#ask chisk

Anonymous said to discomforttale: Chisk, pride, halberd.

[Did these both at once because they were right together in my inbox and I was inspired. This is a drabble request from like two years ago and I’m just now getting to it. Sorry!]

“Again!”

You jab towards the target,squeezing your eyes shut just before the trident connects.

“No, no! You have to followthrough! Remember, you’re not aiming for the surface, you’re aiming for theother side!”

You nod and try again, but youcan’t help but hold back.

“And stop closing your eyes! That’sa sure-fire way to get you killed!”

“Again!”

You’re huffing from exertion, butyou force the trident forward once more. This time, it doesn’t even pierce theburlap.

Undyne sighs. “Alright, no more.We’ll continue this next time, alright?” She grins broadly. “Look how faryou’ve come, though! You keep your eyes open now!”

That’ not very far, you don’t say,because after so much effort it feels like you’ve come miles. You grin back,exhausted but peaceful, secure in knowing you did your best.

“Again!”

You jab the target again and returnto position, preparing for the next “again!”, but it never comes.

“Alright, this isn’t working,” shesighs.

Your face falls. You haven’t beendoing that badly, have you? Sure, you’re still not following through all theway, but she said your form was getting better, and she keeps saying how muchyou’re improving, and this is only your first week of training using actualweapons instead of wood staffs…

“Stay here, alright? I’ll be rightback.” She jogs off towards her house but turns back to you for a moment. “Youcan put the trident down!”

Thankgoodness. You drop it immediately. It didn’t feel very heavy when Undynefirst let you hold it, when you propped it up on the ground, but when you heldit properly for more than five minutes you thought your arms would fall off.The weight is all on the end and it’s longer than you are tall, so it takes alot of overcorrecting to keep it up like it should be.

“Alright!”

Your attention snaps back toUndyne, holding something behind her back. “I’ve got a surprise for you!”

She pulls out…something. It’sdefinitely a weapon, you think. It’s just as long as the trident, but the tipis different. It’s almost like Undyne’s spear, but it has a hooked side like anaxe head. You raise your eyebrows in questioning.

“It’s a halberd!” She hands it toyou. “See, I remembered you using that stake as a spear, but you were sohopeless with my spears. I figured you might have better luck with a threepointed spear, and that was better, but that’s still out of your style, y’know?You’re more of a defensive fighter. So that’s where this comes in!”

She keeps telling you about thehalberd and how you can use the hooked end to pull some weapons out of people’shands, but you’re only half listening. You’re too busy grinning.

“Again!”

You push yourself up from thesparring mat, jaw set firm under your helmet. You and Undyne circle each other.

“Come on! I know you can do this!You beat me before!”

By running away, you don’t say,because you’re too focused on her every little twitch of movement and you knowshe’s focused just as much on you.

There. Her left foot lands moresolidly, preparing for a strike, too subtle for a feint. You twist to avoid theblow you know will be coming from the right, the one she hoped to run you rightinto. Out shoots your halberd before you even think and there it twists, hookedaround her spear, and there her spear lay.

You pause a fraction of a second toappreciate the sight. Undyne’s eye is wider than you thought possible, staringat you. Then the sight is over and her eye flicks to her spear. Your halberdswings out to knock it away before she can make that rolling lunge for it.

She abandons the spear and triesfor hand-to-hand, crouching slightly for stability. She’s too close for yourhalberd, so you take a leaf out of her book and go for hand-to-hand too,throwing yourself right at her knees. She wasn’t stable enough.

Down she goes and, yeah, you’retechnically down too, but you brought Undynedown.

“Oh. I…wish I would have seen this sooner. It would have saved a lot of trouble, wouldn’t it?”

“I probably wouldn’t have believed it, though. Papyrus…Left and Right trusted him. Sans, too, but just a little less. Funny how it’s backwards, Sans just wants to help his brother…I think…”

Chisk is sitting on the ground, knees pulled tightly to their chest. Their eyes are red.

“Um…a lot? Like…a whole, whole lot. If we’re doing the one to ten scale again, um, what was…okay, if reading with Mrs. Mom was a two and falling down the hole was a ten and Three was twenty, I’d say this is…fifteen? Maybe sixteen? It’s at least as scary as meeting Papyrus at first, and probably more because…because…”

They sniff and rub at their eyes with their sleeves.

“Undyne wants to kill me. It’s…it’s not even an exaggeration this time. Undyne wants me dead because the king does and Papyrus is helping them, and I know he wants the guard job but…we were friends.”

“I’m really scared.”

“Oh! Oh, um…I don’t…know? I don’t think I ever figured that out, exactly…I mean, I’m pretty sure they start out as pebbles, then grow bigger, until they’re boulders? But where do the pebbles come from…sand, maybe? I mean, it makes sense…but I don’t know. Hang on!”

“Left? Right? Where do babies come from?”

*…

[…]

*…oh my god.

“What? What’s the matter? I just asked–”

*I know what you asked.

“–because I want to know where my babies came from.”

*…your babies?

[The rocks, Left. Duh.]

*Oh. I had almost forgotten about them.

“How could you? You’re their grandparents!”

*Do not start on that again!

[Okay, but where do rock babies come from?]

*Well…um…uh…

[…you don’t know, do you?]

*Well, if they are monsters–are they monsters?–but if they are, then the soul thing–

[But they’re rocks?]

“Rock monsters? …rocksters? No, I think that’s a thing…”

*Shut up! But if they are like rocks, there are minerals…and stuff…and water…and maybe it is both, if they are both rocks and monsters?

[Gosh, just admit it! You don’t know everything!]

*Shut up! I know this!

“Do you?”

“Oh, um, I don’t know? There are lots of children, and lots of them are very small, and I don’t think there’s any way to know all of them and decide which is smallest? Also, is there a difference between a child and an infant, and if so, when does one become the other, because younger children are smaller usually, and I don’t know if that’s a fair comparison…”

“Also, some monsters are very small, and their children are probably even smaller, so…wait. Do you mean my children? Because hang on, let me find them…”

“Here! This is Moss.”

Chisk holds out a tiny white pebble with very dark green speckles. It’s about the size of their fingernail.

“They’re very small, and they get lost a lot. I think they’re probably playing hide and seek, but it’s a bad idea to do that without telling anyone what you’re doing, because no one will know to look if they don’t know you’re hiding…oh well. They’re here now! Say hi, Moss!”

The pebble does absolutely nothing.