badda bing badda boom (man we do a lot of threads)

[boogerman]

Pitch is nuts. Both Dreemurrs must know this by now. Sometimes he pops in without so much as a Chatsy warning dragging in strange gifts, mostly in the last year or so. Look at him, feeling comfortable at last after four good years of friendship.

So, when he pops out in the middle of their kitchen (oozing out of a cabinet a six-foot man can't fit in without violating the laws of physics) with a humongous box of stolen fireworks, that's normal, see.

It's the Fourth of July. You two live in America. Time to blow up your yard!!

Comments

[non_egressive]

Red eyes level with hers.

"You are taking things much further than necessary. We were simply enjoying the night together, as friends are wont to do in such times. There is no mocking here."

[boogerman]

She meets Pitch's eyes again and he loses control of his stupid mouth. (Infuriating crazy women do that.) "Explain what the hell you keep jabbering about or get out of here! None of us have a clue!" As far as he knows, that's the truth...

The grass ripples beneath all their feet and begins to grow. She's only growing angrier. "I don't answer to you, Nightmare King. You know very well what I want. Stay away from the Dreemurrs."

[non_egressive]

Toriel's claws sink into the dirt. One of her hands begins burning brightly.

"No," Frisk says from the background. "Just 'cause we like him and you don't doesn't mean you--"

"--You hold authority over him, nor us," Toriel interrupts. "You do not. You should leave to discuss this later," she repeats.

[boogerman]

"...No. Why--" His grip loosened for a minute. He squeezes the sand again, glaring. "Why are you obsessed with this?! I swore not to harm them! I'm not a threat! You are!"

It just doesn't make any sense. Why is she behaving jealously, he tried to be friendly to her before and it failed every time.

"What do you want me to do? Beg? Kneel and kiss your feet? What?"

The wind is strong now, stormy. Weathermen somewhere must be confused. "But I do. Don't I?"

[non_egressive]

Toriel squares her shoulders. "No. You do not. And what is past is past, and the most responsible thing for you to do would be to leave it be."

Frisk's eyes flick to the back of their mother's head. What's she talking about?

[boogerman]

"What she said." Pitch's drawl, full of rage. "I'm not leaving. You're a liar and the second I go, you'll--" He draws a finger across his throat. No running. He's chosen to fight. (He does glance up at the Moon, almost pleading. For a moment.) "You'll never get what you want because you can't be trusted."

Her response is a derisive cruel laugh and: "Give up. You can't win, shadow, and you know it."

[non_egressive]

Frisk is at Toriel's side, watching carefully even as she ushers them behind herself. If they need to do something drastic, they will.

"I will not allow you to hurt my child, and I will not allow you to hurt my friend. There is no need to fight. Leave. Now." This is her final warning.

[boogerman]

What's a spook to do? Can he do it? Can he be quick enough to lop her head off despite the fact that she knows it's coming? He'd only get one shot before he's banished, Frisk's dead and Toriel is so much dust...

He has to try. He has to. Because they're all dead anyway, aren't they. And yet... why does he keep on hesitating?

Why can't he kill his daughter?

"Do it. Go. We'll never let you touch Frisk."

She slowly paces forward, fire in her eyes. "I give you my word. Leave them alone and they'll be unharmed, Pitch Black."

[non_egressive]

"It is not your choice to make who he spends time with. Nor who else may care for him."

Toriel blocks the way.

"You must stop this," her voice drops to a whisper, though her tone and words are such it might have been a shout, "Now, Seraphina."

[boogerman]

And she...

Explodes.

It's hard to hear her scream over the wind that roars. "THAT IS NOT MY NAME!!" Vines spring up, flailing and snatching at whatever they can reach. Strangely, all the fireworks start to go off--raw energy is in the air. Static electricity hums. How could anyone really fight Mother Nature?

Pitch's first thought is for Frisk, as always. He snaps his fingers and they begin to fall... fall into the darkness which leads to Undyne's home. He can't think of anywhere safer on the spot.

Toriel. Toriel was the one who said it. Toriel is the one who must be punished first. A thick rope of twisted vines, nearly a foot across, more than enough to kill anyone it punches through. And it's heading right her way.

Until Pitch springs up from the shadows, catching it... with his own chest. Down he goes back into the shadows below his feet, dragging the vines with him so they don't keep on heading for Toriel. He comes back. She does not.

And then she's falling too, to join Frisk. Go, be safe.

[non_egressive]

Frisk screams and Toriel reacts. Seraphina is the one who is reacting, Seraphina must be why they're screaming--

--Seraphina's SOUL flares to life in front of her chest, and Toriel's flames dance towards it in a burning circle. "YOU WILL NOT HARM MY CHILD--"

Her voice chokes on horror when she sees what Pitch has done, and then she is gone.



The livingroom is in disarray, DVDs and bags of sweets and spilled drinks strewn everywhere from their landing--they'd both fallen from the wardrobe and onto the coffee table. Frisk, at least, had made it to the couch before Toriel's landing.

[boogerman]

Seraphina doesn't stop screaming. Not for a while, as she tears her way through Toriel's home, vines and wind doing their damage. It's like a miniature tornado. Nothing must survive. Punish punish punish...



Meanwhile, the Sandman is rushing closer. Will he be in time? He's... worried. That's a rare sensation. The Moon informed him right away, but America is a huge country and he can't teleport.

[dustless]

The house is fairly small. The big couch, the TV, beds, toys, dishes, everything shatters and the walls come down within a minute.



Toriel has taken Alphys' cell phone, little as she uses it on her own, and is calling the neighbors, a nice family of bears.

Frisk's pacing around the room in spite of Undyne and Alphys trying to talk to them. They're angry, their panicking, they're lost and upset. They should've moved faster. Can they reverse time to such a small degree, a few minutes ago? They can freeze it and jump years, but they hadn't managed to do something so small consciously.

...Pitch isn't okay. Toriel didn't say that, but they could read the look on her face.

[boogerman]

And on her way to Undyne's... Sandy reaches her. Dear sweet little Sandy, full of terror and anger of his own. He saw the destruction of the house from the air. Were Frisk and Toriel in there? Has she become a murderer tonight?? What in the name of the stars set her off??

He rockets down at her like a falling star, blocking the way, whips of sand in hand, steam coming from his ears.

Why, why why.

He should wait for an answer. He just doesn't have the patience--she may have killed that poor family. Ruined Pitch's chance of redemption in a stupid childish tantrum. Down she goes, smacked in the face with sleepsand before she has a chance to get over her surprise... not even he can battle her in a fair fight.

[dustless]

A damn good thing. There's half a city between where the Dreemurr's lived and Undyne's place; who knows who else she could've harmed just for being in the way?


Nobody is picking up.

"We should go back," Frisk says urgently, even as their mom shakes her head.

"You will not be going back. It is not your responsibility--"

"But I need to!"

[boogerman]

Any children out watching fireworks who happen to believe get the lightshow to end all lightshows tonight, as something else is in the sky... A ship the size of a school, floating up, all made of sand and glowing gold against the night sky.

Sandy needs somewhere to lie Seraphina down for a long rest, after all. He doesn't dare let her wake... not yet, not for a long time. What other option is there? She's likely killed tonight and can't be set free to do it a third time.

There is no such thing as therapy for the likes of Mother Nature. He drifts up towards his mobile home, carrying her on a cloud of sand as she dreams away. Dreams of better days...