Determination (Charisk) [OUTDATED]

49 - SLOWLY

(CHARA POV)

Frisk fell asleep in my arms. I glanced over at the clock, it was 3 in the morning. I was dying for a really long time.
"Al?" No response. "Hey Alphys? You there?"
"O-Oh! Prince Chara you're a-awake!"
"Shh. Frisk is sleeping."
"O-oh, my bad."
"So. You mind explaining to me what all that was?"
     "Well... Your large amounts of D-DETERMINATION in comparison to the near z-zero amounts of any other TRAIT made you a j-jerk for a long time.
     "I remember that part. I mean the whole 'out of body experience' I was having when Diitii took over."
     "Y-you know about that!?"
     "Keep it down. And yeah, who do you think told sans? My parents... my birth parents were very religious when I was growing up, I picked up on a few things."
"O-oh. Well, your LV was steadily increasing as time passed, and when it hit 20... Diitii took over your body and started to attack everyone."
"And... and how did you stop it?"
"Y-You actually stopped it. I just supplied the stabilizers."
"Stabilizers?" Alphys presented a small bag filled with little vials of brightly colored liquid.
"Th-these are TRAIT stabilizers. Y-your human SOUL could handle more TRAITs than a monster SOUL can, and, uh, because your S-SOUL isn't human anymore, your TRAIT spectrum is blown way out of proportion."
     "What in Asgore's name is a TRAIT spectrum?"
     "I'll explain later, but basically, you have more D-DT than any of your other TRAITs, but you only have enough of anything to fill 1 monster SOUL. The only problem is, um, that y-your SOUL is recognized by the u-universe as human still... so there's a lot of e-empty space."
     "And the TRAIT stabilizers are to fill that empty space."
     "E-Exactly. Just drink some of each every morning, and you should be fine. I-It's up to you to figure out how much you need to f-feel like yourself... I'm going to go t-to sleep now. Goodnight."
     " 'Night." Slowly as to not disturb Frisk, I pulled the blanket of the hospital bed. Frisk held me slightly tighter.

. . .

(FRISK POV)

I've been having the same nightmare since Chara and I broke up. I'm in sans and Papyrus's spare room, a strange figure is working at the desk. I go to him. He turns to me. Dream over... But this time it was different. No one was at the desk. And the door was open. Outside the door? Nothing. Just an empty darkness. The only thing I've seen thats as empty as that was—
     "The void."
     "AAH!! Dr. G-Gaster, nice to see you again! Hehe..."
     "Likewise."
     "What brings you to my nightmares?"
     "What brings your nightmares to me?" His dismembered hands drifted about. He looked like he was in heavy thought. "I am. I can't think with your thoughts being so loud."
     "Sorry." ... . . .  .  .  .   .   .  .    .    .    .
     "Why are your ellipses getting further apart?"
     "You can tell?" He sighed.
     "I'm a skeleton, and your thoughts are clouding up the VOID. Of course I can tell. Just— *inhale*"
"Give you some space— wait. That came from me."
"This is what I was worried about. You are getting too used to the VOID. And now the VOID is trying to carve its way into you."
"Does that mean I'll get cracks on my face? Or holes in my hands?"
"Those are unrelated! *ahem* No. but this is not healthy for you. You might notice some... Changes... Oh. You're waking up. Well, at least you get to leave this place. I will... I will talk with you again later, human."

"Mornin' sleepyface." I turned to Chara.
     "Mm. You're nice and warm."
     "Temperature is a... weird sensation."
     "... Hey Chara?"
     "Yes?"
     "You aren't... mad about what happened in Snowdin, are you?" Chara let out a sigh.
     "Of course I'm not mad... But. I think you were right."  My heart sank.
     "I... I understand." I got out of bed and walked over to the sofa in the waiting room. Chara facepalmed and drank 6 colorful liquids from mysterious vials. He walked over to me.
     "You didn't let me finish. I think you were right, we do need to talk."
"R-Right." Chara put his hand on my shoulder and suddenly we were in Snowdin Forest. Back in the hill. Chara looked down at his bag, and took a few more sips of the green and blue liquids.
"Before you say anything, Frisk, I want to apologize. I'm so sorry for putting you through all of that just to treat you like you were just another inconvenience."
"Chara, that wasn't you, that was Diitii—"
"No, Frisk. That wasn't... I can't just blame everything on Diitii. It's plausible deniability and I'm not having any of that. I acted out of my own volition, and regardless of medical stuff, it was wrong. And I'm sorry."
"But you have a TRAIT deficiency, like I do. It's not fair if you apologize for something you can't control."
"Frisk, if I had given you that excuse... if I had said 'well you shouldn't get mad because I can't control it.' Would you have thought that was ok?"
"...No." I looked down at the snow.
"See? I just.. I needed to get that off my chest. Now for the other stuff."
"Other stuff?"
"You said that..." it was increasingly obvious that Chara was trying not to cry. "*ahem* you said that our relationship was built on the fact that we were forced together by our DETERMINATION. But. When I got a new body, didn't you feel that connection break?"
     "... I-...Yeah, yeah I think I did."
     "... So that means that we aren't forced to be together."
     "... right."
     "Frisk. We don't have to be together anymore. We can do whatever we want. We have the SOULs of DETERMINATION! We don't have to listen to the universe, we change reality."
     "Chara where are you going with this?" Chara got up in my face and put his hands on my shoulders. There was a noticeable twinkle in his eyes. I opened my own eyes without realizing.
     "Frisk. Do you love me?"
     "No, I... I don't think I do, anymore."
     "Do you want to love me?"
     "Yes. Desperately." Chara took a few steps back onto a large rock.
     "Then how about we do this again. But this time, we take things a little slower." He held out his hand to me.
     "I... Yeah. I think I'd be okay with that. I grabbed it, and he pulled me onto the rock with him.

     And then, in an instant we were back in the lab.

Snail Fact #41
Snails are indestructible. Their only weakness is salt.