Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You aren’t a teenager anymore, and thank fucking god for that. So why are you in high school again?

Last time you were in high school (well, not really, it wasn’t called that in your country, but you seem to be stuck in some sort of weird alternate US of A) was roughly five to ten years ago. It was around that time that your probably-inherited predisposition to depression, anxiety and dissociation reared its ugly fucking head up, to add to the autism, of course. If you care enough to try and remember the memories stolen away by the fugue of dissociation, you’ll remember you were fucking miserable.

Best thing about being an adult is that you can finally process all the bullshit of your childhood. You’ve largely gotten over the feeling you should have killed yourself as a kid.

The kids (?) around you are the weirdest kids you’ve ever seen. The first thought that came to your mind when you saw them (and the goat woman who calls herself your mother) was ‘monsters’… which isn’t a very nice descriptor, to be fair, but you don’t know what else to call them. It doesn’t seem that much nicer to call them lizards and deers and weird dogs, you think.

“Uhm- Kris?”

The yellow lizard… woman (…?) who is sweating (???) seems to be talking to you. You remember Kris is what the goat woman called you (you should really try to find out her name), so she’s probably trying to get your attention.

“You should… uhm… find a partner for the project?” the lizard teacher says like she’s unsure of it, even though she’s the teacher. “You could ask around!”

“…Sure? I’ll… ask.”

“(Why did they say that with a British accent???)”

You have a British accent? Maybe watching BBC shows was fucking up your perfectly artisanal accent.

Asking around, no one seems to have a spot for one more group member (even though the weird dog who called themselves Tem was partnering with an egg of all things). The deer girl (somehow, the name Noelle comes to mind, but then you realize you must have read her embroidered pencil case) offers to make a group of three with the blue bird who you’re betting has a shitton of self-esteem issues.

You’ve been there. Defining yourself solely by your intelligence tells you a lot.

“Sure. Thanks,” you tell her, trying your best not to stare at her… whole thing. “I can ask Miss…” you peek a look at the name written on the blackboard, “Alphys.”

“No, I can do it!” Noelle insists. “Miss Alphys, can we make a group of three?”

“What? NO!” the bird interjects, face squished in a manner that reminds you of play doh somehow.

“What did you say, Noelle?”

You tune out the argument, instead fiddling with the sweater that ‘Kris’ is wearing, when the door busts open.

“Uhm.” Alphys whimpers in a very small voice. “Hi… Susie.”

Susie is… tall, is your first impression. Tall and large in ways that remind you of professional wrestlers. And purple, with the vaguest hint of yellow eyes peeking from underneath her bangs, the combination somehow making her seem both intimidating and vaguely sickly.

Susie answers with a hmpf.

“We’re… doing group projects this week!” Alphys tries to salvage the situation. “And Susie, you’re with Kris!”

“…great.”

You remember why you hate high school.

Chapter Text

There’s a black hole inside the school closet. You don’t think there’s supposed to be a black hole inside the school closet.

“The fuck-?” you hear Susie whisper, so you assume your first impression was correct. “Is the light broken or something?”

“I think- maybe we could go get Miss Alphys?” you suggest. Somehow, the closet exudes a… wrong feeling. You aren’t sure how to describe it. Something that makes the hairs of your arms – well, ‘Kris’s’ arms raise, and your stomach drop in dreadful anticipation. You don’t want to go in.

Susie scoffs, false bravado barely covering up the sweat drops you spy on her face. “Hell no. I ain’t no coward.” She pushes you in front of her, leaving you to stumble on your own feet. “Get in, freak!”

Alright. So. Waking up in some random kid’s body in a world with what you presume to be monsters? A relatively normal dream, maybe even a lucid dream for once. Being back in school is certainly a common enough theme for a dream. Getting threatened by a purple dinosaur that really needs to brush her teeth? Not the weirdest thing you’ve dreamed of either.

Getting stuck in a dream-inside-a-dream à la Inception? Where you clearly felt pain when you fell down after the closet’s floor gave in?

You don’t think you’re in Inception anymore.

Just for good measure, you pinch yourself – or 'Kris', if you’ve really somehow managed to possess a random teenager. You feel pain again. Your head is still throbbing.

“Ai, credo,” you mutter, looking again at the large dust piles that litter the area. At least they remind you of dust piles, or maybe even dandelion fluff, with how they fly away when you try to touch them. You even sneeze. You wonder if they somehow count for your pollen allergies. “Primeiro monstros, depois um buraco negro, e agora sou azul?”

And you were, indeed, blue. Kinda hard not to notice ‘Kris’s’ skin being an unnatural light blue, especially when the sudden change from slacks and sweater to what you can only describe as light armour and a small cape was so noticeable. It shined silver in the dark light around you, and the cape was clasped in the front with a small pin depicting a strange symbol you don’t recognize. A circle, a pair of wings, and three triangles.

Delta comes to mind, somehow. You wonder if you’ve been studying too much maths lately to have a triangle remind you of that Greek letter.

You keep going forward – nothing more to do here, after all – inspecting pile of fluff after pile of fluff, wondering where Susie is. She can’t be too far off from you, you think, unless the time you spent dillydallying and nursing your aching head truly made you lose her.

You reach a cliff, black water going down a small path.

Maybe you can use it to go down, you think, and then wonder how you thought of it.

“Fucking hate heights,” you grumble and get ready to jump.

Chapter Text

Wet armour sucks. You can feel the water sloshing around inside it, wetting the fabric that’s between the silver plates and your skin. You reach towards the leather straps keeping the breastplate in place and undo the clasps, letting it drop onto the ground, and then do the same to the shin and wrist guards. The blue and purple cloak follows suit, leaving you only in the dark-blue heavy fabric that serves as undergarments and the leather skirt that protects the top half of your legs.

It feels… better. Still not great, but you have no wish to get naked. You don’t even know how to start a fire to dry your clothes, and you also don’t really want to think any more about being in ‘Kris’s’ body.

Speaking of which…

“Hello?” you whisper, trying your best to be loud enough to be perceptible but nor loud enough that anyone else around could hear you. “Kris? Is that your name? Are you there?”

You wait and listen, but no one answers. ‘Kris’s’ mouth stays as closed as you left it, and no other part of the body answers.

If ‘Kris’ is there, they either can’t answer or don’t want to. You, however, also have to consider the possibility that they really aren’t there, or that they don’t exist. Or maybe, if you’ve been shoved into their body, they’ve been shoved into yours. This whole thing made you finally realise that you weren’t dreaming, after all.

You aren’t sure which possibility is better.

“If you can hear me, Kris, I’m sorry about this? I… don’t really know what’s going on, but I’ll try my best to get things back to normal. Sorry about removing your armour, too.”

‘Kris’ doesn’t answer. You move on.

You reach a long, high stretch of land with long drops on either side. From there, you can see a distant source of light – it looks like some sort of castle and adjacent town – and, more distantly, a large, dark geyser.

You aren’t sure what to make of it.

As you walk on, you find the ground littered with tiny, white pellets. Curious, you kneel, dropping the armour you’ve been carrying with both hands, and look at one. It’s shaped like a spade and looks made of something like a plain white stone, despite not having any marks of having been whittled down into shape. You touch it-

-5 HP!

-and hiss, pain reverberating up your body and into your chest. You look at the finger that had been pricked, finding the woollen glove slightly torn and covered in a little droplet of blood.

You look back at the pellet, only to find it disintegrating into dust. You don’t know what to make of this.

You fall down another dark waterfall – this one being much larger than the previous ones – and walk towards the direction of the town you saw.

The town is small and quiet. The buildings look bare when you peek through their windows, and no one answers when you knock. Towards the end of what you presume is the main road, you see a large staircase, leading you to the castle, where you can see the geyser and, more importantly, light. Light might mean people, and people might mean Susie and a way out.

You go on.

Chapter Text

The light grows as you approach, as does sound. It’s muffled, but you can hear some sort of engine running as you get to the last stretch of the staircase. The armour on your hands weighs your arms down, and you regret not ditching it when you could.

When you finally- finally! Reach the last step, heaving in exhaustion and looking at your feet, you hear the engine again, getting closer.

…closer?

What- shit-

You instinctually dodge to the right, letting the armour just fall to the ground and be trampled by the motorcycle (on fire?????) instead of your – ‘Kris’s’ body. Only then, stance wide and with you newly-alert to your surroundings, do you see the person on top of it.

A… blue kid? Maybe? Shaped somewhat like a spade?

“Oh, oh, oh!” the kid laughs, doing a spin on the motorcycle – no, it’s a motorized bike, you think – and doing a victory pose. “A new CLOWN? My dad’s gonna make me son of the year!”

“Kris?!” a gruff voice calls out to you. “The hell have you been?”

You look over to the far wall, where Susie and some kind of monster dressed in green are standing. She looks expectantly at you, like she wants you to join? Maybe? You aren’t sure.

The monster next to her seems to sigh in relief, although you aren’t sure what for. “Kris!” he calls out to you, “please help us! You have to come over here!”

“What- why? Who are you?!”

“Toothpaste boy there is the Prince of the Prophecy!” the kid tells you, strangely enthusiastically. “And I-” he laughs “-am the bad guy!”

There’s a beat, and then the world-

-shifts-

-and you’re by Susie and the ‘Prince’s’ side, the lights dimmed like they’ve been put through a filter. You feel a peripheral awareness for something in your mind’s eye, but like- like it’s wrong. Like you weren’t meant to see it like this.

“Kris! You must ACT!” the ‘Prince’ beckons.

You feel something, palpable in your mind. You raise your hand, finger pointed forward, guided by that perspective and-

->ACT

->Compliment

Compliment? What? What’s going on?! What is this?!

“I like your bike,” you feel your mouth saying as little particles shoot out from your finger.

“Jeez willikers!” the kid – Lancer, you new sense tells you – preens at your words. “No one’s ever told me that before! But! I still gotta trash you CLOWNS!”

And then you’re pulled-

-towards the middle of the room.

You can’t see or hear or feel, except you can-

-and you can see and hear and feel, except you can’t-

-and you’re a little red heart-

-and you’re a teenager-

-and spade projectiles come towards you,

leaving you to flee from their sharp, prickly points-

-and the little red heart dodges the spade projectiles-

-and the spades fade into dust-

-and you’re just ‘Kris’ now.

“Oh no! My bike’s all out of fuel!” the kid says, but you can’t hear him over the sound of blood rushing through your ears, through the feeling of trembling hands, through your own heaving breath. You don’t hear the kid leaving, or Susie leaving soon after. You don’t hear the ‘Prince’ coming up to you.

But you do feel a furry paw landing on your shoulder, startling you out of it.

“Kris?” the ‘Prince’ asks, looking obviously concerned for you.

“You- what the fuck was that?! What happened?! How did that kid-? How was I a heart?!”

“That’s… That was your SOUL! It’s the culmination of your being, Kris. When you’re in a battle, it will come out so you can avoid enemy attacks! It also lets you do ACTS, so you can deal with enemies non-violently!”

A… soul?

“That makes no damn sense.”

“It’s fine, Kris! You’ve just learned about it, after all! It’ll be much easier to understand how it works as time goes on.”

You still think this whole ‘soul’ business is ridiculous and nonsensical, even more nonsensical than your current situation. You don’t think you expected a magical dissociation battle technique to be in your cards today, after all. But you aren’t really in much of a position to argue.

You turned back to the ‘Prince’. “So, you… uh-”

“Ralsei.”

“Ralsei. You know a lot about what’s going on?”

“Yes!” Ralsei smiles at you, seemingly pleased. “I know about the Prophecy, your and Susie’s role in it… Feel free to ask me about it!”

And you do, letting Ralsei talk about the apparent heroic fate that awaits him and Susie and you. Well. ‘Kris’, most likely. You doubt accidental possession by a random person was a part of this Prophecy.

It probably wouldn’t hurt to ask, though.

“Say, Ralsei,” you pause, wondering how to best phrase things, “I… don’t think I’m a part of this Prophecy?”

“Of course you are, Kris, you’re-!”

“Hold on. I’m not saying Kris isn’t, but I don’t think a random person who is somehow in Kris’s body is meant to be involved, at all?”

Ralsei’s face turns ashen underneath his hat, eyes wide in… fear?

“…what?!”

Chapter Text

Ralsei seems to be… having some kind of nervous breakdown. He’s kneeling on the floor, heaving and muttering inane things under his breath. You aren’t sure what to do about it. People aren’t your thing! You can barely make consistent eye contact on a good day! You’re shit at comforting people!

God, sometimes you hate your brain.

“Uhm. Ralsei?” you call to him, trying your best to sound vaguely sympathetic. “Ralsei?”

He doesn’t answer, absorbed by his own panic. You sigh, not knowing what else to do.

Maybe a hug?

The thought pops into your mind unprompted. You don’t really like hugging all that much unless it’s your mum, but… it does seem to be a common thing to do, no?

You hesitatingly kneel and wrap your arms around Ralsei. You feel the skin in your arms raise up in revulsion – you hadn’t thought it’d be that bad, you haven’t had such a bad reaction to touch since middle school – but keep on hugging him. Ralsei helped you when you were in his situation, you can do the same for him.

Ralsei quietens slowly but surely, his breathing evening out. He finally raises his head to turn and look at you. “I’m sorry, I… It’s just, it’s complicated, and things were not supposed to be like this… And if things have gone as wrong as I fear they have…”

You furrow your eyebrows. “What would happen?”

“In the worst-case scenario, the world…” he gulps nervously, “it would end. Kris and Susie won’t be able to leave the Dark World, and the Roaring…”

“The Roaring? What’s that?”

“A preclude to the end days. Hopefully not something we have to worry about yet, but…”

You can see he’s starting to spiral again, so you try to move on from that Roaring thing. “Alright, Ralsei. How do we see how wrong things have been? What do you even mean by me being here making things go wrong?”

“Kris…” Ralsei suddenly looks very sheepish. “There’s no delicate way to put this, but Kris is supposed to be possessed. I’ve told you and Susie a kind of summary? Of the Prophecy. It calls them, and I quote: the First Hero, with human SOUL and parts. But the SOUL doesn’t stand for an actual human, at least not one that can manifest in this universe. It’s… It’s meant to be the ANGEL.

The ANGEL is the ultimate representation of LIGHT. It’s how the Heroes can seal Dark Fountains, since LIGHT is the opposite of DARK. But that also means that, like Darkners, who spawn from Dark Fountains, the ANGEL can not exist in the Light World – in the real world.

The connection that Kris and the ANGEL were meant to have is distant. The ANGEL is somewhere afar and has a limited perspective on this world. It’s been described before has being in someplace with higher dimensionality… Which is, quite honestly, difficult to explain on its own. But what matters from this is that the ANGEL’s consciousness is not supposed to actually be in Kris.

This can mean one of two things: either the ANGEL has been forced into this world by forces so powerful they can hijack such a higher power, or… or you aren’t the ANGEL and can’t stop the end of the world.”

You stay silent for a bit. And then you wince.

“Is it a bad time to mention that I’m a very normal person?”

Ralsei winces back. “I hope you aren’t. I really, really hope that.”

“Is there any way to test that?”

“So, the ANGEL’s power can do quite a few things. Closing Fountains is one, and so is UNLEASHING LIGHT, but those require very specific circumstances that I’d rather not induce,” Ralsei tells you, guiding you back to the town. “Fortunately, there’s other things that the ANGEL is meant to be able to do – things that no one else can.”

“Like what? Get wings and fly?”

“That is more dependent on the specific Vessel the ANGEL is using, despite the common iconography. No, what I’m talking about is a little more metaphysical.

Try picturing a star. Something that contains all your WILL and DETERMINATION. Something that will contain all your memories up to this moment, all the good and bad things that you’ve experienced. Focus on them, eyes closed, and then force them out of you.”

And you focus. You think of waking up as ‘Kris’, of falling into this Dark World, of talking to Ralsei. You want to see this through, to go back home, you need it – and the feeling rushes up, from your limbs into your chest. You picture a star, four pointed and silver, right in front of you. The memory of that fluffy prince in a green hat fills you with a strange POWER.

FILE SAVED!

“You did it!” Ralsei exclaims, relieved, as you open your eyes. “Thank goodness! You really did it!”

In front of you, the star from your mind’s eye floats, blinking in and out of existence, irradiating light in front of you. You extend your hand towards it, touching it. It feels warm.

It feels like home.

“What is this?”

“A SAVE POINT. I can’t actually see it, and neither can anyone else, I think, but I can sort of feel it? With it, you can do all sorts of things. Heal up the entire party, store extra items, check what enemies you’ve recruited… You don’t need to worry too much about it.

The most important thing is that now we know you can close Fountains. No one other than the ANGEL, or someone with the ANGEL’s power, at least, would be able to do what you just did, after all… So at least we’re safe. For now.”

Ralsei seems much more calm now. You still don’t get the whole thing he was talking about – you, an angel? But it at least gives you some information that you can infer answers from.

“I’m… glad,” you tell Ralsei, not untruthfully. But you still need him to answer more things for you. “If I’m really meant to be the angel of the Prophecy, though, then at least now I know I’m not here by accident. Someone tried to do something to me, although I don’t know what for, and I wound up actually inside this world. Do you have any idea why?”

“I don’t know… It could be someone trying to kickstart the Prophecy, or someone trying to subvert it… But we have no way to figure out what actually happened. Say,” he adjusts his glasses, “what do you remember before you woke up in Kris’s body?”

You pause, caught off guard.

“Truthfully… not much? I think I’d gone to bed. It was all dark, and I vaguely recall a voice in my dreams… but not what it said.

I remember seeing a person in front of me, but their appearance kept changing, like someone was swapping out parts of a doll… and then it became dark again. And it’s all blurry for a bit, until I woke up.

Does this tell you anything?”

Ralsei thinks for a bit before shaking his head. “We’ll have to figure it out as we go, I suppose!” He smiles brightly, but you don’t really buy it. “Let me teach you about battles first, and then we’ll go after Susie, OK?”

The shift is far less violent this time around, probably because Ralsei is there grounding you. He keeps a hold on your hand as you feel that weird perspective in your mind’s eye pop up.

“Sorry, it must feel really odd for you, no?” Ralsei smiles apologetically. “Since you weren’t meant to actually be here, the world must be trying to pull you in two different directions… Try and close your eyes for a bit, alright?

Great! Now, follow that feeling. Ignore the body you’re in and just let it guide you.”

You follow the tether; it’s something like a red string, fraying into different directions. When you reach the node, you feel less and less of ‘Kris’s’ body, but you can still look back.

Ralsei looks up at you and waves.

“You should be in some sort of third-person perspective now! If you look down, you can see the battle interface.”

And there is a series of… buttons? Screens? It’s hard to describe what exactly they are, but they remind you very strongly of video-game UIs.

Now that you think about it, even that little star makes you think of video games. What was it that you sort-of heard when you manifested it into reality? File saved?

Is this a fucking isekai?!

You look back down at the buttons (you’ll just call them buttons) and press the one labelled

->ACT

Under it shows a little menu with options of things you can do to the dummy that Ralsei is training you with. You decide to choose

->Say Hello to Ralsei

Which promptly takes you back to the body.

“Hi, Ralsei. I can see it,” you say before closing your eyes again, this time pulling yourself to that perspective far more easily.

“Great! It’s a relief you can do it, it would be far more difficult to teach you certain things without it…

Oh, right! Now it’s the enemy’s turn. Your control is going to be pulled into the SOUL, but since you’re already in the right angle, it shouldn’t be as disorienting as with Lancer. Get ready to dodge!”

When you’re pulled into the heart, it’s less of the two-body-perspective you’ve suffered before and more like a near-complete takeover. It’s much, much easier to dodge the dummy’s attack when you aren’t being constantly pulled back and forth from two points of view.

It probably also helps that the dummy’s attack is easier.

Before long, you’re back to that third-person perspective. Ralsei teaches you how to attack with your sword – and you have a sword?! He has to teach you how to pull it out when you’re sent back into ‘Kris’s’ body, because apparently it isn’t formed when inside the sheat. He also teaches you how to defend yourself by transforming it into a shield, which… well, it is badass.

“Now, most importantly,” Ralsei tells you when you follow the thread back into the third-person perspective – might as well just call it POV if you have to call it something every time you think about it. “You have two ways to finish a battle. You can fight an enemy until their HP is depleted, or you can perform ACTs until they don’t want to fight anymore. In that case, you SPARE them. Go on, try that!”

->SPARE

->Dummy

The POV gives you some random numbers – you’ll have time to figure out what they are, you think – before you’re shifted back into ‘Kris’. Ralsei is still holding your hand and you feel grateful that he is helping ground you while jumping perspective to perspective.

You still wish he wouldn’t touch you for a bit. You really are getting uncomfortable from it.

“Thank you, Ralsei,” you tell him sincerely, and use the opportunity to sneak your hand away from his.

“Oh, it’s nothing! I’m just glad I had the chance to teach you this… And that you’re such a great student, too!”

“No need to flatter me.”

“We… should really get going, though. The longer we stay here, the longer Susie walks around all by herself… And I really don’t want her to get hurt.”

You nod and adjust the armour that he’d helped you put back on a while ago. “Let’s get going.”

Chapter Text

“Big-ass door,” you commented.

“Big… ass?” Ralsei seems confused at your crude phrasing.

“Huge. Enormous. Gigantesco. Big-ass is just funnier to say, which is why I picked it up. English is funny like that.”

Ralsei blushes a little bit. Probably because of the stupid conversation topic. He moves on either way. “When we get through the Great Door, our journey will really begin. I hope… I hope that, if we are kind, we might have a happy ending. I hope we can fix all of this, too.”

You nod. “What is behind that door?”

“Another Dark World. The one where Lancer comes from. As far as I know, it isn’t very dangerous, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get to its Fountain. And Susie went over there already.”

“Cool. Lead the way.”

Ralsei flinched. “Me? Lead? But I-”

“What’s the problem?”

“I’m… not really good at that kind of thing, I’m afraid.”

“Ok? That’s… fine? I can do it, I guess.”

You fucking hate group projects. But if there’s one thing you’ve learned with them, is how to pick up a group and getting them to do shit. You can lead Ralsei around – he even seems far more willing and helpful than 90% of your past partners.

Certainly more helpful than what Susie seems willing to be.

You walk forward, and Ralsei closes the big-ass door behind you. In front of you, there’s a forest. Red-leaved, dark-barked trees cover the terrain you can see around you. A purple path under your feet stands in contrast to it, letting you see the way even through the spaces between the trees.

Around all that, there’s only dark.

“You should make a SAVE POINT,” Ralsei tells you, adjusting his hat. “Once one is placed, it stays there, and it’s always good to have somewhere to heal up.”

You can’t argue with that logic. You might have to backtrack at some point, after all. You gather all of your new memories and hold your hand out and-

FILE SAVED!

Once you’re (more) used to them, battles are kind of… fun? You hadn’t thought you’d enjoy them, only that they’d be some kind of chore you had to get through, but it reminds you a bit of a mixture of team sports and theatre, with the dodging and the acts you had to do to spare the enemy.

Maybe you should get back to basketball at some point. You haven’t played in what, seven or eight years? It was such a big part of your life and you just… stopped one day.

Perhaps someone should have noticed that something was wrong by then.

Anyway. Battles.

Battles with Ralsei are interesting. You (as a little red heart thing) are mostly responsible for dodging – which is both a bit unfair and tons of fun. Ralsei also teaches you how to analyse your opponents, through something called a ‘check’ – which is, as you find out, the thing that told you Lancer’s name before.

“Once you’ve CHECKED an enemy, you can tell your party members what to do,” Ralsei tells you as you walk together through the forest. “Of course, you aren’t required to do so, but it makes it easier to figure out how to SPARE them.”

“Hm. That seems neat. Is that another angel thing?”

“I think it’s just a human thing? Monsters have magic in Dark Worlds, and humans have ACTs.”

“Kind of like a tabletop RPG, no? This whole thing-” you wave around you “-sort of reminds me of that, or a video game, I guess.”

Ralsei looks like he’s about to say something, but then you’re accosted by a Ruddinn.

You find Susie by a closed door.

“Oh, great. It’s you two. What? Finally decided to catch up to me?”

You tilt your head. You don’t think you’ve done something to upset her, but Susie doesn’t seem like much of an upbeat, forgiving person, as far as you’ve seen of her. Her bitter tone at the end does corroborate your impression.

“Susie!” Ralsei smiles beneath his hat. You don’t know if he’s missed Susie’s tone or if he’s ignoring it. “Thank goodness, we were worried about you! But… how, did you get past those puzzles earlier?”

Susie snorts. “Walked past the spikes. Shouldn’t have made them so far apart.”

You snort. Ralsei had insisted you do the puzzle properly, to ‘practice for later’, or whatever, but the gap between the spikes was large enough to get through.

“Somethin’ funny?” Susie’s expression falls when she turns to look at you. “Maybe if you’ve got time to laugh, you’ve got time to figure out how to open this shitty door.”

You shrug. “It’s that puzzle over there,” you tell her, pointing at the previous room.

“We’ve got to work together to solve it, though! It needs three people to step on all the platforms-”

“Whatever,” Susie walks past Ralsei. “Let’s solve that puzzle and then I’ll just go.”

“Uhm, Susie? There’s going to be more things that need the three of us to get past them… Furthermore, only Kris can seal the Fountains…”

Susie pauses. She looks back for a moment. She scowls. “So, you’re saying I have to stick with you guys?”

“Well…. Yes.”

She makes a noise that’s something in between a groan and a whimper. You have enough self-preservation to not say your observation out loud. “Let’s get this over with, then.”

She walks towards the previous room, and Ralsei begins to follow her, but you hold him back with a hand on his shoulder.

“Ralsei, should I… should I tell Susie?”

“…” Ralsei's face falls just the slightest bit. “I… don’t think it’s a good idea. It’s too complicated to explain properly, and Susie isn’t… Well, she still needs some time to get used to the idea that she’s a hero. I don’t think telling her about your situation would be of much use yet.”

“Can’t argue with that,” you shrug. “But we will have to tell her at some point. Especially because she is meant to be one of the heroes.”

Ralsei nods and looks to the side. “I agree. I just… don’t know how we’d do that.”

He isn’t wrong, you think. What would you even say? ‘Hello Susie, I’m not Kris, I’m the person who accidentally possessed Kris!’ That definitely would go over soooooo well. Susie probably already thinks you’re acting weird, since she’s in Kris’s class. How well would someone take the news that their classmate is possessed?

Wait. Kris has a mother, right?

God-fucking-dammit. How are you going to fool the kid’s mother?! Do you even want to fool her? You don’t particularly want to act like a typical teenager, you’re an adult, for fuck’s sake. And you don’t even know what Kris is like, and it’s becoming more and more likely that Kris isn’t here.

“Ralsei, this isekai is shit.”

“???? What?”

“Hey!” Susie shouts from the next room. “If you walk any slower, I’ll grow moss on my back by the time you get here!”

"Coming!" You turn back to Ralsei. "Let's race. O último a chegar é um ovo podre!"

"What?!"

Chapter Text

The puzzle is easy enough. Susie falls into formation behind you soon after, before seemingly snapping herself out of it and deciding to walk side-by-side with you.

“Uh? Susie? Aren’t you going to get in line?” Ralsei asks, eyeing your friendly purple dinosaur party member inquisitively.

“Nah. That’s freakin’ weird.”

“But-”

“Ralsei, I didn’t say anything before because I thought you’d be uncomfortable with it, but it is weird that you insist walking in line all the time,” you point out. “I mean, the path’s pretty wide.”

Ralsei flushes (in embarrassment? maybe?). “Oh, right! I hadn’t had the chance to teach you about battles before, Susie,” he changes the topic.

You try to file away the previous topic in your mind to bring it up later – although, it’s like a 20% chance of you actually remembering to ask about it later. Fucking shitty memory you have.

Executive dysfunction, uh?, you think and nod your head. Therapy did something for you, after all. At least now you can name your issues.

If only knowing their names also got rid of them…

Susie grins, putting her hands behind her head in a cocky pose. “Nah, don’t need that. You just gotta hit them ‘till they die or run away, right?”

“Actually, there’s something else you can do. ACTing is-”

“Acting? Like, what, being all buddy-buddy with the people trying to kill you? D’you think I’m stupid or something?”

“Well, it does let us end battles without violence-”

“Why the Hell would I do that?”

“It’s funnier than you’d think, actually,” you tell her. “If you let battles play out that way, it’s less of an actual battle and more of, like, dancing, almost? You could try it next time.”

“…”

You walk back towards the now opened door, Susie and Ralsei by your side. A tiny little thing, red and round, wanders in, a large smile drawn-on (?). You take a look at Susie on your side, and, after seeing she isn’t immediately taking out her axe, let a battle initiate.

“(You should include Susie in the ACT!)” Ralsei whispers to you.

“(Do you think she’ll actually do it?)” you whisper back.

“(You won’t know until you try!)”

You sigh and pull yourself up by the tether, settling onto the POV. You look into the buttons and find a new option for an act.

Hopefully, Susie will actually do it.

->ACT

->X-Compliment

“What? You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Susie scoffs when you ask her to do so. “It attacked us. Are you stupid? Let’s just smash it before it smashes us.”

“Aww, Susie! It seems harmless!”

“Yeah,” you pull yourself back again. “Remember what we talked about before? Just give it a try.”

Susie hums. “Fine. Hey, little guy!” she calls out to the… the C. Round, you check for an instant. Her mouth opens, showing off her pointy teeth, and her eyes glint through the darkness caused by her fringe. “I really like the axe in your face!”

She strikes before you can stop her. The battle ends.

“Heh, where did you get it?” Susie throws back her arms again, seemingly proud of her joke. “See? That took nothing at all.”

You can feel a metaphorical anime vein on your forehead about to burst. “You could have at least tried-”

“Kris, let me, please,” Ralsei interrupts you. He turns back to Susie. “Susie, I supposed you’ve missed it, but… As heroes, it’s our responsibility to make a peaceful future. So, from now on, let’s try to avoid attacking, OK?”

Susie gives him an unimpressed glance.

“Um. What if you just… try going easy on them? If you weaken an enemy, I can use my Pacify spell. It’ll put them to sleep!”

“Yeah, you talking will put them to sleep, alright.”

“Just think about it, alright?”

Susie shrugs and walks towards the store in front of you, shambling into the little building and pulling aside the curtain that separates it from the rest of the world.

“…that went well,” you comment.

“It could have gone better, I suppose,” Ralsei admits. “We might have to warn enemies about her.”

“Probably, yeah.”

You walk towards the store. Just before you go in, you think about your newest party member, Susie, the violent tormentor, and let the memories flow out of your hand.

FILE SAVED!

You walk towards the shop and pull aside the curtain for Ralsei to enter.

“Hee hee... Welcome, travelers,” a monster greets you from behind a counter. They look like a stuffed toy, all fluff and string and a single button serving as an eye – or, perhaps, the never-ending darkness of their empty eye socket is the one that sees. “Company for this one here?” he asks, nodding towards Susie, who’s inspecting some sort of candy.

“Uhm, yes,” Ralsei answers.

“I see, I see. Good partnership is hard to find these days, isn’t it?”

You peek at the wares and lay your eyes on some sticky cards. Your check sense tells you they increase defense by one. At least, you assume it’s defense. It just tells you +1DF.

“How much for three of these?” you ask, looking around in your pockets for the coins that appeared there after battles.

“It’d be 300 Dark Dollars.” You grimace. The coins you have barely reach 250. “Uhm. But for you… Well,” they smile widely, the strings around their mouth stretching to a near-breaking point, “a small discount could be offered. How about one in exchange for a story?”

“A story? What kind of story?”

The cat tilts their head, thinking. “What about the tale of how a being of LIGHT wound up in a Kingdom of Darkness? It is bound to be an entertaining one.”

“What?!”

You turn back to look at Ralsei, surprised that he’d been overhearing your conversation with the shopkeep. You watch him quickly glance over at Susie, still entertained with the candy (you think you see her quickly swiping a candy off the display) before looking back and nervously looking at the cat again. “How do you…?”

“Call it a premonition, if you wish. I have seen many strange things in my life…” They grin. “Although it seems perhaps you two have not. Should you ever find the tale, come back here and tell me. In the meantime, feel free to take that third card – I have no attachment to it.”

You take the three cards and hand over the 200 Dark Dollars. You even buy a Dark Candy for Susie, thinking she’ll appreciate it. “We will,” you promise the shopkeep. “After we deal with the Fountain, we’ll come back and tell you what we find.”

The cat laughed. “I’ll take your word for it, Hero. You best come back, then. I find these days to be quite lonely.”

You reel back Susie from the hamburgers with a promise of candy and manage to grab Ralsei away from sitting in a corner and staring at the shopkeep, and guide the both of them back outside. You’re just about to exit as well when the cat calls you again.

“If you ever find someone speaking of freedom,” they tell you, grinning, “tell them that Seam’s been thinking of visiting. That ought to cheer that jester right up.”

You find Lancer again. You’d nearly forgotten about that kid.

“Well, flip my flapjacks!” What the fuck is a flapjack- “The CLOWNS are back in town! Took you a very long time. You must have been absolutely floored by my troops!”

“Not really,” you and Ralsei say in near unison.

“Nah,” Susie grins.

Lancer’s face falls for a moment, but then it brightens up again. “No matter! I’ve assembled a brand-new fighting team to stop you! Not even the purple girl will be able to stop me! Ho ho ho!!! Get ready to-”

“Stop,” Susie gruffs out. “Just- stop. The hell was that? Ho ho ho? What are you, discount Santa?”

You wonder if you should intervene, but at least Susie isn’t being violent (yet). And this has the potential to be mildly entertaining.

Lancer grins. “It’s my evil laugh! It’s super scary, like dad’s, right?”

No?

“You sound like a squeaky toy.”

“…in a good way, right?”

Susie walks forward, grinning. “Heh. You really think you know how to be scary?”

“Well-”

“Don’t try. Wannabe tough guys like you really piss me off. You wouldn’t know scary if it came and ate your face.”

“That’s… that’s not true.”

“Really?” Susie’s grin drops. You get a feeling that if you don’t stop things soon, something bad’s going to happen.

“Ralsei-”

“Then why don’t we prove it!”

You don’t have the time to get Ralsei’s help as Susie picks up Lancer like a ragdoll and bares her teeth at him. “Why don’t we start with the part,” she snarls, “where your face gets bit off?” She laughs.

Screw it, you think, and grab Susie by the arm, pulling her back with all the strength you can muster. She stumbles, not expecting it, and drops Lancer on his arse.

“What- Kris! What do you think you’re-!”

“Wow! Thanks, purple girl!” Lancer bounces back like a little ball, grin back to being wide and joyous. “It was really kind of you!”

“…What?” Susie says, anger at you seemingly forgotten when faced with confusion.

“Teaching me how to be scary! With an evil laugh, and everything!”

You get the impression that if Susie said anything right now, all that would come out of her mouth would be a series of question marks.

Heh. ????????????????????

Shut up, brain.

“And now!” Lancer announces, bouncing on his heels. “You’re about to be clobbered!”

You three are surrounded by a trio of enemies, crying but about to attack anyway.

“Do we… have to?” you ask.

“Of course! Ho ho ho!” Lancer laughs and skips away. “Merry Christmas!”

“Well,” Ralsei shrugs, “at least no one got hurt.”

“Don’t count your blessings before they hatch,” you mumble and ready your sword.

Chapter Text

You don’t even have the energy to argue when Susie runs off with Lancer. At this point, you might as well just give it up.

At least, those two seem to be having fun pretending to be bad guys. You say ‘pretending’ because they haven’t done much yet for being the “Anti-Fun Gang” (as you let Ralsei pick out the name of your team. You weren’t about to let Susie do it, she definitely wrote a swear word, and Lancer is 1- a kid and 2- not on your team.) There’s been a team Rocket-like entry, a dumb machine that you decided to make a duck because it seemed funnier, and then them exploding the duck-machine made out of what was probably papier-mache, glue and dreams.

At least the cookies were good. You don’t regret the money you spent on them.

You and Ralsei sit for a bit in the room right before the one where Lancer and Susie are. You’d gone there to find them reclining in some neat chairs, with poor servants (?) forced to fan them.

You’d like that too. Sans the indentured servitude, even if the fanning is nice.

“Cookie for your thoughts?” you offer Ralsei. He’s been quiet outside of banter with the two trying-to-be-bad guys.

Ralsei takes the Lancer Cookie with a smile. He eats it in three bites and then cleans up his furry hands with a handkerchief fished out from somewhere inside his robe.

“It’s just… You, and that shopkeep, and now Susie… I don’t know what to do,” he says. He buries his head into his hat. “I’d thought I would be able to guide you all! That’s what this knowledge is for, no? Getting the best end? But I have no idea what I should do!”

You lean back onto the tree. “Yeah. I know the feeling.”

“You… do?”

“Obviously, not about this whole thing,” you wave around to make your point. “But yeah, I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m pretty sure no one does, to be honest. Even those who seem to know, they’re just pretending. Fake it ‘till you make it, or however that expression goes.”

Ralsei doesn’t say anything.

Time to defuse the situation? Say something funny?

“Hey, Ralsei? When I was around your age, I did something really, really stupid. It got me landed in a psychiatric ward. So it isn’t like this can go any worse, right?”

Shit, don’t say that you dunce!

“Unless you’re going to start talking to your scarf like it can answer back?” you add.

Ralsei laughs. You count that as a win.

“Is that meant to be referencing something?” he asks.

“Depends. What do you know about communism?”

What the fuck is-

…what were you just thinking about?

Susie and Lancer really are stupid, you think. Nearly… affectionately? (Is that even the right word-) You hadn’t expected those two be as sweet with each other as they are, but life is stranger than fiction.

Well. Your life is, at least.

Susie goes after Lancer when she realizes he’d gotten lost (and he always get lost, you’ve learned not to follow him after the first wrong turn), and Lancer is always happy to see her. At this point, you might as well grab the two of them and take them with you. It would make crossing the maze faster, at least.

But somehow they reach the end before you and Ralsei do? How?? They were behind you last time you checked.

“(Don’t think too much about it,)” Ralsei says when you ask him. “(Dark Worlds can do odd things with time and space. You’ll just confuse yourself further the more you think of it.)”

“(Damn. But I love overthinking,)” you tease. And not. You do like overthinking quite a bit.

“What are you two whispering about?” Susie gruffs out. She’s got something covered in a blanket behind her, but like they’ve tried to disguise the shape of whatever is underneath.

You spot a chair holding up one of the corners of the blanket. Just how big is even that thing?

“Nothing much!” Ralsei smiles.

Susie raises an eyebrow, skeptical. You raise one too, crossing your arms in irritation. “Get to the point,” you tell her.

“Ho ho! The point! That’s what you’ll be reduced to!” Lancer quips out, bouncing in. Susie’s eyes soften and she grins, holding up one end of the blanket. “Behold, CLOWNS! Your doom!”

In one smooth movement, Susie pulls out the blanket, revealing…

Another duck.

Really?

“Really?” your mouth speaks before you get the chance to move it.

“Didn’t you… explode the first one?” Ralsei looks puzzled.

“Yeah. It sucked.”

“And!” Lancer holds up a finger. “So does this one!”

You aren’t even surprised when the new duck explodes. Although this one has a shower of confetti coming out from it. And… a dog? You grab the thing as it falls in your direction, but the thing is too small and slippery and jumps down, running away into the heart of the forest.

Whatever. It’ll be fine. Probably.

“Do you even have a plan?” Ralsei keeps on looking puzzled. You get the feeling he’s going to be doing a lot of that with those two – even more than he already did.

“Nah,” Susie shrugs. “Plans suck. We got a rule.”

“Yeah! Those who get in our way-!” Lancer chants – oh great, it’s another Team Rocket thing.

“-get crushed into dust!”

You sigh. “You’re really begging to not go home, Susie,” you say, messing with the cape. “I thought you wanted to go back?”

“Eh. I don’t need to join you two for that. I just need you, right Kris? So, if I win, you’ll have to do what I say.”

“If you win?” Ralsei interrupts. “We’re starting a battle now?”

“Why not?”

“Fine,” you nod. “We’ll play your game. But if we win, you have to join our team. For good.” At least, the bullshit will end either way.

Ralsei looks determined. “Yes! That’s our deal.”

“Bah,” Susie scoffs. “You’re not givin’ me much of a choice here. Fine. If you win, I’ll go back to being a good guy. But.” She brings out her axe and swings it down in a large arc. “I won’t make it easy!”

“Yeah! Tell them, purple girl!”

You close your eyes. The world shifts.

You open your eyes (metaphorically speaking) back in the POV, ready to battle. A quick glance over at the status bars, and then you look at the possible acts.

When… did Lancer get his bike back?

Whatever, you think, and let the check wash over you. It doesn’t tell you much that you didn’t already know, but it gives you a hint: you can’t reason with Lancer while Susie is around.

But how-?

->ACT

->Get Ralsei’s help

You pull yourself back. “We’ve got to distract Susie somehow,” you tell him. “She’ll block us from talking to Lancer otherwise.”

Ralsei hums, wrapped in his scarf. “I’ve got an idea, Kris!”

You’re pulled into the soul to dodge, and then you’re back to the POV. A new option reveals itself.

->ACT

->Sing

“-ris? Kris!”

You groan. “Ralsei?”

The prince smiles in relief. “Thank goodness! I’m sorry, I put too much power into that spell, I didn’t mean for it to reach you.”

“It’s… fine.”

You go on with the plan, half-heartedly. You can’t focus on it, or winning, or Susie joining up.

“I just need a moment,” you mumble and sit down against a tree, trying to parse your dream- memory? You aren’t sure what it is, but it felt too… real to be a dream. It was nonsense, but isn’t what is going on also nonsense?

You clench your fist and bring it to Kris’ chest. Your chest was hurting, you remember. That pain at least was real.

Just what happened to you?

FILE SAVED!

Chapter Text

You feel sick.

Well, that’s a hell of an overstatement. You feel slightly nauseous, like when you’re going on a long road trip. Or a short road trip, by US standards, whatever. What the fuck is a kilometre and all that.

Susie looks over at you – if you didn’t know any better, you’d think she looks concerned. Alright, your bitterness is showing too much, Susie is clearly worried. If Lancer has taught you anything, it was that Susie isn’t as bad as she appears.

Still mean. Still snarky and somewhat cruel. But not totally bad, you think.

She has a chance to grow.

Ralsei grabs a waterskin from under his cloak – did he always have that? You grab it and smile at him gratefully. “Small sips,” he tells you, crossing his arms behind his back. “You’ll just get sicker otherwise.”

You already knew that, but you thank him anyway.

Lancer comes up to you. He’d walked towards a candy-fruit tree not too far away with Susie and had come back with two star-fruit-candy-whatever. You think their name is something like Dark Candy, but you aren’t sure.

“Blue person! You look less blue than normal! You must be hungry. I also get less blue when I haven’t eaten.”

You smile at him and take half the candy, ignoring the ache in your chest. “Thanks, Lancer.”

“Well, we are on the same side now, aren’t we?” Lancer shrugs, like it’s the most natural thing in the world. You wonder if his father would have something to say about it. Probably nothing good, from what you’ve heard about the man.

“You gettin’ up, Kris?” Susie gruffs out. “You’ve been moping for half an hour now.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” you stand up and gobble down the rest of the candy. Handing the waterskin back to Ralsei, you pat down your leather skirt to get rid of crumbs and dirt. “Let’s go.”

Susie looks with a suspicious look – not suspicious, you shake your head, but curious? Concerned? Something along those lines. She notices you looking and rolls her eyes. “Let’s go then, Kris.”

The fountain appears in the distance, flanked by the towers of a castle. You four stop to stare at it.

“So that’s what we have to seal, uh?” Susie mumbles.

“Yes. And for that… we’ll have to confront the King,” Ralsei glances at Lancer.

She hums. Susie looks at Lancer. “Lancer,” she says, gaze gentle, “are you sure you’re fine with being on our team? You don’t have to go see your dad if you don’t want to.”

“I…” Lancer’s smile drops. “Well, I promised, didn’t I?”

You walk up to the two of them. “That doesn’t mean you have to go with us. I don’t know what will happen, but you don’t have to stand against him. I understand that going against your father…”

Susie mumbles something under her breath. You can’t quite catch it.

Lancer frowns. “Are you sure… there isn’t any other way for you to go home? The Fountain is guarded right now, and- I mean, you could get hurt-”

“Jeez, Lancer!” Susie grins and ruffles his… hood? You aren’t sure if it’s clothing or a part of his head. “We won’t get hurt. Besides, if anyone tries, we’ll crush them! And, uhm-” she looks at Ralsei’s disapproving expression “-that’s only if we don’t have any other choice anyway.”

“Sometimes, you can’t deal with anyone any other way,” you add. “But most of the times, talking works. If you’re worried about your dad-”

Lancer turns to look at the path. He glances at the three of you and then at the ground.

“I…” he takes a step forward, “I have to go.”

Lancer runs away.

“What. Lancer? Lancer!”

“Susie, wait up!”

You start to run towards them but then stop. As much as you want to go after them, you get an idea.

Lancer doesn’t want to fight his father, or maybe he doesn’t want you to fight him. You don’t think he’s worried about a confrontation, but you think he’s worried you and him might get hurt.

The stories you’ve heard about the King aren’t very nice.

Without Lancer on your side, your ability to enter the castle unimpeded is severely dampened. You don’t know what Lancer is willing to do to stop you from reaching the King, but running right up to him won’t do you any favours.

You slide down the hill, ignoring the way the movement makes your chest ache in phantom pain. From the distance, you spot Susie and Ralsei dodging bullets from the defending forces of the castle. You hide behind trees as you walk towards the less-guarded castle walls, the ones that aren’t connected to any paths.

You watch as the castle guards knock the two of them out cold and have to bite your lip to stop yourself from screaming.

No no no-!

No. Calm down. Calm down. You’ll sneak inside and find them. You’re far more useful free than captured.

Your hand slowly stops trembling.

The castle is big, but it’s certainly not very secure. God, it’s got windows on the ground floor?! Who planned out this castle…? They must be a fucking idiot.

You use the pommel of your sword to smash the window to an empty hallway. It’s a bit of a struggle to climb inside, but you make it anyway. The climb makes you woozy.

You find an empty vase and vomit into it.

Using the cape to clean your mouth, you look around. There’s a patrolling guard at a distance, but they haven’t seen or heard you. Given their route, you can definitely sneak past them. You stand up.

Now to find the prison.

If fairytales taught you anything, it’s that this sort of thing is usually in some sort of underground level. Very dark and damp and dramatic. The bane of restorative justice systems.

Very American, now that you think about it.

“Ok,” you whisper. “Encontra as masmorras. Encontra o Ralsei e a Susie. E depois pisga-te.”

You nod, happy with your plan.

You have to kneel and vomit into the vase again.

You sneak past the guard, and then another, but only find a set of stairs that only leads up. Taking the other hallway, you come face to face with an elevator.

The lack of hiding places is not exactly ideal. If someone comes out from it, you have no way of staying out of sight. But it isn’t like you’ve got many other options, so you press the button and wait.

Thankfully, the elevator doesn’t take too long to arrive. Empty, too. You sigh in relief and walk inside, examining the floors it goes to.

There’s a standard -1… And a button that isn’t labelled at all.

You wonder…

If you had to contain two heroes of legend that were going against your King, wouldn’t you put them somewhere safe? A normal dungeon, which you’re assuming is what the -1 refers to, certainly wouldn’t cut it. Besides, if you’re wrong, you can always come back and try the other floor.

You hit the mysterious button.

The elevator closes its doors and starts moving, surprising you a little bit. You’d half-expected it to not actually work. Well, that saves you the humiliation, you suppose. Although you’re the only person here and therefore the only person who could feel embarrassment in your behalf.

…

You sit down, leaning your head against your knees.

All this time with Ralsei, you’ve barely had the chance to take a moment and think all by yourself. Not that he was a bother, but…

It’s just not the same thing as being by yourself.

All of this… Another world, a random teen, Dark Worlds and prophecies and heroes and magic… It really is like something out of a fairytale, isn’t it? Or a gamer-system isekai, if not one that liked screwing over their protagonists.

You think those main characters usually know more about their situations than you do right now.

And that dream…

Ralsei thinks someone else might be involved. If your dream is a memory, then that mystery man… He definitely is a part of something. You don’t know what, exactly, he did, but…

You can’t remember what he looks like. Or what he sounds like.

You try and-

Ouch! No no, stop thinking about that, you’re getting a headache.

Alright, no mystery man for now.

You lean back against the elevator wall, letting the cool metal help with the pain. You blow a strand of hair off your face, and when it remains stubbornly in place, you tuck it behind an ear.

Dark blue hair. The Dark World really changed Kris’ colouring a lot.

Kris… You don’t know… anything about them, really. They’re meant to be controlled by a distant angel, whose powers you have, apparently. They’ve got a goat for a mother, they’ve got a brother called Asriel in college.

They’ve got a bedroom that’s half-empty, like it belongs to a golden child and a corpse.

You don’t know what’s happened to them. You hope you haven’t killed them by accident when you were hijacked into their body. You hope they’re alright.

…I hope…

That bedroom… the way you remember thinking that your hair was greasy and dirty when you woke up, before you basically dissociated from that early party of the morning until you reached the classroom… The way you could feel parallel scars in their arms underneath the sweater when you rubbed your arms…

You’ve lived through similar things. You know the signs, better than most people do.

You had to know them to survive, after all.

…I…

…you hope Kris is alright.

The elevator stops and dings.

Something about the staircase in front of you makes you uneasy.

Maybe it’s the way the steps seem uneven by design. Maybe it’s the way that a cold current slithers under the armour and the undergarments. Maybe it’s the way you can hear a faint, distant chime ringing. Like it’s mocking you, somehow.

You walk down anyway. You have to find Ralsei and Susie.

FILE SAVED!

You come face to face with a prison cell, bars separating you and the darkness inside. No door, but you get the strangest feeling that you won’t need one.

“BOO HOO, BOO HOO, VEE HEE HEE. SO LONELY, LONELY, I BE…”

A strange voice whimpers… screams? Somehow, it does both of them at once. You give up on trying to understand what the person is doing with their voice.

“Hello?” you call out. “I’m I- I mean, I’m looking for-”

“HOO, A VISITOR, VISITOR? BUT ALL ALONE! ARE YOU LOOKING FOR FRIENDS?”

You smile. “Yes! Do you know where I can find them? How I can free them?”

The prisoner laughs. “YES, CAPTURED, CAPTURED! THEY IMPRISONED THE ENTIRE WORLD TO CAGE ME.”

You don’t get what they’re talking about. “Do you know how or not?”

“HMM. I WOULD TELL YOU TO FIND THE KEY TO THIS PRISON, BUT… IT SEEMS YOU’VE ALREADY GOT IT WITH YOU THIS ENTIRE TIME!”

“What…?”

You check your pockets. Candy, some ribbon you found inside a chest, a manual that Ralsei gave to you with a blush on his face…

A key.

It looks like it’s been broken before in three parts. The fix isn’t perfect – you can see the cracks clearly still, and the glue joining them together…

It’s dark. It flows like water.

You… don’t remember getting this. You most definitely did not have this the last time you checked your pockets, and you’re sure that neither Ralsei nor Susie, nor Lancer, for that part, had the chance to sneak something into them.

You grab the key, letting it lie on your palm. The glue’s darkness flows, but when it comes in contact with your skin…

It… glows.

You look at the save point in front of you, glowing the same silver that permeates through the dark sea of the glue.

Just… what?

What…?

“HEE HEE! A GIFT IT SEEMS, RECEIVED FROM SOMEONE ELSE?”

“I… don’t know.”

The prisoner hums. “WELL! IT DOES NOT MATTER. WILL YOU WALK OUTSIDE AND FREE YOUR FRIENDS?”

You blink at the key, and then turn around, holding it in your hand and looking for a lock. Despite finding none, it vanishes into the darkness anyway, forming a door that you open with a gentle touch of your fingers.

You breathe in and out when you see the darkness fade away with your presence. Gathering all of your courage, you take a step forward.

Chapter Text

The Darkner in front of you is different than you’d expected. Their voice had made you think they’d be… bigger? More impressive?

As it stands, they’re some kind of jester-like figure, about the same height as Lancer. Certainly not what you’d expected from their dread-inducing first impression. But, then again, appearances often do belie reality.

Hm. Rather rude to not give your benefactor the benefit of the doubt, though.

The jester’s cell is large. Larger than you’d expected. You can’t really see where it ends – the psychedelic background doesn’t help either. It reminds you of those mirror labyrinths, where everything seems simultaneously closer and further away than it really is.

“WELCOME, WELCOME!” the jester bows. Their bells clink together at the movement. “SUCH AN HONOR TO MEET ONE SUCH AS YOURSELF!”

“…thanks,” you mutter. And, because your mother raised someone polite, you add: “What’s your name?”

“EHEH… I AM CALLED JEVIL. I WAS ONCE THE JESTER TO THE KINGS, UNTIL THE KINGS FOUND MY GAMES TOO MUCH TROUBLE!”

“Oh, damn. That sounds awful.”

Jevil laughs. You think that if you were here for as long as Jevil seems to have been, isolated forevermore, you’d also go a little cuckoo.

Right. You have a goal here. You can talk more to him after you’ve found your friends. “So,” you smile, “where are-”

“NOT TO WORRY, NOT TO WORRY!” Jevil jumps, tail wrapped in a corkscrew-like shape and making him bounce. “JUST PLAY MY LITTLE GAME AND THEY WILL CERTAINLY BE FREED.”

You frown. “A… game? Is that some sort of key?”

“WHY, YES! AFTER YOU PLAY IT, EVERYONE WILL BE FREE!”

“Alright,” you sigh. “I’ll bite. So, what’s the rules?”

Jevil grins.

You-

You don’t think you like this much anymore.

“IT’S VERY SIMPLE… A SIMPLE NUMBERS GAME-!”

You back away, slowly.

“IF YOUR HP GETS TO ZERO-”

The world-

“-YOU LOSE!”

-shifts-

What.

What- How-? Battles have to be at least partially initiated by you, Ralsei had explained that a while ago, and you were very much not letting that happen. How did Jevil-?

That little… He tricked you, didn’t he?! Susie and Ralsei are not here, and now you’re stuck in a battle you can’t escape from, with an unhinged Darkner that most certainly wants to kill you.

Hmm.

Maybe…

Darkners can run away, you’ve seen that happen before. So maybe… Maybe if you wait out your turn for long enough, Jevil will grow annoyed and end the battle? That’s certainly something you can try.

You glare at Jevil, cross your arms, and sit down.

“COME NOW, DEAR GUEST!” Jevil floats around rapidly. It hurts to try and keep track of where he is. “DON’T LEAVE ME WAITING FOR TOO LONG!”

You simply don’t do anything. You ignore the tether to the POV, your sword, the checks that try to flow to you.

You refuse to engage with the battle entirely.

Jevil’s expression grows… more manic, as if that was possible.

“I SEE. I SEE! SO YOU ARE A CHEATER, CHEATER!” he laughs. “CHOOSING OPTIONS THAT DO NOT EXIST! I KNOW… JUST WHAT TO DO WITH YOU.”

You feel-

-a pain on your chest and back.

You look down.

There’s… the smallest edge of a blade sticking out from your sternum. The pain is little and dull, but your gaze sharpens, your head aches.

Adrenaline. You’re feeling the adrenaline of someone who is going to die.

No no no no no-!

You don’t want to die-!

NO NO NO-!

How do you fix this? Think, think…! There’s… no blood in your mouth. You don’t think you’re choking. No punctured lungs then. Just-

There’s-

I’m sorry!

-a hand-

I’m so sorry!!

-in your chest.

It’s-

-all my fault-!

-carving your heart out and you-

I’m so sorry!

-scream.

It hurts- it hurts-!

You wake up screaming.

Your hand goes to your chest, cradling your mangled sternum, checking your broken ribs. But there’s nothing but cold armour there, shielding your skin.

Your… perfectly fine skin.

Nothing hurts. Nothing hurts?

You take out the armour in a hurry. The chest plate is perfectly intact, as is the undershirt, and you can feel no wounds or lesions through it.

Hesitatingly, you check your back. Nothing there either.

What-?

You…

You’re… alive.

You’re alive!

You’re alive?

…you are.

How? What-?

You slowly let your breathing stabilize. You make no move to put the armour back on and instead look around.

You’re back in front of Jevil’s prison. The silver star is glowing right in front of you, and the door to the madman is locked still – or unformed still, in this case.

Did you… time travel?

You look back at the star. You feel knocked back by a sudden realization.

“Save… point” you whisper. “Save point! Like a literal goddamn-!”

 You laugh. You hold your face and scratch at it through the gloves.

“Like a fucking game?! Like I’m some sort of RPG protagonist, or some isekai harem MC?! Is this what my life turned into? Really???”

You wheeze.

You’d been nonchalant about your comparisons to video games and isekai before, but now… Now? With this fucking bullshit?!

You feel something fall from your pocket.

It’s…

“…that key.”

You stare at it, then back at Jevil’s prison.

You pick it up and walk back to the elevator, hopping stair after stair with a grin. You don’t even bother with calling the thing back, just forcing the doors open with your sword.

Stale air comes from the pit. It’s so deep that you can’t see its end.

You chuck the key into it.

Eh. That's what he gets.

“Get fucked, Jevil!” You scream and give him the finger. It doesn’t matter that his cell is too far away for him to see you, the sentiment is the important part here. “Your help fucking sucks and I hope your pillow is hot on both sides!”

You aren’t going to think any more about that.

You aren’t! You’re smart! You know what it would do to your brain.

Instead, you get the armour back on, walk your ass into the elevator and choose the other floor.

Clearly, your little clever moment was a mistake. That’s your lesson. Don’t let your curiosity lead you into the lair of insane little maniacs.

Now. To find your friends.

Chapter Text

The elevator dings and opens into a dungeon. Very dark, very damp, very dusty, very dramatic. There are no guards around, you notice when you peek out of the elevator, and so you confidently walk into the dungeon.

Several cages line the walls. The left side is just full of cell after cell, but the right side has at least one path that you can see. Behind you, there’s some other area that has no cells on the walls, so you decide to save that for last. Despite that, you get the impression that this place isn’t quite big. It shouldn’t take too long to check all of the cells if needed.

Most of them are empty when you look. One has a single pair of ominous eyes peeking through the darkness.

“Oh…? A visitor? Or were you stuck here too?”

You shake your head. “Do you know where the Heroes are?”

“Heroes? No, didn’t see any. Did the King lock them up too? I was locked up here, and I’m just a pair of eyes!”

You thank them for the help and decide to move onto the adjacent path. There’s a broken cell door on a wall and a Rudinn shoved inside a trash can. Ah. Susie must have been here, you think. At least that means she’s probably fine…? There’s a solved puzzle in the wall too

You head back into the main area and choose the other adjacent path. As you approach, you can hear two muttering voices.

“…couldn’t find them.”

“Maybe Lancer put…”

“…said didn’t see them, though.”

You see Susie and Ralsei sitting against a wall. Awkward, you clear your throat and wave. “Hi…?”

“…Kris?”

“KRIS! Where the hell were you?” Susie jumps up and grabs your shoulders, shaking you back and forth.

“Sorry, sorry, I saw you getting captured and managed to escape. Been looking for you ever since.”

“Man,” Susie pushed away her bangs. “You missed so much! I had this fight with Lancer,” you’re suddenly very worried, “got through to him and everything. He’s gonna help us, trying to get through to his dad, and getting everyone else to help too!”

You let out the breath you hadn’t realized you’ve been holding in. “That’s great!” you say with no irony. Susie grins at the praise.

“And, uh-” Ralsei interrupts, “sorry, but would you mind if I spoke with Kris for a bit, Susie?”

“Sure, whatever. Just don’t take too long, we’ve got to get to the King!”

She walks away, and Ralsei pats the ground next to him. You sit down.

“Are… you alright?” Ralsei asks. “You look… pale.”

You frown. You’re sure that Ralsei knows about what happened to you, but… You don’t want to think too much about it.

Don't. Just... don't.

“I’m fine. Met this weird Darkner, but nothing happened,” you lie. Kind of? Nothing happened this time, at least. “What about…?”

Ralsei grabs his scarf and hides his face in it. “I’ve been thinking about you. I can’t… I don’t know for sure if any of my theories are correct, so I need a little more time before telling you. I hope you don’t mind?”

“It’s fine,” you tell him. You get up. “Ready to face the King.”

“Yeah-! Wait, hold on, take this.”

He hands you a chain that had been hanging on the wall. Your check sense tells you it adds defence. “Thanks…?”

Ralsei beams either way.

“Talk over?” Susie pushes herself away from the wall she’d been leaning on. “Come on, let’s go!”

The three of you head into the elevator. It’s a slow ride, somehow slower than any of the other two rides you’ve had there, like the universe somehow decided to make it comically slow for this specific time alone.

Hm. Video game logic would make this a perfect time for a group conversation, no?

It’s precisely because of this that you decide to stay silent. But Susie doesn’t seem to have the same thought as you.

“Say,” she gruffs out, crossing her arms, “what do we do after all of this is over?”

“Pardon?”

“I mean, we defeat the King – talk with him, whatever – and then we seal the Fountain. And then what? Is that just over then?”

Ralsei wrings his hands. “… Probably not? If the Prophecy goes as it should, then the Knight should create more Fountains that we have to seal.”

“The Knight?”

“They’re a mysterious figure… All I know is that they have a dark blade and want to bring about the end of the world by overloading the world with Darkness.”

A knight that makes fountains…

But why? Why would someone want to end the world they presumably live in?

Susie seems to have similar doubts crossing through her mind. “Why though? And… how would making more Fountains even do that?”

Ralsei shrugs. “I don’t know the Knight’s motivations. But the Fountains… If there are too many, the balance of Light and Dark shifts and things… well, things begin to break, that’s the best way I can explain it to you.”

Uh.

Wait.

“Hold on.” Susie and Ralsei look over to you. “If this knight wanted to do that, then why wouldn’t they just open a buttload of Fountains at once? They could have already done the whole ‘end of the world’ thing by now if they really wanted to, but they only opened the Card Kingdom’s Fountain so far.”

Susie frowns.

“I… don’t know? I honestly have no idea,” Ralsei admits.

“Maybe…” Susie whispers. “... Nah, forget that.”

You look at her. “No, say it. It might be relevant.”

“Rele-what?”

“It might be important.”

She hums. “Well, I thought that… maybe the Knight does not want to end the world?”

Ralsei gapes at her.

“I mean,” she continues, “you’re right, Kris. If they did, they could have already done that. Why wouldn’t they? It just seems practical.”

“The Prophecy…” Ralsei frowns. “It… doesn’t actually say that the Knight wants to… It just… It just says that they open Fountains?”

“So, we might be dealing with something different here, although what exactly we still don’t know” you conclude.

“But why? If things really go according to the Prophecy, the Knight will cause the end of the world.”

You… have no idea.

“The Knight opened this Fountain, right?” Susie says, getting up. “And the King knows about them, I heard some Darkners talk about that before. So maybe he has information about that.”

You nod. You’ll have to interrogate the King, then. Figure out what he knows. “Sounds like a plan.”

Susie grins at you.

Chapter Text

Your budding headache is finally big enough for you to notice it after you leave the room you first met the so-called Duke of Puzzles. Duke of Shitty Puzzles, more like. This ‘Rules Card’ does a worse job than drunk you. You’d throw him your Professor Layton collection if you had it here.

You press your cold gauntlets against the side of your head.

“You good?” Susie raises an eyebrow at you.

“Yeah. Just forgot to take my meds today.”

She hums.

Meds…

It’s always annoying when you forget your SSRIs for a day or two. Maybe you’ll find some pharmacy to swipe Zoloft from, or maybe Kris also takes them? You aren’t sure how much of your headache is a somatic thing, or if Kris is also suffering from deprivation. Or maybe if your problems transferred somewhat?

God, you hope not. This kid already seems to have enough issues.

The nausea is new, although it’s been persistent ever since that time Ralsei accidentally put you to sleep. You make sure to not breathe too fast. You’d rather not vomit again.

Susie glances over at you, curious. “Didn’t know you had to take meds. What for?”

You shrug. “Just some iron supplements. My blood levels are always a bit low.”

Like hell you’re gonna let her know about the antidepressants. You don’t want Kris to have to deal with any potential fallout from that, whatever the truth is. Besides, the headache and nausea can easily be written off as a lack of iron, if someone bothers to look at why someone would need those supplements.

You poke at Kris’s thin arm. Hm. Maybe the kid does need some supplements, though. They’re too thin, not to mention the general unkept state they’re in. You’ll need to get some food in them when you get out of here. Leave the body in a better state, maybe. Would they appreciate it?

…maybe.

Hm.

“Who thought making a castle with death traps in it was a good idea?” Susie asks, dodging the ropes of bullets rotating around. “How do people even get around?????”

“Maybe they take the elevator?”

“It’s closed down, though… What do you think, Kris?”

You shrug. “I think it was probably that Rules Card fellow.”

“…Probably?” Ralsei says.

Susie tilts her head. “Fellow…?” she mutters under her breath. “Eh. Feeling posh today?”

You give her your best deadpan stare.

“Alright…! Gosh, can’t you take a joke?” she grins.

“Hmm.” You cross your arms. “Well, clearly, you’re far wiser at jokes than I am. A wisecracker, even.”

“…”

“…”

That was SO awful.

You roll your eyes. “Come on, guys, I know it was bad, but you could pretend to laugh at least?”

“Sorry…” Ralsei grimaces. “Ah… it was… funny?”

Susie crosses her arms, the corners of her mouth shooting up. “That was awful, Kris.”

You grin at her. “Made you smile!”

“What- No you didn’t!”

You sit on top of the block, legs crossed.

“So. Come here often?”

“Kris?????”

Ralsei has a similar look of disbelief to Susie’s.

Rules Card blinks rapidly. You wonder how he’s floating above the floor. “What???”

“I mean, obviously you work here at the Castle, but do you. Like. See the King often?”

“(Oh, I get it!)”

“(Get what? And why are you whispering, Ralsei?)”

“(Kris is trying to get information out of Rouxls.)”

“(…why though? Why him???????)”

“What art the two wormes speakingth of?”

“No idea. Say, you must be very important, being Duke of Puzzles and all that.”

Rules Card preens. “Yes, of courst! His Majesty hast Appointedt me as Duke, highest position in the Kingdom! Just beloweth his, of course.”

Courst, then course… You’re… starting to think his accent is not as natural as you previously thought. Gosh, is it grating.

“Surely someone as important as you would know then about the King and his goals?”

“Lookingth for my liege’s secrets?” Rules Card tilts his head. “As if I, Rouxls Kaard, would tell thee worms!”

“But…” you tilt your head, trying on your best puppy eyes. It’s difficult. You’ve never been a good liar. “We’ve been thinking… The King seems like someone admirable, I mean, he’s brought order to the whole Kingdom! Not to mention, he’s hired such a good Duke of Puzzles…”

He seems to short-circuit. “Ah, well.” He coughs into his hand. “Why, yes, t’is only natural for thou to admiredst me! I suppose His Majesty would be Most Happieth to have new vassales… What is it that you wishest to know, worm?”

You smile. “Word on the street is that the King has met a mysterious knight… Do you know who that is? We’ve been quite curious, since that knight was the one who opened the fountain.”

“Ah, the Knighte… I, Rouxls Kaard, have not seene them, but the King spoketh often of such figure…” you lean forward, anxious to know more, “although I do not remember moste of it.”

Ah-

God-fucking-!

“The King appointedth me soon after, so there was nothinge more of importance!”

Susie slaps her forehead.

Rules Card ignores her. “Welst, I shouldt free thee from my most dastardly puzzle! I cannot have new lackeys- I mean, give the King new lackeys if thou art stuck in my devilish design!”

With a wave of his hand, the block and spikes disappear, leaving you to fall arse first on the ground.

“Ouch-!”

“Apologies, lovely page. Here, taketh my signature as proof of my regret.” He hands you a piece of paper. “Toodeloo!”

You rub your tailbone as Ralsei and Susie help you stand up.

Susie huffs. “What a waste of time.”

“He certainly seems… excitable,” Ralsei comments.

“Self-absorbed, more like,” you mutter. “I thought appealing to that would give us something to work with, but apparently not.”

Ralsei purses his lips. “At least we’re free of his puzzles?”

“That’s good, I guess. It was like he was insulting our intelligence, but I don’t think he knew they were easy. Like, baby easy.”

“Yeah,” you nod at Susie. “No idea how he got hired.”

“What did he even give you?” Susie asks, grabbing the paper from your hands. “What… Is this an autograph? The fuck is written in it???”

You take it back. On the paper, there is a fancily written ‘Rouxls Kaard’. You tilt your head sideways, trying to make sense of it.

Ralsei peeks at the paper. “Oh. It’s a homophone?”

“Homo-what?”

“It sounds like ‘Rules Card’, but it’s written differently.”

You snicker. “Kayleigh-effect.”

“Maybe he could do without some homophonia or whatever. Makes me look better by comparison,” Susie grins and grabs the paper. “I’m gonna keep this and hang it in my room.”

“Be nice, guys! Maybe he’s dyslexic!”

“…what?”

“Dyslexia is when people have trouble distinguishing words,” you clarify Ralsei’s words. “…maybe. I might have forgotten, though.”

“Like how you forgot how to talk normal instead of like a British posh dumbass?”

…

Well, you can’t really come back from that.

“Welcometh, worms!”

This fucking guy again-

You sigh inwardly and put on your best smile. “Hi! We didn’t know you have a shop.”

“Why, of coursed! How else couldst I peddle my wares?”

…does he even know that ‘peddle wares’ is just a synonym for ‘selling stuff’?

You smile tighter. “So. How much for this scarf?”

You ignore the nonsense he tells you.

When you finally leave, a few hundred coins poorer, he waves and shines you a smile. “Bestest of luck, page and worms!”

Susie stares at you, grinning.

“Don’t even start.”

You all reach a throne room. It shows definite signs of a struggle – torn banners and displaced furniture. Even the grand throne is cracked in several places, like someone’s taken an axe to it.

You wonder what happened.

“So. This is it?” Susie gruffs. “The King should be up ahead… And the Fountain, too.”

Ralsei nods.

“Do you think we’ll be able to…?”

“Talk him down?” Ralsei completes the sentence. “Well, surely if we all do our best… I don’t see why not!”

You don’t share his optimism. But you don’t want to break the fragile hope in Susie’s eyes, if only for this moment.

If push comes to shove, though…

Well. You’d been a kid with anger issues. Letting it all out for the first time in years is bound to be cathartic.

“Lancer said he’d be right ahead of us. He was also going to get other Darkners to help out, just in case… But first, he needed to talk with his dad,” Susie tells you.

“Should we give him time?” you ask.

She shakes her head. “Nah. We can keep hidden and watch. Just in case.”

Despite how she grins confidently, you can detect the slightest bit of hesitation in her smile. She’s trying so hard to hope, but…

…

“Okay,” you nod. “Ralsei?”

“Sure.”

“Let’s go, then.”

The scene is almost familiar. You’re on a tall cliff, a large drop on both sides, letting you see as far as possible into the darkness.

But, this time, the fountain is almost within reach.

In the distance, you see Lancer and a larger figure. They seem to be an older figure, covered in a big dark cape that hides most of their figure, save for the arms and head.

Lancer’s father, the King. And the man who’s been trying to capture you since you set your feet in Card Kingdom.

Someone who knows about the mysterious knight.

“Can you guys hear anything?” Susie whispers from your right.

You shake your head. The King and Lancer are not speaking in loud voices, and the three of you are a little too far away to make out anything from the conversation. But…

“It… doesn’t seem like the King’s very happy,” you whisper back. “He seems agitated.”

“Should we go there?” Ralsei asks.

Susie huffs. “Screw it. I’m gettin’ Lancer.”

“Susie-!”

You grab Ralsei’s hand, ignoring the instinctual revulsion at the touch, and run towards her. She brings out her axe and points it at the King, who’s busy towering over Lancer.

“Oi! Let go of him!”

The King blinks at her. His gaze then flicks over to you, pursing your lips, and Ralsei, who frowns and prepares a bit of healing magic to throw at Lancer.

Lancer… looks scared.

“Lancer.” The King looks back at his son.

Lancer smiles brittlely. “…Yes- yes, father?”

The King takes a step towards Lancer and grabs his shoulder.

You don’t like that. You really, really don’t like that grab. Your hand hovers over the pommel of the not-yet-formed sword at your waist.

Susie’s change of stance and Ralsei’s unfurled scarf tells you that they are of the same opinion.

“Lancer,” Susie looks panicked. “Lancer, get away from him-!”

The King picks up Lancer like a ragdoll. “LANCER! DID YOU LEAD THE LIGHTNERS TO ME?!”

“I- dad-” the kid manages to say while being shaken around.

“DID YOU FORGET?! WHAT THEY DID TO US! WHAT THEY WILL DO TO YOU? AND YET YOU BETRAY ME!!”

“Dad-!”

Susie’s Rude Buster lands right next to the King, avoiding him by just a breath. He finally looks at her, eyes furrowed – hate-filled, you realize.

“Let him go!” she shouts.

The King doesn’t say anything. He just looks her up and down, and finally…

Smiles.

“You. Heroes. Kneel.”

“…what?”

“If you don’t want me to throw this useless child off this ledge, you will kneel and know your place!”

You-

You feel anger bubble up. This despot, abusing his son and using him to threaten you…

This is unfair-!

And you are not letting him get away with it!

You feel the anger bubble and rise, and you kneel, looking at the ground, as Susie and Ralsei do so, and, just when the King looks over the three of you, smug and gloating, you look up and raise your hand, And then, as if by instinct, you point your finger to where exactly the King’s criminal hand is-

-and the world-

-shifts-

-and you SHOOT.

There is a bright flash of light, blinding your eyes for just a moment, but your soul knows exactly where you’re aimed. That anger – that righteous anger, coming from deep within – flies towards the King, to his unsuspecting, unprotected hand. It hits, leaving him to yell and drop Lancer, who scurries away towards Susie.

“WHAT?!”

You smile. “Bang!” You mimic a pistol firing with your fingers.

You have no idea what the fuck just happened. But he doesn’t need to know that.

Susie grins at you. Ralsei- Ralsei is wide-eyed, but then gives you a big smile.

“Not so confident now that you’re messing with someone your own size?” Susie bares her teeth at the King.

“…Fine. If you want me to play the bad guy…”

A loud, terrible laugh comes from the King. You prepare another shot.

“THEN I’LL BE THE BAD GUY!”

You are brought out as the soul to dodge, weaving through bullets just enough to charge your own shots. Now that your anger has run out of the advantage of novelty, you find you need the ‘TP’ constraints of battle to fire back.

But you don’t mind, especially as you get ready to fire another big one at him.

Susie and Ralsei give you cover from the bullets as you point your finger at the King, she with knocking away bullets with her axe and him with using some kind of magic to throw them off course.

“BANG!”

A ray of yellow light flies out of your finger, finding its place right on the cape the King is wearing, and then burning through it, leaving a smouldering hole behind before the fabric repairs itself.

But not quickly enough for him to not be hit, you grin when you notice.

You dance and dodge the bullets and make sure to draw the King’s attention to the corner where Susie isn’t, making sure she gets to prepare her Rude Buster properly without being interrupted. He flinches when it hits, leaving the cloak to repair its huge gash as he throws out another, messier, barrage of bullets.

“Do you truly think you can stop me?!” the King laughs, holding the gash on his stomach. “We have found new purpose, away from you finicky Lightners! By the Knight’s will, I shall break you apart with my bare hands!!”

You grin. “And where exactly is your knight now?”

He growls and grabs you by a chain. It leaves you to dodge in a limited space, but anger also makes him sloppy.

And sloppy means distracted.

Susie hits him again with her Rude Buster.

“Argh!” he bares his teeth. “You-!”

Susie bares her teeth back in a grin. “Eyes on me, asshole!”

“You… Pitiful Lightners! The Knight will blanket the world in DARKNESS, in Holy Fountains! Haha! Do you see it?! We Darkners will conquer this world, and rule it!”

Sweeping your feet away from a stray bullet, you throw yourself to the side and hit him again, the ray of light finding his other hand.

He groans, breathing in shallowly. “My Knight… I shall nor fail you…”

But it’s too late, for just one more swipe of Susie’s axe brings the King to his knees. The POV fades away, the darkness that muted the background with it, and you let your hand relax.

Susie’s axe stays out, though.

“Look, King,” she walks up to him, each step crushing another not-yet faded away bullet. “I dunno what happened to you, but… I can guess,” she says, frowning. “And I know you’re angry, and hurt, and that you hate us, but… I made a promise to Lancer. And I’d really hate to break it.”

The King looks up, eyes filled with hatred.

“And, I mean, you’re working with that Knight dude, or for that Knight dude? I dunno. But Ralsei says that the Knight will bring the end of the world, and the world, like, also has you? So it probably isn’t a good idea to be in their side.”

The King growls. “I will not give up, especially not to join the likes of you,” he spits at Susie’s feet.

She frowns as he stands up. The King can barely do so, much less form the single bullet on his hand as it flickers in and out of reality, and he aims it at you three.

You grab your sword and form a shield, pulling Susie behind you, but before anyone can do anything else, a barrage of people runs in.

“Susie! Toothpaste boy! Blue person!”

At the front, being lifted up by a pair of Rudinns, Lancer grins. A bunch of Darkners surround the King and lift him up too, the surprise making him lose focus and un-form the bullet. “What? UNHAND ME!”

“No can do!” one footsoldier shouts. “We’ve unionized!”

“Yeah!! And we’re firing you!”

“YOU CAN’T FIRE ME, I’M YOUR KING!”

“No you aren’t anymore!”

Lancer jumps out and into Susie’s waiting arms and then climbs onto her head. “That’s right, dad! You’re being overthrown! By ME! Now I’M the dad!!!”

“WHAT NONSENSE- FOOLS! I’LL KILL YOU!!!”

“Nah. Go to your room, dad!”

“WHAT”

The pile of Darkners skitters away, dragging a yelling King with them. Lancer waves goodbye, face back to its jolly old self.

Susie grabs him from her head and hugs him. “Lancer! You’re okay!”

“Of course! I just went and brought everyone back to help you!!”

“Oh man, you’re the best!”

You grin at the two of them.

Ralsei coughs into his hand. “Uhm. Sorry to interrupt, but we should really get to the Fountain?”

Susie frowns. “Yeah. Right. Uhm. See you later, Lancer?”

Lancer jumps out of her arms and waves back enthusiastically as he bounces (literally) back to the castle. You three wave back at him.

You sigh. “That’s it, then.”

“It’s just… over?” Susie frowns.

“Beyond closing the Fountain, there’s nothing else here left for us,” Ralsei says. “But… if you want, you could go back for a minute.”

Susie shakes her head. “Nah. We just said goodbye, right?”

“I don’t think there’s anything left for us to do, yeah,” you nod.

But then, rising from the cliffs like vines, stripes of all colours, visible or not, static or not, creep up. The three of you snap into attention, weapons drawn, your finger back alight and ready to shoot whatever threat appears.

“OHOHOH! I’VE MISSED THE PARTY!” a familiar voice speaks from everywhere and nowhere at once. “AND TO THINK I NEARLY LOST THE INVITATION! BUT, THANKFULLY, HEIGHT RESTRICTIONS ARE NO MATTER FOR ME!”

Something is thrown at your feet. A key, once thrice-broken, now fixed with darkness flowing like water.

Your heart stops. "Merda."

“YOU OWE ME A GAME, FRIEND, FRIEND! IN RETURN FOR THE PRANK YOU’VE PLAYED ON ME!”

“The hell are you?” Susie shoots her head around, trying to pinpoint the source of the voice.

“A MERE JESTER, ONCE IMPRISONED, NOW FREE… AND SEEKING TO SHARE HIS FREEDOM!”

“Freedom?”

Freedom………?

Ralsei grabs the end of his scarf. “What kind of game…?”

“A VERY SIMPLE NUMBERS GAME! SO EASY! IF YOUR HP GETS TO ZERO…”

Jevil flies in, tail pointing erratically, laughing all the while.

“YOU LOSE!”

You shoot as the world shifts, knowing better than to try and stall him for time. He’s difficult to hit, popping in and out of place every time you look at him, but your bullets are true nonetheless, and hit him even despite his illusions and teleportation.

“Goddamned little-” Susie swears something worse under her breath when Jevil dodges her attack twice in a row. “FUCK!” she yells when you don’t manage to dodge his square array of bullets and they hit her.

“Here! Susie!” Ralsei throws her a bit of healing magic.

She huffs, clenching her axe hand once, then twice, testing her healed hand. “Hey! Kris! Any bright ideas on how to deal with this?!”

You close your eyes, choosing an active check from the POV.

-ACT

-Check

You open them again. “Get him tired! Attack him, dance around, something! He can’t keep this up forever!”

You’re brought into the soul, dodging and shooting back. Jevil’s eyes shine when they land on you.

“LIGHT, LIGHT! WHAT BRIGHT LIGHT YOU ARE, FRIEND! SO BRIGHT, YOU CAN SURELY SEE BEYOND THIS PRISON!”

You frown and are brought back into Kris. “Prison…?”

“YOU CAN SEE THE TRUTH, TRUTH! YOU KNOW TRUE FREEDOM! THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE! THE FREEDOM TO CHANGE!”

Ralsei tenses by your side.

“He’s trying to distract us! Ignore him!” you yell.

You twirl and try the few steps of dance that you know as Susie throws out Rude Buster after Rude Buster, as Ralsei heals your scraps and cuts Jevil with his scarf. Your body naturally falls into a ballet pose – a plié, you somehow remember – and you point your finger and SHOOT.

“THE FREEDOM TO GO BEYOND!!”

The light hits its mark. Jevil grins at you.

“THE FREEDOM TO BREAK EVERYTHING.”

“Now!”

Susie hits Jevil with a final Rude Buster. He flickers out of existence, once, twice, and then falls onto the ground. The stripes recede, and with them, the darkness of battle.

Jevil laughs. “WHAT FUN! YOU KIDS TIRED ME OUT! YOU’RE FAST, FAST, STRONG, STRONG! BUT THERE ARE THOSE FASTER AND STRONGER! THE HAND OF THE KNIGHT IS FOREVER DRIFTING FORWARDS…”

You tense.

“HEE HEE. BUT YOU LIGHTERS HAVE SOMETHING THEY DO NOT… DON’T YOU?”

He stares right at you.

“WELL! TAKE ME WITH YOU, THEN! AND DO YOUR STRONGEST---!”

He fades away, leaving behind a single scythe- No, a tail- No a scythe, again.

Your check sense tells you this item – what once was Jevil – will become whatever you need it to be, depending on who equips it.

Susie stares at it. “What the fuck.”

There’s something else shining in there. You walk towards it, throwing the tail-scythe at Susie, who takes a look at the scythe-form and decides it’s ‘badass looking’, and kneel down to inspect the glimmer.

You grab a small… thing. You can’t see what it is that you’re holding, but…

It still casts a shadow, moving like water in your hand.

You peer through it, and for a moment-

Just for a brief moment-

You see your own hand, with your own fingers and nails and scars and wristwatch, right through it.

“Kris…?” Ralsei gently lays his hand on your shoulder. “What is it?”

You look back at the shadow crystal. You see nothing through it but the gloves and gauntlet that Kris is wearing.

You say nothing.

Your head hurts.

You’re by the fountain. As you approach it, the sheer darkness… begins to glow. Like the key that you threw away, the darkness, flowing like water, reacts to you.

Susie stands by your side.

“Dunno how,” she mutters, “but… we’ve really… stumbled upon something huge, haven’t we…?”

You nod.

“Well. We don’t really have time to think about that now, do we? Right now… we’ve got something to do.”

You take a step forward.

Breathing in and out, as you stand in front of the Fountain,

thinking about everything,

your SOUL-

You-

Begin to glow. And you fly forward, towards the fountain, towards the darkness, and you shine.

And, thinking about everything, about every memory you’ve made today, about everything you’ve seen and done-

against the oblivion of darkness

-you pull it all out.

There’s a flash of light. And the Dark World fades away.

Chapter Text

Ironically, when the light vanishes, it’s dark. A different kind of dark from the fountain’s, and, by extension, the Dark World’s.

Whatever little light peers from… somewhere, it reflects back on some wall, letting you know that you’re likely back in the normal world. You pat it until you find a switch, and let the bright fluorescent lighting of a public building burn your retinas.

You’re in a messy classroom. There’s a large, fluffy rug to your right, a game board by your feet, and some kind of cabinet to your left. And toys everywhere, lint in corners, and what seems to be mold in the walls and ceiling.

Susie looks around. “The unused classroom…?” she mumbles. She looks newly purple-ier, an back to her normal clothes. A quick look at your hands and legs lets you know you’re back to normal. Kris’ normal, that is. “How’d we even get here?” she frowns.

Turning to look at you, Susie gives you an awkward smile. “Hey, Kris, that- uh. Wasn’t a dream, right?”

“I… don’t think so, no.”

“Huh.” She stares at you. “Hey. Kris. Let’s, uh… Let’s tell Alphys we couldn’t find the chalk, okay? And not tell her about this.”

You nod. You don’t think anyone would seriously believe you if you went up to them and told them what happened at the supply closet, much less someone with such a lack of backbone as Alphys seems to have. You turn off the lights and follow Susie out of the classroom.

The sun seems low in the sky, from what you can see from the windows. Susie squints through them. “Man, it must be late. Everyone else must be gone by now…”

You hum. You aren’t sure how long you spent in the Dark World, but you’ve certainly walked for a while. “Then maybe we don’t need to find Alphys?”

Susie grins.

You two walk up to the entrance of the supply closet. It’s closed, and despite your wish to go back to Castle Town and talk to Ralsei, you’ve already promised to see him tomorrow, and you don’t think disappearing for any more amount of hours would help you figure out who Kris is and how to help them get their body back. If they’re still alive.

Susie stares at the door too. “Well. See ya later, I guess.”

She walks away but then stops. A moment, and she comes back up to you.

“Hey. Kris.” Susie lays a hand on your shoulder. She gives you a soft, genuine smile. “Let’s go back tomorrow. Okay?”

You nod and watch her leave. With a final look at the supply closet, you walk away too.

Okay. Problem One. You aren’t familiar with this town. You were so out of it during the morning that you can’t remember the way back to Kris’s house. Asking people around for directions is out of the question too. They’d probably either think you weird or that you’re having some sort of episode.

You’d be able to solve it easily but here’s Problem Two. Kris’s phone has a password. You’d think it a good thing, considering how 4 number locks are easily discovered and no lock at all is generally a bad idea, but by this point, you’d take a fingerprint or facial lock. No Google Maps for you. Damn it.

Problem Three. You’ve skipped class all day, and Kris’s mother, who is presumably a teacher (you did see her go to another classroom after dropping you off, after all), probably will not like that. And you don’t know anything about how to deal with that, nor have anywhere to hide in.

And, finally. Problem Four. It’s getting dark and your headache is fucking killing you.

It seems you have no option but to wander around, trying your best to look like you aren’t completely lost, and find somewhere to get painkillers, in either a shop or Kris’s house.

You check Kris’s pockets. Beyond the phone, there’s a set of keys, a ball of indistinguishable trash, and a piece of glass that doesn’t cut you by mere luck. Nothing much that can help you.

You sigh.

You walk down the only direction you can without getting into the woods. You pass the school, a library (called… Librarby???), and then, after an intersection, you spot a police line blocking the way.

Probably not in that direction, you think. You frown and try to focus. You think you went mostly south in the morning, so Kris’s house should be somewhere up north.

You take a right and walk up when the phone rings in your pocket.

You freeze.

You fumble through the pockets until you grab it, looking up the contact name (Mom).

“Raios raios raios,” you mutter. “What the fuck do I say.”

The phone is ringing still.

You breathe in and out and accept the call.

“Kris!” A woman’s bit-crushed voice comes from the microphone. “Where have you been?! I waited for you in the car for an hour! I called and called but you didn’t pick up-!”

“I’m fine,” you say. You wonder what’s the best thing to tell Kris’s mum, something that will take her off your case for a little bit.

Nothing comes up.

“Well. At least you’ve picked it up. Where are you?” she asks.

“Near the hospital.”

“Are you visiting Rudy, dear?” Kris’s mother sounds delighted. You have no idea who Rudy is. “Don’t be out too late, alright?”

You hum in response. She ends the call.

Well. That didn’t go too badly.

…

Wait. You didn’t ask her to pick you up!

God fucking-!

You wander around for a bit. The town, as you come to find, is not very big – everyone seems to know each other, even. You wonder if they can tell that ‘Kris’ is behaving oddly.

The single grocery shop is closed. You frown for a minute, but perhaps that’s for the better. Perhaps you shouldn’t jump straight into stealing when maybe Kris has got something you can take at home.

There’s a lake towards the woods, on the other side of town there’s a gated entrance to some sort of manor, or whatever big houses are called in English. You can’t remember.

The deer girl in front of it turns to look at you, surprised, when she notices you hanging around.

“Ah- Kris!” she’s wide-eyed, but then greets you with a dorky smile. “Hi! Uhm, I thought you’d be home already.”

You shrug. Noelle laughs.

“Good to see you’re alright, though.” She plays with a strand of hair. “Susie… didn’t do anything to you, right?”

“I’m fine,” you tell her.

You wonder why she’s just standing there.

Noelle seems to notice your stare. “Oh, I got locked out again,” she titters. “You know how Mom is, she works so much and… never let me have a key…”

Uh.

You… don’t know what to make of that.

You take a look at the gate. It’s tall, but it doesn’t seem too hard to get over it. “Why don’t you climb it?”

“Ah? What?!”

“I mean, if she doesn’t give you a key, are you just… supposed to be out until whenever she comes back?”

Noelle laughs nervously. “I mean- It’s fine! I can always go to the library!”

You frown. But Noelle is messing with her watch and you let the matter drop. “Okay.”

You turn to the other street. Just before you pass the corner, you hear: “Kris! Wait!”

Noelle runs towards you.

“Sorry. It’s just… you’re doing the group project with Susie, and… Doyouknowanythingshelikes?”

You blink. “What?”

“Do you- Do you know what she likes? I mean, as a gift? Maybe…?”

You blink again.

“It’s just, she’s always alone, and I just thought…” she blushes. Oh.

“Uh. Food. And, chalk? I think?”

“…chalk?”

You shrug.

Noelle grins. “Thank you, Kris! See you tomorrow!!”

You wave at her and walk away.

Thank god that seemed to be the right way. You probably wouldn’t want Noelle to see you walking around back and forth like you have no idea where you’re going.

Well. You don’t. But no one needs to know that.

Kris’s mother is reading on an armchair when you open the door to the house. “Kris!” she smiles. “Welcome back. How was Rudy?”

“…fine,” you shrug.

Thankfully, she seems to buy it. “Oh, that’s great! Maybe he’ll be out of the hospital by Sunday then…”

You walk past her, nodding.

“Dear, I have some pie in the oven, so don’t touch that!”

“Got it!”

Past the living room there’s a kitchen-dining area. You ignore the cupboards and open the fridge. Eggs, some kind of green leafy vegetable, milk, hamburger meat, butter, tomatoes… No leftovers, though. On the counter, you find sandwich bread inside a plastic bag. You open it and grab a slice, smelling it.

Smells… sweet. Your face falls.

No bread, then. You find rice and potatoes inside a cupboard, onions and garlic, a bag of flour half-full. A pretty basic fare, as far as ingredients go, but you can work with it.

Hmm. Kris needs some protein and veggies, and also carbohydrates after all the running around you did. You settle on rice. There’s no rice leftovers for fried rice, but you’re sure you can fashion some sort of meatballs with the hamburger meat, and add that weird cabbage to add to it. Another look into the fridge wields you carrots and celery, but you ignore the last one, since you’ve never tried it before and aren’t in the mood for possibly rendering dinner uneatable by your standards.

“Can I cook?” you ask.

“Of course! I already ate, but feel free to whip up something, sweetheart!”

You pick up the hamburger meat, season it with salt and pepper, and separate it into different portions, shaping the balls with your hands. Cooking them shouldn’t take too long, so you leave them to brown in a little bit of butter and start to prepare the rice.

You grab the onion and chop it up into cubes. The garlic is cut as small as you can manage – which means you nick yourself with the knife until you get used to the way its weight falls in Kris’s grip. After leaving it to fry in a little bit of olive oil in medium heat, not letting it burn, you wash and chop the carrots and cabbage, adding the carrot cubes to the onions and leaving the cabbage for the end.

You grab the rice. You aren’t sure how much you should make for one person – you’ve always cooked for four or more, after all – but you decide to eyeball it.

One measure of rice into the pot, two of water, a little bit of salt, and letting it simmer until it begins to boil.

The meatballs are turned so they can brown evenly, and you lower the heat on the rice, putting the lid on to trap steam. There’s a kitchen timer shaped like an egg nearby, so you set it to 15 minutes. You aren’t sure how long the cook time is supposed to be for this kind of rice, but you can always check on it after ten.

You find tomato paste, unopened, on a random drawer and squirt it into the meatballs with some milk. It’d probably taste better as a pasta sauce, you think, but you’ve got the rice cooking now.

All in all, it doesn’t take that long to cook. You take the pot and pan off the heat when everything is done, grab a plate and serve yourself. You search for cutlery but for some reason only find forks and spoons. Does Kris not use knives to eat, you wonder?

You’re so hungry that you scarf it all down right there by the counter. You take maybe five minutes in total to eat everything and are left to stare at the dirty dishes when you’re done.

Damn.

…Hate doing the dishes.

Hopefully this place has a dishwasher.

Another minute of looking through cupboards leaves you victorious, and you plop down the dishes and pans inside the dishwasher and clean off the scraps of vegetables from the counter.

You feel… a little bit better, maybe. Perhaps you were hungrier than you thought.

With that out of the way, you set out to find Kris’s bedroom. Or a bathroom. You, thankfully, aren’t in the need of a toilet (you don’t really want to think about having to use one eventually while in someone else’s body), but you could probably use a toothbrush. Or a comb.

Mercifully, the first door is just that. You brush your teeth and peek into the cupboard below the sink, finding deodorant and some bottles of extra shampoo next to towels. And-

Oh!! A bottle of ibuprofen pills!

It’s not sertraline, you’ll admit, but it’s something.

You plop out one 200mg pill (you’re not going to try and guess Kris’s tolerance to these, after all) and swallow it with a mouthful of water. You know it’s just placebo effect, that the pill hasn’t been absorbed yet, but somehow the headache and nausea slightly recede.

Cool.

Hopefully you aren’t actually suffering from withdrawal, though, and it’s just your brain tricking you. Going mad out of withdrawal + depression spiral + being isekai’ed + having died 1 (one) time does not seem like a fun time.

You stare at Kris’s hair through the mirror and wonder how long it would take you to brush it all out.

You give up on it.

Kris’s room is as you remember it being, however vague and tenuous those memories are. There’s still one side all colourful and one side all depressing.

Damn.

You take a while to inspect the room properly. You hadn’t exactly had the time or ability to do that in the morning, after all.

The left side (Asriel’s, your brain helpfully reminds you of the name of Kris’s brother) is filled with… normal things. Nothing really interesting, save for a computer on the desk and a drawer with some money inside.

Would this Asriel mind if you took it?

You aren’t about to find out, so you leave the dollars alone.

Kris’s side of the room is… weird. They haven’t got much in the way of personal belongings, save for a rusted old birdcage on some wagon and a bunch of clothes in some drawers. You peek under the bed and find only dust bunnies there.

You frown.

There’s one thing for a depressed teenager to not have much in the matter of decorations or personal belongings, but, when compared to the rest of the room, it almost seems like Kris clinically cleaned out anything that could be attributed to them, save for the bare minimum of a bed and change of clothes.

…well, that doesn’t bode well for what the fuck could have happened to them, now does it?

You throw your gaze at the desk on the other side. The computer is unplugged – for some reason? The drawers wield you blank notebooks, random pens, and loose pieces of paper.

Nothing along the lines of a possible suicide note.

That still doesn’t discount the possibility. Especially considering Kris’s self-harm scars, and how you’d woken up with a random knife strapped to their clothes.

Speaking of. You grab it back from where you’d hidden it, one of the clothes drawers.

It looks like a normal kitchen knife. Well-kept, even, sharp and shiny. If it hadn’t been for… everything else, you would have just taken Kris as fascinated with knives. They wouldn’t be the first person to like them.

You put the knife on top of their bedside table, without thinking too much of it.

There’s still light outside. Kris’s phone tells you it’s just barely 6:30, and while you don’t know at what time class starts for them, you aren’t going to go to sleep at such an early hour. Instead, you grab one of the blank notebooks, a pen, and start to write.

KRIS

-around 15/16? check for a possible id, driver’s license?

-don’t know surname, find out

-has mum, brother (asriel)

-self-harm, possible depression, suicidal tendencies? possibility for why i’m here

-hasn’t communicated, either can’t or won’t for some reason

-human. lives in monster town

TOWN

-monster. no idea how or why

-look into history?? something is bound to be different

-few or no humans beyond kris. could point to highly segregated society

-people to remember: Susie, Noelle, Rudy(??), blue bird guy, Alphys, etc. look into other people of note

DARK WORLD

-made from darkness, opposite to light

-fountains are made by knight (except maybe the one ralsei is from?)

-knight mystery. don’t know motivations or objectives. try to find identity

-shopkeep spoke of freedom. jevil too. related to me, maybe?

-angel is light. have powers of angel, maybe am angel?

-angel meant to away. don’t know what me being here means

-fucking video game time travel

You pause, and then underline ‘video game time travel’ twice.

WHAT HAPPENED

-went to sleep? can’t remember very well

-pain in chest. related to soul? it seems to come from the general chest area whenever there’s a fight

-mystery man

-don’t think about mystery man. headache

-ralsei sleep spell made me remember some of it, why?

You bite your lip, bouncing the pen back and forth on the desk, but there’s nothing else you can think of. You reread what you’ve gotten written down.

Nothing again.

Clearly, you’re missing information, but that problem isn’t going to be solved by reading your notes again. You’ll have to do research.

Well. Good thing you’re technically in a group project! Group projects do that kind of stuff, right?

…wait. What is the group project even about????

You change into a set of pyjamas you find right at the bottom of the drawer with your eyes closed, trying not to think what you’re doing too much. Thankfully, it goes by pretty quickly, so you grab the clothes you changed out of, try your very best to set them as neatly as possible on the end of the bed, and try to sleep.

…

There’s… something about the gentle darkness of the night that’s nearly… unsettling? You aren’t sure why, but you feel restless.

You sigh and turn around. You close your eyes, thinking about anything but here.

When you wake up, it’s much later. You’re still groggy, fighting away sleep, but your body doesn’t seem to take the hint.

Huh.

You wonder when your window changed places on the wall.

You get up, walking towards the bit of moonlight shining through the window. You feel dazed, your feet moving slowly and with great difficulty, but nonetheless without you taking a single step.

You raise a hand, testingly opening and closing the fingers one by one. Thumb, then index, middle, ring, and little finger. The hand does this once more, then twice, and then clenches and unclenches all at once.

Your mouth breathes out, shakily. “…sorry about this.”

You’re suddenly very awake when your hand plunges itself into your chest.

You scream – or try to, but your teeth bite down on your tongue before you can, hard enough to draw blood. You try to force your hand out of your fucking chest but it fights back, even taking control of your other arm as it does so.

It hurts.

It hurts-!

There’s someone’s hand in your chest, breaking ribs and prodding and pulling and it hurts so fucking much-

You’re dying you’re dying you’re dying you’re-

Something, something warm and living, grabs you, grasps around you, gently, like it’s cradling an injured bird, and-

-pulls you out.

You can’t see. You can’t hear or feel anything either.

But somewhere amidst your lack of senses, something familiar settles. Something you’ve felt before.

You don’t open your eyes. You don’t have eyes. But, with a bit of warmth around you, you finally look up.

There is someone in front of you. It’s somebody you’ve never seen before.

They hold you carefully in their hands, cradling you like they’re afraid you’ll shatter and break. And there’s so, so much fear and sadness and guilt in their eyes.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

You say nothing.

“I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know, if I did I never would have-!”

You want to ask them-

But you don’t have a mouth.

They stand like that, holding you in their hands like you’re some kind of delicate creature, breathing in and out, trying to calm themselves.

Finally, they settle.

You nudge their hand, floating slightly.

“Sorry. You must be really confused, right?”

You float up and down in lieu of nodding.

“Right. My name is Kris Dreemurr. It’s… nice to meet you, Inês.”