Contrary to your expectations, the soup was delicious.
Freaking. Delicious. And you didn’t even think you’d like bone marrow in the first place.
“HOW ARE YOU FEELING NOW, MY DEAR HUMAN?” asked Papyrus. He’s extremely worried for you.
You told him that you’re getting better. The doctors said you could go home tomorrow if all goes well.
“THANK GOODNESS!” he exclaimed. “I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT NOT RECOVER WITHOUT MY SPARKLING SUPPORT.”
Humans don’t work like that, but you appreciate the sentiment. You asked him where did he get the soup from.
“I MADE IT WITH MY TWO BONEY HANDS!”
You were skeptical.
Alphys then explained, “Papyrus found a super-good cooking teacher on Friday. Ever since then, he’s whipping up some real gourmet stuff!”
Mettaton whistled at that thought. “Oh yesss! You should have seen the teacher totally grilling Undyne darling. So intense, yet so classy.”
So this was the magic of Papyrus’ brand food if he had proper lessons.
Farewell ‘Badghetti’, you will never be missed!
After you finished your soup in the canteen, Papyrus, Mettaton and Alphys took you to the playroom. Sick or healthy, children will want to play. It distracted them from their illness and helped them recover.
The sole condition was that no patients with infectious diseases can enter. Since you weren’t infectious, you were given a pass.
Once you entered, you understood why. There were many patients who’re far weaker than you. Terminal illnesses and the like.
Alphys had read up about basic human diseases. She made sure everyone washed their hands before making their entry. You included. Don’t want to pass anything from the outside now.
As you had expected, your friends were an instant hit with the children.
Mettaton gave the more able bodied kids an impromptu dance class. Nothing too extreme of course. He had learned quite a bit of children’s songs during his travels, and he had a good idea of their physical limits.
“It doesn’t matter if you miss the beat, darlings~” said the glam bot. “All it matters is that you have splendid FUN! Move that sweet, sweet body! Laugh! Oh yesss~~~”
Some of the children tried to follow, but they eventually gave up. Papyrus to the rescue!
“YOU SHOULD JOIN IN THE FUN!” he said.
They stared back at him in puzzlement. You then realised what’s going on.
You explained to Papyrus that those kids were deaf, and thus they cannot hear the music or his encouraging words.
“OH? THAT’S SO VERY SAD. HOW CAN I DELIVER MY BOLSTERING SPEECH TO THOSE WITH NO EARS?”
Sign language, you answered. One of the parents demonstrated the methods to him.
“WOWIE! HUMANS KNOW HOW TO SPEAK THE CODE TOO? ACTUALLY, IT’S QUITE DIFFERENT. BUT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, IS A FAST LEARNER!”
‘The Code’? Just what happened while you were away?
Nonetheless, Papyrus lived up to his claims. He picked up the human’s sign language as if it was his second nature. Before long, he started cheering up the group of deaf children in signs. You wonder if he’s secretly a genius or something.
Alphys was more comfortable talking to the parents. She learned more about the children’s condition, and in turn she educated the adults about monsterkind.
Her attention turned towards a small, scrawny boy with twisted limbs. “Oh dear… What’s wrong with him?”
A lady nurse explained, “Cerebral palsy. He has quite the serious case. His biological parents abandoned him soon after birth. So my husband and I ended up adopting him.”
The boy made a happy gurgle. He’s amused by Alphys’ presence, moving his arms around in an attempt to touch her scales.
She reached out her hand. He immediately tried to latch unto her. How cute.
“Ma’am, is it okay if I check the colour of his SOUL?”
“Soul?” The nurse replied.
“Yup! It’s a culmination of his being. The colour that shines represent his strongest trait.”
“Is it invasive?”
“Not at all,” Alphys replied. “I just need to draw it out with a tiny bit of magic.”
Once the nurse approved, Alphys tapped his chest. You watched in awe as an orange light floated upwards.
The boy’s SOUL was as malformed as his body, lopsided and twisted around the edges. It was quite a sad sight.
Though, the kid and his mom didn’t think so. Their faces shone in wonder as they stared at the warm glow.
“Oooh!” Alphys exclaimed. “Orange is the colour of Bravery. He’s got guts! He’s very strong inside, ma’am. That’s good news.”
The boy squealed in joy. He reached out for the SOUL and hugged it. Then the mom started to weep. Perhaps, knowing that her child wasn’t so weak brought some much-needed encouragement.
Everyone had fun. The parents and staff members clapped their hands to the music while watching the antics of the little ones.
Midway through, you felt the urge to go to the loo. You should have done that before entering the playroom. Oops.
You told Papyrus that you needed to excuse yourself.
“OKAY FRISK!” He said, “IF YOU GET LOST, CALL ME. I’LL GO PICK YOU UP!”
Doubt that you would get lost. But okay. Off you went to the nearest toilet. It was supposed to be a normal routine of doing your business and washing up.
Then…
“You think you’re the one in control?”
Your head felt dizzy. Light. You almost fell down on the cold, toilet floor.
“Now now, you don’t want to get hurt before the big fight. Right?”
Chara hijacked your body. You never imagined it was possible!
“Oh, you think I didn’t learn anything from all those RESETs? You and I share memories you know. Eventually I figured out that if you’re sick, I can control you much easier.”
“Well… I couldn’t have done this without you in the first place. I was just lying around in the flowerbed being dead. Then you fell from the sky.”
“I was so confused. Left by my own devices, I don’t have enough Determination to become a DEMON. But then, I realised… it’s destiny. Fate. You will be the vessel of my reincarnation. Or rather ‘should’ be.”
“Frisk, you were doing so, so well. We had almost gathered enough power to destroy the world. You and I. Give everyone true, eternal peace.”
You watch Chara pilot your body out of the toilet. Instead of heading back to the playroom, they went the other way.
To the elevator lobby.
“Then you just had to RESET. Hmph. The people of my village would have called you a weakling.”
Again and again you tried to regain control of your body. It worked just for a few seconds before Chara shoved you aside.
“Why? Why are you such a chicken? You’re supposed to be THE Determinator! The hero of legends, the superpower! And yet you just threw it all away for some dumb school-life drama. Are you serious?”
Right. Getting repeatedly kidnapped not exciting enough for you, Chara?
“That’s exactly the POINT!” They snapped back at you. “You got kidnapped because you’re weak! Frisk, are you an idiot? Can’t you see it? If you followed my way, you would have won. You would have stabbed all those bloody humans who tried.”
And land yourself in juvie??? You scoffed. By now you knew that Chara’s sense of planning tended to be rather shortsighted.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Chara growled at you. Good. It’s about time that you riled them up. You’re sick and tired of their twisted logic.
“We beat Sans, c’mon! Mister Smiley Trashbag? After dunno how many goddamn tries we finally, finally, FINALLY slashed him in half! Dammit, I still remember the sheer frustration just boiling over even after the fight.”
You agreed. Any satisfaction from defeating him was short lived. He’s the master of ‘bad time’, and bad it was. Unfair. Cheating. Frustrating. That was his point.
That’s why you believed him in the end.
“Hah! You’re just like all the other humans. You’re scared of ‘The End’, but still wanted to continue the ‘game’. You and your twisted sentimentality.”
“Today, we’re gonna end this drama for good. Everyone’s here. And there’s no Smiley Trashbag getting in the way.”
It took a long while, but eventually an elevator arrived.
Chara pressed the cafeteria button.
No.
No no no no no no no!
You knew exactly where they wanted to go. What they wanted to do.
You fired up your Determination, but you still couldn’t wrestle back control.
“Don’t you get it, Frisk? I share YOUR Determination: the harder you struggle, the stronger I’ll be!”
The kitchen was a busy, busy place. Adults run to and fro, preparing to serve dinner. Looks like Chara can’t just waltz right in.
“Heh. You think I’m gonna get ourselves busted now? You forget the convenience of humanity.”
Chara detoured away from the kitchen.
You find yourself standing in front of a fire alarm.
Oh no. No. Please don’t do that. It’s a terrible, terrible idea.
They smashed did it anyway.
The fire alarm went off. People started vacating the premises. Soon, the adults no longer occupied the kitchen.
That’s when they slipped inside.
“Aaah, look at that. Knife heaven. Long ones, short ones, big ones, small ones. Every shape and size to choose from. This is what I call a treasure trove.”
You watched on in horror as Chara rummaged the area for the perfect knife.
“Cleavers are nice, but we’re too young to use it right. Nah. This one is too heavy. Hmm, if only this is a little longer. Nope, bread knives are just too difficult to hide.”
You hoped that they would never find a suitable knife. Alas, that did not happen.
Chara found a paring knife. Judging from it’s glisten, a chef had just sharpened it. It’s small enough to fit into your pants pocket.
“Now, to get out of here and hide. They’ll figure out the alarm's a fake soon enough.”
“Then we can kill everyone. We know their tactics, their tricks, their every move. If you forgot, then pass the controls to me; I remember everything.”
Where else to go other than under the cafeteria tables? If anyone found you, Chara would act cute and pretend to be some lost, and frightened kid.
……………………………
Why? You asked again.
Was their life on the Surface so bad?
Chara remained silent for a while.
“No one would love me unless I’m good enough,” they said.
“I always had to be stronger than the other kid. Smarter. Faster. If I don’t become a ‘Golden Quiche’, I might as well not exist.”
“I thought that maybe if I try to throw myself into Mount Ebott, someone would notice me. The humans didn’t care. Funny enough, I ended up with the family of my dreams.”
“The monsterfolk were the first who loved me for who I am. Knowing their history disgusted me. Sealing all them for eternity just because they’re different… typical racist human logic.”
Why did Chara laugh over Dad’s buttercup incident?
“Are you an idiot? You’ve never laughed in the face of fear before? Keeps you… strong.”
So they were afraid after all. So frightened that they resorted to some twisted coping skill.
Chara paused for a moment.
“It started out as a joke. Playing on one of Mom’s dumb puns. Then, I realised… buttercups are poisonous. I had one of those big eureka moments. The surest way to kill myself! Nobody had to stain their hands. Nobody would know what happened.”
Then, what about taking Chara’s corpse into dangerous territory?
“Asriel wouldn't believe me when I told him that my village was all filled with assholes. So. I made sure he’d feel my pain. Live. Without any room for doubt.”
They made your body curl up, hugging your knees while you continued your talk under the table.
“… Except Asriel chickened out. Just like you. I felt betrayed. Maybe monsters are no different than humans after all.”
“Didn’t your aunt say we’re like, distant cousins? Your short blue skelly friend pretty much proved the point that monsters can be as brutal as humanity. How can you guarantee they won’t turn into twisted jerks like us?”
“Maybe they already are.”
“By the way. Your aunt. Or rather, your big sister: she’s dying, you know.”
You remained silent.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice? I knew it the moment her arm went haywire. My village had someone like that once. It started out with those jerky movements. Then, as the years went by, they turned into a ‘vegetable’. No different than a living corpse.”
“They were pretty much stuffed into an institution to die. Never gave them a proper funeral either.”
‘Vegetable’ was a term for the brain dead or those unable to respond. In a way, it was a worse state than the kid with cerebral palsy you had met earlier.
“‘Survival of the fittest’, ‘kill or be killed’, that's the paramount truth for my village. After all, we’re supposed to be some front-line defenders against a monster apocalypse.”
“Idiots. Morons. All of them.”
You asked Chara what do they want?
“I just want everything to be done and over with.”
Does that mean they wanted peace?
Chara couldn’t answer.
The both of you heard a drip to your left. It caught your attention, and thus you turned your head.
Black.
The colour of ink dripped down the table towards your left.
“What the heck was that?” Chara asked.
You had no damn idea.
The drips turned into a cascade, rolling down the table’s edge. The puddle of inky substance built upwards into the form of a slender, shapely cylinder. It reminded you of a vase.
Chara started to laugh.
Nervously.
Fearfully.
The dark liquid bent forward. Then, you saw bits of white breaking the pattern of ever-flowing black.
Hands. Skeletal hands.
When the mysterious ever-flowing creature reached down far enough, he locked a pair of shimmering eyes at you.
Right, orange.
Left, cyan.
The Eyes of another Seer stared through every fiber of your being. His piercing gaze went deeper than Sans ever bothered.
Chara’s influence evaporated in an instant. They hid behind you, cowering yet laughing at the same time.
One blink later, the mystery skeleton’s eyes returned to their default white state.
“Ah, there you are Frisk.” He said. His voice reminded you of posh gentlemen. “Your parents were very worried about you. The fire alarm went off, and here you are, too frightened to move.”
You recognized this skeleton, and thus you called him by his name.
Gaster.
“Have we met?” he asked back.
After a thought, you explained to him that you had walked through a wall once. You found him grinning to himself in an empty chamber.
“Aaah, I remember now. I was watching a fine piece of documentary at that moment. Apologies if there were… misunderstandings.”
Chara freaked out. “Oh god oh god Frisk stop you can’t trust this guy he’s an Amalgamate and they can’t be killed he’ll kill you he’ll kill you he’ll--!”
Calm. Please.
Leave all the talking business to you, okay? You’re the professional here.
“Fine! Okay! Just make him go away!”
He had to be serious business if his mere presence instilled terror inside Chara.
You asked Gaster if he’s a Seer.
“So… you know about us?” He seemed impressed. “You are quite a fellow if you had gained the trust of my protégé, Sans.”
“ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? THIS GUY IS THAT TRASHBAG’S TEACHER??? THAT’S A THOUSAND PERCENT WORSE!”
In your mind, you told Chara to just freaking chill. You can’t work your talking magic over all that screaming.
Also, you made sure that you tucked that RESET button under your shirt. Figuratively speaking. You’re determined to have this conversation no matter what.
You asked Gaster an innocent question. Were there more special skeletons in the Underground society?
“Oh no,” Gaster replied. “Sans, Papyrus, and myself are the last of our kind. Only those descended from human bones have the potential to become a Seer. I’m sure you had seen the other skeletons of Ebott, but none of them are in the form of humans.”
No wonder. That sucks. You thought that you could make friends with more awesome-powered skeletons. Always fun to have them around.
The old skeleton chuckled with a sweet smile. See, Chara? He’s not some unreasonable creepo. Stop freaking out.
“… Mind if I join you under the table for a while?” Gaster asked. “A nice private chat before all the ruckus.”
Despite Chara’s protest, you shuffled to make space for the liquid skeleton. He sunk himself down into the puddle until he could just slide in.
Even as half a man, he was still full of class.
So he began, “You see, Frisk. I once made a terrible mistake. A costly one. The King and Queen insisted that I make amends. No more running away, no more denial, just pure honesty.”
How does this relate to you?
“I killed your parents. By accident.”
You gasped.
“If you refuse to forgive me, that’s fine. It is what I deserve. But, I must at least apologize to you. You see, long ago I had a mission: to break the Barrier and bring monsterkind to a new era of glory. Well. Instead, I caused a massive quake.”
Aunt Cenna said your parents died on the job. A quake happened and they got caught in it.
The whole ordeal happened at Mount Ebott itself. You were amazed, telling Gaster that it had come to a full circle.
“Hm?” He raised a brow at you. “I expected anger. Like your aunt.”
You didn’t know your parents. It’s hard to feel personal pain because of that.
Sure, their deaths meant you had a less-than-stellar life as an orphan. Missed out on a whole ton of childhood, and maybe it would affect you psychologically for life.
You can’t bring yourself to hate Gaster, though. The whole event was an accident, as he had said. He just wanted to help his people. You understood the dire conditions of the Underground. After all, you had experienced them in more ways than one.
They may have enough food and water, but they lived on knowing that they’re trapped for life.
Maybe forever.
It’s depressing.
So, you forgive Gaster for your parents’ death.
You astonished the old bony goop. That’s some achievement.
“… I can see how you defrosted Sans’ heart,” so he said. “In many ways, you’re much like his beloved brother. I can tell it didn’t come from mere naivete: despite knowing pain, you chose to forgive.”
Sounds just about right.
“I hope Papyrus can learn such integrity from you.”
You shook your head. Then, you explained that you had instead learned forgiveness from Papyrus.
There was a time when you were bad. Yet, he always believed you could change. Even at your worst.
He never gave up on you.
Gaster laughed in joy. His being rippled along with every ‘ha’ he uttered.
“Bless his sweet, sweet soul!” He said, “Very well then… will you forgive Sans? He had failed you in more ways than one.”
You answered without skipping a heartbeat. Of course you will forgive him. Despite his cynical lazybone self, he’s still your special friend.
… You instead wished that he could forgive himself. People like him tend to be the most self-critical.
Gaster looked sad when you mentioned that. Maybe guilty. “That is true.”
Please be nice to him, you said.
“Uh. It will take time, I suppose. I, he, we… it’s complicated. I’m not sure if I’m ready for reconciliation yet.”
Don’t wait until it’s too late, Gaster. That’s what you told him.
“My, my, my. I had never expected to be lectured by a human child. But. I will consider your advice. You are as wise as they say. A little above your age scope, don’t you think?”
People had started to return to the cafeteria. Life will resume as normal, albeit somewhat annoyed thanks to Chara’s antics.
The old skeleton offered a hand to you, just like a gentleman would do.
“It’s time to return to your ward, young one,” he said. “It’s been quite a hectic day. I’m very sure you’d want some rest. You have a long night ahead of you… ”
You accepted his offer. It surprised you that his hands were solid bones despite his form.
He slid out of the table, guiding you out of the cafeteria.
Chara then said: “If you ditch that knife, I’ll RESET. There’s no damn way I’m staying defenseless with that guy around!”
Duly noted.
Besides…
You had your own plans.