Chapter Text
--⊱ ☆ ⊰–
Dark Seaside (TRIAL Mix) - Waterflame
"RESPITE-RESPITE AND NEPENTHE FROM THY MEMORIES OF LENORE;
QUAFF, OH QUAFF THIS KIND NEPENTHE AND FORGER THIS LOST LENORE!
QUOTH THE RAVEN “NEVERMORE”
-The Raven
--⊱ ☆ ⊰–
PROLOUGE
Flies’ room, a sanctuary he built with the foundation of its predecessor, Rendezvous with memory, emits a sort of... Warm feeling. Well, more like an orange hue, if you ask the man. To him, saying “it’s warm” is as much of a bad omen as saying “its cold”. And nippiness is most certainly, not a thing you want to hear about in his group. But that’s nothing important – or rather, not something Jack here wants to acknowledge.
And so, we revert our attention to Jack, himself.
The man is seated on a wooden seat, with his long, grey hair below his pumpkin accessory half-hanging on the chair’s back. He lowers his head onto the table, with a laptop by the side. Displaying a Tumblr page, belonging to a user named “FliesOfTheLord”. Which is, obviously, since you’re reading this, belongs to our main man, Flies.
He ever so slightly shifts over to his laptop. Which is indeed, glowing brilliantly against the crimson shadows. His blinds are closed, after all. Any sort of light is bound to blind this man.
And when he sees what’s on the screen, one thing seems to catch his eye – and take that literally. He is, literally, half blind, anyways.
“.. A pm..?” The long-haired man barely mutters. He is very obviously tired. It’s 3AM, after all.
He straightens his back, stretching his arm slightly to get a better look at the screen.
Indeed, he did get a private message.
… Which is odd in more ways than none.
He could swear he turned the setting for PMs off when he first made this page.
And – about PMs, he can, very vividly, remember the first message he’s ever received from a second gen member – it was Jayden. And from Jayden, was a video of a random man inserting his name into a cringe-y, ear-breaking supposed “love song.”
He’ll admit, he probably would’ve had a chuckle or two when he saw that video... Keyword: Would’ve. There’s no space for laughter in their current situation, let alone respite.
He squints his eyes. Yeah, he did get a message.
Now, who in the names of the admins would private message a random Pumpkin man at 3AM? He knows there are a lot of people in robloxia that have seen him, the rare times he goes outside of a private game. But the question now is, exactly, why?
The man reaches his right hand over the laptop’s touchpad. He lightly moves it, the cursor moves to then hover over the messages button. The owl hybrid presses on the touchpad once, making a clicking sound. Said sound was heard at the same time as his right wing slightly twitched.
It took the avian a single glance at the sender’s name to make the man almost fall off the seat.
Scramblester.
Now that’s a name he hasn’t heard of – or from in a while.
A decade, it’s been a decade, specifically way back in 2012 since Jack’s last heard from the crow-snake hybrid.
And you can’t really say they left on more-than-decent terms.
“It’s been a long time”
“Do you and the other A-N members mind if I join in on the next meeting?”
“See something really weird happened while I took a walk with Van in one of our old skill practice games”
Straightforward as always, as far as he remembers… But it’s not like he’s even a reliable source of information from 2012. Considering… The incident, and the fact he FORGOT about it.
He types slowly. Fingers tapping around the base of the pc, each click sounding loudly. But in the end, he manages to type one message – a message that’ll, hopefully, not start a conversation, because indeed, he hates long talks.
“I’ll ask Ajar if he can allow it. But he’s most likely gonna let you start one yourself anyways.”
“Ok. Thanks a lot”
Now that’s a fast response.
All that’s really on the man’s mind now is what could’ve happened to Scramble that drove him to reaching out to Flies.
But, if there’s one thing that Jack knows about the crow, it’s that he hates having long conversations with people who he’s not so “close” with. You could say he hates long convos as much as the Pumpkin man does. And said man literally can’t even stand listening to any kind of podcast.
But, but, maybe a question or two wouldn’t hurt.
“If you don’t mind me asking, when exactly is this meeting you want to start?”
This time, the crow-snake seems to pause before typing.
“Maybe in a few weeks”
“You guys can agree on a date”
“I see, I’ll tell Ajar about it once he uploads the next archive.”
“👍”
An abrupt and awkward ending to the conversation. This is what happens when you make a man who has barely left his house or talked to other people talk to another man in the same situation.
The man sighs, he leans against the back of the chair, and the weight of his back goes against his hair.
He rests his left hand over his forehead.
He’s going to have to ask Ajar if he’s gone let Scramble join in a meeting, especially since the crow-snake’s been missing for almost a decade – and more.
--⊱ ☆ ⊰--
SCENE I
The light breeze from the winds of Rendezvous with Memory brushed past the owl-robloxian hybrid, it’s surprisingly warm today – or night. Time doesn’t pass normally here, you see.
“And why have you thought of visiting me?” A voice from behind him asks, almost startling Flies.
Just his presence seems to have lightened the mood of the whole place – albeit, everything’s still monochromatic. It’s more like, whenever they show up unannounced, the atmosphere clears up a little.
“Tsk...” He clicks his tongue.
“You didn’t have to sneak up on me like that.” Flies crosses his arms, before turning to look at the taller.
“Apologies. However, you still haven’t answered my question.” Ajar reminds.
“I came here ‘cause Scramble came back and wants to be included in the next meeting.” The owl-robloxian answered.
Ajar hummed in thought. However, quickly answered.
“I see, inform them of the next meeting. It is scheduled for two days after the founder’s archive is published.” The masked one informs him.
“Well that’s good.”
“Oh, about the archives, how’s it going?”
“It is quite close to full completion. I’ve no concurrent issues with its recollection. Thank you for asking.” He answers, putting a hand behind his back formally.
“Yeah, yeah no problem.” Flies dismisses the conversation.
“Oh yeah, before I go, thanks for telling me. I’ll go and tell Scramble the schedule.” He boots up his homepage. Likewise the past, it’s the same, bright cyan he uses to move between games and meeting places.
The familiar rotation of the homesphere floating above his right hand makes him think more. No, not about anything actually important. He’s thinking about whether he should go back to Robloxia or go and play – he doesn’t know, maybe that natural disasters cosplay game he’s heard so much about? It’s apparently extremely advanced compared to older works, like say, PurpleSub’s old games.
“I look forward to seeing you in the next meeting.”
“Yeah. Ok. Whatever” Flies said, before teleporting away, leaving the masked man alone.
The silence seemed to stretch on forever, as if something was meant to be here, but never came… Or rather, never showed up. Making the man think for a moment.
“Try not hiding, for I know of your presence.” A rustle was heard.
The sound came from far behind Ajar. Just far away from his so-called, “communication device”. Specifically – if he had to guess – behind one of the trees.
But the sound came no longer, as if the rustle was but a breeze of wind.
ITWASNOT
“Hm.” The masked man huffed. Sounding like some stressed parent in disappointment that their child got in trouble, and is now hiding from them.
A specific metaphor, but an accurate comparison nonetheless.
--⊱ ☆ ⊰--
SCENE II
The room was practically radiating tension.
Every single member of the Anti-Night was present for this meeting – including the second generation – along with a familiar crowd of curious, uninvolved people.
They were all standing around the table in the main house of the rendezvous. Specifically, Zach’s house. Like always, Ajar stood at the long end of the table, whilst Killermastez stood across from him.
To his left stood the second generation, consisting of users SenPrista, Jayden, Seraphina, Sean, and Forkdude.
While to his right, stood Katanas, Flies, and Scramblester.
If it wasn’t obvious, this was an important meeting.
“Might you all be curious as to why I’ve summoned all of the A-N here..” Ajar begins.
“Yeah, we really are.. Because, why would you need us, second gens for this?” Jayden immediately asks timidly. And understandably.
“It’s something Scramblester needs to address.” Flies turns to look at Jayden, who was standing in front of him.
“Uhm, before we actually start..”
“Could I write all of this down? On a notebook? Like, logging?” Seraphina asks, while holding the aforementioned notebook.
“Go on.” Katanas nodded. He seems neutral right now, but, Flies knows him well enough to know that he’s internally jumping up and down in joy that someone else gets to archive stuff. You could say that ‘4u likes sharing the “joy” of archiving.
‘Scramble clears his throat, essentially silencing the whole table, as if he’s their leader(Even though he, as a matter of fact, isn’t.)
“I asked for this meeting to be started because..” He awkwardly starts, facial wings slightly twitching.
“Another eclipse happened.” The second generation turn to look at him in surprise --so did the first generation– with the exception of Sera. Who did look at him for a moment with that reaction, but continued carefully writing the whole meeting down.
“What–? Thank goodness you’re safe then!” SenPrista exclaimed. That was a surprising lot of emotion from such a deep voice, in Flies’ opinion.
“Yeah, but I’m still not sure how – or why, I wasn’t.” The snake-crow awkwardly shifts. Understandably so, since this is his first meeting after being gone for about fourteen years.
Despite it being offtopic from their current conversation, Flies just couldn't ignore how large the crow-snake’s wings were, and how tall he was compared to the goat-raven hybrid – SenPrista. He reckoned that Ravens should be way bigger than crows, right?
But he dismisses that thought. There’s a more important conversation at hand right now.
“No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t force leave.”
The crowd burst into a mixture of shock. Not even the force field Ajar applied could silence the forty people who wanted this knowledge.
Unfortunately, the second generation seemed to not be able to just – ignore them. They had the same reaction, after all. Only a lot more… Tame, compared to the forty people outside. But that’s not to ignore the fact that the first generation reacted the same as the latter.
“Dude are you okay?” Fork turned to Scramblester after staring at the crowd for a few seconds, the one singular long, purple-dyed strand of his hair fell.
“It’s, fine, I managed to leave by resetting, then everything turned back to normal.” Scramble reassured them, before commenting,,
“As if it never even happened.”
“But like, that wasn’t the dangerous part..” That caught even Killer’s attention, the manta-stingray's tail -- positioned behind his head, for some reason -- waved slightly, likewise, his short hair was waving a little, too.
“Someone else was there.” Now that’s something our main owl hybrid can’t just stay silent about… And likewise, the crowd definitely did NOT stay silent about that. Fortunately, ignorance is something that the Anti-Night is VERY familiar with.
“What? Someone else was there?” Flies asks.
“Yeah, there was. It was a guy who.. He was just about your height, Flies -- really short -- and was wearing some sort of masquerade mask, or something.. And long hair. And some sort of artificial wing thing.” That height comment hurt. But, he listened.
“But like, what really stood out was the mask, since it had a flower on the left eye, and it had colour.”
“Doesn’t the eclipse always stay fully monochrome?” Sera asks, however, her gaze is still fixated on the notebook she was still writing on. Though her voice expressed concern, still.
“Yeah, that’s exactly why I kept trying to force leave. It was so odd..” Scramble turns to look at the angel.
“But again, it didn’t work.”
“How would that even work..” Senprista thought out loud, his wings slightly twitching, almost bumping against Jayden, who stood to his right. The Zombie-Robloxian just eyes the raven-goat, though the latter doesn't notice.
“You’ve been oddly silent, Ajar.” Killermastez mentions, lowering his head to the right a little with a hint of doubt or suspicion.
“Do not worry, ‘Mastez. I’ve simply been deep in thought. However, I do know what Scramblester is attempting to quoth.” The sheep-human hybrid – Ajar – puts his right hand on the table.
“That eclipse is from the foundation of this Rendezvous’ eternal monochrome.” Ajar said it so simply. As if everyone should’ve known this..
Once again, the crowd clamors. Fortunately, Ajar finally silences them with a hand gesture.
“And you DIDN’T tell us?” Flies asks, with a hint of disappointed anger in his voice.
“I only recently discovered its existence, after you left the sanctuary multiple days ago.” Ajar responded.
“So, I sought to inform you all at once. It is my apology if you wanted to know beforehand.” He reasons.
“No. Whatever, it’s fine but, like..”
“Whatever, just continue, Scramble.” He just – gives up on the conversation. Turning to look at the crow-snake hybrid, who was watching everything in silence, like he always did back in 2012.
“Oh, yeah.”
“Again, I couldn’t leave the place at all. I only managed to leave by resetting.”
“Wait. This – hold on, we can’t just ignore what Ajar just said, can we?" A deep voice from the left side of the table interrupted.
"Sorry Scramblester, but like – Ajar, what do you mean that this place is technically an eclipse?” SenPrista asks – and validly so. After all, Ajar has never told them about this until now.
“Yeah, I really hate to doubt or question you, Ajar, but really, I agree.” Sounded Sean. The shrimp-robloxian's tail whipped to the left slightly, making his orange, multi-pocketed coat respond to the action.
"I sincerely do apologize for not having told you all sooner. I too, was unaware of the recollection's relation with the new eclipse.'' The sheep-... Void-influence-being? Flies doesn't know what do call this guy -- anyways -- Ajar nods slightly. If you could see his face, Flies reckons that he probably closed his eyes with a neutral face, or something... If the sheep even has a face, in the first place.
"Yeah, but we can't just ignore the fact that this basically means we're in an eclipse, right now, as we speak.." Fork mumbled. You can tell that doubt was now pouring down the whole room entirely.
The tension seemed thicker than ever. Not even Scramblester -- who literally requested for the meeting -- didn't have enough guts to talk. (Not like he ever even had guts in the first place though.)