IC Inbox

[hellawrath]

Need something set on fire? Leave a message with Taako at Fantasy Walmart in the temple ruins and Lup might hit you up!

But you better bribe Taako or it'll go something like this
[3:02:15 PM] Jazzy:
"some dude wanted to talk to you"
[3:02:29 PM] Laura:
"was he hot"
[3:02:37 PM] Jazzy:
"nah"
[3:02:51 PM] Laura:
"nevermind then"

Comments

let's do this

[hellawrath]

At this point, the location of elf camp is probably the worst kept secret on the island. Plenty of folks know where to find the twins or Ren if they're not at the store, come over to hang out, trade gossip, get hustled at Blackjack or whathaveyou. They still change the wind chimes around from time to time, as just like, a fun prank? But a real security system hasn't really been necessary since the early days. So Lup's not worried when she hears somebody approach, isn't in any hurry to stop tidying up in the big nest tent in the center of the campsite.

That changes when she sees Tim. He's not one of their usual visitors, keeps his business at the store or the Denny, unless he's looking for-- the kids. With a cracked voice and tear-stained face. Dread settles in her gut like ice as she rushes out of the tent, ears twitching forward nervously. Something tells her she doesn't wanna know. Not like that's ever stopped her.

"Tim? Is-- What's wrong?"

[postictal]

It's a dead giveaway, isn't it?

He looks like he's been crying. He looks like a fucking wreck. He's got a note in his hand and he looks like someone who shouldn't have been able to make the trek all the way here, with how little he's taking in his surroundings.

"I...they, uh." They. He can't say it directly, can he? He doesn't - what's he supposed to say?

In the end, he doesn't say anything.

He just holds out the note they left for her.

[hellawrath]

Yeah he's not subtle, somehow. He's fucking devastated and Lup can guess what it means, refuses to see the loss in his eyes even as she wants to shout at him to spit it out already, get it over with, just fucking say it--

Instead, a note. Brief, neat, except for a few words struck out, remaining unsaid. Her gaze flies over the words and by the end, her eyes are swimming with tears. Their goodbye is-- a call-out post for her unlife choices, concern coached in a dressing down she's more than deserved and she would fucking give anything to hear it from their mouth right now, and not, not this uncertainty of when she'll ever see them again--

The whole thing's so fucking Chara it hurts, an answering anguish in her chest for the child who shared their soul with her but couldn't finish those words, as if their feelings aren't burning bright in their stern request - don't leave yourself to chance - in their promise to Ren, in their dunking on Kravitz to fucking make her chuckle even through the tears. In the existence of the note itself. She knows them as well as they know her and-- They're gone. Wiped from this plane, scattered in whatever other reality, with or without Frisk, no way of reaching them--

No.

Her eyes meet Tim's, wide and desperate for something to do.

"How long-- When did they--"

[postictal]

"When I woke up. This morning." They asked, their note asked, specifically, for him to wait the week before going to Lup with the knowledge of this, but what the hell else was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to keep it together for that long? Was he supposed to keep it from her for this long?

(How well did they know him, if they expected him to do something right for once in his life, even this?)

"I didn't know..." I didn't know what else to do. And yet, that's not just it, either. "I thought - you'd wanna know."