A woman-like figure appears in the ocean as she swims to land. She has gray skin and a rib-like dress on. It seems like her body is her clothes. She has bioluminescent hair and hands with tentacles on her back which help her swim. She also has glasses on! As she gets onto land, she looks around.
“Where in the world…” She wanders around Meridian looking for anyone. Eventually, after stumbling a bit and going to every other house, she arrives at [the kiss]’s house and gives the front door a knock.
The door is open and Luna pauses in her tracks. "Whoa."
“Hello? Oh Hello! Someone lives here! It seems that a lot of people are not home… and the sky is red for some reason. But you know, not the weirdest thing I have seen… oh! Where are my manners; my name’s Margaret. What would yours be?”
Luna tilts her head a little bit. "Mine's uh Luna. Most of the house is out or something, been rather quiet today. Can we help you, Margaret?"
“Well, I… seem to have lost track of time… what day is it? Is it still June 6th?”
"June 6? Uh no, it's uhhh January 30, 2023? Are you okay there?" Luna asks.
{- They mentioned the sky being new too. -}
“Wait… 2023?! It’s been 3 years?!” Margaret takes a moment to process the new information. “Then what’s with the sky?”
Luna blinks for a couple of seconds before responding, "This world is currently experiencing an apocalypse caused by a bored demon prince who enjoys causing destruction and watching so-called 'heroes' fight back. The sky is red because it's a side effect of Abaddon's bullshit."
“So a demon is causing the sky to go red and an apocalypse to happen? That’s why people were not responding to their doors,” Margaret thinks. “Well is it possible for me to come in? It’s alright if not I just… have nowhere else to go.”
"I suppose." Luna steps back and walks back to the couch, beckoning Margaret to join her.
Margaret walks inside, tucking her tentacles in so she can fit through the doorway. She looks around the hall and living room, finding a chair to sit in and sitting down as she waves to the gang. “What a lovely place you have here!”
Cole stares at Margaret. He looks like he's gonna bark.
Margaret looks to Cole, “And who might you be?”
"Cole Genesone"
"Please don't bark.." Luna shudders.
“Wait- Cole Genesone?! You’re not… you know! I thought you were gone and Max was to stay forever!” Margaret exclaims.
Cole's head tilts as he looks confused, "What? You mean my AI Max?"
“You know… Um…” Margaret thinks about how to explain this, “You know you took that tic tac, and you… changed.” She looks a bit uncomfortable.
"Tic tac?" Cole looks even more confused.
Luna raises an eyebrow.
“I… never mind. You must have just forgotten everything like before. Stupid pills…” Margaret straightens herself up, still a bit uncomfortable but a bit better. She turns to Luna, “Anyway, so you were saying a demon person made the sky and water red and started an apocalypse? How in the world did that happen?”
Cole shrugs and swaps back to his human form as he leans on the wall next to the couch.
"I'm not entirely sure about the hows, but I just remember seeing a flyer for it in my home world and I agreed to join in the fight. It was either that or die of starvation. At least here I can prove myself a HERO." Luna is struggling to answer because she hasn't read chapter 1 in a really really long time.
"I see... Well, thank you for explaining what you can."
Luna nods and continues typing away, taking notes on what she is experiencing right now. "So the last thing you remember is June 6, 2020, then? Oddly specific date." And one that's bugging her for some reason. It's familiar, but why?
"Yea... I remember getting torn apart... then a lot of swimming and floating... and now I'm here!"
"...what. That's... weird. Uh glad you managed to survive getting torn apart???" Luna looks at Margaret incredulously.
"I guess? I'm sure I was dead for good though..." Margaret trails off but straightens up and collects herself.
Spider shrugs. "Death isn't exactly permanent here."
"Yep. I've died twice so far and am still here." Luna explains.
{- Technically only one of those would've killed you Lunes. -}
"Wait but how does that-- never mind. I should learn not to question things anymore should I?" Margaret says, confused.
"I disagree. You should always question things that you find odd. Then again, that's just my mindset talking here. I'm a mystery solver by trade." Luna smiles.
"Oh! Alright. Well, I'm not gonna question the death thing. I think," Margaret looks to Spider, "And who might you be?"
"Spider," their ear flicks as they watch Margaret.
"Well nice to meet you Spider," Margaret smiles warmly.
Spider shrugs and doesn't say anything, starting to fiddle with the ring.
Lock runs in and pauses then she runs to the kitchen "TEA-"
"Oh for goodness sake Lock," Luna groans.
“Wait what that I what?” Margaret is very confused.
"That's just Lock. She's really into making ‘tea’ when we get new guests in the house." Luna shrugs.
“Ok…? Thank you Lock!” Margaret exclaims.
Lock returns with a set of tea and cups; she sets them down. There’s a strange odor from them, and they look gray. Lock stays standing near the wall.
Luna doesn't even try to touch it. She knows better. "Er thank you Lock?"
“Oh! Thank you!” Margaret takes some tea and pours it into a cup, taking a sip!
Lock stays quiet and nods. The tea tastes like stale watered-down medicine and only drinking the whole thing would result in feeling a hint calmer and happier. It’s definitely not good for you though. Margaret does not drink it all. As soon as she gets the medicine taste, she stops. She swallows it and gives a fake smile, trying not to show her disgust. Luna and Lock stay quiet.
"Uh so, how was the tea? Delicious huh?" Luna winks to Margaret as if saying play along.
“I was good! Thank you so much Lock!” Margaret responds.
Lock nods without an expression.
Luna looks over a bit worried. “Lock, you alright?”
"I’m ok. Do you need anything?"
"No, I'm fine. It's just... I guess I maybe a tinge concerned. There have been some videos coming out of the pylon's youtube channel that appear to be in first person and I swear I've seen that starry blanket before." Luna goes back to work, honestly just unsure what's even going on, between the 2nd trumpet and now this Margaret person. Not to mention that damn date that just... feels familiar. Add onto that everything she got going on privately with Hinata. Her shoulders are stiff and they ache. This is stress.
The next day, many of [the kiss] is vibing in the living room while Cole leans against the couch humming classical music.
Lock looks to be thinking before heading outside. She heads towards town.
"Hm," Luna remarks
"Hmm?" Chris looks over from his phone.
"Just noticing the red panda that just left the house." Luna smiles.
"Key?"
"Heh? I don't think the front door's locked or anything."
"No, sorry, I mean Lock. I got nicknames for everyone, and sometimes it kinda slips out unnoticed like that." Chris says.
Margaret turns towards Chris, “That’s neat!”
Chris shrugs. "I mean, they’re slightly hit-and-miss sometimes. And not everybody likes a nickname."
“Oh! I never got your name. Who might you be?” Margaret asks
Chris looks up. "I'm Chris. And you are..."
“Margaret! Margaret Summers. Pleasure to meet you.”
"Hello, Margaret. So what brings you here?" Chris asks.
“I was just trying to figure out why the sky and ocean were red and where everyone was. Turns out I have lost track of time and now there is an apocalypse.” Margaret explains.
"Yeah, things got shaken up real bad round these parts. Still consider us lucky, in some aspects." Chris explains.
“Well, you’re alive so that’s good!” Margaret reassures.
"Small blessings, every day." Chris mumbles.
Cole snickers and mumbles, "Alive is certainly a word to describe it."
Luna sighs.
"It's not like we can do anything when death knocks." Chris shrugs.
Spider is still here just listening to the conversation. "And how many times has that happened for all of us now?"
"I don't keep count. Or rather, I don't want to. It's bad enough the first time around." Chris sighs and goes back to reading on his phone.
"I wasn't even talking about dying god damn..." Cole chuckles
"All we can do is fight whenever Death's knocking at our doors. Resist." Luna adds.
Margaret is now uncomfortable, “I guess so!”
"You're good, Margaret. It normally doesn't get this introspective." Chris sighs again.
Cole clears his throat and mutters, "Damn emo bitches."
"Hush, dearie," Chris mutters.
"Fine." Cole crosses his arms.
"You can drink later."
"But it's past 8 am?" Cole looks over at Chris with a confused look.
"Never said it was alcohol," Chris smirks at Cole.
Kade enters the living room with an entire rotisserie chicken in his hands and begins to watch Spongebob on the TV.
"Be right back." Luna disappears. About a minute later, she reappears with a caramel iced coffee and a lemon cake slice. "Much better. Hehe."
Cole looks even more confused, "Well what else am I supposed to drink?"
"Coffee?" Chris looks at Cole, confused.
"Why would I drink coffee at this hour?" Cole raises an eyebrow. It is currently noon.
"Why wouldn't you drink coffee at this hour? It's a perfect time for a cafe bombon."
Lock walks through with a large bag she's dragging behind her and to her funny room. Roughly the size of a human.
"... I must be hallucinating again." Chris turns off his phone, gets up, and stretches, before going to the kitchen to make himself a cafe bombon.
Cole watches Lock while blinking. and then turns to look in the general direction of everyone else. "Did I just see that?"
"I didn't see anything." Kade bites an entire leg off the rotisserie.
"I have no idea who would drink coffee at this hour," says Luna, who is in fact drinking coffee at this hour. There's no sarcasm in her voice. “No, I didn’t see that.”
Cole looks over at Kade, "Is that an entire fucking rotisserie chicken?"
"Yes. I cooked it myself :]"
"I'm proud? Question mark?" Cole replies.
Margaret is just vibing.
"Thank you!!" Kade takes another huge bite out of it.
"So uh where did you come from Margaret? Sounds like you were stuck in a cave for the past 2.5 years." Luna chuckles lightly
Margaret looks to Luna. “Well I was in a big ocean actually, or some body of water that I know of.”
Kade looks over to Margaret, who he is just now noticing.
Luna blinks a few times just to make sure she is in fact awake right now. Yup. "Huh, that explains the uh glowiness of your uh, it's really pretty I just don't have the word for it right now."
{- Or the tentacles on her back. -}
“Oh! Bioluminescence is cool to say. Matches my blue hair when I was… alive?” Margaret says.
"Okay, so lemme see if I got your timeline right Margaret." Luna takes a deep breath. "Something happened on June 6, 2020. We currently don't know what. But you claim to have died that day right? And you've been in the waters ever since until yesterday."
“Sounds about right. I know vaguely what happened that day but it’s a bit blurry.” Margaret replies.
"Only if it's not too painful for you to remember." Luna responds with concern and curiosity in her voice. She is typing everything into her laptop by the way. Her fingers are flying, but almost no sound is heard from them. "But whatever you can tell us, I think that might help us figure out things."
Lock returns and sits down. She seems out of breath.
Luna just shrugs and chooses not to worry about Lock's room, even despite the strange insistence on wanting no visitors or the lack of breath she is displaying. Cole suspiciously glances at Lock but shakes his head and resumes humming classical music.
“Well, I remember there was some… ritual I think? Then the Slenderman came and tore me up… then I turned to look like this! And now here I am.” Margaret says.
"The Slenderman!? Oh me, oh my!" Roxy says, creeping out of the hall. "What next, you went to Level Ohio of the Backrooms and saw the Biggest Bird?" She chuckles. "Make your stories more believable next time." She sits on the arm of the couch.
Luna nods and adds The Moon to the summary. Then she turns to Roxy. "But like... I dunno. I'm willing to believe her. The second trumpet gets blown yesterday and then she comes out of the water. There's no way there's no connection to that."
"Right. It's what she said I don't exactly believe." Roxy looks at Margaret. "Everyone knows Slenderman's just a creepypasta. That's as absurd as doors in the woods leading to a demonic congregation in the Greed layer of Sisyphean Hell in which Mammon is crucified by Abaddon and Lucifer and sent to Sheol." She claps. "Just not a thing that happens, y’know?"
Luna just turns to Roxy with an eyebrow raised. Like ‘are you being deadass right now???’ kinda vibes.
{- There's no way she's ... this has to be a bit Lunes. -}
Then she just shakes her head and continues to work. Maybe what Margaret saw is contradictory. Or maybe Roxy's just a troll.
“I know what I saw! Then what do you think happened Hm?” Margaret says, challenging Roxy.
"Maybe you're just going crazy."
Luna just continues repeating June 6, 2020, over and over as if trying to jog her memory. Curse these chains, damn you Solaire
Cole slowly looks over at Roxy and emits the Dog Huh meme from his mouth.
Spider just glances over at Roxy and shakes their head, well used to her antics by now.
Margaret looks at Roxy for a moment now and gets a good look at her. “WAIT! YOU!” She readies her guard, “ROXY?! I- that helper of that stupid woman! What in the world are you doing here?!”
"Aaaaaa loudddd…" Luna whimpers.
Spider winces, glaring at Margaret now.
Cole reaches into his jacket and grips something as an audible click is heard. "Elaborate"
"Please, Roxy, Margaret. What exactly is going on?" Luna asks.
“Roxy was a woman named Lucille’s helper along with someone named Raine… well was Raine. You changed my friends! You passed out those tic tac’s and helped that… that bitch!”
"...wait, by Tic tacs, do you mean R053?" Luna tilts her head while her fingers fly across the keyboard.
“I mean Autumn… Raine mentioned R053 like once or twice but I never connected to dots… not that I can remember…” Margaret admits.
"Roxy has never helped Lucille, I fuckin hate that bitch" Cole sighs and mutters, "Proclaims to be a god but all she does is remove people's memory.”
"Lmfao." Roxy remarks.
“Roxy was the one who passed them out! Just because of a stupid game, my friends are most likely dead!” Margaret exclaims.
"Oh yeah no they're all dead. Sorry! Except for Ivy," Roxy leans back. "Well... she's kinda dead too, but uh. Yea."
Luna goes silent absorbing all of the information thrown around. Trying to reach a conclusion.
Margaret is just frozen in disbelief, sadness, but most of all, rage
"....is now a bad time to mention that my arm is getting tired?" Cole asks out of nowhere.
"What does your arm have to do with this?" Luna looks over "Just put it down."
"I mean I didn't have anything to add, but the silence was getting fucking awkward man," Cole sighs and lets go of what's in his jacket.
Luna nods and takes a deep breath. "Lemme see if I understand this all correctly. Something happened on June 6, 2020, that caused all of Margaret's friends and herself to die. It has to do with R053, The Moon, and Lucille. Roxy clearly knows about it, seeing how she was trying to debunk a fact that is unfortunately very very real in our worlds. The memory of the event is unfortunately limited due to how R053 works, and how most who participated died."
"Margaret was never R053'd." Roxy says quickly, coldly, in a low tone.
“Yea like Roxy said. I was never R053’d. I guess death will just do that to a person.” Margaret replies.
"Right. My apologies. Explains why you would have some memories of it in the first place and aren't praising Lucille at the moment." Luna nods.
Cole perks up slightly at hearing death but stays silent.
“You’re fine… just wished I could have done something to stop it all. I know I probably was useless in the situation but… I don’t know. I wish I did not stand there like a coward.” Margaret straightens herself up. “Anyway… Roxy. What happened after we all died? What happened to you?”
"What are you talking about? I've never met you in my life." Roxy responds.
"Do you remember Roxy back in those days, Margaret?" Luna asks.
“Of course I do! As I said, Roxy was the one who passed the R053 out when some people got a lower roll than others.” Margaret explains, frustrated.
Roxy makes a face that reads, what is she talking about
“Deity in Death Roxy. Do you not even remember?” Margaret asks.
"That sounds so stupid and edgy holy shit," Roxy laughs
"Deity in death? Hang on, lemme check my notes." Luna replies.
Kade watches everything with furrowed eyebrows.
Margaret is disappointed in Roxy's gaslighting.
"Right, I see. My notes don't exactly have much on that, unfortunately. Just something to do with Lucille." Luna replies.
"Basically Lucille started a LARPing group with some people, and basically it was a trick to get people to join a cult. At least with the way she was acting." Margaret says.
"Live action roleplaying? Strange. But to be fair, had I seen a flyer for that back home, I probably would've joined too. Real life is boring as hell." Luna giggles lightheartedly.
"Yeah, she seemed to be giving everyone posters and posting them around the city. It got a lot of attention, so many people came to the meetings." Margaret replies.
"Hm, I see. So Lucille attracted a bunch of people and presumably fed them all R053 pills - the little tic tacs. And that became a cult called Deity in Death? Fascinating. Fed most anyway, seeing how you and presumably Ivy didn't get one."
{- Because Ivy doesn't simp for Lucille? -}
{"Precisely."}
"Ivy was meant to. She drugged her sister with it." Margaret says.
"Myla. Yeah, I remember that whole thing being the motive for the tea party that forced me to unknowingly murder her." Luna feels something itch inside her mind on remembering that. She groans a bit before returning to focus.
“Well, it was all up to a dice roll. Anyone who got less than a 10 was R053’d.” Margaret says.
"That's a dumb and flawed system???" Roxy says shocked.
"Lucille is a dumb and flawed person, so it fits. Assuming a d20. And if Lucille truly wanted someone R053d, she could have them use weighted dice." Luna theorizes.
"Possibly but I don't know if she did or not. All I know is that I rolled a 15 so that was good enough for me.” Margaret says.
“Well, that's good at least. I'm guessing not many passed the save then?" Luna asks while typing.
"I think about five people passed the roll. Then again some people I think 'cheated' by hiding the pill and did not take it."
Luna sighs. "Not like it mattered in the end."
“Yea…” Margaret sighs as well.