Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

If Noelle had known that it would take this long for her mother to get out of work, she would have stopped by Catti’s before she went to work, gone to get a snack at the convenience store, something other than just waiting here by the gate. Noelle leans against the bars, feeling the unblemished metal between her fingers as she allows herself to get lost in her own thoughts.

Today wasn’t a total wash, at least. Kris had actually come up to talk to her several times today! Well, they walked up to her and stared at her until she started talking, but close enough.

She can’t help but smile at the thought, playing with her hair absentmindedly as a cool breeze washed over her. It was nice, even if it was weird. Well, weird for them, at least. They normally aren’t this… proactive? Sure, they’ve drifted apart in the years since… the last Christmas their two families had together, but Noelle always kept a close eye on them, hoping that one day, something would change. That they could rekindle what they had before, even if it would be different without her. Without Dess.

She still liked to think that she knew them, despite the fact that today was their first real conversation with her in what felt like ages.

Which is why their behavior is… concerning? Despite the fact that anyone else would just see it as Kris coming out of their shell, she knew that this was a sudden and strange turnaround for them. Plus, some of the things they’re doing are weird for them - Kris does strange things all the time, but normally they have a consistent brand of weirdness . Why are they running everywhere, only to start and stop for seemingly no reason? Why are they seemingly taking the time to examine everything they see like this is their first time seeing everything ? They’re a notorious misanthrope, why are they going out of their way to talk to everyone in town?

Their voice sounds different.

Maybe they’re on a new medicine? Noelle lies to herself, and assures herself that surely this must be it. She takes plenty of medicine and it helps her feel more like herself - maybe Kris is finding themselves again, after her, after all.

Still, Noelle was worried when they disappeared with Susie all day. It’s no secret that Susie  hated  Kris… until today. Noelle had no idea why Susie hated their guts, but she knows all too well that anger and hate is irrational. She had offered to switch seats with Kris several times; Susie never seems to bully her even when given ample opportunity. At this point, Noelle wouldn’t even mind it! She knows that she must truly be crushing hard on Susie to  want  to get bullied by her. 

She tries not to fantasize about it right now, and fails. She fantasizes about Susie leaning over to smell the shampoo Noelle had bought to try and get her attention, about Susie getting up into her face while bearing her incredible teeth, about Susie picking her up with ease and slamming her into a locker - before she cuts off her line of thinking, stepping away from the road to hide how her nose just lit up.

Of course, she also knew that her crush had only flourished so much because, despite everything she’s said and done to Kris, they never seemed to care? She knows that if they wanted to, they could have gone to their mom and Ms. Toriel would have sorted things out. Noelle wonders if Kris can also see what she sees in Susie. It’s easy to see the hurt around Susie, the fact that nobody’s given her a chance. Susie isn’t like Kris - her loneliness, her outcast status, it was far from comfortable for her.

Noelle suspects Kris' tolerance for Susie’s behavior, and their rapid acceptance of her once she (apparently??) extended an olive branch, stems from the fact that Kris and Susie are the only visibly trans kids in class. Noelle herself is fortunate that she can pass, that life lined up so that she could switch to hometown’s public school where no one knows who she used to be, but she knows that’s a privilege that Susie and Kris don’t have. Kris is the only person in her class that knows the truth about her. Technically, Berdly once saw a trans flag pin in her room, but Berdly only recognized the pin as ‘that emblem that elite super smashing fighters players sometimes wear,’ and she wasn’t exactly in a mood to correct him.

Maybe that’s why it was so easy for them to turn things around with Susie - they even said that she was nice today! It would be a weight off her conscience if her crush wasn’t bullying one of her friends.

Even if only in the privacy of her mind, she still refers to Kris as her friend. They haven’t been close in a long time… but they were very important to each other, for a long time, until that day.

She has other friends - Catti, Berdly, Jockington… but she always has to mask a part of herself with them. Not just that she’s trans, but she just doesn’t have the kind of relationship where she feels comfortable asserting herself with them. She wants to stand up for herself more, truly! She wishes that she was able to tell Berdly off when he’s insisting that some strategy he got from Meddit was his own, to ask Catti to stop pausing the good horror movies every five minutes to analyze something, to be able to politely exit the conversation whenever Jockington gets heated about soccer. Whenever she tries, however, something in her gut just freezes, so she changes herself. She only talks to Berdly about games she knows he actually plays so he doesn’t feel the need to lie about his gaming prowess, she picks out the bad horror movies to watch with Catti so picking them apart becomes the fun of it, and she just grins and bears it as Jockington rants about ref calls in sports she’s never even heard of.

It isn’t like that with Kris. They are, have always been, the only person in town that she can be fully weird with. She knows that Kris won’t judge her no matter what she does, and that allows her to… take off the metaphorical mask, to show everything that she is to them. For just a moment, while she is with them, she can let go of all her worries and just be herself.

How long has it been? Since she’s had the chance to be herself with one of her peers? 

Noelle knows the answer to that question, but she stops herself from going to the dark places in her mind.

Sure, she feels like herself with her dad, but she’s his daughter. It’s not the same, and even then, she doesn’t want to worry him by talking about the bad parts of her life.

She sighs, looking back towards Catti’s house. Noelle’s not really in the mood to deal with Catti’s sister right now, and she forgot that Catti was working today when offering reassurances to Kris earlier. She looks back towards the road. Still no sign of her mother. Noelle somehow forgot to grab her wallet and her keys this morning, so running to QC’s or the convenience store to grab a snack is out of the question. But, she supposes that she isn’t completely out of options - she keeps her Intendo Swap in her school bag. She has an ongoing playthrough of the original Dragon Blazers III with her dad, and while he isn’t always in good enough health to play alongside her, it’s still something nice to do. It can be good enough, for now.

Walking to the side, she finds a comfortable enough spot at the base of a tree, shrouded from the fading autumn sunlight by a halo of golden leaves. There’s some moss growing around the roots… which reminds her of Kris. Noelle has always been a picky eater, and she used to share whatever she didn’t want to eat with Kris… and Dess picked up on that and started offering them random stuff to see if they’ll eat it, too. Most of the time, they would at least chew on it. She smiles as she thinks of the one time Kris offered to share right back with her, while holding a writhing beetle. She laughs to herself, remembering how she screamed while Kris chased her. Kris didn’t understand why Noelle was so freaked out, and they ended up consoling each other after; they promised each other they were still friends after that.

As Noelle takes a seat, leaning against the moss, she takes a moment to appreciate the soft feeling of moss against her back, muffled as it is by the weight of her sweater and dress. Leaves crunch under her hooves as she makes herself comfortable. Something about the autumnal air invigorates her, the faint chill promising that she’ll grow her winter coat soon. It’s so easy for her senses to be aggravated, but at this moment she feels nothing but contentment.

With the turn of the seasons, Noelle’s mind drifts to the upcoming fall festival. Berdly’s probably going to ask her to go to the festival, so… unless she can get someone else to go with her, she’ll have to decide between sitting out and going with him. She really doesn’t want to humor his little crush on her - she has no interest in men, not like that. 

Her hope of hopes would be to go with Susie - Noelle can just imagine how sweet it would be to spoil Susie with fair food, how wide Susie’s smile would be after demolishing some fair games. The festival will also have a ren faire portion, this year, and oh, the thought of Susie flexing for an axe throwing contest melts her gay little heart. And, of course, she would end it all with a ride on the ferris wheel as the stars begin to emerge. 

Though… even in her fantasies, for some reason, she can’t imagine her dream date without Kris being there too. They would absolutely come in full costume for the ren faire, and would vacillate on whether or not they’re staying in character based entirely on what would be funniest. They would casually steal prizes from the stands while Noelle and Susie competed, just to see if they could. They would shake the carriage of the ferris wheel right before she gathered the courage to lean in and kiss-

That’s enough for now. She’s been daydreaming for a while now, and, more than likely, she’s going to have to fake a sickness again. None of her festival fantasies will come true. It was miserable last year, staying home while everyone else was having fun, but she didn’t want to hurt Berdly’s feelings. It’d be fine if she could just go with someone else! Noelle’s gone with Catti a few times, and they’ve had a blast together - but, unfortunately, Catti has a job now. Catti’s already started complaining that she’s going to have to work through the festival again.

Whatever. Noelle has a few days to think of something, she doesn’t have to decide on this now. Noelle knows that putting this off is a bad idea, but short of finding the courage to ask Susie (or Kris) to go to the festival with her, Noelle doesn’t know what she can do. 

Noelle puts these thoughts out of her mind. She opens her backpack, and pulls out her Intendo Swap.

Lets see… she could continue playing A Workweek at ICE-E’s 7: P’E’zzaplex? Eh, the series kind of fell off once the ICE-E corporation actually bought the rights to the games and the original creator stopped working on them. Of course, some people online are saying that they only bought the games to cover up a real incident that the games were originally referencing, but also, Noelle’s pretty sure the games are the only reason ICE-E’s P’E’zza is still in business. Especially because they legally can’t call their food pizza anymore. Regardless, she’s mostly interested in how buggy the latest release is - she’s currently in the middle of a self-imposed challenge run to beat the game’s levels in reverse order using bugs and glitches… a run that relies on notes she has saved on her computer. Ah well.

She also has a copy of The Old Tomes 5: Worldthroat on her Swap, for some reason. The devs keep re-releasing it every few years with a few minor changes, and while she likes the series, she really likes modding the games more than anything. Sure, Berdly’s offered to help her jailbreak her swap before, but to be honest, she likes The Old Tomes 3: Resdayn more. It’s so fun to find completely new ways to break that game - just last week, she discovered a way to make a spell that refunds her more magic points than it takes to cast, restoring her sorcereress’ magic without ever having to rest. Honestly, there’s a good chance Noelle will end up just continuing that run once her mother finally gets home. Unfortunately, The Old Tomes 3 came out before she was even born, so there’s no way it’ll ever end up ported to the Swap.

Finally, she turns her attention to Dragon Blazers II: Re-Dragoned. Noelle’s been a fan of the Dragon Blazers games ever since she was a little kid, and the early games are super old but still worth playing - but Dragon Blazers II is the one based on Lord of the Hammer, so it has a bit of a special appeal to her. Each game is its own self-contained fantasy story with similar themes and a few returning characters, and it’s nice to see how some of her favorite characters from Dragon Blazers I act in new situations.

Opening the game, she flicks over to the game’s second chapter. Royal Sciences LLC have been releasing the game in chapters, and while more of the game is out now, Noelle’s interested in finally trying out the game’s secret evil route? She’s heard that it has a ton of new dialogue for her favorite character, but also… Noelle just loves secret horror stuff in otherwise mundane games.

Not that she doesn’t like horror games too! It’s more that she really likes when an otherwise normal experience delves into horror. She’s played way too many horror games that end up just being boring because they’re trying too hard to scare her, and they fail at being compelling game experiences outside of that.

Noelle looks at the file select screen, and she presses a button to switch from the original soundtrack to the remastered one , before loading a save she had set aside for whenever she was ready to check out the evil route. She looks over her party’s stats at this point - you can rename all of the characters, but she’s kept them as their default names:

HIRO - The Human Tactician, who can command other party members, negotiate with enemies, and defend the party. They were intentionally designed to be androgynous, and while the original release went out of its way to only refer to Hiro by their name, the remake explicitly has them use gender-neutral pronouns. This settled most, but not all arguments on the internet about whether or not the protagonist’s gender was up for interpretation. Honestly, Noelle’s mostly curious to see how they handle the reveal that Hiro was working with the shadowlord the whole time. Sure, there’s a ton of foreshadowing because literally everyone who knows anything about video games knows that Hiro is working for the shadowlord, but still.

NOEL - The Monster Mage, who can utilize ice and holy magic to heal allies and freeze foes. It’s no secret who Noelle’s favorite character is. By the angel, she even chose Noelle as her name partially because it was a reference she could make while still staying ‘on theme’ with her family. The original game’s sprite wore a white cloak the entire time, but the remake decided to make her an elemental - invalidating like 15 years of fanart in the process. Noelle doesn’t mind too much though, she really likes the new dialogues between her and the other party members, and of course the fact that they’re teasing an actual relationship between Noel and the Dragon in future chapters.

AZRAEL - The Dark Prince, who uses Dream magic alongside backstabs and various thief skills. Starts off as the weakest party member, but he can get insanely strong if you take the time to check up on him regularly, do his side quests, and to find ways to get him to reveal his secrets. On her current save file, she’s gotten enough friendship points with him that he’s taken off his grey mantle, revealing a black silhouette of a face with horns. Noelle remembers how cool his best spell was in the original game, and it’s exclusive to the true evil route - though she doubts she’ll get to see how cool Dream Eater looks on modern hardware for another few years, at least. 

Unfortunately, she’s not going to see much of him today. The game has two ‘evil’ routes, really - there’s the violent route, where you just go about fighting everything you can mindlessly like you could in dragon blazers 1, but there’s also the more subtle true evil route that involves manipulating everyone to follow the plan laid out by the Queen of Light and Order. Noelle remembers how creepy it was - especially because you had to be nice to almost everyone except for Noel for it to work.

She follows along with the cutscene, watching as Azrael is kidnapped by the dragon before he can explain how adventuring works in The Kingdom of Darkness.

The white-cloaked elemental turns to Hiro beyond the screen, as a little dialogue box pops up. “Oh no! At least I still have you, Hiro. My loyal knight. Will you guide me through this land of eternal fright?”

Noelle smiles, it’s so cute how she trusts Hiro! Of course, it's that very trust that gets abused to make this evil route work, but there’s still something engaging there. Noelle gets to work, and she commands Noel to use Iceshock on the first random encounter they get in the area before the enemy can explain how battles normally work.

In the normal heroic route, Noel has a bit of a flirtatious relationship with the dragon (who is revealed to be a woman herself later on, in a callback to Sammy from the Meteoroid games), but the true evil route pulls her into more of a toxic yuri situation with Hiro. 

She did ask Kris if a relationship between a woman and nonbinary person could be considered yuri, to which Kris responded with a curt nod before looking away. She felt bad about bothering them about something so silly, but they were the expert on this, after all. Noelle doesn’t mind bothering Kris nearly as much as she would almost anyone else, a trait they once mirrored with her. It’s just… hard to initiate anything with them, now. Technically, it’s hard for her to initiate anything, with anyone. Noelle just can’t help but remember a time when that wasn’t the case.

She continues playing - backtracking to find the new random encounters that have appeared now that the prince is missing, continuing to freeze enemies. Noel’s ice magic can be used in a variety of ways, but if you have her use Iceshock on foes before she goes through a training montage with Azrael… she will freeze them solid. The true evil route requires you to go out of your way to make Noel as strong as possible without letting any of the other characters know - and continuing to play as normal otherwise. The internet is down right now, but she still remembers the steps from the original game at least.

Noelle gets to a shop, and Noel’s theme music begins playing, though it’s distorted - as if slowed to half of its normal speed. She flicks through the menu, and selects the option that normally appears for Azrael to attempt to steal from the shop. Depending on how violent you are, he might sweet-talk the merchant into giving you a free item, or rob them of something good.

Noel’s dialogue sprite pops up as Noelle commands her to steal. Her text reads, “What? Hiro, you know I can’t do that.”

She tells Noel to get the ring.

“We don’t have enough money for that, Hiro.” The music slows to only a quarter of its normal speed, now.

Noelle selects the option again, choosing the ring. 

And again.

And again.

The screen goes blue, and Hiro and Noel exit the shop. Noelle has Hiro turn around and inspect the door.

* The shop is filled with ice.

Noelle equips her favorite character with the ring. What a creepy little scene - though she knows the route will only get worse, over time. Noelle pauses the game, listening to the soothing yet eerie rendition of the menu music.

From what Noelle remembers of the original dragon blazers 2 release, once she freezes around twenty enemies or so, Noel will unlock a new spell which requires another equipment upgrade to even cast. The party will then be confronted by one of the game’s comedic relief characters - an annoying bird that always tells you the solution to puzzles after you’ve already figured it out for yourself - and you’ll get the chance to use your new spell on them. Noelle’s curious how that will play out in the remake; the Bluebird of Misfortune really showed his true colors in the original game once you threatened his life. Honestly, one of the biggest draws to doing the evil routes in the Dragon Blazers games was just seeing who each of the characters had the potential to become. Many people would have easily written the Bluebird off as an annoying gag character without seeing how heroic he can be when he needs to be.

As for the rest of the game, Noelle’s been spoiled on how they handled the ice dungeon from the Isles of Northernlight in chapter three. In the original game, there’s a pretty famous glitch you can do to sequence break Noel into a later-game dungeon so she can freeze the enemies in there without Azrael noticing. Normally, she refuses to go in there because of the dungeon’s connection to her missing sister, and the enemies are too strong to face alone as Hiro. However, all you need to do is attack her on the overworld a few times, and the knockback will push her sprite into the load zone. Noelle discovered this bug on her own when she was a kid, and honestly going through the dungeon early with Noel was one of her favorite parts of the game. It surely influenced how she likes to hunt for secrets and glitches, at least. Apparently, in the remake, they canonized this bug and made it an intended part of the experience; Noelle can’t wait to see how the characters respond to this in-game.

From there, though, she only has the original game’s knowledge to go on. She knows that chapter four has you fully commit to the true evil route by interrupting a moment where Noel and the Dragon can bond, chapter five has Noel kill the flower king before going on a date with Hiro, and of course, there’s the dramatic ending in chapter six.

Mr. Boom passed away before he could finish the sixth book of Lord of the Hammer, so every adaptation has to end up finishing the story in their own way. Weirdly enough, Noelle doesn’t think Mr. Boom would even mind - he would probably just appreciate that people liked his work enough to write their own endings. 

In the original game’s true evil route, this is where playing the long game would pay off. 

Noelle remembers the first time she finished that route of the original game. She was playing in the basement when she was nine or ten years old, at some point in the middle of the night. Noelle didn’t want her parents to know how dark the story was getting, so she hid this from them - though she ended up telling Dess anyway. Noelle remembers the sickly light coming from the windows, the pale light of pre-dawn that turns everything familiar into something strange. She couldn’t help but look over her shoulder every five seconds to make sure no one was watching her play it. 

Even now, as she unpauses the game to freeze a few more foes, she can’t help but feel a little ashamed of herself. It’s just a video game, there’s no harm in choosing the evil options to explore a darker side of the story… but, she can’t help feeling self-conscious. It’s not like anyone’s watching her play this now, judging her choices.

The sun continues to move down through the sky, as the shadows start to grow. A single shadow remains exactly the same - twisted, but still recognizable. Noelle is not looking at the shadows, however, as she has her characters wander down to the con artist to buy the twisted ring.

Thinking of where the game will go, how could Noelle forget the final betrayal?

Dragon Blazers 2 has a hub town that you get to go to between chapters, a place to rest, buy new gear, and talk with all of the foes you’ve spared throughout the game. While the true evil route encourages you to freeze every foe you can get away with freezing, it encourages you to spare everyone else for this.

For the harvest.

She remembers spamming Noel’s most powerful spell, freezing an entire screen’s worth of foes she has spared over the course of the game. Over and over, freezing shopkeepers, beloved NPCs, and every single foe you’ve faced in the game so far.

This comes right after a grand battle with the Shadowlord, revealed to be Noel’s missing sister at this point. She was cursed so that she was half-light, half-dark, and Azrael leaves the party after being forced to cast Dream Eater to kill her half-dark side. Hiro carries her half-light remains for the duration of the harvest, leaving Noel to fight every enemy on her own.

None of them are a challenge for her, after how strong she has become.

The final fight of the route is instead against Azrael (and the dragon, if she hasn’t been killed yet), who attempts to prevent Noel from destroying the Kingdom of the Dark. Noelle’s pretty sure everyone her age has pulled up that fight to see the like, minute and a half long cutscene from when Azrael casts Dream Eater on Hiro. While Azrael’s not the toughest foe, his sneaky illusion magic makes it nearly impossible to hit him with single-target attacks, so the fight’s all about building up MP so Noel can blast him with area spells. Of course, to even get to this point you have to level him up enough that he has an ability that causes him to take half damage from area attacks. It still damages Azrael, though, and it fits the theme of blindly persisting on a chosen course, whether or not it's a good idea.

From there, Noel can use her accumulated power to banish the power of darkness, harnessing the life force of an entire kingdom to fully revive her sister’s light side. On a normal route, Noel’s missing sister has to give up her light side to save the worlds, only leaving her dark half that composed the Shadowlord.

This is enough that some people on the internet argue that this is a better ending, despite the fact that it traumatizes the entire cast and results in an entire kingdom being frozen over. Noelle finds the ending bittersweet - she’s not sure what she would do, if it was Dess. Especially because it’s implied that her dark side is still Noel’s missing sister, to an extent. No matter what ending one goes for, some part of her is left to die.

Of course, that’s assuming Royal Sciences doesn’t decide to add a new ending, while remaking the game. Noelle’s seen the ‘Making Of: Dragon Blazers II’ documentary, and she knows that there was another ‘good’ route planned to mirror the true evil route. It would have involved revealing Hiro’s betrayal early, and trying to find a way to save both the light and dark halves of the shadowlord.

While Noelle likes the tragedy aspect… Given how her own life has paralleled Noel’s within the game, she would gladly take the opportunity for a golden route. Even if Noelle will never have Dess back, she’d really like to see her comfort character have a happy ending, one where she can reunite with all of her sister - not just who she became in the dark, and not just what Noel’s strict and controlling mother wanted the sister to be.

Of course, the documentary also implied that the golden route would have its own cost, its own dark truths and horrors to confront, but surely whatever it asks of the heroes will be worth what is gained.

Just like it’ll be worth it to see how Noel reacts to the true evil route. Well… Noelle hopes so. The writing makes Noelle far more uncomfortable than she ever felt playing the original game, but… she wants to know more about her favorite character. Noelle wants to test and push the boundaries of Noel’s friendship with Hiro, her loyal knight who she trusts implicitly. Call it a twisted sense of sentimentality, or just Noelle being weird after spending too much time playing niche horror games that no one else in hometown has even heard of, but Noelle really enjoys what those scenarios can bring out in characters.

Everyone’s flawed and messy in their own way. The most obnoxious and cowardly soul might pull out a moment of true bravery when people’s lives are on the line, while someone you thought was a paragon of virtue might be all too willing to look away when it's their friend committing the misdeeds.

Speaking of, Noelle watches as, within the game, her comfort character considers stepping off a switch to kill Hiro with a trap. If she isn’t mistaken, she even sees Noel’s model move a bit forward. Huh. What does that say about her?

Perhaps less than she was hoping for - this is a side of Noel that only comes out when Hiro, the person she trusts the most, pushes her into this state. She’s perfectly happy adventuring as normal, solving problems nonviolently. It’s only when Hiro pushes her, teaches her that her problems can only be solved with violence… that she internalizes that lesson.

Noelle wonders if the ice mage’s sheltered life left her more vulnerable to this. Noel was a princess, the daughter of the Queen of Light and Order, and she spent most of her days locked away in her castle. Noelle doesn’t like how much empathy she feels for Noel, in those scenes - when it’s revealed that the Queen has become a strict and bitter woman after one of her children went missing. There’s too much there that reminds her of herself - of how much her family has lost. At least she still has her dad, though, and she would like to think that she has friends.

None of her friends are as close to her as Noel is with Hiro, though.

Noelle tries not to think of how sad that makes her.

She progresses the dialogue forward. Maybe it’s just her own feelings bubbling up in their own way, but she’s spent most of her gaming time locked in her own head. Within the game, Noel tries to rationalize the fact that she was considering Hiro and- huh?

Hiro is being given a chance to respond to Noel’s thoughts.

Noelle knows that showing the other characters’ thoughts was a notable quirk of the writing in the original, but with significantly limited resources it was a heck of a lot easier to add some additional writing compared to animating body language with a ton of new sprites. They kept that writing quirk in the remake, even as they could far more easily show detailed expressions and poses, because of how much it could reveal about the characters.

And… apparently this power is diegetic. 

Noelle responds without thinking, having Hiro tell Noel that her thoughts are horrible. The elemental girl seems to cry a little bit. “Hiro, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I said that out loud. I was just having some bad thoughts. Don’t pay it any mind.”

Noelle continues on, heading to the con artist. She wonders if this confirms the Angel theory? Hiro can clearly act on their own without the player’s interference, so some people have thought about the idea that the player is actually playing the role of the Angel, guiding them to victory. Noelle isn’t sure how much of the story was intentionally drawn from the Prophecy of the Delta Rune.

Noelle’s not sure how she feels about the idea of canonizing the presence of the Angel within the game. She wouldn’t call herself a devout Runist, but she still goes to church every Saturday; she still prays to the Angel to help Dess, wherever she is now. The developers were probably just working off of how the Angel was presented in Lord of the Hammer, and Mr. Boom was always one to encourage interpretation of the Prophecy. The Angel is said to possess infinite kindness as well as infinite cruelty, and what could show that more than a game? One where Noelle can go through and get the best ending, then play again and break everything just to see what happens to the people inside?

Oh, hmmm. She must have done something wrong. She’s found the place where the con artist is supposed to be, but he’s not here. Noelle goes back to the save file menu to reload her save, and as she does so, she pulls out her phone to check the time.

Cheesus, her mother was supposed to get out of work two hours ago. Sure, the entire town has been without internet all day, but that’s not the mayor’s problem. Probably. 

Looking through her phone, she sees that she has a ton of unread messages from Berdly on one of their groupchats.

BluebirdofMisfortune @5:50pm.

• Noelle, my fellow genius
• The doe that cures all my woes
• You have to help me
• I’m so bored
• I still have 2 hours left in my shift until I can go home and if another imbecile comes in to ask me for a book about ‘making your own internet at home’ I’m going to do something that causes me to lose all of my volunteer credit hours

BluebirdofMisfortune @6:18pm.

• I think texts and calls are still going through, but I can’t even use my data to look on the internet between customers
• Because for some reason websites won’t even load
• All of the games on my phone require an internet connection
• Noelle you're even more online than I am how are you not dying

BluebirdofMisfortune @6:44pm.

• I just had someone come in and ask me where the produce and groceries were
• He thought this was the grocery store
• And he started yelling at ME when I told him otherwise
• Why does this town even HAVE a Librarby if half the people here are illiterate???

BluebirdofMisfortune @7:02pm.

• Listen, I know what you’re thinking
• “Berdly, you’re a visionary thinker of our time, an intellect without peer. Surely there must be some literature in your place of employment worth your time?”
• There is not.

Noelle can’t help but smile at his goofy antics. Berdly’s a lot easier to deal with when he’s on his own and he stops trying to impress everyone. Noelle quickly types out a response. Her Swap has just been left to sit in the moss now, as the gentle fall air stirs around her. The shadows hug Noelle tight, watching over her like a guardian in the night.

Holidaygirl1225 @7:05pm.

• What about Lord of the Hammer? Surely that’s worth your time

BluebirdofMisfortune @7:05pm.

• NOELLE
• Your presence alone is enough to alleviate my ennui
• As for Lord of the Hammer… look, any nerd, any SCHOLAR worth their accreditation should read LotH
• But also we read it for class last year
• And any book we read for class becomes retroactively worse because of it
• Oh, how I wish it weren’t true, but alas

Holidaygirl1225 @7:07pm.

• Ok Fair XP
• Don’t share that opinion around Ms. Boom tho

BluebirdofMisfortune @7:08pm.

• Perish the thought!
• Not because she’d mind, she’d probably be mad that we were forced to read it rather than ‘discovering her late husband’s work for ourselves’
• But she’d mention it to Father Alvin

Holidaygirl1225 @7:08pm.

• Yea Exactly
• Anyway, I mentioned it because I’m actually going back and playing the true evil route of DB2 Re-Dragoned and it has Lord of the Hammer on my mind
• Have you done that route yet??

BluebirdofMisfortune @7:13pm.

• Sorry just had someone try to return a NAPKIN with the title of their due book written on it

Holidaygirl1225 @7:13pm.

• That only took five minutes to resolve???

BluebirdofMisfortune @7:13pm.

• I lied and said that we were closing early so they’d have to try again tomorrow.
• Guess who doesn’t have a volunteer shift at the librarby tomorrow?
• This genius B>

Holidaygirl1225 @7:14pm.

• LMAO BERDLYYY
• You know someone else is going to have to deal with them now right??

BluebirdofMisfortune @7:14pm.

• My coworkers are experts in idiot to idiot communication
• It’ll be fine
• As for DB2, you’ve come to the right gamer, my dear Noelle
• As life goes on, I have had to refine my palette
• I’m a hardworking, strong, academically brilliant man.
• Only the best of the best games are worthy of my time, in-between studying to remain top of the class with you
• And working long hours in two different jobs.
• Neither of which I am paid for, by choice!
• Fortunately for you, Dragon Blazers II: Re-Dragoned happens to be one of the few games to meet my elevated standards

Holidaygirl1225 @7:16pm.

• Wasn’t this groupchat originally for our Minecrap server?

BluebirdofMisfortune @7:16pm.

• Minecrap also meets my standards

Holidaygirl1225 @7:17pm.

• LMAO XD

BluebirdofMisfortune @7:17pm.

• If you need assistance playing the evilest of evils
• My incredible genius is available for you to draw upon

KrisCrossApplesauce @7:18pm.

• Took the bastard out, finally. I don’t know what I was expecting, but that was simultaneously better and worse than what I was thinking. We still on for the next step, tonight?

Noelle dropped her phone in surprise, and it hit the ground with a ker-click. It seems like it hit the ground in just the right way to make the phone take a screenshot.

This sound happened to coincide with a certain shadow’s own shocked hiss. Fortunately for it, their gasp occurred right as the phone struck the ground, leaving Noelle none the wiser that this shadow lurked right on the other side of the tree.

As for Noelle, she quickly scoops up her phone, confirming that no damage has befallen it. She’s relieved, not just for her phone, but also for Kris. They’re definitely typing like themselves at least - maybe she was just imagining everything she noticed earlier.

Holidaygirl1225 @7:18pm.

• Kris!!!!!
• I think you might have put this in the wrong groupchat XP
• But I’m still glad to hear from you!

KrisCrossApplesauce @7:19pm.

• Fuck
• You’re right Noelle, it was meant for someone else.
• Deleted it, don’t worry about any of that.

BluebirdofMisfortune @7:19pm.

• As much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news
• To be the unrecognized genius warning of a terrible fate before it occurs
• I must tragically inform you that deleting a text message only deletes it from your phone

KrisCrossApplesauce @7:20pm.

• What
• That’s really stupid

BluebirdofMisfortune @7:20pm.

• Tragically, as one of the greatest intellects of our generation,
• I must inform you of a terrible truth:
• most of the world is stupid

KrisCrossApplesauce @7:20pm.

• Yeah Sure
• Anyway, I was just texting Azzy and accidentally sent this to the most recent active chat.
• So I’m just going to mute this so it doesn’t happen again.
• It’s not like we’ve played Minecrap together since school started up again.

Holidaygirl1225 @7:21pm.

• I wouldn’t mind playing Minecrap with you again!
• If you have time.

KrisCrossApplesauce @7:21pm.

• I don’t
• Sorry.

Holidaygirl1225 @7:22pm.

• If I could ask, what was that message even about??

KrisCrossApplesauce @7:24pm.

• A really annoying flying bug interrupted a conversation I was having with Azzy
• It's been a long time since we’ve talked and all.
• Managed to cage it and put it where it belongs.
• Anyway muting this chat now, gotta resend that message to the person it was actually meant for.

Hmmmm. Unless they’ve changed over the past few years when the two of them have drifted apart, Kris can’t resist the temptation of saying things that are technically true when trying to hide something. While most people wouldn’t be able to tell it apart from their general weirdness, she can tell when they’re dancing around something. It sounds like that message wasn’t actually for Asriel… but who was it for, then?

As she wonders this, Noelle hears the sound of a phone notification going off from directly behind her. She quickly jumps to her feet, letting out a small scream of surprise as she does so.

What was that?

Noelle fumbles with her phone, quickly fiddling with a flashlight setting. In the process, she accidentally jostles her swap awake. The device begins playing calm, menu music as a light blares to life in her palm, casting its gaze into the dark between the trees.

She doesn’t see anything, other than how long the shadows have grown. Stepping forward, into the dark, Noelle quickly looks at the back of the tree, before staring out into the darkness of the wooded acres surrounding the estate.

There’s nothing here that would make that sound. Noelle’s certain she just heard a default text message notification sound - the same notification sound that her mom’s phone uses. Noelle has a lot of experience watching out for that sound; she hates the slow and quiet dread that fills her heart whenever she wonders whether or not she’ll have to drop everything and rush to the hospital now. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened yet, but the threat of it ruins both her own mood, and her mother’s. 

What could possibly make that sound? The calm and rational part of her brain says that it was probably just a Mockingbird. They’re rare around here, but not extremely so. A default text message sound is absolutely the kind of thing they would mimic.

The rest of her knows that whatever made that sound was within arm’s reach of her, just behind the tree. There’s nothing behind there now, and she braces herself on the rough bark before looking out into the dark.

Noelle is terrified, but she still steps forward. This is a bad idea. She should step back from the road, go back to where people can see her. Her anxiety is telling her that this could be what happened to Dess, that Christmas day seven years ago. Dess slipped out of the house and wandered into the snow, and she was never seen again. Is that what’s about to happen to her?

Her curiosity pushes her forward, as Noelle walks southeast into the woods. Noelle tries to remain in sight of the road, and she knows how quickly she can cross a hundred meters in a sprint. Noelle tells herself that she won’t allow herself to go too far, but she doesn’t want to turn back. Her fears tell her that the worst thing she could do would be to look away.

As she steps past some of the other trees, she finds a small clearing, with a larger tree at its center. The tree looks to be an old growth, which is strange. Most of the trees around here were planted back before the town was incorporated, when this place was a lumber farm. They wouldn’t have left any trees like this standing, but yet, here it is regardless. The leaves are a brilliant red under the light of the setting sun, and Noelle can’t help but regard it with wonder.

Looking down onto the bark of the tree, Noelle can see a heart carved into the bark. Someone has dragged a jagged line through the middle of the heart. Carved on the inside of the broken heart, Noelle reads:

“A + D.”

Noelle forgets her worries for a moment, too lost in the sudden flood of emotions. Has this been here the whole time? Was there a piece of Dess just outside her line of sight this entire time, only a few steps off the beaten path? How could everyone have missed this? Regardless, she plans on appreciating this. Noelle opens her phone’s camera app, and takes a picture.

The Flash goes off, and Noelle swears she sees something dark in the tree’s shadow. She attempts to shine her phone light on it, but the flash setting seems to have turned the light off. 

Noelle steps back. She doesn’t know what this thing is. She can barely see the shape of something darker than dark just barely sticking out of the tree’s shadow now, but it’s big enough to be a black bear, at least. Though, if this was the source of that phone notification from earlier…

In what might be a foolish move, she reluctantly calls out. “H-Hello? Is anyone there?”

After a moment of silence, Noelle hears the distant sound of her Swap’s music cutting out. Noelle turns around, only to see her Mother, a hand on one of the blades she carries into the office.

Her icy glare turns to her daughter for a moment, accessing Noelle’s condition to ensure that she’s unharmed, before turning to face the tree. Noelle looks back, but she can’t see the shadow of whatever that thing was, anymore.

“You should know better than to be out like this.”

It’s… strange. Normally, Noelle’s mother would force Noelle to maintain eye contact whenever she did something that deserved ‘A Talk.’ Did she know that there was a piece of Dess out here?

“I know. I’m really sorry if I scared you.” She breathes in, this is so much easier when she doesn’t have to deal with her mother’s eyes staring into her soul. 

“I just, well, look.” Noelle points to the carving, the letters within. “I didn’t know this was here.”

Her mother remained silent. Noelle didn’t dare move before she was allowed to, as much as she wanted to squirm in place, to nervously fidget with her hair.

“I think we all wanted to reminisce over the past, but we should all go back to where we’re meant to be.”

This is really strange. It’s like her mother isn’t even talking to her.

It’s like her mother is talking to someone else.

Noelle’s eyes wander, and they widen slightly as she spots a blur of darkness through the tree-line.

Her mother puts her hand on her shoulder, nails digging into her comfortable sweater like talons as she’s led back towards civilization.

Noelle isn’t surprised to see that her Swap has already been tucked back into her abandoned backpack. Noelle awkwardly reaches down to grab the strap, careful not to pull too far away and upset her mother.

They walk together through the gate. She doesn’t seem to be surprised at Noelle forgetting her keys… which isn't great in the long term, but Noelle is grateful for any relief in the short term.

An ice-cold voice asks a question, with a cold anticipation lingering under her breath. “How was your school day? Did you spend any time with your friends?”

What does she want to hear right now? That’s definitely her mother’s ‘I’m expecting the right answer’ tone, but what even would be the right answer here? Noelle blinks, and decides that without a clear goal, there’s no point in bending the truth.

“Um. We got assigned group projects today? And, of course, I’m already taking steps to get it done. I was planning on spending some time after school tomorrow to work on it with Berdly. I, uh, even considered doing it today! But he works at the librarby until it closes on Thursdays. I promise it won’t get in the way of the rest of my schoolwork.”

Whatever it was that her mother was hoping to hear, that wasn’t it. She unlocks the front door with an air of frustration about her - people must have been giving her a lot of trouble about the internet being down, or something. It’s never good when her mother is stressed.

Her expression contorts as if swirling a word around her mouth like mouthwash, before she spits it out. “Berdly?”

“I know, I know you don’t like him that much.” He’s one of the only people in town brave enough to stand up to The Mayor Holiday, and while her mother begrudgingly respects Berdly for that, it has left a permanent distaste for the bluebird in her mother’s mouth. “If I could have, I would have done a three-person group and included Kris too, but Alphys assigned them to work with Susie.”

Noelle doesn’t like her mother’s scowl. That’s her ‘I want a cigarette and I know that I shouldn’t have one’ scowl. Her mother lets out her breath, and it fogs in the pleasantly chill temperature of the holiday home.

“Right. Unfortunately, work has followed me home today.” That’s never good. Noelle knows better than to disturb her mother while she’s working. Looks like she’ll be spending the rest of her night with headphones on, and minimal trips outside her room.

Noelle quickly excuses herself, slipping away before she has to spend any more time around her while she’s mad like this. It’s only once Noelle gets into her bedroom that she begins to relax. Thank the Angel her mother went easy on her.

Okay, seriously, what was that thing in the woods?

Noelle sits down at her writing desk, before opening her phone’s photo gallery. The most recent photo is-

A picture of the tree. Illuminated in a twisted light by the automatic flash, the shadows bleed away where they may.

Some of the shadows refuse to give, however, and in their shape, Noelle can see something shrouded by darkness. Part of a humanoid shape, captured from behind. A chest, an arm, a hand. The hand has strange artifacting around it, making it appear as if there’s a hole cut directly through the middle of it. The arm almost seems to leak from itself, like it’s from a melting wax sculpture.

Sticking out of the chest, is a knife. It is of a curious make - wavy in design, with a blade made of near-black damascus steel.

Noelle can’t breathe. She recognizes that knife. She can’t recognize that knife, no, it’s impossible.

She lies to herself, and says she must be imagining a connection that isn’t there. She never even got a good look at the original knife, surely this can’t be the very same blade.

Why else would that dagger show up again here? The very same blade that Dess gave to Kris, on the day she was lost?