"There has been a...disturbance. A potential convergence. Always in this damn city. Observing."
The group had elected to watch a show, about an enthusiastic scientist, running tests, and explaining science. Aliza recognized it, and explained that it was something they played in school, back when she still went.
Chara found it interesting enough. But Aliza was incredibly enthusiastic about it. Smiling, and laughing nearly the entire time. Even if she spoke very little. Seeming to just be enjoying the show.
The next thing that was played came thanks to Papyrus. As Chara opted not to make a choice. He played a goofy comedy, about a rather loud and silly man. Who found, and palled up with a street kid. Only to adopt him in the end, as his son.
Aliza laughed at all the jokes, and just smiled at the sweet moments. Chara however, found the jokes amusing enough, but became lost in the heartfelt scenes. Looking a bit sad at a few scenes between the duo, even when they were happy.
Aliza examined her, and asked. "Are...you crying?"
"S-shut up." Chara sniffled, putting the hood up, as she tried to hide it.
Metta wound up playing something less serious. In this case, a show featuring a painter with the friendliest, softest voice the girls had heard. He had a big afro, and a general enthusiasm as he painted. Coincidentally, this would be the point that Aliza ultimately fell asleep. Covered up with a blanket, moved by a blue power.
Metta ultimately passed out next. Near the end of the show. Leaving only Chara, and Papyrus yet awake. He started to get up, heading to turn it off. Only to see she was, in fact, still awake, scanning him.
"Oh, heh. Sorry kid. Didn't notice you in my...tele-vision." He chuckled.
"That's okay." She replied, asking. "You...turning it off?"
"Probably aughta." He replied quietly. "It's well past time for everyone to be sleeping."
"But you aren't." She noted.
"I have trouble sleeping kiddo." He replied.
"Same." She muttered, in irritation.
Papyrus considered something, and said. "Well. I'm heading out to have a cigarette."
The thought of being the only one awake in the house, wasn't an appealing one for her.
"Can I come?" Chara asked.
"A little young to be smoking, I think." He smirked, heading over to get his jacket.
"I-I meant...like...to outside." She paused. "Er, to be...go, y-you know what I mean."
"Sure." He nodded, motioning her to follow.
She got up from the couch, and followed along. As he wandered out towards the back patio. Opening the screen door, and stepping onto it. As she left, she closed the door behind her. Finding the space was decently sized. With a couple chairs set out there.
He took a seat on one side, and pulled out a case of cigarettes. Lighting one, before taking a long drag. She watched, and sat on the other end. A bit away from the smoke. Briefly glancing over the railing to the dark landscape below. It was...beautiful looking, full of life, and growth. She felt like it should have been snow covered, but ignored it.
The two sat in silence for, awhile actually. With the girl simply staring out at everything. As the man smoked, enjoying the cool night air.
Chara asked. "Do you have nightmares?"
"Sometimes." Papyrus replied, pondering. "Is that why you don't wanna sleep?"
"I...sort of." She muttered.
He waited for some form of elaboration, but it didn't come. Instead, she fell into silence again. His cigarette getting shorter, as he took another drag. Some of the smoke from before wafting away from him. Up along the side of the concrete building. His mana eyes briefly going dark, before flickering, in his form of a blink. Before finding she was staring at him again. That same, unblinking stare.
She rarely blinked. He hadn't quite noticed it before. But even when her eyes twitched, like it was painful, she kept resisting the urge to. The blinks often fast, and short, when they happened.
"So, the nightmares happen when you blink too, don't they?" He inquired, though she didn't respond. "That's okay...you ain't gotta respond. Just...uh...I get that. Ya know. Have that sometimes."
Chara was wondering about something else. There had been something he said. Something she hadn't given much thought too, until they were watching TV. And she was curious.
"You mentioned...not wanting to capture humans." Chara recalled. "But...Metta said, you were meant to direct them, to...ya know, the king."
"I did, didn't I?" Papyrus chuckled some. "Ask the question kid."
"Why?" She inquired.
"Me and Metta have...different expectations with our work." He replied. "Sometimes...a human comes along, and...doesn't wanna go." He explained. "So, you're left with a choice. Let em wander around lost...probably get hurt. Or make them go."
"If we had decided not to play along, you'd have taken us by force then?" She asked.
Papyrus answered honestly. "No."
Chara didn't sense deception. "Why not?"
"That's complicated kiddo." He noted.
"So you won't say?" She asked.
"You remind me of someone." He explained with a hesitant sigh. "I'm fairly certain...you ain't them. But, you're pretty close."
"A friend of yours?" She asked.
"Someone I was supposed to be looking out for." He hummed. "Someone I let down. Who died...because I screwed up."
The pair fell into a silence once more. The silence was discomforting in itself. The skeleton finishing his first cigarette. Letting out the cloud of smoke, considering, and then lighting another. He felt this wasn't done yet. And, he was correct.
Chara noted. "You want an answer to something. It's...been bothering you. It's been bothering Metta." He glanced. "I can tell...so...ask."
Papyrus scanned her, and asked. "Are you Chara Dreemurr?"
"Yes." She replied, adding. "At least...I think so."
"How did you die?" He asked.
"I don't know." She replied, telling a half lie, and he could tell, and she knew it. "It's...all fuzzy."
Remembering her death, was complicated. On one side of things, she recalled poisoning herself. She recalled the agony of it. The plan, the goal, everything.
However, the longer she'd traveled, the more that had felt like...a blur. A dream. Something that simply wasn't true. But she couldn't recall anything else. Trying too, however, led to a miserable scratching in her brain. A pain, that she kept scratching at, even as it made her feel...awful to do so.
She was ready for his questions to get more intensive. And was showing obvious signs of discomfort at the prospect. Including, no longer making eye contact with him. She felt like she had done some great thing wrong. But then, in her opinion, she had done so many things wrong.
Her thoughts beginning to tread, familiar, dark waters. Growing fiercer, as the waves rose and fell within. Her perception of herself, poisoning her mind. What if...what if she wasn't even the real thing?
The non-human had indicated something like that. Maybe...she wasn't even...Chara? The thought combined with the rest, began to spike her heartrate.
It made her shake, and shiver. Feeling confused, and conflicted. As Temmies words played in her mind, making it worst. Waiting for something awful, for hate, for anger. But, instead, it was something much, much worst in her opinion.
"Are you okay, kid?" Papyrus getting a glance from her again.
Looking up at him, he had a knowing look. So, she thought, he had seen her having her breakdown. Just like he had when they left a fight, that she should have enjoyed. Or, that shouldn't have bothered her. Hell, he'd probably seen her every other time too.
"No." She sniffled. "I..."
"Something happened, before you showed up in the forest, right?" He asked, noting. "That outfit...that blood. That was yours...wasn't it?"
"I...didn't...it's...dead but..." Chara began to twitch, her hand moved to brush at the hair on the side of her face. "I keep...seeing that thing...when I close my eyes."
Papyrus didn't know what she was talking about, but got up from his seat. Putting out his cigarette. It seemed his questions had hit a nerve. The root of the problem, and he could tell that he probably shouldn't have done that.
"Kid, look, you ain't-" He tried to say, noticing she didn't seem to hear him. "hey, kid, are you still with me?"
She shook badly, covering an eye with the other. "I-I feel...the blood, m-my blood. It won't go away, it burns." She began to sob. "So much...I-I can't stop it, I can't...that smile, It won't stop-" Everything felt fuzzy, distorted and awful, like scratching in her mind. "I can't make it stop!"
She began to laugh, and cry in equal measure. Eyes closing, as the images of her injuries came back to her. Of her failings, of every bad awful feeling. Of dying, of thinking she was going to die again. That everyone was. The feeling of her blood, the stabbing pain. So much pain. It was so much pain, and she couldn't handle it.
Then a different feeling. She felt herself get pulled into a hug. Briefly looking up at the skeleton, who had lifted her into it. Losing any composure she had left, and all she had been trying to hold onto. She buried her head into his jacket and began to cry. Muffled, in pain, completely breaking down in the process.
She whimpered out an. "I'm sorry." In the process.
Feeling disgusted, and angry with herself for having lost her ability to suppress the feelings. Hate, in another word, flowed within her. Coupled with despair, and fear. Drowning out her will, as it collapsed in the moment.
Papyrus attempted to offer words to calm her down. But they weren't being heeded. He felt like a damn fool, for having pried like he did. But he'd try and make it right. Somehow. Taking a seat, letting her cry, until her energy had faded.
What he didn't know yet, was how badly the whole thing was needed. The ability to speak the fear. To finally let out what she'd been burying. Coming out only in faint bursts, before. It wouldn't solve the trauma, no, that would last a lifetime. But it might afford her the ability to endure it long enough to get that chance.
Her continued crying going on, almost non-stop with varying degrees of severity, for almost the next hour. Drawing the attention of Metta before too long. When she did finally pass out from exhaustion, she was taken back, placed on the couch, wrapped in a blanket. With the couple agreeing to check in on the girl now and then. Just in case.
A night light left on in the space, as per Alizas request. Something they had forgotten about previously. Electing to use the lamp in the kitchen. The bulb was fading, so it provided a nice, soft bit of illumination.
The skeleton was left to reflection his poor decisions when it came to interacting with a traumatized child. He'd never had the most delicate hand in things. Especially when it came to trying to get information.
Often, in the past, people compared him to a blunt instrument, with grandeur. It seemed, despite five years of trying to clean up his act, the brutish tendencies were still in him. And he couldn't be more disappointed with himself.
Staying up longer than needed, to simply make sure the two were sleeping well. At one point turning off the kitchen light, only to begin hearing Aliza panic in her sleep. Sighing tiredly, in the process. He felt he shouldn't have been surprised, but it was good...well, awful, but good to know.
When Metta came out to take a shift, instead of trying to get sleep, Papyrus elected to head out, and think. Vanishing, and appearing out on the streets of the town. It was...quiet at night. Overwhelmingly so, save for the occasional sentry on patrol. A few giving him nods, as he began his walk in earnest.
He was wondering to himself, how badly he had just messed things up. And for...so little useful information as well. He really hadn't learned anything new. Any form of confirmation to his questions, in any way that helped.
The girl believed she was Chara Dreemurr. But had lied about knowing how she'd died. She knew. But she also wasn't lying about it all being fuzzy. He lit a cigarette, and decided to venture from the normal path he took. Heading down a side street.
The kids had encountered...someone. For a minute, he believed it may have been Undyne. However, he'd never known her to sound that cruel. He also knew, based on the way the kid had talked, that multiple deaths had happened. That, sounded like soft confirmation of...an unfortunate belief his brother had.
A belief that there was an anomaly, destroying timelines. Starting, and stopping at random. Human souls did have...odd properties after all. And the kid was very clearly anomalous. So perhaps, when the girl died, it resulted in a sort of...reset?
He didn't know, and he didn't have enough information to properly confirm it. Perhaps it was a matter of simply getting up when she died. Or perhaps Aliza had a power of her own, that was assisting somehow? Too many unknowns, so he decided not to worry about that for the time being.
He let out a puff of smoke, heading down an alleyway, stepping gradually, and stopped. Noticing something out of the corner of his eye. A door. One he hadn't seen before.
It was a strange grey tinted thing. That seemed to simply...be. He noted the building it was seemingly meant to go into, was one of the stores. And one he was very certain didn't have a back door.
Raising an eye-socket, he took a drag, flicked his cigarette and stepped over to it. Giving it a brief glance over. He knocked on it twice, this thing that seemed to defy darkness. Being grey, and illuminated, while shadowed in unison. And it began to creak open. going into someplace...bright.
"Yeah, no." He shook his head. "C'mon...this couldn't be a more obvious trap if ya tried."
He wasn't about to wander into something like this without further investigation. Feeling a sense of alarm, as his soul flashed blue. Yanking him inside. The door slamming shut behind him.