Chapter Text
“Come on *** !"
…running…
“Everyone is waiting for you *** !”
..why…why am…i…
“It’s time to wake up *** !”
…bones…hands…holding me…
“wake up kid...”
…shaking…so much is…shaking…
“PLEASE..WAKE UP SOON DEAREST...”
…why is it…so cold…
“Come o n waKE UP *** !”
need...to wake...up...
...---...
September 4, 2---
Monday
5:23 AM
You jolt upright in your seat as the bus goes over a particularly hard bump around the corner. The dream is already disappearing from your mind. You try to grab whatever fragment you can keep with no luck. The only voice still ringing in your head is your own. ‘ just another useless dream then...’ You think solemnly as you stare out the window.
This isn’t the first time you’ve had dreams that leave you rattled for no reason. It’s not even the first you couldn’t remember. Ever since you were 7 and you woke up in that damned hospital, nothing in your dreams has ever stuck and the memories from your childhood prior just vanished. And being a witch, you’ve tried a lot of different dream and memory stuff. No results. Vision quests, lucid dreaming, meditation– you’ve tried them all. Nothing.
It’s early in the morning. You hazard a guess as to maybe 5:00 to 5:30ish but, given that the days are getting shorter going into Autumn, you aren’t really sure. The day seems like it will be nice at least. The sky is steadily turning a pretty shade of blue without a cloud to obstruct your view. You turn you gaze to your surroundings after a moment.
With a quick sweep of the bus, your tension eases, if only a little. There are no other passengers left on the bus aside from yourself. That’s fine. You feel better being alone anyway. Your soul clenches a little at your next thought. ‘ always alone ain’t I..?’ The bitter taste in your mouth in reaction is...unpleasant.
A sigh escapes you as your gaze falls back to the window. Your reflection isn’t the worst you had ever seen it. At the thought alone you swore you saw a flash of wide, bloodshot eyes, full of terror and shattered youth. You shake your head quickly and give a light pinch to your thigh.
Thankfully, you’re seeing clear again. Your eyes are tired and slightly pink from just waking up. The dark circles underneath are moderately visible. Your eyes themselves were pale in color, a very light grey with flecks of blue depending who you ask. Mom always said that it was a reflection of how truly neutral you were. That the blue flecks were all the little things that make you, you.
You chuckle at that. A lot of people used to describe you as neutral. Another quick flash of bloody hands and you pinch harder. ‘ stop it. you aren’t there. it wasn’t your fault. you had no control.’ You silently scold yourself. You turn your gaze back to the reflection. Your dark hair has somehow maintained its curl in your fit of restless sleep as it sits loosely behind you in your hood. Your hair when hanging freely reaches about to your breasts and hangs in tight dark black curls. When straightened out it reaches closer to your waist. You often hate how much of a hassle your hair is but you love it.
You look down your body appraisingly. Your skin is a fair olive color and your shape is soft. You’ve never considered yourself heavy but you were by no means small either. You stand roughly at about 5’6 and weigh a little under 200 pounds. Your chest is of modest size and you have a little bit of squish just kinda everywhere. You are confident in your body and that is all that matters.
Gazing out the window to see past your reflection you can’t help the smile that comes to you. You love sunrises. Have ever since you were little. Just..something about feeling those first few rays of sun, the warmth that comes with them. It makes your soul rest easier.
After giving the sunrise a few more minutes of your time, you stretch tall over your head. Hearing your left shoulder crack so loudly wasn’t as much of a surprise anymore. And the medicine you take helps to not feel the pains which is a relief. Still strange. But nice. You rub the shoulder despite it feeling fine.
Looking over it worriedly, as if the scars will suddenly start throbbing with pain once more, you ease up when they appear the same as before. The scars that run from your neck down to your elbow were just about healed up but still looked an angry pink. You were adamantly looking into cover up tattoo artists as soon as the scars could be worked on. You sighed and pulled your hoodie over your head.
You would accept them soon. It was just...still too much to think about sometimes. Your brain so desperately wants you to revisit your trauma today apparently as you felt like someone was suddenly breathing down on you harshly. You immediately grab your unharmed arm and shiver.
“Stop it...” You hiss, squeezing the arm so tight you knew it would bruise. Your voice is rough from lack of use. Quickly locating your water bottle, you take a couple sips. Surprisingly not so surprising, your body seems to have desperately needed the water. And as if like some bad dream, all of tension fades away. You are much more relaxed now. An easy smile plays at your lips as you thought about the future while staring at the rising sun.
===
The bus ride took another 2 hours before reaching the final stop. It seems your well-trained intuition was right about the time as all of the digital clocks around the bus station read a little after 7:45 am. You duck your head as you get off the bus to avoid the blinding light slowly climbing into the sky. As your eyes adjust, you’re very stunned at the colorful, bustling city just a little beyond the bus station that is New Ebott.
And boy. New Ebott. Is. Huge . The city is the Capital of the Monster-Human Federation and has a current population of over 1.2 million. The ratio of Human to Monsters in the population being about 73% to 27%. The majority being those of the Monster race. Thinking about not seeing many familiar faces, but lots of new monsters made you excited.
It's been 7 years since the Monsters trapped under Mt. Ebott were freed. Once news rose to the surface, people flocked to the town of Ebott to learn more about the Monsters and their culture; however, the government decided to keep the Monsters in quarantine for 3 months while negotiations were established. And also, to assess relations as there were 5 clans that came out together.
There wasn’t really a hard decision to be made. The Monsters had rare gemstones, gold, about 1,200 bodies, and most importantly, magic. At least, to the government. Many people in Ebott, those born there and those born elsewhere, had come to learn instead. Many later said they had suddenly felt drawn there purely by a tugging in what they could only describe as their SOULs. The only solution that the 5 sets of Monster monarchs and their Royal Scientists could theorize in response was that it must have been in reaction to the barrier breaking. The extreme amount of magical energy being released must have awakened the inactive magic of the human mages that lived today.
And that was why you are here today. After your recent...interaction...you are being moved to New Ebott by Queen Dreemurr and the Monster-Human Ambassador Frisk to study and train. Toriel’s even planning to be your personal teacher as you are much older than most of their students. And knowing your situation is rather..tense at home, they're having you board with some close friends of theirs. Both to keep an eye on you and your progress, and also for yours and everyone else’s protection. In fact, you are to be picked up and taken there by the homeowners of your new residence.
As you stand off the bus you begin to look around. You walk a couple paces into the pickup terminal first to locate your luggage. You were told that the monsters picking you up would be 2 skeleton boss monsters. A tall one named Papyrus and a shorter skeleton named Sans. They were brothers apparently.
As you locate and claim your luggage, you move further into pick up and start looking for the monsters. Your gaze has just finished sweeping left when a call from your right catches your attention.
“HUMAN! OVER HERE HUMAN!” You turn your head and catch sight of the two skeleton monsters. Papyrus is much taller than you, at least by a foot. He is slouched slightly, which makes the height difference a little better, and wearing an orange hoodie with black sleeves. A sucker stick seems to hang from his mouth while his hands are shoved into his basketball short pockets, also black. He wears a pair of fuzzy bear slippers to complete the ensemble. His orange eye..lights? never seem to leave you as you approach.
Sans seems to be the one to shout at you. He wears what appears to be a white biker’s riding jacket with sky blue accents and matching riding gloves. His riding pants and boots are also that same shade of sky blue. He also wears a sky-blue bandana with yellow stars around his neck. Talk about a color theme. They both wear genuine smiles as you approach and you give a bright smile in return. When you are in distance you offer your hand politely to which Papyrus gives a lazy shake back.
“Good morning Mr. And Mr. Serif! You must be Papyrus, yes?” You greeted cheerfully before making sure you have the right skeleton. The skeleton before you chuckles if somewhat strained, though his expression remains neutral.
“actually..." his hands disappear into the hoodie pocket, a motion you note curiously. "we're sans and papyrus’s cousins. name's stretch. he/they.” The tall skeleton, Stretch, corrected. “this here is my older bro blue, he goes by he/him. we're here to pick you up. sans and pap just want to make sure things were...uh, right for you and all.” Sa-Blue nods in agreement to his brother’s words. His eyelights turn to baby blue stars for a moment as he notices that you have a tongue piercing.
“HUMAN WHAT IS THAT STRANGE PIECE OF METAL IN YOUR MOUTH?” His voice is still incredibly exuberant in tone only but his volume has dropped significantly. It’s much easier to hear him without flinching away now. By now the meaning and question of Blue’s words have registered in your brain. You blink several times in quick secession while his brother just flounders in embarrassment and shock.
“blue! you can’t just go aroun’ asking people why, they have..metal..in their...mouths...?” Stretch’s admonishment slowly dies and he trails off as you suddenly burst out laughing while waving your hand about, the other covering your mouth to try and suppress your laughter.
You were trying to explain but just kept laughing! What had got you so cracked up in the first place is the fact that, here are two skeletons, who are NOT the people you thought they were, who know nothing about you- not even your name!- and the first thing one of them asks you is what your tongue piercing is. It just...caught you so off guard that your broken sense of humor just finds it all hilarious.
Slowly, with a little hesitation, the two skeleton brothers begin to laugh with you. After about a minute, you’re able to calm your belly–aching laughs to little giggles. You brush your hair from your face and look at the two as evenly as you can. Upon being able to intake air again, without immediately snorting it back out, you decide a proper introduction from yourself is an order.
You tilt your head and offer the two brothers your two hands as you say, “My name's Dee! I go by She/Her and They/Them pronouns. It’s a pleasure to meet you two!” A sky-blue dusting overtakes Blue’s cheeks while a soft amber color dusts Stretch’s cheeks as well. They shake your hands in tandem before you retract them. You continue to answer Blue’s earlier question.
“The metal in my mouth is called a tongue piercing. I got it because I think it looks sexy and makes me feel confident! I’m glad you have no qualms about asking what’s on your mind Blue. It’s something that I value in people, open honesty and all.” You smile brightly at the two as you say this. They both return your smile with ones of their own, Blue's a bit wider at the compliment.
Blue and Stretch then tell you that you should probably head off and start walking towards the parking lot. So, you follow. You figure it’s worth noting that Stretch immediately took to your left while Blue instinctively fell in step on your right. You 3 already acted like long term friends and you just met. How strange. When you reach their vehicles, you’re a little shocked.
The one on the right is sleek in its design, meant to be fast and aerodynamic. The body is silver with sky blue custom pieces along the front, engine, and tires. It had stars painted on and little custom designs down on the seat and tail pieces. You knew this was Blue’s motorcycle. The care, time, and energy spent on this vehicle showed. He practically glowed with pride when beside it. Actually, you think his eyes are glowing with excess pride and happiness. Blue's smile is infectious and has you giving a dopey grin back.
The bike to the left it is the more interesting of the two in terms of design. It is thicker in body and rode waay lower. Makes sense considering how tall the rider is. The tires looked to be the all-road type and back on the sides had big speakers. It wasn’t meant for speed, but you had no doubt it was fast when it needed to be .
This is Stretch's ride. You couldn’t see it any other way. Well. Maybe throw on a pair of fuzzy dice. Just for stereotype's sake. You snort at your own weirdness and shake your head. Stretch catches your giggling at his ride and grins at you with one raised eyebrow, as if he knows exactly what you're thinking.
The two skeleton bros had no issues with loading your current luggage onto the back of Stretch’s bike for the journey home. Blue turned to you and offered his hand. “SINCE STRETCH’S BIKE IS FULL, I FIGURED YOU COULD RIDE WITH ME?” Blue asks and you swear he seems nervous but why would he be? You give another easy smile and nod, “If you’ll have me B!” You say in reply, throwing on a wink at the end after the nickname.
Oh, he is deeefinitely blushing with that sky blue glow on his cheekbones. You can’t help but giggle at his response. Taking his hand, you let him guide you on to the back of his bike. He hands you a spare helmet which Stretch helps to fasten onto your head.
You were most definitely not blushing at the skeleton’s surprisingly warm hands on your face. Nope. Just hot out. In the beginning of September. In upstate New Ebott. Yeah. No blushing here. You mentally slap yourself at your own ramblings.
Before they turn on the vehicles Blue instructs you to hold on tightly as he has a tendency to go fast. You wrap your arms securely around his middle and are surprised by the soft but firm give that the seemingly boney monster has. It tingles your skin through your clothes. You weren’t complaining. It’s somewhat like the tingle you get when static collects on you.
You rest your head on his broad back as the engines roar to life. Blue pulls off first, quickly being followed by Stretch. The subtle rattle of the bike as you tear off down the street reminds you of car rides past and how you were never able to stay awake.
This situation was no different. It’s not long before you're drifting off with the lull of the road coupled with warmth being provided to your front by the enthusiastic skeleton you're hugging. It's really no wonder you fell asleep so peacefully. You have a good feeling about this. About them. You can feel it in your soul.