Chapter Text
Close your eyes, can you hear me? Good.
Let me tell you a story, probably my favourite one, to be honest, about three kids and the ill-fated adventure they embark on.
This story will contain betrayal, death, destruction, an unhealthy amount of fire emojis, treason, arson, several crimes I’d rather not list, old friends, new friends, unstoppable time demons, and, most importantly, friendship. So if you dislike any of those oddly-specific things, you are welcome to get up and leave my office, no one is stopping you.
Still here? Excellent.
Dear friend, sit tight as I bring you through the wild adventure of three kids, and a game they play together.
Our story begins off the shores of a small alcove, tucked away, hidden from the world and all of its treacheries.
A child sat outside on a flattened rock, her twin ponytails coloured respectively jet black and mossy green swayed with each movement she made. Her eyes were glued to a hopping amphibian that had made its way past her, each hop making a satisfying plop against the ground.
The gentle rocking of the vast forest canopy overhead mixed with the occasional sunlight ray penetrating through the thick blanket of leaves made the forest floor seem like it was alive, crawling, prowling.
But the child didn’t find such things you and I would find a miracle of nature as such, she was too busy thinking about something else, well, more than thinking, she was waiting, waiting for a reply.
Expectantly, she took out her phone and opened the messages, checking if her friend had seen the message.
-- [OI] overzealousImpulse begun pestering [BS] burningShenanigains at 13:27 --
OI: hey!
OI: are you there?
OI: come on pick up
OI: please it's urgent!!!
OI: please!!!
To her dismay, her friend hadn’t responded to her messages yet. But she didn’t think much of it, after all, this particular friend of hers has quite destructive hobbies that usually distracted xem from the outside world. But xe isn't important now, back to the moss-haired child. The kid got up from her rocky resting place and carefully made her way back into her small wooden cottage, taking each step slowly lest to crush the small mushrooms that had begun to grow between the cracks of the cobblestone pathway that lead to her front door. After masterfully dodging the blossoming plants, she stepped inside, removing her muddy boots and hanging them outside, where a particularly strong ray of sunlight hit, allowing the mud to cake and subsequently crumble off. Quite the inventive trick if I do say so myself. The child, now wearing her favourite frog-themed socks, made her way over to a small armchair and jumped onto it, reaching for a book she had left on a table and opening it on the page she had bookmarked. What met her though was an unpleasant surprise as a grey envelope slipped out, falling onto her lap. Of course, she was aware of the presence of the envelope, after all, she was the one that had put it there. But upon second glance, she had noticed something peculiar, something she hadn’t noticed before. The envelope had a faint green light pulsating inside of it, each flash taking about five seconds to appear and disappear. With piqued interest, she dug her nail into the envelope and opened it, pulling out a white disc with a green spirograph printed on it. No text was present on the disc, only a note taped onto the inside of the envelope with a hastily written message:
“To myself, my past self. As soon as you start reading this letter, put the disc in your computer and run it. Tell the others to do the same. I’m sorry I don’t have time to explain further. And please, remember: Do not lose control.”
The note felt dry, the paper it was written on was on the verge of crumbling and turning to dust, luckily though, she had read it in time.
Her phone chimed, startling her.
Finally.
-- [OI] overzealousImpulse begun pestering [BS] burningShenanigains at 13:27 --
OI: hey!
OI: are you there?
OI: come on pick up
OI: please it's urgent!!!
OI: please!!!
OI: hey!
OI: are you there?
OI: come on pick up
OI: please it's urgent
OI: please
BS: hey
BS: whats up
OI: why weren't you responding earlier??
BS: i was busy
OI: of course
BS: so what do you need to urgently?
OI: did you get a letter?
BS: oh, yeah, i burnt it
OI: WHAT???
OI: WHY DID YOU DO THAT???
BS: calm down, i took the stuff out first
BS: im not dumb
OI: well...
BS: shut it
OI: what was in the letter?
BS: a disc and a note
OI: what does the note say?
BS: dunno, its really smudgy and smells like firewood, not that the smell makes it harder to read
OI: the note?
BS: yeah
OI: can you send me a pic?
-- [BS] burningShenanigains sent a file. --
The child looked at the photo her friend had sent her with a curious gaze, zooming in on her phone to see if, somehow, she could make out whatever that note said.
OI: i think i figured something out!
BS: what?
OI: the first words are:
OI: "stay inside"
OI: after that i cant make out any more sorry :/
BS: "stay inside"? weird
BS: did you get a letter aswell?
OI: uh, yeah
OI: oh! that reminds me!
OI: put the disc you got in your computer
BS: why?
OI: just do it please!!
BS: okay
BS: it says its installing
OI: ok cool!
OI: brb
The girl grabbed the disc and put it into her computer, its mechanical whirring felt out of place, almost alien.
A window immediately popped up onto her screen, a black background with a big, green button with the word “PLAY” written on it in a terribly ugly font.
Above that button, the title of the game glared at the child, its neon green reflecting off of her glasses; “SBURB”.
BS: should i press play?
OI: uh sure
OI: actually wait shouldnt we wait for IH too?
BS: good luck getting to him...
OI: ill try!
BS: alright, so can i try and start anyway?
OI: if you want!
BS: got it, ill tell you if something happens, its on a weird loading screen now
-- [OI] overzealousImpulse ceased pestering [BS] burningShenanigains at 14:35 --
The kid closed the chat with her friend and opened one with her other one, hoping he would be online. To her dismay, once again, he wasn’t online, that would’ve been too easy.
After sending him a couple of messages, she put her phone down and begun investigating the mysterious program that had activated on her computer. She couldn’t exit out of the program as it had no close button in the top right, so she had no choice but to press play, or stare at the main screen indefinitely.
Upon clicking play she felt a strange sensation tingle in her body. It was of excitement mixed with horror, dread, anxiety, and harrowing loss. No biggie, really.
The formerly black screen immediately lit up, displaying a various array of colours constantly changing in the background while a white loading bar sat in the middle of the screen, slowly filling up.
Over the loading bar she read various sentences that at the time seemed like complete nonsense to her:
“Adjusting Moons”, “Calibrating Veil”, “Generating Reckoning”, “Creating Clocks” and so on.
But just as the bar was about to fill up completely, it stopped.
“Awaiting Host.”
She had no idea what this meant. A host? Was this an online game? Did she need someone to host her session?
But as she pondered, her phone began chiming rapidly, who could it be?
-- [BS] burningShenanigains begun pestering [OI] overzealousImpulse at 14:54 --
BS: it says i found my host!
BS: its showing me an image of my own room
BS: oh wow its live! i can see myself
BS: HOLY SHITT
OI: what?
BS: WHAT IS THAT
OI: huh?
OI: in the sky?
BS: CANT YOU SEE IT?
BS: FUCK I HAVE TO GO
-- [BS] burningShenanigains ceased pestering [OI] overzealousImpulse at 14:57 --
Zoey would’ve insisted on contacting her friend, but just as she tried to contact xem once again, a large shadow loomed over the house.
She rushed outside and looked up, trying her best to make out whatever it was through the thick canopy over her.
At first, she wasn’t able to identify it, but after a couple of moments, she finally figured out what was barreling towards her at dangerous speeds.
She was frozen in fear, her eyes widened at the sight of her impending doom.
What now, Zoey?