Work Text:
“Stabstablook! Check this out! CHECK IT!!” Maddy would have tackled them, if ghosts were capable of tackling. Instead she phased through them at an incredibly high speed, making them feel like they were going to throw up (another thing ghosts weren’t capable of).
“What,” Stabstablook deadpanned. They’d come to the dark lantern room for privacy, but Maddy possessed the uncanny ability to find them anywhere.
Maddy’s grin stretched across her whole face.
“New bullet! Cool bullet! New bullet! Cool bullet!!”
She presented a tiny white object from behind her back. It was a bullet in the shape of a Temmie.
“Isn’t it just the cutest? Cutest?? CUTEST???”
Stabstablook stared. The bullet let out a tiny “hOI!”
“...It’s great.”
Better than any of their own pathetic attempts at bullets. They hadn’t even left a mark on the faintly glowing crystal.
“It’s not just GREAT! It’s Gnarly! Tubular! Way Cool! Awesome! Groovy! Mo—”
“Yeah, yeah we KNOW you beat all the Special Zone levels in Super Mario World. You don’t have to rub that in, too.”
Stabstablook turned away, cursing the fact that they couldn’t even cross their arms properly. At least they were mad. Mad was an emotion. Mad was better than the hopeless apathy they’d started to melt into as each attempt at magic became weaker than the last.
What if they couldn’t do it? What if their stupid human soul had left them incapable of magic, even as a ghost?
No, blaming their past soul was dumb. Plenty of humans had been able to do magic, or they wouldn’t have the stupid Barrier. It was just Stabstablook themself who was weak.
“Awww, is Stabstablook being Sadsadblook?” Maddy cooed, floating around so she was in their face again. “I know what will make you feel better~”
“What,” they snapped.
“Ghost fight!!!”
Maddy hurled the Temmie-bullet at them. It stung where it hit Stabstablook’s middle, poofing away with a sad “bOI…”
“NO,” they snarled, their incorporeal form glitching with the force of their emotion. “It WON’T. So just—just shut up and bother someone else!”
Maddy scowled. She backed up, the bottom of her ghostly form ruffling.
“Fine! I was just trying to help, Stupidblook!”
They puffed up, looming over their cousin with the scariest face they could pull off.
“My name is STABSTABLOOK!”
At their shout, a ring of green fire burst to life around them. When one flame brushed against Maddy, she yelped and zipped back. Despite that, her anger had been replaced with an ecstatic grin.
“Whoa. Whoa! WHOA!! Why didn’t you tell me you had new bullets??”
“I… I do?” Stabstablook stared at the fire.
They’d done that? How? They hadn’t even been trying for fire.
They weren’t sure what kind of bullets they’d wanted. Napstablook’s were their tears, Maddy’s changed whenever she found a new interest, and their other cousin refused to create any, for some reason.
The flames were green. Green like Asriel’s sweaters Chara had borrowed, until Toriel made them their own. Green like the leaves in Asgore’s garden, trampled when Asriel and Chara played too roughly. Green like the healing magic Toriel smoothed over Chara’s scraped knees, and elbows, and cheeks.
Green magic was supposed to heal. Were ghosts’ attacks different, or had Chara managed to screw even that up?
Maddy stuck her hand into one of the bullets. This time, she didn’t yelp as it winked out.
“Is that why you didn’t want to fight? Your bullets look cool, but green magic’s not gonna help you win.”
Stabstablook blinked. Oh. So their magic did heal; they’d just surprised Maddy earlier.
...Dang. They finally had bullets, and they still couldn’t fight.
“No.” Stabstablook stuck out their tongue. “I just didn’t want to smear your stupid face across the ground, that’s all.”
Maddy cackled.
“HA! Good one, Shrimpyblook!” She gave them an affectionate punch, which of course went right through them. “Come on, let’s go show off our new moves! Our cousins are going to be so jealous! Jealous! JEALOUS!!”
Stabstablook grinned back and let the rest of their green bullets dissolve. Maybe it wasn’t what they’d intended, but they’d done something. They had magic, like a real monster should.
They followed Maddy home, pushing down the pang of regret that Asriel wasn’t here to see it.