Mmm so the new episode is making me excited for green angst and I wrote this while suffocating my Green plushie
and at one point got up and danced around my room singing "torture time, torture time, torture time!" if that gives you any idea of what this is gonna be like
angsttttt + horror hehe
I do recommend listening to "This Too Shall Pass" by OkGo before reading as it's featured prominently in the story lol
I've linked it here for your convenience
https://youtu.be/qybUFnY7Y8w?si=kuqTqbS062L-UOkF
(the video is super cool too)
TW/CW: Panic attack, some horror elements (about as much as the new season of AvM)
Word Count: 2040
When the Morning Comes
######
Green wasn’t afraid of the dark.
Sure, he wasn’t particularly fond of it. If given the chance, he would much rather be in the spotlight on a stage, or by a warm fireplace, or underneath the stars and moon than be in a dark, closed off room. Still, he was ok with the dark. It was comforting. Familiar.
Most of the time.
Now, when Green had run off chasing after the armor stand, he really hadn’t expected to get cut off from the others. He thought he would rid himself of it before heading back to the cabin. He didn’t have to be worried about anything. He didn’t need to worry anyone else.
But now he was really wishing he had bothered to wake someone else up.
Because somehow he had been pulled out of the cave, out of the reality he had known for so long. And now everything was dark. And quiet.
And Green was alone.
Green had thought he had seen true darkness before, but nothing he had ever seen was quite like this. Because he wasn’t really seeing… anything.
He tried blinking. Nothing. Even closing his eyes seemed to make no difference. Nothing could get darker than it already was. He shivered.
Breathe, Green. Think.
Light. He needed light. What could give off light? He wracked his brain. Torches. Fire. Bioluminescence? He wasn’t sure stick figures had that. Probably not. Flashlights? He didn’t have one… wait.
His phone.
Green sighed in relief and reached into his pocket for his phone. Except, it sort of took a second to find his pocket. His fingertips were starting to go numb in the cold of this… place, and without light, he barely even knew where his body was. He fumbled in the dark for a minute before feeling the cool, smooth glass of the screen. He pressed the power on button.
Stick.
It must have run out of battery, or gotten wet, or something, because no matter how hard Green tried, it wouldn’t turn on. That meant no light, and, possibly worse, no music.
That wasn’t good.
Music was how Green always tried to calm down in times like this. He’d shove his headphones on and turn up the volume until it was blasting in his ears, louder than his thoughts, louder than the world. He’d let everything melt away into the lyrics that would remind him everything would be alright. He did it when he had been shoved in that cage after Purple betrayed him. He did it for days after he’d seen everyone get killed by that red stick figure. He held those singers and sounds as close to his heart as his friends.
And now both were gone.
Green slipped his phone into his pocket and shifted his stance. He hopped up onto his toes for a second and then flattened again. Carefully, he tried to lower himself onto the ground. He was almost afraid that he would just keep going, getting lower and lower and never reaching the ground. He put his hand down in front of him and felt something hard, metal and round. His trident. He still had it. He shifted into a kneel, gripping the trident by his side, the metal scraping across the stone ground.
The air was so still. Too still. It was disgustingly still, and dry, hitting the back of his throat with every breath. He tried not to think about how thirsty he was, and instead landed on another thought.
The silence.
Yes, this was strange. This place wasn’t just quiet, it was dead silent. And not in the usual silent way either. Usually even if no one made a sound, the air still buzzed with something. Some sort of wind, the air shifting, bouncing off of things even if nothing else moved. Each place had its own silence, unique and shifting.
This was something else.
This was digital silence.
He had noticed this before, when comparing older recordings of songs to newer covers. Even if no one was singing or playing, in the old ones, there would still be some sort of white noise. Not in the new ones. It would be silent, just like this. Empty. A vacuum of sound pulling you into it.
It felt wrong.
The cold was starting to seep in through his skin now, he could feel it. No wonder it was so cold, the air was so still. Sound was just movement, and movement was heat. Green shook his fingers out, trying to calm himself down. It wasn’t working.
Why, why, why did he choose to go out on his own? Backup would have helped- although he supposed he was in a rush anyway. They probably would have gotten taken here too- but at least they would have been together. They could have found a way out together. Purple or Second or Blue… heck, anyone. Green just didn’t want to be alone.
He’d always tried to surround himself with people. Sure, he’d made mistakes before- drove them away with his own bragging or forgetting who really mattered. But everyone did. And he knew that everyone did, because when others had done it- when Purple had done it- he had always tried to bring them back. He knew how much people mattered and how much they mattered to him.
This was the first time he was the one leaving them.
He’d let himself be taken. He’d failed, and he had no way to know what was happening back- in the cave? In the real world? Home?
Something trickled down his cheek, a stream of warmth.
Great. He was crying.
The void seemed to cave in on Green, a darkness so thick he couldn’t even see the hands he was sobbing into. It was finally hitting him: he had no idea how to get out. He had no idea where he was, no idea what it was or what brought him there. And he was terrified.
He was so cold, it felt like it was biting into his bones. So tired, he could barely keep his eyes open. Not that it would matter, anyway. There was nothing to see.
Get me out.
His breath frantically grabbed at the unmoving air. Would it listen to his lungs, fill them up? It didn’t seem to want to.
Get me out.
Was he falling? He couldn’t seem to feel the ground anymore- heck, he couldn’t seem to feel anything anymore. His body was completely numb.
Get me out!
He didn’t even realize he was screaming until the sound hit his ears, so much louder than everything else in that animator-forsaken void that it shattered his eardrums and snapped him out of it. The sound cut out immediately, choked by the still air. Everything was silent again.
Green sputtered and breathed for a second, regaining his footing in the moment. He still felt numb. He turned his focus inward.
Their muscles throbbed. They were so tense, and of course, sore and tired from the long day beforehand. They had walked so long, not really knowing where they were going, just trying to keep moving. To go somewhere, otherwise they’d never get anywhere. He let his muscles relax, his shoulders dropping to his sides.
He brought his hand up to his chest, feeling it rise and fall in time. They focused on their breath. They’d been so scared they hadn’t noticed how they were nearly hyperventilating. They let it in, out, until it slowed down and his heart slowed down as well. The beats had dropped tempo, now calming and consistent.
He let his arms fall down to his sides, running his thumb along his fingers. The grooves along the surface, the curves over their knuckles, the smooth curve of the nail and the shreds of skin around it. He winced as he touched an open cut and a stinging sensation climbed up his hand. He hadn’t even noticed he had been biting his fingers that day- it just happened sometimes when he was stressed. When he didn’t know what to do with his hands. He shook the feeling away and breathed.
They felt the fabric draped around their shoulders, his hoodie and his binder. They felt the ground against their legs, steady, stable, for what felt like the first time all day.
Green opened his eyes (probably) and breathed in again, rubbing his head, running his fingers through his greasy hair. Yikes. He probably needed a shower.
But he would have to get out of here first.
Green reached around for his trident, and, feeling its cool metal hit his hand, scooped it up and planted it on the ground. He carefully hung onto it, extending his long, shaky legs until he was fully upright.
And he began to walk.
He bit his lip, using his trident as a sort of cane to feel what was in front of him. He was worried he might stumble off a cliff or trip into a hole without it, but as the minutes passed, that didn’t seem to be a problem. Everything was the same, flat, endless pathway. But it was the pathway forward, and that was what mattered to Green.
Even if he had to walk a thousand miles, he would make it back to his friends.
Eventually he fell into a sort of rhythm. Tap, tap, the trident against the floor. Clank, clank, rattling through the void. Step, step, his feet finding the way forward. In, out, his own breath, trying to stay steady. Tap, tap, clank, clank, step, step, in, out. It sounded familiar. What was it?
Some sort of song, one he knew. Green tapped out the beat on the palm of his hand and mumbled a few words under his breath, trying to get the right sound. Nothing seemed to fit.
Tap, tap, clank, clank, step, step, in, out.
That one about the nightlight? No, that wasn’t it.
Tap, tap, clank, clank, step, step, in, out.
The one about turning your worst times into stories? No, not that one either.
Tap, tap, clank, clank, step, step, in, out.
That song from the animated movie about the ice princess? What? This sounded nothing like that.
But wait…
That lyric.
It fit.
Green stopped in his tracks and played the song in his mind. The piano, during the bridge, that was the beat he had been searching for. Faint and sharp, a few repeating chords. He called to mind the lyrics, and softly began to sing.
“Let it go, this…” He trailed off, the words swallowed up by the void. Was that the song he was thinking of? A pang of guilt swept through him, singing at a time when he should have been doing anything else. Still, something about this felt right. The song felt warm in his chest, the words soft on his lips.
“Let it go, this too shall pass…” Green sang the lyric through this time, the words ringing out in the air for as long as he held them.
“Let it go, this-” His voice grew louder, crescendoing with the song. Not just letting itself be swallowed by the void, fighting back. Filling the space, filling Green’s body with warmth as his dry throat put all the power it had into the sound. He began to move once again, ever forward.
“Too…” Step. “Shall…” Step. “Pass…!” Step. In, out.
“You know you can’t keep letting it get you down,” He sang, the sound hitting his ears in an array of colors. The music was now filling his mind, the notes played perfectly as if he was listening live. And he kept singing, following the lyrics along like a path as he walked blindly into the night. “No, you can’t keep letting it get you down.”
He knew that there wasn’t much he could do, no way of knowing what lay ahead or what lay behind him, but he had to keep going. “Is it really all that much to lug around? And you can’t keep letting it get you down…”
Eventually he would make it through. Eventually he would pull it off. No matter how difficult, how dark and quiet and endless it seemed, this too shall pass.
When the morning comes.
######
This idea came to me the night after the new episode came out. Probably not canon in the slightest, but it was SO MUCH FUN to write, mostly cuz of the limited senses there were to work with. I was looking for songs that Green could sing at the end, and I referenced the ones me and some friends (Thank you, @2ofSpadesssss ) thought of in the fic, even though they didn't make the final cut.
These pings are separate from Roots pings! Ask if you would like to be pinged for general fics or removed from pinglist!
@BadGrammarCat (feedback on this definitely yes) @TheWonderfulWolfy @Periwinkality @2ofSpadesssss @LavenderTheSand-Rain @BigPerritoFan @Winter78987 @Voidstriker @The Wee-est of Lads @EmeraldMace2 @QU1NT3$$3NC3 @Edituser2.0 @KolyaTheOG