Leisurely moving down the hall, I watch as Toriel pops out from behind a conveniently placed pillar. "Do not worry, my child, for I did not truly leave you. I was simply behind this here pillar." Smiling, she grabs my hand. "Come, m-"

(BZZZT), (BZZZT).

"One moment, Sweety."

walking off, She talks on the phone. "Oh, my? Is this true..?"

Seemingly serious, her posture shifts. It's barely visible, but my eyes are used to seeing this.

"Yes... Yes, I will come right away!" Coming back towards me, She seems to be in a rush. Whatever they were talking about on the phone must've been important.

"My child! Something urgent has occurred deeper in the ruins. I ...must leave you for a while." Conflicted, she reaches into her robe, before pulling out an absolutely ancient phone. Scrunching my face, I politely grab it before fixing my expression.

"Thank you!" Smiling, she tousles my hair.

Holding the brick in my hand, I watch as Toriel apprehensively begins backing away. Slowly but surely, she leaves the room. Leaving me and Chara all by ourselves.

Face twitching, It stretches back to its normal frown. "Why is being nice so difficult?"

Staring at me, Chara squints. "It's not. You just suck at it." Looking back, We stare at each other.

"You know Frisk, you're actually really good at SPARING your enemies. You just need a better attitude."

Glancing at the dripping save point, I force myself to look away.

"And how am I supposed to do that?" 

"Well, f-" Listening to her and not paying attention to my surroundings obviously isn't the smartest thing to do in hostile territory, and the Whimsum bumping into me proved that.

Scared out of its mind, It looks at me with fear. Feeling my face rise into a smile, I start to aggressively move my arms when Chara slaps me in the back of the head, again.

"Terrorising innocent Whimsums is not very pacifist of you."

"So what should I do, Chara." Waiting for genuine advice, I sit there. Barely moving to avoid the Whimsums' panicked attacks. "Give it a nice smile."

Shrugging my shoulders, I give the Whimsum a curt smile. "It will be all right," I say, copying Toriels tone. Calming down, The Whimsum looks far less panicked than it was a minute ago. 

"Good Job. But maybe you should create your own personality rather than stealing someone else's." Raising a brow, I shrug what she said off before continuing down the Catacombs.

Moving out of the way of its leap, I shoot finger guns at the Froggit. "Are you ground coffee? 'Cause I would like to eat you raw-" Stopping myself midsentence, I look to Chara. "Too far?" A traumatised nod is all I get in response.

catching the Froggit, I lightly place him on the floor. I reprimand him in s stern voice. "Jumping at people without asking is very rude."

A remorseful ribbit is all I get in response as it bounds down the hall.

"Frisk. I know you like being practical, but stealing someone's personality is..."

"It's working well enough." I don't understand. What's the point of changing something if it works? Why would you do that? What would be-

Tripping, I catch myself as I nearly fall into the blob of sentient slime.

"I see your point, Chara." Having never seen Toriel interact with this... Thing, my options for dealing with it are incredibly limited.

"Any Ideas?" Watching it wiggle, I can't help but raise my brows. The technique is masterful.

"Why don't- Frisk. What on earth are you doing?" Copying the gelatin's movement, I sway my body from side to side.

". . ." Not knowing what to say, Chara watches in silence as the satisfied gelatin bounces away, content.

"Now that was a conversation I can get behind." Walking with renewed vigour, the dumbstruck Chara follows silently behind.

Up ahead, through the gateway, I see 3 rocks. 

Going up to the first one, I put all of my strength into pushing it into place.

Doing the same with the second, I'm relatively exhausted when I get to the third.

Starting to push, The rock violently shakes. "Woah there, Pardner, Who said you could push me around!" Raising my hand, I stop myself. I already feel a bump forming from where Chara's been hitting me. 

Calming myself down, I stare at the rock. "C-could you move?" Cursing my stutter, the rock complies. "Alright. but just for you, pumpkin." Moving an inch to the right, I can feel my small amount of patience for this encounter dwindle.

"A little more the right, please..?" I say through gritted teeth.

"Like this?" Moving north, off the puzzle track, I completely run out of patience. Not wanting to deal with the rock anymore, I walk over to the spikes before vaulting over them. landing on all fours, I glare at the rock, as I move through the archway.

"I don't even know what to say..."

"So don't say anything."

"Fuck you."

"What are you doing." Looking down, I see it. pretending to sleep, there's a ghost repeatedly saying 'z'. Furrowing my brow, I start Walking up to it, but stop for a moment when I feel Chara's Intense gaze pierce my pack. Sighing, I kneel down. 

"What are you doing?" I say, trying to be more polite.

"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz."

"That's not really an answer."

"zzzzzzz."

"Could you use your words?"

"zz."

"......"

"....this is kind of awkward." Slowly floating up, he just floats in place while staring at me and Chara.

"oh. i didn't know there were other ghosts in the ruins." Nodding slightly, me and Chara both watch as he just kinda floats there. Doing absolutely nothing.

"ok... bye...."

Looking at Chara, she shrugs before grabbing my collar and dragging my into the next room.

Sifting through my pocket, I search for any stray G I might have lost. At the end of my search, I count 4. 4G total. Strengthening my grip, I stare at the spiders, Who seemingly mock my lack of money with their synchronised swaying.
"I-Is there any discounts," I ask, cursing at not even being able to talk to a spider. At least hoping to at least get a doughnut,
the spiders, being spiders don't respond. Dejectedly, I walk out of the room.
Going through the northern door, I continue my journey.

Standing from the fall, I dust off my shorts. "Was this puzzle always like this..?" Walking to the stairs, Chara looks at me with genuine concern. "Frisk. Are you... Stupid? This puzzle hasn't changed at all."

"Is that a genuine question, or are you being an ass?" Walking up the stairs, she answers me. 

"A genuine question."

raising a brow, I stare at her. "In my opinion, I'm not an idiot. But I doubt i'm the smartest?" not expecting to have to answer the question, I flick the middle switch and hear a (CLICK), followed by a satisfying (SWOOSH). The other two were incorrect so by process of elimination this was the correct switch.

Genuinely smiling for the first time, I catch myself and revert my facial expression. Somethings happening, and im not a fan.

"Chara. What's going on? My control over my emotions is slipping."

Walking straight through the T-shaped room, I enter a small room north and pick up the plastic knife, before gently stowing it away in my pocket.

"...Strange. Ill go figure it out. Doin't kill anything while im away."

Vanishing with a slight pop, I shrug my shoulders and walk truly alone for the first time. Heading up this time, I see a huge, leafless tree in the down the middle of a relativly large room. Behind it, I see Toriel talking on the phone.

"..Yes, Thank you!" Hearing her familiar voice, I stand still, waiting for her to notice me.

Hearing a click, I watch as she sighs in relief before putting the piece of ancient metal she calls a phone in her robe. Walking in my general direction, she puts her hands over her mouth when she sees me.

"Oh! My child, How on earth did you get here? are you injured?" Assessing my condition, she looks me over before smiling. 

"Not even a single scratch! Impressive."

"heh..."

"Good, good. You are well. However, I must apologise for leaving so soon, something urgent came up and I had to attend to it." Smiling, she tousles my hair before grabbing my hand.

"As an apology, I have made you a treat!"

Tilting my head in confusion, She opens the door to her house, and the overwhelming scent of cinnamon molests my nose.

"A cinnamon butterscotch pie! I have already taken it out of the oven, but first." Dragging me to a door, she opens it. A kid's room.

"A room of your own. You seem tired, here." Leading me inside, she places me on the bed with a smile. 

"I will let you rest now, my child. Have sweet dreams."Content, she walks to the door before slowly closing it. 

Pulling the covers over myself, I groan. What a long day. Feeling the familiar darkness over take me I start to fall asleep.

"Ack-!" Gasping, I push the heavy lump under the blanket off of me, Or at least I try to.

"Chara. Get. Of." Hearing her laugh, I groan in annoyance as she pops through the blanket. 

"Well. Did you find anything?" Tilting her head, I feel my eye twitch in annoyance. "You know, About my volotiale emotional state."

"Oh!" Staring at her, I resist the urge to shout at her. "Yes, I did- Well, There's two things. One is far more reasonable than the other."

"So spit it out." Rolling her eyes, she clicks her tounge. "So ungrateful. Well, you're either regaining your humanity, or the timelines' screwing with your mental state."

Blinking, I squint. "That's concerning." 

"Well (yawn), Thats enough work for one day." Jumping into the bed again, She takes nearly the entire bed, leaving me nothing but a tiny sliver.

"..." Resigning myself to my fate, I sigh before laying my head on the pillow. 

Darkness.