Chara and the Dreemurrs stood on the balcony that overlooked Home. An excited buzz filled the cavern. A crowd of monsters had gathered below, waiting for Asgore to speak. Chara propped their elbows against the stone ledge and snuck a look over the edge, keeping their head low. Asgore had arranged a formal meeting with the citizens of Home to talk about expanding into Snowland. Chara saw a monster look up and ducked behind the stone parapet. Today, Asgore was also going to introduce them to the rest of the town.
A week had already passed since Toriel and Asgore had talked to them about staying. Asgore had asked them if holding the meeting in a week would be okay. He had said that he understood if they wanted to wait longer, but they had said it was okay. At the time, it didn't seem so bad. They would have an entire week beforehand.
A week? Chara frowned. That didn't seem like nearly enough time anymore. A hand rested on their shoulder. They could feel the faint imprint of claws grazing their skin, even through their sweater. They turned, expecting Toriel or Asriel.
"Chara, how are you doing?" Asgore's voice was kind.
They pulled away.
"Monsters are very kind." Asgore's hand dropped to his side. "There is no reason to be nervous, young one." He smiled, waiting for a response.
They scuffed their shoe against the ground. "I won't have to say anything, right?"
"I promise. You will not need to say a word."
They looked at their feet. "Okay."
Asgore nodded, giving them one last look before turning to face the crowd. Asgore held up a hand, waiting a few seconds for the crowd to go silent before starting. "Good afternoon. As the majority of you are aware, there is a human living here among us."
The monsters below exploded in chatter.
Chara peeked over the ledge, watching their reactions. They were too high to read the expressions on the monster's faces, but no one was shouting in outrage or stomping through the streets. They figured that this news was no surprise to most of the monsters. Their walks through town had led to meeting a bunch of them.
"A couple of weeks ago, a human fell here. Alone and injured, they were found by my son. This one was just a child, badly hurt. They needed help, so my wife and I took them in and cared for them."
A few monsters pointed at Chara. They looked away.
Asgore turned to them, gesturing a hand in their direction. "This is Chara."
The monsters' voices grew louder. All of the monsters were now looking at them. Chara waved sheepishly.
Asgore chuckled at Chara and continued, but his voice was serious. "Please, your attention." He held up his hand, quieting them.
"For generations, we have lived in fear of human attacks. What Chara has shown us, however, is that humankind can change. Humankind has changed. No longer should we live in fear. For a while now, our royal scientist Dr. Gaster has been suggesting we move from this town. He has been designing the infrastructure's layout for years: Paths, bridges, and towns. At this moment, he is working on building a machine capable of lighting the entire underground. Fear has kept us rooted to this place. No longer should that be the case. There is so much more of the underground that we can live in. I propose the building of a path from here all the way to the barrier. From there we can build houses and towns. Work on expanding will start tomorrow."
The hush of voices got louder and more excited. One monster started clapping, an action that was quickly spread to the other monsters. In the cavern, the clapping sounded like thunder.
Asgore waited for the noise to abate before continuing. "Monsters are to meet in the town square tomorrow morning, where our chief building experts will be discussing jobs." He nodded to the crowd. "Thank you." He stepped back, ending his speech.
Chara looked at Asriel. He was sitting on the ground, back propped against the wall, a bored expression on his face. "Hey, dad." Asriel tilted his head to the side, looking up at Asgore. "Can Chara and I help out, too?"
Asgore frowned, bringing a hand to his chin. "Hm. I do not know what you would be able to help out with."
"We'll find something to do, right, Chara?" Asriel looked up at them.
After standing up in front of all those monsters, Chara just wanted to go back to the house, but Asriel expression was easy to read. His eyes were large and pleading, his ears perked, his excitement radiating off him as bright and warm as the sun.
"Yeah. That would be cool," they found themself saying.
"I do not know if that is a good idea," Toriel spoke up. "We would not want you two getting in any mischief, would we?"
"But mom."
"We'll be good," Chara relented. Asriel's grin made it worth it. "We promise."
Toriel sighed. "I suppose it would not hurt as long as Asgore or I keep an eye on you."
"Yay!" Asriel gave her a hug.
Chara and Asriel played in Snowland, staying out of the way of the working monsters. The monsters had a lot of work to do, hauling away fallen trees and branches. The idea was to start by building a path all the way from Home to the end of Snowland. Once there, the water monster teams could start working on Waterland. Chara and Asriel mostly stood around, finding ways to amuse themselves while the other monsters worked.
Chara looked at a patch of fresh snow, and an idea popped into their head. They walked to the center of the untouched snow and laid onto their back, swinging their arms and legs against the snow. They grinned at Asriel's confused expression.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
Chara stood up, brushing the snow off on their back and stepped away carefully. "That's a snow angel."
"Oh, cool." Asriel's ears perked. "I wanna make one."
"Well, they aren't hard," Chara said. "First you need to find a clear patch of snow and lie down." Chara heard a thud. Asriel was lying in the snow beside them headfirst.
"Okay." Asriel's words were muffled. "What now?"
"Well... Chara covered their mouth with a hand to hold back laughter. "Usually, I don't make snow angels head first, but…" They shook their head, grinning. "It looks good. Now you just make your arms and legs go back and forth."
Asriel lifted his arms.
"Not like that. Your arms push the snow away to make little wings," Chara said.
"I knew that," Asriel claimed and finished his snow angel. "I just...couldn't see my arms." He stood and peered at his creation. He gasped. "I did it, Chara. See?" He pointed proudly at the snow. "Look at that! It's me! In snow!"
Chara grinned. "That's great, Asriel. There's just one problem."
"What?"
"There's snow all over your face."
Asriel wrinkled his nose. He wiped the fur on his face. "What? No, there's not-" A snowball hit him square on the face.
Chara cackled with laughter as Asriel's face contorted. He blinked in confusion as a piece of ice fell off his bottom lip. He brushed off his fur, peering at Chara. Chara hid their snow covered mitten behind their back. Asriel lifted his eyes toward them.
"Heh, heh…" Chara's laughter faded away. "Asriel?"
Asriel's bottom lip trembled. "Ch-Chara?"
Chara felt their face flush. They felt the last stray chunks of snow fall from their glove. They hadn't meant to hurt him. Had they really thrown the snowball that hard? Was he upset? What had they been thinking, messing with him like that to begin with?
Chara stuttered a response. "It wasn't-I don't know who-" They felt their heart race. "I wasn't trying to-" A shocking cold sensation shook them from their daze. Chara spit a chunk of snow out of their mouth.
Asriel doubled over with laughter, falling into his snow angel. "You got poffed! There's snow on your face now!" He rolled in the snow, gasping for breaths in between his laughter. "Your-your face!" He broke off in a fit of laughter again.
Chara felt their heartbeat begin to slow down. They wiped the snow out of their eyes. Something about the smell of evergreen and Asriel's perpetual glee was calming. They smiled and kneeled down in the snow. "Oh yeah? You think I got poffed?" They slipped their coat off. They draped it over the snow and began scooping large handfuls of snow onto it, filling it with snow. "Wait until you get a load of this!" They picked up their coat.
Asriel gasped. He tried to scoot away. "Chara, no, don't-oomph!" He fell back into the snow. Chara giggled, kneeling over him with the coat smothering his face. Asriel squirmed, trying to get away. His erratic movements sent both of them falling into the snow. They erupted with laughter.
"Chara!" Their jacket was pushed into their face, snow flinging into their eyes and hair. Chara was pushed backwards. Asriel grabbed their jacket and held it over their head triumphantly.
Chara's stomach ached, and their eyes watered from laughter, the tears freezing to their face. They hadn't cried happy tears for a long time. Lately when they'd cried, it had been from-
Their laughter ceased. They felt guilt explode inside them, squeezing their muscles and heart. They shouldn't be laughing. They shouldn't be happy. They shouldn't be alive. They didn't deserve this, didn't deserve to-
"Chara?" Asriel asked. Chara startled. They hadn't noticed the concern creep into his voice. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, of course." They wiped the frozen tears off of their face. "You're just squishing me." They squirmed under Asriel's weight.
"Oh, sorry." Asriel rolled off of them, sending snowflakes dancing into the air. It didn't look beautiful this time. The snow had now taken on a sharp and frigid gleam. It was a reminder of how cold and uncaring the world could be. Chara was suddenly hit with memories of almost freezing out in the woods days earlier. Chara stood up, ignoring Asriel's hand. Asriel didn't notice.
Asriel shook his head, sending snow flying off of his ears. "Brr. That's cold. What do you want to do now?" He brushed the snow off of his clothes. "Oh, I know. We can build a snowmonster!"
"Okay." Chara agreed, barely listening. They pulled their coat back on, shoving their hands deep into their pockets. They stomped their feet, trying to put some feeling back into their toes. Enjoying their time suddenly felt wrong. She didn't get to enjoy anything anymore.
"Chara, I'm done."
Chara looked over at Asriel. Two fist sized ovals of snow had been stacked on top of each other. The balls teetered precariously.
"Good job," Chara said halfheartedly. They brushed their hair out of their face, trying to come up with an excuse to go back to Home. "I'm kind of cold," they started. "Why don't we-"
"How about we make another one?" Asriel said excitedly. "Then we can make the snowmonster even bigger!"
Chara sighed. They bit their half frozen lip. "How big?"
Asriel's eyes grew wider. "Giant! Enormous! Ginormous! Snowy will be the biggest snowmonster in Snowland -no- In the entire Underground!"
Chara smiled despite themself. Something about the sparkle in Asriel's eyes was familiar. It was a kind of happiness that Chara hadn't seen in a long time. It reminded Chara of innocence. It reminded Chara of Ben. Chara felt a wave of sadness wash over them. Asriel didn't notice.
"What do you think, Chara?" Asriel said, but suddenly it was Ben's voice that they were hearing again. It was Ben from a better time. "How big should we make it?"
Chara felt a rush of determination. They wanted more than anything to see Ben smile one last time. "As big as we can."
Chara and Asriel rolled up three snowballs until they were knee height. Working together, they were able to stack them one on top of another, making a snowmonster about as tall as they were.
"Wait!" Asriel ran under a tree, kicking around in the snow. "Here!" He came back with a handful of sticks. He was able to give the snowman arms and a stick nose. Chara hollowed out two circle for the eyes and drew a sloppy smiley face.
Chara took a step back, admiring their creation. "Nice. How about we head inside?"
Their fingers were starting to feel cold. Most of Asriel's clothes had fit them, but none of the mittens worked well. Monster hands were a lot bigger than theirs, so Asriel's were too loose. Snow had seeped through the small pockets of dangling fabric, leaving their hands numb and frostbitten.
"Yeah," Asriel said. His face lit up. "Then we can get hot chocolate."
The two of them stomped through the woods and down the stairs. Over the past week, Chara and Asriel had become used to seeing random monsters passing through the house to get outside. This time was no different. Asriel waved to the few monsters they passed while making their way inside.
"Howdy, mom," Asriel said as they stepped into the warm house.
Toriel was sitting on the armchair. She set the book she was reading onto the fireplace mantle. "How was your time in Snowland?"
"Fun, but cold," Asriel said. He shook his head, sending bits of half melted snow flying out of his fur. "Can we have hot chocolate?"
"Of course you may." Toriel nodded. "I will make you some so that you do not burn your fingers." She walked over to the kitchen.
"Thanks, mom." Asriel hopped onto the couch.
"Asriel, get off that right now!" Toriel's voice sounded from around the corner. "If you want to be on the furniture, first change out of your winter gear. It is all wet."
Asriel looked down at his snow pants and boots. Big puddles of dirty water were forming under them. "Oops." Asriel and Chara scampered to change.
Soon they were all sitting at the table, sipping hot chocolate.
"Oh, Chara, I have something for you." Toriel rushed back into her room and returned, holding a small wrapped package. "I hope that you like the colors I picked out." She handed the present to Chara.
Chara grinned, "You didn't have to get me anything." They claimed even as they began unwrapping the gift. The wrapping paper was a dull yellow color. They peeled the tape off of a side of the package, getting to the present without tearing the paper.
They reached inside and pulled out a pair of beautifully knit mittens. "Oh." The mittens were purple with thin yellow stripes around their wrist. They were soft and fluffy. Chara put them on, warmth quickly spreading to their fingertips.
"They were made just for you," Toriel said.
"You made them?"
Toriel nodded. "I do a little bit of knitting. Do you like those colors? I probably should have asked beforehand but I so badly wanted it to be a surprise."
"They're really cool...Thanks." Chara smiled.
"In that case, I will be making a hat for you with the leftover half skein of yarn. Is that okay with you?"
"You really don't have to."
Toriel grabbed their empty mugs. "It is no problem, Chara. I just want to ensure that you stay warm if you and Asriel will be out playing in the snow so often."
"Chara, there's another stick over there!" Asriel nodded toward the ground, sticks threatening to fall from his arms.
Chara looked down, grabbing the twig that lay on the ground, half obscured by snow. They added this to the pile they were carrying.
"There's a bunch over here!" Asriel clonked through the snow to a tree stump and grabbed more sticks off of the ground, not noticing that sticks were slipping from his pile just as quick.
Chara just watched him with a grin. By the time he got all the way around the tree trunk, there was a fresh layer of twigs and sticks. "Chara! Where do these keep coming from?"
Chara snickered. "Asriel, you're arms are full. We should drop these off." They started to walk down the path, towards the big pile of wood at the edge of where the town was being built.
After Asgore and some of the other strong monsters cleared away the trees and other obstacles, smaller monsters would follow behind, picking up the stuff they missed. It was Asriel's idea to help them, figuring that they would need a lot of wood to build an entire town.
Chara looked back. "You coming?"
Asriel lagged behind, stopping every few paces to pick up the sticks that fell from his pile. "Yep."
"You should just take what you can."
"I can do this!" Asriel skipped to catch up. They walked down the half made path, weaving through branches and around log stumps. The logs were to be eventually brought up farther east to be converted into houses. For now, they were gathered in a giant stack near where the monsters planned to build their town. Every day the stack grew taller, and the road grew longer.
The monsters in the town were rushing even more than usual. It had begun to snow harder. Chara and Asriel added their sticks to the log stack.
Asriel looked at Chara. "What's going on?"
"I don't know." Chara looked around. Already, there were fewer monsters around, the ones that remained outside were walking towards one of the mostly finished houses.
Asgore came around the corner and towards the nearest house. He spotted them and gestured to come over.
"Hi, dad!" Asriel ran down the street to him.
"Howdy, you two," Asgore paused. "What are you doing here, children? You were supposed to stay near the doors to Home."
Asriel beamed, standing up a little straighter. "We were being delivery monsters...err-" he looked at Chara, "delivery kids." He grinned.
"Sorry." Chara looked away.
"No, it is fine." Asgore led them inside. "A snowstorm has sprung up. Monsters are taking shelter as to not end up getting lost. It will only last half an hour or so."
"How does weather work underground?" Chara asked.
"In Waterland, there is a lot of water. Some of the water that gets stirred up from the waterfalls ends up being blown to Snowland and turns into snow. When too much water blows in and freezes all at once, it makes a snow storm."
There was no wind chill, but it was still cold now that they had stopped moving. Chara crossed their arms together. The house hadn't been completed. It had four walls and a ceiling, but no furnace or other heating source. Asgore looked over and saw them shaking. With a flick of his wrist, a small flame appeared in his hand. The entire building was heated in far less time than Chara expected.
"We can wait for the worst of the storm to pass before returning home," Asgore said.
Chara looked out window and was immediately glad that they weren't stuck out there.
Yeah, instead I am stuck down here.
Chara frowned, trying to push the thought from their head, but it stubbornly remained. Only a half hour later, the snowing had all but stopped.
"It's time to go." Asgore turned the doorknob to leave. Nothing happened. "What?" He pushed harder. Nothing happened. "I have come up with a fitting name for a place like this: Snowy Town."
There was a moment of silence. Chara looked out the window to see the foot of snow that had built up around the house, keeping them stuck. "I think I have another idea."
Asgore turned to them, "Pray tell."
Chara smiled. "How about... Snowdin." They attempted to open the door, the snow blocking it from opening. "Snowed. In. Get it?"
Asgore roared with laughter. "Of course, Chara. That is quite clever, I must admit."
Chara felt their cheeks flush.
Asgore pulled the door off of its hinges to create a way for all of them to get out. "Yes, I will mention it to Toriel."
"Yeah, mom loves puns," Asriel said.
Chara's face lifted up into a mischievous smirk, "In that case."
"What?" Asriel grabbed Chara's sleeve. "What-what-what-what?"
"Well, I know that you goat to know, but I kid you not, it's nothing special." They grinned and walked out of the building. From somewhere behind them, they heard Asriel groan.
"Chara!"
Toriel loved Chara's idea. Snowdin it was. Chara racked their brain for something clever to name the other places, but so far nothing had come to mind.
Toriel had started organizing groups to journey past the newly named Snowdin and start working their way through Waterland.
Chara frowned at that name, telling themself that they would be able to come up with a better name soon, once they got another good look at it.
Toriel and Asgore had declined Chara and Asriel from venturing into Waterland as of yet. "Until a safe trail is made, it is just too dangerous." Toriel ruffled the fur on Asriel's head, instigating a whine.
"Mom!"
Toriel smiled and shook her head, smoothing down the fur behind Asriel's ear. "I don't want anything to happen to you two."
Thanks again for reading. Guess what everyone: I survived school! Now it's summer so expect weekly updates. This week check out Underline on Tumblr. It's a great comic that has updated daily for over a year. It focuses on Chara in the Underground. Honestly, it is adorable. Welp, that's all for now. See you all next week!