Chapter Text
"I just hope that one day…"
We feel a tug on their stomach.
“…you might learn to forgive us!”
They’re spiraling. Unsurprising, but still difficult to watch. Our loops never got as far as his, only worrying about beating The King. We never could’ve imagined how much worse it got on the other side of that wall. Their mind wracks with possibilities, trying to find something, anything, that could free them. The Head Housemaiden’s lament passes over us again. Something broke the wish, sabotaged it. It’s not being fulfilled correctly. The King died in the wrong- No, that one can’t be it. We killed him ourselves, in our loops and his.
[It can’t be that one Stardust.]
“Why not? Maybe it's that simple? Mirabelle was always the one who-”
[And us, if you recall. The loops didn’t end then. Why would you be any different?]
“Because I’m the one the wish is centered on! If everyone wished to save Vaugarde, then I have to be the one to do it!”
[Again, you forget us. We’ve been here since the start Stardust. The wish could be centered on both of us for all we know. We don’t think The King is dying wrong. There has to be something else.]
“Then what?! What else Loop?! What else am I supposed to do, what else am I supposed to try?! What-” They stop. We feel chills poking their skin with goosebumps. His thoughts are silent, contemplating something too deep for you to listen. Their body is still shaking, trembling with… something. For once, we can’t read them at all. Slowly, they raise their hand and flip up their eyepatch. We hesitantly eject their false eye, feeling it roll down their face and get caught in the collar of their cloak. We slither out, forming our star-shaped face and look at him. His eye is constricted, pupil barely visible. He isn’t breathing, lungs starting to sting. After a long moment, he opens his mouth. “It’s you.”
[Huh?]
“Wish craft is what started the loops. Wish craft is what brought you to me. But it wasn’t my wish that did it, wasn’t it?”
[W-What are you talking about?]
“I wished to not be a burden to my party, back when I thought you were a shooting star. Yet here they are, trapped in time, stagnating, unchanging. They aren’t real anymore, just fictional actors on a stage… your stage.”
[O-Ours?! Stardust we didn’t wish for this! We didn’t trap you here!]
“How can I know for sure?! How do I know that the Universe-made time LOOPS weren’t made by a monster from the stars?! I smelt it then, long before the loops. Burnt sugar. It was when I met YOU.” No no no we can’t let them fall any further! If they take the same road we did…!
[Stardust it wasn’t us! We’re stuck here too! Why would we willingly trap ourselves like this?! Why would we choose an eternity of suffering over-]
“Eternity?”
…Oh Stars.
“You think I’m stuck here forever. You know there’s no way out.”
[N-No we-!]
“You knew. You knew you knew you knew youknewyouknewyouknew YOU KNEW!!! You knew there was no way out!!!”
[…S-Siffrin we-]
“STARS.” They slam the ground with their fist, covering their eye with the other, grimacing. Stars, no! Just because we couldn’t succeed doesn’t mean they can’t!
[Siffrin-!]
“Get out.”
[W-What…?]
“GET. OUT.”
!!!
They grab the exposed part of us from their eye!
[N-No wait, hang on a-]
They YANK.
We feel ourselves being pried from their nerves, brushing against muscles!
[WAIT WAIT WAIT STARDUST PLEASE!!!]
No matter how much we plead, they just keep pulling! We try to resist, grasping their shoulder with a tentacle, but they slap us away. We try to reenter through their arm, but we’re just pulled out again. We shout, we beg, we scream, but they refuse to stop. We no longer feel their nerves. Their liver. Their lungs. Their heart. Their mind is filled with the same commanding scream until we’re pulled from that too. Our voice feels weaker, growing more and more difficult to utter even a single word.
[ p l e a s e . . . !]
They… say nothing. We’re thrown to the ground, him standing over us. We feel formless, nothing but a blob of sludge with the mobility of a beached octopus. They put their prosthetic back in and flip their eyepatch down. We try to speak, but cannot. Not as we are now. They turn and walk away. We…
…?
There’s… a small piece of us. Sitting on his shoulder. We sense its presence, but cannot command or will it to move. The glob of slime sinks into his shoulder. Is it…?
We flinch at the Housemaiden’s voice, slinking into the nearby bushes as fast as our form will allow. We think she says that she heard screaming coming from the field. Siffrin tells her otherwise. We… start dragging ourselves west, towards the Favor Tree.
Stars…