I wonder how long it will take for him to realize what's going on. Does he really think anything has changed?

I'll let up eventually. When it gets boring. Getting forgiveness was just an excuse to try out the knife.

That message of his had an excellent idea. If I can erase his memories, I could do whatever I wanted to him. Then I could just reset him and he'd be as happy and innocent as ever. I could torture him and we'd still be friends.

Until then, let's see how far I can push him.

Ooh, he's getting petulant. I think he's starting to figure it out. But whenever I sweet talk him and take a day off to play and make up, he seems to simmer down.

How long before it hits him…?

"Chara."

He gets up, holding his face together with a leaf.

"This has to end." He says.

"Flowey, we're almost there. You've come so far."

"I'm tired." He says. "I'm really tired. Make up your mind. Are we friends or not?"

"Why don't we take another break?" I ask.

"Enough breaks! Enough stalling!"

He's fuming. I act innocent.

"I'm not dragging this out." I say. "I'm just trying not to overwhelm you."

"Liar." He says. "I thought you'd get tired of this. But it's not happening. I'm not stupid, Chara."

Really?

"We've done this enough." He says, breathing hard.

Then the anger fades from his eyes.

"You know how I feel about you." He pleads. "Let's go back to the way things were. I want to be friends again."

I lower the knife. This game has been getting boring anyway. There's no harm in letting it go.

"You're right." I say.

I drop the knife.

"You've been patient." I say. "I appreciate it. I forgive you."

"Thanks."

"Let's reset." I say. "You're a mess."

I pick him up.

"Off the mountain, okay?"

"Okay."

We reset one more time, and erase the message he left himself. I stop using the knife and we start playing again. I'd been trying to drag it out, waiting to see when he'd snap, but cutting off his petals got so repetitive.

I'll play nice for a while.

It's hard not to smile with Asriel around. He was always happy, but these days he's really happy. At least, once he got over the petal thing. Boy, was he cranky about that!

I like this Asriel. He's fun.

But I also miss that knife. I liked that knife. And Asriel gets nervous whenever it's around.

Maybe that's a good thing. He gets interesting when he's afraid.

I start drawing us closer to Asgore's place and finding excuses to bring out the knife, just so Asriel can see it. I act like it's not there; I never mention it by name or talk about it. I don't want him to know that I'm trying to scare him.

I also touch his petals more. He cringes when I do.

But he tries to hide it. He doesn't want me to know it bothers him… He must be afraid I'd keep doing it if I knew he didn't like it.

He does think I want to hurt him. So I play extra nice. I kiss him more often and say nice things about him.

He melts in my hands. He's so cute.

"When are we going to get my body back?" Asks Asriel.

I completely forgot about that.

"Hm… I'm not sure how to do it." I say. "Do you have any ideas?"

"No. The last time I did it, I had souls." He says. "And there are no human souls left."

"Right."

"Hey." I say. "Why don't we build you a body?"

"Build?"

"Like a fake body. A dummy."

"Okay… But how would I get into it?" He asks.

"Well, you turned into a flower because your dust was on a flower when it got determination." I say. "If we grind you up and put you in a dummy, and then injected it with a little determination, maybe you could take over the body."

"Maybe."

We piece it together from a lot of things. Some of the trash near Waterfall has some furry stuff for his skin, and we can carve him a skeleton out of wood. Marbles for the eyes, cotton for the flesh, some rocks to give it weight, and fangs carved out of porcelain.

It's awfully hard to make it look and feel right. The paws and ears are easy to get wrong, and even when it looks almost like him, it doesn't feel quite the same.

Maybe I'll get used to it.

"I think it's ready." I say.

He nods.

"Let's take it to the lab."

I do all the work. I set up the DT extractor, grind up Asriel, extract the determination, and then stuff his remains into the dummy before injecting the determination back in.

But not all of the determination. I leave some inside the machine.

A few minutes later, the dummy stirs.

"Good morning, Asriel!" I say.

He stands up and looks around. He checks his paws.

"It… it feels a little different." He says.

"Looks right." I say.

"Check the seams."

He stretches. I inspect him.

"Nope. Nothing is loose."

"Great."

"Let's try it out!"

We go out and run around so he can get used to the new body. Still seems kind of weird, seeing the fake body move, but it's not bad. I kind of like seeing him back in his normal form. It's too bad we didn't have enough fur for his whole body, but his clothes cover the bare patches, so you can't see it.

We go out to play just like we used to. We tweak his body a little and make it seem more real. Eventually, I can't tell him apart from his old body. This was a good idea. He was so weak and fragile when he was a flower. It's better when he can keep up with me.

Things go back to normal.

For a while.

This is starting to get boring.

It's been weeks since he got into his new body. I want to try something new. Asriel is great, but there's only one of him… we used to have lots of people to play with.

It's time to make things a little more interesting. When Asriel is napping, I sneak back to the lab and turn on the DT extractor.

I inject myself with all of the determination left. I'll need a lot more determination than he has if I'm going to erase his memories.

I don't plan on hurting him unless I can make him forget about it. I don't want him resenting me. After all, being friends is a lot better than being enemies.

But I've never had a chance to get in a real fight before. I want to see what it's like.

flowey.

long time no see. if you're reading this… you must have gotten really bored.

hey, congrats. you finally broke in. this place was really well-guarded. but i was sure you'd get it eventually.

welp.

guess you found out what happened. i don't have to spell it out for you, do i?

yeah, that's the machine. have you tried tinkering with it?

don't bother. it's a waste of time.

or go ahead. knock yourself out. it's up to you.

but even if you do… you should probably know something about time travel.

rule number one:

it doesn't matter. ever.

i gave up a long time ago. i tried to help people… tried to fix the world… tried to make things better. but every time i did, somebody just turned back the clock. there was nothing i could do. everything i did got erased. nobody really changes anything.

well…

one person does.

whoever has the most determination. they make all the rules. they control everything. and if you try to fight them, they'll just reset until they win. sooner or later, they always win. and they only have to win once.

and the more you beat them before then… the madder they get. and when they finally do win…

you're gonna have a bad time.

so.

who has the most determination?

search me.

i wish i knew.

anyway… you're probably wondering why i wrote this.

well, if i did this right… you already brought back chara.

chara is with you, aren't they?

i gotta tell ya…

chara isn't actually there.

you're still alone down here.

chara is still dead.

you're just hallucinating.

you finally lost it.

you've gone completely insane.

…

heh.

…

nah, i'm just kidding.

you were always insane.

but seriously…

you have lost your marbles, you know.

…get it?

because you have marbles for eyes now?

i kill me.

okay, i'll level with you.

we aren't done.

i've got a bone to pick with you.

so i didn't leave with the others.

i thought i'd stick around…

get it?

…your bones are wooden sticks now.

anyway.

i figured i'd better keep an eye socket on you. so i've been following you around.

i hoped you'd use alphys' machine to get rid of your determination, like Asriel said. but if you're reading this, i guess you didn't. so i'm going to have to do it for you.

now.

you haven't spotted me yet, have you? you're probably wondering where i am.

well… remember when i said chara wasn't really there?

it's true.

that human waiting for you outside…

yeah.

…that's me.

geeeeeeettttt dunked on!

sans

Asriel comes outside. He looks shaken… and furious.

I give him a smile.

"Find anything new?" I ask.

"That's not true." He murmurs, looking at the ground. "That isn't true."

"How do you figure?" I ask.

"Sans is a monster." He says. "Monsters can't handle determination. Monsters can't absorb monster souls. I've seen you do both."

I roll my eyes.

"Okay, I admit it." I say. "I was just messing with you."

He sighs.

"Don't do that." He says.

"All right, all right." I say. "I'm glad you could tell it was me, though."

I start walking. He follows.

"It wasn't hard." He says. "Sans was smart. But he wasn't that smart. He couldn't have predicted all of that."

"Really? He seemed awfully smart to me." I say.

"Hmph."

"hey asriel." I say.

"Yeah?"

"knock knock."

He sighs again.

"Who's there?" He asks.

"boo."

"Boo who?"

I draw the knife and stab him in the neck.

"you were always the crybaby, asriel."