songs for the fallen

chara's date.

Chara
_____ 

This is humiliating. She can't even speak to it, let alone see it, but she's right there, door open, staring conveniently just to the right of its idiot host, right in front of it, and it's certain, absolutely certain, that its hair is a mess. It doesn't have hair, it reminds itself, it's dead, and has been for quite a while, and this is all ridiculous to every possible degree. You look terrible, Frisk, it prods, catching said Frisk's reflection in the metal sheen of Undyne's walls. Really! Please fix your hair!

Nuh-uh, Frisk thinks back, holding the bone Papyrus gave them out at an arm's length, as though it could explode in their face at any moment.

You have a floaty pen in your hair. Where did you even get that? Right on cue, Frisk pulls the floaty pen out of their hair--it's a horrific shade of pink, with a hideous boxy robot suspended in the glittery liquid at its end. Frisk tilts it while Papyrus and Undyne talk, making the robot float up and down and back up again. They're still a mess, ratty sweater and mismatched socks and stupid brightly-colored bandaids peeling off their face, but at least without the floaty robot pen in their hair they look a little less like they just climbed out of a 9Xs-era anime convention's discard merch pit.

"Ready for your extra-private, one-on-one training?" Undyne asks Papyrus, somehow completely not noticing the very obvious garishly-clad child standing behind him. Does Frisk just have a perception field around them or something? She was literally fighting them half an hour ago! She knows what they look like! Chara, once again, wishes it could let out a disappointed huff.

"YOU BET I AM! AND I BROUGHT A FRIEND!" Papyrus steps aside, revealing Frisk, who, to their credit, has at least tried to comb their hair out with their fingers and shake the rocks out of their sweater. They look up at Undyne with what must be a very stupid expression, though Chara can't see it--it's parked very firmly behind them, for some reason, perfectly able to inspect the back of their hair for floaty pens but not able to see much else. It can only hope she doesn't completely obliterate them. They did save her life, after all. If Chara can forgive their humanity on account of that, it's sure any monster, SOULs predisposed to kindness and compassion from their very nascence, can as well.

"Hi, I don't think we've..." Undyne starts, words catching in her throat when her gaze actually lands on Frisk. At least they've taken off that stupid ratty tutu--they put it on the training dummy outside her house. The ghost within seems oddly pleased by the raggedy scrap of tulle. Undyne, conversely, does not seem pleased at all. She grits her sharp, yellowed teeth, golden eye narrowing as she fights what must be the impulse of every muscle in her body to lunge forward and wring stupid Frisk's stupid neck.

Of course, Undyne, Chara thinks in an exaggerated singsong, they're so charmless and rank. You must be desperate to punt them into the garbage dump again.

Rank? Last I checked, you don't have nostrils, dickbag. And I'm very charming, thank you very much. Chara can ever so vaguely feel Frisk's facial muscles twitch as they fight back a smirk just as stupid as the rest of them. This is horrible. This is awful. The worst part of it all is that it doesn't even hate them anymore. They're actually sort of funny.

Chara would kick itself if it had its own legs.

"Why don't. You two. Come in?" Undyne's teeth are gritted so hard Chara is surprised she hasn't already ground them into dust. She practically drags Papyrus inside, though he still manages to do a strange little dance wiping off his boots on her welcome mat before yanking Frisk unceremoniously along after him. Chara feels a little bad--it knows they have that problem with their knees, and--

It cannot be thinking like this! It can remain sympathetic, certainly, it can show them kindness, but memorizing details about them like that? Actually caring? They're just going to die anyway. That's all this is. They're another SOUL for the Barrier and nothing more. It's already broken the rule that has governed its entire existence to this point, and it will go no further. It can accept that they are good. It can treat them as an ally rather than as an enemy. But it cannot, under any circumstances, get attached. Frisk has been doomed from the moment they fell. Sympathy is fine. Compassion is useless.