dearsimp

[dearsimp]

"Hi, I'm... Here to see Dr. Carmine." Nellie muttered, looking at the nurse through her curls. The nurse, a kind woman with black hair showed her the way to the office.

Nellie thanked her and walked down the sterile halls of Akso Hospital. Her throat felt like it was on fire and her gaze was hazy. After frying her lungs with the big coat and Linkon's summer heat, it took Nellie three days to convince herself she had to come into the hospital and it was after coughing so hard during a mission and almost shooting her partner instead of the Wanderer, she scheduled the appointment.

Nellie wasn't overly excited to be back into the hospital. After her first appointment, scheduled by the old hunter as her "older sister" and managing to avoid certain cardiologist, Nellie was sure the next time she came into the hospital would be because she was on the brink of death, when she wouldn't be conscious enough to be awkward about the doctors checking her.

Dr. Carmine wasn't so bad, though. A young doctor with bright blue eyes and intense red hair, he was smart and always told terrible jokes, she thought. Nellie almost managed to breathe during the whole thing. She knocked on the door and made her way inside.

Nellie walked out of the office clutching a little bag with medicines and her prescription. She said goodbye to the doctor, who was too busy trying to balance a coin over a ruler. Nellie walked down the hospital, eager to go home and treat her throat to some hot tea, maybe some cookies–

Her shoelaces disagreed, making Nellie step on them and fall face first into the cold tiles. The sound she made when she hit the floor was awfully resembling that of a squeaky toy. Her medicine flew from her hands and she saw stars for a second.

It took her a few seconds to regain composure, as the hit left her with a bloody nose, a busted lip and a very sore cheek. With teary eyes, she reached for her medicine, just to realize someone had already taken it.

She looked up to the hand extended to help her up. She took it and got up, meeting a set of cold hazel eyes and scarred forearms.

Just her luck.

Zayne was used to dealing with clumsy people.

This girl and her messy curls seemed ready to fly straight out of the hospital, but he couldn't just let her walk away with a bloody nose and a busted lip.

He beckoned her into his office, setting her down and gathering her medical supplies. "You ought to be more careful when walking," he said coldly, and began working on her injuries.

Nellie, on the other hand, was trying her hardest not to jump out of the window. She looked at the ceiling like it was the most interesting thing in the room, fidgeted with the stitches of her clothes, her phone case...

This one drew Zayne's attention. It took him a second to recognize the case, but it was unmistakably hers.

"Where'd you get that case?" He asked nonchalantly. Nellie jumped and flinched.

"I-I, uh... I got it from... A friend– Well, my older sister gave it to me," She managed to stammer. Liar.

Liar liar liar

Zayne, not buying it for one second, finished treating her wounds and picked up his own phone. He sent one simple message to his hunter.

Nellie made her way to the door, getting out the same second her phone rang when it received his message.

Unfortunately for her, Zayne heard it.

Nellie trotted up the stairs, avoiding the elevator and hopefully, Xavier.

She got to her place and opened the door. She got inside, and her phone kept buzzing. The little hunter sighed.

"Sorry..." She muttered, setting her phone to not disturb and laying down on the couch. Messages and messages piled up on her screen, but she was far far away from reality.

"Caleb can wait." She mumbled.

"...I had a little mistake earlier, so here's the full chapter."

"...Dear_Simp."

[dearsimp]

Dear's masterlist

•Little hunter series:

••Part 1

••Part 2

••Part 3

••Part 4

••Part 5

[dearsimp]

Sylus knew something was off. When his kitten was a whole week without calling and Mephisto saw her acting suspicious, he knew something was off.

He just wished he had asked sooner.

The imposter looked nothing like the original Hunter. This... "Nellie" lacked the maturity and wildness his sweetie had. The new one had a blob of unruly, really tangled brown curls and nervous brown eyes who had no idea where to look.

She looked like a girl playing pretend.

Sylus snapped the little pencil he was holding, his blood feeling hot and bothered. Who was this girl? Why was she replacing his hunter?

Nellie stopped by the grocery store and took a look at the sticky note placed on her phonecase.

•Eggs

•Milk

•Butter

•Cup noodles

•Cereal

•Mayo

•Cheese

•Little treat <3

Nellie looked around, then back at the post-it. "It's just grocery shopping. You can do it." She braced herself and walked into the empty store, keeping her gaze low as she shopped.

She hadn't had time to take off the hunter's uniform, so she resorted to the big coat and to fry herself in it during that hot summer afternoon. Her hair was picked in a very carefully made messy bun, trying to keep her appearance away from the other hunter's.

She picked up what was on the list, and struggled to pick a little treat. As she walked to the register, she clutched a single red lollipop.

Nellie paid as fast as she could, leaving the cashier a very big tip as she fumbled with the money and left the store clenching the bag.

Her gaze was low and she was trying to breathe, when she suddenly crashed against someone.

"Ah!" Nellie stumbled back, letting her bag fall. She kept her gaze low as she picked it up, and when she looked up to look at the stranger she had crashed with, her heart fell.

Can this day get any worse?

Nellie recognized the man she was seeing by the pictures in the old hunter's fridge. Purple hair and eyes that looked like nerds?

That was definitely Rafayel. Nellie gulped.

"Sorry." Nellie excused herself as fast as she could and kept walking as fast as she could, praying that Rafayel wouldn't be able to tell she was heading to the apartment of his bride.

Nellie threw nervous glances over her shoulder, walking until she could no longer see him through her curls. She got in the apartment and locked the door, trying to make it look like nobody was home.

Her deception didn't last long, as Rafayel knocked on the door asking if anyone was home, and Nellie answered no one was home.

Cringing mentally, she cracked the door open.

"Can I help you?" She asked, feigning innocence. Rafayel frowned and tried to peek behind her.

"Where's the owner of the apartment?" He asked. Nellie felt her heart racing with fear.

"I've always lived here. You can ask anyone and they'll tell you the same."

Nellie closed the door and gave no more explanations. She turned back and sighed heavily, staring at the coffee table in the living room. It had a note she forgot to check the first night.

"Beware Mephisto."

Nellie gulped, the silence heaving in her ears. She looked from over her shoulder and caught a glance of black feathers and shining red eyes from behind the window. She froze in place, not wanting to acknowledge the crow, knowing that would give Sylus room to act.

Nellie pretended to go about her day, doing dishes and softly closing the curtains of every room.

As the day came to an end, the huntress took a heavy sigh. Her phone rang, the screen lighting up with a reminder for tomorrow.

"Doctor's appointment."

"... Took me a while to update again because I'm already back to school and I was figuring out how to make a masterlist. I failed miserably."

"...Dear_Simp."

"...I published the chapter without tags, omg. I corrected it now."

[dearsimp]

Nellie woke up the next morning with the sound of the Hunter's Watch on her wrist. She got up, made the bed neatly and hopped into the bathroom for a quick shower.

She didn't sleep well at all, her mind clouded with thoughts. The old huntress had left a schedule for the next month to give her some idea on how to order the rest of her time. Nellie grabbed one of the bottles on the shower and squeezed it, looking at the shampoo flowing out.

"Huh."

She came out of the shower a few minutes later, huddled in a towel as she searched for the hunter's uniform. Nellie found it and tried putting it on. It didn't fit her as well as it would've fitted the original hunter. Loose in some parts, tight in others, never right. Nellie hugged herself, not daring to look in the mirror.

This wasn't right. She shouldn't be wearing that uniform, she shouldn't exist. The hunter should be wearing this uniform, and walking to work with him. Not her.

Never her.

Nellie bit her lips and put on a big coat over her body. That should do until she could get a uniform that fitted her.

She left the apartment as early as she could, hoping to get to the UNICORNS HQ before anyone else and practice with the weapons for a while so that nobody could tell she actually had no idea what she was doing.

Like the original hunter, her pistols fit in her hands, her eyes locked onto her targets like daggers, and she fired without hesitation. The Wanderer holograms fell one after another, making cracking noises as their bodies disappeared in the air.

Nellie rolled the guns in her fingers, biting her lips. A bit short for her taste.

Xavier didn't know what to think.

Not when he had gone to see the love of his life and had found a girl that assured him she had always lived there, and somehow he knew she was lying.

The familiar sound of gunshots filled his ears, and almost on a reflex he ran towards the sound, expecting to find his huntress, his queen, his love.

However, he was bitterly disappointed when he was greeted by a tangle of curly hair and two sad brown eyes.

Nellie lowered her gaze, looking aside. The guns suddenly felt heavy in her hands, and the feeling from the morning came back.

"Well?" Xavier asked, raising a brow. Nellie bit her lips. "I don't know who owned the apartment before me." She mumbled, shrugging.

She really needed to lie better if she hoped to fool someone like Xavier.

"Sorry." Nellie excused herself and walked past Xavier, walking quickly. The little huntress tried not to look desperate, even when her heart was beating so fast it hurt and her eyes were going hazy. As soon as she was sure she was out of sight, she let out a heavy sigh and fell to her knees, trying to calm herself desperately.

If only she had seen the mechanical crow that was perched on the nearby streetlight.

"...The chapter published itself before I finished it and I hadn't noticed omfg..."

"... Dear_Simp"

[dearsimp]

"Thanks." Nellie tipped the driver and got down from the car. She stood in front of the apartment building, looking for her keys.

She entered the building and went up the stairs to her floor. Her head was banging from the tears she never got to shed and the weight of her new life. As she arrived at her house, she saw a blond man approaching her out of the corner of her eye.

Damn.

Nervous, she toyed with the keys, trying to get inside the apartment before any questions could be asked. She almost made it, but his hand grabbed the door before she could close it.

"Where's the owner of this apartment?" He asked. Nellie recognized him by her snap photos. Xavier. "I've always lived here." Nellie answered on a reflex. That was right. She was the owner. She lived there.

At least she did now.

Xavier didn't seem to like the answer, narrowing his eyes. Nellie made her best attempt to play dumb. "I'm sorry... I don't know who you're looking for."

Liar.

Nellie closed the door as soon as Xavier took his fingers off of it. She locked it almost on instinct, hearing the shuffle outside when he tried using his set of keys to open the lock.

Lock she had changed a week before her demise.

Nellie took a look around the apartment, trying to see if she'd recognize it from her memories. She technically should, but she didn't.

It felt illegal to peek into the rooms, to pick up the scattered plushies, to roam around the house searching for anything her predecessor would've left behind for her.

She eventually found it, a shoe box under the bed filled to the brim with notes and documents. Nellie put it on top of the bed, and tore away the sticky note taped on top.

"Lock the doors and windows, close the blinds, dim the lights."

Nellie did as the note said, sitting next to the lamp as she dug through the box, eventually finding a letter addressed to her. Carefully, she tore the envelope open.

"Little Hunter:

I'm sorry to leave you with so much to deal with and so little time to process. I've kept it as simple as I could to save you time.

First of all, your new life. You're a Deepspace Hunter in Linkon. You're part of UNICORNS (check the box under the fridge), and hunt Wanderers. All of your primary weapons are at the UNICORN HC, but I keep a spare set of guns in the second drawer of the bathroom. Check my notes and reports of missions to familiarize yourself with the weapons and practice on the bounty hunts.

Second of all, the boys. They're all going to remember me, so no matter what they do, don't reveal what happened to me. They're all going to notice, but the ones you should be most on the lookout for are Sylus (box behind the dresser) and Caleb (box under the bathroom drawer), as they're the most prone to action. You'll see Xavier (box under the guest bedroom's bed) almost daily, as he was my partner in many missions, though I made sure to switch you to work with Tara, and I worked as Rafayel's (box under the kitchen sink) bodyguard. Zayne (box under the oven) was my primary care physician, but I put you under the care of a different doctor, as your heart doesn't have Protocore fragments.

Three, your free time. Your number remains the same as mine, so expect calls and messages from them asking to play Kitty Cards or Claw Machine, but it's imperative you assure them you don't know who they're looking for.

Check out the Photobooth and Meow Cafe if you have the chance. You'll have a nice time!

I've made sure to change all the documents to be yours, and left you some money to pay rent and buy groceries while you settle down in this mess. I hope it's not too hard to fill the space I've left, and that you manage to enjoy your life as much as I enjoy mine.

Love, me."

Nellie let out a heavy sigh as she looked around the room, placing the box under the bed and rummaging through the closet. "I hope her clothes fit me..." She muttered, pulling out a big hoodie and a pair of old pants.

She put them on and snuggled next to the plushies, making mental notes to start her new life tomorrow.

And not die trying.

"... I like to think that the MC, at least mine, can plan like this and not tell anyone, or don't let the boys find out. I originally didn't plan to include Caleb, but his trailer just got out and I just couldn't leave him out of this."

"... Nellie is an OC who I love a lot, but I don't believe she'd be the MC of the game, why? I just don't think she is. The MC of the game is definitely different from Nellie, and I like to think of her as a mentor figure to Nellie, like Peter Parker and Miles Morales."

"...I really don't know how much OOC I'm going with the boys, but it's a story that's meant to explore what would happen if the MC wasn't around and whoever was there to fill her place didn't want to be there either. Yes, I like angst. Yes, I like chaos."

"...Dear_Simp."

[dearsimp]

"You're coming back, right? You– you always come back."

She let out a bloody sigh, a hand over the deep gash on her abdomen, Metaflux spilling out of the wound. Her hands were slowly fading into butterflies, blue and golden like the sky and the setting sun.

"Not this time, honey. This was... My final life."

Nellie panicked, looking at her. Her brown eyes filled with tears, not of pain at her departure, but of panic of the future.

"What?! What are they gonna do without you?! They've been waiting for years! They– they love you with all their hearts..."

Sbe looked at Nellie, taking the younger hand in hers. "Listen to me, Nellie. It's scary, I know, and I can't start to realize how scary it is for you. They'll notice the difference," The oldest explained, as one of her eyes turned into a iridescent butterfly that flew out of her now inexistent eye socket.

"But you have to take care of them. Even if... Even if they never... Even if you never take my place. It's okay," She assured, smiling weakly. "I've left everything arranged for you."

"Hell is going to break loose if you're not there. You're... The main character," Nellie whispered. "And I'm so sorry to pass the baton to you like this, Nellie. But you must keep this world safe from them, and them safe from this world." A bloodied cough interrupted her, and she closed her remaining eye.

"I... I really don't have any more time. One can only be reincarnated so many times after doing what I've done. There's so much I failed to teach you, honey... You'll learn as you go."

Nellie squeezed the remaining hand. "I... You, I..." She smiled tenderly. "I know. No one else will remember me. It'll be like I was wiped from the world." Her remaining eye set into Nellie's, and she squeezed harder.

She smiled at Nellie, and closed her eye. Butterflies blinded Nellie, and she closed her eyes as the gentle flaps took away her tears. When she reopened her eyes, she was gone. As she promised, not a single remain of her existence left behind.

"No matter what, never tell them what happened to me. They'll try to find me again. If they do, they'll destroy everything. You have to promise me that." Nellie looked at the setting sun behind them, and nodded. "Okay. I promise."

Nothing but her memories in Nellie's mind and theirs.

"...this is just a silly story of mine about a thought I had, but wasn't brave enough to ask about. What if the MC dies and just doesn't reincarnate? The boys remember her, but there's someone to fill the space she left, but isn't her. This girl who was left to fill the space has to handle being the main character to a story that isn't hers, with love interests that don't love her, and still keep what happened to the original MC in secret to keep the balance?

This story likely won't have a happy ending, as it's meant to be an angsty one. English isn't my first language."

"...Dear_Simp"

[dearsimp]

@turtle-babe83 @the-lin-gay @dilucsflame33 @severebirdpeace @bay-did-nothing-wrong @yns-world @joelstoes @mar-iiposa @moxfirefly @just-shower-thoughts

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you! get to know your mutuals and followers (ू•‧̫•ू⑅)♡

OOOH I LOVE THIS! TYSM ANON :3 okay so ! 1. my friends 2. my bed 3. listening to music 4. tumblr 5. drawing

taggin time !!! if you feel like it ofc ofc @1mb0r3dd @what-ho-christopher-put-in @humanoidchaos @jesslaketism @holy-shit-its-kris-deltarune @blunt-force-therapy @trucks-fuck-in-purgatory @dead-immortal @luv-vivi @hedgefrog44

[dearsimp]

Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod-

•Mortal Kombat

•The Nintendo lore

•Being w/ family and friends!

•Kirby

•God

how do I... tag people?

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you! get to know your mutuals and followers (ू•‧̫•ू⑅)♡

OOOH I LOVE THIS! TYSM ANON :3 okay so ! 1. my friends 2. my bed 3. listening to music 4. tumblr 5. drawing

taggin time !!! if you feel like it ofc ofc @1mb0r3dd @what-ho-christopher-put-in @humanoidchaos @jesslaketism @holy-shit-its-kris-deltarune @blunt-force-therapy @trucks-fuck-in-purgatory @dead-immortal @luv-vivi @hedgefrog44