"Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK FUCK FUCK," Suddenly, the bang of a fist slamming down on a wooden desk belted out from Merida's office, "FUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!"

Mel and I quickly dashed into the office and saw Lina hunched over the desk, both hands sunk deep into it. "Yo, what up, sister-in-law. What's the bad news?"

She sighed. "And, of course, the main characters happen to be nearby. So, what part did you hear? The shit ton of fucks? The other bunch of fucks? I said fuck a lot."

"Just the fucks, sister. I'm guessing you're going to exposition, right?"

"Yep. Glad you're here since Maddy would've derailed everything."

"You know what else I could derail?"

"I don't know."

"I just want to exposition."

"I have no punchline."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Lina let out a little cough. "Anyways, I guess I'll tell you why I was saying fuck like I was a peanut gallery at a lesbian wrestling pay-per-view." She stretched, straightening her back, then sat down on Merida's big chair. "So, we've established I'm Merida's stand-in, right? That I'm the informant, right?"

"Yeah, you have."

"Speaking of Merida, where is she?"

"I'll get to that eventually. So, Side Character is basically why I'm forced into the role, but Side Character does much more than that. Now, usually it would completely change who I am by turning me into an appropriate persona for the situation, but seeing as Side Character has been crippled thanks to our oh-so dear and missing friend Merida, now all it does is supply me with the info my character role would know."

"Okay… so what?"

"Quick, Maddy, tell me what Sacred Power Merida held!"

"Umm… umm… Corrosion? Super Speed? Oh wait, I know, I know! All Seeing Eye!"

"Correctomundo! So guess what I essentially have due to me replacing Merida and Side Character supplying me with info that character would have."

"Uhh… you'd have… Super Speed?"

"Can you stop playing around, sister?"

"I'm just padding for runtime."

"That's Madeleine's thing."

"Mmm… pads."

"That's true. Maddy sure is good at padding."

"Paddy cake!"

"Just hurry up and get to the point."

"Geez, so forceful. I'm the older one, you know?"

"Then act like it."

"Fine. Look, I was mind-boggled as to why Merida was in this story, honestly."

"How so?"

"Well, this is clearly one of those 'Cute Girls Doing Cute Things (With A Huge Dash of Insanity)' stories that randomly pops up on the internet, you know, the kind of trash I loved to read back on Earth, yet for some reason, Merida was here. This scheming, clearly suspicious, old-as-balls, probably a genocider, hated across the whole world elf. Why is Merida a character? Hell, she's probably the most important one here behind the two of you. Then it hit me."

"What hit you? Myka?"

"Merida was a deterrent. She knew how to quell the chaos. She was really good at that, which makes sense when you consider that she held the whole world in her palm earlier in her life, and only let go because she got bored. She knew the whole fucking time. As long as she was in control, you would be as safe as a vampire in Lilu. She could keep track of every threat and knew how to accordingly take them down, and with that overpowered wife of hers, all it took was a second. She wasn't even meant to be a variable. She literally forced her way into this!"

"Where are you going with this, sister?"

"Merida and Speedy are gone. I'd tell you where, but I seriously do not know. Worse yet, news of her disappearance has been circulating around. All the major players can now freely, and they're all targeting Maddy since they know she was under the Seer's protection. After all, anything under the Seer's protection is surely important."

"Ooh… that sounds interesting."

"More like ominous. At least sound worried, Madeleine."

"Eh, you've got enough worry for the both of us, Mel."

"Yeah, that's true."

"Cool, I get it. You two love each other. Now shut the fuck up. I'm still going."

"Aye aye, captain!"

"I can see why a schemer was needed, honestly. I'm too dumb to manipulate, so I'll just give you a long list of things to look out for." She dragged a piece of paper in front of her towards Mel and I. "Man, the world is going into overdrive, and it's all for you." I looked at the piece of paper to see what was going on.

Important Details:
The Creator has met one of the Shadow Clones
The Gods seem to be interested in you
The other personas of Side Character are running about
There's a shadow watching
Croen is going to make his move
One of the shadow clones seems to be in a time loop
The Reincarnator Organisation is checking you out
Merida and Speedy are just gone, vanished without a trace

Potentially Important:
Rio Verdeux has escaped death, somehow
Sealed demons are escaping all over the world
Mimi is in debt, again
Merry has successfully opened a proper gate to Hell
That box of things Rich gave to you

People To Look Out For:
Your mother and the Headmaster of the Maid School, Moira Vusser
The leader of the Dragon's Keep, Rich Ardrago
The Lemon Tree Spirit
The Seven Demon Lords of Sin (Minus Mammon)
Mr. Pinstripe Suit
The intruder behind you right now

"Huh? Intruder behind me?" I turned around, only to find myself with a dagger at my neck and face-to-face with the emptiest pair of eyes I had ever seen. It reminded me of the edge back at Hamblin, which was just endless darkness.

"Time for a bad ending."

Character profile: Harris

Sacred power: Live In Fear

Bad endings achieved: 0

Description: The hopeless maniac with nothing to live for. The pinnacle of pessimism, Harris has only known fear. He lives day to day knowing that one day he could easily create the worst fate possible for his world, but he was shown he'd do it when he was 9 years old. He chose to do nothing, and when the day he thought he was destined to do it passed by, and due to his lack of action, world destruction was avoided. However, a new scenario was created in his head, which is when he learned he would always know. Soon enough, he turned insane due to the constant visions of many different apocalypses and how he could easily do it. He snapped and decided to follow the instructions of one such situation.

Chapter namesake: Live In Fear by Mark Crozer (Better known as the entrance theme for WWE Wrestler Bray Wyatt)