The chapter wherein the MC is very confused because he has major brain damage.
I woke up to someone shaking my shoulders. Pip Dwyer. Brown haired woman, blood stained hair, bruised face. Why were you here?
"Because I'm your mother!"
Was I a gay lesbian now? I lifted my hand up. Didn't lesbians have two hands? Mine was missing. And I didn't think Trapped had caves.
My head was still wringing. I tried to focus on her words.
"You promised! You promised he'd be ok."
Oh yeah, Sharon. IT. And the clown.
I wasn't in a film about a gay Mormon lesbian. Just with the actor of one of them.
"I need to sleep." I said. That sounded pretty solid. Short, to the point. Simple.
She grabbed me, easily picking up my childish weight, and shook me back and forth.
"Bring back my son! I can tell it's not you in control." I checked, and he was still unconscious.
"Georgie is gone." Hopefully that would answer her questions. Now I could sleep. I started to close my eyes, as Gamer's Body started to regenerate my battered and bloody body.
"Bring him back! Bring him back!" She shouted at me, shaking me harder.
You have taken 1 damage in shaking. Shaken boy condition granted. 10% debuff to all stats.
Someone- Bill I think- shoved her aside.
"Mom, g-give them t-t-time!" He said.
"He promised-"
"No, he s-saved us!"
"Bros before hoes!" I said, and I let them get to their thing.
I opened my eyes, and it felt like half a second later. My head felt like a zoo of apes was screaming at me, and my skin felt like it had peeled off in the sun. I dug a bit into my senses. Places where skin had torn off had regenerated, and freshly exposed nerves were sticking out in the air, raw and painful.
I needed a lot of work. Why was I awake?
New game starting in 59 seconds. 58 seconds.
I looked at my hand stump. It hadn't started to regenerate yet. The more pressing issues had started. My foot had started to heal, along with some of the deeper cuts. I didn't really want to leave Georgie
Owww. Arrrgh. Georgie was screaming in my head. Oh yeah. I triggered backup gamer's mind, and my gamer's mind slid up again, alleviating some of my mental trauma. I wrapped it around his mind more, shielding him from the pain.
"That's better- did we win?" He asked in my head.
"Yeah, but we need a delay. Maturin. You're my patron. Pretty please with a cherry on top could you delay this counter till I heal the hand?"
40 seconds. 39 seconds.
Well, that was annoying. "Georgie, could you ask your brother to summon Maturin?"
He spoke out loud. "Bill! We need Maturin."
Bill turned to us. He was arguing with his mother and dad about something. Probably me.
"On it. Maturin!"
There was a brief pause.
"Not me, Georgie!" He said.
And I heard Maturin's voice in my head again. He sounded distracted. "What is it?" Special privileges for special people. Pssh.
30 seconds. 29 seconds.
"I need you to delay the new game counter. It's gonna send me to a new world."
"There'll be consequences. Your old patron might notice. Are you sure? There's a big nest of vampires, they need help now."
10 seconds, 9 seconds.
"Yes!"
"This is harder than I expected. There's a quest to unlock it?"
4 seconds, 3 seconds.
"I'm sorry Georgie..." I said, looking at his broken food, his sliced off hand. I just needed a day-
"Done. Now, don't bother me for a while." Said Maturin.
"Thank you, Maturin-sensei." I said.
The weight of his presence faded from my mind. He had his stuff to deal with. We'd be helping with that later.
I looked at Georgie. "I need something, when I next awake."
"What?" He said.
"What more are you gonna take from us?" Asked Sharon.
"Chinese. Lots, and lots of Chinese food." And I slumped down again, letting gamer's body and mind take the wheel.
I woke up feeling very shitty. Ooh, tongue. That was a lot of tongue. Cure was licking my face. "Hi Cure. I missed you in there." Skin was fine, no evil clowns- Bill was smashing him in with a bat right now, as planned- why was I feeling shitty.
Ah, my foot. I leaned forward, using Cure's weight to reduce the pressure on my body. He grabbed me, and I flopped down to the floor again. "My boy missed me." I kissed his cheek, and nose, and he licked me some more. I kept my arms around his neck, and pulled up again.
My head span some more, but with Gamer's Mind up again, it quickly washed off. Some of the bones were awkwardly wedged against each other, and my body couldn't heal them properly.
I grabbed at my foot, and squeezed. The bones popped out of their misalignment, agony stabbing through my body. I ignored it, shoving aside shards of bone in my purple and swelling foot, and cracked it again, pulling the bones apart.
That was better. I checked myself over. Lots of scratches still, I'd fallen over a lot. No infection, thanks to disease control. Some bone cracks. Nothing squirting, no bones sticking out. It would be fine.
I went down to collapse again, when Eve came to kneel down next to me. Cure nuzzled at her hand, as she spoke" You're not my mommy. You're just a little bug." She said, as I faded out. Well, that was nice. And Cure, you did not defend me.
I woke up to the warm aroma of Chinese food. Black bean sauce, chicken, chop suey, rice of many sorts, and water.
You are dehydrated and hungry! You have tapped most of your body's reserves for healing. Healing rate reduced to 10% of normal for the near future.
I wiggled my foot around. Still a bit broken. I looked around. Eve was chatting to some of her new brothers and sisters. Not killing me.
Pennywise was stuck on the trap, and Richie was pounding him continually with a bat, bruising and battering his body, making fresh wounds which slowly healed. I picked up some black bean chicken and some water, and started eating it while I hobbled towards him.
Smelt, and tasted amazing. I walked towards Pennywise, eating the food. Ooh, baby hand. I wiggled my new tiny hand, growing out of my wrist.
My host's mother came towards me, no doubt to vent more emotions but I stopped her with a finger.
"Your son is alive and fine, give me my moment." I ordered. She wavered for a moment and I used that to plough onwards.
"Pennywise, Sewer Clown. I know your game. The group would fight you, perhaps be strong enough to hurt you. But you're a cosmic horror. You'd just pop up again later. You know what you are now? Food for us. One of the group is gonna be pounding you for the rest of their lives. We're never gonna let you heal, or escape. And more than that, Maturin has your ass. He can drain your essence drip by drip, making those here stronger and gaining a huge amount of power from you. Your slow, agonized death is gonna be the first step to making him the boss of this world again. The turtle is back to stay-" I backhanded Pennywise, knocking them back, right as Richie smashed them again with the baseball bat.
"You're over. In a few decades you'll be dry like a husk, and then we'll kill you." I said.
Pennywise spoke, even as his mouth was broken and battered by the smash of the bat, laughing.
"Kill? Me? Oh you are priceless, brat! I am eternal, child. I am the eater of worlds, and of children. And you are next! This won't hold me forever."
"I beat you, Sewer Clown. Shape is reality. You're gonna be too battered to do anything."
"You say those words like you have any real understanding. You know nothing of the deeper truth of the prim or what lurks beneath these words. You can't stop m-" Richie shoved the bat into Pennywise's mouth, breaking their teeth and shutting them up.
"Your spider children punched me, made me walk through shitty water, dragged me through a graveyard.. and now I'm gonna shut you up you fucking clown."
He smashed the bat into Pennywise's mouth repeatedly, and indeed shut him up.
I turned to Georgie's family. They'd been waiting to speak. Probably to rant at me.
"Done. What do you want to say." I waved my hand at them, keeping eating, refueling my body to heal the grievous wounds.
"Your hand- it's- is it gonna stay like that" Sharon asked.
I shook my head. "Nah, magic is healing it now. Healing just paused because my body ran out of fuel. On the upside, Georgie no longer needs to lose a few pounds."
"Hey." Said Georgie, through our mouth. "I'm not fat. You're fat."
"Maybe." I said, finishing off the chicken. I went to get some beef stick things. No clue what they were called.
Sharon looked like she'd lost her place, but a moment later she worked up energy to speak again.
"You came into our lives, spent all our savings- and now our children have to spend their days in a sewer! You cut off my son's hand. You bring chaos where you walk."
"Mom-" Said Bill, looking back. I waved him off.
"I can handle this. Anything else?" Sometimes people needed to rant.
"I was just being an average piano tuner. Life was good. Now I'm what, slave to a giant turtle!" She grabbed her hair, walking back and forth. "You did this! You came into our lives and brought all this in!" Not really fair, but I nodded and hummed. I needed this place to remain cohesive.
She kept on speaking. "And now, my children are in a cult. A cult! You know by now Pennywise could have been killed by the ritual. Knocked down a hole." Waitamomentno.
"How do you know about the alternate timeline."
My brain's tired gears tried to work it out. I hadn't told her. Maybe she was psychic and saw the other timeline.
"And another thing-" She kept ranting at me, getting louder and louder, and angrier and angrier.
Something was off. I remembered something. In the back of my head. A name.
"Simurgh protocol. Alpha G-" I said, my code word for Master Strange situations, as a fist rammed into my head. Hers.
I really was off my game- and that fist hit harder than it should.
I fell to the ground, dazed.
30 damage taken! You have a concussion. 30% mental stat debuff. Partially negated,
She knocked Richie aside, grabbing the bat. "He said he would free us!"
And as she did, a black arm wrapped around her neck, yanking her back. Dick Hallorann, the black cook with psychic powers.
"You're scared of everything, Mrs Denbrough."
"How did you know my name?" I hadn't introduced them.
Beverley had taken over the beatings, and Stan and Bill were holding back the father.
"I can remember when I was a little boy your age... my grandmother and I could hold entire conversations without ever opening our mouths. She called it "shining". And for a long time I thought it was only the two of us who had the shine... just like you who thought you was the only one. You were not. And when something happens it can leave a trace of itself behind. Say like... it's when someone burns toast. When some things happen, it can leave other traces behind. Not things anyone can notice, but things that only people with shine can see. IT left it's shine in you."
She struggled frantically as he spoke, screaming and clawing at him, trying to escape his calming voice.
"And it's gone." And she flopped down.
I sighed, and swayed up. I should have seen that coming. I glanced at Ethan, Eve, and Zack. "Are you gonna cause problems? You all got hit by It's psychic whammie."
Zack shook his head. "He showed me terrible things- but I couldn't- no."
Eve spoke. "I know you're not my mother." Oh yeah. "But I have a family of my own. He didn't break my mind. I'll be with all my brothers and sisters. I'll be staying here."
Ethan stepped forward, next to me. "It was a psychic clown. Don't believe a word it said. No effect here."
She stared at him.
"You know that's not really her!" Eve stamped her foot.
"Because a clown told me? Please. You've given me worse hallucinations." Ethan said.
I swayed a bit, and got to my feet again. My head was pounding, and my hand wasn't quite better.
"She can stay. And totally. You have your wife back." Lie lie lie. He could shotgun Eve if she was bad.
I pottered around, and started refilling my inventory.
Ethan gestured at Eve. "See, there."
"This clown should unite you all. You're all marked by Maturin. If you stay here, you can gain his power. Eat his flesh, and Maturin will bless you with greater power and strength. Just as I gained strength from him you can too. You may stay, Eve. But all of you, remember there's a greater purpose. You all have some reason to be here. Fear, friendship, family, famine, fealty. But there's a greater threat. This world is filled with monsters and is in danger of collapse. Those monsters have power and magic and greatness-"
Ooh, chest of magical items and hyper tech. Dick had brought it. What a bro.
"And Something." I shook my head. Concussion. "And I need to lie down. But yeah. Kill monsters, stop the beams of the dark tower breaking. You can do it team."
I said, and flopped down. Concussion. Bleh.
I woke up again. I had a full hand. Almost full. I flexed the fingers. And I hadn't gone back to the other world.
I walked over to Sharon. "So about all that?"
She looked down with shame. "I can't believe I hit my own son! I'm so sorry I can't-" She said, looking down.
"Magic does weird things, don't worry. So, Pennywise- still trapped?" He was being pounded and beaten by Stan of all people now.
"All is right and I-"
Protective bubble overwhelmed. Primordial override. Ten seconds left.
"Back in the box, Ethan!" I shouted, and I drew him into my inventory.
"Keep Georgie safe!" I said. "I'm about to be yanked out.
And I was gone.
I didn't wake up in my nice between dimensions.
I woke up strapped to a chair, dizzy, swaying. I saw flashes of blood. The smell was thick in my nose. I saw the sterile hospital walls around me, smelled old antiseptic. I smelt mold.
And I was out again.
I looked up. There was a light above me. I was coming too. And a TV. I had a metal device on my jaw, painful. My body ached.
And- I was black?
Always have a bunch of codenames for friends. It makes surprises much easier.
While I know many wanted to go straight to Saw 3, I need to get back into the swing of things, so here we are the Saw Video game. It's simple, linear, and easy to do. Writing this was a drain because so many characters and interactions, so I need something simple and violent. Afterwards, he can go to SCP or Saw 3, you can decide. Either works.
Jakewjelliot2. Yep, that's why he's in his next location partly. No super high level enemies wandering around, he can fight people who are about as good as him or a bit below. He'll be able to flex all his new powers.
Iunctus. Eve is happy for now because she has hundreds of siblings and potential mummies and daddies, but we'll see later what she's up to. And you are mistaken, SCP 3930 is just a hypothetical thing, it doesn't really exist. It's a placeholder to be filled later, and doesn't exist anywhere. ;)
Dragonbornthesam. Yep, I figured his cave had the shining of their deaths, and so buffed his stats. SCP will probably involve a lot of deaths, given how many memetic horrors I know and would remember with my buffed intelligence stat.
Nobody. Thanks, the team has won, and now he has a new team with magic connecting them.
Dirk. It could happen. Pick SCP or Saw 3.
Guest. Maybe he can have other non horror universes as vacation spots sometime.
Poundweed. Yay for anime.
Next time, the MC experiences what life is like as a black man being oppressed by the man. Probably tomorrow.