For those of you who commented on the (now deleted) author's note, thank you so, so much for your support! It means a lot to me.
To make up for being unable to update for about a week or so, I cranked this out as fast as I could as soon as my computer started working again. It is a little on the short side, but the important events that take place in it should make up for that. Plus it's literally 2:30 AM right now and I'm really tired.
Don't tell me I shouldn't have been up this late writing, if I wasn't writing I would've been reading different stories or playing Pokemon Moon.
P.S to those of you who asked why I couldn't write on the phone: I don't have a phone that can run apps. Damn you, Nokia!
Goddamn, this elevator is taking a long time.
What did I tell you about swearing? Think of the children! The Hunger was right, though. It was such a long elevator ride that Frisk was half asleep by the time they reached the end of it.
Hey. Are you gonna get out or not? The Hunger asked as Frisk stayed sitting down as the doors of the lift opened.
Yeah, okay… Just give me a sec… I dunno why, but I feel like I had terrible sleep…
Probably because of that nightmare.
Yeah… Probably… Frisk let out a yawn and shuffled around before getting up and exiting the lift, with Hunger mumbling something along the lines of "it's about time" in the back of their mind.
They stopped and looked around, now almost fully awake. The city they were in reminded them of the Ruins, but instead of being all purple, the buildings were covered with a multitude of colours; red, orange, green, yellow, purple, blue, aqua… it was quite stunning, really.
After they'd finished looking around, they continued on the path that started to rise above the city. It was strangely silent for such a large area. There were no monsters to be seen. However, if Frisk strained their ears, with their newfound strong hearing they could hear some muffled sounds coming from a long way down the path. So they kept going.
Eventually, they reached a tunnel-like area with a big house built over it. There was a sign that told Frisk that it was the way to the castle. There were steps built inside of the tunnel that lead down and seemingly onto another path. They walked down them.
There was a long underground tunnel with paint splashed all over it, as if the painters hadn't been too bothered with getting it done neatly. There were some patches that hadn't been painted and were a dull grey colour. Eventually, the corridor took a left turn, just like the one by the exit of the Ruins. However, unlike the Ruins tunnel, this one soon turned right and kept going that way.
The tunnel ended, and Frisk was once again walking through the streets of the city, now back at ground level. The sounds they had just barely made out earlier were getting louder. It sounded like… a celebration? They walked along the empty path for a long while before reaching another right turn.
When they stepped inside of a long hall, they blinked in the sudden light that was coming through the many large, arched, runed windows. Shadows were cast everywhere in the hall, partially because of all the pillars supporting the building. The whole room was a golden yellow colour, except for some of the tiles which were red. (Probably, I don't actually know cause I'm colourblind and the wiki didn't say – sincerely Chipendale.)
Now, Frisk was faced with a problematic problem. Namely, the sunlight shining through the many windows. They didn't particularly feel like being set on fire, so they had to find a way through the hall without stepping in the rays on light. After surveying the hall for a long while and wracking their brain for a way out of this situation (excluding giving up; Frisk hated giving up), they decided to walk in the shadows that the pillars left behind.
They were doing so well, too, before they reached a set of three pillars all after one another. They got cocky because there seemed to be so much shadow, and didn't look where they were going. Of course, that didn't end well and they managed to set their whole arm on fire.
"FUCK! Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!" They chanted as they waved around their arm and tried to put it out in the shadow of the pillars.
Stop swearing, Frisk. Think of the children.
SCREW YOU!
The Hunger probably would've replied with something equally witty and sarcastic, but instead they were interrupted by a soft chuckle.
"you look like you're having fun." Sans said, lounging against a nearby pillar in full sunlight. He was definitely mocking them, something both Frisk and Hunger could agree on. He got up from where he was leaning and walked a bit towards them, putting them on guard. He was now mostly obscured by shadow as well.
"So you finally made it." Sans was using his intimidating voice. "The end of your journey is at hand. In a few moments, you will meet the royal family. We'll see what happens then. Now. You will be judged. You will be judged for your every action. You will be judged for every EXP you've earned. What's EXP? It's an acronym. It stands for 'execution points.' A way of quantifying the pain you have inflicted on others."
Frisk let out a shocked gasp, saying/thinking in an accusatory voice, That's not what you told me, when we checked my stats!
The Hunger was silent as Sans continued. "When you kill someone, your EXP increases. When you have enough EXP, your LOVE increases. LOVE, too, is an acronym. It stands for 'Level of Violence.' A way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt. The more you kill, the easier it comes to distance yourself. The more you distance yourself, the less you will hurt. The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others."
Sans closed his eyes. "…but you. you never gained any LOVE. technically. 'course, that doesn't mean you're completely innocent or naïve. just that you kept a certain tenderness in your heart… possibly. no matter the struggles or hardships you faced… you strived to do the right thing… most of the time. you refused to hurt anyone… sort of.
you never gained LOVE, but you gained love. does that make sense? maybe not. just know that paps and undyne would kill me if i hurt you. well, maybe not kill. but you get what i'm saying.
…now. you're about to face the greatest challenge of your entire journey. your actions here… will determine the fate of the entire world. if you do not fight… monsters will go free on the surface through hard work and plenty of effort. but if you… do something else… monsters will remain trapped underground. what will you do?
…well, if i were you, i would have thrown in the towel by now. but you didn't get this far by giving up, did you? (even though you don't really have a good reason to keep going…) that's right. you have something called 'determination.' so as long as you hold on… so as long as you do what's in your heart… i believe you can do the right thing.
alright. i'm counting on you, kid. good luck." Sans winked and walked back further into the shadows, clearly thinking it looked like he'd disappeared. (It would've worked a lot better if Frisk couldn't see perfectly in the shadows with their night vision.)
They snorted in amusement at the fact that he didn't know his cheap spooky parlour tricks didn't work on them, and started to move on before freezing and sniffing the air. It smelled like a…
Chara quietly slipped away from the annoyingly loud party that the monsters were having in the throne room of the castle to celebrate the anniversary of their arrival. They weren't enjoying themselves for a multitude of reasons, but there were two main ones; they didn't think it was something worth celebrating, and there were too many people. The only reason they'd stayed for a while already was because they had to do a short speech and because there was cake.
The cake was all gone, though, and they'd eaten enough of the other foods that they liked, so they had no good reason to stay. Besides, the new human should be being judged by now…
As they moved out of the throne room and towards the Final Corridor (or, as Chara liked to call it, the Judgement Hall), the sounds of partying slowly decreased until they weren't too loud. After a while they were even able to hear a voice echoing down the long corridor that was the Judgement Hall and coming out the other side, where Chara was. Something about the new human being technically innocent? It was probably easier to understand with context.
The voice stopped and Chara headed closer, trying to see if they could hear anything more or if the judgement was over. After listening for a while and hearing nothing they decided fuck it, why not go in?
And that is how they ended up staring at the person they definitely didn't have a crush on as they sniffed the air and then looked Chara straight in the eyes, with a wicked grin splitting their face open as they murmured "Human." and transformed into a horrifying(ly hot) beast.
FRISK – VAMPIRIC BEAST FORM – ATK 420 DEF 69.
This is not the time for jokes.
Literally eats people like you for breakfast.
R.I.P Chara. Their last thoughts: "Oh wow they look super muscly like this OH WAIT THEY'RE KILLING ME"
(Not actually lol)
(Okay I'm going to bed now bye)