[open: tw for blood, mind fuckery, suicidal ideation] I guess it's over now

[dr_awesome]

Before:

He just needed something fun. That's what he's been telling himself. After nights of various unpleasant dreams being hijacked by his friends, and then being forcibly shoved into everyone else's weird nightmares like a far less fun version of the Matrix, Watts needs a break. He's not helping Sans with his science. He's not trying to wander the castle and have conversations with people that more than likely are annoyed by him. He just... needs some stupid harmless fun.

And when there's no gaming consoles or wifi in the castle, you have to get a little creative.

Apparently, Neil's codes aren't completely useless in the castle. Sure, he can't reset memories, disable speech or taste, turn off his visibility, or even lure out mementos, but he still has some skill with manipulating data.

He's found a nice little private space in the lounge, and passersby may find him focusing very hard on a patch of air in front of him. Literally a patch, it seems to jut out from the rest of the air, shimmering and shuddering in front of Neil's hand. Eventually, it grows and morphs, changing colours... and in another instant, there's a tabby cat letting out a loud meow as it's suddenly dropped from the air back down to the ground.

"Haha, yes!" Neil gets down to his knees, scratching behind one of the cat's ears. The cat surveys him and lets out another mew.

"Hm... not exactly up to my usual standards, but I'll have to make do. Now, what else can I try..."

After:

Neil's still in the lounge... it's just that now there are more of them.

There seem to be a literal crowd of scientists slouching around the lounge, leaned back on couches, staring out windows, walking in place. They're all mumbling to each other, some of them more clear than others. One of them smiles at a double of himself as you walk past.

"Well, I suppose I had a good run."

The other stares back at him. "Not good enough, it seems."

There's one that has cornered another Neil against the wall, constantly slamming his fist into the doppleganger's gut. "It's how people blew off steam before FPS were invented," he reassures you with a grin.

Still more snippets can be heard if you push through the crowd. "We always succeed, because we're awesome." "The geezers just keep getting crazier..." "I'd be screwed either way."

In the center of the group is Neil. The real one, not buzzing in and out of existence in bursts of static, but... he still doesn't look good. He's curled up on himself, nails digging into the floor, feebly coughing and hacking as blood dribbles down his jaw and onto the collar of his shirt. A few copies of the same woman stand around him, looking down at him with the same mixture of annoyance and apathy.

"Tell me what you see." One says, holding out a pill bottle. She takes off the cap and holds it upside down. Nothing falls out.

"Shut... just shut up." Neil mutters hoarsely, and another one laughs, answering in his own voice.

"'Shut up' isn't my name, you know."

He tries to pull himself away from them, crawling along the floor.

"Why are you working so hard for this? 'All this trouble, just for some girl.' That's what I thought you'd say."

One of them finally turns to look at you, and moves so she can block Neil from view. "Get out. This ain't a movie and you're no hero. You're just being a moron."

There's more coughing from behind her, but Neil doesn't seem to be trying to move anymore. There's no point, is there? He's fucked up enough here already. And he didn't want to be here anyways...

"Why would you waste time like that?"

Yes, why would he? Being here isn't doing himself any good. He's not going to fix his machine, he's not going to make any advances... all he's doing is running out his clock.

Might as well let the batteries die a little early.

Comments

[lostinmyway]

"Oh, yes, of course." She stands right away--but then she stops, her head tilted to the side. "Is something the matter?"

[sansational]

"well...not with me." Sans scratches at his skull, wondering how best to approach this. Then he takes a deep breath, tries to calm his nerves, and settles on approaching from the beginning. "you know neil, right? neil watts? he's a scientist? makes a lot of spectacularly bad jokes? also ketchup?"

[lostinmyway]

As soon as Sans mentions Neil's name, she smiles. "Oh, yes. He's such a sweet young man."

[sansational]

"yeah. he's pretty great. but, uh...he's also kinda sick. and i don't know if we can make him stop being sick, but i was wondering...i mean, you know plants, right? sure you do. no one knows plants better." Sans is babbling particularly badly even by his own lax standards. He grinds his teeth for a minute in an attempt to get back to the point, and finally finishes: "so i was wondering if you knew any plants that could at least make it so he doesn't hurt so much?"

[lostinmyway]

She watches Sans and lets him speak. When he finishes, she steps forward and sets a hand lightly atop his skull for a moment.

"Of course, dear. Let me see...."

Tauriel is growing lots of special plants in her corner of the garden. She's sure one of them will be exactly what Neil needs.

"Let's go," she says to Sans and starts walking toward Tauriel's garden.

[sansational]

Sans jerks with surprise, briefly, at the hand on top of his skull. But then he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, and it doesn't shake quite so much when he does. "yeah. let's go."

He buries his hands in his pockets, and then he follows behind her, already staring down at the flowers as they pass as though he can work out their purpose by sheer force of will alone.

[lostinmyway]

Grune also watches the flowers as they pass, but almost hazily. Her lips part a few times, and she almost stops once or twice, but, in the end, she continues on.

When they reach Tauriel's garden, she doesn't stop until she's standing in front of a still short bush with a number of sprays of small white flowers. She thinks for a moment, then pinches off most of a cluster with her fingernails.

With the flowers cupped in her hand, she turns to Sans and says, "Now it's time to make a cup of tea."

[sansational]

Sans follows behind her, all but vibrating with restless energy. He's torn between the wild need to go faster and the rational knowledge that Grune must know what she's doing, that Sans is the dead weight in this situation and it's best to keep his mouth shut.

The little flowers don't look like much. But Grune looks as confident as he ever sees her, and so Sans nods. "tea. uh, sure thing." He reaches out to take her hand, in preparation of takinga shortcut down to the kitchens. "you...you know how to handle that part, right? 'cause i'm really not much of a tea guy." Maybe the occasional Sea Tea, but why would he ever have learned how to make that when Old Gerson always had a stash on hand?

[lostinmyway]

Immediately, she takes his hand and folds her fingers through his. "Oh, yes, I'll make him a very nice tea. Don't worry, dear."

She takes a few steps toward the kitchen.... Or is it this way? Hmm....

[sansational]

Whichever way it is from there, Sans squeezes Grune's hand tightly. He takes a step to the left, twists slightly to the right, and they'll suddenly find themselves standing in the kitchen.

"cool. you do that. thanks, grune."

[lostinmyway]

Grune keeps walking forward for a step or two before her mind catches up with her eyes. "Oh!"

She looks around for a moment to remind herself where she is, then sets the flowers down on the nearest counter and goes to draw water from the well for the kettle.

[sansational]

Sans trails after her like a particularly agitated duckling. "anything i can do to help? anything at all? that is, uh, not something i offer very often, so hey, feel free to take advantage of it while you can."

[lostinmyway]

"Hmm...." She stops, her hand on the rope attached to the bucket, thinking. "Could you find the kettle?"

She thinks she knows where it is...or does she?

[sansational]

Sans is definitely less sure he knows where the kettle is. But he's a little more sure he can find it more quickly than Grune. "sure." He offers her a jaunty salute, and then he blurs in space. Hopefully Neil won't mind him passing out on a corner of the bed, after all of this is done.

Fortunately, from Grune's perspective, it will only take Sans a few minutes to find the kettle. From his perspective, it doesn't take that much longer, but it certainly feels a lot busier. Until at last, he stands before her holding up a battered teakettle. "this it?"

[lostinmyway]

Grune had just finished pouring the water from the bucket into a pitcher left beside the well when suddenly Sans is right in front of her with the kettle.

"Oh!" She blinks. "Yes, that's it. Thank you, Sans."

She takes the kettle from him, pours water into it, then brings it into the kitchen. There, she hangs it on a hook over the hearth and starts feeding more wood into the fire.

[sansational]

Fortunately, there's only so fast that a fire can rise when you don't have fire magic to nudge it along. So Sans doesn't do anything to try and hasten her along. He's genuinely not sure that he could, at this point. Instead, he just follows her into the kitchen at a shuffle. When Grune moves to the fire, Sans moves to the table. He takes a seat, folds his arms on top of it, and slumps forward to rest his head on them.

So his voice, when he speaks, is a mumble. But it's a heartfelt one. "thanks for this, grune."

[lostinmyway]

"You don't need to say thank you." On the way back to where she left her flowers, she stops by the table to lay her hand upon his head. "Neil is my friend. I'm happy I can help him."

After a moment, she returns to the counter. A little bug has crawled out of the elder flowers; carefully, on her finger, she gives it a ride to the door.

[sansational]

After the silence has stretched on for a moment, Sans lifts his head, curiosity overcoming exhaustion for a moment. He does so just in time to see the bug flutter off of Grune's finger and out the door, into the late afternoon air.

He smiles just a bit, despite himself. "one of these days, i've really gotta ask you what home was like." He doesn't think he ever has.

[lostinmyway]

Grune glances toward him as she returns to counter and begins carefully separating out the elder flowers. "Oh, do you mean the Legacy?"

[sansational]

Sans rests his chin in his hands to watch her work. The more he can even begin to memorize about how to do this, the better - Neil's sickness doesn't look like the sort of sickness that will easily clear up even after a cup of good tea. "sure, if that's what you call it." He comes from the Underground, after all.

[lostinmyway]

"Well...." She spends a moment thinking. "The Legacy is a very beautiful place with so many friendly people. The towns are lively and cheerful, and the forests and mountains and oceans are wonderful. I'm very happy to be able to live there."

[sansational]

"oh, yeah? sounds nice." It sounds just as nice as this place, and certainly as lively. If Sans had come from a place like that, with friends that were still alive, he didn't think he would stop looking for a minute for a way to get back.

"don't you miss it?"

[lostinmyway]

"Hmmm...." She thinks for a while. Her hands slow.

After a moment, she says, "I miss my friends."

Then she resumes working at her earlier speed.

[sansational]

Sans stares at nothing very much for a while. Then he smiles, tiredly. "...yeah. me, too." If all the people here in this castle have nothing else in common, it seems as though they at least have that.

Then he closes his eyes and lets her finish up, and the sound of the water starting to boil is the last thing he hears before dozing off.

[lostinmyway]

When the tea is ready, with the teapot and cups set on a tray (and a few cookies set beside it just in case), Grune almost doesn't wake Sans. He doesn't get very much sleep, after all, and she knows Tauriel is worried about that.

But Sans is worried, too, about Neil. She'll make sure Sans gets his rest later, after he's seen that Neil is all right.

Gently, she sets a hand on his shoulder and bends down to murmur, "Sans? It's time to wake up."