Chapter Text
“Dang it, dang it, dang it!” Alan was rushing to his house in Stickcity, which, unfortunately, isn’t the closest. It’d been a while since anything had gone wrong, but seeing the notification Second just created, there’s either something extremely important he forgot, or something bad happened. Either way, Alan wasn’t exactly excited to find the answer out.
He ran down the street quickly, with multiple people giving him looks as he ran. He wasn’t paying enough attention to the people, only barely realizing to say, “sorry,” to those he shoulder-checked on his way.
A few blocks away from his house, he ran into someone he never expected to see again.
The red hollow-head he’d created so long ago stood in front of him with small bits of anger evident. They say when you create something, you can always recognize it. Alan realized how true this thought actually is.
“Are you going to apologize? Or are you just going to keep staring at me like you’ve seen a ghost?” The Dark Lord—Alan has never cringed at his younger-self more than the moment he realized how bad of names he had given them all—spoke with a ruff voice.
“Oh uh-” Alan spoke carefully, “Sorry... I’m in a bit of a rush.”
The Dark Lord stared for a few seconds, then, much to Alan’s surprise, he reached out a hand to help Alan up. Alan accepted the help with confusion, surprise, and some gratefulness. With a quick, “thank you,” Alan ran to his home.
***
Alan was relieved when he hadn’t missed too much.
When Alan logged in, he was greeted by multiple crashed sites, cracks in animations he left unfinished, and one orange hollow-head seeing to be praying for peace.
Alan moved his curser—as he usually did—to the text box, typing, “Sec? What happened here?”
While reading through Second’s response, Alan tapped his foot. While most of his brain was focused on Second, the other couldn’t help but stray to the way The Dark Lord acted.
Alan nodded as Second finished speaking. Apparently, there was a prank war going on, and Second thought it would go too far and destroy his computer. “Well, worst case scenario, would’ve had to get a new computer. This is probably one of the best scenarios when it comes to the destruction that can happen.” Alan took a break from typing so that Second could take it all in.
“Even so,” Second started to speak, “this is still a lot of damage.”
“It’s fixable,” Alan typed quickly before reloading the crashed sites, silently using his knowledge of the Outernet to make the reloading have an easier time.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right…” Second didn’t seem very convinced, but Alan wasn’t too worried. “What about the animations though? What if there’s frames missing?”
Alan wasn’t sure if those questions were unfounded, but as he considered them more, the conclusion he was originally going to type was typed.
“It’d depend on the animation, as I have given up on a couple for some time cuz they weren’t exactly right, if ykwim.” Alan smiled to himself, fixing some parts of the unfinished animations.
As they finish working, Alan watches the animations back multiple times to make sure they didn’t miss anything, while Second checks to see if the sites are still properly ordered.
“Everything looks in order to me!” Second stands back for a second, and Alan could see the mix of joy, fatigue, and relief in his posture.
Alan brings out the hand tool to high-five Second, then, after checking the time, brings him over to his bed. Alan stretches as he watches Second cuddle up into his bed.
As he walked away from his computer, Alan checked the connected cords, making sure the ones that aren’t connected are out of the way.
“I wonder if he-” Alan shook his head as he started to speak aloud, knowing how it would end.
What would I do if he recognized me? Would he have attacked...? It isn’t everyday you see your abusive creator just roaming the streets.... And even then, how would The Dark Lord know it was me?
His thought spiraled into the night, but before he knew it, it was morning again in Stickcity.