Categories > Games > Undertale

Our Voices Will Drown Out The Fear (2019 4th of July Special)

by ArlenaTheWriter 0 reviews

Dust is afraid of fireworks, and everyone groups together to try and comfort him during Fourth of July

Category: Undertale - Rating: PG-13 - Genres: Angst - Warnings: [V] [?] - Published: 2019-07-13 - 2928 words - Complete

0Unrated
“Hey Dust, we’re all going to see the fireworks tomorrow. Wanna come?”

Dust looked up at the group of Sanses. Ever since Nightmare had regained his bearings and became uncorrupted, things had calmed down. The Moon Sanses weren’t treated like monsters anymore (even if they still felt they were) and the Star Sanses seemed to become even more positive--if that was even possible. While they still stuck mostly together in their groups, Cross, Error and Horror all had become good friends with the Star Sanses. Dust hadn’t really tried. Ever since the war had stopped, his schizophrenia had gotten worse, popping up in the worst times.

It was because of his mental instability, and his rather introverted nature that made him stay away from the large group of now intermixed Sanses. He mostly spent his time hiding in the apartment he shared with Horror and Killer, reading psychological thrillers and talking to his brother, who was still by his side even after Dust stopped being violent. No one really noticed or minded because Dust had always been slightly off in their eyes. His personality and morals seemed to be scattered, and anything random could trigger a PTSD attack. It was easier just to let him stay contained, not to mention safer.

The worsening of his schizophrenia meant that Dust was almost always overwhelmed by the amount of noise introduced into his life. He would often hear past victims screaming in his ears, painfully reminding him of what he had done. The noise only got worse when people were loud or a lot of them were talking at once. It was just too hard for Dust to focus on everything. His vision would go a hazy red, and if it got really bad he would freeze up, unable to speak or give any explanation. Killer would often be the first one to notice the signs of Dust’s panic and get him to a quieter place, but Killer didn’t go out much, so Dust was often left alone to suffer.

Dust remembered the first time he had seen fireworks. It would have been beautiful, maybe even awe-filling if the noise hadn’t nearly deafened him. The ringing in his ears that sounded when the fireworks wailed and hit the sky with a loud crack was soon followed by a chorus of screams and pleads. Monsters speaking while choking on their own blood, begging for mercy. It was too much for him to handle and he had ran off without an explanation. The others hadn’t really noticed, and even then they figured he had just gotten tired. They hadn’t known that he was in his room curled up sobbing while pleading for the screams to just stop.

He shook his head. “Sorry. I don’t do well around fireworks. They’re a bit too loud for me,” Dust blushed a bit in embarrassment as he fidgeted with his hoodie strings. He figured he’d spend the time listening to music to drone out the sound of the show outside while he read his book. The apartment would finally be quiet and peaceful enough for him to pay attention to the plot and the morals behind it. Being alone on 4th of July didn’t have many downsides at all in the skeleton’s opinion. After all, no one missed him last time. How would this year be any different?

Dream frowned a bit. “Are you sure you’ll do fine being alone?” The skeleton actually sounded concerned and Dust couldn’t help but feel slightly touched. It wasn’t often people showed concern for him, so the slightest bit of empathy was savored gratefully. He didn’t really think he deserved such a thing, but there were people in this multiverse who thought differently. It was surprising, but a bit uplifting if he thought about it. Not everyone hated him, even though he had done enough things to make them hate him. He deserved worse than what he had, but hey, he wasn’t complaining.

“Yeah,” Dust grinned reassuringly. “I spent two years alone, I’m pretty sure I can handle half a day.” That earned a few chuckles, but Dream still seemed a bit uncertain. Well, he could worry all he wanted, Dust wasn’t going and he wasn’t making anyone stay with him. Besides, being alone was always nice, as long as you weren’t long for too long. Just a bit of time to relax with your thoughts, but not too long, for that’s when your thoughts began to take over you instead. Dust gave Dream another small smile and stuck his hands in his pockets, running a finger over the smoothed stress stone.

“If you say so.” Dream smiled back before turning his gaze back to the rest of the group. “Well, I need to go. I can’t wait to see you guys tomorrow. Remember, we’ll meet at the park nearby and walk over to the main field to get a good spot.” Everyone nodded, promising they’ll remember even though they knew that Dream would be texting them the information in the morning just in case. Dust didn’t blame the skeleton for making the extra precautions. When you spend your time with someone like Ink, it’s hard not to feel like everyone is going to forget anything that is told to them.

The group parted. It was late afternoon, so everyone still had things to do. Most of the Star Sanses were heading out to plan something for another celebration with some of their many friends, while most of the Moon Sanses also went to get things done. Dust and Killer were the only people left. Killer looked at him and smiled. “I’m heading home. You wanna follow?” Dust nodded, not really having anything on his schedule due to him being anti-social. He knew he should get out more, but he didn’t care. The more he stayed inside, the less likely he was going to hurt someone mid-PTSD attack. Killer and Dust walked to the apartment in silence.







Chat “Top Secret 4th of July Planning” has been created



Ink has joined the chat



Dream: Hiya Ink! We’re currently waiting for everyone else to join.



Ink: Sounds cool.



Killer has joined the chat



Blue has joined the chat



Nightmare has joined the chat



Horror has joined that chat



Error has joined the chat




Dream: Looks like everyone’s here. ^.^

Dream: I guess I should explain why I asked you to join this chat.



Killer: That would be nice.



Dream: I’m a bit worried about Dust. I know he can handle being alone, but it just doesn’t seem right to leave him alone, especially on a holiday.



Nightmare: I agree. Besides, knowing Dust, we probably can’t risk having him spend too much time with his thoughts. We all know it’s not a friendly place in there.



Ink: Okay, let’s be honest, who was actually looking forward to seeing the fireworks?



Blue: Hey! I thought it was going to be cool!

Blue: But you are right, it was more about gathering together than actually watching the display.



Ink: That’s exactly what I’m implying. Why don’t we all just hang out someone together inside. No one will feel left out, and we’ll find something else together. It isn’t exactly hard to entertain people.



Horror: Even if we are indoors, it’ll be loud. We all live pretty close to the park.



Dream: Then we’ll all watch a movie together. The volume will be loud enough to muffle the sounds of the fireworks. As long as we can peacefully decide on a movie to watch, then we should be fine.



Nightmare: So it is decided?



Ink: Yup! Any objections?



Killer is typing…



Horror: Killer I swear....



Killer stops typing



Dream: Okay, we’ll all head over to the Moon Sans apartment to watch the movie half an hour before the fireworks start.







Nobody had told Dust about the change of plans. Dream hadn’t ordered them to be quiet, but the chat had been called “Top Secret 4th of July Planning” and everyone was kind of looking forward to surprising Dust. While they were unsure if his reaction would be positive, the group was rather hopeful. Dust could tell there was an excitement in the air, but he guessed it was just because of the holiday. While 4th of July wasn’t an extreme holiday for a lot of people, it still got them excited. A lot of people gathered together, and because of that their energy was being shared and building up. Dust wasn’t a part of this excitement, but he could feel it.

It was when it neared time for Horror and Killer to leave that Dust got suspicious. “Did Dream change the times or something? Aren’t you guys supposed to leave in a few minutes?” He felt guilty for watching the time so intensely, but he didn’t want his friends to leave late, and he had really been looking forward to having some time to relax. He couldn’t really do that at the moment with excitement hanging in the air. It felt like a balloon was slowly expanding and as time crept on it was getting larger and larger. Dust was unsure when it was going to pop, and if he really wanted it to.

“Yeah, Dream told us to come a little later. Wanted you to have less time alone.” Horror replied, hardly looking up from what he was working on. Dust shifted uncomfortably. Why was everyone concerned about him. Yeah, he wasn’t mentally stable, but there were plenty of people he knew who weren’t. A few panic attacks aren’t the worst things in the world. Just because he had a few issues with fireworks didn’t mean that he was going to die tonight. He had just wanted some peace and quiet tonight, was that such an odd thing to ask? Judging by the group’s reaction, it apparently was.

Dust studied his two friends before shrugging. “K.” He went back to his book, though it was pretty obvious he wasn’t invested in it. Not only was everything going on distracting, but the plot in the book he was reading had taken a bad turn and was getting harder and harder to read. Dust was doing his best to push through, but he was slowly losing hope in the book. He was beginning to think that it was never going to get better. Instead, his eyes were glancing at the page occasionally as he watched his friends. Both seemed to be in a good mood, but neither one seemed to want to leave the apartment. He figured they were just worrying.

That was until Dream and Nightmare arrived at the apartment. Dust looked up from his book in surprise. “Heya Dream, Nightmare. Are you here to pick Horror and Killer up?” Dust asked, sitting up in his with a soft smile. Once again, he didn’t want to sound eager to get the two skeletons out of his hair, but he didn’t like this feeling of anticipation that had been building up when the day had started. It was just too mentally exhausting to keep up with at the moment. Luckily, he hadn’t had any issues with his schizophrenia, so hopefully the rest of the day would go by quickly.

“Um no.” Dream said hesitantly, and Nightmare shot Killer and Horror a questioning look. They both shrugged in response. Dust instantly confirmed his feelings about something going on that he hadn’t been let in on. “There was actually a change of plans.” Dream continued, shifting slightly as he tried to think of a way to put his thoughts into words. Dust was studying everyone now, waiting to see who could possibly give him any information on what was going on. “We decided that instead of seeing the fireworks display, we could all see a movie instead.”

So that was what was going on. Dust relaxed slightly, but his mind was still racing as the guilt about how everyone had abandoned their original plans all because of him and his messed up mental state. Things could have gone so smoothly if he hadn’t been in the way, messing everything up like the moving chaos he was. It made him hate himself a bit more, but he didn’t show it because Dream was there. Dream had worked so hard on planning the gathering, so Dust better look and act grateful in front of him because the skeleton had to scrap so many of his plans.

“As Ink rudely pointed out, no one really wanted to go, “ Dream reassured Dust. Dust didn't really think that what he said was true. People often said they hadn’t really wanted to go to things all the time just to make someone feel better. He didn’t want people to do that around him, but apparently, Dream felt like he must. Horror chuckled softly, as if he had heard the same conversation Dream was talking about. For all Dust knew, he could’ve. He had no idea what had went on that alerted everyone to come here. As soon as Dream mentioned Ink, Ink walked into the doorway.

“Oh hey Ink, we were just talking about you.” Dream smiled innocently, even though it was obvious he knew Ink had overheard them. After the war had ended, Ink had branched off from the Star Sanses a bit. He became colder and didn’t seem to tolerate Dream and Blue’s energy anymore. He spent a lot of his time alone drawing, or he would spend time near Error. It wasn’t hard to tell that both Dream and Blue wanted to revive the team back to what it was, but Dust wasn’t convinced it would work. Some people change when there isn’t too much pressure to hold an act.

“Oh, I definitely heard you talking shit.” He hissed as he sat down near Error. The glitching skeleton leaned on him slightly and Dust could see Ink’s cold facade be broken by a small flash of empathy. That was, until he made eye contact with Dream again. His face hardened and Dream sighed. Nightmare seemed to notice and took Dream’s hand in his, a clear sign that the skeleton needed to relax a bit. Dust himself didn’t like the tension either. It made him a bit paranoid that an argument was going to break out. He had spent a lot of time around the Moon Sanses, so tension was normal. He was used to it, which caused a lot of his paranoia.

Blue walked in. “Sorry I’m late! I brought popcorn!” Everyone looked up at Blue, surprised at the sudden breakage of the tension. The skeleton seemed unaware of what he interrupted, and just smiled as he sat down. Dust was slightly relieved that things would hopefully go a bit smoother for the rest of the day, with Blue to calm the two rivaling skeletons down. “Have we decided on what we’re going to watch?” Blue asked hesitantly, still unsure why everyone had been so surprised by his sudden appearance. Most of the Sanses shook their heads silently.

Deciding what to watch had been rather easy, but the group became rather split between a few. “Hey, the fireworks are going to go on for awhile. We’ll have time to watch a few, and there’” He smiled, putting his book up after showing the cover to Nightmare, who had reassured him that the plot did get better. He didn’t know how long everyone planned to stay, but he did know that the fireworks weren’t stopping until around 1 am. He didn’t expect everyone to stay up that late, but he knew there would be a few who would. Nightmare and Killer never had an easy time sleeping, and he imagined Ink didn’t either because he was always working at night.

Blue nodded. “He’s right. The fireworks are going to be going off up until around one, so we have plenty of time to watch a few. Let’s just start with the one we’re on and revisit our second decision after it is over.” There were no objects there. No one really wanted to cause any tension at all, even Killer, who would often jokingly object to plans that were made, stayed silent. Blue smiled and started up the movie. The fireworks started a bit after, but Blue turned the volume up a bit, and pretty soon the fireworks were mostly inaudible. It just sounded like distant thunder.

The entire night was mostly peaceful. Occasionally someone would interject with a joke or two, but it was mostly people snuggling up to their friends and watching quietly, just enjoying being together. The popcorn went quickly, but no one really noticed. It was a warm, peaceful night. After awhile, a few of the Star Sanses began to fall asleep, followed soon by Horror, but a few people stayed up the entire night. A lot of them were used to pulling all nighters. Still, at some point they couldn’t keep up and the movie was turned off. The apartment was silent, and the fireworks had stopped. Dust was able to relax and fall asleep.
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