Chapter 7: CORE Approach
"And that male tribute from district 2, my, he will certainly have no trouble to get lots of lady sponsors."
"eh, or maybe we'll be lucky and he'll just keel over at the beginning. From the looks of it, he's just skin and bones."
Chara rubbed their eyes, trying to break out of the space between sleep and wakefulness. Chatter drifted by without making much sense to their sleepy brain.
"though, I guess career districts are always trouble. not a skeleTon of luck there."
Something hard was poking Chara in the side. Annoyed, the child tried to push it away only for it to twitch and painfully ram itself into their side. Ugh, Chara knew that motion. "Azzie, get out of my bed! You've got your own!"
Not only did their brother not respond to the mumbled command, but something also gnawed at the back of Chara's mind. Something wasn't right. They probably should find out. But to do that, they had to wake up and they really didn't feel like it.
Pushing away the feeling for later, they grasped for their covers to pull them back up; only that there weren't any. Guess Asriel had claimed those too.
"I think they're waking up. Finally."
"don't get your hopes up."
It was getting pretty cold, though. The light was far too bright as Chara opened their eyes just the tiniest bit. Who had turned it on? Not wanting to wait for the world to come into focus, they reached for their power. If only they could make out Asriel's position a bit more clearly, they would know where the blanket- "GAH!"
In one swift motion, they crashed to the floor, body burning painfully. The child's fingers twitched as they reached towards their throat, the part where the flaming sensation emanated from. Where warm skin should have been there now was cold metal.
Chara flinched as thin fingers came to rest on their shoulder.
"hey kid, are ya alright?"
It took them a few seconds to process the words and a few more for their eyes to get used to the light. After some time, they recognized Sans standing over them, with Linda hovering in the background.
"Y-yeah." They didn't like the way their voice shook. It took them a few tries, but Chara managed to stand up by themselves.
"Are you hurt?"
Surprised, Chara turned towards the soft voice. Frisk still sat by the window. Just like last night.
Last night. Had it all been a dream?
No… they were here. They must have fallen asleep.
Realizing that they already stood in the middle of the room like a deer in headlights for some moments, Chara hastily opened their mouth. "I'm fine. Thank you."
"You used your power, didn't you?!" Chara actually startled a bit at the stern tone as Linda loomed over them with her hands on her hips.
Outwardly, the child raised an eyebrow, smiling defiantly up at the towering woman. "No, I tried to do a handstand, of course. And how do people even live with this fricking thing on?! How am I supposed to do anything if this stupid machine shocks me every two seconds?!"
Their escort let out an exasperated sign. "Just don't use that horrendous power of yours, with whichever one you were cursed. It's for your own protection. You could seriously hurt yourself and the people around you otherwise."
Chara couldn't help themselves. They had been holding this in for a long time. Monsters were delicate, but this capitol woman would surely manage to hear the truth. They took a step closer. "How?! How would I hurt anyone. Last time I checked, my power couldn't hurt a fly! How are you supposed to hurt someone by just looking at them?!"
"You might be one small case but there are millions of subjects like you in those districts who could do far more damage. The war was enough proof of that."
"Who cares? My power doesn't do any harm. I wasn't even born back then. Frisk wasn't born back then. Why do we have to suffer for things we weren't even around for?"
"I am not going to discuss complex politics with a child!"
"So that means you agree that I'm right, doesn't it?"
Exasperated, Linda turned towards the monster in the room, who watched the whole thing unfold with apathetic passiveness.
"Sans! A little help here?"
"nah, you've got this covered."
The escort gritted her teeth. Chara couldn't help but relish in pride at having successfully angered a capitol citizen. "Fine! Let's just eat. You two have a long day ahead of you and I don't want a tribute of mine fainting during the parade. Not again." With that, Linda whirled around towards the table, her dress flailing in her wake.
Chara still fumed but accepted the partial win. They curiously gazed in the direction Linda was headed, laying their eyes onto something that lifted their spirits immediately: Food. And lots of it. Only now did they realize the smell in the air wafting towards them. Giddily, they followed their escort, seating themselves in a comfy plush chair. Trees swished by outside of the windows; more reminiscent of the jagged pine trees of snowdin than the lush, leafy world they had walked through just yesterday on the surface of district 12.
Frisk hopped onto the chair next to them, hands gingerly feeling over the delicate silver tableware. Meanwhile, Sans poured himself into the seat between Chara and Linda, immediately pulling out a large bottle of ketchup from seemingly nowhere, dumping it into one of the pristine golden rimmed glasses. Linda made a face and Chara smiled.
"heya kiddos." Sans began, chugging down a few sips of red, gooey liquid. "just a heads up by the way. try to not do any magic with those thingies on. they are fueled by your magical energy, so every time you use that energy for something else, they get cranky and zap you." Sans chuckled, casually leaning back. "trust me, you don't wanna have that too many times. messes with your power. tibia honest it aint pretty once you use your powers again."
Chara grabbed their fork, stabbing a few pancakes that were in their reach, dragging them over to their plate, thinking. "So no one in the districts can use their powers without having that repressor shock them every time, right? The only time I've ever seen people from the districts without that was in the hunger games." They bit into their pancakes, savoring the taste. "The only other time was the underground, of course. So shouldn't we have a big advantage, coming from beyond the barrier? I mean, dad tried to teach me some magic and some of the other fallen ones could do some cool stuff."
The child looked from Sans to their escort and back. "Why is it we haven't won every game yet?"
Sans took a moment to examine the contents of his glass, swirling it around like the grossest wine ever. "nah, kiddo. if it were that easy, i'd be well on my way to taking a week long nap."
He leaned forward, putting the glass down on the table in front of him. "as it is, there actually happens to be a powerhouse around every now and then."
"Savages" Linda commented, stabbing her single strawberry pointedly with a fork. "One of them nearly destroyed the whole arena in a single hit a few years back. Thank goodness he didn't win."
"sometimes, training and a skull full of knowledge just don't hold up against raw strength" added Sans. He pulled a platter of cut fruit away from Frisk's searching arm before they could knock it over.
"then you have the career districts. have ya ever wondered how there are so many peacekeepers walking around the districts? for that job you need a spine and we're talking about capitol people here."
Linda seemed very busy examining her strawberry, apparently used to Sans being Sans.
Chara looked dubiously at the monster, swallowing another bite of their pancake. "That leaves people from the districts. Who the heck would even want to be a peacekeeper?!"
Sans chuckled. "a bunch of 'em, actually. district 1, 2 and 4 have even specialized in that kinda stuff. they've got training areas with deactivated collars and are pretty much raised for the job. brainwashing, but that's just my spin on it. hey, do ya need that glass?"
Chara reached over, grabbing their own shiny glass and handing it over to Sans.
"thanks. anyways, they are the ones to look out for. they've got years of training and winning the games is a real career boost."
The hot tempered child huffed, munching on the last bite of their pancake. "So we're either crazy powerful or stupidly talented at using our powers or we lose." Their fork came down with an audible thump, connecting with the table.
"basically," Sans confirmed.
"What about teaming up?" Everyone turned their head towards the quiet child. Even Linda stopped to act distracted. "What about working with others?" Frisk continued, "ones that know how to survive."
The skeleton leaned back, eyeing the child lazily. "yeah, guess that makes sense. alliances can be lots of help. but be careful who to trust. in the games, wrong friends will crack your spine faster than any attack."
The woods outside thickened for a moment, casting the compartment in dark shadows.
"after all you never know who to trust. maybe you shouldn't even trust me. eyes are everywhere."
Chara felt the hair on their skin stand on end. But as soon as the moment had begun, it passed again.
Sans took a sip out of his gooey glass, letting his head fall back against the back of his seat. "but hey don't sweat it both of you. for now you've got plenty of food to enjoy. your bones need it to grow. so let's dig in."