Spider appears in the woods, and she sees someone walking in the distance. She tilts her head curiously and walks up to them, making no sound as she moves. Upon closer inspection, their clothes seem to be in shreds. Spider gets a glimpse of the figure's knotted shaggy black hair. She takes a deep breath, and she can smell pepto bismol.
"Hello?" she says. The figure continues walking. Spider teleports in front of their path, "Oi." Spider sees their face, it's Terminal. His eyes are half open as he stumbles back some.
"Term?" Spider clenches a fist, "Do you recognize me, mate?"
"jhmjhnmm" Terminal blinks and continues to stagger past her. Spider follows him, and she inspects him as she walks looking for any injuries. Terminal's arm seems to be torn to shreds, he seems weak aswell, barely staying on his feet. He has several bruises, mud, and dirt on him. There's some frost left on the edges of his hair. Spider sighs and snaps her fingers teleporting them both to Harmonia's living room. Terminal still seems half out of it as he looks at the room. Luna looks up and sees Terminal.
"Hello Terminal," she says.
"Hi, Terminal," Cole says, seeing Terminal and Spider enter the room. Luna gets a little closer to Terminal to examine him. Terminal's clothes are still torn, he has knotted hair and is covered in dried mud and pepto, he lazily looks over Luna.
"Uh,, hey," Terminal replies.
"Hey, uh, do you remember me?" Luna says. She thinks to herself, gosh he looks awful. "Uh, do you wanna go take a shower? I'll go buy you some new clothes real quick..." Luna blinks. She thinks, He's not normally the strong silent type... Luna returns to her laptop to note this. Luna thinks it over... was there a difference to his voice in any way?
"Gay," Cole says.
"He's literally the only straight person in this house. That's an assumption, of course. Photo doesn't count, he doesn't live here," Luna says.
"I know," Cole eats a whole popsicle, stick included.
"Huh?" Terminal blinks after zoning out.
"Uh, hey, everything alright?" Luna asks.
"Yeah, yeah," he stands there.
"I mean, I can go buy you some new clothes if you want. The Walmart in town is open 24/7."
"I'm fine dear, I'll just go myself when I get there," Terminal replies.
"...When you get... where?" Luna looks at him with curiosity, almost like dcurious, but nowhere near as cute. He just stands there, quietly looking around. Luna looks, trying to figure out what he's looking at, "Before you ask, we're real. We're not mirror images or some other fucked up shit."
"Why would you even mention that?" Cole asks.
"...because I don't know what happened to November and I'm racking my brains trying to figure out how he was modified," Luna says. She thinks to herself, When Terminal left us, he was comfortable around us all. But now it's like he regressed to a previous state.
"Well, it's not hatred, that's for sure," Chris says as he walks in, "If it is, we'll be all dead by now."
"...I can only imagine," Luna replies.
"Probably. Knowing he has a Corrupted form," Chris says, "Hey, Terminal?"
"Yes?" Terminal responds, blinking.
"Are you feeling quite alright?" Chris asks.
"Terminal, do you eat the stick of a popsicle?" Cole asks.
"No, Cole," Chris says to his fiancee, "Though, can be nervousness, which would be a reversion."
"Yeah sure," Terminal says.
"Mmmmmm, I don't know, are you okay?" Cole asks.
"Sure," Terminal replies.
"Terminal, you're not acting right," Cole says.
"He's really not," Luna says, "Almost like he was Altered."
"Terminal, are we friends?" Cole asks.
"Sure," Terminal replies.
"Okay, yea no something isn't right," Cole says.
"He's not acting straight, obviously, Cole," Chris says.
{"Term said something about going to Harmonia’s House, any clue as to why?"} is picked up from Knight towards Luna.
{"Wait what? but he's at Harmonia's house,"} Luna responds.
"Though, like... any ideas what happened to him? Does anyone know?" Chris asks.
"Okay, we have a problem. His telepathic link works, but he's responding with one word yeahs and no usage of dear," Luna explains.
"Hmm..." Chris says, "Chessmaster, that you?"
Knight, {"He is? Huh."}
Luna, {"We're all at Harmonia's right now."}
Knight, {"Weird, it’s like he’s a robot or something."}
Luna, {"...you're not saying, what I think you are?"}
"I mean, there's only so possibilities as to what happens, and I'm steadily running out of ideas," Chris says.
Knight, {"That he might be altered?"}
Luna, {"I'm aware of the cosmic candy roboreplicas."}
"Chessmaster, King, whatever your name is," Chris says.
Luna, {"But it can't be. Can they replicate telepathic links?"}
"... no, Mat. We've only heard about the arcade. Astro paid a visit some nights back and stuff. That's about as close as we have heard about the arcade," Chris says to Mat, one of the members of his Emotional Council, "We haven't set foot in there."
"Most of us haven't anyway. I know of a few who have," Luna says, "Spider, Harmonia, Drew, Cole."
"Though, what did he say?" Chris asks, "Press the eyes to shut it off?"
"I believe so," Luna replies.
"In one of the logs, yeah," Chris says.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Luna asks.
"Well, no, I'm not gonna do that," Chris replies.
“That won’t work you know” Astro says, appearing from thin air. Astro is a 5’2, flamboyant, jade-colored anthropormorphic (but not nonferal) rabbit. He looks like a mascot drawing brought to life, dressed in a spectacular suit. He's from the Cosmic Candy Entertainment Center.
"Why hello, Astro," Luna says, thinking, Oh look, it's bitchface mcrabbit.
"It's actually press eyes to restart, and I think it's time for a routine restart," Cole says, upon seeing Astro.
“That was just a lie to get you out of there, Cole,” Astro replies, “Well, not exactly a lie.”
"Ah yes, hello Astro," Chris says.
"We can test that, then," Cole yawns.
"Hold it! You said you're unable to lie!," Luna exclaims, "Press the eyes!"
“More like acting,” Astro says, before getting tackled by Cole.
"And of course, I only bring it up because I know it's a lie by omission," Chris says.
"You're new," Terminal says upon seeing Astro.
"Of course. Don't fuck with me," Luna says.
“Hey, Mr. November!” Astro says, going down. Astro extends his arm and hands Terminal a Pamphlet. Cole pushes his thumbs in Astro's eyes.
"Good night," Cole says as Astro starts to shake, "Let me guess, you're gonna explode?" Terminal takes the Pamphlet from Astro's hands. Chris closes his eyes to not see the slightly scary scene in front of him.
"That works," Chris says. Cole get decked in the jaw by Astro’s arm withdrawing back. A crack is heard and Cole's eyes glow a soft red.
"Give that pamphlet!" Luna tackles Terminal! Terminal falls face first into the open Pamphlet, the Pamphlet is a normal pamphlet.
"My fucking jaw, you asshole," Cole says.
“Oops!” Astro replies.
"Cole, keep your head together," Chris says, eyes still closed. Cole grips Astro's arm and tries to rip it off. Astro’s arm doesn’t rip, just extends.
"Wait..you're real," Terminal looks over at Luna with a confused expression, getting up off of the pamphlet.
"Of course we're real, Termi, what the hell?" Chris opens his eyes.
"Yeah I'm real and never let anyone else tell you otherwise!" Luna yells. Cole stops trying to rip Astro's arm off, but grips his head and tries to rip it off. Astro’s neck extends.
"T-this is real..how long have I been back?? Oh dear," Terminal stays on the ground, thinking.
"You've been back for a few hours," Luna replies, "Welcome back, best buddy."
"Why won't your limbs come off, god damn it," Cole yells, slamming his fist into Astro's chest.
“Keep trying, I want to see how far you can stretch me,” Astro replies.
"Fucking die already," Cole unsheathes his combat knife and stabs it into Astro.
"So, uh...deal didn't work..?" Terminal looks at the chaos happening.
"Obviously. Were you expecting a deal with a Corrupted to be upheld?" Chris says. Terminal puts his head down.
“AHahHAhaHahaHahah!” Astro starts to laugh a glitchy laugh. It plays on loop.
"This sounds like you when you touch Eggory, Cole," Chris jokes.
"Chris, I'm not in the mood," Cole stabs at Astro's neck, "Stop fucking laughing, you prick!" The Laughter continues. Cole sighs and shocks Astro with the force of a power line shock. This short-circuits Astro, as he gets very hot. It seems like he is melting from the inside out. Astro disappears. Cole can hear faint laughter.
Terminal gets up and heads to the backyard, sitting on the back steps. Chris follows him outside, and sits in a corner of the back patio. Terminal fidgets with a torn part of his shirt. Chris sighs, and looks out to the backyard. Term stays quiet. Chris nods to himself. He has to fire the first shot.
"Why make the deal in the first place, Termi?"
"Er uh...it-it was stupid I know," he glances over nervously.
"I mean, I can guess, but I want to hear it from the source more," Chris replies.
"Um...pardon?"
"What pushed you to making the deal in the first place, Termi?"
"Er..I uh, I just felt it was the only chance we had," Terminal anxiously looks down at the ground.
"I see. I don't fault you, though," Chris says.
"Spider is going to kill me.."
"She won't."
"Yeah, right."
"You don't believe that she wouldn't kill you?" Chris replies. Luna appears on the back porch, holding a Walmart bag full of clothes for Terminal to change into.
"Here ya go," Luna says.
"Oh uh thank you dear," Terminal says before turning back to face Chris, "Er uh..she can get aggressive.."
"Hah, Spider? Trust me, she's gonna be so happy to see you back," Luna chimes in.
"...I don't know.."
"I know she can be scary, but just know that she cares for you," Luna sighs.
"Spider would love it. She likes talking to you," Chris says.
"All I've done is make her worry and mad, how is that any good?" Terminal asks.
"It's worse when it's just words in your head, Termi," Chris replies.
"What do you mean?"
"You're scared of talking to her because you fear her reaction, don't you?"
"Well...yeah"
"Have you talked to her about it?" Chris asks, "As in, about the fact that you fear how she would react?"
"Kind of?" Terminal says, "I mean I try to explain and the conversation just derails.."
"How so?" Chris asks. Terminals brow furrows as hes concentrated on the 6 channel, his channel of Drake's Mind.
"Sorry about that," Luna says, "He just... knows how to get under our skin. She... whatever. I don't fucking know."
"Right.." Terminal replies.
"Just... take a deep breath," Chris tells Luna. Luna takes a deep breath and lower her heartrate, and Chris says, "Know that they are on the other side, and don't judge them for it." Terminal yawns as he blinks trying to stay awake.
"You're tired, Termi," Chris says.
"I'll be fine, dear," Terminal yawns.
"You're yawning, Termi. The kind that screams 'I'm tired'."
"I'll go sleep, then... goodnight" Terminal sighs and gets up.
"Good night." Chris looks out to the backyard, and sighs again. The cracks are spiderwebbing, and he doesn't know how to stop it. Terminal heads to the living room and sits down by the Christmas tree with his back to the wall as he drifts to sleep.
