Chapter Text
The world was cruel. That was something many humans were very aware of. It was cruel to the point that salvation sometimes was even crueler and a happy ending was anything but a happy ending. For a certain company, it was especially obvious with a sleeping figure in a hospital bed they were waiting for to wake up. For a reader to open his eyes and to be with them in a 100% stage.
But life, just like the world, was cruel.
That was what this Fable was thinking. Just like all the others they were not able to do anything to help. They were just a Fable, created by the humans through their trials brought by the star steam to feed constellations that no longer watched this worldline. What were they supposed to do now? Were they even supposed to be as self aware as it felt right now?
This Fable, that was still watching over one of his creators and could no longer reach out to his other creator, felt helpless. What were they supposed to do now? What was their purpose now?
Their answer came in the form of another fable that reached out to them. Something that wasn't even from its own worldline let alone its own universe but from a far distance existence, like something that wasn't supposed to be.
[Would you like to reach out?]
Reach out to what? The Fable questioned, unaware of the consciousness it was slowly building.
[Would you like to change your own conclusion?]
Its own conclusion? This Fable wasn't sure, the only ones able of doing so would be his creators. He had accompanied them, noted down and seen them do the impossible and sacrifice themself for a conclusion of a happy ending that was none. What right did this Fable have to change its creators' will?
They were a fable, a story telling. Not a person, not a human being, not a constellation, not an incarnation, not something that could change the outcome of something that had long passed.
[Is that your wish?]
Its wish? Fables do not wish for things. They do not exist as a being that could wish, they were mere storytellings, created by the actions of living beings.
[...]
Fables do not wish. Yet this Fable, this story that wasn't supposed to be sentient. That wasn't supposed to be aware of its own existence, that shouldn't know about its creator's fates…
… this Fable desired for a different outcome.
[Many readers of different worlds do too.]
Was this being commenting on this fables thoughts? Either way, this distance being claimed that there were others to wish for a different conclusion.
[The Fable 'Life and Death Companions' also wishes for a different conclusion.]
Ah, was that its answer to the other being? Either way this Fable ceased its existing thoughts as it felt a change to its own existence. Would its creators be mad? There was no way to find out now.
['Outerworlds endless Story' is answering the fables desire.]
What…?
In a worldline untouched by others a man started to slowly disappear from his hospital bed, sending his surrounding companions into a panic. The hospital bed was left empty with the companions weeping and cursing as a writer and a protagonist became frantic on finding out what was happening.
Then two incarnations felt it, a sudden calmness that quelled their panic and frantic thoughts, washing over them like a calm wave. Like a summer breeze that brought in a new wind through the window a new feeling reached them. "It will be alright. Ahjussi will be back soon." As if in trance the younger one of the two incarnations suddenly mumbled, the older of them silently agreeing.
In a train with no destination a reader looked up from what he was reading, blinking and rubbing his eyes confused at the shadow of a being unknown that sat across from him in the previously empty place. The shadow being was holding something, offering it to the reader. The shadow being was small and by all means couldn't be an adult the reader thought. Yet there was something familiar about it. In this empty space this shadow was still reaching out to the reader offering something to the man. The reader hesitated, his hand flinching back before reaching out again.
Once his hand touched the shadow, his eyes widened as the shadow took the form of a young boy with hair and eyes so similar to a person, the reader thought he would never see again. "You are…?"
The shadow turned boy only smiled before the reader's world turned dark.
At the edge of a city in a worldline no longer untouched, the 'happy' ending started to change. On a hill with a view of the city's hospital in the distance, a young boy that didn't appear to be older than six years sat next to an unconscious man with an iconic white coat. The boy held a resemblance to the unconscious man yet his hair and sharp eyes were a carbon copy of someone important to the man.
Who the boy didn't remember clearly and in a bout of self-consciousness mused that most likely was the price for his desire as a fable. As his own existence felt unreal to himself to the point that he questioned the reality of it. Yet when his eyes wandered over the unconscious man, who appeared to be sleeping peacefully in the grass, a strange fondness overcame the boy.
Reaching his hands out carefully, the boy held firmly onto the man's right hand with his own as he looked at the distant city waiting for the man to wake up. There was still something missing. Like someone else was supposed to be here but wasn't. As his gaze wandered over the city the boy felt like there were many things he still had to see and to note down. A part of him was called towards the city but he stayed with the man. Feeling but not knowing that there was something he had to do to ensure this man's happiness.
"The Fable 'Life and Death Companions' is continuing its storytelling." The boy muttered slowly not knowing why he said what he did but at the same time feeling like he needed to say it. Because he knew, he knew that this man and his happiness was a part of the reason for his existence.
After all, he was a fable created from this man and his life and death companion. If anyone should know how to help this man reach a true happy ending then it should be him.