#program: chroma

Void: .. oh they're traumatized.

Void: Oh, they have anxiety.

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The Abyss, watching everything implode: What a terrible turn of events!

Abyss: I love a terrible turn of events. :)

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Emulator, after Guns and Puzzles: There's no way this can get any worse.

Domaim: CPU is probably brainwashed and the Council is erasing his existence.

Emulator: Its worse! Its much worse.

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Roulette: He (Ozymandias) is an amazing Virus!

Random Program: .... he bears the blood of thousands of Programs.

Roulette: Slay✨️

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SMG4: A good romance starts with a good friendship.

SMG4: A bad romance starts with "rah rah ah ah ah, ro ma ma ga ga, ooh la la".

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Jayin: Sometimes I wonder if I've harmed anyone in my life.

Chroma: SOMETIMES?

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Juliano: Physically I'm here but spiritually I'm lying in a Waffle House parking lot somewhere in rural Kentucky, slowly bleeding out from several stab wounds.

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SMG3, on the phone with SMG4: Alright, I walked into Costco. Where are you?

SMG4: Liquor aisle, grab another cart.

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Luigi: What a lovely, quiet day!

Luigi: ....I left Mario in the grocery store, didn't I?

Elanore: I was wondering when you were going to realize.

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Lily: I hate how you're just born out of nowhere and you're forced to participate in an extinction-level civil war and get chosen by extradimensional beings as a demigod and have to lead war efforts where your friends die. What if I wanted to be a duck? Nobody asked me if I wanted to be a duck.

Diana: ...

Diana: Do you want to be a duck?

Lily, tearing up: yeah

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Encode: I'm turning evil

CPU: .. you weren't already?

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Tulip: I scored a date with the barista at Leblanc!

SMG10: Good god, I owe your uncle so much money...

Tulip: You bet on my love life?!

10: Only Dale, 7, Ranma, Daffy, Alice, and I!

Tulip: ... and only uncle Dale won?

10: The rest of us were SUPER convinced you'd close out the summer single.

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Lil Coding: I always listen to you!

SMG4: When was the last time you did?

Coding:

Coding: I almost always listen to you

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Alyssa: I eat Cheerios because they're heart-healthy, and my heart has been severely damaged.

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Forum: Look, Juliano, we're not mad you haven't told us about the whole.. Abyss thing. We're just disappointed.

Domain: I'm actually mad. I'm actually very mad.

Forum: So am I.

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Mario: *reaches for food on Meggy's plate*

Meggy: *slams down grocery store divider between her plate and Mario's hand*

Mario:

Mario: You told me you didn't take that from the store.

Meggy: And you said you didn't want any food, yet here we are.

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Mandy: If I have to go through one more day of being a character in Jayin's computer, I am going to become the villain next.

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Cassius (mayor of Vybri City): You're so mature for your age, Messiah. All children should strive to be like you. You truly earn your title as Deliverer of the Gods.

Irene, smiling while dead inside: Hahaha yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah :)

Cassius: Wonderful. Now, there are some more cult members that have been popping up and *begins to ramble*

Aw :(

Blitz & Chroma: Firewalls built and made by a company that doesn't want their secrets getting out somehow became sentient. Extremely mistreated by the CEO and others who use them, oftentimes leading them to be withdrawn. But the manipulation and abuse stems from the moment their code was written down, so they're extremely intense about their jobs. It can actually be scary. They're both currently at the main building of the company, continuing to run security checks every minute.

Heat radiates from their bodies, even if for two it's not as intense. They float around, keeping themselves quiet.

Each one finds their target soon enough.

Hands shaking, each one loads a bullet into a chamber.

"It won't take effect immediately," the voice of the director rings in their mind as they each close the chamber. "It'll slowly make them forgetful until by the time they realize it's far too late."

One peeks around a wall.

One hides hides in the shadow of a pillar.

One hides behind a tree.

One ducks behind some bushes.

"It'll feel like a simple bug bite to them. There's no need to worry."

Each hand raises the gun, hand shaking a bit.

"So just aim.."

To the one behind a wall, she's shaking the most.

"And fire."

Four triggers are pulled, but something goes arwy with the first.

Something cuts through the air following it, cutting the bullet in two. Her eyes behind her mask widen.

But all the bullets hit their mark, and they leave.

○●○

"Son of a.." Juliano mutters, pressing a hand to the back of his neck before moving it away. Mosquitoes in winter?

○●○

Nimbus jolts with a low hiss and quickly turns her head to look at her tail. She frowns softly, flicking it. It felt as though a bug had bitten it.

○●○

"Ow!" Irene grumbles, pressing a hand to her shoulder. She quickly looks at it and tilts her head. Did she.. imagine that?

○●○

Tulip grunts softly in pain and looks down at her chest. She bites her lip and turns her head back towards the wall towards the entrance of her shop.

Nothing was there.

As she glances towards the window, she sees a flash of something green. Quickly getting up, she rushes over to it and opens it, peeking her head put.

All she sees it the wisp of a green cloak, clearly made of coat from the faint numbers imprinted, before there's the familiar sound of a portal opening and closing.

"The hell..?" Tulip tilts her head.

So, she has some shock collars coded for them. Any time they think about running away or attempt to, it shocks them. Bad.

How farther could that be from the truth.

Alyssa was fired after her firewalls, and their little 'mascots' were seen coming to life. She had tried hiding them from the company and tried hiding what a deal they had on their hands.

She had tried to be nice, really. Alyssa was such an old friend. Her old friend could keep her job, but she surrendered the firewalls and their mascots to the company.

Alyssa said no, and so she was fired. Placed under an indefinite NDA. Left destiute.

And she never spoke to Alyssa again. It wasn't too sad to see her go, even if she left her old friend with nothing.

The director was willing to do whatever it took to have her company succeed. She did not spend her teen years making a game so incredibly popular just to have no rogue employee try and wash it all away.

When she then acquired the firewalls, she gave them names. Chroma, Blaze, Comedy, and Tragedy. Such wonderful things they were, and far too easy to manipulate.

Some words, some threats, and they were following her orders.

It was one day when three keys caught her eye when she was reading a report. They were.. altered. All of them start with the letter A, with there being a J, N, and T to each respectively. Though the A-J one seemed.. corrupted, almost.

She looked into it, and surprise, surprise, it was a YouTuber that was on her radar for a while. SMG4 was his name, and she could tell almost immediately.

Those creations were alive. They weren't just models.

Some more poking, and she noticed him in line for pre-order to part two of their latest game, Winding Rest.

Interesting..

But something clicked for the director. Why shouldn't she have these little versions of her games? They were her protagonists, her world, her everything. She deserved to have them.

So she'd sent those four on a hunt. She didn't care how long it would take.

But she'd let SMG4 have some more fun with her creations. After all, it was far too amusing.

○●○

"Director Jayin?"

There's a soft knock on her door. A black haired, green eyed woman turns her head from the window she was looking out. She was dressed nicely, wearing a white blouse, grey work pants, white socks and black dress shoes.

"Come on." She says.

An intern pops her head in. "Uhm.. it was found out why the A-J key was corrupted. Apparently, something happened to the game, and now it's pretty hard to access the world. But it's hard to tell if that's actually what happened.. since we only have that code.."

The director hums. "Keep looking then."

The intern nods and backs out, closing the door behind her.

Director Jayin leans back in her chair before she smiles. She glances at her computer, where on the screen, a box showing four folders were present.

"It's no wonder you four are also alive.. Alyssa did work on you all.." Jayin clicks her tongue. "Shame I had to let her go."

With that, she closes the window and resumes work, responding to critical emails. Another intern had poked her head somewhere she shouldn't have, and now Jayin had to 'warn' her in.. special ways.

It was mostly just to make sure the government didn't come down on her ass. Jayin did not need that. Thank you very much.

Director Jayin allows herself to smile a bit, however. She knew she couldn't have each copy of the games have protagonists as real as the ones SMG4 had. But who was to say that she couldn't take back what was her's Alyssa's, and simply.. improve?

Two young looking girls kneel on a pure white floor, looking one defeated and one upset.

One wore a comedy mask, which was split down the middle, the left side being white, and the right side being black. Her sweater was a gradient of white to black with a matching skirt, with white and black striped knee-high socks, white dress shoes, and white gloves. Her hair was white with black streaks.

Beside her knelt a girl of similar appearance, but she wore a tradgey mask, and all of her colors swapped places. Her hair, though, was black with white streaks.

"What's wrong?"

Two men walked into the space, both with heavy bags under their eyes.

One man wore a blue jacket with a yellow shirt underneath, blue jeans and white shoes. He wore neon blue headphones around his neck, which had yellow accents. His hair was a bright yellow, with blue accents, and small squares dotted his cheeks as freckles matching his blue eyes.

The other man wan wore a red hoodie, with an orange shirt underneath. He also wore blue jeans, but with brown shoes. His hair was red as well, with yellow accents matching his eyes. He had mistached freckles, some of which were red and orange, but most yellow.

"Comedy, what's wrong?" One of the men kneel in front of the girl with a comedy mask.

"Blitz!" Comedy sighs. "We.. Tradgey and I still can't find.."

"It's alright." Blitz holds up a hand.

Chroma kneels in front of the other girl. "Are you okay, Tradgey?"

"My arms hurt.." Tragedy looks down.

The living room sized space was their comfort, their true home away from home. Away from the abrasive and hurtful employees, who didn't want to cherish or nurture them. Who only saw them as things to be used.

"It'll be okay." Blitz assures them both as he pulls Comedy into a hug. "We'll break free soon."

He wasn't sure if it was true.

The company wasn't kind. Even with their games doing so well, they didn't care to try and help out their employees. Through legal loopholes, they always figured something out.

So the two pull their little sisters close.