Chapter Text
You were, and then you weren’t, and now you were again. But the place you were, wasn’t. It was all very strange, but oh so familiar. The star transformation from when you first became Loop, it was like that. But while that had been a burning heat, a fiery blazing distortion and release of energy, this was just warm, pleasant even. It was like soaking in a gentle bath after a refreshing shower, just melting into the clean warm waters without a care in the world.
What even happened? You’re pretty sure you were fighting… Stardust, yes, you lost. For the best, you think. But what happened after? You don’t remember. You’re getting colder now. No, not colder, the warmth is just moving. It’s pulling away from the surface of your form, coalescing in your chest just under your sternum. It’s so slow. How long have you been here? You could feel something else now, an awareness forming distantly in your mind, something tugging on you. Not on your stomach, thankfully, but that new warmth in your chest. The last thing you sensed was a voice, speaking all around you, shouting from across the room, whispering in your ear, laughing, crying, singing. Encompassing you.
“Fly now, child of ours.”
You will not remember this.
You woke up under the Favour Tree. Time for another loop with helpful Loop, or at least, once you actually remember what happened last loop. You don’t even feel that terrible right now either, which is always nice. The wood against your back was solid, sunlight was filtering through the leaves above you, there’s a slightly damp grass smell in the air, a gentle breeze made your hair brush against your neck— hair?!
You jerked away from your resting position, sitting straight up as you looked down at yourself. You had hair, long hair, down to your waist and all curly and wavy in your natural darkless shade. And it’s resting across clothes that looked identical to your old clothes? Except they’re a darker shade, as if they were dusty. Then there was that damp smell, there was never a damp smell in the loops.
Right, the loops were over. Stardust broke out. That meant that you were free as well. But where were you?
You were quickly becoming more aware of your surroundings – this was a different Favour Tree, for starters. Still a Favour Tree judging by its size, the feeling of wishes in the air, and the visceral, cloying smell forcing its way up your nose, it just wasn’t the Favour Tree. You could feel the cool glass of your mask on your skin— Skin! You have skin again. You yank your mask off and look at it, there’s just enough light to get a blurry reflection out of it and… it’s you. Human again. Some things seem different, sure, but it’s you. You heard footsteps approaching and quickly put your mask back on just as a stranger came into view.
They’re a child, or just even shorter than you. They had a mop of curly, darkless hair that someone had tried to pull into a short pony tail, most of it was falling out. Their mask was a typical Vaugardian child’s mask, messily decorated with exaggerated wide eyes and smiling mouth, alongside one well painted playing card with lines of small writing contained within it, so this person was almost certainly a child and not just short.
Oh stars, they’re coming over. What do you do? What are your lines? You don’t know, it’s all different now. You’re not even in Dormont.
“Hi,” they said excitedly, tilting their head quizzically at you, “who’re you? Why are you here? Why are you dressed like that other guy that was here? Were you out here in the rain? The other guy went out in the rain a lot as well. Are you rain people?”
What? What was any of that? Why are children like this? The Kid was never like this. Or maybe they were? You… couldn't really remember. “I think,” you said slowly, sliding your most pleasant tone of voice into place over your words, “you’re supposed to do introductions first when you meet people.” The child stared at you for a moment, the wide eyes of their mask boring into you.
“Oh yeah. I’m Gabriel, but you can call me Gabby.” You stared, tilting your head forwards slightly, they were forgetting a part. This is a standard greeting here, it shouldn’t be this hard.
“And…?” you prompted.
“Oh, he/him.” There we go. You silently sighed to yourself, children. He looked old enough to be better at this. You put on your best cheerful voice, and brought a hand up to your chest.
“A pleasure to meet you. I’m Loop, they/them.”
“I don’t think that’s a real name.” Rude.
“Maybe not, but it is mine. And that makes it real to me.”
He considered this for a moment before speaking. “Fair ‘nuff.”
Again, children. Both incredibly difficult, and delightfully easy. You hesitantly stood on shaky legs, replaying the other things the child had said to you. Something about rain, someone who was dressed like you, and that person apparently liked the rain. Stardust, it had to be them. Were you close to Dormont then?
“Child,” you started, but got cut off.
“Gabby.”
“Gabby, the other person who was dressed like me. What was their name?”
“Dunno.”
You sucked in a breath through your teeth. Don’t shout at the child. “Can you describe them for me?”
“Yeah, they wore clothes like yours, but they were darkless, and they didn’t have that cool hat. And his hair was way shorter. Also his mask was made of wood, and it was shaped like a fox and had loads of cool stuff on it. There were others as well, six in total if you include the one who looks like you. Do you want me to describe them as well?”
“No, thank you though.” It was Stardust. He was just here. You’d just barely missed them it seemed. You weren’t sure how to feel about that. And having new stuff on his mask… that was good to hear. Six people though? The Kid’s sister then? That would mean they’d already made it to Bambouche. How long had you been… okay you had no idea where you were or what happened but clearly it took a while. That also meant you were probably near Bambouche, which was on the other side of the country from Dormont.
“Where are we?” you asked, earning yourself another quizzical head tilt.
“Verre Brisé. Obviously.” Verre Brisé, Verre Brisé, Verre Brisé. Coastal, northern you think, west of Bambouche, far from Dormont. Okay, you hadn’t the faintest blinding clue how that happened, but you could work with it. You nodded to the child and walked off, making it all of three steps before everything went dark.
You experienced the novel sensation of waking up in a real bed. The last bed you slept in would have been back in the clock tower in your own loops. This wasn’t that bed, you could tell that immediately thanks to incredibly detailed mural of a beautiful beach painted on the ceiling. Then you remembered what had led to you being here, passing out. Great. Stellar job, Loop.
A door creaked open on your blind side, because you were still blind in one eye apparently, and you turned your head to look. An adult this time, taller than you, with long, wavy dark hair cascading down just past their waist, and loose fitting clothes. They were carrying a tray with something on it. You sat up in the bed, preparing to give your best greeting but the stranger spoke first.
“Good afternoon Loop,” the stranger spoke. Their voice was quiet, not a whisper, just subdued and mellow. “Gabby already introduced you so there’s no need to exert yourself. I’m Jacque, dealer’s choice.” Ah, good, a proper introduction. Dealer’s choice though? Oh, like card games, a little joke, nice. Okay Gambling One, whatever you say.
You got a good look at their mask as they placed the tray down on the end table next to the bed. It was a simple full-face lightless U shape made from some sort of smooth crystal with sharp looking edges – obsidian you think, which is actually glass that just looks like a crystal. Look at you, remembering things! It had no discernable mouth or other facial features aside from six brightly painted eyes. It felt like they were always looking at you, no matter where Jacque turned her head. The eyes also all seemed to be conveying different things. The top pair looked sharp and scrutinising, the centre pair looked flat and uninterested, and the bottom pair appeared entranced or perhaps awed. It was very disconcerting. The rest of the marks seemed to have been carved in, and then painted in the shallow channels. It was quite striking. Looking closer at the eyes again, and trying not to shudder, you saw it was actually the same technique that was making those piercing eyes stand out so much. The marks featured depictions of playing cards with no art on them, just the corner markings. The border edge was also decorated with entangling vines and flowers.
Well, he seemed nice, but if you didn’t immediately leave you’d probably end up doing something horribly embarrassing. You weren’t really sure you knew how to interact with people any more. You took a breath, remembered that this mask had a mouth cutout so you had to smile as well, and did your best attempt at sounding fine. “Well, thank you for your hospitality, but I really should be going.” You said, moving to stand.
“Don’t,” She said, turning her head sharply and causing you to freeze, “you are clearly unwell.”
“I assure you I’m fine,” you said, trying not to grit your teeth. “Just a bit of a dizzy spell.”
“Even so, you went face first into the dirt after being found outside, unaware of your location, after a rainstorm. By the time Gabby had fetched me you had foxes sniffing at you like you were their next meal.”
“Well I know where I am now, and I’m fine.”
“Would you bet on that?”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s make a wager.”
“Wait we’re making an actual bet?” Usually people don’t mean it when they ask that. Right? You aren’t forgetting that?
“Yes, if you can leave this house unassisted and without falling over, I’ll let you leave. If not, you stay until I’m happy to let you leave.”
You considered this. He seemed like he would be true to his word, if only for the use of “dealers choice” earlier, and so you assumed such wagers were matters of importance to whatever his name was. “Deal,” you said, standing up and immediately feeling light headed but managing to stay standing.
You began to walk towards the door and once again, made it all of three steps before your vision and legs failed you. Something caught you and moved you back to the bed.
“Eat,” they said. “I’ll run you a bath, and if you can make it more than three steps without kissing the ground, then we’ll consider letting you leave.” Well, that gave you time to try and remember her name at least.
You turned your attention to the tray; it had food on it, unsurprisingly. Soup and bread, along with a glass of water, and a mug of hot chocolate. The mouth cutout wasn’t really big enough to comfortably use utensils so you adjusted your mask up slightly to allow yourself to eat whilst Jacque left the room. Hey, you remembered their name, good job. You drank the water first, greedily guzzling it down as you suddenly became aware of how thirsty you were, which in turn awakened your hunger and set you upon the undefended soup and bread like a beast. You didn’t touch the hot chocolate.
Taking proper stock of the room, you saw your hat was hanging off the bedpost at the foot on the bed. It was a darker shade than usual, which reminded you that amidst your earlier stampede of revelations you had seen that your clothes were different. You could actually look at them now without interruptions, and hopefully without passing out, so you did. Looking down at yourself, you first saw that your cloak was gone, which you really should have noticed faster. Its absence at least let you see the rest of your clothes easier. They were all just a bit darker, it really was just like they were dusty, like the Universe had left them on a cosmic shelf and forgot about them. You experimentally brushed your hand across your top a few times. Nothing. Whatever happened to your clothes seems to have stuck. You moved on to the next priority: finding your cloak. Looking around revealed it didn’t appear to be in here, you instead found a small pile of stuff on the end table on the other side of the bed, your stuff, whatever had been in your cloak you assumed. You had both of your old masks – which were also that dusty shade – your dagger, and… Stardust’s coin. Right, you promised to give that back at some point, super duper promised even. The child – Gabby – made it sound like they were recently here, perhaps you could run after them and catch up? Would that… end well though?
Jacque came back before your thoughts could claim you, and despite barely turning her head you could tell she noticed you hadn’t touched the hot chocolate. They didn’t ask, but you felt the need to explain yourself anyway, like you’d somehow done something wrong by not drinking it. “I’m just not a big fan of sugary things right now,” you said, making sure to hide the full scope of your disgust.
Jacque just shrugged and slid her mask up slightly to make space for the mug, picking it up by the body and hissing from the heat, quickly shifting to only hold it by her fingertips and supporting some weight by hooking their middle and index finger through the handle. He sighed appreciatively as he drank from it.
“Your bath is ready. If you’re able to keep yourself standing now, that is,” they said, holding out a hand to you. You hesitated for a moment before slowly taking it, mostly suppressing the flinch. You’re sure she noticed anyway, probably adding it to the list of things that were wrong with you. You stood, holding on for a moment before letting go and standing alone. Jacque nodded at you and walked out of the room, still drinking the last of the hot chocolate. With no other real choice, you followed. You were led through an eclectically decorated hallway to a room two doors down. He led you in and showed you where everything was and how it all worked.
“And here’s a change of clothes,” they said, gesturing at a soft looking pile, “Your cloak has already been washed because it was covered in mud. I should have it dry by the time you’re done in here.” Well that explained where that went. You nodded and mumbled some thanks, trying to hide how dizzy you’d become on the walk. Jacque nodded back and left silently.
You slowly shed your clothes, keeping your eyes closed while you braced for what you might see. Deep breath in, and out.
You opened your eyes. You were… a mostly normal human. It certainly wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
Your hands were lightless, freckled with stars and fading into your actual skin tone just above your elbow; your legs were the same from your feet up to just above your knees. There was also a massive scar on your chest, a remnant of the four-pointed star that once shone there. Running your fingers across it you shivered at the sensation, noting that your sense of touch seemed worse than before. In fact, you could barely feel anything in the starry parts of your body, like everything was distant.
There was a mirror on the wall and you padded over to get a better look at your face, placing your mask on the sink as you did. You’d already seen a bit of your face reflected in your mask, but it was much clearer here – the way it wasn’t quite the same. You were visibly older for one, only a bit, but enough that if you stood next to Stardust people would think you were his older sibling and not his clone, so that was nice. Your left eye was still scarred and blind, no changes there. And of course there was your hair: it was a mess, and far too long. You’d barely taken care of it back when you had it so you certainly couldn’t handle it being this long.
Without much thought, you formed a scissors sign and flicked your hand to send out a tiny amount of Craft to hack off your hair just below the shoulders. That left you with enough hair to come to a more definitive style choice later, but got rid of the immediate problem of having far too much to handle. As the Craft activated you felt a warmth in your chest, and saw a sparkle in your hand. Was your body reacting to Craft use? You should try something stronger. You took a breath, remembered how to use your speed boost, and snapped your fingers.
You could never do this in front of other people. Your body lit up from within, beginning in your chest, it spread and turned all of your skin back into the lightless star filled void that it was back in Stardust’s loops. Your hair shone as well, in the same manner your head would have, framing your panicked face and glittering eye like the rising sun. Your entire body was filled with a buzzing feeling as well, like hot pins and needles. The light dimmed and vanished with your buff before you could have a full blown panic attack, leaving you mentally reeling. You were just, never going to use Craft in front of someone, ever, or even use big Crafts at all if you could help it.
You didn’t really like using baths to clean yourself, they just made you feel gross, so you hopped in the shower – and actually remembered the instructions you were given for using it – to quickly clean off the dirt and grime before getting in the bath. Getting in the shower had finally finished waking up your dormant body it seemed, as you became progressively sorer and stiffer. You grit your teeth and forced yourself to move to the bath, climbing in and immediately sighing with relief as it eased your aches. You simply laid there for an indeterminate amount of time, taking slow, deep breaths, and letting everything really settle for you.
You were out of the loops, properly now; Stardust was fine, with their family; you were fine, alone; you were mostly human again; and a nice but somewhat off-putting Vaugardian stranger was taking care of you. You could work with this, you just needed to work out a plan. Ideally starting with getting out of here.
You finished soaking and climbed out of the bath, pulling the plug and letting it drain as you dried yourself and dressed in the clothes you’d been given. The clothes hung off of you a bit – Jacque was notably taller than you after all, on account of you still being a perfectly respectable but not very big height – but they fit well enough and they were soft on your skin. You had to pull your old gloves on to hide your hands as you hadn’t been provided any. The top was long-sleeved at least, and you had been given socks. You dried your hair as best you could but couldn’t get it fully dry. You knew there was a thing you could do with a towel to wrap it up, but your hair had never been this long before so you didn’t know how to do it. You just hung the towel around your neck and let your hair sit on it, it would be fine.
You grabbed your mask, gathered up your clothes, and opened the door, almost walking straight into Jacque who was standing there about to knock. She had your cloak in one hand and held it out to you. You swapped it for your dirty clothes and Jacque walked off without a word. With nothing better to do, you followed, throwing your cloak around yourself as you did.
“So where’s…” Name, what was the kids name? You know you know it. “Gabby?” Yeah, that was it.
“He’s out, on the beach I think,” he said.
“Shouldn’t you know where your kid is?”
“I would imagine so, he’s not my kid though.” Oh! Whoops. You heard a door slam elsewhere in the house. “Well, now I know where he is. I guess I’m making us lunch now, if you’re still hungry?” Why were they making lunch? She just said Gabby wasn’t her kid. You nodded your head in vague assent before your silence dragged out too long, and then Gabby came barrelling around the corner.
“Jacque, I’m hungry,” he shouted, practically bouncing off the walls as he moved towards you. “Oh, hi Loop,” he greeted you before going straight back to the food provider. “What are we having?”
“You’ll find out when I make it. Go finish cleaning your room and I’ll get you when it’s done.”
“Okay.” And like that, he was gone as quickly as he arrived.
“Why does ‘not your kid’ have a room here?” you asked Jacque once he had preparing your clothes for cleaning.
“Because he lives here,” they said with an ever so subtle teasing tone in their voice. Okay, you were starting to get how she worked. He was screwing with you, taking advantage of the way you phrased things to give whatever answer took his fancy.
“So you adopted him?”
“Nope, we just live together.” You were going to explode. “I’ll spare you,” they said with a chuckle. “Officially, we have no relation, but we both woke up on the shore around here in a small boat ages ago with almost total amnesia, so I take care of him.”
That… could mean anything, and was probably just a random coincidence you weren’t going to think about.
“What about you?” she asked, as you walked into the kitchen. “You look like a traveller, but you also apparently didn’t even know where you are right now. Did something happen?”
Did something happen?! Stars, what hadn’t happened? Time loops, dying, being reborn, time loops again, dying again, being reborn again, finding out that roughly two months had passed based on Stardust’s travel progress. Where would you even begin?
Something moved in front of your face and you made a dumb noise and you refocused on the present moment. It was half a ham sandwich, cut diagonally. Jacque was already eating the other half. You took it and he walked off, presumably to go fetch Gabby. You looked at the counter and saw that there was a large plate with several cut sandwiches on it, you must have zoned out after that question. Good job. You took the plate and moved it to the table; the least you could do was make yourself helpful. Helpful Loop, that’s who you were.
This was a really good sandwich.
Gabby was heard before he was seen. He bounded into the room like his life depended on it, pouncing into a chair and grabbing at the food with manic fervour. Jacque meandered in a few seconds later, taking a few long strides to cross the room and sitting next to the child.
“What’s up with your eye?” Gabby asked, with his mouth full of food. You tensed in shock, you had forgotten that your scar was probably visible through the eyehole.
“Does it matter?” Jacque said, saving you.
“I guess not,” Gabby said, after swallowing his food, “but it also might be cool.”
“It also might be something they don’t like thinking about.”
“Oh! Sorry.” His apology was directed at you, and snapped you out of your daze. You really needed to get a better grip on yourself.
“It’s fine,” you said in your most normal voice, “I just forget it can be seen through this mask sometimes. It’s nothing special. I just got hit protecting someone from a Sadness. A silly mistake.” You tried to smile, you don’t think it was very good.
“Woah,” Gabby gasped, “A battle scar? You’ve fought Sadnesses? Jacque’s fought Sadnesses as well. Do you think you’re stronger than Jacque? I bet you aren’t.” And there was that barrage of nonsense again. You looked to Jacque for aid, they seemed capable of handling Gabby.
“Of course they’re stronger than I am, Gabby, they’d have to be if they’ve travelled recently. Because of the King, remember?”
“Right, because he made loads more Sadnesses appear, and there’s still too many strong ones around. It’s why we have to walk to the House in groups now.” Jacque nodded in confirmation and then both simply returned to their food, leaving you be for the rest of the meal.
Gabby left as soon as the food was gone, shouting goodbye as he left and leaving Jacque to clean up.
“Thank you,” you said, still sat at the table.
“There are some gloves by the front door,” Jacque said back, the abruptness making you start. “You can go put them on, and I’ll wash your ones with the rest of your stuff.” You sat for a moment longer, a bit confused, before finally processing the words and getting up to head in the direction Gabby went. You found the gloves easily enough. They were next to two bowls of snacks: nuts and boiled sweets respectively. Thankfully, the sweets were wrapped and you couldn’t smell them. You swapped your gloves and headed back to the kitchen, meeting Jacque in the doorway where she took your gloves from you and went to go and begin washing.
You walked around until you found a living room, with a sofa and armchair in front of a fireplace. There were many bookshelves in here as well and the one in the corner caught your attention, something within you compelling you to go to it. Approaching it, you found every book on this shelf was from your homeland – or at least written in the language. A language you found you could read, which you absolutely couldn’t do before. Yet another change. You grabbed one at random, something about mask crafting, and went to go sit in the comfy looking armchair.
Jacque walked in some time later while you were distracted and placed a brush and comb on the small end table next to you. “You should brush your hair now, it looks dry enough,” he said. Yes, probably, how did you do that properly though? You’d never had hair this long, even after you’d cut most of it off, you hadn’t even had any hair at all for a while, and you barely brushed it back when you did. The knots always hurt. You also just realised you’d left all that cut hair on the floor for Jacque to deal with and cringed internally.
There didn’t seem to be an easy way out of this that didn’t involve some level of honesty, and you supposed you couldn’t hold Stardust to their promise to be more open if you couldn’t do it as well. “I… uh, have a lot of gaps in my memory at the moment, as you might have noticed,” you said with a weak and very forced chuckle, “My last solid one is finding out the King had been defeated, and then waking up under that tree. I don’t suppose I could get some help with this?” There, not technically lying, and you even asked for help. Oh stars, they were staring at you. Okay, you were nervous now. Where was the nearest window?
She suddenly clapped her hands together, sparks of Craft flying out. He walked behind the chair and asked if you were ready, you nodded, only slightly scared, and he pulled your hair over the back of the chair and ran his hands through it. They were warm. Had they used temperature regulation Craft on their own body? You were pretty sure that was supposed to be hard. Not that it mattered, what mattered was that this was really relaxing. And then it stopped, apparently your hair was dry now. You tried not to be upset about it. You turned your head slightly so you could watch her arm reach past you for the comb. He started at the bottom, gently working the knots out and slowly climbing up the length of your hair in small sections. Eventually, they reached the top and the wooden teeth of the comb felt so good on your scalp. And then it stopped, again, just when it was getting good. Then you felt tugging at the ends again, oh, the brush, right. The brush was even better, gliding through your hair and scratching nicely at your head. Jacque made a few extra passes once all the knots were gone but eventually that bliss ended as well. The brush was returned to the table and Jacque walked over to the sofa, rolling around a small desk on wheels and beginning to write something. They didn’t say anything, so you returned to your book. You hoped it would give you ideas for your new mask, since you really needed a new one.
After maybe an hour of sitting in silence, Jacque leaned away from her work and stretched. “How is it that you can read that?” he asked. You froze, you’d forgotten that this would be suspicious. You tried to keep your voice level and neutral as you spoke.
“I don’t know, I couldn’t the last time I checked,” you said, without looking up.
“Are you from there then?”
You considered lying, but it was obvious Jacque was from there as well, and Gabby. That earlier comment had been evidence enough, you just really didn’t want to think about it. “Yeah,” you said eventually.
“Are you related to the saviour that was here recently? You dress the same, and he could read it as well.”
“Yeah.” Technically a lie, but also technically not. The truth would be way too much right now anyway.
“They only left the other day, you could probably catch them if you left tomorrow.”
“I’m… not travelling with their group right now. It’s just a coincidence that I ended up here when he did.”
“Alright then,” they hummed, before pivoting to a new subject. “You can see it from here, the Forgotten Island. Well, the others can’t, their eyes just gloss over it. But I see it, I caught the saviour looking at it as well, so you could probably see it. If you wanted to.”
“It can be seen? It’s still there?” Your heart quickened at the thought. Part of you had believed it simply didn’t exist any more. But it was still real!
“No, and yes. It’s there, but it’s blanketed by fog, it stops anyone else from looking too closely. Bars them from seeing it unless you point it out.”
You didn’t really know what to make of that. You took a breath and let your smile return, voice turning chipper. “Well, that was very interesting. I think I’m going to head out,” you said, standing to return the book to the shelf.
“Okay, dinner is whenever.”
“Dinner?” you asked, false cheer quickly replaced with real confusion.
“Yeah. You’re coming back for dinner right? Your clothes are still here, and that room is yours as long as you want it.”
You didn’t have anything to say to that; you’d expected to be kicked out as soon as your clothes were clean. This felt like more courtesy than you deserved. You left silently, needing some time to process a few things, and to recover from being honest with a stranger, it felt weird. Perhaps the beach would be good?
The beach sucked. There was nothing here except for some kids playing in the sand and a small dock for fishers, this place must not see much tourism. Oh, and there was that. The fog, just sitting on the horizon.
Home.
You stood in the surf, water washing over your boots, just staring at that immutable blanket of fog. There was a tug in your chest, that warmth under your sternum, the star you once were. Did it yearn as you did? The fog just sat there, it didn’t even pretend to be normal fog, and everyone ignored it. It wasn’t their fault of course, but you were allowed to be angry you decided. Your home was right there. You could probably steal a boat and sail yourself over, but who knows what that would do to you? You certainly didn’t. Would you get lost, or would it just kill you like trying to say its name did to Stardust?
You stood there until your head pounded under the mounting headache, and then you stood there some more. The pull in your chest was getting stronger, hotter, painful. Something hit your leg and you finally broke away from your staring contest with the unnatural weather phenomenon. It was a piece of driftwood, lightless, gnarled, and cracked. You stared at it for a while, waiting for it to be dragged back out into the water, but when the waves finally got a good grip on it, it just ended up rotating and catching on your leg. You sighed and picked it up, stars know why, you’d work it out later. You heard someone call your name and turned to see Gabby waving at you and pointing back at town. It was getting late, must be dinner time.
Dinner was good, you don’t know what it was, you didn’t ask. Just like how no one asked about the driftwood you carried in with you. You guess Gabby had decided to hold of on his questions for now. Or maybe Jacque told him to wait? You ate in silence while the other two talked idly. It was… a familiar feeling.
Once you’d eaten, you remembered to help clean up this time before retiring to the room you’d been loaned. Your clean clothes were folded on the bed, along with a set of pyjamas. You ignored the pyjamas and changed into your clothes. You were a coward you decided, and you were leaving. You swapped your mask to your oldest one, the bone one, and took a deep breath. It felt weird to be wearing it again, but you had to get that glass joke off of your face, and the fox would just make you think of Stardust.
You waited a while until you heard the house fall silent, only then sneaking out of the room and silently making your way to the front door. A voice spoke out as you passed the living room. “Good evening, Loop.” You froze, and turned to see Jacque sitting in the armchair, a book in their lap. “I believe we made a wager earlier that strictly prohibited you leaving until I was happy in your health. Or am I misremembering? My memory isn’t the best.”
“We did, yes,” you say, trying to look or sound as guilty as you suddenly felt.
“Wonderful. So you aren’t sneaking out with all of your stuff and planning on not coming back?”
“No…”
“I’ll see you in the morning then. With a new wager for you.” She returned the book to the shelf and walked past you to head upstairs, apparently confident you would still be here the next day. You opened the door and walked out as soon as he was out of sight.
You got as far as the Favour Tree before stopping, a dull ache in your chest making itself known. You sat at its base and leaned your back against it, looking up at the night sky, at the stars. You hadn’t really thought this out, but you supposed you only really had three options. Option one: track down Stardust and the others, and travel with them. You didn’t like the sound of that, actually. In fact, it sounded rather torturous right now. So then option two: leave and wander aimlessly until something happens. Basically how you lived back when you were Siffrin, before you met the others. You’re pretty sure that sucked and caused the horrible emotional issues that led to you trapping yourself in a time loop. Which left option three: go back to the room offered to you by a stranger who was apparently from the Forgotten Island, and do… something.
You hated that option three seemed to be the best one. You sighed heavily and hauled yourself to your feet, beginning to trek back to the home of Gabby and Jacque.