Proud - DreamSMP

Chapter 11 - Everchanging Earth

Had he the courage to, Ghostbur would have sprinted.
He would of ran, as far away as he could and tucked himself away in his sewer home and waited for all of this to blow over.

But he couldn't, those warm coloured yet cold feeling eyes pierced into his skull, keeping him frozen in place. "So, where were we?" Schlatt chuckled, speaking so casually as if there wasn't a gaping hole in his chest, oozing puss and other fluids Ghostbur wasn't sure of that smelt unnatural, almost like the juice inside of a glowstick.

"I-" The ghost's hands were shaking, a sinking feeling in his chest as he stared into Schlatt's eyes, totally shell shocked.
"Oh come on, don't worry about it!" Schlatt chuckled, offering the Brit infront of him a hand off the floor through the cell bars. Of course, Ghostbur took it, too afraid to be rude as Schlatt tugged him off the cold stone. "You okay?" the ram-hybrid offered him a kind smile, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. Wilbur wasn't sure how to answer.

"Hey, look... how about you head off and come back to me when you're feeling better, yeah? I'm sure you've had a long day." Schlatt gave him a warm smile.

"But I-"

"I know I know, 'I want answers' and that shit. But you look tired. You'll get answers eventually, don't sweat it." Schlatt was never a paitent man, and the New-Yorker certinately knew that about himself. But he couldn't tell Wilbur anything yet. Not until the Ghost was able to really hear it.

Wilbur sighed, nodding before taking a step back, trying not to watch the gaping wound in Schlatt's chest.

"I'll speak to you later, m'kay?"

And with that, Wilbur left, stepping out again into the cold night. The sun was a few good hours away from rising, and the air was as cold as it had been when he'd arrived. It was as if the world has stood still while he wasn't watching.

Wilbur wandered on home, staring fascinated at the lanterns hovering about the sky to calm his nerves. He made those... Phil taught him how to make them was he was little. It was one of the few things he remembered about his childhood. Even when he was alive his childhood was just a blurry concept, a mesh of colours, sounds and disjointed memories that made no sense to him.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, a shadow swooped across the nearly black sky, blocking out the light from the lanterns and the stars for a moment, and creating this wooshing sound as the figures wings sliced through the air.

"Phil!" Ghostbur beamed excitedly, waving at him as the bird hybrid swooped down onto the docks, puffing up his wings as he sat perched on one of the poles that stuck upwards out of the dock, blue eyes scanning the waters like he was searching for something- Phil always looked like that. Over a hundred years of adventuring teaches you to keep your eyes open for the little things, and Phil always noticed the little things.

If Phil was entierly honest with himself, he hadn't exactly wanted to talk to Ghostbur, and had he noticed the ghost sooner he would have avoided him altogether.
But he had manners- and despite the unsettling feeling that creeped in every time he spoke to the ghost, he was nice to talk to once you taught yourself not to look at the gaping scar in his chest.

"Hey, mate!" Phil smiled warmly at Ghostbur, letting his wings stretch out a little to let the wind at them- they were in desperate need of preening and the air always helped with the irritation.

"How are you?" Ghostbur grinned, dragging out the 'u' in 'you' as he approached the bird-hybrid.

"I'm good! I'm good..." Phil's smile faltered a little, his eyes flicking downwards for a moment before he looked back into Ghostbur's cold grey eyes. "How about you, how've you..." Phil dragged off, eyes flicking down again towards Ghostbur's hands, his eyebrows furrowing as he looked back up with this oddly familiar parental look in his eyes.

"What happened?" Ghostbur cocked his head to the side at the question, looking down at his own hands to see that they were shaking- badly. God, he hadn't even noticed.

"Oh, nothing really!" Ghostbur forced a giggle out, folding his arms over his chest to cover them up. "Something just scared me is all, but I'm okay!"

Phil knew better that that.

"Wi- Ghostbur, tell me what happened. I know... today was probably a lot for you considering... Schlatt and everything." Phil could never understand the way Ghostbur's mind worked, how it chose to forget things it didn't like so easily, and how he smiled so wide despite the things that could be tied back to him.

It unnerved him, seeing a man so much like his son, who acted nothing like his boy at all.
He'd seen and felt almost everything there was to see, yet nothing was able to prepare him for that kind of experience.

"I'm fine Phil! You know me, always finding something new to freak out about!" Ghostbur let his legs hover above the ground, the tension in his legs from forcing then to stay put against the wood of the dock making him feel a little ill.

"How was your day Phil? You looked really angry earlier! Are you doing alright?"
Phil look a little embarrassed at the mention of his behaviour earlier.

He was never one for violence, at least not like that, and he knew there was a sort of unspoken agreement amongst the people who were there to never talk about it - but Ghostbur was always one to point out the obvious. He had no tact whatsoever, and whether he meant to or not the ghost always managed to get a jab at the things you were most insecure or ashamed of.

And this was coming from Phil, a man who tried his hardest to control himself when his feelings got the best of him, even if his biases often got in the way. Hundreds of years walking the same yet ever changing planet was enough to teach him a lesson or two.

But when he saw Schlatt, knowing full well what he'd done. What he caused and what he would probably do if he got the chance to... it infuriated him.

"Fine... it was fine. Just a little much." Phil chuckled, his hair hanging over his face as he gazed down at the floor, as if he were hiding from something.

"Good! Thats good, yeah..." Phil's wings twitched anxiously. Ghostbur was not making his day any easier, as sweet as he was Phil was just praying he'd go away.

"Phil... can I ask a question?"

Phil wanted to slam his head against a wall right then and there. "Yeah, sure. Ask away mate!" He had to be nice about it. None of this was Ghostbur's fault...

"Uhm... was I a bad dad? Fundy, he... he said I abandoned him..." Ghostbur's voice became shaky, his grey eyes falling to the floor.

He really didn't want Phil to answer honestly. Because he knew the answer was going to be bad.

"You... you were a good dad, Ghostbur. But..." The older looked off to the side. His wings tucked into his back again as he tried to find the nicest possible phrasing.

"For a majority of your life, you were a really, really good dad... but around the end of your life you... you fell of a bit."

"Oh..." Ghostbur didn't really know what else he was expecting. Fundy seemed to really hate him and Phil's answer seemed to match that.

But it still hurt to hear.

HI. HELLO. LOOK ITS DONE !! THAT CHAPTER IS DONE ! THE ENDING IS KIND OF SUDDEN I KNOW BUT HONESTLY I DIDN'T KNOW WHERE ELSE TO END IT SO ,, I HOPE IT'S OKAY! IVE BEEN VERY STRESSED OUT SO IM SORRY IF THIS IS A BIT BAD MSJSK