Chapter Text
The sounds of birdsong mingled with the laughter of children, a crisp wind joined the merriment with a refreshing dance that pushed golden leaves throughout the streets of Hometown. Kris loved the changing of the seasons even if they were barely outside enough to properly experience them. The sight of Hometown changing alongside the time of year was something they always looked forward to; they could never tell how anyone could live in regions with more consistent year-round climates.
Still riding the high of their recent victory, Kris had an unusually wicked smile strewn across their face. Hands deep in their jacket pockets, the human slowly caressed the ring box as a conqueror handles the spoils of war. A beautiful day spent with their best friends in the world right off the heels capturing the SOUL, truly this was a day worthy of a festival.
And yet there was a certain feeling that didn’t seem to subside no matter how happy they felt. Another Dark Fountain would eventually be unleashed somewhere in town and it would bring great calamity with it, not exactly the Roaring but something just as worse.
“It won’t happen.”
But everything else in the prophecy had happened already so why wouldn’t this? The anxiety almost panicked Kris to a halt. Then they remembered what Susie said, that she wasn’t going to let some prophecy come true as long as she breathed. Normally this wouldn’t be enough to convince Kris but they were Susie’s words so they had to be true, and so something resembling joy returned to the human as they continued onward to the festival grounds.
Jubilant music played from loudspeakers atop various brightly painted stalls and tents. Monsters of various shapes and sizes bobbed in and out of the isles, each face radiating with whimsy. A ferris wheel stood tall in the very back of the grounds overlooking the entire domain of entertainment. The festival was unlike anything Kris remembered from the past years they had actually attended, Mayor Holiday had transformed this local attraction into a paradise of fun and wonderment that was well-known for miles around. Despite the number of out-of-towners here today, there were only monsters to be found in the crowd, something Kris did not complain about.
It’s not that Kris hated humans or anything, it’s just that they’ve never met one before. Kris didn’t know the first thing about ‘being human’ as it were, they had spent their entire life surrounded by other monsters so they always felt that they were more monster themself. At one point, Toriel had gifted them a headband with red horns taped onto it so they could look more like their family. Kris had worn this everywhere, to school, to church, at home, at Noelle’s house, at the grocery store, it’d be quicker to name the places they didn’t wear it. They would very likely be wearing the old thing now if they hadn’t lost it some time ago.
More than enough time had passed since Kris and Susie split up for her to have picked up Noelle and brought her here so the human kept an eye out for their friends amidst the waves of unfamiliar faces. Susie’s sheer height even among other monsters meant that she would be easy to identify in a crowd, especially since other people had a natural inclination to avoid her, but despite that Kris could not locate her. Just a little bit of anxiety flared up in Kris but it was nothing major. They were admittedly a little jealous of Susie getting a head start on hanging out with Noelle; Kris wanted to make up for the opportunity they lost yesterday during the ‘study session’ to be an annoying third wheel who consistently thwarted Noelle’s attempts to grow attached to Susie if only for fun.,
The human was well aware of Noelle’s fixation on Susie, they had known for the entire year Susie had been in town. Noelle was an easy person for Kris to read even in their youth, it was why they had derived so much joy from messing with her. There was a time when Kris was upset at Noelle for continuing to crush on Susie even after they had become the target of her merciless bullying, but in time Kris began to see it as punishment for everything they had done to her… Everything they had taken…
“HEUGH HEUGH HEUGH!” Susie’s laugh called out to Kris from across the crowd, they would recognize it anywhere. Pushing past a few monsters to the source of the sound, it was beside a game stall where Susie and Noelle waited. They were both laughing among themselves, Susie’s arms were hung in the air clutching the back of her head while Noelle gazed up at her towering friend unblinkingly. Kris watched enviously from afar as their two friends enjoyed themselves. Aside from their family, Susie and Noelle were the two most precious people in the world to the human. Yet despite it all, Kris could not find the courage to approach their friends.
There was still a certain part of Kris that clung on to the idea that their friends hated them even if they knew that wasn’t true. The guilt was so heavy on them that they could not move their legs, merely stand idle and wait for some kind of sign that they were still loved. They thought about everything they hid from Susie and even from Noelle, it didn’t even matter if they cared about Kris now since they would just hate them later.
“And in the end, when everything’s all said and done, none of that will matter.”
Susie said something that made Noelle laugh so hard that she fell upon her for support. Kris grew envious at this, their connection; it was something they longed for and seldom believed they had achieved. As Noelle calmed down and opened her eyes they met with Kris’s, or at least where their eyes would be if they weren’t covered by bangs.
“Oh merry Krismaaaas~” Noelle called out, cupping her mouth to enhance her voice. Susie looked over and beckoned to Kris as well. That tiny insignificant voice at the back of Kris’s mind was cut out as they ran to be with their friends as fast as they could.
“Of course they care about me.”
“There you friggin’ are dude!” said Susie lightly punching Kris’s arm, hurting it though not unpleasantly. “We were waiting for you for like twenty minutes and you’re just giving us the creepshow special starin’ at us across the whole grounds.”
“S-Sorry I was just…” Kris stuttered, not expecting to be called out so suddenly.
Noelle gave Susie a concerning look before turning to Kris. “Hey hey Kris it’s ok, we’re not mad at you or anything!” Noelle may have come from a cold-loving family but her smile was soft like her fur and warm like spring. “It gave us a lotta time to talk!”
“Oh, what about?” Kris asked.
“About all the cool stuff we’re gonna do!” Susie excitedly answered. “Ferris wheel, the cotton candy machine, that game where you knock down a bunch of cans with a baseball…”
“And… also about you!” Noelle revealed somewhat hesitantly. Kris couldn’t believe that they were a topic of their friends’ conversation while they weren’t present.
“Yeah about how weird you’ve apparently been acting.” Susie jokingly scoffed while tapping Noelle with her elbow.
“You think I’m… acting weird?” Now Kris was curious.
“No! It’s not that you’re acting weird at all!” Noelle was desperately trying to defend herself from the corner she had somehow been put in. “It’s just the way Susie talks about you, it sounds completely different from the Kris I knew when we were kids is all.”
Kris supposed they acted differently now compared to when they last hung out with Noelle which would’ve been close to seven years ago. They were nine then, anyone that young was guaranteed to have changed after so much time passed. Although, maybe Noelle still liked Kris for how they were even after everything that had happened. It was hard for the human to believe that the Kris who once shoved every one of Noelle’s sweaters in the washing machine on hot water to shrink them on school picture day was the same Kris that Noelle hoped was still there seven years later. But then they remembered her fascination with Susie and realized that there may be something else going on here.
“People change I guess,” Kris shrugged. “Are you at least still… my friend?” It was a dumb question but they had to know.
“What!? Of course! Why else would I use your favorite nickname!” Noelle exclaimed, flabbergasted. The nickname in question was Merry Krismas, something her father had actually come up with apparently. Noelle called Kris by that name for so long when they were little. She had also called them by that name in Cyber City funnily enough, Kris wondered if Noelle had ever even stopped using it.
“I’m glad we’re still friends, Noelle. It’s just been so long that I… I had to make sure.” Kris smiled and reflexively pulled Noelle in for a hug, one that she happily let herself fall into.
“And what? No hugs for Susie?” the monster complained before she decided to just wrap her massive and powerful arms around her two friends in the middle of the festival. Kris could see Noelle’s already pink cheeks fully turn red like roses.
The friends, now closer than they had ever been, pulled away from each other. They did not come here to hug each other all day, (even though Kris was sure no one would turn that down) they came here to have fun at the festival. They needed to enjoy it while they could, it was only going to be around for a week and it was only a matter of time until the next Dark Fountain appeared which would inevitably throw a wrench in anything they had planned that day.
“So, what first?” Susie asked.
“Ooooh, I was thinking we could go to the caricature artist!” Noelle suggested eagerly. “Something to remember today by.”
“I like it.” Kris agreed.
“Hell yeah! Let’s go!” Susie also agreed, cracking her knuckles. And so Kris, Noelle, and Susie began to make their way to the caricature artist but not before someone interrupted them.
“I do believe you’re forgetting about someone, Kris Dreemurr,” a nasally avian voice had declared from out of sight.
“Oh no. Oh please don’t do this to me.”
When Kris looked over, they wanted to see anyone else in the world, but instead they saw the only person who could ruin this day.
It was Berdly. The blue bird’s wings were placed firmly at his hip while he faced the teens from an angle in a cocky display of authority. The squint in his eye and the angle of his tilted head gave the impression that he was looking down at the teens while his beak was twisted into an irritatingly smug grin. He was still wearing his white button up shirt with two pens in the front pocket, Kris was certain he only wore this to maintain appearances as the ‘smart kid’ even out of class.
“Berdly? What are you-” Kris was desperate to worm their way out of this but Berdly cut them off.
“Oh don’t play dumb just yet, Kris! Yesterday, in a moment of deep humiliation, you proclaimed your interest to go to the festival with me. Me!” Berdly reeled his head back and began to manically fake laugh into the sky.
“Kris? Did you agree to come with Berdly?” Noelle asked, puzzled as to why they would ever do that. But before Kris could defend themself, Berdly was already speaking.
“Of course they did, Noelle! I have the proof right in the feathers of my wing. He presented his cellphone which began to play a pre-recorded message.
“You… me. Festival.” Berdly’s voice came from the speaker just like how it had yesterday.
“I will go… with Berdly,” came a second voice that sounded like Kris’s although much more monotone than they usually talked.
Kris knew exactly what this was. It was yesterday at Noelle’s house when it had happened. Berdly called Noelle and asked her out to the festival when Susie snatched the phone and threw it aside. In the SOUL’s infinite curiosity, it compelled Kris over to it and had forced them to say that. It was another instance of the parasite combing through every possible intrusive thought that entered the human’s mind and picking the one which would dig the largest hole.
“I mean it does kinda sound like them,” Susie agreed.
“No it doesn’t! That’s not me! That’s the goddamn… URGH!”
Now Kris wanted to force Berdly into the ring box, the SOUL was a menace but Berdly…
God.
Damn.
Berdly...
Ok, perhaps Kris was being too harsh on him. They didn’t hate him nearly as much as the SOUL. There were times when Berdly was an actual friend and a good person, but there were other times when he would do things like lord his fabled intelligence over everyone he met just to feel superior. Kris and Susie did know that his so-called intellect was actually just a byproduct of studying with Noelle and the overwhelming expectations he faced being one of the ‘smart students’. He had admitted as much in Queen’s Palace the other day, but as far as he was concerned that day was a dream so he would never actually admit it out loud.
Maybe under incredibly normal circumstances Kris might actually want to hang out with Berdly at this festival, but right now? Today was for Susie and Noelle and no one else, least of all freaking Berdly! Once again, Kris opened their mouth to respectfully deny Berdly, Susie instead grabbed the human and pulled them aside into a weird huddle.
“Dude, you are a goddamn genius!” She whispered.
“What!? What are you talking about!?” Kris was genuinely confused. They may have been mostly neutral towards Berdly but Susie actually didn’t like him at all so they had no clue what her angle was here.
“Berdly is obsessed with Noelle, right?” He wasn’t, but Susie wouldn’t believe that.
“Sure?”
“Well if we can keep him out of the way, it’ll be easier to convince Noelle to get us the guitar from her house! She’ll be, like, happier and stuff!”
“I’m pretty sure we could also get him to leave us alone if we told him off hard enough, Susie.”
“Why’re you trying to get rid of him anyway? You did agree to go with him.” Kris had done no such thing but they couldn’t tell Susie that.
“I-It was a joke!” Kris pleaded.
“Well now it’s working in our favor! Come on Kris, we gotta think about the mission.”
“But… the festival-”
“Will still be here for another week! Come on, we'll all come back tomorrow after class.” Kris was having trouble containing their emotions, Susie seemed to notice this so she spoke again with greater care in her words, “I know how you feel man, you wanted to hang out with us and now Berdly’s makin’ this huge fuss about things. It sucks but we’ve gone through a whole ton of unsavory stuff already. If you can lead us into battle against a freaking Titan then I know you have the power to get through one afternoon with Berdly of all people, especially when it could mean the difference between getting this shelter code and not.”
Every passing day Susie was acting more and more like the hero she was prophesied to be. Kris could tell that, deep down, even Susie was upset at her proposition. She had wanted to be with Kris just as much as they wanted to be with her. And Kris had to start acting like a hero themself eventually, they had a promise of their own to keep after all.
“Ok, I’ll do it.” Kris agreed reluctantly. They were hanging onto tomorrow like their life depended on it, the day they would go to the festival for real.
“Awesome, thank you dude, I’ll see you on the other side!” Susie slapped Kris on the back before breaking the huddle.
Kris felt trapped, they had fought powerful Darkners and even defeated a world-ending Titan and yet somehow they were more hesitant to run off with Berdly. They glanced back at their friends, Susie was giving a double thumbs-up with widened eyes and a huge goofy smile while Noelle looked disappointed that Kris was leaving.
“Why do you look so sad? You get to spend the whole day with Susie and I have to tolerate the class suck-up…”
A presence appeared behind the human. “Come now, Kris! Let us indulge in our mutual hobby of gaming with whatever Mayor Holiday constitutes as a quote-unquote ‘game’” said Berdly from behind. As he walked off, Kris had no choice but to follow. It was painful for the human, they went through so much effort to break away from the SOUL and still they must suffer from it’s indolent decisions.
Behind Berdly’s back, Kris took out the ring box and shook it violently. They felt the SOUL hit against the sides of the container and hoped it could feel pain. Other festival patrons began to murmur and give the human odd looks. All the eyes on Kris made them paranoid.
“What’s that human doing?” they heard one monster ask.
“I didn’t even know there were any in this town,” said another.
Berdly began to notice the large crowd of monsters diverting their attention to the odd-one-out behind him. “H-Hey come on, Kris. I know what game we should play first.” He wrapped his wing around Kris’s arm and jogged ahead, carrying the human along with him.
The two teens arrived at a game stall further into the festival. It was one of those games where you throw baseballs at tin cans to knock them down and earn prizes.
“Aha, finally a game that matches the skills of two epic-level gaming gods like us eh Kris?” Berdly had announced smugly.
“Please don’t call me that,” asked Kris.
“So you finally admit your inferiority in games? For truly no master of the art would deny the seldom-given title of god?”
“Angel, please deliver unto Berdly the guardian of silence so that he may be protected from my wrath.”
Kris and Berdly stepped up to the stands where they were greeted by an actually familiar face. It was that bear monster that worked in Town Hall, despite the occasion he was still dressed in his expensive-looking suit and tie. Kris had internally called this man the Politics Bear for no other reason that he was a bear who worked in politics, they didn’t know his real name nor did they care really.
“My good man, we wish to whet our sick nasty skills against your baseball game,” said Berdly with confidence found only in the oblivious. “How much for three of your finest based balls?”
“The first three balls are free actually,” explained Politics Bear. “Mayor Holiday wants to get people hooked and then gouge them for later throws. Thaaaaaat’s economics.”
“A contemptible scheme to be sure, but one that will not affect myself or my protégé here.”
“Your protégé?”
Politics Bear gave the teens three baseballs and set up the tin cans in a pyramid stack. Both stacks had six cans total: three on bottom, two in the middle, and one on the top. An array of prizes adorned the interior walls of the stall that surrounded the cans. Many of the prizes were ICE-E plushes in various funny and unfunny costumes. What little non-pizza mascot themed prizes there were, Kris recognized as characters from Lord of the Hammer and the Dragon Blazers games.
Berdly gripped the baseball tightly as he studied the arrangement of the cans. He was whispering to himself while reeling his arm back to throw only to then bring it back in and readjust his aim.
“The cans aren’t going anywhere, Berdly, just throw the ball,” Kris demanded.
“Kris Kris Kris you poor innocent grasshopper,” Berdly mocked. “You don’t understand the skill that goes into these sorts of things.”
“Skill? It’s a game about throwing a ball at a bunch of cans.”
“To the naked eye, perhaps. But to my eyes which have been honed to perfection from countless hours playing free-carnival-games-online-dot-com? Heh… just observe.” Berdly finally threw the ball. It flew through the air with a trajectory destined to meet it’s mark.
Thunk. The ball bounced off the cans and landed flat on the grass.
“Thaaaaaat’s one!” said Politics Bear mimicking an umpire.
“What!? But how!?” Berdly groaned in disbelief.
Kris suppressed a smirk and a chuckle. “The cans are filled with sand dude.” They had known this purely by instinct, the human spent enough time on the internet to know that all carnival games are rigged.
“Y-Yeah I knew that.” Berdly stuttered. “I accounted for that and… um… used my throw to weaken the stack… yeah that’s right.” He pulled his wing back again and held it there, clearly calculating something in his mind. “And this next throw should definitely do the trick, HYAH!” He threw the second ball and again the can reflected it.
“Thaaaaaat’s two!”
Berdly was sweating and gritting his bird teeth. He didn’t say anything or make any calculations this time, instead he simply threw the ball as hard and fast as he could, but it’s fate was all the same. The ball completely missed the cans and hit an ICE-E plush square in the face, funnily enough it’s face was already making a painful expression of having been hit by something.
“Thaaaaaat’s three! You’re out! Of balls I mean.”
Kris was eager to look upon a frustrated Berdly but to their disappointment they had already seemed to get over it.
“Ah that’s just how the dice fall I suppose Kris, perhaps this game requires a level of skill beyond a god. Like god two, or something.” Berdly acquiesced to his defeat. He took a look at Kris’s baseballs which had yet to be thrown. “Ah Kris, I can only imagine the pain you must feel to witness your better fail at this game. For now you must realize in your heart of hearts that victory is not meant to b-”
The human interrupted Berdly’s monologue by throwing a baseball into the stack of cans, knocking all six of them down off their pedestal and spilling sand everywhere.
“Thaaaaaat’s a home run!”
Berdly looked awestruck, his beak hung wide open and eyes filled the entirety of his glasses lenses. Kris was eager to witness him break down like he had in Queen’s Palace but was shocked when he merely closed his eyes, pushed up his glasses, and smirked.
“And so the apprentice becomes the master. I conceded to your skill in fake tin can baseball Kris.” Berdly had said with genuine feeling.
This isn’t at all what the human expected. Perhaps a certain part of Berdly had changed after his time in Cyber City, even if he thought it was a dream. The old Berdly would’ve made excuse after excuse as to why his failure was dependent on some kind of faulty game condition or the sun was in his eyes or another similar extraneous factor. Yet he was actually admitting defeat, it didn’t make Kris feel nearly as good about themself but it still made them feel good nonetheless.
“Arright kid, since you got all the cans down in one throw you get to choose whichever prize you want,” said Politics Bear.
Of the menagerie of prizes on display, Kris immediately knew which one they wanted. They pointed to the small purple dragon plush from Lord of the Hammer. It reminded them of a certain someone they wanted to keep close to themself at all times. When Politics Bear handed Kris the toy, they immediately hugged it.
“You really love that dragon toy huh?” Berdly asked nonchalantly. “Have you even read Lord of the Hammer?”
“No,” Kris admitted. Toriel did have a copy of the book, signed for that matter, but it was always so big and imposing compared to Kris’s favorite childhood book of all time ‘Peek-A-Boo with Fluffy Bunny’, because of it’s surprise ending that never got old.
“Easy recommendation from me, Father Alvin has a stand where he’s giving away his Dad’s old signed copies if you want to pick one up,” Berdly suggested but Kris just shook their head.
Despite the fun they admittedly had at the baseball game, Kris was still looking for any excuse to abandon Berdly and meet back up with Susie and Noelle. Berdly’s humbling was short lived as he just went back to being his usual arrogant self the moment he stepped away from the stand. The teenagers floated from stand to stand looking for more games to play but Berdly turned every single one away in a vain effort to find a game he could best Kris in.
By the time they turned away from the fourth stall, Kris’s anxiety was starting to get the better of them again. They really really wanted to be with Susie and Noelle. And then, they got an idea.
“Hey Berdly, I’m gonna go use the restroom real quick.” Kris said pointing to the row of portable toilets at the far end of the grounds.
“Oh, ok.” Was all Berdly said to that.
Kris dashed over to the toilets and turned back towards Berdly. The moment he looked away, the human ran past them and into the autumnal forests that surrounded town.
The forest floor was awash in a golden hue as rays of sunlight shone through the leaves. The forest danced along with the cool autumn breeze while the jolly chaos of the festival became but an echo in the distance. The crunch of sticks and dry leaves announced Kris’s hike through the woods as they looked for a good place to sit. Eventually they had found a rather large tree whose branches provided shade over a vast area. Once sat down, Kris reached into their pocket and pulled out the ring box.
“Alright, SOUL, now’s your time to impress me,” Kris commanded with sinister authority. Even if the SOUL didn’t know what the human’s plan was, they would soon find out. Kris placed both hands on the ring box, one palm on top and the other on the bottom. They closed their eyes, held their breath, and began to think of Susie.
This was one of the SOUL’s supernatural techniques. If Kris closed their eyes and thought of someone really hard, they could sort of remotely view them from a great distance. They did it numerous times to Susie and once to Noelle but only ever in the Dark World. Kris had no reason to believe it would work here in the normal Light World but it couldn’t hurt to try.
“Susie… Susie… think about Susie…”
Kris continued to think about Susie, they rotated her in their mind like a tiny little toy. They imagined her smiling, they imagined her fighting, they imagined her eating at the diner, but they weren’t able to see her. The frustrated human groaned and thought harder, a realization came to mind that maybe they needed to be possessed in order for the remote viewing to work but they dismissed the thought entirely for if that were the case then they would abandon this plan in a heartbeat.
“Susie… Come on, Susie! Think about Susie! Susie Susie Susie. Purple monster girl. Mean girl. Violent tormentor. My friend. Noelle’s friend. Noelle’s…”
Now Noelle lingered on Kris’s mind.
“Noelle Holiday. Sweater girl. My friend. Dess’s sister. Reindeer monster. Loves Christmas. Loves… Krismas? Wait wh-”
The human’s concentration was broken as a bolt of pain shot into their left arm. It felt as though a rod of broken glass was being inserted through the palm of their hand though the pain came without blood or even a wound. This was the SOUL’s doing, it was the same feeling Kris experienced every time they got possessed or pulled the parasite out of their chest. It was trying to take control, but Kris wouldn’t let it.
“YOU GODDAMN PARASITE! STOP IT!”
Kris couldn’t speak, the pain was too much. It may have been familiar but still just as intolerable. They grabbed the ring box with their free arm and tried to pull it away but their off-hand involuntarily gripped the container so hard their knuckles turned white. Their fingers had begun to sting, only adding to the pain.
The only thought that raced through Kris’s mind was to get the SOUL to stop. They could feel the parasite’s tendrils seep deeper into their body and make an immediate dash for their head. Once it reached Kris’s mouth, they felt their lips moving of their own accord. “STOP IT!” Kris’s voice was compelled to say aloud.
“Stop it? This is my body you miserable pest. Give it back!”
Kris felt their grip tighten, they could feel the SOUL worming further down their arm and torso, Kris was losing. They closed their eyes and tried to pull the ring box out of their hand with every ounce of strength they had left in them, but before they could make any progress they suddenly felt their senses dull and blend into distant surroundings. Susie and Noelle were laughing and eating cotton candy together. Susie placed the entire thing in her mouth and chomped on it in one bite, cardboard cone and all much to Noelle’s surprise. Kris’s friends were enjoying themselves which only seemed to delight the human as they observed. Perhaps it was this lapse in hatred or maybe the want to see their friends as they had originally intended that made Kris acquiesce themself to the SOUL’s control.
–End of Chapter 6–