Inverted AU Character Intros: 7/7
A JSE Fanfic
[These are intros for the versions of the guys for my Inverted AU! Inverted is a reverse-morality story where the good guys are bad and the bad guy—Anti—is good. These intros should help newcomers understand just how the dynamics work :) This one is for Inverted!Anti.]

Jack woke up in a school. That was weird enough in and of itself, but it wasn’t one he recognized. He was sitting at a desk with marks carved in its top, part of a row of identical desks. There was a green chalkboard at the front of the class, with writing in…what language was that? He vaguely recognized it…Korean?

He blinked vaguely, standing up. How did he get here? He could’ve sworn he went to bed at home. Well, however it happened, he needed to get out of here. He walked over to the closed classroom door, pulling on it, then pushing on it, but it remained shut. He looked through the classroom windows. Outside it was night.

“D͡id ̢y̨o̕u ̷ḿi̷s̕s ͝m͟ȩ?”

Jack jumped, then turned back around. A man was sitting on the teacher’s desk at the front of the room. He looked just like him, but his hair was still naturally brown. An white square eye-patch covered his right eye. He wore a black shirt, blue jeans, and black sneakers. There were bandages around his neck. He was staring at him.

“Who…who are you?” Jack breathed.

“Have you forgotten, Jack?” The man asked. “Really?”

Jack stared at him, edging a bit closer. His face was familiar, true, but considering it was identical to his own, and pretty similar to those of his friends, that was no help. What about the patch? Did he know anybody who wore one? He was sure he didn’t, but the longer he looked at him…

“I think…I think I know you,” Jack said. “But…I don’t know from where…”

The man shook his head. “Well, that’s something. S̢t͡upi̴d́ fu̡c͏k͞in͏g hy͠p̴n̡ǫt̛ist́. An̨d̛ ̵that ̷magic̴ mo̵ron͢ ͠too.”

“Wait, what was that last bit?” Jack couldn’t quite catch it through the sudden…interference. Was the man wearing a microphone or something? That was glitching out?

The man stood up. “Did you know that humans can form a false memory in just an hour? Sometimes even less. And forgetting is even easier, especially if it’s encouraged. Usually you do it yourself, repress the memory. But it’s just as easy for someone else to convince you something never happened. And if you’re part of a group, you’re likely to go along with what they say, even if they’re wrong.”

“What are you, a psychologist?” Jack laughed.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m much better.” The man’s voice didn’t give away any emotion. He was simply stating a fact. “I can see what’s going on up there. You never l̸i̴s̢t̢en̢e͞d̶ to me, Jack. I told you to build up some walls. You don’t even have to drop that trusting part of your personality to do so. And yet here you are, still as easy to break into as ever.”

“What do you—” Jack stopped. Memories were starting to flood back. That broken voice. That face, usually surrounded by distortion. That eye-patch, and what lay behind. “You.” He stumbled backwards. “You!”

“Y͡es̸! F͢inal̕ly̨!” The man threw his hands up in the air. “I’ve been trying for fucking m͟o̕n̡t̴hs̶! Do you remember, Jack?” He started forward.

“Stay away!” Jack yelled. “Stay back, Anti!”

Anti stopped, eye wide. “Why?”

“You really—you think I’m going to trust you?! After what happened on Halloween?”

“What happened on—? Damn it!” Anti growled, more to himself than to Jack. “I k̢n̛ew̶ you were going to react badly to that. I didn’t mean—”

“You didn’t mean?!” Jack laughed incredulously. “You didn’t mean to fucking possess me?! I don’t believe you can fuck up that badly!”

“I was t̴r̨yin̷g̷ to—you knew what was going to happen!” With a sudden break, the air around Anti became distorted, shadows and squares of green light appearing out on nowhere. Every time Anti moved, an empty copy of him would follow his movements. “I told̵ ҉you!̧ Y̕ou̵ ͢a̵gre̵ed͏!̢”

“No, I didn’t! I think I would’ve remembered that!”

“Y͡ou ̨didn̕'t̶ ͝eve͠n͞ ͠re̢m̵ember ͟m̢e̷ ́a ͞m̡iņute ̵ag̢ơ,” Anti said in a low voice. “An͏d ́h͟o̧w͠ ̨l̀on͞g͏ hav͢e we̡ kn̷own̢ ̷ea͞ch ̶ot̡h̢er͞?”

“Not that long,” Jack rebutted. “I met you in October. I trusted you, and you lied to me. You used me.”

Anti shrieked. The classroom around them broke down, lagging and pixelating like a video game glitch. Their surroundings reconstructed themselves. They were standing on a riverbank, with a building in the distance. It was still night. The river was red.

Suddenly, Anti began to laugh. “I̕ to̴l͢d yo͏u, ͏d̶i̵d̨n̨’t I?” he gasped. “ It wasn’t even a minute ago! I t͏o̢l̕d ̵yo̷u̶ t̵hat ̛h̴u͏m̴an̕s ̨c͞an fo͞r͝m ̛f̀a̷ls̕e me͞mo̷rìe̛s͡. ͏A̶nd̵ ͝yo̧u ̛won'̧t li̢s͠ten ͟to ͝mȩ.̶” The glitching around him calmed down until he almost looked normal again. “Oh̵, i͢t ju͏st g̷o͠es͞ ̵to̕ ͞sh͞ow. ̕Pe͞ople ͏ẁil͞l̕ gò to suc̢h lengths to͏ a̢vo̕id the t̀r͏uth they don’t want to hear.”

Jack had started to back away once again when Anti started to laugh. But he stopped upon hearing that last statement. “What…do you mean?” he asked.

“Oh, Jack…” Anti sighed. “What have they been telling you?”

“They?”

“Those…p̷͝e̷͏ơ͠pl̷̶e̡̕ you spend your time with.” Anti spat the word out like he was thinking of a much worse one. “You know who I’m talking about.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “You mean my friends?”

“The̵y'͟ré n̡ot ͞y͏o̧u̢r fri͡en̴ds!” Anti hissed. “Even I can see that! Friends don’t watch your every movement. Friends don’t convince you that you’re wrong about everything you’ve seen. Friends don’t—” He stopped. He closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling deeply. “You can’t trust them, Jack. I’m the only one you can. I’m the only one who’s always been by your side.”

Jack hesitated. There was something nagging in the back of his mind, something that leaned toward what Anti was saying. Vague memories, like the recollection of a dream. But there was too much contradiction. Too much inconsistency in between what he thought he knew and what he had forgotten. In the face of this uncertainty, in the face of this distorted glitch, he fell back on what was safe. “No…” he whispered, then said louder. “No. No! I can’t trust you! You’re a liar! You’re just trying to get me on your side! And I’ll never join you.”

Anti stared. His shoulders slumped. “Fine…” he said. “Fine. You can think that. But you’re wrong. And I’ll get you back one day.” Jack’s vision went dark. “T̷his̸ ̧i̧sn'̸t͝ ̴ovȩr̢.” One last echo bounced through his mind.

Jack started awake, gasping. He was in his room, at the house. It was dark, so he reached over and turned on a lamp. Nobody was there. He was alone. Jack shook his head. Well, if he was awake now, he might as well start recording for the day. He was in the middle of a horror game playthrough. It took him a moment to remember the name. Detention. That was it.

As he got up, he made a mental note to tell Marvin that the wards he’d put up around the house weren’t working.

On the other side of the city, on the top floor of an office building, the shape of a man sat in the middle of the floor, surrounded by broken monitors and dented CPUs. He…really shouldn’t have destroyed all this equipment. It just meant he was going to have to replace it. But he hadn’t been thinking of that at the time, just how…frustrating this all was. He was going in circles with Jack. At this rate, Jack would stay there, forever. He just wanted…

Anti shook his head, dissolving for a moment. At least he’d made some progress this time. Jack remembered. That was a start. He just needed to keep going.

He tugged on the bandages around his neck. As always, they reminded him of his one promise.

He could not give up.

Inverted AU Character Intros: 6/7
A JSE Fanfic
[These are intros for the versions of the guys for my Inverted AU! Inverted is a reverse-morality story where the good guys are bad and the bad guy—Anti—is good. These intros should help newcomers understand just how the dynamics work :) This one is for Inverted!Jack.]

“Hey bro, are you finished recording for the day?”

Jack pulled off his headphones and spun around to see his friend Chase peeking through the door to his recording room. “Oh hey,” he said. “What’s up?”

“Marvin’s back. He’s kinda…well, he wants to talk to everyone.”

“Oh! Yeah, of course.” Jack turned back around and paused the game he was playing, then stood up and followed Chase out of the recording room.

The upper floor of the house was mostly bedrooms, but there was also a closet, the recording room, and a room that Jackie kept locked. He said it was an office for his work, but Jack…wasn’t actually sure what that was. He asked a couple times, but Jackie had been evasive, and after a while Chase approached him and explained that Jackie was embarrassed, and asked that he stopped asking about it. Jack had immediately dropped the subject, not wanting to make his friend feel bad.

The downstairs, meanwhile, was the communal area. There was a kitchen, a dining room, a storage room, and a living room. Chase led Jack into the living room, which had a wall-mounted TV, a coffee table, two sofas, two armchairs, and three square tables. The one oddity was a tank in the corner, half-filled with a translucent green fluid. The glass had a jagged hole near the top, and small shards floated in the liquid inside. Jack’s eyes lingered on the tank for a long moment before looking at the other people in the room. Jackie was wearing his red hoodie, like always, and was slumped on one of the couches. Schneep was sitting on the other, filling out a stack of paperwork for his clinic. Jameson was sitting upright in one of the chairs. Marvin was pacing in front of the television, fuming. “The gang’s all here!” Jackie said when he saw Chase and Jack.

“Yeah, Chase said Marvin wanted to talk to us?” Jack sat down on the couch next to Schneep. He wrinkled his nose. The doctor had gone overboard with the cologne again. He kept telling him there was no reason to wear this much.

Marvin stopped pacing and looked at Jack, eyes bright behind his mask he always wore. “I lost them.”

Jack felt his heart stop. “Wh-what?”

“Are you sure?” Chase asked, moving over to sit in one of the chairs.

“Course I’m sure.” Marvin scowled. “That motherfucker has some good illusions up his sleeve. I thought everything was going perfectly, then I get back here and the thing fucking disappears.”

“Oh…” Jack said softly.

“That is unfortunate,” Schneep sighed. “Your Sam is unique, Jack. I have never seen anything like it. What luck, to have lost it!”

Jack instinctively opened his mouth to correct Schneep: Sam was a “they,” not an “it,” and they didn’t belong to Jack. But he stopped. Schneep had a hard time understanding that Sam, an eyeball, was actually sentient. It was no use trying to explain to him. He’d tried enough without success.

Jackie made a strangled kind of laugh. “We didn’t lose them, Henrik, they were taken and we need to get them back.”

“Can you shut up?” Marvin snapped. “I know I failed, you don’t need to fucking rub it in!”

{Marvin!} Jack jumped at the voice in his head. He was never going to get used to that. Jameson must’ve been broadcasting to the group as a whole, because everyone’s heads turned toward him. {Jackie didn’t mean that at all! Just because you’re in a tizzy doesn’t mean you need to lash out. If you’re going to continue to act this way, you can go chase yourself.}

“I’d prefer to stay, actually,” Marvin considered. “Alright, I’ll try to not do that.” Then he turned and continued his pacing.

“We’re sure we can get them back?” Jack asked nervously. “We’re really sure?”

“What do you take us for?” Schneep scoffed. “A batch of incompetents? Yes, we are sure.”

“That’s not what I—never mind. Sorry.” Jack sighed. “God, I hope Sam’s alright. They’d finally gotten used to living here.” He laughed a bit. “Only took them two years.”

“What?” Chase looked at Jack, head tilted, concerned. “Dude, you haven’t been here for two years.”

“Yeah we have.” Jack’s brow lowered as he remembered. “I…yeah.”

“You’ve been here for seven months, Jack.” Chase shifted back and forth in his seat. “You, uh, feeling okay?”

“No—no! We celebrated Christmas twice here! We had the year where we went to a hotel, then the year where we all stayed here. We got new sweaters then.”

“That was the same year, dude. It was only a couple months ago. We decided to go overboard? Because it was your first holiday with us? You moved in after Halloween last year? Any of this ringing a bell?”

“I…” Jack looked at the others for support, but they were all looking at him with variations of the same expression. “I could’ve sworn…”

{You’ve been pretty stressed lately,} Jameson pointed out. {Putting out all those videos, doing all those events. Perhaps the strain is getting to you.}

“Maybe you’re right…” Jack trailed off. “I’ve been thinking about taking a break…”

“Really?” Chase asked, interested. “I thought you loved YouTube.”

“Yeah, but—”

“I don’t take breaks, personally. But maybe that’s just me.”

“Oh. Well, then…” If Chase, of all people, still managed to keep to a schedule, with all the problems he had in his life, then he didn’t really have an excuse. “Yeah, you’re right. Stupid idea. I should—should probably get back to recording, actually.” He stood up.

{Capital idea,} Jameson said, giving a thumbs-up. {It’s rather late, actually. We should all go to bed.} He stood up as well.

“Not tired,” Jackie and Marvin said in unison.

“I have work to do.” Schneep looked back down to his paper work.

Chase merely shrugged.

Jameson looked to the ceiling, exasperated. {Well, if you four would prefer to burn the candle at both ends, you are free to do so. Meanwhile, I have business in the morning.}

“Really?” Jack asked.

{Oh yes. The cleaning company is sending a new maid over, and I plan to introduce her to the place. Show her around, where the problem areas are.}

“Ah! Man, those guys must have a quick rotation schedule, or whatever, there’s someone new here pretty often.” Wasn’t someone here most days? Just wandering about…? No, that wasn’t possible. He must be imagining things. Yeah, he definitely was, his vision was swirling in spirals a bit. He really needed to de-stress.

{It’s a big house! Needs lots of professional hands to take care of it!} Jameson bounced, hands on hips.

Jack held back a laugh. “Dude, I can’t take you seriously when you do that.”

Jameson shrugged, then turned on his heel and strode back towards the staircase. Jack followed. As he walked toward the staircase at the end of the hall, he noticed a door. It wasn’t anything unusual, looked just like the other doors. But he didn’t remember having ever been through it.

He stopped for a moment, considering. He’d been here for seven months, how was that possible? For a moment he paused. Then he decided to take a quick peek, just for the hell of it. He crossed to the door, grabbed the knob, and pulled it open.

Behind the door there was another hall. It was unlit, but he could make out the slight shape of a couple doors, and at the very end there was a staircase leading down into darkness.

It was kinda creepy. No, actually, it was very creepy. His breathing quickened, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and his vision became purple at the edges. He quickly shut the door and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes. Freaky. Why did they have a place like that in the house? He’d have to ask them. But later. When his hands finally stopped shaking. God, it didn’t matter what it was for, he was never going through that door into such a…a scary place.

Jack opened his eyes, and frowned. He had the strangest feeling of deja vu. Whatever. He pushed away from the wall, gave the freaky door the side eye, and went upstairs. He had more important things to worry about.

He had more important things to do than worry.

He didn’t need to worry.

What was there to worry about?

Everything is fine.

Inverted AU Character Intros: 5/7
A JSE Fanfic
[These are intros for the versions of the guys for my Inverted AU! Inverted is a reverse-morality story where the good guys are bad and the bad guy—Anti—is good. These intros should help newcomers understand just how the dynamics work :) This one is for Inverted!Jameson.]

It was raining. Buckets of water were pouring from the rooftops, rivers were washing away stray bits of paper, and it was just generally a horrible afternoon to be out in. But still, there was a woman sitting on the curb. Her head was in her hands and her shoulders were shaking. Her green umbrella was open, but she held it precariously in the crook of her elbow, so that she was still half-exposed to the weather.

She was oblivious to her surroundings. This became evident when somebody tapped her on the shoulder and she gasped, jumping a foot in the air. She looked up and saw a man in a vest quickly leaning back as if startled by her response. He smiled, adjusted his umbrella, and waved. “O-oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there,” the woman said.

The man shrugged, and smiled once again. Then he tilted his head. He pointed up to the rainy sky, then at her. “Excuse me?” the woman asked. “Are you trying to tell me something? I’d be able to hear you fine, the rain’s not that loud.”

He frowned, and tapped his throat, right where his voice box was—or, where it should have been. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I, um, didn’t realize…” The man waved away her apologies with a silent laugh. Then he repeated his gesture from before.

“Are you trying to ask me what I’m doing out here? In the rain?” When the man nodded, she continued. “Well, I…I didn’t mean to be, it just…happened…I was walking home after…” The woman couldn’t take it anymore. She started crying again.

The man’s eyes widened. He sat down on the curb next to her, moving his umbrella so it sheltered both of them from the rain. He reached out, hesitated, then patted her shoulder. The woman began gasping out her story between sobs. “My-my parents kicked me out, they s-s-said that I sh-should have my own place by now ‘cause I’m-I’m twenty-six and st-still living with them, b-but I can’t find a job and my rent is due this Friday, b-but my savings are running out—on top of this I found out my best friend—I thought she was my best friend, but she’s-she’s saying shit about me that isn’t true, m-making me look awful because I d-didn’t cry when my brother got put in the hospital—he hated me any-anyway, he always has, only talks to me to insult me so that-that makes it hard to get upset, b-but that doesn’t mean I want him to die—!”

She kept going on for some time, tears mingling with the rain water on her face. The man remained silent the whole time, but the woman knew this was because he had to be. He walk away or look uncomfortable. He was polite and attentive, reacting in all the right ways to each of her problems. After a while, the woman gave up on talking and just cried, letting the man rub reassuring circles on her back. And soon, she wiped her eyes. She looked at the man. “Thanks for listening. You didn’t have to.”

The man beamed. It was a nice smile, wide and happy. The woman laughed. “I feel a bit better now. Guess I’ve just been…bottling this all up. Really, thanks for sitting here in the rain and listening to the ramblings of a complete stranger.”

He tilted his umbrella back, pointing once more to the sky. The rain appeared to have lessened. It was coming to a stop as the clouds above lightened. “Huh. Guess the sun is coming out soon.” The man looked toward her, then poked her in the arm. “Hey!” she said, jokingly offended. “That’s not a nice thing to do! But…I think I get what you’re saying. Or, uh, telling me. The sun is going to come out on my life, right?” The man nodded cheerfully. “Huh. Maybe it will. I still have a few days to get a job, and some savings left. I guess I should just keep trying…talk to my friends and make sure they know how I feel…” She nodded slowly. “Yeah, that might work.”

She stood up. The man copied her. “Guess I need to go home, then.” The man raised an eyebrow, then offered her his arm in an old-fashioned gesture. “You want to walk me there? I don’t know…” His eyebrows furrowed. He pointed in the direction she had to walk to get home, then looked at her with a question in his eyes. “Oh, yeah, my apartment is that way.” He bit his lip. Then he raised his hand, made a fist, and brought it down in a stabbing motion before pointing back in the direction of her apartment complex. “I’m sorry, I don’t…are you trying to say it’s dangerous?” The man nodded.

It was true, her apartment had never been in a safe part of town. And with the way things had been recently…just last month a guy in her own apartment complex had disappeared. She’d heard fro his neighbors that they found him recently…or at least, his remains. “Yeah, maybe you’re right. It can’t hurt to be part of a pair…but what about you, walking back?” The man shrugged, the made a lighthearted I’ll be fine gesture. “You sure?” He nodded firmly. “Alright then.”

As the rain faded away, the two of them set off towards the woman’s apartment. Naturally, they walked in silence. Soon, they put their umbrellas away. When they were only a few blocks away from the woman’s apartment, the man reached into his vest and pulled out a silver pocket watch on a chain. He stared at it for a while, then a look of confusion came over his face. “What’s wrong?” the woman asked. In response, the man showed her the face of the watch. The hands were spinning, spinning, spinning…“That’s not normal,” the woman muttered. “Is it s’posed to do that?” The man shook his head, then pushed the watch towards her. “Huh? Want me to look at it? Well, I don’t know if there’s much I can do, but sure.”

She took the watch in her hands, though the man still held the chain. It was odd. As she watched, the clock hands sped up, slowed down, varied in speed, always going around and around and around and around…it was actually kind of…{nice to look at.}

Yes…it was nice to look at…she wasn’t holding the watch anymore. It was…swinging. She should…{keep watching it.} She should keep watching it. She’d been standing there for a while…didn’t she have something…something to do? {No.} No, she didn’t. And what would be more important than the swinging of the watch, the spinning of the hands, the spirals in the back of her vision? {Nothing.} Nothing was more important. This was the only thing in the world…

She was starting to feel tired…{When you’re tired, you go to sleep.} Yes, sleep…that was a good idea…{Sleep…} Sleep…{Go to sleep…} She closed her eyes…

The library door opened, and Marvin looked up from his book to see Jameson enter the room. “Hey dude,” he said. “Noticed you got a new one.”

Jameson strolled over to the shelves, running his fingers over the spines of books. {Indeed,} he said, his voice slipping effortlessly into Marvin’s mind.

“What happened to the other one?”

{He was becoming less efficient. I had to get rid of him.}

Marvin snorted. “Get rid of him…you don’t even do anything.”

{Well then he had to get rid of himself. Does that soothe your troubled mind?}

“Yeah. How’s the new one coming?”

Jameson plucked a book from the shelf, then settled down in a nearby armchair. {She’s very weak mentally. Should be easy. But I’m conflicted, because the ones like this are never as sharp as they were before.}

“You should fix that.”

{That is what I’m doing in here, my fine fellow. You’re sure to have something useful to me in this collection of yours.}

“Well, good luck.”

{Thank you.} Jameson settled in for a long night of research.

Inverted AU Character Intros: 4/7
A JSE Fanfic
[These are intros for the versions of the guys for my Inverted AU! Inverted is a reverse-morality story where the good guys are bad and the bad guy—Anti—is good. These intros should help newcomers understand just how the dynamics work :) This one is for Inverted!Marvin.]

The party in the penthouse was still going late into the night. Honestly, it probably should have stopped long ago, considering the state half the guests were in. But the other half was keeping up the wild energy, downing drinks like crazy, jumping around in the middle of the impromptu dance floor, shouting out their conversations. It was surprising that the neighbors downstairs hadn’t called the police with a noise complaint yet. Maybe they’d just resigned themselves to their fate. All the normal lights were turned off, replaced by red and blue and pink party lights that made designs on the heads of the crowd. Music was pumping from a state-of-the-art stereo system.

Parties like this always attracted weird people. The hostess expected it, encouraged it even, but she’d never seen someone like this before. Not because he was particularly strange, but because…he wasn’t. She stared at him from across the room. He was just standing in a doorway, nursing a drink, watching the party. He was wearing a cape and a strange mask, which, in the hostess’s experience, meant he was one of the crazy ones. But he was just standing there. He hadn’t moved at all the entire night, and despite the cup in his hand he wasn’t drinking.

People came to these parties to go insane for a night. Everyone in the city knew this. The hostess finally decided to approach him and figure out what the deal was. She edged her way around the mass of flailing limbs that was the dance floor and sidled up next to him. “You enjoying yourself?” she asked, raising her voice a bit so he could hear her over the loud music.

His eyes snapped to hers. “Not yet,” he replied. He didn’t shout, but she could hear him perfectly.

“Well, the enjoyment of my guests is important to me,” she told him. “What can I do for you?”

The masked man hummed. “I don’t know. How many people are here?”

Odd question. But some people had issues with crowds, so she shrugged it off. “I dunno. I don’t invite people, I just open the door and let them come in. I think on average it’s about a hundred or two.”

“Nice.” He nodded, looking thoughtful.

“Yeah it is!” The hostess said, beaming. “I got the most popular parties in the city.” The man didn’t say anything, just turned and looked back at the party. He was…weirding her out a bit. “Maybe you just need a new drink,” she suggested. “Then you’ll start to loosen up.”

“That’s a good idea, actually. See you later.” He pushed away from his spot and walked toward one of the refreshment tables. The hostess watched him go. She decided to keep an eye on him. Just in case.

It was starting to look like the party would last all night. People showed up, people left if they were able, but the energy didn’t die down no matter what. The hostess left the dance floor to go get a drink. Not alcohol, she never drank, but just a regular refreshment. She tripped over someone who’d passed out. Not uncommon, but usually the wasted people either had the sense to stumble over to the edges of whichever room they were in, or their friends were able to carry them out of the way. This dude was right in the middle of the path to the refreshments.

The hostess frowned. That wasn’t a good sign. She knelt by the unconscious man, checking his pulse. It was as strong as it could be. She pulled back his eyelids to check his pupils. His eyes immediately rolled back, but she noticed his pupils were super dilated and tiny. Probably a problem. Now, she began to notice other strange things. The veins of his face were sticking out, and slightly purple in color. His temperature was unusually high. Despite being unconscious, he was breathing rapidly and shallowly. Was this a drug of some kind? She didn’t allow such things at her parties. Maybe she should call the police…

A few minutes later, she noticed a woman who’d passed out in the doorway to the kitchen. She was showing the same symptoms. And only moments later, a couple were knocked out on a couch, looking the same. Had someone smuggled some new drug into the party? God, she hoped it wasn’t too dangerous.

But an hour later, she was forced to conclude that it was, in fact, dangerous. At least a third of the party had passed out due to…whatever this was. The hostess, seriously worried, went into the kitchen, which was relatively empty of people and noise. She dodged a couple more unconscious people and pulled out her cellphone.

“Hey, it’s you again.” The hostess looked to her left and saw the masked man, sitting on one of her kitchen counters, reading something on his phone. “How’ve you been?”

“Oh. Hey.” She’d totally forgotten that she wanted to keep an eye on him. He was probably fine, she’d seen him hanging out normally. “I was having a great time a little bit ago, but now…people are acting weird. Passing out with weird…I dunno, symptoms? I think it’s a drug so I’m calling the cops.”

The man stood up, stretching. “I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“What? People could be dying!”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Okay. She was right to be concerned about this dude. She stared at him as she dialed emergency and raised the phone to her ear. His eyes were reflecting the purple party lighting. By this point, she’d forgotten she hadn’t hung any purple lights. She just listened to the dial tone on her phone as it rang…and rang…and rang…and rang…

The masked man walked up to her. “You know, for someone who runs crazy parties like this, you’re a very responsible person.”

“Uh, thanks.” Someone on the other side should’ve picked up by now. It wasn’t a personal number, it was emergency for god’s sake. “Who-who are you again?”

He smiled. “I’m the evening’s entertainment, of course!”

Before the hostess could say anything, he reached out and grabbed her wrist. Violet lightning raced down her arm. Her muscles spasmed and jerked, and when the lightning reached her head seconds later she didn’t even have time to yell before she was knocked out.

A few days later, Marvin was in the basement of the hideout, leaning against a wooden door. Strange symbols were scribbled around the doorframe in what looked like charcoal, but was actually a lot harder to wipe away. He was scrolling through a local news website on his phone. Somebody finally reported the hostess missing.

The article he was reading said she was last seen at her party, or as the media had begun calling it, “The Penthouse Pass-Out.” Stupid name. True, everyone who’d touched any of the refreshments had been affected by the Langoreem’Ysca spell, but they hadn’t really passed out. They all reported being conscious, but too sick to respond. Feverish, nauseous, weak,dizzy…thirteen who’d had too much alcohol had been rushed to the hospital. Of those, seven hadn’t made it. Interesting numbers. Significant.

Marvin decided to call that a successful test. Next, there was a level two version of the Langoreem’Ysca that he was dying to test out. This one happened with no complications, so the next one should work perfectly! He just needed another large group of people…

Actually, there had been one complication. That hostess. She got in the way. But at least he got something out of that. Marvin had a lot of spells he was excited to use. But most of them required a “volunteer.” He needed somebody to test them on, and his last volunteer…well, he decided it was fortunate that he’d picked that party to go to. Saved him a lot of effort.

Marvin leaned over and picked up the leather-bound book he’d laid by his feet earlier. Then he turned and opened the door, revealing steps leading downward still. He adjusted his mask, smiled, and climbed down the staircase, shutting the door behind him.