more for the boogerman

[dustless]

 (Continued from here~)

Frisk hopes there's no fight. 

They want to be left alone, sure, but that's not the only thing they hope for. Even they can't just fix a--rivalry, a longstanding hatred, at least not when the opposing parties actually know each other. But they also hope they can...lessen it, at least a bit. So the Sandman doesn't try to outright kill--no, they're sorry, 'banish', with lots of beating and tarry blood--Pitch when they see each other every time.

(Of course, they don't know the whole story. But they can't imagine that would matter.)

The time ticks down in companionable silence. 

Frisk keeps their eyes on the sky--

--and they sit straight up when they first spot glimmering gold in the clouds.

Comments

[boogerman]

"No. He hasn't spoken to me in who-knows-how-many years. I'm not fit to speak to, I suppose."

[dustless]

Frisk is quiet for a bit.

Talking to him will be a challenge. Clearly. If not impossible, how d'you talk to the moon--but...they think they'll try anyway.

"...who's the others?"

[boogerman]

"Other spirits. Guardians of Childhood, they call themselves. You've heard of them." His mood is slowly getting worse. "Sandman, North, Bunnymund, Tooth, Jack Frost... See if you can guess who is who."

[dustless]

"Think I can figure those out."

Yeah, alright, they've noticed that. Time to subject change for this moment, get more information later on.

"...I'm hungry. Want anything?"

[boogerman]

"I'm not. Not for anything you'd give me."

Heh heh what a spook!!

[dustless]

Yeah sure okay.

"Not even more tea?"

[boogerman]

"I had some of your tea today, don't you remember?" No sense in chugging it all down. "And a bit of your nightmare."

[dustless]

"Yeah, but we have a lot of it." Shrug, again.

But anyway--"Can you put me back?"

[boogerman]

Oh, right. Must have slipped his mind.

"So nice of you to trust me to do what you ask and not drop you into the Grand Canyon."

...Is this how he cheers himself up? Probably.

[dustless]

They do already, but they can't help but add--"I don't think you'd want to redo all the stuff if my neck broke."

Frisk holds out their hand.

[boogerman]

...Damn that reset ability.

"No, I'd catch you before you hit. After you'd wet yourself." Loophole! He takes their hand and there they are in the kitchen... not falling out of the sky.

[dustless]

Good, now they can eat some actual dinner. Which is spaghetti leftover in the fridge (by mom, not Papyrus).

"No," they say as they toss it into the microwave. "Not scared of...up...of heights. Fell down inside the mountain, you know." Well, they climbed a bit, but there was still a pretty long drop.

[boogerman]

"You should be, it's common sense to be afraid when falling from a mile up." Seriously, even he wouldn't enjoy that. He leans against the counter, watching. "The one thing I'll never understand is why people tell themselves fear is shameful."

[dustless]

"People say I don't have a lot of that." Frisk doesn't entirely agree, but people can have their opinions.

There's not much to watch--pushing buttons, and then sitting on the counter to wait. For some reason. There's a chair right there, kid.

"...'Cause it can stop them doing stuff they want to do? Or what other people do? Or 'cause it feels gross?" they venture.

[boogerman]

"Fear protects." he says. His oldest and simplest philosophy. "Maybe not everyone should do what they want. Take what they want. And go where they want."

[dustless]

"Yeah. 'S long as it's the right...thing. That's how monsters got stuck underground, you know." Their heels bounce a rhythm, their gaze is unfocused. "Humans thought they were scary, would steal their SOULs. So they went to war and locked them up and forgot them."

[boogerman]

"Nothing's perfect." Another tidbit of information, something he wasn't aware of. But these things happen all the time. "Terrible as it sounds, paranoia is worth the price."

[dustless]

"It got me shot in the head. 'Cause monsters are still scary. And they don't even know about the SOUL stuff."

It's kind of a relief, being able to talk about their deaths with someone.

[boogerman]

"It did." Uncomfortable to think about, but not directly his fault. He spreads fear, he doesn't take it away or control it.

"But imagine a world without fear, if you can."

[dustless]

"It's be bad. Kids going into the woods at night and stuff, I know, you said. But...fear...isn't the same? As paranoia. That's too much."

The microwave beeps loudly, and they twitch.

[boogerman]

He chuckles when he sees that flinch... and shrugs. "You can't have one without the other. It's on their heads, how they react to their fear. You can be afraid of the woods without being so afraid you go and bulldoze them down."

[dustless]

"...people are weird. Humans, spirits...."

They grab an oven mitt, get the spaghetti ready and cooling. Smells good.

"All the stuff tonight's been weird."

[boogerman]

"Everything to do with you has been weird." He means everything, eyes boring into Frisk. The kindness as well as the weird abilities.

[dustless]

Frisk doesn't get the implications. They're a little too focused on getting their food onto their fork.

"I am a strange child." Their voice pitches to sound like their mother's.

[boogerman]

"She's got some sense then." But if he's claiming he's the picture of normal... well.