*A warm place (TW: Body horror)

[demonthatcomes]

It's so quiet when they wake up.

Chara remembers it vividly, like a bad dream. They had been so close to finishing what they started. They raised a knife to the withering flower who used to be their best friend. Their hesitation cost them (as Mettaton reminded them before they loaded their previous SAVE in disgust) and before they could plunge their weapon into the final kill, they were flung into the void with no way of going back. "I don't like this plan anymore." "We can't keep going like this!" "Who are you?" So they told them. Everything evil, everything wrong in this world, the exhilaration they feel when numbers go up... they are the embodiment of power. I am Chara. The demon that comes when people call its name. They finally realized their purpose and who they were meant to be. So why did that human take it away from them? They taught monsters what humanity is like at its core. They punished the Underground for becoming as bad as the surface. They forced everyone to look at their own sins and suffer the consequences. Everybody deserved it as much as they deserved to die years ago. How rich of their striped partner to dare call them out, when they'd been anything but clean in the past timelines. They are not the hope of humans and monsters. As a human themself, they cannot be anything but much worse.

Then the human held them. Stop! You're not a demon. You're just a kid. We're both kids... And a horrible mess. The two of them sat there, crying and crying in the void, where nobody else came. Both of them agreed to start over. Together, they would do it right even if it would never make up for the sins they committed.

Chara can't find the other human anywhere. Their surroundings are nothing like the Ruins. Everywhere they look they see gravestones, and a path littered in bones. That... that's just...

They laugh. They laugh and laugh and cannot stop. They laugh so hard that gobs of black tears ooze like tar from their currently empty eye sockets.

Takes place after the funeral, but before everyone realizes Frisk is alive.

[justletmewin]

[[Because I'm going to be an asshole to my Asriel.]]

While tending to the golden flowers, Asriel drifted off into a deep sleep. He expected to die--well, not so much "die" as turn back into a soulless flower who can't feel love anymore. He found it nice while it lasted. He yawned and stretched himself awake... his eyes shot open and he held his arm in front of him, flexing his fingers. He's still... himself? The goat startled as he accidentally knocked over a bush of hyacinths that crowded him in a rainbow of colors. What is he doing here?

This isn't the Ruins. It's much brighter than that, and--that's the sky, isn't it? Asriel gets up and walks around while he can still feel his arms and legs. He calls out, asking if anyone's there. He doesn't get a reply, but he does hear singing from far away. It's not in a language he understands, but it's beautiful, and the melody weaves itself through his ears like a soothing balm. Even if it did sound kind of... sad. He follows the singing and finds a throng of people in the distance. While relieved he wasn't alone, the atmosphere was solemn, and a pit formed in his stomach as he wondered if something terrible had happened.