Onward to Hexide
Watching King console the Collector was an experience; seeing how cautious he was, careful to say the right things to make the kid happy and keep himself safe in the process, was genuinely lovely to see. He’s grown up so much in a matter of a few months. Luz felt a pang of regret for how things went down on the Day of Unity, how King was left to grow up on his own to deal with a child that possessed more power than once thought conceivable.
“Collector… buddy.” King said, approaching the sulking Collector as they sat on their Kirby star. “You have got to stop doing that. Think about what you’re doing to these people.”
“You are boring!” The Collector groaned, looking back at King. “I’m just playing pretend.”
“Even playing pretend has consequences,” King tried to reason. “Everything does.”
“And who taught you that?” The Collector asked, posing it as a jeering and impudent response but it was very clearly a genuine ask. To Luz is was interesting to see how much the Collector trusted King, how he cared so much about what the little Titan wants to tell him.
“A cranky old witch taught me that…” King explained.
“You mean Eda, right?” The Collector exclaimed, excitement evident in both their voice and expression. They bounded across the star to King. “That’s what we need, a cranky, know-it-all, mentor figure! No substitutes allowed.” Clearly this was making King very uncomfortable, as the Collector kept going, King slinked away slightly. “Maybe if I ask really nicely, I won’t have to turn her into a puppet.”
“Uh, no!” King jumped back in. “Her curse is still… active.”
Luz’s mom was whispering something. She wasn’t paying attention, and she didn’t hear what the older woman was saying. Thankfully she heard her friends at work explaining, saving her the effort. It allowed Luz to remain tunnel-visioned on King. There was that funny feeling again, the wet one on her face.
Slowly she raised a hand to her face, wiping the underside of her eyelids and drawing it away. In the artificial sun's light, the tears on her fingers glittered brightly. It was odd, Luz didn’t recognize that she was feeling sad right now, yet, the more she stared at King, the more tears dribbled down her face.
It only then occurred to her that she wasn’t actually hearing what was happening around her. The environment as if it were on mute. It was a blink and you’ll miss it kind of sensation; one moment she was there and listening into the conversation between The Collector and King, the next she was caught up in her own paradox again.
[“Luz…”]
What was going on with her? Being caught up with her appearance, the Dread Hunter, the hyper fixation. Luz did awful things on Halloween, sure she was possessed, but she surrendered control to Philip. She died, Hunter died, she walked it off, he turned to dust, she stole his looks, she stole his bird, hell she even stole his dash! Why did Hunter have to go and resurrect her? Why couldn’t he just let her go?
[“Stop that,”] She heard faintly from somewhere around her. [“Don’t you dare think that. Ever!”]
Before she could question it, Luz snapped back to reality. King and the Collector were shooting off into the distance. As the Star made lift off, carrying her demonic little brother with it, a surge of panic spiked deep within Luz.
“No, no, no. Not yet!” She cried, running out into the area after the retreating star. In poofs of blue smoke the puppets all vanished, with the cartoonishly happy filter on the world receding into the distance after The Collector and King. “King.” She reached out, watching distraught.
“Okay okay, the eyeballs on the ground are normal.” Luz’s mom tried to make sense of the situation. “But the little space cherub is the danger?”
[“You should probably follow them.”] she heard faintly, from just over her shoulder. [“Belos is probably heading there right now.”]
Luz shuddered and shook off the voice, feeling it best to ignore the disembodied voice at this time.
“It looked like those two were playing a game.” Gus commented.
“Yeah, like FCLORPing.” Luz replied with a bitter twang. “No doubt probably being a twisted version of the adventures I went on with King.”
Gus looked like he had a normal question but got caught up. “Hold on, what’s an FCLORP?”
“It’s an acronym that stands for Foam and Cardboard—“ Luz cut herself off. “Gus, that isn’t relevant!”
“Do you think everyone who gets turned into a puppet is locked inside that palace?” Willow asked, a haunted tone in her voice.
Luz turned around and clambered onto the nearest incline, wanting to get the best look possible at the aptly named “Archive House” the the Collector built above the Titan’s Skull.
“If they do, then that’s where we have to go.” She stoically proclaimed, expression hardening. This was it, the path to her redemption lies in the trek to the Archive House.
“You’ll never make it,” A familiar voice echoed through the area, drawing the attention of the entire group. Looking up to the roof of a nearby building, there stood a trio of friendly faces, Mattholomule, Skara, and Barcus. “Because you guys are losers!” Matt mimicked an L on his forehead as he called out to them.
Luz sighed. She supposed that some things are bound never to change.
_
The walk to where the kids had been staying since the Day of Unity was long and arduous, considering the current state of affairs with the Boiling Isles. There were many times throughout the trip when the group would have to stop, scamper off into the plasticity leaves of the forest, and wait for whatever horrible nightmare that The Collector had unleashed onto the world to pass by them before they could continue their journey at a snail’s pace.
Intermittently, Matt would launch into exposition dumps about what had been going on since they vanished a few months back. Essentially the world went to shit, as everyone who instantly stood up to The Collector and his armada was reconfigured into toys and taken away. Everyone else lived in constant fear of the same thing happening to them.
Luz chided herself silently as she heard of the fate her friends and their extended communities were facing. Yet another symptom of her being so stupid. If Luz had seen the truth about Philip from the get-go and didn’t help him find the disc that contacted The Collector in the first place, none of this would have happened. The Empire, Belos’ rise to power, the draining spell, the Day of Unity, and King having to release The Collector on the Isles. It was all her fault, something only possible because of what she did when she time-traveled.
“Hey,” Amity leaned in really close and whispered. “Can we talk?”
Luz eyed Amity, trying desperately to not let her facial and body language show anything of note. She didn’t want to worry her, Amity had lots going on right now as it is.
“About…” she drawled out, not really wanting to say anything.
“Everything. Back at the square you just shut off and nearly got run over by The Collector’s magic. Next, you attacked Terra’s Owl Beast in one of the most violent displays I’ve ever seen out of you. Then you space out again.” Amity searched Luz’s eyes with such worry it made her heart swoon. “Something is clearly wrong.”
“No it isn’t.” She lied, keeping her tone passive. “I’m totally fine.”
The burst of static in her ears when the words left her lips caused her to jump. Quickly it was followed by the Dread Hunter, its limbs cracking as it emerged from behind Luz. It’s breath was heavy as its face slinked forward, neck seemingly elongated as it looped over her shoulder and in front of Luz’s eyes.
[“Seriously? What is this Guy’s deal anyways?”] a voice came, almost as though over the wind.
“You’re such a liar.” It was taunted. “As good as you are at concealing. Your facade cracks away. How much longer will it take?”
A hand wrapped around as well, following the head. Slowly it pointed to her chest, tapping the spot that the concealment stone rested below her clothing.
She followed the hand downwards, and when she looked back the Dread Hunter was no longer there. This thing was getting rather predictable.
That being said, it was typically on the mark. So she reached down and pulled back at her costume to get a closer look at the concealment stone. To her horror, the gemstone had a hairline fracture.
Luz frowned at the crack in the concealment stone, heart rate spiking as the illusion of her old appearance glitched and revealed her true appearance for a second. A quick smack to the gemstone restored the magical disguise, calming Luz.
“See?” Amity did that thing where you whisper yet keep the intensity of a yell to imply that, should circumstances have allowed, she would be actually yelling at her. “You’re obviously going through something.”
She grunted, “I don’t have to deal with this now.”
Amity gasped, her expression contorting with a mix of bemusement and pain. Instantly Luz was flooded with regret, but the damage was already done. And with a swift “This proves my point, you're not thinking clearly.” Amity was officially no longer interested in talking.
Story of Luz’s life, hurting everyone around her. She receded back in for the rest of the duration of the walk. Mattholomule continued to spill his guts in a surprisingly detailed and complicated flashback that was complete with background visuals and sound effects provided by Skara and Barcus.
Thankfully, aside from ol’ Static-Eyes hiding around trees and just in the corner of her eyes like the G-Man or some other Easter Egg that was teasing something rather important that you never pick up on in the moment, there was nothing else left to bother her. Luz may have finally mastered the art of tuning everything out.
[“Okay, can you hear me and are simply choosing not to acknowledge me?”] She could hear faintly from somewhere. [“I’m going to be a little peeved if you are because it’s gonna save so much time if you acknowledge me.”]
Mysterious voices in her head were the one factor that she couldn’t block out. Despite its urging, Luz did in fact choose to continually ignore it… because schizophrenic symptoms weren’t something she was ready to face at this stage of her character arc.
It didn’t take much longer from there for the group to find Hexide, and what a god-awful state it was in. The exterior, where not broken and crumbled, was completely bastardized. Covered in rude messages and scraps that contains warnings, jokes, and just mean statements.
Of course Mattholomule cracked a corny joke, even in the apocalypse he can be perfectly on brand without breaking a sweat, and then led them to the door.
“Welcome to New Hexide!” Skara enthusiastically introduced as the door was flung open, showing off all the chaos connected to a society run entirely by students.
As the squad consisting of her fucking self, an annoyed Amity, Luz’s bewhildered mother, Gus who was still unable to be read, Willow one split end away from cutting her own bangs, and a static eyed hallucination of Hunter that only Luz can see made their way inside, Luz could feel deep in her bones that this was going to be a long and arduous couple of hours.
The Dread Hunter let out a chuckle, seemingly reacting to Luz’s internal dialogue.
“Yeah, yeah. Get it out now you static-eyed bitch.” Luz snapped, “You’re gonna have to sit through everything we do.”
Even though she wasn’t going to admit it, Luz was a little worried when the entire group shuffled away from her just a bit.
Everything was totally fine.