just as you breathe (post c_p)

[dustless]

Nobody gets why, halfway down the mountain, Frisk bolts.

Toriel and Asgore think they changed their mind about not having places to go or the ambassador idea. Everyone scatters through the trees to search for them--eventually, Papyrus is the one to stumble over them, to talk to them, to coax them back with his positive affirmations.

They don't explain why they stare at everyone like they're seeing their bare SOULs (yeah, punk, I'm great! WE'RE great, right, Alphys?), or why they keep touching their teeth (do you have a toothache, my child?), or why they constantly pace through the house they eventually move into with Toriel, opening doors as if they're expecting something else to be behind them (I don't think there are any monsters in the closet, little one).

It's just...Frisk. They're a good kid, even if they're a little strange.

Comments

[voidster]

What do you mean?

[dustless]

were u
1 at the castle?

There. Finally.

[voidster]

Yes. I'm sorry, I suppose I should have led with that.

wtf i never got an alert for this one

[dustless]

its ok

No it's not. It's not, 'cause they hoped just for a minute just for a familiar face, but now he's here. Trapped somewhere they don't know how to get to, and in their world of origin like their brothers. At least they have each other, and the whole Surface--wasn't the castle his home too?

im sorry they send thoughtlessly.

[voidster]

For a time. It was good to be real again and meet others once more...

There's nothing he can do about it.

You don't have to be sorry for anything.

...and fuckgn html

[dustless]

it sent you back with m e

They're pacing through the house. Toriel might be listening to their feet, listening for them opening all the doors again. She thinks that's just Frisk. She doesn't know them.

They stop at the kitchen window and bare their teeth at the sky, and the mountains. It's not an easy trip there, but Frisk thinks they could make it before anybody started worrying about where they went...

[voidster]

Pity he can't see a damn thing. He can message them, but not see the surface world, only the mostly-empty underground. Useless information. No one he actually knew stayed down there in this timeline.

No. No, it merely put me back where I always have been. Nothing has changed for me. This is not your fault.

[dustless]

its the castles fault
but you sh
ouldnt BE here

A spark of rage is rising through the dullness.

They need to go. There's nothing stopping them.

Frisk slips on their shoes and shoves their phone in their pocket. Bit of a walk to the nearest stop.

[voidster]

Shouldn't be here? Shouldn't be at all? Should leave them alone? So ambiguous.

If you'd rather I left you alone, that's fine.

It's not like he can tell they put their phone away. He can wait. Other conversations are happening--he's no longer forcing himself to be completely cut off from the world.

[dustless]

They have a better update noise now--that is, one that's quiet. It vibrates with his reply, but Frisk ignores it until they're out of the neighborhood. Don't want to be caught in an awkward conversation (again).

no
im just busy

And of course they're clueless how his time perception works.

[voidster]

Understandable. There's no rush.

[dustless]

Texting while walking, always a bad idea: howdid you get there

Frisk never properly asked, did they? Not enough to get a real answer.

Or maybe they forgot.

They don't want to forget the Castle. Or at least not anybody who was in it.

[voidster]

An accident. Before you were even born, I think.

[dustless]

WHAT accident. doesnt matter when

[voidster]

An experiment gone badly wrong. That's all I'm willing to say, I wouldn't want someone to recreate it.

[dustless]

im not going to do it

I don't like it, they think and type out halfway, then delete it. It's not the fairest thought.

im not even good at siense

[voidster]

You're still young.

I wouldn't want it passed along or read over your shoulder and someone else wind up in trouble. That won't help me.

[dustless]

so what
i am good at keeping secrets
i promis

[voidster]

True. But why do you want to know?

[dustless]

why woldnt i

[voidster]

Because no one else should ever have this happen to them. You understand why I'm concerned?

[dustless]

yes
i do
but tell me

[voidster]

Oh, how he doesn't want to. It can't possibly do any good. But it's true, an eleven year old child can't recreate his deadly machine. And they're determined. They'll never let it go.

(Lying isn't an option. No, they deserve better than that, even though no one who could have told them differently remembers a thing.)

Very well.

At the time, I had already designed and built a machine that could give us information about other timelines. Very simple things, temperature, presence of light, sound.

The next version of it was more ambitious. Too much so. I can't tell you what went wrong or how it is I didn't die outright, nor why no one remembers I existed. I only know that it was flawed somehow, it malfunctioned, and I ceased to be.

[dustless]

Once they read that, they slam their phone down on the bus stop's bench beside them. None of that's useful!

...But why did they expect it to be? That's not his fault. They need to stop getting so--so mad.

you are still talking to me. theres still a little

did you do it beacuase SAVES?

[voidster]

This happened well over a decade ago. No, it had nothing to do with the resets. If there had been resetting of our timeline that long ago, I wouldn't have remembered anyway, like any other monster.

Not their fault. Not Flowey's. Only his.

Yes. I'm not all gone. Look on the bright side, I'm able to think clearly, to stay in touch with you three, and so none of you have completely lost me.

For what it's worth. Frisk and their brothers (in spirit) still have the Gaster they met. Let that be enough.