+ FOURTH WALL EVENT: BEACH PARTY +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: E V E R Y O N E
Where: The Beach!
When: Sept 5th to Sept 10th
Rating: G to PG-13 (please label higher ratings, thank you!)
Summary: Are the other parties a little too crowded and chaotic for you? Come and chill by the water! And don't forget to have a look at the Fourth Wall Master Post for event rules, puzzle clues, and more places to mingle!
The Story:

Beginning on September 5th, much of the shoreline will be taken over by a massive beach party! As with all good Wonderland parties, it will be run day and night, always mysteriously tidy and always with food that replenishes itself.

At various points along the beach, there will be wheel barrels full of candy and treats, and torches for people to claim as their own. There are also volleyball nets, and when darkness falls they will light up like Christmas trees for those who want to play well into the night.

There are many places set up to sit - some with tables, some with pillows and blankets, many with shade, and some even dug out in the sand. There is music playing, but the source is unclear.

However, there's one thing that the curious may find - a message in a bottle. It will regenerate within five minutes if taken, allowing as many curious truth-seekers to investigate as possible.

Comments

[determinedest]

It took some time. But...yeah. We're friends. Best friends? I mean, we both agreed that we'd rather not go home at all, and that we'd rather just stay here since it means we get to be together. We...never really know what happens after everyone gets freed.

[They smile fondly, though with no small amount of regret. Maybe it's too weird for someone to wrap their head around at first - Asriel certainly had been surprised to discover that the two of them were as close as they were. Surprised, and maybe a bit regretful himself.]

They helped me through the Underground, but they didn't actually get a body of their own until they came here. So, we're staying. Maybe forever.

[itstheend]

[They regret asking. Chara listens, and listens, and is filled with a surge of... something. Hot and sick. It can't be jealousy. They wanted Frisk gone, and they only barely put up with them now.

Just because they say it, doesn't mean they mean it. Chara's a wild, dangerous thing that needs to be placated and steered.

It's a mish-mash of churning emotion they don't want, and they abruptly step back and start rapidly pacing back and forth, gripping their upper arms, staring at the sand.]

Good for you. A happy ending.

[There's no Frisk here. There's no good future waiting for Chara there. They want out of the Underground, badly, but they have no plans for what they're going to do if they do get out.

They stop and kick at a small wave. It doesn't make them feel better.]

Good for you.

[determinedest]

[Frisk likes to think they've gotten significantly better at reading into the subtleties of Chara's body language and speech. They don't need to be an expert, however, to know how that something they've said has left them feeling angry. Maybe left out, maybe isolated. Maybe they haven't forged that kind of trust with their respective partner yet.

It's hard to guess.]

It took us a long time to get to this point, [Frisk says softly, both unable and unwilling to remove the subterranean ache of memory beneath the words.] We fought a lot, both back home and here. We went through...so many RESETs. I don't actually know how many. And we're still learning.

It takes a long time, and it takes work. And it's not even really an ending. But you can get there too, I think.

[itstheend]

[They slowly sit down onto the sand, and they think.

They think about their It. Thing. Leech. Parasite. Hindrance. Freeloader. Tenant. Passenger. Co-pilot.

But not Partner. Not Friend.

Do they want that? They've both hurt each other, terribly. Unthinking on one side, but so, so deliberately on the other. The reason Chara has softened as much as they have towards their-Frisk is because they now know they could hurt them, if they wanted. That they hold power. That if what little they've given was ever used against them, there's nowhere to run. RESETs and RESETs of that, more than can be remembered...

Swallowed bile, thickly. They really are a horrible creature. There's more than one reason the mirror's words hit too close to home. Why killing them would be satisfying.

If it did happen, if the two of them did end up separate, wouldn't it be better for the both of them to walk away? Would they want to? Which they? They don't know.]

I... stop. Something else. Now.

Tell me... tell me about your Asriel. What is he like? Or... anyone you like. Except us. Please.

[They hate themself for leaning on them like this. Hate it. They hate that the first thing they thought of was the wistful melancholy Frisk has when telling tales of their brother - ones this Frisk wouldn't know.]

[determinedest]

[They must have crossed some boundary, some asymptote. Maybe...maybe things aren't so great between this Chara and their Frisk? The thought is intensely saddening; all Charas seem to have Frisks, and most Frisks have Charas. One without the other just...doesn't make a lot of sense. They might not always be on the same wavelength, but to tear one away from the other just seems - unnecessarily cruel. On a whole other level.

Either way, this Chara doesn't want to talk about it. So Frisk doesn't. They sit back on the sand and pat the area beside them in invitation.]

Asriel...well, I didn't know him for that long. And when I did, he was mostly trying to kill me. [They smile wistfully at the memory.] But most of the people we meet eventually try to kill us, huh?

Anyway. He was nice, after he got over the whole "let's destroy the world" thing. He wasn't really that nice about Chara, though. Er - my Chara, anyway. Said that I was the friend he always wished he'd had, and he'd only known me for something like ten minutes. And most of of that was just me trying to survive!

[itstheend]

[Chara eyes the patch of sand indicated for a second before wordlessly scooting over to occupy it. Close, but not too close. They pick up handfuls of sand and let it fall through their fingers while they listen. The sound more than the words is enough to get ruffled feathers to settle, but they listen to the words too.]

It is a significant trend.

[Wry. They almost add a 'I wonder why' but. Well. This Frisk is probably better than them. Even if they're in Chara's role. They can't help snorting into a sleeve at the offhand 'getting over destroying the world' thing. They think about being called that friend. Ouch.]

That doesn't sound particularly nice to me. How did you two meet? My Frisk said something about being able to 'meet him properly' but they also implied he was very dead.

[They shrug. They wouldn't have believed it if there weren't actual ghosts in the Underground and if Frisk themself hadn't fit that criteria.]

[determinedest]

[An unfortunate thing, it's true. Most of their friends have killed them, and they've killed their friends right back. With the exception of Sans. Even if he does remember getting killed by them, or a version of them.]

Well, he was...he went through some things. He was dead by the time I fell, but there was kind of an...an accident. He died on a patch of flowers, and one of those flowers got injected with determination. So he sort of...lived on. Without a soul. Neither monster nor human.

He was really sad. Really angry. Really lonely. Couldn't feel anything. Could only SAVE and RESET.

[Their tone is unspeakably melancholy as they recall it. It's a little bit surreal to relate the story like this, like a fable, when they've lived it so many times.]

He needed the six human SOULs and all the SOULs of the monsters Underground to manifest as Asriel again.

[itstheend]

[Chara.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. All these successive hard reboots probably aren't doing them any favours.

Their hand closes tightly over their current fistful of sand. They're not looking at anything in particular. Frisk is a good storyteller but the story- ]

A flower. That could SAVE.

A golden flower. With a face, perhaps?

[They drop the sand and cover their mouth with their sleeve-ends, like they saw someone do once. Their knees draw up to their chest. Their shoulders are shaking. They're getting sand in their mouth and they don't care at all.

That damned yellow composite. That they utterly loathed. To the point that when they cleaved him out of existence in eight strikes for daring to call them a name that wasn't theirs, they felt satisfaction through the LV caking their SOUL.

He was their brother!? The reveal of the SOULs pales in comparison.]

Hahahah... oh boy! No wonder they were angry! They should have been angrier! They should have...

They should have.

[determinedest]

Yes...

[Frisk drags the word out warily, watching Chara as they cover their mouth, shoulders trembling with the strain of something they evidently didn't want or need to know. Something they didn't yet discover.

What a way to find out, huh.

They'd reach out to touch them, put a hand to their shoulder, but they doubt such an act would be as comforting as their Chara might find it. They don't them, after all. They're an unfamiliar person, and it only got to the point where they and Chara can tolerate one another's touch after several months.]

Yeah. I know.

[Their tone is low, and mournful.]

What happened? Back home with...with him?

cw suicide

[itstheend]

I happened.

[A smile carves up their face. It's their turn to tell a story. Get comfortable, other-Frisk, it's a long one by their laconic standards.]

The first time. I do not know if your Chara can - could - do this but. My Frisk. Decided that I should not be allowed to make my own decisions.

I fought, but something made them stronger. I became less and less aware. By the time they realised what they were doing to me, it was almost too late. At that point, I was happy for it to be.

[They climbed that mountain for a reason.]

And then they brought me back.

I was very angry with them, Frisk. Very, very angry. It is difficult to harm a voice in one's head. So I sharpened my weapon and proceeded to hunt down and destroy everything they even remotely cared about that I could reach. Everything.

The more LV I acquired. The less influence they had over me. It was their turn to futilely fight. And at some point the original reasons seemed... increasingly less important. I had gained a taste for power.

What happened with him back home is I killed him second-to-last. And I enjoyed it. Annoying, tormenting flower.

That should have been the end of it.

[Especially given they then killed themself to end the world. Something dark and disgusted drips off their words.]

[determinedest]

[They listen quietly, their eyes lidded and their gaze low. It's a familiar narrative, only...they did not quite happen like that. Even that dark, dust-strewn path - that was a path of Frisk's own choosing. They set out to forge that violent thing together. Even if Chara might pretend otherwise, to make it...easier on them, somehow. To make it more palatable. To make Chara seem darker and crueler than they are, and Frisk better than they ever were.

Their voice is soft, and they are careful to keep the judgment from the words. Chara, they think, likely hates themselves enough as it is.]

What did they make you do? What decisions did they make?

[Somehow, they think they already know the answer.]

Where I'm from - Chara and I, we - we would work together. Not always. We would sometimes fight for every step of the way. But in those darker times...when we killed everything, hunted it all down?

We made that choice together.

Even now, they insist the choice was theirs alone.

[itstheend]

They started with preventing me from attacking Toriel and then simply didn't stop. They played.

[The dual betrayal still stings. They don't want to think about it further. There's that flare of not-envy when Frisk explains their world.]

Partners in crime. Would they be happier to know there's a universe where that wasn't true?

[It's a little bit of a jab, but with no real bite to it. They don't have room to talk. They are 99% sure that wasn't true. That 1% begins to bother them. They don't like what Frisk is implying. That what they remember isn't what happened. They have problems with reality enough as it is. They start toying with their sleeve-ends.]

I... we. My Frisk and I. We are working together now. But only because we have mutual goals and know what we could do if we didn't. We struck a pact.

It's good, I guess? To know it's possible. We can't forget what we've done.

[They're a mess. They're all over the place. They're not even sure what they're trying to say here.]

[determinedest]

[Forced them into pacifism. So they...lashed out. Killed everything out of spite. Well, their Chara always did say most of what they did was motivated out of spite. A contrarian streak wider than the breadth of the RUINs.

It makes a depressingly large amount of sense.

Frisk folds their arms, curls them around their midriff.]

I...do need to ask you something. About how you killed everything. Gained all that LOVE. We did the same thing, you know that now. But...

[Their eyes flutter, their gaze downcast. They can't meet the other Chara's eyes.]

But we never made it to the end. We never made it past Sans. He remembers us killing him, but we...we don't. He said that something changes, something changes everything, if we get past him.

...did you? Get past him?

[itstheend]

Curious, are you?

[That one has a bit more of a sting to it. Then again, does the justification matter if the end result is the same? Telling them now might blunt the temptation to find out first hand, if that's the case.]

Bear in mind that what happened in my world may not be directly applicable to yours.

But yes.

[They draw a line from clavicle to hip. Gold hall. Sunlight, somehow. Bones. The smell of blood and poison and fresh ketchup. The last one can still send them back there. Shake away the images. Be clinical and objective.]

His magic tires him. Eventually, he will stall his turn. Ironically, this would have worked better as an opening gambit, because he is too exhausted to stay awake.

I am impressed he still manages to dodge the first strike. [Like catching a coin.] The second takes him off guard. He has forgotten that by taking two turns in a row he has gone into debt.

[They let the hand indicating the wound drop. They continue, tone utterly emotionless.]

I do not kill the king, or destroy his soul. The flower does that. Trying to get into good graces I don't have. It pleads. I kill it. After eight strikes it is in pieces all over the ground. There is nothing left.

I turn the knife on myself. I strike with enough force that reality itself is sheared away.

Nothing but black and howling wind. And you, after a time. Here, we talk.

[They look up at Frisk, and say dryly:]

Are you satisfied?

[determinedest]

[...ah. Frisk looks away for a moment, their expression flickering and pained. The knowledge that they could have persisted to that point and chose not to. The not-memory of a strike nearly bisecting their dear friend. He told them that's how it happened. They cut into him and he doesn't expect it.

He limps away, and exits stage left. They proceed onward.

And then, the voice that Chara fears, the words that they hate, the progression to a thing they have always held over everyone's heads as inconsolable proof that they must be something twisted and evil.

Frisk whispers the words, low and cracked with understanding, eyes flicking shut.]

Please don't kill me.

[And then they...do what it is they wanted to do, huh? ERASE.

Cut the world away.

Wielding the power to feel nothing at all.

Is it wrong to think that they can see the appeal in that? The appeal in feeling nothing, in doing nothing but carving away a reality that does nothing but hurt and hurt others? In burning it all to the ground? Consign humans to the dark where they belong, so they may wander in endless void. Condemn them to the fate to which they condemned monsters all those generations ago. It is what they deserve.]

What...do you talk about?

[itstheend]

[Chara actually jerks a little at the words, giving Frisk a sharp look.]

Yes, exactly like that.

[Months, they have to remember. They still don't know who told what in that time. Maybe that other Chara has been keeping secrets.

Speaking of... there's a reason they cut the story off there. Those angry, hushed, broken conversations in the blackness feel too - they want to snap that it's private, none of their business. This is however, a Frisk who is them. They deserve at least a rough overview. Chara props their head on a hand.]

Mostly, about what had just happened. As you can imagine, neither of us was in a good mood. I certainly was not expecting to still be conscious after that. We fought, verbally. You can be surprisingly vicious, when you want to be.

[There's no small amount of pride in that statement. Chara can acknowledge skill when they see it.]

When we were not doing this we were deliberately ignoring each other, now that we could. We were there for a long, long time. Time is difficult there, but days, at least. Anger burns out. We talked of other things. This is where you told me of your brother.

Eventually we made a deal. If I wouldn't kill, you wouldn't take over. We went back together.

[A deal Chara feels is still very much tipped in Frisk's favour, considering the entire Underground being after them, but there wasn't a lot of choice.]

[determinedest]

[They've been mining where they're not meant to be. Mostly they think that's Chara's fault, and things simply bled over after a certain point. Either way, they don't contest the point that they can be vicious. They know it. It's one of their traits they hate the most.]

I see.

[They curl their arms around their knees as they draw them up to their chest and prop their chin on one kneecap, unconscious mirroring Chara's posture.]

Sans told me that...in that path, everything would "end". The entire world, I'm guessing, like how you described. But I guess you could also bring it back.

[They pull their hands away, and open them.]

Chara - my partner - talks about that sometimes. The power to ERASE. That is the power I think they were after. Anything, if it meant they could feel nothing. LOVE makes things...easier. You don't hurt. You don't feel anything at all.

[But then, they don't need to explain that. Still, then temptation is a constant and clawing thing. And it would be so easy...]

But just like the power to ERASE, we also have the power to SAVE. Not just in the way we do before a FIGHT.

I mean the power to SAVE people's SOULs.

[itstheend]

[Chara picks at a loose thread on their trousers, looking at their knees. They get it. Of course they do. This entire thing has been a surreal experience. They laugh a little, quiet and barking.]

LV Anonymous. How does that go? It's been such and such days since I last killed a person.

[They don't know the exact number. Time Underground is tricky when there's no true sky and Toriel doesn't keep any clocks in her house. Frisk has a strange knack of knowing, because they can read it off the SAVE file but they're still not here.

Other-Frisk proceeds to rapidly lose them.]

How is that possible? What are they being SAVEd to? [No, that's still thinking in terms of files. They said it wasn't like that. More literally, Chara.] Or from, as the case may be?

[determinedest]

From...being ERASED, I guess. That's what Asriel was trying to do, at first. Trying to set everything back to zero, he said. So I guess he was trying to ERASE. And...I stopped him.

[They hover one hand over the center of their chest once more.]

It's...hard to explain. Instead of ACT, it was...SAVE. I could SAVE the SOULs of everyone trapped inside him. And then I could SAVE him.

[* You reach out and call their name.
* You reach out and call their name.
* You reach out and call their name.

their name.

* The true name.

Their hand drops as a strange expression briefly crawls across their features.]

I...might've SAVED Chara, too. I don't actually know.

[itstheend]

[They listen, and.

They don't understand it, but something about it clicks. Like intuitively grasping the shape of something but not being able to give details if a gun was held to your head. It's a little bit of a headache.

It takes them a moment to parse their own name before remembering that the equivalent would be them SAVEing Frisk. Why would Frisk need to be SAVEd? If Asriel was doing something to the souls... he absorbed...

...

Are they doing to Frisk what Frisk did to them? Don't. Don't think about it. Think about what was said.]

So! If I am interpreting this correctly.

[They cast around a bit before remembering they stuck their Stick in their belt and pull it out. They draw a line in the sand in front of them and mark an X in the middle, shift over a bit so that Other-Frisk can see clearly. The sharpened tip makes a good pointer.]

They are two sides of the same coin. SAVE... [They loop the point of the stick from the end of the line to the X] and ERASE. [They kick that bypassed half of the line away with their foot.]

And the variety of SAVE you are talking about is simply on a smaller scale. A restoration of people, not the entire world. Am I close?

[determinedest]

[Frisk watches them sketch out the diagram, delineating a line in the sand. Hah...there's a joke there, they think. But they don't want to come near it, in case it would be in bad taste.

This sort of stuff is still new to them. Half the time they're not sure they can understand it. What allows them to SAVE Asriel, and SAVE everyone else? The fact that at last the struggle between the two SOULs in the human's body dimmed and faded, and snapped into glaring alignment?

Chara would never buy that. They insist the darkest path is theirs, and the brightest one Frisk's. And Frisk doesn't buy that either.]

Yeah, I think so. Only, I'm not sure if I can do that here. If either of us can do it? I don't know if Chara can ERASE if we're not LV 20. Or if I can SAVE people, or a world, or anything.

[They shrug, one side of their mouth twisting.]

Wonderland likes to change things on us.

[itstheend]

[Chara frowns down at the line, absently chewing on the end of the stick. There's something here, and they just need. Just need to. They turn a little towards Frisk, but their gaze stays fixed.]

This may perhaps be the obvious question, but have either of you tried, here? Even if it failed, at least you'd know.

[It's good to know what you can and can't do. It makes planning much, much easier. Results more certain - survival more certain. And if SAVE can undo the work of ERASE, there's latitude for experimentation.]

I did not know I could do that, at the time. I just wanted everything to end. The world took me rather literally.

[It's their turn to unknowingly match movements, mouth twisting.]

There's... something here. Something I'm missing.

[They scowl, and swipe away the rest of the diagram with their other foot.]

Could you walk me through it? What you did.

[determinedest]

I don't really understand it all the way myself, honestly.

[They shrug, smiling weakly, but they oblige to the best of their ability. Close their eyes and call up the memories.]

With Asriel...well, first he took the human SOULs. Then he took all the monster SOULs in the Underground, and with that power...the power of seven human SOULs, or however many monsters made it equal to that...he was able to take his form. Asriel Dreemurr.

[They smile, brief and uneven.]

The Absolute God of Hyperdeath, he called himself. Chara got...pretty excited, actually. Infinite attack, infinite defense.

We couldn't FIGHT. We couldn't do much of anything. The whole world was just ending, and all we could do was Hope and Dream. But every time we died, we...we just came back. And I don't mean like normal - our SAVE didn't exist anymore. I mean we literally, we - we refused.

[They lock their fingers together, mimicking the re-fusing of a SOUL's pieces after it split into two, wavered, and then - in a defiance of the bright snap of scattering pieces, simply mended itself together.]

It's like our determination wouldn't let us die. At all.

i just realised this is literally a walkthrough pfft

[itstheend]

[They can picture it. They know how their soul breaks intimately well. A reversal. Part of them likes the double meaning. Hoping and dreaming seem to fit as the only ACTs left after all other options are gone.]

It sounds like hell.

[Well that just came out without any sort of thought behind it.

The Absolute God of Hyperdeath. Their-Frisk told them about the sorts of games he would play. It sure sounds like one of them, only made terrifyingly real.

Death by Marty Stu. They try not to snort, but it's true isn't it? Would they do better with that sort of power? Probably not.]

I see. What did you do then?

thaaaaat's undertale!!!

[determinedest]

Well, the world was ending.

[Even Chara's uniquely optimistic narration had taken a rather dark turn there. Just like how they had ended up without so much as a comforting menu, a row of options, during that horrific battle with Flowey, that many-layered fractalled floral thing that laughed and laughed and god they can still hear that laugh in their mind's eye. They can still hear it.]

After a while, he...he changed forms. Got even harder, even more powerful. And all we could do was struggle, unable to move, as he killed us over and over again. Guess he really was gonna ERASE the whole world.

And that's when, um...well, I...I was able to do it.

[They open their hands unceremoniously.]

Everything was fading, turning dark, and all I had was Chara's voice until I could...see again. I could see him, and I could see everyone's SOULs inside him. And I could SAVE them.