rudebustxr

[rudebustxr]

She remembers all at once.

It hits Susie like a forcible truck-- stopping her mid-step in the street as her eyes suddenly grew wide, flashes of things she didn't realize she knew exploding in her head, one after the other. It's enough to suddenly bring her to her knees; one clawed, out-spread hand landing on the cement with a loud thud, while the other desperately grabbed at her hair, wanting everything to stop.

Faces she didn't recognize, that suddenly she had.

Things she'd said and done. Things Ralsei, and Kris had done..

The Dark Worlds. The friends, the enemies they met there-- everything, all at once, screaming at her, causing her heart to thump louder, and louder in her throat--

Flashes of a fight she should've never forgotten.

Flashes of a Knight she never would, from now on.

Eventually, the memories stop, and it's only then that Susie realizes how hard she's breathing; pulling her hand away eventually as she stared into its open palm, frozen in place amongst all the people who had no idea what she just saw. What she and her friends had just gone through.

Just like everyone in Hometown.

A pane of glass flashes before her eyes, breaking into pieces; falling through her memories like shards of ice.

"I.."

"What.. the hell.. was that..?"

She's not sure when she'll be able to move again.

[rudebustxr]

as it's now been a month since chapter 3&4 came out, this is an official announcement that i will be updating susie's canon point! that means she is now aware of what has happened in the newly released content, and might talk about it, or the new characters who have appeared from time to time. however, i fully intend to avoid spoilers as much as possible; so if they happen to come up in a thread for any reason, i will be tagging them with #deltarune spoilers from here on out. she will also not discuss anything outwardly with castmates who are at a different canon point than her, as to not confuse them in character, AND so that i don't happen to spoil you, the mun, for something you might not know about yet!

please be advised that her app has been updated, and now has a few spoilers sprinkled in there. if you need to unfollow me to avoid anything, please feel free to; i will not be offended in the least! and if i can tag something in particular for you, please feel free to shoot me a dm at any time!

[rudebustxr]

Now that was something Susie didn't know about. She figured Chara ended up in the underground one way or another, while the monsters lived down there.. but Asgore never mentioned that part.

"Stuck..?? Y'mean, they don't just.. live there?" her eyebrows raised at the revelation, wondering if this was something else that was too complex for her to really understand. "Couldn't everybody just leave if they wanted to? If they liked it down there then whatever, I guess, but.."

Being stuck somewhere, not being able to escape, time and time again..

The thought felt.. suffocating.

"Poison???"

Chara's quip about their nerdy interests did seem to distract her momentarily, idly scratching under her forearm with her claws. "That's so messed up!! Hell yeah, I wanna know about 'em! Dude, if you had like a.. cool, video game persona or somethin'.. I bet you'd have dual swords and poison magic. That'd be sick as hell."

She could absolutely picture how Chara would look in a Dark World.. too bad that probably wouldn't happen here.

".. your hands might shake, but look at mine. They're huge. Do y'even have needles big enough for me to hold onto? What if I drop them all the time..?" but she already said she wanted to learn, so.. "Alright, fine, I'll try it. But.. don't go telling people I sew, okay?! And.. don't laugh at me if I suck."

...

"I've got a friend who's.. good with medicine. If he ever comes here, I can ask him to check out your injury, if you want. He was kinda teaching me some stuff too, but.. I dunno if it'd be.. good enough to make a difference."

“Well . . . yes. I fell into a big hole while climbing a mountain. Everyone else has already been stuck down there for a very long time.”

They keep forgetting that Susie wouldn’t know these things. Or, more, these words as so natural to them that they tumble out without much thought. Chara shrugs, fiddling with their sweater sleeve.

“Well, you know, knitting needles and sewing needles are fairly sharp, and some flowers can be used as poisons. Even nerdy things have interesting uses.”

They’ve noticed the holes in her clothes. They’ve just been too polite to ask about it.

“But I believe you would have an easier time with knitting than I do. My hands shake a lot, because of an old injury, so it is difficult for me. If you would like to learn, I would be happy to teach you. And about poisons in flowers, too.”

[rudebustxr]

".. yeah. Me too."

Susie hadn't meant that as a dig towards Queen in anyway, even if she had been closer to the little guy. Of course she wanted one of her best friends here, but.. the Computer Queen herself wasn't all that bad, since they squared all their problems away. She could just picture all the shit she and Lancer would get up to here, and hoped the thought wasn't an impossible one.

"Well.. if he's not okay, it'd be that Rouxls' guy's fault anyway. We could kick his ass if he fails at his lesser dad duties."

"... we could also just kick his ass anyway. Now THAT'D be fun."

Well, at least her former enemy knew what she was talking about-- mostly. It didn't seem like she knew who Spamton was at all.. for some reason.

"I, uh.." .. what were they doing in the basement, anyway? That was.. all Kris's idea. Her and Ralsei had stayed behind-- each time they went into that weird guy's shop, and when they headed down to the basement. If they hadn't rushed down when they did.. there was no telling what would've happened to her human companion.

"We were.. doing him a favour.. I think." Maybe it wasn't smart to tell Queen about everything Kris had done-- they kept it private from her and Ralsei, so.. who's to say they wanted anyone else to know? "There was some robot thing down there, and.. well. We beat him before we got up to you, anyway, so.. if y'don't know him, I guess it doesn't matter."

Queen smiles, not even mad about being unfavorably compared to her son.

* Things Are More Fun With Lancer Around * I Hope He's Okay Without The Two Of Us Around

Her smile fades at that sad thought, and fades even further with the next person Susie brings up.

* Spamton?

Queen goes eerily quiet. She can't say she's never heard of him before...

* Of Course I Remember Us Duking It Out * What Were You Doing In My Basement, Exactly

[rudebustxr]

charadrxxmxrr replied: They peer at her, as if reading her mind. “Do you want me to ask miss Noelle to go to the fireworks for you.”

"WHAT???????????????????????????????"

Was it the fact they snuck up on her that caught her off guard more, or the fact that they just outright named the very person she'd been thinking about????

Yes.

Susie's arms were thrown up into the air, almost toppling over to the ground as she stood completely still, trying to get her heart rate back down.

... but that wasn't happening anytime soon.

"I... never...?!? I NEVER MENTIONED NOELLE WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT."

[rudebustxr]

"A summer festival?! HELL YEAH! Man, look at all the stuff to do! It'd suck if we end up missin' the carnival back at home, but I guess this isn't so bad..!"

Susie's eyes trailed down the list of activities-- maybe some of them were lame, but she was already getting ideas of which ones she wanted to do with her friends. Ones she knew Kris would like, ones she hoped Chara would be into..

And when she saw the fireworks..

"..."

'(.. yeah, right. Like I could.. she'd totally think I was weird for asking, but..)'

... maybe it wouldn't be so bad?

[rudebustxr]

".. yeah, alright. Not gonna dump it on you in the middle of the street, anyway."

They wanted to know. Even if it was hard, even if it was a lot, Kris wanted to be on the same page as Susie. Deep down, that made her feel like everything was going to be alright-- even if it sucked to hear, at first. Even if it didn't make a lot of sense.

For their sake, however long they were here, they did deserve to know what they were getting into-- and maybe they.. trusted her, even, with the stuff that was gonna suck.

She hoped so, at least. It wasn't like she wanted to watch Kris suffer, or be scared, or.. anything bad, really. Not anymore.

She just wanted to have fun with them. Not ruin what they had going on. Hopefully.. she wasn't about to do that.

"It's not all bad. Just, kinda.. I dunno. Messed up? Weird? Heh. With everything we've seen in the Dark Worlds, maybe we should be used to this shit by now."

".. I found a cool spot with a bunch of mossy trees by a pond the other day. C'mon."

--

It didn't take long to the place Susie had mentioned-- it was a quiet section of the park, that overlooked everyone on the opposite side of the pond playing around and walking. Their side was relatively untouched, silent-- a good spot to yap about a bunch of things that made no sense.

Once they settled, Susie explained the whole.. people from their world, but different thing. She'd met their dad in the past, but it wasn't really their dad. There was a kid here who looked a bit like them, who was that Asgore's child, but it wasn't Kris. Undyne showed up too, but she had no idea what a cop even was! She'd even seen Noelle here before, when she was here the first time, but.. just like Kris, she didn't seem to remember that.

Just Susie. For whatever reason.

She was quiet for a bit after that, as if giving them some time to process everything. She picked up a stone that was embedded in the grass next to her, idly moving it around between her claws, starting to feel a bit suffocated from the silence.

So she started talking again.

".. that's just the weird stuff. The 'holy shit' stuff, is.. well.."

"That guy.. we fought in Queen's basement. Spamton. He's here, too." Her words were tentative, careful-- something Susie wasn't used to being, really.. but remembering how Kris was after all of that seemed to make her speak that way almost naturally. She glanced at them from the side, absentmindedly holding onto the stone now, tighter than she realized. ".. don't be mad, but I told him to stay away from you if you ever ended up here. He remembers fighting us. Maybe that was the wrong call, but.. I dunno. Out of all that stuff, him being here confuses me the most."

He was gone, after all. Disappeared after everything. How the hell did this place bring him back?

They barked out a laugh at Susie's outburst, the sound almost hurting with how genuine it was, like they had to pry it out of some box they'd shoved it down into. Maybe they had. They didn't think they'd ever see her again, so they shut a lot down internally until now. At least they didn't need to do that too much now.

They could just focus on a new adventure.

And that meant learning things they probably didn't want to.

It sounded like she had fun with that other them. That was... good? They didn't really know how to feel about it other than a bit nauseous because— they weren't going to think about it. It wasn't important. And she seemed pretty hesitant to talk about... other things. Which wasn't like her at all. It must be pretty rough if she's even balking at the idea of filling them in.

Kris listened, nodding a little and going quiet in thought like they always did when they were... expecting input. But nothing came. Not yet anyway. That meant they were probably on the same page for once.

For now, their words were their own.

"... I'd like to know what I'm getting into, what I missed, and what I need to know." They said finally, quietly. "I don't want to get caught off guard or anything. Just... let's at least sit down somewhere if we're gonna be having a serious convo."

A bench or even just a patch of grass would be fine. Just as long as they had something they could slump against if Susie's information got to be too overwhelming.

"How bad is it all? Like, on a scale of one to 'holy shit?'"

[rudebustxr]

.. it wasn't the first time they stumbled out their parent's names like that, Susie noticed. What was up with them.. not wanting to call Toriel and Asgore 'mom' and 'dad'? Did Chara think she'd be weirded out by that? Or maybe it was something else.. something she wouldn't really understand.

.. she'd pushed them enough already. She wasn't going to do it anymore-- but maybe one day, if they could become friends, they might feel like telling her.

It'd be nice, she thought. To make another friend. She wasn't used to thinking that way, let alone even having humans or monsters in her life to consider as such. How the heck had her life changed so quickly over the last two days?

"'Fell down'..? Oh, yeah-- Asgore told me you guys lived underground. Did you.. fall into a big hole and wind up there, or something?"

"Heh.. kinda sounds nice though, even if they did figure it out. Like.. they just wanted you and-- your brother, right?-- to be happy."

...

(Wonder what that's like.)

"Flowers and sewing, huh?"

"Damn, kid-- were you secretly a nerd all along? And here I thought you were cool," even if she started out by giving them a hard time, wearing her usual shit-eating grin, it did fade out a bit eventually as she scratched her cheek. "Well.. 'dunno much about flowers. And, sewing.." she looked down at the holes in her pants. Her shirt. Her sweater. .... everything she had on.

"... yeah, maybe I'll take you up on some lessons. But.. dunno, 'm more of the 'breaking everything in sight' type rather than the fixing one. You might have your work cut out for ya."

“I think that they did doubt me a little bit, maybe; at least moth — Toriel did. But everyone was much happier with celebrating that she did nothing to reprimand me, and neither did Fath — Asgore. Though, I suppose he enjoyed playing Santa more than he would admit.

The funniest thing is, Asriel believed in ‘Santa’ for years, even though he never came before I Fell Down. He was so excited every time, I could not bear to tell him that . . . well.”

It’s a little bittersweet, thinking about Asriel. Knowing that he probably won’t ever wind up here, even as a flower.

It’s for the best.

Everyone in the underground deserved their happy ending, and that includes Asriel.

. . .

. . . Flowey.

— no use thinking about that!!!

“I mean, I am not very knowledgeable about much other than flowers and sewing. But I would be happy to teach you about those things, Susie.”

[rudebustxr]

"Yeah, no kidding. You look the same as the last time I saw you," which.. actually, was pretty promising. The weird guy wasn't just a fluke, then-- Darkners could actually.. survive in this world? Just like she and Kris could? That meant, if Ralsei ever got here.. they could do anything they wanted to! It was exciting to think about, but she tried not to outwardly show it too much; crossing her arms and tapping her claws against her sweater.

"Man, I WISH it was Lancer. Did you see that giant hole out there?? He'd be all over that thing!" she snickered at the thought, just imagining the little guy trying to fill it up with as much salsa as he could get his hands on. "It'd be way more fun with him around.. uh. Sorry, if, that's not what you wanted to hear. But.."

"The other guy.. we fought him in the basement of your mansion-- said his name was Spamton. A bunch of those salesman guys knew 'im from the sounds of it. I didn't think we'd see him again-- he kinda.. disappeared after that. Not like what happened when we fought you."

...

"You-- remember that, right??" if she knew Lancer, then Susie was probably safe to talk about what happened beyond that-- but it was hard to keep track of who knew what these days!

Queen's grin widens further when Susie blurts out her name. To Queen's perspective, it felt like yesterday when she saw her in Castle Town. Either way, it's certainly good to see her again, their current circumstances aside.

When asked if she feels normal without the Dark Fountain, Queen looks over her hand, as though to check if it's still there.

* Yeah I Think So * I'm Not Slowly Petrifying Or Lowering My Opacity Like It's A Time Travel Movie

* Who's The Other Darkner You Saw * Was It... Lancer?

She sure hopes it was!

[rudebustxr]

👏 (YOU DONT HAVE TO DO THIS IF IT’S TOO COMPLICATED)

MUSE FUSIONS (musions, if u will) - ACCEPTING

Notes:

Voted most likely to flamingo someone's house or yard

Itching for a fight, but fluctuates between brute force and stealth; she seems kinda conflicted with herself about that.

Laughs loud and often

Might come across as quiet at first, but really opens up around friends, and isn't too hard to befriend if you're nice to her.

Sometimes struggles with self confidence, though...

u KNOW she ate that french fry off the ground back there

[rudebustxr]

The girl, the girl, the girl

[rudebustxr]

It looked like Kris was thinking hard about what she'd asked-- whether or not they realized she'd disappeared, but they couldn't.. vocalize an answer. Probably because of how confusing everything was after they were brought here-- Susie's memories were fuzzy at certain parts, too.. like maybe there was something beyond where hers stopped. But.. it didn't matter right now. She'd remember when she was supposed to.

So she just put her hand on Kris' head, messing up their hair.

"Eh, don't worry about it. You're here now-- that's all I care about."

Her grin remained big and bright as Kris recalled their fight, boasting from how cool they said it was-- but it quickly fell as they carried on, at first blinking from her surprise.. until--

"I DIDN'T SAY ANY SAPPY SHIT LIKE THAT, SHUT UP!!!"

... even though she definitely did miss them. A lot. And it was probably really obvious that she had, but..

The outburst died down quickly, as Susie suddenly crossed her arms; thinking hard.. and trying not to be too disappointed. Out of everyone here, she really believed Kris would be on the exact same page as her.. and they were, aside from the Spirale stuff. So she was going to focus on that, and do her best to fill them in on the rest.

"You weren't a hallucination, though-- I know you weren't. We just.. I dunno, hung around, ate moss, ate some really good red leaves.. and it was.. a long time ago? Which.. ugh, doesn't make any sense, because I remember the same stuff from home as I did last time I was around.." There were.. other things, too. Things she never quite got to learn about fully.. she remembered the streets getting filled with ice one time, when they looked eerily similar to Cyber City. Part of her felt like she shouldn't bring that up at all, but she also.. didn't want to keep anything from them.

How could she tell them everything without upsetting them, like she had Chara? How was she gonna tell them about.. Spamton?

"Look, this place is weird. Like.. really, really weird. I wanna tell you about it, but I.."

"I don't.. wanna be a downer, either. Cause the confusing shit is also.. kind of a lot." It felt like it would be for them, especially. "I don't want you to get blindsided Kris, but if you're not interested in hearing about it right now.. that's fine, too. I'm not gonna keep anything from you, but if you want.. it can wait until tomorrow."

It felt good that she was there. Real. Physical. Kris wanted to stay leaning against her for the reminder that she was there and that they weren't alone or abandoned or- Susie's question about her not being there made them pause, giving her a sidelong glance up through their hair as they tried to remember. Susie had been there... right? Yeah, she had been... and then they went alone to seal the fountain, and....

...

They can't remember.

It was all snapshots, fragments, and they had been dissociating through most of it, edging on a panic attack that the SOUL wouldn't let them have every step of the way.

They swallowed the knot in their throat.

"It was. Very cool." They gave Susie a lopsided grin and an OK gesture. "Very badass. And it'd be nice if Ralsei showed up. He would like this place."

And then Susie asked... a weirder question. Which was great, because that was a better distraction than anything else.

"Huh... been here before?" Kris gave her a skeptical look. "Noooo... don't think so." They definitely wouldn't forget something like that. "... Did you miss me so much you hallucinated? Sick. What'd hallucination me do?"

[rudebustxr]

"The whole damn month?!"

"Damn, kid-- you're a total con artist! I'm impressed!" the admission got another bout of hearty laughter out of Susie, slapping an open palm down on the knee of her ripped up jeans. Sassy, chaotic, sneaky-- yeah, her and Chara were gonna get along just fine.

.. it was weird, though. She never felt so confident in making friends until now.. and that was all probably thanks to Kris and Ralsei.

And Lancer, obviously.

"Hey, I mean-- y'never know. We're both here, and the places we come from are super similar.. I think anybody could end up here at this point." She was holding on hope to that, actually-- if she could be with the Darkners again, it'd make this world all the more bearable. "And just in case, maybe we should give each other lessons-- different ones, though. How to get away with the funny shit without getting caught. Sounds like you've got tons of good ideas-- maybe we could bounce 'em off of each other, yeah?"

They loosen up just a little bit; Chara laughs at the mention of Gyftmas presents.

“Oh, not just for the one day; I actually convinced everyone that Gyftmas lasted an entire month; I never was allowed presents before that, so I wanted to get as many toys as I could while everyone believed me. But they never stopped!! We celebrated gyftmas for a month every year until . . .heehee!!”

Part of them realizes that Susie probably has no idea of the context; she’s probably never been trapped underground, robbed of sunlight and fresh food and the stars. But it slips out regardless; Chara doesn’t think about it too hard.

It’s nice, not having to think.

“Oh, the Angel forbid; I know that my mo — that Toriel would never wind up here, I pray every day that she does not, but if she ever does I do not want her catching on to my misbehavior. The spire is small when you get used to it. . . or maybe I just keep my circles small. She can never know her little Angel is truly a hellion.”

[rudebustxr]

That was a familiar sound.

And it was pretty unmistakable, considering the monster had just seen the tall, heel wearing blue computer Darkner not that long ago.. had quite literally been face to face with her before she got to this place.

And as she turned around, immediately seeing the rapidly approaching Queen, suddenly Susie was again!

"QUEEN???????"

Well.. despite quite literally looming over her, it wasn't entirely bad to see Queen again-- they were cool, even after their fight, as far as she knew. Susie did have to collect herself after the initial surprise however, recovering a bit from almost jumping a few feet back.

"... uhh, yeah. You're, not the first Darkener I've seen here, but I guess it's still pretty weird.." more so for Spamton though, she guessed, considering he actually disappeared after their fight. Queen was a completely different story-- one she hadn't quite gotten to the end of yet! "I'm.. good, though? I think. Do you.. feel.. normal, even without the fountain here?"

If the distinctive click-click-clicking of high heels on pavement doesn't give away Queen, then the tall, blue figure quickly approaching Susie ought to do the trick.

She leans down to Susie's eye level and greets her with an ear-to-ear grin. She wasn't expecting to run into the Lightner, but it's a pleasant surprise all the same.

* Well Well Well * If It Isn't Susie * And How Are You Today My Dear * Amazing How We Can Meet Like This In A World With No Fountain (AFAIK)

@rudebustxr

[rudebustxr]

"You-- huh????"

The offer, genuinely, stopped Susie in her tracks; only having taken a few steps away from Yuri before she turned around, staring at her in awe. Even though she'd disrupted the entire cafe, even though she had this girl yelling at her a few minutes ago, now she was.. being super nice to her? Despite the fact that she had every right to tell Susie to knock it off?

"H-hold on, I didn't.. I mean, I wasn't.. trying to make you.." but her words fell short, as she felt the hunger in her stomach grow. Her claws gripped into her shirt, and while the gesture made her feel uncomfortable in the way that she was being perceived..

.. it reminded her of something from a long time ago, and maybe that was why Susie couldn't find it in her to say no.

"... hey. Don't knock moss until you try it. It's pretty good," she tried to cut the sudden awkwardness in the air with a joke-- even if it wasn't much of a joke, and she definitely meant it-- but she was pretty sure she'd just end up weirding out this girl even more. Maybe she should just.. try and be nice, too.

"I don't need, like. The whole case or anything." .... she could've eaten it too, though. But she wasn't going to say that. "You, don't have to be so nice to me, but.. um. Thanks."

".. name's Susie. What about you?"

The cold hand of guilt claws into her chest and squeezes her heart. Crushes it. The books were safe, peace was restored to the café, but at what cost? The grip tightened with every word Suzie said, her stomach growl, the resignation to eating moss... (Arguably a step up from eating books, but, still. Moss!) As baffling a mistake it was, it was just a mistake. Maybe things were different in her world?

She's scolded enough, it's time to actually strike the problem at its source: the stomach!

"W-wait! Please, Yuri pleaded. She sets her book aside and seriously looks at Susie. Then She stalled, desperately trying to put her offer to words. "Um... There are some tasty cakes for sale here. I don't mind - I mean, I would be happy to buy you some. I can promise cakes taste much, much better than books. And moss. They're more filling too."

Was she selling the offer too hard? Maybe. But she had to try to make amends while the opportunity was still there

[rudebustxr]

... what was that? Noelle seemed like her typical self when they first ran into each other-- something that was very, very obvious to Susie, especially considering they'd just been in a Dark World together.. but now, well..

She was kind of.. acting like she was back then. In certain spots, anyway. Jumpy, like when they first met up. Stammering a lot, like when they were in the ferris wheel together. Was her suggestion still that weird, considering.. Noelle probably didn't think any of that was real? Maybe Susie should've been more careful about offering to hang out.. even though, well. They had made plans to work on their group projects together, and.. she wanted to spend time with her. For.. some reason.

.. well, she wasn't going to worry that much about it. It was probably nothing-- nerves about being away from home again, maybe? And like hell Susie was gonna let Noelle feel any worse than she might've been already!

"Alright, alright-- only if someone starts bullying you," the words felt.. weird, coming out of her mouth, considering how everyone at their school saw her.. but Susie really was enjoying being a protector more than a perpetuator these last few days. "Neither of us can help being here, y'know? There might be more humans than we're used to, but like hell I'm gonna let them stop me from doing anything fun! That's why we can do it together!"

"Yeah? Cool!" Susie felt unusually excited hearing Noelle's agreement, grinning from ear to ear. She was eager to take off running, but felt stuck in place, for.. sort of an important reason.

"................ uh. Where.... do you wanna go???" she talked this whole thing up like she had a plan, but... there was quite literally nothing rattling around in Susie's brain. Great! Way to make herself look like a dumbass. But she'd only really hung out with Noelle once, right..? Didn't she say she liked... "Maybe like.. the movies? Or something? Or.. we can go wherever people were looking at you weird and I can roar at them super loud?"

❄ Noelle was having problems finding the words she wanted to say. Other monsters might have had this problem with Susie specifically because they were scared of her, but the Holiday's youngest daughter had the opposite issue. She wanted to say the right things! She wanted to get on well with Susie, just like in that dream! "HAHAHA....! YEAH, BECAUSEYOU'REHERE!"

Step 1: failed.

She cringed visually at her own outburst. Susie had really taken her off guard with that line! It sounded like something the hero in a JRPG would say to reassure the heroine! But she played video games too, didn't she? Maybe that was intentional! She had to file video games away as a topic for later, but how was she going to play off being so weird?

"Y... You don't need to kick anyone's "asses" though! U... Unless they bully me, then I guess it's fine, HAHAHA...!" That totally wasn't something she should have been laughing about, was it? She probably shouldn't be giving someone permission to beat other people up in her name either!

Despite how weird she was being though, things kept... escalating? "Y... You want to go somewhere... with me? ........................Together? .........................................Just the two of us!?" That was normally what hanging out entailed, but.... Wait, what was she worried about? This was what she had always wanted to happen, right? Just Susie and herself spending time together alone! "OFCOURSEI'DLOVETO! I mean I'd........ like that! Not LOVE! Ahahah........hahaha...."

[rudebustxr]

"Ya god damn weirdo," Susie fired off without a second thought, still trying to recover from her own laughter as Kris slammed into her shoulder. That answer was just like them though, really hammering in that they were right there next to her again; this wasn't some weird dream, this wasn't Spirale playing some messed up joke on her..

Kris was here. Their adventure was going to continue, even if it was in a different way than before-- and Susie's heart swelled at the thought, grateful that she and Noelle weren't without them anymore.

"Hey, the hell does that mean?! Didn't you even notice that I was gone?!" she was.. mostly giving them a hard time, but the thought also made her head hurt a little; still not really fully understanding how this weird place worked. At the very least, they seemed to be on the same page about what they remembered.. .. maybe.

"Yeah, me too! All of that's the same.. man, I'm.. really glad. Noelle's here too, but she doesn't remember anything from the Dark World, so it's been.. I dunno. Hard to figure out what to say. I'm really glad we're on the same page.. it's only been a couple of days for me, but it feels like it's been forever since I saw you, dude." The sincere, relieved look on her face disappeared for a moment however; as the monster girl then grinned, putting her fist to the sky. "Damn cool battle though, right?! I'm still pumped from kickin' Queen's ass! I hope Ralsei can get here too, I wanna make sure he's okay, and.."

.. wait. Was she forgetting anything?

Oh, right!

".. uh.. Kris?"

"Weirder question. Do you remember.. being in this place before..??"

Took her long enough! Well, less time than they thought, but still. Somehow, they were still taken off guard by the roaring of their name - and the tackle hug that knocked the air out of their lungs while simultaneously sort of crushing their ribs. They wheezed out a laugh despite it all, nearly doubling over from their giggle-fit and the fist against their hair.

Their heart swelled with relief - Susie was there. Noelle was there. The only one missing was Ralsei but they figured it would only be a matter of time at this point.

The whole crew was almost together.

They weren't alone. Thank god they weren't alone.

"... Probably would have kept it up for as long as it would've taken you to notice," Kris replied with a chuckle, ramming their shoulder playfully against Susie's side. They definitely would have kept following and copying her all day if they had to. Well, maybe at some point they would have gotten bored of it and just announced themself. But it'd take a long time. "Sorry I'm late. Didn't know I needed to be anywhere."

Susie's next question made them hesitate, screwing up their face in thought.

"Hm. I don't think it's a weird question..." Kris shoved their hands into their pockets, not even bothering to fix their messed hair. The last thing they remembered... well, they didn't need to go into detail about anything beyond the facts. "... I remember a mech battle with the Queen, and then I was going to close the fountain... after that I don't know. It's hazy. Like static."

They turned their gaze to meet Susie's, head tilting slightly.

"What about you? What's the last thing you remember?"