Once past the ruins and outside in the snow, the two humans were now on their way to Snowedin. However, Chara slowed after she remembered something. "uh… Frisk... what about... him?" Chara asked, looking a little frightened for once at meeting the next person on their journey. "Oh right...you haven't done anything; He has no reason to do anything to you." Frisk explained. "In this reset maybe…" Chara replied, not at all reassured. "True but he can't use past resets against you, you're learning and trying to be good, he has to give you that at least." Frisk replied firmly, hoping the one they were to meet was possibly listening. "I don't know Frisk...But I'll try I guess." Chara replied just before they stepped over the branch that would soon be snapped behind them. "Here goes nothing…" Chara said aloud although she was trying to reassure herself more than Frisk.
When it came time to shake his hand Chara ended up doing so. To say the skeleton in front of her was surprised at her presence would be an understatement. The fart noise from the whoopie cushion continued for a few seconds too long before Chara spoke up. "Old Whoopie cushion trick, works every time huh?" She said in an awkward greeting. He took his hand back a little too fast to be comfortable which did not sit well with Chara, but fortunately Frisk stepped up between them filled with determination. Chara had to bite her tongue to stop herself from verbally narrating and did a simple one in her head instead.
Sans eyes kept flicking back from small white pupils to endless black voids, as he looked between the two humans before finally settling with the pupils and Frisk. "What is going on?" Sans asked not even bothering to do introductions, he knew who they were and vice versa. "She was lying next to me when I woke up this time, so she is alive again, and hasn't done anything." Frisk explained firmly. "Yet." Sans replied with barely restrained malice. "Not yet, won't, you really think she'd throw away being alive after so long?" Frisk countered simply. Sans frowned before glancing up at Chara who backed up instinctively, then looked back at Frisk.
"That…. makes sense…." Sans relented before they could hear his brother nearby making Sans sigh. "You know the drill." He said before Frisk grabbed Chara by the wrist and went behind the conveniently shaped lamp, both fitting behind it perfectly even though it was two of them now. While Sans and Papyrus did their usual spiel, Chara started to get fidgety as they waited, her mind kept playing different ways that Sans could kill her without a second thought. By the time Sans let them know that the coast was clear, she started to hyperventilate. "Chara?" Frisk asked but was not heard as Chara collapsed and curled up in a ball, gasping for air and crying.
Frisk was instantly beside her pulling Chara into her lap and rocking her back and forth. Sans came over to investigate but stopped himself from going too close after seeing what was going on. He simply waited for Chara to calm down, which took longer than he thought it would. When Chara was finally sitting up on her own, and carefully breathing in and out, Frisk looked to Sans who was waiting. "I know what happened in the past, I did it too, but this time, we're both here, so give one last chance okay?" Frisk asked. Sans sighed before nodding. "One chance, otherwise, you know what will happen." Sans explained. Frisk nodded in reply before he spoke again. "And Chara?" Sans said out loud realizing that was the first time he used her name. "Y-yes?" Chara asked, sounding terrified and tired. Sans sighed knowing why but not saying anything about it. "Good luck." He said simply, but genuinely before shortcutting elsewhere.
Chara sighed with relief before leaning on Frisk for a moment to calm down her nerves. Frisk stroked her hair to help and sighed in relief too. Once Chara calmed down more, she spoke. "Well, let's hope I don't have too many of those…" Chara replied trying to sound like her old self. Both knew this would not be the only time like this, but both hoped it would be few and far between each one. Both got up from the snow after a moment of rest before heading into Snowedin Forest and the town of Snowedin.
After several puzzles in the forest and exploring the town, Chara and Frisk finally encounter Papyrus in their expected battle. Chara was not surprised when Frisk flirted with the skeleton and scheduled a date with him by the end of the encounter. Chara, however, was surprised when Frisk offered to drop her off at the Inn before going to the skeleton residence. "I appreciate the offer, and it is very tempting, but for one I don't think we should separate, for two, it's probably better if he knows where I am in relation to you, If I don't show up with you, it might give off the wrong impression, even if I rather not be there." Chara explained gaining a nod from Frisk. "That makes sense, hopefully he'll leave you alone in the living room and go to his room if anything." Frisk replied hopefully. Chara sighed simply hoping so too as they neared the house of the two brothers.
Once inside Frisk was whisked away by Papyrus for their date, and Chara was deposited on the couch opposite of Sans. The room was quick to fill with awkward tension as Sans watched her from his laying position and She did her best not to look up at him. Chara mainly kept her eyes towards her lap at least until something landed in said lap making her jump nearly off the couch and look up at the other occupant of the room. After seeing him nearly unfazed by her scare she looked down to find a small chocolate bar. She looked up confused only to find him gone, then she looked up towards his room where he stood in his open doorway. "Good job so far, don't mess it up." Sans said with his eyes void black in warning before he went into his room and shut the door. Chara sighed with relief after a moment making sure he was not going to come back out, before turning her attention to the chocolate bar.
By the time she opened and finished the chocolaty goodness, Frisk and Papyrus came back downstairs after a timely rejection. After a spaghetti filled lunch provided by Papyrus, (in which Chara mildly wished to be a ghost again, no offense to Papyrus) the two of them headed out again and stopped for the night at the Snowed Inn. Once settled in their shared room they exchanged how their recent visit went. Frisk went just about the same as always save for any mentions of "letting Chara have a chance with the handsome skeleton". Chara laughed at that and was glad to have declined the offer of a date during lunch, which he took rather well.
After Chara explained what little she had about her side of the visit, Frisk nodded in thought before speaking. "Well, despite the obvious warning, at least he's acknowledging the fact you haven't done anything wrong, plus he gave you chocolate I didn't even know he knew that about you." Frisk replied optimistically. "Yeah, neither did I, would have liked not having the small jump scare though." Chara replied in complaint as they settled in the bed, Chara turning off her side lamp. Frisk giggled at that glad Chara was settling down a bit from that morning's panic attack. "True but then he left you alone, which was nice." Frisk pointed out. "Yeah yeah, night Frisk." Chara replied rolling to her side as Frisk turned off her side lamp. "Night Chara." she replied before rolling over as well.
Both were asleep in moments, but several hours later in the dead of night, Chara sat up with a start after a nightmare. This movement woke Frisk up, who instantly went into comfort mode, as Chara was having trouble calming down afterwards. Frisk wanted to know what kind of nightmare would cause a similar reaction to before, but deep down she already had a good idea. She just hoped that moving onto Waterfall in the morning would give way to something better.
"Didn't you two get taller since you left the underground, how does that even work?" Jeremy asked holding Frisk' backpack with Flowey inside so her and Chara could go behind the conveniently shaped lamp without anything sticking out. Her, Chara and Flowey answered. "Magic." Jeremy side figuring that would be that case. "Right so like you were saying everything from this first panic attack onward mostly differed from previous resets yes?" Jeremy asked for clarification. "Yep pretty much, we will point out what was similar while we explained everything else." Chara replied, stepping out from behind the lamp with Frisk right behind her. They started towards town, and although the puzzles that Papyrus once had out, were cleared, the girls explained each one as they passed the area, they were one on.
When they finally got to the town signed Jeremy started laughing at the name of the town. "SnowedIn oh wow that's funny, did Sans name the town?" He asked though he giggles. "Surprisingly, no. It was Asgore actually, and although this was pretty clever the rest of the underground is pretty lackluster in the naming department." Frisk explained giggling too as they continued onward. They showed off everything from Sans and Papyrus' house, the library and Inn, as well as the original Grillby's.
While looking around the old bar, Jeremy thought up some of the questions he has been meaning to ask them in the last year of knowing them. "So, with everything I know…. what does most people who know you but do not know about the reset's know? Like your mom for instance. "Well, it's simple, I died, and a few thousand years later Frisk fell into the underground and I woke up alive next to her with no real explanation. Everything else is as it happened in real time, only us and Sans knows about before." Chara explained. "And Alphys because Sans talks to her about it sometimes, cause science." Frisk explained gaining a nod in agreement from Chara.
"And the Tems, they know everything…" Flowey piped up simply, getting a questioning look from the three. "Okay firstly we're not in the part of the underground, don't give it away, and what?" Chara asked, confused. "They know everything in the underground, don't ask me how they just do, and I think that one dog Toby might too, but I don't speak dog." Flowey explained with a shrug. "Huh okay, well can't wait to see whatever you guys are talking about so, why we don't go onto the next area?" Jeremy asked simply. "Sounds good, let's go." Frisk replied as they all started to exit the old building and head towards Waterfall.
On the way Jeremy had another question. "So, I've been told what happened before and after you woke up alive, but what happened during the transition? Did anything happen?" Jeremy asked, causing Frisk to stop and turn to Chara in question wondering the same thing. "Yeah, I never did think to ask you that Chara." Frisk said with a curious tilt of her head. Flowey even peeked his head out from behind Frisk to look at her curiously as well. "Uh well, from what I can remember...I floated in the space that we call the void, a black space of nothing, and usually when the resets happen I would be in and out of there real quick, but that last time I stayed long and then there was this voice, saying it wasn't my time and I was getting a second chance and I needed to redeem and survive, and i tried to ask and figure out who it was but I got pulled out in the new reset soon after, the voice did sound familiar though." Chara detailed with a sigh thinking back onto the voice that she had heard.
"Hmmm I wonder if I'd recognize the voice too if I heard it…" Frisk replied simply. "Yeah wow, talk about divine intervention or whatever the equivalent is down here." Jeremy replied. "We don't have that idiot." Flowey snapped. "You don't know that." Jeremy countered, before him and Flowey got flicked on the cheek. "Hey now no fighting you two." Frisk said stopping them both before they could even truly begin. Both agreed to stop before they started onward again soon arriving at the little shack of Sans that signified the beginning of Waterfall.
"Ohhh I'm going to like this area. I already like the sounds and smells" Jeremy pointed out. "Yeah there's a lot to Waterfall as a whole, one of the biggest areas actually, so we're going to be exploring a lot." Chara explained while grabbing a big bag of chips that Sans stashed for them underneath the counter of the Shack. She opened it and passed it around so everyone could get some. "You guys thought of everything for this trip, didn't you?" Jeremy asked as he got a hand full of chips. "Correction Frisk did, but yeah she did." Chara replied in agreement. "I wanted everything to go well, is that bad?" Frisk asked with a smile. "No, it's awesome Frisk thank you. "Jeremy replied earnestly, smiling back, which got Frisk to blush slightly, fortunately it was dark enough for him not to see it. Chara did but figured it was not worth pointing out. Once everyone had a handful or two of chips in their systems they headed further into Waterfall.
