A Hat in Time Loops

[A/N: Warning for major character death in loop 4.1]

———Loop 4.1———

"What do you think, Bow?"

"I think this is a horrible idea."

"So you're in?"

Bow Kid sighed, "You know me too well."

The two were plotting to kill Queen Vanessa. In baseline, they didn't stand a chance, but they weren't in baseline anymore. And no one they knew deserved death more than Vanessa.

The current plan was to Pocket some of the spiky TNT barrels from Mafia Town and plant them around the manor.

"How will we light the TNT, though?" Bow Kid asked. Hattie opened and closed her mouth a few times, but no words came out.

"Huh." She finally managed. Bow giggled.

"Did you really not think of that?"

"Well, I mean, there are fires all over Subcon. We can just... set a stick on fire... and throw it?"

Bow laughed again. "Alright, Hattie, alright. Let's do this."

Getting the TNT was easy, so was getting into Vanessa's Manor, save for a run-in with the living statues guarding the place.

Now all they had to do was sneak around and plant the TNT throughout the house. This was the hard part. They'd still have to avoid Vanessa, none of their abilities seemed to do anything to her, and while they'd gotten better at a lot of things since the Loops started, they had no new powers that might be able to harm her.

So after placing a barrel of TNT in the cellar, they crept up the stairs as quietly as they could.

"Who's there?! WHO DARES ENTER MY HOME?!"

Peck.

Ringing filled Hat Kids ears as she scrambled into the nearest room, pulling Bow with her.

Despite the hundreds of times Hat Kid had snuck through the manor, Vanessa never failed to fill her with terror, always making Hat Kid's ears ring and her body shake.

Hat Kid glanced at Bow as they ducked into the room with the piano, and the girl in green wasn't doing much better.

As Bow got the piano key from the fridge, Hat Kid placed a barrel against the door to keep Vanessa from getting in.

She would soon come to regret this.

Hat heard Bow jump on the piano, and took that as her cue to scurry under the instrument.

Vanessa entered from the other door, came and inspected the piano room, and left the way she came in.

Both Hat and Bow breathed a sigh of relief before crawling out of hiding. Hat Kid placed a barrel by the fridge before returning to Bow. Both jumped on the piano again, knocking the key in the bookshelf loose. The two Loopers left through the not-blocked door, cracking it open first to check for Vanessa, who was nowhere in sight.

They had taken no more than two steps out the door when Vanessa appeared in the doorframe opposite them.

Oh no.

Quickly they retreated back into the room, Vanessa behind them.

The piano had collapsed, there was no place to hide. Nowhere they could slip without Vanessa noticing.

They didn't have much time to think. They were in Vanessa's line of sight, playing dead with the Ice Hat wouldn't work. So they scrambled to the other door, and though it took only a second for her to Pocket the barrel, that was all Vanessa needed.