entranceway | [video/text]

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[Chara's outside. They have their device on the ground, propped up against a rock, so their hands are free. They're crouched down in the mud, on the shore of a pond somewhere - there's a bush of purple flowers in the background, mostly obscuring the maze of massive tree-trunks. They're out having some kind of childish adventure, presumably. Two things sit by their feet: a thermos of something-or-other and a freshly-gathered bouquet of white flowers.

They're washing that favourite old switchblade off in the water. Must have cut the flowers, not picked them. They flick it dry, click the blade shut, and pocket it. Pick up the bouquet, hold it up so their face is all but hidden by the lovely white blooms.]

Pretty, are they not? Narcissus. A member of the daffodil family. They get their name because... well, I'm not entirely familiar with the myth, actually. I know Narcissus was some guy who loved himself. He loved himself so much, he died.

[A very abridged version, and they might be wrong, but they think they've got the base details down. They shrug, smile, start to neatly divide their bouquet: a pile of flowers on this side, and they pluck all the leaves off and set them down on the other side.]

It is a tangent, Wonderland, but I wonder. Could you get me up to speed on what we know about the mirror side? Can we cross to that side if we want to? Can the mirror folk cross the barrier as they please? If not, is there someone or something in charge of the decision? I'm curious.

[Their flowers sufficiently... de-leafed... they pick up the thermos. Ginger tea, sweetened with honey. Good for queasiness. Honey makes it taste better, soothes a sore throat. They think, fleetingly, of Asgore. Because they think of Asgore, they think of Toriel. Don't... quite know how to approach the topic of Asriel. Don't want to talk about it. Don't want to think about it. Don't want to bear acknowledging they live in a world without him again. But is anyone else... checking on them?

...Couldn't hurt. Maybe. To just... maybe not about him, can't utter his name. To just... say hi.

They cut the video feed. Reach for their phone, type some texts out.]

[Private text to Asgore]

I was going to attach a picture. I've started work on a sweater - pink again, if that is okay. It's back in our room, though, and I don't think I'll be back there for a couple days.

I suppose I just wanted to let you know you'll have something to look forward to. =)

[Private text to Toriel]

I know it is unkind to gossip, but perhaps you ought to know that Sans took poorly at the end of this last event. I am aware he is a friend of yours, so I feel you should be aware. Perhaps he would feel better if someone came to check on him? Company always makes a hard time easier.

Here is a joke that the both of you might like:
Why did the pie go to the dentist? Because it needed a filling.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Should have tried telling that to Asriel instead. I know I sure never got around to doing it!

Can I come with you?

[Breath out. All but confirms it. Made a promise to Sans, but what's it matter, what's any of it matter. He broke his promise and they break theirs. There's a delightful symmetry to it.

Maybe 'delightful' is too morbid a word.]

No. You'd cramp my style.

[Should they be surprised Frisk asks it? They were never shy about saying they wanted to stay with Frisk, no matter where that meant going.

But Frisk gets something a little better than that, right? Shouldn't they? They're not the one who looks for LOVE. They help Sans. Take care of him. Take care of Mom and Dad for me. People worry about Frisk, because Frisk's not faking, Frisk's trying.

...They lost count. Are they at twenty? The numbers are broken off, the pattern falls apart, the momentum stutters. Just... eat another one, anyway. Eat your greens, Chara. Good kids finish their plate!]

I don't want to only be your priority when it's a convenient excuse to punish yourself.

That's not why.

[They're going to start crying again, any minute. Maybe they should proceed anyway. Try to time it right.

And break their promise again.]

You've never had to go alone before. I haven't either. I don't want you to be alone. I don't want to be alone.

[There's a strange fire burning in the pit of their stomach. Kicking in already? Or is it something else entirely?]

I've gone alone.

I went alone in a bed so comfortable I never got up. I went alone when Alphys shot me. Right here. In Wonderland. With guns and Gaster Blasters.

Or, let me guess. Forgot all about that?

You had Asriel. You didn't go in that bed, and we both know it. You went together.

Alphys was there, with you. Maybe not someone you wanted to have with you, but someone was there.

Or, since we're talking about stories, do you want me to tell you one? It's a good one, but I can only tell it in person. It's about Orpheus and Eurydice. Maybe you've heard of it.

Finding me isn't going to change anything, you know.

It's probably just going to be gross for you. I'll throw up in the middle of your stupid story. I'll shake. I'll be sweaty. It won't be cute at all.

What part of this is cute to you? The part where we smile and say it's all fine? It's never fine and we smile anyway. It's part of our collective charm by now.

If it won't change anything, at least let me come. Let me help you through it. So you don't have to be alone.

Sans told me about it. Place in the woods. Hydrangeas. A pond.

[Always had to have that element of dramatic irony, right? Show that they're in on the joke too. They know it's not romantic. Just karmic.]

Not being more specific than that. I'm giving myself a head start.

I'll be there soon.

[It's not much. They'll take it.

It takes them about ten minutes to find the place. They've been in the woods a few times now, exploring, if one can call it that. "Exploring." More like treading the same swathe of ground over and over again.

Picked flowers, the crisp scent of freshly crushed stems. The heady smell of some hot herbal liquid. And, of course, the striped shirt.

They stop at the edge of the pond. Around the other side. How dramatic.]

How many?

Edited 2016-08-12 04:05 (UTC)

[They rushed. No more counting to twenty, not when there's someone coming who could rip the leaves right out of their hands.

It wasn't the best idea they've ever had. These are easily some of the worst-tasting things they've ever put in their face. Worse than buttercups, maybe. The longer it sits in their mouth, the longer they have to taste it, and the longer saliva floods their mouth to a ridiculous degree. Their fingers are starting to itch a bit from picking the flowers already. They'll be all dry and scaly and nasty later, probably. Just another way this isn't a romantic or beautiful way to go at all, huh. Death by daffodil itch.

They know it takes a while to digest. To start getting symptoms. But they're pretty sure they're gonna hork, just based on taste alone. Maybe their body remembers, even if it's an entirely different species of flora.

Chara wishes they could say they stayed smiling and placid the whole time, but the look on their face as they force one last mouthful of leaves down is more of a scrunched-up, disgusted grimace.

See? Not cute at all.]

Forgot to count. The flowers are still there. Guess you could, if you want! Mind the stems, they'll give you an allergic reaction on your skin.

[The joviality in their voice is strained. They don't make it for very long before they have to go for the thermos, try to wash that taste out of their system, try to convince themselves the ginger is helping.]

[It's all arrayed out nice and neat, isn't it. Efficient, methodical. They planned this well. Took the time to broadcast it publicly, though, and they must've known that would draw Frisk's attention. They must've known it would draw everyone's attention.

A half-remembered misty fragment of something they read drifts lazily across their mind. A host, of golden daffodils; perhaps something they picked up in the library. Probably something they picked up in the library. The only books they had on the surface had a disproportionate ratio of pictures to words.

They step delicately around the pond. The ground is spongy underfoot, water-dense and depressible. Chara looks awful already. Not physically, but it's evident in the twist of their expression, the uncontrolled lurch of motion as they grab for the thermos.

Frisk is certain that their expression is just as revealing. They're always open to Chara, readable like a book. Terrified, pale, shaking. Bandage wrapped around their right hand, like the one they had when they fell.

Slowly, they reach the other side. They drop into a crouch. Cast their eyes along the flowers. They're beautiful. Golden flowers and buttercups are too.]

There are easier ways, you know. Less painful. Quicker, like you told me. More likely to work.

[The pick up one of the bulbs.]

How are you feeling?

I don't go gentle into that good night, on principle.

[They're in on the joke. They know what they deserve just as much as their world did. They can have two days' respite, but only two days. Then it's right back to being a demon prowling a world that never wanted it. Right back to having to live in a world without Asriel.

It'd be cheating karmic justice, surely, if they got it quick and painless.]

I'm not really feeling anything at all, actually. It takes time.

[Sort of an uncomfortable lingering on the tongue. Did they scald themselves with tea, is it just the unpleasant flavour that won't go away? Well, they'll know for sure one way or another. Just have to kill time. Their job now is to wait and to keep everything down.

...They don't let go of the thermos. Gonna need it. Maybe they should have brought two.]

Didn't you promise me a story about Oreos?

[Frisk sits, cross-legged. Tired. Drained. They flex their injured hand. They wonder if Chara hates them too much to let them near them. Even to ease this. Even to save their life. Kick away the thermos filled with whatever liquid they're using to keep it all down.]

I did. You just...didn't think this through very well.

[They feel too exhausted to still be here as they point at the thermos, at Chara, at the flowers, the mechanism of their own engineered death.]

You don't trust me, and I wouldn't blame you. I could take the Knife off you once you're dead. I could make you throw up, right now. I could have called Toriel, or Asgore, or Sans, or Shepard, once you told me where you were.

[A plan full of holes. But the original plan was too.]

I still could.

[Even more confused, now, as to what's narcissus and what's just in their head, because whatever's churning and writhing in the pit of their stomach when Frisk talks definitely feels poisonous.

* Just when you thought you'd hit the bottom of the barrel, you sink even lower.

They've been... manipulated, huh? Frisk talks about not wanting to be alone, and Chara recalls the frantic, pleading texts that came last time they were apart. Frisk talks about how they hurt themselves, and Chara answers only with dry, biting responses, but... ha. But. But Chara's convinced themselves they have to come every time Frisk calls out for help.

Look where that gets them, huh? Same place surrendering the Knife got them. Same place asking to keep secrets got them.

Aren't you supposed to be more cunning than this, Chara? Supposed to be able to outsmart sincere kids like Frisk. Supposed to be able to outsmart adults.]

Wouldn't be the first time you stole from the dead.

[They lie back on the cool earth, careful not to spill the thermos. There's going to be mud in their hair, probably. They'd laugh, but they know what laughing with a sore throat is like.]

Is that why you're here? To mock me? Rub it in, how much power you've got over me? How stupid it is to fall for "I miss you?"

No. I just thought after your first plan you'd have made things come together a little better. Learned from your mistakes, or something.

[Because they're invincible, right? They're a clever, brilliant, demonic mastermind that wants desperately for the world to not see them for what they are. A hurt, scared, angry kid. A kid who's been kicked too many times while they're down to see the point in bothering to get up anymore. Who's elected to claim that title of evil human and fashion from it the densest psychological armor Frisk has ever seen on anyone. Maybe even Sans.

They know them too well to give up now.

They pick up one of the leaves, sniff. Crush it into a little ball and roll it between their fingers. It's crisp and green and breaks easily under the pressure of their fingertips.

Thoughtfully, almost as a second thought, they stick it under their tongue. The awful flavor leaches in at once, almost prompting them to retch. Almost. They don't chew, they don't swallow. They just hold it there. Their gag reflex might kick in any time.

Frisk lies down next to them.]

Can I hug you?

Whoopsie doodles. Guess I'm just a screw-up.

[Really are supposed to be better at this, though. Could have chosen a place with no sentiment, no stupid dramatic irony or poignance or whatever. Could have researched, picked a plant they knew had high toxicity instead of guessing based on knowing picking them gives you a dry rash. Could have timed it so that something was setting in already. Could have just stayed quiet, because when they're quiet enough, it's hard to tell they still exist, right?

They glance over at Frisk. Just watch, silently.]

Careful with that. You'll get daffodil itch in your mouth.

[Don't know the science. Ought to take at least an hour for the real symptoms to show up, right? Because it takes time, when you're swallowing poison. The itch and rawness don't take as long. Something in the sap that scrapes you up on the way down, or something. Don't know.

They're kind of just talking to make noise, maybe. Buy some seconds to think Frisk's request over. Don't really want a hug, not when they're muddy and full of a lingering bitterness and scratchy ache, not when they know they're going to have to fight a battle with their body because it knows, it's full of a pointless wretched will to live, it recoils on reflex from the unpleasant vegetal taste of plants a person oughtn't eat.

But maybe Frisk's asking for their own sake. They don't get up. Just look at the canopy of trees up above.]

...Sure. I guess.

[Chara sounds tired. Didn't plan this out very much at all. Maybe there's still time. They're not showing any symptoms. The awful bitterness is almost too much to bear, their mouth filling with saliva as their throat tries to generate a gag reflex. They could stick their fingers down their throat, turn it all back. But they've kind of made this a whole thing now. Not so easy to do. Not unless they've got a chance to save Chara from it too.

They'd probably hate them for that, but that's a consequence Frisk is willing to live with. Not like they can hate them any more than they do already, right?

Frisk rolls onto their side, lying one arm gently over Chara's middle. Not really a "hug" except in the loosest definition of the term, but maybe it's soothing. Or maybe they'll smack it away in a few minutes. Either way.]

Orpheus was a musician. [It's hard to speak around the thickening sliminess in their mouth. They do it anyway.] He was such a good musician that all of nature would stop to listen to him play. He was in love with a woman called Eurydice. They were young and happy.

But one day she died.

[Pause, stop to swallow. Something goes down. Their stomach lurches. Whoops.]

And so filled with grief, Orpheus traveled to hell and asked the god of the dead to let her go.

[God, they hope this isn't a story with a moral. They're not in the mood for any It Gets Better or Try A Little Harder to Look on the Bright Side or Other People Have it Worse.

They listen anyway, because they don't have anything better to do. They can tell. Can hear the difference between trying to talk around a mouthful of unpleasantness and flooding saliva, and talking around nothing at all.

One leaf isn't enough to kill a person. They don't think it is, anyway. They don't even know if their tasty little salad (ha ha) was enough, because they are a screw-up, they can't plan things right, they probably just look like they're pulling some kind of pathetic stunt for attention. Had just figured they could pick more, if it wasn't enough.

...They grab hold of the arm draped loosely over them. The arm, not the hand, not the wrist, because they didn't think to look if it was the bandaged one or not. Not going to be picking more, after all, maybe. Guess they'll both just have to lie there.]

It was that easy back then? Boy. Does death mean anything at all anymore?

[If you can still laugh at yourself, you're doing just fine.]

[They have to wait, pause to let their organs settle and stop rebelling against the thing they just slid down their esophagus. Frisk smiles thinly, sadly, the motion pulled easily from their lips, lacking the motivation to prevent it. Chara dispensing their typical commentary. Like nothing's wrong.

Maybe someone will find them here. Maybe someone will find one or both of them dying, Frisk telling stories to a corpse, or maybe they'll both be coiled over one another and puking their guts out.

Lie here and die together. That was the original plan. Too bad Frisk doesn't want to get up and finish the job. Their breathing hitches for a short moment, and then they press forward, their tone even, the words steady.]

The god of the dead had heard such pleas before. Many, many times. But moved by the power of Orpheus's music, he finally agreed that he would let Eurydice return to the land of the living, on one condition.

[Focus on the curve of fingers around their arm. Touch. Always a sticky point for them. It's nice of them to allow this one thing, even if they're the one who's straddling the dangerous line here.]

He had to walk out of hell, and never once look back to check that Eurydice was following. He would simply have to trust that she was behind him.

So he agreed with the terms. He began to walk back out of hell. It was a long journey.

[They pick up one of the pre-picked leaves with their free hand. Toy with it, folding it between their fingers.]

He always wanted to look back to make sure his beloved was there, but he kept his promise. He did not look back. He only trusted she would follow.

[What a story, huh? Loving someone so much you'd follow them to hell. Being so special that you could actually save them from hell.

They have a feeling they might hate this story, no matter how it ends.

Their fingers tighten around Frisk's arm. Bunch up the fabric of their shirt.]

Don't.

[Spoken softly, with a too-casual smile on their face. Like they're asking Frisk for a tiny favour. Like it's just a "hey, get your own Cheetos" instead of a "hey, please don't die in an atrociously inefficient and unpleasant manner."

It'll make their throat hurt if they start laughing.

They try to pile together reasons, pick one out that's nice enough. I don't wanna die with YOU anymore? You're not supposed to want this, you're supposed to be getting better? I don't want this for you. All kind of harsh, aren't they? Not reasons they could lay out without getting them thrown right back in their hypocritical face.

So. Well. There's always...]

If you do, everyone will blame me.

[Maybe they would. Maybe they'd assume, that since Chara was apparently alone, that Frisk simply couldn't handle the sight of them lying there and followed suit. Maybe Sans or Toriel will find them first, and remember...

Maybe...

They hate themselves so deeply for the idea that forms in their gut, amidst the hot boiling of stomach acids eating away at a volatile, potentially fatal thing. Breath catches. Breathe out through their nose and continue the story, a little fainter.

They crush the leaf into another ball, but make no motion to do anything else to it.]

Finally, he felt the sun on his skin. He had made it to the surface, and all without looking back once. Overjoyed, he turned back to face his beloved.

[Fingers digging into their palm, cutting through the leaf and into their skin. Getting the toxins into their body the hard way, huh?]

But in doing so, he'd made an error. You see, Orpheus was meant to wait until they were both out of hell, and Eurydice had not yet reached the surface as he had. He saw her face one last time before she disappeared, forever lost to him now, for the god of death would not allow him to traverse the underworld a second time.

[Whether the horrible dark pit in their stomach is a result of what they just did or what they're about to do, they have no idea.

Slowly, Frisk lifts their hand with its bunched up leaf matter, holds it over Chara's face. Like they're about to feed them their own death.]

Perhaps it was a lapse of trust. Perhaps he simply hadn't realized that they both needed to be free. But because of his error, the lovers were doomed to always go where the other could not follow, united only in death.

[They hold it overhead. Asking permission.]

...Kind of a pointless idea, wasn't it? If he wanted to be with Eurydice so bad, why didn't he just off himself instead of going to all that trouble?

[Question with an obvious answer, that. Normal people don't want to die. Nobody wants to be dead. Death is terrifying. Orpheus wanted to have his cake and eat it too. Didn't wanna give up anything he had. Wanted to be with Eurydice, but not if it meant he had to sacrifice something.]

At least death can still bring them back together. He can't mess that up, right? One promise that we all keep, sooner or later.

[Death won't take them to Asriel. LOVE or suicide. Kill or be killed. None of it really makes it okay, none of it solves the problem. Just makes it easier to not care about a problem that will never be fixed. No wonder they say this kind of behaviour is self-centered, huh?

Their smile goes lopsided, wry, halfhearted. They gaze at the crushed-up leaf that Frisk holds. Wonder idly what Frisk's game is. But they nod their assent, lips parting around a thin little puff of air, not quite forceful enough to qualify as either a sigh or a laugh.]

[Frisk has no answer to the questions, the pointless mockery of a sad story they'd picked up and read in a library, in a compendium of assorted myths and tales about the follies of gods and children of gods. There'd been an awful lot of gods. An awful lot of names they couldn't pronounce. Orpheus's story had stuck in their mind the longest. It had left them feeling melancholy for reasons they couldn't define, feeling like the story had no real resolution. No real ending. Orpheus and Eurydice never get concretely reunited. Maybe if they imagine it very hard, picture Orpheus's cruel demise, they can see the ending that was never written out in the story they read.

Chara nods. Frisk shuts their eyes. They think achingly of Asgore, who may have known the mechanism by which his children died if only after the fact, of Toriel, who had carried the small, empty body back to the Ruins, of Flowey, who had arisen from good intentions and scientific error, of Orpheus, who trusted implicitly but not enough, of Eurydice, who must have faded knowing he loved her, knowing he had tried, and perhaps not hating him for making that fatal misstep at the last second.

They think of Asriel.

They lower their hand. Chara's mouth is open.

The only warning is the split second in which their fingers tighten across Chara's front, bunching into the fabric of their shirt, and they bring the hand down sharply, the leaf still clenched to their palm, two fingers extended as they aim to drive them down their throat with enough force and depth to trigger the reaction they're hoping for.

They'll hate them. They'll hate them.

But they already hated them, that was the point.]

[They should have known better. There's the fleeting instant where grip tightens, where they're prisoner to someone else's touch, and Chara's not the one who's better at dodging, because for that necessary half-second, they freeze, lock up, go immobile and compliant, and that costs them everything.

Chara bites down, vicious and wild, but it's too late, it's after the fact, it's clamping down on fingers that are already intruding, and it's a stupid, stupid reflex, because it keeps them in place, because the damage is already done, because skin touches the back of their throat and the horrific, repulsed noise that ruptures out of them is more of a shuddering wretch than a scream.

They wrench away, shove themselves up with a strength born of pure desperation, but escape doesn't mean much of anything. All they have time to do is lurch forward, crash through the reeds into the shallows of the pond, sleeves getting soaked and knees smeared with mud as they collapse hands-first into the water, trying to cough for air but it's useless and stupid because coughing turns into gagging turns into horrible, body-wrenching heaves. That horrible bitter taste comes back up a second time in a stinging, awful rush. Stomach acid burns their throat, their tongue. The noise is absolutely vile.

Disgusting. They're so disgusting.

They recoil, pull their arms out of the water, can't look at the filthy mess they've made. Can't back away, because their stomach still twists and shudders violently, like it'll happen again at any moment. Can't look at Frisk, because their eyes water and their breath comes in tight hitches and it must be on their breath and maybe it's in their hair and they're so disgusting. Shame and revulsion boil even hotter than whatever's left in their stomach.]

Why do I keep trusting you?

[A trembling, breathless laugh. Their voice strained, raw in the wake of the... of this. Look at what a mess they are. Befouling a perfectly picturesque little oasis.]

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private text --> action

action, suicide cw from here on hhhha ha

help these kids

they're Fine

absolutely Fine

Finesk and Charalright

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cw emetophria thoughts and gross invasion of personal space????

CW NASTY GROSS PUKES