A New Friend

True to her word, Susie met Frisk at lunch. Susie was watching them carefully, trying to get a read on how they were doing after the appointment. It was unfortunate that Frisk has a resting poker face. The two ate most of their lunch in silence.

Instead of finishing off her candy right away, Susie started twirling a piece around her fingers. "So, how was the session?"

Frisk blinked, "It was good I think? I showed Lundy the letter and she said it was fine. Then she asked me a bunch of yes or no questions and got me to bounce balls while telling jokes. Then I talked about my time with Toriel. It wasn't what I expected."

Susie hummed, "Cool." She stopped playing with the candy in her hand and stared at it for a moment. She picked up every piece from her tray and shoved them all in her mouth at once. Two bites later, it was gone. "So you're still up for going to Kade's room? Hurry up then. I don't have all day to wait for you."

They decided to leave what was left on their tray in favour of following Susie immediately. The two went back to their room and Frisk grabbed the folded clothes from beside their bed. Susie then quickly led them to the boys' rooms. They stopped in front of a door with a sign reading "Keep Out."

"Doesn't this mean we should leave him alone? Maybe we could talk to him at supper instead?" Frisk asked.

"Nah. Just knock and he'll let you in. As long as you don't mess around and barge in whenever it suits you like Sumi does, you'll be fine." Susie answered. She let out a huff and raised her hand to wave as she turned to leave. "That's my job done. See you later."

As Susie walked away, Frisk took a deep breath and tried to settle their nerves. Knocking wasn't so bad. If Kade wanted to be left alone, he could just ignore it or tell them to come back later. No big deal. Frisk rationalized the anxiety down until they hardly felt it anymore. Then they quickly knocked a few times on the door.

After a few seconds, they heard Kade answer. "Who is it?"

"Frisk."

"Ah, come in then. I'll help you in a moment."

Frisk entered his room and shut the door behind them. Kade was sitting in a comfortable chair reading a book. They couldn't make out the title from where they were, and they weren't about to interrupt him while he was reading. They could understand the need to finish the page or chapter or whatever to stop in a good place. They could wait for him.

Instead, they looked around his room. He had a neat bookshelf, but it was only half full. There were piles of books on the floor in front of the shelves. Perhaps he was reorganizing them earlier? There was a sewing desk in the corner of the room and an extra set of drawers with labels on it.

Kade turned a page in his book and stuck a bookmark in before closing it. "Thanks for waiting. So what's up? Has someone been giving you crap?"

Frisk shook their head and held up the clothes. "Susie brought me here because my mom sent extra clothes that I'm never gonna wear."

"I see. Good." Kade commented, "Were you looking for an exchange? I don't know if I have anything in your size. Most people come here older and bigger than you. If you want me to alter something, it might cost you, depending on how much you brought and how much you need."

They shook their head again, "I was hoping to get credit. I have lots of stuff I can wear until I grow more, so I wanted to trade these in so someone else can use them sooner."

"Very thoughtful of you. That's not a problem. I'll put you in my book for… looks like four articles in the future, assuming no alterations." Kade scribbled the information into a small notebook that he got from his sewing desk drawer. "Other than this clothing mishap, have you been enjoying your time here so far?"

"Yeah. It's been nice here," Frisk said, "It's the first time I've been at a school where people don't pick on me and I don't need to worry about my homework being ruined or my lunch being stolen. Even if this school had normal kids instead of people like us, I think I'd still like it a lot."

"We don't use language like that here. Don't got saying what's normal or not, or if someone's crazy or feral or anything like that. That language doesn't apply here. Everyone has their own problems and their own circumstances." Kade warned, "It's good to hear that people are respecting you, though."

"Sorry. I didn't know." Frisk said. They stared hard at the floor. How could they screw up like this after just a couple of sentences? They took a quick glance at the door, wondering if they should just leave.

"Just be careful and don't do it again." Kade said, watching them. "If you have somewhere to be, I won't keep you. If you want to stay and talk for a bit, I don't mind. You're not behaving like most of the other Nonsense kids when they get bored."

Was it really safe to stay? Or was this some kind of test? They weren't sure if they were supposed to leave to stop being a nuisance or if they were supposed to stay and talk like a nor- like a person who didn't travel to other worlds.

They decided to be brave and ask a question. "What do Nonsense kids usually do?"

Kade nodded to his bookshelf. "One of them decided that my life was too dull, since I spend a lot of time reading. She thought it would make my life more interesting to show up and pester me. When she got tired of that, she decided to be helpful and reorganize my bookshelf for me."

"At least she was trying to be nice?" They asked.

"By colour."

"Oh." Frisk couldn't help the small twitch of their lips as they thought about how ridiculous it was to sort books by colour, even if it made sense in a strange way. "Is that better or worse than organizing them alphabetically by the last letter in the title?"

Kade pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head, "Lord you really are one of them."

Frisk giggled a bit, "I'd never do that. Besides, I quite enjoy reading. I feel your pain."

"That's the problem. You totally could do it. You'd be reading the titles, and that's something you might enjoy." He smirked.

They felt the tension leave them as they allowed themselves to laugh a little. Kade didn't seem to be upset with them about anything. Hopefully this meant that their words were forgiven. They hoped he wouldn't use this against them in the future.

"While you're here, do you mind telling me a bit about the Underground?" Kade asked them. He took another notebook off his desk. This one was bigger and looked well used. "I have anecdotes and a few written records from Lundy and Aunt Eleanor pertaining to two others who went to the Underground. Looks like… Simone and Natasha? Their notes are fine, but I'd rather hear about it from someone who was there, rather than second hand stories."

Frisk nodded. This was a safe topic. "Susie told me that you like stories and stuff to do with the Compass." They gave a quick outline of their adventures, skipping past all the bad things and focusing on the fun stuff.

Kade noticed that they were clearly omitting things, "I know you're not saying everything, and that's fine. You probably have your reasons. What I'm most curious about is how the Underground works. You say that most of the food is made of magic? Where does the magic come from? Is it something that all monsters can do? If it took you a week to walk through the Underground, do you think it's really underneath a mountain like the monsters seem to believe? Or might it be farther underground? And are there really so many radically different biomes in such close proximity?"

The questions were overwhelming. Frisk thought they got the gist of his questions and tried to answer them, "I don't really know much about all of that," they shrugged, "As far as I can tell, all monsters can use magic but not all of them can make magic food. Maybe they could learn though? I don't know. The robot monster had a cooking show though, so probably? And I don't know about the biome stuff. There are lots of monsters in all shapes and sizes, so doesn't it make sense that there's a part of the Underground that suits them best? I don't understand why the skeletons were in the snowy area instead of somewhere less extreme? That didn't make sense, but maybe it's because cold can't affect them without skin and muscles and stuff.

"And space didn't really work the same down there either. Lots of caves in Waterfall should have met up with each other but didn't, or they should have gone in opposite directions, but you would end up where you were going either way. And then there's the Riverperson and their boat. I used their service twice to go from Hotland to Waterfall and back. When we left Hotland, the boat started going in the wrong direction, but then a moment later, the boat had stopped in Waterfall. When I went from Waterfall back to Hotland, instead of turning around, the boat went in the same direction and after the same amount of time, we were back at the Hotland station. There was even a looping room in the Ruins with switches behind pillars. It definitely should have crossed itself or spiralled inward or something, but space doesn't seem to work the same way in the Underground as it does on Earth.

"Why can't two things be in the same place at the same time? If they can disguise it properly, anything can be anywhere!"

Kade scribbled some things in his notebook, "Must be part of the Virtue in the Underground. I would imagine that the monsters could expand the Underground infinitely that way, if their magic is what stabilizes it. Or maybe I'm trying to force Reason into a place that doesn't require it."

"Can you tell me about your world? What's a Logic world like? Do you think you can find your way back?" Frisk asked.

For a moment, Kade stopped writing. He quickly finished writing his thoughts before looking back at Frisk, "I went to a Fairyland called Prism. The fairies of Prism are very careful when selecting candidates to bring to their world. From what I understand, the selections are so perfect that no one ever returns. Until me, we had no details about Prism, other than identifying its space on the Compass. Even with no details, we could tell a world was there because that portion of the compass was suspiciously empty.

"I'll never return though." Kade admitted. He didn't seem upset about it, just resigned. "When I killed the Goblin King for the Court of the Rainbow Princesses, he named me the Goblin Prince in waiting. Once the Court heard the news, they threw me down the nearest wishing well and I ended up back on Earth. No time had passed here, though I spent three years fighting for them."

"Didn't they want you to fight the Goblins though?" Frisk asked.

"It wasn't about defeating their enemy," Kade shook his head slowly and gave a self-deprecating smirk, "I was cast out because I wasn't what they wanted me to be. Ironic, right? They won't take me back because I'll never be a princess."

Frisk stayed quiet. That was a familiar feeling.

"So… Does that mean…?" They stared. It felt weird to ask him if he was born a girl like they were.

"I was born as Katie Bronson, but my name is Kade West. My parents don't want me back unless I become their little girl again. I suppose you can relate?" Kade asked.

Frisk nodded, "They were gonna send me to a conversion camp when I ran away. That's when I fell into the Underground. Even now, they don't believe me. The Underground was good to me that way. No one asked for my name, and everyone called me 'human' or 'child' or something like that. I was never a girl, I was just a kid."

"It didn't bother you that no one would use your name?"

"Not really. I didn't like the name my parents gave me, and now, I can't even remember it." Frisk said, "I noticed the first night in the Underground. I tried to whisper my name into a mirror, but I couldn't hear any sound. As I stayed, I quickly forgot what it was. I decided to call myself Frisk on my last day there. When I came back to Earth, I learned that I couldn't hear my old name at all anymore or read it either. It's not part of me anymore, so I quite literally can't react or respond to it. It got me in trouble at school a few times because the teachers thought I was ignoring them."

Kade whistled softly, "I don't know whether that's a blessing or a curse. Pretty strange though. Is that related to your eyes somehow? My aunt mentioned that they were once a different colour."

"I dunno." Frisk admitted. "It could be? I was supposed to have some sort of magic from my time in the Underground. When I wrote to the others, they all agreed since they got powers when they were there. Having red eyes or not hearing certain things doesn't make sense for someone with a red soul, though. Those would be closer to a cyan soul, I think. Red souls should be able to change things, not just themselves. That's what I don't understand."

"Oh, now this is interesting," Kade picked up his pencil again, "There was very little about soul colours and human magics mentioned in the previous entries. What do you know about souls and magic in from the Underground? And how did you learn about yours?"

Frisk could see a pale orange sparked from Kade's chest. It made them curious what kind of magic he might have. He seemed fairly reserved for someone who had an orange soul, but their knowledge was far from extensive. They gave a quick summary of soul colours and the categories of magic that was usually associated with them, "Monsters would pull my soul out when we entered a fight, so I was able to see it and learned to control its movement. I can also see other people's souls sometimes. I don't know why. It doesn't make sense for that to be my magic either, because it's not changing anything," they explained.

"So whose souls have you seen? And what colours? Maybe if we keep track, we can find a pattern." Kade suggested.

"Makes sense." Frisk nodded, "Eleanor and Susie both have green souls. I saw the candy girl's soul and the rainbow runner girl's souls too. They're yellow and blue in that order. And right now… I can see a little bit of colour from yours too. It's orange."

"Fascinating."

Frisk paused a moment before continuing, "It's supposed to be coincidence, but when I wrote to Tash, she said that she believes what most monsters do about soul colours being related to personalities or qualities. I can't say much, but I think Susie and Eleanor having kind souls makes sense. Yellow is for justice, blue is for integrity, orange is for bravery, and red like me is supposed to be determination."

Kade quickly made some notes about that before responding. "I'll take your word for it about Susie being kind. I haven't spent much time around her. But my aunt and the other two, I can say that the characterizations are accurate. Not sure I'd call myself brave though, but perhaps it's something best seen from an outside perspective."

"But you were able to defeat the Goblin King! What's not brave about that?" Frisk exclaimed.

"It was war. There wasn't much time for feelings. Everyone did as they were told. Bravery wasn't a part of the equation." He explained. Frisk was starting to doubt that his world was supposed to be on the Virtue direction. Lundy said something about semantics when explaining it, but they still didn't really understand.

"I don't see myself as determined either." They admitted.

Kade disagreed. "You stood up for your identity and told your story trying to find people who would believe you. You didn't compromise, and you ended up here. That's determination if I've ever heard it."

"Then why isn't everyone here a red soul?" Frisk asked.

"You tell me. This souls stuff is from the Underground, after all. Besides, you said that the characteristics were coincidental. Maybe it doesn't mean anything at all." Kade replied.

Frisk hummed. What if it really was coincidental? The Underground was a nonsense world, so things about it didn't have to make sense. But at the same time, there were reasonable, if nonsensical, explanations for most things there. King Asgore said that there was the reasoning for a soul's colour was based on power efficiency, but Tash said that Toriel taught her about the related traits.

In that case, was it random? Were soul colours genetic? Or did a soul gain colour over time, with babies being pale or white or black or some other non-colour? Or was it some strange mix of everything because the reason didn't matter? People were people and their soul colour doesn't change who they are. It's just something about them that can identify them.

"I think maybe you're right. It's so many things at once that it's not really anything at all." Frisk commented.

Kade huffed as he smiled, "Definitely a Nonsense kid." He closed his notebook and put it away. "That's probably enough questioning for now. If you want a place to read, feel free to come back. Or when you need those new clothes. Until then, I'm sure you've got better things to do."

Frisk nodded. They had letters to draft, plans to make, and plenty to practice before they find their way back to the Underground.

"When I go back, I'll make sure to learn a lot about it for you. Then I'll find a way to tell you all about it."

Without waiting for a reply, Frisk quickly left Kade's room and decided to spend their afternoon outside. They'd spent all morning inside, and the past couple of hours doing nothing but talking. They needed a body break.

The sun was a bit brighter than they would have liked, so they decided to run around the treeline again. Improving their footwork and body control by trying not to step on any roots or trip was something, even if it's not a perfect way to prepare for returning. They could only hope that improving their physical abilities would somehow translate to their control over their soul too. In any case, they'd need to stay in shape if Undyne continued hunting them.

After about thirty minutes of running around the trees and trying to increase their speed, they had to take a break. Running around took a lot of energy. Frisk sat with their back against one of the larger trees and watched the weapon-girls doing stances on the lawn. Susie was there too, and the other girls were giving her a wide berth.

Even from a distance, it was clear that Susie was very skilled with her axe. The way she moved between stances so easily, and held the weapon steady and away from her center, it was amazing. It wasn't like she had huge muscles or anything, but her arms were very well defined and her legs kept her as balanced as a rock.

If they could ever be as cool as her, they might even be proud of themselves. It was clear that Susie spent a lot of time training and perfecting her skills with an axe. No wonder she said that they couldn't join her for practice. She outclassed them. The difference was so huge that Frisk didn't know if they'd ever make it to her skill level.

Maybe when they grew a bit, they could try a larger weapon. As long as they were still a kid, knives would have to do. In their first weapons class, the girl helping them made sure to tell them about the risks of strength training too young. At least until puberty starts, they should stick to lighter and easier training methods. Weights and heavy weapons had the chance to injure them severely and permanently if they tried to do too much.

For now though, they could be satisfied with cardio and lightweight weapons. It's not like the underground had any large weapons available for them anyways. Frisk just wanted to feel like a badass. Maybe it wasn't a good reason for wanting to learn to wield a large weapon, but it was their reason.

Maybe if they were enough of a badass, people would stop caring so much about whether they were supposed to be a girl or a boy. They aren't either of those things. They'd just be a badass. Until then, they needed to work their way up to that. It was kind of like grinding in a video game, but in real life.

Frisk stood up and went back to dodging roots. They tripped a couple of times when they tried to go too fast, but were still mostly successful in their practice.

As they took their time cooling down and stretching, they had a thought. Could they pull out their own soul and practice using it too? They could see the glows from other people's souls, and they even tried to pull Susie's out once. Since they were banned from pulling out other people's souls without permission, they could always try with their own.

They knew what it was supposed to feel like. Enough time was spent trying to spare and run from monsters to know what their soul felt like outside their body. When they focused really hard, they could kind of feel it in their chest. It wasn't beating like their heart, but it did feel like it was radiating some kind of energy. Maybe that was their magic?

If it was their magic, it was weird that they didn't feel it in their eyes. Instead, it felt kind of spread out all over their body. They weren't trying to control it or anything, so maybe that's just how magic was supposed to be.

When they were focused entirely on their soul, they gave it a nudge. To their surprise, it moved. They shouldn't have been surprised. They'd moved their soul before and they were attempting to do it again.

Frisk couldn't help but grin. Maybe they weren't Underground, but this was proof enough for them that their magic was real and that they could use it. If they could move their soul, then they could eventually figure out what their magic actually is.

For practice, Frisk tried walking to the dining area while keeping their soul just a few inches in front of them. They walked slowly and made sure to keep some distance between themselves and anyone in front of them. It didn't look like other people could see their soul, and they knew how much it hurt when stuff hit it. Even so, they pride when they made it to the dining area with no mishaps.

They pulled their soul back into their chest. Strangely, they didn't feel tired from the magic they must have been using to move their soul around. They thought they'd notice a bit of strain or something, but it was as if they hadn't been doing anything at all. Maybe that was the power of a red soul? Something about them being super efficient at magic or something like that.

Susie didn't show up to dinner while they were there, so they figured they'd tell her about the discovery later. If nothing else, Frisk was well aware of just how much Susie valued her axe time. They could see themselves becoming equally enamoured with their own soul.

Back in their room, Frisk decided to start writing notes. They took out three pieces of paper and a pencil and started jotting their thoughts down. One page for their Underground plan, one page for notes on their soul, and one page for what to write in Susie's letter. She could find a Dark Fountain any day, so they needed to get her letter done sooner than later.

As they were writing, they reflected a bit on their time in Kade's room. He seemed like a pretty decent guy. And his orange soul was pretty unique. They hadn't seen any orange souls yet. Come to think of it, they hadn't seen any cyan souls yet either. Maybe it was because kids who travel to other worlds care little for waiting. There were probably other orange souls among the students, but they were less sure about cyan souls.

Maybe when they found a hole back to the Underground, they could leave Kade their notes instead of a letter. He seems like the kind of guy who prefers content and results over superfluous things like sappy letters that talked about feelings or whatever they might say to him.

With notes written and an outline jotted out, Frisk decided that they had done enough work for the day. They were lounging in their bed and practicing moving their soul about when Susie returned. They smiled wide and started to talk when Susie cut them off.

"Sorry Frisk, I'm really not feeling up to talking right now. About anything."

"Oh, okay." They said with some disappointment. They'd just have to tell her about their soul tomorrow.

When Susie went to bed, Frisk snuck over to their desk and added a couple of points to their outline for Susie's letter.