#but Chara was lucky to meet Asriel first

[seirindono]

What would be Chara’s part to play in this AU. I know that they are probably human like Frisk or a ghost, but if they were human, would it really be that easy to get adopted by the Dreemurs? You said that Frisk was killed many times by Papyrus, so what did Chara do to not get killed? (That is, if Chara was adopted at all)

How did Chara survive? A fortunate turn of events, I'd say. But it's really largely thanks to Asriel and Toriel, respectively lesser Lord of Wrath and Lord of Envy at that time. Officially, Chara was a Human child full of wrath and resentment when they arrived in the Undergroud, and thus the perfect candidate to familiarize Asriel with his future role. Unofficially however, the two children got along very well right away and their friendship was backed up by Toriel who always had a great interest in Humans, and a great deal of fondness for her son and children. Asgore had no choice but to make an exception, but with a few conditions.

Chara was always to stay with one of them or their entourage and was not to interfere with their work. If they broke any of these rules, they would be sent home or executed.

This was a long time ago, before Gaster and Mel were banished, but they all disappeared around the same time. I'll save that story for another ask or post though! If you want more details about them!

[amethystoceandespiser]

*When Papyrus brings Frisk to his house and begins cooking pasta for Frisk (his skills have improved, thanks to Toriel)...

(Sans sits next to Frisk.)

Sans: Pal, you're lucky that Papyrus found you first, because if I found you first... You'd be dead where you stand.

(Frisk instantly runs to Papyrus.)

Papyrus: SANS!

Sans: I was joking!

Papyrus: I don't care! You shouldn't say such a cruel thing to an innocent child… even if it was a ‘joke’.

(Papyrus then brings Frisk to the kitchen, to comfort them and so they could help him make the dessert.)

(Papyrus lets Frisk sleep in his race-car bed (he’d sleep in a sleeping bag, next to Frisk), then Papyrus asks Sans to meet him in the shed, for a serious grown-up talk.)

Papyrus: Sans, I KNOW that your cruel joke wasn’t actually a joke. I might be childish sometimes, but I'm not stupid. I'm disappointed in you, brother.

Sans: ...The Kingdom needs one final soul and I would’ve made the human's death as quick as possible.

(This angers and horrifies Papyrus.)

Papyrus: Even if it would give everyone freedom, it isn’t fair that the Kingdom wants to kill and harvest the soul of an innocent child, simply because Frisk is a different species!... You know, the barrier needs human souls in order to break, but it doesn't say that the human souls have to be dead! We can easily make Frisk's soul appear, without hurting him!

Sans: Bro... Remember that humanity is the reason that we're sealed our Kingdom inside this mountain... and the reason why King Asgore's son is dead.

Papyrus: Yes, but my friend Tori told me that the first war started because a monster absorbed a human’s soul and humanity was afraid… If humanity was truly evil, the human kingdom would’ve destroyed us all, instead letting us all live down here... Sure, we're trapped, but we're still alive!

Papyrus: And that human village only destroyed Asriel, because they believed that Asriel had killed Chara… all of humanity’s actions against monsters were self-defensive… it doesn’t make their extreme actions right or okay, but I get why they did what they did!

(Papyrus got louder!)

Papyrus: EVEN IF THE HUMANS THAT SEALED US AWAY AND THE HUMANS THAT KILLED ASRIEL WERE EVIL, THAT DOESN’T MEAN ALL HUMANS ARE EVIL! WHY SHOULD HUMANITY GO EXTINCT OVER WHAT A FEW GROUPS OF THEM HAVE DONE? DOESN’T THAT MAKE US JUST AS TERRIBLE AS THE ONES THAT HURT US?… Our species is supposed to be made of love, compassion and hope… And creating another war doesn’t sound very loving and compassionate, brother…”

Sans: ... I honestly don’t want another war with humanity either bro, but the war is King Asgore’s decision… And sometimes in war, you have to pick sides… And I choose the side of my own species.

Papyrus: Wait a minute, the new war technically won't happen until the barrier is broken... And the barrier needs seven human souls, but it doesn’t need them to be dead souls... If I can convince Asgore to stop the war and to stop killing humans... Then I can use Frisk’s still living soul to break the barrier and free everyone!

Sans: Papyrus, that plan won't work... call Undyne to ‘take care’ of Frisk instead... Because I’m gonna be completely honest with you… If you try to do this plan and keep protecting Frisk, the Kingdom will see you as a traitor and a criminal… Everyone will become your enemy and I won’t be able to help you.”

Papyrus: IT’S NOT LIKE YOU EVER HELPED ME BEFORE, SANS!… Brother, please understand… I promised Tori, my best friend from the Ruins Door, that I will watch over and protect Frisk no matter what… She really cares about Frisk, and I don’t want to let her or Frisk down… BESIDES, FRISK AND HUMANITY DESERVES TO BE HAPPY, ALIVE AND FREE JUST AS MUCH AS WE DO!

(Papyrus is about to leave the shed.)

Papyrus: OH, AND SANS? ONE LAST THING… If you tell Undyne and the Royal Guard about Frisk, or become the reason that Frisk dies… I will never forgive you.

(Papyrus slams the shed’s door on a shocked Sans, and Papyrus proceeds to silently watch Frisk sleep in his race-car bed, before entering his sleeping bag.)

(Sans honestly doesn’t know what to do…)

Sans: ... Who is Tori?🚪

Holy... shit... this is some really good drama

[humanchara-cter]

Mandatory intro post

My memories will be below the cut if anyone remembers something similar or the same I’d love to talk

My name is Chara, but I go by Gold when in public servers and when talking with/around other Charas as it feels selfish to keep the name lmao.

I’ve been told I’m not very talkative and a little dry until we get into a conversation and I’m really bad at starting those I’m sorry

Anti endos can fuck right off <3 :) we’re traumagenic but we don’t see how telling people how to live their life and obsessing over that is at all healthy.

Also if you use anything other than they/them for me or Frisk fuck off (Fictives if you use something else your fine but singlets and people who arent undertale Fictives of chara or frisk I’m going to bite you.

Also a fair warning is that I had (have? I dunno) a huge crush on Frisk, I look up to them a lot. I might rb charisk art lmao

Also I am now 19, and the body is an adult. Okay now onto memories; tw for suicidal behavior in my past and death obv lmao

But so like, I was a part of a small farming village, heavily religious, all that jazz. It was like a fucking cult it was horrible. Not to mention my parents just Sucked majorly. The only thing I really liked there was this fountain that was in the middle of the town, it had these flowers around it, buttercups, they’ve always been my favorite. Very painful to ingest so don’t try that.

But at the flowers I met this other kid who didn’t seem to believe in the bullshit the other villagers were on either, and we became friends. But then she disappeared, I have no idea what happened to her no one would tell me shit.

I was also born with red eyes, which came out of fucking no where, neither of my parents had them and everyone thought I was cursed or some sort of test from whatever the fuck they worshiped. I have no idea I was like eight okay?

But I got bullied, a lot because of it. And eventually I went to the mountain that was filled with “freaks” (monsters) because if I didn’t die from jumping then at least I’d get to meet other beings who were outcasted by society. Lucky me I got taken in as Asriels little sibling, which was probably one of the only things that saved me.

People think I was shitty to him?? For some reason?? Like damn he’s the second being to show me kindness and be accepting of the person I was? I wasn’t going to make him sad or upset if there was another way.

But then I heard about how my adoptive family and all the other monsters wanted to get back to the surface and to live in peace, and I didn’t believe it was gonna work, but I didn’t wanna leave them without happiness. And so I tried to get enough souls to break the barrier, and asriel helped. I wasn’t even gonna involve him but he wanted to help.

Yeah it didn’t work out as planned, I got burried where asriel first found me (it was where we hung out the most) and I was pretty much a ghost hanging around and following any humans who fell below, and had to watch my family get torn apart and everything change. And then Frisk happened… and Frisk fixed everything, even if it wasn’t the same they succeeded where I failed. And I helped them because they’d talk to me, and then they gave me half their soul after working out the ideas of how to give me a body to inhabit and a way to stay on the physical plane with alphys behind everyone’s back so it could be a surprise for them, and we also got asriel as well,even if he did struggle with sorting out how he wanted to approach everything as both asriel and flowey. It was nice, and I know it’s weird but I had such a huge crush on Frisk because they were everything I wasn’t and they were so confident when talking to others when ID have panic attacks about even going outside hfjdjd

Though outside of political meetings Frisk often wouldn’t talk to anyone but their close ones (mostly me and Asriel) and we’d translate for them.

I always get angry with how people call me evil or a bad person because, I was just a child! It’s all because asriel says “chara… wasn’t the greatest person” Which like, yeah I fucked up a lot, I was clingy to Asriel and he got almost no alone time because he was my “safe person” and I was mentally I’ll and traumatized and often flipped on a switch on him, but he also loved me as a sibling, I wasn’t the greatest person and I’m still not, but I’m an okay person, and I’m trying my best. And I know Asriel didn’t mean it like that.

[justanechoflower]

Roleplay Continues

Marilyn then thought about some things after Papyrus had said he wanted to meet her friends. "Sorry Papyrus, but my friends are just alternate versions of yours. Almost completely identical with little variations. Such as my Frisk is mute and uses sign language to talk. Chara's alive - thanks to a certain someone *wink wink* - but not emo like all those other AUs." She visibly cringed at the thought. "Asriel's here with me but... he's still unstable. When he's too angry or deals with negative feelings.. he turns back to being Flowey again. Not that I don't like it or anything!" She waved her hands in defense, not wanting to seem hateful of Flowey. "...He gets back to normal after a while." She continued with her explanation. "The others are just... themselves. That's just it, Papy." She then ended. 

"Wait!" She raised her pointer finger up to show she wasn't finished. "Papy, you're the Ambassador and Frisk is your assistant, by the way." The clip then closed. 

P.S.: Used submission because ask had a word limit. ^^

I like to think that Marilyn uses videos as asks rather than text.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Flowey uses a vine to hold their own camera up from a distance to give a video back because I agree it's a lot better. Feels more real!*

Flowey: *chuckle* No offense taken, for me the disgust is the other way around. It's only fair.

Papyrus: WHAT AN IMPORTANT ROLE I HAVE! NYEHEHEH, I KNEW I WOULD BECOME FAMOUS ONE DAY. REGARDLESS IF YOUR FRIENDS ARE CLONES, THAT JUST MEANS WE'D GET ALONG ALL THE MERRIER!

Chara: *mutter mutter grumble* Lucky for you, but am I really all that "emo?"

Flowey: I dunno, I'd think its the opposite since we're so smiley all the time. Maybe our smiles come off as fake because of that?

Chara: Perhaps. The difference with you is you get riled up a lot easier, you baby. *consistent poking*

Flowey: Shut up! *slaps hand out of the way*

Chara: *grin* See, point made! I would not be surprised if Asriel switched often. He trends to be very emotional. Anyway, not only that about me, but people make me so evil and murderous because that one time in a-

*Flowey drags Papyrus a distance away, and sparks a new conversation to distract and block out the noise of the other one.*

Chara: -murder run where I played the hero, ridded Frisk, and erased their miserable nothingness. I only do things when necessary, and I am not a maniac.

Frisk: *You sigh. It was one of your first runs, but you decided never to do that again. That was.... Not great. You initially were stared of monsters because what they teach on the surface, so you played "hero" and got carried away. A lot.*

(I started something but I keep procrastinating because I'd have to make quite a few panels for what I want so I hope you don't mind text? Sorry, this is very very late. Also since Papyrus and everyone else is gone now as per canon to the blog, I'm gonna make it a reblog rp of you're okay with that?)

[noaltbruh]

BUCCI GANG AND HOW THEY WOULD PLAY UNDERTALE

Since I got my friend into the UT fandom, and the brainrot for this game is slowly coming back, I've figured that I'd fuse my favourite franchises and make this post, enjoy!

GIORNO:

-This may surprise you, but Giorno would almost do a Blind Pacifist run

-While at first, he was planning on taking out whoever got in his way, he changed his mind in the moment he saw Toriel

-After she taught him how to resolve the various conflicts peacefully, he decided not to fight, but to show MERCY to every monster

-He finds the multiplicity of choices a very interesting mechanism, especially since he's not much of a gamer, and he's pleasantly surprised to see such an innovative game

-While most of the times he would completely avoid the FIGHT button, if a monster got on his nerves a little too much, he may attack it until it doesn't want to fight anymore

-He takes the time to interact with everything and everyone, he wants to enjoy the game at its fullest

-He was so freaking lucky to meet Gaster on his first run

-Actually brought the piece of snowman with him

-He's part of the "Chara defense squad", and finds them strangely...relatable

-He was just about to do a full Pacifist route, but he couldn't bring himself to SPARE Flowey, and killed him

-"I won't let you hurt her"

-Ultimately, he regretted it, and reset his save file

-After doing a TRUE Pacifist, he left the game, leaving the monsters alone and giving them an happy ending

-Only knows about the Genocide through gameplays

-Favourite character: Toriel, but also likes Chara quite a lot

-Favourite OST: Memories, followed by home, Undertale, Megalo strikes back and Star (he doesn't care if they actually don't play in the game)

-What SOUL would he have: DETERMINATION

BRUNO:

-My man wouldn't hurt a fly if he had the chance to, off to the Pacifist route he goes

-Similar to Giorno, he finds Toriel a very comforting character, but he feels bad for pretty much every monster he meets. He thinks it's unfair for them to be forced to stay in the UNDERGROUND, and wants to find a way to destroy the barrier at any cost

-He's never played a videogame before, but he gets the hand of it quite quickly, even though he still ends up dying a couple of times.

-He would also be the kind of player to interact with EVERYTHING, paying close attention to whatever the passing monster has to say

-Sometimes, he likes to take a break, lay down and listen to the OST of the place he's exploring

-The most challenging enemies for him were Undyne and Asgore. It took him a while to realize that the only way to spare her was to run away, and he just really didn't want to hurt Goat papa

-He lets the bird carrying him to the other side, even if he doesn't actually need to move around. He just wants the little guy to feel appreciated

-Veeeery reluctantly, he decided to SPARE Flowey, it would have been a waste to kill somebody now, after everything that he had done so far

-He almost cried at the Pacifist ending

-He refuses to even acknowledge what happened in the Genocide route

-Favourite characters: Toriel and Asgore

-Favourite OST: Fallen down, but he also likes Heartache, Home and Waterfall

-What SOUL would he have: KINDNESS

MISTA:

-Mista's first run would be a Neutral. It's not that he enjoys killing the monsters, he's mostly just too lazy to think of a way to spare them

-If it's obvious, however, he'll just casually show the enemy MERCY, there's no need to take out absolutely everyone

-The only one who he genuinely looked for a way to spare was Papyrus. Honestly, he couldn't bring himself to just hurt him 'cause he had the chance to. Besides...He was afraid of what Sans would have done

-Speaking of him, he finds his jokes HILARIOUS, and he will use them in real life conversations if he gets the chance to

-He basically wasted all his money fighting Undyne

-He didn't buy the spider donut in the RUINS, and was forced to farm gold for 3 entire freaking days and buy one directly from Muffet

-After finishing the neutral route, he decided to go back and try the others. His next route was a Genocide

-He was about to shoot his computer AND himself while fighting Sans, but he eventually managed to beat him. Of course, after swearing at 3 A. M., drinking 10 cans of Sprite, listening to Megalovania on loop and threatening to throw Narancia out of the window because he interrupted him while he was playing

-His favourite moment during the Pacifist was cooking with Undyne

-He immediately questioned his life choices when he finished the route and saw Chara taking over Frisk's body. Closed the game and never opened it again

-Favourite characters: Papyrus, Sans and Undyne. He refuses to choose an absolute favorite

-Favourite OSTs: Megalovania and Song that might play when you fight Sans. He also likes Bonetroulse and Spear of justice

-What SOUL would he have: BRAVERY

NARANCIA:

-Narancia playing this game would be a total mess. Ironic, considering he's the one in the gang that likes video games the most

-Despite Toriel's guidance, at first, he would FIGHT every monster that got in his way, following the simple "It's an rpg, the more I kill, the better it is" logic

-When he saw the "but nobody came" screen, however, he freaked the hell out and immediately reset

-After that mini heart attack, he went on a full Pacifist route. However, sometimes, he would snap and accidentally kill a monster. He lost count of how many times he had to reload the file

-He also really likes Toriel (she's just very popular among the Bucci gang). The reason for it...Is not a very happy one, like in Giorno's case

-He genuinely tried to stay with her, he didn't want to leave Goat mom

-He's the one who gets emotionally invested in the game the most, he even forgets it's a game at times and just erase the surrounding world from his head

-He LOVES to voice the characters while he plays, it makes the story feel way more alive for him. He makes a very good Papyrus impression

-Speaking of which, his favourite parts of the game were the interactions between Sans and Papyrus.

-He lost his s**t when he arrived at the Temmie village. He stayed there FOR HOURS farming money. Heck, he even bought the Temmie armor

-He refused to open the game for two days after Flowey stole the SOULS

-He wanted to ask someone to play the TRUE lab with him, but he refused to admit that he was scared

-While he's not the kind of player who stops by to read every dialogue, he makes an exception for Snowdin. He really likes that area of the game!

-While he would never admit it, he cried three times during the Pacifist route. The first time when he left Toriel, the second when he heard Chara and Asriel's story, and the third when he finished it

-His favourite fight in the game is the one against Asriel. He kept on repeating the "Don't you have anything better to do" dialogue for 20 minutes, before giving up to the idea that there was really no way to save him

-After giving the monster an happy ending, he was overwhelmed by his own curiosity, and decided to try the Genocide route...Boy did it go wrong

-You thought he cried a lot during the Pacifist? He became a freaking fountain during the Genocide. Every single time he killed a Boss, he cried, with no exception

-He spent days trying to defeat Sans, until he was given the option to SPARE him, and so he did

-...The others could hear him yelling from the other floor after what happened next

-He got tired of Sans' bulls**ts, reset and did a Pacifist again

-He watched a gameplay to know what happened in the Genocide ending. Chara's jumpscare still haunts him

-Narancia gets really involved in the stuff made by the fandom, especially fan made songs and comics

-He listens to "To the bone" religiously, it's part of his routine

-He tried and failed to figure out how AUs work

-Favourite character: Papyrus, followed by Toriel and Asriel. He used to like Sans a lot too...But now he gets Vietnam flashbacks every time he thinks about him

-Favourite OSTs: Bonetroulse, Hopes and dreams and Snowdin. He can't choose between them

-What SOUL would he have: INTEGRITY

FUGO:

-Fugo would categorically refuse to reset on his first run. What it's done, it's done, and he has to take responsibilities for his choices

-He would do a Neutral, killing whoever he encounters, but without specifically looking for the monsters just so that he can kill them

-That doesn't mean, however, that he dislikes to play with the timeline. It's quite the opposite, to be honest

-Fugo enjoys messing around with the save files A LITTLE too much, dude basically became an hacker playing this game

-In his attempt to make a Pacifist run, he fu**ed up and accidentally got the Hacker ending

-"...THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT WHEN I SAID I WANTED EVERY ENDING"

-He toned it down a little after that, but he still managed to modify the FUN value enough to meet Gaster and his followers

-He's also the only one who unlocked Sans' room. He doesn't trust him, but he finds him an interesting character

-Neither the Pacifist or Genocide endings particularly picked his interest, even though he did punch the walls a couple of times fighting Sans

-He likes to try the different Neutral endings, he doesn't do all of them, just the ones he thinks that would affect the monsters the most

-The only character he got attached to emotionally was Alphys, he can see himself a lot in her

-He's very interested in the various theories that surround this game, and he's waiting for Deltarune to come out, he just wants to know more about Gaster

-Favourite character: Alphys, but Gaster is a close second

-Favourite OST: Darker, darker, yet darker, followed by Here we are, Waterfall and Premonition

What SOUL would he have: faded BRAVERY

ABBACCHIO:

-MERCY? Is that a food? Yeah uhm...No, that doesn't exist with Abbacchio, nothing but Genocide for him

-It's already a surprise someone convinced him to play this game. He'll play in his own way, and that means killing literally everyone, not simply the ones he encounters, but even looking for them just to earn more Exp

-He was...Weirdly satisfied when he saw the "But nobody came" screen, and he was lucky enough to find every monster almost immediately

-He hadn't found a single character that he liked until he reached Undyne. Her sense of justice reminded him of his old self, which wasn't exactly pleasant at first, but at least he felt something

-He was finally happy to see a monster actually trying to stop what he was doing, and killing her was the only thing in the game that made him slightly sad

-He's still offended for not having the chance to kill monster kid, he couldn't stand that child

-He skipped through pretty much every dialogue in the game, not that there are many people to interact with during the Genocide...

-He'd eat a piece of the snowman right in front of him just to spite him, then take the rest and leave

-He didn't care about whatever Flowey was trying to tell him about his past. That's also because without knowing he's Asriel, most of what he says doesn't really make sense

-In the moment Sans dodged his attack, he realized that he had screwed up REALLY bad. After dying against him a couple of times, he considered resetting, but he wouldn't have let "the lazy skelefu**" have it his way

-He let out a huge "YES" and a sigh of relief when he finally managed to hit him, it took him around a week

-However, little did he know, that the worst still had to come. When he noticed that he wasn't the one who had just killed Asgore and Flowey, he freaked out a little, and Chara staring directly at him made him feel a small shiver down his spine

-Still, he decided to decline their offer to destroy everything, not because he regretted what he had done, he just wanted his revenge on the child for scaring him

-He closed the game after the jumpscare, and never questioned what the hell he had been through

-Favourite character: Undyne

-Favourite OSTs: But nobody came and Battle against a true hero, he also likes The fallen child

-What SOUL would he have: very very faded JUSTICE

TRISH:

-Trish got into this game just because of its music, she kept on hearing it everywhere and wanted to understand where it came from

-She was kinda scared at first, videogames aren't exactly her forte, and her encounter with Flowey didn't help

-She slowly got used to the dynamics of the game, even though she died at least three times in every area, exept for the RUINS. (She only got a game over two times there)

-She doesn't have the heart to hurt anybody, she thinks the monsters (well...Most of them, at least) are adorable! Shyren is her favourite minor enemy, and when she saw the "Taking piano lessons again" text, her heart melted a little

-She refused to take off the faded ribbon until she found she tutu, but she never sold either of them

-She loves flirting with literally ANYONE. You can? Well then...You must!

-Her favourite area is Hotland, including the Core too. She loves the whole "artificial" theme of the place, and she had a lot of fun reading Alphys's posts!

-She would pretend to be an actual part of Mettaton's programmes, but only when she was 100% sure nobody could hear her

-Needless to say, the boss fight against him was one of the funniest parts of the story for her

-Another thing she absolutely adored were the dates with Papyrus and Alphys, especially the latter. After everything that had happened, it was a nice opportunity to relax for a bit

-Similar to Narancia, Trish gets really involved emotionally in playing the game, and she had to take a little break from it before facing Asgore

-The ending genuinely made her cry, but it was the only time she shed a tear through it

-She doesn't care about trying the Genocide, she's worked hard to give the monsters an happy ending, and she wasn't going to throw it away

-She's in love with the Undertale Musical by Man on the Internet, she knows pretty much every song by memory

-Favourite character: Mettaton, but she honestly really likes all of them

-Favourite OST: Death by glamour, followed by Metal crusher, Power of NEO, and Another medium

-What SOUL would she have: INTEGRITY

Yes, I know that Narancia's part is longer, but it's just so funny to write about this baby, bear with me please 😌

[ruinsqueen]

sans is not someone generally regarded as being particularly thoughtful (and he'd readily admit that he understood why others would think that -- mainly because he figures it's true for the most part), but he's still trying. (as it turns out, coming up with presents for individuals aside from his brother tends to be a bit difficult.)

which brings him to the here-and-now, a present -- about the size and shape of a decently-sized picture frame, hidden only by snowflake-patterned paper and a shimmering white bow -- held with both hands and stared at for a second or two before offered to toriel.

"i, uh.--"

what a brilliant start.

"i'm not.. always so good with this kinda stuff, y'know, but it's--

it's.." cue a quiet sigh. "--a flower. a pressed one, to keep it all safe and lookin' nice for ya, and in a frame too."

this is, of course, where he'd normally attempt to throw in a bit of particularly-witty (in his opinion, at least) humour, but he can't seem to find the will for it in this moment. instead, though he wants to scowl at the sudden onset of uncharacteristic nervousness, he presses on, not entirely able to meet toriel's gaze. (what if she thinks it's silly? or stupid? or--)

" 's not just any flower, though. you remember how i started tryin' to grow some of 'em up here? that's one'a the first ones that ever sprouted for me. i figured it'd be-- y'know, a representation of.. more firsts than just that for me-- for.. us, really."

it's then that he suddenly tugs the hood of his jacket over his head (equal parts bashful and outright nervous), as if to halfheartedly hide his face.

"heheh. sorry, tori. i'm not used to this kinda stuff yet. i'll get better b'fore next year. probably."

toriel has stopped asking for presents on holidays such as gyftmas for a long while now, since her divorce from asgore, since no longer having chara and asriel at her side. it felt a little...pointless to her. she honestly thought she wouldn't be able to celebrate the holidays without feeling some kind of sadness about it--there was happiness too, of course, she loved gyftmas--and she normally celebrated the holidays by herself in the ruins when they came around back in the underground.

things were different now. things were better, so much better than toriel could ever imagine. not only she had family by her side, she had sans. and here he was, spending this holiday with her.

the present he got for her caught her off guard this year. toriel really wasn't expecting anything but to just merely spend time with him, her children and that was more than enough. she could tell how nervous he was, and she was patient as she listened to him speak. his nervousness and bashfulness was infectious however as toriel was feeling a little bashful herself, a blush growing along her expression. she nods, remembering the echo flower he brought to her--and that bouquet one time she suspected was him as well--

"this is--it's--" toriel was struggling with words. she was rather speechless herself, and she blinked away a couple of tears. nevermind those however, they were happy tears. "sans, i love this. thank you. truly. i will keep this safe always." tori says sincerely. she blinks again as sans disappears underneath his hood. she giggles softly. the framed flower tucked away underneath her arm, she leans down and gently tugs on one of the strings of his hood.

"sans? love?" she murmurs.

toriel gets close enough to kiss his cheek and then would rest her forehead against his, smiling for a few moments. "there is no rush, sans. we have all the time to figure and explore this together. i am so lucky to have you by my side. really, thank you."

[randomfandomasks]

General Headcanons Frisk & Chara

First, all frisks and Charas (and Asriels) are all aged up.

Charas are using they/them and she/her pronounces (except Storyshift Chara they are only using they/them pronounce) while Frisks are okay with any pronounces.

Charas are not the “villain”.

Classic Chara and Underfell Chara are the narrators.

All Charas love chocolate, but each one prefers a certain type of Chocolate.

Classic Chara prefers  pure (with nothing in it but Chocolate), normal Chocolate, they do not care how sweet it is. But they hate white Chocolate. They are really picky  with other sweets though.

Underswap Chara prefers white Chocolate although they do  not really have a preference.  She loves Chocolate in any kind of form (chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream etc). 

Underfell Chara really likes bitter Chocolate they do not really like too sweet Chocolate. And they also like hot Chocolate, but without sugar. Chocolate is actually the only sweets that she eats…all other Sweets and Candies are too sweet for her.

Swapfell Chara likes sweet bitter Chocolate, and Chocolate Bars with fillings (nuts, fruits etc). They are picky with their Chocolate bar…it has to have the right amount of sweetness and bitterness. They would probably have one or two favorite Chocolate bars that they like, and they are gonna  be very hesitating with other Chocolate bars.

Storyshift Chara is the definition of a bad Sweet Tooth. They like any kind of Chocolate and Candy. This Chara is basically a walking Candy dispenser they have always any kind of Candy with them. They are unhealthy obsessed with Chocolate. Once they actually mixed every singly type of Chocolate that they had with them together...and they were completely fine.

All Frisks are not picky with their Food at all. Even if some of them are kind of Jerks...but they are definitely not picky.

Classic Frisk: They are very friendly and extroverted although sometimes a bit shy. It’s very easy for them to make friends since they are very kind. They are also very flirty, and they are very good at making people flustered. And they love to give compliments, although they get slightly shy themselves when they receive them. They are good at cooking, baking, solving puzzles and riddles (thanks to Papyrus) and they love adventuring. They are very curious too. Sometimes too curios for their own good. Frisk cherishes and loves all of their friends and their new Family since they do not have their own. Their Hobbies are reading, hanging out with their friends, watching Anime and cooking/baking. There are days when they are feeling guilty over all the Genocide routes, and they sometimes have nightmares. But do not underestimate them and don’t hurt their friends, they have enough determination to kick your butt. Their Favorite Music Genre is probably pop music...I do not think they have one, they like all music genre. Their Hogwarts house would be probably Hufflepuff...I mean they are not reckless or stubborn (enough) to be in Gryffindor. Yes, they are determined and brave but that’s only to protect their friends. They are not very cunning or ambitious either. And a Ravenclaw would (probably) not fall in to the Underground...they won’t even go to Mt.Ebott in the first place. They are dedicated, hardworking and very loyal to their friends. Frisk is  a great friend and they value everyone.

Classic Chara: they look cold outside, but they are actually very sensitive and emotional. A lot of the time they have trouble to express themselves without saying something mean, they really do not mean it that way....they try their best. They love the Monsters with all of their heart and soul, and they hate the humans with passion. Classic Chara doesn’t trust easily. Surprisingly they do love to give compliments they are very shy about it though. Just don’t compliment them back they get very flustered, and usually do not accept it. If they compliment you, you know that this is true since they are very honest, and sometimes blunt. They are good at baking, cooking, gardening and at playing the piano. Chara doesn’t have a lot of friends, but she is actually a very loyal friend, and she cherishes the few friends that they have. They are not really extroverted, but they are not very introverted either...it usually depends on their mood, and who they are talking/hanging out with.  Since they are more Stoic it is usually hard to tell if they like something or not. While they do like Anime they are more of a casual fan. They don’t need to watch every single Anime that’s out there. Their favorite music genre is probably something like ACDC, but, again, they do not really have a preference. (Actually they really do like Lady Gaga and Pink) Their Hogwarts house is Slytherin...they are this type of Slytherin who is usually just minding their business...until you insult or hurt their friends. They won’t hesitate to avada kedavra you into another dimension (or another timeline/universe).

Underswap Frisk: this Frisk loves to mess with people. They could tease and prank everyone all day. Besides that, they are very polite and respectful. They also hate humans just like Classic Chara does, but they are more willing to give them a chance. They trust people way too easily. Just like Classic Frisk they are very flirty, but they do not get flustered as easily. The only reason why the flirt is because they love to mess with people...that’s the only reason actually. Underswap Frisk is way more extroverted and easy to make friends with. Although they are more careful and quieter around Humans. They are good at baking, Gardening and playing the piano. Underswap Frisk actually prefers cartoons to Anime. This does not mean that they do not like Anime they just like funny and more lighthearted cartoons. Their favorite music genre is... well Soundtracks (Disney Soundtracks, Cartoon intros, etc) they are not much of a fan of “normal music” because they think that some songs are way too serious sometimes. Their Hogwarts house would be Gryffindor or Gryffinpuff...they are brave and somewhat reckless. They are just as loud as a Gryffindor is...I think that Underswap Frisk is a very proud person, and they are not afraid to show it. They are basically like Fred & George from Harry Potter. They love to mess and prank people but also always ready to stand up for their friends. 

Underswap Chara: they are very Stoic and way colder than Classic Chara. They do not trust easily, and they are very tensed when Monsters or Humans are friendly to them. Their experience with Humans is...well, not a good one. So, they do not trust Humans at all they would need the longest to learn how to trust others. They are mostly very quiet, but not in a shy way, and more in a “I do not wanna talk to you” way. Underswap Chara can be very sarcastic tough. They are very smart, too. Their hobbies are reading, painting and gardening (although they are not very good at it). They do not like puns and get rather annoyed by them.  On the outside they look always bored and disinterested, but they just have a hard time showing emotions that doesn’t mean they do not have them. They do not watch TV that often mostly because they aren’t used to have one. In general they like Books more, but they also like some video games. They are a very good listener but a not so great talker. Most of the time they do not know what to say which is why they like giving gifts to others. This is their way to show that they care. But they get flustered very easily, ever single time someone is saying something nice to them/or about them, they  blush. They are not used to it a lot of the time people were very mean to them. And if someone gives them a gift they may also start to tear up....if you lucky enough they may also show you a small smile. Their favorite music genre is pop music, and they like more calm music...maybe sometimes a bit of emo music. Their Hogwarts house would be probably Ravenclaw since they are very smart and creative. Also, they are pretty wise...they do not often give advices, they just don’t like given them, but IF they do they always give the best advice. When you look them in the eyes you can see that there is so much wisdom in them...if only they could see it themselves maybe then they wouldn’t be so hard on themselves.

Underfell Frisk: somehow they are even friendlier than Classic Frisk, and also more determined. And that’s probably a good thing. Oh, and they are also very brave...not anyone would give these Monsters so many chances. Who knows how many times Underfell Frisk had to fight each of the Boss Monsters? But they never gave up. Somehow they always see the good side in Humans and in Monsters which is why they are very trusting maybe even naive. They're also very understanding and empathetic. Underfell Frisk does not really flirt...only a few times. They are very oblivious when it comes to flirting...they’re probably the only Frisk that can’t flirt. Even if someone flirts with them, they don’t get it until someone explains it to them. But they do not get flustered...they just nod.They are very generous, and love giving gifts, but they do also like receiving them. Usually they have a small, friendly smile on their face...it is extremely rare to see them angry or annoyed. They’re also very curious and smart. Their Hobbies are hanging out with their friends, meeting new people/monsters, going on an adventure and drawing. While they do not really have a favorite music genre they do have a favorite music band, and it’s Imagine Dragons. Their Hogwarts house is Gryffindor...they are very brave, but they are not the “loud” Gryffindors. They are a smart Gryffindor who is also very brave and reckless. Although their determination to make friends with anyone in the Underground could be a Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor trait.  So, they could be a Gryffinpuff as well.

Underfell Chara: They are more anxious than the other Charas...,and way more quieter. Underfell Chara is more or less a lone wolf, they like to be by themself. This doesn’t mean that they don’t want any friends...in fact they do have a few friends. Although the most of them are Monsters. They just do not need to hang out with other people every single day. Both Humans and Monsters weren’t very kind to them, but if they have to choose who they would want to live with, they would choose Monsters since they never really hurt them. In some way she understands the Monsters because they also have difficulties being kind.They  remember the time when Monsters weren’t that violent (and edgy). The Dreemurrs were all most of the time very kind and generous, even though Asriel loved to mess with them sometimes. They don’t trust easily, but they are willing to give someone a chance...only one. And they are very blunt sometimes they say things without thinking  because of this humans often don’t like them. Humans have issuse exepting the truth.They are generous, and do like sharing things with others. Even though they have problem interacting with strangers, but they are surprisingly very polite despite that once they come out of their shell they always say very interesting things. They have a great memory and they are very good at drawing. While they other aren’t bad at drawing...Underfell Chara would be the only to become an artist, and they would also be very successful at it.  They also like music a lot the only music Genre that they do not like is probably Rap or Hip Hop. Underfell Chara is very creative and intelligent. While they are not really a fan of Puzzles and Riddles, they are very good at them. Their Hogwarts house would be probably Ravenclaw due to their creativity, intelligent, and their also a quick-thinker.

Swapfell Frisk: the introvert Frisk. While the other Frisks are more or less an extrovert this Frisk is definetly an introvert. They are also very anxious. This Frisk has trust issues and they hate humans. They are not willing to give them a chance...why should they?. Well, you could say they are an introvert with Humans, and with Monsters they are an extrovert. They are very hardworking and a loyal friend. They always put others first and themselves second. Swapfell Friks is good at all ot of thing even though they don’t see it themselves. They are very insecure which is why they do not like hanging around Humans since humans are more judging then Monsters are. They love hanging out with their family the most...they do not have a lot of friends. But the few they have are the ones they trust the most. Also they are very generous, they are always donating food and money to the ones that need them. They also would risk their life for others without exepting anything in return. Their Favorite music is surprisingly hard rock and metal. Their Hogwarts house would probably be Huffelpuff since they are very selfless, and all-rounded.

Swapfell Chara: the grumpiest Chara. They are always annoyed. While they also are very determined to help the monsters they are less friendly and more loud about it. They won’t hesitate to simply yell at the Monsters. They do not fear anything as it seems. The moment they’ve met Swapfell! Alphys they simply scolded her for being so violent and mean. (Although Swapfell! Alphys face was priceless)They are also easily annoyed..(and they also have a short temper). Swapfell Chara has a cold expression but that’s only when they are not yelling at anyone. And this Swapfell! Temmie annoyes her the most. Oh, they are also very stubborn..they can argue for a very long time. They always need to have the last word. Swapfell! Chara is probably the loudest Chara. Their personality is like a light switch they get angry pretty fast, but they also calm down just as fast. Swapfell! Chara is good at sports, and at video games.They are always listening to music it helps them to calm down, and to relax a bit. Their favorite music genre would probably be something that helps you relax so, probably instrumental or classic maybe a little bit of pop, too. Their Hogwarts house is Gryffindor since they are very brave (I guess), and they have a very “fiery” personality. Gryffindors definetly have  a short temper since the others houses are more calmer. And they are also very stubborn.

Storyshift Frisk (Shifty): they are very cautious and unsure. They have a shy side and a flirting side. At first they are very shy and do not talk much, but as soon as they get warmed up to someone than they are showing their firting side. They are a big flirt, but they are mostly an oblivous flirt. Sometimes they flirt without even noticing it. They get flustered pretty easily though. Usually they get very shy when someones compliments them. Shifty is also very friendly and polite, but also very open minded and curious. But they are not reckless, they often hesitate before making a decision or going somewhere. It’s very easy to make friends with them. While they do not trust that easily...they give chances...sometimes even too much. They are very determined, too. Shifty loves playing with their friends...they are bit more childish than the other Frisks. They love both watching TV, mostly Anime but also some Cartoons, and reading Books. Shifty is not much of a painter tough, they are more of a musican. They can play a lot of instrument and they listen to every music genre. Of course they likes some music genres more and some less, but in general they are okay with anything. Their Hogwarts house would probably be Huffelpuff or maybe Ravenclaw since they are both extremley loyal and very curious. They are a Ravenpuff/Huffelclaw.

Storyshift Chara: The ultimate tease. They just love to tease and mess with people. Out of all Charas they are the most flirty one. They are is a compliment in almost every sentence. They are always using nickname it is very rare for them to call someone by their real/full name. Also, they are very charismatic and calm. Despite their teasing, calm nature they getting easily offended. They do not like when people call them “cute” since it makes them blush. But they do not get flustered easily it just that they do not see themself as the “cute” one instead they see themselves as the “cool” one. Storyshift Chara also has a serious side, they know that Monsters are very delicate and they are determined to help them. They forgive way easily than the other Charas do. They are can play piano, and are actually verd good with it do despite the fact that they haven’t played it that much. Storyshift Chara loves pranking people with ketchup they considere it’s a hobby. They are very protective of their family (and Monsters in General). It’s kinda surprising that they do not have a lot more friends, but maybe it’s because they are just too lazy to find new ones. They’re not really good with changes and new things. Their favorite music genres are jazz and pop, but they do pretend that they like Rap just so that they can mess with people who do not like it. If they know a person that doesn’t like rap they will definetly play rap music near them. I think their Hogwarts house would be either Huffelpuff or Gryffindor, but I kinda wanna see them in Slytherin, too. 

[ask-thegoatbro]

☭ Any of the Risen Child trio!

[Since you treat me so well, I’ll do all three~.] [Warning: Goatbro will be assuming quite a bit like he usually does~. Long post~]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  BATTLE THEME: N/A BATTLE INTRO:  “Show me what kind of Asriel you are.” No command, all-out serious goatbro completely during the entire fight. VICTORY:  “You can do better, get up!” DEFEAT:  “Hm. Not bad. I got careless.” ASSIST: “I’ll show you how one really does fire magic! The pride of being a boss monster!” TAUNT:  “Come on! You can do better than this! SHOW ME!” REACTING TO TAUNT: “Hah, do you call that a taunt weakling?” FLEE:  “There’s no point in helping you right now. Pathetic.” REACTING TO FLEE: “You will never overcome any obstacles if you just run from your problems!” TIE: “You’re lucky, if I tried harder you would have burned.” PERFECT VICTORY:  “I understand, even I can be a crybaby. Life is hard and I personally understand some of the things you went through. We’re also different you and I. You still have your Frisk, you can still obtain a happy ending if you push back Chara. But. . . Even if you are so damn determined to let Frisk protect you, be by your side as you cower in the face of your Chara then I will simply ask you this question. Who will protect Frisk if she can’t protect herself? Who can rely on for support? You may simply be there for emotional support but you can't just let Frisk just fight Chara alone. Stand up to Chara, Asriel. Even if you must die 1 million more times. She can’t do this alone. . . You know this deep down. YOU’RE A BOSS MONSTER, YOU HAVE POWER DEEP WITHIN YOURSELF, ASRIEL! DON’T JUST BELIEVE IN FRISK, BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!” FINISH MOVE:  cast a circle of flames around Asriel, mimicking the entrapment of flower petals. Right before they hit they all drop to the ground creating an encirclement of fire which being so close gave a burning sensation until they dissipate.  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  BATTLE THEME: N/A BATTLE INTRO:   [FIGHT] [ACT] [ITEMS] [SPARE]

>*Frisk >*Make gesture     >*Flirt >*Talk                    >*Kiss? “Frisk, you may be FIGHT with your Chara. But, Let me show you how an Asriel truly can fight!” VICTORY:  “Heh, I’m sorry I’m not like my Mother and Father who hold back on you for their own reasons. You never had fought a Boss Monster who is willing to go all out. This is our power and pride Frisk! NEVER FORGET IT! DEFEAT: “Gah, even with a dumb stick. . . or your fists. Humans are so powerful with their DETERMINATION but even. . . Even I can be somewhat determined, but I guess. . . it wasn’t enough for now. . .” ASSIST: “I got your back, get down! Here comes the fire!” TAUNT:  “Isn’t it funny, you carry a stick and you Frisk are very well known to stick their nose into other people’s business~.” REACTING TO TAUNT: “W-what are you winking at! Don’t try to distract me! CHEAP TRICKS!! FLEE:  “Hm, I think I gotta stop and know not to underestimate your ability. . .”  REACTING TO FLEE: “Hey! Come back, come back here you!” TIE:  “Ah, this is acceptable too.” PERFECT VICTORY:  “We all make mistakes, Frisk. From the situation, you and Asriel face I can assume what may have happened and what you had done before. Of course, your LOVE is just 1. You learned a lesson right? Yet, you still FIGHT before. I wonder, was it after Asriel told you not to kill and not be killed? I suppose it was fair not to listen, we’re all hypocrites especially me. I miss my Frisk. . . I miss them so much. . . But they had to. . . they did. . . and now I’m here fighting my Chara. . . But even what they did, I forgive them but they don’t forgive themselves. . . Just like me, I can possibly forgive myself Frisk. . .I wonder, do you know if your Asriel feels the same way that I do. Help him find strength within himself, don’t just protect him. He needs that inner strength the most just like how I found mine. Even his way is different, I believe he has a strong SOUL. . . He’s a boss monster, after all, remember that.” FINISH MOVE: He makes fireballs appear above Frisk and make them rain down on her, dodging all but a cheap shot he throws at her when she was focused on dodging the ones falling upon her. - - - - - - - - - - - -  BATTLE THEME: N/A BATTLE INTRO:   [FIGHT] [ACT] [ITEMS] [SPARE] >*Chara >*Flip her off     >*Flirt?? >*Talk               >*Taunt her “Oh, look at this. Your THAT Chara I have the pleasure of meeting. Wasn’t that a fun first time? Your expression was wonderful~. Let me make it better with a little flame.” VICTORY:  “You’re slower and less powerful than my Chara. Perhaps you shouldn’t look down at me as if I was your Asriel. I know what and who I am, A boss monster known as Asriel Dreemurr!” DEFEAT: He brings his paw to his body as dust flows out of him and coughing out spit mixed with dust. “Damn it, I was getting a little too cocky or maybe. . .  Whatever, next time we dance. I’ll melt that smile off your face.” ASSIST: “How did it come to this?! Whatever! Fire!” TAUNT:  “Would you like me to burn half of your face~. It’s exactly what I did to mine and I’ll say. It will be a good look for you~” REACTING TO TAUNT: “T-tch, you don’t scare me.” FLEE:  “This isn’t looking good for me, I need to rethink and gather my strength!” REACTING TO FLEE: “Bored? How dare you leave this battle!” TIE:  “Bitch.” PERFECT VICTORY:  “How does it feel~? Does your pride hurts that you lost to an Asriel. Ahahaha! Do you feel your skin melting by my flames. . . You will come back alive but that doesn’t mean I cannot enjoy melting you down to the bone marrow~. I will die later, but right now. . . I can enjoy myself~. After all, I’m a terrible person and my body count will NEVER disappear. Chara~” FINISH MOVE: There was no holding back this one, with a sudden burst of speed that helped him fight his Chara, taking quite a bit out of him he was right in front of Chara and places his paw between him and her, having face towards Chara as a burst of flames consume the other completely not only attacking Chara but burning his paws from the intensity of the attack. Once it stopped he can feel the immense burning sensation at his paw and some flames on his sleeve.

[songfell-ut]

I give up, here’s Chapter 17

I should’ve posted this a week ago, but I’ve been like “nuuu it’s cool no one minds a 25,000-word chapter” and yeah here’s only 15k that I finally split off into its own thing. Chapter is here, hi @lostmypotatoes

The Grand Hall lived up to its name: Frisk had never been to the nicer parts of the humans’ castle, but there was no way it could be more amazing than this place, which had a ceiling hundreds of feet tall blanketed with tiny lights, speckled marble columns that reached nearly all the way up, and beautiful murals on the walls showing forests, rivers, even the ocean! Monsters stood in long lines along a central aisle of sparkling white sand, so new that it had obviously been made for the humans’ visit, stretching up a gentle slope to the foot of the grand staircase leading into the Underground.

Queen Toriel had taken Frisk from the house in the Ruins through a snowy town – how did it snow inside the mountain? – and on her first-ever boat ride, which ended all too soon in a place called “Waterfall”; from there, they hurried down to the Grand Hall just in time for the Royal Guard to announce the human delegation. Luckily, instead of having to walk through all those monsters, they used a partly-hidden network of hallways to emerge right at the head of the staircase. Toriel gave the child one more pat, telling her to be good and stay where she was, before the Queen walked out to take her place beside Asgore, nodding to the guards.

Frisk was glad she didn’t have to talk to the King yet; he looked like a bigger, hairier, scarier version of his wife or son, scowling and fidgeting around until Toriel cleared her throat. They stood just in front of Prince Asriel, who noticed the child and gave her a friendly nod before he turned to face the aisle. Frisk crept out far enough to look around the rest of the cavern, wondering why humans talked about the Underground as if it was some kind of filthy mudhole. It was such a beautiful place, with boat rides and snow and twinkling lights…

Something like trumpets sounded, and the Grand Hall’s enormous bronze gates swung open. The monsters all put on their politest expressions as the delegation came through the entrance and headed up the aisle, with the frontmost humans stopping at the bottom of the staircase. “Greetings,” boomed King Asgore, extending his arms and flaring his purple cape out like great wings. “Welcome to the Underground, one and all!”

On cue, the monsters broke into cheers and applause. As the echoes faded, a fussy-looking human stepped forward to give a long speech about greetings and honor and honorable blah blah blah; it was starting to get boring when he was cut short by a cry of “Mama!” and someone rushing past him.

“Chara!” Forgetting her dignity, the Queen of monsters hitched up her robe to run to her estranged daughter. They nearly crashed into each other halfway down the stairs, Toriel’s crown falling askew as the human leapt into her embrace. There was a lot of murmuring and more genuine applause, which swelled into a full ovation as Toriel sank to her knees, holding on as though her child was drowning and her arms were a life preserver.

Asriel had also hurried down to meet his sister, and Asgore was starting toward them when it happened: Chara looked up for the briefest second, and when she saw Frisk near the head of the stairs, the woman’s eyes flashed sheer hatred, as though she wanted her dead on the spot.

Frisk jerked back so hard that she stumbled and nearly fell. When she caught her balance, she found herself looking down at Asgore; he was staring at Chara, and followed the woman’s gaze back up to Frisk. For a long second, the King regarded the human child with a question in his eyes, as though he wanted to say something, but knew better; then Chara was all teary smiles again, hugging Asriel and extending an arm to “Papa!”

The applause grew even louder as Asgore joined them, parents and siblings joyously reunited, and Frisk could have cried with rage. Why did Chara have to hate her for being there when she was lucky enough to have her own perfect family? Couldn’t Frisk have had more than a couple of minutes with those wonderful monsters before Chara stole them back?

It was too much. The child sniffled, and turned to trudge back down the hallway, trying not to think of what her mother was going to say when she found out where Frisk had been.

But as she approached the branching path that led to the Grand Hall floor, she came to a sudden halt: someone further down the hall was shouting, “I’M TELLING YOU, IT IS DEFINITELY THIS WAY!”

“sure, bro,” another person mumbled, his deeper voice echoing up the passage.

“SANS, PLEASE! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE CORRECT DIRECTION THIS TIME! THERE IS NO NEED TO LOOK AT ME IN THAT TONE OF VOICE!”

“relax, pap. i’m just impressed you know all these different ways to go.”

The voices weren’t moving—she was trapped up here. Frisk held her breath as the louder person demanded, “REALLY? THEN WHY ARE YOU GIVING ME THAT SMIRK?”

“…uh, bro? this is how I always—”

“DON’T LIE TO ME, BROTHER! THE GREAT PAPYRUS KNOWS WHAT A SMIRK LOOKS LIKE! IT’S A REGULAR SMILE, BUT IN THAT TONE OF VOICE!!”

“you got me. it means ‘pap is the coolest and knows all the directions.’ you like it?”

“…I SEE! NYEH-HEH. YES, I DO LIKE IT! FROM NOW ON, YOU MAY SMIRK ALL YOU WANT!”

“aww, thanks, bro. you’re the best…and that’s the tooth.”

The joke was so dumb that Frisk had to laugh. Whoever it was, they sounded friendly enough, not to mention silly. Were they humans she hadn’t talked to on the way here? Or—

“DID YOU HEAR THAT, BROTHER?” She jumped as the voice came closer. “IS SOMEONE THERE? SOMEONE WITH EXTREMELY BAD TASTE?”

“hey! i think they’ve got great taste. i mean, they obviously speak our tongue.”

Frisk laughed again, and was only a little afraid when the strange pair came into view. They were skeletons—not just thin people, but actual, literal bones that walked and talked. One was very tall, dressed in showy red boots and some kind of fake armor, while the other was much shorter, in clothes far too casual for an event like this. Why was he wearing pink slippers?

Both of them were also looking her over. With the tiny little lights in his sockets trained on Frisk, the taller one bent down to whisper to his brother. “OH MY GOD, SANS!” he yelled. “IS THAT A HUMAN?”

The short one stared at her for a moment, then nodded, and somehow closed one socket in a wink. “i dunno, pap. he doesn’t look that monstrous to me. who’re you, kid?”

“My name is F—Kris,” she said, giving them a bow, “and you’re right. I’m a human.”

“OF COURSE I AM RIGHT, HUMAN, FOR I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! HOW PLEASANT FOR YOU TO MEET ME!” The tall skeleton struck a heroic pose. “HAVE NO FEAR! WE MONSTERS HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED TO MAKE YOUR ACQUAINTANCE AND THEN BECOME FRIENDS! THEREFORE, YOU MAY SIMPLY REFER TO ME AS ‘PAPYRUS,’ EVEN IF IT IS ONLY HALFWAY CORRECT.” He indicated the other skeleton. “THIS IS MY OLDER BROTHER, SANS. DO NOT BE DISTRAUGHT THAT HE IS NOT AS GREAT AS I AM, AND TRY TO BEAR WITH HIS TERRIBLE JOKES, NYEHH.” Nudge. “SANS! SAY SOMETHING THAT IS NOT TERRIBLE!”

Sans was watching her carefully; he looked like he was smiling, but Frisk had the feeling it was just how his face was made. He wasn’t happy to see her at all. “sure,” he said coolly. “the name’s sans. sans the skeleton.” Papyrus nudged him again, and Sans sighed, as if resigning himself to his fate. “yeah, i know what his majesty said.” He put on a wider grin. “welp, nice to meet you, kris.”

Fakeness or not, the monsters she’d met so far were still much better than any humans she knew. So Frisk smiled shyly at him, and whispered, “It’s nice to meet you, too, Sans.”

His smile dropped a little. They regarded each other for a few seconds; to her delight, his mouth rose again in genuine approval. “heh. you seem like a nice kid.” Shrug. “pap’s right. we’re all gonna be pals, so…”

Papyrus looked pleased as Sans took his hand from his jacket pocket. But as Frisk reached out to shake it, Pap’s smile suddenly vanished. “WAAAIT A MOMENT,” the taller brother said suspiciously. “SANS, DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT—”

Too late. The moment Frisk grasped the skeleton’s hand, something erupted in a palm-tickling explosion of Pfffffftttttppppppfffffffff…ffffffppp…pppf…pp……p.

Silence.

“OH. MY. GOD,” Papyrus said in the voice of doom, and rounded on his brother. “SANS, YOU IMBECILE! YOU HAVE BROKEN THE HUMAN! LOOK, IT ISN’T MOVING! IT—”

Frisk couldn’t hold it in: she howled with laughter, and only got louder as Sans pulled his hand back to reveal the rubbery, air-filled contraption that had made the rude noise. “what can i say? it’s always funny,” he said proudly. “quite a gas.”

“HOW COULD YOU, BROTHER?! THIS IS A CLEAR VIOLATION OF ACQUAINTANCE ETIQUETTE!” raged Papyrus. “HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO ASCEND THE HEIGHTS OF TRUE FRIENDSHIP NOW THAT YOUR IDIOTIC PRANK HAS DAMAGED THE SMALL HUMAN?!” Papyrus stabbed a gloved finger at Frisk, who was now doubled over. “IF THIS IS HOW YOU ARE GOING TO BEHAVE, YOU MIGHT AS WELL GO HOME NOW! YES, HOME! YOU CAN PICK UP YOUR ROOM IN CASE WE HAVE HUMAN GUESTS!”

“i dunno, bro,” said Sans, winking at Frisk again. “it’s probably too heavy for me. you should get it instead.”

“NYEHHH! I MOST CERTAINLY WILL NOT GET IT!”

“aw, pap, don’t be so hard on yourself. i’m sure if you just try harder—”

“LEAVE!! NOW!!!”

Funny as the brothers were, that seemed harsh to Frisk—the nearest houses had to be pretty far away from the Grand Hall, and making Sans walk all the way back because of a few jokes was a little much. She eyed Papyrus doubtfully, wondering if he was like humans after all.

“it’s fine, kiddo,” Sans told her, as if reading her thoughts. He winked one more time. “don’t worry, i know a shortcut. so, eye will see ya later.”

Before Frisk could react, Sans was…gone. Baffled, she looked around, then up at Papyrus. “HM? OH, YES. SANS HAS DEVELOPED HIS MAGIC EXACTLY ENOUGH TO BE AS LAZY AS POSSIBLE,” the tall skeleton said distastefully. “I CAN ONLY HOPE HE IS ACTUALLY CLEANING HIS ROOM NOW. MORE LIKELY, HE IS—”

There was a sound of clapping and cheering from the Grand Hall. “THAT’S RIGHT!” Papyrus threw his red scarf over his collarbone. “COME ALONG, HUMAN! I SHALL INTRODUCE YOU TO THE OTHER MONSTERS! YOU WILL BE DELIGHTED TO MEET THEM, ESPECIALLY THE ROYAL GUARD, AND THE FEELING WILL BE MUTUAL! NYEH-HEH! FOLLOW ME, NEW ACQUAINTANCE!”

“Um…” Frisk bit her lip. Papyrus was a lot to take in, especially without warning, but he didn’t seem to be faking his enthusiasm, or his kindness. Frisk looked at him, made up her mind, and smiled again. “Can we be friends now?” she asked, holding up her hand.

The skeleton’s cheekbones turned bright pink, somehow, eye sockets going wide and glittery. “REALLY?!? WOWIE! I CAN’T BELIEVE I—” He made a noise like a cough. “I MEAN…O-OF COURSE YOU WANT TO BE MY FRIEND, KRIS! I AM EXTREMELY GREAT.” Papyrus leaned down a little to take her hand. “COME ALONG! AS A FRIEND OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS, YOU SHALL BE KNOWN AND LOVED BY ALL! NYEH-HEH-HEH!”

Frisk sure hoped so, especially if the other monsters were as nice as he was. Even if they weren’t, she’d already made new friends, exactly like she was supposed to. Mama couldn’t be mad at her for that, and Chara couldn’t take them away from her!

 ~

 The dream with Asriel was a fitting end to a frustrating night. Sans had picked the biggest inn he could find and asked for a room with the biggest bed they had, only to find that it still wasn’t big enough for him. He didn’t want to try sleeping in his disguise, which meant another night stretched out on the floor, longing for the massive bed in the High Priestess’ quarters. He never would have thought he’d want to go back to the humans’ castle—that damn bed had spoiled him for life! Not to mention that when he was sleeping in it, he had Frisk all to himself…

He had just started dozing off when the door to the next room opened and closed, a couple of human voices whispering back and forth. Sans made the mistake of concluding that that was it, and was completely unprepared for the sounds that exploded through the wall a minute later.

Sans was not an expert on human…anything, but he knew was he was hearing, and that he was hearing it very very loudly. At that point, he had several options; after mulling exactly one of them over, he sat up and ran a thread of magic through the lamp fixture over the bed, worming it through the conduits in the wall and into the next room. From there, he could feel the vibrations of the bed moving – ugh – and spread his magic in a thin layer under one side of the mattress; then he twitched his hand, and grinned at the shrieks and thuds of the couple being dumped onto the floor.

Unsurprisingly, he didn’t need to do anything else. The humans got dressed in a hurry, grabbed their things, and left, and did not come back. Sans let his magic dissipate and settled down, feeling a little smug, but mostly annoyed that the sounds were still stuck in his head.

The giant skeleton tossed and turned, dreamed, and got up in the morning a lot later than he intended; he was so unrested, and so disturbed at having seen Asriel – had it been real? Why and how would the Prince visit him of all people? Why now? – that he barely remembered to put his chain back on before he left the room. He forgot to ask directions when he checked out and had to grump his way around town at random, looking for the stables the warehouse lady had mentioned. He had to get the carts and horses, then go to all the stupid places and get the stupid things…

Well, this wasn’t the right way: he was on a street lined with cute little cafes and humans sitting around in fancy metal chairs. He stopped to get his bearings, and nearly swore as his stomach growled. At least there were food stands everywhere…but what the hell was a “crepe”?

A minute later, he found a place to sit down and gnaw on a couple of folded-over, chocolatey things, which were actually pretty good. There wasn’t much to do as he ate but people-watch, which would have been kind of neat if the people in question weren’t humans. They followed the overall pattern he’d observed at the castle, where the men were loud and stupid-looking, while the women were also loud and ranged from scrawny to actually-lumpy to extremely lumpy. Even the ones with nice faces were still too…human, without any soothing voices, or graceful movements, or sweet expressions…

It made him wonder yet again if Frisk’s SOUL was the real reason he’d been so drawn to her; the first time he’d seen it, he was scared shitless, and then he wanted to rip it out for strictly non-romantic purposes. Was it because she’d reminded him so much of Kris? Or would he have just eventually fallen in love with any human who was powerful enough for him, even if she was a gross person on the outside or inside?

…Nope. It was because she was Frisk. Satisfied with that line of introspection, Sans finished the second crepe and tossed the wrappers in a trash can, forgetting that she wasn’t there to yell at him for littering. Time to ask someone for directions to a more useful part of town.

The first person he talked to just shrugged, and the next pointed him the wrong way entirely, but an irate half-hour later, Sans was back on the right track. This street seemed much dingier, with fewer people around; it smelled weird, too, like horse pee and desperation.

Maybe that was why someone had started following him. Sans smiled to himself, wiggling his fingers inside his coat pockets. Should he get further into the back alleyways before he confronted the guy, or—

“Heya.”

Sans glanced to his right. A man in his early twenties was standing by a side street, nodding at him. “C’mon this way,” he said. “Got somethin’ to show you.”

           “I don’t think so, pal,” said the disguised boss monster. “Whatever ya want, you’re wastin’ yer time. Don’t have any cash on me.” Without waiting for an answer, he speed-walked further ahead, grinning as he heard a soft whistle behind him.

           Sure enough, someone was waiting right around the next corner, an older man in nice clothes. “Excuse me, sir,” he said loudly, “but do you have the time?”

           Sans thought of the old woman again and snorted. “Nope,” he replied, and tried to walk around him.

           The man quick-stepped back into Sans’ way. “My. Her Eminence doesn’t pay you enough to buy a watch?” he asked innocently.

           What the hell? He wasn’t wearing the armband. “Who said anythin’ about—”

The distraction almost worked: the guy made a sudden feint toward him, and if Sans had been any less alert, he’d have backed right into the human sneaking up to grab his neck with a wire loop. Instead, Sans pivoted and slammed an elbow into his would-be assailant so hard that he felt the guy’s ribs crack. The man who’d stopped him cursed under his breath, turning to run.

Almost absent-mindedly, Sans waved a finger in the fleeing human’s direction. There was a shnk of bone erupting from the pavement, and a muffled scream as the man’s ankle was impaled mid-flight. The rest of his body yanked to a stop and hit the ground in a twisted heap.

Footsteps pounded toward them, and Sans turned to face the first guy who’d talked to him, then one other human. They sized up the situation and moved to either side of him, one armed with some kind of club and the other sporting a huge knife.

Sans gave a low laugh as bloodlust started bubbling to the surface. Finally! This was what he’d been waiting for! No more playing cute and harmless! No more letting people do whatever the hell they wanted with him! No witnesses!

Really, the only problem was that it was too easy. Sans let the one with the knife get in close, then grabbed his arm and broke it at the elbow, spinning the would-be assassin around and shoving him into the guy with the club. Both humans hit the ground, but the knife guy was up in a moment, scrabbling for his weapon with his good hand. Sans kicked the knife away, pinned both of his palms to the ground with a couple more bones, and lifted the remaining human by the neck with his magic.

Was that it? He glanced around at the one with the wire loop – on the ground, struggling to breathe – then the guy with the impaled ankle, who seemed to have passed out. The third was staring at his hands and making weird noises – not very knife of him, ha ha – and the last one dangled a few inches off the ground, clawing at the red mist around his throat.

Sans hummed under his breath, surveying the four men with an artistic eye. Well! Where to begin? Might as well start with the one he was holding up. The human windpipe was so fragile that one good crunch would do it…but no one said it’d have to be a quick crunch. Sans began to apply pressure, slow and hard, and grinned as the man’s eyes bulged in terror—

           Out of nowhere, he froze mid-squeeze as a strange emotion hit him. It was…nostalgia, and then—guilt? That was it; the longer Sans stared at the captive human, the less he enjoyed the guy’s fear and despair. He knew exactly what it felt like to be trapped by someone stronger, didn’t he? Back in his jail cell, cowering behind a human witch’s barrier, knowing she could do any damn thing she pleased to him—had he looked like this to her?

           Sans shook his head in irritation. What was he thinking? That was different! He wasn’t Frisk, and these guys had tried to kill him!

           …just like he’d tried to kill her before and after she stopped him from hurting anyone. What had she done to retaliate? Kept him safe, given him her own stupidly oversized bed, let him sleep for over a day, and fed him more in one sitting than he’d eaten in goddamn weeks.

Sans tried again to shake it off, to rationalize that no one in their right mind would hold a psycho like him to Frisk’s standards, but when he looked again at the human in his grasp…

No, dammit! These assholes had attacked him out of nowhere, and he’d defended himself! Surely she wouldn’t expect him to just stand there and get murdered?

…But none of these guys could move under their own power anymore, much less hurt him. Now Sans could see Frisk snarling up at him in all her tiny, furious glory: “If you kill anyone and you cannot look me in the eye to tell me why it was necessary, I don't want you to come back at all!”

           Argh! It wasn’t fair! She wasn’t here to stop him—she would never even know! Why should he quit right when it was finally getting good? Couldn’t he at least nick ‘em a few more times, enough to make them sorry? They might be pretty sorry already, but… “But,” Sans mumbled out loud, scowling.

Now he was thinking of Dr. Serif. The boss monster could practically hear his cool, smug voice: “But what, Sans?”

           Tch. If he had to be hearing things, he’d much rather it be Frisk. He knew he should’ve taken a shortcut back to the Underground last night. Then he could’ve seen her and…done…something? Maybe he wouldn’t be so damn frustrated now, his mind jumping all over the place…

           “Sans.”

Oh, shit. What about the fortune-teller? “Don’t kill anyone.” That guy had been right about stuff so far; would something happen to Frisk if Sans ignored his stupid, cheap advice? For all he knew, it could—

           “SANS.”

           “What?” he snapped. “Whaddya want, Doc…tor?” He gaped at Dr. Serif, who was standing only a few yards away, arms folded. “The fuck are you doin’ here?” demanded Sans, releasing the human from mid-air and ignoring his wheezing.

Dr. Serif came closer and made two gestures. A skeletal hand popped up and seized the fallen human by the throat, glowing green before vanishing. “He should live,” the royal sorcerer said crisply. He glanced at the man whose hands were affixed to the pavement, and the one up ahead. “In the meantime, do you plan to leave these gentlemen like that?”

           Sans was still mad that he couldn’t leave them dead, but… He made a disgusted noise, and the bones all vanished. “Ya gonna tell me why you’re here, or what?”

           “What.” Dr. Serif walked past Sans and snapped his fingers. Two pairs of disembodied hands sprang out of thin air, and one latched onto each human’s head; to Sans’ immense discomfort, the hands glowed blue, and each man obediently got up with sluggish, jerky motions – even the one with the shattered ankle –  to come sit in a row, legs crossed like schoolchildren. “Why did you attack this man?” Dr. Serif inquired. “Only speak if you have useful information.”

The human with the broken ribs mumbled, “He’s the High Priestess’ agent,” in a voice that made Sans feel even weirder. There was good old-fashioned violence, and there was this. “Gonna hold him for ransom and lure in the skeleton.”

“Do not lie to me.” The humans jerked, eyes going glassy as the blue intensified. “This is not an instrument of live capture,” said the royal sorcerer, retrieving the wire loop with yet another hand. “Why do you, or your employers, want him dead?”

There was a round of silence. Evidently, no one knew, or probably cared. They’d had their orders, and that was that.

Sans stepped closer. “Were you the ones going after Frisk a few weeks ago—the High Priestess? Are you gonna try it again?”

“Wasn’t us,” said one.

“No one’s supposed to kill her anymore,” said another, and his associates nodded slowly.

Dr. Serif blinked a few times. “According to who, and since when?”

“Last week. Someone paid the Assassin’s Guild to blacklist her. She’s untouchable—anyone who goes after her gets a bounty put on his head.”

Sans had never seen the royal sorcerer so taken aback. “I didn’t know that was even possible. It would cost several hundred thou—no, a million dinar to make it worth their while,” he muttered. “Do you have any idea who did it?”

More silence. Meanwhile, Sans was not that surprised to find out there was a formal guild for murderers. Humans were such fucking scumbags.

“Are you affiliated with poachers, then?” was Dr. Serif’s next question.

“Yeah,” they all said at once.

The doctor’s foot tapped a few times. “Does your attack on the priestess’ agent have to do with the timing of his delivery to the Underground? Fewer monsters will be venturing outside if food is being brought directly to them—I assume you wanted to prevent this?”

Sans watched the men’s faces stay blank. That was probably too many words for them. “What’re you gonna do if ya can’t catch any monsters?” he asked instead.

The blue light intensified again, and someone finally mumbled, “Ransom. The High Priestess will pay to get her agent back. She won’t know he’s dead yet.”

Dr. Serif frowned. “And you’re hoping she’ll send the boss monster to rescue him?”

Nods. “It’s worth a hell of a lot of money.”

There was an odd pause. “For his magic?” the doctor asked.

“And ransom. She’s screwin’ it,” one man said tonelessly.

Dr. Serif grabbed Sans’ shoulder to restrain him. “Surely you’re not taking that rumor seriously,” he said. “It can’t be worth the danger of trying to capture such a powerful monster—he was relatively weak when he was first caught, and two men still died of their injuries.”

“Lady payin’ us says it’s true. She doesn’t want Her Eminence arrested for mis…missen—”

“Miscegenation?” growled Sans.

“Yeah. That. She wants us to catch it, but not kill it. We’ll keep it and get a shitload of magic, then sell it back later. Win-win.”

“Hm. So, your employer is a woman who wants to help the High Priestess? What is her name?”

No one answered. The blue light flickered, and one man finally said, “Dunno. We just got a few letters, and payment up front. Pretty sure it’s a rich lady ‘cause of the handwriting and the way the paper smelled, but we don’t know for sure.”

The doctor stared the man down, still holding Sans’ shoulder. “And she has hired you to hold the skeleton prisoner…for how long, exactly? And through what means?”

The human shrugged. “She said she’d tell us more once we killed this guy.”

Dr. Serif thought about it for a moment, then snapped his fingers again. The skeletal hands tightened, and Sans watched the men writhe in tandem and fall sideways like puppets with cut strings. “Well, that was more interesting than expected,” said the royal sorcerer. His hand tightened on Sans’ shoulder. “Come along.”

Sans shut his eyes as magic surged around them. It didn’t have the rushing-through-space feel of his shortcuts; this was more as if the ground had jumped out from beneath their feet and just as quickly hopped back into place. He opened his eyes and started. “Where—”

They were standing outside a large, well-kept stable. The doctor released him, saying, “I must commend you for not killing any of those men. We’ve acquired valuable information, and once they wake up, word will get around that the High Priestess’ agent is not to be trifled with.” He smiled, ever so slightly. “They will not recall I was even there.”

Sans gestured impatiently. “What the fuck was that about? Someone wants human-me dead, but they just wanna borrow real me to keep Frisk outta jail? An’ someone else’s paid out the ass to keep her alive? What’s—”

“It could well be the same person.” The royal sorcerer brushed some dust off his robe. “What is miscegenation?” he asked curtly.

Sans’ toes curled. “Boning a monster. It’s a literal crime. I heard somebody talking about it last night.”

“Interesting,” the doctor said slowly. “No one spreading that rumor in the city seems to know about it yet.” Sigh. “If you overheard it here, I suppose it’s only a matter of time before everyone knows.”

Sans didn’t want to talk about that right now, or ever. “How long were you following me?” he asked instead.

Pause. “Long enough.”

The boss monster didn’t like that, either. “Whatever,” Sans mumbled. “But thanks fer gettin’ all that stuff out of ‘em. You’re pretty freaky, but I guess ya come in handy.”

He heard the familiar sound of someone ignoring a pun, and then “You’re welcome.” Dr. Serif crossed his arms. “I was sent here to intercept you and the High Priestess. Given that I have not seen Her Eminence with you, may I assume you were foolish enough to come alone?”

           “Uh…”

           “As you were also foolish enough to leave the castle when and how you both did, I am not surprised.”

           Sans snorted. “Ya think that was my idea?”

           “No, but this almost certainly was.” The royal sorcerer gestured to the smushed roll of papers in Sans’ front pocket. “Come along. There should be three carts on reserve in Frisk’s name here, for when you were supposed to have picked them up on your way to the Underground.”

           Sans followed him into the stable. “What, ya didn’t like us bailin’ on you?” he asked, taking childish pleasure in the older skeleton’s annoyance.

           The doctor reached back without looking and took the papers from Sans’ pocket. “Hello,” Dr. Serif said cordially to the human behind the counter, who stepped right up to assist them.

           This turned out to be prophetic: the doctor not only accompanied him everywhere for the rest of the morning and afternoon, he took complete charge. He made things so much smoother that Sans couldn’t even be mad about it; people listened to him, and he could fully answer their questions while Sans inspected the cargo and supervised the loading. The doctor also signed the bills of lading, reminding Sans after the first visit that as a perfectly normal human and not a monster in disguise, he was not “Sans” and needed to pick a pseudonym already.

           They had almost no time to eat lunch or dinner, electing to grab a couple of sandwiches as the drivers brought the carts to the second-to-last warehouse. “So, was it your idea to swoop in on us like this?” Sans asked. “I know it was annoying to wake up and have us gone, but—”

           “His Majesty is extremely unamused by his daughter’s behavior,” said the royal sorcerer, in a tone that wiped the smirk off Sans’ face. “To be very honest, I am glad I will not be there when Her Eminence receives this.” He extracted a long, expensive-looking envelope from his robe. “His Majesty assembled the paperwork yesterday for—”

           “The adoption thing?” Sans interrupted. “Is it true?”

           Dr. Serif made a face. “No matter where I go, the speed of gossip remains constant.” Another sigh. “Whatever you’ve heard is likely true. Should Frisk’s mission prove successful, His Majesty is prepared not only to pardon her theft, but place her directly in the line of succession.”

           Sans took a long sip of water, trying and failing to figure that one out. “I thought ya said he was pissed off at her. Why…?”

           “Tell me, Sans. Knowing Frisk, do you think she would appreciate being pressured into accepting such a heavy responsibility, especially in anticipation of her little brother’s death? His Majesty knows exactly how she will feel about it.” Dr. Serif paused for a huge bite of his sandwich. “Also, he may personally be unhappy with her actions, but he knows better than anyone that if she can outmaneuver him, then she is worthy of the throne.”

           Fuck. “Yeah, when ya put it like that—”

           The royal sorcerer glanced at him. “Out of curiosity, when did you learn that the King was her father?”

           “Not till we were almost t’the Underground. I kinda found out by accident.”

           Dr. Serif half-smiled. “It’s been common knowledge ever since she was brought to St. Brigid’s. And…by any chance, did she ever tell you anything about her mother?”

           Sans had to whack himself in the chest as the last wad of his sandwich threatened to get stuck in his windpipe. Why did human bodies use the same damn tube for breathing and eating? “Only that she’s dead,” he rasped. “Why?”

           “Wipe your hands, please, and put this somewhere safe until you can give it to her.” Dr. Serif held out the gilt envelope. “It contains copies of all the relevant documents, including an investiture of nobility—she would technically become a duchess first, then Crown Princess upon the death of the King or the Prince.”

Sans scrubbed his hands on his shirt and took the envelope. He was thinking so hard that he almost didn’t notice Frisk’s full name in fancy cursive across the front; then he looked again, and stared at it for a minute, and finally said, “Huh.”

           “You don’t seem entirely surprised,” the doctor observed, sounding almost disappointed. “Have you already heard something to that effect?”

           “Yeah. I had a long talk with Grillby the other day, and…I wasn’t gonna ask Frisk, but I was kinda wondering, and then she said…” Had the King done the calligraphy himself? “I never did hear her last name. I figured the High Priestess just doesn’t need one.”

           “It was not hers to use for most of her life, and I would be very surprised if she chose to do so now, or ever. According to what I have gleaned from Rosa, the name does not have pleasant associations for Frisk—another fact of which the King is very aware.”

           “Holy shit.” Sans looked at the envelope again. “He’s callin’ her that ta piss her off?”

           “It is technically her legal name and belongs on a document of this importance. So, yes.”

           “Shit.” Sans scratched the back of his head, thinking even harder. “So whoever filled out the paperwork for him knows her name, too? Which means everyone is gonna know about it by the time we get back?”

           The doctor raised an eyebrow. “You’re coming back with her, then?” He let the question hang in the air, and Sans ignored it till Dr. Serif continued, “You are correct. I am genuinely sorry to leave this with you, but you will have to give her the news before you return, or else she will be completely blindsided. Please don’t do that to her.”

           Sans wasn’t going to admit that the thought had already crossed his mind: throw the envelope away, let her enjoy the rest of her time in the Underground, and feign astonishment when they got back – hopefully triumphant – and found out she’d someday have the power to do literally anything she pleased, such as freeing monsters with a single decree.

           Except…she was already helping monsters, and had already spent three lonely, stressful years as High Priestess. How much worse would her life be if she became the actual Queen? Would it technically fit that second fortune? Fear stabbed him so hard that he could barely breathe—what if she got surrounded by advisers and hangers-on determined to harass him away from her? There was no telling how long her father and half-brother would be around, and they probably wouldn’t let her keep a pet skeleton around, not to mention a suspiciously bony kid…

           Sans couldn’t help it. Dr. Serif eyed him warily as the boss monster snickered again: a fucking crime. It was too perfect.

           The carts were ready now. The boss monster tucked the fancy envelope into an inner pocket and resolved to quit thinking about it for now. Frisk could handle this; she’d know what to do. If she didn’t, they’d figure it out together.

 ~

             Thankfully, the rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. By the time they were ready to head back to the Underground, the sun was just touching the horizon.

           Everything had fit into three large-ish carts, which Frisk had accurately predicted would be a better idea than two really huge ones. The drivers were nervous about starting so late in the day, but Dr. Serif had implied that they were just headed to the city, the road to which was well-lit and patrolled by watchmen. Sans got a huge kick out of seeing the humans’ faces when the procession reached the outskirts of the village, went about a hundred yards, and came to a sudden halt. “You may remove the horses now,” said the doctor. “Please return to the village. Here is a small gratuity for your trouble.”

           If the humans had questions, they were effectively answered by the five-hundred-dinar pieces Dr. Serif placed in each of their hands. They unhitched the horses and jogged them back in the fast-fading light without a backward glance, leaving the loaded carts sitting in the road.

           From there, the disguised monsters waited until no one was in sight – not difficult, given the hour and the cold – and then enacted the plan they’d agreed upon earlier: Sans encased the lightest cart in a film of red magic, thought carefully about the place by the river where Undyne had attacked him, and teleported the whole thing there. No more than ten seconds later, a large patch of blackness crept over the pale bedrock; Gaster rose from it head-first, followed by the carts, and everything settled into place as the ground shimmered back into ordinary rock-ness.

           “What the crap?” Sans pulled his chain off. “How do you even have that much magic?”

           Gaster brushed himself off again with two extra hands, keeping his own tucked beneath his flowing black coat. He glided in a circle around the carts, checking that they had made the journey safely, and nodded. “Surely you’re not worn out from one spell?”

           “No, but I’m a damn boss monster!”

           The older skeleton smiled. A hand appeared in front of Sans, holding a gray orb slightly bigger than the hole in its palm. “Humans use these to store magic. Keep at least one on your person at all times and let it absorb your ambient power. Put it away when full, then repeat the process. Do so regularly, and you will soon have a supply built up for contingencies exactly like this.” The hand vanished. “Has Her Eminence used the teleportation spell I gave her yet?”

           Sans remembered the brooch she’d gotten on All Souls Day, and shook his head. “I don’t think so, but she wears it a lot.”

           “Good.” Gaster looked at the nearly-night sky. “Lead the way.”

           The boss monster wondered exactly how many more of those stones Gaster had squirreled away in whatever fold of subspace he was using, and contented himself with the fact that the creepy bastard still seemed to be on their side—Sans hadn’t forgotten the fortune about bewaring him, but right now, he didn’t have much choice. Even the lightest of the carts was much heavier than the wagons full of monsters had been, and as tired as he was, he doubted he could’ve pulled or teleported them all on his own.

Gaster’s extra hands were pulling and pushing two of the carts with apparent ease as they followed the river. Sans tried to think of something that would pass the time without leading to invasive questions, and finally thought to ask, “The solar panel demonstration went okay?”

           “Oh, yes.” Gaster’s voice was neutral, and it was impossible to read his expression in profile. “Someone attempted to sabotage it by cutting several of the wires on the main panel, so I used my own magic as a substitute. It was most impressive, if I say so myself.”

           That sounded like one problem too many. They had enough crap to deal with in the Underground without worrying about sabotage or the King being passive-aggressive or some random lady who wanted to keep him away from Frisk! Get in line, he thought bitterly.

           “How is Her Eminence’s mission going?” asked Gaster, as if reading his mind.

           “Pretty good, I think. Asgore hasn’t met with her yet, but he’s letting her do whatever.” Sans felt the corners of his mouth lift. “She’s spent a couple nights with Undyne and Alphys at Toriel’s house, havin’ some girl time. They went shopping yesterday, ‘n pro’ly today.”

           Gaster nodded. “I don’t know how you intended to do this alone,” he said, glancing at the carts, “but given your accelerated timeline, I suppose it was the best way to let her enjoy herself for a day or two. It will also help her cause if the monsters see a great deal of her firsthand.”

           Sans knew what he meant—all Frisk had to do to win them over was be herself. He didn’t notice that he was smiling until he felt Gaster’s stare; the other skeleton was suddenly in front of him, drifting backwards as Sans walked. “Don’t mind me,” murmured the royal sorcerer, examining the boss monster’s sternum.

           “What’s my LV?” Sans asked bluntly.

           Gaster reappeared beside the cart. “You are at LV 16.”

           Sans was…almost surprised. Gaster gave him a hard look. “The first time I checked, you were—”

           A sound off to their left made both skeletons stop to listen. It was faint, but unmistakable. “Keep going,” Gaster said, and they picked up the pace, both assuming their disguises.

           There was no question of outrunning the humans, so they let the sound of hoofbeats gradually overtake them. “Well, well,” said the first rider, pulling up in front of the carts and forcing them to stop. Two more poachers rode up alongside, and three more brought up the rear. Each man had a coil of chain slung over his shoulder, and their leader carried a heavy crossbow. “What are you doing out here so late?” he demanded. “Where you headed with all that?”

           “The Underground,” Dr. Serif said calmly. “We have no monsters or valuables with us, so if you would kindl—”

           “Bullshit.” The leader nodded to the other men. “Search ‘em. There’s gotta be—”

           Sans didn’t even see what happened next: an unseen force yanked each man out of the saddle to hit the bedrock, filling the air with thumps, whinnying, and curses. “This is your last warning,” said Dr. Serif, still sounding very reasonable. “Leave us, or you will suffer.”

           When the men didn’t answer – except for more profanity – the doctor made a gesture. This time, Sans glimpsed the skeletal hands smacking the horses on the rump, one after another; the animals screamed in panic, nearly trampling their riders as they bolted in different directions.

The poachers gaped at each other, then at the human-shaped skeletons. “What the fuck are you?” demanded the leader. With no warning, he whipped up his crossbow to fire at—

           —Gaster, whose body had vanished, leaving nothing but an eerie smile and empty sockets. “Well, then,” he murmured, his eyes lighting blue and yellow. He glanced at Sans. “Please go on without me. I will see you back at the castle in…” He paused, counting on a set of hands. “…nine days.” The fingers snapped once, twice, thrice. “My regards to Her Eminence.”

           Sans opened his mouth to object, and the ground dropped out from beneath him.

 ~

             Silence descended in his wake, leaving the poachers in abject terror. Without the carts’ lanterns, it was impossible to see anything but the light in Gaster’s sockets. “Well,” the monster said. He looked at the men with mild curiosity, like a child with a jar full of insects. The leader jerked as a hand suddenly latched onto his face. “Can I trust you to keep this little encounter a secret?” asked Gaster.

The man nodded frantically, clawing at the hand as blood began welling under its phalanges. The others nodded, too, babbling reassurance.

“Good,” the skeleton said pleasantly. The humans had exactly enough time to start hoping before his eye-lights dilated, illuminating the hideous, masklike face. “What a pity that I do not believe you.”

There was a gruesome sound, and another, and another, and another. Silence; a tide of magic rose and swept over the bedrock, leaving nothing behind but a few splashes of blood.

Gaster nodded in satisfaction and turned to rinse his hands in the river, humming Sans’ favorite song. He paused long enough to chuckle to himself, then brushed his coat off once more, extracted a fresh stone from his coat, and vanished.

 ~

             The sentries outside the Grand Hall’s gates rolled their eyes as another knock came from within. “Any sign of him?” someone asked through the crack.

           “No,” the rabbit monster snapped. “For the last time, you don’t need to keep asking every ten minutes! We’ll tell you when he—”

           A long, low sound from the opposite direction cut him short. “Sans?” called the guard.

           “The one an’ only,” a gruff voice answered over the rise. In the still, cold air, they could now hear the sound of wheels on sandy rock, and the labored breathing of a boss monster managing three heavily laden carts by himself. “Can I get some damn help here?”

           Twenty minutes later, Sans had recovered enough to get up from the cavern floor and hobble through the swarm of hungry monsters by the gates, some of whom had been waiting all day for their share of the food. “You guys don’t need to inspect it,” the colossal skeleton informed the guards, who were busy walking around the carts and poking them at random. “Me an’…someone I trust watched ‘em load it up.”

           The rabbit guard looked at his partner, then at Sans. “This came from humans, right? It’s probably gotta be—”

           “It’s gotta get out to people now,” Sans growled. He pointed at someone randomly. “Go get more help, whoever’s awake. I’m gonna go find Her Majesty.”

           “No need,” said a clear voice. The monsters all bowed out of the way as Toriel stepped off the patchy gray sand of the central aisle. “I am glad to see you back safely, Sans. Thank you so much for your efforts,” said the former Queen. “Please, get some sleep. I will handle the rest.”

           Sans was so tired that he could barely stay upright, but he shook his head. “I’m gonna check in with Asgore first.” Toriel’s face darkened, and he sighed. “C’mon, To—Your Majesty, ya know he’ll freak out if he finds out this came in without ‘im knowing.”

           The other boss monster sighed, closing her eyes. “True. And if you go now, you may run into the Captain and Dr. Alphys. They will also want to know you’ve arrived safely. But after that, I want you go straight home! Do you hear me?”

           He did, but sleep could wait: if those two were at Asgore’s house, then Frisk might be, too. His magic flared up, and without another thought, the skeleton took himself straight there.

           Remembering how easily the women had detected him before, Sans aimed for the end of the house near the master bedroom, and caught himself with only a slight stagger into the wall. Voices were coming from the living room; the boss monster waited for his vision to clear, then pushed himself upright and crept down the hall to listen.

           “It is lovely,” Asgore was murmuring. There was a musical clinking of fine metal and china—the King must be looking at the tea service Frisk had picked out for him.

           “Yeah, she was pretty proud of it. Everything she’s brought has been awesome,” agreed Undyne.

Sans scowled. Frisk wasn’t here after all. Well, he didn’t have enough magic to zero in on wherever she was, and Undyne was still talking, so he might as well eavesdrop. “She got me some targets, and comi—uh, battle strategies, and stuff for my scales. It was really thoughtful,” said the Royal Guard Captain.

           “And I can finally finish Adventure Lady!” Alphys exclaimed. “C-can you believe it?!”

           To Sans’ surprise, Asgore chuckled. He didn’t think the King knew how to do that anymore. “I’m glad to hear it, Doctor. I know how much that was bothering you.” Clink. “What about the agricultural implements Sans mentioned?”

“Yes, Y-Your Majesty. We spent a few hours today looking them over—she knows how to treat plants so that they can go days without being watered! We t-talked about different chemicals that can improve the quality of our soil, specific nutrients for whichever crops we decide to plant first, and all the seeds she brought. The next step is to decide which fields to convert to pasture if we want to raise c-cattle or sheep.”

“Hmm. Yes, that would be wonderful.” Sans heard tea being poured and china clinking again. “What else has she been up to?” asked the King.

“We went shopping for clothes yesterday,” the Captain said, “and Mettaton is teaching her how to dance. It was pretty fun—did you hear he wants to have a big party before she leaves?”

“Yes, I have. Some festivities could be good for our people, but…we’ll see.”

“Right.” She cleared her throat. “And just so you know, Majesty, we’ve spent the past couple nights at the Ruins.”

A long pause. “I…see. Did you have a good time?”

“Yeah,” Undyne said quietly. “Everyone did.”

“That…” Asgore heaved a great sigh. “That’s good to hear. What about today?”

Undyne’s chair creaked. “Today was a little more complicated. She checked on some of the people she brought back—not that she busted in on anyone,” the fish monster added hastily. “She only got started ‘cause Vulkin asked her to come visit.”

Asgore made a startled noise. “Vulkin wanted to see her? Why?”

Sans wanted to run in and shake the King like the idiot he was, but he edged back and tried to think nicer thoughts as Undyne answered, “She said Frisk was the only human who ever gave a crap about them, basically, and her family wanted to meet her. We ended up staying for over an hour.” Another pause. “Also, Majesty…Frisk’s got this thing she does where she can hum something at you, and it’s…really nice. Not hypnosis or anything sneaky, it just…” Sans could almost hear Undyne shrug. “Right before we left, Vulkin started getting worked up, and Frisk calmed her down just like that.”

“She’s done it for us, too, right before bedtime,” said Alphys. “I haven’t s-slept so well in forever.”

“Hm. She has other abilities, then, besides creating barriers?” He poured more tea. “Have you investigated her capabilities in that respect?”

“N-No, Your Majesty. She wanted to have your permission before she made any, even j-just to study them in the lab.”

Sans got the feeling that Asgore was a little put out by Frisk conducting herself so well. “If you believe she is trustworthy,” said the King, “then by all means, study her barriers as fully as you can. The knowledge may prove…useful.” More clinking. “Thank you for your time, both of you. Get some rest. And…” His voice softened. “Please thank her for the gift.”

The giant skeleton smiled a little. Before they could get up and notice him lurking in the hall, Sans used the tiniest wisp of magic – all that he had left – to whisk himself outside to the courtyard. He waited by the tree, foot raised as if in mid-step; when the door opened, Asgore saw him and started. “Sans! You’re back!”

“Hey, Majesty.” Sans raised a genuinely weary hand. “Yeah, I just got in with all the stuff. Everything’s fine. Just wanted to let you know.”

“Thank you very much,” the King said heartily, another trace of his old self showing. “I’ll be down right away.”

“Uh.” The bigger boss monster fake-coughed. “Please don’t, Yer Majesty. Someone’s already got it under control.”

Blink. “Some…oh.”

“Hey, you,” Undyne said, moving around Asgore and hopping down the stairs in one easy bound. “How’d it go? Are you okay?”

“It’s fine, ‘m just worn out.” Sans let out a full-force yawn. “I’ll walk back with you guys,” he said as Alphys came down the steps.

“All right, then,” Asgore murmured. “Thank you again, Sans.” The skeleton nodded, and they politely waited for the door to close before turning to leave.

“Don’t even think about it” was the first thing out of Undyne’s mouth. “She’s asleep already.”

Sans was too tired not to ask, “Where? Tori’s again?”

“I’m not telling you!” snapped the fish-woman. “We had a lot of fun yesterday, but today was pretty rough on her.” She eyed him as they stepped into the elevator and waited for the grating to close. “You don’t look so hot, either.”

“I will be in a minute.” Sans swayed on his feet as the elevator descended. “After all, we’re goin’ to Hotland.”

Undyne twitched. “Nope. We’re not doing those.”

“Aww, c’mon, fish-face.” Yawn. “I’m just gettin’ warmed up.”

Twitch. “I’m serious, boss. Drop it.”

“Drop it like…it’s hot?”

“I SAID—”

The elevator ground to a halt, and he felt Alphys tug on his coat. “L-let’s go to my lab, Sans. You can take a nap and get some magic back befo—not yet!”

Sans had the impression of falling and something grabbing him, but he didn’t pay much attention till Undyne heaved him onto the lab’s concrete floor. “Ow,” he tried to say, but it was too much effort; he decided to pass out instead.

 ~

             They weren’t heading to the family’s main house; for some reason, Asriel had insisted she come with him to the one in the Ruins, where he and his mother had been living before the delegation arrived. He’d told her that he had a surprise for her, but he was so anxious that she didn’t think it was going to be a good one.

           Good or not, she had to admit that when Asriel opened the bedroom door and motioned her inside, she was very surprised: she backpedaled so hard that she crashed into his legs.

           “It’s all right,” said Chara, very quietly, from her seat on the bed. “I wouldn’t be glad to see me, either.”

           “Chara,” Asriel protested.

           “It’s true.” The woman watched Frisk lean into Asriel, clutching his robe with one small hand. “Isn’t it, Frisk?” she added.

           The child inhaled sharply, looking up at the Prince in alarm. “It’s all right,” he told her, smiling with such affection that she had to smile back. “I know all about you, Frisk. You’re ten years old, and you’re a girl, and you belong here. In fact, you could say you’ve come home.” He looked at Chara, beaming. “Right, sis?”

 ~

             Sans must have teleported from the lab at some point – maybe in his sleep – because when he properly awoke, he was in his own room. The boss monster sat up and turned the light on with a speck of magic. A glance at the clock made him do a double take: how was it almost ten o’clock?! Sans sprang to his feet and zipped down to the living room.

           No one was there, but he heard children running around outside, with the occasional shriek of happiness, or anger, or possibly disembowelment—he never could tell with kids. There was Papyrus’ voice, and Undyne’s; then he heard Frisk, and without thinking, he took another shortcut out beside the house.

           Before San could get his bearings, a handful of snow hit him upside the head. “Morning, boss!” shouted Undyne. “About time!”

           “GOOD MORNING, BROTHER!” Papyrus raised his head from beneath a pile of children. “WE ARE AT WAR! WOULD YOU CARE TO JOIN US?”

           Sans blinked. “War?”

           “Yes, indeed,” Frisk said gravely, and he looked up to see her standing on the balcony, not far above his eye level. Magic rippled through him in gentle waves as she smiled. “Is everyone ready?” she asked the monsters.

           The giant skeleton came forward for a better view as the children sprang to their feet, or paws, or seahorse tail. Frisk dipped something into a narrow bottle, raised it to her mouth, and leaned over the railing to blow a stream of huge, wobbly, fast-floating bubbles.

           In an instant, the kids were charging after them, leaping and clawing and even biting them joyfully out of the air. Frisk dipped the stick again and angled herself toward Papyrus to blow another round of bubbles; instead of popping them, the younger skeleton surrounded each one in blue and sent them flying in all directions, which was Undyne’s cue to materialize a short spear and leap after them, yelling, “Come back here, you cowards!”

           When the last bubble had been vanquished, Frisk made even more of them, almost obscuring the pack of children; this time, Papyrus used his magic to grab all the bubbles, and instead of chasing after them, the kids tackled him again. Undyne coordinated the assault, directing her troops to surround the enemy and attack as a unit, ignoring Papyrus’ protests of being muuuurdered and that she could not have his pirate-ship bed once he was dust, because for the hundredth time even if she did have an eyepatch that did not mean she deserved to be a pirate more than him. Then everyone scattered again for Frisk to send another batch the kids’ way, and two more groups for Papyrus to keep away from Undyne.

It was hard to say who was enjoying themselves the most. Sans hadn’t seen his brother playing like this in…how long? Even some of the adult monsters were coming over to watch, standing around and chatting with each other, or asking Frisk how she’d made the bubbles and happily accepting the extra bottles she tossed down for them. It was like she’d never left…

A thought struck him, and he backed further away from the house to crane his neck all the way upward. There it was, the thin brown haze of negative energy that’d been accumulating since he absorbed the last round of it. …But—

Sans had avoided looking too directly at Frisk, and tried to take another quick peek now, only for his eyes to lock onto her. She’d taken off her cloak, revealing one of probably many new outfits: a dark-green velvet dress that accented the curves of her bust and hips, silver earrings that shimmered as she bent down to refill the bottle, and gray boots that reminded him of the fact that she had feet.

And when he finally managed to look back up toward her face, he was ambushed by the sight of a black choker. The damn thing looked like a collar, but it wasn’t even trying to be practical; it was just a little bit of lace hugging her neck, and a flagrant reminder that most things wearing collars had nothing else on. He’d contemplated keeping her as a pet, once upon a time, before he even—

           Suddenly, Undyne vaulted onto his shoulder, crashing his nasal ridge into the bottom edge of the balcony. The Royal Guard Captain rapped him on the skull with the butt of her spear, dispelling the last of his lust-induced stupor. “Quit staring, moron,” she hissed, and gestured to Frisk. “C’mon, lady, we need more bad guys to kill,” the fish monster said in a normal tone, raising her voice to finish, “unless Papyrus is too weak to keep going!”

           “I AM NOT!” The skeleton stomped his foot in feeble rage, trying to catch his breath as Undyne leapt down. “BUT PERHAPS…PERHAPS WE COULD TAKE A BREAK, FOR THE CHILDREN?” Two small monsters ran circles around him as he desperately added, “THEY SEEM VERY TIRED, NYEH-HEH!”

           Frisk bit her lip, and Sans wanted more than ever to scoop her up for a giant hug—not only was it always hot when she did that, it meant she wanted to help Pap without hurting his feelings. Luckily for everyone, his mouth-related thoughts suddenly turned in a more wholesome direction. “Hey,” Sans murmured, catching her attention. “Ya know what you oughta do?”

           The others stopped as Frisk leaned down to hear him whisper. “That’s a wonderful idea,” the priestess said warmly, and Sans felt his skull turn red. “Here, Undyne, I want the children to help me try something,” Frisk told her, dipping the wand again. “You two can supervise.”

           Papyrus was happy to accept his new role, and Sans also paid close attention to Frisk’s lips as she blew a long, low stream of smaller bubbles. The kids grabbed at them and squealed as a sound followed each pop—to their delight, every bubble now contained a tiny burst of music.

           Undyne reached out to poke one. “What, did you whistle into ‘em?” She jumped at the sudden sound, then laughed, popping another one. “That’s so damn cool!”

           “Sans thought of it,” Frisk said. She was grinning from ear to ear, almost prancing in place. “Here!” This time, instead of a single pitch, she whistled a scale of several notes, sliding up and back down; when the children popped them, it produced a whole tangle of sounds. The adult monsters drew closer as more bubbles drifted and burst, scattering bits of music through the chilly air.

“Yo!” cried Monster Kid, bounding nearly straight up for emphasis. “Guys! Let’s try to make ‘em into a song again!”

The adults chuckled and shook their heads, but the children loved the idea. And as it turned out, they were right: the sheer futility of trying to break the bubbles in the right order was so much fun that, before they knew it, nearly every monster in the field was chasing after them. No one could hear much of anything over all the shouting and laughter, but that was okay. Everything was okay.

“Sans?”

Still smiling, the giant skeleton turned to face Toriel, noting that she was coming from the ferry and not the Ruins. “What’s all this?” she asked.

“We’re slaughtering our foes in glorious battle,” a cute little bunny said in passing. “It sounds pretty!”

“LIKE THIS, YOUR MAJESTY!” Papyrus demonstrated with a couple of quick jabs.

Toriel’s eyes widened as the sounds made a faint chord. “How wonderful!” She looked in amazement at the crowd of happy, energetic monsters. “You haven’t even received your rations yet—is this an early celebration?”

“Nah, it’s just fun,” Undyne said cheerfully. “People were fighting over who was gonna get what, and the kids were upset, so Frisk showed ‘em how she could make this stuff. Next thing you know—” Quick as scaled lightning, the Captain flicked an energy-toothpick at a bubble overhead, grinning at the resultant chime. “F sharp! Nice.” With a salute to Toriel, Undyne was off again, lifting a couple of random children onto her shoulders.

“How wonderful,” Toriel said again. She sighed, looking fondly up at the balcony. Frisk was starting to puff a bit, but clearly determined to keep going. “What a fine young woman she’s become! It’s almost like having Chara back with us.”

Sans shuffled his slippered feet. He knew it was the highest compliment Toriel could give, but the comparison really rubbed him the wrong way. Not only had he heard a lot of things recently, he couldn’t shake the dream he’d just had—the Prince so eager to have Frisk and Chara back together, and the child trying to be good, but unable to hide her fear and uncertainty…

And speaking of Asriel: “Tell her I’m sorry.” What was that about? Who was—

Suddenly, the dreams clicked together in his mind like puzzle pieces. Asriel had tricked Frisk into meeting with Chara, knowing perfectly well that the poor kid didn’t want to. Was he only sorry for that, or had something else happened afterward, awful enough to make Asriel want to apologize from beyond the friggin’ grave?

Toriel was saying something, and the skeleton shook his head. “Sorry, Tori. What was that?”

She cleared her throat. “I was asking if you’ve met the boy who’s courting her. Frisk said he’s very kind, and wealthy, but…she didn’t seem terribly enthusiastic.”

           Sans almost laughed out loud. So much crap was going on that he’d actually forgotten about that guy! “Had some girl talk, huh?” he asked carelessly, shoving his emotions way, way back down and hoping his eyes weren’t glowing.

           The goat monster chuckled, still watching the field. “We stayed up the other night to discuss where to distribute all the food you were bringing. Afterward, yes, we did talk about her love life.”

           He made an indifferent noise. He was fine. He could do this. “I met the guy once,” he said. “Kinda boring, but I guess he could be worse.”

           Toriel nodded. Her ear twitched as a longer, sweeter trill came from above—Frisk was pulling out all the stops, Sans thought proudly. “Were you there when she spoke to the fortune-teller?” she asked.

The skeleton made himself shrug, as if he wasn’t screaming internally. Stupid girl talk! How much had Frisk told her?

Well, the fact that Toriel hadn’t murdered the shit out of him meant she probably didn’t know everything yet. How she was failing to connect the dots between Frisk and Sans’ human love interest was beyond him, but he’d keep playing along for now. “Yeah, I went with her to that festival,” he said. “Pretty weird stuff. Apparently, she’s on track to have a kid soon.”

           Toriel grimaced. “I certainly hope not. Frisk is much too young for that kind of responsibility.”

           Sans snorted, and Toriel turned to glare at him. “Sorry, but ya haven’t seen her in action,” he said. “The first time I met her, she kept me from killin’ a whole bunch of people, all by herself, an’ she wouldn’t let ‘em kill me back. She got all bloody fixin’ up some kid who came to ‘er for help at two in the morning, she’s payin’ everything for three or four different orphanages that I know of, she keeps tabs on anyone in the whole damn kingdom who might need help, and she’s workin’ on freein’ us, too.” He shook his head. “She’s not a little kid anymore, Tori. She’s got so much crap ta deal with, and she’s been takin’ care of it all on her own. As long as she finds the right guy, it’s…”

           He had to stop before he got any more worked up. Luckily, Toriel was too deep in thought to notice. “That does sound impressive, but you’re right. Her happiness depends on whether she can find a good husband, one she can trust to stand by her and care about her children—”

           Now they were both grim and silent. “Just a few more,” the human called from above them.

She sounded so breathless that Sans shook his head, reaching up to tap on the railing. “Hey, Frisk? Quit it before ya pass out.”

           Toriel listened for a moment, then nodded. Sans watched her stride out to the middle of the field and clap her hands. “Everyone,” she said, “I am glad you’ve enjoyed yourselves, but please return to your homes now. The Royal Guard will be here shortly to deliver your share of the supplies that Frisk arranged for us and Sans brought in last night.” The former Queen nodded benignly in their direction. “Thank you, both of you.”

The giant skeleton was rather embarrassed by the round of applause that followed, though Frisk seemed to take it in stride. Then again, it could be the fact that she was barely conscious. “Time to come in, Pap,” Sans said, jerking his head as the monsters bid each other cheerful farewells and went their separate ways. The children still seemed more excited about the bubbles than the prospect of food—were the poor little bastards just used to being hungry by now?

           There was no need to ask Undyne to take care of Frisk: she had already jumped straight onto the balcony and was assisting the human inside. Sans teleported into the living room, where he immediately got in the way of the Captain half-carrying her down to the couch. “’m fine,” Frisk muttered.

Sans leaned over her, scowling. “Ya need your breath, kid. Don’t use it all up next time.” Now that he was closer, he could also see dark circles under her eyes. “How much sleep didja get last night?” he demanded, and looked at Undyne. “Were you guys at Tori’s house?”

“No,” the goat monster said, shutting the door behind her and coming to sit beside Frisk. “Mettaton kept her up so late that she spent the night at the resort.” Toriel’s hand came up, glowing green, and brushed Frisk’s cheek. “If you had stayed with me, child, I’d have made sure you rested properly.”

The priestess rubbed some feeling back into her lips. “I beg to differ,” she said a moment later. “Remember how afraid I was to fall asleep that second night? Undyne was already mad because I caught her cheating at cards—”

The Captain swelled like a pufferfish. “For the last time, I didn’t frickin’ cheat! My 6 got stuck behind my queen, and I didn’t know it was there when you asked for it!”

“Mmmm-hm.” Frisk let her head fall against Toriel’s shoulder as the goat monster stroked her hair. Sans had to look away, more irritated than ever—how stupid was it to be jealous of someone mothering her? Especially considering what she’d had for an actual mom…

“Anyway,” said Undyne. She glanced at Sans, saw his expression, and whacked him again to get his attention. “You know what your damn human did to me?” Frisk smirked as Undyne pantomimed writing huge letters across her own face. “GO FISH. Is that the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard, or what?”

Sans snickered. “What? She was probably just being supportive. You know, ‘go—”

Frisk and Toriel dissolved into laughter as the Captain smacked her forehead with one webbed hand. “Argh! That’s the same dumb thing she said!”

“It’s all right,” the human said, in what Sans gleefully recognized as her pre-pun voice. “I guess our humor is just that sofishticated.”

“NOOOOO,” moaned Papyrus, who had just come inside. “NOT YOU, TOO, NYEHH!”

“What’s wrong?” asked Sans, winking at Toriel as she covered her face with one hand. “Are you mad enough to krill someone?”

“SO HELP ME, YOU TWO, I WILL LEAVE THIS HOUSE AND NEVER—”

“But it’s so nice to sea you,” Frisk said, and Sans snorted so hard that he had to sit down before he fell over. Toriel was giggling uncontrollably, clutching her sides; Undyne just shook her head and retreated into the storage room behind the kitchen cabinet.

Papyrus looked mollified. “YES, I KNOW. BUT I—” He stopped, and they nearly died as they watched it hit him. “GRAAAAH! IF HER MAJESTY WAS NOT HERE, I’D—”

“It’s all right, Papyrus,” Toriel said behind her hand. “I know I can trust you to control your temper.” Papyrus nodded, and the goat monster added, “You’ve always been a pacifisht!”

Undyne poked her head into the kitchen, raising her voice over the din: “Pap! Get away from those nerds and come help me! We need to make room for your stuff when it gets here.”

The younger skeleton sighed dramatically, even for him. “NYEH-HEH! I SUPPOSE I MAY AS WELL. AT LEAST SOMEONE AROUND HERE WILL BE DOING SOMETHING USEFUL!”

“Thank you. You’re the least shellfish person we know,” squeaked Frisk, at which Papyrus made an incoherent sound and stormed off into the kitchen.

Sans was pounding the floor, the women nearly sobbing. “Children—children, please,” Toriel said weakly, wiping her eyes. “Really, it’s time to calm down now.” A long pause… “We can’t keep kraken up like this!”

“Oh my God, they’re gonna kill themselves,” Undyne grumbled from the storage room. They had closed the cabinet door, but it wasn’t soundproof enough. “Let’s move some of this stuff to the shed, and…hey, what’s this?” She picked up a heavy package lying in the back corner. “Huh. Looks like one of Frisk’s. Pap, go ask—”

“SANS! POSSIBLY FRISK!” Papyrus charged into the living room, hoisting the box over his head and nearly tripping over his brother. “IS THIS A FORGOTTEN PUZZLE?! MAY I OPEN IT TO KEEP IT COMPANY?”

“Oh!” Frisk gave a last snrk and accepted a clean handkerchief from Toriel to wipe her face. “Actually, Papyrus, that one is for Sans.”

“Wha?” The giant skeleton sat up and quirked a brow at her. “What’re you talkin’ about? I was with ya when we bought all this crap, and I don’t remember you gettin’ me anything.”

“That’s because you weren’t paying attention,” the priestess retorted.

…She had a point. There had been quite a few times when they were in a shop and he was so bored that she could’ve been plotting the death of all monsterkind without him noticing.

“SURPRISE PUZZLES ARE THE BEST KIND! OPEN IT ALREADY!” urged Papyrus, shoving the gift at his brother’s face.

“Yeah, boss,” Undyne said from the kitchen. “Don’t be so damn shy.”

“I’m not bein’ shy! I just…I wasn’t expectin’ it.” Scowling, Sans grabbed the package and dug his phalanges into the lid. One good rip would get this over w—

“Sans!” Frisk’s voice made him hunch his shoulders like a guilty kid. “If you tear it open like that and break something, I will end you! Do you understand?”

The others watched the colossal skeleton set the package down gently, unwrapping the paper and moving it aside as though it was made of glass. Toriel and Undyne exchanged disbelieving glances as Sans located the box’s tucked-in corners, eased them loose, and picked at the ribbons tying it shut.

But a moment later, as he removed the last layers of tissue paper, their amusement faded into gasps and murmurs. Inside the box lay a chessboard gleaming in white marble and flawless onyx, each of the pieces individually wrapped and set in neat rows.

Undyne chose one at random and peeled the paper away to reveal a knight astride a black pegasus, wings spread and hooves ready to strike. “Whoa!” She picked another, this one a rook carved in the shape of a ruined tower, complete with crumbling bricks and a few tiny bird’s nests in the windows. “Where’d you find this?! Are you gonna teach him how to play?”

“We did most nights back at the castle.” Frisk shrugged. “He beat me every time.”

“Incredible,” murmured Toriel. She took the knight and held it up to examine the sculpting of its plumelike tail. “Humans have such an amazing capacity for beauty. I never could understand…” The goat monster sighed, handing the piece back. “What do you think, Sans?”

Sans couldn’t answer. He’d calmed down a lot after all the fish puns, and he would have been fine just hanging out with everyone until the Royal Guard came by. He hadn’t known Frisk was going to give him anything, much less something beautiful and thoughtful and completely perfect—like her, dammit. How was he supposed to stop feeling all these feelings when she kept doing things?

The pause became more and more uncomfortable as he glowered at the chessboard, heat building around his SOUL until he wanted more than ever to just rip his clothes off right there. “PSST! BROTHER!” Papyrus nudged him. “YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO SAY, ‘THANK YOU FOR THE MAGNIFICENT PUZZLE, NYEH-HEH! I SHOULD ASK THE GREAT PAPYRUS TO PLAY IT WITH ME, AND WEEP GENTLY WHEN I LOSE!’”

Sans fidgeted, and Frisk looked expectant. “This’s…ya know, ya didn’t hafta waste a bunch more money on somethin’ we—” His head snapped up, startling everyone. “Hey, there’s the Royal Guard! They probably need help, right? Let’s go help!”

“SANS,” Papyrus began, and huffed as his brother disappeared. “THAT’S NOT WHAT I TOLD HIM TO SAY AT ALL! HOW DID HE GET IT SO VERY WRONG?”

 ~

             Sans was not surprised by the others’ reactions when they joined him a few minutes later at the cart by the town Christmas tree. He could only imagine what they’d been saying, though the glare Undyne was giving him made her opinion pretty clear.

           “Good day,” Toriel said to the cat monster holding the supply list, ignoring Sans entirely. The cart had just come through Waterfall, the sacks and crates patterned with condensation that was already freezing into ice crystals. “I have a very selfish request,” the former Queen continued. “As you know, I was awake for the entire night, and I am extremely weary. I would like to bring my share home with me now, unless of course you need me to—”

           “You were up the whole night, Lady Toriel?” Frisk repeated, one hand on the side of the cart. She frowned, then rounded on Sans so fast that he flinched. “You want to be helpful, don’t you? Then you can take her and her things back to the Ruins!” An imperious gesture at the three guards. “The list, please,” she ordered in her High Priestess voice.

The cat-lady handed it over, bemused. The tiny human ran her finger down the page, nodded, and turned to the cart. “It should all in that crate, there, and that stack of—look where I’m pointing! Yes, that one, and those over there. No, don’t put it—”

           Sans obeyed her as fast as he could, setting the boxes neatly beside Toriel. Frisk checked them over again, then handed the list back to the feline guard. “That should be correct, but if you find any discrepancies, let me know. Has everything gone according to plan so far? No thefts or serious disputes?”

           “No, milady,” the guard replied. “We should be finished by this evening at the latest.”

Frisk smiled. “Excellent work. Please keep it up.”

The Royal Guard all saluted. Toriel’s eyebrows were raised, and Sans wished she’d look at him so he could mouth Told you so. “Good job, guys,” said Undyne, not bothering to hide her grin. “It looks like you’ve got this under control, so Frisk and I are gonna go see Alphys now. You coming, Pap?”

           “HMM.” He glanced from her to his brother and crossed his arms, clearly torn. “SHOULDN’T I STAY AND HELP PUT OUR FOOD AWAY?”

           “Oh, but Sans wants to help so much, we shouldn’t take that from him.” Undyne looked daggers – spears? – at the giant skeleton. “He can come right back here and do it after he drops off Her Majesty. Right?”

           Dammit. “Right,” grunted Sans.

           Frisk was already starting to turn away. He cast around for an excuse to talk to her again, and said, “Hey.” She glanced at him as he rummaged in his inner pockets. “Ya want those invoices back?”

           The priestess frowned at him. He hated it when she did that, especially when he deserved it. “I suppose it could be useful when I talk to His Majesty.” She started to extend a hand, and her eyes widened. “That’s right,” she said to the guards. “Did you give him my note?”

           “Yes.” The dragon guard cleared his throat. “He said no.”

           “What R02 meant to say,” the cat monster, “is that King Asgore regrets he will not be available to speak with anyone today.”

           “But he does want to talk to Sans,” the rabbit said helpfully, “and Dr. Alphys.”

           “I see,” Frisk murmured. “Thank you.” As Undyne glared at R01, the human stepped back, pulling her cloak around her. “You’d better keep them to show His Majesty, then.”

           Sans shrugged, rolled the papers back up, and opened his coat wider to find exactly where they’d been. All he could think about was reaching over to tug down her choker where it was riding too high on her throat; he forgot what else was in his pockets till he noticed her staring at something inside his coat. His SOUL tingled in alarm: the King’s golden envelope was sticking up partway, with the letters FRISK D showing. “Sans? What is that?”

           “…Uh.” Fuck. It was too late to disappear again. He glanced around at everyone listening, and at Frisk, who was already unhappy because of him. Was this really the time to tell her what her father was planning, and that the humans all knew her name now? “It’s…I-I’ll show ya later, I promise. There’s a bunch of stuff we’ve gotta talk about.”

Her frown deepened. “Agreed.” Just like that, Frisk turned to smile at Papyrus. “Shall we?”

“CERTAINLY!” He gallantly held his arm out to her, neither of them noticing how Sans’ socket twitched.

Before the bigger skeleton could say something stupid, a touch on his radius made him spin around. “If you could take me home now, I would greatly appreciate it,” Toriel said quietly.

“Sure.” He gave Frisk one last glance. “Have fun, guys.”

Undyne made another face at him, and Papyrus waved. “GOODBYE, SANS! HAVE FUN! PLEASE BE USEFUL TO HER MAJESTY AND NOT RUN OFF AGAIN BECAUSE YOU ARE EMOTIONALLY INCOMPETENT!”

Sans twitched again, and Frisk smirked. “Have a good rest, Lady Toriel,” she said over her shoulder.

“Enjoy yourselves,” Toriel replied cheerfully. But the moment the trio was out of sight, the goat monster’s smile vanished. “Back to the Ruins, please,” she said coolly.

Sans had a headache already. “Yes’m,” he mumbled. At least all this inner turmoil meant he was generating plenty of magic: she laid a hand on his arm, he made a swiping gesture at the crates, and they were all standing in the entryway of Toriel’s house, easy as butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

“I wish I could do that,” the goat monster commented, not for the first time. “Can you bring those to the kitchen for me?” She strode ahead, briskly opening cabinets and moving things aside to make room. “Also, please tell me what the matter is.”

Sans grunted, twitching a finger to waft the crates over. “Do me a favor, Tori, and gimme a check. You can probably see it for yerself.”

Toriel obligingly turned and squinted at his SOUL. “Good heavens,” she said after a moment, and looked up at him. “Sans, what in the world…?”

           If it looked half as turbulent as it felt, then it was probably pretty scary. “I wasn’t kiddin’ the other night,” he muttered.

“I…didn’t think you were. Still…” She rubbed her eyes, swaying a little with sheer tiredness. “I did want to ask you something. I heard you telling the guards last night that you inspected the carts alongside someone you trusted. By any chance, was that…?”

Well, there was a convenient misunderstanding if he’d ever heard one. “Was that what? Someone I’m totally nuts about an’ hafta stay away from because she’s a human, and just friggin’ deal with it?” He rapped on his chest. “Does it look like I’m dealin’ with it?”

           “No, you are not.” Toriel crossed her arms at the waist. “Sans. I know this must be difficult for you, but—”

“Let’s play pretend for a minute,” he said conversationally. “Imagine I came up to you sometime real soon with a human an’ said, ‘Here ya go, meet the wife.’” Just saying the word made his SOUL ache further. “What would you do?”

           Her eyes narrowed to golden slits. “It would depend,” Toriel said with deceptive calmness, “whether you would prefer I be kind, or truthful. Do you want my blessing to try and find happiness for a few short years, and to be even more alone in the world once she d—”

           That did it. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Tori! Ya think I don’t know how screwed I am?” Sans snarled, and her mouth fell open. “I didn’t tell you about this so you could give me a kick in the goddamn teeth! I told ya ‘cause I wanted to talk with somebody who might have some idea what I’m goin’ through! If that’s too much to ask, just fuckin’ forget about it!”

           “I am sorry, Sans! I truly am!” There was a puff of smoke as Toriel threw her hands up. “If you could marry a human, I would be the first to congratulate you! But as things are…” Her face contorted. “What does my opinion even matter? You know that I have no power here, no matter how many people keep calling me ‘Majesty’! I can do nothing to help you!”

           “You could still be my goddamn friend! That’s all I wanted!” He kicked at nothing. “But no, yer so worried about botherin’ little ol’ Gorey that—”

           Whump.

           Sans stared at the scorch mark at his feet, a smoking, blackened ring on the tiles. Then he looked at Toriel, whose hand was still aimed at the floor, her chest heaving as though she’d run the entire length of the Underground. “Do not. Talk to me. About. Asgore,” she said through gritted fangs. “That wretched man has already cost me my entire family! Do you think I enjoy catering to his paranoia and living in fear that someone else I care for will be banished, or die? What do you think he would do if you were to wed a human? What would happen to you, and to her? If Asgore decided you were truly a threat—”

He could feel his eyes burning, and didn’t trust himself to say anything. Toriel gulped. “It is not safe for you to marry a human, Sans. It is not safe for any human down here! You’ve seen it for yourself! Frisk is the only one he will even tolerate, and he could still…” Another shake of her head, ears flapping against her cheeks. “You know Asgore. All he has to do is ignore her until she leaves. It would be so easy, wouldn’t it?” The goat-woman buried her face in her hands. “Those damned men would just shrug and say that she failed in her mission, and I would never see her again! I can’t lose anyone else, Sans! I can’t—”

           The skeleton’s anger subsided as he watched the former Queen’s shoulders rise and fall. He took a couple of steps toward her, sliding his hands into his pockets. “What happened with Chara?” he asked quietly. “Why wouldn’t he let her come back?”

           Toriel’s fingers curled, claws digging into her muzzle. “It wasn’t her fault,” she muttered, eyes hard and dry. “He said he didn’t blame her, but he still agreed to send her away. And when that bastard human would not marry her as he promised, Chara needed us—she needed her family! But Asgore said she was lying, and he sent her away again! I didn’t see my little girl for ten years, Sans! And then—”

           Sans stayed silent. Toriel let her arms fall, and slid down against the cabinet until she was slumped on the kitchen floor. “I got her back, and it was too late. She hated us both,” she said dully. “She died hating me, Sans. And she was right. I couldn’t protect her from Asgore, and when the accident happened, I could not protect her or Asriel. I was right there, and I could do nothing! All I did was send the humans away, and he even begrudged me that!” The goat monster gripped her robe, nearly puncturing the fabric. “Now my only friend comes to me for a sympathetic ear, and what do I do? I sneer at him for confiding in me and complain about my troubles!” She scrubbed her eyes with her sleeve. “I’m completely useless, as always.”

           “Don’t say that, Tori! Remember that one little thing where ya kept the humans from declarin’ war on us an’ sealing the whole damn Underground? Besides…” Sans shuddered as something else came to him. “For all we know, he woulda had Kris killed, too.” He crouched to her eye level. “You saved Frisk’s life, Tori. Are you sayin’ that wasn’t worth somethin’?”

She swallowed again. “I…I don’t—”

“An’ she grew up to be High Priestess, and she saved my life when I got caught. If it wasn’t for you, she’d be dead, and I’d be dead or worse.” He shook his head. “If she was dead, we wouldn’t be gettin’ any food deliveries, or monsters comin’ home, or random bubble parties—” Despite himself, he chuckled. “Or fish puns—”

           Toriel managed a smile. “That was fun, wasn’t it? Poor Papyrus.” She gave a long, deep sigh. “I may have saved her life, but as far as I am concerned, you are the reason she has come back to us. Thank you, Sans.” The goat monster got to her feet and wiped her eyes again on her sleeve. “I…I still don’t know what to tell you about your human. I haven’t even asked you her name, what she is like, how far your relationship has progressed—may I assume you intend to keep courting her?”

           “Uh…” Sans ducked his head, scuffing his slipper over the burned floor tiles. “Tell you the truth, she’s kinda the one courtin’ me.”

           “Sans!” the goat monster scolded him. “You’ve found a woman with enough magic, strength of mind, and good taste to fall in love with you, and you’re letting her do all the work?”

           The skeleton scratched his neck vertebrae. “…Yeah?”

           Toriel gave him one of her squinty, pursed-mouth glares, and he held up his hands. “I know, I know! It’s just…there’s all this stuff, but it’s her, an’ I never met a her before, an’ I—”

“All right, all right.” Toriel sighed again. “I still wish you would change your mind, but I understand that it’s not so simple.” She couldn’t conceal a yawn. “We can talk more when I’ve had some rest. I promise.” To his surprise, she took his hand and gave it a good squeeze. “In the meantime, go and help the Royal Guards, and then apologize to Frisk. That was the most lovely gift imaginable, and you behaved as though she’d handed you a steaming pile of—”

           “Yeah, yeah.” Sans lifted one shoulder. “Okay, Ma, I promise I’ll be good. Go get some sleep.”

           “Yes, dear. And, Sans—” She gave him a look he couldn’t interpret. “I hate to be intrusive, but…if everyone is gathered again this evening, could I please join you? If it’s all right with the others?”

           Sans made a rude noise. “Of course I’ll come ‘n get you. We’re almost halfway through her offishal visit.”

           Toriel laughed. “Well, water you still doing here? Go on!”

He chucked, raising a hand. “‘Kay. See ya, Toriel.”

           “Thank you, Sans.” She swatted at him playfully, letting him dodge out of the way. “Now, shoo!”

[caretaker-au]

Subterfuge

Interlude: Kindness

Spring 2031

—

Today should have been a wonderful day. After all, it was a day that Chara had been dreaming about for the past 3 years, loading and reloading, hoping fate would deliver to them another human soul. And today, it had. Lounging comfortably beneath the gnarled black tree in the ruins, the human was practically waiting at their doorstep. They were female and older than the previous children, somewhere in their early teens. Some sort of fabric was wrapped around their leg where blood was seeping through, but otherwise they seemed unharmed, an unfaltering smile gleaming beneath their green eyes and long lashes.

But of course, Chara could not be so lucky.

Spoiling the sight was the human’s monster companion. Probably still in grade school, Chara recognized the monster as being the son of the Whimsun family. Undoubtedly responsible for the human’s survival, the fairy monster seemed to realize his guilt and hid behind the shoulder of the human.

The teenager hadn’t seemed to notice the monster’s discomfort, instead acknowledging the caretaker’s arrival with a cheery, "Hello! You must be Chara!"

Chara bristled at the familiarity. "You. What is your name."

"Oh!" the child chimed, "My name is—"

“Not you.” Chara interjected, pointing past the human, “Him.”

The winged monster poked his head into view, eyes downcast. “Wh--Whimsy. I’m sorry, Chara, I know I’m not supposed to be here... please don’t tell mom and dad.”

“We will see about that. Come here.”

Whimsy fluttered towards Chara, casting an apologetic look back. Arching an eyebrow, the human leaned forward as if to stand, to which Chara barked, “No. Stay.” They winced a little at the order but complied. Chara turned their attention to the monster and spoke in a hushed voice, while keeping an eye on the human behind him.

“When did you come here, Whimsy?” Chara asked.

“Lunch time… around noon.”

Chara checked their watch with a frown. It was already past 2:00 pm, and they had created a save point only an hour ago, not early enough to stop Whimsy from trespassing. 

“And the human. When did it arrive?”

“I don't know. I found them under the big hole in the ruins, calling for help.”

The timing couldn’t be worse. No matter how many times they reloaded, Chara was stuck in this uncomfortable confrontation between the three of them. Unfortunate save times happened occasionally, but rarely were they this bad.

Fidgeting in the silence, Whimsy continued, “They’re hurt, Chara..”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s hurt,” Chara said, lowering their voice further, “You know what happened to Asriel.”

Whimsy’s eyes widened, “What happened to Asriel?”

Lovely. This monster was too young to have witnessed Asriel’s injury or to be told the gory details. Chara sighed, exasperated. Later they would have to make an appeal to the education department to include such information in schools. Speaking of, the young human was watching them, brow furrowed as they tried to listen in.

Chara pulled a key out of their pocket, locking the front door of the house they had passed through to come here. “Walk with me, Whimsy,” they said, gesturing for him to follow. Whimsy nodded as Chara walked toward the human beneath the tree, then right past them. “Remain there. I will be back for you.”

“Goodbye, Whimsy!” the human called out, “I’ll see you soon?”

“Good… goodbye…” Whimsy responded. If he was going to add anything else, he didn’t get the chance. Chara reached out their hand to lead Whimsy toward the southern exit. Together, they walked down the hall on their left, where another open doorway led to the city of Home.

While the Ruins had been left to crumble, Home was still bustling with life. In this room, they could overlook the glowing city scape under the vast cave ceiling. Unfortunately, the glittering view was obscured by a heavy metal gate that wrapped around them like a cage. Chara knew that small monsters like Whimsy would be able to fit through the bars, but they didn’t think anyone was brave or stupid enough to enter the Ruins without permission. Not only was it against the law, but the gate was erected to protect Home from humans. Entry through the gate was only permitted with Chara serving as a scout and escort.

Now out of earshot of the human, Chara scolded Whimsy for entering the Ruins, explaining in morbid detail what happened to Asriel. Unsympathetic to Whimsy’s look of horror, they went on to threaten reporting him to the authorities and his parents for breaking the law. As Chara hoped, Whimsy collapsed like a house of cards, apologizing and begging Chara not to tell. Chara made the young monster a deal, promising not to report if him if he swore not to tell anyone about going to the Ruins or seeing the human. Using one of their keys, Chara opened the gate for Whimsy, who solemnly passed through.

“Wait…” Whimsy said, eyes pleading, “Don’t be mad at them, okay? I know humans are dangerous, but this one is really nice…”

Chara opened their mouth to argue, but stopped, changing tactics instead, “I will bear this in mind. If it-- if they are as harmless as you say, I will let them go.”

“Really?” 

Chara smiled, “If I deem them worthy, then of course.”

Whimsy sighed in relief, but his assurance was short lived as Chara reiterated that if anyone found out about their trespassing, there would be severe consequences. Whimsy headed home, and Chara locked the gate, waiting until the small monster was out of sight before letting out a sigh.

Finally. Back to business.

Chara startled upon returning to the black tree in the yard. The human had raised themself to their full height, and they were tall. Freakishly tall. From a distance, Chara would have mistaken the child for an adult if their face and gangly limbs hadn’t given them away. Wrapped around their waist was an apron, dirty with food and mud, and the child fidgeted with a heavy cast iron skillet. Did they always have that? More importantly, why did they have such a thing?

Chara took a moment to smooth out their robe. They considered setting a save point, but decided against it, in case they would need to reattempt the talk with Whimsy. Chara approached the child with their best smile, but judging by the skeptical look the child gave in return, it must not have been convincing.

"Hello child," Chara said, "I would introduce myself, but it seems you already know who I am. Nevertheless, my name is Chara, the caretaker of these ruins. It is unfortunate that I was not the first to greet you."

The child shifted their weight, eyes glancing to the doorway behind Chara, "Where is Whimsy?"

"Home."

"The town called Home, or his own home?"

Chara's smile faltered. Just how much had Whimsy told her?

"Both." they answered, their tone short, "And it is time for you to go as well."

The child's eyes widened, "You can take me home? But Whimsy said--!"

"Whimsy does not know what I know." Chara turned on their heel, facing back to the ruins, "Follow."

The teenager hesitated for a moment before choosing to obey, catching up to Chara in a few paces. Their stature put them a few inches taller than Chara. Troublesome.

There were several rooms between them and their destination.  Chara would have been content to walk in silence, but their curiosity got the better of them. They spoke without turning around. "Tell me. Why do you have that."

"Have what?"

Isn't it obvious? Chara glared over their shoulder, eyes fixed on the pan the kid was swinging as they walked. "In your hand. Is it a weapon?"

"A weapon?" the teenager repeated incredulously, "No, no, this is for cooking, obviously! Though I probably look pretty strange carrying a pan around, huh?"

Chara doesn't answer, setting their eyes back on the path. Out with it already.

"You see, I was camping with my friend and we wanted to try cooking over an open fire. We'd never done that before so once the fire was going we were trying a bit of everything: potatoes, chorizo, even pancakes! Most of the stuff got burned pretty bad, but we managed to eat a few treats before… before…"

Chara heard the human’s steps slow to a stop. They looked back, and the young camper was hugging the pan to their chest, eyes downcast. For the first time since they arrived, the child looked small.

Chara resumed walking. "Keep up."

The child did as ordered, following without a word until they reached a wide room covered with cracked floor tiles. The floor was still intact, evidence that Whimsy did well guiding the child through it. Considering the circumstances, it was probably for the best. After all, Whimsy was not strong enough to witness the death of a human. Few monsters could.

Chara faced the child once more and pretended not to notice that the human’s eyes were red and puffy. "You already know how this puzzle works. Follow carefully."

The teenager nodded, stepping into each of Chara's footprints as they lead the way, "Hey, Chara..." 

The child didn’t notice Chara wincing at the unwanted familiarity, "You sort of remind me of my friend. You're both so serious and quiet, and to be honest, you two have this weird sort of resemblance. Like, of course you don't look the same or anything, but you feel familiar because of it, you know?"

"I don't."

"Oh… okay, well…" the child exited the puzzle of broken tiles after Chara, tilting their head to the side to look at the caretaker’s face, "Either way, it's… it's nice,” they smiled again, nervously looking away, “I keep telling myself, if you are anything like my… my partner, then I know that even if you don’t look it, you’re actually a really good person deep down."

Chara was a bit taken aback by the sudden compliment. For the first time since their meeting, they returned them a sincere smile, "That's kind of you to say. I think I am as well."

The teenager relaxed, relieved to get a positive response from Chara, "I'm sure you are! Should we keep going? My friend needs me, and I've spent too long here already."

"Of course," Chara hummed, "But first, take a look back and say your goodbyes. After all, this will be the last time you see the Underground."

The child gave Chara a quick quizzical look, before turning to face the puzzle, "Yeah, I guess you're right," mindful of the cracked floor, they stepped to the right to better see through the doorway on the other side of the room, "I was so focused on leaving I didn't really appreciate it here. You know, I wish I could have stayed a little longer. Maybe do something nice for Whimsy."

"That can be arranged." 

The human’s head began to turn—perhaps to ask Chara what they meant—but before they could open their mouth, Chara pushed them forward by their shoulders. The child sprawled across the cracked floor which shattered like thin ice, revealing the ten foot drop underneath. A shriek escaped the teenager's lips before momentum and gravity dragged them into the field of spikes poised below.

Chara would never get used to the sound.

Not wanting to get pulled in with their victim, Chara had backed away from the edge, safe against the wall behind them. They watched the dust curl around the broken chasm in lazy spirals, and noted that while their heart rate was elevated, they felt strangely calm. Like killing a rat that had been tearing apart the pantry, completing the grisly act was a welcome relief.

Combing their hair back with their fingers, Chara took a few slow measured breaths, basking in their victory.

Four souls. No—five, including themself. Salvation was nearly within reach.

interlude: kindness // end

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[undertalethingies]

Self Indulgent Self Insert Fanfic, Part One

I am sitting in my room, not doing much of anything, (as per usual) when I look up and notice that my mirror has apparently transformed into a solid wall of inky darkness as I’ve been spacing out.

And well- it’s not like I can not poke it, right? There’s a high chance I’ll seriously regret it, if my life has become the isekai it appears to be, but there’s a 100% chance I’ll regret it forever if I don’t touch it, you know?

Everyone always assumes I’m risk averse, that I like to play it safe, but the truth of the matter is I’ve just never found something I really want to take a risk with.

So, I push myself out of bed with a hand and go grab my shoes, because there’s no way in hell I’m touching something that might be a portal with no shoes on. Thankfully, I’m actually dressed for once, rather than being in my bathrobe like usual. 

Once I’ve got my shoes on, I grab my coat from where it hangs by my dresser and walk straight into what used to be my mirror. I hope my parents aren’t too worried by my disappearance. Maybe I’ll be lucky and this will be the kind of isekai that retroactively erases me from existence? That would be kind of nice, to exist without tethers.

The portal (because that’s what it is, I’m pretty sure) feels cool, but not unpleasantly so. Like when you first put on a fleece sweater and it takes a moment to warm up.

If this were a stereotypical isekai story, things would quickly become very unpleasant in this dark void, and some godlike being would reach out to grant me power beyond my wildest imaginings.

I’ve never been one to cave to expectations, though. Not even my own.

The darkness remains cool and comforting, and I continue walking forward because there’s no chance I’m going to turn back now, with so much possibility awaiting me if I only continue long enough.

Eventually, I feel as if I’ve passed some threshold, and something definably changes within me. Can’t say what, though. I’ve always kinda sucked at interpreting what my body is trying to tell me, so I’ll probably have to figure it out on my own.

At some point the darkness and walking grows boring, and so I do what I often do when bored, and curl up to go to sleep. This place isn’t cold enough for me to need a blanket, and I’ve got my coat with me anyway, so I’m fine. Sleeping on hard surfaces isn’t unpleasant, in my opinion, merely a bit annoying, since if you pick the wrong position you’ll inevitably wake up sore.

As always, consciousness takes a while to fade, so I occupy myself with grand imaginings about all the wonderful (and terrible, I’ve got anxiety okay, I can’t help it) things that might await me.

==

When I wake, it’s immediately obvious that something is different. There’s light now, for one, and for two I can feel something soft and organic beneath me. Judging by smell alone… Flowers? Waking up on a bed of flowers in a lit room… Well, I’ve always wished I could live in Undertale, if only so I could chew out the characters for bottling up their feelings so damn much. Hey, maybe if I’m lucky, that one headcanon I have about Sans secretly being a teenager will be right and I’ll be able to flirt with him without it being creepy.

Oh come on, like everyone attracted to dudes and not overly hung up about species concerns doesn’t want to kiss that guy, are you kidding me? Plus, I love puns and I’m depressed, surely we’ll get along.

Oh boy, I’m definitely going to die, huh? Thank fuck for my high pain tolerance and ridiculous resistance to trauma, am I right?

Finally, I open my eyes, because I like to wake up slow and I see no reason to alter my existing routine simply because I’ve apparently been yeeted into my favorite video game. Hey, speaking of favorite video games, will I get to visit Hollow Knight next? No, wait, that would probably suck, wouldn’t it. Ah, well.

The cave is just as beautiful as I always imagined it would be. Though it looked lovely in the game art, there’s truly nothing that can compare to seeing the sight in person, those marble pillars in a half circle around me, that single spot of sunlight in the ceiling far (far, far) above. Not to mention the lovely flowers I’m laying on at this very moment and- there’s a dead body under me, isn’t there. Is Chara going to show up, or am I left to be alone in my head?

Though their narration doesn’t actually start until you meet Flowey, in the game, so I suppose I’ll just have to wait and see.

Wait.

Wait wait wait.

Which human soul am I taking the place of right now? Because I read a fic once where the protagonist wasn’t the seventh, even if it was a fakeout, and I very much do not want to be saddled with the fate of those poor bastards.

Though, maybe I’d be able to talk my way out? There’s no one who’d call me diplomatic, for sure, but I’m pretty great at knowing exactly where to aim an insult to utterly break someone’s spirit. (Unusual skill, I’m aware, but in my defense I was bullied growing up)(I say “growing up” like I’m not still doing it, like I’m not fourteen and trapped in a world where it’s an accepted fact that the protagonist will die, and several times over, too)

My first order of business is Flowey, before I can take the time to freak out, to hold myself tight and weather the sheer panic that Toto, I am not in Kansas anymore.

I get up. I give a last fond look to the beautiful cave I’ve “fallen” into, and I walk to the next room, hoping all the while that I’m not signing my own death sentence.

Once I’m a few feet in, there he is, in all his fucking glory.

Flowey the flower, the soulless remnant of prince Asriel Dreemurr, former hope of the underground, possibly still holder of the ability to control time itself.

Yeah, I’m definitely going to mess with him. Self preservation is for losers.

“You’re a flower with a face,” I say before he can start with his usual greeting. I have it memorized anyway, so it’s not like I’m missing out on anything.

He makes his T-T face, so I know this isn’t how he thought this would go. 

“Wow, human! What gave you that impression?” Ooh, sassy. Literally his only positive trait.

“Well I have eyes, see,” I was planning  to ask him probing questions, but honestly this is just as good. His expression doesn’t change as he says his next sentence, nor does his ever cheery tone, (and holy fuck his voice is just as vaguely creepy as I’d imagined, all that childlike innocence paired with the fact that he’s a mass murderer)

“Well howdy, human with eyes! I’m Flowey, flowey the flower!” He says. I don’t interject.

“You’re clearly new to the underground, and it looks like I’m the only one around to show you how things work around here! Are you ready?” 

…

“I’m really not, to be honest. I’ve got no idea what’s going on,” So my plan here, basically, is to stall until Toriel gets here. Mostly because I’m hoping that if he doesn’t get the chance to do his betrayal, he’ll keep pretending to be nice, which will be hilarious since I’ll know he’s faking the whole time.

Admittedly, this significantly increases the likelihood that Toriel won’t come to save me when he inevitably finds a secluded place to murder me, but if I think too hard about the long term right now I’m going to scream, so.

“Well you see, human, you’ve fallen into the underground, a land inhabited by monsters! Don’t worry though, we’re quite nice,” Oh right, conversation. I wonder how much info I can get out of him…

“What’s a monster? Like, I know what it means on the surface, but that definition is pretty vague, and I don’t want to be accidentally racist,” 

His face pops back to the usual smile. (Side note: his face looks like it was drawn on with sharpie and it’s totally messing me up)

“A monster is a being made of magic!” Ok, that’s… a bit vague, but not really inaccurate. I guess he doesn’t want to get into the science, which is a damn shame, since he probably knows it backwards and forwards due to all his reset shenanigans.

“Woah, cool. Magic is real? How does it work without breaking thermodynamics?” Finally, the question I’ve always wanted to ask. If energy can’t be created, how the fuck does Toriel shoot fireballs from her hands? What is she drawing on, what is the fire burning, how hot is it, how does it keep being on fire, etc. etc. repeat for every magical display in the game.

“Well, a lot of it isn’t super understood. Scientists have mostly been pinning it on ‘dark energy’ like they do with every other phenomenon they don’t totally understand,” I wonder why he’s so willingly entertaining my time wasting antics. I know, in game, he didn’t realize he’d lost control over the timeline until after his first talk with Frisk, so maybe he’s just waiting it out to see where it goes? And then of course he must be planning other things to do with me before he takes my soul and goes to the surface…

“God, I hate dark energy in science. I know they just call it that because not much is known about it, but I’m thirsty for knowledge, you know?” Actually ‘thirsty for knowledge’ describes my mood like 90% of the time. Huh, actually, I have that in common with Flowey, right? Even if his knowledge thirst is just due to boredom.

“Hey, human, me too! Learning new things is great!” There’s a loaded sentence if i’ve ever heard one. When was the last time he learned something new? He’s supposedly read every book in the underground, but how much information from that did he actually retain?

“Isn’t it? It’s why I love Youtube so much. Free information for anyone who cares to make a few clicks!” Wait, he probably doesn’t know what Youtube is, actually.

“What’s Youtube?” He asks, cocking his head.

“It’s a service where you can upload videos or watch videos other people have uploaded,” Not the most nuanced explanation, but it’ll do for now. Before Flowey has a chance to respond, a fireball manifests next to him. 

I don’t smile because I’m pretending to be shocked, but I’m laughing my ass off on the inside. The face he makes is even more ridiculous in person.

Enter Toriel, queen of the monsters, mother of no living children.

[blacksheep28]

Frisks

I do a bit of a weird thing with Underswap. I know people put Monster Kid as Temmie, but I’ve always found switching Asriel and Chara to make more sense, having Chara be the royal monster child and Asriel the human that fell, with Chara trapped as Temmie. Of course this left me with a bit of a problem: if Frisk is the one to free the Underground in Underswap, what are they like? So I did some brainstorming and came up with some various Frisks.

Undertale:

Frisk is a mute, self contained, doesn't really reach out to others for themself but does do things for others. They are very survival focused. It actually takes them a few tries to get through the Underground as it takes them a while to figure out what's necessary to break the barrier (aka a pacifist run). They don't do any genocide runs, though they have killed monsters out of frustration in some resets. They're satisfied with being around the monsters, but even though Toriel is technically their mom they remain very independent. 

They wanted to hide from their human family and were making plans to try and live on their own on the mountain.  They were pretty young and while good at taking care of themselves they hadn't really thought through the full implications of what they wanted to try. They never really got a chance to realize that trying to live on the mountain was a bad idea as their first day on the mountain they tripped and fell into a crevice on the mountain that lead to the Underground.

Underfell:

Fell Frisk was deliberately abandoned on the mountain.  while Fell Frisk is also good at taking care of themselves they also have an intense need for affection. They will disregard their own needs if they think that doing something will make another person like them. While Tale Frisk was neglected with some physical abuse Fell Frisk was emotionally and verbally abused. They often have nightmares about being abandoned and doing the wrong thing. When they realized they had been left on the mountain to die they actually jumped down the crevice to try and kill themselves so they would no longer burden the world with their presence.

Tale Frisk has some issues with letting others close to them but is slowly starting to open up while Fell Frisk basically offers their heart out to everyone they meet in the hope that this time someone will need and want them. Fell Flowey actually saved Fell Frisk's life by giving them a purpose. It didn't matter to Fell Frisk how much the monsters hurt them, they were needed. They were going to save everyone. And they cared so much about them. Breaking the barrier and bringing monsters to the Surface was the best thing they ever did. They are very clingy around Toriel.

Underswap:

Swap Frisk grew up in an orphanage.  Swap Frisk's biggest dream is of having a family, but they're getting old enough to start hearing the stories of older kids and worry they aren't ever going to be adopted out.  Swap Frisk is around 10 or 11 and they head to the mountain on their birthday because they've decided (much like Tale Frisk) that they need to learn independence. Unlike Tale Frisk who has actually learned to be independent, while Swap Frisk is pretty quiet and used to moving a lot they also aren't as independent or prepared for the realities of being on their own. They actually go through the Underground with "oh crap this is weird I've gotta get back before anyone notices I'm missing this was such a bad idea aaaaaahhhhh" except the monsters are all so weird and friendly and wanna spend time with Frisk and it's really different?

It's not like the orphanage was really bad. Frisk got lucky there, they know the horror stories. They just were one among many, and with how much they moved they never really had any friends. And now all the monsters here want to be their friend and talk to them and Asgore even wants to keep them and be their dad and this is actually really kinda overwhelming. When they learn what happened to make the queen start collecting the souls of humans they really get it. They know what it is to want a family, and hearing that Queen Toriel had her children killed aches. Queen Toriel and Asgore end up awkwardly sharing custody of them and Frisk feels spoiled that they don't just get one home and family, but two.

Swapfell Frisk:

Swapfell Frisk is from an orphanage as well, but they've kinda given up. They heard the tales about the mountain, and were vaguely curious in a morbid kind of way. Didn't really want to die, but didn't think anyone would care if they did. When they learn about monsters they actually feel themselves wanting to reach out. It's really hard for them and they spend a lot of time feeling like they've messed up, but they're trying. And the amazing part is that they're seeing the monsters respond to them. Swapfell Frisk actually expects things to end so is just trying to enjoy things as much as possible. They're really surprised when Asgore adopts them and takes them in after monsters are freed

[tymki]

Bravery - Chapter Six

Asriel was going to show me around, but Toriel said that I should probably have a shower first. Never thought I’d miss that stuff but here we are. I washed my face, brushed my hair (which was really painful), cleaned my teeth and even washed behind my ears. It was a bit of a shock when I looked at myself in the mirror… wow, I really look different now. Much thinner, much paler and… older…? I mean, I’ve only aged a month but it’s weird. My eyes look different. Is that the stare thing Asriel talked about before? The front yard stare, or whatever it’s called? Then I put my old clothes in the laundry. I checked my pockets first, as Mum always told me to back home. Nothing there anymore but dust from the dog food and the fingerless gloves I came here in. Almost forgot I had them. They have dust on them too, but it’s from… other stuff. Asriel flinched when he saw it, and I did too. I haven’t worn them since my first week here, when I realised it didn’t make a difference and only made Chara hate me more. We decided to get rid of them, which is a shame because they’re one of the few things I have from home. When I came here, I had a couple of sweets in my pockets, my house keys, as well as my phone. Well, the phone I shared with Finn, anyway. But all that stuff was stolen by Chara while I was out cold. I wonder if I could find out where the phone went? I want to talk to my family again... It’s been so long and so much has happened… Now I’m wearing Asriel’s old clothes. They don’t fit very well and they’re sort of itchy from the fur, but there’s no way in hell I’m going anywhere near Chara’s old stuff. We’d both hate that and I’d probably get murdered again and I really, really, really don’t want that. Asriel impatiently waits for me as I get measured – human clothes have to be custom made – and then shows me around the castle. The guards follow me around everywhere. It’s to keep the Royal Family, the Dreemurrs, safe. Since it’s Dogaressa and Dogamy, I don’t mind, and they don’t mind either because I pet and play with them a bunch. But it sucks that I’ve got no idea how long they have to tag along with me. Probably until everyone’s sure I’m not going to kill again, however long that’ll take. Most of the rooms Asriel takes us through are huge and echoey. They’re used for public things – meetings, conferences, weddings, funerals, birthday parties, the usual stuff. We walk by the public kitchen and I can smell dinner being made. It smells so good. Feels like ages since we had that meal back in Snowdin.

On the tour, Asriel shows me all of these rooms and excitedly tells me about all of them, but then he awkwardly moves us past one. Very suspicious… I stop and go back. “Hey Asriel, what’s in here?” “O-oh, that room? That’s the… uh… barrier…” “The barrier?!” “I-I mean, you can go in there any time-“ I run in and everyone else follows me. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so… trippy… it’s a wall, sort of, that fades constantly between black and white. It seems to go on forever, like a void, but that’s impossible – my family’s on the other side of this thing. It makes this creepy wooshing sound. I can’t really explain it, but I find myself drawn to it. I stretch out my hand to touch it. Oh wait. I turn back to Asriel. The guards are watching me closely. “I can touch it, right? It’s not gonna kill me or anything, is it?” “Oh no, but I still wouldn’t-“ I touch it. It’s like touching cold dough. My chest feels light. I can see a bright orange glow and I look down and see that it’s coming from me - my soul’s outside my body! It’s so bright it lights up the room. That’s… weird… I’m usually dead when I see it, and I’m usually falling away from it. Then there’s that damn golden light that always appears sooner or later… Asriel looks at the glowing heart with interest. Dogaressa and Dogamy are shocked – seems they’ve never seen a human soul before. Lucky them. It’s kind of creepy to me that the glow it gives off seems so warm and comforting. It’s because I’m alive… at least I hope so. “So yours is orange, huh? Wonder why human souls come in different colours…” I stare shocked at Asriel. “They do?” “Yeah, Chara’s is red and the kid who came here before you had a cyan soul.” “So… what does yours look like?” He touches the barrier and shows me. A white upside-down heart. “That’s… weird. I’ve never seen a monster’s soul before. Didn’t realise they’d be so different.” “Well I’m not surprised you haven’t seen it before. The only way you can do that is if you kill a boss monster like me or my parents.” I flinch at that. Why would you bring up monster killing again?! I promised, didn’t I?! I’m not going to… not again… “… Ash? Are you okay?” I turn away from Asriel and look again at my own soul. So this is what Chara sees when they murder me… Mum, Dad, everyone… I’m sorry for everything. Sorry I couldn’t see you one last time. Sorry I was so annoying. I love you all. Tears run down my face as my last thoughts echo in my brain. I stare at the void in front of me. It’s so frustrating knowing that my family’s right on the other side of this damn thing. Hope they’re doing okay. Guess I’ll never know because I can’t leave this place. I’m probably going to die in this room. I take my hand off the barrier and turn away, rubbing my eyes with my sleeves. The room gets darker. I guess Asriel’s taken his hand off the barrier too. “I-I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have said that, Ash…” “… I’m fine. Let’s just go.” “B-but you’re not-“ “I SAID I-“ I see him jump. Dogamy and Dogaressa have their weapons out. I take a deep breath and try again. “I said I’m fine.” I turn away, check my eyes are dry and face everyone again with a smile. “Let’s just continue the tour. Please.” Asriel hesitates. I know he wants to question me more but he just looks at me closely instead. “Okay… if you say so…” We leave the barrier… for now…

---

First // Previous // Next

[gasters-story]

Chapter 31

Word count: 2,369

Warning: Death

This was honestly the first time Anton has ever visited Gaster's labs. He had let Grillby try to close the bar down for what could be called “a day” and now was a bit lost on where to go. Gaster wasn't anywhere in the first part of the lab so Anton was left to find his way through himself. He had no idea where the scientist could be since hd never asked Gaster about visiting in the first place. Anton honestly should have done so, especially for this reason but then he wouldn't be here at all since Gaster would just shoo him away. It's been a month since he went to the bar so Anton wanted to he able to see him.

He was just waiting for an elevator to take him to another part of this labyrinth and when he walked around he hoped he'd just turn the corner to see Gaster there. That didn't happen though, instead running into one of the “helpers” or mini assistants that he had to ask for help. That's when he was finally able to find Gaster in the lower lab but not how he expected nor how he hoped to.

It looked like a tornado had been repeated in a crazy experiment and was allowed to roam the room, though that was probably the most normal thing since Gaster had those helpers organize his paperwork for a reason. The worst part was the machine with singe marks on and around it, a few papers near causing smoke to full the room since they were singed red from where they were slowing burning to ash.

Luckily those papers were isolated and just burnt away. Anton could see Gaster trying to salvage what he can though and muttering plenty of curses under his breath. Anton would've just waited until Gaster gave up since there wasn't many papers left burning and he wouldn't mix well with already burning things in this situation.

Anton quickly took notice when he saw blood running down Gaster's skull and made his way over to the other fast enough to catch him by surprise. It was clear the skeleton didn't know the elemental was there at first because when Anton grabbed him by the arm and pull him closer to inspect the wound, he looked very startled. The blood wasn't from a spider webs of cracks at least. Instead it just branched into a new line at the top of his head. Anton was relieved it wasn't anything extremely bad.

'Thank goodness you're okay.’ He writes once he pulls away from the other. Gaster takes a moment to comprehend, even blinking a few times before just nodding and going back to salvaging. Anton had to tap his shoulder to get his attention again. 'You should treat the crack though. How did it happen?’

“I, uh…” Gaster seemed to be a slight mess as he picked up papers and thought as he did so. “It must've been when I hit my head earlier while working.” Anton could already guess Gaster would say he never noticed by being busy.

‘Well where's your medical supplies then?’ Anton was glad that Gaster just told him and soon he was back with them. Gaster had already salvaged what he could and was trying to decipher as well as organize.

Anton tapped Gaster again to get his attention and showed him he got the supplies. Gaster sighed but just let him so he just read some of the pages and kept still. It wasn't long before Gaster was good to go.

“Thanks…” He mutters before seriously going back to work. Anton watches him for a few moments before tapping Gaster's shoulder for the third time now. The skeleton looked up once again before staring in some sort of confusion. Anton had his arms open for a hug. Gaster paused for a moment, then two, before he moved to give an awkward hug to the other. It was only awkward on his side though, for Anton just embraced him warmly as a “you're welcome”.

The hug was definitely a warm one, Gaster could vouch for that, but it also gave a numbing and fuzzy feeling. It felt like the ache from his stress was just leaking out of his bones and allowing for him to relax. It was enough to have his thoughts drift a little too much and cause hum to start dozing off from his energy feeling sapped. He wanted to refuse it but didn't feel like moving so he was eventually accepting sleep.

Anton had to pick him up to carry him out of the room in attempt to get him to his room. The elemental ended up bumping into Sans on the way out, startling both at first. Once Sans noticed who it was and what happened, he quickly just relaxed.

“Looks like I'll have to turn Chara away today.” He says with a soft smile. “This way.” He directs Anton to Gaster's room so the flame's arms were great when they got there. Once they were, he was able to happily sign to Sans.

'Thank you. He looked like he needed rest honestly so…’ He smiles back at Sans. Though he felt bad that the royal family's child was being turned away now, he was still happy Gaster got the rest he needed anyways.

“I get that. Thanks.” Sans says before starting to leave with a wave. “Visit another time. The kid can do the same.” Anton nodded with a mental “gotcha” before glancing back at Gaster. He smiled even more at the sight of his resting friend before leaving to make his way through the labs once again.

Gaster got his recommended sleep time on complete accident thanks to Anton. He just woke up tiredly when Sans told him Chara was back again. Gaster was reluctant from the tiredness he felt but went up to greet them anyways.

“Ouch.” Chara comments as they eye the bandaging as soon as Gaster walks into the room. The skeleton just rolls his eyes and exhales a sharp sigh.

“As you can tell, there are some setbacks as it sometimes happens to be with things like these.” Gaster states calmly. Chara seems upset but doesn't say anything on why exactly.

“I bet getting a crack in your skull really hurts.” They say, as if adding to their previous comment. “How did you get them, if you don't mind sharing?”

Gaster pauses a moment to think before choosing to respond. “An incident in the first place I lived and in a fight with your previous human leader. The two seem to affect my vision quite a bit.” Chara eyes him for a moment after he finishes answering, some kind of emotion flashing in their eyes.

“I guess that's how you knew f- Chatch.” They close their eyes for a moment and cross their arms. Gaster doesn't take their mistake lightly.

“I feel as if I've known and been affect by him since forever, even now.” He states with a surprisingly calm tone as he looks down at the other. “I'm sure you feel no different.”

Chara glares a bit then shrugs. “I do know he had a plan to take you all out while while you are all trapped in a cage, allowing no human to go down so no monster can harvest a soul.”

“I can see you defied that.” Gaster says quickly before eyeing them questionably. What they said would concern any monster of course.

“Yeah, but I also made sure he couldn't carry out that plan.” Chara says sharply. Something about the emotion in their eyes caught Gaster's attention but he couldn't see what exactly since the teen was already leaving. Gaster just watched them go and sighed once again before heading back down to the deeper labs.

“So what do you plan to do about the machine? Keep trying?” Sans asks curiously while in the elevator. Gaster thinks about it as he closes his eye sockets.

“Keep trying, of course. Though I may have to advice Chara to also try to change their soul themselves.” He says and walks out of the elevator. Sans listens and follows obviously. “It may be hard for them to manage to change, especially as quick as they want.”

“Yeah but it's a plan B. Best to be at least thought of as soon as possible.” Sean's comments as he smiles a bit in attempt to be reassuring. “Do you want me to tell them?”

“Do what you wish.” Gaster responds as the two walk into the revival room and stop. The Royal Scientist stares at the machine with a deep frown for a moment. He hated the waiting it caused but there was nothing he could do about it. Sans just silently decided his next mood as he worriedly watched Gaster.

“Got it.” Sans mutters before looking at the machine himself.

“Five months.” Gaster suddenly says, off topic. Sans nods and looks over at the other again.

“Time sure has flown by when we got busy. The project is at least good for that.” He says before walking off with a wave. “I'll take care of it acter month six as we discussed still.”

“Oh I'll make sure you do.” Gaster purposely says with sharpness. He already dealt with one kid. A younger one would be worse.

After another month of Chara and Anton visiting the labs, Gaster pretty much gave up. His progress sas slowing down by then anyways. He thought he got it working right at one point but it seemed to have no effect when tested. That caused research to be strained.

“Don't rely on it to do something stupid and fix it later.” Gaster had commented on the soul's power of resetting before basically telling Chara to go fix themself by themself. They weren't too happy but just went away to do so. They only came back for a camera and some tapes, once belonging to the king and queen, with Asriel.

Months passed without Gaster realizing since then. One time he had to treat Asgore since he got poisoned from eating flowers by accident. Gaster couldn't say how long ago that was though. He just knows at one point Chara snuck down to “secretly” put back the camera and tapes. Gaster never cared to confront them on why or anything though. Why did it matter? Maybe the two teens got bored of it.

Chara got quickly sick after that. It must've been a coincidence but while he checked up on Chara it didn't seem that eat. While their symptoms seemed a worse version of Asgore's, their traits overall had also dropped significantly, the signs of a weakening soul. They still were determined for the most of it but it was clear they weren't going to bounce back from this unless lucky. It caused Gaster to arrange a quick meeting with the king.

“If they do not make it in the end, we can at least preserve their soul and use it for getting out of here.” Gaster states, maybe too blunt for Asgore's liking. His face looks full of grief after all as he didn't answer. “For them. At least think about it so we can have permission to preserve the soul.”

“I'll think on it…” Asgore finally mutters before leaving the room as quickly as he came.

A short and quick meeting but it was to be expected. Asgore didn't want go talk about it more than he had to. He eventually did after to it though after watching Chara's health decline more. Gaster then could attach a monitor to page him in case something happens and they end up dying unnoticed so hd can collect the soul as soon as possible.

It did its job, making Gaster's pager go off when the time finally came. The scientist rushed out with his equipment to contain the soul as soon as possible but it would reveal to be a fruitless attempt. When he got there, Chara was very much gone of course without a soul to recover.

There were unfortunately no traces of why their body was even gone or where it was. They wouldn't dust like monsters or their found family anyways.

Chara knew where their body was though.

It felt like they were swimming as they looked from a view that seemed higher than what they were normally use to. Asriel's voice spoke like he was in their head yet seemed to slightly echo as of far away. They sounded scared but Chara just pushed them to walk forward with the plan no matter how much he said he didn't like it. They couldn't just turn back now.

Chara was the one mostly in control because of that way of thinking. Each step felt like it was their own but they couldn't tell if Ariel felt the same way.

Every time Chara chooses to look down they see their own poisoned corpse and Asriel would shake terribly. Even if they died by painful poisoning, Chara's body looked peaceful in Asriel's arms. They just decided not to look until they got to the village.

It was quiet at first when they got there but screams were quick to sound off even so. Chara expected it to be. It looked nothing like vicious murder but who could care to look longer than a second with a monster in front of them?

Chara wanted to quickly find humans to pick out and take the souls of but their feet didn't want to move when they did. Asriel's cries echoed badly within Chara's head as things became fuzzy again. After a few painful hits from the humans while Asriel's barely reacted from the mixed reactions, they were turning back to Mount Ebott. Chara screamed in frustration but it didn't change anything, besides add a headache, no matter how hard they cried.

“I'm sorry. I can't do this. I'm so sorry.” Asriel's voice whispered yet it sounded clear to Chara. When they got close to the mountain, they didn't push the monster any further.

It wouldn't be long until they die together among golden flowers and in front of their heartbroken parents.

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[Index]

[devoted-royal-scientist]

Starter for @kxnggoat

It was always a good time for tea in this house.

Maybe they were trying to make up for all the times they’d missed tea together, or maybe it was because they shared such fond memories of their thursday afternoon teas in the Underground, that they tended to sit and drink it together.

In any case, Gaster wouldn’t give up these such afternoons for the world.

Unlike when they had first begun, Gaster was completely at ease. He had always been nervous when seeing the king (and at that time the Queen too), giving them his reports and stammering over them in a rush before realizing his tea was cold and he’d had to drink it anyway.

As time passed, he’d become more comfortable with the rulers; they’d had Asriel, adopted Chara, and then when it had suddenly become just Asgore, their weekly meetings had become a bit more somber, but no less important.

Now they were on the surface, and so much had happened since Gaster had been part of the living world; their entire lives flipped about so thoroughly he barely recognized them-- but tea was ever-present.

Gaster tucked his legs up under him as they sat on the porch swing, overlooking the back garden in the warmth of the afternoon sunlight, just sitting and enjoying the wealth of Asgore’s carefully tended flowers that had already begun to show their colors in the early Spring.

A breeze buffeted him, gentle but cool-- the last dregs of winter. He sighed, breathing in the scent and feeling just how lucky he was to be sitting here next to his oldest friend and King.

“Do you think we’ll we have to cover the plants tonight?” He asked softly, seeing the blankets and towels they’d used the last few weeks to stave off the frost sitting in a wooden box beside the steps.

[scartale-an-undertale-au]

Papers of Homelessness - Chapter 44

(This banner had been made by the awesome and amazing artist @benteja​​​. i am so honored that she had drawn this banner for this story. please go and show her all the love in the world that she deserves!!! \[^o^]/)

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a/n: once, again, i’m so sorry for putting this chapter out so late. so as an apology, i am giving you two chapter in one update. (length wise).

enjoy~

“Of course you can stay!” Mom sounded ecstatic, barely managing to stop herself from hugging the small young woman. Which was a fortunate thing, since she was driving the car at the moment and you weren’t in the mood to get into a car crash.

Frisk seemed pleased, looking to the window and then back to her lap. You huffed amusingly and placed your elbow on the door, resting your cheek on your fist and looking at the passing lights.

Your mind wandered to the visions you have been seeing. You ran away from there, leaving those kids behind. Were they still there? Still fighting after all those years? Were they dead? Alive?

Did that Void guy went looking for you? Or didn’t care since you were only a doll? Your chest clenched in humiliation at that. You were robbed your identity and freedom and was called a bloody doll.

An entertainment.

You hated the disgusting feeling as if you were used. You wanted to forget all of those memories, and yet… yet you were curious, you needed to know about your life before Asriel found you.

And besides, you didn’t have much of a choice from the last several sessions of forced memories.

You weren’t looking forward for future visions.

“Chara.” You were shaken out of your thoughts by a hand on your shoulder and you looked up to see Frisk, who was already half out of the car. You blinked and returned to the window, realizing that you got to your house already.

You didn’t even notice the time passing. You must be really out of it… not surprising since this whole afternoon was just one big trip.

You sighed and slowly got out of the car, immediately greeted by Frisk’s hand. You slumped and grabbed her hand, feeling like a little baby with how you were treated.

You entered the house—

“Think fast!”

You were nearly tackled down by a big body colliding onto you. Your body tensed and you grabbed a long arm and ducked and turned in place, wringing yourself out of the hold and pulling the big invader onto the floor.

“OUCH! WHAT THE HELL, CHARA?” You blinked and Asriel’s fallen form went into focus. The taller baby whined, struggling in place. You released your brother only to lightly kick his stomach.

“Don’t jump on me, you idiot crybaby,” You scowled, “You nearly gave me a heart attack. What are you even doing here?—”

“Asriel Rovias Dreemurr, I told you that Chara was in no playing mood!” Your mother reprimanded the whining baby, who sat up while rubbing his arm. Asriel huffed and stood up, dusting his clothing and massaging his bruised cheek.

“Frisk, are you alright?” Your mom asked and you looked down to see said woman standing before Asriel, looking up with their hood down. Asriel gulped and you could only guess that she was glaring at them.

THUMP.

“OW!” Asriel bent over, clutching his stomach and Frisk folded her arms.

“Chara is hurting… don’t hurt him even more,” She sounded upset. She was probably much more scared than you if she was lashing out. You strode to her and pulled her back, looking at her sternly.

“Frisk, no punching my brother. He’s an idiot, but that’s still no reason to punch him.”

Frisk looked at the fallen Asriel, her fingers twitching. “He hurt you…”

“He didn’t, though.”

“…”

You sighed and patted her hair, then yanked at your brother’s arm, helping him up. “Az, Frisk is on a rage road, don’t annoy her.”

“I can see that…” Asriel whined, rubbing his stomach. “I’m not a punching bag!”

You smirked softly and patted his arm. “At least you found your purpose in life.”

“Hey!”

“Boys.”

Asriel and you exchanged looks and shrugged, going into the newly unlocked house. Frisk walked between you and your brother, blatantly unhappy. You brushed a hand through your hair and scratched your nape, wondering what had gotten into her.

Your mom was waiting for you at the door to the kitchen, and when you reached her she ruffled your hair and gestured to the door. “Want to make some soup with me?”

You glanced back to Frisk and Asriel, wondering if the house would burn down, but decided to join your mother.

Frisk could use a cooling down moment.

“Really mom?” You deadpanned as she pushed to you the bowl. She grinned knowingly.

“You always loved that, so what’s wrong now?”

“Out of season, no?”

“It’s never out of season for matzo balls. Besides, I’m sure that Frisk had never tried it and it’s a must.” The bowl was forced into your hands and you resigned yourself to your fate, begrudgingly a bit happy. Matzo ball soup was a comfort food for you and you didn’t realize how much comfort you needed until that moment.

“You’re so pushy.”

“I know. But a mom always knows what her child needs,” Your mom smiled and hugged you for a moment before returning to her vegetables. “Now hurry up so we could actually have food by dinner. You’re lucky that I have some leftover soup in the fridge.”

“Alright, alright.” You rolled your eyes and placed the water and chicken soup powder on the fire, then begun to mix the matzo meal and the other ingredients. The soft sounds of cutting from your mother’s and the crackling of the fire slowly seeped into your tense muscles and loosened them. You felt a bit giddy when you formed the balls in your hands and threw them in the boiled water and powder mix.

Just like before.

“Not too big, David,” Soft hands bigger than your pudgy ones encased your sticky fingers. “You want them firm and chewy, no?”

“Listen to your mother. She knows best.”

“Darling, don’t quote from movies just to prove a point. Besides, I’m not the evil mother.”

“Mommy’s nice!” You giggled and clapped your sticky fingers, accidentally dropping the balled mix to the floor. You stared at it and then grinned happily and took more mix out and dropped it to the floor.

“Oh, dear! David, do not throw food!” You whined and struggled as your fun was cut off. You heard deep laughter as a bigger hand than the soft hands stopping your fun ruffled your hair.

“You need a shower, little guy.”

“Noooo!”

You blinked, feeling more peaceful than what you thought another vision would bring.

“Chara?” You looked up to see your mother inspect you worryingly. You gave her a thumb up and presented her with the pot filled with the floating matzo balls and water. She relaxed and you gave her a knowing stare.

“Who is David?”

She tensed, the spoon falling from her hand and cluttering on the floor. She apologized and picked it up, putting it in the left sink and went to get another one. You stepped into her path.

“Mom. Who is David?” You asked again. The abnormally tall woman seemed smaller than usual, her paleness giving her a ghostly appearance. “Is there a reason as to why you won’t tell me?” You gently asked her, not wanting to terrify her, placing a hand on her shaking palms. She hung her head down.

“The doctor told me not to so you could remember correctly. I always wanted to tell you, especially when you became an adult, but I didn’t want to make you remember wrong things…” She explained. “Could you forgive me?”

I nodded. “Of course… But now that I’m remembering, I need context. I need to know. If I try to explain it myself, I’ll probably end up with a theory out of the books.” I shrugged and forced a chuckle, “You know, like I was kidnapped or something.”

Mom was silent.

You raised a brow. “Mom?”

“…How about I explain it after dinner?” She sighed and straightened up, looking wearier than before. “Please?”

You nodded.

Why did it feel as if you had just opened a Pandora box?

Frisk and Asriel were seated in different couches, as far away as possible. But Frisk was doodling on a small notepad with a black pencil and Asriel was taking photos with his phone.

You quirked a brow. “So is everything alright now? No fighting?”

Asriel and Frisk looked up and then at each other and then away. You sighed. Seemed like they weren’t comfortable with each other yet even after meeting twice. Bad first impressions did a lot of damage, huh?

“Asriel, come for dinner. And Frisk, can you help me set the table?” Your mother smiled, still looking too sad for your liking. Frisk nodded and placed down the notepad, getting up to help her.

Out of curiosity, you picked up the notepad. It had been such a long time since you saw a drawing from Frisk.

It was of an unfamiliar man who held similar features to Frisk’s yet much more masculine. Her father? It looked pretty unrefined for her previous drawings.

Feeling like treading on a thin line, you placed down the notepad and went to Asriel. “What are you doing, you crybaby?”

Asriel huffed at the nickname and then smirked, patting his phone. “Sent you some nice pictures.”

“Pictures?”

“You’ll see,” Asriel winked and chortled when you tried to grab his phone. “Let me have this at least, you shitty brother!”

“I swear if you send me d—” I went for his hair.

“I didn’t! I promise! I made that mistake once!” The crybaby eep'ed and ducked under your hand and jumped out of the couch, standing so he was taller than you and holding the phone higher than can you reach. You gritted your teeth in annoyance. How you hated his height…

“Boys! Stop fighting and come to the table!” Your mother called and Asriel cheered.

“Saved by the bell!” He dashed to the dining table, where Frisk and your mother sat down already. You joined them, glaring at Asriel, and sat next to Frisk.

This time dinner was less of an awkward affair as Asriel and your mother offered a good distraction. Frisk ate quietly, but nodded when adressed

You couldn’t focus on the conversation despite wanting to, your mind wandering to your vision and your mother’s confession. She probably knew a lot more about your old life. Or at least about what had happened to put you in that park that day.

And what did put you in the park. You recalled attacking Asriel and feeling… wariness? From a kid? Well, from your visions, kids could be cruel.

Sadly, the soup was still not ready so you had to content yourself with meatloaf and potatoes… which wasn’t bad, but you wanted your matzo balls.

Okay, now you were sounding like a little kid.

Frisk nudged your feet with hers and you looked up. She gestured to the side of your mouth and you poked the place and realized that some potato was on your face. You quickly cleaned it, feeling embarrassed. Frisk nodded and returned to her meal, Asriel’s and your mother’s voices echoing in the background.

It was nice.

It was even better when you got up to get the soup and the matzo balls, dividing the soup and the kneidlach between the four of you. Finally, you sat down and took a bite.

It felt nostalgic. The firmness yet fluffiness of the kneidlach, the soup giving the matzo taste salty chicken flavor. It was just like you liked it.

It was a bit too hot though so you immediately took a sip of your water to cool it down. Your mother chuckled and you turned red, remembering how you would always do it.

“So impatient,” She would always say.

This time, her chuckling faded and she simply stared at her bowl.

You blinked, feeling off at the disruption of the usual response, and lowered your spoon to gaze at your mother.

“What is it, mom?”

She flinched and lowered her spoon, her face clouded. Asriel noticed the change and his voice dropped as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “Mom?”

“…I wanted to keep it until after the food. But… it’s gnawing at me too much to wait any longer… I’m sorry for ruining your moment, Chara.”

You shook your head, body tense in anticipation with knowing that you were going to hear the truth now. “I need to know.”

“…Alright.”

Asriel seemed confused. “Wait, what are we talking about? What truth? Do I need to leave?”

Your mother shook her head. “No, it involves you as well. Your father and I agreed not to tell you either in fear that you would run to Chara and spill it all.”

Not an unfounded worry, you snorted at Asriel’s affronted gaping. Younger Asriel loved to tell you about everything that he had found that day. Even if was about a stupid stone found on the street.

“What about Frisk then?”

Frisk looked at you and you shook your head. “She needs to know as well. I don’t want to keep this a secret from her.”

Frisk seemed relieved, and you found her hand and gave it a big squeeze before releasing it. You face your mother. “So what exactly had me hide in that park that day?”

“…You ran away.”

You… expected that, surprisingly.

“Who did I run away from?”

“…I think you called him ‘Void’.”

…That was less surprising.

“Who was he to me?”

“Your kidnapper.”

“Wait, what?” You drew on a blank. You were only joking when you presumed that you got kidnapped. You didn’t actually believe that that would be the case.

Your mother sighed. “I’ll explain from the beginning…

Fourteen years ago, there was a big scandal all over the country and neighboring countries. Tenths of couples were found out dead in their bed during the night. The only thing connecting them was one fact: all were parents to a single child. And that child was missing.

You were one of those kids.”

You felt as if something heavy dropped into your stomach. You didn’t know why you were expecting them to still be alive after all those years, but…

Dead?

“Then my biological parents…”

Your mother looked down and nodded. “Yes.”

Frisk squeezed your hand.

You swallowed past the clog in your throat. “What happened to the kids?”

Your mother looked grim. “The kids were sent to, according to the reports, to different sections in the black market. Child trafficking, if you will.”

And you ended up with Void. Did he actually pay for your guys? Why? For what reason? Just kill your parents and take you away like some kind of a toy? You felt anger bubble in your stomach and you felt sick from thinking about so many kids still stuck in the trafficking ring you had managed to escape.

What made you special? Why were you the one allowed to escape while they rotted in there?

Asriel gulped, looking sick. “What sections? Where did Chara ended up at?”

Your mother shook as she answered. “Some were slaves. Some were sent to childless families that weren’t able to get kids legally. Some… some went into the brothels or as pets. And Chara’s group… went to the fighting arenas.”

Your thoughts cleared.

It felt as if something that had been clouded up until now was now as clear as glass.

It all made so much sense.

The fighting you felt forced to. Void’s trainings. The other kids’ behavior. The fear.

Your urges.

Asriel’s eyes widened and he snapped his head to you, watering with shock and fear for you. You shrugged halfheartedly, trying not to show how much you were affected.

How it seemed that your world had turned upside down for you. Yet… it felt as if the pieces finally clicked into place. You didn’t know what you were feeling, confused or relieved? Scared? Or maybe just numb?

Also, it was a bit weird. You thought that you would hear something about an abusive caretaker or something. You would have never expected to find out something so out of this world.

Kidnapped? Parents murdered? Forced into fighting as a kid warrior?

What were you, a protagonist in some shitty novel?

That was insane.

“How long was I there? Three years?”

She nodded.

“Any idea how I escaped?”

She shook her head. “You had lost your memory after you had woken up and none of us tried to force out the memory. You did seem to have a lot of nightmares involving hiding so we assumed that you hid somewhere and then escaped but we don’t know.”

You had one more question. “Mom… Who was I?”

She swirled her spoon in the cooling soup. “David Goldsmith. Your mother, Racheli, and I knew each other from my hometown’s Synagogue. I had recognized you the moment I had seen you. Despite me moving and marrying out of religion, we kept in touch. She sent me a lot of pictures of you.”

Another puzzle piece clicking into place.

Her expression softened and her gaze glazed over. “She and Yishay, your father, had tried for years to give birth to you. And I still remember you as a newborn, clinging to her as she cried from joy. You were so adorable. We talked for years about setting you and Asriel as playmates and we even had plans to do so that summer… but then… she was dead and you were gone. You were actually one of the only cases of recorded struggling. Neighbors said that they heard screaming and banging from your house.

…Your parents fought very hard for you. They loved you dearly.”

She trailed off.

You stared at her in shock.

You actually had a family before that day at the park. You had a history. A history that you mother knew of. Your family wasn’t made up of strangers. It was a family that was closer than thought before.

A family that loved you.

A family that died trying to save you.

You unclenched your fists that you suddenly noticed were nearly tearing your shirt. You took a deep breath and with a voice more strained than you thought it would be, you asked. “Can I… do you have photos?”

Your mother smiled in relief and nodded, standing and rushing to the bedrooms. Asriel stood up and circled the table with the chair, sitting down and drawing you to a tight embrace. You didn’t hug back, unable to move much. You felt a small hand on your thigh but heard nothing from its owner. Frisk stared at the now cold bowl of soup.

You felt slightly numb.

That whole ordeal felt way too surreal. You were waiting for someone to call 'prank’ and for your mother to say that your parents simply passed away due to a car crash or something else that was not so dramatic as to being murdered by the underworld.

Was she sure? Could she have gotten the wrong child? You weren’t that odd of a person… were you?

“Here you go.”

An old looking album was pushed into your hands and you mechanically moved your hand to open it and stared at the first pictures, not comprehending.

A tiny tan skinned woman clad in a hospital gown with a head scarf holding back her mound of brown hair was cradling a small bundle. A pale skinned and red cheeked baby was sleeping in it. Sitting by the hospital bed was a bigger light skinned man with auburn hair wearing a black suit and a black kippah on his head. Both were smiling brightly, their eyes watery.

Next to it was written 'David’s first day in the world. Welcome, little star.’

The other three pictures were the same, only a close-up of the baby and the woman. You were about to flip the page but your mother gently pried the album out.

“I’m sorry, Chara… but I don’t want to risk having your memories coming back wrongly. I promise that later I’ll show you.”

She placed the album on the table and Asriel stepped aside, letting her bend down and engulf you with her arms. “I love you, Chara. I’m sorry for hiding this from you.”

You didn’t reply.

You didn’t know how.

You felt better, knowing the truth. But… you also felt.. detached? Like that was happening to David, not to Chara.

It was too confusing.

…

How do you continue from this?

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