March 9: you know what they say about drinking and texting

[neveroutwrenched]

i have some questions. for you guys, the crew. us.

mostly about the ingress because i think its bullshit that no one has any idea how to fix it. or how it works. lots of worlds have technology like the ingress. on the greater cosmic scale, in the MULTIVERSE, it's not even all that rare

so

nowait

i mean, anyway. this is a different question. does anyone know why we haven't utilized
a) any of the ingresses (ingress...i?) on any of the planets weve landed on to get home
b) any of the people on those planet because you HAVE to assume someone knows how to work/repair/etcetc

why havent we scrutinized or been given an actual answer for anything that's happened on this ship? creepy skeleton monster? that KILLED PEOPLE. lying to us about caducus-primary. stealing from caducus-primary. dont get me started on the lack of actual consequence to that.

i know its different in everyone's worlds, but where I'm from, being in charge doesnt make you except from responsibility for your actions. or at least it's not supposed to. unless you have

a lot of money or are a celebrity or something

Comments

[neveroutwrenched]

Not...not everything.

[Papyrus' words are almost comforting, as far as Ratchet will allow them to be. He doesn't want to be relieved but he can't help but be a little bit. He looks over at the skeleton, the smile is kind and Ratchet flinches away from it, turning just a little so he doesn't have to face the brunt of it.

He's leaving things off. Leaving off the part where he didn't just go along with it like he was supposed to. That he argued, and insulted, and dodged orders, and committed acts of blatant disregard for what everyone had at stake. He got so caught up in not having his hand forced that he was practically doing their work for them.

He stares fixedly at a spot on the countertop, noticing that it already looked more dented and worn in just the few months since they'd begun their journey.]

Our contracts were one planet. One planet in exchange for however many they wanted us to help them wipe out. So I, made a deal. If you even wanna call it that. [His tone takes on a flat bitterness.] I asked for more collateral. A lot more.

[Two galaxies worth, if he was being exact.]

It was never a good idea. I don't think I ever even thought so. I was just...desperate. To make it make sense? The weight of what we were doing versus...what we were protecting. How was I supposed to protect one planet, knowing they were out there, and could destroy the next one over whenever, whenever they wanted?

[Ratchet pauses, struggling to keep his voice even. He pulls the forgotten bottle closer, shoulders slumping in a resignation of things that he couldn't take back.]

I think part of me also just wanted to shove it in their faces that I wasn't afraid of them.

[coolskeletonnyehntyfive]

[This is one complicated problem, and Papyrus can't help feeling like he's not getting the full story. He knows there are plenty of strong beings out there, but the idea of someone having the power to repeatedly take out entire planets is difficult to wrap his mind around.]

I think it makes sense to want to protect the things that matter to you! Even if it's... costly.

[He reaches up, his fingerbones brushing against his neck. He doesn't seem to realize he's doing it.]

But, Ratchet. One thing still doesn't make sense to me. Why would anyone want to destroy entire worlds in the first place? Especially ones that were still being used by people?

[neveroutwrenched]

Because. [Ratchet pauses, allowing his own bitterness to dig in a little deeper.] The universe is full of shitty people who don't care about anything or anyone but themselves.

[That was harsh. He can't quite bring himself to take it back, but he can at least elaborate. Tilting his head down he resists taking another drink.]

I never...we never knew. They didn't tell us. Money? Territory? Just because they could?

[He'd spent more time and energy and sleepless nights speculating over that than almost anything else. All except one thing.]

I need to be clear, Papyrus. I wasn't protecting anyone when I signed that contract. I...I put them in the line of fire. They would have been....I don't know. I don't know. [Safe? He wipes the back of his hand across his face, lowering his head further, forehead almost touching the counter top.] Being here means...it means I broke contract. I broke contract, even if it was an accident, they don't care. Everything I was trying to protect's probably already gone.

[coolskeletonnyehntyfive]

[This is all hard to take in, especially with the information being recounted by a very drunk lombax to a skeleton who wasn't there.]

I don't... think that's true. If you hadn't made the contract, couldn't they have ended up targeted anyway? Even if you didn't intend to protect them, you still did! Which is admirable in its own way!

And why would they turn around and hurt them? There's no way you'd want to hang out there or work for them after they did something like that! It's just bad business sense for them to do such a thing.

[Papyrus reaches over, attempting to ease the bottle out of his hand.]

I'm not sure if lombaxes are anything like skeletons, but it might help to drink something less... saddening. It only makes your problems loom closer, in my experience. I could get you a glass of milk, if you like!