#oh yeah also starring oroden but i didnt wanna give the surprise away again hehehehe

[hqmillioncorn]

Lalapril 4/29: Light

guest starring @windupiceheart’s everyone’s good friend b’ig nunh 

Cherrypit ran ahead of his sister. 

She had been acting strange ever since she woke up so he was a little worried. This whole situation was messed up! Why was that meanie doing something like this to them?! What had they ever done to him?!

Cherrypit waited for his sister to catch up as she slowly walked ahead, her hands covering her mouth.

From his waiting place, Elidibus frowned.

...What was the last thing Babycorn remembered?

Was it something about Ardbert?

No, wait. It wasn’t Arbert. It was an Ascian.

She didn’t quite know which one. It felt like she should know.

“Hmm…?”

Babycorn blinked again and again. No matter how many times she blinked, her surroundings stayed the same. Everywhere she looked was a bright white. There were no landmarks, no ground, no anything she could discern.

It felt like somebody had trapped her inside an empty canvas.

Which she really hoped wasn’t the case.There was no time to be trapped somewhere like this! She still had to chase after not-Ardbert and give him a piece of her mind after he decided to bully her and Cherrypit with all these stupid illusions or whatever.

Babycorn paused, then looked around some more, this time with more panic than before.

Could this be another one of not-Ardbert’s mean tricks? Just like the last few? What was his goal in messing with them like this?! Where was she?! 

Where was Cherrypit?!

Suddenly it felt like Babycorn finally woke up.

Her eyes went wide with shock when she realized that it didn’t matter where she was really. What actually mattered was that Cherrypit wasn’t with her. “Cherry? Cherry?!” Babycorn jumped to her feet and called out to him as loud as she could.

Babycorn started to run.

But no matter how much she ran, she got the feeling she wasn’t going anywhere.

It was just like that time she tried to run on a frozen lake. No matter how much her legs moved, she stayed in one place. While everyone else had a much easier time. Including Cherrypit who simply slid across the ice while standing in place.

The memory made Babycorn laugh. It also made her a little bit sad, but she had no idea why.

Regardless, she didn’t have time to feel anything right now, especially since there was still no sign of Cherrypit anywhere.

Babycorn stopped.

She felt her stomach grumble.

“Ow…” There was a sharp pain in both her stomach and head. She couldn’t decide what part to hold in pain. The pain had caught her so off guard that it caused Babycorn to drop to her knees.

Only momentarily though. It took only a few seconds for her to get back up. The pain had disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. “Huh…” Babycorn nervously smiled. It wasn’t her first encounter with sudden pain and it probably wouldn’t be her last.

Living with an eternally bleeding wound on your stomach sort of got you used to that.

Babycorn looked down at her white dress for any abnormalities. Thankfully there weren’t any stains that she could see but she did see something else.

The shadow of someone standing right in front of her.

“Ahh-!!?” Babycorn jumped back in fear. Though she had wished for someone to appear and help her, she never actually expected someone to show up.

Recognizing that she wasn’t alone anymore, Babycorn’s fear quickly switched to curiosity as she looked up to see who had joined her.

The faint image of a dark red-haired miqo'te flickered in front of her. He was wearing a really fancy uniform, though the uniform was a little torn in some places. Almost like he had been in a big fight before this or something.

Or at least, that’s what Babycorn figured.

His eyes were a dark blue and they were looking right down at her. Babycorn gave him the benefit of the doubt. It's not like there was anything else to look at around here anyway.

It was kind of scary but it was nice to see someone here with her. Especially someone who looked like they were nice.

“Hi! My names Babycorn!” She extended her hand out as far as she could so she could shake this stranger’s hand. It was something she had recently learned people did and she was very excited whenever she got the opportunity to try this cool new thing out.

The strange miqo'te remained silent, only staring down at her.

Babycorn did not find this strange one bit.

“Did you get trapped here too?” Babycorn looked around again. Even if the other ten times she had done this had proved fruitless, there was still the chance she might have missed something. “Don’t worry! We’ll find our way out and get back home! I-I’m sure of it!” Babycorn knew she was saying this more to convince herself than this stranger but there had to be something she could do to help!

The weird stranger only watched in silence as Babycorn stepped all around him., desperately looking for anything that would lead them out of where they were trapped.

Suddenly, the stranger spoke.

“Monty. My name is Monty.”

Babycorn looked up in surprise.

“Monty?” It was nice to hear someone else’s voice! “Nice to meet you! I’m Babycorn Corn!” It was polite to also introduce yourself after someone else does. It was something she had also learned by now.

“Don’t worry Monty! I’ll find us a way out of here!

Babycorn still wasn’t sure how they got trapped in here but surely if they made their way in that meant there was a way out, and she was going to find it.

Monty looked down at her.

Their gazes met and Babycorn froze.

She recognized that look.

A terrified smile crossed her face as she began to slowly back away from Monty. “W-We’re not doing anything…” The familiar saying escaped her lips without a second thought. It felt as if she was backed up into an alley in Ul’dah all over again.

Monty stepped closer to her, his eyes glued to her.

“I hate you.”

Babycorn tried to cover her ears.

“How could you?!”    

A number of silhouettes began to emerge from the white surrounding them. They were flickering in place just like Monty was. Babycorn could see their mouths moving but she couldn’t hear anything that they were saying. She didn’t recognize any of them either.

There were so many of them.

All of them looked so different.

“How could you do this to us?!”

Babycorn shook her head, over and over. “I get it! I get it!! You can stop!” It wasn’t like she had forgotten about the people she had hurt back then. How was she supposed to know?! She wouldn’t have known! She must have hurt a lot of people!

Otherwise why would so many people in Ul’dah have hated them?

Suddenly, Babycorn noticed something in front of her.

Monty was stretching out his arm towards her, he was holding something in his hand. Then, without a second thought, Babycorn got closer to see what he was holding. When she saw that it was a simple piece of meol she didn’t think too much about it.

Then it all came rushing back.

The way she had accepted the offer to eat meol, falling under Vauthry’s control, attacking her friends, Thancred telling her that meol was made of sin eaters…

How she couldn't remember how many pieces of meol she had actually eaten.

“This is me.” Monty held the meol closer to Babycorn. “This was me.”

“Stop…”

Babycorn’s desperate whispers were drowned out by the people around her holding up their own piece of meol. A piece of themselves. Telling her that this was them. Whispering their names to her. Shouting their stories to her, how they had died, when they had died.

She had done this. Babycorn had done this. Babycorn was the reason they were dead now.

“Stop! Please stop!!”

She had done this

She did this.

She-

“Hey! Leave her alone already!!”

A very familiar voice rang in Babycorn’s ears.

The next thing she knew, the silhouettes around her and even Monty had disappeared into thin air. The mysterious figures had been replaced with the presence of only one person, but Babycorn couldn’t tell who it was or if this was good or bad.

Babycorn rubbed at her eyes. The light all around them wasn’t doing much to help her see clearly. Even though it was hard to see, there was no way she would ever mistake that little heart shaped antennae for anyone else.

“B’ig Nunh…?”

‘B’ig Nunh’ looked confused to be addressed as such. He looked behind his back and to his sides to see if Babycorn was talking to someone else that wasn’t him.

Because that certainly wasn’t his name.

“Are you talking to me…?” He asked.

Before Babycorn could answer however, she was already at his side, giving him a hug around his legs. “Woah?! Hold on! Let go!!” ‘B’ig Nunh’ raised a leg and wiggled it around as Babycorn continued to hold onto it for dear life.

“B’ig I’m so glad you’re here!!” Babycorn finally let go of her good friend and plopped down onto the ground. “It's so scary in here! Oh! How did you get in here too?!” Surely if he figured out how to enter this weird place he knew the way back out.

“Why do you keep calling me that? That’s not my name!” ‘B’ig’ yelled down at her. He took a large step away from her to make sure that Babycorn would not try and jump on him again. It was already hard enough to shake her off the first time.

He was also a little taken aback, Babycorn was bouncing back so easily. Especially from the little he had seen of what was happening just a few seconds ago.

“Whaaaaaat?” Babycorn couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What do you mean B’ig?! You look like B’ig. You talk like B’ig! And you move like B’ig! Of course you’re my good friend B’ig Nunh!”

Who else could it be??

“My name is Oroden!”

Hearing his name felt like Babycorn had taken a huge tumble, but she wasn’t exactly sure why.

“O-Oroden…?” Babycorn began to retreat into herself. She took a few cautious steps back and looked up a Oroden with a fearful look, which he noticed right away. As soon as Oroden raised a hand up to her to ask her to stop Babycorn quickly jumped back. 

This sort of reaction was pretty much what he had expected before.

“Do you hate me too…?” Babycorn whimpered.

Oroden let out a sigh, scratching the back of his head he wondered how he even got into this situation in the first place. None of the lessons in knightly orientation had ever prepared him for something like this. He decided to take a seat on the ground. Thinking that maybe this dwarf would see him as less of a threat if he was around her height.

He gestured to the ground next to him. “Here. You can sit here.” He watched as Babycorn looked down to the ground then back up to him. It was clear she was still a little scared. Oroden tilted his head and unbeknownst to him that caused the heart antenna on his head (only visible to Babycorn) to wiggle a little.

Babycorn let out a small laugh and stepped just a little towards him. Then a little bit more, until she finally decided to take a seat next to her familiar unfamiliar friend. 

She wiggled herself into a sitting position she liked and smiled. That smile faded into a frown pretty quickly after Babycorn remembered where she was.

“Um…” Babycorn tugged on both of her braids nervously, “Do you hate me too, Mr. Oroden…?”

Oroden looked out into the vast nothingness surrounding them and let out a hum. “Hmm…I would have to say that I still kind of hate you too.”

Babycorn wanted to cry.

“But!” Oroden paused, “I don’t hate you as much as they do.” He used his head to gesture behind him, hoping that Babycorn would figure out what he meant.

“Hmmm…”

Babycorn was confused. From what the others had told her, they had every reason to hate her guts. “Why not?” she asked, “You’re here cause I…I ate you with meol like the other guys, right?” Babycorn felt sick all over again.

Oroden nodded. “Yeah, you did.”

“Knew it.”

“But there’s something else.” His tail swished behind him, curling itself towards Babycorn. “For some reason I can’t find it in me to hate you that much. Almost as if I know you…?”

“You do know me B’ig-!”

“Oroden.” He corrected her again.

“Oh. Right! Sorry!”

It was so strange. Oroden had told her that he wasn’t B’ig, but then why did they look exactly the same? Maybe it had something to do with her? Babycorn wondered if she had somehow managed to make some stranger look completely different just because she wanted some company.

Suddenly, the image of B’ig flickered away for just a moment.

But a moment was all Babycorn needed to see what Oroden really looked like.

In B’ig’s place sat a tall au ra, with dark hair and dark horns. He was wearing a uniform of some sort. One that Babycorn would expect a knight from Ishgard would wear. His clothes looked torn too, just like Monty’s had been.

Oroden noticed Babycorn’s strange look and looked down at her. “Is there something wrong?” he asked.

“No! Nothing!” Babycorn answered earnestly, “I like your horns!”

“Oh, thanks?” Oroden reached up to touch his horns on instinct. Unfortunately for Babycorn it just looked like B’ig was parting some of his hair. If only she had caught more of that au ra guy, she might have thought of more things to compliment him about.

“Well…” Oroden suddenly stood up, extending a hand towards Babycorn. “You should probably wake up now. You don’t want to keep everyone worried.” He knew that Babycorn had spent too much time in here already. Any more time spent here and he probably wouldn't be able to stop the others from going after Babycorn again.

Babycorn was confused. As usual. “Wake up?” Was she dreaming or something?

“You tripped and knocked yourself out while running after Elidibus. Your brother must be worried sick out there.”

Just the mention of Cherrypit was enough to get Babycorn to wake up.

She couldn’t keep her brother worried! Though she was a little sad that she didn’t get to say goodbye to Oroden. He seemed like a nice guy…

With that thought in mind, Babycorn woke up with a jolt.

No…

No, it couldn’t be true, could it?

Had she…really killed her friend?