Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

   Elluka Chirclatia is known for her patience. But after hundreds of years, said patience is wearing thin, especially with the woman known as Elluka Clockworker. Is she slightly insulted at Levia stealing her identity? Oh, absolutely. But if she was going to do it, could she at least not mess everything up?!
In her absence, she had gained some measure of godly power, and had been saving it up to do this. If the goddess wouldn't stop screwing everything up, she would have to clean her mistakes up for her!
She would pull people from different time periods, and have them listen to the songs made about them by those in the future. This way, they could prevent their mistakes. But who to pull? The people from the Venomania Incident? No, it was far too late for them to change anything. By that logic, the Lady Conchita was also out. She could start with the Daughter of Evil. Yes, that could work.
   She'd grab most of them from during the Green Hunting, but before the little spirit was killed. Was this because she had a slight soft spot for the girl? Possibly. She was a sweetheart. She could pull Gear and Eve from the far future, since Gear had once been Kyle Marlon and she felt bad keeping her brother away from his wife. Might as well yank the maid and the princess from that time too.
Irina Clockworker, her dear sister in law, was a tricky case. Logically, she would be best pulled from the time of Margarita Blankenheim, but... No one could stop her from bringing in the girl from before Project MA. Maybe they could reconcile.
   The others she'd figure out in the moment, but this looked to be a very promising idea of hers. And it doubled as an awkward family reunion!
---
   Waiter was not, in hindsight, expecting to be pulled from the theater and dropped onto a hard wood floor. Surprising, she knows. She was also not expecting the weird/sorta familiar blue guy from the tower to also be there. Or Gammon. But she had a bit of foresight, because Gammon gave off emo vibes you could smell a mile away.
   "Fucking emo," she smirked at her companion, who had hit the floor next to her with a loud thud. She swore she could see his eye twitching. There was not a lot to do in the theater, but bullying her not-exactly-hired help was always entertaining.
   "Oh Lily!" Arte was behind her, and apparently on her feet. Lucky bastard. Still, it was nice that one of her closest friends/half-sister was there. Meanwhile she could hear sobbing coming from her left. What in Marie Anette's name-
   Blue guy was clutching an Elphe girl to his chest, and they were both sobbing. Weirdly, the girl reminded her both of her sister and the girl she killed over a petty crush, which was really just the icing on the cake. More complicated feelings. Woo.
Suddenly more people fell to the floor, and none of these people were in theater, as far as she knew. And she knew some of these people pretty well.
   "Clarith! Allen!" Her brother and her basically sister had both fallen to the floor, and had barely a minute to stand before she tackled them back down again. She feel the weird looks she was getting, but she didn't care.
   "You're real! Thank Held, you're real!" She continued to sob into their shoulders until a gentle hand she recognized as Clarith's gently pushed her back. Looking at them, they both had a look of confusion plastered on their faces.
   "I'm extremely sorry miss, but I think you have mistaken me for someone else." Clarith looked back and forth, and it was then Waiter realized that she wasn't in her usual apron and nun's clothes. Which meant she was from Before. Shaking, she pulled herself off the white haired girl, before all but running back to Gammon and Arte.
   "Fate's a motherfucking bitch." She cursed, and Arte nodded. Gammon just kind of patted her on the back as she clung to him. She could now see that Clarith and Allen weren't the only ones there. Michaela and Germaine, her mother and father, the Three Heroes, minus one witch, and a confused looking pink haired girl from an Era she recognized as the time of Magic Kingdom Leviantia.
   "Riliane?" Her mother asked, obviously confused by her show of emotions.

 "You've sure grown. But what are you wearing? And who are those people you're clinging too? It's not very...fitting for a princess to attach herself to strange men." Right. Parents were from forever ago. So was she, for that matter, but she could see why her mother would be suspicious. Not that she really gave two shits, but oh well.
   "Everyone, this Gammon and Arte. We're kind of from hundreds of years in the future, so yeah." Somewhere in the background, Elluka facepalmed. Something told her this would be a long, long day.

Chapter Text

The room was immediately filled with yelling at the 'hundreds of years in the future' comment. Which was fair, in Irina's opinion. To claim the situation was not odd would be lying, because being dropped in a room with a collection of strange people is not exactly the norm.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Elluka, standing awkwardly in a corner. What was she doing here? He two made eye contact, and, to her surprise, her brother's fiancee ran up to her and hugged her tightly. She could barely hear anything over the ruckus in the room, but she could faintly hear the woman's sobs. This was...somewhat confusing. This was a frightening situation, yes, but she didn't think it warranted crying.
"Irina...I really missed you..." Elluka continued to cry, clutching Irina closer. What was she on about? Genuinely? She had just seen her earlier this day at breakfast, yet here she was acting like years had passed.
"What are you talking about? And get off me!" She pushed the older girl away, but she didn't seem to mind.
"Irina, my sweet sister...It's been hundreds of years. Magic Kingdom Leviantia...Is no more." She intoned with a guilty expression, her words leaving Irina reeling. What possibly could have happened to topple to Leviantia? It spanned half the continent! And if it had been destroyed... what had happened to her and Kiril?! As if sensing her frantic spiral, the older girl put her hand in her shoulder.
"Don't worry about it. All will be explained. Now, let's get to why we're here." She smiled, before a loud noise echoed through the room, halting the discussion.
"Sorry to disrupt, but there is a reason I brought you here. Now, if everyone could take a seat..."
---
Waiter was sat between her mother and Allen, a situation that would have been ripped straight from her dreams if she wasn't so nervous. Y'know, the whole sitting with dead people thing was weird, and extremely so. Especially when her mother kept glaring at Gammon, which was unwarranted in her opinion. Did she know her mother was from centuries ago and that this view point was popular back then? Yes, but considering he was sat next to Arte, who was listing all the ways she could prepare his corpse for dinner, he probably needed a break.
"So, Allen... How has your day been?" She asked, trying to break the dead silence. He looked over at her in shock, before quickly regaining his composure.
"It's been good, Your Highness. But surely you have better things to do than tall to a lowly servant?" He looked around nervously, like she had the power to cut his head off right then and there. There should be a guide for this, she decided. How to Initiate Conversation with Your Long Dead Secret Twin Brother for Dummies. She should have Arte give MA the idea. Could make a decent screenplay.
"Said lowly servant is kind of my brother though?" It came out more a question than the witty remark she was intending. Allen looked at her in shock, and, as she soon realized, so did half the fucking room. Shit. She wasn't supposed to know that.
"Princess?" Her brother's voice turned as high-pitched as hers. Maybe it ran in the family?
"I wasn't meant to say that, was I?" She could hear the rest of theater residents giggling in the back. Smug bitches. She was gonna leave all the windows foggy later, as her revenge. Held, she wasn't sure if she hated them 24/7 or if they were mildly tolerable, but she was definitely leaning on the hate side.
"How-how did you know?" This time it was his sister, Germaine, who asked. Huh. She didn't know she was aware they were twins. Note to self: Add that to my diary.
"I'm from the future? It'd be kinda worrying if I didn't know," she reminded them. Something told her she shouldn't add in the 'Because he impersonated me during a revolution' part just yet. Plus, if what not-Elluka said was true, they would see it all soon enough.
"So you're not...angry?" Her brother asked with apprehension. Everyone from her era was watching her, probably expecting an epic blow up. Well, they were wrong.
"I'm not a bitch, why would I be angry?" It was then Waiter realized she fucked up. Arte/Ney looked over at her with a look of pity. Hell hath no fury like Allen scorned. She remembered him chasing Chartette around the castle after she said fuck. She'd rather fight Kayo again at this point.
"Excuse you?" Allen's eye was twitching. She sent a look to Arte and Gammon, pleading for help. Her sister simply shook her head. The male gardener took one look at the room and shook his head too, which left her without any options. Oh well. Worst comes to worst she'd use Clarith or Gammon as a climbing tree. What was it about depressed people that made them so tall? Twas convenient though.
"We should start reacting! Might as well start soon, so we can get back to what we were doing before!" Michaela chimed in, breaking up the tension. Thank Held for that girl. Or thank Michaela for Michaela, considering she was Held's sucessor...
"Wait, is that you Michaela?! It's me, Eve!" The nearly identical green haired girl by Kyle shot up out of her seat. Michaela popped out of her seat and rushed towards the girl, dragging Clare with her.
"Eve! It's so nice to see you! This is Clarith!" She excitedly gestured to the shy Netsuma girl, who gave them a little wave.
"Hey Michaela, how are Keel and Mikina doing?" Gear asked, which was strange, considering the two of them were very much dead by the time he would've been alive.
"How do you know the Freezises?" Clare asked, while Eve giggled a bit in the background. Arte looked like she'd been hit by a train and had her head in her hands.
"I may or may not also be Kyle Marlon, if that's what you're wondering," He confessed sheepishly. Great. More reincarnators in the theater. They really should probably stop letting Grave eat all the therapists, because they needed some desperately.
"Held, of course you're Kyle. Because we really needed some extra awkwardness in the theater," she complained.
"Excuse you, I am the most sane person in that entire theater!" He fired back.
"Just because you don't eat people like Grave and the Sarvants doesn't mean anything! I have done nothing!" They were yelling, but it was more like play-fighting than an actual argument. Which, considering the entire crew spoke sarcasm, was pretty typical.
"Ehem! The beheading! The genocide! The slave labor!" Everyone looked directly at Waiter after the last remark, expressions ranging from horrified to frantic nodding and gesturing (That was Gammon).
"Riliane..." her father began to scold her.
"In my defense, I did save Gammon's life. He doesn't mind. Right Gammon?" She looked over expectantly at Gammon, who only shrugged and muttered how he'd much rather clean windows than be eaten alive. And with that, the debate died down, and people settled back into their chairs. An old fashioned projector flickered to life, and a music video began to play.

Chapter Text

Ohohoho

Come, kneel to me!

  The pictures on the wall switched to a girl on a throne holding a fan. Upon closer examination Michaela realized the girl was the Princess, who was currently sitting a row infront of her. The tyrant visibly winced at her catchphrase, though Michaela couldn't fathom why.

  It was odd that this fourteen year old girl was currently trying to hunt her down and kill her. It had been strange when she first heard it, of course, but hearing the tyrant was young and actually seeing the baby-faced teenaher were two different things. She wanted to squish the girl's cheeks and make her some hot chocolate, not run from her in fear.

   Music had started playing, and the image had shifted once or twice, but now someone had started to sing.

Once upon a time

Reigning at the top

Of a fiendish kingdom was

A noble girl of age 14

  The man in yellow went stiff at this, as did his wife. They must have been the girl's parents. But why would they be so surprised? It's not like this was news to anyone.

  "Fourteen? Levia, my son's stuck as a servant and my daughter is queen of Lucifenia as a teenager!" His children shrugged apathetically and her mother put a hand on his arm.

  "It's okay, sweetheart. I'm sure there's a council or something to help her." As the woman continued to soothe her husband, someone burst out laughing in the back of the room. Looking back it was the man named Gammon, who was trying and failing to muffle his laughter. Michaela smiled a little. She remembered this man from old times, and in the few times she had caught a glimpse of him, he had always been frowning.

  "So that's why you act like a brat!" He exclaimed, causing the princess to throw a paper airplane at his face, which he gladly threw back. Where did she even get paper? And why did she have the misfortune to placed between the two? Held, the princess was already trying to kill her with fire and swords, did she really need to add paper airplanes to that list?

Luxurious and splendid furnishings

A servant whose face greatly resembled hers

A favorite horse named Josephine

Everything, everything was hers

  "Aww, Josephine! Held, I miss her! She was such a sweet horse, right Allen?" The Princess squealed at the mention of her pet. It was almost heartwarming, to see her behave like a normal child. (The almost was only there because her life was at risk. Any other time, this would have been the cutest thing on Evillious).

  "She's nearly kicked me in the face multiple times, Princess. I could've died." Allen deadpanned, elicting a mischievous giggled from his apparently-twin-sister (That revelation was on her list of things-to-process-at-a-later-time. Seriously, what?)

  As the twins bickered, Clarith nudged her slightly with her elbow. She waited to get Michaela's attention for a moment before asking her question.   "Hey Michaela?" She asked, lowering her voice to a soft whisper.

  "Yeah?" The nervous girl looked around them anxiously. Satisfied everyone was focused on the twins, she asked, "Why did the princess seem so happy to see me? She keeps looking at me too, with a sad look in her eyes." Clarith's brows knit together in worry. She was a really compassionate person, and she probably worries about the girl. Michaela did too. She was clearly hiding something, they just didn't know what.

  "Maybe she knew you at some point? She is from the future," Michaela offered. It was the best either of them could come up with.

If there wasn’t enough money

Choke it from the ignorant masses

Those that would oppose me

Completely purge them

  The girl in the back of the room spoke up for the very first time at this.

   "Now that's just poor governance. If you really need money, you should work on exporting goods, and resist spending money on unnecessary items." The girl who had brought them here, who's name and appearance were quite similar to a certain witch, smiled proudly.

  "I know, I know. It probably didn't help that I was a bit too gulliotine happy for my own good." An audible gasp ran through the room. Odd, Michaela thought. It made sense she'd regret at least some of her actions overtime. After all, Held had told her and Gumillia tons of stories about things he wished he had done or not done way back when. Then again, she supposed most of these people had not had the pleasure of listening to a god's bedtime stories.

  "Oh! I should also probably apologize to Leonhart and his daughter, for, you know-" She drew a line across her throat, causing another gasp to echo through the room.

  "Wait what! How did you get away with beheading me?" The knight asked in shock, while his daughter looked down sadly. They were sat across from Clarith, Eve, Adam and her, so she got to see upclose the tears brewing in the young woman's eyes.

   "She didn't behead you Dad. She-she got someone to stab you." She almost broke down crying, but Eve walked over to her with a handkerchief and wiped away her tears.

  "Don't cry, Miss Julia. I'm sure everything will be alright." Wait, was Eve in the same time period as them? Was she walking around with the appearance of a living woman? That would explain Adam/Kyle's confusion. It wasn't everyday a first spirit took the appearance of your wife so she could make friends and hunt down the vessels of sin.

  "Who's Miss Julia? My name's Germaine." The girl looked confused, and so did Eve. In fact, they were just staring at eachother, as if the other had grown a third arm. Eve shook her head, before smiling reassuringly.

  "My mistake Miss Germaine Salmhofer. Still, I'm sure whatever you're going through will get better." Eve bounced to her feet before gliding back to her seat by Adam.

  "My name isn't-Never mind," Germaine sighed. She grinned a bit at her friends antics. Though Eve was one of the kindest people ever, she could also be a bit off-putting in the right circumstances.

“Come, kneel to me!”

The flower of evil sweetly blooms

With brilliant color

The pitiful weeds around her

Indeed, they’ll turn to nourishment and rot away

  In the pictures the princess was dancing in a bed of dandelions, before they all rotted away at the end of the chorus. She winced a bit. It was only a drawing, but how sad. All those little flowers, not even given the chance to scatter to the wind and replenish their number. The princess, however, seemed to find it hilarious.

  "I didn't know you were alive back then, Gammon! Maybe that's why you're an emo!" She cackled maniacally, while her friend rolled his eyes. Did they normally bully eachother for funsies, or was this a special occasion?

The tyrant princess was in love with

A blue man of across the sea

Though he fell in love at first sight

With a green woman in the neighboring country

The princess, mad with jealousy

One day summoned her cabinet minister

And said in a quiet voice

“Send to ruin the kingdom of green”

  She started to sweat, as all eyes turned to her and Eve. She just kind of hoped they would assume it was Eve. Eve could take care of herself;Michaela had literally witnessed her murder a woman after stealing her children. Not that she agreed with that course of action, but worst came to worst she could blast them with lightning using a spoon of all things!   "So..Michaela" The Princess had turned around in her seat to  face her, and she looked just as awkward as Michaela felt. That was reassuring, at the least. They were on somewhat equal footing.

  "Uh, I'm like really sorry. Like, in advance. Because, you know, bleeding out in a well can't be super fun. I assume." The Princess gave her a cheesy grin as her words sunk in. The whole room fell silent. Surprisingly, it was Clarith that spoke first."What?!" 

  The girl beside her was shaking with rage, and pushed herself out of her seat to stand infront of the princess.

  "Clare-" the princess's words came out as a broken half sob, as she stood up on shaking legs. "Gods, Clare, I'm so sorry-I-I'm horrible, I know." There were tears streaming down her face, and she could hear Clarith suck in a shaky breath.

  "You shouldn't be apologizing to me. You should apologize to her." She gestured at Michaela, who also stood next to her. The girl also calmed down a bit, enough that her voice didn't shake when she spoke.   "I'm sorry Michaela. I'm so sorry. I don't what I can do to make it up to you, but I'd do anything." She reached out her hand and placed it on the young girl's shoulder, before wiping her tears.

  "It's okay, Princess. I forgive you." She didn't know why she was forgiving her; after all, the girl had killed her, indirectly at least. And yet, she looked so sad, her cheeks stained with tears.

  "Please, you can call me Riliane. That goes for all of you." She noticed how her eyes rested on Clarith as she said this, watching like a hawk.

  "Riliane?" Clarith asked, her voice returned to a soft whisper, "Why did you call me Clare? And you keep look at me. Were we...friends?" Michaela can see a small glint of hope in her friends eyes. She's glad that the girl might've made friends, Held knows how badly she needed them. And Riliane nods sadly, before sitting back down. At that, the song starts playing again and the two friends take their seats.

Many houses reduced to ashes

Many lives disappearing

The suffering people’s lamentations

Don’t reach the princess

“Oh, it’s tea time”

  Even though the events had yet to pass, Michaela offered a quick prayer for the souls of the victims. What the song was describing was horrible. And even worse was when it soon showed ruined houses, and burning piles of green haired women, set ablaze by Lucifenian soldiers. Then it showed the princess peacefully sipping on her tea.

  The queen pulled her crying daughter close, and Allen interlaced their fingers, while the late king reached over to stroke her hair. She almost felt like she was intruding on the family moment by being there, taking care to look away. And yet, she couldn't stop herself from hearing the choked whimpers of the girl behind her.

  When she looked back in concern, she was quickly saved off. Not a moment later, the girl had grown and was now in a maid's dress with a side ponytail, and was listing foods quietly to herself.

The flower of evil sweetly blooms

With maddening color

Although it’s a very lovely flower

Indeed, there are too many thorns to touch it

  "Didn't they already sing something very close to this?" The pink haired girl complained. Elluka-but-not-Elluka smiled and ruffled her hair, while the girl batted away her hand.

  "It's a chorus, sister. It's meant to be repeated." She could see the girl roll her eyes out of the corner of her vision, glad for the moment of levity.

To overthrow the evil princess

At last the people rose up

Leading the disorderly mob was

A female swordsman in red armor

  "Rude," Riliane muttered under her breath, loud enough for the whole room to hear.

  "Sorry, next time I'll ask to lead an army to dethrone you." The red haired girl retorted. In good faith(or at least Michaela hoped it was in good faith) Riliane scoffed and muttered something about crazy people with swords.

Their rage accumulated in conviction

Wrapped up the whole country

Soldiers tired from the long war

Weren’t a threat

  "Wait, how did you organize a country wide revolution? I figured it was just people from Lucifenian." Germaine looked over at her with haunted eyes, and so did Adam.

  "So many birds." They responded in unison, and she thought she saw Kyle shed a tear at the memory. Who knew revolutions were this traumatizing?

Finally they surrounded the palace

The retainers escaped

The adorable and lovely princess

At last was captured

“You insolent thug!”

  "And now, we interrupt your scheduled programming of horrifying and bloody revolution with an important announcement: the horrible tyrant whose murdered thousands is kind of cute, says bystander." Gammon said in a monotone voice that was definitely meant to parody something, but Michaela couldn't recognize it. Riliane, Arte, the pink haired girl, and Not-Elluka apparently did though, and burst into laughter.

The flower of evil sweetly blooms

With colors that seem sad

The paradise for her

Indeed will collapse, brittle and transient

Once upon a time

There was a noble girl of age 14

Who reigned at the top

Of a fiendish kingdom

  "STOP REPEATING YOURSELF!!" The pink haired girl dramatically flopped onto the chair next to her, huffing and puffing.

  "Irina, please! It's called a callback!" The blonde yelled, while Irina simply shook her head.

The time of her execution was 3 PM

A time when church bells would ring

That person who was called princess

What did they think, alone in jail?

   "What?!" The king yelled. His wife was similarly angry, while Riliane simply clutched at her twin brother as her breathing accelerated.

  "Oh wow, a child isn't good ruler! Big surprise! And they murdered her for it!" The Queen's voice got more and more shrill, and Michaela reached out to pat Riliane's back. Apparently, this was the wrong thing to do, as she threw herself off the chair to escape the touch.

Finally that time arrived

The bells signaling the end ring

Without taking notice of the crowd

She said “Oh, it’s tea time”

   It showed Riliane once more, smiling as she said her line, desperately holding in her tears. Then it went black, followed by a sickening chopping sound sound, before showing a bloody guillotine. Riliane was cradling her neck, shaking back and forth. And yet she moved away whenever anyone tried to touch her. She started to claw at her neck frantically, before Gammon and Arte ran over to her and grabbed her hands.

The flower of evil pitifully scatters

With brilliant color

Afterwards, people will say

Indeed, she was certainly the Daughter of Evil

    Riliane sang the last line, which broke Michaela's heart. How did she know the words to a song about her own demise so well she could sing along. After a few minutes, the panicked look in her eyes died down, and Arte and Gammon let her go.

  "I'm fine, sorry about that." She gave them all a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

  "Let's continue."

Chapter Text

  Waiter needed to breathe. That's what Clare always told her when she got like this. She was sitting in her seat, but she could feel the looks of pity she was getting. Allen was hovering around her, asking if she needed a hug or space. That was sweet of him but she was fine, really fine. She just got a bit frightened. Besides, she wasn't even the one who had died. That had been him.

   The projector started to play a new video, which started with a black and white cut of the guillotine. Ouch.

If only we could be reborn

  "Hey, that's your voice Allen!" Germaine waved her hand infront of her brother's face to get his attention, before he batted her hand away.

  "No, Germaine, that's the Easter Bunny. Obviously it's me!" The mood brightened again, and the guillotine was soon forgotten when it cut to a shot of her and Allen eating brioche together as babies. Well, not babies, but when you've lived like...164 years? Everyone seems like a baby.

  "Held, we were so tiny! I want to like squish baby Allen's cheeks, why is he so cute and adorable?!" She cooed, before pinching her baby brother's cheeks.

  "I'm not cute or adorable! I'm basically an adult!" He protested, stomping his foot.

  "If you're an adult, what does that make me, a tombstone?" She had lived an absurdly long time, and she did have a tombstone, so that wasn't completely wrong, she supposed.

You are the princess, I am a servant

Fate divided, miserable twins

  More opening shots, nothing she hadn't seen before when MA made the whole theater stop whatever they were doing to watch one of her films. She had actually made a film about her, and then watched Waiter extremely closely the whole time. Needless to say, the film hadn't portrayed her in the best light. In fact, the whole thing was... uncomfortable. She shuddered. Maybe she wasn't going to think of MA right now. The bitch.

  "That's kind of sad." Germaine yelled out from behind her, over the tune of classical music. Dear Anette, they were all in the same room. She could hear her just fine at a normal fucking volume.

I’ll protect you, if it’s for that

I will even become evil

  "Allen, my dear brother, I don't even want to know what your definition of evil is. Eating all the oreos?" Ney let out a choked laugh, before covering it up with a cough. Gammon muttered that she did exactly that under his breath, while Gear nodded sadly. The others were all staring at her strangely.

  "What's an oreo?" That was so sad. Alexa play despacito. But seriously, how had they lived back then without ever knowing the happiness an oreo could bring you? They were singlehandedly fighting her depression! And she was pretty depressed. Losing complete bodily autonomy for decades did that to you.

  "Okay, so it's two cookies, with frosting inside, and also pure happiness." Allen nodded, but she got the sense he didn't actually get it. What a shame, to have to live without oreos. Maybe she could ask Elluka to bring them some later. Food aside, the song was actually starting.

We were born in high expectations

Blessed by the church bells

  "Wait, how did the church bells bless you? Did they hop down from the clock tower and baptise you? The fuck?" For someone who had literally dreams about current and past events, the gardener was dense as fuck sometimes. However this drew a small laugh from her parents and Allen, who had been a bit to quiet after her breakdown.

  "We rang the church bells when they were born. No walking church bells were involved." Her father explained, and she could see the pink haired girl visibly pout. She felt like pouting too. She much rather would've had the walking church bells, and they literally had a court mage! If Elluka can conjure enough wind to decimate armies, she can animate some bells.

By the arbitrary circumstances of adults

Our futures were split into two

  "I am going to beat the shit out of Prim for that one. Who's coming with?" Her parents looked at her in absolute horror. Right, she had forgotten they never found out what Prim did. Meanwhile, Ney and Kyle's hands shot up, followed by Eve and Irina.

  "I'm going to pulverize her in the most painful way possible once I get my hands on her for what she did to Adam." Eve claimed in the sweetest tone, before kissing her husband's cheek.

  "Blood for the blood God. AKA LeviaBehemo." Irina said nonchalantly.

   "Riliane! It's not Prim's fault there was controversy over which one of you should take the throne!" Her mother admonished sternly.

  "I mean it probably is. Most things are," Ney shrugged apathetically, while Gear enthusiastically nodded. Her parents continue to gawk at them.

  "Excuse you, young lady. I don't think you're qualified to speak about my friend that way." At this Waiter made the wise decision to get out of her chair and hide behind Gammon. Kyle also tried this strategy, but his head poked out, as he was even more of a twig than her totally-paid-labor. He settled for clutching his wife closer. You could hear Ney's eye twitching, which either means she was about to start screaming or commit homicide. She hoped it was the first, because she didn't really want to watch her mother die again. The first time had resulted in her brother losing his head, and thousands of deaths.

  "I think I'm plenty qualified, being her daughter and all." Ney's voice was full of spite, but she could tell her half-sister was giving up as little information as possible. Mentioning who her other parent was would've hurt more, but she didn't, instead sitting back down in her seat as the video began to play again. She also sat back down, and patted her mother's arm.

Even if all the world

Becomes your enemy

  "If? I think it's a pretty definite when at this point." Arte quipped. She had changed back to herself in the theater, and it was then Waiter realized that she still had a bit of blood on her skirt. Probably from the last intruder. Hell, she also had blood on her, just a small stain on her boot, but still! She just hoped no one noticed. Pretty hard to explain you live in a theater in the woods where intruders are either eaten in exceedingly gruesome ways, or sentenced to death by a living doll, and sometimes you had to drag the bodies into the Graveyard before running the fuck away in case Grave was feeling extra hungry. Shit, her life was weird.

Because I will protect you

You should keep on smiling

  Cue Allen killing Leonhart. Oof. She still felt some guilt about that one. Given, she didn't know he was her brother's adoptive father when she ordered his death, but damn that was brutal. And also not the only time Allen had to kill his adoptive parent.

  "Sorry, again, about that." It sounded weak even as she said it, but what else could she do? There should be a manual on this: How to Interact With The Man You Had Murdered for Dummies.

  "It's...okay." Was it though? She didn't feel like it was. Then again, her judgement had gotten her:

-Brother killed

-Head cut off with a pair of sewing scissors

-Trapped as a soulless messenger

-Stuck in a theater with a bunch of psychos

  Maybe she shouldn't listen to the little voice in the back of her head after all.

You are the princess,

I am a servant

Fate divided, miserable twins

I’ll protect you, if it’s for that

I will even become evil

  "Can someone protect me from the endless repeating?!" Dear Marie, the pink haired girl couldn't stand the chorus. It reminded her of someone, almost. The doll! She reminded her of Court. Was she Court? The doll judge had said her name used to be Irina once.

While on an outing to the neighboring country

In town I happened upon that green haired girl 

 ""That green haired girl'? Did I do something to piss you off?" Michaela asked, as the screen cut to her in the town with Clare. They looked so happy, and Waiter once again felt guilty, for ruining so many lives.

I fell in love at first sight

With that kind voice and smile

  "Okay, raise your hand if you are/were in love with me." Her brother raised his hand, mortified, but Kyle's hand stayed down. Clare also raised hers, though she looked around nervously. Not that she had anything to worry about. If anyone gave her shit, she was ready to throw hands. Literally. Arte had some stored in her bag.

  "I thought you were Eve, in my defense." Gear said, before pulling his wife closer.

  "Fair. Though now I'm slightly scared what would happen if I was Eve," Michaela giggled. Meanwhile, Waiter was trying to avoid eye contact. She figured lying low was probably the move whenever the Green Hunting was brought up. It wasn't completely her fault (Thanks, Marie.) But still. Awkward.

But if the princess

Asks me to erase that girl

I shall answer that

Why? These tears won’t stop

  "Fourteen year old boy experiences emotions for the first time: rates it zero out of ten." Irina deadpanned. Held, she is a lot like Court. Down to the sense of humor.

  "Be nice to my brother, Court!" She admonished, not realizing what she had said before it left her mouth. Shit. The girl just looked at her. And she looked back. And godsdamnit it was so awkward.

  "My name's...not Court. It's Irina."

  "Sorry." The room fell silent, as Waiter mentally filed this away on her list of royal screwups. So far the list could probably span the entire continent at least twice over, but it didn't seem to stop growing, no matter how much she wished it would.

  "Allen, this would be a lot more dramatic if you had actually killed her, instead making me do your job for you." Arte called out of the deafening silence, causing Michaela to visibly shy away from her. Held, why was her family like this?

You are the princess, I am a servant

Fate divided, maddened twins

  At this Irina let out an unholy screech. She was pretty sure half of them nearly jumped out of their seats, while a few others got in fighting position.

  "I SWEAR TO LEVIABEHEMO, IF THEY DON'T STOP REPEATING THEMSELVES, I AM GOING TO SET SOMETHING ABLAZE!" To drive home her point, she presumed, the girl kicked the seat infront of her, which happened to be Adam's.

  "Fuck my life." Waiter heard him mumble under his breath. Amen to that. She liked to consider herself one of the few sane people in the theater, which, even with how many people she had killed, wasn't completely untrue. When you're roomies with a living, sentient doll who sentences people to death, a cannibal/practical god who keeps wondering aloud how you would taste, her four fucked up servants, a psycho magician screenwriter, a literal ghost that looks like the woman you started a genocide to kill, your dead sister, and the living doll, and your dead-but-not-really ex fiance, who also happens to be a piece of clockwork (?) there's not much you can do to stand out.

“Today’s treat is brioche”

You laugh, you innocently laugh

  "Allen." She says, extremely seriously. This was getting a little too depressing. Plus, if he really was from the past, perhaps he could change things.

  "Yeah, Riliane?" He raises an eyebrow quizzically. As if this weren't the saddest thing known to man.

  "You seriously need some friends who you aren't related to. This is becoming a problem." She put a a hand on his shoulder, while nodding solemnly.

  "I have friends! I have Germaine-"

   "Adopted sister. Doesn't count." This kid needed an intervention. She had done this with kids at the orphanage, when they needed to open up. She wasn't sure how to do this without revealing Ney was their half-sister, but she'd figure it out.

  "Chartette!" He called out defensively. She only rolled her eyes.

  "No offense to Chartette, but isn't she like, twenty something? Preferably friends your age, who you aren't related to."

  "Fine. Ney's only a few years older than me!" He protested. Shit. Here came the hard part.

  "I said friends. Plural. And unless Ney has gained the ability to clone herself, she doesn't count as multiple people." Maybe if he had someone who could pull him aside and knock some sense into him, he wouldn't end up deciding to sacrifice his life for hers.

  Instead, he continued to pout, opting to glare at the wall instead of talk to her.

This country may end very soon

At the hands of its crazed people

  "Wow, Allen. Calling your own sister crazed? Bit rude." Though Germaine's tone was joking, she could tell it was laced with worry. Probably thought she was about to break down again. Crap. If only they knew.

If it’s said this is our punishment

I shall take it upon myself to oppose it

  She grabbed her brother and pulled him close. She knew what was coming, and she felt the need to reassure herself he was still there. But for how long? How long would they get to be here, before they were sent back to their respective time periods. Her grip tightened.

  "In the future, don't do anything stupid, okay?" She whispered into his ear.

  "Okay, Ril. Don't worry too much about it. I'll save you. Make sure this whole thing never happens." Oh no. Oh no. She could feel herself falling into despair. He thought she was scared for herself. Oh, how wrong he was. He had no idea how much she'd have liked for him to not give two shits about her in the moment they were about to see, how much she now wanted him to run away and leave her to her well-earned fate.

“Look, I’ll loan you my clothes”

“Wear them and escape immediately”

“It’s alright, we’re twins.”

“I’m sure no one will know”

  "See, Rili? Its fine. Totally fine." She could hear his voice cracking as he spoke, and she collapsed into sobs. It wasn't fine. She should've lost her head like she did in Enbizaka. It was what she deserved for her crimes, not what Allen deserved. He had always deserved more. He started to sob into her shoulder too, and they clutched eachother tightly as the line ended.

I am the princess, you are a fugitive

Fate divided, sorrowful twins

  "Wait what?! I couldn't have-I would never-" The girl in red became more and more frantic as she continued to speak, clutching her father close. If she strained, Waiter could hear whimpers that sounded a whole lot like 'I'm a horrible monster' . Her heart went out to the girl, truly, it did. If if she was much worse a person than the young knight, she could imagine the guilt over Allen's death was much the same. It felt like yesterday she had sat crying at the beach, watching a bottle that continued to return to her, no matter how many times she threw it and the message inside.

If it’s said that you’re evil

Then that same blood runs in me too

  "Neither of you were evil. You were kids. Young ones too." How ironic, coming from her. She would be loathe to forget how the girl had run up to her crying and apologizing frantically for her part in the revolution. She was a kid too. They were all kids. And yet, blame laid on all of them.

Once upon a time

I had a very precious sibling

Who reigned at the top

Of a fiendish kingdom

  Did she even deserve to be called precious? She didn't think so. She tried not to think of this in general, because there was never an answer and always pain. But it was hard not to, when evidence of her sin was being broadcasted to everyone she cared about.

Even if all the world (Finally that time arrived)

  "I'm sorry, Allen. Not that I can ever make up what I did." Kyle's eyes were downcast as he made his apology. She had forgotten his part in her dear brother's death. Maybe that was why he had never sought her out.

Becomes your enemy (The bells signaling the end ring)

  Before he was confined to the clock tower, of course. After that he couldn't have done much seeking out no matter what he wanted.

Because I will protect you (Without taking notice of the crowd)

Keep smiling somewhere (You speak my favorite phrase)

  The bells rang in the video, the sound ripped straight from her nightmares. She remembered them. She hadn't been there, but the bells were designed to be heard for hundreds of miles. And it wasn't like information about the execution had been hard to come by. She remembered racing away on Josephine, and hearing the bone chilling sound of the bells announce her brother's death. For real this time. And she remembered the cheers of the people around her.

You are the princess, I am a servant

Fate divided, miserable twins

I’ll protect you, if it’s for that

I will even become evil

If only we could be reborn

Let’s play again then, okay?

  Allen wiped away his tears, a small smile dawning on his face, and hope filling his eyes.

  "Right. You're from hundreds of years in the future, right? We must've reunited." She felt horrible, crushing his hope. But she didn't wanna lie. She was too tired to anyways.

  "No. I haven't seen you again until now." She whispered, causing more sobs to erupt from her younger brother. She felt like crying too, but she had to be the strong one.

  "Do you...Do you guys need a break?" Elluka's soft voice filled the room, and after what Waiter assumed was a a resounding nod, the projector flickered off.

Chapter Text

  Allen leaned against the wall of the bathroom, trying to clear his thoughts. Everyone was so sorry for him, and so touchy. Riliane couldn't stop crying, his mother and father wouldn't let him go, and the second they finally did he was swarmed by other family. They were all so sorry, so apologetic, and he didn't know why.

  He had done what he had to do. He had died in his sister's place because of course he did, what kind of person wouldn't have done the same? He had done what was right, and he was being lauded for it like a hero. He didn't deserve it, because he didn't deserve anything. Everything was hers, as it should be.

  He had tried to keep his sister, and had lost his head. He tried to keep Michaela, and she had died. He didn't want stuff it would just make the people around him suffer! Why couldn't they see he was the problem?!

  Part of Allen was glad he didn't see his sister again. He didn't want to hurt her, but who knows what could have happened to her if he had been around. She'd be hurt, and he couldn't let that happen. No matter what it cost him.

  "Allen? Are you okay?" A soft voice called out. His sister. Shit, he couldn't let her worry.

  "Yeah, I'm fine," his voice cracked at the very end. Hopefully she just ignored it like she usually would. He couldn't let her notice he'd been crying. Once had been enough, but twice in the same day? He needed to suck it up and stop being weak.

  "No, you're not. Can I come in?" He sighed. If he knew Riliane, he had no choice. He didn't even know why she was asking; she knew she always got her way.

  "Sure." The knob twisted and in came his sister, still in a regular servant's clothes. She sat down next to him and interlaced their fingers. She had started doing that. In fact, she seemed a lot more willing to shoe affection than usual. Then again there was no one in the palace suitable to show affection to, so maybe she hadn't changed at all.

  "You gonna tell me what's wrong or do you just want me to be here? Because that's totally fine; you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to." She reassured him.

  "I just saw my own head being cut off." He responded dryly. Better for her to think he was just slightly upset, instead of his waves of emotion. Humor seemed a good way to do that. After all, you don't typically joke about being stabbed until the pain has faded.

  "I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to die for my sake." She whispered, resting her head on his shoulder. He felt a wetness on his cheeks before realizing he was crying. Crap. She was crying too, though she was trying not to.

  No, no, no! This wasn't meant to happen! He was the expendable one; of course he should've died in her place. Why could no one but him see it? Now she was crying, but it wasn't her fault, because it had never been her fault!

  "No!" He let out a choked sob. "No, of course I should've! Why can't you see it?! We all know I'm the spare, so why does everyone keep acting like I made some great sacrifice! I just did- I'm just doing what I'm supposed to!" He wailed. He shouldn't be bothering his sister, but he just- couldn't hold it in anymore. Riliane pulled him into a tight hug wordlessly, before whispering something in his ear.

  "You were never just the spare. You were the only one of us who wasn't rotten to the core, and you never should've had to suffer like you did." Her words went against everything he knew, but he wanted to believe them. He wanted to believe he was worth something. And so he cried in his sister's arms.

---

  Arte was used to dead people. They just usually didn't have a soul attached to them, which made this particular set of dead people an anomaly. She hung back with Gammon in the back of the room, trying not to draw attention to themselves. Him because he didn't know any of these people, her because she did.

  How the hell was she supposed to talk to Michaela, or her mother, when she had killed them! And Kyle was also her father, which was...weird and not something she was going to think about, like, ever. And then Arth, who had at one point been her father, didn't even know she existed. It was awkward, and horrible and miserable. She wanted to be back at the ater with her brother and Grave. She wished she was roasting an intruder alive over a campfire, instead of feeling so.. othered.

   "Hey Arte?" She looked up at the taller man. She wasn't sure why he was talking to her; they weren't exactly friends. If anything half their interactions were based around how her master was going to eventually eat him alive, and the other half were around Waiter, who was currently comforting her brother.

  "Yeah?" What could he possibly have to say? Besides the standard, 'this is fucking awkward where is Waiter". A statement she definitely resonated with. Waiter was the only one of then who was willing to actually get up and talk to someone; their emotional support extrovert was very much needed right about now.

  "Is the older blond dude your father?" At this she shifted back to Ney, which, amusingly, scared the shit out of her companion.

  "Technically? Yes. I've never even talked to him." She looked over at the man. The supposed great warrior king was talking with the knight and Maman-Mariam. Behemo, somethings never change. How had she not managed to shake that habit in five hundred years?

  "Damn that's sad. Also we're ponytail buddies now." He said, gesturing to her side ponytail, and then his. Ney smiled a bit. She liked being apart of a group, even if said group was just her and the gardener.

  "I guess we are. Maybe I won't make a lampshade out of your skin. As a favour." She teased, both of them knowing that no matter what, he was dead meat. As they all would be at the World's End. Still, he went along with it.

  "Lovely. Suppose you'll make window curtains out of me instead?" The room fell silent, as people tend to do at the worst times. All eyes went them, probably wondering why they were mildly discussing his death. Fair, if you didn't know what went on in the theater.

  "Right, for all the windows in the Graveyard." Maybe if she just played it off, they would think it was a joke? Maybe if she was Arte, they could get away with the weird future people excuse, but she was now Ney and she didn't think anyone but Gammon had noticed the change. Best just to hope they left it alone.

  "Relax, she isn't planning on making anyone else here into various furniture items." Gear explained, after a moment more of dead silence. Unfortunately, no one seemed particularly comforted by this.

  "Ney, dear, didn't we talk about this? If you don't get rid of the bodies thoroughly, you could get caught." Mariam said. She couldn't claim she didn't appreciate the woman's willingness to help her murder people, even back then. She had simply shown her how to most efficiently dispose of the bodies cleanly.

  "Sorry, Maman." Damn it, she slipped again! Oh well, it kept her cover up a bit. That was sort of nice.

  "It's okay, dear, just make sure you take care of hair mass this time." Great, now the stupid gardener was inching away from her. She needed someone to talk to, and, as mentioned, their emotional support extrovert was nowhere to be found!

  Speaking of Waiter, the girl and her brother were now walking hand in hand out of the hallway. Ney couldn't say she didn't feel a pang of jealousy. No matter how much she adored Grave and Pollo, it always stung that there was one family she would never get to be apart of. Especially when they were flaunting it right infront of her.

  "Held, Ney, I leave for five minutes and you're already talking about murder. Can you please chill for a minute?" The younger girl complained, replacing the jealousy with amusement. At least someone knew she was family, and that was enough.

  "On that note, can we listen to the next song before anyone gives her anymore ideas on what to do with my dead body?" The blonde woman rolled her eyes, before going to restart the projector.

  "Fine, as long as we can limit the breakdowns to one per two songs." Everyone nodded. This was a lie.

Chapter Text

  He had sat back down next to Riliane and his father, while the projector started once more. This time it showed an image of a beach by a church.

At a small harbor on the outskirts of town

Is a girl standing alone

  His sister was now on the beach, the same beach she had run away to on her birthday, and the one they had played on as children.

  "Riliane, look, it's the beach!" He excitedly whispered in her ear. Sure, it was childish, and he wasn't supposed to be childish, but it was for his sister's sake. She probably needed some cheering up. That was the only reason why he would act like that. Right.

  "It is!" She responded, but her voice had a twinge of melancholy. She probably had different associations with the place. She seemed to have gone there after...after...

At this sea there’s a

Secret tradition from long ago

  "See this is why we should honor and praise our great lady Conchita! If she hadn't told Allen about the glass bottle, you wouldn't be able to have your angsty moment at the beach!" The little blonde girl in the back of the room yelled out, before clutching a pendant in the shape of a wineglass.

  "The long-dead gourmet...is the demon that possessed my sister and told me about the wish thing." Okay, what was wrong with these future people, and why did they all dress and act like insane people? It probably shouldn't have surprised him when she nodded fervently, but it still did. Was there something in the water in the future?

“Put in a small bottle

Your wish written on parchment

  "So fucking extra. You know, when you want to send a letter to someone in the future, you just mail it to them instead of using a glass bottle as your mailbox."

  "Let me have my fucking moment Gammon! Just because your way of coping is revolution doesn't mean mine is!" Riliane shot back. Levia, did these two hate each other? She had introduced him as her friend, but he wasn't sure, considering the fact they seemed to want to murder eachother twenty-four seven.

  Maybe that was just how friends were? As much as Allen hated to admit it, she had made a point about him not really having any friends. Damn, his life was kind of depressing.

If it’s set adrift in the sea, one of these days

“Your wish might bear fruit”

   "Okay, so we're not even going to stop at burning down a forest. We're polluting the ocean to. What did the forest spirits do to you?" The other Elphe woman lamented. Michaela had said her name was...Evie? Eve? Maybe he just wouldn't refer to her by name.

   "To be fair, one of them did try to bite my arm off the other day. The fox one I think?" His sister pushed up her sleeve to show off an angry red bite mark that had been so poorly bandaged you could still see half of the wound.

  "Highness, may I take a look at that wound?" Mariam's eyes filled with concern when she saw the wound. It had in no way been treated properly. Honestly, Allen wouldn't be surprised if it was dripping puss in a few days time.

  "Sure?" She walked over and offered the motherly woman her arm, while her friends looked in literally any direction but at her.

  "Sweetheart...who cleaned this? It's not cleaned at all!" Gammon and Arte began to whistle awkwardly in the back of the room, and Riliane inclined her head towards them.

  "Listen, we had nothing to clean it except for detergent, and I'm pretty sure the emo had no idea what he was doing with the bandages. We tried our best!" The other blonde exclaimed angrily, while Allen went off to fetch the first aid kit in the corner. He had no idea why the sorceress lady had placed it there, but it was convenient.

  He started to clean the wound with what he had, while Mariam disposed of the dirtied gauze. He had some experience treating cuts, though they were mainly from when he or Germaine would spar with each other and do something stupid like cut their own hand. Which had happened numerous times.

  "You guys really don't need to-" Allen cut his sister/sovereign lord (or whatever she was calling herself these days) off by pulling tight on the new bandages.

  "Not a word, sis. This is a bad injury, and I'm going to take care of it before it gets infected and gross." It felt nice to call her sis again. Like getting his sister back. She had never left of course, but she had forgotten, and now she remembered.

It floats away, a small glass bottle

A message with a wish put in

  "It didn't even wait for us to get back to our seats!" Rili huffed, before plopping herself back down. Perhaps there was still a bit of princess left inside her.

Beyond the horizon

It silently disappears

  Cue the bottle fading out of view as it cut to a montage of images. He felt a twinge of guilt when it showed Germaine all alone, at a grave. He really had left her all alone. She was his sister too, and he had just...abandoned her. They had lost their father, and then she had lost him. They had been growing apart for a while, though. Maybe that made it better. He did seem to attract misery, didn't he?

  More images, until it reached another one that stood out to him. A blonde haired woman tucking a flower between the hands of corpse. The body looked like it had been buried and then dug back up. Bits of dirt clung to an elegant dress, and while the skin had decayed quite a bit, the identity was still recognizable.

  "Is that?" His adopted sister's question hung in the air, as everyone came to the same horrifying revelation.

  "It is." Ney, who had apparently been leaning against a walk this whole time, answered. Maybe she had been brought from the near future. She was wearing the clothes of a Marlon general, after all. The same clothes the woman in the image was wearing.

   "They-They dug up my grave?" His voice came out broken and sad. His vision blurred a bit, and he wiped his eyes to clear them of budding tears. Oh Levia. Someone had actually done it. She nodded, her eyes downcast.

  "I tried to dig you a new one. Didn't really work. I still brought you flowers, though. Every year." She gave him a sad smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

Although you always

Did everything for me

  He smiled a bit, as his happier memories began to play on screen. Teatime, and when Riliane would kidnap him from his duties to play tag. Even when he found her on the beach that one day.

  "I love you, little brother." In real time he was clutched closer to his sister, whose eyes had once more taken on the look of a mature woman instead of a fourteen year old.

  "Love you too, sis."

I was always nothing but selfish

And inconvenienced you

  The memories once more faded to a slightly older Riliane, the alias Rin floating on screen for a split second. She was frantically scribbling down something on a piece of parchment, looking around every few seconds to make sure no one was around.

You who granted my wishes for me

Are already gone

  "What are you doing?" Clarith asked hesitantly, the moment she appeared on screen, a golden hairpin in her hands.

  "You'll see." Gone was the sobbing girl from before. He supposed it was easier, seeing actually memories of hers instead of folk songs, or events she had been lucky to miss the first time around. She seemed almost content, watching the video quietly.

So I will deliver my feelings

To this sea

  Rili laughed a tiny bit as the bottle she had chucked into the sea made a small noise before being swept away by the tide. Allen laughed alongside her, before sobering at the bottles reflection. Instead of Riliane, or hell, the ocean, it was the guillotine blade coming down swiftly. She didn't seem to see it, thank Levia. He didn't want her upset again.

It floats away, a small wish

With tears and a little regret

  "A little? Girl, you're sobbing on the beach. If that's a little regret, what's a lot? Altering the past by sheer will alone?" Irina chimed in, before the Lady who had brought them here shushed her. Wait, were they related?

The realization of my sin was always

After everything was over

  "Hey, it's okay. Your realization could've come much later," Eve (?) grimaced. "Trust me." She and Kyle exchanged looks, before he wrapped an arm around her. How was Riliane okay with this? He was still her fiancé! Sort of. Maybe he was just being weird, but protective brother instincts were kicking in, along with the realization that he did not like this woman very much. Or at all.

It floats away, a small glass bottle

A message with a wish put in

Beyond the horizon

It silently disappears

  A hand or two was quickly clapped over the pinkhaired girl's mouth before she could start fussing about repetitions again. He could still hear muffled complaints, before the background turned golden and his sister dropped to her knees in the sand.

It floats away, a small wish

With tears and a little regret

  Arms wrapped around her, and his own ghostly face entered frame. He flinched when he saw ghost him's neck was stitched to his head. His sister looked back in shock, before a sad smile much like the one she wore now etched itself across her face.

"If only we could be reborn…"

  The screen faded completely to a light golden color, and the video ended.

Chapter Text

  Arte wished this would end. Or at the very least for another break. It was easy to detach when the songs never mentioned her, when she was just a random girl in the corner. She didn't need the reminder of laying flowers by her dead brother's corpse because someone dug up his grave. And she didn't need to be asked about it.

  The universe didn't seem to give two shits about her feelings though, per usual, and another song started, once more on the beach. Did she miss something? What was the obsession with beaches?

  Waiter smiled though, and so she would pit up with it. The screen cut to two kids running towards the beach, a boy and a girl. Wait...

   "Really?! Really Waiter?!" She threw her hands up in frustration, before glaring at the girl, who in turn stuck her tongue out at her. She hoped that her master ate the little brat soon, because she was insufferable.

  "You stole my hairstyle you snot-nosed brat! I am going to crucify you for this!" She balled up a handkerchief she had in her pocket and chucked the bloodstained rag at her younger sister, who in turn threw Allen's handkerchief at her.

  Unfortunately for some parties, Arte was sat in the back, and Riliane ended up hitting Eve in the face. Oh, this was going to be good. For her, not Riliane. She could practically see the death glare on Adam's face (Adam? Kyle?). Unfortunately, the music started back up again but not before he was throwing the ball right at the back of her head.

   "Wait, is that thing stained with blood?!" The Lucifenian queen exclaimed, causing the music to once more screech to a halt. But also, oh shit. How the fuck do you explain you serve a man-eating cannibal and that since Pollo fucking sucks at cooking, you have to pick up the slack.

  "Arte, I swear to Levia, if you don't stop using that thing as a substitute for bandaids, I am going to murder you in your sleep." Gammon lamented from beside her, causing several eyebrows to shoot up.

   "Do they not have proper medical care in the future, or is this on purpose?" Mariam sighed. Arte simply smirked and shrugged, before quietly thanking the gardener. She was still going to brutally murder him when her master asked, but she could still appreciate a good lie. Well, a decent lie. Can't give him too much credit.

At a place with nothing there

I suddenly tripped and burst into tears

  "Crybaby!" Ky-Ad-whatever the hell his name is called out, only for Eve to shush him.

  "Adam, please, stop bullying the literal child." Uh huh. Child. Sure. Then again, that probably wasn't a great thing for the Lucifenian king and queen. Eve 'What do you mean I just stole two children from their mother, these are clearly apples!' Moonlit was probably not the person you want taking even passing notice of your kid.

    "Oh please! She's hundreds of years old, hardly a kid!" The roomwide eye roll was practically audible.

  "In her current life she's like sixty!" She chimed in, ignoring the death glare sent her way courtesy of Waiter.

   "Yeah, and you're a mud person!" Her little sister protested. She was vaguely aware of Gammon holding back a laugh next to her.

  "So are you, genius!" She shot back. And to think, she was going to teach Riliane how to plant flowers in a mud doll body! Never!

  "Guys, can we please stop?" Her baby brother's voice cracked as he pleaded. Right, because he was still a baby. Behemo, age is weird when you spend all your time around immortals.

It’s alright, this is surely

A prank of the bad twilight

   "Ah yes, that moment when the time of day pulls a prank on you for funsies. So relatable and possible." Irina deadpanned, earning a few stifled giggles.

We should return soon

Before it gets dark

   "How did you two even pull this off?!" The king (her father?) shrieked, having been clearly unaware his children could just sneak out at night without anyone noticing.

  "Bribery." Allen and Waiter grinned at eachother, and once more she was Ney. She really needed to get a hold on this, before someone realized. As it was, she went to stand a by a wall, hoping she could mess them up at least a bit.

   A wave of something she couldn't quite name overcame her watching the happy family. Something that felt a lot like longing, which obviously meant she pushed it so far down it could never possibly surface again.

At the other end of the sea’s horizon

The demon sweetly sneered

  A woman in red appeared next to the twins, a woman who looked suspiciously like Lady Banica. Which was awesome. She had to stop herself from squealing out loud because she was still Ney, but DearBehemohersiblingshadgottentomeetLadyBanicahersiblingsknewLadyBanica

  "Hey Ney, isn't that Grave?" Her sister called out, before slapping a hand over her mouth when she realized what she had said. And apparently the rest of the room had as well, because everyone's eyes were now glued to her. Well, there goes the not drawing attention plan.

  "Who's Grave, if you don't mind me asking, Your Higness?" She raised an eyebrow and curtsied. Grave, if only Prim had covered this in her lessons on how to lie. Best to just play dumb. Probably. Shit, she didn't know, she'd only interacted with like, ten people in the last five hundred years.

  "No one. There is no Grave. I said nothing." Waiter's eyes were flitting about, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. So absolutely not helping their case.

  "Hey, Elluka right?! Why don't we start the song again?!" Gammon interrupted with a tone that was probably meant to be cheerful, but seeing as that was a concept incomprehensible for his little emo self, it sounding more like yelling.

   "Good idea!" She nervously exclaimed before the music turned on again, this time insanely fast.

  "Oh come on! Just work this once!" Elluka waved her fist threatening lying at the projector, while it continued to speed through the song. She kicked at it, and it resumed at the right pace and time, thank Behemo.

“I’ll put you in

My black stomach, and then let’s play”

   "Ah yes, my favorite game, digestion." Irina quipped, while she enthusiastically nodded before realizing Mariam was staring at her with concern.

  "Ney, my dear, sweet child, what the actual fuck." Her face still wore her motherly smile, but her eye was twitching a bit.

  "What do you mean Maman?" Not that Mariam was her mom. Because she totally wasn't, and anyone who thought otherwise was deluding themselves. But she figured now wasn't the best time to go back to using the woman's first name. No other reason.

   "You have secret knowledge about what may or may not be a demon, and you apparently are completely willing to be digested by the demon in question." Haha. She was so fucked. She could practically hear Pollo laughing at her. The motherfucker.

  "Uh, teenager stuff?" She answered feebly. Gammon was actually laughing behind her. Nevermind what she had said earlier. As soon as they got back she would beg her master to let her kill him.

   "Mari, we were both generals before we hit puberty. I honestly don't think we get to judge." The red knight put his hand on her 'totally not mother why would you think that haha's shoulder. Damn, she almost regretted getting him killed. But that would require being able to feel regret, something she was not able to do, actually.

We should return soon

Before we’re eaten

   "Local children decide they don't want to get eaten alive, actually." The stupidass gardner deadpanned, causing both twins to swivel around and glare at him in unison. Aww, they were just like her and Pollo.

The small box

We had hidden in the sandy beach

It’s wrapped in the night’s darkness

It will never be found again

   "Held, little us really were drama queens." Lily laughed as her past self pouted at the potential loss of the box.

   "Hell yeah you were. Don't know how anyone ever put up with you two." Ney chimed in, causing Allen to laugh. Again, there was that slight stinging feeling. Part of her wished that it could have been like this back then, that things could've gone down better. And maybe they did in another world. But not this one, and she had deal with that, because it was her fault.

Let’s share the sunset

One half each

   Allen put his arm around his sister's shoulder as they smiled at their childhood memories. That was good. Her poor sister had spent so long without him, and vice versa, so she should've been happy to take a back seat to their reunion. So why did she feel so sad?

I’ll be the day

I’ll be the night

  Right. Day and night, no in-between. No third option. That was how things always were, and should be. Things came in pairs, not sets. And she had Hansel. She didn't get to lay claim over Lillith too, just because they had been barely siblings once. Behemo, why did she have to be so selfish all the time?!

If we join hands, we get an orange sky

---

  Eve couldn't quite say she understood why she was here, but she was certainly happy about it! Being able to interact with Adam and Michaela for the first time in centuries was one of the best things that could've happened to her, followed by MA dropping dead in an extremely painful way.

  They were currently listening to a rather cute song about the two twins infront of her, one of whom kept shooting her dirty looks and the other being the Waiter at the theater. So that was super fun. Definitely.

The third ring of the bell is

A signal that the demon is awakening

  "Have you two considered maybe not going to the haunted ass beach?" Her prince quipped, as the dark red shape began to once more take form.

   "And then you can use a mailbox!" Jazz hands followed her statement, as Adam tucked his arm around her waist.

  "It was one time!" The princess protested, voice full of joking ire. Adam just looked at her, before muttering about how it was more like one time an hour, causing another poorly aimed handkerchief to come barreling their way, once more hitting Eve, though this time it hit her shoulder.

   "Oh, come on! Really?" She protested, as her prince pulled her closer as if to protect her from anymore cloth projectiles. Great. Now the other twin was looking at her funny again. Well. There go her plans of acquiring more children. Last time she tried that with an unwilling party she got charbroiled. So. Not happening again.

   "Touch Eve again and I will literally end you, Princess!" He pulled her closer to him, which, after centuries without being able to touch him, was amazing. Minus the fact he was flipping off the technically not child the whole time.

  "Leave my sister alone!" The blond boy complained, leading to a semiawkward stare off where both her prince and him just glared at eachother, before Elluka clapped her hands and started the music again.

Making a greedy face

It fixes a glance this way

   "Gallerian Marlon-core," Gammon added, drawing quite a few giggles. She had some awareness of who the man was, thanks to MA, and she was getting the vibes Adam's co-conspirator did not like him that much. Or at all. Neither did Adam.

Because I won’t

Give up my snack!

   "Sharing is caring, sister dearest." The other twin, who she was contemplating calling Not-Hansel, chided his sister, who in turn shoved him slightly, causing them both to erupt in laughter.

With its stomach empty, the demon

Made a very sad looking face

“Even if I swallowed down the whole world

My stomach won’t get full”

   "Hey Arte, Grave isn't going to actually do that right?" Waiter asked nervously. Her daughter only smiled menacingly, causing another handkerchief to be readied, only for the princess to think better of it and put it away.

   "We are all so dead." Her prince had a look of pure dread in his eyes, a shaky smile on his lips. She reached up and kissed him lightly, which seemed to quiet him.

   "Get a room!" Gretel protested from behind them, before Elluka and Gammon managed to quiet her, and take away the bloody hand she had retrieved from her bag.

I pity it, so

I’ll share my snack

   "Y'all were lucky as fuck. First time I met Grave, she chased me down and tried to devour me whole." The gardener complained, as Banica did not, in fact, devour the adorable children. Thank Held.

“Thank you, dear prince

In thanks, I shall covertly

Tell you a small secret

Of this sea”

   "See but it wasn't really a good secret. Because it didn't. Yknow. Work!" The Princess shrieked the end part, causing half the room to defensively draw their weapons. Eve could feel the lightning flickering on fingertips. It was a bear killing spell, but she had used it against humans before.

  The princess shot everyone in the room a look of alarm, before face-palming.

   "Right, forgot half the people here are jumpy as fuck. Sorry?" She squealed, slightly less high pitch than her previous comment.

  "It's fine dear. No worries." She assured her, shooting the girl a comforting smile.

Let’s share the sunset

One half each

Later I’ll tell you too

The wonderful secret of this sea

  Irina let out a guttural scream at the repetition before flame rupted and danced on her hands, burning blue at the tips. Her sister tries to stop her, but was shooed away by the girl pelting her with a tiny flame. It missed, but it was definitely more of a warning then an actual mistake.

  Eve recited a quick spell song, before summoning enough water to douse out the girl's flames.

Let’s share the sunset

One half each

I’ll be the day

I’ll be the night

If we join hands, we get an orange sky

   "Hey! I am going torch whoever decided repeating in songs was a good idea!" The girl reignited her flames, this time fully blue, enough to evaporate Eve's water. Enough it brought back memories.   

   Everything was burning and she felt like she was in hell and there was so much fire and heat and it was oh so ironic they had been so cold before she was on fire she couldn't get out the metal was burning she was burning everything was-

  Her vision closed in and she vaguely felt herself tumbling to the floor, before someone grabbed her and held her in their arms. The last thing she heard was the girl panicking, and Adam yelling. Then the world went black, just like it did back then.

Chapter Text

"I think you all know why I've gathered you here." Court announced, the entire theater gathered in their courtroom. Well, almost the entire theater. Two very key people were missing. And Gammon.

   "Two days ago, Arte and Waiter went missing, and, as far as I'm aware, haven't been seen since. Does anyone know what's going on?" She tried to keep her words formal and serious, like how her Father talked during his trials. It worked for the most part, before Lemy Hansel interrupted her mock trial.

   "Ooh, Court's got a crush on Waiter!" Her face felt like it was on fire. Why did the Sarvants always know exactly what to say to humiliate her? Was it some sort of demented sixth sense? Still, she needed to keep her composure. This was no time for games.

   "I do not. Anyways, does literally anyone know where either of them are?" She sent a pointed look at MA. The woman had a habit of dragging Lillith off to do menial errands for her, and she wouldn't be surprised if she had accidentally grabbed the wrong blonde girl and just decided to take them both.

   "We could ask Clockwork Boy, he has a decent view from up in his tower ♡~" Grave suggested, once more managing to speak with emojis. Because apparently she was god. She swore, if Grave didn't have those two annoying Sarvants following her around all day, she would corner her and force her to tell her her secrets. Though she supposed there was only one Sarvant now...hmm.

    "That's a good idea. Le-Hansel, go check in with Gear." Court felt slightly bad for the man, as she knew the twins jumped at the chance to mock, bait, and otherwise harass him, but she needed the little gremlin out of her hair for at least a few minutes.

  She was not expecting him to come hurdling back down the stairs in a matter of minutes, with an expression of pure glee on his face. Nor was she expecting him to run up and hug her, but she supposed most children did hug their mothers. Hmm. She'd have to get used to that.

  "Guess what?! He's gone too! Lich, go get some of our old Blood Grave wine!" The pale man looked at Grave for a second, before going off to retrieve the wine. That was nice. She'd have to get the apple juice and wine cups for her and Lillith...oh. Nevermind then. She'd just drink it herself. Not that her son companion's disappearance was something to celebrate.

  In fact it was quite the opposite. Maybe she'd retreat back to her rooms. That seemed better. Then she could spend the evening in quiet contemplation, instead of dancing around and drinking with the rest of the theater.

---

   "Princess? I brought your tea yannow." Chartette had been standing infront of the princess' door for half an hour by now, and she still hadn't gotten any response. They couldn't find the princess anywhere else, so they had assumed she was off sulking in her room over a perceived slight.

   But with every minute that passed with no response, she was beginning to doubt if that was what really happened. It sure as hell wasn't like this was the first time she had run away. She should probably check on the princess, but she also didn't particularly want to lose her head if she disturbed her private time. Swallowing her doubts, she slowly turned the knob, before tripping and falling flat on her face. Well, there goes any chance of keeping her head, provided the princess was there.

   She wasn't, a thought almost as terrifying as the thought of losing her head. They had lost Princess Riliane. Twice. She hoped the girl was okay, because Levia knows they'd all have hell to pay if she wasn't. That might also happen if she was, but at least then her wrath might be mitigated.

   "The Princess is missing!"

---

   Elluka was absolutely befuddled. Not only had the princesss up and vanished again, so had two of her favorite servants, Mariam and Leonhart, and apparently the king of Marlon! As the only ones who could do magic, the case unsurprisingly fell to her and Gumillia. Yet no matter how hard she tried to find them using a spell, it refused to work, like something had clogged her magic.

   Even worse, none of her spells that could even be the tiniest bit helpful in the search were working either. It was weirdly familiar too, like something she had experienced before but couldn't quite remember. It was driving her insane.

Oh poor Levia, can't even trump the magic of a mere ex-maiden of Lighwatch.

   A sudden voice taunted her, causing her to spring up in surprise and check her surroundings. No one was there, of course. Her office had almost the same level of security as the princess' rooms, so no one could interrupt her spellcasting. Though this person seemed to be a magic user themselves, perhaps the same one who was cloaking the locations.

I'm only kidding, of course! I understand your powers aren't what they used to be; comes with being mortal, I assume, considering I've experienced the exact opposite.

Who are you?

   As soon as she asked the question, her head was filled with mischievous giggling, before the woman responded.

Elluka, of course! Elluka Chirclatia, though I suppose you could call me Elluka Clockworker now.

   What the hell was going on? First she's hearing voices, now the creator of said voices is claiming to be her.

Come on hon, surely you know that's not your actual name. You just stole from me like you stole my body.

What are you even talking about? Where's the princess?

Riliane, you mean? She's perfectly fine, I just have her and a few others on a demiplane right about now. Don't worry, I won't keep her.

Eve might though.

The fuck? You just stole a princess?!

Who even is Eve? Some fellow kidnapper?

  Once more she could hear the giggling, thought this time it was punctuated with a few snorts. How lovely, the kidnapper/imposter was having a good time of it.

Yes, actually.

Farewell, dearest Levia! Have fun!

   And with that the voices went mute once more, leaving Elluka to wonder how she was going to explain this to the rest of the castle, not to mention Marlon.

Chapter Text

   Clarith totally wasn't panicking, why would you think that? It wasn't like Eve (who seemed to know both Kyle and Michaela pretty while) had just fainted because Irina had lit fire using magic. Oh wait, that was exactly what had just happened! And now they were trying to wake her back up, but short of dumping a bucket of water on her, nothing had worked. That might be a decent idea though.

   "Hey, Michaela, do you think cold water might help?" She didn't quite know anyone else here well enough to ask, though the princess kept sending her longing look, which she didn't quite know how to handle. On one had she was a tyrannical murderer. On the other she was a lonely fourteen year old girl.

   "Yeah, that's a good idea!" Michaela whispered a few words, before lightly dousing the girl in what she assumed was cold water. And sure enough, it worked a charm. Her eyes fluttered open and she gave the rest of them a weak smile.

   "Sorry about that. We can keep watching." Kyle brought her back to her seat, and though everyone was still clearly concerned, the music machine started up again.

“I’m sorry for being alive”, before

I knew it that was my catchphrase

   Oh, so the song was about her then? She couldn't really see why; she wasn't anyone important or special.

  "Who?" The Princess growled from in front of her, making her pause.

  "Who what?!" She had apologized for the Green Hunting, but Clarith was still a little jumpy around her. This girl literally held the power of life and death in her hands.

  "Who do I need to kill for making you feel that way? Because I will gladly sign that execution warrant, no hesitation." Riliane had turned around to face her, and was wearing a truly ferocious smile. One that left no doubt of the veracity of her threat.

   "You don't need to-It's fine, really." She reassured. She might not like the people in Yatski, but she didn't want them dead, no matter how the little voice in her head told her to rat them out without an ounce of hesitation.

  "Hmm. Okay, Clare. I won't push it, but know my offer has no time limit." She grinned before turning back around in her seat. Michaela squeezed her hand reassuringly. Sometimes Clarith wondered what she'd done to deserve her best friend. It was like a guardian angel had descended from the heavens just for her, though the other girl was quick to say that the only angel there was her. But that couldn't be true; Michaela was so perfect, she had the voice and looks of an angel, while Clarith was...herself.

Mine was a dull life of saying nothing but complaints  

  "Honestly, mood." Joked the man in the back, only for half the room to agree with him, which was...extremely depressing.

Everyone in my village has beautiful green hair

I’m left out, with white hair different from theirs

   "Again...Just tell me where, and I am perfectly capable and willing to raze it to the ground for you." Was she that good a friend to the princess, that she was willing to decimate towns on her word? Again, the little voice in her head reminded her just how easy it would be to make them all wish they had never been born.

   "Really, you don't have to do that. I don't even live there anymore." She placated.

   "I'd help!" Added Michaela in a cheerful voice, which was concerning. She wasn't exactly the kind to resort to violence first, or really anytime before last.

   "I'm pretty sure Arte has some gasoline in her bag if you want to go the whole arson route." The girl in question enthusiastically nodded, pulling out a bottle filled with a thick black liquid, which she then took a sip of. What was it with this girl and having the weirdest things? And then consuming them?!

    "I'm good, honestly." Michaela quirked an eyebrow, as if to say 'are you really sure?'. But she thankfully let the topic of bloody revenge drop, and the song continued.

A millennium tree secretly towers over the scenery deep in the forest

When alone here, I made a wish to god

   "The gods are assholes. Don't trust them." Arte called out from behind her, drawing not only a gasp from her but from several other people.

   "Absolutely correct. 10/10 take, fuck them." The blonde woman beside the young girl chimed in, causing Clarith to slowly back away from them. The gods weren't bad! She had gotten a friend, just like she'd asked, and she wouldn't trade Michaela for the world. Also she didn't particularly feel like getting killed by a stray bolt of lightning for the crime of heresy, thank you very much.

   "Hey! Lord Held is amazing!" Her friend protested, shifting in her seat to face the two. Surprisingly, they doubled over laughing.

   "Bestie, you did not just say that. Held is the definition of pick-mes!" At this both Irina and the Princess got out of their seats and backed into a corner.

   "So much heresy." The pink haired girl muttered, looking around anxiously like someone was going to strike her down. The princess nodded, pressing her back against the wall.

   "Irina. Riliane. Sit down, it's not like any of the gods can even hear us right now. And also, I'm pretty sure they're busy with the whole 'stealing random dead people's identities for funsies, so that person can't even rest in peace because their body is being puppeteered, and then when they finally give up the body to steal someone else's, they're still stuck because Levia is a horrible person and I hate her!'" Clarith flinched back from the girl, who had gotten out of her seat and very much looked like she was about to murder someone. That someone being a god.

   Then she clapped her hands and the music started again, but not before she smashed something and ground it dust, which elicited a small gasp from the now sitting Irina.

To carry on living in isolation, that’s very lonely

Anyone would be fine; I want someone to become my friend

   "Have I mentioned I am fully willing to kill anyone and everyone who's ever made you sad  because-" Allen quickly slapped a hand over the Princess' mouth, but the message was still very clear, as was the little voice in her head.

   She should probably get a doctor or someone to check that out, make sure she wasn't going insane.

   "Excuse my sister, she apparently does not know when to quit." The servant boy added as his sister began to mime dropping something of what she assumed was Yatski, before everything exploded. Held, what was going on with this girl?

I met her, near the millennium tree

She had collapsed and I saved her; that was the beginning

   She squeezed her savior's hand softly as the screen showed their first meeting. Little did she know then how her life would change so drastically in so little time.

  "So when's the wedding?" The literal king of Marlon (because she was sitting just a few seats away from him, holy shit) teased. Wait, wedding?! She could practically feel her face flushing as the people around her suggested dates.

   "I'll bring brioche if you bring cider Arte!" The Princess chimed in, receiving an enthusiastic thumbs up, all the while her face was practically buried in her hands.

  "Can I be the maid of honor for you, Michaela?" The other twin tailed woman asked, while a chair crashed to the floor, followed by an excited shriek.

   "I call being Clare's maid of honor! Dibs!" The Princess squealed before running up to wrap her arms around Clarith, which was rather nice. She hadn't really had a friend beside Michaela in...well, ever. Even if said friend was currently planning a wedding that wasn't happening because her and Michaela's relationship was totally platonic whywouldyouthinkitwasnthatjusttwogalsbeingpals-

   "Riliane, dear, give the poor girl some room to breathe. She looks like she's about to lose consciousness." A soothing voice she recognized as the queen reasoned, before pulling her daughter away gently.

  "There's no wedding, we're just friends," She managed, only to get several side eyes from the rest of the room.

Before I knew it the two of us were getting along well

But just about everything between me and her was different

   "Do you want, like, a dukedom or something?" The Princess blurted out just before the following lines had time to begin. She also happened to be waving around a bunch of papers like she was mad. Clarith shook her head, because a) she had no idea how to run a dukedom, and b) she didn't feel like moving to Lucifenia.

   "You could have something in Marlon if you want? Assuming Prim lets me." Okay, she did not befriend Kyle, unless he considered having rabid dogs sicced on him a bonding moment. After noticing the weird look she was giving him, he simply shrugged and muttered something about not letting the fourteen year old one up him.

   "If Prim doesn't let you I'll stab her for you! Why not make it two counts of regicide?!" The blonde, slightly murderous (not to be confused with the other two murderous blondes in the room, because she was about five years older) girl chimed in, pulling a dagger out from the folds of her dress before haphazardly flinging it in their direction.

   "Hell yeah, regicide!" The Princess called out, which was a little concerning, because she was literally a reigning monarch, as were her parents, who were looking mildly concerned at the number of people who were totally down with murder.

She had green hair more beautiful than anyone in the village

With her kind voice and smile, she was loved by everyone

   "I'm not that good at singing," Michaela's face had flushed a slight pink, obvious flustered. She looked really cute when she was flustered, not that Clarith noticed really. It was just an offhanded thing one would notice about their best friend. Totally.

Why are you being so kind to someone like me?

Do you intend on pitying a woman who’s inferior to you?

    "Actually I think I'm reconsidering stopping the hunt to murder a certain greenhaired girl, for no real reason." Her apparently best friend later in life(because it was either that or the Princess was borderline obsessive about her friends) turned around to glare at Michaela, looking like she was about ready to wring her neck. Clarith instinctively pulled the green girl closer to her, barely out of the princess's reach. Best be safe than sorry.

Embracing the abject me

She whispered

“You are more wonderful than anyone else”

Tears spilled out

    "Mm, no actually, I'm more wonderful than anyone else. You can come in a close second though." Looking behind her, she could see Irina flip her hair dramatically, before failing miserably and ending up with a mouth full of hair. She knew it wasn't right to laugh at other's misfortune, but she couldn't help a small giggle from escaping her lips, especially when the girl turned to glare at the rest of the room, face still covered in hair.

Even if all the people in the world

Scorned and mocked me

   She felt a tear trickle down her cheek, though she wasn't sure when she had shed it. She truly was so very lucky to have a best friend like Michaela. She was perfect in everyway, she was kind and considerate, charismatic, beautiful, and an amazing friend. She had no idea what she had done to make Lord Held think she deserved such an angel.

There’s someone who needs me

With only that, I was happy

   She could be happy like this forever. She was needed, and she had the person she had needed for so long. Everything would be okay, as long as she had Michaela at her side. And even if it wasn't, it surely couldn't be too bad. As long as her friend was by her side. Even if it was as a silent bystander, her presence seemed to bring out the best parts of her. If only these days would last for millennia. That was her one final wish.

Chapter Text

   Waiter would have to make a note to past her telling herself to burn wherever Clarith came from to the ground immediately, if she hadn't already. And also set aside some funds to get her therapy. As lovely as it was that Michaela was there for her, she shouldn't just have one person. Also, side note: why did all her friends have like, one person in their lives that mattered to them above all else? Allen had her (even though she was a horrible, horrible person), Clarith had Michaela, Arte had Grave, Gammon had his dead brother he wouldn't shut the fuck up about... The list went on.

The two of us rushed from the village, and started living in town

It’s an unfamiliar life, but if we’re together it’s alright

   Was that a mob chasing them?! She squinted at the screen, even though she was in the first row. Surely she was seeing things. It was bound to happen eventually.

   "Hey Allen, there's not actually a mob chasing them, right? I'm just hallucinating?" Apparently she had said this loud enough everyone heard her, and there were now several sets of eyes burning holes in her back. At this rate someone could just murder her again.

   "There is? Riliane, are you actually seeing things?" Shit, shit, shit. How do you get out of that one? Even if she said no, it would just lead to more questions. On the bright side, her resolve to murder the citizens of wherever-Clarith-grew-up only continued to grow.

   "Nah, I leave that to the Gardener. He sees things in his sleep, did you know that? And he's got a stupid looking katana. Gammon, tell them about your stupid cursed katana." She was rambling. And also in store for a huge rant about how his sword was in fact, very cool. Thankfully, the music cut him off before he could go full rant mode.

The servants of a rich merchant’s wife

That was the work we chose for a living

   "Not the fucking Freezises!" Half of the room shouted in exasperation. Even Gear gave a slight nod of his head, though his opinion didn't really count considering he was locked in a silver spoon for years, and then he was a piece of clockwork machinery. Which honestly sounded like a him problem.

   "Do I even want to know?" Clare sighed, tiredly looking over the room as if she had been babysitting toddlers for the past two hours. She was met with varying responses, from 'no' to 'life is a fucking nightmare, someone shoot me'. Which was a pretty honest review of the family to be honest. Sure, Keel and Mikina had been decent, but literally every generation after their children were fucking psychos.

One day on the grounds we happened upon a handsome, blue haired man

The meeting between he and her derailed everything

He was the ruler of a country across the ocean, and, loving her deeply,

He refused the marriage proposal of a princess in the neighboring country

    "That is the first time in over a five centuries anyone besides Eve has said anything even remotely nice to me." Dear Held, was Kyle crying? Okay, they definitely needed to start like, kidnapping therapists because whatever was going on behind her was not normal. Nor was it probably very healthy.

   "Clarith, we are now best friends, and yes I will be the best man when you and Michaela have your wedding, no there is no choice." Waiter gasped in shock at the absolute audacity of this man. How dare he insinuate he could ever replace her as Clarith's best friend?! Change of plans, instead of attacking Elphegort, she'd just bring Clare to the Lucifenian palace and prove they were best friends by giving her half the country!

   "Gear! That's my best friend, find your own painter boy!" He stuck out his tongue at her, so she retaliated by hopping over the back of her chair and tackling him to the ground. At which point they both started trying to punch the other, but apparently Marlons have weak wrists and Irregulars care way too much about their nails. Marie, they were all going to hell.

   "Fuck off Princess!" He screeched as they both ineffectually batted at eachother, until the cursed gardner literally had to pull them away from eachother. Nevertheless, clock boy would regret ever trying to replace her position in Clare's heart as her surrogate younger sibling. As would he regret having that many creepy crawlies in his stupid little tower.

   "Can yall please just chill for a second? It's not the end of the world." Irina complained, sounding a little bit too much like a certain judge for comfort. Reluctantly, she acquiesced and allowed the song to continue, but not before shooting a certain blue man a withering glare.

The country was engulfed in the horrors of war

The decree the princess made:

“All of the green haired women,

Kill them”

   Gammon nearly choked on his water. Which she was betting he had stolen from Arte's bag while she wasn't looking. Which also probably meant it was not water and was, in fact, some sort of bodily atrocity compressed into liquid form. Why were these people her friends again?

   "Why is that your first reaction? And also do you know where Arte keeps her beer, for completely unrelated and unimportant reasons?" She simply shrugged, which was better than having another mental breakdown due to extreme guilt. Probably.

   "Second floor, take a right, a left, go straight ahead, win a round of Dance Dance Revolution, and then pick the lock on the third to left cupboard." Though she was hardly an expert on morals, she was, in fact, an expert at procuring alcohol, especially because she looked fourteen when she was literally a medieval queen.

Except the white haired me

I should have died in her place

Why, why?

   "So that's why you befriended me!" The gardner exclaimed, like her had just cracked some complex riddle. It's not that he was wrong, if course; she absolutely looked at him and went tall and depressed = Clarith = New Best Friend. Which was probably less than moral of Waiter, not that it was all that worse compared to literal genocide.

   She heard light sobbing from behind her, and turned to see the singer of the current song sobbing alongside her totally platonic bestie. Waiter should do something. But even watching made her feel infinitely more terrible. Held, she really was terrible. And yet, she still turned away, rationalizing that she was just giving the two some privacy, instead of desperately trying to quell her own guilt.

   "Allen?" She whispered, making sure no one else but her brother could hear her over the music and sobs. He looked at her curiously, as if it wasn't obvious what she was about to ask. Or maybe it wasn't. She honestly couldn't tell anymore.

   "Yeah? Is everything okay?" Shakily, she smiled, before whispering her request in his ear, and getting up to leave the room. No one stopped her, and she preceded to the bathroom, where she locked the door in order to set her plan in motion. She'd fix this rotten world, first correcting her mistakes, then fixing others. No one in that room of people she cared about would ever have to suffer. She pulled out her knife and picked the lock, hopping out the window.

---

“I’m sorry for being alive”, before I knew it that was my catchphrase

Mine was a dull life of saying nothing but complaints

I began my new livelihood in a port city’s church

I heard from a rumor on the wind that in the revolution, the princess died

   Allen was extremely confused, and also stressed, and also really sad for this white haired girl? Because dang, her life sucked. But also his sister had just told him that she was going to 'disappear for a bit' (her words, not his) and to tell everyone she was vomiting? And maybe she had become a new person in the past few hundred years, but still. That was. Extremely odd and mildly concerning?

   Unfortunately, his period of contemplating what was actually wrong with his darling sister was interrupted by his father, who had been rather quiet the whole time they had been there. With the exception of a freak out when 'Riliane' was executed. (And yet there was no similar freakout when it was revealed to actually have been him. Not that he was upset or anything, especially cause it was always meant to be like that. He totally wasn't upset that his father, who he had idolized since childhood, pretty obviously cared more about Riliane than him. Why would you think that?)

   "Where did your sister go?" Of course it was about Rili. Not that he minded in the slightest.

   "She said she felt sick to her stomach and she told me not to let anyone bother her." That was enough to deter his father, leaving him alone to worry about her. She probably just wanted to explore, right? She'd be fine, right?

I met her, near the church

She had collapsed and I saved her; that was the beginning

Before I knew it the two of us were getting along well

But just about everything between me and her was different

   He smiled softly as his sister was shown making friends with the girl. That was good. He didn't want her to brood about his death forever; she deserved to move on and find happiness, do what was good for her. And maybe this girl would be a calming influence on her. She certainly seemed nice.

   "Hey Clarith?" He could hear Michaela, right behind him, whisper to her friend, and began to subtly listen in. It probably wasn't polite, but hey, he was curious.

   "Please don't feel bad in the future. Okay? I want you to be happy." From what he could see from the corner of his eye, it seemed like they embraced, though Clarith's red face afterwards made him rescind his judgement of their relationship. Lovers probably fit better than friends. Perhaps that wedding would be happening after all.

In the night confessional when no one was around

By chance I heard her confession

Ah, what does this mean?

She is certainly

-The Daughter of Evil-

   "Gammon, get me my guitar. I need to show off." The familiar looking blonde girl demanded, before pausing the projector, causing the music to screech to a grinding halt. The man just looked at her, before pulling out a guitar from behind his back that definitely had not had before. Was he a mage? It wasn't completely impossible; normally he probably should have suffocated from the amount if scarves he was wearing.

   Unpausing the music, the girl began to play guitar aggressively, as the rest of them watched in horror as Clarith approached Riliane, knife clutched in her hand, eyes flashing green briefly. Did his sister know this was coming, and she had left the room to avoid it? He couldn't blame her, not when he himself was sat frozen in fear, watching the screen intently.

At a small harbor on the outskirts of town

She is standing alone

From behind I draw near

   He could taste the bile rising on his tongue as he watched his sister scramble in the sand, unaware of the imminent threat. He could see a bottle in the distance, floating off as if it had just been cast away from shore. The distance between the two was closed, and Clarith's red eyes flashed an unnatural green once more.

From my breast pocket I took out

A knife, pointed it at the princess’ back

And raised it high

   She turned around, yet didn't run. She only stared at Clarith, before returning to watching the little bottle float into the background, a golden knife barely a foot away from her neck, ready to plunge into her skin at any moment. The screen flashed orange, and cut to a scene of the woman and his sister praying by a great tree. Which meant, against all odds, she had survived. Lived to see another day, month, and year. It was all he could've hoped for. And yet he was still wary. On edge, to say the least.

I have an apology I must make to you

In the end I didn’t remove your enemy

That girl is the old me, a very very solitary person

To carry on living by yourself, that’s very lonely

She who could do nothing

Became a little more skillful in her cooking

Today’s treat, brioche Is very deliciously baked

  Okay, was he just panicking for no reason or was something seriously up? In Allen's experience, at the very least, you don't go from trying to kill someone to being best buddies, even if you see yourself in them. And why had Riliane left the room if she didn't actually die there? What was going on?

That moment at that beach

For an instant I saw an illusion

Who in the world

Was that boy, I wonder?

   Oh. Well then. Was he even really dead?

Chapter Text

   Gammon's sword was actually very cool. He was very proud if it, as he should be, considering he had risked life and limb to get it back. And had also sacrificed his fucking sanity for it, because some asshole had not only stolen it but had also hidden it in a theater with a bunch of Eldritch beings. Needless to say, that sword was pretty much all he had going for him right about now, so he really didn't need people insulting it.

   Especially when he was already being subjected to the torture of having to sit next to Arte, who took great pride in informing him that he was very much food in her eyes. At least she hadn't actually tried to eat him this time. He still had a scar from that one time she bit his arm and Grave literally had to drag her off.

I’m sorry for being alive

The girl who always complained

    Okay, this was the girl he was supposedly Waiter's replacement for? He didn't always complain. He just didn't really like it much when people tried to fucking eat him. Or when a doll tried to sentence him to death but instead made him water Grave's human size venus flytraps. Speaking of Waiter, where the hell did she go? She knew very well that she was the only extrovert there besides Eve, and Eve hung out with Gear, who did not shut up about his wife for two seconds.

   "Oh my Grave, I didn't know you were alive back then Gammon!" Arte exclaimed at the top of her lungs, which kind of made him want to bash her head in. Unfortunately, the people around them had no way of knowing that she was probably older then all of them, and he didn't really want to be the guy who beat up a teenager. Even if said 'teenager' deserved it.

   "Should-should I be insulted?" Clarith asked hesitantly, and oh no he saw the similarity. Well. Only thing left to do now was to start a cult. Or they could do an identity swap thing, but they didn't look that much like eachother. So a cult it was, because apparently that's what twins do.

   "How do you feel about cults?" Gammon might as well straight up ask her. What's the worse that could happen? Arte eats him? Inevitable. The bewildered shrug he got in return was probably a decent sign. Might need to persuade her a bit, but they could probably figure it out. They could be the resurrecting dead loved ones through necromancy cult! And what would be better than that. Nothing.

   "No revolutions this time, Gammon!" Adam sighed, as if he didn't totally conspire with him that one time. And also apparently help the red haired girl whose name he totally remembered. And he totally wasn't afraid to ask again because she looked a bit too much like Grave for comfort.

Her white hair different from the people of the village

She knelt by the millennium tree deep in the forest

And made a wish,

“I want a friend”

   "Fear not! I'll be your friend!" Aww, how sweet that Michaela and Clarith were friends. It would even sweeter if she, maybe, just possibly, stopped encroaching on theater and forcing him to try to figure out how to fight god with a mop? Because Gammon was way too pretty for this shit. And also way too tired, but that's besides the point.

   "How do you feel about Marlon high-society again? Cause like, you can have half the country if you want. I do not give a shit." Adam chimed in, once again reminding him of Waiter's absence, because she absolutely would've blurted out how willing she was to conquer the globe for this girl. Not that she wasn't cool or anything, it was just a little weird considering that the only person Waiter didn't consistently call a peasant was Court. And everyone was nice to Court, because otherwise she would start crying before sentencing you to hell. Fun times.

I wanted to

Grant her wish

But I can’t do it with this body

   "Were you a bird?" Clarith asked quietly, as if this was the most normal thing in the world. You know, people just turning into humans when they were previously wildlife. Not that she was the first person he had met who did this. Nemesis' vaguely creepy scientist friend was also sometimes a ziz-tiama. And wasn't that one guy just a straight up tiger?

   "No?! What?!" The green girl began to frantically shake her head while laughing nervously. Even as she was very clearly a bird on screen. Side eye. It wasn't even that they were showing her terrorizing local people who just don't really feel like being devoured, she was just sitting on a tree like. Chirping, or whatever it was birds did when they weren't hellbent on eating you.

At such a time, the

Whimsical sorceress who had appeared

Reincarnated the spirit me into a human

   "More like whimsical bitch." The girl on his other side muttered, before flipping off the image of Elluka Clockworker, which was very much fair. Fucking Elluka, or as she liked to call herself, MA. She could go fucking rot, and it was nice to see the sentiment shared, even if he was ninety-nine percent sure this person was not actually currently alive.

   "What do you have against Elluka?" Arte's apparently mom asked, as if it wasn't extremely clear by how the woman interacted with people. Gammon wasn't sure if she had a likeable bone in her body. All this was very true, and yet it was still somewhat surprising when the woman stood up on her chair like she was about to make a speech.

    "She's not Elluka! I'm Elluka, and I don't particularly appreciate her going around fucking stealing my identity for funsies! I just wanted to rest in peace, but no! No! Now I'm stuck a ghost, and she has the nerve to act like we're one and the same. News flash! We're not, she's just a selfish, conniving, narcissistic brat who only cares about herself!" Elluka stopped to suck in a few breaths of air, eyes still ablaze with pure rage. Which was mildly impressive, and they totally needed to compare notes sometimes on reasons to hate MA.

   "I don't know why she decided she was going to do this, or why she decided she was going to do it to me, but it's cruel! And it's even cruelest for you to act like I'm the one in the wrong for holding a bit of a grudge against someone who fucked me over in so many ways!" As the music started again, she sat down, but she was still very clearly upset, and the rest of the room was looking at her like she had just escaped a mental asylum. So he did what any decent person would do.

I don’t yet know

Anything of the world outside the forest

   "Hey, do you need a tissue or something?" Shit, he wasn't good at this. But believe it or not, he was not apathetic enough yet to just ignore the crying woman sitting next to him, even if Gammon hadn't really interacted with anyone who wasn't either actively trying to kill him or nearly killing him on accident. Still softly sobbing, Elluka nodded shakily, and he gave her one of his handkerchiefs (yes, he carried those around; the theater had run out of bandaids and he did not want whatever disease the twins were probably carrying).

   "Thanks. Sorry for, you know, blowing up." Awkwardly, he patted her on the back. Okay, maybe the past decade hadn't really prepped him to comfort strangers. Not that it mattered, because he had dug himself a hole so deep that the only thing below him was hell. Actually, that was a pretty accurate metaphor for his entire life. Gammon Octo: Dug himself all the way to hell on accident. They could put it on his tombstone when the Sarvants inevitably ate him. Before they ate the tombstone too, of course.

So I don’t understand

Why is she crying?

    "It's just like- really frustrating you know? Like no one believes me, but it's true! It happened!" He could sort of get that. Heaven only knows how many times he had tried to tell people about his dreams only for them to completely brush him off. It wasn't the same thing, of course, but it was close. Sort of.

   "Yeah. Best to just let them figure it out on their own, when they get eventually screwed over." Gammon got a small smile for his efforts, which was nice. The whole thing was nice. He honestly couldn't remember the last time he had interacted with someone who legitimately got his frustration. Probably forever ago, if he was being completely honest with himself.

   "That's a pretty good point. Because fuck them, right? It's their choice not to listen, and their choice to face the consequences!" Happily, Elluka held her hand up for a high five, which he gladly accepted. He had a new friend. Sort of. At least they didn't meet because he was about to be murdered, and she hadn't killed his brother. So that was a good thing. Better than half of his other friendships. Except for the slight problem she might be dead, but he was pretty dead on the inside. So it probably canceled out.

---

It’s peaceful and boring

Although I’d expect that to be a wonderful thing

But I don’t understand

Why are you crying?

    Oh, Michaela...Clarith loved her, obviously, but no one could claim she was the best at social cues. Well, she supposed they could, but they would be so very, very wrong. Which made a lot more since now that she knew she had apparently been Grune. Because birds/nature spirits probably didn't have too much reason to figure out how to skillfully navigate conversation.

   "So where did you live, exactly? And how flammable were the buildings?" Kyle asked, because apparently everyone was dog piling on the whole 'Burn Yatski to the Ground' thing. Which would be mildly sweet if the stupid voice in the back of her head would stop encouraging her to tell them everything, along with in-depth instructions on how to get there, and a rating of how much everyone there had wronged her. She was not, in fact, expecting Michaela to voice these thoughts.

   "Yatski Village! And yes, you could theoretically set it on fire extremely easily, especially most houses are made of wood and the nearest stream is quite the bit away. Theoretically, of course!" Something about her best friend's (because that hug had been totally platonic, hahahahashutupnowplease) tone suggested they were not actually discussing hypotheticals. Which again, sweet, but also something told her it was probably morally wrong.    Not that they seemed to care, and one if them could probably get away with it, considering he was the king of Marlon, but still. Murder was not the solution to every problem to ever exist.

Between our dreams, our races, and our values

The two of us who differ so have now met  

    "Ahem. Wedding invites. Cough 'em up." Irina was impatiently tapping her foot behind them, as if they had the power to magically plan a wedding in all of two seconds. Not there would be any wedding, of course, because they were just to very close bestfriends. Nothing more, nothing less. Even if Michaela did have a voice like an angel and a smile brighter than the sun and hair finer than the most expensive of silk and laughter like the sound of tinkling bells. Just friends. Best. Friends.

   "What's a wedding?" Oh goodness. What, had Kyle proposed to Michaela and she hadn't even known what he meant? Granted, she had said no, but still! Her best friend very nearly could've accidentally gotten married, which would be very awkward, especially since Kyle apparently had a wife, who looked an insane amount like Michaela.

   "It's like exchanging friendship bracelets but more expensive and less fun because people tend to get mad when you eat the rings." Cautiously, she looked back at the very smug blonde behind her, who knew exactly what she had just set up. She just hoped Michaela hadn't picked up the eating part, because she really did not need to be stopping two people from trying to random stuff off the ground, not when Yukina was already hard to keep under control.

   "Clarith, do you want to get married?" And that was the question she had been sort of expecting. However, Clarith was not anticipating for the absurd amount of flustered she got. Because she was embarrassed, of course, not because she was into her best friend. Not that Michaela wasn't absolutely gorgeous and perfect in everyway. Anyway, she certainly hadn't anticipated what she about to say.

   "Sure!" Oh dang it, word vomit. What was she going to do now? Oh well, she had already said yes. Its not like she would nesscarily mind being married to Michalela. Because, as stated above, Michaela was the most gorgeous and the most kind person to ever walk the earth, and who would ever walk the earth. Truly, she was amazing, and besides, they already spent most of their time together. This would be fun! She totally wasn't blushing like mad. Why would you think that?

Let this millennium vow resound to the end of the earth

A wiegenlied

Fastened to a fate of ruin

I’m different from you, but I’m drawn to you

I’ll protect you, so stay by my side

    "Kay, I'm thinking maybe a spring wedding? Actually, we should probably wait for Ril to come back. You know, before she murders us for doing this without her." That...was a good point. The princess had nearly suffocated her in her excitement when they had first talked about it, and she didn't particularly feel like tempting fate anymore than was absolutely needed. Didn't really feel like sparking a White Hunting, no thank you. Speaking of the princess...

   "Does anyone know where Riliane went? She just kinda disappeared at one point." Eve had said it, but she was pretty sure nearly everyone was wondering the same thing. Except for a certain servant boy, who looked a little too calm considering his sister had just vanished into thin air. Maybe even a little guilty, though she couldn't fathom why.

   "Oh yeah, uh, she said she felt sick to her stomach, so she's probably in the bathroom right now. She said not to worry though, so she's probably fine." The boy gave them a cheesy grin, as if he wasn't literally lying through his teeth. Weird...

---

   A hooded figure crept through the palace, knife in hand. Slowly, she came up behind a certain queen of Marlon. Praying the contract still held, she brought knife down hard and fast at the nape of the woman's neck. The metallic scent of blood filled the air like a cloying perfume, and she rushed back to the shadows, returning to where she came from.

   Pushing the window back open, she washed her hands off, ruby red blood swirling down the drain, stashing her cloak in a random drawer. Smoothing out her hair, she flushed the toilet and exited the bathroom, as if nothing had just happened. As far as anyone needed to know, she had just been in the restroom. And she intended to keep it that way.

Chapter Text

   "Hey, guys!" Waiter was trying very hard to act normal right now, even though she had literally just murdered a dead woman. Granted, the dead woman had totally had it coming, but she still did it. Not to mention how much of a mess her hair probably was. She also didn't remember what exactly she had told Allen, so she had already fucked up rule number one of getting away with murder: know your alibi.

   "Hello. Are you feeling better?" Mariam asked, unaware of how she had totally just saved Waiter from having to fake spontaneous amnesia. She nodded and sat back down, avoiding eye contact as discreetly as possible. She didn't really feel like explaining anything, or talking to anyone. Not when she was still very aware of the blood that she hoped was concealed, because otherwise that was going to be a very awkward conversation.

   "We're going to take a break now." Elluka announced, before storming off into a room that had very much not been there previously. She was definitely missing some context for that, but it was fine. Waiter could always just rob Gammon at gunpoint. For information of course, and no, she did not steal his wallet that one time to buy brioche. Arte was just hallucinating that day.

   Her parents were halfway through saying something that might be directed at her when she got up. As nice as this all was, even her social battery was drained. And also she was absurdly tired, and if she was nice enough to the Gardener he'd probably let her use his infinite collection of scarves as a pillow. She also probably needed to talk to Gear about the whole engagement thing because that was really fucking embarrassing to think about.

   "Hey Gammon!" Waiter was trying to sound as happy to see him as possible, which was a bit of a struggle considering she felt like she was going to drop dead from exhaustion. But no one could say she didn't try very hard to be polite. Well, no one who only heard that one interaction could say that.

   "No you can't borrow my scarves. Buy your own, considering you're literally royalty." Oh he was so dead. As soon as he surrendered her makeshift pillow, considering those chairs were most definitely going to give her the worst back pain of her three lives if she slept in them.

   "Pretty please? I'll do the chores for once!" That of course, was a bold faced lie, one she would vehemently deny when the matter eventually went to Court. But he didn't need to know that, even though he probably should. And yet he fell for it, or sort of did. He seemed to be considering it at the very least, and she'd take that over nothing any day.

   "Including telling your tree God friend to fuck off?" Waiter almost felt bad for a second when she remembered Gammon had to fight off literal gods on the daily, but seeing as that nesscitated not being too tired to form more than one coherent thought at once, she didn't. Actually, maybe she shouldn't sleep. Then she'd never feel absurdly guilty again! She nodded, because that was something she should probably get around to doing, pillow or not. Begrudgingly, Gammon handed over the scarves and she walked back over to her seat, where her absence had unfortunately been noticed.

   "Manners, Riliane! You can't just walk away in the middle of a conversation!" Her mother scolded, unaware that she had broken the rules of politeness in far worse ways than just walking off. Unless she thought stabbing someone was more polite than walking away, which was actually a possibility considering the amount of assassins who were constantly in the palace. Waiter's constant murders didn't ever seem to help, which was disappointing considering half of them had been committed so assassins would leave her the fuck alone. She was not left the fuck alone.

    "I kill people. With guns and knives." Oh no. She really said that out loud, didn't she? While the looks of horror on her family's faces were mildly entertaining, something told her that was maybe not the best thing to say in public, because now other people were looking at her. And probably wondering why she was apparently very nonchalant about murder.

   "And on that note, your break is officially over." Elluka's head stuck out from behind the door, and she seemed to be holding back laughter. Waiter didn't know why she was holding it back, because as embarrassing as the situation was for her, it was objectively funny as shit, especially since her father was now holding his head in his hands, seemingly regretting his life choices, which he really should've started on a while ago, like the rest of them.

---

   Court was getting really, really sick of Waiter's absence. It had been mildly tolerable at first, but now she was just about ready to set everything on fire and cry for the rest of eternity. Of course, she had to make her father proud, so she couldn't, but it was only looking more and more desirable an option by the moment. She missed the fire. She wished she could set something ablaze besides the occasional visitor.

   What she was also getting sick of was being constantly bothered by Hansel, who, in the absence of his twin sister and friend, had decided to latch on to his mother her, for some reason unknown to anyone with two braincells to rub together. Whenever he hadn't been with Grave, he had been following her around like a lost puppy, occasionally commenting on the most random things. Unfortunately, the whole lost puppy shtick was making it hard to get rid of him without feeling like shit.

   "Court! You'll never guess what I found!" Said boy had just materialized behind her, seemingly out of thin air. Not that him doing so was ever completely out of the question, as he was very definitely irregular, and it wasn't as though there was some way of knowing if they could teleport or not. He had a letter clutched in his hand, and was waving it in her face wildly enough the text was a blurry mess.

   "What did you find that's this important?" Though she had assumed her sarcasm was at the very least implied, he barely reacted, opting to instead enthusiastically chuck the folded paper at her, which meant it lived on the floor. Normally, Court would have Gammon or Waiter pick it up, but since neither of them were there and she didn't feel like somehow shattering into a million pieces, that was where it lived. Hansel, her son, Lemy, really was growing into a fine boy, frowned at her hesitation.

   "Why aren't you picking it up?" He gestured at the paper, though she was almost completely certain it was either fanfic about Grave that people liked to send them, or another report from the police telling them to stop murdering people that would most definitely be ignored, especially as corpses became integrated into their meal plan.

    "It's gross now. It's been on the floor." She explained, because there was no way Court was explaining the truth to her teenage son Grave's little minion, who would immediately tell his master all her darkest secrets that could inevitably be linked to her being porcelain.

    "Well fine, I'll read it!" He huffed, before scooping the paper of on the rather dirty floor (what did anyone expect, their entire cleaning staff had been missing for weeks).

Dearest sister-in-law,

    It is wonderful to write to you after so many years, and have you actually receive the letter. I'm sure you must feel the same, except with a little more severe disgust and need for reaching. Fear not, I'm unfortunately very dead. Your sins have nor quite yet come back to haunt you. Exciting, I know.

  Anyways my guests from your theater are perfectly alive and well, and will remain so until they eventually ditch this place. After that they're your legal responsibility. As far as I'm aware.

Love,

Elluka Chirclatia