resolutions and soapuppies

"Hey!" Barkley yelled. "Hey, hey, hey, hey!" His tag was wagging behind him as always.

"Barkley!" Duskie yelled back. Straybow sat nearby him, watching as Barkley ran over to them.

"It's the new year! It's 2025! What's your new year's resolution?!" Barkley asked, always fast at talking. "Mine is... to go to all the places me and Vivi used to go and do all the things we used to do with everyone! And also the things that we always wanted to... but never did!" Barkley's face sunk a little with that last sentence, before perking back up again. "So! What's yours?"

"I want to eat more rocks!" Duskie smiled. "Different kinds of rocks! Like magic rocks that are different from the ones back here!"

"I, myself, would like to make an important magical discovery." Hibiscus signed. "Perhaps by inventing a new field of magic, or by redefining a preexisting field or parts of it- for example, changing the way that soapuppies are given magical powers from alchemy, or making it easier to give patterns to substance. Or perhaps by unearthing a powerful relic or long-forgotten knowledge. Or maybe discovering how cases such as Duskie or Baba exactly come to be- and how this knowledge could be helpful in the future..."

"Am I really that similar to Baba?" Duskie cocked his head. "...It was spawned in a void! I wasn't!"

"You both are irregularities as soapuppies come- not beings made by alchemy, or at the very least not standard alchemy." Hibiscus mused, rubbing her paw on her chin as he took a pause between sentences. "Your creation may have involved a human soul in some form, while Baba's did not, but still- another world, before suddenly appearing within this one..."

"I guess we do kinda have that in common...?"

"But Baba was already a soapuppy while in the void! And had memories of being there!" Barkley barked. "While Duskie's first memories are ending up here- right?"

"Yeah!" Duskie nodded. "And Baba's friend Yuu was also already a soapuppy while in the void! If anything, it's her you should be comparing Baba to, not me!"

"Noted." Hibiscus signed. "Still, one of my other resolutions is to research in-depth why and how you, Yuu and Baba came to be within this world... and see if this knowledge could be used for good."

"Like bringing Vivi back?" Barkley's heart leapt in his chest. Imagine if Vivi could meet all his friends! He could already imagine how she'd take to them- maybe with Duskie, she'd-

"... Do not get your hopes up. There is still study to be had."

"Noted!" Barkley wagged his tail. "Let's talk to the others! Let's hear what their resolutions are!"

"My... resolution?" Mindy was napping again, as always, paws wrapped around her night-colored pillow, when Barkley ran up to her and started asking her questions, and was currently blinking away the nap from her moonlike eyes.

"Your resolution!" Barkley repeated back.

"It's New Year's already, huh..." Mindy smiled. "My resolution... is to remember to write in my dream journal more. I keep putting it off and going back to sleep and it's a bit annoying when I want to read back and think about my dreams."

"I can't imagine wanting to think about your dreams." Duskie said. "Most of my dreams are scary... unless they're really bizarre."

"How bizarre?" Mindy asked.

"Very! One time I had a dream I was in a timeloop and it ended when I choked on a pineapple slice that was on a pizza and funky colors filled everything for some reason. Also, I was wearing BOXER SHORTS for some reason." Duskie blinked. "Compare that with the dreams I have about killing Hibby because she's trying to kill me, or about Hibby poisoning my food, or about Hibby-"

"Are all of your nightmares about Straybow hurting you?" Barkley asked, cocking his head.

"Not ALL of them!" Duskie flustered. "There's one about a dungeon. Sometimes someone dies to save me! And sometimes I just die in there..." Duskie looked down at the ground, before snapping up to look at Mindy. "Anyways! Is that pineapple dream bizarre or what?! I also had another dream, once, about a mountain and Hibby had a gun for some reason and was just shooting rocks-"

"I've had weirder." Mindy said, smiling, before reaching inside the pillow (wait, what?) and pulling out her dream journal.

"That pillow's a holding bag?" Duskie turned to look at Hibiscus and Barkley. "Hibby, how does that work?"

Hibiscus raised a paw to sign, but then Mindy opened the book and began to read. "19. I was flossing (as in, the dance) for some reason, and then some dice appeared, and one of them had a really dumb jester hat on that jingled, and then some other jester with stupid platform heels and another jingly hat appeared and began dancing wildly and we all worshipped him. Also, the background looked like someone puked color on it, and everything that wasn't a person was just colorful shapes."

"WHAT" Duskie said. "Why don't I get dreams like that?"

"I had nightmares too." Barkley said. "They were always about Vivi dying... even ones where she blamed me for it." His tail laid, curled up near his paws. "But! They went away after enough time... So maybe that will happen to you, too!" Barkley smiled. "That and I had a support group! For familiars who lost their witches!"

"wow, i'd like to stop having nightmares eventually..." Knight remarked. "odio, we have a new resolution: find a support group."

"Knight- what sort of-"

"What kind of support group should I go to?"

"Hm... I'm not sure! You could look around, or go to therapy and maybe the therapist could recommend you one-"

"New resolution: lets go to therapy"

"..."

"I don't know what therapy is."

The expression on Duskie's face gave away that something was going on inside there to everyone nearby. KNIGHT! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE SMART ONE HERE!

"I'm the reasonable one. The one with the braincell because he's trusted to not use it to find the best way to eat rocks or the best way to show the world you are the most scariest yet coolest yet edgiest-"

"Knight."

"Point is, Straybow knows things, I don't. That was true with the traitor and that is true with Hibiscus."

"Anyways!" Barkley went back to wagging his tail. "Let's go ask around and see what other resolutions everyone has!"

Ochre, also known as Moira or, as the name Barkley was referring to her now-

"MORDREAD!"

- was currently asleep, not that anyone would realize that, considering the sleep mask that hid her eyes, and the fact that her eyes were always closed anyways.

"Mordreaddddddd" Barkley wagged his tail side to side. "Mordread! What's your resolution!"

"Hm?" Ochre stirred awake. "What was that?"

"What's your resolution?" Duskie asked.

"Y'know, because it's New Years! And since it's New Years, everyone's got to make resolutions! sOOOOOO!" Barkley grinned. "WHAT'S! YOURS?!? I wanna know, I wanna know sooo badly, please tell me, I'm curious!"

"My... resolution...?" Moira thought to herself as she put a paw to her chin and looked at the trio's general direction. "... That's right. I made a promise to myself a bit ago. I'd... like to know what colors look like. Properly."

"What?!" Duskie and Barkley both yelled out.

"I've been blind ever since I was young, so I never got an idea of how colors work." Ochre explained. "But...different kinds of magic have different colors. I'm thinking of looking for a way to cross-reference what I see, looking at magic, with the eyes of someone who knows what colors are what."

"I can help with that! I think!" Duskie said, before summoning his wings. "Odio and Hibby say that our wings are red(ish) because of the magic inside of them! So! This is what the color 'red' looks like!"

"...Interesting. Most of the time, when I see that color, or something similar to it, it's when the magic used is filled with energy. But even though Barkley's always energetic, his magic is different- it's never that color. If anything, it's the opposite of that color-"

"Sky blue?" Duskie said. "Because it's ice magic?"

"Perhaps." Ochre smiled. "...Thank you, Duskie, for helping me learn at least one color."

"Cit!" Barkley ran over to her and gave her a good lick on the cheek, before hopping back and asking. "What's your resolution?"

"Ah, that's right... it is the solar new year, isn't it?" Citi replied, her raspy voice calm as ever. "My resolution is to always keep learning from our past. There is a lot the spirits can give you, after all." She whispered something under her breath, something Duskie and Hibiscus didn't hear, but Barkley did.

"...Talk to... Vivi?"

"Ah, you heard that." Cit said. "Yes... I do intend on learning how to summon and speak with specific spirits- including Vivi. I have quite the feeling that you two have one last final talk to give each other."

"Yeah..." Barkley looked down sheepishly, his tail wagging slower than before.

"If she were to succeed in calling forth Vivi for one final chat, is there a chance, may it be, that she could call forth another spirit?"

"...I...I miss him, but I have a feeling you-"

"I wonder- is it possible to kill a dead man yet again?"

ODIO

"... You're talking about this in therapy."

"..."

"Do NOT make 'Killing Straybow Again' a new resolution-"

"Knight-"

"I MEAN IT!"

"CITI, IS IT POSSIBLE TO KILL A GHOST!" Duskie yelled out, startling Barkley, who was currently talking about how he'd probably show Vivi all of his friends. "... Odio wants to."

"Well, it certainly isn't possible via regular means... and I have the feeling that it would not be worth it for him." Citi said.

THERE.

"DAMNED THEE, WORLD! I SHALT-"

"Someone's cranky about not being able to kill and eat Traitorous McTraitor Straybow again, isn't he? You can't eat ghosts, idiot."

Next was Baba!

"Baba! What's your new years resolution?" Barkley asked, running up to him. "Mine is to go places with everyone and do the same things that me and Vivi used to do and also things that Vivi and I always wanted to do but never did for whatever reason-"

"Uh- um!" Baba stepped back, and Barkley hopped away, leaving an ok amount of distance between them. "My new years resolution is to not be afraid of using LOST anymore! Because unlike DONE and BOOM, LOST can be reversed! So! I'll be careful with it, but at least I know that I can reverse LOST with FIND..." Baba shuddered. "...It's still scary... even if I only use it on objects..."

"Why would you want to LOST something, anyways?"

"Trash disposal." was the first thing out of Baba's... did Baba even have a mouth? "... Also, storage."

A silence hung in the air, until Baba spoke up. "By the way, if you want to ask Yuu what their resolution is, they're over there!" He pointed to the left.

"Wow, Hibby, you haven't really said anything much, have you?" Duskie asked. 'Said' could be said to be the wrong word, but Hibiscus didn't care all that much.

"Indeed." Hibiscus signed back.

"Why not?"

"I did not feel the need to. That is all."

"YUU!" Barkley jumped over to her, before jumping backwards as to not overwhelm her. "What's your resolution?"

"Oh!" Yuu said. "Mine is to... find out why I exist!"

":O" Duskie and Barkley made that face in sync.

"Curious. Mine could be said to be the same thing." Hibiscus' face held a natural calm. "I wish to know why you, Duskie, and Baba all appeared in this world, and why you and Baba were born from a void, yet Duskie was reincarnated."

"Then!" Yuu smiled. "We can be... 'finding out what's up with the void' buddies!" Yuu chuckled. "I also want to understand Baba more, and help them with their problems."

"Understanding Baba's fears would be a good place to start. They hold such power, to the point that they could genuinely become a threat to our universe if they so wished to- and their fears are mostly centered around the parts of their magic that allow that." Hibiscus signed slowly and calmly, as if speaking with an even tone. "I assume you know of their phobia towards the DONE and LOST blocks, but you may have missed their hesitance towards the BOOM block- the way they're careful with it, how they make sure it is stored far away from the others- they don't play with it like they do the others, unless you count randomly making objects explode- and they take great care in making sure it can only be objects."

"Wow." Duskie blinked. "You sure do... observe."

"Odio flinches at my touch because he is afraid I will wrong him. I know when you crave to eat something because you get that glint in your eyes. I know when Barkley is thinking of Vivi when-"

Barkley tossed a towel at Hibiscus' paws. "We're learning about people's resolutions, not their problems!" He shouted, flustered.

"We asked all our friends, what next?"

"..."

"What's your resolution, Vivi?"

A silence hung in the air. Barkley turned away from the gravestone and towards Duskie, Hibiscus, Yuu, and Baba.

"... She'd probably want to travel more. She always liked to see the world with me." Barkley sighed, then turned back to face the gravestone. "Vivi... my resolution... is to make you proud! No matter where you are! So..." His tail wagged. "I hope you are proud of me!"