last part !! apart from Literally Three People, everyone else chose 3 - the unlocked option !! poor q, y’all aren’t giving him a rest, huh /lh
well done to the people who picked up on “turned into something not-so-great”!! i was originally gonna have three additional points only, but then i wrote that and included it as one as well for the ending of this story :))
“Why did you argue about Pandora’s Vault?” Helga asks suddenly, gnawing on her lip and watching her father’s back stiffen. “You said that, uh, James overheard you ‘cause you were arguing about it. What were you arguing about it?”
Quackity couldn’t get tenser if he’d tried. “It’s really not important now,” he says, dismissively, “I can’t really remember, and it was a pretty long time ago, and-”
“But you can,” Helga argues, crossing her arms stubbornly and getting off the bed, “I know you can. You’re lying, right?”
“Helga,” James says awkwardly, “maybe-”
“You’re a liar.” Helga says, with sudden boldness. “You promised you wouldn’t be.”
Quackity spins round, eyes flashing. For a minute, James sees someone else: sees a figure with a dark hood and cloak, sees a skeleton horse and a sword in hand and a book that reeks of bad magic, and he’s filled with inexplicable terror that leaves him just as soon as it had come.
“I was arguing with your dad because he wanted me to talk about it,” he says, words tight, forced control making them shake, “and because he wanted me to tell you guys about it! And I wasn’t ready to talk about it! If I had my way, I wouldn’t ever talk about it again! But I guess he got his way, since now we’re here, and-”
He trails off, heat draining from his voice.
“Since now we’re here,” he repeats, a little lamely, and Helga can’t meet his eyes, and neither can James, and the whole situation feels like it’s falling apart, “and... I’ve told you.”
Silence, thick, heavy. Helga feels like she’s choking in it.
“Sorry,” she mutters, sticking her hands in her pockets, “sorry, Papa. I didn’t wanna make you mad.”
Quackity scoffs wetly. “You didn’t make me mad. I couldn’t get mad at you guys. I’m just--”
Be honest, James thinks pleadingly, come on.
“Just a little stressed, I promise.” His smile doesn’t convince them. “It’s been a hell of a week. Look, look, tell you what. How about you guys go outside and play for a while and as soon as I finish work, we can make dinner for Dumb and Dumber coming home, huh?”
Helga perks up, even if James remains woeful. “Can I decide what we’re having for dinner?” She says cheerily, like she’d never been upset, and whoops when Quackity nods. “Let’s go! James, come out and play, I’m gonna tell you my super-secret recipe and kill you if you tell anyone it!”
James giggles at that, following his sister out of the room, and both of them miss Quackity’s look of relief as they go.
[ENDING ARC UNLOCKED: HEADS AND TAILS]
And then James pauses. “Dad? You said earlier- You know how you said you’d changed?”
No reply. He takes a breath.
“What did you turn into?”
Quackity doesn’t turn round. He can’t meet his son’s eyes.
“What I had to,” he says evenly, and only buries his head in his hands when he’s alone and the door is shut tight. The book in the blur of his vision feels like judgement.
