Jesse could feel the change in atmosphere the moment they exited the end and entered Jupin. It was a combination of the four districts, like a strange patchwork quilt, with some different patches. At one point they wandered into one patch that had ground that looked like meat and lava pools that cast a weird glow along with the Cosmos sun.
"Well, at least it looks like the Ghasts and pigmen and blazes and whatnot didn't stick around," Gill mumbled.
Upon seeing Jesse's expression, he clarified. "We call these patches Nether patches. These," and he tapped the meaty ground with his foot to specify what he meant by 'these'.
"Sometimes the negative energy'll stay in the patches, and the monsters it creates will just linger in these patches. We're not sure why."
Jesse looked down at the 'meaty' floor. It didn't feel any less unsettling than before.
"Oh."
Bob snorted and nuzzled Jesse, allowing them to huddle down into its fiery mane. Despite being literal fire, it really didn't burn or anything- just felt like Jesse was touching solid sunshine.
Reuben snuffled as well, nudging his little nose against Jesse's stomach. They smiled down at him and rubbed his head.
"It's actually pretty common, so I'm glad that it did NOT stick around," Maya mumbled.
"Is... are the patches 'cause this is the demon realm?" Jesse asked, timidly.
Harper shook her head. "Climate."
"Harper's right; Cosmos is weird in that it's not really... hell, or anything, it's like its own little world with different climates. Occasionally patches of... well, hell peek through," Mevia had to admit a moment later whens he couldn't find a proper word, "like you'll see a lot here since Fred's gone and there's nothing to really support the environment, and you'd see like one or two in Hizelk and the other places but not as commonly, but yes. North is cold. South is hot. East and West also have different climates." as
Isa sighed. "It's not that simplistic, but to be quite honest explaining why every district is so different would be rather difficult," she said to Jesse, "so for now, yes, that's a good-enough explanation."
Jesse hummed, burying into Bob's mane slightly. "... so... without a ruler... things go to hell?"
There was a long pause as everyone processed that.
Then Aiden groaned, grinding his palm into his good eye, Harper shook her head with a tiny smile on her lips, and Mevia gave Jesse the proudest look she could possibly give while Gill laughed. "You know, I never even realized that you could make that pun..."
Beacontown looked like it would've been a nice place, if it was brighter and a tiny bit more put-together.
It was a patchwork already- Jesse could see a giant slot machine towering over a corner of the town, and there was a pool of lava with a giant octopus statue in it, but it was a bit of a mess and Jesse found it hard to walk anywhere without tripping on a loose cobblestone.
It was noisy. A muffled din of weapons clashing and haggling and general destruction and mayhem roared in the background, enough for Jesse to always be on edge even when their ears had finally begun to tune it out. The lords went off with Petra, Aiden, Lukas, who'd claimed that they had a contact that would find them a place to stay for the night.
(Jesse managed to catch when Aiden muttered that he sure hoped that person hadn't been murdered, despite Maya's best attempts to shut him up.)
So they were sitting with Gill and Maya, who were bickering back and forth casually, when a demon strolled up, looking like they'd just waltzed through one of the Nether patches, and started inquiring about directions.
The two of them stood up to look at his map of the city (although Gill looked irked), and Jesse was left to sit on the edge of the pool of lava, heat soaking through their clothes and making the fuzzy jacket feel almost unbearably hot.
"Well, hello, there."
Jesse looked up at the stupidly, cheesily bad-guy line. There was, indeed, someone there, smiling pleasantly at Jesse, except their outfit looked like it had been put through a shredder and they were missing more than a few teeth.
"Hello," they replied, mostly out of courtesy.
"Whatcha up to?"
Jesse glanced to Gill and Maya, but they were busy working on directions ("this is literally a saloon that's on the opposite end of the city, how did you end up here?") and even though Maya had an eye on them, she looked like she could hardly pull away to come help them.
"Would you leave me alone, please? I'm waiting for someone," Jesse said, politely, trying not to blurt out that actually they were waiting for quite many someones, including three lords, and so could they please go away-
"A human? Waiting for someone? Oh, that's too rich."
They could tell.
Jesse didn't know how they could tell, but they could tell.
Their eyes flickered up to sweep the streets, catching sight of what looked like a ragtag group lurking in the shadows of the nearby alleys and leering down at them , like vultures surrounding a carcass.
They were the corpse. Or they would be, if they didn't-
Run.
They had to run.
Jesse turned around and sprinted off into the alleys, even as Maya let out a yell as she realized what was going on.
They could hear the group of bandits in hot pursuit, feet pounding on the cobblestones and creating a drum of uncoordinated rhythm that thrummed in tandem with the din in the background, ducking through roads that weren't the least bit familiar and finding corners to turn that simply didn't make sense-
Their foot shot sideways on a tile that was loose and cracked as they prepared to round a corner.
Jesse cried out as they tumbled to the ground, hands skidding over a rough patch of ground and instantly beginning to burn slightly, palms scraped and tenderized.
The bandits backed Jesse into the dead end alley almost immediately, leering down at them. At the back of the pack, Jesse could see the demon that had stopped to ask Gill and Maya for directions.
A trick.
It had all been a trick. A distraction.
They tugged their fuzzy jacket around themselves in an attempt to comfort themself.
It didn't really work.
"Well... looks like a little lost lamb got separated from the flock," the leader(? They were wearing more belts and equipment than the others, so it seemed like they were the leader) said, pouting so severely that Jesse could feel the mocking from a mile away.
They stepped forward and chucked Jesse's chin, the small human shivering and biting their lip in an attempt to stop themselves from it, tilting Jesse's head from side to side like they were inspecting a piece of meat.
Their smile widened.
"I'm in the mood for some mutton."
Jesse swallowed their whimper, trying not to shake desperately as the bandit flicked out a switchblade, tracing the very edge of the blade on their clothing. Not enough to touch, but enough for Jesse to be all-too-aware of where it was, even as it traced along their back.
"There's certain parts that we can get rid of first, though, since I know it's going to taste bad..."
The blade had circled to the back of their neck, carefully, almost teasingly starting to press into the back of their neck.
"The head's never that tasty."
Three things happened in that moment, and whenever Jesse thought back to it later they remembered it in a sequence, like a list of events.
1) The lightbulb above their head, the dim cracked lamp illuminating the alley enough for them all to see, flickered out momentarily, plunging them into darkness for a heartbeat.
2) The knife grazed the back of Jesse's neck as something shot over Jesse's shoulder, the bandit leader giving a startled oof! as they were thrown backwards away from Jesse, the knife thankfully only creating a tiny scratch that Jesse only knew was there because of the tiny sting on the back of their neck.
3) The lightbulb flickered back on to reveal that the bandit leader now had someone else standing in front of Jesse, a single figure that felt almost like a solid wall guarding them from the bandits, and it wasn't someone Jesse recognized.
A man was towering over Jesse, brown hair with a few gray streaks in it. He was wearing nothing but a slightly torn blue vest on his torso, the edges of his pants fraying and old and not hiding the muddy boots he was wearing. His beard was thick and also streaked with some gray hairs. One eye gleamed red in the dim, flickering light.
The other was dead gray.
"I believe you gentlemen should be on your way now?" he asked, in a dangerously quiet voice.
The bandits, no longer smiling sinisterly, were tripping over themselves trying to get away from him, scrambling over one another as they stumbled and fell and even stepping on their comrades.
And then the alley was empty except for Jesse and the man, the flickering lightbulb above crackling as it struggled to stay lit.
He turned to look down at them, his dead eye glowing faintly in the light as well. His expression was impossible to read.
"What's a human like you doing in Cosmos?"
... Well.
They were dead.
A/N: hey look an update after seven years (not really)
Sorry for the delay, haha. I managed to get a nice case of writer's block, plus I've been working on several other projects so it just flat out didn't occur to me to finish this chapter up. Projects include a Minecraft: Story Mode dating sim (cue much drawing) and this game about a doll that's been in the works since... like... possibly last year xD I'll talk more about the doll game once the official demo is out. Which... should be a few weeks, but :/
Also, college. I'm going to college soon.
... stress xD
RQTC: What is one theory you would like me to confirm about this story? Or one random fact about the characters, haha. Mind you, if it's an outright spoiler, I will not confirm or deny it, so you might want to put both in just as a thing xD
One random fact is that while Aiden and Lukas prefer tea, Maya and Gill prefer fruit juice.
I am a Minecraft person. Reviews are my items. I almost had enough this time to fill my hotbar xD
Responses to reviews!
Toni42: Hehehe xD / Yep. Nothing super dramatic, lol. / Ack xD / I have no idea what it tastes like; I just know that it is apparently very good xD / Indeed, but we're making progress xD / Oof xD
LegendEmpress: Too late, it's everywhere xD / It's more you don't want to know, but there's nothing really weird in there. For demons, at least. / Ah, big mood xD
ThinMintE: I love dad jokes xD / That's impressive. At least you finished xD / Ahh, thank you! x3
TheAmberShadow: Mmm, that's a good point. I just try to keep in mind that fanfiction exists, lol. / xD / For-tuna-tely, I still have plenty to reef everywhere. Whale, I hope you don't mind as I bubble on. / He can see pain, but he doesn't know what the reaction that Jesse has to it is; since they're still around he assumes they're fine but if it were to increase he probably would raise some concerns. / Hehe xD / It's one hell of a good time. Not really xD / It's sweet, evidently xD
Guest: Yeeeep xD / Indeed. / That's true! I waved that pun off a while back.
Guest: This is punpletely fine, dude! I think it's a very punny situation to be in.
Darkbeast Dend: Sweet, and that's all I know about that xD
That's all for now! See ya, so long, and g'bye!
x.X. A.L. X.x
