Chapter Text
Venti stood firmly in front of Oliver, a protective shield against the gigantic robotic machine. He fired another arrow, the blast knocking aside a stack of heavy wooden crates.
Oliver knew Venti had the situation under control, but a gnawing anxiety chewed at his stomach. How long were they going to be trapped in this realm? They had no easy way out, and they barely even knew how they had gotten here in the first place. Clearly, this was all the dark creature's doing. But if Nerraw was their only ticket in and out, they had hit a massive brick wall.
Oliver patted his pockets. "Shit..." His eyes widened in panic. "V-Venti," he whispered urgently as the metallic endoskeleton slowly staggered to its feet, broken panels of wood tumbling off its metal body. "Uh... Venti, I—I left that memory chip thing up in the security room!"
Venti didn't flinch, his grip tightening on his bow. He shot a brief glance up at the shattered office window high above, then looked back down at the dark creature. The possessed robot was fizzing violently, sparks showering from its metal joints as it lumbered toward them.
The bard took a deep, steadying breath. "I've gathered enough energy for a special move." He aimed his bow upward, pointing at a random support beam near the ceiling, and fired. "I have to keep this thing contained, and I can't let it out of my sight while you're exposed," he explained. The glowing Anemo arrow hurled through the air and embedded itself deep into the steel beam. A violent, swirling black hole ripped open from the arrowhead. "My burst will do the trick."
The metal roof groaned and buckled, straining against the localized singularity as it began to violently suck the surrounding debris inward. The heavy endoskeleton lost its footing, dragging across the concrete as it was pulled toward the vortex.
Seizing the window of opportunity, Venti launched himself into the air on a cushion of wind, darting straight up to the shattered office window. He glided inside effortlessly, his eyes scanning the messy room until he spotted the bulky memory chip resting on the desk. Snatching it up, he flew back out the window and descended swiftly, landing gracefully in front of Oliver. The moment his shoes touched the floor, the burst dissipated. The endoskeleton crashed heavily back down to the ground. The entire warehouse shuddered violently, the concrete floor cracking beneath the machine's immense weight.
"Here." Venti spun around and handed the heavy cartridge to his boyfriend. "Remember, I said to keep this in a safe place."
"Sorry," Oliver winced, taking the chip. "I tried to! I left it on the desk because I thought it was safer away from me."
Venti turned his attention back to the machine. It was already beginning to drag itself upright again. He raised his bow, preparing to fire another arrow, but the robot suddenly slammed its metallic fist into the ground. This time, Venti wasn't prepared.
A jagged fissure of dark, corrupted energy tore through the concrete, snaking at blinding speed straight toward them. Before either could react, a shockwave blasted them sideways. Venti slammed hard against a massive wooden crate, while Oliver was thrown in the opposite direction, crashing into another.
"Ahh!" they yelled in unison.
Oliver groaned, his vision spinning. He strained against the heavy wooden panel that had collapsed on top of him. After a heavy grunt of effort, the wood suddenly felt weightless, drifting upward as a gentle gust of wind swept under it. "Huh?"
Oliver quickly realized it was his boyfriend. Venti was already back on his feet, effortlessly tossing the debris aside with the wind.
"V-Venti!" Oliver yelled, scrambling up.
The powerful Archon stood tall, not a single scratch on his delicate frame. "I'm fine, Ollie. I'm always fine. Like I said, this thing is nothing. At least, the robot it's controlling is."
Oliver's panic was mounting. They were running out of options. He didn't care if the dark creature was weakened; seeing the sheer devastation it had caused in Teyvat terrified him. "I don't know how powerful you actually are, Venti, but... please, if you can, just... go full power or something!"
Venti narrowed his teal eyes at the approaching animatronic. "Without my Gnosis, I'm weaker... and... without Celestia or the Leylines... I'm—" Venti paused, blinking in realization. He had completely obliterated that heavy door earlier. He was still in full control of the wind... for some inexplicable reason. "Maybe I can..." He glanced over his shoulder at his boyfriend, then back to the dark creature. "Okay... This isn't even to save myself. It's to save you, babe."
Oliver froze. Zhongli's grim warnings about the loss of Venti's Gnosis suddenly echoed in his mind. "Wait! Hold on, if doing this is going to end up hurting you, don't—don't do that!"
Venti didn't listen. In a flash of light, his bow vanished. "This factory warehouse place isn't all that important, is it?"
"I dunno?!" Oliver panicked. "It's from Five Nights at Freddy's apparently, but I've never even heard of Murphy's! I have no idea!" He could see the absolute determination etched onto Venti's face. He was going to do something reckless. "Venti, wait!" Oliver surged forward to grab him.
"Babe, I told you I've got this!" Venti flashed his arm out. A powerful, yet incredibly gentle, torrent of wind wrapped securely around Oliver's body, locking him safely in place. Venti snapped his gaze back to the approaching robotic abomination. "Let's play," he whispered, his eyes narrowing to dangerous slits.
Venti thrust his free hand forward. The sheer force of the howling gale nearly blasted the creature backward. Then, the bard gracefully raised both hands near his head before swinging his arms outward in a devastatingly powerful arc.
The wind was deafening. The power was absolute.
Oliver barely had a second to process what was happening before the entire warehouse in front of them was blasted to absolute splinters. Heavy wooden beams, reinforced steel pipes, and solid brick walls were shredded and launched into the horizon as if a Category 30 hurricane had instantly manifested inside the room.
"HOLY—!" Oliver trembled, suspended safely within Venti's swirling pocket of calm air. The human's jaw unhinged as he stared at the utter devastation. There were barely any walls left standing. More than half of the massive building had been completely atomized. He slowly turned his head to look at his boyfriend. Venti was still holding the pose—his left arm extended outward toward the destruction, and his right arm aimed back toward Oliver, maintaining the protective wind grasp.
Slowly, Venti stood up straight and lowered his arms.
The wind around Oliver dissipated, gently lowering him until his feet touched the solid floor.
Oliver sprinted over to the bard and threw his arms around him in a desperate hug.
Venti gasped softly at the impact but immediately wrapped his arms around Oliver in return. "Hey, don't make me fall," he giggled softly, rubbing soothing circles into Oliver's back. But his playful tone quickly vanished. "That thing is still out there," he said, his voice dropping into a serious tone. "I can still feel its presence."
"What is that thing," Oliver mumbled, his face buried into Venti's sleeve. "Why is it so powerful..."
"I don't know," Venti spoke softly. "And I don't know why I'm suddenly able to use my powers like this again. I thought I had lost them." He shook his head in utter bewilderment. "Now that I'm really thinking about it... I shouldn't even have a 'little bit' of power left anyway. I should be completely drained. It doesn't add up... I'm completely disconnected from my world—no, my universe. This shouldn't be possible."
He looked up. With more than half the warehouse obliterated, the night sky of this strange world was completely visible. The stars were shimmering brightly against the dark expanse, and a full moon hung heavy in the sky.
"Bennett was cut off from the Leylines in his own world, and he went through absolute hell because of it..." Venti muttered.
"Could just be his bad luck thing..." Oliver offered weakly.
"Well, yes, but not really. It was more that he is actually from Natl—"
Suddenly, a sharp, terrifying crackling sound echoed beneath them. Venti immediately fell silent, grabbing both of Oliver's hands. "Stay close. I don't know what that was..." He squeezed his boyfriend's hands tightly. "Do you still have that memory chip?"
Oliver nodded rapidly. "It's heavy, but it's in my pocket. Honestly, I'm just glad I'm wearing a tight belt, because otherwise my pants would be dropping down all the time."
Venti couldn't help but crack a soft smile. "Ehehe, well, I definitely wouldn't mind seeing that sight~!"
"Okay, Venti, now is not the time!"
Suddenly, the concrete floor beneath their feet shook, with violent cracks appearing.
"Uhh..." Oliver blinked, looking down. He instinctively clung tighter to Venti's hands.
The cracks started small, but they spread like lightning. A blinding, swirling blue light began to bleed through the fissures.
"UHHH... Venti?!"
Venti reacted instantly, yanking Oliver flush against his chest to launch them into the air, but he was a fraction of a second too late. The entire floor gave way, dissolving into a massive, swirling blue abyss.
The human and the bard plummeted into the vortex.
"Oh NO, NOT THIS AGAIN!" Oliver screamed.
As they tumbled downward, they caught one last glimpse of the surface. Standing at the edge of the crater, peering down into the abyss with glowing white eyes, was the dark creature. Then, the rift snapped shut.
"Entering So—[glitch]—A[glitch]—Sub-10."
"Stay close to me!" Venti commanded, summoning as much wind as he could muster against the overpowering gravity of the blue, spiraling vortex. The current yanked Oliver directly against him.
"Weii?!" Oliver gasped, before slamming hard into Venti's side. "OOF!" He wrapped his arms around the bard, holding on for dear life. "Oh god, I'm gonna be sick!" he yelled over the rushing noise. "Why is this thing so loud?! It freaking looks like the portals from Lego Dimensions, but they didn't have to scream in that!"
"Babe, calm down, I've got you!" Venti tried to soothe him as they plunged deeper into the swirling blue tunnel.
Suddenly, the ground rushed up to meet them, just like last time.
"Brace yourself!" Venti shouted, hugging Oliver tightly against him. They slammed into the solid floor, tumbling and rolling violently across the ground.
"Ow!" Oliver yelled as his body bounced across the hard surface.
Venti recovered instantly, springing to his feet and throwing a hand out. A cushion of Anemo energy caught Oliver just before he could crash head-first into a metal wall.
Oliver gasped, his eyes crossing slightly as he stared at the metal wall hovering merely an inch from his nose. "Woah..."
Venti gently eased his powers, letting Oliver drop the remaining few inches to the floor. Oliver scrambled up, hastily dusting off his clothes. "I... I definitely wasn't scared... I wasn't screaming," he lied terribly.
Venti snorted, shaking his head. "Sure," he giggled. He stepped close to Oliver, gently brushing his fingers through the boy's hair to shake the dust out. He lovingly adjusted a few of Oliver's braid strands before straightening up. "Come on," he said softly. "Let's see what this place is."
Oliver looked around, his nose crinkling in confusion. "I don't know if it's the dark creature doing this, or what..." He scanned their surroundings. "But it really seems to like trapping us in hallways."
Venti crossed his arms. "At least this one has the lights on," he noted, reaching out to lace his fingers with his human's. "Come on. Let's look around. Not much else we can do."
The environment felt incredibly sterile. Cold, metallic, and utilitarian—almost like the secret lab back in Oliver's home world. But something felt incredibly off. It wasn't just the layer of grime covering the supposedly pristine facility, making it feel abandoned. Something about the architecture was triggering a deep sense of déjà vu.
"This feels a little familiar," Oliver muttered.
"Another one of those 'game' worlds again, I assume?" Venti asked.
Oliver shrugged helplessly. "Well, it seems like that's all we're traveling through right now. Though, I still don't understand why Nerraw is... dragging us to these specific places just to fight us."
"It's weak. Remember, it's taking control of things. Or... well, that's what it looks like from our perspective," Venti reasoned.
"Some weakness," Oliver sighed heavily. "It's so 'weak' that we can't even put it down."
The corridor branched off into another long hallway. And from there, yet another intersection was visible in the distance. "Okay... This is a freaking maze," Oliver complained.
Beep Beep
Oliver's eyebrows shot up into his hairline. The distinct, electronic chime echoed from somewhere deep within the metallic labyrinth, though the source was hidden.
"What was that?" Venti blinked, going on high alert.
Oliver squinted, his brain scrambling to place the audio in his memory. "Why did that sound so... familiar?" he whispered, his mind racing through years of gaming memories. "I swear I've heard that exact sound effect before..."
"It sounded very mechanical," Venti said, but his tone was laced with wariness. "Something is not right here..." The bard squeezed Oliver's hand. He could sense an oppressive energy radiating from down the hall. Acting on instinct, he tugged Oliver backward, but the boy was completely frozen, staring blankly at the floor panels as he tried to force his memory to click.
"Woah!" Oliver gasped as Venti yanked him hard by the arm.
The bard hauled Oliver backward, shoving him safely behind the corner of the intersecting hallway. Oliver peeked around the metal wall, and Venti leaned over his shoulder, peering down the corridor.
The long stretch of hallway was bathed in the sickly, flickering glow of dying blue fluorescent lights.
Oliver squinted into the gloomy lighting.
Venti subtly gathered Anemo energy in his free hand. He wasn't sure if Nerraw was preparing to ambush them again, either in its true form or another hijacked body. The lights continued to buzz and flicker violently.
Then, they heard the noises.
Wet coughing. A horrific, rattling wheeze. The heavy, moist slapping of bare feet on metal grating, accompanied by low, guttural growls.
Oliver's blood ran ice cold. His eyes widened in sheer terror. "Oh my god..." The memory slammed into him like a freight train.
A shadow rounded the far corner of the corridor. Both Venti and Oliver instantly ducked back behind their wall.
Venti pressed his back flat against the cold metal, his breath hitching. "I don't think that's the dark creature," he whispered urgently into Oliver's ear. "The energy is completely different..."
The coughing and wet slaps drew closer. The flickering lights had finally reached them.
"What is that?" Venti breathed in horror.
Lumbering past their hiding spot was a massive, grotesque monstrosity. It was so tall it nearly scraped the ceiling. Its skin was covered in weeping, bulbous tumors, and its face was a horrific, disfigured skull devoid of humanity. Its lanky, malformed limbs twitched erratically as it walked.
Oliver's breath hitched in his throat. "Holy fuck," he whimpered.
Venti winced, his face contorting in disgust as he got a clear look at the abomination. "I've seen many disgusting creatures in my long life... but that? That is vile."
Oliver was violently trembling. "It's fucking Terry Akers..." he whispered, crushing Venti's hand in his grip.
"W-Who?" Venti whispered back, his eyes locked on the creature as it shambled toward a heavy bulk door at the end of the hall. Mounted on the wall next to the frame was a glowing electronic panel.
Oliver nearly stopped breathing when he saw the distinctive green grid of the hand scanner.
The monster mindlessly slammed its mutated, lanky hand against the panel.
Beep Beep
The heavy metal door slid open with a pneumatic hiss, and the creature slowly staggered inside. A second later, the door slid shut behind it, sealing it away.
Oliver leaned against the wall, panting heavily as the adrenaline spiked. He looked up at the wall adjacent to them and saw bold, stenciled text painted on the steel:
PATHOS-II ~ SITE THETA
"Ven, we gotta go!" Oliver whispered-yelled, violently yanking Venti by the hand.
"Woah!" Venti stumbled forward.
"You never stay in one place in SOMA! You have to always be on the move!" Oliver panicked, dragging Venti down the opposite corridor.
Venti effortlessly matched his boyfriend's frantic sprinting speed. "So this is SOMA? I remember you mentioning this to August!"
"Yes! But—oh fuck! I don't remember this specific part!" Oliver stammered in a panic as they navigated the dizzying maze of hallways. "Ugh, it's been a while since I played the game! I need to remember where the exit is! Maybe it'll be locked... but then you can just blast the door down! Yeah!"
"Babe! Maybe you should slow down!" Venti cautioned, glancing over at him. "I don't want that monster hearing you! And I really want to conserve my powers if I don't absolutely need to use them!" Venti was painfully aware of his anomalous strength. He was somehow still a powerhouse outside of Teyvat, but he didn't want to blindly abuse an anomaly he didn't understand. He needed to be careful.
But Oliver was too panicked to listen, and he didn't slow down in time. As he rounded another sharp corner, he slammed face-first into someone.
Both Oliver and the stranger tumbled hard to the metal floor.
"AHH, WHAT THE?!" the person screamed in terror.
Oliver and the mystery man were now a tangled, groaning heap on the cold floor.
"Ow..." Oliver groaned, rubbing his head.
Venti didn't hesitate. He was there in a flash, hauling Oliver up by his arm and pulling him safely away from the stranger. "Oliver, are you okay?" he asked frantically, checking him over for injuries.
"Y-Yeah... I... I think so," Oliver mumbled, rubbing his forehead.
Venti turned, fully prepared to help the stranger up, but his combat instincts flared. He was completely on edge, having no idea what threats lurked in this facility. He stepped protectively in front of Oliver.
"What... what is that?" Venti blinked in sheer confusion.
The person on the floor slowly pushed themselves up. "Ugh..." the man groaned. "What just happened..."
The figure sitting before them appeared to be wearing a bulky, deep-sea diving suit. But when the man looked up, there was no human face behind the reinforced glass. Instead, two glowing red lights, attached to a complex robotic mechanism inside the helmet, stared back at them. The lenses whirred, flicking up and down as they scanned the duo.
Oliver's jaw unhinged. He knew exactly who this was. And he was instantly torn between the overwhelming excitement of meeting a gaming legend, and the crushing, agonizing guilt of knowing the horrific fate that awaited this man.
"W-Who..." the robotic man stammered, his natural human voice laced with disbelief. "You..." He scrambled backward, pressing his back against the wall. "A human? That's not... you're not... Where did you come from?! It's not even safe down here!"
Oliver opened his mouth to speak, but the words died in his throat. He had no idea what to say.
The robotic man slowly shifted his gaze to Venti. "What?" He leaned in closer, his mechanical lenses whirring as they focused on the bard's colorful attire. "Why are you... Why do you look like a manga—"
Oliver violently coughed, desperately trying to change the subject. "Simon, I—"
The robotic man flinched, reeling back. "You know my name?"
"I..." Oliver's eyes darted down to the Omnitool clenched tightly in Simon's hand. He looked back up at the glowing red lenses. His mind was blank.
The dark creature was nowhere to be seen. This was completely different from the FNAF world; the environment felt empty, almost scripted. SOMA's tragic story was actively playing out right in front of him, and Oliver was terrified of the consequences of interfering.
"Oh god, what if I change everything..." he muttered.
"What?" Simon asked nervously.
"Babe, what's wrong? Who is this... person?" Venti asked, glancing between the two.
"B-Babe?" Simon's red optical sensors flicked rapidly between the human and the magical bard.
Oliver was spiraling. He didn't want to explain Simon Jarrett's life in front of Simon Jarrett. He knew Simon remained blissfully, painfully clueless through the majority of the story, and Oliver refused to be the one to trigger a mental breakdown before he even reached Omicron.
Omicron. The name flashed into Oliver's mind. That's where we are... He blinked, second-guessing himself. Wait, no... Theta! He rubbed his temples. Have I gotten mixed up?
Oliver didn't realize he was visibly mumbling to himself until Venti gently nudged his shoulder, asking if he was alright.
"Okay, other humans," Simon spoke up, his voice shaking with a mix of fear and desperate hope. "You two are the last ones," he deduced. "Are you? Is there more of you? There has to be more, right? You two don't even look like you'd be working in this facility. I need to ask Catherine about this,"
"Well, I—" Oliver started, still trying to formulate a safe lie, when a shadow shifted behind Simon.
Venti sensed the malice instantly and summoned his bow in a flash of teal light.
Simon froze, staring blankly at the glowing weapon that had just appeared out of thin air. "I'm sorry... what?"
Neither Venti nor Oliver could act fast enough to stop the horror. The dark creature violently lashed out. With a sickening, metallic tear, a shard of pure, concentrated darkness sliced horizontally through Simon's waist.
"Ahh!?" Oliver gasped, scrambling backward in horror.
The top half of Simon Jarrett's robotic body went completely limp, sliding off his severed torso and crashing onto the metal grating. Black, viscous WAU structure gel and blood violently sprayed from the wound, accompanied by showers of electrical sparks.
Venti threw himself in front of his boyfriend, drawing the bowstring back and aiming dead center at Nerraw's chest. But before he could loose the arrow, the very fabric of reality around them began to violently glitch and tear.
Venti gasped, his aim faltering as his bow instantly dissolved into glowing dust.
"What's happening?!" Oliver screamed, looking around wildly. "What's... why are the walls doing that?!"
Massive, digital cracks spider-webbed across the metal walls, revealing a terrifying, infinite dark void underneath as the floors, walls, and ceiling rapidly withered into nothingness.
Venti channeled his Anemo energy, swiftly lifting both himself and Oliver into the air on a powerful updraft. They were airborne just a microsecond before the metal floor gave way completely, swallowing the two halves of Simon Jarrett into the abyss.
Terrifying, distorted screams and wet coughing echoed around them. They watched in horror as multiple Terry Akers mutants plummeted helplessly into the endless void as the dimension collapsed around them.
Nerraw floated amidst the destruction, a cruel, twisted smirk on its face. "Welcome to when a Dimension loses its Holder. Ta ta~"
In a violent puff of thick black mist, the dark creature vanished.
Oliver gasped, wrapping his arms around Venti and clutching him with terrifying desperation. "Venti! What... what is happening?!" he shrieked.
Venti held on as tight as he physically could, his eyes scanning the terrifying emptiness. There was absolutely nothing left. Just a cold, suffocating, endless dark void.
"I don't know. But I am so grateful I can still use my wind," Venti whispered, slowly drifting them forward through the nothingness, refusing to let Oliver go for even a fraction of a second.
Oliver buried his face in Venti's chest, taking rapid, hyperventilating breaths. "W-What do we do?" he choked out, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
"I'll think of something. Or maybe something might help us. Or someone."
"W-Who!?" Oliver yelled.
"The wind. I know... you're not from my world, but... The wind may help us. I feel something..."
~~~~~~~~~~
It was quiet back in the real world.
In the breakroom, the rest of the boys sat in uneasy silence, their eyes fixed on the crystalline boy standing guard at the blown-out doorway. Nerraw had done a serious number on the frame, leaving the edges jagged and ruined.
Jasper leaned over to August. "You think that guy is safe?"
"No idea," August whispered back. "Oliver and Venti mentioned this thing... I didn't trust it when he talked about it. But... apparently, it's working with Mark."
"But... is Mark trustworthy?" Jasper pressed, his voice barely audible.
August shrugged. "I dunno! But we don't exactly have a lot of options right now." He looked at the ruined entrance. "It's a good thing that dark creature didn't blast the front door down. Or worse, break the wall and expose us to the outside... assuming there even is outside air on the other side of that wall."
Jasper shot a nervous glance at the crystal entity. "None of us have even spoken to the guy. Should we say something?"
August let out a long sigh. "I guess it's worth a shot." He raised his voice slightly, looking up at the glowing, shard covered figure. "Hey! Uh... Mr... uh... crystal guy thing?"
The creature slowly turned his head to look at August. "My name is Thomas."
"Oh!" August blinked in surprise. "Ohhhh-kay." He looked at Jasper, who just shrugged back. August turned his attention back to Thomas. "I wasn't expecting a British accent..."
"I wasn't expecting words at all," Jasper muttered under his breath.
August cleared his throat as Jasper nervously addressed the being. "So... uh? What are you?"
August winced. "I... I don't think that's a polite thing to ask—"
"I'm a human," Thomas interrupted, his voice steady. "But I was also a Holder in my dimension."
August and Jasper exchanged looks. "Really?" August asked, though he already knew that he was.
"Yes," Thomas said softly, his gaze dropping to the floor. "Nerraw attacked me... and my loved ones. He..." Thomas paused, the dark stone structure covering half of his face shifted in sorrow. "It's hard to talk about. I got angry. And that anger hit something deep within me. It made me tap into the true, raw power that all Holders are supposed to possess."
"And that is...?" August asked.
"The power of the universe," Thomas replied simply.
August looked completely astonished. "Wow. So... you're like a god or something? That's what the Holders are?"
Thomas didn't answer right away. "More or less," he finally conceded. "Though my powers right now are substantially weaker, since I'm not in my home world."
"Ah... well, I guess that makes sense."
Jasper leaned over to August again. "I guess that explains why the dude lowkey looks like a galaxy manifested into a person..."
"Nerraw." Thomas stated firmly, his grip tightening on his weapon.
The two boys jumped. "What was that?" Jasper asked.
"That is the dark creature's name, if you didn't know already. Nerraw."
A sudden, shimmering sound echoed from the hallway outside. With a burst of golden light, Mark jogged into the breakroom.
"I cannot, for the life of me, figure out where those two have gone." He walked past Thomas at the broken doorframe and approached the boys. He gestured toward Arnold, who had miraculously slept through the entire ordeal. "He's not doing too good, is he?"
"To be frank, none of us really are," Jasper muttered.
"You seriously can't find Oliver or Venti?" August asked, his mind hyper-fixated on his new friends' wellbeing.
"I thought it was going to be easy to track Nerraw. I really thought so," Mark sighed, pacing the length of the breakroom. "I had almost gotten a lead, but on my way, it was as if the world had simply gone offline."
Jasper shook his head in confusion. "It shouldn't be that hard to track them, right?"
"Easy for you to say. There is an infinite number of Fictional Realities," Mark countered.
Jasper narrowed his eyes. "Infinite? But—" He looked at August for backup. "That can't be true. It's all based on fictional media, right? There isn't an infinite number of movies, games, or books."
Mark stopped pacing and looked around. "Do any of you know where I could get a whiteboard? And a marker? If this lab even has any?"
August quickly stood up and headed for the door. "I actually saw one down in the portal room. Whether or not there are markers, or if they even work, is beyond me." He gestured for Jasper to follow. "Come on, bro. Help me carry it up the stairs."
~~~~~~~~~~
"Okay," After clearing a few tables to make room, Mark set the whiteboard up at the back of the breakroom. He popped the cap off a dry-erase marker and drew a large, bold circle right in the center of the board.
"This circle represents our world," Mark instructed. "The Honmono Universe."
Jasper raised his hand like a student. "Uh? Why is it called that?"
August gave him a weird look. "This isn't class, dude, you don't gotta raise your hand..."
"Oh—" Jasper blinked, awkwardly lowering his arm. "Sorry, I saw the whiteboard and my brain just went into school mode."
Honmono (Japanese): Meaning "real life" or "genuine thing."
"It's Japanese," Mark continued, tapping the board. "A Japanese scientist from the 1930s was the very first person to open the Fictional Universe gateway."
Both Jasper and August's jaws dropped.
"Wait, seriously?" August looked stunned. "Really? Wow... Not gonna lie, I assumed it would have been an American or something!"
"Wait? Seriously?" August looked shocked. "Really? Wow! I... Not gonna lie, I was gonna assume it would have been an American or something!"
Mark ignored the shock and drew a mid-sized circle above the large one. Then another next to it. And another. Soon, three smaller circles orbited the massive central one. "These smaller circles represent pieces of media." Mark wrote Dark Souls over the first, Kingdom Hearts over the second, and Genshin Impact over the third.
"These are just examples," Mark clarified.
"Or maybe just your favorite games..." August whispered teasingly.
Mark sighed, letting out a small, defeated laugh. "Maybe." He pointed to each of the smaller circles, drawing lines connecting them back to the massive Honmono circle. "When a person from our world thinks about something, it spawns a universe where that thought is real. And if I were to draw them all out, I'd need an infinite number of whiteboards."
Jasper gasped, the realization finally hitting him. "Wait, so it's not just officially licensed media?"
"No. The Fictional Universe does not discriminate. As long as you have a thought in your head, it will create a reality where that thought is tangible." He pointed to the board again. "It depends, though. If a fictional thought—or media, in this case—is incredibly popular, its universe will be tethered closer to the hub of the Honmono world."
"So this is what you meant by it being infinite." Jasper nodded.
"Yes. But it gets even deeper than that," Mark said. "You see this?" He pointed to the Kingdom Hearts circle, quickly scribbling dozens of tiny dots inside of it. "Imagine an infinity of tiny circles inside this one bubble. Those? Those are Sub-Dimensions."
August bolted upright in his chair. "Sub-Dimensions? That's... wait! The papers! In the third extraction room! And the worlds we've been sent to—they're—"
"Sub-Dimensions," Mark confirmed, twirling the marker between his fingers. "Sub-worlds of the main media or original thought. Each of these realities starts at Sub-Dimension 1, which represents the raw, canonical story the original creator came up with. But Sub-2, 3, 4, 5, and every number beyond that, is heavily influenced by the fandom of that media."
August and Jasper shared the same bewildered look.
"That fandom influence is exactly what allowed you to enter the world in the first place," Mark said, turning to face them completely. "It always happens: So, spill the beans. Have either of you ended up dating someone in the world you were transported to?"
August's face immediately flushed red. "Oh—uh..." He giggled shyly, rubbing the back of his neck.
Jasper suddenly looked incredibly uncomfortable, averting his gaze and staying dead silent.
"I... well, I was sent into Grounded, and ended up dating Peter Boggs," August admitted.
Mark nodded, pointing the black marker directly at August. "If it wasn't for the fandom influence, you wouldn't have been able to date him."
August dropped his hand from his neck. "Oh, uh... wait, you lost me," he shook his head. "I don't follow, actually. How does the fandom have a say in me dating Pete? Is there secretly someone writing fanfiction about me and Peter? Heh..."
"N-No! That's not what I mean," Mark quickly waved his hands. "The fandom influence loosens up the media. It makes it bendy. It derails it from the strict canon tracks to make it whatever it chooses to be. It branches from Sub-1 into the infinite subs beyond it. If you went into Sub-1 just raw like that... Pete may or may not have even reacted to you. You'd basically have been a ghost in his world; he'd never see you, even if you were standing right in front of him."
August nodded, the concept finally clicking into place. "Ohhh! Okay. So Sub-1 is like... the blank slate?"
"Something like that," Mark nodded. "Depending on how much work the creator put into their story, Sub-1 may be fully developed. But still, even then, you may or may not be able to actually interact with anyone in that dimension."
Jasper cleared his throat, steering them back on track. "Okay, it's cool and all hearing this lore drop. But... where are Oliver and Venti?"
"I have no idea. That is my point. It is an infinite world. And there are infinite worlds within those worlds. Raw-dogging this search... I'd be looking forever."
The two boys stared down at the desk. This was a lot to process. "You're right," August said quietly. "You cannot... just wing something like this."
Mark capped the marker and set it down on the whiteboard tray. "I did throw a second necklace into the portal before it closed. I just have to hope either of them picked it up."
August scrunched up his face. "Huh? Necklace?"
Mark glanced over at Thomas, who was still standing like a statue at the broken doorframe. "I gave him one. It's a necklace made with a tinge of pure light from the Kingdom Hearts dimension. Nerraw is terribly weak to it. The necklace shouldn't be overly powerful on its own, but it became a weapon of mass destruction when Thomas over there used it. Between a mix of him being a Holder and the Fictional Leak, it turned the necklace into a war machine against Nerraw's darkness." Mark sighed heavily. "I hope my intuition is correct: If Venti is a Holder, he'll be able to wield that light to help destroy Nerraw for good."
August's mind raced. He remembered that term from one of his father's scattered papers. Fictional Leak. But it had been an unfinished report, and he hadn't been able to find any more information on the subject.
"Fictional Leak?" August asked.
"It's when the Fictional Universe leaks over into the real world," Mark explained. "It's the reason why, when fictional characters come here, they can still use their powers. Heh... it's the reason why Thomas over there is still in his full Holder form. If it wasn't for the leak, everything would have stopped at the threshold. Granted, the one good thing that would have come from that would have been the end of Nerraw. Sadly, Nerraw is part fictional, so that's exactly why he's able to go on a full rampage across all the universes."
"Because of this... 'leak'," Jasper realized.
"Exactly," Mark said.
They all fell into a heavy, oppressive silence. There was nothing more to do but wait... and hope that Oliver and Venti were still alive.