MÆ

it would be the same guy in each video which kind of raised the question as to if he was transforming BACK into a human each time

Yet another completely unserious Deathloop dooble…pretty sure this is a wip but I’m not a hundred percent sure yknow

I’ve been thinking about how funny it would be if Wenjie just asked Aleksis about the bunker door he “said” he could open for her (since, like…it’s the whole reason she came to the party) and he had no idea what she was talking about because 2-BIT was the one who made the message…the possibilities are endless…

The field expanded infinitely ahead of them, with only a small smear of trees visible some seventy metres back.

The warehouse rose above them, a single rusty B the only remnant of whatever sign had previously been there. The place was clearly not meant to be looked at for long, the only remains of a long-forgotten plan to construct a shopping centre in the middle of the field which the town had abandoned quickly. The warehouse was supposed to store tools which construction workers would need to construct said shopping centre, but all of them had since been removed and the town had been alarmingly cagey about demolishing the place ever since. There was an air of wrongness about the whole thing’s existence.

Danny was, suffice it to say, not doing well. With each passing moment, it seemed clearer to him that Allison had absolutely no reason to lie to him.

“Alright,” she snarled to no one in particular. She had completely changed her personality, and now seemed completely dedicated to carrying out whatever plan she had come to enact.

Danny glanced upwards at the desiccated corpse of what had once been a fairly efficient and practical building. “You’re kidding,” he muttered under his breath. “I never have been,” she responded, barely audible. Danny began to truly worry about the whole damn situation.

Allison strolled in through the warehouse’s large double doors- ideal for transporting construction machinery- and Danny followed meekly behind her. The place seemed old and forgotten- which, he supposed, it had been- broken picture windows on all sides, rotten beams covered in spiderwebs, and stacked pallets with no current discernible purpose.

Allison looked around, setting her backpack down before turning to face Danny. “You got a phone on you?” 

Danny rummaged around in his pockets before pulling his phone out and nodding. Allison gestured at it expectantly. “What time is it?”

“Just about 2:45. Clock’s ticking.”

Allison grimaced. “Alright,” she snarled, unzipping her backpack and pulling out the grenade. Danny winced- he still hadn’t gotten used to that thing’s presence.

Allison stood up quickly and stared him down. “Okay, now it’s time to listen to me, alright? I’m gonna give you a few instructions- you don’t follow them and the whole thing is fucked.”

Danny nodded quietly.

“Keep an eye on your phone’s clock at all times. This thing comes completely out of nowhere, and I mean that literally. 3:00 on the dot, you gotta prepare yourself.”

Danny nodded again. Allison was speaking with the presence and gravitas of someone who had been through hundreds of wars and desperately wanted this to be her last one.

“You’re gonna stand right next to those giant doors. The robot is going to show up in the field, and will start going for you. As I said earlier, it never moves faster than a brisk walk, but for the love of god stay on guard. This thing isn’t a mastermind, but you shouldn’t treat it like an animal. It can spot tricks. Which is why you need to keep your composure. When it gets close enough, I’ll shout and you’ll need to start moving backwards slowly, in my direction. Do not run. Once it’s about halfway into the warehouse, I’ll unpin the grenade and we run out of here. Then, presumably, it catches the blast in full and then gets destroyed by debris. Do you understand?”

“Y-yes.”

“And one last thing- and this is important- don’t think you’re better than me. I have been through this one hundred million times and my word is law. If you decide to pull a fucking stunt midway through, the whole thing collapses. Don’t change anything.”

He nodded.

It was 2:55.

***

He stared at the horizon- the sun was beginning to fall low in the sky, although it was only mid-afternoon.

just another thing that feels wrong

Danny was waiting, standing by the two large doors while Allison leaned back on a massive stack of planks in the back of the warehouse. He was checking his phone every two seconds just like Allison had told him, and the anticipation was beginning to get on his nerves.

2:58

“Hey, Danny,” Allison’s voice echoed from the back of the warehouse. “Dead bird.”

He hesitated to look up, but two seconds later a large, black bird of indiscernible origin dropped from the sky.

where the hell did THAT come from

doesn’t-

doesn’t matter-

2:59

fuck

fuck

fuck

“Get ready,” Danny shouted. A bead of sweat dripped down his temple, and for a second he felt like an idiot, a child believing the monsters under the bed were real.

but she wouldn’t lie

you’ve learned so much about her in the past…in the past HOUR

she’s a good person

she wouldn’t-

3:00

3:00

3:00

3:00

And suddenly, on the horizon, almost blotting out the sun, he saw it.

Standing there.

For just a second, it refused to move.

It looked-

God, it looked so wrong.

K-CHUNK.

K-CHUNK.

K-CHUNK.

“Allison,” he yelled, for no reason whatsoever.

“Shhh,” her voice rasped from the back of the warehouse.

K-CHUNK.

K-CHUNK.

K-CHUNK.

It was coming even closer now, and he was beginning to get a better look at it, glimpsing the grotesque contours, seeing the horrific meld of outdated technology masquerading as a person for what it really was.

K-CHUNK.

K-CHUNK.

K-CHUNK.

It was truly massive, now that he got a proper look at it. Eight feet tall, that much was undeniable. It was almost the size of a corner store.

K-CHUNK

K-CHUNK

K-CHUNK

And the mask- that was the worst part of all, the mask. Calling it a mask was wrong because it didn’t appear to be covering anything- or maybe it was, who was to say- but it seemed like it was designed to serve the purpose of a face, the purpose of showing a nightmarish humanity where there was none. It glistened in the sunset. It shouldn’t have. It wasn’t- god, it wasn’t fucking right-

K-CHUNK

mom

K-CHUNK

please

K-CHUNK

i don’t want to-

It was now a solid three metres away from him. He felt the urge to just jump forwards and grab it, see if he would fall through it and then slam on the ground. Allison would come out from the warehouse and she’d show him the grenade and reveal it was made of cardboard the whole time, she’d have been lying and the whole thing would be a hallucination on his part, and she would be filming him and would show it to everybody tomorrow and it would hurt but god it wouldn’t be as bad as this-

K-CHUNK

And it stopped.

Danny’s heart didn’t feel like it was even a part of his body anymore.

And then, Allison, from the back of the barn- “MOVE!”

And he began slowly pacing back, moving sideways like some sort of great idiotic crab before pacing backwards in great strides, like he was taking a massive step forwards but in reverse. The creature, yes that was the word for it, not even an automaton because he could swear he could see SOMETHING leaking out of it, something he knew wasn’t made by humans, and he could tell for a split second that there WAS something behind the face, something that he didn’t want to see for as long as he lived, which wouldn’t be long, and oh god oh-

“NOW!”

Danny crept out into the hallway, and desperately tried to move towards his locker without attracting the attention of anybody. He unlocked it as quietly as possible, snaked his arm in, and pulled out a ziplock bag with a single sandwich inside.

Suddenly, a wadded-up ball of paper hit him from behind. 

“The hell,” he muttered under his breath, turning in the direction the impromptu weapon had come from.

god i hope it wasn’t josh 

What he saw was Allison motioning at a door at the end of the hall, moving her hands like crazy. She was basically doing interpretive dance. It was really impressive.

He moved slowly and cautiously towards her, like an action hero approaching a serpent. People were moving all around him, the hallway a claustrophobic meld of what seemed to be everybody in the school.

“Danny!” Allison shouted enthusiastically as he approached. Some people turned to look at them. He wanted to scream.

“D-did you throw that ball of paper at me!?”

“Quite simply, Daniel,” she rasped, her voice much quieter now.

“So here’s what’s gonna happen, okay? We’re gonna stroll at a leisurely pace until we are off the premises, and then I am going to explain some extremely important things to you. I can guarantee ahead of time that there’s absolutely positively no way you’ll believe me, which is when I will dramaturgically provide proof.”

Danny blinked. “What?”

Before he could respond, or perhaps for want of a better term decline (Josh was starting to seem rather appealing to him at this point) Allison swung the door open and pushed him outside in one fell swoop.

Danny nearly fell down the stairs, and took about five seconds to regain his composure. By the time he had suitably calmed down, Allison was trekking across the field to a picnic bench that was ambiguously on school grounds. He broke into a mad dash, desperate to catch up to her.

“Alright,” he stuttered, “I’m really not enjoying what’s going on here. Are you taking me off school property? Is this…is this a drug deal?”

“God, Daniel. You gotta chill, man. Not a single teacher comes out here for…” She mimed checking a watch. Danny squinted at her wrist and noticed she wasn’t wearing one.

“Thirty minutes. Yeah, we’re good for thirty minutes.”

“Are you trying to sell me substances?”

“This would be a fuckin’ awful place to do so, man.”

They were now near the picnic bench. Allison reclined dramatically on it, and Danny hesitantly sat down on the opposite seat.

“What are you trying to do right now?” he whispered, somewhat fearfully.

“Danny. I’ve gotta tell you something, man. Something that concerns you.”

“What? Just get it over with, seriously.”

she’s gonna tell me that she likes me

holy shit

i legitimately have not thought about that possibility until right now 

is this like the first person who’s gonna tell me she has a crush on me

and will i have to, like, turn her down, or-

“At 3:00 on the pm, a gigantic automaton will come out of nowhere and beat you to death.”

Danny blinked.

The wind whistled around them. There was nobody around as far as the eye could see.

“What?”

“Now, I understand that this information might be confusing-“

“No, that’s…hey, how do you know about this?”

Allison grinned, in perhaps the most ominous way conceivable by man.

“Which brings me to point B, Daniel. The entire fucking town is caught in a gigantic time loop.”

There was a brief, excruciating pause.

Danny’s eyes darted around, and he looked over to the school to see if anybody was watching them.

He stared at her.

Allison coughed. “Pardon me,” she muttered.

Danny glanced around again, and then leaned over the table.

“Like…like in the Marlon Wayans movie Naked?” he whispered.

“Yeah, kind of.”

“And…so…hey, wait…how do you…”

“I’ve been in the time loop in question for about…ummm…I’d say twenty years as a rough estimate?”

Danny felt a brief glimmer of compassion, but snapped out of it almost instantly. This was ridiculous.

“And you’re just thinking to talk to me about this now? Also, are you…are you older than me? And, to reiterate, why are you JUST THINKING TO TALK TO ME ABOUT THIS NOW?”

Allison leaned back and giggled. “Aaaah, but therein lies the problem, Daniel. You don’t remember jack shit. I’ve told you all this a million times. Rough estimate.”

Danny felt his eyes drifting upwards. It was a dismal, cloudy day. October was upon them.

“You’re lying,” he whispered. “I don’t know why you think this is funny, but-“

A brief flash of…something passed over Allison’s face. Some sort of ungodly mixture of anger and fear. Danny lurched back a bit.

“Humor me,” she muttered, her voice almost a growl.

Danny desperately tried to depressurize his organs. “Fine. I’ll ask you some questions about this whole thing, huh? Will that make you feel better? Okay, number one- if we are in some sort of eternal time loop situation, do you have any idea of how to get out?”

Allison sighed and began cracking her knuckles. “Presumably the loop ends if we kill the automaton. That’s…”

Danny stared her down. “Is that just another rough estimate, though? How do you know?”

Allison popped the knuckle of her pinky finger with extreme prejudice. “I mean, it’s a pretty reasonable assumption. The robot shows up on the same day the loop starts, right? So…I mean…there’s gotta be some sort of correlation between the two. And then there’s the fact that it always tries to kill you and me…y’know, the works…”

“And it goes after us, specifically? Does it kill any other people as like…preparation, or…?”

“I’ve…we’ve lured it out into public areas before. It doesn’t kill anybody who’s not actively in its way for a long period of time. It’s less Terminator and more like the thing from It Follows. I don’t know. You’ve seen movies.”

“And…you’ve been in this loop for ten-“

“Twenty.”

“Twenty years, which apparently means you’re older than me, which is a really messed up thing to lie about, if you are lying, and more to the point you still haven’t killed it, it being the giant fucking Terminator murder robot. Why are you roping me into this? Even if this is all true, why do you still care?!”

Allison leaned her head back. “Geez, I don’t fuckin’ know, Danny. Put yourself in my shoes, dude. The world doesn’t change. It’s the same thing every day. Nothing’s new. I can’t watch new episodes of shows I used to enjoy. I don’t know what sleep is like, what dinner is like, what Micheal Wayne’s gonna talk about on the evening show…who’s gonna fucking win the election…what a SUNSET is like, Danny, it’s…it’s just waiting, even on the days when I try to do something. Waiting.”

Danny glanced at her again. She had now sort of sunken into herself, a mess of a person. “It’s fucked up,” she muttered. “You didn’t have to see that.”

Danny almost extended a comforting arm, before dropping it immediately. “So…what…what’re we going to do?”

Allison sprung upwards, fully renewed, and Danny leaned back in defensive terror again. “Which brings me to point C!” Allison grabbed her backpack- it had been sitting beside them the whole time- unzipped it, and pulled out an entire fucking grenade.

Danny looked at Allison.

Allison looked at Danny.

The grenade was sitting in front of them.

Allison smiled.

Danny looked at her.

Before he passed out, the last thing he heard was her telling him to watch out, there was a rock on the ground and she didn’t want him to hit his head.

***

Danny’s eyes snapped open and he realized that Allison had dragged him behind a tree. She was now hunched over him like a gremlin, as he lay completely prone on the ground.

“Are you good-“

“ALLISON, YOU HAVE A FUCKING GRENADE!”

Allison was still holding the grenade. It was really harshing his mellow.

“That is true, Daniel,” she said, before slowly putting the grenade in her backpack.

Danny slowly stood up and cracked his back. “Listen, the whole monologue you did back there was really sad and I definitely want to believe you, but…”

She stared at him expectantly.

“Hey, wait. Shouldn’t you know what I’m about to say next? You knew that I was gonna faint, but-“

“You were about to ask me for proof about the existence of the time loop, like in most time loop movies with the exception of the 2017 Netflix comedy Naked starring Marlon Wayans, in which Wayans wakes up repeatedly in an elevator completely nude.”

There was a pause.

“That movie still has a better twist than Shutter Island,” the two of them said simultaneously. 

Danny clapped a hand over his mouth in genuine (!) surprise. “Hooooooly jimblegimbles.” 

Allison smirked and cocked her head to the sight. “Oh please. I’m just giving you proof that I’ve spent decades trapped in a temporal void beyond human comprehension, not doing a backflip.”

Danny regained his composure and then proceeded to point at her dramatically once more. “That’s still not enough proof! I need you to…like…point out something that will happen in the surrounding environment! And tell me about it, and then…then it’ll happen, and I’ll do a super exaggerated voice and say ‘oh me oh my you sure were not kidding!’ You know! Like in the popular 2019 film Happy Death Day 2U!”

Allison pointed up at the sky. “Dead bird.”

Danny looked upwards expectantly.

Three seconds passed.

Nothing happened.

Allison grinned. “Nahhhh, I’m just kidding. Imagine, though.”

“You still haven’t told me where you got the grenade from, by the way.”

Allison almost pulled it out of her backpack again, only for Danny to begin waving his hands like a madman. “Whoawhoawhoa, I’m not suggesting you take it out. I’m suggesting you…like…explain to me. I don’t need a visual demonstration of the grenade’s properties. I am ninety nine percent sure that it’s one hundred percent real, alright? I’m just gonna need some context before I put all of my trust in your extremely, extremely dubious methods.”

Allison cracked her neck dramatically. “Welll, it’s kind of a complicated story. All you need to know is that I won’t be able to have a grenade in the loop again…ever, really. And I think you may have gleaned by now that I intend to kill the robot with it.”

Danny nodded. “I did indeed assume that…thank god you weren’t intending to use it for anything else…Anyways, if this is your only chance to kill the robot with a grenade…do you have, like, a plan of attack? We can’t screw this up.” Danny realized with a kind of gnawing fear that Allison had begun walking forwards at a kind of mild stroll, and followed her with next to no reluctance. Allison was starting to seem less trustworthy and more like some kind of last resort.

Allison stroked her chin as she hustled through the grass. “I usually like to lure the robot to out of the way places when we fight it,” she muttered. “On the off chance that we do escape the loop, I’d really enjoy not having to explain the fact that we were fighting a gigantic robot to the death to the authorities the day after. So, I usually go to the warehouse near Shelley Field. Just a big open area, with a place where we can hide right in the middle.”

Danny paused. “And? How does the grenade factor into this?”

Allison jerked her neck around in an almost owl-like gesture. It kinda freaked Danny out. “I’m getting to that,” she snarled. “I don’t really feel comfortable explaining in anything but broad strokes until we get to the warehouse, but here’s what you need to know, alright?”

Danny nodded like a good little soldier.

“We’re gonna hop on a bus and take a ride to Shelley Field. We get off, we saunter over to the warehouse, and then YOU…”- she pointed at Danny dramatically- “-you are going to be bait. In every single loop, the robot goes for you first, no exceptions.”

Danny paused. “Wait. You want me to be bait?”

“At least until I throw the grenade, yeah. It goes without saying that I’ll be in the warehouse at this point. And please don’t forget that I’ve done this a hundred bazillion times before. You’re in good hands.”

“Allison, I met you twenty fucking minutes ago! I’m not gonna put myself in the way of a murder…demon…thing! No matter how ambiguously real it is!”

She groaned. “And yet! And yet is the proof I have provided you with not enough?!”

Danny groaned even louder in response. “It is very impressive! Extremely impressive proof! And yet! You may just be a crazy psycho!”

“I mean, I’m not not a crazy psycho.”

“Allison, this is all beside the point, man…one question I have, how durable is the robot?” He paused. “This HYPOTHETICAL robot.”

“Well, for context it basically looks like someone dumped a bunch of CRTs on top of each other and stuck some arms and legs on it, but once you break through all the computers it’s got a weird sleek metallic shell or something. And that thing can take a beating. But…I mean…it took…I’d say…three gunshots in the same area to make a semi-large crack, so a grenade should do just fine.”

“Hold up…you know how to use a gun?”

“Well, yeah, duh. Twenty years, dumbass. And plus, the warehouse will collapse on top of it immediately after anyways, so if the grenade doesn’t fully take it out we’re not done for.”

“Wait, but you’ll be in the warehouse, Allison…you plan to get out how?”

She sighed. “Well, I mean, we’ve all seen movies. Grenades don’t detonate instantly, and this warehouse is about twenty metres across, so I can make a mad dash and get out pretty quick. Meanwhile, the robot seems resigned to a constant Micheal Myers leisurely stroll, so it presumably won’t dash out to escape. It’s not insanely smart, that much I can confirm.”

Danny realized somewhat passively that they were now at the bus stop. “Well,” he muttered. “Fine! I’m following you! I am going in the direction you’re going!” He paused, and then raised a hand up exaggeratedly. “Which is NOT the same thing as trusting you!!!”

She slapped him on the back of the head. “Danny. Daniel Callahan. This would be the weirdest fucking practical joke ever. I simply do not play.”

He sighed. “Fine…I guess…don’t have any problems with that…geez, man you slapped the back of my head really hard…”

Allison groaned. “C’mon man. We’ve got infinitely bigger problems.”