Chapter Text
“So, the sale will be final…are you sure about this?” The human real estate worker in front of you nervously stated, gripping his clipboard full of boring contract papers, obviously quite perturbed at the monster that stood before him. The quite…unusual monster, which is really saying something.
To put it lightly, you were a skeleton, an obviously deterring detail any human would not fail to miss and mull over. You also stood on the taller side, around 5’8 or so, with long legs that were accentuated with the flare jeans you currently wore, and slightly lanky arms that were currently covered by a quite vintage looking bell sleeved wrap top, funky purple and orange colors and patterns swirling in the fabric.
You tried to ignore the way the man kept glancing at your exposed spine as you instead casually shifted one of your hands into the pockets of your flared jeans as the other twirled the black curls of the wig you currently wore, with a wicked cute bandana tied on top you might add. (The human did make a questioning remark about the correlation of your hair and being a skeleton earlier before coming to the estate, to which you enthusiastically launched into a rant about the wigs you collected and the care you put into them. He wished he never had asked). But, despite everything, it was your status as a monster that made you more intimidating to this human. And you knew that it was.
You are what the respective human and monster governments would call a surface monster. Monsters had only just been released underground from Mt. Ebott a little less than a year ago, And it was only a few months later that surface monsters had made themselves known, small hidden communities of monsters that have stayed out of the prying eyes of humans since the war times came and went and had ultimately avoided getting sealed underground at all. You remembered the stories your mentors would tell of the event, snorting as you remember the choice words they would use. “War pig fascists” was a personal favorite.
You often thought about how the general human public must have gotten a wicked case of double whiplash at the news of two entirely different populations of monsters making themselves known at relatively the same time, especially with one of them being long forgotten figures in history books and the other being the source of several different folklore and mysterious creature sightings (in fact, the cryptid known as bigfoot was a monster in your former enclave, you explained to the real estate human as an attempt at small talk. His name was Dave, he was chill. The human did not seem amused at this information.)
Most humans were still trying to decide which group they feared more. This particular one seemed to opt more towards the cryptid ones.
“Hmmm..” But here you were despite everything, giving the building in front of you a once-over with your faintly glowing yellow eye lights for the final time, as if you haven't toured it at least three times since you saw the listing, scratching the base of your skull. The little cottage wasn't in the best shape. Peeling shingles on the roof matched along nicely with the crumbling exterior of the stone walls, all tied together by the overrun and rampant vines and other various foliage that crept up the sides.
The location wasn't much better, settling just outside the city limits and on the base of the infamous Mt. Ebott mountain, nestled nicely in the dense forest. You, however, found it to be perfect.
“Yeah, ill take it. Where do I sign, man?” You turned to him with your signature crooked smile, taking the pen he offered you between your bony fingers (you take note he took great care not to brush against them) and signed off with your name on the line he refers you to. “Congratulations, Miss Solstice. We’ll stay in touch.”
You wave him off as he climbs into his car, taking off with barely a wave back. Rude. You still however appreciated that he kept some sort of illusion of professionalism with you. Not many humans have been that kind during your house-hunting adventures.
But when he left, you finally took a deep breath in and marveled at the structure in front of you. Your very own house. You let yourself squeal in joy as the emotions you’ve been feeling build up and let themselves out in the form of jumping up and down flapping your arms about.
Calming down just a bit, you pranced into the cottage, starting to mentally take note of all the obvious general repairs and happily humming to yourself. You knew you had your work cut out for you, but that was perfectly fine. You were more than happy to start building your new life here.
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That day almost felt like yesterday, buying a shitty little cottage on a property almost no one else would dare touch. And yet, here you are now! Three years later, you would like to think you’re settling in pretty nicely in the new normal. Milling with both underground monsters and humans alike. In fact, that’s what you were kind of doing right now.
You were kicking ass running a successful herbal remedy and tea shop you had set up in the cottage that you had successfully managed to renovate.
“Hey thanks man, come again! Let me know how that works out for you.” Sending your current customer off with a wink, you close the cash register as a particularly slobbery dog monster walks out of the store with quite a lovely mix of lavender chamomile tea. You hoped it would serve them well.
With a heavy sigh from standing on your feet for far too long, you fall into the plush chair you had set up behind the counter that separated your store's wares from the messy technical work area. It had been a long day, and even with the store about to close you still felt restless.
Of course, you have been very happy with how your life has been turning out. Of course you are! Chewing on the edge of your phalanges, you began to mull that thought over, because truth be told…something was nagging at you.
…you really wanted to meet another skeleton.
Sighing, your skull rests on the counter as you begin to let yourself think about that sinking feeling for what felt like the millionth time. You were just so so sure that there was no way you could be the last of your monster kind. You have always just…felt a bit lonely. Bonely, even. Heh. You still got it.
Grinning at your own joke, you decide that sitting here moping wasn’t gonna end well for you, so you push yourself to stand. “Alright, listen here Solstice” you murmur to yourself, striding up to the door of your home-shop and turning the sign to close. “It is totally fine that there are no skeletons around. You are okay with this. It’s not even a big deal. It is not. A big deal” ….yeah, that didn’t really work.
You have just been thinking about it so much recently. You knew there were other skeletons because your parents were skeletons. .. the keyword is were because they were gone now. You hardly even remembered them, which bothered you even more. It was like you were some shitty main character in a bad fanfiction with all the familial troubles you had.
You just..kinda wanted to feel like you belonged somewhere. But that didn’t even fully make sense to you, you grew up in such a close-knit community that you still considered family today. So maybe it wasn’t the family you were looking for. Maybe it was just..the need to connect with someone like you.
You have seen all kinds of monsters since the underground ones had been freed, but there always seemed to be monsters of the same species. So why no skeletons? It didn’t really make sense to you. You would think they would be rather common.
Humming in thought, you simply just started to take inventory for the day and start prepping for the farmers market that would be happening in the morning, deciding you could be doing and thinking about literally anything else.
The farmers market was something you always looked forward to, it happened every other weekend and you had been participating with a booth for nearly two years now. Your teas were a big hit, and you had a lot of vendor friends you always looked forward to seeing.
So, ignoring your silly skeletal dilemmas, you collect a few boxes from behind the counter and start stocking up on jars upon jars of dried teas and herbs (remembering to pack a few extra rose vanilla mixes that some of your booth regulars would snatch up rather quickly). Lifting the box with a huff, you manage to slide it onto the counter with little to no problem. Oh yeah, if you had flesh you were sure you’d be ripped.
After packing a few more boxes of wares, you glanced at the very silly cuckoo clock on the wall that you found just so charming and saw that it read 9:47. Yep, it was bedtime. Your shop closed at 9:00, so you silently patted yourself on the back for how fast you did your farmers market prep (although there was probably more you could be doing, but you were bone tired. Hehe, never gets old).
You move behind the counter to a tucked away staircase hidden from casual view behind a wall and trudged up the steps, yawning as you stretched your arms out with a satisfying pop following the action.
The top floor was a single room, bathroom included, that also consisted of your lovely bed that happened to be all that was on your mind at the moment.
Sitting on the edge, you begin the process of wrapping your skull, much too the delight of your precious wig you’re sure, doing it in a haphazard fashion as getting some shut eye (socket?) was the only thing on your mind currently.
All finished with your usual care routine, you make the move to fall into bed, yawning as you carefully lay your skull on your pillow and snuggle up in your, probably way too many, blankets. You were a sleepy gal with a lot on her mind and a semi-big event tomorrow. You hoped it would be a good day.