Hello, my friends! Sorry for a bit of the delay with this update. Had a power outage not long ago and then school stuff on top of it lol Gotta love the universe messing with my fanfiction plans lol
Anyway! Hope you all enjoy this one! Much love.
Lili and I approached the gates curiously as a man's silhouette was scribbling furiously on the gate's walls.
"Is he-?" I glanced over toward Lili as the man started to mumble to himself. "Is he good?"
"Raz, we're at an insane asylum. Anyone here is not 'good' in the way that you're asking." Lili used air quotes effectively as we got closer to the man in question.
"Yes, yes, it's all making sense now." The man scribbled furiously on the wall with a single piece of chalk as he muttered to himself. "They're all in on it. All of them." I looked over the walls of the main area to see that the man must have been scribbling for hours at the least. Each little piece of the black stone walls had something written over it or written over it twice at the least.
"Try the gate," I glanced over toward Lili before looking over toward the man once more. "I'm gonna see what's going on with him."
"Knock yourself out." Lili shrugged before going toward the main doors as I took a step closer to the man in question.
"Uh, hi." I waved a gloved hand as the man snapped his attention toward me.
"You!" I jumped back a little as the man pointed his chalk piece at me. "Who are you? Who do you work for?"
"Um," I reached up and rubbed the back of my neck as I wracked my brain for a decent answer. "The Psychonauts." The man gave a small hum as his eyebrows knitted together.
"That doesn't fit. No, it doesn't fit at all." The man turned his attention back to his scribbles as he went on to write something new. "Maybe-. No. No, it doesn't fit."
"What doesn't fit?"
"Any of it! They're everywhere! Nowhere is safe!" I tilted my head a little as the man now put his forehead against the wall. "They're coming for me, I know it."
"Who is?"
"Them." He put a lot of emphasis on the word as Lili now joined my side.
"It's no good. The place is locked." I gave my attention to the man again I decided to see if he knew anything.
"Sir? Do you know where the key is for the front doors?"
"The milkman has them." I quirked an eyebrow as Lili spoke my confusion out loud.
"The milkman? Who the hell is the milkman?"
"Milkman is key. Probably off sleeping on the job. He has the key."
"Then who are you? Why are you out here?" The man stood up straight before turning his attention toward Lili and me.
"I'm the guard and I am fully trained."
"Fully trained?" I questioned the idea in many ways as the man gave a serious nod.
"Yes."
"O-kay then." Lili drew out the first letter for a moment before turning her attention toward me. "Our friend here is a bit scattered-brained, and that's coming from me and I was raised around Dogen."
"Dogen's not that bad."
"Raz, he literally lets himself get harassed by squirrels." I couldn't fight her on that one as I looked over toward the man before us.
"What should we do then?" I turned my attention toward her as I gestured to the guard. "It's not like he's very much help." Lili slipped a hand into her jacket as she was looking for something in particular.
"We look for the information ourselves." Lili pulled out a Psycho-Portal from her pocket with a smile. My eyes grew wide as a wave of excitement took over me.
"You've got your own Psycho-Portal! That's so cool!"
"I know right? Even matches my dress." A proud look took over the girl's face as she took a step closer to the guard. "But even better, it'll help us take a look for wherever that key is."
"And then the mummified remains of Abe Lincoln would be there! It's all-. No, it's not. No sense. Not yet. The little fat child and the bunny have no place yet. Not yet." The man kept rambling to himself as he scribbled about. The action caused me to give Lili a wide-eyed look before looking back toward the man.
"Hopefully finding out where the key is won't cause us to lose our minds like our friend here." Lili tossed up the Psycho-Portal which quickly guided itself to the back of the man's head with ease as I lowered my goggles down over my eyes.
"Let's hope not." Within moments, a small door opened and I let myself be projected out and into the man's mind. A bright flash occurred with ease as I let my presence shift from the physical to the mental world. I landed on my feet with a soft thud as I looked around the room that I was projected into.
"Jeez." I let my eyes wander around the room as it wasn't that different from how the man was at the gates of the asylum. Papers with scribbled writings and crude drawings were laying anywhere and everywhere as little ashtrays were found here and there among them. "This place looks like a tornado went through it."
"Not as bad as some of the dorms I've seen at the Motherlobe." Lili's mental projection joined my side as she scanned the main area for a moment. "Though this guy is one hell of a conspiracy theorist. At least he's not mumbling about the world being flat and shit."
"People actually believe that?"
"Yep."
"Seriously?" I chuckled a little at the idea as we made our way to get closer to the guard. "Like, I never stepped a foot in a modern school system and all, but even I know the world isn't freaking flat."
"The internet is one hell of a thing, my friend." Lili shrugged as she turned her attention toward the mumbling man who was now peeking through the blinds in the window next to him. "Whatcha looking at, mate?"
"The G-Men are always watching. Always listening. They're after me. They work for him."
"G-Men?" I quirked an eyebrow as I looked over toward Lili. "Like some kind of off-brand X-Men?"
"I doubt they're superhero mutants saving the world, Raz." I smiled like a fool as I gave a small shrug.
"You never know, but the fact you knew exactly what I was talking about makes it even better." I saw a hint of embarrassment in Lili's features as she gave me a half-hearted glare.
"Shut up, focus on the mission." She snapped her attention toward the man before us as she brought us back to the matter at hand. "So where can we find the milk guy?"
"Milkman." The man snapped his attention toward us at neck-breaking speed as he dropped the blinds he was messing with like a bad habit. "His name is Milkman."
"Milkman, got it. Where do we find him, buddy?"
"Boyd. Call me Boyd."
"Got it, Boyd. But back to the Milkman, dude."
"Those little girls are hiding him." He turned his attention back toward the window before messing with the blinds again. "They know where he is. Find their lair, find the Milkman, and get rid of the G-Men and their ways. Den Mother must be stopped. Rainbow Squirts are his protectors. Find them, find the Den Mother, free the Milkman." I blinked a few times as I tried my best to understand the man's rambles.
"So," I took a moment to line up the ideas in my mind before turning toward Lili. "We need to find out where the Rainbow Squirt people are hiding the Milkman?"
"Rainbow girls, Milkman, then this guy might be sane enough to give us a key." She smiled wide at the idea before turning toward the front door of the little room. "Let's find ourselves a Milkman then." As we exited the house and got a glimpse of the shattered remains of what seemed to be a suburban town, Lili muttered quietly to herself. "Why do I get a feeling that this guy watched too many of those 'Chemicals in the water turning fish gay' people?" I gave her a curious look as she returned it. "What? Never heard of those people? They're all over the internet."
"Lili, I was literally raised in a circus."
"Honestly I would rather have that than deal with those people." She shrugged as we started making our way down one of the many curled and broken roads of the guard's mind. "And remind me to show you what the internet is."
"I'm frightened."
"I would be!" Lili said it with such a wide smile that I didn't know if I should take the girl seriously or not, but the thought escaped my mind as a tall figure in a trench coat and fedora stopped us suddenly in our path.
"Stop, construction in the area, please leave." The man spoke in a monotone voice as he gestured to the stop sign he held in his opposite hand. "Only authorized personnel beyond this point. Please seek an alternative route." We stepped back from where the man was standing to then receive a small nod from the figure. "Thank you. Have a nice day."
"Who the fuck?" I turned to Lili who had her head tilted to the side as she looked over at the tall man who had turned away from us now. "Is this like a conscious sensor in his own mind? Like he's restricting himself from going further in his mental state?"
"It would make sense." I rubbed my chin with a gloved hand as I looked around the area. "The broken roads, the twists and turns, he's stopping himself from going forward. Something really messed up must have occurred for this to be the state of his mind."
"Maybe we can search one of the houses on this street for a fence to hop or something." I gave Lili a wide smile as a plan started to formulate in my mind.
"Or, if we can find a stop sign of our own."
"So they believe we're a part of Boyd's mind! Genius, Raz!" Lili reached out and grabbed my hand before starting to drag me in the direction of the nearest house. "Let's start hunting then! Let's start over here."
"Hello, welcome to my house. Please stay and make pie." I tilted my head in confusion as a man dressed almost the exact same as the construction G-Man but with a pink apron around his waist was in the kitchen of the first house. "When my husband drinks excessively, I may threaten him with this rolling pin, although we are still very much in love."
"What," I put emphasis on the word as I looked over toward Lili. "The fuck."
"I'm learning quite quickly not to question Boyd's mind all too much." I looked back toward the G-Man as he started to roll out the pie crust.
"Although over time my husband will desire me less sexually, he will always enjoy my pies." I blinked silently in response before looking over at Lili who was doing the same.
"I'm gonna look around."
"Sounds good." I nodded my head as I looked back over toward what I guess was supposed to be Boyd's version of a housewife. "I'm going to see what information I can get out of this one."
"Good luck." Lili shrugged as she went about the house to see what she could find. I walked over toward the G-Man in the kitchen with my hands behind my back to make sure it didn't think I was a threat of some kind.
"A child," The figure spoke without even looking over at me as I approached them. "What are you doing here?"
"Uh," I swallowed hard as I tried to come up with the best excuse. "Trying to make a pie?" The baritone voice scuffed in reply as they kept working at their pie crust.
"You'd better not try and steal my husband. Tramp." A lot of venom came out of the last word as my eyes went wide.
"Alrighty then, sorry to bother you, ma'am." They continued to work unphased as they started speaking to themselves once more.
"Rhubarb is a controversial pie flavor. Apple pie is quite popular." I started backing away slowly from the kitchen area as Lili came back into the main area.
"Got anything from the pie lady?"
"Other than being called a tramp, no." I turned my attention completely toward Lili to see she had gathered two things, in particular, a stop sign in one hand and a memory fault hooked under her arm. "Seems you got some intel though."
"Doesn't give too much to why there's a bunch of these guys around," Lili nodded her head toward the G-Man in the kitchen. "But it explains how he got here." I took the memory vault from under her arm and pulled open the little fault face to the creature. I peeked inside to see a small little slide show appear before me. I watched the slide show a couple of times before closing the fault face and putting the little guy down to go back to hopping around.
"So, he burnt down a whole ass store he worked at? With milk bottle Molotov cocktails?" Lili shrugged as she handed me the stop sign which I took without question.
"It explains a little more about how he keeps talking about a Milkman. Maybe the two are related?"
"Like a split personality thing?"
"Exactly what I was thinking. Dissociative Identity Disorder is a thing that occurs after large amounts of trauma. Probably Milkman there is his brain's trauma response to be sent here and all."
"Doesn't DID also cause a memory loss effect where the main personality doesn't remember anything that the other one did? It would explain why he thinks people are after him."
"It makes a lot of sense the more I think about it for sure." Lili nodded as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Either way, this guy needs some serious help."
"Good thing we're here then." I smiled wide as I twirled the stop sign in my hand by its handle. "Maybe we can adjust some things while we're here to see if we can help him be more stable."
"We can probably find more evidence too. See who exactly has him set up like some kind of free bodyguard."
"Two birds with one mental adventure." I smiled wide as we both turned to leave the little house. "Let's do it."
