Work Text:
The familiar third floor. The familiar encouraging dialogue. The familiar path.
Actors you had spent countless moments with, yet whose names you could never seem to remember.
Once again, you pull the Fighter back, keeping the script from going wrong.
Encounter Sadness. Attack. Obtain a Star Crest. Use the Star Crest to clear the Tears. Keep moving forward.
You recite your lines as you walk down the familiar corridor before you.
Darkness. Frozen stillness.
You pass through the kitchen, but there are no piles of dishes stacked all the way to the ceiling. You don't pay much attention to it.
You turn the corner. You encounter the locked door, just as the script dictates. The Fighter ran into the door without looking; the child laughed at him.
You search for another way in. You enter through the leftmost bookshelf in the room. You open the book—
There is no key.
How strange.
You don't notice the changes in the actors' dialogue around you. You simply return to the locked door.
To your surprise, the door that should have been firmly locked is already open.
That isn't in the script.
A little nervousness creeps into you. You worry that this loop might become even worse because of the mistake in the script.
You quicken your pace.
You enter the room filled with hair -
No hair.
Where did the king's thick, blinding, and darkless hair go?
Your chest feels tight.
You realize you can't hear the actors anymore.
You realize the dialogue is gone.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
You start running.
Did they leave? Did they notice?
Have they already reached the King?
No, no, no, no! They're going to Die!
You need to reach the King's room faster. You need to get there before—
Before the King kills them...!
!!!
Something grabs hold of your wrist.
You struggle desperately to break free, but the force holding you only grows stronger, traveling upward into your chest and pinning all four of your limbs in place.
Fear washes over you.
You struggle harder.
Something went wrong. Something went wrong. Something went wrong.
The force wraps itself around you until you can't move at all. Your breathing grows shallow.
The corrupted dialogue murmurs indistinctly in your ears. You don't know what scene you're supposed to be acting anymore.
There is no familiar script.
No items in their assigned places.
No actors.
Where Are They?!
Loop.
A voice rises from somewhere inside your confused mind.
That's right.
The loop.
As long as there is a loop, everything can return to normal.
Your vision blurs and starts to go into darkness.
There is no Sadness.
No tears.
Nothing.
You can't loop...
You can't...
Loop.
……
Dagger.
Your breath catches.
Right. The dagger, that sharp blade which can effortlessly slice through the matted and gloomy body of Sadness.
It is now hanging on your waist. You can use the dagger.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
The dagger.
You struggle against the force holding you, trying to reach for the dagger at your waist beneath your cloak.
You're running out of time.
You don't want them to die.
You have to find them. You have to kill yourself before the King kills them, so you can enter the next loop, the one without the corrupted script and put everything back the way it was.
You have to hurry...!
Loop.
Loop.
Loop.
“Loop...”
“LOOP!!!”
Loop?
The voice inside your head gradually becomes clearer.
It is familiar.
But it isn't your voice.
It is...
“Loop, are you with me?”
That voice is...
Your struggles weaken.
You turn toward the source of the voice. Your rapid breathing and panic still blur your vision, but... you can make out the figure.
The owner of that voice has exactly the same face as you.
But they aren't wearing a cloak or a hat.
They are holding you tightly.
And somehow, you realize that they are the source of the mysterious force preventing you from moving forward.
They are stopping you from going any farther.
They don't want you to find the King.
They don't want you to...
They don't...
“Loop, take a deep breath with me. Please.”
Their chest rises and falls with each breath, pressed firmly against your back.
They are...
“In...and out...and in...out...”
Their words aren't part of the script.
And yet...
You look at them.
The world before your eyes gradually comes back into focus.
Your struggles slowly cease.
Your eyes remain fixed on the person in front of you.
And you remember...
They are...
You.
They are...
Stardust.
His expression is filled with fear.
Or perhaps worried.
When he sees you finally calm down, his arms around you gradually loosen.
You look around.
You're in the House.
But the layout isn't the same as the House you remember.
There is no King. (The King has already been defeated.)
There is no dialogue. (The loop has been broken.)
Not your loop.
Is your Stardust's.
There are no actors. (Your family was gone!!!)
And you are...
“Loop,” Stardust calls you again. You look at him.
That's right.
You are Loop.
Loop, here to help your Stardust with the loops. Easy to remember, right?
But you forgot.
And now, the helpful Loop is only causing someone trouble.
What a useless Loop.
You shakily exhale.
Putting your thoughts back in order, forcing yourself to return to reality, it all leaves you utterly exhausted.
Your broken body, which had been held together by nothing but adrenaline, suddenly loses every last bit of strength.
Your knees buckle and collapse.
Stardust cries out and quickly catches you.
“Sorry.” Those are the first words you manage after coming back to your senses.
Before this, you had been trapped in panic and struggle, acting without reason.
You apologize for everything you had done.
“I'm sorry.” You say it again, just to make sure he heard you.
“Don't say that. The most important thing is that you're okay.” You vaguely feel Stardust's voice trembling. It seems that what you just did really scared him. After a while, he spoke again, his tone filled with cautious probing. "Loop, you were sleepwalking. Did you remember?”
Oh.
That explains why the house around you was so different from the one in your memories.
Why you weren't in your bed, but standing in the hallway.
Why your “script” had gone wrong.
It all makes sense now.
You take a deep breath and lean your head against Stardust's chest. You shake your head, letting him know you didn't remember.
Stardust hums softly. After a few seconds of hesitation, he speaks again.
“If you're willing... could you tell me what you were dreaming about?”
You give an unhappy little huff.
He probably already knows some of it without having to ask, doesn't he?
Still, you answer. Satisfying Stardust's little curiosity isn't exactly difficult.
“I dreamed about my House. About fighting the King. I tried to keep the script going, but when I came to my senses, they were all gone.”
“They?” Stardust asks.
How funny.
He knows perfectly well who you mean.
You let out a cold little laugh, unsure whether you're laughing at their terrible memory or their stupidity.
“The Housemaid. The Fighter. The Researcher. And the Kid.” You hiss a reply and make Stardust falls silent.
You continue, “At first, I thought it was just a small mistake. But as they disappeared, I realized the script had already gone too far wrong. There was no fixing it.”
You give a bitter smile.
For a moment, you can almost see it again: the silence surrounding you when the script went wrong, the emptiness, the loneliness, the fear of being the only one left.
“By the time I realized, it was already too late. They were gone. I couldn't find them. I could never find them again...”
Your throat tightens.
You can feel tears gathering in your eyes.
You couldn't defeat Your King.
You had made them suffer alongside you.
That foolish blinding wish of yours wasn't merely the source of their suffering. It was the murderer of their very existence.
And you're still here.
It wasn't even you who broke the loop.
It was him. Your Stardust. He was the one who broke the loop.
In the end, you hadn't helped them at all.
Just like before.
All you could do was follow that blinding script.
And now, in a House that is no longer yours, what meaning is there in unconsciously searching for people who have already disappeared?
When will that Stupid blinding little head of yours finally understand reality?
You feel Stardust's arms tighten slightly around you.
His voice echoes softly beside your ear.
“They haven't disappeared. They've always been here,” As he speaks, Stardust's hand moves on your chest.
The little star there beats quietly, like a heartbeat, declaring that you are here, now.
“With you.” he says.
You swallow the sob that is about to escape. You press yourself tightly against Stardust and close your eyes. Tears slip silently down your cheeks.
Crying might make you look helpless. But perhaps this is the strongest protest you can make against an indifferent Universe.
You want to agree.
You want to believe what Stardust is saying, even if his words aren't all that convincing.
But...
Rather than chasing after things that have already disappeared. The script, the items, the actors...You think it might be better to focus on what is right in front of you.
Ah. You've gotten a little zoned out.
Stardust gently brushes your hair behind your ear.
How embarrassing.
You keep your bangs long precisely so other people can't see your expression.
You turn your face away.
Stardust seems to notice that you don't want to talk about it anymore. He shifts his position and picks you up.
You mutter a few quiet complaints in protest, insisting that you can walk by yourself.
But your body is completely exhausted.
You are caught in the embrace of Stardust's arms, like a sulky little cat.
Well...Whatever.
Stardust looks so happy with your reaction that maybe you can just let him carry you for now.
Stardust carries you back to the room your room... or perhaps it should be said to be your room and his room
You look over his shoulder at the place where you had been standing.
No Sadness.
No Star Crests.
No Darkless hair.
No Tears.
No Dagger.
NO Loop.
Your fingers curl slightly into Stardust's shoulder. You bury your face against the side of his neck and close your damp eyes.
The people and things of the past are long gone. Yet your body and your subconscious are still searching for them.
You don't know if this will happen again someday. Maybe it will happen countless times.
But somewhere deep down, you think you can believe that, each time, Stardust and the others will be able to call you back from those memories of the past.
The old script has already been torn to pieces.
You can't go back. You can't loop anymore.
All you can do for now is try to cherish what exists now.
Try to hold on to it. Try to write the story that is unfolding before you, using your own existence to witness time moving forward into the future.
Even if it's not for your sake...
Do it for Stardust.
After finishing, I realized that the plot of this fan fiction reminded me of @valictini's question post. This short story was partly inspired by that.
Their work is great too. Check it out!