AU: Heroes of Yesterday's World (Sabre and Orange wander through the Realm as untethered spirits after the reset, not really belonging anywhere. Perhaps some of their friends do too. For a long time they just watch over their still living friends and avoid putting themselves on the Blue Steves' radar (they make a game out of it hehe), but eventually some shenanigans happen that revives them a few decades into the future.)

Context: Not long after the reset, Sabre and Orange are visiting the Orange Kingdom as it grows dark, hanging out at their respective memorials.

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[3rd Person POV]

As the sun disappeared on the horizon, the people of the Orange Kingdom headed inside, as the nights began to grow colder.

However, what they didn't see is two transparent figures appearing at two memorials at the edge of the kingdom, as they made sure everyone was inside before visiting. They smiled as they saw that once again, the plants there had grown in number.

"Look Sabre, they planted more flowers!" Orange Steve happily exclaims, pointing at Sabre's monument as he sat next to his statue, then looking down at the bottom of his. "Awww, they remembered my favorites!"

"They remembered mine too! I'm surprised somebody went through the trouble of getting the orchids." Sabre replies, admiring the plants as well.

"It's because they still care about you." Orange smiles at his best friend, floating in the air once more.

"And they still care about you, too." Sabre says, looking at him. "And you better not forget that ever again."

"You're really never gonna let me live that down, huh?"

"You drop the Nightmare thing, and I'll stop."

They both laugh, their previously terrifying experiences with death now just faded memories that they joke about. They each then sit at the tops of their respective monuments, being careful not to disturb anything. They'd hate to ruin their friends' hard work.

They talk for a while, telling each other about the different things they've heard while checking in their friends still in the living realm, and a few things about their friends in the afterlife too. All of the kingdoms are doing well, Sabre especially being proud of the Red Leader (or 'M', as he called him) bringing his people into the world once more. They joke about the funny things they've seen happen on kingdom streets and what they learned about the new settlements that have been being set up recently, Sabre explaining the things he already knew about that were recent discoveries to the Steves. Orange listened to his friend with excitement in his now cloudy eyes.

Eventually though, they have to stop when they notice someone watching them; a small Orange Steve, a child, looking at them in awe from inside an alley between houses. The rising moon behind them, the duo of spirits look at the child, then smile and both put a finger to their lips in a motion telling him 'Shhh, we're a secret'. Then, they laugh, and seemingly disappear.

They now watch from a nearby rooftop though, and see the child stand there for a few moments, then quickly rush inside. They can hear him telling his parent about what he just saw.

"Awww, that was cute." Orange says. "You think anyone will believe him? I'd actually like being a ghost story."

"Eh, your people believed a fake prophecy. They'll believe a ghost story." Sabre remarks, shrugging.

"Oh, shut up!" Orange laughs.

"Hehehe, alright alright! For real though, if we do end up being a ghost story, maybe we could trick people into thinking they can summon us or something."

"Oooh, that'd be fun... we'd have a harder time keeping the Blue Steves off our backs though."

"It's been too easy, we could use a difficulty tweak."

"Hah, true! Hey, you wanna go visit Gerald?"

"Yeah sure, he's no snitch. Plus it's fun to haunt the halls."

"You've really latched onto the 'ghost story' idea, huh?"

"It'd be fun."

"That's a good reason. Wanna see if we can prank the Colorless Guards nearby while we're there?"

"Oh, absolutely."

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And with that, this wraps up 2024's ChromaTober!

Thank you to everyone that joined in, it's been fun reading all of your different takes on the prompts (and it'll be fun to see the ones to come)! Don't worry if you haven't finished yours yet, there's no rush and no guilt as this was all for fun ^v^

And thank you especially to Willow! Co-hosting was really fun and I loved matching prompts, thanks for agreeing to do this with me :3

Also, since last year's ChromaTober made me realize I had made 100 AUs at that point, it's let me figure out how many more I've made over the past year since then! Counting all the new ones I've come up with, written down, and shared, that equals to... 142 AUs! Not bad huh :D

...Jeez I've nearly averaged making 50 AUs per year I've been on Wattpad- anyway!

Hope you had fun this spooky season, enjoy your candy, be careful if you're out trick-or-treating, and I'll see you soon! Hope you've enjoyed this year's event ^v^