PATCHWORK SOUL

SHOW PLAN STARTO Chapter 55

Papyrus was much more suited to performances than Frisk was. When he put on a blue coat, shorts, and slippers, and mimicked Sans, he seemed to fall right into it. It was pretty funny, Frisk had to admit. He carried a sort of charisma — of course, it had always been there, but when he was acting it shone. She did really like the excuse for him to wear more squishy clothing, though. It essentially doubled hug coziness. They didn't get too much further into the script, but, surprisingly, Sans was one of the few characters with believable dialogue in the whole play. Seemed like having the majority of the lines sitting comfortably at under five words helped.

Asriel was a lot less into it, but he still refused to leave, even considering how uncomfortable it seemed to make him. Guarding his sister's memory, Frisk supposed. She hoped she could pull it off without being absolutely horrible. She knew the side of Chara that Sans had seen, and it scared her. She'd try to stay closer to the Chara that Asriel knew.

After an hour or so, Mettaton clapped his hands to stop the practice and sent the others downstairs as he regrouped with his notes. Sans seemed to have dozed off under a pile of coats and Alphys was tinkering with something on one of the clear spots on a nearby table. Frisk tiredly slid her way into Undyne's lap and flopped dramatically. The monster snickered and patted her head.

"Rough, huh?" she said, holding up the script.

"I have to play my friend's dead sister, it is weird as heck and I don't think I like it," Frisk sighed.

"Also it's trash," Asriel said as he rolled up under Papyrus's feet.

"It might not be. Eventually. Probably," Papyrus said reassuringly. "There's still, uh. Today and two and a half days."

"Yeah right," the flower said. "It'll suck."

"Eh. Probably," Papyrus said.

"Getting into the role a bit, huh?" Undyne asked as she looked up at him.

He shrugged. "Meh."

Frisk snickered. Undyne raised her eyebrows, and the tall skeleton sighed and threw up his arms.

"Oh, who am I kidding?! I actually am having quite a bit of fun," Papyrus said rolling his sleeves up and sitting on the edge of the table. "But I'm sorry it's not as fun for you two."

"That's okay, Paps," Frisk said. "I'm gonna do whatever I have to to make this work."

"If it even works," Asriel said. "Wouldn't it be hilarious if we go through all this and it doesn't even do anything? And by hilarious, I mean total garbage."

"Oh, A-Asriel, please d-don't think like that," Alphys squeaked, hurrying over to him and kneeling down. "Hey. W-We're all gonna t-try really hard! And... A-And I really...! I r-really think th-this will build enough s-solidarity in all the monsters to get their magic to stick together. I m-mean, it'd, um, w-work on me."

She smiled sideways— an attempt to seem reassuring, though she looked a little nervous herself. Asriel sighed and rubbed his head.

"Maybe," he grumbled.

"M-Maybe... Maybe I could... Hmm..." Alphys cupped her chin. She offered the little flower her hands.

He frowned with confusion. "What?"

"L-Let me show you what I've b-been working on," she said. "Th-This might make you feel a l-little better, huh?"