the stalls of the market, picking out various parts and tools that were on the list. It wasn't sure what time it was allowed back by, but the robot assumed sometime in the evening would be fine. Even with all that time given that it's morning, the list was fairly hefty in both amount and rarity. Vinyl knew that if she was going to keep Steam out of the workshop, it would be through a somewhat complicated fetch quest.Steam looked up and could tell by the projection of the sun that it was 10:38 in the morning. It still had six hours and twenty-two minutes before it could head back for "dinner". The robot looked down at the list and started to mentally organize the list by price and where in the market it would be located. It took everything and comprised a perfect schedule of when to go and get things and which routes to take between each item. And all of these tedious thoughts were just to give the perfect estimation of time to be done by five in the evening.You might think that it's abnormal for someone or something to think like this, but Steam is what I would call "Artificially Autistic". All of my characters are on the spectrum in some way or another, and in my world it's far more common in records than our own reality. It's common and it makes sense, everyone is different and that's okay. That's what I wish our world was, but I know that that want is only a want and is impossible to achieve. I laugh at the thought of people saying "they aren't autistic, they're just skeletons", and to that I say; "Right, right! I'm not autistic, I'm just emotional! And I cry when it's too loud, but that's unrelated." Okay, I'll stop. Back to the story that isn't supposed to be about me (darn).Where S is a walking art project who's freakishly good at math, Steam is an invention that likes to do equations both simple and complex. We call those calculators, but ours aren't six-foot-six. Honestly, Spri didn't even mean to make it a mathematical whiz, but the reason it's so fast at doing equations is simple.The robot can't remember how long it's had the spirit in its ticking head, but that's also because Steam's memory card has to be replaced every time S steals the magic star from its metallic cranium. No, my fingers didn't twitch and accidentally write a whole sentence on their own. The spirit is stored where all the others are, in Steam's robotic skull. Every time S crushes the robot's head in to swipe the star, it loses all power and everything is wiped. You can see where this is going.For context, the robot looks like any other human person, just... metal. Think the trope across media of there being a robot of a popular character where it's literally just the same character but metal. Yeah, that's Steam, just take S and make their skin and hair metal. Their clothes are still fabric, but their eyes are made of colored glass that glow with magic. If you're wondering—maybe you aren't and this is just me info-dumping again—Steam doesn't wear a rainbow tie. It wears a bowtie that's vaguely colorful with some small rustic gears attached to it. Its shirt isn't a turquoise but rather a medium brown, a shade natural enough to blend in here.Steam went up to a stall and started to talk to the person running the small shop area. In the distance, peering around a dark alley, S was taking close watch. They were trying to figure out how to get this done without drawing attention. You might think that because this place is just some other random universe that it can't be that dangerous, but it's surprisingly hazardous. A notion that there's giant gears around might be received, but it isn't the heavy duty machinery that makes S hesitate.This is one of the few universes where guns are practically a plot point.You may assume that because S is presumed to be indestructible that a mere bullet shouldn't scare them, and you have a point. But even being shot while wearing a bullet-proof vest leaves bruises. Bullets cut through S like a knife through a brick of butter that's been left out on a summer day. It hurts—even for S—physically and emotionally. No amount of clay can patch their mental state back together like the holes in their body.Here's a question, though. Why did it take S so long to find the third spirit? And to that I say—"Because." S muttered at nothing. "Time is a construct thought up by humans and proved through science. After all, fourteen chapters were cranked out in a month. You think the creator can capture the events of a few days precisely and have it make perfect sense? The first manuscript was written a little over a year, clocking in at a nice 109,882 words. And that's just looking at the google doc that doesn't have everything, basically just the original twenty-nine chapters alone—""What's a goggle dook?" The boy was listening. S was taken off guard, blinking as they realized they had broken the fourth wall without paying attention again. The miscreant mixter couldn't help but snicker at T's terrible pronunciation."'Google doc', kid. It's a digital document that you can write on.""Like what?" Now he was curious."Books, assignments, fanfics, work stuff... other things." S spaced out on the last one. If you know, you know. They shook their head after a moment, trying to come back to now. "Anyways," they took a breath to clear their head, "that tin-can is moving, so let's follow."Surely enough, Steam was moving away from the stall it had gotten some kind of fancy wrench from and was starting to walk to the next item it needed to get. The father-son duo moved out of the alley and stayed a far distance from the oblivious robot.—————Melonie was fascinated by this place, just like the last one. She took one step into the new world and felt her mind frozen as she stared at the intricate setting. It looked like it came straight from a Pinterest aesthetic board, and she almost wondered if she herself had one of them on the family computer. The girl doesn't have a phone yet, but she likes to peruse the creative website to get ideas of what she could make someday. She had folders upon folders of unused ideas. But just as she took a step to go explore the world, a voice came booming into her skull and she nearly screamed."NO!" It barked. She instead jumped and gave a startled yelp. "No, not this time!" Now it was more so firm than loud. Melonie realized that it was the necklace that was talking and looked down with a pitiful look."But I wanna go see what this place is..." She whined."You already know what this place is! You gawked at the journal page and everything! How you even got here was a miracle! We're lucky that the most sensible out of Vel and Sier was unconscious. Frankly, if she wasn't distracted by their critically low ink levels, your parents would have definitely been called!" The voice harped in a harsh tone. Melonie only pouted more."But nifty gizmos..." She whimpered.
"No, Melonie. We need to go find Steam."
And just as the name was uttered, a puff of hot mist came gushing from a vent in the ground. The girl looked back down at the necklace."Found some." Melonie remarked. The voice gave an agonizing sigh mixed with a tired moan.
"Not... not that, Melonie. I'm talking about the robot."
"Robot?" She perked up, looking around. "Where?! Is he cool?" The girl smiled as the voice gave an unfortunate hum.
"Mmmm... I guess? It depends. I didn't really assume you would be interested in this stuff, though."
"Oh, I think stuff like this is so fascinating." She took a step, finally starting to look around."Okay, well, keep a pinprick out for a metal version of S." The spirit gave a sigh after telling her what to look for and she continued to walk."Oh." Melonie stopped suddenly. "Well, I found the S, if that counts towards anything.""WHAT?!" The voice squawked. "Where? Do they see you? We gotta find Steam!""I don't think they have..." Melonie stared at them as they walked by, S seeming to be on a mission as they stared straight ahead, not even realizing the girl was in their peripheral just several yards away. "They're distracted by..." And when she followed their line of sight, she saw it. "Uh oh." She simply muttered the term and the voice spoke up."What?! What is it?!" It sounded desperate as it was blind under the girl's sweatshirt."S is following that robot you mentioned." She said, her body starting to lean as she tried to peer over the crowd the two were disappearing into. The last thing Melonie saw was the boy glancing back and seeing her brightly colored clothes in this harshly neutral scene. He gained a look of realization and quickly turned to go into the crowd. She felt her expression drop. "Uh oh, that guy saw me...""'That guy'? What guy?""There was someone with S. He said he was their son?" She sounded unsure like her memory was questionable. "I think he said his name was T."The voice gave another groan before muttering to itself."Of course... that maniacal freak..." It gave another stress-filled sigh. "Okay. Okay. Here's the plan."And Melonie started to move as the necklace talked."Take the back streets and keep an eye on both parties, that's to say Steam and S with their kid. Don't go out in the open unless S makes a definite move. If T sees you, it's fine. He doesn't seem to hold much of a threat right now."She kept up, watching as the robot was followed by S and T.
"The second the moment arises, go to Steam when S gets distracted. It plans on going across the market and cutting through one of the busier parts. Your shot is most likely to appear there."
And Melonie watched, as if on cue, as a large group separated Steam from the two partners in destruction. She did as the spirit said and jogged out of her hidden spot in the back streets, bobbing and weaving through people. She was baffled that the robot could so easily navigate through everyone, but she finally got to an opening where Steam was in a pocket of strangers, looking down at its list. The girl went up to it, trying to catch her breath as she approached."Uhm, uh, excuse me?" Even in this moment of soon-to-be chaos, Melonie sounded polite. The robot relied without looking up from the list."Yes?" Now Steam looked to the source of the voice, and its expression dropped upon seeing her. "Uh oh. You're colorful. Not to mention young, on the cusp of childhood. Oh no." It folded the list back up, fully turning to the girl. "You aren't from here. Are you lost?""What?" Melonie asked, now confused on how the robot knew so much. "How do you know I'm a kid? What if I'm just short?""Judging from your bone size and magic density, you are thirteen years, four months, and twenty-two days old." The robot easily recited without thinking even once. In all honesty, Melonie was taken by surprise and went quiet for a minute."... How?" She could only ask with a singular word."Oh, I like math and equations." The robot smiled. "Anything can be solved with numbers!""Speaking of numbers..." The voice prompted."Oh! Er, what about numbers?" She ducked her head down and talked to the necklace.
"S!"
"Oh, right." She then looked back at the robot who gained a confused look."I apologize, I don't think I heard you clearly. What was it you said?" Steam asked politely."Uh, it was nothing! It's just, there's someone here looking for you—""Is it Vinyl?" It cut her off as it looked around. "Is she done with the proposal?" Steam smiled.But that joyous grin was short lived as now the robot saw. S was making their way towards Steam, but more importantly to the spirit. Its shoulders sagged as its mismatching eyes scoured every visible inch of the maniac who stared at it the entire time. S even went so far as to make an "I'm-watching-you" gesture, furthering the robot's worry."No..." It muttered. "It's a Sunday morning, they shouldn't be here. Besides, th-they were s-supposed to b-be—" The world was crashing down onto the robot as all it began to do was stutter and glitch.It couldn't compute how S had gotten here, nothing made sense. That freak had disappeared, they left. Now, Steam had overheard debates between the heroes and villains, and assumed that they wouldn't be brought back for a while. And even then, it sounded like the heroes convinced the villains to do it peacefully. There was a date to meet the runaway and everything. What could have happened to bring S back? Did the multiverse change its mind? Did a single party go out of its way to bring S back? How did that go, was it peaceful like intended? Or was it brutal and vicious in the rushed manner that this is all was happening? What if—But the robot's thoughts were interrupted as Melonie grabbed Steam's mechanical hand."We need to move." She said to it as it looked at her. Steam looked back with despair at S who was growing dreadfully ever closer."I need to get back to the workshop..." The robot muttered."Well where's that?" The girl asked. It looked back at her and the robot was visibly panicked."I-I... Uhm..." Steam's bright shining eyes darted around frantically. The world was closing in.The robot was fine at tuning out the crowd before, but now they had to watch the people around it. Even Melonie took note of the worried machine and kept her pinpricks on S for it. The maniac kept moving, inching closer. Eventually and unfortunately, some people came walking in front of the freak and they vanished. The girl tensed and Steam's view snapped up and forward to where S had been. Its eyes widened, the robot's world dropping farther into mental panic."Oh no..."But just as the robot was about to turn and try to leave, someone came up behind the anxious pair of characters. They easily wrapped their arms around both insecure individuals, Steam unfortunately turning just enough to be face-to-face with something it dreaded.The rainbow tie."Heyyy, guys..." Their voice slurred casually as the two shorter characters looked up at S with terrified eye-lights. They smirked at the robot's shaking tin body under their arm. "Let's take a niiice easyyy waaalk, guys." Their voice continued to sound casual and laidback as S turned the two around, guiding them away from the crowd and towards a back street.And the three vanished into the allies."Okay!" And just like that everything zoomed out of the alley and down the market. Vi came skipping from a colorful portal made of rainbow colored pencil lines. She was smiling like the hero she was, unlike the villains.Schatten had her grumpy misdemeanor, and Cameo and Concord looked indifferent. The taller butch lesbian out of the couple—that is to say Concord—was looking around, vaguely fascinated by the world."I always forget how busy this place is..." She muttered in reference to the designs and intricacies."Alright," Schatten looked at Vi, the villain cracking her knuckles threateningly, "tell us where that freak is." The hero glanced away with slight worry."Uh—""And don't mislead us. If you do, we'll consider you useless and in our way, a notion that you deserve a stay in the dungeon." Schatten growled."Aww, but I just saw all those pretty paintings..." Vi frowned, but the shadow stayed unmoving. The short hero gave an annoyed pinprick roll and a defeated sigh. "Ugh, alright, follow me." And she started to move.The villains followed the hero as the four adults began to navigate the market in pursuit of the maniac.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"Grace is in the limbs. It can be in the mind, but that isn't what we need it for. When you take the spirit, your eyes shine bright with an energized yellow. Your body crackles with energy as you feel sharp electricity rip through your flesh and bones. You can move faster than anyone can comprehend, including you. But luckily you already have mindfulness to help. Combined with your high awareness and fast movement, you're a force to be reckoned with. Your own body fights itself as you move, the magic tearing itself apart and attempting to rebuild it over and over again. You're in pain, so much pain. Stay together, the only thing that can help you is the next spirit."The three were silent as their shoes tapped and clomped on the rustic stone floor of the street. S stayed looking forward with a sly low-energy expression on their face. They had a lazy smile as their eyes were half-lidded. Melonie didn't know where to look. She wanted to look at the world around her—the curious hero in her wanting to know more about this world—but her anxieties chewed away at her, so instead she stared at her rubber-toed lime-green and off-brand converse shoes. Steam also faced the ground, but its eyes darted around. The robot still hoped that anyone—or thing—could help in its moment of dire need of assistance. It's eye-lights calling desperate to any passer-by, but everyone was staying to themselves.Nobody came.Eventually, the three turned down a darker alley, and S moved their arm off of Melonie."Stay here for a sec, won'tchya, kid?" She didn't say anything as they spoke, S not even looking in her direction. The girl hoped with every piece of her that the maniac wasn't talking to her, so she turned, ready to make a break for it, but—"Oof!" She immediately ran her face into a black vest-covered chest and fell back. The girl looked up at the boy who towered over her. His expression was blank for a moment before he realized who it was and he smiled."Hey! It's you!" T very blatantly didn't understand the weight of the events about to unfurl.Melonie quickly crawled to her feet, taking another step to run. This time she was hoping to run behind and past S in an attempt to get away from the kid, but—"Oh no, you shouldn't do that." And he grabbed the hood of her sweatshirt, accidentally lifting her up and off the ground with ease. T took on a surprised look as he brought the short girl to his eye level. "Wow," he muttered, "you're a lot lighter than I thought you were."She grunted and flailed her limbs in an attempt to get him to put her down, but he only moved her away slightly as he vaguely flinched."Put me down!" She squawked. But the girl's energy was short lived as she want limp, huffing and puffing. Why was it so much work to be carried against your will?The boy opened his mouth, but the two adolescents were interrupted as S threw down steam on top of a box. The robot squirmed and panicked as the maniac man-handled it. They firmly grabbed it by the head, looking at it closely as eye-lights flicked at them frantically."N-no!" Steam shouted. "No, don't!" The robot was distressed as S took its head closer to them, the maniac unmoving as the machine thrashed with grasping twitches and jerks.S leaned farther into the robot's face, their eyes beginning to shift into a dangerous orange. Steam closed its eyes, trembling under the maniac as they inched towards—"Hold it right there, S!" Schatten barked. Melonie and T both jumped, the two grabbing each other as the harsh voice boomed towards S.The four adults—Schatten, Vi, Concord, and Cameo—were completely oblivious to the two kids. You see, S and Steam were positioned in front of another opening to the backstreet they were on. Melonie and T were around the corner from where the mix of miscreants and the single do-gooder stood. S only partially turned to look back at the adults, their once orange eye turning back to its threatening cyan."Get off it." Schatten muttered as her pinpricks narrowed.S rolled their eyes as the turned back to the robot. The maniac grumbled as they shoved Steam deeper into the box and stood upright themself. They shifted about as they turned back around to face the characters."Well?" S shrugged, extending their arms. "Gonna take me back in, or what?"Schatten started to move forward as Steam wriggled in the box, eventually finding its way out and on its feet. S glanced to the side as the robot started to make a break for it, and the shadow saw it clear as day as their eyes began to calculate."No, don't you dare—"But she meant nothing to the maniac as they ignored her entirely. Instinct kicked in and they started to chase after the robot. Schatten also acted on impulse and ran after S, completely tuning out the world that wasn't the freak. T and Melonie could only stare as she turned the corner and ran after them."S, wait!" The boy dropped the girl and started to run after the three.Concord and Cameo decided to split from Schatten in an attempt to cut the maniac off, but Vi decided to go after S with the shadow. T ran past her and she stopped, staring down after him with confusion."There's two?" She asked no one.Melonie froze. She knew this woman, she was friends with her parents. Vi was a good friend of Cadmus and Grape's and even helped teach Melonie how to use her powers ages ago. It was the lesbian hero who taught the girl how to turn into a bird. The girl knew that this could totally be the moment where she's caught, so she did the one thing she could think to do.She turned into a small green parakeet and flew over everyone.Vi got a strong whiff of fresh melons and froze, looking where Melonie once was."That's Cadmus and Grape's kid." She muttered, eventually adopting a further confused look. "But what's she doing—"But just as Vi started to look around her question was answered for her."Oh." Vi chuckled. "A candle-shop, of course."And the hero continued on her merry way, proceeding to chase after her rogue creation with the optimism no one needed.—————The spirit of Grace represents movement and speed. Unfortunately for Steam, the spirit was only hooked up as a power source. The bright yellow star didn't mean a thing as it simply energized the robot. Luckily, however, Steam did have a good upkeep of its joints. Logically speaking, machine is more powerful than man, so the robot shouldn't have any trouble.S would argue otherwise.The maniac wasn't so close that they could just grab the robot, but they were keeping good pace. Schatten was also fairly close, practically just a couple yards behind them. Vi was close behind her. T had disappeared for the moment as Vi watched him run into a shadow, probably planning to watch S from the shadows. Could the hero suggest to Schatten that she could do the same? Yes, but that would mean Vi was helping the enemy to her creation. The wayward mother tries her best not to pick sides when it comes to sabotaging S.The robot may have been in a frantic frenzy as its legs moved, but as it ran it began to get out of the anxious vortex of its mind. It was piecing together small things, taking small steps to ground in this moment of fear. It paid attention to how fast it was going, how fast S was going, and how fast the two women were going. Steam breathed for once as it made the realization that Schatten was moving at a faster pace than S was. But the robot still didn't feel confident S wasn't going to catch up to it.So Steam decided to create some obstacles to try and slow the maniac down.Inconveniently, this gave S an idea as the obstacles were, in fact, less than an obstacle. The maniac easily utilized The Spirit of mindfulness to sense and dodge the obstacles as they came. The idea they received as Steam tried to sabotage them was to copy exactly what the robot was doing.But S was going to do it better.One of the perks of having The Spirit of Mindfulness is that multitasking is a lot easier to manage. Meaning, S can run and dodge fallen objects all while looking up and scanning the building sides for the perfect opportunity. Steam was trying everything, barrels, crates, unused ladders— but that was its problem. It was too focused on the ground. S had their sight set much higher than the robot's.Eventually, S saw it. Someone had hung out bedding to dry, and it was perfect. Perfect for the maniac, that is.Their eyes stayed orange as they summoned a golden halberd—their weapon of specialty—and raised it up as if to throw it. And when they did, it soared above the running characters and struck a line holding up the sheets. It was seamless (see what I did there?) as the sheets fell perfectly where S needed them to. Right behind the maniac and on top of the pestering unlikely duo.S chuckled as they looked back, catching the sound of Schatten squawking a swear and Vi chirping at her to watch her language. The maniac still had to be careful though as they nearly tripped on a fallen crate. But this only redirected their focus as they came back to the objective at hand.Catching the robot and stealing the spirit.S was unstoppable even with the attempts Steam was making to slow them. In fact, the maniac barely even noticed as the two villainous lesbians reentered. Concord and Cameo ran side by side, the doctor somehow keeping up to the murderous skeleton. The red-head did, however, do a double take backwards before looking at Concord."I'll make sure Schatten's okay." The doctor communicated."I have S." Concord muttered as her pinprick stayed on the maniac. Cameo nodded and slid to a stop before hustling back the way they had come.S was getting closer to Steam again and it panicked when it looked back. The robot tried desperately to keep throwing things at the maniac, but they were undeterred. You would think Concord would be having a rough time, but she was actually gaining speed on S.Steam would knock down a crate, S would jump over it, and Concord would step on it. She'd then jump off the crate and propel herself forward. The murder skeleton did this time and time again—completely locked in the entire time—before coming up next to the freak.S's eyes stayed orange as she summoned a sias—her weapons of specialty—and made an attempt to stab them. Of course, the maniac saw it coming mentally and was able to step out of the way. But Concord was persistent. She tried again and again, with every swipe moving the freak towards the side.Gradually, the threat was being directed towards the wall. This wasn't a problem at first as there was plenty of space in the backstreet, but soon they were faced against obstacles and hurdles that Steam hadn't even throw onto them. S stopped right before they would run into a stack of barrels and decided to make a split second decision.Concord expected S to do what every shadow creature does. S is a variant of Schatten who is a shadow creature, thus they have some of her abilities. But the villain expected the threat to do what they always did when they were backed into a corner which was to run into the shadow realm. After all, there was a plenty tall shadow that the stack of barrels casted. But S didn't go into the seemingly hidden portal to darkness.No, instead the maniac turned and plucked Concord off the stone walkway by her wrists, their eyes glowing a crimson red. S then proceeded to hurl the murderous skeleton at the robot. The freak used so much force that Concord couldn't even react in time to warn Steam that she was going to come crashing into it.And that's exactly what happened.Bone met metal. There were creaks and crunches. Snapping and cracking. It's a wonder how Concord didn't shatter against the iron of Steam's back. Though, she did significantly throw out her spine and knock her head hard enough that she just fell limp on top of the robot. Steam even suffered great damage as the gears in its back were thrown out of alignment, causing its legs to stop working properly.Steam tried desperately to get away, clawing at the ground with every bit of itself it could. It frantically attempted to use its legs, but it felt the out of place gears. The robot didn't have to look to know it was broken beyond instant repair. It could feel the cogs grinding against the bent backing of its torso. It could hear the aimless ticking as things were disconnected.It clawed and clawed, not even paying attention as S stepped to the fallen individuals easily picking Concord off of Steam. She stayed limp in their hand, her spine crooked as the skeleton hung from their palm. And the maniac tossed her to the side, discarding her like a torn wrapper from a collectible card game. Concord's bones sounded like a pouch of wooden beads as her previous abrasions grew once she met the stone floor again.And S turned back to the robot."Please..." Steam's voice was shaky as the threat stood over it, but the tin-agender was helpless as S grabbed it by the collar of its shirt."Please...!" It was louder now, fear painted across its metal face as S held Steam by its head.The maniac's eyes stayed orange as the robot could only infer what was going on in their twisted mind. Steam was utterly helpless as all it could do was grasp the threat by their coat-cuffs.Eventually, S's eyes flickered as they turned its head. The tin-character had a vague idea what that meant as the freak dropped it back to the ground. The only thing Steam understood was that S was here for the spirit. The robot couldn't comprehend the consequences of what that meant for itself."No..." Steam whispered, trying to crawl away once more. It propped itself up with its elbows and tried to reach, but—S put their boot on its head, pinning the robot down by its metallic ear.It knew the spirit was important. It had been lectured time after time that it had to keep that bright yellow star safe. But it didn't remember. It couldn't remember all the other times S had come for the spirit. Honestly, you would think they'd put this thing somewhere other than the head, but...."No..." Steam's muttered in dread.And then the halberd appeared in the maniac's hands."No, PLEASE—"Words can't describe the fear a machine feels.Whatever Steam felt in its metal body, it was gone.All of it.S drove the pike of their halberd into the robot's temple, the point drove through iron and poked into the stone ground.The maniac knelt down after seeing the cyan eye-light flicker and go out. They knew that was a sign that the robot was gone. Now Steam was just a metal shell that resembled its own killer.S pulled out the halberd and their eyes turned red as they reached down, their fingers beginning to tear the metal away. Iron creaked and scratched as the threat peeled it off where the star resided.Melonie flew over and perched on the railing of a fire-escape balcony. She watched with concerned eye-lights as yellow started to pour from the fallen robot's head. It filled S's face, soaking them with a brightness casted by energy barely anyone could comprehend. Once the star was fully visible, the maniac reached a hesitant hand down into the head cavity.But that's just it.They hesitated.Now, no one was currently on the move to put a stop to S. After all, the deed had been done and the robot was no more. The spirit was as good as ever for the taking.After hesitating for a second longer, the maniac plunged their hand into the star. They screamed in a plethora of sensations ranging from pain to numbness.So, why did S hesitate?It's painful taking spirits. That's the case for most of them. Yellow was notorious for its shocking properties, yet it was unpredictable. Where Motivation burns and Mindfulness overwhelms, Grace could hardly be described.And yet here I go.S was cold and hot at the same time. They were still, yet they moved. Their body shook and reeled back, their teeth chattering as they took on the vigorous power of the spirit. The world around them slowed nearly to a stop as their eyes flared into a yearning yellow.They needed to move.Somehow the maniac did it. They stood to their feet, their body vibrating practically. It hurt to move. S's body was so overwhelmed it felt like their limbs were waking up.It was that uncomfortable feeling that us humans know, the one where your flesh feels like static. There was even the feeling of the snug and prickly icy-hot sock tightening as you clench and unclench your muscles.S felt all of these sensations turned all the way to eleven. It wasn't just static, it was bright. It wasn't just a sock, it was all over their body. It wasn't a sharp icy-hot, it was a volcano made of molten ice impaling every inch of their body.The threat looked around, their eyes filling with involuntary tears. It felt like they were looking into the sun, yet they saw nothing bright enough to yield such a reaction. They wanted to cry, but they were feeling every emotion each within under a second. It was like S was going through an emotional flipbook.But even as the maniac stood there, from outside it all looked frantic. S was frozen in place, emotionless and motionless. Melonie likened it to a scene from a movie. In the moment, the character was moving so fast they created a vortex. Inside was the character frozen in place, fixed in time yet untouchable.S was crackling with energy, their entire body quivering under the power. They were in a vortex of their own mind, trapped in the speed of every imaginable thing.The girl almost wanted to fly down and touch them. She was curious and concerned, receiving the notion they might be in pain as she was beginning to see pained glimpses of the maniac. Melonie extended her wings as if to fly down, leaning forward to—"S!" Melonie nearly fell as she awkwardly clutched to the railing in reaction to the boy suddenly showing up. She flapped less than gracefully just to get back upright, barely paying attention as T ran over to S."Dad—""stop—sT—STOP." T froze. He didn't understand what he was hearing. It was S, but it was multiple S', as if they were each talking at their own time, yet layering over each other."S?" His brows furrowed in slight worry. "What's... what's going on?""don't—touch—do—not—nO—NO TOUCHING." S wasn't shouting, their voice just had an effect. It was like when they started speaking they were farther away, maybe even whispering. But gradually as their choppy sentence reached its conclusion, it was like they were talking in his ear."What? Why?" He stared at them with pleading eyes."i need—need it—need the—needing he—need—always need—M—NEED HOPE." T didn't understand. He didn't know what Hope was, but he assumed that it was the next spirit."Where's Hope?" He asked."don't—not now—we—you can't—cannot—I—PLEASE.""What?" He was beginning to get uncomfortable. And here we have the unlikely concept that is The Spirit of Grace.S is moving too fast for anyone to comprehend, yet the maniac is also moving too fast to comprehend the the current world around them. To put this into perspective, S is literally seeing every moving object in frames. Every bird flying above and every character moving around. Everything had copies of itself pasted over and over. It wasn't even an onion skin effect, it was like placing on sticker on another. T was basically a fan of multiple hims that lead from the shadow he walked through to get here.But a thought dawned on S in their perpetual state of energy.The maniac was still stuck in this bubble of time that only enveloped them, but maybe they could leave somehow? They walked over to the shadow the boy had come out of and stood, staring at it with bright yellow eyes. At first they had a blank look, as if not paying much mind to what could become of this and shrugged."Eh, what the heck? This already wasn't supposed to happen, so—"And in classic manner of this chapter (apparently), S couldn't even finish their thought. Their fingertip met the sheet of shadow and the world zapped back into cartoonish reality. The crackling energy around the threat stopped and they went flying back. They soared with so much force that they went crashing into a stack of barrels against the opposite wall."Dad!" The boy went running over, peering over the toppled barrels to try and get a glimpse of S. It seemed like all he did was blink and next thing he knew S was in the air. They coughed as they fumbled around in the scraps of wood."Ugh. Thank the creators for empty barrels." S grunted as they stood up, dusting themself off. "But also..." They looked up pointing a sharp finger as they shouted at the sky. "No thanks to you! That's never happened before, so why would it happen now?! There was no reason that should've happened!"And yet it did."Oh, shut up!" They were mad. And T was only more confused."Why are you mad at the clouds? They didn't say anything...." His earlier look of concern and confusion stayed present on his face as he fiddled with his hands. S scoffed, turning away from talking to the sky."Tch. Nothing." They looked at the kid. "But it's fine. What happened, happened. We just need to keep moving." And the maniac began to walk away from the scene."Are you sure?" T came jogging up to walk by their side. "That didn't seem like nothing....""I'll explain it to you later, kiddo."And with that, S left the scene with a dead robot in their wake.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Grape hadn't realized what time it was until she finally looked up from her book. She wasn't usually someone who got sucked into the pages in her hands, but the world was passing her by. She sat, reading her thirty-seven-year-old young adult romance novel. It was popular for a hot minute when it first came out in 2005, and she remembers getting her hands on it soon after the release. Why is she reading it nearly four decades after it was published? She had forgotten about it and on this fateful Sunday she decided to pick it back up and do some light morning reading.She glanced at the clock hanging next to the tv. It was already noon? Grape squinted her face at the device. No, she isn't so old she's losing her sight, she's just trying to piece together where the day had gone. As she recounted everything that happened since she had woken up, the woman came up empty-handed.She had woken up and got moving. She saw her husband who was up and moving. Her daughter wasn't up, so—Oh.At first, Grape's first thought was that Melonie might be hungry and that she should go make something for her, but the mother quickly realized what was more concerning.She hadn't seen her daughter all morning.Grape's bone-brows furrowed as she closed the book and got up. She moved out of the living room and down the hall, past her and her husbands room and towards her daughters."Melonie?" She knocked on the door. "You alright?"Grape was met with silence."Mel?" She knocked again.Nothing."Can I come in?" She asked the nothingness unknowingly.Still nothing."I'm coming in!" And she opened the door.At first, Grape hoped for any and all sounds that could come out of this situation. She was hoping for a groggy mumble, but she wasn't dreading a shriek either. No, what she was worried about was complete silence. And, unfortunately, that's what she was met with.The bedroom seemed untouched. Everything was neat and orderly, even the bed was well kept. This puzzled Grape."Mel?" She moved to the closet, thinking that maybe Melonie decided to hunker down in the quiet cushioning of the soft things in there. But when she opened the door, she was met with the dark nothing of hanging clothes and extra bedding."Melonie?!" She moved out of the bedroom, moving towards the bathroom. Maybe Melonie was taking an oddly quiet shower—"Mel-bell!" Grape opened the door to the bathroom but everything was dry and quiet.The mother didn't care if the reader judged her for just opening doors. She didn't care if this was considered an invasion of privacy, because it wasn't.Melonie was nowhere to be found.Grape checked the entire house, every room and every nook. Did Melonie already wake up? Is Grape just losing her mind? She began to feel like it as she started to check under furniture. Melonie was short and small, but she wasn't the size of a small pet.The worried mother made her way back to the girl's room, finally checking under the bed. She dropped to her hands and knees, thudding against the carpet as she peered under the furniture."Melo—"She called for her daughter again, but was cut off upon seeing something."What the...?" She muttered, reaching for the object. She furrowed her bone-brows as she looked more closely at the box. "Is this...?" She opened the old shoebox."Oh, crap, it is." Grape's sockets grew. She was shocked how familiar everything in this box was. She sifted through it. "But, what is it doing...?" Her pinpricks trailed away from the old shoebox and drifted to the room around her.Things weren't connecting and Grape was wondering. She decided to go back to the box, sifting through its contents. Maybe the answer was in here.Or maybe..."Shoot."It was the lack thereof.The woman practically dumped the contents out of the box, tired of sifting through the cardboard confines. Old pocket books spilled out with ancient trinkets. Items worn with time spread out onto the neat and fresh bedding. She dove her hands into the objects, taking count of what was there.But two big things were missing."Crap." Her voice was sharp as she accounted what was gone, and things were starting to make sense.Grape realized that Melonie snuck out. She knew how, but she didn't know why. The mother wondered what prompted her daughter to take her famed journal and pencil. After all, Melonie shouldn't have even known about the relics, Grape's never told her. And for a second, the mother doubted herself.The former hero had a wild past and she was beginning to worry if it was catching up to her. All the lies and fibs she'd told, every morally-grey thing she'd done. Had someone told her daughter? But who? Grape has only ever introduced Melonie to close friends, heroes. Unless...?"No..." Grape shook her head, scrunching her face with doubt. "She wouldn't... she'd never approach this house again, especially to talk to Melonie."She took a heavy breath, her teeth shifting as she looked back at the room around her. The mother was trying to figure out what to do. She wanted to feel stressed and freak out, but she understood she didn't have time for that right now.So Grape decided to call Cadmus.The wife easily dialed for her husband, but the line never picked up. She was met with the pointless trilling of an unanswered call and finally a monotone voice."This number is currently unavailable due to connection issues as it is currently outside the network. If you wish to leave a voicemail—"And she hung up. Grape didn't have time to leave a voicemail, and knowing Cadmus, he fully trusted her. Some would consider that a short coming of his, but now wasn't the time for doubt.Instead, Grape called the next best person to help locate her daughter. She tapped around on the device until she came across the heavily emoji-decorated contact. It ringed only for a second before it was picked up."Hey, Grape Crush!" Vi sounded happy. Little did Grape know that she was in the process of returning the husk of a robot to her alternate version. Grape rolled her pinpricks in annoyance to the name."Hey, Vi....""What's up?" Vi still had a pep in her step, even as she pulled a wagon with the mangled robot. She had convinced Schatten with the help of Cameo to return the broken human-sized calculator. Of course, Concord didn't need much convincing once the doctor was on board, so the butch lesbian was even helping Vi."Melonie's gone." Grape cut to the chase."Oh, crap, really?" Vi took on a surprised face."No, actually, she's over here watching tv." Grape muttered before snapping. "Of course she's gone! Why would I say that if it wasn't the case?!""I dunno." Vi shrugged even though Grape couldn't see. "She just doesn't seem like that kind of kid.""Of course she isn't that kid! I should know, I raised her!" Grape rubbed her skeletal temple with stress. "Just- I don't know where to start. I can't reach Cadmus so my next best bet is you."Vi Immediatley took on a cartoonishly big smile."Oh wow! You trust me that much?!" She looked up at Concord who was next to her and momentarily let go of the wagon to point at the phone with a scrunched look of confidence. "Grape trusts me to find her kid!" She hissed to the oblivious villain. Concord didn't understand what Vi was talking about."Who is it?" The taller lesbian asked."You know what?" Grape's expression dropped with disappointment. "Maybe A could be of more help—""No no no!" Vi waved her hand around wildly. "I can help! I really can! I really truly can help!" The hero squawked into the receiver frantically, trying to convince Grape to not hang up."And how's that?" Grape asked begrudgingly."Yeah! I smelled her earlier!" Vi spoke with such loud conviction all the villains shot her unsure looks. Schatten was visibly weirded out as Vi ignored all of them."What?" Grape's voice was slick with concern."No, no, like her magic, I smelled her magic earlier." Vi gestured with her hands as she continued to not carry the cart. Cameo and Concord nodded and Schatten rolled her pinpricks.Grape was silent for a moment."And... you didn't think to tell me sooner?""Man, I was right by a candle shop!""A candle shop, Vi?! A candle shop!""That's right, a candle shop!" Vi shouted into the receiver again. "Because, creators dang it, when we use our magic we smell like a darn yankee candle!""Alright, fine!" Grape shouted back. "Where were you?!""The Steampunk AU!" The heroes had their voices naturally raised at this point."What were you doing there?!""S was getting the third spirit! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm busy cleaning up the mess they made!"And with that, Vi hung up. Grape sighed and rubbed her sockets."Oh... why do we give her responsibilities?" The mother turned off her phone and put it in her pocket. She picked up the various items and tossed them back into the shoebox, picking up the box and walking out."What to do, what to do?" She muttered as she went to her own closet and put the old box back where it belonged. She paced the foot of her bed going back and forth from her husband's side back to her side and so on.And Grape's thoughts began to unravel. They were organized as the mother kept herself from spiraling. And here we have the course of ideas.She had never told Melonie very much about individual universes. The girl knew they lived in a multiverse, she'd met Vi, a copy of her own mother practically. But she took the journal Grape had taken so long to write ages ago. What confused Grape was the fact that Melonie didn't know much about her mother's past. So, how did the girl know to go to the old shoebox? After all, there were plenty of other things in that closet that Grape knows Melonie would take more interest in.The former hero was beginning to piece things together gradually.Someone talked to Melonie and prompted her to leave. Grape wondered who, but the roster of everyone who knew Melonie was small. The mother could easily write every name of each individual on a single page of notebook paper. And it didn't make sense. No one would talk to Melonie without Grape around. Unless it was someone else. Did someone go behind her back? But she already ruled that ou—What was Melonie doing in the SPAU? Vi smelled her magic, but was it around S? Was it near S? Why would the girl be... so close... to....Grape didn't have time to call Vi back. She had to toss on her clothes and leave. The former hero went back to her closet, raking through the hanging fabrics to find her old outfit. She found her signature jacket and pants. Granted, it took her a minute to comb through her old shoes to find the boots she used to wear. The famed shoes were tucked away in the back, so she had to reach for them. But once everything was collected and thrown to the bed, Grape faced a hard truth that she didn't want to come to terms with.Nearly a decade and a half. That was how long it had been since she last actively looked at these clothes. As much as she wanted to sit in this feeling of nostalgia and revisit the memories of running around in these garbs, she needed to keep moving.Grape peeled herself away and began to get changed. She even took the extra measure once everything was on to find her old fingerless gloves that went with the outfit.The old hero stood and stared at herself in the mirror only for a second as she made her way out of the room. For a moment, she felt the wonder she used to have. She felt the freedom she used to feel. She felt the energy and inspiration that kept her moving all those years. She realized and recognized that these things never left her. Even after settling down, her bones didn't ache to wear these clothes. Her mind whirled with the possibilities like it used to.At first, Grape didn't know what to think of the way she felt. She didn't know if she liked the fact that all it took was putting on these clothes for her to be ready to go. She would've thought that maybe emotionally she would hesitate, but the only doubt she had was over her capability to stand against the judgement of others.The hero in no way thought she couldn't go and retrieve her daughter, that much she knew she could do. But she knew for a fact that if she went out looking like this, people were going to make comments. Now, if she stayed by the right people, they would be compliments. But if she was around others, she would get snide remarks that she could do without right now.You're probably asking why Grape doesn't just change into something else. You have a point, but it isn't that simple. She was about to go to work and this was her uniform. Could she wear jeans and a t-shirt to go get Melonie? Of course. But you don't see people wearing t-shirts to rescue others from a perilous predicament. She needed to be in a mindset that had action.She moved on, transitioning away from her room and going down the hall. She made a stop by the kitchen to grab some supplies before continuing on to her quest.And once out the front door, she left her home universe through a portal made of lilac purple magic.She was set to go and retrieve her daughter.—————"And... voila!" Cadmus exclaimed.He, Enzo, Marlie, and Vine were currently making their way through a heavily wooded forest. Light danced around the group as the treetops grooved and jived in the wind. They were moving through the trees and came across a light puzzle.It was your average videogame-esc type of riddle with light pouring through an area to a mirror. Cadmus excitedly showed Marlie how he could move the mirror to other trees that seemed to have holes. Once the light was shone through a hole, mirrors inside the trunk would direct the beam out another. Eventually, a circuit was made that connected all the way to a wall of ivy. On the wall of ivy seemed to be a stone door covered by the shrubbery. On the door in the center, peaking through the vines and leaves, was a white crystal about the size of an apple.Once the beam met the crystal, the stone shined and with a rumble the door began to open. The ivy stayed draped over the entrance and Vine glanced at Cadmus."It isn't poisonous, is it?" She asked with a monotone voice."Nope!" Cadmus replied with a smile as he stayed staring at the door. "Enzo tried to talk me into some poison ivy, but I was worried it would hurt the wildlife.""It isn't for wildlife, Cadmus. It's for intruders." Enzo muttered grumpily. Marlie scrunched her face for a moment as the gears turned in her thoughts."But... but we don't even have skin..." Enzo gave an agonizing sigh and Cadmus nodded to the teen's comment."That's what I said—""It isn't about the danger, it's about the message!" Enzo snapped. "This is meant to be a guarded area and you trust too heavily on the goodness of others!" The king shot Cadmus daggers and the hero only shrugged."I think it's working pretty fine so far."Enzo gave a grumpy sigh and folded his arms."Famous last words, Cadmus. Famous last words...." And with the king's snide and grouchy remark, the hero went quiet.Cadmus went to staring at the grass in front of his boots, and Enzo stared at the nothing in front of him. Vine glanced at the two adults and gave an annoyed pinprick roll before continuing through the open passageway. After a moment of standing, Marlie looked at the hero."Oh, I had a question, Uncle Cadmus."He blinked and looked at her with a smile."What's up, Marlie?""Should dad even be here?" She asked with a raised bone-brow. Cadmus's sockets grew with surprise and Enzo only slapped his own face in disappointment. "No, no, not like that. I'm talking about his allergy. Like, we're going to a tree that literally grows organic light. Surely that can't be good for him. Right?""Oh!" Cadmus chuckled."You've been awfully considerate ever since you taught the cat how my bedside lamp works, haven't you?" Enzo replied with a flat tone. Marlie sputtered an excuse, something about how it was an accident, and she couldn't help how clever her cat was at figuring out how to turn on the touch-lamp."No, Enzo will be fine." Cadmus answered Marlie's question. "As long as he keeps his cloak on and doesn't touch the tree or its fruit, he'll be perfectly safe.""Oh, okay—""Are you three gonna keep ditzing around, or are we actually gonna get to this stupid tree before dark?" Vine scowled at the group lagging behind as she stuck her head back through the entryway.Marlie looked at Enzo and he nodded. She took the signal and walked over to Vine, the two men starting to follow behind the two girls as they went the entrance. After a moment of walking, Enzo spoke up to Cadmus just for him to hear."Have you talked to The Light about this?" His tone was low, as if bringing up a sensitive subject."Of course!" Cadmus seemed a lot less deterred than Enzo."And?" The king inquired further."Lixion's... uhm... how should I put this?" Cadmus stretched his expression in indecisiveness."Hates everything about me and despises my ideals?" Enzo jumped to conclusions."No, no. He didn't say anything about you. I didn't really mention you." Cadmus swept over it, but Enzo only raised a bone-brow."You never shut up about me when you get the chance. What happened?" The king was suspicious now and the hero avoided pinprick-contact as he glanced away."Okay, fine, Lixion kind of chewed me out for going along with your plan. I had to do a lot of explaining to convince him that there wasn't any other way.""Tch." Enzo scoffed. "The Light never changes....""But, I was able to get him to understand. Somehow.""I would think anytime you utter my name to The Light it refuses to hear you." Enzo muttered grumpily. Cadmus chuckled and shook his head."Oh, Enzo. Lixion cares less about who you are and more about what I'm doing."Enzo only raised his brow higher somehow, his expression drilling into Cadmus an "are you sure?" look. The hero gave a sigh."Enzo....""Might I remind you, I'm half the reason we're here like this today!""Yeah, but that was ages ago—" Cadmus tried shrugging it off, but Enzo was quick to continue."Deities do not forget, Cadmus.""Well, Lixion seems to forget plenty when I talk about big events..." Cadmus muttered. The king rolled his pinpricks."Like what?""Well, he's spotty at remembering my birthday. Also, there was that time he forgot about my wedding."The men walked in silence for a moment as Enzo stopped staring at Cadmus and instead turned his pinpricks to the path. Their expressions were blank, Enzo trying to comprehend what Cadmus just said and Cadmus trying to make the moment not feel awkward. After a second, the king spoke up."You explained birthdays to your deity?""He still doesn't understand." Cadmus muttered. "Don't you ever talk to the darkness?" He asked."The Darkness doesn't care for pleasantries. It only communicates to me for a purpose beyond my understandings—""You're ghosting it, aren't you?""Creators," Enzo rubbed his face with stress, "I'm ignoring The Darkness! Don't make it sound like... that.""Like what?" Cadmus was oblivious."Like this is some casual relationship. The Darkness isn't my friend like you and The Light. The Darkness is what tricked me in the first place!" Enzo seemed upset as he talked, but he didn't yell."It was a vulnerable moment, Enzo. I'm sure the same would've—""Don't start. We don't need any 'what if' thoughts right now." Now Enzo was just frustrated.He hated talking like the story could've gone differently, because he knows. The king may seem content with his story now, but he wasn't always. There was a point where he went wild, tracking down every version of him in the multiverse. He'd ask them if they came from a sacred grove, then proceed to grill the character if they had any ounce of divine story. He needed to know what could have been. But in the midst of his hunt of madness, the king realized.What happened in the grove and with Cadmus isn't what made Enzo the way he was. Sure, there were aspects of his pre-skeletal-existence that lingered to this day in this body, but that was nothing more than a backstory. A legendary tale of two boys made to guard their respective fruit trees. A myth of tragedy followed by lies and misdirected revenge. It was after Enzo died and came to be a skeleton that his story really began."You're right." Cadmus nodded. "I'm sorry.""It's fine." Enzo muttered. "Just, let's get going." The hero nodded."Sure thing."And the group continued their trek to the tree.