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“Hey, Ralsei! Check out what I found!” Susie calls from over by another stall, sporting data-clouds of candy floss.
Ralsei smiles, feeling a pinch between his eyebrows with slight worry. “That’s great, Susie, but are you sure those are safe to eat? They might be-“
It’s too late, he knows already. “Uh, what else would they be for? Whoa-“
Susie bites down. Her mane of hair frizzes and sparks with electricity, before settling into a wild spike. She looks closer to a pine tree than a high-school girl.
“…Environmental set dressing, Susie,” he finishes apologetically. But seeing Susie unharmed, he stifles a laugh behind his paws.
“How was I supposed to know?!” she roars, flustered. “It’s right next to all the snacks!”
Her hair continues to spark as she speaks, like a downed power line. She goes quiet, her eyes drifting between Ralsei and the other data-cloud in her claws.
Ralsei feels a chill down his spine.
“Hey,” she says, approaching. “Come here a sec.”
He takes one half-step back. “…Why?”
“Just come here!” She leaps forward and pokes Ralsei’s soft nose with one claw— not hard, but enough to-
Szzzchhhh!
“Ah!” he exclaims, nose twitching. “Ahahahaha!”
“See? It just feels all fuzzy. Ha, kinda like you do!”
Ralsei keeps laughing, struggling to contain it, ignoring the way the advertisement screens seem to glow and flicker pointedly. Susie takes another bite- smaller this time- and reaches for him again.
“Hey!” he tries, holding one arm against his stomach to stave off another fit. “Where’d Kris go, do you think?”
Susie blinks. “They’re prob’ly fine, dude. They’re with Noelle, so— hey, wait, where did they go?!”
Ralsei giggles, even as Susie turns on her heel to find their missing friend. And, er, whatever Noelle is to them…? As well?
She’s a sweet girl, Ralsei reminds himself, before following after Susie.
The lights in Cyber City really are pretty, busy as it is. The music playing is… nice, too. Definitely electronic, and certainly under the umbrella of what those musical Darkners had called ‘noise music,’ though.
There aren’t many other Darkners around this area, apart from the ones left to run the stalls. Queen’s probably selected all the rest to set up for her third act fight.
He hopes Kris and Susie don’t mind the music either. It’s not that bad after a while, really! Just… it may not be what he would have…
“Hey, there you are, Kris!” Susie shouts. “We’ve been messing around without you- oh, uh.”
Noelle’s with Kris, playing a ball-game of some sort. She drops the ball when Susie speaks, standing ramrod straight.
“Uh, hey, Noelle,” says Susie. It’s sweet, how clueless she seems to be.
“Hi!” You’re here too!” quietly, to Kris, she whispers excitedly, “When did she start… sparkling?”
Kris shrugs, and reaches out a hand to Susie, who smirks nefariously. Kris leans over to take a bite of the data-cloud before Susie takes their hand. Their hair poofs out too, still covering their eyes, even though it spikes up all silly. They nod once, satisfied with Susie’s work.
Ralsei blinks. “Okay.”
Noelle shakes her head like she’s not sure what’s happened, and Kris reaches their hand again. Susie laughs, rumbling and loud, and takes a positively massive bite of the data-cloud.
“Kris, be-“ Noelle lets out an eep! sound, cutting Ralsei’s warning off.
Susie, seeing the opportunity, puts her whole hand down on Ralsei’s head.
This time, the laughing fit is too much to keep a handle on. His fur sticks up into a veritable ball of fluff and static. But Susie laughs even harder, and… Kris’ face seems a little more relaxed.
“Okay, Susie! Hit me with it,” says Noelle, her fists clenched in determination. Ralsei is impressed- she’s quite strong!
“Nah. Let’s find some actual food, I’m starving!” Susie says. “I saw donuts, or whatever. Whaddyou think is free?”
Noelle blinks, lost. Kris is tagging right alongside Susie, both beelining towards a tall stack of CD bagels. Ralsei doesn’t follow, content to watch from a distance, but strangely, Noelle doesn’t move, either.
She looks at him warily, like she’s about to say something. He smiles indulgently, but she frowns and turns back to observing. Something about her eyes just then sends a chill to his stomach, but it’s… fine. He pushes it down and enjoys the smile on Susie’s face as she piles the bagels she’s carrying into her pockets. The rest are stacked on Kris’ head.
“It says they’re made with ‘cookies dough’? What does that even mean, haha,” Noelle asks, reading the sign on the stall.
Ralsei is about to answer, but a nasally voice flies in before he can.
“Noelle, my… comrade in arms… it means that your data- ie, your searches… your dreams… are Baked Into this delicacy.”
“Oh. Uh, hi, Berdly!” Noelle squeaks. “Is Queen with you…?”
“Of course! She merely had to, er, modify her wallpaper. Again-“ Susie exchanges a look with Kris- “but she will arrive momentarily, and we shall create a Gamer’s Paradise… A-S-A-P.”
“Okay,” says Ralsei.
“So no. D’you… are you staying here, or…” Susie trails off. She looks bored.
“Susie, why don’t you try a CD bagel?” he offers. “They sound like fun!”
She tilts her head, as if Dark World food will make more sense at a 45 degree angle. “Eh, Kris, you try first.”
She breaks the disc in half, a discordant synthesizer twanging. Kris opens their mouth for her to toss it like a frisbee inside, closing like the hinge of a nutcracker.
They swallow, and an… incomprehensible sound follows. Ralsei has no idea how to parse it. They’re not…?
They’re not in a battle, no. No one is in pain, but-
Susie doubles over in laughter, and Noelle looks stun-locked in place. “What the hell was that, man?! Oh, you gotta do that again!”
It.
It sounds like… twelve pianos were trying to pronounce words at once, all while falling down the stairs, smoking, and being chased. By a whammy bar?
“What?” is all he can say. There had been- “Kris, were you singing?”
“No, no! I thought I heard words, too!” Noelle exclaims. “Oh my goodness, that was cool.”
Kris is still unreadable. But they don’t seem harmed, which is a relief.
“What did it taste like, Kris?” she asks, tentative.
“Feels like TV static.”
The others make sounds of total agreement, except for Berdly, who stands with his beak high in the air. “Your… soul song… sounds incomplete! Mine will be worthy of a True Gamer. Watch this, Player 2s!”
His wingtips don’t seem able to apply the proper counter-pressure to break the bagel. It’s quiet for one moment too long, before Noelle snaps a piece off for him.
“Here you go!” she says, in the same bright, helpful voice that Ralsei tries to emulate so often.
Berdly chortles smugly, chipping away at the bagel with his beak. He swallows.
“This oughta be good,” Susie says, not meanly, but not kindly. Kris looks extremely focused.
With a sound like a belch, an amateurish rendition of Mozart’s ‘Eine kleine Nachtmusik’ tumbles out of his mouth. For all purposes, Ralsei thinks that it should be good, or worth boasting his sophistication over, but there’s something… strangely tacky about it.
Strategically, Ralsei does not say a word.
Noelle’s looking at Kris, who has their jaw shut tight, hands closing and opening like it’s taking all of their energy not to say something.
Ralsei looks away, disturbed.
“Damn, Berdly,” says Susie.
“A mark of my intelligence! My cultured sensibility…”
“That sucked ass, not gonna lie,” she continues.
Kris bursts out with a single ’HA!’ of laughter. Ralsei sighs.
“Do they taste good, at least?” Noelle asks. Ralsei imagines that they do not.
“The food in Queen’s world is truly a delight, you see,” Berdly hisses. The poor kid looks embarrassed.
“Aw, it’s okay, Berdly! If you take more than one bite, sometimes it plays something closer to your heart!” he offers. “Watch this, okay?”
“Now how would you have learned-“
A crunch bites Berdly off. Before Ralsei can think of what may play, or worry about it, a chain of absolute garbage noise plays from him. Clunks and whistles, static and mechanical grinding, the sound of… sheets rustling? Shoes, crunching on gravel… distant armies, marching.
Ralsei burps. “Sorry, that was strange! I’ll try again, okay?”
The advertisement screens buzz and shine in the complete silence. Even the few Darkners running the stalls seem shocked into silence.
Susie’s face breaks into a grin, and she punches him on the arm light enough to hurt only a little. “That was sick, Ralsei! Show us what else you got!”
He takes another bite, thinking of the Lightners’ fascination with each Dark World so far, and Susie’s gung-ho acceptance of the strangeness of her adventures. It crunches in his teeth again, but it tastes… sweeter.
Like how he supposes grass might taste like, from how Susie and Kris describe it. He wants to hear more about what they eat in the Light World.
A soft, curious guitar drifts out of his mouth, trailed by what sound like flutes and clarinets. It sounds lovely, like the green meadow on Queen’s display backgrounds, only warmer. Like all the blue-light in the city had morphed into buttery yellow.
“That was nice,” says Kris, while Susie’s jaw falls to the floor.
“Oh, man!” exclaims Noelle. “I wanna curl up and listen to that forever, haha!”
“Very… P.O.G., Goat Prince,” Berdly says.
Susie nods furiously. “Mhm. Yeah. Yup.”
Ralsei feels his face warm. It wasn’t really… him. Thinking of Kris and Susie did that. But… “Thank you!”
He passes the bagel’s remaining half to Susie, who grins excitedly.
A cracking sound is the only warning before metal guitars, grinding, pounding bass, and harsh- yet skillful- raging voices rise out. The rhythm is terrific, and it’s exactly what he knows Susie hoped for.
“Wow! Susie, that was-“ he begins.
“Wasn’t me.”
Kris looks at Noelle, who is bright and almost steaming from the ears.
“I’m sorry!” she shouts.
Ralsei finds himself surprised. He knew Noelle was acting with a mask, but the ferocity behind it…
“Holy hell, that was Noelle?” Susie yells, just as loud. “What was that?! That was awesome!”
Noelle draws her hands up to cover her mouth in surprise, almost like she’s praying. ”Ohhh my goodness…”
Susie seems ready to run a lap around Cyber City from excitement, but she manages to refrain. Ralsei peeks around and sees that her tail is wagging, and giggles, delighted. Besides, he really had been impressed when he thought the music had come from Susie!
It’s nice, meeting their other friends.
“Do you listen to metal while you study?” Ralsei asks, knowing she’s a somewhat studious girl. Her ears tick up.
Berdly scoffs. “We study together- Noelle does not listen to anything other than ‘beats to relax / study to.’ That would be distracting.”
Kris’ mouth ticks up in a smirk.
Ralsei realizes that Noelle, being a deer-monster, has great enough ear maneuverability to hide earbuds easily. Especially with hair as curly as hers.
Noelle’s pointed gaze Away From Berdly seems to confirm this. He smiles, understanding the situation.
“It’s okay to listen to bad music, Berdly, as long as you like it,” Ralsei says, trying to help.
Susie roars a laugh again. Her stomach growls, cutting off the conversation with its vehemence.
“Maybe you should try a bite, now, Susie,” he proposes, smiling. Noelle’s ears prick up once more.
“Yeah! I don’t think it’d be as fun if you were left out,” she says. Ralsei isn’t fooled- he didn’t even know that deer-monsters could blush. Not that he’s met many, really, just Noelle and-
Kris shoves half a disc in Susie’s mouth, sliding cleanly like a DVD slot between her jaws. They pump their fist in silent celebration.
When Susie swallows, her eyes go wide, surprised- or nervous, Ralsei suspects. She coughs, then squints, suspicious.
“Kris, that wasn’t even-“ she coughs again, and the static pump of an amplifier clicking itself on comes out.
A heavy drum sets up shop in the space between their little gang. Then, two electric guitars strum to life. It’s slower than Ralsei expected, but it’s… hm. He wonders how many people find their real soul song on the first bite. If anyone would, he’s not surprised that it’s Susie.
He never wants the music to stop, if this is what it can sound like. It’s unpracticed, but un-hurried, an inverse of Berdly’s cheap orchestra.
Susie grins as the melody fades out. “Man,” she says, rubbing a hand over her neck. “That was kinda sick.”
Noelle nods rapidly. She’s bright red again, and laughing with glee like she just walked off a roller-coaster.
“Damn, that bad, Kris?” Susie asks, crossing her arms over her stomach. “Can’t look at me without laughing, huh?”
Ralsei turns to see what’s happening. Kris is looking up at the game stalls, away from the other wall- he knows why, but Susie wouldn’t…
Kris turns and pulls their hand back. Susie smiles wickedly, and their high-five sounds like it hurts.
Ralsei’s never seen them smile that widely, before. Noelle seems like she’s never seen Kris smile either, which Ralsei finds odd.
Aren’t they friends?
“Susan… that was… quite P.O.G. of you also,” Berdly says, at length. “Revisionist, yes, but… you have a certain-“
A loud crash and buzz interrupts whatever Berdly was going to say. Someone hit the JACKPOT prize at a stall nearby.
“Hey, Susie!” Ralsei whispers, cupping a paw around his mouth. “You didn’t get to open Kris’ prize yet!”
“They gave it to you, dumbass!”
Kris nods, like that was obvious. He supposes it was. “Oh, uh. Alright, should I open it?”
Noelle smiles encouragingly. He really had liked her soundbite, and he’s grateful that Kris and Susie have such a nice friend at school.
From inside the box, a tiny ’eep!’ sounds.
Noelle sighs.