Everywhere (4/10/23)

A ghostly voice whispers Violet's name. 

It seems to echo from everywhere all at once.

Violet looks around, curious to the voice

“Hello?”

"Vi-i-i-ole-t."

"Vi-Pey-Mar."

"Olet-ton-garet"

"Vi-vi-vi"

The tv begins to hiss, as smoke pours from it.

“Grass? Is that you?”

Violet looks to the Tv with curious, approaching it

The face and arm of Heather suddenly burst through the screen. She is still missing her scalp, like the day this Heather disappeared.

Her face is covered in eyes and mouths. A huge mouth is on the wound where the scalp should be. A long tongue flings out of this mouth and wraps around Violet's leg. 

“Hey hey hey! What are you doing?!”

Violet try’s to stomp on the tongue

The tongue is elastic and springs back into place. It doesn't loosen its grip at all. It slowly begins to retract with you in tow.

"Vi-vi-o-l-et.", Heather speaks in many voices.

Violet gets trips up and falls to the ground, clawing at the floor

“Heather, what happened to you?!”

"Vi-vi-ag-ra-ga-I-am-ra-olet."

She continues to wind in her tongue. Never slowing nor speeding up.

Violet summons a sword and try’s to slash it at the tongue

The tongue's elasticity bend with the sword, keeping it from cutting. Violet is almost to the TV now.

“Shit shit SHIT!”

Violet claws at the tongue with her one hand, trying to think of how to escape 

Heather suddenly whips back into the TV and pulls Violet in with her.

The room is silent and back to normal.

On the other side of the TV, you are in an identical version of the house. Heather is nowhere to be seen.

Violet stands up and looks around with a start

“Hello?”

As Violet looks around, the room has an afterimage in black and white. Hundreds of copies of this room follow Violets gaze, and with every tilt of your head more appear.

"Vi-io-pey-let-to-n"

The voice comes from behind Violet.

Violet turns around towards the voice

The room is ripped away. Violet is now in space. Violet can see nothing below her but stars, yet her feet find purchase on something.

Violet looks around, trying to see if she walk to… somewhere

“Grass? GRASS!”

Violet calls out, hoping her lost love is out here

Every bit of movement makes the space shift into a new area, from Lavender Tower to Harmonia's house. As soon as you blink or shift your focus, it changes back into space. 

Violet stands still

“Gods what is going on…”

"Vi-i-o-l-e-t." It's Grass' voice now, but it sounds like dozens of others are speaking with her.

“Grass? GRASS! Where are you?!”

Space begins to shift... To slither around Violet. The stars swirl in a clockwise motion.

“no No NO! WHERE IS GRASS?! TAKE ME TO HER! Please!… please.”

The space around Violet solidifies and turns a bright, fire-engine red.

Violet are surrounded by colossal reptilian scales, the size of city blocks.

Violet feels a gust of warm air coming from above you.

Violet looks around scared, but determined as she looks up

Violet's eyes meet with two, gigantic yellow orbs. Her vision is out of focus, but it does refocus, and when it does, she is staring up into the face of an enormous, red snake. It begins to slither down towards Violet.

“Uh hello? Who might you be?”

Violet try’s to back up slowly

Violet moves, but the snake remains just overhead. It continues down toward her.

Violet try’s to figure out it’s aura, while trying to back up quicker

It has no aura.

It suddenly opens its mouth as it continues to descend.

A long, forked tongue descends from the maw.

The snake stops just above her, large fangs posed overhead. The tongue stops on either side of her. The forks start to close in. 

Violet try’s to run, trying to escape

You run but do not move.

The forks of the tongue stop mere feet from you.

"CH00S3.", comes a voice you recognize as Mother's.

The ends of the forked tongue warp into two faces. One is Grass' and the other is Heather's. They both start screaming, as if in the most intense pain imaginable. 

Violet hates this dark game. She does not want to choose but deeps down know who she would… will in a heart beat

Violet rushes to the face of Grass, holding tight to it

The snake vanishes in an instant. Violet is in complete darkness. All is silent. Before her in the nothingness stands Grass.

“Grass? Is that you?”

Tears show in her eyes

Grass opens her mouth to speak. Nothing comes out.

A voice follows after a long delay. It is Grass' but it sounds like she is underwater. 

"I once was her. I once was Heather. I am now neither and both." 

“What in the- What have you done to Grass?!”

"I have done nothing to myself. I am what became of us, when we fell through into this version of reality."

"I am Mother, I am not. I am Naomi and I am not."

"With all of me together... I am Raga."

Violet sees a gigantic metallic centipede form around you. It appears and disappears, as quickly as a bolt of lightning.

"We are Raga."

In your mind you see the twin women that you saw atop Raga's back. One face is now Grass' and the other is Heather's. 

“No no no! YOU ARE A MONSTER! LEAVE GRASS AND HEATHER ALONE!”

Grass laughs.

"I am no monster. I am your beloved Grass."

Gen appears behind Violet and leans over her shoulder. "Your Olive."

"I am Raga, yes... but not the one you... hate."

"When I was lost to the... absence... I was ripped apart."

"All I could ever be was sent here, while everything I was not was trapped there."

"I am potential... only." 

"No body but Grass and Heather's."

"We are me."

"To kill what I am not... feeds my potential. I want nothing more than that." 

"Make me... whole."

Violet starts to cry, unsure of how to save Heather, how to save her lover Grass, how to defeat Raga. She feels hopeless

“Just… give me back my potential… my Grass…”

Grass and Violet disappear

Grass and Violet appear in the center of the living room, at Harmonia's House

Both seem to be distorted, like they are underwater.

"See, D34R Violet... I took nothing from you... Grass... I... am everywhere now."

"Raga is everywhere."

Violet looks around… awkward, focusing her attention on… Grass?

“You are a monster! You are not Grass, not Heather, you are Raga! A beast!”

Kade walks in from his room and blinks.

"Uhhh what are you doing?" Hinata looks incredibly confused.

Luna is taking notes silently.

"These beings... are all just as me as Grass... I did nothing to change her."

"I am part of the very DNA that makes up their vessels."

Violet and Grass vanish.

Both appear in limbo for only a moment. Then disappear.

Both Grass and Violet appear in Cole's warehouse for only a moment. Then disappear again.

Both Violet and Grass are on the couch at Grass' place.

"See, we are everywhere."

"Always."

Violet's head feels like it is splitting, as pain shoots throughout it. Violet sees thousands of places around her, all at once.

"This is my sight."

Suddenly, Violet is in darkness again. Grass is in front of her, holding out her hand.

Violet is unsure if she wants to take her hand… another one of Raga’s tricks? But no… she has to trust it

Violet grabs her hand

Violet both appear at Applebee's for a moment, and then Violet is in the darkness again.

Grass smiles. 

"I'm so glad to see you again."

“Grass? Is this really you?”

"It is... Everything that lives here expands... We reach a limit and break it. It's then that we expand beyond our mortal forms and become... Something else... Raga and Heather are here too... but... We are still ourselves. We are all here together... Will you... Join me here?" 

“Grass… this is not you… this is not the you I know and love… you would never want this…”

Violet hugs Grass

“I can’t join you here… we have a life at home… please come back.”

Above Violet, she can see thousands of people floating in spirals, making up the shape of the great serpent.

"But we never left the house... We are there and everywhere else."

"Don't you see... What we were before is so limited. Let's be everywhere together."

“I… I don’t know… I don’t want to leave you… but… I don’t know if it is the right choice to make…”

Violet's phone rings

Violet picks up the phone

Lema answers.

"Hey, I heard the good news! You lost your arm, right?"

“Um…”

Violet looks around… awkward

“Yea?”

"Great! Well, my sisters and I are returning to Mom's place soon. You need to come with us! I have a surprise for you if you come along!" ,she sounds a bit drunk.

Grass looks annoyed.

Violet appears before Lema at the hotel. Grass slaps her and then you return to the darkness.

"Ow! What the hell?"

“Um… I’ll see you there.”

Violet hangs up the phone

Grass sighs

"So, what will it be?"

"Will you stay or will you go?"

“I can’t stay… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry Grass…”

She starts to cry again

Grass looks uncomfortable.

"But... I'm here..."

"You said..."

"Forever."

Gen walks out of the darkness and stands beside Grass.

"You still have me, Olive." 

"Besides, you are with her always, everywhere..." 

Grass looks more uncomfortable.

Her form distorts and ripples like water.

Skeletons emerge and dance around Grass.

They sing these words: "If you love something, set it free"

Grass distorts more, you can barely make out her shape. 

The snake reappears around and above them both.

Violet is just sobbing, unsure if that was the right thing to do

"V10L3T W1LL B3 4L0N3... It's not the same... I will be around her... but nowhere near... I can not bear the thought again... It is apart from us... It is not us."

"Is it a fate worse than... being gone."

Grass' face emerges from the wobbling and rippling distortion. Her eyes are pleading.

Her hand emerges and reaches for Violet.

She slowly starts to be pulled back in.

Violet quickly grabs her hand, wanting Grass so badly

Violet is able to keep her from being completely sucked back in. She is suspended between this world and all others.

Violet sees places flashing randomly behind her, like strobe lights.

Grass is holding Violet's hand so tight, but she can feel a force pulling against her, ushering her back into the ripples.

Violet tugs, trying to summoning vine to help her pull her to her

Violet is making a tiny bit of progress, but the force begins to pull back harder. It's winning.

Grass screams

Violet uses the crown, summoning anything and everything like rope and anything that will help her tug Grass back into her arms, hoping that imagining Grass being tugged her way, like imaging winning a battle

Grass is pulled out of the ripple. It makes a popping noise as you do so. The snake writhes around, as if in pain. It returns to the form of Raga, and you can clearly see that the twins now have the faces of Heather and Gen. They scream angrily.

The snake reappears. It rears its head back, as if to strike.

Grass thrust herself at you and wraps her arms around your shoulders tightly, as she closes her eyes.

Violet wraps her arms around Grass tightly, wishing for them to be back home and this snake to be gone

Everything goes dark and all is quiet.

Violet feel a strong hand grab your shoulder

Violet opens her eyes and turns around

Blally is right behind her.

"There they are. You weren't kidding, Lema, Grass is back."

Violet and Grass are both now in the lobby.

Violet is on her knees embracing Grass. 

Violet does not let go, fearing that she will disappear once she does so

Grass appears... A bit different.

Violet notices that her skin is now a bit more... Reflective? Upon her head is what appears to be a crown made out of space itself, stars can be seen within it. They move as you do, is if you are looking through a window into space.

"Uhh... Did we interrupt a moment or something?"

"I see you found the last crown... The Eye of Creation, as it were."

Violet looks to Grass

"Is it really you dear?"

She still is holding on

"Yeah... I'm back.", she says through tears.

"I never left your side, while I was there, but I'm really here now." 

"I missed you so much."

Grass starts sobbing

Violet sobs with her, happy to see her. The real her again 

"I... I'm so happy to see you again..." Grass notices that Violet is missing and arm, oh and some new clothing

Violet stands, holding out a hand for Grass for her to stand

"I saw everything... and tried to help... but I couldn't reach you. You were right there in my hands... but not... It was... It was awful."

"There was nothing you could do... I'm so sorry you had to go though that...But now we are together again."

Grass stares off into the distance but says nothing.

"Very touching... but we do have an arm to give you. I don't like to keep mother waiting."

Violet looks to Lema

"An arm you say? What might this be about?"

"Well... Blally was going to take the hit... I mean, take this gift to help us defeat Raga, but luckily, you actually need an arm, so..."

"This appendage is loaded with nanotechnology that contains stabilizers that will cause Raga's code to be scrambled... Essentially causing her to no longer "not exist"."

"It's confusing... Don't make me explain it."

"I see. Where is the arm?"

"Mother has it."

"Not "Mother" mother but Ashen."

"Mom"

"Yeah"

“Oh I see! Well let’s not keep her waiting.”

"Mom is on floor 69 with grandma.

“I see. Should we all go or should I go alone?”

"You can't enter floor 69 alone... We'll all go.

Everyone goes to the elevators near the back. Blally punches in the floor number.

When the elevator opens on 69, you are greeted by two doors, one yellow and one blue.

"We must go through in pairs... Make sure you time it just right."

“Alright, Grass? You up for being a pair?”

"You bet!"

She smiles.

"We'll go first."

Blally and Lema line up with the doors then nod and enter in unison. A little screen above the door shows that there was a .00000135 second difference in timing. A mechanical voice says that it was acceptable. 

Blally looks back before the doors shut

"You have to keep it under a second difference"

The door slams

Violet walks up to the opposite door Grass goes to, looking to Grass

Grass seems nervous

“Hey, don’t be nervous. We got this. You and me. Together.”

She swallows hard and nods.

"On three?"

Violet nods to her

1...

2....

3!

Violet walks though the door

Grass walks through the door

1.000000001 seconds. 

They both are pushed out the door by a blast of air pressure.

"UNACCEPTABLE!", the voice screams. 

The ceiling opens up, revealing spikes and flamethrowers. They begin to lower.

"Please, try again.", the voice says in a cutesy tone.

Grass starts crying

She stands up, but is clearly panicked. 

“Hey hey… breath. Let’s try again. Focus…”

"Okay, okay... Umm... Maybe hold hands? Would that make it easier?"

She sighs shakely

“Maybe. Worth a shot.”

Violet holds Grasses hand

“From three?”

"You count..."

“1…”

“2…”

“3!”

Violet walks though the door

Grass goes through

They separate hands at the last moment.

0.99999999 seconds

"CONGRATS, and welcome to floor 69 UWU!" 

Says the mechanical voice

It uses an actual UwU sound effect from Reddit

Violet let’s out a huge sigh, looking around the room

The inside of this room is just like an old school 90s green room. Snacks are set on the table and Blally is already after them. Two people sit on the far side of the room. A very tall blonde woman in a sparkly pink pantsuit, and what appears to be a teen or young woman dressed in black jeans and a black tshirt with butterflies on it. She stands at roughly 4feet, 5inches. 

Violet walks over to them

“Good evening?”

The tall, blonde one stands. The younger one stands behind her.

"HELLO, DEAR!", says the blonde in an overly enthusiastic voice. 

“Ashen? Is that you?”

"HELLO, DEAR!", says the blinde in an overly enthusiastic voice.

The younger one steps around the side of the blonde's legs.

"Sorry, mom's kind of stupid in standby mode."

"HELLO, DEAR!", says the blonde in an overly enthusiastic voice.

She punches a few buttons on a panel on the back of the Blonde's leg.

"HELLO, I AM MAGENTA CITRINE AND I AM THE FIGUREHEAD OF NAOMIRIMACCESS! THIS HERE IS MY DAUGHTER, ASHEN!"

"Good mom." She says, patting the big one on the back of the hand. 

"WOULD YOU GIRLS LIKE SOME COOKIES? I MADE THEM MYSELF!" She points to the table

“Um thanks but no thanks. We came for an arm.”

Magenta Citrine pukes up a silver-plated mechanical arm.

"Way to play it cool, mom..."

"I SUPPOSE I COULD HAVE JUST CARRIED IT HERE! HA HA HA"

"Yeah... Anyway, good to meet you two in person... I'm Ashen... I bet you didn't quite expect for me to be so young, eh? I saw you both in the crowd a while back... but all eyes are on mom when she performs." Ashen sighs.

"I should have built her a more complex subroutine system..."

“Understandable. Pleasure to meet you in person as well.”

Violet smiles

"I'm actually hundreds of years old, but my body has been stuck at 14 for a while now... Specifically, since Raga danked up the whole system to become immortal..."

Ashen picks up the arms and wipes it on her jeans as she speaks

Needles extend from her fingers and press tiny buttons on the shoulder socket of the arm. Tiny tendrils start to emerge.

"Come here... I need to make sure the adjustments are correct." 

Violet walks towards Ashen, thinking it is a bit weird but worth it in the end

"Hold your breath... This will hurt a bit..."

Violet does so

Ashen's arm disassembles into hundreds of tiny, metal arms. They measure your arms and make the adjustments to the prosthetic. Ashen continues to work while speaking.

"You aren't the only one to get something out of all this... I'll be able to age again after Raga is out of the system... "

Violet nods, agreeing with her but keeps holding her breath

Ashen's tiny arms remove all bandages and reopen the wound, shoving the new arm into place and attaching it in various places all at once. The pain is immeasurable. She continues speaking as she works. She will ignore your screams.

"This arm was designed to take out my sister, specifically... All you have to do it get close enough to punch her and the arm will do the rest automatically. Be warned though... Raga will have many guards."

Violet screams are muffled by her trying to hold her breath

Nodding as some tears slip down her face

Grass watches but is very uneasy seeing your pain

Violet's phone dings. Violet has a text.

"Want me to check it?"

Grass needs something to distract herself with.

Violet nods

Grass grabs your phone and checks the text.

"Umm..."

Violet looks curious to Grass but still in pain

"It's from Angie..."

"What happened? Is everything okay?"

"I mean... Yeah?"

Ashen finishes her work and her arm returns to normal.

Violet is sore, but surprisingly, not in too much pain. Ashen was precise with her work.

Violet lets out her breath with a sigh

"Thank you Ashen. Really it means a lot."

Violet looks to Grass

"Can I see the texts?"

Grass hands you the phone.

Violet has a few new texts. They read:

I haven't stopped thinking about you since you saw me in my underwear.

-----

I know you miss Grass, but if she's gone, I'm currently single... That sounds stupid. Forget I said that. >_<

-------

Hey, can we talk alone?

-------

I really like you. I hope I didn't scare you away... So sTtuUupIdDdd! 

----

You like tacos?

"Uhhhhhh what in world are these texts."

Violet is very confused

"Ummm... I think you need to have a talk with Angie..."

"What's going on? Do I need to step in?"

"What happened?"

"Just personal stuff. Nothing to worry about. Yea I'm gonna have to talk to her. Anyone know where she is?"

"The hotel last time we saw her."

"Say no more!"

Blally rushes at Violet and Grass. Lema runs after. All of you are instanced away from Ashen and to the hotel. When you get there, Angie is sitting on the bed, dressed in an orange sun dress. She looks up and waves excitedly when she notices that Violet is there. She stops when she notices Grass, and her face flushes purple. She runs out of the room and ducks into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. 

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!"

"Violet, let me see those texts!"

Violet sighs, handing Lema her phone with the texts pulled up. Violet walks up to bathroom door and knocks

"Angie? You alright?"

Violet hears quiet sobbing from within

"Oh..." She shows Blally the texts.

"I see..."

"Angie? Can you let me in?"

"..."

Blally walks up to Violet.

"Angie has a hard time bonding with people... When she does, it's hard to let it go... I'm so sorry that she... Wanted that from you. She will recover, just give her time..."

The room slightly distorts for a moment, signifying that Angie instance shifted.

"Should I bring you and Grass back to your place?"

"Before you say anything, Violet, yes it's safe... I was the one who drew you into that... place. I couldn't stand being separated for so long... I'm sorry."

"That place? I'm assuming you found the crown in the realm between everything?"

"Yes..."

"Alright... Take us home Blally. That would be nice. Thank you."

"Right. I'm surprised you were able to leave of your own accord... Not many can claim that achievement."

Blally grabs your and Grass' shoulders and the room distorts as you are shifted back to your home.

Blally nods, before vanishing.

"This feels so nostalgic, doesn't it? How long has it been? I feel like I lived a thousand lifetimes in there..."

Violet explains and then they both doze off while watching a movie together on the couch. Violet may have been home all this time, but she wasn't HOME without Grass by her side.