♥ text;

[souldeterminant]

[Sometime during the afternoon, a simple text makes its way onto the network, no picture or video attached.]

 

I'm back from vacation.

Don't worry. It was boring.

-Frisk

[None of which is, precisely, a lie. Thankfully, considering Frisk is just about the worst liar they know.]

[But it's good to be home.]

Comments

[freedom_engineer]

I can't disagree with the former statement. You did make a couple of mistakes.

The latter? Well, I can help there. I've been teaching Chara how to fight. Kid seems to hate me, part of the fallout of all this. But they want to learn how to fight.

I'm willing to teach you as well, if you think you need to learn.

[A beat.]

Also.. they had to fight you. Just... so you're forewarned.

[souldeterminant]

[Mistakes.]

[That's one way to think of it.]


[But Frisk doesn't linger long enough to chew on that bit of info, when the next one drops with all the grace of a plummeting elevator. Frisk tenses, peering into the camera with an anxious glint in an otherwise stony expression. Their mouth draws into a thin line.]

[Not at his offer to teach them how to FIGHT. They already know the answer to that one, deep down.]

[What does Colin mean, their Partner had to FIGHT them? They were gone. Checked out. On vacation. More than that, they would never --]

[... Frisk doesn't like where this is going.]

How?

[freedom_engineer]

How did they have to fight you?

[Colin looks right at the screen, letting it hang in the air for just a moment.]

If you want me to tell you, I will. But it's probably not my place, and once you hear things, you can't unhear them.

I will absolutely tell you, but you have to ask me to tell you first.

[souldeterminant]

[How did Chara have to? ... not exactly. Frisk doesn't really care about that 'how'. They have a pretty good guess, generally. They remember -]

[dragging, twin-snap tension, rigid bones clamped around their fingers notbeating]

[- some of it. And enough experience to know that the Queen plays for keeps. Player 1 has left the game. Enough experience and a flavor of red on the periphery of their memory, but they don't really ca]

[They want to know how Chara fought them. Because they're partners, it's us, blades marked with the same patterns of dust. "Training" sessions that have proven, time and again, that there really aren't many differences between all the kids with knives.]

[Colin looks right at the screen. Frisk looks right back.]

No.

[Whoever - whatever Chara fought, it wasn't them; not what mattered. They would have known. They're sure of it. That's all they need to know.]

But thank you. I'll remember that.