The Red String: Tangled Up

Chapter 2 - All he knows to do is surviving

Nothing had changed.

The red string, as well as that unmistakeable feeling of dread, were still there.

If the situation wasn't as worrying, SMG4 would almost be insulted by the fact that his speech did nothing – even after he put on such a great performance. But he had other things than being under-appreciated by a string to worry about right now.

SMG4 was still immersed in his own thoughts, barely acknowledging the people talking around him, when he felt the small hand of Boopkins gently pulling at his sleeve to get his attention.

"Uhm SMG4? Are you okay? You don't look so good.." Boopkins asked, giving Four a worried look.

Boopkins question also drew the attention of the other two members of their group back to SMG4, who now examined him carefully.

"Yeah man, you look kinda pale" Meggy noted, squinting her eyes slightly "Are you hurt or something?"

"WHAT? No NO! I'm just uh.." SMG4 paused, struggling to come up with a believable reason for his apparent distress. "..uhm.. TIRED! From the day we had! Yeaah.. You know I'm not used to walking so much." He said, nervously laughing to himself.

It was rare that his laziness was ever beneficial to him, but in this moment, SMG4 was very thankful for it, because Meggy believed him without a second thought.
"True! And it is getting pretty late.." She pulled out her phone to check the time before noticing multiple unread messages.

"..Aaand also Red is getting hungry and we apparently ran out of spaghetti at home" Meggy chuckled, before putting her phone back in her pockets.

Red.

Maryo.

For the first time since seeing the red string tied around his finger, SMG4 was filled with a sense of calm. No matter what crazy stuff was happening around them, SMG4 could always rely on Maryo to be his usual goofy self.
As much as the red plumber annoyed him at times, it was also very reassuring to hear from him right now.

As long as Maryo was okay, the universe was at least not falling apart.

As long as Maryo was okay, there was a way out of this mess.

As long as Maryo was okay, SMG4 would be okay as well.

"Okay guys". Meggy clapped her hands together, interrupting SMG4's thoughts.
"Let's get home for the night."

But before SMG4 could agree, SMG3 spoke up.

"Wait what?" he asked, shifting his attention to Meggy. "Shouldn't we get rid of this string first?" he said, raising his left hand, to show the piece of string tied around his finger. "Getting rid of the effects of the trope lake was like.. the entire reason we came out here in the first place?!"

SMG4 shifted his attention to SMG3. As opposed to the ever cheerful Maryo, SMG3 always seemed to match SMG4 in focus and intelligence. It usually felt nice to have an intellectual equal, but right now, SMG4 would just prefer that everyone would forget about this situation so that he could fix it without anyone noticing.

Lucky for him, Meggy also seemed determined to get out of here, but for different reasons.
"Three, buddy, I don't know if you've noticed. But we're surrounded by complete darkness." She gestured around them, revealing that they really were in the middle of a dark forest, illuminated by nothing but the moonlight and the unnerving red glow of the strings around the Meme guardians fingers.

"It was chaotic enough figuring out how to deal with that fanfiction energy in the daylight, but Im not gonna run around this forest in the middle of the night." Meggy continued, as she stretched her arms.
"And besides, Im starting to get tireeeed"