January 6, 2023

There is rapid knocking at the front door. Luna wakes up and sighs. Either this is Nyx, Flummox, or Vivian. She goes to open the door hoping for Flummox. Cuz Flummox is amazing. The other two are bitches. It’s Flummox. He takes a wide step into the room and waves his hand wildly with a big crooked smile.

Luna copies the wild wacky waving, "Hey Flummox, how's it going?"

"It’s going scumbonkuously. Thought I’d pop by and see if there was anything new going on." Flummox goes to sit on the sofa. Luna closes the door. It's too cold outside. Kade enters the living room and proceeds to flop over onto the ground.

"It's been, erm, a day. We had some issues arise with Isaac earlier concerning his mother being a conduit divulgar and Wac work." Luna says somberly.

Flummox tilts his head down and stares at Kade. "Well looky here."

"Is that a clown?" Kade asks.

Luna shrugs and proceeds to hop to the top bunk. "They work at a circus if that helps?"

"Hm. Close enough, personally."

Melody walks in and waves at Flummox. "Hi! Nice to meet you"

Flummox looks over at Melody and raises his eyebrows. "MMMAAANNN I know a GOOOD pickup line you could use."

Melody blinks. "What is it?"

"Are you a car?"

"Uh... no."

"Cuz I’m a deer in the headlights of deat- uh I mean love, I meant love," Flummox says nervously.

Melody chuckles. "I'll have to use that on my boyfriend and girlfriend!!"

"Just don’t say the death part, and you’ll do great." Flummox says.

"Yeah I don’t plan on it" She chuckles. "I’m Melody, what's your name?" She extends her hand

"They call me a Flummox" He takes her hand and shakes it violently

"Flummox is a friend. He wants us to show him what being risen is like. He's good people." Luna explains.

Melody laughs. "Oh cool!! What's being risen?" She asks with a smile

"Actually, an extremely good question," Luna scratches her head, "I took it to mean human at one point, but I'm really not sure. I think in Kyle's case, he always likes interacting differently than other nonferals. He's always got information on things like the Moores or Divulgar types. He's perhaps a bit more special."

"Risen is risen up to bat, next to the challenge ahead" Flummox lets go and puts his fists on his hips with a smile.

Luna is stunned. "This entire time, it was a baseball metaphor???"

"My goodness I love baseball," Flummox smiles as he stares off into nothing.

"...of course you do. The sounds of cheering fans, the smell of hot dogs and cotton candy." Luna is getting a little scared. Melody nods slowly. She doesn't get it.

"Gotta love the Mets." Kade jokes.

"You met a what?" Flummox asks confused.

"Nothing."

Flummox stretches. "Anything on the agenda right now?"

Melody shrugs. "Dont think so. Anything you wanna do?"

Luna nods. "Yeah, we're all ears Flummox if you have something you wanna do."

"pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff i dunno man"

"I mean we have an angry crocodile in the bathroom right now, but who the hell wants to bring that bitch over?" she shrugs, trying to get some help with that. "Aside from that, risen usually just wait for problems to occur, which is when we spring to action and attempt to solve."

"What if we got Just Dancing and started playing it." Kade suggests.

"Oh my god, can we??? Please??? I wanna play Just Dance!!!" Melody cheers.

"I do have it on the Swop if that helps?" Luna adds.

"I’M A MASTER AT DANCING!" Flummox shouts.

Luna summons the Swop Harmonia gave her last year for Christmas. Then she hooks it up to the TV and turns it on. Lock quietly sneaks out of the room. A fully customized and hacked version of Just Dancing comes on with every song imaginable and online mode appears on the screen.

"That works!!" Melody says excitedly. "Lunam do you wanna play too?"

"Nah, you guys go first. I'm still a little sore after the psychic hold earlier," she smiles and watches.

Melody looks to Flummox. "You ready to dance??"

"You bet your grannies sweet nemernamblegernies I am." Flummox says.

"Note to self, nemernamblegernies means ass." Luna chuckles lightheartedly.

Melody turns on Child Shark, "Are you ready to lose?", she asks Flummox. Flummox juggles in his idle animation.

Melody’s killing it. Flummox doesn’t care if there are too many people or even if he’s getting sensed by the game to get a score at all. He’s doing the dances and adding his own pizzazz to it as well. It’s just constant jingling sounds. Luna's jamming from the couch. Kade is suffering in silence from the Child Shark but otherwise watches them go at it. Luna isn't even listening to Child Shark but instead to her usual battle playlist. But she still nods along to the song on the screen. After Melody and Flummox finish the song, there’s a new song on the list that wasn't there before.

"Oooh, can I go next?" Luna asks.

Flummox isn’t even taking turns or standing in front of the tv. He’s just going at it in the corner.

"Yeah sure!! There’s a new song I think. Want to try that?" Melody notices much to Luna’s surprise.

"Huh? How is there a new song? I thought I unlocked everything??" Luna scrolls through and yup, sure enough, there is. "Uhh sure. I could use a challenge,” she says after 5 starring everything on all difficulties. It’s Poker Face. "...huh. Poker Face. Game on."

Roxy starts to walk through the living room to the kitchen but stops as she hears that.

"What.” She looks at Flummox mostly, having not seen him before but doesn’t care enough to really ask because she’s heard him from the attic.

Melody smiles while Luna takes a deep breath and presses start. It’s just a normal Just Dancing level of Poker Face.

"Nightcore version is better, honestly.” Roxy vanishes and reappears shortly with a bottle of Cotton Candy Heyyo before sitting on the floor.

"I agree!" Luna says knowing exactly which version Roxy is referring to.

"Goes SO hard."

"It does!" She's fucking killing it!

As the song says "Russian roulette is not the same without a gun" Flummox draws a pistol and shoots Luna in the shoulder from behind with a smile while still dancing.

Luna takes the hit and starts shuffling away still to the rhythm of the song. "FUCKER!"

Roxy sighs. "Yeah."

Melody screams in fear because she wasn’t expecting that. "Luna are you okay???"

"NOOOO I’M SHOT!" she glares and moves to tackle Flummox on the beat. Kade blinks.

The lights flicker some as Flummox quickly avoids Luna with a smooth cartwheel and a giggle. Luna is still completely on rhythm with Poker Face. This is her environment. She continues chasing down Flummox and summons her sword to the music. Having one working shoulder makes it difficult to swing her sword, however.

Roxy fidgets with her necklace as she carefully watches Flummox, sitting forwards. Lock runs in from the hall with her ears up. Flummox seems to have dumped every skill point in dodging.

Melody runs to the kitchen to try and grab the pan she used to knock Isaac out earlier. Kade is just watching because he got mental whiplash. Melody runs back in and tries to hit Flummox with the pan. Luna swaps in her battle playlist and focuses her energy on 'Flummox'. Her shoulder is in a lot of pain, but she fights through it and continues to chase, swapping her sword for a knife. The lights are cut off and the TV screen glows green. Parts of Flummox's outfit glow in the dark as he bends backward at an impossible angle to avoid the hit from the pan. Lock snarls as she grabs her hatchet and runs at Flummox as well, but like the cheat he is, he dodges. Flummox is cocky enough to engage in banter as they all fight "Ohhh I see, someone's grown up a little huh?"

Roxy is analyzing the scene. Melody tries to attack opposite Lock so dodging Lock would cause Flummox to get hit by Melody.

Luna grins as if her suspicion was correct. "Jack Whim!"

Knight walks in. “What the fuck- I LEAVE FOR A DAY AND IT ALL GOES TO SHIT!” He just walks to the couch, grabs his bag, and returns outside.

Kade is completely in the dark, watching everything happen. "uh."

Luna has her eyes closed and is solely focusing on his sounds.

"Kade, heads up!" Roxy throws her phone at him.

"ACK." He catches the phone.

"Read," Roxy demands.

Flummox dodges Lock's hit. Just as the pan is to hit his face, he opens his jaws as long crooked teeth jut out over the pan and latch on. Music continues to play.

Melody screams, letting go. "WHAT'S GOING ON???" 

Kade can't read and watch the festivities but he's trying, panickedly, "Uhhh I can try to."

He reads "HELP. If you WANT." he continues reading.

"And now things are heating up- wait this cover goes so hard what the fuck," Roxy gets up and a bat with nails in it appears in her hands, "The Risen are up to bat, I guess."

Lock pulls Melody's arm to get her out of the way as Flummox claws where Melody was with a flash of gold. He still has his jaws around the pan as the pan is starting to fold from the force. There’s a strong feeling of good luck.

Luna swaps her knife for the claymore and continues to try and slash at him. "Up to bat!"

Roxy runs over to Flummox and attempts to swing the bat into his side.

Melody is pulled to the side. "HOLY CRAP- thanks Lock!"

Luna's blade shatters on impact and he uses one hand to grab the bat, Golden claws dig into the wood of the bat. His eyes glow a light green slightly. Lock is staying quiet.

"...I've broken two ichor swords." Luna goes completely silent.

Melody summons her bow to her hand and tries to shoot Flummox in the thigh.

Roxy lets out a long exhale, "I've had this bat for over three years I'm not letting some fucking Juggalo break it." She tries pulling the bat back, though attempting to make the nails dig into his hands.

Luna just stays on the floor. The pain of her shoulder coupled with her precious sword just getting destroyed is too much.

Flummox yanks on the bat to pull Roxy closer as his jaws let go of the pan.

Kade winces as he watches everything happen with Luna, before summoning his hammer to his grasp in a burst of smoke. He tries to whack Flummox like a mole.

Roxy laughs as she's pulled closer, "What's up?" Her hands are still wrapped around the bat.

The arrow hits Flummox's thigh. Flummox lets go of the bat and flips out of reach, putting Roxy where Kade swings the hammer. Roxy has flattened once again.

The arrow made of light disappears after hitting Flummox so he’s still injured but there’s no arrow to stop the bleeding. Flummox quickly gets out his phone and snaps a picture as he starts typing.

Roxy bounces back to form immediately after. "Gurgle." Her bat reforms in her hand.

Melody screams in horror. "WHAT'S HAPPENING???"

Kade blinks post-flattening, "UH. SORRY???"

"That's our Rox--" Luna passes out thanks to blood loss.

"You're good," Roxy steps back, putting her bat over her shoulder, and stares at Flummox.

Cole strolls in casually still wearing his mafia outfit, "why are the lights off?"

Lock snarls as she runs at Flummox. Flummox dodges. He’s still typing and chuckles. Melody realizes Luna needs help again and runs to her, putting pressure on the wound and picking Luna up, taking her to the kitchen. She is extremely light, so it’s an easy task.

Kade snaps his attention to Cole, "THE CLOWN IS EVIL IN NATURE!!!"

Roxy runs up to Flummox and swings at his face. Cole pulls the skull up and twists it to the left as 2 halves of a sword blade eject from the sides of the cane and clash together at the end of the cane creating some sparks and a full shortsword blade, "the clown is about to learn what cane can do to a man."

"You filthy fucking Hometuk???" Roxy looks at Cole in disgust.

Flummox bends back to dodge and does finger guns at Cole. Cole's file suddenly triggers a strong laughing fit. Cole bursts out laughing as he steps forward and slashes at Flummox's leg.

Kade remains prepped with the hammer. Flummox does a rather impressive hop. Lock leaps and tackles Flummox while in mid-air, and they land on the sofa with a jingle. Kade watches but shifts his positioning, so he's facing the couch. Melody walks back in, looking around and aiming to shoot Flummox in the arm. Cole pivots to face the couch and points the sword at Flimmox's throat while laughing.

Lock tries to pin Flummox down but hesitates as Flummox grabs her by the throat "Ap ap ap ap ap ap I wouldn't!" he smiles at Cole and Melody. They can see his claws on her throat as well.

Melody immediately puts her weapon down. "What do you want?? Why are you attacking??" She asks, trying to get Flummox’s focus off of Lock.

Cole is running out of breath as he glares at Flummox and twists the skull to the right. The blades unlock and push the skull down while the blades swing back inside of the cane.

Kade watches and keeps the hammer ready. Roxy sits back down.

"Now why don't we talk this out like civilized people! You’re civilized aren't you?" Flummox talks like he's speaking to a bunch of children.

"I kind of want you dead immediately." Kade threatens.

Lock isn't being choked, just close to being stabbed

"I'll show you civilized." Roxy snarks. Cole collapses and passes out.

Melody looks between Lock and Flummox. "What do you want?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I think you might be out of the loop on this one" there's still an eerie glow to his eyes "The name's Jack" he smiles but it looks a bit disgusting

"There it is." Roxy says.

"Cool name. What do you want???" Melody asks again, keeping her composure.

"Slow your roll! I wasn’t done yet." Jack retorts.

"I am out of the loop, thanks for catching me up. Uhh, I still don't like you though." Kade adds.

"Okay! Sorry-" Melody says, panicking just a tad.

"I’m also that haunted account. The guy talking about a dead hamster...god that’s my favorite bit."

Melody nods.

"Ring any bells???" Jack asks.

"No, not really." Melody replies.

"Too many." Roxy groans.

"Uh." Kade is unaware.

Cole takes a sharp breath as he rises to his feet, "you fucking cock, how dare you activate a program inside me."

"What about....", he gets out his phone with his other hand, "Cole shush, I’m sharing my socials geezumz."

"I love this so much actually it reminds me of when everyone was scared of King," Roxy is autistically vibrating

"But like, it's rude to activate that program when I'm fighting you...." Cole rests both his hands on his cane.

Kade is so perplexed. "What the fuck is happening."

"Ok- anywho, as I was saying!" Flummox huffs and flips through a couple of apps. "Maybe you know me for my fanfictions? My pen name is Meph on Tumblr."

"YOU!" Cole steps forward as he slams his cane against the ground, "my assistant has been telling me about that person...."

"Oh my fucking god." Roxy glares.

"You're fucking with me." Kade huffs.

Melody has a blank expression. "Um.. dont know who that is either..."

"I let the dog in," Jack says.

"I WANT YOU FUCKING DEAD!" Kade shouts.

"I mean I could kill him right now" Cole turns to Kade.

Melody looks so confused. "Cool can you let Lock go now???"

"DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT" Kade responds to Cole.

Cole turns to Flummox, "so is this the part where I kill you."

"I did my funny lil reveal" Flummox lets go of Lock and pats her on the head. She froze in shock. Flummox then gets his gun back out and shoots Cole randomly near the chest "Whoops...I should really start turning the safety on these things!"

Kade tries to whack Flummox from the side. Melody runs to Lock, blocking her from Flummox. "Leave asshole!"

Cole is shot in the chest as he groans and stumbles back "YOU FUCKING COCK" Cole pulls the skull up and twists it to the left as 2 halves of a sword blade eject from the sides of the cane and clash together at the end of the cane creating some sparks and a full shortsword blade he then slashes at Flummox.

Flummox quickly grabs Melody and pushes her in the way of the hammer as he gets cut on the arm by the cane. He heads out the door "LMAO"

Lock is still stunned and stays in place. Melody gets flung into the wall and slides down. "oiffuufhfhrjfjm...."

Kade stares. Distraught.

Cole looks over at Kade, "you really should avoid hitting allies ya know?" Melody whimpers on the floor.

"WOW, I DIDN'T NOTICE. MAYBE I SHOULD LEARN HOW TO STOP TIME WHILE I'M AT IT," 

Kade yells.

Cole smiles, "yeah?"

"YEAH..." The hammer dissipates into smoke. Kade breathes in, takes a step back, then screams at the top of his lungs.

Cole walks over to Melody and checks to make sure they aren't hurt. She’s fine.

Kade stops after a solid 10 minutes, then sighs. "I needed a moment." He goes over to Melody. And pats her head "Sorry about that."

Melody looks up. "It’s okay.... can I get a hug?" He hugs her.

She hugs back, yawning. "I’m sleepy..."

"You should sleep.." He looks over to Lock, then looks back to Cole.

"What? I don't need sleep, I feel fine." Cole shrugs.

"No, I mean you should probably help, or something, I don't know."

Melody pulls away from the hug, "Is Lock going to be okay?"

Cole looks over at Lock, "yeah probably." He leans his cane against the couch and tries to scoop Lock into his arms.

"I need several drinks. After this." Kade sighs.

Lock takes a step back. "I-I’m not imagining things right? That was Jack?" She sounds confused and tired.

Cole nods and sighs, "yeah, that was Jack."

"...huh..." Lock starts to sway slightly, "...well my uh...I’m a lil lighhh-" Lock faints like a pansy.

Cole catches Lock before she hits the floor and leans her against the wall, "oop." He sits next to Lock and vibes. Melody nods, heading to her room to sleep.

Shortly after, Lock shakes her head and wakes up from the faint. Krystal walks into the living room, their shoulder wrapped up in bandages, as they hop up to the top bunk and carefully lay down. Kade sits in the middle of the room.

"Glad things have calmed down at least." Krystal’s voice is tired.

"Meph..........."

"We heard. They were Jack this entire time. And they've read The World Reached. Kind of terrifying, if you ask me. A villain that knows our pasts." Krystal adds.

Cole groans as he mutters, "I'm not looking forward to this."

Lock sighs "T-that's my dad."

"Why did you let the dog in...." Kade begins to break down into tears.

"I thought he was cool for a whole day or two. But now..." they look at the injured shoulder, "I want to pay them back for this. Oh, and Lunes' sword is gone." There are pieces of Luna's shattered pink claymore scattered around the impact zone.

Cole takes a deep breath and sighs heavily, "I'm not gonna be much of use when I'm forced to laugh the whole battle."

The tv resumes Just Dance and the lights cut on. Krystal turns the game off with her psychic powers angrily.

"I'll fix the sword later, but for now I have to think about my actions against those bears...." Cole mutters.

"What. What did you do to bears." Kade asks and looks over.

Krystal lays back and eventually falls asleep, but not before listening to Cole talk about the bears. Lock stays awake all night. She mainly sits there and watches whatever is happening in the room or zones out.

“I killed like 5 bears after I ate a fucking brick of coke," Cole remarks and doesn't have a scratch on him.

[[[8TXeom9pEeOr_a0nncmeU

>https://youtu.be/8Xo9EO_0nmU Temperance

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