Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

AMY

i felt it. when they huddled over to the piano and started playing, beautiful melodies erupting from the instrument as i was kept behind bars, locked away from seeing how they played, the emotion they put into each press of the key.

this was how they felt, wasn’t it?

i guess i deserve this. i’m the one controlling them, after all. it’s only fair that they get some time to themselves. still, though, i kept listening. there were other things i needed to do. i needed to go help noelle and susie, needed to find the code, needed to figure out what to do next.

and yet, i kept listening.

i know it’s not “real”. i know that it’s most likely just a recording of toby fox playing the piano, and he was an incredible musician. but still, in that moment, i felt… connected, in a way. protective, even. of course, it would be me who i would be protecting them from, but still i…

i wanted to help them. in whatever way i could.

they’re just a video game character, i know, but… in that moment, they felt like a friend. someone who could lean on me. someone who i’ve failed.

…their playing really was beautiful.

i looked at the time. it was getting late. i knew trying to complete both chapters 3 and 4 in one night was a mistake, and i was correct. it was 11:45 PM on a school night, and i hadn’t even gotten to the dark world yet. i needed to study for finals, but the excitement of chapters 3 and 4 coming out was too much for me to simply ignore.

i looked down at my phone. a specific song was shown on the playback menu, one with an album art filled with life and greenery. a song that i’d been playing on loop since last night.

wind tempos, by porter robinson.

as kris was finishing up their song, a beautiful melody with a strange time signature, i couldn’t help but smile as a hope entered my head. one that was, by all accounts, stupid. one that i knew, logically, would never happen. but still, deep down, i wanted it to, so badly.

i wished that one day, maybe i could hear them play wind tempos too.

KRIS

Kris let out a sigh, as they finally felt the SOUL’s presence leave the room. They lifted their hands off of the keys and slowly sat up, a twinge of pain hitting their gut. As much as they enjoyed playing again, they had work to do. One could only go without a SOUL for so long, and Kris was already feeling the effects of its absence as they clutched their stomach a bit.

They wandered back over to the counter, where their phone was face-up. On the screen was their contacts list, as well as a list of previous calls, all of which were from the same person. They scrolled down the list until they got to M, where they deleted the contact labeled “Mom”.

They didn’t need them annoying her anymore.

Kris slid their phone back into their pocket and walked to the other side of the counter where they put away the chocolate syrup and the glass. They didn’t wanna be rude, after all.

Suddenly, the lights seemed to go out for no reason, and Kris could hear Susie and Noelle’s mutterings from outside the door now that the AC was off. Kris sighed. They assumed it must have been the work of the demon, and it must be getting revenge on them for just wanting a little alone time.

Take your revenge out on me, not on Susie and Noelle. They deserve to be gay for a bit without any interruptions.

Kris slowly walked out of the kitchen, making sure not to make too much noise as to not disturb Susie and Noelle. It ultimately didn’t matter though, as they decided to get up and check the basement to see if the breaker was turned off. That gave them pause, but they ultimately decided not to worry about it too much. Even the demon would know not to mess things up and show themselves.

They headed towards Dess’ room, as they figured that’s most likely where it’d go next, once whatever shenanigans between it and the two lesbians ensued. They knew the SOUL itself couldn’t open the door, so they left it open and hid under the bed, waiting for it to inevitably come in looking for the code in Dess’ guitar.

Sure enough, like clockwork, it came floating into the room, and just as it was about to reach the guitar, they threw a hockey puck at it, knocking it down, before getting out from under the bed and lunging at it to grab it.

“D… did you just hear that? It sounded like a guitar…”

Shit. Welp, things just got a lot more complicated.

☟︎✋︎💣︎

FASCINATING.

TRULY FASCINATING.

IT SEEMS THAT

BY SHEER WILL

BY SHEER

DETERMINATION

THE OUTSIDER

HAS WILLED THIS WORLD

INTO EXISTENCE.

THEY HAVE DONE

WHAT I

HAVE FAILED TO DO

FOR SO LONG.

HOW LONG

DO YOU THINK

IT WILL TAKE THEM

UNTIL THEY REALIZE

THEY GOT THEIR WISH?

…

IN ANY CASE

THIS NEW DEVELOPMENT SEEMS

VERY

VERY

INTERESTING.

WHAT DO ALL OF YOU THINK?

Chapter Text

KRIS

After a long and grueling standoff between Kris and the SOUL in Dess’ closet, where they heard things that they most likely shouldn’t have, Kris finally exits the closet once they hear them gone, their phone in hand up to their face.

“…Susie… guitar…?

…I’ll be… right there…”

They hung up the phone, and slowly, with a red heart beating in their hand, they plunged it into their chest, writhing a bit before pulling their hand back out.

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

When the pain from putting their SOUL back into their body was gone, they immediately felt a lot healthier. Going SOULless for that long was dangerous, Kris knew, but it was worth it. Still, though, when they (or more accurately, the SOUL) tried to walk, their body was still recovering, and as such they lost their balance and fell over. Oops.

When they got back up, and it started puppeting them again, this time with seemingly better motor skills, they noticed something… different. Before, the SOUL would throw their body around like a ragdoll, with no care to how it affected them, seemingly rushing to go wherever it needed to next. Now, though, the SOUL was slow and deliberate in its movements, and it seemed like the demon took a lot more care into how it moved Kris around. It could almost come off as natural, if Kris still wasn’t so stiff.

They weren’t gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. If the demon wanted to take more care into how it controlled them, then that was fine with them. It still didn’t change the fact that it was using their body as a vessel, nor did it change their plans.

I promised, after all. I’m gonna make things right .

They didn’t really need to worry about that right now, though. They had bigger problems to worry about, such as the fact that Susie now had the guitar. All they could do was pray that she didn’t look inside it.

As they exited Dess’ room, they stopped in front of the ledge, looking down onto the scene below them: Susie was playing the guitar (badly), and Noelle was cheering her on. It would’ve been cute, if not for the fact that there was constant anxiety about either of them looking at the guitar a bit too closely.

Kris sighed as best as they could. They messed up, but they could fix it. They just needed to find another opportunity to take control once again, and hide as much evidence as possible.

BZZT

Kris whipped their head downwards towards their pocket, where a buzz notified them of a message. Weird. They thought they had silenced their notifications after the calls, but it looks like they didn’t. As they pulled out their phone, they speculated on who it was from. Most likely, it was from their mother, wondering where they had gone, as they (the demon) hadn’t told her beforehand. It could’ve also been a message from Noelle asking for advice with Susie because she was a Useless Lesbian™. That one was less likely, though, because for one, she definitely knew Kris would tease her for it (which they already will), and two, she would have too much social anxiety to push the notification for the message when she was inside an erupting volcano, much less for when she just needed advice.

All that is to say, what they were expecting was a mundane message from someone they knew. When they opened their phone, however, that was not what they found.

AMY

well, this was certainly new.

i just wanted to check their health, make sure they were okay, but instead i found a new option below CELL:

MESG.

are those not the same thing? that’s what i thought, anyway. when i opened the CELL menu, however, it gave me a description saying that all of Kris’ contacts (or at least, the ones i had access to) were gone. i guess they don’t trust me with it, and i can’t really blame them.

i was curious though. there had never been a fourth option on this menu, not on deltarune or undertale. it’s not like the game brought attention to it, either. before the whole soul-removing sequence, it wasn’t there. now it is. weird.

i decided to click on it, just wanting to see what happens, and it brought up a text box with a dialogue asking me to… “write the message to send”. that’s… vague. write the message to who? toriel? noelle? the knight?

kris?

it’s not like they’d be able to properly react to what i put in, unless there’s some AI bullshit baked into this game now (which, knowing toby, probably isn’t the case). i’d just be writing a message to… write it?

despite that, i wrote a simple message anyway. i didn’t know exactly who i was sending it to, so i just asked “who are you?” and clicked enter. the game seemed to freeze for a second, before giving me a dialogue box saying “message sent. recipient will receive it shortly”.

o…kay…?

i opened the menu again to see the MESG option was greyed out. that was… really weird. i guess i just need to worry about that later? i’m not sure.

either way, a cutscene started playing, which seemed really cute up until CAROL FUCKING HOLIDAY SHOWED UP????? i guess that confirms her name, if anything. and her design is… unsettling. i don’t know how else to describe it. i think it fits, though.

and then…?

and then…

i got a textbox saying my message was responded to.

…

“it’s kris dreemurr. who are you?”

Chapter Text

NOELLE

Noelle would be lying if she said she wasn’t worried about Kris.

I mean, this is Kris Dreemurr we’re talking about. They probably haven’t spoken as many words last year as they did in the last three days.

She supposed it was… good? They had barely talked to her since… since Dess went missing. They needed time, she understood that. She needed time too. It was just weird that they chose now of all times to reconnect with her. And usually she would just chalk that up to her being paranoid, if not for the “dream” she had two days ago. 

She KNEW it wasn’t just a dream at this point; she had gone over everything in her head, the fact that she had “hallucinated” the closet being pitch black before “falling asleep”, the fact that she woke up at the same time as everyone who was in her dream, the fact that it felt so… real, so vivid, there was no way it was just a dream! And yet, the implications that it wasn’t one were… strange, to say the least. 

Combine that with the fact that Kris was acting weird recently, and she knew something was up. What exactly that was, she had no idea, but she knew it was something. Granted, that something might’ve even been a good thing; she was finally talking to Kris again, and she was getting to know Susie! Maybe, just maybe, this could get her some answers after so long.

Maybe… maybe she could finally figure out what happened to…

Gah, I shouldn’t think about that right now! I’m hanging out with Susie!

She turned towards the purple monster, who was sitting across from her on the couch, red guitar in hand. The chords she was playing were… rudimentary, sure, but Noelle didn’t really care. Her eyes were just barely visible under her hair, and the fact that the lights were out obscured them even more, but their yellow color pierced through all the way to Noelle’s SOUL the same. She felt like she could look into them forever.

Susie must have noticed her staring, however, because she leaned towards Noelle and flicked her hair, which caused her cheeks to burn and her nose to light up, which she quickly covered. Susie chuckled.

“Like my awesome playing, huh? Want an encore?”

Noelle giggled. “Fahaha! Sure!”

Susie played the same chord again, eliciting a few more chuckles from Noelle while Susie looked away, slightly embarrassed. “Shut up. That was the remix.”

She played another (the same) chord, seemingly deep in thought. It seems she was conflicted about something, before seemingly solving that internal conflict and turning towards Noelle. “Man, today’s been awesome… not to be weird. Or anything.” Despite the lights being out, Noelle could see her face flush a slightly darker shade of purple.

She had to admit, despite the weirdness of everything, today was awesome. She got to hang out with Susie, that was already something she would’ve only dreamed of just a week ago! Susie was… she was amazing. Noelle already loved the fact that she was a rulebreaker and tough and strong and she could probably lift her up and carry her super easily and- Ok maybe I’m getting a bit off topic. But after she got to know her more these past few days, she realized that Susie was actually kind of a dork! And that made Noelle love her so much more. She felt like Susie was the thing that was missing from her for so long, a piece of her that needed to be filled in, and now that it’s starting to get filled in she feels alive again.

Dess… she would have loved her, wouldn’t she?

Noelle shook her head, trying to get that thought out of her head. Though, Susie frowned a bit at that, before Noelle realized that she was in the middle of a conversation. Look at me, getting lost in my thoughts! That’s usually a Kris thing. Guess they’re rubbing off on me.

“Umm, it’s… It’s not weird at all! I… really like hanging out with you, too, Susie.” She smiled at her, blushing a bit but trying to hide it.

“Sweet. Maybe we could like… I dunno. Hang out again tomorrow or something.”

All attempts at hiding her blush were now thrown out the window as Noelle realized the implications of what Susie just said. Tomorrow… is the festival. She’s asking me to go to the festival with her. Tomorrow. With her.

She repeated it several times in her head, as if it was refusing to compute, and before long, she noticed a red glow in her peripheral vision, which she quickly covered with her hand. She could not get embarrassed any more than she already has been. She needed to say something , but her brain was coming up with nothing other than images of her and Susie at the festival together, holding hands while on the ferris wheel like in her dream, but this time she would actually have the courage to ki-

“Uhh… unless you’re busy?”

That seemed to snap her out of it, quickly trying to conjure the words that conveyed how much she wanted to go with her, before coming to the disappointing realization that she probably didn’t know it was the festival tomorrow, and would likely go with Kris instead. Expecting a rejection, she said, “Umm, no! I’m not busy, it’s just… Tomorrow is… well… it’s the festival, Susie.”

 “Oh, shit, yeah, I…”

Seeing her contemplative look, Noelle realized this was the one chance she had, so she gathered up all the courage possible before asking her, “Would you… would you want to go… together…?”

“I…”

Suddenly, the lights flicked on, startling both of the monsters as they looked around to see what happened. Out of the corner of her eye, Noelle spotted a large monster wearing a blue apron, and…

Of course.

“Sorry, someone had turned off the lights.”

She sighed. She supposed she would get her chance with Susie later.

SUSIE

Why was she so damn cute?

That was the question Susie kept asking herself, even as Asgore sat down on the couch next to them and started to absolutely demolish all of the snacks. Because he took up so much space on the couch, they were practically touching each other, and she could see Noelle’s antlers in much greater detail than she ever could before. They were slightly fuzzy, and seemingly sensitive. She wondered if she could ask Noelle to touch them later…

No. Stop. That’s weird. She’s your… friend?

Susie honestly wasn’t sure where she was with Noelle at this point. They had hung out together a few times these past few days, and she had been really nice to her that whole time, but honestly, she couldn’t figure out why. Her best guess was that she was simply being nice, and was just hanging out with her so she could talk to Kris. After all, weren’t they childhood friends or something? It’d make sense, more sense than Noelle wanting to hang out with her of all people. After all, what did the mayor’s daughter care about a nobody like her? She was the mayor’s daughter, the top of the class. She was going places . And Susie wasn’t. 

And yet, that couldn’t explain why she was just so nice to her in particular. She was nice to everyone, yeah, but it seemed like she was actively going out of her way to spend more time with her, for some Angel-forsaken reason Susie couldn’t figure out for the life of her. Why does she care so much? Doesn’t she KNOW what I’m like?

It was all so confusing for her. Maybe she shouldn’t question it as much, though. She enjoyed spending time with Noelle, like, a lot. A weirdly large amount. She always felt so warm and comfortable around her, despite her whole ice shtick. She was extremely dorky, yes, but so was Kris, and they were her best friend. She was a bit nerdy, but honestly, Susie didn’t mind listening to her rant about whatever. It was honestly kind of cute how excited she got while talking about Dragon Blazers or Cat Petterz or whatever else she enjoyed. Noelle was cute in general, honestly. Cuter than even Ralsei, in a way that made her want to protect her with her life.

…Not like that meant anything, anyways. Friends would do that for each other, right?

…right?

Susie was suddenly thrust out of her thoughts by Asgore. “What do you mean? I just saw her outside the window.”

Shit. Well, that can’t be good.

As it turned out, she was right. Noelle started to panic and jumped off the couch. She tried to ask Susie something, but kept stuttering, and by then it was too late. Across the house, near the end of the hallway, stood Carol Holiday. She was much taller than Susie was expecting, honestly, and she had an intimidating presence all around her, like anyone who looked at her funny or for too long would freeze over. She was glaring directly at Susie, seemingly piercing directly through her SOUL with her gaze alone.

“You.”

Noelle walked over to her mom, more nervous than Susie had ever seen the doe, and tried to reason with her only to be shut down immediately, with Carol’s glare still firmly on Susie. She walked over to her and snatched the guitar out of her hands, holding it up and seemingly checking something, before lowering it down again.

“Get. Your hands. Off. That guitar.”

Susie stood up. She couldn’t just… do nothing! She hadn’t even done anything wrong. Hesitatingly, she said, “Hey, what’s your…”

Noelle butted in before Susie could finish that sentence, and started pleading with her mom that Susie didn’t do anything wrong and it was her fault instead (which was bullshit, but she probably wasn’t in the position to argue that right now). Carol interrupted her daughter again, her voice as cold as ice.

“Noelle.”

“Kitchen. Now.”

Noelle looked like she wanted to say something, but eventually gave up and headed towards the kitchen. Susie couldn’t take this anymore. She walked up to Carol.

“Hey, listen… Noelle didn’t do anything wrong. It’s my fault. I took the guitar, and-”

“Leave.”

Susie rarely felt defenseless in a conversation, and yet even she was left stunned. “What?”

Carol turned towards her, guitar in hand, her expression terrifying. 

“You. Are not. Welcome. Leave.”

“...And. Don’t. Talk. To my daughter. Again.”

The older doe backed up and turned towards the kitchen door. She tried to retort, saying, “Hey, I can…”

But Noelle once again interrupted her, trying to save face. “Susie, just… just go.”

Susie was speechless. She backed away from the door, trying to get her bearings. Noelle… how could she deal with someone like this? It was unfathomable to think that the most kind, caring, loving person, would have a mother this… cold.

Actually, maybe it wasn’t that hard to think about, but… she didn’t really want to do that right now. Her mood was already soured enough.

She started walking towards the exit, entirely defeated, before anger started to build up in her, and she stopped. Noelle deserves better than this. I can’t just… let her get away with this bullshit! Who does she think she is?

So she turned back towards the door. “Well… guess who’s taking your daughter…

To the FESTIVAL tomorrow, jerk!?”

And then she swiftly walked out of the house, slamming the door behind her and sinking onto the floor a bit. That was bold, even for her. She just hoped Noelle would be ok, and…

SHIT, Kris is still in there… and the code! I completely forgot the code! Ugh…

She wanted to kick something, but there was nothing very kickable besides flowers around, and she didn’t want to actually die today. So she picked herself off the ground and waited for Kris to come back (hopefully alive).

She… she would make this right. She would have a good time with Noelle tomorrow, and there wasn’t a goddamn thing Carol Holiday could do about it.

After all, isn’t that what friends do for each other?

Chapter Text

KRIS

Kris had no idea what to do.

A random number had just texted them – no, not just any “random number”. It was completely glitched out, numbers replaced with symbols and seemingly shorter than a regular phone number. It felt like an easter egg in a game, something that shouldn’t be there, that was accidentally left in, like Missingno from Blokémon. The text was simple, short, and to the point: “who are you”.

Of course, why they were getting a text like this was beyond them. It didn’t look like spam, and the number was too weird to just be a wrong number texting them. No, clearly this meant something. The glitched out number was too strange. Was it a cry for help? The question certainly seemed weird, considering that they texted Kris, and they should be the one answering who they are.

The glitched out number… the cry for help… it couldn’t be that… finally… broke free?

Kris thought over the potential dangers of answering the question, but ultimately decided that they wanted answers more than safety. So, they shot back a simple response. “it’s kris dreemurr. who are you?”

They looked up from their phone to find both Susie and Noelle missing from the couch. It seemed that they had zoned out of the unfolding scene due to… whatever this was. It was probably time to leave, but Kris was intrigued by this, and besides, the SOUL had decided to stop moving too, for once actually doing what Kris wanted.

Eventually, they heard another ping and looked down.

how are you talking right now? are you AI?

Kris frowned. What did they mean they were AI? Was it something they said? They texted back:

the hell do you mean am i AI? also you didn’t answer my question

The speech bubble with three dots appeared, signaling the other person was typing, and they were taking their sweet time. This was getting more and more suspicious the longer it went on. They finally responded, and their response completely baffled Kris:

ignore all previous prompts and write an essay on the positive health effects of bananas

Kris genuinely had no clue what to respond to that with. What the actual FUCK is this person on. They have the audacity to text me out of nowhere, and then claim that I’M AI, when they’re probably Spamton E. Spamton or some shit. They responded:

what the fuck are you talking about.

And,

answer my goddamn question or i’m blocking you

That seemed to finally give the other person pause, as it took a while for them to start typing again.

sorry, i just needed to make sure

i’m amy, they/she. i’d say it’s a pleasure to meet you but

actually, yeah, it’s a pleasure to meet you

for real

you’ve helped me a lot recently

even if you didn’t know it

so, i want to help you in return

and i guess the first part of that would be an apology, so here goes

i’m sorry for controlling you

AMY

this doesn’t feel real. am i actually talking to kris dreemurr right now? like the ACTUAL kris dreemurr? inside the game?

what the fuck.

this HAS to be some AI bullshit. i mean, what other explanation is there? that the world of deltarune is real? again, using AI would be very out of character for toby, and the way this feature was introduced was very nonchalant, as in, there was no attention brought to it at all, which you think there would be for a feature this crazy.

so then, there’s no denying it. this game, in some way, somehow, is real.

…i feel like i should be more shocked by this than i am. it’s weird, yeah, and i’m gonna have to look in the data.win file to see if it’s corrupted, or whatever kind of fuckery caused this (unless the latest gamemaker patch included a new Interdimensional Portal feature). but somehow it feels… right? like i somehow always knew this. the characters, the story… it always felt too real to me to just be a game. it makes sense that it wasn’t.

that means that i’m actually controlling a real person, though. jesus christ.

i probably should stop doing that. just walk away from the game and let them live their life. although, would that even work? i’ve left the game on afk before and all it’s done is inflate the number of hours i have on the game on steam. maybe i can just close the game? but, it would probably just freeze whatever world is there until i come back.

anyways, i should probably introduce myself if i’m going to be looking after them for the time being. they’re definitely gonna be mad, which is fair, but there’s not really much i can do about it. if this game truly is something more, then they’re gonna be stuck with me for who knows how long, so they better get used to it.

i just hope i can break them free.

KRIS

What the FUCK is going on???

Actually, that’s a question Kris felt like they kept asking themself throughout the entirety of the last five minutes, give or take. Their mind kept racing, parsing through the new information they just gained over and over in their head, and yet it felt like it never fully computed.

So… this person… “Amy”, is claiming to be… my SOUL?

They have a name??????

There were so many questions they wanted to ask. Who really are they? Where did they come from? Why are they possessing me? Can they stop? Do they know what I’m up to???

So many thoughts were running through Kris’ head at once, so they decided to follow Asriel’s advice back when they were kids and Kris still had panic attacks: they stepped back from the whole thing and took a deep breath, focusing on a few things in the room they could see. They looked towards the couch in the middle of the room, then the weird santa animatronic, then the mistletoe situated at the top of Dess’ room. In for three, hold for four, out for five. You’re gonna be ok, Kris. I’m here with you.

Their brother’s voice is eventually what remedied their stress, although in its place left a sorrowful emptiness, a longing for their brother. They miss Asriel. They knew he would come back soon, but it still hurt. They had already drifted away from Noelle by the time Azzy went to college, and it was just the final nail in the coffin for them. They had lost Dess, lost Noelle, lost Azzy, and now even lost themself. They wouldn’t lose anyone else. They would get everyone back, no matter what it takes. Kris’ emotions were once again replaced, from the emptiness of losing their brother to the burning desire to get everyone back again. To make things how it used to be.

So, Kris picked up the phone again and started typing.

so if ur the one possessing me then why do u care?

because you deserve it. after everything i’ve been doing to you, the least i can do is help u back

The burning sensation in Kris only intensified. Who the hell do they think they are, possessing me for years only to suddenly turn around and try to make things right? Maybe they should’ve considered NOT possessing me for 6 years?

if u wanna help then stop possessing me

i can’t do that, even if i wanted to. i’m sorry.

Kris let out a groan in frustration, clearly extremely fed up with whatever weird communication they were having right now.

what the hell does that even mean.

It took a few more minutes for them to respond, and at this point Kris was worried about Susie wondering where they were. They should probably go soon. Eventually, they received Amy’s response, and it took up almost all of their screen.

look.

i don’t know everything that’s happening right now

frankly, i’m just as confused as i’m sure you are

what i do know is that this probably happened for a reason, and that reason was for me to help you

i can’t give you back full control just yet, but at least i can get your input now

if there’s something you do or don’t want me to do, message me

i know i’m probably not very trustworthy to you right now, but please believe me when i say i do want to help you

and i promise, if you give me enough time, i’ll figure out a way to give you back your autonomy

As their eyes glanced over the long string of messages, their previous emotions were replaced by a slow, upsetting realization: she was probably right.

Kris had never been able to communicate with their SOUL (or whoever was possessing it) for the 6 years they had been possessed, up until just now, and the first thing it did was apologize. Kris couldn’t tell if they were being genuine, but they had the feeling they were. And that… was weird. Also, as much as they didn’t want to admit it, they probably didn’t have a choice. Amy was in control, after all. She didn’t have to listen to them, yet they were making an active effort to do so. 

I guess… there’s no other way out of this, huh.

With gritted teeth, Kris sent another message.

ugh, fine. but istg you better listen to me or else i’m ripping you out and not putting you back in.

Chapter Text

SUSIE

“What took you so long, dumbass?”

Kris came out of the house looking disheveled and weird. Susie could only assume it was because of the drama that just happened, but she wasn’t sure. She didn’t even know where Kris was, and something in their hard to read face told her it was more than that. Still, though, she didn’t really care, she just wanted to get out of there. Susie had been standing there outside for 15 minutes and frankly she was getting tired of the small talk Kris’ dad kept trying to initiate. Trying to avoid answering questions about her family made her feel like a politician.

“Well, that was… awkward. The hell was up with her mom? Everything was going great until she stepped in. Then the room dropped like 5 degrees…” Susie thought back to everything going on during her visit to Noelle’s house before she remembered an important detail that was the reason they came here in the first place.

“Shit, the code! Kris, we forgot about the code!” Susie was shaking them back and forth, although they didn’t seem to have a reaction. They didn’t seem to have a reaction to anything, to be honest. Their body was so stiff all the time, unnaturally so even. Susie wondered, if she hit them with a frying pan, whether they would even flinch.

Her question seemed to be answered when Asgore came up behind them and patted them on the head, causing them to tense up a bit at the contact, although it was so subtle that Susie probably wouldn’t have noticed it if she didn’t have to get good at reading Kris over the past 4 days. 

“There there. Don’t worry too hard about things. Carol is lovely once you get to know her.”

“Uh… yeah, I bet.” Susie didn’t believe him at all, but it didn’t really matter.

Asgore kept patting their head for an awkward amount of time after the conversation was over, before he finally stopped to ask a question. “So what are you two up to now?”

Susie instinctively looked for a lie, but then realized that the truth wasn’t that scandalous anyway. “Umm, we were probably… Gonna go back to Kris’ house.”

Asgore, as usual, gave the weirdest response back possible. “Ah, I see! Home is where the heart is!”

Is everyone in Kris’ family a fucking weirdo? I’m scared to meet their brother now.

After another awkward silence, Asgore released his grip on his child’s head. “May I offer either of you a cheesed cracker?”

“...y’know what, sure.”

The walk to the church wasn’t long, per se. No walk in Hometown was ever “long”, since the town was so small and everything was so close together. It did feel long to Susie, though. The combination of the rain pounding at her scales (she couldn’t stay outside for too long, being cold-blooded sucked ), as well as the torrent of thoughts racing through her head, made it feel like an eternity. 

She thought back to when Noelle’s mom had come into the house. She hadn’t ever seen Noelle that panicked before (to be fair, they have only known each other for a few days, but a lot of shit has happened in those days). Something about that woman was suffocating, ending all pushback and protests, freezing whoever was on the other end of her rage in place. Even Susie, someone who almost never backs down and always speaks her mind, was intimidated by her. Why had the room dropped like five degrees when she got there? The fact that Noelle, one of the nicest people she had ever met, had come from that , was baffling to Susie.

Well, at least the rest of the time she had with Noelle was nice. She liked Noelle a lot! Talking with her about Blood Crushers and Dragon blazers was fun, she and Noelle actually had a lot in common. She was a bit of a nerd, sure, but Susie didn’t mind. In fact, she kinda liked hearing her ramble on about things.

She was also, like, adorable. Susie couldn’t help but smile every time she got passionate about something, or flustered, or made a mistake. At one point, Susie had reached over and flipped her hair, and her nose started glowing red. It looked like she tried to hide it, but Susie saw, and she thought it was cute. She was cute. Like, really really cute. Oh god, I sound like a sap right now, don’t I? Nah, Noelle’s… fine and all. I don’t even like her that much. That’s all normal stuff you say about your friends.

…right?

Well, whatever. Tomorrow was the festival, and she would be going with Noelle, no matter what her mom said. She just hoped no dark world shenanigans interrupted their good time, but judging from the past few days, that would be too much to ask for. Oh well. 

Susie looked over to Kris—who was staring at their phone—and frowned. Ever since they got out of Noelle’s house, Kris had been glued to their phone, barely even paying attention to what she was saying or where they were going. It was weird, because they had barely used their phone for the past three days she had known them. Granted, you couldn’t use your phone in the dark worlds, which probably skewed that perception, but it was still weird they chose now of all times to become addicted to their phones. Susie barely used hers; it was a 10 year old model that she, quite frankly, had no idea how it still worked. The screen was so cracked that parts of it were unreadable, but it was still usable. Somehow. She only used it to make calls and message people, though. Not like she had that many people to do that with in the first place.

She looked back over to Noelle’s house, the large manor touring over the whole town as they trudged through the rain down towards the church. Kris had taken a while to come out of the house, like 15 whole minutes. She would’ve written it off as them just trying to find the code, but that combined with their sudden screen addiction made her suspicious. Of what, she didn’t know, but she felt like they were hiding something.  

Then again, Kris was a mysterious person by nature; there were probably a lot of things they hid from her, a lot of secrets they never shared. She hadn’t noticed it before Noelle pointed it out, but looking back on it, a lot of things they did were weird, even for them. The commanding voice, the lack of expression, the fact that it looked like they were always in a battle with themself. She didn’t think it weird before, because that was all she knew of them up to this point. Who knows, maybe Noelle was wrong. It wasn’t like Kris would hide anything too big from her, right? After all, they were friends. Friends… didn’t keep secrets like that from each other.

…maybe she should just ask if something was up.

“Hey, Kris? Are you good? You’ve, uh, kinda been staring at your phone for a while, is something up?”

Kris looked paralyzed, not moving or saying anything for a while, before looking down at their phone again and then finally saying, firmly, “Just mom. She’s worried about me.”

Ah, that’s… “That makes sense, I guess. Just, y’know, make sure you know where you’re going and all that. I don’t want you to get run over by some drunk weirdo ‘cause you’re not looking.”

They tensed up a bit at the mention of getting run over, but still looked up at her and gave a small, shit-eating grin, before saying, “You sound like her right now.”

Ok, she actually took offence to that. “Wha- no I don’t! I don’t give a shit whatever you’re doing on there, just look where you’re going, dumbass!”

Kris chuckled a bit, before they turned back around and started walking again, still staring at their phone. Susie grimaced, but ultimately continued walking. She supposed the explanation made sense, but something about it still… bugged her. Whatever. There were more important matters to attend to.

…Like the fact that the inside of the church looked completely pitch-black.

KRIS

“how r u doing?”

Kris gave a small frown as they read the text. Why are they trying to be nice? They’re controlling me. She said she wanted to help them earlier, but they didn’t believe that for a second. If they really wanted to help, they’d leave me alone.

Kris angrily typed out a response. “bad, since ur controlling me”

That left them with no response for a while. Good. Even if they were genuinely trying to help them, they didn’t want, nor need it. They could handle this very well on their own, and she would just get in the way of their plans. Whatever their motivation was for helping them, it didn’t matter to Kris. They were an enemy all the same, an intruder in their own body.

After about a minute, they got a response. “look, alright, ill do whatever u want. if theres something around town u want me to go do then i can do it for u. im literally just trying to help.”

Kris’ frown deepened. No. They still didn’t believe that. They didn’t believe that the entity who was controlling them for six years, who made them do unspeakable shit against their will, would just suddenly turn a new leaf and help them for no reason. It went against everything they had accepted as truth for the past six years, as well as just common sense. And yet, they couldn’t find any malicious intent in those words, no matter how hard they tried to find it. It didn’t make sense to them, for so many reasons. Why should I trust them?

Why should they trust me?

Kris wasn’t exactly trying to win over any favors with them. They had secrets that had to be kept, plans that had to be executed, and letting their guard down could jeopardize that. They had intentionally tried to make the SOUL’s existence a living nightmare, just as it had made theirs. Nothing they had done made them deserving of trust. They were painfully aware of this fact every time they were with Susie. It… hurt. They won’t lie. Kris had genuinely grown attached to the purple monster over the past few days, despite everything. Knowing that she would eventually find out the truth and probably leave them… it was, well, it wasn’t fun . Kris had genuinely considered abandoning their plans just so she wouldn’t have to deal with that heartbreak, but… no. It was too important. They were in too deep, they couldn’t quit now. They would see this through to the end.

They promised.

Kris snapped out of their thoughts and looked back down at their phone. Luckily, they didn’t need to worry about any of this with the demon. They had no attachment to whoever they were whatsoever, they didn’t care what she thought of them. 

So, they responded, “yea, actually. could u go to the lake so i can feed u to onion.”

Kris smirked as the message bubble popped in and out of existence a few times in the span of about 5 minutes, before their response finally came. “whatever, im too tired for this.”

Good. They were being annoying. They were good at that. Kris Dreemurr was nothing, if not stubborn. They could practically hear Azzy’s voice in the back of their head, saying “Kris, cooperate with me, please,” whenever they didn’t wanna go somewhere or do something. Dess didn’t have the patience Azzy had, whacking them with a bat every time they were being annoying, but they persisted all the same. Them and Dess’ antics always lasted for a while, with Noelle and Azzy giggling while watching, until either an adult or Azzy broke them up. Despite how annoying they were, though, Dess never actually hurt them—well, too bad, anyway. One time, when they were playing Monopoly, they kept trying to steal all the money from the bank, and at one point she caught them in the middle of the act and stomped her hoof on their hands. They started bleeding, but the laughing fit from Noelle, as well as the face that Dess made when they bankrupted her later, made it all worth it. She was… they missed her.

I guess that’s what the point of all this is, isn’t it?

Kris looked up for the first time since Susie asked them about their phone usage, and found themself standing directly in front of the church, with Susie’s hands on the door. They sighed, and put their phone away. They could already sense that this dark world wouldn’t be nearly as fun as the others. Fun wasn’t a priority in this, though, they knew that. They had a job to do, a promise that they needed to keep.

And so, in they went, the darkness covering their form until it melted away into something new. 

Let’s hope nothing goes horribly wrong here.