entrancelogs | + Your imagination can't hurt you! +

Entry tags:

+ Your imagination can't hurt you! +

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."

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Clearly trying to outrun it won't work. There must be some kind of mechanism or formula we need to do to get them to stop advancing.

[He looks around the room again but nothing jumps out to his cursory examination. All there is other than the stone walls and electricity and the far off door is the circle he and Frisk stand upon.]

This spot clearly has some significance to the puzzle, though whether its purpose is merely to be a starting point or something greater is still unknown.

[His systems jump a bit as he moves to examine the space they are on. His body is not keen on the dangers he has gone through, and he doubts that whatever magic that has been reviving him and Frisk has a degree in robotic engineering and will be able to put him back together properly after awhile.

They can't afford to take any more unnecessary risks.]

[Something they have to do to keep the both of them from getting shocked into death again. It hurts, but Frisk doesn't mind very much. They're only bothered up until the point that they're dead, and then they're not bothered anymore.

They watch Mettaton move about as they wait for their muscles to stop oscillating with nervous tension, the aftershocks of their previous two deaths leaving them more than a little physically fatigued.

Maybe that's just them.

They should check, maybe.

Yes. They should check.]

Do you feel tired?

[Mettaton continues examining the room, hoping for some kind of clue hidden away somewhere. He finds none and huffs irritably.

It actually comes as a small shock to hear Frisk inquire about his health, and for a moment his soul leaps, hoping that maybe they're starting to-

One look at that face of theirs and he knows that they're not anywhere near to normal and he buries his disappointment in shaking his head.]

No, not really. Just a bit creaky. All of this is hard on the joints.

[An understatement, sure, but he doesn't want to let his facade slip for even a moment.

He looks back to the space they are standing on and thinks.]

I think I have an idea of what we should do next.

[Did they say something wrong? Maybe. It's hard to tell, really. That's okay. They move forward until they're poised at the edge of the spot in the room that's still considered "safe" - that won't spontaneously leap into a blaze of scintillating energy when they walk upon it - and look out dully over it.]

What is it?

I think perhaps we need to go one at a time? Both of us standing off this space could be what's triggering the walls.

[Or it could be any other number of things and Mettaton feels vaguely frustrated with himself at how little evidence there is backing him up.]

[They look down at the inlay that marks the safe place, then down the hallway.]

Okay.

[It's a reasonable deduction, and they have no reason to argue.]

Who should go first?

[Mettaton hesitates, torn between wanting to go first and not wanting to get hurt. Why not send Frisk first? They're The Human after all. They should be used to dying and reviving and clearly this place does something along those lines.

You come first. Always.

Disgust claws its way up his throat as he turns to face down the hallway.]

I should. I can take quite a few more hits than you.

I'm used to dying.

[Said flatly, earnestly, because it is what's practical. Any concern they might have had for his feelings on the matter are nonexistent at this point. If their words bother him, they lack the capacity to care.]

[Mettaton visibly winces when they say that, the disgust now comorbid with guilt as he stands at the edge of the spot they are in.]

Yes, that is a fact, but it still stands to reason that if you don't have to go through it again, you shouldn't.

[He looks out, resolute. He hates himself just a bit as he steps off the space and begins to walk.]

[He sounds very sure of himself. So Frisk blinks, looks up at him, and then looks back across the hallway.

They don't need to say yes, it turns out. He goes and steps out into the open again. They have no need or means to stop him, so they don't. Yet with a fizzling snap, the barriers re-ignite and start to close in once more.

Frisk, however, remains untouched. The space they occupy is safe from them, it seems.]

[It was a mistake from the moment he stepped over the threshold. His systems shudder with the latent electricity crackling in the air and when the walls leap to life he shudders, both physical and physiological reasons permeating the action.

He does not look as composed running back to the space with Frisk as he did walking off it, and practically throws himself onto it as the walls close behind him; however, he is not completely fast enough as one of his feet gets caught and he yells, his body collapsing to the ground as he pulls himself out completely.

It takes a moment for him to be able to do anything other than clutch at his leg, but after a few moments of schooling his face to not be the visage of abstract pain, he finally reveals his face to Frisk, wearing a weary grin.]

Clearly that didn't work. Do you have any ideas?

[They study the barriers absently as he jogs back over to them. He looks like he's in a whole lot of pain, but that's secondary. Frisk is more intent upon the way the twin barriers of energy have collided, forming a bright zigzagging path across the hall - interspersed with that blistering brightness still, but traversable.

They look back over to him, and point. If they're bothered by how much he looks like he hurts - and they aren't - they don't show it.]

There's a way now.

[His smile freezes into a confused gape as he processes what Frisk has said. When his presence of mind catches up with him, he looks behind and sees that... they're right.]

...Is that the solution? Go out and then run back like hell?

I guess.

[At least he doesn't have to be worried that they'll think less of him. They're pretty unperturbed, even if it wasn't the most dignified way to reach the end.

They should offer to help, maybe. He still looks like he's in a lot of pain. But...that'd be weird. Creepy. So instead they simply turn and start to move through the static barriers, winding their way toward the door at the end.]

[That stings. No matter how many times Mettaton tells himself that Frisk can’t help the way they act now, it still sends a deep tremor of pain through his SOUL to see them walk away without a single inquisitive word towards his state.

But, he supposes, it’s pragmatic to just… go. So he pulls himself up, ignoring the creaking of protesting metal and his systems flashing a few warnings and also makes his way to the door, carefully avoiding the walls of the path around them.]

[They reach the end without difficulty. It takes careful stepping, but it seems everything has been resolved. That's the way it should be.

They don't wait for him when they reach the door. They simply open it and step through.

It does not take them to the End. It instead - takes them to the next challenge, seamlessly. They do not get the chance to so goodbye, but that's all right.

Even with that chance, they still would not have.]

[For Mettaton, this is the end of the line. After thinking with portals, performing for his life, and dying and resurrecting, he welcomes Wonderland's familiar walls and decor when he stumbles through the door, his body seemingly back to complete normal.

His soul remembers the pain, however, and he rubs at one of his shoulders as he turns to look back at a door that is no longer there. So Frisk didn't come out with him, huh? They did imply that they hadn't seen these challenges before, so that must mean they were still trapped.

He hopes that whoever is with them next helps them through. They're gonna need it.]

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+ Your imagination can't hurt you! +

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