Let the little children come to me

[lostinmyway]

There have been lots of exciting changes in the castle all of a sudden. It got very cold and snowy (she'll have to go help her flowers get ready for bed in the garden), and it looks like Christmas! Ever since her friends in Luceti introduced her to the holiday, she's enjoyed it a lot. She'll have to get started on gifts for her friends as soon as she can!

But the biggest change in the castle is all the children who have come here. Many of them seem a little lonely and cold and a little scared. And so Grune has made it her mission to be sure all of them have warm food, a cosy place in front of the fireplace, and--if they want it--lots of hugs and kisses and kind words to help them feel better.

As for the adults? Well, it's important for them to feel good, too. She'll make sure to share all those nice things with them. Love is for everyone, not just children.

Comments

[itstheend]

She reminds a younger Frisk of the Dreemurrs.

Which doesn't make sense. They're monsters, after all. Monsters are made of love and hope and compassion - the library said so - and so that only makes sense, right?

But there are stories, of monsters that can look like humans, on the Surface. While nobody in the Underground is like that, they desperately wish for it to be true, that maybe... so maybe she really is one.

They sit, somewhat lost-looking, in front of the fire, bundled up in a thick blanket. There's warm food and drink in front of them and... it'd be a shame to waste it, but they're not really hungry. Not really anything. It's not the sort that can be hidden in pockets. Once again they're in a new, kind place they've never seen before, and once again it feels unreal. They keep throwing glances to the fire. Magic, or not?

When her back is turned, they shove the plate in. Just to see.

[lostinmyway]

Grune hears a noise behind her, from the child (is that another Frisk?) she found a little while ago. They had looked very lonely, so of course she had invited them in.

She turns from picking up another blanket from the wardrobe to see the plate in the fireplace.

"Oh, isn't the food warm enough?"

[itstheend]

"Fine," they say, tightening the blanket around them. Made too much noise, they guess. The food's fine, they mean. It's so warm now it's starting to burn, in fact.

They hurriedly pull it out, burning the pads of their fingers a little on the ceramic, sticking them in their mouth. At least they know it's a real fire now. They pick at the charred food a little further, putting an extremely crispy potato in their mouth for their benefit. Their face pinches a little, but they swallow it. "See?"

They're... probably not fooling anyone here. They pull the blanket over their head like a hood. "Sorry."

[trombones]

The fireplace, from wherever Grune is keeping it, attracts the attention of a small skeleton. He's no more than three (though it's hard to pinpoint the exact age of a skeleton), and despite his three-foot stature and enormous eye sockets, it's easy to tell it's a young Sans.

The little monster peeks from the doorway nearby and watches Grune for as long as he thinks she's not looking. Whether or not she is is another question, but the moment he thinks he's about to get caught, he disappears. Literally. A second later, he's behind the second doorway, and a soft giggling can be heard.

Playing hide and seek with kid skeletons is still cute, right?

[lostinmyway]

If Sans wants to play hide and seek with someone, he's picked the perfect target. Grune both loves games and isn't very good at them.

"Hello?"

She'd thought she'd seen someone.... Hmm. She must have imagined it.

But then she hears tiny giggles.

"Is someone there?"

Are they over here...?

[trombones]

Nope, totally not there!! Ignore the little gasp that comes from the doorway once she guesses right. He covers his mouth and muffles more giggling, then peeks out the doorway again.

Wide eyes dart in their sockets and peek pretty obviously behind the door. Sans is assured he's still in hiding though. Nope. She can't see him. Master of hiding.

He's also never seen a human before, so he watches her curiously. This lady is a pretty weird-looking monster...?

[oldmantiger]

Oh thank goodness, an adult! Kotetsu has been looking for one all morning.

When he notices her wandering the halls, he hastens to catch up to her, apologies for being late or uninformed already queing up in his mind. But first, he has questions of his own that won't wait any longer before being voiced. So, tugging oh-so-carefully on her sleeve, he asks in the most polite tone of voice a lost and upset child can muster:

"Excuse me, miss. Are, um...are you a teacher here?"

[lostinmyway]

Grune had been trying to decide what to make her many new friends for lunch when her thoughts were broken by someone pulling on her sleeve.

Automatically, she looks down--but she doesn't need to look quite so far down this time. The child next to her looks very worried, and she would like to make him feel better soon, but...she's not quite sure what he means.

"A teacher?"

[oldmantiger]

As soon as she turns around, he pulls his hand away as though he's been burned, and buries both safely back in his coat pockets, even taking a step back. He doesn't want to get in trouble right away, after all.

"Yes, ma'am." Something about her makes him upgrade the respect from "miss" to "ma'am". His gaze falls to his feet, and he scuffs a toe of his shoe against the floor. "Here. At the school. Are you a teacher?"

Maybe she's a mom. Or a librarian. Or a janitor, though in a dress like that he doubts it.

"It's just...sorry, but I think I'm lost. I-I don't know where I'm supposed to go..." His face reddens a little in obvious embarrassment.

[ifyoumustblink]

The winters up in Mortal's Point were harsh and so very bitter. They were high up, where the cold wind could blow right through you and the stone ground was no better. The castle is much better shelter than a cave, and for that, he is grateful, as he has so told Grune when he'd been invited. (No, no need for that, thank you. I'm not very hungry.)

That doesn't stop him from being cold, though, hunched tightly and all compressed into a little shuddering ball of music child--especially since he's actually a-ways from the fire so th younger kids can be closer. He's twelve, he can handle it. (Sort of.)

Stone floor, a fire, the cold. It reminds him uncomfortably of home.

He misses her, really.

[lostinmyway]

Grune sees her new friend's shivering, and she also sees the way he leaves room for the younger children. He has a good heart.

She picks up one of the blankets she has stored away in her wardrobe and brings it over to him.

"Here you are, dear," she says as she offers the blanket to him. "Don't worry. I have lots more."

[ifyoumustblink]

"Oh. Thank you," he says with a warm smile. He hadn't wanted to bother her for one, but if she's offering it anyway, he may as well. She did say she had plenty more.

He sets down his shamisen and wraps it tightly around himself, exhaling contentedly--feels like he's warming up already, everything's so cozy. Lit by fire like home, with a blanket around him and a… she does seem like a mom, doesn't she?

"You're very kind for all of this, miss."

[mercybutton]

Grune may not have even seen them come in, as so small and soft-spoken and unnoticeable as they are. Yeah, having the parents they do will do that to a kid.

They've got a sweater and boots, sure, but it's still so cold outside, so they slip in like a shadow and crouch by the fire like a ghost. Yep, nothing to see here, just… a little kid, as pressed to the walls as they will bother while still being at least a little close to the heat. Without food or a blanket, just a soft little figure.

Nothing to see here.

[lostinmyway]

Grune didn't, in fact, see another child come in. But that doesn't mean they're invisible to her forever.

She watches them for a moment or two out of the corner of her eye before she picks up another blanket and, making sure the new child can see her, starts slowly walking forward.

Her movements are fluid and her voice is soft as she says, "Hello. Would you like a blanket?"

[mercybutton]

Frisk tenses. Oh no. She's walking towards them, maybe they weren't supposed to be here--'s holding a blanket it can't be that bad but oh, all they can think of, being approached by an adult, is that they did something wrong.

So the kind words are a rare moment of respite. They are so very relieved. Oh; their manners. Frisk's voice is as generally unnoticeable and tiny and fragile as the rest of them. "… i would. th-thank you."

They take it gratefully. It's wrapped more like one would a cloak, though.

[silvermists]

Not lonely, only a little cold, not scared. He has no concept of lonely. He's always been alone, truly. There isn't a single person in his known world who really thinks and feels like he does. No one he can have a real conversation with.

He's also probably not human. Humans don't have fuzzy tails.

He can be found in one of the empty rooms, staring into a fireplace. Mesmerized by the flames. They're so pretty, it's as if someone's captured one of his spells and kept it alive forever.

[lostinmyway]

Grune almost doesn't see the small shape in front of the fire as she passes by with an armload of blankets. But the flicker of a shadow catches her eye, and--oh, my, another child all alone.

She steps through the open door and calls softly, "Hello."

[silvermists]

His tail twitches, he turns around, snapped out of his daydreaming and cozy thoughts. Another person. Weird hair for a Genome. Where's her tail?

"Hello."

how about a large child

[ideaofjustice]

When Yuri enters the room his movements are slow, preferring to watch Grune and the fireplace from a discrete distance. One would think, after... what happened, that Yuri would prefer to avoid anything to do with fire. Even with the cold weather, that he's notably underdressed for- but he's in such a dazed state it's been easy to ignore the temperature.

This whole castle seems like it should be a dream, from the sudden shift from summer to winter, the decorations that so few people are around to enjoy, and now this strange woman. She has a strange costume on, Yuri observes, like she really is a resident of some far off fairytale castle. Or maybe he's the strange one, with his face still wrapped up in bandages.

He should try asking her for information.

What comes out instead is "Um."

Yes please let her love you

[lostinmyway]

At the soft sound, Grune turns, a smile already on her lips.

"Hello--oh, my. Are you all right?"

It looks as though the young man in front of her had an accident. He also looks as though he must be very cold: he isn't wearing warm enough clothes at all.

what is this "love" thing you speak of

[ideaofjustice]

It seems pretty obvious what the strange woman is referring to, and Yuri automatically reaches one hand up to cover half of his face. A pointless gesture, since she's already seen the bandages, and he'd need more than one hand to hide all the damage anyway.

"...Yes. It doesn't hurt," Yuri says. Mostly true- it hurts sometimes, but between the nerve damage and the painkillers they gave him at the hospital, his face is mostly just numb.

The hospital. How did he get from there, to... "Where am I?"

[lostbunny]

Barnaby isn’t exactly lonely. Just very confused. As far as he could remember, he went to bed at home and woke up here, with no sign of his parents, Samantha, or even Mr. Maverick. It’s weird that he could sleep through being taken to a place like this, and even weirder that his parents would leave without leaving someone to look after him.

So he’s been searching the halls for some sign of his caretaker, only to find a little fireplace with a woman in front of it. Not anyone he recognizes, but she’s an adult, so maybe she’s a new babysitter.

He wanders inside, still clutching his robot toy as he blinks up at her.

“Hello?”

[lostinmyway]

Grune had become, well...a little stuck just now. The beautiful flicker of flames had caught her attention, and then, for a while, her mind had drifted as the fire burned lower.

When she hears a small voice greet her, however, she blinks a few times, looks for the person who wants her attention--and then smiles.

"Oh, my, hello. Would you like to come sit by the fire with me?"

...Hmm. She should put another log on so they can be nice and cosy together.

am I too late for ghost hugs

[mettaton_rex]

Here comes... one of the few people in the castle who isn't a child right now. Still younger than he was, though, and as disorientated as anyone finding themselves at the castle for the first time.

He sees Grune coming out of a room with her arms full of blankets, and for a moment fades out of sight before she can spot him. The skeleton he met earlier was right, there are humans here! Not that he doubted it, not after seeing outside. But it's one thing to know and another to see.

Hah, and now he's the nervous one, hovering in the shadows. There's no need for stage fright, he tells himself firmly, before making himself visible again. This is what you've always wanted. They'll love you.

"Excuse me, darling, have you seen another ghost around here? Or a small fish monster...?"

He's still hoping who or whatever brought him here might have brought Blooky, too. And Shyren - she's been so depressed after her sister fell down. She should have a chance to see the sky.

Hell no I was waiting for this. <3

[lostinmyway]

Some people might be startled at the very least to see a ghost appear from nowhere. Grune only blinks, then looks thoughtful.

"Hmm.... I don't think so. Are you lost?"

A lot of people seem to be lost lately.

...His voice sounds a little familiar, doesn't it? Or maybe it doesn't. Hmm.