You tab into your main view, seeing what’s happened since you turned your attention away.

It looks like Primus is out cold, but judging from his occasionally twitching body, he’s just resting. Buddy however, appears to be coming to.

Buddy slowly pulls itself into a sitting position, jolting a little when it sees its amputated leg. It pats at the sealed area and seems to almost wince- Numfi asks if it’s in any pain, to which the knife type says yes, but…not in the ways it would expect for something like this. It can still feel its old leg, but it knows it’s not there…but the wound doesn’t hurt at all, and neither does its face.

You’re probably going to have to decide whether you’ll explain the scalpel’s effects at some point…

Before you can get too caught up in that, Buddy turns and notices the two people on the floor- Facade, sitting cross legged next to Chops.

You half expect Buddy to recoil at the sight of its past captor, but…it just sits there, the two TCPs staring at each other.

It takes a few moments before Chops starts muttering apologies, saying that they hated doing it-

It’s okay, says Buddy. There’s the slightest bit of wavering to its voice, but it is no less convicted in its words.

They’re here now, and that’s what matters.

They shake their head.

They grimace.

Before you can even get a goodbye in, they’ve hung up on you.

Time to get back to it.

You stop.

They take a deep breath.

Something about their voice changes for a moment, the cat trailing off. 

You wrack your brain for solutions as the cat watches you, their eyes boring into yours.

They nod, hanging onto your words.

The corner of their mouth twitches up into a smile, but only for a moment.

They grimace a little.

They shake their head, clearly at a loss.

They pause for a moment, choosing their words carefully.

 

They look somewhat unconvinced at their own statement, but you can’t tell which part actually lacks conviction to it. 

Chelsea stops to think this over.

 

Chelsea makes a face at the mention of Wretch, more distress than anything.

You pick up the call.

The person on the end is definitely not Spit, at least...they look like some kind of cat, though you can’t see any ears on them to confirm that. Metal horns appear to be attached to their head, and you get a grim feeling that they aren’t coming off. They have the same collar style that Spit’s TCPs have, and their fur is incredibly dirty and matted, matching their equally tattered and ripped clothes.

You have never seen someone so tired.

...You are also pretty sure some of those stains are blood. 

You all go quiet, waiting for Wretch to follow up on that. When she doesn’t continue, you step in.

Wretch giggles at that, and you hear Eastwood groan.

You glad that at the very least, Wretch’s mood seems a bit lighter now- but there’s one more thing to handle before you forget. 

You’re getting a call.

 
You ask Facade if Spit ever mentioned a name, or has the voice introduced themself. Facade relays, and Chops seems to panic a bit. They weren’t supposed to tell anyone about it, not unless they were “the new person”, and they have no idea who that even is-

Primus sits himself up as best as he can, making sure his voice could be heard better. He says that you’re a new god and new to the “game” as well, so...maybe it was you. Chops takes this in, nodding to themself...okay. They’ll tell.

They said that the voice’s name was Chelsea, and that they only want to talk to you, if anyone. None of the other gods. Chops had asked why that was, and Chelsea didn’t want to share much. All they said was that it was vitally important that as few people as possible communicated with them directly. Other people knowing they were helping with the game was fine, as long as it wasn’t detailed on.

Chelsea...huh. Pretty normal sounding name for someone with access to Spit’s console.

You ask Facade if she could ask Chops about Spit’s 5th TCP, one they haven’t met yet- so not Chops, Hark, Raw, or Writhe. What job were they given to do?

Facade passes it on, her voice all business.

Chops is quiet for a moment, saying that they don’t really like Bile much. Bile? Primus asks, his voice strained. Is that the fifth TCP? Chops nods, saying that it was his job to handle lots of traps. He wasn’t allowed to fight directly, though- he’s a poison type, and his body’s glass...Mom was always yelling for people not to break him when they sparred. They never wanted to, obviously! But...he’s...pretty mean. Always doing weird things, and picking on Writhe...

Chops definitely seems less hesitant to give up this information, in any case.
 


You turn to your alliance.
 

VOIDSY: Hey, checking in real quick- how’s things at the pit?
EASTWOOD: We’re almost out. It’s been going smoothly so far, aside from fucking Jetter needing to eat more than half the jelly.
WRETCH: he’s poisoned!!
EASTWOOD: Still, that’s almost all our rations gone. 
EASTWOOD: We’re hoping it wears off soon, at least. 
MILLER: What’s going on back on your end?
VOIDSY: We’re talking to the captured TCP of Spit’s...they said that there’s a “nice voice” that talks to them, and even helps them out sometimes.
VOIDSY: Does Spit have a roommate?
MILLER: Well, she lives with a lot of her high ranking cult members...but the one most immediate to her location wise is her demon.
MILLER: Chelsea pretty much only gets to leave Spit’s side when she’s visiting me-
VOIDSY: Wait, Chelsea?
VOIDSY: That’s the name Chops said.
MILLER: Oh!!!

 
Miller sounds delighted.
 

MILLER: Chelsea’s great!
WRETCH: she’s alright
EASTWOOD: Wait, how do you know her?

Wretch doesn’t answer, letting Miller carry on.
 

MILLER: I’ve known her for decades! She doesn’t like working with Spit at all, and is unfortunately kind of her unwilling servant and mercenary…
MILLER: ...she’s been through a lot. 
MILLER: Kind of grumpy, personality wise… But frankly, in her shoes, she has a reason to be.
MILLER: I can’t imagine living with and working with Spit is pleasant in any capacity, especially not with the way that Spit frames their…”partnership”.

 
Miller shudders a bit.
 

MILLER: I’ve always wanted to get her out of there, but it’d be impossible to get her somewhere truly safe from Spit.
MILLER:  ...Rein says it’s a lost cause and would be dangerous to let a high ranking cultist free from that, but I don’t really know how to feel about that. 
MILLER: It probably just needs to get to know her better!
VOIDSY: Huh...okay.

  

  

VOIDSY: Is it possible for someone else to use the god console?
MILLER: It’s really not allowed, but it is possible.
EASTWOOD: People have gotten temporarily banned from the game for sharing consoles before, so it’s kind of an unspoken rule not to tell if you do. Snitches get stitches.
VOIDSY: But wait, couldn’t we just tell on Spit, then?
EASTWOOD: Not that simple. 
EASTWOOD: If I had to guess, I’d say that the only reason why she’s letting someone else at her station is because she has some kind of backup plan if she gets banned.
EASTWOOD: Some kind of failsafe that could kill her TCPs off in the case that she’s kicked, or worse, a lot of ours.
EASTWOOD: Hard to say, but I wouldn’t risk it.

You ask if Primus is up for conveying things between you and the clowns, to which he says that he’s not sure. One of the wizits asks what he’s talking about, and he says that you don’t have a way to communicate with them without a middleman. The wizit involved in Chops’ interrogation pipes up again, saying that she might be able to help. Her name is Facade, the Lady of the Laughs, and one of her magical abilities is to focus and hear otherworldly entities. Whatever you are, she might be able to listen in.


 
You tell Primus it’s worth a shot, which he passes on. Facade takes a deep breath and strikes a pose, taking a moment before a puff of confetti bursts from her tail.

Should be good now, she says.

You say hi, and she says hi back, no delay. So...what’s the deal?

You say that you’re curious about this “nice voice” deal- could she bring up the TCP and get some more information out of them?

She says can do, and starts heading down the stairs. You awkwardly sit there, not wanting to leave Primus out of view.



After what feels like forever, she comes back up, pulling a restrained Chops along with her. The TCP looks nervous, looking around wildly- were they in trouble? What was with all the-

They only look more taken aback as they see Buddy, their voice coming out panicked and strained.

They swear that they didn’t hurt it that bad, they just captured it and tied it up, because M-mom told them to- they promise! They really didn’t do it!

You tell Facade that you know, and that it was Hark who injured Buddy that badly. Chops grows quiet as the clown passes it on, and nods. That...makes sense. They ask if Hark got hurt back, which you pass on that yes, she did, but only out of self defense. 

Chops says nothing.

You take the opportunity to ask about “the nice voice”- what was up with that?

Chops hesitates, and says that they could get in trouble if they told, but Mom doesn’t seem to be around right now, so...it was probably okay.

They say that there’s a nice voice that they hear sometimes, that tells them not to be afraid. It made them a toy, even, and didn’t get the chance to talk to anybody else before getting pulled away again…

Mom doesn’t seem to like it very much, and they think they heard it getting yelled at for not being harsh enough with them before your TCPs showed up.

Facade says whatever she’s going to grill them on or do next is up to you.

You tell Primus that he did great, and that you’re so, so proud of him. He went above and beyond, and you’re not sure you could have gone through what he just did. He did everything he could, and Buddy’s going to recover in no time.

Primus asks how you can be so sure, and you tell him that you can’t exactly promise that everything’s going to be okay, really, but you’re going to do your best to make sure that it is. You have no plans to stop fighting or give in, and you dream of the day where you can all look each other in the eye and be a family together in person. He weakly says that that sounds wonderful, and you tell him it will be. He seems soothed by your words, his pain eased enough for him to stop whistle-y whimpering.

You want to let him rest, but you figure you should at least let him know what’s going on- the other teams are leaving Spit’s base as you speak, and should be regrouping at Miller’s base soon. 

He asks if they should get over there too, somehow- maybe one of the clowns could ride the sphinx, and everyone else could come in the trailer.

...well, after someone handles the captured TCP down in the sanctuary. He doesn’t know what’s up with them yet, and he can’t exactly go down to check himself like this…



One of the clowns across the room pipes up that the TCP down there’s been interrogated already, and that she was there for it before coming up to help with this. None of the TCPs at the tower were really suited towards interrogating anyone, so...clowns did it.

You process the idea of clown interrogation for a moment, but decide that there’s much weirder things in your collective life so far. 

Primus asks how it went, and the wizit shrugs and says that the TCP seemed pretty shaken up, and not like a weird murderer at all. They said that they were scared and wanted to talk to “the nice voice”, and not to let Spit get them again. 

No idea what that means, though.