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The feeling of a cold metal floor stung against his face. It would’ve made him wince but it was kind of a sapling compared to getting literally split in half.
Wait.
Why could he feel any sort of floor. And especially a metal one. What.
He blinked his eyes open slowly and lifted his head up cautiously seeing himself sprawled out over the floor limbs askew. He blushed and quickly pushed himself up with shaky hands, which were quickly shoved into his pockets as he looked around… wherever he was.
“I… I died didn’t I…? So… why?”
He flexed his same pale yellow fingers in front of himself, trying to confirm the unbelievable. He even walked up to the giant wall of repeating mirrors that was there for some reason though he can’t really judge and looked over his whole body. He appeared a bit paler because of the poor lighting but still his usual glamorous self. …Right? He thought as he slicked back his hair experimentally.
“Did they… open another fountain?”
Well.. if they did.. It sure was a weird one! So sterile! Probably Raly’s with his whole stick in the mud thing but.. he remembered him in his last moments before he ended up here and his words… hm. Probably not his. Maybe Kris’. Definitely not Susie’s, she seemed to appreciate the colour in the Flower King darkworld, it was enough to warm his nonexistent flower heart!
He snapped out of his musings though and properly scanned the room he was in.
Behind him was a steel table littered in golden flowers, though each tucked neatly into their own personal pots, clearly wilting. He walked up to them with a frown on his face.
“Poor little guys…” he thought as he cradled one of their petals. “Here, have some healing pollen!” he declared to the air as… nothing happened. Huh. Hm. Ok. Sure. Whatever, it's fine. It’s ok. He clicked his fingers and posed trying to conjure a skateboard but nothing happened again. He was now too weak to do literally anything cool.
“I guess that’s what I get for surviving being literally bisected… but it doesn’t make it any less annoying!” he bemused with a mockingly distraught look on his face as he shook his fist to himself, a single tear cartoonishly falling out of the corner of his eye.
But he probably shouldn’t dwell on that. He should go find the princesses! And thank them for giving him another day as himself. He hoped they brought the other flowers as well, he.. really wanted to see them again if he could. He didn’t realise immediately, but he had moved away from the table with the dying little guys, when did he get so morbid haha!, so he started walking down the left hall moving away from the strange room.
He didn’t notice the stained ring on the table's surface, a little dirt sprinkled around it as well as a few drops of a viscous white liquid.
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His shoes clacked against the metal floor, the sound echoing across the walls. Mindlessly walking down the unknown hall, he looked down contemplatively and started absentmindedly rubbing the middle of his torso. He hadn’t really registered it before, but his whole injury really was gone, stomach slash and arm reattached and everything.
“Glad Suz kept her promise at least! She must’ve really upped her gardening skills for his injury in the light world to be completely gone, guess lil’ Kris must’ve passed down some wisdom from good old Goregore!” he thought proudly before he paused. “Huh.. jeez this hall sure is long isn’t it!”.
He whipped his head around making sure he hadn’t missed anything, before continuing forward. He felt himself getting warmer, a bead of sweat rolling down his chin as he felt like the room was pressing down on him. Ok, maybe he was a bit nervous in an unknown dark world with no one he knows and none of his special moves… But, like a light bulb went off above his head which sadly didn’t materialise itself, bummer… he realised something.
He closed his eyes and stuck his tongue out in concentration as numbers appeared in front of his mind. The menu! Glad to know that still works! LV, ATK, DEF, HP… system seems the same as my dark world, that's convenient! He snapped open his eyes again, satisfied after seeing the 99s next to each acronym. At least I still have my fake stats! Could still whip out some petaltastic punches if needed! Not like anyone would attack me, they’d be too charmed to fight at all! Haha! Ha…
“I might need to stop talking to myself” he proclaimed flatly to the air. Does nearly dying make you more prone to inner monologues…?
He continues walking totally nonchalantly and not nervous at all, almost starting to whistle when suddenly-
He heard something.
He started totally nonchalantly walking faster. The noise got louder as he noticed some dim light ahead, streaming through a doorway. It sounds like talking now and their voice didn’t sound like anyone he knew. He thought about doing a cool trick through the gap to surprise the other person with his coolness but… I don't think I wanna push it right now. It’s not like he didn’t trust Susie’s patch job! Just probably don’t want my wound to reopen without a lightner there and right in front of a newpal of all things!
He speedwalked forward, dashing right through the doorframe-
“I’m falling!” instinctively slipped out of his mouth as bumped into something immediately and fell right on his butt, his still weak arms not managing to catch him in time as the sound from the fall harshly echoed across the metal walls. “Ouchie..” he let slip out mournfully, a cartoonish pout on his face.
The pain dulled pretty soon, as he looked down to see what he tripped on before opening his mouth in surprise.
Not a something, but a someone.
Below him similar squinted eyes and open mouth looked straight at him in similar surprise. He took their appearance in. Toasted brown skin like Kris’ in contrast to his pale yellow. A stringy dark brown round bob. Another similar sweater to Kris’, but blue with purple stripes instead of a warm green and yellow, loose blue shorts, bandaids on their knees and raggedy worn sneakers.
“Uh.. Howdy!” he confidently greeted.
In front of him was another darkner who patterned themselves after a human!