old man eating burger
if tumblr shuts down you can find me on tumblr. ill still be here. they cant make me leave
oh ok
“Why would you stop in hell?” has changed my brain chemistry
We never really talked about it but The Ugly Ducking that grew up to be a beautiful swan was still probably pretty fugly from a duck’s perspective
Like that story isn’t about an ugly duckling that grew up sexy, it’s a fucking swan was judged as a duck and hated itself as a duck until it found out it wasn’t a duck and stopped trying to be a duck.
The actual ducks in the neighborhood were probably still looking around at perfectly normal swans like “damn, look at those busted ass ducks”
tried writing about it last night but gave up halfway through cause I forgot why I was doing it but I realized I wanna do it just to talk about B&G. anyway remember the photo of undyne in the track & field team kris stole + these drawings
each main B&G character has a ''song'' that's meant to exemplify their 'pivotal moment' --- a sort of experience either in the past, present, or future that arcs their whole story and is meant to be important to what their plot means. Anyway
Undyne's main song is ''Middle Distance Runner'' by Sea Wolf, and it's meant to represent both her experience in highschool (what is ultimately the vital part of her past that will get worked out in the fic proper) and also her friendship with MTT
undyne in B&G since she was a young lass always enjoyed running/working out and her family saw a future in her as an athlete, even olympic, and track was always what took Undyne's mind off of things and what she considered was her best skill. She struggled making friends with other kids because she was often rough with them and her high-octane personality ostracized her from other girls, and running was the only thing that felt like it blew off the energy she had boiling inside of her.
in highschool she joined the girl's Track & Field extracurricular because it would look good on college applications and of course the runner would want to run in the running sport. Undyne sort of revolves herself around Track because shes not very good at other aspects of school and, again, bad at making friends due to her rough personality. Lemon comes to live with her around freshman year this time alongside Shyren as Shyren has just recently been kicked out of the house by her mother (Undyne's aunt) and Lemon came with because wherever her sister goes she goes, and Undyne is excited to have her around especially since she's a year ahead in grade and so they'll be going to school together.
The only friend Undyne has besides her cousin is ofc her neighbor MTT who she's been friends with since they were little and MTT's family moved in next door. MTT made good friends with Lemon when she started living in the area and formed like a psuedo-crush thing but it's a bit of a point of contention in his past because Lemon was an out lesbian and MTT was having the ~gender stuff around HS so he didn't know what to make of liking Lemon while also being unsure if he's a girl at all. Anyway
Anyway MTT is forced to join Track because his family (mother in specific dont ask shit about her) is worried he's going to become a 'deliquent' with the behaviors hes been exhibiting entering HS (mostly about ditching classes and focusing a lot on his physical appearance and hanging around certain people) but most of this behavior is again related to his upcoming gender stuff. but they think that making him take Track will get him involved in a better crowd and that it'll work out his 'growing pains'. Lemon hangs out with undyne (and MTT) after school watching them practice and this helps Lemon and MTT get close since she's siding sideline and MTT feels sidelined by his group while Undyne is actually focusing on her form and practice.
For reasons related to the main plot of the fic we are Not going into the highschool years outside of the track stuff much but anyway: they really do hit it off because Lemon finds MTT interesting and Undyne isnt... jealous per-say? but it's stuff about how MTT starts hanging around Lemon more than her despite them having been this close 🤞 since they were kids but again MTT's gender stuff, some at-home conflict brewing, and both of them growing up is starting to form a rift and MTT having a crush on Lemon is especially not helping. but Undyne lets it slide cause it's not like she can Hog MTT or anything.
The pivotal moment for Undyne though is around. ~Junior year? Their Track & Field team hosts their junior T&F event where the competing schools from different districts all come to participate in an Olympics-style competition, which Undyne has basically been training for because she sees this as her chance to show herself and her skills and all she's worked for. Her and MTT are matched up in a middle-distance event and MTT tries ro get out of it because he literally doesn't want to do T&F and was just there because he was forced to but their teacher doesn't allow him to swap out because they want MTT to actually try for once.
They end up doing the middle-distance, and of course Undyne is neck-to-neck with another kid but she's positive she can make a final break for it and get first, especially since her family was there to watch her and she sort of wanted to prove herself to them though not in a sort of family-neglect way, but in that Undyne knew her failings and so wanted to feel pride in something for once --- meanwhile nobody from MTT's family showed up besides his agoraphobic cousin Napsta, but Lemon told him beforehand she came to cheer him on in specific.
He keeps a moderate pace but is obviouslty going to be dead-last, but his teacher keeps yelling at him to ''try'' for once, and he wants to because he wants to hear the crowd cheer for him and to be a star, but his body is holding him back and he doesn't want to be seen in /this/ body, he sees it like a faulty machine that's giving out on him and breaking down and he doesn't want to be memorialized when hes like this, and thats when he starts to realize something is wrong and that he feels too hot and cant catch his breath and is struggling to keep upright.
Undyne notices that MTT is really starting to struggle across the track and she wants to keep going and she knows she can make it and her team is cheering her on and everything, but she's also studied a lot about athletic-related illnesses and injuries in her spare time because she wondered about the human body and its limit and in it wanted to learn about the things that can hold you back (this comes back around to why she's a physical therapist as a career), and she realizes that MTT is most likely suffering heat stroke due to over-exerting himself in the spring weather, and like --- she knows she can make it to the finish line and come back around to MTT, but something compells her to hard-turn and cut across the field, to her teammates HORROR, and get to MTT just as he nearly collapses onto the hot track asphalt. Undyne doesn't remember who won the race, only remembers her teamates yelling at her as she yelled for their teacher to get a nurse, and remembers looking at MTT crumpled up on the ground of the track and feeling powerless to stop whats happening to her friend.
The teacher doesnt want this to be a scene though Lemon and Shyren do come running onto the track to see whats happened, and the three are sent away as the nurse takes MTT away, and Undyne returns to her teammates not caring about MTT's sudden collapse and just getting on her for ''whiffing'' the event, and how she shouldve never ran and thst
MTT makes a decently-full recovery but is bedridden for a week or two, while Undyne ends off the T&F event in third overall for events, having done alright at other events but the throw of the middle-distance hanging over her. She goes and sees MTT with Lemon and Shyren, and Undyne sort of blames all of this on him but doesnt say it, and is surprised when MTT gives her a little slip of paper that is the one hanging framed in her house to this day
thats it by [throws confetti]
evolution dysphoria
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