#bpc fic

one layer is that, before they were forced to confront it with mutt + black, mutt and black had more or less been corralling the two of them to keep them from town as part of their assigned job by the lodge; so to jupe + mars the cause of the problem was very obviously the two of them and they never thought to go to the source- and the four of them hadn’t really interacted prior to this arrangement, so on both sides it seemed like the other pair of brothers were unhinged and violent.

the next is largely that, while we see the perspective of other skeletons wrt to jupiter and mars, to jupe + mars, it seemed like they were barely tolerated when they were living in the house (which is why they moved out- **spoilers**even by the time that mars encounters frisk, they’d already moved out of the lodge **end spoilers**). they called jupe ‘crooks’ and mars ‘axe’ and, while the other skeletons think of them might think of them fondly, even papyrus notes that their appearance unsettled him and he’d get nervous, and jupe + mars picked that up. from their perspective, sure they enjoyed some nice moments with the others, but it was always understood by jupe + mars that they were guests, and not particularly welcome ones (part paranoia, part picking up the anxieties of the other skeletons interacting with them). not to mention the isolation of it- no one ever checked in on them other than black and mutt (to keep them in the forest and fight them if they tried to get out), so that reinforced the idea that, well, they were never wanted anyways.

the third being that, being two survivors of a famine and a more or less post-apocalypse world underground, mars and jupe (as bad as it is to say) were ‘broken into’ being resigned to helplessness- ‘the situation is dire and we have no food? just hunker down and try your best to survive it because there’s nothing we can do to solve it’. where other skeletons might’ve risked their lives to fight black+mutt or the lodge, mars and jupiter had tried that route and failed in their universe, and are left worse-off for it- mars is barely alive and jupiter can’t stand confrontation like he used to.

tldr; here’s an excerpt from ch33 from jupiter’s perspective:

He tries to ground himself, thinking of you, of the cooking shows he liked to watch, of the old MTT runs, and of his collectible action figures and puzzle books, but it’s as if the brilliant colors of the past months with you suddenly drain away, leaving everything stuck in black and white, betrayal and helplessness.

He knows he is panicking and he knows it’s senseless- both him and his brother are healthy enough that there’s no real threat here, even with Edge escorting Sans for whatever reason. Yet he’s still shaking, sitting at the edge of his too-small race car bed, worrying over nothing. He should check on Sans. Especially since, between the two of them, Jupiter had significantly less head trauma and he’d be more present in the situation, less confused and scattered. All he needs to do is calm down, start breathing evenly, and get up. Put one foot in front of the other.

For some reason, that seemed like the hardest thing he’d ever had to do in his life.