#betta.exe

We've got Cobalt's house exploration, and we left off at a point when Anteros caught us snooping and reading a letter that Cobalt had left for Connie. Our options were to apologize or run

Up next, we have "Never Speak To Strangers", which was a thing I started with the intention of using it to introduce Kali. We left off at a point when we find her in some greenhouse that's attached to a home in the woods, in the middle of nowhere (in winter, of all things). With that one, we had the option to either leave or confront her

The third unfinished interactive story series thing is the riders room exploration stuff. Each section is written differently and they're not attached, but I was having you pick random doors that I designed, in order to decide whose room to enter. The rooms we have left are Death's, Famine's, Connie's, and Abrael's

The glitch made a face and paused what she was doing, the wind carrying some unknown medley in her direction. She knew she had a job to do here, but at the same time... What was that song?

As she began to follow the sound, doing her best to avoid the pricker plants and thorny brush, War gained a sense of familiarity. She'd heard that song before, but she couldn't pinpoint from where. The tune grew louder and louder until the song was crystal clear, and as the rider emerged from the bushes that lined a long forgotten path, she spotted the singer. The mystery person was perched on the edge of a dock, singing to themselves with their feet in the water. They seemed unaware of her presence, and she furrowed her brow bones. 

That sense of familiarity grew stronger, but before War had the chance to call out to the singer, a guttural growl was heard. Immediately following the growl, War was slammed into the side of a tree by the force of someone's full weight. She cried out in shock and instinctively reached for her sockets, but as if the attacker had seen this move before, one of his hands snatched both of her wrists, pinning them above her head. She screeched and began thrashing, her figure glitching heavily, "H-Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?! Let me go, jackass!" 

Her attacker tilted his head and chuckled, his voice low and husky, "I don't think so, Glitchy. Not when I've already put you on the menu for tonight's dinner." Her sockets widened and she continued thrashing, "You can't eat me! I'll turn to dust the second my soul shatters!" The monster before her leaned closer, the stench of death and decay on his breath as he spoke, intentionally flashing his sharp, serrated teeth at her, "I know." He lifted his free hand, entirely too content as he tugged off her scarf, eyeing the fabric for a moment, "Huh. This might be somethin' my kid would like. Guess I'll have to hold onto it and ask her." 

With her neck vertebrae now exposed and vulnerable, War scrunched up her shoulders. Watching the futile attempt to hide her neck from him, the elder of the two skeletons laughed, "Cute, but I can still see your neck." He paused, leaning even closer and grinning as she squirmed. The instant she tilted her head again and he saw an opening, he buried his face in the crook of her neck and mumbled, "If you were anyone else, you'd be dead by now. You're funny though, so you should count yourself as lucky." As the glitch felt a grand total of four rows of jagged teeth graze over her neck, she whimpered, tightly squeezing her eyes shut.

A voice called out to her attacker and he let out a sigh, pulling back to look at a second monster. Hesitantly cracking an eye open to peek at her incidental savior, War frowned; That posturing, the clothing style, and those violet eye lights... Memories began to resurface and the rider narrowed her eyes in confusion, "......Betta?" The smaller of the pair before her blinked, her attention now focused solely on the glitch. With some prodding, her attacker released her wrists and took a step back, allowing his daughter to move closer. War's face became flushed as the other female skeleton began to sniff at her, starting at her face. As she continued sniffing around the glitch's body, she made a face, promptly deciding to step back and nonchalantly check her out, her violet, heart shaped eye lights roaming over War. As the realization finally clicked into place, she seemed to perk up, her eyes wide with excitement as a piranha-like grin stretched across her face, "MALLY! IT'S REALLY YOU!"

War yelped as she was tackled, nearly losing her balance. Letting out a deep sigh of relief, War made a sound of confirmation, awkwardly wrapping her arms around the lake dweller, "Yeah, it's me. I'm glad you finally recognized me, Weirdo." Betta giggled, visibly giddy at being reunited with her old friend. She shared a look with the elder lake dweller, "Dad, look! It's Mal! It's my best friend!" Her father rolled his false eye lights, disappointment flickering in his gaze at having lost his prey, "I can see that, Betta. I'll leave now so you guys can catch up, or whatever." Betta made a sound in acknowledgment, and with that, her father dismissed himself, vanishing into the forest. As soon as he was gone, War let out another breath, flooded by even more relief than before, "Oh, thank god. I thought he was gonna kill me. As much as I hate existing sometimes, I really don't wanna be someone's dinner." 

Betta continued grinning excitedly at her, "He would've done it too, if I hadn't shown up in time." War offered her a slight smile, "I don't doubt that at all. Thanks to you and your impeccable timing, I get to live another day." Betta beamed at her, "Mmhm! Once again, I've saved the day with only minimal effort." The glitch couldn't help the amused chuckle that left her; She'd forgotten just how much she missed this dweeb. Her body froze up and glitched in surprise, her entire face flushing bright blue as she felt teeth press against her own. It wasn't the first time Betta had kissed her like this, but it'd been so long that War had forgotten the way it felt. Her body began to relax and for a moment, she began to cave, melting into the kiss. 

Remembering her current circumstances, she placed her hands on Betta's shoulders, nudging the lake dweller and lightly pushing her away. Betta tilted her head in confusion, and War sighed, visibly flustered, "I know you're excited to see me, and I know it's been a while, but you can't do that anymore. I found my soulmate, and he probably wouldn't appreciate you kissing me." The lake dweller pouted, "Sorry about that. It's just been way, way too long, and I missed getting to kiss you... I'll try not to do it again." War's blush became a bit brighter and she looked away from her friend, "Thank you. At least you're listening to me, this time." Betta made a face and huffed, "Well, it's not my fault that you always smelled like chocolate! Pardon me for thinking you smelled nice." 

Memories of previous times the lake dweller had kissed her began to invade the glitch's mind, and her figure fizzled as she recalled the other's hands wandering on more than one occasion. War's face burned even brighter, and before she could snap at her friend to shut up, Betta smiled again as if nothing was wrong, completely casual as she chirped, "So you finally found your soulmate, huh? What's he like?" War shrunk back a little in embarrassment, avoiding eye contact, "He's... He's uh... He's great. Funny, unbelievably smart, good with animals, and absurdly charming." Betta hummed, "What's his name? Is he hot?" 

War's body glitched again and she glanced around, needing to remind herself that Pestilence wasn't there with her before answering, "His name's Pestilence... Wasn't always that, though. Mine got changed too. It's 'War' now. But yeah......... He's hot." Her face grew even brighter at the admission and she mentally cursed at herself. If Pest had heard her admit that she thought he was attractive, there'd be no way he'd ever let her live it down. The lake dweller remained completely casual, her brow bones lifting as she noticed War's scarf on the ground; Her dad must've dropped it when he left to go off and pout somewhere. She leaned down to pick it up, before offering the item to the rider, "You guys got your names changed, huh? That's cool." She paused as War reached out to take back her scarf.

As War busied herself with putting it on again and looping it around her neck, Betta watched her, tilting her head in curiosity, "Is he good in the sack, too?" As expected, the glitch's sockets widened, almost the size of small saucers as she stared at the lake dweller in disbelief, "...Are you seriously asking me that right now, Betta?" The lake dweller shrugged, entirely unashamed, "Yeah, I am. I'm just curious, y'know? I wanna make sure he's good at pleasing my bestie, in every sense of the word." War made a face, "I appreciate your concern, but I'm not answering that. That is extremely personal, and I won't be discussing it with you today." 

Knowing her friend all too well, Betta arched a brow bone and smirked, "So in other words, yes, he's amazing. I gotcha, Grumpy Butt." To finish off her statement, she teasingly winked, and War's sockets began to cloud over. Reaching maximum embarrassment, a dial tone sound could be heard, and War's body went limp. Acting fast, Betta was able to catch her, lifting the glitch into her arms and sighing as a reboot bar appeared above her head. Unbelievable; They hadn't seen each other in years, and after not even an hour of finally speaking again, War had already shorted out on her. The lake dweller couldn't help the way her expression softened as she looked at the rider, and she shook her head, smiling slightly.