Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

*Your hands hover hover the keys.

*They’re twitching with anticipation.

*You try to play the piano

*……

*The only sound produced was an off key plonk.

Shouldn’t you be able to play the piano? Bunches of characters have said Kris is great at the piano… Shouldn’t the interaction be a prompt to actually play? Why couldn’t I…

*Your hands shake with a frustration that isn’t yours.

*You get up from the piano bench.

*Your nails are digging into your palms.

Something isn’t right. Why would this flavour text be here? What is it supposed to mean? Am I missing something?

*You bite the inside of your cheek.

*You can’t feel the pain.

*You don’t taste the iron.

*You don’t feel any of it.

…..

Okay, something has to be up with this. Does it mean “you” as in… the player? Am I not…. Kris…..

Oh

Haha, that’s why the characters were saying Kris was acting weird!! Wow!! I just- What… have I been doing…. What did I sign up for?

“Kris? Are you alright? You’re staring at that piano like it killed your dog.”

*The nurse behind the counter looked worried.

*You shake your head.

“Well, alright. If you ever want to come back and play it, you know where it is.”

*The nurse goes back to her paperwork.

*You feel like you shouldn’t just be standing in the middle of a hospital lobby.

Oh- was that a timed event? Either way, maybe I should go somewhere else. There was a lake nearby that I didn’t really check out. Wonder if there’s any fun flavour text over there.

*Your limbs feel heavy.

*Your feet drag on the floor.

Alright, this is bordering on haunted game territory or something, is… Kris… fighting me? That’s a cool mechanic if that’s the case…. Something still doesn’t feel right.

Is this actually a part of the game? Maybe I’m going crazy? No more soda this late I guess, ha…

*You stand in place.

*Your legs ache

*I want to move

!!!!

What??

I??

This, this is totally weird, what does it mean by I? Is that Kris?? Have I just been piloting a random human teenager around for the last few hours??? I MADE THEM EAT MOSS!!!

Oh god, this isn’t just a weird meta thing is it. I- this poor kid…. What have I been doing! This feels nothing like a meta “oh the game is alive!” Thing. This feels like I’ve literally been possessing a kid, throwing them into battle, making them EAT MOSS, did they even want to hug things?? Oh I probably made them so uncomfortable if not.

*Your head starts to hurt.

Oh, I, uh, um, okay. Deep breath. I can…. I can figure something out? Sigh, even me panicking is hurting Kris… somehow? How-

How is it doing that?

I shouldn’t be able to interact directly with the game world…

Is this actually a game?

When it said “you will accept everything that happens from now on” I didn’t think it would lead to… this.

Kris had a life, a family, friends, hobbies, routines, likes and dislikes, and I just… overwrote that. Quite literally with the save hahahhhh…. Oh.

Jeeze, if I ever get to talk to this kid, if that’s even possible, I can absolutely never tell them their entire existence is a video game.

Maybe, hypothetically, I just say I wanted to be a part of a story? I made a character, well, vessel, technically. But that didn’t last that long, I really liked my little guy too. I didn’t want to take full control of a whole person with a life, I just… got stuck here! Yeah…

What have I been doing…

*You start to feel lightheaded.

Ah, yep, right. Panicking or apparently having an existential crisis somehow hurts Kris, which is totally super cool and awesome, mhm, yep. I feel so perfectly fine about this situation and totally don’t want to have a breakdown while hugging Kris and apologizing like crazy.

Maybe the extra dialogue and flavour text isn’t worth it…. I can always look it up later. Oh, I should uh, walk Kris.. home, god that’s a weird thought. But I should do that while I absolutely 100% don’t cry thinking about how weird it would be to have a being who could know EVERYTHING about your world just, randomly possess you one day.

Ugh, I need to finish this thing before I spiral any more, think if I thought any harder I might give Kris a stroke or something hahahhh….

God why is humour my only coping mechanism.

Chapter Text

Kris once again found themselves sat in front of another piano.

Well, this one looked more like an organ, all those big pipes usually would be a pretty good indicator for that. But, it still sounded like a piano.

And one that was thankfully in tune.

Although, you wouldn’t know with how awfully Red was playing.

It hurt, quite a lot, Kris wanted to rip their soul out, maybe they’d settle for ripping out their hair. Pulling teeth would hurt less than this sorry attempt to play.

But, unfortunately for literally everyone involved, this seemed like a “Red Specific” task.

Kris didn’t really understand it, but it seemed like Red hated it too. Every once an a while, there would just be… something, that no matter how much either of them tried, only Red could really do it.

It wasn’t horrible when they got an electric guitar shoved in their hands. Kris could read sheet music, and play the piano, but that’s where their musical talent stopped.

And despite Red being absolutely garbage at the piano, like, worse than a newborn, kind of bad. It nailed the guitar thing, to a scary degree of accuracy.

But a piano?

That was apparently too much.

Kris could feel Red shifting uncomfortably. It was probably the “oh god I have to actually do this.” And the “OH GOD I HAVE TO DO IT GOOD SO PEOPLE DON’T THINK KRIS IS POSSESSED!”

Kris did appreciate their effort to be as “Kris like” as possible when control shifted around. It still definitely got stuff wrong though.

How did they ever think Kris’ favourite food was chocolate? They were able to cough and set it to the right answer. But it’s so obviously pie. They had even RECOMMENDED Kris eat the whole thing when they got home that first night. Something about being sorry about the moss…. Kris was pretty sure Red almost passed out when they just ate more moss because they could. It was different when it was your own choice. (It didn’t even taste that bad.)

Kris was broken out of their thoughts by yet another out of tune note on an in tune piano. It wasn’t impossible to do, but a magic puzzle piano in a Dark World probably wouldn’t go out of tune.

It was infuriating.

Kris could feel Red dying inside.

Ralsei took a step forward. Oh yeah, Kris forgot the others were there. Too distracted by wanting to bash their eardrums on.

“Um, Kris, maybe I could give it a try? I think I…”

“Ralsei, wait a sec.”

Susie also moved forward, leaning over Kris’ shoulder.

“Kris… today in church, when you were asleep…

Your mom said you used to play good.

I don’t know why you’re pretending you can’t now.

Maybe you’re like… embarrassed or something?

But like… y’know

…

Kris, you should play.”

Kris held onto those words like a lifeline. They could feel Red becoming lighter, softer even. Their limbs felt more like their own.

More than they had in the last while.

Kris repeated Susie’s words in their head, over and over.

“Kris, YOU should play.”

They took a deep breath, it felt full, unrestricted by the ache of their soul.

Their hands started to move.

And Kris played the piano.