Work Text:
"Can we... come back for a second?" Belle asks, in the timid way she does when she wants something really, really bad, but is also a little scared of the answer.
Which she should be, honestly, 'cuz,
"Why." You ask immediately. It's crabbing the end of the world, kinda, and no one's going to help you lot anymore than they already had, and with King freezing people every second is- Your nose twitches. Valable? Valuble? You frown, turning around. "How do you spell valuuble?"
"Valuable, Boniface."
You nod. "Thanks, Dile." You turn back to Belle, throwing your arms up. "Every second is valuable! King's a crab and we don't have lot of time before even Dormont's gone!!!"
You wait for her to trip over her next words. You wait for Frin and Za to try to hype her back up right after, so she could actually explain why she needs to go back somewhere when you have the means to cut up that crabbing weird thing that blocks the door. You see, out of the corner of your eyes, how Frin scrunches his face trying to think of a new pun, and how Za puffs up a bit like a bird.
But-
"I know." She says to you back, voice… You aren't sure, but it doesn't sound good. Your nose twitches again when the nerves she gets normally never come, too. "I- I know that, but. I need to…" She blinks a bunch of times, — the air smells sweet for a moment, — and you notice her fists clenching. She buries them up in her dress, knuckles paling, maybe just to do something, and-
Are her hands shaking?
Or more than that, actually, as she starts to power walk away from the blocked door. Frin is frowning with you, which tells enough how crabbing obvious this all is, but she either doesn't notice or doesn't care. Your frown only grows when her face twists as she turns, just a little bit, like she forgot that you can still see her, or that you are smarter than you look.
It's… not a face you like much.
You scramble after her as she weaves through the corridors. You hear Frin and Dile and Za quickening their step too, catching up with you. Belle twists and turns, like she knows this place as this place, which Za said is weird and isn't actually right because of the King, and it makes you confused- you walked that way, yeah, but. Something about this is just wrong.
Her steps are too sure. Her pace is too quick.
You… what was that Nille and Dile said a lot? 'Put a pin in that'? Sounds right.
She walks, and walks and walks and walks, until stopping before the statue of the Change God in that dead end room. Your nose itches from the stale weird smells, but you only scrub at it a little and ignore the rest — it's getting harder every time, though.
Belle stares at the statue for a minute, or two, and Za walks up to her when she doesn't move for another three.
"Mira, is… everything alright?" He asks, putting a hand on her shoulder. Her face scrunches more.
"Do… do you know who made this statue?"
Za blinks, looking at it again and seems to barely suppress a cringe. You walk right up to it with Frin and Dile and, yeah, no, okay you get why he did that. One eye high, one eye low, weird smile, a lot of places where the one that made it did a bad job at it.
"This looks like crab." You say, and hear the others agree. Then furrow your brows. "Wait, why'd you bring it up? Did you make it or something?"
Belle… Looks away.
…Crab.
"Sorry!!" Frin yelps in panic just as you were about to do the same. "Sorry, sorry, it looks alright!!! It's fine!!!! It's fine!!!!!!"
"What Frin said! It's okay! We're sorry!!!!"
Belle huffs. It's the first time you've heard her laugh today. "No, no, it's okay, I understand. It looks remarkably bad. Even my teacher probably thought the same, even if he didn't say anything so forward." She places her hand on its face, following the lines with her finger. "It was my last try when I was still studying here, before I went away. I tried to make them look… kind. Benevolent, maybe? I-"
She stops. Her words cut away, her face is pale, and her body kinda freezes in place.
You are near her in a blink.
"Mira..?" Za asks as you start to poke at her, and worry your lip when she doesn't respond. He shakes her, — calling out "Mira! Mirabelle!?" — but nothing happens at that, too.
She's still warm and has all her shades, so it's not the Time Freeze, but her eyes are va… vakant? She stares into nothing. It's like she's not even here — no reaction when Dile snaps her fingers near her face, or when Frin starts loudly clanking his things in the bag trying to find tonics, or when cold Crafted Water is lightly poured on her hands.
You jump when Frin's voice chokes, "Isa..?" You turn, arms around Belle's middle form shaking her with all your strength, and see-
"ZA!!"
Bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad.
"STAND BACK!" You nearly bark before whatever this is can freeze someone else, Dile already pulling away Frin by their cloak, who trashes and scrambles and calls because-
Because.
You stand far away from Za and Belle even if you want to shake them both until they wake up from where they froze — Belle with her hand still on the statue and Za with both of his on her shoulders. Your eyes sting, 'cuz you- Nille pushing you to the door, her standing stock still, eyes big and wide and so scared- but you can't. Can't cry now, you are big and smart. You're almost an adult! Adults don't cry because of that!!!
You wrap your hands around Dile and try very, very hard not to cry.
You don't know what happened to Belle and Za, and you don't know how much time was wasted here, standing and watching. Waiting. Dile managed to calm Frin down, you think, maybe. His at-tem-pts to pull away stopped, at least, but he shook. Or maybe it's you that's shaking.
You… don't want to think about it.
Dile is tense. She's watching the statue like it's going to bite you all. You glare at it with her, fists in her clothes. You almost want to break it, if you're being honest, but Belle made it. You don't want to hurt Belle, more so when she's already hurting; plus, you know you're not strong enough to do that, anyway. And in spite of it being not-broken, it's still frozen in time, so you'd just hurt yourself for nothing.
You know that. It's just that knowing doesn't make it any better.
You're so lost in your glaring that you nearly miss when Za gasps awake. You do not miss how he puts his weight on Belle, though, or how he pulls away when he notices what he's doing.
You yell, running at him full speed. He catches you, yeah, but you feel his hands are a little too cold. Which is bad! But not too bad, and not something that can't be fixed. Your nose twitches again, though, — this is becoming ir-ri-ta-ting, — and you still need to make sure Belle is fine, so you quickly turn to Belle to make sure she.
She…
(Once, when you were so much smaller, Nille had run away from your last home. You don't know much of what was there, or what happened, or why she did that. Your Ma screamed, your Dad screamed too, and Nille grabbed your hand and bags she kept under her and yours beds and ran, ran, ran.
You don't remember much, but you do remember what face she made as she turned to look behind to make sure no one was after you.)
She looks.
(Belle's face is almost the same as Nille's was.)
Angry.
"..Belle?"
You blink and
the stone
cra
cks.
...Za hisses something out when your fingers dig in his skin. You do not let go, and he doesn't try to pry you away.
Belle has her rapier stuck between the eyes of the Change God she made, Craft still sparkling off of it. Her move was so quick you weren't able to track it. She takes it out just as smoothly as she hit, turning sharply away from the statue like it's not even there. Her breath sounds really, really bad, like she ran through the whole House on her own. It might be 'cuz she just destroyed something she couldn't, frozen in time and all that.
(You. Don't think it's that.)
Belle's steps are sure when she goes away and doesn't look behind.
(You will not know it until after Belle has her cry, after weeks pass by, after one of her bows gets lost somewhere and she has her second nightmare in one night that she tells you she never tried to come back to that room ever again.)
[A Memory of Change God. Just remembering Their silhouette makes you sick, for the words that still ring in your head, for what this belief has done to your friend, you don't want to look at it anymore, you don't, you don't, you don't.
At the start of every loop you may choose a Blessing without praying to Their Statue in Dormont.]