snowblindrpg | [network, audio] @determination; Two in one, Day/Evening 75 [open] [cw: past death]

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[network, audio] @determination; Two in one, Day/Evening 75 [open] [cw: past death]

[It's hardly the worst way they've ever died.

They don't manage to get their arms around the monster before it's pinned them down against the ground. Frisk wriggles a little, but there's not much to be done at this point. What they struggle more against suddenly is the feeling of dust everywhere, on their chest, on their arms, on their face. It's then that they start to feel a measure of panic.

They've had nightmares like this, they think. Nightmares where they can't breathe for how thick it is, choking them, drowning them. Only this time, they're slipping away, dropping down into black-

And then they wake up.

They don't know where they are. Had they really died? It hardly felt like any of the other times they had. On the other hand though, one thing they do realize is that something feels... off. Though they can't put their finger on what.]

Day

[It doesn't take long to collect their belongings and do as their tablet instructs, shuffling their way up the stairs to the first floor, where they finally realize they know where they are. And once they're there... they pull out their tablet, and slowly move to make a post.]

Hey. I'm... [here? back?] I'm okay.

[What else should they say? They feel like they should say something, but there's no real desire to. Still, they should try at least.]

I'm sorry.

[It doesn't really sound like their heart is in it though. Their unease still grows and they punch the button to end the post.]

Evening, post-lockdown

[Of course, they eventually realize what's going on, an unhappy realization that sends them fleeing from the Hospital they woke up in as fast as they can. Once they've finally stopped for the night and exhausted themselves digging around the shed they're staying in, they remember something. It'd completely slipped their mind in trying to catch up to Quark and then... everything else, but...

And so a second post goes up that evening.]

A few days ago I talked to somebody, um... about writing down all the different monsters that've people've seen here. To see if we run into the same ones ever. I still want to do that, for the monster guide thing.

[... they're probably going to get people trying to talk them out of that, but for some reason they don't... really care. In a different way than normal.]

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[The sound of Frisks voice makes her heart leap into her throat. Panic quelled now as she fumbles to make her own reply.]

My child? Where are you? Are you alright?

Edited 2016-01-09 22:19 (UTC)

[There's a clatter as Frisk drops their tablet. Because whatever response they'd been expecting to get - from anyone or anything - it wasn't that. They never expected to hear her voice.

After a moment though they're leaning forward, picking it up and staring down at it.]

Mom? You're here?

[They're still in shock, but they nagging feeling from earlier is getting worse. Something is wrong.]

I arrived only yesterday actually. [Relief is palatable in her voice as she tries to stay calm. Her child is okay, her child is alive. Thus begins the worried fussing on her part.]

Are you alright? Have you eaten yet?

Edited 2016-01-09 23:18 (UTC)

[Just yesterday... now that they think about it, there had been a post for new people on the network just the other day, hadn't there? The rub at their face a little.]

Not yet. I just woke up.

[Why aren't they happier to hear her voice? Why aren't they happy at all? Not that they're upset or mad either, though.]

Remember to eat when you can, my child. You're going to need your strength. [The lack of any emotions in Frisks voice makes Toriel uncertain.]

[They do... they do think they hear that uncertainty. They should at least be trying, shouldn't they?]

I will. Thank, mom. [beat where the realize they never answered her question.]

Um... There's a big hospital down in the ice caves. I think I'm there.

[They're doing their best to keep it under wraps, but she knows them better than anyone, and might be able to hear the slight undercurrent of edge while Frisk tries to figure out why they don't feel... anything. Why don't-

...wait.]

Edited 2016-01-09 23:53 (UTC)

I should come find you. Being alone out there is hardly safe. [Uncertainty edges into worry, Toriel tries to stifle it in her voice and likely fails.]

I may not be able to make you a breakfast like we could at home, but I can at least make sure you're comfortable and safe when eating. [Toriel just feels her worry building further. All she wants right now is to run off and find her child.]

N-no.

[The words come out faster, with a faint note of panic underneath them. If they're right. If they're right... and the more they think about it the more sure they are. They should be happy to see her, they love her so much and yet...

They don't feel it. They don't feel any of it. All they can feel is a sort of ache, a sharp lack where the feeling once had been.

... but if they scare her too much she'll come looking faster, and they can't face her. Not like this.]

I'm... I'm okay. I'll be okay for... a little while.

[She doesn't even know where Toriel is, or how long it would take the other to reach her, but...

My child, you don't sound 'okay'. [The panic makes her shift gears, her worry is not being placated at all by that. She gets more than a little suspicious now.] What is going on?

Edited (that sure was a broken tag whoops) 2016-01-11 06:06 (UTC)

I...

[This is going from bad to worse. Too much worse. They can't fake it, not in a way she won't spot. She is their mom, after all.]

I'm sorry. I gotta go.

[And maybe, maybe they think they are. But they cut off the feed there. They're getting the fuck outta dodge for this one, sorry mom.]

Frisk! [The feed ends and Toriel just finds herself baffled by the sudden shift before she closes the feed herself.]

[It's been an awful couple of days... and Rydia would try to say something smart or useful or intelligent but-]

I'm glad you're... alive. And it's okay, you tried your best.

[There's something off with frisk's voice but the summoner doesn't want to think about it for now. Rydia sighs and shakes her head before talking again.]

You know you have my support for that. It's just... Tell me, child, are you alone?

Edited 2016-01-10 00:33 (UTC)

[Hm. Frisk glances around, listens a little]

Yeah, I think it's just me right now.

[Congrats Jim, your hiding spot is working. A part of them feels like they should say something else, address the rest of what she's said, but they don't really know what to say.]

Edited 2016-01-11 02:32 (UTC)

You're back! You came back!

[That means both Jim and Frisk are back. They're both okay. His friends aren't gone. This is the happiest, or at least the most relieved, that Quark's felt in days. Maybe longer. All the days have kind of been blurring together, lately. He could almost cry, he's so glad to hear their voice.]

I was so scared, I thought I'd never see you again! I'm glad you're back.

[They can hear the happiness in his voice and it pinches something deep inside them. Because they... they don't really share it. They definitely want to be alive and in some sense are glad they are. But Quark's excitement is something that they aren't sharing and they should be.

What's going on? Quark is their friend. They force a smile onto their face, though they don't really feel it.]

I said I would. I'm sorry I scared you.

It's okay, you didn't do it on purpose.

[Well, in a way they did, but the way Quark sees it, Frisk was just trying to do the right thing. And the monster was going to get somebody no matter what happened. At least Frisk tried to help instead of just running away.]

I'm sorry. Maybe if I hadn't wandered off in the first place we never would have run into that monster.

[So much guilt. He doesn't know if it's just all the other stuff he feels guilty about crushing down on him with what happened fro Frisk or what. But he knows he wishes he had done more. He knows he never wants to see that happen again.]

[Frisk hesitates slightly.]

We woulda had to get food anyway, and I have the beacon thing on.

[Their voice is matter-of fact. Both statements are easier to say because they're both fact. There's something else that would probably work better here to reassure Quark but they aren't... they're having trouble figuring out what.

The ultimate point was still the same: They didn't know what had brought the monster there, and there were plenty of other things outside Quark's running off. He didn't have to blame himself.]

But...

[Quark frowns, looking down. Something's bothering him about this conversation. He doesn't really know what. Frisk just seems so okay. And that shouldn't be a bad thing, but it's like a weird sort of okay. Not a normal okay. It's a not-Frisk kind of okay. It feels wrong, kinda.]

Are you...feeling okay? I know sometimes when people come back they lose things for a little bit.

Ran into a tentacle one.
And
A freaky one with wings and a tail that looks like a severed spine.
Yo. You're @Quark's friend, right?

Ewww that sounds really gross

[Well they are a kid.

...oh]

yeah, that's me.

Yeah, tell me about it.
I don't think I can really sleep without thinking of the second one.

[Especially since it DID eat his friend.]

The first one tried shoving itself under the door and open the windows.
Found it under some rubble I was shifting through.

Edited (icon whoops) 2016-01-11 04:34 (UTC)

The one we saw jumped off a roof.

[That's all they really say, but... they probably shouldn't say anymore. Sorry Zell their sensitivity is... kind of shot at the moment.]

Edited 2016-01-20 08:07 (UTC)

[Not like sensitivity translate well in text anyways.]

Whoa. That's pretty crazy, man.
Wish we could find a way to know where they will be.
Been thinking of catching one.
All I got so far is a hole in the floor to keep them in.

[... mmm. There's something to be said about that though they're not sure how to word it right now. Plus the fact that the whole issue of monsters right now feels so much more wrong than normal.]

To do what?

To study them.
Maybe they'll eat rations?
Will they adapt to escape?
There is a lot we still don't know.
We can only find out by nabbing one, right?

The first monster I ran into had large feet to begin with. It seemed like it was made of flesh and blood, except its edges blurred and flickered and stretched. Then we set it on fire and its form melted off. After that, all I could see was a clouded, flickering something.

The second monster seemed humanoid, except it had four arms.

I didn't see the next monster my group found. I'm told it was only vaguely humanoid, more like an amoeba that kept trying to build arms and legs and a head before it collapsed back into a cloudy, pink-red blob.

The fourth monster we saw swam through the snow, and had multiple legs like an insect. Almost like a giant snow centipede. It had sharp mandibles on its face, but its stomach opened up to eat.

The last monster we saw had an exposed rib cage, and its outstretched arms had flaps of skin and flesh like wings. It had a tail coming down from the exposed spine, too, with what looked like a human mouth on the end. Its eyes were red, and planted in its chest. (This is the same monster that @zd described above.)

[That... is a lot. Five different monsters. Normally they'd be excited but well. Things. Are not how they're supposed to be right now. And a lot of those words go right over their head. They do try to puzzle some of the words out, but it's hard to be patient as they need to be to do a thorough job.

They get halfway or so through before they give it up for the time being. They do owe some sort of response though, don't they?]

I dunno if I got all that but um... thanks.

[It takes a beat for it to click just how young that voice really sounds - and what that probably means for the kid's reading comprehension. Sorry, it's been a while since he's really interacted with anyone this young.

He switches to voice, figuring that will be easier.]

Sorry. Was there any particular one of those monsters you want me to redescribe?

[Oh, this sounds like a child around her own age. How unusual. Kesara feels... mildly supplanted, actually. Other children in her line of work are not common.

Still, they are talking about research, so clearly she ought to step in.]

Have people really met monsters? The ancients used to think that all sorts of animals were monsters, too, like manatee and the rhinoceros. But it was really all just ignorance.

Monsters and animals are different. Monsters are made of magic.

[Frisk knows about rhinos and manatees - even platypuses - but they know about monsters too. Or at least the ones back home.]

There's a lot we don't know a lot about the ones here though. That's why we want to find out more.

There's no such thing as - [Kesara starts, and stalls, and decides that she really ought to start again.] I'm almost sure there's no such thing as magic. I mean I grant you it's a little puzzling that we're in the future like this but I'm sure there's a perfectly rational explanation.

[That said - with all the certainty she can muster as a young scholar - she tackles the next question.]

I've heard that there are very dangerous creatures here and cataloguing them is very important. It must be very unsafe, though, with us having no ammunition at all.

Fighting doesn't fix things anyway.

[There's... less than their usual conviction, but it's still there.]

But that's why I've been writing down everything I've been learning about them. I've got my notebook with me.

It does if you win. [Kesara doesn't actually like fighting, but she understands its function, in the world as she knows it at least.]

But it isn't fighting so much as hunting, isn't it? I mean, what have you been learning?

No it doesn't.

[It's so hard to keep their mind on the conversation at hand, especially with their hands feeling so dusty. Instead they say, with all the sourness they can muster up (which as it turns out is quite a lot).]

Kill or be killed, huh?

[Speaking of fighting, Kesara doesn't want to fight this other child, but she can't see why they are being like this with her, either. It isn't as though she said she wanted to kill anything. Other children can be so unreasonable.]

I didn't say that. I just said, if the creatures are more like, say, like wolves than people, then it's not as though you can be diplomatic with wolves, can you?

Thank God. Just... thank God.

[Steve's voice maybe cracks a little. He didn't take Frisk's obit very well.]

You OK kiddo? You know where you are? Need somebody to come get you?

Edited 2016-01-15 07:47 (UTC)

[Everyone is so... emotional. About them being back. They don't really know how to handle it, with them feeling so unable to reciprocate. To feel anything much at all except a hollow emptiness.]

I'm fine. I'm at the hospital. Mom 'n Sans already asked.

[Which... Frisk assumes means they're on there way. Though Frisk is less sure if they'll be here for that. Especially given how bad their conversation with Toriel went.]

[Steve is startled.]

'Mom?' Your ma's here? That's... that's fantastic news! [Steve's been a little... out of the loop. Got hard to look at the network after a bit when there was so much bad news there.

Steve also assumes that Toriel and Sans are headed straight there to get Frisk.]

All right. I'm sure they're coming straight to you, fast as they can. You just sit tight until then, OK?

[Steve lets out a sigh, feeling a lot lighter than he's been feeling for the past twenty-four hours. He even smiles, not that Frisk can see.]

...I'm really glad to hear from you, kid.

Edited (LOL TIMELINE CONFUSION) 2016-01-18 03:11 (UTC)

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[network, audio] @determination; Two in one, Day/Evening 75 [open] [cw: past death]

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