This is for someone I met at Zenkaikon. I went with my first cosplay as Frisk ('cause I was lazy and just needed to make a striped shirt) and I ran into her. Since she was Chara, no one really cared about me until I started traveling with her. Then it was pictures left and right.

I...don't normally like pictures, but it felt different as Frisk.

Anyway, this is for you, Janae. I mean Chara. I know you said that a puppet is better off dead, but dead puppets can't write fanfiction :3 ...er, well, not well, anyway.

"It gets pretty lonely here."

Two reddish-hazel eyes stared at the tall figure that loomed over their owner, who took only a step back before bringing up their knife, its blade pointing threateningly at the...thing.

To be honest, Chara wasn't really sure what it was. It was tall- well over eight feet, or so it looked from this angle- and had a very long black gown that covered pretty much everything but the face, neck, a little stripe of white on the chest and...its hands.

Goddamn, its hands!

Long (like just about everything else on that thing), white, boney...and holey. Where its palms should have been were just two empty holes, which Chara found their eyes being drawn to.

Oh, it also probably helped that it was speaking in hands.

"You like my signing?" the creature asked, the white dots in its skull's two gaping holes that seemed to serve as eyes scanning Chara up and down, noting their green shirt with the yellow stripe. Hm, familiar. Interesting.

Chara let out a low, quiet growl in response, taking a step closer, the grip around their knife tightening. It looked...somewhat like that comedian, almost. Maybe if he mixed with his older brother. ...Thaaaat's an odd thought.

"What are you?"

"What am I?" the creature signed back, just to make sure it had heard. Well, that was awfully rude. "I'm a monster, of course."

The killer couldn't help but roll their eyes. They weren't exactly known for being polite, though, so it wasn't like they cared. "Yeah, yeah, I get that. But what are you."

"I'm afraid I don't quite understand the question." Why, they were a monster, of course. He existed here in this...wherever they were, he had memories (faint ones, but memories none-the-less), he knew for certain he was a monster...how much more specific could he get?

"Look," the killer continued. They were beginning to lose patience, and an agitated Chara was definitely not a good Chara. "Monsters don't have determination. They can't exist here. So what are you?"

The thing, however, only tilted his head. Er...skull. "And where, may I ask, is "here"?"

"Aw, hell if I know!" They threw their arms up in the air and groaned, eyes rolling up to the ceiling in annoyance. "Fine, whatever. Just don't bother me. I'm kind of in the middle of something important."

When Chara began to take a step around the person, however, he quickly moved to block them and frowned ever-so-slightly.

"Time does not pass here. There's no need to rush."

Okay, seriously? By now they'd crossed their arms over their striped chest and huffed. Chara's left foot began to make a 'thud' noise as it tapped impatiently against whatever material was holding them up in this plane of existence. "No, time doesn't pass here, but it does path on Earth, and I'd kind of like to go back there."

The holes in the creature's skull somehow seemed to widen (maybe they're not holes…?) and he nodded, the sound of understanding finally exiting his mouth...or whatever served as it. "Ahh, so you want to go back to Earth. I see now."

Yeah, he sees now. Like it really mattered. That was a good waist of a minute. "Yeah. Can I go now?"

"Oh, don't tell me you're leaving so soon. Have you ever been to Earth?"

"Of course I've been to Earth." Jesus, how many questions was this guy gonna ask?

The creature's frown appeared to have returned as his shoulders drooped ever-so-slightly. "Then I suppose you don't need a guide, do you?"

"No. I don't."

He turned, however, a small smile quickly finding its way back on his face despite how strange it was, and waved a hand that beckoned for Chara to follow. They, however, did not move at first. Instead, they balled their hands up into two fists and brought them to their sides.

"Look, whatever your name is. I don't have time to follow around some weird stranger-"

They cut themselves off at the notice of the creature turning back around and signing the letters 'G-A-S-T-E-R'.

"Gaster?"

Gaster nodded, the smile still there as he reached one of his strange hands out for Chara to grab onto, though not before signing, "You can't cross over to Earth's plane by yourself, but if we work together, we should be able to do something."

"Something?" Chara scoffed, swatting the hand away. "You're out of your mind, unless you intend that "something" to match up with my plans. I can get to Earth on my own. Unlike you, I have DETERMINATION."

"I think you misunderstand what DETERMINATION is."

"I know what I'm doing. Move."

With that, Chara shoved the creature aside with a surprising amount of strength for the age that they appeared to be before spotting a door in the distance and rushing over.

When they reached their hand out to grasp a hold of the knob, however, and pressed their fingers down against the cold metal, a small spark traveled up from the golden handle along Chara's arm with enough force to send them tumbling backwards.

"Ow! Damnit, what the hell was that?"

Luckily, a figure was standing behind them, his long arms stretching out when Chara had been sent back and was quick to catch the smaller ghost before gently lifting them up so that the two met eye-to-eye. He normally would've attempted to speak, however the instruments he now used to do this were a bit...preoccupied at the moment, so he fortunately (for Chara) had to set them back down.

"What, are you planning to just follow me everywhere now?"

"You're the first person I met in this void," Gaster replied, the frown on his sort-of-face returning. "The least I could do is show you around."

Chara growled, quickly turning back around with their arms crossed in order to face the door. "I already told you: I'm not planning on staying. I'll be returning to Earth in just a short while."

"And how's that working so far?"

For once, the younger ghost went silent. The one attempt they made...failed. ...but they can try again! DETERMINATION!

"I only gave it one try!"

"Doing the same thing in the same way and expecting different results is nothing but insanity."

It would be at that point that Chara swiveled their head around to face this new person, their eyes having widened as far as they could possibly go and a broad, almost unrealistic grin spread on their face. "If you're calling me insane, you're a bit late to the game. Maybe we should start playing for lives?"

Gaster gave a quick sigh before shaking his head. This kid...was certainly a strange one. "What I'm saying is that you should try something else before you go making a fool of yourself."

Though it seemed ineffective, Chara still retained the smile as they took a step forward, their knife hanging lazily out of their hand. The blade began to glow a very faint red, which Gaster did catch from out of the corner of his eye, but he made no move to back down. It was likely just a bluff anyway.

"Look, we can stand here and argue, or we could put our heads together and come up with a way to travel back to the realm of Earth. Which would you rather?"

"I don't need anyone's help getting back."

"Fine." He quickly flicked his wrist toward a nearby area and began to trod off. "I'll be over there when you need me."

And sure enough, a few minutes later, Chara found themself grunting and retreating towards this new creature…. this "Gaster".

A/N: I wanna try something new for this fic, so here's the link of the google doc I'm typing it up on:

(go to google docs and put this in right after the 'dot com'...I hate Fanfiction filter so much)

/document/d/15CV_7yOn5CDWsGuF16-UgPSFDEet1vb6i7HIrgEj8bA/edit?usp=sharing

I'm doing this because it'd be nice to have some feedback. I have chapters on the doc I haven't uploaded yet, so you could read ahead. You could also read things you wouldn't be able to read otherwise...things I'd delete before putting them in the doc. Thing that might not be part of the story otherwise, y'know? Things that might not be cannon, um...anyway!

You can also provide feedback and ideas with the comments! To create a comment (at least on a computer), highlight an area and right-click it. There should be a 'comment' button :3