AN: To all those that are attributing the missing Corona Pollentia, the part of the brain necessary to have superpowers, to Asriel's state not having organs, we meant in her human state. In her normal state she has all the regular organs of a human except the Corona Pollentia, absolutely no signs of it having ever been there and the scanner can see all her other organs perfectly without interference. So that's why the heroes 'jumped' straight to the missing Corona, her power wasn't interfering with the scan in human form, which is where they noticed the issue.
She sat across from her dad in an awkward silence, head down on the kitchen table with arms in front of her while her dad sat upright in his chair. She had no idea how to tell him, having tried to think something up on the car-ride home, Asriel not having any ideas either. After all the things he'd been through and hard work he's done, she wanted to say it as gently as possible for him so he wouldn't freak out. Five minutes of awkward silence with her dad, neither of them having said anything, him just a re-assuring smile to her when she looked up. Not having any better ideas she asked Asriel, 'Just want to introduce yourself?"
She felt her shoulders shrug and Asriel take control, causing their body to begin to change back into his form. It only took about minute this time, was it getting faster? When it was done, Asriel took a deep breath, and sat back up, putting on his best smile. "Howdy! I'm Asriel Dreemur, and I'm- um," and here he lost his confidence, and turned his gaze to the side, twiddling his fingers. "I'm sharing a body with your daughter."
Her dad blinked, smile falling away into a confused frown. "T-that's not funny."
She winced at that. 'Uh want to keep going or let me?'
Asriel looked down at his lap, still twiddling his fingers, but continued. "I'm not joking, Mr Hebert. I came across your daughter while she was trapped in the locker, and since I was stuck too, I selfishly thought to make a deal. I give your daughter my powers, in exchange for taking me into her soul freeing me as well. I'm sorry."
Her dad didn't say anything for a moment before his chair scraped against the floor as he stood up, Asriel glancing up to see him walking around the table then take the chair that was to their right and placing it beside them. He sat down with a frown, one arm on the table and the other hand running through his hair. "You… you aren't joking are you?"
"I'm afraid not, Mr Hebert." Asriel said, looking up at him.
He sighed and his hands went to his face in exasperation. "First powers now this?" With a groan he removed his hands and looked down at them, she noted with an almost angry frown. "...Maybe you can explain how exactly you got in my daughter's head?"
"W-well, I was, um, fading." He began. "And I got scared, I didn't want to become an unfeeling flower again. So, I reached across dimensions, looking for someone, and I found Taylor, trapped in that locker. I brought her mind into a pseudo-space, so we could talk, free from the passage of time and other physical constraints, and I offered her the power to become a Hero. All she had to do, was absorb my soul into hers. I, uh, didn't tell her that in doing so, I would be coming with. I tricked her into freeing me, into taking me into her mind, robbing her of her privacy. I'm really sorry."
He just shook his head. "And how does my daughter feel about this all happening?"
That was her. She drummed her fingers on the tabletop in front of them. "I uh… I'm grateful for him getting me out of the locker and a bit annoyed about him tricking me. But," She added on quickly when he narrowed his eyes. "He knows how to use our powers so I don't mind too much about him being in my head."
One arm of his went to their shoulder and patted them reassuringly. "How am I supposed to tell who's talking though? Only thing that was off when uh, 'Asriel' was talking was him saying howdy."
There really wasn't a way to tell the difference, they sounded the same unless they wanted to switch forms every time one of them wanted to say something. Maybe just something to indicate like raising a hand? Lifting her left hand up she smiled sheepishly. "Left hand for me talking and right hand for Asriel talking?"
He shrugged. "That works I guess… You're okay with another person in your head?"
Left hand still raised she nodded, "He doesn't really do much except apologize for what he thinks might upset me."
"And what he wants out of staying in your head?" He asked with a frown and a glower, directed at Asriel even though he was looking at her still.
Asriel lifting their right hand and began "I, uh, offer-"
Nope do not want him telling her already concerned dad, that he as a voice inside her head, was sort of suicidal. Slamming their mouth shut, she yanked their right arm down and accidentally slammed it into the table, and raised her left hand up in place of his and said hastily. "He needed somebody to talk to."
The room went silent for a few moments, Asriel and Danny both stunned by her sudden movements. Her dad recovered first. "W-Wha-"
She interrupted him to hurriedly elaborate on it. "He was lonely so I let him stay in my head."
He frowned. "So nothing bad?" She shook her head and he gave her a thin smile along with a one-handed hug. "Just remember I'm here for you okay Taylor?" She returned the hug and buried her head into his shoulder. "You want something to eat? It's almost time for dinner."
"Oh" Asriel said, raising his right hand excitedly. "I can help! I'm good at cooking!"
That caught her dad off-guard, making him jump slightly. Letting go he stood back up and put the chair back and with a raised brow he said, "If uh… Taylor doesn't… mind you can help." He sighed, "It's going to take a while to get used to this."
Asriel looked down at his left hand and excitedly asked, "Well? Can I?"
"Just a sec. Hey dad?" He looked back at her, pausing in his movement to their fridge. "Thanks for believing me, it's a lot to take in one day."
"You're my daughter, I'm going to be there whenever you need it." He said with a smile. "So is uh Asriel going to help cook?"
"He can if he wants." She said shrugging.
"Yes!" He exclaimed happily. "Been a while, but I totally remember how to make a good pie. Can I make a pie? Monster food doesn't have any nutrients humans need, so it would probably be good to make something that wouldn't have much nutritional value anyways, and I'm not as good at Human Food as Monster food. Plus, I think my pies are what I'm best at, cooking wise." As he babbled on, he already rushed over to the cabinets carrying a chair, and started looking through them grabbing various supplies. "Oooh, you have butterscotch."
Danny half-smiled at them, reaching up into the spice cabinet and pulling a few things out. "So you, Asriel I mean, like to cook?"
"Totally! My mom taught me how. Can you get that cinnamon?" He seemed happy now compared to earlier she thought to herself while he held one hand outstretched to her dad.
He obliged and handed it down to them. Walking over to the fridge he pulled out a couple chicken breasts, setting them on the counter. "Who's your mom?"
"Toriel Dreemur, Queen of the Monsters. But most people just call her Toriel." He replied, snatching a few final things from the cabinet before moving on.
Her dad nodded as he prepared the chicken. "So you're the prince then?"
He paused for a moment. "I guess I am. Never really thought of it like that." Then he shrugged and got back to his work. "Despite being King and Queen, my family never lived like royals, so I sometimes forget they are actually the King and Queen."
"Then I don't need to apologize for the accommodations then." He said with a laugh. "What's Monster food supposed to be?"
"Monster food is Monster food. It's different from Human food in that, when you eat it, it turns straight into energy. Just fine for Monsters, but Humans actually need nutrients, so while they could go a few days on Monster Food, they would grow sick over time." He said, as he went over to the refrigerator and started getting things from there.
Danny started coating the chicken with various spices. "Alright so it's junk food. Can either of you tell me about what your powers are? I have no idea what Blaster, Brute and the others mean."
"We can do magic." As he said this, Taylor felt their magic twist and multiple fireballs came into existence around them. "It can be used to do all sorts of things, but since Taylor absorbed my soul, we have been having to relearn fine-control to do most of it. I still know all the technical stuff, but I guess it's like having to learn how to fight in a completely different body, intellectually you know what you have to do, just you have a hard time actually doing it." When he finished, he moved the fire-balls up out of the way near the ceiling, and walked over to the counter with his arms full of various things from the fridge.
"You make it sound like you know how to do more than fireballs." He commented.
"Oh yeah, magic can do a lot of things. Just covering Attack Magics, you can form it into a physical object to smack and pierce things with, you can turn it into lasers, turn it into bombs, all sorts of things." He began putting things in a bowl and mixing them.
He cast a sideways glance to them. "You uh, seem to know how to fight then."
"Yeah, I learned all types of magics. Even colored magics."
"Which is what?" He asked, turning on the stove and pulling out a pan to put the chicken on. She was curious too as to what colored magic was, it was the first time she had heard of it.
"It's one of the more advanced forms of magic, not many Monsters learn how to use one. They are called Colored Magics because, for reasons still not really understood, magics of that type always glow with the same color. Blue Magic effects gravity, Green Magic can Heal and Protect, Cyan magic can create illusions, and Purple Magic can trap and bind people and things. There is also Yellow and Orange, but those are usually considered separate from the others, since they don't do anything new but rather upgraded versions of abilities most monsters already have. Yellow Magic makes extremely accurate and precise projectiles, and Orange enhances physical strength and durability. There are also mentions of a Red magic in various historical records, but no-one had any idea what that is suppose to do beyond being the strongest of all the Colored Magics, but also requires a fairly big sacrifice and lots of determination to use. Do you have any pie tins? I could cook this in any container, but pies are suppose to be in pie-tins." He asked, having finished mixing the pie-filling.
Danny leaned down and opened a cabinet, handing them a pie-tin. "Is that a different type of magic besides your fireballs or is that a… sub-branch or something?"
"Colored magics? Comparing Fire Magic to those is like comparing multiplication to fourier transformations. Only vaguely related." Asriel poured the pie filling into the tin, and placed it on the counter.
"Ah… speaking of, how do you do your transformation thing?" He asked, standing beside the stove as the chicken cooked, watching them make whatever pie Asriel was focused on making.
"I honestly don't know. It happens pretty much automatically after we will ourselves to change. It seems like we can only do the two though, maybe it has to do what we mentally see ourselves as, the physical form that feels most natural, and our Soul naturally aligns with that." As he was saying that, he brought the fire balls down from the ceiling, and converged them on the pie, the balls forming into one large fire-ball completely surrounding the pie. Taylor was able to feel the magic constantly twisting, though she wasn't sure what it was doing.
"Uhuh." He muttered watching Asriel cook the pie. "What about a Soul though, that sounds religious."
"Oh no, not at all. One moment." He brought this hands before his chest, and held them there while twisting and turning her magic in a way that seemed impossible, folding it in on itself and pulling bits out of seemingly nothing, before he was done and a heart appeared before their chest. But it was nothing like the heart she remembered when she first met Flowey, this one glowed bright and had wisps of multicolored light surrounding it, and pulsed to the beat of her heart. "This is our soul. It's changed some since she absorbed mine, but it's still mostly human."
He blinked and leaned in as if their Soul might disappear at a moments notice, mouth slightly agape. "Your Soul?" Asriel seemed to be on a roll with how he was explaining all the magic to her dad, each time just seeming to surprised him more and more. Along with her with the new info that she was hearing from their mouth, the facts he was stating about colored magic being things that she would have loved to know so she could find out what they could do.
"Yeah." He said nonchalantly. "Want to see yours?"
His eyes flickered up to their face then back down to their Soul, still seeming to not believe the fact that it was there floating in front of his face. "Uh… sure." He said disbelievingly.
Asriel then placed his hand on Danny's chest, and she felt a similar impossible twisting of magic, which this time flowed down their hand till it seemed to grab something in Danny's chest, and when they pulled their hand back a dark blue heart followed, though this one didn't have any of the wisps or bright glow their soul did. "There you go. Taylor's soul looked like that before, but purple. The wisps and bright glow are from the fusion."
He stared down incredulously at the heart emanating from his chest and gently wrapped his hands around it. "It feels warm."
"Yep, it's full of life and power." He said cheerfully before turning his attention to the pie, and with a wave of his hands the flames dispersed leaving a slightly steaming, cooked pie behind. "And there, pie's done. My mother's signature Butterscotch Cinnamon Pie, haven't had one in forever."
Her dad just kept staring down at the Soul he held in his hands not saying anything to them or paying attention to the chicken he was cooking. Raising their left hand she said, "Uh dad, the chicken?" He looked up when she called him to see her pointing to the stove with the chicken on it.
"Right." He hurriedly flipped the chicken over then glanced down at his Soul one final time before shaking his head. "Uh, how long is my… Soul going to be like this?"
Asriel went to his side to watch what he was doing with the chicken while answering "About eight more minutes, if the spell isn't canceled early."
"Okay…" He muttered. "How's the body sharing thing between you two?"
'You wanna answer it?' Asriel asked her. 'I have been doing all the talking for the last while.'
'I was just letting you handle it because you know more stuff than I do, like colored magic which you're going to explain to me later. But if you want I can try and take over.'
'It's a question you can answer, but either way is fine.'
Lifting the left hand again she answered since it seemed Asriel felt he was talking too much. "It's disorienting to say the least when he's doing something because I'm not the one doing it. As for how to describe it, it's uh… like feeling distant in your own body from something you shouldn't be distant from. Not sure how to describe it past that though. How's the chicken coming?" She asked, changing back to her original form.
"A few more minutes." He answered. "What's Asriel's past like? He sounds like he might have been a magic teacher but that… form thing of yours looks like a kid."
Left hand still raised she took a few moments to think over what she was going to say, obviously not going to tell him the whole truth. "Well uh you know time travel and stuff right dad?" He nodded an eyebrow already arching at just her mentioning that. "He got stuck in a time loop thing as a child and remained like that for a long time, until he gave up most of his soul to stop the loop and help his family. Which led to his soul fusing deal so he would have a soul again and I'd get powers."
'That's… um, correct." Asriel slowly stated in surprise. 'But, also completely wrong.'
Her dad didn't seem convinced as he narrowed his eyes and had his mouth agape slightly, not sure what to say. After several moments he finally shook his head and turned to his chicken. "Time travel really?"
She wiggled her left hand with a little grin. "It's what he said and I don't see why he'd lie about something as crazy as that." 'I'll tell why I said it like that later.' She said in her head to Asriel.
He sighed again. "It's just all kind of hard to believe… how's he feel about being in your head?" He asked surprisingly directed towards Asriel.
He raised her right hand and answered "It, uh, takes some getting use to, sharing a body. But Taylor is really nice, so it's not that bad."
Danny nodded, flipping the chicken once more. "It's good you two are fine with each other then. How much of that magic stuff has my daughter learned?"
Left hand went up. "Uh just the fire magic things, but not a lot of it. I can't do what he did earlier to cook the pie but he says I'm learning fast."
"You are a smart kid Taylor. To Asriel, how long do you think it'd take her to do some of the other things you said like gravity altering?" He asked, rubbing his eyes with one hand.
Right hand. "I'm not sure. Maybe a couple months, maybe a year or two. While she is learning fast, what she is currently learning is still basic stuff. Mostly control exercises, and Colored Magics are really advanced."
"That doesn't sound long considering the types of things you listed. You're a goat thing right? Are all Monsters like that or…?"
"I was what was known as a Boss Monster, a special, extra-strong type of Monsters, who tend to be in charge because of their longevity. Other monsters can come in all kinds of shapes and forms. There are Skeletons, clams, fish-people, fire-people, octopi, dogs, cats, lizards, all kinds."
"That's… a lot of things." He said with another sigh. "Lot of things to learn from our new… guest. Chicken is ready if you're hungry." He grabbed two plates for each of them and slid the chicken onto the plate.
"Thanks dad." She grabbed a plate and let him cut her a piece, eyes flicking to the pie that was steaming off to the side, curious as to what it tasted like with Asriel having seemed so proud in making it. "Mind if I try Asriel's pie?" Her dad shook his head and she grabbed a slice of pie and cut a small part of it off to pop in her mouth, the taste being awesome with butterscotch washing over her taste-buds. Despite him having just cooked it a few minutes earlier it didn't burn, rather just being pleasantly warm. The best part though was the fact she felt a rush of energy, from just a small bite of it, go through her body, giving her a pleasant surprise "Oh this is awesome."
Her dad looked at the pie and shrugged before grabbing himself a slice and taking a bite of it. His eyes snapped open in surprise when he tasted it. "You're right, this is good." He said with a smile at them. She could feel Asriel radiating happiness that they liked his pie.
