The White Elephant in the Room Playground

[Shiny Phantump]

Abigail stared at the scene unfolding before her.

Maybe Jesse had been right, and this place was some sort of purgatory. But... Did that make her dead?

There's no conventional cause of death to prevent. They just... stop being biology, and start being physics.

Maybe it did. Maybe her human body was nothing more than a cloud of subatomic particles in a world infinitely far away. If that was the case, she may never get to go home... Which was all the more reason to survive, no matter what happened. It could all be over for her.

She hadn't thought Yveltal had anything in store for humans after they died. Even if there was some plane where 'souls' could exist forever, humans didn't have any sort of energy that could go on without their bodies...

Yet here she stood. As a ralts, no less. There was no scientific explanation for this. No rules she could use to comprehend the scene unfolding in front of her.

Despite the people around her, and the nature of her alignment, those thoughts left her feeling completely and utterly alone.

Perhaps there was a better explanation. Perhaps none of this was real at all? Perhaps she'd been consumed by a UB-Symbiont, and this was their venom preying on her greatest fear. The unknown. Of a universe that was so incomprehensibly, unknowably vast it could never be understood. That science itself could be a lie, and Reshiram a false god.

Her legs felt weak. She kneeled down onto the ground for a felling of stability. She held her head in the crude approximation of the human hands she no longer hand, and tried not to scream.

The fact that she was considering being consumed as the better possibility really said something about her mental state.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Calm down, Jesse. Don't let it get to you. Whether it's someone's power or not, its goal is to get inside our heads and fuck with us. Can't let some malfunctioning piece of junk get to us after all this, right?"

Jesse held his breath and clenched his fists hard enough to snap the sticks of chalk in his paws. He closed his eyes.

"Yeah. Gimme a sec. I've been through some shit like this before and it's... it's all comin' back up."

The tension seemed to pass out of Jesse, and he dropped the chalk to the floor with his lip curled back. One paw went to Lee's on his shoulder and gripped it firmly.

"Like I said. Let's humour the fuckin' machines. Gen is pullin' his shit together but I reckon Abigail could use somethin' to ground her. I'll be fine, really, I just..."

I have to go through this again? Going mad, seeing horrors, being powerless? It was bad enough the first time, with Sierra in that fucking mystery dungeon. And for what? A stranger's celebration? A nonsense murder mystery? It isn't fair. This shit was supposed to be over for me. I'm angry. I'm really fucking angry. I'm so angry I could die of it.

"I just don't care fer this kinda party activity. That's all."

 

[Namohysip]

Someone tapped on Jesse's shoulder, and there Darkwhite floated, head tilted. "Hmmm..." She leaned a little closer, then disappeared. A few seconds later, she reappeared in front of him and gestured for him to hold out his hands. "This is for you," she said, each word pronounced like she was enunciating it to someone who spoke a foreign language. In her paws was a cookie bigger than her head.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

"Yeah. Gimme a sec. I've been through some shit like this before and it's... it's all comin' back up."

"If you've been through something like this before," Abigail whispered, struggling to muster enough energy to speak, "how are you still sane?"

 

[Tanuki]

Someone tapped on Jesse's shoulder, and there Darkwhite floated, head tilted. "Hmmm..." She leaned a little closer, then disappeared. A few seconds later, she reappeared in front of him and gestured for him to hold out his hands. "This is for you," she said, each word pronounced like she was enunciating it to someone who spoke a foreign language. In her paws was a cookie bigger than her head.

The cookie, baked special for Jesse, was eyeball flavor.

 

[Tanuki]

Brown eyes speckled the cookie’s surface like chocolate chips, or were they raisins? They all stared at Jesse, all waiting, all watching. “Write,” they plead.

 

[Persephone]

Unit001_101110110 could still examine the internal circuitry of one of the malfunctioning devices.

[X] Ram the PS3

 

[IFBench]

Gen stared at the iPod after activating it, waiting to see if it would do anything.

He trembled as he did so.

 

[Fusion]

Jesse held his breath and clenched his fists hard enough to snap the sticks of chalk in his paws. He closed his eyes.

"Yeah. Gimme a sec. I've been through some shit like this before and it's... it's all comin' back up."

The tension seemed to pass out of Jesse, and he dropped the chalk to the floor with his lip curled back. One paw went to Lee's on his shoulder and gripped it firmly.

"Like I said. Let's humour the fuckin' machines. Gen is pullin' his shit together but I reckon Abigail could use somethin' to ground her. I'll be fine, really, I just..."

Lee nodded. "I get it." He helped Jesse over to the couch and set him down. Whatever Jesse, and the others were going through, Lee didn't really know. He was more mildly put off from this than disgusted or getting a kick out of it. Which he thought was... wrong? Was he soft? Lee shrugged to himself, for he did not know.

*Existential Crisis

Lee crouched down beside Abigail, gently patting her back. "Are you..." She obviously wasn't alright. "Do you need to take a rest? You look overwhelmed, Abigail." He offered a paw to her. "Despite my looks I'm, uh... I'm here for you." This was starting to feel familiar...

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"This is for you."

"Thank you," managed Jesse.

Of course, the cookie then sprouted eyes, which he peered into with contempt, before dropping the fucking thing.

"Darkwhite, any idea what's goin' on??"

"If you've been through something like this before," Abigail whispered, struggling to muster enough energy to speak, "how are you still sane?"

Jesse looked the ralts in the eye. "Sheer fuckin' determination. Help from a friend. Faith."

And maybe the tiniest bit of memory editing.

Lee nodded. "I get it." He helped Jesse over to the couch and set him down.

"Be careful," urged Jesse. "Stay safe."

He didn't want to look at the body horror bullshit a second longer.

But he didn't want to close his eyes.

 

[Tanuki]

Four Prophets rise, Lamented the television, four voices in unison.

 

[Fusion]

"Be careful," urged Jesse. "Stay safe."

Lee smiled and nodded, placing his paw over his chest. "I won't let this be the thing that takes me down."

Four Prophets rise, Lamented the television, four voices in unison.

"Any idea what it's doing?" Lee asked. "I get the feeling those four prophets are supposed to be four players, meaning me, Gen..." he looked at the others. "Who else?"

 

[IFBench]

Four Prophets rise

Gen yelped as the television suddenly spoke, though he still held onto the iPod.

 

[Namohysip]

"Darkwhite, any idea what's goin' on??"

"I'unno. I've been looking for bingo cards in the gutter." Speaking of which, Darkwhite disappeared and searched the rooftop again, and the chimney, and then looked into the scenery for other possible hiding spots.

 

[Tanuki]

"Any idea what it's doing?" Lee asked. "I get the feeling those four prophets are supposed to be four players, meaning me, Gen..."

A chipper Italian plumber wearing red hopped onto the screen. “Wahoo!” he cheered. “I-a went-a to Rome! It fell. Why, paizano?”

Gen yelped as the television suddenly spoke, though he still held onto the iPod.

The eye replaced, no, joined the plumber on the screen. “Judea has fallen. There is only Babylon.” The eye stared deep into Gen. “Don’t fall for the whore, Ishmael. Your birthright is not to be stolen again.”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Four Prophets rise, Lamented the television, four voices in unison.

“I volunteer!” Palkia exclaimed cheerfully

 

[Namohysip]

"Sure, count me in," Darkwhite added.

 

[IFBench]

"W-what..." Gen glanced around the room, then down at himself.

...he never put his scalchop back, did he? How would that even work?

 

[Shiny Phantump]

You look overwhelmed, Abigail." He offered a paw to her. "Despite my looks I'm, uh... I'm here for you."

Abigail stared at the paw in front of her. How did she know it was real? She could be deep in a coma, a Symbiont's venom coursing through her veins as her brain conjured unknowable nightmares the likes of which she was only beginning to see so that it could turn her fears into more of its toxic ambrosia.

She'd seen what happened to people who survived fusion with a Symbiont. They broke. They never recovered. Some people called them Nihilego because of what they did to their victims.

Now, Abigail understood why. It certainly did feel like nothing here mattered anymore. Perhaps she'd live, or perhaps she died. Would it really make a difference? Could anything she could do change that? If she lived, she'd still be consumed by Nihilego, and whatever she lived next would be no better. If she died in here... the same would happen. Dying in this dream wouldn't kill her in real life... and it couldn't wake her up, either. Not as long as she was still consumed.

She took the paw. What else was there to do?

 

[IFBench]

Gen hesitated, then walked over to Abigail and hugged her, though he still held the iPod in one nub.