e·phem·er·a
/əˈfem(ə)rə/
〝 things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time. 〞
GUIDE TO EPHEMERA
- ephemera is just a fancier word for "why are you indulging in something short-lived?"
- be careful of ephemera.
key
- trigger warnings!: obsessiveness, possessiveness, alcohol usage, harassment, mentions of kidnapping and murder.
PRESIDENTIAL HOUSE, MANBERG.
Y/N DID THEIR NIGHTLY routine, feeling happy to catch up on some good sleep. when they exited the bathroom, turning the lights off behind them, they felt like getting a glass of water.
you started to tread the dark hallways, easily making your way to the kitchen. the atmosphere felt crisp and empty as usual, the only sound being your small footsteps against the floor and the quiet humming of the refrigerator.
you reached up to the cabinet, getting a glass, and then pulled on the fridge door's handle, grabbing ice and water before turning around. once you took a few steps forward, you felt an intense grasp wrap around your wrist, fingernails slowly digging into your skin to create crescent moons.
you winced, squeezing your eyes shut out of instinct for a moment. you felt your heart racing, hearing the person touching you breathing heavily beside you. you opened your eyes and turned your head to be met with sapnap, his broad figure slightly towering over you with a frightening face.
he leaned forward so you could view him better, looking down at you with eager eyes and a sloppy grin sprawled out on his lips. you looked into his eyes, feeling unsettled by the deranged glimmer and the way his irises pulsated intensely.
his breathing became unnatural, his heart rate irregular as he stared down at you. your eyes widened in fear. "sapnap... please l-let me go.." you nervously let out in a whisper. in your attempt to pull your wrist away, sapnap's face contorted into an angry scowl, gripping on tighter and pulling you back into him.
you bumped into his chest, letting out a small yelp as he unexpectedly wrapped his arms around you into a bear hug, making you bask in his warmth uncomfortably without permission. he let out a quiet squeal out of excitement. "oh y/n! how i've missed you!" sapnap exclaimed, a giddy smile spread out on his face.
he squeezed you a bit tighter, slightly swaying while you were in his arms before pulling away to look at you, still holding you. you saw how he looked at you with full adoration, his infatuated eyes practically reflecting in the small amount of moonlight from the window—there was so much gloss that it looked like he was about to cry out of happiness.
"y-you look absolutely stunning.." he let out, swallowing hard as he continued to stare at you, making you anxious. sapnap quickly shook his head, seemingly snapping out of his trance and flashing you a friendly smile. "i just came here to get you."
"w-what?" you asked confused, your eyebrows scrunching together slightly. you felt the reverberations against sapnap's chest as he let out some excited giggles. "oh y/n! you're so funny and pretty and cute. i came here to get what is mine." as he said that, his eyes suddenly flashed over, a more sinister look becoming prominent, complementing his toothy grin in the creepiest way possible.
"you've always belonged with me. now you'll be coming with me to greater dream smp. where you should've been in the first place." right when he said that, you felt him trying to lift you off the floor so he could carry you. you started to panic and immediately responded with attacking him, taking the glass of water in your hand and wacking him in the top of his head as hard as possible.
it seemed to do the trick as he quickly let go of you, letting you slip away from his grasp. before turning to run away, you caught a glimpse of him cursing out in pain as he held his head in his hands. you were surprised to see that the glass didn't break on his head but rather, it broke and shattered when it hit the kitchen floor. when sapnap saw you run, he looked down the hall at your figure with devilish eyes, growling from his chest in anger.
"DON'T YOU RUN FROM ME!" he screamed out, pouncing forward and beginning to pedal his legs as fast as he could, trying desperately to catch up to you while you continued to swiftly turn down hallway after hallway with pure adrenaline pumping through your veins. you could feel heavy footsteps syncing in with yours, reverberating against the castle floors.
you felt hot tears about to slip down your eyes. you hated this new feeling that brewed up in your stomach, making its way to the entirety of your body. it was a crazed feeling that always reminded you that someone was after you.. and not in the way where paranoia slowly eats you. in the way that it all comes to life, being able to take you away from everyone.
"OH Y/N! BABY JUST QUIT RUNNING AND COME TO ME! YOU LOVE ME! I'LL PROTECT YOU!"
his words rang around in your head as your legs ached, echoing against the walls. you past by all of the fine art hung on the walls, each portrait and sculptures' face staring down at you in disappointment. you decided to let out a few screams whenever your peripheral vision was able to catch the knight in pursuit right behind you, reminding you to never stop moving.
you prayed that this was some sick nightmare. that you'd wake up in your room or next to quackity, him being able to comfort you. but it wasn't. the feeling only got worse as you couldn't cut sapnap from your tail. you can smell his desperation for you from feet away. his utter sickness over you. that was the true nightmare of all.
when you went to turn a certain corner, you almost tripped. however, you felt yourself being caught, wrapped within someone else's warm embrace. you wanted to scream, but your instincts told you to hold it in as you heard the person's voice console you. "shhhh i got you." you heard fundy quickly whisper while he dragged you into a dark room, running just as fast as you were earlier.
when sapnap reached the corner you last turned, he stopped in his tracks, looking down the hall. he was confused by the fact that he couldn't find your figure anywhere. there's no way i lost them he thought.
he slowly reached in his pocket and took out a pocket knife, flicking the blade out. the hyperventilating, the menacing eyes almost boggling out of his head, the knife gripped tightly in his hands—he looked like the prime recipe of a psychopath.
he inched slowly within the hallway, staring at all of the closed doors. "baby please give me a sign. where are you?" he said aloud in agony, followed by a short groan as he quickly wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead. before he could continue his search for you, he got scared by a sudden presence making its way in the hallway.
"ayyyy man!" quackity exclaimed loudly, bumping into sapnap, almost making him drop his pocket knife. sapnap quickly scrambled, putting the knife away and brushing himself off. "o-oh hey alex!" sapnap said back, watching quackity in a bit of confusion.
quackity was stumbling, not being able to walk in a straight line as he held onto the wall for support, bringing the glass of alcohol in his hand to his lips and sipping it eagerly. he let out a satisfied exhale as he swished the ice in his drink around, then looked back up at sapnap.
"oi you want one?" quackity let out, laughing as he stepped towards sapnap with his arm extended, holding his glass towards the knight as if he was toasting with him. "u-um no thank you.." sapnap stammered out, feeling uncomfortable seeing quackity drunk.
quackity cheered and then wrapped his arm around sapnap's shoulders. "cmon man! loosen up! it's ex-clu-siveeee chardonnay from king's office!" quackity slurred out syllables while talking. sapnap tried to act natural to get out of the situation, chuckling along with the beanie-wearing butler.
"no thank you! really, i'm fine." sapnap said, faking a smile with his hands up in surrender, taking steps out of quackity's embrace. quackity let out a loud burp. "allllllllright mr. party pooper!" he posed weirdly while talking with his free hand on his hip, leaning to the side towards sapnap at a sloppy attempt at looking intimidating.
this pose caused quackity to unknowingly throw his alcohol at sapnap, staining the knight's outfit. sapnap recoiled, looking down at his now alcohol-soaked outfit. he glared at quackity who was laughing.
sapnap huffed out in anger, clenching his fists before fast-walking away from the drunk butler, his frustration building up. he turned down the halls, trying to find the way he came back from while also being on the lookout in case he came across you. as much as he wanted to look for y/n, he felt pissed off and impatient, causing him to go home.
——- ——- ——-
GREATER DREAM SMP.
KARL, FUNDY, Y/N, AND QUACKITY sat at their usual booth in the restaurant, eating breakfast in a quiet atmosphere as they discussed the events that happened last night in the presidential house.
to your luck, fundy and quackity were able to save you from sapnap. fundy dragged you into a secret room, hiding you far away from the hallways until him and quackity searched the halls and found no trace of sapnap's presence.
quackity, on the other hand, put his acting skills to the test, acting drunk in order to distract sapnap and drive him away. to his surprise, it definitely worked. when fundy and quackity woke up last night to hear your screams, they first went to check king's office, seeing if they can inform king of an intruder.
unfortunately, it wasn't a surprise to see king hungover again for the... well, they didn't keep track of the nights since it was useless (just like king), but nevertheless, it started happening frequently due to the oncoming political shambles with wilbur and pogtopia. they were upset and angry to see king knocked out on his desk, a bottle of whiskey held close to his lap.
so quackity and fundy acted quick, formulating a random plan while rushing in the dark hallways. it seems that king wouldn't even care anymore since he was still knocked out by morning.
overall, karl was overwhelmed to hear about sapnap's luckily failed attempt to kidnap you. he felt like he was at war with himself since he promised to protect you. but then again, it wasn't his fault that so many people just clicked in with obsessing over you.. and not in a good way. it scared him.
karl reached out from under the table to hold your hand, you accepting the physical touch as quackity and fundy talked on the subject, the two of you listening while squeezing each other's hands for reassurance. karl kept glancing over at you with nothing but concern and care in his eyes, wishing that you didn't have to live in manberg like this.
maybe i could find a reality where you live here peacefully and live there instead karl dreamed in his mind for a little more than a second before snapping that thought. he dedicated himself to protect you and he's gotten this far. he can't stop now.
"so how will we deal with sapnap... or any other intruders for that matter?" quackity questioned, looking around to meet everyone's eyes with seriousness. karl swallowed, looking away from everyone's gazes for a moment as he continued to play with your hand from under the table for comfort.
everyone fell silent, sometimes taking slow bites over the food in front of all of you, but overall, you were all deep in thought. even you didn't know if there was a solution to end such obsessiveness. that was what everyone was thinking, all their thoughts drawing to a blank, until you looked next to you to see fundy's lips moving, saying something very quietly.
clearly, everyone else also caught onto the tiny reverberations of fundy's voice, karl and quackity laying their gazes on the ginger butler sitting next to you. "what did you say?" quackity asked softly, trying not to alarm fundy.
fundy looked up, meeting everyone's eyes with a slightly worried look. he seemed to contemplate what to say as he looked at you, looking down and sighing quietly. "hey y/n, can you please give us some privacy for a bit? nothing against you! i-i just-" "something you don't want me to hear?" you interjected, making fundy nod reluctantly.
you slowly let go of karl's hand, reaching next to you to squeeze fundy's wrist softly in reassurance. "it's alright, fundy. i understand. you guys have been talking before i got here anyways. it's none of my business." you stated, nodding towards quackity and karl.
fundy seemed to feel less tense, his shoulders dropping slightly. he got up from his seat, giving you room to get out of the inside of the booth and go to the bathroom. when fundy sat back down, his eyes met the curious faces of quackity and karl.
"what did you wanna say that you didn't want y/n to hear?" karl asked, easing fundy. the ginger sighed, scratching his neck nervously before staring back at the two men across from him with a newly ominous shade in his eyes. "let's kill him."
.
CHAPTER SOUNDTRACK.
MIAMI - KALI UCHIS FT. BIA.
although the real meaning behind this song has empowerment under its lyrics, the lyrics talk about negative sexual themes and comparing them to trafficking that has been happening in miami. some of these lyrics relates to the situation because it uses irony to say that miami looks good on the outside when it's really not—same goes for sapnap's intentions. he says he wants to love you with everything he's got but you know the deal by now. a yandere is never healthy with their obsessions.
PREVIEW LYRICS.
Ain't here to be cute, I ain't here to impress
(No, no, no, no, no)
You know why I'm calling, I'm here to collect
(You now what I came for, I'm here to collect)
They look at me funny when I write a check
'Cause they assumed I would be paying in sex
(Miami, Miami)
And I was looking for a job, and then I found one
(I found one)
He said he'd want me in his video like Bound 1
(Like Bound 1)
But why would I be Kim? I could be Kanye
In the land of opportunity and palm trees.
——- ——- ——-
A/N.
WHEN AUTHOR SPEAKS.
this chapter is a parallel to chapter xxiii (oleander) from gardener. i mean karl did travel to a parallel universe after all
w.c.: 2.5k+