entranceway | [video/action]

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[video/action]

[Private video - filtered to Literally Everyone But Asriel and Toriel]

Greetings, Wonderland!

[Announced brightly and cheerily. There's someone new in town! Chara is PANICKING, and this manifests itself in clear and obvious ways: a placid, polite smile and a camera that only jitters slightly, because they're multitasking. Occasionally, a ridiculously twee cupcake backpack peers into frame, because Chara is cramming every treasured possession they have into it while they talk.]

Let me make this straightforward and simple. Another new friend has arrived into our fold. I trust you'll all be welcoming to him.

Don't tell Asriel I'm here.

If you so much as mention my name to him, I will know. I will find you. I will kill you, and I will wait tenderly and patiently over your fallen, disgusting corpse until it rises again. I will sink a knife in and twist, so the very first thing you feel upon your revival is unspeakable pain. I'll cut away every life that you have remaining in this place, and then I will go hunting for everyone you love.

I hope I have made myself clear. Understand, for once, I make this demand from a place of mercy. I distance myself for everyone's good. Sabotaging that would not be advisable; I've been told I'm a little bit dangerous when I have nothing left to lose.

[Private video to Toriel, because of course Mom gets a nicer version lmao]

Ma'am. I hope you're well. You must be happy. You must be excited!

I hope I don't dampen your elation, but I have decided it would be for the best if I give Asriel some space. I... I was responsible for his death. I believe it would be much easier on him if he were given some time to adjust to Wonderland before the bombshell of my continued existence is dropped on him. It would be a lot to take in at once, would it not?

Please, don't mention my name to him. Give it some time, at the very least. I'm going to make myself as scarce as Wonderland will permit. Think of it like... a vacation. It'll be fun!

Try to understand. I'm not trying to be dramatic or attention-seeking. I've made this choice because I feel it will be easier on Asriel.

[Action]

[True to their word, they've removed every last trace of themselves from Room 12 and fuckign BOLTED. The problem of where to go is a little trickier, since there's really no getting away from Wonderland. Just sprint out into the woods until they've gone Too Far Out? Hide in a cave and hope nobody finds them?

...They go to the diner. Diners were safe places to hide out when they ran away before they fell. Souji said they could work there. There's food, and the booths are soft enough to grab quick snatches of sleep in. They can duck into the kitchen, and even if it's sterile and commercial rather than homey, it's still a kitchen.

They've seated themselves on the floor behind the counter, tucked away out of sight. They're... emptying salt shakers onto the floor with an absent smile on their face. Even they don't know why they're doing it.]

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You're not throwing me anywhere, idiot. Believe it or not, I am capable of acting entirely independently of you and your wishes! I'm taking a little leave of absence, entirely of my own volition.

He was trying to come to terms with it, Frisk. Let him. He's let me go, and he's got you. He told me to let go, too. At least... I don't know. Give him some time to process it. I'd just throw a giant wrench into the works, and we both know that I would.

[It should be worrying, probably, to be grateful for their LOVE. But their tone is light, casual, even. They cast an empty salt shaker aside, enjoy the clink of glass on tile. Like the loud thud of a heavy book in a silent library, sort of. They're... doing fine, actually. Handling this fine! They don't really feel anything at all!]

[Crapcrap crap. Things are already falling apart.]

Chara, he's already asking about you! He misses you, and you miss him too!

Please, just - just come back. You don't have to talk to him just yet, but I don't -

[They've got to claw back their anger and frustration, but every time they do, their composure splinters all over again.]

How do I know you're not just gonna...gonna..."disappear"?

[If you know what they're saying.]

If he's asking about me, it's not because he misses me. It's because he's afraid.

[He was afraid of them. Frisk can't deny that. The only time he saw Chara in the anomaly, it was as an unfeeling, remorseless threat. They don't really get why Frisk is being so dramatic about this, anyway. It's not like they're throwing out irrational, baseless claims. Like they said, they've thought this through.

Well, whatever. They smile placidly at thin air, even if there's no meaning in doing that. Their phone's still face-down, after all.

Now you're smiling for nooo-]

I guess you don't know, huh. What, don't trust me?

You can't know that!

[Even if there's a good point there, Frisk forges desperately on.]

That's not what I meant! I just - I don't want to lose you. The last time - when he disappeared -

[Heel of their palm goes to their eyes again, scrubs furiously. They still remember last time.]

You know there's no such thing as staying dead forever. What you're proposing wouldn't even matter.

[Still smiling. They know they should keep their mouth shut. They know they shouldn't be like this. They know Frisk doesn't sound happy.

But Frisk mentions it, and...]

Would be a pretty good way to make sure I'm gone, though, wouldn't it? At least for a handful of days.

[Should be treating it with some degree of gravity or dread. Kind of hard to, though. There's a detached sort of logic to it. A sort of appeal. They could feel even less than they do about this. They could just... put on the brakes. Temporarily, but they'd stop nonetheless. They'd be so removed they couldn't reach Asriel at all. Huh.]

Don't. Please don't.

[The jostling sound evident in the background - that key tell that Frisk has been frantically combing the mansion for any sign as to where Chara's gone - stops dead for a moment, and their voice goes quiet.]

Please. Can't you just...?

[They swallow hard, and the situation starts to well and truly sink in.

They're alone. Well and truly. For the first time in a long, long time.]

I don't know what to do.

You don't have to do anything. It's not your problem in the least. Just... welcome your friend. Do something fun together. You can surely find a way to survive having a little breathing room for a while, can't you?

[Just. Breathing room. Sounds nice, doesn't it? They sort of debate leaving their hiding spot, getting up, just pointing that restless energy into harmless wandering. Nowhere to really go, though, is there? Asriel's outside. Frisk's probably scouring the halls.]

Live your life for a bit, right? Be happy. Show Asriel the closets. Tell him he can ask for a video camera. He used to like having a record of happy memories. Show him real stars. Show him a happier sunset than I ever showed him. Let him try human food out. You should be excited. Look at all the possibilities you have now.

What about you?

[Their voice tightens, thin and scared.]

Chara, I can't do this alone. Please. Whatever - whatever it is you're scared of, we can face it together, right? Like best friends. That's what friends are supposed to do, right?

Don't - don't leave me alone. I don't know how to do this alone.

[...They don't have to care. Frisk doesn't have to be alone. They have a billion other friends. Chara is literally the worst possible choice to deal with this. Asriel doesn't want to see them. They're sure of that much. He has a right to not see them, to be able to move on. Why is this so hard to understand?

They nudge their phone a little farther away, and it makes an unpleasant scraping sound against the tile. Covers up the quiet noise of scratching an itch. Puts a little more distance between them. Gives them a second to try and think about literally anything except for what they're thinking about. Gives them a second to try and just stop thinking entirely. They don't have to care.]

I'm not scared.

Go ask Sans, or Alphys, or Papyrus. A Pines. Literally any of your other friends who knows or accepts enough to be of use to you. You couldn't possibly be less alone if you tried.

Me? I've got better things to do.

Then why'd you run? Why won't you let him know that you're here?

[The jostling starts again. They're on the move. Looking for any traces of their partner. Of their friend.]

You really think you're that - that disposable? Like I could just exchange you for any one of my friends, and that'd be okay?

Yes, actually.

[Everyone they'd dared care about, back in that perfectly happy timeline, replaced Chara with Frisk. You are our future, they told a new kid. They took a new kid by the hand and brought them pie and called them "my child." Frisk was the friend they really wished they'd had. What kind of answer would Frisk even expect here?

Ha. Easy to start down that kind of thinking. Shouldn't. Shouldn't.]

Just... let it lie, Frisk. I'm trying to...

[Repent? Make amends? Apologize? Do the right thing? Erase themselves from existence, all over again?]

You really think he's ready to be faced with me again? He was scared of me. I was the reason he doesn't get to have a happy ending. It's jarring enough to have to face everyone as himself, don't you think? To convince himself he can actually be around people, despite what he's done?

This is a kindness, Frisk. I don't know why you can't grasp that.

Because it's not helping anyone. You're both - you're both here, and telling me to do things I can't -

[The mansion's a big place. But they're a kid with a big heart and nowhere else to go, and they're determined. Going back to that room now that it's just sad and lonely and horrible is too much to bear.

It feels like they're being torn in two.]

You're not. You're not just - just some other person. You're my friend. And you're his friend too.

Please come back. We can - we can work this out together. I know we can.

[Are they frustrated right now? Maybe the tight, clenched feeling in the pit of their stomach is just irritation. Maybe they're annoyed, and that's all they are.]

Have you even asked Asriel what he wants?

[Of course they haven't.]

Or is this that persistent crusade of yours to mold everything to your liking? Can't have friends who don't feel or act the way you want them to, can you? It can't be possible that maybe you don't know best after all, that perhaps neither of us are willing to pretend to be perfectly happy just so you can say you fixed it!

I'm not buying your saccharine garbage, Frisk. You're on your own.

[They stop their scratching, long enough to lunge for their phone. Risk a few seconds of the motion blur of it being picked up, swung around, a finger slamming on the button that will end the call.]

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