UnderLove

10: Erog and Zili appreciate You Being Here

You strode through the wooden door in front of you that opened automatically. The room was a kitchen, nothing fancy about it. A fridge against the far left corner, to the right of cabinets, a stovetop, oven, and another cabinet. Along the right wall, a sink connected to a counter. You strode past all the kitchen storage and other and into what looked to be a living room.

A TISH cow in uniform was sitting in a plush rocking chair, she was reading a very thick book. Her shaggy ears dropped down to her shoulders, clearly not groomed. It seemed as if the ends of her ears and arms were dipped in ink and the middle of her forehead was painted a black heart. Her uniform was one very similar to the ones in the Kindergarten but a collar designed with the familiar logo, maybe it was a logo and lined with a dark orange.

She looked up from her book, "Oh, I assume you are the human that was supposed to contact us but didn't?" According to her text box, her name was Zilliona. She stood up to greet you, "Erog owes me five Speci now. He's as good as broke now." Her tone then became less competitive, "But anyways, did, uh, I think it was.. Shima, did she tell you that you were supposed to contact us?" You shook your head no, "Yes! He owes me another five Speci!" She turned down her tone and became calmer, "I will introduce you to Erog then show you to your new personal room. Follow me."

You followed into a room you expected to be a dark closet but was instead filled with monitors, buttons, and switches. In front of all the monitors sat another cow in uniform, in front of a single microphone. His attire was as of a friar in purple but with the same collar that Zilliona wore around her neck. He turned to you and her, spinning in his chair, "Is this the human that didn't contact us and that Shima never told them to in the first place?" His name was Erog, "Yeah, pay up."

He sighed and reached into his robe and pulled out a handful of coins. He raised them above his head and tossed them to her, Zilliona caught all of it single.. pawedly. "Betrüger," Erog snapped at her calmly. "Why thank you, but the correct term is Zocker." You didn't understand any of this gibberish besides that Erog lost a bet.

The silence stood its ground for a moment until Zilliona broke it sweetly. "This is Erog, he's bad at making bets and general gambling, but he's good with fire and weaponry. He also works with the security system." Erog looked at her suspiciously, expecting a proper introduction, "Oh, I never introduced myself to you, I'm Zilliona, but everyone calls me Zili." She's already getting a little annoying. It's not like they can't see their dialogue, can they? "Well, I'll show the human to their room and check back in with you later." Zili said to Erog, "Guess so."

Zili showed you out of the room and down the end of the hall to a door just a half foot taller than you. "This is where you will sleep. You can adjust the things to your liking. You can ask me to help you move things if you want to." There was an awkward pause between you two, "I will be off now." And she walked back down the hall, back to her book on the plush chair.

You entered the room, it was dark. You fumbled along the walls for a light switch. You found one and turned on the overhead lamp. Yes, a lamp that hung off the ceiling. It looked suspiciously... human. A disfigured teal shade and a stout purple body. A large brown bed sat along the far wall, brown sheets, brown frame. A dresser sat next to it, similar in color scheme. A shelf colored a series of reds and oranges was shoved against the left wall, nothing but a few lonely books sitting on it and a thick stack of papers with a pen sitting on top.

Your strength called for more rest. You climbed into the warm but dull bed and pulled the covers over yourself, they... smelled familiar. Your eyes teared up as your vision slowly closed and you slept.

Your dream wasn't very pleasant. You were in your home back where your new and the original parent married. Your sister lay on her bed, not facing you, crying horribly. "Why did you come in my life!? I'd be better off with you dead instead of-" Slap.

You woke up startled, sitting up suddenly. Your parents favored you more than her, just watching her shout and cry while you felt little pity. She would often stay after school for any club that would keep her from any pain. Abuse was often home unless drinking or something other with friends. You avoided doing any mischief to avoid pain.

Back to the present, you rose out of the bed and stood on your own two feet. Your hunger stood at 68%. You pulled out one of the five milk bottles and chugged it down. Hunger: 92%. Good enough. The empty bottle was nowhere to be found, though it was just in your hand. The black box, the Texent, in your pocket buzzed for the very first time, it was Shima. It read, "I was notified you arrived at the Safe House 15 minutes ago. I'm coming over."

You poked your head out of the small room, where would a door to the rest of the underground system be? You looked to your left, in the front room, Zilliona was sitting in her plush chair, reading again. You walked over to her, curious about a way out. 

Zili looked up from her thick book, "Do you need something?" You had options, *Home, *Productivity, *Book, and *Nothing. You chose to ask about getting home, seeing it was the only thing that would probably get you farther in this nightmare of an afterlife if it really was. "Well, this is your home unless you want to go to a different TISH location."

This wasn't getting you anywhere, *Home. "You can't get back to the overworld unless you have a huge power that can break the barricade. Do- do you want to know about the book I'm reading? Currently, the protagonist is undergoing the loss of their father, or was it the mother? I forget." *Nothing. "Okay, you can ask me if you need anything."

She didn't help you with any useful information, so you went into the "closet" where you expected Erog to still be sitting in the dark. He wasn't sitting in his wheeled chair, it sat by itself with no sitter to complete the set.

"I've expected you for the last three minutes." That was Erog's dialogue box, meaning he was here. A blue light erupted, illuminating Erog and his weapon, a flamethrower. "we really appreciate you being here."