~~~~~~

Stanley

~~~~~~

Stanley had made sure to eat and drink plenty, so when he stopped meditating, the only Debuff was [Exhausted]. After that, it honestly felt nice to just let go and let the fatigue take him away. "Good boy, Caff…" he murmured, eyes drifting shut.

He thought about leaning back on the shell to see if it might be a more comfortable position… and felt something tighten painfully around his throat!

Stanley's eyes snapped open and he saw Lee standing before him, a dark band encircling his neck. "Lee…"

His brother clutched at the collar and screamed in agony.

"No! We broke it. We won!" Stanley tried to scream, but he couldn't draw breath past the strangling pressure on his throat!

A demonic elf emerged from the shadows behind Lee, its mouth brimming with needle-like teeth as it grinned triumphantly at them. Stanley struggled to move, but his body refused to listen, and his mind couldn't seem to find purchase on anything.

A gleaming blade appeared in the elf's hand, and it drove it into Lee's stomach. "Sscream for usss!" it hissed and twisted the knife.

Stanley felt a cold burning pain in his gut, mirroring his brother as he thrashed in desperation. "No, you can't! I'll kill you!" The unyielding band around his neck dug in tighter, cutting off his breath further and choking him on the blood surging up his throat, drowning him.

Lee's eyes faded into dullness as blood ran in rivers from him, and Stanley felt the ground drop out from beneath him.

He fell.

Down, down, into the dark, Stanley fell away from the light. Lee followed him down, his dull eyes lighting up as they plummeted deeper… lighting up with a terrible red glow.

A wall of fur with a curly tail appeared.

"Caff! Help…" Stanley begged.

The pug turned to face him, and Stanley felt despair dig deeper into his Soul.

Caffeine's face was the horrible white of a bleached bone, twin red orbs looking out of the undead skull. "No…"

More figures shambled from the dark.

Eve's silver eye resolved first, followed by a horrible mockery of a spider's body as her eight metal legs picked their way closer. In her arms was Zeke, his body melting as ooze poured from his mouth. "You did this!" Eve said in a bitter voice, "you damned us all!"

"No…"

Walter appeared then, while behind him, Daryl and Princess clawed at an egg, cracking it open and digging out the flesh inside with dead, hungry eyes. "You failed us, Sir. We trusted you…"

Stanley tried and failed to close his eyes as the acid flowing from Zeke started to lap at his feet. It burned… "No! I didn't mean to…"

Lee was staggering towards him with arms outstretched and mouth moving hungrily.

Stanley's despair shifted into bitter anger. "I can't… this can't be happening… No. I'll destroy everything rather than let…"

An explosion of golden light blinded him, and Stanley hesitated. "That light…"

As the light receded from a blinding brilliance and faded into a warm glow, it took with it all the anger, pain, and fear. Stanley's frantic breath and pounding pulse slowed…

"It's okay, Stanley." Lee stood over him still, but now no longer wounded or zombified, and with a smile on his beautifully alive face. "You can rest. I'm here with you."

The collar around Lee's neck was glowing with Runes, a ring of protective power shining from the symbols and pushing back the darkness as he sat down next to Stanley, "we are all here with you, Stanley. So sleep, and we will watch over you."

Caffeine curled up on Stanley's legs, his big brown eyes also full of life and affection as he settled into his favorite spot.

Zeke stood beside Lee, his form amorphous and indistinct but radiating the golden warmth.

"This is… good." Stanley relaxed in the light, and his eyes drifted shut.

…

Buff Gained: [Well Rested]

It was a bit awkward when Stanley woke up, finding Zeke wrapped half around him inside the narrow shell. "Um, hi…"

"Good morning, sleepyhead!" Zeke said, laughing at the look on Stanley's face.

Stanley nudged at the shell to open up more space, but it refused to budge.

"Your shield!" Eve yelled from outside, and Stanley quickly re-upped his Soul Shield and Meditation.

"My bad." The shell opened easily after that, and Stanley found a lot of eyes focused on him as Zeke climbed free.

"Um, I guess something… happened? Are we…" He was worried about the implications of Zeke being inside the shell, which meant they'd had to have opened it… but everyone seemed relatively calm. Tired but calm.

"You had a nightmare," Zeke supplied, "but don't worry, Walter blocked you while I jumped in!"

"I don't remember anything…" Though the effort of trying to remember did grant flashes of… Stanley stopped trying. He didn't need or want to remember.

"I feel great!" Stanley smiled at everyone. "Sorry for the trouble, but thanks!" He honestly felt fantastic. Clearly, he had needed the rest. "Walter, I didn't know you could do that. That's great!"

"It was no trouble, Sir."

Eve put down her work and approached. She felt… different.

"Don't start with that!" she snapped and then took a breath before muttering, "wow, that came back easy…"

Then she met his gaze and said much more calmly, "I'm going to expand the cocoon so that Zeke can fit when you need to sleep. We can't risk that again. So can you…" She glanced down at where he was sitting.

Stanley finally got the hint. "Sure." He wanted to ask about what had changed with Eve but held his tongue, literally, and floated out of her way instead. He spread out his mind as he went, checking out the surroundings.

It was still dark outside, with only the occasional spider wandering the streets. The neighbors were all huddled inside above them, and it felt… calm. "How did I know it's dark?" Stanley couldn't physically see outside, and his touch didn't… "Oh, I see." Or rather, he didn't 'see.' Instead, he 'knew' that it was dark, his passive perception reaching just enough past the trailer walls to feed him that information.

Daryl was already crawling into one of the beds when Stanley addressed the others again. "I can take the watch now if anyone needs to sleep." He suspected that his own sleep issues had delayed everyone else from getting any rest, and indeed everyone but Eve headed for bed immediately, with only Walter pausing to leave a steaming banquet on the table before he lay down as well.

Stanley joined the excited Caffeine at the table and started to eat while watching Eve work. He was just a bit embarrassed that he didn't remember his nightmare, but also relieved. Despite the feeling of having done something that everyone else witnessed while he himself didn't have a clue… Stanley felt good.

He didn't feel any awkwardness from the others when they looked at him, so maybe he hadn't done or said anything too ridiculous. Or maybe bad dreams were just the norm nowadays? After all, Stanley wasn't the only one who had restless nights, though he was the only one that attacked people while doing so…

The small bloodstained cuts on Zeke's clothes hadn't gone unnoticed by Stanley, and his only consolation was that the younger man still seemed to hold no grudge about the incident. Eve had no signs of previous damage visible, but Stanley felt like she might have been wearing something different when he went to sleep. "Maybe they got some Soul training out of it… maybe that's what happened to Eve? No, they wouldn't have had time before…"

"It went away," Eve said softly into the quiet trailer, "the temporary Trait is gone. That's what changed."

Stanley's mouth split into a wide smile. "That's great! Right? You didn't lose anything else?"

Eve returned the smile, a small but genuine expression that mirrored her Soul. "It is good. I… I'm still getting used to it." Eve turned back to the shell and went quiet again as she worked.

She had started by expanding the base, which left the flower petal-like panels with gaps between them. Now she was widening the panels to fully enclose the center once again. To do so, Eve pulled chunks of what looked like steel from a pile and did something with her power that turned them into a soft, malleable, and more silvery-looking substance. They also shone with her Soul afterward. She then added the changed metal to the shell in a seamless fusing and repeated the process. Each step of the process was slow, however, and Stanley suspected it would take a while…

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Eve snapped and then closed her eyes to take a deep breath. "Sorry, it just keeps sneaking up on me. It's like I still want to be angry…"

"Don't sweat it," Stanley said, still smiling, "I'm kind of used to it at this point."

"I don't want to be angry," Eve replied quietly, not looking up from her work, "not really."

Stanley nodded, not at all bothered by her outburst, and with half of his attention on the building two blocks away where he was setting up a new bait trap. Stanley intentionally reached further out this time, almost to the limits of his range, to hopefully reduce the risk of attracting any more danger to their location.

The rest of his attention was on tossing bites of meat for Caffeine and eating his own food. He could have simply set down the bowl obviously meant for Caffeine, but the pug would only devour it instantly and resume begging for Stanley's own food. At least this way, he prolonged the enjoyment.

Stanley couldn't remember tasting this particular flavor, and the texture was… different. He suspected that Walter might have cooked up some spiders but didn't ask for confirmation of his suspicions because it tasted fine, and he didn't need to look beyond that fact.

As he did all that, Stanley was watching himself, and more specifically, his mouth and any unintended thoughts that might escape as words. He didn't need to, though. The flashes of irritation from Eve were more than enough to tip him off as he muttered to himself. Walter's barriers would have worked, but Stanley could feel the exhaustion from the man, as well as something new…

"What else happened while I was sleeping?" Stanley asked, speaking quietly to avoid disturbing the sleepers.

"What… Oh, just men being stubborn," Eve saw where he was looking and shared the details of what happened between Walter and Daryl. There was a bit of a hiccup at the beginning, where Eve clearly remembered something embarrassing, but she moved past it quickly.

As for what she did say… Stanley frowned in confusion. "They didn't already know that? I thought it was obvious…"

"Yea, men are dense sometimes," Eve's smile twisted, "though you just cheat with your Soul Awareness."

"I am amazing, aren't I?" Stanley agreed cheerfully, and Eve just shook her head. "While we're on the topic of how awesome I am," Stanley said slowly, "and since Walter is sleeping, do you wanna throw stuff at me while I kill spiders?"

Eve's Soul liked the idea, but she shook her head. "Kinda busy here."

"How about if it's to remind me to shut up?" Stanley offered. "I need to learn to control my thoughts, and this split mind thing makes it really easy to not notice."

Eve sighed and then nodded. "Yea, that is annoying. I guess I can nag… er, remind you." She hefted a chunk of metal with a glance in his direction.

"Gently," Stanley said quickly before she got carried away.

Eve hesitated, her excitement at assaulting him shifting to anger and then guilt. Finally, she sighed. "I hate emotions."

Stanley chuckled a bit too loudly and then quickly closed his mouth, glancing at the sleeping people in the trailer with them. Fortunately, they all remained asleep, and Stanley put up a psionic wall around him and Eve as he returned his attention to her. "I…"

She threw a piece of metal at his head.

Stanley caught it smoothly with a thought, sending it into orbit around his head. "Thanks," he said with a smile, "that's perfect." And it was perfect because it gave Stanley another idea to test. He thought about his desire for the projectile to circle around him continually and let go with his power. The orbit continued, and Stanley left it there, mainly to see how long it would remain if he focused on something else.

"I'm not laughing at you," Stanley continued his comment from before she attacked, "as I'm sure you know, I've had some small issues with emotions."

Eve shivered and muttered under her breath, "understatement of the year, don't you think?"

Stanley felt fear along with her words directed at him, and he didn't like it. "You don't have to be afraid of me."

Eve tensed up. "I'm not trying to be hostile," she said, and Stanley felt the fear again, "but you are too powerful. You need to get your shit together if you don't want to be feared."

Stanley took a second to consider her words, trying to imagine how he would feel knowing that someone like Eve, with her temper, was capable of killing him instantly with nothing more than a thought. He honestly didn’t see it as much different from an angry person with a gun in the old world… Though, to be fair, that would be frightening. "That's… fair."

"Logically, I know that you're not actually a murderous psychopath, but it can feel like you're a hair trigger away from it sometimes," Eve added.

Stanley sighed. "I'm not that angry… unless I'm tired, I guess." Maybe Walter was right about him being a grumpy child. Still, the first and most apparent priority was to make sure he got enough sleep. As for the rest, however. "I just don't know how to even start fixing… all this."

"Your nightmares shouldn't be a big deal," Eve said, "I mean, who doesn't have nightmares nowadays? But…" she trailed off.

Stanley was already ahead of her. "I know," he grumbled, "but how the hell am I supposed to fix that?" Even Marie hadn't been able to do much other than help him sleep without dreaming.

Eve shrugged but didn't say anything else as she kept working.

Meanwhile, one of Stanley's other minds was busy killing spiders that were drawn to his bait. His knife lay right next to the Cores on the roof, a knife the spiders never seemed to suspect would suddenly start moving. They were really quite dumb like that, and Stanley had to remind himself that this dull and tedious hunting was much better than dealing with intelligent monsters. Especially considering the teleporting spider from earlier…

Eve eventually got up to stalk over to him and snatched the circling hunk of metal out of the air. Stanley grinned, his eyes closed as he focused most of his attention on the outside. He had known that she would want it back, feeling her immediate regret on throwing it at him, and so kept it intentionally.

She made it too easy sometimes, and Stanley was still not above teasing her, especially since he'd woken up and felt her newly improved mental state. The formerly sharp edge of her anger was gone, and even when she snapped at him, it was a marked difference. Stanley honestly hadn't realized how much the Trait was affecting her before, and he was very happy for the new and improved Eve.

Eve threw one of her metal spiders at him, and it replaced the lost metal in Stanley's orbiting halo.

"Thanks," Stanley said, grateful for the reminder before his attention was drawn back outside by something he hadn't seen in the Lair before.

The spiders were going to war against each other.

Stanley had surmised that this sort of thing might happen but had yet to directly see it in action until now.

A veritable army of spiders were charging the building that Stanley was using for his bait trap, and they were approaching from further out in the city. Most scrambled along the ground, but others ran through the air on webs strung up as they charged.

There were variations in the attacking spiders, with some being larger or smaller and others having minor differences in their bodies. Despite that, Stanley was fairly certain that they were all the same… breed? Regardless, it was impossible to be sure, considering that Stanley couldn't actually see them and was relying on his mental touch alone. There was also the fact that they were giant magic spiders, and the rules for such things might be completely different now.

The spiders in the targeted building had lost a few of their numbers already to Stanley's machinations, but he wasn't sure if it mattered since there were still hundreds left in the multi-story building. The defenders rallied almost immediately once the assault began, rushing to engage the enemy in violent clashes.

Stanley briefly considered throwing one of Eve's spiders over to get a live feed of the battle but discarded the idea quickly. It just wasn't worth the potential loss for what would only amount to entertainment.

Speaking of which… "Eve, do you want to do more Soul training?"

"I…" Eve hesitated in her work, nearly flinching as the fear returned, and then shook her head, "I think I'll have enough, and if not… then I'll do it later. I… need a break anyway." She was eyeing him on the last bit as if expecting a negative remark.

Stanley just shook his head. "Don't look at me. It's your Soul."

"I guess…" However, she still seemed tense.

Stanley let her work undisturbed and instead watched the buildingwide war going on nearby as he returned to strengthening his own Soul. He even joined in the battle when the attackers reached the roof where his knife waited.

It turned out to be great practice as the number of targets grew beyond what Stanley was used to dealing with. One spider even managed to isolate his knife inside a barrier that Stanley couldn't feel past. He didn't know which one was responsible and so blasted the entire group with a wide Mind Crush. It felt weaker, using the Skill so far away from himself, but it still worked to halt the attackers and break the bubble.

Stanley sorely wished that he'd left more than one knife over there as he raced to kill all the spiders before they could recover. Fortunately, there was another option in the way of rubble that littered the rooftop, and with his Split Minds, Stanley was easily able to wield the weapons and keep crushing their minds at the same time.

There was plenty of detritus in what Stanley guessed had been apartments below his rooftop, including a few pieces of what might be old kitchen knives. None of which looked anywhere near as robust as the blade Walter had provided, and sifting through the piles of trash looking for knives while using only his mental touch wasn't worth the effort. While it seemed that most metal objects survived the Mana influx, they didn't always retain their former function or sharp edge.

Stanley was halfway through killing the attacking mobs when the defending spiders surged out of the building and onto the roof. So Stanley did what was only fair and attacked them too.

The knife and rocks danced around the rooftop, stabbing into or caving in spider heads like a striking snake while Stanley attacked the minds of those further away.

It felt like a big battle, but it ended in fewer seconds than there were spiders, and not without rewards either.

Skill Level Up: [Mind Crush]

Skill Level Up: [Split Minds]

Stanley could have killed all of them in a single strike before this, but he was still pleased with his performance and quickly started gathering the other reward for his efforts, the Cores.

At least until the next rush of both defending and attacking spiders once again tried to claim the roof.

Stanley continued to play fair by killing all of them.

Eventually, there weren't enough spiders left to even bother fighting over the roof. Stanley watched with curiosity as all but the last of the defenders fell, leaving only a slightly larger spider that he assumed was the queen. That one didn't last much longer either, getting torn apart by the invaders and then devoured by a single one that Stanley guessed was the opposing queen. It helped that both of them had brighter Souls. How the winner packed away so much flesh was a mystery, but it consumed its enemy completely, and its Soul even brightened noticeably once the meal was finished.

What Stanley was most curious about, however, was whether another colony would take advantage of the costly conflict to swoop in and claim the building from the much-diminished new owners. Nothing was happening yet, but the victors seemed to have the same fear as they all gathered in a single room near the center of the building.

Stanley's guess about which one was the queen was confirmed true when that spider started churning out eggs at a genuinely frightening speed. The queen covered every surface of the room in small bundles of Souls and then sat at the center doing… something. Stanley thought he could feel some kind of power moving around and through her, and by the way the eggs were visibly growing before his eyes… or rather his touch, Stanley guessed it had to be Mana.

He wanted to ask Lee about this phenomenon, as he was the Mana expert, but his brother seemed to be asleep and sleeping well by the feel of it. Stanley didn't want to wake…

"It is Mana," Eve said softly into the quiet, "the Lairs draw in Mana from the surroundings, and the monsters inside can use it in a variety of ways. How it works in a Lair this big, I don't know, but it explains why we barely found any monsters on the way here." She glanced at him. "Aside from the acid and the mosquito swarm, I guess…"

Stanley frowned at the memory. He might have drawn both of those problems down on them himself… but that didn't explain what she was talking about.

"Swarms are kinda random, but you definitely attracted the acid," Eve supplied, somewhat helpfully and just a teeny bit angrily. The anger faded quickly, however, and she continued, "as for the Lairs, they act like Mana sinks for the surrounding area. Same for human Lairs too. It tends to calm things down outside when the ambient Mana gets lower." She shrugged. "Of course, while it drives away weaker monsters, the Lairs, monster or human, also attract more powerful creatures to attack.

"Boston was mostly safe to wander around outside. There were guards always on lookout for incoming monsters or swarms, and as long as you didn't stray too far, there was plenty of warning when something did attack."

"Huh," Stanley grunted at the new information and watched the spiders dragging the dead, one by one, to the queen. At which point she ate them. "Do they have to eat?" He had always gone through the Lairs like a reaper of death and never really took the time to observe the monster's habits.

"Not technically, so long as they are in a Lair, but they will eat other monsters if given a chance. They get something from it, but no one is sure what exactly.

"Also," Eve threw another metal spider at Stanley, and it joined the growing collection of orbiting debris around him, "this is no fun if it doesn't ever hit you."

Stanley chuckled, but was conflicted by the fact that he hadn't noticed all the stuff she threw. On the one hand, he was glad to see his passive defense working, and on the other, it wasn't working as a reminder.

"What if I shoot you instead?" Eve suggested, and one of the orbiting spiders glowed where its small energy cannon tried to aim at him. Unfortunately for her, being suspended in the air made it impossible for the spider to get a lock in any specific direction.

Stanley considered her suggestion, actually a bit curious about how he might be able to effect the energy beams within his new domain. He still shook his head though, "not while everyone's sleeping, and you'd have to adjust the power…"

"I was kidding!" Eve protested.

"It's a good idea. So long as you start at very low power."

Eve muttered under her breath, but Stanley was close enough that she was just inside his domain and so heard what she said as soon as he thought about it. "Stupid, overpowered, yea just shoot me with your weak little guns, I'm the big bad…" Stanley smiled at her grumbling. She wasn't actually angry, just… jealous? Whatever it was, Stanley preferred this rather than fear.

In the meantime, Stanley was gathering all the Cores that he could and stuffing them into a dead spider. It was a good haul, but mostly just from the ones killed on the roof. The spiders lower down that had been involved in combat solely with each other tended to get their Cores snatched up by either the one who killed them or whoever happened to be closest when it appeared. Despite that, it was still decent, and Stanley had to leave some spider guts on the roof to fit all the Cores inside its body. Then he fake-walked the spider down the side of the building and started up the street toward their hiding place.

It turned out that trying to bring everything back at once might have been a mistake because Stanley felt attention landing on the dead spider as it moved, attention that came from all sides and a ridiculous number of eyes.

Stanley didn't know if they could tell the spider was dead or if they were somehow detecting the large number of Cores inside its body. Either way, they wanted it and were willing to chase it down.

Stanley had left his knife back on the rooftop, mainly because he expected a new colony to conquer the building, and he wanted to be ready to wipe them out when they did so. It wasn't a significant loss, however, as the streets were littered with debris that Stanley could turn into weapons with a thought, including plenty of hollowed-out car skeletons. Stanley used all of that, and some targeted Mind Crushing to kill the attempted thieves.

The deaths did not deter any of them, and more continued to leap or dash from their buildings in an attempt to claim Stanley's loot. He killed them all quickly enough; however, there was another problem. All the commotion meant that Stanley was leading an army of hostile threats directly toward the truck and its rather precarious hiding spot. Even worse, he could already sense a few of the spiders in the building directly overhead, becoming included among the parties interested in his loot.

In a lull between attackers, Stanley squeezed his dead spider under a pile of old, crumpled-up car wrecks. There wasn't much of the vehicles left at this point, but them being all crushed together created just enough cover for Stanley to get out of sight.

That seemed to help considerably as Stanley dispatched the few spiders who had seen him disappear, and the rush ended. It appeared that 'out of sight, out of mind' was still a thing in the end, though Stanley felt that some of the spiders were only waiting for him to re-emerge. Curiously, the singular Cores that appeared from the killed attackers didn't attract nearly the same level of attention. While a few spiders dashed out to claim those nearest to their buildings, the rest of the Cores remained where they fell.

Stanley watched all this while he tried to decide what to do now. He didn't want to give up on his loot, but he also didn't want to compromise their hiding spot for a handful of…

His considerations were interrupted by Caffeine sitting up abruptly and then trying to climb onto his shoulder. Stanley opened his eyes as Caffeine managed to grab the small piece of dried meat that was now orbiting his head.

Eve was grinning at him. "That works," she laughed, "and you were muttering again."

"Well played," Stanley conceded as the pug took his time sniffing every single thing floating around Stanley in case more of it might be food, "but you've done it now." Caffeine jumped down from Stanley and trotted over to sit nearly in Eve's lap, his face locked onto hers and his tail wagging in slow, hopeful wags.

Eve only smiled at the pug and pulled another piece of meat from a metal box. The wagging tail sped up. "Such a good boy," Eve cooed, "I'll be your new best friend, and you can hang out with me instead of that grumpy old man!"

"I'm not old," Stanley said, more out of reflex than any real objection.

"Such an old, old man," Eve cooed at the pug.

Stanley was smiling when he went back to ignoring her, though he did manage to catch a few thoughts before they became verbalized, thanks to her successful reminder. Thus he left Caffeine in her care and refocused on retrieving his loot.

Stanley's newest idea involved a manhole nearby to his loot that led into the underground, and while the tunnels wouldn't get him any closer, a different approach path might prove calmer than this street. So Stanley did some slow shoving and rearranging of the debris in the road until he had a clear path to the hole.

His increasingly gooey container of a dead spider slipped quickly across the street and was shoved more than fell down the hole. One spider did rush after him, but it was too large to fit through the opening—a pleasant but meager benefit of the fact that the spiders were giants. Stanley had no such issues since his spider corpse didn't need to use legs to move, and he dragged it through the fortunately dry tunnel, pausing only to decapitate the other spider while replacing the manhole cover.

The nearest available exit happened to be on the far side of the building they were parked beneath, only this time, Stanley shoved a car over the opening before emerging. He then slid the car slowly across the street, moving inch by inch in an attempt to avoid any attention.

Something like that would likely have been extremely loud, but Stanley was able to lift the metal frame easily enough, and since he couldn't actually hear anything from so far away, could only hope he was being quiet.

The frame was heavy but gave Stanley no issue in moving it around, something he attributed to the fact that it had no Soul or Will to oppose his own. In fact, lifting the car was far easier than trying to carry any of the much lighter spiders, the living ones at least. Stanley wasn't positive about how it all worked, but that was his best guess as to why he could carry some things and not others.

The truck, for instance, was chock full of Eve's Soul and magic. However, her spiders also contained some of her Soul, and Stanley could lift those without effort… maybe there was a formula? Mass times Soul, plus… Will and intent? Or something like that. Maybe Eve just didn't want him to move the truck?

Caffeine stepped all over him as he chased the piece of thrown meat once again. Stanley smiled, closing his mouth in the process, and gave the pug a few scratches as Caffeine claimed his snack. Stanley didn't open his eyes but gave Eve a thumbs up. She had devised a great way to remind him… much better than shooting at him.

As his loot made the crawling journey across the street, Stanley also watched the building he'd started from. They still weren't being attacked, which was odd. He knew that the spiders were keeping a close eye on each other and their surroundings, evident by the attention Stanley had just drawn onto himself, so they must know that there was a vulnerable target just waiting to be destroyed.

He thought about it as he watched the newly laid eggs grow larger around the queen spider responsible for them. From the rate at which they were growing, Stanley suspected they might actually hatch before sunrise, a terrifying prospect if the spiders could proliferate so quickly.

He did notice something that mollified his concerns somewhat, and that was how the queen diminished alongside her offspring's growth. As their Souls grew, hers shrank, and that was despite the constant influx of food her soldiers brought in, which meant that this was likely only an emergency measure used to replenish after a significant battle.

Stanley also realized that he didn't know how far the attacking colony had traveled in from before attacking the building. They might have come from much farther out, and maybe the gain of moving a single block closer to the park wasn't worth even the small losses conquering the neighbors would provide. If that was the case, then Stanley would need to choose a different building to target, one with more enemies already available.

So he did just that, moving one block over in a process that involved simply taking his knife to the other rooftop. After which, he killed the lookouts there before gathering up the Cores into a new bait pile.

Then Stanley had a brilliant idea. Why wait on the roof for the few measly spiders that might happen to see the bait? Especially when he now knew a much more effective way to lure in targets.

Stanley stuffed the newly acquired bait into one of the corpses and tossed it out into the middle of the street. Gently though, as he didn't want to splatter the body all over the pavement.

Meanwhile, another split mind was still retrieving the first bunch of loot and had finally reached the side of the street. Stanley made good progress from there, sliding it beneath a line of parked cars, all in the same ruined state as the rest but providing enough cover for his purposes. At least until he ran out of vehicles to hide under, leaving him with the last stretch home right out in the open.

Stanley searched for a solution to that issue while the slaughter began a few blocks away.

Spiders immediately pounced after the bait he'd dropped, less than the last time but plenty to kick things off. Including, oddly enough, from the same colony the dead spider had belonged to.

The first and greediest arachnid arrived before its prize, mandibles and legs reaching eagerly for the promise of power, and was impaled through the face by a striking spider leg.

Stanley grinned at his own genius. It didn't even look like anyone else was involved now. Instead, it appeared that the dead spider was, in fact, still alive and kicking. "Hah!"

Stanley left his original stash hidden under the cars to focus more on his new experiment, and thoroughly enjoyed himself in the process.

He had chosen a good spider for this, purely by happenstance to be fair, but nevertheless the spider's feet were clearly designed for stabbing attacks, and Stanley took full advantage of that fact.

The first wave of spiders charged in recklessly, and Stanley wielded eight legs in brutal efficiency to one-shot each spider that approached.

There was a bit of a lull after the abrupt deaths, and Stanley used the opportunity to 'feed' his marionette all of the new Cores that appeared.

That triggered the next charge. He wasn't sure whether it was the sight of Cores getting taken, or the greater concentration of Cores inside the dead spider. Whatever the cause, it drew more victims to their demise, and the bodies actually started to pile up.

Unfortunately, the spider corpse could not endure the abuse for very long. Both Stanley's manipulations, and the attacks that landed on the body all piled up until the corpse started to break down.

Stanley, in his infinite cleverness, had planned ahead for this very eventuality by planting his bait directly atop another manhole. A quick thought, a disc of metal flipping up, and Stanley once again hid the loot underground. "Suckers!"

Caffeine landed in Stanley's lap with enough force to make him very grateful that the pug only stepped on his legs. Stanley closed his mouth and got a few pets in before Caffeine bounded away just as enthusiastically.

There was still the issue of getting all his glorious loot actually into his hands, but Stanley had a new idea for that.

He had tried yoinking the Shards one at a time and as fast as possible across the open distance, but the very first attempt was noticed from above.

Which led to the newest plan. The fallen building that provided some of their cover had enough gaps throughout the rubble that Stanley thought he could find a more hidden path leading back to his location.

With that in mind, Stanley did some more maneuvering of the road debris and created a new route leading to the foundation of the collapsed structure. From there it was only a tedious process to pull the Cores through the small gaps in batches of one or two.

Unfortunately, the spider above that noticed his yoinking attempt had decided to come down and investigate the situation. Stanley watched it carefully as the spider picked its way through the rubble, each step bringing it closer to stumbling upon their hiding spot.

Stanley tossed some rocks further away, hoping to lure it in the other direction, but to no avail. He really didn't want to kill it and potentially stir up the entire nest looming over their heads, but it looked like avoiding violence might be a lost cause.

Stanley even halted his retrieval efforts, but the intruder finally stuck one leg onto part of the illusion helping to hide the truck. Stanley tried to help the illusion hold up the arachnid as it attempted to climb up the fake rubble, but it wasn't enough. Something about the spider's will or intention was fighting against his own power in an effort to find the Core it had spotted before.

A spider leg punched through, followed by another, and then a plethora of eyes fell upon the truck. Stanley barely registered the spark of interest from its Soul before he struck.

Mind Crush

Daryl claimed that these spiders were supposed to be susceptible to his magic, and Stanley hoped that would translate into them having weak minds. Regardless of whether that was the case or not, the spider still went down hard.

Once it was unconscious, Stanley felt the resistance to his power wane, and he used the opportunity to drag the monster fully inside the illusion while waiting for any reaction from above.

Nothing stirred, and no Souls cried out in sudden alarm.

Stanley let out a breath in relief, and then tried to figure out what to do with the unconscious captive. He didn't want to kill it anywhere close to them in case the smell might draw something, but…

"Eve," Stanley opened his eyes to look at the woman who was warily watching the door with a glowing beam cannon at the ready. Apparently she had eyes on the spider, though Stanley hadn't seen her send anything outside… "Where… oh, I didn't know she could make it so small!"

"What the hell are you doing dragging that in here?" Eve switched her attention to him.

"It… wandered in… but while it's here, you want to leech its Soul?"

Eve visibly flinched. "I just got rid of the last fucking Trait! Why the hell…"

"It's a spider," Stanley interrupted, "what traits could you possibly get from…" It was Stanley's turn to flinch as a flash of memory popped into his head. It was Eve, her metal body a horrible caricature of a spider, and Zeke was…

Stanley shook his head, trying to dislodge the nightmare now unfortunately recalled in all its horrible glory. "Fuck!"

Appearing in his lap, Caffeine licked his nose, distracting him from the memory, and Stanley forced a smile as his hands brushed over soft fur. "Good boy."

"What happened?" Eve watched him warily.

Stanley laughed, but it came out forced. "Just remembered my nightmare. God damn it! I hate sleeping."

"What was it?" Eve asked quietly.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"You can tell me…"

"I don't…" Stanley started to shout but caught himself and finished more quietly, "it sucked." He focused on petting Caffeine, feeling the warmth of the… not Undead pug.

"I have nightmares too," Eve spoke softly, not looking at Stanley. "Usually involving Zeke, and sometimes…" She trailed off and glanced his way before adding, "…you."

Stanley laughed darkly at the irony, and stared into Caffeine's brown eyes as he struggled with whether to say anything. Eve spoke again before he could work up the nerve.

"I know it's just a dream. It doesn't have to mean anything." She looked to her brother then, her Soul betraying just how little comfort her platitudes granted.

Stanley followed her gaze to Zeke. The young man was sprawled haphazardly across his mattress, sleeping soundly, and dreaming if his Soul was any indication. Though, his dreams didn't seem to be unpleasant at least. "Zeke was there," Stanley said, "in my dream. He was dead… and you said it was all my fault…" He grimaced and added, "it felt far too real."

Eve shivered as she stared at him. "Just a dream," she restated, and then laughed with her own dark amusement. "You know, I actually feel better hearing that. Just knowing you are afraid of that makes you seem more human somehow…" She looked away from his eyes then and stared at the floor. "Sorry, that was… mean."

"I'm not a monster…" Stanley said, "who wouldn't worry about that kid? He's so…"

He struggled for the right words, but Eve beat him to it. "Aggressively helpful and optimistic to the point it makes all of us look bad?" she suggested.

"That's… not far off," Stanley agreed, "and if anyone tried to take that from him… well, I'd kill them."

"Yes," Eve said in full agreement, her Soul echoing the same violent protectiveness as Stanley's as she watched her brother sleep.

"You did something right with him." Stanley voiced the thought aloud.

"I honestly don't know how he turned out so well," Eve whispered, "and I certainly can't take any credit."

"You've done more than you think," Stanley told her, "he looks up to you, believes in you, and him losing you is not something I would ever allow."

"Glad you have a reason to keep me around," Eve said, only half joking.

"Hey, you're not thaaat bad yourself," Stanley said, and Eve threw a chunk of metal at him. She was smiling though.

"On the topic of protecting Zeke," Stanley ruined the moment, "you should leech the spider's Soul."

Eve opened her mouth, ready to let him have it again, and Stanley didn't give her the chance.

"Soul is powerful, Eve. Yea, the Source is ridiculously powerful, sure, but I think Soul is stronger." He wasn't just talking out of his ass either. The Source, for all its insane power, had been contained in their Twin-Soul after all. Stanley didn't know for sure how that had happened, but still suspected he was right about the power of Souls.

Eve didn't look like she believed him. Stanley continued anyway, "these spiders are simple creatures. I highly doubt you can get a Trait from them." The spider whose Soul was in question had finally started to recover, taking even longer than Stanley had expected, so he crushed its mind again.

"Honestly, I doubt you will get much of anything from them, but more importantly, you should be taking every opportunity to level up that Skill. Who knows how much better it might get, or what you might be able to evolve it into!"

Eve's frown faded into contemplation as she listened, albeit reluctantly.

"From what I've seen so far, having more Soul to work with will only make you stronger. You should be…"

"Fine! Enough already. I'll fucking try it!" Eve sounded upset, but Stanley could feel the eager gleam of anticipation growing within.

"Great!" Stanley dragged the spider through the door… and Walter appeared standing before the spider, a sword raised to strike as he shouted, "Atta…" His shout was aborted as soon as it started, and Walter turned with a sigh to look back at the two people staring at him. "What are you doing, Sir?"

Neither Stanley or Eve responded, both of them in shock at what they were seeing.

Walter was wearing pajamas. Not boxers and a t-shirt, or anything remotely normal like that, but rather a light blue, full body, fluffy, covered in cute little bunny rabbits, pajamas. To top it all off, the outfit was completed by a floppy conical hat, including a fluffy ball that hung down from the tip.

Stanley couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed Walter putting it on. It was impossible to miss, and completely incongruous to how Walter always looked.

Eve broke first, sputtering as she tried to hold in a laugh.

"Nice Pj's," Stanley said, "didn't know you were a bunny guy."

Walter's sword vanished into twisting space, and the man sighed again. "It was a gift, Sir," was all he said before vanishing behind an opaque wall. A moment later Walter reappeared dressed once again in his standard tuxedo.

"Now, may I ask why we are bringing the monsters inside?"

"I was…" Stanley started to explain, but Eve talked over him.

"You know how children can be, Walter. Always getting into mischief." Eve was smiling mischievously and it sounded like she was making a joke, but Stanley didn't get it.

"Indeed." Walter seemed to understand however, and despite his usual dry tone, there was affection in his Soul. Then he produced a pocket watch, and after a quick look said, "the others will be up soon. So…" He glanced at the still unconscious spider on the floor. "…please put away your toys before breakfast."

Caffeine bailed on them immediately after hearing the magic word, and Eve lost her amusement, glaring at Stanley before switching her hostility to the bug. "If I get stuck with another Trait, I'm blaming you, Stanley."

Stanley smiled, the spider's Soul was beyond weak and looked like it was barely holding together after the mind crush. He seriously doubted the simple creature even had a single Trait, much less any emotional baggage.

Stanley's smile grew when he made one of the spider's legs twitch the moment Eve touched the arachnid. The glare was totally worth it just for the look on her face.

After that Stanley got to watch her Skill in action for the first time.

Small wisps floated free from the spider Soul and streamed around her hand, before gradually blending into her own Soul. The process was excruciatingly slow, but Stanley could see why as each tiny wisp had to be fully assimilated before she could actually absorb it. In fact, just seeing the process gave Stanley a solid suspicion that she had only gained a Trait from him by absorbing too much of his leaking Soul too fast for the Skill to handle.

He shared the thought, and Eve shrugged, "maybe, but this is just so slow…"

"You don't have to touch them, do you?" Stanley couldn't remember her ever getting close enough to him for that.

"No, but then it is even slower."

"Can't you use one of your machines like you did with Mana Drain?" With the densely populated buildings all around them, she should be able to hide something inside a wall…

"Yea, but smaller is weaker, and so even slower. Then I risk them destroying or even eating my spiders. I'd lose more Soul than I gained. It's not worth the cost for…"

"What if I provide you with the spiders?" Stanley asked, "Like say down in one of the sewers?"

"That's… not a bad idea…" She still seemed hesitant.

"I'll watch over it for you," Stanley reassured her, "just wait until you see my hunting methods. You'll get all the spiders you want."

"Fine. I'll try it." Eve gave up, glancing away as Zeke sat up yawning.

"You ever try leaching from him?" Stanley asked, after following her gaze, "you might pick up a Trait that's… more positive?"

"No! I… That would be fucked up…" Eve ducked her head, embarrassed, and looked his way from the corner of her eye. "I said I was sorry… and I… I really am. It was a bitch move…"

Stanley waved it away. "It's fine, you never took more than what was already leaking."

"It was still fucked up…"

"Eve, cut it out. You're scaring me with all this heartfelt emotion and honesty. Choose a robot already and I'll show you how to get it to the sewer without being spotted."

"Reeaally?" She looked at him suspiciously. "I was wondering how this one just happened to wander in here…"

Stanley winced, but held his smile. "Totally on purpose. I was just trying to help you out."

Eve wasn't buying it, but she nodded toward the metal spider orbiting his head. "I'll send that one… and I think this thing is waking up."

Mind Crush

The spider died.

It wasn't a big surprise given the state of its Soul, but still a new facet Stanley hadn't expected from the Mind Crush Skill. Unfortunately, the death of the spider meant its Soul dissipating. He smiled sheepishly at Eve. "Oops."