text, un: daylight.

[sunborne]

This is going to be a very 'How Do You Human?' post and I wanna apologize for that. Still learning the body. Still working out the kinks. Reading things up on my own time to cover what I'm missing. (Thanks for the suggestions, @a.z.fell and @crowley. Owe you guys big time.)

BUT am I misremembering my lessons on human biology and, specifically, puberty or something? Because I'm really certain that you guys don't wake up gaining several feet in height overnight, right?

Right??

Comments

[sunborne]

[ 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.

[spaghettimonster]

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!!

[sunborne]

[ 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.

[spaghettimonster]

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.

[sunborne]

[ 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?

[spaghettimonster]

["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.

[sunborne]

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? ]

[spaghettimonster]

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.]

[sunborne]

[ 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.

[spaghettimonster]

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.]