* IC Inbox

[fulllifeconsequences]

Speak.

[Wow okay cool voicemail there Chara. Voice/text/video away to your heart's content.]

Comments

[determinedest]

[Their hands close over Chara's, tightly, a fierce jerk of motion that they think might hurt, must hurt. They don't want to let go, though. They don't want to let go.

Falling first doesn't seem to end well for anyone, much less that other Frisk. It all still ended in blood and dust and pain, didn't it? Asriel still died. The first human was still chained to the eighth's SOUL. There was no escaping it. No escaping fate.

Anyone who would claim that Frisk would not have made Chara's mistakes, that they wouldn't have fallen just as hard and hurt just as much. Shattered the Dreemurrs apart, the spear that drove them all apart, that tore away monsters' hopes and dreams. The future that darkened everything.

* Still just you, Frisk.

They work their fingers between Chara's, folding them over their knuckles, holding them tightly, palm to palm.]

I know. I know.

But it's not...all bad, is it? Sometimes it hurts. But sometimes it - it doesn't.

[And it doesn't hurt as much, when they know someone else is here with them. Someone who understands.]

You're it, Chara. You're the Chara that's always been here, with me. We're partners, right? SOULmates.

That's the best thing I could ask for.

[fulllifeconsequences]

[They stare down at the hands locked around theirs. Still a perfect fit. Like mirror images. Like they were made to hold onto each other. Like a lock that only yields to the one key it was made for, and nothing else.

They focus on the bridge of their conjoined hands. They breathe. They try to let go of whatever has clenched itself around their hollow chest.

Sometimes it doesn't hurt.]

I am happy that you tried to give me this.

[It didn't... work out as planned, ha ha. This pie didn't have butter in it. They wish it could have been more satisfying for Frisk, more fulfilling, a better payoff than a lot of pain. But...]

I'm happy you thought of me.

[They aren't even supposed to be feeling at all, but Frisk still thought of how Chara might have been feeling, didn't they?]

[determinedest]

[Maybe it didn't work this time. But they don't think it doesn't ever have to work, right? Toriel would be happy to teach them, wouldn't she?]

We can try again later.

[They're not giving up on this, and they're not giving up on Chara. It can work, they know it can. With enough determination, you can do just about anything, can't you? And they're not just like any other human. They're Chara. They're special beyond measure.]

Ask Toriel about it, maybe. I think maybe she could...teach you for real.

[You didn't get this far by giving up, did you?]