Chapter Text
1.1
As soon as she was first forced into the bunker with the others, something clicked in Loveshot's mind.
She can't be back here again, she really can't. Because… if she's back here again, then that means…
"WAIT!"
Loveshot ran into the bunker's theater, where several other civilians happened to be congregated, with a panicked expression on her face.
"If we use dat portal, we'll die! We'll surely die there!"
Immediately, someone responded, unfortunately, that someone was Taunt, the bunker's resident asshole, At least, that's how she remembered him being the last time around… if that last time really did happen. Loveshot was almost certain it had.
"Die of what? Die of Death?" Taunt slapped his knees, laughing at his own joke as if it was the funniest thing he had ever heard.
Loveshot briefly snapped out of her panicked state to roll her eyes. Yep… he was acting exactly how she remembered him acting… but how could that be? Technically, they had only just met!
"Look, ma'am, I know President Sulfur is an incompetent nimcompoop and that we all hate him, but if he really wanted to kill us, you'd think he'd at least try to come up with some bogus way to get us all on death row… not stick us in a bunker for our own protection. And even if that portal were to send us somewhere with a monster or something, your brother has a gun, right? He can just shoot it!"
Oh. Yeah. Her brother, Revolver. Part of her was glad that he wasn't in the theater at that moment. She didn't know how he'd react if he saw his sister all panicked up like this… It wasn't like her. Sure, such behavior would have been expected from Adrenaline… but she was not Adrenaline… She was Loveshot, damn it.
And normally, while he was very supportive of her, after all, he was one of the first people she came out as trans to, but Loveshot had to wonder if telling him "I've had this dream, or memory, I can't be sure, but we keep getting sent through that portal, and we have to fight vicious killers! Please believe me!" would be the breaking point.
And she already felt she'd made herself look insane to the other civilians. She remembered being seen as quite helpful. Sure, she was a compulsive flirt, but she got results during rounds, and people were able to look past her love of making moves because of that.
But here? Being seen as Adrenaline 2.0? She would be the victim of a lot of ribbing for sure, just as Adrenaline was.
All she could do was just slink away, nervously laughing as if she hadn't said anything at all.
The first round she was in was exactly as she remembered it being.
Teapot Paradise. Artful was the killer. She was with Bonuspad, Banana Peel, Punch, Cloak, Hotdog, and… Taunt.
Banana Peel was the first to go, of course, and that's exactly how Loveshot remembered it going. She could see his body… what that damn magician had done to him… everything was exactly as she remembered it. Either she'd developed psychic powers, or she was in the beginning of a time loop.
A few seconds after processing what had just happened, a sense of frustration swept over Loveshot. Maybe then she could finally knock a bit of sense into Taunt. She walked off deeper into the map, hoping to find Taunt… but when she did…
"Oi, Frenchie! Don't you have some snails you should be munching! Oh hon hon!"
He was too busy being an annoying little prick… to the killer this time. Frankly, it was his job, but considering that she had warned him earlier, she felt this sudden urge to gloat back at him.
But before she could tell him 'I told ya so', he had already run off, laughing, leaving a very angry Artful alone with her.
Instinctually, she pulled out her gun and took a shot at the mad Frenchman…
And missed. Not exactly how she remembered it going last time.
"Ah, dame… you seek to shoot me while I'm already down? Ça ne marchera pas. For, you see… I've already come up with an idea for my next trick… and in it… I shall make you disappear!"
Immediately, he ran after her. Sweat began to drip down Loveshot's forehead. She could have sworn that last time around, by some miracle of the admins, that she was the last woman standing… but this time around, that wasn't going to be the case.
She knew it wouldn't be, as Artful summoned a wall in front of her, forcing her to make a turn towards a corner.
Was this really how it was all going to end? She leaned back against the corner she was now stuck upon, aiming her gun at Artful once again…
But her cooldown hadn't finished yet. Such a futile attempt would make Artful laugh before bashing her in with his wand.
And so, Loveshot had died of death for the first time in this loop.
Artful made sure to put her body to good use, though, puppeting it and using it to help get rid of the gluttonous Hotdog.
"Wow, way to go, miss sharpshooter! You did great there! You're lucky that this bunker has a respawn point, or I don't know how your cowboy of a brother would have handled being without you!"
Loveshot sat on a bench in the bunker with her head in her hands as Taunt chewed her out.
"And here I thought you would be our ace in the hole! Imagine being able to hurt the killer and heal your allies… and ending up doing neither! I hope your brother isn't as useless as you are!"
Taunt blew a raspberry at her before walking off, and then… to add awkwardness to injury, Revolver approached.
"Ya good, sis? Ya don't usually act like this, so I'm kinda worried, y'know?"
Loveshot looked into her brothers eyes, her face beet red from the stress, and tried to muster out a "I'm fine.", but the words just wouldn't come out.
She knew what was going to happen… she could have saved everyone… but she didn't.
"Look, sis. Be glad we're all still alive. Whatever happened out there, t'wasn't permanent."
Finally, Loveshot spoke.
"But I could have-"
Her brother interrupted her. "Even the best marksman, or markswoman in your case, has their rough days. This whole arrangement is new to me as well. I'm sure you'll be back to your usual self soon enough."
With that, Loveshot stood up and hugged her brother, saying nothing as she did so.
The two stood there, embracing each other for what must have been 5 whole minutes, before Revolver walked off, tipping his hat at his dear sister.
Maybe he was right… maybe it was just a rough day. She'd figure this out… she'd be sure of it.
1.2
Six whole times.
It had been six times that she'd ended up back somewhere… mostly in that bunker, but last time, she had Awoken a year before President Sulfur had sent them all to that damned bunker. This had thrown her off, as she was beginning to feel that by the fourth time, she knew what was happening. A simple time loop, in which only she remembered what came before.
Of course, she had spent her first three attempts trying to make changes, trying to stop this whole killing game she had been stuck in, or, at the very least, trying to make things even slightly easier for her fellow civilians… but no matter what she did, it would all be moot as soon as she Awoke again.
In the fourth loop, she just shrugged her shoulders and tried to act as if what she'd gone through those past couple of times were just a dream. A very realistic dream, sure, but still a dream.
But that didn't stop her from looping again, this time being sent even further in the past for some reason?
That time, she'd managed to move far, far away from her damn country… never to return.
That didn't fix anything, as she spent the rest of that loop with immense survivor's guilt, wondering if Revolver thought she had betrayed him.
This time… she was back in the bunker. Back at that first day there.
She didn't speak to anyone except Revolver.
Eventually, she stopped speaking to him too once it became clear that he didn't believe what she was telling him.
She spent the next several weeks, and rounds, not speaking to anyone in the bunker at all… that was… until she noticed someone new…
There was a very shy civilian quivering in the corner of the garden. One with a sword stuck in his chest… one that almost looked like…
Loveshot screamed, pulling out her revolver and pointing it at the stranger in front of her!
"AAAH! OH MY GOD! HOW DID A KILLER BREAK IN HERE?"
The stranger looked up at Loveshot, crying.
"Ooh… oh no… I don't want to kill you…"
That British accent… that only seemed to confirm her suspicions.
"MEQUOT? WHAT IN TARNATION ARE YOU DOIN' HERE?"
"Mequot? How do you know that name? I go by LinkedSword now…"
"I… I don't believe you!"
Loveshot backed up before running out of the garden, leaving 'LinkedSword' alone once again.
She ran up to the other civilians, who were all having lunch, and said the first ever thing she had ever said in this loop to them.
"Uhh… folks? There's… there's a strange person in the garden!"
"Oh, you mean LinkedSword?" Cloak asked her, seemingly unphased by this, almost as if LinkedSword was always there.
"Yes! Him!" Loveshot frantically nodded.
Taunt rolled his eyes. "So Ms.'Silent but Deadly' finally decides to stop being a mute… to tell us that she finally discovered who that wimp LinkedSword is? How anticlimactic!"
Loveshot was surprised. "Wimp! But he's a killer and his real name i-"
Banana Peel laughed in her face. "A killer? He's not a vicious monster like that Pursuer thing, nor is he a crapshoot AI like the Killdroid! Sure, he has that sword, but he's too scared to use it! Why he couldn't even harm a fly!"
The entire bunker was laughing at her now. Disappointed that, yet again, nobody would hear her out, she groaned and walked back to the garden, where LinkedSword still was.
Sighing, she looked him in the eyes. "I guess… I have no choice but to trust ya… fer now."
"Oh… really? You… trust me?" All of a sudden, a small smile formed on LinkedSword's face, and by god, it must have been the cutest smile Loveshot had ever seen in all of her life. "Does this mean we're friends now? I've… never had that many friends… everyone thinks I'm useless."
Loveshot was starting to feel bad for the poor guy. Kneeling down, she gave him a few pats on the shoulder. "Well… first we'd need to know both each others names. You are LinkedSword, and I am Loveshot. There, now we know each other."
"Loveshot? That's… that's a beautiful name…" LinkedSword blushed as he complimented Loveshot, causing the girl to blush back.
"Aww… I'm glad you think so… you know? This could be the start of a very long friendship…"
1.3
Loveshot had Awoken in the middle of a round. She was up against Harken at the Temple, and from what she could see, only her, Dash, and Cloak were left.
By the admins, did she really have to be the one left with all the responsibility now? She could handle being the only healer if her brother or Punch were around, and she could handle being the only clobberer if Caretaker or Carepad were around… but having to be both? The mere thought exhausted her.
And things were just about to go from bad to worse. Several seconds later, the entire temple shook, and the Drakkoboulder let out its horrifying cry of 'YOU MUST DIE!' before rolling off its pedestal and demolishing the bridge in front of it.
Well, great. That just left fewer places to run. And she would need to run, because now, Harken was right behind her.
Her Spidey-Senses tingling, Loveshot turned around and shot Harken before running off to one of the few places she could now.
Harken, enraged not only by being stunned, but also by all the NOISE, began to chase her fellow girl.
Loveshot made it quite the distance before she felt her stamina go down to zero.
Catching her breath, she watched as Harken got closer and closer, until…
All of a sudden, Cloak ran up to Harken and… threw his cape at her, covering her eye as she fell over, trying to get it out of her way. Loveshot stood shocked, and took the opportunity to walk away from the scene.
She bumped into Dash.
"W-what? Uhh… did ya just see what Cloak just did?"
"Oh, he used his cloak to blind the killer? That's his ability, he always does that. What, did you think it was an invisibility cloak?"
A few seconds later, the round ended, leaving Loveshot very confused.
1.4
30 loops in. 30 loops in and she'd already seen some things.
So far, the loops she had been stuck in involved some sort of change. A different relationship here, an ability change there, maybe someone had the opposite role or there was a map she'd never seen before… but at least they still took place in a very familiar universe to her.
This time around… things were going to be different. This time around… she'd have to deal with things she'd never had to deal with before… This time…
She was stood near the back entrance of Builder Brother's Pizza.
Immediately, the memories came flooding back. In this loop, none of the events of her baseline universe happened. Instead, Loveshot and Revolver were raised in an alternative version of Robloxia, which seemed a lot more peaceful than wherever her baseline took place. And now, she had gotten hired as one of Builder Brothers' suppliers. Her first ever job.
The worst curse of all. Employment.
After being trained by the pizzeria's owner, one Mr. Builder, Loveshot quickly found herself behind the driver's seat of the supply truck. Her first run was to get sauce and pepperoni. They were out of pepperoni and they were getting close to being out of sauce, so she needed to get them, and get them quick.
Groaning, she drove herself all the way to the supply warehouse. Parking the truck in the right spot, she jumped out and pressed the sauce and pepperoni buttons several times, watching as the boxes fell into the back of the truck.
After filling the truck with said boxes (and also a few boxes of miscellaneous stuff for good measure), she drove back to Builder Brother's proper. Turning the damn thing around so that the back could open up, allowing the boxes to easily fall into the conveyor, was annoying, but at least it took less work than having to put all the boxes in manually, especially considering how many she had gotten at the end of it.
Pressing the button to open the back of the truck, she watched the boxes fall onto the conveyor, the numbers on the supply screen going up as the boxes made their way deeper into the restaurant. Well, they certainly wouldn't have to worry about shortages for a while, and a good thing too, because she made her way into the kitchen, and peeking past the cashier's booth, she could see Builder Brother's was quite busy today.
Loveshot walked back to the truck, ready for her next supply run, whenever that would be, when all of a sudden, she felt something tingling in her mind. It felt like she'd been hit by a psychic blast of memory, and it seemed to be coming from where the delivery station was.
Ever since that, she could have sworn that the owner's son, Elliot was his name, at least, that's what she remembered hearing it being, staring at her with a facial expression of both curiosity and pity everytime she bumped into him.
What was up with that? Did he know something she didn't?
1.5
"This… this ain't right! This is the tenth round we've had Evil Scary in a row!" Loveshot complained, leading her brother to roll his eyes and look her in the face.
"We've had 200 rounds. Every round is an Evil Scary round. What took ya so long to notice, sis?"
"… oh! Whoops! Silly me!"
1.6
Loop 100.
To be honest, she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep track of what loop she was on. She needed something to help her with that.
Surely nobody would mind if she stole a notepad from the bunker, right?
And so, she did.
That was the easy part. The hard part was finding a way to bring the notepad over to the next loop. Staring at the notepad, she tried to think of possible ways to do just that.
All of a sudden, the notepad just vanished. Loveshot looked around panicking, before thinking of the notepad again. Suddenly, she got the urge to reach around near where her pockets were and… all of a sudden, she pulled the notepad straight out of thin air.
"Huh. 'Pparently I can do that now."
1.7
Loveshot was sure she had a good routine going at this point.
She would Awaken, and the first thing she'd do is leave a tally mark in her notepad before looking out for any differences, or 'variants', she supposed would be the better term for them…
She was up to 113 loops now. And in those 113 loops, she had seen all sorts.
One loop involved all the civilians being different types of domesticated animals… that were owned by the killers.
In one loop, everyone spoke backwards, including her. Having to adjust to that was truly a nightmare.
In another loop, the killers managed to find their way into the bunker near the end of it and kill almost everyone for real. She and Taunt were the only survivors. Loveshot couldn't stand being near him for the rest of the loop, and even avoided him for the next couple of loops after.
Some of the craziest loops involved worlds that were definitely not her own.
Sure, there was that one with the Pizza Place, but she also distinctly remembered one involving collecting mysterious crystals in some sort of facility while being chased by a being that seemed to make nearby technology go haywire. Sure, she wasn't alone, she had several other civilians with her, but they all seemed to act as if they'd always been there, which was a tad strange.
This loop, (fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) took place back in her home universe, and she had Awoken after a few rounds had already happened, if her loop memories were to be believed here.
At least it wasn't during the middle of a round. Loops that started like that were always disorienting. It was between rounds now. She and the others were in the bunker for the next couple of days until the portal opened again and they were forced to confront one of the killers again.
Loveshot walked into the bunker's office. To be frank, she was never one hundred percent sure why the bunker had an office, even in baseline, but it did, and thinking about it too hard made her brain hurt.
As soon as she walked in, she immediately heard a disgruntled voice.
"Ah! Damn it! Of course the internet has to be down at this time! Now I'll never figure it out."
Bonuspad was sat at one of the computers, looking and acting very frustrated.
Loveshot approached him from behind, causing him to jump out of his seat, startled.
"Figure what out, hun?"
Bonuspad sat back down, turning the chair back around as he shook his head.
"Oh! Nothing, really! It's nothing! You… wouldn't understand it. It's deeply complicated stuff."
Loveshot pouted.
"Look, contrary to what you may or may not believe, I am not stupid. I'm pretty sure I can understand whatever you tell me. You are always such a good explainer, after all."
She was right. He was skilled on that front. Anyone who could get the buffoonish Punch to understand how a complicated piece of technology like the bonus pads worked could certainly be described as a good explainer.
Bonuspad turned back around, sighed, and stood back up, trying the hardest to have a serious expression on his face, but Loveshot could tell he was poorly attempting to hide how embarrassed he felt at that moment.
"Alright then. Fine, fine… but you promise not to tell anyone about this? They probably won't believe a word of what I say to you here. They never believed me."
Those last four words sank into Loveshot like a dagger through the heart. She could feel the room getting colder and time slowing down. Well, neither of those things were really happening, but to Loveshot, they felt like they were at that very moment.
"I'm starting to remember things I'm absolutely sure I don't remember doing. Either that, or I really did do those things, and the universe is covering it up through some sort of weird messed up… time loop?" Bonuspad told Loveshot, tipping his hard hat down, as if trying to cover his eyes. Surely she thought he was crazy. He didn't want to watch her break into a fit of laughter after hearing that… but surprisingly… there was no laughter. Instead, Loveshot got down on one knee, a look of concern on her face.
"What do you last remember doing during one of these… loops?"
Loveshot wanted, no, NEEDED to know if Bonuspad was going through the exact same thing as her. At least if someone else was going through it too, she wouldn't feel as isolated. She'd have someone to share the joys and pains with. And most importantly, she'd know that the world wasn't just punishing her.
"Well… last time, it was quite similar to what we're going through here… but whenever I built one of my pads… they didn't work. At all! Nobody sped up after using them. Not even the killer! I was useless! I even remember you chewing me out! Oh, admins! I didn't know you had such harsh words in you!"
Loveshot froze at that. Her entire body was going pale. It was true. The last loop did involve both Bonuspad and Carepad's pads becoming useless, and she very much remembered chewing out Bonuspad for not doing anything to help out his fellow civilians.
She'd been incredibly mean to him… but she didn't know he'd started looping too, and would therefore remember what she had said to him.
"So… it is true… That's what I remember too. Oh…" Loveshot looked into Bonuspad's eyes, which he was no longer covering with his hard hat. "I'm… sorry about what I said to you. I had no idea that you would start remembering too."
She'd made all sorts of mistakes during these loops. She'd done and said some pretty stupid things… But this… this was like a bucket of ice water to the face. She didn't expect him to start looping, to remember, for her actions to have consequences beyond just a single loop now.
She felt like she had to make it up to him somehow… and if being stuck with him for eternity, being his Anchor, was her cross to bear, then so be it.
However, it seems Bonuspad was willing to forgive, as he patted her on the shoulder, motioning for her to stand back up before hugging her.
"It's fine. Besides… I don't think that was even my first loop anyways… It was my fourth. Come to think of it, you did act a bit strange during the last three… How long have you been looping for?"
"So, that's 5 loops for you… Would you believe me if I told you that I have looped over a hundred times?"
Bonuspad was taken aback by that, his mouth open with shock. "Uh, what? Did I hear you correctly?"
In response, Loveshot smirked, a complete 180 from the distraught expression she just had on her face.
"Yep. This is my 114th loop. You better believe it. I've been keeping track."
"I have so many questions…"
"So do I. But I'm sure we'll figure it all out together."