[F01-SP] inbetween.

[NIGHT 0]

[<<]

the pinnacle of the hour. day’s two feet were on the edge of a precipice; all around her was a sea of unrelenting darkness, threatening to swallow the sky whole.

nothing more but a few minutes from now. the tides would rise, quickly, swallow her whole as it did with the rest of the player base, the humans that cardinal prided its systems around so much. and those glaring red messages that flooded her vision upon mere analysis; it stung her eyes. system errors weren’t supposed to do that.

so this was something bigger than her. bigger than aincrad.

up so high, the wind was chaotic. or perhaps it was the rush of emptiness, the lapping void devouring the world, freed what forces trapped the air from circulating as it should by nature. it was cold. the ends of her locks were prickling at her skin.

it was a personal decision then that she removed the clips on her hair, letting the tussled mess of gold roll down from a grasp. the breeze took it, holding it aloft with its strength. liberating, her move. but still her core lied unsettled, as day continued to watch the horizon stoically.

	| NIGHT   | HP: 840/840 | EN: 122/122
[Examine]  | equipment n/a  | battle-ready inventory n/a  | skills Skills n/a i am literally unskilled  | consumed buffs Spoiler n/a  | misc. buffs Spoiler n/a paragon Lv. 5 | Gain additional col equivalent to 10% of EXP earned in that thread. Lv. 10 | +3% EXP Gain.

[NIGHT 0]

basked in shadows, it almost seemed as though the world was about to end.

the glow of her weapon, bright as may be in her hands, was nothing but a speck of abnormality upon this canvas. her feet slid against rubble, a mesh that normally wouldn’t be accessible nor supportive of a human’s measure. the entity had half a mind to lob it into the goop, hoping it would stick out like a sore thumb, one last hope amongst the pitch of nothing.

she held onto it, however. thought back to her reason of being here, at the edge of the apocalypse. thought back to her reason of being in general.

she wasn’t gone just yet, so perhaps...

 

the first few creatures started to form, stepping to her higher ground, black liquid trailing from what inconsistent caricatures they’d take on only after being looked at once. day gave them a glance to spare them from their misery of shifting, before looking at the stick in her hands.

[NIGHT 0]

she’d known the answer all along, though it was never discussed between beings. system to system, nor player to cardinal. no, this was a long-forgotten prerogative, ingrained in her being, foretold by the system above.

all along, it had always been written in the star.

 

a hound darted forward. day only needed to dodge to the side.

so that was it, then. if she would have to go down, an inevitable possibility, then she would go down on her own terms. her fingers twirled around the length of her spear. all at once, the puppets of the dark leapt to spring on her.

had cardinal read her in her final moments, maybe for once it would notice a tinge of surprise. for day wasn’t excited, nervous, nor afraid.

the one message it got from system entity id#          was that it felt brave.

- - -

[1/4/--]: i’ll see you on the other side.

- - -

[NIGHT 0]

[>>]

it wasn’t over. the moment orgoth’s words died on his lips and her ears, she knew something was wrong.

the wash of darkness was sudden. it took her breath before she could make out the edges of the tide, and before she could move, to shift and run and escape and hide, it swept her away, off her feet and off the ground. night wasn’t a great swimmer and it felt like she was drowning in liquid water, a freezing cold goop that was growing heavier on her skin, her clothes at every passing second. to rise to the top, to struggle for air -- in her fumbling around in free space, the exertion of her energy in extreme panic, a sudden sleepiness was starting to hit her senses hard.

no. no, she couldn’t go out like this here. this wasn’t what should be happening. was this normal for the front lines? she’d never been told-- an all out wipe wouldn’t make this a game--

the developers--

[NIGHT 0]

amidst her complaints, her thoughts rolling fast, the spinning of the world and the void around her -- god, that vertigo despite her reduced movement, it had to be system induced somehow -- her thoughts lead her back to a helplessness, a feeble state of mind.

ren felt herself track back to years, years ago. the feeling of wasting away, waiting, watching for nothing, nothing to happen to her at all. that pressure around her neck, cold pressing upon the small of her back, the ooze seeping and filling her lungs -- all of it was viscerally, monumentally damning.

night wanted to rid herself of ghosts.

in her last moment, ren prayed to find one instead.

( to take her hands into her own, to glue her sights to the ground, feel the fingers of comfort trail upon her palm the way she’d always done. in her company, her comfort, that she be selfish for once, only this once, for it was the end of the world.

tell me this isn’t real. she says, she pleads. tell me it’s all a dream. )

surely, someone would know what was happening to the boss raid, right? somehow, somewhere, their tales would be buried into the outside world. that someone knew what was happening to night in specific. that a remnant would remember ren as she once was.

( tell me, she continues. )

ren wondered for a heartbeat, before she closed her eyes, feeling her consciousness winking out of existence.

( tell me an awful lie, day. )

ren wondered if her counter part was doing okay.

( tell me that ███ ████ ██. )

- - -

item has been added to inventory.

Orgoth’s Legacy | TIER 4 PERFECT 2HSS
| PHASE | HOLY | ACCURACY
| —the wash of starlight, the old paradox.
| it's you. i swear i'd find you in the dark.

- - -

[NIGHT 0]

ren woke up.

she was tired. it was nine in the morning, and the bones in her limbs were aching all over. how many nights of crunch had it been, by this point? what assignments were left due, even? she didn’t want to think about it. by her luck, there was still so much more that was needed to be done.

best she got to it, then. the taste of coffee made from earlier this morning was sweet and dry; she could taste it on the flat of her tongue. from the window, the sun melted lazily onto the white sheets she laid under. it was warm, comfortable. even more so than the other days she’d been awake for. but she couldn’t sleep in just yet. just a little more...

a few bats of her eyelids and her world was set anew. in her eyes, through blurry vision, all she could spot was an angel.

and ren was lucky once more.

[NIGHT 0]

maybe homework could wait. she deserved a bit of time away from the mess. when she’d ever get a hang of software architecture, she’d never know. but the present was a gift; she was sure to understand that much. after all, her shining sun was right there with her. with every breath, every measure, every step of the journey to semester break.

how’d she get so...?

an arm was draped around ren’s waist, and fingers curled up against her wrinkled shirt. ren chided herself internally; should’ve put on something better last night, at least one of the less worn variants of her plain tees. and when did her other (they were friends, weren’t they? more than friends) get that cozy looking turtleneck?

between their shallow sleepy breaths, maybe these questions, their answers didn’t matter so much. being with her was nothing short of a miracle.

and so ren stayed quiet, watching and admiring the beauty in front of her. washed locks of full volume that flowed down to the sheets like a river, framing that petite face, smooth and delicate as though all the care in the world had gone into constructing such a figure. the way the front of her hair fell to the side of her image, that little hook at the edge of her parting; ren kept her gaze there if only not to stare too much, if only to avoid her eyes immediately falling onto her lover’s lips. no, she was sleeping, for heaven’s sake, and it would be a shame to wake her counterpart up, even if it meant she could be on top of the world for just another second.

[NIGHT 0]

they had forever and after to do it, to savour the vulnerable tidbits of affection and share them with each other. it wouldn’t be selfish to save them for now. the corners of ren’s lips curled into a smile, sights softening as the thought registered in her mind.

forever and after.

forever and after.

ren moved her fingers from the pillow to her other’s bare arm. she didn’t seem to stir at the first moment their skin met, and ren’s heart only pooled further with anticipation, with excitement. her palm moved further, down towards her love’s elbow. still, there was nothing save the slightest hitch of a breath in the woman’s snoozing.

adorable.

“lynn,” ren murmured, wondering if her voice would be enough to stir her double awake. true to form, the furrowing of brows only signified lynn’s attention to ren's name calling. and there were only butterflies left in the woman's stomach, a garden blooming in her heart, her chest, her throat.

[NIGHT 0]

“lynn,“ she called again, scooting closer for warmth, to provide a comfort to her other. her lover’s name rolled off her tongue as though it was the easiest thing to say in the world. “lynn, wake up.“

“nnn...“

soft eyelashes. they pulled lynn’s eyes open, revealing clear sapphires hiding behind them, full of haziness and clarity, a paradox living in her system. it was everything that ren wanted to live for in the moment. she couldn’t help but stare back, admiring the crux of her heart’s desires.

in that second, ren wondered what lynn might’ve wanted for breakfast.

“... night?”

in the next, the smile on her face hung midway through a greeting, and memories of everything started to trickle back in. her eyes had widened — slowly, surely, past the darkness, the shadows, the front lines, the floor boss—

( tell me an awful lie, day. tell me that— )

“day.“

that was all night needed to push herself backwards, fear blossoming from the chamber in her ribs where love once threatened to push through. her legs swung across the side of her bed, and night chided herself, gods she was a fool, and cardinal played her for it. at every step of the way she could’ve prevented this, prevented--

[NIGHT 0]

her bare feet touched the floor. and the window that blocked her vision from her room wrangled a short cry of alarm from the player, one of her hands settling on the mattress of her bed.

“night? --what is it?“

[a system update has been completed.]

a system update? behind her, the gemini hadn’t made mention of any further queries; most likely because she too had been greeted with cardinal’s message at a quick shift of their posture.

[due to the system update, please take note of your readjusted stats.]

it was too early to be processing such information, especially in the morning. had there been anything else of incredible note with this intel, night would not have likened herself to catch it. rather, her focus was set on her previous embarrassment, wanting to close out the windows in her face as soon as possible, and then maybe bound somewhere else to hide away from her counterpart in guilt and shame.

[NIGHT 0]

she tapped the confirmation icon and hoped it would be over soon.

[please reallocate your skill points.]

never mind. by the looks of it, she'd be stuck here all day. to herself, night hoped the entity wouldn’t have remembered her spell from earlier.

the player said nothing, prodding at the window in silence, examining the vast array of changes on a familiar interface. how unnecessarily annoying -- sorting through the different charts and graphs holding the information would be the sort of work best suited for an information broker. a good use of her col and a saving of her time, too. it would be easier to discuss this with bistro over text instead of wading through its intricacies on her own; the woman examined the window’s top bar over, finding a minimize icon, finally, at the corner of its overlay.

she could save the debacle for later.

[as compensation for the update, a free item upgrade is offered to all players. please select three equipment pieces—]

no, she’d skip that too.

[NIGHT 0]

there was one more window underneath them all.

[item obtained: orgoth’s legacy]

so the floor boss hadn’t been a hallucination, then. and the equipment piece itself looked incredibly potent, promising. one pull of it from her inventory and she held it up. a sword forged from--

wait. wasn’t this...

the standard blade woven together from pixels in her hands was nothing but a mesh of pure white. it glowed. it hummed in her grasp. it was the exact same type of weapon that her entity would’ve used on her own accord.

if anything, only its model was shaped differently.

cardinal sucked at reusing weapons.

night let it zap from her grip, returning it into storage before her other could spot it. how strange -- and devastating. the player wondered if most everyone else got something similar to it, too. the thought of her exception only bred fie in her mouth, and the woman shook her head, pulling up her menus. if there were no other system issues to attend do, she’d let bistro know of her predicament and wait for further updates from the player base.

it was the least she could do.

literally, night didn’t want to do anything else but escape at the moment.

[NIGHT 0]

a glance towards the construct told her of the dutifulness of cardinal’s pawn. easily, night guessed, her other was focused on understanding the updates necessary for her software... or something. whatever it was she’d gotten, day was certainly putting in much more effort into comprehending the whims of her overlord. better her than night. it must’ve been as though she was reading a brief from upper management.

the player exhaled, pensive, her eyes locked on the mess of gold. even from behind, with her hair down, the day looked very much like...

--the name was stuck halfway between her throat and her mind. she couldn’t force it out even if she’d wanted to.

night swallowed the thought and rose from her bed.

the time was 9:42am.

her leave of the room must’ve caught her doppel’s attention, for partway through the door frame she heard a cry. “night! where’re you going?”

“i’m making breakfast.”

[NIGHT 0]

at the mention of food, day seemed to go quiet. or if she'd hollered, night wasn't paying attention to her voice (sweet as it may be). towards the kitchen, she retraced her memory; how the tides had pulled her under, how at the very end, only chains and the grotesque were left on the field, with shadow nowhere to be seen.

orgoth opened the flood gates, didn't he? and then...

in the comfort of her lonesome, she could finally acknowledge a heat growing on her face. and no, it wouldn't be a product of the crackling fire, the sizzling of butter and fried eggs and toast in the pan. the end of the world? what was she thinking? and what even was that weird black gunk? how'd she wake up in her bed?

(she knew it happened sometimes, but why was day in there last?)

too many questions, forcing an unwanted prayer. frustrating. were battles on the frontlines always this hectic, chaotic and unpredictable? she contemplated her stay with the fighters for a moment; with her spatula, she'd placed a serving onto one plate, and then another. her meal wouldn't be done yet, today. she needed to keep herself busy, try to find something else to think about.

[NIGHT 0]

a slinking of arms to her sides caught her off-guard, and the woman stopped, nearly spilling oil onto the floor as she froze.

“good morning~”

night’s breath was caught in a hopeless hitch. her back had straightened. no remorse, it seemed, from her doppel. with the player’s waist locked in an embrace, day rested her chin upon night’s shoulder with a smile on her face, peering over to watch the stove.

close. too close. when did the entity learn to be this touchy-feely with her, anyway? and all of that aside -- this was definitely not what she needed right now.

her knuckles gripping the spatula were growing white.

“please,“ night whispered in return, stiff and agitated and subconsciously steaming, all too aware of the distance between her and her other. the memory of the construct with her hair down came to mind -- incredibly distracting, that image. day hadn’t taken it off in the past. what happened to the clip that held it up before then? night winced slightly as she tried to sneak a peek towards her double’s image from the corner of her sights. bundled up in another messy bunch. like things were back to normal.

[NIGHT 0]

well, they weren’t.

they had an agreement, despite night’s hesitance to bring it up. was this some sort of second step in a plan to piss her off? through gritted teeth, she seethed further, her voice almost lost in an exhale.

“let me work.“

“hm?“ day’s glance over to the player’s exasperated look was all but in confusion, but even the entity could tell something was dreadfully off about their interaction. a bite of anger, an instant retaliation was often the norm -- this wasn’t it, and slowly, the system began to retreat from night’s personal space.

“oh. sorry.”

adherence from day was rare. the apology even rarer still. but night appreciated what little the construct had to offer, finally loosening her terseness, going back to weakly flipping around over sized sausages.

to recover, the pawn fell by her side, dropping her glow. “what’s for breakfast, then?”

“you’re looking at it.“

[NIGHT 0]

not that night had meant to be curt, leaning closer over the fire, playing it dangerous a tad bit, just to avoid the sight of her doppel from coming within her periphery. the player huffed, carrying over one of the wursts to the plate; when day caught it in a glance, she nodded, observant, watching the woman’s every move.

so night felt a little on edge when day hadn’t left after a beat.

“what do you want?“

day was quiet, in that moment. the anticipation was something else when night couldn’t observe her other’s facial expressions, stoic as they may have been. but in the wait, she toyed with the meat on the pan, bouncing it back and forth. if it was overcooked, night decided she would take it as her own serving.

"just to talk," day finally replied, locking two hands behind her back as she lumbered backwards with care. with each step, her eyes remained set on night's figure. the player couldn't shrug off the feeling of being watched. "while we're eating, perhaps?"

[NIGHT 0]

when the entity stopped, she turned to the refrigerator, fingers dancing across the screen. "let me grab us something to drink. blackcurrant or grape juice?"

surprise me, night had wanted to say without thinking.

"the latter," she requested instead, earning a nod and a hum in confirmation for her choice. with a small sigh, night continued with her duties, dropping the wurst from the pan to the plate with a scrape. while day wasn't looking, night felt a hint of vengeance, wondering if it would matter had she swapped the platters around.

she decided against it. it wasn't her fault that the gemini, too, had inquiries. the pair moved at roughly the same pace; day first with her glass cups and green carton, night next with the meal spread, after turning off the stove fire.

they settled quickly in. the player chose to focus on her own food, in fear of being questioned relentlessly for what had transpired this morning.

(or last night. she wasn't responsible for it, was she? she knew getting comfort once in a while was a bad idea--)

[NIGHT 0]

"so the boss fight," day started, working on the dish ahead of her, silver cutlery held fast in her hand. night's fluster was subtle, hopefully; her eyes darted from the slice of meat on her fork to her respondent, mouth partially agape. "how'd it go?"

"well, i made it back out alive, didn't i?" playing it cool was a good sign. the player popped her tidbit into her mouth, chewing it slow -- her hands shifted to pry a tear of bread away, sectioned off to the side.

"that's not what i meant." in her inelegance, day's eyes were dead set on night's on image, speaking with her mouth half full, food pushed to the side of her cheek. efficient for clarity. her glare paired with a huff was almost cutting (and almost kind of cute).

night raised a brow, wondering if she should take a sip of juice now to hide a smile. "then what do you mean?"

"like..."

[NIGHT 0]

the entity's voice trailed off, eyes falling elsewhere. night stuffed the readied portion into her mouth, dipped in yolk, before her lips could contort on instinct. "was anything... out of the ordinary?"

oh, day. night narrowed her eyes, lips pulled in a thinner line, annoyed by the idea that she couldn't even savour her toast before being asked critical questions.

"not that you've been up against a floor boss before, obviously." the construct, eyes closed, returned to dividing her meal further, knife splitting the skin of her wurst.

thank you for the vote of confidence, night thought back, halving a slice off a corner of her bread.

"--but i was thinking about... how you should've headed out to the twenty-sixth right after you got done."

(and what, was she to confess her prayers, now?)

"... i don't remember you coming home."