[post deaging] what if your hinges all are rusting

[mettaton_rex]

Everything's back to normal.

The hallways are as run-down as ever, the decorations and the music all gone. Mettaton wanders through them, not clear on where he's headed, only knowing he can't bear to keep still. His mind catches up with him, if he tries.

He's himself again. Why doesn't he feel like it?

He made it back to his room last night, after coming to himself again where he'd been stargazing out in the gardens, and after the ensuing bout of hysterical cackling finally wore itself out. At least he's dressed now, ruffled shirt hiding the cracks in his core. More or less - it's buttoned up wrong, letting little glimpses of pink show through. His crown isn't on straight either (the new one, the diamond-studded circlet he found abandoned in a dusty bedroom, not the one he gave up for lost in the library months ago). He's aware of all this. He doesn't plan to fix it.

A door looks familiar. He opens it, and finds himself stepping into the ballroom. There it is, same as ever - grand and empty, tables piled high with confections. Mettaton pauses by one of them, looking up at the massive tiered cake in its centre. And then further up, to a dusty spiderweb hanging from a corner of the ceiling.

"Not so young and beautiful yourself, now, are you?" he hisses, to the room, to the whole awful castle, something hot and vicious boiling up inside him. He raises a leg, braces his foot against the edge of the table. "Nobody wants you any more, darling! Nobody wants to be here! Nobody cares!"

His voice rises to a shout as he kicks, hard, flipping the table over. Cakes and pastries smash against the floor, plates shattering. Mettaton strides into the wreckage, grinding his heel into anything he sees left intact. There's frosting all over his boots. It doesn't matter.

None of it matters now.

Comments

[mettaton_rex]

Mettaton steps back as the other monster steps forward. Something crunches underfoot. "What did you call me?" They've met before, at least, but the skeleton shouldn't know that. (It should probably occur to him that he's been mistaken for one of his doubles, but if he was thinking straight right now, he wouldn't be here.)

[voidster]

[Friend?] Now comes a little hint of confusion. Friend is inoffensive enough, even if this isn't 'his' Mettaton, right? He doesn't have a sign-name to use for any of them. [...You don't recognize me, do you?]

[mettaton_rex]

"...no. I don't." Not admitting his secret. Even if he expects half the castle to have figured it out by now.

Rallying himself a little, he adds, "But I'd love to know. Who are you, and why is it any of your business what I do?"

[voidster]

[To be expected. Most monsters wouldn't.] He's a walking skeleton (or some semblance of one), of course he's a fellow monster. [W-D G-A-S-T-E-R. What you do, no. It's none of my business. But you seem like you might want someone to talk to.]

It's not like he cares about the mess. The castle has a way of resetting itself as soon as a room is empty. No big deal.

[mettaton_rex]

The name doesn't ring a bell. Which is weird, but not unnatural enough for him to give it much more thought right now.

He gives a sharp smile. "Do I? I thought I looked like I wanted something to destroy."

[voidster]

[That too. I'm not going to stop you.]

It's nothing more than cake, not something he actually cares about, such as the library or the music room. Destroy at will.

[mettaton_rex]

"...well. Good." He'd expected more pushback than that. Not getting it throws him off a bit, enough that he doesn't actually go to smash anything else right away.

"Your friend is one of the other two, I take it." Hard to mistake the disdain in his voice, and isn't that strange, coming from Mettaton, speaking of himself?

[voidster]

So it is. What sort of strangeness must have gone on in order to have Mettaton disliking his others?

[Apparently. I wasn't aware you had multiple iterations. I don't suppose you know who I am?] He adds that last part with a wry smile. The answer's going to be no. It can't be anything else.

[mettaton_rex]

"Not a clue, darling. Sorry."

He doesn't sound, or feel, particularly sorry.

derp I forgot he already introduced himself, rl had been like that

[voidster]

No one expected him to be.

[I didn't think you would. Now you know my name, that's a start.] One of the chairs hasn't been knocked over yet, so he sits. [Should I go?]