SOTF Archive/SOTF Classic

A pair of watchful eyes alighted on Michael and Teresa from behind the plastic rifle of a distant Terminator: Salvation machine. For a few moments their gaze remained fixed on the two, holding them in the center of its vision—until a squadron of Terminator robots burst from the wall, and it was time for the eyes to get back on the prize.

---

"All that's past," Lucas said as Sean entered the fray, "is water under the bridge, I think."

Or, more accurately, corpses in the ground.

Sean's presence made Lucas feel a little more uncomfortable than either Thomas or Sakurako already did. While he at least had confirmed his suicidal impulses had made a positive impression on Sakurako, and Thomas was ready to apologize if Lucas was, but Sean was a bit of an unknown. They were on-off friendly in their waking lives, but how Sean came to view his desertion was something Lucas hadn't put enough time into thinking about. He was a bit of an enigma, that one.

Luckily he had two reasons to put off that conversation; first, Sakurako told him to rack the skeeballs up, which Lucas assumed meant pressing start on the machine and letting the skeeballs roll down. Lucas figured he might as well get every machine ready, or at least as many machines as there were Clout Alumni: himself, Thomas, Sean, Sakurako (sure??), and—the suddenly appearing second reason—Tyrell motherfucking Lahti. Smiling. Lucas started beaming back.

"You didn't tell me I wouldn't miss," Lucas said, "if I got her just a bit to the left, I'd be on the screen right now. And, uh, no, I didn't hear what you said to my corpse, I was too busy being one."

That made five total Clout Alums so far, leaving Princess, Katelynne, maybe Julien if Lucas could track him down, and Desiree. Clout rolls nine deep. Well, what if any of these people bring a plus one? Were there enough skeeball machines if more people showed up?

...

The color drained from Lucas' face.

"Hey, uh, Ty," Lucas said, leaning in so he could speak without being overheard.

"What the fuck do we do if Erika shows up?"

Thomas had to suppress another laugh when he saw Sakurako mouthing that she was proud of him. It all felt kind of ridiculous, being here, patching up old bullshit that he hadn’t thought about in what felt like forever now.

There wasn’t a whole lot of time to think it over now, though, when another familiar voice caught his ear. Sean's voice.

Before Thomas could say anything, Sakurako had pulled him along as she rushed in to wrap Sean in a hug. It was a little awkward, considering she was still holding Thomas’s hand, but it wasn’t something worth complaining about. The three of them were together again.

Ty had shown up too, apparently having formed some sort of odd couple dynamic with Lucas at some point. It wasn’t that important to Thomas.

“Look, uh Sean, I know it’s weird getting all heavy right off the bat and stuff but-” Thomas didn’t want to get cut off again, he wanted to put it all out there for once. He was already dead after all, “look, when you- I never got to say how sorry I was for out of hand the Zach thing got and how I, um, hurt you. I wanted to, but… you know.”

Shit, there were the tears again. Even when he was trying his hardest he couldn’t really get the words right, huh?

“Fuck, this is really weird. Do you kind of get what I’m saying?” He asked, tone apologetic as he looked at Sean.

Someone punched Michael in the back. It didn't hurt. Didn't feel like anything at all, actually, since Michael Froese, the physical being, was a headless corpse on the other side of a screen. He'd seen it. Stared at it for a while.

Her voice registered.

Teresa.

He wanted to hate her for killing Violet but he couldn't bring himself to feel anything other than an empty kind of respect.

She asked why he looked sad.

"Because now the thinker has no form other than his thought," he said, voice nearly being cut off by Yuka's sudden appearance.

She said he needed something to spice him up a little. He could feel — well, no he couldn't, but he thought he could feel something sprinkling on the back of his head. Grains of salt scattered down across the pinball glass.

Something something gucci gang. He just wasn't feeling it anymore.

His brain no longer had a chemistry to imbalance. No seratonin. No dopamine. No adrenaline. Not even any fucking neurons.

"Yuka's salty, ha ha," he mumbled.

He tapped his fingernail against the glass.

"You two really still looking for that party in the sky?"

Water under the bridge, huh. That would be the dream, wouldn't it? Let bygones be bygones, no more eye for an eye. It was time to enjoy whatever came after.

And with this place, it looked throwing skee was the thing.

If only it were that simple. In life he'd been mad; no. Furious with Lucas, he'd abandoned them for some spirit quest to kill Erika when she had taken Desiree out from million miles away. All he had was some stick he'd gotten off Zach and the people she'd killed inbetween kinda showed how that would go, didn't it?

Thomas had let go though, and he was the epicenter for what happened. Sean was not even there to see the full mess of it. Just the aftermath. Maybe that's why he was so angry with him.

He hurt his friend.

Sean was taken away from those thoughts and let out a suprised "Whoa!" as Saku reached around and gave him a hug, dragging Thomas along for the ride. That suprise lasted for a hot second before his arm snaked around and he returned the hug. It felt nice, nicer than anything had been the last time he'd been alive.

"We all did." It was all he could say in that moment.

Of course, Thomas started talking like he used to. Nervous. Cutting himself off. It was like when they first met. "It's alright, man!" A clap to Thomas's shoulder to punctuate what he'd said. "You wanted to keep us safe and... I..."

It hurt to think about it. That he'd been wrong about Zach. That, maybe, Thomas had been right this whole time to not trust him and what he did at those cliffs, when he shook his hand...

"I fucked up."

I fucked up, he says. As if anyone here had fucked up, or was ultimately more fucked up than... okay she was about to say her, but Ty being there took away from that a little.

And that wasn't an insult.

It was oddly comfortable, having another murderer around.

"Tactically, maybe spiltting up even for a second was a bad idea. But if you're beating yourselves up about Zach's bitch ass ass, I won't accept it even for a second."

This was like back then, the influx of emotions, being propped up against Sean while Thomas was in touching distance. Her eyes briefly flicked toward the pinball machines, and her heart thumped faster at who she thought she saw... later, she'd find that girl again.

The first person who'd ever been her friend.

"You stayed loyal to that jerk even when he didn't deserve it. You talked a gun out of his hands, like, you're a fucking badass! If anyone's sorry it's me."

For not avenging either of them. Her final days had been spent on herself, even her last moments.

"Fuck that guy, you know? And I guess Thomas wants to get all super serious about what happened after... you left, so helping us sort that out would be more than atonement if that's what you're wanting."

Giving an awkward grin, she let them both go, gesturing to the set-up machine behind her, and one on either side of it. Her voice got a bit louder then, addressing the skeeballers. What a name, right?

"Don't gotta teach anybody the rules, do I? Balls and holes and hoops and goals just kinda go together..." Cackling wildly, she picked one up from her chosen lane. "And speaking of together-" To you, Lucas- "How far and wide did you spread that clout?"

"How far, you ask?" Lucas asked, turning away from Tyrell for a moment. A stupefied smile took hold of Lucas' face as memory put a knee to his skull. His incredulous awe only grew the more he considered his answer, leaving a gap long enough for the pause to be noticeable, though not so much to concern. In the end, he could but smile and shake his head as he spoke.

"There's at least one member still alive. Katelynne, the furby girl. Aside from her, there was Princess, and before her I sort of saved Julien Leblanc's life, so he sort of counts but he left so not really. The group was me, Ty, Princess, and Katelynne at the end, Clout Gang Squad 2, before I sorta went off to do the Erika thing. On my, ah, own.

"Saffron and Katie helped me out with Julien, or I guess they were there before me trying to save him—I guess they're welcome to join the party if they want, though maybe they're angry at me for saving Julien instead of them—anyway, before that I had a rock skipping contest with Johnny and Jeff for my birthday, Sven showed up too, gave me a lightsaber, they're all totally clouted.

"So that gives us two clout groups of me, Ty, Princess, Katelynne when she gets here if she does, and y'all, plus whoever you guys ran into that you're cool with showing up. Theoretically the number could be really large depending on how wide we wanna spin the circle. Hell, we could probably take over the arcade if we wanted!"

She hadn't misheard Lucas at all. She had heard him correctly as she felt her own body moving on it's own towards them and she felt like her heart was hammering so loud that it was all that she could hear when Lucas' was sprouting Princess' name so freely and she remembered how painful it had felt when she never got to see her. She never watched what Princess had done after she had died really. She just couldn't bare the reaction if she had seen it.

((Violet Quinn continued from Happy Time You Just Died Pizza Parlor))

"H-Hey...."

Her voice was too quiet and she hated how she felt like she had gone back to how she was in the past. She cleared her throat as she was now close to the group and she stopped a few steps away from them, feeling like she was an intruder invading on the group of friends.

"Hey there." She said in a more clear, louder voice and she brushed a curl of her hair off of her cheek, feeling a wave of uncertainty taking over. "...I heard that you were with Princess and I just...." She felt her voice trailing off quietly.

She bit her lower lip slightly and she was trying hard to not avert her eyes away from them. She was really not that great at talking to other people. She kind of wished that she was back with Ned and Aurelien. She knew that Ned had died and she had very sad when she had been watching it happen. Aurelien was still alive and she hoped that he would be able to keep going.

"....I don't know what to say. I'm not good at talking to other socially." She let out a small defeated sigh. "Just hearing you say her name.... I miss her."

When Sean delivered that reassuring clap on the shoulder, Thomas felt a wave of relief rush over him. His friend didn’t hate him. Things between the two of them, at least, were salvageable.

Part of him thought to hug Sean then, to really solidify the reconciliation. But then Thomas remembered that he’d never hugged Sean before and didn’t know if that was, like, cool. He also remembered that before he’d died there had been some doubt as to whether Sean might have some greater-than-platonic interest in him. Instead, a slow nod of the head would suffice.

He was rather surprised to hear both Sakurako and Sean seemingly throwing all the blame on Zach and particularly with Sakurako’s harsher words. Sure, Thomas still thought the guy was kind of a piece of shit but, perhaps due to kind of ranting at him during their final confrontation or through some feeling of shared fault, the boy wasn’t really angry with him anymore.

There were people he was angry with, but Zach had managed to slip past that into just being someone Thomas had no interest in seeing ever again.

“Well, I mean… thank you Sean, really. You didn’t do anything wrong besides want to believe in a friend, right?” He shrugged the matter off, feeling ready to let his anxieties go. Of course, once Sakurako mentioned the other matters that he knew needed discussion, he felt some of that creep back.

“Yeah, we can, uh, talk about that later though. No need to handle it all… um, over skeeball, right?”

Or in front of Lucas. Not the person Thomas wanted to keep airing dirty laundry in front of.

Lucas, who at Sakurako’s question started to list off the people he’d inducted into his own “Clout Gang” after leaving, including a certain person of interest.

“Oh, Princess was a part of our group too, for a little bit.” He remarked, before noticing another figure whom he recognized, though she’d been much more corpse-like the last time they’d met.

“Y-Yeah, we know Princess.” Thomas cleared his throat, “Haven’t seen her here yet, though.” He added apologetically.

The two of them brushed it off. Sean got why, he believed in Zach and Zach repaid him by trying to kill another person. But not just another person, a friend of his. So the matter was closed.

He wasn't at fault.

"Thanks guys." He meant it, Thomas had been with him from the beginning. Sean did not think the best of him at start, but the guy proved himself over and over to be a good friend and person. And Saku...well, what could he say? She picked them up in the jungle, kept their spirtis up even after her leg stepped in that beartrap, she kept going. Sean had a lot of respect for her.

His curiosity was piqued though, when Thomas seemed to sidestep a comment from Saku. Something serious? Guess that was for later.

"Atonement, huh? Shouldn't be too hard." He said with a smile at them. A comment from Saku towards Lukas revealed something to him, the clout had spread far. Sean was suprised at that, with how singleminded Lukas seemed at the time.

He sputed off all the members. Him, Katelynne, Princess and...

"Ty?" Sean found himself saying as he looked over at him before being distracted.

A voice piped in. One he hadn't heard since the trip started.

Violet? The sane one? The one he had covered in the infirmary with Zach?

She was looking for Princess. Thomas answered the best he could. Rather awkward, but the whole sitch with her coming in and then dissappearing without a word. What was there to say?

"What he said. Haven't seen her, not since the jungle anway." There wasn't much Sean could add other than the fact she showed up at the infirmary looking for Violet, but that was probably best left unsaid. He turned his attention back to Ty. He had wanted to find him after hearing his name on the announcement, but with the chaos that had happened and everything- he didn't. Probably didn't come close.

And here he was, in another clout gang. If irony was a being, Sean would punch it right about now.

How about that! Clout gang was rolling deep, and getting deeper as Princess's Violet joined the skeebattle. Sakurako smiled at her, a bit tired but still genuine.

"Hey-o Vio, good to see ya."

The grief for Princess was still there, even though death seemed to just be a stop on the train. Princess had to be here somewhere, more than likely preparing for her dramatic interest, getting herself together. Life was strange, unlife was even more bizarre. She patted the girl on the shoulder once, ready to offer more of a greeting before the thought occurred.

Thomas wouldn't just let the past be past. She could run from it forever, but eventually he was going to drag her back into it, the game she'd tried so hard to escape in every way she could. Best to get it over with then, one more path to traverse before she could rest in anything that might be peaceful. Gently placing a ball in Violet's hand, Sakurako gave a soft shrug. Time to dance then.

"If Princess isn't here soon, I promise I'll chase her through this whole arcade. I hate to clout and run, but Tomtom needs me for something."

Sakurako glanced at Thomas, signalling both her reluctance and ultimate willingness to open Pandora's box of her actions. She glanced at Sean too, a smile on her face with desperation in her eyes. She didn't know that she could stand a repeat of her and Tom's last moments together by herself.

"Happy late birthday, Minecraft! I'll win ya a teddy bear, and I'll see you guys in a bit."

So, they were going to do this now, actually.

Cool. That was cool. Thomas was definitely prepared for this. It was a conversation he’d been fixated on having pretty much since the moment he’d shown up in this strange place and which had only become more pressing in his mind in the time following.

They might have eternity to figure it all out but there wouldn’t be peace until they at least tried to talk about things. Otherwise, the stress would sit deep down inside, twisting him up, eating away at him. Thomas had to consider Sakurako, too. He knew she was better at compartmentalizing this sort of stuff than he was, at acting like everything was fine when it clearly wasn’t, but everyone had their limits and there was only so far you could run before your legs gave out.

“Thank you.” He mouthed to her, before, following her gaze to meet Sean. He wanted this to be private, but better Sean than Lucas or any of these others.

Thomas gave a gentle nod to their friend before looking to Violet and the rest.

“Yeah, I promise we’ll be right back!” Thomas added before leading Sakurako and Sean aside, starting to feel deeply afraid that he’d soon have an eternity to regret this decision.

((Thomas Buckley continued elsewhere…))

"Oh. Uhh, don't worry about it. I'll deal with it."

Ty scratched the back of his head nervously, as Lucas openly pondered exactly what they'd do once Erika got there. Ty knew, but not in the kind of way people typically understood things. Not in a way he could explain, so much as an instinct. He couldn't describe it, not well. It still wasn't entirely clear how the rules of this place worked, whether they were real flesh-and-blood or something else entirely, at this point. If they were in any way as vulnerable as they used to be, Ty knew Erika would damn near lose her mind at the realization that there really was something after. Not only that, but at least a significant number of the people she'd killed were waiting for her. There wouldn't be any easy way to handle it.

At a loss, he simply shrugged and hung his head, the familiar weight of guilt once again weighing down on him. Looking around, he could see a number of familiar faces. Though they were seemingly not the worse for wear, they were still dead. Given the way many of them had approached the island, in contrast to his own journey, it was hard not to feel kind of awkward. As it often was back home, back in life, he couldn't help but stand out in some of the worst ways.

I must seem like a real piece of work. I hope nobody asks me about Chris.

...

I hope Chris doesn't ask about Chris.

Looking down, Ty found that he was very suddenly in possession of a cold, open bottle of beer. The label read Pekko's Porter. Of all of the strange aspects of this new reality, this was one he didn't feel a pressing need to question. Raising the bottle to his lips, he found it tasted like every good beer he'd had at a party, the kind that the guy with the cool dad would bring, which there would inevitably be not enough of. This was okay.

The sound of his name broke him out of the beery stupor, and he turned to see Sean Leibowitz. Ty liked Sean, but they were different enough that they didn't travel in so many of the same social circles. Ty always leaned more into post-hardcore and punk than metal, and he had a feeling many of his bullshit antics would put off someone like him. Nonetheless, they were both here and the surreal nature of it all was starting to give way to something that felt almost normal. Almost as if they were in any other social context than this.

A faint smile flashed across Ty's face, and he waved at Sean with his beer-free hand. "Hey man. How's uhh... death? I heard Justin got you. Hope it wasn't too shitty on the way down. I dunno if it was the same for everyone else, but dying kinda sucked. Definitely lived up to the hype."

There were a lot of things Sean had wanted to ask him. Why did you do it? Did you know about Erika? Were you hunting her too? Or just looking for her? But every question was drowned out in his throat as he stared at him.

What happened to you? That was the question he really wanted to ask. It was the same one he'd ask Zach if he ever got his ass down here. People in this very room had died thanks to their actions and Sean wanted answ- Where'd he get that? Ty was swigging from a beer and Sean's eyes almost popped out from the familiar sight.

He did not know and he was not sure if it was a good idea to ask.

He noticed that Ty waved at him.

He waved back at him.

Then Ty spoke and Sean started laughing.

"No shit!" He found himself saying, dying sucked ass. "It took me a while. Don't think he was too thorough with it, so I didn't see shit until a bit ago." Sean left it at that. He was not ready to confront that fact again when he felt himself getting pulled along by his sleeve, Thomas wanted to talk.

"Uh, I'll talk to you later dude!" He called out as he was lead away. He wondered if this was about the thing from earlier. Whatever it was, it was better than talking about dying.

((Sean Leibowitz continued elsewhere...))

"You get beer???"

Sakurako would k-

She would really, really like some alcohol for this conversation and just, in general! Apparently the people in charge had decided to turn on some Tracee Bluebell too, and man, if there's anything you don't want to argue to, it's-

Anyway, since Sean and Tom was going, she was too, but she did have one last word before she left them to their devices.

"Please learn to summon something stronger, oh Wizard of Booze!"

((Sakurako A. Jackson continued elsewhere))

Teresa snorted at the salt shaker tricks from idk 15 posts ago, whatever posts were in this crazy dead world.

Rather, she snorted until Michael brought up that, perhaps Yuka was the salty one all along. Oh right, the whole "sorry you just got shotgun blasted but imma head out" bit. Uh oh.

But eh, whatevs. What can ya do about it when we're all dead, babyyyyy~. Though it looked like some dudebros were still going at it for what felt like months, so maybe that was an option of Yuka was feeling particularly potassium chloride-y.

Teresa wrapped one of her arms around the other girl like they were the besties again or like at least for the thot patrol reunion tour. "You know it; it's a party everyday, boy-o."

Some of the kids at the skeetball group diverged away, though more importantly there were a couple of familiar faces. Wonder if Cherry or Nerdboy or his boyfriend ever found out who did the beartrap bit, but they didn't seem to mind Teresa much there so maybe she was in the clear and just kept winning in that regard.

She turned back around to Miguel. "But yeah, like srsly, it's a party. C'mon. I bet if you looked hard enough you'd even find your Berry bitch or whatever. I bet Yuka here's even found her fam already."