Chapter Text
You wake up.
The heat from your friend's hand is ever present as you try to open your eyes. But slowly, you do. This time, however, you are not in the white void. You are back on the couch that your friend owned. Your dreams are hazy now- but you remember them in the dream. They- they tortured you didn't they? Well, it was a dream. No reason for you to be mad at them in real life.
You look around, something is different. You don't know why.
In the kitchen, you hear something crash to the ground. You groan internally, knowing your clumsy friend must've tried to cook breakfast or something. It's usually a given for them to barely be able to do anything, but by this point it's just comedy! Like they're doing it on purpose.
You stand up, stretch your arms, and walk over to your friend's kitchen.
This time you see them without their robes. For- For the first time? You think it's for the first time. But- how-? You've seen them- him! They're a him! You saw- You saw him- Your legs collapse, he turned to look at you.
Those eyes- red eyes. Around his face- were... were crystals. Red ones. Blue hair. Cream skin. Your world crashed around you.
You try to think back when the two of you first met. You try dammit. But- you remember waking up in a park. The sky was blue. The grass was green. You didn't remember- What was your name? What did you call yourself before now?
Your friend crouched in front of you, cooing and shushing you. Trying to calm you down, but- but! Nothing- Where is he? Who is he? Panic is slowly building in his stomach. Calm down. Calm down. Calm Down.
Your name.
What was your name?
It started- It started with a J.
Ja... James!
Your friends- They don't call you James do they?
They call you-
"Jimmy!" Scott shouted, shaking you out from your panic and stupor.
The words stumbled in his mouth. "Sco- Scott?"
"Ayyy! Here he is! Have you got your memory back yet?"
"Memory? What-"
His head trembled and he felt it pulsate and shake. The memories- He remembers now. He was a member of Last Life, he was the first one to be thrown out of the game, he was dead- he was supposed to be. Despite that, he remembered everything else, even before that. To memories of a different world, a past life, maybe? One where he was the father of sorts, a codfather? He had a sister- Lizzie... Oh god, Lizzie, he killed her! His trap- It put her down to red and he- and he killed her. The realization stopped his thoughts dead in its tracks. Tears pricked Jimmy's eyes.
Jimmy sobbed on the floor of Scott's kitchen, leaning against the wall. Distraught with himself. Scott tried to shush and comfort him, hugging him as he sobbed into Scott's shoulder.
"It's alright, Jimmy. It's alright, just let it all out..." Scott cooed in his ear.
Jimmy cried. And he cried. And he cried.
"Statement of... The Watcher in Gold, regarding a server-wide event named 'Last Life'. Original statement given... jeez, those guys never label these do they? Hmph, original statement given several months ago, before the events of 'Last Life'. Audio recording by the Listener in Blue. Statement begins." The Recorder said.
"The event, Last Life, was a good show. A piece of entertainment that pleased the audience that it was produced for. It fed them their needs of drama, tension, bloodshed, tragedy but without a little bit of comedy thrown in as spice. The contestants, or players as they are referred to internally, were all genuine people. Thrown into this horrid, but fun, cosmic reality show by a director who they say was their friend.
Grian was this director. Invited his friends for a little bit of fun. Who doesn't want to go apeshit once in a while, right? But this time, he dabbled with powers that this Watcher was not all that familiar with. He was hesitant at first, but the others in his group had told him that if he just followed the safety precautions, everything would be fine. He jumped at the opportunity and implemented the feature immediately.
He got himself an empty container, but he was cheap, so he got a convenient intern to be the Power's container. He also made the intern the admin as well, just to cut down on costs on hiring an actual admin. Plus, the intern had been trained for admin work. But that had gone down the drain as soon as it was obvious that the Red Smoke proved too much for the intern, and yet the blame was still on Grian's behalf as he didn't realize that the smoke was too much.
The Red Smoke itself was a curious thing. The seller had described that it was a 'minor Time aspecteer'. Grian and the others weren't really sure what that meant, but if it got the job done, he couldn't complain. They were Watchers , didn't say anything about being all-knowing. The Red Smoke was to be used to incite violence, sow distrust, and keep the show interesting. No matter how good your friendships were, the Red Smoke would come and meddle with it.
But still, the seller had explicitly said "Time". With a capital t. Which meant that it was actually related to space-time. Despite only being used for sewing distrust, its latent clockwork magic was its true usage. And anyone with good enough training in time magic would know that it was an extremely powerful thing, and it was being used to incite violence? What a waste of currency.
Bdoubleo - one of the contestants - was apparently knowledgeable in time magic. He never said anything about it to anyone, but it was something he had trained in many years ago. So, it was no wonder that he was able to harness its power. And to take such a perfectly good intern as well, it was quite a shame really.
The winner of the event, a man by the name of Scott "Smajor" Major, was trying to investigate the source of an intense heat after nothing had happened after he won. Only to find the possessed body of the intern Bdoubleo had possessed. They had a brief altercation, in which Scott took the majority of the Red Smoke as it thought Scott was its rightful owner. This left Bdoubleo with only the minority, but still a sense on how to use it, unlike Scott.
In self-defense, and in control of the smoke, Scott had struck Bdubs with as much power he could muster. Resulting in the total annihilation of the server, the loss of the broken hearts to time itself, and the... loss of one of the most entertaining Watchers.
I don't really know where they went. Somewhere in the past, I suppose. I had tried to warn Grian of the events to come, but he had shrugged me off. Not surprising, really. That one had quite the penchant for entertainment.
So now I've come to you... Listeners, to give my statement and explanation of the events. And do keep this meeting a secret, I would hate for the other Watchers to mock me for coming here."
"Statement ends." The Recorder sighed. "Well that explains what happened on that server. We are still... mourning over the loss of our favorite- Martyn is his name. And we hope that he will reappear again. Sometime in the past or future. Who knows.
Recording ends."
In a town in the middle of nowhere, there walked a beast said to be covered in moss, walked upright like a man, but chased prey like a wolf.
It is said that the beast was wreathed in terrible luck, and to those who came to find it would find their timely demise.
Hunters had tried to kill the beast, but instead they were the only ones killed. Becoming dust in the wind.
Rumors had spread that the beast was searching for a lover, or its other, howling at the moon for its "Ito".
It still howled to this day.
Searching.
And searching.
And searching.