Paradoxcicle

Overflow

He passed everyone still stood in the entrance room without a word, although he caught the confused looks he was getting from them. Ranboo looked like he understood, somehow. It was only when he was at the top of the stairs that the one following him spoke up and stopped him.

"That was not what I told you to do."

Xiv was stood halfway up the stairs, glaring up at Charlie. He could only guess they were referring to that 'promise', or whatever it was, that Charlie would apologise to Gillion. That felt so long ago now.

"Why do you care what I say to him? I know how I made you. You didn't get dragged down by caring about people."

"Don't tell me who I am," it was the angriest he'd ever seen them, "I cared about my friends. I cared enough about the one I lost that it hurt. You're far less than that if you don't even care about how you're hurting him."

There it was. Yet another thing that made his own characters better than him. The list never fucking ended.

"Stop getting involved."

Xiv suddenly looked shocked, but Charlie didn't linger on their expression long. He was just appreciative they didn't try and talk to him any more as he went to his room and slammed the door.

The clothes he was going to wear to dinner were still on the bed. For some reason, when Charlie saw them, he started to cry.

~

Ms Gilbert's class were back on the road again, in search of a place to spend the night. It was already pretty late, but Ms Gilbert wasn't going to have them all sleeping in the dirt.

Mr Perfect offered to pay for them all to go to a hotel, and although Ms Gilbert wasn't sure their money worked in this place they'd ended up in, she very much appreciated the offer. They still needed to find a hotel before that point, though. Which brought them to their meeting with the next unusual character.

"Oh, well fancy that! Y'all heard the news and came runnin', did ya?" a man approached them- which was immediately very strange, because the few people out here at night had tended to stay as far from their group as they could.

"I don't think we heard any news..." Chad took a step back from the man. Wait, did he look a little like Chad? That was kind of weird.

"Well everyone's gonna be hearin' it soon! Green gold, I tell ya! Right under our noses!"

"What exactly is this green gold thing?" Ms Gilbert asked warily.

"Is it, uh, y'know..." Chad looked left and right, "consumable?"

Ms Gilbert hit his shoulder, "Chad, this is not a drug deal!" she then turned and glared at the stranger, "at least I hope it isn't."

"Oh, green gold is better than any drugs, lemme tell ya," the man excitedly continued, "and y'know what? I'm feelin' nice, if y'all promise not to go spreadin' word I might show ya what I've found."

"Um, right. Could I quickly get your name first?" Ms Gilbert requested. Her eyes drifted between him and Chad and she added, "any relation to Chad here, by any chance?"

Chad quickly dismissed that theory, "I don't have any southern identical twins, that's for sure. I'm sure the similar looks are...coincidence."

"A name, huh?" the man started looking wistfully in the distance, "yeah, I used to have one of those. You wanna know what they used to call me? Big Duck, wrangler of the big bucks, that's what. It's been a long time, but maybe with this, I can finally feel like that title belongs again."

Ms Gilbert nodded, only half listening as she was noting something down. Chad looked over her shoulder.

"You're listing all our names?" he observed, "what, so you can report this guy to the feds later, or something?"