Alethophobia
Scott is sitting in the backseat of Ren's car, whistling softly while picking and peeling away at little scraps of skin from the impact of Gem earlier.
Don't get him wrong, he really didn't expect the vigilante to crash into him at like, thirty miles an hour. He also didn't expect the concoction that Joel had brewed up for him to actually work, or to that degree. He didn't even know what Gem was seeing! All Scott had seen was Gem vomit all over the floor, and it was frankly, gross.
The moth had also given away one of his stars, which isn't a big deal, but now there was a gap in his halo of stars and it now looked more like a crown than a halo which honestly pissed him off.
After a wave of silence, Ren starts talking, "Dude, what were you doing all the way out there? That alleyway is fifteen miles away from your place of living, and I know for a fact you had to walk that distance."
What was he doing out there?
"I was..." Trying to warn Gem about Grian.
Trying to see a real person.
Trying to get Scar to wake the hell up.
Scott pauses uncharacteristically, "Trying to get some fresh air. All the smoke from Joel's burning Ferrari makes the place unlivable. Especially because his room is right next to mine and he can't be bothered to get a fire extinguisher."
He takes a second to look around the car. Scott doesn't usually talk to Ren a lot, because it's always Jimmy who drags him back to The Border. The backseat was clean, shiny, and untouched -- The same couldn't be said for the driver and passenger seats. The radio seemed busted, the rear-view mirror was almost detached from the roof, glass partially missing. The passenger seat was collecting an endless amount of dust, like it was saved for somebody who left and never came back.
The weirdest little trinket Scott saw was a pack of cigarettes sitting in the cupholder, coincidentally the same brand Martyn carries around all the time.
Ren clears his throat awkwardly, "Anyways, heard you were talkin' to Martyn recently?"
Scott makes a point of shrugging and not mentioning all the... sultry moments he's had with Martyn over the period they've been stuck together, "I guess you could say that. Kind of an asshole to everyone though."
"Sounds like him," laughs the wolf Reborn. His hands grip tighter on the steering wheel.
"He talks about you a lot if it makes anything better." Scott quickly adds. He knows how close Ren and Martyn had been before Limited LIFE and honestly, he didn't mean to separate the two, it was an accident, truly.
Ren's ears perk up and he almost crashes the car into a building by trying to turn around and face Scott. "Really? What about?"
Scott can't help but laugh a little. These two... "It's mostly about how great and handsome and great you are. He must really like you." Scott teases. He finds joy in watching Ren's facial expressions conform in this super flustered and skrunkly way.
"Tell him I said hello, then." Ren smiles sadly, "Dude, I honestly wouldn't even be doing all this hero stuff if it wasn't to get closer to Martyn. It only seems to be tearing us further apart though." he finishes with a sigh.
"Awh! You two are adorable. It's okay, I wouldn't wanna be in your position either." reasurred Scott with a florish of his hands. "I wouldn't quit if I were you, though. Like, you've already started, and it gets you a lot of reputation points and money so why stop now?"
The man shrugs, "Yeah, I get a whole ton of free stuff everywhere I go."
A few minutes later, Ren hits the breaks and appearing on the horizon is the lovely mansion Scott's been living in for the past 3 years. "Welp, think we've arrived buddy, have fun scheming or whatever you do."
"Thank you! I will," Scott crowed. He opens the car door and flies into the night sky, waving briefly to the shape of Ren's car before turning around and starting his way towards the mansion.
It's truly a sight and not a pretty one. The place is an amalgamation of materials and decorations that are honestly, extremely ugly to look at. The main centrepiece belongs to Scott, of course. All shimmery with Binkie, his axolotl, sitting in an ichor-filled pond for all to see. To the left of his building is Martyn, basically a massive hourglass whacked into a concrete building. On top of the building is Pearl's lonely spire and to the very right, a new building which is just a house with Joel's car crashed into it from his extravagant entrance.
There's a part of the mansion that no one talks about, though. A tall structure made out of acacia wood straight from the safari, overgrown with plants and sunflowers and random objects scattered from top to bottom. The whole place really gave abandoned vibes, but the trinkets that littered the floor were always a little too dirty, and the wood always seemed a little too worn down.
It's Scar's. Scar's building that everyone refuses to acknowledge because you'd either get really annoyed that Scar decided to rebel or really sad because you could have been one person less lonely out here. Scott seems to be the only one to think the latter.
Imagine how cool Scar would have looked Corrupted! It'd also be nice to have his manipulation tactics put to use. But nope! The raven Reborn just had to ditch and then proceed to fight them all, for some reason.
The moth lands at the front door, grand but depressingly boring. He swings open the doors and is greeted by the interior he sees every day. Furniture lazily placed in the splay of minimalist rooms; not Scott's style at all. Martyn is lying on the light blue couch that Scott tends to run into every time he walks through the shared living room. He's sprawled out on the couch, one hand tapping annoyingly on the frame, another holding a phone, and the four others doing their own thing.
If one were to go to the right, they would see Joel's section of the place which was basically a massive storage unit connected to the arachnid's bedroom. Judging by the horrific rap music blasting through the walls, Joel was very much home right now.
"Ayup! You're back... Early? Uh, not sure but welcome!" Martyn calls out, his hand making a peace sign and angling it at Scott.
Scott waves back, despite Martyn not even looking at him, "Hey Mean Gill. Ren says hi."
That gets Martyn to stop staring at his phone, "Ren? Really?"
"Uh huh, I told him allll about your indecent drooling over him. Ren really likes you, y'know?"
Martyn huffs, sitting up, "I am not drooling over Ren, I don't even, uh, like him like that! Don't accuse me of such things."
"Yes, and moaning his name in bed is very, very straight and friend-like." Scott can't help but laugh at Martyn's pissed expression, "You can just admit it, no one is murdering you yet."
"It's not like tha-"
"Yes, it is! Stop denying it!" Comes a call from the stone stairwell behind Martyn. Pearl's voice echos off the walls and causes Scott to burst out laughing. Once he stops laughing his ass off, Scott pats a mildly flustered and upset Martyn on the shoulder.
"I'm just teasing you, don't worry, you're adorable. I love ya," he reassures, and he means it because before Joel, Martyn, and even Pearl, it was just Scott. Scott, himself, and the people whom he could make imaginary friends with within his head.
It was lonely, painstakingly lonely, and cold. Being isolated miles away from civilization made Scott start to regret agreeing to be a Government test subject. Hours melted into years, and other than wishing he were dead sleeping, Scott didn't exactly have much to do with his time.
He'd like to imagine it makes his actions reasonable because it does because anyone would start murdering and torturing and killing innocent citizens after being abandoned and left alone for months and months.
Torturing? Hah, no. He wasn't torturing anyone. If anything, he was healing them, removing this world of its sins.
Scott gets up, patting Martyn on the head before walking past the stone spire to his room. Shiny and clean as always. Grand and beautiful as a star, as always.
He closes the doors behind him and sit criss-cross on the bed too big for one person because everything was wrong and wrong and maybe he was the mattress and the duvet is him because its lonely and cold in here without anyone else.
But other than that, Scott Major was doing absolutely fantastic and the mirror he avoided with his life that sat in the corner of the room wasn't showing his reflection, no, it couldn't be. It was someone else because that couldn't possibly be the great man who had won Last LIFE. The chivalric soul who made all of his friends FIGHT TO THE DEATH
What was he saying? Haha! Gosh, he's just like, ridiculous.
...Who was he even talking to? Scott should probably start praying for his mental health if it hadn't dissolved away by now.
He really regretted taking Them up on Their offer. All he'd done was turn himself into a freak who ruined his friends' lives. Xelqua save his soul. Scott really misses his old body and not the one with freakishly long antennae and wings that crawled all over his body like a pest.
But what could he do? Honestly, he was told he was helping everyone. Scott realises that it wasn't in the way he exactly wanted, but he was still helping somehow and that was all that mattered. He thinks. Is he helping? Hopefully.
˚⊹ ‧✩⋆⁺₊𓆩✦𓆪⋆⁺₊✩‧ ⊹˚
"So if I accept your offer you're just gonna pop me in some random place ten miles away from civilisation?" Scott inquires suspiciously. Like, maybe accepting an offer from someone notorious for wreaking havoc among his citizens wasn't the best play he's done, but it was for the greater good, right?
"No. I should have specified more. Mr. Major, we will be putting you back into the revival machines that brought you back from death three times over before. We've never tried putting a live subject in the chambers before and are only curious what advancements will occur on a Reborn's body. We are offering you a deal which will get you and all the other scum you protect so dearly all the food and shelter they need. The new place of living for you is only in case of an emergency." The governor says with a plastic smile. "Must I remind you of all the benefits you and your friends will receive?"
Scott shakes his head, "I get it, please don't repeat yourself." he clears his throat awkwardly at the sharp look he gets from the taller man, "I mean, if it's for all the other Reborns, then, of course, I'll go through with your deal. But if you even touch Pearl or the others, I cease this deal immediately."
The governor grins, "Of course Major. We will protect them under the Law of the Mycelium Order, sanctified by Xelqua himself." he slides a paper to Scott, "Sign here and all will be done."
He signed.
Watchers, why did he sign?
A month later, he found himself in a large mansion, beautiful and exactly his kind of building. Scott was of course ecstatic at first, but slowly it developed into a kind of twisted game. The scraping of his own shoes on the marble flooring was too loud and his vision was too sharp. It made him want to vomit.
Don't even start on his reflection. For one, what the hell happened to his eyes? Why did he have these overly bright stars blocking half of his vision?! Why were his once delicate wings now too large and dragging along the floor behind him?!Did his arms always fade into a sticky black goop, each of his fingers tipped into claws?
All of these new features weren't really a problem at all until his clothes were almost shredded apart and moving too fast hurt Scott's head phenomenally.
Also, it was quiet, too quiet. Too isolated.
No one was there for Scott to talk or even complain to. It was just him. And it was like that for weeks.
Maybe he shouldn't have finally gone out after four months. Shouldn't have walked the 10+ miles back to familiar streets.
When people saw him, they didn't smile or congratulate him on winning the most bloody game in his life. Nope! Wanna know what they did? They screamed and ran and threw sharp objects at Scott. On the news, he was called an abomination, more so than he usually does.
When Scott finally decided to raise a hand to the people, cut some girl's neck and watch the blood pour all over his denim jacket, he'd just only realised how much of a weapon he became.
The once annoying stars became dangerous, conforming to his beck and call, his wings dishing out enough force to leave a mark just by whacking someone in the face. His clawed hands became perfect for tearing at flesh and filled him with that perfect, perfect, bloodlust.
One terrifying similar to being a Red LIFE.
The games didn't stop. Why would they when the Government had found the perfect way to make something that was once declared a horror to society into a gun; locked, loaded and ready to shoot in an instant?
Scott was still dragged back to the next game, painted over to be the person he once was. It was refreshing. He longs to be the Scott people loved.
Pearl won. Of course, she was made into something similar to him. The media eventually caught on, calling the duo a danger and giving them these weird codenames that Pearl and Scott both agreed were stupid.
The Government hired their friends against the two. Bdubs, Lizzie, Joel, Ren, Tango, and even his ex-boyfriend Jimmy had all been roped in. They were named the "Heroes", and then were proceeded to be paid a copious amount of money to keep them around.
The Heroes barely cared what the duo, eventually trio did. They only wanted to be paid and go home. It was completely fair, just something Scott wouldn't ever consider doing.
Somewhere in that time, two Reborns named Gemini and HotGuy appeared, to fight crime and wrangled the now-dubbed Corrupteds in.
The pair did quite the job, a lot more than the so-called Heroes did. They were a nuisance, to put it better. Other than that though, they were just annoying. Until Secret LIFE and Scar won anyway.
Pearl threw a hissy fit about falling off the cliff and dying to Scar for days and waited even longer for Scar to come around to join their group.
He never did.
The trio found out through Martyn's connections that Scar had simply ditched the three of them for "compliance issues". The Government had already built his area and clearly weren't happy about him fucking off and doing his own thing.
The man's face was plastered on wanted posters for weeks.
Then Joel won, and the scheme collapsed further as one of the Heroes was forcefully pried away from work.
Joel was truly a delight, relishing in the permanent Red High and willing to kill as soon as the order was given. Scott pretended to not notice the winces of pain Joel gave when he tried to do something more than a light jog, and ignored when the arachnid started leaving near midnight once a week.
Eventually, Scott found out Joel was leaving to visit his past soulmate, Etho.
Etho was a rattlesnake Reborn, friends with Cleo, and also a neutral kind of guy, so Scott couldn't be bothered to be too mad.
Not for now, anyway. With the way things were going, the neutral crew seemed to be Cleo, Etho, Skizz, and some other people Scott couldn't be bothered to name hanging out in the corner of the country, hiding away from conflict. Boring, but they weren't getting in the way of his and his friends' plan.
Hell, screw the plans! Scott was just glad to be able to see someone again, even if their faces would be twisted with ichor and dripping with blood, sweat, and tears. They were still all Scott could get, so who was he to complain when he finally got what he wanted?
Well, maybe he just didn't want the rest of his friends' futures melted, ground, and crushed into what Scott could only call a slimy mess.