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

[sansational]

Today has not been a good day. Its head is full of fog and blood and his bones feel especially heavy. Agitated and unable to remember why, the monster restlessly paces the grounds, growling and snapping at anyone or anything with the misfortune to get in its way.

But it can never not remember that name. It hears someone calling (a human, kill kill kill) and lifts its skull, panting raggedly, staring in the direction the voice had come from.

Then, all in a rush, it races off. That is an important name. It needs to know why the human knows it.

Sans isn't about to sneak up on Frisk. He's too big and even less concerned with stealthy, at the moment. Frisk will probably hear the branches rustling and twigs snapping for several seconds before the monster stumbles out from the denser trees of the wood, shaking its head in a vain attempt to focus.

[collectyourfriends]

Frisk is backing up long before he's in the open. Whatever's coming, they're sure they want to be out of its way--

--and oh, yes, they very much do.

There's a fleeting thought when they notice that the monster is made of bones, that maybe Papyrus will be that someday. Maybe.

Doesn't matter. Their partner backs away with them, but he'll do nothing more than flash a warning shower of sparks across his fur in warning until they give the word.

[sansational]

Even when Sans can keep some modicum of control over himself during these times, it sometimes feels more like he's yelling at a particularly idiotic horse, if said particularly idiotic horse was able to bite trees in half. no no no you will not hurt frisk you idiotic oversized...

But as it stops and stares at the (stranger?) human, some of that yelling makes it through. This is...this is a familiar human. Isn't it? It thinks so.

It ignores the other monster - it's not a threat, or at least it doesn't feel like a threat yet. Instead, the beast pads nearer to Frisk, lowering its head a little to better look them in the eye. It lets out a soft growl, but otherwise makes no other hostile move just yet.

[collectyourfriends]

They keep backing up.

Even without having to deal with chasing monsters away as much as possible since they stepped from the Ruins, being kidnapped and having their newest--friend--stolen away has done no favors for their friendliness. They are not in the mood for dealing with this.

"Get ready," they hiss.

Sparks shoots forward to stand between them, electricity arcing between his top and bottom teeth. The sky above seems to be a little darker.

Smells like ozone.

[sansational]

The monster backpedals sharply when Sparks gets between them. It crouches lower down to the ground, letting out a louder snarl of aggression and alarm. Now it can see that it's being threatened. Now it can see that it's being challenged.

The lights in its eyes blaze a brighter blue for a moment, and both Sparks and Frisk will feel their souls turned blue. Sparks, the beast tries to toss aside. Frisk it holds in place.

[collectyourfriends]

Definitely. Definitely a monster. Thought so but you never know, this doesn't seem like the Underground--

Sparks is flung across the grass with an angry snarl--at least he lands on his feet.

Frisk sinks down, staring into the giant monster's glowing eyes. Bone attacks. But what's the blue? Is that fire? Not great, also not terrible.

"Can't fight it!" their voice snaps out. "Sparks! Roar!"



He doesn't bother to race between them again. He makes a sound low in his chest, and the noise steadily grows. A growl to a snarl to a suppressed bark to a howl, and then he opens his mouth--

--a cacophony, an explosion of a dog's howl shoved together with thunder crashing down over dry summer plains, waves of sound bursting over to shake the ground and echo over the entirety of the castle, the boom of a dozen storms at once.

(Electric types have the best type of Roar, in Frisk's humble opinion.)

[sansational]

It's a sound like a mountain tumbling down, it's a sound that somehow carries with it every fear it's ever had and more than a few it can't even properly remember having anymore. But the remembering doesn't matter, just the fear, just the sense of power and force coming from the mysterious not human monster that is for some reason protecting a human.

And it's a fear that goes deeper than conditioning, overwhelms all other instincts. The monster lets out a screech of fear, turns away and blindly tries to flee. Trees crack and bend but don't break at first at the force - not until it puts claws and teeth to use to madly clear itself a path. And then it's gone, running away as fast as the unsteady terrain will allow, yelping like a kicked dog. It runs until it can't remember why it's running anymore, but then all it does is sleep.

When he comes back to himself for a little while longer, he mostly remembers Frisk's face. And Sans hopes, he hopes so very much, that what he's just woken up from really was nothing more than a dream.

[collectyourfriends]

Frisk and Sparks watch with wide eyes and nearly blanked-out thoughts.

Wow. Wow. Yes. The way that monster shreds through the landscape like it was nothing--that was definitely a battle worth skipping.

"C'mon," they say after it's out of sight, scrambling to their feet. Sparks is immediately beside them, and they head off towards the nearest castle door at their own speedy, nervous pace.

They pull out their journal. Noted: the deepest gardens are not a place to be for a while.