ouch

Wolfgang had a migraine, which was usually what happened after he had his nightmares. But now, it was like he was stuck in a nightmare he couldn’t wake up from. 

And he’d brought his brother with him. 

And lost his best friends.

This whole thing was a disaster.

He didn’t know why he was standing in some long-abandoned office or what the hell he was supposed to do with the wand he had hidden in his jacket or—

“It's an old transportation map,” Gunther says with wonder. 

Wolfgang stares at his brother. Leave it to him to set aside the horrors of this whole situation to marvel at some piece of technical history. 

“Maybe that’s not important,” Wolfgang says, but as soon as the words are out of his mouth, a splitting pain hits his head. Names of stations and locations flip by so quickly that he can hardly make sense of them until his mind lands on one location: Central Processing.

“Wolfy? Are you okay?” Gunther cries out.  

“I was wrong,” he pants. “The map matters.” Just saying the words takes all his energy. He starts to drop to his knees.

“Magic is real. Monsters are real. And…and I’m like an oracle? My bosses are really scary, and they told me to get the box. And I don’t know if I was supposed to open it, but I couldn’t stop myself!” He sucks in a breath as he hits the ground. “I think I’m here to stop the God of Death from unleashing an apocalypse. I know it sounds crazy,” he rasps, “But I swear it's the truth."

"I’m scared. Gunther, this is like the stuff that happens in books, only I don't know what I'm doing. What if I fail? What if…” he can’t bring himself to finish the statement. 

The light in his head is so blinding it hurts. But then suddenly, it lessens.

He can feel his brother propping him up, shielding him. "Gunther," he gasps, his throat tight. His brother probably can't even see the thing he's protecting him from, and yet, he does it without hesitation.

“Don’t stress about it, Wolfy. Let me take the weight.”

Their dad used to say that all the time. First, it was a joke about how heavy their backpacks were, and then it just became a thing he said whenever he didn't want them to worry. Even when he was sick, he never wanted the boys to feel like they had to grow up too fast or take on too much.

Exhausted, Wolfgang blinks back tears. “You’re a really good brother, you know that?”

“The best older brother you’ve got,” Gunther jokes.

Even though the situation they’ve found themselves in is horrific, Wolfgang laughs. “Yeah, that’s true. Hey, have you talked to Lucas? Is he—”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Gunther assures him. “Just rest. I’m going to figure out this map.”

---

Gunther makes sense of everything pretty quickly. Apparently, the Netherworld measures time in spiderwebs, which...what? And if you thought you could catch the train by waiting patiently on the platform like a normal sim—

Think again.

The weirdest part was that they weren’t alone: an old woman, a young man, and a skeleton were also riding along. Or maybe "weird" was the wrong word. It was kind of terrifying.

Gunther, though, didn’t miss a beat. With business-like efficiency, his brother facilitated introductions and gathered baseline information from everyone about what they were even doing here.

The woman wouldn’t stop staring at Wolfgang. Surreptitiously, he pats his jacket. The wand is snug inside a hidden pocket. Glaring, he tries to channel some of the closed-off, sullen-teenager behavior he adopted after his father died. He grunts and sneers his answers while trying to soak up all the details he can about Death herself.

“I don’t understand why the God of Death can’t just bring my husband back on her own,” Evan says, “Why do we have to do some sort of court case?”

“Ritual,” Bryan corrects, “Although yes, it is for all intents and purposes a court. Death is required to do it.” 

“How’s that?” Toni demands. “Gods are all-powerful. They can’t be bound.” 

“The Divine Creators rule even the gods,” Bryan huffs.  

Yeah, that sounded about right.

“The god before Alice had a very loose relationship with the requirements of the job. The Divine got so fed up with B’Ollithiranon and his haphazard approach to bringing the dead back to life that they decided to force a more rigorous process. One he had to participate in.”

Evan looks rightly horrified. “Jayden is already dead?”

The skeleton appears to consider that. “I mean, yes? But also no. He’s in between, not to be confused with The In-Between, which is sort of an unregulated area of the Netherworld. The God of Death hasn’t taken his soul yet, so it could go either way. Hence, the need for the ritual.”

“Tell us more about the court,” Toni demands, “What should Evan prepare for?”

At this question, Bryan looks distinctly uncomfortable. “It’s a judgment. You plead your case, with the help of counsel if you have one. The Erinyes interrogate you, and any denizens present in the Netherworld are welcome to observe and act as a jury. It’s up to The Determined to sway them if they want even a hope of swaying Death herself.”

“Well, that sounds straightforward,” Gunther replies. “I’m sure there are good lawyers here who manage that sort of thing. When was the last judgment? Maybe you can get whoever won that case.”

“It’s been an age,” Bryan replies solemnly. “And no one has ever won a case. The Erinyes always get their meal.”

“So that’s what they meant by 'eat,'” Evan looks devastated. “They’ll eat my Jayden if I lose.”

“Oh no,” Bryan shakes his head, holding up his hands in a placating manner. “Even the Erinyes don’t get to eat what belongs to the God of Death. She’ll devour your husband’s soul if she wants. The Erinyes eat you.”

The train ride is silent after that. Wolfgang tries to steel himself, but he has no idea how to face a god fond of devouring souls. He worries about the meaning of the wand. He worries about how receptive she’ll be to his request not to cause an apocalypse. Or at least, to pull back the apocalypse she already started. The Divine Creators weren’t very specific about what she was going to do, but Wolfgang had to assume that letting loose an army of zombies was probably it.

He tries not to get too close to Evan, since it seemed like he wasn’t long for this world. Wolfgang's heart skitters at the thought of leaving his fellow sim to face Death on his own and deal with a ritual that was almost certainly going to kill him. But no vision shows up to give him a glimpse of a solution. 

Nothing, though, could have prepared him for meeting the actual God of Death.

“Alice?” Gunther blinks, “W-what are you doing here?”

“That’s the God of Death you’re talking to,” a skeleton in a knit cap crosses her arms and jerks her chin in Bryan’s direction. “And what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

Nervously, Bryan twists his bony fingers. “I am working. But then I ran into The Determined, and so I had to bring him here.”

Alice’s mouth drops open. She stares at Evan. “You’re The Determined? Sorry, I just…I thought you’d be way different. Everyone made you sound so bad.”

“He is bad,” says the skeleton in the knit cap. “And no one would blame you if you killed him.”

This is it.

This is Wolfgang’s moment.

He didn’t expect Death to be wearing blue jeans and a werewolf sweater, or to be someone that Gunther was apparently friends with. But it was his job to steer her from her evil path. 

"STOP!!!!" he shouts.

“Sorry, I…I didn’t mean to yell. I’m not trying to be rude, but Evan isn’t important right now. I mean, I don’t think you should kill him,” Wolfgang winces. He was already getting off track. “What I mean is that I don’t think the court case is what you should be concerned with. You need to pull back the apocalypse.”

He braces himself for some kind of attack, but when he peeks open one eye, Alice is just staring at him.

“Uh…court case?” she scratches her head and frowns. “Also…what apocalypse?”

photo descriptions as well as an alternate version! also the photo i started with for the edit... man those layers are a mess in that psd LMAOO: