There's going to be a few parts after this chapter, though I'm not sure just how many. An estimate of at least two or three parts in total but only time will tell! We're getting to some of the written horror stories in pieces and I originally thought it was going to be cooler than first planned, however, I'm not sure if it's stupid or some might enjoy it.
Either way, I'm finally getting back into the swing of things, and I'm feeling much better than before! I'll also be cramming in things that were meant to be in this arc as well; not just the movie.
I also apologize if this chapter seemed short though, gotta start somewhere right?
(Chapter Twenty Three: Horror amongst the Stars: Part one)
Julia mumbled in her sleep, turning in the pillow pile that made up her bed in the attic. Turning fully to the side, she had naturally woken up, no dreams, no nightmares. Just the pleasure of seeing Gabriele making a pose everyone, back in her time period, makes jokes about.
"Hello there." He said, almost in the same tone as a certain Jedi. Almost.
Still, pretty much asleep, Julia turned on her back, arm propped on her eyes with a drowsy smile; She started chuckling. "How long have you been waiting in that pose?"
"Hmm. Maybe an hour." The doctor said, glancing out the window that forever seemed like the day "I've lost track, it's hard to tell sometimes."
Turning back over to him, she kept smiling, but still wanting to sleep. In her half-dazed state, Julia heard him chuckle as well, "I adore you..." as he cupped the side of her head for a moment and brushed back a few strands of hair. Then the two held onto each other in an embrace, his larger body dwarfing hers by comparison.
Shortly after, a small figure makes their way in between the two adults, wanting to be smushed by love as well. Gabriele softly laughed at Kero, the happy face the child was making was so bright. The family relaxed like this a little while longer, but before Julia knew it, she was awoken once more.
Gabriele knew she needed to get going, as much as he'd want to stay like this, maybe when they finally have a place of their own. Maybe then they can embrace for the longest time and not worry about anything anymore.
Julia slowly made her way up and out of the pile, "Hey, you two.." Julia rubbed the sleep out of her face and turned to them. "Wanna come along today?" She asked, grabbing her vest and her signature hat. Then readjusted the eye patch over her glowing eye.
Kero excitedly hopped around his mother, of course, he'd want to go; the child clung onto her leg in waiting as Julia looked over to Gabriele.
It took him a while, but eventually agreed to at least see what this movie studio was about. He had never seen one, it'd be an experience.
As the group walked into the large building, Julia had taken notice of Melody and Bonnie's sudden and quick glance at her now and then. They didn't look noticeably tense but something did seem strange. The morning was relatively quiet and calm, which was completely off the normal mornings Julia was so used to having.
Gabriele noticed as well, however, nobody did anything or even asked about it. In all honesty, it would be better to not have any unnecessary drama this early in the morning.
In the meantime, Kero spun around in wonder, looking up at the high ceiling and big bright lights. Sure, the spaceship would be the most amazing thing to him, but this place he was in right now, was becoming a close second. The only thing this place had that the ship didn't was the mystery behind everything. The large rooms blocked off or used as temporary storage made the boy want to dig around and find things he'd never seen before. Which were many.
"Kero!" Julia called out to the boy, she didn't want him to wander off too far and get lost. She watched as the sack child stumbled back to her side. "We have some time before we start practicing scenes together-" Julia smiled, looking down at him "wanna meet a new friend?"
"Another friend? Have they tried to kill you yet?" Gabriele dryly joked
"Kinda, but it was more of self-preservation than being greedy, though." Julia pointed out.
Julia leads them down a few halls, stairwells; the same route she had taken before. She wasn't about to take another death fall in the elevator. She promised to never set foot in another metal box for as long as she lives.
Julia quietly hopes she's not developing claustrophobia or cleithrophobia. Either would be terrible with her ability to build barriers.
While the group walked, a quiet figure followed them. The trio was unaware, the distance was rather great and unable to detect any kind of aura. The figure kept to the shadows, not wanting to confront them yet, but softly growled in annoyance.
Once Julia and her group were close to their destination, Julia started to explain the situation "Alright, so this new friend of mine is a dweller-"
"Like how I was!?" Kero excitedly yelled but was shushed by his mother with a smile
"Yes, just like how you were, but she's super small... and not from Subcon." Julia whispered, then looked to Gabriele "In fact, I have a suspicion that this dweller died here. She didn't just wander in and stayed. She's just a child."
Gabriele hummed in acknowledgment, keeping this information in mind. A possible outcome was the child did not even know that time had passed, trapped within the thick concrete walls.
"I promised her that I'd be back, but I'm afraid of leaving her alone while I'm with the others..." Julia looked at her boyfriend with a pleading eye "think you guys could be her friends too? Keep her company while I'm away?"
"Yeah!" Kero happily raised a hand, already wanting to meet this new dweller.
Gabriele sighed, but Julia could tell he was smiling, "already fretting over this being, are we?" He playfully jabbed at her as he folded his arms.
Julia sheepishly looked away, scratching the back of her head "she just... she reminds me of my childhood. Didn't have too many friends."
The man softened his posture. He could see why she was like this now, even though this child had long since passed, Julia was still worried about them being alone. The echoes of this ghost were still here, still feeling, playing around like they never died.
But even then, one would notice how lonely it would be.
"Alright, we'll do what we can." Gabriele walked up to Julia and hugged her, "besides, your son seems eager to make a new friend." The two walked beside each other as Julia smiled, watching Kero attempting to not run off and find the dweller out of excitement.
To Julia's surprise, Button was in the same spot as before, looking off into a direction. She seemed spaced out, or was it being alert? Whatever it was, the adults had no time to ponder on the situation. The dweller child turned to the group, stunned, but then excitedly charged at the fedora-wearing human.
Button was fast, it seemed odd now that Julia focused on it. Everyone watched Button zipping around, and Kero joyfully laughed at her.
"My, Isn't she just a ball of energy? Here I thought Kero was fast.." Gabriele mumbled to Julia and watched the small dweller immediately turn to the other child. It looked like they were already playing a game of tag. It was rather adorable, despite how fast Button moves.
She would bop Kero on the head with her mask when the frog child managed to tag her back.
"I wasn't expecting this kind of reaction..." Julia mused, scratching the side of her head, and Gabriele just hummed.
The dark corridors of the stark white spaceship clanked with every footstep, the guards, along with the captain, attempted to navigate through with dim-lit lights from the backup generator aboard said ship. What could have happened to their vessel? The eerie cranking of bolts put everyone on edge as they followed the sound straight to-!
The sliding door opened in a flash, all armed guards pulled their weapons, pointed as the light finally fixated on alone form standing with their back turned. The person they all turned to swiftly turned around with a jump, not expecting a squad of guards and the captain to be aiming at her.
"What in damn hell!" The engineer cried out holding a wrench in defense.
The scene could have continued if it weren't for the fact a few cast members started snickering at Julia, who had the role of a character with a western accent. It wasn't that she was bad, it was the fact that she was good and no one was expecting such a voice from her.
With how she dresses, a few members thought she'd have the kind of accent Doppler would have, but this was far greater.
"What? My aunt had this kind of accent, it was easy to pick it up from her!" Julia started to smile, a few other cast members start losing it as she kept talking. "Now look here," she pointed at one of the 'guards' who had less control but ultimately lost herself in her laughter because of them.
One for the blooper reel.
"Alright, alright, let's take a break here darlings." The 'captain' who was none other then Grooves, waved at everyone. They had been practicing for some time now, live acting from the prop ship on the moon to get another feel for the roles they'd all be doing.
The old penguin had a good feeling about this, about everything.
During the break, everyone went their own little way, gathering in groups to chat and think; Julia made her way over to a corner and tied her hair back up. Once everything was in order again, the tall girl sighed. It will no doubt take at least a month to get everything under wraps, maybe even longer, she's never really been in what looked like proper movie production so she was unsure about the actual time frame.
All the other recordings seemed like missions, to her and Melody they technically were. There was no timepiece in this... This one had more of a story to it. In truth, there were other things Julia wanted to find out about currently.
Once again, her thoughts distract her. Though, she wasn't caught off guard like the many time before. This time she saw Doppler come towards her, they never seem to just leave her alone! Julia tensed up, but didn't move, she showed signs that if they did anything, the tall girl would gladly attack him.
"Nice actin, Dolly." The doppelgänger folded their odd hands "seem like ya do have some talent."
"Go away, please." Julia deadpanned, "I don't feel like putting up with you right now."
"When do you ever?" Doppler asked.
"Good point." Julia started to walk away to avoid verbal conflict, but she felt the being reach out and within that moment Julia flicked a single string at them violently to prevent contact.
The woman glared at the doppelgänger, watching as they hissed and held their hand to their chest. Everything happened so fast no one knew what had happened. Everyone in the room just thought the doppelgänger was being wired... like normal.
"That wasn't very nice Doll," Doppler whispered at her.
"Attempting to touch people without permission isn't as well." Was all Julia said, finally able to make a retreat.
After a few more hours of practicing, it was finally the time everyone went home.
Julia found herself just about to walk into Dead Bird Studios when Melody had stopped her. "Hey, Julia...?" The girl grabbed the taller one's sleeve. "Are you alright? Like... emotionally?"
"Yeah...?" Julia looked at her confused, where did this come from all of a sudden? "Why? Was I acting differently? You know- besides the actual acting?"
"We're just... cautious is all." Bow said, looking at Julia "we've been noticing how tense you get around Doppler when you guys were on set..."
"We're just worried something might... happen." Melody finished saying.
"Well, if it's Doppler, more then just something will happen." Julia explained, crouching down at the two "I don't trust them. Not one bit."
"You don't think they'll try anything in a crowd, do you?" The hatted girl shied away from her.
It took a moment to realize that Melody was starting to become uncomfortable around her, Julia stood and adjusted herself and looked away. "Knowing them, they probably will. If Doppler said anything to you... don't listen." The taller girl looked back down at the child. "He's just messing with you. Despite not having a mouth, all he can do is talk."
The two children looked at each other, both had thoughts but eventually nodded towards Julia slowly. What did that being say to make them act like this?
That sensation to hit something came back, but Julia shook her head as she wondered off to got pick up Gabriele and Kero. Her head throbbed with pain as she walked.
Kero sat down and watched Botton continue to zip around. This place was still so huge and she had many things she wanted to show him. To old posters, to life-size props, this was the dweller's whole world. Just like how the swamp was Kero's whole world before he met Julia.
It wasn't long after Gabriele attempted to teach the small dweller that there wasn't, in fact, a black void outside the building. Or the large storage room for that matter. It was hard finding a globe or a map that wasn't for a movie and pointed out various locations.
"We are about... here!" Gabriele pointed near the middle of the desert. "And Subcon is way over there." His finger when in a line to what looked like an intact kingdom of Subcon.
This map was old.
"That's where I'm from!" Kero chirped with a smile.
The small dweller looked at the map in wonder, as Julia finally made her way to the group. Everyone looked up at her and Kero shoot off towards his mother, happy to see her.
Button looked up at the group of three that gathered together, she had a family once. What happened to them? The child wasn't sad, she was more inquisitive than anything. Why couldn't she remember how she got here? How did she die?
"Hey, Button... We're heading out now." Julia quietly shook her out of her thoughtful stupor "Me, Kero and Gabriele will be back tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay." Button quietly said, nodding her mask "bye-bye!"
Julia smiled at her, everyone was waving their fair wells and once the tall girl and her family were gone, Button continued to stare off at the map still spread out before her.
remember the last chapter when I said Button wasn't an important character yet? My brain might have accidentally made her a key in this part of the arc as well. Oops...
Mr. Mega1423: Yes, the episode of depression lasted longer than it normally does. It started messing with my sleeping again, and it didn't help when I had gotten my 'yearly' sleep paralysis (I'm just a basket full misery aren't I?) I'm still not sure If it's medical or not but it's done and over with, halle-fricken-lujah. Thank you for the get well wishes, man. I appreciate it.
OPFan37: Technically, Button is not a Minion yet, she's just a lost dweller. With the scene with Julia's elevator fall, I was tacking it as a series of events that had messed with space, just random ruptures that happened at the wrong place at the wrong time. take that as you will! But something is definitely going to happen to Julia.
Gabriele and Benjamin have been friends for a long time now, it was also a "congratulations you're not single anymore" kind of deal. It will be the only present he gets. also, that makes a little more sense, but I've never seen a cut character name Tron before, I even tried looking it up but found nothing. maybe I'm not looking correctly? This may seem repetitive, but I truly am thankful for all the get well's I've received. It's always nice to know there are people who care out there.
Fighter33000: Haha, yeah-
Also yes, always be cautious about a thing that can change its form, and I'm happy you like Button! Pretty sure I gave her ADHD. Even though I thanked you already, I'm gonna say it again, thank you for your support.
All of you, the support you give me... It means so very much to me. Thank you.