Triad
Arc 1: Ruins
Part 2

Inner

Seeing such a cute, tidy house in the Ruins gives you determination.

The human followed Asriel into the small, purple cottage. They entered, to find him already waiting for them.

They took a few moments to look around the house, waves of deja vu crashing onto them. Except, unlike in the Ruins, which had been a neutral form of familiarity like the route you walk to school or work every morning, this was… strange. They could feel two contrasting emotions in the familiarity.

A feel like home and happiness.

And a feel like fear and regret.

It unnerved the human.

For a moment instead of Asriel there, they saw someone else. Someone like him, but taller, with horns, wearing a long royal purple robe.

Why did you…?

How could I…?

“Chara!? Chara, are you okay?” Asriel’s voice broke through the emotions.

The human found that they had somehow curled into a ball on the floor, clutching their stick tightly. They slowly uncurled, and stood up, lookin at Asriel with confusion and concern.

“Chara, what happened?” Asriel asked, looking back at the human with concern.

The human looked down, and shook their head. Even they didn’t know quite what had come over them. How could they explain seemingly random memories and emotions that kept appearing, that had no rhyme or reason yet seemed to belong to the human…?

Asriel suddenly stepped forwards and hugged the human. The human tensed up, then relaxed, slowly returning the hug.

It felt like… Something they had experienced before, that had not belonged to them.

It felt weird.

They pulled away from Asriel.

An awkward moment passed, before Asriel broke the silence.

“...Hey Chara, smell that? I think mom’s making cinnamon pie! That’s your favorite, right?”

The human shook their head. A look of confusion crossed their face.

Asriel’s face mirrored the humans. “Huh? Um… I guess we have changed, kind of?” He tried to smile. “...Even if it’s not your favorite anymore, you remember how mom’s pies are really good! Come on, let’s go try it!”

Asriel took the human’s hand, and slowly led them to the kitchen, before leaving them there and dashing off. Asriel returned with two pillows and a plushy. He set the pillows on the floor, and sat the human down on one. The human was grateful to be sitting. Asriel handed the human the plushy.

“My favorite’s at the castle, where Dad is. But I know you like all my plushies a lot,” Asriel told the human.

The human nodded. The plushy was familiar, in a not-overwhelming way. Just faint contentedness coming from this one.

Asriel grabbed the pie from out of the oven, as well as some plates. He carefully sliced out pieces of the pie placing them on the plates, and offered one of the plates to the human. The human thanked Asriel, and slowly ate the pie.

The pie was familiar in a contenting way, too.

The human noticed Asriel smiling at them while they ate their pie. And they suddenly realized that they were smiling too.

When they were both done, Asriel took the plates and put them in the sink, before gathering up the pillows, and guided the human towards a bedroom, placing the pillows on the bed.

The human at this point was too tired to register the feelings of happiness coming from the room. They collapsed onto the bed, and vaguely felt Asriel getting in the bed behind them.

They drifted off to sleep like that. Hugging the plushy Asriel had given them.

Chara… Please wake up, Chara. I don’t like this plan anymore…

…

...I trust you Chara.

Stay determined…

The human woke up to find that at some point Asriel had fallen halfway off the bed, taking most of the blankets with him, pooling under his head. His legs were somehow under the human’s side, and the human’s arms were still locked around the plushy.

Asriel snored in his sleep.

The human placed the plushy on the bed, and woke up Asriel.

“Snrrf? Mrr? Oh, g’mornin’ Chara…” Asriel’s mouth gaped as he yawned.

The human asked Asriel where his mother was.

“Mom? She’s not here?” Asriel furrowed his brow. “...She should be here. I mean, she’s always here. She never leaves the Ruins, except when--”


Asriel trailed off, his gaze unfocusing for a moment, before he shook his head. “...She’s probably in the house somewhere. Maybe she’s still asleep?”

The two searched about the house, and after a short period of time they had searched all the rooms. Asriel’s mother was nowhere to be found.

“...Mom’s gotta be down in the basement. She does go down there sometimes,” Asriel reasoned.

They headed down the stairs. The human clutched tightly to their stick.

They remembered this hall.

Overwhelming guilt was crushing them.

They didn’t want to be here.

Asriel looked uncomfortable too.

“You wish to know how to return ‘home’, do you not? Ahead of us lies the end of the Ruins. A one-way exit to the rest of the Underground. I am going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again. Now be a good child and go upstairs.”

“Every human that falls down here meets the same fate. I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave. They die. You naive little child…If you leave the Ruins… They… Asgore... will kill you. I am only protecting you, you understand? ...go to your room.”

“Do not try to stop me. This is your final warning.”

“You want to leave so badly? Hmph. You are just like the others. There is only one solution to this. Prove yourself… Prove to me you are strong enough to survive!”

Standing in front of the door was a familiar creature warped horribly.

She was tall. Very tall. She was wearing a long robe that reached down to her paws, with a familiar sigil sewn on to it. A winged circle above three pointed triangles. She looked like an anthropomorphic goat, with long floppy ears and petite, curved horns.

Her face was covered by a blocky mess of static.

The human’s ears were ringing.

Asriel looked horrified. “Mom!?”