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"Good Afternoon, Ebott's Wake. It's Lazy Lindsey here with all the news that Brett and Burgie didn't get to share, let's start with the important stuff. The Chamber of Commerce is putting their foot down on the new crosswalk, so I guess some people are just going to have to wait for the light to change like everyone else. Mayor Dale Thurston will be resigning after the exposure of his... uh. Cheese laundering operation. But he is not getting extradited to France so technically he comes out ahead. They take food trademarks very seriously and their prisons are notorious. Deputy Mayor Byron Thorton will be officially taking over at the end of July, but let's be honest, he's already running the town as is. Nobody will notice any changes except the place that city hall orders their stationery from. And I just got the stuff from All Fine Labs, Rift Activity index is two point one out of ten for the next five days. Bring your umbrella, but you can probably leave the shotgun at home. Moving on to minor stuff on the national scale, congress is STILL deadlocked on the topic of trying to pass magic regulation laws. President Murphy is not saying whether he's for or against it. Legislation against monster food on the other hand is cropping up on a state by state basis, and that explains why every town in Lost Eagle County is doing a budget surplus over ten years in a row, because of the medical tourism. To say nothing of Oregon as a whole. Speaking of Tourists, we're coming up on the ten year anniversary of the Titan Invasion and all the parties and civic celebrations that come with it, so the Arts Council and-"
Frisk reached out to turn off the radio, then leaned back, one arm dramatically over their eyes to block out the light. A few seconds later, they brought their arm down, pulled on the floor with one foot, and slowly rotated in their chair, looking at their bedroom.
A desktop computer that looked like it had been made from advanced technology from multiple alien civilizations (which was not too far off) on top of a modified writing desk that had either been enhanced or vandalized depending on how one felt about antique furniture.
A wall covered in photographs featuring various monsters and humans, especially and repeatedly featuring a lizard in a lab coat, an amazonian fish woman, various skeletons, an anthropomorphic Siberian Husky, and a trio of monsters somewhat resembling goats.
A bed covered in bags and boxes, some of which had books and papers spilling out of them.
An elaborate workbench constructed of angle iron and metal tubing with a movable floodlight and magnifying glass combination, a soldering iron, and a number of tools hanging from a pegboard along the adjacent wall.
A shelf prominently featuring a trio of awards and trophies; one had 2023 KLUDGE DERBY SURVIVOR stamped on the base of a metallic cup, one had LOST EAGLE COUNTY SCIENCE FAIR SECOND PLACE embroidered on a large ribbon, and the third was a picture of an elaborate mechanical suit resembling a robot that was apparently good enough to warrant first prize in a contest, if the large numeral one in the center of the ribbon attached to the picture frame was any indication.
"...I'm not ready."
Frisk sighed, then sat up suddenly as they heard the distant and muffled sound of two boss monsters crying.
"Still, I'm more ready than they are."
Opening the bedroom door made some of the words easier to understand, as did descending the staircase to the ground floor, but not by much.
"It can't have been ten years already! It can't have been! And everything's getting, everything's- everything, everyone that I love can't keep getting further away!"
Toriel's response to her son was impossible for Frisk to parse, most likely because she was similarly overcome with emotion.
"Uh... so this is awkward... I was gonna go get a root beer, does anybody... okay," Frisk made their way to the front door, stepped outside, and flinched slightly as the sounds of emotional distress seemed to intensify from their absence, being audible even through the wall and closed door.
Glass scraped across the wooden bar top, and Frisk reached out on autopilot to pick up the root beer, draining half of the mug in one long gulp.
"Yeesh. I know it's hot out but-"
Frisk's body convulsed as a massive belch escaped.
"Oh. Heck. Excuse me."
"...long as nothing else comes up, not my problem." Lars looked up to see another patron signaling and headed in their direction, and Frisk redirected their attention to the TV set and the talking heads being shown.
"-how President Murphy is taking all this?"
"Well, like so many people in Washington, he's keeping his hands off of Ebott's Wake because he saw what happened when somebody didn't. Our diplomatic standing with Canada still hasn't recovered after almost a decade, there's unstable rifts in Montana that the monsters still haven't been able to seal, we had three different invasions and declarations of war from other worlds, basically by every possible means of study and comparison it was an absolute disaster, and that was before the Covid Pandemic. President Murphy is another political outsider looking in, but unlike President Trump, he knows when he is in over his head, and he's trying very hard not to rock the boat."
Frisk's eyes and attention shifted focus from the television to a picture frame on the wall next to it, one that prominently featured an enormous boss monster in a robe fighting a giant made of light, then an adjacent picture that featured the same monster wearing some sort of massive suit of armor instead and throwing fireballs at what looked like an armada of airships. A few other pictures of the same monster in different outfits filled adjacent space on the wall, until Frisk's eyes stopped on one where the giant monster was wearing an outfit best described as "over the top game show host" and winking gleefully directly at the camera while entangling some sort of enormous armored snake or worm creature in a long cord attached to a microphone in one enormous paw.
"Never should have let Hal drive."
Frisk blinked and looked up to see that Elijah McGraw had walked over while they were distracted, and was staring at the same picture.
"Hey Eli. How goes it?"
"It's going. Where it's going, I couldn't tell you."
"Yeah. Lot of that going around."
"College coming up, right?" Eli started polishing glasses behind the bar, apparently more for something to do than anything else considering the glasses appeared spotless already. "That'll be a new adventure. Not that you need any more of those, I suppose."
"It's not for another couple of months, but mom is acting like it's tomorrow. Not sure how much of that is because she's a teacher but it's got to be at least half."
"Could very well be. And of course her kids are growing up. That's always hard on parents, even though it's the whole point of having children in the first place."
Frisk drained the rest of their root beer and sighed an exasperated yet contented sigh.
"Well, at least some things don't change-"
Something beeped, and both Frisk and Eli automatically reached for their pockets.
"It's mine," Frisk said as they pulled out their phone. "Frisk here."
"Frisk this is Major Dunston at Rift Monitoring HQ."
"What's up Major?"
"That's the thing. We're not entirely sure. The sensors lit up like the fourth of July a minute ago, but we're not seeing anything on the cameras. No rift activity, no artifacts, no Tourists."
"Huh. Could be the Trickster again. Are any of the cameras glitching out more than normal?"
"Standby... that's affirm, the camera on the Heritage Park Rift is all messed up. As in analog static and snow even though the system is digital. Which I guess tracks with that guy."
"I'll head over right away. This could be important. Or he might just be dancing again. Hard to tell with him."
"Glad that's your job and not mine. Rest of the park looks clear so you're good to teleport at least."
"Good to know. En route, I'll call in once I know what's going on." Frisk put the phone back in the relevant pocket, pulled out a wallet with the NASA logo from another pocket, and dropped various bills and coins on the bar. "So much for calming down with a refreshing beverage. Catch you later Eli."
"Take care."
In the heart of a small city that was once a small town, in the shadow of a mountain, a miniature star lit up a public park.
In the otherworldly light, there was darkness. A hole in the shape of the world, a shadow with nothing casting it, dark, yet darker in the light from the star.
Hello Frisk.
"Heya." Frisk walked through the gap between two antennas, one of many all surrounding the star and pointing at it. "Is this a social call, or do we have another apocalypse waiting in the wings?"
Just setting up dominoes. Might want to move two steps to the side.
"Which side?"
Any side. Just don't be standing in that particular spot for the next four seconds.
Frisk abruptly stepped back a few feet as the star blazed with energy, spat out a miniature streamer of energy like a solar corona, and left behind a piece of machinery spinning in place and glowing orange, the rotation slowing as the orange aura dimmed, until for a split second it stood upright.
"...holy shit. Is that Hal's floor buffer-"
The machine tipped over without the force of gyroscopic inertia to keep it upright, and Frisk noticed the front of the machine featured not only a pronounced false mustache but also a pair of large, mismatched googly eyes.
"Did this thing always have eyes? I can't remember."
Not that I know of. It's a weird multiverse out there, and this thing's been leaving some interesting footprints.
"...we need to get this to the lab." Frisk pulled out their smartphone, tapped the screen a few times, and held it up to one ear.
"All Fine Labs, how may I help you today?"
"Sophia this is Frisk."
"Hi Frisk! What's up?"
"I'm over at Heritage Park checking up on something for the Major, and something just came through the star. I think it's Hal Greene's old floor buffer he tried to ride."
"Huh?"
"Yeah, exactly. If you can send somebody by to pick it up, I can keep an eye on it until then."
"Uh. Let's see who's free right now."
"Best of luck, hanging up so I can keep an eye on this. Talk to you later."
"Thanks Frisk, buh-bye!"
Frisk put their phone back in one pocket and turned to look at the shadow with nothing casting it, which flickered for a second.
"Is that supposed to happen?"
The Interface has always been a tower of duct tape. Things have been getting rough lately, though. Won't lie about that. This time it's upstream from me though. And it turns out I'm a lot better at solving the problems in other worlds than my own. But everyone is. Geometry and all that.
"...oh. OH. Like, it's easier to lift a heavy weight with a longer lever, or more rope on a pulley system, because of the force distribution."
Exactly. When people are too close to the problem, sometimes it's very literal. Speaking of, I'm not up to speed on a lot of things right now. Anything cool happen after the rift crisis got resolved?
"Not really. Middle school was a bit of a roller coaster. High school more so. Still never as bad as Cater's trial." Frisk pushed their glasses up as they slid down their face. "I was thinking about majoring in physics in college, then Dr. Aster pointed out that I'd either get expelled for correcting my instructors or go crazy trying not to. So looking at engineering instead. Still not sure if I should do mechanical or electrical. Or both."
Could consider industrial. They study a bit of everything, mechanical, electrical, chemical, civil, and put it all together.
"...synthesis. That does sound like my style. Chara's going into history and library science. Because of course they are."
Not surprising given previous events.
"Exactly. Asriel has no idea what to do. I think that's why he's having a nervous breakdown. It's not like there's a degree in saving the world as a gestalt made of eight or nine other people."
If there was, he would probably be the only person in the local cluster qualified to teach it.
"Yeah."
Frisk took another step closer to the floor buffer, and after a moment's hesitation, reached out to tap it with the toe of one shoe.
"Bonjour!"
The fuck??
Frisk turned to look at the shadow, then back at the floor buffer.
"Did that just talk?"
Don't know where the sound came from actually. But the timing seemed significant.
Frisk raised one foot again, then put it down and shook their head.
"This is one more problem than I need right now... so is this the only reason you showed up? To keep an eye on this?"
It was kind of an excuse. I needed to clear my head. This has always been the place that made it easiest to do that.
"...that can never reach the Tourism Board. I don't know what they would do with it but their past efforts do not fill me with confidence."
Well, the Pentagon would be even more worried, and the tourist traffic would skew in a not great way. I can tell you that right out the gates.
"Again, one more problem than we need." Frisk pulled their phone out of their pocket and started tapping the screen, then put it away before turning to look at the shadow once more.
"Asriel still won't talk about what he saw."
I did warn him. But I understand his concerns.
"...I'm not saying I want to know. But in the hypothetical sequence of events where I learned, would that cause brain damage or something?"
Not physically. But some of what you would see might hit closer to home than you would like. That's probably why Asriel doesn't want to talk about it. Congruence goes both ways.
"...that actually does narrow it down a bit. And you're right, I don't like where it's going." Frisk's arms reached up as if they were trying to conserve body heat, despite the early summer weather and the hoodie they were wearing. "...wonder what's taking All Fine Labs so long."
Frisk.
"Yeah?"
Have you ever thought about a world that's exactly the same, except that you don't exist? And everything works perfectly fine without you?
"Duh. I climbed a mountain nobody came back from. I didn't do that for kicks and giggles."
Right, forgot who I was talking to for a second. And of course, nothing quite goes as planned or expected. The multiverse is too complicated for that. Too many variables.
"Does this have something to do with that Congruence stuff you were talking about?"
Yeah. Reality is like a casserole.
"...that simile doesn't give me any useful information."
Reality is made of a lot of different stuff all mixed together. It can help to think of it like a lasagna, because the layers are distinct and easy to categorize, but in practice it's all scrampled together.
"Scrampled??"
I stand by my choice of words and word equivalents.
"...okay then. So. Casserole?"
Right. Recap. The multiverse is theoretically infinite, but functionally finite. Compatible event sequences reinforce each other to make certain timelines more stable than others, just like compatible atoms combine into specific molecules that are more or less stable. And a molecule can connect a lot of different atoms together, but there are limits, so sometimes being one thing makes it harder to be another, and it's impossible to be a third. Some potential timelines are just that, potential. Thing is, life is inextricably linked to instability, from stellar fusion to breathing oxygen to digesting food. So even the most stable timeline is in a state of flux.
"Right, and the singular universe is actually a bunch of smaller universes overlapping. It's only when differences are too big to overlap that we can find a line between quote unquote Our Universe and quote unquote Another Universe. I remember that part. Did Asriel do that thing where he was listening to a podcast in one ear and an orchestra with another, but with timelines or something?"
Sort of. In the same way that you are many different atoms, events, and people united into a common identity, and your universe is many different people, objects, and events united in a common sequence, Interlopers like me are made of multiple, overlapping... layers. Let's just stick with layers. I think when he connected with me he either saw one of those layers specifically, where the parallels with you and Chara and himself that make up the Dimensional Congruence are the strongest... or... he saw PAST the Interface to the other side. Worst possible worst case scenario, I wasn't wearing pants. Asynchronous timelines make it hard to tell.
"I'm curious as to what you look like when you're not some sort of cosmic missing texture glitch, but not THAT curious... earlier, you were talking about what the world would be like without people."
Yeah.
"What..." Frisk trailed off, cleared their throat, and started again. "What happens to this world? Without you?"
It keeps going. Maybe other Interlopers who have a vested interest in your continued survival and prosperity will try to establish a new connection if I lose mine. Maybe they succeed. Maybe they dial into a neighbor instead. Either way, I won't be around to set up dominoes anymore. At this stage, with all the trials you've overcome and dangers you've defeated, you'd only be operating at a slight disadvantage.
"...hope you're not planning on going anywhere."
I have a lot of plans tangled up in this timeline still. But of course, that's how Trickster Archetypes get defeated most of the time. When somebody does unto our plans what we do unto others. So we'll see what happens. There we go.
The shadow reached out what might have been an arm, pointing at a flatbed truck with a crane and winch, and "ALL FINE LABS" painted on both doors. A human in a lab coat hopped out of the passenger side door, while a deer monster in overalls climbed out of the driver's side, cursing as their antlers hit the top of the cab.
"Ow. Fuck. Hey Frisk."
"Hey Dess." Frisk nodded to the machinery lying in front of them. "Pretty sure that's the old floor buffer from the Librarby that Hal and Mike tricked out about ten years ago. I'm guessing it flew through a rift during the Titan attack but that's for the lab to find out for sure."
"If we can. Is it safe to touch?" The human, not waiting for an answer, walked up and prodded the floor buffer with some sort of scientific instrument.
"Brendan what the f-"
"Sacrebleu!"
Brendan Cobb jumped back from the machine in surprise.
"It can talk?!"
"It did that earlier when I touched it. So far it hasn't tried to start a conversation so I don't know if it's intelligent or not. The Trickster was surprised too."
"The Trickster? That shadow thingy? It was here?"
A shadowy arm reached out to touch the star, lightning briefly coursing over the hole in the world, which began to move back and forth while standing in one place.
We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind,
Cause your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance, well they're no friends of mine.
"Well, asked and answered."
"You two need any help getting this thing onto the truck?"
Dess shook her head.
"Only if it starts spamming French at us the whole time we're holding onto it."
"Okay then." Frisk turned to look at the star, or rather, the hole in the world in the shape of a person dancing in front of it. "Anything else you need?"
Nope, we're all caught up. Catch you on the rewind.
"Interesting way of putting it."
We can go where we want to, a place that they will never find,
And we can act like we come from out of this world,
Leave the real world far behind.
Even as it danced in place, the darkness faded away.
Frisk pulled out their phone and sighed.
"Well. Better let the Major know. And I think I've earned another root beer-"
The phone chimed in Frisk's hand, once, twice, then multiple overlapping chimes as a bunch of message notifications were all received at the same time.
"...oh shit."
"Ten feet twenty, the Flower Man!
Is waiting here to make his final stand!
Fallen to pieces, still without a plan,
But the every daily
Hope that Powers the Flower Man,
Will never cower off of his path!
Even if broken, we are more than glass!
So he fights!
The Flower Man, Flower Man, with his heart, with his hands,
Here he stands, to save the whole wide world, 'cause he can!
Way up high, in the sky, with the stars in his eyes!
Mister Dad Guy, the great protector of... flowers!"
Asgore shook his head as he poured a watering can over the base of a decorative shrub resembling a bird monster wearing a cowboy hat, but he was smiling as he did so.
"I certainly hope my days of trying to save the world are over. That is a young monster's game."
"Gotta respect the classics." Chara's guitar playing took on a less organized tone and resembled more of a series of finger exercises. "Besides, a summer day when I'm not completely incapacitated by heat? It's not enough to make the most of it. This calls for celebration!"
"I suppose that's correct." Asgore moved on to a shrub pruned to look like a fox monster with two tails. "Are you looking forward to college? I confess that's been on my mind a lot, mostly because when Tori and I talk, she can think of little else."
"That's..." Chara's guitar playing trailed off into silence. "That's actually a difficult question to answer. I like the novelty and the opportunity to experience something new, I'm worried about the change in routine, and there's still the part of me that never expected to make it this far or this long, panicking because I'm in over my head. Even with multiple world saving adventures under my belt. So all that's going on at once. Like Walt Whitman said. Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes-"
The sound of the doorbell drowned out Chara's quote, and they put their musical instrument aside carefully.
"I'll get it."
Inside the house, the doorbell rang three more times before Chara reached the front door, opening it to see... a robotic anime catgirl holding one arm in the other, sparks of magical and physical electricity occasionally coming out of their shoulder socket.
"...Frisk not at home?"
"First place I tried. Just the queen and prince crying buckets. Buckets! BUCKETS!!"
"I suppose that makes sense. Frisk isn't here right now, but..."
Chara pulled out their phone and started scrolling through their contact lists, stopping as their ears twitched.
A blur of blue-and-yellow afterimages sped down the street, followed by a monster resembling an airplane with four turbo-prop engines.
"I'M NOT JUST A PRETTY NOSE ART! I HAVE FEELINGS TOO!"
"It was twenty minutes!"
"AN ANNIVERSARY IS AN ANNIVERSARY, FRISK!"
Chara and Mad Mew Mew stared as the two racing figures disappeared into the town's maze of streets, then looked at each other.
"...Skate will calm down. Eventually. You can hang out here until Frisk is no longer fighting for their life."
"Thanks, mew."
"...do I want to know how that came off in the first place?"
"You might want to know, but I don't want to share, mew."
"Fair enough. I don't need to know every single detail of my friend's lives."
"...that sounded like you were talking to somebody else."
Chara's eyes darted over towards all of you for a split second before stepping aside and holding up their arms to welcome Mew Mew into the house.
"Just thinking out loud."
The door shut, and a few seconds later, the blazing silhouette of Frisk, supercharged with Energy and Dimension magic, retraced their steps, followed by an angry plane monster.
A few seconds after that, a stampede of alpacas swarmed through the street.