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Asriel awakens to a noise filling the bedroom. It's a ticking, almost like a clock - but much, much faster. He blinks, muzzled, slowly forcing himself into something that's close enough to a sitting position for now.
It's pre-dawn, he can tell. The light through the windows is murky and dim, and the room is cold even through his fur, which probably contributed to waking him up. But the room is aglow anyways with the eerie cast of light from the computer that he shares with Chara and Frisk.
He can't see the screen clearly, because Chara's between him and it, hunched over in their chair with one leg up (their posture always makes Mom cringe a little), mouse in hand. That's the source of the clicking noise, Asriel realizes. Chara is clicking the mouse button, over and over and over, more and more frantically by the second.
"Chara?" Asriel calls, pushing himself fully out of bed. "Are you okay?"
click click click click click
Asriel swallows down a bit of fear, moving closer. A thought strikes him. "Did you, um, get any sleep?"
click click click click click
A deep gulp. Whatever this is, Asriel can handle it. He needs to be brave. He needs to be strong.
He glances at Chara, hunched, face hidden by their auburn hair, clicking the button again, and again, and again. Focused on nothing but the computer. Cutting out the world by degrees.
He needs to get help.
---
It's not the first time Frisk's been woken up from the aftermath of a sleepover (the monster kid, this time - there had been a lot of bouncing on the bed, followed by a lot of falling off the bed) by a wave of Asriel's texts. They have the alert set to a chime that wakes them up reliably just for that eventuality. With a yawn, they scroll through the messages.
"FRISK COME HOME CHARA BEING WEIRD :("
Frisk takes a moment to consider that.
"how?"
"WONT MOVE FROM COMPUTER BEEN AN HOUR MAYBE ALL NIGHT? :( :( :("
Frisk frowns at the message, already climbing off the bed. The monster kid only lives a few blocks away, easily walked. Frisk will leave a note. Maybe the kid can come by the Dreemurr house later, provide a fourth for Mario Party.
"on my way"
A pause.
"chocolate help?"
Asriel sends back a series of frowning emoticons, and Frisk frowns in turn. This is serious.
---
Fifteen minutes walk later, Frisk arrives back home just as the sun starts to be visible over the distant mountains. They open the door, stepping in, looking around.
As expected, Asriel already has Toriel up, and she's looking just as worried as he is. They both turn to Frisk as Frisk steps in.
Frisk meets their worried eyes with a gaze full of determination and nods, once.
Asriel swallows, then smiles, returning their nod.
Frisk smiles back, then starts the walk to the bedroom door, fighting back an edge of worry.
They push open the door with a slow creak and -- well, it's what Asriel had described. Chara's still hunched over the computer in the same rigid position, the soft click click click of the mouse echoing through the room. The dawn light that's starting to enter does nothing to make the scene less worrisome.
Frisk steps closer, carefully, choosing each word before they speak to avoid stuttering or faltering. "Mom's baking," they say.
click click click click click
"Chocolate cake. Chocolate frosting. Chocolate chips."
click click click click click
"Says--" Frisk stumbles, for a moment, picks the sentence back up. "Says you c-can lick the batter."
A momentary pause, then:
click click click click click
Frisk sighs heavily, fiddling with their hands, their stock of words and ideas gone. Instead of talking more, they move closer, trying to angle themselves so they can peer over Chara's shoulder without getting too close.
What they see on the screen doesn't make a lot of immediate sense. There's a lot of little pixel images of things (including a bunch of old people standing around), and on the left there's a cookie hovering over what Frisk hopes is basically anything but blood. An endless wheel of little pointer fingers spin around the cookie. It's the cookie that Chara is clicking, over and over, faster each time.
Chara finally looks away, then, Frisk's proximity having somewhat broken the spell. There are deep lines under their eyes, and even their normally-flushed cheeks look pale. "I have to keep going until I can trigger the first stages of the Grandmapocalypse," they say, voice a little hoarse. "That will let me get some wrigglers going. But the autoclicker I found didn't really do enough, so I'm trying to supplement it with manual clicking, which also lets me keep the correct building ratio going and get upgrades as they become available, along with handling golden cookies myself. I figure I can end this run with enough heavenly chips to manage the upgrades I wanted and a few spares."
They keep talking, clicking all the while, but Frisk can barely hear them as the dread begins to take over. They remember World of Warcraft, where Chara had to be dragged, screaming, away to eat because they had been raiding or waiting to raid for 30 hours straight. They remember Pokemon, remember Chara's obsessive desire to catch 'em all. They remember the ill-fated attempts at Monopoly nights, and how they had to ban Chara from being banker.
Any game where the numbers go up captures Chara, entangles them, leaves them unfulfilled until they've won so totally and completely that nothing remains for them to do. It can be fun, when they point out the hidden glitches and side routes and tricks to gain more points or save more time. But sometimes it's terrifying.
From what Frisk can see of the screen, there's an endless array of numbers rising in complicated, dizzying patterns.
It doesn't help in the least that the cookie is chocolate chip.
The maker of this thing couldn't have trapped Chara harder if they'd been trying.
Frisk will have to work hard to get them out of this one. They think, wracking their brains, as Chara keeps talking about the benefits and drawbacks of clicking red cookies and about they've been wondering if maybe they should bring the Grandmapocalypse up another notch for the chance of an Elder Fury. Chocolate's not working. Hugs would only distract and annoy Chara temporarily. Toriel never manages to enforce an internet ban long.
The only solution comes to them in a flash, and they fight back fear and gather their determination.
"I want a turn," they say.
Chara blinks, interrupted mid-speech, even the incessant clicking noise stop. "What?"
"I--I want to play too," Frisk says, a little more firmly.
"I'm playing right now," Chara argues.
"I want a turn now or I'm telling mom."
The two meet eyes for a few long moments, red against red, determination against determination, Frisk feeling a tension in the air that they could swear takes a few HP off of their life.
But finally, at long last, Chara groans and stretches, climbing out of the chair. "Fine. But if you want to reset, consult me first, and I decide where to spend the heavenly chips. Got it?"
Frisk nods, climbing into the chair with a heavy sigh, and begins to click on the cookie, again and again.
Chara slips out of the room, and Frisk knows they made the right choice when they hear Asriel cheer. And soon, Frisk knows, either Chara will finish the game or Chara will realize it's endless and get annoyed and quit. A few weeks, at most.
But for now, Frisk will take on the sacrifice of staring at a cookie, clicking it, watching the numbers go up one by one in an almost hypnotic pattern.
They pause, then glance at the long column of buildings and upgrades to the side.
Maybe they can even help Chara finish up a little faster.
---
That night, Chara awakens from their light sleep against Asriel to hear a soft sound in the air.
click click click click click
They groan, heavily, and decide to go back to bed.