Chara glanced around. Where were they now? ...The Ruins, if they had to guess. There were only two others- no, wait, three- besides themself, one being some random human, another being a ghost of some sort...inside a dummy? Alright then… The last was...oh, god. Not her.

Toriel. Stupid Toriel! Couldn't she leave their life for once? Jesus, and they thought that they'd escaped her and Asgore when they died.

They'd be lying to say they didn't miss their parents, but the same could be said if it was mentioned that they were happy to see their mother. Really, here of all places? This was where they were sent? Ug, at least Gaster wasn't around as far as they could tell.

...For some reason, that didn't really make things better.

"Alright, child," Toriel said, letting her hand extend out to the possessed dummy. "Sometimes, in the Ruins, monsters will jump out and attack you. Just try to strike up a conversation until I can make my way over and intervene."

Chara grinned, eyes narrowing as they uncurled from the heart-hand and back into themself. The hand-heart figure did not reform, however, instead simply becoming a part of Chara. How interesting.

The ghost then floated over to this new human and stood beside their ear, barely far enough away to keep from touching.

"Dummy approaches," they muttered into the human's ear. "Fight?"

Fight? The human's eyes squinted and they tilted their head, turning to the source of the noise for a brief moment before glancing down at the buttons that had been sprawled out in front of them. A heart had emerged from the center of the living child's chest and they held their hand out toward it before waving it to the right, all the way over to the 'ACT' button.

Chara's smile quickly turned into a frown as the human took a long stare at the dummy. Alright, it's fine. They're just analyzing their opponent. Nothing wrong with that. "It's a dummy." Really, though. How much analyzing did they need for a dummy?

...Evidently quite a bit.

It was perhaps the fifth time (? Chara stopped keeping track…) before the ghost inside became visibly irritated and flew off, taking their physical body with them. The group blinked as their eyes followed it...through the ceiling. Chara was likely the least surprised. Well, alright then. Ghosts could do that, they supposed. They probably could too if they really felt like trying.

There were more… important matters at hand, however, like finding out this child's name. Then turning them into a genocidal maniac.

"..." Toriel walked toward the child, took a quick glance up at the ceiling and then shook her head. "That was...interesting. I'm certain it won't happen again."

The human nodded slowly, glancing around a little bit for what Chara assumed to either be the dummy that had just floated up the ceiling or perhaps even themself, as it was doubtful the human had seen them yet but quite obvious they had heard them.

Toriel reached out for the kid's hand and firmly grasped it as she walked ahead, occasionally glancing back to make sure they had not escaped (by sawing off their arm?). "Come along, child. Much of the Ruins still lies ahead."

...

"The Ruins can be very dangerous if you're not careful," the woman said once they had entered the next area. "I have some puzzles set."

Carefully, she led the child along the large grey steps scattered around an area by a wall. "I don't think you're quite ready for puzzles yet, Frisk."

Chara's smile returned upon hearing the child's name. Frisk. A devilish fire burned in their eyes as they suddenly felt a piece of string wrap around their wrist, suddenly sparking once it had done the same to Frisk's. I like that.

They glanced down at where the string should have been and waved the free hand along it, though nothing came about.

Interesting. This...is this a bond? Now that I think about it, I have one with Mom, too, but it's a lot stronger than this one. It's old though. I guess I'm used to that one.

In fact, that one was much, much stronger than the one that they felt with Frisk, though it also felt as though it might rot through. Rope can rot. Wouldn't that be a shame? Heh.

Chara's reddish-brown eyes glided over to a thick, red tie that had been wrapped around their chest and made its way through one of the walls. When did that get there? They certainly hadn't felt it before now...or, did they? Weird...

Gaster glanced at his surroundings- blue walls, water trickling down each of them. A faint music box played from somewhere within the cavern, overlapped by the sound of a nearby rushing waterfall. Several crystals hung throughout the room, which one was able to exit only from yet another door on the wall opposite him.

His eyes focused on anything green and yellow, however, there wasn't much, and there certainly wasn't a human's shirt worth. How unfortunate. It appears that the two had been split up, quite literally might he add. There was an odd feeling resonating in him, like he knew where the other half of his soul was as well as the person who had inadvertently taken it.

Gaster glanced down at his torso and tilted his head. Well, that's odd. There's a rope around him. It's leading to...where exactly is it leading to? He closed his eyes. A small spark of white-and-red traveled along its course and a few minutes later, the man's eyes opened once more.

Chara. It was leading to Chara.