Chapter Text
“AHHHHH —oh…”
#### The teen felt nothing despite his screams just a few seconds ago. Numbness completely took over him, and his senses were extremely compromised—which is very worrying, considering how emotionally messed up he was already. Just some time ago, he was supposed to be in agony, and yet…
Where the fuck is he?
…is hell real?! And why is it a void?!
(Breathe in, breathe out, my dear. Nobody can hurt you here, not anymore (at least…for this realm of non-existence).)
The teen ‘froze’ on his position, and, oh come on, he literally lacked a body?! What the hell?!
(You have nothing to worry about, Dusk. This is no hell. Just a place where I reside souls in.)
The teen Dusk’s thoughts stirred within their mind as their name is called out by the mysterious voice. Now that they thought of it, the voice was…angelic in tone. Not hypnotic, but more like a tone used by a mother towards her son when he falls from his bike and lets out a wailing cry. In some other timeline, he would have felt something from it…but here, there was none to feel.
Pure apathy, which is ironic considering how his emotional state is usually like before being...in this place.
(Do you feel…alright? You don’t have to tell the truth—simply how you feel.)
“..."
Dusk decided not to be a dick for this time against some random voice. He’s too tired to be one, anyways. “Not really…I feel nothing.”
(That was…concerning. But…do not fret my child. You may rest your soul for now, just like how I let others reside here temporarily.)
“... Eh?"
(Oh. You must be confused about your presence here. That…accident had taken a worse toll on your head than what could have been. Do you…still feel the pain within?)
“ What…pain—"
They got a searing pain cutting through their nonexistent skull, as if something was forcibly shoving a memory up their brain. Red, red, red took over their supposedly non-existent vision, and all they could do was silently whimper and suppress their non-existent mouth from yelling.
(Oh dear…I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t—) The voice’s words blurred within their mind, and all they could do was fail to distract themself from the pain. The memories started pouring in, inch-by-inch. It ached within this non-existent brain of theirs, gnawing back into the forefront of their memories.
He remembered now, oh god why can he remember now…
The sound of wind whooshing by his ears…the sound of creaking metal…and the screams of horror coming from a distance. Crashing onto rough ground, sounds of snapping and crushing of bones and skulls being heard. And if that won’t kill him, the shard of rust and old paint had cut their eyesight short—and so was their life.
It hurts, it hurts to think and remember. He can’t think—why can he? There’s so much red, red, red flowing across his head, like the red all over his non-existent vision, his eyes are swimming under the heat of this fluid, this metal, and the sun radiating into the ground…
There’s too much…too much noise… too much voices and yelling and everything flashing through his head and someone familiar panicking over him and —
IT HURTS. “My head hurts…” He barely croaked out. “…I…I can’t feel anything…but it all hurts…why did you…why…why… ”
(I…apologize for bringing back those horrible memories of the accident. One should not be in agony at their final breath, let alone be reminded of it.)
Dusk took on restless breaths (non-existent, still, just like him, just like him—), his mind still not remembering that he no longer needed to breathe. “...why am I here…how am I alive…why am I not fading yet—”
(Stop thinking of such hurtful things. It hurts you more.
(It hurts to see you like this…again.)
Dusk froze and his words stopped, but his labored ‘breathing’ remained the same. The voice continued. (Your everything…lead to the point where your own being was scarred by the darkness of being numb. How can you…run away from your problems so much, even if they are always sticking with you? How can you fail to recognize when to let your harmful guard down around those who will never hurt you?)
“...I can’t answer that…even that last question.” They sighed. “Sorry…whoever you are…or what. Fuck…I’m…oh my gog I’m dead for real.”
(Oh, the …others …have not requested an input of my name when they got it here. Interesting for you to ask for it. Well, then, my name is something I would rather bury…
(But I shall entertain you from your woes. You can call me…the Benefactor.)
“...wonderful title for an unknown eldritch entity with unknown motives for me . Cool...” Dusk ‘blinked’ before sighing. “Still…you mentioned that you had encountered me…before. What do you mean? Were there…timelines where I had...died earlier? Oh gog, was that truck supposed t—”
(I cannot say for sure, for every death your countless iterations faced are always invoked by unknown forces—perhaps…Misfortune or an unfortunate chance. Yes, some of those deaths are of suicide, but it was an insignificant amount compared to everything else. But one thing is for sure…
(I attempted to take care of you as long as I can meet you. I made sure that you can survive within the worlds you ended up in, where you can thrive under a new name, a new Life, and a new set of bonds. And when you die within those worlds again, I seek to bring you back before you could rest with an unfinished story.
(But, alas, sometimes I cannot even do that. I am bound by my own rules, by my own limitations, in which I cannot exert my powers over you without stripping away choice. And…oh…I am rambling again, aren’t I?)
“ Uhh…” Dusk just ‘stared’. “(It’s fine…ma’am—”
{Hello, lovelies!} Dusk got shocked by a booming voice that oddly sounded like that one “you’ve been trolled” song, and he felt a tinge of fear strike through his metaphorical heart. Why is he feeling fear towards this new, vaguely…zesty voice, besides their presence, and why did he imagine them wearing heels?!
(Oh...{INDUCER}... )
{Ya miss me, [Benefactor]?} For some reason, whatever name this new entity called out is blocked out by the title Benefactor gave the dead teen some seconds ago.
(I am…busy, {Inducer}. I have a soul to ferry, and it will be more beneficial for me and my charge to be left alone.)
{Nah, I think you’re simple avoiding me~}
(Stop it, please.) There was still calmness in her voice, but [Benefactor] seems like she wanna go apeshit, to Dusk’s standards, and yell at this other guy. And unfortunately for him, 1) he also hated that guy’s ass (metaphorically), and 2) {Inducer} might not…leave anytime soon.
{So~} [Inducer] spoke a bit. {Where are ya taking them?}
(Nothing where you could lay a hand on him. I shall guide him where his soul can get rest the most, or at least have rest without any catch after the struggles he will face.
{...that’s all?} [Inducer] seemed to have yawned—do these beings need sleep? Or was it an expression of boredom? {You know what, why don’t I join in your fun as well? Nothing to do much, after all, besides “pranking” my siblings.)
(Wait, n—
{Nah, Ima take over this isekai initiation initiative for you, love.}
Silence ensued, before Dusk heard the familiar cackle of [Inducer].
{So first…Dusk, is it?}
Dusk froze for who knows how many times now. “...yea—wait, how did you know ?"
{I just do~!} The entity felt like smirking. {Also, [Benefactor] literally told me Anyways, sorry for this unfortunate news, but you might as well discard the living life out of that beautiful name, because we’re gonna go on a field trip to a whole, new world!}
…
What?!
{That's the first condition set by [Benefactor] to herself, and I shall follow it to her chagrin. Anyways~, you will be sent into a new world that’s a fictional media made real, or a world separate from its media but are still interconnected, and whatnot related to the multiverse. Except…we have to shove you into the last piece of media you played in…because why the hell not?}
{Psst, [Benefactor], why do we send people into the last media they interact with? Nevermind. I can live with this chaos.
{And according to your deleted Internet history and your Roblox account, we’ll be sending you into… roll drums please…}
A cackle. {FORSAKEN!}
“Wait, what?!” Dusk exclaimed in shock. “That game I only tried playing once?! That doesn’t sound fair—”
{Would you like to join Dandy’s World then? Or your half-baked fanfiction concepts? Or even that one Deviantart sto—}
"Alright, alright!" Dusk yelled. "Shut the fuck up, okay???" They really wanna punch the guts of this guy, if said guy has guts. Their mind suggested this being might not have one at all.
And there’s no choice here but to listen…fuck.
{Ooh, a feisty one. Dear [Benefactor], for someone who favors your only and “nonchalant” daughter, you do seem to like the attitudes of this particular type of human, love?~}
( Please get on with what you want with him. And do not attempt to harm him.)
{Very well! Besides other guys I had already met, will meet, and was just meeting, you amuse me, oh Dusky Wusky ! So we’re gonna put you in Forsaken…for real!}
“Don't call me that," Dusk snarled. "And...oh hell naw—"
{ Before the “events", so to say! Before c00lkidd goes missing, before admins started disappearing, before things went into The Spectre’s favor for its personal torture chamber. Tskk, before everything went wrong for real.}
“Before?” Dusk would have gaped in shock if he still had a mouth. “So, you’ll just drop me into whatever realm Roblox has ?” He now regrets everything with scrolling through Homestuck characters being angsty over shoving Wiki info down his ass.
“You gotta be fucking with me, right ?” He complained. “I don’t even know about some ‘important’ lore here, besides Builderman’s whole deal, the Shedletsky measurement memes, the random Forsaken Mains memes, and also the whole spoilers from Block Tales’s Demo 3 for some reason.”
{Oh, I have a remedy for that. Now hold still~}
“What remed— WHAT THE FUCK?!"
Dusk gets hit point-blank in the face with basically multiple Wiki pages worth of random, significant, and useless info about Roblox itself, its history, and Forsaken’s tragic cast. From humble beginnings to the dumpster fire called the Metaverse, from Shedletsky’s significance to Builderman’s real-person counterpart’s downfall, and basically a whole lot of information overload.
If a literal eldritch being wasn’t handling this and was probably intentionally keeping him slightly sane, he would have keeled over like a Victorian child given sour gummy worms. Or Cheetos. Or whatever fits his shitty analogies.
{All done!}
({INDUCER }.) [Benefactor] scolded. (You almost wrecked his mind. Now I have more problems to deal with other than his whole being…)
{Nah, don’t worry. He’s alive and well. Or at least as alive as he is dead~}
( Not my point. ) A sigh. (Hello there…are you still there?)
“...yea…oh my gog…”
(How is your…situational encounter with my ex’s information abilities?)
“It could have been worse…ugh…it could have been more Homestuck lore…”
{See? He likes it!}
“I didn’t like it that much!” Dusk ‘shouted’. “You shoved what could have been eight gigabytes worth of Forsaken fanart into my non-existent brain as well, you bitch! Why would you make me comprehend ships of them all, especially that I’m basically gonna become one of them and meet them!"
{Why not? But anyways, now that this pesky, little problem called lacking metaknowledge is thrown out the metaphorical window, may I have these other conditions of your second life.}
“...eh." At this point, Dusk is now too tired to comprehend this, for real this time. This is too overwhelming…
{As I stated before, you might as well discard your current names—online and deadname—for you will enter someone’s life and basically be them. But unlike before, you can choose~)
“ What?"
{You can choose anyone! Any of those admins, poor 007n7, Guest 1337 from an entire universe away, Two Time, even nobodies like Noob, Chance, and so on…}
“...why the fuck are you dissing some survivors? Everyone has some level of importance.”
{And I don’t care, so choose or else the timer ticks down!}
"What?! Well, uhh…" Dusk’s ramblings became a whisper. ‘...who’s the least constipated with Robloxia’s whole plot stuff amongst them…Noob? No, they’re also kinda connected to Guest 666 and probably sucks in life. That new survivor Taph? No…he’s literally Builderman’s demolitionist, I think? I wanna avoid any admin, so no admins as well or former hackers, or even cultists and so on. Sure, I could…fix Two Time, but I can’t be inside a cult… not again. Obviously, no killers, or anything that’ll let that Spectre guy fuck with my mind and make it worse than it already is…’
{What’s your choice?}
"Uhh." Dusk paused. “Do you think Chance isn’t that wrapped up with the whole general worldbuilding of Robloxia, like I mean I could do Elliot, although—”
{Ooh, interesting!}
"Wha—oh I fucking played myself." Now Dusk wished he had hands to facepalm. “Why the fuck did I chose a GAMBLER…”
{If it makes you feel any better, broke boy, you become rich now!}
“That’s EVEN WORSE!"
{Nah, nah, it ain’t gonna be regrettable if you gained some boons from me!}
“..."
“ What do you mean… "
{Yup, I’m gonna let you commit a Gamer fic but for Roblox, and let you have the tools for causing chaos and hacking shenanigans, all that stuff, just for the sake of my entertainment! Do whatever you want, basically! Although…you have to handle not being caught with the panels you’ll be using for it~}
“...seriously???”
{Yes! Besides you having to play friendship simulator on the other survivors, oh hohoho…. you also get to access Roblox’s full catalog, games, and outfits with objectives better than Robux! (How? Find out for yourself~)
{And also other things I’d rather not tell you , but shh...}
“...Why???”
{A surprise, Chancey boy!}
“I regret asking you.”
{So, will you NOT take it, hmm?}
“What, no! I…will. I’ll try to live while also…fulfilling your thing. At least I…nevermind. What now, though?”
{"What now”? Hmm…well, if you don’t have any further wishes, I’m gonna throw you into Robloxia now!}
“Can you…uhh…keep me from becoming insane ?”
{Nah, it’s already in the plans now!}
“Dammit...Uhh…protection for my mind from mind tricks.”
{Now that’s more like it !} A snap and another. {Anyways, ta-ta! Also, say hi to your little guys for me, hmm?}
“The fuck you mea-AHHHHHHH—”
And the soul no longer remained stranded within the confines of this realm.
(...)
(That was an incredibly moronic action, {Inducer}! A LOT OF MORONIC ACTIONS!)
{WHAT?! At least I gave him additional blessings besides becoming alive again—and he will love what I prepared for him! You , on the other hand, only send people into missions of saving others’ asses. Even worse, you ain’t even giving more of your ‘blessings’ to earlier versions of him that got here!}
(You do not understand, {Inducer}. Leaving him unattended in another world he is barely familiar with, even with all that…forcibly induced knowledge, and giving him those would be the worst way a timeline will go to chaos.
{I can see the future now, and it is filled with too much…disorder…)
{Oh, pu-lease. This isn't like that whacko jumbo timeline with that version of him being a bird creature. There isn’t a greater threat within Robloxia beyond banning, hackers, and… that fucker. Like, that bitch is a cursed gift just keeps on giving, and it wasn’t even make its torture chamber fun!
{And as a result, I now have a feral human—or rather, Robloxian —ready to throw at it, one way or another! Isn’t this f u n?! }
(...)
(...I need a drink.)
{Nope, all drinks we know of ain’t intoxicating these vessels of ours. Toooo bad!}
(Just…go. Never show your face to me again. )
{ This scarred face that you fell over with centuries ago? Ha, [Benefactor], you always flatter me~}
( Shut it. )
It had a feeling something was off.
Delegating its duties to the natural (or rather unnatural) flow of the environment, The Spectre felt itself travel from its main realm to somewhere…higher. Not exactly high, but it was enough that nobody can traverse towards it - lest they lose their sanity and make it waste its newest prey. And Tyler had been an interesting individual, so it made sure to let him be tortured with extreme slowness and gradual suffering.
The Spectre ‘sat’ on an invisible throne, befitting its nature. Its aura opened a monochromatic rectangle in front of it, the screen’s glow illuminating nothing but mist. This area is where The Spectre can watch over everything within Robloxia, including a few individuals. The screen splitted into multiples of itself, some laid over the other. Its content flickered into various places, with date after date located on top of it.
Here’s one with a certain, chicken-loving admin ‘pwning’ an amateur player within the “realm” of SFOTH, near one of those Crossroads terminals. Here’s one with a Spawn worshipper hanging out with a
a soon-to-be doomed friend and lover (as doomed as how it assumes their tragedy will go).
Ahh, tragedies built upon broken love—its favorite flavor of torture.
Here’s one with Elliot multitasking within the only branch of that hideous workplace he is employed on, and here’s one with…Builderman’s latest employee, him trying to decipher the latter’s unconventional method of communication (well, The Spectre thinks all languages are horrible, but this one is even worse).
Then, here’s one with—oh.
The Spectre may not have eyes, or is using an organ more eldritch than it, but it would have narrowed its gaze if it had so. One of the screens which was monitoring the soon-to-be survivors was stuck in a static, and its date was all messed-up as well. It attempted to ‘shift’ its date and calibrate the screen, only to see even more static and warbled images of censored faces of Robloxians of unknown builds and places of unknown makers.
You might expect it to get mad. However, The Spectre only bids its madness and anger towards more significant things. And this…glitch? It had encountered it before. Most likely, it’s simply needed to be fixed up.
A few tweaks to the screens’ code, and the screen is showing properly now! No more static! The Spectre was about to continue its browsing, when it noticed something even worse.
.…
Why the hell are some areas blacked out ?! And with only this survivor, out of many?!
Oh well, that was merely a singular person’s viewpoint— it can still view them through others’ eyes (with consent or not). So, The Spectre switched to a screen displaying the colors of red and yellow, where a certain pizza place employee is working on a busy day, manning the cashier for that time. The sky indicated an upcoming sunset, when someone else entered the fray.
There, finally! It was about to view these pathetic mortals’ conversation, when the screen suddenly flickered the moment the pizza guy and the one in a fedora and shades (his headphones are on his neck, how odd) are conversing with each other…
And it faded into black.
…
What the ####—
(Meanwhile in the future, the fedora-wearing guy perked up in confusion. "Meh, must be the wind."
"...there's no wind here," Elliot deadpanned.")