Frisk pensively sat there on the couch. They had told Chara earlier that they would try to come up with something to help them regarding their 'having to wait all night for Frisk to wake up' problem.
Unfortunately, it appeared that there was no easy answer out of this one. Frisk obviously couldn't do anything while they were sleeping and since Chara was incorporeal when they weren't controlling Frisk's body, they couldn't really interact with anything either.
This made finding any sort of distraction for Chara while Frisk was unconscious quite difficult.
Honestly, they just couldn't think of anything. But at the same time, they couldn't just tell Chara that they were giving up without having found anything after accepting to help. That would just be a jerk move. Especially considering that Chara was most likely reading their thoughts right now.
Yep. They confirmed, this made Frisk giggle for a moment before they went back to their reflection.
After a couple more minutes, Chara voiced their concerns mentally.
I don't think we have the right strategy. We are not going to get anywhere like this.
"What would you suggest instead then ?" Frisk thoulked back to them.
I don't know. But the way we are doing it right now is not working. The first fallen human pointed out with a tone that expressed their frustration.
"How about this instead : We do it methodically." Frisk proposed to the voice in their mind.
What do you mean by that ?
"Well we go backwards and work from there. Instead of checking every path until of them leads to the end, we start from the end and see which path led to it." They thoulked. Chara had no comment to make this time. They might be the clever one usually, but this time around Frisk had a good point.
That is a good idea.
Frisk got up and went back to their room, hoping that it would give them an idea somehow if they went to the place where the problem took place.
"Okay so the only thing you can do while im sleeping is looking at things right ?" Frisk asked Chara using their actual voice this time. They knew no one would be overhearing them in here, but they still spoke quietly just in case.
I guess so.
"What do you like to do that only involves looking at things ?" They questioned.
Reading i guess. But that involves turning the pages and i cannot do that without you.
"Is there anything else ?" Frisk insisted, still eager to find some sort of solution to help.
Not really, most of the time im just watching you doing things. There aren't a lot of interesting things about watching you sleep like a baby.
"Hey !" Frisk reacted to Chara's taunt. "I don't sleep like a baby."
Im just kidding.
"I know... " They winked. "So you really don't have any other idea ?" The corporeal child reiterated a final time, starting to sound desperate.
I do not. Chara repeated sadly.
"Well looks like we're gonna have to do with that." Frisk concluded. "How can you read without turning pages ?" they thought out loud. "An audio book ?"
As much as that could work for me, it would be really difficult for you to fall asleep in the first place with something like this playing in the background. It would be way too noisy for you. It would most certainly affect negatively your sleep quality even if you did manage to fall asleep. As much as this option would be good from my perspective, i feel obligated to reject it for your own sake. Chara explained. They did not want their own comfort to take priority over Frisk's health.
"Uhmm… Thanks I guess ?" They thoulked as an answer. "But how else could you read books while im sleeping ?"
...Maybe i shouldn't have asked you this. I do not think there is a proper answer to this question. It might have been a bit selfish of me to request your help for something like this in the first place, please forgive me for this.
"Nonono ! That's what friends are for, we help each other when we need it." A smile grew on Frisk's face, they didn't mind at all. "Actually, I might have an idea."
Chara paused for a moment. Really ?
"Maybe. Let me check this out." Frisk turned on their computer, Chara hesitated to try and read their mind to see what they were up to but eventually decided not to do so and wait to see for themself.
As if they weren't already pretty confused at how a computer was supposed to help with their problem, Chara was only weirded out further when Frisk opened a web browser and searched for an "autoclicker". What on earth was that supposed to be useful for ?
"You'll see." They whispered and smiled. Chara decided to let them do whatever they were doing and see the results once its done.
Frisk downloaded the first result they got and took a few minutes to understand how it worked. Once they were confident they had gotten it, they went online again to search for a digital copy of a book they had but hadn't gotten around to reading yet.
You know that this is most certainly illegal right ? You are not supposed to read books online without buying them. Chara pointed out as Frisk found what they were looking for.
"But we already have this one, we wouldn't have to pay to read it anyway. No one's getting hurt and its for a good cause, is it so bad ?" Frisk attempted to defend their actions. They might have used their power to do some slightly illegal things in the past but this wasn't anything wrong. Not to them at least.
Chara did not answer, considering how they usually vividly debated with them on those kinds of things when they disagreed, it meant that they were okay with letting it slide.
Meanwhile, Chara had finally gotten where Frisk was going with this, and they had to admit that it was a pretty good idea. This might actually work.
They opened the digital book copy to the very first page before going back to the auto clicker's tab. They set it to a certain key and entered a easily long enough four minutes as the interval between two clicks. After going back one last time to the book's tab, they put the cursor of the mouse on the "next page" button and thoulked. "How about this ?"
Chara did not have words really. Well actually, they had three.
Wow. Thank you. As far as they could think, there wasn't any flaw with this one.
Frisk could just turn on the auto clicker before going to sleep, then Chara should be able to simply read the double page and wait for it to move on to the next one after a bit of time. As long as Chara didn't get bored or zoned out, they could keep doing this for the entire night and always have something to do. By the time Frisk woke up, they would have gone through over two hundred pages. It wasn't very fast, but this would be just a first test, they could always change the speed next time if it was needed.
Actually, I think you should disable the setting that makes the computer go on standby if no one touches it for too long. It would be unfortunate if the screen just turned off on me. They suggested, which Frisk quickly went ahead and did so.
"Anything else ?" They wondered, in case they had forgotten something else.
I do not think so. Perhaps turn the computer around so that the light of the screen isn't facing your bed ? Make you sure it doesn't risk waking you up that way either. Frisk didn't consider it to be very useful, the brightness was not high enough to do that. But they still went on and did what Chara had proposed anyway, just in case.
Feeling satisfied with their improvised solution, the two of them went on with the little time they had left until the end of their day.
Once it ran out and that Frisk was just about ready to go to sleep. They thoulked to Chara that now would the time to test out their idea. They waited a bit longer so that their companion had the time to read the first double page. "Ready ? When i click this it'll start and it won't stop until i turn it off tomorrow when i wake up." They warned.
Yes i know. You can start it.
"Alright then." Frisk pressed the key and the page changed for the first time of many more to come. After that, they climbed into bed and under the covers. "Good night."
Good night to you too. They smiled before getting back to reading.