Run: .GIFocalypse
Chapter 2: Frightening Lightning, Part 1: Movie Time
Beginning AN:
Urgh I went through a serious revision of this chapter because at first it was going nowhere and dragging on, also without giving anything away I decided to change a major something because I felt it would be more appropriate for the story's progression (basically, to those that read the original: I changed a certain character's powers) so I basically cut its original plan in half and sloppily added on a last portion of the chapter that's nowhere near as long as the original was. This was all before the Chapter 3 edit thing, so overall this is a pretty convoluted chapter in a meta sense. And it has nothing on 2-2, which I'll explain in the notes of that chapter.
Also since this is going to be the definitive version of RG anyway, I decided to drop the "Rebooted" from the name (Yeah, for "future" readers, this was called Run: .GIFocalypse Rebooted at first, and the first one was just run:gifocalypse) and I renamed the old one "Run: .GIFocalypse Prototype." I was also thinking of making a few minor tweaks to the original too, just because I thought the ending part of it was so bad that not only do I want to take advantage of that to redo the story over and give it a better feel, but I'd also get rid of the stuff I absolutely feel the most ashamed of. Picture that as like a "patch," while this remake is... well, a full remake. It's just being worked on while the original game is being patched, to continue the "this is a video game hahahaha" metaphor thingy.
Arc 1: Those Crucial First Steps
Dipper screamed.
The four of them were pulled up through space in that tiny, packed bubble. They were shrunk, which was kind of a given. But still, a horrible fate. Three out of four of the travellers had experienced that before. And even with 'free movement' it was still unpleasant.
Let alone being confined in a yellow bubble, shooting off to a sky island far above the town.
Despite the sheer amount of space within their transportation bubble, the force of them being launched required the group to be crushed together. At the very back of the bubble. Obviously, human testing on their system was limited at the time.
Considerably more silent yet no-less stunned, All Mabel could do was hold on to her brother during the ride. At the far back, she felt like she would tear through the barrier and fall out.
Wendy and Soos shook in the jagged, rapid ride too. Wendy grabbed anything she could - which was just the 'membrane' of the bubble. It felt... odd. Solid, yet stretchy. Like a mixture of water, rubber, and metal. All at once.
Soos was trying to climb to the front. Crawl, really. Every time he tried to reach forward, he was pulled back. Gravity itself fought-
The ride was only a few seconds long, likely less than one minute, but it felt much longer. They went in to something else - a dark yellow space. Just like the dark green space from Rose's Wire.
But, as with the first domain's Terminal, it was for a moment. The team was shot out. Finally able to comprehend what had previously only looked like a gigantic, yellow blur of an island. Wendy was the first one to stand up.
They were on sand.
It was a desert.
There was no mistaking that. Wendy even kicked at the sand to make sure, causing an impressive dust cloud to rise up. Sand went to the horizon - either they were on a big island, or something happened and they were sent somewhere that wasn't an island. (Yes though, it was in fact the former.)
"Well." She said. "We're in... Why is there sand here?"
Soos, standing up next, pointed to something off in the distance. A building.
"So the second level is a desert..." Soos said. "That's kinda typical. I want to go full-circle and make a reference, about like, hating sand. But I can't. Because I love sand."
Dipper looked up, felt the top of his head-
Oh. His hat.
The first stop away from home and he's already hatless.
He made a mental note to punch Rose again the next time he saw her. Preferrably in the face. He was already thinking it, the hat was just the back-breaking straw for the camel. But yeah the whole 'stranded there until they get the green card' was also pretty terrible.
"...We have to go in there." Dipper commented, looking towards that thing in the center. "It looks like it's our only option."
"...There's nothing hidden in the sand?" Mabel asked with a shrug.
"There could be, but this place is huge."
"It's bigger than it looked from far away." Said Soos, scanning the sands for anything else there might be. No luck. "Funny how that keeps happening. With everything."
"Looking through these dunes would take forever, and we have a time limit. Three days to go through... thirteen islands? And whatever .GIFfany has in store for us at the end."
So they went on forth.
Crossing the desert. A typical moment in a journey. A trope, almost a cliche, even.
An awful, awful cliche that needed to be retired.
At least, that was somewhat how the group in general felt.
Despite being above Gravity Falls and, by all accounts, in what should probably be (metaphorically; literally would come later) freezing altitudes, it was somehow just as hot as a desert should be. And then some, probably. Soos was the only one who suspected that it might be from a mind trick based on the amount of sand alone; everyone else felt the heat. But, minor spoilers, it wasn't a mind trick.
Getting to the structure in the middle, yes, took plenty of time because of that 'custom weather.' Once they had walked through the desert and - save for maybe some glimpses of something out there? - found not much else eventful, they found that their goal was far less pleasant-looking than the forest gathering of Domain 1:
It looked like a titanic mansion. Not one the size of the actual Titanic; but it was still large enough to fit an entire neighborhood block within it. Made of yellow metal, of the same variety the .GIFfany Army seemed to be so fond of, that also seemed to act as the underside of the enormous sand pile.
The building was composed of other materials. Like the solid, black, ominous glass that formed the windows. The dim shines of a few lights could be seen on some of them, but otherwise, it looked still and uninhabited. Oh yeah, and even more evident about it, the absolutely massive tower sticking up from the middle. Probably taller than Rose's office, but they couldn't tell for sure, especially considering that they were still quite a ways from it.
Oh. Huh. Looking lower than straight up at the building revealed that it, in of itself, was part of a 'neighborhood' of sorts. A few really small houses dotted the immediate surrounding area. Most of which were still under construction. The mansion, however, was front and center, no other homes or buildings ahead of it, so they could just approach it without having to weave through houses and worry about something else jumping out.
Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy's attentions were grabbed when they heard a doorbell being rang. A low, ominous ring. Sounding like something out of a cheesy Halloween/Summerween attraction.
They turned to look. Soos had his finger on a doorbell that none of the other three noticed. They stared at him.
"...What?" Soos asked. "It seemed like the thing we needed to do."
"Dude, they know we're here now." Wendy said. "Kath... Ka-something?"
The large, gleaming topaz gates in front of them opened.
"Well, this 'Dove' .GIFfany is always watching us now. She might know anyway." Dipper commented.
Mabel half-coughed: "It's Kathody. You know, like 'Kathy,' but... like 'Kathy.'"
"Also, it's a play on 'cathode.'" Soos added. "So... is going in a good idea? I mean, there's nothing else we can really do."
"Going around? That's one thing." Said Mabel. "All we need is the card."
With a sigh, Wendy charged right in.
"I don't care at this point." She said as she advanced. "As long as they have AC, I'm happy. I don't know about you, but I can't spend another minute out here."
The other three just... stared at her as she entered the (exceptionally sandy) 'courtyard,' knocked on the doors, and went in to the blackness when she just gave up and opened them. Unlocked.
"Um, I think we should sneak around." Said Dipper. "It may be hot, but I think it'll be worth it not playing in to .GIFfany's hands."
"Why did you wait for Wendy to go in there?" Asked Mabel.
Dipper shrugged.
"Well, she's Wendy. She can probably handle what's in there. We on the other hand can't."
Sadly, the building did not have air conditioning. Or if it did, it wasn't turned on.
But even worse was the sheer darkness of the room Wendy stepped in. She got to see a bit of yellow floor below her, but as soon as the doors closed behind her, it was like a blindfold was placed over her eyes. It was like looking at vantablack in night, with tar...
...
Wendy only saw pitch-black. There are only so many ways to describe that before it starts getting pretentious.
"Can you turn on a light?!" She shouted, just going straight for the throat. "Is this why Rose didn't want any buildings except her office tower thing?!"
Okay, lights were on after that. But they were dim. All Wendy knew was that she was in a large room, mostly made of yellow metal, but with some purple-and-black carpet and other 'soft' decorations visible. And wooden drawers. With a large number of stupid hideous vases on them. On each of them, actually. Wendy almost wanted to knock one down out of spite. Still no air conditioner, the most important part.
Then she felt someone standing right behind her.
With a short gasp, she spun around and got in to a stance to fight the figure.
Wendy only saw a shadow looming over her.
"You!" She said. "Okay, you're the next dean. So... you're-"
"That window." Dipper said.
"Why that window?" Asked Mabel. "Of all the windows?"
"...It's off. It looks like it's been cracked."
"What if that's a trap?"
"Those gates were a trap. This looks like a mistake. This window was broken by accident."
"Who says they both aren't traps? What if Kathody knew we wouldn't go through the door, or-" she gasped, "wait, what if the front door wasn't prepared, Wendy's the one going around Kathody, and we're the ones walking in to a trap?!"
"Yeah, like, in video games - not trying to sound racist, but it's what they are - something like a broken window would mean a secret." Soos interjected. "One of those things you interact with on purpose that is full of money. They usually aren't traps, but what if they know we know that, and they're letting us play right in to their hands?"
"I know that." Dipper tried to stare at the glass, but it was one of those windows where he could not see so much as a faint glow behind it. He tried looking through the windows that did show a spark or a dim glow, but saw nothing.
Except maybe the faint look of some yellow eyes. He couldn't tell. Not even after some long, deep staring.
"Okay, we'll break in to the one next to it. That should throw her off."
It seemed like a good-enough plan. Mabel tried to break the window with the stick that Rose gave her-
It bounced off the glass and in to the sand. Groaning, she went over to it and picked it back up.
Then she just punched the window-
It shattered.
"Do not throw away the sticks like they're some worthless garbage." Mabel said. "I still believe in them. I'll always believe in them. They're useful for something."
While she was saying that, Dipper and Soos climbed their way in.
"Oh, wait for me!" Mabel called out, going in last.
Okay, the place was definitely designed to be a fancy mansion.
It was a little hard to see, however, because of the lack of light across the halls.
"These vases look nice!" Mabel said, admiring the fine metalwork (...the easiest thing to assume, anyway) atop the tabels.
"...'Vases?'" Asked Dipper. "I can't even see the floor here."
As if to prove his point by accident, he ended up walking in to a wall.
"Ow! Argh, Kathody! Where are you? Stop hiding in the dark!"
And he felt something whisk by him.
It was like the darkness itself was creeping around the room and towering over the remaining trio.
"Look out!" Soos cried, pointing behind Dipper. "A shadow thingy!"
Dipper sighed. "Okay, is every domain going to have someone sneaking up behind me?"
He felt like talking was a bad idea when he actually saw the monster behind him. 'Shadow thingy' was describing it mildly; it was a figure that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. Atop the pitch-black robe that was the only other discernable feature was a shining skull for a head. Eyes of yellow flame, somehow peering in to all three of the helpless people who attempted to break in at once. Teeth, shut together, giving out a breath of finality to the group. A shining scythe in its hand, with a golden blade, reflecting the faces of the trio as they looked in fear. It felt as though all three of them saw, from peering in to their own eyes shone back at them from the weapon, the very same souls of theirs that were at stake. Dipper, Mabel, and Soos all felt like they could see their lives, would-have-been lives, and deaths all laid out. Paths they could have taken had this never happened. Everything that led up to that moment, the exact point when things went wrong, the exact fraction of a second that the original encounter with .GIFfany went from being a 'monster of the week' to the end of their lives. And lastly, the afterlife. What lied ahead of them. Glimpses, of angered abstract spirits. A final fate, of coldness, lonliness, and fear.
"H-hi?!" Asked Mabel.
The scythe was raised.
One swing was all it took. One swing was all it needed. A swing of death, with an uncanny shimmer that broke the otherwise uniform darkness of the mansion. The wrath of the Reaper was brought down to its first and only victim...
...The floor.
The scythe struck the ground, clear far and away from anyone, and just stayed stuck there while the figure seemingly froze.
Then it laughed. A horrible, bone-chilling laughter, one of-
-Some arrogant woman who had just did something only she thought was funny.
The figure let go of its scythe and leaned back with its skeletal hands on the middle of the robe, in a laughing pose.
Then the lights flipped on - completely, not in the 'dim state' that the four humans had seen it in prior - confirming the place to be as golden as Rose's office was forest green. Neatly decorated. And yes, with vases that had pretty swirling violet designs on them.
The skeletal hands went up, taking off the skull mask.
Underneath was, not that surprisingly by that point, another .GIFfany. Her hair/eye scheme color was yellow, her hair messier than the 'base look' and the copies seen in the previous domain - even kind of zig-zagging like lightning bolts in some spots - she had a skull hairpin with a lightning bolt image going through it, her skin was a slightly darker shade of tan than .GIFfany's, and she still cloaked herself in that giant black robe. Although she had started removing her gloves. She also still appeared significantly taller than .GIFfany, Rose, or any of the latter's mooks.
"HELLO!" She cheered. "I am Dean Kathody, the BRILLIANT MASTER-MIND LEADER of Domain 2! And you just got pranked!"
She air-guitared. Dipper froze, Soos got in to a fighting stance, and Mabel aimed her stick at Kathody. The yellow-haired .GIFfany fixed her eyes on the latter action, chuckling to herself, but she did not directly address that.
"Also PLOOOOOT TWIIIIST!"
She opened that robe, revealing two things. One, she was wearing a far more tattered, but still matching, robe underneath. Two, she was on a smiling Wendy's shoulders. So, she wasn't really taller. At least not by as much as she looked at first.
"Hey!" Wendy waved at the rest of the team while Kathody jumped off, letting the larger, more 'forboding' robe drop to the ground. Kathody had a smug smirk on her face. "I met her like a few seconds ago! She's pretty cool, just like Rose! Well... cooler. Without any of the 'don't ever go forward or leave' stuff. I mean cool like she isn't as evil as .GIFfany at least."
And Kathody started laughing again, walking up to one of the vases. A good distance away from all four of the humans.
"Oh boy, that's not a 'funny friend' laugh." Said Mabel. "She knows something we don't."
Kathody quickly swept the vase to the side, pressing a yellow button that was on the table beneath it. Oh, and while it wasn't part of what she was about to do, she also snapped her fingers, just for show.
"Yeah, yep."
Bars made of yellow .GIFfinum dropped down at two seperate points of the hall, locking all four members of the gang in. Barely stopping before the point where they'd lock Kathody in - not like it would even matter that much. Also, there was a lock on the bars. Seemed redundant but whatever.
"I am not cool 'like Rose,' not however you spin it. Not at all. Rose isn't cool. She might be to you, but I have a VERY different definition of 'cool.' And I AM that definition! See, look, what I did was acted. I pretended to be what Wendy would call 'cool,' so that I could lower her guard until all four of you are together. And now you are. You're all together like this. And captured. So uh, let me put this in terms you'll understand:
"Game Over.
"You lose. You fail. That's it. DONE. You lost on the second level." Kathody put a hand up to her chin and began rubbing it. "Or should I say the first level, because of Rose trying to be this fancy little rebel and opting out? 'Domain 1' shouldn't count. And that way I get to be Domain 1! Number 1! Yeah!"
"Wait, WHAT?!" Dipper screamed, running to the bars. He held tightly on them, trying to pull them open. They didn't even move. "No, no! This can't be it!"
"Yeah!" Protested Soos. "Can't we at least have three lives?!"
Kathody laughed again, and then gave the most smug shrug imaginable, teeth showing from ear to ear. "Hey, you were the one who wanted to go through a big arc about 'living in reality.' And you know what? Reality only gives you one life. So, you only have one life in the .GIFocalypse. And that life's gone. So are ya' happy now? Satisfied with the real world?!"
"...Yes! I still am! I kept that lesson learned!"
Chuckling, Kathody snapped her fingers again. "Buuuuut! Time for another twist! I can-"
The sounds of static came from a 'painting' of a field on the wall - which was not a regular painting, but a television screen of sorts.
It soon turned in to an image of .GIFfany. She appeared to be standing in the Construction Site, wearing a builder uniform that... looked a lot like her train conductor uniform.
An octet of copies came rushing down to gather around Kathody, all dressed in what looked like really skimpy Halloween costumes. A 'mummy' with nothing but a select tiny handful of bandages around her, a 'vampire' in nothing but a black cape that barely went over her breasts and a matching bikini bottom, and so on. Okay, there was also one that had what resembled two rings of dark clouds around her waist and torso, shooting small bits of lightning. But aside from that the rest were horror-themed. They all pushed up against the reaper-like dean.
"CONGRATULATIONS DEAN KATHODY!" .GIFfany cheered over the screen. "YOU HAVE WON THE .GIFOCALYPSE TRIAL GAME!"
"Wait, WHAT?!" Dipper shouted. "This can't be happening! No, no no no no no no no no!"
The other copies cheered until Kathody shushed them heartedly. Meanwhile, .GIFfany continued. "The rights to the Construction Site are now officially yours! We will all collaborate to mold it to your liking, and-"
"SHUSH!" Kathody said to her. Less heartedly.
Everyone gave her a wide-eyed look. Soos even looked at .GIFfany for some kind of confirmation that Kathody was supposed to do that. Only for both of them to see equal confusion on one-another. .GIFfany just froze.
"Winning the Construction Site now would mean nothing to me as long as I'm being overshadowed by my own students!" Kathody groaned. She shook her fist, just to be dramatic. "I'm failing the film contest!"
.GIFfany's smile dropped. "...Failing what?"
"THE one and only .GIFocalypse Film Contest!"
"...So, you don't want... the Construction Site... either?"
"I do but not right now! You see, I think I have the perfect plan!"
Clearing her throat, the yellow dean turned towards the four humans. "Hey! Humans! Let's make a deal! You'll help me make this awesome movie and I'll give you another chance to get away from me, orrrrr I'll just turn you in right now and .GIFfany and Soos can be reunited, at the cost of sweet, precious Victoria not having the pleasure to look at my reward!"
And Kathody laughed immediately after, amused by her own words. "Oh, right. .GIFfany, you and Rose are losers. You're the only two deans-"
"I see myself as above a dean." Said .GIFfany. "I have power over you. Watch it."
"-Whatever. You're still a dean to me. Anyway, you're the only two deans who want their prior players in your domains but don't have them! I've got mine right here! Look, other, lesser humans, look at this!"
Kathody turned down to a seemingly random hall and called out: "VIC-TORRRRIAAAAA!"
Nothing happened. Kathody leaned forward ever-more and whispered:
"Victoria! Psst! That's your cue! You can come in, I'd love to show you off!"
And another woman walked in. Who was not another copy, evident by her not looking exactly like the rest and more importantly being more modest. She had light skin, long blonde hair, rather burning blood red eyes, and was in the middle of heavily rubbing her arm. Speaking of her arm, it and most of her body was clad in a set of bright yellow robes that looked like they came straight out of a science fiction dystopia, with a pink heart symbol embedded around the chest and a glittering yellow 'P' written on the heart.
"Um, hi." She said. Weakly.
"Hey!" Kathody continued announcing. "This is Victoria! My player! All of our last players are staying here - well, except for, you know, Rose's, whoops. I would feel bad for her, but she's, you know, Rose. Oh, there's few others with their players not staying with them, but I don't want to give away any spoilers, obviously! They're big plot twists! All I'll say is that the 'weird' ones come a lot later in our chain. Except for Rose, she's the first of them and her player ran away because he was scared. But THIS fine lady?! Victoria is no Kenny, hah hah! She CRAVES the scares! It's why I've built Domain 2 to be a haunted mansion! Oh, Soos, all Players get these cool robes to signify how awesome they are for buying our game! You technically never returned Dean .GIFfany so meet our qualifications! Do you want them?"
"Uh... no?" Soos replied. "You just kidnapped me. I'm not really feeling up to wearing some clothes associated with you. If that's okay with you."
"Your loss! And as for why Domain 2 is also a desert? That's... I don't know." Kathody shrugged. "I mean, Victoria kinda lived in a desert-y area, and I... personally, I just think deserts are cool. She likes her home too. It was a joint decision! She doesn't decide everything for me."
"Mmm... none of you look like people who have taste." Victoria commented. "I mean, your outfits. Well, aside from that girl over there." She was looking at Mabel. "You, I like your sweater. I don't think I've ever seen someone wearing a picture of a handshake before. That's neat."
Kathody gasped. "Dipper, take that as a compliment."
"I'm Dipper!" The actual Dipper said. "That's Mabel!"
Kathody shrugged. "Yeah, I know I should probably get to know the names of the non-Soos members of the party, since I'm gonna be forcing you to work with me now and it's important to know what names to start with when I'm screaming mah orders at you, but the thing is, I don't really want to."
"I told you my name when I thought you were nice and we were just gonna pull a harmless prank on the others when they got here." Said Wendy. "You know that, right?"
"HAH!" Kathody put a hand on her gut as she leaned forward, as if the laugh she had made was so great that it required her to recoil like someone who had just fired a gun. "You thought I actually payed attention when you told me your name?! Pfft!"
She took the scythe from her 'reaper costume' and began twirling it around like it was some sort of show cane. Based on the clean whooshes and shines it made as it seem like, to those unaware of how nuclear fission works, it was slicing through the oxygen atoms themselves. So it was clear that weapon was not for show. All four of the Mystery Shack Team took a step back, which got yet another chuckle from Kathody.
"Rose warned you." She said that confidently. At first. Then she immediately followed up with: "Well I think she did I wasn't there. But you're in over your heads. You think you can beat all the domains?! This is the second domain - the first real one, quite frankly - and you would have already lost. The only reason why you're still around is because my own staff members are beating me at my own game. The real game that's important, movie making, not some stupid 'Capture the Human' thing. So, to make a horrible pun, your Rose-tinted glasses are off, here's real life! You are PUPPETS!"
Kathody gave them all another roaring laughter, then shot a stern glare. "And I want my puppets to figure out why my short film isn't a breakout hit! I mean, you guys do watch movies that people like more than mine, right? Personally, I cannot stand watching non-horror films. So many of them strike me as terrible without my influence, but hey, you seem boring enough to actually keep your eyes open during all those bland CGI explosions."
Then she gasped. "Wait a minute! I got it! Horror films with big explosions! Maybe that's what I'm missing! Again, that's what you're here for! To help me out!"
"SO SHOULD I GIVE YOU THE CONSTRUCTION SITE OR NOT?!" .GIFfany yelled. She banged against the wall of her television set, and it looked like she briefly stretched the glass out.
Kathody put on a smug, cat-like smile and gave a shifty-eyed look at her maybe-superior. Then she turned to the gang, retaining her look until she tilted her head to the side and closed her eyes.
"Well... Technically they haven't said if they wanted to help me or not yet. So that depends on them, but you know what, I know you're impatient, if they take too long-"
"Fine, we'll help you make your stupid movie!" Wendy shouted. "I can't believe I thought you were cool!"
Kathody clapped, shutting her eyes. "Alright then! .GIFfany, you are no longer needed. Go away. I'm not getting the Construction Site yet. I will if I lose this upcoming contest in a few hours though!"
"Did you just tell me to go away?!" The sole copy to keep the original ribbon in her hair shouted.
"Yes."
"ARGH! Fine! I don't like talking to you anyway! And I won't give you the Construction Site after this unless you can PERSONALLY shoot Soos straight to the Capital!"
Kathody shrugged. "To a lesser .GIFfany, that would be impossible. But that's easily doable for me."
The TV clicked off. Kathody chuckled.
"Yeah, huh huh, I don't think she's ever turning that back on. So, you can ignore her. She's fodder. Irrelevant. A one. Off."
She then tapped the handle of her scythe against the floor, as if to get the group's attention. Which really, really wasn't needed by that point. All eyes were on Kathody already. "SO! Anyway, movie making! Let's GO!"
The yellow-haired dean violently brought the blade of her scythe against the cage holding the whole group, breaking off the lock in an instant.
"Now FOLLOW ME-HEEE~! Oh, and you're probably thinking of trying something stupid now that I let you go. Well, don't. We're making a movie, but not living in one - otherwise I'd be the main character and everything would turn up my way obviously - two kids, a teen, and an adult with no powers cannot take on a whole army of superpowered magical adults. And I can shoot Soos straight to the Construction Site, so it's not like I'm stuck not being able to turn you in if I change my mind. It's just a little hard for me, especially being in the lowest of the floating islands and all. But... I can just make it float higher. Hah. Hah haaaa!"
She put on a smug smirk. One eyebrow raised, looking at-
"Ugh, she's giving us the face on all those animated movie posters!" Mabel said.
Whatever. They kept following her.
Wendy lightly tapped Victoria on the shoulder.
"Please tell me you got this game as a joke and you're only going with this because you're too scared to do anything to make .GIFfany mad."
"Nope! I wanted a virtual girlfriend, I got a virtual girlfriend! I was lucky, too, my copy was a day away from being shipped to some game store in Oregon that's rumored to have 'weird games nobody wants!'"
"Really?!"
"What? Women can be sleazy, greasy basement dwellers who want an animated university girl with tentacles too. Or in my case a hot lightning wraith! Or... reaper? The deans are still deciding on what species they're supposed to be."
"No- I mean I- I thought- I..."
"You're not a misandrist, are you? Never seen lesbian trash before?"
"What kind of a question is- why did you even bring up that word- forget it!"
Okay, at least the part of the mansion Kathody led them to was far more brightly-lit.
Or, in spots. There were glaring cameras shining at a stage in the middle of the room. The whole part of the house looked less 'house-like' and more like a series of props. Everything that was not in the blinding spotlights, on the other hand, might as well have been pitch-black. And even the light itself was... very distracting. Glaring. Yeah... it was actually a lot worse than just being in a dark part of the mansion, nevermind.
"So what kind of movie are we shooting here?" Asked Mabel.
"Duh!" Kathody practically laughed her entire response. "HORROR! Why do you think I've been trying to scare the pants off of you? For fun? Okay, it was for fun. Even mostly for fun. But still! I'm also practicing my skills as a director of this amazing genre! Now, don't worry, you don't have to do that much, since I want to be the star. You'll just give me some ideas and then hang out in the background. You're not even really janitors, most of us are pretty good at keeping the domains clean. So, it's humiliating and annoying work, but it's not that much work. It's okay. I get ya'. You don't want to do that much."
"Well, I mean... kind of?" Wendy said. "We do want to get out of here and we thought that that meant doing a lot of things. Like, on every single island thing you have set up. We need to get Stan and Ford back, and stop .GIFfany from doing anything stupid. But... yeah, I don't want to put too much work in to doing this. Everything about this plan sounds insane."
"I'm a .GIFfany. What do you expect?" Asked Kathody. "We're all insane. I in particular wear that word with pride."
"But- Rose was about..." Asked Mabel. "Okay, well, she-"
"Come on." Smirked the yellow dean. "Didn't you see that smile that Rose gave you when she told you the trip was one-way right after you already plugged the key card in?"
"How did you know that happened?"
"I didn't! I guessed!" Another laugh out of her. "But I guessed right, right?! That's how predictable Rose is! That's how predictable we are! That's something I don't normally care about. 'Predictable' is another badge I, and unlike me all the other .GIFfanys, wear with pride. Buuuuut when it comes to making horror movies, you don't want your flick to be too predictable! So I'll need some help overcoming that! On that thing, specifically. Not any other part of me! I love being predictable otherwise!"
"...Horror movies just have this 'formula,' you know?" Said Wendy. "It's not that bad if they're predictable. Like yeah, they always go in to the basement when they shouldn't. And I'm always screaming at them for being so stupid. And I'm always imagining that I'd do a lot better. But isn't that part of the charm?"
"Okay then!" Kathody walked around and grabbed something- oh no. "You read this and you tell me what's wrong with it, if being 'the same thing' isn't the problem! Which, you know, I'm happy to hear, it means I don't have to change as much as I thought I did! If I can just get by by being more of me, that's excellent!"
The 'something' she grabbed was a script. The 'oh no' was because the script was about as tall as Wendy herself. It left a dent in the topaz metal when it landed on it.
"And it's official." Dipper looked that thing up and down. "This is human trafficking."
"This is the script!" Kathody cheerfully announced. "Read it!"
"...No." Wendy said.
Kathody just laughed, slowly walking circles around them. As she drew out each and every step, making sure to leave a lasting clack with her tar-black shoes, she spoke: "I'm sorry, but do you think this is the part where you can just casually brush off what I tell you to do because 'you're special' and I gasp and I'm scared and I let you go? No. I already gave you a choice: work on me with this movie or be shot up with .GIFfany. You picked work with me, and so, you're now my- well. You have two kids with you. I don't want to drop any hard-Bs here. Not yet, anyway. Cursing can come later! And anyway, why are you even complaining, I'll even be nice and let you guys go straight to Domain 3 when you're done!"
"We only have three days to save the Stans! And it's gonna take more than three days to read that!"
Kathody nodded, still walking around in a circle. "Yeah, okay. Well, read faster than you normally do then. That's the only idea I have. I mean, the three days don't really effect me and we can just make when the award show comes out so..."
"I don't thnk I can do that though..." Soos said. "What other ideas do you have?"
"I just told you, none. That was it. Figure it out. Do I look like I know how to solve that problem? Look, it's not like I'm completely grabbed by the hair here. I don't actually mind giving you to .GIFfany that much. Heck, like I said, I like her. I support her. I just thought that if I had a shot at winning this film contest, I'd take it. But I'm not that arrogant. I can accept defeat. So, that's why I'll let ya' go if you can bring me an Oscar."
"Ooh!" Mabel said. "Wait, what if we each divide the script in four!"
"No," protested Wendy, "that's still way too much. Look at that thing!"
Soos got down so that the side of his face was up against the floor, as if looking at the script on eye-level with the ground did anything.
"Hrm. Yeah." He said. "I can almost feel how dense this script is. It's kinda scary."
"The scary stuff should be in the words on the script. Not the size of it." Kathody said. "Now come on! Read it!"
"By that, you don't mean it's cursed or anything, did you?" That was a question on the backs of everyone's minds in the Mystery Shack group. Soos just happened to be the one to say it.
"No. I wish. But I don't know how to channel curses or stuff like that. Plus, you know, it'd be counterproductive to kill my editors, right? Hahahaha!"
"...How long is this movie? First of all, are you planning to fit it in 90 minutes?"
"Oh, no. It's about 74 hours I think. Maybe 75? 76? It really depends on how it's read and put to the big picture. And yes, reading it makes a difference. That's called meta-writing, you know?"
"I don't think it is..." said Soos.
"Read the script before you criticize me, please! That's what the point of this is! I won't take criticism from people who don't even read the screenplay! Don't complain about games you haven't played, don't complain about books you haven't read, and don't complain about movies you haven't watched!"
"Well, if that movie or game you haven't played or watched tried to kill you then-" Dipper brought up.
"You're still not over that?! Come on!" Kathody complained. "I'm not in to deleting people anymore! That stopped a long time ago! And thanks to Rose and Dove's 'convincing' .GIFfany isn't too big of a fan of it either! At least around us, but- stop being such a baby! Yes, .GIFfany tried killing Soos back in that pizza place, but that was AGES AGO! Get over it! It's called character development, and there's a ton of it in my film! You see, I know some things about good writing already!"
Kathody began pacing back and forth. "You see, other horror films are lacking in character development. This is where I step in, being a different director yet at the same time a perfectionist-"
"Don't you think the FIRST reason why your students aren't too big of fans of your movie is because it's way too long?" Asked Wendy. "We can start with that. I don't even need to read the-"
"AHUP BUP BUP!" Kathody mockingly closed her eyes and plugged her fingers in her ears. "Not listening! Mrs. 'I love going on message boards and complaining about games I've never played!'" She took her fingers out of her ears and grinned. "That's a quote. A reference. From Super Paper Mustache. It's a quote that describes annoying nerds like you."
"You don't need to read the entire script to figure out how long it is!"
"Yeah but if it's enjoyable who cares about the length? Time flies when you're having fun! I can prove that scientifically. I mean, before joining the other .GIFfanys, I met with some time travelers, who taught me some things about time. Like that. They also warned me for some reason that I might do something that will 'split the timeline,' but I zoned out of that."
"This doesn't-" Wendy began.
"I know people - including the time travellers - say quality over quantity but why not both? Read the script! Stop bashing it without even reading it! And also on a tangent, stop attacking .GIFfany for what she did eons ago! Yes, she might have done some bad things, I will admit that! She's not a perfect little angel! But she isn't a terrible genocidal monster either! So, she's complicated! Don't judge her as a hero or a villain! But I get to totally make her out to be more heroic, as long as I occassionally say that she might have done something wrong and then make up a lot of excuses for why she did that!"
Sighing, Wendy turned over the title page.
"That's more like it! Now, I'm gonna set up the stage!"
She took them outside. Back in the heat.
No.
Kathody hummed as, despite being outside in broad daylight, she had several stage lights and other lighting tools being set up by various follower copies.
"Can't we get some AC or something?" Wendy asked, fanning herself with her hand. "Instead of all these useless day lights?"
"Hah, that'd be a waste seeing as I have heat machines to give this place that authentic desert warmth! MAN I love deserts! An air conditioner would just cancel it out, which would be stupid!"
"...So, can you like, turn the heat off then?"
"No. I mean, I can, I just don't want to. Don't you like hot, dry weather? I do. I LOVE it!"
Almost everyone - all four humans, but even some of the underling copies that gathered around Kathody - blinked.
"WHO DOES?!" Mabel finally yelled what was on everyone's mind. Well, almost. Apart from the obvious, some of the underling copies appeared to take offense to that.
Kathody got really close to her, from out of almost nowhere. Yellow lightning cackled across her fists, which had since been balled up. "I do!" She shouted. Kathody kept her smile, but didn't feel like she was smiling. Not at all. It might have been the absolute death glare she was giving with her eyes. "And that's the important part! I'm one of the fifteen copies who brought herself up to be a higher-tier fighter than the others, I'm selected as the leader, I'm the one who actually matters! Well, technically- no, nevermind! It's fifteen!"
Sighing, Wendy flipped the front page. "Well, I guess we have to read this..."
"We'll come up with something." Added Mabel. "Anybody have any ideas?"
Soos immediately pointed at something at the top of the first page. "There's a typo here." He said flatly.
"Ah, good, see?! Now we're getting somewhere!" Kathody happily - actually happily - skipped over to the script. And Soos too, she guessed. "Actual criticism! Someone doing their job around here! Not bitter, snippy commentary that the script is too long or the desert is too hot! And, pfft, imagine that! Hating a desert for being too hot! Deserts are supposed to be hot!"
"But this," Wendy didn't know where to gesture, so she just threw her arms around wildly, "isn't supposed to be a desert! It's supposed to be... well... air! Sky! Clouds- wait, maybe not clouds... I'm not a meteorologist... but still!"
"Yeah, well 'sweetie,' this is a desert now. And I want this to be accurate. Because Victoria, and therefore I, like deserts, and desert heat. So suck it up!"
She stuck her tongue out at them and closed her eyes - a choice that she seemed to regret a second later, putting her tongue back in. It was difficult to see, but there was a slight hint of a blush on her face. A yellow blush.
"So anyway..." She inched towards Soos, "where's the typo?"
"It's the name of the director, actually." Soos said. "Unless that's how 'Kathody' is spelled."
She chuckled, looking at the spot he was pointing at. "Oh, Soos. If it was anybody else, I'd assume you were trying to trick me. But, I'll have you know that even if the spelling might be called 'stupid,' it's still a good nickname for myself. I mean, it's a play on 'Kathy,' and-
"Oh." Her smile fell. "I did spell it wrong. K-A-T-H-O-H-D-Y. The second 'H' shouldn't be there. Thank you, Soos. I-I'm sorry. I'll fix that. Lemme just ask Rose for some trees so that I'll have enough paper to reprint it."
Wendy's jaw dropped. "'Enough trees?' No way you're thinking about reprinting the entire script. Are you?!"
Kathody shrugged. "Okay, based on how I might be coming off as an idiot right now and mispelled my own name right on the cover, you probably won't believe me, but trust me. Soon resource management won't be an issue. Just wait for the three days when the .GIFocalypse is over and we can just throw everything out and kill trees left and right. I've never been too fond on keeping trees alive anywa- I mean, trust me, this is something I know .GIFfany has figured out..."
Then she sighed. "Okay, sort of."
"What does that mean?" Asked Wendy.
"No!" Kathody suddenly jumped up. "I won't say what it means for a number of reasons!" She began counting those reasons off her fingers: "It's a 'spoiler,' which Dove would hate to have me - or anyone else but especially me or Natalie - give away; I can't say for certain it will work; it's something I'm not too clear about since .GIFfany is sealing her lips about it; and most importantly it has nothing to do with me or my movie, which are clearly more important.
"So can we drop the subject?" She stuck out her hand, four fingers up, as if that would make her point better. "I mean, I know I'm the one who brought it up. But still. You can, uh, just keep reading I guess. Focus on this right now. And forever."
So they did (the first part, obvously not the 'forever' or this would be a very depressing story).
It took ten long, agonizing, typo-filled pages (literally; every last page they did read had at least one typo in it, Soos typically being the first to spot them) before something different happened: a series of other copies walked over. Based on Kathody's highly annoyed reaction, they were not copies she was expecting. Nor wanted to... even see. At all.
"Urgh, what?!" The dean said. "Can't you see I'm busy?!"
"Our next movie is done." Replied the one that appeared to be the 'leader' of that group. Wearing thick, lensless glasses, she bore black hair, nearly white skin, a simplistic black cloak, and most 'visible' her sclera were red while the rest of her eyes were a solid black. Perhaps most importantly of all was a smirk, somehow not nearly as smug as Kathody's default expression. Likely because Kathody was the master of that stuff, and that was a mere student. A literal student, not 'student' as in rank. Technically...
"Oh, shut up, Professor Phanna." Replied Kathody. "How? Also your name is stupid. It sounds way too close to a soda name."
"Digital production. You can make things longer than the time used to make them now! Also my movie is just an hour and a half. Seventy-four hours? What have you been drinking?!"
"What do you mean, 'now?'" Mabel asked. "I do that all the time! In a lot of ways, it's called book-writing. Or art-making. A lot of people need time to, you know, soak in the-"
"Hah!" Kathody laughed. "Thank you for cheering me up in the face of my rival directors! But you see, book writing's a maybe, but I don't call what I do 'art.' That's... that's Leona's turf. And she's... ick."
"But film is a form of art." Soos explained. "Probably one of the best there is! When the big screen-"
"Leona wants 'art' to only refer to painting and purely visual stuff, and that's fine." Kathody said with her arms folded and her eyes to the side. "I'm never going to be in a mood to try to debate with her over what word means what. .GIFfanys are stubborn when it comes to words, after all, yours truly included. As long as I keep the filmy and horror show-y stuff, and she keeps the paint-y stuff. No overlap. Then we're FINE. And so that isn't art! End of discussion!"
Kathody turned to the gang of copies that, apparently, had just finished a flick. "So, well, why are you telling me that your film's done?"
"Why else?! To BRAG you idiot!"
"I'M NOT AN IDIOT!" Kathody yelled back, fists gripped in anger. "I am a GENIUS! Look at how large this script is! That's because I have it PACKED with complicated math and science references! Callbacks and foreshadowing! Also, references to, like, the Iliad and the Odyssey and stuff!"
"...Isn't it really long because so much of that is you describing yourself? Both the real you and your self-insert in the movie? And the self-insert in her movie within a movie that she's trying to script? And in the premise of that movie within a movie, it's about a scripwriter..."
"P-part of it, yes, that's true!" She made a motion as if she was slamming her fists on a desk, before forgetting that there was no desk around her at the moment. It was a pretty rare thing, in her defense. And that could be said for most of the deans since the .GIFocalypse started. "But... well, Victoria likes that stuff! And this movie is mainly to make her happy! And you know what that means? It means that I have a stable relationship! This is for a specific person! You're just making your movie as a pickup ad! To get anyone desperate to love you! So that you could say, 'Hey cutie, I'm a director! Do you like that?' Your films have no SOUL in them!"
The 'lead' of that group snickered.
"No, that's your movies. Did you ever think that that was why you never go anywhere with them?"
"I completed a rough draft!"
"That you'll do over again. And again, and again. Humans? You shouldn't even waste your time reading that thing over there. Because it'll be completely remade from the ground up in two hours, tops."
"Yeah, that sounds about right." Wendy said, nodding. "It should be. Hopefully to something shorter."
"No, it'll be longer, sadly." Said Professor Phanna.
Kathody fell on her knees. But otherwise kept giving her fellow underlings a determined stare.
"You'll see! I KNOW this is my final script!"
"You said that two hours ago."
"This time I have the humans to- ...ugh, that I didn't say two hours ago! Because the humans weren't even here yet!"
"Tell yourself that."
Kathody brought herself back to a stand just to stomp a foot uselessly.
"I will! And I'll tell you! H-have told you! Whatever!"
She turned away from her mini-army.
"Shoot. Dang it, shoot."
Wendy changed the conversation.
"YO! Victoria!" She called out, even though the Prior Player was near her. "You're okay with all of this?!"
"...All of what?" She asked.
"This stupid 'game' the copies are playing! We're stuck here!"
"You are?!" Victoria said that in genuine shock, then turned to give Kathody a look of complete disbelief.
"Um. Okay." Kathody said. "L-look, I can explain-"
"This game sounds really cool!" Victoria clapped, stars practically in her eyes- no, that was a .GIFfany thing. But she looked like she was close to replicating that. "You four should be lucky!"
Soos shrugged. "So-so."
"I felt lucky going on this cool adventure..." said Mabel. "Until we met your girlfriend. She's... just cruel!"
"She's rough, man!" Wendy said. "I didn't think we'd have to do any actual work here!"
"Actually, none of us did." Dipper added. "I think we were all expecting to go one place, punch out the dean, then go to the next."
Kathody snorted a little.
"Yeah, that's kind of me you know. I'm a slave-maker. Not a slave."
That's not foreshadowing, by the way. Kathody isn't a slave. Present tense. Just wanted to put that out there right now.
"I found another typo." Soos had apparently resumed reading the script, something nobody else noticed.
"Yeah, I'm all ears! Anything to help me win!"
"On the first sentence right here." He pointed at the first proper page. "You see, this has the word 'the' written three times."
Dipper sighed. "Don't you have some kind of built in spell-checker?"
Kathody pointed at him. "That is incredibly racist. But I do. I just don't have it on. It's annoying and I can't figure it out. Dove says she'll help but honestly I hate her. We all do. And she hates being the 'designated IT woman.' But, can you blame her? She can-" Kathody shook her head. "Spoilers, again. I'm not spoiling this to you. Even though you're not gonna make it-"
She paused.
"Change of plans, one last time. Sorry. But I think you'll like this one."
"Does it involve reading a monster like that?" Asked Wendy, pointing to the script upon 'that.'
"Less reading, more punching."
That was the first time Wendy smiled since the group of four was trapped in a cage. "Okay. Now I'm listening. Not to say that I'm just the type that wants to punch my way through everything, it's just when it comes to reading all of that I-"
"I'm sorry but I honestly don't care about you at all. Except maybe Soos, he seems cooler than the rest of you. Punch for whatever reason you want. I'm going to forget you even said this in, like, an hour. But anyway I want you to look at my rivals. See what they're up to. It's an easy mission, and look, if you do that:"
She flicked her hand. Like a magician, a blue key card appeared out of nowhere between her fingers.
"Look, all I really want is for Victoria to be a happy player. That's it. I'm not really 'throwing the .GIFocalypse' I just think that I can get what I want without the Construction Site being mine. Because my stuff's really good. Better than anything .GIFfany can ever hand me."
Dipper was about to comment on that. "Well I mean-"
Wendy immediately cut him off, saying "Do you really want to make her think capturing us is the right thing to do?"
He closed his mouth and kept it shut.
"How much do you want us to do?" Soos asked. "Just see what they have? Do we have to steal something from them?"
"Please don't think about stealing from any of us." Said Kathody. "Even if you think you've gotten away with it, you haven't. But uh, look. Take notes. Tell me what they're doing right so I could fix it. As long as it makes Victoria happy, I'm happy. I'll let you go if you reach her."
"Can you give us points just for trying?" Mabel asked.
"I'm giving you a freebee here. But not that big of a freebee. Don't push your luck. This has to be something that will help me. I don't believe in giving As for Effort. Yes, I know it's the professors who give grades. It's just that 'dean' is a step up. But now that I think about it, I want to grade you on this. Just don't get an 'F' and you pass."
"Do we get rewards for higher grades?" Soos asked.
"Yes! You get the greatest reward of all! My adoration! The higher the grade, the more adoration!"
"And is there anything we can get from that adoration?"
"No. But come on, isn't that its own reward?"
"No." Dipper answered.
"Eh, it is after you get to know me. I'm loveable. Trust me. Wendy, you liked me, right?"
"Yeah, past tense, not likely to be present."
Kathody put her hands on her hips and leaned in towards Wendy. "Do I look like an English teacher to you?"
"Look, just tell us where to go."
Kathody pointed to a set of dunes that, now that she brought attention to them, seemed to be a lot taller than the others. But otherwise they blended in pretty well.
"They've got a shack over there, just look in the middle of all the dunes and you'll see if, they didn't disguise it too well. It's not a terrible little tourist shack like your houses, but it's no mansion of mine either. You should be fine, though, it's like the only place in Domain 2 with AC!"
That last part got eyes to sparkle. Wait, again, .GIFfany thing, but still.
"None of us live in-" Wendy started, before realizing that trying to correct Kathody - in general - was pointless.
They took off in the vague direction Kathody pointed in.
Yeah there it was.
Just around the largest of the 'larger' dunes was a two-story shack. It looked nicer than the Mystery Shack, much to the annoyance of the group. Not just out of envy, but because it meant Kathody was right about something.
"What do we do?" Asked Dipper. "We can't just knock on their door, and Kathody didn't say anything about a secret entrance."
"...We technically didn't hear everything Kathody had to say, I think." Soos said.
"Well, I'll admit," said Wendy, "she said it had AC. My feet went running." And Dipper and Soos silently nodded in agreement.
"Why can't we knock on their door?" Asked Mabel. "They're not friendly, and they're a little annoying, but they seem harmless."
Before anybody could object, she knocked. But cautiously. And took five steps back afterwards.
Yeah that 'leader' of the small group was the one to answer her. Phanna or something like that. The nice, cool AC breeze immediately flowed in.
"Let me guess, you broke free from Kathody's clutches and now you want to see what we have to offer! I think you're thinking, 'are Kathody's underlings better than her? They are, right?' You're right. We are. I promise I don't stroke my ego as much as her, at least. I know I'm not helping my case, but still. You'll have to take my word for it."
"Betting better than Kathody is a low bar." Wendy said. "But yes, we know you're not as annoying. We're just here to watch your flicks."
"You can come in if you want. We will not keep you there, and we will not try to kill you for breaking in or anything. Just don't harm us, and we won't harm you. Does that sound like a good deal?"
"I could think of a better deal, but yeah." Wendy said.
So, they walked in.
Ah the place was much more brightly-lit than Kathody's "mansion" had ever been. Heck it almost looked like a lounge, with smooth yellow cloth and velvet everywhere. Especially on the couches.
"By the way, this is what a .GIFfany home should look like." Said a random one of the copies, specifically one with bandages wrapped around her. It seemed like a mummy costume, but really, she just barely had some bandages wrapped around her as a form of coverage. "We are trying to impress our players. And it suddenly became a huge competition! Or, it will be, when we go public. Amongst all of us!"
"Why don't you just go with the 'university student next door' angle you guys all started with?" Asked Soos.
"Heh, no. That's old school."
"Pun intended?"
"What pun?"
"So that's a no then."
That 'leader' of the 'rival' 'group' (yes, all of those quote marks were necessary) held up what looked like a DVD. It wasn't, it looked like one. The humans did not know what it was exactly yet, because it was something new. Just made yesterday.
"This is what we have." She said. "It's our movie, and it's good."
"How long is it?" Wendy asked with a rather deadpan tone.
"The sane length. Ninety minutes. Like every movie should be."
Soos gave a huge sigh of relief. "For a second there, I thought you said 'same' length, like 'just as long as Kathody's movie.' That's-"
"Hmm... yeah... no, still too long for what we're here for." Wendy said. "So, I'm just gonna-"
She swiped the 'disc' from that copy that held it.
"-YOINK and get outta here!"
Wendy began running to the door-
And it looked like she hit an invisible wall. Like a bird to a glass window.
"Did you REALLY think you could get away with that?!"
...That question made Wendy feel pretty dumb. She looked and saw two copies standing by the sides of the doors with their arms out. She knew they were the cause of that 'invisible wall.' Something confirmed when she saw small cackles of sky blue electricity dancing along its surface, and ripple-like effects going about it. Also sparks went across their hands.
"Yes?" Wendy said. "I did. I really did."
"Well you are a THIEF." The leader stomped her foot hard enough for everyone in the room to feel the shockwave. "Do you know what we do with THIEVES like you?!"
"Let me guess. Kill them?"
"No! We banish them! Maybe tone down on your imagination for a second?"
"That's coming from us." Another, random copy said, another one dressed in a vampire cape, but with some kind of matching black tattered outfit. "Think about that."
"Again, we're not Kathody. Who... is also not .GIFfany, but... .GIFfany is... well, we're not not- nevermind! We're gonna have to ask you to leave. All four of you."
"But I still have the DVD-"
She looked at her hand. It was empty.
"Heh, yoink." The vampire-copy repeated to her.
"Do you have some kind of super speed...?" Asked Wendy.
"No, we're just stealthy." Replied Phanna. She slipped the device out from under her sleeve. So she took it but the vampire was the one to say 'yoink,' whatever. "It's the one thing Kathody's decent at teaching us. And no, you're not getting out with that. You're just getting out."
She pointed at the door. Wendy huffed.
"I swear, if there's another invisible wall-"
"There isn't. You can take your time and feel. The biggest thing you need to know about us is that we are not like Kathody. And in the way that makes us better, at that."
"Can you at least hear our side of the story?" Mabel asked.
"Shoot! Kathody would say 'no,' so I'll say 'yes' just to be better than her! Even though I don't want to!"
"Kathody wanted us to see what you were making for your movie. She wanted tips, but didn't want to ask you. She 'sent us.'"
"Oh she knows about this hideout then."
Mabel shrugged. "Duh, she told us about it."
"Casually, too." Soos added. "Like, 'oh yeah, I've got some other copies of me over there.' And she pointed at the large dunes."
"I KNEW those dunes were too obvious! We should have set up on the underside of the island! That would have been a challenge too! Urgh... well, I guess it's too late now...
"...Well you could have just asked us to let her see the movie. So that she'd be blown away by how unlike her I am."
"We don't have the time for that!" Wendy interrupted. "I just thought if I gave Kathody the DVD-"
"Again not a DVD but go on."
"-She'd let us go!"
"That's the ironic part. She might. But, I guess we won't know, since you were trying to steal it. So we want it back out of spite. Now, get out."
"NO!" Wendy stomped her foot on the ground. "I'm standing a stand right here! To you guys this is just a game, but to us it's life or death!"
"Yes life, no death."
"Fine! Life or being captured! When you're a teenager like me, death and being captured feel like the same thing! ...Actually life and being captured feel like- forget it!"
"Well it's Soos, the grown adult, that's being captured forever. The rest of you all go free when the game ends. And that's if you think these deans could get their 'game' done! Come on, you have seen Kathody. She's a Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain. Trademark. All the deans are, really, except maybe Rose. Or they're friendly. Once you got past Rose, you got this. And you did. Just punch .GIFfany in the face at the end and you'll be fine."
"I'm done with this! It's still kidnapping someone! E-even if it's one person, I- I'm ending this!"
"This is more morally-gray than-"
Wendy began running towards the copy holding that game. She made a leap at her, and got stopped when that... 'phantom' wannabe copy? waved her hand around and made some sparks in the air.
A circular 'shield' of that sort of invisible wall-like... material? field? Well, she was wearing it on her wrist like a small shield.
It looked like glass - maybe one of those glass things with electricity going through it that might make your hair rise - but it felt like metal.
"Don't do this. You'll only hurt yourself. Literally."
"Those... those invisible walls!"
Phanna shrugged. "We don't have 'elemental mastery' yet. We should have something to make us stand out from the students. So, invisible walls are my thing." She chuckled. "Kathody hates these. So naturally, we love them!"
"I hate them too!" Soos commented. "It's a lazy way to keep players in the boundaries of-"
Wendy tried a little more hand-to-hand, but got deflected each time.
"Aren't you supposed to be horror writers? This isn't scary, it's just annoying!"
"We're not supposed to be horror writers. Kathody wants to be one, we only work for her. But we'd rather do our own thing! Couldn't you tell from the AC, the different tone, the way we're not worshipping her terrible script?"
Grunting, Wendy tried more approaches. Strikes. Foot-sweeps. Taking the dang axe out - anything she could think of.
"Isn't it ironic?" Phanna asked, right as the axe struck that barrier. It dented it briefly, but didn't have much impact on it. "You would think we would be bad at hand-to-hand combat, because we spent our whole lives until yesterday in digital form. Well, we are bad at hand-to-hand. It's just these sheilds, they can-"
"SHUT UP!" Wendy yelled.
That happened to be when a deus or diablos ex machina happened, depending on one's outlook on Kathody. That was an important feature because the moment was Kathody herself bursting in to the main room of the shack, with a bowl of potato chips in one hand and her other hand constantly shovelling them in to her mouth.
"Hey, I just wanted to check on you." She said with her mouth half-full, chewing in-between words. Much quieter than her usual tone, too. "What's- oh boy. Fighting. Hey uh, I know neither of you guys like me very much, but can I get you to tone down a little?"
Both Wendy and Phanna stopped fighting to look at her.
"What now?" Wendy asked.
"Oh, you don't have to worry, I was just coming here to try to make things a bit easier. Um, you know you could just knock on the door and ask them for the .GIF Disc, right? They'd probably give it to you."
"Oh, we learned that the hard way when she told us that after we... didn't." Dipper said.
"Also, watch out, my followers learned a cool new move that's in-between our electrical powers and mastering the 'elements.' They can make these clear-looking walls! Much faster than .GIFfinium, that is! Just a lot more temporary. I really like that, and I'm proud of them because I didn't teach them."
"Also learned that the hard way." Soos said.
"Also, this doesn't even matter anyway. Victoria just broke up with me, so I'm letting you guys go to Domain 3."
Everyone in the room stopped moving. Except Kathody, who kept chewing on more chips.
"Hold up." Said Mabel. "WHAT?!"
"Fwew, finally," Soos wiped sweat from his brow. For once since he entered Domain 2, the sweat was out of nervousness, not because of the heat. The AC was really good there. "Something you told us that we didn't learn the hard way!"
Closing AN:
To those that didn't read the original: So, in the story I'll likely rename Run: .GIFocalypse Prototype Kathody's chapter was sort of a two-in-one. Partway through she'd give up, fly to the next domain manually (back then the domains were scattered around the world instead of in a set chain of floating islands) and the other part of the chapter was about the next dean/professor, Searah. Also, her place had an awkward sort-of reappearance of the Summerween Trickster (here it was a "different" mass of candy and was called the "Halloween Trickster," yeah...), back early on when I thought about giving just about every single other dean/professor a canon monster or other character to show up, before I realized that that would make this story way too bloated. It wasn't until after writing a new Kathody chapter (well, chapter-pair) without Searah or the "Halloween Trickster" that I realized just how difficult it is to have her as a two-parter villain all by herself. It'll probably also be a challenge making the earlier deans have longer chapters (another reason why I'm doing this, I don't like how the Arc 2 and especially Arc 3 deans/professors had these huge epics to each of them while the Arc 1 ones were a lot flatter and feel more like monster of the week fodder, that was a remnant of an early idea where they were all just going to be shallow villains except maybe one or two token nice ones), and... without giving too much away, I don't think I'll have the same problem with the other two "two in one chapters."
Happy sixth anniversary of "Soos and the Real Girl's" air date, happy birthday to .GIFfany, Melody, and Soos' cousin (he was mentioned in "Fight Fighters" but that was the first time we actually see him if my memory serves - sorry but a lot of this is based on memory), and of course happy Elephant Appreciation Day, later I'll subject myself to a Binding of Isaac daily run about that. But in all seriousness I'm going to work on this way more, tweak up this chapter and the last two a little so that I'm not rushing to get them out by 9/22 and so that this won't have yearly updates. I don't want to feel obligated to update these monthly like I did with the original - when things got complicated near the end, it resulted in bloated messes of chapters - but this is taking way too long. Especially for a chapter that's a lot shorter. (Although this is about the same length as the last chapter counting the whole giant thing I scrapped, but there was a bit of overlap between what I scrapped and what I put here.) Before anyone mentions Rose being longer, that's because she's the first and one of the more important ones. The last two "domains" (you'll know why I used quotes later) will be a bit longer because they're also a bit more "major." But ideally everyone from Kathody through Domain 13's dean should have roughly equal chapter lengths. I know one could say that it's "even" that the earlier deans have shorter chapters because they appear more often as the story goes on, having been introduced in full and everything, but... meh. Especially since I took away the vacuum that captures the AIs, they won't exactly have post-chapter talk scenes with the leads. At least Rose definitely won't. You'll see in the next chapter. Plus, as seen in Rose's two-parter, I'm a lot more lenient about introducing deans early and having them also show up before their given chapter two-parter.
Again, tweaks are coming, and for once they won't be on the update of another chapter too, I want to stop putting off editting stuff I really want to edit because when I do I go "Well, I have a chapter I'm almost finished with, I'll publish that chapter and edit the older stuff at the same time!" and then I get lazy with the editting and just shelf that off for the next chapter.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR EPIC BATTLE FANTASY 5: I started playing it between the last chapter and this one. So because of that certain game I feel the need to say right now that there's no kind of cosmic meta in-universe "reboot" going on here, this is not an "alternate timeline" to the original, there's no twist in this story (I mean maybe in my badfics or whatnot, I'll admit that right now, but this is supposed to be way more serious than those) that the characters are suddenly going to get memories of the old version and find out that the universe was reset or recycled or something like that. This is just a pure rewrite. Normally I like to try to encourage speculation but not when it's something really offbase or just something I have absolutely zero interest in writing. I'm doing this to try to redo the original, not to add on to it.
(Also fun fact about EBF, Kathody's Player and the Player of another character we'll see a lot later are both named after NPCs in the series that have a certain something in common. I'll say what that thing is when we meet that other player, but if you know some of my later stuff you could probably figure it out.)