Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Adminsdammit, they fucking hated these stupid rats. They could have sworn that the rat problem wasn’t this bad when this entire journey started, but there they were still running around the ground floor of the HQ like they ran the place. Which was ironic, because they were looking for the person who actually ran the place, and all they could find was the fucking rats. 

“Come on, you’ve gotta be around here somewhere,” they muttered under their breath, their voice low as they bypassed the various programmers and employees who worked around the basement. Some gave them polite nods or greetings. Most just ignored them.

They couldn’t blame them. This stale environment had never suited them to begin with. They’d always preferred being sent out on the various missions a certain someone had always managed to pull out of his ass.

Speaking of that certain someone…

“There you are,” they sighed as they found their way into his office. “I’d thought you’d have been out and about by now, doing something productive. I got the Illumina.”

The man in question looked up from where he was sitting at a desk, typing away at a keyboard. “Oh, you got it?” He asked as the words registered. They watched as he turned to give them his full attention.

For a brief moment, they could see the picture frame hanging behind the desk of two friends: one with wings, and one with a hard hat. A reminder of what this all was for, in the end.

“Only took fighting a literal dragon and throwing down with a literal mountain, but yes, I got it,” they huffed in return. “Seriously, Mr.Shedletsky, you said it was supposed to be a simple matter of going to find the guardian again.”

They pulled out the sword in question and set it on his desk. The sword was truly something beyond comparison. The pale lilac sword glowed faintly with power, and the occasional spark hopped off the blade to singe the desk. 

“Well, it should have been a simple matter,” Shedletsky replied as he carefully picked up the sword. “The illumina was always my favorite out of the SFOTH swords, you know? Pwned quite a few people with it back in my day.”

“You talk like a boomer,” they responded.

“I… have no idea what that means.”

“Oh, it’s a thing from my time. It’s basically calling someone old.”

“I am not that old. You may be from the future, but you’re not that much younger than me!”

They rolled their eyes at that and watched him spin the blade around in his hands. It was easy to forget sometimes that, even though he was no longer a guardian of any of the swords officially, Shedletsky was once considered the sword master. The casual way he spun the Illumina around in his hands like that… It left no questions as to his skill.

“Thank you,” he said suddenly before turning to them. “You’ve been a great help in all this, you know? With all the swords, we can get Builderman back now.”

Builderman. The one they’d searched all along for. The one who could send ###### home to where they belonged. 

Still, something had felt… off. 

“How is gathering the swords related to that?” They asked after a moment of hesitation. “I mean, I know it was necessary somehow, but I… I don’t really understand. And some of the swords were, uh… they were getting into people’s heads and stuff…”

Their voice trailed off as Shedletsky slowly turned to look at them over his shoulder. An almost odd expression covered his face. A grin a hair too sharp and eyes slightly too narrow. 

It was gone as quick as it came when he turned to them fully, Illumina held comfortably at his side. “I’m not sure what you mean, the swords have never talked to me,” he casually dismissed.

“But the Cruel King said that the ice dagger had warned him of Blackrock’s fall,” they explained. “And Griefer said that he felt like he had to get the sword.”

Shedletsky just shrugged it off and said, “who’s to say they weren’t just hearing things? Cruel King was old, and Griefer was unstable. Besides, not like we can ask either of them right now, can we? One of them’s dead, the other is still a plant-”

“I fixed the plant issue,” they contested. 

There was a pause, and they swore they saw Shedletsky’s hand tighten on the grip of the sword. “Still, he’s not here right now. We can’t prove anything, now can we?”

Their voice died in their throat as Shedletsky took another step towards them, and put his free hand on their shoulder.

“You’ve been a great temporary employee, kid. Let’s not ask too many questions now.”

Their expression dropped before they nodded. Shedletsky’s expression returned back to normal before he took a step back. “Good. Now, for this next part, I’ll need the other swords.”

They almost argued.

Almost.

Maybe they should have argued. Maybe it would have saved them.

But their story was never going to have a happy ending.

They pulled out each of the weapons one by one and handed them over.

The Icedagger, taken from a frozen kingdom and freed from a twisted king.

The Venomshank, used to poison a friend and ally.

The Ghostwalker, which had tested and “cleansed” their soul.

The Firebrand, which had taken the souls of a captain and crew.

The Windforce, taken from a long-forgotten land.

The Darkheart, where everything had blurred beyond recognition.

And the Illumina, which they’d already given to him.

They handed over the swords one by one, their soul feeling a little lighter with each motion they made. Their mind began to calm for the first time in days. Suddenly, they could think clearly.

And suddenly, they could think clearly.

They watched as Shedletsky took each of the swords and set them down carefully, aligning them carefully. Swords that had served him well. Swords that had served him like they had served him. 

“... this doesn’t have anything to do with Builderman, does it?” 

He didn’t even turn to look at them this time. He just laughed under his breath.

“It was… necessary," he said after a moment. 

“Necessary,” they repeated bitterly as he turned to face them. “It was necessary? All the people I hurt and killed, the souls I sacrificed for these swords, was necessary? For what exactly, if not getting Builderman back? I thought that was what we both wanted! You wanted your friend back! You were supposed to help me go home!”

Their rage boiled as they yelled at him, their mind racing with his words. Necessary. He’d called the deaths they’d caused on his orders necessary. Deaths that never had anything to do with saving a “friend” to begin with. Nothing other than wanting the swords for some reason he wouldn’t even tell them.

They felt hatred. That ugly demon rearing its head again inside them, curling up and attempting to lash out again.

They felt grief. Grief for the people whose deaths they’d caused for no good reason. And now there was no going home for them. No going home for any of them.

He just shook his head. “I’m sorry, I really am. But I needed someone to take the fall for the swords. The rest of the plan doesn’t need you. So many people know what you did… I’ve heard stories from all around of my ‘sword-gathering freak’ on a single-minded determination to get these accursed swords.”

He picked up the illumina and began to approach them. 

“I regret to inform you, temporary employee, that you have been terminated for unprofessional behavior. You will now be banned.”

They pulled out their own sword, the one of plain iron. But in the end, it was never going to be a fair fight. What does a novice have on a master, anyway?

“You’re not sorry,” ###### accused him as they braced for a fight. “You never were going to help me go home, were you?”

At least they managed to parry a few of his moves before he actually was able to slice their head off.

No- no no no NO- I JUST WANTED TO GO HOME, I WANT TO GO HOME-

Oh- okay, please calm down-

That bastard, that fucking chicken bastard, he killed me-! HE KILLED ME-

I know dear, I know, but raging in the void won’t do you much good.

Breathe.

… 

… Are you good now?

I’m still mad.

I suppose I can’t blame you when you died like that.

You trusted him quite a lot, didn’t you?

Shut up.

Well, that’s no way to speak to your betters. Let’s fix that, shall we?

? … !!!

Much better. Don’t worry, you’re only muted temporarily so I can explain the…

Ahem,  situation.

You may call me [Spawn]. I am what’s called a sponsor.

You, as you know, are dead. You died being beheaded by Shedletsky.

You cannot go back, but you can go forward if you strike a deal with me.

…?

I suppose that it will be a bit like the isekai you’ve already had, going from the future to the past and all, but it will be slightly different. 

If you wish, I will reincarnate you into a new body and time.

!!!!

…
…?

Ah, yes, the cost.

Your task is quite simple. I want you to collect the Sword Fight of The Heights swords once more.

!?

I have my reasons. Should be easy for you anyway, given how your previous role was. 

>:(

And we’ve upgraded to emoticons, I see. 

Very well, I can understand your anger, but it doesn’t matter now.

Do you take the deal?

… ✔️

Very well. I’m sure you have many questions, but I’ve yapped long enough.

Close your eyes and hold your breath. This may feel weird.

They understood quickly why that “Spawn” thing had told them to hold their breath. One moment they were floating loosely in a void, and the next, it had felt like their soul had been ripped from their body and dunked into freezing cold water. And oh boy, it was cold.  

Their mind came to them slowly enough. One minute there was nothing, and the next, thoughts began to form.

Where am I…?

Everything feels weird…

This isn’t my body.

Somehow, instinctively, they knew to reach their hands up. They watched as their hands and arms knitted together in front of them, forming together from ribbons to create a pale white body. Legs that weren’t there a second ago began to solidify a second later as they sought to kick out. 

Eyes blinked open to follow the light from above them. A pair of horns pushed out from their skull, pushing up and almost straight back. 

A pair of lungs formed as they gasped from pain, and a heart began to beat.

Oh, how one is suddenly thankful for a body when they didn’t have one seconds previously.

Eventually, claws reached out of the water and wrapped around the edge of a ledge surrounding them. It looked like some sort of… fountain? That was weird. Spawns weren’t fountains the last time they’d had to respawn. Around them was what looked to be a snowy court yard, too, with snow up to their ankles. The castle walls around them seemed to be old and crumbling, yet familiar.

Maybe it was just a really weird one or something. That… thing did say they’d be somewhere new. Maybe it was just a new time … again. 

They hauled themself up and out of the water, and shook off whatever they could before they tumbled head-first into the snow and coughed up water. That sucked. Badly. They never wanted to do that again.

“Stop! In the name of Blackrock, put your hands up!”

They nearly jumped out of their skin as they whipped around, coming face-to-face with people pointing guns in their face.

It took them half a moment to realize this wasn’t any people they knew. They were in military-style uniforms with masks on their faces. One of them had grey horns curling up around their head and orange goggles to cover his eyes, and the other had a helmet on that covered their face.

Blackrock? They thought to themself as they squinted at the soldiers, trying to figure out what that meant. The snow and the cold did line up with the Blackrock they knew, but the Blackrock they knew didn’t look this… abandoned.

“Identify yourself!” the soldier with the helmet called out, leveling his futuristic-looking gun at them.

The goggles soldier seemed a lot more sympathetic. “Ah- wait, look at them,” he spoke up, pushing his companion’s gun downwards and pulling them closer to whisper. “They’re terrified. Probably a newlyspawned.”

“They look a little old to be a newlyspawned,” the helmet soldier countered, glancing over his shoulder briefly at the naked stranger.

The goggles soldier shrugged. “They’re also shivering and wet. Maybe they just took a dip in the spawn fountain or… something… I honestly don’t know.”

The helmet soldier was not amused, but could see the logic. Something about this situation didn’t line up.

“Fine, but if we get murdered, I’m not letting you live this down,” he huffed before he turned back to where the other infernal was… and paused.

The goggles soldier did the same, and all he saw was a track of footprints in the snow. They looked up just in time to see a barbed tail vanish over the wall and hear the frantic run of someone darting through snow.

“... so, just a newlyspawned, huh?” the helmet soldier snarked as he darted to follow.

“How was I supposed to know they’d climb the fucking wall!?”

Chapter Text

When he’d joined Blackrock’s military, B. Zuka hadn’t expected to end up fighting in the far taigas of his home region, half frozen to death in a shitty camp with two guys he tolerated and a dozen others he’d like to suffocate in the snow. That being said, Zuka had quite literally signed up for this shit. It just wasn’t what he’d thought he’d signed up for.

He signed up for fame, for glory, and for fighting for his faction!

He did not sign up for getting his ass kicked by some playgrounder with a dodgeball gear of all things!

Yet here he was, lying face-down in the snow, head spinning as he tried to figure out what the phuck just happened.

“For someone whose faction touted themself for being hard to kill in the snow you sure are a bunch of idiots,” the playgrounder huffed before he kicked Zuka in the ribs. “Leaving obvious as hell tracks and all that…”

Meanwhile, Zuka’s limbs weren’t cooperating, probably from getting whacked in the back of the head by that damn gear. He did, however, manage to push his arms under his torso and attempted to push himself up. He didn’t get very far, though, thanks to the boot that was swiftly planted between his shoulder blades.

“Nope, stay down.”

That sucked, actually, especially when he got a mouth-full of snow and his arms now pinned under his body. He could already imagine the calls his friends were going to get back home. Oh, hey, your friend got killed by suffocating on snow. Here’s the insurance payout you were promised in his will! Yeah, great fucking friend he was, leaving his friends as beneficiaries on his life insurance. Great fucking faction he fought for that he’d have to worry about that shit in the first place.

“Any last words?”

Oh- right, yeah, that. That was still happening. He was a bit scatter-brained because of the uh… the hit to the head, right-

Zuka forced himself up onto his elbows, a grin having split his face despite the broken goggles and fucked up brain. “Your damn additude is compensating for- for your fucking lameass gear-”

He’d never claimed to be a wise man. A wise man would have gotten out of Blackrock years before this shit happened. A wise man would have never signed up for war. A wise man wouldn’t have used his last words to spout shit at an enemy, yet there he was! About to die at the ripe age of thirty-something from a damn playgrounder.

“Why you little-”

The next few things happened very fast. 

One, there was the sound of crunching snow just beyond the tree line.

Two, Zuka saw a flash of red and white against the shadows.

Three, someone fucking launched themself out of the tree line to tackle his attacker.

The playgrounder yelped as the full weight of another inphernal slammed into them, causing them and the stranger to fall to the ground in a tangle of limbs. The stranger was quick to recover, scrambling to their feet and already attempting to throw punches.

Zuka took the distraction and chance to drag himself away from the conflict. The world was still spinning as he low-crawled through the snow, yet he still dragged himself forward on his arms and elbows. He would not die today. Not after he was saved by… by some…

He looked over his shoulder at the bloody fight, and his breath caught in his throat. He knew those horns. He knew that tail.

Despite the head trauma and concussion, he recognized that inphernal. It was the same one from the spawn fountain in the ruins with the red horns and the barbed tail. It was the same one that ran from him and Hyperlaser. 

Shit, that was a kid fighting a soldier. That was a kid.

He could only sit there and watch in horror as this newlyspawned inphernal, who despite their size couldn’t have been more than a few days old, threw down with a Playground soldier. And they were almost winning. Almost. They weren’t going down easy, that was for sure, even with that damn dodgeball gear bouncing around the clearing where they were fighting. 

It was impressive, actually. The kid was handling themself better than a lot of professional soldiers Zuka had seen. Most guys would have fought back with their gear, but this kid was dodging and weaving like their life depended on it. Probably because it did. One hit from that dodgeball with how fast it was bouncing and ricocheting off trees and it would do some serious damage.

That kid was as good as dead even with their uncanny dodging ability. Zuka knew that, without a doubt, that kid was going to die, and then he was going to die, too, unless he did something. 

And then he did something.

He reached out and focused, trying to hold himself together. Come on, just one more time. One more bit of strength. Let me save them. Let me save just one more person. Just one more shot…

He’d never been so happy as to have the weight of his gear settle on his shoulder. His bazooka was a heavy thing, yes, but it was his gear. 

“Oi! Bastard!” 

The playgrounder looked up from where they’d been about to bash the newlyspawned’s head in with their dodgeball. Zuka locked eyes with them through shattered goggles and pulled the trigger.

If there was one thing the newlyspawned hoped to never have to witness again, it would be another demon… person… thing being made into meat confetti right in front of them. The force of the explosion was enough to throw them back into the snow, making them skid to a stop a good twenty feet later when they smacked into a tree.

Their ears were ringing from the explosion, to say the least, and they were less than thrilled about being covered in blood and gore. Sure, it wasn’t the first time they’d been covered in someone else’s blood, but they were really hoping it would be the last time. Damn.

They pushed themself to their feet as they staggered through the snow, following their skid marks back to where the fight had happened. How they were almost completely unharmed was a miracle, considering the other guy had clearly gotten more than his pride ruined.

Which was an understatement, because that guy was basically a blood stain now. All except his gear, which was sitting pitifully in the snow.

After a moment or two, they walked up to it and put a gentle hand on it. It was almost instinctive. A feeling that it was something they had to do for… some reason. They weren’t really sure. 

They’d never been in this body before; how were they to know what a gear was? How were they to understand the instinctive need to use it, even if indirectly? 

The ball almost seemed to fade after a moment, hazing away into the snow like flakes. They blinked once. Twice. And a moment later it was like the ball had never existed at all.

They shook their head and looked around. Now wasn’t the time to wonder exactly what that was. They had to find the guy they’d jumped in to protect. They had a good guess as to where the explosion came from, at least…

Their theories were confirmed when they found the guy laying unconscious in the snow. He seemed decently okay, and a quick touch to his neck confirmed that he was at least alive and had a pulse. He just had some injuries and bruises but nothing that seemed life threatening. 

Picking him up was a bit awkward, but eventually, they managed to get him up and braced against one of their shoulders. He was bigger than them, but they couldn’t just leave him there.

They needed answers.

When Zuka came to, the first thing he realized was that, somehow, he wasn’t dead. The second thing he realized was that he was warm.

That was surprising. Blackrock’s forests were always bitterly cold no matter the time of year. He’d expected to freeze to death if nothing else got him first. He blinked a few times and tried to sit up, only to get a gentle hand on his shoulder pushing him back down. A quick glance, and he saw the situation a bit more clearly.

It was some sort of makeshift base. What had once been assumedly a storage room was now converted into a bedroom of sorts, with many random things lining the shelves. Some of it was food, some of it was various supplies and random knick-knacks that must have been laying around. A small fire had been built in the center, and the inphernal that had saved him was adding wood to it.

It was the same inphernal from earlier and the spawn fountain, with red horns and the spiked tail. A tail which, now, flickered nervously as they eyed him.

“I’m not gonna hurt you,” he reassured them as he pushed himself up. “If anything, I owe you one for saving my ass back there.”

They shifted nervously but nodded, forcing a smile.

Zuka tilted his head slightly at that. “... not much of a talker, huh?”

There was a moment of hesitation before they lifted up their chin slightly to show their neck, where he could see a clear, pale pink scar. They traced it carefully with a claw, and the more he looked, the more disturbed he became.

“What in the name of Darkheart…” he muttered, eyes nearly bugged out of his head in disbelief. “That goes all the way around, doesn’t it? Is that why you can’t speak?”

They nodded.

“Guess that explains it.”

Zuka had seen a lot of things in his time as a soldier. A inphernal fresh out of the fountain with a scar already wrapped around their throat was not one of them. That scar looked older than a few days with how it had already healed enough to… well, scar. Not to mention the fact that they’d just come out of the fountain, yet already looked like a young adult at least. Maybe Hyperlaser’s age, if not a bit younger.

It was weird. None of it was adding up. 

“I’m Zuka. Do you uh… do you have a name I could call you by or anything?”

The younger inphernal shrugged, which Zuka found even more confusing. Most newlyspawned would at least know what their gear was instinctively. Then again, he hadn’t seen them actually fight with their gear earlier. They might have just not known.

“Could you summon your gear at least?”

Again, they looked at him like he was insane, but they seemed to focus after a second. A moment later, a deck of cards popped into their hands, and they held it up to show him.

“Huh, interesting,” he muttered as he pulled one of the cards and held it up to the firelight. It was a blank card that had almost a crystalline texture and shine to it, and shimmered softly as he turned it in the light. “Guess I can just call you Cards then, huh?”

They considered this, then nodded. Cards it was.

A grin spread over Zuka’s face. “Well, nice to meet you, Cards! Wish it was under better circumstances…”

They seemed to ignore him as they shuffled the cards in their hands, their fingers reflexively curling and darting to and fore as they seemed to figure out a rhythm. He watched them shuffle through the cards for a minute before they abruptly paused, finding one card that was different from the rest. The card was purple with a blue circle on it, almost looking like a ball.

Cards stared at the card for a few seconds before they tossed it down in front of them. The card abruptly shattered before reforming itself into a dodgeball in their lap, which they held in their hands.

Zuka’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait- isn’t that the same gear as the guy from earlier?”

Cards nodded and tossed the ball up in the air a few times, and Zuka could have sworn he saw a flicker of recognition in their eyes. It was almost like they’d thrown that same ball around before and were simply regaining the muscle memory. 

That was odd. Not what Zuka had expected, for sure. “So it’s… like a mimic gear of sorts,” he remarked after a second. Cards tossed the ball up a few more times before they nodded. 

A mimic gear. Zuka had heard of gear that could hypothetically do that, or gear that could be made to mimic other gear, or hell, even gear that naturally was very similar to other gear already. But a gear that seemed to be able to copy already existing gear? It was something unheard of. The implications that it could have on the war as a whole…

“You should come back with me to camp,” he said suddenly.

Cards looked up, startled at the declaration. Startled enough that the dodgeball they’d been messing with slipped through their hands and shattered into crystal fractures on the ground. They cocked an eyebrow at him and frowned.

“I mean- only if you want to,” Zuka backtracked. “It’s just… you’ve been here for who the fuck knows how long, alone, and you’re clearly young. I don’t know how much you know about the inphinity’s state right now, but it’s not good. There’s war going on, and Blackrock’s wilds aren’t exactly the most hospitable place, either.”

That caught Card’s attention. They tilted their head in confusion, as if to ask what he meant.

“Ah, so you uh… you don’t know about what’s going on?”

They shook their head.

Zuka sighed. “Right, so, basically… the four major factions of the world, Blackrock, Lost Temple, Thieve’s Den, and Playground are all at war right now. Something about trade agreements going sour- I don’t know, I’m just a soldier. I fight for Blackrock.”

The young inphernal seemed to take this with a surprising amount of stride, their eyes focused on Zuka as he explained the situation. Oddly mature for their age, even if they were a newlyspawned… he thought. He wasn’t sure. They were a bit too large to be a newlyspawned and looked physically more like a young adult, but then again, he’d seen them just a few days ago soaking wet by the spawn fountain. The fact that they survived assumedly alone was a mark of some sort of maturity.

Still, though, if they were an adult, they were barely one. And sue Zuka if he had a soft spot for scrappy kids. He couldn’t just leave them to run around on their own and risk them freezing or worse. 

At least their unique gear and young age would make it very easy to justify keeping them around. Zuka may not have liked using his faction’s fucked up practices for his own gain, but at the same time, they did make it very easy to justify child soliders.

Not like the other factions were innocent of doing messed up things. All’s fair in war, as the saying goes.

After a few minutes of staring at the fire and thinking, Cards came to a decision. They looked at Zuka and nodded ‘yes’.

“You’ll come back to camp with me?” Zuka asked, and Cards nodded again. “Good. We can head out soon, then.”

He pushed himself to stand up, only for the world to spin around him and nearly fall. Ah, right, head injury. He’d forgotten about that. 

Luckily, Cards was fast enough to catch him.

Chapter Text

The forest was darker and colder than Cards had thought at first. The castle ruins must have been in a thinner part of the forest, because the longer they walked deeper into the woods, the more unnerving everything became. It wasn’t long before the only sound was the ice and snow crunching under their feet as they walked.

Zuka had given them his coat before they’d set out. They’d only half been paying attention when he said they’d freeze to death, so they didn’t try to argue that he should keep it for long. Even as they’d tried to shove it back into his hands, he’d insisted and said he was used to the cold.

Blackrock was different from how they remembered it. When they’d gone through the first time to get the ice dagger, it had been cold, but not nearly as many trees and forested areas. The area they’d gone to had been more cliffsides than anything else. One small slip and they’d have been sent to their death by falling. 

They’d seen a lot of those cliffsides around the ruins, sure, but this was something else. Maybe it was just that they hadn’t been around this area the first time around.

Their nostalgia came back to bite them in the ass, though, because their foot slipped on a patch of ice they hadn’t seen.

“Careful,” Zuka said quickly as he grabbed their arm to stabilize them. “You need to watch where you step. The snow hides all sorts of bad shit.”

Cards nodded and readjusted their footing. At least they were with someone who actually knew the lay of the land. Much as they hated to admit it, Zuka had saved their ass far too many times by now. At least the old Blackrock had paths and shit.

They wondered more as they followed Zuka’s path, stepping carefully in the footprints he’d made in the snow. They knew back then that Cruel King had used the Icedagger to cause all that snow and ice, and they’d assumed that it would eventually melt. Hell, the kingdom was supposed to fall, according to that weird voice that had talked Cruel King into going after the dagger to begin with.

They’d never really figured out what that voice was, truthfully. It was one of the dozens of questions they had that were left unanswered before they died. It sucked, but they didn’t have time to dwell on that. No, they had a new mission now. They had to find and gather the swords all over again… whatever that meant. They’d figure it out somehow. 

Their species had been changed, their entire life had been changed, and they had no idea what had happened to their friends. They’d be more upset about it if they weren’t so cold and tired right now. Really, all they wanted right now was a safe place to sit down and maybe sleep. 

Cards was lost in their thoughts for what felt like hours until they suddenly bumped into Zuka. He’d stopped randomly, and Cards had to lean around his shoulder to see what he was looking at.

In front of them was a small camp of some sort, with maybe about ten to twelve other horned people hanging around. Some were sitting around a central campfire, some were sorting what looked like supplies, and there were even a few who looked to be circling one another. They watched for a few seconds before the two circling people suddenly collided, horns and hands crashing together as they pushed back against each other. Zuka muttered something about idiots breaking their horns as he started to slide down a small hill into the clearing. It looked more like throwing each other around for the hell of it to Cards. 

Zuka seemed a bit tense as he glanced back over his shoulder at Cards once they were halfway down the hill. “Just stay close for now,” he told them. “Some of these idiots have a hair-trigger reaction.”

With that, he stepped into the group, and Cards followed closely behind. They took in their surroundings curiously

It didn’t take long for the odd pair to get noticed. Cards could see how the others saw Zuka first and seemed happy, then saw them and seemed suspicious. They couldn’t blame them, really. They’d gotten that look plenty of times over their entire adventure before this whole mess happened. 

One person in a blue helmet darted over from where he’d been working on cleaning a rifle-looking gear. “B. Zuka,” the inphernal greeted. “You’ve been gone for days, we thought you were dead.”

Zuka just cracked a smile at that. “It would take more than a bad scuffle to kill me, Hyperlaser,” he joked, hands on his hips.

“You were only sent out on a routine patrol, you were meant to be gone for a day,” Hyperlaser shot back. His head turned slightly and he looked behind Zuka.

Cards tried to move behind their friend more, but the puffy coat made them stick out like a sore thumb.

“Who in the Inpherno-”

“They’re fine, they helped me,” Zuka cut in. He put an arm back and not-so-gently shoved Cards forward to stand face-to-face with Hyperlaser. “Hyperlaser, this is Cards. Cards, this is Hyperlaser.”

Hyperlaser took one look at the younger inphernal, then looked at Zuka. “So are they a prisoner or…?”

“No, they’re not a prisoner. They helped me, and I think the higher-ups would take an interest in their, uh, ‘unique gear’. Speaking of which, I need to radio this in.”

“What is their gear, then-?”

Cards watched as the two inphernals bickered like a pair of idiots until they heard Hyperlaser mention their gear. They tilted their head at him and just kind of stared in response.

Hyperlaser took notice of this quickly enough. “What?” he asked, only to be met with silence. “Zuka, your kid’s looking at me weird.”

“They’re not my- phucking Banlands, Hyperlaser, they don’t speak. They’re mute,” Zuka explained as he was already on his way to a different tent. “If they’re looking at you weird they probably have a question or something, I don’t know, I met them two days ago. We’ll get it sorted later. They need warm clothes and food, goodness knows how long they’ve been running around in the woods since we found them.”

Cards quickly turned and went to follow Zuka. They could still hear Hyperlaser’s voice behind them as he called, “oh so they are your kid!”

“I did not say that!” Zuka called back over his shoulder as he pushed a flap of the tent open and waved Cards through. 

They were not his kid. Any decent inphernal, from any faction, would take in a newly spawned they found running around in the woods.

Cards was pretty sure Zuka was their dad now. 

It was hard to blame them, really, seeing how the guy basically went all dad-mode on them the second they got to camp. When they’d gone into the communication’s tent, Zuka gave them a warm Blackrock uniform to change into. It was much warmer than the old, torn clothes they’d gathered from the ruins. And when they’d looked a little too long at a box labeled “rations”, it took all of three seconds for him to give them some while muttering something about them being “too thin for this frozen hell”.

So, yeah, they were pretty sure he was their father now. Or at least was the closest thing they had to someone who gave even a remote shit about them. 

Settling into the camp turned out to be interesting as well. For one, Cards wasn’t technically a soldier. Zuka had explained to them that, for the meantime, they’d be safe at camp until they went to the main bases closer to the cities. Blackrock used a rotation schedule, with squads of soldiers rotating who were assigned to guard and patrol each sector. 

He’d pulled out a map and everything, which admittedly, was very helpful for Cards to get a grasp of this world. A world of five regions, with a “Crossroads” in the middle of them all that acted kind of like neutral territory. They stood in the northern snowy region of Blackrock, a faction that Zuka had said was well known for its advancements in technology.

Even just looking around the camp later could Cards tell that he wasn’t lying. Sure, the camp wasn't the most comfortable thing, but they were literally out in the middle of nowhere in a frozen forest. The fact that they even had decent medical equipment despite their “medic” not having a healing gear was a damn miracle. The firepits they'd dug around the area kept them warm, and their support gear… adminsban, for someone who was used to using cards to summon shit, the spare pistol they were given seemed like something from the future. 

(Granted, they'd gotten an entire lecture from Zuka about it only being for emergencies and to call for help first, and to not wander away from the camp because they technically weren’t trained… then again, he didn't know about their previous exploits. He didn't need to.) 

(Not like they were going to correct him. They just copied it into a card and carried on with their day. It was close enough to a slingshot, it couldn’t be that big of a difference.)

They’d been given actual armor, too. Not the cheap hoodie they’d been running all over Robloxia in the first time they’d gotten sent to find the swords. No, like actual, proper armor. “Just a spare set,” some inphernal with curled horns had said before tossing it to them. It had taken about ten minutes to figure out how to get it properly fitted over their uniform, and even then, it felt awkward to walk in. They’d given the camp a good laugh when they fell face-first into the snow like a cat wearing boots for the first time. 

Still, for what it was worth, things were… starting to feel okay, somewhat. They were safe, they had people who seemed to care about them. They weren’t fighting for their life every day to get some sword for… him…

They could never quite seem to shake their anger, though. Their hatred never truly died in the ghostwalker, after all. Perhaps that was why they’d come back looking like that… thing… they’d seen inside it.

“Kid?”

Their thoughts were broken by a familiar voice. They looked up in time to see Zuka standing in the firelight holding two mugs, and gave him a smile.

He didn’t say much as he sat down next to them on the log, and the firelight bounced off the snow and ice around them. Inphernals all around them were laughing and cheering, celebrating something they’d missed.

Zuka, as always, seemed to notice the unspoken question. He passed them one of the mugs. “Here,” he said. “Hot chocolate. Figured you wouldn’t mind a warm drink in the cold.

Cards grinned at that. Hot chocolate. It felt nostalgic. It felt sad. 

They tipped the mug up and took a sip, smiling as they did so. Zuka did the same, and wiped the mustache he had around his lips with the back of his sleeve.

“We’re supposed to be heading back to HQ tomorrow,” he explained after a moment. “This squad is getting rotated out. And… well, the higherups are really curious about you. I told them about your gear and the whole mimicry thing, and they thought it would be good to study.”

Cards’ eyebrows furrowed at that, and they looked down at the mug to consider it. Maybe it wasn’t the worst thing, they figured. A connection to this world’s Blackrock could be useful, especially if they did have the technology they seemed to have just judging by the campsite.

“I know Blackrock has a bad rep, but it’s not too bad once you get used to it,” he tried to reassure them. “Really, we do good work. I think.”

His smile faded as he stared into the firelight.

“It has to be worth something. This… this war, these inphernals… they have to be worth something.”

Cards didn’t respond. They didn’t know what they would have said, if they could have said anything at all. So they didn’t speak.

Instead, they silently put a hand on his shoulder in a show of support. A quiet reassurance that maybe he wasn’t wrong.

Zuka just sighed. “Hey, if anything, I found you,” he pointed out before elbowing Cards in the ribs. “Some scrawny little thing that decided to throw hands without their gear-”

Cards made a fake offended face, dramatically acting like they were clutching their pearls and calling Zuka an old man. 

If they could speak.

They eventually just shook their head as Zuka laughed at their reaction. It wasn’t like he was really wrong. Even if this whole thing did seem pointless, at least he’d found them. At least they weren’t still freezing in the ruins.

Maybe… maybe for once, they’d found somewhere they be-

”EVERYONE! TAKE COVER, NOW!”

The frantic voice rang out through the camp, and everyone scrambled to their feet. As Cards did, a harsh gust of freezing wind raced through the camp.

“I thought the intel said this place was safe!” Zuka snapped at the closest inphernal before pulling Cards protectively behind him. “What’s going on?”

Another inphernal- Compass, the one with the curled horns- scrambled past with some sort of map. “It should have been safe, it was on the outskirts of-”

Another gust of wind hit and sent the map flying, causing Compass to curse. 

In the chaos, Cards seemed to be the only one who noticed their gear glowing. They pulled their deck from the pocket and watched it glow a faint blue.

And when they looked up to look for the cause, their eyes locked with another pair of eyes in the woods. Wide, feral eyes, with fairy-like wings beating gusts of frozen winds down on the camp.

Chapter Text

Cards wasn’t sure what they were doing when they decided to charge the strange inphernal down. Truth be told, they didn’t even really have a plan. All they had was this impulsive urgency and need to get them.

They could hear the screaming behind them, the shouts for Cards to turn around, that it wasn’t safe, but the voices were drowned out by impulse. 

And that impulse, for whatever adminsforsaken reason, was to pull out the phucking pistol. Like an idiot. They weren’t even sure what they were doing until they’d pointed the end of the gun at the creature in front of them and pulled the trigger.

Unfortunately, they heavily underestimated the kickback of the weapon. They stumbled and fell backwards into the snow, landing heavily.

“Oh sfoth- Cards!”

Zuka was over there in a second, dragging them upwards and pulling them by the arm.

“What in the Inpherno were you thinking!? I know I said that was for emergencies but that’s fucking Icedagger, you can’t just-”

Upon hearing confirmation of who they were dealing with, Cards was turning around and trying to shoot the sword again.

Luckily for everyone else, Zuka was able to grab their hand in time to jerk it out of the way. The bullet was thrown off and embedded itself into a tree instead of the very pissed-off Icedagger.

“Kid, we have to GO!”

Cards tried the gun again, but finding it jammed, they gave up and threw it away into the snow. It didn’t do them any good, and it wouldn’t again. Fuck that shit.

They had to get that dagger. That gear. That weapon.

It was the one adminsdamned thing they were told to do, and by all that was good, they were gonna do it.

(To feel the power flowing through their hands again, to know what they could harness with just a bit of power and energy-)

They shoved Zuka off them and turned towards the fray, then sprinted right into the middle of it. Cards flew around them as they shuffled between their hands and slid between flying ice and winds. 

Everyone around them was falling. Icicles were getting stabbed through their bodies, and anyone who could even get close to Icedagger was quickly finding themself thrown aside into the snow or frozen on the spot. It was like a frozen garden of hell, each inphernal passed caught in their moment of desperation.

But Cards was fine. More than fine, actually, they were doing great. They dodged and weaved like they’d done a thousand times. Fighting all those enemies in the past (Cruel King, Griefer, Hatred…) had made these sorts of rushes like second nature. Sure, the knee-deep snow that was quickly beginning to pile upon the camp was not making things any easier, but they could care less with their single-minded focus.

It was almost like fighting Cruel King again. Well, if Cruel King was the icedagger and could fly. They hardly noticed the scratches on their face from the frozen wind scraping at them, slicing any exposed skin they had. They barely noticed when they shed their coat to dodge a particularly big snowball.

The frozen hellscape they’d once called a camp became background noise as they finally got close enough to engage. They grabbed their card deck and smashed the dodgeball card against some frozen ground, summoning the weapon to their hands. 

They wound up quickly and slammed the ball against the ground, watching it sail through the air and hit the deity right in the chest. 

It threw Icedagger off for a moment, at least, sending him spinning back in the air before he righted himself. He shook his head and looked around, spotting Cards just in time to dodge out of the way of the second bounce. 

“Oh?” the sword laughed, spinning in the air slightly as they took in the inphernal who’d managed to fight back. “How… interesting. Can’t say I’ve ever seen you before.”

He sighed. “Guess this won’t be as quick a cleanup as I’d hoped…”

With that, the deity pulled back, flying higher up into the air where Cards couldn’t reach. No matter how much they silently cursed and wished they could reach that high, they couldn’t throw the ball that high.

“Listen,” Icedagger said directly to cards. “I can tell you’re not from Blackrock. You’re not meant to be here. Leave now and I will spare you.”

Icedagger had thought the inphernal would take the warning. The rest of the camp was practically frozen or buried under six feet of snow; anyone with any reason would take the offer and leave.

But no, this stubborn inphernal gritted their teeth and dug their heels in, and they seethed like Icedagger had offended them personally with his offer of mercy.

“Leave, mortal. This is not your fight. I’m doing what I have to,” he huffed, then shook his head as power began to charge from his sword once more. It was useless. “I tried to warn you.”

Cards dodged out of the way just in time to miss the main iceblast to the chest. The ones at their feet, though, struck true. They gasped out of pain, the ball falling from their hands as they desperately tried to pull their feet up.

The hot chocolate earlier had done no good. Apparently that worked differently here.

Fuck.

They desperately pulled their feet up, trying to break the ice as Icedagger prepared another shot. But it was hopeless. The ice wasn’t budging, and they were trapped.

“KID!”

One moment they were sure they were facing down death, and the next, there was a blur of motion and Icedagger getting hit with a fucking rocket.

The deity screeched as he was knocked off balance and Zuka came out of nowhere, climbing frantically through the deep snow. The rocket launcher hung awkwardly over one shoulder as he pushed snow out of the way, and he quickly wrapped his arms around Cards for a hug. “Don’t scare me like that again,” he hissed, then pulled away to look at the sky once more. “Need some backup?”

He looked at the ball at Cards’ frozen feet and kicked it back to them. “Not sure what you plan to do with that, but we gotta go.”

Cards nodded and pulled once more at the ice around their feet, when finally, it broke. They turned and ran, accepting defeat for the moment. No shame in trying to stay alive, they didn’t even know if they could respawn like they could back in their old world.

They shoveled through the deep snow, using it for cover to dodge the ice projectiles. If Icedagger had been mad before, he would be pissed now. The screeching was like icy winds scraping on glass, and it hurt Cards’ ears.

The two of them ran through the snow, and they shoveled it out of the way as they ran. Icedagger’s screeches of anger slowly faded into the distance as they ran, with the deity unable to see through their own storm.

By the time it caught up to where they were to follow their trails, they’d already slipped into the relative safety forest.

Cards fell to their hands and knees the moment they got to the relative safety of the treeline, having to catch their breath from the adrenaline. That was Icedagger. Or was it the icedagger? They’d only ever known the weapon as a thing of healing for them, but seeing the deity with the same name act so violent-

“Kid- hey, kid,” Zuka called to them as he kneeled in front of them. “Hey- come on, we need to go.” 

He grabbed them by their armpits and pulled them up, forcing them to get to their feet.

“Come on, we gotta go,” he urged while practically dragging them along. He knew that expression on their face. It was the look of someone who was shellshocked for one reason or another. Not like he could blame them, nobody would have expected Icedagger to show up out of nowhere.

He pulled them along with him, supporting their shaky steps as they ran further and further into the woods. As far as he was concerned, they needed to put as much distance between themselves and the sword as possible. They needed to get the hell out of there.

Cards tried to breathe and rein themself in. They could do this. They just had to breathe.

Eventually, shock and exhaustion won out, and the two inphernals ended up taking cover inside a shallow cave. The weight of the adrenaline crash settled heavily on Cards and Zuka, the cave silent aside from their sound of them forcing air into their lungs.

Zuka was the first to speak. “... you alright?” he asked Cards, looking over his shoulder at them. 

Cards swallowed hard and nodded, then sat up from where they were leaning against the wall. They were covered in ice and snow, and more than a little blood they were only just starting to notice, but they’d survived the fight.

Zuka nodded before he let out a sigh of relief. “That’s- that’s good,” he decided after a second. “I don’t know if anyone else got away, so… it’s just gonna be the two of us until we can figure out what the fuck we do- oh swords you’re bleeding.”

Cards looked down at their coat and body, then grimaced at the sight of blood. It was a decent amount of blood, too, thanks to all the scapes and cuts from the ice.

“Shit- uh, okay, sit down,” Zuka gently directed them. They sat on a nearby log while the world spun. The adrenaline crash was hitting hard, and sure enough, had started to have a few regrets over the entire thing. Maybe trying to shoot a god with a gun they barely understood was not the wisest choice. They probably should have just run, but then again, they’d never been the best at reigning in their impulses.

He rifled through his bag for a moment before he pushed some bandages into their hands. “Here,” he muttered. “I’ll keep watch, you wrap your injuries.”

Cards didn’t argue. Instead, they simply did as they were told. It took a few tries to not slice the bandage with their short claws, but eventually, they managed to mostly wrap the cuts on their arms while Zuka watched the forest.

It was when they finished bandaging their arms that something… happened. 

It was a quick itch, much like the sensation of the healing card from when they were back in Robloxia and used it to mend some of their smaller injuries. Curious, they lifted the bandages slightly and saw that their injuries were gone.

They reached over and shook Zuka, which got the other inphernal’s attention. “Something wrong?” he asked before he saw Cards pulling off the bandages.

No injuries. No blood.

“... what the fuck?”

He crouched down a bit to get a closer look. “I swear you’d had injuries-”

Cards, meanwhile, had summoned their gear and was flipping through the deck once more, and paused when they came across several new cards. Mostly snow and ice related ones: Snowball, instant freeze… oh, and healing, funny enough. Though the healing card looked drained and dull compared to the other cards.

Cards held it up to show Zuka, and he looked curiously. “Guess you can’t use that healing trick too much. It came in handy, though, so it’s not a bad thing to have.”

They nodded in agreement and put the cards back in the deck, then began to fiddle with the cards, shuffling and reshuffling them as Zuka paced. 

“Okay, so we need to figure out where the others went— if anyone’s left — and we need to regroup and then… fuck, I don’t know, return to base maybe?” He wrung his hands together as he paced, wearing a rut into the snow. “We can’t just stay here in the woods, and I don’t know if anyone else survived. I don’t know if we’re gonna have to deal with Icedagger or any of the other swords, and if Icedagger doubles back he’s-”

The drained healing card hit him lightly in the shoulder, and when he looked up, he saw Cards giving a very disapproving look.

Zuka just sighed. “Okay, message received,” he huffed, then patted Cards on the shoulder. “How are you the voice of reason when you don’t even speak?”

Cards just shrugged at that. 

In the end, it was decided that they’d try to find other survivors. Going back to the camp was useless, everything was frozen over, so they’d go to the next best place they could think of: the old castle ruins Zuka had met Cards in. It was the closest place for shelter from the wind and snow, so it was only reasonable to assume that all the other Blackrock soldiers (who’d had the same sort of survival training as Zuka) would head there.

Cards could understand why. They just wished they had the voice to explain why the castle was abandoned to begin with.

Chapter Text

As expected, the walk through the snowy forest was very miserable. Cards wasn’t sure if it was because of Icedagger reigning hell upon the general area or because of their coat hanging on by literal threads, but the temperature felt like it had dropped a solid twenty degrees since that battle. The sun starting to set wasn’t helping much, either; the little light they’d gotten through the thick forest canopy had begun to rapidly fade.

The cold was as miserable as it was the first time visiting Blackrock. Had it always been that cold? They’d thought that it would have gone back to normal after the icedagger was removed the first time, but then again, this was where they’d found the Icedagger this time around…

They let out a sigh just thinking about it, and their breath seemed to mock them as it crystalized in the air. They needed to get out of this cold.

They followed Zuka into the dark of the forest, retracing familiar steps from just a few days ago. First they’d been going to what they thought would be safety, and now they had run from it. At least the first time they went through the whole “finding the swords” thing, they could count on always having a safe place to return to in the form of HQ after longer trips out in the wild. But now? Now they had no idea if the castle was completely safe.

“Can’t be far now,” Zuka reassured them as they trudged through the snow. It was much deeper than before, up to their knees, and Cards was fairly sure that they could blame Icedagger for that.

Eventually, after what felt like hours trudging through the snow, they saw the castle over the cliff faces. 

It was almost like how Cards remembered it from the first time they went through this. Cold, dark, lonely… and still lonely, actually, but no longer alone. They’d probably like this little trip a lot more if it weren't somewhere they knew had only bad memories attached.

But still, they walked. The cliff was too far to go down, though, so they had to find another way around. When they veered off the path slightly, Zuka looked at them like they were crazy. “The path is this way,” he said after a moment.

Cards just shook their head. If they could speak, they’d tell him about the dozens of times they’d walked these cliff faces before.

But they couldn’t speak. So they just walked.

He followed eventually. He followed them down some steep, rotted stairs, down a spiral, and over a nearly crumbling bridge. It was the same path they’d taken ages ago to get to the castle the first time, and frankly, they were happy it hadn’t changed much. Just a bit more rotted and broken down than how they remembered it.

“Guess you’ve been here more than I have,” Zuka tried to joke. It fell flat. Cards was sure he could sense their falling mood the closer they got to the castle. They looked back at him a few times, and he looked just as somber. Yet neither of them had the heart to say it out loud.

Granted, there was always something slightly sobering about ancient ruins. Just wondering what had happened for them to become abandoned in such a way was in itself a heavy realization, not to mention knowing, or at least suspecting, one was the cause of such a thing.

Eventually, cards got to the front of the castle, and pushed against the heavy door. It didn’t budge. Zuka stepped in, and bracing himself against the door as well, the two of them prepared to push. “On three,” Zuka said. “One… two… three!”

The door came unstuck with the coordinated shove, and the two of them nearly tumbled into the front hall. Cards managed to catch themself on the door at least, and just sighed. At least they were out of the wind and snow outside.

Granted, it wasn’t like the inside of the castle was much better. Cards looked around as they righted themself and brushed off the snow, and it was just as decayed as they’d seen it last. That last time was barely a week ago, but hey, it was still just as cold and dark as it had been.

Zuka led the way in, his rocket launcher slung over one shoulder as the pair of them searched around the castle. The pale moonlight was barely enough to light some of the rooms through the windows, and with others, they had to rely on the faint glow of the flashlights they had. Flashlights that were already running low on batteries.

Forget going to the Dream World for the first time, Cards had decided that trying to find their way through Blackrock Castle while it was ruined and with nothing but a few dying flashlights was worse, actually. At least the Dream World was literally all in their head.

They moved from the lower levels to the higher ones soon enough at least. They found the dining hall, which was much different from how Cards remembered it.

“It’s almost like there was a fight here,” Zuka remarked suddenly. 

Cards nodded in agreement, then pointed to some of the tables with their flashlight. They’d been pushed up on their sides and braced against one another.

Zuka paused when he saw what Cards was shining their light at. “Nobody really knows what happened here,” he remarked. “Nobody ever really goes near here. They say it’s haunted.”

If Cards could speak in the moment, they would have been asking him why the fuck they’d gone there, then, if the place was apparently haunted. Cards had enough of ghosts the first time around, running around an entire haunted manor.

The older inphernal did not respond to the look he could feel Cards giving him. “Either way, something had to have happened here. A battle of some sort.”

He lifted up his own light to light up the back door, and froze. It was completely iced over.

It wasn’t in a natural way, either. Not frozen in the way of a door getting stuck shut by the seams being frozen; no, this door was completely frozen over. A solid, thick wall of ice over the doors to the kitchen.

“... I don’t think that’s normal,” he muttered, then looked at Cards. Cards was having about the same reaction. 

Neither of them wanted to say it, but the look they shared simply said that they both knew who had caused that.

With that direction no longer an option, they elected to turn around and head back into the main castle area. They had to step carefully when walking over a section with a collapsed chandelier, to which Cards had to hide their grin as they did.

Since they’d seen the ice in front of the kitchen door, the more they noticed the cold as they headed deeper in. Ice along the walls, ice on furniture, and it just kept getting thicker and more solid.

“Why would Icedagger freeze over a random castle?” Zuka asked suddenly as they walked past a particularly thick patch of ice. “And why not the whole castle? And where in the Inpherno is everyone?”

Cards just shrugged. Blackrock Castle hadn’t been like this the last time they visited, so hell if they knew why Icedagger did this.

As to where everyone was… they had no idea, either. Zuka had said the other survivors of the attack on camp would likely come here, so where were they?

“... this place makes me uneasy,” Zuka muttered eventually. “Where is everybody? I mean, we’re supposed to seek shelter if our camp gets destroyed… and they’d probably go here…”

He curled in on himself a bit. Not much, but Cards noticed how his shoulders hunched slightly under his armor. They walked up to his side and put a hand on his shoulder in silent reassurance.

“It’s- it’s just that I’m supposed to be the leader of this unit,” he admitted. “I was supposed to be the smart one, Blackrock’s greatest fighter. And where the hell am I? On the outskirts of the territory, doing patrols for a random camp. And I fucked up that, too. Hell by this point, if this mess doesn’t get fixed, they’ll…”

His voice trails off. 

Cards tilts their head for a moment, as if that could help them see through the conflicted emotions on his face.

“Blackrock… doesn’t take kindly to failure,” he admitted. “Fail to live up to expectations, and they… ‘enhance’ you. Experiment on you and your gear. And I’m a good soldier! A good leader! And I- I do what’s best for those I watch over. But I can’t- I can’t reach that bar anymore. It’s too far out of my reach. I had to do something amazing.

“And when I saw what you could do, when I saw you copy that dodgeball gear from that playgrounder, I just- I just thought that-”

He stops. Cards stops as well. They stand there in the icy hallway for a few seconds.

“... I thought they’d be happy if I brought them someone that they could test on. Your gear is… it’s nothing ever seen before.”

Cards’ hand fell from his shoulder. 

“I- I know that sounds bad-” Zuka quickly tried to backtrack. “I swear, I do care about you, but I-”

Cards only stepped further back, and their brow furrowed as they slowly put pieces together. That was why he was so interested in their gear. That was why he had that moment by the fire that one night.

That was why he’d been protecting them, keeping them safe.

“Cards, I promise, I’m sorry, but I- I had to- please, just hear me out-”

Cards didn’t wait to listen. 

“CARDS!”

They turned and ran down the hallway, Zuka hot on their trail and yelling for them to just wait, to just let him explain.

He’d used them. He fucking used them, planned to turn them over to Blackrock to take his place. 

Cards was an idiot, they decided as they skidded around a corner and slammed sprinted up a familiar staircase. A dumbass idiot who shouldn’t have trusted someone who seemed so eager to help them.

Cards never had a place to belong.

They hit the door to the throne room and shoved it open, only to slam it closed behind them again. They summoned their gear and grabbed the free ice card, and slammed it against the doors.

Ice exploded across the doors, freezing them solid and shut. 

They took a deep breath and turned off their flashlight, then threw it at the wall with a resounding bang. Their hatred, that vile thing festering inside them, spurned as they leaned against the solid ice. If Zuka was trying to reason with them on the other side of the wall, they couldn’t tell. They didn’t care. 

He’d made it clear that he would save his own hide if it came down to it. All of that care… it was fake, wasn’t it? Like that fake Builderman. Like that pirate captain. 

Like…

Like him.

They could still feel the sting of steel slicing through their neck. They knew those memories weren’t fake. They knew their past life had something to do with this.

(History was doomed to repeat.)

When they finally turned back around to head deeper into the throne room, they sighed. They were on their own. Their only light was the faint window as they walked through the dark.

They weren’t wholly surprised to see Icedagger sitting on the throne at the end of the hall. Albeit, the inphernal sword looked… smaller, sitting where his past wielder had once sat. Where Cruel King had filled the room with his presence, Icedagger filled it with a nervous sort of dread.

Didn’t help that the survivors they’d been looking for had been frozen and were scattered behind the throne.

“You came,” Icedagger said simply as they stood up from the throne, and walked towards Cards. They didn't miss how he had to step over what looked like a pile of snow (or was it bones?) to get to them.

“Let’s talk.”

Chapter Text

Talk.

Icedagger wanted to “talk”.

The entire moment gave Cards a horrible feeling of deja vu, considering the way Icedagger had just stepped over some bones that Cards was 99% sure belonged to the last person they fought in this throne room.

They opened their mouth to speak, and nothing but strangled air came out. Right, no speaking. Damn [Spawn] or Shedletsky or- or whichever one of those two caused that. They weren’t really sure. It didn’t really matter, did it? Not now.

Icedagger’s expression was dangerously blank as he stared at them. “What? Cat got your tongue?” He asked with a grin, like a teasing child. 

With no other options, Cards lifted their chin slightly to show the scar running around their throat. 

A moment of silence hung in the air before Icedagger spoke again. “I guess that explains why you’re so…” they gestured to Cards with a wave of their hand. “Quiet.”

Cards just scowled at the god. The way Icedagger looked at them reminded them of a certain red child they’d had to… ah, well, deal with. More than once. He had that sort of arrogant child ‘I’m better than you and know it’ kind of look to him. Just to add insult to injury, he was dressed well for the cold. Cards was jealous. Cards missed the warm coat that had been torn to shreds and abandoned in the woods sometime between the attack and now. They did not want to punt a child, but they were very much so willing to do so should push come to shove.

Icedagger just shrugged. “I guess you want an explanation for earlier, right?” he asked as he tilted his head. “My issue isn’t with you, Cards. You’re not from Blackrock, I know it. I’ve been watching that camp for months, and you just showed up suddenly, following that one blue-horned guy like a lost dog. It was kinda sad, actually-”

Scratch that; Cards really wanted to punt the child.

“- But I’m getting off track. I’m not against you. I’m against Blackrock.”

… Alright, Cards could work with that. They tilted their head in a curious manner, trying to get their confusion and question across.

“Oh- well, they’re the ones who caused this whole mess of a war to begin with. I’m just trying to finish it.”

That gave the mortal inphernal pause. Blackrock started this mess? They almost seemed to ask. Granted, they wouldn’t have been all that shocked. If what Zuka had said out in the hallway was anything to go by, Blackrock wasn’t above doing shady shit in the name of innovation or whatever their goal was. 

Cards had known on some level there was a war going on between whatever these factions were, but they hadn’t realized how deep it had run. 

“I’m not sure how it started, but everyone’s saying it’s Blackrock’s fault, so I’m just trying to help!” Icedagger explained with a smile. “So once I freeze Blackrock over and they stop attacking everyone, then there’ll be peace!”

… right, so there were several layers of flawed logic there. Blackrock wasn’t the best, sure, but Cards couldn’t even consider freezing over an entire faction, civilians and all.

Cards must have not been hiding their confusion and bafflement well at all, because the young deity’s face fell a little. “What? It’s a good plan, right?” he asked. “Come on, we get rid of the bullies, and everything goes back to what it was! You can help me, even! You’ve got those cards I keep hearing them chatter about, something about powerful gear that could turn the tides of everything!”

Icedagger’s wings fluttered in excitement as they flew over to Cards, holding out a hand to shake. “Come on, let’s join forces! Help me end this war before any more people get hurt.”

Cards looked at the hand outstretched in front of them. Their eyes flickered back from Icedagger’s hand, then to the deity’s face.

And they stepped back and shook their head.

Cards had heard this logic before somewhere. Something they’d rejected once before, that freezing everyone wasn’t the answer. Somewhere long ago, which left them holding a familiar frozen dagger in their hands.

Icedagger was just how they remembered it, sword or not. Encouraging peace through that stillness, where nothing could go wrong if nothing happened at all. It was the same logic the dagger had whispered to Cruel King years ago, leading to everyone in the kingdom to freeze.

And here it was as it happened again.

Icedagger’s face fell into something like dangerous neutrality. “Oh,” was all he said for a moment as he dropped his hand back to his side. “I see. They wanted to test and experiment on you, and you still side with them. ”

(History was doomed to repeat.)

Suddenly, Icedagger was all smiles and bright eyes again. “That’s okay! If you want so badly to be on their side, then I’ll treat you like one of them!”

The deity raised up his hand and summoned his gear. The dagger was different from how Cards remembered it. A bit larger, but still a dagger, and the handle was like thorny vines, unlike the smooth ice Cards remembered holding.

And in another moment of deja vu, Icedagger stabbed the dagger into the ground.

Muscle memory kicked in at that point, and Cards flung themself to the side. Just in time, too, because the spikes of freezing ice got just a bit too close to where they’d been standing half a second prior. That was close. Too close.

They scrambled to their feet and avoided a stab from Icedagger, then retaliated with their dodgeball. They couldn’t go down without a fight, not knowing what Icedagger planned to do.

The winged deity hissed and beat his wings again, shooting up into the air like the last fight. But not too high this time. It was nothing short of luck that the roof was still intact on this part of the ruins, so Icedagger was firmly stuck within dodgeball throwing range.

The air was electric with the cold, and the windows (or at least what remained of them) were quickly turning to frost as Cards and Icedagger traded blows. The sword would dive down to take a shot at Cards, and they’d take a shot in return. 

This wasn’t getting them anywhere. Cards could still get hits, yes, but Icedagger was faster and could fly. He didn’t stay still, and with how the Cards had begun to shiver, they wouldn’t be able to do this fight forever. There had to be something they could do.

If they could get him to stop flying…

They summoned their cards to their hands again just in time to dodge another ice attack. The chill of fractured ice scraped their side as it just barely missed. They took the opening.

With the card pinched between their fingers, Cards lined their wrist up and flicked.

It was a bullseye. The Free Ice card hit right against one of Icedagger’s wings. The deity cried out and plummeted, barely making a ramp in time to slide down rather than just hit the ground flat.

“You- you piece of crap-!” Icedagger shouted, outraged as he pulled himself to his feet. “How dare you use my own domain against me!”

He tried to flutter his wings, but with one of them frozen solid, he was left leaning off-balance and unable to fly.

“Ugh- screw it. I don’t need to fly to beat you!”

Icedagger was just as quick back on the attack, turning their dagger on Cards and slashing down to hit them again. But Cards was quick on the attack as well, dodging and coming back around to slam the ball into Icedagger’s face.

Blow after blow, Cards slowly felt themself gaining the upper hand once again. The rhythm felt familiar, at least. Attack, then dodge a punch. Attack, then dodge the dagger. Attack, dodge the freeze. Attack, dodge, attack-

Familiar. Again.

(This was just like the last time, wasn’t it?)

(The hot chocolate they’d had not that long ago wasn’t enough to keep them warm. Not with the chill of what Zuka had said and the frozen memories they recalled.)

Finally, they managed to get an edge. They swept the deity’s legs and knocked them down to the ground, then planted a foot on Icedagger’s chest.

They opened their mouth to speak, to say something. Anything at all.

And nothing came out.

Then, slowly, they lifted their foot off of Icedagger. They stepped back, and their hands fell into their hands.

The memories. So many bitter, sad memories, tainted by what they’d once thought was right. 

They’d been here before. This room, this sword , fighting for what they’d thought was good. What was for the best.

Fighting to claim a SFOTH for someone who’d told them to collect them.

And now they were fighting to claim a SFOTH for someone who’d told them to collect them.

Again.

Again.

And it all came crashing down.

Icedagger scrambled to his feet, trying to catch his breath as he watched Cards suddenly break. Their breathing was shallow as their remaining cards fell from their hands, and scattered across the floor in front of them.

“... you’re a crybaby,” Icedagger huffed. “But you are… strange. And dangerous.”

He walked closer to the mortal after a moment, putting a cold hand on their shoulder.

They looked up at him, tears in their eyes and mouth moving in silent pleas.

‘Kill… me…’ they almost seemed to say.

(They had nothing left. Nothing more than a worthless quest to gather the swords again, and they didn’t know how to do that, and nothing more than bitter memories of a dead king and their friends who were gone and the one person who seemed to actually give a shit about them being ready to turn them over to be tested and experimented on and-)

Icedagger didn’t know how to respond to that. He wasn’t sure if he saw that correctly. “Wait- what?”

They did it again, mouthing a silent ‘kill me’.

Zuka should not have told Cards about what Blackrock wanted.

He’d made some stupid decisions before despite being a tacticion, and somehow, he’d made the dumbest possible mistake of telling Cards the truth.

They deserved the truth! They were smart, they would have figured it out eventually. It’s not like he could have hidden it forever.

He… probably could have gone about it better, though.

“Fuck!”

He slammed his head against a hard door again, and let out a long groan. He’d screwed it up. Poor Cards had run off and frozen the door behind them.

He’d done it again. He always fucked good things up like this.

“Cards… please,” he called out again. Maybe the ice on the other side was too thick to let sound through. “Cads- please, I just- I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have agreed to do any of that, and- fuck, kid, please…”

He was a screwup of a father. 

He took a step back and tried to breath, forcing air into his lungs. “I- I can’t just let them freeze or whatever in there…”

With whatever dignity he had left, he lifted up his hand and summoned his rocket launcher again.

“You can be mad at me for this later,” he muttered, taking a step back from the door as he took aim.

He wasn’t even sure if he was doing this out of concern for his kid or loyalty to Blackrock anymore.

(His kid.)

He aimed at the throne room doors and pulled the trigger.

(Cards was his kid.)

Chapter Text

Icedagger had to back up a few steps when he realized that Cards was still pleading to die. The inphernal had the upper hand two minutes ago. They had him down on the ground and could have just… something. They beat a deity. Probably couldn’t have killed Icedagger, the process of killing a SFOTH would be impossible for a mortal, but there were fates far worse than death. 

And yet that mortal had backed off, broken down, and begged for death.

“... Fine.”

Cards looked up at Icedagger as he raised his sword. The chill of the blade gave Cards a strange sense of ease as it loomed over them, hung like a guillotine blade.

“If death is what you crave, then I will send you to meet Ghostwalker myself. Tell my sibling I said hi.”

Icedagger would have dropped the blade and plunged it into the inphernal kneeling before him… if the door didn’t fucking explode at that very moment.

Ice and wooden splinters were sent flying as it exploded inwards, knocking both Cards and Icedagger to the ground.

Icedagger dropped the sword as he skidded a few feet, and had to wipe snow from his eyes. “What in the inpherno-?” He muttered, ears still ringing from the blast as he looked up.

What he saw was Zuka clutching a dazed Cards against his body.

Cards’ head was still spinning as they felt a pair of strong arms wrap around them. Maybe they’d hit their head or something on the way down, they weren’t quite sure, but they’d felt oddly warm for the first time since they’d left that campfire.

“Cards,” Zuka called out to them, pulling them up to a halfway sitting position. “Cards- shit, kid, hey- hey it’s okay, it’s okay I’m here now, it’s fine- I’m sorry, I’m so fucking sorry, I-”

“What are you doing here?” Icedagger sneered, staggering to his feet. What a sight he must have been, one wing frozen solid, ichor bleeding from his wounds, and a pissed expression.

He didn’t look any older than Cards.

Zuka gently laid Cards down, giving them a reassuring pat on the shoulder before he stood slowly. His rocket launcher, which had been discarded to the side, remained out of his reach. “I’m not here to fight,” he said simply as he held up his hands. “I’m here for my kid.”

“The kid Blackrock wanted to test on?” Icedagger shot back, glaring… well, daggers into Zuka.

The soldier grimaced. “... yes.”

“I won’t let you take them.”

“You were going to kill them,” Zuka shot back.

“They were begging me to kill them.”

“You were going to kill them,” Zuka said more firmly. “I don’t give a shit if they were begging to die. They don’t deserve death, they deserve- they deserve a good life, one where they’re not going to- not gonna be used as a puppet or- or any of that!”

“And you were going to take them to your faction,” Icedagger said, his words cold enough to chill the room. “Death is a mercy. I would have frozen them, but no, they begged to die. I was acting on what they wanted.”

Zuka scoffed. “Well then maybe I’m a selfish bastard for wanting them alive.”

“That you are.”

The world, meanwhile, was spinning for Cards. Yup, they definitely hit their head on the way down from that blast. They groaned silently before they pushed themself up and blinked a few times.

Icedagger and Zuka were still arguing above them. Zuka arguing for their life, Icedagger wishing to gift them death.

Cards didn’t know what they wanted. Instead, they stood up, and almost immediately fell over.

A strong arm caught them around the waist, steading them.

“Easy, kid,” Zuka muttered, holding Cards upright. “You’ve been through hell.”

Icedagger still looked less than pleased about this whole situation, but Cards didn’t miss how his eyes softened a bit when he saw Zuka holding Cards steady. “I won’t let you take him back to Blackrock,” Icedagger said firmly.

“... I wasn’t planning on going back to Blackrock,” Zuka admitted.

That was fucking news to Cards. They gave him a look that asked for an explanation.

“I’ve been… thinking about it for a while,” he said. “Blackrock ain’t the nicest place. They do some messed up crap. I think the whole thing about wanting to test on a newlyspawned was the tipping point-”

“Wait,” interrupted Icedagger, “a newly spawned?”

“They crawled from the fountain a week ago.”

Icedagger seemed to just kind of freeze for a moment as the implications set in. On one hand, oh swords, he fought a baby. On the other hand, he also got his ass kicked by said baby. 

“... They beat me in a fight,” Icedagger said suddenly.

Zuka looked at Cards, who was now standing up on their own. “Wait- you beat him?”

Cards got a sheepish grin on his face and nodded, then gave a thumbs up.

Zuka looked like he was going to have a stroke. The kid had fought a god and won.

“... you’re gonna be the death of me, kid.”

Cards chose that moment to double over in silent laughter.

With that whole situation out of the way, Icedagger was surprisingly hospitable. Cards had explained the best they could without a voice what had happened, which they did mostly through an exaggerated reenactment of the whole fight.

Icedagger provided commentary. Zuka was still confused by the end, but he understood enough to know that Cards had won before immediately having a breakdown. He was a bit concerned as to why Cards had broken down, but when pressed, the younger inphernal had hesitated. Zuka backed off, figuring that they could talk it out later. 

Eventually, with much debate and argument, Zuka even convinced Icedagger to unfreeze the survivors.

“I’m doing this as a favor,” Icedagger huffed as he withdrew his ice, slowly thawing the various frozen statues. “You will owe the swords in compensation.”

“Yeah, figured, you guys never do anything for free,” Zuka said flippantly.

Some of the survivors began to get free, all various levels of confused. Some of them fell over while groaning, while others managed to stay somewhat upright.

One of the survivors, an inphernal with bright purple horns and a split skintone, summed it up best when they looked around at the chaos. “... how are we not dead right now?”

Zuka just shrugged. “I’d say ask Cards, but the kid’s not in any state to explain right now.

The survivor, who Cards now recognized as Swap, just sighed. “I- I don’t think I wanna know, actually.”

“Probably not,” Icedagger agreed with a grin. “You all should go worry about warming up before I decide to freeze you again.”

Swap’s eyes widened, but they nodded and started to round everyone else up. They all began to gather what gear they had left and plan their next moves.

Icedagger looked over at Zuka and Cards. “I assume you two are going to go back with them?”

“I said I wasn’t going back, so I’m not going back.” Zuka glanced over at Cards. “You coming along with me?”

Cards happily nodded at that, a smile on their face. 

“Guess that settles it,” Zuka said with a nod, then spoke quietly. “We’ll slip away from the group and head towards Playground. That place is pure chaos; they won’t notice an extra inphernal or two if we ditch the armor.”

Cards grinned and covered their mouth, almost like they were giggling. It was like a child planning to steal the cookie jar, really, and Zuka couldn’t help but smile a bit at that.

He’d have to look into adoption when they got to Playground.

“It looks like they’re almost ready to go,” Icedagger remarked after a moment. Zuka and Cards looked towards the rest of the Blackrockains, who all seemed to be ordering themselves.

“Guess we better go too, then,” agreed Zuka. “Thanks for like… not murdering us.”

“Thank your kid for that,” the deity responded.

Cards just rolled their eyes at that, before they seemed to realize something. Right, they’d almost completely forgotten why they’d come here.

To collect the swords.

The way they did that last time was through their cards, wasn’t it? They’d pick up the sword, and it would turn into a card they could use in battle. And if the cards here could mimic powers, then they should be able to mimic that of Icedagger’s, right?

Cards walked over to Icedagger, and held out a blank card between them.

Icedagger tilted his head as he looked at the crystalline gear. “Is this for me?”

Cards made a so-so gesture.

“They’re probably wanting to see if their gear works on you,” Zuka chimed in. “It mimics other gears.”

That gave the ice deity pause. “Oh- I’m not sure if that would work on my gear, but I guess we can try,” he agreed after a moment of thought. “I’m not sure why you’d want to mimic my powers, they’ll probably be far weaker than the real deal.”

Cards just shrugged.

Icedagger smiled. “Very well- let’s see if this works.”

He reached out and grabbed the other end of the card.

It all seemed normal for a few seconds, like with the dodgeball. Cards thought that it would be a normal, easy thing, and that their gear would just… do its thing.

It suddenly became clear how wrong things were when Icedagger seemed to suddenly be in pain. He staggered a bit back, like he was trying to pull away. 

But he couldn’t pull away.

A slow frost was beginning to creep up his fingers and hands as the temperature in the room suddenly plummeted. 

“Cards,” he said after a moment, “Cards, what- what are you doing-!?”

Cards, for their part, seemed just as alarmed. They dropped their end of the card, but that wasn’t enough to stop what happened next.

Icedagger started screaming in pain. It was an unholy, unnatural screech as they doubled over, their limbs bending every which way but right as their body was pulled into the card.

“H- HELP- HELP ME- IT HURTS IT HURTS H E L P M E-”

Zuka darted behind Icedagger and grabbed him around the waist, while Cards ran over and grabbed onto the card end. Several other blackrockians ran over as well, with Hyperlaser grabbing onto Icedagger and Swap grabbing onto Cards.

But it wasn’t enough.

Zuka’s grip slipped for just a moment, and Icedagger’s entire body went flying into the card with a painful crunch.

The card clattered to the ground as everyone stood in horrified silence. It sat in a pool of frozen ichor, with the icedagger seared across an inky gold background.

That… was not a mimicry gear.

Chapter Text

The throne room was deadly silent as everyone stood still, and stared at the card that now laid on the ground. The good news was that the temperature in the room had warmed significantly at least, so they were no longer freezing.

The bad news was that Cards was pretty sure they just managed to accidentally shove Icedagger into one of their cards.

Their mouth opened and closed with silent words, their voice caught in their throat. That just happened. That just happened.

They dropped to their knees in front of the card, and slowly, reached out to pick it up out of the frozen ichor. It was cold and slightly soggy, but there was no mistaking what had just happened. Icedagger was… dead, maybe. They weren’t sure, they’d never considered what would happen to the inphernals they’d pulled into their cards, much less a literal SFOTH.

“Cards- Cards, you need to breathe,” a calming voice spoke up. They barely registered Zuka’s hand on their shoulder as they clutched the frozen card against their chest. “Breathe.”

Cards tried to breathe. They tried so damn hard to do so.

And yet, they flinched away. They pulled back, nearly falling over in their haste to escape the hand on their shoulder. Their eyes darted around the room as their legs refused to cooperate around them. When someone else – they didn’t even know who, but the visor of a helmet flashed in their vision – tried to approach from behind, their tail gained a mind of its own and slashed at them.

Hyperlaser jumped back as the barbs of Cards’ tail slashed at him. “Cards, you need to calm down-”

But Cards couldn’t hear any of them. Even when Zuka reached out to try to take their hand, Cards flinched back again and shook their head.

“Kid,” he said softly, “kid, I’m not gonna hurt you, you’re okay.”

They shook their head.

Zuka. B. Zuka. Rocket launcher. How could they have been so blind?

What if they hurt him, too? They pulled that dodgeball guy into a card, they pulled Icedagger in- what if they hurt him, too?

“Cards, please-” Zuka pleaded, but was quickly cut off by Cards pulling away. They didn’t stick around. 

They turned suddenly and slammed the icedagger card against the ground, much like they’d done before with the dodgeball.

And like with the dodgeball, no inphernal came out. No, lying at their feet was the cold, frozen sword. Cold like Icedagger’s body probably was.

 It was shorter than a sword, really, not even as long as their forearm. 

They reached down and picked it up, feeling its weight in their hand as they shifted it around. It was just as they remembered it being. It felt dangerous. It felt right.

They looked over their shoulder at the other inphernals, and Zuka could only stand there and watch as Cards looked at him with tears in their eyes.

The scar around their neck was obvious as they leaned back; it was the one thing they couldn’t get rid of. Scarred onto their body, scarred into their nature.

There was never going to be anything different. Why was Cards even surprised?

They turned to try to leave.

“Cards.”

They walked towards the window and drove the dagger hard into the glass.

“CARDS!”

The stained glass shards scattered around them as the window shattered, and they barely registered being pulled away. They didn’t even register the multiple voices asking if they were okay.

Oh, but they did notice that when they pulled out a blank card in their free hand, most people took a step back. 

But not Zuka.

No, he still stood behind them, an arm on their shoulder, holding them still and preventing them from going out the window. He’d been stubborn, always had. Stubborn son of a bit-

“Cards, it’s not your fault.”

They didn’t move. He was lying, they were sure of it. 

After a few moments of this silent standoff, he spoke again. “Did you know?”

They shook their head. Not a lot, barely even noticeable, just just enough to get the point across. 

They had no idea that would happen. Truely, they didn’t know. If they’d known, they wouldn’t have offered Icedagger the card.

They wouldn’t have been holding his gear in their hands.

Zuka sighed softly. He didn’t let go.

“Put the sword down.”

They didn’t move.

“Kid. Put it down.”

They changed their foot stance. Not a lot, but just enough.

“Kid-”

They turned hard and swung.

They needed to get him away from them, they needed to get away they needed to GET AWAY-

The sword came down hard and fast, just above Zuka’s shoulder.

There was a wet, sickening thunk. There was screaming. There was Zuka kneeling on the ground in pain, holding the stump where his arm had been seconds prior.

They couldn’t remember much through the shock afterwards. They remembered climbing the broken window, staring down at the long drop below them, and letting go.

Poor thing…

They woke up slowly in a void; nothing in front of them, and only the distant feeling of laying atop of something.

Cards? Are you awake?

They groaned softly from the pain of whatever had happened and tried to turn over. The slightly squishy substance they were floating on bent under them like a soft mattress.

Oh, there you are- you’re pretty out of it, aren’t you?

They nodded, if the weak head movement they’d done could have been called that. They weren’t sure, they could barely tell up from down at the moment.

I suppose that makes sense, you uh… did have a rough landing. That window was quite a ways up. It took me a while to put your body back together, even with the snow acting as a cushion.

Ah, so that’s what happened.

Their eyes opened slowly. They could see a void around the tall pillar they were laid on, with a horizon line in the distance fading off into a series of what almost looked like mountains. It looked familiar, yet… not.

They opened their mouth to speak, but no sound came out.

Right, you’re probably confused as to where you are. This is a sort of… personal realm of mine. When you die, I’ll bring you back here so I can fix you up.

They sat up, holding their head. The fall must have been further than they’d thought if they’d had to be patched up.

They looked around for [Spawn].

Ah, don’t bother looking. My true form would probably melt your mind, kid. 

They flinched at that word.

Kid.

Like Zuka had called them.

I know this is probably all a bit… disorienting. Don’t worry, I’m almost done with your physical body’s repairs. Can’t say I expected you to jump that far, even after your whole deal with Icedagger.

Icedagger. Right. The whole begging to die thing.

They reached out and did the practiced motion, and their cards came to their hand on command. They flipped through them before settling on the one with the icedagger on it.

Glad to see those cards worked as intended.

They glared at the sky. They knew their sponsor could see them.

I know, I know, you’re mad I didn’t tell you about that. It doesn’t matter, you know the truth now. And it’s not like you have much of a say in the matter, anyway. You still need to collect the others.

How could they be so casual about this? They didn’t tell them that this would happen. They didn’t tell them that they’d be putting people in playing cards.

They glared harder before breaking the icedagger card at their feet. They picked up the sword and pointed it upwards.

I take it you want an explanation?

They nodded. Several times. Violently, even, given how they were waving the icedagger around at the sky.

That sword will do no good against a foe you can’t even face… but if you insist.

Your cards are special. As you’ve probably guessed, they absorb gears. Inphernals, those creatures you’ve been running around with for the past week, are their gears.

They stopped and thought about it. 

So when they have to collect the swords…

You have to collect them in the cards, yes.

Cards whipped around, looking around.

Oh, don’t act so surprised, you’re in my personal realm. Of course I can hear what you’re thinking.

‘Even if I think you’re a lying son of a bitch and no better than that fake-ass Builderman you very obviously based my inphernal form on?’ Cards thought sarcastically.

You felt hate the most when you died. Hate for Sheldetsky, hate for his lies. I thought it would be fitting.

… Adminsdammit.

Ahaha, don’t worry too much about it, kid. You got the first sword, which is good.

Icedagger isn’t dead, just… asleep. Getting your entire body condensed down into a flat card would be painful, after all, so he’s just asleep for the moment.

That wasn’t as much of a relief as [Spawn] seemed to assume it would be, but it wasn’t like they gave Cards any time to dwell on it.

Cards could hear the rustling of papers somewhere beyond their sight.

Let’s see… alright, it looks like you’ll need to head to Playground next. I can drop you off close to the mountains on the shared border between Blackrock and Playground. You’ll find it’s a lot like the Turitopulis you visited back during the first time around.

… They’d been there the whole time?

Of course I was; why do you think I chose to sponsor you?

Because you needed someone to do your dirty work.

Well, it’s a little too early to know either way, ain’t it? Just close your eyes again, kid, I’ll put you where you need to be.

As much as they didn’t want to, they knew they didn’t have much else of a choice. With no other option, they let the dagger fade back into a card and closed their eyes. The world spun around them as the ground seemed to swallow them whole.

When they opened their eyes the next time, once all the shifting had stopped and reality had settled back into its proper place, they found themself sitting on a mountain ledge of some sort. And the view? Well, the view was stunning in a depressing sort of way.

Massive floating islands laid across the sky in front of them as far as they could see in either direction. Below them was a colorful ocean full of reefs, and above them were just more islands. Trees and bridges of all sorts connected them, roots lashing together more than one series of ground. Urban cities sprawled across the higher islands they could see; cities in ruins sat on the lower ones. Between them were plants and trees almost like a jungle. 

[Spawn] was right; it did remind them a bit of Turitopulis, just a much more broken up city. How on earth were they supposed to find a sword in there of all places?

They sighed and pulled themself to their feet, overlooking the edge. Jumping was pointless. Thrie body was already back in one piece, no blood or ichor staining their skin. Hell, the Blackrock uniform that had nearly been torn to shreds was gone as well, replaced with a soft yellow sweater, black pants, and some more comfortable hiking boots. Their sponsor would likely just stitch them right back up again and send them on their way. 

They turned away from the ledge and began to look for a path to get in. Maybe there was a way to get across to some of the lower islands. Soldiers from Playground had to get to Blackrock somehow, after all.

They were halfway through searching around some bushes at the edge of the small clearing when they heard a young voice behind them.

“Uh… are you lost?”

Cards nearly jumped out of their skin as they spun around, and their foot slipped from under them. They landed hard on their side with a silent groan.

The kid looked rightly embarrassed. “Oh- I’m so sorry!” he sputtered, darting over to Cards. “Here, let me help you up-”

They yanked their hand away from the kid at the last second, shaking their head frantically. They pulled themself to their feet before giving a grin and a thumbs up. 

The kid was pretty young, about Red and Blue’s age if Cards had to guess. Young and full of that same spunky attitude, if they had to judge by the young inphernal’s grin.

The kid seemed confused, but shrugged it off. “Fair enough- glad to see you’re alright!” he said with a grin. 

They saw the shorter red horns on the kid’s head, which poked out from under a helmet that looked a bit too big on him. The red crest at the top swayed slightly in the breeze as the kid offered a hand to shake. 

“My name’s Sword! You look like you need help.”

[End of Blackrock Arc]

Chapter Text

The inphernal Sword had found, he quickly decided, was a very strange person.

They didn’t say a word no matter how much he tried to ask them about themself. They didn’t tell him their name. When he’d asked them to show their gear so he’d at least know what to call them, they just shook their head and looked away.

Sword wasn’t sure what to make of them. At first he thought they were just shy. Not everyone was as social as him, after all. If anything, the way they walked hunched over and looking downwards reminded him more of one of his mentor’s zombies rather than a living, breathing inphernal. He was practically dragging them along with them down the winding roads of a larger Playground island.

“There must have been a fight here,” he remarked at one point as they passed by a field of corpses. Blood and gore were strewn across what must have once been a farm of some sort. The stranger stared out at the scene for a few minutes, not saying anything as they seemed to simply take in the scene in front of them.

He stood by them, not saying much either.

“You’re really strange.”

Scratch that, the kid was a chatter box.

“I mean- we’ve been walking around for like… a few days now. You haven’t said a word to me. I don’t think I’ve seen you eat more than a few bites. You haven’t even pulled out your gear.”

They did that thing where they frowned and looked away. Sword huffed, crossing his arms. “That’s not really helpful. At least give me something to call you!”

They shook their head.

“Then tell me why you don’t talk.”

They seemed to consider the question for a moment, and almost declined it. Eventually, they relented and tilted their head, letting their neck be exposed from the top of the sweater.

There was a deep scar running across it.

Sword may have been young, but he’d seen plenty of scars. Sometimes, after training, he’d sit with Venomshank while the older inphernal pointed to different scars and told the younger stories. Sword himself even had a few himself from training with his mentor.

But none as big as that wound. None as deep.

“... oh,” he said softly after a moment. “Can you… not speak?”

The inphernal nodded. They made a sort of slashing motion across their throat, a gesture which Sword had seen Venomshank do before.

“Your throat got slashed?”

They made a ‘so-so’ gesture. Close enough, Sword guessed.

He looked out to the field again before he turned to walk. “Well, come on- it’s not too far now to the city,” he said in a chipper tone. “Then you should be able to… find whatever you’re looking for.”

The stranger nodded and forced a smile; the first one they’d given the kid the entire time. 

Sword’s eyes lit up. “You can smile! You can actually smile!”

The stranger just made a silent laughing motion.

“You should meet my mentor, he’d be so happy that I made a friend!”

Cards was pretty sure this kid’s mentor he kept mentioning was, in fact, Venomshank.

Don’t get them wrong, Sword was a sweet kid. The kid had been nothing but kind to Cards, leading them through the backroads of the faction and giving them all sorts of useful information about the world they were in. 

He’d rambled on about the different factions. Blackrock, Playground, Lost Temple, and Theives Den. A strange assortment of places, but Cards figured that it couldn’t have been more illogical than trying to get around Robloxia. 

Blackrock, which Sword had described as cold and hellish. Playground was… well, a bunch of floating islands; the locals named it playground because they’d learned to climb the trees between them like a jungle gym. Lost Temple was apparently a desert and Thieve’s Den was more mountainous. 

As for the other ‘useful’ information…

“- and then I said that charging that much for bread was practically robbery, but the man at the bakery said that it was the price and he wouldn’t give it for any less because then he’d be losing money, so him and I got into a fight and-”

The kid could talk. A lot.

Sword reminded Cards of themself, really, but when they’d first started this whole quest thing the first time around. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, just having been freshly timetraveled to the past and heading to Roblox HQ. Back when things were simpler. 

Well, they used the word "simpler" as if they hadn’t immediately been thrown into a quest to save the world, but at least they were still robloxian at that point. At least least they weren’t backstabbed and thrown into the future… okay, they were thrown into the future at that point, but at least it didn’t come with being beheaded that time. Just some… wishy-washy time travel shit.

Where were they before… right, Venomshank.

They’d had a suspicion from where they’d been dropped that [Spawn] wanted to recreate the original journey to some extent. Blackrock to Blackrock, and now a jungle to a jungle. They’d gotten the icedagger ( The icedagger, not a person, if they started thinking of the icedagger as a person that would just lead to a whole other thing-) in Blackrock, so logic stood that they’d be getting the venomshank next. If the Icedagger was a god this time, then it stood to reason that the venomshank was, too.

They’d already gotten one sword. The next several would be a piece of cake.

The only hard part so far was just finding the damn venomshank.

Part of that was getting between islands, which was a pain. The roots of the different trees kept them mostly together, but because anywhere outside the few cities in the faction was completely lawless, half the problem was getting from one place to another without getting mugged or charged some excessive fee for passage.

Well, that was what happened when gangs ran the entire faction, Sword guessed. Shit was awful everywhere; the only reason the cities on the higher islands were any sort of nice were because of the larger gangs that ran them like police states. All the islands below had Cards and Swords walking across literal battlefields of corpses.

Probably from the war, Cards reasoned as they stepped over one particularly mutilated corpse. Plants had already begun to grow and bloom out of it, stealing its nutrients for the dirt below.

“My mentor said that Playground is the most violent of the factions,” Sword remarked as he casually vaulted over a log that Cards had to climb over. “There’s no actual government structure for the most part.”

Cards was only half paying attention to the kid, especially when they accidentally stepped in something rotting. They frantically wiped off their boots.

They didn’t want to know what that was.

“I don’t really know why he went here.”

That got Cards’ attention. They perked up and looked at the kid, tilting their head in confusion.

Sword noticed and laughed awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Well- the thing is that I’m… not really supposed to be here. Da- my mentor is pretty strict, and he normally doesn’t let me go beyond crossroads, but he’s been on a trip lately and I’ve been lonely… So I thought I’d go find him!”

There was a moment of silence before Cards sighed, walked over, and patted the kid on the head. As dumbass of a move that really was, they could understand the reasoning behind it.

They missed their dad, too.

How was he doing, anyway? He probably thought they were dead. He did say something about going to Playground, but what were the odds of finding him?

Playground was massive.

Sword giggled and tried to swipe at Cards’ hand. “Heeeeeey! You’re gonna mess up my helmet!”

They relented and pulled their hand away, and watched as Sword tried to smooth out the plume of his helmet. “Meanie.”

Cards just grinned at that, then stuck out their tongue. 

“The bridge we need to cross is just up ahead,” Sword said after a while of walking. He used the tip of his gear to push a low branch out of the way, which Cards ducked under. 

With the branch out of the way, they could see the bridge that he was talking about. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a wooden bridge connecting two of the islands, but on the other side was some sort of small town. 

And when they got closer, they saw the guy leaning against the railing of the bridge move to stand in the middle of it. He towered over Cards and Sword easily, leering down at the two of them while blocking their way over the bridge.

Sword, bless his heart, pushed himself in front of Cards. “Stay back,” he hastily warned the other inphernal before looking up at the big inphernal. “Heyyyyyy buddy-”

He didn’t say anything in response for a moment. His eyes traced Cards and Sword up and down, like he was sizing them up. “What do you want?”

“Oh, we’re just trying to get to the town,” Sword explained. “Do you think you could move like, two feet to the le-”

“No can do,” the bigger inphernal cut Sword off. “This bridge belongs to the McCool gang. You’ll have to pay a fee if you wanna cross.”

(Meanwhile, Cards was having a moment of thought. McCool gang-? Oh, well, that gave Cards a few flashbacks to beating a certain purple-hatted asshole’s backside back in the day. Some things never change.)

Sword glanced at Cards, and Cards shrugged. They patted down their own pockets. They shook their head at the guy on the bridge.

He huffed. “No payment, no passage.”

There was a glow around the guy’s hand as a giant pitchfork was summoned into his palms.

“Unless you wanna fight over it, that is.”

After a moment of considering it, Sword sighed before turning around. “Okay, well- let’s just try to find another way around-”

It was at that moment that there was the sound of a hard hit behind him, and a roar of pain and anger.

“Well, shit.”

Needless to say, all hell broke loose. Multiple other gang members scrambled out of their hiding spots to join the fray, with one of them going for Sword with a metal crowbar. He was able to block it fairly easily, but the hit made him stumble back a few feet before he could return the blow. 

The sounds of fighting surrounded him, but swords above, he loved the adrenaline rush. It was the type of rush he only got when his gear hit against someone else’s gear, when he stood toe to toe with someone who richly deserved to get their ass beat.

Alas, not every fight could go his way. This crowbar guy was bigger and stronger, and Sword was getting pushed back way too much.

There was no other option, they had to run. He turned to look over his shoulder and shout for Cards, when-

Cards was standing in the middle of several knocked out and/or injuried gang members, surrounded by their gear, some blood, and… ice?

Sword only got to briefly think guess they didn’t need help before there was a solid bang to the back of his head, and everything went dark.

“Stupid kid.”

Crowbar kicked the unconscious kid to the side, gripping his crowbar tighter as he walked over to the strange inphenral. He’d seen them fighting, seen them throwing around those weird card things.

“Oi! Prick!” he called out to them, stepping over one of his friend’s unconscious bodies. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

The inphernal stopped and turned slowly, their tail swishing back and forth like an agitated cat. They looked unimpressed.

He couldn’t help but notice how one of their hands was angled slightly away behind their body, hiding whatever they were holding. Whatever; it didn’t matter. He could take this guy down.

Maybe he should have paid more attention to the ice his feet nearly slid on.

“I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing, but you ‘oughta-”

He didn’t even get to finish the sentence before something cold and sharp was stabbed into his stomach with almost ridiculous speed. Slowly, he looked down, seeing the blood seeping out over the blade of- was that the fucking icedagger-?

Crowbar looked up at the stranger and dropped his gear to the ground, after which his legs slowly gave out. They pulled out the sword as he crumpled. 

As he slowly began to bleed, he saw them crouch down by his body and press a finger over their lips. They grinned with sharp teeth, icedagger in one hand and his own crowbar in the other.

And as he laid dying, they mouthed something to him:

Nobody would ever believe you.

Chapter Text

When the last guy collapsed to the ground and stopped breathing, Cards let out a sigh and dismissed the icedagger. It faded to a card again that they slipped back into their deck. Yeah, okay, maybe they’d gone a bit overboard killing like… several people and freezing a few more in solid ice with the dagger. It was necessary.

…

Right. Necessary. Those guys had blocked their path, gotten in their way. Cards was just doing what was necessary to protect themself and the kid. If they hadn’t attacked, then- then none of this would have happened, right? They’d done it dozens of times in their original adventures, and these inphernals were assholes and tried to attack, so… they had it coming. 

It was fine, it was necessary. Anyone would understand if they’d been in Cards’ shoes.

Maybe stealing that guy’s crowbar wasn’t necessary, but it felt right. Maybe they just wanted a small piece of something familiar.

They headed over to where Sword had fallen to the ground and kneeled beside him. He looked so much smaller like this. Cards carefully pulled off his helmet. Upon inspection, he was fine; the helmet had thankfully taken most of the impact, with nothing to show for it but a small dent in the back and some scratch marks from where the crowbar had been slammed into his head. No blood, no bleeding, no nothing.

Cards’ tail swayed gently at the realization. The kid was okay, and would be fine when he woke up. Maybe a concussion at the worst. Still, despite it, they called forth their deck and began flipping through the cards, eventually stopping on the healing card. 

They’d only used it a few times on themself up to this point, mostly for minor bangs and bruises, but for the first time they pushed it to the back of Sword’s head and held it there as the magic worked under his skin. The card glowed for a few moments before it lost its shine, at which point they put it back in the deck with the others and tossed the deck back into the hammerspace they had, then put the crowbar they’d taken through a belt loop on their pants. Sword’s helmet went back on his head, just in case.

They tried not to think too hard about what just happened as they gently lifted the kid. They pulled him onto their back, put his arms over their shoulders, and held his knees with their arms. They wanted to get as far away from the bloody scene as possible and to the town. Best not to let the local gang know Cards and Sword had mauled several of their members.

The trip over the bridge was quick, at least, with nobody there to block their way. They got through easily enough and Cards was able to get them into the town. It wasn’t a big town by any means, and it wasn’t even a very friendly one. Markers of violence were everywhere, from walls with bullet holes to an actual fistfight Cards stumbled upon at one point. They quickly turned the other way when they saw that, not wanting to get into any trouble when they were literally carrying an unconscious kid on their back. Plus, this was a town. They didn’t want to know what would happen if they pulled out a gear that was recognized here.

After a few hours of walking and searching, with no sign of Venomshank and no sign of Sword waking up from his concussion nap, Cards knew they needed to find a place to rest for a while. It wasn’t like there were many safe spots in town, but eventually, they found a small alcove in an alleyway that seemed… decently quiet.

It would have to do. Beggars can’t be choosers, after all. 

Gently, they settled Sword onto the ground. They pulled off their sweater and folded it carefully, then put it under his head as a pillow before sitting down next to him.

They sank down to the ground with their back against the wall and their tail in their lap. They needed a plan. They needed a strategy. They needed anything but this current situation, running around and-

The sound of a metallic clang down the alleyway got Cards on guard real damn fast.

They scrambled to their feet and summoned their deck to their hands, holding it like a lifeline. Their mouth opened to call out, yet no sound other than a hoarse rasp came out.

Whatever that sound was, it was enough. The footsteps down the alleyway stopped. 

A moment later, there was a laugh. “Heh? Oh- I hope I didn’t scare you!”

A strange inphernal walked out of the darkness, a cheshire smile on his face. He was… strange. The blue suit and vest he wore didn’t seem to match the area; it was much too nice and pristine compared to the falling-apart town around them. He just smiled at Cards and tilted his head. His dark blue horns matched his suit, and they curled back and upwards.

“Can’t say I’ve seen you around before, pal,” he observed, taking a step closer.

Cards bristled like a cat, and their tail lashed forward. The stranger had to stumble back. He was clearly surprised, but also interested. 

He didn’t seem upset, though. “Alright, alright, personal space- you’re protecting the kid, right?” he asked.

Cards looked down at the unconscious Sword, and nodded. They put their body a bit more in between him and the stranger, a glare on their face.

“Guess you’re not much of a talker… ah, I should introduce myself. I’m Broker!” 

Broker offered a hand to shake, which Cards visibly recoiled at. 

“Guess you’re not much of a hugger, either,” Broker simply joked in response. He backed up quickly enough, holding up his hands in the universal surrender symbol. “I ain’t here to cause trouble for you and your friend. I’m just here because you seem a bit lost. Are you looking for someone?”

Well. Cards couldn’t deny that they had no idea where they were, but this weird, out-of-place stranger was still suspicious as hell. As much as they hated to admit it, though, they needed the help badly.

After a moment, they nodded.

That made Broker smile. He rifled around in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a small notepad and pen. “Here ya go,” he said. “You know how to write at least, right?”

Cards looked down at the pen and notepad in their hands. It was a very simple solution to their main problem. They couldn’t speak, yes… but they could write.

They flipped open the notepad and carefully angled the pen, trying to not scratch the paper with the claws they still weren’t entirely used to.

I am trying to find

They paused for a moment, their pen hovering over the notepad.

I am trying to find Venomshank.

They turned the notepad around to show Broker. The other inphernal’s eyebrows furrowed for a moment — just a moment — before that cheshire expression returned. “Ah, well, that’s… unusual. If you’re looking for him, you’ll probably find him wandering just outside of town. There’s been a few major fights recently. He’s the one who cleans up the dead bodies, you know? Ghostwalker guides the souls, but Venomshank… Venomshank takes care of what’s left behind.”

With that, Broker turned to head back into the alleyway. “I suppose you’ll be fine as long as you’re not a corpse. Keep an eye open; we will be keeping one on you.”

And without another damn word, Broker turned a corner and vanished.

… right, that was fucking weird, actually. They didn’t like him one bit. He’d left them the notepad and pen, though, so they could guess he wasn’t all bad. But who the fuck was that we- ?

Nope, Cards did not have time to deal with this. They pocketed the notepad and pen, and carefully picked up Sword and their sweater. The sweater was tied around their waist, and Sword was pulled onto their back.

They silently swore to themself. Sword must have been hurt badly if he was out for this long, even with the healing card… they couldn’t bring him along when they confronted Venomshank. Too risky, too dangerous. They may have done some shit but they didn’t want the kid to get hurt. 

A plan began to form in their head as they stepped back onto the street and headed for the outskirts of town. One, they’d find Venomshank. Two, they’d put Sword somewhere safe before going to confront the god. Three, catch Venomshank in a card and then four, figure out what to do about Sword. They’d probably send him home or something; this wasn’t safe. What was Venomshank thinking, training a little kid like this? Especially one that seemed to be fond of wandering away from home to follow him!?

(At least it wasn’t Shedletsky. At least it wasn’t sending the kid to the far corners of the earth for seemingly no reason, at least Venomshank hadn’t stabbed his own kid- )

They shook their head. Despite how shaky their hands felt in that moment, they brushed it off. This was fine. This was fine.

Find Venomshank. Find the swords. Find Venomshank. Find the swords. Then go the fuck home.

(Spawn would let them go home.)

(Surely.)

The walk out of town didn’t take too long. Sword remained unconscious, (Cards was trying to remember how long someone could be unconscious before they needed a hospital), and the road remained clear enough. Maybe it was how a flock of crows was circling over where the bridge must have been in the distance. Maybe it was that other inphernals were looking at them weird for hauling an unconscious kid around.

Oh-fucking-well.

It had started to get really difficult to care.

After doing this job for hundreds of years, the silence of the empty battlefields had stopped bothering Venomshank.

It had become almost routine at this point, actually. Go to the empty fields of dead, clean the bodies, take the discarded gear, and return said gear to the spawn fountains so that they may be used for new inphernals. Jobs that would normally fall to the friends and families of the deceased.

Given the nature of war and battles, though, it was rarely as simple as having a father bury his son. For situations like this, Venomshank was the one called to clean up the messes.

This battlefield was no different. It wasn’t a large one by any means, perhaps the size of a small city block, but it was no less bloody than the others. He carefully stepped over corpses and around limbs bent in wrong directions as he searched for a good spot to begin his work.

Eventually, he found it. 

Funny enough, it was a small headstone of sorts. Nothing fancy, just a wooden board stuck in the ground with a pair of orange goggles hanging off the edge. Perhaps a memento of the deceased. They were broken and well-loved, likely having protected whoever had been buried here.

They’d probably been buried before the fight that took place here, if he had to guess. What a shame to have someone’s resting spot decimated by violence like this.

With a heavy heart, he kneeled on the ground in front of the grave. He leaned in to read the inscription. It was a crude and jagged carving, yet no less heartfelt. 

“In memoriam of Cards ,” he read to himself. “Too soon.” 

There was then the sound of someone nearly falling over behind him.

(Look, in Cards’ defense, they hadn’t expected to find Venomshank reading what they could only assume to be their headstone .)

(They weren’t even dead, what the fu-)

Chapter Text

(You hear the creak of an old chair and what sounds like the click of a microphone turning on.)

Testing, testing, one two three... is this getting through? I've never done a live posting format before...

(There's some shuffling before silence for a moment. Then, they speak.)

Well, would you look at that! You were promised something special when we got to 10k hits, were you? I sure hope I don’t disappoint!

The event in question will be a QnA event hosted by yours truly, the sponsor of this tale!

Questions can be sent to Author Anon’s Tumblr here via asks: Author Anon's Dumpster Fire

They can also be left in the comments of this chapter! Just indicate as such.

Don’t worry about missing any answers because you aren’t on tumblr; all the questions and answers will be compiled from both platforms and posted in a separate chapter together once the event is complete. 

See all of you soon!

- [Spawn]

[8/29/2025, 6:30 PM edit: The event is now concluded! Thank you for participating, everyone!]

(ooc disclaimer: depending on how many asks and questions I get, I may not be able to get to all of them. Please be patient, don’t send anything NSFW, and I’m sorry if I can’t get to your question! - Author Anon)

Chapter Text

TheBlackCat194 on Ao3

“Omg we can ask questions now???? HELL YEAHHH”

[Spawn]: “Correct! I’m curious as to what you all want to know.” 

~~+~~

TheBlackCat194 on Tumblr

“Hello there! This is for the Q&A 💜

For Cards:

Do you plan or feel like stepping back in Blackrock ever again? What about Zuka? How do you feel about them now? Do you want to be back with them?

For Zuka:

What do you think of Cards? Do you find anything odd about them during their time with you? And how do you feel about the fact that they managed to beat the ICEDAGGER in a fight, despite being newlyspawned? And lastly, do you plan on seeking them out or looking for them?

———————-

Also when you said that Spawn like re-builds Cards everytime they die, I can just imagine them putting them back together like lego pieces😭”

[Spawn]: “Well, I wasn’t having either of them answer any questions… but I suppose I can just wipe their memories later, push come to shove. But I can’t just pull them from their places in reality…”

They snap their fingers, and two puppet-like creatures appear; upon closer inspection, one of them is an inphernal with blue winged horns, and the other inphernal with long red horns.

“This is how we’ll do this.”

They’re plushies. Or, well, plushies with souls inside them.

“It’s only temporary for questions, I’ll put their souls back later.”

Zuka: “What the… hey- wait, why are my limbs soft- WHERE AM I-

[Spawn]: “Oh, calm down. This is only temporary.”

Spawn tosses a sign to the Cards plushie.

Zuka: “… why is Cards here? Nevermind, this is probably just a weird dream.”

[Spawn]: “Sort of. I guess. Anyway, answer your questions.

The Cards plushie holds up the sign, this time with writing on it.

Cards: I don’t plan on going back. I don’t know how I could, actually. It’s too risky. I miss Zuka. He was the only one who actually cared about me. And I cut his arm off…

Zuka: “Cards… well, they’re a good kid. Strong as hell, too. Their gear is nothing like I’ve ever seen before. As for anything odd, well, I think beating a SFOTH was pretty weird. Their gear is also completely nonsensical. Never seen anything like it before. I’ve been looking for them, yeah, but they’re dead. I watched them jump. If anything all I’ll find is their gear… but I haven’t even found that yet.”

It doesn’t look like the plushies can hear or see what the other is saying… guess there won’t be a reunion here.

~~+~~

Lady_Pastel15 on Ao3

“Spawn I must know how Zuka is doing! Is he alright? Is his stump okay? He believes the one he thought of as his kid is dead, I mean for a while he was right- anyways how is he?

[Spawn]: “He’s coping, I guess. Could be worse. His injuries are fine, if that’s what you’re worried about, he survived losing his arm. Those with him got him medical attention fast enough to avoid bleeding out and frostbite.”

~~+~~

Crazymanicherelmao on Tumblr

“Why do you want the swords? i mean- like sure they’re very powerful and stuff but whats the point of that if you’re already so powerful?

oh and do u have any friends? :)”

[Spawn]: “ It’s really less about the swords themselves and more about gathering them. And I did have friends, but that was a long time ago.”

~~+~~

Toast Anon on Tumblr

Hello my dear legal guardian !! It is I ! The one and only toast ! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

anyways a few questions Ive had for the Qna are

1. Will player ever end up wanted? (Really random but with all the crimes they’ve committed I’m js curious)
2. Will cards get captured atleast once? 
3. When this whole shenanigans are over will cards finally get the rest they deserve? (Please say yes.)
4. should I be scared for the sfoth swords because I feel like cards is going to absorb them all into their cards.. uh..

thats all my questions idk what else to ask actually so.. yep! Have an amazing day, dear parental figure!

[Spawn]: “ I suppose this was technically meant for the owner of this blog... okay, rapid fire answers!

1. yes
2. yes
3. eventually, but it'll take a while.
4. Oh absolutely you should be scared, Toast child.

They look a little confused as to why there's a piece of toast, but they just shrug and pat it on the head... if it has a head... ya know what, they're not gonna ask.”

~~+~~

////////// on Tumblr

S̷h̴e̴ ̶r̶e̷a̷d̷s̸ ̷t̸h̸e̵ ̴q̶u̸e̵s̸t̴i̷o̵n̵s̶ ̸w̶i̸t̷h̷ ̶m̸o̷r̷b̴i̷d̸ ̶c̴u̷r̸i̶o̸s̸i̶t̸y̸,̴ ̵p̷a̵u̷s̴i̸n̸g̷ ̷a̴t̷ ̶t̷h̵e̵ ̵p̴l̵u̷s̵h̸i̶e̶ ̷o̴n̴e̷ ̵w̷i̷t̵h̴ ̶a̸ ̴f̷r̴o̵w̶n̶.̵

̵S̸a̸y̷.̵.̸.̶ ̶S̷p̴a̵w̸n̸,̵ ̷w̵a̴s̷ ̸i̵t̶?̵ ̶D̸o̵ ̷y̵o̵u̷ ̶h̵a̵v̵e̵ ̷a̷ ̴f̸u̴l̸l̷ ̷f̶o̵r̵m̷a̸l̵ ̸t̷i̶t̷l̷e̴,̸ ̴i̷f̸ ̵y̷o̷u̵'̵r̸e̵ ̶a̵ ̶s̷p̶o̵n̶s̵o̷r̶?̶

(They tense up for a moment, like they'd been caught in something they weren't quite sure how to answer.)

[Spawn]: “ I'm a freelancer, I don't work for anyone specific. I don't see how my title is any of your business, especially when hiding behind a screen.

I can see you back there. How... curious.”

~~+~~

DARKHEARTPH_RoyalParty on Ao3

“Hey Spawn~~ Okay so are the Spawn two time (forsaken) worships and stuff or…??? Cause me mean… yesh…?” 

Toe eating rats in your bed.

[Spawn]: “I can see where the misunderstanding comes from. No, I’m not *that* Spawn. Completely separate entity.

Also, why are there rats in my bed?” 

“Say bye to your toes ❤️”

[Spawn]: *Spawn holds up an Uno Reverse card.*

“We’ll see about that. Also I don’t have toes.” 

~~+~~

My-little-thoughts on Tumblr

“Hey, do you work at VoidCorp? I don’t think I’ve seen you at work, might have just not seen you though” -[Sculptor]

[Spawn]: “ Nope, I do not. I work on my own, though I must admit I admire the work you do at your corporation.”

~~+~~

Anonymous on Tumblr

“Sup Spawn.

Was there a time Skip, no matter how small, between cards' death and you finally putting them back together? Cuz how did Zuka get to playground so fast and have already built them a headstone even if cards been walking for days with Sword?

Just curious (or perhaps i missed a detail, that happens sometimes)”

[Spawn]: “ Putting a body back together, especially when my charge is quite good at getting themself destroyed in the most impressive of ways, takes time. It's not an instant process; even when they were climbing from the spawn fountain, their body needed to knit itself together. There was a length of time where I had to work to repair their body after the incident with Icedagger.”

~~+~~

reddism on Ao3

“Will ANY of the sfoth be able to get out of the cards as their bodies or not..

ALSO will you send player back when they finish collecting the swords..”

[Spawn]: “Eventually… most likely. If things go according to plan.”

~~+~~

Crowsoutsidemywindow on Tumblr

“Hello, 'Spawn'. I do quite enjoy your story.

What made you wish to sponsor Cards, and are you pleased with how the fellow is acting so far?

Yours Truly, The Fateful Weaver.”

[Spawn]: “ I'm quite pleased with it. I strive to entertain, and Cards is being quite entertaining.”

~~+~~

KeikoAki on Ao3

“Is there like a timeskip after cards fall to death like respawn cooldown (usually in mobile games) if there is, how long does cards need time to recover his body from death? Since there’s already a grave for cards. In the future will cards die again? And will this fic get more angst as chapter progress? Finally, will cards get a companion to stay by his side?

Oh! I can’t wait for zuka's reaction ‘if’ they meet again after seeing cards jumping to their death.

(Sorry if my questions hard to understand since I’m bad at arranging words, English is not my first language and this is my first time writing a comment after using this website for a long time)”

[Spawn]: “It depends on how destructive the death is. Something like a stab wound wouldn’t take too long to fix, maybe a few hours; jumping out a window and splattering yourself on the frozen ground, though, took quite a while to fix.

As for the companion question, Cards will hopefully meet many people.

(And don’t worry about your language, your English is wonderful.)” 

~~+~~

Anonymous on Tumblr

Ok, so cards can get his well....cards from getting attacked or stealing gears from people, but I have questions on where certain cards would come from

-feel fine

-ante up

-knight

-baller

-thorns

-defense up

-call sandwich anon

-basically every other call card

[Spawn]: Well, similar to the healing card, they'd have to recreate the conditions of the original card. For example, feel fine would require them to shrug off injuries by "feeling fine", ante up would require them to rile themselves up, etc.

[Spawn]: For the call cards, those... aren't quite compatable with the way their cards work. Since inphernals are their gears, the closest would be a gear cards. So no, you can't summon Sandwich Anon, no matter how much he shows up in my inbox.

~~+~~

Anonymous on Tumblr

(For the QNA! :D)

1. Will the Swords be able to talk to each other when they become a card or are they just in a very deep sleep?
2. Will Hatred and the other emotions be a major part of Cards' quest to get the Ghostwalker or will the emotions just be lurking within deep of Cards' mind?
3. Are the Swords aware there's a certain someone collecting their siblings like Pokemon cards? (Silly question)

[Spawn]: Okay, rapid fire time again!

1. It's like a coma, they're not aware.
2. Hatred was the only emotion wasn't actually killed, there will be other emotions, though.
3. They're about to be. :)

~~+~~

Pic4resque on Tumblr

“Regarding your respawning shenanigans as I call them, how long does it take for Cards to respawn once they perish?”

[Spawn]: “ Depends, anywhere from a couple of hours to a few weeks depending on how destructive the death is.”

~~+~~

PPKreads (Guest) on Ao3

“Hey [SPAWN]! I’m wondering, is Cards mute because of Shedletsky or because you didn’t unmute them?”

[Spawn]: “The funny part is that the answer is technically ‘yes’.” 

~~+~~

Kim_kardishian_on_Ao3 on Ao3

“Hey spawn please don’t sue me for this but are you an actual deity? Even more powerful than the SFOTH themselves?”

[Spawn]: “Of course I am! None of those swords could do what I can, can’t they? They can’t bend reality or see beyond the fourth wall like I can. :)” 

~~+~~

////////// on Tumblr

S̸h̴e̴ ̷s̶h̴u̴d̶d̷e̵r̴s̷ ̶a̷s̷ ̷s̶o̵o̵n̶ ̷a̷s̴ ̵s̶h̶e̸ ̷r̶e̴a̸l̵i̷z̷e̷s̴ ̶w̸h̸a̷t̸ ̴t̴h̴e̶y̴ ̷m̵e̶a̶n̸ ̶b̸y̶ ̵w̷h̶e̷n̸ ̷t̶h̷e̸y̸ ̶s̸a̵y̷ ̷t̵h̴e̴y̴ ̸s̴e̴e̷ ̶h̶e̷r̶.̸ ̴S̵h̴e̵ ̶g̸l̸a̵r̷e̷s̶ ̶d̵o̸w̶n̵.̶

̴I̴t̷'̷s̴ ̶r̴u̷d̵e̵ ̵t̴o̵ ̵p̸e̸e̵p̸.̵ ̷I̷'̷m̸ ̶n̴o̵t̵ ̸e̶v̶e̸n̶ ̵o̸n̸e̴ ̵o̸f̴ ̴y̵o̴u̶r̴ ̷c̸h̵a̴r̵g̵e̵s̸.̷

̶H̵e̷r̴ ̴w̶i̵n̵g̸s̴ ̸(̵?̷)̵ ̷b̸r̶i̴s̵t̸l̷e̴,̵ ̴n̶o̷t̸ ̸u̶n̶l̴i̶k̴e̴ ̶a̵ ̵c̸a̶t̶'̴s̸,̸ ̴a̴ ̷f̷a̴n̸g̶e̴d̶ ̶m̵o̵u̴t̷h̵ ̸f̶o̸r̸m̶i̶n̴g̶ ̶o̷n̸ ̵h̷e̴r̶ ̵b̶l̴a̵n̸k̶ ̶f̵a̷c̸e̷ ̴t̶o̵ ̸s̴m̶i̴l̷e̵ ̸a̶t̸ ̸h̴e̶r̴.̴.̵.̶ ̸"̶s̶c̸r̸e̶e̸n̶"̴.̸

̵S̶h̷e̶ ̶d̶r̷o̶p̶s̵ ̸i̴t̷ ̴a̵f̵t̷e̴r̷ ̸a̶ ̷s̵e̵c̸o̴n̵d̸,̴ ̷p̴o̴u̵t̷i̵n̷g̴,̶ ̴t̷h̸e̵n̴ ̴b̷l̴o̵w̴s̸ ̵a̸ ̵r̷a̴s̶p̷b̷e̴r̵r̷y̸.̸

̵R̵e̴a̴l̵l̵y̴.̵ ̸S̸t̵o̴p̸.̸ ̷

(For a moment, it's silent, then, suddenly-)

BANG!

(Something hard slams against the screen, and for a brief moment, there's a pair of hands pressing against the glass and a pair of beady eyes staring at her through the screen. Not text. E y e s.)

(He then fade s back to text, laughing his ass off.)

~~+~~

Curious passerby (Guest) on Ao3

“May I ask Cards? If so…

How are you?

To the Spawn: do you have any bit of sympathy for the poor player? Have you only been watching it struggle in a world that brings back bad memories? Or were you too busy playing with other creatures that you didn’t care to notice how they’ve been?

I’m sorry if I sound mean. But it’s a genuine concern.”

“Y̴o̷u̷ ̵a̴n̶d̶ ̶I̵ ̷h̴a̸v̵e̷ ̵t̷h̸e̴ ̷s̷a̸m̶e̶ ̴c̵o̵n̸c̴e̴r̶n̸s̴,̷ ̴p̶a̵s̴s̸e̵r̷b̵y̴.̴ ̷A̵n̶d̴ ̴t̶h̶e̵y̷ ̵h̷a̸v̸e̴n̶’̷t̴ ̷a̷n̷s̷w̷e̸r̸e̶d̴ ̸t̸h̸i̶s̴.̵ ̸I̸t̵’̸s̷ ̵f̶r̶u̵s̵t̷r̴a̶t̸i̶n̵g̵.̴ ̴I̸t̸’̶s̸ ̷a̴v̵o̷i̶d̶a̵n̵t̸.̷ ̷I̶t̸ ̴i̴m̸p̸l̶i̷e̵s̴ ̸t̵h̴i̸n̴g̵s̷.̶

̵I̵’̶m̵ ̴j̵u̶s̶t̴ ̷a̶-̴ ̷I̸’̷m̵ ̷j̷u̷s̵t̷ ̸S̷p̸e̷c̸t̷a̸t̷o̵r̶ .̸ ̶I̷ ̷a̴m̵ ̴a̸ ̸t̷h̵i̶r̸d̶ ̵p̸o̷i̸n̶t̵ ̸o̷f̴ ̷v̴i̴e̶w̴.̶

̸B̵u̷t̷…̵ ̴M̴a̴y̸b̵e̸…̸

̵…̷ ̷W̴o̵u̷l̸d̶ ̸i̶t̸ ̸b̷e̸ ̶t̵o̸o̸ ̵h̸a̶r̵s̷h̵ ̴t̶o̴ ̵s̴a̵y̵ ̵t̴h̴a̵t̸ ̶i̷t̶-̸

(̸S̴h̷e̴ ̷y̷e̸l̵p̴s̴ ̴i̷n̴ ̸s̴u̸r̶p̶r̶i̷s̶e̶,̴ ̶w̸h̵e̶n̶ ̶S̴p̷a̵w̵n̴ ̶s̴u̷d̵d̵e̶n̴l̶y̷ ̵b̴a̷n̵g̶s̷ ̵o̶n̶ ̷h̵e̵r̵ ̵s̵c̶r̸e̵e̶n̵ ̶w̴i̷t̴h̸ ̶a̶ ̷l̷a̸u̸g̷h̶ ̸a̶n̸d̶ ̴a̶ ̵c̵a̸c̴k̶l̵e̶.̴ ̸S̶e̸e̸m̴s̵ ̷l̶i̷k̵e̷ ̵t̸h̷a̶t̵ ̴t̷h̷o̷u̸g̸h̷t̴ ̸w̸o̶n̵’̶t̵ ̶g̶e̵t̶ ̵f̴i̵n̵i̵s̵h̸e̸d̵.̶)

̵…̷ ̸N̸e̵v̷e̵r̴m̷i̷n̸d̸.̶ ̴I̶t̵ ̷l̵o̶o̵k̴s̴ ̷l̸i̸k̵e̴ ̸I̴ ̸m̶i̸g̶h̶t̷ ̷b̷e̷ ̷r̸i̶g̷h̵t̸.̵”

̶-̸ ̵A̷ ̸ //////////.̷

~~+~~

////////// on Tumblr

S̷h̸e̸ ̸f̴l̵i̶n̶c̸h̵e̴s̷,̴ ̷b̴u̷t̶ ̴o̷n̶l̵y̴ ̵a̶ ̶l̵i̸t̶t̷l̴e̷-̶ ̶s̸h̶e̵'̶s̵ ̴u̷s̶e̷d̶ ̸t̴o̵ ̷j̷u̵m̵p̵s̶c̷a̵r̷e̶s̶ ̴b̴e̶c̴a̴u̴s̷e̶ ̴o̴f̶ ̴t̶h̶i̵s̸ ̵r̵e̶a̴l̴m̸.̷ ̴Y̷e̴a̶h̸,̸ ̶[̸S̶p̷a̴w̷n̸]̵ ̷i̷s̴ ̵s̵l̸o̸w̸l̷y̵ ̷g̷e̸t̴t̵i̸n̸g̴ ̸h̶i̶g̸h̷e̷r̷ ̶a̷n̶d̸ ̸h̸i̸g̵h̵e̷r̴ ̸o̵n̴ ̸h̷e̶r̴ ̴s̸h̶i̸t̵l̵i̴s̸t̷.̶

̴O̵h̸,̸ ̵f̸u̷c̷k̵ ̸y̶o̷u̷ ̸t̸o̷o̴.̵

̵.̸.̷.̵ ̴W̵o̷u̶l̸d̴n̵'̴t̷ ̶i̶t̴ ̵b̴e̴ ̶i̷n̸t̵e̵r̵e̷s̷t̶i̸n̷g̴ ̷t̵o̶.̸.̶.̵ ̶I̶n̶v̵e̸s̶t̶i̸g̵a̶t̵e̶ ̴t̷h̶e̵m̵,̶ ̴a̵ ̷l̶i̸t̷t̶l̷e̵ ̴c̶l̶o̵s̴e̸r̶?̸ ̸B̶u̵t̷,̸ ̴b̸e̵f̸o̷r̵e̴ ̶t̵h̷a̵t̴,̶ ̸s̷h̶e̷ ̶w̶a̶n̷t̸s̴ ̵t̵o̸ ̸a̵s̵k̴ ̴s̵o̶m̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̸ ̴q̷u̸e̴s̵t̶i̷o̷n̵s̴ ̸f̸i̴r̸s̸t̶.̸

̶A̷l̵r̸i̷g̶h̷t̵.̴ ̷S̵p̶a̵w̵n̶s̸y̸.̸ ̵W̶h̷y̸ ̴y̴o̶u̶ ̴f̷r̸e̴e̴l̸o̴a̷d̴i̷n̴g̸?̶ ̸I̴ ̷o̸n̴l̴y̷ ̸r̶e̸a̴l̷l̴y̶ ̶k̴n̸o̶w̸ ̵o̴n̸e̴ ̷f̸r̴e̵e̴l̸o̵a̸d̸e̸r̴,̴ ̵a̸n̵d̸ ̴t̵h̵e̴y̶ ̷s̸t̴i̸l̴l̴ ̴h̷a̵v̴e̶ ̴c̸o̴n̴n̷e̶c̵t̵i̴o̸n̸s̶ ̵t̶o̵ ̵V̴o̴i̶d̴C̶o̵,̷ ̶y̴'̸k̸n̶o̸w̷.̷ ̸I̴t̶'̴s̴ ̸w̴e̵i̷r̷d̵ ̴t̶h̸a̵t̶ ̷y̸o̸u̵ ̶d̵o̴n̷'̴t̴ ̴s̴e̶e̷m̷ ̴t̶o̸ ̶k̶n̶o̵w̵ ̵a̷n̸y̵o̸n̸e̸ ̷t̵h̸e̵r̶e̵.̵

[Spawn]: Why would it matter to you? I'm not with VoidCo, I just know of you guys. I'm completely out of your jurisdiction. 

[Spawn]: I never said I worked with you guys. I just said I was a sponsor. As in I have a charge whose story I watch over and am responsible for putting them into their isekai in the first place.

~~+~~

Yaoianon on Tumblr

This is more of a worldbuilding question but is cards still yellow like how blacktales player is? Or are they gray like normal inphernals now, or something else?

[Spawn] : Take a look!

Spawn holds up the plushie version of Cards, which has light grey, almost white skin . They hold it up like they're proud of their creation.

~~+~~

DoodDaDoer on Ao3

“Goodness gracious we can finally ask 😍 so uh, what happens if player doesn’t complete their mission of collecting swords? Like die during or while trying to get the swords..? 👉👈”

[Spawn]: “Who said they’d be allowed to remain dead?”

~~+~~

Locative on Ao3

“Hello [Spawn]! I’m not sure how good of a question this is, but the answer has been bugging me- Since cards is essentially on a mission to puyt down the DIETIES of the inphinity, not to mention practically collecting their existence like trinkets, just how long does Cards have before they’re suddenly a  known threat/target?”

[Spawn]: “About one or two chapters.” 

~~+~~

Anonymous on Tumblr

“I like to imagine a scene where spawn trys to brag about cards to other "spirit isekai things" like "my creature fought a stoth and NEARLY WON dispute only existing for a week" and the whole time cards is in the background playing with a grenade like a cat with a yarn ball only spawn only notices when the grenade explodes”

[Spawn]: “ And they would have won if they hadn't given up! Not my fault they decided to- wait CARDS NO DROP THAT-”

There's general chaos off screen, then the sound of a grenade exploding.

~~+~~

Radioactive Substance Anon on Tumblr

Is Shedletsky dead for his crimes?

[Spawn]: Oh yes, very dead. He fell down a flight of stairs quite some time ago. How I do wish I'd gotten it on camera, though.

~~+~~

Waterwood09 on Tumblr

“What are some other things about cards old world that happened after his death? We know shedletsky fell down the stairs, but what about other iconic blocks tales characters like kyoko, greifer, Calypso, sandwich anon. You know. The classics.”

[Spawn]: “ Hm... let me check.”

There's the sounds of pages of a book flipping.

[Spawn]: “ Looks like most of them died naturally of old age or illness, though notably, Sandwich anon got mistaken for actual bread by a flock of birds. There was a statue built in Cards' honor, though. Looks like nobody ever found out how they actually died.”

~~+~~

space rock anon☄️ on Tumblr

“hmm I wonder about spawn’s daily life

what’s your favorite color? What your favorite being to consume(stories,foods,whatever these eldritch beings like to eat)? How is your freelance job doing? What do you sound like? Do you have things equivalent to hobbies? Do you do the equivalent of being a gamer?

-(from the person who ask miniboss sword I wonder if it’s fine I can sign off as space rock anon☄️)”

[Spawn]: Hm, that's a lot of questions... I like the color red, I don't really need to eat food, the freelance is going great, my voice is kinda glitchy by human standards... as for hobbies, I'd say I enjoy reading and researching the various points in time.

[Spawn]: I... don't really think I'd be the equivalent of a gamer.

~~+~~

Anonymous on Tumblr

“Would cards eat fiber glass installation thinking its cotton candy?”

[Spawn]: I fear they would.

~~+~~

Kybelike on Tumblr

“I'm curious, have you tried any video games? If so, what are they and what do you think of them?

Also, what do you usually read? I saw an answer that said you were into reading, and I'm curious now.”

[Spawn]: Hm... Mostly RPG games like Mario and Pokemon. For books, though, I do enjoy a good fantasy book. I'm a sucker for a good classic, though. 

~~+~~

Sandwich Anon on Tumblr

“Hello! Sandwich anon here.

What is a rough estimate you have for the number of times cards will get themself killed

My money is on 149, with 7 deaths being to a single staircase in thieves den. And at least one to a landmine”

[Spawn]: ... I mean I really hope it's not that many times. I don't know if I could revive them that many times. I haven't pushed my abilities that far before, and I hope I don't have to. 

~~+~~

Teevee1 on Tumblr

“Hello Spawn! I was wondering what you think of how Cards is doing? And are you just going to keep putting them back together if they die again?  Also I think you’re a cool sponsor! :D”

[Spawn]: “Oh, they’re doing pretty good, actually. They’re actually being surprisingly docile for this whole questions and answers thing-”

He turns around to reach and pick up Cards, only to suddenly retract his hand and hiss. There’s a drop of crimson blood dripping from his palm.

His breathing his heavy for a moment before he swung his hand suddenly, like he was wielding a sword.

The plushie’s head hit the ground, stuffing leaking from the body.

Breathe. In and out. In and out.

He waves his hand again. Both the Zuka and Cards plushies are gone; sent back from where they came.

He looks up again and grins.

[Spawn]: “They’re doing great.”

~~+~~

////////// on Tumblr

…̵.̷ ̴S̶h̸e̶ ̸s̷n̴o̴r̵t̶s̴.̵

̸A̸n̴d̵ ̷t̶h̸e̶n̷ ̷s̸h̴e̷ ̷l̸a̸u̷g̸h̶s̴.̷

̸W̴h̶o̷ ̸e̸v̷e̴r̸ ̸s̷a̵i̶d̵ ̸I̵ ̷w̸o̸r̶k̸e̴d̶ ̵f̸o̵r̵ ̸V̴o̶i̸d̸C̴o̷ ̸e̶i̴t̵h̵e̸r̸?̸ ̶O̵r̵ ̷t̵h̸a̵t̵ ̷I̴ ̵w̵a̸s̶ ̶a̸ ̷s̸p̴o̷n̵s̷o̵r̵?̶

̶O̶h̴h̴h̷h̷h̶h̴,̸ ̶t̷h̶i̷s̵ ̷g̶u̴y̷ ̶i̷s̵ ̷h̴i̵d̸i̷n̴g̸ ̸s̷o̵m̸e̵t̴h̶i̵n̴g̵ ̴f̴o̷r̸ ̸S̵U̸R̶E̵.̵ ̵A̴n̴d̵ ̷s̴h̵e̴’̶s̶ ̴g̶o̷i̸n̷g̸ ̴t̶o̶ ̴f̵i̴n̵d̸ ̴o̵u̶t̸ ̶e̴x̵a̵c̸t̵l̴y̴ ̴W̷h̸a̸t̸.̸ ̴A̷v̵o̴i̵d̵i̵n̷g̶ ̴q̴u̸e̷s̸t̴i̷o̶n̴s̸,̴ ̸s̴o̸u̷n̵d̴i̶n̶g̴ ̵s̶h̷i̵f̷t̴y̸…̴ ̴h̸e̶ ̶d̷i̶d̵ ̴t̵h̸e̵ ̸o̵n̶e̵ ̵t̸h̴i̶n̶g̸ ̷h̷e̷ ̸s̵h̵o̵u̶l̶d̴n̶’̷t̵ ̷h̴a̵v̷e̸,̸ ̶a̶n̵d̵ ̵i̴t̸’̸s̶ ̸t̶o̸ ̴p̶i̵q̸u̵e̴ ̵h̸e̴r̴ ̴c̵u̵r̶i̸o̶s̸i̵t̴y̵ ̵a̵n̵d̶ ̵m̷a̷k̸e̵ ̶h̴e̸r̶ ̷t̵h̴i̵n̷k ̴t̵h̷a̶t̴ ̵t̶h̶i̴s̸ ̴i̷s̶ ̸w̷o̸r̷t̶h̴ ̷s̷p̷e̷n̵d̸i̵n̵g̶ ̶h̸e̴r̸ ̵t̵i̶m̸e̷ ̶o̷n̸,̸ ̵f̴u̸c̴k̷i̵n̴g̶ ̷a̸r̵o̴u̵n̵d̶ ̵a̵n̷d̴ ̸f̷i̷n̴d̷i̸n̵g̶ ̶o̵u̵t̸.̶

̸H̶e̸ ̵S̵E̸E̸M̸S̴ ̶t̸o̷ ̴b̵e̶ ̵n̸i̶c̷e̸.̴ ̷B̸u̸t̶ ̸h̵e̵r̶ ̷g̸u̷t̵ ̴i̵s̷ ̶t̷e̶l̴l̷i̶n̴g̶ ̸h̴e̷r̵ ̵s̴o̸m̵e̶t̶h̸i̸n̴g̴ ̵e̶l̶s̶e̴-̶ ̸a̴n̵d̷ ̴w̵h̵e̴n̵ ̷h̴a̵s̵ ̴h̶e̶r̵ ̵g̶u̴t̴ ̸e̷v̶e̷r̶ ̷l̸e̴d̸ ̶h̵e̵r̸ ̶w̸r̶o̶n̷g̷?̷ ̷A̴n̴d̷ ̵h̷i̵s̷ ̴o̷w̷n̸ ̵s̶p̸o̶n̷s̶o̷r̷e̶d̵ ̴p̵e̵r̸s̴o̸n̵-̶ ̸C̵a̸r̸d̸s̵…̶.̸

̷S̴h̷e̴’̵s̶ ̵n̵e̵v̸e̵r̶ ̴b̶e̷e̵n̶ ̶t̵r̴e̸a̴t̷e̸d̴ ̵l̴i̴k̷e̵ ̸t̴h̵a̴t̷ ̴b̴e̶f̵o̵r̸e̴.̶ ̶L̸i̸k̴e̶ ̵a̵ ̸d̵i̴s̴p̸o̷s̶a̷b̸l̵e̸ ̸t̵o̸y̴.̵ ̶O̴t̴h̶e̸r̶’̴s̵ ̴m̸a̷y̵ ̴h̴a̴v̴e̷,̴ ̶y̸e̴s̷…̴ ̶b̵u̶t̵ ̴n̵o̸t̵ ̶o̴n̶ ̸t̶h̵i̶s̸ ̸d̵e̶g̶r̸e̶e̶.̴ ̸

̵I̶t̶’̴s̶ ̵n̴o̸t̶ ̷w̶i̷t̶h̷i̵n̵ ̴t̶h̴e̶i̶r̸ ̴d̷e̵a̸l̶.̷

̵Y̸o̶u̸ ̵h̸a̸v̵e̴ ̵a̸ ̷k̵n̷a̴c̷k̸ ̴f̷o̸r̸ ̶a̶v̵o̶i̴d̷i̸n̶g̶ ̵q̷u̵e̵s̵t̵i̶o̶n̸s̷,̶ ̷S̷p̵a̷w̷n̸.̵ ̸I̶f̶ ̶t̸h̸a̸t̶ ̴e̸v̴e̵n̴ ̶i̵s̷ ̶y̴o̴u̸r̷ ̴n̴a̶m̷e̷.̴ ̷

[Spawn]: ... I'm not taking any more questions.

[Asks for Spawn are now closed!]

[Event fin.]

~~+~~

Chapter Text

Venomshank had never whipped around faster in his life, nearly stumbling over his own boots as he turned to face the other person.

Who he found was… not who he expected. He’d expected the inphernal sneaking up on him to be one of Playground’s many thugs or criminals, not the kid who was tripping over their own feet. They must have been young; even the crowbar that hung off the beltloops of their pants seemed far too big for them.

“... mortal,” he said calmly. Despite said calmness, the young mortal still scrambled to their feet, looking flustered. “Don’t you know it is unwise to sneak up on a sword?”

The young inphernal shrugged slightly, then looked curiously at the grave for a moment before they kneeled down in front of it. They clasped their hands together and leaned their head down, as if they were praying.

Venomshank did not pry. He was the sword responsible for the bodies of the dead, he’d seen plenty of strange reactions to graves. Someone ignoring him and praying at the grave of a loved one was far from the weirdest reaction he’d witnessed from anyone. He even crouched down next to the young inphernal after a moment.

“Did you know them?”

The young inphernal didn’t say anything. Their tail swayed back and forth for a moment longer before they unclasped their hands. They nodded, then pointed to themself.

It took Venomshank a moment to understand what that meant. “Is that… your grave?” he asked. “You don’t seem to be a ghost. Ghostwalker would have come here, in that case.”

Still, despite the confusion, the inphernal nodded. They held out their hands for a moment before there was a quick flash of light, and they summoned their gear. Sure enough, it looked like a deck of cards; most blank and clear, but a few had colors and illustrations.

“Fascinating- I’ve never seen gear like yours before.”

Yet when Venomshank reached for the gear, the young inphernal drew away quickly. They fell over their own feet in their hate, landing on their back with a soft thud and oof of air. 

Venomshank merely chuckled and stood up. “I will not touch, then,” he conceded. He then looked between the grave and Cards, who was sitting up and getting their bearings back. 

They looked young. Older than Sword, yes, but young nonetheless. They were harmless.

He turned back to the grave and gently plucked the broken goggles off of the marked wood. Gently, he ran a gloved thumb over the cracks of one of the webs of cracks. They originated from a single point over one of the eyes and spiraled outwards like veins, covering almost the entire left eye side with thick cracks. It looked like it would have been impossible to actually see through on that side. They weren’t all the way through, at least as far as he could tell, so he figured they weren’t beyond repair.

“Are these yours?” Venomshank asked after a moment, then held out the goggles for Cards to take.

Cards stood up and looked at the goggles, hesitated, and then nodded. They carefully took the goggles back before carefully reaching up to slide them over their long horns.

The goggles fit like a glove, resting on the child’s brow but just below where their horns began.

Venomshank watched quietly for a moment before he turned back to the grave. “If you’re alive, why do you have a grave?”

Cards didn’t respond, at least, not at first. They only stared for a moment before they pulled out a notepad and a pen. They flipped to an empty page and began to write carefully, with neat, gentle strokes that arranged themselves into blocky letters.

Someone I cared about thought I was dead, They explained in writing. The goggles belonged to him. I don’t know why he left them.

They stared at the grave for a moment longer.

I thought he hated me.

Although only slightly, Venomshank’s gaze softened as he rested a hand on Cards’ shoulder. “If he went through the trouble to make you a grave, even a simple one, I do not think he hated you,” he responded. “Everyone mourns in different ways. Perhaps him leaving the goggles was a way to leave a part of himself with you. Did you know him well?”

Cards nodded before their pen moved once more. He was like a father to me, they explained before a tear fell onto the page, smearing some of the ink.

Venomshank had never been good with criers. This was not his domain.

Though as he watched this kid grieve, a small part of him did feel sympathy. It was the same sympathetic feeling he’d gotten when he’d found Sword in Lost Temple, young and alone. The reflexive, avian urge to take in and parent a lost fledgeling.

… ah, it was that feeling again. How long had it been since he’d found that child in the desert? And now it was a child at their own grave.

(He had failed to see Cards standing up to wipe their tears.)

(He had failed to see Cards slip the crowbar out of their belt loop.)

(Griefer would have laughed at the irony of it all. They were sure he would have wanted this.)

Venomshank turned around to face the child. “You know, if you have nowhere else to go, perhaps you could come with me and I could-”

He didn’t get the words out before something hard and metal hit the side of his head.

They did it.

They hit Venomshank with the crowbar. 

It had been an awkward angle because of how much taller he was than them, and they had to swing high, but fuck it, they did it. It was one hell of a solid hit to the head with an impressive follow through. The sound was like metal hitting metal as the crowbar rattled in their hand from the hit.

Cards watched as Venomshank staggered, but did not fall. 

“What…?”

Cards stood tall, red eyes and all. They stood with a crowbar in one hand and a certain golden card in their other hand, ready to break it at any moment they’d need to.

They were here, finally. The moment they’d been looking for.

The venomshank.

The inphernal in front of them stared at them in shock. His mask was slightly askew, the beak of it bent at an awkward angle and his hat was gone on the ground. 

He smiled, then he laughed.

Suddenly, he moved. Suddenly, he seized the back of Cards’ sweater into his hand and picked them up, leaving them dandling awkwardly like a misbehaving cat who had gotten scruffed and put in air jail.

They flailed wildly, swinging their arms and tail around like an irate cat. 

“Now, what was that for?” Venomshank scolded. “You’re lucky I don’t strike you down where you stand. Most would not dare to lay hands on me.”

Cards stuck out their tongue and made the universal pfffffft sound at Venomshank, then swiped at his arm with their claws. Given how Venomshank must have been used to a certain other chaotic child, he didn’t even react, just lifted his arm up slightly to avoid the hit.

“Must not be much of a talker, I take it,” Venomshank huffed as he scolded them like a tired dad. 

Cards hissed loudly, and Venomshank just rolled his eyes. “Are you going to calm down? I do not have time for this, I must get back to my duties and-”

With a flick of their wrist, Cards snapped the golden card to the forest floor.

The freezing cold wind washed over Venomshank, and nearly dropped Cards in shock. 

“... where did you get that?” the deity demanded, actually dropping Cards on the ground this time. Cards managed to land on his feet, tail flicking wildly like a cat, with the sfoth-damned icedagger in their hand.

And Cards just grins. 

They just fucking grin.

Cards felt like they were actually insane in that moment. The one thing they didn’t want to do was reveal their hands, so to speak, but here they were, literally threatening the venomshank with the fucking icedagger.

Not their brightest moment, yeah, but in Cards’ defense it WORKED. Venomshank put them down, and seemed to actually be considering them a threat now!

Mainly because he was now taking genuine slashes at them, attempting to disarm them.

They traded blows back and forth with Venomshank, falling into step. Fighting him was like a violent dance, with them trading blows back and forth. Venomshank fought in a very precise, sharp way; his sword was good for that. It looked like some sort of saber if Cards could recall their types of swords correctly.

Venomshank might have been trained in sword fighting, but Cards was nothing if not stubborn and impulsive. They took more risks, got up in his face more, forced him to step back and back.

They couldn’t help their grin. The adrenaline rush was addictive, as it had always been. Even back in Robloxia, even back when they were fighting for their life against creatures in the wild and sword guardians instead of literal deities. 

Some deities these guys were if a kid could beat them.

Venomshank wasn’t trying to kill them. If he wanted to, he probably could have. But he was fighting like hell, aiming for their wrist in an attempt to knock the icedagger out of their hands. It wasn’t working, but he was sure trying to.

One of his jabs went sideways and hit their side instead. He missed, thankfully, but just barely. Cards heard their sweater tear from the tip of the sword, but didn’t stop, not even when they felt the cut just under their ribs.

Venomshank froze, trying to catch his breath. His eyes narrowed as he seemed to spot something. “Wait, what’s-”

Cards didn’t let him finish as they drove the icedagger straight into his abdomen.

That line of questioning broke as Venomshank quickly yanked the sword out. The ice didn’t overcome him. It wouldn’t, he wouldn’t let it.

He staggered backwards, glaring at Cards before turning to run. He held an arm over the injury to hold the golden ichor in his body.

Cards tried to follow, but their side felt stiff.

They glanced down, and that’s when they saw the plants growing out of their side. Shit, right, Griefer had… had turned into a plant after stabbing himself all that time ago, hadn’t he? The Venomshank now must have had the same ability, to turn people to plants or something like that.

They pushed forward, or at least tried to, to go after Venomshank. But it wasn’t enough, their legs and side felt stiff as the roots wormed their way under their skin. And now that the adrenaline had worn off, they could feel the burning sensation of the plants digging in.

They tried to open their mouth to scream, to demand Venomshank come back and fix it.

But they couldn’t get their voice to work. 

They fell to the ground, holding their side and hissing in pain. The icedagger faded back to a card on the ground next to them, just out of reach. They reached for their cards, hoping they could get the healing card in time to avoid another awkward conversation with their sponsor, but no dice there either.

Turning into a plant was an awful way to go, as it sapped out their energy. The roots forced their way up their throat and out their mouth, seeking the dirt below their body as their bones were bound in vines.

It hurt. It hurt it hurt it hurt . They wanted their friends. They wanted their dad . They wanted to apologize to Sword for being a shitty friend. They wanted to hug Brad now that they knew how painful that this must have been when it happened to them.

They wanted to scream, but their throat felt like nothing but wood.

They let out a small sigh. Their eyes closed just as they heard the clanking of a metal chain in the distance.

Chapter Text

 “Cards!”

Their voices were distant. 

“Cards, come on, wake up-! You need to eat this, come on…”

“They’re out cold, their body is almost completely overgrown. You’re gonna have to put it in their mouth- oh, screw it, let me.”

There was a hand on their jaw that pushed their mouth open, before forcing something into the roots growing from their throat (if they even had one). They felt the roots wrapping around it and pulling it downwards, only to immediately try to throw it out.

“Oh no you don’t-”

A hand pressed over their mouth while the roots writhed and struggled, trying to push the gross thing out of it. The hands were firm and determined, though, forcing the disgusting thing down. It tasted nasty, whatever it was, and the roots did not like it.

“Wait, stop, you’re hurting them-!”

“It’s either this or they stay a plant! Your dad did a number on them.”

“Venomshank isn’t my dad!”

“Mentor, then. Your mentor did a number on them, and if we don’t feed them this they’ll stay like this! Do you want that!?”

As much as the roots struggled, they couldn’t push a full hand away, and the gross-tasting thing was eventually forced down their throat.

Cards wasn’t really sure how long they were out, but eventually, their eyes opened to see two familiar inphernals standing over them. Sword looked relieved and was immediately at their side, checking them over as he cradled their face in his hands.

His motions seemed practiced enough as he looked at them. Cards figured in their hazy brain that Venomshank had at least had the sense to train the kid to check for injuries.

“Cards! What happened? Are you okay? Why can’t I find a pulse-”

“It’s probably the fact that plants don’t have heartbeats,” Broker pointed out before having to pry Sword off of Cards. “Come on, give them space. They just came back from eating sunshine.”

Cards pushed themself up from the ground using their arms. Their limbs still felt like jello, and they were pretty sure there were still roots inside there somewhere, but at least they didn’t seem to be fully plant anymore. At least, it didn’t feel like it.

Didn’t Brad have some side effects from when he was a plant? Like the… the leaves…

… ah, shit, the crowbar! The goggles! The-

Cards jolted upright, scrambling to feel around their body for their gear. At least, they tried to. Broker and Sword quickly caught their shoulders and pushed them back down to lay on their back.

“Give it a minute, you just came back from being a plant, Cards!” Sword scolded. “We’ve got your stuff, don’t worry, you’re fine-”

Cards glared at the kid. They looked around and, sure enough, there was a small pile with their bag, gear, crowbar, and goggles there.

All the fight left their body as they laid there in the grass of the clearing. Broker grinned at them with that stupid smile, and frankly, Cards did not like it one bit. They’d always found it creepy, but the way he was standing over them and grinning like a cat that got the cream sent shivers up their spine.

How had he gotten there so fast? How had he known what to do?

… Even Cards, when they’d had to help Brad, only knew about The Special from a whole sidequest. So how did he…?

But Broker interrupted their train of thought as he offered a hand out to them. “Come on, you can’t just lay there all day, right?”

“Weren’t you pushing them down just half a second ago?” Sword countered, but was swiftly ignored by Broker and Cards as Cards accepted the hand up.

The vines and roots still in their body twitched as they stood up, lighting up like a nervous system throughout their bones and flesh. It felt weird to balance for a few seconds, but then their body adapted and it was like riding a bike again.

They looked down at their body, brushed off their pants and sweater, and gave the other two inphernals a thumbs up. 

Sword let out a sigh and Cards could see his shoulders droop as he released the tension. “Good enough. Please don’t get turned into a plant again,” 

“I don’t know if it’s possible to undo twice,” Broker agreed.

Cards didn’t pay much attention to him as they went over to their stuff. They put on the broken goggles again and secured the crowbar in place to their belt loops on their waist. It was better, at least. They didn’t feel so… alone.

Little reminders. They weren’t willing to give them up that easily.

As they put their pen and notepad back into their pocket, Broker piped up. “You know, if you never need anything, I could always offer a hand-”

Sword rolled his eyes at this. “Venomshank said your cult was a bunch of weirdos.”

Broker flinched at the accusation. “It’s not a cult, we are a family and church,” he argued back. “I’m not even talking to you, little horns. I’m talking to your wonderful friend here. Quiet now, the adults are talking.”

If a child could ever look like they wanted to throw an adult inphernal into next week, that was the look on Sword’s face.

Broker just waved him off, ignoring him before heading over to Cards. He offered a grin, and with a flourish, produced what looked like a business card. He placed it into a very confused Cards’ hands, grinned, and waved.

“Todaloo~”

And before either of them could ask what the fuck any of that was, Broker turned and vanished back into the folleage.

For a moment, Cards stood there with this look of dumbfounded confusement. Broker was still a weirdo, no matter how much he might be helpful. It was always the ones who tried to be helpful, after all. It was always the ones who tried to do the “right” thing that ended up pulling the rug out from under someone.

Always the “good guys” like ###### and Sh-

Their train of thought was broken when Sword let out a loud, dramatic sigh. “Welp, that was weird,” he said with a shrug before turning back to Cards. “You look like shit, by the way.”

Cards looked down at themself. He wasn’t really wrong, given that they were still covered in dirt and tears in their clothes. They lifted their once-yellow sweater to look at the wound Venomshank had given them in their side.

There were still some vines and leaves poking out of the wound. A few gentle taps to them, and Cards realized that yeah, they could feel it.

They weren’t really shocked. Brad had about the same type of thing happen to him afterwards. They remembered him talking about how it felt weird when they were kissing-

…

Anyway, moving on, Cards just sighed and pulled their sweater down over the plants again. They could deal with the whole plant thing later. Sword seemed confused, though, as he tilted his head. “What? Are you like… a plant now? I knew my mentor could turn people into plant-zombies, but I’ve never seen it on a real person before. Most people lose their minds.”

Cards just shrugged. Brad had lost his mind when he went full-plant, yeah, but he was fine after they fed him the special.

It was at that moment that Cards realized something. They fumbled through their pockets to grab their pen and notepad, and after a second, scribbled out a message that they then showed to Sword.

The younger inphernal took the notepad and read it over, then again.

Did Broker say where he learned that recipe?

“Uh… no, he didn’t,” Sword explained as they handed the notepad back. “Just said something about visiting a castle recently… and a ghost?”

As much as Cards wanted to jump on the lead for any connection to the past… they couldn’t. Not yet.

For now, they needed to focus on Venomshank. 

“Come on, let’s get back to town and find a place to rest,” Sword piped up after a few minutes. “I think we both need it. My head’s still fuzzy after that fight earlier.”

Cards nodded in agreement and followed Sword back down the path, glancing over their shoulder for only a moment to watch a crow fly away. 

He was watching. He had to be.

It wouldn’t work if he wasn’t.

Venomshank couldn’t go home for the moment, not when he was still duty-bound to clean up the fields of dead that were still present in Playground. As much as he wished to return to his home in Crossroads that wasn’t possible for the moment.

Instead, for the meantime, he was stuck here, crouching in an abandoned building, tying messages to the feet of lovedoves the old fashioned way.

One after another, he tied the strips of paper with string to the different birds, all with varying but similar messages. Icedagger had been captured and stripped of their gear somehow, and he himself had been attacked by the perpetrator. He declined to mention how his own trainee was now hanging out with said perpetrator like they were best buddies and even helped to save them from Venomshank’s plants.

That would be a discussion and grounding for Sword later. The young inphernal should have known better than to follow. 

Nonetheless, Venomshank had to warn his siblings about this threat; at least, those who remained. Icedagger had obviously already been caught by this “Cards”. As much as it hurt to say, there was not much of a chance at saving their youngest sibling. 

He needed to stay out of their way, as did all the others. Cards was dangerous.

He tied another string to a pigeon before doing a quick count. “One two three four five- that should be all of them.”

His siblings may have found his insistence on such old methods distasteful at best and useless at worst, but at least with the lovedoves, there was no possible way for Cards to find all five of the flying creatures. With the last string tied, he stood up and pushed the cracked window open.

The birds all flew out one after another, eager to return to their home roosts. With any luck, they’d make it home safely, and Venomshank’s siblings would be warned of the issue at hand.

He was about to close the window again when a blur of dark feathers and speed dove through the window at the last second, nearly knocking him over in the process. 

“Sysiphus- Sysiphus! Cease!” he scolded the frantic bird before he eventually caught it with a gentle grip in his hands.

The crow cawed loudly and with concern. It turned its head towards the window repeatedly, looking back from its master to the window. Venomshank knew that look. He sighed deeply before releasing the bird once more. When it flew out the window, Venomshank didn’t wait to follow.

He followed his bird at a frantic pace, running through the streets of the town and into the jungle areas once more. He abandoned the path when the bird took a sharp turn to the left. When Sysiphus flew high up into a large, thick tree, he didn’t hesitate to investigate. 

It was an old tree, and half dead by age but still stubbornly kicking. When Sysiphus disappeared up into the central log of the tree and flew up the hollow, Venomshank had no choice but to follow upwards.

And what they saw when they got to the top was interesting, to say the least.

There was Cards, sitting on an old desk, drinking some sort of soda. It looked like soda, at least, in a green and black can that had faded fromage.. Settled across their lap was that crowbar from earlier. They sat there for a moment, drinking their soda and swishing their tail back and forth.

“You…” Venomshank hissed out. “What did you do?”

They tipped their head back to finish off the rest of their drink, and when they were done, tossed the can into the large pile of cans off to the side. 

(That Witches Brew was nasty by now. How long had it been sitting there was anyone’s guess, but it had been a long time. All the fizz was gone by now. 

Cards didn’t care. They wished they’d tried the stuff when Brad had told them to.)

“What. Did you. Do?” Venomshank said again, drawing his sword as he took another step forward. “Tell me! Why did Sisyphus lead me here?”

Cards tilted their head and smiled. Venomshank could only see their puffy red eyes for a moment before they threw a card down on the ground in between the two of them. It was a red card with a symbol of a familiar helmet and sword. 

And Venomshank understood, with grim and sudden clarity, what had become of his son.

Chapter Text

Guilt was a heavy thing Cards had long since gotten used to carrying. Even back during the first time around, they’d done horrible things to collect the swords for Shedletsky.

And now here they were again, doing horrible things to collect the swords for Spawn. 

History repeats again and again.

The deity crouched down slowly, unable to even look at cards. His fingers carefully picked the card up off the floor. He held it like it was something precious. Cards could guess that it was to him, at least; that was his child’s soul in there. 

(Soul or gear? What made them sentient?)

(What made someone alive?)

(What gave them value?)

He stared at the card in shock as he stood to his full height. “... how,” he said softly as his mask tilted upwards to look at Cards. “How could you? He was just a child.”

Cards lifted their pen and notepad to start writing. It’s not like they got very far with it, given that halfway through their sentence they were nearly split in half by Venomshank’s sword. They’d manage to yank backwards just in time to avoid it. 

The feeble ‘I’m so’  written on their paper was cut to twain, with the notepad having not been so lucky as to escape the deity’s wrath.

Well, evidently, they’d fucked up.

Cards scrambled backwards, dodging okay, good, excellently even. A quick kick from the wall allowed them to hurl themself forward off the table and over another one of Venomshank’s slashes.

They skidded backwards across the wooden floor, and their tail whipped around for balance as their lungs fought to catch their breath.

(Did they have lungs, or were those plants now, too?)

(Where was the line?)

“You… you hurt my son…” Venomshank snarled as he held the card in his hand, which he tucked into his shirt pocket with care. “Was it worth it? WAS IT WORTH IT, CARDS!?”

Cards grimaced at Venomshank, refusing to make eye contact with the deity. They flipped through their gear for a quick moment before pulling out the icedagger card once more, then threw it at their feet.

(Some part of them felt a small feeling of disgust at hearing the name, especially yelled like that.)

The card shattered into crystalline shards that wove themselves back into the weapon in Cards’ hand, and they stood tall to look at Venomshank. 

Venomshank glared at Cards through his mask. His breath was heavy as well, though with anger rather than Card’s exhaustion. “You… You have no idea what sort of mistake you have made, mortal. For my brother, and for my SON!”

He raised his thin blade before stabbing it down into the wooden ground of the room. He let out a vile screech as energy poured through the sword and into the wood below, and the glass lenses of his mask began to glow a dull green. It turned from dull to bright, lighting up the room.

Vines shot out of the ground and darted for Cards, forcing the mortal to dodge the incoming attack. One, two, three- Vines wrapped up the walls and floor before every plant all darted for them at once, making them duck and dodge like their life depended on it. 

Probably because it quite literally did. 

They ducked and weaved around (good, great, excellent) as best they could around the plants, using whatever they could to their advantage. They hopped on the table to avoid one swipe, then swung down under it to avoid a jab. When the vines and roots came up from under their feet, they were quick to slash the icedagger downwards.

That did something. Ice broke out under them and across the ground, freezing the plants in place momentarily. Just long enough to get away. 

It was when the plants stopped moving and Venomshank screamed again that all hell broke loose.

They looked up in time to see Venomshank tear his mask off, revealing a face that… honestly would have been cute if not for the situation. The best way Cards could describe it at the moment was an O’w’O face, but like… really angry. And with fangs. Ah, shit. 

Venomshank swung hard and fast, forcing Cards to attack. It was much different from Griefer when he’d fought Cards.

(They’d gotten to know him well. Gotten to know the steps to that particular dance well. Left, right, back then left, right- it became muscle memory after some time. 

This was nothing like fighting with Brad.

Maybe it was the difference in the swords. Brad had used the venomshank as a broad sword, hadn’t he? And now this venomshank was a rapier.)

Left right- left right-

They dodged the tip of the blade over and over again, countering and parrying with the icedagger where they could.

Alas, a dagger was not as long as the sword, so it couldn’t block everything. Once or twice the blade nicked their clothes and tore at the seams, and once or twice they felt something take root.

They kicked back again to jump backwards, putting some distance between themself and Venomshank. He was fast, but they were faster. When one of the plants began to bloom and grow from a cut on their shoulder, they reached under their sweater and yanked. 

The vine and bloom gave way with a snap.

It hurt like all hell and only left them bleeding whatever that weird plant-ooze was, discoloring the yellow of their sweater, but they could handle it. They’d handled worse and kept fighting. 

Finally, after what felt like hours of dodging and yanking plants from their skin, they got an opening. It was a brief opening. A blink-and-you-miss-it type of opening. 

But as Cards slashed up with the icedagger to block a strike from Venomshank, it happened. The card that had been tucked into the deity’s shirt pocket came loose from the strange motion, and slipped out.

Venomshank’s hand snapped out to grab it, but Cards was faster.

They grabbed the card and slammed it into the ground, tossing the Icedagger away to take control of the newly summoned linked sword on the ground.

Venomshank brought his own sword downwards, hilt first, and whacked Cards hard enough on the back of the head that the floor seemed to ring and sway. They stumbled, but they didn’t falter. Not too long, at least.

They turned the linked sword in their hands and stabbed upwards, driving the blade through the god’s stomach and pushed deeper.

The sharp pain was enough. Venomshank blinked once, then twice, as the glowing of his eyes began to fade.

He looked down under him to see Cards standing there, shaking unsteadily, but having stabbed Venomshank straight through with his son’s gear.

“... oh,” he said softly. “You… you won, I see.”

He fell to a kneel, one hand braced on a knee as he looked down at the sword in his gut. 

“You… you actually…”

Cards put a gentle hand on the deity’s shoulder. When Venomshank looked up and saw the tears in Cards’ eyes, he understood something else.

He understood that they had not wanted this.

I’m sorry, Cards mouthed, but Venomshank could barely understand through the pain. I’m so sorry.

And then Cards pressed the blank card into Venomshank’s shoulder.

After the fight had been… hazy. It always was after an adrenaline crash like that.

Cards, for one, just laid flat on the ground, surrounded by the wreckage of the fight. Plants, random wrecked furniture- hell, even the cut-up notepad. Shame for that last one, too, they were just starting to get used to actually being able to talk to others again…

Either way, they looked up at the new card in their hand.

It looked a lot like the Icedagger card, with a golden ichor background, except this time it had a green and grey rapier on the front of it. Wrapped around the handles were vines of some plant that… honestly, Cards couldn’t be bothered to identify. Not with the way the room still spun.

They gathered up the sword cards they’d used (the icedagger and linked sword), then put them with the rest of the cards in their gear. 

(Yes, they put the linked sword next to the venomshank card. They weren’t that cruel.)

They sighed as they flipped through the cards they had once more, and pulled the health card out. It was still somewhat dim, probably not fully recharged since they’d used it on Sword (they ignored the sting in their chest), so it did little to help with their own head injury.

Fair enough, they guessed, Cards could power through it.

They dismissed their cards into that weird hammer space and went around, gathering their things. A few flat witches brews got shoveled into a small bag they’d found under the bed, and they grabbed the goggles and crowbar they’d dropped in the chaos. Both were turned to their respective spots on their person, through the belt loops and on their head respectively.

While they headed to the stairs, there was a window with a ledge. It must have been carved out from the tree, and provided great sunlight.

They stared for a few seconds, then glanced at the drop.

…

Nah, they didn’t want to deal with that guy so soon after fighting Venomshank. That would be miserable.

Now, Ghostwalker had been among the first to get his brother’s warning. His home was closest, only a few islands over within Playground. The old manor was safe enough, nobody ever wanted to get too close to some place that was known for being very old and very haunted.

Not like it was as haunted as it once was; most of the ghosts had been led to the next life, courtesy of Ghostwalker. 

This also meant that Ghostwalker could make it to where Venomshank had spoken of within a few hours if needed. It was needed often to check on the ghost situations around Playground. 

But today, the plan was different. The plan was to find his brother.

“Venomshank better have a good explanation for that message,” he remarked under his breath as he pushed some vines out of the way. “This is ridiculous…”

The message hadn’t been the only thing of concern, truth be told. A certain ghost had let it slip that someone had been running around, and that ghost had died from wounds he’d sworn came from “a blunt-horned idiot with an icedagger sword”, but Ghostwalker had brushed it off. He’d dismissed it outright. After all, Icedagger would never allow someone to take their sword and stab other inphernals without cause. 

Of course, his tone of thought changed the moment he saw a black bird circling a specific tree in the distance.

He knew that bird. There were many birds like it in the inphinity, but he couldn’t miss the bird who carried his sibling’s wings.

“... this isn’t good. Venomshank, what happened?”

“̴̖̯̓̈͛̒N̵̨̩̭̼̮̹͛͝ȅ̶͖̝͉̇̿͐ẘ̷̼͔͕b̵̻̈͊͐̉͐i̶̟̗̋̊̇͌͐͘e̷̹͆̈́̕?̵͉̰̓̐̇”̸̡͉̱̱͎̄̔

The name was far and distant, though it drew them in like a moth to a flame.

“̴̱̈́N̸̬͔̭̭͒́́ề̸̛̹͚̟̥͔͘͘͜͠w̷̙͖̎͋͆b̵͚͖̙̤̓̐̈́̂͠i̷̳̘̱͒̐͌͒ę̸̦̖̈́̈ ̴̣͓̺͓̖̗̀͘ȋ̵̜͉̋̅̎̓s̵͓̲͔͓͆͒́̆̌ ̶̗̊̄̂͐̒̇ỳ̷̢̜̦ô̴͓̘̲̼̞̍̀̕͠͝u̶͖̽͛ŕ̷̡̙͓̺̮̀̔͑͘͝ͅ ̵̨͐̓̿̾͊n̸̢̺̺̲̟̫͐̇̈́̎ǎ̴̘̺̻̏̑̑m̷̟̌̾ẽ̶̠͛̅̕͝͝,̷̹̣̿͒̃̏ ̷̢̪̬̰̩̌̍̂͋̈͘ͅî̴͎͙̿̽͝ş̴͖̾̌̀̌͒̑n̵͓̪͎̂̌͆̕’̷̧̼͖̐̇t̵̡͇̣̹͔̗̐̎ ̷̛͎͕̺̮̟̭̉͝ȉ̵̖̖͉̩t̵͚͇̅̉͑̑͠?̴͖̓͐̃̆͝ ̴͇̼͆͒W̵̰͆̔ȧ̷̧̟̦̻͓̭͑̒͐̈̓k̶͚̼͚̺̰̊̐̂̋͛͛è̸͎̣ ̷̢̪͇̙͎̈́̊͌̒̊̾û̷̢ͅp̸͙̤̌̐͂̂.̴̨̮̼̫̞̊ ̴̹̉͋̊͒Ŷ̸̠̰̈́o̸̻̜̼̹̹̍̉͌̄̈̕ú̷̧̪͍͚̲̯̂͂̅̑̂ ̷̨̡̨͑͐̒͌͝ͅa̵̧͎͓̥͎͒͗͒̓ṟ̷͛̓e̵̢̲̖̾ ̷̧͌̃́̾̎͂n̵̛̲̖̓̀̚e̴̜̯̞̹͆́̕͝e̶̢̛̦̪̘͖̍̅͒͝ď̷̖͚͓̾́̂e̵̳͗̐̒ḑ̶͍̬̜͉̏̉͗͘.̵̛͙̱̠͝͝”̷̥̯̜͛̑̑

They blinked a few times, the darkness and haziness clearing from their mind a moment or two later. Above them, the limbs of trees waved lazily above them. A star-speckled sky was visible through the leaves.

They pushed themself to sit up and look around. Around them, as far as they could see through the dark, was a darkened forest that only got darker the further they looked out. In front of them and behind them was a cold, muddy path.

With no other options, Newbie shook off the cold and pulled themself to their feet. One foot in front of the other, they began to make their way along the path.

“̴̼͂̆̋D̵̡̖̰̥͖̐̈̈ő̵̢̦̳̗̙̐w̷̢̱̪̝͍̒̊̊̽̈́̇͜ṋ̸̊̽͜ͅ ̸͍̳̬͔͗͠t̵̨̖̦̯̎́̔̈̈ḩ̷͈̉̽͐e̴̡̨͍̕ ̵̡͓̙͓̰̓͂͗͠p̶̧͔̠̹͔̱͠a̶̖͍͎̺͒̆͂͛̚t̸͉̰͂͒́͒ḩ̶̞͕̙̾́̈̀,̴̨̰͖̳̜̳̄̈́̑̄͐̑ ̸̣̰̙̳̅y̷̦̌̈́o̶͈̱̒u̷̟̖̒̂ ̷̧̝̭̬̩̼͋͗̈͐̒͠w̴̰̞̒͋̏̅͊̎í̶̧̥̽̀̋l̶̡̨̜͈̞͚̐l̶̠̝̬̾̇͒̑̊ ̷̰̦̗̳̿̉̈́̚f̷̤́̂i̷̳͔̫̝͊ṉ̴͍͌͂̎̇͛d̸̪͕͛͐ ̷̨͖̊̉̄̉͘͠ͅw̴̧̪̳̥̿h̸̨̳̗̟͓̹͑̇̾́e̵̠͍̋͒͐̓r̷̢̫̻͉̫̽̄͆̈́̑͌e̶͓͐ ̴͓̱̳͇̪̎̑͗͝ͅy̵̬̮̘͎̲͗͛o̵̠̍u̸̠͔͌̽̏̚͠͝ ̵̢̢̞̯͚͝a̴͉͚̻̦̐̾̾͌͌͝ȑ̸̻͙͎͉ę̷̲̦̜̮̃͑̽̂ͅ ̸̨̺͉́̂n̶̻̬̹͓̔̆̽̐͘ͅę̵̻̉̓e̷̢̼̯̥̽̑͊d̷̤͍̼̞̤̤͌͋̃̊e̷͉͇̦͔̫̩͐̉̐͗̿d̴̡͖̠͒͛̓̕͠.̶̬̝̎̓ ̶̮̖͌͆A̴̯͋̓̄͠ ̴̤̠͊̿̇m̴̤̼͈͊̿ą̶̧̦̳̀̀̇͘͜ͅň̸̮̠͙̜̞̅̒͛͘o̴̦͚̥̹͒̉̇͊̚r̸͇͌ ̷̈́͐̀̐̚͝ͅw̶̡̨̟̪̮̗͗͘̕i̴̯̙̝͛̔̆̕͜͠ͅt̵̺̂̓͜h̸̲͔͓̘̅̋́̃̅̓ͅ ̵̤̘̼̙̋̾̄̊̕͜w̵̟͙͙̎̉a̸͈̞͕̪̳͂̇͊͠ṟ̵̤̣͍͎͍̈́̎m̷̗̹̑̒̾͋̈́ ̶̨̛̰͎̣͊̍̐h̴̛͈̬̙̿̍̿̋̔ã̷͉l̷͙̻͙̀l̵̛͓͈̱͉̖͙̍͋s̶̛̞̳̮͈͙͖̋̃ ̸͉̳̰̲̹̃̉a̴̬̔̉̆̈́͠n̸̨̝̥̰̙͒͊͂̈́d̸̝̝̤͇̺͒́͜ ̸̢͈̥̻͎͔͑̃t̸̻̘͎̙̩͗̐͘a̸̟͙̥̪͊͒b̸̠̪̲́̂̈́̕ͅl̴̦͑e̸̞̩̝̹̙͑̀͆s̴͍͛̆ ̷̰͍̪͐f̷͔̱̜̾ȋ̴̡̻͍̟̺̈̌l̴̫̱̳̻̾̋ĺ̶͈͎̭̃e̶̱͍̚ď̸̡̛͕̹̬͒̂̊ͅ ̵̢̳̹͓̌̽̕͠w̶̢̬͉̣͚̔̌͆͛ī̵̥͔̻̳̓͐͐̔͝t̷̙̗̭͚̐̾̂̋̈̐h̸͔̐͘ ̵̛͚͎͔̮͓̎̃̈͋c̵̫͉͈͖̆ǒ̴͉͇͔͙͔͙̋m̷̢̞̠͍̒͝f̶̛̳̏͋͂̆͝o̴̫̪̼͗̈́̕r̷͓͈͉̎̆t̶̫̤̖̗̞̋̀̓͛͗͠ ̶̧̗̗͂̄́̄͘ḟ̵̧̝͔̾͑͒̂̃o̷̺̺̯̥̾̓͂ơ̴̢̘̖͇̈́̆d̸͍̫̈͌̑̊.̷̣̗̰͈̲̆͐͑̇͗̾”̶͎̫͖̃̕͘͘

There was that voice again… Newbie didn’t know what to make of it. It sounded distant and ghostly, and no matter how much they squinted and looked ahead, they couldn’t see who it was.

All they could do was follow the voice.

Chapter Text

Somewhere in an old manor, an older man stood by a window as he looked out on the looming forest. There were trees as far as the eye could see, surrounding his and his friends’ home on all sides. Here, they lived quietly, with few, minor worries. “Is it going to rain tonight?” he pondered to himself.

The two children ran to either side of him as they peeked over the edges of the window, all smiles and cheer. “Oh, rain! Puddles!” the red one said with a smile as he pushed up from under the man’s heavy cape. 

The blue one joined her brother but a moment later, popping up on her tiptoes to see past the window sill. “Red, we can’t play in the rain,” she chastised, “we’ll get sick.”

“But Brad gets to play in the rain all the time!” the red one argued back.

The man in question walked by with a basket of rolls in his hands. “1'M 4110W3D 70 83C4U53 P14N75 D0N'7 937 51CK F20M 7H3 241N," he pointed out as he passed by. “423N'7 Y0U 7W0 5UPP053D 70 83 H31P1N9 W17H 53771N9 7H3 74813?”

“Calypos said we could go run and play!” Red argued, which Blue nodded in agreement. 

Brad rolled his eyes at this, but continued on. “45 10N9 45 Y0U 7W0 D0N'7 P155 H32 0FF, W3'11 83 F1N3. Y0U KN0W H0W 5H3 F3315 480U7 Y0U2-"

A knock on the door interrupted his train of thought, and a silence fell over the hallway.

“A guest? At this hour?” The older man asked, looking down the main hallway of the house. “Did-”

“The master of the house never invites anyone over,” Blue chimed in. “Did anyone else get invited?”

“UN1355 17 W45 C41YP50 1NV171N9 H32 515732 0V32, 1 D0N'7 7H1NK 50. 4ND 5H3 W0U1D H4V3 701D U5 1F KY0K0 H4D 833N 1NV173D.” 

Brad looked at the doorway for a second before there was another series of knocks, this time firmer and more insistent. 

“... 1'11 90 CH3CK 17 0U7.”

He passed off his basket of rolls to Cruel King and headed to the front door. The person was halfway through the third set of knocks before he got the door open.

Standing at the door was a young adult, maybe a few years younger than himself, and they were soaking wet from mud and rain. The colorful hoodie they must have been wearing a few minutes prior was now drenched over one of their arms, with their golden blonde hair sticking to their light yellow skin. 

(̷̢̨͚̜̤̪̗̩͚̭͚̝͂͋̃͛̉͊̕͜͝D̸̢͆̈̑͐̏̕i̶̛̯̙͔͇̣͓͙͊͊̽͗̍̈̿̆̂̇͊͘d̶̢̧̝̞̭͖͚̝̘̗̖̝͇̰͕͔̦̑ ̴͙̰̦̳̓̒̚y̶͎̹̗̫̹̩̻̪͚̟̘̬͐̈́́̈́̃͠͝ȯ̴̢̨͚̞̮͚̭̞̥̘̳̠͓͙̻͚̿͗̓̀͂̒̈̍͘͜ų̶̧̨̤̘̗͇͖͓̖͔̲̙͖͋͒͋̓̑̾̔̆̔͘͠ͅ ̶̮̩̤̣͙͕̩̭̝̙̹̀̓̀̍̐̌̉̀͝k̷̪̙̘͕̒n̷̦̯̟̗̪͔͛͒o̴̤̞̠̝͕̱̹͖̓̈̂͒̈̿̈́̿̕ͅẃ̶̧͓̟͋̿̃͋̔͒̿͒̂̄̓͊̕̕͘͝ ̷̧͈̪̱̳̰̫͈̩̽̊͑͆́͐̓̎͛̓̉͝h̶̢̡̘͔̤̰̙̮̗̰̘͖̮̓́͑̈́͛̉̽͛̈̀̏̕͘i̷̢̻͎͎̭̠͓͔̖̞͙̺̳͚̥̅̋́͐̈̿͛̈́͛͛͆̕̕͝͝ͅm̵̬͈̯̱̩͖̘̹̞͍̩̳̲͖͉͐̔̀̏̅̇͛̍̊̌͋̓̕ͅͅ?̶̦̙͈̟͚͕̱͎̖̘̇̀̊̉̍͑̈́̀̑̅͋̀̒̍́)̵̢̪̼͓͕͔͓͚͊͗͗̔̑̾̃̈̈́̀͂̐́̚͘̚͘

“Ah, I’m- I’m sorry if I’m not welcome,” they apologized sheepishly. “I’m a bit lost and the rain-”

Brad held up a hand to stop them. “N4H, 1 937 17. C0M3 1N, 7H323'5 P13N7Y 0F 200M.”

The two of them headed into the manor, and the person looked very out of place. The manor itself was a very nice place, with various brightly colored rooms and rich carpets throughout the place. Everything was decorated, as were the people. 

“Y0U C4M3 47 7H3 219H7 71M3. W3'23 H4V1N9 4 D1NN32 P427Y 70N19H7, 4ND 7H3 M023 7H3 M322132. 7H47'5 WH47 C2U31 K1N9 41W4Y5 54Y5, 4NYW4Y.”

As they passed through the dining room, a young, finely dressed lady perked up. She looked at Brad and the stranger. “Brad? Who’s this?”

“My name is Newbie,” the stranger introduced themself before they explained, “I got lost in the rain and needed somewhere to stay, that’s all. I’m sorry if I’m intruding.”

(̴͙̟̟̼̓͝ͅḮ̵͙̊s̴̋̊̀͘ͅ ̶̢̮̺̲̼̗̍̍̈̊̋͠t̶̛̤͙͈̓̓̉̀͝h̴͈̏͗̀̔͘̚a̶̡̡̛̬̟͕̘̔͌̈́͝t̴̤̮̰̣͑͌̑̒ ̴̮̣̰̥̃̏̓ñ̸̡̼͍̫͍̿̂̉ā̸̗̱̮̈́͐̌m̴̭̙̪͎̝͆̏̀̐̓̚e̵͎͙͒̂̌̈ ̴̯̓̃͌́̈̌t̴̠̮̦̝̽̒ͅr̸̨̜̤̝̮̱͆͂͐̓̃͆u̶̯̪̪̳̰͗̔l̴̪̾̍ÿ̴͓̥͚͍́̅̓̚ ̵̢̟͕͑̀̊y̴̡̱̍o̷̗̽͑̂͛͠͝u̵͍̦̰̜̅̀͆͜͝͝r̵͓̠͆͐̒̃̍ș̴͐͂̿̐ͅ ̴̨͉̜̥̀̕a̷͔͖̹̎͜ͅṇ̵̞̹̩̃͜y̸̤̎m̸̪̅̾̓̽ò̴̗̹̳̣͚r̴͙̩̘͍̪̤͑̇̀̎͠e̵̢͙͖̘̞̪͗̒̅̿̕̚?̸̦͑̈́)̷͚̻̥͙̾

The lady’s face twisted for a moment. Not long, just a half a second or so before she schooled it back to something calm.. “No, it’s… fine, I guess. He will want to be informed of what’s going on, but the master of the manor would never turn down a guest.” 

She looked to the two curious children who were peaking around a doorway, then sighed. 

“Red, Blue, could you please go tell him that we have an extra guest tonight?”

It was odd the way she said him, like his name was not one to be spoken aloud. It was spoken with something between fear and wonder.

The children nodded and scampered off. Newbie could hear their footsteps vanishing off and up the stairs to… somewhere. They weren’t sure, actually. Somewhere. This manor seemed massive, even just from the dining room. Surely they’d never seen a table this long to begin with. 

Before they could think more on this, Brad was back and pushing a change of clothes into their arms. “7H3 9U357200M 15 4 F1002 UP 4ND 70 7H3 13F7. C0M3 84CK D0WN 4F732 Y0U 5H0W32 4ND CH4N93, 7H3 P427Y 5H0U1D 83 234DY 8Y 7H3N.”

Newbie took the change of clothes, giving a quiet “thank you” before heading up to the room as instructed.

They thought they’d heard the lady muttering something about troublesome guests and children under her breath as they passed up the stairs, but they couldn’t quite make out her words.

The guest room was what they’d expected. It was a nice room with a large canopy bed and some simple drawers off to the side. Meant for someone to stay for longer than a night or two, but Newbie wasn’t planning on staying for too long. Only long enough to figure out what that strange voice wanted from them. 

The bathroom was much the same as the guest room: nice, but clearly meant for someone who planned to stay longer. They started up the shower after a moment of fanangling it. They made quick work of pulling off their muddied clothes. They were unsalvageable from the stains.

They looked up for a brief moment at the shivering form reflected in the mirror. Damp, blonde hair stuck to their forehead no matter how many times they swiped it to the side. There were some small parallel scars up and down their arms, as well as a few knicks and cuts across their body. One particularly prominent scar across their side still stung when they pressed on it, as though it were still fresh and unhealed, not a scar.

What stuck out the most was the scar across their neck.

It went around in a perfect ring, one Newbie could trace around their neck. It went around, sort of like a morbid choker of sorts. 

“When did…”

(̵̗̠̍̊̔̉͊̾͐W̴̅͂̈́͛͛̍̕ͅḧ̶̝͓̲̦͎̣̥̈̓̉͊̿̆ĕ̶̲͍̥̳̓̅n̷̢̡̨̩̞͓͙̤͂ ̴̪͓͇̜͙͑̀̽̿͛̿d̸͎̥̼̠̰͍͌̉̌̓̎͜i̷̪̩̙̫̔̈́̑̈̒͝d̵̗̽̇̍̾̏̆ ̶̡̣̬̥͐́̋͒͠t̶̛̪̗̮̪̾͛̓̉h̴͔̱̝͉̆́̆̆̃͌a̶̩̬̒t̴̨̙͎͈̹͙̓̊́̄̈́̌̿́͜ ̸͍̠̪͕̫͓͉̹̈ḧ̸̡̡̠̮͕̯̺̔͐͑͛̓a̷̬̰͑͐̓̅p̷͔̳̉̀̀̏̓̀͗͑p̷̫̟͎̮̰̞̘͛͒̀e̴͖̗͚̭̺͎͓̬̓̋̽ṉ̸̯̠͖̼̯͖̖̌̿̀̌̈́͝?̵̤͇̋͌͑̄͠ͅ ̷̡̹̖̖̩̫̤́͂Y̶̧͖͈̦̗̮͇̫͂̀ǫ̷͕̱͙͍̤̼̣̎̉̾͆u̷̫͇̪̔̎ ̶̨̧̳̳̙̜̠̹́̍̀̈́h̴̡̼̋̍̈́̚a̸̡̲̖̜̼̾̿͒̅̀d̶͎͓͉͗̆̅͐ ̷͖̩̟͓́̓͗̂͠ḯ̷̧̙̳̱̜͖̯̮͊̕t̶͙̣̭͎̣͐̅̌͑̔͝ͅ ̵͎̖͎͔̳̫̘͗͂ē̷̡̬͈̣̯̬͉͛̃͘͝a̶̡̳͚̝͍̖̅̓͂̽̌̾͜ͅr̴̡̙͍͍̘͘l̸̯͚̬̗̰̱͕̼͊̑̀̋́̈̾͠ǐ̶̛̩̺͍̭͇͖͓̆̑̈́̄̎̕e̷̢̡̿̑͗͠ŗ̸̖̪̹͈̿̄̚͝͝͝,̸̺͠ ̷͉̖͚̙̌̋t̵̻̣̭̦̥̗̻̐̉́̎̒̉͆͘ỏ̷͈͗͂õ̸̱͚.̵̞̥̻͈͙̑̓̈́)̵̢̩̥̽̓̇̈́͠

They shook their head. No, not now. They could worry about that later. First, they needed to shower.

They stepped under the water and sighed, letting the hot water run over their body. It felt fantastic to wash off the sweat and dirt from their trip through the woods. It felt nice, it felt clean, and it was okay as long as they didn’t look down at their body. 

(̶͚͕̍̚W̸̙͇̮̃̍͋̈͛ḁ̶̟̃͂̿͗ś̷͚̽̓̚ ̷̺͉̗̪̾̒ḭ̶̊͌͠ͅṱ̷̢͓͍͓̅̋ ̸̬̙̯̰̗̣̇̊̄̃o̴͔̖̠͙͛̍̂̒͒͂̅͝n̸̘̥͌̽ç̴̄̽͗̐́e̸̺̓̄̍̂̈́͊͌ ̴̞̀̽y̵̧͕͔̳̺̤͠ó̸̠̟̦͉͆̉̇̈́͝ů̴̧̥̻̦̘̙̙̄̔͌͑͌̔̄r̸̥̼̰̤̞̀̈́̌͊͑̿̕s̸͔͙̰̞̕̚͝?̵̡̧̡̦̙̖͚͛)̵͍͗́͆̄̆͋

̵̨̞̩̦̾͗

̵̻̥͔̓͒͐̎̀̽̅(̸̹͎̯̜̬̳͙͆D̴̖̬́͒͒̇̓̀i̸̛̭̫̹̊͌͊͒͊̔͠d̵̘̱̎̀̋ͅ ̴̨͈́̊̀͝i̶̡̳̞̭̠͉͎͊̿̽͛ṫ̶̢̧͓̙̻̎̌ ̶̘͈͂͐͋̈̀̚͠͝ē̵̙̠̮̏͊̚v̷̯̲̭̹̻͓͈͓̊̿̑̐̓̀̂͝e̴̘̐̀̒r̴̛͕̱̬̐̈͗̑̕͜ͅ ̶̦͇̥̣̃̎̓̈͜s̶̟̘̠̒̈́̕ţ̶̮̩͓͇̪̅̿͋͐̊͆̃͜ǫ̸̹͖̪͎͊͂̉̅͒p̸̨̱̣̳̱͋̓̐́ ̵̢̅͊́͊̚͝b̷̫̂̕ë̴̙̩͎́́͂͛̇͑̏̕i̴̡̼͉͓̼̲̣͋̀͌n̷̮̬̻͛̒g̸̮̩̟̯̪̻͒̔̔̊̏ ̴̞̼̉̿y̴̖͖̗̻̲̘̪̎̀̉̔̈̄ͅȏ̷̪̹̺̺̳̮͎̻̎̆ṳ̴͉̘͆͌̂͝r̴̡̀͛̄̔̋͛̀̋ş̸͉̝̱̠̏?̷̡̩̱̥̝̊͂̍̌̋)̴̢̦̲̩͉̓͛

Eventually, they grabbed a towel and turned off the shower.

Not long after that, they were heading down the stairs from earlier, dressed in the formal attire they’d been given. It wasn’t anything too fancy, just a dark red vest over a white dress shirt and black formal pants. Their sneakers had been exchanged for a pair of dress shoes that felt a size or so too big, but who were they to complain?

When they get to the bottom of the stairs, they’re met with the sight of a grand feast. All the food they could imagine: Hamburgers, pies, brownies, all sorts of sweets and goodness served alongside refreshments of Bloxy Cola and Coconut Water. 

Brad, with a can of Witch’s Brew in one hand, perked up with a happy grin. “N3W813! 90774 54Y, Y0U C134N UP N1C31Y.” He patted the seat next to him, the one at the foot of the table. “517, 517, 7H323'5 P13N7Y 70 90 420UND!”

Newbie muttered their thanks as they sat in their seat and settled in. Everything was how they’d imagine a party at this place to be like. Everything was dressed in sparkly glimmer and gold, and everyone was dressed to the nines. Calypso was dressed in a floor-length purple dress, Cruel King was in his usual kingly affair, Brad was in a green dress shirt and pants, and even the kids were dressed up in cute, but matching, outfits in - you guessed it - red and blue. 

Curiously, when Newbie looked up to the head of the table to see if their host was there, the seat directly across from them remained eerily empty.

(̷̧̳͈͚͑Ḫ̵͋̽ȇ̶̖̫͐ ̷̹̭̓͂w̷̺̫͉͑̄̾͂ó̵̫͒͜u̵̡̮͕̔l̸̦̘̈́̌̊́d̸̢̐̽̅̾ņ̴̪͉͋̿'̸͉͚̥̇̃t̴̮̱͚̂͠ ̶̺̦̮̻̿h̸̨̖͂̕ạ̸̖͆̾̒͠v̷̹͔̹̀͆ẻ̶̢͊͌ ̵̬́b̶̺̳̠͈͑̐ë̴̺̞ę̸̞̫̊̀͐͜ņ̸̭͎͠ ̶̢̇̍w̷̮̍̅͒ȩ̴̣̈l̸̤̠̝͒̋͐͠c̶̼͈̮̖͗̉̐̕ǫ̸͙̤͂m̶̠̋̅͝e̶̠̬̼͝,̵̛̻͙͛̈ ̶̡̛a̷̮͚̋̿ń̴̙̔y̵̧̽̃̀́w̴̪̞̎̇a̸͙͔͍͑͝y̸̞͉͛̐̈́.̶̛̩̹͕̀̋͐)̴̛͗͜

They knew better than to ask questions at this point. They reached out and began to dish themself food, as everyone else had already begun to eat. 

It started out… fine, they could have guessed. It was mostly chatter and eating that washed over them in a series of warm waves. Something almost nostalgic clenched at their heart as the warm light from the various candles washed over the room.

Everyone was just… happy. 

It was strange. Not something Newbie was used to, really. Part of them wondered when it would be ruined.

“GRIEFER!”

Ah, there it was.

Newbie’s attention was drawn to the shout, where they looked up to see Calypso’s nice dress stained with a dark splotch, all the way down her chest and into her lap. Their eyes followed the trail of drink across the table, which doused over food and plates alike, to land on Brad… who was face-down on the table, with a can of witch’s brew in his hand that was upside down and the source of the spilled drink.

Calypso scrubbed at the stain with her hands, trying to get it away, but that only seemed to make it worse as she yelled.

“Are you kidding me!? You do this every damn time you’re drunk! Could we have a single dinner party that’s not ruined by your insistence on drinking fucking Witch’s Brew?” 

Griefer, for his part, did not seem the least bit disturbed by the yelling. He was giggling softly to himself as he pushed himself to lean on his hands, elbows braced against the table. 

That didn’t escape Calypso’s tirade, either. “And get your elbows off the table? He’s told you so many times to be proper when you’re at the table, why he doesn’t hold you to the same standard as the rest of us in this spawn-forsaken dollhouse I’ll never know-”

“3H, QU17 Y0U2 8-”

“Finish that sentence I FUCKING DARE YOU-”

A soft sniffling sound flew under the current of the yelling that was happening. Newbie seemed to be the only person who noticed, and looked next to Brad at the forgotten Cruel King.

He seemed much less regal and refined than Newbie had originally thought him to be. His crown tilted dangerously on his head, drooping as though it was going to fall. He wiped at his eyes with his sleeves, and- was he crying?

Yup, he was crying silently, watching Calypso yell at a very drunk Brad who seemed to give no fucks about any of it. Oh, hell.

“Could- could you two maybe-”

“Shut it!”

Cruel King outright recoiled at the sound of Calypso snapping at him, making him sink back into her chair as her mindless rampage continued. 

A carrot hitting Newbie in the cheek is what got their attention next, and made them look over at the children.

The children, who were now up and away from the table, a dish in each hand as they threw food back and forth. Credit where credit was due, they kept it mostly to the far end of the dining hall. That didn’t stop the occasional carrot or drumstick from going flying to the end where the rest of the chaos was happening. 

Not that the others noticed very much. Not even an entire small cup (where the hell did they find extra cups?) hitting Cruel King’s plate did much to sooth the chaos.

It was… weird. The entire thing was weird. Where the hell was the host of this party? Shouldn't he (whoever he was) been there to keep this insanity in check?

With no other option, Newbie quietly slipped from their seat and went over to where the children were still throwing food back and forth. They hardly paid Newbie any mind; Blue was too busy ducking for cover behind a chair, while Red was too busy trying to find a good angle to throw the plate of peas.

“Uh, hey,” their guest spoke up. That got the children’s attention, at least. 

“What?” Red asked. His voice was short, but he didn’t bristle from the glare given by his sister. 

Newbie shifted slightly, glancing back at the argument and chaos still happening behind them, then back at the kids. “Does this… always happen?”

“Oh, Griefer drinking, Calypso screaming, and Cruel King crying?” Blue oh-so-helpfully inquired. 

“Yes, that.”

Red just shrugged. “Yeah, happens every time we have these dinner parties. Anyway, wanna play with us?”

Newbie just shook their head. “Uh, no thank you… where’s the host? Shouldn’t he be… you know…”

“Probably outside, knowing him,” Blue responded in turn. “He’d probably want to see you, he’s just a bit shy.”

Newbie decided that was their cue to leave. “Right, well then, I’ll… be back later to help with cleanup…” 

They would not be back later to help with cleanup. 

They turned and left the house before anyone could ask any questions, heading outside and into the cold dark.

The rain had stopped at some point, leaving them wading through mud.

Outside the manor was a large garden of dead plants and trees. The moonlight barely illuminated the place enough for Newbie to see a few feet ahead of them. Suddenly, they missed the candle light of the hall. At least it was bright enough to see there.

They followed the path towards the center of the dead garden, no matter how much it twisted and turned.

W̵̰̻͓͙̐̏̓̈́ã̶̢͎̘̀s̷̘͂̅͋ ̴̼̤̄͝i̴̮̽̽t̴͇͠ ̷͈̍̿a̴͎̻͈͗͘l̸͖͔͖͈̅̀̾̾ẃ̵̨͔͠a̷̰̓̃͜ͅy̶̘͆̏̏ş̶͓̥͉̾̆̚ ̷̹̃̽̓̍t̸̘͙̑ḫ̵̡̧̛̐̂̓i̷̡͓̲̎͗ś̸̯͇̚ ̶̯̥̈́̂d̶̜͙̟̦̍ě̷̥̯̒͋a̴͈̒͛̈͠d̸̪̙̣̾?̵̡͈͚̙͌

̷̗͔͚̋

̴̜̤̱̯̕͝Ḏ̵̡̙̐͂͒̀o̷̡͇̗̎̇ ̴̝̙̮̾́̿y̵̳̣̝̻͌̇̅̅ò̵̡̮̻̹̇͘u̸͖̩͕̕ ̸́͜e̶͈͂v̷̦̳͙͂͊͒̈ẻ̸̗͖͎ͅn̵̦͝ ̵̠̖͕͆̌w̸̛͜a̴̻̦͑̓͑n̷̤̈́t̷͓̰̺́̾̈̋ ̸̗̩͉͑ẗ̴̜̺̝̝ǒ̶̢̫͙̀̋ ̷̧͈͇̹̊̿̐s̵͎̊̾ě̴̫̣͘e̶͉̭̯̅̀̑͗͜ ̴̥̳̮̀̑̆h̸̬̜͊̀ị̶̲͈̀͒͆͝m̴̰̅̑̈́̕?̶͔̯̮̤͋

In the center of the garden, they found a twisted tree. It leaned almost completely to one side, curling around to have what appeared to be a single swing swaying in the breeze.

Newbie had to squint in the dark to get a better look, but there, they could see someone sitting on the swing and facing away from them. The figure kicked his legs back and forth, humming a soft tune as he did. Something familiar, but just out of reach.

They walked closer, slowly.

“E-excuse me… are you the host?”

The figure came to a stop on the swing. Curiously, he didn’t turn to face Newbie.

“I am,” the figure confirmed. “The kids told me we had a guest tonight. Did you enjoy the party?”

“... not particularly,” Newbie admitted. 

The host laughed at that. A genuine, hearty laugh. “Haha! I’m not surprised! The dolls in there are all a bunch of trouble makers,” he laughed.

“... dolls?”

“Oh, you didn’t think they were real, did you? No, they’re just… dolls in a dollhouse.”

They stepped closer, and they could see his back clearly. Almost. White shirt, blue shorts, brown… curly hair…

“A dollhouse?” Newbie asked softly. 

Ǎ̶͍͇̜̮͖̗͋̎̿͜ ̵̨̨͖̖̦͎͎͔͙̻̊̿̌̍̚d̸̡̬̥̲͉̄͊̆̋̌͝ó̸̩̑̀̎̈́̾͠͝l̶̘̤͙̭̝̜̟̔ļ̵̥̭̱̜͕̖̝̫̳̊͘ḩ̵̨̤͎̼͚̱̳̳̓ơ̸̧̢̖̗̯̙͗͌̆͐͌̏̿͒̐ṳ̶̣͚̲̫̩̊͜s̴̮̲̭̱͓̭̋̆͌é̶̘̳͓͈̦̳͖̟?̷̦̔͋̔̈͝͠͠

“A dollhouse, yes.” 

Shedletsky turned to face Newbie, a too-wide smile on his face. 

That fucking smile.

That fucking smile.

“Are you really shocked? That’s what you thought of me, after all.”

And then Shedletsky’s head tilted, and fell off into the grass.

Chapter Text

Shedletsky’s head hit the ground, and Newbie screamed.

They scrambled back as the rest of the body tilted backwards and fell limply to the ground, though no blood spilled. It was simply dark ooze that flowed out to stain the ground below, creeping towards Newbie’s shoes. 

They took one step back, then another, until their entire body was turning around and they were running down the garden path. 

Everything in them was screaming to run, so they ran. They ran as the world felt like it turned upside down and inside out, they ran as the ground came up to meet their feet and stain the borrowed shoes they wore. 

They ran and they ran, flowers blooming as they left them behind. Grass sprouted under their feet. They did not leave muddy foot prints, but rather, fresh patches of green. 

What could have only been four or five hundred feet at the most felt like miles before they finally got to the porch of the manor. 

(Did it even have a porch?)

The rotten wood (the wood wasn’t rotten before) gave way slightly under them as they tried the handle. It turned easily, but the door was jammed from what felt like years of disuse and rot. 

“Fuck, why is it-” they grumbled under their breath before the sound of laughter from inside cut them off. High-pitched, happy laughter. High-pitched, mocking laughter.

They banged on the door with a closed fist. “Hey! Let me in!” they shouted. A glance over their shoulder and they saw the ooze creeping closer and closer. “This isn’t funny- GUYS-!”

When no response came, they were forced to take a few steps back. 

“Fuck it!”

They charged, shoulder first, and slammed hard into the door.

They fell through the rotten wood and slammed into the ground. The wind was knocked out of them in the process, leaving them flat on their back for a few seconds as they tried to catch their breath.

In, out. In, out. Breathe adminsdammit-

Eventually, they caught their breath. It took what felt like every ounce of effort in their body, but soon they were able to turn onto their stomach and push themself up. They got their legs under them, pushed out their tail a bit for balance-

Wait- tail?

There was no tail. It felt like there should be one.

Newbie shook their head before they continued. They stood easily enough after that and took in the scene around them.

The dining room they’d run out of initially was now abandoned. The table was empty, the candles had burned out. The table cloth was now askew and falling off the table. The chairs had all been overturned, like everyone had left in a hurry.

All of the chairs, of course, except for the head of the table. 

They stared at it for a few seconds. For a moment, they thought they saw him sitting in it, grinning with that stupid-wide grin. But no, it was nothing more than an empty chair. 

They weren’t sure which was worse, actually: to be mocked by his figure, or to be mocked by the lack of it.

Breathe, again.

Stubbornly, they pushed forward.

The rest of the manor was much like the dining room, quiet and abandoned. What had once been a grand manor not half an hour ago was now nothing more than dilapidated ruins of what must have once been. They could hear the laughter from the corners of the place, voices they could have sworn they once recognized.

Their clothes, which had once been nice formal wear, were now covered in mud and rot of their own. When did that happen? When had they stopped noticing their own condition?

W̷͉̙͕͉͇̘͌̽̏͋͠͝h̸̛̠̳͕͂́̋́̃͒͒̿̈́y̸͉͚̭͎̿̊͂͊͐̑̔͠ ̷͙̟͇̳̀͘ċ̵̦̲͔͕̝̱̽̊ȧ̶̳̮̻͖̺̊̓ǹ̶̢̘̖̤̣̠̀̃̀ ̶̛͓̲̯̫̫̹̥̠͚̓̈̓̌̄̑͜ȳ̶̳͓͙͉͙͙̱͚͓͈̊́̾̾̂̈͝͝ō̷̧̮̇̍ű̵̧̧͔̦̗̤̪͚̥̎̒͊̀͂ ̶̲͇̿̎ͅn̴̝̘̟͒̊͂̊̓ỏ̶͚̹̰͕̰̥͔̭͎͐̑̓ͅt̵̰̱̬̯̰͖͖̦̟̔͒̒̓̿́̚͘̚͜ ̴̢̡̼̩͙̫̭̯̬͕̓̾̈́s̸̨̪̜̰̔̄̀͛̈̿̀̈́͜e̷̛͖͉̙͈ę̵̛̛̤͔̭̭̞̘̒̾ ̵͇̲͐̾̍͐̕ͅͅŵ̷̡̢̲̪̯͓̥̖͌̇̈́́̈́̐͘̕͜͠ḧ̵͚̙̺͙͖́ȃ̵͈̼̗̦t̴̨̩͚͆͑̂́̿́ ̶̡̛̭͎͍̝̳̿̌̾͒͊̕I̸͍͖̯͚̙̭͉͑͐̽̌̊̓̓̀̌ ̴͈͂̒̾s̷̬̞̲̞̜̣͗è̸͚͇̟̈̅̉͛͝͝͝ę̷̧̩͓͖̹̀̔?̶̰̫̹̬̹͉̏̐̑

They pushed forward.

“Red and Blue? Cruel king?” They called out into the darkness. They pressed one hand along a hallway wall, to track the hallway as they moved deeper and deeper into the dark of the manor. “Brad? Calypso? Anyone at all?”

In the distance, there was a single light up on one of the walls. They followed it.

The closer they got, the more clear it became in the distance. Soon, the light turned to a flickering flame in the dark, which turned to a small candle on a nearly empty shelf.

They reached up and grabbed the candle stick the candle was sat on. They had to be careful to not brush the flame against the old wood, unless they wanted the entire place (which felt like nothing but wood and fabric) to go up in flame.

And when they pulled the candle off the shelf, something else caught their eye. 

There, in the edges of the light, was what looked like a demon plushie. Horns, tail, yellow sweater, and a decapitated head.

Newbie nearly dropped the candle.

The poor plushie… its head had been sliced clean from its body and left on the shelf like a slightly less macabre corpse. The “blood” (stuffing) had been scattered across the wood.

Newbie sighed and sat the candle back down in favor of gently cradling the doll together. Maybe if they had some thread or something…

They patted down their clothes, found a pocket, and put the head and body of the doll in a secure pants pocket. Maybe they could find a way to fix it later. 

Y̵̡͍͉̔͜o̶̞͊ù̸̧̯͇͚̱̐ ̵̜̍͌s̴̞̑ḥ̸͚̾͌͊̀ͅo̴̫̭̊̂͛̚͝ẘ̷̑̅̀ͅ ̵̫͌̉̈͘͘m̴̥̠̹͙͕̈̏̂ǒ̸̝̬͌͆r̷̛̝̝̿͜ĕ̶̱̹̺̯͛͋̾̌ ̵͖͍̫͉̃̇̂c̴̭̾̄̾̕o̶͉̓m̷̢̠͕̪̣̈̂͝p̷̱͉̈́̓͝a̷̛̓ͅs̶̨͈͖̗͚͑̇ś̷͉͈̅̄͝i̶̮̲̊́͂͝ò̵̭̟ͅṇ̵̢̺̤̅͋͛ ̶̣̾̿̍̀f̷̗͈͗̓͘ỏ̶̡̤r̴̲̬̆ͅ ̴̢̧̩̪͝ȁ̴́̇̾͜ ̴̰̯͍̯̰͛̈́d̷̡̊͆̀ȯ̷͕̫͓̟̗̏̀̄̚l̷̬̓l̷̩̙̟͘ͅ ̷̨͔͒̂̓̏t̴̜̹̣̓͒̎̽h̷̙̻̞̊ā̵̡̬̼͎̔̏n̸̻͈̲̳̓̒̔̀̕ ̴̻̔́̾y̸̢̞̳̙͂̽o̴̟͑ͅȗ̷͉͇̝̞̈́̋͌ ̴̬̾̈̒͘d̵̡͔̓o̷̮͌́̓͑ ̸̧̳͎̐͆̽f̸͕̤̭͑ͅơ̷̤͖͎͈͖̈́͑̓͝r̷͎̍͂̿̕ ̶̛̤̠̠̣̰̊y̶͉͎͈̽̾͊̅͠ȯ̴̦̔̋̀u̵͉̼̿͑̔ͅr̷͈̤̦̝̐̏͗̌s̸̼̳͉͚̰̍͝e̸̛̳͖̯͑ļ̸̧͕͍͇̊f̴̪̩̀̒͋.̸͈̗͎̪̇̀͊̇̎͜

Ignoring that strange voice like they had been the entire time so far, they set off again. They grabbed the candle and carried on, exploring more.

Eventually, they found yet another door; this time, it was unlocked and opened easily.

Step by step they walked into the darkness, using the candle to light the way in front of them. They moved carefully.

“Hello?” Newbie called out into the dark. “Is anyone there? I’m a bit loST-”

Their voice pitched up in panic as the stairs suddenly gave out from under them, and sent them tumbling through the air without warning.

"̸̧̛̻͓͍̋͐W̵̧̛͑͋͛̊̈̽́̊͂̂̒̃͂̌̕͝a̶̛̦̪͆̇̈́͆̓̅̀͆̂͊̒͂̕ķ̵̨̤̘̽͑͆̆̈́̍̒̑͛̐̑̒̃̒͜ȅ̴͈̜̺̺̹̫̳̹̟̬̖͙̱̱̲̾̅͝ͅ ̴̛̛̩̫̥̤̺͛̔̎̎̍́̊́̇͝͠ư̸̧̫͕̩̘̞̥̌́̓͛̄̓̽̆͒͠͝ͅp̸̢̨͖͈͎̹̦͇̹̞̜̗͕͒̃͂̊̍͛̒͑̇̀͝.̶̛̣͎̈́̇́͌̈̂̐̇̽̍̿̓"̸̛̟͈̲̼͉̞̫͔̗̻̝̥͓͓̙̀̂̓̍̏̀̂̔́̓͜͝͝

They weren’t sure if they were still falling, or if they’d simply… stopped. The air around them seemed to continue downwards for ages, the dark scratching at the corners of their mind.

Ÿ̵̫̙͖̞͕̤͇̐ö̴̠̙̙̹̼̘́ŭ̶͓̤̼̰͎̣̩̖͑͊̀̽̃̒ ̴̧̠̜͍͂̿̆̍̆̔͝h̸͈̭̹̱͘a̸̧̭͓̚v̵͚̬̭̪̠̙̝̀̑͝͠e̶̢̨͎̫̗̮͂͗̓̀͂͐͌͜ ̵̣͇͌̊̑͗t̸͓́̾̓̋ō̴̡̖͈͖̯̤̣̼̈́̃̾̚ ̸̘͖̘̊͌w̶̨̢̡̟̦̬͎͑͑̆͐̆̽ͅa̸̢͇̘͎͙͂̅̕̕ķ̶͈̣̖͂̐͛̋̈́̀͗̑è̵̲̈́ ̵̫̍̿͋ŭ̶̱̳̄̚p̵͕̮̼͇͍͍̤͂̕̚.̶̞̯̥̠̤͇̂̀̒́͘̕͠

Slowly, the voice became clearer as their eyes began to open.

"̶N̶e̷w̷b̷i̶e̶.̶ ̴C̷a̷r̵d̷s̵.̷ ̴W̸a̷k̵e̷ ̸u̸p̴.̶"̵

Finally, their eyes snapped open as their back slammed into an unseen ground, knocking the wind from their lungs as they stared upwards. Looking down at them was a strange inphernal with crossed-out eyes. Unlike most of this world’s colorful inhabitants, they were a stark grey and white, with two large horns that came out from either side and curled forward and up. One of these horns was snapped at one point, with the rest of it being of a ghostly quality. 

Ghostwalker stood over Newbie, staring down at them with an unimpressed glare despite the lack of normal eyes. 

“Took you long enough to wake up,” the deity remarked, though it sounded more matter-of-factly than outright rude. “I’d ask if all mortals were this stubborn upon going to the Dream World, but upon further investigation, I believe you to be an outlier-”

“Oh, shut up.”

Newbie pushed themself to sit up, holding their head that threatened to tear itself off. Again. Like that doll with the torn head, it never seemed to be content to stay stitched in place after…

After…

Their eyes narrowed for a moment as they tried to make heads and tails of what they weren’t remembering. Ghostwalker, meanwhile, just stared at them. 

“You have a staring problem.”

“I’ve been told that once or twice,” the deity remarked, then offered a hand for Newbie to take. They accepted and let themself be pulled up to their feet. “Do you know why you are here?”

“I… I followed a voice into the woods.”

“Anything else?”

They considered the question, then, slowly, their hand came up to their pocket. They pulled the plushie from the folds of their fabric, careful to not let it snag or tear. They cradled it in their hands, looking at the headless doll.

They patted their pocket with their other hand. The head was gone.

And the memories slammed back in.

“I took the liberty of looking through your memories. I must say, what you did to Icedagger and Venomshank is… impressive.”

Ah, right. That. They did that.

…

Wait-

They reached out with their free hand and tried to call forth their gear, but nothing came to their hand.

“I’m afraid that won’t work here,” Ghostwalker said with a coolness that unnerved Newbie. He reached out and plucked the headless doll from their grasp, clutching it in one hand tightly. “I admire the audacity, though. Not everyday a mere mortal thinks to threaten one of us, let alone three. I’m afraid your little adventure is ending here, though.”

“I was just-”

The deity held up his hand to silence them. “I have seen enough, puppet. Your soul is split in twain from forces even I do not understand. You will stay here until my siblings and I have decided what to do with you.”

“I- I didn’t want this! Please! I never wanted any of this!” Newbie pleaded, reaching out to Ghostwalker. They weren’t sure why. Maybe they wanted to shake some sense into the deity. Maybe they wanted to hold him there so they could plead their case. Maybe they wanted too try to push him into a card like they’d done to his siblings.

Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter. Ghostwalker stepped away.

For a brief moment, his eyes caught on the space just above Newbie’s wrist, and he sneered.

“I preferred you silent. At least you didn’t lie.”

Something in that moment just… broke them. Newbie’s hand fell limply to their side at the realization that Ghostwalker would have never believed them.

“It doesn’t matter. You’ll stay here. You’ll remain in the Dream World until your fate has been decided. If you’re lucky you’ll end up in Banlands, though I’m sure my sister will want your head… again.”

And with that, Ghostwalker turned and walked away into the darkness, leaving Newbie alone. They sank into despair as the floor gave out from under them once more to swallow them whole.

Ghostwalker dropped the headless doll, allowing it to sink into the darkness with its likeness.

Chapter Text

Newbie wasn’t sure how long they’d sunk down into the darkness. 

The darkness, at least, was warm. Not at all what they’d expected as it coiled and curled around them and smelled like sweetened honey. The ruined clothes they’d been wearing melted away into the void and entwined around them as a familiar-looking blue hoodie and green stockings.

It was what they’d worn that day, when the conference had gone bad. It was what they’d worn when they’d first met the others, all that time ago…

How long had it been since their death? 

They didn’t know.

Eventually, the sweet-smelling void opened up once more and they tumbled through the air, landing with a soft oof on hard concrete.

Ow.

The bright light shined directly in their eyes, forcing them to blink a few times as the world came into focus once more. Falling and landing this hard so many times couldn’t have been good for them, dreamworld or not.

As their eyes focused once more, they blinked a few times to see the blue glass wall not ten feet from their face. They turned over onto their back (despite every muscle and bone in their body protesting) to see the towering building extending upwards into the sky.

Well, wasn’t that familiar? They’d know the HQ they visited half a dozen times on their initial journey from just the front door of it alone.

They reached their hand out to try to call forth their gear to use the healing card again, but alas, no dice- er, cards.

Just as they resigned themself to their fate of getting up and wandering while being in a lot of pain, there was some laughter in the distance.

“Red, slow down!”

“Keep up, then!”

Ah… they knew those voices.

A familiar pair skidded around a corner while Newbie sat up, and the kids didn’t even notice them. 

Gone was the formal attire from the party; the kids now wore their normal clothes, hoodies and shorts that matched one another. They were… robloxian, still. Not inphernal. 

None of them were inphernal here. 

Whatever- it didn’t matter anymore. Newbie stood up while the other two ran and chased and played, completely ignoring them.

“Hey- hey guys- hey-!” They called out, waving like wild trying to get their attention. It didn’t really work, best they got was a glance from Blue who proceeded to turn back and focus on chasing Red.

“Well that was weird.” Newbie looked around again, but there was nobody else out there. The street was completely empty, no cars, no people; not even a rat. “Guess I don’t really have much of a choice.”

With that, they turned and began to follow the kids down the street, keeping pace with them. Even if Newbie wasn’t the tallest, they were still fairly tall and their long legs did a lot of the keep-up work here.

“Guys-! Red! Blue! Come on, slow down!” They called out desperately, trying to get their attention as the two continued to play their game. “Please! Can you just explain what the fuck is-”

And that was when Blue, who was closer, turned around and punched Newbie in the stomach.

Hard.

Newbie doubled over clutching their mid-section as the kids ran off again, laughing like Blue hadn’t just done that.

… alright, so this wasn’t the same Red and Blue Newbie had known during their first adventure. The Blue they knew wouldn’t have just punched someone like that and run off laughing. She would have at least used a sword.

That wasn’t… Red and Blue.

And a switch in Newbie flipped at that point.

This wasn’t Red and Blue. 

Sure, they’d fought the kids before, but in those situations they’d tried to go easy on the kids. It had always seemed wrong to beat up two children, even if they’d pummeled a guy and then sicced their uncle on Newbie themself. But this wasn’t two children- they weren’t real, just figments of Newbie’s imagination that seemed to not give a single flying fuck.

They let out a harsher sigh, almost like they were disappointed in themself for not realizing it sooner. It should have been so fucking obvious.

Well, if “the kids” didn’t want to bother, then he’d see how long this piece of him could stretch out that lack of care.

They reflexively reached out again to summon their cards, but like last time, it didn’t work. Of course it didn’t. Didn’t work earlier and it wouldn’t work now. But this was their dream adminsbannit-

Breathe. Focus.

They tried again. Just one card, any card at all, and flexed their hand.

Something crystalline grew from their hand a moment later and they were able to grab something solid. It was blank. A blank card. For most that would have been bad, but for Newbie…

…

Cards may have been good for something after all.

Cards. Blank cards. The cards that could be used to trap inphernals to later use as gear… and those two may not have been inphernals, but Newbie did remember the Red and Blue call card they’d used so many times while out adventuring…

They could do this.

Slowly but surely, their feet began to hit the ground. The rhythmic pat pat pat kept them company as they began to run down the sidewalk of the Dreamworld, following the laughter that sounded far too fake for it to be real. Happy, fake, careless laughter bounced off the flat walls of the city around them, echoing back to Newbie as they turned corner after corner. Still, though, the children always seemed to be one or two turns ahead of them.

Which was fine. That was fine. This was their dream world, right? Even if they couldn’t control it, they sure as hell knew it had to have a limit somewhere. The Dreamworld last time was a confusing maze, but this one seemed to be made up of a mish-mash of their memories.

So, think, where could the two have gone…

They looked around corners, checked around bends and trees, and then heard the laughter from up above them.

Ah.

They craned their neck to look up and saw two shadows leap across a few buildings, moving more like liquid together than anything solid. At this point Newbie briefly wondered if Ghostwalker had put something in their bloodstream somehow, but eventually chalked it up to normal dream weirdness. If this was only the first trial, shit was probably gonna get weirder.

With nowhere else to go, they went up.

They clenched the card they’d been carrying between their teeth as they grabbed hold of a conveniently placed ladder (which they weren’t going to question) and began to climb up.

On the rooftops, two children continued their ceaseless game. Two hearts as one, two minds melded together.

Or was it ever separated?

Euphoria itself couldn’t have told you. 

Maybe the memories that made up its dolls were once separate things. They were always seen together, and those memories had long since merged into one cohesive concept. 

Red, headstrong and brazen. The child had always given it his all in everything he’d done from what was in the memories. Blue was the more cautious one, always pulling her friend out of trouble, yet unafraid to strike while the iron was hot. 

It had chosen this form in Newbie’s memories. It loved this form in their memories. The children were innocent, happy, and that’s all it wanted to be. 

Happy. It wanted to be happy. It couldn’t stand that Newbie couldn’t just be happy.

It didn’t matter, not anymore. Here, in this dreamworld built by Ghostwalker, Euphoria had room to run and play with its dolls, weaving them back and forth as the game continued. 

“Tag, you’re it!”

“No, you’re it!”

“How did you catch me?”

“You’re just slowwww~!”

Back and forth the dolls ran, and Euphoria watched from inside their minds.

Newbie, meanwhile, thought it was frankly a little weird that the children were just running back and forth in circles on top of a roof. This couldn’t be safe, what if they fell off?

“Hey,” they called out once, but got no reaction from the children.

“Hey!”

Again, no reaction.

They didn’t seem to care as they laughed and chased each other around. It was strange, to be standing there, watching two happy children run around. It was familiar in a distant sort of way.

They reminded them of when they were younger, before the worries set in. Back when them and their sister had all the time in the world to play once they were done with their studies.

Alone in an orphanage, yes, but not without each other. They had books about heroes to read and a warm bed to sleep in on cold nights. 

And they’d chase each other endlessly back and forth, caring for nothing but being happy.

They shook those memories away. Useless memories now.

This wasn’t some fairy tale. Newbie died. And they didn’t want to die again in this dream world before they even had a chance to find out what was going on. 

So, they did the only thing they knew they could do. They began to play with the kids.

Well… “playing” was one way to put it. In reality it was more like running back and forth, edging closer and closer to the edges of the building.

At one point Blue’s foot hit the edge and she stumbled, but Red was right there to grab her arm and pull her back. And the two children just laughed and kept running in circles.

Could they not see how dangerous this was?

…

These weren’t Red and Blue. They were hollow shells of children.

Euphoria had known the entire time what their dolls were like. Crafted of memories of a childhood stolen by loneliness and fear. Memories of a place that they’d once called home and left behind.

This was somewhere the children could run free. This is somewhere the children could be careless.

And Newbie understood that as they ran around and smiled, putting their arms out like wings that would never reach the sky. They’d been denied heaven once in death; what was once more in a dream?

And Newbie knew what they had to do to end this endless, senseless game.

They waited. They ran and they waited until one of the two teetered too close to the edge again. Red’s foot slipped and they took their chance.

As Blue yanked Red back up, Newbie was there, grabbing hold as all three of them tumbled from the roof.

The children screamed. Of course they screamed, how could anything else have happened? But Newbie knew this couldn’t be like this.

They pressed the card into the children in their arms, condensing them and their puppeteer down into nothing more than the callcard they’d once known.

They held the card tight to their chest as they fell down, diving towards concrete. They muttered apologies under their breath, not even sure if the false children in the card could hear them. 

What a beautiful thing it was, to be able to say they were sorry for this as the void swallowed them whole again.