tossing and turning

[dustless]

It seems that human food doesn't really do much for the SOUL.

Well, maybe it would if it had been special food. Frisk vaguely remembers hearing about food made by dear loved ones can help heal heartbreak, and that might be close enough to count.

But they don't really...have that right now. They just have castle-made candies and cakes and fruit, and while that was better than nothing, none of that stops the uncomfortable ache settled in their chest and pulsing through their body.

They also recall a little rabbit child talking about how sleeping could help with that. Well, sleeping in hotels specifically, but that rabbit had been in a hotel, and the castle could probably be called a hotel, albeit one filled with unwilling residents. 

And so they quest to find a place to take a nap, without having to worry as much about being found by a particular troubled skeleton. They haven't given up on him, nowhere near it, but they'd like to be healthy when they meet again just in case. So their usual resting spot of "in the garden" was discarded, since it's right in the middle of everything.

As nice as it had been to be outside during it, their original plan--to hide out on top of a tower and catch a nap there--was foiled by the rain that came with the storm.

So Frisk carefully steals through the castle towers until they find one with a mostly-empty bedroom almost to the top, and try to rest there.

Key word: try.

The bed is very soft and comfortable, and they hover around the hazy edges of sleep for what feels like hours, but they never quite make it there. They're too worried about...sort-of-Papyrus. And Sans. And their friends they left behind, and their friends here, and just--everyone. They can't focus on a goal until they feel better, but they can't rest unless they stop worrying, and so they just cycle through thoughts over and over and over. And their low HP only distracts them even more.

So eventually, Frisk gives up and collapses into a soft-ish chair by the tower's window instead, watching the sky turn oranges and pinks, and a handful of stars appear between swaths of cloud. Maybe they'll be soothed to sleep by the prettiness of it. 


[backdated in the castle's nebulous timeframe of after their 'fight' with S4 and meeting Thor, but before everything else.]

Comments

I'll go ahead and use this as a lead-in to Sans' next post.

[sansational]

S4 is...settling. Or so it seems to Sans. Or so Sans is desperately hoping. Mostly thanks to Gaster. Sans hadn't thought he could possibly be more grateful to have his older brother back, but S4's arrival had proven him rather staggeringly wrong, even if it had also revealed some rather staggeringly worrying things about Gaster.

It kind of helps that Sans has been kept remarkably busy because one thing Gaster is never short of is ideas. If they're ever going to find a way out of here, it's going to be because of him. He believes that. He has to believe that. In the meantime, he's always known how to work with the guy.

But one thing has piled on another and another, and Sans has responded by getting especially sleepy, even for Sans. The rain has helped. Rain wasn't really a thing, in Snowdin, but he's come to find it quite soothing here. And he claimed a room for himself early on, and it's to this room that he returns now, at a lazy shuffle accompanied by the faint rattle of bones.

He actually passes right by Frisk's chair before his wits catch up with him. He looked back at the kid, puzzled, and raises a hand in absentminded greeting before the rest of his senses catch up, too.

"frisk...?"

Something is...very definitely not right here. Sans' eyesockets go dark for a moment. He can't really *CHECK as easily as Frisk can, not outside of a fight, but he knows the feel of the kid's soul pretty well by now. Enough that the damage is obvious, to his mind.

"...what happened?"

/o/ (no rush for this since exactly what happened is still up in the air and all)

[dustless]

And they're out of it enough that they don't notice Sans, either, until he says their name. The chair actually moves from how hard they jump.

They turn and...stare at him for a minute. The question replays in their head a few times meaninglessly as they struggle to figure out how he found them and what his expression means before it visibly clicks--the fact that he's worried, at least. Frisk doesn't know the exact capabilities of monsters regarding their sense of soul power. They suppose he's never seen them this exhausted, either.

And then they realize they have to tell him what happened and they look afraid, just for a second, because they don't know what happened to sort-of-Papyrus afterwards and they should've tried to find Sans first and they didn't, and now they can't tell him if his brother's really okay. But they won't not tell him, that would be a million times worse.

"...I met...someone kind of new," is what they manage to spit out, long after the silence stretched into actually feeling uncomfortable.

It's not really subtle, the 'kind of' implications, but their thoughts are still too fuzzy even with the edge of worry for something like that.

'tis the season for a great many things, finals among them

[sansational]

And Sans looks concerned, as Frisk jumps. The kid looks worried, and he feels his own soul ache with sympathetic worry. But more than that, now that he's getting even a vague sense that something has happened, Sans finds himself starting to feel angry. That's...almost reassuring. Anger is still more familiar than worry, to this iteration of Sans. But if someone really did hurt Frisk, that someone needs to be dealt with.

It's not really subtle, the "kind of" implications, but Sans can be rather creatively dense in very specific ways, where his brother is concerned. Not to mention the fact that even if they're from the same world, Frisk has still lived a completely different life from the human in Sans' time. So for a moment, he looks back at Frisk in blank incomprehension. Of course they don't mean Papyrus. Papyrus would never hurt Frisk, even if he wasn't Papyrus yet. Right?

"there's, uh, there's been a lot of new people around."

[lostinmyway]

Grune tends to drift about the castle and its grounds when she doesn't have a particular goal in mind. Or even when she does: it's hard for her to hold onto plans long enough to carry them through first try.

Eventually, she reaches the top of a tower with a perfect view of the sunset. She's drawn to the window, intending to sit and watch until the stars come out, but then she finds she's not alone.

"Oh! Hello, Frisk," she greets her friend. "Isn't it beautiful outside?"

[lightofthestars]

The stars in this place are wrong...different. Not wrong. It is a distinction she has needed to repeat to herself often. This is not Arda. This is another world.

Each night, she has taken to searching the skies for the constellations she knows: Balagerch, Menelvagor...even red Borgil alone would give her something to grasp. But she has found nothing.

Still, she does not give up hope. There could be just one star in the heavens that she knows, but one star is still a fragment of home.

Having mounted to the top of this tower, her intent is to climb out the window and search the heavens from the roof. However, she is quickly distracted by the sight of a child, possibly a Human child, curled up in a chair by the window.

"...Good evening."

[dustless]

Frisk twitches, but keeps from entirely jumping, even though they didn't notice her at all. They should probably work on their awareness, they think, and then don't act on that thought in the least.

"Mm-hmm," they agree with a twitch of their fingers. "Sunset's 'lways... it's good."

[dustless]

There's a voice they don't know at all. Frisk's head jerks up quickly, edge of fear cutting through their fatigue for the moment.

"What," they rasp, then cough. Maybe they should've stopped by one of the fountains first and scooped up a glass of water.

They clear their throat a few times. "Yes. I--hello. Don't know you. I think?"

they inch closer and closer to christmas each year i s2g.

[dustless]

"It's...I'm okay. Just, I just need to sleep. Right? I don't need to really, a lot, but now I think is my best...the best plan, 'cause I didn't fight, so it's okay," they ramble (well, it's rambling for Frisk), trying to shuffle their thoughts.

They can't blame him for thinking like that. After all, they had. That's why they're so messed up in the first place. They were vague that he might've been able to think of anyone from the Underground, and they don't realize he knows his brother's there yet anyway.

They consider carefully prodding him for more information so they can prepare him, or something like that, but once again their exhaustion screws up their words. "Is, is, was your name always just Sans the skeleton?" they ask bluntly.

[lightofthestars]

Tauriel's eyes widen. At once, she is before the child in the chair, though she kneels so as not to frighten them.

"I am Tauriel," she says; her tone is of one focusing on something else. It sharpens as she goes on. "You are unwell. How has this come to pass?"

[lostinmyway]

Grune frowns just a little bit. Frisk doesn't speak very much, but that didn't sound right at all. And something is wrong with their voice.

She comes closer, asking, "Are you all right, dear?"

[sansational]

"y-yeah. yeah, sleep helps. even better if it's at a hotel or an inn, which i guess this qualifies as." Sans casts a somewhat helpless look around the place. There have been extensive academic writings done on the nature of souls and why, specifically, sleeping at an inn is better for healing damage than sleeping in one's own bed. But he knows none of that will interest Frisk at all. Monster food would be best, of course, for both of them. But everything here is so physical.

His thoughts on the subject are derailed once more by what is, under the circumstances, a rather staggeringly direct question - though less so than it might have been even just a little while ago. "what." It's not a question, it's just a placeholder of a word while he tries to understand what's really being asked, but at last Sans is able to put two and two together and get something greater than three.

"y-yeah. I was always just sans, papyrus..." Here he hesitates for a moment. "...was always papyrus, gaster was always gaster. or, uh, 'wingdings gaster'. but i always just call him gaster." Sans is his brother, though. That's allowed.

He doesn't have to ask if Frisk has met Gaster, since Gaster told Sans that they had. Though whatever his brother got around to telling the human, this is still the first chance Frisk might have to confirm any of that. "i mean, i kind of inadvertently lied to you about some things about my past, but not about that." And that was more out of a sense of self-preservation, than anything, given that Sans has had to filter Gaster out of any conversation at all for years now.

"but the number of timelines in existence approaches infinity. so sometimes, we take strange paths to get to the same place."

Wait. Wait. Setting aside the technobabble for a second...

Sans presses his hands over his mouth as the apparently full reality of the situation dawns at last. His voice, when he speaks again, trembles audibly, despite his efforts to suppress it. "wait, s-so, uh...so what you're saying is...'S4' did this to you?"

[dustless]

Frisk does trust Grune, but...what happened isn't really something they want to talk about with anyone other than Sans for now. Well, not really him either, but they're pretty sure they have to.

So they just nod sleepily. "Yeah. After I sleep. I'm tired."

[lostinmyway]

"All right." Grune sits down on the floor in front of Frisk's chair. "You sound like you're catching a little cold. I should make you some chicken soup so you can feel better."

[dustless]

They're startled anyway. Frisk is not in the right mindset for sudden closeness of a stranger, and they press themselves back into the chair.

And...Tauriel. That name actually kind of hurts to hear. They miss Toriel a lot, suddenly, and it's even harder to make words.

"'M okay. I just need rest."

Her name is pronounced "tow-riel" as in "ow!", but it's definitely close!

[lightofthestars]

She is frightening the child. She tries to gentle her tone and manner.

"Forgive me for surprising you. It was not my intent." She brings up a smile in spite of her worry. "What is your name?"

[dustless]

They know they're not sick, but the thought of it is enough for them to pull a face. Getting sick would not be a good thing around now. It's not something that happens to them often, but after all the problems they've been dealing with lately, they wouldn't be surprised if they might soon.

And maybe it'll help their soul anyway. Grune's a nice friend.

"Think...that would be nice," Frisk whispers.

yeah :< close enough to CUT THEM TO THE QUICK also theyre tired andIshouldlookupnamesmore

[dustless]

Frisk stays where they are, though they try to smile back after a few seconds. It's a little watery.

"'S okay. Been...been meeting a lot...lotta new people here. I'm Frisk."

It's cool--I only started pronouncing her name properly when I started learning Sindarin. (...What?)

[lightofthestars]

What a brave child.

"Well met, Frisk. Forgive me for my rudeness, but--are you Human?"

If she is some other type of being, maybe there is not the same need to worry. But Humans are fragile, Human children especially so--or so she hears. She has never before met one, after all.

[lostinmyway]

Grune rises and then pats Frisk's head gently. "Okay. I'll be right back. You stay here and rest, all right?"

And off she goes with purpose.

It won't be some time before Grune returns. When she does, she carries a tray, upon which rests a...teapot in a cozy and two teacups.

"I'm back! Are you ready for your tea?"

[dustless]

The obediently stay, only curling up and settling their chin on the armrest. They don't sleep, but they do space out enough they're almost surprised again when she comes back.

With...oh. Alright, then, Frisk can work with this.

"Mm-hmm." They reach out to take their cup. "Couldn't find ingredients?" they venture to guess.

(i get so many names wrong in RP i should look them up on youtube or w/e first to avoid this stuff)

[dustless]

Huh. They've never heard that phrase before. It sounds old-fashioned and polite, though. They relax a little.

"Well met too," they return clumsily. They quickly cover their mouth to avoid yawning in her face. "Yeah, I'm--I'm a human. Is that weird?"

[lostinmyway]

Grune pauses partway through handing Frisk their cup. "Ingredients?"

[dustless]

"...yes." They take it, trying not to spill anything. It's not as easy as it looks right now. "The soup?" That is what she said they were going to get, right?

(Oh, no, the "what" was a very "I'm not a nerd!" ...I say as I mention learning Sindarin. :D;; )

[lightofthestars]

Tauriel shakes his head. "It is not...although I have met few Humans, and none who are children. But if you are unwell, that is grave news indeed.

"Tell me, what is it that pains you?"

[lostinmyway]

She lets go of the cup absently. "Oh, did you want some soup?"