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Evbo had been fairly young the first time he heard of the stars.
They were considered a bit of a myth on the Noob Level. No Noob could ever fully explain what they looked like, but hushed whispers swore that the Pro Level had nothing above it, just endless sky. The legends said that the sky was a vibrant blue during the day, and a deep navy at night. They said that the stars came out at night: millions of tiny white specks scattered across the world. If you were lucky, you might be able to see other planets, or even other galaxies. The stories changed from person to person, passed down over time.
The first time someone told Evbo about the stars, he became obsessed with them. When he was still younger, not quite as broken down by a twisted system or humiliated by his rank, he used to badger everyone he could about them. The Noobs typically gave a short chuckle and told their own version of the truth, and the Pros usually just ignored him.
This never stopped him. Day after day, night after night, he would grind up the bones from his daily raw chicken and try to use the dust to mimic his own idea of the stars. No matter how many times he tried, though, he was never quite satisfied with his renditions. They never felt magical enough, or perfectly imperfect enough, or just… right . There was something wrong.
As he got older, he stopped trying to recreate his own idea of the night sky, but he never stopped dreaming about it. He spent many late nights curled in an uncomfortable bed with its rough, thin sheets, shaking violently and trying to ease the starvation clutching his stomach, dreaming about sitting underneath the night sky.
Sometimes, people from his life would appear with him in these dreams. The Pro that gave him food and always smiled at him when they came, or the Noob that offered to make him a new blanket for his bed out of who knows what, or his neighbor of many years.
It wasn’t long before the last Noob fell into the void. Evbo stopped dreaming about having a companion to watch the sky with.
…
Evbo… wasn’t sure how he felt.
He had succeeded, passing the rigged test meant to keep Noobs at the bottom, but when he turned his gaze to the sky, heart pounding hard and fast, he felt everything in his gut suddenly fall all the way back down.
Dirt. There was still more dirt above him.
In the mood of the moment, he didn’t have much time to reflect on this fact. No, he was preoccupied with the fresh steak that had been provided for him upon ranking up. It was the first cooked meat he had ever seen, and the sight alone made his stomach cramp with hunger. Somehow, he had never truly realized just how hungry he was at the highest hunger allowed for Noobs until that moment. Uncaring of the Pro Guard that stood near the gate back down, Evbo tore into his meal.
It was harder to chew than raw beef. Less willing to let itself be torn apart by hands and teeth alone. Still, it was the only way he knew how to eat. The Pro said nothing, but the horrified and disgusted look on his face spoke enough. Evbo ignored him entirely in favor of his meal. Nothing had ever tasted so good.
Evbo bought a new house, excitement swirling in his stomach as he traveled the two block wide jumps to the place he would be staying. Upon reaching the door, though, he hesitated, sparing another glance up at the blocked sky.
As it turned out, Pros couldn’t see the sky either. More sunlight made it down here, yes, but it still wasn’t enough. He had clawed his way to the Pro Level, risking everything to do so, and now he found himself in the exact same situation as he had been back as a Noob. He was still staring at the sky, separated by layers of dirt, and the sight of the stars was refused to him.
He was beginning to wonder if he was destined to forever exist in the darkness of a fake night.
The entire night following, he spent terribly ill. Feverish chills wracked his body as it rejected the cooked meat he had been provided. Despite how much he still craved food, his body refused to even entertain the notion of being fed. He had been sick before, but never had he genuinely wondered if he was dying …
But he could get through this. He had to. Surely other Pros had experienced this before, right? Other Noobs had ranked up and experienced this, right??
He wasn’t alone, right?
Evbo was sick the entire night, and he woke up the next morning in a familiar position of misery: curled on his bed, holding his stomach tightly, and crying softly into the bedsheets. He slept very little, and the dreams he did have always ended with him looking up at the sky and seeing nothing but dirt.
…
As it turned out, Pros were not allowed to ignore their tasks.
Evbo tried to keep himself from shaking in fear as hushed whispers echoed around him. Masters were never supposed to come down to the Pro Level, and when they did, it was always a bad sign. What would the punishment be for refusing to do his task? Would he be sent down again? Would he end up back in Parkour Prison? He didn’t want to think about it.
What if they did send him back down? What if he had to live again with yet another layer of dirt separating him and the sky. He had to swallow back tears at the mere thought. Surely, surely , they couldn’t take this away from him.
There was a faint commotion from somewhere above, and Evbo looked up to see…
Everything suddenly went dim around his vision. All of the whispers and shuffling sounds of Pros trying to stand still faded into the background. For a moment, he was frozen. His heart stuttered and skipped several beats, and his stomach suddenly surged with butterflies.
Evbo looked up to see stars .
Not in the sky, no. The sky remained as dark and blocked off as always. No, the stars were not in the sky, they were etched into the fur of the Master that had just dropped from the layer above. The second before his feet touched the ground, water rose up to meet him, and in less than a moment Evbo found himself staring directly at the embodiment of the night sky itself.
As the Master moved from Pro to Pro, demanding information about their duties, Evbo couldn’t stop staring. His fur appeared black in the dim light, but after a trickle of light brushed against his side, it became clear that his fur was just on the blue side. His eyes were pearlescent and turned in a scowl, but the thing that truly made him stand out was the constellations scattered across his body. He was adorned in gold boots and a crown of gold and gemstones, twinkling and glittering like the stars sprayed across his fur.
This was what the Noobs had always told stories about, and Evbo suddenly understood how he had never been able to properly recreate it. These stars glittered with gold and pearly white light, twinkling with every movement that the Master made. Evbo never would have been able to recreate this. This… this was…
“You. What was your task?”
Oh, the Master had spoken to him.
His tongue felt swollen and clumsy in his mouth, and a stammered and poorly thought of answer was all he could manage. Immediately, the Master scowled and… challenged him to a Parkour Battle.
Evbo… didn’t want to fight. He couldn’t express how little he wanted to fight. But he couldn’t back out of it now. He had to accept.
He only won by a hair, but the Master still seemed… impressed. He gave an approving nod as he looked down at Evbo’s boots, still glinting with an impeccable shine due to their newness. Then, he seemed to come to a decision, and from somewhere in his chest plate (did the constellations continue underneath it? Evbo wanted so desperately to know) he pulled out a totem of undying. As Evbo reached to take it, he couldn’t stop himself from shivering at the feel of the Master’s fur against his hand.
When the Master left, Evbo felt like he had had the night sky taken away from him all over again.
…
The wind was cool on the Champion Level. With nothing to block it, you either had to be willing to put up with it or have something warm to wear. Luckily for EMF, his fur acted as a wonderful buffer against the chill.
Evbo appeared somewhere beside him with a flourish. He couldn’t help but sigh fondly as the young god nearly faceplanted on the quartz flooring. It was obvious he still hadn’t gotten used to his abilities yet.
EMF had been born as a Noob. He had been fairly young the first time he had heard of the sun. Life as a Noob hadn’t been awful to live at the time, but despite how content everyone else seemed in their position in life, something had always itched in the back of his mind. Like there was something he was missing.
The first time someone had told him about the sun, he had become obsessed with it. Some of the Noobs had family members at the other levels, and rumors about the sky and its celestial inhabitants spread like wildfire. The night sky and its stars, the morning sky and its bright, burning sun.
EMF had clawed his way up from the lowest rank, all the time with a desperate burning in his chest to see the sun. He craved the sensation of warmth on his skin, nothing but bright blue and wind above him. From Noob to Pro, from Pro to Master, it was all he could ever think about. He absolutely had to see the sun for himself and live in its glory.
And yet, despite how hard he had worked, how much he had honed his craft, EMF found himself standing on the Master Level… with a sky still denied to him.
It had been… difficult to accept that he was not going to be able to defeat the Champion. And without being able to defeat the Champion, he would never see the sky. Never see the sun he had spent long nights dreaming about. Soon, the dreams stopped altogether as he finally, fully gave up on ever seeing it for himself.
That was until the day he had to challenge the Pro that had ignored their duties to a Parkour Battle.
Upon first laying eyes on the Pro, he had found himself almost speechless. While he had been able to get himself back into line fairly quickly, he still couldn’t quite take his mind away from…
The sun.
The whole time, the sun hadn’t been a great ball of warmth in the sky. It hadn’t been a celestial body just out of his reach. Instead, the sun had been quietly waiting for him, beneath the dirt, caught in the hair of this one peculiar Pro.
He hadn’t really expected the Pro to go anywhere. Many didn’t anymore, especially since the courses had all been rigged, but he still found himself with a glint of hope. If anyone could take down the Evil Champion, it had to be this Pro that carried the sun with him.
And so, he trusted the Pro with a totem of undying, and prayed for it to turn out alright.
Now… he stood face-to-face with that sun again, but no longer didn’t it feel like a metaphor. Even as Evbo groaned from his prone position and had to pick himself up, light from the sun, the physical sun , caught in strands of blond hair just as they did all that time ago. The Parkour God radiated warmth and light, creating lights and shadows with every move.
As Evbo finally managed to stand next to EMF, it was clear something was on his mind. His entire face had dusted pink with embarrassment, but he also seemed to be staring at him with wonder.
“Wow,” he breathed. “So that’s what you look like in the sunlight.”
How would you look in the starlight, my god?
“Are you sure you want me to be your Champion?” EMF questioned once more. Evbo tipped his head back and groaned loudly, even as EMF rushed to elaborate. “I am far from the best at Parkour, and I failed to defeat Seawatt before he captured me-”
And then, Evbo was much closer, smiling softly. “You,” he said quietly. “Are my Champion. My one and only pick.”
EMF’s chest constricted. Not ‘the Champion’. ‘My Champion’.
“And you are my God,” he whispered back, earning another dazzling ray of warmth from the godling in front of him. Evbo seemed to be deeply considering something, and when he spoke again, his voice shuddered slightly.
“Call me that again.”
EMF had never been religious before. It was not the Parkour God that he worshiped. How long would it take for Evbo to discover that?
I don’t care who the Parkour God is. I will worship my sun. My sun, my sun, my God.
“My God,” EMF repeated, softer than before. It was barely even a whisper at this point, just a breath. “My God, my sun.”
Evbo was so close, his words warmed EMF’s fur. “My Champion, my starlight. My Champion , my choice.”
Stars caught in black fur, sunlight caught in blond strands. Day and night, the beginning and end, God and his Champion.
“If you will have me, then I will be your Champion for as long as I live. I will be whatever you want me to be for as long as I live. I am yours, my God.”
Evbo rested a hand on EMF’s cheek, eyes warm and full of devotion, and oh the feeling of being worshiped by your own God. Could Evbo feel the devotion pouring from him? Could he feel the faint tremors running through him as he desperately prayed to the God that was standing in front of him?
“I just want you to be mine,” Evbo confessed, quiet and tentative. “My starlight.”
“If that is what you want me to be, then I will. The dusk to your dawn. The moon to your sun.”
“Then let it be night now, my Champion.”
The stars had started twinkling in the sky, bright and full and vibrant.
The sun was setting behind them, shedding its last rays on the Champion’s Throne before it sunk completely.
And neither looked away.