Est was frustrated. They hated how they had come to think of the Pale King in a more respectful light since his sacrafice. As if one good deed could make up for the years of trauma them and their siblings had endured. And, sure, they didn't habour any love for him, but even they didn't want him to give himself up like he did!
It didn't help that the natural glow of the Archive just seemes bright and uncomfortable today. They would have left already but they didn't want to leave Toothy. Their younger sibling was in no way ready to leave yet. They needed someone to help share their pain. To them, he had never been a bad bug despite all the bad things that Toothy had endured that could be linked back to him. A small growl escaped them as runes burned brightly under their cloak. Red light shone through them, surrounding them in a sort of red aura as they could feel their sickle involentarily appearing in their fist.
Apparently this glow attracted unwanted attention as Rim flew around the corner with a curious glint to their eyes.
"Oh the glow's coming from you Est. I was confused" the vessel confessed. Up closer, Est noticed certain details on Rim. Dark stains covered their mask, implying crying. Their wings -which Est was rather puzzled over how they worked- seemed to glow a brighter gold today. Perhaps most peculiarly though, they had added a few strands of silver to their collar. "Yes." they said dryly.
"If you don't mind me asking, why?"
"Summons my sickle. Don't mean to be doing it right now but I guess that what happens in stressful situations" they muttered the last part mostly to themself but Rim still seemed to understand it.
"Stressful situation, yeah I wonder why..." they added bitterly. Est looked at them before deciding they should probably add on to their point. They doubted Rim would actually understand otherwise.
"Not really sure how to feel about all this.. I mean can you really call a bug a hero because of one good deed? Even more so when you compare it to other bad things that have been-"
Rim started to glare them down and for some reason -they weren't quite sure themself- they faltered. The now also angry vessel flapped their wings and loomed over them. From this angle they actually seemed quite threatening. Like they were some kind of angry force rather than a vessel with some wings. "Only one good deed?" Rim said threateningly passive.
"Well what else has he done?" they asked.
"Oh you wouldn't know... You ran away and didn't give him a chance after hypocritically chucking him down the Abyss just like you hated he did it to you" the winged vessel snarled.
"That still doesn't tell me what he's done" they deadpanned. "You want to know what he's done? Go speak to Quirrel. Or Lili. Or Hollow. Just don't bother me with this kind of nonsense again, or I swear that sickle won't save you from my wrath" To illustrate their point, Rim knocked their scizzors into their grasp and pointed them straight down at Est. They then flew off.
Speak to Quirrel, Lili and Hollow? They'd do that. See what these supposed good deeds were... See what false hood they were built on...
Oh but how wrong they were...
Quirrel wasn't hard to track down after a quick question to Monomon. He was sat at his desk filing a report on the incident. Entering quietly, Est looked to Quirrel. The desk was messy with papers and viles of green liquid scattered everywhere. A broom sat in the corner on top of a cloud of dust and crumbs but the floor still seemed dirty overall. The pillbug himself was hunched over mumbling to himself. Originally, Est thought he hadn't noticed their presence but he murmerd greetings to them as they approached the desk. Still not looking up from his work, he asked in dry, tired tone, "Can I help you Est?" They weren't really sure how to start a conversation such as one they wanted to: they weren't so insensitive to try straight up asking when it was still a sore subject. So instead, they questioned what Quirrel said.
"How did you know it was me?" "The bandage on your foot slides on the floor. No one else has that"
"I see"
There was a pause as Est contemplated a solution to their conversational problem. In the end, Quirrel spoke up, realising that Est would need to be prompted to iniate further speech of their purpose.
"So what you need?" They hated how they stumbled on their words when conversing with Quirrel. They could deal with a sensitive subject!
"I er w-wanted to ge- know what the P-pale King did for you"
"The king? I suppose you mean in recent times" Quirrel seemed to grow even more distant. Est nodded their head then realised Quirrel might not be able to detect that.
"Yes"
"Once he came to the Archive to fix something. Something was a bit off though. Still not really sure what was going on but I think it was all a set up. Anyway Shadow decided it was a good time to put the King through some stuff in revenge I guess... I came in to check up on the progress and Shadow couldn't stop in time. Used up his magic and damaged himself to save me. I woulda been boiled otherwise..." he trailed off dejectedly.
Est tried to process this. The same bug who had chucked them down a large pit to kill them because they were deemed a failure had saved someone else knowing it would hurt him? It lined up with his...recent actions but it was like a puzzle piece that just wouldn't fit in Est's picture of the King.
"Uh thanks Quirrel, I'll leave you be now" Quirrel mumbled a goodbye as Est left. He seemed upset at recent events so perhaps Rim had been on to something...
But that would be forgetting what he'd done to them all before. Quirrel hadn't gone through all that so could be bias towards the figure he'd bowed down to in previous times. Maybe he'd felt honoured to be saved and therefore exaggerated. Yeah exaggerated... But he didn't sound like he was exaggerating...
Leaving the story open for interpretation later when they had more infomation, they headed off to there next destination. Supposedly Lili also had some reason to like and appreciate the Pale King but as far as they knew Lili had scarcly interacted with him. But something had clearly happened. They narrowed their eyes and dashed off, a part of them now curious.
The vessel was harder to track down than Quirrel had been. Thorn gave them the best guess that they were hiding in the small, warm room next to the heating system with Myla. Most knew that Myla was there so it seemed a bit weird they wouldn't know Lili was there too but any vessel could be sneaky when they wanted to. Est hoped Thorn was right because everyone else they'd asked -Hornet, Herrah, Tweet and for some reason Misfortune- had been way off. They'd probably believe it if someone told them Misfortune had just thought of a random location in the building though...
The room where Lili supposedly was wasn't far from one of the chambers that had been readied for sleep that Thorn was in. Therefore it didn't take them long to reach it. They hoped Lili was actually there... They were fed up of searching and it would be awkward for them and Myla if they weren't. They hesistated then steeled their nerves with a firm reminder that they'd already been through a lot more than an awkward conversation. They swung the old, gold coloured door open and -to their relief- saw Lili crouched next to Myla. The pink cloaked vessel was curled up into their companions side, clearly upset. Est cleared their throat so the pair would ntice them. "Oh hi Est..." Lili said sorrow evident in her voice. "Yeah, hi Lili... I know this might not be the best time to be asking but there's something I need to know about...our father" the last part was added reluctantly in an attempt to be in the mindset to try and understand what the other vessel would tell them. It didn't hurt that it made Lili more likely to talk to them as well...
The shy vessel stood up and faced them. Black stains had accumalated on their normally tidy cloak and there were tears in the corner of their eyes.
"Y-yeah I g-guess... N-not gonna harm m-me to v-vent a bit. What y-you want t-to know?" Myla then stood up and exused herself from the room with some half thought out reason that Est didn't even bother listening to after they heard the tone of the first word.
"Rim told me he'd been doing favours for us recently and told me to speak to you. Did he help you out?"
"H-help me o-out?" Y-yeah he did..."
"Would you erm mind telling me what happened?" Est winced, hoping to not see their sibling's face contorted in further sadness. Luckily for them, their sibling's eyes just glazed over like their tears had frozen. It seemed more likely to them though that Lili was just reminiscing in order to tell the event well. "W-well, Ghost was taking us out to look for the TTT-"
"The TTT?" they asked through narrowed, disbelieving eyes.
"Y-yeah the Triple Trouble Team" they added hastily after this question. Est let out a small "ohh" befor gesturing for them to continue.
"G-ghost was taking us to see the TTT because th-the dreamers were meeting or something so it would be preferable if someone entertained us. We were in the C-City of Tears when this big scary bug in amour started attacking Ghost! I think W-Wanda said there name was uhm Ar something-"
"Judicator Argustus?" Est asked suprised. They'd only met the fabled judicator once but he'd seemed pretty harsh. They had been a lot more ignorant in those days so hadn't been too worried as the Pale King was with them.
"Y-yeah! That was it! A-anyway Ghost couldn't seem to get a good lead on his guy and Wanda st-started muttering something about how d-dangerous he was. They then suddenly d-decided to go get help and told us to help Ghost while they were gone. I tr-tried but I'm not that good with m-my tack yet so he g-got hold of m-me... Fist started g-glowing. Aimed i-it at me. I thought f-for sure I was d-done for. There was nothing the others could do to s-save me. B-but then Wanda came b-back. They'd brought the Pale King and he j-just told The judicartor- Judicetor? Judicastor?"
"Judicator"
"R-right, he just told the judicator to st-stop and he did! He saved my life!H-he had no reason t-to come hel-help us but he did! And n-now he's gone and I j-just feel s-so bad. I d-don't think I even th-thanked him!"
"Oh so he saved you from a powerful, crazy bug then?"
"Yes! And its so amazing tht he did it for me! He spent time from his day to come help us out and saved me! I wish I had told him how much that meant to me..."
"Sorry for making you talk about it Lili..." Est cleared their throat again, "I'm sure he er knew that you were thankful"
"Really!?" they asked voice full of awe. Really? No. They didn't have a clue if he knew or not! They'd been trying to avoid him since the...incident at the Abyss after he'd reincarnated. Thinking back now their reaction had been way too extreme...
"Yes, I'm sure" They ran up to them and gave a hug.
"Thanks Est.. I'm not sure I would've realised a talk like this was just what I needed if not for you!" They felt a bit guilty for claiming credit for this when it was all for their own selfish gain..
"Yeah... No problem Lili... See you around" They turned and left before they could accidently admit to these bad motives.
Everything seemed to be fitting together now and it was screwing up everything they thought of the Pale King. A jerk who abadoned themn and all their siblings? Definitely. A compassionate bug who helped others? The Pale king like that!? What! But it felt too undeniable now! Had they been wrong the whole time!? N-no... It was too late to do anything to fix it now! They -who blieved in giving others chances like they haddone in not judging Toothy- had failed to give him a second chance due to grudges... They'd ruined this... He's been saving bugs this whole time and Est had refused to even believe he was capable of caring for others! Rim had been right and they'd just scoffed at them!
They hung their head low in shame... They weren't sure they wanted to speak to Hollow now. It would just make them feel even worse about themself... Deep down they knew what they had to do. One bug was really owed an apology now.. Well two but one wasn't really available for that.. They needed to say sorry to Rim.
They sprung right into action reinvigorated and kickstarted their search tactics. Thankfully Rim wasn't nearly as hard to find as Lili. Lost had been able to tell them the location of their sibling straight away. So Est dashed off as quick as they could without futher damaging their body. This speed announced their presence from a whole corridor away to Rim. The sound of their wings abrubtly turning made it to Est as they skidded around a corner. Rim hadn't yet turned when they spoke.
"Est" they said in a calm but threatening tone.
"Oh come on! Does everybody know its me coming?!" Oops.. That wasn't how to start an apology. "That's really what your asking right now?! Weren't you listening earlier? J-just leave me alone.." They still hadn't turned around but Est knew they were upset from their angry tone crumbling.
"Rim I didn't come here for that I swear! Look I wanted to apologise for earlier. I was out of line... I thought that he could never change cause I was too hung up on grudges. I never even gave him a chance.., You knew him well but I believed my own stubborn ideas... Just so frustrating knowing I never even tried to fix my relationsip with him and now- and now he's g-gone... So yes I'm s-sorry Rim" The brown cloaked vesel turned around and sat down leaning against the wall. Est joined the. They wrapped a soft wing around them comfortingly and for once, they found solace in such a gesture. "Hey, I'm sorry too Est.. I shouldn't have threatened you like that.. I probably wouldn't have believed it either if he hadn't taken me in with him out of the kindness of his heart. He knew I wasn't happy wandering with a fed up Ghost...And grudges? Trust me I know all about those..." Est snorted.
"Yeah? What would a vessel like you have a grudge on?"
"The damn moth... Still think I hear her voice in my head sometimes... If she wasn't already dead I think I'd go kill her myself.. Fragile condition can leave itself behind..."
"Can get that.."
The pair at in silence for a while finding comfort in each other of their loss. It would be okay now. The vesels all had each other to rely on like this.
"We probably shouldn't shade a god who just sacraficed himself for us Dryya..." Nymph chided.
"Fine... What you propose we do then tell nice stories" the last part was dripping with sarchasm.. Oh he could have fun with this. The guardian vessel smirked before putting on an angelic face.
"Oh yes Dryya! Wonderful idea! How else best to honour him?!"
"What?! N-no! You know what I meant" she spluttered. He howled with laughter but attempted to keep going with this.
The pair were sat on a bench overlooking a huge patch of flowers. Alubas periodically floated by and music played softly in the background.
"Do I?" he asked innocently. "Your playing this now Nymph. Really? Fine... Do you really want to honour our 'saintly king'?" "Oh yes" he nodded sagely.
"Fine then! You go first in our tales of goodness"
Oh great he'd hoped Dryya would go first... Nymph would have to think of one now..
"Well uhhh..." Then an actually decent one hit him. Probably the only redeeming quality about the King until now...
"Once I was looking after the Gardens as I do, and I saw him come in. I was like 'damn I gotta hide before he sees me!' so I hid and he didn't find me. I thought he'd come to force mother to leave but he just sat down by the flowers and left some food for any surviving bugs around. Kinda didn't take him for the type that would help out the little guy like that I guess..."
"Ugh I have nothing that nice.. He was nice to he queen before the whole infection nonsense... Seemed he kinda withered under stress.." That seemed about right to Nymph. The pair had still been very close when Nymph ran to the Gardens. He wasn't sure why he had never disliked her- especially not as much as the King despite them both being involved in the plan...
They pondered their next point before saying it. They weren't sure on the details but it was probably close enough.
"He was nice to Hollow...in his own way... I mean Hollow adores him so he must have done something right!"
"Can't argue with tht last part" They shared a good laugh together. Still felt weird to Nymph that the pest he'd hated his whole life was finally out of the picture for now. It felt very surreal and Nymph felt slightly guilty in the back of his conscience for not feeling at all upset or even staying at the Archive to help his other siblings. Misfortune was still there but his mother probably needed the most help so he'd left. Was half the reason he'd started this silly little game ith Dryya in the first place. The other being tht it was down right hilarious...
Dryya looked like she was about to continue though so Nymph looked up.
"You know once," a smirk crossed her face and Nymph guessed this was a positive memory, "Once I stormed a meeting cause I was fed up with the mantis. He got so mad he erased all but mine, Lurien's and his own minds! It was so funny. Couldn't let himself seem bad at one meeting now could he!? Should'a done it again!" Dryya started cackling before fading back into the dream realm probably to visit the White Lady. Defied the point of the game to talk dirt on him after all this but what did he really expect from Dryya... She could theoretically go see whenever she wanted anyway...
