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A new dark world.
She’s never heard of such a thing—she’s been sheltered most of her life, only hearing of such concepts after the Lightners showed up.
All of this was new, but at least Lancer was there.
Her and Lancer rarely spent time apart; if one was there, so was the other. It was an unspoken rule of the kingdom. But here? Lancer was acting off.
Once the gang had reached the castle—including herself and Lancer, who’d decided to stay in Kris’ pocket with logic she couldn’t explain—he’d become paler and paler.
Eventually he’d turned to stone.
It felt like her whole WORLD shattered! Which, God, if it did, that’d be horrible, but it was just a saying, and to her, Lancer WAS her world, thank you very much.
She stared up at Ralsei with pleading, desperate eyes and had begged him to revert this change, to which he calmly explained—
“Once Kris seals the fountain and we return, he’ll go back to normal! No need to worry!”
She was still worried.
A whole lot, actually.
Susie had tried cheering her up, but it was to little avail. Gialla loved Susie—but gosh, Lancer was a STATUE! How could you be normal about this?!
Of course, it wasn’t long until Queen had swept her away.
Just like Ralsei, she didn’t have enough cages to get her with. So Queen simply opted to do the same thing she’s done to Ralsei! But it wasn’t easy getting her hands on Gialla.
For a powerless being, she sure was hard to catch—spending time around Susie when she could before swiftly being chased off by a swatchling.
She was great at hiding, but it didn’t last too long.
“Come On You’ll Look So Cute (True)” Queen stated with a sickly sweet smile, trying to coax Gialla into the dressing room.
Gialla gave a defiant ‘humph!’ and stayed standing there. “No!! I want to go see Lancer!” She replied.
Queen was silent for a moment, before a metaphorical lightbulb appeared over the top of her head.
“I’ll Let You See The Boy If You Put It On”
…
Tempting.
“And I’ll Give You A Really Cute Bow”
Gialla sighed.
“Okay, fine. But I’m only doing this for Lancer!!” She crossed her arms.
Queen smiled wide, pleased that she’d won the childish argument. She began ushering the Phixnin into the dressing room, spouting random nonsense as she did. “Okay Nice Because I Seriously Need More Maids Around Here And You’ll Be Perfect”
Gialla wished she could turn her ears off.
After about 10 minutes, Ralsei was nervously pacing outside the dressing room—he wanted to check up on Gialla, as she’d mysteriously ‘gone missing’—and once he arrived at the literal last possible place he looked, the dressing rooms, he heard sounds behind the curtain.
“Hold Still Bro It’s Just An Apron”
“It’s too tight!!”
“It’s Supposed To Be”
Ralsei pinched the bridge of his snout—how was this taking that long? At least he knew where the rabbit was now.
“Okay There”
Queen finally said, and Ralsei sighed with relief. Gialla gasped, muffled by the curtain, as she then squealed.
“It’s sooo cute!!”
“I Told You”
Ralsei cleared his throat. “Uhm, sorry to interrupt, but the Lighteners—”
“Ralsei!!! Look!!!” Gialla burst out of the dressing room, immediately tripping on the long dress and landing face first on the floor.
“Oh My God” Queen's face held a ‘LMAO’ in bright red.
Ralsei blinked, shuffling closer and helping her up.
“Ough… Thanks.” Gialla laughed nervously, embarrassed that she’d fallen so easily. She forgot how long the dress was.
“The Lightners are—they’re ready to seal the fountain.” Ralsei explained, stepping away from her.
“Wait—Already?!” Gialla exclaimed.
“Oh Right I Called Off All That Stuff Because Of The Growling Lmao” Queen gave her ‘iconic laugh’.
“The- It’s called The Roaring, Queen.”
“Same Thing” She said, promptly walking out of the room.
Ralsei sighed. “Let’s go, please.”
Gialla nodded immediately, feeling homesick and desperately missing Lancer.
Home, sweet home… It was almost exactly like they’d left it. Except entirely different. There were new buildings, new people, new everything!! It was so overwhelming, she’d forgotten to do anything about her still being dressed in her ‘work attire’. Ralsei already had—she had no clue how it was any kind of oversight to her.
Okay, well, honestly, she didn’t care. She wanted—no, NEEDED—to see Lancer! He was missing nearly the whole journey; she wanted her best friend back!
She ran around Castle Town until she bumped into Susie, who caught her by the back of the apron.
“Whoa there! Slow down!” Susie laughed, “You tryna get your face impaled?” She motioned to her wrist... Spike... Thingies.
Gialla smiled up at Susie as she was set down. “No, but close! I’m looking for Lancer!” She exclaimed, rocking back and forth on her heel excitedly.
Susie hummed. “Lancer? I think he’s with Ralsei.” With Ralsei? Gialla tilted her head. Oh well—she’s already off.
“Thanks, Susie!!” She called as she ran in the direction of Ralsei’s room, nearly barging in.
“LANCER!!” She shouted, immediately scaring Ralsei, who was just talking with Lancer.
Lancer, however, perked up and gasped. “GIA!” He ran to her, nearly knocking her over in a tight bearhug, which made her laugh and spin him around.
“I missed you so much!”
“Nuh-uh! I missed you more!”
“Not true!”
“It’s truer than a can of worms!!”
Ralsei watched the scene play out with a nervous smile, laughing awkwardly.
Lancer paused as he was released from the hug. “... Why do you look like you’re about to ask me about room service?”
“Wuh—” Blink, blink. OH! Right! “Queen made me her maid for a while! And by a while, I mean like 30 minutes ‘til we had to go.”
Lancer nodded like he understood the exact situation. “I see. So you were a time-sensitive employee.”
Gialla tilted her head. “A what? I'm- You know what? Yeah, I was!” She nodded, laughing a little at the absurd concept.
Ralsei then cleared his throat. “Um, Gialla, aren’t you going to change out of that?”
She paused. “... I. Don’t have any other clothes.”
“What?”
“Freya gets me all my clothes. I don’t have any here.”
The room was silent. Eventually, Ralsei spoke again.
“That’s okay. That’s great, actually!” He clasped his hands together. “Why don’t I just make you a whole new wardrobe?”
“A new wardrobe? But didn’t she need clothes?”
“Lancer, that’s—That’s not what I meant.”
Lancer stared blankly.
“I’m offering to make her new clothes.”
“Ohhhh!! That sounds fun!” He replied, now understanding.
Gialla was silent up until now, Ralseis's offering only just registering in her mind. “You—you’d do that? Really?!” She exclaimed excitedly, smiling widely.
“Of course! Just tell me what you like, and I’ll get to it later.” He said with a soft smile. He was just too nice for his own good!
Gialla ran over to Ralsei and embraced him. He seemed to tense up, not used to such active affection. “Thank you!!”
He laughed a bit, patting her head. “It’s no problem, really.”
“Hey, Lancer, wanna stay here and draw up some requests?” She looked over at Lancer, who perked up.
“Sure!! Oh boy, you think he’ll even make some for me?”
“W-Wait—”
“Yeah! He definitely will! C’mon, let’s get some sketchbooks!!” Gialla grabbed his hand, ran out the door, and left Ralsei alone.
He sighed. This was going to be a long, long afternoon.