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it'd been a few weeks since echo had joined at this point.
there hadn’t been much adventures, but when there were, they were delicately hand-crafted, yes, some of them were a bit more shorter, all over the place, or straight up boring to the others' standers; but echo loved them.
right now; they were on an adventure! it was a castle themed adventure with puzzles which were actually pretty challenging! echo loved them, they loved the adventures, they loved what caine made everytime.
it was a new thing each time, whats not to love?
well, jax.
jax had always been a problem, throwing people into lakes, threating others with a shotgun from WHO knows where; and just tormenting the others; even caine! echo wasn't fond of them, jax and echo had a rivalry, if one may say.
echo stood up for the others against jax when nobody would; yeah they'd get dented sometimes.... or shot.... or get thrown to a whole new area or clip out of bounds.... sometimes all three and more; but they said everytime its worth it.....
and thats where we are now.
everyone gathered around at the circus' main stage; ragatha was talking with pomni, echo was drawing with gangle and zooble, although zooble is just watching the both of them, and jax is being a dick, as always.
suddenly a pop appared on stage, echo looked up excited to see who they called their dad.
"good morning my poultry plants!! todays adventure is-"
"morning dad!!"
caines whole persona vanished in a instant.
"oh, m-morning to you aswell, echo."
caine replied back; having that calm in his tone he never allowed other to see. he snaped back into focus with his persona, continuing where he left off after a bit of thinking.
"ah, right! todays adventure is: ender entropod!!!"
caine cleared his non-existent throat, and continued.
"todays adventure is that you have to save a rocket ship from being exploded by aliiiiens! thats NOT all, however! these aliens are ruthless! just like jax."
"wh- HEY!!"
everyone liked that.
"they'll try to sabotage whatever plan you come up with! through violence or peace, you have to travel through different planets to find the base where the aliens hide-out; but theres puzzles aswell that you must face!! destroy their base, or negotiate! you're choice! two paths; two choices!"
"hey, dentures, can i-"
caine sighed for what seemed like a minute, looking at jax with a deadpanned expression.
"yes, yes there is guns, jax, dont worry..."
"sweet!"
caine snapped back to his usual persona like he isnt done with jax shit.
"aaanyways," he started off, opened the portal, "have fun my superstars!"
everyone went through but echo, they didn't really do high-stress adventures and noise well.
"don't worry, echo! i... i made sure that once you spawn in, you get a permanent noise reducing buff since i know you dont do loud noise all that well, i also made it so theres charging stations for you incase things take too long."
"f-fanks, dad..."
"have fun, echo..!"
the both of them waved at eachother when echo went through the portal, caine shut it behind them.
"hope jax doesn't start shit...."
caine mumbled, knowing full well he will.
five minutes.
its only been five minutes and chaos started.
echo has a mini bag, sealed shut with energy packs for who knows what, and the world, or space.... feels quieter, like.... noise cancellation headphones quiet, to where you can hear things but there more muffled.
this was.... actually pretty-
oh. DID JAX START THE ROCKET WITHOUT THEM INSIDE???
the ran to the rocket, and they got on just in time as the rocket shut behind them.
they sighed, holding a wall and breathing in and out, catching their breath; holy hell, they didn't even know they could run that fast...
okay, lets see what the others are do...
.....ing......
....oh.
first all; everyone was floating, and has space suits, everyones helmets being a bit different because of their head size.
ragatha was arguing with jax about stealing all the guns; yeah, fair.
pomni was trying to control the rocket without it crashing; zobble was beside her being unhelpful.
gangle was holding onto a railing for dear life, scared.
also made sense, they didn't like rockets either.
they never liked heights. eh, they just decided to look at the stars.
after around a few minutes.... and many arguments... the got to their first destination to find clues on where the aliens could be.
"hm.... maybe they're on that purple planet over there?"
"nah, thats seems too obvious! dent-"
"dad wouldn't put out something so clear," they started, their one eye making a thinking face; the cracked part still being covered by a bandage. "he would hide it more out fere, like a 'fink outside fe box' kinda fing! lets put out head together, team!"
"ew, emotions."
"JAX NOBODY SAID ANYTHING ABOUT EMOTIONS???"
"I DON'T GIVE A SHIT, DOLLFACE!!"
and there another argument commences.
so they did, and zooble ended up figuring the puzzle out, and getting a clue.
"'go to the planet thats covered in blue, who knows what awaits you'...yeah. totally not ominous at all."
"lemme see!"
they scanned it, their eyes narrowing as they looked over at the teal fuzzy planet and matched the clues up in their head; they've always been good at simple puzzles like this.
yep, it was the teal fuzzy planet.
"yep! it is! lets go, team!!"
it was somewhat of the same thing, solving puzzles, finding more clues, even beating up aliens which and did in the most ridiculous ways, and jax just kept....
....tormenting them....
....for no reason...
...and they were fine with it...
...totally.
"jax! stop tormenting echo! their just a kid goddamnit!!" ragatha said, getting annoyed at jax for the 4th time this adventure.
"yeah, yeah, whatever rags; their just a hunk o' metal, what do they know, anyway?" jax retorted, having a smug grin on his face.
"JAX YOU LITERALLY SHOT THEM IN THE CHEST WHAT THE HECK DO YOU MEAN "WHAT DO THEY KNOW ANYWAY"!?" ragatha stomped her foot; jax just smiled even more and turned to an invisible camrea, then turned back to ragatha.
"heyyy; chillax! it's not like their smart enough to know we're trapped in this place for eternity, so why cant i have some fun with the kid, hm?"
"....oh my god you're insufferable."
"eh, whatever, im gonna throw the kid into space off of this boring ass planet. seeya"
"JAX YOU-"
jax walked away.
echo was just minding their business putting together clues on where to find the alien base with pomni and zooble; they had to recharge only twice, and now they had to recharge again because jax was taking too long with his bullshit theories again.
"...sh-should we fight or negotiate, though...?"
"i fink we should ne-goat-tea-ate!!"
"thats not how you say negotiate but okay. negotiating it is."
"hey losers."
"jax what the fuc-"
before anyone could say anything, jax unplugged echo, who was at 50% energy, and then pushed them off the planet, and SHOT THEM.
"JAX WHAT THE FUCK!?"
"...dude."
echo couldn’t hear anything but silence as she was pushed off, their energy was depleting at a rapid rate... and so was their sanity.
"d-dad... hhh-"
a sickening crack went through their already affected area, their one eye shutting in response.
"dad... i don't.... w-wanna die..."
they couldn't hear the others at this point. they left their energy packs upwards on the planet.
caine teleported to echo, having his usual persona on.
"hello ech.....oh."
caine caught them before they could fall into the "LAND OF EYES (and sentient mouths)". because that was just for beta testing different planets and he left that one in as a bonus for the others.
"let me guess, jax?"
"y-yeah."
"i'll talk to him.... but... do you wanna stay on the adventure after this?"
"n-no."
"alright, i'll....uhm.... get you out of here."
and so; the both of them teleported away to echos room, just because caine wanted to see the crack on their face.
meanwhile, jax, was gonna get an earful.
----
meanwhile, in echos room, caine was taking a look at echos crack in their glass; it'd only gotten worse. so he did what he did best, reversed the damage back to its previous state... even if they still had one eye. then he put a new bandage on the hole in their face and tied a little bow.
"there! i reversed the damage back to its previous state!"
"f-fanks..." they said, plugging themselves in and falling asleep ten seconds after. caine then just put a blanket on them, and turned the light off.
"sleep well, echo."
caine teleported away; not noticing the warning sign where echos face was.
the others came back; all of them liking or not liking the RPG aspect at the end.
"w-well, that was something! i wonder where echo went, though?" ragatha said.
pomni and zooble stayed silent; because both of them knew.
"m-maybe they just got lost?"
"nah, nothing like that would happen to them, ribbons."
"..."
"welcome back my charming chameleons! how was the adventure?"
caine said, having his usual tone.
"i-it was... fun... i suppose. a-a bit scary, though."
"thats great, gangle! i always love hearing feedback!"
echo was awake at this point.
they didnt know why, maybe it was because the warning symbol was getting worse.
there was only so much they could take; especially with jax being relentless against them, they didnt have time to share their feelings like they used to before they came here.
why did everything hurt, though? they weren't sure. they could hear caine to not snap at jax, which was understandable; they wanted to say the same thing.
they let out a soft laugh, although not the one they'd normally do. they then started pacing around their room, tail flicking as electricity sparked off of it. dark thoughts swarmed their head like bees; it'd be nice to kill jax, or themselves, so that way nobody had to deal with them!
...
...
...
...they paused as a sharp pain went through their arm, then their head where their eye used to be; then black glitchy stuff with tons of multicoloured eyes started crawling up their arm, then their shoulder, then the crack where their eye was. they didn't know what it was... but they didnt want this to take it over them either... although... it did feel... somewhat nice; like being relieved from suffering they didn't know they had.
...the sane part of echo that was left tried screaming for someone, or anyone, really. but, it just ended up as a terrifying, guttled scream that turned into a sickening, wet cough of black fluid, they doubled over, their non corrupted arm holding onto a nearby dresser in their room. the abstracted part of them spreading further; up their face, their body, and their legs until they couldn't handle it anymore and screamed in pain, ripping the bandage off, throwing it, and, with a hand going towards their face; they ripped off more of the glass where their eye used to be where the crack was, a sickening crack echoing through the room, the crack being wider, and glass pieces fell to the floor, being absorbed in the abstraction goo; they laughed, a deranged laugh. they didn't care if they were harming themselves; they were done.
everyone heard the scream; then the sound of something being ripped off, then a non-healthy laugh, and ragatha; sweet, sweet ragatha was the first to check...
ragatha opened the door, walked in a bit, and she saw that echo was nearly abstracting completely.
"e-echo!? o-oh gods... echo!"
ragatha rushed over to them, trying to steady them the best she could without touching them, ragatha then called caine, as it was just getting worse.
"yes my ragedy-rainy-ragdol–.... oh."
caine paused, teleported ragatha out of the room, and started helping echo destabilize the abstraction process; something he did with the other abstracted, but it never worked.
caine hoped it did this time...
they were to young to die.