Jet woke up slightly stiffer than normal. Needless to say, every single morning in this place had been slightly out of the norm.
The first day had been sudden and had made her raise her guard up.
The second day had followed a turbulent night. After seeing everything Sunny had gone through, as well as knowing of how close they truly were, she felt too apprehensive to sleep.
So, on this third day, what exactly had made her morning so, troubling.
She had slept fine, the tiredness of the previous night's insomnia had caught up with her.
It wasn't the weirdness of the room tailor-made for her. She had grown used to it, somewhat.
Instead, it was a small bundle of joy and clever childishness that had "troubled" her morning.
Ever since she came to the Longing/Shadow Room—they really need to come up with a better name—Young Nephis had clearly shown comfort when around Jet and Seishan.
And so, when came the time to sleep, she had gone to Jet's room.
Although she had faintly complained of how cold Jet was and how much warmer Sunny was, the girl had hugged the older woman through the entire night.
Young Nephis was an interesting child. She was unbelievably smart and too sharp for a child her age, however, she had a childish side to her that only came up in certain situations.
Mostly when Sunny was brought up.
'By the Spell, are these two obsessed with each other in every universe?'
Whether it was familial or romantic love, it seemed like every Sunny and every Nephis were incapable of being separated in any way.
At the moment, they were late.
Jet had taken a lot of time making sure that Young Nephis was presentable. That's where she found out that she was terrible at taking care of children.
At first she believed it was simply a matter of not being used to it, surely the Jet from her world did a better job. Only to find out it was Sunny who did everything.
Combed her hair, made her food, and washed her clothes.
Sunny apparently was a great parent.
'Something that our Nephis will certainly appreciate in the future.'
As they entered the Reaction Room, everyone was already seated. Following their gaze, she noticed that the viewings for today were already presented in front of them.
|---
Volume : [ I - Child of Shadows ]
Theme : [ Forgotten Shore ]
Viewings:
[ Starless Sky, Darker Tides ] : [ A shadow drops onto an ocean of dark waters, below a starless void. He will soon learn that on this forgotten shore, only steel remembers. ]
[ Journey to the West ] : [ A shadow, a nephilim, and an oracle make their journey amidst a labyrinth of blood. ]
[ Ashen Burrow ] : [ There is no reason to leave, flee, run, or escape. Your life is perfect here, isn't it? ]
---|
Jet looked at the names of each viewing. She had never been in the Forgotten Shore, but she had read articles about it. A sky with no stars and an ocean that appeared at night, somehow darker than that very sky.
"We have descriptions right from the start this time?" She asked.
"It's seems that this is another whim from The Mask. Just like when they decided to turn the challenges from one per theme to one per volume. They decided to change the way the hints are revealed to us." Beastmaster explained.
Jet sat in her usual place, near Nephis and not that far away from the Saints that remained from the House of Night. Young Nephis sat in between her and the older Nephis.
Both of them stared at each other for a second, in silence.
"Sunny once said I would look amazing with white hair." The child spoke first.
Nephis paused for a moment and stared at her own hair, falling over her shoulder. She gave a simple nod and turned away, making her younger self pout.
"So how does it work now?"
"Before, the way it worked was every time we watched a viewing, a new hint would appear on the viewings. Now, it depends on how many viewings are left to see." Effie clarified.
"If three remain, we get a description. If two remain, we get an image. And that's it." Kai completed.
"I get it now. Have you already voted?"
"Yeah, we are seeing the results updating, only the Alter Room hasn't voted yet. But it seems to be a unanimous vote for [ Starless Sky, Darker Tides ] until now. So it is kind of obvious what we are about to see: Doofus being dropped exactly on the Dark Sea. Talk about bad luck." Effie answered.
"Wow, since the start we keep choosing the chronological order, no one daring to shake things up?" Jet teased.
"It is better to witness things in order." Nephis explained.
"Besides, our actions might be capable of influencing the way things go, we might be capable of convincing The Mask to change how things work, especially that certain situation that has been hinted at on the first day."
The erasure of a viewing.
For the people in this room, the mere chance of loosing of what could be the only chance to witness a memory that they had lost was...
Dreadful.
Nightmare Room
"No, no, I want you all to think with me. If there are six Nightmares, and we all are from the Second and the Third, there might be a chance that people from a Fourth, Fifth, or Sixth join us, no?"
Noctis was seated in his spot, his legs propped up by the back of the seat in the row in front of him.
"Not to say it's impossible, Noctis. But considering how The Mask is capable of bringing us here even after we died in said Nightmares, why didn't they already bring them here?" Windflower asked.
Silence settled as they went into thought.
"What if The Mask isn't as all-knowing as it suggests?" Elyas suggested
That raised some eyebrows.
"You think that they are still learning more of what is happening in the world?" Daeron asked.
"I mean, yeah... If The Mask wasn't yet aware of, or not aware enough about, these other Nightmares, that would explain why there is no one from there, right?"
"Perhaps you are right, young one." Daeron agreed.
The boy blushed in embarrassment.
"O-oh, it's nothing, sir. I... it was just a hunch."
"Even so, it's worth considering a possibility of the truth."
Alter Room
"So, the Forgotten Shore is basically a continent sized labyrinth of blood-like coral?" A voice asked.
"Yes." Another answered.
"And it floods with a dark ocean at night?" It asked.
"That's right." Yet another voice confirmed.
"And in that ocean, there are brutally strong Nightmare Creatures?"
"Yyyyyeeeep~" someone said, a soft pop on their lips at the end.
They were a couple of Sunnys and Kai from the diverged timeline who had decided to sit together this time around.
Mundane Sunny was the one asking the questions, while Regressor Sunny, Enemies timeline Sunny, and Kai from the diverged timeline answered.
Detective Sunless sat not that far away from them, quietly listening to the conversation.
"That's crazy!! How did you survive that place?! Are you crazy?!" Mundane Sunny asked.
The other Sunnys looked at him weirdly at the last question before answering.
"We survived just as you would expect. Kill what wants to kill us and run away as soon as defeat begins to seem obvious." Enemies!Sunny said.
"Like he said. It helps if you have competent companions, but in the end you can't survive if you don't sweat, bleed, and cry for it." Regressed Sunny.
At that time, Kai suddenly reminded himself of something.
"We still don't have a proper way to identify all of us, do we?" He asked.
"So what? Should we call ourselves Sunny 1, Sunny 2, and Sunny 3?"
"Huh, no? But if we could find ourselves a way to address you without mixing up any of you, it would be easier."
"Well, the detective me is a simple one, he is simply the Detective."
"That's fair."
"And the Mad Prince... that one doesn't even deserve to be called Sunny."
"But the Cassie of his universe still does, doesn't she?"
"And she is also the one who stares creepily at everyone in the room. To think that Cassie as a Supreme would look so..."
"Pretty?"
"I was going for scary, imposing, or terrifying."
"That works too, I guess."
They stayed silent for a moment.
"You can call me by our full name, Sunless." Mundane Sunny, Sunless said.
"What about you?" Enemies!Sunny asked Regressed Sunny.
"Uhm..."
As Regressed Sunny was thinking, his gaze met Seishan's, who was looking at him with a knowing smile.
"..."
"What did you say? I didn't hear you."
"Suming." He said through gritted teeth.
"What?"
"Forget it! Call me Lost Sunny or something." Suming, or rather, Lost Sunny said in a loud voice.
"Lost? Well, since you said it, you can just call me Sunny." The Sunny from the Enemies timeline asserted.
"Ugh, I forgot I could use that..." Lost Sunny said in exasperation.
"Your loss, me."
As they were talking, the detective suddenly gritted his teeth and screamed at the screen.
"We already voted fifteen minutes ago! What's the hold up?!"
As if answering his question...
[ Commencing next Viewing - [ Starless Sky, Darker Tides ] . . . ]
* ****** * ****** * ******
A/N: Next chapter the reaction starts, yuppy!
I wanted to approach you my dear readers to hear your opinion.
I was thinking of writing another reaction fic, but I am unsure of what to choose:
A) JJK Reaction
I already teased it in this fanfic, but I am indeed planning a jjk reaction fic. The premise would be similar to this one, with exactly three rooms. One for teenage Gojo era, another for main JJK era and finally Modulo Era. The three rooms would react to the JJK story(will include Modulo and might include JJK 0 if people want to)
B) Spider-Man Reaction
A reaction that focuses on Tom Holland's Spider-Man where characters from every movie he participated in the MCU react to them, along with other characters.
The roster would be small but varied.
Roster: Steve Rogers(Civil War); Tony Stark(End of Infinity War); Aunt May(after Endgame); MJ(between Far from Home and No Way Home); Ned(between Far from Home and No Way Home); Tobey's Peter Parker(After NWH); Andrew's Peter Parker(After NWH); Insomniac's Peter, MJ and Miles(before the start of SM2); Tom's Peter Parker(End of BND); Jean Grey(End of BND);
A total of 12 characters.
Tell me your opinion, there is a lot of time, so you can vote until I finished this fic's 1st Volume, which ends after the Soul Devouring Tree Arc.
Check Out my other Fanfics:
Cursed Shadow (JJK/JJK Modulo x Shadow Slave Fic)
Trailblazing Shadow (HSR x Shadow Slave Fic)