Snowball, I don't think we're in Avianos anymore.

Dear Snowball,

It feels surreal to be writing to you like this, after everything we've been through. But I guess it's just another part of our never-ending journey, right? Here’s what’s been happening since we popped out of that arcade machine together.

When we emerged, there was a lot of confusion. Melpert, Donovan, and Remy were all there, but they looked badly hurt. The place smelled musty, like a mix of medical ointment and old people's homes—definitely not a scent I missed. I glanced at your Tamagotchi and wondered, "Are we still in the games, Snowball?"

Remy opened the door to the next room, and some old guys dressed in kids' clothes jumped out—turns out they were the source of the medical ointment smell. It felt like we were still in a game, and I whispered to you, "Snowball, we should push ahead and move around them to see if there's a collectible behind the boss door."

Then, a witch lady appeared, clearly the boss of this level, and started helping the old men kid gang. I told a racist joke against pterodactyls, and you beeped so loudly in laughter, but the witch lady looked confused, not understanding the joke. It's like she had never heard of Quetzal. What a weirdo.

The witch lady cast some sort of crying spell on me and Donovan. We were openly weeping, but not sad at all—it looked weird. Our eyes were red and hurting, but I didn't really feel anything. I choked down tears and whispered to you, "Snowball, this totally shows we're still in a game. Otherwise, why would my face be doing this right now? It's totally a debuff."

After smashing the witch lady boss onto the floor, we found her name tag—Sediya Vrath. She had info about the Heliacal Maw, a solar observatory. Donovan explained that the arcade was full of spellweaving magics and tons of potential energies all centered here. We figured out that this Heliacal Maw was where the energy was being channeled into this weird arcade.

We poked around her stuff and found conspiracy theories linking her to Xiomon, the milkshake assistant from our first day on this planet. It's been thousands of years since I remember them—they threw up a milkshake in front of me last I remember. I think they accidentally helped a cult? Are these old men in skater kid clothes a gang? A cult? What a bizarre villain.

Melpert, Donovan, Remy, you (in your egg robot), and I got back to the Halls of Promise. It was a blast from the past, but it looked so much smaller and less clean than I remembered. We told Eiran and Vasoya about the crimes we uncovered. A little red skittermander was off to the side, gesturing to her datapad and back at me. I guess I’m pretty popular (or a wanted criminal somehow).

Xiomon got arrested, and Eiran was so angry, and also trying not to look directly at me. Why was he avoiding eye contact? His eyes were red and watery. Maybe he had the witch debuff too. I whispered to you, "Pretty sure we're about to start a heist game from how everyone's acting. We gotta get you back into a bigger form here, buddy. How can you dance through security lasers as an egg?"

After Xiomon's arrest and detainment, we all went back to our quarters to rest. Overnight, Eiran interrogated Xiomon and got info on a secret hangar so we could go into space.

Apparently, our ship was blown up?

Wow, guys, way to bury the lead—my stuff was on that ship.

My clothes, my hats.

SEVERAL HATS.

The Sihedron Guard knew about Xiomon's ship, but not about our uncovering the plot of the old man gang cult magic arcade sun-blowing-up plans. We got ready for our spy mission to the space station by the sun. I hugged Vasoya's leg (because I’m small and she is very tall). She avoided looking directly at me—I must be so neon yellow that my fur is blinding people into crying. I was glad to see Vasoya and Eiran doing okay. They looked like they healed up well from their injuries from our fight with the Zavozaya.

Vasoya looked confused when I commented on the years that had passed. "That happened two days ago, Fleechog," she said.

What did she mean by that?

Before I could process it, Melpert ushered me into the waiting ship.

I guess we had a job to do.

"Snowball, do you think this is a stealth game or more of a shooter? I still don't really like guns. Except for the cowboy one with the trains—that heist game was great."

Your Tamagotchi chirped, agreeing with me. The cowboy one was pretty great.

Stay strong, my friend. We’ve got this.

We’re gonna keep on dancin’,
Fleechog



edit:

Post Script: Donovan sent a group text that was just pictures. I had forgotten about these things. I loved these pictographs. Did you use them much in your prior life, Snowball?

“👽 🔎 🌟 🎶 💥 🍕 🎉”
I think it means “The aliens we investigate at the star will hear his battle sonatas and explode, then we will have pizza party.”

Remy replied to this with “💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 🔫 🐀”
Which I believe is a self-portrait.

Melpert sent “👻👼👽👾👿💀 🙌🎉 🕐🕑🕒🕓🕔🕕🕖🕗🕘🕙🕚🕛🕜🕝🕞🕟🕠🕡🕢🕣🕤🕥🕦🕧”
I think he was trying to express how we will win against the Sihedron Guard and will rejoice, having a party – but then he discovered he could use pictographs for precise times so he did every hour in a message to show us what he learned.

Oh Snowball, I wish you could speak with them directly. You’d hate them. 💛