Chapter Text
It’s funny how quickly things can go south. You use to think you knew everything, by the time your story came to an end, you thought there was nothing left for you as you saw the sun rise for what you thought would be simultaneously your first and last time. A final resting place? You think that’s what they called it, though you never knew of anyone who died on the edge of a mountain or anyone who died outside of the underground, really. It was all you knew, and you were okay with that.
Despite not being able to place a confident enough guess on how long ago that was, you came to realize how wrong you were about things being over.
You weren’t familiar with this, any of this to be honest. It was only a few days ago you when were awoken from what you thought would be an eternal silence, only to then oscillate repeatedly between the recognizable and the completely unknown as you desperately tried to grasp what was even happening.
Things were different… but, not..? You wouldn’t even know where to start! So many familiar faces you came to know and love in completely uncharted territory, as if they were completely different people! Well, with how things have gone so far you wouldn’t be against tabling that as explanation for all of this. It was just… so jarring. Seeing all of them talk of things you know never happened, not remembering things you know happened and somehow, that wasn’t the most unpleasant revelation of your new circumstances.
A looming sentiment of being unwelcome emerged and exponentially grew as you took your first steps in this new world. Your own body rejected you. Though, now you know better than to call that body your own. It never belonged to you in the first place, they never belonged to you.
Through what you could only really explain as a sense of shame for having made that foolish assumption as well as a yearning for freedom from your cage, you decided to take your chances and escape from the grasps of your captor while you had the chance. You didn’t really feel like doing whatever a school ‘project’ was anyways.
With seemingly no plan and no where to go, you decided to retrace your steps to the small town’s church, you didn’t really want to run into anyone that might try to capture you like they had so you thought coming back after service would at least give you some time to think of an actual plan other than just running around like a headless chicken. Though it seemed fate had already decided its plans for you as you gazed upon the slightly ajar church doors, letting loose an impossibly dark smoke from the inside.
Another one, the fifth by now. As crazy as your experiences were before coming here, you don’t think anything could’ve prepared you for what they call ‘Dark Worlds’. It all just.. made no sense, really. Trying to wrap your head around it just confused you to no end as you traversed vastly different landscapes in hopes of supposedly saving the world. Or at least, that’s basically how he phrased it. You still think it’s kind of weird how similar he is to.. Asriel, despite not being a part of the Dreemurr family.
Whatever, those semantics and nuances had faded from your active attention as you contemplated what consequences entering the Dark World would give form to. Sure, it’d make a pretty good place to hide from them but, you had never been inside one without their company. You don’t know what would become of you if in the form you are now.. Yeah you could probably go back but.. the idea still made you nervous. The ability to mess with time never dulled your sense of not being able to stomach unpleasant experiences after all.
Before you could talk yourself down from doing this, you started feeling droplets accumulate on your surface. It started raining. Deciding you didn’t feel like staying out in the downpour, you floated over to the still open door before any witness could spot you, descending deeper into the unknown below.
And now here you are, curiously looking around the new environment you have found yourself in. Though, that isn’t the only surprise from this; you have a body now! Well, you did before but.. this is different. You were never really good with words but, if you had to describe it, this is what you… think you’d look like? If you weren’t a glowing red soul that is. Two arms, two legs, a torso with one head. Quite humanoid actually, but human isn’t really what you’d call yourself. Humans don’t have.. a pair of bright white wings after all, or don’t glow in general as far as you know. Your vaguely human-like shape and shoulder length hair is where the similarities between you and your previous vessel ends as you’re now so vividly glowing a bright red glow over an impossibly brighter white surface. It’s like you’re a walking flashlight with how much darkness around you you’re dispelling, and you’ve never had.. wings before. You don’t know if you can fly with them, but they’re pretty big! Bigger than your wingspan at least. That skeleton must have rubbed off on you because that one was pretty bad.
You don’t dwell on it for long though as you start trekking through this new land. It’s awfully eerie but it has an almost overwhelmingly grand feeling to it. Turning to one of the stained glasses on the wall of this long corridor, you can make out towers, bridges and other structures in the impossibly vast darkness beyond. It’s all so beautiful, the last Dark Worlds didn’t feel nearly as big except for maybe the city. Your thought was cut short as you heard a noise from further down the hall… a gasp. Turning your attention to what might be potential danger, the feathers of your wings bristled as you lock eyes with the source of the noise, pink eyes staring back.
“You- I- A-are you..” Ralsei stammers, knees moments away from succumbing to the nerves now violently plaguing his train of thought. “Oh dear.” he whispers, cowering ever so slightly to the comfort of his scarf, all the while not daring to take his eyes off the being he had just stumbled upon, you.