Hey - I can't do multi-chapter stories (as evidenced by my last one) without getting bored of them - So I'm just gonna do a few short stories on a specific subject I feel passionate about at the time of writing. Expect no OCs or continuations in any of my (future) stories and don't expect a schedule either. I do possess some basic grammar skills though.
Frisk will be referred to by gender-neutral pronouns. You can interpret that as you like.
Frisk sat there, feet hanging off of the end of their bed. They stared at the plain, cream wall about a meter away. In the center of the wall a single photograph of their friends after being freed from the Underground. They were with their friends there. Sure, Frisk kept in touch with them (It would be hard not to considering Frisk lived with Toriel) and visited Sans a few times a week but something felt... off. Some sort of emptiness inside them. Standing up, Frisk noted the pie on their desk; obviously put there by Toriel in the night. They grabbed the pie and ate it before getting ready for school. Even after eating the pie, Frisk still felt empty inside - Not physically but emotionally.
Frisk headed into the kitchen but upon entering Toriel noticed something strange. Frisk was making almost no expression; their eyes dull and their small, everlasting smile replaced by an almost unnoticeable frown.
"Frisk, is everything alright?" Toriel said in a part-questioning and part-worried tone
Frisk took a moment to process what Toriel had said. Once they had however, their mouth quickly formed an over-expressive smile and Frisk's eyes seemed to focus on trying to have their old, noticeable life. "Y-yeah" Frisk stuttered, surprised at the sudden question. "I'm fine Tori- Mom.." Frisk berated themselves for almost slipping up, by calling Toriel by her name and not by her title. They had always called Toriel 'Mom' but today, for whatever reason, it didn't come naturally but instead came forced. A small part of Frisk's mind was thinking about what would have happened if she called her mom 'Toriel' but instead of thinking rational thoughts, Frisk thought about hatred and fear - Being kicked out of the house, unwanted...
"If you say so, Frisk." Toriel replied slowly. Something was up with Frisk she thought - It had been getting more noticeable over the last few weeks but this was the first time Frisk looked so... disturbed. Toriel observed as Frisk grabbed their lunch and walked out the door, doing a forced wave as they left the house. Toriel was sure Frisk had said something, but had been too immersed in her worries to hear much more than Frisk saying they were all right. Something was wrong but Toriel was unable to pinpoint it. She eventually had an idea, it was Sans' turn to take Frisk home today as normally Frisk went to Sans and Papyrus' house on Wednesdays.
*Ring Ring*
"hey, 'sup tori?" Sans said nonchalantly over the phone
Toriel, unlike most days, was in no mood for Sans' games. "Sans, I know you're very close to Frisk but I need you to talk to them about something... serious... at your place later today, just come around my place and we'll talk." Toriel said in a demanding voice. Not a voice to be messed with.
Sans paused. This was serious. "Okay. Be right there." Sans replied, realizing that this was serious and there was no time for fun and games.
It was now lunch break at Frisk's school. Normally Frisk sat with a bunch of their friends in the dining hall, but today was different. Frisk wanted nothing to do with anyone and sat there on a bench outside, alone to their own thoughts. Frisk was rapt in thought, thinking about things such as books they had read or new television shows they had watched. But occasionally, a negative thought would come into their mind - messages of hate or sadness, the sort of thing that fueled the emptiness they had within them for the last few weeks. Frisk slowly nibbled on the packed lunch, slowly working their way through a sandwich. They were focusing on nothing and was just staring blankly at the playground in front of them, just because their eyes needed somewhere to go, not because Frisk was interested in anything. However, Frisk noticed something in the distance, their friends had left the lunch hall as were tradition in the last 15-20 minutes of lunch and seemed to be... enjoying themselves. "Of course they are" Frisk stated inside their head "I'm nothing. They probably didn't even notice I was gone. Even if they did, they obviously didn't care. If they did, they would have tried to find me." Then another thought crept into Frisk's mind "Or they did notice I was gone and were in-fact happy about it. I did free the monsters after all. The humans appeared to welcome them to the surface, even a small annual holiday was arranged around the day they had escaped as an apology to the monsters. But it was all a facade right? right?"
"Frisk!... Frisk!" said someone. Frisk took a moment to focus on the person in front of them. It was one of their friends. "The bell went, we need to go to registration." Frisk stood up, nodding slowly and started walking with their friend to registration.
"You alright? You seemed to zone out there. You know, if anything's bothering you, you can feel free to talk to us right? We didn't disturb you as you seemed to want to be alone. We figured you would come to us when you wanted to talk" Frisk's friend said.
Frisk quickly looked at them, nodded quickly and tried to force another smile. Frisk's mind seemed to fight with itself, part of it arguing that Frisk had worried their friends for no reason and part of them arguing that their friends to care but wanted Frisk to talk on Frisk's terms, not theirs." It didn't matter what Frisk's mind was arguing about though - neither side helped stop the emptiness slowly consuming them.
The day was finally over. Frisk was exiting the school as they found Sans in the distance, near the entrance to the forest, like always. Slowly but purposely, Frisk walked over to Sans, forcing a smile for the third time that day.
"hey kiddo." Sans said as Frisk walked towards him "come this way, i know a shortcut" Ever since Sand had started picking Frisk up from school, him and Frisk would walk down the forest trail enough to ensure nobody could see them and they would just teleport into Sans' house. Today followed the same schedule but Frisk wasn't up for conversation, which was weird as they normally could speak for days on end about things they were doing such as a book they were reading or a new science experiment they were working on. But Frisk was eerily quiet today, too quiet.
Frisk noticed Sans walk past the spot where they normally 'ported out of the woods and watched as he walked into a more dense part of the forest. Frisk ran to catch up before going to question Sans. "Hey.. uh Sans? where are we goi-"
"Here." Sans replied in a more serious tone than normal. "Sit down. You and I need to talk."
Frisk's eyes went wide. "What have I done?" Frisk mentally said, running through the options of why Sans would be mad at them. They hadn't RESET, like promised, they had done all their homework on time and behaved in lessons... the list went on but Frisk could not figure out what the talk was about.
"Frisk. Don't look at me like that and sit down." Sans said sternly. "I can tell something's up, Toriel can tell something's up and I even talked to one of your friends and even they said something was up." Sans continued speaking. He did not want to be the one to do this but he knew that Toriel wouldn't be able to do it and he didn't trust Papyrus or Undyne to be sensible, Alphys would be too nervous and Asgore was always busy, being the old leader of the monsters after all. "So tell me. What's on your mind?"
"N-nothing, Sans! Just not feeling we-" Frisk tried to say before being cut off by Sans' glare, a glare that could stop even the strongest person in their tracks.
"Don't lie to me Frisk. I hate this as much as you do, but I need to know the truth." Sans was nearly yelling at this point, thankfully they were too far away for anyone to hear his yelling.
Frisk took a step back, knowing that they had no escape from this - No MERCY or FIGHT options, just talk. "Well... You sure are 'determined' to find out aren't you?" Frisk tried to say confidently but what came out was a voice full of fear.
Sans sighed. "Look kid, I don't want to do this either. But if you dodge the question one more time..." Sans breathed in "You're going to have a bad time." Sans' eyes went dark for a second, the phrase rolling off of his tongue from what appeared to be muscle memory but he hadn't ever said it to Frisk. At least in this timeline. He didn't mean to say it either, but it came out without thinking.
Frisk stopped. Frisk's eyes froze in place, their heartbeat slowed and they didn't dare to move any arms or legs. Eventually, they spoke "You want to know what's wrong that much? That you'll threaten me with death to try and get it out of me?" Frisk stood up, looking down at the shorter skeleton. "You'll fucking get it." Frisk yelled, not loud enough for anybody but them and Sans to hear it but loud enough that it, along with the sudden swearing, frightened Sans. "You see, Sans... It started when I woke up in the Underground." Frisk seemed to have calmed down now, but Sans was sat there, silent, afraid of angering Frisk again. "I didn't remember anything before I fell. I still don't. I didn't even know my real name. I got up and started to walk and I saw a golden flower. It told me about my SOUL and LOVE, that is before it tried to murder me..." Frisk paused to breathe, tears forming at the back of their eyes. "I was scared, Sans. For the first time in the Underground, I thought I was gonna die and that would be it... A child killed who's only memories are of the last 30 seconds of their life. Pathetic, isn't it?" Frisk forced a laugh. "A child getting killed by a flower - The only speaking thing this child would ever remember would be this flower." Frisk paused for breath, looking at how Sans was both listening intently and still afraid of angering Frisk again. "Toriel saved me of course. She showed me how to operate the RUINS, taught me about puzzles and even fed me in exchange for a small promise - Any enemies I met I were to talk to and try to SPARE. If I couldn't spare then RUN." Frisk paused for breath. Sans went to say something but Frisk interrupted before Sans could speak "I eventually left the RUINS, and met you. Sans. And then I met Papyrus. Once I reached Snowdin, I immediately went to the inn. If I could sleep then the next morning I wouldn't be so shaken up right? I may even remember something. I slept that night but in my dreams I saw someone... smiling at me. I remember seeing this person killing Toriel, Papyrus and I remember a large hall, you standing in the middle and this strange person in front of you. You said to the person "do you wanna have a bad time?" before stating "cause if you take another step forward..." I woke up in a cold sweat. The visions of hundreds of monsters leaving nothing but dust behind haunting my thoughts." Frisk stopped and started to quietly sob. Frisk sat down and pulled their knees up to their face, hiding from Sans.
Sans was silent - What could he say or do to comfort Frisk? He got up and shook Frisk "Hey, kid. Let's get out of this forest and to my room, we can continue this there. And if it means anything at this point... Sorry."
Frisk looked up before slowly rising to their feet. The adrenaline that was at one point pumping through their veins was now replaced by sorrow. Frisk grabbed Sans and shut their eyes. Upon re-opening their eyes, Frisk noticed that they were both in Sans' room.
Sans beckoned Frisk to sit on the mattress with him. Frisk obliged and sat down with him. "Hey, Frisk, if you don't want to continue this today we can do thi-"
Frisk cut him off "No. I've told you this much. I'll finish it." Frisk said, more quiet this time. "Nothing much happened from there, I died a few times and fought Undyne, met Alphys and the standard. However, when I encountered Asgore and everyone turned up to stop the fight, that bastard, Flowey, had absorbed everyone's souls. All 6 of the human souls and every single monster soul. The power of the souls turned him into a god. It turned him into Asriel." Frisk stopped, questioning whether they should say what comes next before deciding it was for the best if they did "I fought him. Asriel. The lost son of Toriel and Asgore. The one who rescued the first fallen human, only to get betrayed by them afterwards. It was a long battle, it got to the point where I was determined enough to outright refuse to die, but he didn't die either. We were both stuck until I noticed instead of talking, I could SAVE you all instead. I talked to your souls and you all started to come back to normal... but I needed to save Asriel... I failed." Frisk paused. "Here I am, savior of the monsters, ambassador of the underground yet I'm still a failure." Frisk began to sob again, louder this time "The first few months were alright. Everyone was happy but the guilt of knowing that Toriel and Asgore's son was still alive and I was keeping it to myself... It slowly ate away at my conscience. I started to blame myself for everything, I started to lose hope. And then I lost it. There was nothing left in me but an empty shell of a body. I was a shadow of who I used to be, because I knew deep at my heart... I was a failure and that's how I would s-
Sans slapped Frisk. "Snap out of it!" Sans yelled, directly at Frisk "You're not a failure. You saved everyone. Not us, You."
"I didn't save them... Asriel was the one who ope" Frisk tried to respond but was quickly cut off
"Frisk. It's not worth worrying about it." Sans hated being serious, but in times like these, it was required. Now that Frisk was obviously more stable and had got the word out, he can work on helping them. But for now... "Hey, wanna come to Grillby's?"
Frisk looked up confused as Sans reached out his hand towards them. Frisk grabbed the hand and went to pull themselves up when suddenly a low pffft came from Sans' hand.
Both Frisk and Sans started laughing Hysterically as they walked the short distance to Grillby's.
Jeez - That was heavy to write. I went into this thinking about how it would be short and unsure of how it would end - But here we are.
If you spot any mistakes (such as me calling Frisk a s/he) or any spelling / grammar errors feel free to point them out to me.