Heroes of Dreamland Rewritten, Book 3: Stars Amidst Darkness

[acc̶es̨s̷_gr҉a̧nt͟e̡d̶.̴A̛ZU̢ ҉1̷.҉0̢]͏

2817-11-19T08:17.485732+00:00 nintendom[エベ.AZU]: Log Update Start

I finally stop holding my breath. Relief washes throughout my imagined body.

It's back on track. My story is back on track. Everything's okay... for now.

My gloves shake. I hug them to myself to stop the unnerving motion. I force myself to take deep breaths, even if they're not real. Even if they're all a dream. Even if my surroundings are all just an illusion I've made up to keep myself from totally losing it. This imaginary place makes me feel like I'm still alive.

I allow myself to fall back into a sitting position, no longer pressing myself against the central monitor. On the screen, I watch the three Heroes enter the starship and take off a moment later. It's like watching a movie, but it's real. They're real. They're alive.

It's all my fault.

I look over the multiple other, smaller monitors that surround the central screen. One screen shows Planet Popstar, and the dark cloud that is slowly, slowly spreading to cover more and more of it. I swallow nervously at that, but it's not a huge worry. They figured that particular problem out in over 98.75% of the simulations. The few where they didn't... I shudder. I remind myself those were all just simulations. They weren't the real thing.

This is. That's why I'm nervous.

I tear my eyes away from that monitor to look at the one above it. I give another sigh of relief. Kirby and Bandanna Dee have reached the secret library. I reach out and swipe across the surface of that monitor, changing its focus to Galacta Knight. He's hiding out in Nutty Noon, at the moment, in the stone room that he's turned into a makeshift house. He's still lying on his side on the simple bed.

I swallow back pain at his hurt. I know it was backhanded of me to twist things so that he remembered. I know how much that sequence of events hurt him. But he was the one who started this mess, and I had to force the plotline back on track. I'm just stupidly lucky that I was able to force in a side trip to Kabu. They often ended up there in the simulations, too, but this time, they wouldn't have gone had I not intervened. The Kabu is one of the few places where I can almost—almost—talk to them. Even there, I have to send all the dialogue through a checking process and hope nothing kicked it back. It's hard to get much of anything through. Even I can only do so much.

After all, to save Meta Knight's life, I had to counteract the plot from the inside. I couldn't save him myself. I had to make sure there was a variable present who possessed the free will necessary to change fate.

Ever since that moment, though, it's been a continuous struggle to keep everything from totally falling apart.

Galacta Knight gives a heavy sigh. I blink my eyes rapidly to force myself from shedding tears. I swipe the monitor's screen the other direction, returning to Kirby and Bandanna Dee. They still wait in the library. Kirby is wandering around looking at book titles, making me smile to myself. The Kirbys that turn out readers are always my favorites. I'm glad the real one seems to be trending in that direction himself.

Bandanna Dee sits morosely on Sakura's windowseat and sighs. I frown slightly to myself. I hate that he ends up left out so much of the time. I direly need to find a way to let him be more involved soon. It'd be good for him.

I look back at the giant monitor. Those three are still on their way back to the castle. It looks like they'll be fine.

I sigh and relax just a little bit further. I slide off the large desk that holds the monitors onto the carpeted floor. Little touches of details that stimulate my imaginary senses help keep me holding on. The simplest thing, like a fuzzy carpet to walk on, makes it so much easier to live this artificial half-life.