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Scott didn’t plan on regressing today, it just kind of happened.
He was trying to clean his display room in the mansion when he just kept getting distracted. Everything was so shiny and pretty and it was getting harder to focus and he just wanted to let himself slip, so that’s what he did.
Scott let his brain slip into the familiar feeling of warmth and comfort.
He was currently holding the tag hat from off the shelf, so naturally the only course of action was to put it on his head.
Scott giggled as the bells on the ends of the jester hat jingled when he moved. When he realized it was the hat making the noise he started violently shaking his head to the point where he made himself dizzy.
A goofy smile was stretched across his face, overjoyed with the simple sounds of the jingle bells on the tag hat.
Scott decided that he’d had enough of the room, so he grabbed his stuffed cat Elle from the special shelf where he kept her, and clumsily wandered around his house.
Scott’s eyes lit up when he stumbled across an unfinished room that he had been keeping as storage.
There was nothing particularly special about the room, but just the sight of it sparked his mind with creativity.
He saw the way the sunlight hit the dusty floors, the colorful dust that lay everywhere in Chromia due to its mass dye production. The dust swirled and twirled in such beautiful ways that his fog filled brain decided they were going to recreate the masterpiece that was the dust on the floor.
But he wasn’t just going to recreate the design on a piece of paper, no no no. He was going to paint the entire wall.
He set Elle down and searched through the chests that sat near the wall, searching for dye that he could use to paint the plain wall which was destined to become a mural.
“Yes!” Scott exclaimed happily when he found a shulker box full of every type of dye that Chromia produced.
Scott had just started taking the dyes out of the shulker box when he heard a knock at his front door.
Prioritizing his soon to be mural, Scott ignored the knock at the front door.
It wasn’t long before Sausage and Hermes burst through the door looking for Scott.
“Scott!” Sausage said when he saw him on the floor. “Hermes and I have been looking everywhere for ya and we just couldn’t find you!”
Hermes nodded along with what his dad was saying.
“Oh,” Scott said in a distracted daze. Scott has a condition called synesthesia, which in his case means that he can taste and see people’s voices. It just so happens that when someone in a child’s headspace has pretty colors swirling in front of their eyes and is tasting wonderful flavors it becomes a little hard to focus. Maybe a bit more than a little.
“Anyways, wanna come bug Jimmy with us? It’s gonna be really fun!” Sausage said excitedly. Hermes was currently standing next to him, bouncing up and down with excitement.
“No, I’m gonna pain’ a pretty picture on tha wall!” Scott said. This was what it took for Sausage to notice something was off; not just because Scott would never turn down an opportunity to go and annoy the sheriff, but also the way he was acting in general was not his usual self.
“You okay Scott? You’re acting kinda odd.” Sausage asked, not wanting to be pushy but also not wanting his friend to be going through something alone.
“Mhm! I was cleanin’ den I started gettin’ distracted and went little. ‘M okay tho! No worry.” Scott said, trying to prevent his friend from being worried about him.
It all clicked in Sausage’s head. Of course Scott was little, it explained so much! Why else would he be sitting cross legged on the floor wearing the tag hat while lining up different dyes on the floor. His speech was also slurred and it was far too early in the day to be drunk enough for that.
Sausage let out a small oh before sitting across to him, with Hermes following his lead.
“Do you want help with your mural Scott? Hermes and I can help you if you want.”
Hermes nodded excitedly as he signed the words I love art in ASL. Hermes was mute, so he used sign language to communicate with everyone.
After a second Scott nodded. It was taking a moment longer than it normally would for Scott to process everything due to the colors dancing around his vision.
“Buddy, can I get an age check before we start painting?” Sausage asked Scott.
“Hmm,” Scott hummed, tapping his chin. “Three I think.”
“Alright!” Sausage said. “What are we painting today?”
Scott was staring into space with a slight smile on his face when Sausage realized he probably got distracted. While Scott was big he would occasionally get distracted when people talked, due to the sensations he felt every time he heard voices. When Scott was small, Sausage saw how often Scott got distracted by his synesthesia, hardly able to stay on task while others spoke.
“Scott?” Sausage asked gently. “Did you hear me?”
“Oh. Oops. Wha' did ya say?”
“What are we painting?”
“I dunno yet! I kinda jus’ was gonna put bunch of swirlys on tha wall!”
“Sounds pretty!” Sausage glanced at the dozen or so colors laid out across the floor in front of Scott. “What colors are we gonna use, bud?”
Scott grinned from ear to ear. “All of dem!”
“All of them? That's a lot of colors!”
“Mhm! ‘S gonna be like a rainbow!” Scott said enthusiastically.
Hermes signed pretty colors in sign language.
Sausage smiled as he looked fondly at his son and his friend.
“Ready to start then?” Sausage said.
“Yeah!” Scott immediately stood up and picked up some purple dye.
Sausage got some orange dye and Hermes reached for some lime dye.
The three of them were hard at work for a solid few hours before they had covered the entire wall in giant swirls, not empty space on the wall anymore. The swirls ran along the wall and blended together when they made contact. Every color was still incredibly vibrant even when they dried.
Even though this mural may not be the best, it was made by two children and an adult who wasn’t exactly the best artist, it still held a happy feeling anytime you looked at it. The type of happy feeling that can only be achieved when something is made by people who care. The type of feeling that you won’t find in stores. The type of feeling that makes you smile from ear to ear. That feeling.