Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chara felt something. One moment, they had been nothing, the next they became something. What that something was, they didn't know.

But it hurt.

They opened their eyes, which were dark red and full of an unidentifiable emotion. Chara took a deep breath, despite the fact that they hadn't been breathing for several minutes, and obviously didn't have to.

The only explanation was that they were a ghost now. They had died, after all.

Chara sat up, taking in their surroundings. A strange figure was curled up against the wall. It was making noises.

They stood up and walked over to it, but flinched backwards once they realized it was a human.

A human. Disgusting.

Now that Chara was closer, they could identify the noise the human was making. They were.. crying?

Chara backed away. No need for the human to know they were there. They could just leave now.

To their surprise, everytime they tried to leave, a tugging in their soul told them to stay. It was strange. It was like they were no longer in control of their own choices, and that scared them.

While they had been thinking, the human had calmed down. They got on their feet and headed towards the exit, clutching a strange object.

The tugging continued, and Chara had no choice but to follow the human child.

"Howdy there! I'm Flowey. Flowey the Flower!" a high-pitched male voice said. Chara was shocked to see a small golden flower in the middle of the next room, talking to the human with a smile on it's...his... face.

The human watched carefully, an intrigued look on their face. The flower continued.

"Hmm.. You're new to the Underground, aren'tcha?" he said, tilting his... head... to the side. "Golly, you must be so confused."

His way of talking felt familiar to Chara, but they ignored the strange deja-vu feeling, despite how strong it was.

Flowey smiled widely. "Someone ought to teach you how things work around here!" The human seemed interested, which encouraged the flower. "I guess little ol' me will have to do."

He straightened up. "Ready? Here we go!"

Without warning, a strange feeling washed over the area. The human's soul appeared, glowing bright red. They touched the small, heart-shaped object, eyes filled with wonder.

Flowey looked amused. "See that heart? That is your soul. It is the very culmination of your being!" he explained. "Your soul starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV."

LV..? Chara was a bit concerned about that. Not for the human, but because they were worried about where this conversation might be headed. A monster wouldn't tell a human to kill other monsters, right? That was completely against how everything was supposed to work, yet Chara had a feeling something bad was about to happen.

The human looked at Flowey with a befuddled expression, their mouth half-open like they were wanting to say something but didn't know how. The flower grinned. "What's LV stand for? LOVE, of course! You want some LOVE, don't you?"

Flowey seemed to be preparing a magical spell. "Don't worry, I'll share some with you!" He winked, summoning five white pellets, which were spinning slowly in place.

"Down here, LOVE is shared through..." Flowey's voice sounded a bit strange now, "Little white.. 'friendliness pellets'."

He glanced up at the human. "Are you ready?" he asked, as the white pellets started spinning a little faster. He was obviously preparing to launch them, for whatever reason.

Chara watched as the human stood there, before finally nodding once. Flowey looked pleased.

The pellets slowly made their way towards the human child, who just simply stood there, making no attempt to either dodge or collect any of the pellets.

A pellet hit the human, and it looked quite painful. The human had doubled over, screaming in pain. They had dropped their strange object.

To say that Chara was shocked would be a serious understatement. They felt like their world was ending. How could a monster hurt a human?! Monsters were supposed to be the safe place! Humans were supposed to be the things monsters protected them from! It was all backwards, nothing made any sense, and Chara was sure they were about to witness a murder.

Flowey's contorted into a demonic expression. "You. Idiot." he said, his voice just as terrifying as everything else about him.

"In this world..

it's kill..

or BE KILLED."

Hundreds, maybe thousands of 'pellets' appeared. Flowey sneered at the human. "Why would anyone pass up an opportunity like THIS?!"

Chara was hyperventilating, even though they technically didn't need to breathe. They couldn't watch this any longer, so they looked away, shaking violently.

"DIE."

Flowey's insane laughter rang through their ears, Chara couldn't take it any longer-

All of the sudden, the laughter stopped. Footsteps rang out as something ran into the room. And then someone spoke. Chara recognized the voice immediately, for how could they ever forget it?

"What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth..." said Toriel, the woman that had taken care of Chara for four years.

She walked over to the child and healed them, gently raising their head to look at her. "Ah. Do not be afraid, my child." she said softly, helping it up carefully. "I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins."

She smiled at the human reassuringly. "I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down. You are the first human to fall in a long time." Sadness flashed across her face, but it was quickly replaced with another smile.

"Come! I will guide you through the catacombs," and with that, Toriel turned and walked through the other door.

The human stood there for a moment, then reached down and grabbed their strange object. Then it looked at Chara.

They stared at each other for several seconds, before Chara spoke. "You can see me." it wasn't a question. The other human nodded.

"How long have you been able to see me?" they asked. If the human had pretended to not see them..

"Ever since Miss Toriel saved me." the human spoke slowly and bluntly, almost as if they were ashamed of their voice, and Chara noticed they pronounced Toriel's name strangely, Toor-e-ell.

Chara sighed. "I see. It seems I am stuck with you, as everytime I attempt to leave my soul won't let me. So I suggest a deal."

The human perked up. "What is it?"

"In exchange for information and helpful tips, I want you to do one thing for me." they replied. "Do. Not. Kill. Anyone. Do not hurt anyone. Monsters are one of the kindest creatures on this planet, and killing them is considered the worst crime." At least, in their eyes. But they were biased.

Thankfully, the human agreed. "Okay. My name's Frisk, whattabout you?"

Chara crossed their arms, tempted to ignore them, but decided it would be better to just answer. "Chara."

Frisk stared blankly at them for a second, then asked another question. "What're your pronouns? They/Them for me."

Interesting. "If.. If you find need to refer to me in third-person, I ask that you use They/Them pronouns for me." Chara replied stiffly. Frisk nodded once, before giving them a small smile.

"It's really cool that we use the same pronouns! Are you gender-neutral, too?"

They stared at the human, slightly annoyed at their persistent questioning. "No, I use the term Nonbinary. I would assume that you are gender-neutral?" Another nod.

Frisk grinned, and they seemed to almost be vibrating with excitement. Chara felt an unidentifiable emotion for a second, before sighing once again.

"Toriel is waiting."

After touching a strange yellow star (Chara had muttered something about the stars being new), Frisk followed Toriel up a set of stairs and into a room with a confusing array of rock-looking things on the ground.

"Welcome to your new home, innocent one. Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins," Toriel gestured towards the confusing rocks. She then stepped on some of them, which made them go into the ground. "The Ruins are full of puzzles." Oh, that was a puzzle? Frisk hated puzzles. "Ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys." Dive- what?

"One must solve them to move from room to room," Toriel explained. "Please adjust yourself to the sight of them."

She lead them into the next room, where she instructed them to flip several switches. On the second one they had gotten a bit confused due to there being two switches in that area, but thankfully Toriel was there to help.

The next room contained a dummy, which Toriel said they had to talk to. It was... nice, actually. The dummy didn't make fun of them (neither did Toriel, which was a pleasant surprise).

The room after that contained a somewhat dangerous spike puzzle, but luckily Toriel had memorized the path and lead Frisk safely across.

They entered the next room, which was a very long hallway. Toriel looked nervous.

"You have done excellently thus far, my child." she started. "However... I have a difficult request to ask of you. I would like you to walk to the end of this room by yourself. Wait here until I am no longer in sight, please."

"Forgive me for this," she whispered. Toriel turned and walked away. Frisk stared after her, confused. What was happening?

Toriel was soon out of sight, and they then remembered what they were supposed to do. Oh, right, go to the end of the hall. Easy enough.

Frisk speed-walked down the hallway, Chara following right behind them. Their ghostly companion didn't speak much, though to be fair neither did they.

After they reached the end Toriel appear out from behind a pillar, looking slightly relieved. "Greetings, my child. Do not worry, I did not leave you."

She then went on to talk about having to leave, and that Frisk should stay in the room so they were safe. She handed them an old cell phone, gave them a warm smile, and left.

Which, in retrospect, was probably not a good idea. Especially since Frisk was prone to getting into mischief. Not that Toriel knew that.

Yeah, they left the room. What reason was there to stay?

...

After interacting with yet another one of those yellow stars, Frisk went up into another room. Chara followed them, spotting a bowl of candy sitting on a table. A sign said 'Take one'. Frisk ignored the sign and took two pieces of candy. The audacity!

"You took more candy. How disgusting." Chara sneered. Frisk didn't even react to that. They put both pieces in their pocket and walked out of the room, without even a glance in Chara's direction.

How rude.

They talked a bit with a Froggit, then proceeded into another room. Chara followed, still fuming.

...

The next room was seemingly empty. Frisk, unaware of the large cracks in the ground, stepped directly on one. The floor broke, and they were sent falling.

"Frisk?!" they heard Chara yell in surprise. Frisk landed in a large pile of leaves, which seemed to swallow them whole. They stood up, gasping for air.

Chara floated down beside them, a slightly disturbed look on their face. "Are you okay?"

Frisk nodded. Indeed, the leaf pile had softened their fall considerably, and the only thing hurt was their pride. Chara was looking around the room, probably trying to find a way out. Their hypothesis was confirmed when Chara pointed at a hole in the wall.

"I've figured it out. Crawl up this tube right here to get to the other side." they said. Frisk did as instructed, and true to Chara's word, they ended up on the other side.

They went through the doorway and came across what seemed to be a puzzle. Their phone rang.

"Hello? This is Toriel." came Toriel's kind voice. "For no reason in particular, which do you prefer? Cinnamon or butterscotch?"

Frisk thought about it for a moment. They hadn't had much of either, but remembered cinnamon having too much of an overpowering taste for them to fully enjoy it. "Bscotch."

Not even three minutes later Toriel called again. "You do not dislike cinnamon, do you? I know what your preference is, but would you turn up your nose if you found it on your plate?"

They thought about it again. "Um, depends. Cinnamon by itself is too much for me. But I guess I wouldn't mind it with somethin else."

"Right, right. I understand, child. Do not worry, I promise to use less cinnamon. Thank you for being patient." she replied.

Frisk looked over at Chara, who was looking thoughtful. "Is somethin wrong?" they asked. Chara shook their head. "No. It's just that I always had problems with cinnamon, too."

"Oh."

...

After more of those damn puzzles, Frisk and Chara came across what looked like a bedsheet ghost pretending to sleep.

"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzz..." the ghost muttered. They whispered "Are they gone yet?" before continuing to repeat "z" over and over again.

Frisk tapped the ghost lightly, hoping they would move. The ghost shot up, frightened.

They started crying, making Frisk feel bad. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!" they said, giving what they hoped was a reassuring smile. The ghost seemed to cheer up a little.

"Geez, Frisk, for a second there you looked like you had seen a ghost, you were so pale," Chara said, grinning. Did they just..?

The ghost laughed softly. They both looked at them, slightly surprised that they could see and hear Chara.

"I wanna show you two something," they whispered. "Let me try..."

Tears formed in their eyes, which went to their head. A hat was created out of the tears. "I call it Dapperblook. Do you like it...?"

Frisk gasped. "I love it! It looks so cool!" they said truthfully. Chara rolled their eyes, but agreed that it was a pretty cool hat.

The ghost looked embarrassed. "Oh gee..." they looked down. I usually come to the Ruins because there's nobody around... But today I met two nice people..."

They peeked out from under Dapperblook. "My name's Napstablook, by the way... ...Oh, I'm rambling again, aren't I? I'll get out of your way now." And with that, Napstablook disappeared.

"Bye bye Napstablook!" Frisk called out, waving to the air where they once were. "We'll see you later!"