14 - Pictures



Four months into the real world, and I had made three friends, become a multiversal criminal, and had the most fun I'd ever had in my life. Overall, we were a happy little crazy family, and we loved it that way. Nightmare still wouldn't let us call him 'Dad' yet, but we were determined to achieve that goal; it would happen, eventually.


"Dust, are you lapsing into thought again?" Nightmare asked.


"Um..maybe?" I replied, shrugging.


"Just take the picture!" Killer rushed.


"All right, I'm taking the picture!" 


"Takin' ya lon' enough." Horror complained.


"Well, I'm sorry! Hold still!"


I set the camera on a ten-second timer, let Paps levitate it, and rushed to my designated place. Taking a family picture was hard work, but at least everybody agreed to it; we were going to hang it right over the fireplace in the living room, since a lot of places hung pictures over the fireplace. I thought they did that because in the event of a fire, the picture was in the most vulnerable position, and would be one of the first things to burn; I took it as a representation of how much you valued your loved ones. The closer you placed the picture to the fire, the more you were willing to sacrifice for them. I didn't actually know if that was what it represented at all, but it made sense in my mind, and that was really all that mattered, right? The camera flashed, and the picture was taken; Nightmare, Killer, and Horror had also agreed to retries if the picture didn't come out right the first few times. When I checked the camera, the picture looked amazing. The shading was perfect, the mood was set, and nobody looked bad at all; well, we looked bad as in personality, but that was to be expected. 


"How's it look?" Killer tried to see the picture.


"Work of art." I responded.


"So how do ya get the picture out of the camera?"


"That is a secret."


"Aww, come on! Please?"


"Maybe after we get it on the wall."


"All right...let's hurry up then!"


"Right."


I received the copy of the picture from the camera with a little help from the camera's magic, and placed it in the frame I had set aside. It fit perfectly, as expected; it was a magical picture, so one would expect it to fit. Since receiving the camera, I had put a few memorable photos on a wall in my room, but I always left space for more. We took the framed photograph and hung it just above the fireplace, centering it perfectly; this would stay. 


"It do look good." Horror commented.


"That it does, that it does." Killer agreed.


"Wanna take more?" I offered. The camera had unlimited storage space, since it was magic, so we could literally take pictures of whatever we wanted! I always had the camera on me, so I could look through old pictures and take new ones whenever I pleased; I was becoming somewhat of a photographer. 


"Yes! Picture day!" Killer jumped on the couch, and I took a picture.


"Oh, this's gonna be good." Horror rubbed his hands together.


"Yes, it will be very exciting." Nightmare concurred.


"This should be fun to witness." Papyrus floated around, only his scarf visible to the others.


"Let's light it up!" I snapped some pictures of the photo above the fireplace before turning to the others. "Not literally, of course."


For the next hour, I took pictures of the absolutely random things Nightmare, Killer, and Horror were doing, even getting Papyrus in a lot of them; of course, only his scarf showed up in the photos, but he didn't mind. Some of the more memorable shots I got were Horror hanging from the ceiling, Killer juggling knives, and Nightmare taking a nap on the couch; he wasn't really up to the entire 'do craziness' thing. Horror and Killer were invested, though, and some of the stuff they did was more than enough to make up for Nightmare's lack of enthusiasm. We did manage to get Nightmare to agree to do one crazy thing, though.


"Why do I have to jump off the roof?" Nightmare wondered.


"Because it'll look cool!" Killer reminded.


"That makes no sense."


"It's either this or pop out of a giant cake."


"I'm taking this, then."


"That's the spirit!"


"Okay, I'll get in position!" I said, jumping off the roof to land on the trampoline situated below. I wouldn't recommend that anybody did this at their own house, because our trampoline was built for jumping off the roof, and others could get seriously injured; we were professionals. "Ready!"


Nightmare muttered something from the top, but I couldn't hear it from the ground. I lifted my camera and took as many photos as I could while Nightmare was falling. When he landed, he mumbled something about regret, but I didn't care, because I had the photos, which all turned out great; there were no regrets on my part, but I wasn't sure about Nightmare - he decided to lie down after that. For the next few hours, I was snapping many memorable pictures of everybody and everything, Paps included. Eventually, we had to go out to spread negativity again, and Horror came along, since he was with us at the time, anyway. I wasn't going to let this get in the way of my picture taking, though; Killer and Horror made sure to get into tons of picture-worthy situations, all of which were captured. 


When Ink, Dream, and the swap brothers showed up, they weren't left out of the fun; I could multitask shooting rocks and taking pictures fairly well, and they didn't even know they were on camera! It was classic! I even managed to capture some of Ink's nasty glares towards me; yeah, he really hated me. It wasn't even a question as to if he did or not, since he obviously had a thing against me. The others even joked about it sometimes, and I'd join in just because I could. Grudges were horrible things to bear; I knew that better than most. Who knew how many years I spent holding that grudge against the kid? I'd let that go now, and I was better for it. When you held a grudge, you just thirsted for revenge until it wasn't even revenge anymore, and it became something worse: you enjoyed hurting the person you held a grudge against. You enjoyed hurting others. It was a terrible feeling when you thought about the consequences of a grudge you held for longer than you should have. I just hoped Ink had some sense of forgiveness as I pelted his fingers with rocks - I doubted it.


When the fighting stopped, we went home to look at the pictures, which were amazing, if I did say so myself; some of the reactions to the pictures were photo worthy, and were turned into photos promptly. I really liked taking pictures of things. The last pictures we looked at were from the battle.


"I look good in that one!" Killer complimented himself.


"How'd I get 'n the back'roun'?" Horror asked.


"No clue, but your axe is lookin' sharp."


"Next." I stated, switching the picture to one of Ink's glares.


"Oh boy, Ink looks mad!" Killer was laughing.


"Can looks kill?" Nightmare questioned.


"Well, if they can, it's a wonder Dust is still around!"


"Looks like he'll burs' inta flames." Horror was giggling.


"Next." I flipped to the next picture, one of Nightmare in battle with Dream.


"Oh boy, that's a classic!" Killer said.


"Might wanna keep i.'" Horror confirmed.


"Nightmare looks good in that photo, brother!" Papyrus floated around the camera.


"Indeed." I agreed.


"We should hang it up in the library." Killer suggested.


"It's not that good." Nightmare criticized.


"You're just embarrassed."


 "No I'm not!" 


"Admit it, ya like the picture."


"Well..fine, I like it."


"Next." I turned to the next picture, which was one of Papyrus's scarf layered perfectly on a tree.


"Now that's a 'phisticated tree." Horror noted.


"Yup." I concurred. "I think that's the last one, too."


"Aww. Okay, I'm goin' to bed." Killer started towards his room, yawning.


"Guess imma get home." Horror left as well.


I yawned. "How long have we even been up?" 


"About twenty hours, brother." Paps returned.


"You're the best, Paps. I'm turning in too."


Nightmare was already asleep on the couch when I got up to go to my room; I walked down the long hallways, eventually ending up at the door of my room. Opening it, I entered, put my camera on my dresser, and lay on my bed. Papyrus floated carefree round the room, laughing. He's the best. After a while of floating, he came down to me.


"Brother." He began.


"Yeah, Paps?" I looked at him.


"There's something about those pictures."


"What is it?"


"Well, Killer's in a lot of them, Horror's in a lot of them, Nightmare is in a lot of them, and I am in a lot of them."


"Yep."


"You're not in any of them."


"What do you mean, Paps? I was in the family photo."


"Yes, but that was the only one you were in!" 


"Paps, I'm not very photogenic."


"And Horror is?"


"Yes...?"


"Brother, I want to see a picture of you!"


"But.."


"No buts."


"All right, Paps. I can't say no to you.."


"Go ahead."


I lifted the camera up, and heard a click. Turning it around, I saw Paps and myself in the photo; it was only his scarf, but he was there.


"You look great, brother!" Papyrus beamed.


"Not really. You look better, Paps." I stated. "You're the best."


"Brother, you must give yourself some credit sometimes."


"I don't think I can do that, Paps. All I've ever done is make things worse for those around me. Heck, I killed you! I killed my own brother!"


"Brother, I've forgiven you for that."


"I killed every soul in the underground; they probably aren't as forgiving as you."


"That's behind us; maybe some sleep will cheer you up."


"Maybe. Night, Paps."


"Good night, brother."


I rested my skull on the pillow of my bed and fell asleep, descending into another dust-filled nightmare. It still didn't bother me. What kind of maniac was I, when death, pain, and screams didn't affect me in the least? I didn't feel guilty at all. What was guilt? Regret, remorse, different terms for the same thing. Feeling bad about something you did; you couldn't change anything you'd done. When I killed everybody, it immediately became carved in stone. Even when I promised myself I would stop, I just kept doing it. Was that what the kid felt? Did they try to stop, but found that they just couldn't? Once I even waited through the month or so it took between the reset and the kid's coming, and ended up killing them all a day before the kid fell. I just couldn't stop, so why should I have felt guilty about something I couldn't control? Feeling bad for that was like feeling sorry that your soul kept beating, or feeling sorry that you had reflexes. My reflex was killing everybody; I couldn't stop it - just delay it. It would have happened anyway: whether the kid or I killed them, they would have still been dead right now, and nothing could have stopped that. I guess that was how it worked, right? What was destined to happen..would happen. We could only change so much.


"Dust, wake up!" Killer shouted.


"Hmm?" I groaned.


"Guess what!"


"What?"


"Nightmare has a birthday!"


"Everybody has a birthday.."


"Really?"


"How did you not know that?"


"I don't have a birthday.."


"You probably just forgot it; that's what I did."


"Well, that's no fun! We should make birthdays!"


"I don't need a birthday..."


"Yes you do! It'll be good for ya!"


"It's just a reminder of how old you are."


"No, it's a day where ya eat cake!"


"Look, if you want a birthday, I won't stop you, but I don't need one. Do you even know how old you are?"


"Nope! I'm gonna make an age for myself! I'll say I'm between twenty and thirty."


"Or you could say you're ten."


"Very funny; maybe I will!"


"Where's Nightmare?"


"Out again: tryin' to convince Error to join us."


"Huh."


"I'm bored, wanna do something fun?"


"What?"


"I dunno."


"That's helpful. How about you read something?"


"Or we could jump off the roof."


"Or we could go back to sleep. I don't think I even got an hour."


"Maybe some walking will help!"


"Goodbye, dreams of a pleasant sleep.."


"Come on!"


Killer grabbed my wrist, started running out of my room, and zoomed through the halls; Papyrus followed behind. I was mostly awake by this time, since being dragged at what felt like a hundred miles an hour wasn't exactly the most serene and tranquil thing to be doing. Perhaps Killer thought it was; I couldn't exactly argue with him. After ten minutes of running in the halls, Killer finally stopped in the living room and allowed me my freedom from his grasp. I found myself collapsed on a couch and quickly dozed off before Killer could stop me; I was too tired to attempt to stay awake, even with ten minutes of constant energy behind me. Killer didn't even seem tired out when we reached the living room, but I guess that made sense, considering his endurance levels; mine were simply above average, but his were way above average. He could also apparently run on less than one hour of sleep, which was insane. I wasn't actually sure how endurance, and other things, were measured. The levels given seemed fairly accurate, with little to no flaws, but it was still an enigma to me. I believed it was some kind of magic-based test, which would explain the accuracy. 


As I observed my dusty nightmare, I felt rather happy.


~~~chapter end woot~~~


Dust bean takes pictures.


Thanks for reading my photogenic writing!


Bye!

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