Archive of Our Own ^beta

Soda mindlessly wondered across the town, his feet shuffling across the brick road as he looked around at the frozen scenery.

“Hm, what to do, what to do?” The young god mumbled to himself as he reached the central fountain, water no longer flowing and eerily still. He took a seat on the edge of it, looking up at the sky.

It was about 5 in the morning, the sun hadn’t started to rise yet, instead sending out a few beams of light, changing the colour of the sky from a dark indigo to a softer pink and purple hue.

Well actually, it had been 5 for a while now, much to the displeasure of Soda. The sky, although very beautiful, was beginning to taunt him.

“Ughhhh…. What am I supposed to write nexxxtttt…..” he drawled, falling back into the fountain and letting his face sink in the still water. “Write a world, they said. It’ll be easy, they said. What a bunch of fucking liars.”

Soda was fresh out of ideas. Well, not really. Soda could never truly run out of ideas. But he was just stuck. Of all of the plot lines and action sequences that were running around in his head, he just didn’t know where to start.

The world had reached the point where he had last written, and since there was nothing to move on, the world had completely stopped, patiently waiting to continue living and thriving as it was made to do.

Soda pulled his head out of the fountain and felt as his curly, dark hair clung to the sides of his face, and his goat-like ears flapped slightly as they tried to dry themselves off. He ran his pale hand through his wet hair and slightly shook it in a lazy attempt to dry it off.

He stood up with a huff as he continued to walk around the town of HBG, peeping into each of the houses he passed by, looking for some inspiration.

He could see Pete in the middle of re-wrapping his strained arms with some bandages, as he had a conversation with Smant.

He could see Mustard frozen midair as he was clearly excited, as a tired-looking Silver was faced away from him, clearly too exhausted to handle all of Mustard’s excitement in the moment.

He could also see Tapl in the process of mending and polishing his sword and shield, while waving to Punz, who was walking back from the castle after his shift.

The god once again sighed to himself in defeat when nothing came to him, as turned to head in the direction of HBG castle. “Let’s see where I left off here, I guess.”

Now normally for most people, the climb up the mountain to the castle was long, cold and treacherous. But not for a god like Soda. He gently floated to the top of the mountain and pushed open the large, wooden doors at the entrance.

On entering the castle he was greeted by the sight of stationary Feinberg who was probably in the middle of a patrol. Soda slyly smirked as he materialised a long quill with ink into his hand. He then carefully wrote the letters ‘VS’ onto Fein’s cheek along with a small symbol underneath that matched the one on his cloak.

He laughed evilly as he let the quill disappear into thin air and he continued on into the palace. Further in, he could see K4yfour seated behind the grand piano of the castle as he probably was in the middle of playing.

Also nearby he could see Reignex leaning against the wall, taking nap instead of guarding like he was supposed to. Soda just shrugs his shoulders. “I guess that’s to be expected really.” He says to no one in particular, his voice ringing out in the large quiet room.

Soda carries on, passing the infirmary where Switch was organising some supplies and headed straight upstairs to the king’s quarters.

As he did so, he drank in all the details of the castle. The stained glass windows, the intricate designs of the wood, the soft glow of the lanterns that lined the hall. It was all that he had imagined, every single detail was exactly the way he wanted it. But to actually see what he had created in person and be able to reach out and touch it, Soda felt a sense of pride and accomplishment rush through him.

As he put his hand on the doorknob to enter the king’s room, there was a pause. Being there, in the place he imagined and perfected over so many years, had cleared his head from all those rushing thoughts.

Suddenly he could see the path he wanted to take and the events he wanted to happen. All the new ideas and story lines hit him like truck as he released the doorknob and ran back through the castle screaming, “I KNOW WHAT TO WRITE!!!!!”

As he finally exited the castle, he immediately took to the skies, the world’s book teleporting into his hands and opening to the place where the last words were written.

Soda brought up his quill and immediately began to start writing all of his new concepts and designs down.

And just before he disappeared into the clouds once again, he looked back at the town and the castle. A small and triumphant smile graced his lips as he admired the sight for a moment before continuing to ascend.

“I should really come down here more.” He says quietly. “It really is great place.

And after a few hours of writing, plotting and designing, the world resumed from where it left off. The area was once again filled with chatter, laughter and confused shouts of a castle guard whose face had been violated.