November 9, 2022

Luna and Oleander follow the directions Lock had given them. As they walk the sun seems to be coming up at an odd time.

"We haven't been out here that long have we?” Oleander looks up at the sky.

"Like fifteen minutes? Why is it dawn? It's fuckin 6:45pm," Luna keeps walking but takes deep breaths to keep herself calm. They reach a pond. The sun comes up completely and the sky is blue.

"...um. That's wrong. This world’s sky is red. Why's the sky blue here?" Luna looks to Oleander.

Oleander is staring at the sky in confusion. "I dont... know..." He looks around. There's a small group of yellow butterflies that flutter along the side of the pond. There's a faint feeling of good luck.

Luna smiles a little bit and looks for any signs of Lock, "Lock? Where are you!"

Oleander looks a bit out of it, jyst staring at their surroundings

Suddenly Lock drops the tree above "AHHH-"

Oleander tries to catch her. Luna goes over to where Lock is to make sure she's okay. Lock is caught. She feels ice cold "Oh hey you made it!"

"Yeah- jesus you're cold-" Oleander sets her down gently.

"So um, how ya doin'?" Luna asks casually.

Lock puts her hands in her pockets "I'm doing great!" She doesn't have foggy breath like the other two.

"Um... are you sure? this place is weird..." Oleander glances around.

"Are you kidding? It's great!" Lock turns and starts walking with her back towards them. The black opal handle of the hatchet on her back has colorful marks on it that glow some.

"...the sky isn't usually blue though," Luna notices the glowing bits, "and what's going on with your black opal hatchet?"

"What do you mean?" Lock asks.

Oleander follows Lock. "Um... what's great about this place?"

Luna trips on a blue cardboard box with yellow stars on it. "Shit! What the fuck?" Luna looks down at her feet to see the starry box. "Where the hell did this come from!?" She tries to open it up. Oleander looks over.

Lock pauses and looks back to watch "Oh those. Yeah I've tripped over a few of those by now"

On opening it there's a burst of yellow butterflies that escape.

Luna backs up at the burst of butterflies. "Holy crap, what the hell? All yellow too…So um. Are you ready to head back Lock? I'm sure Cole will be happy to see you."

"I go back and everything will be right back to stress," Lock folds her arms. Something moves in the water of the pond by them.

"...right, I understand. But erm, you said something about a friend?" She says this and looks over at the water. Oleander is silent for the moment.

"Yeah right there" Lock points at the air.

"There's nothing there..." Oleander comments.

"Right there?" Luna looks where she's pointing.

"Don't be like that, Gerald can hear you" Lock grumbles as she folds her arms again.

"I genuinely don't see anything. Sorry," Luna sighs

"Lock, I just can't see Gerald.." Oleander says softly.

"Very funny, you don't have to make fun of him for his nose," Lock rolls her eyes. Something is near the surface of the water.

"Wait what? Neither of us said anything about Gerald's nose?" Luna feels that everything is horribly off.

Oleander rubs his face with his hands, feeling exhausted, "How'd you find this place?"

A body floats up to the surface of the water. "I was just walkin. I was shivering but after awhile I stopped shivering and everything became slightly warm. I could take off my jacket right now and be fine!" Lock smiles.

Oleander looks over at the body. Its a dead black cat nonferal

"...oh gods. That's not who I think it is right?" Luna shivers in fear.

"Hm? Who?" Lock looks over at the pond.

"The black cat nonferal just floating there dead. Looks like Kaz," Luna explains.

"Oh yeah the pond is full of him! Go take a look," Lock smiles.

Luna takes a deep breath and does as she is told. In the dark murky water she can a blanket of bodies on the floor of the lake. Luna screams and backs up "Nope! Nope nuh uh, what the fuck is this place?!?"

Oleander just looks back to Lock. "Lock I dont think this is safe-"

"It's just dead bodies. Perfectly safe watch me" Lock walks over to the pond.

"...Lock, please, we really need to go. Not to mention I think you got hyp- what?" Luna watches Lock as she dives into the water. Oleander blinks.

Lock is swimming in place, "See? Perfectly fine!"

"...you're swimming with a bunch of dead Kaz's. That's perfectly fine?" Luna squints.

"I can't feel any of my limbs!" Lock says happily.

"Yeah, that's called hypothermia! Can you try to get out of there so we can bring you home and warm you up?" Luna puts a paw out to the side of the pond. Lock snickers and splashes Luna with cold water.

"Ahhhh coldddddddddddd- Can you pretty please not do that?" Luna growls. Lock thinks a moment before doing it again. Luna gets back. "Hey Oleander, can you find a way to get her out of the freezing cold please?"

Oleander sighs and takes off his bag and coat, walking into the water. Lock snickers and splashes Oleander with cold water. Oleander flinches a bit but takes it and tries to grab Lock. "Get out of the water-"

Lock is grabbed. A hand grabs Oleanders leg as his eyes widen. "SOMETHING JUST GRABBED ME-" He tries to drag Lock to shore.

"WHAT?" Luna holds her hand out from the side to grab ahold of Oleander. Lock is dragged to shore as hands start reaching out of the water. Soaked dead nonferal cats with white eyes emerge from the water and shriek. Luna’s ears flatten at the sounds.

Oleander throws Lock to shore and starts shooting the dead cats, "FUCK MY LIFE?"

Luna pulls out her ichor claymore and slashes at any dead cats near her, "Bring it!"

They keep the cats from reaching Oleander as he's able to get out of the water. They sick back into the deep. Lock gets up, "Well that was fun."

Oleander is freezing and looks terrified, "Can we go home now-"

"Please. I can teleport us," Luna holds out her shivering paws to her two comrades.

Oleander grabs his stuff and takes her paw. Lock starts to walk in a random direction.

"Shit!" Luna grabs Lock before she gets too far off. The three of them disappear.

Luna, Lock, and Oleander all appear on the living room floor. Luna collapses from exhaustion. Oleander leaves the room to take off his wet clothing in order to warm up. Lock is soaked and ice cold. The hatchet is glowing colors and Lock smiles. A few yellow butterflies flutter out from behind the sofa. The sounds of Cole killing a video game boss is emitting from his mouth. It stops, Cole's eyes are slightly pink and his fists are clenched "I HATE Ultradead."

"Who's Ultra dead?" Lock tilts her head

"AHH A WO- ah it's just Lock, anyways ultradead is a videogame I was playing," Cole explains.

Lock is still soaked. Her fur squishes as she sits down on the floor, "Wo- what?"

"Just a silly joke, don't worry about it,” Cole waves his hand dismissively.

Luna opens her eyes and stretches, "Ahh good nap. So um, hang on." She snaps her fingers as a floofy towel appears from the bathroom. She hands it to Lock, "Here ya go."

"Oh thanks" Lock starts drying up the floor with it. A butterfly lands on Cole's face. Cole stares at it.

"Lock, you can dry yourself with it too," Luna adds.

"But my tail makes a funny sound if it wags while like this" Lock frowns. She wags her tail as it splats on the wall.

"Oh ok," Luna shrugs and checks her computer, "Oh hello... Herald of Rebirth?" Luna begins listening to a song. Cole is still staring at the butterfly. The butterfly slowly open and closes its wings.

"...god this song is creepy as hell," Luna mutters.

"What song?" Lock tilts her head.

"Pure Imagination by Fiona Apple? Normally it's such a whimsical song, but this one's in like a minor key and that makes all the difference" Luna explains "You were featured in another one of those Datrrs messages." Luna plays the song out loud.

"...if I killed this butterfly would I lose morality points..." Cole mutters as he keeps staring at the butterfly. The butterfly gets off of Coles face and flutters right into his nose

"ACK" Cole exhales hard. The butterfly is shot out and hits the floor. Cole slams his hand onto the butterfly, "Fuck you it attacked first."

"Perfectly reasonable. Also there was a fuckin swarm of those where Lock was," Luna mentions.

Lock takes the hoodie and hatchet off to dry off with the towel. The hatchet is still glowing colors. A few more butterflies flutter out from under the sofa.

"...okay, what the hell? Where are these things coming from? They're at least pretty and harmless though," Luna hums.

"From the bodies," Lock replies.

"Right, by the way Cole, by bodies she means a bunch of copies of Kaz's dead body,” Luna takes a deep breath.

"ah...I see," Cole nods.

There's a decaying stench slowly drifting into the room. Cole doesn't seem bothered by it. Luna is bothered by it as she holds her nose. "What the hell is that?"

Lock sniffs and scrunches her nose, "Ew..."

"So. um. Is that the bodies as well Lock?" Luna tries to figure out the source of the stench.

"I think?" Lock guesses.

There's a low mad cat meow that draws out from under the sofa.

Luna is well aware of that sound, "Lock, Cole, get away from the couch, please."

Cole snaps to staring at the couch as he draws his revolver. Luna steps back and draws her claymore. Lock stays seated and already away from the sofa as she watches. The low growling meow happens again.

"Cole, listen. I'm going to flip the couch with my telekinesis. If something flies out at us, shoot it okay?" Luna explains.

Cole nods as he cocks the hammer back on his revolver. Luna focuses on the couch and after preparing her sword for battle, she flips the couch over with telekinesis. "Bring it," Luna mutters again.

There's what looks like a pile of yellow butterflies. There's a cracking sound as it slowly pulls itself up with unnatural movements. The face of a dead cat with white eyes is barely visible under all of the butterflies

"Geralds back," Lock comments.

"...that's Gerald? Oh hell," Luna sighs.

Cole aims at its face, "This is just like Ultradead on God."

Luna readies her sword and is prepared to attack. It makes an off key loud meow at them as it starts staggering towards them. Lock’s hatchet is resting on the floor and hums. Luna rushes in and attempts to stab the creature in the stomach using her ichor claymore. It stabs into them as it continues to walk forward, driving the blade further in and clawing at Luna with sharp claws and a watery hiss. The claws make contact as she attempts to pull the sword out, "Fuck fuck fuck."

Cole fires at it's head as his eyes flicker to purple. The sword is pulled out. It's covered in a dark green blood. The gun fire blasts a chuck of butterflies off the side of its head but the creature itself seems unphased other than a jerking motion from the force. The hatchet on the floor is humming louder the closer it gets. Its slightly rattling on the floor now. Luna is holding her arm from getting clawe.

"Fuck it," Cole drops his revolver and dashes over to the hatchet as he swings at it's head with it. The hatchet feels heavy as lead as it slices through the creature's face diagonally. The being begins falling apart with screaming and wails of pain as the butterflies disperse. The being slowly turns into a pool of green blood. The hatchet stops humming as the colors fade from its handle.

"Holy shit. Conduit divulgar most likely," Luna mutters.

Cole drops the hatchet while breathing heavily, seemingly thinking.

"What are you thinking Cole?" Luna asks while still holding her arm.

Cole shakes his head, his voice is quiet and reserved, "It's nothing important, do you need healing?" Cole walks over to luna.

"I mean if you want. It's not that bad," Luna's bleeding a fair bit of red blood.

Cole nods and heals luna his voice is staying quiet and reserved, "It's fine, I'm here to heal and make sure everyone is alright."

"Thank you Cole, you really do mean a lot to me. I'll be honest though, I didn't think you were able to pick up the hatchet."

"I can pick up the hatchet just not move it away from Lock," Cole nods.

"Ah I see, that makes a huge difference. Thank you," Luna snaps a towel and her kit and does a bit of maintenance on her blades as she sits on the couch, "So yeah, most likely conduit divulgar with the green blood, but I'm curious about the yellow butterflies. Are those divulgars as well?"

Cole shrugs, "I uhm I'm unsure Luna." Cole sits back down next to Isaac as he fiddles with his hands. 

"...right." Luna continues her maintenance on the ichor claymore. Cole occasionally glances up at the pool of green blood then back to his hands.

"...right, I see." Luna snaps another towel from the bathroom and tries to clean up the pool of green divulgar blood. Locks eye twitches as she starts shivering some. Lock hugs her knees as she watches. Her relaxed demeanor has slowly turned cold. After it’s cleaned up, Luna takes some deep breaths and returns to her sword. "That reminds me, I should probably go to the store and buy Harmonia some new towels."

Cole nods as he takes a deep breath, "probably"

Luna nods and disappears.

"Now that Luna's gone, did anyone else get a little happy from killing that thing?" Cole looks around the room. Isaac squints at Cole in confusion. Lock frowns as she holds back tears. She gets up and briskly walks out of the room. They hear a door in the hall slam shut. "...alright cool just me then," Cole goes back to staring at his hands.

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