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

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.