Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Well, that was a really funny story! Ranboo really traumatized you guys, didn't he?" Steph said, chuckling as Ranboo looked really sheepish. Tommy and Wilbur just stared with identical unamused expressions on their faces while Phil laughed.

"Yeah, Kristin couldn't even stay in the room once we found out just what the fucking final vote was, honestly."

Ranboo looked horrified at that, much to Kristin's amusement, profusely apologizing at that. Then, after both Kristin and Phil assured him that they were fine and he didn’t need to apologize for a job so well done, Tubbo interjected with;

"You should hear ours, man, it was wild, I'll tell you that much."

"Okay! I'd love to hear it, to be honest. It's so nice that you guys enjoyed it this much, honestly." Jacob said, grinning. Ranboo nodded fervently, honestly looking even happier than before.

"Dude, I have eyes, of course I fucking enjoyed it, even though it killed my feels at the end!"

May 24, 10:50 PM - At Aimsey's house

"Okay, does everyone have what we agreed to bring?! It's gonna start in 5 minutes so you guys'd better bring everything!" Aimsey yelled into her phone while Guqqie sat on the bed, practically vibrating with excitement. Serena wasn't any different either, and Aimee could understand both of them for she was incredibly excited too. This was Ranboo's biggest project yet after all, and they all had very high expectations.

"Yeah! We're coming but someone needs to help carry these things because Bill needs to get his insulin for a moment since he fucking forgot to all day, apparently." Freddie said. At this, Aimsey wasn't the only one who facepalmed. The other two also did so, especially when Bill protested with saying that he'd be okay to not get the insulin just yet since he ate enough.

"No, Billzo_, you are getting that fucking insulin! We don't know how long the episode will be, dumbass, better be safe than sorry! I'll get the bags from you guys now." Guqqie said, getting up and leaving hastily while Bill understood that the others were not going to budge from this and told them he'd do it once he arrived with a grumble.

"He really needs to take better care of himself." Corpse Husband's voice came out of Tubbo's Discord, connected to another Bluetooth speaker.

"Try telling him that and he'll brush you off. But we'll get that knucklehead to do that, whether he wants to or not, don't worry." Aimsey said, shaking his head.

And just as the stream started with a strange, portal like thing going with a trippy soundtrack in the background of it, Guqqie returned with Billzo, Freddie, Callum and Tubbo in tow, all of them carrying at least one plastic bag of snacks and drinks, filled to the brim.

"What is that?!"

"Dunno, this is interesting though." Serena said, shrugging as she kept her eyes on the screen. And when the screen finally changed, they saw a crystal ball and someone's hands "using" it, which amused all of them quite a lot. Especially when they heard Charlie's voice spouting the most cheesy lines they had ever heard. Then, after they voted for possibly the funniest and oddest things possible, making all of them snicker, even though Callum was incredibly confused, the screen slowly faded out and a slow, somber music started up while the screen now showed Ranboo, sprawled out in a weird position on a couch, seeming completely asleep to Aimsey but Freddie saw something;

"Guys, their hand!! It's tapping something!!"

"What does that even do!? What??" Bill said, frowning in confusion.

Aimsey looked closer only to realize with mixed emotions that Ranboo was tapping in the Morse Code she had taught him when he had requested to know out of curiosity. He tried to remember what it corresponded to but failed, filing it away in their brain for later analysis.

"I know that Morse Code..." Corpse suddenly said, frown obvious in his voice.

"What?! What does it mean then, Corpse?!" Tubbo asked, looking a little worried.

"It... It means SOS, if I remember correct."

"Wait, what?! Oh God, where the hell did he end up!?"

Then they saw Ranboo just shoot up from the couch, looking very disoriented and notice the incredibly cool looking mask on their face and weirdly, they tried to take it off, very inefficiently.

"That mask looks cool though! Why does he want to get it off?! And why did he even try like that, that won't do a thing!" Callum said, looking weirded out as Ranboo slowly started to get up and explore the room he was in in complete silence, almost frantically trying to open the doors to no avail and then notice a third door and when he opened it, everyone was shocked to see that their masked friends was now in a bright forest area.

"Whoa, what the--?! That is weird!!" Tubbo said, his eyebrows raised high in surprise.

"It's really fucking cool though, I'll give it that!" Guqqie said, impressed already. It was quite obvious to everyone present that Ranboo had spared no expenses with this whatsoever. Then, a weird, creepy cry came from right behind Ranboo, making him whirl around to show that the weird mask was connected by cables all around their neck and that made Billzo look quite concerned, not knowing what to make of that information. But he sure as hell did not think that was a good thing as he watched Ranboo retreat back to the house, seeming terrified. And while Ranboo was still looking around in confusion and probably fear, the camera panned to the urn on the small nightstand, making Freddie and Tubbo raise an eyebrow. That is, until the voting thing started with a green button that said "Haunt".

"Haunt!? Excuse me?! Are we fucking haunting them or something?!" Bill exclaimed, looking honestly disturbed by the thought even as Serena and Aimee clicked away at the button as the weird cries kept echoing.

"Seems so."

Ranboo mumbled something but none of them caught what it was and before they could even try to do so, a hand poked the urn with a pencil, causing it to fall over and shatter. And what was even odder was the fact that Ranboo didn't catch on until a full minute later and seemed a little hesitant to go near it almost. And as they approached the ashes, the group heard Ranboo say something under his breathe that both Freddie and Callum somehow missed.

"What'd he say??"

"I'll tell you later." Aimee said, smirking half-heartedly but the smirk fell from his face when he saw them touch the ashes and promptly have a mini panic attack, screaming "NO!" repeatedly while his mask started glowing with red lights.

"Daaaamn, that lights up?! Holy shit, that must've been a huge amount of work! Props to the costume department there!" Corpse said, whistling in surprise.

And then, Ranboo genuinely unnerved them by promptly starting to act like an NPC. Tubbo looked a little afraid at this, hating even the thought of his or any of his friends's autonomy taken from them because this was eerily like that right now. And then, as if trying to distract him and probably everyone else, an admittedly cute doodle character showed up on the bottom right corner, introducing themself as "Squiggles, the lovable mascot of Showfall Media".

"Dude, that thing is adorable!! Please tell me it's going to have merch!" Aimsey exclaimed, seeming not to have noticed much of anything about how convenient it was for them to show up when Ranboo was acting weirdly. And then, Ranboo surprisingly turned to the camera, pointed, and said with a slight frown;

"Hmm... That's a weird painting."

"Painting? What the fuck is he talking about?!" Freddie said, looking incredibly confused as Ranboo once again inspected the right door and the camera now showed that it was locked by three locks in blue, red and green from top to bottom. Then, as Ranboo wondered out loud about the whereabouts of the keys, the voting started once more in 4 places, the bookcase, the door, the coat hanger close to the door Ranboo was trying to open and the weird goat statue on the wall.

"What are we voting for, y'all? I say we vote for the door, to be honest. This place is really unnerving the fuck out of me right now." Bill said and Tubbo, along with Guqqie and Corpse agreed wholeheartedly. But sadly, bookcase won by a substantial amount, making Bill pout as Ranboo made his way over to it. And then, all of them burst into laughter as Ranboo was abruptly assaulted by books, crying out in pain and annoyance.

"Oof, whoever this entity is in the house, I don't think it likes them that much." Callum said, snorting. They all agreed with amusement, especially when Squiggles made a hilariously snarky comment while Ranboo got one of the 3 keys, putting it into his pocket.

"Cool! There's an inventory system to show he has that!" Guqqie exclaimed, really surprised.

"Dude, no wonder Ran was worried he was gonna go overbudget, the amount of fucking effort just in the first stream is insane already!" Callum said, looking really impressed still.

"That's how they roll all the time, to be fair, it's either all or nothing with them." Freddie pointed out as Ranboo rubbed his head while saying;

"Ow, my head... My God! Knowledge can be... painful."

Tubbo frowned at that a little bit, feeling like this line was foreshadowing in some way. But none of the others seemed to feel the same. Then, something that amused all of them happened;

"What the hell is he doing?! Why is he putting the urn's pieces back up?! It's not like it's gonna do much of anything to that poor sod anymore!" Bill said, laughing while Aimsey shook his head. Then, after a very amusing segment of that, Ranboo approached the window but didn't open the curtains, instead, they just leaned down to see something out of the camera angle while a strange, demon-like silhouette appeared in the window.

"Oh shit!! Ran, don't open that fucking window, run!!" Freddie exclaimed, alarmed immediately but Ranboo did the exact opposite and amusingly got jumpscared by the decidedly not-scary silhouette with a sort of cheesy lightning behind it.

"Pffft, only him, I swear... Dork." Corpse said, snickering as Ranboo ended up finding the second key in the window sill. Tubbo nodded with a chuckle as well and then, Ranboo leaned down to pick up a VHS tape.

"Maybe it's-Maybe it's somewhere here. Hmm... 'Doctor Jekyll, Mr. Hyde'? I mean, I don't-- Hydeing the key? No. Not there. Okay, that's... fine."

"That... is one of the worst puns I have ever fucking heard, this is a new low, even for them." Aimee deadpanned, shaking their head while Tubbo and Billzo just facepalmed. Callum and Freddie on the other hand were chuckling at just how bad it was with Corpse and Guqqie. Then, the voting started again but oddly, it was only the door now. They all looked at eachother slightly suspiciously even as they clicked furiously at the voting button. Then, as Ranboo approached the door and got close enough, the voting ended and Ranboo said with a shrug while slightly turned to the camera;

"Well... I mean, honestly, I might as well just leave."

"Fucking finally!! Does he realize that the place is fucking haunted?! And he calls Tommy bad, honestly." Tubbo said, looking very unamused up until Ranboo opened the door with a little struggling.

"What. The. Fuck?! Where the hell is he exactly?! This is not where they were before when they opened the door!!" Billzo exclaimed with shock as the others looked genuinely unnerved at the beach with the reddish-pink sky and the sea that looked more like blood than a normal sea.

"This is... really creepy... I don't like this..." Guqqie whispered, looking concerned for Ranboo now.

"Me neither, it looks... Uncanny, in the best terms I can put it."

"Nope, nope, nope... Pocket sand!" Ranboo took a handful of sand and promptly shoved it in his pocket, making everyone weirded out as he went back into the cabin, obviously deeming it safer than this odd beach.

"Okay, he's acting genuinely fucking weird. He's starting to fucking scare me." Tubbo said, frowning in worry and confusion.

"Alright. Got some sand in there now. But... Where could this last key be...?" Ranboo muttered as they went over to the nightstand and checked the drawer only to find nothing while Squiggles showed up again.

"'Pocket Sand is useful in almost any situation!'?? What the hell's that supposed to mean?! Maybe elaborate, you knock-off Jack Skellington?!" Guqqie said, making the others snort. Then, the votes started again, this time it being between the door and the coat hanger and coat hanger won this time despite Corpse and Callum voting for the door again.

"Oh dammit! I wanted to see if they had more scenes!!" Corpse muttered as Ranboo took the flute off of the hanger.

"Too bad! I doubt they have more anyways because those two were already a lot, if you ask me." Guqqie replied with a headshake.

"Wait, how the hell is he even gonna be able to play that? Is there a gap or something??" Freddie said, raising an eyebrow but soon he was answered by Ranboo actually putting the flute under their mask and blowing. The noise that came out of it though, made Tubbo cringe badly.

"Damn that flute needs tuning or some shit. That sound was so bad-- What the fuck?!"

Suddenly, there was a huge and very obviously a prop bat that was bright red dropped on Ranboo's head with a bat screech jumpscare and then, another bunch of them were thrown at him from above with Ranboo commenting on how sad they were, much to everyone's amusement. Even more so when Squiggles came out only to say;

"(Doot)?! And the fucking bats are still coming! That is amazing, holy fuck!" Tubbo said, laughing along with everyone else. Bill was on the ground, shaking with laughter now. Aimsey wasn't too far off either.

"How many bats are there in this ceiling?! How is this-How is this possible?!" Ranboo exclaimed in disbelief and then did something that made them incredibly weirded out.

"D-did he just fist that bat?! Oh GOD!!" Callum said, looking completely shocked. And then Ranboo picked up the last, red key from the ground.

"Finally, I got all the--"

"BOO, BITCH!!! See you found my cabin!!"

Tubbo had taken the wrong moment to take a sip from his coke and promptly choked at Charlie's entrance and the hilariously clueless look on Ranboo's face at that and the equally as funny expression Charlie was now sporting.

"Holy fuck! Imagine being in front of that door when Charlie kicked it down! That would hurt!" Freddie said, laughing as he thumped Tubbo's back.

"Geeze Louise!! Yeah! Fuck, God, I vape! A lot! Regularly."

"God, Charlie, please never fucking change, holy SHIT!! I can't with that shit!" Guqqie said, laughing her lungs out by this point.

"I know right?! That guy is hilarious!"

Then, as they bantered with eachother about the dead bats with hilarious words from both of them, Charlie happened to look over at the broken urn and seemingly got pissed, scaring Ranboo several times in an extremely cheesy manner that somehow looked really off. And this came right after the two of them trying to give one of the dead bats, which was apparently named "Richard", CPR, which Charlie somehow changed to "BPR".

"Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit weird? I mean, I really don't think Charlie would act like that if he genuinely wanted to scare someone. Or Ranboo, they would never be as startled as he looked just now at that normally... Something is... off... And I don't know what!" Tubbo said, honestly annoyed at himself for not being able to solve it.

"Absolutely! Something is just off, even I can see that and I don't know him that well, either of them." Corpse agreed, frowning as well.

And then, after Charlie demanded them to, Ranboo opened the door once more to this time find themself in somewhere that looked hellish.

"Oh... What the hell...?"

"Yeah, literally. There's a hundred different things you can get, you got Hell."

"Oh..."

"Is it... Christian Hell."

"WHAT?! Okay, that's a new one!" Callum said, snickering. The others were also shaking their heads with amusement at this. Then, when Ranboo pointed at something they were seeing and asked;

"What about that guy?"

"Yeah, that's uhhh... That's Bart."

"Oh."

"Yeah, he'll... Yeah, he'll vore you."

"VORE HIM?! Charlie what the fuck is in that vape you are doing?! What the FUCK?!" Bill exclaimed, looking extremely weirded out and a little terrified. Tubbo on the other hand, looked nauseous as hell at the thought. Then, as the scene progressed, Charlie said something that slightly upset them;

"So, I'm just gonna go. If you wanna stick around, that's totally cool. I'm just- They don't really like me that much. We sorta have a bit of a reputation, they kinda think I'm lame 'cause I'm the 'Slime Guy'."

"Oh fuck those demons! They can only HOPE to be as cool as Charlie!! At least he has a damn sense of humor instead of being a vorer!!" Aimee said, really pissed and amusingly, he got agreeing nods with everyone else.

"Watch out for the Hell Bat!"

"Is that a 3D model from fucking Skyrim!? God, I love this series already!" Callum said, snickering as Ranboo ducked in terror and then followed Charlie back into the cabin. But then, when Ranboo went inside, even though he was clearly right behind Charlie, the older was nowhere to be found.

"How'd you like Christian Hell, Dry Boy?!"

"Dry boy!! I think Charlie decided to be a fucking meme mine at this point and I'm here for it!" Tubbo said, snickering. The others agreed with that as well, all of them giggling. And this got even funnier with Ranboo's next sentence;

"I don't wanna get vored, man!!"

"Oh my God, I'm gonna make so many fucking edits with that sound clip alone, I love it!" Bill said through his laughter.

"Where'd you go?!"

"I'm in the- this- it's a house!! There's doorframes! How did you get inside!?"

"I don't know! I don't know how I got... Inside"

"You know, that's actually a fair question, how the fuck did he end up there, sprawled on the couch??" Freddie said, now thoughtful. They all agreed, trying to piece things together when Callum said;

"Maybe it's by that weird company, what was it, Snowfall Media? Oh no, Showfall! Maybe they're the reason?"

"Oh come on, why would they, I mean, they have such a cute and somewhat questionable mascot, they surely can't be bad, right?" Aimsey said, tilting his head a bit as they watched Ranboo make their way to the kitchen to find Charlie standing there.

"You never know, to be honest..."

"There were only 3 fake locks!"

"They were fake?!" Corpse exclaimed at the same time with Ranboo and somehow, he sounded far more surprised than the masked teen was and probably should have been. Especially when Charlie confirmed it and outright told him that he had hundreds more of them in the garage and he just preferred those colors.

"This is getting even weirder, what the shit?!" Bill said, honestly unnerved a bit.

"Why not just leave it open?"

"Yeah, that'd be a lot more convenient, I have to buy a new door every time I want to egress this room..."

"What the fuck does egress mean again???" Guqqie said, frowning in confusion at which Tubbo snorted. He was about to reply when Bill said;

"That means 'to leave a place', Guqqie. Come on, I'm the dyslexic one here, get up your fucking game, mate!"

"You just got told by a dyslexic person, Guqqie, how's that feel?" Tubbo snickered, getting a death glare from both the pink haired girl in question and Aimsey. They both shrunk a bit in their seats at the reaction and turned back to the screen just in time to see Ranboo go "WAAH!" at Charlie and the other actually got startled a bit.

"What?!?"

"Maybe I am haunting you."

At that, everyone burst into laughter, especially at how flustered Charlie got while demanding to never talk about that ever again.

"I may not have let you off easy. You killed all my bats, you took out my grandma a second time--"

"I didn't mean to do that, that wasn't me..."

"But I will tell you what, if you can do one thing for me..."

"Yeah."

"I will let you off, this goopy, goopy, slimy, sludgy hook you find yourself snared on."

"I don't like being snared..."

"Am I the only one of us that is getting very odd vibes from this? Like, Ran's acting calmer than he probably should be, to be honest. I would have been freaking out long before this point." Aimsey said, frowning a bit but she was relieved when there were a lot of agreements.

"But do you like being scared?"

"No..."

"Because I'm about to give you something you should be scared of."

"Do we want to know?? I'm getting concerned even more here, to be honest..." Freddie said, frowning.

"A cooking challenge."

"Okay, I know how this episode is gonna end now, the cabin is gonna be burned to the ground because this moron thinks Ran can cook. Or he's gonna get food poisoning and fucking die." Tubbo deadpanned, making Freddie and Bill nod fervently while Callum was quite concerned.

"Is he really that bad?"

"YES!!!" It was in unison.

"Don't try Ran's cooking unless you want a hospital trip, that's the golden rule around here, mate. God knows I have been there once or twice."

Callum looked even more concerned at this, mentally noting to never eat Ranboo's food. Then, Charlie said as he was tying the apron on Ranboo;

"You need to eat more slime, man."

"What?!"

"I agree, fucking what, Charlie?!" Tubbo said, looking extremely weirded out. And as the scene continued with Charlie being as odd as he possibly could and Ranboo somehow not questioning a damn thing, Bill started to feel the same as Tubbo, that there was something far worse than they were lead to believe. Then, Charlie told Ranboo that they would be let go if he managed to win Charlie's cooking challenge and pinky swore with them though Aimsey and Freddie saw that he was crossing his fingers behind.

"That FUCKER!! He's lying!!"

"So, uh, cooking... with what?!"

"With all- with all this. You've got everything you could ever need."

"Do you have something in... Okay, there's nothing in here!"

"Whooops, guess Charlie forgot to go to the grocery store before he got a guest. Welp, he can starve." Callum said, chuckling while everyone looked at him with surprise. And then, their expressions changed when they saw Ranboo sitting in a weird, confession-style room that was a very obvious nod to MasterChef and saying;

"Cook?! I don't know how to cook!!"

"...D-did he finally just admit that he CAN'T fucking cook?! Are pigs flying yet?!" Freddie asked, looking out of the window exaggeratedly. They all laughed, agreeing with the young man. But then, the scene stretched on a little awkwardly, making them look a little closer and see that Ranboo's stare was just... blank. Even after the comedic scene continued, Tubbo couldn't get that thought out of his head and it unnerved him so badly.

"A-am I the only one who thinks that there's something deeply wrong in this situation? I mean... I don't think they would admit the fact they can't cook so easily and willingly, he would normally defend himself vehemently about it. And that stare... I don't know if I like this..." Aimsey said, wrapping her arms around herself a bit. Then, Charlie happened to ask his name and Ranboo said;

"It's-it's Ranboo? Ranboo."

"Rumbus?"

"Ranboo!"

"Rumbus Grumbus?! My tummy's a little rumbus grumbus! So you'd better get on it!"

"Pffft, I am so renaming Charlie to Meme Factory in any group chat I'm gonna be in with him from now on. I don't care how fucking annoying it may be, this is funny!" Bill said with a snicker. That made everyone else snort as well. It was very accurate after all. Then, Charlie said something even funnier;

"Ghouls! Fetch me my dining seat!"

"Is he fucking acting like a king right now?! This is fucking hilarious, I swear to God!" Guqqie said, snorting a little bit.

"Remove the 7th door this week. A nice chair! I shall thoroughly soil it!"

"EWWW!! Charlie!!!" Guqqie and Aimee yelled at the same time while Freddie, Callum and Tubbo were giggling at the sheer insanity. Corpse on the other hand, just snorted. Then, after a few seconds of watching Ranboo struggle, there was a hilariously awkward cut of Charlie just sitting in the middle of the room, almost looking clueless while stating that it was good and back to Ranboo being absolutely clueless and then, there was another strange confession-style part with Charlie this time.

"How do I feel about this contestant? Same way I feel about everything, w e t."

"HE'S FEELING WHAT ABOUT RANBOO?! EXCUSE ME?!?!" Aimsey yelled, trying to look upset but failing miserably as Charlie actually said to Ranboo right after it;

"I gotta say, I'm feeling wet about you."

"WHAT?!"

"Exactly!! Where the fuck did that come from?! Charlie needs to make some explanation or something real quick!" Callum said, looking bewildered. The others were just shaking their heads with amusement though, as they were a little more accustomed to Charlie's oddities.

"Wait, you're feeling wet about-- Is that a good thing or a...?!"

"Of course, if you put the fork on the wrong side, you're going to the pit."

The entire group looked at eachother, both amused and slightly unnerved by the way Charlie had put it so incredibly bluntly. Something was still quite off but no one could put a finger on just what it was.

"How's it going in there?"

"It's not going well! I don't have any ingredients! I don't--"

"It's going well, you've lots of ingredients?"

"It's not going well, that's not what I said, I'm stirring a mushroom in a goddamn pot! This mushroom is rock solid!"

While Ranboo was struggling so badly and quite obviously at least a little intimidated, the camera cut to the doorway where they could see Charlie with a cute grin on his face, nodding.

"Awww, he looked so adorable there!" Guqqie said, smiling along with everyone else.

"Right?! Charlie can be so fucking cute even when he is being a damn gremlin."

"You got this. And if you don't--"

"What am I supposed to cook with, man!? I need something here!"

"Listen, check the fridge!"

"The fridge? But there's nothing in the-- What the-?!" Bill cut himself off when Ranboo opened the fridge to show a few things that had definitely not been there before, confused. They all were also confused and slightly disgusted at the choices that ranged from something called "Demon's lunch" to a weird, green goo inside a glass bowl. Then, after a few seconds of Ranboo being both confused and a little disgusted, Charlie asked;

"Bro, are you sassing me?!"

"No, I'm not sassing you, I don't- I don't know what's going on!"

"I will send you to a pocket dimension!"

"Dude, not again, I don't wanna be sent to another pocket dimension! I've had enough of those!"

"You know, that's honestly quite valid. I mean, those other two were so fucking eerie, honestly."

While the odd conversation continued, another vote started for them to choose which ingredients Ranboo would cook with. They looked at the choices and all of them were grossed out but that gave Tubbo an idea;

"We should vote for the most fucking disgusting shit in this! After all, if Charlie thinks he can troll Ran, we as the audience can do much worse. I mean, he's the one who has to eat that in the end, right?"

"Oh, I love that! Absolutely!! I'm voting for the "Slimy Guts" and the "Monster Boogers", y'all! You choose the things you want!" Guqqie said, giggling evilly. And they all chose what they wanted with "Slimy Guts" and "Demon Lunch" ending up as winners by the end.

"Guys? I'm gonna be honest, I hope we don't see Charlie having to go to the hospital after this episode to have his stomach pumped or something just because we were trying to be silly as chat..." Bill said, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish expression as the scene continued on, getting more and more ridiculous by the minute with Charlie continuously made vague threats at Ranboo to keep them on their toes.

"Yeah... I... didn't think of that one, not gonna lie. If there's another choice again, we should choose something less volatile, I think." Serena said, now sheepish as well. but then, Ranboo found something disgusted all of them in the paper bag that said "Demon Lunch;

"Is this a whole RAT?!"

"TIMOTHY! Did you find my rat?!"

"Yeah, there's a rat in here..."

"My rat! Where is it!?"

"It's uh... I'm pretty sure it's pretty flat, man."

"Oh, my baby! My little gummy baby! Yeaah..."

The group was very amused by Charlie's shenanigans as another awkward confessional roll came on with Ranboo this time. This made them all pause, especially after noticing how empty their eyes looked.

"Oh man, I wouldn't put it in my mouth."

"Pfft, that gesture to his mask! I can't blame him though, who the hell would want a rat in their mouth?!" Freddie said, shaking his head.

Well, it's a gummy but still. You're right on that one." Callum replied and chuckled uneasily. They all were not that fine about how strange and kind of eerie this entire situation really was.

"I'd put this in my mouth."

 " I wouldn't, man!"

"EW!! I swear, it's going to be a fucking miracle if Charlie doesn't actually end up in the hospital after this, what the fuck?! This is so insane!" Bill said, honestly starting to worry about Charlie as they all watched him eat the weird gummy rat in his hand. And then, after Ranboo got even more grossed out by the "ingredients" he was cooking with, the group heard Charlie say;

"Don't talk back to- Oh! You have a knife. Alright, it's fine. I can die all the times I want."

The entire group looked confused and a little worried for Charlie.

"Are we sure he didn't hit his head or something? There's the dumbass YOLO challenges on Tiktok for a reason, my man!" Aimsey deadpanned, shaking his head. The others chuckled at that as yet another confessional roll of Ranboo came on who said;

"Oh man, I've only got a certain amount of time left, I gotta make the most of it."

"...Uhhh... How much time though??" Bill said, looking really confused.

They continued to make jokes about how Ranboo somehow had a unspecified time limit all of a sudden and this made all of the people slightly uncomfortable yet very amused at the same time.

"Now, I like my sandwiches beaten."

"What do you mean beaten?!"

"And tormented! That's my vibe! Say bad things and BEAT IT!"

"...Charlie is a bit of a nutcase in this, isn't he?" Corpse said, snorting a little. Then, Ranboo made an attempt to "torment" the sandwich by saying;

"I hate you... Gertrude!"

"Oh, you're naming it. Good."

"I hate it."

"Good. Call it a nickname, it doesn't look beaten enough to me."

"What is even...??"

"Splagebby! A Splagebby!"

"That's it, Charlie is the official meme factory of our group and no one can tell me otherwise." Bill said, shaking his head with a grin while Freddie and Aimsey were giggling a lot.

"It's a little weird but I like it." Callum said, smiling as well. They all nodded as well, giggles still erupting from time to time.

"You like splagebby?"

"I don't like spagebby, I'm gonna be honest..."

"Don't blame the man one bit, that thing looks disgusting." Freddie said, chuckling.

"I know!! Let's hope Charlie will be okay after this episode. I heard he has a lot of things in this, apparently."

"'Please I can't keep track of all these names'? You and me both, Squiggles, you and me both." Callum muttered. Then, another confessional roll started with Charlie, which they grinned at, Bill already looking like he wanted edits of whatever Charlie was about to say.

"Not what I would've done. I would've slimed it."

"Of course you would have." Guqqie snickered, still quite amused by Charlie's quirky attitude in this just like everyone in the room and in call.

"I don't even know how any of this is edible, man! I don't even know what you want from me!"

As Ranboo said this, Charlie was starting to throw the toy bats at Ranboo, with one landing in one of the bowls.

"Uhh, Charlie, don't throw bats into food bowls, please, we don't want another bullshit pandemic to happen, for the love of GOD!!" Bill said, looking disgusted as Charlie told Ranboo to return the bats to the food cycle.

"Yeaah, that... is not a good idea."

"Are you done with stirring? Check the fridge!"

"Okay. So what is... any of this?!"

"I second that, what the fuck?!" Bill said, nearly recoiling from the screen when he saw the weird materials on the screen.

"That, my friend, is called the ticket to ER for Charlie." Freddie said, looking absolutely disgusted as Ranboo asked something to Charlie;

"Is that just two cans of sausage?! Why do you just have two cans of sausage...? How does this fridge work?!"

"One for Ghoulio and one for Ghouliette, my two ghouls."

"He has ghouls?! Where are they then?!" Corpse said as they voted once more on the food, now carefully choosing the least painful looking things in the list. The vote came out as Spam sausages and the disgustingly named "Insect Carousel".

"I don't wanna cook with any of this, I don't know..."

"Yeeeah, cook with that!"

"I swear to GOD, Charlie, your hospital bills are gonna be horrific! US doesn't have mercy with hospital bills, mate!" Tubbo said, just shocked and honestly disturbed by how abnormal his friends were acting.

"And Squiggles is encouraging us, look at what they're saying! 'Good choices'?! I don't think we are supposed to eat bats or fucking insects! I don't trust Squiggles, at all." Corpse said, frowning. And after Charlie handed Ranboo a roller to hopefully make something out of the mess, another confessional rolled in, this time, it was Ranboo.

"You know, I don't really know how food keeps out of this fridge but I'm- I'm really glad it does."

"I feel like these guys had a lot of fun filming these weird ass b-roll type things, and it gives so much character to the show as well, honestly." Callum said, snorting a little bit. And Tubbo added;

"I agree but I can only imagine how many takes the team must've had, considering Charlie is a bit of a troll."

"Preach!! He's a comedic genius, honestly."

Then, they all burst into laughter again when they saw Squiggles say;

"Has this contestant cooked a single day in his life?" with a seemingly sad animation.

"Oh, he tried, Squiggles, he certainly did. To no avail." Freddie said, snickering. Tubbo laughed even louder at that.

"Have you checked everything in there?"

"W-what do you mean have I checked everything in there?!"

"I like herbs and spices!!"

"Oh Charlie, don't confuse the poor boy even more, you're already gonna be at the hospital tonight, don't make it worse for yourself!" Aimsey said, giggling.

"Damn, they must really suck if you think it's that bad." Corpse said, obvious surprise in his tone. And then, when Ranboo opened the bottom cabinet, there was suddenly a person who clanged some pots at them, making him startle and take a few steps back in abject terror.

"...Is that normal for Ranboo to get that badly startled over something like this?" Callum muttered, frowning but Aimsey said;

"I mean, I think it's kinda valid. I would be too."

"More like you would punch that poor sod in the face if that happened to you, Aims." Bill said, earning a glare from the shorter. The others tried to hide their snickers until Guqqie noticed that chat was thinking that it was Aimsey who scared Ranboo.

"Damn, the chatters think it's you, boi~! That's hilarious!"

"Pfft, yeah, it really is. Too bad it isn't, I would've known what happens otherwise..."

Then, another b-roll started, making them grin when they saw Charlie sitting there.

"Wowie zowie... That is something... bad."

At that, they all looked at eachother with slight frowns, not understanding what exactly was "bad". That was then, Callum noticed Squiggles say;

"Guys we didn't script that we don't know who that was"

"They don't know who that was?! What does that supposed to mean!?"

"Uh-oh, maybe someone snuck into the set?" Tubbo said, suddenly a little worried. But then, they saw Ranboo stuff the things in the pot into a blender, saying that he was going to turn it into a paste, to which Charlie said:

"You're turning it into a paste??"

"I'm trying to turn it into a paste man, cause I don't know?!"

"Are you making me a protein shake over there? Are you looking to give me a lifestyle change?! My life is over!"

"What the FUCK does he mean by that bullcrap now?! Charlie is literally in his prime!!"

"The character though? I dunno, we don't know much about this demonic slime after all."

"Let's hope for your sake it's wet enough for my palate."

"Just... Ew... Jeez, Charlie, just damn..."

"Yeeeaah."

"My God, it doesn't even work..."

"I want it to appeal to all of the different taste centers of my tongue. Do you know about those?!"

"What-what's taste centers?! What are you talking about?!"

"I think he's talking about the taste buds?? This is so odd mate..." Freddie muttered, frowning a little once more along with everyone.

"Maybe Charlie blanked on the word? Oh yeah, he did! But he only has slime for taste buds?? Just... ew, man... I will never get how he does this..."

Then, another b-roll started with Charlie who had a grin on his face. But everyone's smiles turned into looks of concern when Charlie kept saying the word slime with a look of growing fear on his face. And it continued on when the b-roll was over as well.

"We were right, there's something really sinister with this entire thing... What the hell is happening to Charlie?!"

"And Ranboo doesn't seem concerned either! This is weird, man!"

"You cut up my mushroom?!"

"Yeah!?"

"I've been cultivating this thing here, for 70 years!"

"Th-that was just sitting in the microwave!!"

"That's where it wanted to grow!! That's where it wanted to grow so it did!!"

At that, all of them started snickering, especially after seeing the entire thing with the ketchup packet. It was truly amusing to everyone but Tubbo still felt like they were missing something, especially after seeing Charlie's face while repeating the word "slime". Then, Charlie took a sniff of the Spam sausage and said;

"That's bad..."

"Uhh, I'm starting to seriously hope there's a medical person over there because if not, poor Charlie, honestly." Guqqie said, shaking her head as she looked a bit disgusted. Then, Ranboo went into the freezer and saw a huge gummy worm, making everyone look shocked.

"A Gummy worm?! Gimme!!" Aimsey said, giggling. Bill on the other hand, was a bit pale at the thought of too much sugar. Then, when Charlie told Ranboo to eat it before realizing that he had a mask on, everyone burst out laughing.

"I swear, Charlie is from another world when it comes to comedy. Pure chaos is his domain, I think." Bill said through his giggles. And after a very hilarious failure of a summoning, Charlie decided to throw an apple at Ranboo's face, saying that he is hungry and when he gets hungry he also got "the grumpies". Then, another weird B-roll happened with Ranboo pretty much detailing what he does when he cooks, making all of them look at eachother since it seemed that he was now more comfortable, weirdly enough. But when it cut back to the actual show, Ranboo was fending off Charlie throwing fruits at him with a frying pan.

"What the--?! What are they doing?!"

"I have no idea..."

"Pffft! He caught that!! That was kinda sick!" Freddie said, immensely amusedly. There were confirmations all over as they saw Ranboo go to the fridge once again and yell out;

"Oh my God! That's the biggest jar of pickles I've ever seen!!"

"And that is the weirdest thing to point out in there and I love it! Ranboo really did a great job so far."

After yet another weird debate with Charlie about the pickles and how Ranboo was going to use it, another voting started and they enthusiastically voted for pickles, just to be a troll to Charlie. And as another weird b-roll ended with Ranboo saying he hoped Charlie was a fair judge but he felt in danger, Tubbo frowned again, concerned. It was weird, Ranboo didn't seem to have recognized Charlie at all during all this. Let alone how Charlie was trying, albeit very much failing, to be threatening.

"Oh God, he's legit stuck to the chair!! I'm never letting him live that one down!!" Bill cried out with laughter as they watched Charlie try to crawl to Ranboo's side because he was very badly stuck to the floor.

"Uhhh... Did Ranboo just go to him with a fucking knife?!" Callum said, looking a bit pale and worried.

"Yeeah, he... really isn't the most attentive with that type of things when cooking..." Tubbo muttered, facepalming.

"Alright, he's never allowed to cook when I'm there, okay?! Holy fuck that's bad!"

Then, they saw Ranboo take out the weird concoction they'd helped him make and all of them were surprised to only see some kind of odd, slimy dish that did not look like what it went in as. They all were very confused but that slightly faded as they saw Charlie ask Ranboo to make airplane noises when he was being fed. And much to everyone's amusement, Ranboo did it. And then, Charlie brought him to the Slime Dimension, much to both Aimsey, Tubbo and Guqqie's absolutely disgusted looks.

"Ew... What the...?!"

"YEAH BABY!! This is what it's all about!! This is the Slime Dimension!! It's all slime, we got goo, we got gunk, we got sludge, we got ooze, holy shit we got it all. What do you think?"

"Ugh, this seems like a sticky situation."

"Oh my fucking GOD, that pun is the worst thing I've heard from them...! Just no." Guqqie said, faceplanting into the nearest pillow along with Aimsey who chose to just groan.

"I don't know which is worse, his cooking or his puns!" Corpse said, a little amused anyways.

"BOTH!!!" Was the answer from everyone else.

"Seems legit... Especially since Charlie just looked dead inside."

And when they turned their attention back to Ranboo on the screen, they saw him with an odd VHS tape in their hands, about to put it inside the player. That made everyone sober a bit in worry of a jumpscare. Especially since the mask was now flashing once again after such a long time and the intro theme had started again. Then, when he put it in, a silhouette of a person started talking to Ranboo with the screen now glitching.

"What the fuck?!?!"

"Shh!! Lore is coming and we've gotta eat! Like Charlie did!"

"Huh????"

"Hello? Oh my God, I got in! Listen, there's not much time. You don't realize what's going on yet you're doing well, they're entertained."

"W-w-what do you mean!?"

"Just keep going, okay? And don't resist."

"What?! Don't resist what?!"

"I'll be in touch again soon."

"Don't resist what?! What do you mean?! What is this place, where am I?! ...where am I...?! No, come on! This is...?! Hello?!"

When the TV turned off, there was an odd, soulless sounding commercial tune and a message from Showfall that said "Currently experiencing technical difficulties". This made everyone very uneasy. Looking at eachother, no one knew what to say until the commercial stuff ended and Ranboo shot up from the couch where he seemed to be unconscious again on and then, went to the odd basement place. Once they truly got in, shutting the door behind him, the group saw that the voting to explore began once again in 4 places, the general area of the toy pony, the weird shelf that had a huge skull on it, the shelf that Ranboo was the closest to and much to everyone's amused amazement, the small replica of Jerma's Dollhouse which all of them chose with a smile on their faces, making Ranboo find a padlock. And after a while, they heard someone else.

"Hold up, is that Sneeg?!"

"Yes!!! I knew he would be in there somewhere!" Bill said, grinning from ear to ear, though that grin faded slowly as he realized that Sneeg and Ranboo didn't act like they knew eachother and Sneeg constantly gave him shit while acting oddly affectionate to a plastic skeleton named Frank. Then, after an entire fight with a controlled Sneeg and a while of odd back and forth about a bolt cutter, Ranboo and Sneeg ended up finding the Slime Demon's bedroom, which surprised all of the group but when Ranboo went to sleep, things turned back into the comedy line with Charlie in the picture again.

"I swear, Charlie can make literally anything absolutely comedy gold. Even that horrific scene in Nightmare on Elm Street now, as it is." Bill said, shaking his head with a snicker. Then, after Sneeg gave even more shit to Ranboo for not realizing the wall above their head was cuttable because he had gone to sleep and cutting it while bitching about cages, they saw a huge, weird monster grab Sneeg and presumably kill him.

"WHAT THE FUCK?! What just happened?!" Aimsey yelled, looking absolutely horrified. Most of the others were speechless as well, to say the least.

"Dude, Sneeg's screaming ability is amazing, actually. That shocked me..."

"Did none of you notice something off though?! Ran... he didn't help! That's so weird, the Ran I know would never leave like that..."

Then, the monster came out and everyone started chuckling at how ineffective it was at trying to kill Ranboo as well, especially when Ranboo just hid in the box and used another one of his jackets to lure the monster into the cage its victim, Sneeg was inside of.

"There's irony and then there's that! Goddamn... Sneeg ends up in a cage whether alive or dead..."

"What kind of person would make that?!" They heard Ranboo say and much to everyone's amusement, Aimsey immediately came to the creature's defense.

"Don't you talk to my son that way, you hear, you utility pole?!"

"I'm telling him you called them that again."

And afterwards, Ranboo went to the other room that Sneeg had found and saw Charlie there, looking for a fight, in which the audience got to vote for what to do with various things in the room, which was quite amusing. Especially when Charlie called Ranboo a "magnum bitch", which got shrieks of laughter from Aimsey, Tubbo, Freddie and Bill.

"Charlie is something else, his humor is too funny..." Callum said, snorting still as Ranboo said;

"I guess time for me... to throw in the towel."

"Oh wait, you're giving up??"

"No!"

"Did he just throw that towel and miss?! Dude, there is not even 2 feet distance between them, what the fuck!?" Corpse said, laughing as Charlie was "dissolved" into the towel amidst gross sounds. Then, for some odd reason, the group saw Ranboo pick up the now gross, covered in green towel and then, the screen started glitching again, even Squiggles was now glitchy and hard to read. Ranboo's mask was also flickering as he made his way back to the TV while a really weird theme accompanied the scene. And as soon as Ranboo sat down in front of the TV, the man's silhouette came on once again, congratulating him on getting on "Episode 2" and finally introducing himself as "Hetch" before saying;

"You've just gotta keep going, alright? I'm trying to find a way to get you out of there."

"I absolutely do not fucking trust this man! I mean, not only is this guy in red, which, if you remember the weird ass video game Ran sent out before this started, was called "The Stranger", but his voice just rubs me the wrong damn way, I dunno..." Tubbo said, worried as Ranboo finally made his way out of the door again after yet another few cryptic words from this character, and promptly got jumped on and sedated, ending the episode right there, much to everyone's shock.

"What the?!?! You CAN'T just end there, you asshole!!!"

"It seems like he can... Who's gonna call them to congratulate for a great job??" Guqqie said with a grin and a shake of her head.

"I will!! I'll put it to speakerphone too so we all can do it at the same time!" Aimsey said, already dialling the number. But for some reason, Sneeg was the one to reply.

"Hey Aims! I don't think Ran can talk right now, considering he's in the ER room currently."

"WHAT?! What HAPPENED?! Is Charlie alright?! We didn't think he'd eat that thing when we were voting!" Aimsey said, sharing a guilty and horrified look with everyone. But what Sneeg said made them concerned and Tubbo immediately did what the older streamer asked only to be shocked;

"WHAT THE FUCK!? What do you mean Ranboo's mask had a fucking failure and burned him?!"

"WHAT?! If he's there, tell him I'm going to fucking clart his ass!! But honestly, you guys did an amazing job, congrats!" Bill said in horror at first which turned genuine at the end. At that, Sneeg just laughed and thanked him before telling that he would talk to Ranboo about this. Afterwards of them hanging up, Tubbo shook his head, knowing how much this show meant to Ranboo but still feeling like the taller was an idiot. And then, they all went to sleep, not knowing what was about to happen in the next episode.

Chapter Text

The next day - With Tubbo

Tubbo woke up with a grin, having slept so well after watching Ranboo's new masterpiece, Generation Loss. It was just as he had expected, hilarious with an underlying creepy factor. He was still a bit frustrated about not being able to solve the mystery, however and kind of annoyed at the taller for not stopping the show after he got burned by a wire. Then, a brilliant idea occured to him; why not message Ranboo to hang out and try to get answers from the source directly while also checking on his burns? He grinned and immediately messaged them, not really expecting an answer immediately as he knew Ranboo must be rehearsing and planning the hell out of the second episode as the first one had set the bar so high it could not be seen.

"Man, I can't wait to see the rest of this, to be honest. It's already so fun." He muttered as he checked on TubNet and chatted with the others to plan where they wanted to watch the second episode this time. He cackled as he read Bill's last message and typed his own:

Billzo: istg, if Ranboo really pulls a death thing on us, I am gonna spank the fuck out of him.....

BeeBoy: I dunno, Bill, I don't think you could handle all of his vigor :wink:

Billzo: OH SHUT UP, TOBY!!!

6 people left :joy: emoji

Then, as he cackled, Ranboo finally called Tubbo and the shorter immediately answered.

"Hey man. Great job last night, even though you are a dumbarse for not stopping for a bit." He said with a soft grin on his face. Ranboo just chuckled at the other line.

"Thanks, Tubbo. Everyone did their best, honestly, not just me though. Charlie was a comedic genius, I swear to God. You have no idea how many times the entire control room was in stitches because of him."

"Sounds about right, Bill is now calling him a Meme Factory, honestly, and it's legit, to be honest."

At his words, Ranboo let out a cackle of his own, sounding really joyful which made Tubbo grin even more. Then, he asked Ranboo if he wanted to meet up but the taller teen said;

"Sorry, Tubbo. I have to rehearse for tomorrow for one, and two, you are not grilling me for spoilers. But I'm open to it after the show ends, alright?"

"Awwww, how did you know?! Also, good luck with the next episode, mate, you're gonna kill it!"

"Aww, thanks, Tubbo. Good luck with your streams as well. I gotta go though, gotta perfect the craft, y'know. So see you later?"

"Sure! See you. We're all gonna watch it!"

"You're hopefully gonna be in for a ride, just a heads up. Byeee!"

After they hung up, Tubbo messaged the others to tell them they all could stay at his place to watch GenLoss together while also extending an invitation to Corpse but the man politely declined, deeming their setup from the first episode fine enough. Tubbo didn't push it, although he was kind of bummed. He knew full well how private Corpse really was after all.

"Man, I can't wait to see more of this." He muttered as he set his stream up.

May 26, 10:25 PM - At Tubbo's house

"It's starting!! I am so hyped, holy hell!!" Freddie said, almost bouncing on his seat from excitement. Bill was just as hyper and if Tubbo didn't know better, he would have thought that they both had way too much sugar before this.

"Freddie? Did you fucking eat sugar or something before coming here?" Aimsey asked, his eyebrow raised in a stern way not so unlike a parent. Freddie looked almost offended as he shook his head but then, the episode started with Ranboo looking unconscious and chained on a metal chair.

"What the...?!"

"Exactly, Ranboo! What the hell?! And what is with the name tag?! "Hero"?!" Guqqie said, looking very concerned immediately. And then, they saw their friend struggle to try and get out to no avail. Tubbo looked honestly worried about this, not understanding what might be happening. That was then, a long bar with a symbol of battery appeared the bottom left of the screen. 

"O-kay??? Why is he trying to open the lock like that though?! I swear, this character has an issue with padlocks. Aaand he dropped it."

"Also, guys, what the fuck is on his head right now?? This is worrying." Callum muttered, looking worried as hell as a weird laugh resounded, startling most of the people in the room alongside a track that was reminiscent of the SAW series.

"Of course he fucking put a SAW reference, what else could we have expected?!" Aimsey muttered, facepalming with an amused smile on her face.

"Hello, Ranboo. Welcome to The Game. Seems like you're in quite a precarious position here."

"Wh-where am I?!"

"Where you are doesn't really matter. It's what is happening right now that does matter. You find yourself strapped to a chair, don't you?"

"Yeah... Yeah, I can't..."

"Can you get out??"

"Why ask them?! That is so weird!" Bill said, snorting a little bit. But Tubbo was now concerned about the weird thing on Ranboo's head and his worry was increased when he heard the character on the TV say;

"In one hour, 65 million volts are going to go through your brain. Through your brain, killing you instantly."

"WHAT!?!?!" Everyone chorused, horrified at the thought. Tubbo saw Bill turn pale as a sheet at the thought in the corner of his eye and he knew he wasn't very far from being the same way as they watched the man electrocute Ranboo just to show that it wasn't fake. His cry of pain and convulsion in the chair made the brunet nauseous. And much to everyone's horror, Ranboo went limp on the chair very shortly afterwards, the mask having turned off as well.

"Oh no..." Corpse muttered, just as shocked and horrified as everyone else in the call even though Ranboo had sprung back just a few seconds afterwards and looked around with fear in his eyes.

"Thought I'd killed you! That would've been awful, considering there's a lot more going on today! Sorry about that, I-I didn't mean to do that, I thought I only did 10 I think I did 10.000. "

"Waait... Then how did he spring back to life?... That would've actually killed him though!"

"Yeah, that's odd but then again, the audience, we would've been very much pissed if they did that and I think Ranboo knows that much." Aimsey pointed out, with a look that said they would pay dearly if that happened. Then, after the man reminded him that he had only one hour and telling them that there might be some help along the way, he dropped the line of;

"We're all a little sick, aren't we, Ranboo? Good luck."

And then, much to everyone's shock and growing worry, voting started on which key could save Ranboo's life. Tubbo shuddered at the thought of choosing wrong and looking at Bill and the others, he knew he was not the only one.

"Dude, the way I would be panicking in this situation is epic, I have to say... This is actually a terrifying situation."

"I know right!?" Freddie said, voting for the middle one for everyone in the room. Corpse could be heard on the speaker as well, furiously clicking. Meanwhile Ranboo was saying that he didn't want to die and that made Bill tear up a little bit, shuddering.

"I call this one The Janitor, by the way."

"Oh, I know who this is! It's Jerma985!! The creator of Jerma's Dollhouse! No way!!" Guqqie said, snorting a little at that knowledge. Then, Jerma happened to ask if Ranboo was okay and the taller replied with;

"I mean I feel... A little fried... A little foggy but I think I'm okay...?"

Then he tried one of the keys and miraculously, the padlock unlocked, which made everyone relieved out of their minds. They were also quite amused at how unhappy Jerma was about Ranboo's survival. But as soon as the man said he should just shock the younger again, all of them was angry.

"He wouldn't fucking dare!"

Thankfully, Ranboo took off the shockers from his head wondering out loud to himself why he hadn't done that sooner. At that, Tubbo and Aimsey shared a look of surprise and concern. Neither of them had realized that one before and it worried both of them. And Squiggles was acting angry as well that Ranboo had gotten out of the trap. While Ranboo was unstrapping themself from the chair, he remarked that he was just lucky to which the man replied;

"I don't believe in luck, I believe in fate."

"That's... Stupid..."

"It is a little stupid."

"It is a little dumb."

"...What the fuck are they talking about!? My fucking God, they can be weird as hell, I swear..." Bill muttered, shaking his head in concern. The others also agreed, even Corpse who didn't know Ranboo that well. Then, they noticed that the cameraman kept getting in the shots and giggled.

"Somebody is getting fired from the production in a few hours." Tubbo said, amused as he watched Ranboo turn off the TV despite Jerma's protests.

"This is gonna turn out even more insane, I tell you guys. Just from the start, it's obvious." Callum pointed out as they watched Ranboo approach a weird area that had a  single hospital bed with a familiar person laying in it.

"Is that... Charlie?!?! No fucking way! He died last episode though!"

"Let's... Let's just watch and see what happens, okay? I'm confused too." Freddie said, trying so hard not to dwell on things too much. Especially when they all realized that Ranboo once again didn't recognize Charlie. Then, after Jerma's character explained that Charlie's seemingly new character had a key inside him, they all facepalmed, realizing the reference again.

"Of course this is another goddamn SAW reference. I think this episode is just a parody of SAW at this point." Guqqie said, chuckling until Charlie awakened.

"Oh no..."

"Oh dude... Oh fuck, dude. Oh shit. Are you a doctor, dude?"

"I'm not... I'm not a doctor..."

"Oh GOD, this is disturbing as hell. Ranboo wasn't kidding when he said this was R-rated... Wait, is his insides slime?! What?!?!" Corpse said, sounding incredibly confused.

"Oh my gash ! You're throwing open my gash!! Bro, what the fuck?! Oh that is-- Ooh, I'm gaping!! You fully gaped me! Dude, look me in the fucking eyes! You just fucking gaped me!"

At Charlie's nonchalant words, Tubbo, Corpse and Callum immediately choked while Aimsey, Bill and Freddie burst out laughing but Guqqie felt a little less happy, thinking that there was some cover up, and she was proven right when suddenly, the screen glitched and the slime turned red with Charlie screaming his lungs out while Ranboo stepped back in abject terror, freezing everyone in the room before the slime turned back to green and Charlie resumed his odd banter with Ranboo.

"What... the FUCK was THAT?! Guys, I... I think we're not seeing what we supposed to be." Bill was the first one to be able to talk after a long moment as Jerma's character once again came into  view on the TV and tried to gaslight Ranboo, saying he had told him the key was "on" Charlie when the reality was very different. And then they saw that Charlie had a toilet tattoo on his arm with the young man commenting that he had "a whole shitter" on his wrist. But this time, no one really laughed, not even when Ranboo finally got into another room. And then, they heard the yells;

"No fucking way!! IS NIKI THERE?!" Callum said, looking shellshocked.

"I think so!! That's really cool then!" Tubbo said, smiling a little before realizing that Niki was crying hysterically. All of them looked sad at that and while they were watching, Bill realized that he'd forgotten his insulin once more but shrugged slightly, hoping no one would notice.

"Can you help us, please?!"

"Who's that guy in the purple though? I can't seem to remember his name. I know he's friends with Markiplier and Jack but I can't remember him. Gaah, this is gonna really bother me if they don't introduce him." Freddie said, pouting a little. That was then, as Ranboo was messing with the controls of the carousel, Aimsey realized what scene this parodied.

"Damn, isn't there a scene in one of the SAW movies like this? Ranboo, your SAW fan is showing again." She said, shaking his head with slight amusement. Then, the John Kramer ripoff character once again reared his head, but this time, there was only a cracked TV in the room so it wasn't heard by the others in the room. So the solution was for him to actually come out in a way too tall platform with a hollow CRT TV and then, getting out fully from the platform as well and unmask himself.

"Oh damn, he is short. I knew Jerma was short but oof."

"Did you get stung?!"

At those words, everyone burst out laughing, especially after seeing a closeup of his face. Then, the blond guy replied Sneeg who wondered what he was with,

"Looks like Snowmiser."

"What did you just say that I look like...?"

"Snowmiser? From that movie with Chrismas--"

"EVERYBODY SAYS THAT!!"

"I wonder why." Aimsey said, looking really amused. And the amusement grew even more when the man claimed he looked like Gigachad.

"Oh, absolutely not. He really looks more like Snowmiser and this is amazing." Guqqie added with laughter in her voice. Tubbo snorted and added;

"Wonder how much it cost for the prosthetics though. Seems pretty movie-like for some reason."

"Bro, this is Ran we're talking about, you know he doesn't spare expenses for his passion!"

"Point."

And when their discussion had ended, they saw Austin ask why the rats spoke English and Jerma's response caught everyone offguard:

"I taught them. I taught them everything they know."

"What else do they know?"

"Ranboo, you have to make a decision."

"Okay..."

"You have all these people here, sitting before you, all of them probably have a story and all of them probably want to live. Right?! Imagine! I'd imagine they'd want to live! Do you wanna live?"

"I'd love to live."

"Uhh, duh?? What the hell is about to happen!? Don't tell me we have to choose instead of Ran though, that'd be fucked up!" Bill said, shuddering at the thought of lives being placed in his hands all of a sudden.

"Don't jinx it, Billzo!! I don't wanna think of that!!"

"Sorry, I'm a- I'm a little slow. Had a large pasta. With shrimp. Only had like 3 shrimps on it. A little bloated... I had... Well I had dessert though. Ohoho, let me tell you, it was a bad day to be a cheesecake, I'll tell you that much."

At that, the entire room was bewildered, even Corpse who made a strange sound from their Discord call. It still amused them a little until they saw Niki hunched over.

"Anyways! We're gonna hear from these people. And you're gonna have to decide who lives."

"Oh great."

"And who dies."

"I can't do- I can't do that!!"

"Oh no!! That is so cruel to put Ranboo of all people through that!"

"And so will they."

"They...?!"

"BILL YOU FUCKING JINXED IT!!!" Tubbo screamed while Bill looked horrified as Jerma's character explained that it was time to hear from all the victims. The poor black haired boy was completely frozen as the scene continued. And then, he demanded Ranboo to determine who lived. But right before he could do so, Jerma's character said;

"Is somebody screaming? Is that what I hear?"

As soon as the man said that, the group heard Charlie screaming about how he needed a doctor and that he was in a bad way. Tubbo and Aimsey looked at eachother in worry while Callum pointed out;

"Wait, isn't he supposed to have died already? I mean... The wound Ranboo gave him was fatal after all."

And then, they brought the young man into the room and while the victims in the carousel were pleading their cases to the audience and Ranboo to get out of there alive, Jerma kept bickering with Charlie and Ranboo, way too casual about things before Charlie mentioned having a discomfort in his stomach.

"...Charlie, mate, that is the biggest understatement I've ever seen in my fucking life..." Bill said, facepalming. But then, Jerma's character brought out a hat out of his stomach, making everyone frown before Corpse said;

"Hold on! Isn't that Sneeg's hat from the last episode?! I think it is!!"

"Oh my God, it is!! And Squiggles is freaking out about the hat as well, I wonder why." Guqqie said, frowning as the hat was put on Frank which earned a snort from all of the people in the room and Corpse as well over the call.

"But! Frank is a choice! Which again, they will make and you'll make."

"...They...???"

"Wait, what the fuck is he saying?! That's a huge 4th wall break! Holy shit..." Tubbo said, eyebrows raised in confusion.

"I meaaan, Ran goes by They/Them too though, maybe he meant that??" Aimsey replied, shrugging. And then, the hat was put on Sneeg and the entire screen started glitching and Sneeg looked absolutely horrified by the scenery.

"Oh fuck, something is going on!! Lore is happening!!" Freddie said excitedly, not tearing his eyes from the screen as Sneeg somehow managed to convince the captors that he needed to "go to the toilet" and bolted away. And then, the carousel started spinning and the group got a good look at every victim on it, watching in concern as Niki sobbed her eyes out on it. Then everyone burst out laughing at Austin who yelled;

"HELP!! CHILDREN!!"

"Oh Austin... That is only making you comedic, bossman." Tubbo said, snorting a little bit, but then, the entire thing stopped while Sneeg screamed;

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP!! C'MON, LET ME GO!! C'MON NO!! NO, COME ON!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING, STOP!! COME ON, NO!! NO, COME ON, WHAT KIND OF SICK PLACE IS THIS?!?! NO!!! I'm not supposed to be here, come on!! Let me go, let me go, LET ME GO! Let me go uuuh... mmfh!!"

They all watched with growing shock and horror as Sneeg was manhandled while begging to be let go and got a very odd mask put on him that seemed to make him compliant somehow by three people, what with the older streamer slowly going back to the carousel willingly and sit down while one of them put a black hat on him instead, not even being tied to it or resisting anymore. And all this went on while everyone else was completely frozen, Jerma not even blinking in his shot.

"...What... the fuck was that...?!" Freddie was the first one to be able to talk as everything continued once more.

"Something far darker than a fucking Saw parody is going on here, that's for sure. Other than that, I have no fucking clue."

"Did you guys notice that the other masks all look like Squiggles though? And not to mention that they were very against putting the other hat on Sneeg. Something dark is with Showfall, and I don't like it." Corpse piped up with a frown apparent in his voice as well. At that, they all looked even more concerned, especially when Sneeg just cheerfully introduced himself and said that he was "pumped to be" there. And the feeling grew even more when Niki introduced herself with her usual intro instead when she was sobbing just a second earlier and all she could say about herself was that she was "Nice". Then, after Vinny also introduced himself and pleaded with the audience and Ranboo to save him, the voting started.

"I'm voting on Sneeg, he 100% saw something after he put that hat on and bolted away. For the other one... Hmm, maybe Niki?" Tubbo said, looking conflicted. This was some of his best friends on the possible death row, imaginary or not. Choosing was hard as hell for him.

"I'm voting for Sneeg as well. Something is so off, I don't think this is funny anymore..." Bill whispered, shuddering a little at the blatant robbing of someone's self right in front of him. And after the voting ended, the winners were indeed Sneeg and Niki by a somewhat large margin. While they were glad that Niki and Sneeg were chosen, the entire group was sad when Ranboo left the room with the other victims behind. And very concerned.

"Okay, this Showfall thing definitely did something to Ran, there's literally no way he would've left the room with all those people behind to just die if he were in their right mind!" Bill stated in a very matter-of-fact tone, frowning in concern. Everyone agreed with that statement, all voicing their concerns. Then, they saw the room the masked teen and his companions had ended up in and to their even more concern, Sneeg and Niki introduced themselves to Ranboo to which the tallest did the same.

"Hold on a second, I'm confused here. For one, that room is really weird, and two, why did they have to introduce themselves to Ran?! Especially Sneeg since he was in the last episode! What the fuck???"

"That is odd, I agree."

And then, everyone of the cast were murdered one by one, even though they had chosen to let Niki and Sneeg live. And what was even worse was the reaction from Ranboo, or the lack thereof. And then, Ranboo finally ended up in Puzzler's room, still searching for a way out. Then, the character on the screen on the last episode, Hetch, finally showed himself again on the monitors after a very darkly funny voice recording of Puzzler.

"Hello? Ranboo? Oh... Thank God I finally got back in! I've been trying to get in this entire time."

"H-Hello?!"

"Guys, his mask!! It's flashing again!!" Guqqie exclaimed in excitement. Then Freddie pointed out;

"Did it not stop working in the room where Vinny died?"

"Oh yeah. Wonder why it's so faulty..."

"Think, Ranboo!"

"What's going ON?!"

"Has any of this made sense?! The game. The Warehouse. The Cabin. Has any of it made sense?!"

"N-no... I mean, I don't... I don't what's... I don't know what's going on!! Are you- Are you here to help me, what's going on?!"

"E-fucking-xactly!! What the hell is your business with one of my besties, asshole?!" Aimsey grumbled.

"This is a show, Ranboo. Some kind of twisted entertainment. You've been shielded from what's actually happened. You've been their puppet."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, WHAT?!?!?! What the fuck is the fourth wall at this point?!?!" Tubbo yelled and then, Hetch shut the mask off and suddenly, Ranboo turned around and looked straight into the camera with the most horrified and scared look any of them had ever seen them make.

"Uhhh...Guys? Does anyone else want to become an Enderman right now, because Ran's stare is freaking them the fuck out or is it just me!?" Bill said, shaking as Ranboo walked out to a huge mall with the Showfall Media banner in front of him. Everyone agreed as well, just as shaky at the look they were seeing from them. Then, Ranboo dropped a bombshell on them again by saying in a shaky tone;

"What the fuck...?! What the FUCK is this place...?!?!"

And then, the episode ended with an uproar from everyone in the room.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!?!? WHERE IS THIS EVEN BEING FILMED AT?! AND DID I JUST HEAR RAN OF ALL PEOPLE SAY FUCK ON STREAM?!?!?" Tubbo yelled, shocked out of his mind.

"Not to mention the fucking cliffhanger!! What the SHIT, man?! WHY?!?!" Callum exclaimed, completely blown away by the entire production.

"Guys, wait! This was so foreshadowed, remember how some of the cameramen kept getting into the shots?! Holy fuck, how far deep does this go?!" Guqqie said. Then Corpse said as well;

"Yeah, this kid is amazingly talented already, damn, I did not see this coming... I'm shocked, not gonna lie."

Everyone agreed as Tubbo called Ranboo. Ranboo answered but told the entire group, as Tubbo had taken the call into speaker mode after Corpse had disconnected, that he was spent and thanked them all for congratulating him.

"Wait, Ran, seriously, where are you shooting this thing, it looks massive, mate!!"

"Oh, I just rented an abandoned mall with the help of my producer, Jacob. Hey Jake!! Come over here, a few of my friends want to say hi."

"Hello! Hope you guys enjoyed it and ready for the storm that is coming soon." An older man's voice came through the speaker and that made everyone look at eachother with grins.

"Bring it the hell on, mate! After the cliffhanger this episode had, y'all have to have a huge thing ready to fill the shoes of this episode, honestly."

"Oooh, do we have it, you guys. Get ready for it! See you!!" Ranboo laughed and left the call, making everyone laugh and then, say good night to eachother and go to sleep.

"Man, this is shaping out to be as good as Ranboo was describing, great job mate. Everyone's proud of you." Tubbo whispered, smiling. Then, his phone pinged with a message from Ranboo;

'Hey, I just wanted to know something... About the GenLoss thing, I mean.'

'Mate, this is your thing, you know everything the best. But shoot away.'

'Do you... Do you think Techno would've liked this whole thing? I don't know, that just occured to me and I just... I dunno, man...'

'No.'

'O-oh...'

'Ranboo, Techno would've loved this! im sure he's jst as prod of you as all of us, don't ever fogret that, k?'

''Okay. Thanks, Toby. Honestly, I've been so worried about this this last year and your words help  a lot. See you soon.'

"See you soon, mate. Good luck."

Chapter Text

The next day - With Bill

Bill took his insulin in the morning, ate his breakfast and streamed. All the while he was doing so though, not only was he getting chat's messages about GenLoss but he himself couldn't wait for the next one.

"Yeah, chat, the last two episodes were amazing, weren't they?! That look from Ranboo actually freaked me the fuck out. They knocked the ball right out of the park, I tell ya!" He responded to the chat, seeing agreements with everyone else.

"Man, I can't wait for the last episode. He gave no hints as to what will happen but guys? I'm not missing that for the life of me. That mall looked massive, by the way, didn't it?!"

Every person in the chat had agreed with him, making Bill smile proudly. He couldn't have been happier with the last episode. And also hyped for the Finale, even though he didn't know what to really expect. The group had agreed on spending the night at his place for the Finale and Bill looked so forward to it, it wasn't even funny.

May 28, 10:30 PM - With Freddie

"It's finally here!! The Finale! Oh my God, I'm so fucking hyped!" Guqqie said, bouncing on Bill's bed as the countdown started. Bill grinned and nodded as the screen changed into a drone shot of the mall, showcasing it with trippy music accompanying the amazing shots.

"Goddamn, Ranboo!! He really pulled out every single stop for this, didn't they?!" Freddie said, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"As always with everything he does, right?" Aimsey pointed out but even he was quite impressed with the quality and the size of the mall. Everyone agreed but still said words of high impression. Then, the episode finally started for real with Ranboo seemingly trying to take the mask off.

"Oh my God, imagine if he did an actual face reveal in this!" Guqqie said, her eyes wide at the thought.

"That would be insane, I'm gonna be real. I would freak the fuck out. Especially after the cursing in the last episode." Bill said, not tearing his eyes from the screen as Ranboo pleaded to know what was happening only for Hetch to call him over to a mall screen.

"Ranboo, mate, if I knew what was going on, I would've been a genius or something right now. Sorry, bossman. But we'll get you out of there, promise!"

"Ah. Hello, Ranboo. Now that we have a moment, my name is Hetch. And thanks to you, I've finally been able to take control of this facility."

"Facility...? Facility? What- what kinda place... is this?! What's going-going on?!"

"Yeah, good question..." Corpse's voice came from Tubbo's phone which everyone agreed to. Then, as the show progressed, things got more and more horrific and the group's trust in Hetch was gradually dwindling. Especially after he basically waved Ranboo's horrified query about how long he had been there away like it was nothing right after herding Ranboo away from a possible exit with the promise of the others being alive somehow, despite everyone having seen the brutal deaths.

"Okay, this Hetch guy is very sus right now. I really don't like him." Freddie said, frowning in concern as Ranboo finally found the 4 codes and a USB stick Hetch had wanted him to find. Then, as they entered the huge room with a single computer, a weird, trap-like device and a few screens, Hetch said;

"This, is the Heart of the Facility. Everything goes in, and out of here. Be very careful what you touch, okay?! There's a lot of... Well... Checks and balances here, let's say."

"What the fuck does that mean!? Just smash the motherfucking computer and be done with it!" Bill exclaimed, now really not trusting this man. Tubbo smiled with a slight roll of his eyes and said;

"What if there are alarms though? That would end badly, you know."

"Oh..."

And as they watched Ranboo struggle to put in the USB, they got an unsettling feeling. Especially after Ranboo listed the codes and Hetch told him that the viewers might've seen something so they would decide and much to their shock, Ranboo said;

"The view... No, are you kidding me?! I don't want them to make a decision! They might try to kill me after what they've seen me do!!"

"No, they-they... Look, they probably saw something, okay?!"

"Nonono! Yeah, they did see something, they saw me- they saw me sit by while all those people died, I mean, I can't just... I can't just let..."

"Calm down. Look, we don't know that they're malevolent, okay? They probably just want what's best for you."

"No, man. They don't want what's best for me, there's- there's no way. I mean, not after what... I just stood by and did!"

"Holy shit, that messed up with their head, didn't it...?" Corpse muttered as Tubbo, Aimee and Bill were flat out frozen in horrified shock while Freddie, Callum and Guqqie had tears in their eyes at the words that came from their gentle giant. Even as they voted for the red one after seeing people in chat point out several things seen in the office, Ranboo ignored them and picked Yellow, causing the threat level to rise. And to make the matters worse, Hetch abandoned them right there and then but for some reason, set the drone to follow Ranboo around.

"Oh FUCK!! This shit's about to get BAD, you guys!!" Callum exclaimed, still a little tearful and scared. And then, Ranboo happened to pass by the previously locked cage of that weird creature but now, the cage was open and some blood was splattered across the floor.

"Oh NOOOOO!! That Security thing, holy SHIT, Ran's in some very deep shit right now, it's terrifying!" Freddie said, shaking. Then, something they did not expect happened;

"Okay, exit, exit, exit!! People!! Hello!? Hello!?"

"...What, the actual fucking hell?! What are those people doing?! Are they....?!?"

"...Streaming... Oh dear God! Jesus Christ, this is fucked up so much it's not even-- CHARLIE?!" Aimsey cut himself off with a cry of shock as Charlie on the screen was saying;

"If we could just hit the fucking subgoal, that, that'd be great."

"Charlie....!!"

"Cause again, at like, at 10 subs, I'll be taking my balls out--"

"CHARLIE!!"

"--Be throwing them all over my keyboard. And I'll be- and I'll be typing like--"

"CHARLIE!!! CAN YOU NOT SEE THIS?!"

"Typing Wizard but with my nuts."

"Someone is trying to break Ran." Guqqie said, snorting a bit as even Tubbo couldn't help but snicker at Charlie's words up until Ranboo took his headset off and Charlie fell silent with shock filling his eyes and an alarm sound beeping in the distance.

"Oh now shit has hit the fan, y'all. I was not expecting this, I'm gonna be real..." Corpse murmured, sounding stunned. They all agreed as they watched an increasingly hysterical Charlie be led by Ranboo away from the streaming area where everyone else had disappeared.

"This is creepy, mate, damn! What's gonna happen next?!"

"Dunno, let's watch and find the hell out, I guess..."

Then, they saw the shrine for the Puzzler, simultaneously making Charlie remember and the group get shocked. Aimsey and Tubbo looked at the screen with mouths open, completely speechless as Charlie remembered that Niki and the others but Ranboo managed to cut his terrified rambling short by shaking him and telling him that they need to "Just go!".

"Wait, if Charlie is alive, then that means Hetch didn't lie! The others are alive!! Why is Ranboo not realizing that?!" Freddie said, frowning in surprise and concern. At that, everyone paused, finally realizing the same thing and everyone's concern grew even further. And then, they saw the employees chaining up the exit doors in a creepily silent way.

"Oh noooo, nononono!! Those two need to go right now and I don't think Sneeg's tactic will work with these weirdos!!" Callum said, nearly biting his fingernails as they all watched Charlie nearly have a panic attack and the camera zoomed out to show just how big and scary the abandoned mall really was and how lonely the two actually were.

"This place is... fucking huge, man...!"

"We have to go! We have to find a way out of here, maybe just like a... Directory or something... We just have to--"

"Yeah, no, that's- that's... Yeah! That's a great idea! It's a mall, there's always a directory in a mall or a map or umm..."

"Exactly!"

"Something like that, right?!"

"That is a great point right there! They need to find a map quickly. Maybe that'll help them at least keep their bearings." Bill said, looking a bit more hopeful now. He couldn't help but hope for the best possible outcome. Especially after Ranboo had freed Charlie. But the next line made the group chuckle a bit;

"Maybe in the- in the Suba??"

"Almost product placement, damn..." Freddie said, trying to make light of the situation.

"I could definitely go for a 'Suba' right now, y'know..." Bill replied, smiling a bit at the attempt as they watched the duo finally find the map of the place but Aimsey noticed something weird on it.

"...Guys...? There's a red dot close to them, what the fuck is that?!"

Before anyone could reply though, they saw Charlie see something and slowly look at the source, which was a Showfall employee, slashed across the abdomen and dead. And then, they saw the source, the Security.

"Charlie, we have to go..."

"Ranboo...?!?!"

"Charlie, we have to go...! Charlie, we have to go!! We have to GO!! We have to go NOW!!"

"I agree with that, fucking RUN!!! Holy FUCK, I would probably drop dead if I saw that anywhere in my vicinity!!!"

At Callum's words, Aimsey snorted, but readily agreed as well, considering that now Ranboo and Charlie were being chased by dozens of Showfall employees who were quite obviously out to slaughter them in cold blood. Thankfully, the two of them had found a room they could hide in and a bicycle lock to lock the doors with.

"God, this is horrific... I don't even want to imagine being in this situation..." Freddie said, shuddering a little. And then, they saw Charlie pick up an axe from the ground and what surprised them was Ranboo asking;

"Can you... Can you run with that?! I mean..."

"No, you're-you're-you're right... We gotta get out of here. Is there something... something smaller maybe?! You can--

"Yeah... I don't know... I mean... Perfect!"

"He really could've run with it! This is Charlie Slimecicle we're talking about!! He's strong enough to do that!" Aimsey said, honestly confused as they watched the smaller man take up a bulletproof vest, looking shaken. Then Tubbo saw the bucket labeled with "Slime" that was very obviously blood and got massively disturbed, opting not to point it out.

"So I'm just gonna... If you don't mind I'm just gonna put this on...! Umm!! Because WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!?!"

"I don't know!! Okay?! I'm just as clueless as you are!!"

"You can't even tell me anything!!"

"I talked to you like  20 minutes ! After I found out... I don't know, okay ?!"

"He looks so scared, my God, he must've had so many acting classes for this... Kudos, honestly." Corpse said, making them all suddenly snort. They all were amused by those words, knowing neither Ranboo nor Charlie had had any kind of acting classes.

"What??"

"Corpse, neither of them has had any acting classes what so ever. It's just their natural fucking talent, nothing more." Tubbo said, amused, even though they were now watching the two go through the carousel room in Episode 2 and were absolutely shocked.

"Wait, does this mean the cabin was in this place too?! There's no way, right!? Like, how the fuck can you build an entire cabin in an abandoned mall?!" Guqqie said, shaking her head and then, they saw Ranboo and Charlie find Hetch after a grueling chase scene and another breakdown of Charlie who saw his setup once more and just started yelling about how he couldn't see any of this, bleeding and dying.

"Oh no... He wasn't lying after all..." Bill whispered and got even more horrified by the following dialogue;

"I... wish we were meeting under better circumstances..."

"Should I... Put it in...?? I don't wanna..."

"Fuck off drone!"

"We just gotta get out of here and we'll be okay...!"

"There's no getting out of here for me, look! I'm... I'm dying, okay?"

"I just don't know what to do... I don't know how to... f-feel... during this."

"That's because... You... aren't you anymore. Think! Where were you before this? Before this all happened!"

"I was in... a warehouse... This, here! I was here!"

"No, before that!! Your life!!"

"Like the cabin? I was in a cabin!"

"You! Where were you before this?!"

"That... is a disturbing fucking thought, I don't like this..." Corpse muttered, obviously very disturbed by the derealization. The others all agreed, Bill in particular looked like he was about to throw up. Especially after Charlie couldn't come up with a good answer about his past life before everything.

"A cabin, huh? Don't you see? They put memories, in your head. They programmed you. You were their playthings, their puppets! And if I can't make it, then you have to finish my job, okay? And tell them, 'The Hetch did this.'"

"O-okay, I will, I will!"

"Here. Take it. It's a map... to a killswitch button... You hit that, the whole show comes down. The curtain falls. You'll all have your lives back. And you can find the real exit."

"Why is that so sus...? I don't know..." Tubbo said, frowning a little. But he was a little concerned for Bill right now as well, the younger looked way paler than normal. But as they watched Hetch die, Ranboo looked drastically different. It was quite disturbing and worrisome. And then, the tall, masked teen just stabbed a stray Showfall employee in the chest but oddly, only wires came out of them instead of blood.

"What the hell?? But the other employee was actually bleeding???" Callum said, quite confused.

"Dunno, something is very off indeed." Freddie replied, shrugging. But then, as they watched, Ranboo walked over to a different part of the mall and opened the door. Everyone gasped as the lights came on; it was the cabin from the first episode!

"No FUCKING way!!! How in the fuck did Ranboo manage this one!?" Aimsey said, the others were speechless as they watched Charlie look like he couldn't comprehend the reality he was in, which was of course, understandable. And then, the Security raised its ugly head and proceeded to maul Charlie while Ranboo just watched in abject terror.

"Oh COME ON!! You took Charlie from them too!?! What the fuck, Showfall?!" Bill yelled, upset as Ranboo started running towards the button Charlie had pointed out just seconds from his death with Showfall employees running right after them but thankfully, he managed to get to the button and press it. And then, the camera panned to show just how close the first employee had been to grab Ranboo right before they all shut down.

"Oh GOD, that's a terrifying shot!"

But then, they saw Ranboo looking at the outside world and then, he continued to an exit sign. The entire group hoped that this nightmare was over for Ranboo however, when Ranboo paused to make a Truman Show bow, which made Corpse and Callum both whistled at, they suddenly saw Hetch right behind him, dragging him away.

"NO!!! I FUCKING CALLED IT!!! HETCH IS AN ASSHOLE LIAR!!!"

"We know, Bill! That motherfucker!!"

And then, the next scene rolled up with Hetch saying;

"Aaaand we're back! Congratulations, Ranboo, you made it to the end!"

"...Hetch...?! You're alive?!"

"Oh no... What the fuck is around their head?! Holy shit, I would panic my ass off in this situation-- HIS MASK!!! Oh my fucking God!!" Freddie yelled, completely shocked as they watched the scene unfold.

"You completed your experiment!"

"What's going on?!"

"Of course I'm alive, Ranboo. You see, I still have a role to play here."

"...What...?"

"What the fuck does that mean?! He was in an experiment?! Like-like a lab rat?!" Callum said, ready to throw up at the thought. They all were tearful now, completely shocked and horrified by the scene.

"The Founder gave me a purpose many many years ago. To repurpose this company and create these experiments, these shows. In order to find who in your world is worthy of joining the cast and living on in the future shows forever."

"FOREVER?!?! Holy fuck, NO?!" Tubbo yelled, horrified at the thought. And as they watched Ranboo just plead to be let go, Bill felt even more nauseous than before, a mix of being upset and the fact that he'd not taken his meds beforehand.

"So you've just been doing- You've been behind all of this?! Wha...? What do you mean?!"

"Oooh, yes. Every decision you've made, every death you've caused... Don't you see these consequences of your own actions?"

"No... They weren't- They weren't my options! You controlled me!! You CONTROLLED me!!"

"I didn't do anything, Ranboo, I just wrote a script. The real human emotions that come from breaking of reality! Don't you see that's where the real fun is?!"

"This is the most fucked up shit that's come from Ran and that's saying something!!" Guqqie said, tears streaming down her face. Freddie and Tubbo couldn't even agree verbally, too busy crying for their friend. And then, Hetch dropped a single line that made them gape in unabashed horror.

"But since this is the first time we actually have a live audience, we might as well let them pick!!"

"Don't you FUCKING DARE mean what I think you are!!" Callum said, his tone venomous. And then, as Ranboo screamed to be just let go, a vote bar appeared on the bottom with two options, Live or Die.

"...They did not just go there!!! I can't just vote for that!!" Freddie said, his hands shaking while Aimsey voted for everyone on Live. But then, Hetch said;

"Look, Ranboo, you can die now, or you can die when you've outlived your usefulness. Which could be tomorrow, or a thousand years from now. It all depends on how long you can fulfil your role!"

At that, everyone just froze in shock. Aimsey couldn't vote anymore on their choice as they realized how fucked up that thought was. To let Ranboo live in a hellish limbo for eternity instead of letting him go.

"Well, you won't have to be like this--"

"You can let me go!!"

"If they pick the Die option, that is, I guess."

"...What...?! ...Die option...?"

"Yes. As I said, you either join the cast and live on on the show forever, or we end the show with a bang."

"How the actual hell does he think we can choose between these?! Both are just so unfair!!" Corpse said, even he was sounding tearful at the thought, even though he didn't know Ranboo as well as the people he was in a call with. Tubbo briefly thought of Tommy and Phil and how they must be going insane at this like they were but all of that thought went out the window when Hetch asked if Ranboo wanted to sway the audience in one way or another.

"Time's almost up, about a minute left. Any last words you might wanna say to the audience to swing them one direction or another?"

"LET ME DIE!!!"

At this, the entire room flinched in shock, Aimsey nearly falling off his chair from the horror. Tubbo and Freddie softly started sobbing, both of them shaking in sadness. No one could utter a single word, just too much shock all around.

"PLEASE!! JUST LET ME DIE!! I DON'T WANNA KEEP DOING THIS!! I DON'T WANNA KEEP ON DOING THIS!!"

"Strong words from our Hero."

"JUST LET ME DIE!!! Please...!"

"He'd rather quit than keep going-"

"I don't wanna keep going!!"

"Keep entertaining you, the masses! What do we think about that, Audience? Has he earned his rest, or do we wanna see him play again?"

"Goddamn if that isn't a powerful statement about our circle, I don't know what is. Good God!" Corpse whispered as the vote slowly went over to the Die option since Ranboo kept pleading with them to just let him die. Then, after a seeming eternity, the vote bar finally disappeared with 55% of the votes going over to Die option and then, as soon as the camera zoomed onto Ranboo's face, the box snapped shut, making everyone flinch and Bill beeline to the bathroom to throw up. As the black haired boy threw up, the rest of the group saw that there was a different place now with a mysterious man taking a tape out of a VHS player that was labeled TSE and putting it onto a shelf with many different other tapes, the others being unlabeled.

"WAIT, THERE'S MORE?!?! No fucking way!!"

"Oh my fucking God, I am calling Ranboo, right now." Tubbo said, still shaking. They decided to make it a video call to show how badly everyone was affected and thankfully, Ranboo quickly responded. The younger looked really cheerful at that which made Freddie's blood boil.

"Hey guys!! Thanks for watching, honestly-- Uhhh... Guys? Are you alright?!”

“What the FUCK do you THINK?! You’d better send my therapy money to my fucking PayPal in 30 minutes or I will steal your FUCKING LUNGS!!!”

At Tubbo's angry words, Ranboo looked taken aback but smiled again as the guy playing Hetch came beside him, looking drained.

"Hey Criken, my friends are calling, wanna join?"

"No, sorry. I'm just emotionally a little drained, thanks to you."

At that, Aimsey couldn't help the snort that escaped from her lips, especially at how confused the tallest was. And then, Bill finally dragged himself from the bathroom, still very upset.

"Bill?! What happened, are you okay?!" Ranboo exclaimed upon seeing the younger, shocked. At that, Ranboo only got a death glare before Bill said;

"Just peachy, just condemned one of my best friends to their death in front of thousands, mate!! What the FUCK do you THINK?!"

At that, Ranboo had to snort, thanking them for watching again and leaving, citing that his phone was blowing the hell up. They agreed, also ready to go to sleep, hopefully without any nightmares.