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Crickets chirped in the late hours of the night. The sound of the air conditioner buzzed in their ears, and they could feel the cold air flow around them.
Kris blinked blearily. They weren’t sure why they were aware of these sensations. They were in bed, and it was the middle of the night. They were supposed to be asleep, and last they checked they were falling asleep. So what happened…?
Why were they awake? They felt pretty sleepy, so it wasn’t for lack of trying. They weren’t hungry, nor thirsty, so it wasn’t because they needed a midnight snack. They didn’t have to use the bathroom, so…
They were just kinda confused. Kris was pretty good at sleeping. So if they wanted to be asleep, they would be. But they weren’t. So…
Kris was thinking in circles. They rubbed their eyes and slowed down for a few seconds, allowing their brain to wake up enough to think.
Then, their phone rang.
Well. That could be the reason they were awake. A somewhat poor quality rendition of Jingle Bells rang out in the room.
They both felt relief, and worry. Relief, because they recognized the ring tone, and it wasn’t anything involving their promise.
Worry, because they recognized the ring tone. Out of like, the five or so people that could realistically call them, Kris only set a ring tone to one of them. They remembered it pretty clearly, because the website they downloaded it off of had it extremely compressed. Like, unusably compressed. The file size was like 20 Kb which is laughably small. Kris thought that was really funny, though, and never tried finding a higher quality one.
The person they assigned that ringtone to was Noelle. Why was Noelle calling? It was the middle of the night… Was everything okay?
They answered the phone.
“Hello?” Oh wow, they could not have sounded more tired if they tried. What was supposed to be a ‘hello’ came out as a ‘hellloogh’. They cleared their throat and tried again. “Hello?”
“Ah, hey Kris.” She replied.
Kris assessed the situation. Her voice sounded stable, but a little shaky. They could assume there wasn’t an imminent issue. But they decided to be wary, she probably didn’t call this late for no reason, so there might be a problem. “What’s up?”
“Uhh… nothing. Just… stuff.”
“Stuff. Right.” They pulled their phone away and checked the time. 1:06 AM. Not super duper late, but certainly past both of their bedtimes. Noelle sounded wide awake, which was a tad concerning considering the time. She was usually in bed by like 9. Like an old person.
“Yeah. I um, didn’t wake you up, did I?”
“Not really.” They were out like a puppet with its strings cut but Noelle didn’t need to know that. “Wasn’t sleeping too hard.”
“That’s good. I mean, you probably should be asleep, but I don’t exactly have room to talk, faha.”
Kris could feel it in their bones that Noelle wanted to say something, but also really didn’t want to say something. Every once in a while it felt like the two of them forgot they were dating and reverted back to their falling out habits. Being painfully polite and awkward, and absolutely nothing more.
Wanting to reach out, but never closing the distance between two.
It's something they were both guilty of. Sometimes, Kris would end up being distant at school. It would take until lunch, when Noelle grabs them by the hand that they remember, ‘oh yeah, she’s my girlfriend. She likes me’.
And sometimes Noelle would be like this. Where it felt obvious that she wanted something, but just couldn’t say it with words.
Thankfully, Kris was a pro at not speaking. A real pioneer in the field when it comes to the Hometown population. They could read between the lines whenever Noelle wanted to say something, but chose not to.
Of course, they couldn’t put her on the spot, that would be both mean and rude. So, they had to breach the idea in a different way. “The sky’s pretty outside.”
“Oh, is it?” They heard some shuffling over the phone. “Kris… I don’t think it could be cloudier.”
Kris hadn’t actually checked what it looked like before they said that. They went to the window, and yeah it was completely overcast. Couldn’t even see the moon. “I stand by it.”
Noelle sighed. “I think we have different definitions of pretty.”
“I don’t know, I’m a pretty good judge.”
“Are you now?”
“Yep. I bet you can see something really pretty if you keep looking out your window.”
“Okay…?” Noelle replied. After a few seconds, she said, “what do you mean?
“Try stepping back.”
A beat of silence. And then a gasp. “Are you talking about my reflection!?”
“I told you, I’m a good judge.” They couldn’t hide their smile. They didn’t have a reason to, either, considering no one could see them. They were getting pretty good at this flirting thing. Asriel was going to be so proud.
“Har har.” She said, holding back a giggle. Kris, being the self proclaimed Noelle expert, could tell she was blushing.
“Um, anyways… My mom isn’t home, and I really don’t want to be alone right now.”
“I’ll be there in five.” The words slipped by before they even thought about it.
Well. Toriel was probably gonna kill them.
They could live with that.
They heard Noelle laugh softly. “Thank you.” They heard the dialtone, as she hung up.
Well. When they said they were gonna be there in five, they meant it.
Kris swiftly and quietly grabbed a plastic bag, a change of clothes, and a pen and paper. They left a note on their nightstand that said that they were at Noelle’s, and then they were off.
From back in the day, they had some experience when it came to sneaking off in the middle of the night.
In the dead of the night, Dess would swing around, and throw rocks at their window. Then, Asriel would get up, open the window, and whisper-yell at her to go away because it’s the middle of the night. Then he would climb out of the window anyway and the two of them would go do… whatever it was that they did.
Of course, what younger sibling would they be if they did not follow their older brother like a lost duckling? So, whenever Asriel left, Kris would follow from a distance.
They got caught often… but they got some interesting blackmail material when they followed them to the lake and saw them smoking.
Kris was utterly scandalized. They didn’t know Asriel could do that.
They were caught soon after because they stepped on a twig, and Dess swiftly pulled the mutually assured destruction card. If Kris tattled, Dess was going to crack their skull open.
Fair enough. But, it worked in Kris’s favor, because from that day on Asriel started getting them extra marshmallows in their hot chocolate when they went to the diner.
To prevent something like that from happening on accident, they would occasionally bring Kris along intentionally whenever they did cool sneaking stuff. Not because they wanted to, but because they knew if they didn’t, Kris would end up following anyway. If they brought them out every once in a while, Kris was content to leave them alone to do stuff. Only every once in a while.
Honestly, they didn’t even really like staying up that late. They just wanted to hang out with Dess and Asriel. So being able to every once in a while was good enough.
Then, everything went wrong, and there was no one to throw rocks at their window anymore.
Asriel didn’t sneak out anymore, and neither did Kris. It stayed like that for a while, up until recently. Now, they had every reason in the world to sneak out. The bunker wasn’t going to come to them, now was it?
But, they were not going to the bunker. They were going to Noelle’s. Less intense, which Kris appreciated.
It was easier compared to when they were younger. Kris wasn’t tall. Not even a little. But, they were taller, which made grabbing onto the windowsill, and dropping off onto the driveway a hell of a lot easier.
They landed, and ow, their knees. They were getting old…
The walk to Noelle’s was swift. They were next door neighbors after all. They climbed one of the nearby trees to go up and over the gate, sticking the landing. (Another skill taught by Dess, she wouldn’t really be able to come over without a return path.)
Then, they grabbed some pebbles and started throwing them at Noelle’s window.
While they couldn’t hear or see her yet, they could imagine her jumping and probably yelling from the noise coming from her window. She was rather jumpy.
After a few seconds, and after their ammo was almost depleted, the window opened. “Kris? Did you jump the gate?”
“Yeah…?” They answered, as this was pretty obvious.
“You… if you asked I could have just opened it?”
“I could’ve. I didn’t though.”
She shook her head and pinched her brow. “Im not dragging you in through the window.”
They were hurt. All of that and she wouldn’t even drag them through the window. If she would, they could climb the windowsill on the first floor to reach her window nice and fast. A shame, because she absolutely was strong enough to.
Maybe it was for the best. Even though they both lived on their respective second floors, Noelle’s second floor was a more difficult climb than Kris’s second floor. A shame she didn’t have like, a rope or a ladder or something. Then she wouldn’t have an excuse
But, alas, Kris made their way to the front door. After a minute or so, Noelle opened it. They were blinded by the lights being on. They stepped back.
“Sorry.” Noelle said nervously. ”Didn’t feel like fumbling around in the dark.”
They rubbed their eyes. It was alright but like, ow. Thankfully, they were inherently pretty resistant to light. They probably would have gone blind by now if they weren’t, considering the soul liked to use unleash, with Kris in point blank range.
(It was mildly worrying to them that the soul could produce that much light, but hey, it could seal fountains and it took down a Titan, so as long as it was on their side, that's pretty cool.)
They entered the house. Then, they passed the light switch, where Noelle turned the lights off. Well. That’s now an entirely opposite issue. They couldn’t see.
They fumbled their arm around to where they were pretty sure Noelle was. They knew they made contact when they heard her yelp. “Kris!” They continued fumbling around. “What are you doing!?”
It occurred that they may have missed. And that Noelle may not have enjoyed Kris grazing her hair and back with their fingers. It would be easier if she stopped stepping out of reach. “Trying to find your hand.”
“Sheesh, just ask!” They felt fingers enclose around their own. “There, happy?”
“Very.” Then, they said in a voice most dramatic and pleading, “help me Noelle, I need you to guide me through your dark haunted mansion.”
They heard a huff. “Okay, it might be dark, but it isn’t haunted. Or a mansion.”
Compared to the rest of the houses in Hometown, the Holiday residence might as well have been a mansion. Admittedly, it made them wonder what exactly makes a house a mansion. There had to be a prerequisite, but they didn’t know what it was.
And while there wasn’t a literal ghost, memories were their own spectre.
“Agree to disagree.”
They could imagine her rolling her eyes. Her silhouette did the head tilt thing she did whenever she rolled her eyes. A habit from copying Dess (a professional eye roller) that she never grew out of. “And hey, why me? Shouldn’t you be the leader?"
They really weren’t sure why they were usually the one that was followed. In the Dark World, they kinda understood it. Ralsei would probably explode if he had to lead the way, and Susie liked dodging responsibility. That left them as the de facto leader. Even as that dynamic changed, they were still the one leading the way. And in the Cyber World, Noelle was really confused and deferred to Kris, who was allegedly the expert.
That made sense.
In the Light World? They could almost understand Susie following them around town. They’ve lived here longer so, sure. They could lead the way.
But, in the Light World… in Noelle’s house? They really didn’t know why. It happened for the study session, too. Like… they didn’t even live here? Why were the others following them?
Explaining this to Noelle would be an incredibly long story so they didn’t. Instead, they settled on a, “you can see in the dark.”
According to Dess, deer monsters have excellent night vision.
“I mean… Not well!”
She may have been lying, but humans have really bad night vision all things considered so if nothing else she was right comparatively.
They reached one of the staircases. In the dark, it was as if they were looking at a mountain. But, it was only dark, not darker than dark, so it really was just a staircase.
Going up stairs while holding hands was harder than they expected. Then again maybe it wasn’t an inherently difficult task and Noelle was just faster than them. After almost tripping several times, they made it to the second floor.
“Better than I can.”
“That’s a low bar.” She said as she led them to her room.
“Which is why you’re leading.” They said, saccharine. “Also. You live here.”
She didn’t have an answer for that one. They could imagine her opening her mouth, only to close it. Their eyes were only just now readjusting to the darkness, they could still only really see her silhouette.
When they reached Noelle’s room, she let go of their hand to open the door. They missed the touch already…
With moonlight spilling into the room, they could finally properly see her up close.
She looked tired.
They took their shoes off near the door and flung their plastic bag with a change of clothes towards the couch. It rolled straight under it, which was mildly inconvenient but a price to pay for their hubris.
Then, they made their home on Noelle’s couch.
Sitting down, they looked at her expectantly. They were the guest, after all, it would be nice if their host could get them like, a blanket. Or something.
They could see Noelle frown. “Are you really gonna sleep on the couch…?”
Kris was pretty tired. They woke up like ten minutes ago. So frankly… they didn’t know why she said that. Unable to reach any other conclusion, they asked, “…do you want me to sleep on the floor?”
They could hear her sigh. “Do I really have to say it?”
Kris just blinked at her.
She was definitely implying something but they were very tired.
“We’re literally dating!”
Kris wasn’t quite sure what that had to do with this.
Wait.
They pointed at her bed. “Do you want me over there or–”
“Yes!”
Ah. Yeah that was their bad. Their head was still in the ‘classic childhood’ sleepover mindset, where they would camp out on Noelle’s couch, and not in the ‘modern dating’ sleepover mindset. In which they shared the same bed.
Their face flushed at the thought.
Noelle got in, and then Kris crawled in afterward.
A twin sized bed did not fit two people very easily. Under normal circumstances, it would fit two people incredibly poorly. But, they didn’t exactly take up ‘two people’s’ worth of space. With both facing the same direction, Noelle put one arm under their neck, and another over their midsection, completely enclosing them.
They were being treated like a giant plush, and if they were being honest, they wouldn’t want it any other way.
For a long time, they had forgotten, but a trait that Noelle possessed was that she was physically clingy.
Whenever the four of them watched TV when they were younger, whoever sat next to Noelle had to accept that they would just kinda get latched onto, or leaned on at some point.
There was a hierarchy to it. Usually it was Dess, since she was her sister and stuff. If Dess wasn’t sitting next to her though, Asriel was usually the next choice. A pretty decent choice, considering he’s very fluffy, like a life sized teddy bear. Last was Kris, who had no special qualities but was still getting grabbed whether they wanted it or not. Most of the time they didn’t want it, and they definitely expressed as much but… it was kinda nice, looking back on it.
Though, that was platonic. What was happening right now was most certainly anything but.
They never realized that they missed that until they started cuddling. It also made Kris realize, man, they were really touch starved, actually.
It would be so easy to drift off to sleep, but they didn’t forget why they were here. Noelle asked them to be, very suddenly, after all.
After a while, they whispered, “is everything alright?”
Though they couldn’t see her, they could physically feel her tense, feeling her chest expand as she breathed. “Mostly,” she mumbled after a moment of deliberation.
She didn’t elaborate.
That was not a lot to work with. “Wanna talk about it?”
“...Not really.”
“That’s okay.” They would be one hell of a hypocrite to get on someone's case for not talking. Instead, the two just lied there.
They were mere moments from drifting off to sleep, but they could feel her sigh. They tried a little harder to stay awake.
After a few more moments, she said, “it’s… kinda selfish.” Compared to them, Noelle was really bad at being selfish, so Kris was gonna disagree with that on principle, but they let her speak. “It just… I’m tired of being alone.
“Dad’s staying overnight at the hospital more and more, mom’s at work more than home, like she literally sleeps there most of the time, and… well…” She trailed off, holding onto them a little tighter.
She didn’t need to continue for them to know what she was about to say.
“It just sucks. And… I don't know. I don't want to be alone.”
Sometimes they forgot just how similar the two of them were. How many times have they thought something so similar to that?
They didn’t like being alone. It was just… easier, that way.
“I don’t think that’s selfish at all.” Kris whispered. “Being alone kinda sucks.”
She snorted. “Yeah. It does.”
They were glad they were in agreement.
“Well, you aren’t alone right now.” Even though she couldn’t see it, they smiled. “Don’t forget, I’m with you in the dark.”
They could feel her breath on their neck, an amused huff. “When did you get so corny?”
“You’ve met my family.”
“Fair.” Noelle said. And, after a few moments, she said, “Dess… really liked that song, huh?”
‘Liked’. Past tense. They… didn’t really like that. But, it was the truth, wasn’t it? Maybe, if it all works out, it won't be true any more… but for now…
…
“She did.”
Finally, they could feel her relax, the tension leaving her body as her grip loosened.
They lapsed into silence.
It wasn’t often that they talked about Dess. It was always a sore subject, and it’s not like Kris was gonna bring it up.
Talking about her… It hurt. It always did. But, they had to admit, it didn’t hurt as bad as it usually did. They hoped that Noelle could say the same.
“Hey Kris?” Noelle said after a moment. “Thanks for coming over.”
“Any time.”
…Maybe Noelle could say the same.
Eventually, they heard Noelle’s breathing even out, and soon after they joined her in sleep.
~ ~ ~
The following morning, Kris realized they were awake.
Then, they had a few thoughts.
The first was that this wasn’t their room. The second was that someone was squeezing them very tightly. Considering they saw Noelle’s big-ass couch in their peripheral vision, they were probably in Noelle’s room. And the person squeezing them was probably Noelle. Probably.
Sunlight shined through her curtains, faintly. The pitter patter of rain explained why it wasn’t all that bright despite the time.
Memories of last night came back to them, and yeah, that would explain how they got here.
It was almost disgustingly easy to get back to this point. They… really could have done this way sooner, couldn’t they?
It was so easy to let that guilt choke their heart, that slithering squeeze they felt every time they remembered just how long they kept their distance from Noelle.
Years of pretending that she was nothing to them, pretending that there was nothing between them, all for some vain hope that Noelle would realize they weren’t worth it, and that she would be happier for it.
It didn’t work, and considering how they were now, it really didn’t work. They really were an idiot for trying.
…but it was very hard to feel bad when Noelle was actively squeezing the life out of them.
For once, they’ll just savor it. They had all the time in the world to make it up to her.
Noelle snored softly behind them, with Kris able to feel the rise and fall of her chest. She was curled around them, with Kris ensnared by her arms.
With careful effort, because they had a sacred duty to not wake up their girlfriend, they attempted to get their phone out of their pocket. It took a lot of tensing and untensing, and a smidge of wiggling, but eventually they freed one of their arms enough to fish their phone out of their pocket.
The very first thing they did was immediately turn the brightness down. With the brightness off of eye piercing, they looked at their notifications.
They had a text from their mother.
Uh oh.
I believe we are going to need to talk about impromptu sleepovers, my child.
Well. While they were significantly less screwed than they thought, they were still very screwed. Toriel let a lot of things slide. Compared to the things they’ve seen Asriel get in trouble for, Kris got off very easy on a lot of things.
(She walked in on Kris and Noelle kissing one time and she didn’t drag Kris to church every day for a week, so that was nice.)
Kris was not naive, however. They had a feeling she wasn’t going to let this one slide. But, since it wasn’t a message that said to come home at this very instant, Kris was just gonna pretend like they didn’t see that text.
With the text banished from their mind, they attempted to pick their phone back up. But, considering that Noelle still had them in a death grip, they realized that that simply wasn’t gonna work. Instead, they just put it on the bed, close to their chest.
Their spine tingled as Noelle squeezed tighter and nuzzled into their neck. Her breathing was still incredibly even, so Kris is pretty sure she isn’t even awake. She was just… doing that.
Her head moved down, and ow ow ow, antlers. Kris wiggled slightly, attempting to either make her head move back up, or to get slightly out of range.
Their head kinda hurt…
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.
Very, very slowly, they pried Noelle’s arms off of them. It took a lot of tensing, and small movements, and they had to stop every couple of seconds to not disturb Noelle’s sleep, but eventually they were freed.
They could see her arms move, searching for them. She was gonna wake up at this rate, so within a short amount of time, they leaned to Noelle’s couch, grabbed a throw pillow from it, and put the pillow between her arms.
She grabbed onto it! And… She crushed it…!
Kris watched as the life depleted from the pillow.
If she was using the same force on them as she was on the pillow, they were gonna bruise sooner or later. They weren’t particularly tough…
They shook their head. They would be fine.
Before they left, they took a few pictures of her. Just a few. Hey, she looked very cute and peaceful, and she was normally only cute, so they wanted to save the moment. They weren’t worried about it, either, since the amount of pictures she’s taken of them was greater than the inverse tenfold.
With that out of the way, and a new lockscreen set, they quietly went to the couch, grabbing the bag of clothes they brought. They were a morning showerer through and through, and they didn’t really want to go home if they were already here. So, here came the spare clothes.
With the bag in hand, they slinked across the room, gently opened the door, and shut it.
The Holiday’s had a lot of carpet around, so they didn’t have to try super hard to be stealthy. They noted that the lights were still off. So, Carol probably wasn’t home.
They didn’t have to worry about disturbing anyone, then. It’s not exactly like Rudy was here either. Knowing the Holidays, they were a welcome addition to the house, so they had nothing to fear in the first place, but no one likes being woken up.
Reaching the bathroom, they stopped and stared.
The Holiday’s had a very nice shower. They had a very nice most things, truth be told, but their nice shower was something Kris could actually exploit. The water went hot in twelve seconds flat (even in the winter!) and that was just criminal.
They briefly took a shower. No, brief was wrong. They didn’t come out until their skin turned red and threatened to stay that way.
With their change of clothes used and their dirty ones in the bag, they attempted to dry their hair.
It… took a little while. They had very thick hair.
After some thorough drying, they left the bathroom, and made their way back towards Noelle’s room.
They didn’t take that long in the shower, Noelle may still be asleep.
Kris opened the door and heard a shriek. They immediately closed it. They… probably should have knocked, actually. Then again, if they did, they could have woken her up, if she was still asleep. All around a lose lose situation.
They heard footsteps, and Noelle pulled the door open not a moment later. “Kris! You’re… still here!”
They nodded. They, uh, sure were.
“I just woke up and you weren’t there so, I thought you went home already… haha.” She said, still a little frazzled. “Seeing the door open was kinda terrifying with that in mind!”
“Sorry.” They apologized. “Just took a shower.”
“That makes sense. Your hair looks nice.” Noelle took a long look at Kris. And it wasn’t a good, ‘I like looking at my partner’ look. Kris was getting scrutinized. Her eyes narrowed. “A little… too nice, actually. Did you use my conditioner?”
A beat.
“No,” they lied.
She gave them an unamused look. She walked over and put her nose directly onto their scalp and sniffed. They squirmed from the contact, but she held them in place.
“You smell like peppermint… Did you also use my shampoo?”
Kris did. “I didn’t exactly bring anything other than a change of clothes.”
Noelle opened her mouth, then shut it. “I… guess that’s fair.” Noelle conceded. “So, what time are you leaving?”
Kris looked out the window. It was still raining, so… “Not anytime soon.”
She smiled. “Okay. Then… breakfast?”
They nodded. That sounded good.
~ ~ ~
Breakfast… went. A critical flaw both of them shared is that they more or less couldn’t cook to save their lives.
They weren’t doomed, both of them could follow a recipe to varying degrees of success, but it didn’t come to either of them naturally.
Kris could bake. They were pretty good at it, even. Yet, somehow, despite that being significantly harder than cooking, they were hopeless with a stove. Comparatively, Noelle could actually make things, but if the recipe wasn’t exact enough, something would always go wrong.
Both of those were apparent when they tried to make pancakes. Following the box, they were able to mix together some batter with ease.
They were very good at prep work. Mixing, chopping, portioning, the works. While some of that wasn’t quite useful when it came to making batter, being able to whisk well was pretty handy. Unfortunately, there was more to cooking than that. And there's where it went wrong.
It was time to put it on the pan.
It was going fine, and then Kris zoned out, and then the pancake burned. The other side faced a similar fate.
Noelle tried her hand at the next one, which was only slightly better than theirs. She couldn’t get the timing to flip it down at all, with one side ending up undercooked and the other side burnt.
Kris’s second attempt was near flawless, except for the massive flaw. They flipped the pancake with decent timing, not getting distracted this time, but it slipped off the spatula too soon, flipping over itself. They were mostly able to fix it, but it got all mushed, and while it was cooked decently this time, they were left with more of a pancake flavored chunk of dough than actual pancake.
…Pancakes were not particularly advanced, or difficult. Maybe they were more doomed than previously stated…
Eventually, Noelle hit the goldilocks pancake, and got one that didn’t inherently suck. And it only took three wasted pancakes for them to get there.
Eventually they both got one, and then they shared breakfast in Holiday's kitchen. It was nice, and boringly domestic.
Once that drew to a close, they asked, “now what?”
Noelle opened, then closed her mouth. “I didn’t think this far ahead.”
That was fair, they supposed.
“Then it sounds to me like the plan is a whole lot of nothing.”
“Pretty much.” She shrugged.
It was raining, so they didn’t really want to leave. Well, they didn’t really want to leave regardless, but the rain made it to where they didn’t want to go outdoors at all.
If it was all rainy and cozy… that sounded like video game weather.
“Did you beat that new Dragon Blazers spin off yet?”
“Uh…” Noelle said, thinking aloud. “Not yet.”
“Then I’m fine with watching you play that.”
“You sure? We could play something together.”
They nodded. It was rainy, cool, and all around cozy, so there was a non insignificant chance that they just fell asleep. Sure, they just woke up, but they could sleep way more than they probably should.
Their mom said it was a teenager thing, they’re pretty sure it's also a human thing, but they have slept through more than fifteen hours at once before, which wasn’t… great, they’re pretty sure.
They don’t think they would make the best gaming rival or partner if they were already tired.
With a plan set, they both cleaned up in the kitchen. Afterwards, they went back up to her room.
She sat down on her couch, near one the ends. Kris took a seat next to her, before they laid down, putting their legs on top of her lap.
Without further ado, she turned on her TV, then console, and then loaded up Dragon Blazers: Underbound 3.
As far as Dragon Blazers spin offs go, the UnderBound series was a bit of a weird one. It had four party members instead of three, and its combat was different to the point that it didn’t even have the morality system Dragon Blazers was known for. Frankly, the only things it shared with any of the other Dragon Blazers games was its element system, and the artstyle.
The third game took forever to be localized, but once it was released, it was received with critical acclaim. They’ve heard it called one of the greatest stories in a game ever, which seemed… unrealistic, but it was a Dragon Blazers game so it wasn’t impossible.
They… could not recall the story. They’ve seen Noelle play this like three or so times, an hour each, and most of those were gameplay heavy segments so they’ve only really seen her beat stuff up, walk around and the intro.
The title screen loaded. Noelle selected her save file.
“So what are you trying to do again?” Even if it was a spinoff, it was still a Dragon Blazers game, so they could assume she was trying to save the world, and dragons would be involved, but the exact details were pretty fuzzy.
“Right now, I have to pull the needles before the Masked Man does.” Noelle said.
Kris does not know what the needles are. And they don’t remember who the Masked Man was. But they’ve played enough video games to understand. “I see. The macguffins.”
Noelle nodded. “Whoever pulls more needles wakes up the dragon.” It really wouldn't be a dragon blazers game without a dragon. “When the dragon wakes up, it will end the world, but it will end the world… good? If I do it, and end the world bad if they do it.”
Kris was gonna ask what the difference was, but considering she hasn’t actually beaten the game yet, Noelle probably doesn’t know either.
The game loaded, with Noelle’s party members all standing in front of a save point.
She made a whole lot of progress since the last time they watched her. They're pretty sure, at least.
They watched as Noelle guided her party through brownish-grey mountains.
“I’m trying to remember where I last was.” Noelle said. “It’s been a bit.”
The party went through a loading zone, reaching a grassy area. A cutscene started, where the party watched pig masked soldiers use a golem guy to break vines that coated a temple. At the very least, they attempted to, as there was no effect.
“Oh, right. I died to a boss, and never got around to beating it.” Noelle commented
A guy wearing a helmet was a part of that group of soldiers. They're pretty sure that that’s the Masked Man. He walked forward, got out a bomb, and attempted to blast the temple. Even that didn’t work, however, as all it did was break the golem.
Eventually, the group noticed the party.
A battle started, against a commander and two grunts. Noelle made quick work of them by using her strongest moves out the gate. Even though this was technically a miniboss, they had normal enemy stats, so they went down in a few turns.
After the battle, another cutscene started. The main character and the Masked Man stared each other down, the screen doing odd effects.
With the two sprites across from each other, Kris recalled part of the story. One of the times Kris saw Noelle play was at the very, very beginning, so they remember part of the opening. “Isn’t that the main guy’s twin?”
“The game hasn’t said it, but I’m almost certain.” Noelle said.
Interesting.
The Masked Man walked forward, towards the party. He then got out his sword. He swung it dramatically, the screen darkening. A bolt of lightning struck the party.
Except, it didn’t. The main character had reflected it, sending it right back to the Masked Man.
“Oh. Right.” Noelle said. “I forgot I got an item that repels electric.”
He staggered. Then, he got back up, brandished his sword, and leaped at the party, starting a boss battle.
The music was immediately a loud, mostly percussive track.
Kris looked at the battle sprites, and yeah okay the Masked Man’s character design went insane, actually. The overworld sprite looked neat, but now that they could get a better look? Very cool. Armor was peak character design in Kris’s point of view, and that helmet and jacket combo was sick. Dual wielding an arm canon and a sword? Wow. Incredible.
They weren’t sure if they were feeling the orange pants, but everything else about him was so cool that he pulled them off.
This guy is cool!
And, as Kris watched a few turns pass, he was pretty strong, too. He was giving Noelle’s party some trouble.
“Come on.” Noelle sighed. She kept messing up the basic attacks. It was a rhythm based system, where you time the A button to the beat of the music. “Man, I thought I got this song down, I hit sixteen last time, but now I can’t get higher than like, five.”
They’ve definitely heard this song before. “It sounds kinda different compared to the last time it played.” Kris said. “Might be a remix or something.”
This music was kinda… There was something really off about it. The first version was off, and this one was even more off.
Kris did not care about time signatures too much, just the normal amount. Being able to go 1 2 3 4 for almost every song in existence was neat, and it is an important part of playing the piano. Sometimes, especially for waltzes, you go 1 2 3. Sometimes it was some other variation, but for normal music, it wasn’t terribly difficult to mentally count.
This was not normal music. Honestly, Kris couldn’t even begin to count it in their head.
They knew that since the game had rhythm elements, they were gonna have odd time signatures, since that was ‘making a rhythm game hard 101’.
But… It was kinda bugging them. So, while they continued to watch Noelle deal with the boss, Kris got their phone out and looked up the song.
They put in the name of the boss, and ‘boss theme’, and pressed enter.
Looking at the results… ah cool, music discourse. Let's see what Meddit has to offer.
Oh fun. Almost every comment said something different.
They continued reading. They saw one comment that said that the time signature was in ‘71907/40120’. Kris is almost certain that that isn't how that works.
They kept looking…
Oh. Oh that’s twisted. They see the two options they have. “I think I know why you keep dropping the combo.”
“Why?”
“The first time it played the time signature was 15/8. Kinda awkward but you get it eventually. This version is 29/16.”
She glanced at Kris “...I don’t know what that means.”
Kris could not explain what a time signature was that well. This is a consequence of Dess never really explaining it to them to begin with. “The song is just kinda like… evil and twisted.”
She dropped another combo. “Yeah I can see that.”
“Technically every song in this game is 4/4 with tempo changes because of hardware limitations but… not really the best way to count it.”
Noelled hummed in response. “Neat.”
It became the Masked Man’s turn, and he used a very strong move.
PK Christmas α.
…Surely the game didn’t put that, right?
“Wha-, he can do that?” Noelle said, shocked. She immediately spent her turn healing the damage, as ‘PK Christmas’ was a pretty powerful skill.
That. That didn’t seem right.
“...Why is that named that?”
“Oh, the game let me name a lot of stuff at the beginning.”
Now that she mentioned it, they did notice that the party members were named after their friends.
It was on screen the entire time, so frankly they should have noticed sooner, but they were spending most of their time looking at their girlfriend, so… they didn’t really notice.
The main character was Noelle, the tough psychic user (because the UnderBound games didn’t use magic, instead it used PSI) was Susie, the thief was Asriel, and the dog was Kris.
Wait a moment.
“Did you name the dog after me?”
“Yeah.” She nodded.
“You know me so well.”
“I have to say though, this game is so mean for letting you name the characters.” Noelle griped. “I named all the characters after people I know, and then the mom died like an hour in…”
They had to stop themself from laughing. “That’s really unfortunate.”
“That isn’t even to mention what happened to the sibling character.” She said, exasperated.
That actually made Kris freeze.
Oh. Right. Again, they watched Noelle play through the first chapter, and in the ending, the sibling character went missing. That alone is terrible for Noelle, but the Masked Man, who was most certainly the sibling, appeared to be one of the main antagonists! That makes things even worse!
…And if she named the characters after people she knew, she named the sibling after Dess, didn’t she?
“That’s… comically unlucky.”
“Yeah… I uh… didn’t play for a while after that.” She said with a strained smile. “But, I did want to see what happened, so here I am, six chapters later.”
At some point, sunk cost fallacy must have hit, and she had to see the end of the game.
They can’t really get over that though. That’s… rough.
“We should bring you to like, the opposite of a casino.”
“...What does that even mean?”
“Well, you aren’t lucky, so you shouldn’t go to a casino.” Kris said. “But you’re insanely unlucky. So you should go to a reverse casino.”
Noelle just closed her eyes and shook her head. “I think Asriel’s told me that before.”
That makes sense, they were pretty sure they didn’t invent that saying on the spot. They’ve heard it before. Definitely sounds like their brother, if nothing else.
Noelle took her turn, ‘Susie’ firing off an ice spell (that didn’t seem very fitting), and then a sound effect played, the Masked Man’s sprite turning white, before the entire screen turned white.
It went back to normal, and fanfare played.
YOU WON !
“Nice job.” Kris said.
“Thanks, that wasn’t too hard.” Noelle said. “I just don’t think I was on full health last time I tried.”
With the battle ending, a cutscene started. The Masked Man fell to the ground, electricity arcing off of him. The pig masked soldiers accompanying him fled, leaving him alone.
He recovered swiftly, standing back up. Then, mechanical bat-like wings (?) sprouted from his back. He flew away, escaping.
Okay, they already thought he was cool, but now it wasn’t even in question. This guy is cool as hell!
“He can do that?” Kris asked,
“...Apparently?”
With that cutscene over, Noelle brought her party back to a save point, saving her progress. Then, she went onward. She used an item on the temple vines, causing flowers to bloom on them, before they withered.
Then, she brought her party inside.
Kris would have assumed that the temple thing was a dungeon, but it was actually just one big room. They would have been surprised, but it would have been pretty weird to put the big dungeon boss before the dungeon, and not at the end.
Noelle brought her character to the center of the room, where a sharp thing with a golden hilt stood, stabbed into the earth.
Text boxes appeared, with a character explaining some things.
When Noelle said that pulling the needles would awaken a dragon that would end the world, she kinda left out the ‘it would remake the world’ part. But, that’s what ending the world ‘good’ meant, they supposed.
Then, the npc went to ‘Susie’, and taught her a spell. By blasting her with a bolt of lightning.
The real Susie would think that’s awesome, actually.
Then, Noelle brought her character to pull the needle. The golden hilt thing flew off. Then, the needle was pulled, a beam of light appearing. The screen shook, and smoke poured out of the hole. The screen darkened, and okay this was kinda ridiculous.
They knew that the Dragon Blazers games were inspired by Lord of the Hammer, which was in turn inspired by the prophecy, but this was just insane. How did they even get a concept that close to Dark Fountains? It wasn't one to one, but the ‘object lodged into the earth’ thing, the ‘beam of light’ thing and ‘smoke coming out of the ground’ thing was a bit hard to ignore.
The animation finished, and ‘Noelle’ realized the power of PK Christmas Ω
Kris stared at Noelle. She looked away. “It asked for my favorite thing, okay?”
They just shook their head with a smile.
The NPC had more dialogue, and then they disappeared.
Oh. the npc and the needle were tied together, they didn’t know that.
“One needle left, three and three.” Noelle said, partially restating the dialogue. “I’m getting pretty close to the ending, I can feel it.”
It appeared the cutscene ended, but that wasn’t the case, as it continued. The music changed, and… was that jazz?
Considering a character just effectively died, this was… very ill fitting music. Kris had a feeling that was the point.
The screen faded to black, giving Noelle a chance to save again. She took it. Notably, the save afterwards was called ‘Chapter 7 end’.
“How many chapters are there?” Kris asked.
“No idea, but there can’t be too many more. We’re really near the end now.”
Once the save finished, the characters exited the temple, and a… limo pulled up.
Another part of the UnderBound series was that it took a more urban approach to world building, compared to the fantasy of the rest of the games, but just straight up seeing a limo was interesting.
A chauffeur exited the limo, and talked with the cast. He said something that made Noelle lean forward.
“Master Pokey? Wait, that’s the guy from the second game!” Noelle said.
Kris never played the second UnderBound game, so they had no idea what that meant.
The cutscene continued, the party entering the limo. It lifted off the ground, and flew away. After a bunch of fumbling around and reading flavor text, the limo landed in ‘New Pork City’.
It was a gloomy, gray, and pretty crummy looking city, and it was at this point that Kris felt like they were officially lost. What was even going on anymore?
The limo landed, and the screen faded to black. Text appeared, stating that this was the start of chapter 8. All Things…
Perhaps missing the past seven or so chapters was not the best for their understanding.
“I think you’re gonna have to explain UnderBound lore to me cause I have no idea what’s going on.” They were mostly a normal Dragon Blazers fan, they didn’t really play the spin offs.
“Uhh…” Noelle said as she focused on the game. She seemed very invested all of a sudden. Was it because of that named dropped character? “Yeah I can explain what’s going on. It’s gonna take a while though.”
"That's fine." Kris nodded. That's ideal, even. Hearing Noelle speak for a long period of time was something they really, really wanted.
“Okay, so it all started…”