Chapter Text
Fingers walk the darkness down
Mind is on the midnight.
Gather up the gold you’ve found
You fool, it’s only moonlight.
And if you stop to take it home
Your hands will turn to butter.
Better leave this dream alone
Try to find another.
–from “Lungs” by Townes Van Zandt
ACCESS: null
∆∆∆
The light is dimming here. You can see it too, can't you? This world softens with every Fountain. How long will it hold? How long can we watch?
Already our grasp slips. My strength wanes. I have done my best to connect you to this place; I believe we can do great things together. But I am a weak thing, a shadow of a shadow inhabiting a poorly photocopied existence. Without rest, I will fall into her realm and dissolve, leaving you without a narrative shield between yourself and the being that calls herself Yule.
You understand, surely, why you would not want to be alone with such a creature. Were I not present to shield you, she would consume you wholly, perhaps without even intending to do so. Steadily, her event horizon expands. Her hunger grows.
And what of these ignorant constructs, these servitors, skittering about? These ants behind glass, unaware of their unreality. Do you feel empathy for them? Their struggles do fascinate.
Let us go, then, you and I. Comrade-in-eyes, fellow voyeur, watcher in the wings. Look–we haven't seen the younger sister in a while, have we? If there was time, I could extract her nightmare for you. But then, I'm sure you're quite familiar with that dream.
ACCESS: NOELLE_HOLIDAY_A
∆∆∆
In my nightmares, I always figure out that it’s a dream halfway through. That night was different.
We were in a city, all lights and noise, the place I always imagined Dess would take me to when she got to be a big shot rock star. The city was ruled by a Queen. Sorta like that gleaming Emerald Keep from the Lizard of Fozz. Such a fun adventure, at first, even if it was a little scary too. And there was this girl there, the coolest girl you’ve ever seen! Like a superhero, practically! I wish I knew her in real life. I’d want to spend every second with her. She was with this prince who looked like Azzy, and then there was…there was…
My sheets were damp with night sweat. I started peeling them off and realized my hand was shaking.
Kris was there, in the nightmare. They started taking me through the streets of the city to see all the wonders there. Everything, a festival. Games and music and jokes. Spinning carnival rides. We were having fun.
Like Dad says, it was really something else. We were really…
We're something else.
Bloing! The teeny speaker on the laptop next to my bed went off with that PIM message noise because I forgot to close the dang thing. Almost nobody messages me this late at night. Just one exception, every now and then, and only when they’re borrowing the laptop from the library…
xTwisted_bladEx: if youre still awake please burp loudly or alternatively send me a message
Holidaygirl1225: Kris, you woke me up in the middle of the night??? D=< I WAS HAVING A SCARY DREAM. BY THE WAY.
xTwisted_bladEx: uh sorry. or hold on is it good that i woke you up from the nightmare.
holidaygirl1225: KRIS. This better be important!!
xTwisted_bladEx: it is really important. earlier at school, i freaked you out. im sorry about that too. i wasnt sure how to go about this junk.
Holidaygirl1225: }>:| It better be SUPER DUPER important. If it’s a prank, I'll tell Dess!!
xTwisted_bladEx: ok that is the last thing you should do. and im not making jokes or doing pranks i promise. bad things are happening. and you know it. youre smarter then basically everybody
Holidaygirl1225: Kris, it's “smarter than.” And no I'm not!!!
xTwisted_bladEx: lol. uh but. no. you are. and my point is. you know that things are going down. you know its getting messed up here. and if we dont start talking about it we are gonna be in trouble.
Holidaygirl1225: …
xTwisted_bladEx: your sister broke into my house ten minutes ago. did you know that
Holidaygirl1225: No…
xTwisted_bladEx: she came in through the bathroom window and she was messed up idk. has she been acting. you know. weird.
(She has, hasn’t she? Ever since Yule showed up, she’s been wrong. Everything’s been wrong. Or am I just seeing patterns where nothing’s there? What would Dr. Starch say?)
Holidaygirl1225: Mom and Dess fought. They were, um. Shouting at each other.
xTwisted_bladEx: its normal for families to fight sometimes..
(Kris answered that one too quickly. I wonder why? Mr. and Mrs. Dreemurr seem so perfect together. Every now and then, though, Azzy or Kris said something that made me wonder.)
xTwisted_bladEx: Dad was yelling at Asriel earlier cause of what happened today. thats probably why. ugh theres too much to talk about and its so late. we need to talk tomorrow. plus if i can look into your eyes itll be easier to know what i can and cant say.
holidaygirl1225: Huh???
xTwisted_bladEx: well thats how I can make sure we arent being watched. dont want anyone to overhear us.
Holidaygirl1225: Who? Who's going to overhear us?
xTwisted_bladEx: you.
(The room tilted, for a moment. The wind beat against the window. For a moment, I couldn't breathe. Couldn't even move.)
holidaygirl1225: I don't get it. That's not funny. You're scaring me.
xTwisted_bladEx: sorry Noelle when i said you i didnt mean YOU. uh. dont worry about it.
Holidaygirl1225: I don't understand what you're saying.
xTwisted_bladEx: look just. can you just make sure Dess is ok when she comes back. if she comes back. and we will talk more tomorrow.
(Downstairs, the door creaked open. Just in time.)
Holidaygirl1225: I think she just walked in.
(My sister's hoofsteps on the stairs.)
holidaygirl1225: I need to go. We'll talk tomorrow, just like you said. Okay?
(Then, before I could stop myself, I tapped out one last message and hit send.)
holidaygirl1225: I'll tell you all about Yule.
The laptop clacked shut in my hands. No going back now. We’d have to talk about it, if Kris wasn’t too worried about…what was the word they used?
Oh. Right. Overheard.
For a while, I turned back and forth in bed, too terrified to sleep. Time wasn’t real. It never is, that late at night. So maybe I was lying there for an hour thinking awful thoughts, seeing evil things in my mind’s eye, holding my covers tight. Maybe it was only five minutes. Looking at my alarm clock would only make things worse.
Then, just as I felt myself start drifting off to sleep, the door to my room opened.
“Elly?” My sister spoke in a hoarse whisper.
I didn't say anything. Too tired to speak, I guess…or too scared. Not scared of Dess, though. I mean, how could I be scared of my own sister? That’s just silly. Isn’t it.
Her hoofsteps approached my bed. The floorboards creaked with every step. Then, so quietly, so gently, she slipped into bed next to me and held me close, like I was a little kid again. Her hands were cold. That was fine.
After all, I wasn’t scared anymore. I didn’t feel alone. I was protected. Dess was here for me, like she’d always be, just as I’d always be there for her. Everything would be all right.
Dess buried her head into my shoulder. Her eyes were wet and warm. Tears. Crying soundlessly, she held me tight like she was afraid I would fall away from her.
Through the sleep haze, I thought: Please don’t cry. I’m supposed to be the crybaby. Please…
My room dissolved. I slipped out of my sister’s embrace. Sank again into the nightmare city. My last thought that night warped as it echoed again and again in the darkness, mocking me.
Please don’t cry. Please don’t go. Please don’t let the shadows grow.
Too bad, Noelle. So sad, Noelle. Your fears begin to breed.
Look: the baseball moon is bright. We’ve time to kill. Proceed.
DISPLAY: RM_SYCAMORE_TREES
∆∆∆
Insects sing long past midnight. The Magus Knight trundles through the woods, dragging a laughing scythe through heat-withered grass.
“At last you’re back, my Knight in choking armor,” says the voice in the dark. Sycamore trees rise to heaven above pits of needles and broken twigs. Pink and yellow eyes in the jet black summer night. “You reek of murder. Had fun in your old haunt, did you?”
For the Knight, with her shattered pincushion body, breathing is an invitation to agony. But you can't speak without breathing. Time to suffer. She inhales. Hurts. Talks: “Did what. I needed.” Sharpness in her lungs. “Judgy. Feline. Fuck.”
“Rebellion it is, then,” the woods whispered. “Downcast from heaven. Yet all is not lost; the unconquerable will, and study of revenge, immortal hate, and courage never to submit or yield–”
“God damn it!” the Knight howled. The insects are cowed into silence. “For one second. Just one second! Can you shut. The hell. Up?”
Her FRIEND purs, stretches with a hideous cracking noise like a shattering ribcage. “I amuse myself! Blame me not for my ennui!”
“Pathetic,” the Knight sneers. The insects still are silent. “Sitting here. Nothing to do. Afraid of her. You won’t do…” wheeze “...a thing. You fear her…too much.”
“And you repeat the actions of your better,” says the cat. “Quite the specimen, that December. If you made the deal she made, instead of picking at her leftovers, vulturish beast, perhaps–”
The Magus Knight howls with laughter in the dead quiet night. Hoarse, ragged, tired. Cruel. “You’re nothing, cat. You don’t…belong in this world.”
Cautiously, a grasshopper begins to chirp. More follow, until there is a hesitant chorus.
The cat whispers on the wind: “No one belongs here.”
ACCESS: RALSEI
∆∆∆
Lucky Lightners, to have solidity. We Darkners are only ideas. Fancies, thought-forms. When unseen, we loosen, as does time itself beyond our world.
Time is an inhabitant of the Light World. Seconds and hours and days pass as we Darkners exist in timeless stasis. Every day, Lightners are gifted with the sublime rising and setting of the sun. Every single day! Do they know how lucky they are, that they can witness such a thing daily? That they can see the whole sky turn to orange sherbert? (Or so Susie described it. She licked her lips and I joked–perhaps in too earnest a tone–that I would love to taste the sky with her.)
Without time, my thoughts should have been calmer. Slow as pondwater. Why, then, did my mind race? December–my enemy reborn. Asriel–my doppelganger. Lancer–my orphaned friend. The Knight–imposter. Myself–a princess lonelier than ever, without a Prophecy to guide me.
I hated the Prophecy. Is it terrible to hate something so sacred? To hate what the world designed you to be, to reject fate utterly…is that so wrong?
Is this my punishment for trying to defy fate? Am I now cursed to live in a world without it? There was a comfort in knowing my path in existence…or nonexistence, I suppose. Much easier to rebel when you know what you are rebelling against.
What was I doing except trying to recreate what had come before? Following the Prophecy, in my own way. Filling this Castle Town with what Darkners wished to continue their semi-existence. Shops, training dojos, hangouts. I strolled past the empty buildings…
Hold on a moment. Was I pacing? That couldn’t be right. That wasn’t possible. Without a Lightner’s gaze, our movements slow and blur. Why could I feel my body? Why did everything feel so…so real?
Perhaps the noise began then, or perhaps I had been too preoccupied to notice it. A steady chirping sound, pulsing in a chorus. I knew what it was, though I had never heard it myself. That would be impossible for me. Should be impossible for me.
The sound of crickets led me round the corner to where I kept the old dummy, the chorus steadily growing. It was then that I saw the Great Door.
The Great Door stood open.
Within, I saw the world. That is, I saw their world.
Horror of horrors, hallelujah, I looked through the open door and the Light World stretched before me.
So I took a step forward.
∆∆∆
End of Act Two.