(tw for graphic panic attacks, visual and auditory hallucinations, and eyes(dunno if that requires a tw but there are eyes- you'll see what I'm talking about)
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_Project: Shimmer_
Entry. ??????????????? ##/##/####
#-#-+++;$;$((#(#+;;#;;$? ......+=¢[[¢[¢=++#.....
-The rest of the entry is barely legible, the file corruption distorting the letters making them impossible to read.-
-But through the jumble of letters and numbers it's very easy to tell that the author wasn't very happy when writing it.-
-The only readable word in the entire entry is "Shimmer"-
-Its unknown as of now what that is meant to mean.-
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In all honesty Mephone probably should have suspected something was wrong the moment the final four stumbled through the door.
Mephone glanced between the five of them, feeling surrounded. He looked at Test Tube's face, her worry almost matching his own. His brain immediately started thinking of possible reasons for this confrontation, ranging from the completely impossible to the scarily accurate, at least to him anyway.
He must have done something wrong his brain concluded as he pressed his back into the chair. If he could sink into that chair and disappear forever he would have. Test Tube said they found something out- what did they know? Did they know about what went on in his nightmares? Did they somehow know about him?
Mephone scanned the group again, the cold grey eyes of Cobs(?) Staring at him through the small crowd was the only thing he could focus on. God- why couldn't he just leave him alone.
It seemed after Test Tube said those first few words she didn't prepare anything to say afterwards as she struggled with her words. She stood there, fidgeting with her hands, and for a long moment there was just silence between the five contestants and Mephone. Mephone now decided he absolutely detested pure silence because Test Tube's open ended statement swirled in his head like a dust devil and flat out refused to leave him be.
Test Tube stuttered before groaning and adjusting her glasses, she seemed to fiddle with them a lot when stressed Mephone noted. Test Tube sighed, looking between the four and Mephone himself before finally starting up again. "Do you remember the mining challenge? Mepad and Toilet said you were out of commission during it, so I've been wondering if you were even aware of the challenge assignment."
Mining challenge? He definitely didn't remember that. Did she mean when he was rebooting? Mepad said they covered it but he never said what they actually ended up doing. "I- no." Mephone replied. "No I was probably unconscious the whole time, Mepad said he had it covered." Test Tube raised an eyebrow. "So, that's what he meant by "out of commission" then."
Test Tube seemed to ponder Mephone's words before shaking her head and continuing. "While you were unconscious I found a glowing blue gem in that cave near the contestant grounds, does that sound familiar to you?" Mephone's eyes widened, the Gemories. Mephone knew where this was going now. He looked over the group and saw no confusion in their faces. They all knew about them as well.
Whatever worst case scenario conjured up by his mind completely vanished and was replaced by the Gemories. What on earth could they have seen in those things? Mephone winced internally, subconsciously hugging himself. He got rid of those memories for a reason- the fact not only Test Tube but four other people saw them. God, it made him feel sick.
"I touched it, Test Tube continued on, oblivious to Mephone's internal panic. "And I saw...." She looked at his face now. "I think you know what I saw, or at least you have some type of idea." Mephone could only nod stiffly. "I might know... depends which one you touched though.." he looked at them all once again. "Did you all touch one?" He asked, hoping the answer was no.
But they all nodded in unanimous agreement. Mephone let out a shaky breath. "Can you tell me what you saw specifically?" Jeez, he sounded so pathetic. Test Tube nodded, "Of course, we talked about this before and I took some notes about what we all saw." She approached her desk and opened a small drawer, producing a small stack of papers from it.
She tapped the ends of the papers on the table a few times, putting them all in one neet pile before handing them to Mephone. Mephone sat on the edge of the seat and took the papers in his shaky hands, fumbling with them. He leafed through the notes, skimming the writing in Test Tube's picture perfect handwriting.
Mephone recognized Test Tube's immediately as his first moments awake. Baseball's the moment when Cobs's true intentions stared to peak through his facade. The ship he managed to generate ended up smashed against the wall and in pieces, lost somewhere in the large Meeple building unable to be found and repaired. Knife's consisted of Mephone's growing love of reality shows. Cobs's hatred of them being the driving force that kept Mephone going for years without him even realizing it.
Lightbulb's was a test, god he really hated those tests. He could never really get the leaves right. They always turned out some shade of blue, Cobs was always frustrated by that. Finally Suitcase's was-.........The storage closet.
"3gs..." Mephone whispered partly to himself. "I almost forgot about them..." He sinked back in the chair, placing the other notes in his lap and gripping Suitcase's tightly. "Did you know him?" Suitcase asked softly, the first thing any of them have said the whole time. "No, not really." Mephone sighed loosening his grip on the paper. "I didn't even know he existed before finding him in that closet."
It was silent between the group for a moment. Mephone's thoughts wouldn't stop spiraling. He had tried so hard, so. Hard. To keep what happened at Meeple away from the contestants. Opening up to Test Tube about it was terrifying, but now hearing that they all knew this whole time made his entire being numb and his chest cold with fear.
His felt nauseous, he crossed his arms and gripped them hard in hopes of lessening the shaking of his hands. This was pathetic, he was so pathetic. For a split second he thought he could hear Cobs's voice echoing around his head. The spector had moved without Mephone realizing it. He stood still, staring at Mephone with wide sunken in eyes covered by cracked glasses and blood.
He stood right between Suitcase and Lightbulb, but neither of them acknowledged him. More likely they couldn't even see him. The area around him was black and foggy, as if he himself was a black hole eating away at the light surrounding him. Mephone was going mad, he was sure of it. His blood turned to ice, he couldn't rip his gaze away from the ghost. Everything was ringing now, he was horrible, he promised himself he would get better but now he could barely breathe.
"Mephone?" A fuzzy voice somewhere to the left of him called out. He couldn't hear anything. The only thing he could hear was the sound of glass shattering echoing through his mind. He should have kept his mouth shut, maybe if he didn't tell Test Tube this situation never would have happened. Everything was simultaneously too loud and too far away at the same time.
For once could he just Calm. Down.
The spector moved.
He stepped forward, walking in between Lightbulb and Suitcase and approaching him. Mephone flinched backwards, his heart racing as his lungs refused to cooperate. He gripped the arm rests so hard his knuckles turned snow white. He heard a muffled shout and a crash of something glass. His now sparking eyes flickered around the room searching for the source of the noise but everything was covered by an icy blue filter. The edges of objects blurring together and bending at odd angles as if looked at through a warped spyglass.
Cobs(?) Stood directly infront of him now, the energy buzzing through his veins in time with his racing heart. He had never gotten this close before. Mephone could barely tell what was going on anymore. It felt like he was drowning in TV static A garbled unintelligible noise came from the ghost, a cacophonous amalgamation of spoken word and broken sound.
Mephone assumed he was trying to say something but Cobs's(?) mouth wasn't moving. Mephone pushed his hands over his ears, the droning noise barely being muffled by his palms.
"This is all your fault."
The only sentence Mephone could make out, clear as day in his ears. The spector moved once again, reaching a hand out towards him. "nonoNoNO- get away from me!-" Mephone pushed backwards but Cobs(?) caught the chair's arm rest, traping him and keeping him in place. "Stop- stop stop please- please I'm sorry-" Mephone's voice broke as he cried. Everything hurt.
He didn't want to be here anymore.
He felt felt a pressure on his right hand and he flinched. The feeling didn't move though, and it didn't hurt like he expected it to. The contact, he now recognized as a hand, gently drifted their thumb over his knuckles in a small circular motion. That wasn't Cobs- Cobs wouldn't do that. Mephone clamped his eyes shut, one hand still over his ear. He practically death gripped the other person's hand, tightening his hold.
The static faded slightly allowing him to hear the muffled voices once again. "Mephone-" the voice faded out once again before fading back in. "Hear me-" he could only recognize bits and pieces of what was being said, leaving him only hearing random words with no context.
"Can you hear me?" He managed to make out through the unbearable noise. He winced and nodded slightly. The voice didn't sound like Cobs either. "Can you open your eyes for me?" Cobs was still right in front of him, he was sure of it. Mephone didn't dare open his eyes. Mephone shook his head no.
There was a slight pause before they spoke again. "Why not?" Mephone squeezed the hand tighter. "He's right there- I saw him- he was right in front of me-"
"Mephone- Mephone." The voice soothed. "He's not here, no one is. It's just us, remember?"
Us? Who was "us?" He couldn't remember- where was he again? "Meeple" was his initial response but that didn't quite feel right... But Cobs was there, he saw him he swore he did. "You promise?"
"Hm?"
"You promise he isn't there?" Mephone's breath was uneven, the only thing grounding him being the the hand in his own. "Yes." A different voice replied. "He's not here, he's gone." Mephone focused on the person drawing circles on the back of his palm with their thumb. Mephone still couldn't get himself to breathe, panic gripping his lungs and pressing on his chest.
Despite it, a part of himself trusted the voice, so he opened his eyes. His vision was still covered by that blurry filter. He immediately wanted to close his eyes again. Everything surrounding him contorted and twisted into something unrecognizable. He could see eyes in every corner of the room, staring at him. His breath hitched at the sight.
Five blurry shapes of various colors were infront of him now. One to his right holding his hand, and another, shorter one, on his left. "Mephone." The shorter one grabbed his attention. "I'm gonna ask you a few things, is that alright?"
"I- uh- yeah." Mephone said breathlessly.
"Can you tell me five things you can see?" Five things he could see? Mephone could barely tell what he was seeing at all. "I- I don't..." Mephone looked around the room, searching for something to say. "My hands..." Mephone started. "You two..I think. The.." Mephone choked on his words. "The eyes, staring at me...and." Mephone grasped for a fifth thing to list. "Lightbulb's drawing on the wall...wait...wait why is Lightbulb here.....?"
Mephone was at Meeple right? Why is Lightbulb at Meeple- God Mephone was so confused. "Good, don't worry you're doing great. Now, four things you can feel?"
"The uh- the chair, my head- hurting." He looked towards the taller person to his right. "Your hand...and my heart beating really fast I guess." The static in his vision was slowly fading away revealing more of the room he was in, their voices becoming clearer as well.
"Perfect, now three things you can hear."
"You, this weird ringing noise, and....Knife talking?- is that Knife? It's hard to- It's hard to hear." There was a slight pause before a grey and black shape got closer to him. "Yeah, you're right it's just me."
"What- why is Knife here. Why is Lightbulb here- I don't understand-"
"Hey hey hey-" the shorter figure tapped his knee. "Just focus on me alright? We're almost done."
"I- okay okay." Mephone felt his hand slowly release the top of his head, when did he start gripping his screen? He couldn't remember. "Alright, name me two things you can smell."
Mephone was so caught up in the horrible noises and things he was seeing he didn't even notice the now very potent smell in the room. "Is that... chemicals? And smoke? Is something burning?"
"Er- well sorta I guess you could say that." The taller person to the right of him said. The shorter spoke once more. "Okay, now one thing you can taste."
Mephone breathed, his lungs finally feeling open and usable again. "The breakfast Mic told me about and that I promised to eat later."
"Good, you did very good." The taller spoke, by now the ringing had almost left his ears entirely, allowing him to properly hear who was speaking to him. "Now can you tell me where you are?" The woman asked in a familiar voice. Mephone hesitated before answering. "I'm in the medical office....in Test Tubes- your chair."
His vision finally came back to him, the blue finally gone. Now that he could see he realized Suitcase was was the one on his left asking him all those questions. Test Tube smiled with relief, gripping his hand. "Hey, how are you feeling?"
"Better, definitely better. What... happened?" He gazed around the room taking in his surroundings. Knife stood with Lightbulb and Baseball near the wall, concern clear on their faces. "You had a panic attack." Suitcase answered backing away from him slightly. "We were talking about the Gemories when you started spiraling, do you remember?"
"Yeah...I remember now....A panic attack? No- no I don't get those..."
"Anyone can have a panic attack Mephone... trust me, I would know..."
Mephone's eyes landed on what looked to be a shattered beaker on the floor, the orange chemical spilling out onto the floor. That must be where the chemical smell was coming from. He looked to the left, noticing the medium sized burn mark scorching the chair's arm rest. "Did- what happened when I was freaking out?"
"Your powers went haywire." Knife spoke up, pointing at the small scorched spots on the floor and walls. "The electricity went everywhere, I was scared the power was gonna go out when the lights started flickering." Baseball continued. "Thankfully the only thing truly damaged was that beaker, I don't know what I would have done if the power actually went out." Test Tube replied.
Mephone stared at his shaking hands, guilt washing over him. He didn't even notice what was going on, what if he actually hurt someone? "I- I'm sorry I didn't mean-"
"Mephone hey it's not your fault." Test Tube reassured him. "I suspected this before but this just confirmed it for me, these powers you have are heavily linked to your emotions. You were having a panic attack Mephone, there's no way you could have controlled it."
Mephone buried his face in his hands, breathing a long sigh. Test Tube rubbed circles on his back. "Y'know you actually remind me of Painty." Lightbulb said, approaching him. Mephone looked up at her slightly. "They used to freak out sometimes, usually from stress or frustration but they would flare up and it would take us forever to convince them we were alright because of how guilty they were." Lightbulb pat him on the head. "Maybe you should talk to them later, I'm sure they'd help you."
Mephone nodded as Lightbulb rubbed his head, him leaning into the comforting touch. "Test Tube's right dude." Knife said, leaning against the wall. "It's not your fault, alright?"
It's not your fault.....
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2742 words, ITS HERE WOOO. I DIDS IT. Look at me being productive and shit. It's fall break rn so hopefully the next one will come out sooner while I'm still trying to figure out this damn update schedule. I also plan to redraw some of the old art cause some of it is baaaaaaad. Especially with how much my style has changed.