Pestilence receives a piece of advice from someone he hadn't been expecting to see
Especially considering that the surprise guest made their grand appearance inside one of Pest's VR games
Standing in front of the TV in his and War's shared room, Pestilence grinned, slipping the headset down over his sockets and tightening the straps around his head. As he picked up his controllers, War sat on their bed, quietly watching as his game loaded. Absentmindedly tapping her fingers along to the beat of the song, she couldn't help but smile, watching as he began to make slashing motions with his controllers. On the TV screen, she could see colored blocks moving toward him at a rapid speed, but he showed no hesitation when it came to cutting them. He was completely in his element, each movement more fluid than what she normally saw from him.
Pestilence seemed to have an uncharacteristically energetic bounce to his step, as if his entire body was moving in time with the music. If the goofy grin on his face was anything to go by, he was having the time of his life. War's expression softened as she watched him, still smiling as she let out a quiet sigh; He was such a dork sometimes, but she loved him for it. Fully immersed in his game, he continued grinning, occasionally side-stepping or ducking to dodge more blocks. Despite all the movement, he wasn't showing any signs of exhaustion. War leaned back against a stack of pillows, a tiny glitch in the corner of the TV screen catching her attention. Weird… This game was still really new and the TV itself was in good condition, so the glitching seemed strange.
As her soulmate's score began to skyrocket, she shrugged it off. Maybe his score was breaking the game or something. The thought made her smile widen a little in amusement. Leave it to Pest's gamer skills to break the system.
He continued slashing and cutting as the colored blocks flew toward him, ignoring the bead of green-tinted sweat that formed on the side of his face. Hitting a high score, he laughed, feeling immensely pleased with himself. The scoreboard glitched and his score turned into three Xs, before the letters faded away altogether, leaving the space blank. Before Pest could figure out what was going on with it, each of the blocks began to heavily glitch as they continued moving toward him. He pressed a button on one of his controllers in an attempt to pause the game, but nothing happened. All his fluid motions came to a halt as he fumbled with the controller, trying to figure out what was going on.
War's smile fell and she furrowed her brow bones, "Pest? What's wrong?" He shook his head, still mashing buttons on his controller, "The game's glitching out and it won't pause. I need to figure out what's going on with it." She frowned, "What are you talking about…? I can see your game onscreen and I don't see any glitching. There was a tiny one in the corner, but that was it." Pestilence made a face, clearly at a loss, "What the hell...? There's no glitching blocks or missing scoreboard on the TV right now?" War shook her head, "No, everything looks fine." Pest furrowed his brow bones and cursed under his breath; Just what in the world was going on with his game? This wasn't making any sense.
Still wearing the VR headset, he glanced around, watching as more of his virtual surroundings started to glitch. His entire body flinched and he let out a startled yelp as a figure began to pixelate into existence before him. War frowned, immediately moving to the foot end of the bed and reaching out to touch his arm. Pestilence watched as the figure became that of a human who couldn't have been more than twenty four years old. His skin was as white as copy paper, he was abnormally slender, and atop his head was messy, dark brown hair. As he opened his eyes to look at Pest, the rider felt a chill run down his spine. That wasn’t a human.
The figure had solid black eyes. There wasn't a trace of any other color in them, and his expression was completely blank. Pest was frozen, his whole body tense as he stared at the figure, "What the... Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my game?" The figure remained silent, and War watched her soulmate, confused, "Pest, who are you talking to?" Her soulmate kept his attention on the figure, "You don't see him on the screen, babe?" She frowned again, "No, I don't see anything. The screen still looks normal." Pestilence frowned as he noticed the way the figure's body fizzled and glitched every so often, and he tightened his grip on his controllers a little, "...What are you?"
The figure tilted his head, his expression still just as blank as before. As he spoke, his voice was completely monotone, "Demon." At the single word, Pest took a step back away from him, now completely on edge, "Why are you here?" The demon was silent for a moment, almost seeming to be listening for something. When he responded, his voice remained monotonous, but it seemed to soften ever so slightly, "I was hired to do surveillance." Pestilence stared in disbelief, "Surveillance for who? Why do they want you to do surveillance?" Again, the demon listened for something for a few seconds before responding, "I can't say." The rider let go of one of his controllers, the strap around his wrist catching it as he lifted a hand, running it over the top of his head, "Why the hell not?!" The demon slowly shook his head, his body fizzling again, "I just can't."
The rider let out a deep sigh, "Fine, whatever. Before I take off my headset and turn all my electronics off, I want your name. Tell me what it is." He watched as the demon's lips curled into the faintest smile, "That information holds little to no value to you, but if you think you're entitled to it, then fine. My name is Hollow." His body glitched, briefly vanishing before reappearing again, much closer to Pestilence than before. The rider took another step back, bumping into the bed, and the demon watched him, reaching out to grasp his arm. The gesture, despite happening in virtual reality, somehow steadied the skeleton, keeping him from wobbling too much and falling backward.
His hand was cold, and once he regained his balance, Pest yanked his arm out of the demon's grip. As Pestilence began to reach for his headset, Hollow leaned closer and murmured, "The princess can help with the mark." The rider froze, making a face in confusion, "What are you talking about?" The demon's icy touch brushed one of Pest's hands and he flinched away from it as Hollow mumbled again, "Talk to the princess about the mark that's here." To punctuate his statement, he poked at Pest's hand, and Pestilence curled his hand into a fist. Without another word, he yanked off his headset.
War frowned, watching as he set it down by the TV and then rapidly moved to unplug the TV itself and the game system. He then went to their desk and unplugged his computer, and as he fished around in one of his pockets and took out his phone, War furrowed her brow bones in concern, "Pest, what's going on? What are you doing?" Her soulmate shut his phone off and removed its battery before pocketing it again, "Turn your devices off." She stared at him, "What? Why?" He met her gaze, his expression full of worry, "I just met a demon who can get inside them. Turn all your electronics off. Hopefully that'll keep him away." War's eyes widened, "There's another demon for us to worry about now?! Just how many more are we gonna have to deal with before they leave us alone?!"
He let out a deep sigh, moving around their bed and unplugging an alarm clock, "I wish I had an answer to that, sweetheart. I really do. For now though, I think we should go talk to Ret and Death." Grabbing her phone off a side table and turning it off, the glitch made a face and removed the battery, "Death, I could understand, but what does Ret have to do with this?" Pest glanced at her marked hand before meeting her gaze again, "I think the demon knows how we can get rid of your mark. He mentioned a princess, and if anyone here knows any royalty, it's probably Ret." War's gaze turned skeptical and she absentmindedly touched her marked hand, her fingertips tracing the sigil that had been etched into her palm, "And you're really gonna trust what the demon said…? Pest, I dunno if you've forgotten, but it was a demon that got us into this mess. How can you be so sure that he's telling the truth?"
Her soulmate shook his head, "I have no idea if he's being truthful. He's a demon, so he's probably not. He could be lying, sure, but what could he gain from doing so? Alternatively, if he's telling the truth, what is there for him to gain from that?" War fell silent, her gaze shifting away from him as she frowned. Seeing the uncertainty on her face, he sat down beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist and tugging her flush against himself, "Babe, if he's telling the truth, that means we can get rid of the sigil on your hand. He'd be helping us put distance between you and Othni. When he was telling me that we should talk to some princess, he was being really quiet and kept stopping to listen for something. He was trying to be discreet about it, which implies that there could be some kind of risk involved if he gets caught."
War slowly looked back up at him, her voice soft, "Why would a demon wanna help us, Pest? We know nothing about each other, and he has no reason whatsoever to do anything even remotely helpful." He sighed, "I know, I know. I don't understand it, either. Don't you wanna try it, though? ...If it works, you're no longer obligated to listen to Othni. He won't be able to control you anymore." The glitch was quiet for another moment before she slowly nodded, her brow bones knit in concern again, "...Fine. I guess there's no harm in trying. He's offering help, and since nothing else has been able to completely fix the issue, it'd be stupid to pass up this chance. What'll we do if it's a trick, though? Or... What if something goes wrong? What then?"
Pestilence offered her a small, reassuring smile, "If it's a trick, I'll put my headset back on and find the bastard, and I'll kick his ass for you, ok? You're not facing all of this alone, War. You have me now, and if I have any say in it, you'll never have to face things on your own again. Not unless you want to, for whatever reason." War turned to face him, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tightly. He immediately returned the gesture, holding her close and smiling softly as she mumbled, "Thank you, Pest... I love you a lot. Y'know that?" He hummed in confirmation, "I know, War. I love you, too. Now, how about we go find Death and Ret?"
AU where Othni's entire team somehow gets turned into toddlers/really small children and he's obligated to care for them until they're back to normal
I'm just picturing the twins (Alex and Orion) as kids, one tucked under each of his arms and looking like they're trying to playfully antagonize each other, while a tiny Cosette is going koala mode on his back and nomming on his shoulder or something. Tiny Roulette is just trying to show him a drawing she did of them together, and then tiny Hollow (who still hasn't been introduced yet) is sitting on the ground with this completely blank expression and using one little hand to hold onto Othni's pant leg
