Chapter Text
You can almost remember her, there was a woman, in front of you. The window was open, and the lace curtains flowed gently out towards her, as if worshipping her. You understood why. You couldn't remember her face, but you remember watching. The golden light of the sunset rested on her blank face.
Your hand reached out but everything turned black, and in her place a small lantern, decorated with kiss marks and several words you couldn't decipher.
You want to say her name, but you couldn't remember what it was...
Could you even remember yours?
Wait, where were you-?
Hey
hey
"Hey! Geez are you broken? We're in the middle of a super awesome adventure. Just for you newcomer." Jax, the purple rabbit says, snapping in front of you.
You blink several times. "Yeah, I was...was off somewhere."
"Well come back, we've got some books to wrangle- Back off!" Jax says kicking a book worm 3 feet in the distance.
"The lantern..." You mumble, looking around and looking through the books to find the title Caine wanted you all to find.
Ragatha walks over, ducking from a flying worm, shuddering. "I don't like this adventure there's...too many worms."
"Look Rags, there's a centipede too."
She straightens and jumps about 1 foot high in the air looking around. "Where?"
"Oh no, just another worm." He closes on eye and gives a condescending smile.
"J-jax!" She says with a frown, before her eyes fall on you.
You still were barely reading the books titles, the dancing flame still stuck in your head. You wished you could know what it meant.
"Hey, look! You found the Great Gatsby. Good job." Her hand pats your back, and she holds the title up and the portal opens. The worms retreat. Her smile drops. "(Name), we can go now."
You look up at her. "Oh, yeah, right. Sorry." You say trying to put on a smile as best you could, and then started to walk off with her.
"I know it's really overwhelming, with the adventures, and the inescapable part. But, give it time, and I think you'll really like it here." Ragatha says. "I know it's rough, I still have times where I go-" She stops for a moment and reaches her hands out and pretends to shake a jail cell. "-GET ME OUT OF HERE!" As she sees her 'relatability' falls flat she coughs and smooths her yarn hair back. "But you know, it's...it's not bad company."
You nod. "It's a lot for my first day, I don't know what to think."
"Hey if you need to talk to anybody, I'm right here! Always ready to listen." She says with a smile.
"Yeah, no one wants to talk to you Ragatha." Jax says brushing her shoulder as he walks into the portal.
She pouts.
Gangle puts a ribbon on her shoulder and gives a sympathetic smile and Ragatha's shoulders slump.
"Does he always do that?" You ask.
"Yeah, he's a bully." Gangle says.
You nod slowly, as you all go through the portal.
So there's an over achiever AI, a people pleaser doll, a clown that got sideline on this adventure, a deflecting of his real emotions bunny, a ribbon that is really sad and complex, and a...zooble. You hadn't really talked to them much to figure out what they are. Just that they didn't want to go on the adventures.
"So (name) would you like to see the whole grounds, or join me and Gangle for some art time?" Ragatha asks.
"I think I'll just go to my room."
Ragatha nods, and takes a step as you take a step.
"Alone." You say.
"Oh- pft right. I- Gangle's room was that way, I wasn't going with you or anything." She laughs nervously.
You nod.
"But maybe we can all show each other our rooms, and get to know each other a bit better. Since we're all stuck."
She seems to really like saying how stuck everyone is...
You give a wave, and start walking back into the hall where the rooms were.
You walk into your room, and it didn't get any less creepier than the first time. Which...was a few...hours ago maybe?
There was a fog, 17 graves, and only one grave that was open, with some blankets, and a tombstone that was empty. One tombstone next to the open one that had indecipherable writing on it. The walls were painted night, and a painted blacked out silhouette of a church.
They had said Caine draws from memory files to personalize every avatar and room.
But what made your memory stick out like this?
Why was it a graveyard?
As you close your door, little candles appear over the graves.
"...Goodnight, everyone?" You ask tentatively as the candles flicker. You walk over into the grave, and settle down there. No one 'sleeps' really. Is what you've heard. But you would like some rest after the weirdness that just happened.
You close your eyes, seeing a black screen, with a little 'saved!' in the corner.
Rest...
Rest...
And there it was.
The lantern again.
And you found yourself smiling, though you didn't know the significance of it.