+ Your imagination can't hurt you! +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: YOU!
Where: The Mindscape
When: starting November 11th
Rating: may be up to R for character deaths
Summary: Navigate challenges to learn valuable lessons about nonviolence, cooperation, and self-sacrifice! Release your inner animal! Read more about the event here, and on the bulletin board.
The Story:




"If you know yourself, you have nothing to fear."
"Working together is the only way."
"Deaths are a necessary part of life, but not all deaths are necessary."
"The needs of the many outweigh the life of just one."

Comments

[determinedest]

[Shake...your head? They should shake their head. Deny it. They didn't do anything. No one needs to know. No one needs to know. But they...shouldn't lie, right? There's a bright fizzing in their fingertips, the aftereffects of the thing that killed them, and it's like there's colonies of ants running up and down the length of their bones.

Frisk shivers, shaking their head.]

It still hurts.

[How does it still hurt? That's not how it works, is it?

That's not how a SAVE is supposed to work.

So they didn't SAVE. They just...died. Died and came back without one. Without determination. How is that possible?]

[mettatonvevo]

[Mettaton stands up and his body creaks, energy and magic levels fluctuating rapidly. No. No this doesn't feel right. Frisk's denial and the fact that he feels stilted in his movements further proof that this was not something they did.]

I'm sorry, Frisk. I shouldn't have told us to go like that.

[Walking had killed them both, and he tries to not think about how Frisk's body had felt in his arms, how heavy they had been, how their face had twisted in agony. Did they look like that all of the times I killed them back home?

He feels sick.]

Maybe we didn't go fast enough? This doesn't seem like much of a puzzle to solve.

[determinedest]

Run?

[They eye the long hallway with something that might have once approached trepidation, if they stilll had it in them to express such a thing. If they fail, it will hurt again. They don't mind that. It's unpleasant, but they've endured worse. Mettaton will probably hurt more.

He's not used to remembering what it's like to die.]

We can try.

[Maybe they should try.

His apology goes - unacknowledged. It doesn't matter. They're just a stupid kid. Would've gotten themself killed anyway.]

[mettatonvevo]

[Running. They could try running. Or, he thinks, perhaps they should go even faster than that.]

I have rockets. I could try flying us over to the door before the walls hit.

[But first, a transformation!

INITIALIZING CHANGE: FORM 1 SELECTED; MAKE DEFAULT? Y/N

...

N

COMMAND PROMPT ACCEPTED. BEGIN TRANSITION NOW

Within seconds, Mettaton's EX form shrinks into itself, a denser placement of mass and metal, and his much smaller box form takes center stage, looking thoughtfully out into the hallway beyond them.]

I should have enough fuel to get us there before the walls hit... I don't think Pidge used that much from my reserves.

[determinedest]

[Frisk watches as his form folds itself back into a familiar rectangular prism. They've never seen the transformation go reverse before.

Maybe it'll work if they go faster. It doesn't really matter if it ends up killing Frisk. They can take it. They've taken it an innumerable amount of times in similar circumstances. Seared to death by lasers, or impaled by spears, or shot through with thorny vines.

Mettaton can't. If he can get there first, that's best.]

Pidge used your fuel. [The flat repetition is the closest to a question they're likely to get.]

[mettatonvevo]

[Mettaton would nod if he had the appropriate head and neck needed to do such a thing. Instead, he speaks.]

Yes. The first challenge I was in involved some show business and engineering. She had to upgrade me quite a bit.

[He wonders vaguely if the things she changed about him will be permanent after the event is over. It's an interesting thought, but best saved for later. He turns to Frisk.]

Well. You're going to need to get on my back and hold on if we're going to do this.

[determinedest]

[Frisk obeys the order without thinking, moving to grab onto the smooth, boxy, metal surface. There aren't any real purchases for their fingers, and they slip off a few times.]

Sorry.

[Should always apologize for your childish clumsiness. This is why kids shouldn't get in the way, ha ha.]

I can hold your...arms.

[It's hard to hold onto anything else. And his rockets aren't on his arms, at least.]

[mettatonvevo]

[This entire situation is a little awkward, especially since Frisk isn't themself right now, but Mettaton takes it in stride.]

It's all right, I know it's hard to grab onto me.

[He holds out his robotic noodle arms for Frisk to grab.]

Try grabbing and then hoisting yourself up. I'll try and hold onto you once you're in position.

[determinedest]

[It takes a few more moments, but the barriers stay politely in position, as if waiting for them. It seems they're not generated into shifting until one of them steps outside the circle they're standing in.

Frisk at last manages to boost themself up properly and cling there, awkwardly.]

Okay. Ready.

[If they slip off, it...won't matter anyway. It just means they'll start over. It'll hurt, but that's all right. They're used to that.]

[mettatonvevo]

[Mettaton, on his part, stretches his arms out a bit to further wrap them around Frisk so as to give them a safer purchase.]

Well let's shoot for the stars and see where we land! That's how that human saying goes, right?

[Without leaving Frisk too much time to answer, Mettaton activates his thrusters and they're off, zipping past the walls as easy as you please. For awhile there it looks like this might actually work! The walls stay where they are (or seem to) and they're about halfway to the door when the speed of said walls suddenly increases.]

...Oh dear.

[That's a great and proactive response there, Mettaton!]

[determinedest]

[Is it? Sure. Frisk doesn't bother to correct him or clarify if it is or isn't the saying in question. It doesn't really matter. They cling to him, wondering vaguely if the solution is really this simple.

Evidently, it isn't. The walls advance and advance, and it's not long before the charge is singeing the tips of their hair and the edges of their sneakers, and Frisk curls up tighter against the metal box of Mettaton's back.]

Faster?

[mettatonvevo]

[Mettaton is "eyeing" (despite having no eyes) the walls as they barrel closer, as well as how close the door is. Can he go faster? He's certainly going to try.

As he revs up his speed, his systems flash a warning:

FUEL UNITS AT 10%. PROCEED WITH CAUTION]

I'm going to go as fast as I can. We may be able to reach the door if-

[The walls seem to leap forward at that point, the buzz of the electricity sending his systems buzzing on their own. His internal screens wave and warp and he knows right then that they're not getting out of this one either.

As much as he can he twists himself so as to pull Frisk into the center of his body, trying to shield them as much as possible as the walls slam into them again.

It takes longer this time for the electromagnetic energy to penetrate the thickness of his current form, but penetrate it does, sending now horribly familiar shocks through him. He hopes, as his systems die and error messages flash across his face, that Frisk is spared even a fraction of the pain as everything goes dark-

And then everything restarts to the beginning.]