Chapter Text
Hello, it’s me, the Angel. Uhh… So in whatever Deltarune universe you inhabit, you're me. Imagine I’m Sans, and you’re Fell!Sans or whatever. Doesn’t really matter, I just wanted to make this point of contact in order to broadcast the consequences to the solution I have found to our… ‘Light and Dark Problem.’ Some people think the ultimate solution is to seal the dark fountain in the closet. However (at least for my specific Deltarune) the conflict is not just dark trying to overtake light, but also light trying to overtake dark. A world with no escapism is a world with no break, just all running until your legs succumb to ion deprivation and you fall over in fatigue (yes, that’s what causes muscle fatigue, not lactic acid.)
No, the best solution is the one you all secretly wish you could do outside of our Survey Programs, merge the worlds of light and dark. I call this new soup of positive and negative photon amounts… a gray world. I’m still workshopping names, shut up. Anyways, I’d now like to chronicle my adventures within my new gray world (placeholder). And maybe get around to telling you the long and arduous journey it took to creating the conditions to make it. Maybe. It doesn’t really include any of the characters you all care about so it might not be fun.
I will now talk as if I am a 3rd person narrator and I am not directly inside of the story. I’ll do an exercise first.
The boy woke from his sleep, and immediately got onto his iPad like the dumbass he is. Frying his dopamine receptors with the combination of optic and auditory stimulation of Youtube and a game of an unknown name. The boy is now describing this process of destroying his own sense of self and being in a humorous Deltarune fanfic, the section he is currently writing is now getting painfully meta and he has elected to move on.
The Angel’s eyes were filled with light as he got onto the Device in the middle of the night, projecting his being into his world of interest. As the connection was made, he felt himselt being brought into a world unlike our own, where magic and monsters are real. Where the monster inside your closet is actually probably a better person than you. Where tv’s come to life if you stab the ground with a lot of intent.
His vessel was not the vessel he was intended, no, he fixed that whole conundrum a while ago. Kris was allowed to just be themselves, and the Angel could do whatever he wanted without worrying about whether or not he are actively making his vessel hate him for existing. Win win for everyone. A new light hit his eyes, that of his created world.
“Angel? Oh, back from your little nap I presume?” Toriel giggled as the Angel shifted in the seat across from the beloved Chairiel.
“Really, just call me Phareal.” The Angel rubbed his eyes, lifting himself from his sleeping posture.
“Yes, yes, I guess you are just a kid like any other in a way. Even if you seem especially powerful in our world.” Toriel nods, still not fully processing the fact that the Angel, the being monsters and humans alike have worshipped for millennia… is just like, a teenager. Just some teenager with deity-like powers.
“Should I wake up Kris?” The Angel pivots, deciding to not focus on themselves.
“Oh, yes, I guess now would be a good time.” Toriel nods again, going to make pancakes for her children. “Can you believe Dess and Asriel are coming back from college today? So much to do.”
The Angel started walking to Kris’s rooms, as he passed by the kitchen, he saw Toriel making fire for the pan. As he passed by, he smiled at the sight of his work being put to good use, even if in something so small and relatively inconsequential as not having to use stoves.
The Angel got to his siblings' door and twisted the doorknob. He then shook the other resident teenage Dreemurr by the shoulders, waking them up.
“I’m up, I’m up. Jeez, don’t gotta shake me like that every morning.” Kris held their head, adjusting to their sudden consciousness.
“Yes I do! Toriel’s making pancakes again! Also we have to get ready for the imminent return of your brother and his deer girlfriend!” He shook Kris more.
“I get it, oh my Ange-“ Kris was about to Deltarune’s equivalent of ‘oh my god’ but forgot he was right there. “… You don’t have to shake me so much. And Dess isn’t his girlfriend.”
“What? Of course she is, Asriel’s retainer is in her stuff and she has one of his sweaters.” He points out.
“What were you doing in Dess’s room???” Kris asks, their eyes visibly confused under their hair.
“…” The Angel then left.
“So, what are you gonna do about your brother’s return? Well, I guess we have to tell him we adopted a god…” Toriel says as she puts pancakes in front of her two children.
“We also probably need to explain why everyone can suddenly do magic…” The Angel puts a hand to his face, thinking of how to explain the whole ‘gray world’ (placeholder) thing.
“That will be hard to explain, ‘Hey, so it turns out god is real and he’s just like a teenager so we adopted him. Also, he fiddled with this world's laws of physics and somehow merged the concepts of fiction and real life. Oh, also, a lot of the stuff in your room is now alive and can switch from normal items to alive at will (like Soul Eater)’. That’s gonna go over well…” Kris mumbled.
“Oh, also, ‘your little sibling is dating someone who looks exactly like you’.” The Angel teases Kris.
“Ralsei’s not my boyfriend.” Kris says irritably.
“Yup, that’s why he blushes whenever you're close to him.” The Angel nods sarcastically.
“What is your obsession with shipping people???” Kris shakes their hands back and forth exasparatedly.
“Consider it… divine intervention…” The Angel says smugly.
“… What????” Kris grips their head in confusion, as if to physically halt all the processing the wernicke’s area is doing.
“Phareal, stop trolling Kris.”
“Mooooom, don’t use internet slang, that’s cringe!” Kris put their head in their hands.
After that, The Angel and Kris went to school.
“U- umm, so today we actually have a new student-“ Alphys said from inside the classroom when the door suddenly opened.
“Hi guys.” The Angel said, floating to his chair, he tried to furl his wings in but he ended up slapping Temmie in the face.
“ow-“ tem sed in pane.
The room was not designed for 3 by 3 desks, so Toriel and Alphys had to move the last row to fit 4 seats.
Susie kicked his desk. “Yuh know, for a god you're awfully unpunctual.” She said with a smug look.
“Shut up, let me be a normal teen for once.” The Angel picked their ear, slumping in his desk.
“Normal teen? Motherfucker, you're a god! Who cares about being a normal teen!?” Susie punched the Angel in the arm playfully.
“Susie, stop talking in the middle of class. I’m talking about very important stuff for your group projects!… Wait, that umm, reminds me. The introduction of our new student… changes some things. Does anyone want to have a 3 partner project with umm… god?” Alphys said slowly.
“Well we’ll volunteer-“ Noelle raises her hand.
“ME AND KRIS WILL TAKE HIM, OBVIOUSLY!” Susie noogied the Angel.
“I- ok-? Susie don’t noogie god!!!” Alphys reprimanded.
After a long and boring class, Kris, Ralsei, Susie, Noelle, and the Angel all went to hang out. Susie tossed the stone in her hand, trying to beat Noelle’s tossing record.
“Shouldn’t you be like, working on your projects? It’s due in like 3 days.” Noelle said, looking up from her homework pile.
“It’ll be fine, we’ll work on it tomorrow.” Susie cursed under her breath after only managing a measly 3 skips.
“Susie, you said that for the last 3 days!” Ralsei pointed out.
“Yeah, but god wasn’t on our group projects the past 3 days.” Susie puts her hands behind her head confidently. “We’ll be fine.”
“Can you guys stop referring to me as god or the Angel? I’m just a kid like you…” The Angel muttered, sadly the others did not hear him and moved on quickly.
“So Kris and Noelle, what’re you gonna do for your nerd sibs return?” Susie smiled.
“Dess isn’t a nerd…” Noelle scratched the back of her head.
“My brother’s a huge fucking nerd and thus I will not protest.” Kris said, stopping their grass picking to look up at their friends.
“I say we throw a welcome party.” The Angel got up abruptly, changing his mood quickly back into an agent of chaos instead of a moody teenager.
“No.” Kris said firmly.
“Huh?” The Angel tilted his head.
“I don’t trust your planning dude. I know you’re like all powerful or whatever, but you suck at most things revolving around ‘being a person’. And that includes planning parties! Have you ever even had a surprise party???”
“Uhh… Not that I remember?” The Angel shrugged.
“Mmhmm.” Kris nodded.
“Let’s put this up to a vote, everyone who doesn’t want an awesome Angel surprise party raise their hand now.” The Angel looks around to see which of his friends raised their hands. He sees Kris, and then Ralsei a few seconds later.
“… Unless my vote counts, this is a tie…” The Angel thinks thunkily. “Uhh, draw lots?”
“Where would we get lo-“ Kris starts talking before the Angel manifests small sticks with a snap of his hand. “… One of my brothers is a god.” Kris says deadpan.
The Angel tries to suppress the slight hurt that statement caused with a smirk. “Just processing through that big blue brain of yours?”
“Shut up…” Kris groaned.
The 2 drew lots, and by (totally not cheating) chance, the Angel drew the bigger small stick.
“Ok, that settles it! Surprise party! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!” The Angel cheers, walking to get ready.
“I hate my life.” Kris muttered.
“What was that, Kris?” Ralsei says with a concerned voice.
“Nothing.”
Asriel and Dess looked out the window as they finally got to their Hometown. Asriel got up and started pulling their luggage from the overhead compartment.
“Aren’t you excited Dess? It’s been, what, 2 or 3 months? I wonder how much has changed! Kris has already told me so much over the computer but I can tell there’s stuff they haven’t told me.” He said, his tail wagging subconsciously.
“Wow, nice exposition dude.” Dess said jokingly, taking her guitar case from Asriel.
“What? This is just how I talk.” Asriel went beady eyed at Dess thinking his speech patterns are unnatural.
“Bro, I was just joking.” Dess responded, walking to leave the bus.
‘Bro??? Does she think of me as a brother???’ Asriel thought panically.
They went out the bus door and onto the street, Dess had to duck so her antlers didn’t hit the frame. They looked around for the people they were expecting to greet them.
“Huh, that’s weird…” Asriel said quietly, usually people were more excited to see him.
“What? Scared you're not the golden child anymore?” Dess says teasingly, nudging him in the shoulder,
“Whaaat? No…” Asriel lies.
“Pfft.” Dess rolls her eyes. “Where should we go, goat boy?”
“I wonder what Kris is doing…” Asriel starts walking and Dess walks behind him.
As they got to the house, they noticed the distinct lack of lights that were on. They knocked on the door and waited for a few moments. Asriel started looking concerned.
“A- are they not home?” Asriel knocked again.
“Maybe they forgot we were coming home and went on a trip? I mean, the worlds been so weird lately maybe we just slipped through the cracks.” Dess shrugged, slinging her arm over his shoulder. “Just you and me, little buddy.”
Asriel blushed in response but Dess didn’t notice. “I still want to get something from my r- room…” He said, getting the spare key and opening the door, they start walking inside but there’s no walls.
“I don’t remember your house bein this big, Azzy…” Dess said quietly, confused.
“Umm… maybe it’s part of the weird new physics the world has been inflicted with?… Or something?” Asriel theorized.
“… How about we just uhh… come back later?” Dess turns, pulling Asriel with her.
When they went to leave, the door suddenly closed. This reminded Dess of the ███ ██████ ████████. She ran over and fiddled with the doorknob, but nothing happened. She tried to unlock the door, but nothing happened. She started banging on the door, but nothing happened. She screamed, but nothing happened.
“LET US OUT! WHO THE FUCK CLOSED THE GODDAMN DOOR! YOU BITCH! OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN THE DOOR RIGHT NOW!” Dess collapsed against the door, banging on the door sitting on her knees.
“D- Dess…” Asriel walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. “S- someone’s gotta come for us soon, right?”
The floor started shaking. And whatever darkness was holding them up lost its tangibility. Descending them into darkness even darker than dark…
They looked around, somehow the fall didn’t hurt them. They got up and recuperated… then.
“Surprise!” They heard someone in front of them yell, then very big party poppers went off and covered the pair in confetti.
There was a banner that said ‘Welcome home Azzy and Dess, our college boy and girl!’ Under it, were all of their friends and family, a pink lizard they’ve never seen, someone who looks suspiciously like Asriel, a kid with a hoodie on and their tongue out, and in the middle was a teenager with huge angel wings and several rings covered in eyes hovering around their head.
“… What?” Dess said, very clearly angry.
“We just thought that a surprise party would be nice, though most of the decor was… His idea…” Toriel says, indicating at the person in the middle.
“Ho ho! I thought the plan was brilliant! The whiplash of weird occurrences into familial reconnection should maximize the effectiveness of the surprise party!” Lancer said happily.
“…” Dess was fuming, she decisively did not like the surprise, but she looked over and saw that Asriel looked touched, so she pretended she was unaffected.
“You organized a surprise party… for me and Dess?” He said, his eyes large.
“Yeah!” Toriel nodded.
“Aww you guys are the best!” He shouts pulling Asgore, Toriel, and Kris into a hug. Kris tried to push him away but there was no real strength in the push.
Suddenly, their auditory nerves were assaulted with the noise of a party horn.
“Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!” The Angel cheered repeatedly while blowing into the horn.
“Who the fuck is this?” Dess points at him
“Oh, I’m Phareal Dreemurr, I’m god.” He says casually.
“… What?” Dess’s eyes were wide.
“MOM YOU ADOPTED THE ANGEL???” Asriel said, looking over at the Angel finally.
“We adopted Kris, why not?”
“THOSE THINGS ARE NOT IN ANY WAY PROPORTIONAL!” Asriel screamed.
“Hey, I’m a pretty good younger brother, Kris tell-em.” The Angel pulls at Kris’s sleeve.
Kris glared at the Angel, but grumbled. “Yeah he’s a good brother, but he’s an acquired taste.”
“Like caviar?” The Angel tilted his head.
“More like black licorice.” Kris shrugged in response..
“Hey, I’m your step-dad now by the way.” Sans casually said.
“… What?” Asriel’s eyes squinted.
“Yeah, I’m bonin your mother.” Bad-um-tsh.
“…” Asriel stares in pure ‘what the heck is this?’
“Let’s kill that guy.” Dess whispered to Asriel.
Toriel looked over to the Angel. “So, now that the whole surprise is over, Angel—“
“Phareal” The Angel requested.
“—Sorry, Phareal—can you close the whole… dark fountain thingey?” Toriel continued.
“Oh, yeah, sure thing.” The Angel snaps and suddenly the house is completely normal.
Suddenly, Dess’s breathing is a lot more unconstrained.
“I feel that you should all hang out, like the good ol days. Though with… more people.” Toriel said, shoving Dess, Asriel, Ralsei, Susie, Kris, Lancer, and Noelle out the door. The Angel starts floating off the floor.
“Too many people, I shall now become a card.” Lancer became a card and entered Kris’s spacious pant hole.
“… What?” Asriel blinked several times.
“That’s how Darkners work.” The Angel nods matter-of-factly.
“Why are you guys so casual about this???” Dess’s eyes widen.
“God told us all about it!” Noelle smiles.
“Just call me Phareal, really.” The Angel shrugs. “You see, when it becomes so dark yotta yotta yotta, then your brain fills in so many gaps the unreal becomes real. But if you flood that dark world with light, then flood it with dark again in quick succession, you trick your brain into thinking things are both real and unreal. Which is why we have magic and darkners but the world hasn’t ended. That’s what those big white and black pillars that popped up a few weeks ago are, they’re like… gray fountains (placeholder).”
“… Umm… I think I kinda get it?” Asriel has a questioning expression on his face.
“I understand less now!” Dess pulls at her own hair.
“I guess it’s easier if you have a basic understanding of dark worlds.” Susie scratches her neck.
“They both took a while to process for me too…” Noelle shrugs.
Kris taps their chin. “They were both pretty easy concepts to grasp for me because god was in my head for 3 days-“
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT!?” Dess shouts, looking like she wants to beat everyone excluding Noelle (including Asriel) with a wiffle ball bat.
“Gray worlds.” The Angel says matter of factly.
“Phareal, that does not help.” Dess holds the bridge of her nose.
“You… you used my name.” Angel pauses.
“What?” Dess squints.
“Nothing. Anyway, what should we do guys?” The Angel asks, thinking about what ‘normal teenage behavior’ is. “Ooo I know what teenagers do, wanna complain about our parents and how much we wanna kill them?”
“… See Noelle, god’s just an edgy teenager, don’t gotta be so uptight about it.” Dess breaks the short silence.
“How could I possibly have known that?” Noelle replies.
“Idk, I think ‘Idk what causes death, just maybe try not to bleed?’ Written in your Bible should’ve given it away?… I was like 6 when I wrote that…” The Angel shrugged.
“Wait, a fucking 6 year old wrote our bible???” Susie asks, laughing loudly. “That’s fucking HILARIOUS!”
“Well, part of it, I wrote the latter half when I was 13.” The Angel corrects her.
“That’s why the writing quality suddenly increases and gets way edgier in the middle!” Dess exclaims, the information piecing together in her mind.
“Precisely.”
“So what are we actually doing though?” Asriel asks, super over the revelation that the god he’s worshipped all his life is a 15 year old.
“I say we break into the church and steal some of the fruit juice, what are they gonna do? Kick us out? The church is literally dedicated to me!” The Angel began laughing.
Noelle thinks it over, her antlers twitching. “A- are you sure? Breaking into a church seems… sacrili-“
“Yeah! Let’s break into the fuckin church! Let’s go!” Dess nodded enthusiastically, beginning to walk to the church.
“Well I guess that’s settled…” Ralsei mutters, following closely behind her.
“You know what Noelle, I like your sister, she’s cool.” Susie puts her hands behind her head confidently.
“Wow, fahaha, that’s nice.” Noelle smiles warmly.
“So Kris, umm… what was that whole ‘god was in my head for 3 days thing’?” Asriel whispered to Kris, looking at Kris and the Angel then back and forth.
“That was like, a whole thing. Phareal’s told me he’s been—in his own words— ‘fucking around’ with our world for years now. But he’s only really ‘entered the narrative’—once again, his words—like a week ago when he possessed me for a while. Then he… made his own ‘vessel’, the body he now inhabits. Then after that, he just kinda… asserted himself into our lives. Mom adopted him. He befriended everyone… He made up with me for the possession… He still apologizes for taking away my autonomy. That was… horrible…” Kris’s voice wavered by the end and Asriel took their hand in his.
“Hey hey, don’t gotta talk about anything you don’t want to. Look, let’s just catch up with the others.” Asriel put the trademarked Dreemurr warmth into his voice to comfort Kris. The 2 siblings walked in silence for a while…
“Hey what’cha doin bitches?” The Angel floats back to talk to his 2 siblings.
“Way to shatter the fucking moment dude.” Kris glared at their floating brother.
“Huh? What’d I do?” The Angel tilts his head.
“Nothing, let’s just go.” Kris pulled Asriel ahead and left the Angel behind.
“…” The Angel floated in place for a moment. “Ok.” He catches up.
The group got to the church. They all have history here (well, other than Ralsei, but he’s only been outside for a whole 3 days), some more… pivotal for others. For Dess, it’s a pillar of normalcy, something that she’ll never admit she’s actually very attached to. Her edgy phase (ok, edgier than she is now) was spent primarily arguing with her mom on why she shouldn’t have to go there. But when it was over she went back of her own volition.
To Asriel, it’s another example of how he’s Hometown’s golden child, one of the choir members. And Kris tells him regularly about how Alvin wants him to come back and sing more because it feels strangely empty without him. To Susie, it has sick fruit juice. To Noelle, the church is a pillar of her values, where she learned the importance of being kind to others. Where she had a sense of community among her fellow choir members.
To the Angel, this was a monument to the fact most people who exist in this world won’t see him how he sees himself, as just a kid given way too much power. They’ll mostly see him as THE ANGEL, the being from the prophecy. The being destined to ███ █████ █████. And he… doesn’t really know how to feel about that. He’s important. But he’s not important. To Kris, it has sick fruit juice.
“So how do we go about this?” Susie asks, seeing the locked door.
“Wait just a moment.” He looked into the keyhole and whispered something, then the door swung open.
Susie looked in amazement. “… Cool.” She said, running inside, then the others followed behind her.
They looked around the church. Noelle regularly volunteers here so they should know where the juice is kept. Before that, everyone paused at the candle holder.
“… Why’re we pausing?” The Angel tilted his head.
“Oh, whenever me, Asriel, Kris, and Noelle came to the church we would always pray at the candles. Which is kinda awkward because the being that we pray to is literally right there, but its just… tradition. Can you hear us when we pray?” Dess looked back at the Angel.
“Well… no.” The Angel lies. “But you can still pray, it’s actually psychologically good for you.” The Angel continues, that one wasn’t a lie.
“Well, if it’s a tradition, we might as well?” Susie shrugs.
Everyone goes around the candles and they silently choose something to pray about. They put their hands together and silently thought.
“Please, help all my friends to acclimate to all the changes lately.” Kris prayed for their friends.
“That’s… actually sweet.” The Angel thought.
“Help me to finish this college semester.” Dess prayed for herself.
“Idk, maybe if you studied more.” The Angel laughed internally.
“I’m really hungry right now.” Susie prayed for herself, the Angel didn’t even respond to that one.
“Angel, I know you can hear me, that’s one of the powers of a deity. I’ve never actually… prayed before. What do I pray for anyway? Umm… So there’s like, a person I like, can they like me back?” Ralsei prayed for a few other things, but the Angel stopped listening halfway through.
“I WAS FUCKING RIGHT! I’M TEASING HIM SO MUCH AFTER THIS!” The Angel cheered.
“I like Dess so much, oh my god I’m hopeless. I’ve been praying about this for years and you still haven’t answered this goddamn prayer. Make Dess like me I swear to the Angel- wait why am I swearing at the angel on the angel how do expletives work?” Asriel’s prayers were streams of thought.
“He’s such a mess on the inside, what the hell?” The Angel squinted at his brother concernedly.
“Help all of us to finish our school projects.” Noelle prayed with a smile.
“I will, because one of the projects is mine.” The Angel replied.
After that everyone was done praying and they all looked happy… Then the Angel opened his mouth.
“I lied, lol, I can hear prayer.” Everyone was unhappy with this.
“WHAT?!” Everyone shouted at once.
“Gotta say, some of you surprised me, Susie didn’t but whatever.” The Angel said casually.
“You fucking lied!? I thought you said you couldn’t in the Bible!” Dess yelled.
“I fuckin lied then too.” The Angel exclaimed.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no.” Asriel started panicking.
“Well he already knew so I’m unaffected.” Ralsei shrugged.
“Wait, you guys actually believed him?” Kris tilts their head. “What did you guys pray about???”
“Asriel’s a fucking lovesick mess, and that’s all I’ll reveal!” The Angel started floating again, going to get the juice.
Everyone was still grumbling when The Angel brought out the juice containers, red and yellow, the best food color combinations. Like ketchup and mustard, and fries and ketchup, and spaghetti and its sauce, and umm… yeah I’m out. I just really like fries with ketchup and mustard.
They all silently drink the juice, Asriel is silently panicking.
“… So umm… How much did you hear?” Asriel says, bouncing his leg nervously.
“You know, the important bits.” The Angel says offhandedly, but Asriel knows what he means. “And, while I try my best to not meddle with people’s feelings, just know. I’ll try my best.” The Angel smiles at Asriel, who shrinks in response.
“Asriel has a crush?” Dess asked with a hearty laugh, Asriel looked even further down.
“Yeah, ain’t it kinda obvious?” The Angel asks, teasing Asriel.
“No? Cmon, Asriel can trust everyone here… I think, Susie and Ralsei seem nice. Who does he like?” Dess beckons. “It’s not like it’s anyone here, they’re all teenagers.” Poor, sweet, oblivious Dess.
The Angel snickers. “Well, actually-“
“IT’S SOMEONE IN OUR COLLEGE CLASSES! DON’T WANT YOU TO TELL THEM AND RUIN MY CHANCES!” Asriel covers the Angel’s mouth.
“Whaaaaat? I’d never intentionally ruin your chances with a girl, who would ever do that?” Dess feigns ignorance.
The Angel snaps and Asriel flies back, making sure the Angel can talk without interruption. “Actually, that’s funny beca-“ Kris restrains him this time.
“Kris, I thought you were all for making Asriel’s life slightly more miserable.” Dess shakes her head.
“There’s no ‘slightly’ about the misery this would cause!” Kris screams back.
“What? Damn he must be down BAD.” Dess laughs again.
The others watch on in amusement and slight terror. Susie was the amusement. The others were the terror.
“W- we should help Kris, right? I’d hate to suddenly have my crush revealed outside of my terms…” Noelle says with a horrified expression.
“Naw, honestly, I want to see how this ends.” Susie smirks, drinking more juice as Kris and their brother wrestle.
“Cmon Kris! It’ll be funny!” The Angel tries to shove them off.
Kris doesn’t respond, just continues restraining him.
Dess sighs and walks over to the two. “Ok, fine, fine, if Asriel really doesn’t want his secret spilled that’s fine.” She grabs Kris and the Angel and separates them.
“Fineeee. At least not now.” The Angel floats into the air.
“Good…” Kris mutters.
“Umm… can I come down now?” Asriel asks, still restrained to the wall.
“Oh, right, forgot I did that.” The Angel snaps and Asriel falls to the ground with a thud.
“Ouchie…” Asriel gets up and dusts himself off.
“Motherfucka says ouchie.” Angel laughs loudly.
“Ahem.” A sudden voice clears his throat.
They all look back and see a very disappointed Father Alvin.
“Did you break into this place of worship… for juice?” Alvin sighs.
“Hey, it’s not breaking and entering if the place is dedicated to you. This is supposed to be ‘The House of the Angel’ isn’t it?” The Angel asks, floating above Alvin.
“Whatever, just don’t drink all our juice, we need that for service.” Alvin sighed again.
“…” Susie downed one last bottle of juice. “Ok, let’s go guys!”
They all left the church, all in very different moods.
“Ok, now what?” Susie asks, smiling, reveling in the chaos.
“Hmm… Remember that time you guys went to the graveyard?” The Angel snapped, remembering something potentially cool.
“Uhh… yeah?” Kris responded.
“Well, you’re all grown up now, and there’s a bunch more people, and now there’s magic that's changed the layout… so wanna visit the graveyard and the forest behind it?”
“I say we do it. Let’s see how brave the Ralsei is.” Susie nods.
“Wait, Ra-…” Dess took a good look at Ralsei. “… I haven’t processed it in the chaos, but your name is an anagram of Azzy’s and you look almost exactly like him as a teenager.”
“Actually, his facial structure is almost completely different, and his horns are a different color, and he has pink eyes instead of brown, and his fur is slightly more white then yours, and his hands have pink paws instead of black ones, and his fur has pink undertones instead of blue, and his glasses are round and green. He literally looks nothing like you, you fucking dumbass, he’s just also a feminine goat.” Kris points out.
“Why’re you so adamant about this?” Susie mutters.
“Yeah that was weird dude.” Dess chuckles.
“They went on literally the same spiel when I first saw a picture of Asriel. It was confusing then too.” Susie scratches her head.
“Can we just move on!” Kris quickly changes the subject, marching towards the graveyard.
“… Suspicious…” The Angel taps his chin, floating after Kris.
They reached the graveyard. For Noelle, Kris, Dess, and Asriel the most pressing memory of the place was of burning and burying that Icee’s box. For the other’s, they most know of it because Susie made a ‘your mom’ joke at Snowdrake and he bursted into tears. He then explained that they had to bury her a week earlier… Yeah.
The light was getting low now, the sun was dipping closer to the horizon, and the world was currently bathed in an orange-yellow hue. The cemetery wasn’t creepy… yet. But the vibe definitely wasn’t happy-go-lucky.
“So what did you guys actually do back here?” The Angel asks Asriel, looking at Gerson’s grave.
“Mostly just console Noelle when she thought something was moving among the trees. But nothing was.” Asriel looked around.
“Hey, shadows play tricks on your mind! Ralsei tell-em!” Noelle complained.
“Actually, the graveyard does have a monster in it.” The Angel says casually, finishing reading the gravestones.
“Wh- what?” Noelle’s eyes fill with fear and her voice cracks.
“Yeah, this world has a weird cryptid thing that roams around graveyards, it doesn’t do anything but it feeds on fear, that’s probably what you saw.” The Angel nods.
“See? I was right.” Kris holds in their chuckles.
“Guys, stop messing with Noelle.” Dess says firmly.
“What? Do you really think I would go out of my way to terrorize some random teenage girl?” The Angel smiles innocently.
“Yeah, cmon guys, be more confident in him.” Kris adds, shaking their head in false disappointment.
“Tell the truth.” Dess says coldly, glaring at the Angel.
“… Fine, I was lying.” The Angel admits, shying away from Dess’s glare.
“Cmon dude! You gotta commit! I thought you were ‘commit until I die’ with bits!” Kris shakes the Angel.
“That’s only when I’m not under threat of a college girl. I’m a bitch dude.” The Angel shrugs.
Noelle stared uncomfortably at the Ice-e’s final resting spot. And she turned back to the others. “S- so, should we go in groups again?” She looks back at Dess.
“Hmmm, sounds fine. How should it be divided-“ Dess starts asking, before being cutoff.
“Cmon Kris, I think I saw a statue in the woods!” Susie exclaims, pulling Kris by the arm.
“Wait up for me!” Ralsei shouts, following the 2.
“Oh, ok…” Noelle says, slightly disappointed that Susie didn’t choose her.
“Welp, guess that just leaves the siblings, cmon Noelle, let’s see if the flowers can sing like in Alice in Wonderland!” Dess starts walking and Noelle follows behind her.
The Angel looks over at his brother, who’s gaze lingered on Dess slightly longer than necessary.
“Dude, how long?” The Angel asks as they begin walking to somewhere in the woods.
“Umm… 11 or 12 years I think? Since we were like… 8…” Asriel admits, playing with the cuffs of his sweater.
“… Holy fuck dude. It’s been that long and you haven’t even TOLD her?!” The Angel laughs, shaking Asriel by the shoulders.
“I just… What if she sees me as like, a brotherly figure and I ruin everything? Haven’t you heard of the Westermarck effect?” Asriel rubs his neck. Looking down.
“I learned of that from a Schroeder x Lucy fanfic.” The Angel says matter of factly.
“You read fanfic?” Asriel tilts his head. Little does he know, he’s literally inside of one right now.
“Yeah…” The Angel admits hesitantly.
“Huh.” Asriel blinks. “So, does Dess think of me as a sibling?”
“Well… No.”
“Then how does she see me then?”
“It’s hard to tell. Dess seems to have natural defenses around her thoughts. As do Susie and Kris. Good for me but not for you, you're an open book.”
“I don’t like that, I don’t like that at all.” Asriel muttered.
Meanwhile… A very peculiar spot on the graveyard shifts. And underneath the earth, a nightmare’s actualized. A hand of Ice emerges from the dirt.
Susie was looking at a statue of the Angel, which looked almost nothing like the real one. The wings were right though. She turned to look at Ralsei. “So did you finalize enrollment or do we gotta wait more?”
“I should be in school by next week, Susie!” The goat boy shouts happily. “I’ve never actually… been in school. Despite the fact I lived in one. So this should be a nice change of pace…”
“Ehh, school kinda sucks ngl. Most of my friends are there though, so that’s a plus.” Susie smiles.
“Well, I hope I can be one of those friends one day.” Ralsei smiles wider. “To make going to school worth it.”
“Yeah, and maybe Kris’ll actually stay awake in class now.” Susie jokes, punching Kris in the arm.
Kris just silently nurses their arm, moving on from the statue of their brother. “Come on guys, there has to be more behind here right?”
They all started walking again. After a few seconds of passing trees, they stumble on a strange inscription on the ground.
“What’s that?” Ralsei kneeled over, wiping the dirt off and lighting up the inscription with fire magic. “It’s… a fragment of the prophecy… That’s weird, it’s different now.”
“That makes sense, didn’t the Angel like, majorly fuck with the world? Of course the prophecy would change.” Susie scratched the back of her head.
Ralsei cleared his throat. “At the edge of dawn, even while grey striked the sky. Still, even then do problems lie. In the memories of a world unmade, scars not present refuse to fade. And monsters once slade shall peak their heads. A deer once lost now safely in bed. What once was endarkened is now free. And still, and still, the Knight roars until they all see-… Then it just stops…” Ralsei’s face scrunches in confusion.
“Umm… I feel like we should ask Phareal about this…” Kris mutters.
Unknown to them, a figure stalks them between the trees. They see Kris. They leave.
“So you wanted me to see something?” Asriel asked the Angel.
The Angel looked back, leading his brother by the hand. “Yeah, it’s really important. Like symbolic and shit.” He stopped and kneeled before a pond.
“Uhh… A pond?” Asriel kneeled by it as well, looking at both of their reflections.
“It’s what the pond does that’s important.” The Angel throws a small pebble into the pond. “The splash of a rock against water is often used to symbolize the aftereffects of a choice. One rock creates all that moving water, a ripple. So.” The Angel takes a rock, holds it to their mouth for a few seconds, then throws it into the water. A few seconds later, the reflections begin to shift. “The pond tells you how things could’ve been different.”
In the new reflection, Asriel looked horrified and the Angel was Kris.
“This is what would’ve been had I not gotten a new vessel. That’s why Kris is me.” The Angel explains, then gives Asriel a stone. “Come on, don’t you want to know how things could’ve been different?”
“Umm…” Asriel brings the stone to their mouth, whispered something, then threw it in the water as well.
A few seconds later, the water shifts again. This time, the Angel in the water is normal again, but Asriel has a… rock outfit on? He’s also smiling more.
“Woah, Asriel, you could’ve been cool!? What’s this one?” The Angel asks, intrigued by Asriel’s strange new look.
“Oh, Dess, Kris, Noelle, and I made, like, a band when we were kids. Noelle liked it a lot and we had 10 monthly listeners.” Asriel puts a hand to his face.
“Oh, Blood Crushers, right?” The Angel remembers.
“Umm… Dess came up with the name.”
“Sure.”
“Anyways, sometimes I wonder what would happen if we tried to make it big instead of going to college. Umm… Does this mean it works out?” He gestures at the reflection.
“I think… maybe?” The Angel shrugs.
Asriel takes up another rock and holds it to their mouth. Whispering again. But they hesitate before throwing it in the water.
“… Did you ask what would happen had you asked her out?” The Angel asks.
“…” Asriel puts the rock down. “Y- yeah… But umm… I’m kinda scared dude…”
“Why? The answers literally in your hand, you can just know how she feels.” The Angel tilts his head.
Asriel shifts uncomfortably and scratches his neck. “Umm… It’s just… What if she doesn’t feel the same? I don’t want to learn like this.” He shakes his head.
“Huh, suit yourself.” The Angel stretches. “If you got nothing else you’re wondering about you may as well leave.”
Asriel nods and then leaves. The Angel held back, and he slowly dipped his finger into the water. After that, the water seemed to splinter, showing hundreds of different reflections of the Angel. One in the middle seemed to have a crazy grin, and when he looked back at The Angel, they smiled wider. The Angel splashed the water away from them, setting it back to normal, before beginning to walk away.
Dess and Noelle spotted a patch of flowers, a strange tune was emanating from them. A melody with no discernible rhythm, lyrics with no understandable meaning, lines with no sense of rhyme, and chords with no real progression.
“What the fuck?” Dess asked, sitting by them.
“Hey, language!” Noelle said to her sister, sitting down as well. “But yeah, that’s weird…” She poked a flower. “… Huh…”
“The light called its trite profound. Then forgot it’s meant to bite. The height of the sun is incomparable to the depth of the void. But the sight of blood forgets it all anyways, and as the hand of the girl reaches to its end extension, the bland drone of suburbia is broken by an evil never made by its victims.” The drones sang.
“…” Noelle hummed with them, trying her best to harmonize with the ever changing tune. Somehow, even in the cacophony, she sensed a pattern. Some sort of rhythm, some sort of structure, dare I say… something thought out.
“…” Dess blinked, watching as her sister somehow harmonized with the song. She took out her guitar, and tried her best to do the same chords as the flowers. You could, however, hear the fact she obviously had a better knowledge of music theory then whoever orchestrated the tune.
“Sup losers!” Susie shouted, spotting the other 2 groups.
“So did you all find anything, or did you do random inane bullshit like us?” Dess asks, her guitar back in her case.
“I had fun!” Noelle says happily, not processing any of that weird shit the flowers were spewing.
“We uncovered, like, a weird ass prophecy.” Kris shrugged.
“Ooo what’d it say?” The Angel asked, an excited smile on his face.
“Somethin about like, the seemingly fixed world is actually somehow still bad, and like… somethin about a deer… I forgot the entire prophecy.” Susie scratched the back of her head.
“Umm… what?” The Angel tilted his head.
“Umm…” Ralsei recited the prophecy to the Angel.
“…” The Angel processed it. A knowing look passed on his face, but he immediately replaced the face with another. “Idk what that could mean. Maybe we just shouldn’t think about it until it happens.” He waves his hand, as if pushing the responsibility away.
Dess looks confused. “Wait what was that about a Deer who was missing-“
“It was nothing, let’s just move on!” The Angel’s wheels around their eyes spun faster. Clearly panicking.
Just then, a very convenient inconvenience distracted them. And a large stomp was heard by all of them.
“What the hell?” Dess put an arm in front of Dess, pulling out their wiffle ball bat and pointing it at the figure.
“Oh, hello Noelle.” It cracked its neck, and popped its arm back in place. “Recognize me?” It was barely noticeable through all the burn marks and its squashed head, but Noelle did.
“T- the burnt Ice-e’s box?” She took a step back.
“That’s right. It’s me.” It tapped its chest with its thumb. “You, you hurt me. And why? All I wanted was to be your friend. Do you know what it’s like, to slowly burn to death over a wink?” It pushed out painfully, its vocal chords straining from the heavy burns.
“Oh shit-“ Susie said, taking out an axe. “Look, if you want to terrorize Noelle, newsflash, that's my and Kris’s job, and like hell we’re letting something like you take it.”
“O- oh. The heroes of the prophecy are defending ice girl, huh?” It popped its spine back in place, and stood tall, towering over even Dess and Asriel. “Well too bad it didn’t say you couldn’t save the world… With only broken bones.”
The Fun Gang enters a battle with the terrible being of Ice. Kris commanded Noelle to reason with it.
“L- look. I know that I hurt you for what seemed to you like a friendly gesture, but I thought you were haunted. How was I supposed to know you were friendly?” Noelle stuttered, taking a step closer to him.
“Haunted?” The Ice-e’s box laughed. “Well, seems like your suspicions were correct. Because I’m not leaving… till one of us isn't moving.” It attacked Noelle. Swinging it’s large arms wildly at her.
Dess intercepted it, holding its arms back with her bat. The ice-e’s box laughed. “Oh, you. You’re the one who lit the match.” It lifted its hands and slammed down, breaking Dess’s defensive posture.
Kris commanded Susie to Rude Buster the enemy. The attack landed and dealt a great amount of damage. The Ice-e’s box stumbled back.
“Look, whatever you want, it’s not worth it. Not only are you outnumbered, but Noelle didn’t know you were alive, she wouldn’t have hurt you had she known what you actually were!” The Angel tried to reason with him.
“What I want is for her to be in as much pain as I am, it’s only karma.” The Ice-es box snarled, jumping at the Angel again.
“Fine, you want a fight? Then. I’ll. fight.” The Angel didn’t move, the Ice-e’s box fazed through him. Then The Angel floated into the air and put a hand on it’s head, and it began to glow. It began to melt, and it screamed in pain as it did.
The others watched in horror as the box screamed in agony, expletives and curses on the being who was harming it. And as the deed was done. The Angel wiped their hand off, trying to get the goop off their hand.
“… Come on guys, it’s getting dark.” The Angel floated off, leaving the melted head on the ground, and its body just… lying there. Pain was all it knew, and it was all it knew to cause.
They all went home, and as the sun tended to do, it was replaced by the moon. And their world was covered in darkness.