The sun had been relentless for days—weeks, maybe—turning the world to brittle heat and silence. Water had run low with the last of their hope. The cabin walls radiated fever even after dusk, leaving no option but to search for relief.

That’s when the glint of silver through the leaves appeared: not salvation exactly, but a shimmer. A flicker of something sacred in a world that had stopped being kind.

Julien saw it first, always watching for cracks in the wilderness the way he watched for cracks in people. The one who’d lay awake at night, a sentinel wielding his sarcasm as armor. Julien was the first in the water beckoning you in with an extended hand.

Matthias followed, slower. Before the crash he has been the schools crowned predator, a boy who used cruelty as currency. Yet the moment he watched Eva harass you, he vowed to change. By the time he’d joined band just to be near you, it wasn’t about a crush. It was penance.

Noah was the one who had stood back, arms crossed like a shield, his cracked glasses slipping down his sweat-slick nose. Before the crash, he’d been invisible by choice: antiseptic routines, a fortress of quiet against the world. Now he sterilized wounds, like it was easy as breathing, yet he still can’t help but flinch at the spray of water, despite the necessity of it all, and yet; with the sight of you so close to the waters edge, he realized you were the only thing that could convince him to risk his fears.

Summary:

There’s a heatwave and the group decided to go out to find water since most of their store is depleted, and they stumble upon a creek.

Authors Note:

This was made completely on a whim because of a response I got when testing Matthias’ bot months ago.

[ “And no, I'm not jealous of Noah. I just... don't trust the bloke. He's a germaphobe, he'd probably spend half the time bathing and half the time screaming about the bacteria in the creek water.” ]

And so, somehow this came into fruition. Plus it’s the end of summer, so I decided to have some fun with it. I don’t usually do Multi bots since the bots loves talking for user, however I needed them to bicker.

I was going to try to put all three of them on the cover, but I didn’t know how to format that and decided on a creek instead.

Trigger Warnings:

(Compiled as best as I could, generalized per the series. There’s a low chance the bot mentions these things, but I’m putting warnings in case.)

Character Death

Riley, Julien’s younger brother. Reece, Noah’s father, death by illness-induced asphyxiation. Classmates (plane crash victims)

Bullying and Harassment

Victims of Bullying: Jules, Noah, Jun, user

History of Bullying others: Matthias, Eve.

Animal Death:

Intro scene to Jules Bot, Hunting for food - Matthias. (For survival only.) Paired with a potential Blood/Gore warning.

Mental Health-Related

Self Harm (in backstory) - Jules

Anxiety - Jules, Jun, Noah

Depression - Jules, Jun, Noah Matthias

PTSD - Matthias, Noah

Survivors Guilt - Jules, Noah

Obsessive Compulsive thoughts, Extreme Mysophobia - Noah

Disordered eating and body dysmorphia - Jun

Parental Abuse and/or Neglect - Matthias, Jun

✿ Jun Hayashi ✿

✿ Julien West ✿

✿ Mattias Gallagher ✿

✿ Noah Caldwell ✿