“I hate being alone,” Sundancer said. She settled into a sitting position. “It’s like, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually been on my own. When I was little, I was always with my mom, or always in school, always in afterschool activities. Ballet, violin, lyrical dance, voice lessons, acting lessons… never a moment to think for myself.
Sudden Sunny backstory and feels!
I wonder if some of those activities are part of why she named herself Sundancer.
Even after I stopped all that, I was with my friends. Always in a group.”
And this in a chapter where the girl who used to be lonely is facing the – probably temporary – loss of her friends to a seemingly unstoppable and nearly inescapable evil force.
But I’m not entirely sure Sundancer isn’t lonely, even in a group. Maybe her situation is set up to be a dark mirror of Taylor’s: Taylor used to be lonely until she joined the Undersiders. Sunny used to have friends, but now she’s lonely after joining the Travelers. Alone does not mean lonely and not alone does not mean not lonely.
I stared at Tattletale and Trickster. I couldn’t make out their faces, but my bugs could make out the shapes of sounds that had to be words. They were having a conversation, just like we were.
I can’t imagine theirs is much brighter.
“I remember you said it was lonely, being in the Travelers.”
Oh yeah, she did already make it that explicit.
“It was. It is. But I was still with them. Part of the group. The time I’ve spent in my territory is the longest I’ve spent on my own. Actually managing the territory, scaring off Hookwolf’s people, that was easy. Being all on my own was unfamiliar ground. Soul crushing. I wound up going back to Coil’s base and spending time with Noelle and Oliver.
Seems like she’d have been better off with an arrangement like what Grue and Imp have, but this doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you tell your boss while divvying up territories.
But being alone, agonizing over everything that’s been going on, no distractions…”
The miasma had reached the rooftop where Tattletale and Trickster stood.
Welp, here we go.
Trickster was pacing, while Tattletale stood with her back to me, her hand rubbing Bentley’s blunted snout.
It took only a few seconds for the mist to close in around them. There was no immediate reaction. The two teenagers and the dog simply stood, silhouettes in a stirring cloud of vapor that ranged from ruby-red to crimson in shade.
But are they still themselves? Are they standing there like that because they want to?
I swallowed past the growing lump in my throat.
“And now I’m alone,” Sundancer said. “You’re going to go after the Nine, and I’ll wait here, all on my own, going crazy as I wait and watch and see just what happens to them.”
And it’s not as easy as “hey, come with me”.
Man, if Trickster knew any of this it’d be downright cruel to send Sunny up here. Should probably have asked if she wanted to go, first.
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