leaveyoumangled

[leaveyoumangled]

Most supernaturals share that sentiment. Some have even made pacts with family and friends that if they're taken, they'll do everything in their power to end their own lives before they reach the facility. I've been so, so tempted to kill employees I come across near my home, but I can't risk endangering my family. When I'm alone and find them? Well, I wouldn't say that they come out unscathed. A lot of them end up in the ground in shallow graves when I'm done.

Never understood the logic behind a shallow grave. Even if the contents aren't planning to climb back out, surely you don't want them within digging range of a police dog? No point in burying someone at all if they're not going to stay there.

[leaveyoumangled]

"Ow! Damn, you're slick. You had me worried, though," Lukas winces as the demon appears, flicking him in the head before disappearing again. Lukas turns to Nathan, passing him the sedative in the syringe.

"You ready?" he asks, brushing his brown hair out of his face, a nervous habit.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Nathan replies softly, taking the syringe and concealing it in his sleeve. "If anything goes wrong, get out of there. We're demons, we can handle a few humans. You need to take care of yourself. If I suspect there's even a hint of trouble, I won't inject you."

He resists the urge to snap at Anti as he catches the green-haired rolling his eyes, opting to begin walking towards IRIS instead.

"When we get within range, you know what to do. Make it convincing, we only get one shot at this."

[leaveyoumangled]

Ashton stared at the beautiful book, his thoughts racing.

"Could this... could this bring you back to life? How would it even work? Is it foolproof, or would this hurt your body?" All of Ashton's questions come tumbling out at once, his mind going a mile a minute.

"Honeypup, take a breath," Natemare said softly, going back to stroking Ashton's face despite the fact he knew his fingers were ice-cold and lacked a pulse. "The way I was killed... I don't know if bringing me to life would just kill me again, or if there's a price to pay for what seems to be blood magic..."

He lowered his voice, not wanting to scare Eryn. She'd given them space to talk but could perhaps still catch slivers of what they were saying.

"It likely demands a sacrifice. We're either dealing with resurrection or more unsettlingly, necromancy. We don't know what will happen if you try one of those incantations."

[leaveyoumangled]

Lukas stares in a mixture of shock and horror.

"He... he shouldn't have been caught. They shouldn't have been able to find him in the first place," he whispers.

"IRIS policies state that depending on how long the person was free and how many times they escaped, they'll either be put in the solitary cells for a few months... or they'll be killed, which is likely what they'll do to Anthony," Lukas explains, swearing under his breath as he looks at Nathan.

"We can't let them get Anthony inside that building. We have to change this plan." Lukas thinks quickly, eyes sparking with an idea.

"I go out there, thank them for grabbing Anthony. I tell them that I'll take him in, say that I've been tracking him for a while and know how to properly take him in. I get him out of the net. You come in, take Anthony, and make it look like you killed me. They won't give two shits."

"You two," a voice comes from behind them, and a dull pain suddenly hits the back of Lukas' head, "should have a little more faith in the distraction."

Anthony appears in a flicker, grinning from ear to ear. "As if I'd let myself get caught so easily. What is a decoy if not something that draws attention away from the main event? Are you two ready, by the way? The systems are about to go down; I've set a virus running through the whole mainframe."

He looks over at the net, where his projected self is still glitching weakly. Some of the IRIS members cautiously approach and poke at it, and it sits up a little and snarls at them, causing them to back away.

"Takes a lot out of me, can't do it often, but it's kinda like a Pokémon using Double Team," he states. "Fully functional replica."

"You're a dick," Natemare responds wryly, having dodged out of the way before Anthony could clip him. "Stop playing the showman, you could've jeopardised the whole plan."

"Yeah yeah, but I didn't. I've actually done my part. You people are slacking. C'mon, hurry it up." Anthony giggles playfully before glitching out of Nathan's reach, though Lukas might notice him falter and wince slightly if he's watching. "Captive Natemare, take one. Go go go!"

[leaveyoumangled]

Ashton listened intently to Nathan. Afton stooped lower and lower with every crime until he had taken the one person Ashton had cared about most, not to mention murdering children. If the devil had ever walked the earth, Ashton was sure that he was Afton.

"The animatronics here... are they the same ones you're talking about? Are you all stuck here, unable to leave or move on?" The prospect of his love being stuck in this hellhole forever makes Ashton's heart hurt.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Yeah, they're my friends. Fritz, Gabriel, Cael and Jeremy. Also known as Foxy, Freddy, Chico and Bonnie. We're stuck here except for full moon days. On the full moon, we become corporeal enough to leave."

Nathan gently cradled Ashton's face, giving him a tender look. "I don't think there's anything you can do, but-"

Before he got a chance to finish, a heavy thud came from nearby. Nathan broke away from Ashton and knelt to pick it up, staring at it in surprise.

It was leatherbound and black, lined with golden writing. The title read, 'Religatio animae'

"This is..." Nathan breathed, holding the book out to Ashton. "Souls can't open it, only the living can. I've never seen one of these before, I've only heard about them. But they're very powerful. Latin works usually are. Powerful enough perhaps to wake the dead."

[leaveyoumangled]

"Pull up the AO3 account, or Wattpad if you want to gamble," Lukas fires back with a smirk. The conversation feels... natural, like they're just two friends. Lukas is willing to put a lot of money on the two being anything but friends. It's a simple event, nothing more. Even from a distance, the IRIS building can be seen, rising above all of the others as if even the building itself thinks that it's better than the other building beneath it, similar to how the heads of IRIS think of themselves.

"Don't tempt me," Natemare replies with a grin. His relaxed demeanour falters as they approach the building, and suddenly, he grabs Lukas and tugs him behind a wall, pressing a finger to his own lips before pointing ahead.

Snarling and thrashing like a wild beast... is Anti. The demon seems to be contained within some kind of net, though it doesn't look like ordinary mesh. As if he's a vicious animal, the members of IRIS surround the net with guns trained on their capture. It's unclear whether they're tranquiliser guns or filled with bullets.

Anti glitches fiercely, but no matter how many times he tries to displace himself, the net holds. There's a sudden flash of vivid light, then the demon collapses, growing still as the lines of the net crackle with electricity.

"He can literally possess devices," Natemare breathes, his voice drenched with disbelief. "He could've jumped into a camera to hide, or a computer; there's no shortage of places he could've escaped to. How the hell did he get caught?"

[leaveyoumangled]

"I know I didn't do anything wrong, but... maybe if we'd gone drinking that night, you'd still be here. We'd have ditched this shitty town, moved somewhere by ourselves," Ashton explains. He's held himself guilty for the last few years.

"...I couldn't stand this place anymore. People were saying the most vile things about you specifically. I packed my stuff and left. You... you should still be here. It isn't fair!" Ashton sniffles.

Eryn's heart breaks as she listens to her brother. Ashton shouldn't carry the guilt. How was he supposed to know what would happen to Nathan?

"I couldn't leave this town. There was a lot going on that you didn't know about," Natemare states softly, reaching up and gently caressing Ashton's cheek. "My boss at the time was... well... pulling strings behind the scenes. You see, I wasn't killed at the same time as those kids. I found out about 'em after they'd possessed the robots. I was working the night shift and they came to investigate me. After I learned that they weren't dangerous, I told them I was happy to stay up with them and keep them company. Afton didn't like that I knew their secret, he fired me. Seven years went by and I met you. I planned to up sticks and leave, but on the day I made the decision, I got a call from Afton pulling me back to the location. Apparently, the latest hire had accidentally shot a janitor and they were understaffed again. I wanted to see how the kids were doing, and hell, we needed the money to even think about moving, so I took the job. Ended up meeting the latest hire and kinda befriending him, though he wasn't too keen on me or the gang. We thought our biggest problem was Springtrap, an animatronic that got its circuitry fried and turned aggressive. We were wrong. Afton had pulled us all together in hopes that we'd turn on each other. We all knew about the secret, he wanted to eliminate us without getting his hands dirty. But uh... since we didn't, he burst through the wall with a chainsaw and took one of his employees out. Came after me and the hire with a flamethrower. Springtrap went feral on him, ended up knocking the weapon out of his hands, and the whole building went up in flames. He survived, the cops turned over what was left of the place, found hard evidence of his crimes on the cameras, and sent him down. But he used his one phone call to say that he was going to hunt me down and kill me."

Natemare's hand lowers, gaze averting as a soft sigh leaves his lips. "I thought it was an empty threat. I came back here to clear my desk and say my farewells to the animatronics, and before I could even step foot inside the building, I was being dragged behind it. I never got to say goodbye to you, or explain what I was doing. I didn't think one shift would take me away for good, but..."

But it had.

[leaveyoumangled]

The soul wrinkled their nose in sympathy at the mention of reliving a death every month, but chose not to comment on it further than a faint hum of acknowledgement for how much it must suck. Kess listened patiently to Natemare's thoughts on why magic users were so evasively awkward, nodding along as it fell into sense. They sighed, and gave a vague sort of shrug about the whole situation. "Maybe that's the problem. Something's up with the magic, and it's bothering everyone." Their blue eyes narrowed slightly, apparently thinking. Their head tilted, and then they glanced over their shoulder, away from him, as if they'd heard a distant noise that caught some of their attention. "...or y'know, maybe you have more of a rat problem than you thought. Specifically one giant, shadowy rat-"

"Hm."

Natemare could unfortunately think of more than one party who fit that description. He sighed gently and opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again as he realised they were being watched.

"Fritz," he said sternly. "It's not nice to eavesdrop."

A small huff came from the darkness, then a large red fox emerged. He moved fluidly, as if his joints were compromised of muscle instead of metal, and even with a hind paw made of steel, his approach was barely audible.

"It's not nice to keep people in the doorway," the fox retorted, catching Natemare by the arm and gently but firmly pulling him aside. "Least you can do is let them in."

"Oh sure," Natemare said wryly. "Welcome to the deathtrap, don't mind the ceiling collapsing and crushing you, that's just one of the charms of this place."

"Well, if the owner hadn't burned it down," Fritz began, but Nate levelled him with a hard stare.

"Not in front of Kestrel," he muttered lowly.

Fritz fell into silence, then turned his attention to Kess instead, offering his good hand to them.

"Captain Foxy at yer service!" he said brightly, with an accent that definitely hadn't been there before. "Pleasure to meet'ya, welcome aboard! Now, what were ye sayin' about magic disturbances?"

[leaveyoumangled]

the insane experience of missing a fictional character . like you can always go back and reread the book , replay the game , rewatch the show or movie , you can always go back & see them , but you can never experience them & their story for the first time again . its absurd to miss them because they'll always be there , but you'll miss when there were still new things for them to say .

for a small time they were real & growing and changing and you hung onto every new word, but now all they can do is repeat the same story forever&ever & they're not real anymore because you know everything they're going to do. & you miss them. its fucked man...

[leaveyoumangled]

Lukas purses his lips as Nathan explains how he met Anthony. He was probably on the run from IRIS. He chuckles quietly at the comment of delusional people calling their relationship a friendship.

"A friendship, eh? What about an 'enemies to lovers' arc?" Lukas jokingly suggests as he gets ready for the walk to IRIS.

"I can see the fanfiction already," Natemare responds wryly. "Interestingly, I think he has someone now. I've heard him being giggly when chatting to the animatronics about 'him'."

He falls into step beside Lukas, hooking his thumbs into the pockets of his trousers.

"I've never seen that side of him before. Since this man came into his life, he's been almost a different person. Just not around me."

[leaveyoumangled]

Lukas grins as Nathan flaunts the stolen knife.

"Well, now he has to actually listen. I get the feeling he doesn't like listening to other people much," he jests. At Nathan's question about being ready, he nods. Lukas has never been more ready. This is his one shot at freedom, and he isn't throwing it away.

"He doesn't like other people," Natemare paraphrases. "He used to spend a lot of time at the restaurant though. Back when he didn't know I was here. He came racing in one day, collapsed into the nearest seat and broke down. I didn't make myself known, and I kept the others from investigating too. When he stood up again, he went to the music box and wound it up. Stood beside it until the song stopped. The second the last note finished, he was gone. But arcade machines that'd been inactive for years were suddenly illuminating. Lights were flickering on in rooms where nobody had set foot for decades. I left him to it. I saw a scared little kid exploring his new hiding place and I felt sorry for him. I watched him on the cameras for the next month, making sure he never did any damage. Sometimes he'd talk with the animatronics. Sometimes he'd climb on the tables and jump from one to the other. Sometimes he'd just sit on a windowsill and stare at the ceiling. He always looked lost. Even when he smiled, he looked as if he didn't know who he was and was clinging to the idea of an identity. One day, he caught me watching him. He swore at me and tried to leave, but I grabbed his arm. Told him it was the first time I'd seen him and I just wanted to know who he was. I don't know if he believed me or not, but he told me his name. Said he was running from something bigger than him. Then he looked sheepish and said that if I let him visit, he'd owe me a favour."

Twirling the knife in his fingers, Natemare grins. "So I called in my favour for today. Honestly, I know his snarky self is an act, but it's all he has. He plays the part of nuisance and I play the part of annoyed party. Delusional people might even call it friendship."

His smile falters slightly. "It's almost time. We should get moving."

[leaveyoumangled]

Concern flares across their expression at the sudden rush of blood, stumbling a few steps closer to the entity on reflex. They likely couldn't help fix whatever was wrong, but still, the thought was there. "...What... was that?" they asked, looking both confused and worried. "Are you okay?" Kess hesitated as Nate asked about the disturbance, and then sighed. This wasn't really their area of expertise - which lay closer to performance, specifically ones several metres above the ground - but they'd listened to other Collected in their ramblings. "Something to do with there being either too much magic around or not enough? Things have shifted. One of them said something about... people getting into places they shouldn't, but I think that was in reference to dreams??" They shrugged, rolling their blue eyes. "I swear the magic users speak exclusively in riddles."

"Oh, I just kinda... relive my death every time the full moon occurs," Natemare said with a shrug. "When the cycle continues and the moon goes from full to waxing or waning, I return to being incorporeal again. Seems that the full moon is the most powerful lunar phase and therefore it affects the supernatural. For me, I become tangible. I can feel everything and touch things. The downside is that I need to breathe and eat and stuff."

A brow lifted at the reference to dreams, but he dismissed it. There was no way that his own actions could have caused a disturbance, he wasn't powerful enough for that.

"Their riddles are probably due to the magic circle," he mused thoughtfully. "Even if you're not a part of it, I imagine the consequences for sharing secrets can be... dire. No doubt they want to be cautious. Besides, if information got into the wrong hands, it could be misused."

[leaveyoumangled]

"Well, he's not much of a talker, more of a doer," Lukas wryly comments as Anthony appears and vanishes quickly. He smiles a bit at Nathan, trying to conceal the inkling of fear he feels.

"Well, today's the day. Finally."

"He's an idiot," Natemare responds flatly. "He's been trying to convince me that rather than taking out the systems as we planned, we just take out the people. I reminded him that they're armed to deal with exactly that scenario, and he called me a coward."

He holds up a small knife, giving it a tired look. "I managed to get this from him, turns out it's his favourite one. He's only getting it back if he follows the plan. Speaking of which, are you ready?"

[leaveyoumangled]

Lukas stood outside of the pizzeria, checking his watch to make sure he was here on time. He took a deep breath. This was it. Today was the day he would either escape IRIS or die in the process.

Natemare stormed over, looking deeply annoyed. His expression shifted when he saw Lukas, softening at the edges. "You're here," he said softly. "Good."

There was a brief pause, then Anthony flickered into view, lifting a hand in greeting. "I'm going on ahead," he stated without so much as a hello. "See you there."

With that, he vanished again,

[leaveyoumangled]

Yes, IRIS is a familiar name to me. They're spoken of with fear and disgust where I live, to no surprise. Lately, efforts to detain and capture supernaturals have been ramping up. The older members of our community have been educating everybody, especially the children, about IRIS. Now that I think about it, those hunters very well could have worked for IRIS.

It's almost as if they're preparing for something. Perhaps an army of supernaturals is their intention, but they're very much mistaken if they think we'll take their orders. This isn't Suicide Squad.

Still, it interests me that we're being collected. Not killed, not at first, but certainly imprisoned. No doubt they've culled our kind too, but that doesn't seem to be the primary goal. We're not so much of a threat that we have to be eliminated, they feel safe enough to capture us like animals.

[leaveyoumangled]

Kess shifted their weight, hands re-emerging from their pockets. Some hint of grim confirmation flickered across their expression at the mention of the demon's name, one hand twitching to press briefly over their chest, a shudder running down their spine as they recalled the feeling of claws splitting it open. They listened to Nate's description of how differently his friends had been acting, head tilting slightly. A soft hum left their lips - a habit they'd mirrored from Phantom himself since their Collection. "...But they're just... acting odd, right? You can't feel a disturbance, there's no, like, magical charge in the air? Jay described it as like that feeling before a thunderstorm breaks. Think one of the others explained it as a weird, constant noise you can't explain but is just present enough to be annoying? Those guys confuse me."

"I may be a little beyond feeling things," Natemare mused, though as he lifted his gaze to the sky and saw the beautiful sphere of light suspended in the air like it'd been placed there, he felt a searing pain tear through his throat as if a blade had just carved open his oesophagus. He clutched his neck and whimpered, spluttered twice, then blood came spilling from his lips and he hastily wiped at it, staining his lips and chin with crimson. "Except on a night like this," he added wearily.

Once the pain subsided and the copper taste faded from his tongue, he gave Kess a weak smile. His expression shifted and he tipped his head a fraction, eyes filling with intrigue. "Oh, that? Yep, I can feel that. It's sort of... hmm... like the air is too dry. The icy feeling you get when you breathe and it's cold. Needles in your lungs. Not painful, but still sharp. Mm, that is... not pleasant. Do we know what it is?"

[leaveyoumangled]

Kess shrugged one shoulder at his preliminary words, apparently unbothered. "Y'know, the prospect of 'murder' would be way more terrifying if I hadn't recently had my organs splashed across the floor by a pissy demon," they remarked. Their expression sombered as he dragged his hands through his hair. A small wince of sympathy, screwing up their face a little. "That sounds... rough." They tucked their hands back into their pockets, scuffing the platform of their boot against the floor, clearly thinking things over. It's a moment of quiet before they speak again, soft and thoughtful. "All the magic users have been rambling about disturbances lately. Have you... felt anything like that...?"

"Wait, do you also have a Darkiplier problem?" Nate asked curiously, though the playful slanted smile that teased his lips suggested that he may not be taking things seriously. "I've tried everything to deter him. Traps, poison, sonic scarers, getting a cat. Guess he's just gonna keep chewing through the walls."

He lifted his gaze to their own again. "That aside, there's definitely been a disturbance. Something isn't right. The animatronics are affected by it. Freddy's always been quiet but never violent. But recently I've seen him rip up an arcade machine and throw it like a softball because it was, quote-on-quote, 'in his way'. Something in his eyes is different, he looks angry rather than contemplative. The others are just... scared. Chico doesn't even go out to smoke anymore, he just stays in and listens to the same song on the music player. Like it's keeping him sane. Bonnie hasn't touched his guitar in days, and Foxy hasn't even left the Cove."