chatsville | text, un: daylight.

THAT'S THE FASTEST PUBERTY I'VE EVER HEARD OF. I'M PRETTY SURE NOBODY GROWS LIKE THAT.

[Humans, monsters, or mysterious alien-human hybrids alike. Which invites the questions of how, and why.]

HAVE YOU EATEN ANYTHING STRANGE?
-ER THAN USUAL??

[ stars, does daylight feel vindicated in his earlier muffled ranting when he slammed his head on a doorway while heading to the bathroom. no one should be this tall or be this tall, this fast.

after giving some genuine thought to his answer to the question, daylight finally types out, ] I don't think so?

Besides the gross gelatin we got in the gala, I made sure to avoid eating anything that looked too weird even for me.

[ there's a brief pause and he sends another message. ] I did have a gross run-in with those murderous reindeers a few weeks back and a lot of its gore landed on me. I don't think I ate any of it.

[ he hopes he didn't eat any of it. ]

I HOPE IT'S NOT THE GELATIN.
PROBABLY EVERYBODY'S EATEN SOME OF THAT, IF ONLY IN FOOD FIGHTS.

[He's eaten more than that, between feeling pressured by good manners and trying to figure out the appeal. And he doesn't need any gigantic growth spurts that leave him hitting his head on ceilings.]

THOSE MURDEROUS REINDEER -DID- LOOK BIG...

[It's probably because of the gore. Like a superhero falling in a radioactive pit and gaining superpowers, getting splashed with reindeer gore makes you tall. After a couple weeks.]

If it's because of the reindeer that I'm stuck like this, I am absolutely taking back every nice thing I said about Santa. I'll fight Santa if I have to.

I mean the effort to get Agatha a Bible is nice and all but aren't the reindeer his? Shouldn't he be making sure they don't try and kill us?

[ in the back of his head, he knows that this is a silly angle but he needs to distract himself from the fact he cannot find any socks. ]

YEAH, I NEVER HEARD OF MURDERY REINDEER HERDS.
THE SANTA HERE MUST BE VERY DIFFERENT, THAN WHAT I KNOW ABOUT HIM.

UNLESS, HE WAS THEIR FIRST VICTIM...

[It's an alarming thought, but one he feels he ought to raise. People were surprised by how off the gifts seemed, hadn't they? Maybe Santa has an apprentice who took over the job. Or something. People do seem to wind up mysteriously dead, in rivers or quarries or snowmen.]

Poor Santa if that's the case. :(

It might explain why someone a lot younger than him trying to give all of us gifts when Christmas rolled around. Someone had to step in. [ looks like daylight and papyrus are on the same page. kind of. ] Speaking of Santa and the gifts- Did you ask for anything? I couldn't help but notice the gift I got for Agatha was more appropriate for a kid than an adult.

[ though he is still left uncertain whether or not he had mention agatha's age when writing the letter. ]

[Somehow, it's worse to know they both find it plausible. He's going to focus on the gifts for the moment.]

I DID ASK FOR SOMETHING!
AND GOT SOMETHING, WHICH WAS A TOY.
I ASKED FOR A TOY... SO THAT'S NOT SO SURPRISING...
BUT IT WASN'T EXACTLY THE TOY I ASKED FOR.

Oh, man. That's rough to hear, buddy. I hope the toy is of good quality, at least.

Seems like whoever got us the gifts is really thoughtful and was trying their best. They tried to find the equivalent of what I asked for and wrapped it all pretty and everything.

[ and they gave agatha the same thing, even when they didn't have to since daylight asked for it. or vice versa. this new-santa(?) seems nice enough. ]

YEAH, IT'S A GOOD OLD-FASHIONED TOY.

[It seems sturdy and reliable in that way, if nothing else. Not as dynamic in posing or provocative as a design as he could wish... but way better than nothing. That said, he's not sure if Daylight intends that as a bit of sucking up, but he's happy to support it just in case.]

IF THEY WERE AROUND TO READ THIS, I'M SURE THEY'D LOVE TO HEAR THAT. ESPECIALLY SINCE I AGREE WITH IT! EVERYONE APPRECIATES THEIR EFFORTS.

[ thanks to a classic case of crossed wires, daylight ends up thinking papyrus is going out of his way to agree and add extra compliments to their mystery santa claus. oh man, what a super swell guy!

(though it does make him wonder if they're really the only ones with these walkie-talkie things. something to discuss with others in the future but for now-) ] Yeah! They were wrapped and everything. That's a lot of care.

Makes you wonder if the gift thing was a one-time thing or we'll be seeing more of this mystery person in the future. Nothing happened on New Year's Eve - gift related, at least - but we have other holidays to look towards here in the town, right?

[Well, when Daylight puts it that way, he can't disagree. Putting the effort into wrapping gifts is a sign of care.]

I'D BET FIVE BUCKS WE DO!
WHO DOESN'T LIKE GIFT-RELATED SPECIAL OCCASIONS?
THEY MIGHT EVEN HAVE HOLIDAYS I'VE NEVER HEARD OF.

Yeah! Hopefully the gift-giving holidays have more presents and less murderous things gunning after us.

If I end up getting chased down by murderous animals again, I am so going to complain to the mayor or something. Maybe the police? That should be under their field, I think. [ if he had a nickel for every time he got hunted down by murderous local wildlife, he'll have ten nickles at this point.

not a lot, he knows, but it's weird that it happened almost a dozen times. ]

YOU'D THINK MURDERY THINGS WOULD BE THE PERVIEW OF THE POLICE...
BUT, THEY DIDN'T REALLY CARE ABOUT SNOWMEN CORPSES.

[As he discovered, on calling the cops and showing one their terrible doorway discovery. The cheerfully indifferent officer's brushoff made for a distressing conversation, all things considered. But that's no note to leave this message on, so he adds:]

MAYBE THEY CARE PRE-MURDER, BUT CLEANUP IS SOMEONE ELSE'S JOB.

[ huh. he never thought of it that way.

with how... weird the people of the town are - maybe it makes sense for them to have another group address the situation? that isn't the police??

when he racks his brain for ideas, there's only prominent enough group that comes to mind: ] Maybe it's the HHA? Heard and seen a lot of their members since the Christmas party. I’ve been trying to figure out since forever what they do here.

OH, THEY ENFORCE NEIGHBORHOOD AESTHETICS.
THEY'VE TALKED ME OUT OF DECORATING MY YARD, A FEW TIMES...

[Which is to say, he started digging his yard up to make some old-fashioned puzzles to deter future zombies, and they came around to make disapproving sounds at him until he patted the grass back into place.]

I'M PRETTY SURE, THEY'RE THE ONES WHO SET THE ZOMBIES LOOSE.
DID YOU NOTICE? ON HALLOWEEN.
THE WET TRICK-OR-TREATERS ONLY WENT AFTER HOUSES, WITHOUT JACK-O-LANTERNS.
AND THE MURDERY REINDEER STOPPED AWAY FROM THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS...
A WELL-DECORATED AND LIT HOME IS A HAPPY HOME!!

[ oh fuck an actual connection— when spitballing the ideas out here with papyrus/shooting the shit because it was possible, ~~the writer~~ daylight did not think anything would come out of the off-the-hip suggestion.

but, the more that he thinks about it, the more daylight can see this being an actual thing that the hha would do. the big question now is: why and what do they get out of it?

hmmmm— ] Kiara and I talked a bit about how it feels like the events and situations are threats if we don’t conform. Lines up with what you said about the houses that followed the town’s expectations being a refuge from danger that later went after us.

So we’ve got to keep in line if we don't want murderous stuff riding our asses and, if we do that, it makes us more susceptible to being like the townsfolk here. It went something like that during our talk.

MORE SUSCEPTIBLE, HUH?
...
. . .

[He outright types the expanding ellipses, with an inkling of suspicion he knows where Kiara came to that conclusion. If so, it affirms that she's a good person to be bringing theories and worries to, because Daylight's making an awful amount of sense.]

SAY. DID ANYTHING STRANGE HAPPEN TO YOU, AROUND CHRISTMAS.
LIKE VANHELSING WAS TALKING ABOUT.

[ van helsing— oh! he must be talking about agatha! ]

I’m her house buddy, actually. [ feels ‘weird’ to call her his ‘wife’ when he’s with emer and it feels too rude to refer to her only as his ‘partner’ for personal reasons. ] I guess you’re talking about the time she was pretty... off, right? Like the locals?

["House buddy" is a good term for it, and Papyrus might just adopt some paraphrasing of it, since sincerely referring to Kiara as his wife is strange on several levels. But that's a side thought, compared to the confirmation Daylight knows what he means, and also that Daylight didn't experience it firsthand.]

YES, JUST LIKE THE LOCALS.
EXACTLY LIKE THEM.
REMEMBERING A LIFE HERE, LIKE THEM. AND EVERYTHING.

I personally didn't experience it— [ thank the fuck for that too. from the way it's been described by agatha, it sounds pretty nasty to him. ] —since I managed to avoid the circumstances of it. Whatever they are.

If you want, you could talk to Erwin about his experiences with it. Sans told me he got whammied during the holidays as well.

[ daylight hadn't asked erwin about what it was like to be like them. didn't feel... right to poke at that, you know? ]

OH, THANK YOU.
BUT THAT'S OKAY. I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT.
I'M PRETTY SURE THE CIRCUMSTANCES WERE A BRIGHT LIGHT, NEAR THE SANTA WORKSHOP.
THAT MADE YOU LOVE CHRISTMAS AS MUCH AS SANTA.
MYSTERY SOLVED!!

[That didn't solve most parts of the mystery, including why all of Papyrus-the-skeleton was gone and replaced by Papyrus Knochenmus-the-human, lifelong American Citizen happy and proud to be in this new suburb thing. But sometimes poking a mystery just makes things worse.]

[ a bright light? huh. daylight takes note of that on a loose leaf of paper he has nearby, knowing he’s going to be adding that to his rapidly growing ‘wall of clues’ as he’s come to call the mess of papers and strings he’s slapped on a wall of the house’s study. ]

Gotcha. Thanks for that tidbit, buddy. I didn’t know that. [ mostly because he hadn’t poked Agatha or anyone else too much about what happened to him. maybe he should and see what comes out of it.

but that’s for another time— ] Thanks for the talk, buddy. If you ever need a hand in something or want to have a talking pal for something, you’re free to call me up. Always done for something when not up to something on my end.

I HOPE IT HELPS!!

[He doesn't want to prevent anyone from figuring things out, by any means. He even visited with Agatha to talk a little bit about some things, that he'd prefer not to put out where anyone with a wrist radio can read them. That doesn't mean he want to kick these particular rocks over.]

AND I'LL REMEMBER THE OFFER.
THAT YOUR DOOR IS OPEN, FOR UNLOADING HEARTS. AND CRYING ON SHOULDERS.
MAYBE I'LL TAKE YOU UP ON THAT SOMETIME.

[Not to say that further circumstances like these will drive Papyrus to want to cry, but surely somebody, more driven to tears, might cry sooner or later.]

text, un: daylight.

@PAPYRUS - text

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