Years passed, and Frisk's 7th birthday would arrive. A grand party with all of Frisk's friends and family arriving to give the birthday girl the time of her life. There were even two cakes, one made by Toriel, and the other from Undyne.
(Oh mo-Toriel's cake looks good. It would appear that instead of cake, Undyne brought us charcoal. Her enthusiasm surely knows no bounds.) Frisk giggled and looked around the room. Undyne and papyrus were doing their classic ' don't noogie the skeleton' schtick that she could easily join in, or Sans was busy having a quality nap in the middle of a loud room. MK, Snowy and Fuku were playing tag, which Frisk would join in on with gusto. Eventually, Undyne and Papyrus looked at each other and grinned, Papyrus scooping up Frisk.
"UNDYNE, I HAVE FINALLY CAPTURED THE HUMAN! NYEH HEH HEH!" Frisk giggled letting out a sarcastic
"Noooooooooo, how could I be so easily defeateeeeeeeeed." Causing Undyne to laugh
" Fuhuhuhu excellent work Papyrus….do you know what we do to humans down here? We subject them to ULTIMATE TICKLE FIGHTS!" Frisk squirmed in Papyrus' grasp as she was mercilessly tickled by Undyne. As laughter rang out, a knock was heard at the door, and in came Alphys and Mettaton.
"Goooooood evening beauties!" Papyrus turned, Frisk still in his arms.
"OH, METTATON IT IS AN HONOR TO HAVE YOU HERE FOR MY NIECE'S BIRTHDAY!" Mettaton put a smiley face up on his screen
"Well now I couldn't let this little darling go without a present from yours truly now could I?" Mettaton replied.
"OF COURSE! " Frisk looked up at Mettaton.
"Hiya Mettaton, are you going to do a show?" Causing Mettaton to let out a laugh.
"Why of course! It wouldn't be a party if I don't bring my A game for your special day!" Frisk cheered, and the party only got better from there. After some cake and nicecream, and Mettaton's mini-concert, Frisk was now able to open her birthday presents. The first ones she opened were from Sans and Papyrus. Sans had gotten his daughter a large joke book chock full of new material for her to try out. Frisk cheered while Papyrus let out a 'nyeh' of despair.
"Nyah hah hah! Thanks, daddy!"
"NYEEEEEH,SANS OH MY GOD YOU REALLY GOT HER ANOTHER JOKE BOOK?" Frisk giggled as Papyrus handed his present, which happened to be a new scarf, keeping with Frisk's preferred theme of pink and blue.
(Handcrafted Scarf. +10 DEF, very fashionable, enchanted to allow the wearer to resist cold temperatures.)
"Uncle Pappy I love it! Thank you!" Frisk said as she went to hug Papyrus. Next would be Undyne and Alphys, who both decided to make a present for Frisk, an electric piano, small enough for her to carry and hook up. Undyne gave a wide grin
"Now you can practice whenever the heck you feel like it!" Frisk gave her thanks and retrieved Alphys' gift, a mew mew kissy cutie plush, Which Frisk hugged tightly and smiled.
"Thank you aunty! Its really cool!" Alphys let out a nervous laugh
"Y-Yeah, i'm glad you like it!" and next was Mettatons, a dress in her size, with purple and blue stripes. Frisk looked it over with a smile.
"It's so cool! Thank you Mettaton!"
"You're very welcome darling!"Mettaton replied.
Toriel smiled at the dress, and the look on Frisk's face "Oh that is a lovely dress Frisk!"
The party continued, more gifts were had, and the cake was served. Frisk looked around her and felt something stirring, deep within her soul. In front of her, a small yellow star formed, unseen by anyone else.
(Being around all of your friends and family fills you with determination.)
*Woah, that was weird, how'd I do that?*
(I am not sure, but you just had a surge of determination go through you so….that is odd.) The star stayed throughout the day,Frisk even saw some of them walk right through the star without pause. This captured her curiosity more, and then as time passed, Frisk noticed that little stars similar to the one she saw popping up in seemingly random places in the underground. One day, Frisk was making her way through waterfall, running a small errand for the Ruins spiders. As she walked through the trash dump, one of the stars appeared. She actually enjoyed the feeling she got from touching these stars, as she touched it Chara spoke.
(Seeing the endless cycle of falling trash fills you with determination.) Frisk giggled as she felt a strong feeling pulse through her, she really did feel more determined. Along the way, MK ran into her, and they traveled for a bit, up to the bridge at the end of Waterfall. Frisk and MK were chatting away happily, with Chara watching contently, but suddenly, MK stumbled forward over his own feet and fell head first off of the bridge.
"MK!" Frisk screamed as she tried to reach him, only to be too late. Tears pricked her eyes, this couldn't be happening, why? Why couldn't she help him? She wanted her friend back, there HAD to be a way, she couldn't stop crying, trying to find MK where he fell, with no luck.
(No….) From her wish to go back, to see her friend again, a button emerged in front of Frisk.
*Load
She pressed the button with curiosity, only to find herself standing back in the trash dump, standing in front of the star.
(Wait, what? How did we get h-)
"Yo, Frisk!" Frisk froze as she heard MK's voice. She turned, hardly believing what she saw, her friend was alive. Frisk rushed over and hugged MK without thinking, only to hear Chara say
(No way….and that's exactly what he said before….) Mk laughed off the hug and they continued their journey. Frisk noticed that everything was going the same way as before, the two walking, having the same conversation, right up to the bridge. Once more MK went to run across it, only Frisk was following close behind, and right as he tripped, Frisk pulled him back, taking him with her to the other side.
"Yo that was close, thanks, Frisk!" Frisk looked on in astonishment, wondering exactly what was happening.
(It happened when you wanted to go back…...to before this happened...Frisk, try thinking about it again, let's see if it happens again.) Frisk does as Chara requested, and brought up the load option again, and it brought the same results, everything happening as it did before, right down to MK's words, and the board he tripped on.
(It's like….we can go back in time! At Least to the last point we touched one of those star things.)
*That's….kinda cool! I wonder what else I could do with this!* Frisk and MK headed back home.
Days passed and Frisk had an idea. If she could LOAD, she could do things that would normally get her yelled at, like eating all the monster candy her dad has on the counter or figuring out where someone was going to be to set up a prank!
(So many possibilities, and an infinite amount of time to do it, what will you do first, partner?)
*Hmm….well, I don't feel like eating a bunch of candy today….but I AM in the mood for possibly pranking uncle papy!*
( doesn't sans prank him across time and space enough?)
*Well yeah, but now its ME doing it! Here i'm gonna save before Papy gets here, If I load enough i can set up a huuuuuge prank.* Chara observed as Frisk let the rest of the day play out, she repeated this day and set her first trap, a large whoopie cushion right on the floor mat, exactly where Papyrus was going to step. From there he would take a step to the side….she should put some squeaky toys there for added effect. Frisk repeated this kind of process until, finally, her master plan came to fruition. Papyrus stepped on the first whoopie cushion trap, and proceeded to stumble into various other traps set by Frisk. She watched all of this from the stairs as Papyrus yelled
"UGH, SANS STOP PRANKING ME ACROSS SPACE AND TIME!" Frisk laughed as Sans exited his room.
"what? pap i didn't do any pranks yet…." and when Sans heard Frisk's muffled giggling, it told him all he needed to know. THAT'S why time was suddenly looping back again…..but this time it's his own kid doing it. He watched as Frisk walked into the livingroom and greeted Papyrus, he would have to have a chat with her in a minute. Once Papyrus was in the kitchen making food, he went to Frisk.
" hey kiddo, wanna know a cool secret?" Frisk was curious as to where this was going.
" so, when i was around your age, i really liked the idea of time travel, i even came up with my own secret codeword in case i ever ran into one." Frisk's eyes widened
"Really?"
" yeah, wanna hear it? I haven't told anyone else this, so you gotta keep it a secret."
"Okay!"
*whisper, whisper whisper* Frisk reeled back as he said his phrase.
"Really daddy, THAT'S the phrase?"
" yup." Frisk shook her head as she brought up the load option, which was unseen by Sans.
(Hang on, are you about to tell him his codeword before he even tells you the codeword?)
*Heck yeah! Daddy knows something, I can tell! Though...his phrase is really silly.* Frisk pressed the button, and re did her things, until she ran into Sans.
" heya kiddo, wanna kn-"
"I know, you have a secret code word, it's 'I am a stupid doo-doo butt'!" causing Sans to snort
"pff wow, that's not the kinda jokes a seven-year-old should be making. codeword eh? well, kiddo, that isn't quite good enough, i have a secondary code word, for people who already know the code word, my secret secret codeword. You wanna hear it?"
"Yeah!"
*Whimsper, whimsper* the phrase made Frisk laugh and she loaded again, going through her day and then running into Sans once more. Frisk had an excited look
"I know your secret secret codeword! I am the legendary fartmaster!" Sans snorted, just as he had before
" wow kiddo, that's uh, kinda childish. Whoever told you that was a secret code word was a total liar. However i have a secret secret TRIPLE secret codeword…...which you just said." Frisk laughed a little, and then her curiosity took over.
"So….you know something about the weird load ability thing?"
" well, i know of it, but uh, let's take this chat to my room." and suddenly they were there. Frisk seemed a little worried.
"Am I in trouble?" to which Sans shook his head
" nah kiddo, there's just quite a bit about that little ability you have. do ya think you can tell me when it started, and when you figured out how to use it?" Frisk recounted her tale, of a star appearing at the party when she was feeling particularly determined, and those same stars appearing all over the underground. When Frisk got to the part about MK falling off of the bridge, he pulled her into a light hug.
"But now everything's fine, he's safe, 'cuz of my loading, and I decided to see what else I can do."
" like pranking your uncle across space and time?" Frisk smiled
"Yup!" Sans let out a chuckle
" well, i can't say anything about that, i'd definitely do the same thing, but uh, maybe you shouldn't do that too often kiddo." Frisk nodded and then had a question of her own.
"So how do you know about the save and load thing?"
" well, a long time ago, way before you came down here, i used to work on science stuff with alphys and….someone else, can't remember who. Anyways we were studying timelines and found that for some reason, time was looping back on itself, stopping and starting, until suddenly, everything ends." Frisk gasped
"Was that because of me?" Again, Sans shook his head
" nah kiddo, you see, the way time works, its not a set in stone. it isn't permanent, it can change at any point, which is why we kept looking at the timeline. Eventually, it changed but there was still something causing the timelines to go back on themselves, and the anomaly would appear at a certain point in time. I think that you just took that anomaly's place kiddo."
"So instead of someone else having the reset thing, I have it? Why?"
" well my working theory is amounts of determination. You see, waaaay back in the day when there were wizards, the determination ones were tough, like, able to come back from being dead tough. For the more powerful ones, they could save and load."
"Do you think that I'M a wizard then?" Sans shrugged
" eh you could be, but the anomaly that had it before you…..didn't do very good things with it. In fact, he used it to do extremely bad things, and then load so he wouldn't have to pay for it." Frisk gasped
"What? That's awful!"
" yeah, and for me, i can tell when the timeline reloads because i know how to recognize the dejavu, which is that ' i've seen this before' feeling. Sometimes, memories will even come in the form of dreams, or nightmares." Frisk thought on this
"What kind of bad things did he do?'
" well, he did a lot of things that you don't really need to hear about kiddo, just that he would do things that would hurt people really bad, and then take it all back and act like it never happened."
"Well, I'm not gonna do that!" Frisk said with her eyes brimming with determination. Sans' grin widened a little as he ruffled her hair.
" i know babybones, just be careful with that power okay?" Frisk agreed, but then had a mischievous grin
"I can still prank people though, right?"
" pfff mweheheheheh, kid you really think i'd try to stop you from performing more masterpieces like what went on downstairs?" to which Frisk cheered and gave her father a hug. Sans knew that now, even if they do loopback now and again, it was HIS kid holding the reigns, and this, gave him a sense of comfort, knowing that as long as Frisk was in control, at the very least the nightmares would be over.
Meanwhile, in Waterfall, Flowey waited, contemplating his next move. The brat figured out their loading abilities, killing them would never have done any good, and now if he does show his true colors then she'd go tell that stupid smiley trashbag. He would even bet that the trash bag already knows that Frisk can reload. He will just have to bide his time and strike when the moment is ripe. There was no sense in showing his hand before he knows exactly how to play it and when to strike, but an idea came to him. An idea that would make his moment of opportunity so much sweeter, and with a cackle he made his way to Snowdin.
