#((context in case someone doesn't know; “taw” is what the big/shooting marble in the game of marbles is called))

[punsmaster69]

12/MAR/20XX

"BROTHER?"

papyrus knocked on my door a few more times. he sounded upset.

still searching around my room, i looked again at the vacant spot on my ulna.

not under the bed, from what i could see. sure as hell not getting all the way under there to check, though.

under blankets?

a messy ball of sheets sits plainly in the middle of my mattress.

probably not.

the last two days are a blur, and i can't remember a few things.

where did i put it?

when did i take it off?

is that why my head hurts or am i somehow still hungover?

my brother calls my name again; the tinge of worry seeping through his tone snaps my thoughts into focus.

whatever papyrus was upset about, he'd definitely be more so if he saw that i didn't have the monitor on.

pulling down my sleeves fails; no jacket.

"(where-)"

scanning the area for only a moment before stopping, the image of my jacket hanging off the couch arm appears in my mind.

"(damn it.)"

i opt to cover my monitor-less arm with a baggy long-sleeved shirt i haven't touched in ages.

excuses and explanations flipped though my mind as i reach for the door handle.

" 'sup, bro-?"

"oh."

the reason for my surprise suddenly dangled in front of my face.

"I WAS WORRIED SOMETHING HAD HAPPENED WHEN YOU WERE ALL QUIET."

"REGARDLESS, NOW THAT I CAN SEE THAT YOU'RE ALRIGHT..."

he dropped the dangling reason into my hand, and put his hands on his hips.

"WHEN DID YOU EVEN TAKE IT OFF?"

with an oddly shaky hand, i start re-attaching the device to my arm.

"dunno."

i struggle a bit with the latch.

"DO YOU KNOW WHY IT WAS UNDER A PILLOW, SHOVED IN A DRAWER??"

a vague memory of irritatedly trying to silence the beeping device flashed through my mind.

"..got annoyed, i think."

papyrus leans down to help attach it to my arm, pausing to take note of my unintentional tremorings.

he turns my arm over to properly re-enable the device. papyrus frowns when it turns red within seconds of being on.

his face tells me he's forming a plan about something - i interject.

"you, uh. reckon i could get something to eat before anything else?"

papyrus pulls himself back to the current moment.

"RIGHT. THAT WOULD A GOOD IDEA."

"......huh."

"can't actually remember the last thing i ate."

"WELL, I TRIED TO GET YOU TO EAT A LITTLE YESTERDAY... BUT YOU DIDN'T HAVE MUCH."

"..."

"huh?"

i wracked my (metaphorical) brain for any other memories past being a few drinks in at grillby's.

practically nothing.

"...WHAT'S THAT LOOK?"

"IS SOMETHING WRONG?"

"jeez. i'm gettin' way worse hangovers than i used to."

——

"SURELY THIS IS NOT THE ONLY SOLUTION."

i summoned another bone into the pile.

"well. it's the easiest way."

"I... I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME YOU TRIED TO SUMMON YOUR SPECIAL ATTACK, BUT..."

"..i don't know if it's a good idea, bro."

"IF YOU DON'T FIRE IT, MAYBE YOUR EYE WON'T, UM."

he shifted his feet around in the grass.

"E-EXPLODE."

"......"

picking myself up off the ground, i slowly raised my arm and-

"WAIT, WAIT!"

"..?"

"M-MAYBE IT'S NOT A GREAT IDEA AFTER ALL. FORGET IT."

"YOU CAN TRY SOMETHING ELSE! LIKE..."

papyrus looks frantically around, as if the solution would be around us in the yard somewhere.

rather than piling bones again, i summoned bones from the ground in a single-file line beside me. one of the bones accidentally strikes a red ball that frisk must have left behind, launching it in the air.

"whoops."

immediately, i have to summon a barricade between me and the ball getting ready to make impact with my skull.

papyrus picks the ball up... i can see gears turning in his head.

he throws it directly at me.

𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙠.

it hits a wall of my own bones in front of me.

"...uh-"

launching it into the air again with his own attack, papyrus tosses it a little softer at me.

rather than guard, i catch the ball this time. again, i give my brother a confused look before tossing it back to him. papyrus makes a face.

"NO, USE YOUR MAGIC TO SEND IT BACK!"

shooting from the dirt below him, a precisely-aimed attack strikes the ball from his hands directly into the air. with his right hand he yanks the bone out of the ground. that bone, which he spins before using it to smack the ball towards me once more.

tucking my own right hand in my pocket, i step back and summon an attack with my left.

we bounce the ball back and forth a few times this way, but papyrus quickly changes things.

he pretends to miss smacking the ball, de-summoning the bone last second and instead just grabbing and hurling it above his head into the air as far as he could.

a bone shoots from the yard behind me, bouncing the ball in my direction.

it wasn't going super fast.. still, i could tell he switched because he wanted me to alternate methods as well. so, i propped up the bone i was using and summoned two long bones connected by a center one. setting the oddly-shaped attack on the propped up bone, i crouched below it just in time as the ball landed on the attack - it rolled down the bones like a slide. with a tiny attack to boost it at the end, i return the ball to my brother.

he catches it in his hands with a look of surprise on his face.

"...YOU MADE SOMETHING OUT OF YOUR ATTACKS."

i looked at the strange bone-slide. it's certainly different from anything i would have done before. what possessed me to make it, i'm not sure.

"whoops."

"...THAT ATTACK IS..."

my brother inspects the construction a few times, tucking the ball under his arm as he does a few circles around it.

"YEP, FOR SURE."

"IT'S JUST AS I THOUGHT."

"THAT ATTACK PATTERN..."

"..?"

"...IS SUPER COOL!!"

papyrus jumps up and down excitedly around me in a circle.

"..thanks, bro."

"SEE?! YOU CAN DEFINITELY DO OTHER THINGS WITH YOUR ATTACKS!"

"I WILL NOT LET YOU LIMIT YOURSELF! STARTING NOW, NO LONGER WILL YOU RESTRICT YOURSELF TO EXCLUSIVELY PILING BONES!!"

the slight feeling of accomplishment i had gotten from actually doing something was quickly replaced with mild dread.

i'd just unintentionally raised the standard bar of effort for me off the floor.

i make a swift movement with my foot to knock the structure off-balance a little when papyrus isn't looking directly at me.

"it is pretty cool, huh?"

"it's really a-"

the bones all clatter against each other as they fall into the grass beside me. i make a show of looking visibly upset.

"oh no..."

"i had done so good....."

"guess i'll just have to stick to my normal attacks. what a shame, really."

"i just wasn't ready for the responsibility."

"NONSENSE, BROTHER! THAT JUST MEANS YOU NEED MORE PRACTICE. WORRY NOT, HOWEVER!"

papyrus puts a hand confidently to his chest and his cape immediately catches a breeze that wasn't there.

"I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, PROMISE TO ASSIST YOU IN YOUR ATTACK PRACTICING JOURNEY!!!"

"..........cool."

"I KNOW! NOW, SHALL WE CONTINUE?"

i look at the device on my wrist. papyrus notices this, and instantly appears beside me to look as well.

green.

"...another time."

with a wave of my hand, i de-summon all of my attacks and park myself under the shade of a nearby tree.

"i'm low on battery."

"...."

papyrus sits cross-legged in the grass beside me.

he begins to toss the ball up and down by himself. the rhythmic sound of him tossing and catching it, the comfort of leaning against a tree - a tree that's not some coniferous one, like all the ones we had ever seen back then.

i close my eyesockets.

...

the sound of him catching the ball stops.

i peek open one eye.

"...MUST YOU CALL IT BATTERY?"

"hm?"

"CAN YOU NOT SIMPLY SAY THAT YOU ARE TIRED? EXHAUSTED? WEARY? DEPLETED?"

"bone-tired?"

"EXACTLY! WHY NOT SOMETHING LIKE THAT?"

"what, i can't call it battery?"

"WELL-"

"which it clearly is because we take those?"

whipping around to face me.

"WE DO NOT!!"

"yeah, you're right."

"SO WH-"

"i switched to solar power."

with a decent amount of force, he slams the ball into the ground and it bounces away.

"NO! YOU ALREADY ADMITTED TO THAT BEING A HOAX. WE ARE 𝙉𝙊𝙏 DOING IT AGAIN!!!"

"you just hate that your model's more outdated than mine now."

"UGH!"

loud, dramatic sigh.

"WHY DO YOU ATTEMPT TO DELUDE ME OVER THIS RIDICULOUS THING, BROTHER?"

"i'm not deluding you at all."

"THEN MAYBE YOU ARE SIMPLY DELUSION𝘈𝘓."

"nah."

"YOU HAVE TO BE."

i flip the back of his cape over his head.

"nah."

he grabs my hood and pulls it over my head to cover my face.

"DEFINITELY ARE!"

flipping it back up, i lightly punch his shoulder.

"naahh."

papyrus punches back just as gently, then scooches backwards to lean beside me against the tree.

"CERTAINLY, YOU'VE LOST YOUR MARBLES."

he lets himself loosely fall sideways, sinking his weight into me a little.

"they're all here. i could even count 'em for you."

"CLEARLY NOT, AS YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE 𝘛𝘈𝘞-KING ABOUT."

"NYEHEHEHE."

"......"

"..took me a second. nice, though."

"MH."

he yawns.

"huh."

"maybe i'm solar powered, and you're solar..."

"solar."

"....can't think of the reverse of powered. drained? battery'nt?"

"dunno. do y-"

my brother, who's usually protesting against my daytime naps, had fallen asleep rather quickly in the comfort of the shade.

"..heh."

"can't blame you."

i shelve my idea to tease papyrus about it for now, instead taking the opportunity to follow his lead.