#charat

Frisk skipped around me and Papyrus as we passed the Librarby, which looked exactly as I remember it, misspelled sign and all. A brown bear monster in an orange jacket exited, nose buried in a book labeled “Political Science”. They nearly bumped into Papyrus, giving a short greeting before continuing to read and not look where they were going. That must be the same bear that kept going on about how strange politics were back in Snowdin.

I mean, my Snowdin. 

Might need to rename some places, too.

Just beyond the Librarby I noticed two young, white dog monsters building long necked snow dogs, who barked a greeting as we walked by and all three of us waved. They looked so familiar but I couldn’t quite place them.

What really threw me was Grillby’s being replaced with “The Dog House Bar and Grill”. I stood frozen, staring at it in discomfort until Papyrus grabbed my shoulder, snapping me out of it. I shook my head to clear it before whispering “later” since I didn’t wanna talk about my world so openly. Not yet, at least.

We passed the Gyftmas tree in the center of town, decorated festively but no gifts... and the closer I looked, the decorations were more generic, not themed after the human’s Christmas. It was pretty but made me feel that weird wrong/right sensation I was getting real tired of. Bratty and Catty were manning the connected Snowed Inn and Snowdin Shop respectively, which made me realize... where were all the bunnies that populated most of my Snowdin? There were plenty of other furry monsters walking around, just going about their day and thankfully not paying much attention to us, but I had yet to see a single bunny.

There was no “Welcome to Snowdin” sign as we headed out towards Snowdin forest.

Frisk had been running ahead throughout the town, swimming in Papyrus’ largest sweater, knitted with thick, pale yellow yarn. Their hands barely made it past the elbow of the sleeves, the extra length trailing behind as they waved their outstretched arms around wildly. I couldn’t tell who was in control but whoever it was seemed to be having the most innocent time of their life, kicking up snow while laughing and dancing around in oversized clothing, singing some wordless tune.

It was adorable.

And it hammered home that these two really were just kids. They’d been thrown into an impossible situation, with far more power and responsibility than any kid needed to be dealing with, and just trying to make the best of it. Not only with the resets, but now their potential involvement with that “joint family” thing Sans had mentioned, which I was trying to not think about. For the sake of monster kind, I hope it works. For our personal sakes, I hope it falls through.

The kid stopped and waved at me and Pap in their excitement as we trailed behind them.

“Somethin’ tells me they left their jacket home on purpose,” I said, waving back. They giggled and took off again.

“I don’t know what it is about that sweater but they always wear it at every opportunity,” Papyrus chuckled, allowing himself to feel some affection for the human. "I should probably just give it to them now that the resets won't take it back," he said, more to himself, then called to them, “Don’t forget about the traps, Frisk!”

“I~ know~,” they sang back before stopping at the bridge marking the edge of the settled area, flopping onto a snowbank and began waving their arms and legs about on the ground.

The bridge wasn’t just painted stone like it was in my world, it was a proper suspension bridge; support cables ran from one side of the crevasse to the other, attached to giant arches with their own inner suspension systems. I was no architect but it looked very complicated.

“Look! I made a snow Sans!” Frisk dragged me away from marveling at the architecture to show me their imprint in the snow. “See the long, flowy sleeves and the poofy pants?”

I looked at the vaguely humanoid imprint. I could see the arms and legs, at least, but any resemblance beyond that was lost on me.

“Looks just like ‘im, kiddo,” I replied with an easy smile as I brushed some of the snow off their back.

“You liar!” Frisk laughed before taking off again. They had way too much energy.

“Walk across the bridge, Frisk, don’t run,” Papyrus instructed. “We don’t need you falling off and getting hurt. Again.”

“Yeah, yeah,” they said dismissively. Despite that, they did slow down and even held onto the guard rail as we all crossed the long bridge. Their fingers poked through the loose knitting of the sweater, letting them hold onto the ropes better. 

I looked down over the side but couldn’t see the bottom, shrouded in darkness. A shiver ran up my spine and I kept going.

How far down does it go?

If I can figure out how to fly, could I find out?

We arrived at the other side without incident.

“So, traps, huh,” I said as Frisk took off again, but seemed to be sticking closer to us now. “And here I thought humans were welcome around these parts.”

“Building traps and puzzles as a community is one of the few remaining traditions from before the barrier,” Papyrus responded, giving me an odd look. “Is that not the case where you’re from?”

“Originally yeah, I guess,” I shrugged. “But catching humans became a bigger focus after Asriel died.”

“You said he was still a young Prince when he died, right?” Chara said from somewhere in front of us and I couldn’t help but flinch.

I glanced around.

“Where’s Frisk?” I asked

“He had to, uh, relieve himself,” Chara was suddenly very uncomfortable. I couldn’t see her but I got the distinct impression she couldn’t look me or Pap in the eye. I barely remember human anatomy from the time I could still consider the Anomaly a friend, but I guess even monster food has to do the whole “digestion” thing for them. Human anatomy was weird.

“That reminds me, I wanted to confirm,” I said, hoping to distract her. “I’ve heard you and Frisk use gendered pronouns for each other while everyone else seems to use neutrals for you. What do you prefer I use?”

“On paper, we identify as gender-fluid, since I am a girl and Frisk is a boy,” Chara said, still invisible but feeling less uncomfortable. “Using they/them pronouns makes the most sense, especially when referring to the two of us as a single entity. Neither of us are very attached to our genders anyways but gendered pronouns are convenient when referring to only one of us at a time.”

“Gotcha, so neutrals double as plurals for you two,” I nodded as Frisk emerged from a bush to the right of the path. “Back to your original question; yeah, my Asriel was still a kid while yours was an adult, if I remember right. I don’t know everything about his story but I’ll tell what I can if you’ll tell me about your story sometime. And we should probably come up with a new name for him, too.”

“Frisk and Papyrus have already heard my story so I can tell you about it while they take care of the puzzles,” Chara offered as we came upon an ice field with buttons scattered around it.

“Sounds good to me,” I nodded watching the other two begin to slide around on the ice. “I’ll keep an eye out for anyone approaching.”

“Thank you. I fell into the Underground over a hundred years ago, the first human to have done so in living memory,” Chara began. “Asriel was King at the time and Sans was his closest advisor and best friend. They found me, hurt and scared, and took pity on me, Asriel taking me in as his own child. Due to my upbringing, I felt the need to earn my place in Asriel’s home and did everything in my power to not be a burden, especially with my near constant nightmares. One night, after waking yet again, I decided to practice baking rather than risk going back to sleep and, in my delirious state, I misread a recipe to include buttercups in a pie, rather than cups of butter. I had been introduced to so many strange foods in the Underground that it seemed reasonable enough to put flowers in a pie, and I eventually passed out from exhaustion later that morning. Sans tried some of the pie as I slept and became violently ill as a result. This… did not help my mental state.”

Frisk and Papyrus had solved the ice puzzle and were calling and beckoning me to the other side. While I wouldn’t call myself graceful by any stretch, I skated across the ice with no problems.

“Something similar happened, but with both Chara and Asriel,” I stated as we caught up to Pap and Frisk. “The whole buttercups, cups of butter mix up.”

“She’s giving you the long version, huh?” Frisk grinned as we headed to the next puzzle.

“Not that long,” Chara huffed quietly, probably pouting. It was the first time she'd dropped the formal speech pattern. I wonder how natural that formality is and how much is just habit. 

“It’s long enough,” I whispered. “Someone’s coming.”

A short mouse monster in a cape with a spear twice as tall as themself waved at us from across an open field and Papyrus waved back. Behind them was a tall monster whose body was obscured by a cloak, face covered in a mask. Both began approaching, meeting us half way.