Work Text:
October 12th, 202x
7:24 PM / 19:24
They were finally almost at the fountain, after what felt like days of wandering empty tiles and fighting enemies. There had been a fork in the road and nobody in the group was quite sure which path to take, so Susie and Ralsei went one way, leaving Kris and Noelle to go the other way.
"I can't wait to be done with this!" Noelle complained, "A bathroom?! Why did one have to spawn here?!"
Kris wasn't a neat-freak or a germophobe like Noelle, but even they had to admit this was pretty crappy (pun totally intended). The knight was really putting everyone to the test with this one.
"Didn't you say these dark world thingies are a reflection of someone's thoughts and desires???" she asked.
"Yeah," Kris replied kind of awkwardly, "Like the setting is important too. That's why there's all these tiles on the ground. And why we fought that giant rubber duck earlier. But like the darkners, their personalities, the fact this place is so empty and creepy..."
Noelle looked up. "The knight or whoever made this. That's how they feel inside and want us to feel."
"Yeah."
She sighed. "Why does every dark world have to suck so much??? First that run-down city with the crazy queen lady and the creepy salesman, and now... THIS." She threw her arms up in frustration at the large and very smelly throne in front of them. "I wish we could just make our own dark world with stuff that doesn't suck! And is fun! And nice! And--"
"... Wait, say that last part again?"
=====================
October 14th, 202x
2:32 PM / 14:32
They'd been sitting in Kris' room for about an hour so far, brainstorming. The gold-orange sun shone through the bedroom window.
Noelle suddenly shoved her phone at Kris' face. "Ooh, how about this?!"
Kris moved their head back and tried to focus.
It was a cloudy black-and-white photo of a lake. On the other side were a bunch of trees. Close to the foreground was some driftwood at the edge of the shore, leading out a bit into the lake.
"Wouldn't you like to sit at the edge of a big lake like this and just dream? Oh, or maybe we could make a boat and go sailing!"
"Not bad," Kris smiled, leaning back on their bed, "but I think that's too close to the lake we already have near our houses."
"Oh... That's true," Noelle said, putting a hand-hoof-thingy to her chin, "We want this to be special, right?"
Kris stood up and found some fantasy novel with a castle and a knight on it. They showed her the cover. "How about a castle? With lots of medieval stuff."
One of them would draw something. One would find a photo of some place or object online.
Noelle found a picture of a bunch of ice and snow at the base of some mountains. "Ooh, what if we had the castle in a place like this?"
Kris saw her eyes light up like Christmas lights at the thought of all that ice and cold, but...
They shivered. "Too cold."
"*Snrk*." Noelle smiled. "I can sew some little jackets and sweaters and stuff for you!"
"... Okay we can try that," Kris chuckled, "but only if we have a non-cold place, too."
"It's a deal, fahaha!"
Kris started thinking. "... Do you think we should have animals or anything?"
"Well," Noelle looked at them, "I know you like quiet, isolated places, so wouldn't it be better if we didn't have other living things?"
Kris sat down and put their arm around her. "I really appreciate that you're thinking about me, but this is our dark world, not just mine. We can have some animals."
Noelle smiled. "What'd be good for an arctic kind of place? Hm... Penguins!"
Kris wrote that down. Castle. Ice field. Mountains. Penguins. ... Should probably add walruses, too. Noelle really likes-
"Oh Kris, if there's going to be water, add some walruses, too! I like walruses!"
Kris chuckled.
They went over to the computer and glanced through the Screenshots folder. They found a few from an open-world game with glowing crystals coming out of the ground.
"Think we should add some of these?"
Noelle's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh, yes! Those are beautiful!"
Kris wrote that down too.
They kept scrolling and found one from a game about cities. Kris had found the top of a mountain and got a screenshot overlooking the city at night with all these light-
"NO MORE CITIES!" Noelle yelled, laughing.
"Fine, fine," Kris smiled, rolling their eyes.
Noelle showed Kris her phone again. Kris leaned in.
It was a picture of a bunch of yellow umbrellas. They were sticking out of an umbrella stand shaped like a french fry box, so it looked like a giant box of french fries.
She chuckled. "Think we need it, Kris?"
"Haha! Sure."
Umbrella french fries.
"Wait, Kris, I just thought of something."
"Hm?"
"Won't we need places to rest? Like houses or something?"
"Yeah, that-" Kris smiled and blushed a bit. "It's... like we're building a house together."
Noelle walked over and gave them a hug. "Aww! It is!"
"... But way cheaper."
"PFFFFFFFAHAHA-"
"Okay so what kind of house do you want?"
Noelle thought for a second. "I dunno. What kind of house do you want?"
"... I dunno. What kind of house do you want?"
"Pick something, Kris!" She laughed, "This is just as much your dark world as it is mine!"
"Okay okay! Um..." Kris thought for a moment. "Something cozy but with a lot of hidden rooms and passageways."
"Ooh, I like that! What are you thinking, like an escape room with codes and keys and stuff?"
"Sure. Those bookshelves where you pull a book and it opens a door or whatever."
"Ooh!"
Noelle pulled up various pictures of escape rooms and trap doors and hidden corridors and so on.
She saved screenshots of Kris' favorites. Noelle didn't really care one way or the other, as long as Kris was happy. She was busy thinking about more practical things.
"Well," she thought out loud, "We should probably have food in there somewhere. Stuff that heals a lot in case we get hurt."
Kris didn't miss a beat. "DEER FOOD."
Noelle started cracking up. "Fine Kris, deer food. But how do we make sure it heals us properly?"
Kris hesitated a second. "Honestly, my best guess is just drawing or printing out the food and writing like 'heals 1,000,000,000,000 hp' on it and hoping it works."
"Faha! Well, we can try that. Just print out one or two pictures and write that on it, and if it works, we can print more."
"Sounds good."
"So... what kind of deer food do you want to eat, Kris?" Noelle chuckled.
"Stuff I can't eat normally. Sticks. Tree bark. Acorns. Hurts my teeth when I try to eat it."
Noelle decided not to ask how Kris knew that, and instead just wrote it down in their notebook. Then again, Kris does eat moss...
Noelle included moss on the list, too.
"Oh, Noelle, write down moss, too."
Noelle chuckled.
"... Kris?"
"Hm?"
"... Could we add some Christmas decorations to the house? I know it's silly but-"
"Add as many as you like, haha."
"... REALLY???"
Noelle began aggressively scribbling in the notebook. Kris couldn't see what she was writing, but they had a hunch they were gonna regret saying that.
Suddenly she stopped, seemingly mid-scribble, and looked at Kris.
"... Oh. I'll stop now, fahaha!"
Kris turned their head, genuinely confused. "What's wrong?"
Noelle replied, "We're focusing so much on my cold, arctic location! Let's focus on your warmer locatio--"
"Oh, yeah, let's add lots of stars and auroras to the sky," Kris said happily. "I haven't seen the auroras since I was a little kid. I always wanted to see them again but they don't usually reach Hometown..."
"... Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Noelle said, the sunlight somehow reflecting more brightly in her eyes now, "We were together that night! I forget what was happening at your house, but my family went over..."
"And I snuck us out onto the roof, haha."
"Yes you did, faha! I HATED your roof! It's one of those slanted ones and I was afraid--"
"But you didn't end up falling off."
"No, faha! ..." Noelle looked off, dreamily. "And... and I really wanted to know what you wanted to show me so badly, and then... all the green and blue..."
"There was some red and purple too, at the bottom."
"Mhm! Moving like the curtains when they blow in the wind, but..."
"Pure light."
"So beautiful."
"Almost as beautiful as you, Elle."
"KRISSSSSSSS- PFFFF"
Blushing aggressively, she hunched over and scribbled down their ideas. "LET'S FOCUS ON YOUR IDEA NOW."
"Okay okay," Kris chuckled. "Um, actually, now that I think about it, a lot of my ideas made it into your arctic place."
"That's fine! As long as this place is warmer," Noelle replied happily, "Just, um... please not too warm? Or too humid?"
"No it's fine," Kris replied, "I don't want anything like that. Uh... I've been thinking the past couple days. We could make anything, but... Well I mean, if we don't like our first ideas, we can just replace them with other things, right? So... for right now I actually kinda want something basic."
"Sure! Like what?"
"I guess it's kinda corny, but I actually like Hometown a lot. I like our mountains and woods and stuff. So... something kinda like that, just... more, y'know?"
"More?" Noelle tilted her head, confused.
"Like... huge mountains with tall peaks, roaring rivers, cliffs where you can see the horizon..."
"Ooh, I like that!" Noelle said, trying to picture this in her mind.
"And... maybe it could be autumn? Like all the time?" Kris asked.
Noelle shrugged. "I don't really know how dark worlds work. If you can think of a way to keep it the same all year long, I'm fine with it. I actually really-"
Kris interrupted, "Deer always seem more active during autumn, so I figured you'd like that."
"KRIIIIS, this is supposed to be for you, not me!"
Kris smiled and rolled their eyes. "I like autumn! It's my favorite season! You know that. Just, y'know, I want you to enjoy it too."
Noelle hesitantly wrote down their ideas. "So, I assume we're gonna have a house or something here, too. Any ideas?"
Kris thought about it. "So many ideas. Caves are cool. It'd be cool to live in a cave. Just have to make sure we sleep close enough to the entrance to keep fresh air coming in. Or maybe- maybe another castle at the top of a big mountain!" Kris seemed uncharacteristically excited about that one. Noelle was about to write it down, but they started talking again so she waited. "Or a cozy log cabin. Or maybe an underground thing, with more secret tunnels and stuff!... But we'd have to make sure air got in somehow and I dunno how to do that..."
Noelle put her hoof-thing to her chin and thought. "I mean, we could probably just look it up online... but I wouldn't be confident that whatever we made here would translate well into the dark world."
"Yeah, that's true too. Hm... Honestly, do we need a house? Maybe we could just have camping supplies and just go wherever."
"Hm," Noelle thought again, "That could be cool! I'll write that down! But we really should have a place set in stone where we keep extra supplies."
"Hm... Cave... Castle... Log cabin... I dunno, surprise me."
"Kris, this is supposed to be yours! YOU pick the place! I shouldn't pick it for you, it should be what you want!"
"Surprise me." Kris repeated.
Noelle rolled her eyes. She wrote down 'castle at the top of a mountain' but said out loud, "landfill with LOTS of GARBAGE."
Kris chuckled. They knew she was teasing. They also felt a little bad making her pick. Kris should take initiative more. ... But not today.
"Oh Noelle, what food do you want to eat?"
"Hm?"
"We decided I wanted deer food. What do you want?"
"Hm..." Noelle put her hoof-thing to her chin again. "Well, onions and mint always made me sick, but it seems like they're everywhere, you know? Like, burgers have onions, and ice cream has mint, and people use breath mints which are gross to me by the way, but I always wished I could just eat them like all the normal non-deer people with a normal sense of smell and digestive system."
While she was talking, Kris took the notebook and started writing.
"Anything else?"
"..."
Noelle started blushing.
"What?"
"... Fahaha. ... KRIS TEA. I want more Kris Tea, okay?" she exclaimed, chuckling awkwardly.
Kris blushed too. And very hesitantly wrote it down.
And quick found where they wrote their food ideas down and wrote down "Noelle Tea" in one of the margins.
"Okay," Kris replied, "Um. ... Anything else?"
"... Um, I don't think so! All the other food I like, I can just get from stores around here."
"Fair enough I guess," Kris said, putting the pen down. "I guess we're about done, then?"
"OH WAIT KRIS," Noelle interrupted, "What do you want the weather to be like? We decided on cold and lots of beautiful night skies for me, but what about you?"
"Um... I hadn't thought about that actually," Kris said, putting their hand-and-decidedly-not-hoof-thing to their chin. "I really like auroras but I also think we need some light to navigate a big forest. ... Sunset?"
"That sounds wonderful," Noelle smiled, "Everything looks all gold and orange..."
"Yeah," Kris smiled back, "exactly like that."
Noelle took the notebook back and wrote it down.
"Anyway," Kris said, standing up, "I guess we're about done for now. Like, I'm sure this isn't gonna be perfect, but good enough to get us started."
"Yeah," Noelle agreed, also standing up, "If we don't like something, we can just... seal the fountain and then add more stuff and then open it again I guess, fahaha! It sounds so silly, but..."
"Yeah, no, you're right," Kris chuckled, "That really is how it works. So we can definitely do that. I think this is enough for now. Now we just have to... make the stuff I guess? To put in... wait, where are we doing this anyway?"
Noelle shrugged. "I dunno. The unused classroom? No one ever goes there."
Kris shrugged. "Sure."
=====================
October 17th, 202X
1:45 PM / 13:45
They'd spent the past couple of afternoons making light world versions of everything they needed for the dark world. Kris printed and cut out pictures of foods they wanted and wrote "heals 1,000,000,000,000,000 hp" on the back of each one. Noelle got a huge piece of posterboard and drew a vague map, half autumn forest and half cold mountain snowscape. This went to go on the floor. She also printed out pictures of auroras and pictures of space with lots of stars. These went on the ceiling with the help of a ladder Kris borrowed from Mr Asgore. Kris had wondered if Noelle was being too specific with all this. All she had to do was write "mountains and stuff" on the posterboard, right? ... Is that how dark worlds actually worked or would that just create a big flat plain with the words "mountains and stuff" jutting out of it? Ah well, they'd figure it all out later. Noelle had gone to the trouble of actually making doll-sized versions of clothes they'd each want to wear. Kris was content to just cut them out on paper, but Noelle insisted.
They'd gotten here right after lunch, and even then, it took over an hour to get everything in place. But finally, everything seemed ready. Or, as ready as a bunch of doll clothes and pieces of paper taped to the ceiling were going to look. Kris was used to this by now. Noelle had to remind herself a few times that this was going to actually turn into something.
"Alright Noelle, you ready?"
"Y- yeah. ... I'm pretty nervous about this, but I'm really excited to see how it turns out!"
"Me too. I made that one fountain, but... All I did was make it. I didn't set everything up like this. Ready for me to start the fountain?"
"Yeah- Wait, Kris, I just thought of something! Something really important actually, fahaha!"
"Sup?"
"... We need a way out, faha! Like a way we can leave without going all the way over to the fountain every time!"
=====================
October 17th, 202X
1:55 / 13:55
Kris had placed various scraps of paper around the room with vague lines and arrows pointing upward scribbled on with the words, "beam that takes us back to the light world".
"Hopefully that works."
"*SNRK*. Kris, that's so... basic! Are you sure it'll work?"
"Eh. If a pencil can turn into a sword I'm sure something with instructions written on it will work."
"I guess so...!"
"So, you ready?"
"... Actually Kris, ... Can I do it?!"
"Wat"
"I... I want to try opening the fountain! I've never gotten to do that before!"
Kris loved Noelle but worried she could be... fragile sometimes. They really weren't sure. Something like this might be too much for her. They didn't want to hurt her feelings though so they reluctantly handed over the knife.
Kris had actually forgotten about bringing the knife, but it was conveniently still in their pocket anyway. It always was. ... The older Kris got, the more Kris realized what people meant when they said it was creepy for Kris to always have this. Ah well, it worked out today. Noelle started talking and took Kris out of their stupor.
"Okay, so..." Noelle looked visibly panicked as she held the handle with both her hands. Blade pointed downward.
"You have to think about it. You have to want the knife to open the fountain. You have to be determined to make it happen."
"W- Well I'm sure determined!!!" She suddenly raised her voice. "I want this! I want an escape from this world! I want an escape from the other dark worlds and my family problems and my grades and everything else! I want to run away with you! I want to go somewhere beautiful and enjoy my life! I WANT-"
With more force than Kris knew she was capable of, and a few tears, she had already shoved the knife through the posterboard and even through the floor of the classroom. She still looked panicked, but held a total death grip on the handle. Light shot out from the knife. Slowly it turned black.
Kris walked over and offered their hand.
Hyperventilating, she let go of the knife, took their hand, and stood up.
"We need a few minutes to let it work. Let's wait in the hallway."
=====================
October 17th, 202X
2:10 PM / 14:10
They were sitting up against the wall near the door. When they'd looked a few minutes ago, the window on the door was mostly pitch black, but every now and then, the clouds would move and a small patch of the classroom wall would still be visible.
"Sorry I got so worked up, Kris..."
Kris put an arm her. "Hey, that's how it's supposed to work! The more determination, the better it'll be."
"... You're sure?"
"Totally. And Elle?"
"Hm?"
"Everything you said, I want that too." They hugged her.
She leaned in and started to smile again.
"I can't wait until it's done. Just me and you. And all our dreams. It's actually happening, Kris... Even if it's just one room, even if it's just a temporary escape... It's all ours."
Kris nodded into her shoulder. "All ours."
"... Think it's ready yet?"
Kris looked at the window.
Seemed black. Like, not just dark. The darkness was acting like light, radiating out from the window, making everything around it slightly darker.
They stood up and opened the door.
No more black clouds.
It must be done.
"... Ready, Noelle?"
She smiled and took their hand.
"Ready."
Kris bent their knees and prepared to jump.
"WAIT KRIS WE FORGOT TO DRAW A LANDING PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAᴬᴬᴬᴬᴬᴰᴰᴰᴰᴰᴰᴰᴰᴰᴰᴰᴰᴰᴰᴰᴰ⁻"
=====================
October 17th, 202X
2:12 PM / 14:12 in the light world
2:17 PM / 14:17 in the dark world
It sure was a good thing Noelle wrote 'a BUNCH of snow!!!' on the posterboard. Somehow it was actually enough to break their fall without significant injuries.
Kris stood up. "You okay Noelle?"
"Ymf M jm-" Noelle got her footing, got her face out of the snow, and stood up. "Yeah I'm just-"
Noelle fell back.
Kris couldn't hide a chuckle. They offered their hand to her again. "C'mon, I jumped to this specific spot for a reason. We c- ... Noelle?"
She pointed upward behind Kris, wide-eyed.
Kris turned around.
The night sky was shimmering like glitter with just tons and tons of stars, shining curtains of rainbow light dancing through the scene.
"Wow..."
Noelle smiled peacefully. "It worked, Kris."
Kris smiled back. "Yeah. ... Yeah! It did!"
For a moment they both just stared and watched in total peace.
Suddenly Kris had a thought though. "But come on, we have to find those jackets and gloves and stuff you made. They're right nearby which is why I tried to land here."
Suddenly Noelle sat up surprised. She breathed and noticed her breath was visible. "... OH! It's... It's kind of cold here, isn't it?!"
"Hahaha, a bit! C'mon the winter gear should be somewhere right over-"
Kris followed some direction Noelle didn't recognize. She knew she put the stuff near the castle, but had no frame of reference of where they landed when they got here.
It was still pretty surreal to her that this was real, actual snow they were both knee-deep in right now. The unused classroom had become a winter wonderland. Her winter wonderland. THEIR winter wonderland.
Suddenly Kris stopped. There was a huge closet, just, in the middle of this snow field, full of all the coats and-
... and next to it was a giant french fry box with umbrellas in it.
"*Snrkkkkkkk* Fahaha!"
Kris nuzzled her. "I remembered!"
"Oh my gosh Kris."
They each put on several layers of winter gear.
"C'mon Elle, the castle is just a little farther this way."
They each grabbed a yellow umbrella out of the giant french fry box and walked on toward the snow-capped mountains.
Seemingly endless fields and stars and auroras and calmness on all sides.
=====================
October 17th, 202X
3:15 PM / 15:15 in the light world
11:45 PM / 23:45 in the dark world
It had been a massive trek going from Noelle's castle to Kris' castle. Between all the walking, and the hills, and the change in temperature, it was just a lot. Good thing time moved so slow in the light world, it gave them lots of time in the dark world.
They sat on some ramparts and took in all the lush greens, oranges, and browns surrounding them. Holding hands, Kris leaning their head on Noelle's shoulder. Noelle leaning onto them.
Even though several hours had passed, it was still sunset here, just like they planned.
"Somehow, it all worked, Kris," Noelle said, tired.
"Yeah," Kris said, "Like... It's not perfect yet."
She mumbled "Not yet..." half-asleep, but suddenly jolted up a bit. "We HAVE to fix those penguins, fahahaha!"
"I did my best Noelle!"
"I know you did Kris, but they look terrible faha! I told you we should've printed them out instead of drawing them!"
Kris chuckled. "Maybe you're right. ... And maybe we could use some animals here in the forest, too. I like the quiet, but this is too quiet, y'know? I like Hometown at night. When you can hear the crickets and the owls."
Noelle leaned in again. "Me too."
"And the sun is a bit too bright. Maybe we could like, make a teleporter between the two castles or something. But we're off to a really good start here."
"Mhm. Definitely."
"..."
"Hm. What's up, Krismas?"
"We probably shouldn't sleep here Like, not during the day at least. Our families are gonna be looking for us. It's still afternoon in the light world."
Noelle grumbled and sat up. "But... No, you're right. Since dad's been able to be home more, I can't just run off as much. ... I love him Kris and I'm so glad he's better, but he's a lot sometimes, y'know?"
Kris hugged her. "It's totally okay to feel that way. You can like, not spend every second of the day with someone and still love them."
She smiled a bit. "Thanks Kris."
=====================
October 17th, 202X
3:28 PM / 15:28
Noelle opened the door to her house, totally exhausted. She'd literally climbed two mountains today.
"Noelle!" Rudy half-shouted happily across the living room, "Just in time to mow the lawn before sundown! I'd do it but, y'know, doctor's orders!"
"UUUUUuuuuuUUUUUuuuuuuggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
Noelle collapsed onto the couch.
Suddenly she remembered something.
She didn't even have to feel tired.
They specifically made a whole bunch of healing items.
And they both forgot to eat any before leaving.
AND they forgot to return Mr Asgore's ladder.
"UUUUUuuuuuUUUUUuuuuuuggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"