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Love in Plastic

Chapter 04

Of Broken Dreams

The black waves had a downright hypnotic effect on Kris. Maybe he shouldn't have stared at them during their silent march across the beach on the other side of the island. Then again, it wasn't like there was much else to look at, everything but the island and the light above the cliffs in the distance was obscured by the dark. When it had begun, the quiet that settled between them was a blessing. It freed Kris from the incessant onslaught of snarky comments and questions he couldn't answer to satisfaction, but as time went on, the more ground they covered with no visible way of getting off this island emerging, the more it began to wear down on all three of them. The island was too big to overlook as a whole from any given point, but it wasn't big enough to give them much more area too explore either. The jester had tried to lighten the mood by making strange hand gestures in front of Kris' face, which left behind a fake mustache under his nose. But this joy at Kris' expense didn't last for long either. Slowly, but surely, the creeping realization that they were out of options took hold in all three of them. For quite some time, they were wandering along what Jandsome claimed was the part of the coast directly adjacent to the city. And albeit only barely, they could even see that this was true with their own eyes. There just was no way over, or any way off this island for that matter.

Eventually, Berdly stopped moving, as did everyone else because of it. "Ugh, it doesn't look like there's any way over." He turned to Kris. "Now what?" He put his hands together behind his back, came closer and swung his head left and right with every sentence. "Any more grand insights about the dark world? Any special tricks you got? Any game-changing rules I should know of? Anything to suggest that we aren't - you know - STRANDED WITH NO WAY OUT? What in hell's name are we going to do?" He covered his face and sat down on one of the scratchy 'rocks'.

Kris brought along a few strands of the fabric the island was made of and tried rolling them together. "If we just used the whole island to weave a really long rope...", but he was interrupted before he could go on.

Berdly pointed out all the obvious pitfalls this idea had. "Say we made this rope, how do we get it there, huh? Do we swim? Might as well not make a rope and just swim right over why don't we? Not like we're going to freeze to death even with life vests. What's next, huh? Maybe we can go all MacGyver and re-purpose the plane's jet and hull to craft a motorboat with all those welders, hammers and boxcutters WE DON'T HAVE. Then you do this thing where you pull a shield out of thin air and we just surf right over." He got up and wandered towards the open sea with his arms wide open. "I don't know why I assumed you had any idea what we were doing, you bumbling idiot! You're as useless with this..." He slowly spun a circle around himself. "...whatever this is - you're as useless with this as you are with school work or anything else for that matter! If I were here with Noelle instead of you, we wouldn't have gotten into this mess in the first place! Her not being here to help is one thing, but being stuck with you of all people that's the worst part!" Kris said nothing. He just listened. He listened while projecting his mind into a better place. He pictured himself with Berdly in a golden hall, surrounded by pillars. Built into the walls were stained glasses depicting him torturing the bird with all manner of archaic instruments, and in the middle, he held him down. Stabbing at Berdly's throat again and again and again until he just collapsed into dust as Monsters did when they died. It was never serious, but imagining it was, always helped him calm down. "I mean geez! What are we going to do?" Kris for one, didn't touch any lights upon coming here. He could go back if they genuinely didn't find a way. But he didn't know anything about this 'Don Gatore' person the two brawlers mentioned, and if they wanted the three of them dead, it was probably the best if the Don thought they were.

"What am I going to do?"

"At ease, my friend, calm down." The jester approached him with open hands, but it was in vain.

At this point, the main reason Kris didn't just move things back was more that he enjoyed watching Berdly despair the way he was right now. "Oh please, anything!" Berdly dropped on his knees, put his hands together and looked up at the black night sky. "Please, Angel, send me a sign! Anything to help me get away from this moron behind me! Anything to set me free, I beg you!"

The moment he said this, an ear-shattering thunder made the three of them flinch and a lightning bolt struck the water in front of Berdly. Where it struck, a single white explosion a little off the coast left behind rays of golden light that extended all along the water and to their island. Choirs of unseen angels sung to the appearance of a figure at the heart of the light. "Fear not, distressed lightners!" It floated closer to the now more attentive group, all of which got up and tried to get a better look at him. The figure was an eagle, dressed in several layers of extravagant robes. The parts where they ended were lined in furs, the entirety was woven over with golden threads. Gemstones of all kinds hung off on various points of his clothing and were attached to the rings and necklaces he wore in excess. And with a crown on top, and mounted onto it, a golden plaque displaying a popularized symbol commonly accepted to visualize the core of an atom and the electrons circling around it. "All your worries are now without warrant. All your prayers have now been answered. For it is I: The Hawk King."

Some more curious, some more in awe, they came closer to the fast approaching figure. "Who are you?", the bird finally asked after he was mere metres away from him.

The hawk spoke with a echo to his voice, as if he was speaking inside a large temple or church with tall and wide walls. "I am a being from the brink of creation itself, and come to you to bestow upon you my infinite wisdom." The Hawk King held a large tome in his right hand, which he opened up to search for a specific page. "What truths, my friends, do you seek to begin your journey of wisdom with?"

Berdly raised an eyebrow. "Could you tell us how to get off this island and to the city?"

The Hawk King grinned and shook his head. "Please, such trivialities no longer matter, now that I am here. There are matters of greater importance, like the secret behind the alignment of the stars, the question between the heat death or the cycle of expansion and contraction of the universe, the nature of black holes, the prospects of space curvature..."

"Yes, but is there a way to get to the city or not?"

The King was startled, lowered himself but also floated a little further away. "Well, yes, but that no longer matters. You now have access to infinite knowledge."

"Is there a way to the city?" Berdly kept pressing this Hawk King on the thing that the three of them cared about.

And as expected, the spirit was getting more and more agitated. "It doesn't matter! You can become omniscient! The greatest mysteries of the universe will soon unravel before your very eyes."

"But we want to get to the city."

The eagle raised his arm and above him appeared images of cities thriving with floating vehicles, and then a time lapse of their decay. "Entire civilizations have seen their dusk and dawn, searching for the answers I can provide!"

The bird waved all these offers for knowledge they didn't need away in one clear swipe. "Look, we just. Want. To get. To. The City."

The resigned king took a deep breath and sighed. "Fine. Come along. I will show you the way." He began floating right past them, to a place further inward between the hills that they hadn't come across. On their way to where they met the hawk, the three of them had taken a path along the beach around some of the 'grass' in hopes of finding a way over. Judging by where they were going, exactly that was a complete mistake, as embedded between the hills, they arrived on an uneven, solid surface with a big yellow dome in the middle. Once they arrived, the Hawk King led them to stand on the end of the white platform that was opposite from where the city lay. "Beneath your feet lies a wondrous contraption, brought to us not long ago, by the lightners. Once I direct it to begin, its golden light will form a straight path and guide you to the location you seek." The moment he finished that very sentence, the ground beneath them shook and soon, the solid platform they were on began to rise up until it was above all the hills. The yellow dome in the middle began to light up like a giant lamp. Then, in an upwards line that turned flat a little further, as wide as the dome, a straight yellow ray of light began extending itself in the direction opposite to them. "Do not fear, it will act as a bridge and see you safely across the water."

The jester was the first to raise his boot and carefully place it on the light, only to notice that indeed, he wound up standing on a curved slope that followed the path of the light that extended itself further and further onto the sea. Once they saw him 'walk' into the air with his feet never falling beneath the light, the other two started stepping on it as well. Keeping one foot on the light, the jester spun around to face the hawk, gave him a half-serious salute and bowed. "You have our thanks, good sir."

Perhaps this Hawk King was going to be useful. "So, your majesty, could you tell us where we find a prince or get to the city hall?" The hawk didn't so much as dignify him with an answer. "What happened to 'I'm an omniscient being'?"

"You rejected the fundamentals of cosmic knowledge and continue to do so, you do not deserve to delve into the same pool for trivialities. You got your wish. I will now move on in search of less ignorant disciples." Clearly upset about their previous interactions, he began to float away, along side the ray of light, straight to the same destination they were heading for.

Silently, they followed him. Along the light that kept stretching out all the way to the shoreline on the other side of the sea. The silence wore them down about as much as it did, when it was their creeping desperation to find a way off this island, only that now, it did for other reasons. Jandsome made use of the fact that Kris was now in a bit more of a rush to move forward and snuck over to Berdly to tug at the shoulders of his jacket. "Say...", he began to whisper. "...all the jokes are fun, but you seemed a little too serious just before."

The bird snarled at him. "I was."

Jandsome tilted his head, still bent slightly over the bird, thanks to his height. "Oh please, we were just teasing him weren't we?"

They both slowed down to gain a little distance from Kris. "You haven't spent years of school with this guy. You want to know some thing about him? You think I'm just teasing him? You think that mommasboy stuff is just a joke? You know, he's gotten a lot more talkative ever since we came here, but he's really different actually. He's that weirdo everyone knows who won't talk to you unless he has to. The one that won't look you in the eye unless you tell him to. Sometimes if you talk to him, he'll only answer in gestures if at all. And he's bad at school. So bad, a close friend of mine spends so much time putting together problems and quizzes of her own - as if she was a teacher - just so she could help him along, and sometimes, he doesn't even let her get a chance to use it. And at some point, our class moves past it with our material. So it just winds up material she made to help him and never got to use. Wasted efforts that no-one was forcing her to make. It just winds up catching dust in a shelf in my room. He's a mommasboy because he's got no-one else to turn to. He's only here because our teacher had this weird sudden idea to scrap our old assignment and force me to be his partner. And he deserves everything he gets. I can't wait to make it back home so we can get that last problem over with. I might as well kick him out right afterwards. I don't even care if it's four in the morning or something when we get back. No way I'm letting this guy have the mattress. Or the bed for that matter."

"Surely, you are exaggerating. Do you mean to say you want to throw him out into the cold of the night?"

"Why not? Would suit him right."

The jester wagged his index finger. "This sounds more severe than mere discontent over some school work. It is not healthy to harbour such grudges. What good is a prank or a joke, if your mind is poisoned and can't enjoy it? Besides." He began walking in his otherwise more usual half-kneeling fashion, moved closer and warded the already distant human off with one hand to whisper a little more quietly. "It feels to me like there is more to this grudge of yours than only the impressions a shy person would leave. This friend of yours. You said it is a 'her'. I can't help but notice the two of you to be in that age where..." He stopped for a moment, because Berdly adjusted his hat so he could shoot the jester a deadly glare, and the red hearts drawn over them only annoyed him all the more when he did so. It wasn't quite as intimidating as the generally non-threatening bird would have liked it to be though. "I'm just saying. Makes me curious. This friend of yours, tell me about her."

Berdly simply rolled his eyes off to the side, sighed and fixated Jandsome again. "Some other time, maybe, okay?" That seemed to be enough of an answer. The jester grinned even more than he did before, backed off, put his hands up and shrugged. With their private conversation settled for the time being, they sped up to join up with Kris again. He only understood bits and pieces of what Berdly said when Jandsome was the only one whispering.

The closest thing to a building they spotted outside of the gorge ahead, was an airfield, except it was fenced off and so small, it barely had enough space to land the one plane that was standing there. Upon getting closer, it became obvious that this plane was significantly larger than theirs. If Jandsome entered this one, he wouldn't have had to hunch forwards like he had to in the brawlers' one. There were a few little roads leading down onto ropes and what seemed to be an elevator big enough for move vehicles. It wasn't until they left behind the loud rushing of waves crashing against the coastline, that the jester ran ahead, just before they began to see red rock of the terrifyingly big gorge they were about to enter, stopped and bowed before them. They had to admit to themselves, the loose clothes and the cape did give his demeanour a bit of a majestic air. "Gentlemen, I give you Canyon City!" What they saw upon coming closer, they had only ever seen on photos shot to attract tourists. This canyon was every bit as wide and quite a bit deeper than it looked on scenic photos. Layers of buildings and pavements were built on top of each other, and you could only see that they were through what little wasn't covered in the top layer. In the middle, there was hole with a little more than a third of the canyon's radius, of course roughly matching the lengthy shape of the entire landscape. And off in the distance, there was a whole other canyon that they couldn't even look into from here. "Worry not about the aggrieved eagle. There are places here, where one can learn anything they care to know, without conditions on the perceived importance of what they learn."

They followed the ramp down into the upper level of the city. The pavement felt smooth, as did the walls when slid along. But in terms of the colouring and the design, the buildings here were made to give the impression that this wasn't the wealthiest part of town. The walls of what seemed to be apartment buildings inspired by the more coloured districts of a world-famous coastal city, were painted red with white lines drawn over where all the 'bricks' connected. And while the walkway wasn't as rough as a real one in the light world was, it was dirty. There were traces of some gray substance spread across it, and in the corners between the road and the walkway, they kept spotting empty needles. Kris couldn't help but peek into the narrow alleyways between buildings each time they came by one, and eventually, he wound up regretting that. A shock took hold of his spine when he stumbled from being grabbed by his lower leg. "Some change!" A sad sight lay on the ground, right next to the three shocked travelers. At first sight, it looked like a monster. It was a green bird, dressed in nothing but a torn shirt and short trousers. Every spot not covered by what little the clothes did cover, was dirty, and some of the plastic slides that made up his 'feathers' were falling off. He kept holding Kris' leg with his strange hand. It wasn't like a monster's or human's hand. It didn't have five fingers like any normal person in the light world did. It had two very flat, very wide mutually opposite digits. Of course, the hand made him realize it. If this was a city made of building blocks, people like this poor man were the corresponding figures. "You guys got some dust? Or some change...anything!" He continued to plea and wouldn't let go of Kris' leg. He tried tugging it away several times, and eventually with one big pull, got rid of the beggar.

What was that just now? The queasy feeling he was already getting from the unkept roads and suspicious lack of cars passing by. They had barely rushed around a corner to get away from the beggar, when someone else pushed himself off the wall of the building to stand in their way. A visibly bigger figure than the few 'monsters' they saw walking along in the distance here and there. It was a shark in a trenchcoat who tipped his trilby to greet them. With a hand that did have ordinary fingers. "Hey guys. You look like you got some cash." He opened up his coat and revealed bags of a grey, powdery substance. "You guys want some dust? It's the best stuff! Take you on a grand journey"

Before Kris and Berdly had any time to figure out what was going on here, the jester shoved his way past them and gestured the stranger to back off. "I assure you, my friends and I already have had our fair share of a grand journey. Pardon us if we pass on your offer this time. Have a good evening!" He had to physically push the two hesitant and confused teenagers. They both lived isolated in an ethnically homogenous suburb inhabited entirely by Monsters. Sure, they heard about drugs through the internet, but they never had problems like someone in their idyllic town selling them, so they weren't sure how to deal with this. "Move along."

It took them a little longer than the mentally prepared jester to figure out what was happening here, but it didn't take too long for Berdly to spell out the obvious question that hung over them ever since they passed that dealer. "Stuff like this guy before...is that normal here?"

"In much smaller amounts, yes. Short while ago, it got much, much worse. By now, this is normal. Believe me, it's best for you if you just avoid it." The darkness and the lack of streetlights that weren't broken didn't help with the already uncomfortable air between them. They were lucky enough for their surroundings turning a little less grisly as they moved on. More and more often, a street light actually worked for a change, and occasionally, a vehicle passed by along the street, although they weren't the kinds of vehicles Kris first expected. When the unusual shape started to become noticeable, he began to pay attention. They were those kinds of vintage cars you only saw in car-themed museums or in movies made to cater to fascinations with western life many decades ago. They came with a smooth, curved outer body in the front and back, but leading abruptly into a straight-upward window. There was no way they could fit Jansome into one of those cars if they wanted to. Once they got past a district with a few grocery stores, presumably for the low-quality living area they came through at first, they finally took a turn towards the inner area. The path to the downward ramps led straight through a giant, dark-grey garage, with a lot of these cars using them. They passed by a lot more very unhealthy-looking monster-looking citizens, reclined within various niches and corners, some begging them for some change, but when Kris offered to give one of them some, Jandsome insisted the sorry-looking dog would only spend it on more dust.

They skipped more than one floor, and when they came out on the other side, they arrived in a much better-looking part of the city. It was a lot brighter here, thanks to something shining down on them that looked a lot like the moon. Except that it couldn't be the moon, because they weren't even on the top floor for one thing. It must have been some kind of lamp. Immediately to both sides of the exit of the giant parking tower that appeared to extend from the bottom of the canyon, to the top, were wide-open areas. On their right, a white square and garden with a - granted - defunct fountain, but at at least it seemed a lot less grim than the state some other parts of the city were in. It was part of what led up to a large ivory building, the roof of which seamlessly led right into the ceiling that made up the ground of the floor above them. To their left was a regular market square with comparably vague buildings lining its side and back. It wasn't that they weren't defined, they just seemed a bit too uniform and with no indicator for what the closed doors would have led to, if someone opened them. There even were a few stands, but they were all abandoned, thrown over, and broken.

This area was generally a little more densely populated from the looks of it. The buildings they saw in the distance in all directions had their lights on, and a lot more people were walking about on both squares and along the wide and much more busy road in the middle of the parking tower's exit. Things got a lot less roomy once they passed the wider area and made their way into one of the more regular looking streets, with closed shops in every direction they looked in. And the shops weren't the only thing that appeared a little less present than in the more straightforward area. There were people around the squares. There weren't any here. And the buildings weren't decaying, but the streets were comparably short and both Kris and Berdly felt more and more paranoid with each turn they took. Increasingly often, Kris thought he spotted someone watching them from around the corner and retreating the moment they were being looked at. And judging by how often he turned around to check on the two of them, Jandsome was more worried than he usually was as well.

It was only a question of time, until they all froze upon hearing the unmistakable sound of gunfire. One shot, and it wasn't here. They couldn't allow themselves to be ambushed by whoever was pulling the trigger though, so without even talking about it, they all rushed not away from the source of the shot, but towards it. When they got closer, they preferred to err on the safe side and stay very close to the walls and closed-off shop windows. They all nigh-froze from being so tense out of worry of getting spotted. They froze all the more, but now with a stinging cold in their backs, when they heard the clicking sound of someone releasing his firearm behind their backs. "Hands where I can see'em." They did as they were told, for the time being. There had been a light to touch on the square, so Kris was in less of a panic than the situation would have warranted. Slowly and with no sudden moves, the three turned around to see a frilled drake in an awkwardly fitted, red suit jacket, a white shirt and an equally blood-red tie, and a top hat to match it. Clothes that matched with what regular people wore here, but you could see through the jacket that he had an ammunition belt for something that used very long bullets swung over each shoulder. "Wait..." The lizard turned his head to the side and gave Kris a good look. Then he pulled a little scrap of paper out of his jacket pocket and compared it to him. And upon doing it, a smile crept up his dry-looking lips. "Looks like today's my lucky day."

"If I may, suggest..." Jandsome, who had taken a few steps to the side with his hands still over his head, began to draw his attention. "...surely, we can come to some form of agreement, after all if you..." Mid-sentence, he did make a sudden move, but not enough of a major one to make the lizard pull the trigger. He closed and opened his hands without moving them, and confetti shot out of his costume and flew about one and a half metres into the air. And while keeping the gun pointed at Kris, the reptile followed the confetti with his eyes to assure himself that it wasn't something else.

Visibly upset, he went on to stare at the jester. "Wat'cha playin'? You pull some thingamajig like that one more time, and I blow the kid away."

The jester, now grinning, took his hands down and shrugged. "Please, if you insist, be my guest." He wasn't joking. For a moment, a pressing feeling took hold of Kris, when the lizard pointed his weapon arm at him and moved his index finger backwards to pull the trigger. Only to then, to the surprise of everyone but the jester realize, that his pistol was actually a banana. With a victorious grin, the jester wagged the real revolver around in his hand. "The good 'ole banana swap. A timeless classic." Now insufficiently armed to fight them, the brawler backed off, spread out his frills and hissed at them before he ran way. Relieved over the short-hand diffusion of this situation, both Kris and Berdly commended the jester. "I aim to please. Did you not expect me to have something up my sleeve? Now then, let us not waste much more time. We're already well on our way." Now with a newfound hastiness, they rushed from street to street, and all the more wary of whether someone could be lurking around the next corner the same way as before. Once they were quite a bit further out, their apparent guide pointed at one of the many cars. This time, it was one that had a police light on its roof. "As you can see, we are getting closer." And they could see why he pointed at a police car, since more and more of them appeared parked on the sides of the road. And when they shot the cars a glance, they could even spot monsters in similar attire to Berdly, usually eating something while locked away comfortably in their vehicles.

As the jester became increasingly jumpy with anticipation while they strolled down a comparably broad road with five police cars parked towards the crossing, they could already guess where they were going. Except the repeated clicking of readied firearms shot down those expectations right away. Just around the corner, putting them on the spot in the middle of a wide-open crossing, stood three more brawlers. Kris and Berdly were a little faster at distinguishing them by now, seeing as there was a pattern here. One of them was the frilled dragon in red from before, but he was accompanied by two identically dressed men with lengthy snake heads. "End of the line!" one of the snakes hissed. And in the moments of motionless silence that followed, two of them tried to come up with a strategy to get through them. "You wanna keep going, you're gonna have to go through us."

Berdly tilted his head to the side. "You really want to attack us right here? With all the cops around?" He looked back to reassure himself that they were there, but they hadn't moved and most of them had monsters sitting in them, intently watching what was happening.

The reptiles were staggering in place a bit and couldn't suppress wide, tense smirks. "Wanna...elaborate on that?"

"Well obviously if you actually assault us, they're going to arrest you."

The brawlers had to support each other to not fall over after bursting out in shrill laughter as hard as they did upon hearing this. "Get a load of this guy! The cops doing anything!" They took a minute or two to calm down from the hysterical laughter. One of the snakes had collapsed and was trying to push himself back up with one hand while smashing his fist onto the ground over how funny he found this. When the drake in red finally got a hold of himself, he sighed and wiped a tear off his eye. "Kid, you musta watched way too many crime shows. Stuff works a little different in the real world. Sorry to disappoint. Cops ain't gonna move a muscle. Boss made sure of that." It wasn't as though he was wrong. The three in front of them had long drawn their firearms and the policemen didn't look like they were about to make any efforts to leave their vehicles.

Finally slipping into the role his clothing implied, the bird grinned and drew both his guns. "Guess we're fighting this one out then."

"No." Berdly was rather surprised when Kris snapped at his opponents and at him. "No we aren't." He began walking straight their way, without drawing his weapon or showing any intention to fight them. He couldn't be dealing with this right now. He wasn't going to catch bullets for Berdly and carry his unbearable classmate's weight. He didn't have the nerve for it. The bouquet in the closet was one thing, but these were three people, armed and intending to kill them. He was loaded from his time with Susie. All the darkners that left them some money for sparing them, and all the money he had frisked off of them after Ralsei put them to sleep. He had about three thousand of that currency.

"Whaddya mean, you don't?" The reptiles were as taken aback as his two 'allies'.

He opened his bag, and fetched for the little paper bills. "You guys do this for money, right?" They paused, and after a few questioning looks were exchanged, they nodded. Kris pulled together a bundle of those bills. "I'll give you three hundred dark dollars if you go away. You can either take it and leave, or we're going to fight this out and I take whatever you have on you instead."

They began staring at each other. For quite some time. And drops of sweat ran down their uneven skin. But in the end, while orders were orders, money was money, too. So they came around to pulling the bundle out of the human's hand and smiled. "You get away this time. But if we know, Boss' gonna know. There will be other guys comin' for ya." Apparently, it worked. They left without a fight. They could continue those last few roads along the outer edge of this level.

Over here, the 'moon' had switched locations, or rather, it was just a different moon-shaped lamp installed above this part of the canyon, because the one above the squares was too far away for the surrounding buildings not to cast a shadow on this area. They had to travel quite a bit along the curve until at last, the jester slowed down a bit. And when they were finally there, he stopped and spread his arms out. "There we are. If you are in a foreign township and know now where to find what you seek, you ask the town guards. Or in our case, the police." They were standing in front of a wide, blocky building. It really was just a white 'block' built from smaller bricks, painted all white with two green stripes and one blue one. Some police cars were parked at its side, only that this time, they didn't have this vintage design all the other ones, had, but were modern models. On one of two little flowerbeds next to the front door, one of the lights Kris could use to secure their progression was shining, unbeknownst anyone else who passed it. "And this..." The jester paused, intently watching as Kris walked up to the precinct to see how far he would go and didn't go on until Kris stopped to see whether he was following. "...is not our destination, since our friend and helper didn't prove as much of one as one would expect. Instead, this is our true destination." He marched off, now with a significant head start, to the building immediately next to the precinct. A tower with a cube at its base, and right above the walled-off cube, glass walls covering the rest of the tower and the penthouse at its top. Several white pillars all around the building reaching from the ground to the penthouse, helped keep it stable in case it was particularly loaded up there. The tower was tall enough to blend right into the ceiling of the level they were on and in the middle, it had a deep blue neon light in the shape of a lowercase 'i' attached.

With all three back together, they approached a set of tall, automated glass doors that slid wide open the moment they stepped onto the little walkway to the entrance. And inside, their steps echoed along the walls of the otherwise empty building. Pipes wound their way along the grey ceiling above. Green and purple lava lamps lined the walls to either side, and yet they weren't the source of light, completely normal light bulbs hanging off the ceiling between the pipes took care of that. They followed the wide hallway further inside, until they reached a large hall, all upper walls of which were covered by screens that took up their entire surface, depicting maps and live footage from different streets outside. This included the one in front of them, with a double elevator right below it. They stopped for a moment to examine their surroundings, but when they were just about to head towards the elevator, they were startled by a crackling noise that came from right above their heads. "Hello, my friends. Welcome to the information centre. What information can I assist you with?" It came from a floating man, a green parrot in what looked like a red hotel page's uniform, but with a matching red hat on his head, just like how most people in this city had. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am the Infopage, but acquaintances refer to me as Manuel." It didn't appear like gravity affected him in any way. Or whether he needed to do anything to move. He seemed to just fly around at his leisure, with no strings or wings necessary to make it possible. Berdly, upon looking closely, could see some faint flickering in his appearance, from which he drew his own conclusions on how this otherwise normal-looking monster could fly around like that.

He spun an infinity symbol in the air while he continued to go on. "I have all the information you might need, at your disposal. Pamphlets, brochures, maps, trivia, restaurant recommendations, anything you need." Little paper pamphlets began raining down on them from above, but only Jandsome bothered to catch one to not be inconsiderate. Instead of giving them a try, the bird smirked, stepped aside so he could face Manuel directly without straining his neck. "So do you also just answer questions or are tourist guides everything you got?"

"Of course." The infopage snipped his fingers, and the screens that covered the walls all switched simultaneously towards camera footage of different places outside. In some places, there were people walking the streets, so they weren't just static images. "There are cameras in every corner on every level of our two canyons. And I am the only person with full access to the feed of every single one of them. If anything happens anywhere within the confines of our city, I am going to know about it."

This was the opportunity Kris was waiting for, so he followed Berdly up on questioning the page. "We're looking for a prince from the dark. Do you know where we can find one?"

Manuel put his hands together and leaned on them with his chin while looking down at the three of them. "Of course. I can immediately think of two. One is a connoisseur of many places, not a prince in the traditional sense, more like a 'prince charming' but he is renowned and well-liked with everyone here, many would consider him a 'prince' when asked. He came here today, but in more of a rush than otherwise. Then, there would be another one I haven't seen until today. A short and timid one. Easy to intimidate with body language alone. Wears a green robe and a scarf in bright magenta. Floppy ears, fangs, black fur.." Ralsei! This was Ralsei! The live feeds even switched towards all showing repeats of a very limited set of video recordings showing Ralsei walk out of a broad set of doors that seems out of place for a run-down concrete block like the one the filigree frame was attached to.

To keep the infopage's attention before someone else had him switch subjects, he pointed right at him. "The second one! Where is he?"

Manuel placed his hands on his waist, glided a bit further back towards the hallway they came here through and nodded towards it as well. "Right next door. As they say, 'bad guys go to jail' and this one arrived and quickly found himself behind bars." Well this couldn't be right. How was Ralsei bad? He was the nicest person Kris could think of. No, this wasn't right. He swallowed down a creeping worry. On one hand, he was hopeful he would meet him again, but on the other, why was he in prison? What could he have done that was so much worse than the things those brawlers were doing?

Without much more of a word, more or less mid-conversation, Kris turned right back to the hallway and began marching towards the exit.

"Hey!" His angry classmate screamed after him. "Where are you going? We're not done here?" Kris didn't listen and kept going, so Berdly saw no option but to run after him and grab him by his arm once he caught up. "Manners, Kris! You can't just buzz off like that! This is tremendously impolite! This guy was about to answer all our questions!" Kris didn't answer. If Berdly wanted to ask Manuel more questions, he was welcome to, but Kris didn't feel like he wanted to spend any more time with this bird than he had to. He tried to move on, and wrestled his way out of the bird's grip. When he did, this bird shouted at him again. "Why are you in such a rush now? Huh?" He kept going. "Can't get back home to Mommy soon enough, huh?"

This was actually enough to get Kris to stop. He couldn't stand this bird going on about this over and over and over with everyone they met. He tried to distract himself from it. He tried to wait it out but it never ever stopped. He had long been picturing himself stabbing Berdly again just to keep himself from really doing it. His breathing was irregular. The continuous repetition was really getting to him. He took a second to calm down before he responded. "At least I have one you know."

Even now, when confused at what he said, that infuriating buzz never left that bird's voice. "Wait, what? What are you talking about?"

He caught himself almost spinning back and screaming at Berdly, at least for a moment, the impression of doing so flashed before his eyes. He wasn't as calm as he had hoped, so he stayed still, took a deep breath and then turned around slowly. He brushed his hair aside and faced Berdly head-on. "At least when I come home, I actually have a Mom that is actually there and not off to who-knows-where. She's at home when I come home, and I don't have to replace her with Noelle like you."

After that, he just turned back to the exit and stormed off, completely ignoring the bird's pleas for him to explain himself. "Say wha - hey! Hey! I'm talking to you!" All further screams that could still be heard from outside and half-way towards the police station were in vain. Kris' mind was made up. He had no intention to wait with seeing if Ralsei was here any longer, just because this bird wanted to spend ages nigh interrogating this not quite so but still very annoying other bird. Even after the automatic doors closed behind his classmate, Berdly stayed in place. A full minute of awkward silence passed before he sighed and went back into the hall. He figured that Kris was too stubborn to get him back, at least for now. Berdly was just left standing there, wondering what all this was about. Where was this stuff about 'replacing his mom with Noelle' coming from? Just because of some sleepovers? Kris had at least one point right. If Noelle were here with him instead of Kris, Berdly was sure by this point, they would both be safe at home and fast asleep again. With a tasty meal she cooked for supper rather than the ham sandwiches they had. He wondered how the day had been going for Noelle.

Noelle indulged Susie's sudden interest in playing cards for a few more parties of a different game from the first one, before she concluded that they probably did enough of that assignment. At least as much as Mrs. Alphys was going to expect from the other students. Besides, once at home, if she got at home, Noelle could still do some more of it on her own. They left school on the note of a promise though. Tomorrow, she would bring her tarot cards, so she could show them all to Susie and spend time together, reading her fortune. That was one good thing she was looking forward to. She just hoped she would be allowed home when she actually went home. But she couldn't just go home on an evening before checking on her father.

Her legs were a bit shaky on the way there. Every time she went to the hospital, she felt anxious to go there, but she had to go. She wasn't sure why she felt this way. He said it was all fine. He only caught something. He was just there for a few tests. Just a few tests. She stopped at a crossing and looked up at the evening sun, already setting far enough for its relieving light to not quite reach her any more. It was a little later than she had planned to stay at school. And this cold sensation sliding along her back would not let her go, it would envelop her even more when she set foot on nigh-white, soft blue floor. The nurse had long gotten used to her daily visits, so she didn't even look up from whatever she was reading on her desk while she greeted her. Just two more doors. After the first one, she stood in front of the last door to the ward her Dad was lying in and then opened it. Very, slowly. First only by a crack, then gradually, she got herself to push it further open.

"Hey!", the long-yearned for voice of her father called from inside. "There's my lovable little pumpkin!" He immediately knew it was her. "What're ya waiting for. Come right in, let me look at you." She sighed and pushed it open far enough to step through. He wasn't alone. "How did things go with..." Noelle was startled at seeing her when she shouldn't have. It was a grown woman, with grey fur and a pointy pink nose at the end of her face, surrounded by two strands of whiskers, stood at the sink and was washing an empty glass. She wore a dark grey suit, high quality, with a clean, white shirt and a light blue tie. She scratched the left one of her two conspicuous, round ears, and moved her hairless tail out of the way, but beyond that, she didn't care to react to Noelle entering, let alone to say hello. "Don't worry'bout her. She doesn't bite." He was right. She was a friend of her mother's who worked at the town hall longer than her mother did. Sarah was her name. When her mother became the new mayor, she and Sarah grew very close. But that didn't go for her and Noelle. Most of the time like she was right now, when she could avoid it without it looking too bizarre in front of a lot of people, she just ignored Noelle, as she usually did with Dad until the doctors found that thing that keeps him here. Ever since he was here, it was as though she was here every day at some point. Sarah picked up the glass and a bottle she must have brought with her, and left without saying goodbye. "Humour her, she's had a very busy day." With his eyes half-shut, but still well-awake, her Dad beckoned her to come closer. "So how'd it go? You talk to her?" He was the only person she talked to about Susie. Which was why he already knew what was on her mind.

Noelle smiled. "Yes. We worked together and played cards for hours."

He chuckled and began stroking her forearm. "Did you say the thing?"

She couldn't help but chuckle with him and felt herself turn so red it must have shone through her fur. "N-no...I don't think I could that's...a bit out there."

"You just have to play it cool." He stared at her for a bit. "Okay maybe you're not the right kinda person to play it cool. Just wait till she least expects it and blurt it right out. See how she reacts. If it doesn't go your way, you can always say it was a joke."

This all was making her a bit light-headed and she felt a little too hot despite the air-conditioning keeping most of this place pretty cool. "I - I suppose so. I'll try...maybe." She raised her hand with her fingers twisted. "I can guarantee nothing."

He burst out in laughter, for quite a bit. Then he lost his breath and began to cough. For several seconds. He covered his mouth. He coughed long enough to have time cover his mouth. That hadn't been the case yesterday, but when he caught himself, he began rubbing her shoulder. "Don't look at me like that, I'm fine. In a week's time, I'll be up and ready, back in front of our gate. I promise."

She couldn't wait for that to happen.

She hoped it was going to happen.