look at all that which surrounds me [ open ]

[determinedest]

Who: FRISK and YOU and/or TIM and YOU
Where: Mostly outside tbh like just generally gonna be in the woods
When: 2/09 - 2/11
Rating: PG-13; general cw for mental health shit for Tim in particular
Summary: Frisk climbed a mountain. Tim's lost time. Neither of them is particularly okay.
The Story:

[Just kidding starters are in the comments again so I don't spam the log comm lol. Anyway if you want closed starters just smack me here or over at arrpee. Also feel free to use either prose or brackets and I'll match you.]

Comments

FRISK ; OTA ; WILL MATCH FORMATS ; as a child i heard such wonderful stories

[determinedest]

Grass rustling underfoot. Wind picking at their hair. The cling of an old bandage, crinkled at the edges, carefully transferred from scabbed-scarred knee to still-oozing wrist, because there was only the one bandage and even if it was gooey, it was all there was. Uneven steps all the way to the very top of a mountain that they say travelers never return from.

The empty hole yawned up at them, until eventually they'd turned. Turned, and stepped back. Stepped back again. Stepped back again. Again, and again, until the sheer drop sipped at their heels and they could feel the sheer emptiness shivering up their back, the long plunge so distant and so far that the ink-dark obscures any chance of glimpsing a bottom.

Some say that if you fall, you fall forever.

Their head tipped back, regarding the sky for what they'd presumed would be the last time - the sun, its warm rays, the clouds scudding the periwinkle blue canvas, the whisper of dead leaves rasping against one another as the breeze tosses them from branch to branch.




They don't fall.

Instead, they sit up to a dramatic drop in the temperature, to the distant, thunderous roar of something tramping closer, louder, louder. Something colossal. Something that might very well crush them underneath a massive foot, if they're not careful. There's no time to take everything else into account, to note the trees, the warp in perspective, the unfamiliar landscape. All that matters is the fact that there's something out there, and all they're doing is...lying here.

They roll to one side. Stumble upright, even if makes their knees hurt. Snatch up a nearby stick and swing it back and forth, once, twice, before deciding it will suffice. Straighten up. Brandish your weapon. Square your jaw. Don't cry out. Don't draw attention to yourself. But wait, feet planted, shoulders braced. Wait until the last possible moment. Wait for whoever or whatever might come, and be ready, be ready, be ready for anything.

[codlet]

[A small fish-looking monster child comes barreling towards the human, recognizing them as a child by their striped shirt. They also look kind of like the humans from pictures, but she won't hold that against them.

More importantly, there's a t-rex stalking through the tall trees of the forest, and Undyne absolutely needs to tell someone about it.]

THERE'S A BIG THING OVER THERE!!! IT'S BIG!! BIGGER THAN A HOUSE! Maybe not bigger than that house. BUT REALLY BIG!! You wanna come look at it??

[Now that she's getting in their face, they might notice she's got tear trails down her face despite her exuberance, but more notably, she's got a cloth bandage over one eye.]

[determinedest]

[A shout. A noise. A small blue streak of a thing, gamboling toward them, and whatever it is, whatever she is, it doesn't look familiar and therefore - ]

[They bring the Stick sharply back, clasped like a baseball bat, ready to swing. Their eyes dart up and down, sizing her up, laden with questions unspoken. They should speak. Should say something. Something to...]

...who're you?

[codlet]

[When they raise the stick in their hand like a weapon, Undyne falters, eye widening. This is it. This is like how everyone at school said -- humans are dangerous. This human could hurt her.

But they don't strike right away. Undyne raises her fists.]

I'm Undyne! Wanna fight?? Huh!? I can take you!! You're just a kid!

[Granted, so is she.]

[determinedest]

So're you.

[Their lips barely move as they scratch it out, like bits of eggshell scraped between stuck teeth. Hard to speak. Hard to speak, even to a child. She's not much bigger than them, but she looks like she can fight, even if she's missing something.]

[Missing an eye.]

[Maybe that won't matter.]

[stananigans]

[Stan, for the most part, is a lot calmer than he should be about the whole thing. He's nearby and moving closer, and at first he isn't paying attention to them at all. He's not dressed for the weather, since he's in just a white T-shirt and jeans, and he has a duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

Obviously he's just imagining he's cold. And that there are dinosaurs. And that it's winter somehow. At a magic mansion. Who in their right mind would believe any of that?

He catches them out of the corner of his eye though, and it's enough to stop his dinosaur tracking. Then he sees what their weapon is and snickers.]

That little thing ain't gonna do you much good against a dinosaur, unless you wanna give it a toothpick or somethin'.

[determinedest]

[Older. Older, louder, but not a grown-up just yet. Not just yet. That earns him a wary look, a long, drawn-out pause where their stance shifts and their grip tightens. Maybe it's not perfect. But it's all they have. It's all they have, and they're not about to relinquish it.]

[Eventually, it registers. He's going to expect them to answer. They've been spoken to, and should speak up in turn. Their first attempt emerges a cracked whisper, the word trip-stumbled over, like they're still learning to articulate for the first time.]

...dinosaur?

[stananigans]

[He stops laughing when he sees the stance they take, but at least he's not attacking them. Plus he's still pretty sure a stick won't hurt him much, maybe bruise him up a bit. He could take them if he had to, but he's pretty sure he doesn't.]

Yeah! There's dinosaurs all over this joint! You didn't see 'em yet?

[Stan doesn't find that hard to believe only because literally everything is so hard to believe that he's decided this is all obviously some dream he's having.]

[determinedest]

[A shake of their head. They've been staying put when they can, ducking and hiding when they can't, and in general just burrowing into whatever nooks and crannies they can locate, as opposed to meeting any of these...things head on.]

[They've been keeping quiet.]

[More important, they're still in a state of uncertainty. This should be amended.]

Who're you?

[didntknowbest]

[Toriel is just... so confused right now. One second she's in the middle of a war, the next she's in some mansion, and when she goes outside there are giant lizard things stomping around, and she's running from them- and while running from one of those, she stops dead in her tracks, because she just ran into something even more terrifying- a human.

Her eyes widen, and her entire body tenses up, as she conjures flames in both her hands, at the ready- just doing that on instinct, before her mind processes that she's looking at a child.

...She doesn't dissipate the flames. Can't take the chance. Even if it's a kid, they could still kill her if they wanted- especially if she lets her guard down.]

Y... you!! Human!!! Stay- stay right where you are!! Don't you dare come any closer!!!

[determinedest]

[Something tall, and strange, and burning.]

[Bright light unfurling from open-palmed hands - paws? Claws? Horns. White fur. Ears, rabbit-like, drooping down either side of her head. Something they can't place. It looks, it seems...]

[It isn't human.]

[The child scrambles backwards, stick held upright in a trembling defense. She could burn them alive. She could...she could kill them, right where they stand. They square their feet. Plant them firmly in the ground. Raise their weapon, nervous but at the ready. They can't turn their back. They can't.]

[didntknowbest]

[The human plants their feet, and Toriel's own stance falters a bit. Which is... ridiculous. Completely ridiculous. They're obviously a child... so why is she so scared?

Why is she so angry?

She's terrified, and feels horrible, and just wants to be left alone- and this human doesn't care. Her people are being slaughtered, and even human children are raising up any weapon they can find against monsters.]

I'm not- I can't- I won't let you kill me too!!!

[She throws the fireballs she was holding at them- hoping it might scare them off.

It might provoke them, though- and some very, very small part of her hopes for that, too. To give her an excuse, and reinforce that humans were bad all along.]

TIM ; OTA ; WILL MATCH FORMATS ; you are so foolish, the dark has been your home

[postictal]

The world swam into dark. Head pounding, arms twitching, heart hammering, and there'd been the clamor of the doctors and the loud and his head still hurts and now he can't find Mom.

She's supposed to be here for him. He's supposed to be able to find her. She said she'd be right back, and now there's no doctors anymore, and his head keeps spinning. His throat feels parched, torn, ragged, like he's been screaming. That's stupid, though. He knows he hasn't been. He hasn't been, because he'd remember. Right?

His head still hurts.

His head still hurts.

Eight years old, small and terrified, trembling like a leaf, he finds himself drawn to the one spot that he knows he can trust. The trees are large and looming, almost comforting in their scope. That's okay. They'll keep him safe. This is when the tall man always shows up, and even if he makes things hurt sometimes, it's okay, because...because all he has to do is start following him, and then the man will go away. He doesn't like to be looked at.

You'll find him huddled beneath a tree, no doubt, snuffling and wiping at his nose. He'll startle at the faintest of noises - at the sounds of the rampaging and meandering dinosaurs, to which he doesn't dare draw close, but his voice will pitch upwards in a hopeful wobble if he hears footsteps, venturing with anxious longing: "...Mom?"

OPEN TO DADS

[alphyswhatsabara]

"I am not your mother, human child," responded a figure who was walking out into the open, staring up at the sky above as if he'd never seen such a thing as a cloud or the moon before, and so had not actually seen the small, sniffling youth; he had been gazing at the sky through the naked branches, and gotten somewhat lost.

"Do you wish to battle, or do you wish for peaceful engagement?"

[postictal]

There's something here.

Something tall, and vast, and - and it's not the tall man, but it's big enough to count as scary. The child startles, reeling back, scrambling to his feet with arms windmilling so wildly that he nearly staggers and ends up on the ground again.

"Wh-wh-what're - "

No. No, no, no. They said this is supposed to be going away. He's supposed to be getting better. Furiously, Tim screws his eyes shut and rams the heel of one wrist against one socket, as if that might scrape the hallucination away.

"Y-y-you're not real."

[alphyswhatsabara]

"No, human child, I am very real."

Fear. Yes, that seems about to be expected. He isn't attacking, though. So, there is that.

"I am Asgore Dreemurr, the King of all Monsters in the Underground, now... set free from my prison and taken into the outside world through some strange magic -- a human spell, surely. Tell me, what human village is nearby? Is Mt. Ebott somewhere near?"

[screwedontight]

There's dinosaurs. Seth is really beginning to wonder if he died in the fire, but he's not about to die in his dreams. Maybe it was a coma, that would make about as much sense as dinosaurs, but Seth isn't hiding in the house. He's also, likely from his own room but not knowing it is his own, found a weapon. A gun actually.

Though that is tucked under the oversized flannel shirt he's wearing over his tee and pj pants, stolen from some room along the way.

Outside, staying by the trees where he might get some cover, he hears a voice. Frowning, Seth folds his arm over his chest, standing there in the cold with his barefeet and looking entirely unconvinced about so much. Including that single word question.

"Yeah, no. Not even your mom," he says, his voice high and squeaky.

[postictal]

A little boy. A boy like him. But - but not like him, he knows, because he's not like anybody. He's something that the doctors still puzzle over. But it's okay. It's okay. They're going to find the right medicine and it'll fix him and it'll be okay.

Mom's going to make it okay.

"...'s this Rosswood?" Tim ventures at last, brow dimpled into a frown. Maybe...maybe this kid got lost too? Maybe he's from the hospital too. Maybe he woke up like Tim did. Maybe.

Maybe he's not really alone.

[screwedontight]

Seth's nose screws up and he kind of shrugs. "I don't think so. Don't know any place called that. Where is it?"

He moves a few steps closer, frowning at the other boy. "You know there's a house where there's no dinosaurs, right?"

[burntvideocassette]

There are literal dinosaurs outside. That's what brings Jay hesitantly down to the first floor, where he can perch in a window seat and get the best footage he can without getting too close. He may or may not be unconsciously humming under his breath.

Holy fucking shit, it's a dinosaur. Jesus Chriiist, what the--What.

There's a kid out there. There's a kid heading into the woods instead of back to civilization like a reasonable person. Is he being chased? Should Jay get somebody?

And then the kid looks back, and it all slides into place.

Jay's out the door before he has a chance to think. He looks both ways like he's crossing the street--nothing that looks rex-shaped or raptor-shaped--and sprints across the lawn.

Nothing chasing him? Nothing this second. Good.

He lost sight of Tim, but he shouldn't be too far in. He's got his camera. There's night vision if it gets too dark. He'll find him. It can't go any worse than the last time he tried.

And then there's a tiny, shaking voice down near his feet, a quiet: "...Mom?"

God. God. He's the wrong person for this.

Still, he crouches down slowly--not too close, not this time--and forces himself to speak. "Tim? You alright?"

[postictal]

There's someone else here.

The soft crunch of footsteps over leaves draw his ear, and he tenses, pressing himself to the rough bark of the tree as if that might hide him away. But the man keeps getting closer, and he doesn't look very much like a doctor. He just looks...lost, maybe?

He's a stranger. You're not supposed to talk to strangers.

Unless he's just something from his brain. He's supposed to be - isn't he supposed to be getting better? Frantically, Tim tries shaking his head, to dispel the vision, but it remains solidly in place.

There's no mistaking the tremor in his tone, the way he cringes backwards.

"H-how do you know my name?"

[burntvideocassette]

He's scared. Again, he's scared.

And why the hell wouldn't he be? He's a kid, and Jay just walked up to him in the middle of the woods all scruffy and weird and looking like something straight out of an old Scruff McGruff video. Don't talk to strangers. If they ask you to come with them, don't follow. Kick and scream and call for help. Every day in this country, sixty kids disappear. The more you know, right?

Tim shakes his head. Is that a no? He's not alright?

God, he looks terrified. There was blood on his hands, as Tim stared up at him from the leaf litter. He didn't used to do this. He wasn't like this.

How does Jay know his name? He's a friend of his mother's. He's a doctor. He's a police officer. He used to work with Tim's father.

This won't work. He knows--he knows this won't work, because he's a godawful liar and Tim's got an ear for this stuff, and the last thing he needs is to look more like a guy who's got candy in his van, honest.

So, the truth, then.

Uh.

"Look, I--" Jay looks anywhere but at Tim. "This is gonna sound stupid, but I swear it's--" He takes a breath. "I know you when you're...older. Like, a grown up."

On second thought, maybe a lie would've been better.

[yelloweyed]

[Dinosaurs are new.

Given the general scope of David's hallucinations, they're not altogether surprising, but they're new. Though now he's not so sure it's a hallucination, since there sure are a lot of them, and those twins did announce something was going to happen. Sort of.

He's following a long, long hallway. Through the doors on both sides, he can hear snarls and growls of classic movie dinos, but he ignores them. It's just a regular hallway from the mansion, but it seems to have a winding quality not completely typical of Wonderland. Well, no, maybe it is typical of Wonderland, but not typical of the mansion's hallways.

To David, he just walked down this hallway to the end of it as it twisted through curves and strange, sharp turns. To everyone else, David just walked through the mansion and to the forest outside.

Lenny is out there waiting for him at the end of the hallway, and suddenly, he's surrounded by trees. She starts going off on one of her recent tangents again, about how they need to make use of his power and bust out of the place, along with how exactly they're going to do so, but he's already not listening. He's distracted by the wandering giant, ancient lizards creeping around through the trees.

David turns his head, and a very garishly cartoonish Angry Boy catches his eye, wielding a knife and taking stuttering steps towards him. David stumbles back into a tree and shouts in horror, and that's when he hears a small boy's voice, calling for his mom.

There's a little boy here. Not the Angry Boy, but a regular one. God, but he has to watch out for the cartoon boy, from the book. The World's Angriest Boy in the World is here. He could get the human boy.]

Right, and... and the dinos. Damn. Hey, uh-- hey? Don't freak out-- it's okay.

[David starts to approach the boy cautiously, as if approaching one of the dinosaurs themselves.]

[postictal]

[This one's...he's not quite a grown-up, but he's old enough to count as one - to count as older, older than a terrified seven-year-old who's trying to compress himself into the leaf mulch and make himself as small as he possibly can, with limited success.]

[He starts creeping closer.]

[Automatically, Tim inches back - failing to account for how he's already pressed up against the trunk of a tree, and there's nowhere to back to. His throat convulses, his heart thudding, and - and he's so dizzy, dizzy from whatever happened, from when the world tipped out and he couldn't really move and he's, he's not really, entirely sure what's supposed to be real here, and what isn't.]

You're not Mom.

[Of that, he thinks, he can be certain. He thinks. He thinks.]

[yelloweyed]

[David winces when the kid instantly starts trying to back away.]

No. No, I'm not. Good observation. I'm just a guy who-- who wants to make sure you're safe, okay? That's all I want.

[The kid's doing exactly what he didn't want the kid to do, which was freak out, which is just making David even more worried that he's about to be found by the Angry Boy or a carnivorous dinosaur.

In the distance, the trees shake as something large moves through them. David glances between the shifting trees and the kid, trying to keep panic out of his movements. It's not working.]

There's a big house with a ton of people a little bit from here. You'll be safer if I show you the way there. Is that okay?