AN: Follows my fic 'The Outside'. I suggest reading that first.
The part mentioning Jackieboy, Marvin, King, and Bim is from Chapter 3 of that story
One order. One demand.
That was all it took for Ego Central to be left empty. The Septics had wanted to argue. They didn't want to leave the building on its own.
In response, Ego Central dumped all their belongings in the living room, the kitchen, the entryway; then slammed every door shut. Not even Marvin's magic could open them as the house fought back. They needed to go. Egos Incorporated had more space for them. Marvin and Wilford could combine their magic to keep a single building running. But apart, the two of them couldn't do it. Both buildings would die unless they both worked to save one. And Central was willing to take that sacrifice to let the other, stronger, one live.
For Ego Central, it was over the moment Seán stopped posting. It had started in the basement, the mold and mildew growing. Shingles started to fall as if the building were a sick bird molting its feathers. The very office sagged on its foundation.
Sometimes, Marvin would sneak back. He'd snatch something up he'd purposefully forgotten, then sit in the living room and talk seemingly to himself—in all actuality, he spoke to the building. Central would creak in response, worried at the magician's condition. He'd been more faded every time he visited. His smile was smaller, eyes duller, talks shorter, every time.
Then, even Marvin stopped coming.
Central very literally shut itself out. Every door locked, every shutter closed, every light off. No one could come in. If they managed, they were thrown out.
Eventually, the last of the magic faded. The building's consciousness gone. Holes wore into the roof, tiles warped, wood floors swelled and split from water damage.
Central was just a regular building stuck in a place where life could be granted through simple belief. It was stuck as a bridge between two worlds; an uninviting, unnerving wreck of what used to be a guardian to Egos—the most powerful sort of Figments in their plane.
When next Marvin set foot within, he was able to feel that the life had drained from Central. He'd clung to Jackieboy, stared at his feet, as they, along with Bim and the King, had made their way through the building. He couldn't bare to look at Central's condition, and he could feel that Jackie was tense, too. They were looking at a corpse, walking over one, through it; and the Egos all had known it.
The fans had granted the building what it needed to survive.
And the fans had ripped it all away.
