#Wallpaper mag

[newestcool]

Sora Choi for Wallpaper China October 2023 Photographer Leslie Zhang Art Director Jeon Minkyu Fashion Editor/Stylist Jeff Lee Makeup Artist Yeonu Jeong Hair Stylist Hyunwoo Lee Casting Director Vince Lou Prop Stylist Jeon Minkyu  Newest Cool

[the-rosebush-mag]

Behind "The Bloody Wallpaper":

Designing Fallen London’s 100th Exceptional Story

by Chandler Groover

In “The Bloody Wallpaper” the player is conscripted to work in a luxury hotel for a single evening. But menial labor isn’t famous for being fun, and “The Bloody Wallpaper” is premium DLC for an online game: it needs to be fun, doesn’t it? In this article, Chandler Groover discusses the design of gameplay meant to evoke the frustration of menial labor without being frustrating.

Read the full article on The Rosebush.

The Rosebush | Submissions | Mastodon

[eve-be-sleep-deprived]

Hey, I made some desktop wallpapers with some of my favorite gals... No clue if anyone wants em, but feel free to use!

Again, feel free to use!

[saltygilmores]

I used the internet Wayback Machine to see how thewb.com (the WB/CW being the home of Gilmore Girls) looked on a random date in 2002. I want to dissect every tiny of aspect this beauty piece by piece. "This is a 3.5MB file, so it may take a while to download. (Estimated download time-2 to 21 minutes") "IM to a friend" "Print out 21 seperate pieces of paper and tape them together to make a poster" The thirsty comments from this guy from Omaha There's so much more to discover here...I will have to post more soon.

[galaxygermdraws]

note to self: if i am ever drawing a phone background and need to copy paste, i need to NOT copy paste the entire layer and end up having it duplicated and not realizing it til 10 minutes later and have to reline everything.

[gildedmagnolias]

I’m just trying to make a repeating pattern with a process that doesn’t suck satan’s ass crack and not pay a stupid subscription fee, is that too much to ask?

[ordenyprogreso]

[mothmags]

rebloging this onto my new account!

"You hid it from all of us? Why? What were you afraid of? That you were going to have to tear me apart to get to your precious Samadhi Fire!?"

[genesisguidline]

relistening tma

tried to make wallpapers out of MAG 142

[lizardperson]

the hills have eyebots

[on ao3]

fandom: fallout new vegas characters: mags the courier, arcade gannon, ed-e rating: g wc: 542 prompt: #fff274 empty house for @flashfictionfridayofficial

---

Mags squinted, their eyes slowly adjusting to the dark. Apparently, they had just found the one room in the house with intact curtains, and cautiously pulled them open. The chances to uncover something useful here were slim, but a bit more light could only help with their little scavenging operation, and it's not like there was anything better to do. They had decided to stay here for the night, and there was about an hour of daylight left, so why not dig through the dilapidated rooms. Most of the old pre-war houses had been picked clean by prospectors long ago, but sometimes you got lucky and found a lonely shack off the beaten track. Even better, of course, were the old vaults, because these usually had to be broken into. And if there was one thing Mags loved, it was figuring out how to get into a place that had been sealed for two hundred years. Those were like puzzles - hacking into the old systems, lockpicking some doors, avoiding the traps. You just had to be patient and persistent, they all could be cracked eventually. Bedroom, probably for children, judging by the scraps of wallpaper. It was pretty faded by now, but back then it must have been rather vibrant - red, with what looked like rockets and planets on it. Mags would have loved the design as a kid, too. A quick look through the closet didn't have much to offer besides a few torn clothes and a lot of dust, and Mags was about to shut it again when something caught their eye. In the farthest corner, under an old pillow and what might have been a winter coat once, stood a metal box. Not very big, pretty banged up, too - and it was locked. Mags gently and carefully shook it. There was definitely something sliding around inside. Probably just random scrap, but now their curiosity was piqued. Who knows, maybe the kids kept their greatest treasures hidden in this little box. Mags put the box down on a bed and fished out a screwdriver and a lockpick from one of their many overall pockets. Of course, they could have forced the box open somehow, it didn't look particularly sturdy - but where was the fun in that. Locks were made to be picked, not to be broken. A few careful tool wiggles later, they heard the familiar click. "Found anything good?" Arcade stuck his head into the room. Mags chuckled and tossed him something that he barely caught, then he raised an amused eyebrow when he recognized the round metal object. After turning the toy around in his hands, he pushed a button, and it started beeping. Almost immediately, the same beep sounded from the other end of the house, and ED-E emerged. "You're getting replaced by a smaller version," Arcade announced dryly, earning a distressed beeping from the eyebot, and an offended look from Mags. "I am joking of course, we all know ED-E is irreplaceable." Despite the blatant sarcasm, this seemed to appease his companions, and he tossed the little eyebot toy back to Mags, who proceeded to store it in their bag. Of course they would keep it. You could never have enough eyebots in your life, obviously.

[newestcool]

Cici Xiang Yejing for Wallpaper China March 2019 ''cici'' Photographer Zeng Wu Fashion Editor/Stylist Liu Xiao Newest Cool

[tuamor13]

THE LUCKY ONE - F.O

Chapter One | A Little Advice

Fandom: The Hunger Games

Pairing: Finnick Odair x Fem!Reader

Chapter Summary: You finally meet your charming, famous mentor. He’s a lot more irritating than you expected.

Chapter warnings: Mentions of death kinda, slight mentions of forced prostitution

THE LUCKY ONE MASTERLIST

Finnick looked at the girl before him. You looked to be about his age, which meant this would’ve been your last year being able to be reaped. You were facing opposite him, but he studied what he could of you.

You seemed a bit frail in a way. Like you wouldn’t last 10 minutes in the games.

You turned to around, first looking at Mags, and then at him. He locked eyes with yours, and he studied your features now that he could see your face better.

You looked almost innocent. And he wondered if you would prove him wrong with what he assumed about you. He realized he was just staring so he gave you a small smile. You looked away quickly after that and his smile faded.

Beau called out the male tributes name, Callum Rivers, and a strong, bulky looking boy walked on stage. Finnick recognized him. He was one of the toughest fighters at the school district 4.

The two of you shook hands, and Finnick saw the big difference in height, weight, and such. You looked like you didn’t stand a chance. The peacekeepers guided you two into the Justice Building, and he locked eyes with you once more. A smirk formed on his face.

Because Finnick knew better than to judge a book by its cover.

***

“Promise me, you’ll make it back.” Your mother begged.

“Mom, you know I can’t-“

“Promise me, Y/N. You’ve trained for this, you can make it. I know you can.” She cupped your face in her hands, her thumb wiping away a single tear that fell down your cheek.

“Okay.” You whispered. The peacekeepers barged through the doors, taking your mother by her arms and out of the room. She called you name, and you called to her before the doors closed shut. When they did, a sob finally escaped your lips. You put a hand to your mouth and calmed yourself.

You were escorted out to the car, and then finally made it to the train. Beau guided you and Callum into one of the carts, and your eyes widen when you see how nice it looks.

The velvety chairs and patterned wallpaper, not to mention the tables full of different types of desserts and treats, weren’t like anything you had seen before.

“Have a seat, I’m sure you’re starving. Your mentor should be here in about-.” Beau was cut off with the train door sliding open, in walking none other than Finnick Odair. For the “capitol darling”, he looked so normal. Especially compared to Beau.

“Well, here he is now. I’ll leave you three to it.” Beau said with that same smile, exiting the train cart.

“Hello. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you two. I’m Finnick Odair, your mentor.” He stretched his hand out, and you just looked at it, not doing anything. After a moment, Callum took his hand and shook it.

“Callum Rivers. Pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Odair.” Callum said with a smile.

“Likewise. And please, call me Finnick.” Finnick returned the smile, before looking over at you.

“Finnick Odair.” He said again. He stretched his hand out to you, and you looked at it again.

“I know who you are.” You said with a small nod. Of course you knew who he was. You still didn’t shake his hand, and after a moment he just put it down, a quiet chuckle escaping his lips.

“Everyone, knows who you are.” Callum added, trying to make it sound nicer. That big smile still on his face. You resist the urge to roll your eyes.

“Well, happy to be working with some admirers of mine.” Finnick’s smirk widened as he looked at you. You scoffed lightly at his words. You definitely weren’t his admirer. Especially since the fact that he’s killed people, become the capitol’s little pet, and seems to have taken so much pride in it.

“Oh, I’m not an admirer. Sorry if that’s hard for you to hear. Don’t wanna bruise your ego.” You teased. A small chuckle escaped his lips.

“Honey, your words do nothing to me. There are thousands of other people completely enamored with me.” He stepped closer to you.

“You or your body?” He tilted his head at your brave words, the smirk on his face widening. But, he’d have to admit, he was impressed. Before he could respond, Callum interrupted.

“So, uh, where’s the other lady?” Callum awkwardly asked, referring to Mags. You just now remembered her, barely realizing she wasn’t here.

“Mags is resting and, I’ll remind you she isn’t really able to mentor as much. It’ll just be me most of the time.” He explained. You’d almost forgotten Mags was mute. He was right. She probably wouldn’t been of much help, but only because she physically couldn’t even if she wanted to.

“So, let’s eat shall we? We can get started on some things you need to know in the arena.” Finnick gestured to the dinner table behind you two. You nodded, turning and getting the seat right in front of you.

They both sat on either sides of you, and you looked at all the food in front of you. It was the most you’ve seen. You were usually used to just eating fish or just anything you could catch in the ocean. Your eyes widen a bit and you feel your mouth water but you keep your composure and serve yourself as Finnick begins talking.

“Number one thing, get water. You can go without food for a few days but water is a necessity.” He poured himself coffee in his cup before continuing.

“Pretty sure that’s common sense.” You said.

“You’d be surprised.” Finnick responded with a small smile, taking a sip of his coffee.

“Okay, so besides the obvious, what do we do to not die in there?” Callum asked, leaning forward in his chair. Finnick took one more sip of wine before putting it down.

“Sponsors.” He said with a smile. “You get people to like you. That way when your in the arena, sponsors send you things to help you survive.” He explained.

“And how exactly are we supposed to do that?” Callum asked, taking a bite of his food.

“Charm them, give them a good show, and just try to be likable overall.”

“So, just act like you?” You asked Finnick, a small sarcastic smile on your face. He leaned forward in his chair, a smirk on his face.

“Exactly.” He said, sitting back again and taking another sip of coffee. “So, you might wanna lose that attitude, honey. It’s not gonna get you anywhere.” You scoff lightly at his words, rolling your eyes. He was starting to get on your nerves.

“Yeah, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.” You say sarcastically. You wipe your mouth with your napkin before throwing it on the table and standing up, beginning to make your way out of the train cart.

“Didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, sweetheart. We’re not done here.” Finnick called out to you.

“I am.” You said, before leaving the train cart, the door sliding closed behind you.

Finnick watched as you left the train cart, a small laugh of disbelief and amusement escaping his lips. He was also a bit intrigued at your behavior towards him. And a small smile formed on his lips. He looked back over at Callum, who was still looking at the train cart door, a look of shock on his face.

“Well, I guess she’ll be missing out on all the fun. Let’s continue, shall we?” Finnick took a sip of his coffee. Callum nodded at his words, clearing his throat and sitting up in his chair.

Finnick gave one more look at the train cart door, before looking back over at Callum and continuing.

***

You felt like you had 3 layers less of skin from all the scrubbing and waxing. When it was finally over, you were taken to see your stylist, Elise. She looked like any other capitol stylist, pink hair, big lashes, pale makeup. But, she was nice. That’s all that really mattered to you.

The dress very uncomfortable. It was a sea blue color, the skirt mimicking waves with it’s layers. The corset was tight, making it hard to breath. Not to mention the uncomfortable amount of cleavage it showed and the seashells covering your breast.

Your makeup and hair were covered in sparkles, pearls, and seashells. Callum basically wore the male version of your outfit, but he was shirtless, a fishnet hanging around his neck covering at least a little bit of his chest.

Elise fixes the pearls around your neck and some pieces of hair.

“Smile big, and stand up straight.” She said. You simply nodded, stepping onto the chariot, Callum opposite you. A fanfare began to play and the chariots began making their way down the path. You held on tight to the chariot when it began moving, scared you might fall off.

The crowds cheered loudly, roses being thrown left and right at you. You looked into the crowds, their brightly colored wigs making them hard not to miss. You remembered what Finnick said. And, if getting people to like you was the key to surviving, then so be it.

You put on the best smile you could, looking at the crowds and trying to look as charming as possible. You looked over at Callum who was doing the same thing, but turned your attention away from him back to the crowds until you approached the front.

Your eyes landed on President Snow as he looked down at everyone. He had a smile on his face, and you wondered how such an evil man could even try to look nice.

“Tributes, we welcome you. We salute your courage and your sacrifice. And we wish you, a happy Hunger Games.”

His gaze went to you for the slightest moment.

“And may the odds be ever in your favor.”

………………………………………………………………………….

A/N: I’m so proud of myself for getting this out on time everyone give me a round of applause for that please. Like, this has never happened before. Anyways, first chapter out WOO HOO this is kind of a slow burn but there will be some tension I PROMISE. Thank you SO MUCH for reading and I’ll hopefully see you for the next chapter I love you.

- Cami🤍

[jessaerys]

(kind of a long-ish excerpt -- i've been twisting myself into pretzels about posting fic for the first time in years and driving myself crazy about it, so i figured it'd do me good to do a teeny tiny soft launch to demystify the whole thing. as a treat thoughts appreciated :') title may change, we'll see.) texas sharpshooter fallacy flirt mello/near | T (excerpt) | 700ish words | canon compliant.

near knocks.

his idea of inconspicuous is a sharp black coat and matching slacks and aviators now high up and glossy on his head. he knocks, and stands there in the fluorescent headache hallway where he can hear mello’s neighbors two doors over fucking to industrial EDM, their bed and their heads shrieking. as if the shock of white hair and vermeer eyes and his pretty babydoll mouth wouldn’t turn heads from harlem to chinatown. he has to laugh.

the 6th floor hallway is carpeted in cigarette butts and shards of glass and piss and misery, rock-bottom regret, apathy of the take-a-walk-out-of-the-roof variety. the wallpaper is an eyesore from the 70s and the ceilings are crazy cracked. taking the lift is a game of russian roulette. more than one person has died in this floor alone. he knows because it was his finger on the trigger, and fuck, he hasn't bothered to scrub out the stains. the grifters, the killers, the whores: everyone here —everyone— has been forsaken by god.

and near is alone.

for a brief, ridiculous moment mello is fourteen again, filled with a gleeful kind of malice, hoping the crackheads across the hall walk out and see near in all of his freakish man-in-black, little gray alien glory. catnip for psychosis, and right on the money to boot. if mello squints just so, it looks as if near is trapped inside the fishbowl marble universe of his peephole.

“in military strategy,” near says, his voice a tuning silver fork that makes the hair on the back of mello’s head stand on end. it is deeper. more elegant. mello had noticed, earlier, when they’d been strangers in the same room with nothing in common but the race for kira’s head and five years worth of resentment. “to refuse diplomatic entrance to one’s territory would be considered a declaration of war.”

“we already accepted jesus into our hearts.”

inside his grimy spaceship, the corner of near’s mouth quirks for a flash of a kodak moment and then it is gone. glitch in the matrix. mello’s wolfteeth grin knocks painfully into the aluminum.

“and didn’t the lord say offer hospitality to one another without grumbling?”

1 peter 4:9. the verse just before reads: above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

"nothing a couple dozen hail marys won't fix."

above them something shatters against the floor. a woman screams. a weight falls heavy on the floor and then there is silence. the ceiling snows dirty dust all over near’s shoulders like so much winter wonderland. the lights flicker and flicker.

neither of them say anything. mello watches. he can’t see you, he tells himself, feeling like the world's best and brightest buffoon. he's not fucking godtouched.

but near raises a hand to his rosy cherubim face, makes a circle with his thumb and index finger to squint through with one big ophanim eye.

watches the watcher.

“i will wait for sixty seconds.”

mello finds his gun. sticks it in the back of his pants. runs his hands through his hair. pulls his gun out, checks the mag. pops it in place. hesitates. checks it again. he was right the first time. it is empty. thirty eight, thirty seven.

L used to say, it’s a boundary, mello. explicit verbal communication of where the limits are. respecting it preserves the peace. you can choose to ignore it, but you should first know why. and you should be ready for the inevitable outcome.

but what this really is is this: near coming to him alone under cover of night, so naïve he might as well be wearing a neon sign that says mug me or kidnap me or worse! i'm a stupid little boy!; as far he can be from the safety of his prince’s tower all to give little old mello the pleasure a fucking ultimatum.

his blood simmers. his ears ring. his sympathetic nervous system betrays him only ever around near, and near's little sycophant butlers could be just out of sight. he could be here with a swat team and a warrant for his arrest. he could be here to let mello know he has once again taken from him the only thing that's ever made any damn sense in his life.

he tries to breathe through it. tries to weight his options. he tries to be more like L.

he fails.

four, three, two—

near turns to leave.

mello opens the door.

.

.

.

[whillywisp]

These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends—

Summary: Dreams never held any meaning for you. Not really. Even the nightmares of the arena never held any weight in your mind except being a production of extreme PTSD. Until now.

Or alternatively,

Reader pretty much predicts Finnick's death in all it's painful, gruesome glory over the course of a couple of months through nightmares. And almost loses their sanity in the process. Almost.

Warnings: gore, nightmares, ptsd, self destructive tendencies, near death experiences, non explicit talks of prostitution and domestic violence, non explicit smut, unreliable narrator, psychological horror.

Pairings: Finnick Odair x Reader.

'These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, Which as they kiss, consume.'

— Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene VI.

────────────

Chapter One: Warning Signs. Butterflies.

Word count: 3.1K

Warning: slightly graphic gore, death, panic attacks.

'It's funny. How warning signs can feel like they're butterflies.' —Graveyard, Halsey.

𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀𓇬⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒

It started slowly.

You never gave much thought to dreams or nightmares or premonitions or any of those things. God was a concept long forgotten in Panem, religion an anomaly, and if this country feared the supernatural, something as vile as the Games wouldn't exist to begin with.

But it started slowly. And it did the night you were barely holding yourself together as it is. At first, you tried to chalk it up to the announcement of the Third Quarter Quell, Snow's words still echoing through your mind. Your neck was soaked with Finnick's tears, who had spent the better part of the last hour begging you to not volunteer if you weren't chosen and you refusing to make impossible promises, knowing you'd jump in to sacrifice yourself if Mags or Annie's name was drawn.

If it were possible, you'd jump in to take his place before the escort, Faire, had even finished announcing his name out loud. But it wasn't. So the second best scenario you could think of was going into the Arena with him. At least that way you could protect him.

It wasn't his fault really, you'd have done the same, begged and grovelled in front of him to stay with you here, in the safety of your home, if there were any other male victors in District 4 who could take Finnick's place too. But there weren't. He had been sentenced to death the second this new, sickening twist for this year's Quarter Quell had been signed and approved and there was absolutely nothing you could do.

So you lay in the quiet of Finnick's bedroom, his silk pillowcase soaked from your tears and Finnick's wet hair from when you had gently coaxed him into the shower and washed his hair while he blankly stared at the wall, his eyes red and his knees drawn to his chest, looking smaller than his existence could ever be. Sleep escaped your clutches even as you desperately chased it, and the only thing echoing in the room was Finnick's rhythmic and even breathing against your chest, the waves from the beach behind the Victor's Village and the swirling of the ceiling fan overhead.

You don't remember dozing off at first, or the way your fingers stilled against the top of his shoulder from where they drew delicate, invisible patterns into his skin. But you do at some point, because suddenly you're in a place even darker than Finnick's bedroom or the reality of your current situation.

You're standing in the middle of a long hallway, like the ones in a mansion owned by someone who had only seen wealth all their life, the walls old and the moss growing taking over most of the old faded wallpaper, signs of grandeur clear in the way the golden details in the ceilings still glitter in some places. Recognition is a slow poison that seeps through your consciousness as you realise where you are. Because you know this hallway, you know this mansion. Because you had spent the better part of a month here once, when you had been reaped for the Hunger Games for the first time three years ago.

But you know this is not a regular nightmare about the Games, not something triggered from the announcement of the Quell.

The air is as suffocating as you remember, the smell of dust and blood and waterlogged walls making your heart thud painfully in your chest, like a warning sign and your grip tightens around the coiled metal whip in your hand. But something's wrong. This is not a regular nightmare about the Games.

No. This is something worse.

And you can tell, by the way Finnick's standing in front of you, his own eyes wide as he takes in the darkness that stretches as the hallway fades away in front of you both, blanketed by the fog, his knuckles white around the trident in his hand.

Because he's not supposed to be here.

Finnick mentored you during your Games, he never stepped foot into the same Arena as you. Not in the real world and not even in any your dreams.

So why was he here?

Before you could ask him this question, a sound that still turns your blood to ice in your veins reaches you both. You turn to him in panic and open your mouth to tell him to run, to hide, to do something but he's already rushing towards you, grabbing your hand and pulling you with him down the winding hallways of the crumbling mansion.

Something is wrong.

Because this wasn't how it had happened. There had been no one trying to protect you in the end of the seventieth Hunger Games, but rather you were trying to run away from your district partner, Markus, who had been chasing you with a bloody axe at this point. You had been running from him, the blood from your head wound where he had bludgeoned you seeping into your hair and your vision blurring with every step you took. Mutts hadn't been chasing you, you had thrown a knife down the hallway you knew they were in to get their attention, to get them to kill Markus. Because you both had been the last ones standing and Markus was hunting you.

But that's not what's happening right now.

Even in your dream, Finnick's hand feels the same as it always does: callused from all those years of fishing and training, his skin warm and his hand making your whole fist disappear in it's hold. But right now it's clammy with sweat. Or is it blood? You can't tell. Not with the way your lungs are burning from the exertion, not with the way your eyes keep losing their focus on his golden strands, not with the way his grip on your hands keep slipping and sliding from whatever makes it hard to hold.

Something is wrong.

As you near the familiar door with the old brass door knob, that had saved your life in the Games, the one you had sat behind and listened to Markus' screams over Caesar Flickerman's voice crowning you victor, you trip and land face first on the the dirty marble floor of the hallway. Finnick yelps as you almost take him down with you but his grip around your hand never falters. His green eyes are desperate as looks down at you, his hands at your waist, urging you to get up.

"Please! Please get up! They are coming please!" His voice is frantic, and you want to reassure him, find a way to get him to the door, the door that'll save you both. But your vision blurs again and the wave of dizziness that washes over you makes you whimper.

At the sound of your whimper, you feel Finnick's arms wrap tightly around you as he hoists you into his arms, holding you against his chest and bolts towards the door again, his trident abandoned where you tripped and bile rises in your throat as you watch the mutts step over it as they run towards you both, growling and snarling at the smell of fresh human blood. They are faceless and slimy, grey decomposed skin hanging off their bony limbs and the sight of them makes every cell in your body vibrate in fear. Even Finnick's arms wrapped tightly around you couldn't shake off the terror these mutts induce in you.

You know you're both nearing the door, getting closer to your one chance at survival and you let some relief seep into your heart as turn to watch him unwrap an arm from around you and twist the brass doorknob, yanking the old wooden door open hard enough that it forgets to screech and pushes you into the dust storage room. You rise on your knees, ready to pull him into your arms when he would join you on the floor, closing the mutts out behind him when he's suddenly gone from your sight, snatched away.

Something is wrong.

Your chest heaves as a guttural scream echoes from the darkness of the hallway and you whimper as you crawl as fast as you could out of the door, towards the mutts, crowded around something. No. Someone.

Finnick.

The cry that escapes you is as animalistic as the growls of the mutts and you don't hesitate to grab at them, to try and pull them away from him with your bare hands but they don't seem interested in you, too engaged in devouring him. His screams feel like acid on your ears, burning everything that makes you. Even through the chaos of blood and flesh that seeps into your jumpsuit, your eyes meet his, his green eyes wide with terror.

And then they are gone.

"NO! NO! NO! PLEASE STOP PLEASE!"

It's your screams that wake you up. Your screams and warm arms tightening around you.

"It's okay! You're okay, darling! Please!" His voice is just a touch below shouting as he tries to be heard over your frantic screaming. This wasn't the first time you had woken him up, crying from a nightmare stemming from the Games. He knew, in these instances, he needed to hold your limbs down because of your tendency to hurt yourself in your haze of fear and panic.

But he had never seen you like this, screaming yourself hoarse in terror.

Your eyes snap open and the screaming stops, replaced by ragged breathing and uncontrolled sobs that sound like growls, the growls of those mutts, which make you just sob harder. You slump against his chest and you cry like your heart will break, his arms tighten around you, clutching you against him and rocking you gently, as if to mimic the tides of the ocean and the rocking of his fishing boat on the days you joined him.

It takes a while for you to calm down, your eyes frantic as they take in your surroundings. His bedroom is now bathed in the golden warmth from the lamp on the nightstand, the fan still swirls above you both, circulating cool air. And your heart still thumps in your chest as you try to will away the final images of the dream. But you can't. They still linger behind your eyelids, just like his screams still echo inside your head.

You straighten up suddenly, putting a pause to his gentle mumbles of sweet nothings and let your hands flutter on his skin like butterflies, as if afraid of hurting him. Tracing his face, touching his neck, checking for scratches, blood, the image in your mind so gruesome and cruel that you can't help the sobs that still fall from your lips as he gently cradles your face, halting your frantic movements. His green eyes shine with concern as they peer at your own, taking in your frantic state.

"Hey, hey. It's okay. I'm right here. I'm okay. It's okay." His voice is low, as if he's speaking to a frightened animal and you can't help but feel like one, your sobs turning into slow hiccups as all the fear and fight bleeds out of you. He gently tugs you into his arms again as you take in ragged breaths, willing yourself to calm down.

"What's wrong?" His voice is a breathless whisper, as if he's afraid of your answer. You still against him, and your body sags, trembling in it's desparate attempt to calm down.

"I-I had a dream." The words feel like ash in your mouth. Your entire body aches from the lingering adrenaline and panic of the nightmare, as if you're still stuck there, in the winding hallways of the mansion that was the Arena, watching Finnick get ripped to shreds.

His eyes, still red rimmed from all the tears that had lulled him to sleep earlier, are concerned as he looks down at you, gently pushing back the stray strand of hair that was curling near your cheek.

"It didn't look like a normal dream. You were screaming. You never scream when you have nightmares." He speaks softly, still rocking you gently. You close your eyes, feeling the weight of the images in your head against your shoulders again like a separate entity, haunting you.

"It wasn't. You—" The words get stuck in your throat, as if burning the delicate tissues there on their way out. As if afraid of making it worse for him than it already is. He peers at you, curiosity and concern making his green eyes seem wider.

You take a deep breath, and blink as you take in your surroundings again, unable to meet his gentle gaze. When you finally speak, your voice is barely a whisper, as if afraid of what kind of damage they'd do.

"I saw you die. And it was...it was bad."

His eyes immediately soften as you turn away from him, a broken sob escaping your lips as he sighs, pressing a gentle kiss into the back of your neck. You're grateful when he makes no indication of asking what the dream was actually about as his hand travels underneath your sleep shirt, his shirt, to caress the delicate, scarred skin of your abdomen, as if to comfort you when all you feel is wrong, wrong, wrong. For dreaming something as vile as what you did and your chest aches at the gentleness his heart is still capable of after everything the world put it through.

"I know the...announcement of the Quell..." you both wince at the word, as if there's a curse on the word itself and in a way, there really is. "...has been hard to take in but I promise you, I will do everything in my power to come back to you. You just need you to trust me."

You exhale slowly, playing with his fingers as you continue to avoid his gaze. You could feel his heart beat in tandem with yours, so different from the frantic rhythm it had when you had gently tucked him into your neck earlier that night, to pull him away from the clutches of the panic attack bruising his lungs and mind in an attempt to break out of him, drown him. You shift and turn around to face him again, gently running a hand through his hair.

"You won't need any elaborate plans if I'm in the Arena with you. We can...we can figure it out. We won't need to be so-so scared and worried-"

He breathes in sharply, his eyes hardening a little and you feel your heart clench in your chest, knowing exactly what's to follow. "Can you please, for the sake of everything I love and care for, not talk about being in the same Arena as me? Please, I'd appreciate it a lot."

You sigh, pushing your face into his neck, his own sigh of disappointment at himself for losing his temper ruffling your hair like a warm breeze. He always had to remind himself how fragile you are, to not lose himself in the moment like he did with the strangers who traced the same paths on his skin that you did. You were different. You didn't deserve the rage he had saved only for those who had hurt him or you. He pressed a kiss to your forehead and shook his head, feeling the telltale sting of tears in his throat intensify.

"Please, you can't-you can't be in there with me. Please-"

Your voice is frantic as you whisper, "You know I can't just sit here and let you go in there on your own. I can't. I-I will die of anxiety if not anything-"

"But you're not doing nothing by staying here. You're giving me every single reason to return home to you. Why don't you understand that?" His frustration fades, making way for desparation as he sighs again, leaning his forehead against yours. "I refuse to go into that Arena all over again just to die. I promise you, your nightmare is just that, a nightmare. And I need you to trust me on this, I will never leave you."

He ends his speech by tugging your face out from it's hiding spot in his neck and pressing his lips to yours, gently tracing your jaw with his thumb as his green eyes search yours in hopes of finding the trust he always does. "I love you. So much. So just trust me please."

Your lips purse at his words, your heart finally slowing as the reassurances of his words finally settle into your body like a blanket. He'd never broken any he's made promises to you, not really, but you also know that this is not a promise he's capable of controlling. You sigh, and nod.

"I love you more and I do trust you. I trust you with everything that makes me. But you have to understand I can't help the panic or fear I feel."

He nods, his nose brushing yours. "I know and i don't blame you for it. I feel the same. But just trust me. And stay here, if you don't get reaped. I am begging you. Please."

You don't reply to his pleas, choosing meld your body back into his as you hide your face into his neck again and his answering sigh of exhaustion a clear sign that he's tired of this argument. Not even one day into this new reality where you are both more than likely to die in a few months and it's already creating a wedge between you both. And you hate it. But you know you can't make promises like that, not when you know you'll break them. And you know he can't either, not when he'd jump in front of you and take a dagger to the heart without any hesitation.

That's the curse of devotion, after all. Death by another and death for your lover, it becomes hard to distinguish between the two.

You push those thoughts away, disturbed by their mere existence and cursing your brain for tormenting you as you kiss the skin of his neck, your voice a mere whisper in the quiet of the bedroom, the only other sound being the waves in the distance, echoing as they crash into the shore.

"We still have months to think about these things. To plan a strategy for either scenarios. So let's just sleep for now. Please?" You feel him nod against your head and tighten his arms around you.

You can't sleep again, not that night, your mind a whirlwind of the images from your nightmare and no amount of safety his arms provide seemed to protect you from your own grief.

In a way, you're glad they don't. You'd need more than just a safety net, after all, for what is to come.

────────────

A/N: ngl, this took a chunk out of my soul to write. Tell me what you think? All my love, Moon.

Masterlist

[huffle-dork]

Swap Beyond the Crystalverse Chapter 2: Stitched Revisited

Co-written with @crystalninjaphoenix Read Swapboys | Read Crystal’s AUs

Other Multiverse Stories: SITCV | SATCV | GITHV

Alt feels that same jolt as he passes through darkness as he did last time. The blackness is very short. When it clears up, he's standing in a kitchen/dining room combination. There's an old floral wallpaper on the upper half of the walls, the bottom half being wood paneling. A window in the dining room shows a street of townhouses outside. No doubt he is in another townhouse. The whole place seems vaguely old-fashioned, in a sort of cozy way. 

"Alt?" The voice, crackling with static, comes from his pocket. No, wait. It comes from his phone in his pocket.

Alt can’t help but stiffen a bit as he hears static come from his phone. Couldn’t the red Anti talk through phones? He shakily reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone.

The screen is on, and... Anti is there. Not the red one, the one with the green scarf. He stands in front of the home screen, on top of the task bar at the bottom. It's like one of those programs where you get a little companion to walk around on your computer screen. But with a phone instead. Anti raises his hand and makes a motion like he's knocking on the glass of the screen. "Okay good you can hear me. Seems it's easy enough for me to manipulate your phone speaker." 

Alt relaxes as he sees its the other Anti and he smiles. “oh h-hey! Dude that was… I-insane back there! Is that why you’re in my phone?” He laughs, “you look like a shimeji-“

"A what? Oh, one of those browser pets? I mean... I guess I could be?" Anti idly taps the edge of one of Alt's apps, making it wiggle. "Well. Yeah. That was insane. And the most insane part of it... is that the fucker managed to drain a lot of my energy. I... don't think I can be physical right now. So... shimeji it is."

“Jesus…” Alt sighs, keeping his phone open in his palm. “He’s as bad as Mag… I-i don’t get why he can’t drain my power but I-I guess that’s a blessing for now…” He looks outside the window, “And at least this is another world we’ve been to… but I don’t know who’s house this is…”

"Probably something about you being either a Glitch or from another world," Anti says. "Maybe both. As for whose house we're in..." He turns around on the screen, and Alt's camera function opens up, showing the view to Anti. "Hm... looks like a JJ-style place. But I think he has a shop in this world, so it can't be him." 

“…you know you controlling my screen like this is like- prime horror game fodder,” Alt comments with a light laugh. 

Footsteps come from the hallway. "Ah, well, maybe you can go ask, then," Anti says, hearing them.

Alt then freezes a bit at the sound of footsteps- ah fuck…! He hates intruding like this- it always freaks people out. “U-Um… hello?” Might as well bite the bullet-

A man pokes his head into the dining room doorway. He's wearing a red hoodie, and has brown hair long enough to pull back into a small manbun. There's some sort of amulet around his neck, clearly magic but cracked, non-functional. His eyes widen. "What the fuck?! Who are you?!"

Alt glitches back and holds up his hands, which means he ends up holding up his phone too. “Uh hi! I-I’m Alt? I… I’m looking for uh- S-Schneep?” The red hoodie has him thinking this is a Jackie… but… 

oh- 

His eyes widen, breath hitching. 

"Alt? I don't know an--" The man stops, his eyes also widening. "W...wait a minute. You're the third one--I mean, you're one of those visitors, f-from the other world. And Schneep--he was with you, he--oh." 

Alt’s stomach drops- that confirms it. He glitches back even more, trying not to panic. “Y-you were him- you… w-we were-“ 

A moment passes. Then the man notices the movement on Alt's phone screen. He laughs a little. "What the hell? D'you have a little guy on your phone?" 

Anti waves.

Alt blinks and holds back up the phone. “o-oh yeah uh- that’s Anti- a good one! I mean- he… he needs to rest in here.”

"Anti?" The man goes a bit pale, but shakes it off. "Well, uh... hi, Anti. I'm... Jackie. Good to... meet you." Jackie looks at Alt. "And, uh... nice to... meet you too?" He's not sure how to address this. After all, they've already met each other, in a way. 

“Y-Yeah good to… o-officially meet you, Jackie…” Alt says quietly.

"Um. You were looking for Schneep? I can text him or something. Tell him you're here."

“Uh d-does texting work for Schneep? Cuz uh… eyes…?”

"He has a screen reader app. But, uh, yeah. Probably better to call him." Jackie takes his phone out of his pocket. "Um... do you want to sit down in the living room? Or, uh, I could get you something to eat? Since we're in the kitchen?"

“I-I’m okay on food, t-thank you though…” Alt says. Then he laughs a bit, “Huh I… I appeared in a kitchen the first time I was here too…”

Jackie laughs. "Yeah, Jack told me. That's weird, isn't it? Guess something about you just screams 'kitchen' to the universe." 

Alt laughs a little more, “Y-Yeah I guess so…” 

Jackie starts to dial a number on his phone--then stops. "Oh, I should probably tell Marvin that you're here. He's upstairs right now. Oh yeah, this is our house, by the way." 

"Ahhh, that makes sense," Anti says from Alt's phone.

Alt stiffens a bit but nods, “Oh yeah uh- whatever you need to do. But uh… it’s a nice place-“

"Right. Yeah. Thanks." Jackie smiles a bit, trying to be reassuring. "This whole neighborhood was refurbished recently. Jameson pointed it out to us. Nice place. I'll, uh... be right back. Make yourself at home." He disappears from the doorway. 

Alt tries to smile back- and lets its drop as soon as he’s gone. 

After a moment, Anti speaks up. "Not exactly comfortable with him, are you?"

Alt cringes a bit as Anti calls him out and he glares at the screen. “Look, it's… complicated. Last time I was here we… I-I got fused together with him and Marvin and… I-it wasn’t a great experience…” He closes his eyes and lets out a shuddery breath, “I… I still have nightmares about it… but that’s… not necessarily exclusive to here…” he mumbles quietly, leaning against the wall.

"I remember. You told me about that." Anti's voice softens a bit. "If it helps, it was just as bad for them, too. And they were stuck as Stitches even after you left. They'd understand."

Alt stays quiet for a beat, fiddling with his mask idly. “Yeah I know… t-they had it worst… it’s just… hard. I’m sure I’ll get over it…” he sighs.

"Well. Don't force yourself. They definitely feel just as awkward around you." Anti sits down on the taskbar. 

Footsteps soon echo outside the hallway, and Jackie returns--with Marvin in tow this time. He's wearing a long-sleeve blue shirt and has an identical broken amulet around his neck... a neck which has a long scar across it. "Holy shit, it's actually you," he says, eyes wide. "What're you doing back here?" 

"He's looking for Schneep, I told you that," Jackie says, nudging him slightly.

Alt can’t help but flinch as Marvin comes in but tries to give him a smile. “Y-Yeah uh.. S-Schneep was helping us find something we need so we can fix our traveling device.”

"Yeah, he mentioned something like that." Marvin nods. "Well... guess we'll call him." 

"Y-yeah, I can do that." Jackie is already dialing. 

Marvin shifts awkwardly. He was a bit slow to catch up on Alt's flinch, but he's there now, and he's starting to feel the same thing Jackie is. "S-so uh... This is our house. Welcome. Uh... Schneep and Jack have apartments, and Chase rents a house, and of course JJ has his shop and the flat above that. We, um... all... yeah. So... if anyone else came with you, they'll probably be at those places."

“Thanks- Oh yeah uh… my brother is here, Bro uh… so m-maybe I can call to see where he is.” Alt says timidly. He then blinks and looks down at his phone, “…can I still use my phone like normal if you’re in there?” He asks Anti.

"Should work," Anti says, shrugging. 

"Gah!" Marvin jumps in surprise. Jackie reaches over and puts a calming hand on his shoulder. "Sorry. I just--I know Jackie said there was a--the voice--sorry." 

"...Didn't mean to scare you," Anti says in a slightly softer voice.

Alt jumps with Marvin jumps and then looks apologetic. “oh right uh.. sorry-“ He then pulls up his speed dial and goes to call Chase.

Meanwhile, Jackie pulls his phone away from his ear and frowns. He dials again. 

----------- 

Bro appears in a living room. No, wait. This is a shop of some kind that just happens to look a lot like a living room from the early twentieth century. What gives it away is the counter with a cash register. That, and the price tags on the various knickknacks scattered on the tables. It looks pleasant, pastel blue in color and well-lit with yellow lamps. A front window lets in some sunlight. 

Bro blinks and looks around the space, whistling a bit. “oh- this is a nice place!”

A door behind the counter opens, and a man walks out carrying a box. He's wearing a snapback cap and a purple bandanna around his neck. He starts walking, then stops when he sees Bro. His eyes widen. "Whoa! Hey!" He puts the box down on the counter and points at Bro, making a perfect pog face. "You're that other me!"

When Chase comes in and pogs- Bro copies him then bursts into laughter. “Hello again! How’s it going?”

"It's going great, Bro! It's so good to see you again!" Chase smiles. "Oh, hang on." He goes back to the doorway and shouts, "Jack! JJ! The other me is here again!" 

There's the sound of feet on stairs, and Jack and JJ appear from the doorway. "Hey!" Jack smiles. "You're here!" 

Henrik said you might be here some time! JJ's eyes crinkle in a smile--the actual smile being hidden by the mask he always wears.

Bro brightens as he sees the others. He gives them a two fingered salute and a cheeky grin. “Yo! Good to see you guys!”

"Yeah! Feels like it's been a while." Jack laughs. "I mean--like JJ said, Schneep told us you might be here some time. It's been about... two weeks since he showed up again after that disappearance of his?" 

“Oh wow- it’s been two months for us!” Bro laughs, “Time differences between dimensions are always so weird!”

You're here to see if Henrik found that thing, right? JJ says. And I'm guessing your brother came with you?

“yup! sure Alt is around here somewhere… and Schneep! We’re excited to see him again!”

"Nice!" Chase grins. "So, if you guys appear near people who are like you or your friends, then he's either by Schneep right now, or he's at Jackie and Marvin's house." 

JJ winces slightly. If it's the latter... that will probably be... well, awkward. 

“Oh… yeah-“ Bro says with an awkward smile, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh. Right." Jack nods. "Well... I'm sure they'll figure it out." He takes out his phone. "Hang on, I'll text Schneep, ask if Alt is with him." 

“That’d be great, Jack, thanks!” Then, the hero blinks slowly, “…wait, Schneep can read texts…?” He frowns, making a confused face. “…he can do lots of stuff but I didn’t know he could do that…”

Jack laughs. "He has a screen reader app. If he gets a text there's a voice that reads out the notification. 'Message from: Jack', stuff like that." 

“Ooh! Like Siri!” Bro laughs. 

"Are you guys gonna stay for longer this time?" Chase asks. "Schneep will be so excited to see you again--metaphorically, of course." 

“I dunno how long we’ll stay but,.. maybe longer this time? Uh- we kinda got chased down in the last world though so I dunno…” Bro says. 

JJ sighs. Looks like we'll have to put inventory on hold, no matter what.

Bro blinks and waves his hand, “oh! This is your shop then?? And I interrupted sorry!!”

JJ's eyes crinkle some more. Yes, this is my shop! he says proudly. I built it up myself. Well, my grandfather left me the building, but the business is all mine. 

"We came here years ago to ask for help with Anti, and that's how we met Jays," Chase says. "Man... meeting you was one of the few good things to come out of that." 

Oh, thank you. JJ blushes a little behind his mask. Don't worry about it, other Chase. We were just moving some things from my storage in my flat down here for sale.

“Oh okay- as long as it’s not a big deal-“ Bro says, smiling. “man- it’s so nice to see you all… happy! You guys were… not in the best place last time we were here. But look at you all now!” He grins wide.

"Yeah, it's great to be back." Jack smiles. "Things were crazy there for a while. We had to process what Anti was, and then Schneep disappeared for a while, we stayed with Chase's ex, then we finally got rid of Anti only for some magicians to show up and start asking us about him! But it's all over now." 

"You should meet Marvin and Jackie, Bro," Chase says. "I think you'd like them. Probably get along really well with Jackie, haha." 

“Oh damn yeah that’s a lot!” Bro laughs, “But I’d love to meet them! Typically Jackies and me just click heh-“

JJ leans over to Jack. Has Schneep replied yet? 

"Nope." Jack shakes his head. "He must be busy; he usually replies fast."

Bro blinks at Jack then tilts his head, “Huh… wonder what he’s busy with… you guys know where he is? Maybe we can just pop by! Or maybe the uh- other Anti we brought is with him already.”

Jack blinks. "You brought another Anti?" 

Of course, it must be that one who helped you out when you were stuck in that place between worlds, right? JJ asks. 

“Yes! Schneep apparently met him a while ago too!” Bro says brightly. 

"Schneep is probably at his apartment," Chase says. "I can drive us over there--I got a rental car lately, using my license again." He smiles proudly.

Bro smiles at Chase and laughs. “Sure thing bro, that’d be great!”

"Alright, let's go, then!" Chase claps his hands together. "We should all fit in there."

As the group walks outside onto the street, Bro's phone starts to ring.Bro starts to follow then pauses and pulls out his phone. “Oh one sec! Maybe this is Alt.” He perks up when he sees it is. “Hey bro! Where did you end up?”

 "Tell Alt we say hi," Chase says. 

Bro laughs, “The others say hi-“ 

“Hey- I’m with Marvin and Jackie in their apartment and Anti is with me. The other one apparently drained him so he’s hanging out in my phone.” Alt’s voice answers. 

Bro stops in his tracks again, “…Anti’s with you? …huh- then… is no one actually near Schneep then?” 

“Huh? You’re not with him?” 

“No I ran into everyone else though - Jack, other me and JJ.“ 

No one is with Henrik? JJ repeats, a feeling of dread pooling in his stomach. 

Back on Alt's end of the phone call, Jackie slowly lowers his own phone. "Uh... Schneep's not picking up. He usually picks up." 

Marvin frowns. "He's probably just busy." 

But static crackles from Alt's phone speakers as Anti frowns.

“Yeah uh-” Alt listens to Jackie and feels a bit of anxiety in his stomach as he hears the static from his phone. “Have you guys heard anything from Schneep yet?” 

“No… Jack said he tried to text him. Thought it was weird he didn’t answer right away… we’re driving over to his apartment.” Bro says.

Jack checks his phone again. "Yeah, no, he still hasn't replied." He frowns. 

Marvin leans to the side. "Did I hear your Chase say they were going over to Schneep's apartment? That's probably a good idea. We can head over there, too." 

Jackie tries calling Schneep again, but shakes his head, now looking worried. "It's entirely possible that he put his phone in the other room or something, but...it's been ringing for a while. And he doesn't wear headphones. So he probably should've heard it by now."

Alt frowns, “yeah l-let’s head over there too… I-I’m worried.” 

“I’m sure he’s fine, Alt.” Bro tries to reassure him. “But, we’ll meet you all over there okay?” 

“Okay- s-see you soon…” Alt says before hanging up. He frowns at the phone, “…I-I have a really bad feeling…”

Marvin nodded slowly. "I, uh... I can probably teleport us. Not all the way there, that's a bit too far for my range, but if we take a bus halfway I can get us the rest of the way there."

“If you all have been there before then- I can glitch us there.” Alt says sheepishly. “I-if that’s okay with both of you…”

"Oh! R-right, yeah." Jackie nods. "I... Yeah, you can do that." He hesitates, then looks at Marvin. "Are... you okay with that?" 

"I did just suggest the teleporting," Marvin says. 

"Yeah, but... glitching..." 

"It'll be fine, Jackie," Marvin says softly. 

Jackie took a deep breath. "Right. Yeah." He nods and looks at Alt. "We'll do that. Chase and the others will have to catch up."

Alt nods. He hesitates then holds out a hand- “um… f-for me to take you with me we gotta uh… touch somehow.” He says awkwardly, looking away. 

"'Course. That makes sense." Jackie grabs Marvin's hand in his left, then reaches out with his right and takes Alt's. His grip is loose, hesitant. "Let's go."

Alt tries not to jolt at all when Jackie takes his hand. “Okay just- picture what his place looks like… that helps.” He then closes his eyes and in a quick flash of green- all 3 of them glitch away to Schneep’s apartment.

The next thing they know, the three of them are in a living room apartment. It's fairly expansive, modern in design with a wall that's entirely windows, leading out to a balcony overlooking the street below. The lights are off--though, since Schneep is blind, that's to be expected, not a sign of anything wrong. On the wall opposite the windows is the front door and an ajar door showing a bathroom. To the left is a small steel kitchenette and a table. To the right are two closed doors. 

"Schneep?" Jackie calls out. "You home?" 

Silence.

Alt let’s go of the others and starts to glitch around, “Schneep? I-it’s Alt! We’ve been trying to reach you! Are you okay??”

More silence. 

Marvin hurries over to the two doors, opening them up one at a time. One is a bedroom, the other a small sort of office. "He's not in here," he says, looking back at the others. "Not unless he suddenly decided that he likes pranks and jumpscares." 

Jackie takes a deep breath. "Okay. Okay. That's--He could just be out on errands or something." 

"Out doing errands and not answering his phone?" Marvin says doubtfully. 

"I don't know! Maybe? Or maybe he has a job interview?" 

"He'd tell us about that."

Alt can’t hide how worried he is now as he glitches back other to Marvin and Jackie. “Well then where is he? He can’t-“ then he pauses, eyes widening as he pulls out his tracker from Sam. “Wait h-he has the other TRVLR piece! Maybe this can help us find him!” He places a finger over the iris of the tracker.

Alt instantly knows that the TRVLR piece is underground, beneath a building at the address 380 Harbinger Street. 

Alt’s eyebrows furrow, “…it’s underground…?” He says quietly. 

His phone crackles. "You know, there's no guarantee that he has the piece right now, right?" Anti points out. 

Alt snorts at Anti. “I mean I-I know but-“ 

"JJ knows a great tracking spell, h-he can find him if Schneep doesn't have that piece thing," Marvin says. "But--it's a lead, I guess? What is that thing, anyway?" He points at the glass eye tracker. "Some sort of talisman?" 

Alt blinks and then holds out the tracker for Marvin to see. “it’s a tracker our friend Sam gave us to help us find the pieces we’re looking for. Cuz They know where they are… They just need some help getting them. And Schneep offered to help Them too… ” 

Marvin leans down to look at the tracker, eyes wide and sparkling with fascination. 

Alt hums and looks at Jackie and Marvin better, “Do you guys know what something on 380 Harbringer Street might be?”

"Harbringer Street?" Jackie leans back, thinking. "That's sort of north-center in the city. Back when I was a vigilante, the area was known for being vaguely shady. There were a lot of businesses that were fronts for things. You know. Underground organizations." He pales. "That's... Is this TRVLR piece there? If Schneep is there too..."

Alt catches on, his eyes widening. “..h-he could be in trouble…!” He stuffs the tracker back in his pocket, his shoulders shuddering with glitches. “W-We should check there next then! Have you been in that area before, Jackie?”

"Yeah, but... it's... been a while," Jackie says slowly. "And, uh, my memory hasn't been the best ever since..." He trails off. 

"If we can get close, we can walk the rest of the way, it's fine," Marvin says. "This is urgent. Shit, we should call the others and tell them to meet us there!"

“We can do that once we’re there!” Alt says, taking Marvin and Jackie’s hands quickly and concentrating on glitching them over to that side of town.

Suddenly, they're outside, standing on a sidewalk. This part of the city looks a bit more run-down. There are a lot of closed shop fronts, and even the ones that are open have peeling paint and dirty bricks. A storefront nearby is blocked up with plywood that's been spray-painted with graffiti. 

Jackie looks around. "I... don't know if this is the right place," he says slowly. "We need to find a street sign." 

"Use your GPS on your phones," Anti's voice says. 

"Oh, right." Jackie takes out his phone, opening up Maps. After a bit of typing, he frowns. "We're a couple of blocks off. We need to walk for a while then turn left."

Alt shakes himself off then nods, “O-Okay… that doable I guess- better than nothing.” Alt starts to walk, pulling out his phone to text Bro: Schnepp not there. Tracker says address for TRVLR is 380 Harbringer St. heading there now.

----------- 

"Is that Alt? What did he text you?" Jack asks, turning around in the passenger seat to look at Bro in the backseat as his text tone rang out.

Bro pulls out his phone to read and then looks confused. “Schneep isn’t home… Alt says they’re searching on …Harbringer street?”

"Ohhhhh." Chase purses his lips. "That's not a...good part of town..." 

"Really?" Jack looks over at him. 

"It's in the north, and I'm sure you remember Jackie complaining about that place back in the vigilante days." 

"Oh." 

Growing up, I was always told to avoid that area, JJ says. 

"I'm gonna put on some speed, 'kay?" Chase is already pushing on the gas. "I've never been happier that people don't drive a lot in this city." 

“Oh- Jesus… do you guys think Schneep ran into trouble there??” Bro says with worry.

"That's possible," Jack says. "If it's a bad place, I can imagine a lot of assholes messing with him—or worse." 

But Henrik can handle himself, JJ says. Especially with his abilities. He pauses. Do you think I should use a tracking spell?

“…probably better safe than sorry,” Bro nods, “even if Schneep is capable… I feel like he would have told all you guys about going to a place like this… right?”

"Yeah," Chase mutters. "He definitely would've." 

JJ closes his eyes. He makes a gesture like he's holding an invisible plate, and a glowing blue disk forms in his hands. He pulls an arm back and throws it like a frisbee. The disk passes through the windshield like it's not there at all and continues down the street, staying within eyesight but still far ahead. It turns right up ahead and Chase follows it.

Bro fidgets a bit with his jacket. “God… I’m really worried- this… doesn’t seem like Schneep- right? I mean you all know him better than me but… “

"No, you're right, it really doesn't." Jack shakes his head. "He told us he was looking for that TRVLR thing, and he told us where he was looking, but... it wasn't anywhere in the north of the city..." 

Chase and JJ don't say anything, an uneasy silence surrounding the two of them. The car continues north, and the buildings slowly become more and more rundown. There are no pedestrians around... but, as they turn a corner, they see three people waiting in front of a building, a business of some kind. A business with a symbol on the glass window... a symbol that looks a bit like an eye, with three circles forming three irises. 

Bro looks even more worried. Once they pull up in front of the building- Bro’s stomach drops fast as he sees the symbol. “O-Oh no-!” He hurries out of the car and rushes to the others, “Alt! And oh- Jackie and Marvin right? I’m Bro-“ he says quickly. 

"Yep, that's us," Jackie says. 

Marvin raises a hand. "Good to meet you. Wish it was better circumstances." 

“Likewise,” Bro mumbles. Then he gestures at the symbo, looking at Altl. “Um???” 

Alt nods gravelly, “I-I know… t-this isn’t good…”

"What is this place?" Jack gets out of the car, reading the writing on the sign above the door. 

"IRIS Technologies...?" Chase frowns. "I've heard of these guys. They make cameras and shit." He looks at Bro and Alt. "Why... isn't it... good?" The disk from JJ's tracking spell goes straight through the door. 

Alt’s eyebrows furrow, “Cuz as far as we know… IRIS is a fucked up company who has hurt some of our friends… and it could mean Schneep is in a massive amount of danger..!” Glitches fizzle across his skin as Alt looks ready to tear apart the building to search for him. 

Chase pales. "Well... shit. I-I mean... other worlds and all that, but if there's even a chance that he's in danger, we got to look into it." 

JJ looks through the front windows. My tracking spell went through that door at the back. He points it out for the others to see. 

The interior of the business is a waiting area, very plain and generic, with a circular desk where a young woman sits, typing at a clunky-looking computer. Posters on the wall advertise IRIS products. This isn't a store; it looks like a place where you'd go if you had an appointment. 

Marvin grabs the door, testing it. And it opens up. He looks back at the others. "They're open, I guess." 

"Let's go," Jackie says. 

“Alright… let’s see what we can find out then.” Bro mutters, heading inside. Alt looks at the door JJ pointed to, tempted to just go ahead and glitch past it.

"Hi!" The young woman at the desk says in a chipper customer-service voice as everyone walks in. "Wow, big group today. How can I help you?" 

"We're just, uh... checking this place out," Jack says. "Heard about it from a friend." 

"What's behind that door?" Marvin asks, pointing at it. 

"Oh, you'll need a booking to go past there," the woman says. "Do you have a name I can get?" She puts her hands on the keyboard, ready to look things up.

Bro hesitates and then leans on the counter by the woman, grinning charmingly, “Hey~ yeah, you can just put uh… Kieran Brennan. That’s me- you doing okay today?” He puts on the charm big time, briefly glancing at Alt before looking back at her. “And can I just say? Wow- you’re like, stunning…! What's a girl like you doing working in this part of town?” 

"Oh! Oh, um..." The woman blinks in confusion. "I, uh... Mr. Brennan, alright." She types it into her computer. "Thank you very much, sir. I do enjoy this job, it pays very well." She laughs nervously. 

Alt blinks and then nods subtly and while Bro is distracting the woman- he tries to see if he can glitch past the door.

As Alt glitches through the door, he finds himself in a staircase leading downward. The walls are made of a strange white material, and the floor is a dull gray carpet. There's a clunky-looking camera with a blinking red light facing the door--that he just glitched directly in sight of.

“Well that’s good to hear!” Bro grins, trying to keep up the facade. “I’ve had a couple jobs like that- pays good but the area around is kinda shit you know?” He laughs. 

"Haha yeah. It's worth the commute." The young woman quickly finishes typing. "Hmm, I'm not seeing your name coming up. Are you sure you booked it properly?" 

Alt looks around quickly then freezes as he sees the light- he quickly reaches out to see if he can try to destroy it before it captures anything-!

But Alt's magic just bounces off the camera, not even rattling it. And immediately, an alarm goes off, red light flashing. 

“Shit!” Alt curses and then he quickly starts to glitch down the stairs, looking for any sign of Schneep.

"H-huh?" The woman looks over towards the door, alarmed and confused.

"Well--no more time for subtleties!" Jackie declares, and rushes for the door, trying to open it but finding it locked from this side.

Bro’s expression changes on a dime as he now vaults over the counter and goes to try to kick the door open.

The door slams to the side. Most of the group hurries after Bro, but Jack quickly approaches the woman, leaning close. "You should probably get out of here, just in case," he says. 

"U-um--okay!" She grabs a backpack from under the desk and hurries out the front door. As soon as she's gone, Jack hurries after the others. 

The stairs end in an intersection. Three white hallways extend forward, left, and right. Two more branch off left and right at the end of the forward hallway. Doors line the walls. There are small signs on the wall right by the corner. 

TECHNOLOGY STORAGE > 

^ STAFF QUARTERS ^ 

< POSSIBLE ALTR HOLDING

Alt looks between all the options then quickly chooses to go down the possible ALTR holding- that feels like a place that could have Schneep. He’s panicking, the alarm making him glitch and run as fast as he can. “Schneep!! SCHNEEP!” 

Bro hurries down the stairs and is momentarily confused before he hears Alt and scrambles to follow after his voice. “this way guys!”

The others quickly catch up and keep pace with Bro. The hall continues for a while before turning right at the end. The doorways lining these walls are metal, shiny and solid-looking. Each one has a light above it. Most of them are green, but there are two that are red, one before the corner, one after. 

"Hey--maybe these are like--availabilities?" Chase says, pointing at the lights above the doors. 

"Alt, did you hear that?!" Jackie shouts after him. "The red light ones probably have stuff in them!"

Alt looks up to notice this and nods quickly skirting to try to glitch inside the first red light door.

The room beyond has more blank white walls and another camera in the corner. There's a bed with attached straps--how menacing--but nobody is in it. But there is something on the table nearby. A small glass terrarium, like one you'd keep a lizard in. The inside isn't decorated at all. Leaving the small thing inside perfectly visible. A golfball-sized eyeball with a green sclera, blue iris, and long tail-like optic nerve. It hops over to the glass wall of the terrarium as Alt appears, checking him out.

Alt’s eyes widen as he glitches over to the terrarium, “S-Sam?!” He whispers.

The eyeball hops. 

Outside, the group stops by the door Alt glitched through. Jackie tries the door, but of course, it's locked. "Fucking hell!" he curses. "Alt, can you open it from this side?!" 

"Probably not," Marvin says. 

Hang on. Jameson steps up, conjuring up another glowing blue disk. It slides into the crack in the door behind the handle, and there's a CLUNK of a lock undoing. Jackie tries the door again, and this time it opens up. 

"What's in there?" Jack, at the back of the group, tries peering over the others. At the sound of his voice, the little eyeball hops faster. "Huh? Who said that?!" 

"Who said what?" Chase asks, looking back at Jack in confusion. 

"You guys didn't hear someone say my name?" 

Bro hurries in and then his eyes widen, “What?? There’s a Sam here too??” 

Alt looks at the others and then back at the eyeball- until Jack started talking. He blinks back and then shakes his head. “No dude we… didn’t hear anything-“ he looks back at the eyeball and then pulls out his pocket knife and tries to use it to crack the glass.

"Someone is saying my name really excitedly," Jack says, pushing through the others. He gasps. "Eyeball?!" He blinks, confused. 

"Is it talking in your head?" Chase asks. 

"I-I guess so??? It--they're saying that they're my eye?" 

Marvin gasps and goes a little pale. 

“What the hell does that mean?!” Bro asks.

"J-Jack... lost an eye," Marvin says shakily to Bro. "A-A-Anti... did it." 

Jack blinks. "...huh?" 

"He didn't... get rid of it," Marvin whispers. "But... when that weird place collapsed when Anti... d-disappeared... I thought the eye was... taken down with it..." 

Meanwhile, the glass is too solid for Alt's knife to even make a scratch. 

"Here, can I try, Alt?" Jackie asks, walking over. He holds out his hand... and in his grip appears a curved blade made of red light. He brings it down on glass, cutting a hole in it.

Alt blinks and lets Jackie try- then whistles a bit at the blade. “woah- that’s wicked.” He grins. Then he remembers why they’re here and looks to Bro before hurrying out and glitching into the other cell. “you guys help Sam!”

“Wh--dude you can't just keep going without us!" Chase calls after Alt. He looks at Jameson. "Open that door to the other room?" JJ nods and hurries after Alt. Marvin, looking shaken by this whole thing, also heads that way.  

The other occupied room does not have a terrarium... but it does have a man lying on the bed, strapped down, seemingly asleep. His sleeve is rolled up, and an IV feeds into his forearm from a bag hanging on a pole nearby.

Alt stumbles into the room, breathing heavily and then freezes when he sees Schneep lying on the table- strapped down. Anger fills up his whole body rapidly, and lightning crackles around him dangerously like live wires. It snaps and tries to crack at the walls and ceilings as Alt’s magic reacts wildly to his emotions. “These fuckers-!” He growls and then glitches over and quickly tries to cut through the straps holding Schneep down.

The straps are made of the same sort of material as seatbelts are. His magic slices through them easily. While he does that, there’s another CLUNK behind him as JJ unlocks the door. He and Marvin pour into the room. 

Marvin gasps in shock. “These bastards! I-is he okay?” 

Schneep is still asleep.

Alt has to take a couple calming breaths to get his magic to die now from how badly he wants to just explode. 

After a few seconds he glitches back over and tries to shake Schneep awake. “H-Henrik! Hen it’s- it’s us! Alt and all your friends! Can you hear us?!”

Schneep still doesn’t wake up. 

“Maybe it’s this IV thing?” Marvin says. “Maybe it’s keeping him asleep?” JJ immediately springs into action. He nudges Alt aside so he can get close to the spot where the IV goes into Schneep’s arm. He presses down on the spot and slowly withdraws the needle. 

“Okay, try again!” Marvin hurries over. “Schneep!” He looks at Alt. “I-I don’t know any wake-up spells anymore, can you do something?”

Alt nods and gently takes Schneep’s wrist and then whispers, “Sorry Schneep-“ and gives him a little shock to try to wake him up. 

Back in the other room, Jack walks forward, a bit in a daze, and reaches out a hand. The tiny eyeball hops through the hole Jackie cut, landing in Jack's palm. "...huh. So... you're alive now."

 He pauses. 

"Um... they're calling you Sam. Is that your name?" 

Another pause. 

"Well, I think it suits you, so if you want to be Sam, you can be." 

Bro looks freaked out but he sticks with Jack. He walks over and puts a hand on his shoulder. “…you’re taking the ‘finding out I have a sentient eye’ thing really well-“ he tries to laugh. 

“I… think I’m in shock,” Jack says slowly. 

“Yeah… we’ve been through a lot but that’s weird,” Jackie agrees. 

“Can you just like… put them in your pocket?” Chase asks. 

Jack tries, but Sam’s nerve-tail wraps around his fingers as they hold tight to him. “Uh… clingy, I guess. They’re telling me they don’t want to be in a small space. That’s fine. I’ll just carry them, I guess.” 

“Uh yeah- whatever makes the little guy- comfy I guess? Not fun they’ve kept something… alive like this in a cage.” Bro mumbles. Then he turns to hurry out the door after the others. “C’mon let’s see if they found Schneep!” 

“Right!” Jack nods, and he, Chase, and Jackie hurry after Alt—

“Halt!” But, coming around the corner are two… guards, that’s the only way to put it. They’re wearing black military-like uniforms with the IRIS logo on their shoulders in white, and helmets with mirrored visors hide the upper halves of their faces. Each of them are armed with something that looks like a stun gun—which are now pointed at the group. Mainly Bro, as they’ve clocked him as the biggest threat. “Put the creature down and leave, otherwise we will be forced to engage.”

Jackie stops, throwing his arms out in front of Chase and Jack and glaring. His eyes flicker with red light. Chase mutters something about how he should've brought his gun. 

Bro skids to a stop too and holds a hand out to protect the others, moving to be in front. His eyes spark blue, “You have our friend so- we’re not leaving!” He puts his fists up and gets into a fighting stance. He smirks crookedly, “You dudes don’t wanna fight me, so stand down.” 

"Intruders are being hostile, using force!" one of the guards says, and they both fire their weapons, launching stun-gun-like wires at Bro and Jackie. 

Jackie yelps, the wires sending a shock into his system. He falls back, and Chase catches him.

“Alright, sorry not sorry for this!” Bro shouts as he just barely dodges the wire and leaps at one of the guards, sending a super powered punch towards his face. 

The guard withdraws the wires back into the stun gun and aims at Jack next--only to get punched in the face by Bro and knocked to the ground. The other guard swivels around and tries to fire at Bro again. 

Bro yells out as he gets shocked- and falls to the ground. 

Back in the room, Schneep jerks, gasps, and his eyelids flutter. "W...was?" His eyes move randomly beneath the eyelids. "Was passiert?" He tries to get up, but his arms are too weak to lift him up. 

"Schneep!" Marvin gasps. 

"M-Marvin?" Schneep's soul sense finally kicks in. "A-and Alt? Jameson? Alt?" He faces Alt and smiles weakly. "I-I found your thing..."

Alt quickly helps support Schneep and tries to help him up. He tries to smile back. “T-That’s great Hen- l-let’s get you out of here, okay?”

"J-ja." Schneep nods slowly. JJ hurries over and helps support Schneep from the other side. 

Marvin looks back out the door. He hurries out and shouts, "Holy shit! There's guys!" His eyes glow blue and he lunges forward. Blue magic wraps around the guard that Bro knocked down, tying him up.

Now, Alt hears Bro yell and almost glitches out there but he tries to keep Schneep back, “F-Fuck- I… I can try to glitch us out of here!”

Schneep's eyes widen. "N-no, wait, I--I th-think these people took the item! W-we need to find it!" 

“Of course they did… fucking hell-!” Alt growls.

Jackie shakes himself awake again. "Hey!" His eyes flash red, and a handful of curved light, sharp as blades, flies towards the guard that's still up. Some of them miss, but the ones that hit just seem to lodge in the armor. 

JJ rushes out of the room and throws his hand out, conjuring a shield to block the two guards off from the rest of the group.

Alt hobbles Schneep out into the hall once the shield is up and starts to go to the opposite hallway- he remembers the sign said something about technology that way. 

Bro shakes himself awake and pushes himself up- blinking in confusion at the shield. He shakily pulls himself up using the wall and tries to push the others away. “l-Let’s go, hurry!”

"How long can you keep that up, JJ?" Chase asks as they hurry down the hallway. 

A long while, assuming they can't break through, JJ says. But there might be other ways to us! 

The whole group circles around, turning another corner and following the signs to a different section where the doors are plain wood, some with windows in them. 

"Schneep, wh-what exactly is this thing you found?" Marvin asks. 

"It is a small red chip, like something for a computer or a phone," Schneep says. 

"How are we supposed to find something small like that?!" Jackie cries. 

Bro fumbles into his utility belt and pulls out the tracker- maybe it can give him a more exact place where it is? He touches the pupil-

He immediately knows that the chip is behind the door labeled 08, in a small box on a shelf.

“Got it!” Bro says brightly, “Door says 08- it’s in a small box on a shelf!” 

Alt laughs, “God bless Sam oh my god those trackers are amazing??” 

Bro laughs too then tries to speed ahead to look for the door. …god why does it feel like he’s slower than before?

"There!" Jack spots it first, pointing at a door down the hallway. Once they reach it, Jameson immediately does the same unlocking spell he'd done before, and everyone spills into the room. The walls are lined with shelves, full of random computer-like parts--but there is only one box, white and about the size of a phone.

Bro hurries over to the box and opens it to look inside. “Small red chip??”

Yep, there it is; a small red microchip. 

Jackie looks over Bro's shoulder. "That has to be it!" he says. "Damn, Schneep, how did you find that?" 

"Oh, it took a long time," Schneep mumbles. "I might not have found it if I did not notice these strangers digging through the trash." 

“Is that how they found you?” Bro asks quietly. 

Schneep doesn't say anything, simply nods slowly. 

"Okay, we got it, let's get out of here now!" Jack shouts.

Alt quickly grabs the chip and puts it in the bag before shoving that back in his pocket. “Okay uh- everyone link up! I think I can get us back to… to Schneep’s house?”

"Great, let's all think about it and we should get there," Jackie says, grabbing onto Marvin and Chase. Everyone else slowly joins up from there. Heavy footsteps echo down the hallway. 

Bro rushes over to grab on and Alt closes his eyes and in a bright flash of green they all disappear-

-and arrive back in the living room area of Schneep's apartment. "Holy shit, what a rush." Jackie shakes his head. "Fucking insane." 

Alt sways a bit then crashes to his knees, blinking spots out of his eyes. “T-That could have gone s-so bad…” he mumbles. Bro kneels down next to him and pats his back.

"We are... home?" Schneep asks. 

"Yeah, we're home," Jack says. "Your couch's over here." 

"Ah. Good. I am going to sit down." And Schneep does so, stumbling over to the sofa and immediately collapsing onto it. "My head... f-feels... fuzzy."

Are you okay, Alt? JJ asks. Is there anything we can do to help? 

Alt smiles at them weakly, a bit dizzy, “I’m fine… just a lot of glitching… I… m-maybe some food would be good…”

"You need energy for magic, right?" Marvin says. "Schneep, can we use your food?" 

Schneep laughs at Marvin's comment. 

Bro looks back at Schneep, “Do you remember anything Schneep? Like how long you were there or what they did or… if they put anything like… in you I guess?”

Schneep becomes serious again at Bro's questions. "I... do not remember much. I fought the strangers, but there were too many of them a-and they put something in the air that I breathed... everything since then is blank." 

"You can't have been there that long," Chase says. "We talked yesterday normally enough. Oh, it's the ninth, by the way." 

"Hmm. I think... it was late at night on the eighth when I was caught..." Schneep says slowly. 

Bro sighs a bit in relief, “G-Good- I mean not good you got caught but I’m glad it wasn’t for too long!” 

A voice crackles from Alt's phone. "That seemed like an outreach base," Anti says. "Not a main compound. They were probably holding you and Sam there until they could determine where to put you. You're all very lucky. It wasn't nearly as secure as it could have been." 

Alt pulls out his phone to hear Anti better and nods, “Yeah I… I was worried it would have been worse… t-they had a… an Iv in Schneep though… how are you feeling, Hen?”

"Fuzzy," Schneep mumbles. "Tired. Must have been... some sort of drug. Might feel... bad later. But just fuzzy now. You all can use my food, by the way." 

"Right." Chase hurries over to the kitchenette. "What are your snack foods? You have like... cheese and crackers and shit. Not really a sweets guy. Oh, I can probably make a sandwich. Is that okay, Alt?" 

“Y-Yeah that’s good, thanks-“ Alt replies. 

"That IV was probably to keep him unconscious," Anti guesses. "IRIS wouldn't want to take risks with him getting away." 

"Bastards," Jackie mutters. 

"Fucking bastards," Marvin agrees. 

"So that Anti is here too," Schneep says idly. "I could not sense you. Cannot sense your... soul." 

"Oh, I don't have one," Anti says casually.

“It probably doesn’t help that he’s in my p-phone right now,” Alt says. 

Bro blinks at Anti, “I’ve never heard someone say they don’t have a soul so nonchalant-ly… that’d be worrying to hear from anyone but you, Anti.” He laughs. 

Anti grins on Alt's screen. "I'm unique. There's nothing like me in the world. Though there are things like me in the multiverse." 

Alt rolls his eyes slightly but smiles at Anti, “Don’t get a big head about it-“

"Can you sense Sam, though?" Anti asks Schneep. 

"Uh... I am not sure." Schneep pauses. "There is something... small... with Jack, I think." 

"Yeah." Jack holds up Sam in his hand. "That's... them."

“Oh by the way Schneep… Sam is… is an eye- like the big Sam. This guy is real little though… reminds me of a baby Sam.”

Schneep blinks. "...oh. So... there is... that now." 

"Apparently they were the eye that Anti took from me," Jack says quietly. "I... don't know how they're alive now. And they don't know, either. Here." He walks over to the sofa and sits down next to Schneep. "Hold out your hand. 

Schneep does so, and Sam hops onto it. "Oh!" Schneep's eyes widen. "That feels so strange. I was expecting something... sticky." 

"Nope. They do seem squishy, though, so be careful," Jack says. 

"Don't worry, I will be." 

“Yeah they feel weird huh?” Bro laughs. 

"If your Sam is like the Sam in my world--which I'm guessing they are," Anti says. "Then they're just an anomaly. They happen sometimes. Strange shit happens for no reason. Though... I do wonder if the smaller Sams exist because of the larger one somehow." 

Bro listens to Anti and nods, “Like- Sam’s their parents and has lots of baby Sams! …that helps me forget that this was once Jack’s eye-“ 

Chase walks over with a plate. "Here, Alt. Turkey sandwich and crackers. Hope that's enough."

Alt blinks but then smiles gratefully at Chase, “This should be plenty, thanks.” He digs in, sitting cross legged on the floor.

"...you can sit on a chair, you know," Schneep says. "I do not mind." 

"Sometimes people are more comfortable on the floor, dude." Jackie laughs. 

“I would but I wasn’t sure if my legs would make it-“ Alt comments as he eats. 

"So... you guys have your TRVLR part now," Jack says. "Does that mean you're good to go whenever?" 

Bro shrugs, “Probably?”

"Oh, put that in the bag with the others, by the say," Anti suggests.

“Already did!” Alt says in between bites. “‘M not risking losing a single bit of this-“

"Great," Anti says.

“I uh- don’t know how we’re getting to the next world though- are you taking us Anti?” Bro asks. 

 "... I should still be able to contact Sam. We've built up a connection while I was searching for the other parts." He pauses. Alt's phone screen is briefly covered by colorful static before turning normal again. "Yeah, I can reach Them. When you all are ready to go I'll let Them know and They'll open up a rift to the next world." He pauses. "They also said that They managed to push out that other version of me, but... that he might still be looking for us."

Alt pauses in his eating and shivers, hunching up a bit. “G-Great… I love being chased down by an evil version of myself…” he grumbles. 

“Well- at least we can hang out for a bit?” Bro tries to say cheerfully.

"Not much to do in my apartment, I'm afraid..." Schneep says, slowly closing his eyes. 

Jack nudges him awake again. "If you guys want to, uh, hang out, we can," Jackie says. "I'd like to really get to know you guys. But uh... yeah, I'm not sure what we'd do, other than just chill and talk. We need like, a plan for this thing." 

"We could play cards?" Marvin suggests, and suddenly there's a puff of blue smoke and he's holding a deck of cards in his hand. 

JJ looks impressed. That's a new spell! 

"Thanks, I've been working on it." 

Alt can’t help but laugh, “Man- Marvins are obsessed with games I’m learning-“ 

"Really?" Marvin blinks, then smiles. "H-hey, good to know that that's... a thing for Marvins."

Schneep chuckles. "That other Jameson, the magician one? While we were by ourselves, he told me that his Marvin enjoys card games. So it definitely seems a trait." 

Bro looks at Jackie, Marvin and Schneep sympathetically. “It’d be real cool to get to know you guys… but I think Schneep needs to rest… he’s just been through a lot.” He sighs but then tries to brighten up, “But! We’re going to get the TRVLR fixed! Which means we can come back again real soon! To properly hang you know?”

"Yeah, that'd be great." Jack grins. "I think we have to adjust to some stuff, anyway. Like this little guy." Sam bounces into his hand again. 

And that IRIS place, JJ says. 

"Yeah, I had no idea they were fucked up like that," Chase mumbles. "I thought they just make tech."

“That’s how they get you,” Alt sighs, finishing up, “These companies usually hide like this… underneath these seemingly innocent projects and tech and.. hospitals. It’s sick-“ 

Bro smiles, “yeah… lots to deal with- but uh- now we can make sure we actually have a good meet up next time! No antis, no Iris- just chill~”

"I would like that," Schneep says softly. "It has been... good to see you two again. If only for a few moments." 

"D'you think we could pit the ABIM against IRIS?" Marvin wonders. "They'd probably take issue with someone kidnapping magical people." 

Worth contacting them, I suppose, JJ says.

“Oh fuck yeah- pit them against each other and watch the chaos,” Alt grins. His face then softens and he sighs, “I wish it could have been longer Schneep but… you need your rest… I’m so glad we found you before… anything really bad happened.”

Schneep nods. "I do remember Jamie--the other Jamie--talking about IRIS. If... this place was like the one in his world..." He shudders. 

"You're safe now, Hen," Chase reassures him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We'll make sure they don't bother you. Or the rest of us." 

"Hell yeah." Jackie nods firmly. "We've been through a lot, we're not gonna let these guys scare us."

Bro smiles, “you guys can handle those fuckers- I believe in you.” 

Alt nods with a bit of a smile. Then he frowns, “Next time I go to one of those places… I’m looking for a way to inter dimensionally talk… that way you guys can call if you’re ever in trouble. Cuz- we’ll be there.”

"...thanks, Alt," Marvin says quietly. "That's... that's so nice of you." The others all look touched as well. 

A moment passes in silence, then Jack clears his throat. "Well. You guys should probably head out soon. I mean, it sucks, but you guys have a job to do, and I'd hate to delay you." 

"Faster would be better," Anti says, voice crackling through Alt's phone speakers.

“Alright alright-“ Alt sighs. He glitches to his feet and adjusts his backpack, checking to make sure he has everything. “I’m ready.” 

Bro hops to his feet too and smiles at the others, “Thanks for helping us, guys. But we’ll see you again soon, alright?”

It'll be nice to see you again! JJ says, smiling. 

"Yeah, what JJ said!" Chase laughs. "We'll look forward to it." 

"And we will stay safe until then," Schneep promises. 

"Sam says thank you for helping," Jack reports. 

"We can get to know each other more next time," Jackie says. Marvin nods in agreement. 

Alt smiles and nods, “Yeah, I’d like that.” 

Alt's phone screen becomes static again for a moment. Then some green electricity flickers over by the window wall. A black rift forms as the lightning opens up a way out of this world.

“We’ll have a proper blast next time!” Bro says happily, throwing up his hands. “It’ll be great! Until next time!!” 

Alt laughs and starts to pull Bro into the rift. He waves to the others before they walk through.

The others all wave back. 

"Goodbye!" Schneep says. "Until next time."

[opal-owl-flight]

I want everyone to know that Mags was chasing @the-spam-specialist 's Mago around to get back at him for stealing his cookies and the dumbass got his head stuck in a crawlspace trying to get him.

Mago rifted out of the space seconds later and made fun of him for hours. This image is his phone's current wallpaper apparently.