Mainline Chapters 2

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Mainline Chapter 11

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Screaming continued in the dark of my mind.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

All I saw was a never-ending nightmare of my parents' abuse.

The torment I was subjected to for years on end.

The screams went on.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

My own screams echoed now as the flashbacks and nightmares continued.

Panting in my sleep, Jay held me close. Yet I was stuck. Was I finally facing my shadow? Well, it was about time anyway. The room I was in during my dream grew to a black that was blacker than black itself. It felt like an endless void. Was I dead? Couldn’t be. I was still alive, was I? I had no idea. So many questions, so little time it felt.

A light appeared in the dream. Ahead of me, my shadow. His eyes glowed a bright green, almost reflective of mine in a way. Yet, it wasn’t mine at all. Well, it was me but it wasn’t. It felt like a reflection of me. Yet… it wasn’t quite me. Did that even make sense? The closer I got to him, the closer I felt like I was to death for some reason. His eyes glared into my soul as I watched him.

“You’re not supposed to be here, and yet you are. You’re a hacker. An Administrator. A bender of sorts, you’re like a magician. We have the same ability, Error. I am you… but stronger… slightly.” As my shadow spoke, a hologram appeared in front of me. Message logs from years ago when I went under many different usernames to avoid accountability of my actions. I was a minor. A child. “Why don’t you tell them how you harassed your groomer before she groomed you? Hm?”

“...I’ve already resolved all of that. It was ten years ago and I’ve changed since then. I’m not the same person as I was, and I no longer agree with harassment. I was so wrong for that, and yet you constantly dangle things over my head. It’s a constant thing with you. I’ve changed and learned from past mistakes but you continue to dangle that above me. Why is that? Can’t move on? Have nothing better to do? The three of them - my groomer and her friends - have all already forgiven me and apologized for their wrongings during that instance long ago. We moved on collectively because we have better things to do.” My shadow just stared at me after I spoke.

“...And yet you can’t even tell your partners about your behavior to her? About how you were always clingy towards her?” My shadow spoke, looking me in the eyes.

“...Oh they already know. They know every little detail about her. And every little wronging I did. I’m not perfect, and I hate saying it but neither is anyone else. And quite frankly, as a victim of this shit, I demand you get out of my face or I’ll do something you’ll regret.” As I spoke, I held up a glass bottle. This bottle is used for trapping enemies, including shadows, so that you as a user can obtain their abilities. Or, if you have the resources, can fuse them with you permanently. Since my shadow was already one with me, I had to use the bottle to give me full control of its mind and body, meaning that my shadow will no longer contain a soul.

“Please don’t do that, I want my voice…” Dangling it a bit more as he spoke, I chuckled lightly and started to walk away. He sighed a sigh of relief, and, immediately after, I threw the bottle at him. It felt like it went in slow-mo. His body entered the glass and his soul disappeared. A smirk appeared on my face as I picked up the bottle, examining it.

“You need a voice, my ass. Yeah, to torment me forever. Not happening, bucko.”

A few days went by and I felt not like myself, but that’s sometimes okay. Snuggling up with Jay and Darrius, I whined a bit. I was fully a dog alien now, and have a German shepherd dog tail. Though, I can still swap back to my old shark tail. The cool part is, I also have dog paws slightly on my hands and dog paws for feet. However… something lurked. A new administrator power, beyond our scope.

The Demon Overlord.

Mainline Chapter 12

On the sofa cuddling Jay and Darrius, I whine a bit. For a few weeks, I had been having anxiety for no reason. Well, one reason. Withdrawal from a very important medication I was taken off. It prevented me from doing art, from writing, from even thinking straight. I couldn’t focus right and I felt off. However… while watching one of our favorite movies, singing the entire soundtrack, and just being with the whole polycule made me overjoyed. While I wasn’t 100%, I still felt normal, and part of me felt it was partially from allergies, why I felt this way. But there was something I was keeping.

Usually, how things work is there’s patterns to tell if someone is something or not. Like how shadows (including half shadows) have a haze around them. Demons are sort of the same way. Some have patterns that look like cracks on the body, while others are quite literal demons. Venom and Oliver are both examples of this, they’re demons. But neither are bad. There are good demons, and there are bad too.

In the bathroom, I looked at myself briefly. On my chest were patterns. Patterns I wanted to hide, but knew I couldn’t. I knew the anxiety was also triggering these patterns to appear, which is why my libido wasn’t as active as it should be. It was why I was the way I was at the moment. They thought it was from anxiety, but it was deeper than that. These medications kept me from going insane. While I was moody and it did trigger my BPD more, I was at least able to withhold the anxiety in less than a week. When off of it I was unable to control it, it felt horrible. I was miserable. As I looked at my patterns, I heard knocking on the door. Covering up, the door opened slightly.

“Hey hun…? I left my… You okay, cariño?” Jay’s voice lingered through the bathroom as I swung my head quickly to look at him. Blushing, I sighed and nodded. “Thank god… I mean… Uh… Thank YOU… since… you’re… a god… Anyway… Reed said he’s going to get you more of the meds but they won’t be as strong. They won’t trigger as many mood swings, but they’ll still be effective and work as they did before.”

“Oh thank the Data Center…” My voice was awfully quiet but also strained. Jay could easily tell that. There was a lot he could tell about someone, especially me. And he picked up on it quite fast.

“You’re… clutching your chest… Are you hiding something…?” As Jay spoke, I looked away and shook my head no, then replied with a stern “no”. “Cariño… I know that voice and expression… We've been together for three years now… Is there something you wanna tell me?”

A sigh escaped from my voice, and then I spoke up. “Look… I… I need to tell everyone something… Just… meet at the outskirts of the city at the shoreline.”

As we all met up there, together, we sat by the shorelines and listened to the waves crash on the shoreline. Behind us, the city looked reminiscent of Night City from Cyberpunk. Clinging to Jay, I sigh softly. I was afraid but knew they’d likely be fine with it. So, I broke the silence and used my one gift - my voice. I sang a song I wrote. The patterns glowed a greenish camo coloring - all of it on my arms, my legs, and my body, but not everywhere. Jay just rushed up to me and clung to me, kissing my entire face as I nuzzled into him.

“...Patterns or not, I love you for you. You’re not a bad person. We know damn well who is, and if you have these patterns, we know damn well that you can lead us directly to the Demon Overlord. We just need to figure out how and find where the demon’s nesting grounds are.” Jay spoke, holding me close as I whined like a newborn puppy.