CabbageAngel
Guardian Angel Haruki
RuggieBucchi
Deadline
BrokenPromise
Forsythe
Stryder BC
Ariamis
Kaithe Dame
Azure Bubbles
"Just a normal day."
Current Location: Retro Heaven Arcade
On an off day, there wasn't much Fable could do work wise besides the usual. He was mainly waiting to hear if they have a new lead from what little they could salvage last assignment. Once more, he idly checked back on shimr to see if anything crops up on that end. He also wanted to check back on any friends or acquaintences he hadn't check on in a while. Klava hadn't responded yet. Must be that busy, he rationalized, like most of the others.
What about Mary?
After a moment of concideration, he decided to call zir.
The phone didn’t ring more than once. ”Fable! Where have you been? I mean, last week was crazy! There’s all these rumors about Betty being your lover or something, something else about you joining the gems, meanwhile I minding my own business when some weretigers chasing a-” Zi sighed. ”Right, you called me. I would have called sooner but I didn’t know where to start, what’s going on? I haven’t seen you at the Great Escape for a while.”
The boy's eyes widened at the sudden barrage of questions, opting to respond when ze had calmed down. "Those rumors are false, first off, a-and frankly my love life isn't anyone's concern damnit! Don't even know how it got to that point." He groaned. "But...yeah, I did join GEMINI. Maiden suggested it and frankly, I don't think I'd be able to take him down without the help." Fable frowned. "Not after my last slip up..."
After a pause he shook his head. "Sorry I haven't popped up often, just been really busy, y'know?" He probably sounded tired. "And I don't exactly trust Shimr anymore, so that's half my fault for keeping things quiet."
”Oh, alright.” Mary remained silent for a bit. ”Maiden, that’s another one I haven’t seen for a while.” She trailed off before clearing her throat. ”Was there something you wanted in particular? Just wanted to chat? I have time if you want to meet up somewhere.”
Fable checked the time. "Well I should be done patrolling soon. Anywhere you wanna go? I sometimes visit this one arcade if you're down with that." He offered.
”Alright, I'll be there shortly.” Mary hesitated. ”Oh um, and Fable? I um, today, i’m, i'm a girl today.” She sighed. ”I’ll be wearing a red and pink dress, so, don’t get confused. Hah! I’ll see you later!” She hung up before he could say goodbye.
After another pause when she hung up, Fable chuckled. "Alright then, I'll keep that in mind." He answered regardless to no one in particular.
Once his shift was done, Fable hurried down a memorized route to one of his usual haunts. Retro Heaven Arcade, though the name may be a bit cheesy, it had a great selection of both video games and prizes to choose from. It also had a snack bar which was a nice surprise when he first visited the place. Last he heard, the owners were planning on expanding it.
It would be a moment before Mary arrived. And when she did, he wouldn’t be sure why she bothered to mention her wardrobe. Yes, they were not colors she normally wore around Finn, but the outfit was so loud, he probably wouldn’t have any recourse but to assume it was her anyway. It was just a pink shirt with a long red skirt, but it had been heavily accessorized. The keychain charms wrapped around her waistband bounced with every step. Along with them were her necklaces and bracelets, which were just a bit too big for the girl. Once she saw Finn, she stopped in her tracks. She was out of breath, but kept her posture at a proper angle. ”So this one, then?” Finn hadn’t told Mary which Arcade they were going to, but Mary also didn’t stick around long enough for him to say, or even call back to confirm. ”The last time I went to an arcade, I think I was ten.” She placed her hands on her hips. ”I think I got a high score on a whack-a-mole game. But I think they had weasels instead for some reason.”
"Man, that long??" The boy's brow rose. "Well if you need any refreshers on some games, let me know. This place is legit!" His mouth quirked up to a grin as he opened the door for her. "After you!"
”Legit?” She stepped in ahead of Finn. ”Well, what did you want to play? I don’t really know what they’ve got to play.”
Finn thought for a moment. "They have racing games, rail shooters we could co-op, there's an air hockey table over there, crane games if you wanna test your luck on that..." He listed off, searching his pockets and wallet for some spare money. "There's some sports based ones like basketball or bowling in the back, and Pop the Lock if you wanna test your reflexes. I swear I always get close to the jackpot yet it somehow jukes me near the end." Surprisingly, he seemed genuinely excited to show her around. "Basically, there's alot if you wanna pick your poison! Can also pay for snacks if you're peckish, heheh!"
”I bet I could get a portal inside the prize machine somehow. Those are usually scams anyway.” With a chuckle, she walked towards the video part of the arcade shop.. ”But why don’t we try a rail shooter? Cooperating with you has been, pleasant, in the past.”
"Sure thing, I'll get us set up!" He followed behind Mary, of course.
There were a few light gun games to pick from, but the one that captured the attention of the mirror witch the most was “Blood of Cthulhu,” A game involving some of her favorite themes. Unfortunately, it looked like the side of the cabinet had a chinese mobster getting blown away by an explosion, and hurting minorities was something Mary couldn’t stand, so she moved onto the next cabinet. “STAR LANCER 2” was at least good enough to get a sequel, and the only thing to shoot were robots and aliens, so it was good in Mary’s book.
”We can play this one, Fable.” While Finn searched his pockets, Mary turned to look at him. ”So you’re doing alright Fable? Nothing weird going on?”
Honestly, what kinda game was that if it had chinese gangsters of all things? Maybe if the gangs had ties with the occult or a deadass secret murder cult you'd have to eventually face, then sure, that'd make some sense. But with a name like Blood of Cthulhu, you'd expect it to be a bit more in ties with Lovecraftian Horror, like what Mary seemed to be into. Maybe if she can visit his house, they could play some console games. Survival and Horror seem to go hand in hand after all.
Putting his internal rant aside, Fable luckily had some leftover quarters from last time. If anything he could always get more, but it's a good start. Then Mary asked if he was doing okay. He looked back up at her. "Hm? Oh, yeah I've been holding up. Recently had been assigned to inspect a clinic thralls were last seen at." He stepped over and put in enough quarters for the both of them.
”So just normal esper stuff then?” Mary didn’t say much else. Once Finn paid they both picked up their light guns, which were attached to the cabinet. An opening cinematic started to play, scrolling text besides images of aliens and robots laying waste to innocent bystanders. It was not an original plot, but the graphics were pretty, at least. ”We can talk about it over snacks later, then.” They were about to play a game after all. This might have been the first time they did something together that was supposed to be fun. They weren’t going to the hospital or hunting for clues, they weren’t even in their esper forms. But even now, they were preparing to defend earth from some otherworldly threat. After the cutscene ended, the gameplay started.
The level started in a panicked city. It just took a few seconds for all the civilians to find cover before the aliens showed up. They spilled onto the screen, brandishing blasters straight out of a vintage sci-fi comic. The plastic guns that Finn and Mary held were no different.
”They can’t be that advanced.” She said while raising her gun. Her bracelets jingled a bit as she did so. ”They all have the same skin color.”
Finn merely shrugged. He would've said something too, but his focus was solely on taking as much aliens out on his side of the screen as possible.
”I-it was just a joke!” She said. Mary had no problem talking, but her gunmanship wasn't as good as Finn's. Then again, he also had a lot more experience at this than she did. She was unaware that he was aiming for the side of the screen, and was just trying to shoot whatever came up. They hadn't been hit yet, but there were a fair number of aliens on the screen now. It may have been the first level, but it was a doosie. ”Why is my score only half of yours?” An alien with a shotgun aimed at Mary, who also raised her pistol to shoot the offending creature. They both registered each other's presence and fired. The alien blew up in a cloud of glitter, but Mary lost one of her lives. ”He did not hit me! I was way over-” The aliens started to scatter as the next leg of the level opened up. A tank drove through a wall and several robots started to climb out of the woodwork. ”There's too many of them!”
"Tch!" Seeing Mary was having trouble, Finn changed tactics and aimed closer to her side. "We can do this, okay? Aim for the weak points, watch for any power-ups and keep them away from you at all costs!" He said, starting to take out several of the robots. "Might have to take that tank out too, get ready!"
”Okay!”
With Finn's guidance, Mary was able to get her side of the screen under control. The robots were trickier to deal with as they did have special weakpoints that needed to be hit, but their flashing red appendages were an obvious clue for what needed to be shot. ”Got him!” Mary was doing better, and because she was doing better, Finn was doing better! They were avoiding damage while dealing with a considerable number of enemies on the screen. Wave after wave of generic robot was destroyed, but it happened, Finn's worst fear realized.
No, this was something even he didn't fully forsee.
The tank... was the head of a giant mecha!
"AW COME ON!"
It stood up, revealing arms and legs loaded with weapons. Everything was powering up while weakpoints all over the mech started flashing, begging to be taken out. But which ones to destroy first? And now the aliens and robots seemed to have joined forces and were attacking together. The clock was ticking, but Mary was keeping her cool.
”A dog?”
Sure enough, a dog was weaving through the enemy hoard. Though it was on Finn's side of the screen, and was for him to deal with. Despite everything going on, it decided to sit next to a demolished car and look at Finn, panting with a happy expression on its face.
The out of place dog was just a distraction. Nothing more, nothing less. Atleast that's what the boy told himself. Could be a hidden xenomorph for all he knew, or just the main characters' faithful companion. As long as it only watched them decimate their foes, it's presence was fine.
Hah. Almost reminded him of Parr...
"I'll handle the mecha, think you can cover me?" Finn asked Mary, firing at the weakpoints around it's arms first.
”On it!”
The girl was really getting into this lazer gun game. She was was starting to react to things on screen. She’d try to duck under lazer fire that flew over head, and became more vocal. Sometimes she was even telling Finn what to do.
…But that dog was still there, innocently wagging it’s tail. It inched closer to the screen, and Finn could swear it winked at him. But he wasn’t sure…
...
Just a trick of the eye, that's all! Y-Yeah, it couldn't have winked at him, it's just a part of the game's program. He wasn't supposed to shoot it...right?? God, virtual or not, that'd be a new low he didn't want to reach. Finn was starting to lose focus cause of that dog, his crosshair on screen straying away from it's intented target once or twice. Don't freak out, just keep going at it!
Yet his eyes kept darting between the dog and the mecha. Was it always part of the game?
He didn't know. While Finn had played all of the machines at least once, he was not always fortunate enough to do so with a friend. This tank boss usually just stayed as a tank in single player mode. It wasn't uncommon for easter eggs or special mechanics to activate when playing games multiplayer. Noob Smoke was a rather infamous example of such mechanics. But something as strange as this dog? On level 1? It didn't look too strange in the game, it was just uncommon for friendly characters to stay on the screen for more than a few seconds.
The dog grinned, and it's ears curled like a devil's horns.
Joining the robots and aliens on screen were imps with pitchforks. It didn't matter that the boss had been defeated. The mecha collapsed to the ground, on for it to rip off its metal bits. Beneath its metalic exterior was a demon as black as night, with a head that looked like the skull of a horse or dear.
”Wow! These aliens are more diverse than I thought!” Mary giggled.
Finn on his end wasn't so amused.
In fact, he felt mortified that his uncertainty could've been an undoing. It was just a dog. It was just a dog! Not a-
His eyes widened at the next wave of enemies. Familiar enemies. What the hell, what did imps have to do with a sci-fi themed video game?! He didn't think much of them or their weapon choice.
...Until the mecha revealed it's "second form". Call it deja vu, but he couldn't stave off his dread any longer.
"Chernobog."
Finn didn't even think twice about shooting it down.
Finn fired at the boss’s new form, but it did no good. Unlike the boss prior, this one had no flashing areas to denote its weak points. The only things in the game that didn’t have weak points were enemies that went down in one hit regardless of where you shot them, and indestructible targets such as those that appeared during cutscenes and the background. Which meant…
The mighty demon pulled back its fist. Its imps gathered around just as his hand surged forward. It moved with the speed and power of a locomotive, and shattered the game screen. Shards of glass flew past Finn and Mary as the imps made their way into the arcade.
They poked at the other arcade games with their pitchforks, causing them to start play. Though these game, too, seemed to have more demons inside of them. The other arcade goers seemed oblivious to this, and even welcomed the idea of playing a game without needing to purchase a play first.
But Chernobog, as Finn had taken to calling him, gripped the side of the arcade cabinet and pulled himself towards the screen. As he came near, he pushed on either side of the screen, rupturing the arcade cabinet and opening the rift into the game world wider and wider.
Mary lowered her gun. ”I don’t think these are going to work on it.”
Finn was already transforming as she spoke. He snarled at the demon. "Decided to try again, asshat?!" This felt too real to be another dream. He made sure Jan was dead! No, this time the bastard decided to follow him into his turf, and he wasn't letting it go without a fight. The mechanical esper snapped his head over to Mary. "So much for a break, I'm so sorry!" He frowned, getting into a battle stance.
Mary nodded, and she too changed into her esper form. But the fist of a mighty demon fired out of the game and smashed into her chest, sending her reeling away.
"MARY!" The Timekeeper cried out, unable to stop it from separating the two in time.
"Doth thou truly think bluster works in mine presence?" Chernobog withdrew his hand and forced hole into his world open. Many more of him were starting to break through other screens around the arcade. Civilians panicked and ran for their lives, but the imps were hot on their trail. They wouldn’t all make it, even with Finn’s help. "Thou hath a penchant for unwise actions. Leaving Betty at the diner, assisting the Mavericks, letting the thralls escape. Thy judgements are flawed, oh pursuer of truth!" He broke off a wall inside the video game world and chucked it at Finn.
I-It talks?!
And it seems to know the boy more than he wished it did. He quickly dodged out of the way of the virtual wall at him. "How do you-?! Just, what are you?!" Finn barked back at the demon, holding his weapon in both his hands and trying to remain calm.
Even when he could feel his heart racing.
"You already know."
But while Finn did well to evade the wall, a second hand from a different Chernobog seized him. Its fingers enveloped him before dragging him towards a racing game. He let out a frightened yelp, and he tried his damnest to free himself.
"Thou is unskilled, so thou hath taken to being apprenticed by other espers. A sensible choice, me thinks. Pray tell, oh seeker of truth, if thou doth wish to save lives, why doth thou surround thyself with such unsavory characters? "
The fingers tightened around the boy. He could feel his shoulder popping out of its socket.
Finn hissed in pain, struggling against the demon's grip. "T-The hell do you mean?! They're my friends! The Mavericks was a one time thing, I couldn't let GEMINI go after Justin without me! They could've killed Betty!!" He tried to defend himself, and ignore the constricting pain threatening to crush him whole.
"If thou art willing to die by thine choices, mayhaps mine wisdom is wasted on one such as you." The demon began squeezing even harder. "Get thee gone!"
…
…
…
But Finn would not be crushed in the grasp of a demon. He would find himself waking up in a fairly tight hug. Mary was bear hugging him from behind while her puppet was giving him… Mouth to mouth?
"I don’t have lungs, you know? And there’s only so much melodies can do. You might have to kiss him instead!" Denny grinned.
”Don’t be so-.” By this point, Mary noticed that Finn was awake. She let go of his arms and stepped around him. ”Fable! Are you okay?” She cast her gaze at the floor. ”I’m, I’m glad you don’t need to be resuscitated!” She lifted her head back up. ”Did you drink enough today? You passed out while we were playing.”
It was...another dream? Nightmare?
It took Fable a moment to process everything, but he didn't need a second to pull Mary into a hug in return. The real one. The boy's small body trembled in...fear. He couldn't deny it, he was afraid.
What would the demon want with him? What did it mean by it's "wisdom"? He couldn't trust it. It was just another monster. But he had to figure out just what it is before...
"I-I'm so sorry."
”Um!” Mary didn’t struggle out of Finn’s grasp. Her cheeks were turning a light shade of red, but she seemed to be willing to let the boy hug her for as long as he wanted. ”You’re fine Fable! It happens! I think, ah, why don’t we sit down with some snacks?” She dusted some sand off of her dress.
Once Finn had calmed down, Mary found a discreet place to go back to her normal outfit before buying some snacks. She seemed to be from a wealthy family too, unless it was common for kids to be carrying around fifty dollar bills. She fed one into a machine and let Finn select some things for them to eat. Once she recovered the rest of her money, she took fable over to a table and sat down with him.
”So let me tell you what happened.” Mary folded her arms. ”You just kind of fell asleep standing up. I was concerned of course, so I found a place to transform before looking over you again. A purify spell didn’t do anything, so I tried a dispel melody out of sheer desperation. Some sand blew off of you, and you woke up shortly afterwards. ” She eyed Finn up and down. ”You don’t look like you’re hurt. You kind of woke up with a start though, were you dreaming?”
Even once he calmed down, the boy still felt a bit out of it. He took several bites of his chips as Mary explained what happened to him, and the mention of sand caused his brows to rose.
"I-If you can call it a dream." He answered with a nod. "But I didn't expect the damn sandman to be the culprit of all things. ...Well, whatever knocked me out." Fable frowned slightly. "I told you what happened at the Date Night job, didn't I?"
”That was a bit ago…” Mary raised a hand to her chin, but not before eating a chocolate raisin. ”You went to some dingy hole in the wall kind of place, and one of the waitresses was a succubus that preyed on people in their sleep.” She sighed. ”But you killed her, right? So she couldn’t have done it this time. Also, didn’t her magic cause you to sleepwalk?”
"I literally double tapped her by a stab in the heart, so she shouldn't be still alive. Had to be someone else." He shook his head, pulling out his phone to look up what kind of demon Chernobog was. "What I'm trying to refer to is something that happened during the dream realm. A demon appeared when I got sucked into that. I dubed him Chernobog, but never looked into it asides from a brief Google search with Klava. Barely know about 'em, shrugged it off as a part of the bog man's dream realm or my stress. Until now." His frown seemed to worsen as he looked back to Mary.
"He appeared again. He tried to kill me, even when I transformed I couldn't fight back."
”But it seems like it’s a different type of magic, right?” Mary gestured towards the floor. ”You were sleepwalking before, and now you were totally unconscious. Not to mention the copious amounts of sand that was on you.” Mary groaned. ”That demon, did it talk to you in your original dream? I’m kind of unsettled that whatever did this was able to just attack you out of the blue. You had to have been hit by a spell of some sort, otherwise…”
"It just tried to crush me first back then. Whatever it could've said to me, I didn't have time to hear it when Klava needed help." Fable explained, going back to researching.
"Unless the sand was some bullshit method of him getting into my skull, who knows? This might not be the last time I see him."
”The sand is a hint, at least. You’re Gemini now, and they have info on a lot of monsters I’m told.” Mary smiled. ”You need to find out how this is happening to you. I would be very careful about where you go, and definitely watch out for sand. Maybe even that seedy diner would be worth revisiting.” She frowned. ”And um, Klava was with you when you slew the succubus, right?”
He simply nodded in response.
”And, you haven't been able to get in touch with her, right?”
"Yeah...?" He hesitantly nodded.
”...I don't really need to spell out the possibility that, you know...”
What she was implying slowly dawned on him. Klava was... S-She's...
Finn suddenly felt light headed, quickly holding onto his chair for support. She couldn't be. She couldn't be dead! She couldn't! Not after he had grown attached to someone he saw as a mentor!! That's selfish of you, damnit! Why?!
...Why again...?
He didn't do anything about the tears threatening to form. Though it was clear enough, the poor guy was panicking.
Mary blushed again, but she looked a lot more nervous this time. ”H-hey! Hey! she might have been captured! We don't know anything for sure yet! I mean-” Mary pointed at Finn with both hands, using every finger. ”We don't know what this thing is capable of. So just, you know? You like investigative work right? Whoever did this clearly knows about the job you did, so I'd look into that.”
"B-But last I saw her was the raid against Justin, not-!"
The boy took a moment to calm down. After what had happened, he really didn't need the added dread. He was already anxious by default. "Right...Right, I meant to catch you up to speed with everything." With a deep breath he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry, Mary. I was looking forward to showing you around this place, y'know? Maybe make this a frequent hangout besides the dinner." He softly told her, feeling like an idiot now. He sheepishly looked away. "Can't believe this didn't go well either...
Mary smiled and looked off to the side. "We did beat that level, you know?" She looked back to Finn. "I mean, some kids had to finish what we started, but they were able to clear the first level. If you had been awake for five more seconds, we probably would have beaten it." She took a bite out of a candy bar before letting out a squeal of pleasure, "It is a nice place to come. I like The Great Escape, but the espers haven’t discovered this place yet. Just a nice place to go and forget about it all for a moment, you know?" Mary took a moment to observe her surroundings. "But you’re a bit too popular to hide from the public eye now. But you have lots of friends you can rely on, so don’t be afraid to use them. That’s me, the GEMINI guys and girls…" Her smile got wider. "It was a little more exciting than I wanted, but I did have a lot of fun tonight."
He nervously chuckled. "Y-Yeah, not sure how that happened either. It just did." He smiled sweetly back at Mary. "But I'm glad you had fun."
The girl nodded. "Maybe next date, I'll take you some place I really like."
The boy tilted his head. "Anything in mind??"
Mary's face, for the third time tonight, got a little more red. "Oh, just a nice place to eat. I want it to be a suprise." After staring into Finn's eyes for a moment, she sat up a bit straighter. "Fable?" She folded her hands together. "How would you describe our relationship?"
"Honestly? ...I don't know." Finn answered truthfully. "Not exactly experienced with the complicated stuff in relationships. I do know that I care for you and trust you, e-even if we got off on the wrong foot at first." He lightly scratched his cheek. "Just, whatever we may be, I'm here for you."
Mary nodded. "Well... Alright." With a huff, she turned to look at the light gun game that they had been playing. "Looks like they couldn't beat the second level. I bet we could if you tried again."
"And hopefully not faint again." With a shrug of his shoulders, he got up from his seat. "Night's still young, why not make the most of it?" He smiled, ready to head back to the game.
