i've made up my mind over and over; keep pressing rewind [open]

[determinedest]

Who: Frisk and YOU
Where: All over the mansion
When: 2/04 - 2/08
Rating: PG-13 for Bad Thoughts and implied suicide attempt
Summary: * If you DO end up erasing everything...you have to erase my memories, too. I’m sorry.
The Story:

[* There is one last thing.]

                          [* One last threat.]

                                                      [* One being with the power to erase EVERYTHING…]

                                                                                                                       [* Everything everyone’s worked so hard for.]

[* You know who I’m talking about, don’t you?]

[* That’s right.]
[* Despite everything...]



[* It's still YOU.]

Comments

[determinedest]

[The closet won't work. They say it with utter certainty, and something about the statement locks into place. Frisk nods for a moment, the motion almost dazed in its automated, automatic instinct. Because they've already done this before. They've seen this before, watching Chara, asleep, rolling to their side, eyes slitting open. Is that familiarity tingling at the edges of their mind, or recognition of a scenario they've seen played out again and again?

Someone asks if this is a dream. Or someone - someone once asked? Would have asked? Had the possibility to ask? One way or another, Frisk answers:]

This isn't a dream.

[And they didn't LOAD. So what else could it be?

RESET.]

[fulllifeconsequences]

[This isn't a dream, Frisk points out, even if Chara didn't say anything about that. In their sleep-hazy mind, it simply makes sense that they must have thought it, must be connected, tethered, must be doing their asterisk-whispers. The off-kilter, unreal feeling hanging over them must just be part of not really existing.

They're silent, gazing at Frisk with lidded, sleepy eyes, responding in the way they used to.

* You feel a strange sense of dread...
* Open something else?

♥ Yes        No

...

Nothing happened.

They sit up, ready to think increasingly impatient thoughts, but... oh. But they sat up. Right? They scrub their hand against their eyes. No resistance, no moment of lag, no loss of control. They feel it. They dig the heels of their palms against their eyes until they see stars.

Real. Solid.

This is real, right?]

...Try opening something else.

[determinedest]

[This is real. It's real, and it's not a dream. It can't be. Even if there's the acute sensation that they've done this before, that they've tried to open the closet and seen it yield nothing. That there's something wrong with the door, because they were bad enough to get locked in, or there's something wrong with the window -

Try opening something else.

They brace themself, knowing, inexplicably, that the door won't open easily. And it doesn't. They have to strain, until at last it lurches beneath their grasp.]

Haven't we...

[The door swings open, yielding a wall of water that shouldn't be familiar - they've never seen something like this before, no in their life - and yet is. Just like how they knew to put their back into opening the door.

It's like seeing an old friend again, after a very long time.

It's kind of like they knew what was coming, before it happened.

Something about this being so familiar - ]

We've done this before.

[They've seen this before.]

[fulllifeconsequences]

[Right. Okay. Right.

Wake up.

They get out of bed. Consider changing out of their pyjamas, but... would it be wasted effort, if that action would keep undoing itself? The uneasy risk of baring skin, even if only in front of Frisk, still makes goosebumps prickle across their flesh. Maybe even Frisk would be trying to tell if their guess about Chara was right or wrong. Maybe even Frisk would know that if skin exists, it's an invitation to grab it. Maybe...

Not worth it, Chara decides.]

Okay. Let's pick up where we left off.

This... water, I guess? It's got to be there for a reason. Behaving like this for a reason. Are we just supposed to stay in our rooms the whole event?

[determinedest]

I don't think we can. The windows won't open.

[Eventually, they'll run out of air. The network pings, causing their phone to vibrate where they left it at their bedside, but the messages go ignored. They've read this already.]

No one LOADed. That wasn't a LOAD.

[Only one thing can do something like that.

And they lost that power when the world separated them into two. When they came here.

RESET.]

So...how do we do anything?

[fulllifeconsequences]

[The windows won't open...? So what? What does that have to do with staying in their room? Chara's brow wrinkles, ready to announce that's stupid, but - but no. Fake like you know better. Fake like you get it, fake it until you make it. Windows...

...

Food? Water's obviously not an issue. Bathroom? None of those have anything to do with windows. So.... Oh. Oh! Air, right? The window's probably not just closed, but airtight.

Why didn't they know that instinctively? They're the smart one, the pragmatic one, the survivalist. They go a little redder and cross their arms.]

We can try... touching the water? If it's our only way out, we're probably going to have to deal with it eventually. Might as well see if it defies physics all the time, or if that bubble bursts the moment we come into contact.

[determinedest]

[Have they tried this before? There's...they might get a thrill of deja vu, but there's no way to know for certain. They've never been on this side of a RESET. It's even more disorienting, when they're not the one in control.

(Of course it would be. Don't you know anything?)

Chara reddens slightly, but they choose to skirt past that. Pretend it didn't happen. Chara would probably prefer that, in any case.

They step forward, fingers outstretched gingerly. Brushing the edge of the water. It's cool and laminar beneath their touch, and their fingers come away wet, but it stays where it is. Emboldened, they stick their full hand into it with a wet plash, wiggle their fingers for a moment.

It stays how it is.]

Guess we don't have to worry about that, then.

[fulllifeconsequences]

Well, that's one less problem, I suppose.

[That's as far as their optimism goes.

They resist the urge to stick their hand in too, because that looks really cool and they're overcome with the urge to touch.

But that wouldn't be very mature or disciplined. They're red-faced enough as it is.]

Seems like a straightforward premise. We'll probably have to move through the water to find somewhere else with air, food, and so on. Repeatedly. If we haven't already. Because something is trying to reset.

...Did we establish this already?

[determinedest]

I don't...

[Ha ha, they don't remember, do they? Sure isn't exciting or powerful when you're not the one in control, is it?

...Okay, I'm stumped. If the Resets are our fault, then how did we do this?

Only they haven't said that before. They know they haven't, and they know Chara hasn't, but it sounds familiar and so - so it must have happened. It must have happened. Something is trying to RESET. Something already has.]

I think so. I don't remember. Did it...did it steal it? The RESETs?