Maison Talo sat directly across from you in a quaint, but empty, café. He stared at you with that unsettling grin of his as you finished off the last of your sandwich, too transfixed on the food to care about his intense gaze. This was completely normal for an outing with Maison's lure- you ate, he stared, you both talked; he was pretty routine-oriented for a house-guy-person-thing.
You took one last sip of your coffee, finally satisfied enough to start conversation with your stiff friend. He tilted his head, wide smile on his face as he waited for you to speak.
His curiosity was peaked- you'd called him a week ago in a panic, suggesting that you both meet for lunch in a few days time. Such behavior wasn't normal coming from you; he was used to the calm, collected, and somewhat aloof demeanor you usually carried. Even now you looked restless, your fingers tapped against the table nervously before you finally began speaking.
"Maison...have you ever felt like you were going crazy?" You asked delicately, afraid that he might just laugh in your face and think you odd.
The purpose of this meeting was suddenly clear in his mind- your new ᑭET, who he knew better as the resident Regular Guy, had been affecting your reality. Maison sighed internally, he knew that your closeness with that obsessive oaf was going to detriment you at some point. He couldn't just outright tell you that though- if you were to discover that your beloved little companion was actually the object of your extreme affections...you'd immediately attach yourself to him, leaving Maison completely alone...
. . . ᗩ ᑎ ᗪ ᕼ E ᑕ O ᑌ ᒪ ᗪ ᑎ ' T ᕼ ᗩ ᐯ E T ᕼ ᗩ T , ᑎ O ᗯ ᑕ O ᑌ ᒪ ᗪ ᕼ E ?
Suddenly he came up with the perfect plan.
" 𝙼𝚈 𝙳𝙴𝙰𝚁 , 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 ? 𝙸𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚘 𝚄𝙽𝚂𝙰𝙵𝙴 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚑𝚢 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚖𝚎 ? 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚗𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜 , " he said charmingly, putting his best foot forward in hopes that you might agree to his sudden offer.
You seemed to consider it for a second, zoning out as you mulled it over in your head, but ultimately you couldn't bring yourself to agree. You weren't yet desperate enough to live inside of your best friend and it was just too much work to move all of your and your rat's belongings over.
Maison sighed in frustration- internally of course- but kept up his outward appearance, making sure not to skip a beat before asking you about your issues. You explained how off your week had been- from things disappearing and reappearing in other places to the literal hallucination you'd had of your dearly beloved standing in your bedroom. You continued, talking about the headaches you'd begun having the day this first started and that had, fortunately, faded away over the course of the past few days.
All in all, you were tired. Dealing with your own potential insanity could do that to a person, especially when you already lived in such a psychologically confusing place.
You stood up from your previously seated position, Maison following suit despite not knowing the purpose behind your sudden rising. You just looked at the floor and shuffled over to him, suddenly wrapping your arms around his torso and resting your head below his chin.
Maison's lure just stood stock still, not sure how to respond to this sudden display of affection. You helped him out, guiding his arms around you in a much-needed hug. Although you couldn't see it, his usual smile had drifted away- he was left with an expression of deep focus as he rested his chin on top of your head, making himself a little more comfortable in his current position.
You weren't sure what had spurred you to do something so outlandish but it felt right and you were severely touch-starved. Maison was your best friend, the person you trusted your life with (even if he was creepy and space-invading at times) and you couldn't help but look for comfort in him because honestly, who else did you have? After the John Doe hallucination incident, you'd begun coming to terms with the fact that your obsession with the man might be worsening your condition and had therefore taken a break from your usual stalking.
You separated from your embrace with Maison after a few more moments of being in the comfort of his cold arms, giving him a crooked smile before returning to your seat. He copied your actions, still seemingly deep in thought. Too much was flooding his brain to fully process it all so he turned his attention back to you, tilting his head to the side as he waited for you to do something.
You ordered another much-needed coffee.
Meanwhile, back with the rat pack, John Doe- in the flesh- was hanging out in your apartment. He'd wrapped himself in the blanket you usually slept with, nuzzling his face against it as he basked in the smell of you. Your rats were pretty okay with the weird man in their territory- he smelled like their new hairball friend so by proxy he was their friend too. Besides, the little rodents were too busy chewing your favorite book, The Watt Pad, into pieces to really care much about the skrunkly guy in the room.
Reality suddenly distorted and the room visibly creased with a flash of static before finally returning to normal. The only differences were that the TV had been turned on and that John Doe now sat on the couch, still coddled in your blanket, with a small jar of his favorite snacks: teeth. He snacked on them for a while, watching straight static on the screen of the TV.
Ratticus was perplexed- if the stinky wild man liked those little crunchy things then why couldn't he have some too? Said rat proceeded to crawl along the back of your couch until he was directly behind Doe, peering over the guy's shoulder and into the jar. A split second later, Ratticus was taking a swan dive into the jar of crunchy things, grabbing as many as possible and booking it before John could stop him.
Anticipating this attack, Doe reached his hand through the blanket and grabbed Ratticus by the tail, hanging him upside down and shaking him in an attempt to make him drop his stolen goods. The rat hissed and tried to wiggle away, accidentally dropping his hard-earned treats.
Ratticus couldn't believe the injustice. Quickly reaching into his back-rat-pocket, he pulled out a tiny pocket knife and began waving it towards John Doe in an attempt to threaten him. The eldritch being just deadpanned and tossed the rodent to the other side of the couch before snuggling further into his stolen blanket.
Ratricia had seen the whole thing go down and decided to go with a more peaceful tactic. She crawled up next to Doe and nudged his exposed hand, motioning towards his jar of teeth and begging. He considered her for a moment before grinning and giving in to her demands, placing a few little teeth onto the couch for the intelligent rodent.
Little did he know that his action was the equivalent of ringing a rat dinner bell- all the rats in the room immediately swarmed the couch, each stealing a tooth for themselves. Doe's grin widened; seeing the rodents munch happily on their treats made him happy too. He only wished that you could be that happy again- recently you'd been so caught up in worrying that you'd barely payed any attention to him.
An idea hit Doe.
If his favorite snacks made the rats happy, then he should share another one of his favorite things with you! That'd definitely make you super super SUPER happy!!!
Fortunately for you, he had just the thing.
You gave Maison another stiff hug before parting ways with your friend in front of your apartment complex. He'd been nice enough to offer to walk you home and you were quick to accept, still on edge about the whole 'going insane' thing.
It was nice talking to another sort-of-human being for once- you were so used to being around rodents and magical balls of hair that you'd almost forgotten what it felt like to actually get a verbal response to your questions. Not to mention that Maison was a good listener. He made you feel more sane.
You walked up to your apartment door and pulled out your key, opening it slowly. In a split-second, 8 small creatures were crawling up your legs and competing for your attention. You smiled sweetly, touched that your little companions had missed you so much.
The competition for your attention was quickly won by a wriggling little hairball, his hair-tendrils quickly wrapping around your arm as he latched himself onto you. You walked into the apartment and closed the door behind you, brushing your little parasite's hair as you moved.
Suddenly you remembered something. You walked into your kitchen area and checked the date in your rarely-used yearly planner. Looking back at your rats, you smirked. It was that time of week again...
...bath day.
Your smirk turned into an evil grin as you unlatched little Doe from your body, setting him down onto the counter while ignoring his little squeaks of protest. Julius Cheesar made the mistake of getting too close to you, having no time to react as you lunged for his tiny body and snatched him up as the first victim of bath time.
You laughed evilly, walking over to your bedroom door and pushing it open. Unfortunately, you wouldn't be making it to the bathtub tonight.
You took a single step into your bedroom and immediately stopped, feeling something squishy under your foot. You cringed, putting Julius down before reaching for the lightswitch and turning on your bedroom light. Later, you'd regret ever looking down.
A red, squishy blob of...something fleshy was strewn along your bedroom floor. You had no idea what it was and didn't stay long enough to find out, instead quickly turning around and slamming the door behind you.
This was the last straw, you couldn't deal with this on your own anymore. Shuddering, you walked back across your main room to the kitchen counter, making a beeline for your home phone and quickly punching in a few numbers.
Doe didn't understand why you were so frightened of his gift to you- he figured that if the rats liked his things then you would too; although in hindsight, trusting the opinion of a group of rats probably wasn't a great decision in general. Still, he felt remorseful. He crawled forward and approached your free hand, making an attempt to nuzzle it-
You gently pushed him away, rejecting his advances.
With this simple action, something within him snapped, sending electric sparks through his brain. He didn't handle rejection well and each second your interest diminished, his obsession grew- exponentially.
You spent the rest of the evening discussing the details of your imminent move-in with Maison Talo over the phone, rats nervously chittering around your clearly distressed form.
YOᑌ ᗯEᖇE ᔕO TIᖇEᗪ