Title: fall back
Word Count: 596
Rating: PG-13
Pairings (if any): N/A
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con etc): Heavily implied suicide.
Summary: Their soul is tired. There are only so many cycles they can go through before they just want to give up.


.

The day Frisk climbed Mount Ebott hadn't begun all that remarkably.

It was the same routine as any other day: Get up, get dressed, brush teeth, grab lunch, slip on shoes, and head out the door. Frisk had ignored the grumpy grumblings of the household, quiet as always. Tapping their shoes to make sure they were snug, they waved farewell before swinging their pack across their shoulders and making their way down the street.

No one was paying enough attention to figure out when they were taking a different route than normal. Instead of left at the convenience store, they used the crosswalk and kept on straight, pace steady and sure.

Life was cozy and normal in their little town. Everyone mostly knew each other, and friends were generally lifelong with how closely knit the neighborhoods were. The elderly would often ask kids loitering in the streets to help with chores, and in turn would humor questions about their thoughts from curious minds. Quaint little shops dotted the streets, selling fabric and produce and bicycles and everything in-between. Frisk's favorite was the little bakery fifteen minutes from home that accepted whatever grubby pocket change they managed to find lying around. It was a simple life, one that someone as softspoken and laidback as Frisk should enjoy emmensely.

And they had. Several times, in fact.

This wasn't the first time they had gone through the fourth grade-nor the first time they had skipped class with the plans of never coming back. They were only ten now, but once upon a time they had been sixteen, twenty-three, thirty-years-old... that last one had been the longest run. And yet, here they were again, plodding down the street in size five sneakers and wondering why it seemed like their life was forever stuck on repeat.

Not to say everything was entirely the same this time. Oh no. This time, they made sure to speak concisely and only when necessary; the bullying from previous lives showed silence wasn't the best, but also that excessive talking was hardly helpful. So they sought a balance between the two, only speaking when required and then far more eloquently than anyone their age should. To be fair, they were actually far older than "people their age." Not that they could tell anybody that without being deemed crazy.

The mountain loomed ahead, but they pressed on. It wasn't as if they hadn't seen it before. Living in town meant they practically worshipped the thing, as tourists flocked to its edges to buy tacky souvenirs. Several legends surrounded its peak, speaking of magic and war and monsters of terrifying stature.

It was said that anyone who climbed this mountain never returned.

Frisk hoped above all hope that the legends were true.

They were tired of this constant struggle, of living their life over and over again without any real end in sight. The stopping of their heart hadn't done it; they simply started back at the beginning, with the knowledge of everything they'd experienced before and another brick of exhaustion in their soul. Car accidents, muggings, disease... none of it had worked. Death was only temporary. Perhaps, then, this conundrum could be solved by the supernatural.

So Frisk climbed.

And climbed.

And climbed.

And then they fell.

.

.

.

.

To say they were disappointed when they woke up at the bottom of a pit was an understatement. And yet...

It was the beginning of something utterly new and foreign. And if there was anything Frisk hadn't lost through the mind-numbing repetition of their many lives, it was their curiosity.

.


Prompt: Disappointment; What Are You Thinking About?


-Dragon