Life's A Ferris Wheel

by CubeTime

Summary:

With the Knight weakened after the events in the church, Susie is left with far too much time on her hands, which means addressing the other issues plaguing her life. Like her strange relationship with the most amazing girl in class, the eerie troubles plaguing her best friend, and whatever the hell is going on between her glasses and the old TV that she's becoming dangerously fond of. In the end, it might all be far more interconnected than she expected.

Chapter 1: Roundabout

Notes:

Realistically, in the game, the festival will almost certainly be the site of a dark fountain, or at least of some critical lore. I choose to use it as set dressing for other conflicts instead. Take that, festival.

The morning of the festival was poetically perfect. The storm from the night before had given way to clear blue skies, peppered with occasional fluffy, white, rainless clouds. A soft breeze whispered through the town, perfectly curated to create the ideal weather, that temperature that was just warm enough to let you eat ice cream and get splashed with cold water without becoming uncomfortable. It was one of those days that felt ripped straight from another season, like the last dying gasps of summer before the leaves finally started falling. 

The cheerfulness of it all made Susie sick. It felt like the Earth itself was mocking her. Life goes on, the breeze seemed to whisper. She hated it. Hated that everyone else got to be happy when she knew what was coming. It was unreasonable, she knew. But she hated it. Hated stepping out onto the sidewalk and seeing people pass by, happily, when she couldn’t be. She had been so… excited for the festival. It felt embarrassing to admit now, when the true scale of what they were facing had been thrown at her. Did she even want to go anymore? 

But she had to, because she’d promised she’d tell Ralsei all about it. And she thought about Kris and Noelle, and getting to just… spend a day with her friends. No fighting demons, no vague prophecies, just her and the people whose company she actually enjoyed. Because as much as she enjoyed her adventures in the Dark World, as much as she wouldn’t trade Castle Town or the people there for the world, maybe… maybe just this once, she could afford to take a break. 

She could see the festival set-up in the distance, the ferris wheel poking up over the short buildings of the town. It wasn’t quite as big as the one she and Noelle had ridden in Cyber City, but she couldn’t exactly expect anything to live up to that. It was still a ferris wheel, right? One that maybe Noelle would want to ride with her. Purely platonically. As… friends? 

Were they friends? Her and Noelle? She liked to think they were, but she really wasn’t sure where they stood. They’d only really hung out once, and that hadn’t exactly ended in the best possible way. She’d probably completely fucked it up actually, any chance she’d had at actually being friends with Noelle for real. Noelle’s mom was a total asshole, but the more she thought about it, the more she felt the guilt creep in for antagonizing her. It hadn’t done anything except put Noelle in a worse position than she’d already been. It was just a mess. 

Susie shook her head, trying to pull herself together. She was trying to take a break today. Just spend the day with her Lightner friends and enjoy the festival. And then she could go to Castle Town with Kris, and they could tell Ralsei and Lancer about the festival. Maybe she could bring them some cotton candy or something. And with everyone out for the festival, she could also ask around and see if anyone wanted Tenna! Of course, it was up to Kris in the end, but she could at least help out. Narrow down the list. 

She crossed the street by the library, pointedly keeping her eyes away from the police station. Officer Undyne was tough. She’d be fine. Right? She gritted her teeth, suddenly feeling doubtful about the whole thing. Could she really afford to waste a day at the festival like this? When every second she spent in the Light World was time that the knight could be hurting Officer Undyne, or creating a new Dark World, or summoning new Titans. 

But she had promised Noelle she’d take her. She’d promised Kris they’d go. This whole thing was the fucking worst. Usually the Dark Worlds just showed up, so did it even matter? Did she just have to wait for the stupid Knight to make another move? 

Maybe she could ask Tenna about it all. After all, he’d worked a lot more closely with the Knight than the rulers of the other Dark Worlds had. So maybe he knew? But it wouldn’t be fair to ask him. He’d almost died, and now he was just… wasting away in Castle Town. She couldn’t just go interrogate him. 

The pavement beneath her feet gave way to gravel and she looked up to find herself face to face with Kris’s house. It, too, looked too cheerful. She wondered if Kris felt the same way, waking up to the sunlight streaming down onto their face. If they sat up in bed in a room that was too bright, trying to listen for the rain that should still be there. 

She reached up to knock, her fist pausing inches from the door. The image from the night before flashed, unbidden, through her mind. Toriel and that guy from the convenience store, just dancing and drinking like nothing was wrong. Like everything was somehow okay when it just wasn’t. It warped and twisted in her mind, Toriel with a mug of hot chocolate and Toriel with a glass of wine. It made her feel wrong, even though she knew she had no right to. Toriel wasn’t her mom. She barely knew her at all. 

Gritting her teeth to force the image back, Susie finally finished her action and knocked heavily on the door. After a moment, she heard shuffling behind it, then the click of the doorknob turning.

Toriel opened the door, looking a little tired but otherwise normal. Must’ve stayed up past her bedtime, Susie thought, with a bitterness that she knew was unwarranted but couldn’t fight back anyway. 

“Snoozy!” Toriel greeted brightly, and Susie still couldn’t muster the will to be irritated by the nickname, despite how overused it was obviously getting. 

“Hey,” she said gruffly. 

“Are you looking for Kris?” Toriel asked. 

“Y-yeah!” Susie confirmed quickly. “We were gonna go to the festival together.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” Toriel ushered her inside, closing the door behind her. “I’m so glad Kris has a friend like you, you know. Someone to go out and spend time with. They’ve been so reserved since Asriel left.”

“No problem?” Susie said awkwardly. Toriel kept giving her the same spiel, reworded but always the same sentiment. As if she was afraid that if she didn’t keep saying it, Susie would somehow just vanish from Kris’s life. Which was bullshit. As if she’d let something like that happen. 

“They’re still in their room. Fast asleep, I’d guess. They like to sleep in on the weekends,” Toriel said, laughing to herself slightly. “They’d sleep through the whole day if I let them!” 

“Haha. Yeah…” Susie grimaced, wracking her brain for some better responses. She kept being so weird. It wasn’t helping her case at all. 

“I can go wake them, if you’d like?” Toriel offered. “I’m sure they’ll be happy to see you!” 

“N-no!” Susie said, far too quickly. “No, that’s fine, I’ll just…” A floorboard creaked in the direction of the kitchen and Susie whirled around as if expecting to find an enemy had somehow made its way out of the Dark World and into the house. It was not, in fact, that.

“Ah, Kris!” Toriel greeted warmly. “Good morning!” She glanced up at the clock above the door, chuckling to herself. “Or should I say, good afternoon!” Kris didn’t respond, just remained standing where they were at the bottom of the stairs, watching the two of them from under their bangs. “Oh, Kris, did you see your friend Susie came to visit again?” 

“Hey, man,” Susie greeted. Kris’s mouth quirked up, just slightly, into a small smile, and they quietly returned her greeting. 

“Susie tells me you two will be attending the festival together!” Toriel continued. She stepped over to Kris, giving them a quick hug. “You be safe, alright? Make sure to stay together!”

“Like that’ll be hard,” Susie snorted. “Come on, Kris, let’s get out of here before we miss it!” Toriel laughed at that and released Kris. 

“You two have fun,” she told them. “I expect to hear all about your adventures when you return!” 

“Uh… yeah. Sure,” Susie said awkwardly. “Bye, Toriel.”

“Goodbye, Snoozy! Haha!” 

The moment the door clicked shut behind them, Kris’s shoulders slumped slightly in what seemed like relief. Susie bit her lip, glancing back at the house, where it sounded like Toriel had turned the gramophone back on. Thankfully, it wasn’t the same song as last night. Susie wasn’t sure she could stomach it. Even so, as they began walking back towards the town, she couldn’t help but notice that both of their paces were a bit quicker than normal. 

“Hey, wait!” she blurted, replaying the way Kris had left their house. “Did you even have breakfast or anything?” Kris shrugged uselessly. Susie rolled her eyes, digging into her pocket for anything she might have on hand. Her search yielded nothing but an old receipt she had picked off the ground somewhere. She offered it to Kris anyway. They looked her directly in the eyes, a small gap in their bangs exposing their challenging gaze. The receipt was snatched out of her hand and crammed into Kris’s mouth. They began chewing it slowly, never once breaking eye contact. Susie let out a loud, rough laugh, holding her hand to her head. 

“Damn! Guess you were hungry!” She checked her pocket, having immediately forgotten she had nothing else as soon as she took out the receipt. “Hey, wait, don’t eat the whole thing, I didn’t have breakfast either!” She lunged forward, reaching out to pry Kris’s mouth open only for them to immediately swallow the receipt. “DAMN IT!” Kris smirked up at her and she released them. “I’m never giving you anything again,” she muttered. 

Kris began walking again and Susie stumbled after them, still jokingly grumbling about her lost receipt. At first, Susie thought that maybe the strange feeling she had gotten from them initially had just been that they were tired, or hungry, or some combination of the two. But as they walked, Kris’s smile seemed to fade more quickly than she was used to. They had this odd gait, as if their feet were weighed down slightly, and they had their shoulders hunched in slightly. Careful. Guarded. They just looked… off. 

“Hey, man, are you… okay?” Susie asked, finally. Kris turned towards her curiously. “Just… yesterday was… a lot,” she forced out. Kris pursed their lips, as if they wanted to say something but couldn’t figure out what. “You… thinking about the Titan?” Are you thinking about what happened with your mom? She wanted to ask and she didn’t. Somehow, the end of the world was a far easier conversation topic than whatever was going on with Kris’s parents. It was cleaner. There was a villain and there were heroes and everyone knew where they stood. But she had seen the way Kris tensed up when they entered their house. 

“Hey, y’know what, forget it,” Susie said quickly. “Let’s just… have fun today, okay?” Kris paused for a moment, wringing their hands together. Susie almost reached out to poke them, uncertain if they’d even heard her, when they finally turned to look at her. They were smiling again now, a real, though tired, one. They gave her a thumbs up, announcing their intention to use their new, Dark World target practice to beat the carnival games. 

“Yeah!” Susie agreed. “That’s the spirit! Let’s go fuck this carnival UP!” She took off again, her step instantly feeling much lighter. She heard Kris snickering behind her as they ran to catch back up. 

It wasn’t long before they passed the roadblocks set up around the festival to keep people from driving through it. It was one of those full-town things, the kind where you didn’t need tickets to show up and could just wander around doing whatever. A couple rickety rides that looked like they’d been constructed in someone’s basement, classic stalls with rigged carnival games, the pervasive smell of cheap hot dogs and overpriced fried dough, and the soft hum of chatter in every direction. 

It was the kind of thing Ralsei would enjoy. He’d say the quaintness of it was what gave it its “charm.” Or that it wasn’t about the festival but about who you went to the festival with. Susie glanced down at Kris, who was already eyeing up some kind of shooting game, one of the ones where you spray boards down with a water gun that had an intentionally low pressure. She was glad she was here with them. She still couldn’t help but feel like it was incomplete. They were a trio. Ralsei should be here. 

“C’mon, Kris!” Susie declared, shaking off the dreary feeling. She’d tell Ralsei all about it when they went back to Castle Town. She’d figure something out. There was no chance he was missing out on everything. But first… “Let’s see if we can find Noelle!” She ran her hands through her hair, embarrassed for literally no reason. “I- uh- I asked her to go to the festival with me… so…” Kris gave her a double thumbs up, smiling a strange little smile. It seemed normal, but there was just something off about it. It was too strained at the edges, too wobbly as they tried to hold it. It faded down too quickly. 

“Hey, are you… sure you’re okay?” Susie asked. “Y’know, we don’t have to… do this, if you don’t wanna. We could just go hang out at the river or something. Or go back to Castle Town. I can sneak us in!” Kris frowned, shaking their head. She had been excited for the festival, they reminded her. And so had they. They were just tired from the day before. 

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s… Okay!” Susie said, shaking off the uneasiness. “Yeah, we deserve a break, right?” Kris nodded eagerly, and this time their smile seemed far more real. “Alright!” She grabbed their arm, fully committed, and dove headfirst into the carnival, their muffled giggles following after her. 

In much the same manner as their quests in the Dark World usually went, their quest to locate Noelle was quickly derailed by several other, smaller, sidequests. True to their word, Kris managed to score a perfect round in the shooting booth, securing a balloon shaped like a flower with a weird face on it. The balloon was lost moments later when Susie failed at the exact same game so badly that she tripped backwards and knocked Kris to the ground.

They rode the massive boat swing and tried to use the momentum of their bodies to flip it all the way around the pole, only succeeding in instantly exhausting themselves and having to lie on a bench for several minutes to recover. They managed to cram themselves into a single chair on the swing circle ride, and when it took off Kris nearly went flying, resulting in Susie desperately clinging to their arms as they whipped around for way too long. Kris haggled with the corn-dog guy and got them free access to the waste bin where the burnt corndogs ended up. They managed to grab at least thirty thanks to Kris fashioning Susie’s jacket into a makeshift sling to increase their carrying capacity. The corndogs quickly made up for their lack of breakfast, as did a particularly lucky strike of nearly a whole slice of pizza that some kid had dropped. 

All the while, Susie kept her eye out for a familiar head of blonde hair. That was the goal after all. She loved spending time with Kris, but… she had promised Noelle they’d go to the festival together. They were… going to ride that ferris wheel. Like in the Dark World, except this time she didn’t have to pretend it all just didn’t happen. And as an entire hour passed without even spotting her once, Susie started getting nervous. Had Noelle bailed? Had the whole thing yesterday changed her mind? The festival wasn’t that big, surely they would’ve managed to meet up with her by now? Susie couldn’t just go back to her house after all, that old witch wouldn’t let her get past the gate! 

“Hey, Kris?” she asked eventually, swallowing another corndog whole. “You think maybe… Noelle bailed after all?” Kris frowned, glancing down at the floor uncertainly. After a moment, they shrugged apologetically. “Right, yeah, why would… you know.” She let out a heavy sigh and ate the stick the corndog had come on dejectedly. Kris watched her worriedly and she shot them her best approximation of a reassuring smile. “Just gotta keep looking I gu-”

“YOU!” Any and all enjoyment Susie had managed to claw out of hanging out with Kris was drained away in an instant, replaced with sheer, blinding, unholy irritation. “How could you do this!?” 

“Fuck off!” Susie groaned. She suddenly wished she hadn’t eaten the corndog stick, because she sure would’ve liked to be holding something throwable at that moment. 

“Now, now, Susie,” Berdly said, smoothing back the feathers on top of his head. “No need to get hostile! I understand your feelings, but playing hard to get won’t get you anywhere.” 

“You know- You- huh?” Susie stumbled out, utterly baffled. 

“There’s no need to pretend, Susie!” Berdly said. “I see right through you!” Kris snickered into the sleeve of their hoodie and Susie smacked them upside the head. 

“Are you seriou- No, y’know what, nope,” Susie said. “Why can’t you just go be weird over there or something? We’re busy.” 

“Suuuuureeee,” Berdly said slowly, beak twisting into that stupid smirk that made Susie want to strangle the life out of him. “Not that it matters! No matter what feelings you may harbor for me, I simply can’t accept such duplicitous acts! I’m a man of integrity, you see!” 

“What the fuck are you talking about, dude?” Susie asked desperately. Kris crossed their arms, their mouth pulled tight into a displeased line. 

“Don’t play dumb with me, Susie!” Berdly hissed, jabbing a wing towards her. “I heard all about what you did! Getting poor Noelle in trouble just so you could have me all to yourself! I’ll be honest, I never thought you would stoop to such a level! And after I so graciously invited you as well!” Susie was moments away from grabbing him and seeing if that backbreaker move she’d seen in Dragon Blazers 2 actually worked in real life when what he’d said actually registered. 

“Noelle? Wait, what happened to Noelle!?” 

“You don’t need to lie to me, Susie!” Berdly continued. “I know you went to Noelle’s house yesterday to try and sabotage us!” 

“To- WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN!?” 

“Poor Noelle. My glorious damsel, locked away in her tower. All alone and afraid.” 

“He’s not even fucking listening,” Susie groaned. Kris nodded sagely. “HEY, DUMBASS, WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!?” She grabbed Berdly by the shoulders and spun him back around. He squawked in surprise, staring up at Susie nervously. 

“C-come on now, Susie. You can just admit it. You don’t have to lie to me.” He let out a long, dramatic sigh. “I know you got Noelle grounded so you could have me all to yourself today.” Susie froze where she was, her claws digging into Berdly’s shoulders as the situation fully registered. 

“She’s… grounded?” she breathed. 

“Yes!” Berdly snapped. “And now, thanks to your master plan, my poor Noelle is wasting away and missing the entire festival!” He glanced past her, presumably looking for an exit, only to find Kris instead. “DON’T LAUGH AT ME, YOU TROGLODYTE.” 

“Shit.” Susie shoved Berdly aside and left him to stumble back to stability. She turned back to Kris, who stopped laughing at Berdly once they caught sight of her face. “Shit, Kris, this is all my fault.” Kris shook their head, but they did so uncertainly and remained silent otherwise. “I just- I didn’t like her mom treating her like that! The guitar thing wasn’t her fault! But, like, I didn’t know it was gonna be a big thing either! She told me to play it!” She smacked herself on the side of her head, burying her fingers in her hair. “Damn it. She’s gonna miss the whole festival. She was… really looking forward to this…” 

“Erm, Susie-”

“SHUT UP!” Berdly quailed slightly at the shout, but didn’t skitter away like she’d hoped he would. 

“I just want you to know that you owe poor Noelle an apology,” he huffed. 

“I don’t wanna hear this shit from you,” Susie growled. “C’mon, Kris. Let’s get the hell out of here.” Kris nodded harshly, once, and began marching away from Berdly with Susie at their side.

“Pretending now won’t do you any good!” Berdly called after them. “The truth of the crime always comes to light!” Susie ground her teeth together but managed to resist the urge to yell back at him. Kris turned around just long enough to toss a middle finger over their shoulder as they left. 

“Damn it,” Susie hissed, slumping against a tree on the outskirts of the festival. Kris leaned against it beside her. “I knew her mom was mad, but I didn’t think… shit.” Kris sighed softly, offering no insight. “Y’know, Kris, it’s… really stupid, but I was really looking forward to this. Hanging out with you and Noelle today and just forgetting about all that other stuff.” She ran a hand through her hair to push it up out of her eyes. “I should’ve known I was gonna find a way to fuck that up too.” Kris didn’t respond. She didn’t expect them to. 

She felt weight on her arm and looked down to find Kris’s hand resting there. It wasn’t her fault, they assured her, more confidently this time. It still felt like bullshit. Because Kris was her friend and that’s what friends are supposed to say. 

“Damn I’m… really being a downer today, aren’t I?” Susie huffed. Kris shrugged and reached into her jacket, currently across her body like a sling, and pulled out another corndog. They downed it in a single bite and reached for another. Susie hugged the jacket towards her body, shielding it from their filthy hands. “Hey, watch it! These are for the guys back in Castle Town! We can’t just go back empty-handed!” Kris pouted up at her but let their hands drop down to their sides. Cautiously, Susie released her defensive hold on the corndogs. 

She stared down at them wistfully. This whole thing had gone completely sideways. She’d just wanted to have some fun with her friends, spend the festival with the people that actually seemed to give a shit. But Ralsei and Lancer couldn’t come to the Light World, and now even Noelle couldn’t be here. Because her stupid mom had gone and grounded her. For something that wasn’t even her damn fault! None of that would’ve happened if Susie and Kris hadn’t been snooping for that code! 

She owed it to Noelle to make it up to her somehow. Maybe she could save her a corndog and pass it to her in class tomorrow? Or maybe she could win a stuffed animal at one of the booths or something? That was a thing people did, right? Maybe they could somehow get Berdly to do the dunking booth and get some pictures for her? Susie knew she’d appreciate it if someone dunked Berdly on her behalf. 

Shit, who was she kidding? None of that was going to make up for the fact that Noelle was going to miss the festival completely. Because of her. She wasn’t going to get to dunk Berdly herself, or wait in line for an hour just to get a lemonade, or ride that stupid ferris wheel. She was gonna miss out on everything. Unless… unless…

“Kris!” Susie shouted, grabbing them and shaking them violently to get their attention. “Kris, I’ve got it!” Kris stumbled back as they tried to recover from the equivalent of sitting on a juiced-up jackhammer. “We have to go bust her out!” Kris frowned and requested elaboration. “Y’know! Like, jailbreak! You can help me climb the fence and then we can throw her a rope or something and we can all go to the festival!” 

Kris rubbed their wrist uncertainly. They shot a glance over their shoulder, as if they expected Noelle’s freaky mom to be right behind them listening in. Susie felt a momentary pang of fear that they wouldn’t want to help her, but she barrelled on. Since when was Kris the kinda guy to pass up an opportunity to do some random stupid shit?

“C’mon, man! It’ll be just like that stuff in the Dark World. Except in the Light World! Like that time we busted her out of Queen’s castle!” Kris pursed their lips, still looking as if they were on the fence about the whole thing. “What?” Susie joked, punching them in the shoulder. “You scared or something?” Kris let out an affronted gasp and attempted to punch Susie back. Susie caught them by grabbing their entire face with her hand and holding them at arms length. They struggled half-heartedly, failing to hide their muffled laughter. “Come on!” 

Kris grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her hand down to free themself. They smiled up at her, a mixture of fondness and lingering worry. She didn’t get it. Was it because they were scared of Noelle’s mom? Sure, she was the mayor, but that was just a symbolic position, wasn’t it? Besides, they’d fought a King and a Queen. What could a mayor do to them? Maybe they just didn’t think they could climb the fence, which was stupid, because Susie had climbed loads of fences and the one around Noelle’s house looked like a piece of cake. 

“Look,” Susie said. “I just… I don’t want Noelle to miss the whole festival ‘cause of me, y’know?” Kris bit their lip. One hand slipped into the pocket of their pants, as if checking that something was still there. They stood like that for a moment, the two of them, just looking at each other uncertainly. 

And then, finally, Kris nodded. 

“Let’s fucking GO!” Susie shouted, yanking Kris into an affectionate headlock. “Look out, mayor-face, cause here we come!” 

The two booked it across town, the streets blessedly empty thanks to most people attending the festival. They found their way to Noelle’s home, where the gate was, as expected, locked and entirely impenetrable. Kris suggested attempting to distract Carol while Susie tried to sneak around back, but in the end, they decided that doing so would only serve to draw more attention to things, especially considering how inseparable Kris and Susie had been for the past few days, so that plan was quickly thrown out. Also, Susie just really didn’t wanna leave Kris alone with that weird lady. 

Eventually, they skirted around the back of Noelle’s house and into the woods on the other side. The fence was closer to the house than Susie had thought it would be. It seemed like the kind of house that should have a massive backyard, but there was barely anything. Though, she supposed that the whole forest kinda counted as their backyard, if you ignored the fence. 

After some debate and a few (beautiful) sketches drawn in the dirt with sticks, Susie’s initial “build a catapult out of the trees and fling me into Noelle’s window” plan was scrapped for the slightly more reasonable “climb that tree near the fence and just hop down. Kris secured them some rope from… somewhere. When she asked, they just gave her that mysterious smile of theirs until she gave up. Not that it mattered where the rope sourced from as long as it got the job done. 

Kris went first, carefully climbing out along a long branch and tying the rope to a point just past the fence. The branch shifted a little under their weight, but it seemed just strong enough to hold one of them at a time. Kris slid down the rope and waved for Susie to follow them. She crawled out onto the branch just as they had, the limb creaking a little more under her greater weight. She considered using the rope the way Kris had, then decided she didn’t care and just jumped down next to them. Her legs stung with the impact. She ignored it because there was no way she was going to admit that Kris had been right about the rope. 

“Which one is it?” Susie whispered, staring up at the house in front of them. Kris pointed silently at the window on the far right. “Oh! Right. I- uh- I knew that.” Kris shot her a look, but they didn’t laugh. Not like they usually would. Susie pulled her gaze away from them before she lost her nerve. “Okay. Guess I just gotta… climb up, then!” She flexed her fingers experimentally. “Heh. Good thing I got all that practice on the tower yesterday! This is gonna be easy!” 

She crept over to the house, looking up at Noelle’s window. From where she was, she could definitely see a path up. Part of the house stuck out under Noelle’s window, like a second, smaller, house. Why it was there, Susie wasn’t particularly concerned. A basement entrance, maybe? Or some kind of side-storage? Whatever it was didn’t matter, because it had its own mini-roof, and that mini-roof provided the perfect place for Susie to stand and talk to Noelle. 

She attempted to grab ahold of the ledge of a nearby window, hoping to use that to climb onto the smaller roof. She couldn’t reach it from where she was standing, so she stepped back and leapt for it. Her fingers grazed the sill, but she didn’t get enough height to wrap them around it and hold on. She tried again, to similar results. 

“Shit,” she hissed. A quick search of the area around them revealed no objects she could feasibly use as a stool. Maybe she could throw the rope and hook it onto one of the random decorations peppering Noelle’s roof. Kris seemed like the type to know how to tie a lasso, but when she asked them, they just shrugged helplessly. 

“We gotta find something. We’re here already, it’d be a waste to give up!” Kris nodded, tapping their finger on their chin contemplatively. “You look like a nerd,” Susie informed them. They stuck their tongue out at her and informed her that they had in fact thought of an idea, but they wouldn’t tell her if she kept being rude. “Hey!” she yelped, grabbing them by the arms. “Don’t hold out on me, man! Spit it out!” 

Kris snickered to themself and quickly extricated themself from her grip. They raised an eyebrow, crossing their arms and tapping their foot impatiently. Susie groaned. 

“Fine. I take it back, you’re not a nerd.” Kris’s smile brightened and they waved her over. They pressed their hands against the house, bending over slightly. “Huh? What the fuck are you doing?” Kris rolled their eyes. After a moment of Susie still not getting it, they explained that Susie could just use their shoulders as an in-between step to grab the sill. They declared it their “Stool Forme K.” It was only fair, they informed her, seeing as Ralsei and Lancer both had one. 

“Uhh… No offense, dude, but are you gonna be able to hold me up?” They reminded her that they’d done it yesterday. “Well, yeah, but this is different? Right? Different… weight… distribution or something?” She had no idea what she was saying anymore. Kris didn’t laugh at her though, so she must’ve gotten it right. That or Kris didn’t actually know either. They still didn’t move. 

“Fine, then,” Susie said. She cracked her knuckles, shooting them a quick smirk. “It’s your funeral.” With that, she stepped up onto Kris’s back. 

To her surprise, they actually did manage to hold her up. She could feel them shaking under her from the strain, but they were actually staying pretty steady. She let out an impressed hum. Then she remembered that the longer she stayed there, the more likely it was that Kris would actually collapse under her weight, and grabbed onto the window sill. With Kris’s added height, pulling herself up onto the sill was light work. From there, it was as simple as a bit of a shimmy and a single step to get up onto the roof under Noelle’s window. 

“Nice going, dude!” she called, shooting Kris a thumbs up. They straightened and returned the gesture with a proud grin. They jerked their thumb towards Noelle’s window and whispered for her to hurry. Susie gave them a quick salute before creeping her way along the roof to reach Noelle’s window. 

The curtains to Noelle’s room were only partially drawn, allowing Susie a look inside. It was just like how she remembered it from yesterday, the window looking down over a long pink couch, the desk in the corner, the big monitor right across from her. And the bed in the corner, where she could just make out the shape of a person. 

Noelle was sitting on the edge of her bed, hunched over such that her hair hung in front of her face and obscured her expression. She was fiddling with her hands awkwardly. She looked… really bad. Susie gritted her teeth, trying to ignore how guilty the picture made her feel. It was fine. They were gonna bust her out and she was going to that festival. Speaking of which…

Susie reached up and, as lightly as she could while still being noticeable, began tapping the glass of Noelle’s window. At first, Noelle didn’t seem to notice. Then her ears perked up and she glanced toward the window uncertainly, as if expecting it to just be a bird or something. She stood up and made her way closer, pulling the curtains fully aside. Her eyes landed on Susie and went wide as saucers. Susie stopped knocking in favor of a friendly wave. 

She didn’t hear it, but she saw Noelle let out a surprise shriek and stumble back. She tripped over her own feet and fell onto the floor and out of Susie’s line of sight. Susie pressed her face up against the glass, trying to see inside and make sure that Noelle was okay. A few moments later, Noelle’s head poked back up nervously. She looked up at Susie, completely baffled. Susie gestured at the closed window. 

“S-S-S-SUSIE!?” Noelle yelped as she pushed the window open. “What are you doing here!?” 

“Me ‘n Kris are doin’ a jailbreak!” Susie informed her. 

“You’re- You- Kris!?” Noelle poked her head out of the window, looking down at the ground where Kris was still watching. They waved at her and she awkwardly waved back. “How did you get here!?” 

“Tree,” Susie informed her, jerking her thumb over her shoulder at the still dangling rope. 

“O-oh?” Noelle said. 

“So, you ready or what?” 

“Huh? Ready for… what?” Noelle asked. Susie sighed, rubbing the back of her neck.

“I, uh… I heard what happened. How your mom grounded you and stuff. I’m… really sorry about that,” she said quietly. Noelle’s eyes widened, her cheeks reddening slightly. 

“Oh, n-no, it’s…” She swallowed, steadying herself. “It’s fine, Susie. It’s not your fault. I shouldn’t have…” She shook her head. “I should’ve known better.” 

“Hey, hey, wait, no! No, it’s not your fault either!” Susie said quickly. “You didn’t do anything wrong!” Noelle frowned, turning away to look at the floor of her room instead of at Susie. 

“I… appreciate you saying that, Susie, but… It’s hard to explain, but it was my fault, okay?” She smiled, weak and wobbly. 

“Hey, man, don’t let your mom get to you!” 

“She’s trying her best,” Noelle said. “I know she can seem… cold, I guess. But it’s just because she really cares.” 

“I don’t know about that,” Susie muttered. 

“Wh-what did you say?” Noelle asked. 

“Nothing! Nothing, just… yeah. I’m still sorry. It sucks. That you’re grounded and all.” Her claws tapped against the windowsill nervously in a pitiful attempt at filling the silence. 

“It’s okay,” Noelle said. “There’ll be other festivals, right?” Susie tried not to visibly wince at how distraught she sounded. 

“Look, me and Kris got this whole escape plan!” she said. “We can get you out and bring you back without your mom even noticing! You can still… go to the festival… with m- with us.” She ran her hands through her hair, trying to pull it down to hide the embarrassed flush to her face. Why was she embarrassed about this again? She did stupid bullshit like this all the time. 

“What!?” Noelle squeaked. 

“Well, you’re unfairly imprisoned, yeah?” Susie said. “So we figured we’d… bust you out.” Noelle glanced down at Kris, then back up at Susie. Her face was unreadable, too many emotions flashing by too quickly for Susie to register any single one of them. “We just didn’t want you to miss out, y’know?” Noelle’s face turned another shade redder. 

“Y-you climbed my house…?” 

“Uh. Yeah. Don’t worry, though, it’s totally climb…able?” Susie assured her. 

“All because you didn’t want me to miss out on the festival?” she continued, quieter this time. 

“Well, obviously!” Susie said. “We- We said we’d go together, didn’t we?” Noelle let out a little gasp of surprise, her flickering eyes finally fully settling back on Susie’s face. She placed her hands on the windowsill so she could lean out a little further, as if she was trying to get a better angle to stare into Susie’s soul. Like she was looking for the answer to some question she didn’t know how to ask out loud. Susie met her gaze, hoping she could somehow answer it anyway. 

There was something about the way Noelle looked at her. Like she hadn’t just hung the moon and stars but had made them herself, as if the entire night sky was somehow a product of Susie’s hand. Noelle looked at her like she had already saved the world instead of bungling it up fifty times over. Noelle looked at her, and she felt like she had. Noelle looked at her like she was worth looking at. 

“No…elle?” Susie asked. Suddenly, it hit her that she had been staring too and she jerked her head away to break Noelle’s gaze, staring down at the shingles beneath her feet instead. 

“OhmygoshI’msosorryIdon’tknowwhatthatwasI’mso-”

“No, it’s fine, I’m sorry, I’m being weird!” Susie cut her off. “Sorry…” She shook her head, clearing… whatever that was out of her brain. “Anyway. We’ve still got time! The festival’s still going! We can see if that corndog guy has any left! Or dunk Berdly!” She paused, her voice growing thick in her throat. “We could… ride that ferris wheel…” Noelle squeaked in surprise. She brushed her hair out of her face and her hands seemed to be quivering as she did it. 

“I… uhm…” Susie reached out a hand and Noelle broke off.

“C’mon. Live a little.” Noelle stared down at Susie’s hand, somehow managing to look both terrified and enamored. Like Susie held the key to the best and the worst thing on Earth at the same time. Her own hand hovered in the air, just passing over the windowsill. It stayed there, locked in indecision as Noelle stared at Susie’s outstretched hand and Susie held her breath, waiting for her to take it. Noelle bit her lip and her hand inched closer. Closer. Almost. 

And then Noelle snatched her hand back, clutching it to her chest with an expression so distraught that Susie felt it like a spike through her stomach. 

“I-I-I’m s-sorry,” Noelle choked out. “My mom’s already… really mad, I don’t-” She shook her head. “I can’t… risk it.” 

“Noelle-”

“I’m really sorry,” Noelle cut in. She curled in on herself, her shoulders curving in to shield her. “She’ll find out. She always finds out.” Susie drew her hand back uncertainly. She didn’t know what to do. She wanted to grab Noelle and make her come anyway. She wanted to curse her mom for a thousand years. She wanted to reach through the window and hug her and make her stop looking like she was about to cry. 

“Can we still… be friends?” Noelle asked softly. “Once I’m not grounded anymore? My mom doesn’t want me seeing you, but she can’t really stop me if we go to the same school, right?”

“Y-yeah!” Susie stumbled out. “Yeah! Of course we’re still friends, dude! Your mom’s not gonna stop me!” Noelle ducked her head down, her hair falling in front of her face like a curtain. Hiding her away. 

“I’m sorry…” she said again. “I… really did want to go to the festival with you.” Susie swallowed harshly to try and get rid of the sudden thickness in her throat. It didn’t work. 

“Dude, screw your mom. We can still-” 

“Noelle? Noelle, what are you doing up there?” Noelle let out a frightened squeak, leaping back from the window. 

“My mom, my mom’s coming!” she hissed. 

“Wait-”

“You have to get out of here, Susie! Quick, before she sees you!”

“But I-”

“Susie, please, I don’t want you to get in trouble!” 

“Noel-”

“Please!” Noelle didn’t wait for a response. She raced back to the window, yanking it closed and shutting the curtains behind it. Susie instinctively raised her hand to try and break back through it before she caught herself and stopped. She glanced down at Kris, who was urgently gesturing for them to go. With a final, desperate glance at Noelle’s window, Susie forced herself to turn and go. 

She hopped down off the roof and raced after Kris, back to the rope they had tied up. Kris grabbed ahold of it and shimmied their way up to the branch, beginning to climb back down the tree. Susie grabbed it and tried to do the same, only to discover that climbing ropes is far less easy than the movies always make it look. 

“Kris!” she called, desperately clinging to the bottom of the rope. The material dug into her hands, and she could feel it burning her palms as she lost her grip and began sliding back down. “Kris, how the hell do you do this!?” Kris glanced at her from where they were halfway down the tree, their eyes wide with panic. They scrambled back up to where the rope was and gestured for her to let go, untying it and throwing it aside once she did. “Hey!” she shouted. “What gives!” 

They held up their hands to signal for her to wait, quickly scurrying to the bottom of the tree. They ran up to the bars and she met them from the other side.

“Shit, Kris, what do I do?” They told her to go around the house and hide behind the big bushes. They’d get the gates open, they told her. “How’re you gonna do that?” Susie asked. Kris reminded her of the abandoned plan from before. Susie paled slightly and grabbed Kris’s wrist through the bars. “Are you crazy!? You’re gonna get yourself killed!” Kris pursed their lips and gestured to their outfit with their free hand. They weren’t in the Dark World, Kris reminded her. Carol Holiday was just some regular old lady. And she was a family friend, it would be fine. 

“R…right,” Susie admitted. “You’re right. Shit, I just… I don’t like her, man!” Kris frowned, giving no response. “Okay. Fine. Just get me out of here!” She released them and Kris gave her an affirmative nod before racing off back around the fence. Susie snuck along the side of the building until she got to the front, at which point she quickly dove behind the big, garish bushes framing the door. She poked her head through the leaves, just enough to get a look at the gate. 

A few moments later, Kris appeared at the gate and rang the bell, waiting patiently. To Susie’s surprise, it actually worked, because the gate opened almost instantly. She heard the door to the house open and turned to see the exact frigid asshole she had hoped wouldn’t show her face walking up the driveway towards Kris. 

“Kris. What a pleasant surprise,” Carol greeted. “What are you doing here today? Shouldn’t you be enjoying yourself at the festival?” Kris said something in response, too quiet for Susie to hear. “Oh. It’s thoughtful of you to worry about Noelle. Don’t worry, she’s fine. She just needed… a little time to think about some things. How are you doing, Kris?” As Kris spoke, they stepped around Carol, gesturing to the house. For a split second, Susie thought that they had decided to randomly betray her and were exposing her hiding place. Then she realized that what they had actually done was gotten Carol to turn around. Leaving the gate open and unguarded. 

As Carol began explaining something about the sleighs on the roof that Susie was too panicked to pay attention to, Susie took her chance. She dove out of the bushes and skirted around the gate, her eyes locked on Carol the whole way around. Kris did an impressive job of keeping the woman’s eyes focused solely on them. Susie was never not surprised by the random skills they seemed to have picked up. 

Finally, Susie reached the gate and dove through it, booking it down the street as quickly as she could. She didn’t stop running until she was past several buildings and completely out of sight of the mansion, and then she kept going just a little further out of sheer paranoia. It was only once she’d reached the far side of the library that she allowed herself to slow down, resting her hand against the wall as she tried to catch her breath. 

It seemed like an eternity before Kris appeared back at her side. Their breathing was heavy as well, and she realized that they had failed to actually come up with a meeting spot and Kris had probably run around town a bit before locating her. She huffed out a weak apology that they seemed to accept. 

The two of them stood there for a bit in silence, catching their breath and trying to think of something to say. Kris was, uncharacteristically, the one to speak up first. They looked up at her worriedly, their hands shoved into the pockets of their hoodie, and asked if she wanted to go back to the festival. She looked away shamefully.

“I…” She sighed, shaking her head. “You can go back if you wanna. I just…” Kris shook their head, informing her that there was really no point in them going if she wasn’t there. “Susie or bust.” She snickered lightly at that, but the small bit of amusement was quickly crushed by the guilt from before returning tenfold. “Shit. I really ruined the festival for everybody, huh? First Noelle, now you… Man, this sucks.” Kris shrugged and told her they hadn’t really cared that much anyway. The guilt didn’t go away. 

Kris watched her for a moment, their lips pursed as they considered something. Then, they pushed themself off the wall of the library and gestured for her to follow, heading towards the school. 

“What’re we doing?” Susie asked dejectedly. Kris informed them that they were heading back to Castle Town. At that, Susie felt just a little bit of warmth return to her chest, the crushing feeling that had closed in their fading back just a touch. The festival was lame anyway, Kris continued. They’d have more fun hanging out with Ralsei and Lancer and everybody else. “Y’know what? You’re right! I promised Ralsei we’d visit anyway!” 

They made their way back to the school, which marked Susie’s second ever attempt at breaking into school instead of out of it. She showed Kris the broken back door without a second thought. It was a weird thing to do, if she really considered it. It had been her secret for so long, hers and hers alone. And yet, sharing it with Kris was practically instinct. Like Kris was always supposed to know about it anyway. 

They approached the closet, and despite everything, Susie couldn’t help but feel that familiar excitement that came with it. The anticipation, the slight nervousness. The knowledge that her friends were down there. That she was down there, the better her. Not the screw-up bully freak. The hero of legend. The person that people waved hello to on the street. The person who saved people instead of breaking everything she touched. 

It felt so much better than last night, now that Kris was there. This was the way it was supposed to be, this was right. Kris and her, going to the Dark World together, ready for their next adventure. Ralsei would be waiting for them, and then the Fun Gang would be back together. And then everything would be okay. Right?

Kris’s hand stopped inches from the door. Susie heard something buzzing in their pants pocket and it took her a second to register it as a phone, left on vibrate. Kris grimaced and forcefully pulled their hand back from the door. It almost looked uncomfortable, as if everything in Kris was screaming not to but for some reason they couldn’t… not. They stuffed their hand into their pocket and pulled out the phone, checking the caller. Their expression tightened as they saw.

“Who is it?” Susie asked. “Tell ‘em to fuck off.” Kris looked up at her, their fingers curling tighter around the phone. When they spoke, they sounded… sad, somehow. Guilty. They told her to go on ahead. They just had to take this call. They’d catch up in a second. 

“Nah,” Susie said. “If it’s really that important, I can just wait. Take your ti-” When they spoke again, they sounded angry. It was louder than they usually spoke. Direct and commanding. They told her to go. That it was going to be a long call and she shouldn’t wait up for them. They’d meet her in Castle Town. “Kris. You okay, man? You sure you…?” She trailed off as Kris stared at her, silently begging her to listen. She didn’t get this. She didn’t get any of this. Who the hell was calling to make Kris so uncomfortable? 

It was personal, she realized. It had to be. Maybe it was their mom and they were still uncomfortable after last night. Or their father. Or even their brother, calling from college. Someone they wanted to be able to talk to in private. Without Susie hearing. Which was fine! Kris was allowed to have a private life. And it wasn’t Susie’s business, even if they flinched when they saw the caller ID or looked like they wanted to be anywhere else. They were… entitled to their privacy. If they didn’t want to tell her then it wasn’t her business, was it?

She had fucked up enough people’s days today. 

“Okay,” she said finally. “Just… don’t take too long, okay?” Their shoulders slumped in relief and they gave her a grateful smile. They held the phone up but didn’t accept the call just yet. Waiting for her to go. “Okay. Okay, see you soon,” she said. She turned, slowly, on joints that felt like rusty hinges, and stepped into the closet alone.

Notes:

I split this one into two chapters because it was super long but it also felt unfinished no matter where I tried to end it. So double feature it is. I'm sorry that the first chapter is just Susie suffering, I promise, she'll get hot chocolate and cake in the second one.

Chapter 2: Swing

Summary:

Susie returns to the Dark World after an absolute bust of a festival.

Without Kris by her side, the Dark World felt… colder, somehow. She knew it shouldn’t, especially since she’d already been there solo before. It hadn’t been quite like this last time. Maybe it was the suddenness of it all. She’d gotten herself ready for everything to go back to normal. Now it wasn’t, and she felt the absence so much more keenly when it had been preceded by hope. 

She looked out at Ralsei’s castle, her eyes drifting past the spires and up to the Dark Fountain behind it. It was strange to see it, always, to look up at it and have to fight the momentary panic. The one fountain she didn’t have to close. The fountain that protected her friends. Looking up at the Castle Town fountain, she could understand, at least to some degree, the enemies they had faced. Why the King had been so willing to threaten even his own son to save it. Why Queen had chosen to enslave her own subjects rather than risk it being sealed. Why Tenna had fought so hard to keep them from it, because losing the fountain meant losing everything he had fought so hard to preserve. 

She waited by the light a bit longer. Surely Kris’s phone call couldn’t be that long, right? She didn’t want them to miss out, so even though they had told her to go on ahead, she remained where she was for some time, waiting for the familiar descending sparkles that would announce their arrival. But what felt like minutes went by, and still there was no sign of Kris. So, finally, Susie pulled her gaze away from the light and back towards Castle Town. If Kris was going to take this long, then she was at least going to check in with everybody. Maybe she could buy them a CD Bagel. Or, rather, manhandle Ralsei into loaning her some Dark Dollars for a CD Bagel. They seemed to like those. 

She made her way into town, shooting weak waves to the people she passed on the way in. She tried to keep a smile on her face. To project the image of the unbothered hero who was going to protect them. Because the people in Castle Town had been through enough, and they deserved to have someone they could believe in. She wanted them to know that they could count on her. That no matter what, she was gonna protect them. No matter what the Knight did. No matter what the prophecy said. 

She passed the clothing store from before, the orange Addison standing outside talking to a Pippins. When they caught sight of her, they waved to her excitedly, their salesman smile seeming to brighten into something more genuine. The Pippins turned as well, calling out a friendly greeting. If Kris were there, no doubt they would have guided her over for a quick discussion. They’d have stopped at a lot of the shops actually. Kris seemed to like talking to everyone they could. 

Susie cast a glance back over her shoulder. The pillar of light that marked the divide between the Light and Dark Worlds was out of sight now, obscured by the town’s walls. She hoped Kris showed up soon. She tore her eyes away from the path back to the Light World, about to see if she could find a shopkeeper that would let her borrow some of their wares without the money Kris kept, when her ears caught the sound of two familiar voices from further down the street.

“-lor Cafe. Swatch runs that one! You should stop by sometime, once we get your points converted to Dark Dollars! It’s really good!” 

“I’ll keep that in mind. Say, did you-”

“Hey guys!” Tenna stiffened in surprise, his antennae sticking directly into the air. Ralsei jumped backwards, crashing directly into Tenna’s legs and ricocheting off like a ping-pong ball. Susie reached out and grabbed him by the shoulders to steady him. “Woah! You good, man?”

“Susie, sweetheart!” Tenna beamed at her. “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon!” 

“Susie!” Ralsei said, belatedly, his brain finally working through enough of the surprise to actually register the situation. “Oh my gosh, Susie!” 

“Hey, man!” Susie greeted. She yanked him into a headlock, ruffling the fur on top of his head. “What’s goin’ on!?” 

“O-oh! I was just showing Tenna around Castle Town!” Ralsei told her. He squirmed in her grip and she finally released him. He smoothed out his robes and tussled fur, trying and failing to hide his smile. “Since we’re not sure how long it’ll take you and Kris to find him a new home, I figured I should help him settle in a little. Just in case.” Susie glanced up at Tenna. He was still smiling, but it was a bit strained around the edges, the kind that, if he had any, wouldn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Y…yeah,” Susie said, deflating slightly. “Sorry about that.” 

“No, no!” Tenna said quickly. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’re doing your darndest! Besides, this… Castle Town, you said? It’s quite lovely! It’s not the studio, but it sure has its charm!” 

“I’m glad you like it, Tenna,” Ralsei said. “I… worked… hard on it.” He tugged his scarf up to hide the rising blush. 

“Damn right you did!” Susie told him, smacking him in the shoulder. 

“How was the festival, Susie?” Ralsei asked quickly. Susie rolled her eyes but let him change the subject. She’d get him to admit how awesome he was one of these days. 

“Eh.” She shrugged, trying to seem more unbothered than she was. “Not all it was cracked up to be, honestly. You didn’t miss much.” 

“Really?” Ralsei asked worriedly. “You seemed so excited for it.” 

“False advertising,” Susie informed him. She waved off his concern, trying to ignore the reopening pit in her stomach. She had fun with Kris at first, but… Maybe she would have enjoyed the festival, but it felt wrong now. It felt cruel to think of it fondly when Noelle and Ralsei had missed it. It was easier to pretend it hadn’t been worth it in the first place. 

“That’s a shame,” Tenna said. Ralsei nodded in agreement. 

“I’m really sorry, Susie,” he said. 

“Huh? C’mon, it’s not your fault, dude! Besides, the carnival in Cyber City was way better! The ferris wheel at the festival was tiny.” Ralsei giggled at that. “Oh! Speaking of the festival, though, I brought-” She broke off, reaching for her jacket-sling only for her hand to connect with her chest. She looked down, discovering that the sling, and the corndogs within it, had vanished upon her entry into the Dark World. Her jacket had once again converted into a vest, and was now back on her body. “Damn,” she muttered. “Don’t know what I expected…” 

“What happened?” Ralsei asked. 

“I tried to bring you guys some corndogs, but, uh…” She gestured uselessly at her Dark World getup. 

“Oh! That’s- That’s really sweet of you!” Ralsei said. 

“Yeah. I guess,” Susie said halfheartedly.

“Hey!” Tenna cut in. “It’s the thought that counts! A failed but heartfelt attempt means far more than a successful grand gesture that’s ultimately nothing but empty promises and false hopes!” He said it so brightly that Susie could almost ignore how detailed and cynical it was. He laughed uncomfortably, tugging at the collar of his shirt. “Anyway, uh, it’s very thoughtful of you to try! Is my point!” 

“Thanks?” 

“Any time!” he replied, far too quickly. Susie glanced over at Ralsei and raised an eyebrow. He shrugged helplessly. 

“Uhm, by the way,” Ralsei said, once the silence had lingered for just long enough to start being pretty weird. “Is Kris here too?” Susie sighed, picking at the spikes on one of her bracelets. 

“They’re… on their way,” she said. “They just… uh… had to take a call.”

“Oh! Oh, I’m sure they’ll be here soon,” Ralsei said. 

“Yeah…” Susie said. 

“Susie?”

“I’m just… worried about them, y’know? There’s a lot going on.” 

“I know,” Ralsei said softly. The unspoken weight of the statement rested between them. You do know, don’t you? Silently, the agreement was maintained. Susie didn’t say it. Ralsei didn’t either. Because speaking it made it real. 

“It’s just… I’m sure it’s their family and stuff. Or something like that.” Tenna frowned at the reminder. He caught Susie looking at him and shot her a reassuring smile. “They just looked… I dunno.” She ran a hand through her hair nervously. “It just felt weird. Like, they really didn’t look like they wanted to answer it. And I said I would just wait for them to finish, but they wouldn’t even pick it up until I left. And now it's been a while and they still haven’t showed up, and the whole thing was just weird. I mean, it’s probably fine! It’s just family stuff or something. And that’s fine, it’s not like they can’t have privacy or anything, I just don’t like how scared they looked, y’know? Shit, I’m just being weird, aren’t… I…” 

Susie trailed off, two things catching her eye in tandem. Firstly, Tenna had gone utterly still, stalled in place so completely that even his screen seemed to have frozen. His hands were curled into fists at his sides, clenched tightly enough that it seemed like he might actually tear the gloves he wore. 

Secondly, Susie’s field of vision had once again gone entirely pink and yellow. 

“Uh… Tenna?” she asked quietly. “You good? Te-” 

“Yes! Yes, I’m fine!” Tenna squeaked. “Completely tip-top one hundred percent fine!” 

“...If you keep sayin’ it, I’m gonna stop believing you,” Susie informed him. 

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Ralsei asked. 

“Yes,” Tenna said again, more heavily this time. “Yes, I’m… sorry. I’m sure it’s nothing. Kris is, of course, entitled to their privacy. I’m sure that’s… all it was.” He turned away, his antennae folding back over his head. It reminded Susie a bit of a cat, ears pinned back fearfully. Something was definitely up. 

“Sorry,” Tenna said finally. “You just… What you said, it reminded me of… something.” The color across Susie’s vision crackled slightly, a line of static cutting through it momentarily. It seemed almost involuntary, rather than something Spamton was intentionally trying to tell her. The whole thing seemed involuntary, actually. His messing with the glasses was so inconsistent that she couldn’t really place an intention behind it. “Anyway, I’m sure Kris will be here soon!” He tried for a smile. It came out more like a grimace.

“Susie… are you sure you’re okay?” Ralsei asked. 

“Me? Huh? No, I’m fine!” Susie said quickly. “Tip-top-one-hundred-whatever-Tenna-said.” She pushed her hair up out of her eyes. “Just worried about Kris is all.” Ralsei nodded slowly, biting his lip to stop himself from saying something else. It was funny, in a way. All three of them trying to pretend that their lives weren’t collapsing around them. Just a bunch of liars begging other liars to be honest. She wished Lancer was there. He was the most honest person she’d ever met. 

Ralsei was the one to finally break the fresh, awkward silence that Susie had ushered in. 

“Um. Well, I think that’s most of the town anyway, Tenna.” 

“Oh!” the CRT exclaimed, having clearly forgotten the reason he was out here in the first place. “Oh, good! It was nice! Good… town!” Ralsei still smiled at the praise, ham-handed as it was. 

“I think now’s as good a time as any. Why don’t you go swing by the bank and get your points converted!” 

“We have a bank?” Susie asked. 

“Some of the old Card Castle employees have a temporary one set up to help the guys from TV World settle in,” Ralsei explained. “It’s right by the new tea shop.” 

“Cool?” Susie said. If she was being honest, she wasn’t sure how any of that correlated to a bank. ‘Bank’ summoned up images of big money vaults and epic heists. Not point conversion or whatever. 

“Right! That sounds like a good idea,” Tenna agreed. “Seeing as I’ll be staying here for who knows how long! Haha. Ha…” Susie opened her mouth to say something, but he beat her to it, barrelling on in a spectacular display of overcorrection. “Which is fine! The town’s great, the people are great, everything’s great! It’s great, take your time, I don’t need to get adopted right this second, all good things take time, you know what they say!” He glanced down at Susie and Ralsei, who exchanged an awkward look between each other before coming to the mutual decision not to comment. Tenna wilted anyway, clearly realizing how unconvincing the whole thing had been. 

“Okay then!” Ralsei said, doing an impressive job of ignoring… that. “Hope everything goes well!” 

“Right!” Tenna says. “I’ll go do that! As soon as I…” He scanned the town, his mouth curving down in a perplexed frown. “...figure out where that is.” 

“Oh! Right, I’m sorry, I forgot you haven’t been around town much!” 

“You were just showing him around for the first time,” Susie reminded him. Ralsei ducked a little further into his scarf, looking up at Susie bashfully. Then, his eyes widened in some kind of realization and he perked back up. It was an impressive turnaround time, if nothing else. 

“Susie, why don’t you take him!” 

“Huh?”

“Yeah! You take Tenna to the bank to get his points converted, and I’ll go back and wait for Kris! And then we can all meet back at the castle!” 

“Wait, but-”

“Great, thanks, Susie, have fun you two!” Ralsei was gone before Susie could get another word out, scurrying down the street back towards the entrance to Castle Town. Susie’s “BUT I DON’T KNOW WHERE IT IS EITHER!” either went unheard or ignored. 

“What was that?” Susie muttered, rubbing the back of her head in confusion. She glanced up at Tenna for help. He shrugged, equally baffled by this turn of events. She looked back in the direction Ralsei had vanished and briefly considered hunting him down because huh? But then again… it wasn’t like spending a little time with Tenna was the worst thing in the world. She could at least reassure him that they were still looking. That she hadn’t ditched him.

“Y’know what?” she said, decision made. “Fine. Let’s find the stupid bank.” She grabbed a hold of Tenna’s sleeve before he could protest, yanking the much bigger CRT after her as she made her way even deeper into town.

It took a bit of searching, a healthy dose of doubling back, and a staunch refusal from Susie to ask for directions, but they did eventually find the bank. Castle Town seemed to grow by leaps and bounds every time she visited. It grew outward from the main path to Ralsei’s castle. A living, breathing thing, at least to Susie. The further out it went, the more the shops trickled off, replaced by actual small homes. Not everyone wanted to share the castle, after all. It was comforting, because it meant permanence. People setting up their own homes meant they expected to stay. 

The bank was a small building tucked away next to a tea shop manned by the pink Addison from Cyber City. The Addison waved to her initially, but as soon as it became clear that neither her nor Tenna was going to go over and potentially buy something, they spun on their heel, attention instantly redirected to a pair of Hathys across the street. Susie ignored them, making a beeline for the bank building instead. 

Entering the building was a trial in and of itself, as it turned out that Tenna seemed to have less control over his height than she’d previously assumed. She’d expected him to just shrink down to get inside, but instead found herself trying to yank his shoulders through a door that was just slightly too small for his base height. Fortunately for both of them, the embarrassment of the situation was enough to drop him down a few inches, and he was pulled through without taking the entire building with him. To their credit, the Rudinn at the desk didn’t even bat an eye.

Susie tried to pay attention while Tenna filled out some paperwork, but got lost pretty quickly after the third mention of “conversion rate.” The Rudinn seemed to be trying to make things move quickly, but bureaucracy tended to have a required level of “pointless red tape,” as Tenna described it, regardless of how helpful the guy with the paperwork was trying to be. It still seemed like an eternity before the Rudinn finally pulled Tenna aside, presumably to give him the Dark Dollars or something, and the whole process was concluded. Even Tenna seemed confused by the time they stepped back out into town. 

“That sucked,” Susie groaned, hitting her head with the heel of her hand a couple times to try and knock the nerd shit out of it. 

“Why did they need my serial number five times,” Tenna whispered with quiet horror. “Why did they need that.” 

“Dude, I thought they were gonna ask for your first born child or some shit,” Susie said. “That was crazy.” 

“There’s always some level of red tape, but that was madness!” He glanced over his shoulder with a sympathetic frown. “And that employee volunteered for this.”

“Couldn’t be me!” Susie declared. She crossed her arms, letting her gaze pan over the town. “What now?”

“Well…” Tenna said. He wrung his hands nervously. “Would you like something to drink from somewhere? Or eat? On me! As a thank you for… everything. And since you didn’t get to enjoy the festival like you’d hoped.” Susie blinked in surprise, looking up at him curiously. “Or I can just go back to the castle! I’m sure I can find it on my own, you don’t have to-”

“If you’re payin’,” Susie cut in. “Sure, man. I was gonna try to steal something, but your way is way easier.” Tenna broke off, staring at her in surprise. Then, his mouth broke into a massive smile. 

“Splendid! Where should we go?”

“I dunno man, it’s your money. You pick.” Tenna hummed contemplatively, scanning the area. After a moment, his gaze seemed to settle on something and he jerked his head over towards it. Susie tried her best to follow his line of sight and landed on a newer shop that had popped up within the last day or two, seeing as it bore an obvious resemblance to the style of TV World. She raised an eyebrow and Tenna turned his head away to hide the embarrassed pink coloring his screen. 

“I’m a creature of habit!” he defended. “We can always go somewhere else.” 

“Nah. I didn’t get to try a lot of your stuff anyway,” Susie informed him. Tenna brightened at that and allowed her to lead the way over to the shop. 

Stepping inside revealed it to be something more along the lines of a restaurant or pub, with a counter to order from and a few tables set up. It was built bigger than many of the other buildings in Castle Town, so much so that Tenna was able to fit inside just by ducking down a bit. Which was good, because Susie wasn’t keen on reliving their attempt to get inside the bank. 

The building was largely empty, save for the Pippins behind the counter and a Virovirokun “sitting” at one of the tables. The Pippins perked up as they approached the counter, brushing off the (seemingly already clean) counter. 

“Mr. Tenna! Lightner!” they greeted. They raised their eyes to look at Tenna more closely, their smile wobbling. “How are you feeling, Mr. Tenna?” 

“Oh. Uh. Fit as a fiddle, thanks for asking!” 

“Good to hear, sir,” the Pippins replied awkwardly. The two watched each other for a moment longer, matching strained smiles plastered across their faces. The Pippins broke eye contact first, clearing their throat. “So, what can I get you two? Just so you know, we’re only accepting Dark Dollars here now.”

“No, of course!” Tenna said quickly. “We just went and got my points converted, actually.” The Pippins grimaced, shooting a distressed glance towards the door in the direction of the “bank.” 

“Good to hear,” they said finally. “So… what would you like?” Tenna ordered something that Susie didn’t catch the name of and Susie settled for a classic “I’ll have what he’s having” because she didn’t have it in her to actually consider her order. After a moment of deliberation, Susie realized she had no idea what Kris and Ralsei liked and just had Tenna buy another two of the same thing. The Pippins took Tenna’s payment and dipped into the back of the store, returning with two large cans of soda. He handed them to Tenna and bid them farewell as they headed back out the door. The moment they exited the building, Tenna’s posture loosened, tension Susie hadn’t even noticed leaving his shoulders. 

“You good, dude?” Susie asked. 

“Of course! Fine and dandy!” Tenna reported. He handed her one of the cans, rolling the other over in his hands. Susie took the soda and turned the can over a couple times. Closer inspection revealed that she actually had seen this drink before. It was the same one from her room.The one Spamton had pulled out the day before when they’d struck their deal. She glanced up at Tenna, who seemed to have noticed how intensely she was studying the can.

“It’s one of my favorites,” he informed her. “Just the right mix of sweet and tart!” Susie pursed her lips, absorbing this new information. They continued walking, going nowhere in particular but feeling the need to continue moving in some capacity.

“Cool,” Susie said. Her finger lingered on the tab contemplatively, remembering how Spamton had chosen to drink it the night before. Out of sheer curiosity, she placed it into her mouth the same way he had and bit down. Her much sharper teeth pierced the can easily and the liquid began gushing from the new holes. She tilted her head back and let it drain into her mouth, quickly discovering that this was, in fact, not somehow the optimal method of drinking anything. Most of the drink bypassed her tongue entirely and just slid down her throat, causing her to miss much of the flavor. The bit that did hit her tongue didn’t taste half-bad though. It was definitely cola-like, but with more of a fruity flavor at the edge of it. It tasted a lot more like actual fruit than the drink from Cyber City. Raspberry, maybe. She didn’t know her fruit. 

“Not bad,” she announced, chewing the can and swallowing the rest. That part, at least, Spamton had been right on the money about, because the texture of this can was much more interesting. She glanced up at Tenna, whose jaw was currently about halfway to the floor.

“Uhm… good?” Tenna asked. He stared at her uncertainly, so baffled by her choice of consumption method that he hadn’t even bothered to open his own can yet. He was holding it in between both hands, the whole thing engulfed in white fabric as he held it. Susie flicked her eyes towards it and raised her eyebrows. “Oh! Right.” He looked down at it for a moment uncomfortably. He made an unsuccessful attempt to pop the tab, laughed awkwardly, and failed again.

“You… need a hand?” Susie asked. 

“No! Nope, totally fine! I’ve got it!” Tenna said. He tried again, to similar results. After another moment of shameful contemplation, he tucked the can under his arm and carefully tugged his gloves off of his hands, neatly folding them and tucking them into the pocket of his slacks. Underneath the gloves, his hands were strikingly robotic. They seemed to be metallic, the light glinting off of a scuffed but still largely smooth surface. His fingers were split into separate segments, held together by ball joints. If she looked closer, she could see small wires snaking through the spaces between segments. Susie wasn’t exactly sure what she’d been expecting, but it wasn’t that. Honestly, she hadn’t even fully registered the gloves as a removable article of clothing until now. 

“Dude, no way! That’s sick!” Susie told him. 

“Huh?” Tenna asked. 

“You’re like- all robotic!”

“Well- Uh, yes. You did repair me,” Tenna reminded her. 

“Yeah, but that was just your shoulder-parts! I didn’t get to see anything!” She flexed her fingers experimentally, comparing them to the segmented hands of the CRT walking beside her. “That looks gnarly as fuck! The hell do you wear gloves for?” Tenna’s screen once again took on a slight, embarrassed, pink hue.

“Ah- Thank you, Susie. I’m glad you find it… gnarly?” He glanced down at his hands, still curled around the can, his screen flickering. “It’s… I’m an older model, so my mechanics are rather… unpolished. Not camera-ready! It’s all about appearances in show-biz!” He said it with perfect nonchalance, as if it was just that simple. It didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest, so Susie couldn’t quite determine why it bothered her instead. Her tail, her actual tail, not the armor she wore over it, flicked in discomfort.

With another uneasy laugh, Tenna turned his attention back to the can in his hand. Cautiously, he curled his pointer finger so that the tab caught on the edge of the middle segment where there was a little gap between that and the ball joint that allowed him his mobility. Using this method, he was finally able to pull the tab up and open the can. Susie shot him a proud thumbs up. 

Tenna took a small sip of his soda, careful to avoid inhaling ninety percent of it in one go. He sighed, one of his antennae, the one that wasn’t crookedly held together with tape in a crude approximation of a bandage, twitching nervously. Susie watched him silently, trying and failing to come up with another conversation topic. 

“Thanks,” she settled on. She gestured to the drink in Tenna’s hand, seeing as hers had already been disposed of.

“Of course! It’s the least I could do!” Tenna assured her. He took another sip of his drink. “I really am grateful, Susie. For everything you’ve done for me.” 

“Hey, man, you’re good! You don’t need to keep saying thank you!” Susie laughed uncomfortably. “I’m just glad you’re okay.” 

“Likewise,” Tenna said. He rubbed his shoulder to drive the point home. “Well, we should return to the castle! Ralsei wanted you to meet him there, didn’t he?”

“Right!” Susie said. “Right, let’s go!” She spun around slowly, relocating the castle spires. “There!” She took off, leading them back to the main road towards the castle in an attempt to redeem herself from the senseless scrambling of earlier that day. 

They walked in relative silence. Something was clearly still weighing on Tenna’s mind, as evidenced by the nervous flicks of his antennae and the slight, uncharacteristic hunch to his posture. It was clear that there was something he wanted to say that he hadn’t yet managed to voice. Susie couldn’t quite bring herself to ask what it was. She knew she didn’t appreciate when people started trying to pry into her stupid feelings. He was probably just trying to figure out how to delicately tell her how miserable he was, stuck here in Castle Town instead of adopted like she’d promised him. 

They entered through the castle’s main door and Susie led Tenna back up to his room, still stuck in the guide mindset despite having gotten them lost at least four separate times that day. She followed him inside without really thinking about it, just to make sure he was good to go before she went to relocate Ralsei and Kris. 

He flicked the light on, and with the room actually lit, Susie could fully appreciate how mis-matched it really was. Large chairs clearly from different sets, a hastily constructed countertop, a table that, instead of actually being Tenna’s size, was currently rested on what seemed to be concrete slabs to raise the height. The whole room screamed of impermanence. Of Tenna not bothering to get things made custom to his height because he didn’t expect to be there long enough for it to really matter. It was a temporary residence. It was supposed to be, because she was supposed to be finding Tenna a new home. 

“Well, um. Thank you for everything again!” Tenna said. “I’m sure you… want to get back to your crew now!” 

“Yeah,” Susie agreed half-heartedly, still absorbed in scanning the room. Her eye caught on some old boxes stowed in the corner, haphazardly stacked on top of each other. She made her way over to them, pulling one of the ones that wasn’t a structural support across the floor to get a better look. “Hey, what’s all this stuff?”

“Oh! Just some old knick-knacks from the studio,” Tenna informed her, appearing at her side. “I try not to be sentimental, but-” He shook his head. “No, I admit it, I’m terribly sentimental.” Susie barked out a laugh. She reached out for the flaps of the box and, when Tenna did nothing to stop her, opened it and took a look inside. 

The box she had chosen contained a bunch of weird rectangular devices with names written on the side of them. It took Susie a moment to register them as VHS tapes, considering she was pretty sure she’d never actually seen one in real life. There were also a couple big sleeves with art across them that registered as old-timey vinyl records. 

“Geez, you really are old,” Suzie snorted, waving one of the records at him. 

“It’s not my fault music sounds better on vinyl!” 

“It sounds the same!” 

“NOT so,” Tenna corrected, plucking the album from her hands. “All those new-fangle devices compress the music beyond recognition! There’s just something special about a vinyl record! The crispness! The smoothness! The… grooviness!” Susie rolled her eyes as Tenna dusted off the jacket and replaced the album in the box. 

“Sure, man. Whatever you say.” 

“You can’t honestly tell me that a CD could come anywhere close to the audio quality of real, authentic vinyl!” 

“No one listens to CDs anymore,” Susie informed him. “You can just stream it.”

“STREAM IT!?” Tenna shrieked. “What on earth are you talking about?” 

“Y’know. Just, look up the song on the internet and play the video,” Susie told him. 

“WHAT!?” Susie snorted, still digging through the box. There didn’t seem to be much of an organizational system to his collection. Ralsei had probably taken care of it, actually, just grabbing whatever he could and stuffing it in boxes so that Tenna and the other TV World Darkners wouldn’t have to leave everything behind. 

“Yeah, dude. You can find anything on the internet.” She waited for Tenna to fire back with some quip about how the internet could have all the shit it wanted, but it would never beat the classics. But the reply never came. “Tenna?” She turned around, finding that the TV had shrunk a good foot or two. He was turned away from her, his lips pursed into a thin line. “Tenna, you okay?” 

“What? Oh! Yes, sorry, I’m fine,” he said, for probably the fifth time that day. “Sorry. Just… thinking.”

“...’Bout TV World?” Tenna shook himself, much like a dog shaking off excess water, as if he could dry himself of whatever was bugging him. He smoothed down his tailcoat, turning back to Susie with a newly restored smile.

“No, no. Just…” He knelt by her side, leaning over the box as well. He pulled one of the VHS tapes out of it, seemingly just to have something to do with his hands. “I never could understand all that new-fangle technology,” he admitted. “No matter how hard he…” Tenna trailed off, gagging on the words as if it made him physically sick to try and say. “I just don’t see the appeal!” he said instead. “You know what they say! ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’” There it was. 

“Hey man, as long as it can play Revenge of the Worm Wraith!” Susie said. Tenna giggled at that. Then, his screen brightened and he dove past her, overtaking the box as he dug through it for something.

“You said Worm Wraith?” he asked. 

“Yeah…?” Tenna didn’t respond, instead continuing to sift through the VHS tapes with a near feverish intensity. After a moment, he seemed to find what he was looking for. He pulled the tape free, holding it above his head triumphantly.

“A-HA!” he declared. “I knew I had this one!” 

“What’s that?” Susie asked. He passed it to her and she turned it over, finding the tape labelled Attack of the Worm Wraith. “Wait, no way! You have it?”

“Well, this is the original Worm Wraith,” Tenna corrected. “An oldie but a goodie! And all practical effects!” 

“Hell yeah!” Susie said. “I didn’t even know there was an original!” 

“I always preferred it to the remake,” Tenna informed her. “It’s a classic!” 

“Huh. Didn’t peg you for a horror movie guy,” Susie told him. 

“Horror is a classic, underappreciated genre!” Tenna said, almost insulted at the insinuation that he wouldn’t enjoy horror movies. He gestured to the VHS in Susie’s hand. “You’ve really never seen it?”

“Nah. Just Revenge,” Susie confirmed. Tenna hummed contemplatively, taking the VHS back from her. 

“You know, you could always… watch it with me,” he said softly. “I have a VHS player.” He glanced down at the floor. “Asgore installed it. So he could play home videos.” 

“Wait, for real!?” Susie asked. “Dude, that’s sick!” Tenna beamed. Susie got to her feet, scanning the room, and slowly, an idea began to form. Sure, Ralsei hadn’t gotten to the festival. And Kris had missed out on most of it. Noelle… she’d find a way to make it all up to Noelle later. But maybe, right now, there was a way to make it up to her other friends. “Hey, Tenna?” 

“Hm?”

“Are you doin’ anything tonight?” 

Some time later found Susie standing by the cauldron in the castle’s main hall, still waiting for Kris and Ralsei to make their way back. She had considered going out to look for them, but Ralsei had said to meet at the castle, so she didn’t want to push it. Not to mention that her luck hadn’t exactly been stellar with finding her way around town. Not that it was her fault. Castle Town just expanded too damn fast to keep up with. 

Still, it had been ages. Maybe Kris had ditched after all and Ralsei was waiting at the light for nothing. Would they… do that? They were the one that wanted to go to the Dark World in the first place! But maybe that phone call had been something bad. Maybe they had to go and just… didn’t have time to tell her. 

“Shit,” she groaned, shoving her hand underneath the glasses to rub her eyes. “Maybe this whole thing was stupid anyway.” She let herself slide down the cauldron until she was sitting instead of leaning. Might as well settle in. She had no idea how long she was going to be here, anyway. She tapped the frame of the glasses lightly. “You think Kris is gonna come?” She asked because she knew he wouldn’t answer. He didn’t. 

With no one to keep her company but the glasses, her mind drifted back to her discussion with Spamton the day before. She still didn’t understand jack shit about what was going on. He was a mystery that just got worse the more she thought about it. Puppet strings and fallen angels and now, apparently, some kind of weird history with Tenna that he didn’t want her acknowledging. Speaking of which… 

“Hey,” she started uncertainly. “Do you… want me to leave you in my room for tonight?” She waited for a response and received nothing. “Just, since we’re gonna be hanging out with Tenna and you’re… weird? About him.” Still nothing. Susie sighed wearily, dropping her hand from where it rested on the frame. “Fine. If you’re not gonna say anything, then you’re coming with me.” Spamton remained unresponsive, which was as good a confirmation as any. 

Just as Susie was about to say something else, she heard the large castle door swing open and the harsh clang of boots on stone. She got to her feet just in time to see Kris and Ralsei walk into the main chamber, talking softly to each other. She felt her entire body sag in embarrassing relief.

“Kris! Ralsei!” she called, waving them over. Ralsei squeaked in surprise, immediately breaking off whatever he was saying. 

“S-Susie!” he chirped. He made his way over to her, smiling nervously. “Sorry that took so long!”

“Just warn a guy next time!” Susie told him. She punched him lightheartedly in the shoulder. “Kris! I thought you ditched!” Kris shook their head, echoing Ralsei’s apology. “Nah. You guys are good,” Susie said. “Gave me time to set something up!” 

“S… set something up?” Ralsei asked. “What did you do?” 

“Well…” Susie began nervously. “It kinda sucked that you missed out on the festival and all. And Kris left early with me.”

“Oh, Susie… you know that’s okay! I would have liked to go to the festival with you, but-”

“AHK- SHUT,” Susie snapped. “I’m not done!” 

“O-okay!” 

“Anyway!” Susie continued. “I was thinking. Me and Kris’s monster movie marathon kinda got… interrupted.” Kris snickered, reminding Susie that it had only been shortened because she’d fallen asleep. “DID NOT!” Susie shot back. “And if I did it’s because it was a boring movie!” She crossed her arms, turning her nose up at Kris. “But… yeah. And Ralsei, you said you’ve never even seen a movie before.” 

“Right?” Ralsei said, his head tilting in confusion.
“So, I figured, who needs a stupid festival? We can have an Epic Sleepover instead! C’mon!” She grabbed Ralsei by his robe before he could argue, yanking him up the stairs towards Tenna’s room. Kris followed after them, giggling quietly the whole way up. She reached Tenna’s room and kicked down the door (as effectively as one can kick down a sliding door). “TADA!” 

Tenna’s room had been completely converted. The chairs had been lined up in opposing rows coming out from the wall, forming a frame over which a massive blanket found in Tenna’s closet had been draped. Couch cushions had been dragged from their normal resting place and instead laid against the wall. A bunch of pillows and blankets had been kidnapped from other rooms and thrown into the fort, creating a soft pile to lay down in. 

“S-Susie!?” Ralsei squeaked. 

“Welcome to your first ever movie marathon, Ralsei!” Susie announced. “You’re watching all the classics! Worm Wraiths, Claws of Death, Skullcrushers!”

“Those all sound- awfully violent, don’t you think?” Ralsie asked.

“Yeah, duh. That’s the POINT! Tenna, tell Ralsei horror movies are awesome!” 

“It’s an underappreciated genre!” Tenna informed him, sticking his head out of the adjoining room where he was doing… something. Presumably still rifling through his VHS tapes to see what else he had. 

“So?” Susie asked. “Whaddaya say?” Susie glanced over at Kris, who gave her a double thumbs up. Ralsei’s gaze flicked between the two of them uncertainly. His mouth wobbled, and he almost looked like he was going to cry. “H-hey! Ralsei, you good, man?” 

“Yeah!” Ralsei sniffed. He looked over at the fort, covering his mouth with his hand. “O-okay. Okay! Let’s do it!”
“FUCK YEAH!” Susie roared. “EPIC FUN GANG SLUMBER PARTY!” Kris pumped their fist in agreement. If nothing else, at least Kris seemed to be doing better. Maybe whatever that phone call had been about hadn’t been so bad after all. 

The three of them settled into the fort and Susie tossed Kris and Ralsei the sodas Tenna had bought earlier. Tenna returned as well, offering them some food from TV World that tasted a lot like popcorn. They spent a few minutes debating what to watch, finally leaving the decision in Kris’s hands, as they did with most things. After a bit of deliberation, Kris did, in fact, settle on Attack of the Worm Wraith, much to Ralsei’s chagrin. 

Tenna pulled off his tie and tailcoat, leaving him just his white button-up. He hadn’t put his gloves back on and Susie didn’t know why she found the fact comforting. He placed the VHS in a slot right at the base of his neck, and moments later the title screen replaced his face on his screen. 

“YOOOO!” Susie shouted. “Dude, that’s sick!” 

“Being a television does have its perks,” Tenna informed her. “Now, who’s ready for some WORM WRAITHS!?” Susie and Kris cheered excitedly, jostling Ralsei until he, too, let out a weak “hooray?” With that, Tenna rested his head on his hands and let the movie play. 

He had been right. The original wasn’t half bad, even if the acting was a little goofy and the stunt doubles were a little easy to spot. There were even a couple of spots that would’ve been totally terrifying if Susie wasn’t badass and unbothered by stuff like that. She definitely didn’t hide behind Kris during some of the jumpscares. That would be stupid. She was just… checking their hair for lice. 

This, Susie decided, was what made it all worth it. Being enveloped by blankets and by darkness, the only light being the flickering of Tenna’s screen as the movie played. Kris’s quiet laughter beside her, the vibration running through her from where their shoulder bumped into hers. Ralsei’s soft shrieks of fear that quickly gave way to embarrassed giggles. Tenna’s voice occasionally cutting through the film’s audio to drop a random fun fact about the actors. 

She reached up absently and adjusted the glasses on her snout. Maybe the festival had been a total bust. Maybe they hadn’t stopped the Knight. Maybe she still owed Noelle the biggest apology gift ever conceived. But as she sank back into the pillows, her eyes not closing because she was not tired, she could feel that little bit of hope flickering back to life in her chest. This. This made it all worth it. With her friends by her side, the friends who told her the truth and would always stick by her… If she had them, then she could do this.

Notes:

I'm thinking of consolidating this series into a more coherent, multi-chapter fic. As it stands, I never planned for it to be more than a one-shot, so I haven't put any real thought into plot and structure, but now I'm drowning in ideas. Now I kind of actually want to make this make sense. We'll see I guess 😭

Chapter 3: See-Saw

Summary:

Tenna attempts to reenact "functional family dynamics" with the oldest trick in the book: Pancake.

Notes:

I've elected to just continue everything from this fic (I'm too lazy to make an entirely new one). I've unfortunately committed to the "chapter titles as playground equipment" schtick, so expect chapter titles to start getting funky roundabouts chapter twelve or something.

Have some Tenna and Susie bonding fluff while I try to construct a coherent plan for the plot.

The first thought Susie had upon waking up was that she was horrifically late for school. It wasn’t a concern that she usually had, but it was more for Kris’s sake than her own, because if she was late, then Kris, who was with her, would also be late, and she didn’t want them to have to deal with whatever Toriel’s punishment would be. Probably some hardcore “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed” discussions that would make Kris wish they’d just been grounded instead. 

The second thought Susie had, however, was that Kris actually wasn’t with her at all. 

It made sense, she supposed, as her mind finally stumbled into some semblance of wakefulness. Toriel wasn’t the kind of mother to just let her kid vanish for the night. Kris had probably left their sleepover early to head home. It kind of defeated the point of a sleepover, but Susie wasn’t going to question them on it. Not after everything they’d already put up with. 

She rubbed her eyes, sitting up more fully from the pile of blankets she had been sleeping on. Further examination of her situation revealed that Ralsei had left at some point as well, presumably to go fulfill some boring princely duties. Tenna was missing too. He had probably gone back to sleep in an actual bed once they had all fallen asleep. 

She tried not to get too hung up on it. She was used to waking up in an empty room in an empty apartment. The others had shit to do. Wasn’t their fault that Susie wasn’t exactly an early riser. In the end, she was just glad they’d all hung out with her at all. 

It had been nice, in a weird way. A real sleepover, complete with drinks and popcorn and corny old movies that, no matter what Tenna insisted, didn’t always hold up. A quieter kind of fun than the Fun Gang usually had, what with all their adventuring and battling and the like. Kind of like the tea parties they’d had, just sitting around and enjoying each other’s company. Susie wasn’t used to having enough friends to do that kind of thing with. She wasn’t used to having friends at all. 

She crawled her way out of the shelter, shielding her eyes from the sudden onslaught of light. Someone must have left them on when they left the room. She attempted to stand, only for her foot to snag on some tangled blankets and nearly send her flying. She just barely managed to catch herself and carefully kicked the blanket back into the fort as she straightened up. 

Something was awkwardly digging into her snout and she reached up to adjust it, belatedly recognizing it as the Dealmaker. She winced and glanced over at her shoulder where the Jevilstail flicked behind her, seemingly unchanged. Hopefully she hadn’t crushed either of them while she was sleeping. Though, they probably would’ve changed back if they were really uncomfortable. So it was probably fine. She still whispered an apology to them both, just in case. 

Now that she was more fully awake, she noticed a strange smell permeating the room. Not unpleasant, but definitely different from the standard. It smelled like food, now that she thought about it. Something sweet. Had one of the others made food before they left. Had they made food and not offered her any!? 

“Oh! Susie, you’re awake!” Susie whipped around, hands raised in a defensive fighting position that was totally real and legit and definitely not just panicked flailing. 

Her eyes finally settled on the source of the voice. Tenna’s head was poking around the doorframe that led to the other room, looking over at her contemplatively. Most of him was still in the other room, but she could at least make out that he wasn’t wearing his usual suit. One antenna flicked curiously, waiting for her to lower her guard. She sheepishly dropped her hands, running them through her hair instead. 

“Tenna!” she squeaked. “Don’t sneak up on me like that, man!” 

“Sorry! I was coming to wake you up but…” He gestured vaguely at her. “Wouldn’t want you to be late for school, after all!” 

“Oh, shit, I thought I was late,” Susie informed him blandly. 

“Nope!” Tenna declared. “By my estimation you still have over an hour before your first class starts! Assuming classes still start at 7:30, it has been a while. Has that changed? Oh dear, are classes earlier now!? Did I miss-”

“No, no, you’re good!” Susie cut in quickly. “Yeah, it’s 7:30.” She paused for a moment, glancing awkwardly at the floor. “I think. I’m usually late so I dunno.” Tenna let out a displeased huff but didn’t comment. “Hang on, how do you know what time it is?”

“I have more of a connection to the Light World than other Darkners,” Tenna explained. He pursed his lips for a moment, thinking something through. “I’m not sure on the specifics, but certain details are clearer to me. Such as…” He did a small wave with the hand holding the door frame, a more contained variant of his usual dramatic flourish. “THE TIME!” Susie snorted, waving him off. He grinned at her, entirely undeterred. 

“Kris and Ralsei left earlier,” Tenna informed her after a moment.

“I figured,” Susie told him. 

“They didn’t want to wake you, but Kris told me to tell you they’d see you at school,” he continued. Susie gave him a thumbs up. “Speaking of which, would you… like something for breakfast?” 

“Breakfast?” Susie asked. He nodded eagerly, gesturing for her to follow him into the other room. She followed him curiously, stretching a bit as she walked to try and get the last bits of weariness out of her body. She found that she wasn’t nearly as tired as she usually woke up feeling. If she really thought about it, she was pretty sure this was the best night of sleep she’d had in ages. 

She stepped through the door and was immediately hit in the face with the full force of the smell that had been wafting through Tenna’s place. The adjacent room turned out to be an entire kitchen, which had not been what Susie was expecting in the slightest. It was reminiscent of the set from Tenna’s cooking show, though a bit smaller in scale. The source of the smell seemed to be the large pan on the stove, as well as the stack of fluffy brown items on a plate beside it. 

“No way!” Susie shouted. “Are those pancakes!?” 

“Close!” Tenna said. “Flapjax!” Susie blinked, eyeing the items more closely. 

“Isn’t that the same thing?” 

“Nope! My version is spelled with an ‘x!’”

“Whatever you say, man.” Tenna slipped past her, grabbing a spatula and bending down to flip the ‘Flapjax’ currently in the pan. She glanced up at him, finally taking notice of his choice of clothing for the day. His usual suit had been ditched for just his button-up, covered over with a TV Time branded apron. His sleeves were rolled up past his elbows, exposing more of his robot form. The plating on his arms was similar to that on his hands, a couple panels screwed together to form casings that hid the most critical components. The casings around his arms were a bit shorter, leaving more of his internal skeleton exposed. With his elbow exposed, she could see the mechanism of his movement far more clearly, the way a tendon-like belt snaked over the circular joint and allowed him to stretch his arm. It was fascinating, and it almost made her wish that she had been able to understand everything Spamton had been telling her when she fixed him. That she’d not just known where everything fit but why. 

She realized she had been staring and looked away to examine the room instead. The kitchen, too, was clearly too small for him, forcing him to bend over to reach the stove. His hands dwarfed the spatula and the pan where he held them. It was clearly modeled after his show, but it seemed like it had been built with smaller Darkners being able to use it in mind.

“Why’ve you got a kitchen?” Susie asked. “I thought everyone cooked in that weird cauldron?” 

“It’s not mine, actually,” Tenna corrected. “Ralsei and I share it.” 

“Wait, for real?” 

“Indeed! It adjoins both of our rooms. He added it shortly after I moved in.” 

“Huh,” Susie said, taking a closer look at the room with this new context. She hadn’t expected that from Ralsei. After all, he was the one who insisted that the cauldron was perfectly suitable for all his cooking and baking needs. But this… this seemed promising. Sure, he’d probably done it with the excuse that it was for Tenna’s sake, but he wouldn’t have connected it to his room for no reason. No, he had done this for himself. Maybe because he wanted to learn how to cook without using the cauldron, or maybe just because he’d enjoyed the cooking game on Tenna’s show, but regardless, this had been something Ralsei did to make himself happy as much as Tenna. The bar was low, but it still made Susie exceptionally proud of him. 

“Feel free to take some!” Tenna’s voice cut through her thoughts. “I made… a lot…” He chuckled sheepishly. 

“Don’t gotta tell me twice,” Susie declared, snatching the top portion of Tenna’s pancake stack and shoving it down her throat. Tenna watched her in stunned silence, his expression caught somewhere between happiness that his offer had been accepted and horror at the method of said acceptance. 

“Guess Susiezilla’s back on the loose, folks,” he said, settling on an amused middle ground. Susie rolled her eyes, grabbing another off the top and chewing it more slowly. “I… do have toppings?” Tenna said. “You don’t have to eat it plain.” 

“Nah. This way’s good,” Susie informed him. 

“If you say so.” He grabbed a bowl that Susie had failed to notice from the other side of the counter and poured some beige liquid into the pan. The instant it hit the pan, the room was filled with a sharp sizzling sound. He held the pan by the handle and rotated it carefully, spreading the liquid around into a more circular shape before dropping the pan back onto the burner. 

“I didn’t know you cooked,” Susie noted. 

“Well, obviously,” Tenna countered. “I’ve watched so many episodes of the cooking channel that it would be more surprising if I didn’t!” 

“These’re good,” she told him, finishing off the Flapjax in her hand and reaching for another. “Man I am starving.” Tenna’s smile wavered, antennae folding back uncertainly. 

“I- uh- I know Dark World food isn’t all that filling for a Lightner, but, uhm…” He rubbed the back of his neck and turned his screen away to stare up at the corner of the room instead. “I just wanted- You-” He shook his head in defeat, shoulders slumping as he lost a couple inches. 

“Dude, chill,” Susie said. “This is a hell of a lot more breakfast than I was gonna get at home. ‘Sides, still tastes good.” 

“What do you mean, ‘more than you’d get at home?’” Tenna asked. He bent down slightly, his mouth curving down into a worried frown. 

“Oh! Just cause, I, uh, I usually wake up late! So I always miss breakfast,” Susie corrected hurriedly. For a terrifying moment, Tenna stayed exactly where he was, unmoving save for a slight, angry-looking twitch in his antenna. But then he leaned back, his smile returning along with his height. 

“Well! In that case, I’m glad to be of service!” He grabbed the spatula, cleanly flipping the Flapjax in the pan and giving it a light pat before leaving it to continue cooking. “Although, you really should be getting to school on time. Your education is important!” 

“Eh. Most of that stuff’s useless anyway,” Susie informed him. He pursed his lips, looking decidedly displeased by that response. “Don’t worry about me, dude. I’ve got it aaaallll figured out.” Tenna let out a soft snicker. 

“Of course.” 

“Listen man, you don’t know what you’re missing. I’ve reached the absolute peak.”

“I don’t doubt it.” He flipped the final Flapjax onto the stack and turned off the stove. He moved the pan over to one of the other burners and dropped the spatula into the empty bowl. Taking the bowl with him, he made his way over to the other side of the kitchen where Susie could see a decently large sink, closer in size to the industrial kind in a restaurant than a regular kitchen sink. He dropped the bowl inside and shrank down to fit his hands inside the sink more easily.

“Hey, hey, hang on!” Susie shouted. “So you can change your size whenever you want!” 

“Huh?” Tenna asked, glancing over his shoulder. 

“What the hell were you doing with the bank yesterday, man!?” His antennae shot upwards in surprise before he abruptly snapped his face away in a failed attempt to hide that his screen had suddenly gone beet red. 

“I. Uh. I may have perhaps just a little incidentally maybe kind of forgottenIcouldcontrolit.” 

“What was that?” Susie asked, despite having heard him pretty distinctly. A teasing smirk crept its way up her face. “Couldn’t hear ya with all that mumbling, man.” 

“IforgotIcouldcontrolit,” Tenna whispered. 

“WHAT?” Susie asked, doing her best impression of a deaf old man who liked to use the term ‘whippersnapper.’ 

“I FORGOT!” Tenna wailed, burying his face in his hands. “I FORGOT I COULD DO IT MANUALLY.” Susie burst out laughing, one hand slapped against her forehead while the other clutched her midsection. Tenna stared at her, unimpressed, as she laughed at him for a solid several seconds. 

“No fucking way,” Susie choked out. She wiped a fake tear from her eye, just to tick him off further. Tenna let out a displeased huff, crossing his arms and pointedly turning his head away from her. “How did you forget?” 

“There was a lot on my mind!” Tenna informed her. He threw his hands up in desperation. “I’m a busy man!”

“Busy getting trapped in doorways. I totally thought you just couldn’t control it!” Tenna tilted his head, glancing back over at her. She paused, suddenly uncertain. “Wait, how does that even work?” 

“It varies,” Tenna informed her. He finally dropped his defensive posture and let the teasing go in favor of offering her a genuine explanation. “It is something I can control manually, but it’s also tapped into my emotions.” 

“Huh? How’s that work?” Tenna hummed contemplatively. 

“Think of it like this,” he began, lifting his hands to illustrate his point. “It’s like… It’s like smiling!” 

“Like smiling?” Susie echoed incredulously. He gave her an unimpressed look but carried on. 

“Think about it! When you’re happy, it’s easy to smile! When you’re kind of feeling neutral, you can still make yourself smile, it just takes a bit of effort. And when you’re feeling really bad, just positively glooby, then forcing a smile becomes almost impossible!” 

“Huh,” Susie said. “So your shrinking thing is like that? Like, when you’re happy, it’s easier to be tall, and when you’re sad it’s easier to be smaller?” 

“Ding ding ding!” Tenna announced, the declaration coupled with the loud ring of a ‘correct’ buzzer from his speakers. “We have a winner, folks! Of course, it’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of it!” 

“That’s kinda cool,” Susie admitted. Tenna stiffened slightly, antennae tilting forward over his head. 

“You think so?” 

“Yeah! It’s like that boss in Dragon Blazers who changes color during the fight! And you gotta use the colors to see how he’s feeling and it tells you what attack to use next!”

“Aha, yes, it is very much like the… evil boss of Dragon Blazers,” Tenna agreed shakily. 

“Nah, he’s cool as hell,” Susie corrected. Tenna visibly brightened at that, though a slight tinge of embarrassed pink remained on his screen. 

“Of course, he has nothing on the original,” he declared, jerking his thumb back towards himself and shooting up a couple inches to accentuate his point. Susie rolled her eyes. She still laughed anyway.

“Yeah, yeah, nothing beats classic TV.”

“It really doesn’t,” Tenna insisted. He turned around, finally returning his original quest of washing the dishes. After a bit of searching around the nearby cupboards, and smacking his head directly into the top of one of them upon trying to straighten back up, he was able to successfully locate a sponge and some dish soap, which he dropped onto the counter next to the sink. Preparations complete, he reached out and turned on the water.

The instant the tap started running, Susie’s vision snapped into full, brilliant color. Static burst along the edges of the glasses, fizzing nervously with barely contained energy. It was like contained panic, as if Spamton was holding himself back because of their deal but also needed to get an urgent message across. 

“WAIT!” Susie shouted. Tenna froze in place, glancing over his shoulder uncertainly. 

“Susie?” 

“Just- Just hang on a sec!” She wracked her brain, trying to figure out what Spamton was worrying about. She hadn’t said anything even close to referencing him, so it couldn’t be that. What was it? What had changed that would get him to react? Her eyes drifted up to Tenna, then back towards the sink, then back up to Tenna. Her gaze lingered on his hands. The metallic segments, the carefully structured joints, the exposed wires. She looked back at the running water in the sink. Water. That must be it. 

“Dude, are you sure you should be touching that?” Susie asked, laughing off her sudden panic nervously. She reached over and turned the water off. “Since you’re all… robot-like?” As soon as she said it, the panicked static settled down, though the color in the lenses remained. Bingo. 

“Oh! Hm.” Tenna glanced down at his hands, flexing them experimentally. “Well, it’s not like water is great for my electronics, but a little won’t kill me. I’m not that poorly designed.” 

“Won’t you like… rust and stuff though?” Susie asked. 

“Not as long as I make sure everything is thoroughly dried out!” Tenna replied. “Sure, there could be issues if the water gets stuck in places, but as long as I’m careful, it’ll be fine! Nothing that can’t be dealt with as long as I do some good routine maintenance!” Static sparked across the glasses and Susie took a shot in the dark as to the meaning. 

“Do you?” 

“Who do you think I am!?” Tenna asked sharply, resting his hands on his hips haughtily. “A proper star never lets himself fall into disrepair!” He held himself like that for a moment, the perfect picture of indignation. Then, his lips pursed and his height dropped down, much more intensely than it had during the rest of the morning. His antennae folded back in discomfort as he dropped his gaze down to the floor. 

“Woah! Hey, man, you good?” Susie asked quickly. She stepped up to him, her hand unconsciously drifting out towards him. 

“I just…” He let out a long sigh that crackled with static, like breathing directly into a microphone. “I suppose I have been neglecting my maintenance a bit lately. Nothing major! I still have to be camera-ready, after all! It’s just…” 

“Yeah?” Susie prompted. 

“Haha. I don’t even know what I’m getting so worked up about, it’s been years,” he said sadly. “And I always did it fine beforehand! But ever since…” He groaned, pressing a hand against his screen, around the place where his eyes would probably rest if he had any. “It’s been harder,” he settled on. “Must be getting old!” He chuckled to himself, but there was little humor behind it. It was obvious that he had completely dodged whatever he was actually trying to say, but Susie didn’t have it in her heart to keep digging. Not when he was short enough now that she could reach up and tap the top of his head if she wanted to. 

“Hey. Y’know, I can do ‘em,” Susie suggested. 

“Huh?”

“The dishes. I can, uh, clean ‘em for you.” The color in the glasses pulled back slightly, which Susie took as a sign of approval. This just kept getting weirder. She had half a mind to storm down to her room and interrogate the damn puppet again, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t go over well. Maybe if Kris loaned her some money to feed the rabid little guy. Maybe. 

“Really?” Tenna asked. “You’d do that? For me?” 

“Uhh… yeah? It’s not a big deal?” 

“But you’re my guest, what kind of host am I if I’m giving you chores!?” Tenna demanded suddenly. 

“Hey, don’t worry about it, man! I’d rather do some stupid chores than have your arms get messed up. Again.” Tenna grimaced at the reminder. 

“Well… if you’re sure.”

“It’s really not a big deal,” Susie told him. And it wasn’t, she found, even though she would normally rather gargle rat poison than do a chore. It was like when she was baking with Toriel. Stuff that usually would have seemed like work suddenly just… didn’t. 

“Well, in that case, we can work together!” Tenna declared. “After all: TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK!” 

“Haha, nice,” Susie said. “Didja come up with that all by yourself.”
“NO!” Tenna said, still in the same booming announcer voice. “IT’S ACTUALLY AN INCREDIBLY COMMON SAYING!” 

“I changed my mind, I’m gonna dunk you in the fucking sink.” Tenna snorted in response. 

“I’ve never been so betrayed,” he deadpanned. Then, he turned on his heel and clapped his hands together, antennae curving back as he contemplated something. After a moment, they straightened as he seemed to remember whatever he had been looking for. He dug through another few cupboards before reappearing with a large rag in hand. “You wash, I dry,” he announced. “And don’t get hit by the FIRE!” 

“If you throw fire at me, I’m hitting you with the pan,” Susie informed him. 

“NO FIRE!” Tenna confirmed. Susie rolled her eyes, but she did turn back to the sink and turn the tap back on. She reached for the sponge and the soap and flicked the cap open. “You might want to wet the sponge first,” Tenna suggested.

“I knew that!” Susie growled, shoving the sponge under the running water. Tenna held his hands up placatingly, failing to hide the smile at the edges of his mouth. Sponge now went, Susie doused it in a heaping helping of soap. Tenna had the good sense not to comment. 

There weren’t that many dishes, so the whole process went by relatively quickly. Turned out, the whole “washing dishes” thing was a lot more intuitive than people seemed to think. All in all, it took the two of them less than ten minutes before all of the dishes and utensils were washed, dried, and returned to their rightful place. 

“An excellent performance!” Tenna declared, dusting his hands together and admiring their handiwork. “I haven’t seen dishes this clean since the late 80s! We’ve got a natural on our hands!”

“Shut up,” Susie groaned, elbowing him in the side. He smirked and his height shot up a few inches. Just because he could. “Jackass.” 

Suddenly, his antennae stiffened, and his hands flew to the sides of his head in a comical display of cartoon panic. 

“Oh good heavens, look at the time!” he shouted suddenly. “You’re going to be late for school! AGAIN!” 

“Relax, man,” Susie assured him. “I’m always late.” 

“Be that as it may, I will have no part in perpetuating bad habits!” Tenna declared. He grabbed her by shoulders and spun her around, ushering her out of the kitchen and towards the main door of his room. “You have an education to get! A future to pursue! HOMEWORK TO COMPLETE!” 

“Eugh, don’t remind me,” Susie groaned. 

“I can and I will!” Tenna countered. “Out! OUT I SAY!”
“OKAY OKAY I’M LEAVING!” Susie growled. 

“Good!” Tenna declared. Then, after a second: “But not forever! I’m kicking you out incredibly temporarily, only for schooling purposes! You are, of course, always welcome here, and I’m always more than happy to see you, so please don’t take this the wrong way, I just don’t want you ignoring your education, education is very important, but-”

“I’ll be back,” Susie cut in. “You can’t get rid of me that easy.” Tenna coughed sharply, cutting off his panicked tirade.

“I- Right. Um.” 

“Me and Kris’ll probably visit after school anyway,” Susie said. “We’ll swing by.” 

“You will?” Susie grinned, shooting him a pair of finger guns. 

“Count on it!” Tenna smiled brightly, his entire screen lighting up. 

“Good! Good, I’m glad! Have fun at school, Susie!” 

Susie was about to remind him that ‘fun’ and ‘school’ were mutually exclusive terms when he suddenly seemed to remember something, vanishing back into the room in a panic. Moments later, he reappeared, now with a paper, TV Time branded bag in hand. 

“It’s all I had on hand!” he said indignantly, noticing her staring at the logo. “Consistent branding is everything!” 

“Hey man, whatever you say,” Susie said. He held the bag out to her and she took it hesitantly, peeking inside to find it filled with the remaining Flapjax from the kitchen. She glanced up at him inquisitively. 

“For the road,” he told her. “Since you… said you liked them.” He watched her awkwardly, tugging nervously at his collar when she didn’t say anything. She offered him a reassuring grin. 

“Fuck yeah!” she declared. “Thanks, Tenna!” 

“O-of course!” he said. “Anytime! Have fun at school!” She waved goodbye instead of reminding him that he’d already said that. 

She made a quick pit stop in her room to drop off the bag, her memory of yesterday’s corndog fiasco keeping her from making the same mistake of trying to carry food between worlds again. She went to throw them all in the fridge, but stopped halfway when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. 

Looking over her shoulder, she could see that the Jevilstail was moving more quickly than normal. Usually, it was just small swishes or flicks, indecipherable as intentional movement of just a product of Susie waving it around accidentally. But this movement was far too intense and continuous to just be coincidental. She looked at the bag of Flapjax in her hand, then back down at the tail. She shook the bag experimentally and the tail’s movement sped up in response. A slow smirk crawled up her face as the picture came together. 

She took one of the Flapjax out of the bag, then remembered the glasses on her face and, after a moment of deliberation, pulled out another. She put the rest of the bag in the fridge and brought the two she had produced over on the bed, just throwing them directly onto the covers. She didn’t think the two of them would care. Jevil had been in prison and Spamton had been living in the trash. This was practically gourmet dining. 

She took the Dealmaker and Jevilstail off and laid them on the bed as well. She waited for a moment, just in case one of them showed up. But the items just lay there, still and inanimate as always. Maybe they wanted some privacy. Or maybe she had misinterpreted the whole thing. Not that it mattered either way. 

“Share,” she commanded the two of them. “I mean it.” They both definitely struck her as the type to steal both Flapjax for themselves. Neither item gave any response, but she hadn’t really expected them to. 

She sighed, forcing herself to leave the room and make the long walk back to the gateway. Back to the Light World, where everything was still bad and wrong and lonely. Everything was so much easier in the Dark World. Here, she had friends. She had Ralsei and Lancer and Tenna. And the other people, even the ones she didn’t know too well, still treated her like she was worth having around. In the Dark World, she hadn’t managed to fuck everything up. 

But she had a responsibility to fulfill. She still had to go meet up with Kris, after all. They had plans to go over and weird convenience store guys to brutally prank. She couldn’t miss out on that. They had houses to egg! Chalk to steal!

And a beautiful, kind, amazing girl to somehow apologize to. 

Notes:

My program keeps trying to correct "Spamton" to "Spanton" and I fail to understand how "Spanton" is somehow any better.

Chapter 4: Slide

Summary:

Susie and Noelle have a perfectly normal conversation where neither of them is awkward and no one is weird.

Notes:

On today's episode: AroAce guy tries to write romance.

If there was one major benefit to the secret second world being located in the school closet, it was that Susie didn’t have to book it from her house to the school building to make it on time. Had she been at her apartment, she was certain she would have been just as late as she normally was. However, thanks to the optimized location of Castle Town, she stepped out of the closet just as the bell rang. Which was, for Susie, uncharacteristically early. Being friends with Kris was going to ruin her entire reputation if she kept showing up on time.

Another major benefit of her current situation was that the corndogs from yesterday, which had vanished upon her entrance to the Dark World, were actually still on her person in the Light World, which was a rare but exciting win. She pulled the makeshift sling off of her shoulder and wrapped the corndogs more securely. She’d split what was left with Kris once they met up in class. 

Corndog bundle tucked under her arm, she tried to slow her walking pace to something more leisurely as she made her way to Alphys’s classroom. Showing up on time was one thing, but looking like she wanted to get to class? She’d never recover. Besides, she didn’t want to get to class. She couldn’t care less about Alphys’s project or her grades or whatever. Tenna could say whatever he wanted, school really didn’t matter all that much. Not for Susie. She was shit at it. Always was, always would be, and that wasn’t something that was going to change. 

But she did want to see Kris. That was the only reason she bothered showing up at all. She found that listening to Alphys’s boring explanations about shit that didn’t matter were a hell of a lot easier to get through with someone to make fun of them with. Even if Kris did sleep through half of class the last time. She couldn’t exactly blame them. School was boring. 

And she had to check on Noelle. She wasn’t going to be getting anywhere near Noelle’s house anytime soon, so school was really the only place she could talk to her. She had to apologize for making her miss the festival. Really apologize, not just some shitty half-assed garbage. And find a way to make it up to her, somehow. 

The door to Alphys’s class slammed open and Susie stalked inside, ignoring Alphys’s nervous yelp at her entrance. She scanned the front row of seats and her eyes caught on Noelle, sitting exactly where she usually did. Noelle spotted her looking and ducked her head down, hiding her face behind the book she had opened. Berdly, sitting next to her, noticed the interaction and shot Susie a haughty glare. She bared her teeth at him and his eyes snapped back to his desk. That’s what I thought. 

She crept to the back of the classroom and claimed her seat. The seat in front of her was empty, just like it had been last time. Had Kris slept in? Again? Geez, what was the point of showing up to class on time if Kris was just gonna be late? They were never usually like this. Or… maybe they were. She hadn’t exactly bothered getting to know them before. She’d hardly paid attention to them at all. 

“S-Susie?” Alphys asked. Susie’s head snapped up, not used to being directly addressed once she had sat down. 

“Huh?” 

“You w-wouldn’t happen to know if… Kris is coming today?” Susie blinked. 

“Why would I know?”

“W-well, you’ve just been spending a… a lot of time with them lately! But it’s fine if you don’t, I’ll just-”

“Oh,” Susie said. “Right. I dunno. They said they were coming.” 

“O-oh! Great! T-thank you, Susie!” Susie grumbled out a half-assed “you’re welcome” and dropped her head onto the desk. Tenna said they were gonna meet her at school, so they were coming… right? They were just doing something worthwhile with their time before they showed up. Like sleeping. Or eating breakfast. Or just not being in school.

Alphys went back to whatever pointless nonsense she was teaching today and Susie tuned her out in favor of etching some dumb shit into the wood of her desk with her claw. Her eyes kept drifting back to the empty desk in front of her, waiting for Kris to finally show the hell up. It was weird that they weren’t here yet. Toriel didn’t strike Susie as the type of mom to let her kid miss all that much school. 

She was probably the kind of mom that woke their kid if the alarm didn’t go off. That made sure they had a nice packed lunch, made fresh just for them. Made them pancakes in the morning and told them to have a good day at school before ushering them out the door. The kind that ignored grumbles about how pointless and boring school was to remind her kid that their education mattered. The good kind. 

Or maybe not. Maybe she was too busy being weird with that convenience store guy to do it anymore. The instant she thought it, Susie’s mind spat the idea back out like rotten fruit. Toriel just… didn’t seem like that. She didn’t really know Toriel, but clearly she cared, right? It was all just hard to reconcile. But still, she didn’t think Toriel would really ignore Kris that much. Which brought Susie back to her main concern: where the hell were they?

The time ticked by, and Susie could feel herself getting more and more antsy as the day dragged on with still no sign of Kris. Maybe they were sick? But if they were, wouldn’t Toriel have called in to let Alphys know? Or maybe Susie was just overthinking the hell out of this and there was a perfectly reasonable explanation that was going to make her feel unendingly stupid as soon as Kris told her. 

By the time the lunch bell rang, she was so lost in thought that she followed the others to the dining hall instead of ditching. Usually, she skipped out on lunch. She didn’t need the reminder. The kids with lunch money at the counter and the kids with home-packed food in nice little branded lunchboxes. She usually left school entirely when the lunch bell rang and called it a day. Or drew dumb shit on the board of one of the empty classrooms. 

But today she went to the dining hall. It was entirely by mistake. She was just so out of it that she just got up with the rest of her class and followed the stream of people into the room, not noticing where she’d ended up until she stepped through the door and heard the acoustics change as loud conversation filled the air. 

She swore under her breath as she came back to reality and saw her location. She considered just turning around and leaving, but that would look a whole hell of a lot like retreating, and Susie had a reputation to uphold. What did she care? It was just a dining hall. She didn’t care about the kids sitting with their friends at tables when hers were missing. She didn’t care that the smell of warm food sucker-punched her as soon as she entered the room and made her stomach growl. Hey, at least she wasn’t empty-handed. This time, she had corndogs. 

Susie dragged herself over to a table in the far corner, occupied by two kids whose names evaded her. She went to bark out a gruff request to join them but found it unnecessary. As soon as they saw her approaching, they shared a nervous look before simultaneously gathering up their half-unpacked lunches and scurrying away. She tried to ignore the stab of familiar discomfort at the reaction. It was normal for them to react like that. The Light World wasn’t like Castle Town. She knew better. 

She dropped down onto the abandoned bench and threw her corndog bundle onto the table. She wished food could transfer between worlds. Partially because she had really wanted to share her and Kris’s haul with Ralsei and Lancer. And partially because she would have liked to hang onto those Flapjax that Tenna made. She hadn’t been lying when she said they were really good. But all in all, having a bunch of corndogs was a hell of a lot better than Susie usually did, so she’d take the win at least. 

Unwrapping her jacket revealed that she had five corndogs left over from yesterday. She grabbed one with the intention of eating it slowly, but somehow still managed to scarf it down in just a couple bites, stick included. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until the taste hit her tongue. Which sucked considering how much she had eaten lately. She’d eaten a ton of corndogs yesterday plus Flapjax that morning. That was practically a mountain of food! How come it was never enough? Though, she supposed part of it could be blamed on whatever weird magic bullshit was going on with Dark World food. But still! Stupid. She grabbed another one. 

“Um… is… anybody sitting here?” Susie’s skeleton made a valiant attempt to escape the confines of her skin as the voice, causing her to choke on the half-a-corndog stuck down her throat. She slammed her fist into her chest to force the food down the rest of the way, sputtering as she recovered. “O-oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, I was just-”

“Scared? Pfft, I wasn’t scared. You just… surprised me,” Susie said quickly. She looked up at her new companion and was met with Noelle’s nervous smile. The girl was clutching her lunchbox to her chest like a stuffed animal, or perhaps like a shield. Her hair hung in front of her face, partially, but not completely, obscuring the slight blush on her cheeks. She was always blushing like that, Susie had noticed. Maybe she had a condition or something. 

The two fell into an awkward silence as Susie waited for Noelle to say something. She had already forgotten what Noelle had said initially, and Noelle didn’t seem to be moving in the direction of reiterating it. She wasn’t walking away either, though, which left them locked in a weird limbo state where they just sort of stared at each other. 

Susie was the first to break the silence. 

“Uh… didja need something?” Noelle squeaked in surprise, as if she had also managed to forget that a key prerequisite for a conversation was the actual ‘conversing’ part. She kept one hand clutched to her lunchbox and tucked her hair behind her ears with the other. 

“I-I was wondering if anyone was sitting here? With you?”

“Oh. Uh, no,” Susie said. 

“Oh! Great!” Noelle said, before immediately slapping a shocked hand over her mouth. “Not great! Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that! I just meant that it’s good for me cause I wanted to- no that sounds worse, I just meant- I- I’m gonna stop talking now.” 

“Oooo…kay?” Noelle shook her head and straightened her back, her expression solidifying into something more determined. 

“Can I sit with you?” Susie froze in surprise. She glanced down at her haphazard lunch spread of corndogs and old dirty jacket, then back up at Noelle. 

“Oh. Uh, yeah. If you wanna,” she choked out. Noelle wanted to sit with her? Really? Of course, Noelle had said that she still wanted to be friends at school, but… frankly, Susie hadn’t been all that sure she’d meant it. She’d assumed that maybe she wasn’t thinking straight, or was just saying it to get Susie off her case. But here she was. Genuinely wanting to sit with Susie at lunch. 

“Great!” Noelle squeaked. She awkwardly slid onto the bench across from Susie, laying her lunch on the table. For a moment, they just stared at each other uncertainly, neither having any idea where to actually go from here. Then, Noelle let out a nervous laugh, hunching over to make herself smaller as she began unpacking her lunch. 

She largely kept her eyes down as she took everything out of her lunchbox, but occasionally, her gaze would flick back up to Susie, as if confirming that she was still there. Susie watched her silently, praying to anything that would listen that she would start the conversation so Susie didn’t have to. It was looking less and less likely by the second. 

Noelle placed a carefully wrapped sandwich on the table, followed by some kind of drink with a santa hat emblazoned on the side and a little container of fruit. She laid it out neatly and pushed the lunchbox to the side. The lunchbox, too, was holiday themed, Susie now noticed. It was a white, snowy background, with a design of criss-crossing lights across the front. The whole lunch seemed very thematically inconsistent. 

Suddenly feeling something dangerously close to embarrassment well up in her chest, Susie pulled her filthy jacket and its collection of cold corndogs closer to her. Noelle noticed the movement and bit her lip nervously. Still, neither of them said anything. 

Damn it, she wished Kris was here. They’d have something stupid to say that would, despite being either completely rude or completely nonsensical, somehow make the tension disappear. She always felt like she knew the right thing to say when Kris was around. Or maybe being around Kris just made her feel like there wasn’t a wrong thing to say. Like they’d somehow know what she meant anyway, even if it came out wrong. 

But Kris wasn’t there. It was just Susie and Noelle, and while she’d managed it in Noelle’s house just a few days prior, so much had changed since then. It was almost impressive in a way. Managing to fuck up whatever she had going with Noelle in just a day or two. She’d just started feeling like she maybe had a chance and then she’d gone and screwed it all up. But, Noelle had come to sit with her. Which meant there was still some semblance of a chance, and Susie would be damned if she let this go without a fight. Noelle was… Noelle was worth it. She was kinda like Kris. Special, in a way that Susie couldn’t quite place. Different from Kris, but also the same, and she couldn’t really explain why. 

“Um…” She coughed, trying to clear her throat, desperately searching for anything to say to cut through the awkward silence. Her eyes landed on Noelle’s sandwich, now actually unwrapped and in her hands. Susie had no idea what was in it, but it looked like one of the good ones, the kind with weird, fancy toppings that she couldn’t pronounce. She was staring. She still needed to say something. “Nice… lunch?” was what she settled on, which was not her smoothest moment but also probably not her worst. 

“Oh! Um, thank you!” Noelle squeaked. “I, um, made it myself! Fahaha.” 

“Really?” Susie asked. “Thought your mom made ‘em for you.” The instant it was out of her mouth, Susie regretted it, because now that she’d actually met the woman she was actually entirely unsurprised that she didn’t make Noelle her sandwiches. It was just that she’d always seen Noelle as the kind of kid whose mom made her lunch. Maybe even stuck those cheesy little notes in there. But that woman… she didn’t strike Susie as the type. 

“Oh! No, fahaha,” Noelle said. She smiled shakily. “Um, she… my dad used to, when I was little. But ever since he got sick… I don’t want him to worry. And my mom’s busy. Being the mayor is a lot of work, so…” Noelle sighed, her fingers curling into her sandwich and leaving indents in the bread. 

“Oh,” Susie said dumbly. “That sucks.” 

“It’s not that bad!” Noelle corrected hurriedly. “I was going to have to learn how to cook eventually.” Susie shrugged in response and finally finished off the corndog in her hand, drawing Noelle’s eyes to her lunch in the process. “Um. Your lunch looks… nice too?” 

“Yeah, me and Kris swindled the guy at the… festival… for ‘em…” She trailed off as she felt the guilt seep right back in. She was still no closer to figuring out how to make the whole thing up to Noelle, and without Kris here, she couldn’t even brainstorm! She stared down at the corndogs, suddenly feeling guilty about even eating them. “Hey, Noelle, I’m, uh…”

“I’m sorry about yesterday!” they said simultaneously, Noelle’s sudden rush overlapping with Susie’s weary apology. Susie pulled back, blinking in surprise. 

“Huh? What’re you apologizing for?” 

“I- I just- I said I’d go with you,” Noelle said. She turned away in embarrassment, placing the sandwich back on the table in favor of wringing her hands. “I really did want to go. With you. I just…”

“Hey, dude, like I said, it’s not your fault,” Susie cut in. “You’re fine. Not your fault your mom grounded you.” Noelle pursed her lips and dropped her hands into her lap. 

“I know,” she admitted. “I just… I wish I could be brave, like you.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, you climbed my house! Just to ‘bust me out,’ fahaha.” She tucked her hair behind her ears again, red once again rising on her cheeks. “B-but I was too scared to go with you. I’m still such a scaredy-cat, just like when I was a kid. I really wanted to go but… I just couldn’t.” 

“It’s cool, man,” Susie said. “I get it. Your mom’s scary.” Noelle let out a surprised giggle. 

“Maybe a little,” she admitted. “But she’s really not so bad once you get to know her! She’s just really busy.” Noelle smiled wistfully, staring down at her lap. “She has a lot going on. Being the mayor and everything, my dad, and…” She broke off and her body seemed to tense up without her even noticing. Susie almost went to ask about it, but she couldn’t quite find the right words for the question. “Anyway, she’s not that mean. She’s just trying to keep me safe.” 

“I guess,” Susie muttered, unconvinced but lacking enough data to back up her assessment. Noelle would know better than her, right? Since she lived with the lady and all. Still, Susie couldn’t shake the weird feeling that Noelle’s mom gave her. Something about her just felt… off in a way that Susie couldn’t quite place. She’d heard people describe someone as ‘sucking the life out of a room’ and thought it was a bit of an exaggeration, but Noelle’s mom kinda did. 

“So, uh… How long are you grounded for?” Susie tried, somehow managing to fumble the entire conversation even harder than she already had been. 

“Just a week!” Noelle said cheerfully. “It’s not that bad!”

“A WEEK!?” Susie shrieked. “FOR TOUCHING A GUITAR????” 

“No, no, it’s fine!” Noelle yelped, waving her hands placatingly. “It’s really not that bad!”

“But- you-”

“I knew better than to go in there,” Noelle said sadly. She laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. “I thought I was gonna get a month! Fahaha.”

“That’s… kinda messed up, don’t you think? Like, it’s your house.” 

“I…” Noelle stared down at the table as if begging it for help on what to do. Too bad for her, Susie had already checked the table, and it did not in fact have a comprehensive guide to having a functional conversation. Noelle looked torn, wanting to say something but unsure how. Or maybe not wanting to say something but unsure how to explain without out.

“I just don’t think it’s fair, y’know?” Susie said. 

“It’s… complicated,” Noelle settled on. “But it’s not my mom’s fault. The whole thing is just… a mess, honestly. I just wish everything could go back to how it was.” 

“Yeah?” Susie prompted. Noelle opened her mouth to say something else, but it caught in her throat and she gave up. She pressed her lips together and pulled her sweater tighter. 

“Sorry, I’m being weird again. Don’t worry about it,” she said quickly. 

“No, it’s fine!” Susie said quickly. “I…” She didn’t really have an end to that sentence. I wanna know? That made it sound like she was just digging for intel or something. I wanna make sure you’re okay? That made it sound like she thought Noelle was lying to her. She just couldn’t find any words that accurately conveyed what she thought and damn it, no one else is this fucking hard to talk to, why is she so hard to just talk to? It was like being around Noelle made her even more stupid than she already was. And the worst part was that she wasn’t even sure that was a bad thing. 

“U-uhm, I got you something!” Noelle said suddenly. “To apologize for everything!” 

“Dude, I told you, you don’t have to apologize!” Susie said. Noelle reddened again, but it seemed less bad this time. Flustered, sure, but not ashamed. She’d take that.

“Well, I s-still want to give it to you! Even if it’s not an apology! Just as a gift!”

“You- huh?” Susie blinked, then shook her head, then opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, none of which managed to dispel the weird buzzing feeling in her stomach. It was like someone had left an unattended jackhammer in there that was now bouncing around her intestines. Why the hell did Noelle make her so damn nervous? 

“HERE!” Noelle squeaked, shoving something across the table. It reminded Susie a lot of when she’d given her the box of chalk, though at least she didn’t immediately sprint away this time. Why the hell had she done that anyway? Sure, this gift was an unnecessary apology, but the thing with the chalk… she’d just done that. Geez. It felt like the more she got to know Noelle, the more questions she had. Not that it was… necessarily a bad thing. Getting to know Noelle was kind of nice in a way. Every new thing she learned was weirdly exciting, no matter how mundane a detail it was. She makes her own lunches. She likes horror movies. She played the Evil Route in Dragon Blazers in secret just to see what would happen. She still has an angel costume in her closet. 

“Uh…” She looked down, realizing that she had just left Noelle’s gift sitting there. “You want me to… open it?”

“If you want to! You don’t have to! You can totally just take it home and open it there! Or just throw it away or whatever, it’s your gift, do whatever!” Noelle laughed anxiously, her eyes darting around the room in a desperate attempt to look anywhere else. 

“Well now I gotta know,” Susie said. She echoed Noelle’s nervous laugh with her own awkward chuckle, grasping the ribbon on the box between her claws. She let the last of her nervous laughter peter out and tried to ignore that her hand was shaking slightly with anticipation. What the hell. She yanked the ribbon free and it unraveled easily. “Woah.”

“W-what is it!?” Noelle asked. 

“That’s crazy. I always see that in movies, but I didn’t know it actually worked! With the ribbon and stuff.” Noelle tilted her head curiously.

“It’s just like tying your shoes,” she said. 

“But it’s around the box!”

“It’s not that hard, really!” Noelle insisted. “You just have to be careful with how you tie the knot!” 

“Ha! Guess you know a lot about wrapping presents, huh? With your house and everything?” Susie teased. Noelle giggled, ducking her head in embarrassment. 

“When I was little, mom made us practice so we always had our gifts wrapped perfectly. It was like a Christmas tradition, fahaha.” Susie snorted as she laid the ribbon to the side. 

“That’s… kinda fun, I guess,” she said. She wasn’t sure, really. She’d never gotten the hype around Christmas, but maybe that’s just because she wasn’t doing it right. She wondered what it was like. A whole family, wrapping presents together while shitty Christmas music played in the background. Drinking eggnog or whatever that thing people drank on Christmas was. Baking cookies. It sounded… nice, if she let herself really imagine it. 

“Yeah,” Noelle agreed, voice soft and somber. Susie shook her head to snap herself out of it before she brought the whole mood down again. 

“So, what is it?” she asked quickly. “A bunch of roaches? A severed hand!?” 

“Close!” Noelle laughed. 

“No way. A severed foot.” Noelle laughed even louder at that, covering her mouth with her hand politely. 

“Guess you’ll just have to open it!” 

“Fine, fine.” She reached out and carefully lifted the lid off of the box, placing it next to the ribbon on the table. The inside of the box was filled with red and green wrapping paper, in keeping with Noelle’s family’s whole ‘holiday theme.’ Carefully, Susie dug through the paper and pulled the actual gift up out of the box. 

“NO FREAKIN WAY!” Susie shouted. She held the item out in front of her as if to confirm it was actually real. “YOU ACTUALLY HAD IT?” 

“Y-you… you like it?” Noelle asked quietly.
“Are you KIDDING!?” Susie said. “This is AWESOME!” Noelle lit up at that, clasping her hands excitedly. 

“Yes! I’m so happy you like it!” Her smile dropped a bit and she ran her hands through her hair nervously. “I, um, found it in my room with my old movies and stuff. I was going to buy you a brand new copy, but then I… got grounded… fahaha… But I only used two of the three save files! And you could just delete one of them if you want to!” Susie stared down at the case in her hands, the words ‘Dragon Blazers’ scrawled across the front in that familiar, dramatic font. 

“You seriously wanna give this to me?” she asked. 

“Y-yeah!” Noelle confirmed quickly. “I, um… I don’t really play anymore. And we were talking about it, and you said you never played the first game, so I thought maybe you might… want to?” She shrank into herself, watching Susie nervously. Susie turned the game over in her hands, stunned into baffled silence. She’d really gone looking for the game just because Susie mentioned she’d never gotten to play it? Not just that, she had been planning to buy Susie an entirely new copy? Why the hell would she do that? Why would she do that for me? 

“Dude, this is… This is, like, the best gift I’ve ever gotten.” 

“R-really?” Noelle asked. 

“Yeah! I’ve been wanting to play this one forever!” It was true. Susie had never gotten a gift anywhere near as thoughtful as this. She didn’t care that it was an old copy or that Noelle had already used most of the save slots. She’d… she’d really listened, when they were talking. She’d really meant what she said. “Dude, this is- th-thanks.” The thank you was stumbled and wavering, an unfortunate result of Susie having no idea how to actually say it without it sounding weird and wrong. Noelle seemed to get the message though, because her grin was the widest Susie had ever seen it. It looked like she couldn’t physically make her smile smaller even if she wanted to. Suddenly, neither could Susie. 

“G-gosh, I’m so glad you like it! I wasn’t sure, but I really wanted to get you something. J-just because you- I-” She broke off, yanking her sweater up so she could bury her face in the fabric. 

“We should play sometime!” Susie cut in. “Once you’re not grounded anymore!” 

“You… you still want to?” Noelle asked, poking her head back up. 

“Hell yeah!” Susie said. “We could watch horror movies too! Me and Kris and-” She cut herself off abruptly. “Uhm, me and Kris watched some good ones yesterday!” 

“You want to watch horror movies- together?” Noelle squeaked. 

“Totally! Dude, it is so fun!” She carefully placed the Dragon Blazers case back in the gift box, just to keep it safe, and replaced the lid. “You ever see Attack of the Worm Wraith!?”

“Uhm, I think so!” Noelle said. “Isn’t it called ‘Revenge of the Worm Wraith’ though?” 

“That’s what I thought!” Susie said excitedly. “But Revenge is actually a sequel! The original is ‘Attack of the Worm Wraith.’ It’s not even that bad, for an old movie. A friend of mine had it on those VHS thingies!” 

“Wow,” Noelle breathed. “That’s… really cool, Susie.” 

“Y-yeah. Yeah, it was pretty cool. Haha.” Susie grabbed the ribbon and made an attempt to re-tie the thing. She followed Noelle’s instructions of ‘it’s like tying your shoes’ and found them woefully lacking, because the thing she produced was nothing like Noelle’s neat little bow from before. It was decidedly lopsided, and only crossed over one side of the box instead of doing that weird criss-cross thing that Noelle’s knot had somehow done. Susie yanked the knot free and tried again, to similar results. 

“Geez, how the hell do you tie this thing?” she groaned. Noelle giggled around a bite of her largely neglected sandwich. 

“Do you want me to show you?” she asked. Susie felt her cheeks heat up slightly at the suggestion for reasons entirely beyond her understanding. 

“Uh… sure?” Noelle pulled the box and the ribbon towards her, once again setting the poor sandwich aside. 

“Here!” she said. She laid the ribbon flat on the table and placed the box on the line. “First, you wrap it this way.” She pulled the ribbon up over top of the box so the two ends overlapped. “But then, you wrap the ribbon together like this!” She wrapped the two strands over each other, resulting in the ribbon suddenly going directly perpendicular to its original path. She wrapped one end of the ribbon around the entire box and brought it back up to meet the other end again. 

“So that’s how it goes two ways!” Susie said. “How the hell does that work!?” Noelle giggled but didn’t actually answer Susie’s very reasonable question. 

“And then you just tie a normal bow!” Noelle declared, before proceeding to do some kind of weird knot-wizardry that was in no way a normal bow. “And… there!” She handed the box back to Susie. The bow had been flawlessly restored, as if it had never been untied at all. 

“What the hell,” Susie insisted, earning another laugh. 

“Don’t worry! It took me forever to get the hang of it,” Noelle assured her. “I got all tangled up in the ribbon one time ‘cause I cut it too long. And then Dess just kept laughing at me instead of helping me get out.” At the mention of her sister, Noelle’s smile wavered slightly. Susie jumped in, trying to keep her spirits up.

“Ha! So I’m not that bad,” she teased. 

“I was seven!” Noelle countered, brightening. Susie waved her off in a show of faux-dismissal, earning an affronted gasp. “See if I teach you any more after that!” Susie snickered. 

“Just wait. One of these days, I’m gonna be the best bow-tier around.”

“Fahaha! You’ll have to go through me first!” Susie let out a bark of laughter, turning the box over in her hands to examine Noelle’s craftsmanship more thoroughly. Okay, maybe she was overestimating her abilities just a little, seeing as she could hardly determine where one part of the ribbon ended and the rest began. But Susie was nothing if not determined, and if she were a betting man, she’d guess that Ralsei definitely knew how to do this. Worst case scenario, she’d get him to teach her. 

Noelle reached out to grab her sandwich again, finally remembering her poor abandoned lunch. She went to take another bite, only to be startled out of her seat by the sudden shrill sound of bell ringing. 

“Oh cheese and crackers!” she groaned. 

“Shit! I totally lost track of time,” Susie said. “Sorry.” 

“No, no, don’t worry! I completely forgot how long lunch was!” Noelle hurriedly re-wrapped her barely eaten sandwich and tucked her lunch back into her lunchbox. Susie awkwardly re-rolled her sweater to save the remaining three corndogs for later. “I just… I- um, I got so caught up with talking to you that I just-” She shook her head, face growing red again. “NEVERMIND!”

“Sorry,” Susie apologized again, mostly because she had used up her free trial of ‘good at talking to Noelle’ and was now right back where she’d started. 

“No! I, um… I really like hanging out with you, Susie,” Noelle said quietly.

“Y-yeah. Same.” 

“Once I’m not grounded anymore, maybe we can… actually do that horror movie marathon?”

“Hell yeah, dude!” Susie said. “All the good ones!” Noelle giggled as she tucked her lunchbox under her arm. 

“Well, I’ve… gotta run back to class. See you soon?” 

“Yeah,” Susie said. Noelle beamed before turning around and rushing to join the crowd of other students making their way back to their classrooms. “Yeah.” 

Notes:

I’ve noticed that I use jackhammers as a metaphor REALLY often. I have no explanation for this. I am not a construction worker, nor am I regularly exposed to the concept of jackhammers in any other way. I cannot for the life of me explain why they keep cropping up in my metaphors. If anyone knows why I seem to be possessed by the spirit of a jackhammer desperately trying to cry out for help, please let me know. I’m not gonna stop though. It’s like my brand now.

I think I'm gonna try to put myself on a more regular posting schedule for this, just cause I like to have structure for things. I'm thinking every other Sunday, so it can alternate with my other ongoing Deltarune fic. As for my ongoing JoJo fic..... DAMN IT HOL HORSE I'M SORRY BUT SUSIE DELTARUNE CALLS FOR ME. I'll get back to it someday, I'm too much of a completionist to ever leave something unfinished, but for now, the Deltarune fixation is eternal and unyielding.

Chapter 5: Monkey Bars

Summary:

Susie and Kris take a quick detour before their regularly scheduled return to Castle Town.

Notes:

Apologies for the longer update time on this one, my best friend and I watched all six Sharknado movies and I think it ruined my life. I'm actually setting down an update schedule after this post, so from now on I'm gonna be trying to update every Sunday (barring this upcoming one... UNLESS...)

Susie returned to class shortly after the bell rang. Not, this time, out of an intentional attempt to maintain her aloof personality, but because she just stood in the dining hall for a good while after Noelle left as she tried and failed to comprehend what had just happened. 

Returning to class revealed that every desk except for hers was now filled. This included the desk in front of her, left frighteningly unoccupied for the first half of the day. But now, finally, a familiar head of messy brown hair looked up from the desk as she entered the room. She couldn’t see their eyes under their bangs, but she certainly felt their gaze following her as she made her way back to her desk and plopped into her seat. 

“What the hell, dude?” she demanded immediately, leaning over her desk so she could yell at them more directly. “I thought you died or something!” She waited for Kris to laugh, or shoot her one of their stupid smirks and say something cryptic about where they had been. Or just let out an exasperated sigh and give her a perfectly rational explanation that would have Susie slamming her head on tables as she tried to figure out how she hadn’t guessed that in the first place. 

They did none of those things. Instead, they turned in their chair to look at her more fully, a strained smile plastered onto their face. It was probably supposed to look reassuring, but as was, it was perhaps the least reassuring expression Kris was capable of. It was a little creepy, if she was being honest. Not creepy the way Kris usually was, which was cool and funny. Actually creepy, like something with Kris was really wrong. Like someone had yanked thread through the corners of their mouth and was manually pulling their face into some facsimile of a smile. 

“Woah. Dude, are you, like… okay?” Susie asked. “You look like shit.” There were probably at least a couple more tactful ways to make the point, but Susie had never been a polite person, and she’d be damned if she started now. 

Kris winced, letting their weird smile drop down into something more natural. They were fine, they assured her, in perhaps the least convincing tone of voice Susie had ever heard. Geez, maybe they really were sick. Had they shown up anyway? Because they’d promised they’d meet her at school? Her jaw clenched without her input at the now all-too familiar curl of guilt in her stomach. 

“Kris, d-” She was cut off as Alphys began loudly teaching again, drawing everyone’s attention back to her. Or at least trying to, because Susie wasn’t about to start paying attention now just because she was actually going through a full school day for once. She did, however, at least lower her voice as she talked to Kris. Less because she cared about ‘not disrupting class’ and more because she didn’t particularly want their classmates listening in. 

“Dude, you wanna ditch?” she asked. Kris glanced over their shoulder, tilting their head. “Not like we’re gonna learn anything here anyway.” Kris stayed where they were for a moment, contemplating the offer. Then, slowly, they shook their head. “Right. Alphys’d probably tell your mom you were skipping.” Kris nodded in confirmation. “Ughhh, but this is so boring.” That, finally, got the slightest bit of a smile on Kris’s face. A real smile. 

They promised to get the hell out of there as soon as class ended before turning back around to ‘pay attention.’ Of course, Susie saw right through them, and just as she’d expected, their head slumped onto their desk within minutes. She wished she could do the same. Just conk out and be woken up by the bell announcing her freedom. But she was too wound up to relax, so instead she just had to sit through the entire lecture and try to find something to keep her from chewing on her desk from sheer madness. 

She wished that stupid old man was still around. Maybe school wouldn’t be such a drag if he was teaching the classes. Every other teacher Susie had ever had made her feel like a complete moron. But with the old man it had kind of felt like she… wasn’t. How epic of a teacher did a guy have to be that even she learned something? She knew why they hadn’t, but damn it, she had wanted to take him to Castle Town. He was the only good teacher she had ever had and now he was gone. Forever. Shit, she was never gonna learn anything again, probably. 

When Susie glanced up at the front of the class again, Alphys had scrawled something illegible on the board. It looked like math, but there were too many pictures involved for it to be completely math. She dredged her schedule up out of the depths of her mind and determined that this was probably science class? She really didn’t remember her schedule. She never paid enough attention for it to matter. 

“-flow of electrons.” Susie blinked in surprise, accidentally tuning back in without any intention to. Alphys grabbed a ruler, pointing up at the weird little diagram she had drawn on the board. “T-the electrons build up in the anode here, and then electrical potential draws them towards the cathode. This flow-” Susie groaned, burying her face in her hands. None of that made any damn sense. She was pretty sure half of those weren’t even real words. 

The rest of the school day drained away painfully slowly, drop by drop. Susie was pretty sure she’d have more fun just sitting outside in the hallway waiting for Kris at this point. Just being around this weird mumbo-jumbo was making her feel like her sanity was being chipped away. How the hell did Noelle do it? And then tutor Berdly on top of it all. Susie would rather have her skin slowly scraped off. 

Just when she was beginning to think that the school day was never going to end and she had somehow accidentally gotten herself stuck in purgatory, the bell finally rang to release them all. She was out of her seat in an instant, grabbing Kris by the back of their shirt and yanking them up. 

As she began making her way to the door, she glanced over at Noelle’s desk. Noelle looked up from where she was carefully returning her pencils to her pencil case and shot Susie a nervous wave. Susie pointed to her eyes, then to Noelle, then to the board in a series of gestures she hoped conveyed the vague concept of ‘see you tomorrow.’ Noelle giggled behind her hand, which Susie took to mean that her message had been received. She resumed her mission of booking it out of the classroom as fast as possible.

In the meantime, Kris spluttered awake but was unable to free themself from Susie’s grip as she dragged them out of the classroom. She meant to beeline straight for Castle Town, but Kris managed to regain enough coherence to remind her that everyone was currently leaving class and they would therefore be noticed entering the closet. Which was an annoyingly good point. So they went outside instead. 

“Man,” Susie groaned as they stepped out into the daylight. “I’m never staying in school for the whole day again. How the hell does Noelle do that every day?” Kris snorted, giving her a noncommittal shrug. “I listened to, like, one sentence, and I don’t think any of the words were real.” A shit-eating grin spread across Kris’s face and they quietly suggested that Susie could just ask Noelle to tutor her. Instantly, for reasons beyond her understanding, her cheeks felt like someone had installed an industrial grade flamethrower under her skin. 

“W-why the hell would I do that!?” she yelped, her voice shooting up in pitch far more than she intended it to. “Tutoring’s for nerds who actually care about passing. Besides, why would I wanna hang out with Noelle after school just to do more school?” Kris’s grin did not move an inch. “Fuck off, dude,” she groaned, slapping her entire hand over Kris’s face and shoving them aside. A moment later, she felt something wet hit her palm and ripped her hand away. “EUGH, did you LICK MY HAND!?” Kris’s widening smile told her all she needed to know. She wiped her hand on her pants, muttering vague profanities in Kris’s direction. 

After a moment, Kris turned abruptly and began walking away from the school, further into town. Susie stumbled after them, caught off-guard by the sudden movement. They were walking slower than usual, she noticed. Usually Kris walked at a pretty brisk clip, but today they almost seemed to be dragging their feet. Now that she thought about it, they’d been acting different ever since the day of the festival. Their voice was a lot quieter than normal, and their sentences were shorter and less frequent. Not that she blamed them, considering all the bullshit they’d all gone through in the last few days. But she worried about them all the same. 

“Uh… Dude, where are we going?” Kris didn’t respond, but they paused by the diner moments later, looking up at it contemplatively. “If you’re hungry then why didn’t you say so, I still got corndogs from yesterday!” She held out her wrapped jacket and Kris eyed it with zero attempt to hide their disgust. They told her that they had no idea where those had been. “Uh, in my jacket, obviously,” she reminded them. “‘Sides, I’ve been in the Dark World all night, they’re probably just as fresh as they were yesterday.” Nevermind that they had already been scraps by the time Susie and Kris got their hands on them, or that Susie had been scarfing them down too quickly to make any kind of real quality assessment. 

When Kris continued looking at her jacket like she was hauling around toxic waste, she shrugged, muttered a quick “suit yourself,” and grabbed the last corndogs for herself. She was never gonna complain about getting more food. She’d been eating like a king these past few days, and that was a streak she was more than happy to keep up. With the food finally disposed of, she shook the last few crumbs out of her jacket and put it back on with a quiet sigh of relief. In hindsight, she probably should’ve forced Kris to sacrifice their hoodie instead. 

She waited for Kris to head inside the diner, but after a moment, they seemed to change their mind and instead continued further down the street. Maybe they just wanted to wander around talking to people again. That’s what they usually did whenever they hung out. Not that Susie particularly minded. It was nice, sometimes, just hanging out while Kris visited half the town’s population. But today, they didn’t stop to talk to anyone they passed. Just another piece of data in the ‘Kris is being weird lately’ box that Susie was going to have to sort through eventually. 

“Dude, I’m pretty sure everyone’s out of school by now,” Susie said after a bit. “We can just head back to Castle Town.” Kris made a quiet noise of acknowledgement but didn’t otherwise respond. “Ooooor not,” Susie amended. This was fine, they could take their time. They’d head back eventually. She needed to check in with Lancer, it had been way too long since she’d hung out with him. And besides, she’d promised Tenna they’d swing by, and he didn’t exactly take being ditched all that well. 

Though, now that she thought about it, something was… different, these past few days. Him ushering her out instead of trying to get her to stay, the way he seemed to be a lot more subdued than on his show, everything about him seemed to have suddenly been shifted one step to the left. Still him, just slightly off center. It was probably just the near-death experience he’d been treated to. Anyone would be a little off-kilter after that. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something else going on. Geez, everyone was getting weird on her these days. Fight one titan and suddenly all your friends are having an identity crisis or something. 

“Dude, where’re we going?” Kris still didn’t respond. They still hadn’t stopped anywhere. And if they hadn’t stopped, that usually meant they had a goal in mind instead of just aimlessly wandering around, so clearly they were going somewhere. Susie scanned the area around them, actually locating their position within the town instead of just shutting off her navigation and letting Kris lead. After a moment, the road they were on finally snapped into its place on her mental map. 

“Why’re we going to church?” she asked. Kris’s quick glance over their shoulder confirmed to Susie that she had been right on the money. “Unless they’ve got more of that juice lying around! Dude, are we getting juice!?” Kris snickered to themself before informing her that, unfortunately, the juice was a service-exclusive thing. “Aw man. That shit was good.” Kris let out a quiet hum, though whether it was out of sympathy or agreement Susie couldn’t say. 

They found something, they told her after a moment. Their voice wavered as they said it, the words tinged with something akin to hesitation or uncertainty. They didn’t elaborate until Susie prodded them, at which point they stiffly reminded her of the code to the bunker. 

“Wait!” Susie yelped, grabbing them by the shoulder and spinning them around. “You found it!?” Kris grimaced. Not quite, but it was one step closer, and hopefully it would be enough of a clue to get them moving in the right direction. They sounded so ashamed, but all Susie could think about was the fact that they had made actual, meaningful progress. She’d thought they were fucked after the mess with Noelle’s mom. 

“Dude, you’re fucking awesome!” she shouted. She looked down, realizing that Kris had turned a shade greener. Which made sense, because she had been shaking them like they owed her money without even realizing. She sheepishly released her grip on their shoulders. They stepped back, picking at the skin on their hand guiltily. “Come on, man, this is huge! So that’s why you were late to school! You were finding clues!” Kris hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Well, come on! Let’s GO!” 

Sure enough, Kris led her directly to the entrance of the church. The two of them stood in front of it for a moment, just looking up at the spire towering over them. The church was pretty nice, if you were the kind of person that cared about that sort of thing. Ten out of ten architecture wasted on boring sermons and pointless prayers. Or, at least, that’s what Susie had thought before. Knowing what she knew about the prophecy now, it was hard to hold the church in the same contempt she used to. Knowing the pastor’s father… didn’t help either. 

She knew this had been Kris’s destination, but so far, they had made no move to go inside. Instead they just stood there, one hesitant hand lifted towards, but not quite touching, the door. Kris seemed almost nervous, though Susie couldn’t place why. Sure, they’d kinda trashed the church a little, but it’s not like anyone knew it was them. And Kris’s family came here all the time, so them showing up at the church after school wouldn’t exactly be out of character. What did they have to be worried about?

Susie was about to comment when Kris seemed to finally steel themself and make a decision. They pushed the door open with far more intensity than it deserved, grabbing Susie by the cuff of her jacket and pulling her in after them. The heavy church door slammed shut behind them, signaling their entrance to anyone in the vicinity. Maybe it was because Kris was rubbing off on her, but she flinched at the sound, waiting for Father Alvin to jump out and call the cops on them or something. Even though they were fully allowed to be here. What was Kris’s deal? 

But, just as Susie had expected, no one came out to yell at them. If Father Alvin was here, he was in his office and wasn’t concerning himself with stray townsfolk stopping in to do… whatever it was the people that actually went to church did. Pray at the candle shelf like Kris showed her? Snoop around the storage rooms to see if they could find where they kept that juice? Damn, maybe she was gonna do that now that she thought about it. 

Kris turned stiffly, guiding her towards Father Alvin’s office. The door was locked, as evidenced by the knob’s resistance when Kris tried to turn it. They stared at the door, hand curled around the knob, stalled in a similar way to how they had been outside the church. 

“So there actually was something in there!?” Susie breathed. Kris jerked their head down in a poor approximation of a nod. Like a puppet with old joints that needed to be forced, sharply, into position instead of moving smoothly. Puppet-

She imagined fifty dragon warriors beating the image out of her head with hammers. 

“Cool, but, uh… how’re we gonna get in if it’s locked?” Kris dug into their pocket and, after a bit of fumbling, produced a single silver key. Susie grabbed it out of their hand, holding it up to the light to examine it. “You stole his keys!? No freakin’ way, dude! How the hell’d you pull that off!?” Something on the wide end of the key caught her eye and she brought it closer to her face to get a better look. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kris freeze up. 

At the end of the key, a small picture was etched into the metal. At first, she had assumed it would be the church symbol. It would make sense, seeing as it was a key to an office inside said church. But instead, looking closer revealed a symbol that Susie had gotten far too acquainted with in the past few days. 

The tell-tale pine tree symbol of the town’s frigid, pain in the ass mayor. 

“Dude…” Susie glanced over at Kris. “Where’d you get this?” Kris’s shoulders curved inward and their expression gained more intensity. “Kris?” For a moment, they were frighteningly silent. Then, with a quiet sigh, they admitted that they had gotten it from Carol. The mayor. Noelle’s mom. Before Susie could react with the appropriate level of disgust, they hurriedly added that they had managed to convince her that they just wanted to drop some things off for Father Alvin. They were a family friend, after all. Carol trusted them. It hadn’t been hard to convince her to let them borrow her keys. 

The hurried explanation was the most they had spoken all day. It was more animated than they had been all day too. Closer to how they usually were. It should’ve been comforting. A reminder that Kris wasn’t doing as terribly as Susie had been worried they might be. But for some reason Susie couldn’t place, the whole thing still seemed wrong. Everything about this felt wrong. 

She chalked it up to Carol Holiday being involved. 

“Geez, no wonder you’ve been weird all day,” she said, punctuating the statement with a nervous chuckle. “I’d be losing my shit too if I had to talk to her.” Kris’s shoulders slumped in sudden relief and they muttered a quiet affirmation. “Why the hell would you do that? What if she stole your liver or something!?” She could see Kris blink in surprise through the small gaps in their bangs, their mouth falling open at the absurdity. They just stared at her, apparently caught so off-guard that they couldn’t come up with a suitable response. 

“What? I’m just saying, she’s got a weird vibe. Like, some kind of themed witch. Y’know? Like, Hanscom and Gertrude or whatever.” Kris completely failed to hide their resulting snort. They told her that those were not the names of the kids in the story, but crucially failed to provide the actual names as counter evidence, so as far as Susie was concerned, she’d been right on the money. They were also pretty sure that witches didn’t traditionally take livers, but again, no counter evidence was provided. 

“Hang on,” Susie asked after a moment, a sudden realization hitting her. “Why didn’t you just go over to her house then? If you’re a family friend? You could’ve got in real quick, gotten the code, and gotten the hell out!” Kris stiffened, their fingers curling to dig into their palms. They made a weird clicking sound in their throat, and their mouth hung open dumbly as words failed to form. 

She’d notice them snooping, Kris answered finally. If they went over, she’d want to keep them in sight. Ask them all kinds of pointless questions about how they were doing and trap them in the kitchen drinking coffee until the sun went down. They didn’t want to risk it until they’d exhausted their other options. Of course they didn’t, this was Carol Holiday they were talking about. Obviously they didn’t want to just go… hang out with her. Liver-stealing creep. 

“Damn. Yeah, good point,” Susie said. Kris’s face contorted into an echo of that weird smile from earlier and Susie pointedly looked away. She knew Carol was weird as hell, but damn, she hadn’t expected talking to the old hag would mess someone up this much. Somehow, Carol had managed to hit the rock bottom of Susie’s standards and then started digging. The sooner Noelle got to college and out of that house, the better. 

“Not like it matters,” Susie decided, trying to steer the conversation away from the territory that had Kris looking like they were going to collapse in on themself. “‘Cause we’ve got clues now!” She tossed the key over to Kris, who fumbled for a good few seconds but did end up managing to catch it. She stepped aside and, after another moment of uncharacteristic hesitation, they unlocked the door. They stepped inside, holding it open. Susie stepped in behind them…

And instantly remembered why they hadn’t thoroughly checked the office the last time they’d been here.

The office looked different in the light of a sunny day, but not nearly different enough. The same filing cabinets, the same bookshelf, the same desk. The note Susie had left was gone now. She hoped the pastor had received it and had understood. That she’d managed to somehow get across the point the old man was trying to make. The old man who was…

“Kris- Let’s just grab what you found and get the hell out of here, okay?” She stuffed her hands into her pockets, trying to ignore the tremors. Her eyes drifted, unbidden, towards the desk. She squeezed them shut and ran her hands down her face as if she could physically wipe away the sick feeling in her stomach. When she opened her eyes again, Kris was watching her, expression clearly uncertain. “Just hurry it up, dude.” 

Kris turned towards the desk slowly and their eyes widened as they made the connection. They mumbled a quick apology, stumbling over to one of the filing cabinet and digging through it. Susie meant to go over and look at what they were doing, but she found herself unable to tear her eyes away from the desk. Part of her wanted to open the drawer. Just check, for a second. Make sure it was still there. The rest of her never wanted to see it again. 

It wasn’t fair. She’d known the old man less than a day. She shouldn’t care about some geezer who’d probably been dead before she was even born. She shouldn’t be angry at his son for holding onto a piece of his father. Where the hell did she get the right? To wish she could just steal the last piece of his father the priest had left. It’s not like he’s using it, the traitorous part of her mind whispered. But the old man… he wouldn’t want that. He’d want to stay with his son, not go along with some random kid he barely knew. 

She felt something tap her arm and turned to see Kris next to her, holding out a small card. It reminded her of a business card, though it didn’t have any good branding. Kris handed it to her and she flipped it over, reading what had been written on the other side. It was scrawled hastily, like somebody just taking down what they were told in a meeting. Across the top was just the word “SHELTER.” At the bottom was a string of what had, at one point, probably been six numbers. It had smudged and faded however, maybe from being at the bottom of the priest’s filing cabinet for so long, so that only the first number and one in the middle were visible. A six and a three. Kris had been right, it wasn’t quite what they wanted. But it was a start. 

“Dude, this is… this awesome!” she announced. She handed the card back to Kris, who tucked it away in their pocket. “Uh… Isn’t the priest guy gonna notice we took it?” Kris stalled for a moment before shaking their head, reminding her that it clearly hadn’t been taken out in ages if it was like this. Still, even as they justified it, Susie caught the flash of something suspiciously guilty across their face. “Oh. Yeah, good point. Hey, maybe we can figure out what the other numbers were! We can, like, hold it over a candle and look at the shadows or something!” Kris tilted their head uncertainly. “I saw it in a movie once,” Susie defended. Kris shrugged, unconvinced of the efficacy of Susie’s plan but not particularly keen on arguing. 

Susie took one last look at the office, biting down the discomfort that being in the space brought with it. Of knowing how close he was while somehow also being completely out of reach. She hoped that the pastor knew how good he had it. A dad that cared enough to write a letter from the grave to let him know he loved him. A dad that cared at all. 

“Let’s get out of here,” Susie said quietly. Kris nodded, leading the two of them out the door. They shut it quietly and re-locked it, erasing any potential evidence of their snooping. As long as the pastor didn’t suddenly remember the shelter code and want to use it. Which, given the rate things were going, would be about Susie’s luck. 

Kris visibly relaxed once they left the church. Susie probably did too, though she tried not to make it too noticeable. Though, she still wasn’t sure what Kris’s problem was. Nothing quite seemed to fill in all the gaps. Was it because talking to Carol had (justifiably) put them on edge for the day? Was it because of the old man? Were they just nervous to get caught snooping? None of that really seemed… like them. 

“Dude, let’s go tell Ralsei!” she shouted suddenly. “Maybe he can help us figure it out!” Kris nodded slowly, but made no move to lead on. Susie frowned and jerked her head in the direction of the school, gesturing for them to take the lead again. Kris watched her blankly. “Let’s go?” Susie prompted. Kris’s body jerked as they seemed to remember where they were and they gave her a sheepish smile before finally turning around and beginning to walk again. “Finally. Dude, I knew that Noelle’s mom was weird, but how’d she fuck you up this bad?” 

Kris informed her that Carol had stolen their liver. They were desperate to get it back.

“Har har,” Susie replied, attempting to give them a flat tire but miscalculating thanks to their different pace. They jumped out of the way, shooting her a displeased glare over their shoulder. “Come on, you were asking for it.” They stopped where they were, gesturing for Susie to get in front of them. She raised an eyebrow and they crossed their arms. They had just gotten their shoes pressed, they told her. “There’s no way that’s a real thing,” Susie said. Unfortunately, she had no good follow-up when Kris asked her to prove it, so she begrudgingly took the lead. It felt wrong, being the one leading the way after spending so much time trusting Kris’s leadership. She would’ve dwelled on it more if she didn’t nearly fall flat on her face moments later as Kris swung their leg out under hers.

“Asshole!” she shouted. She stumbled forward until she regained her balance, at which point she whirled on Kris and smacked them in the shoulder. “What was that for!” They raised an eyebrow, presumably reminding her of the attempted flat tire. “Yeah, but it didn’t work when I did it, so it doesn’t count!” Kris reminded her that attempted murder is still counted as a crime. They took a taunting step forward and Susie jumped back. “Oh hell no! I’m getting out of here.” She turned and took off, booking it towards the school at full sprint. 

“Last one there’s a fresh egg!” she shouted over her shoulder. Kris froze in surprise, but caught on after a second. They lunged forward, kicking themself into a sprint as they raced after her. It was more energy than she’d seen from them all day. But there was no way in hell she was letting them win just because they were having a shitty day. She had a code about these things, and that code was that nothing beat the smooth taste of victory. 

Kris was somehow gaining on her now, probably due to the fact that she’d wasted energy watching them when she started running (and definitely not because Kris was somehow faster than her). She picked up her pace, sprinting towards the approaching figure of the library building. By doing this, she managed to completely misjudge her momentum, leaving her hurtling towards the wall with no way to effectively turn out of the way. 

A wiser man would have skidded to a halt, turned, and then began running again. However, doing so would allow Kris to pass her, giving them a lead that she might not be able to make up, and that could not be permitted. So, in the split second she had to make the call, Susie decided to instead slam directly into the wall, ricochet off of it, and continue running through the pain.

She heard Kris bark out a breathy laugh behind her at the maneuver, but didn’t risk losing time by glancing back at them. It was a straight shot to the school now, which should’ve made everything easier. Unfortunately, all it did was make her painfully aware of how much further she had to run as her lungs began to burn from the prolonged sprinting. She ran around a lot in the Dark Worlds, but usually that running was coupled with a healthy dose of adrenaline. She had forgotten how much harder running was when the other option wasn’t literal death. 

But losing the race was almost as bad, and Susie was no quitter. So she buckled down and forced herself to somehow pick up the pace. All she could hear was the sound of her shoes slapping on pavement and her rough, heavy breathing. If she focused, she could hear Kris behind her, falling slightly behind. Perfect. She’d known she was faster. 

The school appeared in front of her and she dove for the door, yanking the door open and practically falling into the building. The moment she was inside, she smacked her hand onto the wall to support herself. Her breath was coming out in weak, ragged gasps, and she could feel sweat on the back of her neck. She could taste iron in her mouth and wondered, briefly, if she had somehow managed to rupture her lungs. 

The door slammed open and Kris stumbled inside, chest heaving as they tried to catch their breath. Susie meant to laugh at them, but it just came out as a silent disruption in her breathing pattern. Still, judging by the glare they gave her, they got the point. 

“I- win-” she managed to wheeze out. Kris, wisely, decided to save their breath and give her a shaky middle finger instead. She laughed again, with greater success. “Hah! Guess you’re- an egg now, loser.” Kris rolled their eyes, sliding down the wall so they could sit on the floor and catch their breath. Susie followed suit. 

“Dude, y’know people do that shit for fun? What kind of sport is ‘cross country’ anyway? ” Kris reminded her that they had just done it for fun. “Nuh uh. That was competition. There’s a difference.” Kris raised their eyebrows. Was cross country not a competition then? Given the whole ‘team sport’ nature. “Shut up!” Susie snapped. “I don’t run around for no reason every day after school.” Kris’s mouth curved into a smirk. “AND DON’T-” Susie shouted, cutting them off just as they opened their mouth, “-SAY THE DARK WORLD. That’s purposeful running. Cross country is just… running around for no reason!” Kris shrugged defeatedly, their smirk remaining in place. “Screw you, man.” 

The two of them stayed on the floor a bit longer, past the point of actually recovering from their sudden race. Susie found that the consequences seemed to fade away just as quickly as they came, which was nice. She didn’t want to spend any longer being that aware of her heartbeat. Still, they remained on the floor far longer than they probably explicitly needed to. Eventually, though, they decided to actually get on with the whole point of their return to the school and reluctantly dragged themselves up off the floor.

Kris took the lead again, making their way over to the closet. They quickly scanned the area around them to make sure there were no stray people around. Fortunately, the school was just as empty as it normally was at this hour. They didn’t need anyone else getting caught up in the Dark Worlds like Noelle and Berdly. It was just their thing. Her and Kris. It was better that no one else knew it was real. Even… even Noelle. 

“Once we get in there, we gotta go find Lancer,” Susie told Kris. “I haven’t seen him in forever!” Kris rolled their eyes and informed her that she sounded like Ralsei. It had only been two days. Susie didn’t dignify that with a response. With a final, degrading snicker, Kris opened the door and stepped through, vanishing instantly as they fell into the darkness. 

Susie’s hand lingered on the closet door. This was good. Everything was… good. Tenna was being a little weird, but he seemed okay for now despite not being adopted. Noelle didn’t hate her. She still wanted to be friends! Kris was a bit off, but they were probably just exhausted from everything going on. Everything was going better now. And they even had a clue now! An actual clue! With Ralsei’s help, it was only a matter of time they got that shelter busted open. 

So Susie stepped into the closet and set aside the nagging voice in her head trying to convince her that when she’d spied the code inside Noelle’s guitar, there hadn’t been a six in it at all. 

Notes:

This chapter was fighting me all week. Was it because of the Sharknado movies? Was it because I have a VERY specific scene I'm working towards but no idea how to freaking get there? Some combination of the two? WHO KNOWS. But it's written and I'm okay enough with how it turned out to put it up. Such are the trials of writing a fic that wasn't ever supposed to go on this long (THE VOICES. THE VOICESSS).

Thank you so much to everyone who's been following this fic and leaving comments. I'm awful at responding to comments because I overthink everything, but I read all of them while kicking my feet like an anime girl. You guys are the best. I'm trying to get better about responding, but if I haven't responded to your comment, please know it's only because I wrote five responses, thought all of them made me sound like the world's biggest moron, and chickened out.

Chapter 6: Spring Rider

Summary:

The Fun Gang has a much-needed hangout in Castle Town.

Notes:

I'm still thinking about those Sharknado movies. I think they dealt me irreversible psychic harm. If I ever stop posting, it's cause I succumbed to some kind of Sharknado-induced psychosis.

In the end, Susie didn’t actually have to do any searching to find Lancer. Seemingly sensing her intentions, or perhaps simply because he had also noticed the disgustingly long time since they’d seen each other, he took matters into his own hands. She had hardly recovered from the transition between worlds when the little guy barrelled into her, nearly knocking her back into the gateway and up to the Light World all over again. 

“Susie!” Lancer shouted, latching onto her midsection like a koala. “Blue Kris, whose name I know now and also knew the whole time!” 

“Lancer!” Susie sputtered. She peeled him off of her and held him out in front of her like a scruffed cat. He didn’t seem to mind. “Man, it’s been way too long. How’d you know we were here?” 

“Oh, I had no idea! The toothpaste prince told me you’d come back today, so I just waited here!” Susie blinked, setting him down in her concern. 

“You’ve just been… waiting here all day?”

“Yep!” 

“Lancer-”

“Except when I got hungry and went back to the bakery. And also I had to chase a weird bug. You should’ve seen it, it was thiissss big!” He held his arms out to demonstrate, but couldn’t seem to actually pinpoint a size and instead just kept moving them back and forth until Susie couldn’t even begin to guess. 

“No way, dude. Did you catch it!?”

“No,” Lancer admitted shamefully. “Pretty sure it was cheating, though.” 

“Damn. Dick move,” Susie said.

“Yeah! ‘Word I Can’t Say’ move!” Lancer agreed. Susie snorted, reaching out to grab his head in a gesture that would normally be ruffling his hair but turned into something more akin to flattening a bouncy ball. He giggled anyway, beaming up at her. 

“Man, it is good to see you,” Susie told him. 

“Likewise!” Lancer chirped, his upbeat voice contrasting endearingly with his occasional old man vocabulary. “It’s a shame I couldn’t join you on your most recent venture. I’m sure you had oodles and oodles of fun!” 

“Oh. Yeah, uh… where were you?” 

“I got stuck in a hole,” Lancer admitted. 

“Couldn’t you just… dig yourself out?” 

“Oh yeah!” Lancer said. “But it was a really comfortable hole.” Susie barked out a laugh and Lancer joined in moments later. 

“C’mon, let’s get out of here,” Susie said. She snatched Lancer again, plopping him onto her shoulders and earning another excited laugh in exchange. She glanced over at Kris, who shot her a blank-faced thumbs-up. “Lead the way, weirdo.” 

Kris led the way into Castle Town, up past the stone walls and into the town proper. Ralsei was by the entrance when they arrived, making polite conversation with a Ponman outside the newly (and unfortunately) rebranded Love Dojo. It was good to see, even if Ralsei’s posture was a bit stiff and he kept staring at the floor. He needed to hang out with more people, in Susie’s opinion. Do things for himself instead of spending all his time waiting for Susie and Kris to come back. Like baking in that kitchen he’d added, or decorating his room more, or making awkward small talk with other Darkners. The damn guy needed to live a little. 

He glanced in their direction and startled when he noticed them. He nearly tripped over his robe as he tried to quickly excuse himself from the conversation and run to their side. He then somehow managed to almost trip again when he reached them. Susie lunged forward and snagged him by the scarf, pulling him back to a stable standing position. Kris coughed into their fist to cover up their amused snicker. 

“Thanks,” Ralsei said, cheeks blazing red. 

“No prob, man,” Susie told him. “What’s up?”

“O-oh! Nothing, I’ve just been… talking to some of the other Darkners.” Kris tilted their head curiously, indicating that Ralsei should continue. He wrung his hands nervously. “Well, I realized that I don’t actually know them all that well. And since I’m technically their leader now, I… I just wanted to check in on them. Things here have been changing so quickly, it’s probably been… stressful…”

“Wowie! That sounds like a ton of work!” Lancer commented from his perch on Susie’s shoulders. “Good thing I’m not in charge anymore!” 

“Heh. You had some pretty good rules when you were running the place,” Susie recalled. 

“That I did!” Lancer agreed proudly. “But I already have a very busy schedule. No time to waste doing stuff like ‘making rules’ and ‘collecting taxes.’” 

“We don’t… have taxes?” Ralsei commented quietly. Lancer ignored him. “Anyway, um, how was school?”

“Terrible,” Susie informed him. Kris nodded solemnly. 

“Oh. Sorry?” Ralsei offered. 

“You should quit!” Lancer suggested. 

“I wish,” Susie agreed. “But apparently it’s a crime.” 

“I love crime!” Lancer chirped. “Crime and punishment! My two favorite things!” 

“Seriously?” Susie asked. 

“No!” Lancer reported cheerfully. “I just thought they sounded cool together!” Susie snorted, swatting blindly at him and missing due to the limited mobility him being on her shoulders gave her. 

“What about your project?” Ralsei asked. Instantly, Kris and Susie froze. Her eyes slid over to look at them, mouth pulled down awkwardly. 

“Riiiiight,” she said slowly. “Our project. Which we have and are definitely done with.” 

“SUSIE!” Ralsei squawked. “School is important!” 

“It’s fine,” Susie said, waving him off. “It’s not even due yet. We still have…” She paused, trying to remember the due date. “Kris, when’s it due?” Kris shrugged helplessly. 

“You don’t even know when it’s due!?” Ralsei demanded. 

“I know it’s not due yet,” Susie corrected. Kris nodded in agreement. Ralsei stared at them both, mouth hanging open in the most dumbfounded expression Susie had ever seen. 

“How much work on it have you done!?” Ralsei asked. 

“Uh… We have a group?” Susie said, gesturing to herself and the grinning Kris next to her. Ralsei’s hand smacked into his face with enough force that she worried he was going to give himself a concussion. 

“School is important!” he repeated. 

“Ehh,” Susie said. 

“Who needs school when you have holes!” Lancer added. 

“What he said!” Susie agreed. 

“Oh my…” Ralsei shook his head, beckoning the two of them closer. “Here, tell me what your project is about. I can help!” Susie opened her mouth to answer, then halted where she was, suddenly starkly reminded of the one major issue with that suggestion. 

“Uh…” She turned to Kris, leaning down to their level. “Kris, what the fuck is our project about?” Kris whispered back that they had no fucking clue. 

“Wo-HO!” Lancer shouted. “A tier three swear word!” 

“You guys!” Ralsei wailed. “I can’t be part of this! You need to work on your project!” 

“Come on, man,” Susie said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “It’s just one project.”

“But-”

“We’ll figure it out. We just gotta ask Noelle about it!” Kris nodded eagerly. 

“I really think you two ought to go back and finish your project,” Ralsei said sadly. 

“DON’T banish us again!” Susie cut in quickly. “Our grades are fine, we can half-ass one project.” It was a bold-faced lie, Susie was probably failing all of her classes, but Ralsei didn’t need to know that. 

“Well…” Kris knelt down, forcing Ralsei to look down at them. They clasped their hands, shaking their bangs out of their eyes so they could subject Ralsei to the full force of their (scarily effective) puppy-dog eyes. Ralsei stared down at them, mouth wobbling as he tried to fight against Kris’s fool-proof manipulation. Susie snickered, dropping down next to them and trying her best to imitate the expression they were making. She couldn’t see him on her shoulders, but she trusted Lancer to also put in his best effort in this team endeavor. 

“I- but- um- you- I- okay FINE!” Ralsei shouted finally, tugging on his ears in exasperation. 

“LET’S GO!” Susie yelled. She jumped to her feet, keeping one hand on Lancer’s back to prevent him from falling. Kris leapt up as well and the two shared a crisp high five. 

“But just for today!” Ralsei added quickly. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” 

“A-and I expect you to have your topic picked out tomorrow so I can help you with it! I-I mean, obviously you can’t bring it directly with you, but we can still brainstorm together! Which we will. ” 

“You can count on us!” Susie declared, jerking her thumb towards herself dramatically. 

“Oh, oh, I can help too!” Lancer said. “I can eat your homework!” 

“Heh, you’ll have to beat me to it!”

“SUSIE!” 

“I’m kidding! Mostly…” Ralsei huffed in disbelief, crossing his arms. “Alright, enough with the homework talk. I’ve had enough school to last me a lifetime.” Kris let out a weary huff, nodding in agreement. “So! What should we do?” She glanced around at her companions, earning a shrug from Kris, a ‘whatever you want to do is okay with me!’ from Ralsei, and an utterly incomprehensible activity from Lancer. Which, to be honest, she probably should’ve seen coming. 

“Well, I promised Tenna we’d swing by, so we should do that later,” she noted. And she had to go make sure her room wasn’t trashed, but that was something she’d rather do alone. She didn’t want to explain everything quite yet. Especially since she had no idea if Spamton’s whole ‘don’t tell anyone I was involved’ thing was just for Tenna or if he didn’t want anybody to know. She’d rather not find out the hard way. “Anybody?” She glanced over at Kris, seeing as they were usually the one to lead their excursions. They just stood where they were, hands hooked onto the pants of their armor in a way that very clearly showed they wanted pockets to stick them in. 

“Oh, hey, wait a sec!” She grabbed Ralsei and Kris with each hand, yanking them towards the TV building. Fortunately for her and her lack of directional abilities, it was one of the main buildings in town and had been built pretty close to the main road, making it far easier to locate than the evil bank from yesterday. “Lancer should join our band!” 

“Oh boy! Music!” Lancer chirped. 

“O-oh! I guess we could play the music games again,” Ralsei said. He glanced over at Kris, fiddling with his scarf. “If… that’s okay with you, Kris?” Kris glanced at the floor, the hint of what seemed like a grimace curling their lips. But then they looked back up and met Susie’s expectant gaze and, hand scratching the back of their neck nervously, agreed to play a few rounds. 

“ALRIGHT! LET’S ROCK!” Susie declared. 

“And roll!” Lancer added. 

“YOU KNOW IT!” 

Their first round was… interesting to say the least. Lancer had no instrument prepared, so he shared the drums with Susie, which resulted in the two of them constantly hitting each other with the sticks instead of the actual drums. Kris was also struggling, having apparently forgotten how to play the guitar since the last time they played the games in the TV building. They were sweating profusely, constantly missing notes even on the easiest level. Ralsei was, unfairly, nailing the singing portion. 

But Susie wasn’t one to give up, and with a few tweaks, they managed to make the game actually playable. It only took a little finagling to get the Zapper in charge to add a fourth instrument, hooking up a small electric keyboard for Kris to play instead. The guitar was passed to Lancer instead, which he didn’t seem to mind despite the fact that it was nearly as big as he was. 

Even with the new layout, they still kind of sucked. Lancer didn’t know how to play guitar either and spent the whole time strumming with his tongue. Ralsei refused to sing the lyrics as written, resulting in all of the songs they played being about soft kitties and the delights of freshly brewed tea. The game didn’t appreciate Susie’s epic improvisations and kept docking them points for her generous use of the bass drum. And Kris… Kris was still off. They seemed nervous to play the piano, same way they had been in the Church. It took a few rounds for them to actually settle in and become more confident in their playing, which would have been a relief if they didn’t then become too confident and start playing completely different songs just to watch Susie suffer. Their collective score for each attempt was abysmal enough to earn them Z-Rank on every single song the studio offered, which Susie hadn’t even known was possible . 

In the end, it didn’t really matter. Even if they couldn’t get more than a couple hundred points each round. Even if what they produced was less ‘music’ and more ‘wall of sound.’ Even if Lancer broke the guitar and Kris nearly toppled into the stand the keyboard rested on. Being with her friends made the whole thing worth it, and by the time they all stumbled out of the TV building, Z-Rank badges proudly displayed on their clothes, she was laughing so hard she could barely breathe. 

Kris purchased them all some kind of ice-cream adjacent treat from one of the shops, run by a friendly Mizzle from the church Dark World. It was a relief to see her settling in. She’d been worried about the church Darkners, considering she hadn’t seen any of them since closing the Fountain. According to Ralsei, they had mostly been keeping to themselves. They’d never had any exposure to other Dark Worlds the way most of the others had, so settling in had been harder for them. Susie wasn’t too worried, not after seeing how happy the Mizzle seemed. They’d figure it out. She believed in them. 

“It’s strange,” Ralsei said softly as they all sat on a bench outside the shop and ate their dessert (the Mizzle had called it SpliceCream, courtesy of the fact that it was two flavors inextricably bound together). 

“Hm?” Susie asked, which was the only sound she was currently capable of making with her face full of food. 

“I’m just… surprised that the Knight hasn’t made any more fountains,” he admitted. 

“Maybe it got bored,” Susie suggested. 

“Maybe it got stuck in a hole!” Lancer added helpfully. 

“I just… everything was moving so fast, and now all of sudden it’s just… quiet.”

“You think something’s up?” Susie asked. Ralsei shrugged helplessly. Susie glanced down at the cone still in his hand, entirely untouched. “Dude, you gonna eat that?”

“Oh! Um, you can have it if you want-”

“Nah, it’s yours,” Susie cut in quickly. “Just… does that stuff melt? Cause normal ice cream melts.” Ralsei looked down at it uncertainly. 

“I’m… not sure.”

“Well try it and find out!” Susie prodded. Nervously, Ralsei brought the cone up to his mouth and gave the SpliceCream a quick taste. His face instantly lit up, just like when he’d tried the cake during their tea party. 

“Oh wow!” he said. “This is… really good!” Susie snorted. 

“You really gotta start trying shit more. You’re missing out.” Ralsei smiled softly and took another bite. Susie returned to shoving the entirety of hers down her throat as quickly as possible. The SpliceCream wasn’t actually all that cold, it turned out, which was probably the only thing that spared her from the most brutal brainfreeze in recorded history. 

“I think maybe… the Knight…” Ralsei continued. 

“Yeah?” Susie prompted. 

“I don’t want to get my hopes up, but I think… maybe the Knight used more power than it expected when it made the Titan.” 

“Huh?”

“We had already fought it quite intensely. It had been using a lot of power, not to mention creating the two fountains beforehand,” Ralsei explained. 

“You think it’s like… outta commission or something?” 

“It’s possible. If it is, it means we have time. To train and prepare. And it means… it means the Knight’s not invincible.”

“Hah!” Susie punched him in the arm. “I coulda told you that. Right, Kris- Kris?” Kris was suddenly sitting very stiffly. One hand was clinging to the fabric of their cape, while the other lay clenched on their knee. They were chewing their lip, head ducked down to fully obscure their eyes. “Hey, Kris, you okay?” Susie poked them in the arm and they startled so violently that they almost fell off the bench. 

“That could’ve been quite the tumble!” Lancer chirped, but even he looked a little concerned. 

“S-sorry, Kris, we didn’t mean to bother you!” Ralsei said quickly. “Maybe we should stop talking about the Knight for now? There’s… nothing we can really do about it anyway until they show up again.” Susie went to argue, but she saw the tension in Kris’s shoulders, so tight she feared they might snap. 

“Yeah…” Susie agreed reluctantly. “Wait, hang on! We found something, though.” She pointed to Kris. “Kris found the code to the shelter!” 

“Wait, really!?” Ralsei asked. 

“Yeah! Well, not totally, it’s kinda smudged and stuff, but we’ve got part of it!” 

“Susie, that’s amazing!” 

“Yeah! Even though I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Lancer added. 

“We were hoping you could help us crack it?” Susie asked. Ralsei frowned uncertainly. 

“I don’t know how much help I’ll be if I can’t see it.” Oh, shit, right. They couldn’t just bring the code down and show it to Ralsei. It would turn into something else. Something objectively cooler but also objectively less helpful to their predicament. 

“Damn,” she said. 

“B-but, maybe you could ask that friend of yours? Noelle, I think?” Ralsei suggested. Susie flinched at the suggestion, wringing her hands. Kris turned to finally look at the rest of them, expression clearly nervous. Susie could guess why. 

“I… I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Susie admitted. “I don’t wanna get her involved any more than she already is. It’s just…” This shit was getting dangerous. And Noelle had already gotten in trouble because of Susie’s meddling. 

“I understand,” Ralsei said gently. “But it may be your best option.”

“You can ask the bird guy!” Lancer suggested. “He really liked puzzles! Even though he sucked at them!” 

“Hell no!” Susie snapped. “I’m not asking Berdly. I’ll just… we’ll figure something out. Right, Kris?” Kris nodded stiffly, still tense from before. “Geez, this Knight shit is a mess.” 

“I know!” Lancer agreed. “What did I miss? I wanna hear all about it!” 

“Hah! Yeah, it was pretty crazy. We…” Susie trailed off, the full force of everything that had happened dawning on her all of a sudden. She glanced down at Lancer’s expectant face, that wide, hopeful smile filled with such sickening innocence. “Actually, uh, it kinda… sucked,” Susie said finally. “Now that I think about it. You don’t wanna hear about it.” 

“Oh! Okay!” Lancer said cheerfully. He returned to licking his SpliceCream, completely unbothered. Ralsei shot Susie a knowing look but refrained from commenting. 

She just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Lancer was just a kid and he’d already been through enough. He didn’t need to hear about that shit. He deserved to live peacefully without having to worry about Knights and Titans and the end of the world. Maybe it was better that Lancer hadn’t come along after all. She could picture it so clearly in her mind, his normally cheerful expression morphing into quiet horror, his bright voice becoming weak and shaky. She remembered fighting him in the prison, and she never wanted to see him like that again. 

“We should go visit Tenna,” she declared suddenly. Things had gotten too weird for her tastes. She needed to do something else. 

“Oh, okay!” Ralsei said. He hopped down off of the bench, finishing off the remainder of his SpliceCream. 

“Oh boy! TV man!” Lancer declared. He bounded back over to Susie, leaping up to scramble his way back to her shoulders. She placed her hands underneath him to give him a boost. 

“That good with you, Kris?” Susie asked. Kris pulled themself up off the bench and shook themself like a wet dog, dragging themself out of whatever funk they’d somehow gotten into. They nodded slowly, though she couldn’t help but notice the lack of enthusiasm. She didn’t get it. They’d said Tenna was cool when she asked them in TV World. And they’d looked like they’d had fun last night. Maybe she was just overthinking it. 

They arrived at the castle in short order and Susie deposited Lancer back on the floor. They made their way up the stairs, and Susie paused when she passed the door to her room. She really needed to check in on the two of them. She didn’t like just leaving her best armor to hang out in her room for too long. She made a mental note to keep the visit with Tenna brief. 

In a rare display of politeness, she actually planned to knock on his door before entering this time. Unfortunately for her attempt, his door either wasn’t locked or couldn’t be locked, and slid open the instant she raised her hand to knock. She grimaced at the intrusion. 

“Hey, Tenna?” she called. To her surprise, there was no response. “Tenna? Yo, dude, you in here?” 

“Maybe he’s out running errands or something?” Ralsei suggested. 

“Or with my dad!” Lancer said. 

“Oh. Yeah, maybe,” Susie said. That would be… good. He couldn’t spend all day holed up in his room. She didn’t want him spending all day in his room, miserable while he waited to be adopted. She glanced over at Kris, just barely holding her tongue. They were probably just being extra thorough. It would be bad to just hand Tenna out randomly. He might just get thrown out again, and Susie couldn’t let that happen. That had to be why Kris hadn’t given him to anyone yet. 

“Tenna?” she tried one more time, raising the volume of her voice. “TENNA!?” Suddenly, there was a loud crash from inside Tenna’s room, followed by the sound of several loud, angry-sounding beeps. She heard the sound of stumbling footsteps, plus another couple of smaller crashes, and then Tenna spawned in the doorway so suddenly that she nearly fell backwards onto her ass. 

“Susie! Sweetheart! You came back! You actually came back!” Tenna cried. “Oh, and Kris and Ralsei too! And the small round boy! Mr. Generosity!”

“That’s me!” Lancer agreed. Susie chose not to comment for the time being. She wasn’t even sure if Tenna was just pulling their leg or if he actually still had Lancer’s name wrong after all this time. 

“Oh it is WONDERFUL to see all of you! I do hope you had fun last night! Did you have fun? I sure had fun! Just some good, classic TV! Nothing like it, I really-”

“Woah, woah, slow down, dude!” Susie said with a small laugh. He was talking a mile a minute, so quickly that she almost wasn’t able to pick out what he was saying. 

“Ah! Yes, my apologies,” Tenna said, far more slowly. He smiled down at them awkwardly. He looked largely normal, but there was something about him that Susie couldn’t quite place save for that it was… off. A consistent nervous twitch in one antenna. A waver at the edges of his smile. The way his tie was looser than normal, as if he’d struggled to tie it and eventually given up. Was she just imagining it? “Oh dear, what kind of host am I, just leaving you standing out in the hallway. Come in, come in!” Tenna ushered them inside, letting the door slide closed behind them. 

The room was largely unchanged from that morning. The pillow fort was right where they had left it, in all its mismatched glory. Lancer bounded for it as soon as he was through the door, burrowing into the pillows and announcing that he was doing a quality inspection.The door to what Susie now knew was the kitchen was hanging open, and she could faintly see a bowl resting on one of the counters. Had he been cooking, then? Was that why he hadn’t responded initially? She scanned the rest of the room, eyes landing on the table off to the side that seemed to be acting as a rudimentary desk. It was still littered with papers, though there were definitely more of them now.

“So! Did you lovely viewers need anything?” Tenna asked.

“Nah,” Susie said quickly. “Just checking in. ‘Cause I said we’d stop by.” 

“Oh! Right, of course! You… did… say that,” Tenna said. He let out a nervous

laugh and glanced around the room, though what he was looking for, she couldn’t even begin to guess. 

“It’s good to see you settling in better, Mr. Tenna,” Ralsei piped up. 

“Oh! Yes, um. Settling in. Thank you, Ralsei.” He looked down at the group of them, wringing his hands together. His gloves were back. “How, uh… How was school?” 

“If one more person asks me how school was I’m gonna start ripping faces off again,” Susie groaned. Tenna stifled a surprised laugh. “I’m never going back.” 

“Susie!” Ralsei yelped. 

“School is vital for proper development!” Tenna added. Kris stiffened as soon as he said it, their hand reaching back up to curl into their cape. They glanced up at Tenna nervously, staring at him in a way that made it look quite a bit like they were searching for something. 

“Yeah, yeah, I was kidding,” Susie said. It wasn’t even entirely a lie. School was the only place she could talk to Noelle now that she was grounded and as much as school sucked, she wasn’t about to give that up. So she was stuck there for at least the remainder of that week. But really, she just wanted to abort the conversation as quickly as possible. She didn’t know why it seemed to be making Kris uncomfortable, but after the funk they’d been in all damn day, she was doing her damndest to keep them up and out of the dumps.

“Whatcha been doing?” she asked instead, steering the conversation back towards Tenna. 

“Oh, me?” He laughed nervously. “You know. Scripting, revisions, all sorts of things! Might as well prep ahead while I have the downtime! Eheh.” 

“Oh boy! Scripting!” Lancer said, poking his head out of the fort he had claimed for himself. “I have no idea what that means!” 

“That sounds like a… great idea, Mr. Tenna,” Ralsei said. 

“Isn’t it!?” Tenna said, just a bit too enthusiastically. “It’s always good to be prepared! I have to make a good first impression after all!” Ralsei nodded in agreement, folding his hands behind his back politely. Susie tried to ignore the now-familiar stab of guilt in her gut. Right, she was supposed to be getting Tenna out of here. She hadn’t even thought to ask around after school today. How had she forgotten that? She’d promised she’d help him, what the hell was she doing? 

This was impermanent. Of course it was, she’d known it was. It was evidenced in everything about the place. The mismatched chairs that had clearly just been thrown in as temporary furniture. The wobbly table, propped up on cinderblocks instead of custom-made. Because it was just a temporary measure. No point in custom-making anything for a guy who was going to leave within the week. He was gonna leave. It was what he wanted! He wasn’t happy here. Nothing to hold him here anymore, not now that Toriel had gotten rid of him. He was on to better things. 

“Yeah, we’re still working on it,” Susie said, chalking up the pit in her stomach to the guilt. “Right, Kris?” Kris nodded slowly. They mumbled something else, too quiet for her to make it out. Ralsei shifted uncomfortably.

“No rush!” Tenna squeaked out. It was the least convincing lie Susie had ever heard. She chose not to call him on it anyway. “Um, would you all like something to drink? I think there’s tea in the kitchen-” He broke off, glancing down at Ralsei. “If that’s alright with you?”

“Oh, of course!” Ralsei said immediately. “The kitchen is yours first and foremost! It just… helps save space for us to share it!” 

“Hell yeah, tea party!” Susie announced. Tenna’s smile lightened, some of the strain dropping from the corners. 

“Well, in that case, I’ll put the kettle on! Say, Ralsei, help me choose a good flavor?” Ralsei blinked in surprise before nodding. Tenna clapped excitedly, his previous nervous energy dissipating slightly. “Come along, Ralsei!” He bounded into the kitchen with far more energy than he’d had before, not waiting for Ralsei to follow. Susie let some of the tension in her shoulders loosen in relief. 

“LANCER! GET OUT HERE! WE’RE HAVING A FUCKIN’ TEA PARTY!” Ralsei winced at the language but didn’t say anything. Lancer shot out of the fort instantly, bounding back to Susie’s side.

“Oh boy!” he said excitedly. “I’ve never had a tea party before!” 

“You… haven’t?” Ralsei asked. 

“No?” He tilted his head, perplexed. “Was I supposed to?” 

“No, no, just… You’re royalty. It…” Ralsei’s face reddened a bit. “It just seems like something royalty does. I kind of assumed…”

“Yeah, maybe princ esses. Lancer’s a prince, dude. ” Susie said, punching him in the shoulder. 

“O-oh! Right. Right, sorry.” He shrank down into his scarf in embarrassment. Susie grimaced, kicking herself mentally for the implication. 

“Nah, nevermind,” Susie corrected quickly. “Hey, the Old Man was a crazy badass and he had a tea party with us!” Ralsei’s eyes peeked up out of the scarf. 

“I guess he was,” Ralsei said softly. A smile crept back onto his face and he opened his mouth to say something else, only to be interrupted by Tenna calling for him from the kitchen. He excused himself quickly, scurrying over to the door. 

“Alright. You know what that means!” Susie said, grabbing Lancer in one arm and Kris in the other. “Let’s wreck the place!” 

‘Wrecking the place’ actually amounted to very politely stealing a couple chairs from the fort and arranging them around the table to give everyone the best possible angle. It also included gathering up the stray papers and neatly setting them aside so they didn’t get damaged. Susie tried to take a peek at them, but found that Tenna used so much jargon that she actually had no idea what any of it meant. It didn’t take long for Ralsei and Tenna to return with the tea, Tenna holding the hot kettle while Ralsei balanced his tea-set in his hands, plus one mug that clearly didn’t come with the set. When questioned, he explained that the set only came with four. Susie snatched it as soon as Ralsei was in range, ignoring his protests about how he should be the one not matching the set. 

She chucked Lancer up onto one of the chairs and scrambled up herself, waving off Tenna’s apologies about the size of the furniture. As far as she was concerned, his furniture was still too small. She would’ve much rather climbed a chair twice as high, as long as it meant Tenna’s room… felt like his, instead of like a shitty motel. 

The tea was good, though Susie only found that out after her second cup, seeing as she had downed the first in much the same way she had seen people take shots in movies. She hadn’t even realized she was thirsty until the flavor hit her mouth. It reminded her of those weird berries from Card Kingdom, but less intensely sweet. Kris had given her some during a couple fights and that had felt like eating the concentrated essence of a jolly rancher. This tasted a lot more like actual fruit. 

The initial awkwardness faded out as time passed. Tenna asked about their adventures and Susie excitedly rattled off the story of the first two Dark Worlds they’d gotten stuck in, just the way she’d explained it to the Old Man, sugar cube battles and all. Tenna listened with rapt attention, only interrupting with occasional exclamations of shock and studio audience stock sound effects from his speakers. Lancer jumped in early on in her telling, offering his own side of the story. They made a pretty good storytelling team, even if Lancer did keep trying to embellish the story. And only Lancer. Definitely only Lancer. 

Even without him there, Susie still decided to skip the part where they fought Spamton in the old dingy basement. Sure, he wasn’t there to blind her, but… they’d made a deal, hadn’t they? She wasn’t enough of a dick to go back on it. Sure, technically the deal had only been about not mentioning that he’d helped her save Tenna, but she had a feeling he wouldn’t take kindly to being mentioned at all. At least not to Tenna. She wasn’t about to break her word like that. Ralsei and Kris clearly noticed the omission, both looking at her in confusion, especially since she’d mentioned Jevil prior. But, fortunately, neither of them said anything. Kris wasn’t in much of a talkative mood that day anyway, and Ralsei seemed too invested in listening to interrupt. 

By the time they’d finished, Tenna was largely back to his usual self, the residual strangeness finally dropping away. Susie and Lancer managed to drag him into sharing funny stories from his show, and once he got started, he was impossible to stop. It was like his showman persona had been pushed off to the side and had now claimed complete dominance. He was more energetic than she’d seen him… probably since he first came to Castle Town, if she was being honest. 

“-and folks, you will never believe what he said next!”

“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” Lancer suggested. Susie snorted, high-fiving the little dude. Ralsei giggled into his hand as Kris took a sip of their tea. They were still on their first cup. Everyone else’s had been refilled at least twice, though one of Lancer’s had been because he kept splashing it in Ralsei’s direction when he thought the goat wasn’t looking. 

“He threatened to call my manager!” Tenna declared. Susie burst out laughing, hitting the table with her fist. 

“No fucking way!” she snorted. “Who was he gonna call?” 

“I have no idea!” Tenna laughed. 

“B-rank isn’t even that bad,” Ralsei chimed in. 

“That’s what I said! He just kept going on and on about how it had to be rigged! As if I would have to resort to something as underhanded as rigging my games to make the show entertaining! That sort of trickery just screams ‘lack of creativity.’” 

“Did you kick him out after that?” Susie asked. 

“Oh, no. The audience loved him. Never hurts to have a villain! Someone that the audience can root against! It just adds to the delightful drama of it all!” 

“I bet he got his ass handed to him in the last round!” Lancer giggled in agreement. 

“He sure did. The other two contestants couldn’t stand him, so they both teamed up in the last round! Can you believe that?”

“HA!” Susie shouted. “Serves him right!” 

“They spent the entire round sabotaging him. It was awfully vindictive, but who can blame them?”

“Nah, he totally deserved it,” Susie said. “Who won?” 

“That’s the thing! They were so focused on destroying their opponent that they declared it a ‘mutual success’ when one of them won! I can’t even remember which one had the higher score because they forced me to declare it a joint victory!” 

“HELL YEAH!” Susie said. 

“That’s really nice of them,” Ralsei said.

“I hope that asshole got banned for good,” Susie added. 

“Oh he did,” Tenna confirmed. “I wasn’t even going to ban him, truth be told! He made for good TV! But the staff couldn’t stand him. Kept hogging the vending machine and trying to shake extra TV Dinners out of it. And then he had the gall to say they ‘weren’t even that good’ when he got banned from the greenroom!” 

“Man fuck this guy,” Susie said. 

“Susie!” Ralsei chided. “Though… he definitely sounds like quite the handful. But still!” 

“What? I’m just bein’ accurate.” Ralsei huffed, taking a sip of his tea in favor of responding. 

“Not to mention he was terribly rude to all of the employees.” Tenna’s expression soured slightly. “The tipping point was when he made some rather… unsavory comments about Lanino and Elnina. No amount of entertainment value justifies mistreating my employees!” His antennae flattened back. “Er- My former employees now, I suppose.” 

“So you banned him?” Susie asked. She knocked back the rest of her tea and set the cup back on the table. Lancer finished his as well and dropped down from his seat, scurrying off to, presumably, return to the now-mutilated pillow fort.

“Oh, no, I didn’t. I didn’t even hear about the incident until later that day.”

“Wait, really?” Susie asked. Tenna nodded, taking another sip of his tea. “How’d he get kicked out then?” 

“Oh, well, it happened after the show while everyone was taking some time to unwind. I was in my dressing room finalizing some things, so I wasn’t monitoring anything. Honestly, it may have been for the best. I’m not exactly the best at dealing with those kinds of situations.” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I probably would’ve been rather… unprofessional.” Then, he grimaced. “Although, from what I heard, it wasn’t handled very professionally, but… Well, certain things warrant that.”

“Yeah, I get what you mean. But seriously, what happened?”

“Right! Well, according to what Lanino told me, the contestant had been making rude comments every time they were all in the greenroom, but this time, he was very specifically targeting Lanino. And as time went on, he became more and more… brazen about it. Just tearing into his performance as if he was somehow in any position to judge such a thing!” Susie snorted at that. “Elnina obviously tried to step in, at which point he turned his attention to her instead! Really a rotten character all around. But luckily, he was talking rather loudly, so my-” Suddenly, Tenna stumbled to a complete halt, the words catching in his throat. His face was distinctly horrified, like a kid who’d gotten so wrapped up in telling their parents a story that they’d forgotten to work around the part where they did something that broke the rules. 

“Huh?” Susie prompted. “What happened?” Tenna’s antenna twitched uncomfortably and his hands, previously gesturing animatedly, clasped together tightly. He grimaced, turning away. 

“Mr. Tenna?” Ralsei asked. “You don’t have to tell us if it’s stressful to think about!” 

“No, no! Haha, it’s fine!” He took a deep breath, swallowing nervously. “Um, my… my business partner heard. And he, um, interceded. That’s all. Kicked the guy out without a second thought. Gave him quite the verbal lashing, if Lanino’s account is to be believed.” Tenna sighed, grabbing his teacup to give his hands something to do. Susie couldn’t help but notice that his hands didn’t dwarf it quite as much. 

“Business partner?” Susie asked curiously. Kris grimaced, ducking their head down uncomfortably. “I didn’t know you had a business partner.” 

“I DON’T!” Tenna said, far too quick and far too loud. “Aha. I don’t anymore. We split ways some years back. He just- haha- up and left one day! Off to bigger and better things, I’m sure!” His voice shook, laced with barely disguised bitterness. “But enough about him. Point is, that foul-mouthed contestant got what was coming to him!” 

“Yeah,” Susie said quietly. She cleared her throat. “Yeah! Totally. What a loser.” 

“Haha, right on the money, Susie!” Tenna took another quick sip of his tea. “What a-”

“Hey! What’s all this stuff?” Everyone at the table turned, following the voice to the far corner of the room. Lancer was sitting there among Tenna’s old boxes, the same ones Susie had seen the other day. They seemed to be split into two distinct groups, one set clearly opened and re-taped and one set still open. Presumably, Tenna had been in the middle of sorting his things. 

Tenna opened his mouth to tell Lancer that it was his old stuff from TV World, only for his smile to instantly drop the instant he saw which box Lancer was currently reaching for. He shot up out of his seat, antennae springing directly up into the air, and rushed over to the boxes. 

“Oh, those!? Nothing, nothing, just some old junk!” he said quickly. “Please excuse the mess, I should’ve cleaned up earlier!” 

“Oh, hey, posters-”
“OLD TERRIBLE ONES!” Tenna squeaked, his volume skyrocketing involuntarily. He snatched the box up off the ground, kicking the others over into the corner. “Sorry about this, I didn’t realize you were all coming so soon!” He shoved the boxes into a corner, quickly folding the flaps on the one in his hands and tucking it underneath several others. “Haha! Wow, I really am losing my touch! First I leave you standing in the hall, now I haven’t even cleaned the room? What has the world come to!?” He laughed nervously, still standing in front of the box pile. Almost like he was guarding it from something. That didn’t make sense, he hadn’t cared when Susie started digging through them yesterday? What was in that specific box that he was so nervous about? It couldn’t just be old posters he was worried about.

“Oh, um, it’s alright, Mr. Tenna!” Ralsei said. “We did catch you by surprise!” 

“Right. Of course!” Tenna said nervously. 

“But, uh… It is getting late. We should probably go,” he continued. Tenna deflated slightly, but made a valiant effort to recover. 

“Yes, you’re absolutely right! It is late and you young ones need your rest!” Susie pursed her lips. Maybe it was because Tenna had already been acting weird and she was primed for it, but the reaction felt a bit unnatural. What about midnight movie marathons? This feels like the part where you suggest a marathon. 

“It was wonderful to visit, though!” Ralsei added quickly. “If…” He hesitated for a moment. “If you end up staying a bit longer, we should do this again!” Tenna turned away, his screen dimming just a bit. 

“...Yes, this was very nice,” he said finally. He turned back to them, smile jumping back into place. “Have a wonderful night, kids!” 

“Bye, TV Man!” Lancer said. He bounded over to Susie, who dropped off her chair to join him on the ground. 

“Bye, Tenna,” Susie said as well. “I, uh… I’ll see you ‘round, ‘kay?” He turned towards her and somehow, even with no eyes to speak of, she could feel him meeting her gaze. His smile became smaller, but in doing so, it also felt just the slightest bit more real. 

“Of course, Susie,” he confirmed. 

Kris mumbled something that was probably a goodbye and led the rest of them out the door. It slid shut behind them, and Susie could see Tenna through the gap just before it did, turning back to look at the stack of boxes. Something was in that box, she was sure of it. Something that was obviously stressing Tenna out. Just another mystery to pile onto her growing stack of them. Along with the mention of an apparent business partner, who Susie wouldn’t have even thought twice about if Tenna didn’t seem so… distraught. 

She felt the beginnings of an idea forming in her head. Probably a terrible one, but also potentially her only option if she was gonna get answers out of that stubborn freak. She almost shoved it down, but couldn’t quite bring herself to do it. She guiltily filed it away instead. 

“That was nice,” Ralsei said as they walked down the stairs. Kris hummed softly to themself, and Susie couldn’t quite place if they were agreeing or not. 

“Yeah.”

“He needs to get out more,” Lancer observed, in that far-too-sage-for-someone-who-eats-salsa-out-of-tree-stumps way of his. Susie shrugged.

“He’ll be out of here soon,” she said, ignoring the way her throat randomly decided to close up as she tried to say it. Ralsei gave her a long, searching look, but didn’t actually say anything. She tried to ignore that too. 

They reached the second floor and Susie caught sight of her door. Right, she had… another issue to deal with at the moment. Although maybe she’d get lucky and nothing had happened. Maybe she’d been imagining the whole thing and Jevil was still asleep! But she definitely needed to check. If for no other reason than to reclaim her armor before anything happened. 

“Hey, you guys can go do… shit,” Susie said lamely. The others stopped, looking up at her in confusion. “I’m beat. Gonna take a quick powernap in my room.” At the mention of the fact that she was going to be using her room, Ralsei lit up. 

“Oh, of course!” he said brightly. “Take all the time you need! I hope the bed is cozy enough, but if it’s not, just let me know, I can bring you new blankets, or pillows, or anything really, even a new bed if you-”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Susie cut him off. Kris gave her a searching look and she felt a pang of guilt at ditching them. She glanced back at the door. It’d just be for a second. Just to check in. “I’ll come find you guys later,” she said. 

“Okay,” Ralsei agreed. “Where should we go Kris?” Kris remained where they were, watching Susie suspiciously. She turned slowly towards the door, resting one hand on the knob but not quite turning it. 

“Okay,” Susie repeated. She glanced over her shoulder and met Kris’s gaze, holding it there. After a moment, they shrugged and turned around, leading Ralsei down the next set of stairs. 

“Oh, oh, does this mean I get to be Susie in line?” Lancer asked. 

“HELL YEAH!” Susie shouted over her shoulder. 

“Wowza!” 

Susie waited for the sound of their footsteps to fully recede before turning back to her door. It was gonna be fine. She was worrying about nothing. What was the worst that could happen? Her room got trashed? She’d just shove everything under the bed or something. There was nothing to worry about. 

Slowly, she pushed the door open and stepped through…

…right into an active warzone. 

Notes:

LANCER LANCER LANCER LANCER (Why the hell has it taken me this long to include him he's the best).

Chapter 7: Zipline

Summary:

Susie finally discovers what her armor was doing while she was at school.

To their credit, Susie’s room was nowhere near as trashed as she’d predicted it would be. Most of her stuff was still in place, and nothing seemed to be broken. The only signs that there had been a struggle at all were her blanket, crumpled on the floor instead of neatly tucked onto her bed, and the fridge door, still hanging open. 

Plus the statue she’d stolen from Queen’s castle and the little Darkner that had just scurried up it, narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws of the puppet that lunged after him. 

“AW, COME ON, I JUST WANTED TO TAKE A LITTLE PEEK!” 

“IM GOIN@#g TO [Realign] You>UU 11NSI-DE OUT, YU [@^%#]!”

“YOU’LL HAVE TO CATCH ME FIRST, HAHA!” Jevil waved down at Spamton from where he was perched on the statue’s shoulder with a delighted giggle. The puppet stood below him, grinding his teeth together loud enough that Susie could hear it with crystalline clarity. 

“YOU!! SHOULd”VE STAYED [Junk]!” 

“GEE, SOMEONE’S HAVING A BAD BAD DAY,” Jevil chirped. “YOU’RE CALLING ME JUNK? THE WORLD REALLY IS SPINNING AROUND!” 

“YOU R3#AL,Ly NEVER [Change],” Spamton hissed. “GIVE AN [Millipede], YOU TAKE A [27 Kilometers].” 

“AW, DON’T BE SUCH A DOWNER, SPAMMY. WHAT’S A LITTLE EXPLORING BETWEEN FRIENDS?”

“YOURE3 [Overbooked] YO882#3!UR [Welcome to the Black Parade]!!” 

“YOU USED TO BE SO MUCH MORE FUN,” Jevil lamented. 

“AND YOU [Gently used] TO NOT bE<)EEe SUCH A-”

“What the fuck?” Instantly, both Darkner’s heads snapped around to look at Susie, so aggressively that she worried they’d somehow managed to snap their own necks. They stared at her, unblinking and unmoving. Normally, it would have been funny, like two kids caught playing video games past their bedtime, but both of them were so unnerving that it just felt creepy. “I knew this was a bad idea,” Susie muttered. 

“I HAdD NO [Parts and services] IN THHIS!” Spamton shouted as Susie kicked the door shut behind her. “ITSs ALL THAT DAMN [Circus]’s FAULT.” Jevil let out another bark of laughter, not denying the accusation. 

“WE’RE JUST HAVING A BIT OF FUN,” he explained. “IT’S BEEN SUCH A BORING FREEDOM AS OF LATE.” 

“Riiiight,” Susie said slowly. She grabbed her blanket off the floor and tossed it back onto the bed. Then, she made her way over to the fridge and gave it a once-over to make sure nothing had been stolen. She quickly realized that there was just so much in it that she wouldn’t even know if something had been. What a concept. Not knowing every single item in there. 

“IT’S BEEN SO LONG SINCE I HAD A PROPER FEAST!” Jevil offered without prompting. 

“SoOO YOU ADMIT          !” Spamton shouted, pointing at Jevil in much the same way one would imagine a particularly unstable Puritan pastor pointing at a witch. “YOU WERE [Plotting] TO [Felony burglary]!” 

“A FEAST FOR THE EYES!” Jevil corrected. Spamton made a harsh clicking sound that Susie guessed was meant to be a ‘tsk’ but had gotten too bitcrushed in the process to really sound right. He crossed his arms and turned his nose up at the other Darkner. Jevil waved him off, muttering something about how he’d never seen such hypocrisy in his life. 

“What the fuck where you guys doing?” Susie groaned. Instantly, Spamton perked up, leaping at her and taking hold of the bottom of her vest. 

“THA>>AT [Creacher feacher] WAsS [Armed robbery]!” 

“FALSE, FALSE!” Jevil countered. “YOU CANNOT FAULT ME FOR A LITTLE CURIOSITY. THIS FREEDOM IS SO MUCH SMALLER THAN THE OTHER ONE.” Spamton ground his teeth together but held his tongue. Barely, it looked like. Susie could practically sense the distress radiating off the little puppet. He looked ready to shred Jevil with his bare hands. 

“I told you jackasses to behave!” Susie groaned. 

“UEHEHEHE, WRONG!” Jevil countered. “‘SHARE,’ YOU SAID. ‘BEHAVE?’ NOT SO!” 

“IT WAS [The implications]!” Spamton sputtered. How in the world had she ended up in a situation where Spamton was being the reasonable one? “NOTHING WAS [Robbery], [[Scary Monsters]],” he reported, turning back to Susie. “I MADE [Certain] OF IT. YOU CAn ALWAYS COUNT ON [Number 1 rated salesman 1997]!” 

“Thanks?” Susie said. Spamton nodded solemnly, looking far too pleased with himself. Damn, he was going to try and leverage this somehow, wasn’t he. Try and get something in return for purportedly preventing her stuff from getting stolen. 

“SUCH OVERREACTIONS,” Jevil chided. “THE SALESMAN WOULD HAVE ME LOCKED AWAY FOR A BIT OF EXPLORATION.” She couldn’t quite see them, but she was fairly certain Spamton was rolling his eyes. 

“[[Scary Monsters]], IM SURE WE CAN [Agreement processed] THAT thHIS [Clown around town] HASs OVERSTaaYED HIS [Welcome home!].” Spamton shot Jevil a look over his shoulder and the jester waved coyly at him. He jerked his head away. 

“At least you didn’t break anything I guess,” Susie huffed out. She dropped down onto the bed, the emotional whiplash of the day catching up to her. Maybe she would take a power nap after all. Or maybe she should just stay up all night so she was tired enough to sleep in class the next day. Seriously, what was Kris’s trick for that?

“I thought you were sleeping,” she said after a moment. The two Darkners stopped glaring at each other (well, Spamton was glaring. Jevil was just laughing at him) to give her their attention again. 

“hUHH?” 

“Jevil,” Susie elaborated. “When we fought you. You said something about ‘sleeping for a hundred years.’”

“WHAT’S A YEAR, A YEAR REALLY?” Jevil said.

“[365 days],” Spamton replied, the sarcasm somehow strong enough to power through whatever voiceline he was stealing. 

“UEHEHEHE. SUCH FRIVOLOUS MEASUREMENTS, DON’T YOU THINK? TIME IS JUST ANOTHER CAGE AROUND THE WORLD.” 

“Ooookaaaayyy?” Susie said. It didn’t really make any sense, but Jevil rarely did. Or at least, it seemed that way. Now that she thought about it, she… hardly knew these two. She’d been hauling them around for days, but she barely knew anything about them. She’d never been a huge fan of wearing them anyway, but the realization made her feel even worse. Especially with Spamton, considering literally everything he’d said while he fought them. But they’d seemed like they wanted to be there. They wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t want to, right? But then again, they hadn’t seemed like they really had any better options. Were they sticking with the Fun Gang because they wanted to help, or because it was better than going back to where they were? Than staying stuck in prison forever or going back to living on the streets?

“Are you, like… permanently awake now?” Susie asked. Jevil tilted his head, considering the question. 

“[Angel] I [!#*$]InG H00opE NOt,” Spamton muttered. 

“WHO KNOWS, WHO KNOWS,” Jevil said thoughtfully. “PERHAPS I WAS ALWAYS THE ONLY ONE TRULY AWAKE. PERHAPS I ALWAYS WILL BE.” 

“Cool?” Spamton’s teeth clacked together and he turned on his heel, leaving the little jester perched on the statue. Jevil flopped down onto the statue’s arm, arms and legs dangling off of it. She looked between the two of them uncertainly. “Uhh… are you guys just… gonna stay out now?” They both turned to her in unison again and it was somehow even creepier the second time. 

“[Search failed: Data not found].” Spamton crossed his arms, leaning back and tapping his foot expectantly. 

“Like, not be items anymore.” 

“TRAGICALLY NOT,” Jevil said. “I LOST THE GAME FAIR AND SQUARE. YOU EARNED YOUR PRIZE.” He giggled to himself. “AND YOU DO HAVE SUCH EXCITING MISCHIEF, MISCHIEF! SUCH EXQUISITE CHAOS, CHAOS!” Spamton let out another irritated click. 

“A [Number 1 rated salesman] NeeEV3R GOES [Backup] ON AN [Honest] DEAL,” he said after a moment. His hand came up to his face and he lightly tapped the glasses resting on his nose. 

“I mean, it’s not like you guys gotta,” Susie found herself saying. “Just, Kris and Ralsei will probably be weirded out if we go into another Dark World and I don’t have you guys with me.” 

“NO NEED TO WORRY, HERO,” Jevil assured her. “ARMOR WAS PROMISED AND ARMOR YOU SHALL HAVE!” His eyes flicked around the room, landing on Spamton, who was now standing further away by Susie instead of guarding Jevil. “AFTER I’VE HAD MY MISCHIEF, THAT IS!” With no other warning, Jevil launched himself from the statue and towards the fridge. 

He was clearly aiming for something specific, but Susie didn’t get to find out what it was, because an instant later Spamton intercepted him mid-air. The two rolled away from the fridge, leaping apart like a pair of angry cats. Susie stifled a laugh at the picture of it. She’d never seen any Darkners fight that physically. They always fought with magic. It was strange to see Jevil and Spamton brawling like… well, like Lightners, for a lack of a better analogue. It reminded her of the fights she’d seen in the bigger schools she attended, two kids who had no actual training or fighting skill but were fueled purely by some kind of feral rage. Had they been at this all goddamn day?

“HAaANDS OFF THE [30% off all in-store goods]!” Spamton growled. 

“A SHAME, A SHAME,” Jevil declared, tucking his hands behind his back in the perfect picture of nonchalance. “WHATEVER SHALL I DO?” Spamton turned back around towards Susie, gesturing towards Jevil as if to say can you fucking believe this guy? Under normal circumstances, the swear would be a Susie-exclusive addition, but knowing what little she did know aboutSpamton, adding it was probably more accurate in this case. 

“YoUUURe EVEN [More than 15%] 11NNSuFFEraaABEL ThAHN [You] USEd TO BE,” Spamton hissed. Jevil just laughed. 

“You guys knew each other?” Susie asked suddenly. That’s right, they kept talking about each other like they’d met before. 

“ME AND SPAMMY USED TO BE THE BEST OF FRIENDS!” Jevil confirmed. Spamton’s bitcrushed scoff suggested that said friendship had probably been pretty one-sided. “WE’RE THE ONLY ONES THAT ARE TRULY FREE, FREE!” Spamton’s teeth snapped together and he jerked his head away. He clutched his hands to his chest, plastic clicking together as he tightened his grip. 

“SOME FREEDOM,” he spat, voice clear and uninterrupted. 

“YOU’LL BE GRATEFUL ONE DAY. DON’T WORRY, SPAMMY.” Spamton didn’t grace that with a response. 

“You guys are weird as hell,” Susie muttered. 

“UEHEHEHEHE. SUCH IS THE NATURE OF THE GAME.” Jevil glanced over at Spamton and made a feint towards the fridge. This time, Spamton didn’t react. The color in his glasses had gone out, replaced with dark, flickering static. Jevil tutted in disapproval, turning his attention away from the fridge and back to Spamton instead. “NO ONE APPRECIATES A GOOD GAME ANYMORE,” the jester mourned. He flicked Spamton in the arm and the color shot back into the puppet’s glasses as his entire body jerked. He paused for a moment as he seemingly reoriented himself before noticing Jevil and returning to his default state of glaring the guy into the ground. 

“SHAME, SHAME,” Jevil said again, shaking his head in disappointment. He made his way back over to Susie. “ANOTHER GAME ANOTHER TIME,” he announced. “ANOTHER HUNDRED YEARS! UEHEHEHE!” With that, he vanished in a swirl of dark mist, leaving behind only a tail that dropped to the floor moments later. Susie lunged forward and caught it just before it hit the ground. 

“Geez, man, warn a guy before you do that!” she snarled. She laid the tail back on the bed behind her. She’d put it back on at… some point. 

She turned back towards the room and found that Spamton had yet to return to the Dealmaker. Instead, he stood exactly where Jevil had left him, scanning the room uncertainly. He seemed to notice her looking and turned to face her. 

“11LL [Go go go!] BACCK NOW,” he said in response to her gaze. 

“You don’t gotta,” Susie told him. He tilted his head curiously. “It’s not like we’re fighting anybody.” Spamton seemed to turn this over in his head, fiddling with the button on his blazer. It was wrong, Susie realized. A light brown that clearly clashed with the black of his suit. It was sown in with the same thick white thread that she could see all along his blazer and pants, all of which were haphazardly stitched together. He’d done it himself, probably. 

“...NOTHING ELSE TO [Due],” Spamton said after a minute. Susie shrugged, trying to buy herself time to think of what she was supposed to say next. This was a much less hostile interaction than the first time they’d talked (probably because she hadn’t nearly strangled him to death this time) and she didn’t want to set him off again. 

“Whatever you wanna do, man,” she settled on. She flopped back onto the bed wearily. It was probably still dirty from where Spamton had been before, but it wasn’t like she was much cleaner than he was. “Just… kinda sucks that you guys are stuck in there all the time.” 

“HOW SO?” 

“Just looks pretty boring. And you’re getting dragged around all the time. I dunno, it looks lame.”

“COouULD BE [Is there anything worse than this!?],” Spamton told her. “[Fresh beets] L1VING IN THE GARBAGE.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him give an exaggerated shudder. 

“I guess,” Susie replied. She fell silent, letting her eyes drift away from Spamton and up to the ceiling. She didn’t really care what he did right now. Given how little damage he and Jevil had actually done (somehow), she doubted he was gonna give her any real trouble. And she was honestly too tired to give a shit. Geez, this thing had hit her like a goddamn truck. 

“[[Scary Monsters]]?” Spamton asked. 

“Whaaaat?” Spamton paused, and she heard his hands clicking together again. He stayed there, mouth hanging open as his words caught in the back of his throat. 

“[Transaction cancelled],” he said after a second.

“Huh?”

“NeeEE33VErRMIND,” he forced out. 

“Uh, okay? Weirdo.” Spamton’s teeth clacked together in irritation, but he didn’t say anything else. After a moment, she heard his light footsteps tapping around the room. Maybe he was going for the fridge and had only been preventing Jevil from getting near it so he could have everything for himself. The familiar spike of fear shot through her at the thought of it, despite her knowing that it was irrational in the Dark World. Besides, he probably needed it more than her, seeing as it didn’t actually do anything for her. Did he need to eat? She had no idea how Darkner biology worked, but if they had restaurants and shit then clearly at least some of them ate. Did they need to in order to survive? 

Maybe it varied based on species, like how some monsters needed different vitamins or some shit. She was pretty sure she was remembering that right, but the last time she’d been to the doctor she’d been seven and pretty delirious the whole time, so maybe she’d just misheard. But it would make sense, considering how different they all were. Maybe the organic Darkners like Ralsei ate food and the more mechanical Darkners like Queen and Tenna just ate straight motor oil. The battery acid seemed to support that idea, though she had seen Tenna just drink a regular soda. 

Maybe it was the circuitry difference or something. Something too complex for her to ever hope to actually understand. But for a moment, she wished she could. That she could just look at them and figure out how they ticked. That she could’ve helped Tenna on her own instead of praying Spamton knew what he was doing. 

The puppet in question finally stopped doing whatever he’d been doing. Susie hadn’t heard the fridge open, so she could assume he hadn’t gone in there unless he’d managed to open it silently. Had he just wanted to explore her room? She didn’t think there was anything in there that he’d find interesting, but if he found it entertaining then who was she to judge? 

She dragged herself back up into a sitting position and slumped over the edge of the bed to look at him. He was sitting now, crosslegged in the middle of the room. One finger tapped his leg lightly as he scanned the room with what Susie could only describe as nervousness. It was an unfamiliar emotion on the guy, for him to sit there quietly when he usually took up the entire room, loud and unyielding. It was strangely out of character. Or maybe this was what he was actually like, and the other stuff was out of character. She didn’t know him at all, after all. 

They’d been dragging him around for days now and she still didn’t know the first thing about him. Nothing real anyway. All she knew was him at his worst. That was all any of them knew. There’d obviously been something wrong with him when they’d fought him. On the surface, he had just seemed clinically insane. Just another Darkner trying to murder them for his own ends. But there’d been something else underneath it all that Susie couldn’t shake. Underneath that callous disregard and bitter anger, he’d just looked… scared. 

She grimaced, trying to push the too-familiar thought out of her head. She didn’t have the mental energy for that right now. Not with everything else already going on. It was strange. She’d been so happy to spend time with all of her friends, but now that she was alone, the reality of how fragile it all was had started creeping back up. She knew so little in the grand scheme of things. How was she supposed to try and fix this shit if everyone kept hiding pieces? Not like she’d be much good at it, but they wouldn’t even give her the chance to try. 

She glanced back over at Spamton, still sitting uncertainly on the floor. If her guess about how he knew Tenna was right, and she was pretty confident in her assessment, then he probably had some insight on what was going on. But he also probably wasn’t going to share it if the last time she’d talked to him was anything to go by. How a guy that talked nonstop managed to be so cagey, she didn’t really understand. It was like he was trying to use an overload strategy or something. Say so much shit that anything important gets lost in the shuffle.

“Hey, half-pint,” Susie called. Spamton glanced around the room uncertainly before realizing she was talking to him. He leveled an unimpressed glare in her direction. “I’ve, uh, got a question for you.” Instantly, Spamton’s jaw tightened. 

“ISsS THIS ABOUT THE D@MN [CRT] [Again and again]?” Susie grimaced. 

“...maybe?” 

“ALREADY [Informed] YOU I-”
“It’s not about you,” Susie cut in quickly. Spamton tilted his head uncertainly and Susie shot him a smug smirk. “I already figured out your deal with him.” Spamton shot to his feet, hand twitching fearfully.

“YOUU WHAT?” 

“Yeah. It’s kinda obvious.” Spamton’s jaw fell open and she saw static flicker across his glasses. 

“[False].” 

“Nah, I figured it out.” She leaned forward, pointing at his chest. “You were his mechanic.” Spamton froze in place completely, so perfectly still that he almost seemed to become inanimate. Then, after a moment:

“WHAT.” 

“It’s obvious, dude. Why else would you know that much about how he works and shit? I was thinking about it, ‘cause there were those Ambyu-lances for doctors in Cyber World, and Malius is kinda a doctor in Card Kingdom, but there weren’t any in TV World. But if Tenna’s all robotic, then he wouldn’t have a doctor. He’d have a mechanic. And you said that’s what you did. So THERE!” Spamton stared at her in silent bafflement. “Nailed it, didn’t I?” He coughed into his hand, loud and ridden with glitches. He seemed uncertain about the idea. He almost seemed pleasantly surprised that she’d drawn that conclusion, but there was a hint of discomfort there too. 

“[Mechanical], HUH?” he echoed. “HAEHAEHAE. NOT ttTHE [Ad guy]?”

“Nah. I thought maybe, ‘cause of all the advertising and deals and stuff you talk about. But… Uh… No offense, dude, you keep saying you’re a salesman but I’m pretty sure you kinda suck at it.” Spamton’s jaw clicked in irritation. “But you’re good at that robot shit.” Spamton stared up at her, a strange buzzing sound emanating from his throat. His eyes were locked on hers and she could feel his gaze burrowing into her skull, as if trying to dig something out of her brain itself. His fingers yanked a thread free from his fraying sleeves.

“[BINGO!], KID!” he said finally. “UUSssED TO DO ALL KinNDS OF [Scheduled maintenance].” He laughed, loud and shaky. Nervous. 

“I knew it!” Susie crowed victoriously. “Don’t know why you’re so weird about it though.” Spamton clicked his teeth unhappily, picking at some loose thread on his sleeve. “Whatever. That’s sick, dude.” Spamton looked up at her in surprise. 

“[Illness]?” he asked. Clearly, he wasn’t particularly happy with that glitch, because he instantly slammed his hand against the side of his head. “ssSICK?” he tried again, with more success it seemed. 

“Yeah. It’s… cool, I guess. That you know how to do that stuff. Like, how it works and everything.” She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. “That you can fix shit.” 

“...HUH,” Spamton replied after a second. Susie turned away awkwardly, trying to figure out where his sudden embarrassment was coming from. Being a mechanic was… really cool, if she actually thought about it. She wondered, briefly, why he was so focused on the whole salesman persona instead. Because if she could do stuff like he could, like fixing Tenna without thinking twice, she’d be shouting it from every available rooftop. And yet Spamton almost seemed ashamed of it. She was probably reading too much into it, actually. The cagey bastard probably just didn’t like her knowing anything about his history. 

“yYOU [Speak now] YOU HAD [Please file] [Recieve 24 hr support!]?” Spamton said suddenly. He grimaced. “YOU HAD. A. QUESTION?” 

“Uh… yeah?” He let out a long, put-upon sigh and came over to the bed. He rested his hands on his hips, watching her expectantly. 

“[Well]?” Damn, she actually… hadn’t thought that far. She’d just vaguely known she had a question and kinda let her mouth do its own thing. Frankly, she’d thought he’d shut her down again. This was the second time now that he’d been willing to potentially answer her question, and the second time she’d failed to plan ahead and actually have said question prepared to ask. Why did talking to this stupid puppet make her so incompetent? 

“Does Tenna eat motor oil?” she asked in a panic, unable to make herself ask anything more… important. Spamton sputtered at the question, completely thrown off by the left-field entry. 

“WHAT THE [@#$&], KID.” 

“I DUNNO, IT’S THE FIRST THING I THOUGHT OF!” Spamton’s mouth fell open. 

“IFF [You and your’s] DIdNT HAv3 A [FAQ Page] REeADY tHEN WHYD!!? YOU          [Asked and answered]!?! INn THE F1RST        !?” 

“I DON’T KNOW, MAN,” Susie shot back. “YOU GONNA ANSWER MY QUESTION OR NOT?” 

“JUST [20 Questions] HIM!” That was… a really good point actually. Tenna was probably the most reliable source for these kinds of questions. But by this point the whole interaction was less about actually getting an answer to her stupid, half-baked question and more about winning.

“I’M ASKING YOU!” Spamton’s hands opened and closed in front of him. He looked very much like he wanted to strangle her, though there was less vitriol to it than when he’d been fighting Jevil earlier. She stared him down, refusing to back off and let him win whatever competition the two of them had managed to concoct. 

“...NO,” Spamton said finally. 

“Huh?”

“HE3 Do3SNT,” Spamton elaborated. Oh. He’d actually answered. Nice. She’d known she’d win. 

“Aw man,” Susie said. “Would’ve been cool if he did.” Spamton snorted, or at least, that’s the best guess Susie had for the sound. He nodded in agreement. It would, indeed, have been cool. “Hey, speaking of…” She glanced over at the still-closed fridge. “Did Jevil actually share the shit I left?” She swore she saw his eyes roll behind the glasses. 

“THAT [Greed] CLOWN WOUuLDNT SHARE A [Feasts fit for a king!]!” Spamton informed her. He stepped to the side so he could glare at the tail still on the bed. “HEAHAHAHA, DIDN>T EVEN GET A [Gamble] TO G#3T OUT OF THOSE [Lenses]!” 

“I kinda figured,” Susie admitted. Spamton glanced back at the Jevilstail, his expression shifting ever so slightly. His stiff features made him hard to read, but the look he was giving Jevil now seemed much less irritated than before. He almost looked sad, somehow. She didn’t get a chance to really analyze it though, because an instant later the look disappeared, replaced by the same mild annoyance she’d come to expect. 

“WHO GIVES A [#^@%],” Spamton decided after a moment. “DIDnT WANT THAT [Trash Heap]’s [Flapjax™] AnNYYWAY.” Spamton’s hand slammed over his mouth as soon he finished speaking. Susie stared at him in confusion. Flapjax. He’d said that in Tenna’s voice. In Tenna’s exact voice. She almost commented, but she saw the distress on Spamton’s face and decided against it. Besides, she’d already known they knew each other. It shouldn’t be that surprising that some of his vocal glitches might source from Tenna. She tried not to think about how horrified he looked. As if Tenna’s voiceline coming through was an even deeper violation than the others. What happened with you two? 

“Here,” she said instead. She made her way over to the fridge and pulled out the bag Tenna had given her. She pulled out another two Flapjax and returned the rest to the fridge. The bag didn’t even feel much lighter, how many of those had Tenna given her!? 

She made her way back to the bed and sat down, holding the pancake-adjacent items in her hand. Spamton watched her with the intensity of a predator, his eyes locked onto the Flapjax she was holding. So he did get hungry. He had to, because he was definitely looking at her like he was starving. 

“Here,” she said again, tossing one of the Flapjax at him. He scrambled to catch it, nearly faceplanting in the process, but didn’t immediately inhale it like she expected him to. Instead he just stood there, holding it uncertainly in both hands right where it had landed. “You good?” 

“WHATS TH3EE [Terms and conditions]?” he asked, eyeing her suspiciously. 

“The fuck?” 

“WHahTS. THE. CATCH!?” he spat. “WHATT [New deal] ARE YOU M@KInG HERE?” 

“Are you serious?” He glared up at her, unyielding. “It’s free, dude. ‘Cause Jevil ate yours.” Spamton’s mouth twitched at that. 

“[It’s free real estate]?” Susie nearly choked on air at the voice that came out of his mouth with that line. He looked unimpressed, but she couldn’t exactly help it. Why was he whispering like that? Or, well, why was whoever the voiceline sourced from whispering like that. 

“Yeah,” she said, stifling a laugh. He held the item up suspiciously. He clearly didn’t quite believe her, but his hunger won out in the end and he took a hesitant bite. Susie shoved hers down her throat without a second thought. “Good, right?” Spamton hummed to himself contemplatively. 

“...HE ChHANGED THE [@#$&]ING ReCCIPE,” was his eventual observation. 

“Really?” 

“ThAHAT [Derivative]                [Add in] BuUTTERSCOTCH,” Spamton hissed. Susie licked her lips curiously. Sure enough, now that Spamton had pointed it out, she could definitely taste hints of butterscotch from the pancakes. It wasn’t nearly as much as Toriel added, which was probably why Susie hadn’t noticed it before, but it was definitely there.

“Huh. Guess he did,” she said. Spamton gritted his teeth, staring the pancake down. “What? Don’t like butterscotch or something?” He shrugged, finally letting go of the Flapjax with one hand to make a ‘so-so’ gesture.

“BUT WHO [Give a hoot] ABouT THE [Fresh butterscotch]! IT$sT THE [Principal role] OF THE THING!” Spamton looked down at the pancake, fingers curling into it and tearing it slightly. “CcHNAGED IT ALL UP.” Susie pursed her lips, realizing belatedly that maayyybeee feeding Spamton something related to the guy he freaked out about every time he was mentioned was in poor taste. 

She was about to offer him something else when he suddenly unhinged his jaw and downed the entire Flapjax in one bite. She was pretty sure she didn’t even see him chew it, just swallow the whole thing whole. He noticed her staring and gestured to his throat. 

“CAnT [Tasty] IT THAT WAY!” He let out a pleased giggle. 

“You’re really fucking weird,” Susie informed him. He just laughed at her again. 

“TAKES ONE TO [Recognize] ONE!” 

“Screw you, man,” Susie said lightly. Spamton was still laughing, but it felt a lot less like he was laughing at her than it usually did. Or maybe he still was, but it didn’t feel as… mean-spirited, she supposed. As he did, Susie turned her attention back to the Jevilstail on her bed. “Dick move,” she informed the clown. The tail gave no response. Spamton noticed her attempt and laughed even harder. 

“PL- EASE,” he said. “THHAHT JACK[@#$] IS MORE STUBBORN THAN A [20 acres of verdant farmland].” 

“What?” Susie laughed. “What’s that mean?” Spamton ignored her, chittering softly to himself. She couldn’t quite hear it, but it was probably more Jevil-directed insults. “Does the shit you say even make sense to you?” 

“CLEAR AS [Lab grown diamond]!” Spamton confirmed. Susie snorted, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. 

“I’m serious, you’re weird as hell,” she informed him. 

“YOU’VE MENTIONED,” he deadpanned, levelling an unimpressed look in her direction. 

“Hey, it’s not like that’s a bad thing,” Susie said. “Pretty sure you’re only like… 20% weirder than Kris. I dunno, math sucks and I’m bad at it. Something like that.” Spamton giggled to himself. 

“[Birds of a feather], ME AND THTAT LITTLE [Sponge],” he observed. Susie grimaced at the reminder. He had been particularly interested in Kris when they fought him, she remembered that. Not to mention whatever Kris had been doing with him alone before they finally got worried enough to ignore their request to let them handle it alone. And the way Kris had screamed after they beat him. The way their hands had shook as the Dealmaker fell into them, their mouth wobbling as they fought to keep themself composed. Another mystery in the neverending stack of them that Susie seemed to be collecting. 

“Hey,” Susie began quietly. Spamton lifted his gaze to give her his attention again. “Are we… cool?” 

“[The current weather is 69 degrees in Tallahasee],” Spamton replied. He followed it up immediately with a quiet “HUH,” looking almost as bewildered by what he’d just said as Susie was. It wasn’t even the clear discomfort he showed for some of his other vocal glitches. He looked less uncomfortable and more just perplexed. Susie shook her head, trying not to get sidetracked. 

“I mean, like. I kinda almost strangled you two days ago. And I’ve literally been wearing you around. I know you said it was fine, but, uh… It’s weird, y’know?” Spamton stared up at her, mouth hanging open in shock. His voice clicked uncertainly in his throat. 

“WHATRE yOU [Getting at]?” Susie shrugged helplessly. 

“Just… are we good? Like, you don’t wanna strangle me back or anything?” It wasn’t quite the point she wanted to make, but admitting she felt bad about the whole thing would be a blow that her already terribly weakened ‘tough guy’ persona wouldn’t be able to withstand. She had to maintain some kind of authority with these two. Mostly Jevil, probably, though she could never be certain. 

“HAH. HAEHAHAHAEHAHE. YoUUURE A [Riot], KID.” She stared down at him, unyielding, not out of an intentional attempt to intimidate him but because she was trying to do a million calculations a minute to figure out what his angle here was. He seemed to take it as a threat, though, because he quickly sobered up. “WHY THeE [Hell] NOT,” he said finally. He stuck his hand out. “DEAL.”

“Deal?”

“WeERE [Ice cold lemonade].” Susie rolled her eyes. He waved his hand a little to signal her to take his ‘deal.’

“Is being a shitty salesman, like… your whole personality?” she joked.

“YES,” Spamton replied with practiced ease. Susie gave him the most unimpressed look she could muster. Still, she shook his hand delicately. His grip was firm, but he wasn’t trying to tear her arm off this time, which she appreciated. He released her grip, his head turning back towards the Jevilstail on the bed. “WELL, BAccK TO [Purgatory] THEN!” He shot Susie a pair of exceptionally sleazy finger guns. “UNTIL nNEXT TIME, [[Scary Monsters]]!” 

This time, she was at least ready for the transformation and easily caught the Dealmaker before it could fall. She really wished they wouldn’t do that. She wasn’t sure how their object forms worked, but she wasn’t particularly keen on finding out if damage transferred. They were both so careless about it. Almost like they didn’t even care. Her body shook with an involuntary shiver.

She wasn’t all that keen on wearing them around again, but she didn’t really want to leave them to their own devices again. She’d gotten lucky this time, but she didn’t want to push her luck. So, reluctantly, she slipped the Dealmaker back onto her face and slid the Jevilstail into place on her belt. Color sparkled across the Dealmaker’s lenses for just a moment before her vision cleared again. 

She found her way back outside the castle and managed to locate her friends relatively quickly. Kris and Ralsei were talking quietly outside Swatch’s cafe, leaning in conspiratorily. Lancer was nowhere to be seen. Susie scanned the area for him but came up empty. Probably in the cafe trying to steal shit. Which Susie wholeheartedly supported.

“Hey guys!” she called, waving as she approached. Ralsei nearly jumped out of his skin in surprise. Kris, as was their way, didn’t react beyond nodding in her direction. 

“S-Susie!” Ralsei squeaked. “You’re back!” 

“I’m back!” Susie replied.

“How was your nap?” Oh, right, that had been the excuse she had dredged up. It sounded pretty lame in hindsight. A nap? 

“Uhhh, good,” she said. “Hey, where’s Lancer?”

“Oh, he left a bit after you did,” Ralsei reported. “He, um… said something about it being his regularly scheduled ‘beach ball time.’”

“Hah. Nice,” Susie said. She glanced between the two of them. “Sooo what were you guys talking about?” 

“Nothing!” Ralsei said. “Just, um, discussing your project!” 

“Ew. Lame. Why’re you letting him talk about homework, Kris?” Susie asked. Kris shrugged, as if to say it’s Ralsei, what do you expect me to do? 

“Speaking of which, it must be getting late!” Ralsei said. “You two need to get home and get some sleep!” 

“Damn, kicking us out already?” Susie asked. 

“You promised me you’d start your project,” Ralsei reminded her. Damn it, they had done that, hadn’t they. Kris groaned at the prospect. “I’m serious!” Ralsei insisted. His expression stayed severe for a grand total of three seconds before his nervous smile returned. “Like I said, I’ll help you with it! We’ll have it all set in no time!” 

“Fiiiiine,” Susie groaned. “Lameass.” She gestured for Kris to lead the way and they began making their way over to the gateway. Susie made to follow them, only to feel something tug on her vest. 

“Susie,” Ralsei said, his voice far more quiet now. 

“Huh? What’s up?” Ralsei looked away, chewing his lip uncertainly. 

“I, um… I know you said you didn’t want to…” He sighed, gathering his courage. “I really think you should talk to Noelle about the code. And maybe… about some of the other stuff. She can help you a lot more than I can.” Susie drew back. 

“Listen, man-”

“I know!” Ralsei cut in quickly. “I know you don’t want to get her involved!” He looked down guiltily. He was wringing his hands so roughly that it looked like he was trying to scrub the fur right off of them. “I just think it’s… important. She’s important. I don’t… think we can do this without her.” Susie stared at him, leaning in closer. 

“What do you mean? Is this- Is this, like, a prophecy thing?” Susie asked. “I thought we saw the whole thing?” 

“Not entirely,” Ralsei stumbled out. “I know I promised we wouldn’t keep secrets anymore, but I really don’t- I just- You remember the-”

“Hey,” Susie said, cutting him off. “It’s fine. I, uh… I get it.” She swallowed as the prophecy she’d been trying so hard to forget swam right back up to the forefront of her mind. It’s fine. We can change it. We can fix it. “You don’t gotta tell me.” Ralsei nodded uncertainly. “But, just- You’re sure it’s Noelle? Like, she’s in it? We gotta… she’s gotta help somehow?” Ralsei picked at his paws, his entire body shaking almost imperceptibly. He gave her a halting nod. “Shit.” 

“I’m really sorry Susie, I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important,” Ralsei insisted. 

“No, I- I know, I get it,” Susie assured him. “I just- She might get hurt. Again.” Ralsei stared down at his feet, his face sinking into the fabric of his scarf. 

“I’m sorry,” was all he said. 

“Are you sure there’s nothing else? It really… has to be Noelle?” Susie asked desperately. 

“I- I don’t know. But I can’t think of anyone else,” Ralsei said. Susie let out a heavy sigh. She ran her hands through her hair, trying to calm down her sudden nerves for Ralsei’s sake. It wasn’t his fault. He wouldn’t ask her unless it was important, she knew that. But if they were already trying to break the prophecy anyway, then why should she bother listening to it on this? Maybe they needed to start ignoring the prophecy entirely. Tell it to get lost.

But she couldn’t deny that part of her was almost… excited by the prospect. Of having Noelle actually in the know. Conspiring with her instead of trying to sneak around her. Maybe even… maybe even telling her the truth about the Dark World. It was supposed to just be her and Kris’s thing, but if Kris and Noelle had been friends before, maybe they could let her in too? 

If she was being honest, Susie had no idea what she even wanted anymore. Noelle made everything so confusing. She’d have to talk to Kris about it and see what they thought. Telling Noelle about the Dark World wasn’t on the table yet, of that she was certain. But… If it was just to take a look at the code…

“Okay,” Susie said finally. “I’ll ask her.” 

“R-really?” 

“But only about the code,” Susie added. “Nothing about the Dark World or anything.” Ralsei pursed his lips but nodded. 

“O-okay,” he agreed. “Thank you.”

“Yeah. Okay.” He stared up at her, eyes impossibly sad behind the frames of his glasses. “I’ll, uh… I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“Yeah,” Ralsei replied, trying to inject more levity into his voice than he clearly felt. “See you tomorrow.”

Notes:

FELLAS. IS IT GAY TO BE ABLE TO IDENTIFY SUBTLE FLAVOR CHANGES IN THE PANCAKES YOUR EX MAKES?

We're movin' along with this story here. I feel like I've finally kinda got my footing on where I want things to go, so the plot is plotting and life is good.

As always, a billion million trillion thanks to everyone who's been keeping up with this story, you guys are epic and amazing. ONE MILLION DELICIS CORNDOGS UPON ALL OF YOU.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 4 of Susie and the Washouts