_____🥚🥚🥚🐇🐣🐣🐣_____

Egg Hunter: Cluster Headache

¯¯¯¯¯🥚🥚🥚🐇🐣🐣🐣¯¯¯¯¯

 

Chapter 3: Not that into you

 

Hunter woke up early on Easter Sunday, the light from his window shining directly on his face. He rolled over in his bed, pulling the blankets over his face to block out the light of the morning sun. 

 

After a few minutes of not being able to fall back asleep he finally gave up and hopped out of bed. He almost slipped as he stepped directly onto yesterday’s clothes which had been left in a heap next to the bed. Weird… he was usually better at putting dirty clothes in the laundry bin when taking them off.

 

Come to think of it, Hunter didn’t even remember changing into his pajamas last night. He looked down at himself and it took him a while to even recognize the light blue flannel PJs that he had on. Last he remembered, these ones should have been buried in a box in his closet. They had been in there ever since he moved into this apartment. He usually didn’t prefer wearing pajamas like these. Instead he usually wore shorts and an undershirt when sleeping

 

He must have been more tired than he thought yesterday. After all, best he could think, he had to have fallen asleep close to noon, after he finished reprogramming the autopilot.

 

Mamata~

 

Right… they must have fallen asleep close to noon, after he finished reprogramming Mama-

 

Hunter froze.

 

Who said that?

 

There was no response. Hunter sent a thoughtwave out to scan his surroundings but didn’t feel any psychic connections around him. If someone had been speaking to him with telepathy, he would have been able to feel traces of it left behind.

 

I must just be tired. Still half asleep… Yeah… that has to be it…

 

He didn’t remember naming the autopilot, but he guessed it made sense that he would have at some point yesterday. Staring at her in his headspace like he had been, it would have been weird to treat her like a tool even if that was all she is-

 

Which she isn't! Right… she isn't… Wait!? She?

 

It’s cuter if I just think of her as a she, I guess. After all, why would I want another guy in my head…

 

Of course! That made sense. It’s the same reason why he preferred to play as girls in video games. He was a guy in real life, so he didn’t need to play one in games as well. 

 

If he had to see Mamata every time he went into headspace, at least make her cute to look at. The mind form she was using had already been androgynous for that exact reason. Now he had just taken it an extra step further.

 

He decided to put it out of his mind for now. Even if he wanted to personify Mamata as a girl in his mind, she was programmed to act exactly like him when he put her in control of their body, so her being a guy or a girl didn’t actually matter.

 

Hunter left their bedroom and was surprised when he reached the kitchen to discover that half the apartment had been decorated for Easter. Mark must have done that at some point yesterday. There hadn’t been any decorations up yesterday when he had been making his rabbit hole into Mark’s mind.

 

“Mornin H!” Mark surprised him by sneaking up from behind and rubbing his head.

 

“Hey! Stop that!” Hunter insisted.

 

“Sorry, sorry.” Mark apologized, “I can’t believe I forgot how much you hate having your hair messed up already. You spend so much time getting it to look right. It’s a shame that messed it up just now.”

 

Hunter’s face started blushing fiercely at that but by the time Mark finished their comment, chills started going down his spine. Something about what they said was giving him deja vu, but he wasn’t sure why, “I don’t always fret about my hair…”

 

Mark ruffled his head once more, “You’re so cute when you pout!”

 

“C-cute!?” What the hell was getting into Mark for him to act like this, “I-I’m going back to my room!”

 

Without even grabbing anything from the kitchen, Hunter rushed back to his bedroom and slammed the door behind him. His heart was racing like crazy.

 

Why… why would Mark just suddenly call me cute like that!?

 

I mean obviously he thinks that I’m cute. I’ve caught him staring at me so many times. But for him to just say it out in the open like that out of nowhere…

 

Hunter quashed that train of thought as fast as he could. Mark was just his roommate. There was no way they were actually flirting with him just now. He was just misunderstanding things. People told him that he was dense and misunderstood things all the time… not that he agreed with them about it usually.

 

Sigh~

 

Hunter spent the next 20 minutes in his room, evaluating his reserves of psychic energy, and motivating himself for his next dive into Mark’s mind. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the bedroom door.

 

Before Hunter even responded, his door started opening. Mark pushed the door open with their hips as they let themselves in, their hands full with a plate full of food in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. They placed the stuff down onto Hunter’s desk. 

 

He didn’t know what was happening right now, his mind freezing up on him. It’s why he couldn’t react as Mark suddenly sat down on his bed next to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, giving him a strong side hug. It felt nice… comforting… “Brought you breakfast, H.”

 

The sudden mental image of Mark kissing him gently on the forehead came to Hunter and he had to shake those thoughts away.

 

“What’s wrong?” Mark asked.

 

Hunter’s mind was completely crashing and he could barely gather a coherent thought together. It took him a few moments before he could finally respond to their question, “Why are you acting so…” what would be the best way to phrase this? Whatever was happening, Hunter was enjoying it. It wasn’t like he wanted it to stop even if it was kinda…

 

Hunter shook his head again. He knew that Mark was probably actually a girl, so enjoying this wasn’t actually gay. It felt wrong though… queer. Not that being queer was wrong, not at all! Almost all of his friends had been somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, but that was them. Hunter wasn’t actually a part of that world, which is why thinking of this attraction he was feeling towards Mark as being queer somehow felt wrong… it felt like appropriating something that he was supposed to be a part of.

 

“...so?”

 

Hunter wasn’t sure how to finish the question that he had already started. How could he describe how Mark was acting without it coming off the wrong way? 

 

Weird? Mark’s actions were certainly not how they normally acted, but calling it weird would just come off as insulting them. He could just say they were acting differently, but that felt underwhelming. There was a better way to describe it… they were being…

 

Affectionate

 

“... so affectionate?”

 

Mark took their arm off of Hunter’s shoulder. There was tension there now… Had he just fucked something up?

 

“...Sorry…” Mark said quietly as they slowly stood up and started leaving Hunter’s room, “I think I might have had a weird dream or something last night. I’ll make sure I get my head back on straight before I bother you again.” They took one last glance at him as they left, their face looked so…

 

Heartbroken

 

“Sorry for making you uncomfortable, H…” with that apology, Mark closed the door on them.

 

What is happening right now?

 

Maybe the best thing to do would have been to just follow Mark out of his room. They both could have sat down and talked things out like adults… explain what they were each feeling and thinking. 

 

Instead, Hunter just quietly ate the breakfast that Mark had left for him before collapsing onto his bed once more. Eggs, hash browns, and breakfast sausage… they tasted good but it didn’t get rid of the sour feeling that had settled into his stomach.. 

 

None of his previous roommates ever made him breakfast like this before. Why would they have? Geosha had never really learned to cook until years after her transition and Cathy… well she ate nothing but take out. He’d had other roommates before too, but rarely connected with them on any level other than a quick ‘hey!’ or ‘sup?’.

 

He didn’t need to be thinking about this now! He could talk to Mark about whatever was going on later. For now… maybe there would be some clues inside their head? He could get the answers that he needed while he was in there getting more information from Eternity and figuring out the best way to hatch Mark from their egg. Best of all he could avoid another awkward conversation!

 

Hunter let his body relax and tried to jostle his autopilot, Mamata, with a thought to get her attention.

 

Time for you to manage our body again! Remember, act normally, okay?

 

Mhmm~ Got it~

 

With that settled, Hunter sent out another thoughtwave that brought his consciousness with it. It passed through the bedroom door as if there wasn’t even anything blocking its way. He found Mark in their own bedroom, their hands covering their face. 

 

As his consciousness approached, the plug that he had made to cover up the rabbit hole faded slightly, allowing him to pass cleanly through it and into Mark’s mind once more.

 

***

 

The first time that Hunter had dived into Mark’s mind, he had expected to end up in a gray void and had been surprised to appear in the neighborhood instead. This time he was expecting to end up in the neighborhood again but was once again surprised at where he found himself. The worst case scenario would have been to appear in the black void that he had been dropped into by The Admin, but he wasn’t there either. 

 

Instead, he found himself completely immersed in a dense fog. Occasional lights would appear far in the distance, causing the fog to change from darker to lighter shades of gray, but despite the small bit of light that was coming from… somewhere… he couldn’t see a thing around him with how thick the fog actually was.

 

Even looking straight down, he couldn’t see his own legs below him, let alone the ground. Experimentally, he felt around with his foot and suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his heel. He swore loudly and kicked away the rock that he had just stepped on. His cry echoed throughout the fog for several seconds before finally fading away.

 

It took Hunter a moment to remember that he was in the rabbit form instead of his normal mind form. He hadn’t thought about it the first time, but the body he was in right now had paws on the balls of his feet and his ankles had naturally lifted off the ground in a digitigrade stance. Walking like that had felt natural the first time, but this time he must have accidentally tried walking like a normal human, leading to him hurting his heel just now.

 

Hunter carefully stretched out his calves as he forced himself to walk on his toes once more and took a step forward. It felt wrong somehow. His heel still wanted to lie flat on the ground, making his stance feel awkward, but rabbit feet weren’t meant to walk like that. He tried to ignore that odd feeling and forced himself to keep slowly walking forward with his ankles raised.

As he wandered through the fog walking in the direction of the faint lights that would appear and vanish at random, his attention kept going back to his feet. They were becoming distracting even though he couldn’t even see them. No matter how he tried to walk, it wasn’t comfortable for him. Trying to step with his feet flat made him painfully aware that the parts past his paws were extremely sensitive, but walking on his toes was quickly starting to strain his legs due to the lack of any kind of support. 

He decided that he needed to do something about this. Focusing his mind, he willed some kind of footwear to appear on his feet. He couldn’t see whatever he had created, but the wedge shaped shoes that formed finally let his legs relax back into the digitigrade stance they had been in the first time without the leg strain anymore.

 

He started walking through the fog again. It was much more comfortable this time, although walking with the wedges on caused his hips to sway just a bit more than he was used to. It wasn’t a bad feeling though, just different.

 

With that out of the way, he tried focusing on finding anything in the fog. He was getting closer to the lights but there was still nothing else out here, at least not that he could tell. He could only see about three feet ahead of and he couldn’t hear a thing other than the echoing clack of his heels stepping on the ground.

 

It took a few minutes for something to finally change. Hunter stopped in his tracks as he heard the sudden creaking sound of metal. His rabbit ears perked up, instantly identifying the direction the sound was coming from. 

 

As he turned to walk in that direction, the creaking sounds were becoming louder but something else suddenly grabbed his attention. This whole time he had been walking toward those lights in the distance. Not that he had changed direction, he noticed the lights suddenly vanished completely from view.

 

Hunter paused as he stared in the direction the lights had been in. Taking a few steps backwards, they once again showed themselves. Leaning forward, they disappeared again. He began to realize that there was something between him and those lights that was blocking them out.

 

The creaking sound was still coming from one direction, but now he knew that there was something else physically near which he could possibly check out. It took him a moment to decide which he should explore first, but he decided on the object that was blocking out the light. The sounds he could find later by just following his hearing but whatever this thing was would be much harder to find again if he left this spot.

 

He took a step back before walking toward the light again. Every once in a while, he would lean to the side, confirming that the thing blocking out those lights was still in front of him. It took him a while to get close to it and it wasn’t hard for Hunter to think that he might just be wasting his time when he should be trying to find the neighborhood and Eternity again, but for all he knew, the lights ahead of him could be coming from the neighborhood and the thing blocking that light out could be one of the houses or buildings.

 

As he approached, Hunter noticed that the fog was starting to thin out. That redoubled his curiosity on whatever it was that he might be heading toward. Finally, he could see something through the fog in front of him. A monument made of giant beige slabs, mostly still obscured from sight.

 

Curiosity got the better of him and Hunter sent out a wave of telekinetic force, trying to push the fog away. It briefly worked. As the fog was shoved away, Hunter finally got a better look at whatever it was.

 

He found himself standing at the corner of a large pyramid. Most of it was still heavily obscured, his psywave had only cleared the fog out to 20 feet from himself, and this monument was definitely far larger than that.

 

Hunter’s attention was suddenly drawn to a humanoid figure in the fog next to the pyramid, just barely outside of the cleared area. The fog was quickly filling back in though, and in moments the figure was fully obscured once more.

 

Had someone been there without him noticing? They were maybe 30 feet away, but his ears didn’t pick up a single thing…

 

Cautiously, Hunter began walking through the fog towards where it had been standing but by the time he was close, the figure was nowhere to be seen.

 

He pushed the fog away with telekinesis once more but there was no one visible nearby. There was nothing around but Hunter, the pyramid, and the fog.

 

Hunter let out the breath that he hadn’t even realized that he had been holding in. He was just wasting time here. The pyramid had piqued his interest though. 

 

Hunter focused his mind and tried to create a psychic beacon. Something that he would easily be able to find no matter how far away he walked. He was shocked to find though that from the moment he created the beacon, the fog quickly began eroding it away. Within seconds, the beacon had completely disappeared. 

 

How was that even possible? The best guess Hunter could come up with was that somehow the psychic nexus was destabilizing all other psychic energies. That was a worrying thought though. If the nexus was interfering with other psychics, that would also explain why Eternity was stuck in Mark’s mind. 

 

If it did that to Eternity… the same thing could happen to Hunter if he stuck around here for too long. He decided that he messed around in the fog for long enough. Hunter forced his eyes closed as tightly as he could as he pictured the neighborhood in his mind as detailed as possible and tried to will himself to appear there.

 

***

 

Hunter slowly opened his eyes once more and let out a sigh of relief as he found himself on the same stretch of street he had appeared on the first time he had entered Mark’s mind.

 

The same stretch of road was before him, a line of houses on the opposite side from where he stood. The crater that Zoey had made when she transformed was still there but it was smaller than before… as if the road was healing or reverting to how it had been before. There was something new that hadn’t been there before though. 

 

Not too far away from the crater was a small metal trapdoor, only a few feet wide. Hunter slowly walked toward it, the scene of The Admin dropping him into the hole beneath it resurfacing in his mind. He would have gotten lost in thought while staring at it like he was prone to doing but a sudden wolf whistle brought his attention back to reality. His head whipped around to look behind him to where the noise had come from. 

 

“Work that ass, girl!” 

 

A skater girl was leaning against the wall of the arcade. A lit cigarette in one hand and a skateboard in the other. She was staring at him with a hungry look that made it all too clear to Hunter that she had been to one to both whistle and cat call at him.

 

If his face wasn’t currently covered in creme colored fur, Hunter was positive that his fierce blush would be visible from miles away. He looked away from her in embarrassment, directly downward, which finally let him notice that his outfit was different from what he had been wearing the first time around.

 

He was still wearing the blue tailcoat but beneath it he was wearing a white shirt that was covered in wide fluffy ruffles over his chest. It was the same shirt that he had gotten rid of the first time because it made him look like he had more to his chest than actually was there. Actually, the more he stared at it, the more he realized that it wasn’t exactly the same shirt… the ruffles on this one were even larger, making him look like he could have had A-cup breasts beneath them.

 

Beyond just the change to his shirt, he also realized that he was now wearing extremely short black shorts. They emphasized his hips and even exposed the lower part of his glutes from behind. Somehow, they felt almost obscene even though he had been pantless before.

 

The final change to his outfit was the one he had inadvertently done himself. Black high heel ankle boots with a chunky heel. He realized that with the combination of high heels and booty shorts, he probably looked like he had the legs of a pinup model… albeit one that was covered in fur.

 

The sound of the arcade’s door opening accompanied by the light jingling of bells caught Hunter’s attention once more. Zoey was poking her head out of it and a wild grin appeared on her face when she saw him. She started beckoning him to come to her.

 

As he approached her, Zoey’s eyes glanced around the rest of the street before grabbing Hunter and pulling him through the door.

 

“Heyyyyy! Hunter! How’d you get back here, my gal!?” She asked brightly as she pulled him into a bear hug.It felt oddly familiar, but Hunter couldn’t remember the last time he had been hugged like this by anyone.

 

“G-Gal!?” The blush that started from the cat calls grew twice as intense and Hunter felt like his brain was frying from how hot his face had become..

 

Zoey rolled her eyes, “Oh, so when I call people ‘dude’ or ‘guy’ that’s fine,” She emphasized her point by making air quotes as she let go of Hunter, “No one bats an eye… but if I use ‘gal’... sheesh!”

 

“I-I guess it’s fine when you put it like that…” Hunter’s response wasn’t immediate. He was coming back to himself slowly. Her explanation made sense but somehow it replaced the flustered feeling he had with… disappointment?

 

Zoey cocked an eyebrow as she stared at him, “Are you… nevermind. How’d you even get here?”

 

“I-” Hunter’s words caught in his throat. The sudden barrage of emotions was throwing him off balance and he forced himself to remember why he was here, “I need to find Eternity… probably the real Mark as well.”

 

Zoey looked down at him with pity in her eyes, “This is gonna be a bit of a toughie… Why don’t you follow me? I know where Eternity is at least.”

 

Hunter followed her deeper into the arcade and was pleasantly surprised by how fresh the air that washed over him actually was. He would have bet money that the place would have stunk of weed. He was pretty sure he could actually smell it coming from the arcade last time he had been in Mark’s mind.

 

As they passed by rows of gaming machines, Hunter noticed three people at one of the machines. One of the people was Eternity dancing away at Dance Dance Revolution and clearly giving it his all. Even from a distance, Hunter could see that he was panting heavily and sweat glistened on his forehead and neck. Despite his effort he was clearly losing. 

 

The girl he was playing against was giving it her all, her feet barely touching the arrow button pads for more than a split second and she didn’t miss a single beat. She was wearing a loose pair of patched up jeans, a gray crop top and rainbow sweatbands on each wrist. The most noticeable thing about her though was the pair of floppy dog ears which sat in the middle of her mop of pale blond hair. Hunter wasn’t sure if it was just an accessory on a hairband, but considering that he always chose to have bunny ears in his various mind forms, he wouldn’t doubt her if she said that they were real.

 

The last person was another, younger, skater girl that was watching as the other two battled it out in DDR and he was shocked to realize that this was the same girl that Zoey had helped hatch last time right before The Admin had-

 

Stop thinking about that!

 

Everyone suddenly stopped and looked around in confusion as Hunter’s thought echoed out in a static-y buzz, clearly heard by all of them. When the girl with dog ears noticed him, she briefly glared at him before rolling her eyes and focusing on the game once more. She was clearly miffed that he had accidentally broke her perfect streak in the game.

 

Zoey smiled and gestured towards the DDR pads as the round ended in Eternity’s overwhelming loss, “You wanna give it a try?”

 

Hunter glanced back at the dog-eared girl who was chugging a bottle of water while Eternity leaned against the dance machine, panting, “N-no, I’m fine…” he started looking around at the ceiling of the arcade, thinking that the thought had been broadcast out of a blown out speaker somewhere, “...where did that come from though?”

 

Zoey leaned against a cabinet for a game called Dragon Spirit and sighed, “Oh, that… that’s been going on for almost two days now. Y’know, ever since…” she glanced around at everyone while debating something in her head. She let out another sigh and said, “Carter’s not doing too well at the moment. Pretty sure they’ve got some of the same stuff going on that Avril, Butterfly, and me already dealt with.”

 

Hunter wasn’t sure who Carter, Avril, or Butterfly even were, but guessed that the skater and dog-eared girls were two of them, “What exactly is it that you already dealt with?”

 

“Y’know…” Zoey shrugged, “y’know!”

 

He didn’t know…

 

The dog-eared girl rolled her eyes again before adding, “Gender issues!”

 

Oh, maybe he did know then! “You think someone else in here is an egg too!?” The idea of it was getting Hunter excited and that feeling doubled when he realized that all three of the girls here were probably trans. 

 

He started eyeing the girl who had spoken up and down, admiring how lucky they all were to be able to just choose to look like girls immediately rather than deal with months and years of transitioning. She didn’t appreciate his leering and was about to say as much when Hunter turned his eyes back to Zoey and said, “She’s new right? You work fast on cracking eggs!”

 

Zoey grinned madly at the realization that the two of them shared the same hobby, “Oh, that’s a great word for it! This is Butterfly by the way,” she said pointing at the girl that was now glaring at the both of them, “and that’s Avril!” She pointed at the skater girl that Hunter had seen her hatch already.

 

Zoey leaned in close to Hunter and whispered into his oversized ear, “Seems like there are a lot of ‘eggs’ in here, eh?” Her eyebrows wiggled at him right before she directed his attention subtly with her eyes over to a man at a pinball table and then to one on a motorcycle simulator.

 

“Really…?” Nothing about either of the men screamed egg to him, but the one playing with a light gun at a House of the Dead game a bit further away did. He leaned his head over towards that one and whispered back to Zoey, “I think that one over there might be one too. Much too baggy hoodies are always a dead giveaway!”

 

Hunter gave all three a good look and tried to reach out towards them with a thoughtwave, but the wave of energy wouldn’t go outward. “Huh…” he started mumbling to himself, “Is it not working because I’m already technically reading Mark’s mind right now…? Or am I too close to the psychic nexus and it’s interfering with my powers?”

 

“You don’t seriously believe in that psychic nexus stuff do ya…?” Zoey’s sudden statement started Hunter out of his thoughts, making him look at her straight in the eye. He forgot that she was so close to him, she was practically breathing down his neck. If she decided to kiss him, he wouldn’t even be able to react before she-

 

Not the time for those kinds of thoughts! He broke eye contact with her immediately and redirected his gaze over to Eternity.

 

“Of course I do!” He said to Zoey, “Frankly, all of you in here are too realistic to possibly be NPCs. It makes sense if your minds are all trapped in here and the nexus has been making you forget that this isn’t the real world.”

 

It’s NOT your fault! You just overreacted! STOP! THINKING! ABOUT! IT!

 

The fur on Hunter’s neck and arms stood up in goosebumps as a crackle of static preceded the words that echoed all throughout the arcade. It seemed so random that Hunter realized that those weren’t his thoughts that had been broadcasted everywhere… they were coming from someone else…

 

Zoey let out a sigh and said, “I should give Addy a call. But when I get back, I wanna hear how you got so good at finding eggs, gal!” With that, she started walking off, leaving Hunter with Eternity and the two girls.

 

Butterfly followed suit immediately after, bringing Avril with her to start another round of DDR.

 

“Well… huff… at least you… huff…aren’t choosing to stay ignorant… like the rest of them…” Eternity said to Hunter while still trying to catch his breath from the round of DDR he had been playing against Butterfly.

 

Hunter mulled that thought over in his head while he waited for Eternity to recover. Were the other people in here choosing to be ignorant? Was the nexus messing with their memories the same way it was messing with psychic powers? 

 

He looked over at Eternity and studied him, grateful that he wasn’t looking back. Could Eternity be wrong about there being some kind of nexus here? In the first place, Hunter had never heard of a psychic nexus before, so he didn’t know what one actually could do. 

 

Hunter’s experience with psychics was limited to people that his mentor had introduced him to and the largely unreliable posts that he had seen online. The people he had met were all fairly typical people, although none of them were completely normal. They all had some kind of quirk about them… but the people online always seemed far more unhinged. 

 

The ones online would talk about crimes they had committed or planned to commit and how that was possible with their psychic powers. Few of the posts actually made sense from how Hunter understood psychic powers to work, but the ones that did sound possible always sent shivers down his spine. 

 

One psycho’s blog in particular haunted Hunter after he had read it as a teenager. The man had talked about how he had kidnapped people and messed with their heads… reshaping them into copies of himself, mentally. It shook him so badly because he had found that blog in the same week that a psychic had been arrested for doing the exact same thing. 

 

It had been all over the news that week. Stellaris Apprehends Serial Kidnapper! The villain's final words were reported to have been ‘I will make myself eternal!’. He was found dead in his prison cell a few days later but the blog’s posts continued after that psychic’s arrest and death. 

 

Those words were ringing through Hunter’s head now as he stared at Eternity. The psycho’s blog mentioned numerous kidnappings but no one had ever reported a mental clone of the guy running around anywhere. The thought that Mark could have a copy of that guy’s mind hidden inside him like a sleeper agent was a nightmarish one that Hunter forced out of his head. If he allowed that thought to fester, he would never get another good night’s sleep again as long as he and Mark were still roommates. 

 

He had to will himself to believe that Eternity couldn’t be the mind clone of some rogue psychic. He had to make himself believe that the blog was just a complete fabrication or another poser online. After all, a psycho like that would never tell someone their real name and beg them to investigate their whereabouts… would they?

 

“Things have been pretty chaotic around here ever since Admin dropped you.” Eternity said suddenly with a pat on Hunter's shoulder, startling him once again. 

 

He hadn't even noticed that the other psychic had caught their breath already, let alone approached… he really needed to learn to stay present in the moment. Especially on that off chance that Eternity could be-

 

STOP IT YOU IDIOT!!!

 

The sudden crackle before the echoing shout  stopped Hunter from getting lost in thought once more. 

 

Eternity squeezed Hunter's shoulder to get his attention and leaned his head in the direction of the two girls that had just started a new match of DDR. Avril apparently was a much more suitable challenger for the dog-eared girl than Eternity had been. 

 

“Zoey used that button of yours on Avril and another girl before Admin managed to take it away from her.” Eternity said, “Butterfly had to be… What was the word you used? Hatched? Cracked? Either way, she had to be done the hard way apparently. I could hear her crying from a block away when she started transforming into a girl.” He started mimicking the shape of dog ears with his hands on the side of his head, “It was more of a howl, really!”

 

Hunter couldn't help but let out a giggle at that. A noise that he was pretty sure Butterfly had picked up on from the way her ears twitched.

 

“What's The Admin up to now anyways?” Hunter asked. 

 

Eternity gestured vaguely at the ceiling above them, “You heard it yourself right? He's been beating himself up about it almost nonstop.”

 

So that's whose voice they had been hearing this whole time? Zoey must have meant The Admin when she was talking about calling ‘Addy’.

 

Eternity started ruffling up the fur on Hunter's head, the same way Mark had done that morning. “He looked pretty horrified at what he'd done from the moment after he dropped you in that pit. Tried smashing some button on that tablet of his over and over, but I guess nothing happened. How’d you escape from there anyways? The way Admin has been going on, we kinda thought you would be trapped in there forever”

 

Hunter gave off a shrug, trying to act as casually about it as possible, “I am a psychic, remember? I just left Mark's mind and returned to my body.” He didn't want to mention the brief moments of panic where he thought that he might end up trapped there as well. 

 

“More importantly! I came back here because I need to know more about you!”

 

Eternity rested a hand on his chin and started circling Hunter, eying him in a way that made him feel uncomfortable but fluttery at the same time. The fluttering feeling vanished as Eternity suddenly gave him a light smack on the rear, leaving just the discomfort.

 

“I should ask you to buy me dinner first, but I am a gentleman and know how to treat a lady. Especially one that's so desperate to get to know me… and has a great-”

 

“Asshole!” Hunter screeched as he slapped Eternity across the face. Blood was rushing to his face and his head, he wasn't sure whether to run away in embarrassment or beat the crap out of this guy, “Where the hell do you think you’re grabbing!?”

 

Eternity took a step back with his hands raised in mock surrender, “Sorry, sorry! It was just a joke!” He raised one eyebrow and with a smirk added, “Besides, if you weren’t showing off the goods like that I-”

 

He was interrupted by a growl from behind him. Avril and Butterfly had stopped their match and approached, boxing Eternity in between them and Hunter, “What was that!?”

 

Eternity tried laughing it off, “I’m just saying that the way she’s dressed-” He was cut off with another growl from Butterfly.

 

With a huff he crossed his arms and said, “Geez… it’s just a joke.”

 

Hunter wasn’t sure how to react to all of this. After Eternity grabbed him, made fun of how he was dressed, and mocked him by calling him a lady… he should have been angrier right? He should have just told Eternity to fuck off and find his own way out of Mark’s head. 

 

And yet… the anger and discomfort was gone already. It was like he had gotten it all out of his system with that slap. He was just left with this odd feeling of… giddiness? Why was he feeling giddy at that? Hunter forced the thoughts from his head and at least tried to keep the appearance of being upset at Eternity.

 

“You know…” He took a few steps forward. With the heels helping him keep his posture correct, he was actually a bit taller than the other boy. Not towering over him or anything, but that slight difference in height, made him feel like he was towering over Eternity. The fact that the two girls were also backing him up just added to the feeling of confidence, “I am the only person here who’s on your side trying to help you escape this nexus… I’m surprised you’re not showing me more respect.”

 

Hunter’s mind slowed as he struggled to figure out how to follow up on the confident domineering act that he was putting on. He’d never been put in a situation like this and the next step didn’t come naturally to him. He’d always been on the other side of this scene, the one who was being bullied by someone else.

 

A silence hung in the air while Hunter struggled to figure out what to say next. He didn’t let the look of confidence leave his face though so while he felt helpless on the inside, none of that hesitation was reflected outside. His eyes were locked onto Eternity, unmoving despite the overwhelming urge to to break that gaze which was running rampant through him.

 

Eternity’s face paled as he waited in anticipation for what Hunter was going to say next. The pressure was clearly becoming too much though. Before Hunter could formulate his next words, Eternity had dropped to his knees in front of him. “Look, I’m sorry! Really, really sorry! It was a shitty joke!” Eternity looked up at Hunter with a look of complete desperation. 

 

His stomach started churning with an unpleasant feeling. Everyone who had ever put him in that same position always seemed to revel in the power… in the feeling of bringing humiliation to him. He wasn’t feeling that right now though.

 

“I’ll show you all the respect from now on Ma’am! Anything, as long as you can actually help me get out of here!”

 

It felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped onto Hunter. Goosebumps rose throughout his entire body but at the same time a cold feeling settled in his stomach. The gaze that he had struggled so hard to maintain finally broke as he turned away from looking at Eternity.

 

“I’m not…” Hunter wanted to clear the air about Eternity’s obvious misunderstanding but at the same time, reluctance overcame him and he didn’t understand why, “I’m not actually that mad… Just don’t touch me without permission again…”

 

Hunter took a step back and just stared at the ground, embarrassed that he couldn’t bring himself to correct Eternity. Avril and Butterfly, deciding that things were settled, went back to playing their game.

 

Hunter knew that he needed to just change the subject so he went back to what he was originally going to say. The entire reason why he came back into Mark’s head in the first place, “I can’t find much on Marvin Jones with just a name. I need more to go on. Like what does your real body look like, how old you are, where you’re from… For starters, how long have you been here?”

 

“How long have I been here?” Eternity was still kneeling on the floor before him when his eyes suddenly glazed over and he stopped becoming responsive, his expression just like a deer in headlights.

 

“Umm… Eternity?” Hunter wasn’t sure how to react so he just stood there for a minute, neither him nor Eternity moving. 

 

Did I just break him?

 

“Huh, that’s new…” Hunter hadn’t even noticed Zoey’s approach, his focus completely transfixed on Eternity’s stupor. Here she was now though, standing between the two and waving hands in front of both of their faces. She barely suppressed a giggle as Hunter’s attention was grabbed by her, “ah, so at least one of you isn't completely out of it.”

 

“I don’t know what happened to him…” Hunter told her, “I was asking him some questions about his real body and he just froze up like that. It happened right after I asked how long he’s been trapped in here.”

 

Zoey sighed and shook her head before saying, “He isn’t trapped in here and neither are you.” She awkwardly rubbed one hand along her upper arm… was she cold or something? “Look… sorry, what was your name again?”

 

“Hunter…”

 

“Look, Hunter… Eternity was born here just like you were.” Zoey started saying, “You both need to just accept that and stop feeding into each other’s delusions!”

 

Hunter was dumbfounded by what Zoey was saying. She thought that he was born inside of Mark’s mind? It made absolutely no sense. Pity started welling up inside of him for how broken she must have become after being trapped in the nexus for so long.

 

“Zoey…” Hunter tried to convey as much sympathy as possible to her as he spoke, “How long have you been in here? I can’t imagine how stressful being stuck in here has to have been…”

 

“Argh!!!” Zoey groaned as she clutched at her head melodramatically, “Hunter! Please…” She let out another sigh in exasperation, “Maybe Addy can help explain this to you better? He wanted to see you again anyways after I let him know that you had escaped. We can go talk to him, and maybe he’ll even have some ideas about what is up with Eternity.”

 

“Don’t do it! Bad idea!” Eternity had snapped out of his daze and immediately began arguing against what Zoey said.

 

Hunter raised an eyebrow, “Uh… why?” 

 

Talking to The Admin actually seemed like it would be a good idea. Zoey for one seemed to value his opinion. He probably knew more about what was going on with the nexus if he was actually administering it. If Hunter could just convince The Admin to tell everyone what really was going on then it would make everything a lot easier.

 

“I don’t know what game The Admin is playing here, but you’re my best chance to get out of here and I can’t just let him brainwash you like he has to everyone else!” Eternity pleased, “If you insist on seeing him, then I’m coming with you at least!”

 

Hunter wanted to trust Eternity but he wasn’t sure if he should agree or not. Eternity was clearly unable to answer the questions that needed to be answered in order to find his body in the real world. That left him needing to get those answers from someone else.

 

But should he trust The Admin? If the man was up to something sinister like brainwashing other people then going to him alone could be dangerous. Even if nothing sinister was going on, the fact that everyone insisted that Eternity was delusional could mean that there was something they wouldn’t want to talk about in front of him. 

 

And then there was the third possibility… that Eternity really had been in Mark’s mind ever since he came into existence. The memory of that blog sent shivers down Hunter’s spine again.

 

Hunter forced himself to look Eternity in the eye despite the discomfort. He wanted to just reach out with a thoughtwave and read his intentions like he’s used to instead of having to do it this way. He assumed those eyes looking back at him were sincere, but that didn’t help him make any kind of decision or whether to meet The Admin or not or whether to bring Eternity along if he did.

 

“If you two are going to kiss, can you get it over with quickly? Addy is waiting.” Zoey suddenly interjected.

 

Hunter broke eye contact and tried to hide the blush that was consuming his face. The fur helped a lot in doing that, but did nothing to hide that the blush extended all the way up into his ears, making them even pinker than they were before. He was surprised when he glanced back to see that Eternity was blushing just as hard as he assumed that he was.

 

“You two shorties are so cute, you know that right? Well, come on! Both of you, let’s go talk with Addy.” And like that Zoey made the decision for them. With a pinch, she grabbed each of them by the cheek and started dragging them towards the doors of the arcade.

 

Thankfully, she didn’t drag them all the way to The Admin’s office building next door. After a few seconds, once it was clear that the two of them would follow her, she let go of them and they both walked while gently nursing their cheeks. 

 

From behind her back, Eternity started blowing silent raspberries at Zoey. The sight of him acting so childishly made Hunter giggle like a little girl. Eternity looked over at him with a smile as he began puffing up his chest and making silly faces at Zoey’s back, drawing even more giggles out of Hunter.