Work Text:
The worst part about Mizu is that no one survives. There’s an enderman in an underwater city and there are bloodstains on the walls and a shrine to a god that never cared about him or his forefather- and no one survives. The tree catches flame, the swords are more than ornamental, the tour guide aims to kill. The four fishermen he looks over are no exception. It’s really just awful to watch and record, and...
No, no. That’s not quite right. No, surely that’s not what you hated the most. You’ve seen people die to Dream’s influence before, no. That wouldn’t have been the most surprising thing. Think. Come on. You can do this, fucking think, Ka-
The worst part about Mizu is that they get it all wrong. You know this in your bones, like how you know the glow of a portal and the scratching of a quill on paper. There’s a bed fit for three and a boy made into a warrior and a guard dog when you know he’d rather fight for your attention than in any war ever again. There’s a duck painted on the floorboards and tales of an idiot jester when you know he’d outwit gods and build up nations if he had to. There’s benches and discs and bees and none of their books ever mention that none of that really mattered to the boys they speak about as long as they had each other.
There’s a back room with a library you don’t remember building and a TV playing cartoons you don’t remember watching but you know it’s your room, like how you know the exploding of cities and the sound of a lever flicking on the executioners block. It can’t be anyone’s but yours.
You can’t keep doing this. It’s taking a toll.
The worst part about Mizu is that it makes you realize you’re forgetting. There’s tales and warped stories that you know must be false because theyre about your friends- and yet you can’t remember exactly why Bad never swore, or why Fundy was actually a genius engineer. You watch and you feel time flow around you and hope nothing too important in your brain gets caught in the stream.
You don’t want to forget. If you forget, you can’t save them. You have to save them. You know this in your bones, like how you know the walls of L’manberg and the lanterns in Pogtopia and the tower in Logstedshire. You have to save them. It’ll be better next time. You just have to find the right story.
