Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Please don’t be mad.”

“Um… why would I be mad?”

Kris continued to lead Noelle down the school hallway hand in hand, the supply closet rapidly getting closer.

“Me and Susie may or may not have lied about something fairly important.”

Noelle blinked. “...About?” She stuttered after a few seconds. “And um, how does this involve the school’s storage closet exactly…?”

“You’ll see.” They replied unhelpfully.

They could see the gears in Noelle’s head turn, attempting to calculate what exactly Kris lied about. They weren’t going to give her any hints. “Is this related to the… ‘crime’ you and Susie have been up to…?”

With the amount of things they were ‘borrowing’ to recruit Darkners, they probably could actually get in trouble for it sooner or later. There’s this terrible thing called ‘larceny’, which was a crime. And, depending on how expensive the laptop-that-Queen-is was, they’re pretty sure they could genuinely get tried for grand larceny. Queen’s a pretty old laptop, but a laptop is a laptop, and those could get pretty pricey. It might hit the threshold.

But, as long as Undyne wasn’t in the picture, it probably wouldn’t be a problem. “Something like that.” They replied after a bit too much silence.

They reached the end of the hall way faster than they would have liked.

Well. This was it. No turning back now.

They threw the door to Castle Town open, darkness spilling out into the hallway.

Noelle took a step back. “I don’t think closets are supposed to look like that.”

Kris turned to look Noelle straight in the eyes. They offered their hand. “Do you trust me?”

“...I mean you started this by saying you were lying to me.” She said flatly. “But, for the most part, yeah.” She grabbed their hand.

That was good enough for them.

Kris broke into a run, dragging Noelle with them. “What are you- Ahh!” She was cut off as they pulled the both of them into the closet.

They fell, Noelle screaming the entire way down.

They both landed on their feet, Kris more graceful than Noelle. Much more graceful, as she wobbled and placed her hands on her knees.

She stood up, straightened out, and then promptly grabbed Kris by the shoulder and yelled, “Kris what the hell was that!“

Ah, Noelle never swore. They may have made her pretty angry with this one.

Her hand immediately went off when she realized she hit a pauldron. “What are you wearing? She looked at her arms, staring at white sleeves instead of her school uniform. “What am I wearing?”

She then really analyzed Kris, taking in every detail. Kris squirmed slightly, getting checked out wasn’t really what they were expecting from this.

She stuttered for a few seconds, a handful of sounds that weren’t quite words spilling from her lips. She cut herself off. “This is just like my dream.”

“That may be because it wasn’t a dream.”

“What…?” Noelle said incredulously. Something caught her eye, as she then turned.

A town sat before her. Shades of black and blue coating the buildings, Darkners of various shapes and colors milling about. Towards the back, there sat a castle. And behind it, the Grand Fountain flowed, giving the town form.

Her mouth was hung open as she scanned the surrounding area. “If… if this isn’t a dream, then where are we?” She asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Kris walked forward, turned towards Noelle, and reached their hand out.

“Welcome to my Castle Town.”

~ ~ ~

It had occurred to Susie that if the Knight was gonna keep opening fountains, more people were gonna start falling into them sooner or later. It already happened in the library with Noelle and Berdly, it happened again at Kris’s house with Toriel, and they got really lucky that no one was at the church when those Dark Fountains appeared.

They probably couldn’t keep it a secret forever.

Susie also noted that they were getting pretty close to Noelle. Really close. Like cuddling and kissing close. (Which is something she shouldn’t have known actually, but Kris was too taken aback to question it at the time).

With that in mind, she said that they should probably bring Noelle back into the Dark World, specifically Castle Town.

At first, Kris was vehemently against it. Dark Worlds, fun as they were, were dangerous. They didn’t want Noelle near them at all. But… it was unreasonable to assume she wouldn’t get into another one. She had already fallen into one, almost immediately actually, so, why wouldn’t she find another?

Kris thought that it wouldn’t be a problem. This whole Dark World adventuring thing would end sooner, rather than later, and at that point explaining the Dark World to Noelle would be the least of their concerns. But, their plan with their ‘other teammates’ was taking longer than expected.

They had a timetable for when and where things should happen, but ever since the festival passed without issue, everything has been put on hold as the others looked for a better opportunity.

So, while the ‘threat’ of the Dark Worlds wasn't a problem at the moment, once it started up again, there was the chance that Noelle could find herself in another one.

And, if she were to find herself in another Dark World… she could get in a pretty bad situation fast. They hate to admit it, but she would be safer if she knew what she was doing compared to if she just thought she was having another dream.

So, Kris and Susie decided to bring her to Castle Town. It was low stakes, Ralsei could explain all the Dark World stuff in excruciating detail, she could see Queen again, and… it would be fun.

Besides, originally, Kris was supposed to get Noelle involved. That’s the reason there was a Fountain in the library, after all. They were able to dodge the responsibility, telling their other teammates that they didn’t have the chance, and that Susie told Noelle it was a dream and that the timing was off, but… those were mostly lies. They just… didn’t want Noelle to be involved.

(And, if the situation truly called for it, it shouldn’t have been delegated to Kris to begin with.)

But, that was starting to look like that was less and less feasible, so they decided to bite the bullet.

And if they showed her this, they can probably show her some of the… other secrets involving the dark.

But, they were getting ahead of themself, and they wanted to take baby steps.

Ralsei and Susie were already waiting in the square for the two of them to arrive.

Once the two of them got close enough, Ralsei waved, and Susie gave jazz hands… for some reason.

“The Dark World wasn’t a dream.” Susie said nervously. “Surprise…”

“Um… cool?” Noelle said. She turned and nudged Kris. “When you said you lied to me, I really didn’t think it would be about this.” She fiddled with the hood of her cloak nervously.

“Surprise?” Kris said.

Noelle sighed, but she wasn’t able to keep the giddy smile off of her face. There were stars in her eyes as she looked at every building.

“Gosh, where do we even start?”

“Um, before you explore, it may be best that I explain what’s going on.” Ralsei softly interjected. “I’m sure you have some questions.”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot,” Noelle said bashfully. “Where… are we…? Like, we went to the closet, but this is uh… definitely not a closet.”

“Welcome to the Dark World.” Ralsei said. “This may take a little while to explain. I think it would be best to sit for this. How about the cafe?”

It was closer than the castle and a generally chill place. Probably the best place for an extended conversation.

Kris nodded, Noelle shrugged and nodded at Kris nodding, and Susie just said, “sounds sick.”

~ ~ ~

Funky music blasted at them as they walked through the door to the cafe. Swatch greeted them from behind the counter with a bow.

Susie went off to the counter to order a bunch of stuff for them while the rest of them found a table.

Kris turned to follow Ralsei, who started to go towards an empty table, when they noticed that Noelle didn’t follow. They looked at Noelle, then laughed softly. She was entirely fixated on the stage. Specifically the singer.

Noelle had a type. Tall, strong women. And judging by the way she was staring at Tasque Manager, her brain was probably short circuiting.

They were endlessly thankful that Noelle loved Kris despite them having literally zero of those qualities. There was more to love than two people being 100% physically attractive to each other, it seemed.

If nothing else, she found them cute. Which is something she teased them with endlessly. Having been the victim of teasing for several years, her finding a chip in their armor (genuine compliments) was like her finding the holy grail.

…Perhaps she had more than one type.

Kris grabbed her hand and Noelle snapped out of it with a blush.

The cafe was shockingly empty for once, the only other table was occupied by Werewerewire and Head Hathy. Otherwise, it was incredibly easy to find a table for four.

The three of them sat at a table for four, and Ralsei explained how they were gonna do this.

Since Noelle had experience with the Dark World, even if it was brief, they decided it would be best if they started by having her explain what she knew.

She explained what she remembered, and in the end, Noelle knew more than nothing, but she still needed most of the basics.

Kris doesn’t know whether it’s really funny or really unfortunate that the only things she really remembered beyond the Dark World’s intuitive functions were how to make Dark Fountains and the concept of the Roaring and Titans.

She knew how to fight, end the world, and effectively nothing else.

…That information would have been something to ease into, but it’s a bit late for that.

Once she finished her brief recap, Ralsei launched into an explanation of how darkness shifts perception, and when things were darker than dark, the Dark World was given form.

A few minutes later, as Ralsei was wrapping up the fountain sealing process, Susie and a swatchling returned with several drinks and snacks. Without missing a beat, Ralsei managed to turn that into a lesson by then explaining how Dark World food was tasty, but unfilling.

Hell of a segue.

They took a small break to get everyone situated, and to give Noelle a few moments to take everything in. A glance revealed that while she didn’t look all that confused, she did look a bit overwhelmed.

So instead of jumping right back into explanation, everyone started drinking their drinks. Before long, they took turns trying what the others got.

Kris took a sip of their drink, a blueberry tea. It wouldn't be their first choice, but it did taste good, and it made them feel very refined.

Noelle seemed to like it. Probably more than they did, considering she took a sip that was larger than just a taste.

Ralsei had gotten a minty hot chocolate, which tasted absolutely delicious. Kris had to remind themself that no, this was Ralsei’s drink, and not theirs, because if they didn’t they would have drank all of it. And the worst part is Ralsei would let them.

So instead they just passed it back and put in the back of their mind that they should order this later.

Susie ‘drink’ which was some kinda… smoothie thing? It was a pinkish purple and had no other discernible properties. It looked exactly like stomach medicine.

It tasted… purple. Somehow. Not grape, not some kind of berry, it just… tasted like purple.

…What did Swatch put in this…?

“What… is this?” Ralsei asked as he took a sip. He passed it back to Susie, who in turn passed it to Noelle.

“I have no idea.” Susie replied. “Tastes good though, right?”

Ralsei opened his mouth, and closed it. He looked befuddled as he attempted to think about how to describe the flavor. He couldn’t so he just shrugged awkwardly.

Noelle had a truly blank expression as she took a sip. “I… can’t even describe the taste. It has the same consistency of like, cough syrup.”

“But like good cough syrup, right?”

“Um… sure?”

Susie winced. “C’mon, you think it’s good, right Kris?”

“...It tastes like purple.”

She put up her arms in triumph. “We take those.”

After she got her drink back, Susie drank it greedily, so she apparently didn’t mind the odd flavor and questionable texture.

Noelle got an eggnog. It tasted like eggnog. Eggnog out of eggnog. Kris had no further notes. Other than perhaps it would be more amusing if instead of it being eggnog, it was perhaps, mayonnaise.

They have gotten yelled at so many times for pulling that one off.

Good times.

Once they were about halfway through their drinks, Ralsei began explaining again. He got most if not all of the important Dark World mechanics out of the way before they got their drinks, so this time he started on the prophecy.

It was interesting to hear Ralsei recount the prophecy for a second time. It was a blend of his own version, and the one they had seen at the church.

They noticed Noelle got noticeably more concerned as the explanation continued. Kris took note that Noelle’s expression briefly went to one of pity when Ralsei mentioned the heroes. If they had to guess, she didn’t like how Kris was referred to as a ‘cage with human soul and parts’ .

They weren’t very fond of the title either.

They all jumped when a large thump sounded from across the table. Susie’s head smacked straight into the table. She started snoring, not loudly, but not quietly either. Lengthy explanations really weren’t her thing.

Ralsei kept going, explaining the Roaring Knight, which makes with blackened knife. He stared right at Kris when he said that, which… okay. Alright.

He didn’t go into detail on certain things. Some sections were left out, as it wasn’t very important to know that ‘Queen's chariot cannot be stopped’ or that ‘Love finds its way to the Girl’. He didn’t mention the final tragedy, either, but Kris expected that.

Eventually, Ralsei was out of things to explain.

“That’s a lot to take in.” Noelle said.

“If you have any questions feel free to ask them. If you don’t have any, there’s no rush, either.” Ralsei said.

“Gosh, that must have been really overwhelming to learn for the first time.”

“Somewhat.” Kris said. At Noelle’s questioning look, they explained, “we didn’t learn all of that all at once. We were kinda eased into it.”

Susie lifted her head from the table, awakening from her little nap. “We did not get eased into it. We were kinda just winging it for most of the time. It only became like, real, a little over a week ago.”

Ralsei laughed nervously but didn’t otherwise reply.

“Like it’s fair, I was not paying attention at first,” she said, then shaking her head, "but it was a whole thing.”

A whole thing was a generous way to describe that. They wouldn’t call Ralsei a liar (because he wasn’t) but he certainly didn’t say things if he didn’t want to. He must be a big fan of the word ‘omission’.

“Um, there is one question I have.” Noelle said, with a concerned expression. “When you explained the prophecy, you said that three heroes would appear at the world's end. And, if you three are the three heroes… doesn’t that mean that the world is um. Actively ending…?”

“Nah, we’re gonna stop it.” Susie grinned. “Piece of cake. ‘Sides, The Knight hasn’t even done anything in a hot minute. Probably scared them with how cool we are.”

Moreso that there was a very specific window for them to accomplish the things that needed to be accomplished, but from Susie’s perspective that’s information Kris should not know. So they said nothing and just nodded stiffly.

Noelle did not look reassured. “Well, I guess that’s why you’re the hero, then.”

“Girl with hope crossed on her heart for a reason.” Kris agreed.

“If we’re breaking out the fancy shmancy titles, then okay, cage.” She said with a grin. Kris grinned back, while they sipped the last of their (now cold) tea.

“Why are they called that?” Noelle asked after a few seconds. “That’s not really something you call a hero. Let alone a person.” She mumbled

Kris and Ralsei shared a look. That look said ‘we are both hiding things that we don’t really want to share at the moment’. This was a bit concerning to Kris, because as far as they are aware he shouldn’t quite know what they know. Except, since he’s had nothing but the prophecy for who knows how long, he certainly knows something in regards to their whole soul situation.

It wasn’t actively pressing at the moment, and it also wasn’t in control at the moment, so they were not getting into that right now. Or ever, preferably, but they knew they were gonna have to cross that bridge eventually.

If they were lucky, they would be able to avoid it forever, but life has made it very clear that Kris Dreemurr is not a very lucky person.

They broke eye contact, turned to Noelle, and just shrugged. “Just means I’m built different.”

It wasn’t the answer Noelle was expecting. “Um… alright?”

The four of them did a bit more chatting and tying up loose ends before they left.

(Of the things that Ralsei said, one thing stuck out to them. Learning that the different outfits ACTs gave was darkness shifting to accommodate them was very cool to learn. It wasn’t something Kris actively thought about but it was something they noticed. It also answered Noelle’s question of ‘why she did have a nurse outfit and also where did that tray and mug come from’ whenever Kris used TakeCareX.)

But, with Noelle thoroughly caught up to speed, the world was their oyster. Kris waved goodbye to Swatch as they left, going back into the town square.

“With all that out of the way, feel free to explore.” Ralsei smiled warmly.

“Well, I’m not the expert here.” Noelle said, turning to Kris. “What do you think we should do first, Kris?”

“I’m fine with whatever.” They said near reflexively. That was a pretty boring answer though, so they tried to think of a better one. “Actually, there’s something I want to test. Hey Ralsei, can you set up the training dummy?”

“Of course!”

~ ~ ~

“So uh… What are we doing?” Noelle questioned.

Ralsei took it upon himself to clear any Darkners near the dummy. It took Ralsei a bit of time to get the Addisons that took up camp in the dummy room away, but once Susie called the area the ‘splash zone’ they cleared out swiftly. An apt description, considering what they were about to attempt.

“You remember how we like, fought guys and stuff in the library Dark World right?” Kris said.

“Yes…?”

“There was an attacking spell you could have used. We try to solve things by ACTing and SPAREing, so you never had a chance to use it, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to know what the spell does. You never know when a fight can’t be solved peacefully.”

Ralsei’s expression darkened for a second. They’ve been facing fights that require violence more and more often. Some enemies just can’t be talked down. Some enemies couldn't comprehend mercy at all.

They looked at their target. The dummy was… still hideous. It had an ill-fitting fedora, a gaudy necklace with a dollar symbol, and its nose and mouth (which it should not have!) looked like the Addisons’. Except it didn’t look like that, it looked like that freaky ass puppet guy that tried stealing their soul the one time.

It also lacked clothes.

Kris didn’t really like looking at the dummy. They missed when it was still entirely Ralsei shaped. It was cute and huggable, two qualities it certainly didn’t possess now.

“Basically, I want you to kill that guy.” Kris said entirely flatly.

Noelle was at a loss for words. “Um. If you say so?”

“Don’t worry, the dummy can take it. I’ve hit it with way worse.” Susie mentioned. Noelle looked marginally more comfortable, so the words helped. Slightly.

“It also cannot be killed as it is not alive.” Ralsei reassured. Noelle actually looked relieved that time, so Kris took that as the go ahead to do some testing.

Kris and Noelle entered a ‘battle’ with the dummy. It did not move, and it had the personality of a brick wall. Frankly, Kris is pretty sure the attacks it used the last time they were in a ‘battle’ was just Ralsei. With no need to teach dodging, or anything else for that matter, the dummy just stood there lifelessly.

“Mess it up!” Susie yelled encouragingly.

Kris raised their shield, allowing tension to build up. Then, they threw their arm out with a point, and said, “IceShock.”

Noelle took a deep breath, and then, with her hands clasped together, she raised them into the air, casting the spell.

Snowflakes drifted from her hands, frozen sparks dancing in the wind. The sparks ignited on the dummy, causing massive snowflakes to appear in front of it. The snowflakes exploded, shaking the dummy, damaging it, and causing it to freeze over.

It was completely covered in ice.

The battle was over as fast as it began. They won?

They picked up their sword and walked over to the dummy. They tapped on it. It was certainly frozen solid. The ice felt pretty thick, too. Kris was suddenly very glad that they didn’t try the move against a Darkner. This looked difficult to undo.

Wow. That was pretty impressive. Susie’s Rude Buster was stronger, of course, but that’s after several days worth of honing, and using. That was Noelle’s first time ever using that spell, and it left the dummy unable to ‘attack’ in a single strike. And, she hardly had to build up any tension at all. It came to her very naturally.

This actually made Kris feel a lot better about telling Noelle about the Dark World. Worse come to worse, she could certainly handle herself.

“Damn. You really killed the dummy.” Susie said. “That was pretty badass, actually.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think that would happen!” Noelle said, slightly panicking.

Kris was going to say that it was alright, but Ralsei beat them to the punch. “Don’t worry about it,” he said with a smile that was a little too big to be comforting. “The dummy has long since served its purpose.”

“Jeez, that's cold.” Susie said. “I thought you liked the dummy?”

He practically pouted, an expression Kris has never seen on him before. “I liked the dummy as a tutorial for battles. I don’t like the dummy as some… weird perverted mannequin.” Ralsei said. Then, he mumbled, “I used a good robe on it, and it got eaten. How did that even happen?”

It looked like a light bulb went off in Susie’s brain. “Hey, wait a minute. Isn’t IceShock from Dragon Blazers?”

“Yeah!” Noelle said excitedly. “It’s the name of the tier one ice spell. Pretty much every white mage gets it in the games. It’s the strongest early game attacking spell, better than any other element, since it ignores defense. It even outclasses some tier two spells.”

She was… disturbingly knowledgeable on the Dragon Blazers games. While she wasn’t a speedrunner, she certainly picked up a lot of speedrun tech.

Once, she spent a solid five minutes explaining a glitch, and then another five attempting to execute it.

They didn’t expect the four hundred bagel joke option to open the door (quite literally, too, as Noelle had explained that the door frame right next to the option was close enough to make the text boxes overflow,) to getting the alternate route's best weapon way earlier than needed, and outside of the alternate route all together, but video games were just like that sometimes. It also makes it possible to skip like, two thirds of the chapter. Pretty crazy stuff.

Wait. Hold on. Something about Noelle being able to use a spell from Dragon Blazers was very interesting.

“Hey Ralsei, you said magic comes from the soul, right?” Kris asked.

“Yes.” He nodded. “Um, why?”

“I think I get it.” Kris said with a grin. They turned to look at Noelle. “Wow. Your Dragon Blazers obsession is so strong it’s rooted in your soul.”

She looked like someone dumped a bucket of water onto her. She didn’t even have a response.

“You’re even dressed for the part.” Susie added. “That’s the same type of robe thing that they use in like, Dragon Blazers art. The like, posters where they’re actually people and not like little pixels guys.”

Noelle truly looked like she didn’t know what to say. “I mean… I didn’t choose my outfit?”

“Maybe not on purpose. But, maybe you wanted to look like your favorite character, and your outfit reflected that.” Kris said with a grin.

”Surely that’s not how that works.”

Ralsei had a face that said ‘that is actually how that works’ but he didn’t say anything.

Well, with that experiment out of the way, they really could do anything.

~ ~ ~

The town square seemed even happier than usual. But, maybe that’s just because Kris had a starry eyed girlfriend to show around. They didn’t know Castle Town like the back of their hand, they never felt the need to look in every nook and cranny, so it was fun to see what was around, especially with someone new.

They spent some time going around and talking to their various recruits.

Seam looked happy to see a new face. At least, Kris thinks they looked happy. They were a bit hard to read, most of the time. They didn’t say anything incredibly ominous this time so that was a plus…?

A Virovirokun was excited to see Noelle, but otherwise, everyone was like, Oh hey that’s a different Lightener. Neat.

It was a bit funny seeing Noelle question the entirely normal water cooler. She didn’t even know its true strength.

Eventually, they ended up in the bakery. Mallius still hadn’t figured out how to fuse new items (nor did he ever figure out how to… actually make bread,) so it was mostly for the atmosphere.

Top Chef spun around off to the side. He never actually interacted with the group, he just kept spinning.

There was one thing they got done in the bakery, though. Lancer was in here, so they got to introduce him to Noelle.

“Noelle, Lancer. Lancer, Noelle. This,” Susie said, putting a hand on his head, ”is my main man. We go way back.”

“Ah, I remember it like it was last week.” Lancer said. “Being sent to capture the heroes, then getting Susie to join the bad guys… good times, good times.”

“That’s because it was last week.” Ralsei said dryly.

“Well,” Noelle said. She crouched down and extended an arm. “It’s nice to meet you.”

They shook hands.

“Ho ho ho! It looks like another member joins the Lancer Fan Club!” Lancer said. “Are we going to turn her evil too?”

“Maybe. Haven’t asked yet.” Kris said. They turned to Noelle. “I’m gonna be turning evil soon. Wanna join?”

“Wha– what do you mean you’re turning evil?”

“It’s gonna suck but it has to happen.” Kris said solemnly.

“Kris, this isn’t like you.” Ralsei said with an exaggerated frown. “We’re supposed to be heroes.”

“Hey, I was a bad guy for a hot minute.” Susie said. “Kris can have their evil arc. As a treat.”

“And I want to share this treat with Noelle. Wanna be evil together?”

“Can I ask why we’re turning evil before I give an answer?" Noelle asked.

They noted that she said ‘we’. They had her hook, line and sinker.

“The benefits.” They answered.

“And those are…?”

“I think I’m gonna get rid of taxes.”

“Hell yeah!” Susie said. “What else, what else?”

Hm, they haven’t really thought about it other than the ‘risk of covering the world in darkness’ thing. And the things they were gonna do outside of that were things they certainly couldn’t mention to Noelle yet.

If they had to be evil, there would certainly be one thing on their agenda. “I am going to erase the convenience store. You’re gonna walk up to it, and it’s just gonna be gone. Like someone took the entire place into another timeline or something.”

“Oh no! What will the people do without convenience?” Ralsei asked.

“Honestly, that guy runs an inconvenience store.” Susie said. “He kinda sucks. The town will be better off.”

The two of them could spend hours talking about how much they hate Sans the Skeleton. But, they were in a good mood all things considered, so they refrained.

“Y’know, I support evil Kris.” Susie said. “Can’t say I can join you though, kinda got the whole ‘hero’ thing going on. Down to switch sides if there's dental though.”

…Would she actually join their side?

They had assumed that this would come to an end, sooner than they would hope. But… maybe not?

Would she risk the end of the world for dental?

Not something to find out right now… but something they would keep in mind for later.

“Okay, I think that’s enough guys…” Ralsei said. He looked a little uncomfortable. Perhaps all this evil talk wasn't something he enjoyed.

Though, it did make them wonder if he knew. Does he? He shouldn’t. The church’s prophecies had nothing about their multiple allegiances, so he shouldn’t know. But, it would be foolish to think that a single Dark World (or three, technically) contained all of the prophecy. And, it was Ralsei so… they weren’t sure.

“Okay, okay, we’ll stop.” They turned to Noelle. “Offer’s still on the table though.”

“Well, if you’re turning evil I guess I'll have to join you.”

They smiled at her. Ralsei looked genuinely nervous at this, but didn’t say anything.

“Hey, where did Lancer go?” Ralsei asked, changing the subject.

He was right though. Lancer disappeared at some point.

Instead, there was a sweet young boy. With a mustache. He walked to Noelle.

“That dashing spade fellow wanted me to give you this.” The mustached boy said, offering Noelle a Lancer Cookie.

She took it. “Oh. Um. Thank you?”

The boy walked back behind the counter.

She shrugged and took a bite. Satisfaction coated her face. “Oh, this is pretty good actually.”

“He’s getting better.” Ralsie noted. He whispered to Kris, “I think those cookies can heal two HP now.”

“Incredible. The cookies have doubled in potency.” Kris said.

“Whoa. At this rate he’s gonna be a better healer than any of us.” Susie said.

He was already better than Kris, who had zero healing capabilities other than the things that were in their spacious pants hole. At this rate, he’ll be better than Ralsei.

In several months, that is.

Well. It was never said to be a fast rate.

Then Lancer walked back. “I wonder what that guy was about.”

Susie laughed. And then, Noelle, and Ralsei, and even Kris.

Their eyes locked with Noelle's, and both of them smiled a little brighter. They were glad she was having fun. This was working way, way better than they thought.

~ ~ ~

The castle itself was next.

Noelle ‘ooh’ed and ‘ahh’ed at the courtyard, the main room, and the cauldron. Perhaps it’s lost its luster to Kris since they’ve seen it a few times before, but the castle still was really nice.

A home away from home, where the struggles of the Light World seemed so distant, even if for just a moment.

Ralsei led the way towards the bedrooms. They skipped the dungeon, because there wasn’t really much to show over there. Like, all that was there was King and he was still somewhat evil.

Though, they could irritate the living hell out of him by showing him yet another Lightner that had abandoned him. One of the most important ones, even. Though he didn’t seem to realize it, Kris and Noelle were some of the main ones that used his deck of cards.

Then again they had better things to do than give him attention. They had to show their girlfriend the cool castle, after all.

They reached the hallway of the second floor, and Ralsei stopped.

“Ah, I’m sorry, I wasn’t able to prepare you a room in time.” Raslei said to Noelle. Then he started mumbling to himself. “The third floor would be too far away from the others, but… there really isn't any space on the second floor. Unless there could be? I may be able to extend the far left wall?”

He shook his head. “I ran into some logistical problems.”

“Ah, it’s okay.” Noelle said. She then leaned on Kris. “Me and Kris can share.”

Kris looked away and fought a blush. “Fine with me.” They said, fighting to keep their voice even.

They could hear Susie snort. “Get a room.”

“Sounds like we already have one.” Noelle said, looking at Kris with a smug expression.

How scandalous…

Noelle may be one of the few people in the world that could genuinely fluster Kris. They couldn’t tell if that’s something they liked about her, or disliked.

(No, they couldn’t lie. They liked that about her.)

The tour of their room was short. Their room was just about perfect, but there also wasn’t really a ton going on.

Like, what were they gonna show off? Their curtains? Their closet?

Well. There was their moss. They did get to show off their moss.

And the ICE-E thing.

“Why do you have that?” Noelle said.

“It was just in the Cyber World, and me and Susie will take anything that isn’t nailed to the ground.” Kris said, completely straight.

“And if it is nailed down, we can grab a hammer.” Susie agreed.

Susie's room was next. It was still very spiky and cool. Noelle gave it two out of two thumbs ups. Kris gave it one. They’ve already seen it, so they weren’t terribly impressed.

The construction in Lancers room was going… it was going. Good? Bad? They weren’t sure. If this were the Light World, they probably would have hit a load bearing wall and brought the whole castle down by now. But it wasn’t, and they hadn’t.

The third floor was where the interesting stuff happened. It was the floor that Queen and Tenna were on, after all.

The first noteworthy thing were the doors in the hallway. Or, more accurately, door. Singular. It appeared that Queen and Tenna’s rooms had combined. Somehow.

They looked to Ralsei, a known room-combiner, but he looked confused and mildly disturbed.

“I… didn’t do this?” Ralsei said.

Okay.

They opened the door and… Ah. The green-room-esc aesthetics of Tenna’s room and the gray silver chrome of Queen’s room was… not a great combination, if Kris was being entirely honest.

Tenna and Queen noticed them immediately.

“Oh Hey Guys What’s Up?” Queen said.

“Not much.” Susie said. “...What are you guys doing?”

“Queen has been telling me what ‘apps’ are!” Tenna answered. “It’s been… very informative!” He said with what could only be described as a barely restrained fury.

“(I’m Pissing Him Off On Purpose LMAO)” Queen whispered.

Tenna forced a stage laugh. There was no humor behind it.

The four of them properly walked into the room, and then Queen sprang up, noticing that Noelle was here. “Noelle Honey Darling Sweetie It’s Been So Long!”

“Again, hardly been a week.” Ralsei mumbled.

“Haha, yeah.” Noelle said.

“Noelle? Noelle! It’s great to see you.” Tenna said, his hands clasped.

“Yeah!” Noelle said somewhat awkwardly. “I don’t think we’ve met!”

“Haha! Yeah!” he said, voice sounding like it was on the verge of breaking. “Not like this, anyways!”

This was awkward.

To try to lessen said awkwardness, Kris whispered into Noelle’s ear, “that’s Tenna.”

“Isn’t that the name of your TV?” she whispered back.

“Yeah.”

“Why is your TV in the school closet?”

“He needed a home.”

Noelle gave them a truly incredulous look.

Ralsei cleared his throat. “Hey, why… are your rooms like this?”

“Oh Yeah Lol Got Bored And Got Me And Ant’s Room’s Combined.” Queen said, her visor displaying a ‘LMAO’. “Pretty Cool Huh?”

“You… could ask before you do stuff like that?” Ralsei asked. Practically pleaded.

“Nah I Think I’m Gonna Do My Own Thing.”

Ralsei really was only a prince in name. Nobody listened to him…

Also, did she just call him Ant? They looked over at Susie and mumbled, Ant? She shrugged in response.

They didn’t know they were chill like that.

“Anyways! Have you guys found someone to adopt me yet?”

“Sorry man, not yet.” Susie said.

“It’s fine! I’ll just… still be here! Alone.”

“Bro Am I Chopped Liver Or Something?”

Tenna did not comment further.

Perhaps the greatest hurdle of finding someone to take Tenna was that Kris… didn’t really know a lot of people. They were aware of most people in town, but they didn’t know them.

For as long as they’ve been alive, Kris has been ‘different’. They were adopted. Weird. Human. They didn’t stay close to a lot of people because of those attributes.

All of the people Kris would call their friend were in this room. Other than like, Asriel.

(And Dess, and also debatably the Roaring Knight but that was a whole can of worms that wasn't really worth opening.)

Susie falls into a similar boat. In comparison, she wasn’t ‘different’ like Kris is, but she managed to be even more of an outcast by being vaguely scary and also new. Kris had the ‘people they’ve seen around for their entire life’ thing going for them but Susie didn’t even have that, since she moved here somewhat recently.

So frankly, the two were probably the least qualified people possible to get someone to take a TV.

While the soul probably would make them do it, going ask literally every person in town if they needed a TV was… unappealing.

So they were out of options at the moment.

Except for one.

They turned to Noelle.

“Do you know anyone that wants a TV?” Kris asked. While Kris didn’t know a whole lot of people, Noelle wasn’t them. She was weird, sure, but no one really knew that other than them. So she was connected. Noelle knew a lot of people. So, maybe she knew someone that wanted a TV?

“Umm…” She said, thinking about it. ”Maybe Berdly? He’s always raving about how CRTs are just, that good when it comes to latency?”

Ah. That certainly was an option.

Susie winced. “I really hate that that might be Tenna’s best option.”

Tenna looked over. “You found someone?”

“Uhhh… maybe.” Susie said. “We’re gonna have to ask him.”

“Well! Please do!” Tenna said, a flower blooming on his nose..

Asking Berdly wouldn’t be their first pick, but at this point, it may be Tenna’s only option.

Well, that was a plan for that.

Afterwards, they left the room, saying goodbye to Queen and Tenna.

Entering the hallway, they looked at the end of the hall.

Admittably, they were curious about how Ralsei’s room was looking. Did the ladder and cushion make it look less… desolate and depressing? They didn’t know. But, getting into that with Noelle probably wasn’t the best idea for now. It could be left for later.

Instead, they all turned around and left the castle.

~ ~ ~

There was only really one thing they had left in mind before they left for the day. They went to the TV Studio.

“Oh sick we’re doing this.” Susie said.

“What are we doing?” Noelle asked, looking around the room.

“You’re gonna join our band, and we’re gonna play a song, and it’s gonna be awesome.” Susie said.

“A… band?” Noelle said. “Huh. It’s a little silly, but I’ve always wanted to be in one of those.”

“No time like the present.” Kris said.

The four stopped in front of the door to Raise Up Your Bat, with Ralsei standing off to the side for some reason.

Noelle tilted her head. “Isn’t this the song from Blood Crushers?”

“Uhh… I don’t remember.” Susie said.

“Yeah, it is.” Kris said.

Noelle had once explained to them the ridiculous history behind Blood Crushers. In the same year, somehow in the same month, too, both the first Blood Crushers movie and the first Blood Crushers album were released.

What had happened was that the movie was made, and entirely separately on the other side of the country, a band with the same name was formed. It was highly debated which came first, and there were lots of discussions on various online forums about whether any legal issues would arise.

In the end, the two different Blood Crushers collaborated on the second film, where the band made and performed a song. That song being Raise Up Your Bat.

It was… odd. An entire band segment in what was otherwise a slasher film was a choice. But, to this day Blood Crushers 2 is considered to be the best in the series, so it paid off.

Raise Up Your Bat is Dess’s favorite song ever, so she gave Noelle the history lesson, and then Noelle gave Kris the history lesson.

“How does that… work, anyway?” Noelle questioned. “Like how did the song get here?”

“I have no idea,” Kris said, “but it works so I wouldn’t think about it too hard.”

“Well, it was likely formed because it was on a channel that Tenna had, and it likely manifested in the way it did due to the fountain maker's will.” Ralsei explained.

That made sense. But, Kris was somewhat curious on how they brought this to Castle Town to begin with. There wasn’t a physical item associated with the song outside of Tenna himself, but he had almost nothing to do with this room outside of sharing aesthetics. They’ve barely seen him leave his own room, so… how did this get here?

Then again they brought over the manifestations of the weather channel, so perhaps thinking further would only invite migraines instead of understanding. This is why they didn’t want to think about it too hard.

“Huh… So the Knight really likes this song or something?” Susie asked.

“Perhaps. I can’t say for certain.” Ralsei said, looking at Kris.

Could he not say because he didn’t know the Knight enough to make that call, or because he knew that the Knight didn’t make that fountain to begin with, making any song-related opinions they held impossible to glean from that fountain specifically?

…

Okay could Ralsei stop looking at them?

They’re starting to think he did, in fact, know, but this was just awkward.

Susie didn’t notice the tension, or she just didn’t put two and two together, cause she said, “ehh, doesn’t really matter. Let’s go!”

“Have fun, you three.” Ralsei said, standing just outside the door that led to the stage.

“Huh? You’re not coming with?” Susie asked.

“Well, there’s only enough room for three.” He said, with a sad smile on his face. “But, that’s okay, I don’t mind.”

Ah. Kris forgot about that. That was kinda an issue. Well, Ralsei said he’ll take one for the team, but they did feel bad leaving him out. He’s already barely included normally by being bound to the Dark World, leaving him out in his own domain just felt wrong.

Susie agreed with this sentiment. “Nah.”

He blinked. “...Huh?”

“Said nah. I’ll sit out. Go play.” She said.

“What? No!” Ralsei objected. “Really, I’m fine with sitting out–”

“Listen. You’re gonna play drums, and you’re gonna like it!” Susie said, grabbing Ralsei by the arm and dragging him through the door.

“Wha, hey!” He said, as he was lifted and dragged away.

That left Kris and Noelle alone to just… process that, for a moment.

“She really cares about him, huh?” Noelle said after a little bit.

They nodded. “Definitely.”

It was time to put on a show. Kris offered their hand, and said, “shall we?”

She took their hand, and the two walked through the door.

~ ~ ~

They walked back stage, each into their respective changing rooms. Darkness shifted, and without any effort at all, Kris was in their rock star outfit.

Exiting the changing room, they went to the room below the stage. They could hear the crowd already. Ralsei was already there, standing at Susie’s usual spot,

Noelle was still in her changing room, so the two just idled. Ralsei attempted to get used to the weight of drum sticks, while Kris just stretched.

After a few moments, Noelle joined them.

She looked…

Wow.

Kris was speechless.

She looked amazing.

…She also kinda looked like she raided her sister’s closet.

Black leather jacket, white tanktop, a plaid skirt, various chain like accessories, and a black choker. She also had dark makeup on, similar to how she looked in that one picture she kept under her bed.

Kris had thought it when they looked at that photo, but she really pulled off mascara.

She really pulled off all of it.

Frankly, the only part’s of Noelle’s own style that remained was the skirt, they’re pretty sure Dess wouldn’t have been caught dead wearing one of those, and yet the entire outfit felt ‘Noelle’ in a way Kris couldn’t describe. This is what she would think is cool. This is what she would think a rock star would look like.

She walked over, and got into position.

They stared at the choker for a little too long.

They heard machinery, knocking them out of their stare. Kris, Ralsei, and Noelle felt the platform rise. Covered by dark, the three faced the stage.

They could see Noelle’s silhouette fidget out of the corner of their eyes.

The lights turned on, they hit a pose, and the crowd cheered.

Ralsei was just about used to this by now (if perhaps in a different spot), but they could see Noelle freeze.

Oh yeah. She gets stage fright. Not real bad, she’s given enough presentations to the class to be somewhat resistant to it, but she still wasn’t a fan of being in front of so many people. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea…

But then, before they could have second thoughts, she shook her head and looked determined.

With enough time spent standing around, the song started.

Kris’s guitar did the intro solo, until it was time for Ralsei’s drums and Noelle’s singing to join.

“When the demon heart is crying and the blood is gushing bright,”

They stumbled slightly when Noelle started singing.

She was good.

Kris was aware that Noelle was decent at singing. She’s gone a long way since she was a kid, when she was singing alongside Dess’s guitar with an incredibly pitchy voice.

But here? Hearing her hit notes with force she would never use in a church hymn? Their breath hitched.

Their girlfriend is so pretty…

The first verse ended, letting Kris and Ralsei play.

Then, the chorus hit, and…

“Come follow me into the dark with your heart as the ark which shall shine you the way.”

They… didn’t know she was that good.

Church hymns didn’t let her show off near enough. They thought she was good, they didn’t know she was amazing.

So amazing that they forgot they were playing guitar until it started making ‘missed note’ noises. They didn’t think they were getting T-Rank anyway, so it didn’t bother them, but they had to focus to make the song not sound bad. Couldn’t bring the others down!

It was very hard to focus when Noelle looked right at them as she continued to sing.

“Because I’m with you in the dark with your heart as my mark which shall guide you the way, through the waves~”

The chorus repeated, Noelle continued singing and Kris picked a random spot in the audience to focus on so they could play without missing every other note.

Why did she look at them like that???

Probably to fluster them. Which was working! Their heart was beating out of their chest…

Their heart was her mark… Oh, they could feel the butterflies in their stomach.

A confident Noelle was scary…

They think they understood her a little better. They think they understand why she likes scary things so much now a little better now. This little fear that bubbled in them felt pretty good all things considered.

They were woefully unprepared for the guitar solo that followed the chorus, so they just tried to do their best.

Still attempting to find somewhere to look, their eyes landed on Susie. Aw, Lancer was on her shoulder. That was kinda cute.

The vocals started back up again, but since it wasn’t like the chorus, the rest of the song passed without issue. Even though Noelle's voice really was beautiful.

They all hit their respective final notes, and the song ended.

The crowd cheered, and they all hit a pose!

A bright light flashed, and then the platform began to lower again. It was time to go back to the changing rooms.

~ ~ ~

“That was so much fun!” Noelle said once they were backstage. A little room between rooms that connected the front and the dressing rooms. But for now, they just took five.

“You did great.” Ralsei said. “You’re very good at singing, Noelle.”

“Ditto.”

“Aw, thank you. Honestly, I was a little terrified at first. I have a little bit of stage fright. Then I realized that I was afraid of… playing cards… So I just sang.”

“You were great.” Kris said. “I think I’m gonna have to listen to you sing more.”

Noelle turned her head away in embarrassment. “A-Any time…”

After a few moments, Noelle turned back towards Kris. She had a confused expression.

“Something wrong?”

“Did you get… taller somehow?”

Oh yeah. Their rockstar outfit gave them heels. They kinda forgot. Now that they realized, it was kinda weird to be almost eye level with Noelle.

“Yep. Grew three inches in the time it took to perform that song.” They said.

Noelle sighed. “Okay, well now I can tell you’re wearing heels.”

Kris just smiled at her.

A door opened, and Susie walked backstage with a smile.

“You guys did great.” Susie said. “Also,” she walked over and grabbed Ralsei into a headlock and noogied him mercilessly, “you’re such a nerd!”

“What? Susie no, why?”

“That was completely different from normal! I doubt that Noelle would come up with that on the spot, so you changed the lyrics!”

Noelle looked at them, lost. Ralsei was too busy laughing and Susie was too busy noogying to explain, so it fell to Kris.

“Ralsei changes the lyrics whenever he has to sing that song.” Kris explained to Noelle. “He’s great at it, because he sings with a straight face ‘when the mom is kiss goodnight.’”

Noelle brought a mouth to her hand to suppress a laugh.

“I thought that was Tenna giving you awful lyrics, I didn’t think that came from the heart.” Susie laughed. “Oh, I'm Ralsei, I’m afraid of the word blood!”

Eventually she ended the noogie. She didn’t actually let go of Ralsei until a bit later, though.

Noelle got right next to Kris and whispered, “are they…?”

“No idea.” They mumbled back.

Susie grabbing Ralsei by the collar and yelling, you’re real to me! Was something they thought about sometimes. So… maybe?

But honestly, they’re pretty sure romance would kill both of them for separate reasons. They would explode. And then Kris would be sad because their friends exploded.

Pretty much the entire reason Kris and Noelle got together was because Susie had pretty plainly told both of them that she didn’t like them that way, and that she wasn’t ready for romance.

Well, it wasn’t the only reason, but if Susie hadn’t plainly suggested it, they don’t think either of them would ever think that the other had feelings for them.

When Kris said that the festival went by without issue, they meant that there wasn’t a Dark World incident. Messy teenage interpersonal issues? Yeah… they had those in spades.

Though Ralsei wasn’t there for any of it, he was definitely one of the unseen driving forces between the jealousy that erupted between the Lighteners.

Noelle was jealous of Susie’s mystery friend she kept bringing up and of Kris’s closeness to Susie, Kris was jealous that Susie was the one Noelle’s attention was on and that Susie was able to go through this without the weight of the world on her back, and Susie was jealous of Kris and Noelle’s mutual deep history.

That last one was a shock to learn, because Kris didn’t think they had anything worth jealousy to begin with.

It was… a bit of a mess. They all leveled with each other, and through Kris talking more than compared to their entire previous year of being alive, they all kinda figured out how they felt for each other.

Noelle learned that Susie didn’t like her like that, but also didn’t like Kris like that, either. It wasn't anything personal, Susie just felt like she wasn’t ready for a commitment like that.

Kris was able to admit that they didn’t really know how to be around Noelle anymore. They stayed away not because they didn’t like her, but because it was just less painful.

Susie was able to be reassured that even if they weren’t friends until recently, they were friends now. She was friends with Kris, and now that they got all of… whatever that was, out of the way, she was also friends with Noelle. For real.

Susie figured out stuff for all of them, honestly. Part of those discussions was Noelle actually confessing to Susie and telling her why she liked her, and Susie, with her ‘infinite tact’, responded, dude it kinda sounds like you want Kris, not me. And that. Changed things.

Both Noelle and Kris were completely and utterly unprepared for that. Because they didn’t like each other like that, right? Right?

Kris didn’t like her like that, Noelle told herself.

Noelle didn’t like them like that, Kris told themself.

Well. As it turns out. They were both wrong.

Everything settled itself out remarkably fast, and now they were all still friends and Kris got a girlfriend out of it.

They weren’t able to talk about any of their more… conspiracy related stuff, they don’t think they can ever breach that until it was too late, but for now, everything was okay.

Things were still okay, even as Susie and Ralsei shared a look that was very hard to call platonic. It was impossible to call it anything but loving, truthfully.

Even if Susie forcing the issue was what worked for Kris and Noelle, they weren’t going to force anything. Neither of them seemed ready, and that was okay.

…Then again if the two of them weren’t so dense, there would be no need for forcing in the first place.

Maybe it’s naive, but maybe they could force the issue after the prophecy was concluded. Maybe.

Depending on how that goes.

“Anyways,” Susie said, “I got the photo guy to take a picture.” Susie said, procuring a photograph. “Can’t bring it to the Light World, but I figure we can like put it in Kris or Ralsei’s room or something.”

It was of Ralsei, Kris, and Noelle hitting a pose on stage. And, just barely in frame at the bottom, was Susie, with Lancer on her shoulders, were both cheering.

“Aww, that’s a nice picture.” Noelle said.

Ralsei took the photo, and handed it to Kris. “I’ll have to get you a picture frame,” he said.

They really liked this picture.

But, they think they would like it more if Ralsei had it.

~ ~ ~

Later, after everyone else had gone home (getting a hug goodbye from Noelle was still surreal), Kris went back to the Dark World.

They had to do a lot of convincing to get Ralsei to keep the photo. In the end, it didn’t work. So instead, they physically went and hung up the picture frame on Ralsei wall.

With his rejections getting less and less frequent, the fight had left him. He stopped trying to refute and instead just watched them. They found a blank spot on the wall (not a difficult endeavor, the entire wall was blank,) and stuck it on.

His room was still kinda a trainwreck. A bunch of mishmashed objects, a cushion, trash can, ladder, and various scarves, but the picture was a pretty normal decoration. At this point it was almost livable.

Not quite, but almost.

Maybe instead of getting him to build Noelle a room, they could get him to make himself a bed.

But, for now, the photo rested on his wall. A lodestar in his otherwise lost room.