Chapter Text
Kris’s head sunk lower against their desk. Another day of school was under way, exactly how they predicted it would go. Alphys would attempt to give a lecture withheld by the stutters in her voice. Susie would bug them in her usual angsty yet playful manner. Noelle and Berdly would be fighting for who could answer the most questions (more so Berdly). Snowy would be telling his best face-scrunching jokes, and Monster Kid would be pretending to laugh at them with a faulty smile on their face. Tem would be doing Tem things. Catti would be softly clicking and clacking her fingers against her phone screen. Jockington would be muttering things loudly about sports and whatnot.
And in the middle of it all, Kris was just there, sitting grimly and silently like the statue that they were. They weren’t getting anything at all. Every sound that entered their ears shot out the other end as if it had never been there. Every sight they saw was reflected by the shadowed visor their hair created. Every touch they felt was minimized by their everlasting fatigue. Every scent that wafted in the air passed right through their carcass like a gust of wind.
Every word that would come out of their mouth was swallowed again, saved for another time.
Kris had grown very neutral to school. By now they would just walk in, do nothing but sit down and breathe for a few hours, and walk out. They were very used to routines. There was enough they knew about routines already. Very often, Alphys would ask a question, still hindered by her stuttering, Berdly would interrupt and give a terribly wrong answer, and Noelle would correct him passionately while he still wore his grin with pride.
“S-s-so, who would like to t-tell us which President w-was behind the infamous Watergate—”
“Monster JFK, your honor!”
“Actually, um, Berdly, it was Monster Nixon. And Kennedy was a human.”
“Why, thank you, Noelle! I shall now use my mistake to improve upon myself.”
There it is. Kris didn’t do so much as to give a very faint nod. Something was still off about it, but he was trying. Behind them, Susie tried to suppress a laugh, but a loud snnrrk still found its way out. That too was part of the routine. She was still trying to adapt to what she had learned a few days ago, which she found to be troubling. In contrast, Kris only took a day to craft a new routine, maybe two if they were unlucky.
The dark world definitely threw them off, much more than any other typical routine. There were so many things to keep track of since then. How to manage a newfound friendship between the girl that hated them, how to balance the responsibility of saving the world without anyone else knowing, how to make sure other people don’t get wrapped into this ordeal and begin to freak out. It was all frustrating, to say the least.
In an end, they came to a conclusion that sometimes, some things need to happen, whether they like it or not. The amount of times they tried to break the cycle, the amount of times they wanted to show control, only led to more struggles. Was that the consequence of desiring free will and a change to the world, or was that merely another predetermined line of events waiting to happen? Would they ever truly be free from the imaginary links that the world holds over them?
Those thoughts were sent to a world beyond, hopefully set aside for a long time. For now, they were content with one place they seemed to have free will: their head. Their imagination was powerful, one of the very things that guided them through each and every dark world to avoid a swing of the sword. No matter what happened, it was always them who came up with those acts, not the thing inside. That was one thing they were at least proud of.
As Kris raised their head up ever so slightly, they looked down at the #2 pencil in their hand. One side was the trusty tipped blade that was rarely ever used, and the other was the slightly battered shield that was rarely ever neglected. The dark world fascinated them in a way that helped them expand their mind. How something as simple as little pieces of board games could transform into an entire world was beyond them. They began to wobble their pencil between their index finger and thumb, making it look like it was bending. It was something Noelle taught them at an early age, back when they were still best friends. What they would do to be friends with her again, especially after the last few adventures. What if there was another world out there where they were still all friends?
Their mind drifted back to paradoxical alternative worlds. Perhaps they could let it slide for now. Surely one could slide straight into their own world. There were many different worlds and scenarios they could only imagine existing. But to them, imagining was just enough for something to exist. Their mind began to drift away, off to visit another world. Kris’s head flopped against their desk again, ready to visit those foreign places. All they were hoping for was that it wouldn’t be at school.