Chapter Text

Act 1: The Filler Expositions in which We try not to Distort under the Pressure and try to live as Totally Normal Inphernals while the Host Livestreams everything

Chapter 1: Discord Chats and Meeting Rants (Dear gog we got some paperwork to do)

"But I can feel a kick down in my soul
(Ohh-oh-oh-woah-oh)
And it's pulling me back to Earth to let me know
(Ohh-oh-oh-woah-oh)
I am not a slave, can't be contained
So pick me from the dark and pull me from the grave."

- still feel. (half•alive)

[Discord Chat]

#General 1

---

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Yo
Damn everyones dead 0_0
Ironic considering what happened to us

Luminesce
What.
What happened. Near death incident? Actual death incident? You became the second person here to find a corpse?
You can't just send that and nit do anything.
Nit*
Not*

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Ahh, sorry lmao
I was just occupied trying to move around some furniture here
Also wtf do you mean by corpse 👁️👄👁️

Luminesce
Yeah once one of the cats was missing for a couple days so I looked around and Grandma's room was a little smelly and it turned out he crawled under her bed to die and also I figured out I am slightly squeamish about corpses in that I don't really want to touch them because they might explode into bugs.
Also helped burry Chim-Chim who asphyxiated in his sleep on his own nasal congestion. Anyways what happened.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
...what 0_0
(Ill just ignore that -_-)

Luminesce
Did you break a leg and get sent to the hospital and are now in crippling debt?

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Uhh...even worse
How do I even explain this one?

---

The person behind the screen moved out of his chair, sighing. His clawed hands buried itself into his face, before he leaned over to his knees and sighing. He grabbed onto his kneecaps as gently as possible, still staring at the floor for a while. 

"Anything wrong?" Someone called out from behind, making the individual raise their head and stare at the familiar person.

He shook his head. "No, Dave," he answered, "just trying to connect to people." He immediately returned to his computer, planning to type some more. "Just...go downstairs, k?"

'Dave' simply smirked. "Sure."

---

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Yeaaaa uhh
We got slimed by the sun itself. Death via heatstroke

Luminesce
You serious?
Wait how you talkin right now

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
*sighs* Ehrm...Eldritch people.

Luminesce
Is this an Ollie moment.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Might as well be ToT
They want me to stream for some reason????

Luminesce
Wait what setting.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
I mean, what do you expect
The funni hell or hell-like location bullshit w the PH in its name

Luminesce
Sonic.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
No o_o

Luminesce
sPlatoon tHree?

---

"Pfft."

---

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
ToT
PHIGHTIN
The funni guys AND THE GAYS

Luminesce
Ohhhh.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
The one w the war criminals and weird ass wars

Luminesce
Horny men game

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
WHAT
I...I guess??? ToT

Luminesce
And how come we ain't there. :<

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Idk dont jinx it
Our sponsors might slime you

Luminesce
Did you not consider the merits of the power of friendship?

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Again *dont you dare jinx it* ToT
Tbh all of yall are gonna be squished bc all we got is this high-rising apartment that reaches from 3rd Layer to 1st Layer
I dont even know how tf was that constructed or when did it existed
For all we know my sponsor plopped it there and gave the neighbors brain damage to believe it's always there or some shit
Im not gonna ask anymore
ToT

---

Dusk glared at where Dave used to be, the open door of his room, and the faint smell of cooking whiffed into his place.

---

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
I talked to Dave a while ago and hes now gone ig
Probably gonna be cooking shit and I worry hell burn the kitchen down

Dave Faylow (He/Him) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
I can assure you, I have more precision than you have.
*cooking.png*

---

'Gogdammit, stop using your phone in the kitchen,' Dusk complained internally.

'How about 'screw you'?' Dave retorted back to him through a mental link.

'Fuck you mannnnnnn.'

'Personally, a skill issue.'

'DUDE.'

---

Luminesce
Hell can't burn a kitchen it's nothing but dry ice.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
ToT
I mean "he'll" I just dont use apostrophes that much 0_0
But yea also our sponsors decided to be dicks by giving some of us dietary restrictions

Luminesce
Wait should I be acting like this is concerning and panicking about the merits of existence and the chance that we were never real in the first place?

Dave Faylow (He/Him) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
No.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
No???

Midnight Distron/[midnight_crafter] (She/Fae/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Pls no :3

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Sigh....

Luminesce
Hnmm.
Nah I'm perfect I can't be flawed let's yap about your new anatomy.
What're your horns made of, do you have claws, is their any form of bodily hair/fuzz, do you have a nose, do you have tiny spiracles like freckles, are your feet structured differently, legs, hands, actually general anatomy, do you have tails, have you seen these features in the general populous, what're your eyes like, do you have more muscles in your neck to hold up your horns, what's having a Gear like and does it feel complete.
Are your tongues and teeth structured differently and is there a difference between individuals?

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Daves gone

Luminesce
Oh noes.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS||[APP]
No its fine hes the actual cook even if I dont trust him on that so he had to be busy 0_0

Luminesce
Anyways.
The Questions.
I need them answered.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Hold on. Okay so...
Uhh................
...
All of us have horns. Obviously.
Kinda keratin but also not? Somehow fits those fanarts where it kinda looks funky
We got claws, and its probably like humans as well. Some of us have animalistic features tho like Harley with dog ears or some more complicated stuff. Maybe its a mutation or a gear quirk, even if Harleys gear isnt canine-based 
We dont feel different much for the rest of our bodies, maybe besides thicker and tougher skin, or maybe the anatomy. For once in my life, I...finally feel content with my body in a way. Maybe not if someone tries to plant doubt about my...our existence...
And yes, all of us are BALD. Eyes glow in the dark (freaky), and again no bits or holes for shit to get out of
Its fucking weird to have a gear tbh. I feel like I just got a piece of MYSELF out of it?! Kris Deltarune-ass statement
Everyone had their own reactions, including our first infrastructure destruction. What the fuck Midnight
Anyways...thats all? Ig???

Luminesce
Good to know
Also if you can get me a Biograft or two. One for my possible arrival to which I'll either tear it apart to make into accessories or will have as a body, and one for a friend for you.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
We wont be able to promise that we could get a Biograft, but we could, like, steal one or two...We might had to, idk, hack and jailbreak shit tho
Also pls do not the death

Luminesce
Not in purpose.
If I trip on a cat like in the barely written prologue for a Phightsekai I have it would not have been on purpose.
Also do ya have like. Crystal horns? Maybe closer to ivory? Could make sense. Tougher ivory with a crystalline sheen.

---

Dusk frowned, tapping onto his horns absentmindedly and observing it.

---

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
I think its crystally by how Ive said it before
Idk
And my horns are Medkit-like for some reason idk my sponsors are Medkit-ing me
Only need to tear out my eye via an incident w a magenta bitch
But IM the magenta bitch here...
Anyways ehem
No true idea on my horns

Luminesce
Tap one lemme search up what ivory sounds like.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
That made me think of something else...
I dont think Chance has real horns
...I swear I saw him take his off 0_0
Either prosthetics or funky Robloxian bullshit

---

Dusk didnt think and believed some of his headmates aren't excempt from having horns, like his mentions of Chance, let alone Inphernal anatomy. He had no idea if he was hallucinating that time he was walking into the other rooms where everyone is, and walked into where Chance and Youtube are stationed in (gay gay homosexual gay). He hoped the gambler actually has horns and he was only imagining it as he was suspiciously shooed out of that room...

---

Luminesce
Am back
Is it like. A clink? Like ceramic?

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Shrug

Luminesce
Tap it tap it tap it tap it.
Tap your horns with da claw

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Hold on

---

Dusk sighed and reached up to his horns, before he decided to tap into it harder than just touching it.

What came out was...definitely a sound. It felt muffled, but unfortunately for the reader, Dusk sucks horribly at trying to describe sounds at himself, let alone keep it approximate or exact in the way that fits within his vocab. Yet, the sound from his horns reminded him of something hollow, yet it feels like something that he won't hesitate to listen at within an ASMR.

---

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Uhhhh it feels like theres air inside but not really

Luminesce
What's it sound likeeeee.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Kinda weird mix of materials
Fuck if I know??
Porcelain, resin, and glass ig?????

Luminesce
Ah, so it's a clinking sound.
Keratin would have a more woody sound, so your horns are real sturdy.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Yea...

Luminesce
Could have an internal lattice around a hollow core, which may simply be a less heavy material instead. Maybe like bone marrow?

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Maybe...thanks btw
Ive chipped it tho a while ago so ToT
Speaking of bone marrow and shit...fuck, do you know some of us got wings?????

Luminesce
Ha.
Wings.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
We have to hide the kids all of them got wings ToT
And POLAND as well because hes a country that doesnt deadass exist here

Luminesce
Damn RIP to you
Anyways at least get some Biograft corpses if you can I at least want a face if I end up there and am still made of meat when I arrive.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Sure sure add that to the list of "Shit we gotta steal from Blackrock bc Buck Flackrock"

Luminesce
Niceee.

---

"Dusk!"

The now-Inphernal individual shivered by instinct to the sound of someone shouting from a distance, but he tried to calm himself by digging his claws into his arms (dont make it bleed dont make it bleed dont dont dont). He perked up as someone entered the door, who was wearing a purplish vest, a generic outfit, and had a purple necklace hanging off of his neck besides his glasses. He got some blunt horns over light grey skin, but it still feels intimidating. The other Inphernal swore they were spacing out of reality for a second.

"What's up, Elise?" Dusk murmured. They can still use each other's real names here, thank goodness.

"We will have our first full-group meeting right now," the aforementioned former human declared coldly. "Finish your conversations and head downstairs at the lobby."

Dusk merely nodded as Elise exited his room. "You...know we can still talk mentally, right?" He murmured.

"Just trying to get used to communicating this way," Elise admitted, with a small hint of being impressed in his voice. "Don't want these demons to wonder why we go silent all of a sudden."

"...fair enough."

---

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Yo
I gotta go for now
Just gonna discuss about our own new livelihoods here aka conduct a meeting

Luminesce
If you see Subshit stab him.

Dusk/David Distron (He/They/It) ||PLACEHOLDERS|| [APP]
Ha.
Will do.

---

[??? Floor]

Let's get to the point of all of these: Dusk, and everyone here, is part of a system. A slowly growing group of idiots who may or may not be straight up supposedly fictitious characters. This entire system had to go through Philippine heat, the local culture, and human societal norms while piloting a body none of them claims as their own. Some of them are human, some of them aren't, and some of them are clearly not supposed to be in a human-shaped container but does that for the love of the game or some fucked up coping mechanism—this gets worse for some of them who are clearly pretending to enjoy the joyride to this metaphorical hell.

But, what matters the most is how much they know too much of the human world.

So...why the hell are they all in the Inpherno, of all places?

You see, the entire collective got basically yoinked from human reality in its entirety by some motherfucker named {INDUCER}, and another one named [ALTRUIST] who chided the other entity for dragging them out of life. Yeah, there was the thing with him dying of heat stroke—womp womp wimp womp—but, at the same time, {INDUCER} just...accelerated the process of death. If they didn't intervened, the system would still be alive right now, albeit having their...secrets be discovered. In short, local eldritch bitch fucked with the system's death process and sent them flying.

Like what they do for most versions of Dusk close to death, anyways.

But, not that he had to know about that at all.

Too keep it concise, {INDUCER} wants entertainment from them, which is typical of eldritch entities. What is odd is that they want entertainment from ALL of them, although one can do all the entertainment while others do not. What counts as such, though, was them having to conduct...basic socialization. Scamming the hell out of people, throwing hands with individuals from small fry to literal gods, and trying to survive in a world like and unlike Earth...it's still basic socialization at the end of the day.

So, {INDUCER} gave the system an entire hotel structure, which spanned from the third layer of Crossroads all the way to the uppermost layer. It has all relevant forms of itineraries, resources lasting weeks, and enough Bux to fit both the hotel and its inhabitants. Most of all, they (the system) are told to RUN IT.

No strings attached, no twists and turns—just generate profit from it like they're running an IRL hotel simulator. And maybe child labor, if the kids got involved. Gog forbid the kids get involved.

Bored already? Yea, it do be like that.

We just want to summarize everything and get to the meat of things: ...the first full-system meeting.

Dusk grimaced at the thought of that, facepalming to themselves as they exited their room with headphones on their neck. He thought back on his rather awkward conversation with Dave and then Elise, still adjusting to being able to talk to them like they were completely separate people. Yeah, they and their system's communications are going well with each other, and there are people stepping up to stop in-system squabbles...but it's still...awkward! He spend way more time either beefing, ignoring, or awkwardly staring at some of them, and there's a reason why he self-labels most of his dynamics with them as "acquaintances"!

But, no, this had to happen. Somehow, {INDUCER} thought it's funny to not only put all of them in a situation where they all had to cooperate, but also separated their bodies, or something that Dusk doesn't want to uncover.

In short, they've been packed as fuck.

No, not really; they were exaggerating about that part, but it's better to describe it that way. Of all days where the random, plurality-based hypothetical of all your headmates getting individual bodies coming true and all the caveats and shenanigans that comes with it...it had to be them being Inphernals, bald, woke (okay that's already a given - almost none of you are straight and have a conventional description of 'love'), and totally not having to get a job.

Hah....empl*yment.

'Whatcha talking about there?'

Dusk shook his head. "Dave, stop sending images of twinks into my mind."

He ignored the trolling of his boyfriend and ended up in front of the nearest elevator to his room, not really bothering to go down the stairs. They pressed onto the down arrow button, and the elevator arrived swiftly. They sighed as they entered it, hands in their own pockets and headphones placed on their head...with great difficulty as their horns are oriented upwards. But, they managed as they fought off thoughts of Midnight nagging him again.

They ended up taking out their right hand and pressed the button on the elevator saying "L2GF".

Or: [Layer 2 Ground Floor].

The elevator started going down, with Dusk having time to observe the surroundings as a random Flavor Foley song played in their headphones. It was pretty much pristine and golden, with carvings of swirls all around. At the same time, there are railings, a singular spot marked for disabled people (hey, accommodation!), and a flat screen TV embedded behind him. Said screen was currently off, but he was sure it would be used in the future for...any sort of content.

He hopes one of them isn't something raunchy.

The elevator let out a loud "ding!", followed by the modern doors opening up. Dusk removed their headphones and took a deep breath at the lobby area. He ended up making a small smirk at a familiar Inphernal with yellow horns that thrusts upwards before spiraling inwards with a diamond shape, and another, shorter one with darker skin, green horns shaped like cylinders, and brownish dog ears.

"Yo, Dave, Harley," they greeted. "Waiting for me?"

Dave, the one with the yellow horns, only smirked, closing the brochure he was reading. He placed his pair of light yellow shades back at his face. "Thank goodness you arrived. I thought Filipino Time would apply to this world as well."

Dusk only scoffed. "As if. We got all the time in the world to talk all about these...unless it's on a time crunch."

"Try not to jinx that part, then." Dave finger-gunned at him.

Dusk rolled his eyes. "Also, please stop sending me cursed images into our brain. {INDUCER} might fuck with you if you kept on doing that."

"That's the point!" Dave exclaimed, still smiling. "I just wanna fuck with you personally."

Dusk proceeded to try punching him in the gut, only to slip forward. They yelped as they fell onto the slippery floor, arms still outstretched. "...owww...."

"Skill issue, man."

"SKILL ISSUE?!" Dusk got up, groaning at Dave's sass and proceeding to punch at his shoulder, albeit a bit lighter than how he usually does it. "Since when YOU got permission to say that?!"

Dave only shrugged. "Secret."

"Heeeeeyyyyyyy....." The two men glanced over to Harley, whose tail stopped wagging at their sight. The latter brightened up as he was finally noticed. "Since we are all here already, let's start our meeting, please?" He begged with huge, green eyes.

Dusk nodded, glancing at his other boyfriend nervously. "Uhh....sure."

"YIPPEE!" Harley squealed. "I already prepared the snacks, and Elise is waiting at the lobby chair area."

Dusk glanced behind Dave and onto a certain individual with dark purple, but stubby, horns resembling crab claws and a dark purple vest calmly talking to another person with his face shielded by shade for anomalous reasons, who had probably ditched his vest-and-overcoat combo for a simple shirt and pants. He shuddered, remembering that the last time he talked to Elise before their death was the latter chiding the former for eating too much.

"I...see..." Dusk inhaled. "When do we start?"

The meeting had everyone circle some tables put together, and they are either sitting on a chair, a beanbag, or straight up standing. That is all that should be said of the matter, except for the fact some had places to be, and that's a good thing because almost everyone got packed up into the roundtables in its entirety.

...anyways.

The first discussion, started by Dante—said individual who discarded his normal outfit and was checking his curved horns resembling a triangle—involved the building itself...the one everybody is living in at this moment, and soon to be filled with way more, unfamiliar Inphernals. Dawn and DS were the ones sent to check on every possible crevice of the whole building, checking for various areas such as bathrooms, bedrooms, and other places. Ace and Chance were the ones paired to analyze the details about both the building's documents and the collective's own.

Turns out, while there are four types of rooms of varying sizes, qualities, and features, but all of them have default access to the cafe attached to the building, the lounge at the bottom, and an arena on the 3rd Layer for Unofficial Phighting matches—if they all want to cater to that feature, that is. Otherwise, they would only use that space for storage. At the same time, the rooms that the rest of the headmates had occupied before they left it are all within the same floor at the 2nd Layer, [Layer 2 Floors 15-16], which can also serve as a dormitory where any hypothetical worker for the apartment-hotel can live in.

These rooms are both extremely detailed for their own interests, but there is a disturbing and odd detail Dante mentioned.

"Our physical forms, with the exception of Dusk's, do not exist in physical space normally."

Dusk almost spitted out the Milo they had been drinking. All beverages Harley had stirred for those who want a drink are somehow Earth-branded, and nobody chose not to...question that. "The fuck do you mean by that?" They asked, concerned about the implications.

Elise shook his head, clarifying the statement. "It was not as bad as you think it meant, Dusk. Our own rooms are actually connected back into our own headspace, and if someone tries to enter it which is not within our collective, they will only find bare, empty rooms." He spoke of it like he was reciting off of a script. "If we close the door while being inside our rooms, we enter back into our collective mind, and if any of us get mentally intercepted, both our rooms and everyone else get affected."

"So, in short, Dusk's headspace was expanded into reality?" Dave asked, before drinking a cappuccino. Dusk didn't take him for a coffee drinker, but then again, almost everyone but…you…are able to experiment with interests and such. Sorry. "Huh."

Dusk then realized something. Off topic, but when you talked to me a while ago through a mental link, you sounded like you weren't in my mind, though," he pointed out. "What was with that?"

"Ah, my boon involves the mind." Dave smirked. "A Mindbound, so to say, and as a result I can do just that."

They deadpanned at him. "Damn straight."

"What did you even get from {INDUCER}?"

Dusk sighed. "Well...the computer set-up isn't my idea, or being able to talk to our old friends. And for some fucked-up reason, I can't choose shapeshifting—" he glared at Ace, who was parallel to his seat, and at the seat where Allie was sitting on. The magician in question shrugged his shoulders. "—so I have to opt for another thing."

Dave facepalmed. "Please do not tell me it was something stupi—"

"I made them mitigate my procrastination, or straight up make it so that I can resist it properly."

Dave blinked. "Ah. That was unexpected."

"Can we all go back into our meeting?" Elise called out, clicking his tongue. "We still have several things to discuss."

"Right, right." Dave set down his drink.

"No need for the switch-up, Elise!" Dante exclaimed. "But, besides all of that, we have some sort of limit. We can only be out for approximately 24 up to 72 hours before we start to 'destabilize' until we get forced back into headspace, or if we managed to find someone else from our collective and get stabilized that way. Dear gog, it's a hivemind mess." He cleared his throat. "At...best, Dusk gets a headache. At worst, we might get ourselves killed by making his head explode."

Harley gasped, covering a certain bird-like kid's ears beside him with his hands. "That's not true, right?!"

"It was only a hypothesis, but it's a possibility," Elise commented. "To be honest, this part was written within the documents {INDUCER} sent us with, and not our own experiments. Combine that with what...#### gave out through vague context clues, we cannot tell what else would entail with the 'destabilizing' part. Hence, a hypothesis. All I can assume is that the metaphorical timer can only reset once we retreat into our rooms."

Dusk nodded, before his mind fixated on a singular detail and actively ignoring another. "Wait, 'our own experiments'?" He inquired, pointing out something that Elise slipped by words. "What would that even mean?"

Elise hitched a breath, biting onto his lower lip. What the fuck? "Well..."

"Hey fuckass!" Cue Leviathan entering the lounge, grabbing onto the hood of some Inphernal. Dusk almost forgot that xe even existed, but...he thought that xe didn't mind that anyways.

However, Dusk snapped out of his own thoughts as he immediately recognized those horns, those goggles, and that outfit of the Inphernal Levi had been holding onto for some time. The Inphernal appeared to be confused with the fact that there is a meeting in session. How strange. "He's in the clear," Levi declared nonchalantly. "Do we give him a room now or not?"

"Sure, sure, let's go with that." Dante took a deep breath, still eyeing some papers on the table. "Let him adjust to us, then we can give him something to work with."

Dusk stared at Elise, before restraining themselves from walking up to him and GRABBING onto his shirt in shock, awe, and the emotion associated with the mere fact he had been torturing an OC only to see them being a real person in another universe.

"Why the fuck is PICKAXE here?!" The system’ host exclaimed. "Did a fictive of him just spawned and I forgot to check?!"

"Nah, this guy's straight up a local." Levi gently placed Pickaxe into the floor, and everyone knew xe only did that because both xir partner (a random ass shapeshifter named Allie) was trailing behind xir, and Elise watched xir moves. "No idea who found him and dragged his ass here from Blackrock," Levi continued, "and I don't wanna know the 'how-the-fucks' and the 'why-the-fucks' of everythin'. Chance placed him in a room, I 'interrogated' him, and the rest is history."

"I also showed Pickaxe the Rage Room!" Allie giggled. "We need to clean up on that part."

Dusk blinked. "...the what…” Harley piped up.

"All of you can check it out later," Elise deflected. He groaned, and removed Dusk’s claws from his collar. He glanced at Pickaxe standing nervously, before he said, "You can return him now. He doesn't have to see us discuss."

Levi grunted, motioning at Pickaxe with xir head. "They'll only be discussing some things you don't need to know," xe said in a language Dusk didn't recognize, yet was able to understand. "Boring business stuff."

"A-are those...wings?" Pickaxe motioned to the kids sitting beside Harley, who all got wings, at DS, and at a snoring Poland.

"No, it's blankets." Levi groaned. "Of course it's wings!"

"Levi, just..." Dante facepalmed, glaring at xir with a disapproving look. "Put him back into the room."

"Tsk. Fine." Levi dragged off Pickaxe, with Allie trailing behind him. Pickaxe was rambling about 'language' or something, "Where was I? Right..."

He grabbed onto some documents with his claws. "Despite the mind thing, all of us still have faked documents of our existence. We have respective regions we originated from, and our own, faked reasons on why we left those regions. It ranges from ‘being kicked out’, to ‘travelling’, to…something redacted by the files.”

Dusk frowned. “That sounds concerning. So…some of us might have been, supposedly, fucked over by, say, Splintered Skies?”

“Somewhat,” Dante agreed. “But most of you were said to leave on your own accord, or thought to be dead. In the end, though…” He sighed. “That’s only to draw away from the fact we don’t belong here. Well, except for you for some reason."

He pointed his claw at Dusk, and the younger Inphernal stared at himself and pointed at his chest. "Me???"

"Yes, or at least your body is," Dave spoke up.

"You knew the entire time?!"

"Could not find the appropriate time to talk about it." He grimaced, lowering his shades. "Unfortunately...the files said you were a Lost Temple defector, and a former Church Of The True Eye member."

"Excuse me?!" Dusk loudly exclaimed.

"Your supposed 'spawn' identity was someone named Orbital Strike Violin," Dante recited. "Of course, your Gear was painted teal to fit the Church's thing. Suddenly, you went permanently MIA, declared dead, and then 'Fountain Pen Spear Staff' appeared in the Inpherno, declaring themselves a factionless and regionless individual. No idea what happened next, since these anecdotes are gathered, not faked, by {INDUCER}."

Dusk grimaced. “Isn’t that gear series the one I made OCs for as well?”

“You only made Orbital Strike Flute, and I’m sure he’s either straight up dead, or, impossibly, in another world,” the other person admitted. “Don’t fret about that, though. We have more important matters at hand.”

Dusk chuckled nervously. “...right…right………” He glanced at the aforementioned anecdotes, which Pedrun had gone up from the receptionist’s desk to the table, and placed it there.

A photograph of a feminine-looking newspawn with a pair of F clef-shaped horns, and no yellow star in between. Texts and witness reports of head elders of the cult talking about how said individual was starting to rebel by trying to express themselves, including not using their own violin and claiming that a pen is their real gear. A personal report from the Orbital Strike family claiming that she tends to self-destruct and was unusually distant from them, as if she was never spawned by their family. The notes of some defunct museum at Blackrock about a cursed gear without an owner, where it was stolen and was never found. An incident report at the Banlands Police about a member of the Church touching some sort of object and suddenly changing *forms*, becoming feral, running away, and presumably found dead due to the bloodstains on the only scraps of clothing left.

And, most of all, an ID of his new face with the name of his current gear, his allegiance, and his pronouns on top of it all.

With the same gear that had, supposedly, cursed his past self.

…and a note from {INDUCER} themselves saying “beware of the eyes that lie”, on teal.

"..."

"..."

"Fuck, am I supposed to confront the Church?!" Dusk grimaced.

"My love, you don’t have to fret that way,” Dave interrupted. “Not to say your current status is something special, but I believe it was special and given to you for a reason. Perhaps you could kill a god using it.”

"HOW CAN A PEN KILL A SWORD?! Or of the Church?! What am I gonna do, write Mpreg of Firebrand and The Overseer making out?!"

"Considering what he did to Lost Temple, no. Try Illumina instead."

"You're not helping, Dave!"

After that...disastrous conversation, Pedrun replaced Dante and Elise for handling the rest of the meeting and the discussions. Harley left with Rain and Dew, and then replaced by Chance and Youtube having their own conversation besides the main one. Even worse, they aren’t paying attention at all, but neither is half of the group, considering that it’s the more technical parts that was the topic for today and Pedrun is a genuine drag with his monotone and serious voice.

At least, until they were called by Pedrun.

"You are not being efficient, Mx. Fortun." Pedrun chooses not to control his voice, so it almost felt like a loud boom. "What have you done today?"

Chance gulped, adjusting his tie and his rabbit ears perking up a bit. He only kept the leporid-like parts, aka rabbit, and not the shark aspects besides his teeth. "We found where the Bux that's supposed to be allotted for us were stored into. It's way too much Bux to last an individual for a lifetime!" He laughed. "I swear it was 1 Million or somethin' higher, perhaps even 10!"

He immediately glared at everyone. "I swear I ain't gonna use it for gamblin'."

Dusk shrugged. "Fair enough." 

Suddenly, everyone heard the sounds of glass smashing at the distance. Dusk immediately stood up, instinctively summoning his gear without realizing it on his hands. Pedrun readied a guard stance, while the rest stirred in their seats. "What was that?!" Dusk questioned.

Dave summoned his own gear, a yellow cane, before removing its cover and revealing a shiny blade underneath it. "I can handle it. All of you can proceed." He only smiled, showing no other emotion.

"Are you sure?" Dusk asked in concern, putting his arm on his boyfriend's. "You never fought before!"

"Yes," Dave only said. "I just want to talk to these...gentlemen that had entered our home without our permission."

Dusk was about to say more, about how this might bring him into danger, or even kill him outright. Yet, he saw a flash of some sort of...bloodlust within Dave's eyes, and he shuddered. He removed his gentle grip, before shaking his head. "Don't kill them entirely, alright?" He declared. 

"I won't." Dave saluted, before walking towards the direction of the intrusion. Everyone was still tensed up at the break-in, mostly due to the intruders possibly getting into places that they shouldn't be in, or whatever Dave himself would do to them. Pedrun cleared his throat, narrowing his eyes (well, one eye and one eye socket).

"Shall we continue, then?" He asked. 

Dusk inhaled. "Man, when will this end????????????????"