Chapter Text

A boy hooked up to countless machines groans in pain. Twitching uncontrollably and shivering from the unrelenting cold.

Doctors flutter about like files dancing around a rotting carcass, checking vitals and tending to patients.

“Si-...” The boy stirs, grabbing at the thin hospital blankets.

One of them notices the boy’s pitiful attempts at sitting up straight.

“Woah- there, there easy now kid! You shouldn’t be making sudden movements like that-”

“S-Sister..” The boy rasps out.

“WHERE’S MY-”

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

“SISTER?!”

You tumble unceremoniously out of bed, landing face-first on your monochrome floor. Owch.

WELCOME TO THE WHITE EXPANSE.

YOU’VE BEEN WAITING HERE FOR QUITE A LONG TIME.

What a strange dream…

You sit up right in the center of your cabin, your head spinning with static. You shake your head and your vision fades into view as your same cold cabin greets you like it always has.

Your cabin is quite small, with it’s wooden walls painted in several shades of white, black and grey; in fact, the colourlessness of the room is so severe, one might imagine that any vibrancy that enters this environment would instantaneously be dulled by its achromatic atmosphere.

There is a grey carpet, with a white border just beyond its edges. A striped bed with a lonely pillow sits in the back-right corner. Next to it is a table, countless papers and notebooks stacked on its surface, with a laptop being the cherry on top of this metaphorical paper-notebook cake. You’ve been running a DnD campaign for your friends for quite a long time now. Keeping track of their characters requires a lot of notetaking, and a lot of notetaking requires a whole lot of paper! A TV rests next to the table displaying static. Scattered around its screen were a few old cassette tapes and board games. Then, opposite to the TV there's a blank mannequin. You usually hang your armor up on it before heading to bed. Near the mannequin, an intimidating door casts a faint shadow over the rest of the room.

Standing up dizzily, you remember you’ve slept in your armor again. No wonder your back hurts. At least it shielded you from your fall? Does it work like that? Ah, oh well. Maybe next time you’ll remember to take it off before bed.

Reaching towards your side, you attempt to draw your sword, only to realise it’s missing. Only its scabbard remains at your side. You must've left it outside again. Maybe that’s a good thing considering you keep on sleeping with your armor on, you could’ve accidentally stabbed yourself in your sleep.

Dusting yourself off, you walk to the white door and turn the knob. A fresh, snowy breeze hits you, chilling your lungs.

Like the inside of your cabin, your front porch is also quite small, only really fitting some railings and your Mother’s old rocking chair. She’s not in the picture anymore, so it’s your rocking chair now.

The outside landscape is covered in the same white puffballs of snow that are gathering at your feet. You stand quietly amidst fields of pointy black pine trees and under the gaze of a black moon.

A bright pink door covered in stickers sticks out like a sore thumb, next to it there's a small section of forest that you’ve converted into a miniature training area. A shiny iron sword is stabbed into one of the training dummies. The decapitated one.

Oh that's where you left it! You really need to take the time to re-organise all your stuff… ehh maybe sometime later. The pink door is a rare sight these days, and you refuse to pass up an opportunity to see your friends… but first you need your sword…

You tug and tug. It requires more effort than you’d like to admit to pull it out, but when you do you put it back in its scabbard where it belongs. You feel a lot more confident with your sword in your grasp, it’s like you could face the world!

You walk over to the pink coloured door.

A pink door casts a faint shadow

What would you like to do?

✦> OPEN THE DOOR

DO NOTHING

The colours of HEADSPACE clash with your monochrome colour scheme; it's going to take some time for your eyes to adjust to the light pinks and bright pastels.

The minty green wallpaper of your house greets you amicably. Its walls are plastered with colourful stickers and pictures. The soft purple carpet that covers the floor always feels comfortable to walk on.

Seems like Star is enjoying that new sketchbook you got her. You’re glad she likes it.

Next to your room, a small wooden table sits next to an electrical outlet. Oh, seems like Star put your phone on the charger.

You’ve found your PHONE; you have one missed call!

Would you like to hear the voicemail?

✦>YES

NO

“Hey champ, how have you been?” your Father started, as cars buzzed in the background.

“Star has been missing you. If you don't show up soon, we might have to call the cops again! Haha! Anyways, when you hear this, I’ll probably be gone. I have another business meeting at PARFAIT PEAKS.I’ll be back in four days...hopefully. Just take care of Star while I'm gone, okay? I left 500 shards under the kitchen counter if you need it, and call me if you need any more money! Oh! Also tell Star to stop eating all the Oreos; she went through three packets in just one day! Bye champ, love you!"

Good grief, how long has it been?

you question yourself before forcibly shoving that thought out of your head. You should check on your friends if it has been that long. You don’t want them worrying about you anyway.

You can hear faint chattering coming from the living room, you walk down the hall and down the stairs to meet it. Ah, looks like your friends have come over to spend the day at your house.

A small couch manages to fit three people…somehow. A wooden table sits in the middle of the room with a bunch of fresh fruits and comics plastered on it. There's a rug on top of the already existing carpet, shaped like a cute daisy. Two of the kids on the couch are playing your modded copy of SPACEBOY AND THE FIVE PLANETS.

"OH, GOD DAMNNIT!" A small boy yelled. He had yellow spiky hair obscured by a greyish-purple wolf hoodie. If you didn’t already know him, he’d look pretty shady.

“Wow, Noah. For being an ‘expert Spaceboy enjoyer’ you’re quite bad at the games.” a glasses wearing girl jeered; an invisible smirk was spread across her face. Her black skin was covered in patches of white. She had cloud-like dark hair and she wore a pastel blue wizard’s hat.

“Yeah yeah whatever... At least I’m not so bad I set the school’s only wii on fire in front of the principal!" Noah retorted.

“That was an accidental mistake, one that will not be repeated. You, however, reek of foot cheese. That’s a sin you commit daily.”

“I do NOT smell!!”

“Yes you do.”

“NUH UH!!”

“Smelly bum…”

“WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!”

And now they’re bickering again. Fantastic.

“Liam! Mi amigo! My best bud! My knight in shining armor! I know you’re there. Please, I beg you metaphorically on my knees, just get them to stop.” A tall, black-haired boy pleaded. The boy wore a cafe uniform that he'd clearly slept in. He seems to have gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to couch space. His arms are practically pinned to his sides, rendering him unable to move or escape his fate.

In one fluid motion, you lean over, snatch the TV remote, and shut the TV off. Before they could even attempt to turn it on manually you step in front of the living room TV to stop them.

“HEY! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR, MATE?!” complained the blonde-haired boy, pouting. “GET YA BUTT OUTTA THE WAY!”

“You two can use my games when both of you stop fighting,” you scolded, refusing to move.

"so apologise."

There's a long silence before Millie caves in first and mutters a half-hearted apology.

“Fine… Noah, I apologise for… insulting your gaming skills… and calling you a bum… or whatever…. And I’m sorry, Mr Samsa, for yelling and disrupting the peace and quiet of your abode.” Still overly professional as ever and insistent on calling you by your last name. It makes you feel old.

“About time!” Noah proclaimed with a sharp-toothed grin, clearly thinking he'd defeafed Millie in some way.

“Noah, you need to apologise too.” you corrected. Sometimes you feel like a babysitter. Well, you technically are, but that’s besides the point.

Noah just mumbled something in response, clearly not being sincere.

“Excuse me? What did you say? I couldn’t hear it.”

“I’M SORRY, OKAY?! I’m sorry, Millie, for making fun of you… even though you started it…” Drake mumbled. Fiddling with his controller. You hum approvingly in response.

“Also, could both of you move to the floor? You’re squishing William to death.”

“Oh whoops!”

“Apologies, Mr big cousin."

Both Noah and Millie side off the couch and onto the living room floor, finally freeing William from his imprisonment. Like you promised, you moved outta the way and turned the TV back on. William gets up and stretches a bit, before walking over to you and crushing you to death with a hug.

“You really need to stop disappearing like that, man!” William chuckled, pulling back and allowing you to breathe. “I was honestly considering breaking down your door if you took any longer.”

“Sorry dude! Sorry! I was just…” You paused thoughtfully to manufacture an excuse. “..doing my homework! haha… yeah…” Great, smooth one Liam.

“You? Homework? For an extended period of time? We both know that's a whole bag of bullshit.”

“Yeah… sorry. I’ll try my best to come out more often.” Your eyes wander around the room. “Did Star let you guys in? And if she did, where did she go?”

“No, your Dad did. He was in a rush out the door! Don’t know what for..” Laughed William. “She’s in her room. I tried knocking on her door but…- I guess she just wants to sleep in I suppose.”

“William. My sister snores obnoxiously loud. We would know if she’s sleeping.” What if she was kidnapped? What if she’s gone missing? What if-

“HE- hey! Calm down man. Take one deep breath in, and one deep breath out.” William demonstrates. You don’t know when his hands got on your shoulders, but it’s a comforting presence nevertheless. “In and out okay? In and out.”

You follow after his example, taking one deep breath and another out. In… and… out…

“Feelin’ better now?”

“Yeah… Thank you. Sorry, I just- I had this weird dream and I guess it kinda just freaked me out a whole lot.”

“No need to apologise, man! You're my friend afterall, even if you can be a worry-wort at times."

You’re glad to have a friend like William.

“Um… W-Well anyways, I'm going to go, uh, check up on her! Try to make sure Millie and Noah don’t y’know, tear up my living room, okay?” You stutter out before scuttling down the mint hallway. You play the worst case scenarios over and over again in your head.

After travelling what felt like miles down the hallway (even though her room is on the bottom floor and isn’t that far away from the living room), you reach Star's pink door. It has a lot of stickers with wild doodles and copious amounts of glitter haphazardly splayed all over it. The only thing on the door that seems neat is the one item you had placed on it yourself: it was a reminder for her to do her chores, not that she ever did any of them.

Slamming the door and sending it off its hinges, you very calmly (not) walk inside, only to see that your sister is completely fine in her bed. The covers are pulled up to her chest, you can see the faint traces of rainbow coloured paint prickled across the blanket’s design. Your little sister has her favorite pink nightgown on with her paint stained apron on top of that. Her artist’s beret is on her bedside table next to her.

She seems so peaceful like this…

“Star! I know you’re not sleeping! This isn’t funny.”

You walk over to her bedside, your hands are twitching uncontrollably.

“Star, wakey wakey eggs and bakey! Come on now all our friends are here!” You force a smile to hide your nervousness.

“Sta-”

“BOO!”

Suddenly, she leaps out from under the covers to tackle you to the ground, causing you to scream like a little girl… embarrassing.

“THIS IS MY REVENGE!!! MUHAHAHAHA!!!”

She ruffles your hair, turning your already messy bed head into a crow’s nest. Karma’s a real bitch isn't it? Guess this is your recompense for all those times you’ve messed up her perfectly good ponytails… You’re not really mad though, you’re just glad that she’s fine. You really should work on your paranoia.

After she has her fill of tormenting you, she gets back up, going to her desk to dig through her pencil case excitedly. 

“Where is it… where is it… oh come on…”

“Hm?”

You stand up and fix your hair to the best of your abilities. It’s still messy but oh well. You see Star's excitement slowly warp into frustration.

“Watcha lookin for?”

“Oh! Uhm.. You were gone for so long big bro… So Papa and I picked out a gift for you but…”

“But what?”

“No no! It’s dumb… I can find it myself…”

“Find what yourself?”

“I uh…”

“Come on~ You can tell me! I don’t bite! I do this instead!” You take this opportunity to ruffle her hair back when she’s not looking. At least this act of playful banter seems to cheer her up, even if it’s a little bit.

“EEK”

“There, now we’re even!”

Star grumbles something to herself while fixing her hair and putting on her beret before continuing her search. “I um…” Her eyes are downcast. “I may have misplaced my gift… I’m sorry big bro…” Did she expect you to be mad?

“No need to be sorry! I’m not mad, see? We can search for it together. I don’t mind helping my lil sister out.” You nod and give her a reassuring smile.

“It’s in a little baggie that I decorated with glitter and stickers n’ stuffs. It’s pretty sparkly. You’ll know it when you see it…”

Walking around your sister's bedroom, you scanned your eyes around looking for anything remotely similar to the description your sister provided.

The closet? You walk over and swing the door open, but there’s nothing sparkly in there…

Under her bed? You peek under the bedskirt and get a faceful of dust as you do so. There were some old shoes, but still no sparkles.

Lastly, your eyes meet a slightly suspicious watermelon. It has a faint shimmer-y aura to it that you can’t describe with words…

“Huh when did this get here?” You questioned out loud to yourself.

“Oh! I remember now! I hid it in the watermelon!”

“You what.” You asked bewildered. “H-How???”

“Millie showed me a spell that allows you to hide stuff in various fruits! Isn’t it cool?”

“I mean, yeah that’s pretty cool, but how do you plan on getting it out of the watermelon?”

“Oh! Uhhhhh… Uhm….” She clearly didn’t think this through did she? “...Well you have a sharp n’ shiny sword right? Can’t you cut it open?”

“I mean, I can, but the watermelon juices will go everywhere.”

“I can just clean it up later!”

“You don’t even clean your room… I do…” You mutter to yourself. Ah oh well, you’d do anything for your sister, even if it means cleaning up the messes she refuses to.

“Stand back a bit, I don’t want you getting hurt.” Star, luckily, follows your advice without many protests.

You draw your sword in anticipation, and in one swift, clean cut-

WOULD YOU LIKE TO CUT OPEN THE SUSPICIOUS WATERMELON?

✦> YES

NO

you cleave the watermelon horizontally into two.

Unlike when a regular watermelon is split in twain, this one didn’t explode into a bunch of watermelon juice and seeds. Instead it disappears in a puff of smoke, leaving only a brown paper baggie. It’s decorated with various stickers and a big ‘FOR MY BIG BRO’ scribbled on the paper, just like how Star described it.

With steady hands you pry your gift from out of its bag, Star watching you with anticipation as you do so. She’s always unhappy with her work in one way or another, and you’ll never understand why. That’s why you’ll always take the time to endlessly sing her praises. She doesn’t deserve that feeling in inadequacy gnawing away at her.

It’s a wallet, custom made with your sister’s signature flare and glitter. On it are doodles of various things; cats, dogs, bunnies, fruit, stars, planets, moons, and everything in between. Your sister always had a creative, wandering imagination, and you supposed she was determined to cover this wallet with everything that crossed her mind.

As you marvel at Star’s almost magical talent for anything related to arts and crafts, the artist speaks up with a shaky voice.

“Do you uhm… Do you like it?” Star mumbled, not sure of herself.

“Like it? I love it!” You hummed. “It even has a slot to put any ID cards! I’m glad I have such a thoughtful little sister.” You give Star a big hug, your sister's eyes lit up at that.

“Well… we shouldn’t stay cooped up in here forever. Millie, Noah and William are over. We shouldn’t keep them waiting.” You pull away from the hug and walk over to the bedroom door, beckoning Star to follow you.

As the two of you leave the bedroom you can hear both Noah and Millie bickering again. William isn’t exactly the best at keeping both those rascals from each other's throats. Both of them tend to get very… competitive… over video games.

“ANOTHER TIE?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???” Noah yells out of frustration. You guess he expected to crush Millie with his gamer skills instead of being an equal match to her.

“I dunno, maybe the next round will be the tie-breaker.” William answered calmly, enjoying the bickering from the comfort of your living room couch now that he has the space to stretch.

“Or maybe I’m the superior gamer.” Millie added.

“NUH UH! YOU AIN'T! YOU DON’T EVEN PLAY SPACEBOY GAMES HALF THE TIME!-” Noah proclaimed before being cut off by the arrival of Star.

“Are you guys playing SPACEBOY AND THE FIVE PLANETS?” Star questioned before joining her friends on the living room floor.

“Your obnoxious yelling woke her, you dumb-nut.” Millie elbowed Noah, who just grumbled in response.

“It’s ok! I don’t mind you guys being loud.” Star smiled. Noah took this as an opportunity to finally get a fourth opinion on his gaming skills. (Since William refused to take a side.)

There was a long silence between the three friends following that, as both Millie and Noah poured all their attention to the game as Star watched. Noah broke the silence first, clearly sensing an opportunity to declare himself the alpha gamer.

“Ay, Star! Who do you think is better at SPACEBOY AND THE FIVE PLANETS? Me or Millie?”

“What a ridiculous question. Star’s obviously gonna pick me. Because I’m her best friend.” Millie countered.

“Well she’s gonna pick ME cause I’M the better gamer!!”

"I taught you that watermelon spell didn't I? Surely the proper recompense is to declare me the ultimate gamer."

"WELL, I got you that new manga thingy through COMEPLETELY LEAGAL MEANS DIDN'T I?! THAT GOTTA AMOUNT TO SOMETHIN' RIGHT??"

“Nuh uh.”

“YUH UH!”

Star seemed to ponder for a while, her gaze switching between the two bickering friends, before coming to a conclusion.

“I bet 20 shards I’m a better gamer then the both of you combined!”

“...WHAT?!” Noah exclaimed out of shock while Millie could only stare in mock-horror. Well, as much horror as someone as cliff-faced as her could muster.

“Betrayal…. My only weakness… How could you..? After everything we've gone through...”

"YOU'RE CHALLENGING ME?! NOAH, THE GAMER GOD!? THE ULTIMATE SPACEBOY FAN??" While Noah reacted with a burning fury, Millie took a more calculated approach.

"If you wish to declare yourself as superior, then you must prove it. If you're better than both me and Noah then surely you can beat us in a 2v1."

"WE'LL KICK YER ASS!" The two of them always seem to put aside their differences to face a common enemy, and currently that enemy is your sister. You won't be surprised if 20 shards are missing from your wallet the next time you open it. Ah well, you’re glad the three of them are having fun.

You've joined William on the couch on this point, sitting up right while William partially lays down. Watching someone else play a video game isn't as fun as playing them yourself in your humble opinion. But you're not so keen on joining in considering how rabid the younger three are when it comes to this stuff. You're content with watching for now.

...

Maybe not so content since you've haven't eaten all day and your stomach is getting grumpy about it. Looks like breakfast is in order.

“Hey uh, William, mind helping me out for breakfast?” You nudge William a bit with your shoulder. He smiles and gets up by jumping over the backrest, stretching his legs a bit. You follow closely behind, getting up and walking around instead of jumping.

“Sure man! I’d help you out either way. You’ll burn your bacon otherwise.” William laughs as the both of you head to the kitchen, you flinch at the embarrassing memory.

“...I thought we agreed to never talk about that!” You playfully punch William, laughing a bit yourself.

Your kitchen is quite modest, containing a gas stove, fridge, sink and microwave. The counters are a pale purple with the cabinets and floor a warm oak brown. Pots and pans are suspended over the sink by a wooden hanger, next to it there's a small window emanating a fresh winter breeze.

“You know, I could really go for some pancakes.” You think out loud.

“Pancakes and bacon?”

“Yeah. We could make some bacon-pancake tacos or something.”

“Do you have any maple syrup? Put that on the pancake then you put the bacon on top.” William began rambling about the various combinations of bacon, pancake, and maple syrup that exist out in the world. “Orrr we could make pancake-french-fries where you cut up the pancakes into long strips and dip them in the maple syrup!”

“Well that certainly seems like a plan to me.”

Both of you get to work immediately. You’re grabbing enough pans to make a breakfast big enough to feed about one… two… five people? And you gotta make sure to make leftovers for Noah! The boy has hollow bones. But before you could turn the stove on, William calls out to you from the fridge.

“Uhm… Liam.”

“Yeah?”

“You have like… No food in your fridge.”

No, that can’t be right. Surely your father isn’t stupid enough to leave Star alone here with no food in the fridge… Right? Did he expect you to order take out? That’s what you usually do, but you’ve been trying to move away from that. Constantly relying on fast food isn't healthy. You gotta be the responsible older brother after all!

“Hey let me take a look.”

You lean over to take a peek at the inside of your fridge and-

Well you can’t make a full breakfast out of that, that's for sure. You may have seen William pull off some truly insane miracles in the kitchen, but you doubt he could transmute a single oreo into enough pancake batter to feed five people.

“Looks like we have to make a trip to OTHERMART for some groceries…” You sigh. You’re gonna have a long chat with your Father later.

“Are we usin’ my car orrr?” Offered William. The thought of getting into a moving vehicle like that is just… You’d rather not think about it.

“D-Dude, OTHERMART is right across the block. We could just walk.”

“Figures you’d say that but you’ll never get to ride in my sick-ass new car at this rate.” A mock-tear falls down William’s cheeks. “Think of all the amazing places we could be if you didn’t insist we walk all the time…”

“Sorry… I uhm…”

“Don’t sweat about it man, I was just messin’ with you. I'm not gonna force you to do something you don’t wanna do.”

You shake off that odd feeling. Maybe hunger is making you act... weird… You’re not yourself when you’re hungry afterall! Or whatever that commercial said.

“Well, standing around here won’t do us much good. Let's get going!” You pause for a moment, preparing your vocal cords before yelling at the three friends huddled around the TV

“Star! Millie! Noah! Come along now we’re heading to OTHERMART!” You call out. You hear some shuffling before Noah yells back.

"WHAT? OTHERMART? WHY?"

“We have no food for breakfast! We need to go buy food!” You explain, walking to the front door as you do and waiting for Star, Noah, and Millie to join you. William follows you from the kitchen.

You hear some muffled yelling before Millie takes over for Noah in the ‘yelling at Liam from across the house’ department.

“We are coming! Wait a moment!”

Noah was the first to scuttle his way to the front door, you didn’t even realise he was there at first, you are embarrassed to say he gave you a little fright... Millie came second, head up right, posture proper, and holding a ‘Magic 101’ book in her clutches. Star made it to the front door last, gossiping to Millie about something excitedly.

Well that’s just about everyone. You turn your attention to the door, shuffling around with its handle to get it unlocked.

Would you like to head outside?

✦> YES

NO