tdm 14

[hohnkai]

T E S T D R I V E

Survival is the exception "living is an act of courage." THROUGH THE INGRESS The Ingress has pulled you in. Your body experiences several sensations at once: being pushed forward as if a hand is resting on your back, momentary and startling blindness, a gentle ringing in your head. You have difficulty discerning whether it is hot or cold, but where you have been prodded is noticeably warmer than the rest of you. Some may suffer from dizziness while others are perfectly fine. Once equilibrium has been reestablished, you will notice you are standing on a rocky planet. Former crew of the Moira are there to greet you, and it’s a grim message they have to share. The Moira has crashed and is beyond repair, but there’s good news... the destination the crew has been heading towards for over a year? You’re standing on it. But before you get into exploration and survival, it’s best to deal with the effects of coming through a broken Ingress. ☄ slip and trip find your footing fast Coming through the Ingress has left your character with one of three changes - an age slip, a form of body horror, or an extreme weakness. The first, the age slip, will mean that the character is either older or younger and this change can’t be rectified during their first month in game. The second, body horror, comes in the form of an alteration to the character's body due to whatever they were carrying at the time they came through. If they were wearing a watch, it’s now fused to their wrist, clothes are permanent, knifes replace fingers, and many other alterations (anything goes) and it lasts the first month as well. The third, extreme weakness, can be a mental or physical decrease - weaker arms, legs, or the weaker ability to talk or do math. ooc: the choice of change is up to each player and this prompt can be game canon. ☄ introductions aren’t awkward as long as you don’t shake their hand too long A new planet. Physical and mental changes. Talk of a ship that crashed and a Hub that is home to the ‘creators’ of a technology you’ve never heard of. A lot is happening and the best way to sort through it is by getting to know the Moira’s crew. They’ll help you settle in and get you any care you might need, all the while informing you that the group is on its way to the center of the hub. Something that might seem mundane is an absolute necessity for survival. Ask a seasoned space traveling veteran for answers and guidance. ooc: this prompt can be game canon. ☄ dealer's choice just make the right one Characters have the option of coming through an Ingress that is any possible location on this planet. It can be inside a cave, at the top of a rock formation, etc. This means you can have your character have to climb or slide down, have them yelling for help, and have other characters see them and come to their aid. Your character's arrival is completely up to you, and since this is a unique situation that hasn't happened before, go nuts with it! ooc: this prompt can be game canon. OUT OF CHARACTER INFO FAQ | LOCATIONS | RESERVES | APPLICATIONS | NAVIGATION For mature or graphic content, please label. For questions, please direct them to the FAQ. As always, be kind and have fun!

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[gainedlove]

Frisk's sobs don't stop, soft and choked out into their knees. And they don't dare to look up, don't dare to hope this is anything more than Chara deciding just which pound of flesh to extract from them, how painful it should be.

"It w-was...after the Cadeucean people attacked us. Something happened with the ship's Ingress, and it took us all...s-somewhere else. A bunch of people wound up on a planet nearby because of it, a b-big...slaving post? They were stuck there, and they got caught. The captains got rescue parties together, but...Toriel wouldn't let me go. She--" Frisk laughs, broken and incredulous. "Sh-she said it wasn't safe enough! That I shouldn't be risking myself like that! And I just...I let her stop me. I should have snuck on anyway, I should have..."

[inconsequence]

Undefined words and terms no one bothered to explain to them, dovetailing into unspoken clarifications they will not request. It would be simple enough to wrong-foot them through obfuscation, to set them off guard by forcing them to admit a weakness or a lack of foreknowledge.

"So you left him there," says Chara, flatly, extrapolating what little needs to be extrapolated. "You left him there, and made no attempt to retrieve him."

And why are they confessing this? In the spirit of honesty? Possibly to catch Chara off-guard. To what end does not matter. What matters is that it will not work.

"Well." The word drips with contempt as they stretch it out past its termination. "It's a good thing she was there to keep you safe."

[gainedlove]

Frisk doesn't bother to try and defend themself. It doesn't matter that their entire body had been turned to glass, that there were already plenty of volunteers, that without SAVE they were little more than a liability on a mission like that. The facts have already been laid out, and anything else would be just making an excuse. They waited on the ship while Asriel suffered through who knows what sort of horrible things, and pretended like there wasn't anything else they could do. Even an apology would just be a slap in the face.

All they can do is bow their head in shame.

[inconsequence]

Is this what you wanted them here for, Frisk? You wanted them here to - what? Confess your sins accordingly? Do your penance, concede your failings, and let them judge you, as if you have not already and always been judged throughout every path you have ever taken?

Chara stands, infusing a quiet scorn into the brusque, simple movement.

"And so we come to this." They spread their arms wide, the blossoms running to one shoulder casting their stance in a peculiar asymmetry. "You called me. I came. And I am now, I am assuming - your sounding board for terrible past ideas? The manifesto for your failures?"

They are not surprised, of course. It cannot be betrayal when you have been expecting it since the beginning, the simple reduction of one's personhood into a sole purpose.

"Or perhaps you simply desired the challenge," says Chara, dismissive. "The challenge of whether or not a demon can be SAVED."

[gainedlove]

"No...no!"

They shake their head, sniffling and scrubbing at their eyes before they look up at Chara. That wasn't it, that wasn't ever it! Chara isn't a tool for them, not a weapon or a crutch or shield. Frisk doesn't need that, they just need--

"I just--I don't know what to do without you! I don't want to be alone, I don't want to be somewhere you're not! I don't care where we go or what happens, I just want to be with you!"

[inconsequence]

It's funny, how they manage to contradict themself in the same breath. Chara's smile thins with disbelief, the wry doubt evident in the curve of their brow and the lift of their chin.

"I will make you feel less alone?" They shake their head, derisive. "It seems you have plenty of company. You have made so many great friends. Why, Asriel is even here!"

And what sort of ending would he possibly want if Chara happens to be in it? Why would he content himself with a cast-off in gray-scale when he has Frisk, bright and whole and unsullied?

[gainedlove]

"But they're not you!"

Frisk pushes themself to their feet, just barely holding themself back from reaching out to Chara desperately. They don't know how to put it into words, the empty feeling in their chest they've held for months. There's no way to truly describe that ache, the feeling of being lost when there were still so many people at their side.

"None of it matters if you're not here. I love them all, but...nothing feels right without you." Frisk shakes their head, heaving a deep breath to try and steady themself. "I'm...we're...you're my partner."

[inconsequence]

You are a great partner, they say, in another time - a time that was denied, in many ways, a Game that was played to near completion. Rendered into nothing more but numbers and letters, stats to click up and down as they pleased. Disinterest in NPCs. Disinterest in puzzles. Disinterest in little things such as plot devices.

Their worth, dependent on making Frisk feel less alone.

That cannot be all there is to it. Chara lifts their eyebrows, smooth and controlled.

"Come up with that all on your own?"

[gainedlove]

It's not enough. Of course it's not enough.

"It's the truth."

Why would anyone believe something like them, after all? Something that could twist the world around, wring out every possibility out of nothing more than curiosity and boredom. What proof of their honesty, of their emotion, could they ever truly offer?

[inconsequence]

If Frisk says it is the truth, it must be. Their word may as well be law at this point, must it not?

"You are mistaken." Their smile is vague and small, their eyes half-lidded in a crude parody of Frisk's expressionless default stare. "'Partner' implies equality where none exists."

They place one hand over their chest, over the place where the blackened tumor that passes for their heart must be located, now that they have one once more.

"I am your humble servant," says Chara, listlessly. "I follow you to the utmost. That is all."

[gainedlove]

Frisk's brows crease, confusion and heartache and guilt merging into a dark, sticky feeling in their chest. This...they never meant for this. They never...

"That's...that shouldn't be all you are. That's not right."

[inconsequence]

"Nevertheless, it is all I ever have been."

You have your answer, Frisk, or the closest you will come to it. If the fallen human is to accompany you, it is through this caveat. They have only ever lived to serve one purpose or another; a tool to be picked up and then put down again when it suits you.

For now, it seems it is their desire that Chara become of use once again.

[gainedlove]

They swallow thickly, trying to blink away tears and pull together some semblance of a controlled mask. A sniffle, some furious scrubbing at their eyes with one sleeve, and they look...better. It's a thin veneer, flimsy, but it's enough for now. Enough to let Frisk reach up and unhook the locket around their neck, and take a step forward to hold it out to Chara in both hands.

Back where it belongs.

[inconsequence]

Their eyes narrow into scarlet slits as they survey the Locket, the chain pooled in the concave meeting of Frisk's palms. They don't need to look at it for very long to know what it says on the other side. The words engraved in it, the lies forever carved into front.

Best Friends Forever.

Or until someone better comes along, in any case.

One side of their smile thins, pulling upwards into a tight, skeptical look.

"99 DEF," they say. "Not terribly responsible of you, is it? Handing something like this over to a murderer."

[gainedlove]

Their mouth tugs into a frown, and they shrug. Why shouldn't they?

"It wasn't ever mine. And I want you to be safe." With everything that's happened, they don't want to take risks with anyone's well-being.

1/2

[inconsequence]

"Anticipate me getting into an awful lot of scrapes, do you?"

There's a more familiar sting to the words, reclaiming their stride in the same moment they realized they'd since lost it; lost it to the golden chain puddled in Frisk's cupped hands, the gold-spun lie cradled there.

He does not even need to be here, and yet here he is, already derailing everything they are.

They don't intend to hesitate, and yet hesitate they do. It's not Frisk's. It's theirs, by right. They were not even buried with the thing. They were buried in the clothes they wore, with bandages - "mummy wrappings" - bound around their mouth and nose and hands until someone else lifted them from their coffin and...

Their hand hovers an inch above Frisk's, above the offered Locket, the thing they can feel beating, pulsing with the quiet red light that is always - reminiscent of determination, and the action is painfully uncertain as they vacillate.

[inconsequence]

They take the Locket, wordlessly, and slip it over their head, the chain chill and soft against the back of their neck. It makes their throat clench in a matter that is also - painful. But they will bear it.

They bear everything that goes crawling on their neck, after all.

* Right where it belongs.

[gainedlove]

"If I keep getting into trouble, of course you will." If the words hold any judgement, their tone certainly doesn't. The faint hint of warm affection bleeds through, and they breath a faint sigh of relief when Chara takes the Locket. They smile, and hesitate with one hand still held out before pulling it back.

They've asked enough for now. Shouldn't be greedy.

The flowers growing in Chara (and the blood left behind by those they've already removed) once again draw Frisk's attention, and they can't help but worry. "...you're really sure they don't hurt?"

[inconsequence]

"You do tend to attract trouble." For the first time, perhaps, their tone is slightly more conversational, slightly relaxed in comparison to the charged, overly formal distance they find so easy to acquire.

The Locket is warm over their chest. They do not need to hesitate before tucking it beneath their shirt. The edges of the petals tickle the backs of their hands, calling their attention once again to the fact that they seem to have come back a little bit wrong.

Ha. As if they were ever "right" to begin with. Hilarious. Best joke yet.

"Not unless I pull on them," says Chara, dismissive, tugging on one of the flowers indicatively. One of them comes away with remarkable ease. The others still bleed like sores.

That's fine. They're not averse to a little blood.

[gainedlove]

Bit by bit, the tension is easing out of Frisk. The tight, dark feeling that had been lurking in the back of their mind is vanishing, eased and gone because even if it's imperfect things are right again. Chara is here, and Frisk isn't alone anymore, and that's...that's all they ever needed.

Distantly, they hope that Tabris has found that same peace as well, wherever he was sent.

"It's not like I try to! It just happens." Frisk frowns and tugs on the edge of their sleeve, glancing to the side with a grimace. "Th' whole crew attracts trouble. Th' whole trip's just been one problem after another."

When Chara yanks out yet another flower Frisk winces--sure, they expected that, but come on! "Then don't pull them out! Just--at least wait until I can get bandages for it, okay?" They know better than to suggest going to the doctors, but Frisk is sure they can get gauze and whatever else they might need from Angela.

[inconsequence]

Another smile, even as they twirl the freshly plucked flower between their fingertips before deciding it's better suited on the floor. "What good would those do? They've already been used several times."

See, look at that. They can lighten the mood supremely well, can they not? A small in-joke between the pair of them. They can be good, see?

Another joke, but that one's far more hilarious.

"It seems you've been busy here, in the meantime." The second order of business, naturally, is to discern what they will without implying anything they do not wish to imply; that is to say, anything at all. "Picking out true names and befriending people who aren't flowers."

[gainedlove]

Really, Chara, you're the only one calling your goodness into question, here.

Frisk wrinkles their nose and sticks their tongue out, which doesn't do much to hide their small smile. "I meant new ones, duh! An' I've got chisps too, if you really need 'em." Not that they're usually without some form of healing item, if they can help it.

"I...I guess." Frisk glances down and tugs on the hem of their sweater out of nervous habit. "I've been tryin' to help as much as I can, but there's always somethin' weird goin' on. It's all a really long story." They glance up again, indicating the way they'd come from with a small nod of their head--there are better places than in front of a broken space-bending machine here to catch up.

[inconsequence]

No Instant Noodles? They won't be able to harangue Frisk regarding how much better they taste dry, preferably chased by a boiling kettle of water straight to the gullet. You may call it masochism; Chara calls it efficiency.

"So I hear," they say, lifting an eyebrow in Frisk's direction, an implicit invitation to continue. Don't make them ask. They won't necessarily be polite about it, after all.

[gainedlove]

Noodles aren't supposed to be eaten crunchy, ugh! Frisk doesn't care if they heal more dry, it's way better cooked and they're standing by that.

With a small nod Frisk turns to lead the way, casting glances back at Chara to be sure they haven't suddenly vanished. "I got here...um, I think it's ten months ago now? Th' Ingress, a big machine like that one you woke up next to? There was one on this big spaceship called the Moira, an' that's th' one that took me. Th' captains of th' ship told us they were trying to get to this place we are now, an' if we helped then they could get us all back home again."

Frisk frowns, and kicks a rock so it skitters across the ground. "They're tryin', but I don't think they really know how t' do it. They're as lost as we are. An' every place we stopped at all this crazy stuff happens--there was a planet that had these flying whales that were bein' hunted, an' another one where we didn't realize how fast time was goin' for some reason? I don't know how long we got stuck there, but none of my clothes fit right since then."

[inconsequence]

Everyone loves exposition, clearly. They let the words roll over them evenly, nonplussed. Their disposition does not crack for anything or anyone. Anymore.

"Goodness. It seems you are allowed to age after all." Perhaps a joke in bad taste, given the amount of times they've relived the same day, the same tired trials. But they have never been one to joke in good taste. Why, their entire existence is little more than a great middle finger to the concept of cosmic retribution.

Hence, bad taste is all they have to offer.