spaghettimonster: (YOU'RE BLUE NOW.)
Papyrus ([personal profile] spaghettimonster) wrote in [community profile] middaeg2019-07-22 03:18 am

BAYING AT THE MOON (open)

Who: Papyrus and you!
When: through Juril
Where: All over the place
What: Catch-all for July quests (helping with a prank, trips to the Outer City, shoveling snow, and two part-time jobs), the fallout of the Full Moons, and wildcard
Warnings: Feral monster prompt - mild body horror, disorientation, and violence available



πŸ’€ KEEPING BUSY
With his brother going missing, Papyrus finds himself with a lot of time on his hands. He knows, from his brother's example, that lazing about feeling sad won't get him anything he wants. He needs to get up! Get out! And go do things that get him making stuff - or, at least, making money.

Fortunately, multiple shops put out requests for part-time work this month. Not only does Runetchers still want his services, a few times a week... But the Sorcerous Quill seeks work - and specifically at night, at that. With no risk of conflicts, Papyrus takes them both.

Coworkers at either job can get accustomed to the sight of a skeleton's steady artwork. Whether it's drawing runes for witches to power up at one, or writing scrolls and spells for witches to power up at the other... His writing hands get a lot of use, and plenty of spells go out with SOME STYLIZED HANDWRITING.

πŸ’€ 'SNOW PROBLEM
And then the snow comes. It's new for Papyrus to see snowfall coming from the sky, leaking from clouds in the same way the rain has been... but it's familiar, anyway, and he pitches in on breaking the ice and shoveling snow.

Nostalgic, too, in a way that gets him a little bit homesick as he works. Maybe his eyesockets leak tears a couple of times as he misses Snowdin, but maybe that's just snow melting off his skull. Skeletons are known for being warm and huggable, after all.

πŸ’€ STOP AND SMELL THE FLOWERS
But when it comes to feelings like home, there's nothing like people playing obnoxious pranks on each other. He can't fathom that the rose thorns are going to be used for anything worse than moderately painful inconveniences, even with magic enhancing them, so he takes up the task with gusto.

And no wonder they requested help gathering thorns, with this snowy weather going on. Finding greenery in the city is already a bit of a challenge, but now it's at least doubled. He takes to the streets, calling out to random passersby:

"Hey, have you seen any briar roses? They don't need to be in bloom!! I just need to find some plants."

πŸ’€ BRIGHT SMILES OUTSIDE THE BRIGHT WALL
On the opposite end of pointed pranks are gifts of toys, books, and time.

Even now, Papyrus doesn't entirely understand why the city's population is arranged the way it is. Some districts are mostly monsters, some are mostly witches - or humans who've suppressed their magic, most within the walls and some outside, and a miniature district emptied for the mirrorbound.

At first he assumed the people outside must be like Toby, preferring the freedom of living without walls. But they have houses too, if rougher and smaller than those through the Haven. Some are young, or sick, despite the Coven's healing magic.

But eventually he hears Nerissa Bell's request for volunteers to go out and offer them aid. The specific requests for deliveries of food, and company, and other things helpful to a good life. The warnings to go out bundled up, to protect themselves from infection from the Cwyld. The people outside are infected, or suspects of such, or simply staying with others who are. And as scary as it is, they don't want to be aggressive, so he wants to help.

Others taking up Ms Bell's request may find Papyrus bringing out various essentials and happiness-making things like books or toys, or waxing theatrical as he tells stories and starts to put on performances - at least, until someone warns him to not break the law.

πŸ’€ TURN FOR THE WORSE (- FULL MOON -)
(TRANSFORMATION, BODY HORROR, DISORIENTATION, POSSIBLE VIOLENCE)

The full moon comes, but this time no clever witches grow hedge mazes in the afternoon to offer as entertainment to bored monsters. Papyrus searches around for a few hours anyway, but finally heads home with sunset. An evening in the lonely room doesn't sound fulfilling, but maybe he could read a book, get caught up in the narrative and hardly notice the hours going by!

That... doesn't work. He finds himself pacing as he reads, too distracted to catch all the words on the pages... and then real distracted when his arms begin to itch, as a filmy skin begins to grow from them. Prickling hairs rise up, and he feels them shift on the back of his neck in a sensation that must be a chill.

It's too much, too fast, too soon. He's heard that monsters need to accept their changes or else their nature will push back on them, but it's difficult for someone new to it to understand what that means. Trying to force himself to be calm and accepting isn't actually calm or accepting, and it's enough that he loses focus.

Neighbors in the barracks or nearby buildings might hear howls from the skeleton's room. They're punctuated with crackling bones, the shattering of ceramics, and a pounding at the door before the turnskin shoves his way out of the barracks dorm.

The crackling and whines continue as he pushes his way out of the building, holding himself up against the walls as his legs change too much to stand on just two. But before he even makes it to the exit, he forgets that he's trying to walk on two legs, and takes to all fours in a stumbling walk. The end of his shifting looks something like this, a truly skeletal canine with ragged fur in clumps on limbs and spine, eyes flashing an ominous blue as light reflects in his gaze.

He doesn't make it far from the barracks before exhaustion hits, leaving him worn out, confused, and hungry. The hunger's the only thing keeping him up and moving forward, following his (mostly metaphorical) nose in pursuit of food. The exhaustion's the main thing keeping him from snapping too quickly at anyone's hands - but stay still long enough, and he'll bite the hand that feeds him, whether they mean to or no.

πŸ’€ WILDCARD
[Got another interaction in mind? Hit me with a pm or plurk, or toss it up here for me to respond to. Papyrus lives in the barracks - at least up to the full moon - and can be found around Aefenglom for various reasons.]
givemewings: (15)

[personal profile] givemewings 2019-07-31 05:00 pm (UTC)(link)
β€œThere is nothing magical about me,” a cold reply for the cold day.

β€œI’m just efficient. And you seemed too distracted to do a good job.” Huge clumps of snow are thrown over her shoulder in quick succession.