Look at me still talking when there's science to do (Open Post)

[sansational]

Sans is starting to get a handle on this place. Perhaps more to the point, and more potentially useful, is that he's started to get a handle on its inhabitants. There are a few that he keeps a personal eye on on a semi-regular basis, even if they don't always know it. The rest, he's just made note of their passage and their movements. It's all for professional purposes, of course.

And that means that, when he's finally ready to do so, Sans can make contact with every person currently in the castle, either in-person if he knows them by name or by leaving a note somewhere they'll see it if he doesn't yet. Whether by spoken or written word, the message is nevertheless always the same. It's a request to meet him in the ballroom with the cakes table at a certain time and place. From his observations, it seems to be one of the more stable rooms in the castle, so everyone should be able to find it. 

On the stated day, at the stated time, everyone will...still have to wait five minutes for Sans to pull himself together after a nap, remember what he's supposed to be doing, and suddenly appear inside the room, still in the process of hastily smoothing out his notecards. 

"so, uh, yeah," he says, looking from the assembled residents to the cards and back again. "should probably explain what you're all doing here. so. i'm sure you've all noticed that this castle has got some weird things going on, above and beyond the whole, uh...stealing us from across time and space thing. i'm also assuming that most of you want to go home and won't mind helping me figure out a way to get us there." He gestures at the table. "to do that, i'm gonna need to start testing some of these theories. guesswork is fun, but it doesn't get us anywhere. timing how long it takes this place to reset something seems like a good start. and so this particular experiment runs as cleanly as possible, uh...i'm gonna need your help eating everything on that table. like, all of it. just don't choke on any shiny bits." 

Message delivered, Sans crams the notecards back in his pocket, and spreads his arms in silent indication for everyone to dig in. 

((ooc: Post comments for your characters that can be replied to, and mingle as you see fit! Eat, drink, be merry, have food fights, and try to be sick outside!))

Comments

[andthebat]

As Tauriel approaches the Batman's eyes narrow upon her, recognizing the guarded stance of someone prepared for a fight. Years and years patrolling the Gotham City underground tend to ingrain certain instincts in a person, and the careful approach and the tension in her hands make a more immediate impression on Batman than her actual appearance does. He tenses up, already preparing himself to move at a split-second's notice.

Fortunately, Tauriel's greeting is enough to get Batman to give her a curt nod, rather than jump away immediately. It seems she's willing to make small talk, and he exhales lightly.

“Enjoying the party?” he asks. As he does, he'll examine her more carefully; long red hair, an outfit that wouldn't look out of place at a Renaissance Fair, and... pointed ears?

[lightofthestars]

Seeing him grow taut as she draws nearer puts her on her guard still more--and yet still it does not attack. When it--he speaks, she relaxes as did he.

Her hands drop to her sides.

"I cannot truthfully say that I am," she replies. "I have no great love for sugared foods, especially those sweetened beyond all sense."

[andthebat]

The Batman silently observes the way her hands drop, although his expression remains wary.

"...Some of it isn't bad," he admits. "But I wouldn't want to eat an entire meal's worth of desserts. Although the children seem happy enough to." He glances over at the banquet table, where a few of the kids in question are nibbling away.

He adds, in an undertone, "Just hope they'll remember to brush their teeth afterwards."

[lightofthestars]

"And that they remember to stop eating before they become sick," she agrees. She sighs. "I do not think Sans gave his task as much thought as he ought to have done."

She will need to have a word with him before long.

[andthebat]

"If they do, it at least won't do much harm," Batman says, an old memory of a childhood incident of overindulging in Alfred's baking drifting into his mind. He hopes his butler is alright. "Won't be much fun for them, though."

Sans. The Batman has heard that name before.

"Isn't Sans one of Frisk's friends?" he asks. The child had named a few 'skeleton monsters' they were friends with, and after what Tauriel says he at least now has a face to put to one of the names.

[lightofthestars]

"He is. Though I do not think Sans knew Frisk before he came here, even if Frisk knew him." She shakes her head, a small, impatient movement. "This place is difficult for me to understand."

[andthebat]

The Batman's brow furrows at the comment she makes, about knowing and not knowing, and he silently recalls something Frisk said to them when they first met. "Different timelines?"

(It feels a bit odd to acknowledge such a possibility out loud. For all the oddities he's seen, time travel of the kind they'd hinted at had at least remained in the realm of distant theory and fiction.)

"Is that so?" he comments. "Funny. You look like something that would belong here." He glances at her ears as he mentions it, although those aren't the only things about her that seem vaguely Fae-like to him.

[lightofthestars]

"Something?"

She would have answered his question, but now she finds she has little desire to do so.

[andthebat]

"You look a bit like one of the Fair Folk," he explains, a little stiffly.

[lightofthestars]

"I am an Elf," she tells him. "I am no 'thing.'"

[andthebat]

"Well, right. Of course."

...He has a feeling he's just digging himself in deeper.

[lightofthestars]

"Who might you be?" she asks. Her manners are better than his, for she does not ask him what he is.

[andthebat]

"I'm the Batman," he says. It serves as an answer to the who- although if she had been as rude as him it would have worked as an answer either way.

"What about your name?"

[lightofthestars]

It is a strange name, but Tauriel can see the sense in it. He does seem both bat and man.

"I am Tauriel," she answers. She does not say it is a pleasure to meet him, for she is not yet sure.

[andthebat]

"Tauriel," he repeats. Likewise, he thinks her name is unusual, although unless her parents were astronomy fans the meaning isn't as obvious as Batman's.

"I think Sophie mentioned you when I first arrived. ...She informed me that you were 'pretty cool."

[lightofthestars]

At that, she blushes lightly. At first, she had not understood what Sophie had meant by her words, but now she does. To hear this being speak them is...a little awkward.

"A...yes. You are one of Sophie's friends?"

[andthebat]

He's already been asked a similar question a little while back, and he's still not sure if he really could answer in the affirmative. He settles for stating, "Well, we haven't known each other very long. She's a good kid, although she seems very..." What's a good word for it? "...unrestrained."

[lightofthestars]

That earns a smile from Tauriel. "That is a good description for her. She is slowed down by very little, I have found."

[andthebat]

"Some kids are like that," he says, and Tauriel might note a bit of wistfulness to his tone. "I find the best strategy is to move everything breakable out of the way and to try to find them more productive outlets."

[lightofthestars]

She does note his tone, but does not press. If he wishes to speak with her, he will.

"Is that so?" she asks. Her smile quiets. "I have not met so many children in my life as live in this castle. To us, children are rarely given."

[andthebat]

There are, to Batman's count, from four to six children present (He's not sure how to gauge the ages of some of the nonhuman residents, but observing their behavior, a few seem distinctly childlike) and so Tauriel's comment earns a curious look.

"Why not?" he asks. "It's just by human standards, there aren't enough kids here to make up an average classroom." Not that he's been anywhere near a proper classroom in years, but it's strange to try and picture a society with as few children as Tauriel alludes to.

[lightofthestars]

"Though our lives are long, the begetting of children is but a small part of them," she says. "Too, we do not like it when we are given children in a time of strife. They are rare and precious, and to lose one is a grievous wound to all."

And, as of late, all times in the Woodland Realm are times of strife.

[andthebat]

"Sounds like your society's a close knit one," the Batman observes. And a small one, at that, if their birth rate is that low. Completely unlike Gotham City, a place that teems with over two million strangers.

[lightofthestars]

Her head tilts as she thinks about this. "I suppose it is, though we are scattered far across Middle-earth. Our numbers are much fewer than they once were.

"Is that not true of your people?" she asks.

It is strange to her, thinking that there could be many such people as him. Yet maybe where he is from, his kind are common.

[andthebat]

"Mm." The Batman shrugs. "Depends on what you mean by 'my people."

It's something others have wondered about before, if there were other creatures like the Batman around- and there are, in a way, it's merely that none of them have any biological relation to him. And since Batman can't imagine it being simple to explain even if he were allowed to, he decides a small subject change is in order.

"I'm from Earth, not Middle-Earth," he explains. "I have the feeling our realms are very different."