if blizzards could inhabit things, she knows she would house many in her brittle body. past ones, the ones she presently brings about with her numb fingertips, and blizzards to come. snowy hell that reaps with a hunger to chill everything in its path. drowning helpless weak things in its depths where they suffocate under their fear before she finishes wiping them out. it blurs : the bodies akin to the white droplets that fluff her eyelashes and whip her cheeks bleeding red. noelle had found comfort in that nothingness at first – still shuffling into her role as a lighthouse of all things poisonously pretty. settling to masquerade about with her bright red nose and false sense of purity. but delusions only go so far, and snow can only blind you so much before the weight snaps bones.
noelle’s original fatigue over the whole ordeal was violent in the beginning. bile pushing against her tiny throat and hands shaking. rendered unable to attend class where she’d only stare at the empty seat. seeing her father’s hospital room only to cower away, hands clutching at her silly christmas vest as if she could hurt him too. ( you certainly hurt berdly ). it was awful at first, when the dream nightmare(?) was shattered by terrifying words paired with a smooth tone that slipped down her like honey. left with shards that cut into her too much like the thorn ring did. why was all of kris’ damage so familiar, so comparable to everything noelle agonizes over?
it’s now been a week, maybe two, noelle struggles to keep track of days now since it blurs like winter – and the reindeer finds herself fumbling into acceptance. it feels too much like rebirth, the kind she’d briefly skim over in kris’ old bibles. and it’s … an empty feeling. shedding her old deer skin and coming into her sharpened antlers isn’t the proud moment she thought it’d be. it’s nothing like anything at all. faintly tiring like she’s a thousand years old and not some young teen with ice magic coursing through her veins.
though it’s enough to lead her blindly back into the dark world. to feel her new skin now that she knows too well she’ll never truly fit her old coat. re-adorned with her regal white robe that dances around her hooves like water, like noelle holiday is an angel gracing this darkened world when she’s anything but. she doesn’t feel like one of god’s angels when her knees immediately meet the ground, bruising as she arches her back. bent over in an angle that makes her messy blonde hair ( why bother tidying up? it’ll ruin itself again anyway ) mask away her twisted expression. she’s certainly not feeling holy even when her hands clasp together in prayer because while noelle is very hollow, the moment she’s here she thinks obsessively of kris – kris in her ear. kris’ hand on her back, guiding her. kris’ commands and it awakens something! stirs the hollowness like nothing else, and trust her, she’s attempted to wean on other things.
ears twitch once. hearing the patter of steps. a … what were her classmates called down here? a lightner? or was a darkner more likely? either way, noelle’s mind glazes over again with her heart locking tightly up in a cage. eyes as wide as headlights when hair brushes just slightly to the side so she can gawk.
“w-wh-who’s there? i know s-someone is!” a surge of kris’ conditioned strength pulses in her. “show yourself … i’m not in the mood for … games.”
games. dreams. maybe noelle is still childishly clinging to this being less of what it is. she thinks about berdly and doesn’t think it matters either way.
blue skin suits kris better than brown ever did.
similarly to noelle, the teenager had found their way back to the dark world after the events of what their childhood friend seems to believe is a nightmare. it isn’t a nightmare, though, and she must know it. because she wouldn’t be here, seeking it out, if she thought it wasn’t real. so they’d shattered her delusions around this place, awakened her to her true nature.
good. now they’re the same.
because kris doesn’t just like the dark world because there are friends there, because there’s no school projects or church programs to attend. they like the dark world because it makes their clothes pink and their skin blue. no longer touting the handmade sweater their mother’s made for them. no longer being led to class hand-in-hand, as if she doesn’t trust them enough to let them walk on their own. no being babied, no being mothered. no cinnamon-butterscotch pies on the stove. here, candy just absorbs into them, never sating their hunger. here, they don’t look like they could be asriel’s miserable twin. here, they’re strong. and they’re determined.
seeing noelle again awakens that feeling. that hunger. that determination. kris steps into view and doesn’t smile. they’re just looking at noelle, familiar in her angelic gown. they hold up their hand in what seems like a wave, but has a far more sinister purpose. they’d gone to the shop and had a cosmetic ring fashioned for themselves. one that matches the one still around noelle’s finger, clinging to her as soon as she falls into the world of darkness.
“look. we match now.” like husband and wife, they don’t say. but kris doesn’t ruminate on it too long, sliding their ringed hand into their pocket as they look to the side with an almost irritated countenance. of course, they would be upset. they had just slain all the enemies in the area. if they’d waited just a few more minutes, noelle could have become stronger. more capable. less afraid. she could fend for herself, advocate for herself. she wouldn’t have to hide behind her girlish charm and her cutesy demeanour. if she were strong, surely she’d be happy. and if she couldn’t be happy… she’d at least be safe.
impulsively, kris takes their hand out of their pocket and moves to take noelle’s own, with their rings touching each other in a way that makes them feel ridiculous. “let’s get tea.”