But summer has to come to an end sometime

[sansational]

Ever since S-4 talked Sans into sharing a room with him and Sans-Serif, sleep really has come a little easier. Not much - he still has bad dreams, they all do. But every little bit helps, especially when help is within arm's reach instead of on the other side of a door. Ever since hearing from Tauriel that the two babybones are also still suffering from bad dreams, Sans has been trying to find ways to help. But it's a problem that's stymied him for years to the point of giving up, so privately, he doesn't hold out too much hope.

It's been a relatively ordinary night - he read them both their story, tucked them in, and then curled up on the other side of S-4 from where Sans-Serif lay. Sleep came as quickly as it ever did. But whatever dreams Sans had, they were chased immediately from his head by the agony that awoke him, accompanied by the sharp crack of bone.

The pain jolts him upright, his hands scrabbling all over himself, searching for signs of damage. They finally come to rest on his own skull, and realize that it hasn't broken. It's just...shifted.

"no..."

More cracks like breaking twigs and shattered branches echo throughout the room. His fingers start to sharpen, he can feel his ribs expanding, each one accompanied by a gasp and a cry of pain from the skeleton. His marrow is on fire and burning him up from the inside out and no no no he has to get out of here...

Eventually, Sans makes it into the woods. But all that really does is ensure that he has enough room to finish transforming. By rights, it probably only takes a few hours, just like last time. But it's painful enough to feel as though it takes a lifetime. All he can do is lay on the ground and whimper and twitch, or else drag himself along in a futile attempt to escape the pain. All he can do is wait for it to finish happening.

Useless regrets and pointless despair chase themselves around his increasingly malformed skull. it's not fair, everything was supposed to be okay now, i was trying to be better, i promise i was...

Until even that level of thought is beyond him and he's reduced to begging senselessly. make it stop, please make it stop, i don't want to do this anymore, i made a mistake, please, Gaster...

At one point, he hears a voice in his head - a delusion, or a memory. it sounds like Frisk's voice, except not like their voice at all. Too late. Too late.


The forest has a new inhabitant, the next morning. The giant monster is something like a bear and something like a horse with a skull that more closely resembles that of a wolf. It's too big to go that deep into the trees, but it creeps around the edges of things. It keeps its distance from the castle, it treads carefully around any flowerbeds, but it's big enough to be easily noticed from a distance. Mostly, it can be found curled up in an apparent attempt to sleep, wherever the ground is clear enough for it to find room. Though whenever anyone approaches, one eyesocket opens to reveal a glowing blue orb of light within, and the creature lets out a wary growl. 

Otherwise, it can mostly be found trying to eat. The fruit trees in particular will find themselves frequently raided, with some of them picked entirely clean. Hopefully no one was in the mood for lemons this week. The creature barely has to stretch its neck to gobble fruit whole off the branches. 

This puts it somewhat at odds with the local birds, but even the most ornery peacock will beat a retreat whenever the beast parts its jaws just enough to let blue light bloom between its fangs. 

Comments

[lightofthestars]

Tauriel often spends the deepest part of the night keeping watch by Chara's tower door. Tonight is not an exception--not for this, at the least. The cries of pain that echo through the halls, the cracks that go with them: those are not usual at all.

At once, she is running down the tower stairs, seeking the one in such dreadful pain. What could be causing this? What are those sounds? They are as tree branches breaking under heavy feet, or--

Ai Belain, no.

"Sans!" she shouts as she runs ever nearer.

ALL ABOARD THE TAG TRAIN I'm so terribly sorry for this

[systematicsupport]

Sleep has come a lot easier for S-4 as well, now that things have fallen into some sort of routine. He has his story and blankets pulled up to his chin and a brother curled up on either side, and they're both safe. How could he not sleep when he's surrounded by that?

Of course, there are some changes to his schedule that aren't always good. Since the week of bizarre nightmares, S-4 has been a little more in tune with when his siblings are distressed, especially considering the fact that Sans taught them how to channel their soul's energy into a beacon. At this point, Sans doesn't even need to make that effort for S-4 to pick up on something odd happening, and it rouses him from sleep just enough for him to hear that pained cry. Immediately, he snaps back into wakefulness, turning towards the door just fast enough to see Sans rushing away.

"Sans? W-Wait!"

He struggles to untangle himself from Sans-Serif's side, praying that he doesn't wake his other brother, before rushing down the hallway after him.

[lostinmyway]

Even though the stars have been in the sky for a long time, Grune isn't sleepy. There are just so many beautiful things to see in the night sky! She can go to bed in a little while.

She's spent a lot of the night lost in thought, but even she can't miss the noises that are coming closer. They don't sound good at all. And...she thinks she might know the person making them.

"Hello?"

Where is he?

I can at least make this easier on you by throwing two of my dorks together

[dr_awesome]

Insomnia is a bitch.

Watts has been pretty insistent on that fact. He was a night owl ever since his early years and his love affair with caffeine, and adding on the recent string of nightmares plus his withdrawal symptoms, even though he's been bedridden there hasn't been a lot of actually going to bed.

Thankfully, it looks like a good half the castle put together a schedule to keep an eye on him. Kind of annoying, but it's helpful, since it means he has someone to talk to on sleepless nights. Tonight it's been some weird kid named Ryoji keeping him company. Kind of gullible and naive, but friendly enough, and a pretty good conversation partner, especially when he found out the kid frequented an arcade in his world.

The two of them have been going on about their favourite video games when the commotion gets their attention. Cracking, sickening crunches, and then that scream and Watts is out of bed in a second.

"Sans? Hey, Sans! That you?"

He'll be right out the door, but with his condition, he won't get to the woods for a few minutes.

[mediadarling]

The next morning, when Mettaton emerges from his room from his beauty rest, almost right away, he can tell that something is...off. He doesn't know what it is, exactly, but there's tension in the air. And as an entertainer, if people are feeling on edge, then he's not doing his job properly, is he?

Still, even more importantly than that, he has his duties as a caring uncle, and that means making sure Frisk has a healthy breakfast. It took him a few tries to figure that one out, but now he feels reasonably confident that he knows how to help them start the day off right. It's hard to go wrong with an orange picked right off the tree, for example.

...Or it would be, if there were any oranges to pick. This morning, the tree is completely bare. The culprit isn't hard to find, either, given they're in the process of gulping down whole lemons.

"Excuse me, darling," he says to the monster with a hand on his hip. "You might be new here, but I would think the idea of sharing isn't only limited to my world."

[lostlegacy]

...Wait a minute. What's that over there?

Sophie had just stepped outside to start her training when something really big and white and bony had caught her eye. Is that another skeleton? A really big one? Or...a bear skeleton? Do they have bear skeletons where Sans is from?

Or maybe it's not a good guy, and it's just waiting to attack when no one's paying attention. Either way, she'd better check it out.

Once she's close enough, she'll let out a "Hey!", just to see what the monster will do.

[dustless]

Despite not being too far from the woods, Frisk is unaware of the night's disaster. Just far enough not to hear his sounds of pain, deep in their own dreams (maybe).

So the first time they notice anything is in the morning, after they've decided to work on their tree-climbing skills. Their meeting with the newer Chara made them realize how little they ever really tried doing that.

The beast made of bones might spot them staring down at him in surprise, perched fairly high in a mango tree.

A few days in - OPEN w/ mun permission

[dustless]

Sans hasn't been around.

Sure, Frisk sometimes loses track of him--it's a big castle, they wander a lot, and he can take shortcuts. But usually they at least get a glimpse of him somewhere.

A part of them hopes he's just sleeping a lot. A bigger part of them has a gnawing worry that...someone something happened.

So fellow residents of the castle might catch sight of a concerned Frisk walking around the castle at a speedy pace, starting from near Sans' room to see if they were right to everywhere else.