Re: PotatoxSeriousSans
Posted: July 3rd, 2022, 5:56:41 pm
(Sure, though I did still have some ideas I wanted to have happen first- the main one I really want to include is Alia and Chara exploring Waterfall for character development purposes which I've been working on behind the scenes for months now and don't just want to skip, but if you want to skip ahead now, I don't mind skipping my other ideas. I just figure Mira and Sans wouldn't let Alia go off "on her own" for hours at a time if they're both worried about someone wanting to take her soul, which would make some of the scenes I've been working on impossible. That said, since most of it is just the two of them, I can put the finishing touches on it and post it all at once if you'd like, and then we can move on? If that works for you, just let me know and I'll finish up what I've been working on and post it all ^^)
(Editing to add- Here it is!)
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Alia entered Waterfall with an excited smile on her face. After having thoroughly explored Snowdin with Chara's help the past few days, she was eager to visit the next location in the Underground. She was relieved that no one seemed to mind her wandering off to explore with Chara, since it really was much more fun when the two could speak openly with each other. Though she enjoyed the presence of the others as well, she had to admit it could get frustrating to force herself not to laugh at one of Chara's narrations whenever someone else was around. Despite her best efforts at researching magic, Alia still hadn't managed to figure out a way to let Chara communicate with the monsters yet. Chara still did not appear to have figured out what she was trying to research, but continued to point out books about magic to her when she visited the library.
Still, Alia wasn't going to let her disappointment distract her right now. She listened happily as Chara told her about Waterfall, and kept wandering through until she came across a flower. It was different from any other flower she'd seen before; it was glowing a bright blue color, and she couldn't see any reason why or how it was doing that. "What's this?"
"That is an echo flower," Chara replied. "They repeat the last thing they hear."
Alia leaned towards the flower, listening curiously. To her surprise, she heard her own voice speak, asking, "What's this?"
"Woah!" Alia said, amazed. Soon after, the flower repeated it. She giggled, then began walking again. Soon, the two reached a hallway. There was a statue being drenched by rain, and Alia couldn't help but feel bad for some reason. She kept glancing at it as she continued walking through the hallway.
When she found a container with several umbrellas in it in the next room, Alia immediately grabbed one and headed back to where the statue was. It took her a few tries to prop the umbrella up in such a way that it was covering the statue, but once she'd succeeded, Alia couldn't help but smile.
A few moments later, a beautiful melody began playing. Neither Alia nor Chara knew where it was coming from, or why it started playing, but they just listened quietly. It wasn't long before memories began pushing to the front of Chara's mind...
//Flashbacks
Chara ran onto the path leading up Mount Ebott, not even bothering to look back at the human town they were leaving behind. Sure, they knew of the legends people told about how anyone who climbed the mountain would never return, but truthfully, Chara didn't want to return so that was fine with them. Once they were several yards into the trek, they stopped running, knowing none of the other humans would follow them this far anyway; they were all too terrified of the rumors.
Looking around, Chara let themself relax slightly. It was actually quite peaceful up here, with no other noises aside from those of nature, and no living creatures other than a few animals that had apparently made a home here. Chara tried their best not to disturb any of them, though they did stop to watch them for a bit before continuing on.
As they walked up the path, they wondered about the legends. Nothing strange had happened thus far, was there even any truth to them at all? Humans were known to let their imaginations run wild when it came to things they didn't understand or were scared of. However, Chara learned that in this instance, it was not entirely exaggerated rumors at work, as they found themself tripping on something and falling into a large opening that suddenly appeared in front of them.
As they fell, Chara wondered whether they should be feeling something. Scared or sad or... Something, at least. Maybe they were just in shock. Logically they realized they would probably be quite injured when they landed, and it wasn't like there was anyone with them to give them medical attention. Yet, they just felt resigned.
Shortly after they landed, they heard movement nearby. Though Chara's head hurt too much to actually look in the direction of the sound, they kept listening in surprise. There was not supposed to be anyone else around here, after all. It was soon proved they were not imagining things when a voice suddenly called out, in a startled and... concerned?... tone, "Are you okay?" The movement got closer, but Chara still did not move or try to reply. They were too confused.
"Please, say something, tell me you're alright!" the voice spoke again, more urgently, and Chara sighed inwardly but struggled to sit up. Why were they only now, after accepting what had seemed to be their fate, finding someone who actually seemed to care what happened to them? To their surprise, they felt someone, presumably the one who had spoken, reach out and help them.
Chara looked up and saw a young goat monster standing in front of them, looking worried but with a hint of relief upon seeing they were still alive and able to move. Chara remembered the stories the other humans told about monsters. All their horror stories were about evil monsters who attacked the innocent.
So why was it that a monster was rushing to help them, when the other humans were always looking for opportunities to bully them?
Chara let the monster help them to their feet, and was surprised when, after stumbling due to their injured leg, the monster let them lean on him and helped them walk along a path. The two walked slowly, the young monster being surprisingly careful of their injuries, until they reached two older goat monsters who were presumably the kid's parents.
One rushed to heal Chara's injuries, while the other hung back a bit, seeming worried about scaring them. Though after dealing with cruel humans for so many years, the kind family of monsters didn't scare Chara at all.
...
Though typically quite slow to trust, Chara found themself trusting the three monsters surprisingly quickly. It helped that all three were so genuinely caring, Toriel had quickly healed their injuries while Asgore appeared to be purposely making himself seem as un-threatening as possible. Asriel was just plain adorable, the kind of brother they would have liked to have watching out for them on the surface. The family had offered to take them in, and since Chara didn't exactly have any other ideas, they agreed.
At first, they tried to stay quiet and out of the way, that was what helped them avoid many incidents on the surface after all, but with Asriel's encouragement they soon found themself becoming part of the family. Chara realized they were happy here, much happier than they'd ever been on the surface.
When Toriel homeschooled them and Asriel, Chara always tried their best, wanting to make her proud. They were equally eager to help Asgore with gardening, and of course they were always happy to spend time with Asriel. They learned he loved roleplaying as his super-powerful OC, and made their own OC to roleplay as whenever he wanted to play.
Slowly, Chara healed from their time on the surface, with every chocolate pie Toriel made, each time they went exploring with Asriel and saw all the cool things in the Underground, every moment where the Dreemurrs were clearly making an effort to include them... The harsh memories faded away.
That allowed them to make their biggest mistake. They eventually forgot about just how cruel humans could be, and thought that maybe, everyone could exist in peace on the surface like the monsters wanted.
...
While Chara had heard monsters occasionally mention wondering what the surface was like, and knew they felt somewhat trapped by the barrier, for the most part they had been sheltered from how much the monsters truly wanted to be free. Of course, they were never in any danger, none of the monsters would ever harm the shy but caring human the King and Queen had adopted, after all. The monsters had merely avoided discussing it much in their presence to avoid scaring them into thinking they might be attacked.
Unfortunately, echo flowers didn't have this ability.
One day, as Chara and Asriel were wandering through Waterfall, they came across some echo flowers telling a story of two monsters whose greatest wish was to see the surface. Chara was rather surprised by this, since this was the first they had heard of monsters wanting to be free so badly. They wondered how many other monsters had a similar wish.
It was not long after that they came across a prophecy. One about an angel, which apparently many monsters believed would end with their freedom. With the new realization that monsters probably wanted to be free much more than they were letting on, Chara began thinking of a way to help them. After all, the monsters had been so kind to them, taking them in and giving them a family... They wanted to return the kindness somehow, and this seemed like a good way to do so.
They spent a lot of time thinking about how to break the barrier. Finally, they had an idea they thought would work. A monster could use their soul to get past the barrier, and since human souls persisted after death, they could find six more on the surface and then break the barrier, with no one needing to hurt anyone. It seemed like the perfect plan.
Except it wasn't. They hadn't expected any humans to come across Asriel when he went to the surface to gather the souls of six already dead humans. But despite him avoiding getting closer than necessary to the humans' settlements, a large group of humans still found him, and immediately began to attack as soon as they saw a monster.
Asriel tried his best to talk things out with them, but it was no use. The humans kept attacking even when he showed he had no intent to harm them, and finally he had to flee due to the number of injuries the humans had inflicted on him.
//End of Flashbacks
While Chara was distracted by memories, they did not notice Alia was glancing at them in concern. When the last of the memories finally faded, they looked at Alia to see if she was ready to leave, and sighed inwardly when they realized she was watching them. They knew she was probably wondering what had happened, and decided it was better to just explain before she started asking questions.
"I was just remembering some memories. It was nothing to concern yourself over," Chara explained. "Are you ready to continue, or would you like to keep listening to the song?" They hoped Alia would realize they did not want to talk about it. Fortunately, she simply nodded and began walking again, though they noticed she did glance at them occasionally. Trying to get her mind off of it, they started telling puns, and while she laughed at them, they had a feeling she hadn't entirely forgotten about it.
...
As the two continued through Waterfall, Alia often paused to listen to echo flowers. In one area, there were a bunch of them seemingly set along the path, and from listening to the first few, Alia guessed that the flowers had picked up most or all of a conversation that had been held while walking along. As far as she could tell, it seemed to be a couple of monsters talking, discussing their wishes.
One said they wished to see the surface, and the other apparently laughed, before replying that that was their wish, too. Alia felt sad; she had no idea how long ago these echo flowers heard the conversation, but to hear how much monsters wanted to return to the surface...
"Alia." Chara spoke, their tone completely serious. "Promise me you will not do anything dangerous or that could cause yourself harm trying to break the barrier."
Alia looked at them, surprised. She had not seen them look this troubled since the time Toriel said many of the monsters in the Ruins had moved on in a way that at first made them think they might have died. "I won't," Alia agreed, then hesitated a few moments before speaking again. "Is that... Is that why you..."
Chara sighed; they should have figured she would realize why they were so serious about this. Still, it was too important to make sure she didn't get herself hurt, not saying anything was not an option. "Come on," they said finally, leading her away from the echo flowers. Though they didn't seem to have been able to hear anything else Chara had said around them, they were not willing to risk it now.
Alia followed silently, watching them with a concerned expression. When the duo was far away from any echo flowers, Chara looked back at Alia, their expression for once showing their emotions rather than masking them.
"Yes, it was soon after I heard that that I began working on a plan to break the barrier. I am a ghost as a result of that plan." Chara internally debated whether or not to explain their plan and what had happened. Part of them did not want to relive those memories again, they just had earlier that day after all, and they trusted Alia to keep her promise. Still, Alia's concerned expression seemed to prompt them into continuing. "I realized that, since human souls persist after death, if we could collect souls from humans who had already died, we would be able to break the barrier without anyone getting hurt. However, there were no other humans in the Underground, so I knew we would need to reach the surface somehow to find any. It takes a human soul and a monster soul to cross the barrier, so I decided to let them use mine to get past the barrier and reach the surface. Except..." Chara took a breath before continuing, "As soon as they saw Rei, the humans started attacking him. Even though he did not fight back and just tried to talk things out with them, they kept attacking until he was badly wounded and had to flee back to the Underground." Chara had not realized it was possible for ghosts to cry, but they were relatively certain they were crying now, if Alia's expression was anything to go by.
Alia instinctively reached out to hug them, before remembering they were a ghost and realizing her arms would just go right through them. She froze for a few moments before reluctantly lowering her arms again, trying to think of a way to calm her friend down. "I'm sorry, Chara. Neither of you deserved that."
"We just wanted everyone to be free... No one was supposed to get hurt..." Chara said quietly, yet full of emotion.
"I know. And don't worry, I'm not going to do anything like that." Alia tried her best to be as reassuring as possible, though she wasn't sure how successful she actually was. Eventually, though, Chara started to calm down, and managed to smile slightly at Alia, trying to reassure her they were alright now.
"Thank you for listening, Alias."
"Of course, Character."
The two continued on, though both were rather more subdued than usual, but Chara still made an effort to narrate the things they came across.
...
Alia saw a sign up ahead and approached it curiously, but Chara stayed back as if trying to avoid it. Alia wondered what that was about; they usually stayed relatively close to her, especially recently, so why were they suddenly being so distant?
She read the sign silently. 'However... There is a prophecy. The Angel... The one who has seen the surface... They will return. And the Underground will go empty.'
"Look, it is just a dumb prophecy. Don't even bother thinking about it. Come on, we should go," Chara spoke up before she could dwell on the sign for very long. Alia glanced at them. They seemed irritated and... A bit worried? She wondered why.
//Swap to Chara's POV
Chara had known at some point the two would come across the sign upon which the prophecy had been carved. However, they had been hoping that if they ignored it and tried to move past it quickly, Alia would too. Unfortunately, she was too curious.
Chara could remember the prophecy all too well, though they would rather forget it. After all, it was all just a load of nonsense, wasn't it? They had tried to free monsterkind, and they had failed miserably.
Now they were worried it would fool Alia the same way it had fooled them. They couldn't stand the idea of Alia making some risky attempt to break the barrier and getting herself killed.
'No, she wouldn't do that. Especially now that she knows what happened...' Chara thought, trying to reassure themself.
"What makes you say that?" Alia asked, looking at them with a confused expression.
"They are just words carved on a sign. They are not worth risking your life over," Chara replied. "So just forget about it, okay?"
Alia seemed to have a moment of realization, though of what, Chara was not sure. Hopefully, whatever it was would convince her to put the prophecy completely out of her mind.
"Well, it's not like I've returned, anyway." Alia said.
Chara frowned at this, the words of the prophecy crossing their mind once again. It was true, it had clearly stated the angel would return and then the Underground would go empty. So the plan had been doomed to fail from the start, then? Why hadn't they realized that sooner?
Alia giggled, drawing Chara out of their thoughts. "What is it?"
"Nothing! I just, uh, thought of a pun! Hey, race you to the bridge!" Alia replied, not very convincingly in Chara's opinion. Besides, she could never resist telling a pun as soon as she thought of it. There was something going on here, but Chara had no idea what it was.
"Be careful!" Chara called out as Alia started running towards the bridge. They were not sure what she was hiding, but it certainly wasn't worth her tripping and falling down into the large chasm beneath them.
Alia stopped immediately, then turned towards them sheepishly. "Right, sorry!"
Chara simply sighed and followed her.
.....
//Flowey's POV
Flowey knew Alia had been visiting Waterfall that day, and decided it might be a good opportunity to try to learn more about her. From watching her from a distance, he noticed that she sometimes seemed to talk to herself, though he was never close enough to hear what she actually said. But with so many echo flowers strewn about Waterfall, perhaps she said something close enough to a few that they would be repeating, and he could listen to them.
When he approached the first one, he thought he might be right when he heard what was unmistakably Alia's voice saying, "Woah!" Grinning to himself, Flowey continued on, listening to every echo flower for any hints as to what Alia was up to. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like she'd spoken to or around any other flowers for quite some time, since they were all saying the same things they always did.
Flowey was beginning to consider giving up since he still hadn't heard anything new by the time he reached the area with the echo flowers talking about wishes. Flowey didn't particularly like this area, as he suspected it played a role in Chara deciding to sacrifice themself so the monsters could have their freedom. Still, he forced himself to listen to each flower, and was rewarded when he reached the final one and heard Alia's voice.
"Is that... Is that why you..."
Alia had definitely gone to Waterfall alone, but here it certainly sounded like she was talking to someone else, not herself. Which brought up a few questions. Had she ever actually been talking to herself? And more importantly...
Who was she talking to?
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(Annnnnd finished! Feel free to skip ahead to wherever you would like now!)
(Editing to add- Here it is!)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Alia entered Waterfall with an excited smile on her face. After having thoroughly explored Snowdin with Chara's help the past few days, she was eager to visit the next location in the Underground. She was relieved that no one seemed to mind her wandering off to explore with Chara, since it really was much more fun when the two could speak openly with each other. Though she enjoyed the presence of the others as well, she had to admit it could get frustrating to force herself not to laugh at one of Chara's narrations whenever someone else was around. Despite her best efforts at researching magic, Alia still hadn't managed to figure out a way to let Chara communicate with the monsters yet. Chara still did not appear to have figured out what she was trying to research, but continued to point out books about magic to her when she visited the library.
Still, Alia wasn't going to let her disappointment distract her right now. She listened happily as Chara told her about Waterfall, and kept wandering through until she came across a flower. It was different from any other flower she'd seen before; it was glowing a bright blue color, and she couldn't see any reason why or how it was doing that. "What's this?"
"That is an echo flower," Chara replied. "They repeat the last thing they hear."
Alia leaned towards the flower, listening curiously. To her surprise, she heard her own voice speak, asking, "What's this?"
"Woah!" Alia said, amazed. Soon after, the flower repeated it. She giggled, then began walking again. Soon, the two reached a hallway. There was a statue being drenched by rain, and Alia couldn't help but feel bad for some reason. She kept glancing at it as she continued walking through the hallway.
When she found a container with several umbrellas in it in the next room, Alia immediately grabbed one and headed back to where the statue was. It took her a few tries to prop the umbrella up in such a way that it was covering the statue, but once she'd succeeded, Alia couldn't help but smile.
A few moments later, a beautiful melody began playing. Neither Alia nor Chara knew where it was coming from, or why it started playing, but they just listened quietly. It wasn't long before memories began pushing to the front of Chara's mind...
//Flashbacks
Chara ran onto the path leading up Mount Ebott, not even bothering to look back at the human town they were leaving behind. Sure, they knew of the legends people told about how anyone who climbed the mountain would never return, but truthfully, Chara didn't want to return so that was fine with them. Once they were several yards into the trek, they stopped running, knowing none of the other humans would follow them this far anyway; they were all too terrified of the rumors.
Looking around, Chara let themself relax slightly. It was actually quite peaceful up here, with no other noises aside from those of nature, and no living creatures other than a few animals that had apparently made a home here. Chara tried their best not to disturb any of them, though they did stop to watch them for a bit before continuing on.
As they walked up the path, they wondered about the legends. Nothing strange had happened thus far, was there even any truth to them at all? Humans were known to let their imaginations run wild when it came to things they didn't understand or were scared of. However, Chara learned that in this instance, it was not entirely exaggerated rumors at work, as they found themself tripping on something and falling into a large opening that suddenly appeared in front of them.
As they fell, Chara wondered whether they should be feeling something. Scared or sad or... Something, at least. Maybe they were just in shock. Logically they realized they would probably be quite injured when they landed, and it wasn't like there was anyone with them to give them medical attention. Yet, they just felt resigned.
Shortly after they landed, they heard movement nearby. Though Chara's head hurt too much to actually look in the direction of the sound, they kept listening in surprise. There was not supposed to be anyone else around here, after all. It was soon proved they were not imagining things when a voice suddenly called out, in a startled and... concerned?... tone, "Are you okay?" The movement got closer, but Chara still did not move or try to reply. They were too confused.
"Please, say something, tell me you're alright!" the voice spoke again, more urgently, and Chara sighed inwardly but struggled to sit up. Why were they only now, after accepting what had seemed to be their fate, finding someone who actually seemed to care what happened to them? To their surprise, they felt someone, presumably the one who had spoken, reach out and help them.
Chara looked up and saw a young goat monster standing in front of them, looking worried but with a hint of relief upon seeing they were still alive and able to move. Chara remembered the stories the other humans told about monsters. All their horror stories were about evil monsters who attacked the innocent.
So why was it that a monster was rushing to help them, when the other humans were always looking for opportunities to bully them?
Chara let the monster help them to their feet, and was surprised when, after stumbling due to their injured leg, the monster let them lean on him and helped them walk along a path. The two walked slowly, the young monster being surprisingly careful of their injuries, until they reached two older goat monsters who were presumably the kid's parents.
One rushed to heal Chara's injuries, while the other hung back a bit, seeming worried about scaring them. Though after dealing with cruel humans for so many years, the kind family of monsters didn't scare Chara at all.
...
Though typically quite slow to trust, Chara found themself trusting the three monsters surprisingly quickly. It helped that all three were so genuinely caring, Toriel had quickly healed their injuries while Asgore appeared to be purposely making himself seem as un-threatening as possible. Asriel was just plain adorable, the kind of brother they would have liked to have watching out for them on the surface. The family had offered to take them in, and since Chara didn't exactly have any other ideas, they agreed.
At first, they tried to stay quiet and out of the way, that was what helped them avoid many incidents on the surface after all, but with Asriel's encouragement they soon found themself becoming part of the family. Chara realized they were happy here, much happier than they'd ever been on the surface.
When Toriel homeschooled them and Asriel, Chara always tried their best, wanting to make her proud. They were equally eager to help Asgore with gardening, and of course they were always happy to spend time with Asriel. They learned he loved roleplaying as his super-powerful OC, and made their own OC to roleplay as whenever he wanted to play.
Slowly, Chara healed from their time on the surface, with every chocolate pie Toriel made, each time they went exploring with Asriel and saw all the cool things in the Underground, every moment where the Dreemurrs were clearly making an effort to include them... The harsh memories faded away.
That allowed them to make their biggest mistake. They eventually forgot about just how cruel humans could be, and thought that maybe, everyone could exist in peace on the surface like the monsters wanted.
...
While Chara had heard monsters occasionally mention wondering what the surface was like, and knew they felt somewhat trapped by the barrier, for the most part they had been sheltered from how much the monsters truly wanted to be free. Of course, they were never in any danger, none of the monsters would ever harm the shy but caring human the King and Queen had adopted, after all. The monsters had merely avoided discussing it much in their presence to avoid scaring them into thinking they might be attacked.
Unfortunately, echo flowers didn't have this ability.
One day, as Chara and Asriel were wandering through Waterfall, they came across some echo flowers telling a story of two monsters whose greatest wish was to see the surface. Chara was rather surprised by this, since this was the first they had heard of monsters wanting to be free so badly. They wondered how many other monsters had a similar wish.
It was not long after that they came across a prophecy. One about an angel, which apparently many monsters believed would end with their freedom. With the new realization that monsters probably wanted to be free much more than they were letting on, Chara began thinking of a way to help them. After all, the monsters had been so kind to them, taking them in and giving them a family... They wanted to return the kindness somehow, and this seemed like a good way to do so.
They spent a lot of time thinking about how to break the barrier. Finally, they had an idea they thought would work. A monster could use their soul to get past the barrier, and since human souls persisted after death, they could find six more on the surface and then break the barrier, with no one needing to hurt anyone. It seemed like the perfect plan.
Except it wasn't. They hadn't expected any humans to come across Asriel when he went to the surface to gather the souls of six already dead humans. But despite him avoiding getting closer than necessary to the humans' settlements, a large group of humans still found him, and immediately began to attack as soon as they saw a monster.
Asriel tried his best to talk things out with them, but it was no use. The humans kept attacking even when he showed he had no intent to harm them, and finally he had to flee due to the number of injuries the humans had inflicted on him.
//End of Flashbacks
While Chara was distracted by memories, they did not notice Alia was glancing at them in concern. When the last of the memories finally faded, they looked at Alia to see if she was ready to leave, and sighed inwardly when they realized she was watching them. They knew she was probably wondering what had happened, and decided it was better to just explain before she started asking questions.
"I was just remembering some memories. It was nothing to concern yourself over," Chara explained. "Are you ready to continue, or would you like to keep listening to the song?" They hoped Alia would realize they did not want to talk about it. Fortunately, she simply nodded and began walking again, though they noticed she did glance at them occasionally. Trying to get her mind off of it, they started telling puns, and while she laughed at them, they had a feeling she hadn't entirely forgotten about it.
...
As the two continued through Waterfall, Alia often paused to listen to echo flowers. In one area, there were a bunch of them seemingly set along the path, and from listening to the first few, Alia guessed that the flowers had picked up most or all of a conversation that had been held while walking along. As far as she could tell, it seemed to be a couple of monsters talking, discussing their wishes.
One said they wished to see the surface, and the other apparently laughed, before replying that that was their wish, too. Alia felt sad; she had no idea how long ago these echo flowers heard the conversation, but to hear how much monsters wanted to return to the surface...
"Alia." Chara spoke, their tone completely serious. "Promise me you will not do anything dangerous or that could cause yourself harm trying to break the barrier."
Alia looked at them, surprised. She had not seen them look this troubled since the time Toriel said many of the monsters in the Ruins had moved on in a way that at first made them think they might have died. "I won't," Alia agreed, then hesitated a few moments before speaking again. "Is that... Is that why you..."
Chara sighed; they should have figured she would realize why they were so serious about this. Still, it was too important to make sure she didn't get herself hurt, not saying anything was not an option. "Come on," they said finally, leading her away from the echo flowers. Though they didn't seem to have been able to hear anything else Chara had said around them, they were not willing to risk it now.
Alia followed silently, watching them with a concerned expression. When the duo was far away from any echo flowers, Chara looked back at Alia, their expression for once showing their emotions rather than masking them.
"Yes, it was soon after I heard that that I began working on a plan to break the barrier. I am a ghost as a result of that plan." Chara internally debated whether or not to explain their plan and what had happened. Part of them did not want to relive those memories again, they just had earlier that day after all, and they trusted Alia to keep her promise. Still, Alia's concerned expression seemed to prompt them into continuing. "I realized that, since human souls persist after death, if we could collect souls from humans who had already died, we would be able to break the barrier without anyone getting hurt. However, there were no other humans in the Underground, so I knew we would need to reach the surface somehow to find any. It takes a human soul and a monster soul to cross the barrier, so I decided to let them use mine to get past the barrier and reach the surface. Except..." Chara took a breath before continuing, "As soon as they saw Rei, the humans started attacking him. Even though he did not fight back and just tried to talk things out with them, they kept attacking until he was badly wounded and had to flee back to the Underground." Chara had not realized it was possible for ghosts to cry, but they were relatively certain they were crying now, if Alia's expression was anything to go by.
Alia instinctively reached out to hug them, before remembering they were a ghost and realizing her arms would just go right through them. She froze for a few moments before reluctantly lowering her arms again, trying to think of a way to calm her friend down. "I'm sorry, Chara. Neither of you deserved that."
"We just wanted everyone to be free... No one was supposed to get hurt..." Chara said quietly, yet full of emotion.
"I know. And don't worry, I'm not going to do anything like that." Alia tried her best to be as reassuring as possible, though she wasn't sure how successful she actually was. Eventually, though, Chara started to calm down, and managed to smile slightly at Alia, trying to reassure her they were alright now.
"Thank you for listening, Alias."
"Of course, Character."
The two continued on, though both were rather more subdued than usual, but Chara still made an effort to narrate the things they came across.
...
Alia saw a sign up ahead and approached it curiously, but Chara stayed back as if trying to avoid it. Alia wondered what that was about; they usually stayed relatively close to her, especially recently, so why were they suddenly being so distant?
She read the sign silently. 'However... There is a prophecy. The Angel... The one who has seen the surface... They will return. And the Underground will go empty.'
"Look, it is just a dumb prophecy. Don't even bother thinking about it. Come on, we should go," Chara spoke up before she could dwell on the sign for very long. Alia glanced at them. They seemed irritated and... A bit worried? She wondered why.
//Swap to Chara's POV
Chara had known at some point the two would come across the sign upon which the prophecy had been carved. However, they had been hoping that if they ignored it and tried to move past it quickly, Alia would too. Unfortunately, she was too curious.
Chara could remember the prophecy all too well, though they would rather forget it. After all, it was all just a load of nonsense, wasn't it? They had tried to free monsterkind, and they had failed miserably.
Now they were worried it would fool Alia the same way it had fooled them. They couldn't stand the idea of Alia making some risky attempt to break the barrier and getting herself killed.
'No, she wouldn't do that. Especially now that she knows what happened...' Chara thought, trying to reassure themself.
"What makes you say that?" Alia asked, looking at them with a confused expression.
"They are just words carved on a sign. They are not worth risking your life over," Chara replied. "So just forget about it, okay?"
Alia seemed to have a moment of realization, though of what, Chara was not sure. Hopefully, whatever it was would convince her to put the prophecy completely out of her mind.
"Well, it's not like I've returned, anyway." Alia said.
Chara frowned at this, the words of the prophecy crossing their mind once again. It was true, it had clearly stated the angel would return and then the Underground would go empty. So the plan had been doomed to fail from the start, then? Why hadn't they realized that sooner?
Alia giggled, drawing Chara out of their thoughts. "What is it?"
"Nothing! I just, uh, thought of a pun! Hey, race you to the bridge!" Alia replied, not very convincingly in Chara's opinion. Besides, she could never resist telling a pun as soon as she thought of it. There was something going on here, but Chara had no idea what it was.
"Be careful!" Chara called out as Alia started running towards the bridge. They were not sure what she was hiding, but it certainly wasn't worth her tripping and falling down into the large chasm beneath them.
Alia stopped immediately, then turned towards them sheepishly. "Right, sorry!"
Chara simply sighed and followed her.
.....
//Flowey's POV
Flowey knew Alia had been visiting Waterfall that day, and decided it might be a good opportunity to try to learn more about her. From watching her from a distance, he noticed that she sometimes seemed to talk to herself, though he was never close enough to hear what she actually said. But with so many echo flowers strewn about Waterfall, perhaps she said something close enough to a few that they would be repeating, and he could listen to them.
When he approached the first one, he thought he might be right when he heard what was unmistakably Alia's voice saying, "Woah!" Grinning to himself, Flowey continued on, listening to every echo flower for any hints as to what Alia was up to. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like she'd spoken to or around any other flowers for quite some time, since they were all saying the same things they always did.
Flowey was beginning to consider giving up since he still hadn't heard anything new by the time he reached the area with the echo flowers talking about wishes. Flowey didn't particularly like this area, as he suspected it played a role in Chara deciding to sacrifice themself so the monsters could have their freedom. Still, he forced himself to listen to each flower, and was rewarded when he reached the final one and heard Alia's voice.
"Is that... Is that why you..."
Alia had definitely gone to Waterfall alone, but here it certainly sounded like she was talking to someone else, not herself. Which brought up a few questions. Had she ever actually been talking to herself? And more importantly...
Who was she talking to?
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(Annnnnd finished! Feel free to skip ahead to wherever you would like now!)