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Castle Town was gorgeous.
Not in the same way the Flower Kingdom was, with its constantly setting sun creating an ever-present pink and golden hue throughout the land. But it was a close second, Pink thought. Prettier than the same walls of a too-small house.
Everything about her life felt a little too small these days. Ever since saying goodbye to the flowers. To Ory. At least she wasn't alone, though. She had the body, and even when she was at home she knew it was there. But the two of them couldn't talk, not really. Her body couldn't truly respond back.
Castle Town helped. It was a place where she could be herself, in her strange new entirety. Those kids asked her not to talk about the Dark Worlds too much, but the flowers and her other half were part of her now. She could possess the new body at home without question, but talking to her would get a few sideways glances, even with the way Mettaton had been flirting with the television set.
The residents were strange, but in a way she could get used to. She had been greeted by Ralsei, who pointed out to her an area where many of the Flower Kingdom residents stayed.
She spent some time with them. Her, her body, and some friends. Not the flowers, but she was already considering breaking into the Flower King to check on them. Instead, she was petting the Floradinns and Netskies on the head and trimming the leaves of the Terakotas. It was nice.
She felt at home. With people who could see all of her.
It wasn't an entirely good feeling. She loved her cousins, she really did. She didn’t like the fact that this place felt better than being with the people who knew her her whole life. But Blooky was always busy and she and Mettaton clashed just as often as they got along. It felt strange to have a life without them that was happier than the life with them. They didn’t do anything wrong, not really. It wasn’t them. It was all her.
Castle Town felt bigger than it was, especially considering it was her first time here. There were some places she felt more drawn to than the others. It wasn't long until she wandered into the TV Studio. She heard something about performances there, and her other half was begging her to reignite their shared idol career. She wanted to, too. Something about singing on stage just felt right, and that was only to an audience of those three kids.
The crowd that gathered was mostly comprised of those Shadowguys she saw around. They clapped and cheered along to the song, and somehow she wasn’t nervous at all. None of them could see it, but she wasn’t alone on stage. It was her and her body singing a duet.
Her cousins would love it, she knew. But she couldn’t bring them. It would be a betrayal to those kids, to this world. And maybe she just wanted something all her own.
After the performance, she was exhausted, just a bit. Not the bad kind of exhaustion. It was the sort that came from doing something she enjoyed. Even if the reality of this world was questionable, she didn’t care. It was all she wanted. Even if she was just in a supply closet in the school, it hardly mattered at all.
She left the stage and exited through the doors. A few Shadowguys were, from what she could tell, praising her performance. They didn’t speak exactly, not in a way she was used to, but they smiled and clapped and something about the way their notes sounded spoke to her, like she could understand it under the surface.
She paused, though, just as she was trying to escape the praise. The Shadowguys around her stopped too, following her gaze as she looked at what seemed to be a standing tuxedo cat.
She was absolutely adorable, and she was looking right at her. She didn’t have blood to redden her cheeks, but her other half was simulating a quickening heartbeat within the body’s chest.
She approached, and the Shadowguys stayed where they were, soon dispersing into their own musical conversations. But the cat stood, a smile on her face that only seemed to grow as she went closer.
“Um, hi,” she said, feeling strangely nervous. “We’re Pink! As in, um, that’s our name. Not our color.”
The cat let out a musical sounding note, one not dissimilar to what she had heard from the Shadowguys. Was that what she was then? She didn’t exactly resemble a Shadowguy, but she didn’t know enough about them to say whether or not that was normal. And really, even if it wasn’t, she didn’t care at all. She wasn’t exactly what people considered normal either.
The cat let out another note, and somehow, this time it felt clearer to her. Maybe she was just getting used to the Shadowguys, or maybe her body, a Darkner familiar with the idiosyncrasies of them in general (even if she had never met a Shadowguy) was helping.
“Pluey…?” she asked, uncertain. “Is that your name?”
Pluey nodded rapidly. Pink smiled at it. It seemed excited just to be here, and Pink could certainly relate to that.
Pluey suddenly grabbed onto one of Pink’s hands. She couldn’t feel her through the body’s gloves, and part of her wanted to take them off to feel the undeniable softness of her fur with her hands. But that would be weird. Still, her and her body’s heart beats, and she could hear her body whispering something about “dokis” in their head.
“D-do you want to… show me something?” she asked, and her nervousness made her feel almost silly. There was nothing to be nervous about, not with the way Pluey smiled.
Pluey nodded rapidly, before bringing her out of the performance hall entirely, leading her to a door that was labeled “Mike” for some reason. She watched it enter a code, before bringing her in.
“Wow…” she muttered, glancing around. “So many kitties!” She looked towards the ground, as a few cats ran by. This might have been the best place in this Dark World.
Pluey nodded rabidly, letting out a few notes.
“And you brought me here… why?” She wasn’t opposed to it, but Pluey’s interest in her (Not like that! Not unless Pluey wanted it to be like that.) was sudden, and it made her a little nervous. Not in a bad way.
The music notes Pluey let out next made her heart beat even faster. Her body let out a shocked “mew?” and she couldn’t blame her.
“Pretty? Pretty? Pretty?!” She knew she was pretty, because she looked at the body everyday and saw everything she always wanted to be. But something about Pluey telling her just felt different. She wasn't sure if anyone else had ever really called her pretty before.
This dark world didn’t have the setting sun, but that was okay. Sunsets didn’t last forever, after all. Pluey’s eyes still reminded her of it. The pink and gold was comforting to her.
She could sit in this room forever.