Chapter Text
Hey there, best friend, yes you, the one who's listening to this. You may not recognize me now, but nice to meet you again, it's been a long while since our first encounter. I should refresh your memory real quick before anyone at the hotel notices that I'm speaking to a recorder at 1:06 a.m.
Let's rewind a lot back in time, and by that I mean on 2007, specifically June. My father, your father and the rest of the swords guardians were on a meeting to celebrate the first anniversary of the group, which meant that your brother, you, and I could play around, and we all agreed into somewhere.
We both sneaked out from the Roblox HQ headquarters, taking a portal that took us directly to the SFOTH battlestage. You and your brother opened your wings freely, some of them dropping due to natural causes, and you both flew to be near the height of the grey bridge, while I remained at the center of the structure.
The Ice Dagger guardian, whose name I don't remember really well, gave us all three a mint lollipop. I hate mint with all my heart, so I hated the lolipop and you two, for some reason, enjoyed it like it was the last fruit of the whole world of Robloxia.
"How can you like mint on candy? Mint sucks! It makes my eyes watery and it tastes like toothpaste"
I remember you chuckling in the sky, and even descending with, like it was me the crazy one, thing that I still don't understand, mint is overrated.
"Oh, come on Thárros, don't be so judgmental onto it"
Your brother, whom never contradicted anyone, obviously respalded you, something that he always used to do.
"Yeah, doesn't your father always tell you to not judge something by it's cover?"
"That doesn't apply here, this is candy, no books here"
You kept teasing me with that, making me angry and sad. Somehow you noticed it and stop, making you have a little sad wet kitty appearance, looking as if someone had scold you.
You suddenly gave me one of your feathers (although I don't think it hurt you at all, since it was about to fall judging by its appearance).
"Sorry, Thárros, take this feather. Please don't be mad at me"
I stared at the feather like it would turn into ambar, which wasn't so different from it, since it had a golden color, mixed with a pearly white tone at the center of it, to end into a brown end.
It looked so pretty and shiny, specially with the light that it absord (or rather, that it made by itself), so I chose to tuggle it between my high half pony tail that I had, so I couldn't possibly lose it on accident –and random note, I still have it, but it's on my wallet now–.
"Th-thanks, Elpída"
I noticed your little pink blush on your cheeks, while you made that silly smirk on your face, tilting both your smile and head, while you partially accepted the compliment.
"I-It's nothing, really. I chose it because it reminded of your essence"
Your brother, in the middle of the air, dropped himself so fast that I swore he would give himself a concussion with that. When he properly landed, we was singing a melody, which he didn't even bother to hide the lyrics.
"Elpída and Thárros, sitting on a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G"
You instantly blushed as red as the logo of the arena we were at, which you quickly covered with your head wings, hiding your hazel eyes and your blush, of course.
"MISÓ!! W-We're just best friends, I-I told you before"
You muphered a few things that I couldn't understand, before you threw at him the lollipop stick (which was made out of plastic), and you managed to make it land on the face of him, making me laugh a lot.
"Eugh!!! Brother, that's disgusting!! Blegh!"
You two continued to argue, thing that quickly turned into a sword fight (appropriate to the name of the place we were at). I was standing there, eating some sour gummies that I could sneak from home.
The fight turned into a strength test between you two so fast that I couldn't even finish my own mental recording of all of the fight without getting stunned by beams of light, orbs or any other wacky power that you both had.
"So, is this how you spend your inmortal life? Through unnecessary fights that only provokes violence?"
I got jumped by your father's voice, who had just come from the meeting. The one and only Telamon himself, standing behind me, while I was feeling like I did all the possible sins due to his judgmental gaze.
You both froze mid air, looking as if a cold, water bucket hit you both from the back, flying down respectfully to be more approachable to your father. I thought that it was because you two admired him a lot, and he simply scared you two due to his sudden appearance.
"We ought to discuss this... innapropiate behavior in private. But not today, since you seem to have covered your chores"
His voice was cold and brutal, a very weird behavior coming from him towards his own childs. He would have normally be more sensible with your actions and be warmer, but it felt so out of place to his sudden shift of tone.
"Thárros Seth, we are leaving, now.
My papa appeared behind me, and, due to him saying my full name, I though I made a big problem that time, but his look wasn't angry about me, rather... solitudinal and empathetic.
But what scared me the most wasn't his tone on me or the strange calmness that he was handling that situation, but rather the blink of hatred of the gaze that he was holding onto your that, like he could see more than his only eye that peeked of the capeline of his long tunic.
"Well, se you next time, best friends!! I'll fight you two when I come back, AND I'LL BEAT YOU"
I screamed since I was walking far away from you two, and I remember vividly how I almost broke my neck because of that since I wanted to face you directly.
I left through the orange portal that departed me to Vermillion Village –my beautiful (but almost hot sofocating) home–, where my papa and I lived happily.
I rushed to my bed, changing my clothes into my pijama since I felt tired from my little stay on your house –I was kinda lazy back then, okay?– and went downstairs again to be with my dad
"I hope I can see my best friends soon, papa"
My dear dad avoided to see me at al cost, but I could feel the unspoken coldness between us, among a hint of fury and sadness
"I... I hope so, too, son..."
He hold deep doubt in his voice, like he was trying to tell me that miracles couldn't happen to the me of 10 mere years and expecting me to perfectly understand and still trying to hide it.
But, like that hollow promise impossible to accomplish, days turned into weeks, then they morphed into years, and those times turned into almost two whole decades...
... Eighteen years without any way of communication between us, without any way to see any of you, with this... feeling of longing and mourning for your burning absence of being present only as a remote memory of my childhood.
Until I find you, walking down the mall –not like the song, I'm not a creep–, as if you have never meet me in the first place, that your past self was just an illusion that I used to cope from your absence, and my old memories were planted by something else.
I found you at (probably) the worst place and time to meet with an old friend of yours, which was at the front of THE Roblox HQ. Quick context of the situation: I got there with a ticket from a raffle, which lead me into a VIP convention at the Headquarters, and now I was yelling at a casier because some purple and blue headphones with the Roblox logo where off sale.
"What do you mean that there are no more headphones?! They're literally at the window of this place!!"
"Sir, as I told you before, those are exhibitional pieces. Those have a panflet written on captions in the bottom."
I furiously slammed my fist onto the desk, as I tried to baffle something else, but I just gave up and left the store with no luck while I was fuming in rage.
"Ugh, I wasted twenty minutes in this?... Man, I need to keep an eye on my time manage"
I walked dowm down the street, hoping I could find anything interesting to compensate the lost of time, and I found a stone statue of some hero in front of the explanade
"In honor of a saviour's heart, courage, and bravery to restore the peace of ROBLOXIA and its people even in its most dire need"
The statue was apparently built by ROBLOX Corporation in 2011 –or at least that's the date when the quote was cited–, but something about the statue didn't felt like it was some random legend
The statue by itself look a bit bland, since it had the vague figure of some adventure boots, a pair of pants that cover from knee to waist, a t-shirt (I guess? The statue didn't help) with an explosion icon on it, wings on the back, ankles, wrists and head .
But what made me analyze more that statue was it's face, even though the surrounding nature and the time that has passed since its construction, it looked so marvelously similar. And now in retrospect it looked almos exactly like you, but it was imposible. You would have been twelve by that time, but the statue looked as if you were in your mid-twentysr.
"Why does this statue look like me? Or is it an confusion of mine?"
I turned my head to that voice. That voice, i-it was you, who was standing at my right, as if you didn't recognize me at all. As if I was an obsessed stranger toward a common person, that all this time in his mind claimed it was just a parafernalia of mine
"Sorry, sir, but can you please stop staring at me?"
You asked nervously, while I kept staring at you for a while, hopping that you recognized me as your best friend. Seeing that was clearly not the case, I blinked quickly to disguise it
"My apologies, I... I thought you were someone I knew"
You instantly relaxed your face, and made a soft laugh with a sweet smile. I felt my face warm a bit, I guess it was due to the shame I felt that moment.
"Don't worry then. I can't remember faces very well neither. You call me Player"
That phrase... that single frase gave me so much hope that you can't even imagine. I wanted to jump out of happiness, but obviously I had to contain myself –maintain my cool look, ya know?– Either way, I can't just tell you my real name at that time like that
"'Kay 'Player', name's Fi- I mean, Frederic Miller. Nice to meet ya"
I was suddenly cut off by three penguins, specifically the tallest (and logically the oldest) of all of them
"Player, over here! We are waiting for you!"
"Sorry, Finn, gotta go. Alright Harry, I'll bee there in a moment!"
And just like that you were gone once again, but it felt actually good and not sudden this time. But I didn’t had that much time to process because the plane started to turn pastel pink
Well, it wasn’t exactly a weird dimension, but rather Nirvana. It’s a weird combination between a parallel realm and a dream world. How do I know this? My dad is (technically) the guardian of it, and with that, the one that an drag whoever wants to it – including me, obviously.
I glazed lazily around the place, and quickly found my dad in the same spot as usual: in top of the old yellow carpet I never threw away, but for some reason he was in the middle of it
“Hi dad, what happened and why am I in Nirvana exactly?”
My father stopped meditating and opened his eyes to me and stood up. He was apparently doing some mistical magic because there was a clearly purple-ish aura with him, alongside a magic pink ball
He guided me next tho the ball, which had an illusion for the convention –kind of useless sine he knew I was going there, but well– and started to explain to me some… issues regarding you
“Hello son. I summoned you here to make sure you know this mission correctly. A big time catastrophe is going on due to an evil being –whose name I still don’t know, but is blue and wears a hood–, and I though that this place would be better instead of the place where that creature is at
“Then what am I supposed to do? Kill it? Or does it has any allies I should get rid off first?”
My father immediately tensed when I said that last sentence. He grab the orb and handed it to me, for me to see. It had a projection of you getting dragged with two noobs and –what I guess– the thing my father was talking about (the blue thing with a hood on). You couldn’t be with them, but you were most likely a captive if I saw your face correctly
“At the moment, the mysterious figure has kidnapped both Builderman and… your old friend… but right now, we have to focus on stopping it before it makes more chaos”
“I’m sure I am more prepared to accomplish this mission”
I knew I was lying, I knew that I would try to find you as soon as possible, and that I was being selfish for wanting you –i-in a nostalgia filled way, o-of course, nothing with romance o-or stuff–, and my at her noticed
“Do not worry my child, you can extend your mission and be with them once you encounter him, and you can still continue your journey with no problem”
“Thanks, dad. Should I hide my-?”
“You must hide your identity, indeed”
Rude of him to cut me like that, but anywho that’s in the past-future. He then crafted a fake ID for me (I don’t want to confuse my younger self), I changed my clothes and grabbed my bat and baseball ball.
My father, noticing that I was ready, created a pale blue portal, which lead to a hotel room with nice furniture and a brand new calendar of the year 2010
Before I could enter the portal, my father hugged me tightly and messed my hair, and after that he started to make his luggage
“Dad, why are you doing that?”
“I’ll go too, but a bit far from the airport of the place. I doubt that your friend’s or your mental health would be intact after that much sudden changes”
“Okay, geez. Have more trust on me, but… thanks anyways”
And with that we end my explanation of how I got here. I hope you can hear this recording sooner or later, but for now, I’ll end it here, I don't want to get kicked out of the hotel.
I'm going to make some quick tourism around here, and, with insane awesome luck, I may find some clues on how to defeat the mysterious figure and where are you then. Until then, "Finn McCool" out to get some sleep.