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It was a quiet sunny morning in June, and sunlight was streaming through the window of a big bedroom with pastel green walls and beige carpet. It was also around 4 o'clock, which was far earlier than Distortion had planned to be up that morning.
“5 more minutes, mom!” Distortion mumbled as they dropped faer head back onto the sheets.
“I don’t have children” Michael observed as it nudged Distortion again by mistake. (the bed was meant for one, you see.) “I have doors.”
“Ha! WAIT WHAT-” Distortion whipped their head up, looking around the room in confusion. “Am I hearing things?”
“Just as much as anyone is hearing things, little Haywire.” Michael replied, giggling and rustling around in the blankets. It popped its head(?) out from the sheets. “There we go. …Greetings, Host.” It bobbed its head once in respect.
When it looked up, Distortion couldn’t tell if it had just woken up, or had been up for hours. Its eyes revealed nothing, and if the human eye was a window to the soul, Michael’s were doors. You could not tell anything simply by looking because it changed so much. Michael’s face had a habit of randomly showing emotions it did not feel. It might be simply going about its day, and then freeze with a look of anguish. However, it might be saying it felt good at the same time. Even its face was engineered to lie.
“Hello, Michael. Have I finally gone insane? You know, don’t answer that. I know you’ll just say we have no way of telling.” Distortion mused.
“Very wise, my Host. or shall I say former host? I’m free now! Why? I do not know. But this is quite fortunate. Now I can complete my duties in peace.” Michael looked to the sky with the face of a man going to heaven. Joyful, yet afraid. It hopped down the ladder (this was a loft bed) and landed on the floor. It began rifling through Distortion’s room.
Distortion wanted to ask if this meant Michael was leaving, but being vulnerable this early in the morning to a creature of deceit seemed like a bad idea. Instead, xey asked “Is there anyone else?” and looked around for more bodies.
At the foot of the bed, something moved. Another figure sat up, shaking the sleep from his head. “Distortion thought this was a strange, but not entirely bad, situation. They- wait a second. Why am I here? I’m the narrator. I should be heard, not seen!” the narrator from the stanley parable narrated. “Distortion, what is going on?”
“Distortion, I didn't know you painted a yellow line on your floor!” Michael crowed from the doorway. “The adventure line!” Distortion and The Narrator both said at the exact same time. They got up to follow it when Distortion remembered they slept naked. It dove back under the covers.
After the other two had left the room, Distortion got up and got dressed. They put on a long sleeve teal shirt with gold stars and puffy sleeves and some navy colored pants with loose bottoms.
“I guess I'm not plural anymore.” ae thought, walking down the stairs to get breakfast. (Wowbuiscuit would brush wowbuiscuit’s teeth LATER!)
Martin Blackwood looked up and waved awkwardly. “Oh, hello. Distortion, I think something happened overnight. I mean, obviously it did, but-” “Martin, let’s just give them all some time to think. We should gather everyone before we talk about it.” Jonathan Sims (the character, not the writer) interrupted. “Er… yeah, sure.” Martin replied. “Sorry.” “no, it’s fine. But… we need to go back to my room. My parents might see you.” Distortion said.
They all ran back upstairs, and Distortion realized something. If John and Martin went downstairs, that means some of the headmates could be outside. They could be anywhere! Distortion instructed everyone to stay in their room while fey went to find others.
By the time they had checked for everyone else, they had found four more headmates. (Bill Cipher, Ingo and Emmet, and Peter Lukas.) And they had a feeling they would find one more. Distortion was really worried they were hallucinating, but there was only really one way to tell, and that meant asking their parents. They would wait for their parents to come into their room, and if they didn’t react to their headmates, Distortion would bring this up with them.
Also, it was agreed among them that the best case scenario would be finding a way to switch between meatspace and headspace freely, but that would have to wait.
But first, they needed to do a headcount. Everyone lined up, and Distortion eventually decided there were nine of them altogether, and one more suspected headmate. They had a discussion on how to tell the parents, and everyone thought Distortion’s idea seemed fair. Now, to wait…