And we're back, beauties and gentlebeauties. Finally. It's been too long, really. But here we are again, so now it's time to go over the reviews.
Wingah: Damn straight you do. More to come~
EpicSlayerGuy99: We hope to answer all your questions and more in the story proper, but we will say that no, Vinny's not gonna be a rehash of Gatherer, and Maria probably won't be anywhere near as nuanced or interesting as Anarchy is. Unfortunately.
Guest: Yeah, we like Vinny. He's a dick, and he's so fun to write.
With that out of the way, we don't own Undertale, DoubleTale, or the DoubleScramble Sprite Comic. Those belong to Toby Fox, XWolf26, and Wingah.
Let's get this shitshow movin' again, shall we?
The next few days seemed to move by in a blur, as 'one more night' became two, then three as we made ourselves at home. We goofed off with Alphys and watched anime, helped Asgore out with his gardening, and took some time to relax and decompress. We were in the middle of watching some trashy, straight-to-DVD-ass spinoff film for Mew Mew when the topic of how we'd handle the rest of the underground came back up. With eight of the seven needed human souls being present in the underground, the potential for rioting was high. As we sat there on the couch I wasn't trying to tune Alphys' near-manically excited rambling out, but I wasn't exactly a dab hand when it came to parsing such torrents of words. Something she said caught my attention, however, and brought me right back to reality.
"S-Sorry, holdup, could you say that again?"
Alphys blinked and stared at me in surprise. "Wh-Which part? Do you honestly think Bark Bark shouldn't have come back from the dead when Mew Mew cried?" She asked, incredulous.
I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "No, not that, you dork, I meant the bit before that, you said something about cosplaying as Mew Mew?"
Alphys blushed…somehow. I wasn't aware reptiles could do that, but to be fair I wasn't sure that any monster had the blood and skin cells required to properly blush. Shit, how did monster physiolog-damn it focus on the talking dinosaur's words, not her biology! "Y-Yeah, my ex and I u-used to cosplay a lot…" She stammered, her expression a strange cocktail of embarrassment and wistful nostalgia.
Frisk seemed to have tuned back into the conversation at around the same time I did. Their squinty gaze flitted between me and the screen, still flashing with neon colors as a pink-haired catgirl did battle with some suped-up monster of the week. "...there are some monsters that look kinda human…" They absentmindedly mumbled, seemingly forgetting that Alphys was still there. I didn't give her the chance to question their strange comment as I continued.
"Cosplay stuff includes, like, make-up and junk, right? How hard could it be t-"
Alphys cut my suggestion off at the knees as she gasped before launching into another flood of barely comprehensible words. I wasn't sure whether to be grateful that she'd seemingly forgotten what Frisk said, or kick myself for getting her worked up. "OHMYGOSHyoucouldisguiseyourselflikethatonetimeinMewMewandtheCastleofShadowswhereshehadtosneakintotheenemy'sstrongholdasoneofthestaffbutnoneofthemhadcatearssoshehadtohidetheminashawlandpaintoverherwhiskersan-"
"Alphys!" I snapped, before sighing and nodding as she sheepishly trailed off. "Yeah, I was th-thinking of, like, doing some kinda disguise so we could go through without causing a panic."
"I'll go get my stuff!" Alphys replied, scurrying down the hall before Frisk or I could get another word in edgewise. Speaking of which, the enby hadn't stopped staring at me since I'd mentioned cosplay. I fidgeted a bit as I caught the mischievous gleam in their squinted eyes.
"...what evil thoughts are you cooking up in that tiny head of yours?" I questioned with narrowed eyes, before snickering as their evil smirk briefly broke into a pout.
"I'm not tiny, you just hit some weird growth spurt, you friggin' beanpole!" They protested, fixing me with a mock glare...which trailed off into a pensive expression. "How'd you do that, anyways?"
I grimaced and glanced off to the side as I recalled what went down in the True Lab during the final infusion. I shuddered as I thought about how my inner world began breaking down around me when my fragile soul failed to handle the sudden influx of power. "I…I'd rather not talk about it just yet, if that's alright." I sighed.
Frisk's expression sobered up a little after that, and they silently nodded. The sound of Alphys scurrying back towards the living room made them smirk again, and I suppressed a second sigh.
As it turned out, I was right to be nervous. I was quickly roped into an impromptu fashion show courtesy of Alphys' closet, having to run back and forth between the guest room and the living room to show off each ill-fitting outfit. Apparently they'd belonged to Alphys' ex? That at least was better than the alternative, seeing as Alphys' tiny lizard person body did not seem like it'd fit into anything I would, or vice versa.
It wasn't long before Asgore also got roped into Frisk and Alphys' little game, and I was standing in front of a mirror that he'd lugged out of his room. It was the first time I'd seen myself in a mirror since the last run, and I was taken aback at how much I'd changed since receiving Toriel's soul. I was taller, that much had been obvious already, but holy shit. I had to have gained, like, half a foot at least. Instead of looking like some short, emaciated twig person, I had some actual meat on my bones. And curves! Okay, not a lot, but more than I had before, which was practically none. My eyes lingered on my face, and I struggled to figure out what was different before my gaze snapped to my hair. A pair of maroon hair clips were pinning my bangs out of the way of my eyes. When the hell did those get there?
I brushed the strange discovery off and played along with the cosplay shenanigans for another few outfits, striking poses and saying cheesy bullshit or cracking jokes, before getting tired of it all and changing back into my own clothes. Another glance in the mirror made me notice that, for once, my clothes properly fit. Weird. I kinda missed my stuff being a bit oversized, it made them cozy as hell. Eh, I'd get used to it, I guessed as I turned to the assembled group.
"Okay, so, I need an actual disguise to get around, and most of Alphys' stuff doesn't really fit right, or just doesn't seem like we have enough stuff to make it work." I started out, my gaze trailing between Alphys, Frisk, and Asgore.
The big man piped up first. "Perhaps we could paint your face to make you resemble a skeleton, and say your hair is a wig? Though perhaps you'd want to keep your time in Snowdin rather brief, then…" he trailed off, and I nodded. The people of Snowdin saw a skeleton monster every day, so while his idea probably wouldn't work out, it was better than nothing.
Next came Alphys, still hyped up from the impromptu game of dress-up. "Oh, oh, y-you could be Mewmew! Your hair's already pink, and that'd match the cat ear headband, and w-we could sew the tail onto your pants." She suggested, grinning.
Frisk interjected before I could voice my thoughts. "That could work…but I think it needs something else. We could draw on her arms and hands and whatnot to make her look like some kind of possessed doll. Otherwise the limp tail, stiff ears, and drawn on whiskers aren't going to fool anyone." They pointed out.
I blinked in surprise, turning the idea over in my head. I...didn't hate it. As embarrassing as parading around as a catgirl might be, it'd at least be pretty efficient. Cosplaying for a few days straight while working up a sweat dodging attacks sounded like it'd be a nightmare, but I could handle drawing on myself with a grease pen for a few days. I'd done it enough with regular pens in school.
"Any objections?" I asked, glancing between our hosts.
"It sounds like a wonderful idea." Asgore rumbled, smiling as he absently ruffled Frisk's hair. The kid stiffened a bit, but seemed to relax after a moment.
"Y-Yeah, Frisk, good thinking." Alphys gave Frisk a weak thumbs up.
"Then it's settled, we're heading out tomorrow." I concluded before stifling a yawn. It'd been a long day, and I was fuckin' bushed. The others all nodded, and after taking a few minutes to clean everything back up, we all bid each other goodnight.
Chapter Fifteen: Random Encounter
"We're gonna see a human today, and one way or another, we're gonna stop them! I know it!"
The sound of stone scraping against stone was cut off by the Ruins' massive doors slamming shut behind us, the sound echoing through the trees and off the massive cavern wall behind us. No way but forward, now. I looked down at Frisk, receiving a silent nod before we turned back to the path. I could tell from the way their jaw clenched that they were tense, and I had a decent guess as to why.
Snow crunched underfoot as we got moving, and I found myself paying closer attention to the sights and sounds of the forest around us than I had last go-around. It helped that I wasn't rushing to keep up with Frisk this time. The chill wind caused the tree branches to scratch and rake against each other, the sound reminiscent of something desperately scrambling to escape. Whether it was the atmosphere or the cold air making my lungs feel like I dipped them in liquid nitrogen with every breath, I couldn't tell.
We passed by a fairly large tree branch, which we stepped over casually…only to hear it snap in half behind us. Frisk didn't so much as flinch or spare a glance, and I was thankful for my longer stride after I damn near jumped out of my skin and had to rush to catch back up with Frisk. Eventually we began to hear footsteps in the snow behind us, which came to a stop shortly after we did as we came upon a tall, sturdy looking wooden fence blocking a deep pit which bisected the trail.
"Heya. Turn around." A familiar voice ordered from behind us. We complied, and found ourselves face to face with the disheveled wreck that the underground called its hero. "Name's Cter." He introduced himself, his friendly tone and relaxed grin at odds with the intensity of his gaze and the heady feeling of a storm settling in my veins. It was like I could feel his magic threatening to bare down on Frisk like a furious hound yanking at its leash.
"I-I'm Marian, and this is Frisk…though you already knew that, right?" I asked, figuring it'd be better to cut straight to the chase. I could almost see the hole in his chest, and hear Sans' cruel peals of laughter in Frisk's voice. Did he really expect me to just act like nothing happened?
"Dunno what you're talkin' about. You're new around here, right? Why don'tcha go ahead and shake my hand? It's how all the cool kids greet a new pal these days." Cter replied, the smile that failed to reach his eyes refusing to budge as he held out a hand that I could already see dripping ink.
A glance at Frisk's stony expression and tense posture made it clear that they weren't going to take him up on the offer, and I suppressed a sigh as I reached out to accept the handshake. I grimaced as magic ink coated my palm, shaking it off into the snow before Cter absorbed it back up his sleeve with a chuckle that rang hollow. "Sorry 'bout that, just an old gag I felt like dusting off. My roommate doesn't really fall for it much these days."
I rolled my eyes, glancing over at Frisk to gauge their reaction. No dice, they were still practically checked out of the conversation, their face a blank mask. Eugh. I was already exhausted and this conversation had only been going on for, what, not even a minute or two?
*Five paragraphs.
I ignored my less-than-helpful text box's non-sequitur and decided it'd be easier to just roll with Cter's bizarre charade. "No worries. Anyway, you uhhh, mind explaining what's up with the barricade? It's kinda in the way." I jabbed a thumb behind me at the offending structure.
"Oh, that, don't worry about it. In fact, let me just take care of it for ya, and in return you can help me play a prank on my roommate." Cter snapped his fingers, a series of pencils rising from the snow at his command. Ink began to swirl between them, flowing into the shape of a slide as if poured into a mold we couldn't see. As it hardened, a series of keyboard keys formed a ladder leading up to the top of the slide. "I'll be up ahead." He continued, before disappearing with a faint whoosh as displaced air rushed to fill the space he'd previously occupied.
"...th-that…went." I grumbled, heaving a sigh. I already missed the Ruins.
"He's cutting out bits of the script." Frisk noted, their expression torn between confusion and annoyance.
"Script?" I asked, arching a brow as I began to climb up the ladder.
"It's all the same every time, like everyone's reading lines and re-enacting a played-out…uh, play." Frisk trailed off, grimacing. "...it's part of why I gave up on routes like this. It's hard to care about anyone when you know every word that's about to come out of their mouth. I didn't have to hear them for too long the other way…" They confessed, before joining me at the bottom of the slide.
"..." I couldn't think of a response to that, and we trudged along in contemplative silence until we reached a familiar clearing. A snow-covered lamp sat in the middle of it, and nestled in the far corner was a little sentry station, an open laptop left sitting on the counter. Standing in the middle of the road and muttering to themself was…Chara.
I had to grit my teeth and remind myself that, despite their certain demise in the last route, much like Cter they were here, and alive, and I didn't know them yet. That was the part that hurt the most, I realized, as they turned around and jumped when they saw us. Despite their help, and the heartfelt conversation we'd had, they were a stranger again.
They recovered from their moment of shock quickly, crossing their arms and frowning as they stared us down. I didn't catch what they said, but Cter casually strolling up from behind them got me to pay attention again.
"Hey, Chara, have you seen my-"
"Cter!" Chara whirled around and cut their partner off.
"Yeah? What is it?" He asked, his grin looking much more natural now that Chara was around.
"There's a pair of humans!" They shouted as they pointed back at us, causing me to groan and glance down at Frisk, who merely shrugged. Yeah, I should've expected Chara to see through my disguise pretty quick.
"Yeah, I know, we're standing right here." The judge snarked, his grin melting into an amused smirk as Chara stifled a groan and jabbed in our direction again.
"You know what I mean! Look!" I nearly missed what Chara said as my eyes locked onto something approaching us from the woods.
Frisk had to stifle a gasp as I sheared the ink whips that attempted to grab us on instinct, my heart rate spiking for a bit as Cter and I made eye contact. I hadn't even realized I was moving until my magic was responding to the perceived threat, and judging by Cter's flabbergasted expression, he was about as well prepared for that reaction as I was.
"You might need to get your eyes checked, Char-bear. The only other human is standing over by that catgirl thing." The green-eyed judge recovered quickly, winking at me as he gaslit his coworker. Chara pinched the bridge of their nose, and promptly ignored him as they cleared their throat.
"Humans! I…don't actually have anything prepared to say to you…a-and I shouldn't need to say anything to you, because I'm going to capture you and have you sent off to Undyne…so…prepare yourselves!" Chara awkwardly declared, before whirling around and storming off.
"So, uhhh, you kinda didn't play along with the prank…but I think the half-assed Halloween costume thing you got goin' on right now'll work too. You will play along with their traps, right? They're not really gonna hurt ya, and it'd make Chara's day if you did. Sound like fun?" Cter asked, the atmosphere around him feeling less oppressive than it'd been just minutes prior.
I glanced over to Frisk, who silently nodded, before nodding myself. "Sounds like a good time, yeah."
Cter grinned a bit wider, snapping and pointing a pair of finger guns at me. "Great, knew I could count on ya, pal. See ya up ahead." And with that, he vanished.
"...bastard still owes me an explanation of how he does that." I sighed.
"Fat chance he's going to honor that, he's nothing if not committed to the bit." Frisk drawled, idly fiddling with a stick they'd picked up off the ground while we slowly followed the road after Chara. I briefly stopped to brush up against the Save Point as we passed it, and filed my text box's strange message away to ask about later.
*Having a pal like Cter, you can't help but feel a little more Determined. HP fully restored.
When we saw Chara again, they were in the middle of a tense-looking conversation with Cter, which was cut off as the green-eyed sentry spotted us.
"Oh look, a human."
Chara spun on a dime to face us while pushing the button on a little remote like they were a supervillain, causing a cage to spring from the ground around us! It…it wasn't tall enough to properly contain me, so I was left to awkwardly stare at Chara over the bars while Frisk idly drummed their stick against them.
"Aha! See!? I told you it'd work!" Chara crowed, pointing at us while they turned to look at Cter.
"Mostly. Must be Wednesday, I can only be mostly wrong on Wednesdays." Cter joked, resting his chin in the crook of his index finger and thumb in an exaggerated thinking pose.
"Whatever, I'm going to contact Monster Kid, he should know there's a pair of humans in Snowdin." Chara rolled their eyes and turned away with a huff, digging around in their pockets for their cellphone.
"Right, right, and then we're gonna ship the lonely human off to Undyne, right?" Cter drawled.
"Obviously." Chara scoffed.
"Aaand, how are we gonna do that exactly?" Cter asked.
"Can't you just carry them?" Chara arched a brow at their partner.
"Oh come on, I'm not that strong." Cter replied.
"Bullshit, you carried me when we were kids!"
"But that was, like, so long ago…"
"You have a telekinetic pen!" Chara accused, an eyebrow twitching.
"Oh, right, lemme just…whoops, nah, must've left it at home." Cter made a show of rummaging through his pockets, pulling out various pencils, pens, erasers, and miscellaneous bullshit, making a small pile of office supplies before giving up the ghost.
"For the love of- YOU CAN TELE-"
"Uhhh…y'all might wanna hold off on that for a moment. We kinda escaped." I interrupted, grinning cheekily as Frisk and I stood on the other side of the cage.
"...how." Chara's exasperated response didn't exactly sound like a question.
"I hopped the bars, and Frisk just walked out. It's missing a wall." I replied, snickering.
Chara's glare could've melted the snow and set fire to the forest if it wasn't fixed squarely on Cter at that moment. The tired-looking man seemed to realize he was in deep shit, his eyes darting around and seemingly hunting for escape routes.
"Well, uh, that's my cue to go calibrate my puzzles bye." He stammered out all at once before vanishing.
Chara stared at the space their roommate had been in for a few seconds, before nearly pulling their hair out as they screamed into the woods.
"CTER I AM GOING TO RIP AND TEAR YOU APART!"
I burst out laughing as they took off further down the trail in a knife-hand sprint to deliver on their threat, having seemingly forgotten all about Frisk and I.
"They sure are a lively pair." I wheezed, wiping a tear from my eye as I stood back up straight.
"I guess." Frisk replied, unphased by Chara and Cter's antics.
I held back a sigh. Right. Frisk had been there, done that with just about everything in the underground already. That kinda put a damper on things, but I did my best to shrug it off and keep going.
We eventually came to a sentry post of sorts that was shaped more like a doghouse, complete with a dog standing guard and…smoking dog treats? I glanced down at Frisk, who merely put a finger to their lips before pulling out their phone. They typed out a quick text before holding it up for me to see.
[doggo can only see movement. if we stop and start a lot hell give up and assume hes seeing things]
I glanced between the doghouse, the road, and the text, before grinning as I remembered something delightful. I had magic. Without a word I grabbed Frisk, conjured a lance hovering in the air to serve as a grapple point, and latched onto it with a flail. The chain wrapped around the haft and went taught before reeling us in at high speed, sending us careening over the trail where Doggo was watching.
"MARIAN WHAT THE HELL HOW ARE WE GONNA LAND!?" Frisk yelped, clinging to me as I whooped and hollered while we soared.
"Don't worry about it, I've got this!" I reassured them, a manic grin stretching across my face as I conjured a large sword jutting out of the ground at an angle and a shield beneath my feet. As we hit the ramp my knees nearly buckled under the combined weight of myself, Frisk, and our momentum, but I managed to stick the landing and shoot down the ramp at high speed before barreling down the trail on my improvised snowboard.
As we sped down the icy road I managed to spot a familiar face, and offered a cheeky wave as we shot past the shocked sentry. "Hi Cter, bye Cter!"
We eventually slowed to a stop a short ways away from the next trap, and I snickered as Frisk took a few seconds to pry themselves off me and clear their throat. Ink was slathered across the ground in front of Cter and Chara, and as we drew closer I realized that Cter had created a maze in the snow, flanked on either side by sheer cliffs.
"Cter, do you know what Monster Kid will do if he ever found out that…that you were protecting humans?" Chara asked, seemingly not noticing us standing on the other side of the clearing yet.
"Calm down, MK couldn't hurt anyone. He's too much of a-"
"Cinnamon roll? Cter, please, take this seriously."
"Relax, I know what I'm doi-" Cter cut himself off as he noticed us, standing up straight from where he'd been leaning against a wall of pencils and strolling forward while shooting us a finger gun. "Well, speak'a the devil! It's our good pals, the only people called-"
"The humans." Chara interrupted, looking frustrated.
"...there ya go with that two humans thing again, you feelin' alright? Now, like I was saying, it's-" Cter continued, feigning concern.
"Irrelevant. They're humans…that's all that matters…" They cut Cter off again, their teeth gritting.
I let out a sigh, before quickly burying my hurt expression with a smile. Chara didn't know me as anything but a chance to prove themself to Undyne and the rest of monsterkind. Yet.
"Anyways, uh, this one's mine. I made a little maze!" Cter slipped his hands back into his hoodie pockets as he fully turned to face us. "I personally think it's preeetty challenging, but if you just so-"
"Just go through the damn maze already." Chara grumbled.
"Geez, you're a real dick today, ya know that?" Cter huffed.
I rolled my eyes and tried walking straight through the maze of puddles…only for a wall of pencils to rise from the ground in front of me and break my stride. I could hear Cter's voice chiding me from the other side of the wall. "Ah, ah, ah, sorry pal, no cheating!"
I stepped back a bit to look at the maze, before nudging Frisk's shoulder and leaning down to whisper. "Just follow my lead and play it cool."
They arched a brow in confusion, but nodded regardless.
"Alrighty then, we'll just go around." I began to walk to the side and straight off the cliff…and didn't fall. I did my best to school my expression like Frisk usually did, even as I concentrated on conjuring little shields beneath Frisk and I's feet. We casually strolled around the entire maze, before coming to a stop back onto solid ground. Chara momentarily gaped at our brazen disregard for physics, before whirling on Cter. They had a creepy looking smile on their face as they stared into Cter's soul.
"Cter. Can I talk to you in private?" Their tone was clipped and dripping with false cheer.
"Uh…sure, see you two arou-" Cter's nervous expression spoke volumes as he glanced at us before jumping a little as Chara interrupted him.
"Now."
"R-Rightseeyoutwolater." Cter quickly bid goodbye before he and Chara vanished with a pop.
As soon as they were gone, I finally burst out laughing, and was elated to see Frisk similarly losing their shit. It took a good minute or so for us to get the giggles fully out of our system, and I smiled as I looked down the path. Things were hard, sure, but I knew that we'd manage to get through to Chara soon.
"I haven't seen Cter genuinely nervous in a while. He's probably gonna get an earful from Chara for 'helping' us." Frisk pointed out with a snicker, smirking up at me.
I chuckled and nodded. "Probably. Serves him right for playin' dumb. Ready to go?"
"...Yeah." A faint smile remained as Frisk schooled their expression, and I counted that as a win as we moved on.
The next trap came in the form of another nondescript clearing in the forest trail, with Cter lounging on a pair of keyboard keys like a lawn chair. A scrap of paper sat in the middle of the road, and my eyes narrowed as I looked at it.
*What a totally normal thing to see in a clearing. You get the feeling you should give it a look.
I sighed and shook my head as my textbox urged me to go walking into the most blatant trap yet. Ignoring my textbox for now, I instead looked over at Cter as Frisk and I took a few steps into the clearing.
"Still in one piece? Chara looked about ready to snap into you like a Slim Jim." I called out, earning a nervous chuckle from the man.
"Chara's taking a break to cool their head a bit…they're uh, pretty stressed out lately…" Cter trailed off a bit, breaking eye contact before perking back up and continuing on, "But hey, I've got a little puzzle set up for you!"
"...uh huh…" I narrowed my eyes a bit, before sighing and moving towards the page with Frisk in tow. "Alright funnyman, I'll bite…oh, shit…get back here!" The piece of paper was snatched by an inky black tendril, and as I chased after it I heard a loud snapping sound and felt something rush by me and into the sky. Looking up and letting the paper fly off to god knows where, I panicked as I saw Frisk flying higher and higher into the air in some kinda net. "What the hell!?"
"Aha! I TOLD you it would work!" Chara shouted as they leaped onto the scene from…somewhere, and jabbed a finger at Cter.
"Uhhh, hate to burst your bubble but for starters, ya only got one of them, and they're…pretty high up there…" Cter nervously replied, pointing up into the sky.
"What." Chara's tone and expression made it hard to tell if it was a question or some kind of half-baked exclamation while they took a few seconds to try and parse what was happening.
"Bu…wha…how!?" Chara gaped as Frisk continued to ascend within their hempen prison.
"Oh man, I have no clue." I calmed down a bit as I noticed Cter's phoned-in tone and expression. Right, he and Frisk had done this all before, so clearly he had some way of making sure Frisk could walk away from this without becoming a red smear.
Cter proved this hunch right after feigning surprise when the net trap seemed to snap, and gravity once more began dragging both it and Frisk down to earth at alarming speeds. He jumped back and threw an arm to the sky, and both Chara and I had to jump back as well to avoid getting soaked by the geyser of ink he willed into existence. Frisk was engulfed in the pillar of liquid, and by the time it stopped spouting from the earth the teen was left sitting in a murky black puddle that stretched across the clearing and soaked in ink.
"...So…uh, you good? Have fun?" Cter quipped with a smirk.
"There's ink. Where ink should never be." Frisk answered through grit teeth as they dripped with the viscous remains of their salvation.
Chara managed to keep it together for all of five seconds before they burst out laughing, bending over and clutching their sides for a bit. "Ho ho…oh my god…I feel that, Human."
Cter's smirk only grew as he cocked a brow. "Wow, you wanna take a sec and think about that one?"
Chara's face quickly turned a rather brilliant shade of scarlet as they did just that, before groaning and hurrying across the inky pond. "Aaaand the moment's gone, you ruined it! I'll be up ahead!"
I snickered to myself while Cter absorbed all the leftover ink, leaving Frisk no worse for wear than they'd been at the start of the strange incident. He vanished with a jaunty wave as soon as the deed was done, and Frisk and I once again set off.
"That must've scared ya shitless the first time, huh?" I asked Frisk, earning a little nod.
"Kinda, yeah. I wasn't really ready for most of the strange stuff Cter pulled, and Sans kept me pretty distracted when I wasn't right in the middle of another one of their traps."
"What was Sans like, anyways? Before all of…well, this." I gestured to myself and the area around us.
Frisk's expression looked incredibly guilty as they replied, "He was…funny, and cryptic. He always knew something I didn't, and supported me when I needed it. He wasn't a bad guy…"
I sighed and brought Frisk in for a hug without thinking about it, and the ruminating enby stiffened a bit. "He might not have started as a bad dude, but people change. He made just as many shitty decisions as you did, and beating yourself up over it's not gonna fix anything. You gotta focus on the present, and the future, ya know? Let the past stay in the past."
Frisk seemed to cheer up a bit, or at least tried to force a smile and nod. "R-Right…"
I smiled back, patting them on the back before gesturing forwards. "Well, let's not keep our 'new pals' waiting any longer, shall we? If we're lucky, maybe we can fuck with 'em like we did with the maze, eh?" This earned me a snicker and a more natural looking smile, and I took that as another small victory as we moved on ahead.
Frisk and I came across Chara in another clearing on a narrow-ish cliff, standing in front of…a massive pile of green leaves. I took a second look around at the pine trees surrounding us, their snow-laden branches bristling with dark green needles, and resisted the urge to heave a sigh. This…this was just so obvious it was kinda sad.
"Oh! It's you two." Chara greeted us with a faint smile on their face for once.
"Hey now, they've got names, y'know." Cter chided as he suddenly appeared right next to Chara and startled them.
"Cter! Where have you b-...whatever, we'll talk later. Humans, could you come over here real quick?" Chara's expression morphed into a much more neutral, mildly annoyed look. They seemed to wear it a lot when Cter was around.
*You get the feeling that you should tapdance on that nondescript carpet of leaves. Winky face.
I shared a glance with Frisk, before holding back another sigh and nodding. "Fuck it, sure!" I exclaimed with feigned cheer as I strolled forwards, over-exaggerating the entire walk like I was part of some cartoon from the '30s. Frisk and I slowly stopped in the center, and I looked down at the ground in confusion. Was…was there no trap? Was that the gag here?
"Cter, I swear to god if you're behind this-" Chara turned to stare daggers into their partner.
"I didn't do it this time! I swear." Cter reassured while refusing to look Chara in the eye.
"...this…this cannot be happening…" The frustrated enby groaned as they walked over to the suspicious leaves, before beginning to stomp on it furiously. "Come on! Work damn you, wo-"
Something gave way with a loud snap as Chara's boot slammed into the snow-covered ground beneath us, and their cries of rage melted into a shocked and confused yelp. As I felt the ground fall out from underneath me, I caught a glimpse of Cter vanishing with a wink, before the rest of us plummeted deeper into the earth. A shaft of light from the hole in above us provided the only illumination, glittering off rows of frozen stalactites like razor-sharp teeth and frost-covered walls of rough stone.
I groaned and blinked stars out of my eyes as I sat up, brushing a bit of snow and fake leaves out of my hair before adjusting my cat ear headband. "Everyone in one piece?" I asked while taking a look around the cave, spotting Frisk climbing to their feet and rubbing their back while Chara turned to look at me.
Chara stared at me as if seeing me for the first time, and I wondered if I had something on my face before their gaze snapped to something else nearby. "Oh, shit!"
I arched a brow before feeling something small skitter onto my hand. My skin crawled and I hastily clambered to my feet, all the air evacuating my lungs in an awful combination of a wheeze and a whimper as I beheld the tide of eight-legged monstrosities that had slowly begun to encroach on our spotlit position.
"CTER! GET US OUT OF HERE! NOW!" Chara's order seemed to fall on deaf ears, and I had to fight the urge to lash out with my magic as panic began to set in. I fucking hated spiders.
"Oh for f-" Chara groaned while I was busy freaking the fuck out.
"Aw helllllll nonononononononononononon-" My desperate mantra did little to ward off the tiny, inky little nightmares.
"Oh, you're going to hate Hotland." Chara chuckled, before hauling me towards the edge and leaping to a less infested lower path, with Frisk hot on our heels.
I let out an explosive sigh and nervously brushed off my clothes and hair, unzipping my hoodie and shaking it out with a shudder while Chara took charge of the situation. "I'll take point. You two stick close behind and be ready to act. If I'm right about these things, then they're stubborn."
We kept our eyes peeled as we made our way down the frozen tunnel, the sound of gravel and ice chunks crunching beneath our boots echoing strangely off the walls and ceiling. Frisk didn't really look like they were paying much attention as they walked alongside us on auto-pilot, but I figured they'd be fine. The sound of something dripping caught my attention, and as I looked up I realized it wasn't water.
A few globs of ink splashed onto the ground in front of us, wriggling strangely as a television screen of all things began to lower itself out of the shadows above us. It was partially sunken into a mass of ink, and despite having no clear power source, it displayed a bright red smiley face on a black background. As soon as it 'saw' us, it began to writhe and undulate strangely as a pen and pencil sprouted from the mass to serve as arms. The second we all locked eyes with the thing, I could feel the world close in around us, as our souls appeared on our chests.
*The inkling drips into battle.
A copy of Tournesol filled my hands while I stared at the ink creature with narrowed eyes, trying to puzzle out just what I was even looking at. Was this thing a monster? Whatever it was, it wasn't about to sit there patiently while I pondered its existence, instead launching a squadron of paper airplanes at us while pens burst from the ground at random to box us in. We all dodged around the pens with ease, and I sliced a few paper planes in half while Chara and Frisk stuck to the tried and true method of dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge.
Chara tried to close the distance while swerving and ducking around more razor-sharp pens and planes, reaching out for something on the Inkling's screen before getting slapped away by a tendril of ink. They tried reaching out again, only to be forced to backpedal by a line of pens that rose from the ground to skewer them.
"Hey, tall, dark, and inky! I bet you couldn't hit me with my eyes closed!" Frisk taunted from somewhere off to my left, and I could see the screen tilt towards them as the pace of the attacks began to pick up. Shit. A barrage of giant erasers erupted from the thing's amorphous body, nearly taking our heads as Frisk and I ducked. We took cover behind a conjured greatshield as another bombardment of erasers began, and the force of each impact made my body vibrate and my teeth grit.
Eventually the erasers stopped coming, and I peeked around the shield to see Chara was crouched behind the now lifeless screen of the Inkling. I quickly let the sword and shield I'd conjured vanish before they stepped out from behind it to wave us over.
*Oh, hey, you won, look at that.
"Are you two okay?" Chara's gaze trailed up and down our bodies, scanning for injuries as we approached.
"I'm pretty sure we're good, right?" I glanced over at our shorter companion, who silently gave a thumbs up.
"Alright then, we need to keep moving." Chara turned and began marching with purpose down the tunnel, with myself and Frisk in tow.
"So…uhhh, how exactly did you and Cter end up livin' down here anyways?" I asked, slipping my hands into my pockets while we walked.
"Oh…well, like everyone, I climbed Mount Ebott…and fell down…" Chara frowned as they continued, "Some…stuff…happened, and Cter and I ended up moving in together."
"Huh, that must get exhausting after a while, dude seems pretty keen on fuckin' around with people." I replied, only to get a slight chuckle from the tall enby.
"It's…not as bad as it seems, thankfully enough…since I'm not allowed to live anywhere else…" They trailed off, looking distinctly uncomfortable with where the conversation was going. I took the hint and let the conversation die for a bit. Thankfully enough another ink thing appeared before the silence could get too drawn out or uncomfortably awkward. This one rose from the ground and sported a pair of smiling and frowning screen faces, as well as a keyboard protruding from its blobby body.
*It's the weakest ink.
"This one's got more attacks, keep your eyes peeled!" Chara ordered as soon as our souls appeared on our chests. Their advice came not a moment too soon as a torrent of typewriter keys came flying at us. The attack was mostly centered on Chara, who dodged between the keys with seemingly practiced ease. I ran up and tried to take a swing at it while its attention was elsewhere, only to let out a yelp and nearly fall on my ass as I jumped out of the way of a massive space bar that tried to crush me.
*Watch out for the space bar, btw
I groaned and did my best to not get mulched by more keys while my textbox mocked my brush with death. I conjured a shield to block a more concentrated burst of keys, each one ricocheting off the shield and making my arm feel like it was being suckerpunched ad nauseum . A glance off to the side made it very clear that someone in this fight had some strange priorities, as Chara was busy fucking around with some paper fortune-teller thing.
"Reading this doesn't seem like the best use of your time." They read aloud, while Frisk and I carved our way through another few squadrons of paper planes with a pair of conjured arming swords.
"Gee, ya think!?" I snarked, stifling a groan as Chara ran up and hugged the inky monstrosity, only to get soaked in ink and sluggishly dodge through another hail of keys.
*Maybe something else is the key?
I had no idea what my textbox was getting at, but Frisk had the answer as they rushed up to the beast, dodging through a storm of keys and pens to…begin typing an essay? What the hell? Whatever they did, it seemed to make the faces on the screens blush, and the lines of pens that rose from the ground didn't come with the same ferocity the rest of the assault had. I sidestepped and chopped up a few more half-hearted attacks before they slowed to a stop, and it slithered off into parts unknown after Chara spared it. They heaved a sigh of relief, mopping a bit of ink and sweat from their brow as they turned towards us.
"Wow, you handled that super well, I wouldn't have thought of a solution like that…" They praised Frisk with a smile, before turning towards me and clicking their tongue. "...and you should consider paying a bit more attention to the enemy before blindly rushing in guns blazing. You could've seriously injured someone."
"..." My response died in my throat as they scolded me, and I grit my teeth as Frisk snickered. As we pressed on, I found my voice again. "...you've run into these things before, haven't you?"
"Yes, now drop it, Human." Chara's tone was clipped.
"R-Right, right, sorry…" I sheepishly obliged.
We walked in silence for a bit, our steps echoing strangely off the cave walls.
"Hey…it's…starting to feel wrong to keep calling you both "Human"...what're your names?" Chara eventually broke the silence, and I smiled brightly as they turned around to look at us.
"I'm Marian, and the shortstack's Frisk." I grinned and tousled the kid's hair, and smirked as they shot me a nasty look while they fixed it.
"Marian and Frisk…those are nice names." Chara smiled, and we moved on once more. Eventually, the path cut off at a ledge which fed into a large, strangely spacious chamber.
"...If this room screamed "Boss Fight" any louder, I'd probably go deaf." I joked as we hopped off the ledge and made our way inside.
"Ha, you'll do just fine down here...now, where is it…?" Chara glanced around the room expectantly, while I followed Frisk's gaze towards the wall behind Chara…and felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end when a giant screen slowly descended into view. Its eyes and mouth looked almost carved into the screen as they dripped some red substance, and its pair of massive inky arms seemed ready to reach out and crush us between thick, wickedly sharp pencil claws.
"I uhhh…I think we found it." I choked out, pointing at the looming threat.
"...Oh." Chara gulped, bracing themself as the fight began.
*Error. File: not found.
"Oh come the fuck on!" I shouted in exasperation as I dodged out of the way of a stick of graphite the size of a telephone pole, the mechanical pencil it'd fired from tracking my movement as it fired another one before vanishing.
"I don't know what that thing is, be on the lookout! I don't know what it can do!" Chara shouted, and I barely heard them over the sound of bones breaking as the second graphite beam clipped my arm. I stifled an agonized scream and rolled to the side to avoid a set of F keys that slammed into the ground where I'd just been crouching.
"D-Damn it!" I snarled, jumping out of the way of a giant pencil as it nearly flattened me, only to gasp as an inky spike erupted from the ground aimed right at my head. I barely had time to conjure a shield, and was sent reeling as more pain coursed through my broken arm.
"Hey! Leave her alone!" Chara shouted, managing to steal the behemoth's focus for a few precious seconds. I sucked down an energy drink, the only one I had left after the final bout with Frisk before the Reset, and grimaced as my bones set themselves and healed. A pair of shadows looming over me was all the warning I had to get the hell out of the way as two massive pencils nearly crushed me. I grit my teeth and seethed as a hail of typewriter keys tore into me while I staggered out of the way of another beam of graphite.
My HP was dwindling. My inventory was empty. My blood was boiling. I felt my magic surge and roil inside my veins as I narrowly avoided being skewered by another patch of pens. I rolled under a pencil that nearly took my head, my teeth gritting so hard that I swore I could hear the bones creak. The sound of Chara calling out to me barely registered as I was shredded by a torrent of keyboard keys and staggered back.
Enough. Was. "ENOUGH!" I screamed, throwing an arm to the ceiling. The ground rumbled briefly before crumbling around a massive blade that rose from it to pierce the beast from below. I clenched the fist I held aloft, and another blade grew from the first. And then another, and another after that, until its entire body was riddled with magicked steel like a grotesque metal tree with ink and glass fruit.
The beast shuddered and twitched, and the hail of attacks ceased. My heart pounded like a drum inside my chest as I climbed to my feet. I glanced over towards Frisk…only to stiffen as I stared down the barrel of a busted up six-shooter. Before I even realized what I was doing, I was holding Tournesol in a white knuckled grip, leveling it at them as if to issue a challenge. Sunlight gleamed wickedly off the tip of my sword, and I could feel water seeping into my boots as we glared at each other from across the-
"What the hell are you doing!?" Chara's voice echoed off the walls, which were distinctly not made of carved amber stone, but rough rock and ice. The cold, wet feeling in my boots was snow, and the gun pointed at me was not held by steady, battle-hardened hands, but the trembling ones of a child I'd promised to support. I felt sick to my stomach as Tournesol disappeared in a burst of embers and pixels. Neither I nor Frisk had an answer for Chara, who was standing between us and glaring at me.
"I won't ask again." Chara coldly stated, and I couldn't look them or Frisk in the eye as I stammered out a reply.
"I-I didn't…I wasn't…I-I…" Chara scoffed at my inability to answer, before turning towards Frisk, taking care to keep their hands visible and their movements slow as they approached the trembling teen.
"It's alright, Frisk, the fighting's over…just, hand me the gun, and we can all talk this out, alright? Nothing's going to happen to you while I'm here." They gently assured, smiling as Frisk's death grip on the revolver slowly eased up, and they allowed Chara to pull it from their hands. The sentry stashed the gun in their inventory, looking between the two of us in a combination of disbelief, confusion, and agitation.
"Nothing about this is making any sense. I need answers. Now."
*You really screwed the pooch on this one, chief.
And scene. Here's the part where shit gets real interesting again, as one event changes the entire course of a run. Feels like just yesterday that Frisk was wearing Cter's heart on their sleeve. Ta ta for now, folks. Please remember to drop a review if you've got the time, and favorite and follow the story if you want to be awoken in the wee hours of the morning by a carrier pigeon bearing a tiny scroll of parchment informing you that, no, the torrential downpour of felines and canines isn't the end of the world, it's just another chapter of DoubleTime.
Edit (11/22/23): Went back and touched up a few small things with this chapter alongside a few others, as well as porting the other revisions that made it in when we ported DoubleTime to Archive of Our Own. Hope y'all enjoy.
TiredWhiteMayge out.