Chapter Text
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Moon can't find the moment his brother stopped being his brother, and it scares him.
He's looked back over the channel footage, watched his own memories front-to-back, he asked his goddamn know-it-all computer when his brother started being replaced with someone else, and it didn't even fucking know. And it terrifies him.
He can't even talk to Sun about it, because he can't. Tell. When its Sun.
And he thinks he knows what it is (god he hopes he's wrong), but he doesn't know what it wants, what its doing. But he knows its his fault.
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It started when Sun would start dropping random, oddly bitter comments during game recordings. Moon would forget a key item in a game and Sun would say something like, yeah, you forget a lot of things huh, or you're good at leaving things behind, and it always hit him weirdly, but he would go back to normal right after. Even seem like he regretted saying it, but when Moon tried to talk to him later, he was confused. Like he never said it.
Confrontation was inevitable.
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"Sun? We gotta talk."
It was about the end of the day, usually they would both be asleep by now, but Sun was still cleaning up a particularly bad toddler-patented washable paint explosion in the daycare and Moon was editing videos at the security desk to keep him company.
Also, so he didn't step in the paint trying to leave. No thanks.
"What's up? I'm mostly done, I've just got, uh. Me, to clean, I guess." Sun was also a complete mess, there was green, blue, red, rainbow paint up to his elbows; and 'washable' paint or no, Moon wasn't convinced his pants could be saved from the dozens of small, goopy handprints covering the ankles and knees.
Looking at him, Moon has never been happier to not be helping in the daycare anymore. "C'mere. Absolutely do not touch anything, especially me."
"Okay, okay."
Sun comes around the security desk, grabbing a container of cleaning wipes on the way, beginning the excruciating looking task of wiping off his arms.
Moon sighs, "Okay, so, something's going on with you. I don't know what, but you keep...saying things that don't sound like you when we're recording games for the channel. Did...did I do something? Talk to me."
Sun seems confused. "I-I actually have no idea what you mean. When-what did I say?"
"Like, the other day, we were playing that SCP-087 game. You seemed like you were having fun for awhile, but you said a lot of things during that cell section at the end, about...abandoning you there, and...stuff. It was weird."
And Sun says the worst thing he could possibly say, he says, "What? We didn't play that game."
"Sun, I was there, I played it with you. It-the video is on the channel. What do you mean we didn't play it?"
"Yeah, I know we were supposed to play it, but we haven't yet!"
And Sun fidgets and Sun hems and haws, and it comes out eventually.
"What. Do you mean. You've been blacking out?" Moon is angrier than he's been since before the separation. If he had blood his blood pressure would be insane, doctors everywhere would wonder how this mans head spontaneously exploded from fucking fury.
"I mean-well, I've been blacking out! It's-it's normal! For me, I mean,"
"Yeah, before we separated, because I was still in there!"
And they both stop for a second and Moon thinks very hard about what he just said. And Moon says, "Never mind, just-tell me the next time it happens, okay? Don't hide things like that from me."
And Sun is worried, and he doesn't believe Moon just let it go like that, but he agrees and he leaves.
And Moon watches him leave, and Moon thinks, who was I talking to.
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It takes a while to catch it.
It's not every recording session, sometimes he is absolutely sure its Sun with him, and sometimes he's almost sure its the other one, but the bitter little comments come less and less. Like it's getting better at hiding, or something. It's both easier and harder to tell.
He can't risk showing his hand, not without knowing which Sun he's talking to, as far as he can tell the other Sun has no idea he knows and he wants to keep it that way. And sometimes it really is so easy to forget, like its a normal recording, like he's absolutely sure the person sitting next to him is his brother. And other days he can barely look at him because every time he does he's scared someone else will be looking back.
But he finds the pattern, eventually, and it almost makes him laugh. The SCP games. Its never Sun, the real Sun, who plays the SCP games with him. And doesn't it sound like one, a joke SCP who possesses your brother to play video games with you? It's ridiculous, and not for the first time he wonders if he's going insane again and Sun is normal, and everything's fine, but he thinks i've been blacking out, its normal for me, and he knows he's right.
So when 'Sun' suggests another SCP game at the end of a recording session, he thinks got you.
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"Okay! Ready, brother?" Sun says, and it's only a little skin crawling. "Game's set up, all good here...tell me when, and I'll start the intro."
"Yeah, ready, just one thing first. I need to talk to you."
And he faces Sun, and Sun tilts his head slightly, like a question, and it's so Sun its painful. Like it couldn't be anyone else. And Moon says, "So, who are you?"
And Sun falls to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, and Moon thinks, i was right.
Then he thinks, oh no, i was right.
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Sun is having a very confusing week. Or, more like month. Months, maybe.
He was fine with the black outs, it was disorienting but normal. Even though they stopped for awhile. And came back suddenly. But he doesn't know much about code and he figured maybe his body was used to blacking out, what with the swapping and all, so maybe it happens by accident sometimes! Because he's so used to it.
But Moon has been worried lately, and it feels like every time he looks at Sun he's looking at a stranger. It hurts, and he doesn't like it, and he doesn't know how to help. Because he doesn't know what he's doing wrong!
Aside from the blacking out thing, because after Moon brought it up he hasn't been able to stop thinking about it, and he's beginning to think it isn't normal.
Anyway, after Moon brought it up he took a look at the channel, because Moon said the video was on the channel, and it was. Him. Playing the game with Moon. And there were actually a lot of videos he was in with Moon, with games he never played.
And it was upsetting! Yeah, it was pretty upsetting.
He was going to bring it up with Moon, because he's probably wrong, but everything that's happening now reminds him a whole lot of when they shared the body. And it kind of feels like there might be another Moon, someone or something, living in the body with him. Which is why he wants to talk to Moon, so Moon can tell him he's wrong, and everything is fine.
He's mulling it over, he's considering it, then one day he wakes up and his face hits the floor.
"OW."
And he sees Moon's dumb little curly clown shoes, and hears him bark his name, and he feels Moon pull him to his feet.
"What-where-how did I get here?" And Sun is tired and Sun is confused and Sun is so sick of waking up in places he didn't go to sleep in. "Moon, what's going on?"
And Moon groans and he rubs the back of his neck and he says, "You're not gonna like this, and I know that because I hate it. Uhh, okay, so! Don't panic. I am almost a hundred percent sure there's someone else, not me anymore, living in your head."
And Sun thinks, i was right?, and then he says it out loud, just to doublecheck.
And Moon pretends to take a deep, calming breath, clamps both hands on Sun's shoulders and says, "WHAT?"
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Moon wants to throttle his brother, a little bit. Maybe a lot. There's a slight burning sensation on the back of his head.
"Well, after-after you talked to me, that one day. You said I was acting weird, and I looked at the channel, and. It felt a lot like when we were together, in the same body! The blacking out and the waking up, I thought it was just my body, the original body, doing it by accident 'cause I was used to it, but I. I think there's someone else...in here, too."
And Moon is so pissed, and he is trying so hard. "I am going to be very, VERY gentle about this, because I am worried about you. You need to tell me these things. I have been going insane for WEEKS because I couldn't be sure if I was talking to my own brother or a stranger using his body, if you think anything like that is going on, ever, you need to tell me or I can't help."
And Sun looks guiltier than Moon has ever seen him, and its both extremely annoying and makes it easier to ignore the fading burn. "I know, I just-I thought I was wrong! Hoped I was, actually. I'm sorry."
"It's not okay, but it's gonna be okay. Okay? Whatever is wrong with you, whoever is in your head, we will fix it. If its hostile, then I'll figure it out, but we will fix it. Can you tell when it takes over, or stop it like when you fought me?"
"I don't know how to tell when it-they? Are gonna take over. It's different from when we shared the body, I can't even tell there's something to stop. How did you even catch it this time?"
"Agh. About that. Okay, this is gonna sound like a joke, it's not. I caught it this time because it likes to play the SCP games."
"What?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I don't know either."
"Well, does that say anything about them? I mean, we know it likes video games, maybe its nice! Or, willing to talk, at least. Do we know anyone who could help?"
"If it was willing to talk, it would've during the several opportunities it had to not pretend to be you. Its apparently been around long enough to know how to be you, well enough to trick me and I basically was you. I'm not gonna discount it as a possibility but I'm putting it in the heavily unlikely column." Moon sits down on the computer chair, sighing again. "As for asking someone for help, I don't know. I have no idea who to ask, because I'm the smartest person in this building, and none of those idiots know anything about coding.
"And...you should know. Our separation went smoothly because we both wanted it. Brother, if this thing in your head is hostile, we can't remove it because it will break you on the way out."
Sun goes a little wobbly, but he recovers quickly. "Okay, okay. That's really bad. Uh. I can ask around, maybe Freddy, or Circus Baby, or someone can help? Or knows someone who can. How-How likely is it exactly, that that'll happen? The me, breaking thing."
"I really, really doubt they can do anything I couldn't, but okay." Moon has to take a second to answer the last part. "It depends, like I said. I... really don't know."
"That's not a great answer. Okay. But we-it could still be okay! It might be okay. Alright. I'll-I'll ask around, see if anyone can help. And I'm-and I'm sorry, again. For not telling you."
And Moon knows this is his fault, and he hates himself for doing this to his brother. So he says not to do it again, he wishes him luck, and when Sun leaves he puts his head in his hands and hates himself more.
Because the only thing it could be, the only thing that makes sense, is that its his homicide code doing this, that Moon left behind.
(That he's too cowardly to tell his brother about.)
And if it starts to do anything to Sun that it was doing to Moon, back when they shared one body, he will get rid of it no matter what it takes.
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Eclipse screams, and screams, and screams, because no one can hear him and no one would care.
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