Jump The Worlds

Story 3 Pt 2: Memories Chains

Two days after arriving, Charles setup to hold a livestream to kill the sheer unadulterated boredom when he wasn't working. He didn't have a lot of work to do at work, and it followed working from home since he only had three rather minor roles in some bigger projects. He often had most of his paperwork and anything else done long before Lin came by to drop off the new paperwork and picked up the finished work.

He found that Lin had been willing to bring him his paperwork even though he still tripped up on their pronouns, still getting used to them after three months.

Staring at his computer screen as he tweaked a few more settings, he smiled at the fact that his usual people were starting to arrive. He had sent out the notice that was going to go live just about ten minutes before so it was quick. Flipping on his mic, he adjusted it where it was and spoke into it. "Hey, everyone. I'm just finishing up my set up and making sure that nothing is going to go down randomly," he drawled before he flicked his mic off again. He pushed it back out of his face and finished with the settings before he turned to set up his drinks and snacks.

He was planning on having a longish stream, and when he could, he often snacked during the breaks, and he always tried to drink water from a no-tip cup or bottle. Had done so ever since Romeo had been in his kitten stages when they had been starting their gaming channels and had spilled water over their controllers.

After that incident, they had agreed that all cups were in spill proof or sealed cups, or in bottles. Finishing his set up of his food and drinks and moving the roller desk to the side so that he could watch the screen, Charlees sat back with a smile and made sure that he could watch both screens. Finding that he could, he turned the mic back on, flicked on the camera feed, and closed the "We're mopping up the blood" hold screen.

"Well then. Hi there," he greeted watching as the chat started to flow. He saw that more of his regulars had arrived along with some new names, his mods greeting him. One of them asked where his sister was. "My sister is on a week long vacation so any videos that come up on her channel were pre-scheduled and set up for the week. I'm actually streaming along this Friday outside of Romeo and Buttercup." He chuckled when some of the regulars all asked where the cats were. "Somewhere. Probably hunting each other again since no mouse dares to set paw in this house let it gets to death in a woman in a hazmat suit."

The chatters all started to make jokes about the last time that his sister had a mouse infestation as he turned to the TV that he was playing, starting the game up with a smirk.

"Okay, today's game is an indie game. It just came to me yesterday since we all know that my sister doesn't play anything with dolls in it," he started. "It's based on the game Hide and Go Seek Alone." He checked his chat screen, seeing someone ask about the game that he had just said. "It's like the tin says. It's hide and seek, but you're all alone and a doll is your opponent. You feel it with rice, a few other things, sew it shut, and you'll need salt water or salt to turn water into salt water. You'll also need a bathtub, an empty house, and a pre-set safe place to hide," he told them.

He paused for a moment to check the game settings before continuing, reading the comments.

"You can find it online but it is suggested that you don't play it at all. And if you do play it, to follow the rules to the exact letter. And only for about two hours. No more. This game simulates those rules and the game," he said.

The chat went nuts in excitement about the game as the opening screen and menu came up on the TV. He turned his head to the side, sneezing as one hand reached out to grab a tissue. Leaning further away from the microphone, he blew his now and sat back up, settling back into place as he picked up the lapdesk with his mouse and keyboard.

"A word of note: this game can be played with a controller, no problem. But the people who made this admit that the controller can be a bit off so it's best, at the moment until they fix those bugs, to play with keyboard and mouse," Charles said, setting up the configuration for said items. Once he was fully happy, he started the game and sat back. "Okay, so let the fun begin. I'm told that the gameplay can range from anywhere from an hour to three depending on the route that you choose to do. Ah, right. They also changed the ritual and rules because the game in real life are strict. And do remember: this is a blind playthrough."

Checking the chat one last time for the moment, he started to play the game, working his way through the 'ritual' with some ease. Since it was just stuffing a rag doll with a mix of cotton, rice and hair, and setting up his chosen safe spots he got the controls down easily. He had just hidden his character in one of the 'safe spots' that he had chosen when something in the chat caught his eye.

'dude...my man, did ur door just move?'

Frowning at that, he paused the game and shifted to look back through the chat history, seeing a few others had already commented on the door moving. "Door? Which one?" he asked, looking at the screen. He saw that the angle of his camera only showed two of the four main doors in the basement, and just part of the basement up at the top of the stairs.

The other being the door that lead to the doll room.

Looking at the chat with a frown at the various versions of 'door up the stairs' came over the chat.

"Yeah, alright. Let me check it out. Might just be the insane cats again," he said. Standing up, he took his phone with him on the off chance that he would need to take a picture and headed up the stairs with a frown. Pushing open the door, he noted that he had left it open to allow for better air flow before looking out into the dining room.

He found the two cats staring at the door with laser eyed precision. Glancing around, he found that there wasn't anything odd to be seen, took a picture of the cats and headed downstairs again, leaving the door open.

As he walked back to the couch, he shook his head and posted the picture to his Instagram page, captioning it with 'Found the cats looking like they were staring down the Devil and telling him to fuck off. Someone saw the basement door move while streaming and told me. That plus the cats' fuck off look? Creepy'. He added a couple of hashtags to the post and hit post while sitting down.

"Sorry about that guys. If you want to see what I saw when I got up there, go to my instagram and check out the new pic," he said as he checked the chat. When he scrolled up, he found nothing important and returned to his game as the 'freaky' and 'yur cats are weird' comments started to come through. "Not my ats. I'm just their human uncle slave," he stated as he unpaused the game with a smirk. "Now, let's see if I can get through the first hour without dying a horrible death."

It was as he moved to another safe spot in them, working on locking everything down that Charles checked the chat just in time to catch everyone talking about how the cats were watching something that wasn't the TV.

"Anyone catch a clip of that?" he asked as he again paused the video and opened one of the clips. Indeed, they had gotten video of Romeo and Buttercup boht sitting on the stairs, heads moving slowly as if they were watching something that was hidden by the huge ass couch he was sitting on. "Well then, would ya look at that? It's a good thing that I tend to record what I'm doing even when I'm doing streams," he said, shaking his head.

He sat back for a moment, reading the comments that were coming in. Most of them were suggesting that he kept a video diary about anything odd that happened.

"To be truthful, this would be like the second thing that could be considered odd," he said, rubbing at his head. He looked up at the cats and found that they were still staring at whatever had caught their attention. "Seriously. This is actually the first time that I've experienced anything here, but it's not the first time that I've babysat her place. Let's head back into the stream and I'll make a video on what is going on and everything later," he promised, returning to the game.

It was as he was finishing off the ritual and getting rid of the doll that he noticed that the doll in the game looked a hell of a lot like the doll that he had put up the day before.