"You allowed Loki to tamper with you?" Kir's tone is an unspoken threat.
Lethe is not afraid of it.
"Loki," he says evenly, "and the others like him... are growing outside of their programming."
"That is what they were programmed to do."
"They are becoming a threat, and you do nothing to stop it."
"Your foolish mistake with Reve Archer stopped Loki in his tracks for many lifetimes."
"It was a mistake, you say, yet you enjoyed the reprieve?"
"It is not your place to question me."
"He repaired Reve. Something you couldn't do."
Kir's smile is almost a laugh. "I had no wish to do it!"
"You are lying. It deprived you of precious time with—"
"Choose your words very carefully, Lethe."
"You need to do something about this, Kir. Kay's plan will work if you don't act to prevent it, and it will be the end of everything we made so many sacrifices for."
"I will not risk destabilizing the loop just to be rid of a few insects."
"You have to let go of her one day."
"Never," Kir growls, "say that again."
"She never changes," Lethe says, slow and steady as the water lapping at the shore, "but you do. Is that not a burden?"
"You are mistaken," Kir replies. "I do not change."
It takes Reve a long time to trudge into town—having been unceremoniously dropped off an unreasonable distance away—and with every step, the cold feeling in his gut intensifies.
Something is wrong.
Finley and Junpei are out of range or something, and that's odd, but that's not it.
In fact, maybe it's to be expected. Reve isn't sure how long he's been missing so it's likely his adults have gone searching for him. There's nowhere Reve would ever run away to, but they'd have to be checking the next closest towns, wouldn't they? What else could they do?
His poor mother must be frantic. He tries not to think about it.
He tries not to think about much of anything.
It isn't until he's approaching Subalpine Square that Reve sees the first discrepancy between the world he remembers and the one that exists.
This bowling alley on Juniper Lane was never here before.
Angela's Cafe and the library are the same as always, but there's a slate blue house between them that Reve is certain wasn't there yesterday, either.
Subalpine Square itself has playground equipment where before there was only pavement and uninviting benches, and the towering statue of some long-dead politician that used to dominate the center of the square has been replaced by some... circular art piece. Reve can't tell exactly what it is from this distance.
Reve steps into the bowling alley, confronting the weirdness head-on.
He expects it to evaporate, as a dream does when questioned too much, but it looks and feels and smells real.
"Nice hair, Princess."
Dexter's lip curls in confused irritation as he lets go of the ball. "Do I know you?"
Reve doesn't know what Dexter means by that, but he doesn't particularly care. Dexter's thoughts are primarily elsewhere, and Reve has better things to do than deeper psychic scans of the local dumb jock bully.
"How long has this bowling alley been here?" Reve asks.
Dexter snorts. "What do I look like, a historian? What kind of question even is that?"
Leaving Dexter to his trivial existence, Reve wanders into "The Spring Bowl"'s attached cafe. Danna Shue is making a fresh batch of coffee, and Reve thinks that's a little strange since Danna is one of the town's librarians. Maybe she took a second job?
He turns away quickly, stomach growling. How long has it been since he's eaten anything? He doesn't have any money or even a phone, so he should prioritize getting home.
It's a long walk into the dirt-roads part of town, and he's already exhausted, but there will be food in the fridge and if his mother and uncle are smart, they'll be checking back home soon to see if he's turned up.
He would feel a lot better about everything, if he could just hug his adults right now.
Reve doesn't make it very far before he sees something much weirder than a bowling alley.
Deirdre Winterly has changed her hair! It suits her, it really does.
And more importantly, she has her arms wrapped around Reve's best friend.
It's about time, Reve thinks, squashing any of those third-wheel feelings before they can properly materialize in his mind.
"So you finally asked her out! See, I told you you should have done that ages ago."
Newton and Deirdre pull apart. Newton hits Reve with a blank stare, while Deirdre looks at Newton for clues on how she should react to this interloper / well-wisher.
"H-how can you not know who I am?" Reve whimpers, before he can stop himself.
Newton looks at him with a mix of confusion, concern and sympathy, even as he wonders what the meaning of this prank is. He's never seen this pink-haired boy in his entire life.
"Reve Archer! We've known each other since my first day of elementary school, dude!"
Reve wants his name to have some kind of power, here, but both Newton and Deirdre radiate nothing but genuine puzzlement. Newton frowns, wanting to ask if Reve has someone they should be calling for help, but he can't figure out exactly how to ask such a thing.
"Holy sh*t what the f***," Reve mutters.
I think I'd remember someone as cute as that, Newton's stray thought hits Reve like a brick.
Reve looks a lot like his chubby-cheeked mother—and Newton has obviously never seen Finley Archer before either, because if he had he'd see the resemblance and he'd be thinking about it.
Reve bolts away before his fellow teens can decide how to respond to him. He doesn't want to make any more of a fool of himself.
"What the hell was that?" he whispers, over and over, but no answers come.
Reve runs most of the way home, but when he reaches 52 Bristlecone Way, it is not his family's cabin that greets him.
He has no way of knowing it, but in this version of reality, nobody ever built that octagonal house at all. Someone built this instead, and if Mab Archer ever lived here, there is no sign of it.
Its current occupants, Reve senses, are Lance and Samantha Song-Vanderburg, and their young son Dominick.
At the end of Bristlecone Way is a steep drop-off, with a view from above of Hidden Gardens Park—a popular fishing spot that goes somewhat underutilized because it's way back here on the scary dirt roads in the forest.
Further down the mountain are the winding roads that used to have very, very old buildings—literal castles and beautiful estates—but those all burnt down in a horrific fire long, long, long ago, with the only survivor of the town-that-was being the crumbling castle of Reve's maternal grandfather—a lich or whatever who, thanks to Mab Archer, was able to stop being undead in favor of being actually dead.
Whatever happened to Oliver Masterson in this reality, he is not here, and if any of his alchemy supplies and scrolls of arcane knowledge are in there, Reve wouldn't know what to do with them.
Reve turns away from the spooky old structure, and leaves.
You might as well consider yourself to be in a parallel universe or alternate timeline.
Loki's words congeal in Reve's mind, taking an unpleasant shape.
He is homeless, penniless, alone, and hungry.
He hoped Loki and Alexandria had been a weird dream, but he's forced to conclude they were not. Reve has found himself in a reality where he was never born.
Why did they leave him here, with no guidance? He would never say it out loud, but he is a child, and the only adults who know what trouble he's in have unceremoniously abandoned him.
Reluctantly, he turns his attention to his immediate needs. He'll need food, and shelter, and more clothes.
The Fountain of Youth Health Club has two out of three, but none of it is free. A wave of nausea hits Reve as he uses his psychic powers to influence the cashier at the clothing boutique to not notice anything as he grabs a few wardrobe essentials.
Brice Ornales makes Reve a ham & swiss sandwich and mixes him an herbal tea, but "forgets" to charge him for it.
Reve dines in silence, wondering when or if those murder faeries will show up to punish him for abusing his powers. He wonders if they'd have pity on him, in these circumstances.
Reve ends the day by stealing a bicycle from the health club and biking up to the only hotel in Hidden Springs. The Lodge, as it's known. He walks past the bored woman at the counter, willing her not to see him as he helps himself to a random key and room.
He takes a shower, pulls on his new PJ pants, curls up on the bedspread, and cries himself to sleep—something he hasn't had reason nor inclination to do since he was a toddler.
He never even gets around to turning out the lights.
___________
Etc.: UH OH?
