The second exit point of the Dark World violently flung Susie and Kris outdoor somewhere. The force of that cosmic shove made them roll through fallen autumn leaves and cold earth before the momentum stopped them on their backs. After the thrilling moment, together, they exhaled the adrenaline and took in the sky.
Cloudy and a silver-blue, a trademark of seasons changing... Beautiful.
As fun as the Dark World was, it lacked a sky to admire. It could mimic rain and wind but it just wasn't quite like this. The recently passed visit lasted quite a long time...perhaps too long of a time.
"Hnn-nnn..." Kris willed their body up to their knees at the least. Firmly planted in the ground, they offered their arm up as an anchor for Susie to sit up easily too. "Hey, could you check your phone to see what day it is?"
"Huh—yeah. I should, huh?" Susie breathlessly chuckled and withdrew her phone. From holding the power button down to waiting for the start up animation to pass, it was pure suspense. Kris was parked over her shoulder staring at the device in her palm and then, the two of them gasped.
Susie coughed the words, "Holy shit!"
"A week..!" Kris then wrapped their arms around Susie's collar bones when she abruptly stood up. "Whoa-" Next, their legs saddled on the sides of her, now caught in a sudden piggie back ride in haste. "Suzanne?" Their fingers gripped, not forgetting that she can be quite fast. "Wait-"
"We gotta go to town, Kris! My dad...!"
"Wait, wait." Kris rubbed her shoulders under their small human palms to stop, almost in the same motion of pulling the breaks of a motor bike. "One thing at a time. First... I apologize for getting you pulled into my mess...But also, thank you."
"Kch." She rolled her shoulders to shake off her human friend(halfheartedly), but they held tightly to her as always. Luckily, she had enough hair to hide the blush on her face. "Don't thank me for that...!"
"I will always, and anyway, check your GPS." The human pointed their finger at the phone they could not reach to touch from up here. Their brown hand rested on Susie's mauve wrist when she brought it up closer to show the screen better.
Oh.
Fortunately, luckily, they weren't far out of town. They were just near that creepy vibrating bunker. Susie didn't come here like most didn't. It was one of the town's greater mysteries and it seemed to be equally agreed upon to be ignored, except by her mom in the past. Her mother hated ignoring things she didn't have the answer to. Susie felt that she almost owed it to the memory of her to look at it when she had the time to. She knew where to go and began running forward with the human in tow on her back.
"I am glad I have such a small bag..." Kris casually mused aloud. "We have time left for the project, yes? If so... I will go over it at home, worry not."
Susie couldn't find the words. She kept rushing forward, forward to home. She was immensely worried about her loner father. He had no friends and often forgotten about just like she was. All he would have is Granddad who barely left the post office. She wondered if he came out too from the may be news. Her parent was easygoing about her behavior, but he was also so used to routine that she was sure that one day missing, the official 'report' of being missing, had thrown his entire world through a flaming loop.
It made her run faster.
"Suzanne, this is not good for you. Sooner or later, you will find yourself home!"
"Why not sooner, then?!"
"Because the result will be the same. We have been gone for a week and there is no changing that. I believe it is best for you to return not frantic and out of breath. There would be less room for assumption of awful scenarios." Kris nuzzled the side of Susie's face and held her as securely as possible from a position like this. She at first tensed, but then calmed. "Now I need to ask... would you prefer to go home alone or would you like for me to be by your side?"
"Huh..." She was not sure. The weight on her back was felt, but it wasn't bothersome, opposite. It was like having a warm weighed blanket over her shoulders. It was securing like holding onto something fluffy... But it would be selfish to ask Kris to walk with her home. The human would then be left to go home alone regardless... Sooner or later it did not matter, the results would be the same then too. Whatever the outcome was it would be selfish. "Part way."
"Part way? How come?"
"Because it'll be less of a marathon for you to get home and... I'll be chilled out by then too." She rocked on the heels of her sneakers back to front, nervous. "Does your phone even work? Or is it just an old flip lid clock?"
"Hehe... It works... It is not the best, no, but you can hear from me with it. Are these terms then adequate?"
"Yeah, yeah. The way you speak is almost like old English or something, seesh."
"It balanced out Asgore and Asriel's speech, if anything. Otherwise... I was nurtured into speaking like this, I believe. It matters not. It is what it is."
"Yeah..." Susie resumed going forward, but this time without the rush. She still made the conscious choice to avoid the main roads, taking the off paths, park paths. Anywhere but the streets and stores. Her home was on the outskirts of town, and this was one of the many times she was glad it was.
"Do you mind having a chat?"
"I don't mind, but you sure are more talkative..."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Nah... It's just a change of pace is all."
"Noted. What I had in mind is... What are your parents like?"
She tilted her head up in thought at the question. She still worried about present time but... Maybe focusing on the good things would keep her grounded. Had she and Kris not gone through what they had in the Dark World, she would find the use of 'parents' strange. It gave her another puzzle piece to work with, however. Although there was two minds, spirits, or whatever that made up to one Kris, one part wasn't always around for all the details. Already, this side had lost track of the due date of the project but was aware it existed. They also seemed to miss the detail of something else.
"My mom had an untimely death when I started middle school... I'll talk about her some other time. My old man's a loner just like me."
"You? A loner? You always make friends so quickly in the Dark World..."
"Heh, still... I think I am kinda one. Anyway, he doesn't talk very much. He is a homebody and a collector. He is really, really good at it, so good at it he can make a lot of money off it online. Collecting stuff was how he ran into my mom. Her collecting was more like... ancient old stuff. Lore, religion, all that creepy stuff. She wanted to find out what was fiction or real. She was a believer that scriptures weren't just make believe, that they were inspired off of reality... That bunker we passed used to really bother her, a lot of things did, especially this town when we moved to it. Anyway... dad believed it was a magic book that made her fall down and turn to dust. It was at home... But it was so sudden it sent him into shock, y'know? Sent me into shock too. The way her... soul hung out for a little while."
Susie clenched her fists. This just riled up her emotions again. A chin in her hair, though, smoothed the tension back down some.
"That's why I'm trying to get home. I suddenly disappeared on him... And what's worse is I have no other way to explain it but with magic! I don't know what to do! I'm worried he would try to pack up and find a new place to nest in, y'know? There's literally no other explanation, Kris. I combed my head for ideas..."
"Even so... You are alive. You are in good shape. Magic happens all the time here, it cannot just be magic that he fears. If he wants to flee... You can bring up how you want to see the school year through. You can call it a challenge to prove everyone wrong and to neatly wrap up the chapter of Hometown. Reason through it. You will be okay and most importantly... He will be most relieved over anything else." Saying these things made Kris smile as the human leaned their warm face against hers.
"...On a better day, Kris..."
"Hm?"
"I want you to meet 'em. My old dudes- my dad and grandpa."
"Oh." A sound of pleasant surprise arisen from Kris. "I-I look forward."
"Heh, good. I already met your mom, kinda... But not your dad?"
"He is not doing so well—Physically he is okay, kind of. Well." They were caught in a pickle trying to explain Asgore. "Um-"
"I get it. Kind of. I get it in that way that he's kinda weird and not ready for a visit. The "kind of" was for the.. y'know. Having a wife come and gone part. My dad became "off" yours is "off"."
"Right... Um." Their head was patted on, they took it in comfort and that they didn't have to explain themselves. They took this in gratitude as well, Kris made it so easy to feel their emotions in silence... "Thank you..."
"Stop thanking me so much..."
"Do you not thank the people you care about too?"
"Er, well... yeah, in my own way. I-I'm just not used to your bizarre ways." Sometimes Susie felt... flirted with, and now was one of those times. All her life she's seen buddies in school, in movies and comics. She could see the difference, feel the difference, she just wasn't sure because she was experiencing both friendship and flirting at once. Maybe on flirting.
"And you could meet Toriel outside of the classroom, but maybe not."
"Eh? Why the change of heart?"
"She can be overbearing and pushy... She would ask a lot of questions and squint at you. That does not make for a fun experience. Every day with you have been fun. I would prefer to keep it that way. I know I sound weird... But I always wanted to meet you properly."
It was weird to Susie. It was weird how she in an surreal way actually witnessed that Kris came in pieces. Literally as body and soul she had witnessed that herself. She didn't know who belonged to what or how, 'neither' would tell her... So she tried to tell them apart herself, but times like now, they felt like they really were blending into one strange dude. That despite the awareness of the situation of 'two' this felt like... Kris. Not as Chara or as Frisk, but Kris. She looked at this as collaborating memory, helping Kris out be what they wanted to be. They never had a heart to heart either so meeting properly has yet to happen no matter the angle she examined it from.
Kris continued speaking. They sounded anxious, but they were trying to not keep to themselves with their thoughts.
"I am going to get weirder... But before I...we met you, we shared a dream. It took place in a watery place... And there was a clam lady who told me I had not met their neighbor's daughter Susie, but it would be okay, because that time was fast approaching..."
"Huh. When was that?" It gave her a shiver of familiarity. She had dreams of a clam couple for neighbors... And some place watery... but the water glowed around her and echoed like it was underground.
"Years ago... Many years ago. It was... elementary..." This time Kris had spoken with many thoughtful pauses. To Susie, it felt like their human friend was rummaging around in a old box of possessions with those pauses. Susie tried to do the same, tilting her head up and thinking about elementary...
"I think I remember you staring at me weirdly—and you had plastic red horns, right?"
"Yes! I lost them... Maybe I will get another pair?"
"Pfft, would you? You wouldn't be embarrassed?"
"Not at all. I have no room for embarrassment. Not like anyone cares about me, why should I care about them? It took me so long to be enlightened to that. Now... It would be different if you found it embarrassing."
Susie huffed before saying, "It doesn't matter what I think-"
"Yes it does-"
"Don't cut me off." Her nose flared in irritation. It didn't help that Kris was above her so she couldn't ruffle their hair. "Anyway it doesn't matter what I think. If you like it you should get another pair or do whatever else ya want. It's your body and if it's what makes you happy, go for it." She shook her shoulders again to ruffle Kris some other way. "And I'll have your back, whatever you do. Even if I find it goofy."
"Okay." Kris paused while their fingers leafed through Susie's hair. "What makes it weird?"
"I dunno. It just is, but that's cool, stop being such a pain in the ass." Susie had huffed again, but it ended with her having a smirk on her face. A hurdle was passed. "Your ride's over."
"..." They had almost said they did not mind the walk, but they had agreed to Susie's terms before this moment, terms they had now regretted. They slid down her back and took a reluctant step back. Their fingers clenched into fists for a brief moment before looking up with such a determined look in their eyes. "Call me."
"Ah?" Susie's eyes fluttered at the sudden declaration pitched at her. She withdrew her phone and said, "'Kay."
"Okay." Again, Kris hesitated. Eyes darting to the lower left, then the right. Hesitation was clear from their averted gaze to their tensed posture... The human was alerted by a soft clicking sound that prompted them to look up. The sound was not a one off, because it repeated in their ears a second time. Kris swiftly turned around, almost like the pirouette they performed against Jevil. They wondered to themselves, "Did she take pictures of me?" Still, Kris remained... cheeks rosy, full of hope, and hidden from view. Maybe they hoped for Susie to change her mind? She wanted to, but it felt like it wasn't the time to bring Kris under her arm to her dad yet.
She smiled warmly and thought to herself, "what can I say...? What can I do...?"
She really wish she knew what to do, what to say. It felt wrong to walk away without Kris. The human was so stuck in the middle of the sidewalk facing opposite to her that they looked like an abandoned puppy straight out of story books. She was hit with a cheeky idea, and hit Kris' contact under her thumb. She knew Kris didn't turn off their phone, that thing appeared to live forever unlike hers. It rang, and her smile became a toothy grin at how Kris jumped in surprise at the phone coming to life in their jacket pocket. She waited, amused as Kris withdrew the phone and flipped it open.
Susie chuckled before she thought aloud, "Cool, it works." She then felt it okay to walk ahead.
"Will you stay on the line with me?" Kris asked through their phone. For a moment, Susie stopped walking and looked at the phone, then over her shoulder. Kris' back was still turned, but the phone was cradled against their face in both hands... Susie turned around and resumed walking.
"Yeah." She kept walking ahead, and could hear that Kris finally begun to do the same opposite to her. She, unlike Kris, had no topics for discussion, but she kept her word and remained on the line. After some time with not much but the awkward sounds of walking and breathing, she wanted to ask if something was wrong. Just as she was about to ask, she heard a different voice from her end.
"Whoa, Kris, you're okay!" The voice was also young and masculine, but it obviously did not belong to Kris, it was higher in pitch. She couldn't say it was familiar. She stopped to listen closely as Kris gasped. "Golly, you had us so worried! Where'd you go? Are you okay? Say something, please!"
Still, Kris said nothing... were they in shock? Susie felt a horrible chill go down her shoulders. Even if she ran the other way, there was no way to get to Kris in time. It didn't sound like they were in any danger, but it sounded so uncomfortable all the while. The idea of a older brother was rarely mentioned these days that she forgot Kris even had one.
"It was an accident, Asriel." Kris had finally cooly spoken, but then their voice became distant, the last thing Susie could hear was. "A friend of mine-" before it cut off with a characteristic clap of an old phone. She looked at her screen that showed a picture of Kris, but blinking red with the time stamp of their time in the ended 'call'. Her thumb twitched toward the green button to call back, and with her lack of impulse control, she done so. She was so focused she forgot to walk, even as the phone rang and rang. ...It ended with the default recording to leave a message.
"First off—You hung up on me! Second, you ignore me?! You really are troublesome you know that!" She was flustered and yelling. At the back of her mind she wanted to stop yelling but it just wasn't fast enough. "You better get back to me or we're gonna have problems!" Yet, she did not hang up. She angrily stared at her phone, eyebrows and lips twitching with hot emotion. "And tell me who that was you were talking to! I've had enough cryptic shit for like half the year! And that's me being generous! I want an apology this time!" She finally hung up with the tap on her screen, no where close to a satisfying clap of a old school phone.
So much for returning home calmly. Susie couldn't remove the blush off of her face, let alone stop her facial features from twitching like she was fresh out of an argument... She was a one track minded person when her emotions were involved. Currently it felt so much like going back to normal than being a week mysteriously away from home. She pounded her clenched fist against her home's door. It wasn't until she heard an uncharacteristic scrambling that she remembered.
She was gone.
The door flung swung open and her eyes were wide as the indigo ones in front of her. Like automation, however, her arms opened up. She was scooped into the gruff hold of dad. Picked up and swung back and forth in abundance of felt joy. Her father could breath fire, his snort in her hair was very warm and right now, welcoming and nostalgic. She wasn't able to find words, she just hugged back tightly. Fear was absent, it was more of just flat out missing another person...
"Kid...Kid! Where did you go?! What happened?!"
"Sorry, I got swept up in an adventure, Dad." Susie was sheepish, but more than sheepish she was glowing with pride he hadn't seen his child have since elementary school.
"I thought so..." Her father grumbled... He didn't put her down either. Just closed the door with his tail and kept carrying her around in his arms. His long tail swished back and forth against the wooden floor to sweep things out of his way. There was newspaper scattered everywhere, and other mail too, from envelopes to boxes. The place was messier than the norm, they would have to organize it together soon. "Kid," her father started and looked his child in her golden eyes. "I know it ain't a regular teenager playing hooky kinda adventure. ...Where'd you go? I couldn't find you on any satellite or by any means, it was like your phone didn't exist. Then it just did, moments ago. It's not at all possible, the company told me."
"That needs a long sit down, dude." Susie said, giving her father a nudge on the cheek with a fist. "It's a bigger mess than normal here, let's get it in order first."
"You're not hungry or tired?"
"Nah. I got an appetite but I'm not actually hungry."
"Can't explain it while we pick up the scraps?"
"I don't want to but," she shrugged before continuing. "Eh. I guess so." She was put down and went for the path way where all the newspapers was. As she picked up the pieces into a stack she started. "There's this awesome place only me and my friend can go to, but never when we want to, it just happens at school when we're by ourselves."
"I don't think so," her father added as he made his way behind then past her with unopened packages in his arms. He didn't wear shoes like his daughter or late wife, his scaly and clawed feet were powerful as his hands were. If he hadn't the long nail tips, typing would be a nightmare on even an enlarged keyboard. "Alphys was our lead on the whole mess. At first it was just that boy Kris missing, then it became you were also missing. The two of you happened to be in a school project too, right? She said it happened the day before."
"Yeah, we've been there twice. The first time we had to go get chalk and then the storage became enchanted and dropped us down a pit to a new world! What was like a weekend there was hours here, it was sick." She laughed and put the folded paper on a shelf then moved to pick up the mail. There was even sympathy post cards here, how morbid. "This time, though, it felt really long there and it turned out to be a week here. We wanted to use that difference to get a head start on our project—and we did! But there was a lot more going on down there."
"Yeah...?" Her father paused trying to sort of the priority of his questions. What he considered low he decided to start with. "Where's the project?" He didn't really care about a flimsy project, he cared about this other world... As illogical as it was, it added up in so many ways, with his daughter untraceable for a week. It also felt... nostalgic, as if such a thing was mentioned to him years ago, about a decade or more ago...
"Kris has it. He's more thorough and thoughtful than me," she laughed.
"And weird. What's with that kid? I know he's a human... but for a human he feels so other."
"Dad!" Susie whipped around in the direction of her dad, her eyes gleaming in disapproval. "We're friends, you know!"
"Obviously. Impossible to not be friends with someone you spend so much time with. I roomed with that goofy man, Asgore. I begrudgingly call him a friend these days, but spending years around the guy I couldn't help but take up for the guy."
Susie softly huffed as she swiped dust off the shelves and tables with a near by dust magnet.
"He really is my friend. He almost came over today but I thought he should go home too."
"Yeah, you're right. Toriel was off her rocker, I thought it would've just been me. But move off from that, what's with that kid? Alphys said she saw his damn soul before everything poofed. There was photos of a heart shaped hole in the door. School was closed the whole day the next day trying to figure out what happened."
Susie's tail was a lot smaller than her dad's. It wagged with stress she was venting out there rather than with her claws or arms. Helpful, with an armful of gadgets and trinkets. Her instinct was to lie, or at best, white lie. But hearing a replay Kris' voice in her mind inspired to try and be honest.
He will be more relieved than anything else.
"What made her think it was Kris' soul, though?"
"Ehh..." Her father was now caught in a pause. "Hrmm... It is rumor that human souls can hang out of their bodies... Sounds like a fairy tale. I just remember your mother mentioning it way before you were born. Trying to understand humans... Understand anything that made her curious. To her delight that kid appeared out of no where... But that what's making me think it's true."
Damn.
Her tail beat against the arm of the sofa she stood next to. She's not quick witted enough... So it sucks she chose to lie in the end.
"Was it found?"
"Nope. And it's not like we got x-rays to check for human souls so eh, fuck it." He moved for the couch and sat down. "So I'm gonna have that sit down now, and so are you." It wasn't often her father told her what to do and it was annoying. It was such an infrequent thing it was hard to say she was accustomed to discipline or order in such a fashion. Still, she wasn't in the mood for a fuss and sat down with her arms crossed. "Did ya mess with your mom's stuff?"
"No."
"I'll take your word for it, and I want you to take my word for it right now—Don't."
"Kch."
"Don't." He repeated, and his mouth lit up with embers of a crackling fire.
"So. What? You're next gonna tell me not to go to school? Not to go to a place that takes me when it needs to?"
"Oh it's a need now, huh?"
"Yeah it is. I'm a hero over there!"
"Hero is a self-proclaimed title of trouble!" He spat sparks with his growl, his fangs grinding together acted like flint rock.
"Sounds like you know a lot more than you give off, old man!" Susie growled back and stood up from the couch. "Feh! I rushed my way back to check on you and you spend your time pushin' me around! What happened to saying how cool it is? Or how strong I am? Or how I am doing something no one can when everyone thought I couldn't do anything?!"
"Cause your mother was the same way! I hate that you're taking after her! It'll be a damn waste to die young cause she passed that gift on you!"
"What gift?!"
"You obtuse child! Her power! When she fell all of it went to you! I hoped it didn't, because what good was it for? Absolutely nothin'! I sometimes wonder if it was some sort of purposeful experiment! It was like it was driving her mad...! She kept talking about it like it was building up in her if she didn't go off exploring or messing with magic spells all day and night. She would always get fussy at me when I tell her to knock it off and to come home. She'd argue the same thing at me. "Tim! We're dragons! We aren't built for this mundane lifestyle, especially not me!" She talked about monster lineages and how hers was special... I thought it baloney all the way to the day she fell down, and you started having trouble at school..."
Susie stared with her maw hanging low. She felt like she had no control of the weight in her arms, it was like they were both popped out of their sockets with how low they dropped. Her heart pounded hard enough to be internally heard. She couldn't move, couldn't speak... Her eyes burned... It burned with the feelings of oncoming tears but also with the gleam of the very magic her dad ranted about. She tried to speak, but only squeaky air arisen from her throat.
Her father held his head in his claws. He was silent for awhile too before he continued.
"I thought about it for years... The way you just didn't want to be at school. The way you just wanted to play all day like she did. The size of your bullets... The sudden reports of you breaking things without meaning to... And the same energy she had all the while." He felt shameful, closing his eyes tightly. "I felt fearful for you. Of it. I thought about ways for you to get outta school, that maybe your ma' was right. That emulating human society just wasn't for ya... And to hear it right now is givin' ol Timmy the spooks, Susie. Hearing you spout about being a hero in a place I can't see. She also talked about 'points' or whatever..."
While her father's voice weakened, she found it in her to budge her legs and sit next to him. She sat down like she was weighed the same as a ton of breaks. She stared out at the wall ahead, the wall coated in framed pictures of the family. She stared at her mother's confident expression under her auburn hair in particular. Her eyes gleamed golden under there too, like hers. Susie pouted in her hands just like her dad did. The sit down was more for her than her dad. It was silent, but that entire time she kept mentally challenging herself to get some words out.
"Did she keep a journal, dad?" She croaked out without looking at him.
"Susie, if you fall down there's nothing left of either of you."
"Maybe it wasn't the books she wrote."
"Suzanne, stop being a contrary punk!"
"I'm trying to compromise here..." She wiped at her eyes with the back of her fingers. She didn't feel like arguing, she wanted to sleep more than anything. "I won't touch her ancient books, but I want to see what she wrote, what she was thinking about. ...And when I get my head together, I'll keep you in the loop. I swear it." She nervously shuffled her fingers through her hair. Back and forth, side to side, shaking her head in her hands. This was overwhelming, it felt like she was knocked in the head and was trying to stand up way too soon. "I don't have a choice, dad. I don't. It's not just at the school, we got chucked out in town. It'll grab us whenever it wants. I better at least be prepared for it. If mom knew anything... it'll help us all out in the long run."
Susie continued to nervously comb her smaller claws through her hair, pulling out strands of hair out until her father's hand obscured her hand and overall her head. It was weighed as it always was, pulling her toward him and buried under his arm next. He squeezed her and bent over to shield her under his form.
"In more ways than one you're stronger than me. I'm just a big oaf who doesn't understand a lot."
"I-I don't get a lot of things either!" She verbally fussed, and even allowed her eyes to stream hot tears. She indulged in the hug. ...She really needed it. "So are you giving me the research papers or not?" She felt scared, but it was always a lot easier to growl and snarl through it. Cathartic even. It helped to see that her dad was doing the same. That he felt the same. That being loud about fear wasn't out of the norm, it was just 'her' way as she told Kris earlier.
"Yeah... I'll sort it out. I don't have the choice in the matter, might as well make sure you get the right stuff. I'll take the deal..." He rocked her side to side. He could feel her tears rushing as well as slowing down to a stop. She was relaxing into a nap... "Just always keep me in the loop. I'll do my best bridging the gap for her, okay?"
"Cool... Thanks."
BOO~HOO~HOO~! AS I SAID BEFORE! HOW CAN YOU REFUSE,WHEN YOU ARE ALREADY PLAYING?
Susie's fingers tightly gripped her father's arm. She will indulge under her dad's shield for the rest of the day...