UT Month Day 11: Grillby
“well, the weekend’s over. back on that sentry grindset, i guess. first though, give me the usual. how about that good crystal glass your ancestor brought from the surface, huh?”
Actually, it was plastic, and Sans had to know that at this point, but nevertheless, Grillby filled it with ketchup, plopping in a few ice cubes, and set it in front of Sans, who sipped it daintily.
“BROTHER!”
The second skeleton brother stormed in, holding hands with the ‘weird-looking monster child they adopted from the capital’. “SANS, ARE YOU ALREADY ON BREAK?! WHAT TIME IS IT?!”
“hmmm…” Sans glanced at his wrist.
“WELL???”
“i dunno, bro, i don’t have a watch.”
“SANS!!!!”
“hehehe.”
The human child (that’s what they really were, Grillby knew, but who was he to judge by species?) giggled. Papyrus sighed. “YOU HAD BETTER BE BACK TO WORK BY TEN MINUTES OR I RAISE THE ROOF!!! NYEH HEH HEH!”
‘Piggy back?’ signed the little human, tilting their head.
With dignity, Papyrus lifted up the human child and placed them on his shoulders. “NOW, OFF WE GO! WE’RE GOING TO CAPTURE…SOMETHING! NYEH HEH HEH!”
Grillby tapped the table. He communicated in morse code, with the red bird lady supposedly translating for him. But…she didn’t actually know a lick of morse code. He said, ‘I wonder what they’ll do if they actually find a human.’
“Grillbz says the crystal glasses are in unusually good condition for glasses so old,” the bird lady explained laconically. Everyone–Sans and Lesser Dog were the bar’s current occupations–ignored her.
‘You really can’t translate morse code,’ Grillby tapped. The sound of his taps were surprisingly echoey and orotund. And Grillby couldn’t shake the feeling that the bar seemed emptier than usual.
“Grillby says thank you for translating, and someone should totally go out with me,” announced the red bird lady.
No one paid the slighted attention. The red bird lady probably should have tried that when more people were around.
After ten minutes passed and Papyrus didn’t immediately charge in, Sans got a bit uneasy. Or, as uneasy as you can get when you were Sans. Grillby noticed, but didn’t pry. Sans ordered another ketchup, and another. Before long an hour had passed of Grillby filling up fake crystal plastic goblets full of ketchup and washing them and filling them up again.
Finally, Sans stood up. “welp, look who’s outside again.��
Grillby looked around and tilted his head.
Sans chuckled. His pupils disappeared. Grillby was one of the few who wasn’t the least bit bothered by this. It seemed more desperate to Grillby than menacing. “looks like my human kid is treating the timeline as their chew toy. or, are they? sometimes it feels like there must be someone else pulling the strings.”
Grillby stared. Sans, what the hell are you talking about? And why do I feel like I’ve been here before?
“see ya round, grillby.” And with that, Sans swerved and took his leave.
No one was at the bar anymore. Time passed.
…
Grillby couldn’t tell how long it had been. Usually, Grillby’s was bustling with gossip and activity and failed flirters. It was so rare that no one was here at all that Grilby had no idea what to do with himself.
His identity, he reflected, was largely centered around other people. Despite not even being able to communicate with them, he was almost always around other folks. He was the observer, the listener. Simultaneously he was completely isolated and totally social. He had even taken to writing a (fireproof) book about the people of the town. But he had read Miss Buncle’s Book and wasn’t sure if he wanted to take the risk to show his writing to anyone. Not that he could say “Hey, I’m writing a book, wanna read it?” No one here knew morse code.
And yet, Grillby had an ominous feeling, like Grillby’s had been like this before, and it was totally unnatural.
The door creaked open. A yellow lizard monster hurried in. “Grillby!” she exclaimed. “A-are you okay?”
‘Yes,’ tapped Grillby, but he had long since given up on an answer.
The lizard monster’s eyes widened. “Oh my goodness, y-you speak in morse code! Okay, okay, I’m a little rusty b-but…” The lizard monster tapped ‘We have to evacuate you’ onto the table.
Grillby stared blankly. First of all, meeting another monster who knew morse code was a shock after all this time of thinking he was the only one. Second of all…what did she mean, evacuate?
“I-I’ll explain when we get to our safe space. For now, we need to r-reduce your body mass and put you in a jar for transportation,” began the monster.
Grillby raised an eyebrow. ‘Why?’
The lizard monster took a deep breath. “A k-k-k-killer human is loose and k-killed m-most of the r-residents of Snowdin. I-I’m surprised they p-passed you up, but…th-thank angel they did…”
7 notes
·
View notes