Chapter 18: Chromatic Crescendo

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And Ozzy was more twisted than anyone. He had to be, right? Otherwise, Nyx wouldn’t have left. Styx wouldn’t have left.

Still…

“B-but Ellia is always so nice,” he said, even as he stepped out of the bushes and started walking toward the clothing store. It was dark out, but the lights were still on in the shop—Ellia must have been staying late to take stock or something. It worked out for him and Vira for her to still be there, but…

“Oh, please. It’s all just an act,” Vira said, turning her head away. “Nobody’s nice to people like us unless they want something. That’s just how the world works.”

“But what could she possibly want from someone like me—?”

“I don’t know!” Vira threw her arms into the air. “All I know is that she’s happy all the time and we’re not. Don’t we deserve to be happy too? Shouldn’t she have to experience what we do?”

Ozzy frowned. He still didn’t like it, but… Vira was right. Ellia was always happy, and she was always shoving that sunshine in everyone’s faces, even when they were grey and gloomy and didn’t want to be around someone so cheerful. When had she ever really thought about how other people might have felt? How Ozzy might have felt?

Resolve set, Ozzy lifted the brush. He stomped toward Unis Clothing, threw open the door, and…

The trek to Meridell was a difficult one. It was further than Ozzy had ever gone before, let alone hiked, but it was made easier with Vira by his side, crowing about all they had done: how drab and dark things were getting, how nobody bothered them with their stupid smiles anymore, and how sad and pathetic that Mynci in Neopia Central was with his grey hot dogs and watery mustard.

(Ozzy had felt horrible about that one, with how often he and Nyx and Mr. Hornelius had gone to Hubert’s Hot Dogs for lunch; but it had been almost easy to ignore his guilt once he’d felt the thrum of power warming the brush in his hands.)

They reached the top of the hill. Vira landed on the ground next to Ozzy, and Ozzy took a deep breath. Shockingly, he wasn’t as winded as he’d expected to be from how steep the hill was. Could he have been getting stronger, or…?

“You think you’re up for it?” Vira asked, crossing her arms and tipping her head towards the castle they could see in the distance.

“I’ve never greyed out a whole land before, but… I… I think I can do it,” Ozzy said. Surprisingly, he felt more confident than he sounded. No, he didn’t think he could do it—“I know I can.”

“That’s the spirit!” Vira cheered. “Now, on my count: Three… two… one…!”

Ozzy lifted the Acrimonious Paint Brush. A grey glow began to emanate from it, as it always did—but this time, violet bubbles started to form and pop in the air, too. That was new.

Somehow, it felt right.

He took a deep breath, and with one swing of the brush…

The land around them grew dull and dreary. Grass shrivelled up; healthy soil dried out. Trees began to droop and leaves began to fall from their branches, wrinkled and brittle. Inch by inch the grey spread before them, running over and through everything like a hose flooding a garden, darkening the dirt and seeping into the land beneath.

Emboldened, Ozzy stepped forward. He almost couldn’t hear Vira cackling over the rush of breath and blood in his ears, almost couldn’t feel the breeze dying in the air through the prickle of the fur on his cheeks. He swung the Acrimonious Paint Brush again, and again, each swipe of it stronger and faster than the last, more enthusiastic; he was a conductor leading an orchestra, filling the world with a symphony of his patron’s design. The spread of the grey quickened, and with it so did his heartbeat; colour and vibrance couldn’t jump from the land fast enough, nor could they dampen Ozzy’s spirits in the least. And with every little bit of vibrance gone, the brush grew warmer, and Ozzy’s body lighter…

The Acrimonious Paint Brush is warm in Ozzy’s hands now, humming with stolen power—just as it had all that time ago. It’s very nearly shaking with excitement, as though it has a will of its own—as though it’s trying to suck out the vibrance of this place, too. As though it hungers for it.

He looks over at Iridesia. The brush seems to jump in his hand, pulled toward them like a magnet seeking its polar opposite. Ozzy looks down to it, then back up at them—and then he knows, in his heart, what he has to do.

But will it work?

He shakes his head. There’s no time to doubt himself. Nyx and the others are in trouble, and he might be the only one who can save them!

“But I can’t do it alone,” he says. “I’ve never been able to do anything on my own before.”

Next to him, Styx barks. Ozzy startles because he hadn’t realised that his best friend had come back to check up on him, but a smile slowly begins to spread across his face, and he reaches down to pat the little grey Doglefox’s head.

“You’re right, Styx. It’s okay to ask for help. But I can’t depend on other people to do everything for me.”

“Arf!”

Ozzy laughs. “Yeah,” he says. Then, resolve set, he calls out to his new friend.

“Iridesia! I need your help!”

“Anywhere is fine,” Nyx says, gesturing vaguely to the living room. “You know you didn’t have to bring presents, right?”

“Yip yip-yip yip,” Juni says.

“Juni!”

“He’s right.” Tavi grins as she puts her gift down on the coffee table. “It’s a housewarming party, after all; of course we had to get you something!”

“Even if it’s just something small,” Iridesia adds. Sure enough, when Ozzy looks at the gift bag in their hands, it’s much smaller. They pass by Ozzy and lean in, whispering to him: “A little Faellie told me you were running low on oil pastels.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to say what’s in the gift before it’s opened,” Luxinia chides, following in after the other Faerie. “But then again, I never was good with surprises, so…”

“Is that why you didn’t bother wrapping your gift?” Nyx asks, pointing to the present in Luxinia’s hands—or rather, the stick she’s holding.

“I wrapped it!” the Light Faerie protests, tugging on the end of a multicoloured ribbon she’d tied around the big wooden stick. “I just thought Styx would appreciate it this way more.”

At her feet, Styx is looking up at the completely unmysterious present, tongue lolling out of his mouth and tail wagging a mile a minute.

“I think you’re right,” Ozzy says.

“Arf!”

The party gets going quickly once presents are opened. Luxinia and Iridesia update everyone on how Faerieland’s restoration is going and how progress is coming along on establishing the Faerie Council. Tavi has been travelling all over the ruined lands of Neopia, helping out those in need. Nyx has been delivering Ozzy’s paintings to his new artistic patrons in Neovia and Darigan Citadel—they really like greyscale over there—while Juni’s gotten a little mechanics business started here in Neopia Central. Ozzy tells everyone how his community service at the Petpet Puddle is going, and how much he’s enjoying it; everyone says “aww!” “eeee!” at all the right times when he tells them some of his more adorable stories, and when he later informs them that he and Styx have visited Luperus since Dr. Landelbrot cured him of his void infection. “Sounds like all that Void Essence that got collected went to good use,” Tavi had said. “We should invite him and Luperus to the party next time, too!”

Once the catch-ups are out of the way, the fun begins in earnest. Styx starts tossing his newly-gifted stick up in the air, prompting Juni to join in and make it a two-Petpet circus act, until he gets distracted by whatever new tool Iridesia is tinkering with. A game of charades gets going, and Nyx is surprisingly good at it (if only with her void tendrils’ help). It gets to be a lot of excitement for Ozzy to deal with—almost too much—but Tavi pulls out a box of special sweet tea leaves she’d brought and asks Ozzy to help her with it in the kitchen to give him a little respite from the action.

“The key is getting the right amount of leaves for the size of the pot,” Tavi tells him as he begins to spoon the tea leaves into the teapot he’d chosen. Her smile grows, though, when he finishes. “But it looks like you know that already! Who’d’a thunk you were such an expert on tea-brewing?”

“Oh, um… I guess I just… picked up a few things here and there,” Ozzy says, trying not to think of his tutor in these things. Luckily, there’s plenty of distraction: Juni and Iridesia have finished whatever it was they were tinkering with, and now bubbles are floating into the kitchen from the living room, accompanied by a chorus of “ooh!”s and “aah!”s by Nyx and Luxinia. Styx trips over himself trying to catch them in his paws, and Tavi rushes out to help him.

“Careful, buddy! They’re made of soap, so they’re slippery…”

Ozzy laughs to himself and turns back to the tea. The rest of the party continues on without him, leaving him to the quiet of his own thoughts for a moment. To his surprise, they’re… happy thoughts. Grateful thoughts. He doesn’t think he’s ever felt so at peace, even with all the bustle and noise and chaos surrounding him.

“Ozzy! Ozzy!” Nyx calls from the next room. A moment later, she’s poking her head into the kitchen, a big smile on her face as she lowers her voice to speak: “When you’re ready, you should take the others on a tour of your studio. You’ve got some great paintings going right now; I’m sure they’d all love to see them!”

Ozzy laughs. “Okay, Nyxie. Maybe in a bit.”

“No rush,” Nyx says, and heads back to the other room. “I’ll hold down the fort ‘til you’re ready.”

The party goes on. Tea is served, cake is eaten, songs are sung, and more charades are played. It’s hours and hours of fun, everyone getting lost in it. Even Ozzy, as he shows his friends what he’s working on in his studio, momentarily forgets how exhausted he is.

He catches a glimpse of Iridesia looking out the window when they all return to the living room. The sun is low, painting the horizon a brilliant vermillion. The sky above is darkening into a pleasant indigo, and the clouds have shifted to muted tones of pink and purple. Each and every colour is reflected in Iridesia’s wings, even though they’ve begun to droop a little.

Luxinia follows Ozzy’s gaze. Her smile softens. “I think it’s about time for us to go,” she says quietly.

Ozzy blinks. “You don’t have to,” he says, surprised at himself and how quickly he’d asked them to stay. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees that Nyx’s eyes have gone wide, too. “I mean… are you sure?”

“We’re sure,” Luxinia says.

“It’s getting dark out,” Iridesia agrees, moving to take Luxinia’s hand. “Besides…”

They turn to Ozzy, and there’s that smile again—the one that means Iridesia knows exactly how he’s feeling. “Even if it’s with good friends, too much company can still be a little exhausting, can’t it?”

Bashful, Ozzy looks away. He tugs at one of his ears, trying to distract himself from the sheepish smile he can feel pulling at his cheeks. “I guess so.”

Behind him, Tavi stretches. “I’d better head out too,” she says. “I’ve got a hike scheduled for tomorrow, bright and early. One of my old climbing buddies is coming with me to Brightvale so we can help out some more with the restoration. We’ll be there for a couple weeks—it’ll be a whole trip!”

Nyx beams. “That’s great, Tavi!”

“You wanna come too?”

Nyx looks at Ozzy for a moment. Ozzy looks back, curious. There’s something in Nyx’s expression—something familiar. Something he hasn’t seen since before she left for Virtupets.

“Nyxie…?”