Chapter Text
"You're staying?" D3rlord3- or rather Derek says, inching closer towards Avery. The slime equivalent of sweat starting to bead on his forehead. Avery slowly moves back, making sure there's still ground under him as he goes. "Yes." He says. He's determined to find a different solution to the problem Derek clearly has, yet he continues to try and push Avery away. But not this time, he hopes..
"You won't leave?" Derek says. He's stepping even closer to Avery now. Avery is already starting to piece together what's probably going to happen. No! He can't let that happen! This time he'll be there for Derek. And he's going to make sure it makes up for all the other times he wasn't there to help Derek. "No." Avery states matter-of-factly, inching even closer to the back. Until..
..!
Yep. That's definitely the edge... can't go any further now... Avery nervously looks at Derek, seeing how the little wings on his head twitch, probably due to some emotion Avery isn't sure about. The air seems to go colder around them, it makes Avery shudder. The slime takes a peek behind himself and freezes. Voids don't look like that, do they.?
"Avery, what's in your-" Derek starts, before he gets cut off by a frantic Avery. "D3rlord3, wait!!! something isn't right with the void. This isn't normal, I don't play survival worlds enough to trust my instinct alone so can you PLEASE tell me if I'm crazy or not?!" He quickly says.
After a moment, Derek lets out a heavy sigh. The little wings on the sides of his head twitch suspiciously. "Step aside." He's suspicious, extremely so. The king's domain is a weird place so Avery could definitely be correct in the void looking a bit strange, maybe like. Yellow or something since the King seems to like that color so much. Avery carefully shuffles to the side, being careful not to stumble backwards.
"Wait, grab my hand. The floor feels like it's gonna crumble at any second on the edge.." Avery says, holding out his hand. His cheeks heat up a little, but he looks away. "Just to be safe." He says. Avery knows he's developed some kind of attachment to the man beside him right now. Will he admit that out loud? Hell no. But he needs to focus right now.
Derek slowly takes Avery's hand and starts to move closer to the edge. Moving in tiny steps he slowly looks into the void. Yeah something isn't right. Voids are supposed to be.. I dunno, void colored? Either way, something definitely isn't right. Even for the King's domain, this doesn't seem intentional. The void is partially fine, but in the middle of it there's a giant multicolored vortex type thing..
"Okay, yeah. That's definitely not supposed to look like that.." Derek says while shuffling back slowly and letting go of Avery's hand. Just then, the edges of the platform start to crumble. "Hey! what the hell!?" Derek says, jumping back, grabbing Avery's wrist and pulling him towards himself. Causing Avery's cheeks to heat up even more.
"What the hell is happening!?" Avery exclaims. The platform is crumbling all around the edges now. More and more. "I don't know! The king isn't fully gone yet, this isn't supposed to happen!" Derek replies, frantically looking around. He has never been more annoying about not knowing anything about this place despite having infinite knowledge..
"WE'RE TOO YOUNG TO DIE!!!!!" Avery suddenly yells while hugging Derek tightly, catching him off guard a little. The ground crumbles beneath them. Slowly, the platform gets smaller and smaller around them. Until it's just them and a tiny platform that looks like its about to fall. Avery looks at Derek. A look that says 'I have a kind of stupid idea.' Derek sighs. "What's your idea?" He says.
Avery flashes a mischievous grin before saying "Let's jump down. This place is starting to give me a headache and whatever's in there surely can't be much worse than what either of have gone through." Another piece of the already small platform breaks off, causing it to become even smaller. Derek sighs before saying "See you on the other side then, I guess." While grabbing Avery's hand.
"Really? That's your final choice of words before we jump into a goddamn VORTEX? I expected more from the guy 'with infinite knowledge'." Avery says, trying to look disappointed at Derek. "Oh really? What would YOU have said then, smart guy?" Derek replies, giving Avery a look. A look that says 'Don't even *start*.' But, the slime doesn't seem to get the hint...
"Anything cooler than whatever you said." Avery says, grinning. Just then, another platform piece breaks off under him causing him to shriek and hug Derek's arm. "Let's just go before this whole thing breaks or something..." Avery says while burying his face into Derek's shoulder.
"Agreed. Not knowing anything about what's happening is starting to give me the creeps." Derek replies, his wings twitching a little due to the sudden cold air. He's confused about Avery's sudden clingyness, but not exactly complaining either. Avery is a warm and comforting presence despite having ice-cold skin as a slime. The absurdity of the last few hours make Derek's wings twitch with curiosity of what the slime could be thinking about now.
The two stand there for a bit, Avery having his head buried into Derek's shoulder. Derek looks over towards Avery and says "Let's get moving." And tries to pry Avery off of him. "Noooo you're comfortableeee" Avery whines while hugging Derek's arm even tighter.
Derek sighs and dramatically puts his free hand over his face. "Oh whatever will I do now!" He exclaims. Avery giggles in response to that and nuzzles Derek's shoulder armor piece. Avery isn't sure where he got the sudden confidence to do this from, but it certainly seems to be somewhat working??? Good thing Derek hasn't jumped off with Avery attached to him yet.. but it probably won't take long.
However, Avery is then quite surprised and caught off guard as Derek uses his free arm to.. sweep Avery off of his feet to carry him bridal style?????? Derek grins at the very shocked slime in his arms before starting to speak. "Well, my *prince*, we simply must get on with the jo-" "WHAT. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT????" Avery exclaims while his cheeks turn a very bright shade of green, cutting Derek off mid-sentence. He called Avery WHAT now?!?! **HIS** PRINCE???? For some reason, this triggered the slime's fight or flight instincts and well, he can't exactly *run* right now, can he?
Just as Derek is about to say something to Avery again, two hands suddenly wrap around his throat, startling him and causing him to stumble backwards. The last thing Derek hears before bright colors consume his and Avery's entire bodies fully is Avery calling out to him and apologizing. Classic Avery, Derek thinks.
[~><~]
"Okay, dude, I gotta ask this now before I forget again." Susie says to Kris, voice slightly muffled from talking with a mouth full of cotton candy. The two have been walking around the festival for about 20-ish minutes now, single-handedly slowly wiping out sans's ice cream stand supply. He had to cut them off of the chocolate like a couple of drunks..
Susie is trying do a dramatic pause, though the effect isn't exactly landing because the situation they're in right now is anything but dramatic. The two are standing near the ferris wheel. Susie had just finished the last bite of her 2nd cotton candy of the hour, a piece stuck to her hair from eating it too fast. Kris is holding a half-melted cone of Neapolitan, the closest thing to chocolate ice cream sans was willing to offer. There are about 10 mysterious stains on their sweater and only 7 can be identified as ice cream from earlier. Will either of them find out what the other stains are? Probably not.
After a really deep breath that Susie almost choked on because a piece of cotton candy in her hair almost got sucked into her nostrils that both made the situation feel somewhat more serious but also removed any last trace of seriousness. Just as Susie started to speak, it seemed like the air went cold around the two. "Do you... think the final prophecy has any chance of happening?" She says, voice dropping to almost a whisper so no one else would hear. She tries to lighten the mood with a small chuckle at the end, but it's clear that there is worry in her tone.
The cold morning air suddenly seems to freeze around them, as Kris slowly realizes they can freely answer Susie in their own voice. The sense of relief however, is short-lived as the human remembers Susie is still waiting for their answer. "I-I.. I dunno man... maybe, maybe not." Kris stammered, eyes looking everywhere but at Susie's face.
Suddenly, Susie grins wide and bursts into laughter while grabbing Kris's shoulders and shaking them. "Dude, obviously we're not gonna let it happen. Don't sweat it." Susie says, grinning. She doesn't even seem to have noticed how white Kris's face went for a second. Good. "Heh, yeah. Duh." The human replies.
"Oh, one more thing." Susie suddenly adds. "Is the sky supposed to look like that?" She asks, pointing up.
"No..Also, are those people... falling?" Kris questions.
"Hell if I know, let's find out!" Susie answers while starting to drag Kris towards where the mysterious people probably fell.