Chapter Text
From the outside, Wisknits was a gaudy deluge of color that affronted the eye with its blaring intensity. Each letter on the sign blinked with a different neon hue and it was impossible to look in through the windows because giant balls of yarn had been piled in front of them like a pyramidic rainbow. Even the outside walls, which would have been a stately purple anywhere else in the city, had been repainted to have an almost tie dyed look.
Frisk and Chara gaped openly, but Asriel just let out a mighty sigh which he matched with an equally impressive pout.
“I hate this place.”
Mom clucked her tongue.
“You did ask to come, did you not?”
“Yeah, but that was before I knew I’d have to get measured too. I just want to see the street show.”
“Really, Asriel. We’ll be in and out and on our way before you know it.”
A bell jangled as Mom led the way inside. Some kind of cat-monster sat at the front desk. Their eyes were half-lid and they had their head propped lazily against one hand while the other batted a ball of white yawn back and forth across the counter. Frisk was reminded vaguely of Burgerpants, though with a more, um, normally shaped face. Maybe this was a relative? They only spoke when Mom cleared her throat politely.
“Welcome to Wisknits. Yarn’s in the front, fabric’s in the back. Thread and needles are-” They stopped, apparently just then realizing who they were talking to. “-ahhhhh!” They jerked into an upright, almost uncomfortably rigid position. “Queen Toriel! Forgive me! You-”
“We have an appointment with Wisknit.”
“Yes. She is expecting you. On the right. Up the stairs.” The cat-monster’s eyes wavered past the Queen and over the three children, but then snapped right back to her, not daring to ask. “And if you need anything else, please let me know!”
“Thank you. Children, this way.”
All through the city Mom had insisted on hand holding, but apparently now that they had made it to their destination she trusted them to follow on their own. This was just as well because the stairs were somewhat narrow and steep. Frisk wasn’t sure it would be safe to go more than one person at a time.
The second story was less of a second floor and more of a casual loft. There were two comfortable looking couches with a low table between them and in the back, a fancy folded changing screen with several hand-knit sweaters draped over the top. A long rail ran the length of the front side of the loft and looking back over it, Frisk could see much of the store below, even that cat-monster who had gone back to batting their yarn, though now from a rigid upright position.
“Sni sni, what have we here? Who is this come to see old Wisknit?”
Frisk turned from their balcony gazing to see a mouse-monster with giant ears peering up at them. She was about half Frisk’s size even counting the ears and was wrapped tightly from head to toe in both brightly colored scarves and measuring tape. Her nose and whiskers stuck out with a pair of oversized glasses balanced on them, magnifying her black beady eyes. She looked like a colorful bespectacled mummy.
Frisk smiled and offered a hand in greeting. “Hi, I’m-”
“-A human.” Wisknit finished for them, eying the hand like it might be some kind of trap. “Sni sni, Wisknit is not so old as to have forgotten.”
“And yet it seems that Wisknit has forgotten her manners.” Mom’s glower was darker than it had been for that first poor Froggit Frisk had encountered in the ruins. “You do remember how to shake hands, do you not?”
“Indeed. Indeed. For the Queen then.”
Wisknit took Frisk’s hand and shook it with a cloth wrapped hand of her own. Though a grudging shake, Wisknit’s grip was surprisingly firm. Frisk decided to try again with the introduction.
“I’m Frisk.”
“Wisknit.” The word still sounded strained and suspicious.
“I like your store. It’s so colorful and lively.”
“Sni. Indeed. And the other one? What do they think?”
Wisknit turned, peering at Chara who, Frisk only now noticed, was clutching at Mom’s dress and hiding safely behind her.
Chara? What’s wrong?
Nothing. Chara didn’t respond to Frisk. They didn’t respond to Wisknit either. In fact, they seemed strangely afraid to meet this old mouse. Frisk frowned. This wasn’t the Chara they knew… but then, the Chara they knew had been around monsters for a long time before they met.
Mom looked down at Chara and placed a careful hand on their head. She didn’t try to dislodge them from her dress.
“Wisknit, listen for a moment, will you not? These two children fell down here a few days ago. They are innocent and ignorant of the war you remember and we have no means of returning them to the surface.”
“Indeed. Indeed. But why bring them to old Wisknit? Why trouble her with these things?”
“Asgore and I have decided to adopt them. There will be a formal announcement at the end of the week, but we will need appropriate clothes for all three of our children in addition to more regular day to day attire for these two. I will also require absolute secrecy on this matter in the meantime. You are capable of all this, are you not?”
“Sni… Wisknit will do as the Queen commands.”
“Then I command it, if that is what it takes.”
“A moment. A moment to set up please.”
Whiskers twitching, Wisknit toured the long way around the room. She stopped by a pointing stick with a large rubber tip that was propped against the wall and picked it up. Two steps further and she paused again to jab the stick at a light switch that was too far up the wall for her to otherwise reach. The rubber tip missed only once before two spotlights flickered on, creating a circle of brilliance at the back of the room.
“If the young prince will stand in the circle, Wisknit will do him first.”
Asriel groaned, but his mother nudged him onwards and, shoulders drooping in defeat, he did as bade while the rest of the group found a spot to wait on the couches.
Wisknit exchanged her pointing stick for a squat step stool and waddled with it across the room. She set the stool down next to Asriel and climbed up onto it. Then, reaching inside the folds of her multi-colored scarves, Wisknit pulled out a roll of measuring tape and a full measuring stick (which was somehow larger than she was) and set to work.
“Shoulders up. Arms out. Back straight. Sni sni, straighter.”
Asriel’s face was locked in a constant state of total agony for the entire process. It was over in a minute, but from the way Asriel slumped onto the couch next to Frisk when he was released, one might have thought he’d been standing there for hours.
“If I never have to do that again it will be too soon.”
Frisk gave his still slumped head a reassuring pat.
“There. There. It’s over now.”
Asriel looked up at Frisk with big eyes.
“For me yes. But now you’ll have to go through it. And then Chara.”
That was true. Wisknit was busily jotting down measurement notes onto a clipboard at the moment, but soon she would be ready for the next child. Frisk wasn’t worried about themself, but they weren’t sure how Chara would handle it. They were sitting very close to Mom.
Wisknit tore Asriel’s form from the clipboard and pinned it directly into the wall with a tack.
“Next. Next. It matters not which.”
With one last glance at Chara, Frisk stood and walked to stand at the center of the circle of light. It was a little blinding to be in the twin spotlights, but Frisk supposed the old mouse needed the extra light to get precise measurements. Wisknit jotted Frisk’s name at the top of the new form.
“Wisknit thought it would be you. Your friend seems rather shy.”
“Actually, we’re the same size. Would it be possible to use my measurements for them too?”
“The same size? Are you twins? …No, they seem paler and their hair is a shade redder. Hmm. Hmm. Wisknit could do it, yes, but would she advise it? No. Even at a similar height there are other measurements to consider.” Wisknit climbed up onto her stool. “But why do you ask this? Are you trying to save them from old Wisknit? Sni sni sni. That would do even less.”
Frisk put their arms out and stood as straight as they could while they tried to understand what the old mouse meant. “What do you mean ‘that would do even less’?”
“They are uncomfortable. Wisknit understands this. She is uncomfortable too. But Wisknit measures you anyway because the Queen asks. And because Wisknit is old and has seen many things, she suspects that by doing this the discomfort will go away. For your friend, it is the same.”
Frisk thought about this and then nodded their head. Chara had gotten used to monsters on their own in a timeline without Frisk around to interfere. Maybe it was a bad idea to try to protect them from their first experience with one outside of the Dreemurr family. Chara would have to learn to deal with them sooner or later after all.
“You are a wise monster, Wisknit, and pretty nice too I think.”
“Indeed. Indeed.” Wisknit rolled her measuring tape back up and stowed it inside her many scarves. “And for a human, you listen rather well. But we are done here. I need to finish recording your measurements, but you may go join your family on the couch.”
Frisk sat back down between Chara and Asriel without a word. And when Wisknit called ‘Next’ again, Chara stood. There was a slight tremble in Chara’s hand, but they joined the mouse-monster in the spotlight without hesitation. Frisk let out a big sigh of relief. Wisknit had been right. Chara was completely capable of facing up to this on their own.
Frisk closed their eyes and sank deep into the couch cushions to reflect. Sans had been right too. Frisk was the sort to want to fix everything and that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but maybe they had taken too short of view of that today. And when it came to helping Chara and Asriel, short term thinking might not be good enough. Next time, Frisk decided, they would have to think harder before trying to interfere.