Chapter Text
Evbo stared at the mirror in his old house, the mansion he had to do the one-block ladder jump for. After Emf became the champion and got a handle on building the houses, he got straight to reshaping the entire system. Soon, he wasn’t needed much anymore; if he parkoured across the streets, people would mob him, if he moved using his godly powers, he felt inhuman. Which he was now, but it still felt weird to reshape yourself after teleporting. So here Evbo was, sitting in his house, looking at the mirror.
It’s very lonely here. The noob layer is erie now that they’ve integrated the newer system. They don’t send people here anymore; Emf thinks it's rather cruel to send people to the lower levels, so now the master level is home to everyone. People aren’t really supposed to come down to this level anymore; most don’t, a few religious fanatics come to see where Evbo made his pilgrimage. That's what they’ve started calling it; he’s heard some of the things people have said about his time collecting the discs. Some say that each route he took helped him overcome his humanity and ascend to godhood. Evbo thinks that each route was a pain in the ass, especially the crystals.
Evbo finally took his eyes off himself. He’s still him, with blond hair with a band around his forehead. His eyes don’t feel the same, though. They feel like something else or someone else. It's weird seeing yourself but with omniscience. He knows logically that he is still the same person, but looking at himself, he sees the Evbo that overcame the parkour villain, he sees someone triumphant and glorious. He feels like he should be starving, waiting to make the jump for chicken or beef. It seems like the eyes in the mirror know that the god people see isn’t supposed to be him.
When the sun starts to set, Evbo returns home. Emf tends to worry if he’s gone for too long. After everything that went down with the chainmail boots, Evbo didn’t want to make him worry. They’ve had enough worrying about each other for at least a month. Evbo does slow his pace, though; he wants to go back to where the people are, but then he’ll have to face the reality that after his adventures, he is somehow still outside of everything, and maybe, just maybe, he longed to feel welcomed into a community instead of being just on the outside. He was either a pariah or a god, quite literally, and maybe he just wanted to be insignificant in the grand scheme of things, just for a little while.
However, he had a grand job to do, and moping around wasn’t what he was meant to do. Emf asked him to get a book from the library when Evbo left the house this morning. It was a history book that talked more in-depth about the old champions and the chain boots. Apparently, Seawatt had found it and shoved it down into a dusty old corner when the old champion reigned, and Emf was too busy to bring it with him when he discovered it. So Evbo agreed to fetch it on his way back from “Godly Duties.” Whatever the hell he meant when he said that.
After taking the long way there, careful to avoid mass amounts of people, Evbo reached the library. When he got there, he parkoured an easy oneblock- jump and then a series of three-block ice jumps into the section Emf told him about. He sees now why no one explored this much before the ascension. It's dark and so ominous. It really does fit the vibe of “antagonist secret layer where he plots to murder everyone,” kudos to Seawatt on that. If anything, he is consistent. But Evbo is here to find the book; no need to reminisce on his old friend? Enemy? (He isn’t sure what they were at the end, and the longer he thinks about it, the more it starts to hurt.)
After scrounging around, he finds the book in a chest, well, he finds two books. “History of Parkour Civilization” and one with a pretty and embossed cover that is mostly empty. Flipping through the first few pages, there are small journal entries dated back a couple of decades. The very first page had Seawatt’s name written in big, childish handwriting. The next few pages continue with the same messy handwriting. So this must have been his childhood journal, that's kinda cute and endearing. Glancing at the written pages, Evbo smiles a little bit, mainly because it is probably the most human thing Evbo sees from the former antagonist. On a whim, Evbo decides to take the journal home with him. It’s not like he’s invading Seawatt’s life; the man is dead, and although Evbo is a god, that doesn’t mean he knows how to revive people who have tried to kill him. ( He wants to, but he is slightly afraid that if he fucks up, he’ll bring back the parkout villain too. He doesn’t want to relive that.)
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It’s raining tonight, and Evbo can’t sleep. He’s been sitting at Emf’s desk all night, trying to get tired. It’s not working very well. He’s restless, and nothing seems to help. Does he need sleep? No, but sometimes he just wants to lay down and sleep the night away and forget the stress of everything just for a little bit. He’s very lucky when it comes to sleeping, he rarely dreams. Emf gets bad nightmares because of the parkour prison. That's part of why he and Evbo live together. Right now, though, Emf sleeps rather soundly, and Evbo is left alone.
He’s never been much of a reader, didn’t have the energy to really focus on anything while a noob, and the little he learned as the champion isn’t enough to understand the novels he finds around the house. Emf told him reading can help him get sleepy, but it honestly just makes him angry. Emf also suggested he write out his thoughts in a journal. It really shouldn’t work, but Evbo is getting desperate for something to keep his mind occupied until Emf wakes up.
Evbo stares at the blank page in Seawatt’s his new journal. It may be an asshole move to steal the journal from his enemy, but Evbo deserves a little vindication, and it's just a little hard to get it when the person you are mad at is dead. He’s been thinking about what to write, but none of it really makes him feel better.
“Dear journal, today I was a god” sounds really stupid when you think about it. And he doesn’t know what else to write in the journal. He still hasn’t looked at the previous entries. It feels all wrong now that he has it open and waiting. Evbo looks up from the book and at Emf’s sleeping figure. He knows Emf wants him to feel better, and Evbo does want to feel better, too, it's just a lot harder to feel human when you are fundamentally not anymore. Maybe he should write about that. Evbo sighs and with nothing else to write in the journal.
“Dear journal, today I can’t sleep. That's one of the things I no longer need as a parkour god. The full list is sleep, food, water, and pretty much everything that makes made me human. I feel human, but sometimes I don’t think I should. Being a god is so weird, wouldn’t you agree, journal? That's all I can think of to say, but maybe tomorrow I’ll write some more.
Goodnight, Evbo”
Evbo looked away for a bit, just staring out at the rain, thinking if he should write some more in the journal. Looking back at the pages, he sees one more line added to the page.
“YOU’RE PARKOUR GOD NOW!?”
Holy shit, the journal wrote back. Emf absolutely did not say it would do this. In fact, he explicitly stated the opposite. He told Evbo it was private unless he wanted to share with people. There is clearly something wrong with the journal, maybe even haunted. He must get to the bottom of this, and he picked the quill back up.
“Journal? You can talk?”
Evbo sat very still, fully prepared to parkour fight it if it was evil. Can you parkour fight a book? Who knows, it would probably lose against a 360 anyways.
“No, Evbo, it's Seawatt.”
Evbo immediately slammed the cover shut. He doesn’t want to talk to Seawatt; he is dead, and he betrayed him. Absolutely no way he will do this, but he wants closure so badly. He was lied to and hurt, and…he’s lonely. And if Seawatt is dead, then this must be enchanted or something, and he isn’t real. He can get closure without hurting himself. (Ignoring that a false, ghostly Seawatt is going to hurt more in the long run.) Evbo opens the journal back up and gathers his courage.
“Oh, how are you? What's going on with you?”
“Nothing, Evbo, there is literally nothing happening. And I’m hot all the time, it sucks.”
“Seawatt, are you in parkour hell??”