what use is a present if you just leave it to look pretty

[dustless]

For all the time they've been at the castle, Frisk's never really hung around the Edge.

What would the point be? There's a lot more inside, where the rooms are ever-shifting, and the gardens are always full of sunlight and only a few clouds high above. If they really wanted to watch clouds moving, they could just go into one of the towers or higher halls and watch out the windows.

...and the Edge was a reminder that the castle's all there really is, and they don't...like thinking about that all the time.

But now that they've been guiding newcomers there to prove yes, this is all real, they've realized...it's not bad out there. It's beautiful, seeing the clouds close up like that, and the grass is comfortable, and the wind is nice against their face, even if it's kind of cold. And that last bit is helpful in another way, too--

High above the Edge, maybe even visible from the castle's other towers and the gardens, a red kite flies--after several attempts, almost staying in the air before falling out of sight again, once, twice, three time, four...eighth time's the charm.  It's Frisk's gift from Serif and S-4, with its kitty face, though that's impossible to see from so far below. 

Frisk themselves is just sitting cross-legged in the grass, holding onto the kite's spool tightly, watching it disappear and reappear with the clouds' movements. 

They hadn't thought about how that would telegraph exactly where they are, but that's fine. They won't mind if people come to keep them company.

Comments

[ojisankink]

The Edge isn't that bad. It's away from everything else. It's scenic. It's a nice place to just... sit and think.

At least, that's what Barnaby tends to believe. And now that the excitement from Kotetsu first getting here is over with, he's been doing a lot of thinking.

He doesn't notice someone is in his usual spot until he's already almost there. He's been focused on his ring, twirling it around his finger, trying to remember where exactly he got it. It's a good thing he's on his way to the Edge, since if he digs up some bad memory associated with it, he can just... toss it over the side.

He looks up and catches a glimpse of red. A kite? Following the string, he finds Frisk sitting in the grass. There's a brief moment where he wonders if he should leave, his social ineptness warning him this will likely go poorly... but Frisk is kind, and he gets along better with children.

Besides, they look like they might have some trouble keeping the kite up. He walks over with a cautious smile.

"Do you mind if I join you?"

[dustless]

The spool is held tight in Frisk's hands--they're not a natural at this, city kid they are, but they want to be. They want to learn how to make the kite do tricks. They also don't want to make it crash and maybe break. The wind's doing enough for now.

They can tell somebody's coming before he notices them. It's hard to see around at ground level, but sound carries when the wind dies down in fits and bursts. They're not expecting Barnaby-bunny.

Frisk nods, glancing at him with a tiny grin. "Yeah, 's fine--" there's the briefest pause when they spy that ring, gaze sharpening the slightest bit, and they continue gracelessly: "--you see Kotetsu yet?"

[ojisankink]

He sits down beside them, but even as he's getting himself settled, they're already launching into a question. It's a little odd, but he did tell them to tell him if they found Kotetsu. His smile gets a little more genuine at the mention of his partner.

"Yes, I found him. Just in time, too, since that crocodile found him..."

He unconsciously reaches up to feel one of his bandages. At least his ribs were easy to heal with spurts of Hundred Power.

"But I think he's settling in okay now."

[dustless]

That smile's nice, but it's only a moment before Frisk's grin morphs into something more alarmed. "Did? Are you guys alright?" The use their elbow to point at where he'd felt, since their fingers are preoccupied.

A gust of wind sends the kite in a little spiral, Frisk wrenching their hands to make sure it didn't careen into the castle wall. "And how're you settling, even without...croc fighting?"

[ojisankink]

"We're fine. Using our powers to heal isn't perfect, but I've been able to repair most of it over a couple days."

Did he explain their powers? He's kind of assuming Frisk knows. Especially considering the fact that they met someone as enthusiastic as Kotetsu.

"Oh! Careful..."

He reaches out for a moment, hands awkwardly hovering around Frisk's before he pulls them back into his lap. Looks like he didn't need to help anyways.

He shrugs a bit at the question, wondering what Frisk is asking about. Wondering how much they've caught on to. They're... probably worried. He wasn't in the best mindset when he first got here.

"I'm alright. As well as I can be. There were some things I would have liked to settle before coming here... but it's nothing to be concerned over. I'm feeling better."

[trombones]

Kites are sort of new to monsters. The idea of flying a thin object under some wind wasn't a bizarre concept, but they didn't have much wind under a mountain to begin with. Not real wind, anyway. So when Sans catches the red object out of the corner of his eye, curiosity gets the best of him and he follows it.

Thinking about it now, Sans hadn't been out to the edge much either. By the time he finds Frisk, he's mostly staring between the ground... and then the kite again.

"Hey, bud."

He nods up.

"That's called a... kite, right?"

[dustless]

Frisk nods solemnly back. "Yeah, kite. Not kitty. There's a kitty painted on that one, though," they say, as if it's perfectly sensible information he needs to know.

They nod again, towards the clouds speeding by thanks to the wind. "Out here's the best place to fly it."

[trombones]

Sans sits next to them, still looking up at the kite.

"Kite, not kitty. It's just painted on. Got it." He nods as well, as if this is very important and scientific information. "I didn't know they were a thing 'til the surface happened. Pretty cool."

Finally, he glances down.

"... You know, come to think of it, I don't think I've been to the edge much."

[dustless]

That makes sense. "Ever fly one before? This is my second time ever." And the first time was still in the castle.

Frisk isn't directly on the edge, like they sometimes are--they're afraid of losing their kite if it fell forward, or if they fell. Priorities.

"Me neither. It's sorta weird to be here."

[trombones]

"Not yet. Unless you count dropping paper on the air vents in Hotland. It looks pretty easy. You just sit and let the wind do the work, right?"

At least, so Sans is guessing. He finally glances up from the edge, and watches the way Frisk handles the kite.

But don't worry about the edge, kid. If you fall, Sans could teleport you back. Or just catch you by the soul. That'd probably take a little more work, since he'd have to turn it blue first.

"Yeah. I got a grip on magic castles, but bottomless edges... not so much. Kind of the opposite of the Underground, huh?"

Probably gonna bring in Sans later after seeing how things shake out with Croc.

[antitemporal]

Serif has actually come to find himself spending a lot of time around the Edge. It's quiet, and safe, and he likes finding pictures in the clouds.

Now that the castle is so...noisy, and dangerous, and people are running off and getting hurt, he finds himself retreating here even more often. He knows he's not strong enough to fight a monster that already did so much harm to two of his older selves. Maybe the best thing he can do is just keep himself safe, so everyone has one less thing to worry about.

He still tenses when he creeps out of the castle and towards the edge, when he sees someone sitting there. But then his eyes are drawn to the flash of red overhead, and Serif smiles in relief as comprehension dawns. Relief, and even joy.

He doesn't emerge right away. He risks a hasty trip back to his room for some supplies, and returns bearing some sticks and cloth and glue in his hands. Precariously balancing the bundle, he makes his way over to sit beside and a little behind Frisk.

"...hi. can i sit here?"

o7

[dustless]

Frisk catches the noise of someone retreating--it's not Croc, they can tell, so they don't bother looking back. Somebody who wants to be left alone. (Is it Chara?) They don't mind.

They do glance around once they hear the footsteps returning. They light up. "Serif! Hi! Yes!" They wiggle to the left, as if to give him more room to scoot forward. There's plenty of room out here, but it's symbolic--he can get closer if he wants. "Whatcha doing?"

And Kotetsu after their thread properly wraps up.

[antitemporal]

He beams happily, and while he doesn't quite move up to sit properly beside them, Serif goes to work laying out his supplies. A freak gust of wind almost steals one of his sticks, however, which distracts him with the task of finding rocks to weight things down.

"makin' another kite." Though this time, the cloth to be used for it is green. Actually, Frisk might recognize it as being the medical scrubs he'd worn upon returning here, though now cut up into unwearability and clumsily stitched back together into a workable shape. "s-4 and i practiced with that one before we gave it to you. so we knew we'd made it right. and it was pretty fun. so i wanted to make kites for us, too. but i kept getting distracted." It's been very distracting around here, as of late.

[dustless]

You shoulda burned that, Frisk thinks but doesn't say. They're just mad. It's good that he can make a reminder of something horrible into something that can be a lot of fun.

Frisk wiggles around more to stick a leg out, putting it over the sticks while he hunts rocks for it. "That's a good idea. They're really fun. Glad you guys thought of it, and still that you made me this one."

[antitemporal]

He considered burning it. He considered burying it. But after returning to the lab, even for a little while, Serif feels...at peace, with where he came from. He knows now that that part of his life is well and truly finished. Trying to get rid of his old scrubs in such a perfunctory manner had seemed like denying that. So he's glad to be able to make somehting fun out of them instead. Maybe later, he'll even think of something to paint on them.

Serif nods his thanks to them for the assistance, and finally manages to start protecting his collection of craft supplies with a few rocks. "this place really doesn't have a lot of toys, does it? maybe there's a toy room somewhere, and we've just never found it." Like how it took S-4's assistance before he even found the art room with all its eminently useful glue.

Granted, the existence of toys at all is something he's really only recently come to appreciate.

[oldmantiger]

Kotetsu is healing up nicely. And besides, it's not like it's hard to climb up a castle wall when you have a grappling hook to work with.

He's been trying to get a better look at the terrain. Up on the higher floors seem the best way to do that. And from there he hoped to maybe, possibly, get enough height to see through the clouds. Of course, Frisk had mentioned that this place had people who could fly in it. But they were probably all concerned with finding a way down, rather than up.

...so far, he hasn't found anything useful up there. At least until he catches a flash of red in the otherwise aggressively blue and white sky. It takes Kotetsu a little while of staring at it curiously...before recognition dawns, and he gasps aloud.

From there, he makes his way quickly but carefully back down to ground level, and - using his newfound knowledge of the layout of the castle - directly back towards he remembers the Edge being. It takes a little longer than it might otherwise. The castle is already proving to enjoy messing with his already shaky sense of direction. But eventually, he emerges back out into the mist, looks up, and his suspicions are confirmed.

"Hey! A real kite!" It's been ages since he's seen one of those.

[dustless]

"Real kite?" Frisk echoes, angling their head back towards Kotetsu. Trying to, anyway, 'cause he's managed to get somewhere directly behind them. This results in them tipping until they've fallen directly onto their back. "Got lotsa fake kites where you're from?"

[oldmantiger]

Whoops! He grins down at them anyway, before taking a seat on an available patch of ledge beside them. Then he tips his head back, to admire the effect of the kite wobbling its way determinedly through the sky.

"Mostly just not a lot of room to fly 'em, unless you go onto one of the higher levels of the city. Sternbild's a pretty crowded place." And there was always the risk of your kite getting tangled up by a passing Sky High. Then he frowns, momentarily distracted. "I wonder what a fake kite would even look like..." Are they a thing? They must be a thing, right?

"Where'd you find it?"

[dustless]

"On top of the skyscrapers and stuff?" That would be good for flying kites, probably. Maybe they just were unlucky, never catching sight of them before--or maybe the kites have to be really high up--or maybe there's some reason that's a bad idea that Frisk doesn't know about.

Fake kites? No idea, but that doesn't matter all that much--Frisk's grinning. "Didn't find it! It's a present! My brothers--" w a i t no. Wrong word. They're sure of it, and they hope their face doesn't betray the weird icy feeling they get in their belly at it slipping out before they shrug against the grass, correcting themselves: "--well, family, sort of, made it for me."

[oldmantiger]

It does, just a little, although Kotetsu has no possible idea why. The word brothers just gets his attention, and so he's paying a little more attention to their face than he might otherwise be. He frowns briefly, a little troubled but mostly confused, and tries not to press the point.

"Oh, yeah? You mean the skeletons and other guys, right?" He's only met one of the skeletons so far. That was...that was an experience he's not about to forget in a hurry.

Kotetsu tries though. And so, a little more brightly, he carries on: "That was nice of 'em. What was the occasion? Are there any kind of holidays or things around here? I haven't really seen any calendars."

[sansational]

It does telegraph exactly where they are, and after recent events, that is a very great relief.

Sans doesn't announce himself right away. He's halfway across the empty space between them before he thinks to give a desultory arm rattle to let them know that it's at least one of him, rather than one of the surprisingly many newcomers around the place.

"mind if i join you?" It's quiet here, and he could use a little of that. He definitely looks more than his usual degree of tired.

[dustless]

They blink and turn around, giving him a smile once they see who it is--it shifts a smidgen into concern once they see his exhaustion.

They scoot over, letting go of the kite with one hand to pat the space of grass beside them. "Yeahh. You alright?"

[sansational]

Sans nods his thanks, walks over to claim that empty spot...

...and then promptly flops over onto his back like a felled tree. But then he sighs in relief to be off his feet, folding his arms behind his head and staring pensively up at the cloudy sky.

"i'm great." He's not great, and not just because his HP hasn't quite made it back up to 1. "the other me...should be fine, too." Physically, at least. When it comes to SOULs...he's not too sure for either of them.

Sans absentmindedly knocks his feet together, before asking all of a sudden: "remember when the worst thing we had to deal with around the place was a small human with a knife? or a guy who gave bad dreams?"

[dustless]

Frisk cranes their neck to look at him, eyes a little wide.

"...what happened to the other you?" Probably didn't mean Serif. "An' you? What's been...happening, Sans? I've been, um. Not...around a lot. You heard about Killer Croc, right?"

They've been relatively stealthy going around the castle lately. The Batman told them about how Killer Croc wanted them dead, and they'd made a promise to not let themselves die easily a long time ago. Plus, they just don't wanna get ate.

[sansational]

He tilts his head over to look at them, smiling grimly. "yeah, i know about 'killer croc'. killer croc is what happened to the other me, as a matter of fact."

Sans had been planning on going relatively stealthy. Like so many things in his life as of late, it hadn't worked out that way.

He goes back to staring up at the sky, eyesockets half open.

"killer croc is the big green guy, right? best i can tell, something cheesed him off and he kind of went on a rampage inside. i gave him a few good licks and got away. went looking for people to try and let 'em know what was going on. found toriel and the other me just as toriel was finishing up with him. probably should have waited for toriel to fix the other me up. didn't. panicked. found out i can actually heal when it's literally myself involved. pretty cool, huh?"