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Sheltering its eyes from the bright glow of the moon, the stitched-up ape ran through the woods of the offset island at a speed faster than what was necessary, footsteps louder than he was fully comfortable with. He grit its teeth; it should really stop running out so late all of the time, but there was something indescribable about the nighttime that drew him in time and time again. What was it? What was it that felt so real, felt so right, as if it were a strike of lightning passed down from Ultra Heaven itself?
F-Gongon was surprised that he could remember the length of time it had been since he had last entered this building. An entire century, to be exact. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of wonder growing within itself, and couldn’t articulate why. It knew that castles were incredibly resilient structures, but this one had to have been multiple centuries older than itself. He had been told that nobody was living in it, but if that were the case, he figured it should have fallen rather recently, or at least within the past 30 years.
This wasn’t even the place he was revived in. That was a different castle. Never again.
As he approached the two large doors of the castle, he couldn’t stop itself from hesitating. The handles to the doors had both snapped off who-knows-how long ago, yet they appeared as though they hadn’t fully been closed. With just one light push with its hand, they had pretty much flung open carelessly with no issue at all.
Wait, that wasn’t too loud, was it? Was it not? It froze a bit longer before sighing quietly and slowly entering.
The interior was nearly pitch black, save for what little light was able to enter through stained glass windows that had seemingly been the only things taken care of in this dusty nightmare of a building. Illuminated (at least as illuminated as it could get) by those windows was a small table knocked on its side, which appeared to be a very recent mishap. Quiet noise weaved its way into his ears, but he couldn’t tell no matter how hard he tried if this was just a figment of its imagination or if it truly wasn’t alone in here.
Who would even need to spend time in here other than him? Historian monkeys? Shouldn’t they have completely blocked the entrance off, then? Maybe the world really did forget that this castle existed. Maybe it was for the better that it might be the case. Maybe it was for the best that people only recognized it as just as much of a freak, too. Its mind began to loudly whisper its way, to tell it to go back home. But this was home, yeah? Well, key word was, but…
F-Gongon’s attention turned back to the quiet noise it had picked up on earlier. Approaching a dusty door faintly visible in this light, he found that the noise seemed a bit more tangibly audible from here. Slowly and very carefully, it reached for the rusty door handle and put as much gentleness as it could into opening it. He froze briefly from the frigid feeling jumping up its spine like a static shock, but shook it off. Miraculously, the old thing didn’t snap off when he turned it.
Surprisingly, the door didn’t make so much of a sound despite its age as F-Gongon slowly descended the staircase that the door had covered. He couldn’t see what was beside itself very easily, but it seemed as though some of the stone walls had been patched up with wood boarding. Unlike the stained glass windows and the table mishap, it appeared to have happened much longer ago, with the smell and what little he could see of it being rather weathered, perhaps for decades.
He froze once more, the sounds of multiple pieces of wood clacking carefully upon the stone cold floor at the bottom of the stairs. His brain quickly began to race with an uncertainty that it hadn’t felt since the few months after its own revival. It quickly began to realize that it wasn’t the only person present in the castle as a gentle yet eerie voice seemed to be whispering a song.
“Picture me… in painted poses… Incomplete… and out of focus…”
Did he hear that right? Did her voice have an echo to it? F-Gongon forced his solid, frigid body forward with a great effort despite the irrational fear the other’s sound struck in it. Looking down into the actual bottom floor, he could make out multiple of what looked to be dusty wooden mice on wheels, meticulously hand-crafted with care. They appeared to be rolling around the floor here, there, and everywhere at the sound of the ethereal singing.
The singing figure herself had all of her attention placed on these mice as she sat criss-cross on the floor. She had short, dark purple fur and wore a fancy, dark blue coat with black, puffy cuffs and a black beret. What stood out the most to F-Gongon, however, was the severe damage to her face. Cracks were everywhere, even slightly on one of her ears, and one entire eye had been completely annihilated in place of a massive void of a hole.
It would be rude to disturb her as she enjoyed her time singing and playing with the mice, and merely being around her filled it with a gaping dread never before experienced, even in the hands of its necromancers. Without another peep, F-Gongon slowly, uncomfortably attempted to trudge itself back up the stairs and out of the castle as if it were never there in the first place.
“Hm? Do we have a… visitor?”
F-Gongon froze once more. The other monkey slowly stood up from her position, properly raising her head to him, retaining that gentle smile, although it appeared ever so slightly more faint than before. Her existing eye remained entirely empty, glowing an unsettling white as she looked his way.
“Oh… was I- I wasn’t interrupting something, was I?” It slowly breathed and quickly spoke.
“No, I wouldn’t say so…”
She inched closer, prompting him to try to back away, but he tripped on the stairs behind it and fell onto them. As she watched it do this, her smile seemed to return to how it was before.
“You look a tad… familiar…”
“Me? Familiar? You’re… You must be mistaken,” it turned its head away. “There’s a huge jerk in town who looks JUST like me… I’d- I’d kill him if-”
“Did W-Meemee send you?”
The tone of her voice wasn’t cutting per-se, and just like the shifts in her smile, it was hardly even noticeable to most monkeys, but the disquieting dread had spiked even more at her words. The question alone had also raised many questions of its own.
“You know her? I-I mean-”
“Yes! Of course I know her!” The stranger’s voice quickly burst into joy at the chance to talk about that beautiful witch, only to calm down just as fast while remaining that joy. “Good friends, her and I… It’s not every day you see a doll this tall, right?”
F-Gongon’s thoughts began to twist and shift with uncertainty. There wasn’t a right or wrong answer, was there?
“Um… I don’t count under that, do I?”
Her one good eye squinted a bit, causing him to try and crawl back up the stairs slightly, but there was only so much it could do. It didn’t take long for her to open her mouth, speaking as though she had her words laid out the moment she initially laid her eyes on him.
"Are you saying you’re stuffed with cotton? I used to have all sorts of kinds back at home. The type of materials you use can really shape a plush in more than just its outside. My favorites to make were cool things, dark things, rough exteriors, add-on clothing, eyes a little too tacky for most monkeys' liking, buttons, sometimes piercings. My stitches aren't as good as they used to be. I'm learning how to work a sewing machine, but... I think I'll pursue fashion instead..."
Not a single breath in her words as she rambled. F-Gongon gulped and shuddered as he listened to every single word that came out of her mouth. She had been both speaking and singing incredibly slowly the entire time up until now. Did her interests mean that much to her? Well, W-Meemee would ramble about her academy life and all of the ins and outs of magic, and F-Gongon always listened with intrigue and an excitement he’d never remotely felt towards anyone before. But with Her… It’s not that he didn’t care, it was just… very oddly uncomfortable to hear out of this monkey’s mouth.
So was it fully paying attention or not? As she called it, it felt its heart jump.
“Tell me… What do you like out of a plushie?”
F-Gongon tensed up, still unsure if there was a correct answer or not. “I don’t know… meat…?”
"Hm... There's all kinds of meat out there. Cows, pigs, chicken, cats, lizards, deer, mice, platypi, frogs, cicadas... You and…”
She narrowed her gaze briefly.
“Huh... I… may have forgotten what we were talking about..."
Part of it believed that this was a lie for no real reason, but couldn’t quite explain it. “Are you… usually a forgetful person?”
"I'd like to inquire the same for you."
The tone in her voice hadn't changed much, but those words certainly jammed something into him, that's for sure. Regardless, he didn’t say a word, simply standing back up, still tense.
"Never mind..." She solemnly shook her head. "You don't have to say a word..."
With that, she scooped up the wooden mice in her arms, some of the dust getting onto her fancy clothing but it seemed to be of no issue for her. She simply squeezed right past F-Gongon, gaze unreadable once more but probably at least a little satisfied. Though, F-Gongon was sure that he wouldn’t be sure even with months more of seeing her. That is, if he’d ever be able to wrap his head around this monkey at all.
“Oh, also… Next she gets out of those classes…” The monkey paused to leave one last remark. “Tell her… that you enjoyed Kenrai’s company, ‘kay…?”
F-Gongon opened his mouth to respond once more, but locked its tongue behind its gross, yellow teeth. Something was telling him that she would have just ignored whatever he had to say on her way out, anyways. She had continued to walk with no issue, resuming the song she had been singing to her mice friends prior to F-Gongon’s little interruption.
He realized there was no point in staying as he had completely forgotten his reason for wanting to come here in the first place. To his dismay, however, as F-Gongon walked up the stairs of the gross little room and out of that old castle, he came to discover that the purple furred monkey had already disappeared.