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abloomntime · 3 years ago

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A Bloom In Time Ch26 Nightmares And Shadows

(Warning: Death scene, Mentioning of past death, nightmares, and a light panic attack.)

Cold. Darkness. All of it came rushed over so suddenly. Just like the two heavily armored guards carrying her kicking and screaming self towards the dreaded summer house that housed the royals deep in the snowed up world. That winter suddenly came that year unexpectedly with the freezing winds suddenly whipping around her when she just closed up her stand for the day, pocketing the expensive bracelet she was given as payment and what coins she received as payment, ready to go home. She didn't make much from her flower stand she always wanted, but that was always fine and dandy. She loved the smiles on the children's faces when they'd buy single flowers for their parents, or if she'd sell them flowers in exchange for small things like food. It was one way to get to eat around here. But the chills filling the air that after noon followed by the loud thumping sounds coming towards her were new. Especially when all of a sudden two giant armored men stood over her and seized her without warning. So naturally she resisted and fought against her captors as they took her away.

"LET THE PECK GO OF ME!! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!"

The farther down the path they went the more horrified she became. There was ...snow. IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER!! Harsh white and cold wind glared all around her as she gawked around wildly....and then shrieked at the sight of a frozen person as they passed. Their feared expression forever frozen on their face. The poor girl went silent from the numb cold as those blue eyes widened in horror at all the suurounding frozen people as they walked past, never easing up on her grip, or giving any emotion to anything around them as the horrified woman went limp in their arms from shock as they approached the black gates and beyond that was the manor. Her blue eyes flicked up to it. It looked more menacing than it usually did as the entire house loomed over them the closer they got and a sudden feeling of dread filled her up to the very core of her soul as they were swallowed by the shadows and even more coldness bearing down on her. The guards didn't stop until they were going up the stairs and into the home. It was as dark and cold as the outside. Even more so if that was possible. She was still frozen and scared in the grip of the guards when the doors opened and they forced her inside. The inside of the manor was colder than the outside is that was even possible, and if she wasn't already in shock, she would've shrieked at what was awaiting them just a few feet away from the door.

In the darkness of cold and shadows, a hunched over monster made it's way over to them but dared not come further than five feet giving a hiss. Like she was a skunk and this red eyed thing was afraid of her. How strange, but that didn't stop her stop pointing a hand at her, and in possibly the most scariest, raspy voice Poppy had ever heard. Said:

"Take her to the room and lock her away. ...I can't look at her as my prince had done. Perhaps locking her away forever will teach her a lesson about gazing into another man's eyes who belong TO ME!!"

"...WAIT!! WHAT?!" She attempted to struggle again but their strength was too much.

Sadly be the fate of the innocent florist wasn't a pleasant one. As she was marched up the stairs to the very third floor of the manor, the coldness and shadows started to become too much to the point of her screaming and struggling body starting to be overcome by them all. the long hallway they were taking her down ended in a single pair of double doors, the doors surrounded by locks that haven't been locked yet.

The guards marched the poor woman now panicking in their grip flailing about, trying to get out of their grip like a fly in a cold spiderweb to no avail. The two giant guards marched noisily towards somewhere unknown as the third floor rooms and hallways passed them as they marched with seemingly no regard for the woman yelling and pulling between them. Eventually marching down one hallways in particular with a double door room at the end of it, heavy and thick with chains and locks fit for a dungeon instead of a bed room. The two guards went right up to it and before Poppy could even yell out peck again- She was tossed in rather hard. She landed with a giant thud sound and yelped out as her body landed with the freezing cold floor. As her weakly numbing body was pushed into the empty room, she looked up just in time to see the two heavily armored guards slam the doors behind her. She struggled to stand with the cold seeping through all her body but wobbled to the door, vision blurring with nothing but darkness. And it only began to get colder and COLDER!! Poppy groaned from the pain but those blue eyes snapped open at the sudden noise of doors slamming behind her. Panic and adrenaline pumping through her veins and she stumbled to her feet as fast as she could. The rattling of chains and clicking of heavy locks made her fear spike worse and she went to it as fast as she could grabbing the door knob and pushing. Even as all the clicks and locks of the locks were put into place and the floor jostling with the heavy footsteps of the guards stopping away, she fell to her knees against the door and banged her fist against it. Screaming to be let out as the coldness and blackness seeped more into the room and still overtook her form.

"HEY!! WHAT THE PECK!? LET ME OUT!!" The heavy doors creaked from her pushing and pulling and desperately turning the knob. The floor shaking lightly with the heavy footsteps of the guards walking away. The realization of them walking away made her more desperate to get out, and she now went to banging on the door. "H-HEY!! DO YOU LUGNUTS HEAR ME?! I SAID I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING OK?! I DON'T KNOW WHAT I DID BUT IM SORRY OK!! PLEASE!! LET ME GO!! I SWEAR TO YOU I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING THAT CRAZY SHADOW LADY SAID!!"

Screeching that sounded like bloody murder echoed out through the closed attic and blue eyes opened in a sudden blurry black vision. Someone sat up and more screams were hollered out at two glowing yellow orbs that scattered away from the source of the sounds as whoever was cutting his ears with piercing screams moved back away from him. Blanket uncovering their body and a pillow tossed in the direction of the shadow monster of nightmares coming back for her. .....Well it most certainly WAS a shadow. But NOT the one she just had a nightmare about. This shadow yelped when his face was suddenly wacked by a pillow and as it fell to the floor he shook his head and watched as the panicked woman scattered back from him.

"I'M SORRY!! I'M SORRY!! DON'T PUT ME BACK IN THERE!! I HATE THE COLD!!", she desperately cried out pleading for her life.

"WHAT THE PECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!," A male voice demanded staring down at her with a scowl. "As if I would lock you up!"

"Your majesty?"

Snatcher floated there silently at the sudden title thrown at him from no where. Poppy could feel a rush of adrenaline pumping through her veins and she briefly wondered how fast she could make it to the ever moving platform- A jolt shook her body at the sudden snap noise and a second later blue flames appeared in the hand of the shadow creature who loomed over her, his scowling face softened up to pure confusion as he stared down at her and she stared up blinking at the giant creature. Anyone else would've screamed and ran away but-

"It's ME!," Snatcher said in a slightly grumpy tone but he stopped completely staring at the sudden state of the woman in front of him.

Shaking goosebumped flesh drenched in cold sweat. Raw fear circulating through her body, he could feel it. He could always feel the fear and auras radiating off one's soul and he took delight in someone's fear. It made him strong, powerful. HUNGRY AND EXCITED EVEN!! Yet now. Feeling the soul within her beat and radiate that same fear felt....wrong. Sick. Made him want to spit out ectoplasm. This fear was bad, made him get cold from just being near it so much. Made him want to dive through the floors below to escape the ooze of it until it completely went away when she calmed down. Yet...A force made him remain where he was, looming over her staring and not going anywhere. Fear was something he knew was a powerful motivator for someone like him but the fact remains that....She shouldn't be left alone in a state like this. Confused, lost, eyes small as her heart raced and fear pumped through her, afraid..Alone.

He didn't want to be alone-

".....Snatcher?" The soft voice snapped him out of his stupor and he stared right into those blue eyes registering this shadow as not an enemy.

The yellow eyes loomed closer and she still could barely see even with the light provided. But certainly felt the peach fuzzed like claws gently place themselves on her shoulders like she was a tiny child compared to this creature who needed comfort. "Yeah. Yeah it's me." He said as calmly and softly as possible and was rewarded with a shudder and sigh from Poppy in front of him. Also rewarding him was a choke coming from her throat and fresh tears coming from her eyes in the form of her crying. Making the ghost freeze and stare as a pang of panic shot through his shadowy form. Poppy was- Why was she-....Crying?! Real actual crying like a few times he'd seen her do before but this time it seemed more powerful than the time that stupid statue was chasing her or when the dumb noose 'flirted' with her. He still wanted nothing more than to burn it to ashes and crumble that stone menace to pebbles, but anger right now wasn't going to do him or her any good. And there was no way in peck he was about to leave her like this either. His other hand with the flames snapped letting the fire float in the air so both his hands could be free to help out and hovered above Poppy's shoulder stopping. "Are you.....Is it alright if I touched you?" She sniffed and made a couple more choke sounds from her state but managed to force something out that sounded like 'ok', and slowly a soft arm wrapped around her shoulders and she felt the presense sit down on the floor next to her. Not full on caging her in a hug, but offering her comfort with a arm around her anyways giving her enough space and closeness. Continuing to cry her eyes out, the woman reached her hands up to swipe at those stinging tears from her slightly pink face now. He cringed at the sight but kept his mouth shut, pulling a hankerchief out of no where and holding it out to her silently. It took Poppy a few moments to actually notice it was there but once she did it was yanked from him and held to her tear stained face. Blowing her nose loudly and wiping her tears away from her face. A small blunt 'thanks' was squeaked out from the lady and he still remained silent for a long while. Nothing but her crying and hiccupping and the silence of the attic. ".......Are you feeling better?"

.......She sniffed and nodded without looking at him. "Yeah..I t-t-think so...Thanks."

He hummed and continued to sit there and look at her trying to sniff and clear her face up now. By now he had a pretty good idea of what might've caused such a reaction out of her, but he didn't want to jump the gun and make the situation any more uncomfortable. "What happened?" is what he ended up asking after a few silent moments of thinking.

"Jus' a.....a bad dream." Still not meeting his gaze he saw. Hm.

"What about?" He gently pressed. His ghostly brow rising as he saw her completely still under his hold. Maybe that was too soon to ask. "Do...you want to talk about it? It's perfectly fine if you don't want to."

......She groaned and leaned back into his arm which was pretty sturdy enough for her to lean against and not fall through. Strange. You'd think she'd just pass through it since he can pass through walls but nope, with her head pointed up towards the ceiling eyes closed. "....I don't know anymore. It's just....." Her eyes opened to stare up at the dark ceiling above them. Faint shadows danced in what dim light the one blue flame provided and gold eyes blinked at her from her right. Snatcher's eyes. They looked so much like Jack-o-lanturn eyes. It was kinda funny on a peach feeling purple ghost king. Her heart beats have gone down back to normal by now and now her eyes were just a bit sore from all the crying and rubbing to make the tears go away. "I-....I think I just remembered how I died."

Snatcher couldn't snapped his head down to her faster than when he did eyes widening. "You what?"

Her death. That means-...Did she remember him?! Did she put the pieces together?! Did she know it was all his-...Vanessa's fault she was frozen for over a thousand years and blame HIM?! DID SHE BLAME HIM?! DID SHE EVEN THINK ABOUT HIM?! If he was still alive with a heart beat and lungs, his panic might've been given away by rapid heart beats and irregular breathing that comes with it. But all he managed was a panicked face and quick question. He still remained that way when she turned her head leaning against his arm towards him.

"I said I remembered how I got in that room. What Queen-....What she said. The cold that made me pass out. I remember all of it..including what she said."

What...DID Vanessa say to Poppy before her death- "What did she say?," came his raspy voice in a whisper, but not that Poppy noticed.

Guilt. That was the first feeling to twist in his misshapen form and give him that empty gut feeling despite not having a body for quite sometime now. Of course it didn't make any sense to Poppy, she didn't have the full story. Barely even a quarter of it. Only her own short encounter about the events that tragically took place over a thousand years ago that all suddenly smacked her back in her face now. And so soon, it was honestly worrying for himself and her. Oh peck. OHPECKOHPECKOHPECK- He was NOT ready for this. Not NOW. Not so soon. Especially not like this. All of a sudden there was Hazelle's annoying voice replaying back into his mind.

"Maybe you two WERE just friends. But thing's aren't the same as they were a thousand years ago, Snatchy. She doesn't know you are...well YOU. And she probably doesn't see you as a friend anymore because she doesn't know YOU you. She probably sees you as a 'boss' when you obviously see her as an old friend and like her more than that. You gotta get all this sorted out soon. Right now it sounds like a giant mess and you need to take a broom to it and sweep all the problematic dust away."

Thanks, Hazelle. She just had to put that thought in his head now. This would stick in his head and act on that guilt for a while-

"Philip."

Snatcher. FROZE. Any thoughts in his head haulting and fizzling into thin air as that one word left her mouth. Anything he was about to say dying on his tongue as those yellow glowing eyes continued to stare dead at the woman staring back at him with that same confused, indifferent expression. It was over. Done. He was absolutely finished. The end of the line for him after only a week. This was how he was going down in flames.

"That was his name. Prince Philip from the south, and he was.....engaged to Queen Vanessa." Her eyes widened as she leaned up and away from Snatcher's arm. Eyes widening with some new revolution flung into her brain and unconciously her hand went to clutch the gold bracelet strapped around her own wrist like it was a life saving device. "Prince Philip was engaged to Queen Vanessa!!" Her eyes snapped back to Snatcher bright with some kind of find as the ghost was still panicking eternally staring at her, not willing himself to move, but scooted back a foot or two and blinked when she quickly pointed at him. "THAT MUST'VE BEEN THE THING SHE WAS GOING ON ABOUT WITH THIS WHOLE TREASON THING!! It all makes a bit o' sense now." Her gaze went back to the bracelet wrapped around her wrist as it breifly reflected the blue fire. She had almost forgotten about it during this hectic weak now, but now...it felt like a HUGE piece of a missing puzzle had been placed down and she felt that empty hollow feeling being almost fully complete as it somewhat made sense now. "That's what she must've been referrin' too. But gazin' into his eyes? I don't get it. I never did such a thing and I definately never committed any kind of treason towards her or Prince Philip."

Well at least she was finally starting to get somewhere and get something. But there was still so so many questions needing answers. Why had the Queen been so insistant that Poppy committed some sort of action against her or the prince? It just made no sense. All she ever did was make small talk with him and sell flowers in the town square. She made sure to follow all the rules, and pay all her taxes. And she was never rude to anyone that didn't deserve a good talking back. If Queen Vanessa and that....thing with the red eyes were one in the same then how did she get that way? Why did she think of all people POPPY was responsible for some crazy bad thing that happened to her? She never even met or spoken to her before that day, not when out of talking to her fiance. And it's not like they were romatically involved or anything. Just spoke two or three times a week when he bought flowers for HER mind you. Was there something she was missing? Was there something that caused all of this she didn't know about? Thinking carefully about what Vanessa told her, she mentioned someone gazing into her man's eyes.......Did that mean that-....THE PRINCE WAS HAVING AN AFFAIR BEHIND HER MAJESTY'S BACK?! Unlikely. He seemed so genuinely kind and always went out of his way to help others, and even spent so much money on flowers just for her. There was NO way he could've fallen for anyone else. But-.....It seemed like the only thing she had to go on at the moment.

"He gave me this." She held up her wrist to him and his eyes slowly shifted to the bracelet he gifted her on that fateful day. "In exchange for just a small bouquet of flowers can you believe it?" She gave a small smile at it. "Heh. He was always a strange one. Always studyin' laws an' making sure he paid every pon owed. But he was also really kind and caring to everyone. I can't imagine him actually having any affairs behind her majesty's back-"

"HE DIDN'T!!," he blurted out in a spike of anger startling her and he once again froze.

"How do you know that?," she asked genuinely confused.

OH PECK!! OH PECK!! OH PECK!! What does he do?! What does he do!? He had stupidly blurted that out without thinking!! Well it WAS true. He never had an affair while he was with Vanessa, even if he did fall in love with someone else at the time too, and he made it clear to anyone he wasn't the bad one in that relationship while it lasted. But it seemed that blunt anger towards her got the best of him, and he wanted to smack himself so, SO bad at this moment. He was panicking. Staring at her silently as she was clearly confused and waiting for an answer. THINK YOU FOOL!!!! THINK!!

"UH....I- Um-....I-I-I was there when he was killed." It was the only thing he could think of in the short time he was panicking without arowsing suspicion.

Instead he might've made things a bit worse when she just stared at him suddenly blanking. Making him want to slink back into the shadows where he came. OH P E C K- Her eyes went wide with the suddenly thought bombarding her brain. Snatcher was-....There? Snatcher was there with Prince Philip when he was...SNATCHER WAS THERE!! Snatcher flinched when Poppy suddenly grabbed the front of his body by his chest fluff desperately and he let out a startled yep when she yanked him down eye level with her.

"YOU WERE THERE?! WHAT HAPPENED?! PLEASE!! YOU HAVE TO TELL ME!! WAS HE ALRIGHT!?"

"CALM DOWN!!" He pulled himself away and shook his head staring down at her. "Calm down. You-...... *sigh*" He looked sideways away. "You wouldn't like what you hear- UH!?"

He paused when soft hands suddenly clasped onto his and he paused. Yellow eyes staring deep into those blue ones he loved to look at so much when he was alive with heart beat. A pleading look in them as begging fell from her lips, "Please. I-It's...It's important. I have to know what happened. I spent so much time confused over nothing and I HAVE to know......Snatcher, please. Help me."

A silence fell over the two as they just sat there staring at each other in mostly darkness and staring into each others' eyes. Poppy blinked at the feeling of something soft wrapping around her hands and when she looked he was gently holding her hands. Snatcher made a hissing noise, not like a cat hiss but like what it sounded like when someone sucked a breath through her teeth, before releasing it in a long drawn out groan sounding like 'HHHHHHhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaa'.

"Are you sure you're ready and willing to hear such things?'' He gave her a narrowed look as if to say 'this is your last chance to back out'. "You won't like what you hear, Red. Might be better if you didn't know."

"I'm positive.," she answered back without any hesitation. She HAD to know what happened. This was connected to her and she was involved whether she liked it or not.

He still eyed her for a moment before looking to the floor unable to look her in the eyes anymore. ".......Vanessa killed him. Just like she did to everyone else....a-a-and y-y-you...."

Poppy couldn't stop her free hand from coming to cover her mouth as he looked down in...shame? Guilt? Regret? Fear?! Not that she noticed, more focused on his words. Well she shouldn't be so surprised as she was expecting an answer like this, but still didn't stop the shock that took over her body. It was like she was light and the floor was sinking. "....H-How...?"

"Just like you. She locked him away until everything froze over. Vane-.....That MONSTER!'', he spat hand slightly tightening as he scowled at the floor, "She was pecking crazy. Thought he was....cheating on her behind her back when he was nothing but patient with her. She didn't deserve anything."

"I-I....I don't understand.." Her breathing hyped a pitch and she could feel her blue eyes glancing back to the bracelet on her wrist. The gold gleaming back. The tremble of her lip came with her own pathetic question. "....why..?"

"Because she was nuts! Always have been and always WILL be! She would've snapped sooner or later with the way she was back then, always so paranoid and thinking I-.....I THINK he belonged to her."

".....She was there..."

He finally looked at her. "What?"

.....Another sniff came outta her. "She was t-t-there when I gave him the flowers. The day she gave me the bracelet." It all came rushing back in a sea of emotions and all she felt was cold gripping her heart as it all came rushing back. The day she was frozen. Before she closed up the stand and gave him the flowers, he said he saw her...Vanessa. Running away from them. Vanessa saw her giving him the flowers he bought. If....If she thought that Prince Philip was cheating on her and saw Poppy giving him flowers then-.....Oh gosh! Her hand pressed firmer against her mouth as the sudden reality hit her hard like a punch to the gut. She felt sick. Like a heavy iceberg was placed in her stomach and wanted out. Her blue eyes shown with rain drop tears flowing as she spaced out. ".....It's all my fault."

........?!

His other hand was quick to shoot out and grab her shoulders accidentally making her jolt at the sudden grab but it was enough to get her to look at him. "Now you listen to me and you listen good." A claw poked her chest as he pointed it at her crying face with a deep frown of his own. "I have dealt with too many years of pecking guilt over whether or not it was my fault or if I could've stopped it! And I'm sick of it all! You. Are. Not. At fault!! Do you hear me?! Vanessa was always going to snap and it was HER fault for being so batpecking crazy, she couldn't tell the difference between fantasy and reality! There was no reason in her! We should've expected nothing less of her for anything! But I'll be just as bad if I didn't it now, and I'm saying it's not your fault. Least of all people you. All you did was sell flowers. Big deal. It would've been the same if she saw m-....him buying a necklace from a jeweler or a ham from the butcher. BANG!!" She flinched at the loud yell he made at 'BANG'. Tears running down her face as he spoke. "Ice. Death. Lots of ghosts. You get the picture. The point is, it's ABSOLUTELY! NOBODY'S PECKING FAULT!! BUT VANESSA'S!! .......You and me didn't do anything wrong." .......She made some kind of whine noise before crying. Leaning her head over until it met the softness of his floof and she cried. Cut off guard for a moment, Snatcher paused glancing down at her before sighing and wrapping her arms around her. Comfortingly patting her back. "Hey, Red. It's gonna be ok. Just go ahead and let it out alright?"

He wasn't sure whether or not Poppy actually heard what he said, but the iron grip that suddenly latched onto him was enough for him to let her cry her eyes out into him without another word. Because...He was gone. Her only friend was just....GONE! Gone in the most worst way she could think of. What did he do to deserve that?! What did any of them do to deserve that?! He had his whole life ahead of him and it was taken from him in one day because of insanity, jealous, greedy woman disguised as a loving Queen. Had...Had she always been like this? According to Snatcher she was. And slowly things started to make sense to it all. Ridiculously banning bacon from the entire kingdom. That one time Philip showed up with half his hair chopped off and died a poor yellow. All the time he acted nervously about anything he had concerning her and waving them off like he was alright with every single thing he did. Deep down she KNEW something was wrong, if not wrong then strangely off. Definately gave her an off feeling, but she never pushed because 1. she never saw it as any of her business and 2. she didn't see the danger behind it until now. But..what if she had seen it? What if- Snatcher's hand came to lay on her head gently and she looked up from the fluffy chest of the ghost to look at him, Snatcher staring simpathetically at her tears before another hankerchief randomly appeared out of thin air and rubbed at her cheeks and eyes.

...She sniffed and leaned into the cloth wiping her face. "T-Thanks. I-.....I needed this more t-than ya know."

"Yeah. I bet." There was another pause as she slowly let go of him and reached up sniffing and grabbed the second cloth offered to her during the duration of the time she woke. He couldn't help but feel awkward and kinda guilty in this situation. This was kinda what he feared but the opposite. Instead of Poppy blaming him, she felt like it was hurt fault somehow when in reality it was none of their faults. ....Maybe it was better he shouldn't have come tonight. He made a move to leave but froze when her hand suddenly latched onto him again.

Her eyes desperate and pleading all of a sudden. "W-WAIT!! P-P-Please..D-Don't leave yet...I d-don't want to be alone."

He stared at her but sighed. "Alright. I'll stay put but only because I promised to help you, Red."

She sighed hald relieved. "T-Thank you."

He hummed and watched as she let go to sniff and fix her face. ".....How are you holding up there? Looks like I should've kept all of that til later."

Poppy shook her head. "N-No. I'm glad you t-told me. I-I needed to know what happened. I couldn't have gone on without knowin' anything. ...T-Thank you."

Sure you could've rang through his head but he decided not to say that part out loud. "So-...I take it this..'prince' friend of yours was a nice person? Not that I knew him, but it seems you two were close. Not that it's any of my business." He had an anxious feeling saying all of this as a stranger but he couldn't help but feel the need to get all this anxiety off himself by asking. "It just sounds like you cared about him a whole lot."

"Y-Yeah. I did actually." She gave a slightly trembling smile at him. "H-He was one of the only friend's I had. Honestly he was a really nice guy, super honest and polite too. He was always able to put a smile of everyone's face and didn't mind talking about anythin' really. It was like he wasn't a prince at all and just a normal, everyday regular person stoppin' by to get flowers. ...He was also the reason my stand had so much success as it did."

Snatcher looked to her in slight surprise. "He was?"

She nodded. "You see. When I first got to town I had a real hard time settlin' in. Not only did he save mah behind from falling on the ground like a babe learnin' how to walk, but he also started buying my precious flowers for ...You know who. Now a prince buyin' mah flowers all the time was sure to catch someone's attention and by golly did it! It was thanks ta him I had a decent business going for myself. ....But I kinda feel guilty over it now. I didn't mean ta piggyback ride off o' him or nothin'."

"I'm sure you didn't." She looked at him and for once Snatcher was genuinely smiling at her without the 'evil' or smug aura to it. "If you sold flowers good enough to catch his attention then you deserved to get what attention you got. You didn't hitch a ride from him, you were just getting what you always wanted with a little assistance."

"Hm...I reckon when you put it that way I guess you got a point."

"Yeah.....Hey. This might sound out of no where but do you blame him, your friend, for what happened between him and Vanessa?" There is was all out and awaiting an answer.

Poppy stared at him frozen for a second processing what he said but as soon as it sank in- "WHAT?! PECK NO!!" She scowled at him crossing her arms. "Why the PECK of all people would I blame Philip?! Maybe he didn't see the crazy but neither did I and I still didn't see it when she was starin' me straight in the face! You were there when it happened right?!"

"I- Uh-...Y-Yes."

"And even you said it wasn't his fault right?!"

"OF COURSE I DID!! I WAS JUST ASKING YOUR OPINION!!"

"WELL MAH PECKIN' OPINION IS THAT HE WAS INNOCENT!!"

"GOOD! IM GLAD!!"

"FINE!!"

Both pouted a bit with frowns but on the inside Snatcher felt an overwhelming state of relief and happiness fall over him. So Poppy didn't blame him, good. Not that it was ever his fault in the first place, but now a lot of dead weight was lifted from his shoulders. One less thing to worry over now it seemed. But Poppy paused in her movements to blank out and stare at him. Wait. Snatcher was there when Philip was-.....Then did that mean he saw what happened? Well obviously yes. He said so himself. Her curious side kicked in and she couldn't help but find her interests peeking through and a whole knew slew of questions arise, she couldn't help it. After all she knew nothing about this ghost tho he seemed good enough.

"How did you die?," she found herself blurting out before she could stop but she instantly regretted it.

"WHAT?!" Snatcher whipped his face to her wide eyed.

"S-Sorry." She held up her hands worriedly. "Is it rude to ask a dead person that? I d-didn't know honest. It's just that.....You're doin' an aweful lot for me and I don't know a lot about ya, since you already know alot 'bout me from my rambling. I figured ya would return the favor."

"Sorry. NO can do, Red. That's private information."

She scowled again. "OH come on! Purple onion. Your contract paper thingy said I could ask for anything I wanted in return for helping ya!"

"Within REASON!," Snatcher stressed, "Asking a ghost about their past is like asking a poor person how much money they spent on their shoes!"

"UUUUHHH!!! I swear sometimes you can be more childish than those girls!"

"So can you!"

"UGH!! Alright! Why don't we compramise?," she offered and that got Snatcher's attention. "I don't think it's fair you're still essentially a stranger to me. So how about you answer just a few questions 'bout ghosts an stuff, but you don't have to answer any ya don't like. Deal?"

".....Hmm....Deal." he crossed his arms and looked at her with a raised brow, "What do you want to know, Red?''

"Well my first question asked would be nice. You don't have to go into detail," She added seeing Snatcher's eyes narrow.

"Mmm." He REALLY didn't want to say anything. It was still too early for this even if he was more at ease now but since he didn't really have to go into detail- "Same as you. I died during the Great Subcon Freeze."

"Oh. Well you said you saw what happened when Philip....p-p-passed away, right? Does that mean you were employed by the Queen?"

OH PECK- HOW WAS HE GONNA ANSWER THAT!? He chose to shrug and as calmly as he could said. "Sorta. I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time." Which wasn't really a lie. He couldn't have ever been in a more wrong place or time. "Another innocent bystander to a crazy curse."

"Oh. Well how are you a ghost?"

Another shrug. "Beats me. A lot of other people are ghosts, you've seen them. Most of them can't even remember who they were in life. Don't know how or why so don't ask. Just the way it is."

"Does that mean you remember who you were?"

"Obviously I do. Otherwise I couldn't tell you anything."

"Oh right. Dumb question. Then who wer-"

"Next question!," he answered fast which caught her off guard but she shrugged it off. Obviously he wasn't comfortable with that.

"Alright. Don't get your long tail in a knot." Looking over him she wonder how a soul such as thing could be so big...Souls? "That's another thing. Why did you want mah soul when I first met ya?" This time he actually paused. This question was one he hadn't been expecting and one he hadn't really thought of a cover for. "How WAS he supposed to explain that ghastly part of his afterlife to her without sounding like a heartless monster- "Do you really eat them?"......Wot? She made a grimace like she had bitten into a lemon. "That sounds so terrible and gross! Do all ghosts eat other ghosts?"

..........He blinked. Did she really think that he ate- "WHAT?! No! I don't really eat them! I can't eat anything! Im pecking dead for crying out loud! I just use that to intimidate intruding fools! I take souls as servants for tresspassing into people's burial grounds! At first you were no different, just another person intruding into my domain without permission-"

"Then why did you all of a sudden decide to help me?" She asked crossing her arms. "You could've just taken me as a servant then and there." ...Snatcher rose a brow. "Ok! Well ya technically did, but I mean what made ya decide to help me? I just don't get it."

Snatcher went oddly silent at her question. She didn't get it. Of course she didn't get it and she never would if he could help it. So he decided to play it safe for now and give her an honest answer. "Because I recognized you from the village." It's true, he did. But his answer took her by surprise as he carefully cherry picked his next words carefully with a sigh. "I-...Sometimes saw you selling flowers in the square, and-.....I guess I was simpathetic to someone else in a similar situation as I was." Which weren't lies either and safe enough to say without having his identity compramised.

He saw her in the village? Did that mean he was one of the villagers? Maybe someone who worked in the summer house and lived in the village. She met a couple of people who would brag about being employed at the Queen's summer home when she wasn't in her palace. If so, then it would all make sense about why he knew her and how he was able to see the prince's demise. Actually that would explain everything and how he knew her if she sold him flowers before. A little assurance and calm was delivered to her with that revolation and she smiled at him like she solved the entire puzzle and it was complete. And to her it was complete. Except for one tiny little thing.

"So....does that mean Philip is a g-ghost too?"

He figured she'd ask that by the way things were going. So he sounded like he took a giant breath even if he didn't have lungs and sighed. How was he suppose to answer? By telling the truth of course! Just not in the way one may think. "A ghost? Well that's not exactly easy to answer." Which was true it was hard for him to answer that when the answer was obviously yes and staring at her right here. In front of her, but also because he was. NOT. PECKING. READY. To tell her. "Any ghost I know if they even became ghosts would be in the forest .....or another plain of existance." Which again wasn't a lie. All the ghost he DID know lived in his territory except for Moonjumper who was bound to the horizon.....Huh. Speaking of which he hadn't seen him in a while now. Oh well. Less problem for him to worry about. "A-And like I said BARELY any of my minions remember who they were before they died." Which also wasn't a lie. So technically he NEVER lied to her and didn't compramise his identity. PERFECT!!

"Oh. I..see."

Poppy looked down to her hands laid in her lap and the gold shining from her wrist. So it would be almost impossible for her to see him again then huh? Considering if Prince Philip became a ghost at all there was still the part where even if she did find him neither would be able to tell according to Snatcher. And even if by SOME miracle he WAS a ghost and he COULD remember her, then he might even be on a different plain of being which was highly unlikely she'd be able to get to. So it'd be useless to persue that idea even if all of those factors were even possible. ....She looked back up when metal rattled against the floor and Snatcher stared at the very end of his tail. She guessed Snatcher could see perfectly in the dark compared to a human because he bluntly pointed at something she couldn't see on the floor and asked.

"Are those garden tools in a golf club bag?"

Garden to- OH!! She completely forgot about those she was so tired! Poppy rubbed her neck sheepishly. "Uh.....Y-Yeah. W-We went out earlier today an' I guess I forgot ta put them away before I fell asleep. Sorry bout that."

Snatcher turned to her with light surprise. "Wait a minute. You LEFT the ship and went somewhere by yourself without telling ME?!"

She frowned. "Hey! I was gettin' antsy just seeing nothin' but space all day! And if ya haven't noticed it's kinda cramped up here. I need space to walk around freely so I don't have to crawl, and last time I checked I was an adult who didn't need no supervision. 'Sides! I wasn't alone. Cookie 'n those girls of yours were with me the whole time."

Snatcher brought a hand up to rub his temples groaning. "And the LAST time you went somewhere 'not alone' with those two I had to save your sorry butt. I swear you'll only get in trouble if you run around in places you shouldn't."

.....She nervously laughed and looked away. "W-W-Well..about that..Uh-''

"What did you do?," he asked without room for arguement. Removing his hand to bare his eyes into her nervous smile.

"Nothing. Just some shoppin' with the girls. Got some new dresses......And maybe I destroyed some fancy whatcha-mah-call-it machine and in order to play for it I agreed to be in a Moon Penguin's play."

"..............YOU BROKE WHAT AND REPAYING IT HOW?!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't have enough pons, and Mr. Grooves was so nice. He even said I didn't have to pay a single pon if I worked for free! I panicked! I didn't want debt on mah name!!"

"OH! FOR THE LOVE OF- HOW DID YOU EVEN BREAK IT?!," he asked annoyed.

"I ......leaned my tools against it? hehe."

A loud smack filled the room making her jump and it took her a moment to realize Snatcher had facepalmed himself HARD groaning. "I leave for ONE WHOLE DAY and you end up being in trouble. Is there anything ELSE I should know about?"

"I yelled at a crazy yellow owl."

"What?," he looked up from his hand at her and she nodded.

"Yeah. At least I think it was an owl. He did have feathers. Biggest loud mouth I'd ever met! HUH!" She frowned recrossing her arms. "He said I had to work for 'em just because I accidentally knocked over the thingy. I told him where he could stick it if he ever wanted my help! HMPH!!"

There was a pause of silence as Poppy frowned at nothing in particular and Snatcher continued to stare at her with a blank expression-.......SNRK!! She glanced up from what sounded like a covered snort and too her surprise the spook was....Smiling?? No. Not just smiling. He was trembling lightly as he smiled down at her biting into his bottom lip...Before the flood gates opened and he full on laughed. His loud raspy voice echoing throughout the dark room leaving Poppy bamboozled. Why was he laughing? She didn't think she said anything funny. Was he laughing because she was in trouble again?

"AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!" A clawed hand grabbed her shoulder as he leaned over with the other hand holding his middle as he continued to laugh like no tomorrow. "W-WAIT! *wheeze* *COUGH COUGH COUGH*" She blinked surprised to hear a ghost somehow have the need to wheeze or cough to regain breath without lungs or a body...But she'd seen a lot of weird things now so who was she to be surprised? He still went back to laughing one eye open to look at her his voice happy sounding and trembling. "Y-Y-You mean a-...Ahahahaha!! D-Did he call every one a p-p-p-peckneck?! Haha!!"

....She blinked and frowned again. "Yes! A very RUDE man! Threw a tantrum like a little kid and I told him to find me once he learnt some respect and acted like an' adult!"

"PPPPFFFFFTTTT!!" He fell back into another laughing fit much to her confusion. " AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! YOU SHOULD'VE D-D-DEFINATELY TOLD ME YOU WERE LEAVING! *wheeze* I-...I- OH P-P-P-PECK!! I WOULD'VE PAID TO SEE THAT OLD BIRDBRAIN'S FACE W-W-WHEN YOU TOLD THE FOOL OFF!!"

Now she smiled. "I take it you know him?" She had to wait for his laughing fit to die down and him to 'catch his breath' before he could look at her with a straight face and answer clearly. He nodded yes to answer her question at least.

"A few times. More of a peckneck than me!" He wiped at his face. "I wish I was there to see THAT! Worth more than gold!"

"Oh. What are you doing here anyways? It's the middle of the night."

He seemed to remember something as he sat up and reached behind him. "Right. I finished fixing your dress. Guess I lost track of time and didn't know you were resting. My apologies for that." He pulled out a blue dress from no where and besides the stains(which she couldn't see in the dark anyways) it looked brand new as he handed it over without a second thought. "Here. But don't expect me to become your personal tailor, Red. This was just a one time deal for you."

Poppy stared stunned at the dress as she took it and ran a hand over the mended parts. "It feels like it was never ripped!" She smiled wider at him. "Thank ya! I guess you do know what you're doin' after all."

His smile couldn't have been more smug as he examined his claws. "Well I never lie about my skills."

She smiled again before looking over the dress the best she could in the dark. "It was mighty kind of you. I kinda feel bad 'bout you going through the trouble of it now since I got me some more. That lil sweetheart of yours did too."

"Oh?"

She smiled chuckling. "Poor thing got all drenched but I think that was my fault too. A couple of them silly ol' birds mistook me as her mo-....." Poppy suddenly paused...staring at her dress for a moment but the sudden cut of conversation didn't get past the spook who stopped smiling and stared at her more.

"Is something bothering you?"

"Well now that I think about it...How did those two come to be under your wing anyhow?" She looked at him with a raised brow. "An alien being raised by a ghost? It's the most strangest thing I've heard about. Where's their mothers? Where's their family?"

....Snatcher gave a frown not directed at her and stated, "I am their family. We have each other and that's all we need."

"Well, yes. I know family goes beyond blood...Or in your case flesh and blood I suppose. But I don't just get how they came in your care if you don't let anyone in that forest." Snatcher remained silent staring at the floor and for a moment Poppy thought she stepped over a line. DUMMY!! Who was she to ask someone who adopted two lil girls!? It was none of her business! "I-I'm sorry. That was rude of me ta ask. It won't happen a-"

"They're orphans."

She blinked and stared at him. "Uh.....What?"

"I said they're orphans. They have no one else." Yellow eyes looked to her again. "You want to know where they came from?" .....When she didn't answer he continued. "I don't know anything about Bow's past and neither does she. As far as I know she was raised in a crummy orphanage her whole life before she decided to run away and get tangled up in the mess Hattie made when she first arrived."

"Oh. Im so sorry...How did you come to adopt an alien if ya still don't mind me askin'?"

He huffed a chuckle and smiled bittersweet. "That little lady caused problems the moment she arrived on the planet with her time pieces. I won't go into detail, but let's just saw she almost caused the world to be destroyed and saved it too. She's a special something that I've never seen."

"If she arrived on this planet, doesn't that mean she has family back on her own planet?"

"You would think that at first." He shook his head grimly scowled. "But no. It's what I thought at first too when she originally left, but then she came back and refused to leave even after she got every single one of those cursed time pieces. Turns out she never had anything there to begin with."

Poppy's eyes widened. "W-W-What happened?"

"Long story short war."

"A war? Over what?"

"Over those...things. They're too dangerous for even her to use beyond a few simple things. Her family ..or what was left of it. Made those things to control people. As you would expect a lot of people with greedy intentions would want to get their hands on something like that, so in order to protect herself...She left."....He looked up out the attic windows for a moment with...pity on his face staring at the black void of stars. "I don't know how long she was out there and I don't know why she wanted to go back to where she came from or what happened to make her flee again. Never asked. But I also never questioned it when she came back and decided not to leave again. She's a smart kid. Here there's people who care about her and want her to be safe...Forever." He mumbled that last part to himself but she didn't hear. "I-......I couldn't just leave them vulnerable sitting there like dead ducks. They needed me...and..I-I-I guess in a w-way I r-really needed someone like them too."

He jumped when he felt someone grab his hand snapped back down to stare at sorrowful blue eyes gazing up at him. Poppy was gently squeezing his hand. ".....I-....I'm sorry for everything that's happened to you. And them. I really am. You seem like a really nice person even if you can come across as a stubborn purple onion. For what you did...There's really no other noble thing than a good father is there?"

He still stared at her.....then to where she was holding his hand, and a bright yellow hue flushed his cheeks as he coughed and looked away. "I-....Suppose you're right. Anyways, all this talking is distracting me from my work! You have your dress and feel better obviously-"

"Could you please stay? At least until I fall back asleep...I-...I'd appreciate it a lot if ya did."

He stared at her a moment before waving a hand still blushing yellow. "Fine. But don't expect me to do this again. Because guess what? Im not legally obligated too."

She smiled. "Sure, Snatcher."

She giggled and got up to presumably get back in her floor bed and he watched her go. .....She thought she was a good father huh? And she was mistaken as Bow's mother? His hand slowly closed itself as he watched her. Well. Every child deserves a mother didn't they? And who better deserved a mother than his little devils? She just needed some time to realize it.

#flowercrown #The Florist #a hat in time florist #A hat in time the florist #A hat in time the florist x snatcher #a hat in time snatcher #A hat in time snatcher x florist #a hat in time snatcher x the florist #A hat in time florist x snatcher #Snatcher x the florist #the florist x snatcher #florist x snatcher #snatcher x florist #Florist #ABloomInTime

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skelebonecentral · 4 years ago

Text

Hothouse Rose Chapter 3

you meet the boys. well, most of them

words under cut

It’s less than five minutes, and you’ve managed to find your class ring from high school, showing Papyrus all the icons on it, when someone calls, “PAPYRUS, DEAR!”

“IN HERE, CHARM!” Papy calls back, and you turn to see a skeleton in a leotard and bright pink leather boots looking in. Well, his leotard also had a huge hole cut in the center, showing his ribs and the sheet of toned ecto-flesh that matched his boots to a T. Other than that, he looked like he and Papyrus had pulled lots out of the same gene pool for sure. He looked more like Papyrus than even Sans did.

“Ah! And this must be Y/N,” he came into the room and gently took your hand, bowing and kissing it in one go, “My name is Charm, and I’m so elated to finally meet you.”

You’re a little shocked, still, but clear your throat, “Y-yeah, it’s nice to meet you, too.”

There’s a bit of a shift to your right, and you see someone who looks like a more awake and confident version of Sans looking forlornly at your soot-covered sheets, “Oh, this poor satin is ruined…” As Charm backs away, they look up and run over, “Sweetheart, you’re even more gorgeous than I imagined! I’m Boa, Papyrus’ cousin, and oooh, you’re going to be a dream to make clothes for! I’ve never had a human model before and this is going to be amazing!”

He was wearing a bright blue button-down shirt that had been tailored with a very snatched waist and open shoulders, as well as a matching feather boa (ah, his namesake maybe?) around his shoulders, echoing the color of the upside-down hearts that were his eye lights. His pants were red denim capris, and a purple pillbox hat sporting three feathers sat jauntily on top of his skull.

“BOA, AS MUCH AS I LOVE THE IDEA OF MY DATEMATE IN LOVELY HANDMADE CLOTHES, THEY’RE HAVING A CRISIS AT THE MOMENT, SO MAYBE LATER?” Papyrus gently pulls his cousin away and you just smile. Thank stars for Papyrus.

“Oh, right, sorry.” Boa bops himself on the skull gently and sticks out a sparkling baby-blue tongue. It reminds you of how you found out about skeleton’s making ectoplasm bodies, from Papyrus doing the same thing when you laughed about a candy turning your tongue orange. He’d grinned and showed you his, that it was orange all the time, and you were amazed.

Papyrus gathers his cousins close to his ‘talking corner’ where he’d spoken on the phone, “ALRIGHT. THE GAMEPLAN THUS FAR IS THAT BOA HELPS ME FIGURE OUT WHAT FABRIC THINGS CAN BE SALVAGED AND I’LL DEAL WITH THE OTHER OBJECTS SINCE I’M USED TO UNDYNE’S HOUSE CATCHING FIRE ALL THE TIME. CHARM, YOU TAKE Y/N OUTSIDE SO THEY DON’T GET OVERWHELMED WITH THE LOSS AND MAYBE GET TO KNOW THEM? THEY’RE YOUR HOUSEMATE NOW, TOO, SO IT’S A GOOD IDEA!”

“And does that mean I get a turn to be one on one with Y/n later?” Boa asked, and Papyrus nodded, “Alright, that works for me!”

Charm chuckled, then separated from them and offered you his hand, letting you notice the sleeve of his outfit was tied by a band to his middle finger, “Alright, dear, let me take you to the yard and we’ll find a sitting place to talk a bit.”

“There’s a stump in the backyard, kind of a good seat along with the one deck chair…if it’s still there,” you offer, and he nods, steering you out of the collapsed side wall and to the back, letting you take the stump and he perches on the edge of the smoke-smelling chair since one arm has melted slightly, being made of plastic.

“Alright, Y/n, you already know I’m Papyrus’ cousin, and I know you’re his datemate, but we’re otherwise strangers. Let’s change that. Twenty questions?” Charm asked and you snort a bit.

“Sure. Why not? I’ll go first. What do you do for work?”

He smiled, “I’m a masseuse, I work at the massage parlor in the shops across from campus. Of course, that’s only since I came here, but it’s good work. What about you? What paid the rent here?” He crossed one leg over the other at the knee, using his hands to hold that leg steady. He sat straight as a board, just like Papyrus did.

“Well, I work for the main library. I mostly check in returns, make sure they’re not damaged, that kind of thing. I started off as a part timer, but last semester they hired me full time and I’m really liking it.” You had to call in to work, too. But that was tomorrow. “Okay, how are you finding the town? Is it anything like Snowdin? I know that’s where Papyrus comes from, I guess you do, too?”

Charm nodded, “Well, we’re from very different backgrounds, but no, it’s not like home at all. So many humans, so much isolation from other people. It’s very different up here. But I do like it. All the space, all the life and light and sound. It’s exciting. Now, I want to know,” he grinned as he tilted his head a bit, “What’s University like? I’ve never been, but humans seem to think it’s a very exciting time of self discovery. Is it rumor or truth?”

Finally getting used to the smell of smoke, you laugh without coughing now, “Ah, well, that depends on who’s talking. For me, it’s been more about discovering other people. I spent most of my childhood just being with my family since I was an awkward kid, so I’m making friends…though it’s ended up mostly making monster friends. Humans are weird, even to other humans.”

Humming a bit, Charm seems to consider it, then asks, “And your love life? That’s the thing about university I’m curious about. Well, human love in general is fascinating to me.”

You blush, feeling awkward now, “Uh…I didn’t date, before Papyrus. So um…I don’t have one? Never have?”

He blinks, then sighs, one hand being slapped over his sockets “Oh stars, no wonder he had to call me to ask if you could move in. You’re both hermit crabs all closed up in shells. Good grief.”

A spark of irritation ignites in your chest, “Well, that and he’s a polite person. You don’t just throw someone into a home and say ‘okay they live here now’ without asking the other people who live there. That would be horrid and incredibly insulting to everyone. A breach of privacy.”

Charm winces, nodding, “I didn’t think about it that way. Privacy wasn’t a big thing in my home, my brother and I just brought people in as we saw fit but…that’s no excuse for upsetting you. I’m sorry.”

Oh, you hadn’t meant to get an apology about it. “N-no, I…I got mad for no reason. I guess it’s the stress, you’re fine, Charm. I just am very private, about most everything, so it sort of panics me to think I’d have to suddenly…without warning deal with another person I didn’t know. I can understand why one of you didn’t want to let me in and I’m kind of scared to go if we’re honest.”

Something in his expression shifted, and Charm smiled warmly as he settled into a more basic sitting position, putting his leg down as he cooed, “Oh, human, I’m very sorry for overstepping then. It’s still so new for me, I forget people keep their walls up out of self-protection. You deserve to be comfortable, and there’s no need to be frightened. I won’t be snooping in your room or things once we get you home, and neither will Boa or my brother. Or Boa’s brother, now that I think about it, since he’s just as private. Our own little hermit, Sweet-pea is.”

“His name is Sweet-pea?” you smile a little, “All of you have such unique names, I really like them.”

Charm gets a bit of his confident glow back, “Oh, yes, thank you. They’re nicknames, actually, since we either didn’t like or didn’t want to use our real ones. Sans and Papyrus are the only ones going by legal names in our house.” He laughs a bit, sounding very much like Papyrus, if softer than normal.

“That’s cool. I knew a lot of kids that didn’t go by their full name, or went by middle names or something. It’s pretty common, especially if there’s more than one kid with the same name in a class.”

His sockets crinkle, “Well, that’s something I didn’t know. It’s rather fun talking to you, you know? I see how you charmed my cousin so completely now.”

You just blush. So many compliments…

---

“Papyrus, really, there’s nothing to be done! Alphys might be able to fix the computer, and we can dry the books, but I don’t know about the rest of this stuff. We’d have to call a professional conservator.” Boa frowned. “Human furniture isn’t made to hold up against water and soot like monster manufactured stuff.”

“I KNOW BUT…I JUST FEEL LIKE I FAILED THEM.” Papyrus slumps as he drops the ruined sweater he’d been holding. “AFTER SAYING I’D HELP, AND I HAVE TO TELL THEM IT’S USELESS.”

Boa sighed and touched his arm gently, “But you did help. You got them out there with Charm, away from this mess and all the soot and grime that could hurt their human body, and you called in the only expert you knew.” Seeing that Papyrus was crying, he moved in front, holding both Papyrus’ hands, “I know it hurts, but remember, they love you and trust you to make good choices for them. They wouldn’t have asked you to be with them during this time otherwise!”

He just nodded, “I’M JUST KIND OF OVERWHELMED WITH EVERYTHING. IT’S JUST SO SAD THEY’VE LOST SO MUCH, AND I DON’T KNOW IF THEY’RE GOING TO LIKE IT AT OUR HOUSE. I’M SCARED WHIP MIGHT SCARE THEM OFF, OR…”

Boa quirked his mouth, finishing the sentence, “Or any of the rest of us with our predilection toward pleasure. Because you’re both shy little virgins despite our best efforts on trying to help!”

“BOA!”

“No, it’s true!” Boa grinned, purposefully taking this thread to get Papyrus away from being sad, “We’re all about being sexy scary skeletons! Oh, look at me!” He took a sensual pose and pouted, “Aren’t I terrifying being an inch shorter than your human and covered in feathers! Look at my very obvious boner that’s always there because I’m so sexy! Are you looking, Papyrus?” He’s teasing, expression bright as he tries not to giggle, and Papryus groans and covers his face from blushing.

“BOA, I GET IT. I’M A NERVOUS NELLIE, ESPECIALLY COMPARED TO ALL OF YOU, BUT THEY’RE VERY IMPORTANT TO ME! ALSO YOU’RE LUCKY I CAN FEEL YOUR INTENT OR I’D THINK YOU WERE HURT BY WHAT I SAID.”

Stopping his posturing, Boa waltzed back to his side and let his laughter out, “Oh, Papyrus, I’m sorry. I know reading people isn’t as easy for you as other monsters, but I had to make you smile. I did do that, didn’t I?”

He’s peeking around Papyrus’ hands, but beams as they’re lowered and a put-upon grin is on the taller skeleton’s face, “YOU DID AND I’M MAD ABOUT IT!”

“That’s my good cousin. Now, we’ll find someone reputable to help with this, but in the meantime, let’s pack everything that’s in one piece up carefully and get Y/n back to our house,” eye lights sparkling, Boa sets about doing just that, pulling various cardboard boxes out of his inventory and carefully placing things inside. “And of course we’re going to pay for the cleaning and such. Poor Y/n is still paying for school, after all. I remember how expensive that proposition was, and that was in the Underground!”

“I DO AGREE, BUT REMEMBER THAT JUST BECAUSE READER ISN’T RICH DOESN’T MEAN THEY’RE HELPLESS. HUMAN ECONOMICS ARE VERY STRANGE, BUT THEY LIKE TRYING TO MAKE IT ON THEIR OWN. I ALREADY HAD THAT TALKING TO, SO I’M GIVING YOU THE SHORT VERISON. THEY SEE US BUYING THEIR EVERY WHIM AS DEGRADING AND INFANTILIZING. SO DON’T,” Papyrus cringed internally thinking about the dressing down he got when the gold exchange finally came in. His idea of pampering was your idea of pity and it did NOT go over well. Your first fight, actually, and he was so glad you forgave him for the misstep when he explained where he was coming from. He didn’t try to buy everything for you, just gifts for special occasions, and you bought your own everything.

Boa blinked a bit, then nodded, “Oh, of course. I can understand that mindset. But…but they will let us help them a little, right? They at least have to buy new clothes…” His eyes lit up brighter, “Oh, that can be my turn! Charm got them this couple of hours and I get to take them shopping. I won’t!” he saw Papyrus’ mouth opening, “I won’t buy everything for them, but I will convince them to let us go halvesies as my welcome home present for them. That’s fair, right?”

“I…SUPPOSE SO, YES. OKAY.” Papyrus looked around the room, where he and y/n had spent so much time, where he’d first asked them to date, and felt incredibly down. Now it was just the memories left, the place stolen from them in moments. “JUST ASK THEIR PERMISSION FIRST. ABOUT PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING.”

Boa took his hand and smiled, “Certainly. Now let’s go get your datemate.”

Boa eagerly ran out and giggled when he saw what was happening.

Charm was carefully massaging you as you sat on the deck chair, skilled hands having already turned you to putty as he worked out all your stress.

“I SEE YOU TWO GOT ALONG WELL,” Papyrus is very glad someone was helping you relax, and you did look much happier. “CHARM, THANK YOU FOR HELPING. WE’VE GOT WHAT WE’RE GOING TO SEND FOR CLEANING PACKED UP, AND WE’LL HAVE SOMEONE REVIEW THE FURNITURE ONCE WE DO SOME RESEARCH.” He then turned to you, as you opened your eyes, looking half asleep, “I’M AFRAID WE CAN’T LET YOU HAVE ANY OF THE CLOTHES, THOUGH. THEY’RE ALL WET AND/OR COVERED IN SOOT.”

A flash of worry, and Boa stepped up, “But! I thought maybe me and you could go shopping to get you things to hold you over. And I could buy some of it as your welcome home present~” He grins, and you relax a little.

“Aren’t you a fabrics expert? You aren’t going to like what I buy. I’m not fashionable. If it doesn’t have a fun picture or saying on it, I usually don’t buy it.”

Hands in the air like a surrendering general, Boa nodded, “It’s true, I make fashion, sew it together every day, but Y/n, dear, you’re Papyrus’ datemate, and I would rather you be comfy than stylish. Besides, how will I know what you like to wear if I don’t see what you pick yourself? Comfort is just as important as appearance, you know!”

“Human fashion doesn’t work that way, but I’m glad you think so,” you reluctantly leave your position of bliss and get up, brushing off your clothes. “Papy, are you sure you don’t want to come with me?”

“I’D LOVE TO, BUT CHARM AND I ARE GOING TO HEAD HOME AND GET YOUR ROOM READY FOR YOU. WE’VE GOT SOME STORED FURNITURE TO PUT BACK TOGETHER AND A DEEP CLEAN OF THE ROOM AND ALL COMMUNAL SPACES TO DO!” He did come over and nuzzle his teeth to your forehead gently, “BUT I TRUST BOA TO TAKE CARE OF YOU, AND I’LL BE A PHONE CALL AWAY IF YOU NEED ME, ALRIGHT?”

“Okay. You take care and don’t overdo yourself. I want you being safe more than I want a new room,” you did worry when he started doing projects. He was strong, but you weren’t sure where his limit was and preferred being cautious about it.

“I PROMISE! CHARM IS GOING TO HELP ME, RIGHT?” He looks to his cousin, who nods happily.

“I do love a good furniture assembly. Now, you two behave and I’ll see you both when you come home.” He gave you a squeeze, then did the same to Boa before heading to the front yard.

Sighing, you motioned for Boa to follow you to the street. Both you and Papyrus had been too upset last night to drive, so your car was still sitting in the driveway, undamaged. It was a nice little thing, navy blue Taurus with a few years on it, and you sank with a sigh into the familiar seat.

“Oooh, your car is so sweet! A little sedan, so family friendly. I love it.” Boa slipped into the passenger seat and clicked his belt on happily. “Nice choice, very forward thinking.”

“What? This was one of my Aunt’s car. She gifted it to me so I could drive around school.”

“Oh.” Boa blinked, then shrugged, “Still, if you and Papy do have kids, you have the room.”

“Boa!” You blushed, glad you’d only started the engine and not pulled out onto the street, “What is with you and Charm saying all these things about my relationship with Papyrus! We’re dating, we’re not anywhere close to thinking about children!”

Boa seemed to realize something and looked horrified, “Oh stars, I’m sorry! Kids are all people I knew thought about in relationships and I didn’t realize! It was different here! I’m sorry!” His voice got small, nervous, “It’s just so different here, and I don’t know what’s appropriate outside the house yet since most of the others think like that, too. I really don’t mean to overstep.”

Steadying breaths in and out, and you shook it off, “It’s okay. There’s going to be culture differences, I get that, and I’m going to try and be understanding.” You finally got started down the road, heading to the local Poplar, a big box store and your preferred shopping experience. “So, the goal of relationships underground was more about kids than love?”

“Oh, well…kind of? Short term ones were, anyway,” Boa thinks for a moment. “There was just this pervasive idea that the end goal of any relationship was to have kids. Not that there were many kids even so, but it was still a big deal and the whole town would help raise the cutie, but…love was more reserved for older folks who were done giving their all to increase the population.”

You blinked a bit. Papyrus had told you, early on, that the Underground was way too crowded by the time Frisk set them all free. The Capitol was overflowing into the other areas of the underground, and there were worries about what would happen when everywhere was full. But? Well, you weren’t exactly in a place to call out the hypocrisies in a different society than your own. “Huh. Interesting. I’m not good at conversation, so you tell me whether you want me to talk about how humans do things now or if you want more questions on your end of things.”

He giggled, and it sounded utterly adorable, “Well, I’d like to know about humans. Your relationships aren’t all about babies?”

“Oh heck no. Most folks my age would rather jump off a bridge than have kids willingly,” you snort. “I mean, outside of a marriage, having a kid would be really hard and upsetting. You don’t have the money, you don’t have a partner to support you and the kid, you don’t have two families worth of folks who’d maybe watch the kid while you work…nah, we mostly have kids as an obligation after marriage because it’s EXPECTED that you have them.”

The silence in the passenger seat makes you look over once you’re at a stop light and Boa looks grey from how much color his skull has lost.

“Boa? Did I go too ham on you? Is…is it that shocking?” you didn’t think about it, just spouting out what you thought and your view on the subject.

He just nodded, “I…first the implication that people are having children against their will is terrifying, secondly, what….how do…is the community unsupportive of people who are single but have children?”

“Kind of, yeah. Most of those people are either divorced, or had kids before they were married, and most of them are women.” You sigh, “Society up here tends to look down on women if they do anything, but especially if you aren’t ‘pure’ or whatever and have kids out of marriage. For some reason that I never understood, the idea that a woman had sex with someone without getting married to them first is scandalous and her having a child she can’t support is seen as just punishment. I don’t get it. Not at all.”

You pull into the parking lot and park in a far slot, turning to Boa. He’s shaking, the rattling of his bones very audible. “I’m sorry if this is hard for you to learn, but I just want to make that clear to you so you can know when some human says something nasty about that subject. It’s evil, it’s messed up, and I hate it, but it’s how things are on the surface right this moment. I hope it changes soon.”

Boa sniffles, then unbuckles his belt and hugs you tight. He doesn’t speak, not for a long time, but he does hold you and you can’t fault him. Stars, coming from a world where kids were supported by everyone to a world where people genuinely didn’t care if a child was well cared for or not must be horrible. Poor guy.

After a while, he calms down and finally talks, “No wonder Sans has kept us all close to the house. I’m kind of glad my brother isn’t out here exposed to that kind of warped thinking.” He searches your face for a moment, then sighs, “But you’re good. You genuinely love Papyrus, I can tell. Thank stars he found someone whose mind isn’t full of such negativity.”

Letting him go takes some doing, since you don’t want to, but you manage it, “I know. With how much he likes platonic cuddling, people could have really hurt him if he wasn’t just such a ray of sunshine. I’m very lucky to have him, too.”

Boa nodded, then opened his door, “Okay, enough culture shock for today! Now we focus on you and your wonderful new wardrobe. Or at least a week’s worth of clothes? I’m sure between Papyrus, Sans, Charm, and I, we can find a good conservator and get your things fixed and cleaned by then.”

That works for you, and you get out and lock the door behind you. The two of you walk into the shop and Boa looks eager now, all gloom gone and his bones gleaming white again. “OH, Y/n, there are so many options! They’re all a little conservative for my taste but they’re sure to work for you.”

Laughing, you nod and get to work. Clothes shopping is always tedious for you, but you at least know that comfy shirts are one size and dress shirts are a different one, at least at this store. Your everyday shirts are your basic graphic t’s, or maybe a colorful gradient of your favorite hues, and your dressy outfits consist of black pants or slacks and a fancy shirt. You went through the wracks of clothes, choosing seven comfy shirts, seven casual shirts, and three fancy ones. Then you went to the bottoms, picking out four pairs of jeans, black dress pants, and a pair of black slacks. Boa didn’t say much, just watching you, occasionally humming.

Then you got some more sleepwear, since MTT pajamas were nice but couldn’t be worn every night for the whole of your stay with the skeletons. So, you got some warm pajamas, and some cool ones. Four of each kind. All of them had pants because you were going to be living in a house with other people, thus you had to wear pants at all times in case others entered your space without warning. No flashing people.

But as you turned and headed toward the check out, Boa grabbed your arm, “Whoa! Human, where are you going? You didn’t even try any of them on to see if they fit right!”

“I…don’t care?” you were confused. You’d always bought clothes this way. “Trying on clothes just makes me feel bad, and I’d rather do it in my own home. I can bring them back for better sizes if they don’t fit.”

His eye lights widened, mouth ajar. Then he got a very stern look on his face, “I’m sorry, but as a tailor I can’t allow you to settle for bad fits. We’re going to the changing room, and you’re going to show me what you have there. I’ll tell you if it’s good or not, and we’ll make the exchange here. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right the first time!”

A man in an aisle across from you yelled, “Hey, monster tart! Leave them alone!”

You yelled back without even thinking, “Fuck off, asshat, that’s my roommate!”

He glared at you, then turned away and left you alone. Boa looked sort of deflated, though, and you had to ask, “Hey, are you okay? I’m sorry he called you names.”

“Oh, no…with what you told me about humans, he’s entirely correct but…it did hurt to feel how much he hated me. Um…” He was fidgeting with his feathers, wrapping them tighter around his neck.

“Let’s get to the changing rooms, okay?” you smile. It was worth you being a little self-conscious if it made up for this horrible interruption of your time with Boa.

He nodded, working up a smile again, and taking you back to the changing rooms.

It took a long time, putting on each of your outfits and coming out to show Boa. You knew what size you usually wore, but he still had to peruse your clothes in a circle before he agreed that any given item was probably the best ‘off the rack’ fit you were going to get. You did have to wave him off when he asked about your underthings.

“Nope! I’ll buy them after I send you to the car. I’m not letting you see those.”

“Huh? But foundation garments are important to fit! I’m guessing you have your best set on since you were on a date before the fire bu-“

“Boa! Personal space rules!”

“Oh. Oh right, you have those here,” he looked very frustrated, but sighed, “Okay. I’m going to be understanding of the ‘cultural difference’ too, and let you keep your foundations private even if I don’t understand why. You humored me, so I’ll do the same. I’m sorry I hit a nerve again.”

“Okay. Apology accepted.” You felt like that Jurassic Park guy fending off raptors, even if it was just Boa. “Okay. Here are my keys, go wait for me. Feel free to turn on the radio or air conditioning or whatever you need while you wait.”

Taking the keys, he suddenly seemed in awe, “Oh…oh wow, you really trust me! A car is a big investment and you gave me your keys!” He giggled and took off, waving at you as he went. Seems that little gesture was enough to brighten him back up fully.

Taking a deep breath, you turn back and go to pick up some packs of underwear and sportswear. Even if you did want to keep these garments private, it felt weirdly empty without the colorful skeleton next to you.

Boa was bopping along to some bubblegum pop when you get back to the car. You put your bags in the trunk, which he dutifully pops for you, and then come back to the front and get in the driver’s seat.

“I really didn’t meant to step on your toes at any point, Y/n,” he looked sheepish as you started the engine, “but I want to thank you so much for defending me. Papyrus really has chosen a wonderful person, if you’d stand up to someone else when we’re barely acquainted.”

“That’s just being decent, Boa. I shouldn’t need thanks for doing the right thing, but I do appreciate you helping me with my clothes so I feel like we’re even.” You couldn’t have the endless thanks. It made you squirm, someone praising you for something that just came automatically. Papyrus had learned not to go overboard quickly, and you really hoped Boa would, too.

“Alright, but I hope you don’t mind me talking you up to my brother when we get home.” Boa looked out the window and sighed, “As different as things are, I really want Sweet-pea to see the surface. Um, that’s his name, my brother.”

“Charm told me about him. He’s a homebody, right?”

Boa nodded, “He had a pretty bad relationship that made him…reclusive. I try to get him to go out, but the porch is about the limit at this point. And not even the front porch either…”

“Well, if he’s half as good a person as you are, then I’m sure I’ll adore him,” you might as well encourage him, after all. He was a fascinating little skeleton, and his energy really made you happy. That and just how vibrant he was. That cute little blue star painted on his right cheek and the little jewel you saw (glued?) on the front of his neck vertebra were adorable. “Now, you’re going to direct me to the house?”

“Oh! Yes. Here let me look, I’m a visual direction giver.”

The neighborhood the skeletons lived in was full of ostentatious mansions. It used to be part of the Greek life in the university, but had fallen out of grace and now was owned by the richer folks around town or had been turned into high end apartments. You marvelled at the nice gated carpark that your new home had, as well as the white columns and dark grey roof contrasting with the bright red brick. You could see faded areas above the door, where the Greek letters of the former owners resided, but if you squinted, it looked a bit like a sideways skull-and-crossbones. You liked that.

“We’re back, everyone!” Boa called, and there was a sudden surge of magic that left you tingling.

You were used to this by now. “Hi, Sans,” you smile as you look to your right, and there he is, standing right next to you looking exhausted. Well, more than usual.

“heya, pal.” He looked you over for a moment, then hugged you tight. “sorry, just felt like it. was still worried sick all last night.”

You hug him back and feel warm inside, “Sans, you know I appreciate that you care about me so much, but I don’t want you hurting yourself doing it. Remember, you are allowed to relax.”

“you taking Dr. Kevin’s job?”

“No. I am not your therapist, you dork,” You still kissed the top of his skull though, since he was hiding his face in your shoulder. “I’m your friend.”

“yeah, okay.”

Patting his back for a bit, he finally let go, “okay, I’ll stop monopolizing the human, as my bro is sure to say if I don’t stop.”

“I’d also say it!” Boa had his hands on his hips, looking smugly at Sans, “But it was just too cute to see you actually showing an emotion other than tired.”

“I’M COMING!” Came Papyrus’ voice from the staircase further back in the large entry hall you were standing in. There were beautiful wooden designs in the floor, lovely geometric patterns of squares and diamonds and other shapes, and a small Moroccan style chandelier above made of white smoked glass and gold scrollwork. The golden wood of the floor was matched by the slightly curved staircase that led up to the second floor (where you assumed the beds were) and where your dear Papyrus was currently bounding down.

Your giggles bounced off the high white walls as he spun you, making you glad you slipped off your shoes while looking about, “I MISSED YOU!”

“You just saw me a couple of hours ago!”

“THAT FELT LIKE FOREVER WHEN I’M SO EAGER FOR YOU TO SEE HOW CHARM AND I HAVE SET UP YOUR ROOM!”

Charm was at the top of the stairs, smiling as he leaned over, “Boa, did you make sure they did good picking out their new clothes?”

“I did! I made them try everything on first, but they wouldn’t let me help with foundation garments!” Boa gestured helplessly at you as Papyrus set you down, looking confused.

“Before you even ask, he means underthings,” you might as well warn them.

Sans, who was in the corner, turned bright navy blue all over his skull, and you grinned, “That’s how I reacted when he tried to help pick them out.”

Charm just smiled wider, “Oh, Y/n, so shy but so lovely. Has Papyrus even seen your ‘foundations’?”

“I DON’T THINK THAT’S APPROPRIATE!” the mentioned skeleton clears his ‘throat’ loudly and then pulls you toward the stairs, even grabbing the bags of your clothes with one hand, “SO, LET'S GO SEE YOUR NEW ROOM INSTEAD!”

Up the stairs you go as Boa and Charm laugh, and you hug Papyrus when he stops in front of the last door on the left of the corridor, “Hey, at least I know why you were going stir crazy when they first got here now.”

“YES, WELL, SMALL BLESSINGS.” He gave your head a pat and gestured to the door, “LET’S TAKE A LOOK?”

“Yes, let’s,” you let go and open the door, gasping.

The room itself is a nice size, though you realize it was probably meant for two students to share, but you get it to yourself, with the full bed sitting low on the floor and covered in a swirling rainbow sheet set. The walls were a soft yellow that felt like an early summer morning, and the floor was covered in a mocha carpet that felt so nice under your feet. “Papyrus, this is wonderful.”

“I TRIED TO MAKE IT NICE FOR YOU,” he points at the bed, but you’re guessing he means the mattress, “WE HAD THAT IN CASE FRISK’S HUMAN MOM WANTED TO STAY WHEN WE HAVE A SLEEPOVER. BUT WE NEVER USED IT AT THE OLD HOUSE SO WE BROUGHT IT HERE AND…WELL, IT WORKED OUT. CHARM AND BOA HAD ALREADY BOUGHT THE SHEETS BY THE TIME I GOT HERE, AND THE REST OF THE FURNITURE,” being a lovely cherry wood wardrobe that matched the bed frame, chest of drawers, and bedside table, “WAS IN OUR HOUSE FOREVER AND I DON’T KNOW WHY. THE WARDROBE HAD A BUNCH OF OLD LAB COATS, SO I GUESS IT WAS SANS’ AT SOME POINT? BUT IT’S ALL CLEAN AND SHINED NOW.”

It didn’t strike you as likely that these classy, rather old-fashioned pieces would be something Sans owned, but why else would there be lab coats in it? But you didn’t mind either way. “This is amazing! I’m just…” You throw up your hands dramatically, “Look at it! It’s so beautiful and perfect and…and oh my gosh this is my room.” You start sniffling and put your hands over your mouth. You hate how emotional you are about this, all of this, but it was to be expected, wasn’t it? Losing your home only to gain a beautiful room in your boyfriend’s house and at least two new…friends? Would Charm and Boa count as friends yet? You weren’t sure but you did like both of them quite a bit.

Carefully, Papyrus lifted you up and set you on the bed, using his softest voice as he gets on his knees in front of you and holds your hands, “Just let out anything you need to, love. I was so happy to put all this together for you, and knowing I get to see you every morning now is so exciting. I know you need your space to process, because stars knows I would, so I’ll let you put your things away. I do have to go to work for a bit, but I will be back by six tonight.”

“Okay,” You give him a kiss, giggling wetly, “I just have so many emotions right now, but I’ll sort them out while I put my stuff away.”

A cry of outrage from downstairs, “THEY TRICKED ME INTO LETTING THEM BUY EVERYTHING!!!” and you laugh.

“DID YOU REALLY?” Papyrus looked at you as he got up.

“It wasn’t intentional, but yes.” You grin, “He had to leave before I bought the private stuff! I didn’t even think about Boa’s offer until just now.”

Papy scoffs, but he smiles, “YOU’RE CHEEKY, YOU ARE. BUT IT’S ONE OF THE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT YOU. ONE OF QUITE A LOT!” Stepping to the door, he sighs wistfully, “ALRIGHT. I’LL GO NOW, BUT WE’LL CELEBRATE YOUR HOMECOMING WITH A GOOD DINNER TONIGHT. I LOVE YOU!”

“Love you, too!” you call as he walks out, and you wipe your eyes before taking the bags of your clothes and starting the process of ripping off tags.

You don’t know what to do now. You’re done putting your clothes away, you feel a little more emotionally stable, but you don’t want to leave your room. So here you are, sitting on the carpet, staring out the window on the back wall (though it’s the front of the house so…?)

There’s a knock on your door, and being used to Sans, you ask, “Who’s there?”

“maya”

That’s a new voice. Kind of soft like Sans’, more in his range than Papyrus’, but lighter and slightly higher. “Maya who?”

“maya come in and meet my new housemate?”

“Okay.” You look at the door as it opens, and are interested when it’s someone that looks like Sans but seems to be wearing a dancer’s outfit under a pimp coat. He’s got a black tanktop on that’s cropped just under his ribs, with a bright blue heart in the middle of it, purple ecto down to the wings of his hips, which stick out over his tight black capris. He chuckles and his sockets even crinkle a little as he smiles.

“heya. I’m charm’s older brother. name’s sugar.”

“Sugar and Charm…you two sound like a breakfast cereal.” He snorts and covers his mouth, laughing a little.

“I mean, mornings aren’t really my things, but midnight snacks are good for me. so you’re the human that has little innocent papyrus all flustered all the time, right? heh, it’s pretty cute. Gives my bro lots to work with on learning how things work around humans, so I have to thank you.” Sugar gestures a little, “can I come in?”

“Oh, yeah, sit anywhere. I spent hours with your brother earlier, you’re more than welcome.” You still don’t feel quite like this is actually YOUR room, even if you know it is objectively. It’ll take a while to set in, so you don’t feel intruded on.

“yeah, he told me you two had a good chat. Also told me you were one of the most tense people he’s ever massaged,” Sugar plopped onto the floor next to you, his purple jacket with blue fur trim flaring out around him, the heeled boots matching said fur clicking as he put the bottoms together, “but I can get that. you’ve been through a lot.”

“Yeah…I really appreciated him doing that massage for me. It helped me not be teary while I was out buying clothes with Boa. Nobody wants to cry in public,” you shrug, and Sugar nods.

“hehe, you’re right. and boa’s going to get you back for not letting him spoil you on that. dunno how, but he’s going to do something extravagant to get you to accept his gesture of friendship,” He’s amused, you can tell by the glitter in his purple heart eye lights. Sans gets the same glitter when he’s about to tell a horrible pun just to make Papyrus react.

“Oh, I don’t doubt it from that outrage I heard earlier. But I do hope he realizes he can be my friend without gifts?” You look at Sugar and he nods.

“yeah, but that’s one of his love languages, gift giving. Me, I’m a cuddler, but he likes seeing his friends and family get happy about cool presents,” Sugar leaned on his hands in front of him, “so, what about you, y/n? what do you do to show folks you care?”

Thinking, you giggle, “Well, I guess Boa and I have gift giving in common, but I also like to just say it. Papyrus and I have been saying ‘I love you’ since before we were even dating. Yeah, he said it first, but I think he’d probably have stopped if I hadn’t kept going. It’s just so easy to say, when you believe it.”

“ah, a vocal one. That’s good. other than my brother, nobody else is really verbal with their feelings. That’ll be nice, hearing you and pap being so cute.” He chuckled, “ah, well, I also heard you like languages. How many are you fluent in?”

“oh,” you blush, “uh…I just started my language classes last semester, so just the one. I really would like to have at least five that I can read and understand, even if I can’t speak well or maybe write it if it’s something like Thai or Mandarin.”

“That’s a pretty cool goal,” Sugar thought about it. “so what do you plan to do with that job wise?”

“I want to translate, maybe for children’s books? Some of my favorites growing up came from Germany originally and I’d love to find something great and bring it to other people,” the thought of your career dream makes you perk up more. “What about you, Sugar? I know Charm is a massage person, but what do you do for work?”

He blinked, then laughed, “Oh, I’m an entertainer. I dance mostly, but I don’t think you’d like it.”

“Why not?” you think seeing one of the skeletons dancing would be a great time. You always thought watching Sans or Papyrus move was just fascinating.

“well,” he smirked a bit, “you enjoy strip clubs?”

You felt how big your eyes became as the heat burned your face, “Oh god no!”

He laughs, “See? It pays nice, since I found a reputable place, and I feel good about what I do, but for someone as sheltered as you, I figured you’d not like it.” Getting up, he sighs, “but it’s no harm done, sweetie. I just wanted to introduce myself and say I was glad we’re able to help you out when you’re down.” With a wave and a grin, he flounces out of the room, and you blink in mild shock.

Were….were you sheltered? You hadn’t thought so, you thought you were okay and reactions like yours were normal, but you supposed you could be wrong. Thinking back to what Boa had told you, you start to wonder.

Well, time to go see if you can borrow some of Papyrus’ text books. Thankfully, you were both taking Spanish right now, so even your language text book could be borrowed. You wanted to at least know you could put your hands on it when needed.

You’d gotten the idea an hour after Sugar left, when you were bored of pondering your state of sheltered-or-not, and now you opened your door and scurried over to Papyrus’ room. It was always spotless, or it had been the times you’d been over before the Sans incident. It was weird, realizing you hadn’t been back to his house since then.

His new room was set up just like his old one, about the same size, too, and you found his bookshelf easily. It was right against the wall opposite the door, after all. So you sat on his floor and started looking at the last lesson you remembered.

You were immersed in your studies, curiously glancing at future lessons, when a deep, gravelly voice said, “well well well, we got ourselves a little mouse in papyrus’ room.”

A squeak came out of your mouth, and when you looked up you did not feel reassured. Yes, it was a skeleton, like you’d been expecting, but he was so different than any you’d met before. His teeth were sharp, every one of them, and one was replaced with gold. A huge red dog collar hung around his neck, gold spikes all over, and he wore the tattered remains of a white muscle shirt around his chest. His most obvious features was the thick red ecto that spilled over the top of his black denim shorts and out the bottoms in hefty red thighs tapering off at the knee.

“Y-you’re one of his cousins, right? I’m Y/n,” it wasn’t supposed to come out so nervous, but this guy looked like he could crush you in fifty different ways.

His grin turned a little more into a smirk, “thought so. Name’s spice, sweet cheeks.” He came in and sat himself on Papyrus’ bed. “now, what exactly are ya doin’ in here with these books?”

“Mine are damaged from the fire, so I was looking over our lessons,” why did he make you feel like you’d done something horrible just by the look on his face?

“oh. yeah, forgot about that. heh, well, ain’t that cute?” He had his elbows on his knees, hands hanging between them as he leaned over to look at you, “really are a little bookworm, huh? sansy said you’re the one who got pap to go to school in the first place. wonder how that happened?”

“I really don’t know, but he seemed interested before I talked about what I do at school.” You didn’t like how his eye lights were analyzing every move you made, or maybe they were roaming over you, you didn’t know.

“yeah, sounds about right.” he leans back a bit, scratching at his cheekbone. “sugar said you an’ pap are peas in a pod, all shy’n shit about sex.”

“SHHH!!!” you are instantly on edge, looking at the wide open door and the skeleton who seems to have no boundaries.

He laughs hard, “Oh! Oh he was right! hahaha, oh shit, you’re turnin’ into’a tomato!”

Covering your face, you feel the fluster turning into tears because you can’t handle it, to the point you don’t notice when Spice stopped laughing and went quiet.

“hey, human. hey, you okay?”

You shook your head, and he groaned, “shit, I fucked it up. I was just tryin’ ta tease ya, an’ then I go and make ya upset. Geeze, no wonder I can’t get a date. ‘m sorry, okay? please don’t be upset or pap and sansy’ll probably dust me. wait, that’s manipulative, shit!”

He got up and ran out, and you heard a door shut down the hall. It took you a few moments to contain your fluster, but you finished your cry and gathered up the textbooks. You’d do your studying in your own room now until Papyrus got home.

Still, you’d now met four out of six of Papyrus’ cousins. And you remembered that one of them had voted against you staying. Was that Spice? Or was it one of the two you hadn’t met?

#undertale fic #reader x papyrus #underlust #lustswap #lustfell

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hollywoodgothique · 5 years ago

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House Of Spirits: A Haunted Cocktail Soirée is a true original, unlike anything else we have experienced in Halloween 2019. Though the name would suggest a themed popup bar, House of Spirits is quite a bit more than that. It incorporates eclectic elements: performance, immersive experience, interactive costume party, and even haunted house walk-through. However, in the end, House of Spirits is none of those things but rather its own unique combination.

The premise is that you are attending a party in a house cursed by the macabre art of a grieving painter, created in the final desperate days of his life, which opened a portal not to his lost love but to dark realms whose denizens now haunt the premises, blighting all who live there. How closely you encounter these beings depends on which activities you choose to participate in, the sheer variety of which is guaranteed to satisfy the cravings of even the most omnivorous Halloween enthusiasts.

House Of Spirits Halloween Review: Ghost Ship on Land?

House of Spirits is set in the mansion that used to house Delusion Interactive Theatre.

House Of Spirits: A Haunted Cocktail Soirée is the creation of Meyer 2 Meyer Entertainment, whose personnel formerly ran the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride and currently produce Rated R: A Horror Speakeasy. House of Spirits might sound like juiced-up version of the latter, rebranded and moved to a new location for Halloween, but it actually has more in common with a nearly forgotten one-shot that the Haunted Hayride creators produced in 2011: Ghost Ship.

Ghost Ship was not a hit with the public; it was a great idea that failed to live up to its potential, offering a three-level experience – one for each deck aboard harbor cruise yacht, with ghostly hosts and entertainers on the main deck, a show on the upper deck, and a scary maze on the lower deck. The problem was twofold: the yacht did not provide a sufficiently spooky setting, and it was impossible to fit enough entertainment into its hull to fill the ninety-minute cruise.

House of Spirits takes this clever template and ingeniously applies it to an ominous mansion* in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles, bringing to fruition everything that Ghost Ship sought to achieve. With the atmosphere and square footage Ghost Ship lacked, this magnificent venue houses an amazing three-level event in and around the building. On the ground floor, guests can mingle with their ghoulish host and hostess, listen to music, watch a puppet show, and imbibe a half-dozen cocktails (included with the price of admission). Upstairs, there is a strange sort of scavenger hunt of a most morbid nature. And in the basement are not one but two scare experiences. Additionally, there are gathering places outdoors, along with a strange little hovel where you will learn the secret responsible for the curse upon the haunted house.

Add it all up, and House of Spirits provides multifarious forms of malevolent entertainment nook and cranny of its haunted house – more than enough to justify the recommended two-hour stay.

House Of Spirits Halloween Review: Arrival

An outdoor lounge where guests relax before their appointed entrance time.

House Of Spirits: A Haunted Cocktail Soirée offers two arrival times on weeknights and three on weekends: 6:30pm, 9pm, and 11:30pm. It is not necessary to arrive precisely on time, but it’s a good idea if you want to see everything. The event can be crowded, with a line on the sidewalk to get through the security search and another line in the front yard to validate tickets.

If you happen to get in before your appointed time, there is a “lounge” (a small mobile bar beneath an awning, with some limited seating), where you can wait. This is one of two cash bars on the outside grounds, where you can pay for drinks above and beyond the half-dozen that come included with admission.

Eventually, you ghoulish host, Raul, shows up and fills you in on whatever details you need to know about the “party” he is throwing inside the house, whetting your anticipation with a promise of drunken revelry on the main floor and terrifying demonic encounters in the basement.

Perhaps most important, you receive a punch card for the six bars inside the house, where you will spend most of the ensuing two hours. Though it is easy to overlook in the excitement of the night’s debauchery, this card includes suggestions and questions that will assist your exploration of the mysteries haunting the House of Spirits.

House Of Spirits Halloween Review: Ground Floor

On this level, spirits both ectoplasmic and alcoholic flow freely, creating a gay and magnificent revel, with the help of six bars offering free drinks. Both Raul’s wife and his mistress float about, engaging their party guests in conversation and dropping suggestions about what parts of the house they may wish to explore. There is no preferred order to the evening’s diversions and delights, but there are lines to get both upstairs and downstairs, so it’s a good idea to divide your time wisely.

An invisible hand answers your questions.

Pastimes on the ground floor include a giant ouija board, with a planchette moved by an invisible hand spelling out answers in responses to spoken questions. (Sadly, the ghost’s identify seems to be that of Anton, the hosts’ recently deceased child.) There is an out-of-tune piano, but we wouldn’t recommend playing it, since there is entertaining live music in the next room from a variety of performers, on electric guitar or accordion.

Best of all is the macabre puppet show, in a small room just off the main entrance. While a ghoul-faced narrator recites grim and grisly ghost stories, two sinister puppeteers – their dark, skull-like visages almost invisible against the black backdrop behind them – enact the action, the movement of the puppets enhanced with novel sound effects: liquid poured from a cocktail shaker to simulate vomit, a plastic bottle crushed to simulate broken bones. Don’t miss your chance to enjoy at least one of these short performances.

This malevolent mistress of the house invites you inside.

Party Guests

Great party, isn’t it?

House Of Spirits: A Haunted Cocktail Soirée Halloween Review

Out of tune piano

Your Ghostly Hostess

Ghostly Accordion Player

Your Ghostly Hostess

House Of Spirits Halloween Review: Macabre Artists Named Francisco

Goya’s Saturn Devours His Son

There is one more important element of the ground floor presentation. In the gruesome Goya Gallery, art lovers may peruse a handful of disturbing canvases, such as Saturn Devouring His Son, one of fourteen “Black Paintings” created by Francisco Goya (1746-1828) during the final years of his life – a series which also included “Witches’ Sabbath.”

Though not on display here, one of Goya’s most famous works is The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1799), which depicts a sleeping artist tormented tormented by nightmarish visions of bats and owls, as if these apparitions will soon enter our world via the medium of the artist – a theme evoked in the back story of House of Spirits, which seems loosely inspired by Goya’s “Black Paintings.”

However, when you leave the ground floor to explore upstairs, you will learn that the artist whose work doomed the House of Spirits is Francisco Vega – not the renowned Spanish painter Francisco Preciado de la Vega (1713-1789) but a fictional character whose work was even more demented than that of Goya.

House Of Spirits Halloween Review: Upstairs

The staircase leads to a bizarre scavenger hunt.

On the second floor, a servant will inform you of the final, fateful days of Francisco Vega, who crafted six ghastly canvases shortly before his death. These Spirit Paintings, on display, contain clues to Six Keys, which may unlock the mystery of the House of Spirits.

After perusing the small gallery of horrors, you explore six rooms, each inhabited by someone or something depicted by the artist. These spectral phantoms (including a ghastly pregnant woman hoovering over crib containing a tiny skeleton- presumably Anton) may aid your in your search, but they will demand that you perform unpleasant actions to retrieve the keyes (reaching into bathwater for a rib bone is the least of it).

Some keys may not be easy to find, but if you persist in your quest, you will succeed, whereupon you deliver them to a strange character who marks you with a cryptic insignia on your hand or forehead, initiating you into the elite of the households inhabitants. Exactly what “benefits” accrue from this are unclear, but you may be sure they are of a nefarious nature.

Vega’s paintings hold clues to the Six Keys.

Expect to meet this creature in the flesh.

House Of Spirits Halloween Review: The Basement

After the upstairs scavenger hunt, there is nowhere to go but down – into the basement – where the true terrors lurk.

There are two attractions in the basement, each with its own entrance. One is a brief and eerie pantomime performance depicting Vega – deranged and eventually nude – creating his final work, a life-sized painting that opens a portal enabling a visitor from the other side to enter the earthly plane. Is this being angel or demon or neither? The answer to that question can be found elsewhere.

The second descent into darkness is the closest House of Spirits comes to offering a haunted house walk-through. Groups of half-a-dozen or so party guests are given mirrors and instructions to stand in pools of dim light, chanting “Molly Magpie, Molly Magpie, how did you die?”

This ritual extinguishes the light, allowing some denizen of darkness to manifest; then another pool of light appears, farther along, drawing your group deeper into the basement, where the ritual is repeated, again and again, each time with nightmarish results. There terrors invoked are all the more disturbing because they have materialized at your bidding, and the demons are not necessarily happy to answer your call.

Both experiences are delicious creepy, evincing the sort of demented artistry one used to see at the L.A. Haunted Hayride – less crude shock than carefully choreographed grotesquerie.

House Of Spirits Halloween Review: Exterior

The Mystery Solved

Exiting either basement attraction leads to the outside grounds, where you will find a second cash bar, a food vendor, and the Garden of Anguish, where you can relax among strange flora before reentering the House of Spirits.

Most important is a small hovel, easy to overlook in the darkness. An attendant should be outside to explain why you should explore its interior.

The entrance leads down to a confined space where you will see the pages of Francisco Vega’s diary projected on the wall, detailing the anguish that drove him to create his final sextet of uncanny masterworks and revealing the true nature of the being he inadvertently unleashed upon our world, dooming all future inhabitants of the House of Spirits.

House Of Spirits Halloween Review: Cocktails

Great party, isn’t it?

Six Spirit Paintings, Six Keys, Six Cocktails.

A key ingredient to the success of House of Spirits is the half-dozen miniature drinks included with admission. Guests receive one free drink at each bar inside the house, a bartender punching your card at each stop.

Offerings range from Goya’s Ghost (ginger, black currant, fire bitters, orange bitters) to Magpie (passion fruit puree, lime, agave, grapefruit, bitters. Each drink features a product by Don Julio, with guests choosing one of two options, such as tequila or vodka.

Though individually small, the creepy cocktails are collectively intoxicating, altering human consciousness to a level where it is more open to the contact with the spirit realm. By the end of the evening, contact with ghosts will seem like the norm.

Creepy Cocktails

House Of Spirits Halloween Review: conclusion

In case you have yet to unravel the mystery at the heart of this review, we had a supernaturally grand experience at House Of Spirits: A Haunted Cocktail Soirée. The $65 price tag may seem steep, but it is actually a bargain in terms of cost-benefit ratio. The myriad elements excel on their own terms, combining to form an amazing Halloween event unlike any other.

Footnote:

This is the same location used by Delusion Interactive Theatre on several occasions.

House Of Spirits: A Haunted Cocktail Soirée (Review) House Of Spirits: A Haunted Cocktail Soirée is a true original, unlike anything else we have experienced in Halloween 2019.

#Halloween 2019 #Halloween in Los Angeles #L.A. Immersive Experiences #Meyer 2 Meyer Entertainment

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abloomntime · 4 years ago

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A Bloom In Time Ch26

(Warning: Death scene, Mentioning of past death, nightmares, and a light panic attack.) Cold. Darkness. All of it came rushed over so suddenly. Just like the two heavily armored guards carrying her kicking and screaming self towards the dreaded summer house that housed the royals deep in the snowed up world. That winter suddenly came that year unexpectedly with the freezing winds suddenly whipping around her when she just closed up her stand for the day, pocketing the expensive bracelet she was given as payment and what coins she received as payment, ready to go home. She didn't make much from her flower stand she always wanted, but that was always fine and dandy. She loved the smiles on the children's faces when they'd buy single flowers for their parents, or if she'd sell them flowers in exchange for small things like food. It was one way to get to eat around here. But the chills filling the air that after noon followed by the loud thumping sounds coming towards her were new. Especially when all of a sudden two giant armored men stood over her and seized her without warning. So naturally she resisted and fought against her captors as they took her away.

"LET THE PECK GO OF ME!! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!"

"...WAIT!! WHAT?!" She attempted to struggle again but their strength was too much.

She got no reply and could hear them getting and farther away, panicking she tore herself away from the door. Heart hammering in her ears and eyes scrambling around the dark room for any signs of escape to no avail. No windows. No other doors. Nothing. The coldness was starting to creep in now and the shadows of the room got closer....and closer...... Her panting became faster and in a moment of desperation, she backed all the way to the other side of the empty room and looked at the door. Bracing herself, she ran as fast as she could across the room and rammed her shoulder as hard as she could into the heavy duty door. A thud rang out but there wasn't even a dent in the thick would. Leaving her only falling to the ground and reaching up to rub her sore shoulder from the ramming. The cold slowly creeped closer and closer and the shadows swallowed her whole until her world fell into a black slumber for a thousand years. Screeching that sounded like bloody murder echoed out through the closed attic and blue eyes opened in a sudden blurry black vision. Someone sat up and more screams were hollered out at two glowing yellow orbs that scattered away from the source of the sounds as whoever was cutting his ears with piercing screams moved back away from him. Blanket uncovering their body and a pillow tossed in the direction of the shadow monster of nightmares coming back for her. .....Well it most certainly WAS a shadow. But NOT the one she just had a nightmare about. This shadow yelped when his face was suddenly wacked by a pillow and as it fell to the floor he shook his head and watched as the panicked woman scattered back from him. "I'M SORRY!! I'M SORRY!! DON'T PUT ME BACK IN THERE!! I HATE THE COLD!!", she desperately cried out pleading for her life. "WHAT THE PECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!," A male voice demanded staring down at her with a scowl. "As if I would lock you up!" "Your majesty?" Snatcher floated there silently at the sudden title thrown at him from no where. Poppy could feel a rush of adrenaline pumping through her veins and she briefly wondered how fast she could make it to the ever moving platform- A jolt shook her body at the sudden snap noise and a second later blue flames appeared in the hand of the shadow creature who loomed over her, his scowling face softened up to pure confusion as he stared down at her and she stared up blinking at the giant creature. Anyone else would've screamed and ran away but- "It's ME!," Snatcher said in a slightly grumpy tone but he stopped completely staring at the sudden state of the woman in front of him. Shaking goosebumped flesh drenched in cold sweat. Raw fear circulating through her body, he could feel it. He could always feel the fear and auras radiating off one's soul and he took delight in someone's fear. It made him strong, powerful. HUNGRY AND EXCITED EVEN!! Yet now. Feeling the soul within her beat and radiate that same fear felt....wrong. Sick. Made him want to spit out ectoplasm. This fear was bad, made him get cold from just being near it so much. Made him want to dive through the floors below to escape the ooze of it until it completely went away when she calmed down. Yet...A force made him remain where he was, looming over her staring and not going anywhere. Fear was something he knew was a powerful motivator for someone like him but the fact remains that....She shouldn't be left alone in a state like this. Confused, lost, eyes small as her heart raced and fear pumped through her, afraid..Alone. He didn't want to be alone- ".....Snatcher?" The soft voice snapped him out of his stupor and he stared right into those blue eyes registering this shadow as not an enemy. The yellow eyes loomed closer and she still could barely see even with the light provided. But certainly felt the peach fuzzed like claws gently place themselves on her shoulders like she was a tiny child compared to this creature who needed comfort. "Yeah. Yeah it's me." He said as calmly and softly as possible and was rewarded with a shudder and sigh from Poppy in front of him. Also rewarding him was a choke coming from her throat and fresh tears coming from her eyes in the form of her crying. Making the ghost freeze and stare as a pang of panic shot through his shadowy form. Poppy was- Why was she-....Crying?! Real actual crying like a few times he'd seen her do before but this time it seemed more powerful than the time that stupid statue was chasing her or when the dumb noose 'flirted' with her. He still wanted nothing more than to burn it to ashes and crumble that stone menace to pebbles, but anger right now wasn't going to do him or her any good. And there was no way in peck he was about to leave her like this either. His other hand with the flames snapped letting the fire float in the air so both his hands could be free to help out and hovered above Poppy's shoulder stopping. "Are you.....Is it alright if I touched you?" She sniffed and made a couple more choke sounds from her state but managed to force something out that sounded like 'ok', and slowly a soft arm wrapped around her shoulders and she felt the presense sit down on the floor next to her. Not full on caging her in a hug, but offering her comfort with a arm around her anyways giving her enough space and closeness. Continuing to cry her eyes out, the woman reached her hands up to swipe at those stinging tears from her slightly pink face now. He cringed at the sight but kept his mouth shut, pulling a hankerchief out of no where and holding it out to her silently. It took Poppy a few moments to actually notice it was there but once she did it was yanked from him and held to her tear stained face. Blowing her nose loudly and wiping her tears away from her face. A small blunt 'thanks' was squeaked out from the lady and he still remained silent for a long while. Nothing but her crying and hiccupping and the silence of the attic. ".......Are you feeling better?" .......She sniffed and nodded without looking at him. "Yeah..I t-t-think so...Thanks." He hummed and continued to sit there and look at her trying to sniff and clear her face up now. By now he had a pretty good idea of what might've caused such a reaction out of her, but he didn't want to jump the gun and make the situation any more uncomfortable. "What happened?" is what he ended up asking after a few silent moments of thinking. "Jus' a.....a bad dream." Still not meeting his gaze he saw. Hm. "What about?" He gently pressed. His ghostly brow rising as he saw her completely still under his hold. Maybe that was too soon to ask. "Do...you want to talk about it? It's perfectly fine if you don't want to." ......She groaned and leaned back into his arm which was pretty sturdy enough for her to lean against and not fall through. Strange. You'd think she'd just pass through it since he can pass through walls but nope, with her head pointed up towards the ceiling eyes closed. "....I don't know anymore. It's just....." Her eyes opened to stare up at the dark ceiling above them. Faint shadows danced in what dim light the one blue flame provided and gold eyes blinked at her from her right. Snatcher's eyes. They looked so much like Jack-o-lanturn eyes. It was kinda funny on a peach feeling purple ghost king. Her heart beats have gone down back to normal by now and now her eyes were just a bit sore from all the crying and rubbing to make the tears go away. "I-....I think I just remembered how I died." Snatcher couldn't snapped his head down to her faster than when he did eyes widening. "You what?" Her death. That means-...Did she remember him?! Did she put the pieces together?! Did she know it was all his-...Vanessa's fault she was frozen for over a thousand years and blame HIM?! DID SHE BLAME HIM?! DID SHE EVEN THINK ABOUT HIM?! If he was still alive with a heart beat and lungs, his panic might've been given away by rapid heart beats and irregular breathing that comes with it. But all he managed was a panicked face and quick question. He still remained that way when she turned her head leaning against his arm towards him. "I said I remembered how I got in that room. What Queen-....What she said. The cold that made me pass out. I remember all of it..including what she said." What...DID Vanessa say to Poppy before her death- "What did she say?," came his raspy voice in a whisper, but not that Poppy noticed.

"She..W-Well." She sniffed again and wiped at her face. "She definately said to lock me in that room. But she also said something else. Something about gazing into another man's eyes and something else about a prince." Snatcher could feel himself becoming more uncomfortable by the minute as she looked him directly into his eyes with confusion and completely no understanding. "I don't understand any of this. I only knew one prince in my entire life and he was nothing but a friend. Why was I being accused of gazing into someone's eyes? ......it doesn't make any sense to me." Guilt. That was the first feeling to twist in his misshapen form and give him that empty gut feeling despite not having a body for quite sometime now. Of course it didn't make any sense to Poppy, she didn't have the full story. Barely even a quarter of it. Only her own short encounter about the events that tragically took place over a thousand years ago that all suddenly smacked her back in her face now. And so soon, it was honestly worrying for himself and her. Oh peck. OHPECKOHPECKOHPECK- He was NOT ready for this. Not NOW. Not so soon. Especially not like this. All of a sudden there was Hazelle's annoying voice replaying back into his mind.

Thanks, Hazelle. She just had to put that thought in his head now. This would stick in his head and act on that guilt for a while- "Philip." Snatcher. FROZE. Any thoughts in his head haulting and fizzling into thin air as that one word left her mouth. Anything he was about to say dying on his tongue as those yellow glowing eyes continued to stare dead at the woman staring back at him with that same confused, indifferent expression. It was over. Done. He was absolutely finished. The end of the line for him after only a week. This was how he was going down in flames. "That was his name. Prince Philip from the south, and he was.....engaged to Queen Vanessa." Her eyes widened as she leaned up and away from Snatcher's arm. Eyes widening with some new revolution flung into her brain and unconciously her hand went to clutch the gold bracelet strapped around her own wrist like it was a life saving device. "Prince Philip was engaged to Queen Vanessa!!" Her eyes snapped back to Snatcher bright with some kind of find as the ghost was still panicking eternally staring at her, not willing himself to move, but scooted back a foot or two and blinked when she quickly pointed at him. "THAT MUST'VE BEEN THE THING SHE WAS GOING ON ABOUT WITH THIS WHOLE TREASON THING!! It all makes a bit o' sense now." Her gaze went back to the bracelet wrapped around her wrist as it breifly reflected the blue fire. She had almost forgotten about it during this hectic weak now, but now...it felt like a HUGE piece of a missing puzzle had been placed down and she felt that empty hollow feeling being almost fully complete as it somewhat made sense now. "That's what she must've been referrin' too. But gazin' into his eyes? I don't get it. I never did such a thing and I definately never committed any kind of treason towards her or Prince Philip." Well at least she was finally starting to get somewhere and get something. But there was still so so many questions needing answers. Why had the Queen been so insistant that Poppy committed some sort of action against her or the prince? It just made no sense. All she ever did was make small talk with him and sell flowers in the town square. She made sure to follow all the rules, and pay all her taxes. And she was never rude to anyone that didn't deserve a good talking back. If Queen Vanessa and that....thing with the red eyes were one in the same then how did she get that way? Why did she think of all people POPPY was responsible for some crazy bad thing that happened to her? She never even met or spoken to her before that day, not when out of talking to her fiance. And it's not like they were romatically involved or anything. Just spoke two or three times a week when he bought flowers for HER mind you. Was there something she was missing? Was there something that caused all of this she didn't know about? Thinking carefully about what Vanessa told her, she mentioned someone gazing into her man's eyes.......Did that mean that-....THE PRINCE WAS HAVING AN AFFAIR BEHIND HER MAJESTY'S BACK?! Unlikely. He seemed so genuinely kind and always went out of his way to help others, and even spent so much money on flowers just for her. There was NO way he could've fallen for anyone else. But-.....It seemed like the only thing she had to go on at the moment. "He gave me this." She held up her wrist to him and his eyes slowly shifted to the bracelet he gifted her on that fateful day. "In exchange for just a small bouquet of flowers can you believe it?" She gave a small smile at it. "Heh. He was always a strange one. Always studyin' laws an' making sure he paid every pon owed. But he was also really kind and caring to everyone. I can't imagine him actually having any affairs behind her majesty's back-" "HE DIDN'T!!," he blurted out in a spike of anger startling her and he once again froze. "How do you know that?," she asked genuinely confused. OH PECK!! OH PECK!! OH PECK!! What does he do?! What does he do!? He had stupidly blurted that out without thinking!! Well it WAS true. He never had an affair while he was with Vanessa, even if he did fall in love with someone else at the time too, and he made it clear to anyone he wasn't the bad one in that relationship while it lasted. But it seemed that blunt anger towards her got the best of him, and he wanted to smack himself so, SO bad at this moment. He was panicking. Staring at her silently as she was clearly confused and waiting for an answer. THINK YOU FOOL!!!! THINK!! "UH....I- Um-....I-I-I was there when he was killed." It was the only thing he could think of in the short time he was panicking without arowsing suspicion. Instead he might've made things a bit worse when she just stared at him suddenly blanking. Making him want to slink back into the shadows where he came. OH P E C K- Her eyes went wide with the suddenly thought bombarding her brain. Snatcher was-....There? Snatcher was there with Prince Philip when he was...SNATCHER WAS THERE!! Snatcher flinched when Poppy suddenly grabbed the front of his body by his chest fluff desperately and he let out a startled yep when she yanked him down eye level with her. "YOU WERE THERE?! WHAT HAPPENED?! PLEASE!! YOU HAVE TO TELL ME!! WAS HE ALRIGHT!?" "CALM DOWN!!" He pulled himself away and shook his head staring down at her. "Calm down. You-...... *sigh*" He looked sideways away. "You wouldn't like what you hear- UH!?" He paused when soft hands suddenly clasped onto his and he paused. Yellow eyes staring deep into those blue ones he loved to look at so much when he was alive with heart beat. A pleading look in them as begging fell from her lips, "Please. I-It's...It's important. I have to know what happened. I spent so much time confused over nothing and I HAVE to know......Snatcher, please. Help me." A silence fell over the two as they just sat there staring at each other in mostly darkness and staring into each others' eyes. Poppy blinked at the feeling of something soft wrapping around her hands and when she looked he was gently holding her hands. Snatcher made a hissing noise, not like a cat hiss but like what it sounded like when someone sucked a breath through her teeth, before releasing it in a long drawn out groan sounding like 'HHHHHHhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaa'. "Are you sure you're ready and willing to hear such things?'' He gave her a narrowed look as if to say 'this is your last chance to back out'. "You won't like what you hear, Red. Might be better if you didn't know." "I'm positive.," she answered back without any hesitation. She HAD to know what happened. This was connected to her and she was involved whether she liked it or not. He still eyed her for a moment before looking to the floor unable to look her in the eyes anymore. ".......Vanessa killed him. Just like she did to everyone else....a-a-and y-y-you...." Poppy couldn't stop her free hand from coming to cover her mouth as he looked down in...shame? Guilt? Regret? Fear?! Not that she noticed, more focused on his words. Well she shouldn't be so surprised as she was expecting an answer like this, but still didn't stop the shock that took over her body. It was like she was light and the floor was sinking. "....H-How...?" "Just like you. She locked him away until everything froze over. Vane-.....That MONSTER!'', he spat hand slightly tightening as he scowled at the floor, "She was pecking crazy. Thought he was....cheating on her behind her back when he was nothing but patient with her. She didn't deserve anything." "I-I....I don't understand.." Her breathing hyped a pitch and she could feel her blue eyes glancing back to the bracelet on her wrist. The gold gleaming back. The tremble of her lip came with her own pathetic question. "....why..?" "Because she was nuts! Always have been and always WILL be! She would've snapped sooner or later with the way she was back then, always so paranoid and thinking I-.....I THINK he belonged to her." ".....She was there..." He finally looked at her. "What?" .....Another sniff came outta her. "She was t-t-there when I gave him the flowers. The day she gave me the bracelet." It all came rushing back in a sea of emotions and all she felt was cold gripping her heart as it all came rushing back. The day she was frozen. Before she closed up the stand and gave him the flowers, he said he saw her...Vanessa. Running away from them. Vanessa saw her giving him the flowers he bought. If....If she thought that Prince Philip was cheating on her and saw Poppy giving him flowers then-.....Oh gosh! Her hand pressed firmer against her mouth as the sudden reality hit her hard like a punch to the gut. She felt sick. Like a heavy iceberg was placed in her stomach and wanted out. Her blue eyes shown with rain drop tears flowing as she spaced out. ".....It's all my fault." ........?! His other hand was quick to shoot out and grab her shoulders accidentally making her jolt at the sudden grab but it was enough to get her to look at him. "Now you listen to me and you listen good." A claw poked her chest as he pointed it at her crying face with a deep frown of his own. "I have dealt with too many years of pecking guilt over whether or not it was my fault or if I could've stopped it! And I'm sick of it all! You. Are. Not. At fault!! Do you hear me?! Vanessa was always going to snap and it was HER fault for being so batpecking crazy, she couldn't tell the difference between fantasy and reality! There was no reason in her! We should've expected nothing less of her for anything! But I'll be just as bad if I didn't it now, and I'm saying it's not your fault. Least of all people you. All you did was sell flowers. Big deal. It would've been the same if she saw m-....him buying a necklace from a jeweler or a ham from the butcher. BANG!!" She flinched at the loud yell he made at 'BANG'. Tears running down her face as he spoke. "Ice. Death. Lots of ghosts. You get the picture. The point is, it's ABSOLUTELY! NOBODY'S PECKING FAULT!! BUT VANESSA'S!! .......You and me didn't do anything wrong." .......She made some kind of whine noise before crying. Leaning her head over until it met the softness of his floof and she cried. Cut off guard for a moment, Snatcher paused glancing down at her before sighing and wrapping her arms around her. Comfortingly patting her back. "Hey, Red. It's gonna be ok. Just go ahead and let it out alright?" He wasn't sure whether or not Poppy actually heard what he said, but the iron grip that suddenly latched onto him was enough for him to let her cry her eyes out into him without another word. Because...He was gone. Her only friend was just....GONE! Gone in the most worst way she could think of. What did he do to deserve that?! What did any of them do to deserve that?! He had his whole life ahead of him and it was taken from him in one day because of insanity, jealous, greedy woman disguised as a loving Queen. Had...Had she always been like this? According to Snatcher she was. And slowly things started to make sense to it all. Ridiculously banning bacon from the entire kingdom. That one time Philip showed up with half his hair chopped off and died a poor yellow. All the time he acted nervously about anything he had concerning her and waving them off like he was alright with every single thing he did. Deep down she KNEW something was wrong, if not wrong then strangely off. Definately gave her an off feeling, but she never pushed because 1. she never saw it as any of her business and 2. she didn't see the danger behind it until now. But..what if she had seen it? What if- Snatcher's hand came to lay on her head gently and she looked up from the fluffy chest of the ghost to look at him, Snatcher staring simpathetically at her tears before another hankerchief randomly appeared out of thin air and rubbed at her cheeks and eyes. ...She sniffed and leaned into the cloth wiping her face. "T-Thanks. I-.....I needed this more t-than ya know." "Yeah. I bet." There was another pause as she slowly let go of him and reached up sniffing and grabbed the second cloth offered to her during the duration of the time she woke. He couldn't help but feel awkward and kinda guilty in this situation. This was kinda what he feared but the opposite. Instead of Poppy blaming him, she felt like it was hurt fault somehow when in reality it was none of their faults. ....Maybe it was better he shouldn't have come tonight. He made a move to leave but froze when her hand suddenly latched onto him again. Her eyes desperate and pleading all of a sudden. "W-WAIT!! P-P-Please..D-Don't leave yet...I d-don't want to be alone." He stared at her but sighed. "Alright. I'll stay put but only because I promised to help you, Red." She sighed hald relieved. "T-Thank you." He hummed and watched as she let go to sniff and fix her face. ".....How are you holding up there? Looks like I should've kept all of that til later." Poppy shook her head. "N-No. I'm glad you t-told me. I-I needed to know what happened. I couldn't have gone on without knowin' anything. ...T-Thank you." Sure you could've rang through his head but he decided not to say that part out loud. "So-...I take it this..'prince' friend of yours was a nice person? Not that I knew him, but it seems you two were close. Not that it's any of my business." He had an anxious feeling saying all of this as a stranger but he couldn't help but feel the need to get all this anxiety off himself by asking. "It just sounds like you cared about him a whole lot." "Y-Yeah. I did actually." She gave a slightly trembling smile at him. "H-He was one of the only friend's I had. Honestly he was a really nice guy, super honest and polite too. He was always able to put a smile of everyone's face and didn't mind talking about anythin' really. It was like he wasn't a prince at all and just a normal, everyday regular person stoppin' by to get flowers. ...He was also the reason my stand had so much success as it did." Snatcher looked to her in slight surprise. "He was?" She nodded. "You see. When I first got to town I had a real hard time settlin' in. Not only did he save mah behind from falling on the ground like a babe learnin' how to walk, but he also started buying my precious flowers for ...You know who. Now a prince buyin' mah flowers all the time was sure to catch someone's attention and by golly did it! It was thanks ta him I had a decent business going for myself. ....But I kinda feel guilty over it now. I didn't mean ta piggyback ride off o' him or nothin'." "I'm sure you didn't." She looked at him and for once Snatcher was genuinely smiling at her without the 'evil' or smug aura to it. "If you sold flowers good enough to catch his attention then you deserved to get what attention you got. You didn't hitch a ride from him, you were just getting what you always wanted with a little assistance." "Hm...I reckon when you put it that way I guess you got a point." "Yeah.....Hey. This might sound out of no where but do you blame him, your friend, for what happened between him and Vanessa?" There is was all out and awaiting an answer. Poppy stared at him frozen for a second processing what he said but as soon as it sank in- "WHAT?! PECK NO!!" She scowled at him crossing her arms. "Why the PECK of all people would I blame Philip?! Maybe he didn't see the crazy but neither did I and I still didn't see it when she was starin' me straight in the face! You were there when it happened right?!" "I- Uh-...Y-Yes." "And even you said it wasn't his fault right?!" "OF COURSE I DID!! I WAS JUST ASKING YOUR OPINION!!" "WELL MAH PECKIN' OPINION IS THAT HE WAS INNOCENT!!" "GOOD! IM GLAD!!" "FINE!!" "FINE!!" Both pouted a bit with frowns but on the inside Snatcher felt an overwhelming state of relief and happiness fall over him. So Poppy didn't blame him, good. Not that it was ever his fault in the first place, but now a lot of dead weight was lifted from his shoulders. One less thing to worry over now it seemed. But Poppy paused in her movements to blank out and stare at him. Wait. Snatcher was there when Philip was-.....Then did that mean he saw what happened? Well obviously yes. He said so himself. Her curious side kicked in and she couldn't help but find her interests peeking through and a whole knew slew of questions arise, she couldn't help it. After all she knew nothing about this ghost tho he seemed good enough. "How did you die?," she found herself blurting out before she could stop but she instantly regretted it. "WHAT?!" Snatcher whipped his face to her wide eyed. "S-Sorry." She held up her hands worriedly. "Is it rude to ask a dead person that? I d-didn't know honest. It's just that.....You're doin' an aweful lot for me and I don't know a lot about ya, since you already know alot 'bout me from my rambling. I figured ya would return the favor." "Sorry. NO can do, Red. That's private information." She scowled again. "OH come on! Purple onion. Your contract paper thingy said I could ask for anything I wanted in return for helping ya!" "Within REASON!," Snatcher stressed, "Asking a ghost about their past is like asking a poor person how much money they spent on their shoes!" "UUUUHHH!!! I swear sometimes you can be more childish than those girls!" "So can you!" "UGH!! Alright! Why don't we compramise?," she offered and that got Snatcher's attention. "I don't think it's fair you're still essentially a stranger to me. So how about you answer just a few questions 'bout ghosts an stuff, but you don't have to answer any ya don't like. Deal?" ".....Hmm....Deal." he crossed his arms and looked at her with a raised brow, "What do you want to know, Red?'' "Well my first question asked would be nice. You don't have to go into detail," She added seeing Snatcher's eyes narrow. "Mmm." He REALLY didn't want to say anything. It was still too early for this even if he was more at ease now but since he didn't really have to go into detail- "Same as you. I died during the Great Subcon Freeze." "Oh. Well you said you saw what happened when Philip....p-p-passed away, right? Does that mean you were employed by the Queen?" OH PECK- HOW WAS HE GONNA ANSWER THAT!? He chose to shrug and as calmly as he could said. "Sorta. I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time." Which wasn't really a lie. He couldn't have ever been in a more wrong place or time. "Another innocent bystander to a crazy curse." "Oh. Well how are you a ghost?" Another shrug. "Beats me. A lot of other people are ghosts, you've seen them. Most of them can't even remember who they were in life. Don't know how or why so don't ask. Just the way it is." "Does that mean you remember who you were?" "Obviously I do. Otherwise I couldn't tell you anything." "Oh right. Dumb question. Then who wer-" "Next question!," he answered fast which caught her off guard but she shrugged it off. Obviously he wasn't comfortable with that. "Alright. Don't get your long tail in a knot." Looking over him she wonder how a soul such as thing could be so big...Souls? "That's another thing. Why did you want mah soul when I first met ya?" This time he actually paused. This question was one he hadn't been expecting and one he hadn't really thought of a cover for. "How WAS he supposed to explain that ghastly part of his afterlife to her without sounding like a heartless monster- "Do you really eat them?"......Wot? She made a grimace like she had bitten into a lemon. "That sounds so terrible and gross! Do all ghosts eat other ghosts?" ..........He blinked. Did she really think that he ate- "WHAT?! No! I don't really eat them! I can't eat anything! Im pecking dead for crying out loud! I just use that to intimidate intruding fools! I take souls as servants for tresspassing into people's burial grounds! At first you were no different, just another person intruding into my domain without permission-" "Then why did you all of a sudden decide to help me?" She asked crossing her arms. "You could've just taken me as a servant then and there." ...Snatcher rose a brow. "Ok! Well ya technically did, but I mean what made ya decide to help me? I just don't get it." Snatcher went oddly silent at her question. She didn't get it. Of course she didn't get it and she never would if he could help it. So he decided to play it safe for now and give her an honest answer. "Because I recognized you from the village." It's true, he did. But his answer took her by surprise as he carefully cherry picked his next words carefully with a sigh. "I-...Sometimes saw you selling flowers in the square, and-.....I guess I was simpathetic to someone else in a similar situation as I was." Which weren't lies either and safe enough to say without having his identity compramised. He saw her in the village? Did that mean he was one of the villagers? Maybe someone who worked in the summer house and lived in the village. She met a couple of people who would brag about being employed at the Queen's summer home when she wasn't in her palace. If so, then it would all make sense about why he knew her and how he was able to see the prince's demise. Actually that would explain everything and how he knew her if she sold him flowers before. A little assurance and calm was delivered to her with that revolation and she smiled at him like she solved the entire puzzle and it was complete. And to her it was complete. Except for one tiny little thing. "So....does that mean Philip is a g-ghost too?" He figured she'd ask that by the way things were going. So he sounded like he took a giant breath even if he didn't have lungs and sighed. How was he suppose to answer? By telling the truth of course! Just not in the way one may think. "A ghost? Well that's not exactly easy to answer." Which was true it was hard for him to answer that when the answer was obviously yes and staring at her right here. In front of her, but also because he was. NOT. PECKING. READY. To tell her. "Any ghost I know if they even became ghosts would be in the forest .....or another plain of existance." Which again wasn't a lie. All the ghost he DID know lived in his territory except for Moonjumper who was bound to the horizon.....Huh. Speaking of which he hadn't seen him in a while now. Oh well. Less problem for him to worry about. "A-And like I said BARELY any of my minions remember who they were before they died." Which also wasn't a lie. So technically he NEVER lied to her and didn't compramise his identity. PERFECT!! "Oh. I..see." Poppy looked down to her hands laid in her lap and the gold shining from her wrist. So it would be almost impossible for her to see him again then huh? Considering if Prince Philip became a ghost at all there was still the part where even if she did find him neither would be able to tell according to Snatcher. And even if by SOME miracle he WAS a ghost and he COULD remember her, then he might even be on a different plain of being which was highly unlikely she'd be able to get to. So it'd be useless to persue that idea even if all of those factors were even possible. ....She looked back up when metal rattled against the floor and Snatcher stared at the very end of his tail. She guessed Snatcher could see perfectly in the dark compared to a human because he bluntly pointed at something she couldn't see on the floor and asked. "Are those garden tools in a golf club bag?" Garden to- OH!! She completely forgot about those she was so tired! Poppy rubbed her neck sheepishly. "Uh.....Y-Yeah. W-We went out earlier today an' I guess I forgot ta put them away before I fell asleep. Sorry bout that." Snatcher turned to her with light surprise. "Wait a minute. You LEFT the ship and went somewhere by yourself without telling ME?!" She frowned. "Hey! I was gettin' antsy just seeing nothin' but space all day! And if ya haven't noticed it's kinda cramped up here. I need space to walk around freely so I don't have to crawl, and last time I checked I was an adult who didn't need no supervision. 'Sides! I wasn't alone. Cookie 'n those girls of yours were with me the whole time." Snatcher brought a hand up to rub his temples groaning. "And the LAST time you went somewhere 'not alone' with those two I had to save your sorry butt. I swear you'll only get in trouble if you run around in places you shouldn't." .....She nervously laughed and looked away. "W-W-Well..about that..Uh-'' "What did you do?," he asked without room for arguement. Removing his hand to bare his eyes into her nervous smile. "Nothing. Just some shoppin' with the girls. Got some new dresses......And maybe I destroyed some fancy whatcha-mah-call-it machine and in order to play for it I agreed to be in a Moon Penguin's play." "..............YOU BROKE WHAT AND REPAYING IT HOW?!" "I'm sorry! I didn't have enough pons, and Mr. Grooves was so nice. He even said I didn't have to pay a single pon if I worked for free! I panicked! I didn't want debt on mah name!!" "OH! FOR THE LOVE OF- HOW DID YOU EVEN BREAK IT?!," he asked annoyed. "I ......leaned my tools against it? hehe." A loud smack filled the room making her jump and it took her a moment to realize Snatcher had facepalmed himself HARD groaning. "I leave for ONE WHOLE DAY and you end up being in trouble. Is there anything ELSE I should know about?" "I yelled at a crazy yellow owl." "What?," he looked up from his hand at her and she nodded. "Yeah. At least I think it was an owl. He did have feathers. Biggest loud mouth I'd ever met! HUH!" She frowned recrossing her arms. "He said I had to work for 'em just because I accidentally knocked over the thingy. I told him where he could stick it if he ever wanted my help! HMPH!!" There was a pause of silence as Poppy frowned at nothing in particular and Snatcher continued to stare at her with a blank expression-.......SNRK!! She glanced up from what sounded like a covered snort and too her surprise the spook was....Smiling?? No. Not just smiling. He was trembling lightly as he smiled down at her biting into his bottom lip...Before the flood gates opened and he full on laughed. His loud raspy voice echoing throughout the dark room leaving Poppy bamboozled. Why was he laughing? She didn't think she said anything funny. Was he laughing because she was in trouble again? "AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!" A clawed hand grabbed her shoulder as he leaned over with the other hand holding his middle as he continued to laugh like no tomorrow. "W-WAIT! *wheeze* *COUGH COUGH COUGH*" She blinked surprised to hear a ghost somehow have the need to wheeze or cough to regain breath without lungs or a body...But she'd seen a lot of weird things now so who was she to be surprised? He still went back to laughing one eye open to look at her his voice happy sounding and trembling. "Y-Y-You mean a-...Ahahahaha!! D-Did he call every one a p-p-p-peckneck?! Haha!!" ....She blinked and frowned again. "Yes! A very RUDE man! Threw a tantrum like a little kid and I told him to find me once he learnt some respect and acted like an' adult!" "PPPPFFFFFTTTT!!" He fell back into another laughing fit much to her confusion. " AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! YOU SHOULD'VE D-D-DEFINATELY TOLD ME YOU WERE LEAVING! *wheeze* I-...I- OH P-P-P-PECK!! I WOULD'VE PAID TO SEE THAT OLD BIRDBRAIN'S FACE W-W-WHEN YOU TOLD THE FOOL OFF!!" Now she smiled. "I take it you know him?" She had to wait for his laughing fit to die down and him to 'catch his breath' before he could look at her with a straight face and answer clearly. He nodded yes to answer her question at least. "A few times. More of a peckneck than me!" He wiped at his face. "I wish I was there to see THAT! Worth more than gold!" "Oh. What are you doing here anyways? It's the middle of the night." He seemed to remember something as he sat up and reached behind him. "Right. I finished fixing your dress. Guess I lost track of time and didn't know you were resting. My apologies for that." He pulled out a blue dress from no where and besides the stains(which she couldn't see in the dark anyways) it looked brand new as he handed it over without a second thought. "Here. But don't expect me to become your personal tailor, Red. This was just a one time deal for you." Poppy stared stunned at the dress as she took it and ran a hand over the mended parts. "It feels like it was never ripped!" She smiled wider at him. "Thank ya! I guess you do know what you're doin' after all." His smile couldn't have been more smug as he examined his claws. "Well I never lie about my skills." She smiled again before looking over the dress the best she could in the dark. "It was mighty kind of you. I kinda feel bad 'bout you going through the trouble of it now since I got me some more. That lil sweetheart of yours did too." "Oh?" She smiled chuckling. "Poor thing got all drenched but I think that was my fault too. A couple of them silly ol' birds mistook me as her mo-....." Poppy suddenly paused...staring at her dress for a moment but the sudden cut of conversation didn't get past the spook who stopped smiling and stared at her more. "Is something bothering you?" "Well now that I think about it...How did those two come to be under your wing anyhow?" She looked at him with a raised brow. "An alien being raised by a ghost? It's the most strangest thing I've heard about. Where's their mothers? Where's their family?" ....Snatcher gave a frown not directed at her and stated, "I am their family. We have each other and that's all we need." "Well, yes. I know family goes beyond blood...Or in your case flesh and blood I suppose. But I don't just get how they came in your care if you don't let anyone in that forest." Snatcher remained silent staring at the floor and for a moment Poppy thought she stepped over a line. DUMMY!! Who was she to ask someone who adopted two lil girls!? It was none of her business! "I-I'm sorry. That was rude of me ta ask. It won't happen a-" "They're orphans." She blinked and stared at him. "Uh.....What?" "I said they're orphans. They have no one else." Yellow eyes looked to her again. "You want to know where they came from?" .....When she didn't answer he continued. "I don't know anything about Bow's past and neither does she. As far as I know she was raised in a crummy orphanage her whole life before she decided to run away and get tangled up in the mess Hattie made when she first arrived." "Oh. Im so sorry...How did you come to adopt an alien if ya still don't mind me askin'?" He huffed a chuckle and smiled bittersweet. "That little lady caused problems the moment she arrived on the planet with her time pieces. I won't go into detail, but let's just saw she almost caused the world to be destroyed and saved it too. She's a special something that I've never seen." "If she arrived on this planet, doesn't that mean she has family back on her own planet?" "You would think that at first." He shook his head grimly scowled. "But no. It's what I thought at first too when she originally left, but then she came back and refused to leave even after she got every single one of those cursed time pieces. Turns out she never had anything there to begin with." Poppy's eyes widened. "W-W-What happened?" "Long story short war." "A war? Over what?" "Over those...things. They're too dangerous for even her to use beyond a few simple things. Her family ..or what was left of it. Made those things to control people. As you would expect a lot of people with greedy intentions would want to get their hands on something like that, so in order to protect herself...She left."....He looked up out the attic windows for a moment with...pity on his face staring at the black void of stars. "I don't know how long she was out there and I don't know why she wanted to go back to where she came from or what happened to make her flee again. Never asked. But I also never questioned it when she came back and decided not to leave again. She's a smart kid. Here there's people who care about her and want her to be safe...Forever." He mumbled that last part to himself but she didn't hear. "I-......I couldn't just leave them vulnerable sitting there like dead ducks. They needed me...and..I-I-I guess in a w-way I r-really needed someone like them too." He jumped when he felt someone grab his hand snapped back down to stare at sorrowful blue eyes gazing up at him. Poppy was gently squeezing his hand. ".....I-....I'm sorry for everything that's happened to you. And them. I really am. You seem like a really nice person even if you can come across as a stubborn purple onion. For what you did...There's really no other noble thing than a good father is there?" He still stared at her.....then to where she was holding his hand, and a bright yellow hue flushed his cheeks as he coughed and looked away. "I-....Suppose you're right. Anyways, all this talking is distracting me from my work! You have your dress and feel better obviously-" "Could you please stay? At least until I fall back asleep...I-...I'd appreciate it a lot if ya did." He stared at her a moment before waving a hand still blushing yellow. "Fine. But don't expect me to do this again. Because guess what? Im not legally obligated too." She smiled. "Sure, Snatcher." She giggled and got up to presumably get back in her floor bed and he watched her go. .....She thought she was a good father huh? And she was mistaken as Bow's mother? His hand slowly closed itself as he watched her. Well. Every child deserves a mother didn't they? And who better deserved a mother than his little devils? She just needed some time to realize it.

#Snatcher

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