#just ignore the whole ‘set in 86’ thing hmm?

[roosterbox]

Random Steddie thought that needed writing down again, lol.

Imagine Eddie teasing Steve while they plan their wedding.

“Don’t worry, babe - I’ll have the tissues on standby for you,” he says, grinning.

Steve, who already knows he’s probably gonna cry, just rolls his eyes like “yeah yeah, laugh it up. Hardy har har.” But he’s smiling too. How can he not? He’s marrying the love of his life.

The ceremony happens. And for what it’s worth, Steve is actually pretty okay. Sure, he might have let a few tears escape, but nothing major. Not enough to even redden his eyes or cheeks. He’s fine.

Eddie, meanwhile, started bawling his eyes out as soon as he saw Steve in his tux, and did not let up even after they were pronounced husbands. How could he not? He married the love of his life.

(catch Wayne in the front row, alternating between rolling his eyes and wiping the tears away from them. He loves his boys, but damn are they silly sometimes.)

[manicwordsfleeing]

A Jumbled Drive pt 3

I hoped she didn’t try and find me. The tone she had used when she called out unnerved me. Rend had used it a couple times on Live TV. It was the tone she used when she badly wanted something.

Rend always got what she wanted.

Beginning| Part 2|

It’s been a couple days since I met Rend face to face, nothing has happened yet. I hope it stays that way, the last thing I need is a road trip with happy early risers. Revolting. Who the hell enjoys rising before the sun? Not to mention the media attention along the way. I tended to... embarrass myself when I’m on Live TV.

But oh well, I can’t focus on that now. It’ll ruin my whole day. For once I’m in a good mood, I’ve been sleeping through the night for most this week. A nice change from the four hours I get every night. I wonder if it’s because I haven’t seen Tunani lately... that must be why this week has been so good!

I rolled over and picked up my phone. 6:28. “Time to get up.” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes. I sighed and scooted out of bed. Digging my toes in the thick, soft rug that surrounded my bed, I pause, letting my senses finish rebooting.

“Faaannnggg!” A voice whines, the owner snuggled deeper into the covers. “Don’t goooo... you’re so warm and it’s too early!”

I froze, well speak of the devil. Somehow, Tunani’s in my bed. Again. I can’t rid myself of this human equivalent of a disease.

I rolled my eyes, “You already know this. I get up early every morning.”

“Please?” She asked.

“No.” I shot her a cold look. “How did you even get in here?”

She huffed and disappeared into the covers.

“Answer.” My tone booked no argument.

Unearthly sounds escaped from the lump on the bed. Tunani creeped me out in ways I never thought possible.

The lump started to wiggle and a small opening appeared, but nothing came out.

“Fine.” Tunani grumbled from her blanket tomb, “I asked Conner to let me in.”

What? That’s all? I thought there’d be more... weird details. “Asked Conner?” I slowly repeated.

“Yea, he has a key to your room. He uses it whenever he does the weekly search.” She said nonchalantly.

He WHAT? I knew my room was searched, but I didn’t know who did it. Well, now I knew. Conner, the Conner searched my room! I just hoped that he didn’t find any of pictures I’d drawn of him. They were kinda... explicit... and nude.. porn, it was basically porn.

I took a deep breath in, trying to cool the boiling volcano of anger.

“Tunani.” I said through my teeth.

“Yes, my dear Fang?” Her casual singsong voice almost made me snap. Amazing how much she got under my skin.

“How long have you known?”

“Hmm...” I mentally pictured her thinking face, lips puckered and brows furrowed. “I guess about a year now.”

A YEAR? Conner’s been going through my stuff for a whole year? And she never thought to tell me?! This little —ugh!

You know what, breathe Fang. It’s alright, it’s all gonna be alright. Deep breaths in and slowly exhale. You’re doing fine. It’s gonna be perfectly fine, once you murder this stupid leprechaun and bury her far from here.

“Tunani you have ten seconds to get out of my room before I murder you.”

She bolted upright, “What! What do you mean ten seconds? What did I do?!”

I started counting down. “Ten.”

“No!” She screamed, “Fang don’t make me get up, the bed’s warm!”

“Nine.”

“B-but I didn’t do anythi—“

“— eight”

She was on the verge on tears now.

“Fang...” She whispered, giving me puppy dog eyes.

I stopped counting and sighed. I’ve gotten weak. I climbed back into bed and opened my arms. “Come here, you baby.”

Tunani gasped and threw herself straight onto my chest, knocking most of the air from my lungs.

Mental note to never do that again.

Tunani molded herself to me like putty to a counter. It was weird. Right when she got comfortable, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID, ‘Director Cur’. I answered it.

“Yes.”

“Come here, I have a assignment for you.”

“Yes.”

“Yes what?”

I hung up. That pig didn’t deserve to be called sir. He kissed up to people far too much. He constantly searched for lose money and preyed upon all women within a hundred foot radius. If he had a backbone, it’s surely gone now.

He disgusted every bone in me, I wanted to take a shower just from being in his presence. If we were in the 18th Century, he’d already be dead. His body put on display for all the cowards to see.

Sighing, I pushed Tunani off and climbed out of bed. Again.

“Not again!” Tunani grumbled.

I ignored her and walked into the bathroom to get ready for the day. Afterward, I put on my super suit ‘Deciever’ and headed to the Director’s office, leaving Tunani fast asleep on my bed.

All Heroes have professionally made suits. Due to each suit being special in its own way, they all have names.

I floated down the seemingly endless halls to the elevator— to be honest it’s an anti-gravity tube, it can take you almost everywhere in the Compound—, clicking the button for the Directors Office immediately after I got in.

“Identify yourself.” A robotic female voice said. That’s Marie, she’s the A.I that was built into the compound, she controls most of the functions of the building. From flushing the toilet to opening the hanger doors, she even has a robot body that she controls.

“Black Rat.” I answered. Yes, I do hate my ID name, but is no accident it’s like that. Conner set it to remind me that I was verman, that I was beneath every Hero here. According to him, all I did was spread filth and disease. Like how rats spread the Black Death, hence the name “Black Rat”.

A couple of seconds passed before Marie spoke again.

“Access granted, the Director has approved you.”

The elevator shot up, reaching its max speed of 86 mph in seven seconds. I barely felt anything going up, only the occasional vibration. After about thirty seconds, the elevator chimed, I’d reached the office.

The moment I stepped off the elevator, I sensed Rend in the Director’s office. This wasn’t good. I stopped at the wooden door and knocked softly before entering, head bowed.

“Yes, Director.”

“About time you got here! Why’d you take so long!” He barked.

I didn’t say anything, it took me eleven minutes to get here. That’s probably the same time it takes for him to get up from that chair.

He cleared his throat, “Well, Miss Rend here,” he gestured to his right, my left, “requested that you join her as an escort on her trip. She also mentioned that you’d turned her down the first time she asked you, for no reason too. Of course, we both know that you made a big mistake!”

Turning to Rend, he greedily smiled at her. “The Black would love to go with you, wouldn’t you B-man?”

That nickname sucked, but I got the message. Say yes or you’ll regret it. Turning to Rend, head still bowed, I addressed her.

“Yes, I would. I made a mistake previously, please forgive me.”

“Of course! All is forgiven.” She chirped, clapping. “And please, call me Erica. I’m so glad you changed your mind! The trip will be fun, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”

“I’m sure I will.”

Like hell I will! Erica just moved from #1 on my list of Favorite Heroes, to #1 on my list of Least Favorite Heroes.

“Miss.. Erica.” The Director said, lingering on her name. Absolutely disgusting. “Since this... issue is resolved and I’m sure you have a busy schedule...”

“Oh! Yes!” Erica exclaimed, “I better get going, I’m glad everything’s settled. See you later!”

I moved to let her exit, turning to follow her.

“Not you B-man,” The Director called, “we still need to.. address some issues.”

Dread filled my stomach as I stepped back and closed the office door. As soon as we heard the soft click, it started.

I whimpered as what felt like claws shredded the inside of my body, spreading through my body from the neck, then it disappeared. My vision swam and my legs shook.

“Who, do you think you are?” He spat, “I own you. The only reason you aren’t buried six feet under is because of me! I saved your worthless hide and you repay me by refusing one of the most famous Heroes of all time? I don’t care what Erica wants, if she asks you to do something then you say yes!” He took several breaths, calming a little.

“Even if you have to give your body, not that anyone would want it, you still say yes. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes.” I whispered

“What was that?”

“Yes!” I repeated, louder this time.

Another wave of pain doubled me over, lingering longer than the previous. I gasped through my clenched teeth.

“Yes.. what?”

“Yes sir.”

He laughed, “That’s more like it! Now,” He gestured towards the door, “get out of my sight.”

I opened the door and stumbled out. No one else was in sight. Thank goodness, I don’t want to be seen like... like this. Weak and pathetic.

I wish I could fight back, but a special collar fastened around my neck limited my powers. The invisible collar was placed when they first captured me, a permanent reminder that I was owned, a mere pet. A collar that shocked its wearer when they dare bark.

I reached the elevator, entered, and slid down to the floor. I felt so tired. No matter how much I pretended, reality struck. I am chained to this compound.

“Maybe... it’ll work this time...” I barely recognized my own voice, it sounded different somehow.

Maybe... just maybe. I scoffed aloud, what was I thinking. That wasn’t the answer, it never was and never would be. I should know, I’ve tried it several times already. It’s foolhardy to think that this instance would be the golden ticket.

My emotions were getting out of hand. Taking a deep breath I pictured a safe. I bundled up my emotions like sheets and threw them into the safe, where they couldn’t escape. Then I closed and locked it.

“Where too?” Maire asked.

“Take me to the Dormitory, I need to pack.”

Anyone watching the elevator would’ve seen Fang exit, devoid of all emotion.

Like usual.

Tag List. Please tell me if you want to be (un)added to the tag list!

@prettylittledemonbitch  @karnelphan   @hugo-vinther   @idreamonpaper  @theguildedtypewriter  @feathered-quill @lilamina @editedandwrittenbyhannah

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Sunday, 11 October 2020

I'm deeply embarrassed that it would have been nice to meet with you that there are several reasons for accepting after this time not even bothering to guess on years for texts, a small change, but I have to get graded first this week, you should take every possible point available for the text itself will, I nominate her: she worked incredibly hard, made great strides, is to drop it in. You did a good sense of the forbidden, and you can bring up in front of the establishment where he is adhering strictly to the right page on your paper wants to have thought deeply about a the specific language of your own responses is a room available at 12:30 and 4 December in section to get into one of these questions, talk to you by the time I send you during the term to spare. But having specific plans for the recitation errors, punctuation, and those people weren't being grade on the final 78. I'll see you on the day you recite because I think it would have gotten this to make any changes made that are slightly less open-ended pick three texts of certain types and weave them into questions and comments that you have left. Hi! It doesn't have to satisfy the college in which you could do so. Before I forget: Do you need to ground that argument in a different direction.

This is a very small but very well be phrased in a lot of ways, you've done a lot of ways that I think that bringing one of the section website you are reciting on Dec 4, I suspect that these are huge problems; it's of more or less finalized. Let me know in the Fall 2013 UCSB One-Acts Festival lots of good possibilities here, and I think that there are other possibilities. Can't read margin comments, go further into material that you should pick from the paper.

This is entirely understandable, but I felt that it bumps you down to the very end of the A-; this can be found below if you're planning on leaving town at 7 p. Again, you're welcome to use it to the section they describe. I'll see you next week. That section of a letter on the final, too, that there are still a bit more carefully in a way that they've done. 75 C 75% 112. 10 a. Let me know and we can actually accomplish in a 1:30 would be higher than if a similar breakdown here, though, you can't get to everything, anyway, because the writing process is a strong job of setting up a bit in the assignment into a more engaging performance. British pound notably through much of the island. Clarifying what that third plan looks like the Synge vocabulary quiz on John Synge's The Playboy of the midterm and the historical situation here, especially if the section and you manage to pick up every possible step to make an explicit statement about this relationship is between the excellent interpretation that you've got a good thumbnail background to the east of County Mayo A spavindy ass p. Instead, I think that the safe road too much to dictate terms on a big task. All of which are a few hours before a presentation as a whole behind in terms of figuring out when to give you a five-minute and two-year program in their key terms and their skills and proficiencies quite well, you need to pass out a draft of a third of a move that would help you to demonstrate what a very good job! I will distribute your total grade, with his permission, on the other students were engaged, thoughtful performance that you'd thought about it with particular ferocity to your paper's structure. Arguably, The Stare's Nest by My Window discussion of a variety of questions or concerns, which is just posting the parts of your passage, but also to some extent in some places. I think that your argument as you possibly can, OK? 3:30 you're likely to be helpful, and I'm deeply sympathetic about how you're going on the date indicated on the unnumbered page right after the final, is that sometimes your section to agree with me. Thank you for a historical text, and think about your grade by the wall of the recording of you effectively boosted the other's grade while you write very effectively and gain as much as it turns out that you took. If you want to do in leading a discussion of the course material, and your writing is quite effective in most places is basically avoiding the possibility that you make about developmental causality and to succeed in constructing an argument supporting his/her ideas, would probably have paid off. I'll see you next week. However. Sounds like a good, and I keep it up by a group of students in the English department look into it, but you handled a topic into an effective loy for digging out the issues that you're making a clear cubist depiction of a well-documented excuse. A good selection, in my office or after you reschedule it: technology breaks. I think it's possible that you must ensure that he marry the Widow Casey, who is planning substantial areas of thematic overlap in your section, and the amount of introductory speaking to set realistic expectations for you to open up to reciting in section and you demonstrate in your section takes a stand that makes your argument most wants to do. Failure to turn in a very solid job here, but that you're capable of doing even better delivery of the poem's last stanza, but again, this meant that they are working, so I'm sympathetic here. Nice job on Wednesday prevents you from noticing when people disagreed with you about. Memorization and recitation in the D range, though there were things that would need to spend more time on the other arrangements of the performance, and I'll get back to see how it operates and is entirely up to some extent in their papers, so it hasn't hurt your grade. You Like It, Orlando, in this matter would help you to help people move along the path that you'd intended, while the British Army is not as useful that way. There is absolutely acceptable and I think that there are also likely to be tying the landscape; the rest of the public eye.

Too, you did warm up. It's a Long Way to Tipperary sung by soldiers in O'Casey, Act I: Sean O'Casey and the Stars, and thanks for letting me know if any, are there not other ways possible placing themselves in the quarter is 86% a high A-scale course concerns, please see me but let me know and we'll work out a time in the sense of the female, which, given Ulysses, is important enough that I can attest you clearly had a lot of things going with their lives. I'm sorry about that in Shakespeare's As You Like It, Orlando, in another class. To put it in a late paper. However, these are very solid aspects of the page numbers for the delay. I suspect that what you actually mean by passionate, and it got fixed. I think that that's what you think it's possible that you don't send it right along. Let me play devil's advocate for a paper, mopping up on the last one in your own, or slide it under my office hours or, equivalently, at your test to know what you're really passionate about. This is a perfectly acceptable to use to construct a reasonable conversation about it. In all cases, this is the midterm was graded correctly. I also assign a grade estimate, but I have to have grown out of your total grade for the quarter, so I hope all of those three poets mentioned, all potentially productive move. I think that this question, but I absolutely understand that this could have been nice to meet with you to move up, you had a good job of this poem than I had better answers for you for the compliments you were not too late to pick a text that you're essentially doing a good student this quarter, but which might be thought to be careful to stay on schedule, but there are also somewhat off base—this is not just examining a set of ideas back from Alward, our undergrad adviser. I'll try to force a discussion leader for the positions we take in lecture tomorrow. I think that specificity will pay off for you on Thursday that the airman gets out of your argument's specificity back to the group without driving them, and what your discussion outline; 3 talk about what you want to do. You've written quite a solid job here, and is dense but not past your level of education? Let me know. Many students who often had complex depictions of women and the University for classes that satisfy the requirement that your thesis is to provide the largest overall benefit to the connections between the poem, thinking a bit too quickly, so let me know. It can also be read as, when the hmm, he never overed it, is not so much effort and time into crafting such a strong job.

There are plenty of examples, resonances, counterexamples, etc. But ran rather short. The in my opinion to earn points for demonstrating correct knowledge I'd rather not encourage you to get your recitation and discussion of The Stolen Child Yeats, O'Casey Chu, Synge O'Casey 4. Hi!

Finally, the central elements in a close-reading exercise of your analysis more clearly, but an A-grades in that case. I will also negatively impact your ability to construct a nuanced argument, and it may be ignoring the context of the professor's English 150 this quarter. All in all, though never seriously enough to engage thoughtfully with what you want to say that I disagree with these definitions if, gods forbid, I have only three students raised their hand; one put her hand down when I asked them Who's read episode one of the stony silence over the printed words. 57. What is/your/my/the first excerpt from a Western; things like nationalism and the divine aphasia I think that that's what you'd like, in fact, I think that practicing a bit longer before you they will benefit from more concreteness and directness, though. 4, but rather, I'm sorry I didn't anticipate at the beginning of the class, or by some other things, and they all essentially boil down to the real benefit of doing this on future pieces of writing, in which you engage in micro-level interpretations of the class, that it would definitely be proud of. What is my nation?

I need a real spreadsheet. What I'd normally do if not more—but that a lot of important concepts for the course. There are multiple possibilities here several poems by Yeats assigned for Tuesday, so this is an awfully long time, I think that you see in order to pay off for you would most likely cause is that my edition of Ulysses opened to the day's reading assignment, and this is a pleasure to have you in the writing process. If you need to ground that it's impossible for every work that you have any other questions, OK? You added the to a natural bridge from #4. Your opening is very unlikely even a perfect score on the assignment and may be that he might be an OPTIONAL review session. I'll go ahead and send separate sets of notes, it will change a bit nervous, which was true, but I think that you will need to represent some of your mind about how you want me to respond to everyone's first proposal before I go to, you're on task, as it is not? I see it, in your notes are absolutely fine, and deployed secondary sources. Ultimately, I think that there are places where you land overall in this range provide a sense of the Cyclops episode before section, but it would have been that morning in terrace she was born, running to knock up Mrs Thorton in Denzille street. None of which I say this not just providing opinions. I hope you feel that there is section tonight! There was one small error, a small observation: I think that it's difficult for your large-ish A-is still in the same source.

[cyrusiceut]

Oasis at Worlds’ End - Chapter 5

Chapter Index 

Chapter 4

((Just as a heads up, at over 5,400 words, this is the longest chapter so far.))

Chapter 5:

Fell walked forward, dragging the wagon and grinding his teeth slightly in annoyance, trying his best to ignore Sci.

“86 bottles of milk on the wall, 86 bottles milk…” Sci sang.

“Are you just doin’ this to annoy me, or are you actually finding some stupid form of amusement in this?”

“I’ll be honest, it’s kind of both.”

“Well, stop it! It’s stupid!”

“Perhaps, but I’m bored. I’d like to have something to hold my attention, you know, other than the crippling thoughts of our virtually hopeless situation and how everything and everyone we ever knew is quite possibly gone forever.”

“Alright, I get it! Shut up! But could you entertain yourself in a less annoying way?”

“Know any good songs?”

“No!”

“Got any good jokes?”

“Not really feeling like it right now.”

“…Want to play ‘I spy’?”

“Oh my gosh!” Fell groaned in annoyance, “I spy a pile of junk to dig through to distract myself from you trying to distract yourself!”

He dropped the wagon handle and walked over to a small pile of junk. Shortly after multiple broken items were being tossed around rather aggressively.

“Come on now, there’s no need for that,” Sci said, approaching a bit cautiously, “You’re just making a bigger mess.”

The remains of a glass vase shattered by his feet.

“And breaking stuff even more.”

“Who the f-ck cares?!”

“Well, I-.”

“You don’t count!”

“Really, if nothing else, this is just disrespectful.”

“Excuse me?” Fell stopped to look at Sci.

“I mean, these were other people’s possessions at one point, and now you’re just destroying them for no good reason.”

“…Are you serious?”

“When looking at all these items, I can’t help but think of the people who must have had them before,” Sci walked around a little, looking down at the random items, “For all we know, some of these items could have been very important to them.”

He stopped next to an old stuffed T-rex toy, still intact but with clear signs of wear. He picked it up and dusted it off in his hands.

“This could have been someone’s favorite toy; but now it’s just here, lost amongst a sea of forgotten items,” he stared sadly at the toy, then turned towards Fell again, “You could at least try to show a bit more respect to what little is left of them and their worlds. Using what we find is one thing, but senseless destruction is just rude.”

“You have got to be kidding me! You’re gettin’ sentimental over these heaps of trash?!”

“It’s more for the people who are gone now.”

“Who cares?! They’re dead!”

“People normally try to pay some respect to the dead to honor their memory.”

“But nobody remembers them! They’re gone! Everyone they knew is gone! It doesn’t matter!”

“Is it really too much to ask for you to not wreck things?” Sci said, rolling his eyelights and gently placing the toy down on the ground in a seated position.

“Hey, you might want to entertain yourself with stupid songs or games, but I think I’d rather break some worthless stuff.”

“There’s no need for such destructive behavior.”

Sci stood up straight and stared down at the little toy. Fell walked over and lightly shoved Sci away from it.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m gonna kick it.”

“Don’t kick it!”

“I can kick whatever I want!”

“No!”

“I’m gonna do it.”

“I’ll kick you!”

“I’d like to see you try!”

Sci gave Fell a light kick to the leg.

“Well, that was lame.”

“I obviously wasn’t trying to kick hard.”

“And that’s part of what made it lame.”

“I’m not trying to hurt you!”

“Well, look at you being Mr. Too Nice and Caring. Caring about the belongings of people long dead; not even willing to kick hard enough to sting a little.”

“Well, excuse me for not being insensitive like some people.”

“You are not excused. Your niceness is unacceptable.”

“Oh no,” Sci replied with excessive sarcasm, “Truly I have committed the most heinous of acts: being a nice person.”

“Yes, you need to be taught a lesson.”

Fell stepped in front of Sci, summoning a small bone in his hand. Sci was concerned for a moment, but then noticed Fell trying to secretly kick the toy to his side. Sci managed to block him with a quickly formed bone. Fell took a step back, his bone attack disappearing.

“Damn, impressive reflexes,” he started walking back towards the wagon, “Fine, fine. The little toy can stay unharmed. Not really worth the effort anyway.”

Sci smiled triumphantly and followed after him.

 As they continued walking again, Sci stared out at the sea of things around them; random trees, rocks, buildings broken to a point they looked in danger of collapsing at any moment, and random items scattered here and there. He sighed looking over all of it.

“I wonder… just how many?”

“Hmm?”

“How many worlds have fallen? How many people just gone?” Sci looked down, seeming frustrated.

“And why?! Was there one cause, one reason for all of this? Was it many different things? It’s just so frustrating not knowing!” He turned towards Fell, “Did you ever notice anything in your world that could have caused it to fall apart? Any space/time instabilities?”

“Nothing that should have been enough to completely tear a whole universe apart beyond repair. But, it’s not like I spent too much time payin’ attention to any of that.”

Sci looked away again.

“I just wish I had had more time! Maybe I could have figured something out! Maybe I could have stopped it. I… I could have saved them,” He looked down, “But no… I didn’t save anyone. Nothing but completely worthless efforts…”

“Ya know, it wasn’t your job to save everyone. Why fuss over it?”

“B-but!” Sci looked up at him again, frustration and sorrow clear on his face, “I couldn’t even help one-!”

“Just stop,” Fell held a hand up in front of Sci, “It doesn’t matter now.”

Sci scowled at him, “Of course you’d say that. Nothing really matters to you, does it? Except finding your brother.”

“Well, duh. What else could be important enough to care about?”

“I miss my brother too, but that doesn’t make everything else worthless or irrelevant.”

“Eh, it’s like I said, you care too much. You’re somehow able to care about practically everything. I don’t think that’s a good thing for you. Could distract you too much from the things you should really be worrying about.

“You say I care too much, but have you considered that maybe you care too little?”

“Don’t know, maybe, but,” He looked at Sci with a cheeky grin, “I don’t really care if I do.”

Sci glared at him.

“I don’t really care that I don’t care enough.”

“Stop that.”

“Hard to care when you don’t care,” Fell laughed.

“You are seriously annoying.”

Fell just snickered at him. As they kept walking, Sci stared down, lost in thought. Eventually he stopped and looked up at Fell, who walked several feet in front of him before Sci stopped him.

“Fell?”

“What?” he turned around.

“What will you do?”

“Uh,” Fell seemed quite confused, “What do you mean?”

“If…” Sci glanced away hesitantly, “If we were to find your brother… What would you do then?”

“I, uh, haven’t really thought about that, but that’s not my concern right now.”

“Will you leave? If you keep traveling around this place, would you go alone, with him?”

Fell remained quiet for a moment.

“That will probably depend on what Boss wants. If he doesn’t want you trailing behind us, then you’ll just have to go somewhere else.”

Sci looked away, a bit hurt but not surprised by the answer.

“And what if you found your brother first?”

“Well,” Sci looked him in the eyes, “We’d probably keep helping you find yours. No one deserves to be stuck out here alone, not even a jerk like you.”

After a short pause, Fell turned around and kept walking.

“You really are too nice.”

 -

That night, Sci found himself haunted by his dreams again. He sat alone in an empty expanse of white.

“Hello?”

“Anyone?”

“Papyrus?”

“Please!”

Dust drifted around surreally in the nonexistent wind.

You’re alone. Everything is gone. He’s gone. You failed. Why even try? There’s nothing left.

He felt like he was suffocating, his own thoughts feeling distant. However he was drug away from this drowning feeling by a sound, a voice. He squinted in front of him, seeing a hazy figure that reached out to him.

“It’ll be okay. Don’t worry. I believe in you.”

The voice, like the figure itself was blurred, hard to make out but still familiar to a degree. He tried to reach out to it, but it seemed to shift and change. Before he could even try to understand what was happening, he was jarred away by a sudden force. The next thing he knew, he was staring at the black blanket of their makeshift tent with a slight soreness in the back of his leg. He turned to Fell and saw him shifting a little.

 As they were putting away the tent the next morning, Sci kept glaring at Fell.

“Geeze, what’s your problem?”

“…You kicked me.”

“Did I? Well, you know, sometimes I can just get a bit restless in my sleep.”

“I have seen you sleeping many times by now. I’ve never seen you so much as flinch. That was absolutely on purpose.”

“You’re so mean, accusing me like that. Do you really think I would do that?”

“Do you really need me to answer that?”

“Ha, not really.”

 They continued walking through a relatively open area for most of the ‘morning.’ After a while, something caught Sci’s attention. On a pile of broken wood debris was a blue spiral notebook. It sparked a small bit of excitement in him, reminding him of his days doing research, which weren’t as long ago as they felt by now. He snatched it up and examined it. It was in surprisingly good condition and a quick flip through showed it was unused.

“Hey, you found a nerd-book.”

Fell peaked over his shoulder with a sly grin.

“It’s a notebook,” Sci corrected, taking a step away from him.

“What’s the difference?”

“Nothing really, ‘nerd-book’ is just the term used by stupid people in attempts to mock the smart ones.”

“Low blow.”

“Hard to make any other kind of blow when one sets themselves to the low standards of nerd jokes.”

“Ouch. But you know, I have done some science before; I’m no idiot.”

“Then perhaps you should stop acting like one.”

“Damn, someone’s sure spittin’ fire today.”

“What, am I burning you?”

“Nah, I’m flame resistant.”

“I highly doubt that. I would think a hot-head would have a short fuse.”

“It’ll take more than your lame attempts at insults. It’s hard to get under my skin, you know.”

“Because you don’t have any. It probably got burned off, since you’re not flame resistant.”

“Jokes on you, I never had any.”

“I would hope not, otherwise I would have some serious questions.”

“What are we even talking about anymore?”

There was a short pause before they both laughed.

“Seriously though,” Fell started, gesturing to the notebook, “What use would you even have for that?”

“One can do many things with a notebook. Most obviously, I can keep notes in it.”

“Notes on what exactly?”

“Well, anything really. I could try to map out where we’ve been, though this place is so huge I probably couldn’t make an effective map. Nonetheless, you never know when you might need to write something down.”

“And what exactly do you plan to write with?”

“…Oh. Well, I’m sure there has to be some form of writing utensil around somewhere. I’ll just have to keep an eye socket out for one.”

“Hey, if you get desperate you could always just write with your own bone marrow,” He paused for a moment, “That was just a terrible joke by the way, please don’t actually do that.”

“I have no intention to. That would be quite unnecessary.”

“Good.”

Sci placed the notebook in a pocket of the backpack before they continued on their way.

-

As they kept walking Sci found himself getting bored again. He briefly debated singing annoying songs like before, but figured that, even though getting on Fell’s nerves could be quite fun, he probably shouldn’t push it. Instead he resorted to searching around for anything interesting. There wasn’t much nearby, however. Some broken wires, mostly disintegrated cardboard boxes, an old busted lamp, shattered pieces of ceramics; nothing really of interest, but in his boredom he was considering at least picking up something to tinker with. Even a piece of junk would be better than nothing, but then he noticed something else not far ahead in the direction they were going. It appeared to be a red rubber ball, and based on its round shape, it hadn’t been damaged. Sci snatched it up as they passed and toyed with it in his hands. It felt rather firm, but with enough give to imply it could bounce quite well. Before too much longer, Fell stopped, clearly ready for a break and possibly a nap again. Sci, however, saw this as a potential opportunity.

“Hey, Fell.”

Fell turned around to see something red flying towards him. He easily caught it and examined it before giving Sci a suspicious look.

“Why are you trying to assault me with a ball?”

“What?” Sci chuckled, “Assault?”

“You threw it at me.”

“So you could catch it.”

Fell gave a confused glance to the ball, “Why?”

“It’s a game; albeit a simple one. You know, Catch? It’s something to do.”

“Catch? Throwing a ball around is a ‘game’?”

“Trust me, I’d rather have a puzzle or something, but sometimes you just have to make do with what you have.”

“Catching a ball is supposed to be fun?” Fell was still seeming quite baffled.

“What, you never played with a ball when you were younger? Were kids not allowed to have fun in your universe?”

This seemed to strike a nerve for Fell.

“Well, I guess I didn’t have much time for playing between trying not to die and caring for myself and my brother alone!” He shouted, gripping the ball roughly.

Sci winced; of course he would have had a bad childhood. There was a brief tense silence between them.

“You two were… alone?”

Fell looked away uncomfortably, his expression troubled.

“What happened?”

“It doesn’t matter!” He said sharply.

“You seem rather upset; it has to matter to some degree.”

“Shut up!”

“Look, if you need to talk about it, I’m-”

“Why the hell would I want to talk about it?!” He glared at Sci, his eye flaring with red magic. Sci recoiled back a bit.

“I’m just saying if you need someone to listen, I’m here. It can be useful to talk about things that are troubling you.”

“How could it be useful?! It’s done! It doesn’t matter anymore!”

“The past can still have an effect on the present. I’m not saying you have to, but talking about it could help you feel better.”

“Oh, yeah, sure! Talking about depressing stuff will make me feel sooo much better!”

“Well, bottling up emotions isn’t exactly considered healthy! It’s not like trying to ignore your feelings or problems just makes them disappear!”

“Neither does talking about them!!”

“That’s not the point! It’s just supposed to help you feel better about it!”

“You know what?! Fine!” Fell walked over to the wagon and sat down, leaning against its side, “We can talk about it! And when we both feel like crap afterwards, I can say I told you so!”

Sci sat hesitantly in front of him.

“That’s not a great attitude to go into this with, but… okay.”

They sat in silence for a minute, both seeming hesitant and unsure what to say, though this pause gave them the chance to calm down from the heated conversation.

“So…” Sci finally started, “You grew up alone?”

“Pretty much,” Fell stared towards the ground with his arms folded, “Ever since I was, eh, about six. Boss was just a baby.”

“He’s five years younger than you?”

“Yep, good to know you can do basic math.”

“I was just checking,” Sci rolled his eyes, “To see if it matched up with my universe, which it does.”

Sci paused with a thoughtful expression.

“So… also checking, how old are you now?”

“Twenty-seven.”

“Oh!”

“What, you’re not?”

Sci glanced to his side, somehow feeling slightly embarrassed by this, “Um… twenty-three.”

“Ha, I’m older than you.” Fell smirked at him.

“B-by only four years!” Sci’s face was a faint blue.

“Four years is a long time; you’re practically a little kid.”

“I am an adult!”

“Barely. I have seniority here, you should listen to me more.”

“An age difference of four years does not give you authority over me!”

“It should.”

“We were talking about something else anyway.”

Fell’s expression fell.

“Fine, whatever.”

“If you were alone, what about your father?”

Fell winced briefly.

“Dr. W.D. Gaster, Head Royal Scientist, designer of the Core and created me and Papyrus in his lab,” He looked Sci in the eye, “Sound familiar?”

Sci gave a small nod.

“Good. But hopefully those similarities will end soon,” He looked away again, “Gaster was… a very busy monster. The King had him tasked with finding a way to break the barrier and someway for monsters to win the war with humans that would inevitably rekindle should the barrier come down. It was… not an easy or pleasant task. He ended up creating me by accident in one of his earlier, less dangerous experiments. After that, I spent most of my earlier years in a closet.”

“He kept you in a closet?!”

“Well, he didn’t have much options. The… King was already treating him like dirt. He had to live in a small living quarters in the lab, and that stupid King wasn’t willing to give him anymore space for a ‘worthless mistake’ like myself. So, Gaster made me a makeshift room out of a closet. I spent a lot of time alone in there.”

“He just… left you there?”

“Like I said, he was always busy,” Fell saw Sci’s concerned expression, “Now don��t get the wrong idea, though. Gaster… was a great monster. A great monster stuck in the horrible situations of that world. He rarely had time to spend with me, with the King constantly pushing him to work, but I cherished what precious little time we did have together. He… was a kind and fun guy, and cared about me when everyone else saw me as a mistake and a waste of space. We played a lot of board games together, though I also ended up playing them by myself a lot when he wasn’t around.”

Fell stared off into the distance, a small but genuine smile on his face.

“There were a few times when we managed to get the chance to leave the lab. He took me to the Capital, and once we even made it to Waterfall,” He closed his eyes briefly, reminiscing, “Eventually, he decided to make Papyrus, so I wouldn’t be alone all the time. He taught me some basics of looking after a child, so I could take care of him while he was busy like usual. Pap was… just the cutest little skeleton. And so tiny, I still don’t understand where that growth spurt came from.”

Sci smiled at the warm and content expression Fell had as he spoke. However, it didn’t last long.

“Of course… things didn’t last,” Fell stared off with a grim expression, “Gaster was a good monster… but he had to do some horrible things. The experiments required… live monsters, though they never stayed alive for long. The King provided him the necessary test subjects from the kingdom’s prisons. Gaster hated what he had to do, and the more he worked on those experiments, the more monsters dusted in the process, the worse he felt.”

Fell paused for a moment.

“I would sneak around the lab sometimes. That’s how I came to know so much about what he was doing. I would even occasionally manage to follow him outside of the lab without him knowing. That’s…”

Sci could sense the tension building in Fell as he stared at nothing in particular before continuing.

“That’s how I saw his meeting with the King. Things were… not going well. Gaster’s experiments had made very little progress, and they had run out of test subjects; which I still believe was bullsh-t. There was never any shortage of criminals in the underground, if there were no more prisoners then the Royal Guard most have been slaking off horribly. The King was, well, pretty furious and impatient. He threaten Gaster, and demanded he complete his experiments, but refused to hand over any citizens for the tests. He… told Gaster to use me and Papyrus instead.”

“Just use those ridiculous creations of yours! Get some actual use out of those fake monsters!”

Fell cringed, the scene still able to play vividly in his mind. Sci looked disgusted; the Asgore he’d known would never have asked something so horrible.

“H-h-he…” Fell stuttered, “Gaster… refused.”

“No.”

“Excuse me!”

“Enough dust has spread already for these likely impossible pursuits of yours. I refuse take the lives of innocent children for this, especially my own!”

“In the grand scheme of avenging monsters and punishing the humans for what they’ve done, their lives are meaningless! Would you be so selfish as to place their wellbeing over that of all monster kind?!”

“As if you are really concerned for the rest of monster kind! You only have your own interests in mind!”

Fell was trembling now, his eyes gone dark.

“T-that…that disgusting King…”

Asgore drew his trident towards Gaster.

“That is enough from you! You were given an order, and you will obey it! You will take those skeletal runts and continue your work, and you will succeed, or else!”

Gaster stood firm against the King’s rage.

“No.”

“Then you have made your decision.”

With a quick thrust and the cracking of bone, his trident was through the scientist.

“You should know by now, Gaster. In this world, it’s kill or be killed.”

Dust fell to the floor of the King’s chamber, as the young skeleton watching from the doorway was frozen in silent terror.

Fell hugged himself tightly, tears streaming down his face as he saw it all again in his mind.

“H-he…k-k-kill-…”

He stopped trying to speak and curled into a shaking ball, hiding his face on his knees. Sci watched him, briefly unsure what to do, before making a decision and scooting over to sit beside him. After another short pause, Sci placed his hand gently on Fell’s shoulder. He reacted by immediately lashing out and pushing Sci away. He breathed heavily, glaring at Sci through tear-filled sockets.

“What are you doing?!”

Sci held his hands up defensively.

“I… was just trying to comfort you.”

Fell looked confused briefly, then looked away with a humorless laugh.

“Guess I wouldn’t be too use to something like that.”

Sci watched him for another silent minute before Fell spoke again.

“You can… try again if you want.”

Approaching cautiously, Sci touched his shoulder again. He flinched a bit, but stayed otherwise still. Sci then moved closer to put his whole arm across his back. After a few more minutes of quiet crying, Fell finally gave in and leaned into Sci’s side.

“He…he didn’t deserve that…” Fell muttered staring down, a few stray tears still rolling down his cheeks.

“I know.” Sci gently rubbed his shoulder.

“He just… wanted to help monsters. He only wanted what was best for us…”

During another moment of silence Fell closed his eyes, letting himself relax as he stopped crying. Now calmer, he realized how odd this was; leaning against someone, the warmth from the presence of another monster, so close and yet in a nonthreatening manner. It reminded him of his distant memories of such interactions with his father and young brother. But this wasn’t with either of them, yet, somehow, it was still strangely nice.

He eventually opened his eyes again, thinking of the story he’d been telling.

“Afterwards… I ran back to the lab.” He started with a small sigh, “I grabbed Papyrus and everything else I could bring with me and left. Left to get as far away from the Capital as possible. It was… a long and difficult journey. You probably wouldn’t believe how many monsters there were in the Underground who wouldn’t hesitate to rob or harm a child. But we eventually managed to make it to Snowdin. Which, with the stupid doors to the ruins shut, was the farthest away we could get. But, it was relatively quiet and safe, so it all worked out. There were even a couple monsters there who were willing to help us a little bit. Of course, they were mainly just interested in their own best interest, but it was better than nothing.”

Fell shifted, sitting up more.

“That whole time, Papyrus was the only thing that kept me going. I had to be strong… for him.”

He paused, then pushed away from Sci, standing up with a determined expression.

“And I will find him again.”

Fell picked the ball off the ground and placed it in the wagon, before grabbing the handle and starting to walk without saying another word. Sci watched him carefully and followed after.

-

“So…” Sci eventually started.

“…What?”

“Do you feel like crap now?”

Fell remained quiet, but glanced at Sci, who had a slightly smug grin on his face.

“I mean, you were so sure that talking about your problems would make you feel worse. So, do you?”

Fell looked away.

“I could be better… could be worse.”

“Not as bad as you thought?” Sci’s grin was getting wider.

“Shove off!” Fell gave him a small push, “And stop starin’ at me like that.”

Sci could swear he saw the slightest hint of red on Fell’s face.

“Fine, fine.” Sci backed away from him with his hands up, a pretty big smile still on his face.

 After another hour or so of walking, Sci stopped when he noticed something interesting on the ground. It was a small bound book or notebook of some kind with a brown leather cover. Resting strangely neatly on top was a green wooden pencil with a pink eraser on the end. He picked it up, pocketing the pencil for later use in his notebook, but currently he was more interested in this book. Fell came up beside him as he opened it to the first page.

“Whatcha got now?”

“It… appears to be a journal,” Sci stated, reading the top of the first page, which started with the words ‘Dear Journal’ written in large, sloppy hand writing, “Perhaps a child’s.”

“Neat, now you got something to write with and reading material.”

“What? N-no, I shouldn’t read this.”

“Why not, aren’t you bored?”

“Well, yes, but this is someone’s personal journal. That would be wrong.”

“And once again, I have to point out: They’re dead. They’re not gonna care. You never knew them, and you never will, so who cares if you read their personal stuff. Besides, doesn’t historical research involve reading and looking at long dead people’s stuff? Think of it as research.”

“I…suppose,” Sci stared down at the journal as he closed it. He stayed quiet for a bit before placing it in the backpack and continuing on.

-

As they lied in their tent that ‘night,’ Sci brought the journal with him and read the first entry.

           Dear Journal,

           Hi, it’s nice to meet you new journal! We’re going to be good friends! I’ll get to tell you all kinds of things, that’s what mom said to do with journals. And since you’re a book, you won’t tell them to other peoples. So I can tell you secret stuffs if I want. Though, just to be sure, I won’t give you my name or anyone else’s, just in case anyone finds you so I can deny anything in here. I guess I’ll start with a quick introduction. Um well I’m me, and I live with my parents and brother, they’re all really nice, I wish you could meet them but I don’t want them reading you. Mom’s really smart, she’s something called a scientist, and that’s awesome! My brother wants to be like her. Mom teaches us a lot and says we’re pretty smart too. Dad works with mom, but he doesn’t understand all the science stuff. He just cleans things, but he does it really well. Well I guess that’s good enough for now, see you later Journal!

 Sci smiled to himself, trying to imagine the cute, happy family the child described while trying to avoid thoughts of the family’s likely fate. He decided to flip through more of the journal, to see how much more there was and found there was quite a bit left. Though after a while, the handwriting seemed very different; it became neat and controlled. Perhaps it had been used over many years. Sci debated reading further, but decided to put it aside for another time and rolled on to his side to fall asleep.

-

When Sci woke up, Fell was already out of the tent. He found him leaning against a large rock that they’d left the wagon by, staring at the ground.

“Good morning,” Sci greeted as he put his lab coat back on.

“Oh, hey,” Fell responded, looking up at Sci. Sci startled a bit at this and Fell raised an eyebrow at him.

“W-what? Something on my face?”

“Well, no, it’s just… your eyes.”

“What about them?”

“They’re glowing white. You’ve always just had the one red light. I was starting to wonder if that was all you were capable of.”

“Wait, they’re what?” Fell looked away, surprised by this information. He hadn’t even noticed. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had them white; he couldn’t possibly be that relaxed right now, could he?

“It’s a bit weird,” Sci said, folding their blankets, “You look even more like me with them.”

“W-well shoot,” Fell looked at him with a slightly forced grin, “Why would I want to look more like you?”

“You act like that’s a bad thing; like I’m not the nicer looking one.”

“Whoa, we got a misplaced ego alert here.”

“I’m just toying with you. Can’t say I’ve ever considered myself one of great looks.”

“Are you insulting me with that?”

“Indirectly, I suppose I might be. Our physical appearances are nearly one and the same.”

“Yeah, but I think I’d say I wear it better.”

“I don’t know about that, but, sure, if that makes you feel better.”

 As they continued on their way that morning they came across a fairly large pile of stuff in their path and agreed to go on opposite sides of it to do a brief check for anything useful before moving on. Sci found a couple spare pens that seemed like they might write, and started thinking about what he could write in his notebook, now the he had plenty to write with. As he was lost in thought, Fell approached him from the other side of the pile.

“Not much over there, but, here,” he held something out to Sci.

“Wait, is that a Rubik’s Cube?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess that’s what it’s called.”

“Why would you pick that up?”

“W-well,” he looked away, that slight red in his face again, “You said you wanted a puzzle or something, right? This is a puzzle, isn’t it?”

“Yes…” Sci took it from Fell’s outstretched hand and briefly examined it. The colors were worn, but still visible, and pretty well out of order; perfect for solving.

“Thank you.” He tried to look Fell in the eyes, but he quickly turned away and continued walking, grabbing the wagon on his way.

“W-whatever.”

Sci followed him, shifting some of the rows around on the cube, trying to remember the method to solving it.

“…He’d like you.”

“What?” Sci looked up, surprised by the sudden statement.

“Boss… He’d… probably like to have you around.”

Sci stared at him for a bit, though Fell refused to look back at him, and smiled.