Chapter Text
When Pure Vanila Cookie awoke this morning, he felt really weird.
It was the sort of feeling you get when you're on a rollercoaster ride and it feels like your guts slide up into your throat. Moreover, it felt like the cold was seeping into his veins. He recognized that feeling from somewhere... somewhere he hoped he'd never have to return to ever again. That realisation made him open his eyes and sat up. Judging by the protesting ache his shoulder made, he had been laying on the plain floor.
When he looked around, he noticed that it was really dark around him, which was weird, considering his room in the Vanilla Kingdom was never completely dark. There was always at least one sliver of moonlight shining through the window or a lamplight shining through underneath his door. Pure Vanilla sat up carefully and stretched out his arms to feel if there were any walls around him.
In situations like these, the most important thing was to keep calm. That was at least what Dark Cacao Cookie always said. After a minute of mindless tapping around, he finally seemed to have found a solid surface, judging by the height probably a table, and an item on it. He felt along the object on the table and noticed a rope, which he pulled on. He couldn't believe his luck when the object turned out to be a lamp and the light turned on.
This luck was short-lived, however, as it abruptly ended when he realized that his suspiciouns on where he was were true. The black, everchanging walls that seemed like they had a mind of their own, the wacky furniture that was always just a tick too weird to be real and the everpresent hue of blue- this was undeniably Shadow Milk Cookie's Other Realm... but how had Pure Vanilla ended up here?
Had he not defeated Shadow Milk Cookie just a few months back? Or was he maybe still dreaming and the jester was playing tricks with his mind? Or... Pure Vanilla didn't even want to think of this possibility, but had Shadow Milk actually found a way to bring him back into his spire?
Pure Vanilla quickly grabbed his Souljam out of instinct and instantly recoiled. Instead of its usual warmth, the Souljam was cold as ice- even compared to his environment. Pure Vanilla brought his blue hands up to his mouth to warm them up, and- wait a second. His BLUE hands?!
He held them up to his face to further inspect them and rubbed his eyes. But now matter how often he blinked, they remained blue, with almost entirely black fingertips and claws. "How is this possible?" He quietly asked himself, flinching as his voice didnt sound like himself at all. He knew who these hands belonged to- or at least, who they should belong to. Frantic, he looked around for a mirror and instantly found one hanging on another wall. (As to be expected, after all, this was still Shadow Milk's home). When he stood in front of it, he audibly gasped.
Standing across from Pure Vanilla, a shocked expression that didn't quite fit him on his face, was Shadow Milk Cookie in full jester uniform, only missing his hat and staff. Pure Vanilla took a few stumbling steps back and un-elegantly landed on a chair.
He kept staring at his image in the mirror, not exactly knowing what he expected. At this rate, he wouldn't have been too surprised if he grew a second head or transformed into a purple bean. When none of these things happened even after a few minutes, he decided that sitting around wouldn't do anything good and stood up to pace around the room and think about what could have possibly caused this... incident.
He quickly discarded the possibility that this was a dream or a hallucination brought to him by Shadow Milk. After his awakening, his capability of telling lies and truth apart had improved strongly, and even though the air around him was almost packed with lies, his current.... situation felt very much real. Admittedly, he would've very much preffered a lie in this case. Now, something else also made sense: his vision was way better than usual, especially in his left eye. It seemed like being Shadow Milk at least had one good side to it.
As he just decided that it would be best to try to recall the events of the day before to find out what might have caused all of this he suddenly heard steps and voices outside of the door slowly approaching. As they came nearer, he could make out a man and a girl arguing.
"And i tell you, Sapphy, there was DEFINITELY some kind of affair behind that! That fairy's son didn't look like her AT ALL! "
The male voice huffed and replied: "I suspect that it was her husbands cousin. He seems like the type." They seemed to have stopped in front of the room Pure Vanilla was in.
Candy Apple Cookie, who Pure Vanilla assumed to be the first voice answered: "Pfft, him? He's almost more naive than that halfbaked MORON Prude Vinegar Cookie!"
Black Sapphire Cookie replied, deadpan:"Than whom?"
"Ugh, you know who i mean. The oh-so-holy narcissist?"
"I know a lot of people who fit that description."
"The one who took away my dearest Shadow Milk's attention from me?"
"No idea". Pure Vanilla could hear the smirk in his voice and knew that he probably did, in fact, know who Candy Apple was talking about.
"ARE YOU REALLY THIS DENSE? IM TALKING ABOUT THE FOOL WHO STOLE HALF OF MASTERS SOUL JAM!!"
Black Sapphire, collected as ever, replied with a slight chuckle to his voice:"Ahh... you mean Pure Vanilla Cookie?" Candy Apple made a puking noise and seemed to shove him, based on the sounds that were heard, and then grumbled: "I dont need to know his name anyways. Hes unimportant."
Black Sapphire sighed. "On the topic of master, shouldn't we go check on him? I haven't seen him today."
"I will do it! To Pure Vanillas shock, he heard the door to his room be opened from outside...