Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Light.

That was the first thing to greet Niko after wandering into the mysterious white portal.

That, and an agonizing ringing in their ears that threw all of their thoughts off.

But this wasn’t just any light, it was a bright, white, all-encompassing light, providing a constant warmth. It was a familiar and welcoming sensation, but not familiar enough. What would be a comforting heat was now a burning feeling on their skin, and seeing past the wheat fields was a difficulty alone due to the blinding luminosity. Despite living their entire life in its presence, and having been in the other world for less than a day, the sun was too much for them to handle. They’d grown too used to its unforgiving cold and unending darkness, so much so that the sky of their home was like a stranger to them. At least, they think it was less than a day, between the lack of a ball of fire and the however many times they were looped right back to the beginning, the entire adventure really threw off their sense of time. Hopefully it hasn’t been too long. It felt like a sensory overload to even process all of this at once.

They stood still as they tried to register sight in front of them, their vision slowly unblurring as they got used to the giant infernal light source hovering in the sky. Immediately in front of them was wheat, that was obvious, wheat crops surrounded the entire village from top to bottom, and they could swear that sometimes it spanned on forever. Surveying the general area, they landed on the shapes of wooden structures, sticking out from the fields. There’s the clock tower standing in the center, the tallest building in the entire village. This would be more impressive if it wasn’t just one story higher than anything else, it’s a tower, but it’s no The Tower, proper noun. Behind it lies the schoolhouse, and parallel to it on both sides are the various suburban-looking houses, each of them looking just like the one before with little variation. Compared to a giant pink city that grazed the horizon in their monolithic towers, the village seemed completely tiny, but it was their village. Even if a metropolis was the coolest, and somewhat scariest, thing ever, there wouldn’t be any good in living in one if all of their neighbors weren’t there, all fifty of them, that is.

That settled where Niko was, they clearly didn’t get spit out in a completely random place in the middle of nowhere, but it was good to know home was still close enough to walk back to. Interrupting this surveying of their surroundings was the recognition of a sound in the distance as their hearing cleared up. They’ve heard it before, just before they took the final step back to their home, it was just a matter of finally registering it was there. They turned to face the source of it all, a tall woman, dawning a clean white bonnet, looking around with concern and calling their name. It was their mother.

All other feelings gave way to sheer bliss as Niko took off in a flash towards her. They shoved wheat plants out of the way, stumbled wildly as they struggled to keep their footing, and almost tripped over a couple of times, all the while they constantly called out to her. To them, nothing else mattered right now except for finally reuniting with their mom. The anticipation was agonizing, time felt like it came to an absolute standstill as they raced past the grains, step after step. It was only when they witnessed her kneeling down with open arms did it seem like everything began to move again. From that point, it was a hop, a skip, and a jump right into her loving embrace, with tears shed.

It felt like it could last forever, just for a moment, Niko could think past all the confusion and strife that led up to this point. The joyful ignorance came to a halt, however, when their mom began to speak.

“My goodness, Niko, I’ve been lookin’ for you for hours! Where’da you run off to?”

Hours, alright, only a couple of hours from her perspective.

For a brief moment they wanted to spill out the whole truth and nothing else, the adventures, the friends, the bright lights, the beautiful sights, the fear, the existential nightmare, maybe skip the last two. But no, that wouldn’t happen, the entire tale would be utterly unbelievable to any cat-person, and would be shrugged off as merely a dream spurred from their already overactive imagination. Even their own mother, as accommodating and understanding as she was, would only see it as some fantasy cooked up in their head. It would be an uphill battle to convince her of the existence of self-aware robots and bird people. So this would all have to stay a secret, no one will ever know, barring ██████, the user of The World Machine that helped out the whole way through.

Wonder how they’re doing.

“Oh… I…”

They paused for a moment to find the right words to not concern their mom.

“I wandered out too far past the wheat fields, and I got lost… Sorry mama…”

In response to her child’s seeming self-blame, she tried to diffuse the situation while pinching their cheek.

“You don’t have to be sorry about anything! I’m just glad you’re safe and sound!”

Despite the bluff, Niko was genuine in their apology, lying straight to their mom’s face was an action ridden with guilt. It didn’t feel right to do such a thing, lies are bad! That’s what everyone says! But dropping a teeny tiny, itsy bitsy, little white lie once just to save some confusion and struggle wouldn’t hurt… Then again, they’ve also just committed to making sure no one will ever know about anything that happened today, they’re on a roll with the dishonesty. It seems like this adventure of theirs has completely changed their moral code, their life of crime has just begun already with secrets that they’ll take to their grave.

Ok, maybe it’s not that serious.

Interrupting the regret, their mother popped the question, “Now I know it’s almost lunch…”

Wait, it’s barely past morning?

But how’s about I cook up some breakfast?”

The mention of the mere concept of breakfast made Niko’s eyes light up immediately.

“You mean…”

She nodded, of course she meant it.

Already knowing what was about to occur, the child was held out by their mom, who turned towards the direction of their house, and set them onto the ground. In a flash, they sprinted on little cat feet in a beeline towards home, with mom following behind at walk’s pace. She sighed, content with the fact that the trigger word still works to this day.

Pancakes.

Chapter Text

Fluffy hazel-nut batter, cooked to a golden brown, topped with a slice of butter, poured over with freshly-made syrup. A stack of perfection towered over the child, which is not really impressive because they’re literally nine-years-old. They could’ve sworn that the sunlight had set at the perfect angle to shine upon the culinary beauty like no other. Each bite was more delicious than the last, it was an experience like no other. It was heaven, it was pancakes, nothing else matters except that.

After nothing remained on that plate, Niko laid back in an exhale of satisfaction, pushing the plate away in the process. Their mom took the dishware, impressed at how intense they savored their meal.

“You went through that like you haven’t had something to eat in ages!”

She had no idea.

Niko just sat there for a moment as their mother moved over to the sink and washed the dishes. The scene was picture-perfect, it was all just like the dreams they had reminiscing while in the other world. The thought of that suddenly gave a chill over their spine as they recalled how that fantasy ended, broken glass scattering the floor beside them, a large broken bulb cracked open ominously sitting towards them, as if staring with eyes they couldn’t see. They took a moment to slowly turn to their left in anticipation, in the corner of the dining room was…

Nothing.

They sighed in relief, this was certainly for real this time.

Out of the corner of her eyes, their mom noticed the hint of melancholy in their expression. She didn’t want to pry, whatever happened while they were wandering out in the fields clearly hurt them, they must’ve been so lost and confused as they realized they couldn’t find their way back. They probably need some space and time, she thought, it’d be best to give them a break today, let them destress. She walked over to Niko’s side and put a hand on their shoulder,

“Hey,”

She locked her warm and comforting gaze on their eyes.

“I know you’ve probably gone through a lot back there. I don’t want to give you more trouble, so how’s about this? This week’s all yours, no chores or anything, you can do whatever you want..”

Niko’s face lit up in surprise, they didn’t expect to get this kind of break at all.

“Really?”

Their mom snickered a bit at the astonishment.

“Of course! Your own mama can handle all that stuff! You don’t haveta worry about a thing!”

They sat there, amazed at the prospect of the whole day to themself. Mama wasn’t a demanding parent per say, but she always believed that a day without some hard work is a day wasted. There was always at least one thing they had to take care of around the house. A whole day without any chores is alien to them, rarely has that ever happened, and the idea left them in awe.

That’s like… a lot of hours… which are a lot of minutes. The possibilities are endless.

“So, whatcha gonna do with the whole day to yourself?”

Before they could consider any sort of fun activities to occupy themself with, one thought blared in their head, something they were planning to do until they distracted themself with the warm, buttery, soft, goodness that melted in their mou- The pancakes they were eating. They shot out of their chair in a rush, focusing on their one goal.

“I gotta start drawing!”

They bolted to their room down the hall, directing themself straight towards their desk. Their mom looked in confusion at first, but shrugged it off. She wasn't going to question what their kid thought was the best use of their time. Maybe they need to really expel those creative juices.

Popping open the drawer, they pulled out every crayon color they could possibly find in the compartment, as well as a whole slew of blank paper, all of the materials they needed to make the finest of art. They promised themself to do this the moment they came back home, unfortunately, nothing could stop them from emptying their thoughts in favor of toasted circles of batter. But now was the perfect time to get this done, they needed to make sure they would never forget anything that happened today, and the best way to do so was to put it all down in the form of art. They had a collection of all sorts of past experiences drawn on strips of paper in their room, they found the visuals the best way to recall things, so it’s only natural they would commit all of the friends and events in the other world to paper as well.

They started with drawing out the world itself, recreating the map they were shown to the best of their memory. After that, they thought over everything they could recall, there was the robot lady- Silver, her name was Silver, not to be confused with Kip. Then there’s Prophetbot, the red one, but also the blue one, that was uh… Prototype, he was with Rue and Cedric. There were other assorted robots, there was Alula and Calamus, Raize, and then there were the rams, the many rams. There was… the lamplighter… the cafe worker who gave them pancakes… the warm robot with the cats… that… clock… guy? It began to dawn on Niko that they probably should’ve asked for some names before making their exit from the world. Oh, but they couldn’t forget about George,

and George,

and George,

and-

The six Georges, she had six sides, right.

They guess the Author was also there, but also they never really saw him… There was his glowing journal that did all the magic, they assumed that would suffice. Then there’s the World Machine which was… They guess a bunch of screens? That’s what they saw it as, outside of that moment when they took their reflection, which was a weird thing to get used to. Oh, but there’s still so much to write down, the trader, Rowbot, the guy with the plants, the photography guy, the vacuum robot they rode on for a moment… There was just so much for Niko to write down that they were starting to feel a bit overwhelmed, realizing how much actually happened in what seemed like a short amount of time. The information overload was so massive, they might just…

Chapter Text

Niko found themself in bed, no, not in bed, this wasn’t their bed, but they knew this one too well. It was a light blue bed, with a bright yellow symbol in the center of the sheet on top, depicting a lightbulb. They looked around to see absolutely nothing, just a pure black abyss, stretching forever and ever. They knew this place, vaguely, the memories of past cycles were still fuzzy, but they can recall ending up here after entering The Tower, suddenly separated from the rest of the world, and ██████.

It’s almost funny how they’re once more without the latter.

They climbed off of the mattress onto the invisible floor, producing ripples as their feet touched down, as if walking on water. To their right was a computer on a table, the same one that the World Machine contacted them through, just like it was before. They almost walked right past it, until its screen suddenly sprang to life with a yellow wallpaper. They just stood in front of it for a moment, trying to understand what was even happening right now, before the screen emitted a text box with a harmonious ding.

“[This isn’t right. This shouldn’t be happening.]”

None of this helped to clear up their confusion, in fact, it made them feel even more bewildered and a bit scared. Why were they here again? What isn’t right? What’s happening?

Did they never leave in the first place?

They could only muster up one word in reaction.

“...What?”

The window closed for a moment, as if crafting a response, but instead of that, Niko was presented with the same message, with the same cheerful sound.

“[This isn’t right. This shouldn’t be happening.]”

The repeat of that phrase only induced more panic in the child. This can’t be what’s going on, there can’t be another repeat of everything that occurred before, they can’t be forced into another binary choice that won’t mean anything in the long run…

Right?

“Hey… What’s going on? Why am I here again?”

They were expecting another period of silence to prepare another pop-up, and in the back of their mind, they were expecting the same phrase, but they wanted to believe that they could get through to the World Machine once more. What they didn’t expect was a sudden reaction, the message appeared, and then it appeared again, and again, and again. Copies of the same phrase overtook the screen, popping up over and over. They stepped backwards in a mixture of confusion and dread as those exact words repeated endlessly, the same joyous song ticking with each appearance.

What occurred next was even more unpredictable, as the computer itself began to disappear bit by bit, with transparent squares covering it all over. After the squares fully consumed the machine and the desk it was situated on, it moved onto the floor, spreading over the area Niko was standing in. The bed beside them was all but gone, and the squares moved upwards to form where walls would stand, by that point, the entire room gave way to a new scenery, one even more familiar to the child.

A large black catwalk, accented with streaks of purple light, stretched on to reach a tall, monolithic screen, a sight that Niko could recognize more easily. This was essentially the core of the World Machine, and what was at the end of this path was the way they were able to meet it face to face. The sequence of events that had been occurring had confused the child, but there was a glimmer of hope at the sight of this place. If there was any way to get answers over this strange scenario, it’d be confronting the World Machine, and if there was any way to do that, it would be going directly to its core.

Despite the lack of any immediate danger in the form of rectangular shapes slowly consuming the environment, Niko could feel the tension in the air, which was as thick as it was when they first walked this path. They could’ve sworn that just a moment ago, they were back in the comfort of their own home world, with their village, their mom, their house, everything. Was it just another dream? Did they fool themself again? Why did it feel like everything was set back to square one? Their pondering stopped dead in its tracks as the large monitor drew closer. Its image towered over the platform it resided on, showing nothing but pure darkness, a blank canvas which they expected to see their mirror image appear over. They inched closer to the screen, ready to see the World Machine again and ask for the answers they’re looking for. What they got instead was…

Nothing.

The place where their figure would be mimicked, reflected across their vision, was just the void staring back at them. They called out to the vast emptiness, desperate for a reply.

“World Machine! Are you there?”

.

“Entity…?”

.

“Anything…?”

With a finger, they tapped on the glass, then knocked using an entire fist, then hit it as hard as it could using both hands, in a bout of frustration. No matter their actions, the dark expanse in front of them did not change, nor did it respond, it remained still in its barrenness. There wouldn’t be anything more beyond the glass wall, the World Machine would never come, and Niko would never begin to understand their predicament.

“Please…”

Their hands lowered in a limp motion, slowly dragging down across the screen, until swaying back to their sides. They let themself stay where they were, eyeing down the sheer lack of anything that continued its non-existence in front of them. They were struggling to understand what had just happened, or rather, what didn’t. One moment, they were under the impression they tricked themself into believing they escaped the looping events in this world, but now, they’re not even sure if this is another session, or something else entirely. Confusion and anxiety clouded their thoughts, the idea that everything was for nought, that the moment everything would revert back to where it started had come again… terrified them, shook them to their core.

Having no other options, they simply turned around, put their back on the black mirror, and let their legs give out, planting themself on the ground. The stillness that permeated around them was uncomfortable, where the World Machine lied there was no wind, no ambience, no climate. Why would there be, an incorporeal machine wouldn’t need that, but to a person with the ability to perceive sensations like Niko, it was uncanny. The silence of the world, in spite of its ominousness, was able to give the child at least a little respite to clear their head and try to think somewhat rationally. They reached the conclusion for their next course of action.

They would wait.

They would sit there, and wait for the World Machine to appear.

Because it has to appear.

There’s no possible way it could just be gone. How else would they be here?

It’s not like they could walk out and find help elsewhere, it’s a dead end back where they came.

And so, it was decided.

Even as tears started to well up in their eyes and they wiped them off with their oversized sleeve…

As long as they remained patient, it would come back.

It will come back.

Soon enough.

Probably.

Maybe.

Hopefully.

…

Chapter Text

Niko slowly came to, groggy and disoriented, facing the sight of the desk they had been scribbling over obsessively, complete with all of the drawings they remembered finishing up. They were sitting in the same chair that with a blanket draped over them, and all of the drawings they were making right in front of them as well. They looked around, they were home and it was late at night, They then noticed a piece of paper on top that wasn’t there before, a note.

“Hi Sunshine!
Dinner’s in the
fridge if you’re
hungry!
P.S. Love your
drawings!
Love, Mama.”

Somehow, even in something as basic as saying where the food is, their mom always knew the right words to say to at least bring them some comfort.

Niko got up from their seat. That was all a dream, of course it was, there’s no way that they could’ve just randomly appeared in the other world in their sleep. Actually, no, that’s exactly how this whole thing started. Even so, that entire ordeal was over, the World Machine was fixed, they said their goodbyes to everyone, there was no reason they would ever return all of a sudden. What happened was probably just them getting exhausted and thinking too hard about the entire adventure while trying to draw everything from memory.

Although, they never had a dream that was ever that…

Visceral.

They had been a bit on-edge after the entire experience, needing to remind themself that they weren’t in another session, another loop, or another dream. Having the rug pulled under them more times than they could even remember really had them preparing for the worst. Who knows how many times ██████ reset the simulation in order to find that way to fix everything? They can’t even register how many times they entered that gigantic glass room to decide what would happen to the sun. This moment though, this current time they’re going through right now, this was real, they were certain at this point. There wasn’t going to be any way for things to suddenly set itself back to where everything started, it was safe for them to say that things were completely, utterly, absolutely normal now.

Which made the sight they saw outside their window all the more foreboding.

Trying to get a feel for the time, they turned their attention outside. What they expected was the moon, the stars, the sky, the tall crops, and that was all there. What they didn’t expect to see was a figure standing out in the field.

A figure alone was one thing, that could’ve someone, anyone from town doing something late at night, it’s not an unusual occurrence.

What made their stomach sink was the fact that the figure looked exactly like them.

Chapter Text

For a moment, time stood still again, but for all the wrong reasons.

Niko had to just be seeing things, there was no way they were watching themself standing outside their home.

That couldn’t be Niko, they’re Niko, they’re pretty sure of it, they even chose the name and everything.

Composing themself for a moment, they took a close look. First thing to notice was how that was definitely exactly how they looked, there wasn’t a single thing wrong there, it was like looking in a reflection. The second fact that caught their attention was what the figure was doing, it was just standing there with its eyes closed. It was like it was completely unaware of the rest of the world around it, staying completely still, not acknowledging anything.

It looked too real to just be some sort of daydream. But there’s nothing else it could possibly be, this was against any sort of reasoning, it didn’t make sense. Then again, it didn’t make sense to be magically transported to a completely digital world while guided by an unseen person hailed as a God figure. Things have been pretty unbelievable recently, is this any stranger?

They had to see this up close.

What felt like it was against all common sense seemed like the only way to confirm whatever was going on in front of them. As they made their way out of their room towards the front door, they made sure to be as quiet as possible. Their mom was a heavy sleeper, but they didn’t want to take any chances right now. The front door slowly opened with a slight creak, and as they slipped through it, they shut it without a sound. Coming outside didn’t change anything, the figure was still there, completely motionless in that same spot. Looking over the wheat and surveying the area it was standing in, Niko could swear it was standing exactly where they appeared when they first came back home. They continued their trek, pushing past the wheat crops. In the back of their head, something was telling them to turn around and pretend this never happened, but up to now, nothing was accomplished by running away, they had to do this. Besides, there wouldn’t be any harm in checking just to be sure, they know themself better than anyone, and they would never hurt a fly. Literally, they can’t aim a flyswatter at all.

While they were officially over their fear of the dark, the nighttime atmosphere didn’t exactly help to calm their nerves. The quiet and still state of the world around them provided an uncomfortable backdrop as they strayed further and further away from town. Before they knew it, they found themself just feet away from the figure, stopping in their tracks to get a good look at it. There was no doubt it was an eerily on-point copy of their looks, but seeing things up close made them notice some things that were off. It was slightly transparent, they could see the horizon beyond as they looked through it, as if it wasn’t fully there. Its colors were also strange, what would be deep blue hair was more muted and dull, with their entire appearance tinted in brown, like it was in an aged, old-timey photo. Along with these were strange patterns appearing over it, some sort of rectangles, or lines… Scanlines?

Wait…

Before Niko could start registering the appearance of this familiar face, its eyes lit up out of nowhere, sending them backwards as they fell back in shock. They didn’t mean to recoil so intensely, the change in expression was just so sudden and out of nowhere that it all came from instinct. They knew who this was, except…

How in the world is it here?

No no no no, wait, wait, there’s gotta be a more likely and reasonable thing going on here. They could not be literally staring down the-

“[Oh!]”

Ah great, it talked, and that’s the exact type of cadence it would speak in. It’s the kind that feels slightly stilted and inhuman (incatperson???), one that would be surrounded by brackets if you were to put it down in written word, maybe if someone were transcribing these events right now.

“[Did I scare you again? Oh… I should probably stop sneaking up to like tha-]”

The presence of the individual that should’ve hightailed a whole dimensional barrier away from it suddenly hit.

“[No… No! What are you still doing here?! You should’ve gone home by now! Everything should be fixed! Did I do something wrong? I did something wrong again, didn’t I? Oh… What will you do now? What will I do now? You shouldn't be forced to be here… You should be at home with your mother… Safe, and as far way from this place as possible…]”

Niko was losing track of the one-sided conversation, which was quickly spiraling into a mound of self-deprecation as the figure paced around in the area in a precise motion. It was hard to get a single word in when every time each utterance of blame and guilt seemed to end, a new one started right after. The insulting words blended together while they sat there with nothing but sheer confusion at the current events transpiring in front of them. That wasn’t it, right? Whatever… this… is, was just a figment of their own imagination, fictional, fake, made-up, there’s no possible way it’s real and in the flesh, or, in the hologram. At the same time, it looks and acts like the real thing, it’s dropping a lot of words they’ve never heard of before, and they couldn’t even begin to describe anything, real or fake, with such harsh and charged language.

Oh man, this is probably for real.

“[...This isn’t right! This shouldn’t be happening!]”

The reiteration of that dreaded dream phrase snapped them back to reality and forced out the first response they thought of in the moment, catching the figure off guard and forcing its attention onto them.

“Uh…”

The first thing that popped in their head was literally nothing, leading them to shoot out the most coherent sentence they could muster as they pulled themself up.

“I’m… I’m not the one in the wrong place…”

They graced their hand over a bundle of wheat to signal the message they were struggling to communicate through words. Each stem curved against their fingers, the sensation of grain against skin making them finally take notice of how the mirror image standing in front of them wasn’t interacting with the crops around it. Every stalk that would touch merely phased through its shape, passing through where flesh and cloth would be were it physically there.

On the copy’s face was an expression of nothing but alarmed puzzlement, not getting what was being alluded to it until it turned its head to look throughout its surroundings, something it never truly registered in its rhythmic pacing. Its eyes widened the size of dinner plates, its head kept turning to different spots, the whole world felt like it was spinning around it, every angle provided a new sight, foreign to it, but not to the child it knew too well. From the horizon to its immediate area, a field of wheat, turning right, a settlement with small wooden homes dotting the sky. Speaking of, up above was anything but dark, sprinkling a deep night sky were tiny specks of lights, balls of fire, Niko called them, and topping off this black canvas was a circular object hanging in the heavens, some kind of white rock, glowing a bright light.

It stopped itself at this starlit scenery, frozen in place, never had it seen a picture such as this. This vibrant view full of contrasting colors, it was awe inspiring in how new it was, yet at the same time, it left it completely terrified at how wrong it felt to even see this in the first place. If this were any other day, it would just be seeing a deep, vantablack nothingness, lacking in any sort of decoration, it was clear this was not just any kind of day.

“Are you… Okay?”

A small attempt at solace from Niko was enough to snap the figure out of this trance full of wonder, crashing it back into the reality of the situation. Behind its back was someone special to it, someone who it could swear it spent a lifetime with, and at the same time, someone who should, by all means, be living a completely average and normal life by now, but now has to be burdened with its presence.

The World Machine slightly turned itself to lock eyes with the child, forcing itself to speak in a hushed, shaky voice.

“[Why am I here?]”

Chapter Text

“I… don’t have a clue.”

Niko did not have a clue. They scratched the back of their head, indicating that they indeed, did not have a clue.

How could you explain a person randomly appearing outside your house, with said person being from a world separate entirely from your own, with that world actually being a digital recreation of another world that died out, and also that person is that world and they’re kind of there but not really because they can’t seem to touch anything?

Suffice to say, it was kinda complex for the young, underdeveloped brain of a literal nine year old.

“You just… Kinda appeared! I fell asleep without thinking and had…”

They paused for a moment due to recalling that unpleasant night terror.

“A bad dream…”

“And when I woke up, you were suddenly standing here!”

That told the World Machine absolutely nothing that would help to actually piece together the current state of affairs, although it’s not like it was expecting to get the proper explanations from someone that looked as confused as it was. How shameful, a machine that’s supposed to be the only remaining archive of a ruined world can’t even properly deduce its own location and condition. No artificial intelligence should have this much room for error, the ability to drown itself in the fog of perplexity, that’s a flaw. Although it guesses that comes with the stipulation of being “alive,” that thing that it apparently is, maybe, taming is weird.

The transparent figure veered away in order to reside itself in contemplation, strange was putting it lightly, but “a concern on an existential and universal level” would be too worrying to say out loud.

“Ah!”

The moment of deep thought didn’t last as Niko decided to speak up.

“You’re so confused and you don’t even know where you are! I should uh… Introduce you to here. This is-”

“[Your world, I know.]”

The unprompted sentence finishing threw them off their effort to provide some valuable education, but they pressed on.

“Oh- Well, over there is-”

“[Yes, I’ve seen your village, in your dreams, that is.]”

“You did?”

“[██████ did too, remember?]”

Oh yeah, on second thought, Niko could remember that being completely true. Peering into their dreams was something that ██████ did repeatedly. Thinking about it now, they initially chalked that up to weird God magics, but the added context of them merely being someone looking at a screen made that kinda weird. Something about having their deep thoughts broadcasted felt like… A breach of privacy?

Oh WAIT, ██████!

It’d been so long since they’d heard their voice!

Well, no, it’s only been a day, but a day might as well be an eternity considering how long only a few hours felt like. And here they are, standing down what could be the only possible way they’d ever be able to establish any kind of contact with them.

The sudden bout of excitement was not lost on the World Machine as they read the realization from Niko’s expression.

“Oh, ██████! How are they doing?”

“[I don’t know.]”

“Huh?”

“[I’m telling you, I have no idea what they’d be up to right now.]”

“[I can’t exactly see what they’re doing, I can only read what files they have on their computer, and there isn’t much there.]”

“[They’ve got this book report they’re working on, some other miscellaneous school work, I saw some random coding programs scattered about, they’ve got a lot of games… Like… A lot.]”

That sounds like more breaching of privacy but ok, sure, they can work with this. They’ve got an interest in programming, they’re a Certified Gamer™, and they do… School work, huh. With how protective and caring they had acted, Niko pretty much presumed that ██████ was some older individual they could look up to, somewhat like a parental figure, but they couldn’t be that old compared to them. It was odd to consider. But what’s stopping it from just… speaking?

“Haven’t you been able to talk to them?”

“[I have… But only when they’ve been running the application.]”

“[The last time they did, I offered them a way to… See the world again, in a way.]”

“[I brought up the possibility of replaying your memories as a way to reexperience everything… They didn't want that, though.]”

Niko faintly chuckled, it was sweet to consider how ██████ missed them and the world, yet also valued moving forward and- HOLD ON.

“Y- You can see my memories?”

The air grew still, producing a deafening silence. The atmosphere grew thick, which the World Machine cannot feel at all, this is the most serious moment in this entire exchange, nothing else compares.

Niko fell onto their knees to plead.

“Pleasepleasepleasepleasedon’ttellanyoneaboutmylastbirthdayIcan’thaveanyofmyclassmatesknowIwouldneverheartheendofitpleasedon’tsayanythingpleaseple-”

This grand gesture really alarmed, especially considering it considers itself the last being in any world to deserve any signs of kindness.

“[Relax, relax, I can’t actually see all of your thoughts.]”

That zipped their lips immediately.

“[They’ve tried making me read minds before, it’s like listening to a bunch of languages you don’t know all at once. …Never doing that again.]”

Ok, crisis averted, there will be no other person who will know of that cursed day.

No one will ever know.

The horror.

“[But… yeah, they haven’t opened the program after that…]”

It paused for a moment.

“[...Which makes this even weirder.]”

“It means you shouldn’t be awake, doesn’t it?”

Niko’s continued awareness of the mechanisms at work was still something the World Machine was accustomed to, it’s not every day it’d find someone who gets this. Well they don’t get it and have made that fact very clear before, plus the reason they have a clue is because of three certain individuals, but the attempt to understand is still admirable.

“Because you need both me and ██████ to work, or you’d enter sta…”

“Something.”

“[Stasis.]”

“[It’s like.. Sleeping, basically…]”

“Speaking of sleeping… Can we, uh, take this inside? It’s really late and-”

They yawned.

“I’m… really tired.”

Interesting to the World Machine that this kid is going to sleep right in the middle of these world shattering revelations going on right now, it can’t imagine just napping on that. Then again, it can’t imagine sleeping period, so maybe this is just standard. It’s not gonna question People Things, so why not, let’s just follow them to their house and tucker out for the day, could give it the time to actually sit down and think for a moment.

“[Well… It’s not like I’m doing anything else… Lead the way.]”

And so they walked past the plants.

Well, the flesh and blood of the two did, the sepia-toned projection was still intangible as it could ever be, so actually touching base with the ground was impossible. It was less “walking” and more so constantly estimating where the floor would be and making the appearance of interacting and pushing against it, like it was just setting a y-position for itself. It’s more trouble than it’s worth, but the appearance of at least some form of normalcy in this scenario of constant irregularities felt like something it should maintain, for Niko’s sake. Better to take things lightly.

What took its mind off of everything was simply looking at nature, fauna, and flora, just perceiving even the tiniest elements was an enthralling act alone. There’s the strange high-pitched buzzing, emanating from some far-off woodland, what must be a group of creatures communicating with each other. Fluttering aimlessly around them were small bugs, fireflies, except their abdomens produced yellow light, instead of green. An absolute rarity combined with the most run-of-the-mill organism, and a strange overlap between realities, the lightning bug is so common that it transcends worldly barriers, apparently. Of course, there’s also the crops it’s been casually walking past, and through, wheat’s anything but a new sight, but an abundance this large was nothing to scoff at, not like there was enough space back home for anything like this at all. Then there was the sky, it had things, there were objects hanging all above the stratosphere. The concept of something, anything, present in the sky at all, was worth the amazement. “A ball of fire” was underselling how populated the whole thing was with strange little mini-sun-things, there was one over there, and another right there, a cluster out in that area, there were a lot of other suns to keep it brief. Then its eyes found themselves on that strange large round rock that caught its attention before. It’s some kind of stone, it can least tell that much from a glance, it’s still producing light, but it doesn’t seem to be emitting it on its own accord, so it’s not another sun-like object. Probably more like the opposite of a sun? Do suns have opposites? Further investigation will be needed in the future.

“So… are you liking this world?”

Niko attempted to strike up a conversation with some idle chit-chat, expecting some sort of wild spiel from it

The most important choice in all of history, would the World Machine actually start talking or continue the awkward silence.

Except there is no choice because it’s just distracted by staring into the sky and registering nothing else going on.

Continue the awkward silence it is.

Well at least it is enjoying the place.

It was all so much to take in, but also so much to study, to really observe and see what makes everything tick. If it had a clipboard right now, it’d be writing furiously over every intricate detail it could spot. But it doesn’t need a clipboard, it is the clipboard, it quite literally keeps a record of an endless amount of data written by a man who writes too many books for a living. Now’s the chance for it to obsessively catalog every single thing on a planet down to the atom, not to a published work, but to its head for the sake of it alone and nobody else, just for the satisfaction.

Admiring the outdoors made the World Machine not recognize that it quickly went indoors as it phased through the wall of Niko’s house and ended up straight into the living room. And its legs are just through the floor, nice, let’s just raise them up a bit. What a flawed machine, not knowing when it’s walking straight through a wall, walking through a floor- ok no it can’t even beat itself up for that one, nobody has done this in the history of ever. Speaking of that living room, it sure is a room to live in. Compared to the most unrecognizable natural environment possible, this is just any old place of residence. It’s nicely built, clean and dusted, built to last, you got the seats, the small table, the lights, a television, all the things a home could need to be… homely. Homes sure do stay the same kind of homely between worlds.

The front door beside it opened up slowly, getting pushed forward at sporadic intervals to reduce as much creaking as possible. A small head poked out from behind the door to lock eyes with the World Machine. Hi Niko, how’s your day, night, whatever.

“(Well… I was going to let you in, but this works too!)”

They tiptoed their way in and made a hard left to their room, pushing the door behind them just enough to have it slide into the doorframe but not too much that it slams shut.

“(I’m gonna change into my pajamas, so, make yourself at home, I guess?)”

They vanished into the bedroom as soon as they finished that sentence, leaving the World Machine to sit idly by in the middle of the living room alone with only its thoughts. This sure is it, the old humble abode of the uh… The um… The… It just now occurred to the World Machine that it never caught a last name, ever, right. It’s just Niko and… Geez, it doesn’t know her name either, maybe reading minds would be beneficial by now. Niko and “Mama,” them two, in this house, right now, that is indeed the current scenario.

Good on Niko to keep everything completely silent to let a sleeping mother lie, can’t have her waking up to this. What would they say, they saw a stranger in the distance and invited it to their home? That’d be spitting in the face of stranger danger in every way. But that’s assuming she’d be able to see the World Machine, the idea that she couldn’t, or anyone else for that matter, is something that had crossed its mind. In spite of that mental detour admiring the unassuming sights earlier, it still had its theories regarding what exactly had been happening so far. Its presence in this world was halfway, able to perceive but not to interact, presumably it would’ve been standing out in the open for a while, but its appearance conveniently lined up with the moment Niko woke up from their sleep, and by all means it shouldn’t even be conscious at the moment. All of these things pointed to a certain deduction that it didn’t want to admit, as it harbored some of the more… concerning implications.

Now presents a good opportunity to truly confirm or deny the current theory, although at this point it feels more like a forgone conclusion. All the World Machine had to do was walk into the mother’s room, probably the first door on the right, and make a bit of a ruckus to see if she wakes up. Worse thing happens, she can hear it and gets jolted awake, leading to it and Niko having to explain probably the soul crushing story a parent could ever possibly imagine. Or maybe the worst that could happen would be nothing, because that would solidify every fear in its mind right now. Both are bad, both are the worst, this is terrible, it hates this.

No matter, this had to happen, for the sake of making this concrete, working off of assumptions would help no one. The World Machine dropped the illusion of walking in favor of a more direct way in, sliding right through the wall like a piece of garbage. Nonchalantly barging into someone’s own room made it feel pretty weird, but this’d be no different than if Niko just casually bursted into the room tell their mom that they’re having a nightmare or anything like that, right? Plus, this is for science, or something. Now is not the time for hesitation, now is the moment of truth, the part where the World Machine actually commits to the bit, right now, at this moment, any day now. Except the sepia-toned reflection couldn’t bring itself the sight of a serene adult woman lying under the bedsheets brought about a deep remorse from within. Look at her, still and at peace, without any troubles at all, completely unaware of any sort of strange or otherworldly happenings that are occurring are facing her down at this very moment. She doesn’t deserve the knowledge of this, it would be better to not risk catching her attention and let her stay blissfully unaware.

But no actor in this story asked for this in the first place, everyone gets involved one way or another.

It’s time to just get it over with.

What followed can only be described as the sound of five different dial-up services running on the world’s clunkiest PC tower sitting between several televisions emitting emergency broadcast signals in front of a live tornado siren emitting straight from a tiny little digitized copy’s mouth. Calling it loud would be an understatement, but it was just to be safe, in case Mama’s a heavy sleeper.

No response, no acknowledgement, not even a smidge of movement.

Then it’s all but true.

Well it looks like it’s time for the World Machine to deeply ruminate about the existence and- Oh right Niko would’ve heard all of that garbled nonsense it just spat out and is probably about to investigate right now. It should probably get right out of there right now!

Just as fast as it slithered on in, it popped right back out of the bedroom in an instant and snapped right into the spot it stood before. Precisely as predicted, out of the wallway poked out the hatless, messy-haired head of a kid ready to tucker out for the night, wearing deep blue pajamas decorated with various symbols bearing resemblance to the objects in the sky.

“(Psst!)”

They called as if it wasn’t already looking directly into their eyes.

“(What was that?!)”

Now the actual supercomputer to create the greatest excuse, this will surely be well thought out.

“[I was uh… bored.]”

Yeah sure why not, let’s go with that.

“Okay…”

“Anyway, I’m all dressed up, so you can come in now!”

Wow, that worked, they don’t suspect a thing! Or maybe they do and aren’t just saying anything about it, what a nice anxiety to suddenly spark up right now. Worrying about that or any other recent revelations right now would only be detrimental to both the World Machine and Niko. Dropping the kind of information bomb it’s keeping to itself right now would be the worst timing ever, spitting out a “By the way,” and proceeding to explain some sort of existential nightmare right before hitting the snooze button would only end terribly. All of that strife can be saved for the morning, for now, it’ll play along and pretend nothing is wrong, which is going to be difficult because everything has been wrong for a good while now.

Regardless, off to Niko’s room it is.

“Here it is, my room!”

The bedroom is as quaint as the rest of the house, but with a hint of catering towards the hosts’ tastes, a bit of that Niko tinge if you will. The walls are painted a similar shade of dark blue, a poster hangs up on the wall depicting some sort of science fiction show, a nightstand sits with a lamp to match, and of course, right next to the nightstand is a bed-

What is that bed, why does it have wheels, why is it painted with bright stripes, what.

Noticing the total confusion on its face, Niko went to answer the unspoken question.

“Oh! That’s the racecar bed!”

The racecar bed.

“[The racecar bed.]”

“The racecar bed!”

“[What’s a racecar?]”

“Well you know what a race is, right?”

“[I know people raced things like snails or robots for fun.]”

“Well, imagine that but with cars!”

“[What’s a car?]”

This explanation is getting increasingly complex, Niko realizes.

“It’s like… a plane- flying machine, that doesn’t fly.”

“[So it only rolls.]”

“Y-Yes? I guess? I mean, you still drive it.”

The World Machine could prod the conversation further, but discussing the logistics of a flying machine without the flying with a nine year old clearly has its limits. What would that even be called, a machine? Just, a machine? Why put wheels on the bed? The bed doesn’t move, does it? Does the bed roll? Bed machine?

“The point is…”

Said nine year old leapt off the floor and landed themself straight onto the mattress contained by the frame based off of the Flying Machine That Does Not Fly, and quickly slid under the sheets and blankets.

“It’s my bed!”

“Pretty cool, huh?”

“[It would be cooler if I knew what a car was.]”

The World Machine shrugged, and then immediately pivoted towards agreement, hoping to not come off as trying to offend.

“[...It does look neat, though.]”

“Well…”

The child yawns again.

“I gotta… hit the hay… as Mama would say…”

They shuffled in their sheets and rested their head smack dab on top of a pillow.

“Good night…”

“[Night.]”

And then Niko went to sleep.

Or they would’ve if they didn’t become aware of the fact that the World Machine was doing nothing but standing there, right in front of them, with an unfaltering gaze. They couldn’t lie, it kinda freaked them out. They spat out the first thing that came to their head in their tired state.

“Do you need anything?”

“[Hm?]”

The World Machine tilted its head, genuinely not getting why its behavior would be seen as off-putting.

“You’re kinda just… standing here. I thought you’d take a rest yourself.”

“[Oh… I don’t sleep.]”

“Didn’t you say you did earlier?”

“[I only said that stasis is like sleeping… Even so, I don’t do it on my own accord. It just sort of happens when it needs to… Or when it’s supposed to, considering now…]”

“Well…”

Niko chose their next words carefully so as to not come off as rude.

“Can you… not… stare at me… like that? It’s making it hard to sleep.”

“[Oh!]”

The realization washed over the ghost image’s face before quickly transitioning into a look of shame.

“[Oh… Sorry! Sorry. I’ll… I’ll just be over here then.]”

The figure motioned its hands over to the window at the other side of the room as it slowly stepped backwards towards it, until instantly speeding up right into position and turning to face out the glass wall in a desperate bid to get away from the child.

In spite of their effort to be as comforting and pleasant as possible to their identical copy, Niko could still feel a sense of self-pity from the World Machine, something that hadn’t let up from when they first met. What probably wasn’t helping matters was this completely unfamiliar territory it was stepping into, all the more chances to beat itself up for not being good enough. They wished they could do something more, but at this point, they had none of the energy to start talking down to earth with it. At the same time, they didn’t want to leave it to simply wallow like this, so for now, they’ll start simple. Mama always said even something as small as a “thank you” goes a long way.

“Hey…”

Niko muttered out groggily, with the World Machine turning its attention away from the outside and back towards the child in-bed.

“I just… wanted to say… thanks for everything you did for me back there… I really mean it…”

And with that, they returned to slumber.

The quick parting words were a shock, something that it felt like it didn’t deserve, but still wanted to appreciate at the very least. But they still have no idea what it knows and what it could mean for tomorrow, the next day, the next month, or even years. It knew their tune would change quickly once they learn, but it can’t get held up on that just yet. It has to save it for tomorrow and not get in a twist about it now. Speaking of which…

If it’s going to wait for morning, what’s it going to do to pass the time? Well, it might as well get more practice on some People Things, maybe pretending to sleep will make time go by faster.

How do people sleep again? Following Niko’s example should be the best way to go about it.

It found a spot to lie down in, the middle of the room.

Got comfy, rotating itself until ending up parallel against the floor.

And finally, it closed its eyes.

All the essential steps for a good night’s sleep, now all that happens afterwards is waiting.

And so it waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

This would probably go by faster if it could sleep for real.

How do people know when they start sleeping anyway?

Does it just come about all of a sudden-

.