But There Were Plans...

[mttbrandlegs]

Who: Mettaton and OPEN
When: forward-dated to September 1st
Where: Various locations
What: Mettaton's found out that Papyrus is gone. He doesn't take it well.
Warnings: Sadness? Violence against walls?

Optional read of the day prior + realizing Pap is actually MIA

A. Something Lost

Mettaton's first reaction to finding out that Papyrus is no longer on the ship is pretty much par for the course given his personality. Rather than accept it as truth, he chooses to push that inevitability away.

He tells himself the MID must be malfunctioning and without another thought, he leaves his room and begins looking for the tall skeleton. He can be found in various places in the ship, asking anyone who cares to listen to him whether they've seen Papyrus. Someone has to have seen the guy, he's the Morale Officer and he just came out of cryo. Not only that, but Papyrus can't exactly hide, he's pretty tall!

The longer his search goes on, the more frantic Mettaton seems to get. At times, he can even be found furiously texting on his MID and unfortunately not looking where he's going, while also walking at a brisk pace.


B. Regret

Eventually, there isn't any way to deny it anymore. Mettaton knows that Papyrus isn't on the Moira any longer. And when he finally comes to that conclusion, Mettaton's reaction is initially very violent, and he punches a wall with enough force to nearly disable his already-malfunctioning arm. It's also enough force to leave a dent. He finds himself breathing erratically despite himself, and he uses the wall for support as he attempts to gather his thoughts and push his anger away.

Ultimately, he's unsuccessful in calming himself down and just disappears into the room adjacent to the sizable dent he's made in the wall. It's not occupied, and is actually pretty small. Maybe it was a storage room at some point.

Good. He can be alone. He's not ready to go back to his room, even though he'd left a plate of spaghetti on his bed which was likely confusing his roommates and/or irritating them.

Mettaton doesn't want to go back to his room. He doesn't wan't to work, or do anything that would mean acknowledgment of losing someone he cared about deeply and moving on from it. He...he couldn't bring himself to do that.

Things had been getting better. He'd cried with Asriel and begun to heal--just barely--from his ordeal in the Runoff. It didn't matter anymore though. Now he was back to square one.

Should anyone pass by the room he's in, there's a chance that they'll hear one of a handful of things:

Frustrated mumbling, downright yelling, crying...or eventually, the static rhythm of metal clanging on metal.

The last event is easily explained, as by late night, Mettaton's just taken to thumping his head on the wall out of sheer frustration. It doesn't hurt. It's just something to focus on.


C. Wildcard

[Got an idea for having your character happen upon Mettaton as he moves through the stages of grief in his ever-so-dramatic fashion? Want to see him fall out of his robo-body and cry for real as a small, grieving pink ghost?

The sky's the limit! Just PM me or hit me up on Grimmkitty.]

Comments

b

[pleasereset]

Asriel was mostly unaware what his fellow monsters were up to, and as far as he knew, Papyrus was still in cryo. He hadn't been visiting as much as he did in the beginning, maybe feeling a little discouraged just how long it was taking him to come back. It was selfish of him, he already knew that.

The sound of metal clanging startles him, the yelling even more. But he thinks he recognizes that voice, so instead of running away, Asriel follows the sound cautiously to the source.

And the source... surprises him even more.

"Mettaton...?"

[mttbrandlegs]

Mettaton doesn't take notice of Asriel entering at first; he's not facing the door. So he continues to bang his head against the wall. He's seated and plugged into the wall so that he doesn't shut down--much as he'd like to--and he doesn't appear to take much care as to how his legs are situated, nor his arms. He looks as if he doesn't really care about anything at all.

But as the voice registers, and Mettaton stops what he's doing to turn towards Asriel, that notion is dispelled. his eye looks so sad, so empty.

It's the same face he wore as a ghost, after crying his heart out.

"What?"

[pleasereset]

Asriel flinches at his voice on instinct, before recognizing that same agonized expression on Mettaton's face. Even if he couldn't see his face, the way he's banging his head against the wall was alarming in itself.

It was pointless to ask if he was okay. But what happened between now and the last time they talked to each other...?

"What- what happened?"

[mttbrandlegs]

Mettaton mulls that question over. As he does, his head thumps against the wall once more, just resting there. It's...unbearably long before he can bring himself to answer, perhaps even longer than anyone could possibly care to wait.

But eventually, he speaks, and even then his voice breaks.

"I looked everywhere. He woke up. I saw him there and I promised him a...a good day...and then he was gone."

It's as if he expects Asriel to know who he is talking about. It's all Mettaton has been thinking about for hours, so to him, it seems impossible to assume that anyone but Papyrus would get this much of his attention and his despair.

[pleasereset]

Unfortunately for Mettaton, Asriel doesn't know enough about their relationship to make the connection. The he could mean just about anyone on the ship, as far as Asriel knows.

"Mettaton... who are you talking about? Who's gone?"

[mttbrandlegs]

Asriel's words make Mettaton tense, then he swings out his arm, slamming his balled fist against the wall as he'd done once already, leaving a fresh dent against the wall.

"PAPYRUS, DAMMIT!! HE'S GONE, ALRIGHT?!" he snapped, whirling to glare at Asriel with such a hurt expression. He wasn't going to harm the prince, it was the furthest thing from his mind. But he was so upset and frustrated that the only way he could react was violently when faced to admit this immutable truth that he didn't want to accept.

"He...he isn't here anymore."

[pleasereset]

Mettaton swinging his arm against the wall gets Asriel to cower for a moment before what he says really sinks in. They'd just talked about Papyrus, hadn't they? And now he was...

No. He was supposed to come back from cryo, right? Just like Sans did. He wouldn't disappear like Chara. That wasn't how Papyrus did things. It wasn't.

For some reason, Asriel feels like a piece of hope within his reach has evaporated right in front of him. The feeling is crushing, but he keeps a steady expression on his face.

Mettaton needed help. Asriel didn't know what he could say to help, but he had to try.

"He... he went home, right? He'll be waiting on the surface with Frisk and Sans-"

[mttbrandlegs]

"I don't...think he has a home to go back to..."

Mettaton wanted to scream at the same time he wanted to hide. He had never wanted to be proven wrong so hard as he did right now.

"Papyrus does not have a future. When...when we went to find Sans in that strange Ingress. That time...I think Frisk hurt monsters. I think they hurt Papyrus, and...Sans had said then...that his brother was dead."

The robot draws a sharp breath, a hand going to his mouth.

"He's not going back to wait for me," he whispers, his face contorting in pain. "He's just going back to die."

[pleasereset]

Frisk hurt monsters...

Cold shock passes through his body. That's a lie. That's a horrible lie, you take it back is what Asriel wants to say, but his voice is frozen and his throat feels thick. Frisk was a human who'd put their life on the line for any monster, who was willing to sacrifice themselves just to protect them.

They weren't a murderer.

Asriel wasn't stupid. He knew about RESETs, he knew Frisk could use them if they choose. But they wouldn't use it for that. Something had to go wrong, it had to be a mistake. Asriel made those mistakes. He was the one who killed Papyrus over and over, finding new ways to break him because he was bored.

The idea that Papyrus from one of those timelines, from a timeline where it was Frisk doing those things... it makes him feel sick. There's a painful shiver that travels all through his body, making him feel numb. It was a mistake, it was a stupid dumb mistake and Sans didn't know what he was talking about he probably just said that because he wanted to be mean to Frisk-

Grief finally mixes in with childish anger as Asriel forces himself to move. Small hands go to wrap around Mettaton's stomach as Asriel leans his forehead against the robot's back.

thinking b

[wallride]

It's the dent Lúcio notices first, then he hears the crying. One of those alone is worrying, but both combined? He decides to investigate. Someone could be hurt, for all he knows.

Carefully, Lúcio skates over to the room entrance and peers in, calling out to Mettaton softly, "Hey, superstar. What's wrong?"

He stays in the doorway. If Mettaton makes it clear he doesn't want company then Lúcio won't make it worse by staying.

[mttbrandlegs]

Lúcio is met by the sight of Mettaton sitting with his legs drawn up, arms wrapped tightly around them and his face buried into his knees. He looks extremely vulnerable and, well. That's not anything like the bot who had been so excited to show off his electronics in the Hub.

Not at all.

That said, Mettaton look up and although he seems as if he's been crying, there's no mark of such on his face. All he can do is play at it. Robots don't have tears.

"Everything. Everything is wrong."

He almost argues that he's not at all a superstar, but then that would just be drawing more attention to himself and he didn't want attention. He didn't deserve attention...

[wallride]

Lúcio crouches, still in the doorway. The room is small, anyway. It doesn't make much of a difference.

"You wanna talk about what happened?"

[mttbrandlegs]

"Talking about it won't fix it," Mettaton says quietly, his eye averting. "When someone is gone, then they are gone for good."

The truth is that he does want to talk about it. To tell someone about how unfair it was. But Mettaton's not exactly the most forthcoming guy in the world. If he were, he wouldn't have so many hangups.

[wallride]

Oh, no. That's bad. At least he's knows what's up, now.

"I'm not expecting to fix it, man, but it might help you get some of that weight off your shoulders," he says, sitting down finally. "How long's it been?"

[mttbrandlegs]

Mettaton stares at Lúcio for one long moment. It's not an angry look. If anything, he's considering his words carefully, because in his state, he doesn't want to alienate someone. That would only end with the robot being more upset at himself.

"...Someone I cared for went into cryo almost three weeks ago, and, ah. He woke up yesterday," he started slowly, finally breaking his gaze from the young human. "I was really pleased to see him up. I promised him the best date today."

He had to stop there for a moment. His entire soul felt like it was aching.

"...But he's not here anymore. He woke up just long enough for me to see him. How was that fair?"

[wallride]

"Oh, man. That's not fair at all. I'm sorry."

It's earnest. That sounds truly horrible, to see someone you loved for a day after missing them for so long only for them to leave again.

"How was he when you saw him?"

[mttbrandlegs]

"He was...he looked tired. But he was here, and he was happy. Because that's just how he is, he's always happy, even in the face of the worst."

Mettaton smiles shakily, the reminiscence bringing a kindle of warmth to his soul. It was very brief, before the sadness retook him.

"I just wanted him to be with me! I wanted to get lost with him and forget everything else, because everything else is painful..."

B. Mopgate 2.0

[braceforimpact]

If there is one event in his life Kaworu has learned absolutely nothing from, it's the time he overheard Asuka yelling to herself in the girls' restroom and decided to investigate. And help out.

While most of the things he didn't learn have no bearing on this situation (probably), one of them does.

It's the same thing he failed to learn when he heard Mettaton broke a mop in half and got half that mop thrown at his head.

Which is to say, when the echoing sound of Mettaton's raised voice reaches his ears, he does not leave well enough alone. He catches sight of the jagged metal hole in the Moira's wall, but passes right by, walking boldly right into the room where Mettaton is... well.........

"........."

Whatever Mettaton needs right now, it's probably not a skinny white-haired human doppelganger with his hands in his pockets.

this seems like it'll go well

[mttbrandlegs]

Kaworu entered the room at just the right time to hear Mettaton shout one last thing before dissolving into tearless whimpers, lamenting his own situation.

"Give him back, damn you, give him back!!"

His head clangs against the wall as he tilts it back, looking perfectly miserable...and by sheer providence, he catches Kaworu in his peripheral vision. Turning ever so slowly, he eyes the boy, then turns away.

"Ugh, God!! Why is it always you?! What, come to say something insensitive?"

Far from being as openminded as he'd been during the strange time anomaly, Mettaton's an absolute wreck of emotions, sustained by his charge cord in the wall and his own sadness. Like Kaworu would care...

...But maybe it explained why his future self had been so detached.

Of course.

[braceforimpact]

Kaworu doesn't even flinch. He stands in the doorway, studying Mettaton in that particular detached way of his--curiosity but no empathy, interest but no concern.

This is more like what he's used to from Mettaton--this volatile, reactionary personage. Kaworu wasn't exaggerating when he told Frisk that Mettaton seemed very human. He's so intensely invested emotionally... it's like he's completely defined by his feelings of the moment. Which could be dangerous.

"Give who back?"

[mttbrandlegs]

That's surprising. Not surprising enough to make Mettaton respond with tact.

"What do you care? It's not as if it concerns you. This is my concern!! My problem!!! My...my Papyrus!! God, it's stupid! Two months. That's it, two months?!"

The robot curls up into himself like a petulant child. Go ahead, call him human. Call him whatever you like, he's probably every pejorative Kaworu can think of, doubly so. Ah, but that's it, isn't it? He's volatile, reactionary...emotional.

Emotion breeds attachment. He was so attached to Papyrus that, to have the skeleton taken away just when Mettaton needed that sense of normalcy in his life, to ground him in the midst of utter chaos...it only made him that much more emotional about the loss.

Honestly the exact expression is one he makes in Rebuild BUT I DON'T HAVE ICON SPACE FOR THAT SHIT

[braceforimpact]

Two months. Nine days. Six months. Is two months short? This is what Kaworu means when he says he's not very good at time.

He narrows his eyes slightly--squinting from the bottom of his eye first, the line of his mouth unmoving. Were it not for Frisk, he would have found Mettaton's meltdown to be completely mystifying, and possibly disgusting. As it is, he watches with a flattened, heavy-lidded stare.

"You lost someone."

It's not a question.

lmao. kaworu. with range of expression? EMOTIONS??

[mttbrandlegs]

Mettaton is seized by the uncontrollable urge to be a complete dick and snap that NO, OF COURSE NOT. He's just upset for the sake of being upset, and clearly there's no emotional investment in losing Papyrus.

But...

"I just said that. What would you know about it anyway?"

Still a bit insensitive. He at least dialed it back so he didn't project his negativity all over Kaworu, because honestly? What was the point of that? Kaworu didn't care.

IT'S MORE LIKELY THAN YOU THINK

[braceforimpact]

"........."

Kaworu doesn't say anything. He just stares at Mettaton--a deep, unblinking stare. And then, slowly, he begins to walk towards the robot.

It's unhurried. It would appear calm but for the tension in his arms and shoulders, the intensity of his stare.

He stops a a couple feet away. His mouth is turned down into an uncommon shape. His gaze hasn't broken.

"Even I have feelings."

[mttbrandlegs]

"Even someone like you, huh? I thought...that was a human affliction."

Any venom that might have been meant for those words doesn't come across. Mettaton doesn't have the effort in him to be a bastard. At least not on purpose.

He sighs, uncurling himself and looking as if he's 2 minutes from shutting down. Kaworu's seen that expression before, of course. But it's not for the same reason this time, not when he's running 100%.

"Look. I'm not in the mood to get philosophical. I've had a really bad day. So if you're curious about something, be brief."