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

[postictal]

Can he outrun it? He can't, surely. He's got fragile lungs and a weak little body, doctors are always telling him. The smart thing to do would be to run away, and hope that no one follows. No one would. If he runs, the dinosaur would stay distracted, and the strange man would still be in the tree, and...

And that's what would be expected of him.

He counts down. It's still there. It's still there, and the stranger is just barely holding on.

There's a rock on the ground. He picks it up and hurls it, and it bounces off the monster's spiny hide. It shakes its head to clear it, roars with a parting of needlelike teeth, and rears back - evidently Tim seems like much easier prey.

He darts off in the opposite direction to the rumble of charging footsteps.

[burntvideocassette]

Something catches the dinosaur's attention, and Jay breathes a sigh of relief for a moment...until he realizes what, exactly, has caught the dinosaur's attention.

"Tim!" This feels familiar, and he hates it. Jay scrambles down a few branches before launching himself down from the tree.

His knees catch some of the shock like they're supposed to, and he tries to pull into a roll like he's seen in countless dumb action movies, but his hands shoot out to catch himself anyway and he winces as a sharp pain shoots down his left arm. Again. Again.

(At least the camera's alright. That was on his right wrist.)

He pulls his aching arm close to his chest, grits his teeth, and sprints in the exact opposite direction any reasonable person would: toward the dinosaur, and with it, the kid who just interrupted Jay's rescue attempt to launch one of his own.

Maybe they'll wear the dinosaur out. Maybe it won't rip the two of them to shreds. Or maybe it will, and they'll find themselves waking up under a pair of white sheets 24 hours later. At least that way maybe they'd make it back to the mansion. Ha-ha.

[postictal]

So this was a terrible idea.

As soon as he comes across a tree with branches low enough, he seizes them as handholds and starts pulling himself upwards, desperately, hand over hand, fear lending his feet the wings necessary to practically rocket up the trunk like a spidery little monkey.

His goal might have been admirable, but all he really did was reverse his role with Jay's.

Excellent.

[burntvideocassette]

Now Tim's the one up a tree. Great. Just great.

He knows he's got to get the dino's attention off that tree. The only question is how. Making a lot of noise? Just points the dinosaur at you. Throwing a rock? Just points the dinosaur at you.

Maybe making noise and running would at least give him some kind of head-start. Best case scenario would be the dinosaur chasing after the noise and losing track of both of them, but he's not that lucky. He's never been that lucky.

Jay reaches up to a low-hanging branch, the end still covered in leaves, and snaps it off with his one remaining good hand. Holding it up like some kind of giant, leafy maraca, he shakes it furiously.

Then he drops it and runs.

[postictal]

He's ready. He's ready for the tree to come crashing down and for the dinosaur to trample him or swallow him whole or chew him or whatever horrible fate might be in store, because he didn't listen ot what everyone told him and he didn't just run and he didn't let himself stop seeing the things that are plaguing him. He bought into the reality, and now it really is real.

It's real, and it'll devour him. Maybe even literally.

Until there's a loud, angry rustle, and the thunder of retreating steps as the dinosaur apparently grows up with chasing its prey up trees and instead opts to charge, full tilt, after the stranger with the camera.

Tim, for his part, can only stay where he is, clinging to the tree trunk like an oversized koala, breathing hard, either unwilling or unable to let go.

It's real. It's real.

It's real.

Oh, god.

It's real.

[burntvideocassette]

He has to get it away from Tim.

Again, Jay weaves back and forth between the trees, trying his best to ignore the ache in his lungs and the creeping exhaustion pulling at his limbs. First, he has to lead it away. Then, he can worry about losing it. Once that's done, he can backtrack.

...He can backtrack, right?

He's not sure he's still going the same direction. Actually, he's almost positive he's not. Between all the dodging and weaving and the forty-foot-long murderbird breathing down his neck, he's pretty sure he got off-track. It's okay. It's fine. Really, it's fine. If he's lost, then maybe the dinosaur is, too.

Praying that thing's got a lousy turn radius, he doubles back, close to the dinosaur's legs. He just needs to buy himself a few seconds, that's all.

Like Tim before him, Jay dives into the bushes.