[closed]

[mttbrandlegs]

Who: Mettaton and anyone crashing in Rinzler's home, including Rinzler because it is his home.
When: Backdated to 6/10
Where: Rinzler's condo
What: It is time to die from monster sadness.
Warnings: Character death


It's been days since Mettaton's moved. All he'd done lately was sit, charge, and feel sorry for himself. The few conversations he did have all ended rather quickly and his words became progressively more impassive and lacking in any conviction...but to his credit, despite the encroaching despair, Mettaton did try to hold out until he was alone.

He tried to hold on just long enough that no one was around...and now that everyone was exploring the new Earth, it seemed a proper moment.

No one had to see him like this, see him close his eye, go slack, and start to give in.

You can't move anymore. But you don't have to, he tells himself. It doesn't make him feel better, but maybe Asriel and Frisk won't have to see a sad, pathetic excuse for a monster die this way, and that does assuage him, even as his SOUL begins to fracture and give in. It's fine, he'll keep telling himself that.

He'll keep telling himself he isn't afraid like the last time, and that he didn't regret this...

Comments

[notglitching]

Clu does know best. Just—not for them. (Maybe?) (No—they weren't his; he doesn't get to.) Rinzler shakes his head, and if the motion is propelled more by frustration than mismatch, he can't keep nearly such control on the sick rattling of errors that growls louder.

Try.

Can find programmers if they agree.
If not, assess after.

When he's had time. To plan. To approach Clu. To think of something.

[inconsequence]

Formulate a plan. Pull it all together, construct something workable, and ensure some means of fixing, correcting, what has been edited.

Try.

Try.

He would know better, the extent of what damage has been done. What would be required to mend it.

He knows better than you would. He knows better. Not a human, not an adult, but older, and therefore wiser, and what do you know, anyway? Plan. Stop. Think. You owe them that much - do you not?

Should you not?

(To design a machine that feels is a cruelty. A cruelty.)

"This will not be forgotten," says Chara. A warning, a threat, a promise, all rolled into one singular event, because unlike judgmental skeletons that enjoy threatening preteens in their spare time, Chara keeps their promises.

[notglitching]

Rinzler does know better. Rinzler knows how Clu works. What he does. How far he can go, and how thoroughly he digs into what he's claimed.

Rinzler knows, in short, that Chara is right.

Frisk and Asriel aren't empty. But they aren't fighting, either, can't even recognize a reason, and the odds are very small indeed that this could be so easily resolved. What he'll do if (when) that fails, he doesn't know.

[can't]

Noise skips and quiets, and Rinzler bows his head. Agreed.

No forgetting.

[inconsequence]

Then they are at an agreement. It is not very much at all, but it is marginally better than where they stood prior to now. Fingers clenching and unclenching in an arrhythmic flexing of muscle, a nervous tic motion they cannot seem to muzzle.

"Good." Breathe, slowly. Eyes closed. And then - open, once more.

A plan of action. Yet to be implemented, but a start, no doubt.

"Then I will see to it that they've not self-destructed in the interim."

A wry sentence, painted over the warming threat underlying. This is not over. They will address what needs addressing in due time. And they will keep ready for the instance in which Clu's presence is made transparent to them.

[notglitching]

Acceptance. Temporary, of course, but better than nothing. (Better than he or Clu deserves.) Rinzler's mask twitches a second time, rote acknowledgemet. Chara will go, because Chara can help them. Chara will not forget.

The text interface hasn't quite faded yet, but Rinzler ignores it, taking a step instead toward the roof's edge. He'll be up here a while longer. Or anywhere not in that room.

He won't forget, but he doesn't need to be reminded. Or worse, reassured. Not when he can't do anything to make it right.