River was very used to waking up to sounds, smells or headaches unique to the dreamscene. Today was the first time he woke up with a completely different sensation – that of something heavy falling on top of his body, causing the breath to be pushed out of his lungs.
He gave a short cough, eyelids flickering. The weight on his body was a skinny person, hands grabbing at his sides and fluffy short hair rubbing underneath his chin.
To tell the truth, he wasn’t sure what he recognized first – the scent, the aura, the form on his body or the sliver of light gray hair through his slowly clearing eyes.
But he knew who it was and relaxed, not scolding but rather raising a hand to pat the small back.
There was a lot of noise around them. River guessed that Aspen was overwhelmed and holding back – for River’s sake – so he sought physical contact to alleviate his stress, just as he had done in the last game.
Thinking of the touch as not uncomfortable at all, River wrapped an arm around Aspen’s slender waist to keep him steady as he sat up. The smaller guy ended up sitting on his lap, warily glancing over his shoulder at people inside the room like a ferocious beast.
The safe-room was large, but with a total of ten people, it did start feeling rather cramped. This was the absolute maximum of players according to River’s knowledge, and for some reason it caused his headache to pound worse.
That said, he had gotten this headache even before entering the dream. He had it since-
River shook his head, refusing the painful thoughts. He pulled Aspen closer and the other squeaked like a little toy – not offended, just making himself known.
“How are-” Aspen stopped mid sentence, not finishing it just like the last time. He wordlessly rubbed his cheek against River’s and changed the topic. He reminded River of a faithful dog, trying to soothe his owner by coming close. “I didn’t go out yet. There were too many people so I didn’t want to leave you alone.”
There were many people, and they were unusually talkative. They weren’t fighting, but arguing for sure, all of them having expressions of determination that were rare for the dreams.
River pushed Aspen gently off him and got up, offering a hand to help Aspen stand.
He did remember what happened at the last game, but he had decided not to care and just go with the flow. They needed each other for comfort, and so anything that gave them comfort was acceptable, no matter how intimate or not it was. They were good at coming to silent agreements by now, so he was pretty certain that his partner would have the exact same thoughts.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Aspen hid behind River. For others it would almost look like he was scared or timid, but River could tell that something was off about the other.
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Ktfgf kfgf fluta batfgr jrlvf ogbw tlw. Mbeg kfgf wfc, obeg kfgf ulgir, klat atgff qfbqif yflcu bivfg jcv atf gfra jgbecv Elnfg’r jcv Crqfc’r juf, qgbyjyis.
Ycf bo atf wfc’r fsfr wbnfv bnfg ab Elnfg ktfc tf cbalmfv tlw kjamtlcu.
Suddenly, River was distinctly aware why Aspen was hiding behind him. In a room this loud, Aspen might have taken the chance to get rid of some people under different circumstances, but he couldn’t this time. Probably wouldn’t be able to, the whole game.
The man was bulky, but in all the right ways. He was tall and trained, his narrow eyes and the short beard giving his western features an additional sharpness. He stood perfectly straight, but his eyes spelled bloody murder. Even a single glance from him demanded obedience.
This man had led men before. Whether he was a mercenary or something else, there was no doubt that he was a person of authority.
If Aspen made one wrong move, it would be him who ended up dead, and he wasn’t risking that.
River felt Aspen’s fingers grab the back of his shirt and tighten around the fabric. Aspen was a fearless guy, but fearlessness was always built upon a certain condition: Having nothing to lose.
Now that Aspen wasn’t willing to leave River behind in the game alone, he did not fulfill that condition anymore.
As the man stared, River stared back. He didn’t mind being scrutinized, after all, he was doing something similar.
Next to the scary man were the other two older people. It was a man and a woman, both making their plans clear by standing quietly like subordinates. These three were bound to walk around together.
The source of the most noise was the other group, though. The bunch of young people were busy fighting over who was the loudest, the conversation a mixture of excitement (“I am so going to post about this!”), curiosity (“Do you think we’ll see a corpse?”) and even blatant arrogance (“This should be easy.”).
Their conversations made River’s thoughts go blank.
“What a day for murder”, he whispered under his breath, only loud enough for Aspen to hear. Paired with five overzealous idiots that didn’t treat this place seriously, he’d have loved to have Aspen get rid of them.
Nothing that could be done.
Somehow, one of the younger people managed to notice that River had woken up. He waved over at them.
“Hey, you! Finally awake! Do you wanna explore with us?” The young man showed his white teeth in a cocky grin. Not caring for a response, he just went ahead and took the lead in introducing everyone. “I’m Bronze. This dude here is Silver, that’s Ocean and Ivory and Vault. We’re-”
“Hey! I can introduce myself”, Ivory pouted, crossing her arms.
Meanwhile, Ocean rolled her eyes. “Ugh. Can you not just tell random people my mark? Or invite them?”
“The more the merrier. Or are you guys gonna go with those-”, at this point he waved towards the older adults, “-over there?”
“We’ll walk around on our own”, River croaked out. Gods, they were loud. Was this what Aspen always felt like? His head was pounding.
“Oh, you know each other? Are you boyfriends? Cuuute! Like us!” Ivory hugged Vault’s arm. “We so have to post about this!”
“It sucks that we can’t take photos…”
“Yeah! Totally! I mean, wouldn’t it be cool if you could stream this?”
“We’d be rich!”
River slowly, very slowly, started to turn and move towards one of the doors to outside. He wasn’t willing to deal with this.
Once they were outside, they could just make sure that they wouldn’t run into-
The door opened.
River’s eyes twitched.
What opened up in front of them…
…Was a comfortable, small, one-family house.
Aspen, still stuck to his back, groaned with the same realization. There was no space to have some peace here, especially not when they could hear shadows talk downstairs despite only having opened a door.
The house was cute and somewhat modern compared to the last games. Wanting to escape the chattering youths, Aspen and River simply hurried downstairs while glancing around.
There were two adults bustling around the lower floor. A nice little breakfast table was set up as the sun shone in through the windows. It smelled like freshly baked toast and coffee. A gentle melody was being softly hummed by the female adult as she passed by her husband, pasting a loving kiss on his cheek.
“It’s morning”, River said, interest sparking within him. As a high-class household, he wasn’t used to such a gentle atmosphere around the breakfast table.
“The stage ends shortly outside of the house, so we can keep an eye on everything quite easily. What do you think the plot might be this time?”
Aspen was closely attached to River’s side, so the easterner felt the smaller guy wince the moment they heard steps behind them.
Author’s Note
There’s a looooot of characters this time. Don’t worry, as long as you remember the scary man’s name, you can handle reading even without really remembering who everyone else is.
As usual, my warning that we deal with uncomfortable topics. If you need more information, I will respond, so feel free to ask if you’re uncertain.
Waa … I already feel a headache with this Silver (if I understood correctly). But even more with the two instagramers absolutely toxic for my mental =_=’.
I pray that Shushu returns at the end of this instance.
I also wanted to ask the question, if it suits you a background for the fanart. Because it might take longer. (Just in case, I’ve been working the past few weeks, now I have a bit more time to finish.)
Also, thank you very much for this chapter!
I am happy no matter what kind of fanart I get! So please do whatever you feel comfortable with and how you like it, I’ll love it anyway!!
I pray that Rivers family is… ‘dealt with’, soon or imma lose it
I want to ask if the scary guy’s gonna end up a new ally or an antagonist but I also don’t want to spoil myself~🤭
Thanks for the chapter !
I hope the bug guy won’t becomes an enemy… and oh boy I feel the loudness of the other group through the words…