Chapter Text
“As our home gets overrun by flashing colours and ghosts from a time passed, the Union Leaders remain ever silent. I’m sure the question of whether or not they know what exactly is going on has crossed each of our minds at some point over the course of this strange day. And the Union Leaders seem uninterested in our pursuit of answers, keeping themselves locked up in the Clocktower, turning everyone who approaches them away for something of supposedly higher importance. Could they be trying to fix this problem, or could it be that they are the ones causing it.” Brain stopped typing. His teeth ground against each other. “Their refusal to give us an-”
“Ven, turn the radio off,” he barked, not watching his tone. [have Brain whine about it a bit]
I have more important things to focus on. I can’t let myself be distracted by conspiracies on the radio.
“The Union Leaders have…” There was a moment of hesitation before Ven placed his finger on the button. Suddenly the radio’s volume peaked. “abandoned, abandoned, abandoned, abandoned-” the word repeated, each delivery the same as the last, but slightly distorted, wrong.
Ven jumped backwards and nearly out of his skin, hands swiftly covering his ears. The younger wielder shot Brain a wide eyed look just as the whole broadcast drowned in static.
The host and their crew must have been caught in a glitch. They both knew what had happened, but that didn’t make the event any less startling.
Brain winced at the thought, his mind flashing back to the moment a glitch had appeared over his hand.
At first it had just fallen asleep. Then the pins and needles gradually sharpened, digging deeper and deeper, pressing harder and harder, until…
The static from the radio died down and he was free to hear the startled and disgruntled noises of the announcer and the crew as they reoriented themselves. Then, “I can’t feel anything! I can’t feel-”
The sensation in Brain’s hand still hadn’t returned.
“Ven!”
“Sorry,” almost immediately this time, the younger wielder pressed the button. The room fell almost entirely quiet.
Brain welcomed the less distressing sounds of the Clocktower. The familiar repetitive clunking and clicking of the gears turning below him. The huff of the steam rushing through the pipes. The rhythmic knocking of Ven’s feet hitting against the table’s leg. The faint buzzing of the screens…
Or maybe that was from the portal.
At the reminder, his attention drifted over to the portal. It flickered and swayed, looking unstable as ever.
He made his way over to one of the smaller computer setups, and, with a few swift clacks of the keys, he’d typed in the command ‘Portal Status’. Enter.
Almost hesitantly, his eyes shifted to the display.
<Stable>
Good. He let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. It had to stay that way. Otherwise Ephemer and his friend wouldn't have a way back, and that’d be creating a whole new problem he wasn’t sure they’d have time to fix.
“Hey, Brain…”
If he could find out how to fix the issue before they returned that’d be even better. Picking up where he left off typing, he focused on the clacking of the keys instead of the hum. There had to be something in the files here somewhere.
“Brain,”
He typed in command after command trying to find something new, only to be met with error message after error message. This computer might just be overloaded. If he switched to another maybe-
“Brain?”
Muscles tensing, he left his hands hovering over the keys and twisted his head to face the younger wielder. “What is it Ven?”
[Have him continue babbling on about whatever in his head]
“Why do they think this is our fault?”
The question made Brain pause. Physically he had already, but now his thoughts had stopped in their tracks…
And then they were set on a new one.