i don't know if you guys remember the "foliage is a figment of lilac's imagination" oneshot but like- i thought up a really cool part two and there's no way in hell i'm not writing it out >:D

     if you need the oneshot for reference here it is: https://www.wattpad.com/1359663594-find-the-markers-oneshots-headcanons-and?utm_source=web&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share_reading

     hopefully this one isn't too sad lmao- i- uhh- anyways, enjoy!

~

     The cold, lifeless walls of the Dimension of Darkness were getting boring. Very boring.

     There was no one to talk to, nowhere to run, and not a single place Lilac could hide by himself. It felt like a mental asylum- and he was a valid patient, with voices blaring off in his head every day. Always arguing, never settling on a solid ground that could just leave him at peace.

     It didn't really matter, anyways. He already had amnesia- the first ten years of his life had been wiped from his memory, and he'd spent the previous five in this isolated hellhole. The two years in between had been too short for him to get used to anything- overall, he was part of a living nightmare.

     Over the first year in the lilac-colored asylum, he'd managed to grow numb to it, finding things that seemed boring to most ridiculously funny to a certain degree. Was that insanity? Probably, but it wasn't like he could do anything now.

     Shut up, Wild Card! Quit trying to gaslight people! The oddly kind one, the one Lilac had never been able to learn the name of and had dubbed "Kindness", was yelling again. He knew that it meant all well for him, though sometimes it got a little annoying.

     Hah! You can't be talking, you aren't even allowed- the one named Wild Card or something of the sort stopped mid-sentence. Lilac perked his head up, trying to listen in. Allowed to do what?

     Alright, let's leave the poor guy alone for today... Kindness mumbled after a while. See you later, Lilac.

     "Bye," Lilac replied with an unnaturally bubbly tone. "See you later!"

     He thought he could hear a sigh before the two voices went completely silent. After a while, got up.

     There wasn't really anything to do- oh, wasn't he working on that one machine? A telephone, or something of the sort? Now that there weren't any interruptions, he could probably finish it. Lilac got up, walking over to the cartoon-like telephone- the top was still splintered open, needing a dial- and a wire to connect the phone itself.

     Lilac was fully aware that he couldn't call anyone with it, but he needed something to fidget with- why not get the full model? He had recently gained the memory of one, and with some help from Kindness he'd been able to construct a telephone that he could press all the buttons on in any order without doing anything wrong.

     It took him about half an hour to finally get the body of the telephone complete- now, all he needed was a wire. Lilac found a drawer filled with all sorts of gizmos; he dug around in it for a while, until something caught his eye.

     There was a thin strand of sage green metal, glowing slightly and pushing some hard buttons in his head. Where'd that come from? Lilac brought it up into the air, holding it against the invisible light sources placed throughout the room, and squinted a little. There didn't seem to be anything special about it.

     Then, a shining light took over his vision and he was sent into a subconscious state, living in the memories that were locked inside his head.

~

     "Oi, Foliage! Get your ass over here!" Lilac motioned for the sleepy vinehead to get off the tree he was napping in, only earning a yawn in response.

     "Five more minutes..."

     Lilac puffed his cheeks up in annoyance. "You said you wanted something chaotic and possibly life-threatening to do, didn't you? Come on, I found something- unless you're too much of a coward..."

     "I'M UP," Foliage replied, immediately landing at Lilac's side.

     Foliage elbowed Lilac in the ribs as he bust out into a fit of giggles. "Great!"

     And without waiting for an answer, Lilac bolted through the forest, not bothering to see if Foliage could catch up. Foliage, caught by surprise, sprinted after- the two were now jumping over rocks, slipping between trees, and ducking under vines, all while cracking one poorly made joke after another. Eventually, Foliage had managed to tackle Lilac to the floor, out of breath from yelling and running so much at the same time.

     Lilac, desperate for a way out of Foliage's impossibly strong grip, looked around for something he could distract him with.

     "Look over there! Look over there!" Lilac was pointing at a small, floating log in the pond, suddenly bringing up a topic to talk about. "I bet you can't jump on that!"

     "I bet I could," Foliage retorted. "Watch me!"

     And with that, he got off of Lilac and jumped straight at the log- and overshot it.

     In a normal situation, this would've been fine, as the pond was barely half a foot deep and filled with crystal clear water. But this certain one was on the edge of the plate they lived on- and as Foliage tripped, it was too late to take back anything they've done.

     He fell over the edge.

     Lilac's face went from a giddy stupidity to a shocked expression, running over and screaming Foliage's name- but two hands held him back, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. A familiar voice rang out, telling him to sit down. Wild ran through, looking over the edge with a frantic look on his face- but when he came back up, there was a solemn look on his face that could only mean bad news.

     Everything had happened too fast- but Foliage had to be fine, he always was...

     For the rest of the evening, Lilac had sat next to the pool, waiting for Foliage to come back up, toying with rocks and refusing to go anywhere anyone had told him to. It seemed like hours- it was hours- but as the moon was starting to peek its weak rays over the leafy forest, a vine shot up from under the plate of reality. Was it semi-transparent? Yes, but did that really matter?

     Lilac's head perked up instantly. He was right, Foliage did come back! Scrambling over to the edge, he helped Foliage get back onto the map- and out of paranoia, dragged them over to the center of the Forest where falling off was not an option.

      He didn't notice how Foliage seemed to seem... off. How he seemed to be fake, artificial, unreal. How, when he smiled, it never truly met his eyes, and how the scars and scrapes covering his usually rough skin had been replaced with a smooth, tan complexion. How his hands were always cold, how his lips were always pale, and how he never showed any needs for regular survival essentials.

     But he was here, and that was enough for Lilac. That had always been enough for him.

     "I told them you'd come back! I told them, and they never listened... but it's getting kind of late. D'you want me to steal a chocolate bar again?" Lilac seemed to have an unnaturally large amount of talking he needed to get out- especially for him. "I should tell-"

     "No, no, no- it's fine, they'll figure it out," Foliage said hurriedly. He seemed to be hiding things, but Lilac didn't really care. "I- I'm going to go back to sleep, alright? I'll see you tomorrow. And do you mind not talking about this? I know it's bothered a lot of people, but it feels kind of personal..."

     "Hmm..." Lilac narrowed his eyes, sensing something wrong, but he pushed it off his shoulders. "Alright, then!"

     The exasperated, sickly expression on Foliage's face that came on as Lilac skipped off into the distance told a story far beyond simply coming back. But no one caught it- after all, no one could see him except for Lilac.

     Foliage's knees went weak as he collapsed onto the floor, energy all drained from everything he'd had to go through.

~

     Earth to Lilac! Man, what happened? Kindness's voice perked up, sounding worried as Wild Card snickered in the distance. That 'dying on the floor thing' you did was completely bonkers. Wh- ooh... did you get a flashback?

     Flashback? Lilac didn't know what that was.

     Right- sorry, did you have a dream thing that felt so familiar it must've been a memory? Kindness followed on.

     Lilac nodded, earning a hum of approval from Kindness.

     Wild Card! I think he's coming back... that weird barrier of... Kindness's voice faded into something too quiet to understand, filling Lilac with questions. He sat up, looking around- oh, there's the wire!

     It was glowing even brighter now, but that didn't stop Lilac from picking it up and twirling it around. He wondered- what exactly did it do? Was it magic? Radioactive? Did it hold nuclear properties? Maybe it was a man-made metal that hadn't been put in the periodic table yet...

      Lilac shrugged. It worked, and he could use it on his telephone anyways. Taking it over to his workbench, he managed to attach telephone to dialing device. He picked it up before immediately putting it back down, feeling a bit silly especially since there would be no one on the other side of the wire.

     "Hello?" A small, glitched voice rang out- but it wasn't in his head, it wasn't rebounding through his skull and leaving echos and eerie traces of his imagination. He looked around wildly until the the voice said something again. "It's the telephone- here. I think that wire lets me communicate."

     Hastily picking the telephone up and shoving it next to his ear, he immediately yelled a "WHO are you?"

     "Woah!" the recipent, whom was unknown as of the moment, seemed to step back. "I'm- I've been stuck traversing through my memories for the past... nine years, give or take. Be gentle, okay? I know my name's Foliage but everything else is real big of a blur. The Angel said it's because I've got an unfinished task before- you don't understand any of this, do you?"

     "Nope!" Lilac replied cheerfully. "Who's 'The Angel'? Nine years? Memories? The word 'Foliage' really does ring a hard bell, but I do have amnesia from basically when I was born, so I don't remember anything."

     "D- do you remember your name?" the voice who was supposedly named "Foliage" seemed to be very curious on how his life had been going. "Tell you what- tell me a little bit of what you remember, and I'll fill you in on how I got here."

     "Okay! My name's Lilac," Lilac responded. "I've been stuck in this place for the past five years, so I really don't know what's been happening a lot. I have two voices called 'Wild Card' and 'Kindness' I talk to, so I'm not that lonely! I don't remember much after that, but that's alright."

     A pause followed, before Foliage cleared his throat and spoke again.

     "Ah, alright. Guess it's my turn," he muttered, earning a small laugh from Lilac. "I think my soul's been trapped in that wire- I don't know why, I don't know how, but it's been pretty boring. I've been traversing through my favorite memories for the past nine years- I basically know them by heart now. It's been like I was dreaming, but conscious at the same time. But, now I'm stuck in a void where everything is either sage green or black- I guess you could say I like the change of scenery, hah!"

     "That's... actually so cool!" Lilac said. "Completely unprompted, but was I in any of your memories? I mean, definitely unlikely, but still-"

     "You were in at least... one of them," Foliage replied slowly, as if he were trying to make it up. "I do know you."

     "Boy, I really wish I could see you," Lilac murmured. "I haven't interacted with someone other than Wild Card and Kindness in years. Oh- and, what was the unfinished task thing?"

     A silence, probably Foliage thinking about things. "I think it's about your amnesia," he said finally. "I might have to help you overcome it."

     "Oh," Lilac muttered. "I kind of like my life now- I mean, it's routine... but whatever you say!"

      "Alright then," Foliage said. "It's probably been a long day for you, why don't you check out for the day?"

     "Check out?" Lilac questioned.

     "I mean- go to sleep," Foliage said. "That's some sort of slang for that."

     "Oh, that's so cool too!" Lilac cheered. "And, uh..."

     "Hm?" Foliage perked up.

     "I know we just met, but you seem really cool," Lilac said, earning an unspecified sound from Foliage. "If you do succeed in getting my amnesia away, do you think we can meet each other then?"

     There was another awkward silence. It was unusually long, and when Foliage finally spoke again, it seemed to have a melancholy tone to it. "Only time will tell. But I'll try, I promise."

      "I really do."

~

i know i left a cliffhanger but this crap is 2000+ words and i don't want to continue it- i mean, i have the rest of the lore figured out, but this was already a huge challenge to spit out considering my writer's block :)

make the rest up urself, write a continuing oneshot yourself if you want (you have permission but pls credit me), have fun