The Stage is Set

What a painful, playful start pt.2

Play Date - Melanie Martinez

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It takes a step towards Cross, eye pips focused on the paint staining his face. Cross stares back as the blob takes another step. It stops. Standing there, staring at Cross with an intensity that has everyone frozen. A hand reaches out, but there is no move to get closer. The hand hangs there as if expecting Cross to come to it. Then it snaps its neck to look at Blue. It stares at him, a word on its teeth, waiting to be said. It never does. Instead, it lets out a wail as the face starts to melt.

Everyone moves to cover their skulls to try and muffle the sound as the blob trembles from the wail leaving it. Hands grip at its chest as if something was hurting it. As if it was missing a soul. The paint bubbles and shakes as it starts to fall back into the ground. The blob reaches out to Blue and Dream. Its face is distorted in such a disturbing manner as the noise continues to fill the hall. Ten eyes all stare at Dream and Blue, noticing nothing else. The blob, barely a recognizable shape now, slinks over to the ruined door that would lead them to Ink. It faceplants into what ripples as another portal. It's something that the majority of the group failed to realize what the doors were. Reaper nods, and a pulse from the soul shard tells him that it's time to go. He stands up, pulling Cross up with him.

Regardless of whether they are prepared.

The group quickly packs after Reaper tells them that the blob wants them to follow. He looked at all of them, making sure all of them were at least healed and had regained some magic. Not many of them are at peak readiness, but it will have to do. Reaper can only hope that all of them can be enough to face whatever is waiting for them. He nods back to all of them before turning to the broken door. Hopping over to it, he thinks that the damage could be enough for all of them to fit through. However, the thought of not opening the door like one normally would makes Reaper feel sick.

To open with a key, to walk through the doorway, is a measure of trust. The faster, the more comforting, the more I know you. The more I trust you. Don't break me anymore. Please?

Reaper feels himself freeze once more to the confusion of Cross. Reaper glances around, looking for where Ink's voice just came from. Was it... Was it the soul? Reaper sends a questioning pulse back to the fragment, a questioning nudge. He was met with a positive response. Oh. His brother could still talk to him. Guide them. He'll need to explain later, but he wants to be selfish just this once. Hold onto his brother's voice for a little longer before everyone tries to take it away from him.

Reaper shakes his skull before turning to Blue with an open palm, "Key?"

Lust tilts his skull as Blue takes a step back, "Why do we need to use a key?" He points at the door with his free hand, "We should be able to get through it like this either way. Right?"

Reaper shakes his skull before looking back at Blue with a slight glare, "We are not sinking to the level of that man." Lust nods in understanding as Blue glares back at Reaper, "Give me the key, Blue."

Blue holds the key to his chest as he scowls. "No! Ink gave me this key! To me!" His eye pips flash a bright blue as small freckles make their appearance known. "You may be his brother, but he's my..." Blue trails off, losing the train of thought as his features return to normal. "My..."

"Blue?" Dream stares at him with worry as the others stare at Blue with suspicious caution. "Are you alright?"

Blue shakes his skull, pressing a hand against one of his sockets, "Sorry, sorry. I don't know what came over me." Blue looks back at Reaper with a lost and pleading gaze, "Just... Can I be the one to open the door?"

Reaper studies Blue for a moment before sighing and nodding. He steps out of the way, allowing Blue to reach the doorknob. Blue nods in thanks before moving closer. He takes in the door, something about it makes him want to cry. He needs to save Ink. Something in him is screaming to get him back. Bring him home. Something is crying for the comfort of couch cuddles and late-morning breakfasts with friends and brothers. Something wails for those times when he would have a nightmare and run to Ink. It wants to go back to simpler times of him running around the DoodleSphere with Ink behind him. Those times when the worst injury was a scrape from tripping, and all Ink had to do was put a bandaid on it and kiss it better. The times of Ink encouraged his passion for cooking. The times when they had moved, and the times Ink would send him off with a lunchbox and tell him to stay safe. He wants to go back to the times he was small enough to hide behind Ink's legs, hide under Ink's scarf when someone would startle him. Blue wants to go back to those times when he was shy, and Ink would pull him out from behind or under him and tell him to be brave. To be his brave save star. There's a part of his mind that tells him that he's never done half of this.

Yet he knows he has.

Blue shakes off the confusing thoughts. He's gentle with the door as he unlocks it, as it looks as if it will fall apart with one breath. He hears the click before slowly opening the door into pure darkness. He's nervous. What is waiting for them? Did Ink have to fight Tainted? What is it that Ink had to fight if anything? Where is Swap, is Ink still in danger? Too many questions and not enough answers for Blue. So he takes the first step into the room. It finally clicks that these doorways are portals. Yet this one doesn't hurt. It feels like a comforting hug. As if Ink is squeezing him to say stay safe, to come home safe. As he exits the portal, it lasts barely a breath, he notes that his armor has been repaired. He can't help but feel frustrated by Ink, why is he using so much magic to keep them all safe? Why is he doing it when he needs to stay safe? Doesn't Ink understand that weakening himself is bad? As the others enter the room as well, Blue can't help but mentally scold Ink.

He's not a little kid. He doesn't need his armor fixed, he's okay. He didn't need the extra magic pushed into his soul. Don't get him wrong, he still appreciated it, grateful, but he just wishes that Ink would focus on himself. If that blob was any indicator of the state Ink is in, Ink just needs to find a place to heal, to rest. He sighs before waiting for the others to come through as well. It takes them all such a short time to come through, nothing like before when it felt as if time stopped or like a loading screen from a video game. Reaper takes the lead again, and all of them pull out different things to help shine light in the pitch-black room. Dream summons one small arrow, Nightmare uses his staff, and Reaper's feathers glow softly with his markings.

Lust stares at Reaper with awe, "I always forget that you glow as a beacon for souls."

Reaper smiles into Geno's scarf and nods. "Before my Paps was born... I was in charge of peaceful deaths as well." Reaper continues forward, following the pulling sensation in his chest as he talks. "Regardless of violence, regardless of peace, I am still a part of Death. I am still a guide to those who wander, They'll see me and come home to rest." Reaper smiles as he spreads his tail feathers to bathe more of the group in their soft light. "It's why I take after a crow. I guide people; I guide my flock; and I guide my chicks." Cross's face darkens in color at the last point, "I protect them, I bring them home. I am a messenger and humanization of the concept of death itself. I am also a crow that loves to have my flock near."

"Oh... I didn't..." The rest of the sentence goes unsaid.