//------------------------------//
// Lost Home 
// Story: Guitar's Hero 
// by FoxWithAMask 
//------------------------------//

I was glad I was at Comic-Con, it was relaxing after the hectic morning I'd had getting here on time. Even if my cousin was worrying about his costume again. It was a good costume, you didn't see many people going as a zombie Royal Guard. "I know...but it's not too...out there is it? I mean, 'Hey, I'm English, I'm going to make a Royal Guard costume!'"

I scoffed, "They have a problem, they can go fuck themselves. Besides, it's not that noticeable." I patted his arm, "Now come now, let's get a look around, I want to get a few things before the general entry guys get in."

As my cousin looked around  I made sure to have a quick, thorough look around at the stalls. “Hey." My cousin was looking concerned, "Feeling better?"

I flashed a grin at Tommy, "Yeah, thanks for this, buddy." 

"No worries, come on, let's find a stall you like." He said, surging forwards, still in his zombie walk. He sure managed to move at a normal speed while keeping a zombie look, wonder how long that took to master?

It took a few minutes, and a few stops for people to take some pictures with Tommy, which boosted his confidence a bit, before we came across a stall that others seemed to give a wide berth. Odd. As we got closer I realised I recognised the outfit the stall owner was wearing. The Resident Evil 4 Merchant. I gave a shrug and guided us over to him.

"Ah, some loyal customers at last!" He cried, actually sounding passable for the Merchant. "I was starting to think that it was futile coming here."

I frowned, "Wait, are you saying no one has approached you?" It was nearly ten, even the most empty and useless stand had definitely had at least one customer!

"Unfortunately. It seems the rumours of convention goers disappearing, sometimes after visiting a stall owner dressed as the Resident Evil 4 Merchant." His eyes lit up, "But what can I do for you and your undead comrade?"

I smiled, "Just looking around." I saw that his stall was filled to the brim with replicas. Like, professional quality replicas. "Damn, this stuff is cool!" I grinned. What? I was a sucker for a good game replicas!

"Thank you kindly, stranger. Please, browse to your heart's content."

Tommy picked up some model gun and a blood soaked Royal Guard coat, something better than the quickly made things he had. I, in the meantime, browsed and found several things I recognised; Pyramid Head's Great Knife, Nemesis' rocket launcher, Jack Of Blade's mask, some weapons from RWBY, Doomguy's helmet, a sawn off shotgun and chainsaw, the Terror Mask, just to name a handful. I sighed, while nice, I didn't feel like buying any of them. It was then I spotted something off to the side.

I grinned at I picked up the Guitar Hero guitar. A dark red guitar with the colour fading at the edges. "Hey, how much for this?" I asked as Tommy finished paying.

"Hm? Just that? Really? Nothing else caught your eye?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

I shook my head, "Nah, I'm good. Don't get me wrong, this stuff is amazing, but..." I gave a embarrassed chuckle as I rubbed the back of my head, "I, uh, don't really have enough room for some of this stuff." Plus I needed to replace my own controller after my little brother, the little shit that he is, broke mine after losing a song.

"Heh, interesting. Have it for free." He said, chuckling.

I blinked, "What? Really?"

"Sure, be sure to put it to good use, after all, just normal music isn't going to help you." Okay, that...was ominous as fuck.

"Are...are you high right now?" I asked, taking a step back. "Come on, Tommy, let's look elsewhere."

"Ugh, Joel? I...don't feel good." Tommy said, drawing my attention.  As I looked over I saw him clutching his head. A second later he just vanished. No sound, no flash of light, no smoke. One moment he was there, the next he was gone, like he'd just blinked out of existence.

"What the fuck?!" I yelled. I rounded on the merchant, I grabbed the covering across his face and yanked it down, "What the hell happened to him?!"

He grinned, "Oh, not much. He just fell victim to a rumour."

I blinked and it fell into place. The disappearing convention goers. I looked at the guitar controller in my hand. "Ah, shit." I cursed before everything went black.


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When I came to my head was aching. "What the fuuuuck...?" I groaned. I sat up, gripping my head in between my hands. "The hell happened?" I looked up and saw trees. What? "What the fuck?" I muttered, wiping drool off my mouth. Where the fuck was I? Some sort of park or something? How the absolute fuck did I get here?! Where was here?!

I took a few deep breaths. Like Tommy always said, don't let life's twists get to your head, keep a level head and thing's'll work out fine. Wait... The memories of what had happened came flooding back. "Tommy!" I yelled, looking around frantically. Where was he?! Was he okay?! I needed to find him! "Tommy?! TOMMY!" I slapped myself across the face. Not...not the time. Wherever he was, I could find him. If he was in this place too he'd be fine, he was always the survivor type. I was certain that if I could survive then he could.

Feeling calmer I took another look around to try and find a path. I didn't find one but I did find the controller I'd gotten from that prick that must've drugged me stuck in a bush. I pulled it out and looked it over. Well, it was intact, at least, finally a bit of good luck. I pushed a few buttons to make sure they worked, to my surprise they did, guess it wasn't a total fuck up. I absentmindedly flicked the strum bar whilst holding down a button and jumped out of my skin as a loud power cord echoed out through the trees, the controller falling to the ground.

As I calmed my heart I called out, "Hello?" With hopes that whoever was playing music would hear me. Nothing. Silence. I frowned, odd, why would someone randomly just play a single power cord and leave it at that? And from that close, I swear it was like they were right next...to me.

I looked down at the controller, "No fucking way." I muttered. Cautiously I picked the controller back up and held down a button before flicking the strum bar. A loud power cord rocked through the trees again, but this time I was prepared for it. I stared down at the controller in my hands in awe before using the first three buttons and strummed, playing a pretty sweet riff, if I do say so myself. I stopped playing and looked down at my guitar, grinning, "No fucking way!" I laughed.

I threw the guitar's straps around my neck and decided it was probably best to find my way out of this green jungle and back to my well known concrete one. I chose a direction and began walking. It only took me about ten minutes to find the last line of the trees. I sighed in relief that I was finally free of the place and back in...I blinked, where was the noise of cars? I broke out of through the last line of foliage and instead of finding a road there was just a dirt path leading to a village. But there were no roads, no phone lines, no sound of engines, nothing. I made my way down, thinking that maybe I could borrow someone's mobile phone, I mean, who didn't have a mobile these days?

As I walked I noticed there were a lot of small horses around, their fur weird, bright colours. Maybe a local way to tell which horse belongs to who? I couldn't think of any other reason. I mean, I guess they could be pets, and if people would dye a dog's fur pink then I doubt a horse would stop some of them. The sight of odd emblems on the horses...uh...butts only confirmed the eccentric pet owner theory. I stopped and took a look around the place, not a single person was around. Maybe they were all eating? I mean, it could be lunch for all I knew. The horses were just staring at me, I guess they weren't used to strangers or something.

"Uh...excuse me?" A voice said right next to me.

I jumped and almost fell over, having to spin my arms to regain my balance. Once I had both feet firmly planted on the ground I looked around for the source of the voice. No one in sight. Again. Just another horse. Wait...were their eyes always that large. And expressive? Selective breeding maybe? "Who's there?" I said loudly, wanting to get their attention, but no wanting to spook the horses.

"Um...I'm right here."

I turned to the source of the voice and looked at the purple horse stood next to me. "What?" Did...why did it have a horn?

"Hi!" It...spoke. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, what's yours?"

I looked around at the small horses surrounding me. They were talking. Talking! Where was Tommy?! Oh, god, where the fuck was I?! WHAT WAS GOING ON?!

My mouth finally caught up to what I was seeing and, quite appropriately, I squeaked, "What the fuck?"