#It's there

[bakersgrief]

BTW don't ever let yourself get an ugly tan. I still have my farmer's tan from May of last year. I mean if you wanna look yeehae forever it's fine but-

[woubleyou]

Oh I did NOT realize that original W's potato skin was live2d, the animation is so nice, and she has dialogue of just talking to Ines and Hoederer instead of it being dialogue directed at the player character Who She Hates

[midnight-mourning]

DCA Promptober Day 25: Balloons

Not a super painful one this time! Wahoo! Still spooky though, I feel anyway

Word count: 1034

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It's dark in the arcade. All the machines are shut off. Save for one, that is. 

It mocks you with its bright glowing screen, taunting you and your attempts to shut everything down for the night.

Beckoning you towards it with its cheery music and gameplay noises.

You let out a groan of frustration as you trudge towards the machine. This was the fourth night this week this had happened. 

You fix the machines, you turn off the machines. This one likes to stay on, you turn it off again, you go home and question your decision to become an arcade mechanic at Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizza Plex, rinse and repeat. 

Usually, this was a once every other week occurrence, the machine staying on part, that is. But for something reason, it had become a problem recently and this week said problem had come to a head. 

You come to a stop and glare down at the screen.

Balloon World. 

You'd never played, you didn't tend to play on any of the machines you worked on. Didn't have the time or the desire really. You cared for them, don't be mistaken. You made sure to treat each and every game that was in the arcade with upmost care. Always making sure to keep them clean, functioning, and well, yeah mainly those two things. 

You sigh, watching the little character fly across the scene in a game play clip, "This again, bud? Can't I have one night of peace?"

No answer, of course. 

You check the time, 11:15 PM. You clock out in fifteen minutes. 

Screw it.

"Fine. One round couldn't hurt."

You press the buttons to skip the 'insert coin' screen and start the game. 

Your little character begins to fly across the screen, objects coming up to obstruct your path. Okay, it's one of those dodging games, pretty normal. 

After a few minutes, you lose. You didn't expect to get very far anyway. Shrugging, you turn away from the screen only to hear the game restart music playing. Confused, you turn around and see that the game's started again. Weird, you didn't press anything to start another round. 

But, you see an opportunity to redeem yourself, so you take it. You get back to playing, zoning in this time now that you understand the mechanics. 

While you play, you take note of the game's imagery. It doesn't really make much sense to you. It's called balloon world, but it's a forest setting. The only balloons are the ones keeping the player character afloat, really. Sure there's the circus tent and such in the beginning, but the choice of environmental objects is odd.

The sun in the background looks familiar somehow. Kind of like the bot that runs the Daycare? You're not too sure. 

Shoot. Another loss. This time you decide you're done. You clock out in five minutes anyway. 

Turning, you're yet again surprised to hear the game booting up once more. You whip back around, and see that this time, the character's not moving forward/progressing like last time. It's stock still. Waiting.

You're much more hesitant this time. Something's going on, and you can't figure out what. Was someone pranking you? Could anyone even hack into these machines? They had to be ancient, they're parts were ancient anyway. 

Your hand hovers over the controls, you're about to grab the joystick when-

The sun is staring at you. 

Not just out into the screen. It's looking. Directly. At. You.

And it's still smiling.

You gasp. Scrambling backwards as the machine suddenly starts to spark and shake. The screen goes dark. 

In a panic, you trip backwards and land hard, your head hitting the hard concrete underneath the cheap carpet. You black out. 

There's a dull throbbing headache all across your skull when you come to, vison fuzzy. You sit up slightly, finding yourself in a mostly dark room save for a... soft, orange glow?

Groaning, you grip your head in one hand and check the time with the other. 11:57 PM. Shit. You'll be lucky to make it before the doors lock, and have to go beg the nightguard to let you out. 

Your eyes become aware of a quiet buzzing, surrounding the air all around you. And, warmth. You feel incredibly warm. Not in a bad way. Sort of like, a cozy blanket. You suddenly have an urge to find where the glow is coming from. You look up. 

Staring down at you is, something, that resembles the sun. It's face is darkened but it's backlit by bright light. Like, an eclipse. 

Your gaze travels down, to where, two sets, of arms lie, folded neatly in the creature's lap. It's sitting on it's knees in front of you. You have no idea for how long. 

The outfit it's wearing is definitely reminiscent of the Daycare Attendant's, you're certain of it. Your eyes move back up again. 

You blink, eyes wide in confusion and fear. 

"Hi?" The word slips out unintentionally. 

It seems surprised at this, eyes widening with its otherwise blank stare. Then, it smiles. A genuine, warm, smile.

The voice that comes out of it's open mouth is incomprehensible to you at first. Nothing but static and glitchy noises. It closes its mouth, brings a hand up and coughs, then tries again.

Much smoother, and deeper this time, "Hi."

You gulp. You don't know what to say, you open your mouth and your head starts to hurt.

"Are you hurt?" It asks, concern evident. 

You nod, "A little, yeah-Woah!"

You're picked up by the creature. It's a very weird sensation. Its entire body is buzzing, but that warmth surround you further and it's, sort of comforting? But this entire thing just feels, off, to you. You're uneasy, to say the least. 

After situating you in its arms, pretty much being cradled so it's still able to look down at your face, one hand goes up to the side of your head, gently petting. It actually kind of feels nice against the pain. 

"Don't worry. Everything's going to be okay."

Based on every other feeling that's welling up inside you, screaming at you to get away, you're not too sure of that.

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Another treat from the drafts for you all:

Here's the link to my other promptobers, thank you for reading!!

[moonlight-alphafemale]

The FTM vibes are strong with this one... 🙏❤

[chicago-geniza]

Thought I was imagining it at first but no the set of JEAN BRODIE is deliberately constructed to be, if not identical to, then a distorted mirror image of the school set from Mädchen in Uniform. Whoever did the props and sets for this film deserves an intertextual (intervisual?) commendation

[lost-in-fandoms]

oh

[mobpsychomakes]

[heartbepure]

i am having childe soulmate au thoughts

[chloemp3]

i wish i had taken music classes in high school because i can fiddle alright on a guitar and i can quite literally Feel the music sitting right at the surface but i don't know how to get it out

[nappingmoon]

i’m so glad you like the moodboard!!! my heart is swelling 🥹🥹

GEORGINAAAA LIKE IS FAR TOO CALM A TERM I LOOOOOOOOOVE IT

it is amazing it is the sweetest thing ever it is gorgeous if you type in the term lovely in the dictionary it actually comes up as an example

you are in love is now officially my song w him thank you for that

[weaponizedmoth]

The worst part of reading My Immortal every year since 2017 is that Ebony Dark'Ness Dementia Raven Way dresses just like me.

[radioactive-earthshine]

MAWS is teasing Reign of the Supermen and Kon so hard I'll be shocked if this season doesn't end with them teasing him.

[practicecourts]

Thanks for the tag @charmsandtealeaves & @eastwindmlk go to pinterest, type «___ aesthetic» with your city/country, eye color, favorite color and name. put in image that comes up and tag friends! (you do not have to say city/country and name for privacy obviously, or use online name)

Tagging with absolutely zero pressure

@abihastastybeans @velvethopewrites @oneofthesirens @kay-elle-cee @uncertainwallflower & @missgryffin (bc I know you all like pretty things;-)

[dinkle-adventure]

Need more people to play Warframe with

[daycarers]

For anyone who'd wanna follow it, we've also got a personal talk blog @nightmarecluster

- Lux

[dnalt-d2]

OH MY FUCKING GOD GOOD NEWS

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MONTHS, ACTUAL HONEST-TO-GOD GOOD NEWS

THE AMOUNT OF SEROTONIN IN MY BRAIN RIGHT NOW WOULD BLOW YOUR FUCKING MINDS

*EDIT BUT I JUST DREW A WHOLE-ASS PICTURE BECAUSE I WAS SO HAPPY

(but i dont mean like a picture of an ass just to let you know its my character from a DND campaign i'm in)