Chapter Text
Occasionally, the SOUL would say some things or give some thoughts on a particular matter. Their next words; their next actions, which were predetermined by the soul, usually echoed within their mind before being performed. Likewise, sometimes the SOUL would blurt something out, usually because it was bad at fighting.
"Goddammit! Damn Damn Damn Damn! He was one turn away from being spared!”
“Those goddamn teacups…”
“Alrighty, who gets Dealmaker?”
At least the SOUL had a similar frame of mind as Kris. Those teacups man… even The Knight was easier than those.
Asriel was coming home. That was cool. Big brother he may be, however, foolishness gets the better of all at some point and he forgot to book his plane seat. He managed to get into a really prestigious college in another state. Maybe he wants to be a lawyer… Better Call Asriel. No, that didn’t sound right. Unfortunately, his arrival will be two days late.
As if that was bad enough, it was raining hard later that day. Hard enough to require a postponement of The Festival a couple of days. No dark fountain today either, for better or for worse. It was Monday, after all. Nobody, not even The Knight, likes Monday it seems. That means they… oh angel…
Kris and Susie needed to work on their group project after school.
Being the master procrastinators they are, the two did none of that. They played flash games on the computers the entire time, and Kris lost miserably to Susie in arm wrestle. Ralsei would’ve been disappointed and happy at the same time.
At the end of the day, the two slept over at Kris’ place again. Toriel, as always, was welcoming. And the house smelled of sugar and pie crust.
Kris and Susie were in the living room, Toriel in the kitchen. Kris was paralyzed for a moment, stopping dead center in the middle of the living room. Oh, this is just the SOUL again. Susie walked to the bathroom momentarily, so this gave Kris time to finally talk with it in their head.
Alright. A new chapter already? Is uh… am I playtesting? What’s…
No. Not the time. Chapters? What are you smoking?
That’s not something I'm legally allowed to tell you… wait, this is the first time you’ve actually talked to the pla- me. That means… oh no…
Oh no what? What, you scared I’m gonna rip you out of my chest?
No no no. This is just entirely new is all. Anyways, good evening. How was school?
It was great.
That's… unexpected. Proceed.
The word “Proceed” set off alarm bells in their head. It made their heart jump. Whatever, maybe this is just the insomnia getting to them.
I slept through the entire day.
That explains it. You’re taking this “voice” thing awfully well. I’d thought you’d at least go like “what the fuck" or something.
I’ve been so stressed out the last couple of days, you’re the least of my worries. And I’ve also been hearing you crash out on some of those bosses. Dude, you suck at fighting.
Alright alright alright chill out bozo. I don't play Touhou like I'm sure many others do. I’ll leave you to your own devices for now.
“Kris y' good?”
Kris didn’t even notice Susie leaving the bathroom. It’s like she was gone one moment and back the next. She was slouching to their eye-level and waving her hand over their face.
“Just thinking.”
“Thinking hard enough that you’re standing there like a statue? Didn’t get enough sleep in class, zombie?”
“I didn’t.” Kris shrugged, tilting their head slightly to the side.
“Or maybe you’re thinking about somebody special?”
Kris could tell where this was going. Susie plopped herself onto the couch, causing tidal waves of cushion throughout and leaving a small valley where she sat. She struck an over the top ‘intellectual’ pose. One leg folded under the other, her elbow resting on her knee making her fist prop up her head.
“Maybe you’re thinking about a certain TV?”
“Stop it.”
“Maybe you’re thinking of Nubert? Everybody likes him.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“Maybe you’re thinking about a certain prince?~”
“Don’t you fucking dare.”
“Language!”
A voice could be heard from the kitchen. Toriel had the ears of a dog when it came to cussing in her household. Nobody could match the wrath of an angry Toriel. Even Susie was left startled. Kris turned their head towards her, and Susie did the same while releasing her hand from under her head.
“Sorry. Susie’s just trying to give me a wet willie.”
Wet Willie? I only know a Dry Willie. He’s awfully rude.
Be quiet, you.
And like that, Toriel was back in her own little world of snail pie, and Susie was back to her regularly scheduled teasing, striking up her intellectual philosophical ultimate smart pose again - one that could rival Berdly’s. She began to speak.
“Maybe… just maybe, Kris…”
“I swear to god, Susie.”
“You’re thinking about Ralsei!”
And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Damn it all if they said they didn’t like the dark prince a little. They had warmed up to him remarkably fast, though that wasn’t the only thing warming up. Their yellow face had turned orange, and an instantaneous heat rushed over their nose bridge. They weren’t thinking of him before, but they were now. They turned their head away from Susie, rubbing their palm on their forehead as more blood rushed to it. Their eyes faced the ground.
“I-I… I don’t like him.”
“Oh really? I thought he liked you. He blushes like crazy around you it's insane!”
“He does?” Kris moved their head a little towards Susie's direction, their eyes still looking downwards.
“What, hoping he reciprocates your feelings?”
“No, not at all.”
“So you do have feelings?” Susie let a sly grin spread across her face.
“No. I never said I did.”
Susie had a skeptical look on her face. Her yellow eyes squinting up at them and her mouth creasing inward before they sat on the couch next to her, plopping on the cushions with less force than Susie. They sat cross legged with their hands over their feet, and they finally turned towards her once their blush ceased. Kris hunched forward a tad, while Susie stopped her intellectual sitting and laid back on the couch, slouching.
“Susie, about yesterday… Are you alright?”
“I’m completely fine. I know you and Ralsei would never let that happen.”
There was some strain in Susie’s voice, but Kris didn’t want to push further.
“Alright. If you need to talk, let me know.”
“There is something I wanna talk about… I think this is the most you’ve ever talked. Like, some days you don’t even say a single word.”
“I have been talking a lot today.”
This was weird. Where are the prompts? Where’s the SOUL to make them act like either the hugest douche around or make them eat moss? Not that they minded the moss eating.
I’m right here. I’m just letting you do your own thing after this... revelation.
Felt bad? Finally. I hate being puppeteered around, that’s a little known fact about me. I thought you were a demon. Wait… what’s your name? I need to know in case I need to tell you to lock in.
I’m Waldo, guess where I am!
Who’s Waldo...?
Fine, just continue to call me Soul. It’s easier that way.
Alright, SOUL. Can you be quiet? I’m trying to talk to Susie.
Sure sure, but I think Susie’s trying to actually give you a wet willie right now.
Kris turned their head slowly, and sure enough, Susie had stuck her index finger in her mouth. She quickly took it out, wiping her finger on her jacket.
“If you’re gonna stare at the wall for five minutes, the least I could do is prank you! This is boring, dude. You don’t have a TV anymore, and all you got is some dumb books.”
Kris placed their hand on their chin, their thumb and index finger wrapping around it, while wrapping their other arm around their torso and looking slightly downwards. For a few seconds, they were lost in thought, before perking their head up and releasing their arms.
“My brother has a PC upstairs.”
Kris got up from the couch, flexing their back to stretch it and release some tension. A few pops could be heard from their spine. Susie got up soon after, though she just yawned with her head facing upwards and her arms stretched to either side. Though the more appropriate word than "yawned” would be “roared”.
The duo walked through the kitchen, both eyeing the butterscotch pie on the counter and silently thinking of its flavor; its texture; its scent. Though Kris usually just ate the entire pie in the middle of the night because it was funny, it tasted great, too.
Looking past the pie, Toriel was almost finished with dinner. Snail pie. Yum. Toriel saw their glances and how they were eying the butterscotch pie and shot them a suspecting glare, one eyebrow raised and eyes squinted.
The two walked back out of the kitchen and up the stairs where they’d walk through the hall. The two stopped in front of the mirror. Susie shot Kris a suspecting glance, while Kris just stared blankly at the mirror. Despite everything, it was still them. After a couple minutes of standing in front of the mirror, and Susie being tempted to poke fun at them not before thinking this might just be an unusual habit of theirs, Kris walked past the mirror and stopped at their's and Asriel's bedroom door.
“Ladies first” Kris spoke.
“I think I should be saying that, dork.”
Susie flashed a toothy grin before getting behind Kris and letting them in the room first. Kris snickered, but put on their usual stoic demeanor once again. They looked at the trophy Susie had given them. The glow-in -the-dark star that hung so high up. The one on the highest shelf above their bed. That might’ve been the first trophy they’d ever received, and they were grateful for it.
Kris stood over the computer, hunching over to see the screen as there was no chair. Susie had to almost crouch beside them to see the screen. The keyboard was dusty, and the texture of it made Kris’ skin cringe at the touch, much like touching printing paper. Asriel was left handed, so naturally, the mouse was on the left side of the keyboard. Kris was right handed, so they shifted the mouse and its pad to the other side, tangling a few wires in the process but nothing they can't help. It's not like anything they did would harm the homunculus of tangled wires that lie beyond the monitor. The monitor itself was dusty as well. Kris wiped the screen with their left hand, leaving a black trail on the screen. They repeated the process until the screen was entirely black.
Their hand was covered with gray, and the sight startled them slightly, though not enough for Susie to notice. Kris was good at keeping a cool head. It reminded them slightly of the sight of being unable to find their hand the other day in that one capsule machine, and the unwashable grey that had colored a sliver of skin between two of their fingers on that very hand later on.
Kris didn't want to dwell on this, so they pressed the power button on the PC, then the keyboard. They were surprised to see that the computer still worked. It’s ventilation and cooling still intact after years of being unused. The PC was a tall black tower that lay below the dusty desk, its body predominantly black and dark grey, with accents filled with LED lights that glowed in red, then green, then blue, before cycling back to red. It sounded like a quiet airplane, its humming’s volume barely above a whisper. The monitor flashed white, then blue, and then black, revealing the PIN screen.
It read Asriel’s email address. Below which was a dark grey bar rounded at the edges where the PIN number could be entered. Kris’ eyes turned to the digital address of their older brother before clacking away at the keyboard and being refused every time.
122882. Toriel's birthday. Please try again.
121181. Asgore's birthday. Please try again.
040706. Asriel's birthday. Please try again.
010109. Kris' birthday. Please try again.
Susie looked up at them. "Are you sure it's not 069420?"
"I'm sure."
Kris straightened their back from their hunched over position and looked up to the ceiling. They’d read somewhere that doing this helped with blood circulation and in extension, cognitive performance and memory recall. Susie was still crouching near the keyboard, entering in more combinations though not with the speed Kris had. She was typing one key at a time, raising her index finger over one and hitting it, then slowly raising her other hand’s index finger over another one and hitting it, repeating the process.
If you were Asriel, what would you make your PIN number?
You’re really annoying, but thank you for the advice.
Don’t worry, Kris. I think you’re annoying, too!
Asriel was always bad at memorization. He hated social studies for that exact reason. He hadn’t even bothered to memorize his own phone number, or anyone’s birthdays.
“Susie, step aside. The Krismeister is here to save the day.”
“Alright then, do your thing. Your brother must’ve been a huge dork if he made his password this complicated.” Susie stood up, stepping aside before crouching down again to look at the screen from the sidelines.
“Oh believe me, Susie. The only person dorkier than him is probably Ralsei.”
“Nah. You’re a huge dork, too.”
Kris once again hunched over the monitor, their eyes drawn to the screen. They typed in a combination of numbers only their brother could think of as a PIN.
There were ten commandments Kris knew. Those were things they learned when they went to church years ago, and among those ten commandments were:
‘Thou shalt not kill.’
'Thou shalt not get ice-cream from McDonalds.’
‘Thou shalt be a menace to society.’
‘Thou shalt learn all the curse words’
And most importantly:
‘Thou shalt always trust Asriel to make his passwords “000000” or “password”.’
Kris was probably remembering the commandments wrong, but if they forgot something, it probably wasn’t important enough to remember.
They typed in the PIN and it worked, bringing them to the homepage. The background was of a shriveled figure in golden armor, wearing robe-esque accessories over their arms and a long chainmail skirt over their legs. They wore iron braceletes and were completely barefoot. Atop their head was a crown with tall spikes resembling the tines of a fork, and it was colored gold. Behind the crown was a head of ragged white hair, the figure's face hidden by a beige scarf. In their right hand, they held a polearm as long as they were tall, with an oversized spearhead which was less a spearhead and more a sword. In their left hand, they raised a lightning bolt over their head. The figure themself was riding a large dragon that spewed flames.
“Isn’t your brother in college? I thought his PIN was a combination of ‘069420’ or a jumble of those numbers.”
“Yeah, I was thinking something like that. I’d probably have made that my PIN number. Alas, I do not have a computer. In any case, let’s see what Asriel’s been up to since he left. I believe this should be linked to his google account, and I wouldn’t put it past him to use it for college.”
Kris was hovering the cursor towards Asriel’s chosen browser, Duckduckgo, before they glanced at the background again, bringing to their mind Asriel's infatuation with dragons. He might've saved some unsavory websites in his time using this computer.
“Susie, word of warning, if I tell you to, you should avert your eyes.”
“If you’re telling me this I probably should. But I won’t.”
Kris opened the browser and immediately their eye was caught by the visible bookmarks. A testament to Asriel’s lack of sense of security. They were completely visible below the search bar, only a click away from angel knows what. Even Kris had enough computer knowledge to know how to hide bookmarks. He had saved Youtube. Don't know why you'd do that. Youtube.com was easy to remember. beside that he had saved a reading website. He probably wrote Dragon Blazer fanfics. Next to that bookmark was another website, Mangadex. Kris could tell a website's name from its symbol. They had gained that knowledge from their time on the library computers. And next to mangadex was...
“Hey Kris… what’s that?”
Susie pointed to one of the bookmarked websites, thereafter, Kris’ eyes drifted to where she was pointing. Their heart dropped to their stomach upon seeing the icon. Green background, the number forty three…
This wasn’t something Kris wanted to bother explaining, so they immediately turned off the computer. The PC’s lights flickered off and the monitor went back to an unlit black screen.
“C’mon dude what the hell!? What’d you do that for?”
“That… is none of your business.”
“Nah, it is my business!” Susie grinned at Kris. She knew what she was doing.
Kris was squatting down further to check out the drawers of Asriel’s desk. “W-well, why don’t we try checking out the desk drawers? See what’s in the-”
Susie had turned on the PC again, quickly entering the PIN and speeding the cursor to the browser and then to the bookmarked website she had pointed at prior.
“NO NO SUSIE DON’T… Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare. Susie, do not.”
The cursor was on the bookmark. Susie, still crouching, turned her head back to Kris. Somehow, her grin managed to get wider, as if silently saying “I think I do dare”.
Kris heard the mouse click.
They sprang into action. All of that jumping around with the Soul yesterday was good practice for an occasion such as this. They dashed toward Susie, managing to tackle her with their slim frame and cover her eyes. They pinned her to the ground.
“Dude… get… off…!”
“No.”
They lifted their free hand, closing out of the tab and opening a new one to youtube.
“Fine. You want to see a website you don’t know? Go ahead.”
Kris stopped wrestling with Susie, hopping backwards, before she jumped back up.
“This. This is what you were hiding?”
“Yep.”
Thankfully, Susie hadn't as much computer knowledge as Kris, so she didn't notice that Kris had swiftly set the bookmarks setting to only appear in new tabs.
Beads of sweat collected on Kris’ temple and hairline. Close call.
Close call indeed. With how fast you were, you could definitely be in cross country.
I think I need to not have C’s in every subject to do that.
Susie started scrolling, eventually settling on an episode of Regular Kaisen. Muscle man had just been sealed, and Garret Bobby Ferguson Jr. had just been revived. Truly devastating for the park. Kris could hear the episode running, but decided to embark on their own escapades.
The soul had made it a habit to check every nook and cranny and it drove Kris insane.
I think we should look for random garbage.
Why?
There might be equipment that could be useful in the dark world. Finding even a mere pencil could gain you the upper hand in a future battle.
You make a good point. However, It’s not like we’re using weapons much given we’re trying to recruit darkners, not harm them. And most if not every time we enter a dark world we find a shop with better equipment than the last dark world.
Better safe than sorry. You don’t want your ol' pal The Knight to ambush you like they did in the sanctuary and TV-land. And it’s less of “they might hurt you” -no, I know you’re good friends with The Knight, but less dark world items used is better than an empty inventory. You know I rarely have Ralsei use heal prayer. It’s a habit I’ve had for a while.
Fine, you can have control for a few minutes. Make sure what you’re doing is worth our while. And while you’re at it, try to break that habit so we don’t have to go spelunking in the first place.
Kris felt their autonomy stripped, though it was easier to cope with this seeing the Soul’s new recognition of its effects on them and the fact that it was a person. Almost a person. Kris still didn’t completely trust it. They hardly trusted it at all, and it would take a while for them to warm up to it.
They walked around the room, searching under their bed first. There was nothing under it they hadn't seen -namely some pieces of lint- so they moved onto Asriel’s bed.
These are all places we’ve checked before.
Who knows? Maybe some mystery skeleton planted an egg around?
They made it to Asriel’s bed and leaned down next to it to search. Their ear was pressed against the carpet. The usual suspects. Music players, a game console, ordinary things seen by Kris and the Soul many times before, but something was different. Something was added to the usual stash.
Something glinted in the back of the bed’s underside. It was made of steel, or was it gold? Maybe copper? It was hard to see in the darkness under the bed, but it was clearly not old or corroded. It shimmered even in the darkness, and Kris could make out the vague shape of… what an arrowhead?
What the hell’s an arrowhead doing down here? Nah, you know what, I could probably sell it. Buy some chocolate with all that antique arrowhead money.
It’s not antique. It’s like it’s completely brand new.
You have control over my body right now, can you please move my arm? It’s getting sore from being in this position for this long.
The Soul moved Kris’ arm down beneath the bed, but their arm was too short and they couldn’t reach their treasure.
I’ll give you back the reins for now. I’m gonna make dinner.
Kris could hear the distant sounds of footsteps and a door closing. It was odd. No such sight accompanied those sounds and yet they heard them. Weird. In any case, they wanted to get that arrowhead, and they’ll need Susie’s help for that.
“Susie, I think I found something you’d like. Call it an early birthday gift.”
Susie rose from her squat, pausing the episode of Regular Kaisen she’d been watching. She looked over her shoulder before completely turning around, back straightened, and arms folded.
“Oh really? What is it?”
Kris grinned. “Something sharp. It’s under the bed.”
Susie smiled in tandem with those words. “Alright, leave it to me!”
She approached Asriel’s bed, before lying down with her face to the ceiling, moving her right arm around under the bed.
“Oh that’s sharp, yeah, I think I got it.” She retracted her arm and stood up, holding the arrowhead high above her like it was a trophy.
It was indeed gold and it was laden with engravings. The blade of the arrow was a spotless silver, and it appeared even sharper than the sharpest kitchen knife Toriel owned. The same could not be said for the rest of the arrow. The arrow’s head was almost brand new, but the handle was aged; almost rotted, and broken off like a splinter.
“Woah, Kris. I didn’t know your brother was classy like that!”
“I guess I just missed it before. Lemme see it for a mo.”
Susie handed the arrowhead to Kris before they held it up to their eye, inspecting it like a rare nugget of gold.
“Wow, this is awesome. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Susie turned from the arrow to Kris, the both of them slowly smiling at one another.
“Let’s sell it and buy a bunch of chocolates.” Spoke the both of them in unison.
Susie turned off the PC, and as Kris was still inspecting the arrowhead, something peculiar happened.
“OW GOD… damnit. God that hurts.” Kris fell to the ground, their bottom colliding with the ground with a loud thump. They slouched over, holding their injured hand with the other, and Susie crouched down to Kris’ level.
“Kris! What happened!?”
“It’s that damn arrowhead.”
Peering down at her squatting friend, a wide gash was drawn across Kris’ palm, bleeding and painful. The wound slowly began to close, and the sight was disquieting to say the least. The deep gash slowly sealed from left to right, releasing the similar inky black smoke the two had seen come from dark fountains before. In the injury's place now remained a wide scar that was colored a dark beige.
“The fuck did you just do? Did you just open a dark fountain in your hand?...Think you'll get cool shadow powers from it?”
“No, but I feel… odd.”
Alright Kris, I’m back. I got my sandwich to my left and my box of chocolates to my right and oooooooh Jesus Mary and Joseph, Kris. What did you do?
It’s that arrowhead over there.
“Are you good? Kris? Hellooooo.”
Susie’s words brought Kris back to reality. They were staring intently at their hand, it seemed. At least that's what it looked like.
“I’m doing alright. I just feel weird in my chest, that’s all.”
“Ok, that’s better than having a gash the size of my thumb on your hand.”
Shortly after that, Toriel called to the both of them from down below.
“Dinner’s ready!”
The two walked out from the room, and Kris pocketed the arrowhead.
The pain of snail pie was greater than the slight pain in their chest, and they were able to mask the scar's existence well, but the radiating pain in their sternum returned soon after the meal was finished. At this point, the sky outside was completely dark, and Kris and Susie had settled under some blankets and were lying down on the couch. They were hand-knitted by Toriel. One of them was covered with patterns of golden flowers, another with black, purple, gold, and white stripes in a pattern Kris was all too familiar with. The third blanket was lime green with a thick yellow stripe cutting through its center at a horizontal angle.
Toriel was sitting in her chair and fast asleep, a book lying open in her lap. Susie was also fast asleep, her snoring a clear indicator. Kris was familiar with staying up late. When they couldn't sleep, they'd tear out the Soul and look out the window. At some point, they'd decided that they'd learn how to tell the time based on the sky's appearance, seeing as they didn't like using digital clocks. Those made them antsy for some odd reason. Judging by the sky's brightness right now, and the fact that it was close to winter, it'd be safe to assume the time was around one in the morning.
They decided not to tear out the Soul right now. It was giving them some leeway anyway, and their chest, while it didn't hurt much after they scraped their hand, they didn't want to risk making the pain worse.
Still awake? A lot of people have insomnia.
Still awake, yeah. I’m tired and exhausted but can’t sleep it’s bullcrap. And my chest still hurts
I’m sorry about that. I can put on some ASMR.
Sure, knock yourself out.
Kris could hear the voice of a familiar political figure, though the figure was more business man than politician. The voice brought tariffs and a certain list to mind.
Here I have my big beautiful pen that I use to sign all my big beautiful bills.
Kris then began to hear the spinning, tapping, and clicking of an office pen and eventually the crackling of paper.
Now in my hands I have the Epstein list. I’m thinking of releasing it but I might not because I’m probably in it.
The crackling of paper continued on.
Ok, I think that’s enough of that. Do you have white noise?
Sure I can put that on. You’re not gonna hear me for a while. Gotta catch up on some sleep. Merry Christmas and happy Halloween!
Merry Christmas.
Kris felt their eyelids grow heavy after several minutes of white noise. Their eyes themselves began to feel moist and almost teary. Slowly, they fell to sleep as everyone else had. The white noise stopped after a few hours, but by that time Kris was already asleep.
Kris woke up in their bed. Weird. Maybe they just sleepwalked.
They got out of the bed and looked out the window. It was dark. Completely dark actually, which was odd. Kris couldn’t guess the time like this. They turned to their left to exit the room when they saw a pink bed on the other side. It was adorned with twin axes crossing over one another atop the bed on the back wall, and there was a fridge there as well as a pink closet.
They turned to look at their own bed as well and lo and behold, it was blue. And looking upward they could see the shelf of trophies above their bed. Looking down, they saw the rug, adorned with the Deltarune symbol, and the black floorboards that surrounded it.
They tried to say something, but they couldn’t speak. Not that they didn’t want to speak, they just weren't physically able to.
Raising their hand to their face, they saw the off look of their hand. It was red. Not flustered red, but completely red. It looked like a gauntlet, but more mechanical. It was almost skintight, too, like it had been grafted to their skin. It wasn’t uncomfortable though. They could feel the armor. Like it was their skin. They raised their other hand only to be met with the same sight. Rubbing their palms together, they could actually feel it. Their skin felt like steel. Their palms were the same, covered in segmented and overlapping plates that stuck to them.
Looking past their hands, their arms were segmented like a doll, and again, red. It seemed their entire body was red. Their upper arm and forearm had been replaced with cylinders with minor curved contours as if to simulate those parts of their body. Where there'd be a bicep was an oval shaped bulge that was plated. The same went for the front and back of their forearm. The ball on their wrist was now a literal ball. Like a large button was just stamped to that part of their being.
Where their elbows had been now remained spheres with large heart shaped medallions on the backs of them mimicking elbow pads. Their shoulders were also replaced with these spheres, the heart shaped medallions taking the role of pauldron.
Their chest was shaped like a squashed heart, wider than it was tall, with an empty metal ribcage beneath it. Their spine was exposed, and their legs were the same song and dance as their arms: Cylinder-esque shapes replacing thighs and lower legs, heart shaped knee-pads, and metal plate boots that ended in points. They were both connected to a pelvis-like structure that connected to the spine. Unfortunately, they were still short.
Then came along to their face. It was only then that they realized that there would be no way of seeing it, given how there were no mirrors in Castle Town. That might need to wait another day. No point worrying about the change of appearance, Kris would rather it be this than die to a titan. This was probably a lucid dream anyway, right?
They walked out of the conjoined bedroom, moving past the remains of a cake. Thank the Angel Ralsei finally ate one of his own cakes. They were delicious.
They roamed the halls, still not used to the completely silent, almost phantasmal footsteps they took, until they reached the green door to Ralsei’s room, pink tape still strewn about on the ground. Hopefully he had more furniture.
They gently open the door…
Ralsei is fast asleep on the black wooden floor. His body was curled, the right side of his body smushing against the ground. He still had a bloody hand print on his cheek, a sight that made Kris feel a little sick in their currently non-existent stomach. He held the Ralsei plush within his arms, hugging it tightly, and his head rested on the couch cushion the gang had picked up in the sanctuary.
He was too good to be sleeping on the floor, Kris thought, so they walked over to him to pick him up from the floor. Their arms pushed under his body, lifting him into a bridal carry of sorts. They could feel his warm fur against their cold, metal arms, and they could smell the faint scent of marshmallows that always followed Ralsei. They continued to carry him, walking downstairs, and back to their Castle Town bedroom.
They stood over their bed, still holding Ralsei in a bridal carry, before sitting on the bedside and eventually lying down fully on the bed, holding Ralsei over the top of them. They could hear his soft breathing and feel the moist heat it left on their shoulder. His horn poked into the side of their… well, seeing as the rest of their body was almost robotic, would it be right to call it a face? They brought one hand over his back, embracing him almost, and another hand on his head, rubbing gentle, small circles into his scalp with their metallic thumb.
Kris pulled over the light blue covers, submerging the two’s bodies up to their necks where Kris would promptly lose consciousness and fall asleep once more.
Hopefully this is the last they would see of this new form they had taken.