Lilac-Handed

Chapter 9

     "Foliage doesn't look too good..." Purple was sitting with his arms half crossed, hands holding both his forearms with a worried stance. "What did you make- oh, no, hang on- what did he decide to do?"

     Foliage was recovering at a surprisingly rapid rate, cool plant instincts and all. "Excuse you, the only thing you did was be dead! I'm still better."

     "No, I'm better, I turned out perfectly fi-"

     "Will you two please stop arguing about your physical status and focus on your mental status instead?" Lilac grumbled. "Because as far as I can tell, none of us are okay."

     "Uh- especially you," Foliage retorted. "Aren't you the one who was crying on my sho-"

     "Shut it."

     Purple had a surprised look on his face as he looked from Lilac to Foliage and back to Lilac, trying to make sense of everything all of a sudden. His eyes lit up with a mischievous glint as he clapped his hands together, though Lilac couldn't tell what he was so excited about. "You-"

     "Be quiet, Purple."

     "He- he needed therapy," Foliage filled in hurriedly, twirling one of the vines on his head and snapping off leaves. "We both needed therapy."

     "Did you kiss?"

     Foliage almost ripped the whole vine off of his head as Lilac yelled "NO", ears turning red as he swatted Purple upside the head. Foliage hurriedly let go of his vine in case he dealt any further damage, sputtering incoherent swearing as he covered his flushed face with his hands. Purple, stifling a laugh, yelled a halfhearted "I was kidding!" as Lilac tackled him with a death grip over his neck.

     "Alright- Lilac, don't undo the entire reincarnation thing," Foliage murmured, peeking through his fingers with a deeply embarrassed expression on his face. "I don't think it's going to be worth it."

     Lilac didn't reply as Purple managed to shove him off, still trying not to laugh for his own living sake. "Alright, alright- chill! I'm kidding, I'm kidding!"

     This time, it was Lilac who was sputtering incoherent swearing- and he had learned most of it from Foliage.

     "Alright- toning whatever that was down," Foliage was back to playing with his vines, growing seedlings out of the palm of his hand and snapping off leaves as they regenerated themselves. "What now?"

     "Honestly, I feel like we should just stay here for a day or two," Purple said. "But I really want to get back to Server soon- I didn't know I could miss everyone there until today- imagine if I could name them all!"

     "You should try naming everyone," Foliage exclaimed suddenly, shrinking the seedling in his palm and closing his hand around the seed. "Let's see- there were at least two hundred, so if you could do this then- I dunno, bragging rights?"

     "Alright! So uh- there's also people in the Washable Kingdom that Player told me about, but I haven't met them because that's your job. We'll exclude those people, okay?" Purple received a short nod from Foliage, and immediately began rattling off names.

     Lilac was a little bit lost in thought- he was consciously aware of the useless conversation Purple and Foliage were having, but he figured having them occupied for the moment would be better than getting himself bombarded with small talk.

     How are we supposed to introduce Purple back into society, anyways?

     He wasn't able to think of anything on the spot- silently rising from his seat on the floor, he made his way to the other side of the room where the makeshift jail cell was. He stared at it for a while, letting out a slow exhale as the sharp memory of Purple's dead body didn't seem so terrifying anymore.

     You really got far these past two weeks, a sickeningly familiar voice snickered in the back of his head.

     Lilac crossed his arms, leaning against the pillar as he tried to get back onto his supposed train of thought- what was it again?

     Right- introducing Purple back into society... what was he getting to?

     Lilac couldn't think of anything- especially with limited knowledge on the surprisingly developed community Purple had built, he wasn't really able to think of anything.

     Guess you're going to need some help, Wild Card snickered.

     Thanks for pointing out the fucking obvious, Lilac thought with an eye roll, fully aware Wild Card could read his mind.

     "Purple?" Lilac called his twin over, beckoning the seemingly triumphant man child to where he was standing. "I gotta ask you about something."

     "Back from the dead already?" Purple sidled over to where Lilac was standing, giving him a nudge as Purple stepped in front of him. "What's up?"

     "We need to get you back to Server," Lilac said, skipping all the informalities and getting straight to the point. "And I don't have enough information to-"

     "Oh, relax. I've got it all figured out!" Purple snickered like a little kid, dancing around Lilac in circles as he hummed a tune. "Just give it a day, alright? Learn how to take a break!"

     I haven't got time to take a break- I've got two fucking weeks to finish this before I'm wiped from existence, Lilac thought with a sigh. But he figured a day wouldn't hurt, either.

     "Actually- give me your teleportation device and teach me how to work the thing, I'll take care of this. And..." Purple pulled a phone out of nowhere, miraculously making it turn on after throwing it across the room and dragging it back. "Lemme just text Khaki real quick... done!"

     Lilac didn't know what the hell Purple was up to, but he just let it slide. He could spare a day or two.

     "Alright, I guess," Lilac said after a while. "Here. This is where you put the coordinates- I usually have to solve it out but these have already been used and work pretty well..."

     By the time Lilac had finished explaining everything on the seemingly simple teleportation device, Purple seemed to be half asleep and barely hanging on to listening.

     "...are you sure you got it?" Lilac poked the side of Purple's face, trying to snap his attention back to reality.

     Purple shook his head a little, hurriedly making a little "mhm!" and whisking the device away.

     "Don't break it-"  Lilac began, but Purple had already skipped his way to the other side of the room where Foliage was- whether it was to ask for help or not, he didn't exactly care to find out.

     Lilac stretched himself out, a little tired from everything that had been happening as of the past week. He'd gone from just waking up like normal to- well, all of the above seemed like a very fitting choice.

     "Lilac!" Foliage seemed to have made his way over, bending over a little to meet his eye level. "What's up?"

     "Oh, nothing much," Lilac replied sarcastically. "Just reincarnated a dead person, got more trauma than I ever thought was possible... what about you?"

     Foliage gave him a disappointed frown, crossing his arms and straightening up a bit. "Oh, come on! Purple said you told him how to use the teleporting thingy but he didn't get half of it- but I figured some of it out okay? So like-"

     Lilac didn't notice Purple teleporting away as Foliage kept on rambling about his 3am thoughts. By the time he was finished, Purple had already re-appeared in the Dimension of Darkness.

     "Yeeahh..." Foliage finished off suddenly, seeing Purple come back. "That's- that's nice. Uh- bye?"

     He waved a hand awkwardly, walking back to where Purple was.

     "...alright," Lilac muttered, still confused to what was happening.

     For now, he'll just let it slide.