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"Chara?"
Toriel knocked on the bedroom door, waited a few seconds for a response that never came, then knocked again.
"Chara, are you in there?"
No sound of movement came from beyond the doorway, and Toriel slowly turned the doorknob; there was no resistance from any locking mechanism as she poked her head into the bedroom.
Books stacked neatly on shelves or haphazardly on a desk next to a computer with a login screen standing by.
Red robes on a stand next to a wardrobe with more conventional clothing spilling out of the bottom due to improper storage.
A well made bed beneath a nest of stacked quilts and covers.
No sign of Chara's presence.
"Hmmm."
Toriel backed out of the bedroom, walked down the hallway, and knocked on another door.
"Come in."
Toriel's head appeared as soon as the gap was wide enough, and she turned awkwardly to see Asriel half under his bed, next to a pile of clothing, books, and object not readily identified.
"Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, just-" Asriel's head and one arm extricated themselves from underneath the bed, "I dropped my phone and can't find it."
"I see. Well. This is as good a time as any to clear out what lies beneath your bed."
"Yeah, that's. That's what I was doing." Asriel pointed at the pile of debris next to him before diving back underneath the furniture.
"By any chance, have you seen Chara?"
"What?" Asriel clambered back out from under the bed and looked up at his mother. "Chara wouldn't fit under my bed, at least not with all the other stuff."
"That is not- I should have said, do you know where Chara is currently?"
"I do not, actually."
"I see. Thank you, I shall leave you to your searching."
Toriel withdrew from the bedroom and closed the door, frowning. One paw took out her own cell phone, tapped in a familiar number, and brought it to her head under one ear, waiting as the phone on the other end rang once... twice... three times... four-
"Asgore Dreemurr's phone, he can't reach it right now. How may I direct your call?"
"Frisk?? I thought I called- oh, you said it was his phone."
"Right, he's holding up something that takes both hands so I grabbed his phone for him. Hold on." There were the sounds of muffled movement, the creak of metal, and several other noises Toriel could not immediately recognize.
"Hello Tori, how are you?"
"Vexed and confused. Is Chara at your house by any chance?"
"Chara? No, they haven't been by today. Are they not at your place?"
"It does not appear that they are, and I am rapidly running out of places to look. Furthermore, when I attempted to call them, it went immediately to voice mail."
"One second. Frisk, have you seen Chara today?
"Not since this morning. I asked them if they wanted to come along while I fixed your heat pump and they just gave me The Look."
"Ah yes, Chara's Look."
"Chara's The Look. The article is part of it-"
"I see," Toriel interrupted over the phone. "Thank you any-"
"Have you checked the bathtub?" Frisk counter-interrupted. "I remember Chara was in there for like a day."
"What? No, I cannot hear the tap or shower running."
"I mean, they didn't have the water on, they were just letting the tub itself soak up the heat for as long as they could."
"Oh. I will investigate then."
Toriel tapped the screen to end the call, returned the phone to its proper pocket, and then turned toward the door to the upstairs bathroom. One paw reached out to knock on the door.
"Chara?"
There was no response, and the door opened easily to reveal an empty bathroom.
"Egads. Where could they possibly be?"
"SIR! PUT DOWN THE WATERMELONS!"
"NONE SHALL SPEAK TO CLAUDIUS THE AGRIMANCER SO FLIPPANTLY! YOU SHALL THE RUE THE DAY YOU KIDNAPPED ME FROM MY HOMELAND!"
"IT'S NOT KIDNAPPING! IF YOU CALM DOWN FOR FIVE MINUTES WE CAN GET YOU HOME-"
"I AM NOT SO EASILY FOOLED! HAVE AT THEE!"
Inside the Dank Memehaus, behind barred and barricaded doors surrounded by the remnants of crushed canteloupe and honeydew melons, Chara Dreemurr and June Cobb sat at the bar with empty glasses in front of them. The dog monster shook their head as they put away their phone.
"...no good, battery is dry. You?"
June shrugged as she held up the phone to her head.
"You've reached the Cobb residence."
"Hey mom."
"Hey June, what's up?"
"Just letting you know that-"
"PUT HIM DOWN!"
"WATCH THE SEEDS WATCH THE SEEDS"
"Just letting you know I'm at the Dank Memehaus and can't leave for a bit."
"Why, what happened?"
"Uh. It's really hard to explain."
"Hello Mrs. Cobb." Chara moved their head closer to the phone, prompting June to blink in surprise.
"Oh, hi Chara. What's going on?"
"You know how the radio and the TV both said today was supposed to be cloudy with a ten percent chance of rain and only three percent chance of Dimensional Rifts?"
"I... did not know that actually. What happened?"
"We got the three percent. There is some sort of wizard from another universe outside using some sort of plant based magic and he is more destructive and less ethical than my brother ever was."
"Oh dear. Is everyone alright?"
"We're fine mom," June picked up the conversation again. "We're inside, he's outside, the police are trying to deal with him. Hey, do we need any smashed and pulverized honeydew melon?"
"Not that I know of. Why?"
"Mr. McGraw grabbed a baseball bat when the wizard got mad. So there's a lot of fruit lying around."
"Oh. No, I just checked the fridge, we are good on fruits and don't have much room anyway."
"Okay, thought I'd ask. Will let you know when the wizard thing gets-"
"UNHAND ME PEASANT-"
"MEDIC!"
"-gets figured out."
"Okay, I'll be waiting. Take care honey, love you!"
"Love you too." June hung up the phone, put it back in her jacket pocket, then slapped herself on the forehead. "Oh. Dammit. I was gonna ask her to call your mom and let her know."
"It's cool." Chara reached out and picked up a broken melon rind off the floor, holding it up to their nose and sniffing vigorously.
"...what are you doing?"
"I dunno." After a few more sniffs, Chara threw the rind back in the pile of fruit and vegetable matter.
Outside, the sound of battle raged.
Inside, the sound of clinking glasses and clicking keyboards indicated at least some business was proceeding as usual.
"So..." Chara leaned forward, resting their elbows on the bar. "I have a question."
"Shoot."
"Back in the day. Before monsters and magic were on anyone's radar. You were like. The one person in school that really made an effort to try to make friends with me. Or reach out in any way beyond pure academics. Why was that?"
"Oh." June shrugged. "I... well. You were always quiet except when you were actually responding to questions in class. And I knew what they said about quiet ones. So I thought maybe if I made friends with you. You would be less likely to snap one day. And if you did, you might not come after me if we were friends."
"...wow."
"Yeah, sorry about-"
"No, it's fine, very on point."
"...huh?"
Chara grinned.
"Violence has always come easily to me. I almost destroyed another kid's eye in the cult compound years ago. So your plan was based on solid ground."
"...damn. You know, after you disappeared, I was wondering if I misread everything-"
"ARISE, LEGUMES, AND HEED MY-"
"-so not entirely sure what to do with that now."
"You don't necessarily have to do anything with it." Chara shrugged. "I mean. You were right. People only need to change their assumptions if those assumptions are proven incorrect."
"Hmmm. Still kinda feel not great about it. Assuming the worst of somebody who needed help."
"Unless you had plans in your back pocket of waltzing into Bastion Circle and beating up the entire cult single-handed, there wasn't anything you could have done."
"Hmmm. Yeah, no. I don't have that kind of stamina now, I definitely didn't have it back then. Or claws. Or fire breath. Might have gotten half of them by doing side strikes on their knees."
Chara scratched the underside of their muzzle, while outside the building the roar of engines and screech of tires ended in the sound of splintering wood.
"That seems probable. Hey, on that topic, how is the martial arts stuff going?"
"Hit and miss. And that's not a pun," June pointed one scaled finger at Chara as the dog monster's tongue lolled out in a grin, her other hand pointing over her shoulder. "Was basically picking up where I left off once I got used to the dragon body until the wings started growing. My center of gravity keeps changing so it's like starting over from scratch in every class."
"Wow."
"Also my shirts don't fit right anymore. But that's neither here nor-"
Something slammed into the doors of the Memehaus with a scream, and the rapid fire click of a taser. After both screaming and clicking stopped, there was a rapid fire knock timed along the pattern of the "shave and a haircut" musical sting.
"Ebott's Wake PD, Officer Ward here. We got him."
The glowing figure of Grillby walked out from behind the bar, unlatched the doors, and Chara turned to see Officer Steven Ward stumble into the building covered in blood, fruit juice, tree sap, flower pollen, and a few torn vines with thorns digging into his uniform and skin.
"All clear but we may need statements from some of you. Stick around until... until I get that figured out."
As Officer Steve stumbled over to the bar and sat down next to Chara, the dog monster could see other officers, many of them also in a similarly battered state, carting some old man wearing green robes and with long green hair filled with flowers to a waiting police cruiser.
"Long day?"
Officer Steve shrugged.
"I refuse to dignify that question with an answer."