[Post-Event Post] I don't need safety, I've grown up

[itstheend]

They wake up.

They wake up, and for a moment it's a confusion as two sets of impulses try to sit up, try to roll over, what is this why can't I move-

It all comes flooding back, and the thrashing, twitching body goes still, glassy eyed, panting.

*...
*Hi Chara.

Breathe. Breathe.

*Sorry I kicked you out.

Chara groans and presses their palms to their eyes. There's a dual storm of self-loathing here, turbulence kicked up by the past crashing into the future. Things that neither wanted to come to light, exposed. Breathe.

Well then. Damage control. Lock this all away and focus on getting up. They've been sleeping under a bench in the chapel this past month - they touch the back of their head with their fingers where they just cracked it on the pew. Didn't notice, in the heat of the moment. It seems that the Castle always shoves Frisk back into Chara.

They get up, and start walking - no particular destination, but places they are avoiding. The library. The balcony. The swings, certain spots in the garden, the kitchens. They just need to run, and they do, and when running's not enough, when their legs burn and their lungs are filled with knives from the cold air they screech to a halt and scream and punch a window, bright glass shattering, before turning on a vase. Anything inanimate nearby is getting destroyed.

Frisk makes no move to stop them.

For Poke-Frisk and Sparks:

There's something that needs to be done, and it has to be done sooner rather than later. Frisk would prefer to give the apology in person but... that would raise some questions they don't think Chara would particularly want to answer right now.

While they do have control over the body (it aches - Chara themself has retreated to a ball at the far back, spent) they spend some time making enquiries - they don't know where the Frisk with red eyes and the dog monster live, and need to to slide this under a door. They've written an apology letter (and not a Bureau of Communication one).

They feel terrible about attacking Sparks -  they're pretty sure that was Sparks, even if he looked different - and it profusely says so.

Comments

[itstheend]

I believe I said as much.

[The tone is equal parts testy and clearly enjoying her reaction. This is more like it. They feel they have more of an upper hand now.]

You seem so surprised.

[The tone is dry with a slight mocking edge - they're just needlessly antagonising her at this point. It seems she's run into monsters already, so she isn't quite as much of a new arrival as they were assuming. It also means, to Frisk's relief, that they're likely safe. Chara finds themself relaxing just a little as well, to their bafflement. There's at least two monsters who have had enough harm in their lives.

*Aw, you care!

It's advantageous, Frisk. Frisk makes a mental 'sure, sure' motion at them.]

You should consider fighting for fun. I highly recommended it.

[Also they highly have a death wish.]

[lawofcycles]

Oh....

Thats.....

[What do you do when some kid a few years younger the you just fesses up to murder? She doesn't know how to deal with this. ]

Uh, yeah, I am suprised! I don't really know....

I'm sure you had a good reasons!! It's just...awful to hear that?

[Kids don't kill without a good reason, she watched a few crime dramas in her life. Enough to know that there is usually a reason. ]

I think any fight for the right cause is fun...but I don't like hurting people.

[Liar. She enjoys the rush of power as much as anyone. She just doesn't like getting hurt. ]

[itstheend]

Cool motive, still murder.

[Morality is in the action, not the result or reason after all, is it not. The tone is matter-of-fact, deliberately disinterested, uninjured hand coming up to hook under their chin.

If you're the bad guy, don't you gotta have a villainous plan?

Haha, you're just a kid like me.

They wouldn't call leg-caught-in-a-bear-trap vengeance a 'good reason'.]

You find them fun, and yet you dislike causing harm. What kind of fights have you been in, then, where you are not causing pain in some capacity?

[Which one is true? They're pointing out the contradiction mostly to turn the screws rather than judge (although the easy way out is to declare the opponent isn't a person), but there is the definition of conflict to consider here.]

[lawofcycles]

Um w-well....

[She doesn't have a very good answer to that. ]

Well! I'm not really fighting people! I'm helping them by defeating despair! Thats more like healing then fighting! And working together with friends and using magic and being useful, thats a lot of fun! That's what makes it worth it.

Not...real fights though. Those are just awful.

[itstheend]

[There's just a little bit of that diet-EXP feeling at her flusteredness. Frisk mentally leans their head on their arms, kicking a leg.

*It's being a troll.]

Forgive me, but since when was despair something tangible?

['I'm not really fighting people'. But she is fighting 'evil', 'creatures'. It's more pointing out the oddity of calling it simply despair in their eyes - how are the two related, really?]

Congratulations, I suppose.

[On your saccharine life. They wouldn't wish their experiences on another (except perhaps another them), but what they can never achieve fails to hold their interest and it comes across in their tone.]

what?? this muse is? back?

[lawofcycles]

Um...since.....uh...a few months ago? For me at least, oh gosh. I know it doesn't make a ton of sense I'm sorry! But I'm not lying! They're just...really really bad things that hurt people!

[Yes. Things. She's not as big on binarys as Sayaka but she's not really the type to look to deep into things either. If something is evil and hurting people, and shes told has to fight it, then she'll fight it.

She winces at the sarcasm. ]

Oh..I'm sorry. If that was the wrong thing to say, I mean. I don't mean to brag or be a jerk or anything! I'll stop talking about myself...

: D

[itstheend]

[She... reminds them of Frisk, if Frisk were inclined to babble. She just folds (although if she is anything like Frisk, there's a steel core under that. They wonder if she also has a red soul.)

*Things...
*Why do they hurt people?

Chara is no pacifist, and thinks self defense (or vengeance) are fair, but they do like how pulling this thread is making her squirm, and Frisk has just provided them with ammo.]

Things that hurt people. Why do they do that, do you think?

[After all, they're a really really bad thing that hurts people. Even thoughtless mechanism has reason behind it. The apology is waved off, sailed past, even if it does mollify an unspoken fanged part of them with it's deference.]