Note: As of October 31, 2021, the order of the chapters has been updated from release order to the original intended order: alternating between past and present.

Interlude: Perseverance (Summary)

It is Summer of 2028 in the Underground. Chara is about to head out on their daily survey of the Ruins when Asriel interrupts them, a matter weighing heavily on his mind. He asks Chara to consider giving fallen humans a chance, since they couldn’t all be as bad as the one who wounded him.

“This old argument again? Really?” Chara sighs and checks their watch. Thankfully, their last save wasn’t that long ago.

“ ‘Old argument’? I don’t remember–”

“Of course you wouldn’t. Now. Let us take it from the top.”

Chara reloads to a point before Asriel had approached them, but this time they are prepared for his confrontation. They begin to argue, and any time it seems like Asriel won’t be easily convinced, they reload and try a different tactic. Chara reloads over and over, until they finally find the right combination of words to make Asriel concede.

Tired but satisfied with their victory, Chara walks to the Ruins, congratulating themself for “sparing” Asriel an unpleasant argument and being such a wonderful partner to him. However, their self-important smile fades when they spy an odd sight: inside the old Dreemurr house, a small pair of boots sit neatly by the front door. Chara is not alone. 

They do a quick and silent search to find a human child in Asriel’s childhood room, asleep in his bed.

Anger flaring, Chara tears the covers off the bed, demanding the invader to get out. The child wakes up apologizing, snatching their glasses off the mattress and fumbling them onto their face. They are a female child, somewhere between grade schooler and teenager, and dressed for travel. Their backpack is sitting on the floor next to the bed, along with their coat. Chara cuts off the apology, one question ringing in their mind. They demand to know how the child made it past the traps, but the child doesn’t seem to hear and instead rambles excuses for being there. Chara’s rage begins to simmer down to annoyance as they collect themself.

“I didn’t mean to intrude or anything. You see, I’m an investigator. Or a researcher? I’m trying to prove the existence of monsters, or I was, but I got lost and fell down and now-- well some awful stuff happened, but now you’re here so--”

“Enough.” Chara interrupts with a scowl. They take a few steps to the floor lamp, switching it on. “Let us try this again.” They regard the child with an icy expression, unable to muster even a fake smile. 

“My name is Chara, the caretaker of these ruins and–” they gesture to the room, “–this dwelling. No one has made it this far without my guidance. So I ask you again. How did you get here.”

The child is quiet for a moment, a still apprehension washing over them. “It took a lot of tries. I failed but… I came back. I came back from the dead.”

Chara’s blood runs cold. “Explain.”

“I can’t. I don’t know how it works or anything, but I wrote it all down,” they crouch and unzip their backpack to retrieve a large, hardcover notebook. They start to open the cover but change their mind, instead hugging it to their chest, as if for comfort. “The first few traps were easy. I flipped switches, and I swam around the room with all the spikes on the floor. But there was one room where I fell. And I… died.”

Chara says nothing, understanding this phenomenon all too well. The child goes on to explain that after dying, they came back at an earlier spot in the Ruins. However, when attempting to cross the pitfall trap a second time, they failed again, and again, each time learning a bit more about the puzzle until they finally solved it through trial and error. 

Dread begins to weigh in Chara’s chest as they try to formulate a plan to override the child’s apparent immortality, but then the child says something odd. They explain that even when they solved the trap, the time loops continued, pulling them back to the same point. Ever tenacious, the child kept resolving the puzzle until the time loops stopped, allowing them to finally find refuge in this house.

Finding it odd the child turned back time against their will, Chara asks them when the last time loop occurred.

“Oh, uh,” the child folds back the notebook, thumbing through the lined pages and checking their small daisy-themed watch, “About... 42 minutes ago? Gosh, it feels so long ago.”

Chara matches the child’s gesture by checking their own watch. Their tense expression relaxes into a relieved smile. “So that is what is going on,” Chara chuckles, shaking their head, “And to think I was worried.”

“‘Worried’? What do you--”

“Human.” Chara interjects, as if they didn’t hear, “Thank you for cooperating. I now see that I am responsible for this confusing turn of events.” Chara draws their knife from beneath the hem of their tunic, eliciting a gasp as the child takes a half-step back into the mattress behind them. 

Chara briefly regards their reflection in the steel before fixing their eyes back on the child. “I will correct this.”

Chara swings the knife down towards the child, but they block the attack with their notebook, torn pages scattering as the force knocks it from their hands. The child runs, scrambling out of the bedroom and towards the front door. They get only three steps down the hall before Chara snatches the back of their jumper, snapping them backward. Trapped, the kid switches from flight to fight.

Pain and adrenaline shoots through the child, bringing with it a ferocity that only panic can inspire.

“Let go! Let go! Let go!” they shriek, each demand louder than the last, their fingers clawing and punching any surface within arm’s reach. Abruptly, Chara releases their collar, and the child stumbles to keep their balance as Chara backs away from them.

The child looks Chara up and down, frantically searching for the weapon. Did they drop it?

“No…” the child’s voice wavers when they see it: the knife buried into their stomach down to the handle. The pain they were biting back rushes through their body, and instinctively the child tears the blade out. They freeze, despair flashing across their face with the realization that they’ve only expedited their death. The child collapses forward onto the floor, bloody knife skittering out of their hand.

Chara’s eyes are wide and vacant. Wordlessly, they bend down to pick up the knife and step past the child to enter the kitchen. They pause to look themself over. The seam of their sleeve is torn, and blood is smeared across the hem. With a bit of annoyance, Chara rolls up both sleeves, and washes their hands, the knife, then their hands again for good measure. They splash cold water on their face, hanging over the sink for a few moments to compose themself. 

After a couple deep breaths, they dry off with a kitchen towel and open a cabinet. Four soul containers sit inside.

Returning with a soul container, Chara is surprised to see the child has dragged themself down the hall, stopping just a few feet from the front door.

“What a mess.” Chara mutters. With their free hand, they pull out their phone and browse to Muffet’s name, “Your perseverance is admirable, human. However. It will not save you.”

The child’s eyes are unfocused, tears obscuring whatever vision they have left. Their voice is little more than a whisper.

“Monster.”

interlude: perseverance // end