Chara was not having the best of days. First, Frisk was being a crybaby, then the world changed ever so slightly, then some random kid was in the flowers when she showed up! What was going on?

Speaking of whom, he was currently standing over the figure of a ghost- Napstablook if she remembered correctly- try to figure out how to get around him without disturbing his "slumber." His words, not hers. She knows that this is nothing more than a small fight that the second Goody-Two-Shoes can deal with. The issue was getting him to just move the ghost!

"JAMES! Just push the ghost out of the way!" she exclaimed at the thinking boy, startling him. This kid sometimes…

He directed his attention to Chara and frowned at her. "I don't want to, that'd be rude."

Chara facepalmed. She was getting really sick of this shit. First Frisk, now him. She couldn't catch a break, could she? "James… It's a ghost for crying out loud! We have no need for sleep!"

The ghost buzzed its "teeth" together, producing a line of "z"s, like he was trying to sleep. He even turned his head and looked at the two, cracking an eye to check if they were gone yet. When he saw that they were still there, he snapped his eyes back together and turned away.

Chara let out an exasperated sigh. She was getting really sick of all of these games. If only she could find a way to kill this kid sooner. But that was never going to happen if he didn't move the damned ghost! "GOD DAMMIT JAMES, JUST MOVE HIM ALREADY!" she yelled.

That got James moving. He nodded his head and jogged over to Napstablook, who looked slightly disturbed. Chara pinched the bridge of her nose. She had lost her cool, over nothing. Not even Frisk got such a reaction out of her. For the time she spent with Toriel, she had always stressed staying calm in even the most drastic of circumstances. She just blew her lid at nothing…

The sounds of James trying to rouse the "sleeping" ghost pulled her from her thoughts. Finally!

"Heya, dude," James started. He tried to put a hand on the specter to wake it, but his hand just phased through it. "Can you get up please? Me and my- er… I'm trying to get to the end of the Ruins, but you're blocking the way."

The ghost opened its eyes, floated away from the ground. He then turned to face James, who backed away slightly. "oh… sorry… didn't mean to be a nuisance to you…" he said, cowering before him.

James approached the ghost with an open gesture and a smile. "Heya, it's fine dude," he said, trying to pat the ghost on the shoulder, but failing, "just keep an eye out for others just in case they need to get through."

The ghost smiled a bit, but not much. "yeah… i guess so… i suppose i should get out of your way now..." He started drifting into the floor slowly, seamlessly phasing out of sight.

"Bye friend!" James hollard after him, much to Chara's disdain. "He seemed pretty..."

"Pathetic?" Chara asked helpfully.

"I was gonna say depressed," he shrugged, "but I guess that also works." He stepped through the leaves where that ghost laid just moments prior, disturbing the pile and scattering red leaves everywhere. "I do wonder what was worrying him, though..." They turned right.

Chara deadpanned at the boy. She was getting sick of all of his worrying about others. "Probably nothing important to us."

They turned left, walking down a long hallway with some froggits in it. The frog monsters were giving him a funny look, confused as to why he was talking to himself. "But what if it's important to him? We should be at least considerate to listen to him."

Chara frowned and shook her head at the boy. "But why!? You don't even know him?"

James stopped and spun on his heel, facing the teen. "Because I'm trying to be a nice person, something that you obviously don't understand!" He scowled at the girl, his brown eyes staring directly into her own. They were filled with anger and frustration, representative of the boy whose limit had been reached.

He eventually broke eye contact with her, and marched further down the hall and into the next room, not bothering to see if she was following.

Chara was taken aback. Of everything, she had not expected that! Frisk would have never did that. He would have just stayed quiet and let Chara continue to talk trash about his friends. But James…

Chara smiled to herself, maybe this boy is a blessing in disguise. He was interesting, unlike that crybaby Frisk. Plus if her observations were correct, he couldn't save! He would her ticket to save the underground!

She laughed to herself and skipped after the boy. Oh was she going to enjoy messing with him.

Meanwhile, in the next room, James was in a pickle. There was a row of spikes blocking to door to the next room, but there was no way to lower them. At least no way that he could see. And there were no hints available to him either. He was stuck…

He paced around the room, inspecting the walls closely to make sure he didn't miss anything. But he couldn't find anything! No bricks poking out, no hidden pressure plates. There were just no leads! He was tempted to call Toriel, but he didn't want her being angry at him for leaving the place where he was before. He was running out of options.

He stamped his foot in irritation. "No! I'm not just gonna let something like this beat me!" He stomped again. "I'm better than this! I can do this! Also, why's the floor shaking?" He looked down to see the floor give way from underneath him, dropping him.

He landed with a thud into a pile of leaves on the next level down, and got the wind knocked out of him. "God dammit..." he muttered to himself, and picked himself off of the ground. He looked around the room while picking some stray leaves off of himself. He saw that ghost from earlier, laying in a pile of leaves like earlier. This time, he was looking at James with wide eyes, most likely startled from his impromptu entrance.

James gave a nervous chuckle and a wave at the ghost, who just continued to stare at him like a he was a weirdo. The atmosphere started getting awkward, so James did what he did best. Talk.

"Yo, what's up?" he asked casually. The ghost just continued to stare at him like he grew a second head. James rubbed his neck and looked away. "I'm James, I asked you to move earlier?"

"oh… sorry… i was spaced out. i'm napstablook..."

"It's nice to meet you Napsta! I'm having some troubles with the puzzle up above," James said, pointing up, "Do you have any ideas?"

The specter thought for a moment. "i saw a switch in one of these drops earlier… though I don't know which one." The ghost's expression turned sorrowful. "sorry i can't help more..."

James smiled by the ghost and waved him off. "Ah, you're fine. That's more than what I could have figured out. Thanks Napsta, see ya around!" He then went to the ladder chute and climbed out. Napstablook floated there for a moment, thinking. The he smiled and phased into the wall.

James, climbed out of the chute onto the previous level. He looked around the room, but this time paying attention to the floor for the telltale signs of crumbling. He noticed that they were five others around the floor, all most likely leading into another room.

"This is gonna be a pain in the ass," he groaned, accepting his fate.

After a while of falling down and getting back up again, he managed to proceed to the next room. While he was falling down, he met a particularly evil looking carrot, who very creepily offered him some broccoli. He was weary of the origin of the morsel, but he accepted it nonetheless. He couldn't remember the last time he ate, but he wanted to preserve the granola bars for as long as possible.

"How's the wall?" Chara came from his left, floating along in a relaxed style. After a bit of walking around, she showed up and gave some snarky remarks about his ineptitude with solving the puzzle. Turns out he had to press the button hidden behind the pillars.

James shot her a glance and continued walking. "Purple, what's it to ya?" he snarked.

Chara touched down on the ground and held up her hands. "Woah, I'm not here to insult you, I'm just curious about what you are staring at."

He rolled his eyes. "'Not here to insult you,' she says," he quoted, "says the girl who laughed when she saw me put a ribbon in my hair to keep it out of my eyes." He smacked a green button on the back of a pillar and continued on.

"Well, it looks ridiculous!" she defended, "how could I not laugh!?"

He threw his arms in the air. "By keeping it to yourself!"

She simply scoffed at him, and remained quiet. James was still very much annoyed at her, and was getting sick of her harassment. However, she was his only friend right now, so he couldn't just tell her "piss off" and be done with it. And somehow he felt like Chara knew this as well.

So, he was stuck silently simmering at the girl, who was leisurely walking behind him.

They came to a junction in the road. The path going left appeared well maintained, with a raked pile of leaves in the path. The path going straight seemed similarly well maintained, but was otherwise uninteresting. Considering that James was trying to find Toriel, he opted to go left. If she was anywhere, it would be the path that looked like it was cared for.

The two entered a dim room with a vaulting ceiling. In the middle, surrounded by fallen leaves, sat a dark barked oak tree. James admired the tree, its scale, and the amber leaves that kept growing and falling, in a perpetual loop of life and unlife. It was beautiful.

They heard a worried voice come from behind the tree. "Oh dear, that took longer than I thought."

"Toriel!? Was that you?" James called out. He walked around the wide tree, and found the motherly goat woman standing there. She was shocked to see James there, with a paw covering her mouth and wide eyes.

"My child? How did you get here?" she asked, approaching James.

James flicked his eyes to the ground and rubbed his arm. "I… went through the Ruins against your wishes." He didn't want her to be mad at him, as she has shown him kindness and love. "Sorry…"

Toriel looked down at him with a compassionate smile. "Oh, it is okay. As long as you weren't hurt." She crouched down and hugged the teen, enveloping him in a warm embrace. "It was irresponsible of me to leave you alone like that. I wished to surprise you is all."

James returned her hug, enjoying the warm feeling that was going through him. It was a similar sensation he felt back when Toriel first found him. It was as if his very essence was being rejuvenated from its hardships and strife. It was something that spread through his entire body. It came from within, and went to his fingers and toes.

However, the feeling ended with Toriel separating herself from James, leaving only visages of it behind. He frowned slightly. "Aww, it's gone. I was enjoying that." He slouched over and looked up at Toriel.

Toriel giggled at him. "Healing spells do have that effect, young one. They are nice, but one mustn't use them frequently."

"Boo…" he said. He kicked the ground in despair, but perked up. "Didn't you say you had a surprise for me?"

Toriel nodded at him. "Indeed, my child. If you would follow me inside, i will show you."

"Umm, okay…" James trailed off. Toriel led James in the direction of a tidy little cottage that sat towards the back of the expansive room. He had a feeling that whatever this surprise was, it would change his life forever.

Yeah... this was kind of rushed, wasn't it? Hmm... The thing is, I didn't realise how boring it would be to recount Undertale in a self-insert story. Like it's really boring. The idea was to change it up a bit, but with how linear the game is, it takes quite some doing to do. I'm hoping that after James and Chara leave the Ruins, I can start adding some variation, as at that point, the characters don't have to be as predictable. Like, Toriel is a walking mom stereotype. Kind of have to comform to that. Granted I don't have much characterization practice, so...

Anyways, I'll try to not let this get stale to me (I've been typing it for the whole of four chapters) but we'll see.

~Ciao!