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thezeekrecord · 3 years

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GAGEGN ch11

[index/summary]

REPORT: Regarding the "Science Team" and co.'s dinner party

[CW: a little bit of child distress in this one, but it doesn't go ignored!]

Harold had just gotten a cell phone recently. It hadn’t come into particular use just yet, but he did like the idea that he was reachable at all times now, if needed; it just turned out that the time he was needed was at 3 in the morning.

Harold was startled awake by his cell phone, vibrating against the nightstand and chiming several times. Bubby jolted up in bed, breathing hard and gripping the blankets tightly in his hands as he looked for the source of the sound deliriously.

“It’s just my cell phone, my dear.” Harold comforted.

Bubby relaxed, pinching the bridge of his nose and groaning. “Jesus Christ. Who the fuck is calling you?”

Harold picked up his phone, looking at the little tiny screen on the front cover. “...It’s not a call, it’s several text messages from Gordon.”

“Tell Gordon not to fucking text you at 3am.” Bubby grumbled, laying back down and rolling himself up in their blanket.

Harold leaned back against his pillow, flipping his phone open to read through the messages with one hand and placing the other on Bubby’s shoulder. Bubby grumbled something incomprehensible, reaching up to hold Harold’s hand while he drifted off back to sleep. GORDON: dr coomer GORDON: soldiers are in my house GORDON: im in the basement with josh but i dont have much time GORDON: dr coomer pls wake up i cant call you or theyll hear me down here GORDON: i dont know what to do i dont have anything to fight them with i cant protect josh like this

Harold gripped Bubby’s hand, shaking him back awake. “Bubby! Gordon’s in trouble!”

“Huh? What?” Bubby asked sleepily, sitting up again and reaching for his glasses. “What the fuck kind of trouble did he get into at this time of night?”

Harold shuffled through their closet, pulling out the brass knuckles he’d managed to salvage from their bank robberies. “He said there’s soldiers in his house. We’d better be ready for a fight.”

“Soldiers? Why are there fucking soldiers in Gordon’s house?” Bubby asked, standing up as well. “Did Gordon break the contract or something?”

“No time to question it! Let’s go.” Harold said hastily, hurrying out of their shared bedroom and down the stairs. He could hear Bubby behind him as he burst out the front door, sprinting across the street to Gordon’s house. He’d expected to see his door busted down, but it stood firmly in its place. Harold tried the handle, finding it locked. Perhaps they’d broken in through the back, Harold thought as he turned to circle around the house.

The back door was locked as well, and completely intact, Harold found. Strange—he didn’t see any soldiers in the house through the glass, either.

“What the fuck?” Bubby whispered, trying the door as well.

“Perhaps they locked the doors when they entered.” Harold whispered back thoughtfully. “I’ll go grab my keys.”

Harold sprinted back to his house, scooping up his keys from the kitchen counter and hurrying back. He had a good number of keys—for his own house, for his car, and for the houses of his friends that they’d given to him, including Gordon’s. Bubby stood waiting for him at the front door, and Harold hastily unlocked it, throwing it open and readying himself for a fight.

Nobody was there.

Harold and Bubby exchanged a look. Bubby nodded towards the stairs up to the bedrooms, hefting up his metal baseball bat. Harold nodded, and Bubby was on his way up as Harold headed downstairs. He’d expected to see soldiers tearing the place apart looking for Gordon, but there was nobody; all the lights were off, and the only sign of life was the mess Gordon and Joshua were apparently living in these days. Harold filed that thought away for later, heading down to the basement and opening the door.

Harold was confronted with Gordon, a hammer raised above his head, ready to strike. Gordon stopped, terrified expression falling to deep relief as he dropped the hammer to his side.

“Dr. Coomer!” He whispered, closing the door behind him. “Did you see the soldiers?”

Harold shook his head. “No, though I didn’t check upstairs. Bubby’s up there now.”

The two pointedly paused to listen. They heard floorboards creaking, and Harold recognized the footsteps of Bubby instantly as he began heading down the steps—he always had a particular rhythm when he headed down a staircase in a rush—and sure enough, Bubby joined them in the basement.

“Gordon, what the fuck? There’s nobody here.” Bubby said accusingly.

“Shhhh!” Gordon hushed, closing the door behind them again. “They’re here. I know they’re here, I fucking heard them!”

“I just searched your whole house for you, and didn’t see anybody.” Bubby went on in his normal loud tone.

“Keep your fucking voice down!” Gordon whisper-yelled, holding up his hammer again. “Maybe they left when they heard you coming. They’re gonna come back, and we’re gonna be like fish in a fucking barrel.”

Harold frowned as Bubby and Gordon went back and forth, glancing over the room for Joshua. Gordon must have hidden him somewhere, he thought as he stepped further into the room to look. Finally, he opened the door to the little laundry room, finding Joshua curled up in the corner and peeking over a blanket. He looked terrified, immediately standing to run to Harold and hug him tightly.

“It’s alright, Joshua.” Harold reassured him quietly. He scooped him up in his arms, pausing in the laundry room to think.

It seemed highly unlikely that, after shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy the Science Team’s silence, they would start trying to pick them off like this. Harold let out a deep sigh, patting Joshua’s back comfortingly as he listened to Bubby and Gordon talk.

“You have to believe me! I swear I heard them!” Gordon pleaded, still whisper-yelling.

“Well, they’re not here now.” Bubby argued. “Are you sure you didn’t have some kind of nightmare?”

“I could hear them while I was down here!” Gordon insisted. “If they—”

Gordon’s panicked whispering suddenly became a loud, surprised scream. Harold peeked his head out of the laundry room, watching Gordon clutch his chest as he pressed his back against the wall, staring at Tommy who stood there with a handgun.

“I got your texts, Mr. Freeman.” He announced, looking around. “I didn’t see anybody here, though. I triple checked.”

Harold emerged fully from the laundry room, still carrying Joshua, who clung to Harold’s shirt tightly. Gordon slid down along the wall until he was sitting down, still gripping his hammer tightly in his hand as he caught his breath.

“I’m not fucking making this up, guys. I heard them.” Gordon said, his voice much more broken now than it was before.

“Of course, Gordon, I don’t believe you would make something like this up.” Harold said reassuringly, kneeling down to sit beside Gordon. “Perhaps you should get some rest. You seem tired.”

Gordon looked to Harold, eyes sunken and exhausted. He bit his lip, setting his hammer aside so he could reach out for Joshua. Harold passed him over, patting Gordon’s shoulder comfortingly as Gordon hugged Joshua close.

“I’m sorry, bud. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Gordon murmured to Joshua.

“How much have you slept recently?” Bubby asked.

Gordon sighed. “...Not much.”

“Why don’t you two come sleep at our house?” Harold suggested. “We have our guest rooms made up very nicely, I’m sure you two will be comfortable.”

Gordon rubbed at his eyes, mumbling something Harold didn’t quite hear to himself before nodding. “...That would be really nice, Dr. Coomer. I’m...I’m really sorry, guys.”

“That’s okay, Mr. Freeman.” Tommy replied.

“It’s perfectly fine, Gordon. I don’t blame you whatsoever.” Harold added. “Now, let’s head on over and get some sleep.”

Harold led the pack out of the basement, pausing at the top of the staircase as Bubby and Tommy followed close behind. Gordon stood at the doorway, still clutching Joshua in his arms, staring hesitantly back up at the group.

“It’s alright, Gordon, there’s nobody up here.” Harold coaxed.

Gordon took a deep breath, then began heading up the stairs, deliberately avoiding creaky floorboards. Harold stuck close to Gordon’s side as they headed across the street, Tommy parting ways to go back to his own place. Gordon jumped at the sound of their night owl neighbors laughing in their house beside Harold’s and Bubby’s, but soon, they were back in the safety of Harold’s home, and Gordon visibly relaxed a little.

“Do you want your own room?” Gordon asked Joshua as Harold led them up the stairs.

Joshua shook his head, clinging a little closer to Gordon. Gordon nodded, and Harold took them to the guest room closest to his and Bubby’s bedroom.

“You two feel free to call me if you need me for anything.” Harold said as Gordon and Joshua began settling into the large bed.

“Okay.” Gordon sighed. “...Thank you, guys. I’m—seriously, I’m really sorry about all this. I don’t know what happened.”

“It’s fine, Gordon, whatever.” Bubby said dismissively as he continued down the hall to get back to bed.

“Yes, Gordon, it’s completely okay.” Harold said reassuringly. “You two get some rest. I love you.”

“Love you too, Coomer. Thanks.” Gordon murmured. “Say ‘goodnight’, Josh.”

“Goodnight.” Joshua’s tiny voice said.

“Goodnight, Joshua. I love you very much.” Harold replied with a smile.

Harold turned off the light, closing the door gently behind him before returning to his own room. Bubby was already in bed, curled up with most of the blanket—which was usually fine, Harold tended to radiate heat a lot more than Bubby did. Harold climbed back into bed with a deep sigh.

“I’m quite worried about him.” Harold muttered.

“...Yeah.” Bubby replied quietly, rolling over to face Harold. “Did you see his house? It was a mess.”

Harold nodded. “I don’t want to judge too harshly, a little mess is to be expected raising a child, but...”

“Yeah, but it looked pretty bad in there. You should’ve seen upstairs.” Bubby grumbled. “Seems like he’s in a pretty bad way.”

“Perhaps we should keep a closer eye on him.” Harold suggested.

“Yeah. Seems like it.”

As Harold and Bubby settled in to get back to sleep, Harold noticed floorboards creaking out in the hall, just outside Gordon’s room. The hall light flicked on, then the footsteps returned to the room. Harold never heard the door close.

****

Darnold had forgotten how nice it was to live with someone else—of course, the only person he’d ever lived with in his life was his mom—but Tommy was a good roommate. The feelings he had for him that were definitely a crush aside, he was a cool person to hang out with, and their living habits merged pretty well, all things considered. Having Benry around threw a wrench into things, though; Darnold had to appreciate Tommy’s determination with Benry, at least, but that was about the only thing he felt he could appreciate out of the situation.

It wasn’t bad enough that he’d want to go out of his way to kick him out, though. He was just...sort of annoying, but that was it. He could deal with annoying if he had to.

Darnold was sitting in his computer chair, currently doing his best to maintain his focus on a TF2 match as Benry leaned against the back of his chair, practically breathing into his ear. When Darnold finally had a moment after getting sniped, he quickly turned to Benry.

“Umm, could you back off just a little?” He asked.

Benry moved off the back of Darnold’s chair, pulling up that metal chair he usually carried around and setting it out to sit beside Darnold and watch him play. Darnold turned back to the screen, ignoring him. Benry clearly knew just as much about the game as Darnold did, but he really seemed to be less interested in playing it than he was into just watching Darnold play—they ended up spending a lot of time together like this, Benry in Darnold’s bubble, watching him in relative silence.

“Hey, Darnold.” Benry suddenly said.

“Yeah?” Darnold asked, nudging one ear of his headset off to hear Benry better.

“What’s it like being one of the only humans in the group?”

Darnold let himself die in the game so he could look at Benry in surprise. “Wh—huh? I’m not one of the only humans, am I?”

“Yeah, man. Me, Tommy, and Bubby aren’t human. Dr. Coomer’s human, but he’s got all those uhhh, all those...robots added to him.” Benry explained. “And like, Gordon’s the player, so...y’know. You’re like, completely normie.”

“Uhhhh...” Darnold rested his chin in his hand. “I guess that’s pretty weird. I didn’t really...but—hang on, what makes Gordon so different now, then?”

Benry didn’t reply to that. He stared at Darnold for an awkwardly long moment before he jumped in surprise at the sound of the doorbell ringing, looking at the doorway of Darnold’s bedroom. Darnold stood, pausing as he saw Tommy already crossing the hallway to get it. Darnold eased back down into his chair, pulling his headset off fully to hear the conversation at the door. He couldn’t quite make out the words, but he could tell it was Dr. Coomer—he had a fairly distinctive voice. Eventually, he heard the stairs creaking before Tommy poked his head into Darnold’s room.

“Hey, Dr. Coomer invited us over for dinner.” Tommy said. “Do you wanna come?”

Darnold left the game, leaving his headset behind on his desk. “Yeah, sure.”

Benry stood as well, and once they were ready, the group headed across the street to Dr. Coomer and Bubby’s house. Darnold brought along a box of potions he’d mixed together in his newfound spare time, contained neatly in some nice glass bottles while Tommy brought a bag of chips and some salsa, and Benry brought another unwrapped block of ramen. Tommy knocked on the door politely, greeted almost immediately by Dr. Coomer.

“It’s so good to see all of you!” Dr. Coomer said with a friendly smile, reaching down to pat Sunkist’s head. “Come in! I made chili, and Bubby baked a wonderful loaf of bread!”

Dr. Coomer stepped aside, allowing the group to enter. Darnold paused when he saw a couple familiar faces already sat at the table, one of which immediately turned sour at the sight of Benry. Darnold had to resist an exhausted sigh. So this was one of those dinners, he thought to himself; Dr. Coomer and Bubby had some sort of agenda to get Gordon and Benry in the same room. He was going to have to emotionally prepare himself for a lot of yelling, he thought.

“Hey, Benry.” Gordon greeted through gritted teeth as Bubby deposited a heavily burnt loaf of bread on the table.

“Yo.” Benry replied casually.

Gordon slumped down in his seat a little, glaring at Benry as he scooped up Joshua from the seat next to him to sit him down in his lap. As Joshua began struggling, he suddenly froze, eerily still in his spot as Darnold felt a pressure closing in on him. Darnold’s eyes widened, looking around. Everyone else was completely still as well—except for Tommy, who leaned in close to Darnold to whisper to him conspiratorially. “You sit next to Gordon, okay?”

“Did you just stop time?” Darnold asked in awe.

Tommy nodded.

Darnold reached over to Benry’s hat, lifting one of the flaps that sat over his ear and pulling away. It stayed exactly like that, just waiting to fall once time resumed.

“That’s incredible.” Darnold murmured.

“I’ll sit next to you there, and—uhh, and Benry will sit there. That’ll be, like, a buffer.” Tommy went on, pointing out the seats strategically.

Darnold nodded. “Alright.”

Still frozen in time, Tommy urged Darnold to take his seat, and Tommy sat down beside him as planned, releasing the timestop once they were settled. Everything returned to normal, and the group looked at Darnold and Tommy in surprise once they noticed the change—Benry’s eyes widening when his hat flopped back down to its normal position.

“Jesus, Tommy, do you have to do that?” Gordon questioned.

“Benry, come sit here.” Tommy called. Benry complied, plopping down beside Tommy.

“So what’s up, man?” Benry asked, leaning on the table to get a good look at Gordon. “Whatcha been up to?”

“I’ve been taking care of my son.” Gordon said bitterly.

“Oh, shit, yeah. Your lil’ uhhh, lil’ noob baby.” Benry said, suddenly looking down to Joshua. “What’s—”

“Don’t talk to my son.” Gordon growled, tightening his grip around Joshua.

Joshua looked uneasy, clinging to Gordon’s shirt. Darnold frowned down at him, exchanging a brief glance with Tommy. Complex feelings about this arrangement aside—he wasn’t sure it was such a good idea to force Gordon in the same room with Benry like this, but hey, maybe Dr. Coomer and Bubby knew what they were doing—he felt bad for the kid, getting caught in the crosshairs of something his dad was clearly struggling with.

“Umm, say, Gordon.” Darnold interrupted as Bubby began attempting to slice his burnt bread. “I just ate recently, I’m not all that hungry. Why don’t you let me hold Josh so you can eat?”

It was a blatant lie, his mouth was watering at the smell of Dr. Coomer’s chili, but he was more concerned about Joshua picking up on Gordon’s stress. Gordon shook his head, though, holding Joshua defensively.

“No, it’s fine, I do this all the time.” Gordon replied, his tone suddenly casual.

“...Alright.” Darnold murmured uncomfortably.

“I am also quite curious what you’ve been up to, Gordon!” Dr. Coomer chimed in as he entered the dining room with a pot of chili. “It’s been a little while since we’ve all been in the same room, hasn’t it?”

It had been a little while, actually, Darnold realized with a start. Maybe a month? It was sort of hard to tell, when Darnold had so little structure in his life now.

“Uhh, you know. Not much.” Gordon replied, some of the venom seeping out of his tone as Dr. Coomer served him a bowl of chili. Bubby was now practically attacking the bread loaf with the knife, struggling to get it into manageable slices. “I’ve been getting ready to start homeschooling Josh, actually, now that I don’t actually have to work anymore. Except, y’know, maybe I should work a little to be sure I have a good amount of money set aside for his college fund? I dunno. I’m still working it out.”

“Bro, I think he’s like, at least five years too young for college.” Benry commented.

Gordon turned back to Benry with a cold look.

Joshua started to say something to Darnold, grabbing his shirt in his little fist eagerly to get his attention. Darnold smiled down at him and nodded, but for the life of him, he couldn’t understand what he was saying.

“He’s asking if you like Kiko.” Gordon translated helpfully.

“Oh! Umm, what’s Kiko?” Darnold asked Joshua.

Joshua began talking, something about Neopets? And he just nodded encouragingly as Dr. Coomer served the chili for everyone.

“Do you need help with the bread, dear?” Dr. Coomer asked Bubby.

Bubby hissed in frustration, slamming the bread down on the table and placing two fingers to his temple. The bread immediately burst into flames. Darnold would’ve been a little more surprised, if he didn’t work with a Bubby prototype briefly who had the same tendency to do this. Everyone stared at the bread for a long moment wordlessly.

“Yooo, the bread.” Benry muttered sadly.

Dr. Coomer turned towards the kitchen. His arms extended over the counter, retrieving a towel to place over the bread to suffocate the fire calmly. “That’s alright!” He said cheerily, picking up the sad remains of the loaf. “I bought a nice sourdough for tomorrow’s dinner, we can have that tonight.”

“Wait!” Benry exclaimed, holding out his hands.

Dr. Coomer placed the charred loaf into Benry’s hands, and he immediately began gnawing on it.

As Darnold sat there, watching the group fall into a familiar rhythm with each other, his earlier conversation with Benry came back to mind. It wasn’t just how they all had such...exciting backstories, to put it crudely, but they all knew each other. Darnold had only been a part of their lives for, what, 20 minutes at most, before showing up again after the game? What place did he have in this group, after they’d all been through hell together? Maybe he should have gone with them after all, he thought as he stirred his chili in his bowl.

No, he asserted to himself. He had avoided something massively traumatic by not going with them. It was better this way.

Then again, had he just ignored an opportunity to be involved with something greater than himself, merely because it was scary?

“Hey, are you alright, man?” Gordon asked quietly.

Darnold looked up at Gordon in surprise. Joshua was already munching on a piece of sourdough bread, Dr. Coomer swiftly slicing more for the group while Gordon stirred his share of chili in his bowl.

“Uhh, yeah, I’m good.” Darnold said hurriedly. “Thanks, though.”

“Alright. Just checking.”

Darnold listened to Bubby and Benry go back and forth about something he didn’t quite understand; it kind of just sounded like they were saying word salad at each other with full confidence, or maybe Darnold’s ability to keep up with normal conversations was quickly draining out of him. Seeing he wasn’t going to get anything out of this conversation, Darnold turned back to Gordon.

“Umm, to be honest, if it’s not out of line for me to say...I’m a little more concerned about you.” Darnold whispered.

Gordon frowned deeply. “Yeah, I’m fine, dude. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“You sure?”

Gordon nodded. “Yeah. It’s good. Gordon's all normal.”

He didn’t seem good. He looked exhausted; like he’d thrown on some nice clothes, but didn’t even have the energy to put any real effort into it. His clothes were wrinkled, his hair was half-brushed, and there were deep bags underneath his eyes—he looked like he was gonna pass out at the table at any minute. Was Darnold really in a position to push it, though?

“It’s...kinda weird, right?” Darnold asked instead, nodding to the others around the table. “While I was trying to get out of Black Mesa, I kept thinking I was gonna return to something normal. But pretty much nothing here is really all that normal.”

Gordon laughed exhaustedly. “Yeah. I had sort of a hard time picturing all of ‘em in, like, a domestic setting like this, but...I guess it sure is happening, huh?”

Darnold nodded, looking as subtly as he could manage to Tommy.

“Hey, can I ask you something, Darnold?” Gordon asked.

“Oh yeah, sure.”

“Do you, like...remember anything from before the resonance cascade?” Gordon questioned carefully. “Like, y’know, specific things. Particular memories.”

Darnold paused in a moment of confusion before nodding. “...Yeah, I remember lots of things.”

Gordon got a conflicted look on his face before returning to his food wordlessly.

“Do you not?” Darnold pressed.

“Y-yeah, of course I do.” Gordon said dismissively. “I mean, I remember Josh and all, don’t I?”

Darnold stared at Gordon for a long few seconds before letting it go. “...Yeah, that makes sense.”

Dinner proceeded quietly after that for a while. Darnold had eaten more than his fair share of chili and shared the potions with everyone—Gordon pointedly declined, to Darnold’s deep disappointment—and he was finally starting to feel a little more relaxed before Dr. Coomer spoke with a more serious tone.

“Now...I was hoping we could all talk about the resonance cascade.” He announced to everyone.

Everyone was quiet.

“The rules of that world were most certainly different from the one we currently occupy.” Dr. Coomer went on, twirling his hair between his fingers. “So, I hope everyone recognizes that I ask this with absolutely no judgment whatsoever. However, I do believe we’ve all been quite curious, Benry...what happened at the end.”

Benry’s muscles tensed immediately, and he tilted his head downwards, casting a shadow over his eyes as he stared at his mostly eaten chunk of burnt bread.

“I’m sorry, Benry, I’m only asking to understand.” Dr. Coomer said gently.

“I don’t know, man!” Benry growled. “Why does it even matter? It was in a game, it doesn’t make a difference.”

“Of course it makes a fucking difference!” Gordon snapped.

“Gordon, you’re not helping, can you stop?” Bubby said flatly.

“What, so I’m not even allowed to be angry about it?!” Gordon demanded. “Of course you wouldn’t want me to think too hard about everything that happened, right?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bubby questioned defensively.

“You know what it means!” Gordon held up his prosthetic for Bubby to see.

“Oh, dear. Gordon, we’re not trying to—” Dr. Coomer tried to start again, immediately interrupted by Gordon.

“So you just try to kill us, disappear, and then show up again and expect me to think that’s fine?” Gordon asked, turning to look back to Benry. “We could’ve died! You were actively trying to kill us! So excuse me if I don’t want you in my life, anymore!”

Benry made several mocking, babbling noises back at Gordon, and Darnold could practically feel the hatred radiating off of Gordon.

“You guys—” Tommy tried.

“We’re trying to help, Gordon! If you would just take a second and listen, we could settle this!” Bubby shouted over Gordon’s next string of insults.

“Bubby, dear, you’re exacerbating things quite badly yourself.” Dr. Coomer said sternly, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Gordon—”

“I can’t fucking believe you guys don’t care!” Gordon continued, heedless of anyone else. “He tried to kill us! Of course I’m mad! So why aren’t you guys mad?!”

“Of fucking course I’m mad!” Tommy shouted over Gordon.

Everyone paused, turning to look at Tommy. In that moment of tense silence, Darnold finally could hear worried whimpers from Joshua. Darnold frowned, reaching for Joshua. Gordon started to pull him away at first, but stopped halfway through the motion before letting out a deep sigh and handing him over to Darnold. Darnold stood, patting Joshua’s back comfortingly as everyone looked up at him.

“Ummm—I’m not really all that...involved in all this.” Darnold said awkwardly. “I’ll just watch over Josh while you guys, uhh, figure this out.”

Darnold carried Joshua out of the room, unsure of where to go. He chose to climb up the stairs, taking Joshua to what looked like one of the guest rooms and plopping down on the floor with him.

“So...” Darnold sighed, letting Joshua loose to explore the room. “Neopets, huh?”

****

Everyone’s eyes were on Tommy, now that Darnold was gone. Tommy bit his lower lip, pressing his fingers into the tip of his spoon as he tried to get words together in his head.

“You’re mad at me, bro?” Benry pressed, a heartbroken look on his face. When Tommy didn’t say anything back in time, he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms and sighing. “Whatever, man. It’s whatever.”

“I mean, I don’t fucking blame him!” Mr. Freeman started again.

“Guys, stop!” Tommy interrupted. “Would you just give me a second to think, please?”

Everyone went quiet again, allowing Tommy the space he needed to think. Finally, he took a deep breath and turned to Mr. Freeman.

“I wish you wouldn’t—you just...you’re not helping, Mr. Freeman.” Tommy began tentatively. “I understand why you’re mad, but Dr. Coomer was trying to in—uhh, initiate a conversation about it, and you...you immediately started yelling and made it worse.”

“But—”

“Hold on!” Tommy snapped, holding up a hand. Next, he turned to Benry. “I wish you wouldn’t dismiss it when we...when we try to tell you how your actions hurt us.”

“Yeah, but you’re fine.” Benry huffed.

“Oh my god.” Bubby groaned from the other side of the table. “This isn’t going to go anywhere, is it?”

“There’s no need for that attitude, Bubby.” Dr. Coomer scolded gently before turning to address the group again. “We’re all together now, in a safe environment. There’s no reason why we can’t try to see this from other angles, right?”

“What other angle is there?” Mr. Freeman questioned. “He tried to kill us!”

“But why?” Bubby asked, looking pointedly at Benry.

“What fucking—is there really going to be a satisfactory answer?!” Mr. Freeman shouted.

“No offense, Gordon, but I don’t think you’re going to understand.” Bubby replied as he adjusted his glasses on his face.

“Why not?” Mr. Freeman demanded.

“Because you weren’t an NPC.”

Mr. Freeman stood forcefully, chair clattering to the floor behind him. “How can you tell me that I don’t—I’m just not gonna understand, as if I don’t have a right to this conversation? NPC or not, I was there, too! How can you just—expect me to let it go, like it didn’t mean anything?!”

“We never said that.” Tommy said with a deep frown.

“We’re just worried about you, Gordon.” Dr. Coomer added. “We hoped if you could get closure on this, you could start to move on.”

Mr. Freeman gave Dr. Coomer a surprised look. After a long pause, he seemed to forcibly relax his muscles a little. “...I-I’m sorry. You’re right, I shouldn’t yell, you guys don’t need that. I’m...I’m really sorry. It’s just—I’m having a hard time seeing why we should even be hearing him out, here.”

“Man, you gotta calm down.” Benry chimed in, leaning back in his chair casually.

“Benry, would you just shut up for a second, please?” Mr. Freeman asked through gritted teeth.

“It all happened in a game, what’s it matter? You worked up over a game, bro? Gonna freak out about a video game?”

“Shut up!” Mr. Freeman screamed, slamming his fists down on the table.

Tommy winced, shutting his eyes and covering his ears, but when he opened them, he had to take a long moment to process what he was seeing. The table was slanted at a strange angle towards him and Mr. Freeman, all the bowls slowly sliding off and shattering on the floor. Tommy looked down at the legs of the table, expecting to find them broken somehow, but instead, he found them clipped right through the floor. Tommy looked up at Mr. Freeman with wide eyes.

“What the—...” Mr. Freeman said under his breath, trying to push the table back to where it belonged, but it stayed stuck where it was. He gritted his teeth, eyes widening in panic as he pushed it harder, only for it to disappear entirely beneath his palms. He stumbled forward, only barely managing to catch himself before he turned to look at everyone, clutching his chest and breathing hard.

“Did you just disappear me and Harold’s table?!” Bubby demanded.

“I-it’s quite alright, Gordon.” Dr. Coomer said with an uneasy smile.

“I’m going home.” Mr. Freeman announced, racing up the stairs. He returned shortly after with Joshua wiggling in his arms, slamming the front door shut behind him.

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rain-line · 6 years

Text

i had such a really sad, fucked up dream yalls

i dont remember wat happened in most of it, i just remember the ending/climax of it. even tho it was fictional i feel devastated

basically me and two friends were being chased by this really determined, wildly angry dude out for revenge. this dude was like on a strategic mind plane of zero escape or komaeda levels. so im gonna call him komaeda. one of the friends with me was some rando blondie so ill just call her kaede (bc she was sweet and very motivated n cute). the other friend,,, was literally just chihiro.

(this is p long so its under cut)

like im only calling the villain of this dream komaeda bc of how crazy strategic n wild he was, he wasnt literally komaeda. and im calling the other friend kaede just based on looks. but this other person i was escaping with was actually just chihiro. we called them chihiro and everything. just a random dangan ronpa character for no reason lol.

we were on a high floor of a multi-storied building (like a hotel or apartment or something) and komaeda guy cornered us in a room and he sprays some sleeping gas stuff in the air so we cant run from him, like, he even sprays it within HIS own vicinity. thats how confident he was i guess he knew/was counting on that he would be the first to wake up and then he could kill kaede and chihiro (he didnt really care about me, he just wanted kaede n chihiro ded bc he felt they wronged him or watev. even tho i wasnt on his hit-list he was still dangerous so i was still scared tho and wanted to help my friends 😔 )

so kaede chihiro n komaede fall asleep bc of the sleep gas and i dont bc i held my breathe (mind blown amirite) and first thing i do is drag komaeda away into another room and try to think wat i can do with this opportunity since hes knocked out. but im weak and theres nothing i can use as a weapon to maim or kill him. (and thinking back on it, i shouldve at least tied him up to buy time but that never occured to dream me lol) the whole time while i was trying to figure out wat to do, he kept drifting in and out of the gas sleep mumbling incoherently about his plans and even trying to weakly get away from me. i just left him alone in that room and went back to the other room where kaede n chihiro were still knocked out.

i couldnt get them to wake up so i try my best to help them get away. the only other escape from the room was through the balcony. so one by one i drag and toss (GENTLY AS I CAN) their bodies from current balcony to next balcony on the floor beneath. a random gardener dude notices me and helps after quick explanation of the dire situation. having the extra manpower makes this go by way smoother and easier. we’re on the last couple floors of the building, chihiro wakes up after i move him to the next balcony. (gr8!) i climb up to the previous balcony to check to see if kaede is waking up yet and to move her to the next balcony as well, but just as i climb up both me and the rando gardener see sleepy kaede being dragged away by komaeda from a nearby vent system or watever. we’re shook.

i start to immediately climb through the vent to go after them and save her but the scenery in the building is extremely scary, like in this video exactly (probably bc i had just watched that vid for the first time about 2 nights ago). so as much as i wanted to go in and save her i was terrified. U_U

me, gardener and chihiro try to discuss and brainstorm thingsg we could do. we weren't gonna run off to save ourselves or go look for help bc we didnt want to leave kaede behind, but also we we were all just too scared to go in there. i tried one more time to go in and i didnt get too far bc it just kept getting scarier the more u went in so i crawled back out.

we spent maybe an hour or two trying our best to brainstorm and venture (unsuccessfully) through the vent system. finally i built up enough courage and determination for kaede and hatred for komaeda that i was ready to face fears and enter the vents again. my plan was to just run through it loud and screaming- so that rather than being jumpscared and caught off guard myself, i’d already alert or scare watever is in there so i would see them coming and it wouldnt be so scary. we still didnt have any weapons or anything, but the gardener gave me this dull gardening tool that kinda looked like one of those tools u see people pick up cake slices on to serve, u kno?

so just as i was ready to burst in, a mega bruised up, beaten, komaeda gets kicked from a window and lands in front of us. we’re all like ‘yay! kaede finally managed to best him!’ i think for a second, where is kaede tho? but i get too overwhelmed seeing komaeda there, this is finally the chance to stop him and make sure he doesnt hurt us or anyone else ever again. he has been a nightmare and i just hope he didnt hurt kaede too much. komaeda is just sittin there and seems to have already accepted his fate. doesnt say anything but it just warmly smiling and waiting for us to end it.

i wasnt gonna miss another oppurtunity like back when he pulled the sleeping gas stunt so i stab him with the blunt tool over and over in the face, in his eye, chest, heart- thats wen he falls over n dies. but i keep stabbing him in the back bc this whole dream hes been after us and causing so much stress and anxiety and i want to MAKE SURE he cant get back up somehow through some sneaky tricks up his sleeve or something.

after that ordeal we make our way out the building. we somehow knew that kaede would meet us down there (dream logic i guess). the weather turns into heavy, almost sideways rain. we see kaede made it to the roof of a building across the street via zip line. shes wearing a yellow raincoat bc of the weather (lol.) we’re like yay katie made it out safe. but the gardener is like ‘i dunno, doesnt it kinda look like shes way too spotless, unscratched, untouched for having winning a struggle with komaeda?’ i dont respond and ignore his comment, but it makes a very frightening feeling and thought itch at my mind that something indeed isnt right.

heres the fuckin kick

we meet up withi kaede on the roof only for her to remove the hood of the raincoat and speak to us to reveal that this is actually komaeda with his hair dyed blonde and dressed in kaede’s clothes. hes laughing in our faces and tells us what he did and watches the despair on my face.

after he snatched kaede from the vent, he beat her the fuck up enough to make up for the fact that he wasnt able to get chihiro too. then he cut and dyed her hair (as well as dyeing his) and switched their clothes (which he actually probably did first since kaedes clothes were spotless remember) that would explain why they were in there for hours while we outside too afraid to go in, deliberating on wat to do. he actually finished setting up with time to spare, but he used that time to just wait, so that our tensions (mainly mine) would build up so much that i would feel fed up and reach the height of my anger, so thats wen he decided it was time to t hrow the disguised kaede at us from the window. he knew the mere sight of “him” would flare up my rage.

poor katie was so beaten n rekt that she could barely move or even speak, which is why she didnt do anything to fight back or speak. she couldnt. thats why she, as “komaeda” just sat there and smiled. that was honestly all she could do, just smile at us and accept her fate ;-; i fucking murdered her.

so the dream ended with komaeda dressed as kaede laughing maniacally at us in the rain with the occasional lightning strikes, like a stereotypical villain ending.

that was the end. i woke up sooooooooooooooo shookened.

tbh tho, as bad as that dream made me feel im also in love bc ive always liked tragic stories- tragic heroes, sad endings, tearjerker movies, etc, anything sad i love it. so on one hand, im devastated this happened, but on another hand im like- this is a genius storyline. a masterpiece. i love it.

#t t #r t #tw for a short description of a violent stabbing scene tho #i hope this even makes sense even tho its filled with a lot of dream logic stuff

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