Work Text:
The Cyber World's fountain is closed, the darkners are settled in, and Kris and Susie have waved goodbye one last time before ascending back to the Light World. You smile, wave, and then return to your castle. Sleeves rolled up, you get to work.
Or, well, the 'rolling up sleeves' is just metaphorical. It’s easy enough to mold the makeup of your robe into a form that is sleeveless, leaving your hands free.
Queen will want a room, but she’ll probably be happy enough exploring town and spending time with Lancer for now. You should also start preparing a room for the next Dark World's darkners ahead of time. ‘The Lord of Screens, Cleaved Red by Blade’ comes with the next prophecy. You pray Kris and Susie will manage to end this without violence, that perhaps the Lord of Screens will get to see your Castle Town in time. Yes, you should really really devote your time to-
No. No. Susie and Kris are gone. You need to make the most of the night until you sense the next Dark Fountain form. They’ll be back in the morning. Susie will want to know what’s upstairs. And you already said your room was up here.
You breathe in, lifting your arms. As you breathe out, you part the darkness that forms the second floor hallway. A black and white door comes into being. WIth care, you urge green color into it. Your mouth twitches into a smile. There, that wasn’t too hard, was it? You’ll have your own room in no time at all.
You open the door, and the room inside is barren. Four black walls that could be formed out of pure obsidian. The most boring room in the entire Castle Town. You start to add blue highlights instinctively to match how you’d initially colored Castle Town, then stop. No, this is supposed to be your room. It should look distinctly yours. Kris and Susie knew exactly whose room was whose the second that they walked in. Yours should be the same. It needs to be just as obvious. It should scream, ‘This is Ralsei’s room!’
You take a deep breath, raise your arms and…
What is a Ralsei-like room supposed to look like?
Making Castle Town was easy; all you had to do was make sure you had an inn and a couple of shops. You were planning to man the stores yourself if needed. Luckily, the darkners from the Card Kingdom had taken care of that themselves.
It’s okay. You might not know what Ralsei-like means, but you know what Kris and Susie will probably think is Ralsei-like. Remember, this is for their benefit, so it doesn’t really matter if you like the room or not. You don't even have to use the room. You force a smile on your face with the thought.
Susie liked the cauldron-cooking with the cake. So, with a wave of you arms and magic stirring around you, you put a cauldron in the middle of the room. You line the walls with shelves, and then on those shelves you put all sorts of bottles with strange things inside. You place a few pillows around the cauldron, for sitting around it and chatting. You spin around to admire your work and… And everything is slightly blue, like the castle itself. You frown. A flick of your wrist, and the lines are green now. Is that… too obvious, does it look like you’re trying too hard? You look more carefully, and it doesn’t look like a room someone would live in. It’s a cauldron cooking room. It’s a kitchen. It is not a Ralsei-like room.
You dash your hands and everything falls back into nothingness, leaving a blank slate yet again.
Well, that’s okay. You were probably never going to get it on a first try.
Kris and Susie’s rooms were easier. Kris and Susie are just so… them. And you know so much about them. So very much about them. Too much about them. But it makes creating rooms for them simple and fun, and it was so nice to see Kris and Susie liking them! They feel at home here. They like your Castle Town. They like you too, maybe. Yesterday, you said you’d make them track jackets. They probably think you like sewing. You can do something with that, right?
You spin around the room, and the shadows leap at your command. A good-sized desk takes up the center of the room with a fancy sewing machine. You make it golden. You place fabric on the table. And then you string fabric on the ceiling, and put bolts on the walls. Thread, you need thread too. So like a spider web, they spread out in the corners. Comically large needles sit near the door into a giant pin cushion.
Now this is a Ralsei-like room. Because Ralsei can sew.
… But surely you doesn’t sew all the time. This is the room of someone who is absolutely obsessed with sewing. Who sews every second they can. You clearly don’t. Your cloak yesterday was all ripped and ragged, and you said you'd make track jacket, but you haven't yet.
This is not a Ralsei room.
You sigh and tear it all down again.
When the Card Castle darkners came, reshaping Castle Town was so easy. They brought their own bits of Darkness and memories with them. The Dark Fountain wanted to shape around them, so the Color Cafe and the Bakery and the Seap all came into being with ease. The Lonely Prince and his Caslte Town, shaped only by yourself, now has more life to it than ever.
You walk around Castle Town, and the Dark Fountain does nothing. You don't bring any memories or experiences with you other than the prophecy, looming over you like the sharp and foreboding blade of a knife. You sit down on the floor and look at the four blank walls. They don’t speak to you. You have only one duty, and that is to lead the heroes through their journey. You know how it will end. You don’t need a room. If you needed a room, the Dark Fountain would have formed one when you awoke here.
You wish you had gotten Susie to guess what was in your room. Then you could just follow her expectations. But if you brought it up too much, she could’ve gotten curious and tried to find your room, and you hadn’t even had a door yet. Maybe you’re thinking about this too much. You have a ton of inspiration all around you, why not just borrow it?
You close your eyes, picturing the room. Energy surges and settles, and when you open your eyes, you’re in Kris’s room.
The replication is almost perfect. The only thing missing is the Ice-E Cryptid pillow. You change all of the blue to green.
It’s not your room.
It will never be your room.
You sniffle, let your hands fall. The green fades away until, at last, only a window is left.
You can see the Dark Fountain outside of it.
You’ll try again tomorrow.