Archive of Our Own ^beta

“So, why did you bring me out here, again?” Noelle asked, as Kris led her through an unfamiliar neighborhood.

“Need your help with something,” Kris answered, extremely vaguely. “Susie was busy.”

“…Right,” Noelle mumbled. She was getting the distinct feeling that she had made a mistake agreeing to this.

“Here we go,” Kris said, arriving at a modest house. “Come on.”

They walked into the yard and Noelle hesitantly followed, her concern growing as Kris did not, in fact, head for the front door, but instead crept around the side of the house, pausing below a window.

“Alright. I need you to give me a boost.”

Noelle looked between them and the window, shot a cursory glance over her shoulder, then sighed, giving them a flat look. “Kris, are you trying to get me to help you break into someone’s house?”

“No,” Kris said, unfazed. They shrugged. “Well, technically, yes.”

“Kris!”

“Hey, it’s for a good reason!” Kris insisted. “My friend lives here, and she left something in her room that I need to grab. She can’t let me in right now. I promise you, it’s totally chill.”

“I—” Noelle gave another survey of the surroundings, but didn’t see anyone around. “Oh, I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she grumbled, standing below the window and making a cradle with her hands. “Alright, come on.”

“Thanks,” Kris said simply, putting one sneaker on her makeshift stair-step. They pushed off the ground as Noelle lifted up, boosting them so their fingertips could just barely grasp the ledge.

Noelle quickly shifted one hand under the sole of their opposite shoe to hold them steady, bracing her stance. “Couldn’t you have—ung—just brought a ladder or something?”

“I also need you to keep watch,” Kris said as she heard them fiddling with the window. “If you see a car pull into the driveway, give me a shout and then go run and hide.”

Noelle froze. “Wait, what?”

Instead of an answer, she heard the sound of shattering glass above her.

“K-Kris?!” she shrieked, glancing upwards to see them hauling themself through the broken window. “What the freak are you doing!”

“You can swear, Noelle, it’s okay,” Kris said, before making a little pained grunt as they toppled to the floor within the house. A second later, they poked their head back out. “Also, I couldn’t get the window to open from the outside. Also, this isn’t my friends house, and that whole story was a lie.”

“WHAT?!” Noelle cried, her eyes blowing wide. “KRIS!”

Kris jabbed a finger down at her. “But now you’re an accomplice in breaking and entering, so if you don’t want us both to get arrested, keep lookout for me, got it?”

Noelle was officially starting to freak out. “ARRESTED?!”

“Yep,” they said, disappearing from view. Noelle heard the sound of desk drawers opening and closing in a flurry. “This is Officer Undyne’s girlfriend’s house, so she’ll probably be pretty mad if we get caught.”

"This—” Noelle puzzled some things out in her head. “Why are you breaking into Alphys’s house?!”

“Got it! That was quicker than I thought.” Kris returned to the window, flashing a proud smile, their copy of the test they’d taken today in class, and the answer key for said test. “Bingo. Just need to change my answers real quick, then we can get out of here.”

“Wh—I offered to help you study!” Noelle protested.

“And that was very nice of you!” Kris called down, once again disappearing into the house. “But this is less work!”

“You tricked me into breaking into our teacher’s house!”

“Yeah, and it was really, really easy,” Kris called back, accompanied by the faint sound of scratching pencil.

“You—ugh.” Noelle groaned, leaning back against the wall of the house. “I don’t know what I expected.”

Dess was sitting at edge of the lake with Asriel, hucking stones into the water and trying to see which ones would give her the biggest splash. It was an impromptu outing–they’d been hanging out over at her place, but then Mom had gotten all uppity, so they’d decided to bounce, and the lake was always a chill place to get away from it all.

She let out a sharp laugh as a particularly hefty rock splooshed into the lake, sending up an impressive spout of water. “HA! Did ya see that one, Azzy?”

He gave her a sly grin. “Yes, Dess, everyone thinks that you’re very good at both finding and throwing large rocks.”

“Ah, buzz off. You’ve never had the urge to just chuck shit into a lake before?”

“Not really,” Azzy admitted.

She gave him a look. He had his earbuds in, and was tapping one claw against the sand where he was sitting, synced to a beat that only he could hear. She huffed, turning back to her rock-throwing duties—but she kept watching him out of the corner of her eye. While he thought she wasn’t watching, he started bobbing his head along to the song, and even made a dorky little hand motion.

Dess snorted, dropping the stone she was about to toss back onto the sand. “Okay, what are you listening to?”

Asriel immediately froze dead solid, staring at her with wide eyes. “It’s—I mean—you know. Music.”

“Music,” Dess repeated slowly, crossing her arms.

“Yeah,” he said, a false confidence entering his voice as he doubled down. “Music. It’s this thing where you play certain notes at certain times; maybe you’ve heard of it?”

“Oh, give it here, dipshit,” Dess snapped, stepping forward and yanking one of his earbuds out.

“H-hey, wait! That’s—you won’t like it!”

Dess gave him a sly smirk as she shoved the bud into her ear. She was immediately assaulted by the peppy sound of several averagely-played acoustic instruments smoothly grooving together.

You came from heeeeeeaven to Earth,
To saaaaaave our souuuuuuuls,
The Aaaaaaaaangel above,
You shooooowed us our worth—

Dess ripped out the earbud, staring at Asriel with shock and appall. “Azzy, what the everloving fuck is this?”

“Don’t judge me,” he wimpered meekly.

Dess scoffed, raising both her eyebrows at him. “Oh, honey. I’m judging.”

“W-well, hey, you should hear my Dad’s music! He’s even worse!”

“Asriel that bar is so low that it probably went to hell for committing original sin,” Dess said flatly. “God, don’t tell me you’ve infected Kris with this shit.”

“No, they, uh, really, really hate it,” Asriel admitted. “They once nearly crashed Dad’s truck trying to change the radio.”

“As they fucking should,” Dess said. She tossed Asriel’s earbud back at him—it bonked off his forehead and swung to dangle next to his elbow. “Alright. Intervention time. We’re getting you some actual music.”

“Hey, I like my music!”

“Not on my watch. I am going to beat some good taste into you if it’s the last thing I do, Dreemurr.”

Asriel let out a whine as she grabbed his wrist, dragging him away from the beach.

Noelle looked down at the striped piece of cloth in her arms, staring blankly at the large paw print in the corner.

“I know I haven’t always been…as supportive as I could’ve been,” her mother was saying slowly, a nervous look on her face. “But I’ve been looking into ways to be an ally — that’s the term, right? An ally. And one person said that they showed their son support by buying him this… ‘pride flag’. So I figured, well…” She trailed off.

It was a touching gesture — really, it was, and Noelle definitely appreciated her mother trying to understand her. But this…

This was not the right flag.

“Um…” Noelle didn’t quite know what to say. It would be rude to tell her, right? But what was she supposed to do — hang this on her bedroom wall? Angel, no! Kris would never let her live it down!

She settled on a somewhat strained, “Thanks, Mom. It’s great.”

But she had never been good at lying to her mother, and she seemed to see right through it. “Oh, no. What’s wrong?”

“W-W-Well, it’s just — um.” Noelle swallowed. “How to put this…”

“Ugh, I messed it up, didn’t I?” Carol frowned, awkwardly adjusting her glasses. “I’m sorry, Noelle, I — I’m trying my best, but this whole…culture…is very new to me.”

“No no no, I appreciate it, really!” Noelle assured her. “It’s okay, Mom. I’m just happy you’re trying.”

Carol gave her an expectant look. “But…?”

“But this is the wrong flag,” Noelle said, quickly and quietly.

“Wrong flag?” Her mother’s eyebrows shot up. “There are multiple flags?”

“Um, yeah…”

“Well, which one is this, then?”

Noelle couldn’t meet her eye. “This is, ah, well. This is the bear flag.”

“Oh.” Carol looked a little perplexed. “Apologies. I’ll make sure to get you the reindeer flag next time, then.”

Noelle’s jaw dropped, and she had to consciously will it closed again, squeezing her eyes shut and trying not to wince. “Thanks, mom…sounds great.”

The Annual Holiday Christmas Party was in full swing. Christmas carols were blaring, the air was thick with the smell of spiced eggnog and Toriel’s famous butterscotch-cinnamon pie, Noelle’s father was laughing uproariously in the family room, and her mother was busy schmoozing with politicians and campaign donors.

And Noelle was desperately trying to herd Susie upstairs, where she’d set up a mistletoe.

The plan was simple: Noelle and Susie would go upstairs together, Susie would notice the mistletoe, she would make a plausibly deniable joke about how they have to kiss now, Noelle would blush and ask if she meant it, they’d share a beautiful kiss, and then they’d start dating and get married and — she was getting ahead of herself.

But it turned out that prying Susie away from the snack table was a truly Sisyphean task.

“Shouldn’t we, uh, you know, save some of the cookies for the other guests?” Noelle tried, smiling politely.

“Hell no!” Susie cried through a mouthful of gingerbread. “Fuck the other guests, these cookies are crazy good!”

“Oh, uh—those—I, uh, I mean…” Noelle blushed and stopped herself short. Thank you! I baked those cookies! It should’ve been so easy to say, but she just couldn’t. Ugh! See, this is why she needed the mistletoe plan.

As Susie washed down another mouthful of cookies with what must have been her twelfth glass of eggnog, Noelle tried again. “So, um…do you wanna maybe go upstairs, maybe?” Don’t say maybe so much, you idiot! “We could, you know, get away from all the adults and stuff…and just hang out? Maybe?” Dammit!

“Hmm…I do hate adults,” Susie said. “Are there snacks upstairs, too?”

Noelle glanced to the side. “Uh, no, but—”

“Also, wait, before we do anything, where’s the bathroom?” Susie asked. “I think that eggnog is getting to me.”

“O-Oh! Uh!” Noelle swallowed. “It's…also upstairs! Just follow me.”

Susie nodded, and swiped another handful of gingerbread cookies off the platter before following Noelle upstairs. Noelle felt her nerves grow and grow with each step, until she reached the hallway at the top of the stairs, and the mistletoe that hung above it. She paused there, and Susie paused with her, looking at her expectantly.

“So…where’s the bathroom?”

Shit. This wasn’t the plan.

“Um—sorry, fahaha.” Noelle laughed awkwardly. “I just, uh, I forgot there was some mistletoe up here…”

“What’s a mistletoe?” Susie followed her gaze up to the ceiling. “Is it that plant thing? Can you eat it?”

Noelle craved death. “It's…no. It’s toxic.” She heaved a great sigh. “The bathroom’s over there.”

She pointed to a door, and Susie gave a quick thanks before slipping away. Once she was gone, Noelle let out a whine, sinking her face into her hands. This was a disaster! Now she was never going to kiss Susie, and she’d be alone forever, and—

“Sup.”

“GAH!” Noelle jumped, swiveling around to find Kris standing behind her. “Kris! Don’t scare me like that!”

“Maybe when it stops being so fun,” Kris said.

Noelle rolled her eyes. “What are you even doing here?”

“Same as you, probably. Escaping the party. Just wanted a moment to…” They trailed off as their gaze rose, settling on the mistletoe above them. “Um. Noelle, is that mistletoe?”

Noelle looked between the mistletoe, Kris, and the closed bathroom door, and groaned. “Angel kill me.”

Asriel sat towards the back of the pavilion, in a white plastic folding chair. The very back row, in fact, because that’s where Dess wanted to sit, and even if it meant Asriel couldn’t see very well, he wasn’t going to not sit next to Dess. She had her arms crossed as she chewed bubblegum loudly (the kind of loud one can only achieve through conscious effort), and was looking anywhere except the camp counselors at the front of the pavilion.

“And here at Camp Angel Hearts, we like to always follow the Five Pillars!” The speaker, who was the head of the camp, gestured to a large poster where the word ‘Angel’ was written vertically. A long strip of white paper extended to the side of each letter, covering up the rest of the poster. “As you can see, the first letters of each pillar spell out 'angel’, because while these pillars are important, the Angel is always first in our Hearts.”

Dess scoffed and rolled her eyes.

The speaker went on. “Now, to our returning members, can anyone remember what the first pillar is? Shout it out!”

“ADVENTUROUS!” called out a smattering of the younger kids.

“Yes, very good!” The camp head ripped off the paper next to the 'A’, to reveal 'Adventurous’. “It’s important to be adventurous and try new things! Don’t be scared to expand your horizons!”

“This is all so stupid,” Dess grumbled.

Asriel nudged her. “Aw, come on. It’s not that bad. I know it’s cheesy, but it’s good for the younger kids, you know?”

“How about the second pillar?” the speaker continued. “Shout it out!”

“NICE!” came the response.

“I guess.” Dess didn’t look convinced. “But they could at least take the stupid 'Angel’ bullshit out.”

“D-Dess!” Asriel hissed under his breath. “You can’t say that here! We’ll get in trouble…”

At the podium, the speaker clapped and ripped off the next piece of paper. “That’s right! It’s always important to be nice to your fellow campers!”

“I don’t even care any more,” Dess said. “I told Mom I didn’t want to come here any more. I’m sick of all this fucking Church of the Angel propaganda.”

“Dess…”

She only smirked. “Like, people can practice whatever religion they want, but keep it to the bedroom, you know? Don’t shove that stuff down my throat!”

Asriel snickered despite himself. “Okay, well—”

“Keep it going now!” called the camp head. “What’s the third pillar, everyone?”

“GENEROUS!” came the response.

“Gay!” Dess called out.

Her voice got lost in the crowd, for the most part, but a few of the kids sitting nearer to them giggled and glanced over at them.

As the camp head ripped off the next piece of paper and started talking about the virtues of generosity, Asriel was caught between laughter and terror. “Dess, no, don't—Dess!”

But she was smirking in that way she did whenever she decided to plow headfirst into trouble. “Come on, Azzy, what are they gonna do to us? Kick us out? As far as I’m concerned, that’s a win.”

“Our moms will kill us!”

“Oh, like my mom doesn’t already want to kill me.” She paused for a second as the crowd shouted out the next pillar—EMPATHETIC!—and then gave Asriel a flat look. “Come on, Azzy. Is this really how you want to spend your summer? We’re in high school now. We’re basically adults. We shouldn’t be stuck in some crummy church camp.”

Asriel frowned. “I, uh, I don’t know…”

“And that brings us to our final pillar,” the camp head was saying. “L for…”

“LEARNING!”

“LESBIANISM!” Dess screamed at the top of her lungs.

The pavilion went dead quiet. Every head turned towards the two of them.

“Um. Dess?” Asriel tried to shrink in on himself. “Maybe we should…”

“Run,” Dess said, grabbing Asriel’s hand and sprinting towards the woods.

Noelle shone her flashlight down the deep, dark steps of the bunker in the woods, and took a deep breath.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Kris asked. “We don’t know what’s down there.”

Noelle steeled herself. “If there’s even a chance Dess is trapped here…we have to try, Kris.”

Kris nodded, and the two of them began their descent into the earth. The stone beneath their feet eventually turned to metal, and the space opened up into a large room with lots of strange, blinking devices.

“What…is this?” Noelle asked softly.

Kris took a cautious step forward, looking around. “Seems like some kind of laboratory.”

Noelle moved over to one of the machines, which had a big, wide screen, displaying…wait, no, that couldn’t be right. “Is this Monster Tumblr?”

“What.” Kris walked over to her and stared. “Wait, holy shit, it is. And are they talking about…us?”

“Noelle is so skrunkly I want to laminate her and keep her in my purse,” Noelle read aloud. “That’s, uh…”

Kris leaned forward and began scrolling down. “Noelle is just like me for real…Noelle is such prime blorbo material…”

“Blorbo?!” Noelle exclaimed.

“Here’s a picture of a video game text box of you talking about how you want Susie to push you to the ground and laugh at you, captioned ‘Naurrrrrrr girl’ with a skull emoji…”

“Th-That never happened!”

“This one says, 'Noelle can commit a little murder as a treat. God forbid a woman do anything. Besides gamers aren’t people she did nothing wrong.’ ” Kris turned to her. “You didn’t kill anyone, right?”

“N-No! Why would they say that? Do they want me to kill people?”

“Sorta seems like it.” Kris pointed at something and giggled. “Here, look, there’s a drawing of you freezing Berdly in ice.”

“That’s horrible!”

“Come on, it’s just a joke.” Kris smiled. “You’d never actually do that. That’s why it’s funny.”

Noelle looked away. “I guess.”

Kris kept scrolling. “Oh, here — it looks like you got fourth place in the…'transfem swag’ tournament on tumblr? Look at the comments: Noelle is such a trans icon, I want to steal Noelle’s gender, Noelle has so much transgender swag it’s insane…”

Noelle blinked. “I’m flattered, but, um. I’m not trans?”

“Too bad. You are now. The people said so.”

“Who even are these people?!”

“Trust me, it’s a compliment.” Kris poked around a little bit more. “Oh, but look at this — I got second in the 'nonbinary swag’ tournament. So basically I beat you.”

“Yes?” Noelle stared at them. “Because you’re actually nonbinary?”

“But it means I have more swag than you, Noelle.”

“Okay, this is—” Noelle rolled her eyes. “This is nonsense. Let’s not waste our time on weird, fake tumblr posts about us.”

Kris stepped away from the screen. “You’re just mad I have more swag than you.”

Noelle stomped a hoof. “Kris, focus!”

“Yeah, yeah…”

Noelle woke up to tiny white flakes drifting outside her bedroom window, and broke into a smile. The first snow of the year! She leapt out of bed, head filled with memories of snowball fights with her father, building snowmonsters with her sister, and her mother herding them back inside for hot cocoa before they all froze.

Her excitement quickly dampened, however, as reality washed back over her. Dess was… Dess was long gone. It’d been years since they’d last played in the snow together. And normally, she still had her father — but this year, with him in the hospital… And Mom was busier than ever these past few months. She was probably already at work, and not coming back until late.

It was just Noelle, alone, in this big, empty house.

She took a deep breath. That didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy herself, though! Right? There was still snow on the ground, and she was still a Holiday, Angel dammit.

Her winter coat wasn’t quite grown in yet, so she threw on a few extra layers and her signature candy-cane striped scarf before venturing out into the cold. It was nice; the snow was beautiful as always, and the chill under her fur was comfortingly familiar. But at the same time, it just…wasn’t the same. She kicked a little at the snow piling on the ground, sending a spray of flakes into the air, and watched as they lazed their way back down to the grass.

She sighed, her breath uncurling as a mist in the frosty air. Who was she kidding? There really wasn’t any point in coming out here all by herself. It was just making her cold, and wet, and sad. She may as well go back inside and make herself some hot chocolate — that, at least, she’d be able to appreciate.

But as she turned around to head back up to the porch, she felt something icy and soft smash against the back of her head. She jumped, yelping as snow dribbled down the back of her coat, and whirled around to see Kris standing a ways down her driveway. They were bundled up in a comically puffy winter coat — likely courtesy of their mother — and a pair of red earmuffs, and were already packing another snowball together in their gloved hands.

“K-Kris?” Noelle blinked. “What are you doing here?!”

“What does it look like?” Kris called up to her, before hurling the second snowball at them.

Noelle ducked out of the way just in time. “Hey! Okay, that’s it!”

She reached down and grabbed a handful of snow, quickly forming it into a suitable projectile. She threw it right at Kris, and it struck them in the chest — before sliding uneventfully off their water-resistant coat.

“Fool that you are,” Kris said dramatically, pointing a finger at her, “for I am immune to all forms of attack!”

Noelle scoffed “You’re not immune. You’re just wearing armor. Which is cheating!”

“You cannot harm me!” Kris cried, throwing their arms to the sky.

And then a snowball smacked them hard, right in the side of the face.

Noelle broke out laughing as she and Kris both turned to see Susie running towards them, a triumphant look on her face.

“S-S-Susie!” Noelle’s laughter suddenly turned much more nervous. “You — what are you — why…?”

“The hell was that for?” Kris shouted at her, brushing snow off their cheek.

“The fuck are you talking about?” Susie smirked. “You’re the one who texted me there was gonna be a snowball fight here!”

Noelle paused, turning to Kris and frowning slightly. “Kris, did you…”

But they weren’t paying attention to her, desperately trying to gather up another snowball before Susie could. Noelle let out a breath and smiled at them. She hadn’t expected this from them, but there was no way it was a coincidence, right? Even with everything going on with her family, she still had her friends.

She grabbed another handful of snow and ran into the fray. Kris and Susie were both holding snowballs of their own, and Kris looked over as Noelle approached.

“Noelle! Truce against Susie?”

“I don’t know, Kris.” Noelle grinned. “What if I want to truce with Susie against you?”

Kris frowned. “Wow! I see how it is.” They turned to Susie. “Truce against Noelle?”

Susie bared her teeth. “Hell no! You were just trying to team up on me!”

“I’m just trying to keep my options open!” Kris defended.

Their argument was interrupted by Berdly running up to them, panting. “Kris! What was this urgent Noelle emergency you texted me about? I’m here to help!”

Kris, Noelle, and Susie looked at each other, and then at Berdly. He gazed up at all of them, snowballs in hand, and visibly gulped. “Oh, boy.”

Kris frowned as deeply as humanly possible, shielding their eyes from the scalding summer sun. They were walking towards the baseball diamond out behind the school; it had only been two minutes since they got out of the car, and already they were sweating buckets.

“I am going to dissolve into a pile of ash,” they said.

Toriel looked down at them. “I told you not to wear that sweater, my child.”

“But I like this sweater.” Kris pouted and adjusted their horn headband out of habit. “Why do we have to do this, anyway?”

“It’s tradition, Kris!” Asgore said chipperly. He was wearing a hawaiian shirt and a baseball cap, and looked altogether far too cheerful. “Remember how much fun we had last year?”

Kris thought back. “Last year was pretty fun, actually.”

Toriel glared at them. “No pranking Noelle with fire ants this time, Kris.”

Kris groaned. “Then what’s the poiiiiint?” They crossed their arms. “It’s a dumb tradition, anyway. If we all jumped off a bridge every year would you make me do that too, because it’s tradition? What if I died? What if I died and was dead forever?”

Toriel smiled down at them. “Well, it’s a good thing this is baseball, and not jumping off a bridge to die forever, isn’t it, Kris?”

Kris crossed their arms and grumbled to themself.

Asriel elbowed them in the side. “Aw, come on. It’s not so bad! Just try to have fun, okay?”

Kris looked up at Asriel, then turned back to the baseball diamond and sighed. “Okayyyyy.”

The Holidays were already on the diamond. Dess was practicing swings at home plate, with Noelle shadowing her, no doubt listening to Dess brag about how killer she was at baseball; Carol was reclining in a fold-out lawn chair, wearing sunglasses and a large floppy hat, with a book laid out on her legs and a glass of something Kris probably wasn’t allowed to drink in her hand; and Rudy was running up to them, a dorky sun visor around his forehead.

“Heya, gang!” he greeted. “How’s everyone doing? Ready to play some ball?”

Asgore laughed heartily and walked up to give Rudy a hug. “You know we are.”

“I think baseball was invented by dark gods to burn people alive and suck our souls out of our bodies,” Kris said.

“Yes yes, Kris, we know,” Toriel said placatingly, patting them on the head before giving Rudy a smile. “Most of us are.”

Rudy chuckled. “Well if they’re not feeling it, they can join their Aunt Carol over in the stands, and they can both have no fun together!”

From over where she was sitting, Carol raised her sunglasses, glaring over at her husband. “NO they CANNOT. I do not need fire ants in my fur, thank you very much.”

“You wouldn’t have that problem if you got up and played with us!” Rudy returned.

“Not after twisting my ankle last year, honey,” Carol called back, before lowering her sunglasses again and returning to her book.

Rudy shrugged. “Eh. I tried.”

“It’s okay,” Kris said. “I don’t wanna sit with Aunt Carol anyway. She’s really mean and really boring.”

“Kris! Manners,” Toriel snapped.

Asgore laughed and said, “Kids, right?” which only earned him a glare from Toriel, too.

Rudy just chuckled. “Hey, hey. What she doesn’t hear can’t hurt us, yeah?”

“Uh…I’m gonna go say hi to Dess,” Asriel said, backing away from the conversation.

Kris, seeing an opportunity to get away from the adults, followed him over to Dess and Noelle. Dess was still practicing her swings, and Noelle was still dutifully providing her an adoring audience.

“Hey, Dreem-nerds!” Dess grinned at the two of them, miming blowing their heads off with her bat. “You ready to get creamed?”

Asriel only smiled at the taunts. “Hey, Dess! How are you?”

“Ready to kick your ass, that’s how!”

“Language,” Carol called absently from behind them.

“We’re down a player, though,” Noelle pointed out. “Won’t that give us a disadvantage?”

“It’s not like she did much anyway,” Kris mumbled under their breath.

“Yeah, we don’t need Mom to beat you guys!” Dess said confidently. “My coach says I’ve got natural talent! You hear that? That means I’m the best at baseball!”

Noelle frowned. “Um, I don’t think that’s what it means…”

“That’s great, though, Dess!” Asriel said, smiling wide. “Have you guys been winning your games?”

“Well, uh—” Dess faltered. “Well, some of ‘em.”

Kris snickered. “But not most of them?”

“Hey, it’s not my fault! I’ve got some real loser teammates.”

“That’s not very nice, Dess,” Noelle pointed out.

Dess scowled. “Yeah, well, it isn’t very nice when Squidly can’t throw the ball, either.”

“Hey kids!” Rudy called. He and Kris’s parents were walking towards them. “You guys ready to play?”

Dess and Asriel gave enthusiastic assent, Noelle nodded, and Kris huffed, but there was nothing they could do as they all took their places. The Dreemurrs had first bat, and Kris volunteered to step up to the plate first, just to get it over with. They held the bat in their hands awkwardly and looked across the field to Rudy, who was on the pitchers mound.

“Ready, kiddo?” he called.

Kris nodded, and Rudy threw the ball. It was more of a light toss than a pitch, though, and Kris watched as the ball arced through the air towards them. They were a little late on reaction, though, and the ball bonked them right in the forehead.

“Oh crap,” Rudy said.

“Kris!” Toriel called from behind them. “Are you alright?”

Kris looked down at the ball, which had fallen by their feet, and picked it up. Then they dropped the bat and started running to first base.

“HEY!” Dess cried indignantly. “THAT’S CHEATING!”

“You can’t tag me out if I have the ball!” Kris called back as they passed a very confused Noelle on first and headed for second. “I win!”

“That’s against the rules!” Dess shouted.

Rudy exchanged a look with Asgore. “Um, what do we…?”

Kris kept running, blazing towards third base, where Dess was waiting. They stuck out their tongue at her, and she growled, leaping forward and tackling them to the ground.

“Gimme the fucking ball, you twerp!”

“NEVER!”

“DESS!” Carol shouted.

“Hoo boy,” Rudy mumbled as he jogged over to where they were tussling on the dirt. “This year’s off to a great start, huh?”

“Okay, uh, this is…Dess Holiday, void log, Year Three, March 16.” Dess sighed, holding her phone up to her mouth as it recorded her voice. “I’m really fucking mad right now, and Gaster says to record these when I’m mad to vent the energy, and even though I’m still pretty sure that man is not a licensed therapist, I don’t have much else to do. So here I am.”

She groaned, pausing for a second, to lean back against the strange, soft, shifting wall of her makeshift bedroom. Well, it was less of a bedroom and more of a sad little box of condensed metaphysical void-matter floating in the middle of endless black nothingness, but it was hers, dammit, and she was at least thankful for the relative privacy.

“Chara’s really getting on my fucking nerves again, the little shit. They remind me of Kris, but if Kris was, like, way more fucking annoying. Gaster says it’s the trauma but I don’t give a shit what it is, to be perfectly honest. It’s taking all the restraint I have not to kick their ass so hard they become alive again and then die again, except for good this time, cause they fucking—they stained my goddamn jacket with some of Gaster’s weird fucking experiment goop, and—I don’t know how to get this shit out!”

She turned away from her phone for a second to glare at her varsity jacket, which was hanging on a creepy gnarled hook on her wall. The fabric was stained with something sticky and green all over one side.

“I spent like an hour trying to get it off with some paper towels, but whatever the fuck this stuff is, it refuses to come out.” She grimaced. “I tried to ask Gaster about it, but he just said, ‘Oh, you probably should not touch that’, which, like—wow, thanks, man. So fucking helpful. Like, Angel, this is—this is like, literally a third of my wardrobe, and now it’s ruined. I’m so fucking mad. I wanna grab that scrawny little smiling piece of shit and unkill them and then kill them again. I think I already said that, but, like, fuck! Ugh! It’d be different if—”

The door to her room cracked open, and Dess glanced over to see a pale figure standing in the doorway.

Dess stopped the recording. “Oh, uh, hey, Vess. What’s up?” She frowned. “And, uh, close the door, by the way. You’ll let in the nothingness.”

The vessel reached behind itself and closed the door. 'Sorry,’ it signed.

“No, uh, you’re good, dude. It was mostly a joke. Cause there’s nothing out there. You know? Nevermind. What’s up?”

Dess stuffed her phone back into her pants pocket. The Vessel was pretty new around here, relatively, and Dess was still getting used to its strange demeanor. It seemed nice enough, though, and Dess felt pretty bad for it, considering what happened when Gaster tried to connect to the player. Because the connection had gotten all screwed up, now the vessel was trapped in here, too; and Dess knew how much that sucked.

'I am very sorry about your jacket,’ the vessel signed. 'I know it brought you joy.’

“Uh—well, yeah, I guess it did.” Dess shrugged. “But what can you do? Chara’s a bitch like that.”

The vessel seemed to pause for a moment before moving its hands again. 'Do you hate Chara now?’

“That—” Dess blinked. “Uh. I mean, I’m mad at them, but…well, I don’t know if I, like, hate them hate them. Like, they’re just a kid, you know? Kids are stupid.”

'I am not sure I understand,’ said the vessel. 'How can you be mad at someone without hating them?’

“Uh…right. I’m guessing that bit of info wasn’t exactly bundled into the whole, like, gift of mind thing, then, huh?”

'The gift of mind grants me the capacity to think and learn,’ explained the vessel. 'It does not grant me any a priori understanding of the world.’

“Right. Well, uh. Yeah, you can be mad at someone without hating them.” Dess patted the ground next to her. “Why don’t you sit?”

'Because I see no distinct reason to do so.’

Dess couldn’t help rolling her eyes. “No, I mean, I want you to come sit next to me while I explain this.”

The vessel stalled for a second, then walked over and sat itself down next to Dess.

“So, I’m kind of mad at everyone all the time,” Dess said. “It’s, like, my default state. I was always mad at my mom back home, because she wouldn’t let me do the things I wanted to do. But she was my family, and I still loved her, even when I was mad at her. And like—I had this friend, Kris, who was basically a younger sibling to me. And, god, they would do the stupidest crap—a lot like Chara. And I got so mad. I’d chase them around the house with my bat trying to beat the crap out of them, sometimes, with how mad I got. But I never hated them. I could never hate Kris. Does that make sense?”

'I think so,’ the vessel signed. 'And this…Kris. They are the same human who received my host in error?’

“Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah, they are.” Dess looked off to the side. “I hope they’re okay. They were—they were strong, a strong kid, but they were also kind of a loner, and I just—I hope this whole 'player’ thing won’t hurt them too bad.”

The vessel tilted its head to the side. 'They are like your jacket to you?’

“What? No.” Dess laughed. “Look, I’m mad about what happened to my jacket, but at the end of the day, it’s just a piece of fabric. Kris was my friend. Here—this can be a good example. So, Chara messed up my jacket, and I’m mad at them. Right? But I don’t hate them.”

'Right,’ the vessel followed.

“But if someone were to hurt Kris?” Dess’s eyes narrowed. “Then I would hate that person.”

'I believe I understand.’ The vessel paused for a moment in thought. 'And this distinction…it lies between objects that bring you joy, and people that bring you joy?’

“Well…yeah. I care a lot more about my friends and family than the stuff I own, and I’m more upset when they’re hurt.”

'May I ask one more question?’

“Yeah. Course.”

'To which category do I belong?’

Dess blinked at the vessel for a second, then smiled. “You’re a person, Vess. You’re a friend. And if someone hurt you, I’d hate them, too.”

'I see.’ The vessel turned away from her a little. 'Thank you. For the explanation.’

“Yeah.” Dess moved over and bumped them lightly in the shoulder. “Anytime.”