They know the feeling. How long will it last? How long until everyone figures out you aren't human, you're just pretending to be one? How long until they're bored with you because you've stopped being unpredictable, or they've gotten tired of you because you still aren't fixed yet? How long until you slip up, wreck everything, use buttercups instead of cups of butter? Makes so much more sense to skip right to the inevitable conclusion. Don't waste hope on puzzles and stories that don't even need to be resolved. Don't feel at all.
And Frisk... has power, they know. Power Chara didn't have until the two of them met. The kind of power that Chara had called out before: does anyone really love you if you've only shown them what they want to see, Frisk? Does anybody know you at all if you go back and pick the answer that they like best instead of the answer you really want to? The pretending can last so much longer, with power like that.
They think again about... about their birthday. Try not to think about how it ended. Focus on the odd sensation of knowing you're the one who knows when their birthday is. Being the person who gets asked what a good present would be, because everyone knows about getting Frisk to join in on things they like - spaghetti and anime and puzzles - but nobody really knows what Frisk likes. Think about falteringly announcing they don't want Frisk to be alone either, and realizing how... how absurd that sounds, when everybody likes Frisk, when Frisk's never met someone who they didn't become friends with, right?
"You don't have to pretend with me," they mumble, even if it feels redundant at this point. The one constant who remembers no matter what, the presence who follows along whether the road is pristine or dusty, the leech that cannot be pulled off. "I've seen it all already, right? There's no formula." Not a problem to be solved, not here to be SAVED, not a variable to be set to its proper value. It's got to be vexing, how often there is no right answer when dealing with Chara, but maybe... not imposing the expectation of a right answer can be a relief, too?
"But... you see why I don't want to call this love. Why it's so..." Why they're scared of it. Deeply, utterly, wholeheartedly afraid.
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And Frisk... has power, they know. Power Chara didn't have until the two of them met. The kind of power that Chara had called out before: does anyone really love you if you've only shown them what they want to see, Frisk? Does anybody know you at all if you go back and pick the answer that they like best instead of the answer you really want to? The pretending can last so much longer, with power like that.
They think again about... about their birthday. Try not to think about how it ended. Focus on the odd sensation of knowing you're the one who knows when their birthday is. Being the person who gets asked what a good present would be, because everyone knows about getting Frisk to join in on things they like - spaghetti and anime and puzzles - but nobody really knows what Frisk likes. Think about falteringly announcing they don't want Frisk to be alone either, and realizing how... how absurd that sounds, when everybody likes Frisk, when Frisk's never met someone who they didn't become friends with, right?
"You don't have to pretend with me," they mumble, even if it feels redundant at this point. The one constant who remembers no matter what, the presence who follows along whether the road is pristine or dusty, the leech that cannot be pulled off. "I've seen it all already, right? There's no formula." Not a problem to be solved, not here to be SAVED, not a variable to be set to its proper value. It's got to be vexing, how often there is no right answer when dealing with Chara, but maybe... not imposing the expectation of a right answer can be a relief, too?
"But... you see why I don't want to call this love. Why it's so..." Why they're scared of it. Deeply, utterly, wholeheartedly afraid.