Falling Feathers
There was nothing but silence.
She didn't know when she became semi conscious, if that was even the right word to use, but when she did, there was no noise to be heard. It felt like her brain had been lagging; she couldn’t really feel, see, or hear anything around her. She couldn’t move either, and frankly?
She’d rather not move at all right now.
There wasn’t any voice barking orders at her, no dull ringing in her ears, no snow roaring down from the heavens, and no… no friends to freeze. As far as she was concerned, this was the least terrible situation she was in by far.
No, for a while, silence was her only companion to speak of. She eventually felt slight movements, but she wasn't the one moving. It was more like someone was moving her. Was she being carried?
Was… was Kris carrying her…? After…. After everything…? Just what was next…? Just… Just how many more people would she have to freeze?
Eventually, the movements stopped, and she felt herself being placed against some rough surface, assumedly the ground. After that, she didn't feel anything else, until noise began creeping into the void she was thrust into, growing louder and louder until it became understandable to her.
"-ow the hell are you going to blame me for this?! I saved your asses!"
"That's SIMPLE! ELEMENTARY, even! You all were so jealous of me and Noelle's excellent teamwork that Kris decided to take control of her brilliant but frail mind for themselves! As Kris's muscle, you obviously must have been involved somehow!"
"Do you even hear yourself?! How the hell are you two 'friends' when you're sitting here insulting her?! And why would any of Kris's actions be MY FAULT?! I wasn't even fucking there!"
"Like I said, you're the dumb brute of your so-called team! Even if you didn't have any part in their plans, you should have stopped them in the first place! Someone as intelligently subdued as you should have been following your leader anyways!"
"Grrr…. You're making it sound like they had laid out goddamn bread crumbs to hint at their plans for extreme ultra-violence! Not to mention, I DID fucking stop them you asshole!"
"You were a little bit late for that! Because of your sloppy handling of this whole situation, you almost got Noelle and me killed!"
"I. FUCKING. SAVED. YOU!!! You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me! Not to mention, you almost got Noelle killed your damnself!"
"Grasping at empty paper straws I see! Explain in a 6000 word essay how I could have possibly put Noelle in harm's way! No, 12000! That’s how much you would have to stretch out your argument due to a lack of evidence!"
"Lack?! Oh, I've got the complete opposite! Let’s start with you allying yourself with Queen, who, you know, wants to replace NOELLE'S FUCKING FACE! Her FLESH AND BONE FACE, with FUCKING METAL! Sounds goddamn pleasant!"
"Oh please! Queen already informed me that she wouldn't do that if I assisted her in her quest to create a new world! And anyways, if that's your only argument, I'm afraid that you're running out of evidence in this trial of ours! Got anything else to defend yourself with before I declare a guilty verdict?!"
‘
"Guilty?! I”M GUILTY?! No, Nooo, you're right! I'm probably forgetting how you just crashed into her coaster car, AND SENT HER PLUMMETING DOWN AT LEAST 40 FUCKING FEET! IN FACT, IT SAYS A LOT MORE ABOUT HER THAT SHE'S TOLERATED ALL OF YOUR BULLSHIT SO FAR, SURVIVED A FALL LIKE THAT WITHOUT A BIG ASS PILE OF TRASH TO LAND ON, AND DEALT WITH BEING FORCED TO ACT AGAINST HER WILL, ALL IN THE SAMEDAMNDAY!!! I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL SHE FINALLY GETS SICK OF YOUR SHIT! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY TO THAT, YOU BLUEBIRD FUCK?!!"
"Y-you!-"
"Uggh…"
All the yelling had finally fully woken Noelle up, rather than leave her in her previous sort of half conscious half unconscious state, forced to hear the bile being spit back and forth between the two enigmatic voices, and now that she could properly feel again, she felt absolutelyterrible.
Her whole body felt sore, like she had gone jogging for days on end. Her hands hurt a lot, as she quickly found out when she tried to push herself onto her hooves, and winced as a result. Noelle had to bring them up in front of her eyes to examine them, her vision hazy.
They were covered with what looked to be snowy dust, most likely due to her excessive use of her ice magic, and were discolored a darkish blue as a result. They felt numb and cold, and stung even without her touching anything or moving. It reminded her of images of frostbitten hands she had seen in mountain hiking survival guides.
And most eye-catchingly, her left hand had blood covered all over it, running down in streams from the wound on her ring finger that she got from… from wearing the ring.
She quickly put it out of her mind, distracting herself by noting interesting stuff like… how a lot of the blood on her hand had either dried up or froze, or how her hands hurt… a… a lot…
Okay, yeah no, her injuries weren't interesting or anything like that, they just hurt. Like, an injury. Duh. That's how injuries worked. Why was she focusing on this? Of all the things she could have chosen to focus on, it had to be her terrible wounds.
Noelle decided to instead endure the pain so she could try and push herself up at least a little, shaking all the while, before her eyes corrected themselves, and now that she could see more than just what was right in her face, she noticed the pattern of the floor beneath her.
She had apparently been laying on a light blue carpet, which laid above a dark blue grid tiled floor. It led to a set of stairs which split off into two pathways, both going in opposite directions. The area was familiar to her… but it wasn't a welcome sight for her sore eyes.
She had somehow ended up back at Queen's mansion.
At that moment, Noelle felt so… tired. Of everything.
She had tried, so hard, to get away from Queen, having to escape out of cages, sneak past servants, avoid her own friend, and then was pulled into doing… awful things by her old childhood friend, and where did that land her?
Right back where she started.
That fact made her want to scream as loudly as she possibly could.
Instead, she let out a tired sigh and tried to turn around and walk away. With how sore her body was, she had barely turned around before her legs gave out from beneath her, and she started falling.
She didn't even react.
Great. Just what she needed. Yet another instance of her falling over her own two legs, ending up flat on her face, and being the most pathe-
"Oh shit!"
Suddenly, Noelle heard quickened footsteps and felt a tug at the back of her dress, stopping her collision, her face hanging a few inches above the floor.
(A/N: Play Moonsetter)
"Crap, you okay?! I’m sorry, I didn't hear you get up!"
Noelle strained her neck to look back at her savior, in ways she both knew and didn't yet know.
Seeing Susie's face and hand keeping her from falling over was a very welcome sight. However, she didn't feel as excited or happy as she normally would have been, and she didn't know why.
Susie pulled Noelle up to her feet. Noelle held her arms out to try and stabilize herself, finding some amount of success, not falling over, but also not being completely still either. Berdly, who was off to the side, rushed over and looked to examine Noelle.
“Noelle! Are you alright?! Did this brute get too rough with you?! Oh god your hands, they look-”
Berdly, for once, was cut off by the sudden hug Noelle gave him, which was really more of a shoulder hug due to her current condition causing her to undershoot the direction her legs moved towards, landing her right over Berdly's left shoulder. His armor's shoulder pad poked her a little bit, but she didn't mind.
“I… I’m glad you’re okay…! There… there was… so much snow… and I couldn’t see… I thought… I-I… thought that… you, y-you w-were…”
Berdly helped Noelle stand up by having her lean on his shoulder.
“It’s alright! Do not worry, Noelle! Your valiant warrior is in tip top shape! (At least now I am…) I am just glad you are alright for better…” Berdly glanced at Noelle’s hands. “...or for worse.”
Noelle rubbed at her forehead. On top of everything else, she had a really bad migraine. She looked around the room; except for her, Berdly, Susie, and a weird stone pirate-looking statue, there was nobody else around.
“W-what happened? How did… How did we get here?”
Berdly scoffed. “If you want to know, you’d better interrogate Ms. Loudmouth over there. Warning, it’s nearly impossible!”
Susie, who was busy hiding the small smile on her face that showed up when Noelle hugged Berdly, jumped a little when her name was mentioned. Noelle turned her head towards Susie.
"...S-susie? What… W-why am I here?"
Susie's eyes wandered off to the side as she scratched at her face.
"Well, uh, that's a bit of a loaded-"
"I'll tell you what happened!"
Contrary to his previous statement, Berdly cut in, and smushed his free hand into Susie's face as he took over the conversation.
"After Kris used your incredible powers to cheat out a win and unfortunately debilitate me, she-”
Berdly waved dismissively towards Susie. Susie flipped him off when he turned back towards Noelle.
“-managed to defeat Kris in a 1 on 1 duel, and allocated us back here, albeit in a very disorderly manner.”
“Fuck you, too…” Susie mumbled.
This information shocked Noelle. Susie was, ironically enough, one of the last things she thought would have saved her.
…Heck, she didn’t even think she would get saved at all.
“Look, it's really not that big of a deal.” Susie stated. “I saw a giant ass snowstorm in the sky, there were frozen people every fucking where, I shut that shit down, we’re here now! As for the why, uh, there's this thing called a Fountain, and that's how we get out of this shithole city, but, it's conveniently located right where the big bad evil bitch is, because of course it fucking is! So-"
"Wait just a moment!" Berdly, once again, shoved his wing in Susie's face, cutting her off, yet again. Susie resisted the urge to sock Berdly in the face.
"What? What now?"
Berdly retracted his wing and instead pointed towards the statue of Queen between the staircases.
"What about Queen?!"
Susie scoffed loudly. "What ABOUT Queen?!"
Berdly threw the wing that wasn't holding Noelle up in the air.
"What about her new world?! What about our Smartopia?!"
Instantly, any props, small as they were, Susie would have given Berdly just vanished. Susie was really trying, she really tried, to keep from telling Berdly off while Noelle was still recovering from... Everything. But her patience was running real dry.
"Are you fucking kidding me? You're still on about that?"
Berdly rubbed the bridge of his beak aggressively. "Of COURSE I'm still on it, it's the world that the TWO OF US,"
He pointed at himself and Noelle.
Noelle, at this point, had finally managed to get herself somewhat stable, and, albeit still a little shaky, stood up by herself, pushing herself off of Berdly's shoulder. She was, admittedly, pretty uncomfortable being in the middle of the argument, and tried to make herself small.
"-Deserve! Someone as empty-headed as you wouldn't be able to even comprehend the new land that we will rule over!"
Noelle tried putting a hand on Berdly’s shoulder to calm him down. “Uh, B-Berdly, m-maybe Susie-”
“-is a complete simpleton! You’re completely right Noelle!”
Noelle retracted her hand in shock. Worry began to set in as she looked at Susie while signaling silently that Berdly was wrong. Luckily, Susie gave her a shrug that seemed to indicate that she didn't care, but it didn't give Noelle as much relief as she thought it would. She was still really… tense.
And she still didn't know why.
She wasn't in any more danger, so what did she have to worry about?
Susie pointed a finger at Berdly's chest. "All right then, featherhead. Enlighten me! What do you think Noelle wants right now?"
Noelle flinched at the mention of her name. She was being defended, and yet, she was flinching and shaking and breathing heavily, and just being a general scaredy-cat. What was wrong with her?
Berdly was taken aback by the question. "What are you blabbering about now?!"
Susie moved her finger towards Noelle.
"You've been rambling on and on about your Smartopia, and fucking ambrosia and other meaningless shit, you've never asked Noelle what she thinks about all of this! You just keep assuming that she's all for your plan, and talking over everything she says!"
Noelle quickly tried to respond, eager to end the conflict. "Berdly, s-shes, she's-"
"Completely misunderstanding the situation? My thoughts exactly! Astute as always, Noelle! Even while you are weakened so… You are the perfect pick for second-in-command of Smartopia!"
Susie wanted to slam her face into one of the walls around her, any of them, because that would honestly be better than trying to convince Berdly of anything she had to say at this point. If anything, it was like slamming herself into a wall, only without the part where the pain went away.
Noelle, with an unfamiliar feeling welling up inside her, continued to try and convince Berdly. "That's n-not it a-at all! S-she-"
Berdly put a wing up to respectfully quiet down Noelle. "Don't strain yourself trying to understand her methods, my beloved Player 2! We don't have to listen to this outcast’s lies! Like the demonspawn she is, she is trying to tempt us into falling to her level! We'll find our beloved Queen, and finally create our brand new world! Just the two of us!"
"B-but I-"
"In fact, why are we sitting around listening to her filthy words?! We should be looking for her right now! C'mon Noelle, let's go!"
Noelle panicked. Her breathing quickened.
She didn’t want to go back.
This whole thing was way bigger than she could handle.
Alternate worlds, magic, fantasy weapons, robotic servants, their cybernetic queen who was really more random than royal, and a crazy plan to create an entirely new world?
She was just saying, that sounded like a little much.
She had to make it clear to Berdly.
She didn’t want a new world.
She wanted to go back to her old one.
That unfamiliar feeling from before rose back up in Noelle.
It told her to speak her mind.
It helped her to keep on pushing ahead.
She was ready to tell Berdly what she really felt like.
She opened her mouth and…
“B-”
“Fret not my lady! You needn’t not waste your breath any longer! I can see that even being in the vicinity of that… insurgent… is visibly worsening your condition! She is quite literally toxic!”
No no no no no no no.
Why couldn’t she do it?
How could she not even get a single word out to Berdly?
-How could she not say a word to them…?-
“I will escort you away from this… so called hero. Heh, more like a zero, am I right?”
No, he wasn’t. He was dead wrong.
-Dead like he would have been thanks to her.-
Why was he so… ungrateful?
-Not like she was any better.-
Susie had saved his life.
-She saved her too, but she didn’t see her giving Susie any thanks.-
Both of their lives actually.
And instead of thanking her, Noelle was letting her get barraged with insults.
-Why didn’t Susie hate her?-
Worst still, Susie was just taking it like she was used to it.
-Not like she was helping with all of her silence.-
Susie was far more concerned about her feelings than anything Berdly could think of.
-Why did she bother trying to help her out?-
And here she was, doing nothing in return.
-J u s t w h a t w a s w r o n g w i t h h e r?-
Susie had enough of Berdly’s shit. When he attempted to walk towards a door located near a staircase on the right side of the room, she abruptly stepped in front of him, blocking his path.
Berdly balled his fists together.
“Out of our way, you… you-”
“No, no, shut the fuck up.” Susie glared at Berdly, her patience all but gone. Her pupils thinned as she glared at Berdly. He flinched, but tried to keep a stoic expression, albeit not very well.
“What… the fuck… is wrong with you?! Are you deaf?! Can you even try to listen to anyone else’s opinion?! I’ve been trying to be calm, trying not to tell you what a dumbass you’re being, but I can’t take it anymore!”
Berdly scoffed exaggeratedly. “YOU can’t take it anymore?! I’VE been here listening to all of your lies and slanderous attempts to… to…”
Berdly’s body shook vigorously, before he pointed a finger right in Susie's face.
“...To steal Noelle away from me!”
Susie stopped moving entirely. Every thought she had went right out the window.
“What.”
Berdly then smirked. "You should really keep your guard up."
Susie raised a brow in confusion. "What are you-"
Susie wouldn’t be able to finish her sentence, as Berdly suddenly summoned his halberd, and swung at her. She barely reacted in time to summon her axe and used it to block the attack.
"What the fuck?!"
Berdly, ignoring Susie's remark, then spun his halberd, simultaneously morphing it into a spear, and ducked as a stream of plasma-green lightning burst from his spear, aimed straight for Susie’s stomach.
The lightning hit its target, and while Susie didn’t fly off her feet, she was pushed back several feet, almost pushing her up against the wall. She groaned in pain while dealing with some leftover static from the blast that left her slightly paralyzed. She managed to get an eye open and choke a few words out.
“You… fucking… idiot…!”
Berdly laughed smugly.
“I’m not the one who’s been left helpless by my excellent tactical strategy!”
“Y-you… fu–”
Susie’s eye wandered for only a moment, and yet what she saw made the words die in her throat. She was too shocked, both literally and figuratively, to warn Berdly as he walked back towards Noelle. Breaking through the paralysis completely left her mind.
“Alright my first lady! Worry no longer! I defeated the parasitic beast and have cleared a path for you! We can finally progress forwards back to Queen, right Noelle? …Noelle?”
Noelle was… oddly quiet.
If Berdly had been paying close attention, he would have seen the thin layer of cold mist that was building around her, or that the last small bit of wet blood on Noelle’s hand had frozen within seconds. Or that Noelle was shaking heavily, her breath coming and going almost as fast as she shook.
But he didn’t.
Berdly snapped his fingers. “Of course! You must still be exhausted from earlier! Forgive me, Noelle, it must have momentarily slipped my mind!”
He shook his head. “You must have had quite a long day! Let your knight in glow-in-the-dark armor carry you to your room, where you can properly rest your immaculate brain!”
Berdly quickly grabbed Noelle’s left wrist and attempted to lead her away…
And that….
(A/N: Play The Waking World)
That was the last straw.
“K… Kris…? Isn’t that the wrong way…?”
Noelle knew that Kris could be… odd… to some, but usually they were lovably kooky, or, at worst, somewhat mean spirited. But going back the way they came? It seemed a little… counter-intuitive. There wasn't really anything back there.
She sighed with a smile. She was already having some regrets it seemed. But it was Kris she was talking about! Surely they knew what they were doing.
Kris didn’t say anything for a few minutes. They just turned around and stared at her with… disgust? It was starting to worry her.
“Uh… Kris, is something-”
“Shut up.”
Noelle was shocked for a second, but quickly assumed she must have offended Kris somehow.
“O-oh… sorry-”
“I said… Be. Quiet.”
Kris then grabbed Noelle’s left arm by her wrist, pulling her towards the already treaded left path.
“Let’s go.”
Noelle pulled her arm away, still following behind Kris. She wasn't a kid anymore, she could walk by herself. Although, she appreciated Kris wanting to make sure she didn't get lost. Even if it did… feel a little off.
“Uh, sur-”
Kris suddenly stopped, whipped around, and grabbed Noelle’s arm again, this time a lot more forcefully, and held it in the air.
“Wha-”
“Stopthat.”
Kris got up directly in Noelle’s face, their red eyes felt like they were gazing into her soul.
“...What do you think you are doing?”
Noelle nervously laughed a little. Kris… was being a… lot more intense than she was used to. She wasn't even used to Kris being intense at all. “O-o-oh… uh, you, y-you don’t have to hold my hand… I-I can walk all by myself- !”
“Wrong.”
Kris had pulled out their shield, and smacked Noelle in the face with it. They kept their grip on her wrist, and pulled her back towards them when she naturally recoiled from the blow.
“...Are you questioning me?”
Noelle used her free hand to rub the spot where Kris hit her.
Kris hit her. In the face. With force. And it hurt.
Kris was acting really weird, but… they didn’t hit her that bad. It… it was just… a… a warning shot! It… had to be! Dess would always smack Kris around when they pulled a prank on her, so… maybe this was like… Kris’s way of doing the same thing…?
Why… why else would they do that…?
Noelle shook her head in response to Kris's question, but Kris didn't seem to buy it. “I’m hurt, Noelle. Hurt that you wouldn’t trust me. Even after we came to a truce, you are still thinking of ways to escape! I thought we were friends.”
Noelle scrambled to get out a response. “N-no! Of… of course we’re friends, Kris!”
“Clearly, we’re not. After all, we haven’t talked or hung out in… well, in forever! Too busy crying into a pillow, or wallowing in your own misery?”
Kris grinned.
“Or maybe you were partying, having the time of your life, all because I wasn’t there… Right…? Don't deny it, you hated my pranks when we were younger. Bet you're dreading what you think I have in store, huh? Think that I'm some freak or weirdo or something? That's so mean… I never thought of you as the crueltype."
"N-no! That's not it at all! I- I trust you Kris! It's just-"
"Then let me make one thing… veryclear."
Kris pulled Noelle in so close that their foreheads touched together. The forced intimacy made Noelle hold her breath in out of sheer fear.
"If you want to be anything more than your weak, pathetic self… Do not go far from me. Understand?"
Noelle didn't say a thing. She just nodded.
"Good."
With that, Kris continued dragging Noelle towards the previous path. Noelle only saw it for a second, but they were smiling so eagerly, one could describe it as eerie.
One could also describe it as murderous.
Noelle shook it off. She was probably just being paranoid! Kris was… just happy to hang out again! They seemed pretty hurt, talking about how she was without them. Even if they got some details off, they hadn't seen her, so they couldn't have known that she missed them too! They even wanted to help her with speaking up! They’re such a great friend! It's fine. It's fine. She's overthinking it! After all…
…Kris wouldn't really hurt anybody, would they?
The events flashed in her mind in an instant. It felt like an eternity had passed, yet it had been only a few seconds.
Even stranger, it felt different than it did before. It was still really uncomfortable, but now… there was something else there. Something familiarly… foreign. She’d felt it before, but in other people, not her.
The memory should have been like cold water to a match. She should have been frightened, scared, shriveled up into a ball even. She shouldn’t be… like this, whatever this was.
But instead, it served as fuel for that unfamiliar feeling. It grew like wildfire, spreading throughout her body, throughout her mind, making her heart race like never before. It beckoned to her, wordlessly empowering her to finally stop standing around, and finally do something. And now it was stronger than it had been before.
And when she finally realized what it was, finding out what it was the last thing she was thinking about.
Because when she slapped Berdly across the face, anybody could tell what she was feeling.
Noelle was angry.
Susie could only watch as Berdly flew back a good few feet onto the ground, his Smart Scouter falling off his face and clattering off to the side.
Still in shock, all she could say was, "Oh shit…"
(A/N: Play Damnatio Memoriae)
Berdly looked back in surprise, rubbing the smacked side of his face.
"N-Noelle, what are-"
"How dare you…"
"W-what?"
Noelle's hands balled up, shaking furiously as Noelle took many deep breaths, though none of them seemed to help her in the slightest. Her whole body shook and twitched rapidly, although that didn’t deter her in any visible way.
"HOW DARE YOU! Susie saves our lives, and your first thought is to belittle her, and then on top of that, attack her?! What were you thinking?!
Berdly stammered. He'd never seen Noelle mad… ever. And if he was being honest…
…She was terrifying.
"Y-you don't understand Noelle! She's trying to take you away and-"
"TAKE ME AWAY?!"
Noelle stomped one of her hooves on the ground, and soon after, a large, sharp icicle burst out of the ground to her left.
"What… What do you think I am?! Some object that you think you own?!"
"No, no way! I just meant, I mean, what I meant was- S-she-" Berdly pointed a finger towards Susie as he struggled to make his point.
That was a terrible idea.
Noelle, upon seeing this, groaned loudly, on the edge of screaming, while clutching at her head. Another icicle shot up, this one now on her right.
"SUSIE?! Susie’s the one who’s acting like she owns me?! Like I’m capable of being taken like some PURSE?!”
Noelle buried her face in her hands as the layer of mist around her began to grow, obscuring parts of her body.
"I was trying, Berdly… I tried… SOHARD, to make you see without getting like this, but I guess my feelings don't matter to you, do they?!"
"O-of course they do! I care a lot about your feelings!”
Another icicle came from behind her back.
“Do you? Do you really?! If you did, I wouldn’t be saying any of this! You just… overwrote everything I had to say! Everything I said was just another bridge for your ego or your agenda! Not any sort of opinion I could have, no no no! It’s completely out of the question for you to even think that I have other feelings, right?!”
Berdly just gaped. For once in his life, he had no words.
“I trusted you! I thought we were friends! But friends don’t do that! Queen kept trying to get me to serve her when I didn’t want to, and you didn’t stop her! In fact, you helped her! I had to run away from my own friend! For what?! A Smartopia?! What is that- what even is that?!”
“I-its- ah…”
Noelle seemed to calm down, but in reality, she was only holding her anger in, temporarily. Even when she was mad, she still was willing to be reasonable. “Go on… Explain.”
Berdly flustered, trying not to screw this up. Even he knew that Noelle was giving him a lot of grace by saying those few words. He didn't know why she was so mad, but he clearly had to fix it. He decided to start by finally sitting up after lying on the ground this entire time.
“W-well, we-ah- I mean, I, I wanted to, to create a w-world, a new one, j-j-just for us… just the, just the two of us, together forever… We’d never have to grow apart!”
Berdly started to gain confidence, his vigor returning with every word.
“We’d rule over everything, you and I! We’re the best team in the history of the multiverse! It would be a simple matter of following Queen’s instructions and then we’d have it! Our perfect world-”
“Your perfect world.” Noelle corrected, uncharacteristically coldly.
“R-right…! M-my perfect… world…”
The realization hit Berdly like a truck.
“Noelle… Do… you… not want to rule over Smartopia?”
Unfortunately, it came too late to stop Berdly from angering his friend yet again. Noelle yelled while throwing her hands up in the air.
“Are you kidding me…? Of COURSE I didn’t want a Smartopia! I don’t want another world at all! Why do you think I kept running away from you and Queen?! Oh, it's because I had to get my daily run in- NO! It’s because this whole thing is completely insane! We’re in a completely different world, we have magical powers, there’s a crazy robot dictator who wants to turn me into a tool for her plans of world domination, and you’re thinking of making a new world?! It’s like a dream you can’t wake up from! We’re not gods, Berdly! We're kids! We shouldn’t even be dreaming of stuff like that, much less trying to actually make it a reality! Do you want to know what I was thinking about while you were off trying to play god?! I was thinking about how to go home! Did you forget all about that?! That we have lives and people to get back to?! You may not care, but I do, so you can do whatever you want here, but I’m going to go home!”
“W-wait a nanosecond! Noelle, I understand what you’re saying-”
“Do you?!”
“Yes! Listen, making a new world does seem crazy, I get that! But this isn’t really about that! I… admittedly may have leaned a smidge too heavily into it, but it’s not because I think I’m a god, or a ruler of a great nation or any of that! I just… wanted us to never be apart. Just the two of us! This is the opportunity of a lifetime! No, it's a miracle! As long as I followed Queen, well… It would just be the two of us! We’d- we’d never be pulled apart! No one would ever get in the way!”
Noelle was shocked. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Berdly… Y-you…”
Berdly started to smile. He might have created a terrible emotional reaction initially, but now that he’d identified the independent variable, he’d gotten things under control. He realized that he should have just communicated with Noelle earlier, but that was one anomaly he would avoid in the future.
Things were going to be okay…
“...YOU’RE JUST LIKE KRIS!”
…Until they weren’t.
The air in the room changed. If things were tense before, it was now much, much worse.
Susie, having stayed quiet the whole time in order to stay out of business that wasn't her's, realized two very disturbing things;
One, she hadn't revealed that Kris had been possessed this whole time, admittedly due to her letting herself get distracted by fighting with Berdly. That was bad enough on its own.
And two… having seen firsthand what that… thing did and said while in Kris's body, more than Berdly probably had, she realized that Noelle being forced to freeze Darkners was most likely just the tip of the iceberg of shitty things she had to do.
She grit her teeth in frustration. Susie didn’t know what to do or say in this situation. Noelle was clearly dealing with a crapton of emotional shit, and Berdly was not helping, despite a clear want to do so, she would admit. As much as she hated just watching this happen, she didn’t want to just rush in and make things worse.
That’s not what she wanted to do, and more importantly, that’s not what Noelle needed.
On the other hand, Berdly was still trying to process everything he just heard. He felt a rush of emotions, too fast for him to properly understand them. There was a mix of shock, pain, disbelief, and more, that turned thinking into a wet, messy slurry. Any thought was quickly twisted beyond clarity.
But one thing was obvious, even to him, even right now.
Noelle was upset because of him.
Noelle’s pain, it wasn't caused by Kris, it wasn't done by Susie, but him. The shame was soul crushing.
He didn't know exactly what had happened when he saw Noelle and Kris together, but he knew it was no good. Noelle looked, well… She looked dead.
She was pale, bleeding, her eyes looked empty, and seemed to be forced along by Kris into doing their bidding. Berdly found it absolutely revolting. And yet…
There she stood. His best friend. A person he fought to protect. And in an act of humility, Berdly would even admit to himself that what Susie said was true; Noelle was the only person who tolerated him.
As soon as he acknowledged that, all of his thoughts became crystal clear.
She always listened when he would get excited about the next new Dragon Blazers game, or vented about people not understanding the intricate lore of his favorite book series. She was always there when he needed to study, even when she had prior plans. She always had patience when he got frustrated because he didn’t understand a subject or problem, and would always explain it in ways he could understand, even if it took longer than it should have.
She always did those things. She never complained, never moaned, and never said she was tired about anything they did. Honestly, Berdly couldn’t explain it himself. He initially thought she had a crush on him of all things, as that was the only plausible situation in his mind. After all, why else would Noelle do all of those things for so little in return?
Sure, compared to everyone else, he treated her significantly better, but if the past few minutes had proved anything, it was that he didn't treat her well enough. So that begged the question. What would convince her to do all of that… for him? Berdly, deep down, knew he could be insufferable, no, knew he was insufferable, so love had to be the only thing that would motivate Noelle to go this far. But, as what was seemingly becoming a trend for Berdly, he got it completely wrong.
Fortunately, Berdly finally broke his recent downwards streak, as he came to understand why she did all of those things. It was so simple he wondered why he never figured it out before.
It was because Noelle was just a good friend, no, a good person. She didn't need a specific reason to want to help him, she did it because she wanted to. And he…
…He took that for granted. He put his own emotions before her’s. He spat in the face of her efforts and made her just as pale and hurt as she looked before, if not more so. That’s when he accepted the biggest truth of all;
He had been a terrible friend.
Noelle's breathing had only grown more sporadic with each second. The stress was evident everywhere, from her hands to her eyes. The icicles around her grew taller and wider, seemingly forming a wall around her.
"Y-you just want to use me, and keep me all to yourself! Who, w-who do you think you are?! Was our friendship even real?! Did it even mean anything to you?! Cause it meant a whole lot to me! B-but I guess making a friendship only to take advantage of me is just another thing you and Kris have in common, isn't it?!"
Berdly had to set the record straight. He had failed before, and now he had to fix things. He got up on his feet and reached out for Noelle.
"Noelle, please! I didn't mean to-"
The sight of Berdly's hand reaching for her sent Noelle into nothing but sheer panic. She backed away all the way into an icicle, desperately seeking any form of escape.
"No, NO! Stay away from me!"
"Noelle, just listen PLEASE! I know I screwed up! I just want to-" Berdly begged, as if his life depended on it. Unfortunately, the timing of his efforts and his chosen method were not received positively by his shaking friend.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!!"
One final icicle burst in front of Noelle, the sturdiest and largest of them all, acting as a barrier that separated her from Berdly.
Berdly recoiled. He hadn't realized the icicles were even there, and was shocked upon seeing the makeshift shelter.
"N-Noelle, I-"
Berdly began to walk towards the icicles. He didn't get far before a hand placed itself on his shoulder pad. He turned to see Susie, her hair covering her face and her expression unreadable.
"S-Susie, I- I didn't mean to-"
Susie held up a hand. "I know. Just… let me talk to her."
Berdly sadly gestured for her to go on.
Susie walked up to the big icicle, stopping about a couple of inches away from it.
"...Hey, uh, Noelle?"
"S-Susie? Is… is that you?"
"...Yeah. It's me. Not Berdly, just me. Listen, I know you're uh, dealing with a lot of shit, and I'm not here to tell you to get over it or whatever. I'm just… here to help, if you want me to. Do you uh… need anything? Anything I can do for you…?"
At first there was only silence, giving Susie the impression that she might have screwed up, but…
"U-um…"
Noelle's voice made Susie jump a little.
"I… I uh… think that I just need to be alone for a little bit…"
"...Gotcha. I'll… check up on you in a few, ok?"
"O-ok…"
Susie turned around and began to walk away.
"W-wait! Susie!"
At Noelle's call, Susie stopped and turned back towards the icicles.
"...What's up?"
"I- I never… I mean… I should h-have… said… T-thank you…"
Susie's eyes widened for a moment before she turned around again.
"...No problem. Just, uh, hope you feel better…"
Susie walked over and gestured for Berdly to follow her. He silently followed her towards the door and the bookcase beside it they fought at.
As Berdly pushed the doors aside to enter, Susie took one last glance at the ice surrounding Noelle before sighing and following Berdly through the door.