Work Text:
Vitriolic has become accustom to the quiet of an empty world. The floating islands of a modded world don't help, cutting her off further from neutral mobs.
As she sits, legs crossed, on the edge, she wonders if that's as much as a good thing as she used to think it was. It's stifling, as a fire cracks far to her left.
She's watching it. For any signs of blue creeping out of the flames, of something escaping.
The worst part of it all is that she knows for a fact that she didn't get all of them. One got away. She was so close.
Vitri twists her head as a llama trots up, staring at her skeptically.
It winds up to spit, and she slips off the edge of the island with ease to dodge it.
Her grappeling hook comes like second nature- it's easy, to fling herself up and around, back onto the island. She lands on the other side of the fire, the shock of the landing jolting through her boots into her knees.
Vitri squints, off at the house. She knows she cleared everything, but a creeping tenseness coils in her chest.
Because here's the thing: She didn't kill the third… nerve ball thing, and she knows that for sure. Maybe it left, chased off.
But they seem to be smart enough to hold a grudge.
So, she holds her shotgun in a snug grip. Her baubles inventory is tactically used, and she watches the sides of the island for any glimpse of a black form.
It's paranoid. Vitri knows this.
Even if it's paranoia, it feels deeply, deeply justified.
A llama spits, and she dodges it by ducking. Speeding up her walking speed, she jogs to her front door.
The fire has died down, and she couldn't see anything in it.
She has to trust that they died. Vitri can't do anything else.
She has no other home to return to.
"Red!"
He doesn't respond to the call, kicking his legs harder in the water. It's murky, he can barely see through it, and it clings to his fur.
It feels nice.
A hand grabs his arm, yanking him backwards.
His sister stares down on him, fur sparking with irritation. "I've been calling you for ten minutes!"
Red doesn't respond. She's holding one of his arms, it's not like can anyways. He watches her blankly, fingers twitching.
Her horns just barely peek out. They're the same length as Red's, even if she's four years older then him.
Something about that aches. His horns are to early, and he doesn't understand why he feels like they are. All the boys his age are growing horns. It's something about how they're excited to spark like the girls their age have been since they were 9.
Red doesn't know what he wishes for. It's bone deep.
Something is wrong.
"Red." He focuses on his sister. Her tone is a little more gentle, this time. "Mom's pissed."
He shifts his feet in the water, watching the mud shift. With his free arm, he signs "Why?"
She sighs heavily. Leans forward. "I dunno. Which is worse. Cmon, Red."
Red's sister tugs on his arm, and this time, he follows.
The islands, as she collects wood with the steady axe-hand of someone experienced, are silent.
It's normal, for the islands to spawn less mobs then usual on occasion.
She can't shake the feeling that something's wrong.
It itches, a little bit. It's a nagging feeling, with every step. She double checks every block, stares at mobs longer then she should.
When Vitri checks her inventory, she scans it for the creeping rot of blue. She never finds it, but she's startled by glimpses of blue in her peripheral.
There's something burning about paranoia. It eats into you, making you incapable of spending time normally.
The tree is felled, and a modpack pulls the wood into collectible bundles with a snap.
Vitri, sometimes, feels like there's something inside of her.
She takes a deep breath, to steady herself, and her lungs crackle with the inhale. It's phlegm, she's sure.
It has to be.
It has to be.
OPEN DM WITH SELECTED COMM?
[Y]/N
[Vitriolic_Red]: 👋
[Vitriolic_Red]: 🌏🚶🫵 ?
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: Sorry? What?
[Vitriolic_Red]: 🙄
[Vitriolic_Red]: 🫵🚶🌏
[Vitriolic_Red]: 🌏 👻 👻 😈
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: Um. Give me a minute.
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: Wait. Are you trying to hire me?
[Vitriolic_Red]: ‼️ ✅ 👻
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: Well shit! We can talk, yeah.
Vitri fiddles with her comm, and muffles a cough into her arm.
He was a little slow to catch on, but he figured out translating quick. Nice fella, overall. Bit over-certain of his abilites, but…
It's not like there's anyone else in the market to help her with it. She's pretty sure she'd get laughed out of a police station.
Not like they'd be particularly helpful with something like this.
I_AM_BIG_KEVIN has joined the world!
Vitri shifts her head up, adjusting her shotgun grip. Spawn is quiet as always, but the noise of a player joining the world is new. It's excepted, but new.
The green creeper- Kevin, he says- shakes his head like a wet dog as if to throw off the nausea of worldhopping. He scans the world before he says a word, eyes tracing the floating islands surrounding them.
"Huh. So you're Vitriolic?"
She nods. Pulling her hands up, she quickly signs. "Do you need admin access?"
Kevin stares blankly at her hands for a moment. The information takes easily 10 seconds to process. He startles, it finally seeming to click. "Oh! No, thank you. I can do it without."
…Well. He did say he was rusty with sign.
A package in her inventory glares at her, and when she pulls it out, Kevin visibly raises an eyebrow.
As she pushes it into his grip, he takes it with very little question. He starts pulling at the packaging, trying to get it open properly. "What's this for?-" He gets a look at inside of the package. "Ah. Thanks."
Vitri blinks at him. She turns on her heel, throwing her grappling hook. She knows he'll fall behind, and she'll need to be slow, but she needs him to check.
She can't afford to move. Quite literally. Vitri doesn't have the money, or the funds, or the access.
Or anything to fall back on.
Rain pummels Red, and she tugs her legs closer to hide them further under her rain jacket.
A bag is braced between her knees and chest, tucked close where nobody else at the empty bus stop can snag it.
Her comm buzzes. Red flicks it, glancing at the screen.
It's her mother.
..stop convincing yourself of a delusi..
She double taps, muting the chat and closes it again before pulling herself in further.
The bus stop is empty, and the map of the routes isn't particularly helpful when you have nowhere to go.
The comm buzzes again, this time in a pattern she's only felt once or twice.
A world invite.
…Her sister came through.
Kevin's thorough, she'll give him that.
His comm does things she's never seen before. When she offered to op him, he refused. And then began doing things to the code that she's never seen.
"I didn't find anything but holes in the code where they used to be."
But he's done something wrong.
Vitri lets her fur puff up, sparking slightly. She lifts her hands, before jerking them back harshly.
Kevin just watches with a resigned look as she starts pacing. "Listen," he starts, "I've dealt with cases like this. Paranoia of infection in the aftermath is normal. Normally I recommend moving worlds after something like this, but-
She shakes her head, wringing her hands, before graduating to outright flapping them.
"Vitriolic-"
Vitri whirls on her foot, and throws herself off the side of the island.
The grappling hook catches her, and when the air is yanked from her lungs, it takes a little longer then usual to return.
Vitri gags over the side of the bucket, curled around it in the corner of the room.
She can't be this vulnerable in the elevated bed. She can't.
Saliva speeds its production. Vitri heaves. Her head spins, vision blurring as she clutches the bucket like a lifeline. It hurts, as she forces up what little she's eaten in the past 2 days.
She can't keep a damn thing down.
The moment her head isn't spinning again, Vitri desperately inspects the contents bucket.
It's mostly stomach acid. Some little chunks scattered about, but.. not what she's looking for.
There isn't a single hint of blue.
REOPEN DM WITH I_AM_BIG_KEVIN?
[Y]/N
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: I'm sorry I couldn't find anything.
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: Listen, my job is finding and eliminating entities, but in my experience people often need support after encounters like this.
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: If you need, I can get you into contact with someone. Or you can text me, I don't mind
[Vitriolic_Red]: 👍
[Vitriolic_Red]: 🫵 🚶♂️➡️ 🌏 🕓 ❓
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: We can totally schedule another server scan, yeah! Send me your available dates.
[Vitriolic_Red]: 📝 💵❓
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: My rates? Oh. I guess we didn't discuss.
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: It's by the job, but honestly this was basically housecleaning. Good practice for me. Call this and the next one a gift.
[Vitriolic_Red]: ❌ 💵 🫵
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: Nah. I've decided. You aren't convincing me otherwise.
Vitriolic_Red is typing…
Something is terribly wrong, she knows it is.
Something is squirming under her skin, and she can feel it.
Vitri sits, unmoving, in the grass. The llamas don't get to close to her. They know something is wrong.
Her comm lies open in her lap. It's pointless, though.
Vitri inhales. Her lungs crackle.
She doesn't really have anyone to call.
She pulls the fur away from her skin, and cuts it away with a knife.
There is something blue, living in her veins.
And Vitri is going to find it.
NOTIFICATION: Vitriolic_Red
OPEN DM WITH Vitriolic_Red?
[Y]/N
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: Hey Vitriolic, just checking to see if you want me to do that server scan we had scheduled still?
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: I'm assuming yes. I'm also wondering if you'd want to go and get some coffee with me after?
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: NOT as a date mind you.
[Vitriolic_Red]: No. It's Fine Now.
[I_AM_BIG_KEVIN]: who the fuck are you