rainbowheart324

[rainbowheart324]

Family curse - Chapter 34 - Rainbowheart324 - Cookie Run (Video Game) [Archive of Our Own]

chapter 34

She had gotten her latest assignment directly from the king late yesterday afternoon. She was to guard dark choco when he left his room until he reached the point in his recovery that his combat skills would not be severely hampered by his somewhat aptorpyed body.

She would be free to leave and do other things if the prince had decided on sticking near his majesty for the day as few would be foolish enough to try anything with him right there. If they did there crumbling would be swift indeed.

For a few moments she wondered why her prince would need a guard while he was recovery because the smart thing to do would be to stay in his room while resting to make healing go quicker. 

She then remembered what the prince did when she was simply bringing him some supplies to make his wait a little more comfortable or be able to more easily move about if he had to. That being to itmeatly leave to go do something that was not resting only to then collapse due to choking on his own vomit so someone to make sure he didn’t push himself too hard was prudent. 

She had learned her lesson she would not let him persuade her to allow him to do straining actions.

There was also the fact that due to how long the prince had been out of action and the toll taken from his body would surely have destroyed at least a little of his muscle conditioning meaning he would have to build up again. That along with the rust that will have surely built up means having a guard did make a large amount of sense . If something did mange to sneak in the the citadel he would be a rather defenseless target for the time being.

That assumes he would even stay inside of course. There was a good change that he wouldn't most of her job for the next bit was going to be trying to convince the prince to do something else wasn’t it.

Her predictions of him trying to do work is confirmed with in minutes of informing the prince of the new arrangement  as the very first thing the prince does is head to the training room. She trys her best to dissuade him, pleading that should he be stir crazy he could simply go and socialize in the common rooms. 

That would keep him relatively stationary and seated while allowing him to interact with other in a different environment than what he has been stuck in later. The prince of course dose not agree with her plans and nothing she says changes his ming.

Her pleas fall on deaf ears and it’s all she is capable of to get the prince to go and eat some breakfast first. It is there she comes to the conclusion that if logic will not work then she will have to distract dark choco.

“My prince are you sure you will be okay you should be resting not moving about” She starts slowly with one last attempt to get him to lay down and rest. To her surprise instead of a denial she gets an answer that gives her a bit more information on his reasoning.

Her prince grumbled a response“ Why do you keep pushing you normally find this fun. It should be a lot better than just siting in a darkened room all day.”  That did sound a little boring but she was more than willing to put up with it to keep him safe.

“ my prince I am more than willing to do that if it is what is best for your health” The cookie who taught her how to shoot could be so stubborn at times.

“ You shouldn’t have too. You should be able to do what you want with out being dragged down by me” Something clicked here.

“ Prince dark choco have you been insisting on this solely because you think I would be bored staying with you” She questioned. Dark choco looked uncomfortable at that statement.

The prince turns away for a second before turning back and mumbling “ no “ A clear lie.

“ If that's the case my prince will you promise to only stick to some stretches for now while I practice my bow. I’m a bit worried about you doing anything more straining after what happened last time” She stares her prince down a bit. He has been nervous lately for clear reasons but getting him to back down is for his own good.

The prince meets her eyes as he speaks“ That's fair. I promise. I likely need to do that anyway to start building back up.” She is glad to hear that. 

With her getting a promise her need to stall fell and with her no longer stalling them ,they both moved to the upper ranking training room that same one she saw him nearly choke to death in.

She wished she didn’t have to use this training room but it was the best option for keeping the prince safe for the time being. Just  walking in here the prince acted a little odd. She offered to take him back to his chambers to rest but he waved her off saying she was fine. 

She didn’t really believe him but she didn’t want to push him to far and risk more soul chunks breaking. He seemed to be at least partly recovered from that and she didn’t wish to set him back.

The prince started on a few stretches and she took up her bow. Her aim was clearly suffering due to trying to keep an eye on the prince at the same time she was shooting but time passed and the both of them kept going at there self assigned tasks.

Until it seems the prince hit a breaking point of some kind. It was at this point clear that the stretches were doing more harm than good.

“ My prince please stop don’t hurt yourself” She should have stoped him a bit sooner than this but better late than never.

“ if I don’t push i’ll never get back to where I was before” Unless you tear a muscle and cripple yourself.

“ you have already been pushing your self go further and your just going tear something please lets go back to your room where you can rest and I will bring you some food”

Her prince lets out a sight. “ I guess you are right. I don’t like it but I’m tired even after that little.”

She moves closer to him “ Come and lean on me if you need to lets go back to your chambers.”

“ I can still walk by my self carmel arrow I’m fine” She knew when the fight wasn’t worth it and backed off slightly

“ of course my prince” She still hovered close for the entirely of the walk back.

When she returned to the room with a thicker stew for the prince to eat he was asleep. She left the stew on the bed side table. This would be a good time to report in to his majesty about how his son was doing as been requested.

There wasn’t all that much to report in all honesty. There was maybe some improvement in terms of actually listening to his body but they hadn’t done all that much. It was only a little past lunch as well wasn’t he seeing off hollyberry cookie right now as well. Maybe instead of reporting she could get some food for her self and then return to her post.

Yes that sounded like a nice idea.  While eating and her mind wandered to ways to prevent the prince from pushing her self too hard. It was by sheer chance that crunchy chip wandered by complaining that some of the latest pups he was raising needed to be socialized a bit more. 

Using only the cream wolf rider  apparently had a tendency to make them only like those cookies and hate ever other cookie. So he was looking for volunteers to help with that.

Well then. With a few words she had an agreement hashed out. Now she had a way to keep the prince busy while letting him feel at least a little useful. All in meal times work.

[rainbowheart324]

chapter 33

https://archiveofourown.org/works/61081783/chapters/172814386

As he returns from dropping off dark choco he is in deep thought. It was pretty clear what set him off this time. To be honest the subject was making him uncomfortable as well it was clashing with what he knew of hollyberry for her to along such things in her kingdom.

So he would very much like her to stop talking about it, but how does he get Hollyberry to drop the subject without being rude to her. He renters the dining room and steels himself. 

Hollyberry can be difficult to handle sometimes. She had a tendency to verbally run over cookies him self included but he needed to get her to stop.  Hopefully she would be able to win dark choco over because his son hating one of his dearest friends was not something he wanted but for that to happen she needs to realize she did something wrong. 

He sat down in a nearby seat and spoke“Hollyberry prehapes we should have a different discussion” That might have been a bit too blunt or maybe it wasn’t clear enough he knew he was awful at any type of talk that was not meant to be a moral improving speech but there was no choice but to continue down that track now that he has started.

“Namely of how cruel those treatments sound and if you're sure they are not just faking it the best they can to leave them.”  Maybe he would be able to convince her to reconsider just what she is allowing cookies to do in the name of medicine.

“ You don’t think I should be allowing them to happen do you? The researching cookies have found evidence to back it up they do indeed work”  He wishes pure vanilla was still around he would probably be able to convince her. His kingdom had the best track record for how to fix this type of ailment too.

Still he wasn’t quite sure what evidence her subjects had found and with out knowing that he wasn’t sure how to disprove it. So continuing down this track would only lead to her getting more stubborn in her position.

He tries to move the conversation to a different topic“ Even if that's the case I also didn’t send you a letter for information about your practices for such case’s even though a dead end has been reached with my own cultures I at least know the source of the problem.”  There maybe she could start telling him how to be a better parent now royal berry has turned out nervous but other wise fine he could use some tips.

 Of course Hollyberry will not take the hint “What do you believe a demon has possessed him” Why would she believe he didn’t have the staff advabile to get that problem fixed and why is she implying that is something that can’t happen.

“No of course not we have already had him exorcized” he nocties a weird expression only hollyberrys face and dose his best to ignore it while he countries speaking “and it have reveled something to me that make me question how good i was at parenting him” 

It was only at this point that he recognized the expression and the tone holly berry had used she had been making a joke. 

The joking tone leaves hollyberry's voice as she says “What makes you think that you bitter bean also what is a soul lose ritual”  Okay there was some levity in there but for hollyberry that was decently serousie. He decides to explain to her what a soul lost ritual was she would need to know to understand his doubts.

He admits he was not the best at explaining this to his old friend but by the end of his far too long winded explanation he thinks she has gotten the basics down. Even if it turned into a rant about how he has failed his child by the end. 

He takes a moment to regather himself and that is when hollyberry strikes. She lunged forward and several instists scream at him at once to get out of the way but he’s too late. She has grabbed him.

The back of his mind is braching for pain but it never comes. Instead there is just a steady pressure keeping him in place. No one will ever be able to get it out of him but it did feel kind of nice.

He yells “ hollyberry!!” He wishes for her to cease this nonsense. Instead she gives one of her signature smiles and practically sings out.“ What it seems like you needed a hug”  he lets out a groan.

He stops fighting her. There is no point she will only let go when she wants too besides this is somewhat nice.

“It sounds like you made a few mistakes but they're all fixable. You just need to say that you love him out loud a bit more. I know you're all gunho on showing and not saying but I think little dark choco just needs some verbal confirmation.” That sounded like some decent advice and hearing it made the dark cloud of stress always after him a bit smaller.

She knew just what to say to cheer him up. She always did didn’t she.

 She was right things will get better all he had to do was keep going. “Thank you hollyberry. I need to go check on dark choco to make sure he hasn’t hurt himself in any way shape or form now.”

“ that's fine we can catch up while he’s sleeping.” She lets go of him and he walks away to check on his son.Hopefully he was doing okay.

He makes a small detour to grab some more food for dark choco seeing as he vomited all that he had eaten up it seemed they moved to the more filling meals a bit to quickly in the rush to get more calories on him so it was back to the thined stuff for at least the rest of today.

Still dark choco was clearly recovering. The cough fits had stopped and he wasn’t vomiting without eating anything any more. Honestly it seemed he need to both eat and have some other trigger happen to vomit at this point

 Perhaps it would be safe for dark choco to go back to his own room today. He would probably like that and it would be a good show of trust. That is of course is assuming that he had not managed to hurt himself while bathing.

Checking up on dark choco it didn’t seem like he did anything to aggressive. He had gotten out of the tub when he walked in and was busy towel drying himself. 

Dark choco wasn’t too soggy at the moment but it was enough that sleeping in that state would be uncomfortable, and could maybe lead to damages so it would be best for him to dry off a bit more.

He lit a small fire in his main room and left the bowl of food next to it.The flame would keep it warm and it would give his son something to do while he waited.  Dark choco would likely soon come out and  dry near it. Thus puting the food there would reduce the amount of walking he would have to do as well.

 When he would return hours later he would find dark choco asleep by the dying embers and would carry him back to the prince's own chambers which had been empty for months at this point. That didn’t mean there weren’t kept clean in wait of the prince’s return to them.

But that was then currently as he left the room he was thinking of how to add supervision to the prince's schedule without making it too obvious that what it was.  He thought of a few ideas that wouldn’t work but he eventually came up with a plan.

In the end he had a simple solution laid out before him. His son was likely to be sick a little longer and to avoid troublesome memories combined with the fact that most of his muscle had decayed or apthoyed and he would need a bodyguard with him at most time. The citdeal was always at risk of attack and during one if his son was at the wrong place he could be in danger.

He knew his son liked carmel arrow so thats who the bodyguard would be. Carmel arrow liked him too so hopefully it would work out well and help dark choco develop some social skills that looking back on it he was clearly lacking. There wasn’t that many children in the citdeal for his son to practice with most the time so that was yet another thing that was mostly his own fault.

With his son checked up on and clearly fine to stay by himself a little longer he had time to go catch up with holly berry a little more. Of course that was the idea in reality it worked a little more like her aggressively checking up on him while he got little of what went on in her life. It seemed something had happened that she didn’t wish to think about.

“How about how are you holding up you seem even more stressed than normal” Just talking to her had made his life a lot better but still the lingering specter of stress remained but he could deal with it he always did.“I am doing as well as i can considering the circumstances”

Hollyberry had a look on her face like she just remembered something. Before he could ask her what was wrong she spewed out the following.“Wait your not still doing everything by yourself right I am not taking up time your have put aside to do the unreasonable amount of work you have given to yourself

” Ah yes honestly in the last few days he has finally learned why cookies kept telling him to delegate. In all honesty the citadel was actually running smoother as it turns out his paper work speed had been a bottle neck for a lot of activeys and with the neck widend things were flowing far more smoothly.

“I have taken the advise of many cookies and have delegated some of the tasks” Hollyberry looked at him as if he had grown a second head. He admitted it was out of character for him but really.

“And it only took several centuries and a massive disater for you to do it” Hollyberry pauses her ribbing.

“That was insensitive I shouldn’t be joking about that.” Yes holly berry that was a bit to soon.

“How about a spar feel free to take some of that stress out on my shield” Yes it would be wonderful to fight a peer again especially one that would not skewer him if he lost.

“That sounds nice”

As he returns from dropping off dark choco he is in deep thought. It was pretty clear what set him off this time. To be honest the subject was making him uncomfortable as well it was clashing with what he knew of hollyberry for her to along such things in her kingdom.

So he would very much like her to stop talking about it, but how does he get Hollyberry to drop the subject without being rude to her. He renters the dining room and steels himself. 

Hollyberry can be difficult to handle sometimes. She had a tendency to verbally run over cookies him self included but he needed to get her to stop.  Hopefully she would be able to win dark choco over because his son hating one of his dearest friends was not something he wanted but for that to happen she needs to realize she did something wrong. 

He sat down in a nearby seat and spoke“Hollyberry prehapes we should have a different discussion” That might have been a bit too blunt or maybe it wasn’t clear enough he knew he was awful at any type of talk that was not meant to be a moral improving speech but there was no choice but to continue down that track now that he has started.

“Namely of how cruel those treatments sound and if you're sure they are not just faking it the best they can to leave them.”  Maybe he would be able to convince her to reconsider just what she is allowing cookies to do in the name of medicine.

“ You don’t think I should be allowing them to happen do you? The researching cookies have found evidence to back it up they do indeed work”  He wishes pure vanilla was still around he would probably be able to convince her. His kingdom had the best track record for how to fix this type of ailment too.

Still he wasn’t quite sure what evidence her subjects had found and with out knowing that he wasn’t sure how to disprove it. So continuing down this track would only lead to her getting more stubborn in her position.

He tries to move the conversation to a different topic“ Even if that's the case I also didn’t send you a letter for information about your practices for such case’s even though a dead end has been reached with my own cultures I at least know the source of the problem.”  There maybe she could start telling him how to be a better parent now royal berry has turned out nervous but other wise fine he could use some tips.

 Of course Hollyberry will not take the hint “What do you believe a demon has possessed him” Why would she believe he didn’t have the staff advabile to get that problem fixed and why is she implying that is something that can’t happen.

“No of course not we have already had him exorcized” he nocties a weird expression only hollyberrys face and dose his best to ignore it while he countries speaking “and it have reveled something to me that make me question how good i was at parenting him” 

It was only at this point that he recognized the expression and the tone holly berry had used she had been making a joke. 

The joking tone leaves hollyberry's voice as she says “What makes you think that you bitter bean also what is a soul lose ritual”  Okay there was some levity in there but for hollyberry that was decently serousie. He decides to explain to her what a soul lost ritual was she would need to know to understand his doubts.

He admits he was not the best at explaining this to his old friend but by the end of his far too long winded explanation he thinks she has gotten the basics down. Even if it turned into a rant about how he has failed his child by the end. 

He takes a moment to regather himself and that is when hollyberry strikes. She lunged forward and several instists scream at him at once to get out of the way but he’s too late. She has grabbed him.

The back of his mind is braching for pain but it never comes. Instead there is just a steady pressure keeping him in place. No one will ever be able to get it out of him but it did feel kind of nice.

He yells “ hollyberry!!” He wishes for her to cease this nonsense. Instead she gives one of her signature smiles and practically sings out.“ What it seems like you needed a hug”  he lets out a groan.

He stops fighting her. There is no point she will only let go when she wants too besides this is somewhat nice.

“It sounds like you made a few mistakes but they're all fixable. You just need to say that you love him out loud a bit more. I know you're all gunho on showing and not saying but I think little dark choco just needs some verbal confirmation.” That sounded like some decent advice and hearing it made the dark cloud of stress always after him a bit smaller.

She knew just what to say to cheer him up. She always did didn’t she.

 She was right things will get better all he had to do was keep going. “Thank you hollyberry. I need to go check on dark choco to make sure he hasn’t hurt himself in any way shape or form now.”

“ that's fine we can catch up while he’s sleeping.” She lets go of him and he walks away to check on his son.Hopefully he was doing okay.

He makes a small detour to grab some more food for dark choco seeing as he vomited all that he had eaten up it seemed they moved to the more filling meals a bit to quickly in the rush to get more calories on him so it was back to the thined stuff for at least the rest of today.

Still dark choco was clearly recovering. The cough fits had stopped and he wasn’t vomiting without eating anything any more. Honestly it seemed he need to both eat and have some other trigger happen to vomit at this point

 Perhaps it would be safe for dark choco to go back to his own room today. He would probably like that and it would be a good show of trust. That is of course is assuming that he had not managed to hurt himself while bathing.

Checking up on dark choco it didn’t seem like he did anything to aggressive. He had gotten out of the tub when he walked in and was busy towel drying himself. 

Dark choco wasn’t too soggy at the moment but it was enough that sleeping in that state would be uncomfortable, and could maybe lead to damages so it would be best for him to dry off a bit more.

He lit a small fire in his main room and left the bowl of food next to it.The flame would keep it warm and it would give his son something to do while he waited.  Dark choco would likely soon come out and  dry near it. Thus puting the food there would reduce the amount of walking he would have to do as well.

 When he would return hours later he would find dark choco asleep by the dying embers and would carry him back to the prince's own chambers which had been empty for months at this point. That didn’t mean there weren’t kept clean in wait of the prince’s return to them.

But that was then currently as he left the room he was thinking of how to add supervision to the prince's schedule without making it too obvious that what it was.  He thought of a few ideas that wouldn’t work but he eventually came up with a plan.

In the end he had a simple solution laid out before him. His son was likely to be sick a little longer and to avoid troublesome memories combined with the fact that most of his muscle had decayed or apthoyed and he would need a bodyguard with him at most time. The citdeal was always at risk of attack and during one if his son was at the wrong place he could be in danger.

He knew his son liked carmel arrow so thats who the bodyguard would be. Carmel arrow liked him too so hopefully it would work out well and help dark choco develop some social skills that looking back on it he was clearly lacking. There wasn’t that many children in the citdeal for his son to practice with most the time so that was yet another thing that was mostly his own fault.

With his son checked up on and clearly fine to stay by himself a little longer he had time to go catch up with holly berry a little more. Of course that was the idea in reality it worked a little more like her aggressively checking up on him while he got little of what went on in her life. It seemed something had happened that she didn’t wish to think about.

“How about how are you holding up you seem even more stressed than normal” Just talking to her had made his life a lot better but still the lingering specter of stress remained but he could deal with it he always did.“I am doing as well as i can considering the circumstances”

Hollyberry had a look on her face like she just remembered something. Before he could ask her what was wrong she spewed out the following.“Wait your not still doing everything by yourself right I am not taking up time your have put aside to do the unreasonable amount of work you have given to yourself

” Ah yes honestly in the last few days he has finally learned why cookies kept telling him to delegate. In all honesty the citadel was actually running smoother as it turns out his paper work speed had been a bottle neck for a lot of activeys and with the neck widend things were flowing far more smoothly.

“I have taken the advise of many cookies and have delegated some of the tasks” Hollyberry looked at him as if he had grown a second head. He admitted it was out of character for him but really.

“And it only took several centuries and a massive disater for you to do it” Hollyberry pauses her ribbing.

“That was insensitive I shouldn’t be joking about that.” Yes holly berry that was a bit to soon.

“How about a spar feel free to take some of that stress out on my shield” Yes it would be wonderful to fight a peer again especially one that would not skewer him if he lost.

“That sounds nice”

[rainbowheart324]

chapter32

As the messenger left, father told him they were going to wait in the dinning room for a little longer. From that information he could figure out a few things, one that it is probably a cookie because any item could be moved and the fact that they weren’t moving to a different room also  likely meant that it was not a problem in the citadel that father had to fix.

If it was, father would likely drop everything to get it done as soon as possible.

But who could it be? The dinning room often held foreign visitors in it but it was hardly up to that standard right now. He hadn’t even brushed his hair yet this morning. Any subjects meeting like a petition would be held in the throne room so who.

His answer is received when a cookie wearing a pink traveling dress walks in to the room. On her shield sat a large pink gem glowing in the exact same way he had only ever seen one other gem glow.

That is glowed like fathers soul jam narrowed down the list to one extremely small.

This must be one of the ancient heroes then. An old friend of fathers. He knows he met one of them when he was very young but he had no memory of the event he was just a newly baked baby at the time after all. So it was like meeting her for the first time . If that was even the same one for all he knew it could have been a different one that he met.

 Still he had expectations for how she would act. They were all cookies of great power and duty after all. So surely they would all the part. 

The Expectations were crushed in to a fine paste when the words  “Hi ya bitter bean lucky for you I was already planing on giving a surprise visit when you sent out the letter.” were uttered. He looked at father and he still seemed to be in a pretty good mood like that was not a horribly informal way to address someone.

Was he really going to let the horrendous lack of editcut and protocol slide.

 Father merely replys“ It really has been hasn’t it.” So it seems he would. He is stunned for a moment   Then the cookie turns to him and he soon finds him self becoming the topic of conversation.  He scrambles to get his mind on what was being said instead of what just happened.

 “So this is dark choco huh he’s really grown since last time” So this was the one he met. Wait no he needs to answer her. He wasn’t prepared for this and he finds his ability to speak failing him.

“Yes last time he was barely up to your knee” he is thankful for father saving him from having to answer but he could have done it had he been given a little more time. But okay she was the one he met as a baby that was okay information to know he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it but he was sure it would come in handy later.

“He looks like he needs to eat more as well hes all crust and bone” Oh there talking about him like he not even there well that was a bit rude of both of them. Even if it was at least partly true.

“We are working on that he’s been sick and his appetite has not been the best”  He could not deny that truth. He was working on it at the very least he just needed some more time to fix it.

“He should probably be in bed resting then”  It was pretty clear she was trying to send him away at this point but he didn’t want to go back to sleeping just yet.  So he makes his opinion on the matter clear.

“I am very tired of being stuck in the same place for so long and just wanted to stretch my legs a little.”  There he there is no way the be clearer than that he’s not leaveing just because she thinks he is to sick to be out of bed. He is so tired of just laying about at this point being able to go to a different room to eat was a luxury he was not going to cut short.

She then turned to his father likely to try and convince him that he should be resting. “Are you sure thats its a good idea for him to be wandering around if what you told me in the letter is true.”  He mentally snaped at her sheer gall for trying to have father over rule this choice of his. He stayed slince on the outside however slightly nervous that father would indeed just send him away.

Thankfully father shot her down as well.“ Keeping him locked in a room all the time would only destress him”  There was a small look of amusement on the cookies face for a spilt second and then it faded back in to the normal smile. Was she making some kind of joke or or he was confused why would she smile when her suggestion was turned down.

“  That reminds me. I see your probably past that point when It comes to the apparent insanity but did you know in the holly berry kingdom we finally found something a lot better than chains to keep out mental health patients in place” Oh oh maybe talking about this was why she wanted to send him away. Or maybe she was doing it on purpose to make him uncomfoable so he would leave.  Either way he wished she would stop.

“Hollyberry why would you ever need chains in the first place you just need to lock them in a room” He can’t help the terror at the thought of being locked away again. Why did she bring this up the ancient heroes are suppose to be well heroes. Heroes don’t talk about things like that.

“ Well some cookies can get pretty violent both towards others and themselves and we needed a way to stop them from biting and clawing” He wished she would stop talking about this it’s making his stomach upset. He feels like he is going to vomit up everything he ate. 

“ Just put some mits and maybe a mask on them then no need to chain them up” That was not what father did when he thought he was hurting him self but cloth and leather ties to a bed were definitely better than chains by far. 

“ They keep trying to escape there treatments as well admittedly they are somewhat scary to go though but have a rather large success rate.” Please stop. Why can’t he move his body to speak. Why don’t they stop he doesn’t want to listen to this he will go just please stop

“What are treatments in the hollyberry kingdom actually” father no please shut her down. He dosen’t want to hear about this. Please please change the subject.

“ Well there are a few most of them all stem from the same concept of shocking a cooking back to sanity. Nearly drowning  works well and so does spinning them around until they vomit for some reason.” 

Nononononono. She looked right at him as she said that. Is she suggesting these to father. Nonononononnono. The ancient heroes were suppose to be good cookies why is she doing this to him? He wants to leave. Why won’t his body move?

“ The most successful one currently is something called the tranquilizer where the cookie is locked in to a chair and we try to draw jam away from the brain for a bit. By puting something hot at there feet and something cold on there head.” 

That sound awful. Horrible trapped with no way to escape. He feels his stomach cramp and food crawl out his throat. The acid burns.

He’s trying to get a hold of himself to make the room stop spinning. When he looks up she right on top of him. He scrambles away but something else grabs him. For a moment his panic spikes but as he realizes it’s father he can’t help but relax a small bit.

He feels himself getting pulled off the floor. He doesn’t fight back. It would be both pointless and just smear vomit over the both of them. Is he going to lock him back in that horrible room to await the tortures holly berry has described. 

“ Excuse me holly berry I must get dark choco cleaned up  I will be right back”  He dosn’t even care that he is being talked about like a toddler he wants out. He want to forget this ever happened.

Hollyberry does not follow them“ Thats fine you do that I will wait here” She doesn’t seem mad about it in the very least.

Father carries him out of the room and its all he can do to keep the spew of words coming out of his mouth somewhat coherent. “ please please don’t don’t no. I’m sorry . I’ll be go--”   His rambles are cut off.

“ Shh don’t worry dark choco I won’t let any of that happen to you” Is that actually true.

“ You promise” He is not sure why he said that father has broken his promises before.

“ Yes I promise. There will be no more treatments that you don’t agree to from this point forward”

“ Really” He doesn’t quite believe him but the words alone are enough for him to regain some grip on himself.

“ Yes dark choco I know how much they were stressing you and each time it seems to have only made your illness worse so there will be no more”  Ah thats is actually something a bit more solid father simply coming to the conclusion that they were doing more harm than good is believable. 

Wait if father is sure he is not better was he going to “ You won’t lock me in a room again.”

“ No dark choco. Here to prove it how about I run you a bath and you can do it on your own to prove that I trust you not to run or hurt yourself” Right he can’t mess this up he refuses too.

“ Thank you”

They got to father chambers rather quickly and as he was placed in the tub father left. It was nice to be trusted to do some basic things on his own again. Hopefully soaking in some hot water would make him feel better.

He couldn’t dunk himself in fully, but he didn’t need to. His newly very short hair didn’t need very much maintenance and just sitting there would get the mess off of him.

[rainbowheart324]

can we get more baby dough Dark Choco? he's adorable 🥺

Feeling strangely maternal towards the fictional cookie baby

[rainbowheart324]

Now imagine younger Wildberry meeting younger Crunchy Chip~

Oh noooooo, my hand is being forced against my will…

Please somebody stop me before I-

Some context:

*sigh* Looks like I made a WildChip childhood buddies AU. Whelp, too late to turn back now.

So anyways, this fun concept is not at all canon obviously. Just a what-if universe on what if these two knew each other as kids, both as young orphans taken in by their respective ancients. The timeline here is after the Dark Flour war but also before Dark Choco’s betrayal and Holly leaving for Beast Yeast.

Just to explain, Dark Cacao and Hollyberry agree to meet in person since they’ve stayed in touch in this AU rather than shutting themselves out. Just to talk about matters together and what to do going forward.

………….

*Rewinding hours before the boys’ “first” introductions in the art above.*

In one of the monarchs’ meetings unfortunately, when the Cacaoians traveled over to the Hollyberrian Kingdom, Dark Choco (who came to assist his dad) found a certain rascal who was supposed to be with Caramel Arrow back home:

Ah yes, the young cookie they rescued from a Cream Wolf trap in the wild. Ever since Dark Cacao saved his wolf family, little guy has been wanting to return the favour and his life debt.

Yeaaaaah, this was not supposed to happen.

Dark Choco struggled to keep Chip away from the king to prevent distraction but unfortunately lost sight of both him and his puppy in the Hollyberrian castle. Chip at some point split up with his buddy and now he’s looking for both of them in this giant maze of halls he’s never seen before. Lots of new sights and smells. Nothing like the bitter cold of the Dark Cacao kingdom. Where is he actually?

Until:

What a quiet, rude and strange-looking cookie! How dare he trip him! Who the heck reads in the middle of a hall anyway?! And not a single word or apology??

Whatever, he’ll exact his comeback later. The good news though? Chip found the king safe and sound ^^ (Looks like his little cream wolf brother beat him to it though)

Fortunately, Dark Cacao wasn’t too hard on the kid.

Meanwhile, Wild took in mind Holly’s lessons and with some self-control, left his encounter with this aggressive cookie to avoid further escalation. (See!! He remembers the Queen’s words of advice! :DD)

Holly was worried for a second since she’s aware that the Hollyberrian nobles tend to be harsh on the young street kid she took in. But she also became confused when Wild couldn’t say what House the other cookie was in. In fact, their dough wasn’t a berry flavour he could recognise at all.

But while they both went to snitch, they unfortunately caught their parent monarch at a busy time when they’re expecting to go and see a friend from the neighbouring kingdom any second now.

Some formalities and friendly exchanges later, the two ancients made some necessary introductions and uh….

Let’s just say Young Wild and Chip recognised the other cookie with a disgusted realisation-

[rainbowheart324]

Family curse - Chapter 31 - Rainbowheart324 - Cookie Run (Video Game) [Archive of Our Own]

chapter 31

She felt her body shiver a little. In response she pulled her cloak a bit together around herself.

Despite it not being winter currently the dark cacao kingdom was cold and not pleasant to be in.  At least compared to her home land. 

There was a reason when she and her friend of old met up it tended to be in her or pure vanilas home lands. His place had a workable in between state of weather that would not end with cacao sick with heat stroke or herself and goldie freezing . And hers was just really fun to be in.

Still It had been too long and she wanted to see at least one of them again. It just turned out that dark cacao was the only one where she knew was at the moment.  Hopefully he would enjoy some of her company as well she knows he use to send letters trying to keep in touch even as she found her self answering them less and less.

She would have to spend some more time trying to track down golden cheese or white lily soon. Then they could all have as close to a real get together as possible .There reunion has been put off for far far too long. Besides she needs to get her mind off what has happened recently.

It seemed that dark cacao had the same idea as her. She got the messenger bird mere hours before she made it to the citadel to meet with the bitter bean who ran the place.  It was kind of surprising in all honesty she had been getting fewer and fewer letters this last decade.

When she first received the letter she was undoubtedly worried It had come from the hollyberry kingdom and she knew that she had told them only to contact her if it was needed. After what had happened to one of her grandbabies opening the letter  she feared the other was gone as well.

Thankfully that was not the case instead it was her old friend asking for her help. Help that she was more than willing to provide. She can come and help her old friend out with his family problems.  It sounds like both of them have had a rough go of things lately.

She’s not sure if she could help much with the main problem that was a bit out her zone of expertise but she could definitely provide moral support.

 With here goals for this visit renewed she picked up the pace. Hopefully she would reach a stretch of road that wasn’t mostly mud. It was hard to keep her self in a mostly presentable shape while traversing this deep of mud.

It didn’t end up taking her too long to actually get to the citadel. However making her way in took far more than just walking in.Making her way past the main security checks turned out to be rather tedious. 

She was so glad she decided to take her shield with her for this visit to prove her identity. Who knows if she would have even been let it if she didn’t have it on her.  She probably wouldn’t have. 

Wait a second is this part of the reason she had heard some rumors that dark cacao has gone missing because he never leaves the citadel and it’s so hard for his subjects to actually get in as well with all these checks.

 She knew she got to skip a few just due to who she was but there were still so many. She wasn't quite sure the purpose of having more than two checks to see if the cookie was trying to impersonate someone else.

 There main enemy where from the licorices sea after all they can’t be getting too many cookie infiltrators and they would definitely come in by a different route than the front gate even if there were. It seems the bitter bean is having his paranoida take over his life. Maybe she can help with that slightly.

It wasn’t all bad going to the many checks, she got to chat and learn a bit about what her old friend is up to before hand and a cookie was sent to go give him a heads up that she was here and would be rapidly coming to greet him soon. 

Of course She was denied the ability to just charge ahead towards her friend's dining room and was instead escorted to it by one of the servants of the citadel. It was a bit of a buzzkill like those guards that royal berry kept wanting her to take with her when she went on adventures.

She didn’t need any extra protection and where she was going most of the time they would. It just made sense for her to do it alone when going to such dangerous areas. She knew her son was a worrywart about many things but she wished he would understand her reasoning.

She pushed such thoughts out her mind. She's here to cheer up dark cacao after all can’t do that when she is down in the dumps as well.

Strolling in to the dinning room she saw that all the food had been mostly eaten at some point. Knowing how busy dark cacao liked to keep him self that meant he was likely waiting for her. Well then best not keep him waiting any longer.

 She started moving toward the waiting king“Hi ya bitter bean lucky for you I was already planning on giving a surprise visit when you sent out the letter.” she noticed He didn’t react with the mild irritation that he normally did to that nickname of his. So that meant he was likely in at least some what of a good mood seeing her or he managed to become slightly less serious all the time she was going to with the first option because that one was far far far more likely.

“Hollyberry it’s been a while. I didn’t expect to see you for a while” It had indeed been a while at this point mostly her fault due to how she was often off on adventures. She probably should have arranged for a vist to happen sooner

“ It really has been hasn’t it dark cacao It’s good to see you again ” Before the conversation would die due to cacaos lack of social skills she picked a new topic for the both of them. Hopefully something he will like/

Turning towards the younger cookie in the room who extremely like his father really dark choco was a true mini cacao get him some contacts and let him were the right cloths and he could totally fool cookies. Wait she was getting mentally off track.

“So this is dark choco huh he’s really grown since last time” she didn’t miss how he wilted away a little he must be a little shy or maybe it’s has to do with just how beat up he looks.  He looks like he needs to eat more in all honesty.

“Yes last time he was barely up to your knees” Yeah she put this off way too long. Little dark choco seemed like such a happy and well behaved baby she wondered what happened.

“He looks like he needs to eat more as well hes all crust and bone” She stated the obvious as way to continue the conversation and let dark cacao decided if he wanted to shift it into something a little more serious.

“We are working on that he’s been sick and his appetite has not been the best”  Yeah he looked like he’s been sick. Little choco also looked like he should have eaten in his room to save himself the walk.

“He should probably be in bed resting then” best to give him an out to go sleep if he wants to. There was no need to keep him trapped in here while the discussion went on.

Dark choco’s answer was a little surprising. “I am very tired of being stuck in the same place for so long and just wanted to stretch my legs a little.” Thinking over it the point of view made a little sense but still he looked like death warmed over. But then again she know how much unfilled wanderlust can suck. 

She turned to dark cacao. “Are you sure that it's a good idea for him to be wandering around if what you told me in the letter is true.” There were other reasons than him being sick for dark choco to be keep in a single room anyways.

“ Keeping him locked in a room all the time would only destress him” Okay so they both shared the same suborn attitude when it came to taking care of themselves good too know. But she has given dark choco the out if he wants to take it. It was time to start the advice giving.

“  That reminds me. I see your probably past that point when It comes to the apparent insanity but did you know in the holly berry kingdom we finally found something a lot better than chains to keep out mental health patients in place” She didn’t expect that look on cacaos face to any other cookie it would look blank but she knew she had upset him.

“Hollyberry why would you ever need chains in the first place you just need to lock them in a room” Ah thats the reason.  Well better give her reasoning for why more that that is needed.

“ Well some cookies can get pretty violent both towards others and themselves and we needed a way to stop them from biting and clawing at the cookies trying to take care of them”

“ Just put some mits and maybe a mask on them then no need to chain them up” There was something weird to dark cacao voice here, maybe a hint of guilt. She kept going.

“ They keep trying to escape their treatments as well. Admittedly they are somewhat scary to go though but have a rather large success rate.” This tidbit seemed to peak her old friend's interest at least a little bit.

“What are treatments in the hollyberry kingdom actually” Well then she is happy to share.m.

“ Well there are a few, most of them all stem from the same concept of shocking a cooking back to sanity. Nearly drowning works well and so does spinning them around until they vomit for some reason.” 

Looking back at him she notices that dark choco is starting to look a little sicker, she continues speaking.

“ The most successful one currently is something called the tranquilizer where the cookie is locked in to a chair and we try to draw jam away from the brain for a bit. By puting something hot at there feet and something cold on their head.”

She is broken from her rousing little speech by the sound and smell of someone vomiting. Turning towards him it seemed poor little dark choco pushed his limits a bit too far and was now suffering the results.

Both she and dark cacao walk over. Likely for the same reason. But when she reaches over to help him up, dark choco visually flinches away from her. Dark Cacao thankfully snatchs him up before much else can happen.

“ Excuse me holly berry I must get dark choco cleaned up  I will be right back” She sees what he is trying to do. In all honesty it is likely for the best that dark choco gets an escort. He could fall and be unable to get back up.

“ Thats fine you do that I will wait here”

What followed next was a boring and somewhat awkward ten minutes but dark cacao did eventually return.

“Hollyberry perhapes we should have a different discussion” Dark cacao pauses as if he is considering his next words carefully.

“Namely of how cruel those treatments sound and if you're sure they are not just faking it the best they can to leave them.”  Dark cacao clearly didn’t like her suggestions did he. Ture she though them a little cruel as well but they worked and bitter medicine was still useful you would think dark cacao of all cookies would know this. 

“ You don’t think i should be allowing them to happen do you. The researching cookies have found evidence to back it up they do indeed work” Dark cacao didn’t look convinced at all.

“ Even if thats the case I also didn’t send you a letter for information about your practices for such case’s even though a dead end has been reached with my own cultures I at least know the source of the problem.” Deciding to inject some levity she tried to joke around a bit

“What do you believe a demon has possessed him” The response she got to this was not what she expected at all

“No of course not we have already had him exorcized” of course he would believe that she wished dark cacao was a bit less supersius sometimes.

We have done two rituals for soul lost and it have reveled something to me that make me question how good i was at parenting him“What makes you think that you bitter bean also what is a soul lose ritual”

A rather convoluted explanation occurs and what she Gathers is that the soul lose ritual is basetily drugging a cookie then asking question and dark choco kept rambling things that pointed to lack of self worth and being lonely and not feeling worthy of his station as prince and being scared that he hates him.

That was depressing to hear and dark cacao was clearly saddened by saying it. She has an idea however. She pounces forwards wrapping the grumpy kind in here arms.

“ hollyberry!!”   She give a wide smile “ What it seems like you needed a hug” dark cacao’s muscle stop tensing and it seems like he has accepted her affection at least a little.

Time to start the next phase of operation cheer cacao up. “it sounds like you made a few mistakes but they're all fixable. You just need to say that you love him out loud a bit more. I know your all gunho on showing and not saying but I think little dark choco justs needs some verbal confirmation.”

There is a bit of warmth in cacaos voice as he replies”Thank you hollyberry. I need to go check on dark choco to make sure he hasn’t hurt himself in any way shape or form now.”

“ that's fine we can catch up while he’s sleeping.” She lets go of the king and he walks away to check on his son.

Waiting is going to be awkward again wasn’t it.

[rainbowheart324]

one thing that makes me sad is the fact that most of the time after removing the soul, kris immediately goes to eat or drink. because we've been making them sprint for 9 hours around town on moss and hot chocolate and dark world food isn't real

[rainbowheart324]

Family curse - Chapter 30 - Rainbowheart324 - Cookie Run (Video Game) [Archive of Our Own]

chapter 30

He is pried from the comfortable embrace of sleep once again. He didn’t know when he whent to sleep in the first place. That doesn’t matter much right now anyways.He wants to go back. He would like to stop hurting.

 His muscle aches and his head hurts. He's cold and hot even if not as much as before. There are two things that keep him from just driving back into the sweet embrace of unawareness. 

One is that he is being gently shaken. Why has this become so common, and two is that he is ravenously hungry and needs to drink something.  The source to make both of these stop is made clear when he hears father speak.

“ There you are awake at last. You have to eat something now your crust and bone at this point” Ugh why does he keep being woken up. Let him sleep. He pauses trying to dive back down once again but father simply keeps shaking him. It’s clear he is not getting to go back to sleep until he does as father tells him to.

 He forces his eye open and sits up. He is tired but the want to eat out weights that, now that he has woken up at least a little bit . 

Father was right too; he had lost a large amount of weight as well. He probably weighed at least 30 pounds more when he first left the citadel. He had been light before then...

He shudders but not from the cold. He dosn’t think father realizes that however as he moves the blanket to be wrapped around him and holds a warm bowl of thinish porridge near his head. 

Maybe he was also a little to cold the warmth coming from the slowly cooling bowl is nice. He could deal with this. It’s not like he is expending that much energy to get something done when father is doing the work for him.

 He doesn’t even have to leave the cocoon of blankets to feed himself as father is spoon feeding him.

To be honest it’s a little embarrassing being fed like this.

On the other hand no one is currently watching and hes tired enough not to care about his pride at the moment.  

That line of thought caused him to slow down and think.  He thought his illness was doing better what caused it to spike in strength so heavily. To the point where he was okay with being fed like a toddler so he didn’t have to move as much.

He thinks back to yesterday. It’s mostly a blur in his memories he was woken up and pressured to do another ritual. He has some lingering feeling of distress but he can’t really place it to things that happened.

So it was just like the ritual before this one then. There was definitely something in that brew that made it hard to remember things he was sure of it now.  He didn’t know what happened to him in full but he definitely wanted to avoid any more of it. Not that he had much choice in the matter did he. 

 He was broken out of his increasingly negative thinking as the food stopped coming. That was disappointing.

His stomach had stopped cramping at this point but he was still a little hungry. His disappointment must have show on his face for father told him in a gentle tone.“ sorry dark choco but I don’t wish for you to have refeeding syndrome on top of this mess. It’s good you have your appetite back however.”

Ah well then.That likely meant no more food for him.  He didn’t bother to respond. This was what he got for not sucking up his nausea yesterday( or was that earlier today he can’t tell)  and proving that he could handle eating more.  He wasn’t quite sure were that memory came from considering yesterday was a blur but he had it.

He rapidly blinks his eye a few times to try and clear his head. Now what was he supposed to be doing. Well he still feels rather tired. So he should make some steps to go back to sleep.

Seeing as there was no reason for him to keep straining himself to sit up he laid back down hoping to get back to sleep despite the issues plaguing him. He closed his eye.

Things did not go to plan.

Sleep was avoiding him.

He turned to try and get in a more comforable position and was met with pain and being forced to frezze in place less far more pain come.

It seems his body was making it clear how much it hated it’s current treatment .His muscles were cramping far far too much. It was making it impossible to relaxe his grip on the waking world/

Father starts to lay down next to him the movement from this causing another wave of cramps.  He opens his eye to try and get some distraction from his current pain. Maybe if he was luckly he could forget and then drift off that way.

Looking at what father wearing it’s night cloths. So it is likely that he slept thought the day again.

That wasn’t exactly good but it was better than sl.eeping more than 24 hours again. 

He has been sleeping far far to much latelyHow is he still so tired?

Pondering this question he ended up moving forgetting that he is currently cramping rather badly and pays the priceAnother shot of pain races across his upper arm and he groans. 

Him laying still so long is probably why he is cramping in all honesty. Going from max to little movement so many times in a row must have made his muscle quite upset. Maybe if he stretched a little they would go away. But he was to tired for that right now.

“ Is everything alright dark choco” Not really but he didn’t want to open up this door and talk about it. He trys to just play it off like it was a minor inconvenience.“ I’m fine my upper body is just cramping a little”

Father clearly dose not buy that in the slightest. As seen by his response “ let me try something that may help”  Father is moving and he can soon feel his hands on his upper body. He has a slight moment of panic before it turns out to feel rather okay.

“ What are you..ohhh” It turned out fathers plan was a modified version of what one does when you have muscle cramps from over training it or if you have been walking on it for too long that being a fast and dirty squeeze massage. It feels like heaven.

“ Just go back to sleep my little one hopefully you’ll feel better in the morning” He doesn’t really hear what father said or at least is unable to currently process it.

The tension he had been unable to get rid of before was floating out of his muscle and with that one discomfort removed it was inevitable that he would fall to sleep quickly.

When he wakes up the world is still dark. His internal clock is a bit off at the moment but father is still sleeping so it must be early. For the first time in a while he is not so tired he wishes to do nothing more but sleep.

He actually wants to stretch a little. Maybe it would make his body happier with him.

Still getting up would wake father and trigger who knows what in response so he should probably keep laying down. He feared doing this but another very unlikely thing happened as well that being his brain did not drift to thoughts of jam and pain and fear but instead focused on those last words he heard before he drifted off to sleep last night.

He not sure if they weren’t some fever dream and with him feeling better and comparing just how clouded his head was yesterday compared to now he is leaning toward him miss hearing something. It just wasn’t something that seemed all that likely  for his father to say.

Still It was nice to hear in the moment.

He is in the middle of looking back through his memories to find any similar incidents when he is nunged slightly and jolts back to the land of the aware.

He sits up determined to not get that lost in his head again. Father had some how managed to wake up get out of the bed get dressed all with out him noticing that.

“Dark choco I will be back with some food for you okay” He was starting to get a little stir crazy just siting here already so he proposed a different action.

“ I’ll feeling better can I go down to the private dining room to eat with you”The private dinnering room was were they both ate there meals when they had the spare time .The highest ranking officers also ate there from time to time. They also threw parties there some times but that was really really rare.

Often enough they ate there on there lonesome because there schedule did not line up. So eating with anyone in the room was decently rare event for him

“ Are you sure your feeling up to it” He was feeling more than that. He replies with prehapes a bit to much energy  “ Yes a short walk will do me some good”

Father seems a bit worried as he speaks “ If you start to fall I will pick you up and carry you if you really want to do this” He was okay with that and gave no conter argument. He really wanted to walk about even if just for a little bit.

First before he could go he had to of course change in to some clean cloths. He had been in his current ones for to long and was starting to smell.

His steps were slightly shaky. He had forgotten just how sore and stiff his legs have gotten. In response to his unsteadiness father tried to scoop him up but he wasn’t having it.

“ No I can do it my legs are just stift from lack of movement” To his surprise father actually backed off and after a surprisingly tiring walk to the room he was soon sat down eating some cacao nib porridge. Which was a big upgrade from the watery stuff he had earlier.

Father was eating some of the same if in a bigger portion size. For a few moments he could pretend all was well in the world. 

[rainbowheart324]

What do you think about abortion? Also, are you religious?

I'm not religious, but I do believe in random shit recreationally. For one, the human cunt is a portal through which souls enter the world, but they'll need a meat suit to survive in the meatworld - just like you'd need a spacesuit to survive in space - and that takes nine months to manufacture. And sometimes the process of that happening is spontaneously aborted or cancelled by the manufacturer, and I don't think the souls of the unborn would be any more bothered by that than you getting a text going "hey sorry your comission was cancelled, we'll put you at the front of the queue for the next one".

And they'll just skip straight to the next life, or go wherever souls go after life, and maybe that's the same thing. Maybe they'll have better luck next time and just be a dandelion or something.

[rainbowheart324]

Family curse - Chapter 29 - Rainbowheart324 - Cookie Run (Video Game) [Archive of Our Own]

chapter 29

It was rather hard to wake his child this moring. It made him feel slightly bad as well. His son did need his rest right now and he clearly wasn’t feeling up to much. Not even eating considering how he treated that bowl of oatmeal.

That by it’s self was a rather big issue. Dark choco was still losing weight on his current diet and he could tell he wasn’t feeling sated on the broth alone. Maybe he could get him to eat a broth that had been thickened in to a thin gurl by the addition of some flour.

Maybe. It would be worth a try at the very least. It could also be that dark choco was stressed by having another ritual today. He would have to think about this more heavily later. He needed to keep an eye on his son during this ritual right now.

Sitting down in the ritual space is no different from last time. With the extra security measures in place he should feel better but in truth he wouldn’t feel like this was safe at all unless his child was siting in his lap where he could easily react before he could do any real damage to himself.

Despite his growing sense of worry the ritual continued on. His son put on the thick mits willingly and he drank the tonic as well.

Dark choco seemed to be very more put off by the brew given to him this time as he stumbles about and makes the reconable sound of gagging. His son doesn't throw up but it's a near thing. He eventually crash lands on the pillow and for a moment fear takes hold that his son just died.

Then dark choco started shifting a bit. The fear in his heart retreats a bit. There is a few minutes given to dark choco to maybe try and get back in a siting position but nothing happens and so the real meat of the ritual starts.

 Affogato starts speaking. Which dark choco clearly doesn't not like as he starts mumbling no’s under his breath.

This clear distress is only further heightened by what affogato says next. “ Why do you think your father hates you?”  He feels his facial muscles stiffen a bit as he hears this.

He doesn’t quite like where this is going as dark choco starts rambling in short thoughts spliced together.  He wished he picked a slightly closer spot it hards to actually make out everything dark choco is saying. He can still make out enough for him to understand the direction things are going however.

When reading in between the lines it becomes clear that while he might have forgiven dark choco he had come nowhere near forgiving himself. To the point of perhaps seeking out some kind of punishment to right the perceived wrong.

He is going to have to go over that with his child. Maybe he should have gone over it more before.

He can’t let such pain full doubt and guilt fester alone for any longer. That was if this ritual did not clear up the matter. His thoughts were taken to a new place as was dark choco said shocked him slightly.

This new information just made him feel worst.

His baby was not a burden; he was sick but would get better. He would make sure of it. One of the first things that needed to happen for that to be however was for such a toxic view point to be discarded.

 Thankfully affogato seemed to share his point of view. As his words seemed made to try and dislodge this faulty train of thought from his son's head with his reasoning.

“ Your father forgave you for what you did under the curse did he not”  This apparently upsets dark choco so much that if the mits were not there he have likely lose his other eye. He want’s to stop the ritual for a moment but it seems dark choco has already worn him self out.

He payed no attention to what his son spoke when he was trying and failing to hurt him self again but what affogato speaks next tells him the gist. 

“ You wouldn’t call the cookies resting in the infirmary a burden would you” He is starting to doubt any words will actually get through to dark choco at this point. And what dark choco says in reply is only reinforcing that idea.

For once dark choco answers in a complete sentence instead of rambling a small bit of related words. It is a rather heart breaking sentence to hear however

 “The sick cookies in the infirmary didn’t massively mess up there attempt to make them selfs deserve there station.”  

That was a rather twisted way to think. He held no doubt that he was guilty of the same reasoning before but there was a difference between a young adult making a mistake following what he knew and Himself who was older than every cookie combined in this room with centuries to build up wisdom and experience.

Did he accidentally infuse this type of thinking in to dark choco while rasing him. Is he the reason for so much of his child's distress?

Affogato seems to try a defuse this line of reasoning “ At least a few of them got hurt trying to prove them self with rather stupid actions that they should have known better than to attempt” 

While those words were true he didn’t think that would be the best way to try and convic dark choco from his current line of reasoning. He is clearly holding himself to a higher stander to live up too. He listens closely hoping his own line of thought is wrong and those words really do start to reach his son.

Dark choco descends into mumbles and short phrases again. He picks up a few i ruined it. I’m sorries. And that he needs to be better.  From there it’s clear his son is descending in to a rant of some kind. 

One where he is repeatedly putting himself down dark choco is too quite for him to hear everything but the over all message is clear. He is not sure how and when his baby became so obsessed with strength but it’s clear that this had been brewing for a long long time. Long enough that he should have noticed at least a few signs of it by now.

What ever affogato hears has left him stunned. Things might have been even worse than what he has picked up on. How did so many issues go unnoticed for so long. He should have noticed at least a few signs of this before everything came to a head so why is it only coming to light now.

 Affgato ask’s another question “Why do you think that” He is pretty sure he is looking for more information to try and tear a part the belief with logic.

Dark choco is too quiet answering this for him to hear what he is saying. It is only when he hears affogato ask another question that he feels his heart break a little. 

“Why is your duty your worth” He must have messed up somewhere rasing him sure he was always doing his best to fulfill the role of the dutiful prince but he didn’t think he would take it that far.

Dark choco is loud enough for him to hear his answer again. He is not sure if he wants to keep hear this however. 

“No one really interacts with me if it is not about duty. “ That surely can’t be true right surely. He trys to interact with dark choco as much as possible and sure he was always on a time crunch so he had to combine it with.. Oh he see the problem here. He’s messed up. He has messed up so much.

Affogato seems to be of the mind that dark choco is forgetting something here. But he know dark choco trys to make him self as busy with his own duties as possable. “Surely there are some cookies you talk to when not going about your duty.”

Dark choco is mumbling againg. He picks up the word carmel arrow and little jaunts followed by combined with training.

His last few words are far more clear however “Just as father had showed me.” This entire issue boiled down to him messing up rearing his son didn’t it. He’s such an awful father. 

Affogato seems annoyed as he speaks “Lets try a different train of thought,”How did you feel under the cursed influence of the sword”

Darks choco calm entirely disappears when this is spoken.  It seemed he had fallen in to a at least semi comfortable rythmeth of answering questions and this completely broke it. 

He could see dark choco trying to scratch at his face again and even with the thickness of the mits he worried about the barely closed injuries reopening themselves under the assault.

Never less the ritual continued and he gets even more foresight in just how badly he has managed to raise his child. By the end of it all it’s starting to look like the cursed sword was merely the spark that had lit the barrel of gunpowder and a breakdown was always going to be coming. 

Perhaps he even got a bit lucky with the sword as he was able to use it as an excuse to avoid having to exile or execute dark choco. Which would have been the only two options he would have if the sword had not been cursed.

As he looks at the thoroughly distressed form of his child the ritual comes to a close affogato come to him and out right says he has no clue how to fix this. That wasn’t was he directly said but it was clearly what he ment.

 That was alright it was his mess he would have to find some way to clean it up him self.Carrying dark choco back to his chamber for him to rest his mind was filled with plans of what he should possible do to fix this.

Only to find he really had no clue what to do.

Maybe just maybe he could write a letter to hollyberry explaining his situation.She raised her own child and they have turned out very well a bit anxious but he was still able to run the hollyberry kingdom.She even has some baby grandchildren now too. Of course that relied on her answering him which she hadn’t done in years. But she was the only one he felt he could actually reach out to. 

He decided that was his next action he would be taking on his path to geting his son well again.

He needed to send a letter to her but he currently had no clue where she was. Maybe he could send it to the hollyberry kingdom so her family would have to know her general location right.

He looks down as dark choco starts twisting and turning in his arms. The stress of the ritual must have made things worse for his illness. That was fine he would be back in bed soon. He wouldn't be forced to leave the bed anymore either. 

There would be no more rituals held while he was so sick. There would only be more in the future if dark choco decided he would like to try and go thought with them him self.

Getting to his chambers he tucked dark choco in for some hopefully good sleep as he turned towards the normally unused desk.

He has had paperwork delivered to his chambers instead of his officeHe use to do this in the past sometime but he found he would get very upset staying in the same place for so long.

That was yet another mess up on his end then wasn’t it. His poor baby didn’t even have paper work or a set deadline for when he would be free. No wonder he was so miserable to the point of hurting him self to try and get out.

He sneaks a sad look at his sleeping child. He still thrashing and still clearly upset. 

He walks toward the bed and gets in it right beside his baby. He starts gently petting his hair The paperwork can wait a while longer till dark choco is sleeping soundly.

[rainbowheart324]

Been geting back in to undertale. More specifically error sans and nightmares gang. Maybe some day i will,write about them of course i have no ideas at the moment.

[rainbowheart324]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/61081783/chapters/171049681

chapter 28

Coming back to the world of the awake and activity being a hard task is becoming far too common. Being fair to himself he can still clearly feel the ache and pains of sickness run thought his body.

This is still not a good reason to simply lay about and let his body waste away however. Still currently he feels too horrible to actually do anything about that at the moment.

 The horrible feeling of disease was still racking his body .He still feel to hot yet to cold at the same time. He knows that his body wants to rest to help it get better faster. Currently he agrees that sleep is the best course of action.  He was pretty sure everyone around him agreed on that at well.

So why is father shaking him trying to rouse him from the sweet and gentle embrace of slumber. It’s annoying he's tired let him sleep. He tries his best to ingorge the motion and swim back deeper down in the warm and drowsy depths.

“Dark choco i know you're awake by now open up your eye. There is going to be another attempt at the ritual today.” This causes his eye to open not out trying to be complainant but from shock and a small bit of fear.

Not a single ritual so far has been pleasant.  He dosn’t want to experience what was in store for him next.

The dancing had hurt and while he didn’t remember much of the other one he did remember feeling awful while it happened. Maybe that was part of the point of the brew they had him drink to make him forget the worst of it. He knew there must have been more in that thing than to just soothe his throat.

Whatever the case He really really dose not want to do it again. He is almost about to say that out loud but then a thought hits him. What if they tie him down again if he refuses.  He remembers threats of just leaving him tied down before his attempt to escape.

Despite his muscle’s protest he pushes himself into a sitting position.  He doesn’t really have any choice in this matter does he. He hates this but he knows he will hate what will happen more if he doesn't play along.

The blanket wrapped around him falls alway. The world and air around him is cold too cold for his he wearing one of fathers sleeping gowns. That probably explained why it was so heavy.  It was meant to be warm but it didn’t exactly fit him right.

 Father at least seemed pleased with him getting up .“ There you go dark choco. I have set out something for you to change in to on top of the bedside table next to you”

Looking over sure enough there was a simple set of robes folded up laying on the table. They looked warm enough even if there were a simple light gray. He didn’t recognize them from his closet but he was pretty sure very little in there still fit him. He had lost a large amount of weight after all.

He didn’t want to take off the sleeping gown. He was cold already but he didn’t think he would have a choice. He steeled himself and got started. 

He took off his only layer of insulation and it was awful the cool air of the room causing his body to start shivering. He moved as fast as possible to try and get the day robes on as soon as possible.

It was at this point he knew today would be terrible. The want for sleep was not leaving him despite no longer being comfortable in his bed.  

A bowl of some kind of oatmeal was shoved in to his hands. He wasn’t hungry at all. His stomach was twisting and turning but he reasoned he should probably eat something. If it’s anything like the dancing he will need the energy later.

That line of thought was scratched out of his head the moment he was picked up and the nausea got a lot stronger. Barely keeping the bowl from tipping over he called out. “ Father please put the bowl somewhere if i eat i’m going to vomit” He held it as far away from him self as he dared.

 Father quickly answered him“ Are you sure about that your very underweight at the moment skipping meals can’t be good for you” It is spoken in a calm manner,

 Those words probably mean father isn’t going to force him to try  So he was a bit more confident when he spoke again.

“ Yes i’m sure” Please get it away from him. Maybe he could try it later but not now.

Father takes the bowl from him and his nausea slightly improves with the smell being a bit further from him. “ I’ll leave it here. A servant is coming by to clean everything in here soon anyway. I will arrange for something that should be easier on your stomach ”

Ah well he feels slightly bad that the food is going to end up wasted.  This probably means he is going to be eating broth for a bit longer hopefully in a bigger portion size than he has been getting however.

Father continues carrying him to what is probably the ritual room again. He finds himself snuggled up a bit closer to him. He is still cold and the colder and clamyer hand of fear is starting to reach him. He knows nothing he can do can change his fate here but doing this still makes him feel a little better.

The ritual room is the exact same as last time as long as one ignores the jam stains on the floor boards. That is probably from when he lost his eye.  Sitting down is difficult with how tense and tight his mussels currently are.

 He is sitting down on the same pillow as before and he can see the same weird brew sitting off to the side as before. So it looks like it will be the same ritual as last time the one he can’t remember very well.

He considers knocking over the bowl for a moment but that might lead to consequences he wouldn’t be able to bear so he instead sit still and continues trying to quash the growing feeling of panic he has.

 It is here that something finally changes from before. He is given the thicks mits that he was wearing when he woke up yesterday.

Looking over them now it’s clear their purpose was to prevent him from hurting himself. Likely in the same manner as had lost his eye.  Well at least they have learned some what

He puts them on he has no wish to become blind.  There soon a layer of sweat under them that is quite itchy. He doesn't like this; he wants to go back to bed where he felt at least somewhat safe.

He picks up the brew very carefully so as not to spill it knowing that it is likely what comes next. He is given a nod and downs it as fast as he could. It actually tasted just slightly different from last time.

He waits for it to take effect.

The room starts to melt again.  It is dizzying and twisting and turning and he just feels awful.

 He is soon doubled over trying desperately not to vomit what he drank back up.  He finds it hard to remember why he is trying so hard however.

The mitts and the spinning make it hard to keep himself up right . Trying to get a steady grip on something to act on a anchor only for him to be unable to get a grip. He quickly finds he fallen over.

He lets out a groan. This is awful. He's cold, all his body hurts and he wants to vomit. He is scared about what's going to happen next and why is the room melting. 

  Eventually despite all the negative sensations he is able to center himself and try to entertain himself by watching the spiraling void he has somehow managed to get himself in.

Is he hearing something. Is that a freaking voice. NO no no no no no. He is not listening to any whispers that he can’t track the source of. Not again not again not again. Shut up and leave him alone.

“ Why do you think your father hates you” The words hit like a punch to the gut. It knows it knows it knows. Father has no reason to treat him as well as he has. He should be rotting in a dungeon cell right now. He feels awful. He dosn’t want to think about this

He was a burden an albatross around the neck of the citadel resources. He should be crumbled by now.

“ Your father forgave you for what you did under the curse did he not” Can this thing here his thoughts. Nononono get out of his head hes not doing this again he needs out.

 He feels something pawing at his face but that does nothing to get rid of the mass of eyes staring at him judging him. When they got here he wasn’t quite sure but he wants them to go away and stop judging him.

The eyes don’t leave. Instead they keep staring and he can’t help but feel the weight of his sins.

He is worseless and covered in sin and broken and

“ You wouldn’t call the cookies resting in the infirmary a burden would you” The voice is mocking him.

The sick cookies in the infirmary didn’t massively mess up there attempt to make them selfs deserve their station.

“ At least a few of them got hurt trying to prove themselves with rather stupid actions that they should have known better than to attempt” he wishes the voice would shut up but he can’t help but defend his point.

That was indeed likely true but there was a different in exceptions between that of a younger warrior who were often a bit too prideful which backfired on them and him who is a prince. He didn’t have the freedom to make mistakes. He needed to be prefect. He has to be perfect.

His duty requires him to live up to hight exceptions a mistake common in the lower ranks is not okay coming from him. He try so hard to live up to it and he ruined it he ruined it he ruined it. How utterly worthless he is.

He needs to be better ,needs to be be stronger. I must be stronger. Why wasn’t he strong enough to control it. He is supposed to be in control of himself at all times. If he doesn't have the strength to do that he is worthless. Strength is the only thing that matters in this world. If I don't have strength i am worthless.

Unlike the last few times the voice doesn't speak again right away instead he gets the feeling of a stunned silence.

He is almost under the belief that they have gone away and he can relax slightly when they come once more.

“Why do you think that”

Why does he think that?   Why wouldn't he think that.

His only real interaction with cookies is either as their prince trying to make sure cookies stay strong or father who is trying  to make him stronger. To be strong is honorable. To be strong is his duty as a prince and as a prince his worth is his duty. 

“Why is your duty your worth”

No one really interacts with me if it is not about duty.  Duty is the foundation of his life he doesn’t have much other in it other than duty.

Once again the voice goes quiet. When it returns it almost sounds a little desperate or maybe exasperated . “Surely there are some cookies you talk to when not going about your duty.”

Thinking about he went to carmel arrow sometimes and while most of their time was spent training or partoling together sometime she would convince him to join her on little jaunts.

but I alway try to combine things with training or talk about pressing issues. Just as father had showed me.

The voice is silence once again.

“Lets try a different train of thought,”How did you feel under the cursed influacne of the sword”

Whatever levity he had managed to gain over the corse of the questioning disappears. The memories in his mind are tender and this is pouring salt on to a wound.

He has no wish to even think about this hell yet the voice keeps asking prodding and poking at parts of his mind that are better left buried in his option.

[rainbowheart324]

[rainbowheart324]

the problem with water is like. it's the cleaning fluid right. that's the obvious part. you stop drinking and you stop peeing and your kidneys are like ough. ough. ough. ough. but you don't die. unless you're not drinking anything At All and not eating watery food either. so all it is is you pee less but you're okay. kind of.

BUT THEN when it gets too hot it starts being the coolant! and suddenly there are so many ways it can get out! you have so many sweat glands and so much skin and they all need to be cooled down before you DIE.

but then. you realize the least obvious one. it's the transmission fluid. it's the fucking transmission fluid. you can't transmit SHIT without your fliud. which is still fucking water somehow.

so now you're LEAKING your transmission fluid out of every goddamn pore and your kidneys are like hey. gimme that cleaning fluid cmon dude. while your pores are like ITS COOLANT. NEED COOLANT. FOR THE FIRE. NEED MORE COOLANT. SO MUCH FIRE. KILL IT. KILL IT MORE. MORE COOLANT. and then. the rest of you. that uses all that fluid to transmit things. it's like hey. hey. hey what the fuck.. i need that. hello? can anyone hear me? hello? it's so dark in here..

and then you drink more water or you die.

[rainbowheart324]

Oh god some one talk to me to get my mind off of whats going down in California

[rainbowheart324]

Let's maul our enemies with Papa! :D

Prev

[rainbowheart324]

here is chatper 27

https://archiveofourown.org/works/61081783/chapters/170781814

Rushing over to the door leading to the only spot his child could be at this moment. He threw open the door with perhaps a bit to much force

He burst into the bathroom with great speed.. Hoping dark choco is okay. His eyes quickly scan the room to locate his missing child. It dosn’t take very long to do so.

From a glance he looks okay Dark choco is standing in front of the mirror wrapped up in a blanket. Holding his hair for some reason. He can’t see his face but so he has no clues on that front

 It is only as the black mass begins to fall while his son turns around he see what is in his child's other hand. One of the razor blades he keeps in here which uses for shaving from time to time. 

He thought he had hidden everything that dark choco could use to hurt him self well enough. He feels a sting of panic as it becomes very very clear that he didn’t quite manage that. There is no time for further thinking on the subject he has to take action now.

He lunges forward determine to get it out of dark chocos hand before he cuts something else other than his hair. 

Thankfully there is no dangerous struggle to get the blade. Dark choco does not fight him as he grabs his hand and tosses the razor towards a trash can. Perhaps he was to shocked at his sudden entrance.

He watches as hair continues to fall to the ground and he pulls dark choco towards him.He needs to make sure he can’t hurt him self anymore than he has already has.

Pinning him against his chest should work well enough for him to check for injury while also making sure dark choco can’t hurt himself and is relatively comfortable. He tugs him and dark choco simply falls in to position. 

After taking a moment to make sure dark choco is well and truly pinned he starts his inspection. He can clearly tell hes distressed but did he mange to cut more than his hair.

His baby is making small noises as quickly checks his back and neck for any spots of red. He dosn’t smell any jam in the air but that dosn’t mean dark choco can’t have a small cut somewhere.

 He sees none but his child's hair is so matted it seems like the loss of a large amount of hair was destined to happen some time and he can’t be sure that he hasn’t missed anything that was laying under the matting.

Still he has confirmed at the very least if dark choco hurt him self it was so minor he can’t pick up any trace of it.He stops searching. He is sure his child's body was at least mostly okay it was time to check up on his mental state.

He could already tell that something was wrong here considering how dark choco acted and the fact that he was still making noises. Still he would like more information on this front thus he must question his son a bit.

“Why did you think that was a good idea?”The minute that comes out of his mouth he clicks his jaw shut. He messed that up so much. That was such a tactless question on his part.

He is somewhat surprised he even gets an answer from dark choco. It’s said in a wavy and about to cry voice but he is still answered.

“ I didn’t mean to cut it all off, I just wanted to cut off a little of the matting to loosen it enough to untangle it ” Oh baby. Well that answered why he had the razor. He must have startled dark choco when he came in.

That might make this his fault. 

He shifts how he is squeezing dark choco against him. If he had come in a little quieter this mess wouldn’t have come to be. It such a shame what happened to his hair.

He can feel his baby starting to move like hes holding back tears. He has to comfort him somehow.

He whispers “ shh your okay there nothing bleeding” Why must he be so bad a word when it is to a speech to lead in to battle. That was the completely wrong thing to say he knew dark choco took extra effort to keep his hair in good condition.

His baby mutters“ I didn’t mean too”  he knows that. He has to think. Dark choco is too worked up.

He starts lifing dark choco. It's probably not the best idea for him to be standing for very long right now.  

Right he needs to shift the subject of conversation maybe that will help dark choco out some. But what to shift it too. Wait he was trying to groom him self so maybe he can shift it in to cleaning him self up? It’s worth a shot.

“ You just wanted to get yourself clean right” he answered with a small nod of the head with a small “ yeah” good good. He was right he can work with this.

Well then it was far past time for dark choco to get a bath. He hasn’t had one in a long time and sponge baths can only do so much. Honestly he stoped being able to smell chocolate scent normally around a while ago. 

He would probably like to stop smelling like sweat at this point as well. Yes a nice and warm bath should help relax his muscles as well.

 He finally had healed up enough for him to bathe without dunking open wounds in to water as well as long as he was careful about it. So it shouldn’t be too difficult to get done.

“ Come and sit in the tub. I will get a warm bath made up for you. As long as you don’t dunk your head in every thing will be fine”. Dark choco dosn’t react very much to this statement he gets a simply “ okay” and that was it.

Did this event lead to more soul lose while things aren’t qutie as bad as before dark choco should be at least a small bit more active than this. He shouldn’t be simply staring ahead at nothing. He has to fix this mess.

He starts walking towards the tub. Hopefully the bath will help cookies often feel better after a bath the feeling of being completely clean was always very nice. He is so glad for the running hot water that had been installed a while back. This would be a lot more awkward without it.

They had running water installed in a few places recently in his own terms which was a year ago for most other cookies .In the infirmary in the mess hall the toilets community bathrooms and due to the instenant of his staff his own bathing chambers. 

He had used it to bathe quite a few times himself and it was indeed a nice time saver being that servants didn’t have to spend there time preparing it for him. He had use to avoid bathing at least  slightly due to just how much  time it took to make in the past but now he was able to clean him self far more often.

Placing his child down the basin  he noticed a small problem. Dark choco was still dressed and he likely still had a sense of modesty. Bathing like that would likely make him sicker. A lesser problem is that it would likely ruin the cloths as well but his son's health was the more prominent issue here.

He lets out a sigh and dark choco flinces slightly. He retises the urge to sigh again no need to make dark choco more upset then he has to. This is going to be unpleasant already.

“ Dark choco your going to have to take your clothes off” There is a few moments of awkward silence before his son answers him.

“ can i maybe leave on my underwear” That was actually a much better idea than what he had before 

“ Thats fine. I just don’t want you getting sicker because you were wearing wet clothes” there is a small pause before his son answers him with a simple “ That fair”

His son fumbles around a bit to get his cloths off as he goes ahead and puts the discarded blanket in the corner of the room. The robes soon join it there as he turns on the water flow.

Carefully adjusting the knobs and testing the stream coming out to make sure it is of suitable temperature he realizes the water around his son is already starting to get dirty. The path to get him clean was going to be a long one for sure.

Still dark choco seems to be enjoying the water somewhat already. So that was a good sign. 

Several round of filling and then at least partially emptying the tub because the water had turned brown latter his son was as clean as he could get without soaking through the bandages wrapped around his face. 

At some point his baby had fallen asleep during all of this so now he was laying them by the fireplace and toweling them off until he was not long to soggy to sleep in a bed. 

This had been tiring. He was glad about the timing that this occurred in. It would have been a disaster if dark choco had woken earlier and he was unable to be there due to doing the days duties.

For once he listened to the idea of letting someone else run the day to day doing of the citadel his every loyal second watcher was probably trapped in paper work doing that right now. Maybe he could permanently split off a little of the work he did to some other cookies. It was nice not to have to rush around from place to place.

He looked at his no longer dripping wet son. He would at least delegate some of his work load until he was sure dark choco would not die if he took his eyes off him.  Hopefully he will be dry enough to go to bed soon. He was getting tired himself.