Strike Out! [Self-insert Multi-Crossover Universe hopping fanfiction]

[Lilium Mortem]

Strike Out! Chapter 7

"This is taking forever!" King whined as I set up the laptop.

"Deal with it, I'm not gonna let this thing run windows eleven." I said, plugging away at Linux setup options.

Eda had come through for me. I picked a Walmart in Boyfriendverse(Maybe I should call it earth beta or something? I really need to figure out a naming scheme) that backed up to the woods and gave her a shopping list. She was the expert regarding stealing, plus I didn't want to make any trouble for my alternate self.

I realized why when she came back with a cartoonishly large burlap sack filled to brim with random bullshit. It took some digging to actually find the stuff I wanted out of the random junk. While I was working getting things set up, Eda was opening a pile of blind box toys with the fervor of someone with a gambling problem. I made a mental note to keep an eye on that.

I sighed, realizing I needed a driver update. I'd have to Strike back to Earth 2(yeah that one doesn't work either) for somewhere to Wi-Fi.

"Is Luz still cooped up in her room?" I asked, packing up the laptop in a brand-new bag,

"Yeah, but I wouldn't worry about it." King said, lining up Eda's discarded blindbox toys like soldiers.

I looked to Eda "Should I worry? I feel like I have a certain responsibility for shattering her entire worldview."

Eda Shrugged, shaking a box like she could determine the contents by sound alone, like a kid with a present they weren't allowed to open yet. "She's a strong kid. Sometimes you gotta work through things on your own. If she doesn't come out for dinner we can talk intervention."

"anyone need anything? I'm going to an earth library to fix some issues with the laptop"

"A record of your world's greatest rulers, so I may learn their weaknesses!" King demanded.

"I'm good," Eda said, popping open the blind box she had been shaking "Oooooh, a secret rare!"

Wait, did the package mention secret rares or did she pick that term somewhere else? No, Focus. Library, Wi-Fi, Video Drivers.

I pulled a white cloth facemask on from a pile Eda had swiped for me and I exited the owl house, Ignored Hooty saying something stupid, and walked far enough away that any stray lightning wouldn't hit the house before-

*BOOM*

-I arrived in the woods. The woods were the same that both the Walmart Eda shoplifted from and the library sat next to, so I just creeped around the treeline before I got back to the library.

I stopped to check a clock when entering. 4:31PM. I never actually checked how close the time zones lined up between here and the demon Realm. It was close enough that I hadn't noticed the difference, but I think I remember that Silent Hill was at night during the afternoon here, so who knows?

Shaking my head, I pulled my focus together enough to enter into the library proper, passing by the front desk-

*click*

-when sudenly the flash and digital camera sound came from a librarian's phone behind said desk. I turned to see Devon holding up his phone, pointed at me.

My first thought was 'oh god what if he knew I stole from Walmart' which was stupid because then he could've just called the cops. why did he need a photo? Our eyes locked as his mouth opened in surprise, fiddling with his phone before looking back at me and bolting into the back. The other librarian at the front desk looked confused as I was.

"Hey," I said, walking up to the other librarian. "It looks like you don't, but just double-checking: do you have any Idea what that was about?"

The librarian shook her head. "I uh, sorry about that." She said before something crossed her mind, "on behalf of the library, I mean."

I sighed. "I know Devon from Elementary and Middle school. I met him here yesterday. I don't want to ask too much, but can you at least go ask him what the hell that was for me?"

The Librarian gave it some thought, clearly caught in a tough spot. I didn't know if she just didn't want to get involved or if she wasn't paid enough for this shit. maybe both.

Before she could decide Devon came out of the back and held out his phone, that was in the 'ongoing call' screen.

Not really thinking about it, I took the phone and held it up to my ear. "hello?"

There was some muffled sound from the other sound for a couple of seconds, before a voice said, "Oh wow that's trippy. I'm still inclined to think this is a Scam of some kind, but you look and sound just like them."

"Who?" I asked, confused.

"Aster, obviously." The voice said, and my blood went cold.

What? How? My mind raced. Apparently my presence as the second Aster in this world had been caught. I had figured it would be over after I was banned from the discord back when I thought I had just taken a nasty tumble instead of being shunted to another universe.

I was content leaving it at that, I didn't want to trouble my other self.

"Uh..." I said, with all the eloquence of a bull in a china shop.

"Look, can you just explain what it is you're doing with the face and voice of my partner?" oh god it was the boyfriend.

"Its better if you just forgot about this, I don't plan on making any trouble for them" I said.

"A bit late for that, your stunt taking out a library card in their name has them in a panic! They've reset all their passwords and have been religiously checking their bank account and credit card activity" Boyfriend said, clearly angry.

"Shit." I said, I hadn't thought much about the library card. But other me would have gotten an email or something when I got the card, or maybe when I checked out The Owl House box set.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't consider it. I just thought having a Library card would be useful, and Devon, that's the librarian whose phone you're calling from by the way, offered to print me one."

"Why though? Why impersonate them? Why mimic their voice?"

"I'm not mimicking anything!" I snapped. Those were probably the wrong thing to say, but you don't get to where I am by not having others question the validity of your existence. It's a sore spot.

Boyfriend scoffed "so you're claiming you are Aster?"

I couldn't see a way out of this. I didn't want to involve the boyfriend or my other self in this. But I also couldn't think of any way to reasonably explain being a (mostly) exact copy of this world's Aster.

So I hung up, handed Devon his phone back, and power walked out of the Library.

I sat down on a planter box outside and hunched over until I was holding my head in my hands. My breathing came quick, and I felt the world narrow down to a point. I pulled my mask off since there was no one around and I could take deeper breaths easier.

Then the clarity seeped back in. a panic attack. Not as bad as the one I had after nearly using my power on King, but still not great. I was an observer to my own thoughts as my body went through the motions, trying to take deep breaths.

Trying to take my mind off it I got to work on what I was actually here for. after checking that the laptop was getting the library's Wi-Fi I logged on and got shunted to a web page asking for my library card number. I slammed the laptop closed in anger.

I stood up from the planter and walked in the general direction of the city. I'd find a coffee shop or something with free Wi-Fi eventually.

---

*BOOM*

I entered the Owl House as the sun hung low over the boiling sea. I had finished my updates and gotten a test play of the Blu-ray before I headed back. It was all working.

Eda's head leaned in from the hallway. "wow, you were gone a while."

I sighed, "I don't want to talk about it. it just took longer than I expected."

Eda shrugged, then leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. "Whats the deal with those masks anyway?"

Oh, I was still wearing the cloth facemask. "Long story short there's an ongoing pandemic that everyone's ignoring as 'over' back home, and also the alternate earth. don't know if its going on in Luz's earth. The mask is meant to stop airborne disease from entering and leaving one's mouth."

"Didn't Lily say you were immune to diseases? also why start now?"

"There's a cultural pushback against masks by people who want life to return to 'normal'. By wearing a mask, even if I don't expect to get infected, I signal to people under peer pressure that people still do mask, making it more acceptable for more at risk individuals to mask. It also signals me as safe to those same individuals, who have no way of knowing I'm probably immune to disease." I said, then added under my breath "and they look cool."

"Well whatever, Dinner's almost ready. You planning on staying the night?"

I blinked. "Are you planning on letting me stay the night?"

"You're broke and homeless, aren'tcha?" She asked, "Don't worry, I'll take it out of your pay from the heist you helped me pull earlier. You can crash on the couch for tonight at least, we can look at something more permanent tomorrow."

I dared not look a gift horse in the mouth "How's Luz doing?" I asked instead.

"ehhh, still sulking, but she said she'd be down for dinner."

"Oh god this is going to be such an awkward dinner, but I can't afford food that's not free"

"That's the spirit."

---

Oh god dinner was so awkward. Luz was acting like a typical sulky teen, playing with her lasagna halfheartedly, as if poking it with a fork might yield some brilliant insight. Or maybe she just wasn't paying attention. King was asking questions about The Owl House TV show, and Eda was egging him on while trying to get Luz to talk.

"Who played me? was it some famous human celebrity?" King asked.

"Well, no." I said, shrugging. "Generally you don't get celebrety voice actors exept for big budget movies. Though you're voice actor was pretty famous in animation circles. His name is Alex Hirsch and he created and directed the show Gravity Falls, a two season mystery show about a small town where weird supernatural stuff was going on. It was really influential for the cartoons that followed. I'm pretty sure Dana Tarrace worked on it before making The Owl House, so she and Hirsch were buddies."

"so a director voiced me, interesting. Makes sense with my macho and adult voice"

Eda snorted, "I think it just goes to show how talented this Hirsch guy is to make his voice so shrill and tiny. Say, who voiced Luz?"

Luz looked away.

"I don't actually know. I copied the wiki for the show, its like uh, a publicly edited encyclopedia that's... on Pentsagram? Look I don't know how to explain the internet to you. Anyway I haven't gotten time to go through it yet. Even if I did check the wiki I'd only get a name. I'd need to go back to Earth 2? Earth beta? I really gotta come up with a name for that place. I just need Wi-Fi there If I wanted to look anything specific up."

"Say, if this 'Gravity's fall' is so influential, how much is my-our show?" king asked.

"It was one of the last real TV cartoons. Things moved online more totally after it. The company behind it, Disney, lost interest in shows like it. Though its genuinely one of the most queer cartoons made by a big name studio despite how hard Dana Terrace had to fight for it, with the explicitly gay nature of... certain relationships as well as genderqueer characters such as Raine. God they were so nice to see for me, made me feel like I could just exist without getting flak for it. And so far I haven't here, at all! It's great."

"why's it so important that you see genderqueer characters? There's lots of people like that." Eda asked, confused.

"Because the human world is horrible to people that don't fit the mold" Luz said, bitterly.

"In my world," I said carefully, trying to build off what Luz said, "We're fighting for our lives. Trans people are being denied more and more medical care, being banned from bathrooms, and having our IDs rendered invalid. We're told we're unnatural, that some God hates us and that makes it okay for them to hate us. That we're corrupting the youth and sexually assaulting them by just existing."

Luz whipped her head to me, growing horrified. "It's really that bad in your world?"

"I don't remember what year this is set in, or rather what year it is now. But I come from 2026. Kansas rendered all transgender Driver's licenses invalid. that's one of the most egregious examples, but the current president is a living ego trip that fuels hate for the sake of making himself look bigger, and people attach themselves to him like remora, trying to push their own brand of hate onto the world."

Eda looked furious. "What kind of world would let people do that?! Sure the coven system sucks here, and the emperor is pure evil, but at least we get to be ourselves sometimes. The pettiness of hating such tiny differences is just. Infuriating!"

"I can't even come out to my mom as bi without being afraid of what she'd think" Luz muttered.

"Bi, as in bisexual, biromantic, bi? As in loving someone regardless of gender bi?" Eda asked, short circuiting. Luz nodded. "I- but how- I dated a demon with seven different mouths and forty eyeballs and your world is concerned with couples having different genders?!?!"

Luz and I both nodded.

"Wow that's messed up" King added.

"I can't do this," I said, getting up. "I've had enough explaining the injustice of my world to people that live there, I don't want to get bummed explaining it to y'all too. Excuse me."

And with that I exited out the back door and decided to climb the old tower. The sun had gone down, so I could sulk and watch the stars at the same time. I laid down on the cold stone of the tower's roof and stared at an alien sky.

Did I even want to go home? Sure I had friends back there, but maybe all I wanted was to tell them I was okay. If it wasn't worth it living in a red state was it worth it living in America at all? And if not was it worth living on the planet anymore when I'm one Belos away from a peaceful magical wonderland?

I was so tired of fighting. To exist, to be called my own name, to earn respect, to have to advocate for myself. What If I just. Stopped?

I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. I reflexively made my way for my headphones and phone, but one of those was missing, and the other was broken. Couldn't even drown out my thoughts.

So I watched the impossible stars, and enjoyed the beauty of the impossible.

I lost track of time just letting my thoughts shuffle around in my head. I did my best not to worry about them right then. It was beautiful night, and my worries could wait until tomorrow.

"Is this spot taken?"

I sat up to see Luz at the top of the stairs, hands folded behind her back. I sighed, pushed aside my thoughts, and patted the cold hard stone beside me.

Luz moved to the chest laying against the crenellations, and pulled out two blankets.

"We have stuff in this chest for hanging out up here without having to sit on the bricks" She explained, handing me one of the blankets before setting her own down beside me.

I got up and copied her, laying out the blanket before sitting back down.

"I'm sorry"/"I'm Sorry" we both said at the same time. I made a motion for her to go first.

"It's not your fault, you just watched a show." Luz began, "But I can't stop thinking about how everything in my life was already written. I thought I had already learned my lesson, that I wasn't the protagonist, that this wasn't a story. And now it feels like I have to do that all over again. But you didn't deserve the cold shoulder, you're stuck like me, away from your earth, in a fantastic world that seems just like a story."

"Thanks," I said, before taking my turn, "I'm sorry I got you involved like I did. I sought you out, or at least Eda. I had planed on manipulating you, of keeping my cards close to my chest while I tried to nudge events towards a better outcome. That was shitty and stupid. But even when I came clean I had to burden you with an existential crisis."

"don't blame yourself for my problems" Luz said, staring at me. "I'd rather know and have to deal with this than not. "Truth is but a neutral force, not a curse witches place upon their enemies, nor something to be withheld to shield their allies."

I looked at Luz in confusion.

"That never showed up in the cartoon? It's a quote from The Good Witch Azura." Luz explained. "Azura's Ally Hecate hid a book of forbidden knowledge from her, It had a lot of like, horrible magical experiments and transcripts of torture. Hecate had nightmares from reading it, but some of the information was helpful on their travels. Hecate didn't want Azura to suffer the horrible truth of the book. That line is from when they made up about it. The book was never cursed, it just hurt Hecate because of her past, and Azura was fine reading it. Horrified by the contents, but fine.

"It was really exciting because I thought they were setting up a classic cursed knowledge trope, but then they subverted it by just having it be an ordinary book! And the way it tied in with Hecate's guilt even after her redemption? And Azura's forgiveness? It's a huge amount of growth for both characters while challenging a well known fantasy trope!"

I smiled. It was easy to forget Luz was a huge nerd sometimes.

"I'll have to ask about borrowing those books sometime" I said. "You don't have anything to worry about, coming out to your mom. She's so supportive in the show, from the second you come out she wears this heart shaped rainbow pride pin all the time. You're really lucky."

Luz took on a thoughtful expression, probably trying to make sense of the information and who and where it had come from. I couldn't blame her. Shit was fucked.

"I know she'll probably take it fine," She eventually said, "but even someone essentially seeing the future doesn't make it any easier."

I laughed, "yeah. It'll get easier though. When you surround yourself with people that support you, when you live authentically without hiding, you'll stop having to be brave and just... Live. It'll be normal."

"...so," Luz said, awkwardly, a bit of desperation tinging her voice, "does that mean I go home, back to my Earth?"

"Yeah," I said, "I'm going to do a presentation tomorrow on everything I've scraped from the wiki to get everyone up to speed. So I don't want to get into it too much but you will go home. And your mom will let you return to the boiling isles. You'll get to live in both worlds."

"I want to believe that, but..."

"It's too good to be true?"

"Yeah."

"Do you want to watch the show? I know I spent the day trying to get the laptop to play the Blue-rays, but It's your life, at least mostly, so you get the final say if anyone else sees it."

Luz stood up and started pacing, a serious look on her face.

"If I get the remote, and we can stop anytime, then yeah. I want to see it myself. But it's going to have to be after school tomorrow."