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Well, this was a predicament.
After Kris’ classmate had sent Ralsei and his friends tumbling down into the dingy backstreets of Cyber City, the young prince physically felt how much he’d been thrown off course.
At least he could still see the fountain… Well, at least he could behind the sickly glow of neon lights. And more importantly, Kris and Susie looked fine. The latter’s injuries had cleared up just fine and the former appeared to be at peace for once. That’s all that mattered.
Though, as the trio turned the corner, Ralsei came to a realization based on their road ahead.
“There’s a fork in the path…” The young prince sighed, “Kris, it seems like… it might be advantageous if we split up. Who do you want to go with?”
Kris’ head tilted to the side. They thought for a couple of moments:
♥︎ Go with Ralsei | Go with Susie
“Hey, why does Kris get to choose all the time?!”
With a slight scoff, Susie grabbed Kris’ arm and jolted them forward. “Too bad, bozo. You’re coming with me!!”
“Ah- Susie…?” Despite feeling a little saddened, Ralsei couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, “Are you sure Kris is fine with that?”
“I’m fine,” Kris confirmed- a slight smile on their face. “Will you be okay?”
“Y-yes! Kris, you know you don’t need to worry about me!”
The human frowned, but nodded in response, “We’ll meet up as soon as we can. Okay?”
“Okay…!”
“Cya soon, Ralsei!”
The prince waved his two friends off, watching as a flashing line of cones took their place, blocking the path completely. He lingered a little longer, before turning the corner and heading to his right. As he did, Ralsei was greeted by a chaotic mix of different coloured signs. “WELCOME TO THE CITY” was spelt out across the largest one.
Well. At least he knew he was headed in the right direction.
He pushed forward a little more until he reached… some kind of a road, complete with an informational panel and some kind of a sign with a button.
--“Welcome to Cyber City!”--
--“Pedestrians need to press the switch to cross traffic!”--
Ah. The button stopped the traffic flow? That made sense. The prince waited for a spare moment, before pressing down the button. Immediately, all traffic halted; causing the sign to begin counting down.
Ralsei crossed- immediately being met with the same sight at the next crossroads. Though… this time, the cars seemed to begin to walk?
Gulping, Ralsei ducked and dodged his way around the moving traffic. He kept his footing all the way, though it seemed like he wasn’t alone in struggling. Beside one of the cat signs, a blonde-haired figure was struggling to catch her breath.
“Erm… excuse m—”
But the figure pressed on before Ralsei could finish. Resigned, Ralsei followed right on- reaching a closed-off section of road. Two tall, bird-like figures appeared to be sweeping down the very area. Ralsei felt his eyes linger a bit, but ultimately decided not to ask.
Especially given the area seemed to be warping in front of him.
The next area was completely empty, save for some glitching walls and some stray trash cans. Though, that figure was back. Ralsei ran forth, before getting tripped up by a raised floor. Two creatures- bright cyan with a shining red stop sign on their head, lined up in front of Ralsei.
It’d been so long since he’d done a battle on his own. Looking upon his newly found R-Action, he reached out his hand to begin clicking on the Poppups. One link almost instantly popped up. "lightners 4 darkners in ur area"
“Eep–!!”
Ralsei scrambled to close the ad from the shortcut, though was a little put off by how eerily quiet everything suddenly became.
Did he just… get rid of the whole internet? Ah, no- the attacks that followed made it clear that wasn’t the case. He clicked through a few more ads, finally being able to recruit the two creatures.
Now to press forward. And luckily for Ralsei, the figure had appeared to have stopped only a few meters away from him.
“Excuse me, Miss…?”
“AH-!”
The figure spun around, eyes wide. Of course… it was Kris and Susie’s classmate- the deer girl he’d met on the rollercoaster.
“Oh…! It’s y–”
“Oh Noelle Sweetie?”
Ah. So Queen was already here. The deer girl shot Ralsei a scared look before scrambling into the shadows. “Don’t let her find me, please!”
Ralsei nodded, stepping a little way’s in front of the opening as Queen came into view. “Noelle Sweetie Darling Honey Where Are You? We’re A Team Now Remember?”
“Um…” Ralsei gave the laptop a polite wave, “Apologies Queen, but I haven’t seen her here…”
“Oh Damn”
Queen looked over awkwardly. “It’s Uh. You. Fluffy Boy”
“Fluffy Boy?”
“Yeah That’s Your Name Right”
“Not… exactly?”
“Oh. LMAO. Well I'm Gonna Autocorrect It To That Anyway”
Queen chuckled a bit, before sighing. “Anyway Fluffy Boy. It Appears Our Comrades Have Alt Tabbed Out On Us. So… It Appears We Are Going To Need To Truc—”
“Oh Queen!! My splendid Queen!! Where are you?”
“Oh $!$ It’s Burghley. Fluffy Boy Don’t Let Him Find Me.”
Queen sprung up on top of where Noelle was hiding, drawing a very faint “Eep!” out of the deer.
“Ah… you.”
Berdly- the aforementioned classmate, sauntered into view, expression dropping a bit upon seeing Ralsei. “Not the lifeform I was anticipating, nor the one I was looking for.”
“Um… my apologies?”
“I see you’ve abandoned the rest of the C+ Squad, though! HA, and I can hardly blame you!”
“Abandoned—?!” Ralsei’s voice rose, clearly distressed by the thought. “No, we’re just exploring different areas… we’ve got to try to find and seal the fountain as soon as we ca—”
“Yes, yes. You can cut the dialogue now, Goat Boy.” Berdly muttered. “Now, where the heck are Noelle and Queen?”
“Have you checked—”
“They’re probably just… retro gaming somewhere! Ah, I can see it now... groovy tunes bouncing off the walls... a fresh Gamer's Delight on the side... Hah, HAHA!”
The bluebird laughed for a while, gripping the side of the wall as Ralsei stood by awkwardly. Eventually, the former stopped and sighed.
“So… it appears we’ve come to this, Goat Boy.”
“...can I get a name other than Goat Boy—”
“IN ORDER FOR US TO PROGRESS THIS QUEST, it appears we must form an uneasy truce—”
“What The— Who The Beep Said You Could Double Trucies?”
“Uh… what was that?”
“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Honk Honk Nothing Burghley It’s Just The Sounds Of The City.”
“Oh okay.” That’s all it took for Berdly to turn around and head back the way he came. After confirming he was out of earshot, Queen sprung back out from where she was hiding.
“Fluffy Boy As Part Of: The Better And Very Much Birdless Truce… Keep Distracting Berdly And Find Noelle.
“I’ll try!”
“Thanks Bro. As Long As You Keep Berdly’s Longass Beak Out Of Things I’ll Consider That Enough. Cause You See… Berdly Is…”
Queen paused, seemingly in profound thought before suddenly breaking into laughter.
“LMAO There’s Nothing Wrong With Him He’s Just Really Damn Weird. Toodles.”
And with that, Queen took off too. Noelle waited for a couple of minutes before finally emerging herself.
“Um… I’m sorry, I don’t actually know your name?”
“I’m Ralsei! It’s very nice to meet you personally, Noelle!”
“It is!! So… uh… Ralsei, got room for another truce?”
“Of course~!” Ralsei was never the type to break a promise, but something told him he didn’t exactly want to truce with Queen and Berdly. So the idea of working with Noelle sounded perfect. The deer smiled at the confirmation.
“Great…! I mean, I’d rather take my chances with you than her!”
“I get it… well, should we start exploring?”
“Yes, let’s!” Noelle smiled, before pausing. “Uh… but where do we go?”
“I’m… not sure.”
“You’re not?!”
After hearing the words escape her, Noelle covered her mouth, “Gosh, sorry, sorry! I… um… I just assumed you were from around here? I-I mean, I’ve never seen you with Susie or Kris before!”
“Ah…” Ralsei chuckled a bit, “It’s okay, I’m not offended!”
“Phew…” Noelle sighed, “We wouldn't be getting off to a very good start as truce-mates if I’d upset you that easily.”
“Noelle, I promise there’s no way you’d be able to upset me!” The doe raised an eyebrow, but the prince’s smile didn’t falter. “Um… let’s go this way!”
Ralsei pointed to the very same path that Queen and Berdly had gone down, revealing… some sort of a puzzle room. As if on instinct, Ralsei went up to the info panel, reading it aloud.
“Mice will rotate 90 degrees when they collide with the block. Citizens must push blocks to get the mice into the hole. Press the bell to reset. Though, what’s stopping us from just… walking right through?”
Ralsei attempted to proceed- Noelle followed along anxiously. Though, as Ralsei stepped onto some sort of tile, a loud “SQUEAK!” rung out behind them. The pair turned around, and…
“A M-m-m-m-m….MOUSE?!”
Indeed, a train of mice appeared from inside the hole, knocking Noelle over to the other side of the alley. Ralsei immediately shot around, stunned.
“NOELLE? Stay there, okay? I… think I can do this?”
As if to add insult to injury, “Annoying Mouse Room” appeared beneath them in bright pink letters. But after a bit of trial and error (and a few screams from Noelle that didn’t manage to alert Queen by some miracle), the pair were able to move forward to safety.
…or, so they thought.
“R-Ralsei?! What the heck is that thing?”
“Ah, this is… oh, goodness, where on earth did I put my pocket manual?”
The Virovirokun that caught them seemed to get cold feet upon seeing the two of them struggle, slurring out a sigh. “Oh, boy. Is this your first time in a battle?”
“Aha, yeah…”
“Oh boy… okay, listen. If you look at your menu...”
- - -
“I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of this…”
“Your magic really is impressive, Noelle!” Ralsei praised, “Especially for a novice! I mean… even though we both have PACIFY spells, there’s something quite beautiful behind your Ice Spells…”
“Your spells are beautiful too…!” Noelle replied, before letting out a small chuckle. “I mean… Can a spell be beautiful?”
“Well…” Ralsei thought for a second, “I think anything can be beautiful if you really think about it!”
“Really…?”
“Yeah…! No matter how insignificant or… well… unusual, I think there’s something beautiful to be found in everything…”
“...and the more unusual or even nasty the thing is, the more you’re drawn to finding the beauty or positivity in it?”
“Yeah, exactly!” Ralsei nodded, then paused. “Um… Noelle? You’re looking a little red—”
“HEYHAHAMAYBEWESHOULDTALKTOTHEGUYOVERTHERE”
Desperately trying (and failing) to hide her flusteredness, Noelle pointed at an idle Addison in the doorway. The pair had been mostly avoiding them during their travels thus far, but desperate times called for desperate measures. And Angel be damned, there was no way Noelle was going to expose herself so early on into her comradery with the other.
…at least this early on.
Regardless, she began heading over with Ralsei in tow. The Addison immediately perked up, giving them a bow.
“Ah~ now what do we have here? Two young beings together? And on a school night, no less—”
“A school night–?!” Ralsei muttered. Well. He was going to have to make a mental note of that when he met up with Kris and Susie again. The Addison, clearly upset at being cut off, gave the prince a side-eye before continuing.
“As I was about to say. Could I interest you little lovebirds in some brand new dating shoes?”
“W-WHAT?!”
“Huh…?! No, no, you’ve got it all wrong! Ralsei and I are just… well… teammates!”
“Hmmmm~? Then what’s with that red face, angel?” The Addison lent forward, face morphing into a smirk, “You’ve got one too, fluffy one. I know love when I see it!”
“Nonono, we’re friends! Friends!” Ralsei spluttered, waving his hands around. Though she seemed a little shocked, Noelle nodded. “Yeah! And even then, neither of us would have any need for some dating shoes!”
“Well excuse a man for asking, I guess!”
“THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT! YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE!”
“Fine. Suit yourself. Ta, ta.”
The pair didn’t need to be told twice, quickly scrambling out of view. Ralsei was about to head to the next street over, but Noelle seemed to be entranced by a certain advertisement in the area.
A billboard all decked out in lights, with a ferris wheel square in the center.
“I… wonder if Susie would want to ride with—”
“Is something wrong, Noelle?”
“AH- Ralsei?! Don’t scare me like that!” Noelle yelped, then quickly cleared her throat. “Uh… the Ferris Wheel looks beautiful, right?”
“It does…”
The pair spent a few moments in silence, before Ralsei burst right through the ice. “You said something about taking Susie, right?”
Fuck.
“W-well…”
“It’s okay, I won’t judge!” The prince reassured, “Susie is a wonderful person, so I can’t blame you for wanting to spend time with her!”
“You think she’s wonderful…?”
“Yes? Don’t you?”
“Of course, of course!! She’s just… so… her, if that makes sense?” The pink in Noelle’s cheeks grew a little brighter, before her face fell a bit. “It’s just… rare… to hear anyone speak positively of her?”
“Really…?”
The deer nodded, sighing, “People are rather scared of her. And because of that… she has a bit of a reputation for being scary. And even if people aren’t scared of her… I guess they use it as an excuse to treat her poorly?”
Frankly, Ralsei was mortified. He knew lightners had the capacity to be cruel and neglectful- hell, it was a given to serve them without any expectation for care in return.
But the thought of that callousness being turned onto one of his dear friends? It just didn’t sit right with him.
But that was a conversation to have with Susie when they met up again. Ralsei turned his attention back to Noelle, who was chuckling sadly.
“Still, who am I kidding? My thoughts about her aside, there’s no way she’d want to ride with me…”
“Why do you say that?”
“I… well…”
The question caught Noelle off guard. She thought for a second. Two… three… four…”
“...cause she’d think it’s silly?”
“True…” Ralsei hummed, “But sometimes, it’s the silliest of things that Susie cares about. Sure, she may call your glasses dorky… or complain that you can teach her healing magic over bone-crushing magic…”
“Those actually happened—?”
“Or pretend not to care unless cake is on the table… but she cares about it all the same.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Ralsei affirmed, “And either way, you’re a very kind person, Noelle. And Susie certainly cares about you from what I’ve heard her say about you! She’s real gung-ho about saving you, you know?”
“S…s-she is?!” Ralsei nodded again, causing the other to freeze like a (literal) deer in the headlights. After she recovered from the brief heart attack, Noelle gave the prince a warm smile. “You’re really sweet, Ralsei.”
“Awww, as are you!”
Ralsei gave their comrade a wide smile, before a thought hit him that made their cheeks turn red.
“...I wonder if Kris would want to ride with me, as well?”
“You? Want to ride with Kris?!” Noelle laughed, “I hope you like being shaken around in your seat, Ralsei! Because I promise you, it will happen!”
“I mean…! If it lets them have fun…”
“RALSEI?!”
The pair stood there for a little longer, laughing and exchanging words about their two dear friends. It was a bit of an aimless detour compared to what the prince was used to, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t having fun.
Noelle… She really was good company. He could see why Susie cared so much about ensuring her safety. And he sure as heck wasn’t going to let her down.
After all, he had to make sure the four of them could have that Ferris Wheel ride as soon as they could.
…or at least, before he couldn’t.