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There’s no good reason for Susie, of all people, to be barging into Noelle’s room. And it makes no sense why she’s the one who ends up doing it; Kris is the childhood friend—which makes them the obvious choice for a stupidly sappy rescue—and Ralsei’s like… basically one of those baby blankets, the kind with a dumb fluffy stuffed animal attached. So shouldn’t he jump at the chance to make friends or be a goody-goody or whatever?
But apparently Susie’s the only one…
…who realizes what’s at stake! Someone has to make sure Noelle isn’t onto all the Dark World stuff! Susie’s got a secret identity to protect! And Kris does, too, even though they don’t seem to be taking it seriously!
Anyway.
Compared to the other rooms prepped by Queen, Noelle’s looks like a room someone would actually live in. So, kind of boring, aside from… a huge badass statue!? Or, maybe not huge but it’s at least six Lancers tall, which is pretty damn big! There’s not a lot of detail on the statue itself, but it’s clearly a lone figure with an axe hoisted over their shoulder as they stare into the distance in the coolest way possible. It definitely sticks out, not matching Noelle’s taste at all. In fact, it sticks out so much that Susie almost misses Noelle, who’s sitting on the bed, staring out the window at the… moon? Baseball? Baseball moon?
In any case, she obviously hasn’t noticed Susie. Which, weird, considering Susie practically kicked the door in. So now Susie’s gotta get her attention, and that’s… kinda… awkward as hell! It’s not like they’re friends or anything. They barely know each other. What’s Susie supposed to say?
“Hey,” Susie tries.
“Hey!” Susie repeats, after the first one doesn’t work. Looks like it’s time to bring out the last resort. The big guns.
Shaking her out of it!
But when Susie puts a hand onto Noelle’s shoulder, it’s… already shaking pretty bad…? And it could be from the whole “getting kidnapped in some kinda weird computer world” thing, it could be that she’s scared of Susie like everyone else is, except, there’s something about the way she’s staring at the baseball… moon… thing…
“Noelle? You’re, uh, kinda…” Susie trails off, the hand on Noelle’s shoulder lightly nudging her back and forth.
“Yeah,” Noelle mumbles, as if that’s even an answer. But it does get her to look over and do a double-take. “S-Susie…? What are you doing here?”
“Uh,” Susie starts, and instead of saying something cool about kicking Queen’s ass, or saving Noelle, what she manages to sputter out is: “What… are you doing… here!?”
Aside from being kidnapped, duh!!
Noelle drops her gaze, “I’m just… thinking.” She doesn’t even offer one of those clumsy nervous smiles, and it’s kinda weird seeing her without one for so long. “This place… it’s so strange. I don’t even remember how we got here. Why can’t I remember…?”
“Oh, that’s easy!” Susie blurts out with full confidence, ready to follow up with an extremely convincing explanation. “Uhhh… you’re, uhhh… just having a dream!”
“A dream,” Noelle repeats, and there’s this dawning look of something on her face. She clutches at Susie’s arms, and the only thing more surprising than that is how strong her grip is. “Of course! Of course it’s a dream! That’s all it is, right?” She grins up at Susie—not the usual nervous one, but definitely not a steady one, either. “Nothing makes sense here. So it has to be a dream! And if it’s a dream, it’s not real!”
“Uh, yeah, that’s how dreams work.” Susie puts a hand over Noelle’s, but doesn’t tug it off yet. For some reason. “So, does dream-Noelle want to get out of here, or what?”
“I can’t,” Noelle says, smiling.
“The door’s literally right there. Unlocked and everything. I could break it if that’d make you feel better—”
“I can’t,” Noelle says, still smiling. “I’m scared. I don’t know what will happen if I…” she pulls away and laughs, but it comes out… weird. A little too high, a little too fast. “I’m not strong enough.”
Well, she’s not wrong—Noelle isn’t exactly a powerhouse. Susie could probably send her flying with a flick of her wrist. Noelle’s always given off that helpless kinda vibe. But the thing is, Susie’s never seen her look so genuinely… afraid?
And Susie says, “You don’t have to be.”
“Huh?”
“If you don’t want to fight, you don’t have to. That’s why I’m here! You think this axe is just for show?” Susie holds it up with a flourish, adding an extra spin just to look as cool as possible. From Noelle’s wide-eyed expression, it works.
“Listen. We’ll take care of everything,” Susie promises. “Just, take a break I guess? Sounds like you could use one, y’know?” She turns, face burning at having to say something so… embarrassing!!
“Susie…” Noelle trails off, but she sounds less unsteady. When Susie glances over, Noelle gives her a smile—a real one, not whatever was going on before.
Then she reaches over and.
Puts?
Her hand??
In Susie’s???
“Y’know, being together with you is something I’ve always dreamed about. I’m glad that’s the same, at least.”
…HUH!?!
“Talking like this is nice,” Noelle continues, hopefully not noticing when Susie drops her axe. “I wish we could, back in the real world.”
“Well… uh…” Still scrambling over what to do, Susie ends up shaking Noelle’s hand (WHAT THE HELL!?!) like some kind of business nerd (SERIOUSLY!?!) before letting go. ”Try it out next time. See what happens.”
Susie picks up her axe. She doesn’t turn back as she barrels out the door, heart stupidly thump, thump, thumping in her chest.