Spotted! Trainer

[collectyourfriends]

There's a familiar voice echoing through the gardens--almost. After all, Frisk's voice hasn't been loud in a long while.

 "Papyrus! Papyrus? Papyrus!" What were those others called again--? "Dogs? Dogs? Papyrus! Where--are you?" 

The first visible difference one might notice is a massive dog-thing walking alongside them, ears flicking. Anyone who can tear their eyes away from him will notice that this Frisk is wearing a bandanna on their head, a pair of goggles and a bland-looking necklace hanging around their throat, a bag hoisted over their shoulder, and a black ball clutched tightly in their hand.

It's a Dusk Ball, and Papyrus was supposed to be inside of it. But he's not. It's empty. They hadn't seen him get out. Where is he?

Where are they? The sight of the sky goes against everything he'd told them, that Toriel had told them. If just walking back towards the Ruins to Snowdin ("IT'S A GOOD PLACE FOR 'TRAINING'!" Papyrus said) would somehow get them out--that doesn't make any sense. None of this does.

...Finding Papyrus is the most important thing right now. So they can ask him questions. Or to make sure he isn't in trouble with Sans, or that Captain he'd been going on about.

Their Manectric partner is the only reason they aren't completely panicking--and then he freezes and turns his head with a growl. They stop too, heart hammering, peering to see what he's looking at. "Sparks...?"

Or rather, who. Seems there's someone nearby. 

"Hello?"

Comments

[collectyourfriends]

Frisk laughs softly, too. It's nice to meet people enchanted by their team.

Prince leans forward and bumps his little white beak against her palm.

"Likes you," Frisk says. "Or at least your hair. Silly Swablu."

[lightofthestars]

She blushes and gently, with a finger, rubs his beak. "I like him, too."

After a moment, she remembers: "I did not hear what you said to answer me. Is that ball that you hold some kind of door?"

slings headcanon around

[collectyourfriends]

Prince fluffs up and twitters a tiny two-note tune. It carries the sense of thank you, somehow.

"Oh--no. Not a door, a room," they say again. They hold the ball up again. "Dunno how it works, exactly, but it turns them into...light, somehow, and makes them tiny, and makes it into a little...place they like, sort of, 'pending on their type."

Ooh shiny

[lightofthestars]

For the first time, her smile slips slightly. "'Sort of'? Is this...room only something to be endured?"

[collectyourfriends]

"My team likes them, I think. Sparks breaks out of his a lot to hang out with me, or to 'splore around, though. Don't worry if you see him around the--those--" they point towards the towers "--at nighttime, if we're stuck here that long." They sound resigned to that.

[lightofthestars]

Her sense of ease ebbs farther away as the child keeps speaking.

"Why must he 'break out'?" she asks. "Does he not choose to enter and leave his room of his own free will?"

this is connected to a different email so i keep missing alerts for it rip

[collectyourfriends]

Prince notices and starts gently pressing his fluffy wings against her forehead.

Frisk is staring at her oddly. "...he just does. I need to put him away when we're going on trains or in the bigger cities, and stuff."

It's all good. :D;

[lightofthestars]

The touch of feathers upon her brow would be soothing, were it not for the clutching of her heart.

"So you imprison him to make your own life easier," she states, her voice growing hard. "What did you tell him to make him think this is right?"

[collectyourfriends]

Frisk meets her gaze with confused blankness.

(If they'd been Underground longer, maybe they would've met someone calling their team prisoners--but at their point, they haven't, and so this is the first time they've ever had something like that thrown at them.)

"I...told...what?" Clarify, please, they have no idea what you're talking about.

[lightofthestars]

And Tauriel stares.

"Have you not thought there is anything wrong with imprisoning someone to make your life easier?"

This child truly is nothing like the Frisk she knows.

[collectyourfriends]

Frisk and Sparks exchange a look. Their thoughts are on the subject of trains, and so Frisk elaborates mostly on that.

"Trains're built mostly for humans, where I'm from. He couldn't fit on a seat 'cause of his tail, and he might shock other passengers and stuff. That's not--'s not like I stole him from his Trainer, or anything."

[lightofthestars]

That is not enough for her. It cannot be.

"Why are 'trains' built mostly for humans? Are Pokémon newly come to your world?"

[collectyourfriends]

"No? They've been around for thousands of years, but Pokéballs...happened 'bout when trains were starting to be made, I think...." Frisk isn't sure. Both of those happened more than a century before they were born, after all.

[lightofthestars]

"But why not build 'trains' so that all may use them comfortably?" she presses. "If Pokémon have been so long a part of your world, surely your people know how to live together with them."

[collectyourfriends]

Prince gets up, hopping from her shoulder to shoulder.

"I don't know," they say, exasperated. "I didn't build them."

[lightofthestars]

With great gentleness, Tauriel takes Prince in both her hands and sets him upon the ground.

Her words to this child, however, are stark in their difference.

"And yet you are not troubled to live in a world where some people are imprisoned for the convenience of others."

She rises and glares down at Frisk. "Stay out of my sight, child. Else I may find it convenient to imprison you, and thereby save others from your cruel deeds."

[collectyourfriends]

This took a turn they weren't expecting.

They don't like it.

Neither does Sparks, who shifts to his feet with silently bared fangs.

Prince makes an offended little chirp--though they suspect it's more from being taken from his perch--and takes off to land on their head instead.

"They're not my prisoners," Frisk informs her heatedly, crossing their arms. "They're my team."