Who ever said time marches

[dustless]

Climbing waterfalls is hard work, even if you can pause them and use the frozen flow as hand- and foot-holds, but Frisk's got plenty of practice under their metaphorical belt. Climbing's something they've always done, almost--they aren't sure if climbing down from the mountain they'd woke up on counts, but climbing the first high-rise they saw definitely did. They didn't even know how to stop time yet, then. And technically, they'd went inside...but maneuvering the stairs without running into-and-through people was challenge enough. They'd learned quick that nobody could touch or see them. They wonder why, sometimes, but it's all they've ever known, and they like stopping in cities and just watching anyway.

But that was a long time ago, and now they're doing this. Stopping the world for everyone but Frisk themselves, just to finish a challenge they have before, sort of. All waterfalls are different, and even the same can be miles from what it was if they let time slip forward for even a few seconds. Always something new.

The Moon is watching them, they think. Frisk's not sure if their Pause Time can reach into space like that. Not that it matters; all but the still light given is ignored, and it always will be. 

Their boot slips with a rubbery sound, they're left hanging and bouncing and swinging--only liquids are bouncy in the Pause. Usually they like it, right now it's a little irritating. Letting time go will just send them hurtling to the riverbed below. They probably won't die, but it's not fun, making their body move forward and knit back together while leaving their mind in place. 

Frisk clings once they've stopped bouncing so much, and they drag their body up. Up, up, up...

They get to the top. They collapse down onto a tiny 'island' at the top, jutting out over the waterfall itself, where absolutely no human child should be in any circumstance, let alone on the edge of winter--but it's not as if they're normal, or anyone will stop them. Frisk just huddles into their blue parka and pulls out a thermos filled with hot chocolate, and finally, they let Time move on.

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[havesomefun]

Time waits for no human...

...but spirits are another matter.

Jack has noticed time sputtering on and off, stopping and starting, for a while now. He's never been able to identify the culprit, however, if there is a culprit to identify. In fact, he's...pretty sure that this is nothing humans are capable of. Not that he has much experience with humanity as anything but an outside observer.

His current suspect is the spirit with the swords who lives in the north and who seems to be the leader of a gang of them. He does seem to do a lot of traveling. Maybe he saves time by making sure no one else has any.

Either way, there's not a whole lot he can do when those moments hit, except admire the view - the birds in mid-flight, the snowflakes in mid-fall, the people frozen like insects in amber. It's pretty. Boring, but pretty.

During this stop, he finds himself pacing along a river beneath a waterfall, counting frozen fish that weren't frozen by him. As the shadow of the falls creep over him, he hears...something. A strange sort of squeak that speaks of movement.

He looks up, in time to see a distant figure high overhead disappear over the top of the cliff. And for a moment, all Jack thinks is that even the most daring child should not be up that far or climbing cliffs by waterfalls. All he thinks for a moment is that this child has to be in danger.

He's already flying up to try and help, when all of a sudden, the waterfall roars back into life, catching and dousing him with biting, stinging spray. Caught quite off guard, he falls with a gasp and a yelp into the river far below.

[dustless]

Time halts and restarts almost too fast to notice--reflex, trying to save the guy, but if he end up underwater when they freeze everything...

Frisk stands up and shuffles forward, till the toes of their boots are sticking out over the edge of the stone and the waterfall, staring down at the...person. Yeah. Definitely a person.

Why wasn't he Paused, too?

They would call out and ask why, and if he's alright, but there's no point. Nobody ever sees them. So they just watch, a little anxiously, to see if he gets out.

[havesomefun]

He does get out, eventually - it's the pounding pressure of the water that keeps him down, more than the cold. Cold doesn't bother Jack. He actually finds it pleasant. And it's not like he needs to breathe. It's just easiest to let himself sink to the bottom, kick off from there, and use the momentum to break the surface of the water to fly back into the open air.

As he hovers over the water, he glances up to see that the kid is thankfully still there. Still there and looking down. It doesn't occur to him that they're looking at him - no one does, no one can. But they're probably curious about the splash.

He flies up to take a closer look at them anyway. Maybe he can still help them get home, even unseen.

"Geez, kid, you picked a bad night to be outside." He thinks nothing of talking to himself, or pretending that they'll answer. It's habit, by now.

[dustless]

Didn't drown 'cause of them, good. Frisk wasn't sure how they'd rescue him if he did--they coulda skipped backwards, that's easy, but if he wasn't Paused, then maybe that wouldn't have worked either.

He's not a normal human. And they realize right off that he's talking to them, 'cause who else is there? What other 'kid' is? (They must be a kid, they're small and have those proportions, but sometimes they feel like they're unspooling over every moment that ever was-is-and-will-be.)

It doesn't occur to them to answer--Frisk hasn't even spoken to themselves in half a year.

They shuffle backwards a little, away from the edge, hunching over their thermos a little bit. What...what should they do?

[havesomefun]

They're still...looking at him?

Jack deliberately corrects himself. Through him, they're looking through him. Except when he glances over his shoulder, there's nothing very interesting there. Except the Moon, perhaps. But he's getting better at ignoring that.

When he looks back, they're looking away, which is expected. But he still can't get the sense of attention out of his mind. And he can't stop himself from hoping, just a little.

Jack floats himself back onto solid ground and touches down beside them. "Hey, so, uh..." He runs a hand anxiously through his hair. "This might feel a little cold. And I'm sorry about that. But...everything's going to make sense again for me after I do this, so..."

He reaches out to prod them in the shoulder, fully expecting to pass through them.

[dustless]

Frisk's shoulders jerk up, expecting the exact same thing--but it doesn't. His finger just bumps them, and it is cold, but it's--a touch, a hand, someone, someone can do that.

They make a little strangled noise deep in their throat, gleaming silver eyes flashing wide. Time r i p s to a halt, they stagger back onto the still water and crouch, hiding their face under their bangs.

What should they do? they think through smothering mounting panic. This isn't--possible, this shouldn't be happening--

[havesomefun]

It's a look of panic that's mirrored on Jack's face as he shoots back away from them like a wind has physically pushed him, a leaf caught in a sudden gale. He hangs there over open space, barely even aware that time is frozen again. It would have felt like that for him, anyway, as his mind wades through the impossibilities and struggles to process what exactly has just happened.

Because it shouldn't have happened, it's never happened before, he wasn't really expecting the touch, and yet and yet and yet...

He runs his hands over his face, half-expecting the child to be gone when his vision clears again. They're not.

Cautiously, slowly, he floats back over to solid ground, touches down on the stilled water, and then settles into a crouch in front of them.

"H-Hey. What's, um...what's your name?"

That should be a safe enough start, right?

[dustless]

They watch him the whole time, desire to run itching in their legs, desire to see what he's gonna do rooting their feet in place.

What's your name? Not a weird question to most--but nobody's asked them that in their entire life.

Reflexively, their eyes flick to the Moon. Still, silent, presumptuous thing that tried to give them a name, one they don't even like, then not talking to them at all about it after.

Their mouth works for a few seconds before a sound really comes out. "...'M Frisk," they say, voice raspy and tiny and uncertain. "...An' you...you're...?" Who is he, they wonder, glancing at their shoulder. What is he?

[havesomefun]

They answer! They answer him and even now that they've both established one another's existence, Jack can't help but let out a happy little gasp. "Frisk! Your name is Frisk, and...and it is so good to meet you, and..."

He looks at them, looks down at his hand, and then hesitantly holds it out halfway between them. To shake, if they want to.

"My name's Jack. And..."

And then the words all just come tumbling out.

"...and I think I might be like you. I just woke up one day, I just started existing one day, and I didn't know anything about why." He seems to brighten as he talks, as he finally tells his lonely story to someone who can hear and maybe even understand him.

"I only know my name, because..." And here he glances back, and here Jack can't help but frown as well, up at the Moon. "...he told me."

And it's as good a name as any.

[dustless]

Frisk stares at his proffered hand. They've seen people do that, handshakes. Business partners, usually.

Their arm lifts--drops--lifts again. They're not going to shake his hand yet, they're just going to...touch it, cool fingers pressing against a chillier palm.

"H-hi, Jack. I'm..." They clear their throat, sounding like the grinding of gears setting back into place. "I'm...like that too, I think. Sort of. I woke up, dunno why. Dunno what I'm from, either, mostly. This body." Frisk doesn't think about how weird that last bit sounds.

"Moon told me mine, too. A name. I didn't--it didn't sound right. So I threw it out." They shrug, pulling back their hand to clutch against the thermos. "I like just Frisk."