boxfullofzeroes | I heard you like suffering (for dustless)

boogerman posting in

The ordeal had started suddenly one night (as if it wasn't always 'night' for Pitch), while he was somewhere in Europe, amusing himself pacing around in an older home to make the floor creak while their children try to get to sleep. Funny how simple things like that--which should be dead boring by now--still make him feel good.

But the little game ends when he senses something odd about his network of shadows, his means of travel all over the world. Something cold and icky and bright that doesn't belong. He enters them, curious and wary, and--

He ends up being pulled, yanked along a path he didn't mean to take, full of panic.

From then on, it's a blur of madness, screaming, light and terror. He loses all sense of time. He starts to lose his Fearlings too, those old friends he didn't even know were there, poor lovely things. He's not alone, people are there, studying him. Scientists. Experiments. The scientific study of magic. He tries to hold on to the memories, but he's in too much pain most of the time. He's also blind as a bat while trapped in the light, with magical wards up that he doesn't have the strength to fight past without killing even more of his Fearlings... until there are only a few dozen left and he knows it's now or never.

He bursts out, more pieces of himself exhausting themselves and dying for their master, and flees to the nearest place that he knows is safe. His underground home is across the ocean, too far away. Frisk and Toriel's home is closer. They'll let him recover, won't they? That big plush couch in their living room has room for a Boogeyman.

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From:

dustless

No wound on his face, but that spirit blood very much is. Toriel carefully dabs at the skin stained with it.

"Only if you are feeling well enough. Do not push yourself."

Frisk...tentatively reaches down to stroke his hair.

From:

boogerman

It's like tar. Pitch is another word for tar. How punny.

Not.

"Oh." he says, at both the sight of the not-blood and Frisk petting him. Strange role reversal. "I'm bleeding?"

From:

dustless

Frisk won't stop unless it clearly hurts him, or he asks.

"Yes." That is all Toriel says.

Perhaps, if he can focus enough, he can sense the nuances of her fear--yes, he was bleeding. Enough that Frisk's pillow case is likely entirely ruined, she noticed once she had lifted him.

From:

boogerman

He's sucking all their fears down, however this is down, and yet still feels so empty and cold inside... cold outside, each time he's touched. He can't get warm.

"Ah." No, it doesn't hurt him. No, he doesn't ask. It's... nice. Not adding to the pain.

From:

dustless

Their fears will not dissipate, not as long as he's there. Even if there was some miraculous recovery they'd still be worried for him.

Pet, pet.

Toriel quietly settles down on the edge of the couch herself.

Frisk finally finds their words. "...d'you...want...me to get you some tea?" they ask meekly.

From:

boogerman

If only he could get himself to a crowd of sleepers, a dozen nightmares all playing at once... why does he keep wishing for things? Stupid thing to do, he's no child. He lives in reality.

"Healing tea?" Hm. That's going to require sitting up. He makes an attempt, and aborts that fairly quickly, feeling dizzy.

From:

dustless

Toriel presses her hand over his chest. "Do not push yourself," she repeats.

Healing, though.

"Yes, Frisk. Go make some." The both of them can make sure he does not choke.

They nod and disappear.

She looks at him, through him. "I know for a fact that you have a SOUL. If the tea does not help, I will attempt to heal you as well."

From:

boogerman

He swallows whatever nastiness is in his throat, licking his lips, disturbed. "Something isn't right. You should try." He should have either recovered or not, and woken up in his lair in better shape than this. He's never felt so hollow.

From:

dustless

No. Something is not right. Pitch does not ask for assistance easily.

"...Would you like me to try now?"

From:

boogerman

It's not that he trusts her not to harm him, it's just that she could do it whether or not he asks for healing.

"Tea first. Give me some energy." He coughs, but fortunately on the towel. It's not nice. "Nightmares should have helped."

From:

dustless

"No doubt. Frisk would not have stayed if they had suspected differently." To her grief, she knows they have nightmares on their own, Though they never speak of them.

Frisk is only a few minutes, though there's a small puddle on the counter now that they'll need to clean up later, hands a bit unsteady from nerves.

The speed into the room as fast as they can without spilling more. "Here." They hold it out to him.

From:

boogerman

His hands are shaking, and it's difficult to drink lying on your side. He knows he must be making a terrible mess, but better a bit of spilled tea than blood. Pathetic, to not be able to control himself in this way. He manages a few sips.

"Shouldn't have come here." That was meant to be a thought, oops. It slipped out.

From:

dustless

Frisk's hand shoots out to keep it from spilling too much.

"...think 's good you did."

"You yourself said you could not make it home."

From:

boogerman

Better to die there than here, like a cat, crawling off to be alone. Instinct. These thoughts he keeps to himself, luckily.

"Could you send me there?" Somehow. They seem to have quite a lot of magical solutions to everything.

From:

dustless

Frisk silently climbs back up onto the arm of the couch and gets to petting again.

"None that I know of, I fear. Is there something there that you think may help?" She could try to find a solution if she had an idea.

From:

boogerman

"No." It's only that it's comfortable. His domain, his home. "Nice to be there, I mean."

He sets the teacup down, finished. And the petting seems to be making him relaxed. Who would have thought Pitch's hair would be anything but wirey?

From:

dustless

"I am sorry. I hope the couch itself is not too uncomfortable for you."

Still stroking his hair, Frisk leans forward to study his face. The tea should've helped.

From:

boogerman

"Your couch is fine." he says. Because the tea was only a drop in the bucket, he feels so weak. Like he may just fall apart, numb, cold, and a little delirious. He doesn't look any better. There's still blackness on his tongue when he licks his lips. "How long until night?"

From:

dustless

Frisk is so unsettled by this. Fear and their own little bit of numbness aren't helping their voice.

"...quite some time." It is still only morning. "I will make sure all the curtains stay closed." And Frisk's already shut the off the lights.

From:

boogerman

Come to think of it, he can't feel his feet anymore. That's worrisome.

"Yes. No more light." Please please no. Even the floor where he was kept had lights embedded into it. "Think frightening thoughts."

From:

dustless

Toriel does not enjoy this. But she tries.

She thinks of being herded underground, a thousand years ago, the terror that losing the battles were.

(She could think of worse, and she knows this. But some wounds are too fresh.)

Frisk thinks of their nightmares, of their first falling, of Pitch's reaction to their death and their first reload in front of him.

...their hand lowers, so they're stroking his forehead, too. It makes them feel better when mom or Asgore does that when they're feeling sick.

From:

boogerman

Ah, if only there were more than two people in the room... he longs for a good campout, ghost stories around the campfire, nostalgia taking hold of him for a few moments as some energy comes to him. A few more drops into the leaky bucket.

"Better. ...Thank you."

From:

dustless

"Welcome."

Toriel's hand settles on his chest one more time.

"Would you like me to try healing you?"

From:

boogerman

"Yes, I..." He. Something. He can't quite come up with an excuse for his 'yes'. What use is pretending not to be weak at this moment? "Anything."

From:

dustless

He is suffering. What excuse should there be?

Toriel is an adept healer; the color green suffuses her hand as his SOUL appears.

It looks unsettling to her, the blackness laced through. She channels the healing magic through anyway.

It looks even more unsettling to Frisk. They still remember when they saw it way back then, and there was more darkness there. What did it mean that he was losing it?