MESSIAH COMPLEX by JKQLYNIDE

"I’m fine." JC rubs their eyes. Hardly awake enough to make out the sound of a cup set on a table and the smell of something better than coffee. The stimulus is enough to pick their gaze up.

"Something’s up," KC sits, sets their own mug down, props a hand to their chin and leans in, "Just tell me."

"I’ve been hearing something."

"Another new demon you met on a new drug?" KC makes an educated guess, based on JC’s cycles and patterns. What new, nonsensical metaphysical schema will they start rattling off about next?

"No." JC picks their head up to see KC’s ever caring yet ever tired stare, and rasps, "The same one. Sober."

"Which one?"

"The one with the…" JC mimes two curves on the sides of their heads.

"Horns?" KC asks. JC nods. KC flips a hand out, shrugging, "Do you think that narrows it down?"

JC scoffs. The shakes of their head gradually cock further to one side as they slide into a glassy stare off in the distance. "How am I supposed to describe something only I can see?"

KC perks a brow up, returning their arms to a more inward posture. "Oh, you’re seeing it now?"

JC’s palms return to their eye sockets, their weight shifting to face away from the paler jackal. "Everywhere. It won’t leave me alone."

"That does sound familiar." KC pieces a few things together. Every once in a while, a sign will appear, that the waves of strange thoughts and figures JC experiences does not come from nowhere. In times like those, KC often must re-assess whether to patiently tolerate the magenta-spatteed dog’s foolish ramblings, or to consider them more earnestly, "Is this the one Cyper warned you about?"

"The one the they said the STF was studying."

KC’s eyes go wide. "You think… it got out?"

JC shrugs, "Whatever happened. it’s singled me out"

"I think we should call Cyper to-"

"No." JC’s eyes meet KC’s for the frist time. A mix of pain, confusion, sadness, and desperation flashes through their eyes like z-fighting textures in a game. Their voice doesn’t contain the same emotion. "They’re trying to kill it."

KC finally attempts a sip from their mug as their mind runs a few different cycles. It’s still too hot. "The STF can do a lot of things. But if they can’t contain demons, I doubt they’d be able to kill them." The mug returns to the table and their eyes return to JC. "They can kill you, though."

JC’s eyes break, and stare at their mug, grasped in both hands. letting a wisp of steam twist up past their face. They look back up. The gaze is not the one of fear. It’s brighter. Their expression is sharp, solid. Conflicting with this confident smirk, their words shake and rasp, "Let them try."

A stray birdsong from another universe's Jupiter.
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