Chapter Text
…Well.
Crab.
You have… a lot to process right now, as you and your friends sit at the Clocktower, waiting for Bonbon to finish the same dinner they made… before? After? You don’t really know anymore. You’ll just use before, it’s easier for your brain to handle. You’ve also decided to recap the events of today, to make understanding what the crab just happened easier as well.
So.
So! You all went to the House, Mira warned everyone about the Death Corridor, Sif started looking for a trap, didn’t find anything, and then…
He died.
Siffrin, your closest friend, your family, the one you love… died.
And now you’re back here, and you all remember what happened.
You and Mira had both gone to check on Sif immediately; he’d seemed relatively alright at first, but their smile quickly dropped after learning that you both remembered what had happened. You have… a lot of questions to ask about that in particular, but you guess it’s understandable; they had died, and who wouldn’t be shaken up by that? Honestly, you wouldn’t want people to remember you messing up that badly either.
After you’d caught up with Siffrin, you three had gone to check on Odile and Bonnie. Odile hadn’t left the shop because she was too caught up in buying the items that she couldn’t just leave the shop so quickly, no matter how much she’d wanted to.
Bonnie… also hadn’t left the fields until a while later, catching up just as the four of you were headed for East Dormont. They had been sobbing, shaking— they looked terrified, and you had never wished harder in that moment that they hadn’t remembered. They’d gone up to hug Siffrin, and because none of you had wanted to cause any more panic among anybody, you had held them back and hugged them instead.
Bonbon was still upset now, the cooking serving more as a distraction for them than anything else. You really wanted to go comfort them, but there were some adult talks to be had first. Well, adults minus Siffrin.
Siffrin wasn’t here at the moment; he’d gone to the Favour Tree to ‘decompress’, which was something you wish you’d thought of as well. But that also means that he wouldn’t be hearing this conversation which you are all definitely having, and you’re all definitely not waiting for Odile to say something.
(You’re lying. None of you have spoken a word since you got here, and none of you are willing to break the silence at the moment.)
“Well then,” Odile finally starts. “Does anybody have any idea what just happened?”
You do have an idea, but you let Mira speak up first.
“Maybe we… received a blessing? From the Change God, or… something? That allowed us to… experience the future of our mission?”
You hum, allowing them to see you think for a change. A blessing would explain why that had even been able to happen in the first place, and you’d much rather the idea of a deity trying to help you get through your journey than learning that you all somehow managed to use Time Craft, like the King, without dying. But despite how much you would like to think that, you can’t deny the fact that there is little to no evidence to support that theory; there has never been any information you’ve seen that details blessing people in this way. But then again, this is a unique situation, so…
You consider speaking up before Odile does instead. Thank Change.
“It wouldn’t be… outlandish to suggest that we may have involuntarily used Time Craft. It makes sense in our situation— we are fighting a man who uses it, after all. Adding on to your theory, Mirabelle, perhaps whatever deity blessed us… believed it would be of use to us to have the ability to try again?” She sounds unsure, more unsure than you’ve ever seen her. You feel the same, honestly.
“But has there ever been any information to support the theory we were blessed?” you add. “I mean, I don’t know anything about your or Sif’s faiths, but the Change God is known to be very… lazy? This doesn’t seem like something they’d do.”
Odile goes quiet, pondering what you’d said. After a moment, she speaks up again. “Perhaps it was one of my or Siffrin’s deities instead, then. Although,” she pauses, “I’m not sure that mine would do this either. They often help with smaller things in life. So if it was one of our gods that did this, then it was probably Siffrin’s, if he has one.”
“Are we… sure it’s Time Craft?” Mirabelle interjects. “Maybe it’s just a vision! A…very realistic vision…where…”
…where one of your closest friends died horribly.
. . . you’re not sure which is worse.
“I doubt it,” Odile attests. “If it was a vision, then we likely wouldn’t have experienced it so… viscerally. In dreams, and by extension visions, there is often a disconnect, a moment where we realise that what we saw was not real. Unless one of you did experience that feeling, then I do not believe it was a vision.”
But then…
“Then how did we use Time Craft without dying?”
Odile nods at you. “Because, as we know, Time Craft has been thought impossible because it would kill the user. So in order to use it, and in order for the King to use it, there must be another piece to the puzzle that we are missing.”
“Maybe Siffrin would know something?” Mira offers. “If we think it’s his deity that gave us this power, then shouldn’t we ask them?”
You and Odile both nod. Yeah, that seems like a good idea. “Yeah, they’ll probably come back soon. We can ask them then!”
“Ask what?”
Aaaaand speak of the devil, here comes Sif now! Crab, you didn’t even notice them! You turn to them and-
…don’t…think…of their mangled corpse…
“Heyyy Sif!” You say with no delay whatsoever. “We were just talking about… y’know.”
“The loops?” he asks, tilting his head. He looks… even worse than before, actually. You think their eyebags are darker, and their hair looks even messier than usual. Also, what are they talking about?
“Loops?” Odile voices your thoughts aloud.
Siffrin looks at the three of you like they’re surprised that you don’t know what he’s talking about. “Time looped back. Wouldn’t it…make sense to call these loops?” They phrase their question cautiously, like they might startle you if they say something wrong.
So Sif had come to his own conclusions, huh? Thankfully, they seem to be relatively the same as your own. Time going back to a certain point— you… guess it could be called a time loop? But… “Well, we’ve only gone back once so far, so it kind of…isn’t exactly a time loop yet? Time loops have beginnings and end points, right? So we can’t call it that unless…”
Siffrin pauses, then nods, muttering something like “yeah, yeah, that makes sense…” under his breath. Then they speak up again. “So if it does go back again, would it be a time loop?”
You nod. You’re pretty sure that’s how it works, yeah. But you. Really, really hope that doesn’t happen again. You don’t…want to see that again.
Actually, you should. Probably mention that. Here goes. “Hey, Sif?”
They tilt their head.
“Are you okay?”
He blinks. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
The air in the room feels colder all of a sudden. You stiffen. “Because you…died.” M’dame and Mira both nod. You aren’t going to let him avoid this.
They click their tongue, before their expression rapidly shifts. Before he had looked tired, dead-eyed, unhappy, but in an instant they go back to acting like you’ve always known. His face opens up, yet closes off at the same time. They go from blank to smiling easily, waving off your concerns. “Oh! Of course I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be? It got reset, after all!” There’s something… off about his voice. It sounds too cheerful, too high. It almost sounds like he’s mocking someone- all of you, or himself? You can’t tell.
Mira stutters. “W-well, can— can we at least check, please?”
Siffrin flinches. “. . . why?”
“Just to make sure you aren’t still hurt?”
. . . “Mira I think we can see that.”
Sif and Odile both nod, but only the latter speaks. “He’s clearly unharmed. If they hadn’t been, then…”
“Then I’d still be a smear of blood and guts on the House’s floor.” They say it like a joke.
“Ha, ha…” you laugh. “That’s not funny Sif.”
They mumble something under their breath, but don’t try to force the joke for once. Good. If they had, you might have laughed. And if you had laughed, you would have wished it had been you who was a smear of blood and guts on the floor.
… don’t think about that.
You all sit in silence for a moment, before your lord and saviour Bonnie enters the room. “Stop sitting around being stupid crabs!!! IT’S DINNER TIME!!!!!”
You and Mira cheer, and Bonnie puffs up proudly as they present the dinner. It’s the same as last night’s— or, last…loop’s, you suppose— since they had the same ingredients, but you think there are more samosas this time. Where did they get more???
They hand out the samosas to each of you, and when you bite into them, you feel…a bit less happy than last time. They still taste great, but after having the same food again after you’d had it so recently, it doesn’t feel the same. You notice a similar feeling going around the room (except for Sif, who’s still smiling like nothing’s happened), and Bonbon’s definitely noticed.
“...do you not like it?”
You freeze up, but thankfully Mira, your saviour (heh) steps in. “No, no, it’s great! It just…lost a bit of the novelty? Since we had it so recently?”
Bonbon seems to think on this for a moment, before they nod in understanding. “Okay! I’ll make something different next time.” They point at Odile. “Dile. Get better ingredients.” She nods, completely in favour of this very important task.
You all eat the still-pretty-good samosas in silence until it’s time to go to bed again. You don’t bother waking up Sif, this time, but before you drop off, you realise you never had to.
He never even fell asleep in the first place.
◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊
As you stand in front of the House, you realise that you feel a lot more worried this time around.
But for once, you think that is a pretty reasonable fear! You’d clearly underestimated the place— you hadn’t even gotten to a room that was actually useful, and one of you had… died! One of your closest friends, gone! Just like that! Because of y-
No, no, you shouldn’t think about that. Thinking negative thoughts like that is bad for you, you know. Quickly, you divert your attention to the currently pressing issue that you were previously trying to focus on: how the crab are you going to get to the King?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!!
You thought you’d been on guard (Yesterday? Before? After? Last loop? You don’t know anymore) the last time you’d gone to the House, but you think it has somehow gotten even worse. You have. No idea what you’re going into!!! Even if Siffrin was right and you’re in a timeloop with unlimited tries, you don’t want to take that chance. And even though you were still on guard, you had still failed.
What if it’s going to be like this throughout the whole House? Filled with deadly traps, obstacles, and choices that you don’t know anything about?
Can you really do this?
Isabeau places his hand on your shoulder. The warmth startles you, and brings you back to where you are. Right. The House’s gate. You raise your orb, the others following soon after, and the five of you prepare for whatever could come next.
When you find the first Sadness again, you don’t hesitate. The refresh from earlier has you feeling confident, and you know you can defeat it without issue. Your friends quickly join you (Siffrin slightly later; makes sense, they’re probably still shaken up), and you take down the Sadness within moments before moving on.
The next two are no issue either, and after you get the key and tonics again, you suddenly realise that you’re back in the Death Corridor. You breathe in, and out, and-
“SIF GET BACK!!”
OH CRAB-
Siffrin jumps and whips around, before (reluctantly?!?!?!) walking back. “Sorry, thought I saw something,” they smile apologetically.
“If you saw something, then we’re all going to check it together,” Odile stresses. You, Isabeau and Bonnie nod rapidly in agreement. “We’re not going to risk any of us being hit again. If it was a vision, like Mirabelle suggested, then we need to be cautious, Siffrin.”
Siffrin’s eye twitches, but they nod, leading you all to where they saw…a switch? On the pillar? Was that here this whole time????? He flips the switch, and-
BAM!!!! You jump, turning to see…
…that everyone is fine.
“Trap disabled!”
You breathe in, and out, and smile. Maybe you’ll be able to do this after all.