Post by Tempest on May 2, 2020 13:47:26 GMT -5
All I have undergone
I will keep on
All I have undergone
I will keep on
All I have undergone
I will keep on
All I have undergone
I will keep on
“The way out is through,” she said quietly. Sitting in the corner of the underground cage, her hair was a matted mess, dirty and pointing in all directions. Her face was filthy. She sat with her legs pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped around them, her right hand clutching her left wrist.
Dirt-covered jeans hugged her hips, and a layer of dust hid the Mickey Mouse logo on the front of her white tank top. What once were bright red Vans were faded, either from age or this place. She spoke from within the shell she had positioned herself.
“It’s been my mantra for a long time, you know, some sort of… psalm of survival. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been locked in a cage. My entire life has been spent inside a cage.”
She paused, laughing without amusement.
“I don’t even know my exact age, my birthday. I’m just kept in these cages like a living, breathing talisman.”
She paused again, and for a moment she seemed to have fallen asleep.
“Like you, I’m exhausted. I don’t know what day it is.”
She laughed again, still vacant of sincere amusement.
“I don’t even know what year it is, sweetie.”
She opened up, crawling first to her knees, then to her feet. She seemed tall, but it was difficult to tell inside the cage she was standing in. There was dirt in her hair. A single lamp from the basement above provided her with light, dim and hazy.
“Unlike you, though, I don’t know what it’s like to be free. I don’t know what it’s like to run outside, to play with other children. I hardly know how to read, only from what I’ve picked up along the way.”
She hung her head, teardrops falling to the dirt below her. Worms squirmed at her feet, their pink bodies brighter against the dirt, even in dim light. She fought back more tears as she sniffed.
“But this isn’t about me. This is about you, Sloane Taylor. They call you the Bubblegum Princess.”
She sniffed, walking across the cage and gazing up into the basement. Her eyes were a beautiful light blue. They seemed to shine as lights of their own. They were eyes that were very difficult to look away from.
“They’re coming for you,” she warned. “They want to put you in a cage like mine, but not with me. They want you to be alone, like me, but not alone with me. They’ve been digging, like grave robbers.”
She laughed, this time with ever so slight sincerity. Specks of dirt contaminated her teeth.
“They’ve been digging your cage. They’ve been digging your prison. They’ve been digging what they’re hoping to be your tomb. This place... this place is bigger than it looks from the outside,” she said.
“I’m located beneath the basement, obviously, but… I don’t know, it’s like…” she bit her lip as she tried to formulate how to explain the images in her head.
“It’s like I’m in the depths of something else. The basement leads to a… a labyrinth! I can’t even… I mean, this labyrinth that the basement leads to, it takes you places. It’s like, their secret, you know? Like to Channel Thirteen. But then, somewhere deep in the bowels of the labyrinth is where I am.”
She sniffed again, before going into a fit of coughing. It took her a few moments to regain her composure.
“I know more about them than they know. I can help you escape them, and end their infatuation with you.”
She crouched down again, sitting back into a corner of her cage. Above, a specter passed by, whispering, “Is this the way you get to Hell?” Chernobyl nodded once and the apparition disappeared. She continued as though it never happened.
“I think I have your trust now, and that’s good. The music box,” she said, smiling a little.
“The music box is your key to the lock.” She frowned. “But, it doesn’t work if you don’t give it all of your trust. It knows if you trust it fully or not. If you embrace it, it will embrace you. And then, the way out is through.”
She put her head down. She was obviously extremely tired. She shook the dirt out of her hair as she brought her head back up.
“The music box is your link to me, Sloane. The melody is a labyrinth in and of itself, but it will lead you, like a siren, through the maze and bring you to the missing talisman.”
She gasped a little, as if she had just spilled an important secret by mistake. She covered her mouth, her eyes shifting from side to side. Then, she brought her hands away from her mouth and revealed a mischievous smile.
“I don’t know when you’re going to meet Tempest face-to-face, Sloane, I just know it’s soon because I can feel the tension. When the tension grows here, it makes my cage hot and humid. And I hate it. When you stand face-to-face with him, it’s going to be very unpleasant. But, you have to fight! You can’t give up, you can’t give in! When your light dies…”
Her eyes were pleading for Sloane to listen to her.
“...mine does too. You are my entire purpose, now. Don’t ask me why,” she laughed, “I guess it’s just the way our fates have been designed. Please…”
Now her eyes were begging.
“Tell me… you’re listening,” she whispered.
Underneath it all
We feel so small
The heavens fall
But still we crawl
All I have undergone
I will keep on
TikTok Tempest
It had been a bizarre week, even for Tempest. Daedalus and Ny-Otep had glanced at one another in confusion several times, but had shrugged it off for the most part. At night, Daedalus fished through the program to see if anything had been altered but he couldn’t find anything different than what he had done.
It started with the TikTok video. Yes, you read that correctly. Tempest made a TikTok video. Okay, it wasn’t exactly TikTok. It was something pretty much identical, but with a different name. And the app animates you as you dance. It’s very cartoonish and child-like. And since the name of the app in their realm escapes me, we’ll have to make due with TikTok.
Anyway, it was discovered as Daedalus had eavesdropped on him while he was changing clothes. Daedalus just assumed he was looking for ring gear for his next match. But, then he saw the dance.
Yes, that’s Tempest behind that hood. And yes, that’s his dance.
Daedalus got the attention of Ny-Otep and the two watched in wonder as Tempest seemed to be stuck on repeat, doing the same choreography over and over again. This went on for perhaps a half an hour before Tempest stopped and glanced over his shoulder. The other two Astro Creeps weren’t there. Several hours later Ny-Otep nudged Daedalus and pointed a single, humongous finger at his cell phone as a notification popped up. Someone had ‘liked’ his video posted a few hours before on that cartoony app.
Daedalus unlocked his phone and tapped the notification to find that Tempest had an account on that social media app, and worse than that, posted a video of him dancing to some silly ass song in the background. His eyes bugged out in disbelief and he turned to look at Ny-Otep, who responded with a simple shrug.
The Lollipop Prince
Tempest wasn’t just secretly creating accounts on social media. It wasn’t the only bizarre behavior that the Creeps had noticed. Somewhere, who knows where, Tempest had found a plush hedgehog that looked like it had been run over by an eighteen wheeler.
Tempest came running from behind the farmhouse with it held high in the air, like some kind of trophy. Daedalus, alarmed by the commotion, squinted against the sunlight to see what the fuss was about. Tempest reached him, breathing hard.
“Can I keep him?” he asked between deep breaths.
Daedalus looked disgustedly from Tempest to the plush hedgehog, back to Tempest.
“I don’t--is your hair pink!?” he exclaimed. “And what’s in your mouth!?”
Tempest smiled, as though he were receiving a compliment.
“Do you like it? It’s for my Tweek Stream!” he said excitedly.
“No, I don’t like it. I think…” he trailed off, his brain processing. “Your… Tweek… Stream.”
Now… for those who are familiar with Twitch in your realm… That’s Tweek in theirs.
“Yeah,” Tempest said, pulling a lollipop from his mouth. Daedalus eyed the lollipop. In the middle, an insect was entombed in the sweet sugar on a stick. “So, can I keep him? His name is Squash and he would be an absolute hit on any social media platform you put his cute little ass on!”
“Sure, keep him,” Daedalus said. He was obviously frazzled and confused. As Tempest took off towards the farmhouse, Daedalus brought his hand up to his face, his thumb resting on his chin as he watched on, analyzing.
“What the fuck is going on, here,” he said to himself quietly. After several moments, he decided to follow. He entered the farmhouse and gazed curiously at Ny-Otep sitting quietly on the couch, watching a black screen on the television set.
“Did you know,” Daedalus said, stepping in front of the television, “that Tempest has a Tweek Stream?”
Ny-Otep scrunched his nose in confusion.
“What’s a Tweek Stream?” he asked.
Daedalus chuckled, throwing his arms out in front of him, “I… don’t… know! But I’m about to go find out. I don’t know what kind of fucked up stage this kid is going through, but I think I’ve just about had my fill of it.”
He marched through the farmhouse to the upstairs. But Tempest wasn’t in his bedroom. He sighed, marching back downstairs and through all of the rooms, but still couldn’t find him. He stood in the kitchen, hands on his hips, as he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, making a tick-ticking sound of a clock. He took in a deep breath and exhaled before deciding to search the basement.
He entered and glanced past all of the junk that Tempest and Ny-Otep had disturbed several weeks ago. Annoyed, he walked down the hallway that led further into the basement. He could hear Tempest talking from… the labyrinth? Was he speaking to Chernobyl?
Daedalus was suddenly alarmed. He took off through the entrance of the labyrinth and expertly made his way through the twists and turns of it--after all, it was he who designed in. When he got closer to Tempest’s voice, however, his panic seemed to disappear. It was replaced instantly with irritation. He found a door disguised in one of the labyrinth walls. Had he not heard Tempest speaking, he may not have found the door. He swung it open like an angry father catching a young child in the act of misbehaving. On the other side, Tempest sat, lounging in a gamer’s chair, surrounded by huge screens and brightly lit PC towers and speakers. His keyboard was brightly rainbow colored. On one screen was a chat room that seemed relatively empty, and on another screen was a video game. His pink hair illuminated in the bright lights of the otherwise dark room.
“What the fuck is this!?” Daedalus exclaimed.
Tempest rotated around in his chair quickly, plucking the lollipop out of his mouth. The UGWC Chaos Championship and the plush hedgehog sat in his lap.
“Oh… you’ve found my gaming room,” he said casually.
“Oh… I guess I did,” Daedalus mocked. “What exactly do you think you’re doing right now?”
“Trying to get subscribers,” Tempest said, as if Daedalus had asked a stupid question.
“Sub… scribers?” Daedalus repeated.
Tempest took his headset off and set it next to the keyboard. He stood, cradling his hedgehog carefully under one arm.
“Yeah… Hey, I named him Squash! Isn’t that the cutest name you’ve ever heard for a hedgehog?”
He tickled the eyeball that bulged out of the stuffed roadkill’s face. Daedalus scoffed in disgust.
“T… just what… I don’t… Look, could you just explain to me… what has gotten into you?”
“Hey, is it cool that I got the Disney plus app? There are a lot of movies and shows I’ve never seen that I’m told I should have by now. That’s what my chat says,” he pointed to the screen with an empty chat box.
Daedalus looked closely.
“But… there isn’t anyone in your chat.”
“I know, and they all like Squash too, isn’t that great!?”
“Are you hearing me right now!?” he screamed in Tempest’s face. Tempest recoiled and looked at Daedalus… no… he looked down at Daedalus. And then walked back and sat down in his gaming chair. He clicked into a game. Daedalus watched. It looked like basketball, but not exactly. The players were monsters. It looked like Tempest’s character was a shirtless alien in black and white basketball shorts. He read the name on the screen…
“Lollipop Prince,” he mumbled to himself, and closed his eyes tightly.
I’m going to count to ten, he thought, and then I’m going to wake from this goddamned dream.
He clinched his teeth together tightly. When he opened his eyes, the Lollipop Prince was taking the ball up court. It was three on three. He passed the bright green ball to a teammate. He got the ball back.
"Why not let it flyyyyyy,” he said loudly into his microphone. And then when his meter reached bright green and the ball swished through the net, “SPLASH!” he screamed before laughing obnoxiously.
“You sound like a fucking dolphin,” Daedalus whispered to himself. Then he turned on his heel and he left.
The following night, Daedalus woke from a dream that had all of the answers to his questions on Tempest’s recent behavior.
He woke, his eyes fluttering open, and he stared up at the ceiling with a smile.
Tempest’s obsession with Kenzi Grey had transferred to Sloane Taylor. His obsession with Sloane was different than his obsession with Kenzi, though. Daedalus felt that. Tempest used to dress as his own twisted version of Kenzi, mimicking her as he salivated over her. But, this was going deeper than that, even. Tempest was not just dressing as Sloane--in fact, he wasn’t dressing as her at all. Instead, he was mimicking her behavior and personality entirely. Tempest was literally--
“--becoming you,” Tempest said with a laugh. He frowned.
“Were you sleeping again, Bubblegum?”
He spoke quietly. His pink hair was deeper now, it was more red than it was pink, but not quite dark enough to be red completely. He was shirtless, clutching the Chaos Championship in one hand. Behind him, Squash sat in his own innards on a shelf between two socks of marbles, watching with one bulging eye. He was leaning against a concrete wall, a light bulb hanging near his head. His face paint had the slightest hint of pink in it. Between his lips was a lollipop stick. He took it out with his free hand, making a smacking sound as he did. The red harded sugar surrounded another insect in its middle.
“It’s okay,” he said patiently, “I’ll start from the beginning.”
Unlike the devil, I’ve never seen the face of god
Sweet Mr. Jesus, infected on my skin
Demons surround you
I’m crawlin’ on the ground
Shame for another
Another taste of life
As he shifted his body, the bruises could be seen--big, ugly purple bruises he endured at the hands of the Bubblegum Princess, herself. If his face hadn’t been painted in the spot, a reddish purple bruise on the inside of his left eye would have been seen, as well.
“In the beginning, I wasn’t interested in you. I ignored your flirtatious posts on social media. I chose not to show you any attention. I simply wasn’t interested in you. I wasn’t attracted to you.”
He smiled.
“You see, I was wrong. I thought it was Kenzi Grey that I held a special infatuation for. And, I did, at first. I did, until you and I became entangled together. And if I hadn’t before Monday, I knew when you started hitting me with that cold steel against my body that we were destined to do this… forever,” he whispered.
It’s alive, oh, everybody
It’s alive, oh, the Creepers call me
It’s alive, oh, everybody
It’s alive, oh, the Creepers call me
He held the Chaos Championship in front of his eyes, gazing at its design.
“I took this from Kenzi. This was the best piece of her. Once I took this, the rest of her decayed and rotted away. She became irrelevant. Once she lost this, she wasn’t fun to play with anymore. I expected even less from you. I think even you expected less from you. But what a pleasant gift we’ve unwrapped, isn’t it? Once the Astro Creeps peeled a layer from the Bubblegum Princess, we unlocked a surprising new side of you.”
Dead parts surround you
Draw me forever black
He’s falling on the way
Out with another
A falling wall of sound
Say that you love it
Don’t make me turn it down
“But something has happened, and even you can’t deny it. I feel it, and I know you feel it too, because I’m feeling the things that you’re feeling. Ever since it was announced that you and I will be in a Maniacal Multiple Massacre match, something inside me has opened up. At first, my soul, it whispered, ‘who’s there?’ even foolishly knowing the answer. This match, there’s something in this match that changes you. It transforms you.”
It’s alive, oh, everybody
It’s alive, oh, the Creepers call me
It’s alive, oh, everybody
It’s alive, oh, the Creepers call me
“It’s fusing us, Bubblegum. No one is going to know you like I do after this Monday, and no one is going to know me like you do. Close your eyes,” he whispered.
“Close your eyes, and accept this transfusion, as I am… I can feel you, moving around inside me, pushing, and pushing, and pushing… digging into the membrane… listening to my thoughts… exploring me… becoming me…”
Born to kill
Black, blue, and bloody fingers
Hong Kong hell
Been time to face this wheel
Now filthy smooth
I’ll tell the pussycats
And ultra pain
Gonna blow it all away
He held the championship belt across his shoulder, his eyes narrowing.
“Please, tell me… you feel it too.”
A sly smile crept along the edges of his mouth.
“You are my fate, Sloane Taylor. You are the lightning bolt to my Frankenstein’s monster. You’ve awakened me… finally. Just think about it… The Bubblegum Princess… The Lollipop Prince… two, of a kind!”
He held his hands out as if displaying the idea in front of him, excitedly exclaiming his point. Then, he lowered his voice back down to the soft spoken, almost comforting tone that it normally was.
“Bubblegum Princess… Sloane Taylor… I know you can feel this… I am absorbing you… I am... becoming you.”
He laughed maniacally, like he just told a hilarious joke with a hysterical punchline. He even slapped his knee, before shaking his head and regaining his composure. He gave a wink before readjusting the Chaos Championship on his shoulder and walking away in his unorthodox way of walking. Below where he was standing, a pair of eyes peered up from a cage, light blue eyes shining in a world of darkness.
It’s alive, oh, everybody
It’s alive, oh, the Creepers call me
It’s alive, oh, everybody
It’s alive, oh, the Creepers call me
2022
x2
