action/video

[fulllifeconsequences]

[Action. It's me, Chara.]

[The demon has been called.

They think, perhaps, the place they awakened is supposed to be a flowerbed. Hard to tell. It seems to be winter. Have they moved forward in time? Backwards? Perhaps the month is the same, and they've merely moved to the southern hemisphere. Does it even matter? No. Time, place... it's all just background noise. They know what they exist to do now, and it isn't something as luxurious as exploring.

Their head is unsettlingly quiet. It's been too long since they've been without a partner, be they monster or human. Nobody is fighting their choices tooth and nail. When they sit up, it's stiff, but it's effortless. Done without protest. The avatar they've been placed into this time... it's too familiar. A green and yellow striped shirt. Old bandages on the arms. Cold, numb hands investigate themselves. Hair... could be theirs, could be Frisk's. Can't tell.

No locket over their heart. They check their pockets for a knife. No weapon, only a plastic rectangle... a phone? They dig around it, pull out a few dried flower petals, so old and fragile you can't even tell what colour they used to be. They crunch them up into powder, hold out their hand, let it fall to the snow. Gone now, so long, goodbye. ...Ha. Their throat hurts. They think they know why, but... no. It must be all in their head. They scoop a handful of snow up, eat it. It helps a little. They remember devouring a piece of a snowman, but this isn't the same. It doesn't taste like life. It doesn't heal.

They stand. They're right by some sort of mansion. Sky is above them, so that means this is the surface. The place must be swarming with humans. Surely, it would be unwise to trespass. But Chara has no weapons. No armor. Chara is damp and shivering, numb from their long rest in the snow. Chara has no other option, if they want to progress. Chara will have to stay determined.

They push the door open, peer around, dart inside. Try as they might, they may be found. Skulking, wary, ducking behind furniture like detection will surely mean death. Constantly looking for something that might work as a weapon. Frozen in the middle of a hallway, with no cover and nothing heavy or sharp to throw.]


[Video. You call out for help...]

[It's a surprisingly childish hiding place, but Chara has pulled themselves behind a sofa. Unfamiliar terrain. They don't know the good spots yet. They had ignored the cellphone-like device they'd awakened with, because of course they have nobody to call. But... they don't know the layout of this place. The longer they wander without a weapon, the worse off they'll be. Until they can SAVE, until they can equip themselves... what they do actually matters. They have to hide their hostility, at least until they can back it up.

They don't want to show their face on camera, but figuring out if this thing can do voice or text would take too long. Time is precious. So they point it backwards, instead. At their knees, curled tightly up to their chest, at their shoes, at a little bit of the floor.]

Where is the kitchen? I'm... very lost.

[Seven words. That's it. Not much, but enough to convey a message. Their voice is raw at the edges from disuse and the ache in their throat, and it's only a whisper, but it still sounds young. Kitchen's the smart choice. It sounds harmless, at first glance. It's not unreasonable to think a lost child might be hungry. But there will be knives there. Guaranteed.]

Comments

video;

[krmvgivv]

First floor.

[Dipper looks sympathetic. And a little confused. This person understands camera phones well enough to know how they work, but not well enough to... point it at their face?? Weird.]

...you got your camera pointing the wrong way round. Do you need help?

video

[fulllifeconsequences]

On purpose. I don't think I should be seen. I don't live here, wherever here may be.

[But this person... doesn't seem to be much of a threat. Nor does he sound all that upset about an intruder in the mansion. Maybe Chara won't be chased out before they can arm themselves?

It's a risk, but they flip the camera around. Put on a nervous smile. See? Just a kid like Dipper!]

However. If you're not mad that I'm here... I would not mind a guide.

video

[krmvgivv]

Course I'm not mad. No one's here cause they chose to be. [Dipper gives a tentative grin and waves a hand.]

I'm Dipper. I can totally be a guide. I know all about this place.

video

[fulllifeconsequences]

[A strange split-second of hesitation. Their name is buried now. The last person who saw fit to remember it replaced it with a nicer friend. They... could be anyone. May as well be anyone. Not so much Chara anymore as a force, a presence, a weapon to be pointed at someone.

But. They have no other name to give. They try to name the fallen human, but nothing else comes to mind.]

Chara. My name is Chara.

[It's been so long since they said that. It feels. Strange.]

I think. I'm very lucky to have met you, Dipper. I didn't think anyone would help me.

video

[krmvgivv]

Really? People are usually pretty helpful around here. [He blinks, squinting at the other kid.]

...hey, do you have a twin or something? There's a person here who looks just like you.

[A person who's gender Dipper hasn't figured out but hasn't... figured out if there's a polite way to ask. He's having the same issue here, honestly. It's just really unclear.]

action

[determinedest]

[Hello, mirror.

This place is full of mirrors, so Frisk performs a double-take before they realize what it is they're seeing. Who it is they're seeing. But who wouldn't recognize the SOUL that whispered in their head for timelines upon timelines? They're really quite strikingly similar - the hair, the fondness for stripes - but the poised stance and the rosy cheeks are all wrong.

Frisk goes rigid, but they can't think of what to say other than the stupidly, patently obvious.]

It's you.

action

[fulllifeconsequences]

[They let no surprise show. This was the person who awakened them in the Underground, so surely they must be the one whose Determination called Chara here, too. Who else could it have been? It's a little bit jarring to see Frisk through their own eyes, instead of as a reflection in a mirror. Yet. At the same time, somehow. It's very... liberating.

They put on a smile.]

Despite everything.

[A cute little injoke, is it not? They say no more than that. Merely stare at Frisk with keen interest. Note, especially, the spot just below their throat. Interested in a radiant red SOUL that they probably should not be able to perceive? Or maybe just a heart-shaped trinket that is not where it belongs.

Either way, they fold their hands behind them neatly. Smile patiently.

* It seems to be waiting for you to use its name.

* Papyru? Bacon? Blooky? Aaron? ;) Seems like it might respond to just about anything, as long as it's short enough.]

action

[determinedest]

[Every joke, every phrase, every aspect of themselves and every shred of determination - which part of that was Frisk, and which was...them?

Is there any way they can really know?

Something in their gut twists, convulses. Look at them, standing there, the picture of innocence. Bright smile, utterly composed, waiting for, for something. For Frisk to make the first move?]

When did you get here?

[They keep their tone carefully neutral, fold their expression into its default blankness.]

action

[fulllifeconsequences]

[Nothing. But that is an answer in and of itself.

Either this means they can't whisper directly to Frisk, one fragment of a SOUL to another, and be heard. That may be the price of an autonomous body of their own. Or, perhaps, Frisk hears and chooses not to respond. Perhaps they wish to wash their hands of Chara. Or perhaps denying their name, too, is a message. The same one Sans delivered when he spared them, and Frisk pulled them back into another RESET. The same one they were shown when Asriel cast Chara's name aside in favour of Frisk's.

Very well, then.

Their smile grows.]

When you called me. Of course.

Though I did not expect that you would distance yourself from me this much. A body all to myself. It's an unexpected luxury.

action

[determinedest]

[Their brow furrows faintly, their carefully indifferent features already collapsing. Without the constant struggle to regain control of their own autonomy, they've found themselves more emotive than they were in the Underground. It was nice at first, but now Frisk is discovering some of the drawbacks.]

I didn't call you.

[They'd know if they had.]

People just...show up here. From all over.

[video]

[punful]

[He has no idea, of course. Even in other timelines, he only ever has a vague sort of sense that something is very wrong with the human--that maybe this is a "different" human than in the better timelines. The idea that the kid was possessed had maybe crossed his mind, but it's certainly not something that occurs to him now.]

[Right now it's just a scared kid's voice on the network. And if Sans has a bad feeling? Well, Sans always has a bad feeling.]

first floor. pretty close to the entrance, usually. you must be new to wonderland.

[video]

[fulllifeconsequences]

[It may be for the best that Chara has their camera pointed at the floor. The look on their face could very well have given something away. Of all the voices they expected to hear... his? They couldn't leave him behind even when summoned to tear a new world down?

Figures.

But Chara... Chara is nothing if not cunning. They know, of course. Only one person in the Underground ever spoke their name, and he was no fan of Smiley Trashbag. When they viewed the world, it was secondhand. When they killed, it was with borrowed hands.

He doesn't know who they are. He can't know. Even when he always seems to know too much, there's no way he could know this. They choose their next actions very, very carefully. They haven't SAVED. There's no going back if they mess this up.

They still point the phone's lens at the ground. They still don't look at the screen.]

Wonderland. Is that what this place is called? I just woke up here, and I... I don't... I can't find a way home.

[video]

[punful]

[The idea that Frisk might be possessed was one thing. The idea that Frisk might be possessed by the spirit of the first fallen human? Not even on the charts.]

yeah. sorry, kid. hate to be the one to tell you this, but...you're kinda stuck here. all of us are.

[Man, first Frisk and now this kid? This place is just filling up with kids lately. Wonderland might be okay most of the time, but this is still no place for lost kids.]

[Though to be fair, neither is the Underground, and Frisk did okay.]

[video]

[fulllifeconsequences]

[Chara, even now, is planning. Is examining how to work the situation to their utmost advantage. At a time like this, a memory resurfaces: two humans masquerading as one, trying to Spare over and over, insisting they could pass someone they already loved dearly without it coming to a fight.

Her motherly, remorseful smile as she ceased sending flames at them. The way she laughed when she fell in a single blow. At her most vulnerable moment.

They think of the kitchen again. Knives. Lots of knives. Ketchup, probably. Good food, good friends, bad laughs. No reason to fear an unfamiliar child.

What if. What if?]

I'm... stuck? I can't go home...? But...

[A subtle shift of this floor-first camera angle. Knees hugged tighter to a chest, an anxious arm tight around their legs.]

Mom and Dad. I looked, but I can't find them. They're not...

...I'm all alone, huh.

[video]

[punful]

[Sans isn't really good with this whole comforting children thing. Not that he really tries all that hard.]

yeah...sorry, kid. but hey, i'm sure your parents are fine. and the people here are pretty nice. plenty of people will be happy to help you till you can go home.

[action]

[slapfight]

[something goes skidding across the floor from one of the left-hand hallways- what appears to be some sort of grabber toy. not much of a weapon, but it's something. what follows its arrival is a series of nasally sounds of frustration and the repeated sound of someone rapping on glass.]

I DEMAND you give me access to the Mirror Side, you stupid- [a sudden, startled yelp, and a crash, not unlike someone falling off something. grace is not peridot's strong suit. fortunately the ground broke her fall off the table she was standing on to give her access to the mirror she was beating on.

this is completely normal behavior.]

[action]

[fulllifeconsequences]

[okay now what the hell is all this rumpus

Chara is nothing if not opportunistic; they dive down the hallway in question and hastily snatch the toy up. It's a bit of cheap plastic. Would probably break if you tried to take a proper swing at someone with it. But it's better than nothing at all. Already, they can let themselves relax, just a little -- they're no longer totally defenceless.

But. That... leaves the rest of the hall up for consideration. Namely, the strange goblin shouting at mirrors and falling off furniture. It's. Not the strangest thing that Chara has ever seen, but not by a very wide margin.]

Explain yourself, gremlin.

[Not much of a "gosh are you okay" or "it's okay, don't give up, your habit of hollering at decor will pay off someday," but Chara isn't exactly patient enough for any of those.]

[action]

[slapfight]

[Peridot manages to flip herself back into a catlike crouch, narrowing her eyes at the.. human??? (probably) Feeling particularly superior despite her height and the fact that she's actually defenseless right now, she merely scowls.]

I don't have to explain anything to you. [and then, with so short a pause that it's almost comical] What's a gremlin?

[maybe they weren't talking to her at all. or maybe it's another one those things like "nerd." ugh. Earth ones are so difficult.]

[action]

[fulllifeconsequences]

Gremlins are monsters. Small, animalistic. Wreck things for no apparent reason. Maybe just to see how they work.

[Not real beings, of course, as anyone would tell you. Invented when planes began to be used for war, to jokingly explain away mechanical failures. Humanity owed so much to their propensity for conquest.]

That is what you are, is it not? You're certainly not human.

[action]

[slapfight]

I have a reason for everything. [that gets her on her feet, anyway, because how dare anyone suggest that she's something given to randomness for no apparent value or gain.

she crosses her arms over her chest and says, proudly:] I'm a Gem.

[and as the only Gem here, that makes her the most superior lifeform in all of Wonderland by default. imagine! a peridot being the superior gem in anything.

[Text]

[mypartnerintime]

The dining room on the second floor will give you food straight up.

I'm guessing you're new here

[Text]

[fulllifeconsequences]

[They have to turn the device around to see the words written on it, but that's not a problem. They welcome it. They've been saved the risk of being seen on camera, and all without having to figure the text function out for themselves.

Whoever this is, they've already proven themselves. Useful.]

I am. I have only just awakened.

Thank you for your guidance. However. I want the kitchen. I do not trust strange food. Wouldn't it be awful if it were poisoned? What a nightmarish way to go.

[mypartnerintime]

[Max has had bad experiences with people, but this is just a kid. That's part of the reason she suggested the dining room- wouldn't want the child to hurt themself on some sharp knives, right?]

[She mulls over the text for a few moments.]

I don't blame you. But the food in the kitchen is 'strange' too. Anyway I haven't been poisoned yet.

The kitchen is on the first floor. You should probably get someone to help out... or I can meet you down there myself. This can all be a lot to take in.

[fulllifeconsequences]

[Chara hesitates. They aren't Underground. That means humans. This is probably a human they're speaking to right now.

But they can't huddle behind a sofa forever. They're not above sacrificing their dignity for the sake of survival, but they won't achieve anything by hiding. No, instead, they'll have to play the game. They know human nature, in all its two-faced cruelty, far too well to lose. So carefully, they type a reply.]

I think I can find it from here. But if I didn't have to be alone, I would like that very much. I'm a little... disoriented by all this.

[mypartnerintime]

[Looks like Max is heading out of the library, then. She'll count this as her good deed for the day, even though there are probably a ton more people that are better in the kitchen. And it's good to feel... helpful, even with little things. This almost feels like reassuring herself that she can be.]

It happens to everyone.

I'll meet you at the kitchen ok? First floor.