'Till We're Over

Chapter Thirteen: Ceremony of Acceptance

CANT DECIDE WHAT I SHIP MORE

SKY x TY OR SKY x E-TY

AHEM, ANYWAYS XD TAKE THIS CHAPTER, FRIENDS. I APOLOGIZE FOR THE WAIT!

Chapter Thirteen: Ceremony of Acceptance

Time: two hours later

Place: the Salon, because hair dye is clearly more important than a silly ceremony :3

Ty's POV

"That is really black. Like, holy crap, it's almost blue."

"That would be the result of Sky telling them to make my hair blue. Instead of black."

"Oh. All right, then." Jason shakes his head, laughing slightly. "I suppose that works."

While E-Ty glares at him, I simply laugh along. "Hmm, I'm the lucky one – my hair gets to stay exactly the way it is." E-Ty switches his glare to me.

"I don't think Sky has realized it yet, but squids are blue," E-Ty whispers, seemingly getting over his temporary hatred for me. My eyes go wide.

"Oh, my- that's-" I laugh, then clamp my hand over my mouth. "That's terrible!"

Jason giggles, and then E-Ty rolls his eyes and pulls us both out of the hair place. "Where did Seto say to meet him?" he asks as we walk toward the city gate.

"Hmm, was it the cliff? It wasn't his lab, that's for sure; I remember him saying it wasn't big enough."

"Yeah, it was the cliff," Jason confirms as it comes into view. Though far away, it's still quite hard to miss Sky's jumping form as he bounces around on the cliff.

"Ah, you've arrived!" Seto says in greeting as we climb to their level. "E-Ty, nice color. Did Sky pick it..?" E-Ty winces and nods, and Seto bites his lip and gives us the 'don't-tell-him' look. "Okay, then! Lovely selection, Sky. E-Ty, if you could come stand here, that would be great."

E-Ty glances around at the small set-up, which consists of a podium, a tiny platform surrounded by a ring of purple-tinted grass, and a beacon with yellow light pouring upwards out of it. Seto's standing at the podium, messing with some potion ingredients. He glances up from his work and looks expectantly at E-Ty. "Coming?"

E-Ty huffs and walks up to stand on the platform. "Patience. Care to explain what this is all about?"

"Patience," Seto repeats, rolling his eyes. "Put your hand against your chest. Now, Sky and I both checked your pulse earlier, and the fact that you even had a pulse mostly confirms my theory, but I need you to check again."

"Wait, what am I checking for?" E-Ty asks, furrowing his eyebrows impatiently. Regardless, he rests his right hand against his chest, and then he nearly falls off the platform. "What was that!?"

Sky, as ignorant of social boundaries as ever, makes an "ooh" noise and bounces over to E-Ty, where he then proceeds to put his hand over where E-Ty's heart should be. "That, my dear friend, is a heartbeat."

E-Ty looks like he's trying to decide whether he should blush or freak out. "But- I- Sky, cut it out," he growls, pushing a frowning Sky off the platform. "Seto, explain. People from my dimension don't have a heartbeat. What even is a heartbeat? Is it bad!?"

Seto laughs and shakes his head, and I pat Sky's head as he sulks over to me and Jason. "It's a good thing – or, at least, it will be, right after we do this ceremony," Seto says, holding up a potion that is rapidly changing colors. "Drink this."

"I'm not drinking that."

"You have to!"

"It can't even stick with a single color, how can it possibly fix anything?"

Seto closes his eyes and mutters a prayer. "Look," he says, opening his eyes again, "my magic is already only barely strong enough to do the acceptance ritual. I don't have the strength to restrain you or force this down your throat. So..." Our sorcerer smirks. "Sky?"

Sky snaps out of his bad mood and grins excitedly, which is fairly concerning. Luckily, E-Ty chooses that moment to hastily gulp down the potion. He makes a face, and Sky pouts.

Seto nods approvingly. "Good. Now, Jason, Sky? You two are our witnesses." I raise an eyebrow. "Ty? I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Since we'll be adding another Ty to our dimension, we can't have the original present." I frown.

"Wait, what?" E-Ty asks. "I don't get it."

"We are accepting you as an honorary member of our dimension. When you jumped off that cliff, you proved full loyalty to Sky, and because of that..." Seto smiles. "Our dimension is your dimension. After this ritual, even our Respawn Machine will work for you. I will ask, however, that you refrain from harming our Ty, as we have next to no knowledge on what would happen in that situation." E-Ty nods eagerly, eyes wide.

"All right. Ty?"

I sigh. "Okay, okay. See you later."

Jason and Seto wave. Sky is too excited to notice me leave.

Sky's POV

"Eep, aren't you excited?" I squeal at E-Ty. He frowns absentmindedly after Ty.

"Yeah, it's – this is great. But Ty..."

"Hmm? Oh- Bye, Ty!" I call.

"He's already gone, idiot."

"Oh." I wince. I don't want him to think I'm replacing him with his double – he always has been and always will be my best friend.

"Talk to him afterward," E-Ty suggests. I nod and smile gratefully. Ty will be fine. It's not like I'm completely ignoring him.

"You're officially a part of this dimension!" I squee excitedly. He laughs.

"Guess so."

"Not quite," Seto interrupts. "Sit down, Sky – it's time for the ritual."

I quickly plop down in the chair next to Jason. "What do we have to do?"

"Right hands over your hearts," Seto instructs us. "Now repeat after me: I acknowledge and approve of this Ceremony of Acceptance."

Jason and I do as told without hesitation.

"Good." He nods in approval. "All right, now I need you two to sit quietly while I do this." I pretend to zip my lips, and E-Ty snorts.

"Okay. E-Ty, don't move from that platform." Seto takes a deep breath, clears his throat, and then begins. "Through loyalty and selflessness, you have proven yourself worthy. To honor your sacrifice, I, speaking on behalf of my home dimension, offer you an honorary membership in my home dimension. Do you agree?" He mouths the words, "I do."

"I do," E-Ty says after a bit of lip-reading confusion during which Seto rolls his eyes a lot.

"Then it is official. You are now considered an honorary member of the dimension you stand in currently. This honorary membership can and will be revoked if you manage to somehow destroy the dimension, or if this dimension is destroyed by something or someone else and is, therefore, no longer inhabitable." Seto closes the book that I didn't notice he was reading from. "Congratulations, E-Ty. I guess, if you'd like to pick a new name or if you'd prefer to be referred to as simply 'Ty,' now would be the time to request it."

E-Ty shrugs. "The name's kinda grown on me."

Jason cheers and I go to do the same, but then Seto falls against his podium and E-Ty stumbles off the platform and I fall to my knees. Then my breath is coming in short bursts and I'm so exhausted, I'm always so exhausted.

It is hardly a surprise when my world fades, yet again, to black.