User:Reversedragon/UTDR/pointed-tail/2: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:19, 24 October 2025

Dess

~~Over in Furthertown, December Holiday~~

Our story begins in a small northeastern town named Hometown... or at least it would if a certain family of icy deer-people were honest with themselves. All the way over in a satellite city named Furtherville, one *December Holiday* has quietly escaped ~~her dreary small town~~ the dreary clutches of Hometown in order to see the world one suburban mess at a time. She is at least thirteen years old — small enough that her absence might bring some concern, but old enough to have turned notably rebellious and become a pain. ~~she has never been confined by the~~ Usually known as "Dess", she has always been drawn to sports, danger, and loud ~~forms of expression~~ ways of expressing herself, never to be confined by any particular box of what anyone else ~~thinks "woman" or "girl" might be.~~ takes "woman" or "girl" to be.

As Dess wanders through Furtherville, she stumbles onto a particularly strange human child crouching at the edge of a ~~forest area~~ wooded area eating moss (*Kris*). This child has an unnatural way of moving, shuffling or shambling from place to place such that when they stand on any particular spot ~~they always seem to be~~ half the time they seem to be standing at an oblique angle to reality. She has never seen anything alive that _looked_ more like a cryptid.

Undeterred, Dess steps out into the light. At the sight of a ~~big shadowed figure~~ big assertive shadow with antlers towering out of the bushes from who knows where, the cryptid child jumps.

Dess: Ooh. Afraid of me, huh. [raises hands and makes grizzly claws] Yes, I'm a Monster, we eat human Souls. [Kris tilts their head upward, definitely not scared ~~by this~~ now, but intrigued.] Dess: [arms deflate to sides; vaguely impressed] Oh. You're a tough one, aren't you. Dess: I have some money. You want a pizza? [Kris perks up.]

Dess has brought the mysterious cryptid child to eat some pizza, which they gobble down, when she gets a call from her mother asking where on earth she is. Dess: Everything's fine, mom. I _am_ getting pizza, just like I said.

Dess: But uh... I found this weird homeless human. So... can you come pick us up in Furtherville? I know this kid just needs a home. I'm fine. [frowns] ...What I worry about is whether they are.

=>: deltashard1 RedactedTale/ basic concept
;
:: cr.: 2025-10-24T16:39:11H
:: t.: 2972_pointed-tail2
;: REDACTEDtale/ narrative of how Dess disappeared, based on "bad-memory" theory

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 <div class="bop top date"><h3><time datetime="2025-10-16T05:09:25Z">Dess</time></h3>
-<div class="bop-text">maybe... this is a long shot, but maybe Kris was first discovered in the other town and brought back to Hometown by Dess? Dess just happened to be there for some reason that surely made sense in context,
+<div class="bop-text">~~Over in Furthertown, December Holiday~~
-but seeing a big shadowed deer-person just emerge out of the bushes suddenly perhaps with a bat might be a little scary for a second when you're a child.
+Our story begins in a small northeastern town named Hometown... or at least it would if a certain family of icy deer-people were honest with themselves. All the way over in a satellite city named Furtherville, one *December Holiday* has quietly escaped ~~her dreary small town~~ the dreary clutches of Hometown in order to see the world one suburban mess at a time. She is at least thirteen years old — small enough that her absence might bring some concern, but old enough to have turned notably rebellious and become a pain. ~~she has never been confined by the~~ Usually known as "Dess", she has always been drawn to sports, danger, and loud ~~forms of expression~~ ways of expressing herself, never to be confined by any particular box of what anyone else ~~thinks "woman" or "girl" might be.~~ takes "woman" or "girl" to be.
-Dess is younger at this time, but definitely after the time she turned notably rebellious and became a pain.
-Kris is mysteriously wandering around near some dumpster or maybe at the edge of a forest area eating up moss, when Dess steps out
+As Dess wanders through Furtherville, she stumbles onto a particularly strange human child crouching at the edge of a ~~forest area~~ wooded area eating moss (*Kris*). This child has an unnatural way of moving, shuffling or shambling from place to place such that when they stand on any particular spot ~~they always seem to be~~ half the time they seem to be standing at an oblique angle to reality. She has never seen anything alive that _looked_ more like a cryptid.
-<i>Kris jumps.</i>
-Dess:  ooh. afraid of me, huh. <i>[raises hands and makes grizzly claws]</i> yes, I'm a Monster, we eat human Souls.
-<i>Kris tilts their head upward, intrigued. seeing somebody be intentionally scary isn't really scary to them but does make that person very interesting.</i>
-Dess:  <i>[arms deflate to sides; vaguely impressed]</i> oh. you're a tough one, aren't you.
-Dess:  I have some money. you want a pizza?
-<i>Kris perks up</i>
-Dess has brought the mysterious cryptid child to eat some pizza, which they gobble down, when she gets a call from her mother asking where the hell she is.
-Dess:  Everything's fine, mom. I {{em|am}} getting pizza, just like I said.
-Dess:  But uh... I found this weird homeless human. So... can you come pick us up in Furthertown? I know this kid just needs a home. I'm fine. <i>[frowning]</i> ...What I worry about is whether they are.
-Carol would be angry about all this but seeing her child, her otherwise annoying headstrong child, show concern and generosity toward somebody else has deflated her anger. Carol knows deep down that a few people find her uncaring and almost oppressive, and when she hardly has time for anyone herself, anything that reflects positively on her or her family is something she simply has to embrace. so for the next week or so she takes this event in stride and tries to pretend like she meant for it to happen — sure, December doing nice things for her communities, I totally encouraged her to do that. she will try a few times to unsubtly hint at things Dess should do for her own town, but mostly ends the discussion with "I'm glad it turned out well".
+Undeterred, Dess steps out into the light. At the sight of a ~~big shadowed figure~~ big assertive shadow with antlers towering out of the bushes from who knows where, the cryptid child jumps.
-and then, quite abruptly, she informs Dess that despite the relatively great amount of space in their house they do not have room for another child and they will have to send Kris to foster care.
-Noelle catches sight of the strange bedraggled forest human and does get a bit spooked for a moment. though it's not really even the sight of a human child, and specifically the weird way they silently stand off-kilter in the hallway like some sort of liminal demon.
-the town doesn't really have any specific place to put extra children, and Carol has to put up a classified ad. before long the Dreemurrs find out about Kris, probably before they even notice the ad, and bring them in. Asriel warms up to them quickly. all three like Kris pretty well. things seem good. they clip out the ad as a funny little memory, which Kris soon stows in their "collection" of old objects.
-time passes. Kris goes to school. Kris, Noelle, and Dess become friends. Kris invents a weird game of creating scenarios out of seemingly random objects. Kris lays out the folded red-accented newspaper and puts the book on it and sets Seam or something on top, and inspired by a couple words from the newspaper, says that this is the tale of how the old world will end after a great unstoppable crisis — this story is true whenever they put this particular altar of found objects in the room.
+Dess:  Ooh. Afraid of me, huh. [raises hands and makes grizzly claws] Yes, I'm a Monster, we eat human Souls.
-Noelle remarks that the premise is "a little dark". Kris notes that when phoenix Monsters are delivering this prophecy, it's not all gloomy and the world can probably be rebuilt. maybe if everyone is nice the outcome would be more favorable. they stand the green crayon next to the book and Seam and start voicing these ideas through it like a smaller friendly wizard who totally knows about the prophecy. Noelle finds this pretty funny, confused why there are two wizards. Kris is full of explanations as long as they are always too terse to actually explain anything.
+[Kris tilts their head upward, definitely not scared ~~by this~~ now, but intrigued.]
-Kris and Noelle play cards near the altar, they make up storylines about "the demise of kings and queens", the newspaper once again at fault for some very fancy poetry. Noelle makes horror stories out of things that shouldn't be terrifying, like the wall plugs. they have quite a time with this.
+Dess:  [arms deflate to sides; vaguely impressed] Oh. You're a tough one, aren't you.
+Dess:  I have some money. You want a pizza?
+[Kris perks up.]
-Kris, Noelle, and Dess get into various misadventures. Carol is internally bothered that Dess never seems to straighten up and just gets into more trouble over time even if the trouble is rarely big. she ends up being lenient on Dess and taking out her anger on Noelle. it internally drives her crazy when Dess won't respect Toriel's unfair rules on Asriel, so she snaps at Asriel and shoos him away, not Dess.
+Dess has brought the mysterious cryptid child to eat some pizza, which they gobble down, when she gets a call from her mother asking where on earth she is.
+Dess:  Everything's fine, mom. I _am_ getting pizza, just like I said.
-one day Kris, Noelle, and Dess investigate "the pointed tail". I'd rather this was the Dark World manifestation of some mundane event, but I'm not sure what that would be. so, all we know is "the children followed the pointed tail".
+Dess:  But uh... I found this weird homeless human. So... can you come pick us up in Furtherville? I know this kid just needs a home. I'm fine. [frowns] ...What I worry about is whether they are.</div></div>
-Dess goes out of bounds somehow. she finds a thin fracture going through the earth that the three follow to its center, and thinks it looks like fun to bust it open. Kris and Noelle are neutral about this, maybe a little scared but too intrigued to make her stop. so, after picking at the crack a bit, seeing that the frayed edges of the ground look a bit like cardboard, Dess simply punches through it. below is nothing but airy darkness filled with faint stars, something like outer space. as her arm goes through, it becomes invisible. she tries to pull herself out, and successfully extracts her arm, but to her dismay the ground cracks further and she simply falls in and disappears entirely.
-Noelle runs the other direction as fast as she can. Kris hesitates for a fraction of a second, grasping toward the void but not quite brave enough to actually dive in and potentially be lost forever. before long, Kris runs the other direction too.
-Kris feels terrible about the incident. ever since being rescued, they always looked up to Dess. Dess was scary sometimes but overall, more like a brave warrior that protected people. failing to save the one that saved them, letting her fall into the void without trying, it felt almost as bad as deciding to kill someone. why would they murder their hero?</div></div>
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