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Moe was not stupid. She knows when somethings up, and in this world something is always up. So when Ze didn't return to the house ReGect had made that night, she had a bad feeling. ReGect had assured her that it was probably nothing. He probably logged off to go to go study or something, it had said. She wanted to believe it, really she did, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Moe and ReGect are entities. They live inside Minecraft. They don't know when Ze closes Minecraft or boots it up, they don't have access to the player list, and they can't see username tags except in chat. So they don't have a surefire way of checking when Ze was offline.
It made ReGect nervous sometimes, and despite it's admittedly good ability to hide it, Moe could tell. She guessed he probably had some kind of attachment issues, being abandoned wasn't an uncommon thing for entities to go through, but ReGect is an entity who gets attached extremely quickly. She could guess his last protagonist probably left, having a life of their own whereas entities are stuck in the game. She didn't like being abandoned either. There were very few people who bothered to get to know her outside of the ‘silly clown' and even less who stuck around, because learning another language just to talk to her was...hard.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by ReGect giving her a tired goodnight and heading off to sleep. It didn't need to sleep, being an entity and all, but it did so anyways. Moe honked back an offhand ‘night' before turning back to what she was doing, which was making more splash water bottles. She had a bunch in her inventory but you can never have enough right?
After an hour she deemed she had enough, and turned to head upstairs. She stopped, staring at the front doors half expecting Ze to barge in complaining about...something. Maybe Wakafante complaining about his house being blown up, even though Ze ‘didn't blow it up’ and it was actually ‘a chain reaction of cauldrons'. But nothing happened. He didn't walk through, and the bad feeling tightened in her gut. Taking a deep breath she forced herself to walk up the stairs and to the colorfully decorated room ReGect made her. Forcing the thought aside she scrubbed off her makeup and tucked herself into bed.
The following day was not any better. It was normal for Ze to be gone for a few Minecraft days, and the game days apparently went by slower when he was logged off so to ReGect and Moe, and every other odd inhabitant of the world, Ze was never gone long. But she still couldn't shake that something was wrong. She brought it up to ReGect at breakfast, and he expressed that while he trusted her, and her intuition, they didn't have any definate proof that something happened. And while it was right, she still couldn't shake the dreading feeling.
ReGect and her had gone to the non-haunted IKEA that apparently existed, to get some meatballs. What ended up happening instead was ReGect got into a fight with the employees, over accidentally starting a fire, and by the end of it she had a plate of meatballs and the IKEA was burning down. He had apologized for probably getting them banned but she didn't care all too much, throwing a splash water bottle at the wall of the IKEA. For a day she forgot the uneasy feeling.
At least until the following morning. ReGect had asked about the gut feeling she had, and she told him she still felt like something was wrong, so it suggested they go look around the world for anything unusual. And for a moment, that dread lessened. ReGect bounded out the front door with an anxious, yet hopeful energy, and she followed suit. Honestly she wasn't sure what she expected to find, as the whole world was unusual with its myriad of mods, and strange residents.
Nonetheless they split up.
When the two finally caught up after a few hours of searching, neither of them had seen Ze. Which was conviently when a genuine doppelganger of their friend showed up, acting like it hadn't even read a basic synopsis of what Ze is like. The inner entity in her cried a little from how bad the performance was. Honestly did this guy know nothing of acting? ReGect, despite being bad at being an entity, could do far better than that. And her friend seemed to share the same sentiment as they looked over, with an unspoken message.
Moe would admit that beating up the dupe was cathartic, if the gnawing feeling that something was horribly wrong didn't tighten in her gut. And ReGect shared the same sentiment.
That night she didn't feel like cooking, so they silently ate leftovers from the previous night. Well more like Moe ate the leftovers, ReGect just stared at his food. Even without a face, she could practically feel the anxious energy dripping out of him, along with an unhealthy dose of fear. (She may not have been a fear feeding entity, but she could still taste it in the air. Honestly it was kinda like a snack yknow? Never truly fulfilling, but satisfying anyways.)
ReGect got up from the table, mumbling something about going to bed early and left. She knew he was scared, and she was too. No doubt he was taking this harshly, as it had started to rain. It always rains when ReGect feels like shit, which was probably why he hated the rain in the first place. Moe could barely stomach down her food, putting ReGect’s untouched plate back in the chest.
The following night had been worse. All day they looked for Ze. Something was obviously wrong, and something was obviously trying to replace him. So they searched until it started to rain and ReGect couldn't bare it anymore. Frustratedly storming into the house. She could tell something was off, and that night was when the first panic attack happened.
She couldn't help the distressed honks she gave out, as she desperately attempted to calm him down, he was hyperventilating, shaking, and probably couldn't hear her. So she grabbed him and forced him into a hug. It seemed to help him a little. It held onto her tightly, and after a few minutes she could feel sobs wrack it's body rather than the fast paced hyperventilation. The tears dripping down as he cried into her. His breathing became less erratic, save for the gasping cries that escaped, but he was calmer now. That wasn't the only time it happened, but any day after that and she would touch him when she thought it was starting to panic like that. A hand in his shoulder, holding his arm, leaning into his side, a silent reminder that if he does break, she'll be there for him. That it's ok to panic sometimes because she'll be there to make sure he's ok at the end of it. A reassurance that she was still there.
The breaking came slowly. Moe stopped wearing as much makeup, telling herself that it was because she was busy, no use wasting time that could be spent looking for Ze, or ReGect had already rushed out of the house and she doesn't want to leave him behind incase he panics again, incase he needs her, it's not because she feels her chest tighten everytime she looks at the palette Ze used to use to help her, no of course not! She's simply busy right now!
Moe stopped cooking after a week because well...it stopped being necessary. Entities didn't exactly need to eat, even if it helped in moments of distress. ReGect was usually out of the house, searching for Ze, an hour before Moe even woke up so there wasn't much use in making breakfast no one would eat, and she practically had to drag ReGect kicking and screaming just to get him to sleep, so there was no use for making dinner. She still ate the occasional snack and could only hope ReGect does the same, but with the way he appeared to be getting thinner, she doubted it. He would be fine, but she worries that he was too absorbed in his search, especially with any attempt to get him to take a break usually failing.
She could get him to sleep, that much she was thankful for, because despite the questionably homosexual way Ze and ReGect had been close, (a lot closer than the two realized) they still cared about Moe. And ReGect could pick up on the signs that Moe wasn't doing to well either. He always came back to the house at night, so Moe could sleep cuddled into his side. And he'd shift closer anytime she was about to cry. They didn't talk much, because what was there to even talk about? Moe usually had tons to say, even if it was nonsense honking, and ReGect had a tendency to talk to himself, but neither had the capacity to talk anymore.
Instead building a silent routine. Moe would wake up with ReGect already gone, sometimes he'd be there but usually he was gone. She'd ignore the makeup palette, and ReGect’s fire hazard of a kitchen, to go search for Ze. She'd grab an apple from the leaves of a tree when she found one, and wave at ReGect if she saw him. By the time the sun was going down she'd head back home, and fall asleep. That's how it was.
Until she heard ReGect yelling, with another yelling back. A voice she had been praying would come back.