Chapter Text
Player had done it. They had cleansed their soul of its impurities and became worthy to wield the Ghostwalker. They were pure .
…then what whispered these greedy , secluding , fearful , and hateful temptations into the depths of their mind..?
It wasn’t too tough to figure out what had happened.
After waking up from their dream world, Player had heard a constant faint buzz of incomprehensible speaking from the back of their head, like the sound of someone mumbling from another room.
At first, they had thought it was just that. Perhaps the ghosts throughout the Manor were gossiping about the oddball human who fought a gun-wielding turkey in the basement (which, they were, but that wasn’t the case here).
They even excused it as such when they returned to the normal, living Manor.
But it was made obvious that that was not the case when they not only continued hearing the voices after leaving the Manor, but also when it got louder. And the volume only rose as they approached the train station.
They barely understood the conductor, just nodding at whatever he said before finding their room.
Wide eyed and manic at the thought of going insane, they slammed the door shut, before shouting, “Who’s talking?!”
Sweet, golden silence.
Then, a clear but small voice,
“Oh…you’re alone…”
They whipped their head around the room and pulled out their sword, but ultimately found nothing.
“Who’s there?!”
“HAHAHA! Isn’t it obvious?”
They knew that laugh. That maniacal, mocking laugh that came with grasping hands and the desire to have and keep having.
A desire that is supposed to be dead .
“What… my greed..? ”
“That’s my name! Wear it out, will ya? HAHAHAHA!”
Player jolted in surprise, feeling something move under the skin on their arm.
Looking down, they saw one of Greed’s arms winding around their wrist, its hand reaching out and intertwining its fingers with Player’s.
Player waved their arm and sword around like they were trying to shake off a bug, but to no avail. Greed’s hand only tightened.
“Get OFF- how- what?!”
“Hehehe, our sword now!”
A new voice, timid and skittish, spoke up,
“S-stop that Greed! You might hurt us…”
Player stopped waving their arm around and attempted to drop the sword, though the sword didn’t go anywhere, as Greed’s hand was gripping it.
“Are you... my fear? ”
“Y-yes…”
Player began pacing, their free hand pulling at Greed’s hand.
“What- why’re- what- what are you doing in my head?! ”
“We’re- we’re not r-really in your head…”
“Yeah we are!”
“W-well, that’s just Solitude…” Player’s left eye ached.
“I thought I killed you all. In the dream world, I killed you, all of you! ”
“No ya didn’t, ‘cause we’re here!”
“I-I’m afraid the Ghostwalker t-took us out here when you…k-killed us…”
The Ghostwalker did this?
The Kitchen Wizard never mentioned this could happen…
They felt remorse at Fear’s words.
“I…I am sorry. I should have listened to your warnings. I am… so sorry.”
“I-it’s alright…you couldn’t have known it was m-manipulating you…it knew your goal, and led you from there…”
“I know, but still…I should have known. It…wait, I haven’t heard- where is Hatred?”
…something stirred deep inside their chest…
“...around…”
“It’s off wallowing somewhere in it’s own self pity because it’s butthurt it lost to YOU!”
Player felt a sting in their wrist, and then heard Greed yelp before the sword clattered to the floor. They watched, both fascinated and disgusted as Greed’s hand retracted into their skin.
“You d-did that to yourself.”
“Oh shut up ya damn coward.”
Player steadied themselves as the train started.
To be frank, they were dead tired and would deal with this life-altering information in the morning. But first, they had to brush their teeth.
They stepped into the bathroom and went to the sink.
Immediately they noticed the change in their left eye. A singular blue pupil and a black sclera.
“...hey.”
“FUCK-”
They actually dealt with their newfound freeloaders surprisingly better than they thought they would. Although, of course, it was a pain to get used to four voices (Yeah, you heard that right. Four, because eventually Hatred stopped being butthurt and started hating again. Yaaaay.) that constantly commented on everything they did and sometimes even materialized into something similar to how they had looked in the dream world.
Greed’s arms and hands would wind around Player’s arms, especially when they held something it would create an extra hand to secure their grip on it. Also, whenever Player had just a little bit of interest in an item, it’s hands would extend towards it and attempt to grab whatever it was. Multiple times Player had to swat it’s grubby hands out of the air.
Solitude was probably the easiest to deal with; always staying in one of their eyes, just watching. It did have the potential to be an absolute annoyance like the others, as whenever it moved their eye would itch like an eyelash was stuck in it. It also would cover the eye it inhabited with some sort of blue blob whenever it felt like it didn’t want to be near anyone, leaving Player with half their sight.
Fear fretted about anything and everything, always anticipating the worst possible outcomes. Player was walking past someone shady? One of it’s spindly purple limbs rapidly tapped their shoulder as it whispered it’s worries in their ear. Player didn’t know how much tix they had to spend when entering a shop? Don’t worry, Fear was already going through their pockets to triple check. And whenever Player felt unsafe or uncomfortable, their hands would adopt a purple hue and a sharp point at their fingertips, and they would have to ignore its shaking.
Hatred, of course, was by far the hardest to put up with. One would think it was Greed with how it always insisted to be wrapped around Player’s heart. Hatred was snarky and antagonistic, and continuously fed the other emotions certain words to trigger them. For example, it’d point out things that could possibly hurt Player or cause them problems to Fear. Then Fear would go on a long, anxiety-inducing ramble. In turn, Player would scold Hatred, Hatred would argue back, the other emotions would jump in at the chance to pick sides, and the only outcome of the whole situation would be Player getting a headache.
But Hatred didn’t just cause problems in Player’s head, but also outside. Whenever Player happened to think badly of themselves, they’d have suddenly grown a red pointy tail and horns. The look drove others off, making Player feel even worse about themself.
Anyways, to sum all that up: the emotions were a pain to deal with. And they’d only just begun tolerating them when they received a message from Shedletsky about the next sword they’d have to find: the Firebrand.
So here I present to you: a bunch of little snippets of Player and their emotions as they traverse Demo 4!
“Don’t you just H A T E that? All the pain you’ve gone through and all the blood you’ve spilt just to be called a ‘temporary employee’? And he isn’t even paying you…how pathetic.”
“Ooh, I didn’t even think of that! What a scumbag! Now THIS is why we’re gonna keep the swords for OURSELVES!”
“ I am not doing that.”
“She’s hiding something.”
“N-no, she’s nervous..!”
“Are you okay, Kyoko?”
“Well…” she told Player about her sister.
“...she looks…sad.”
“STOOOP!”
“Yeahah, stop ‘n smash those old bins! There’s loot in ‘em!”
“N-NO! Stop because t-those tiles will activate an arrow t-trap!”
“Congratulations, you noticed the most obvious puzzle trap on the planet. Now step on the wheel tile because it obviously goes with the archer.”
“NO-”
“FIRE! W-watch out!”
“Nah, its ice.”
“Holy shitballs!”
“...woah.”
“OH MY GOD RUN!”
“An actual good idea from you, I’m surprised. Now run to the left you imbecile-”
“Who is this ugly ass?”
“Heed thy wish that BURNS IN THE SOUL OF THE GIFTED!”
“OOH! There is SO MUCH you could get from this bozo!”
“Perhaps…a safe way to the Firebrand…”
”I-I think I agree with-”
“D E A T H T O A L L W H O O P P O S E U S .”
“I wish for the SFOTH swords.”
“That’s a good one too! They SHOULD be ours after all!”
“I wish for…the ship in a bottle.”
“…REALLY.”
“Well I wish that I could murder this genie.”
“Wow, he won’t give us a second wish? Tsk, so greedy!”
“You’re-”
“Shut up I know.”
“Y’know, these pirates have a good point…we should-”
“No.”
“...don’t you recognize her..?”
“This puzzle might be a trap-”
“Its not, you paranoid ass.”
“I don’t think we should be here…”
“GRAB IT GRAB IT!”
“...oh no…”
“I-I have a bad feeling about t-this.”
“It’s all yours, Creator…”
Player watched in shock as Captain Trotter fell into the lava.
“He was pathetic anyways.”
“STFU-“
BONUS:
“If you would just let me take over…I could beat him until he’s S I X F E E T U N D E R .”
Player fell backwards as they were hit with another fucking baseball.
“You know what? Fuck it. Do it.”