lostcarnival

Who: Rita and YOU!
When: Day 28-29
Where: Around Rita's trailer.
What: Someone left catnip at Rita's trailer, cuteness commences, also general in-between-event stuff for anyone who wants it!

[home videos / open]

Passing through the trailer yard, one might find Rita crouched outside Trailer 19. Her wings seem to be missing several feathers, but beyond that, she appears to be unharmed and in good health despite all the recent chaos.

In fact, she's actually... having... fun?

The space just outside the trailer door appears to be heavily sprinkled with catnip and mint, and her Litten, Francis, purrs up a storm as he rolls around in it. Rita appears to be filming his adorable antics with a handheld video camera, grinning all the while. She doesn't immediately notice if someone else happens to be nearby.

[wildcard!]

Alternatively, Rita might be seen around the carnival, reading a book she picked up in Wismuth, putting the finishing touches on a thick manuscript she's been writing, or just hanging around the training grounds, trailer park, or cookhouse. If you want to do something else with Rita, feel free to tag with a different starter, or hit me up on plurk (

pzue) to plot!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Rita continues filming for a while until she notices something in her peripheral vision. She turns her head slightly to identify it, and...

"Gah!!"

She lets out a cry of surprise, prompting Francis to freeze for about two seconds before going back to flopping around contentedly. "How long have you been standing there!?" Her face is slightly red, like she was caught doing something embarrassing.

He starts at her yelling, and glances behind just enough to make sure nobody else is the culprit of her surprise.

"Oh, just a moment! I had to stop and admire your... Pokemon?" He's not completely sure, but that seems the best bet.

"They're so cute! And loving life."

Just a moment? He better be telling the truth.

Rita seems to calm down a bit at that, in any case, offering a nod and an affirmative, "Yeah. Pokemon. That's Francis; he's a Litten." And... loving life? Eyes narrowed, she can't help but add, "Interesting choice of words, considering." You know, the whole Harbinger thing.

It's at least no more than three moments, so it's close enough to the truth that he can make her feel okay without it being a big lie. Justification, set.

"Considering... all the terrible things, I said, and did?" This time, what Rita's getting at isn't hard to guess. He's still very aware of the Harbinger thing. "That's why I'm so happy to see it! Being like that was wrong. And miserable. Nobody should ever feel that way!"

Nobody should... huh.

Rita sighs. "Sounds like you're back to your old self." There's a flatness in her voice, like she's mildly annoyed by that, but in a lighter tone, she adds, "I guess that's for the best. All that doom and gloom nonsense didn't really suit you."

"Truer words never spoken," Papyrus agrees, but drops his voice to a slightly more serious tone. "I do, from... time to time, think things like that, but I don't care to indulge it! It ruins my get up and go. Really interferes with helping people, or accomplishing anything. And that's just when I can go back to thinking positive. The last two weeks..."

He shakes his head. Nobody should.

"Hmph... So I guess you're not as simple as you look, after all," Rita mutters. That's supposed to be a compliment, probably.

With a wave of a hand, she adds, "Well, whatever. I guess I should be thanking you. If you didn't push me as much as you did, I might not have awakened to that power." She would have remained relatively powerless against the Void... and even if others would have stepped in to fight, Rita probably wouldn't have been satisfied with that.

"Wow! I really helped?" It's a surprise, and a relief. A surprising relief. His early notions of making it a game, like building puzzles, wore off pretty quickly after a few arguments with Carnival folks. "And here I was going to apologize... You're welcome! I hope to never do it again."

Fortunately, Rita's not the first tsun Papyrus has met; that careful way of admitting it could have been worse is a shy hint of a compliment, and he takes it.

Rita raises an eyebrow at how easily he accepts her backhanded praise.

"Make sure you don't," she agrees dryly. The experience of having her emotions manipulated, fear flooding her mind, is definitely something Rita would rather not go through again.

"Umm. I'm not sure... how to make sure," Papyrus slowly confesses. "Ordinarily I would never do such a thing! But then I was... Well, all the reasons why I never would, didn't seem to matter."

Her feelings on the matter of emotional manipulation are extremely relatable, and likely most of the ex-Harbingers would agree.

Frowning, Rita glances away. "Ugh... I get it, I guess. When I first saw the power of the Void, it was completely unlike anything I've seen before..."

If things had been different, Rita can't say for certain that she wouldn't have been drawn into it, as Papyrus and the others were.

"It'd be nice if Creation hadn't taken its sweet time in choosing its own champions. Maybe then the world wouldn't have come so close to total destruction."

"It got quite hairy at the end," he agrees. "All those failed fights, and arguing us out of that hopelessness... We were down to the wire! A whole lot of wires, with all that stage stuff."

Papyrus moves to crouch down and offer the Litten a hand. Wouldn't catnip be better with pettings?

"...But, it's only to be expected. Breaking things, and giving up, that's so easy. It's harder to hope when it all seems impossible, and hurts so much. It takes... a lot of help, to hope again."

Rita rolls her eyes at the wire imagery, then lets her gaze settle on Francis. The Litten rolls onto his back, his eyes widening at the bony hand extended to him. His pupils follow the slightest movement of the hand, unblinking, as if seeing something unfathomable. He might almost seem scared, but he continues purring, and doesn't flinch away from the hand, even if it moves in to pet him.

"That sounds familiar," Rita murmurs, glancing away from the Litten. Who was it who said something similar...? Right, Lambert. "It sure is a pain in the ass to have to rebuild every time some idiot tries to do things the easy way."

"Well! That's true. We can get better at building, probably," he offers, though he knows it's a weak reassurance. "I wish there was a good easy way to help people not try to take the easy way. I don't know how to stop brainwashing... Confidence is hard enough to build."

At least Francis seems happy with everything. Sometimes it really is the simple things that help you remember to keep going. Papyrus grins as the purring continues, and goes in for some affectionate chin scritches.

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