The Pause [Adopted Book]

A Kind of Friend

Cycle 5872 Notes:

I'm not quite sure what to do about Hypno.

Since we've started this whole thing, I've been trying to keep the timeline as stable as possible. I've even built a house far from any steve civilization, one completely untouched by steves. But Hypno? He has no caution at all. I don't know how I'm supposed to explain what happened to Time once the loop begins again.

Today I caught him messing with the Desert Steves again. He kept swapping around their dye storage, making it difficult for them to find the right color when they wanted it. He even messed with one poor steve so much that he built a pyramid out of every color of concrete instead of the solid purple it was supposed to be. When the hypnosis lifted, the Desert Steve started to panic and dismantle the whole thing, but it took another two hours for him to rebuild the pyramid. Hypno was laughing the entire time, even when I told him off.

This isn't the first time he's done this kind of thing. He'll mess with every steve he comes across. Most of the time they're just harmless pranks, but he doesn't bother to hide his tracks or apologize to the people he tricks. I don't know what to do to make him stop. It's getting out of hand.

Update:

I found him sitting on a hillside, watching over the Red Kingdom. I stayed nearby to make sure he wasn't going to pull another prank, but he just sat there, watching all the Red Steves trade in the marketplace. He seemed almost... sad. We didn't talk about it afterward, but I get the feeling he misses the original timeline. I know I do.

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I still felt the dull throbbing of a headache when I woke up again. My hand went to rub at my temple as I groggily sat up, feeling stiff from lying still for so long. The room tilted a little on its axis, but eventually settled into an upright position. The last remains of sickness were beginning to wear off, leaving me only to feel the hunger and thirst and stiffness in every cell of my body. I needed to get some breakfast.

But first things first, the clothes I was wearing were dirty. It had been several days since I last showered and changed, and since I was due to meet up with Hypno today, it was necessary that I cleaned up. So I quickly took a hot shower, which effectively cleared a lot of my stiffness, then dried off and went to my closet to change.

Since I wasn't really leaving the house today, I didn't need to masquerade as the Judge. Instead, I put on simpler clothing: a long sleeved green shirt and blue jeans. I tugged on my sturdy black boots from yesterday, then rummaged in the drawer of my nightstand until I pulled out what I was looking for. The polished golden pocket watch was given to me by Time Steve, right before I left to create Origin for the first time. I didn't know whether or not it was accurate anymore, given all the time alterations it had been through, but it was all I really had to remember Time, so I kept it with me anyway. His brother, Elemental Steve, had also given me a gift. But the messenger bag was a strange thing to wear inside unless I was moving things from room to room, so I left it alone in the drawer.

I walked up to the kitchen and brought out some bread and sweetberries. Toast with sweetberry jam was one of the things Time used to cook back when we lived together, and it was good for when I didn't have much appetite. Sure, I knew theoretically I should be starving after three days without eating a thing, but as soon as I actually had food in front of me, it was a feat to eat at all. After managing two slices of toast and a bottle of water, I walked up to the front door. In an hour or so, Hypno would be waiting for me.

Hypno was the only one I could really talk to about the loop. At first, I didn't even know he had come through with me, but eventually he started to bug me whenever we ran across each other. I had told him to go away and leave me alone, but he continued to show up. Although at first he was fairly hostile, eventually he would seek me out just to talk. He used to love reminiscing about M together. Then, when I told him where my house was, we began to talk about more and more.