Archive of Our Own ^beta

Gerald let out an “oomph” as he was thrown onto the tile floor below. The fall didn’t faze him for a moment as he immediately got up and ran towards the slowly fading gateway in front of him.

“WAIIITT! DON’T LEAVE ME HERE” He cried as he reached out for the glowing portal between worlds. Yet by the time he reached the gateway it had already faded away, leaving behind a red brick wall. 

He screamed as he pounded on the wall, demanding to be let back home. Gerald fell to his knees and clawed at the bricks, as if they would magically part and bring him home. He clawed and clawed until his fingertips bled.

Eventually his voice died in his throat and his fingers hurt to move. Gerald curled up in a ball and sobbed, “Please let me back in… please,”

Time didn’t exist as Gerald sobbed his heart out, the pain of losing everyone and everything from his old home hitting him over and over. It wasn’t even his fault. Emperor Belos had used his people as a scapegoat for the realm’s problems and banished them all across the multiverse. Gerald didn’t know where his parents were or where his sister was. He couldn’t even be sure they were in the same universe.

He shivered in the newfound cold, before wiping away his tears. He had to be strong, maybe he could find a way back home, back to his family. First off, he had to figure out what the heck was going on in this universe.

Gerald stood up and observed his surroundings. It appeared to be some sort of alternate universe shop. Something was wrong though, the lights were flickering and completely dead in some places and all of the shelves were barren of any supplies. Was that a normal thing in this world or…?

“Oh Titan, this world is in the middle of ending isn’t it?” Gerald groaned and cursed his bad luck. Of course he went from one defunct world to another. Was this some sick game of Belos? Were all of them watching him somehow for entertainment?

Gerald almost spiraled back to the state he was in minutes prior but slapped himself to snap out of it.

“Focus, FOCUS! You gotta find out what’s going on in this universe,” Taking a deep breath, Gerald took his first steps into this new world.

He stepped through the abandoned store, body on high alert. His pointed ears picked up every abrupt sound that echoed through the building as his tail swished from side to side. It was odd how little signs of life there were. Gerald was hoping for at least one other person to be there with him, though he wondered slightly how that exchange would go. Probably with a lot of screaming as he tried to explain the situation.

On that note, how would the beings of this universe react to someone as strange as him? Gerald heard a crunch under him and looked down. He lifted his foot to find an ad for some product he didn’t understand. Printed on the ad, however, seemed to be pictures of this world’s inhabitants. Gerald picked the ad up and looked closely at the image before his eyes lit up in realization. 

These were humans. Gerald let out a huge breath, at least he wasn’t in some universe where everyone was an anthropomorphic animal hybrid made out of basic geometrical shapes and Roblox models. That would be horrifying to live in. 

He’s seen humans before, there was an entire club dedicated to them in the school he used to go to. Despite never actually participating, Gerald was certain he understood enough of their culture to blend in. If he actually ended up meeting one of them.

Placing the ad on a dusty shelf, Gerald judged what he would have to do to blend in. His pointy ears and ossicones* obviously had to go. The tail as well. 

As for his skin…

He looked at his pastel-yellow arms, littered randomly with dark brown splotches. Looking back at the ad he saw (what he presumed to be) a male with pale skin next to (again just a guess) a female with darker skin. Gerald glanced back at his limbs and concluded that it shouldn’t draw too much suspicion. If it did, he would just blame it on a skin condition.

As he put his arms down, he caught a glimpse of the plant coven symbol imprinted on his arm. He ran a hand across the glyph that limited his magic. It used to be a symbol of such pride, to be an accepted member of a coven was seen as a symbol of high status amongst his kind (even if it made him weaker than others), but now it only brought him rage. Gerald let out a scowl.

That would have to be hidden as well.

So Gerald had to hide his head and hands. Should be easy enough. It only took him about ten minutes to run around and salvage an outfit complete with some sort of hat marketed as a “beanie” and gloves.

Finding a half shattered mirror, he tried on his new outfit. He marveled at the texture of his new blue sweater (apparently it was called that, he had no idea what it meant). It was so soft, unlike anything he’s ever worn before.

The same with the pants, it was a completely new experience to him. Gerald had chosen a pair of baggy pants that allowed him to tuck away his tail. The pants were uncomfortable but bearable.

The beanie came next. It took a while to fit it in a way that hid both his ears and ossicones. Now all that remained was the gloves. He slid the gloves on, giving one last frown at the potions coven before it was hidden from view.

Gerald took a second to admire his reflection. He spun around in a circle before announcing to the empty store, “Say hello to ‘Gerald the Human’!”

He struck a pose, as if anime music was going to play in the background in celebration of his achievement. Nothing played of course and Gerald began thinking of what he’ll do next.

Figuring out what was going on in this world was a definite must. There had to be some answers outdoors, so out he went.

He squinted against the sun before his vision cleared and he gasped in awe. Buildings, larger than anything he had ever seen on the Boiling Isles, towered above him. Gerald backed up onto the abandoned street to better take in the new sights. He was so focused on the buildings he didn’t hear the footsteps of someone walking closer and closer.

Suddenly, behind him, Gerald heard a low growl. He darted his head around just in time to duck a wild swing of a wooden club. He screamed and backed away from the assailant. The attacker paused for a moment and Gerald took the chance to analyze who it was.

It looked like one of the humans he’d seen on the poster, though with tanner skin and torn clothing. What was off about this human was their white glowing eyes (and the fact that it was attacking for no clear reason, obviously). Gerald was quite sure that humans normally didn’t have white glowing eyes. What had happened to them?

The human snarled and lifted their club to strike once again. He let out a yelp before rolling to the side and running away. The human was quick to chase him, however, and caught up to him very quickly. They tripped Gerald and he came crashing to the ground, scraping his knee against the concrete.

Gerald hissed in pain as the human stood above him, one foot on his leg. He thrashed around but the human held him in place. Their grin widened beyond what Gerald believed were acceptable human levels as they poised the club to strike. Gerald let out a sob, realizing that his journey was coming to an end right before it ever got a chance to begin. He closed his eyes and prayed for a quick death.

But right before the human struck, a rock flew from nowhere and hit the side of their face. The human lowered their club and glanced across the littered street, looking for what attacked it. Gerald opened his eyes at the human’s hesitation and used its temporary distraction to kick away their legs and escape.

The human growled at him before another rock hit them in the back of the head. They turned around, seeing two new figures in the distance, once bouncing a rock up and down in their hands. It roared at them in rage and charged them.

The figure with the rock backed up a bit nervously, but Gerald watched as the second figure calmly pulled out a saber and stabbed the glowing-eyed human in the stomach. Without a second of hesitation, they pulled the sword out of the abdomen and let the human collapse onto the floor. Gerald sighed in relief but froze back up when he realized he still wasn’t out of the woods yet, he had no idea if these two new humans would be as aggressive as the first.

The two humans noticed Gerald and began walking towards him. He frantically made sure his beanie was still in position before standing up and giving both of them wary looks.

As they got closed, Gerald could make out some more features of each human. One was a tanned-skin man with brown hair wearing a bright yellow t-shirt with brown pants of a material he saw in the store he first appeared in (A part of him thought that outfit combined with the man’s appearance was very cute, he swatted it away as soon as it came). The second with the saber had extremely pale skin with black hair and a flowing purple dress and hat.

They stepped up in front of him and Gerald backed away nervously. The yellow shirt human stuck out a hand.

“That was a close one, huh?”

Gerald froze, unsure of what to do. The man noticed his hesitation and let out a large smile. “Don’t worry! We won’t hurt you,”

The purple dress lady begged to differ. She stared at him with a cold expression and crossed arms. Gerald noted a pitch black bracelet covering one of her wrists. The man noticed him staring at her and spoke up.

“Oh don’t worry about Zizzy, she just tends to be a bit guarded when meeting new people!. . . OH!” Gerald flinched at the sudden sound, “By the way, my name’s Pedro! What’s yours?”

Gerald stared at the hand before stammering out, “Ge-Ge-Gerald,”

“Oh wow that’s a pretty cute name, Gerald!” He felt himself blushing against his will, “You’re welcome for saving you from that infected over there!”

“Infected?”

Pedro looked at Gerald in disbelief, “You know, the glowing eye zombie people. Do. . . you not call them infected?”

Gerald began to sweat, “Uh well, I mean, er. . . I- uh, I don’t really have a, uh-”

“Well it doesn’t really matter what they’re called, just that all of them want to turn you into one of them,”

 Zizzy, who had continued to brood silently this entire conversation, spoke up, “On that note, you aren’t infected are you? No scratches or bruises or anything like that?”

Gerald wasn’t sure what being injured had to do with anything, maybe it was how these infected made others infected? “Uh, I mean- I did get tripped and scraped my knee, but that was because of the ground,”

Zizzy looked down at the injured knee before looking back up at Gerald. Her stare was so uncomfortable, it was as if she was staring right through all of his lies. It felt like at any moment she would go “AHA!” and rip off his beanie to reveal his secret to the two of them.

After what felt like years of uncomfortable silence, she broke away from the stare and looked at Pedro with a nod. 

“Hey, do you want to join our group?” Pedro suggested.

Gerald’s eyes widened, “Me, o-on a team with you?”

“Uh yeah! We would need to get a weapon for you though, I assume you lost your while trying to deal with that infected,” Gerald nodded as his head began to debate joining these two allies or remaining alone. Remaining alone was admittedly a suicide mission but it had less risk of being discovered and he could focus full time on getting home. 

But having allies meant he had a way to learn more about this new world along with having buddies that could help defend him if need be.

While Gerald was lost in thought, Pedro had gone and grabbed the club off the dead infected (Was it dead? Normally something shouldn’t be able to survive being stabbed like that but it appeared to still be breathing). 

“Here! You can use this for now!”

Pedro held it out for Gerald to grab. Gerald held it in his hand and felt the weight of it. It wasn’t too heavy for him but still was heavy enough to pack a strong swing. Gerald looked up at Pedro's cheeky grin and smiled a bit in return. He muttered a small thank you and Pedro’s grin only grew wider. Gerald could feel his cheeks heat up at the positive vibes this new friend gave off.

“So. . . you wanna come?”

Gerald didn’t hesitate for a second, “Of course I’ll join!”

About half an hour of walking had passed, which mostly consisted of Pedro hopping in excitement over having a new ally, Zizzy walking without saying a single word, and Gerald planning his next move for when they got to the safe place. The safe place was a five-story tall building in the center of the city. It was barricaded with a metal fence all around it. 

Zizzy pulled out a key and unlocked the fence door, letting all of them in.

In front of the safe place was also a courtyard that was mostly empty except for some trash littered around. The door was locked and Pedro went and knocked on it. A voice resembling that of a young girl came out from behind the door, “What does the wolf do during the full moon?”

Zizzy groaned, “Girls, I already told you that we aren’t doing riddles to be let in!”

The voice left out a huff, “Aw come on Zizzy! Just answer the question, pleaseeeeeeee?”

Zizzy sighed and looked at Gerald, “This is Zuzy, one of my younger twin sisters. They can be like this sometimes,” she turned back to the door, “The wolf does nothing because it's a normal wolf, not a werewolf. Now unlock the door and let us in!”

There was a pause and a new voice came out, “Zuzy, unlock the door!”

“No, Zee! That wasn’t the right answer!”

“What do you mean that wasn’t the right answer, what even is the right answer?”

The conversation dropped to whispers as Zizzy looked like she was about to break down the door. Gerald backed away from Zizzy and hid behind Pedro, her expression slightly freaking him out.

Right before she punched open the door, footsteps appeared and the door got unlocked. A woman clothed in a dress similar to that of Zizzy’s (though with a darker shade of purple) stood at the doorway pushing back two girls that looked like younger versions of Zizzy but with different color-coded outfits.

“Oh thank the gods you two made it back! Really sorry about the girls, I got distracted and they must have slipped under my radar,” The woman looked exhausted, and Gerald wondered if she intentionally let the twins loose just to get a break.

“Oh don’t worry about it, Mimi. I can handle them from here,” The two girls stopped arguing for just a second to look at their older sister’s face, which was barely holding back an ocean of rage. They yelped in fear and ran upstairs.

Zizzy let out an exasperated sigh and an awkward silence overcame the remaining adults. Mimi drummed her fingers on the door frame for a few seconds before she noticed Gerald, still crouched behind Pedro, “Wait you guys found another survivor?!” 

Her face lit up in excitement, “Oh man that is so great! It’s been getting kinda lonely here, just the five of us… alone… in this giant building,” Mimi’s voice faded for a moment as she got lost in her thoughts. She shook her head and looked back at Gerald, “Well anyways it’s great to have you here with us! You must have been through a lot to get here!”

Gerald chuckled, “You can say that again,” 

He came out from Pedro’s shadow and stuck out a hand, “Uh, my name’s Gerald by the way!”

“Ooo cool name! Mine’s just Mimi, heh,” Her eyes trailed down to his arm and she tilted her head curiously, “Hey, are your arms normally supposed to be like that?” Mimi motioned towards Gerald’s yellow and brown skin.

“Oh- uh yeah… it’s a skin condition of mine,” He hoped the excuse he made up earlier would work. Mimi stared at the arm for another moment before shrugging and shaking his hand, “Sorry if that was prying a bit too much,”

“No, no. It’s fine, don’t worry,” He lied.

Mimi clapped both of her hands together, “Well I should probably set up a room for you to stay in! The sun’s going to set soon, so I might not finish it until tomorrow,”

“Gerald can bunk with me for the night!” Pedro suggested. Gerald turned to Pedro in surprise, “Wait what?! No, no, no. You don’t have to do that all for me, Pedro,”

“Why not?” Pedro swung an arm around his neck and Gerald could feel his cheeks burn. His brain had to completely reboot from the shock and even then he was only able to muster a simple, “Okay…”

Pedro gave another one of his signature grins as he guided Gerald into the safe place, Zizzy entering behind them.

Gerald smiled as he walked into what he assumed would be his new home for who knows how long. A part of him still worried about the safety of his family but another part of him brightened at the thought of staying with these humans (the fact that a very cute human had his arm wrapped around him right now definitely affected his thought process in some way). Either way he knew that this crew of humans was currently his best bet to finding a way back to his family and home. 

So he allowed himself to enjoy the hopeful feeling that spread through his body as he stepped into what would soon be his new life.