Work Text:
In a small town, in the shadow of a large mountain, in a backyard filled with snow, what appeared to be an anthropomorphic Siberian Husky sat in a lawn chair wearing a striped t-shirt, shorts, and sunglasses.
On the other side of the fence, the sound of many voices and activities competed for attention.
"-don't have to check them one by one, these are newer lights, one dead bulb doesn't-"
"-you can't have a headless Santa Claus in the Nativity arrangement! You can't have ANY Santa in the Nativity but especially not one missing a-"
"-here to serve you with a subpoena."
"Is this about the light show? Jesus Christ the monsters next door can throw fireballs and lightning bolts and steal Christmas trees and you people don't do shit but a man sets up a fancy light set to music and you treat me like the-"
"-hey Chara!"
Chara's eyes snapped open behind their sunglasses, and they lifted them up with one paw as they looked around to see who had spoken, ears twitching and triangulating on one particular spot behind them. Sitting up and turning, they saw what could have been mistaken for a stone statue holding itself up to peek over the top of the fence, except for the glowing green eyes and that the head of the statue was covered in fire roughly where a human might have hair on the top of their head.
"Oh. Hey Eric. How you doing?"
"Pretty good, we're hanging out with Uncle Jeff for Christmas. How are you?"
"Looking for a moment of peace while the rest of the Dreemurrs go nuts preparing for the holidays. Toriel's baked like eight pies."
"That's a lot of pies."
"It is-"
Above and behind Chara's chair, a window slid open and motors whirred; both Chara and Eric looked up to see a quadcopter drone fly out of the window and over the assorted backyards. Chara leaned forward and twisted the other way to try to see the window better.
"...Frisk? Is that you?"
"No."
"I know what your voice sounds like."
"No you don't. And I'm not actually here. And there's no such thing as a Frisk. Come back with a warrant."
Chara lied back down on their chair, pointing one thumb up at the window behind them.
"It's a long story and I don't have all the chapters."
Eric Walsh watched the drone vanish over several trees before turning back to face Chara.
"Mrs. Carson screw things up again?"
"Probably."
"Mm-hmm." One stone hand came up around the statue's face as Eric called up to the window. "Good luck Frisk! Dive bomb her for me if you can!"
"Uh, will do. If the battery lasts long enough."
Eric started to clamber off the fence, but noticed Chara staring at him.
"Mrs. Carson got weird about me trying out for track and field. Because it's all about running and moving and statues are supposed to stand still, I guess?"
"Riiiight."
Eric vanished behind the fence and Chara leaned back into the chair, letting the ambient sounds of the town wash over them again.
"-hope you're ready for a mouthwatering roast!"
"I thought we were having steamed clams."
"Oh, uh, I was steaming some clams, but they caught on fire, so I made this roast instead."
"...you set steamed clams on fire?"
"Yes."
"Is that why smoke is coming out of your kitchen?"
"...excuse me for one second-"
"-WAKE UP PEOPLE!"
Chara flinched and sat up in the chair, paws scrabbling for their sunglasses as they looked around for the source of the sudden noise; motion in the corner of their eye draw their gaze, which turned out to be a sheet of paper falling from the sky.
The sheet of paper was soon joined by several more, and Chara looked up to see a hot air balloon drifting over the town, with the occupant dropping leaflets over the side by the handful while the other hand held up a megaphone.
"IT'S ALL HERE! PROOF NOBODY CAN IGNORE! THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CHEESE! IT'S ALL OLD MILK WEAPONIZED BY FRANCE! THEY'RE TRYING TO TAKE OVER OUR FOOD SUPPLY! THEY ALREADY-"
The megaphone glitched out and the occupant stopped dropping leaflets in order to try to repair it.
"I can't believe they let Quentin keep the hot air balloon after last time."
Chara's ears twitched and they took off their sunglasses, squinting up at the balloon basket.
"Frisk, that's not Mr. Forsythe. The voice is too high pitched and the hair color is wrong, I can tell even from here."
"Wait what? Who is it?"
"Can't recognize them."
"...did somebody steal the balloon, or does Quentin rent it out?"
"No idea." Chara leaned back in the chair again. "I don't even have my phone out here so you can call it in if you want."
"...maybe later. Kinda busy."
Chara closed their eyes again, ears twitching slightly as they heard the switches and dials and toggles on Frisk's drone remote.
"-back with the Cascadian Orchestral Maneuvers In The Foggy Twilight-"
"-wish you a Merry Christmas we wish-"
"-no job too medium sized-"
"-break out our fruitcake from last year's Christmas episode to see how it held up! Yes, I did manage-"
"-hey can you turn off the radio?"
"It's a free country."
"Yeah it is. But radios cost money, and you're gonna have to buy a replacement once I break that one if you don't turn it off. Now."
"You can try, if you want to get charged with trespassing and OH SHIT-"
Chara's eyes opened again and they sat up as a mechanical sound they weren't familiar with spun up, and a succession of thuds echoed from another backyard beyond the fence line.
"...hey Frisk can you see-"
"Automatic tennis ball launcher. Kinda distracted right now sorry."
A few seconds later, the mechanical sound stopped and Chara leaned back in their chair.
"...alright, everyone ready? Welcome to the Eleventeen Third Annual Chainsaw Ice Sculpture Contest! I just want to clarify, we KNOW Eleventeen isn't a real number-"
"IT COULD BE IF YOU WEREN'T A COWARD-"
"-what do we want?"
"EGGNOG!"
"When do we want it?"
"WHEN IT'S READY-"
"-uh oh."
Chara sighed and sat up, looking up at the window, but Frisk said nothing more. From above, Chara heard the whir of the drone as it raced toward the house and into the window, and the scrape of the window as it closed.
After a few seconds, they relaxed in the chair again, only to tense up as the back door opened.
"Chara, my child? Is everything alright?"
Chara relaxed again and put their paws behind their head with a grin.
"Just another day in paradise."
"...this snow is quite thick, are sure you do not need-"
"Siberian Husky. Ice Affinity."
"...as you say. Ah... have you heard or seen anything unusual while you were out here?"
"Eric Walsh stopped by to say hello." Chara pointed toward the fence where Eric had previously been. "Nothing else really struck me as out of the ordinary."
Toriel's muzzle twisted slightly, clearly telegraphing her awareness that the phrase "out of the ordinary" was relative to the local definition of the word ordinary.
"I see. Well. I just came out to mention. Asriel and Asgore are on their way back. They should arrive in about twenty minutes. The tacos should be ready by-"
A blur of black and white and striped orange and blue rushed past Toriel into the house, and Toriel watched as a pair of black sunglasses dropped into the snow, after Chara had already crossed the threshold.
"Ah, there it is." Toriel smiled, walked inside, and closed the door behind her.
High above the neighborhood, a large dragon hovered in front of a hot air balloon with a man speaking into a megaphone.
"NO, I ONLY RENTED IT FOR THREE HOURS. IF I'M NOT BACK IN TWO I LOSE THE DEPOSIT."