Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

CAN YOU FEEL YOUR NEW LIFE BEGINNING?

LIFE IN A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN HONE YOUR GREATEST SKILLS, AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE YOU CAN IMPROVE DAY BY DAY

SOON, YOU SHALL ECLIPSE THE MASTERS OF OLD, AND INSPIRE MILLIONS WITH YOUR TALENT.

…

CAN YOU FEEL

YOUR

NEW

LIFE

BEGINNING-

“Kris!” The antlered girl awoke her friend, who was currently passed out cold at a desk. They shot up suddenly, and nearly fell over in the chair they were sleeping in as they woke up.

“W-Wuh?” Kris mumbled as they slowly removed themself from the chair with a groan. “Ugh, my head…”

“Okay, you’re awake, phew,” The deer girl breathed a sigh of relief as Kris looked around the room, it was a classroom. Specifically one built for late highschoolers if they had to guess, desks all around them and their friend and an unused whiteboard…

“Noelle, where the hell are we?” Kris asked as the last bits of wooziness seemingly went away.

“I-I’m not really sure,” Noelle mumbled. “A classroom, apparently,”

“Huh, weird coincidence…” Kris mumbled back. “We were heading off to-”

“Hope’s Peak Academy. Oh my god, we were!” Noelle yelped. “It was gonna be our first day, d-do you think this is it?”

“Okay so, last I checked schools generally don’t kidnap their students,” Kris said with a chuckle.

Noelle laughed. “Fahaha, Hope’s Peak is special though. Don’t you remember?”

The human shrugged. “I guess, I guess… so uh, what do you want to do?”

Noelle looked around for a moment, then clucked her tongue. “We should probably explore, you think Dess is here?”

“She is meant to be in the same class as us,” Kris mumbled. “We should try to find her,”

“Yeah!” Noelle said, pumping her fists. “Let’s start exploring this… kinda creepy school…”

“What, are you scared?” Kris chuckled as they led the woman out of the room and into a hallway connected to four doors, labelled ‘CLASSROOM A-D’. “It’s just a school, Noelle,”

“Hopefully…” Noelle mumbled as she peeked her head into Classroom B, which was the exact same as A, she and Kris then moved towards Classroom C, which was designed to be used by younger kids judging by the crayons and large box of toys neatly organised in the corner of the room.

“Oh, C stands for Child!” Noelle said with a smile of realisation, her head still through the door. “That’s pretty clever, fahaha, don’t you think Kris?” The reindeer asked as she turned around, but there was no Kris to be found. “Kris? Wh-Where are you?”

Noelle fully removed herself from the children’s classroom, looking around the hallway. Everywhere but behind the opened door-

“RAH!”

“EEP!” Noelle jumped a solid few feet in the air as she let out a high pitched squeak. “Kris! Why did you do that?”

“I thought it’d be funny,” Kris let out a small chuckle. “And it was,”

Noelle let out a sigh, then let out a small giggle. “Fahaha, you’re the worst, Kris,”

“I know~” Kris said all fruity as the two slowly opened the door to Classroom D, looking into the dark and cobweb laden classroom, and of the person leaning against the wall in the corner of the room…

A purple scaled reptilian with thick, messy hair that covered her eyes. She was wearing baggy, somewhat dirty looking and torn clothes as she glared into the distance, and then at the duo that had entered her domain.

“H-Hi!” Noelle blushed as she energetically waved at the dinosaur monster, who simply continued to stare at her. “I’m Noelle! The Ultimate Manager, this is Kris, the Ultimate Pianist!” She said, motioning towards the human.

“Why’d you introduce our talents too?” Kris asked, raising their eyebrow.

“I-I think it’s good to know!” Noelle whispered harshly to the human. She then turned back to the Reptile. “What’s uh… wh-what’s your name, by the way?” She said as she walked up to the woman and extended her hand.

The utterly massive monster looked down at the hand, and elected to lightly tap it with her finger. “Susie,”

“That’s a nice name!” Noelle said cheerfully, nodding.

“Yeah, for someone so scary,” Kris chuckled as Susie gave them a glare before returning to glaring at the wall.

“Shouldn’t you be going now?” She grumbled out, flashing the duo a look.

“O-Oh ah um… I-I suppose…” Noelle mumbled.

“Then go…” She looked away. “Or I’ll bite your face off,”

“We should listen to her,” Kris nodded as they grabbed Noelle by the wrist, the Deer showing a small pout as she was lead out of the abandoned classroom.

“Well, that was weird,” Kris shrugged.

“A-And scary, hehe…” Noelle giggled to herself, Kris flashed her a very knowing smirk, which caused the deer’s face to scrunch up in offence. “Wh-What’s that face for!?”

“You know what,” The human continued to smirk as they walked down the hall, soon getting to an intersection as the fuming deer continued to follow closely behind.

There was a choice of places bordering the four way intersection: A door labelled “MUSIC STUDIO,” one labelled “CAFETERIA” and one labelled “INFIRMARY”

“A music room?” Noelle said as she walked up to and inspected the sign. “Dess would definitely be in there, wouldn’t she?”

“You’d know, you manage her band,” Kris shrugged as Noelle opened the door into the room: well stocked with guitars hanging on the walls, a drum set, other assorted instruments in a nearby box and even a grand piano in the corner. Most importantly of all, was-

“DESS!” Noelle cheered as she ran towards her sister, enveloping her in a tight hug, face firmly in the green flannel jacket she was wearing.

“Jeez, I’m happy to see you too, Elly,” Dess chuckled as Noelle slowly removed herself from the hug. “Kris, not even a hello?”

“You were busy with Noelle,” Kris shrugged. “Do you know how we got here?”

Dess shrugged as she got up from the bench she was sitting on. “Not in the slightest, I assume you don’t either?” She was met with nods of agreement. “Well, that’s shit,”

“Hmm…” Noelle put a finger to her chin. “Well, maybe some more exploring could help us figure something out?” The doe suggested. “I mean, it wouldn’t hurt to try, right?”

“Eh, I’m up for it,” Dess shrugged.

“It’s what I was already doing, but Dess is here now,” Kris nodded.

“I sure am! Lead the way, Krismas,” Dess and Noelle both chuckled as Kris let out a sigh, then led her and Noelle out of the music room…

“A cafeteria,” Dess acknowledged as she looked at the sign on the door. “Guess I am a bit hungry,”

“I’m not,” Kris said.

Dess rolled her eyes and smirked. “No one was asking you, dude,” She said, opening the door into the cafeteria, wooded, completely spotless and decorated almost like homey cafe with wooden furniture and a chalkboard menu on one of the walls…

No one was in the cafeteria, however the gentle hum of a microwave could be heard from the kitchen, encouraging Kris and co. to walk into the relatively small, clean tiled room.

“There’s other people here?” Was the question they were greeted with as they entered, the orange cat man wearing a bright fast food uniform who said it was looking down at Kris in confusion.

“Why wouldn’t there be?” Another cat, this one physically larger with white fur, black hair with a purple streak in it and a waitress’ uniform.

“Yeah, we’re the only 2 adults that I know are here. We’re supposed to be smarter than the kids, dummy,” Dess crossed her arms with a sense of faux disappointment. “Be smarted than kids, now!”

“Ah, yes ma’am!” The orange cat saluted Dess, even though she was the exact same age as him.

“We’re not kids, we’re 17,” Noelle pouted, crossing her arms as well, Kris nodded in agreement.

“You sound like a bunch of kids to me,” The orange cat chuckled, he then looked at Kris. “C’mon, little buddy it’s a joke. What’s your name?”

“Kris,” Kris said blankly.

“Schweet, I’m-”

“Wait,” The white cat suddenly, yet quietly interjected, her tone still completely flat. “Are you that Pizzapants guy my sister talks about?”

“How do you know about that!?” Pizzapants yelped, nearly falling onto the microwave he was leaning against.

Dess snickered. “Pizzapants?”

“Pizzapants, Fahaha, Pizzapants!” Noelle giggled.

The orange get let out a groan. “Goddammit, I can never win, can I?”

“Sometimes life is like that, Pizzapants,” Kris added.

“Stop- god-” He groaned. “Listen, I am a very important part of ICE-E’s P”E”ZZA, they’d be kaput without me,”

“I mean, you’re wearing their uniform outside of work,” Dess shrugged.

“We were told to wear something related to our talent, I’m the Ultimate Mascot for god’s sake!” Pizzapants shouted, exasperated. “Clearly you two didn’t get the memo,”

“Wasn’t enforced,” Kris shrugged. “I think you just wore a fast food uniform to school, must really love being a wage slave, huh?”

The cat man let out another, even more frustrated groan.

“Fahaha, Kris, don’t be mean,” Noelle warned, even as she kept laughing.

“Ugh, I just can’t win!” The man left the kitchen, forgetting to take the pizza he was heating up out of the microwave.

“Well, that was funny…” The cat woman in the room mumbled, seemingly bored with the entire encounter. “I’m Catti by the way, Ultimate Waitress,”

“We can kinda tell,” Kris nodded.

“I didn’t know the dress code here wouldn’t be enforced…” Catti stated. “I’d be wearing actual clothes if I did,”

“I um… actually am following the dress code too,” Noelle added. “Faha, this is just what I wear normally though,”

“You… dress like a manager all the time?” Catti mumbled. Noelle was wearing the red and green checkered sweater she pretty much always wore…

“It is a little manager-ey,” Kris added.

“It is not!” Dess flicked Kris on the back of their ear.

“Um, I’m not offended by her saying that,” Noelle mumbled out. “We should uh… finish exploring this school,”

“Have fun with that, I guess…” Catti mumbled.

“I just realised I forgot to actually eat anything,” Dess said as she moved the party towards the Infirmary.

“How?” Kris chuckled.

“People forget things sometimes,” Noelle argued. “I mean, you used to forget entire semesters,”

“Because I slept through them, duh,” Kris said.

Noelle chuckled as the group of three entered the Infirmary. “Fahaha, of course you’d be proud of that!”

The infirmary was a sterile, well lit white with cutesy posters covering the wall talking about being sick or injured. There was a white-furred goat monster wearing a green cloak and cute pink scarf seemingly treating the minor knee injury of a short, rotund monster wearing a blue hood over his head.

“Ohoho, thanks to the healing powers of this precious ball of fluff. Dark Jack Lancer will be able to waddle again in no time flat!” The round boy.

“Umm, thanks?” The goat boy turned his head. “All I did was put a band-aid on your knee-”

“Oh my, oh my, it appears you have more patients!” Dark Jack Lancer said energetically. “And boy, do they ever look hurt. I can sense that the soft cream of the party has a stomach ulcer!”

“Wha?” Dess turned her head in confusion.

“I- are you talking about me?” Noelle asked.

“Do you see any other soft creams about? Hohoho!” Lancer chuckled as he jumped from the medical bed he was sitting on. “And I am the master of judging small creams, as I am Lancer. The Ultimate Prince of the Darklands!”

“Very roundabout way to introduce yourself,” Kris mumbled.

“Oh, I’ve heard of the Darklands before. It’s home to some very unique monsters!” Noelle said with a nod.

“Indeed, I-I’m from there as a matter of fact. It was a shock to see my prince here,” The goat mumbled.

“Really? Cause you look kinda like someone we know,” Dess said. “What’s your name?”

“Oh, well I’m Ralsei, the Ultimate Healer,” Ralsei said with a polite bow. “If you ever get injured, let me know! I can have you healed up in no time at all,”

“Oh, neat,” Dess nodded. “Nice to meet’cha, Ralsei,”

“You too!” Ralsei said with a firm nod… as the trio exited the Infirmary, Kris noticed Ralsei staring into the back of their head out of the corner of their eye… probably nothing to worry about.

“You noticed it too, right?” Dess asked Kris and Noelle as the trio walked north through the halls of the school, towards two doors: one labelled “GYMNASIUM” and the other labelled “STORAGE/DISPOSAL”

“Notice what?” Kris asked back.

“That Ralsei guy looks just like Azzy!” Dess said, exasperated. “How are you not noticing that? He’s your brother!”

“Ralsei’s horns are pink,” Kris started. “His eyes are also pink, Azzy’s are red. He wears glasses, Azzy doesn’t-”

“Okay, jeez I get it-”

“Azzy has blonde hair, Ralsei doesn’t-” Noelle was interrupted by her sister letting out a long winded groan.

“Ughhhh… you two are the worst,” Dess said as she walked towards the door to the Gym… then completely failed to open it, the door rattling as she shook it. “Oh, goddammit,”

“Womp womp,” Kris said outloud as they lead their party into the storage room, surprisingly not that big, yet stocked with pretty much everything: from school supplies, gym supplies, and even spare instruments sitting pretty in their cases.

“Woah woah, hello there. I did not expect to see, you!” The snake monster wearing a backwards blue cap, blue sheath and sunglasses said, a goofy smile on his face. He bounced around erratically in place as he spoke. “I thought I, was alone in this here workout ready room!”

“I mean you were until we came in,” Kris shrugged. “What’s your name?”

“I am Jockington!” The snake proudly declared, using the end of his trail to point to his chest confidently. “The Ultimate Soccer Player, life is a big ballgame, and I am the master of, the ball!”

“Oh hey, I’ve heard of you before!” Noelle said as she turned to Dess. “Remember, Dess? Dad would talk about him during soccer season,”

“Oh yeah, yeah he would,” Dess nodded. “It’s like, the one soccer related thing that didn’t upset him, heh,”

“I am known, to please all with my. Ball skills!” Jockington said with a joyous laugh. “However, I must practice my skills in this tiny room, by myself. Have a good time doing, whatever you were doing before!”

“Yeah, we were gonna head out anyway,” Kris said as they left the room.

“Have a good day, Jockington!” Noelle said, waving to the snake on her way out.

“Every day is good for Jockington, in the great ballgame of life!” Jockington said with a wide smile.

The group of three walked back down through the intersection, going west this time, they eventually came across a door labelled “LIBARBY” in the middle of the hallway… dust quickly assaulted their noses as they entered the large, organised auditorium of shelves, after a bit of coughing they spotted two other monsters: A snowy looking bird wearing a pink bowtie, and an armless yellow kid with spikes coming out the back of his head wearing an orange raincoat and golden cross necklace.

“Oh hey, sick, new people!” The yellow monster said. “Yo, what’s up guys?”

“What do we have here? Two monsters and an adopted human?” The snow bird joked. “Are they spayed?”

Kris shrugged. “Unfortunately, I’m not,”

“Unfortunately? Fahaha,” Noelle giggled.

“How are you guys not-” Dess was interrupted by a brief fit of coughing. “Dying in here, it’s so dusty and shit!”

The yellow one shrugged despite not having any arms, they were currently keeping a religious looking textbook well balanced between their spines. “Guess I just got used to it, I dunno, dude,”

“Well, clearly you’re dust immune or something… whoever who are…” Dess said. “What’s your name?”

“Ehhh… it’s kinda embarrassing, just call me MK!” MK said with a nod. “The Ultimate Missionary,”

Noelle turned her head curiously. “Oh, you’re religious?”

“He wasn’t talking about the position, was he?” The bird laughed, Dess and MK laughed at the joke too.

“Hehe, obviously yeah. I go from city to city, country to country spreading the good word of God, and all that jazz,” MK said

“Weirdly chill for a Missionary,” Kris added. “All the ones who came to my town were uh… kinda loud, and-”

“Forceful? Yeah, I get that, dude,” MK chuckled. “I’m not gonna force my beliefs on anyone, don’t worry. I will try to spread the good word whenever I can though, y’know?”

“That’s noble I guess,” Noelle shrugged, smiling at the yellow boy.

“What about you, bird guy?” Dess asked the bird.

“I’m glad you asked, tall deer girl. I’m Snowy, the Ultimate Comedian,” Snowy said proudly, using one of his wings to point to his chest. “My jokes can be… ice cold… that wasn’t funny at all,”

“Eh, they can’t all be winners,” Dess shrugged. “Your other jokes were funny, though,”

“At least you and MK like them,” Snowy said with a smug smile, then he grimaced. “That bluebird in the computer lab when into a whole essay about humour… even though he laughed!”

“There’s a computer lab in here?” Kris asked. “I could play Minecrap on that!”

“Fahaha, that’s what you’re focused on?” Noelle giggled as Kris bolted towards the door to the computer lab. “Ah, Kris!”

“Goddammit,” Dess groaned as she and her sister chased after the human, nearly breaking down the door of the computer lab as they tried to enter the mostly blue-ish grey room lined with well… computers on desks throughout…

“Ohoho, two ladies and a human approach the gaming den of this warrior of vast intellect!?” The bluebird that Snowy mentioned said, his voice nasally as he pointed to himself proudly, he was standing in front of a PC playing a paused fighting game against CPUs. Probably Super Smashing Fighters. “What do you two want, can’t you see I’m busy?”

“We were just exploring,” Noelle mumbled.

“Yeah, chill out dude,” Dess put her hands on her hips and glared at the nerdy looking bird, who smugly glared at her back.

“I was simply trying to enjoy what little time I don’t spend being the smartest within my class,” The bird’s smirk grew wider, somehow. “For I am Berdly, the Ultimate Student!”

“Yeah, we can tell, Nerdly,” Dess snickered.

“Dess, don’t be mean,” Noelle sighed, even though she did chuckle a bit.

“Ah, yes, a fellow intellectual walks amongst your ranks!” Berdly said as he stared down Noelle. “I am pleased to have someone of near intellect to my own!”

“Fahaha, um… thanks?” Noelle chuckled.

“You are quite welcome!” Berdly let out a snooty laugh, then returned to playing his game.

“Welp, that guy’s weird,” Dess said as she left the Computer Lab, and then the Librarby Kris nodded in agreement and followed her alongside Noelle.

“He doesn’t seem all that bad,” Noelle shrugged. “Just uh… a little…”

“Annoying?” Dess raised an eyebrow at her sister. “That’s like, the worst thing a person can be sometimes,”

“Eh, there’s worse,” Kris shrugged as the three walked through the halls of the school. “Like hitting me over the head with a wiffle bat,”

“That was once!” Dess argued. “And you were being a jerk to Noelle,”

“Yeah!” Noelle said, as if she was the goon to Dess’ mob boss.

“You just gotta learn to handle my pranks,” Kris smirked as they walked further into the hallway, eventually reading a large, elevator door positioned at a bend in the hallway, another human was standing in front of it. A woman with a blue and pink sweater, and hair eerily similar to Kris’

“Oh, uh hi you three!” The woman said with a smile, her eyes looking half lidded as she looked away from the elevator door. “I didn’t think anyone else was all that interested in this elevator,”

“I mean it’s the only thing nearby,” Dess shrugged and smirked.

Kris narrowed their eyes at the girl. “Weird to see another human around here…”

“Heh, yeah,” The girl giggled. “I should probably introduce myself, right? I’m Frisk, Ultimate Peacemaker,”

“Oh, you’re a hall monitor,” Kris chuckled, before being firmly jabbed in the side by Dess.

“Nice to meet’cha, Frisk. Do you know anything about anything?” The deer asked.

“Wha?” Frisk turned her head, confused.

Noelle sighed. “What she means is ‘do you know how we got here?’”

“Oh, uh… nope!” Frisk shrugged. “I woke up outside of this elevator and uh… just kinda waited for someone to show up,”

“Welp, that sounds super interesting, but we should get going,” Kris said as they walked past the other human dismissively. “Let’s go, Noelle, Dess,”

“Uhhh, okay I guess?” Noelle mumbled. “Bye Frisk!”

“See ya around!” Dess smiled, then glared down at Kris as the group of three continued down the hall.

“Kris, what the hell was that!?” Dess whisper yelled at the human.

“I’m not good around other humans,” Kris shrugged. “You know that,”

“I didn’t know you were that bad!” Dess grumbled. “She… seems nice, be nice,”

Kris let out a long sigh of annoyance. “Fiiiiine,”

“There, now, back to walking,” Dess said as she lead the group past a series of three bathrooms, and then towards another bend in the hallway to a series of doors, each with a picture of the faces of everyone they had met so far alongside three others…

“Huh… this is uh…” Dess trailed off.

“They look like dorm rooms,” Noelle nodded. “Maybe they’re-”

“They ARE Dorm Rooms!” Noelle let out a screech as a cat/dog girl thing wearing a blue shirt and a backwards cap peaked her head out of the door with a picture of her face on it. “HOI, I’m Temmie! I am Ultimate Businesswoman because of muh supah successful TEM FLAKES!!!!!”

“Oh yeah I’ve seen you before,” Dess said, pointing lightly at the cat, then turned her head to Noelle. “Mom used to get real pissed when we even suggested eating Tem Flakes, too much sugar apparently,”

“Your Mom sounds very mean!” Temmie sniffled. “But don worry, the Cafeteria have enough Tem Flakes for all of us!!”

“Oh sick, I can get another cavity!” Kris said with a beaming smile on their face.

“Is like my Mommy Temmie always said, happy customers get the cavities!” Tem proudly declared before she slinked back into her room.

“Welp, that was weird,” Dess shrugged as she continued down the hall, prompting Noelle and Kris to continue following her as she opened a door into the Foyer of the school, a grand room with opulent, shiny railing, hallways leading to every other corner of the school and a grand door at one end with one of those fancy door knockers rich people got… Dess instantly ran over and tried to pull it open, but…

“Ughhhh, grrgghhh, fuccckkkk!” Dess huffed and puffed as she failed to make it budge even a little. “Christ, that thing’s stuck stuck,”

“Maybe we should ask it nicely?” Kris suggested, earning an annoyed look from the deer that was following them.

“You trying to open the door?” A purple, tentacled monster dressed in a red flannel jacket and a backwards baseball cap asked, she was holding a skateboard under her arm and was standing next to a girl made of green fire dressed in a school uniform. “Cause like, I tried everything and nothing worked,”

“Has your friend tried burning it down yet?” Dess asked.

“Hm? Oh no, I’m not made of fire. I’m just on fire,” The fire woman corrected. “B-But I get the confusion, my name is literally Fuku Fire, haha,”

“Oh hey, I think I’ve… vaguely heard about you. Apparently you make really, really good White Russians,” Dess said with a smile.

“Oh, I make all kinds of drinks. I am the Ultimate Bartender after all,” Fuku smiled and gave a small bow.

“Ah, you apparently give out your name at work,” Dess nodded.

“Terrible idea, really,” Kris shrugged. “Who’s the other girl?”

“Oh sweet it’s my turn!” The tentacled monster gave a big smile. “Sup dudes? I’m Skatherine, Ultimate Skater. Call me ‘Skate’ for short, though,”

“Nice to meet you, Skate!” Noelle said with a smile “Um… I think skateboarding is really cool? I dunno what to say, fahaha,”

“I can tell,” Skate chuckled back, she then walked towards some of the railing with her skateboard in hand. “Anyways, you guys wanna see me do some cool shit?”

“Of course!” Fuku said with a nod.

Dess shrugged. “Better than running around this school, show it off!”

“Alright alright alright alright!” Skate said as she positioned her skateboard on the railing. “Three, two, on-”

DING DONG BING BONG

The school bell suddenly went off, making everyone look around in confusion. Suddenly everyone began to notice the screens in each and every room of the school, all of which now had a smiling mouth imprinted onto them.

“Now this, this is gonna be a real WINNER, could all of you come to the Gymnasium pronto?” The voice said, seemingly speaking from the TV.

“Wh-Who was that!?” Noelle yelped out.

“TV’s haunted,” Kris declared simply.

“Or, it’s just whoever put us here trying to mess with us,” Dess shrugged.

“Should we go to the Gym?” Fuku asked as Skate dejectedly but her skateboard back under her arm.

“I mean, what else is there to do?” Skate shrugged as she began to walk down the long hallway to the Gym.

“Fair enough,” Dess nodded as she led the rest of the group down the hallway too, nothing much of note happened. Though, Kris swore they felt the presence of someone outside of the group watching over them, someone shifting in the corner of their eye… they decide to ignore it as they enter the Gymnasium.

The Gym was gargantuan, with all kinds of workout equipment sitting on racks, a large basketball court in the middle and even a stage at the end, which would presumably be for staff to make announcements. It seemed that everyone had gotten to the Gym before them, and was currently standing around

“Late, late, late. Whoever brought us here is late!” Berdly complained.

“Life is a ballgame, you cannot be late to kick, the ball in the game!” Jockington declared, bending his body around energetically.

“He’s right or whatever…” Catti shrugged. “Seems a bit pointless to call us here if no one’s going to show up,”

“Maybe this just apart of orientation?” Noelle suggested with a shrug. “I-I mean it’s the only thing I can think of,”

“Did you get kidnapped for orientation at your last school too?” Snowy let out a grating laugh as Dess gave the bird a disgruntled glare.

“Let’s try to calm down, everyone, I’m sure they’re just a bit late,” Ralsei said with a smile. “I’m sure all of this will be explained in time,”

“Hohoho, will they make us fight for the title of Ultimate Ultimate?” Lancer said with a joyous laugh.

“They wouldn’t- that’s stupid, right?” Fuku Fire asked.

Skate put a hand to her chin and mumbled absentmindedly. “Who do ya think would go first?”

“I say we start with Frisk,” Kris added, smirking at the other human.

“Huh? What did I do?” Frisk yelped.

MK looked around the room, both concerned and confused. “Guys, nothing’s even happening right now. Why are we fighting?”

“Sometimes you just gotta get it out, little buddy,” Pizzapants mumbled. “Just to feel somethin’, anything,”

“Dude, what?” MK turned to the man, even more confused than he was before.

“Can we all chill the fuck out?” Dess said, waving her hands slowly for emphasis.

“Yeah, you’re SCARING Tem!” The cat-dog thing mumbled out. “And Tem HATE being scared, being scared not cute at all!”

“You’re being scared of nothing,” Catti mumbled. “Then again, what we don’t know is scarier than what we know, or whatever,”

“That was… a philosophy!” Jockington declared proudly.

Catti smiled just a touch, then returned to her usual neutral face as she shrugged. “Sure, whatever,”

“If nothing’s gonna happen, then why are we even here?” Susie grumbled out, she then let out a grumbled sigh as she walked towards the door. “This has been a huge fucking waste of my time-”

Susie suddenly let out a gasp as she was pushed to the floor by a figure that seemingly came out of nowhere, standing in front of the exit to the gym. A figure clad in pitch black armour wielding a gnarly looking sword that was equally dark in its colourisation.

“I didn’t know we had another person,” Frisk mumbled as The Knight stood blankly, arms crossed.

Ralsei cleared his throat. “Hello, who are you?” The goat boy asked, smile on his face as the Knight continued to stare blankly at the crowd.

“Yeah, seriously, who the hell are you!?” Susie struck a menacing pose as she glared back. “…You better speak up, or I’m gonna-”

“Now now, my most wondrous students, there’s no need to attack my associate!” The voice of a showman called out from the roof, the same the crowd had heard call them to the Gym. “Not when there’s GAMES to be had, LESSONS to be learned!”

“So, you finally show up, huh?” Berdly said, nudging his glasses up smugly, then crossing his arms. “Hmmph, even the Delinquent amongst us got here before you!”

“Say that again, Nugget Boy?” Susie asked, face still furious.

“N-Nothing!” Berdly yelped, Susie nodded then turned to the roof.

“You better tell us what your deal is, or-”

“I was getting to that part!” The man in the roof chuckled as he fell to the ground, landing gracefully.

He was freakishly tall and big, dwarfing the people in the Gym by a wide margin, he was wearing a suit with one side being white and one half being black, and most notable of all he had a large, CRT TV for a head. The Knight soon moved to his side, silent and stoic.

“Hello, hello, hello!” The man greeted as he bowed rapidly. “Welcome one and all to a one of a kind kinda GAME!”

Frisk quirked an eyebrow. “A game?”

Berdly scoffed. “As an alpha gamer, this game is most boring to me!”

“He’s annoying, but he has a point,” Dess shrugged. “This doesn’t really feel like a game,”

“Tem think waiting fun sometimes!” Temmie said. “And games are fun! Yaya!”

Tenna laughed. “That’s because it hasn’t started yet, Deer Girl!”

Dess sighed. “Never call me that again,”

“Well hurry up then!” Skate complained. “Like, you’ve kept us waiting. Why don’t you spit it out?”

“Yeah, spit it out!” Susie added, glaring at the TV headed man. “Whoever the hell you are?”

“Me? Well I’m your host and PRINCIPAL Mr. Tenna!” He waved his arms excitedly.

“Y-You’re our principal?” Noelle mumbled. “That doesn’t sound right?”

“WHAT!? But who else would it be? I’m the only man with a TV for a head qualified enough to do this!” Tenna chuckled, a studio laugh track laughed with him. “To the run GAMES where you students are our wonderful, talented, beautiful CONTESTANTS!”

Kris sighed. “Can you just get to it already?”

“Ah… well uhm… I guess I should tell you why you’re-”

CRASH

“Not so fast evil TV guy!” The crowd turned around, shocked to see that two monsters had burst into the room, a tall, female blue bird wearing a comfortable looking blue shirt, and a fox monster with flowing, ginger hair wearing a simple, yet elegant white and pink dress.

“This has gone on for long enough,” The fox said as she peeled her eyes at the TV man. “Let these children go, now!”

“How many more people are coming in!?” Dess shouted.

“You make a point, DEER GIRL, and how many more of them are gonna interrupt my show!?” Tenna shouted as he jumped down to be at the level of the two women, he then blew an overly loud air horn in their faces. “SHOO, SHOO, OUTTA HERE!”

The bird woman covered her ears and winced, the Fox-

BANG

A chunk of the TV guys head was blown clean off from the bullet the Fox fired at him, calm rage in her eyes. Wiring bursting from the missing part of Tenna’s head.

Noelle let out an ear piercing shriek as it happened, everyone stared at the scene before them in shock and awe, barely able to think or act besides panicking.

“Wh-What the-” Skate yelled. “Hell’s going on!?”

“S-Stay calm, try to stay calm everyone!” Frisk shouted out.

“Fuck that, I want answers now!” Pizzapants yelled out.

The fox aimed the gun at Tenna, looking at him intensely as Martlet spoke for the two “We’ll explain soon, but you’re all in grave danger! You need to follow-”

SWOON

A slice to the chest sent the bird falling to the ground, bleeding profusely and unmoving as she hit her head with a loud thud.

“MARTLET-”

SWOON

The knight hit the Fox too, though she didn’t fall the slash to her chest was visible and bleeding.

“O-Oh no!” Ralsei yelled as he bolted towards the fox, grabbing her side to hold her up as her eyes slowly began to close, Frisk ran over to help keep her held up too.

“W-Why is this-” Kris mumbled as he looked at Tenna and the Knight. “What’s going on?”

“Thank you my d-d-d-d-dear Knight!” Tenna said, his voice glitching as the wires coming out of his head sparked, the Knight nodded. “J-J-Just stopping anyone from interrupting-”

“Just tell us what the game is already!” Susie yelled.

“I-It’s a KILLING GAME!” Tenna announced proudly. “That’s all!”

The panicking crowd went dead silent, all staring at the Tv headed man, his smile now laced with malice and sickness.

“Th-That’s all? That’s a joke right!?” Berdly yelped, breaking the silence with his squawking.

“Not a funny one…” Snowy grumbled.

Frisk motioned towards the body of the other Bluebird. “I don’t think it’s a joke, it’s a-”

“Wh-Wh-Why on Earth would I be joking? I’ll explain the rules in a jiffy!” Tenna chuckled. “I-In order to return to your HOMES, you’ll have to kill someone else BESIDES me and my associate-”

“So, all I need to do to go home is to kill someone I barely know,”

“Of course, the rules will be outlined on those fancy schmancy Tenna-Tablets I shoved into your pockets!” Tenna pointed at Susie as she spoke.

“S-Susie, what are you doing?” Ralsei mumbled as Ceroba continued to groan, starting daggers at the knight as she barely hung on by a thread.

Susie gave a wide, toothy grin as she stared down Ceroba. “Getting out of here,”

She pulled a knife from her pocket and lurched towards the fox… and within a split second, and without any input from themselves: Kris jumped forward, taking the knife straight to their side…

Pain seared throughout the wound, the last thing they caught before they passed out was the terrified face of Susie, and the shocked expressions of the rest of the people in the Gym excluding their host…

…

PROLOGUE COMPLETE

YOU GOT THE: HPA BADGE

16/16

Chapter Text

Are they-

Are they-

Oh god, please-

They’re-

They’re awake-

Are you-

“They’re awake!”

Kris groaned from the aching pain in their side as they slowly opened their eyes to the crowd surrounding them: Noelle, Dess, Ralsei and MK.

“Oh dude, we thought you’d be asleep for longer,” MK said, Kris barely able to acknowledge it due to the remnants of pain still remaining in their side.

“Oh thank god…” Noelle mumbled, smiling. “Do you feel alright, K-Kris?” Kris didn’t respond.

“They got stabbed, what do you think?” Dess grumbled.

Noelle looked downwards dejectedly. “Right…”

“It’s uh… fine, really. I’m just glad Ralsei could heal them,” Dess said, scratching the back of her head. “Thanks for that, by the way,”

“Ah, it’s really no problem,” Ralsei nodded formally. “It’s my duty to make sure you’re all okay, besides, Kris wasn’t as injured as-”

Kris looked to their side, the ringing in their ears drowning out whatever Ralsei was saying as they looked at the Fox woman laying comatose to their left. Clearly not dead, but in no good state either. They wondered why they jumped in front of her so suddenly, why they chose to protect someone they hadn’t ever seen before…

…

“Hope she wakes up soon,” Kris grumbled out, causing the audience they had amassed around themselves to look at the human.

“Oh hey, you can speak,” Dess smiled. “I dunno why I’m surprised, you just got hit in the side…”

“Yeah, that hurt,” Kris said as they began to drag themselves out of the hospital bed, Noelle joining in to help them to their feet, the Tenna-Tablet fell out of their pocket and onto the bed.

“Oh dude, you should probably keep that,” MK said. “Tenna doesn’t want them to be broken,”

“When did that get in my pocket?” Kris said to themselves as they picked it up.

“I guess when we got taken here,” Dess shrugged. “It’s got like… rules and shit in it,”

“You should probably read them,” Ralsei said.

“T-Tenna did say that the punishment for breaking them was… well…” Noelle mumbled as she motioned towards Ceroba’s comatose state.

“Good enough,” Kris shrugged as they turned on the tablet and scrolled through it, soon reaching the section that held the rules.

MR. ANT TENNA’S TV-TASTIC KILLING GAME RULES:

RULE #1: Students must live within Hope’s Peak Academy for the Foreseeable Future

RULE #2: The only way to leave Hope’s Peak Academy is to murder a fellow student and get away with it

RULE #3: Once a murder takes place, all students must attend the ensuing Class Trial, where they will choose who they think the murderer is

RULE #4: If they vote correctly, only the murderer will be punished and everyone else will continue to live within Hope’s Peak Academy

RULE #5: If they vote incorrectly, everyone besides the murderer will be punished, and the killer will be allowed to leave Hope’s Peak Academy

RULE #6: No harm is to come to Mr. (Ant) Tenna again at any point, under any circumstances.

RULE #7: “Nighttime” is between 10:00 PM and 8:00 AM, the Gymnasium is OFF LIMITS during this time.

RULE #8: Do not under any circumstances destroy your Tenna-Tablets™

RULE #9: The “Body Discovery Announcement” will play when three or more students discover a body

RULE #10: More rules may be added at Mr. (Ant) Tenna’s discretion

---

Kris stared down at the tablet, stonefaced. “They’re… serious about this, huh?”

“S-Seems like it,” Noelle mumbled.

“I’m sure no one’s going to hurt anyone here!” Ralsei assured with a smile. “As long as we work together, I’m sure we can make our way out of here,”

“Yeah, we should talk about that during breakfast!” MK said. “I mean, everyone’s in the Cafeteria for it,”

“Oh yeah, you missed breakfast, Kris,” Dess added.

“Well, I was passed out, kinda hard to eat when I can’t do anything,” Kris said as they continued to scroll through the Tablet, eventually finding a map of the school…

“Guess we didn’t fully explore the school before the announcement,” Kris said. “And there’s a 2^nd floor, apparently,”

“Yeah, apparently,” Dess rolled her eyes. “There’s a big wall in front of the stairs, apparently they’re still renovating it. You think they’d finish building the school before kidnapping us, but noooo…”

“Fahaha, that’s what you’re complaining about?” Noelle asked, causing her sister to let out a small chuckle.

“Also never saw the Laundromat,” Kris added. “And the Spa, but I never really liked those anyway…”

“You don’t need to worry about Laundry, Kris, I’ve already had everyone give me their clothes to wash!” Ralsei said with a smile on his fluffy face. “Dess got me your clothes already,”

“You never locked your door,” Dess shrugged.

“Well that’s, nice of you,” Kris nodded at the goat boy, completely ignoring Dess.

“Where’s my credit?” Dess complained as she stretched, then prepared to leave the Infirmary. “I’m gonna head back to Breakfast,”

“You should come too, Kris!” Ralsei said as he prepared to leave alongside MK and Noelle.

“I have not eaten since I got here, so yeah that’d be a good idea,” Kris added. “See ya there,”

“Bye Kris!” Noelle said with a buck toothed grin as Kris was left alone in the Infirmary… instead of leaving, however. The human elected to stare over the unconscious body of the fox.

The fox they had jumped to protect, the fox they knew nothing about. The fox that was apparently trying to save them if the woman she came with had been telling the truth…

Why?

Kris couldn’t move their body, only look down at the fox in confusion and sorrow… eventually they found the will to leave the Infirmary…

---

“Jeez Kris, what took you so long?” Dess chuckled as the human walked into the full Cafeteria, taking a seat at a table with Dess, Noelle and Ralsei sitting at it. “Thought you were just gonna skip breakfast or something,”

“Oh Kris, I didn’t think you’d wake up so soon!” Berdly said.

“They were well… stabbed pretty hard…” Fuku mumbled, scratching the back of her head.

“Speaking of, where’s Dino-Girl?” Skate asked from her seat next to Fuku Fire.

“Would you show up to breakfast with the human you stabbed?” Snowy snickered. “Do any of us even wanna see her?”

“D-Don’t be mean…” Noelle grumbled under her breath.

“She’s real scary, which is real cool to a bad guy Prince like me!” Lancer said as he pointed to his round frame.

“I wouldn’t really call you a bad guy, Lancer,” Ralsei shook his head. “None of us are bad people here, I think Susie was just a bit… you know… desperate, and uh…”

“Ralsei, Ralsei, Ralsei,” Dess shook her head at the man sitting across from her. “Just say what you’re gonna say, dude,”

“Um… right!” Ralsei yelped. “I think we should give her a second chance,”

“Fucken’ really?” Pizzapants said as he let out an irritating, shrill laugh. “I mean c’mon, she stabbed someone. I know damn well I’m keepin’ my distance,”

“Shut up…” Catti rolled her eyes as she clicked and clacked at her Tenna-Tablet, Pizzapants squinted at her in disbelief, but soon went back to grumbling. “He is right, though. Besides, it’s not like we’ve asked Kris for their opinion on this,”

“That’s right, Catti!” Jockington declared from his seat next to her. “Kris, what did you think about, getting stabbed?”

“That’s haha… a little direct dude,” MK chuckled nervously.

“No, no it’s fine…” Kris mumbled into the conversation entirely about them. They shot a quick glance at Noelle, who was at their side and was looking dejected at the floor. “I don’t… really think I hate Susie, I mean it was an accident,” Kris shrugged.

“She was trying to kill that Fox Girl, who was already dying!” Berdly added. “Ah, such a dilemma we find ourselves in!”

“What dilemma, what the hell are you talking about?” Dell let out a groan of frustration. “Kris got stabbed by Susie, Kris forgives Susie, that’s the end of it!”

“Y-Yeah!” Noelle yelped out.

Frisk nodded in agreement. “Besides, I don’t think we’ll be seeing Susie very often. I think we scared her of-”

Suddenly, the door slammed open. The only person previously absent from breakfast walking in… Susie.

“I thought you’d all be gone by now…” Susie grumbled as she trudged her way to a lonely seat in the corner of the cafeteria.

The cafeteria remained silent for awhile, but eventually returned to its usual level of idle conversation, even as a still silent Noelle stared at the Reptillian Girl blankly, her nose flashing an ever so slight tint of red.

“I-I’m…” Noelle mumbled. “I should talk to her!”

“Should you? She seems a little… y’know…” Dess motioned uncomfortably towards the brooding Susie. “I know you’ve got a crush on her, or whatever, but-”

“I-I might… I just think she needs someone to talk to,” Noelle said with a breath.

“That’s right, I think we should both talk to her!” Ralsei said with a joyful nod. “Besides, I need to let her know to give me her dirty clothes…”

Noelle sighed, then mumbled under her breath. “Great, you’re coming too…”

“Have fun with that,” Kris said as they got up from their seat. “I’m gonna go skulk around the Unused Classroom,”

“I’ll come with,” Dess said. “Be safe around Susie, if she does shit let me know,”

“I will, I will,” Noelle nodded, looking a bit frustrated. “Bye Dess, bye Kris!”

Ralsei too waved goodbye to the duo as they left the Cafeteria alongside a couple others who had began to leave as Noelle and Ralsei made their way to Susie’s corner of the Cafeteria…

“The hell do you two want?” Susie grumbled, picking at her tray of…

“(Is that chalk?)” Noelle mumbled under her breath, before shaking her head. “W-We just wanted to uh… talk to you! Yeah!”

“We’re here to make sure that you’re doing okay, Susie,” Ralsei added with a formal nod. “Yesterday was… stressful for all of us,”

“No shit…” Susie grumbled under her breath as her face scrunched up in anger. “What do you really want?”

“W-We just said, um… do you…(Say something, c’mon Noelle, say something!)” Noelle thought desperately of a topic to bring up that didn’t clearly make Susie angry. “D-Do you always eat chalk?”

Susie stared at the deer girl in confusion, before looking down at her tray. “Yeah, it’s got a nice texture… used to eat a lot more of it back home,”

“I don’t want to come off as rude, but… shouldn’t you be eating real food?” Ralsei slowly shrugged his shoulders.

“Heh, nah,” Susie smirked. “Been eating this my whole life, and I’ve been fine,”

“Ah, that’s fair… I suppose. If you ever want me to make you something though, let me know!” Ralsei gave Susie a big, fluffy smile even as Noelle gave him a brief glare.

“I-I can also cook… stuff…” Noelle added hastily.

“Good for you, I guess,” Susie squinted her eyes at Noelle, causing the deer to let out a small yelp as her cheeks and rose flushed red.

---

“Kris, what the hell are you doing?” Dess said with a snicker as she stood under the vent in the musty, unused classroom. The human in question was hiding behind the classroom’s opened door, a devious smirk on their face.

“Waiting for Berdly or that Cat Guy to show up,” Kris snickered back, whispering as to not give themselves away. “Help me out?”

Dess nodded and snickered as she leaned against the wall, playing up the edgy punk rocker vibe for literally no reason.

They waited, and waited in utter silence as-

“What on Earth are you doing in that classroom?” Berdly asked Dess, adjusting his glasses in confusion. “I didn’t see you as one to study, especially since we have nothing to study!”

“I’m just hanging out here, what are you doing?” Dess asked.

Berdly began to slowly make his way into the classroom. “Well, I was simply making my way to the Laundromat, I prefer to clean my own clothes, it establishes the discipline a PROPER student like myself needs to-”

“RAH!”

Berdly let out a squawk as Kris jumped out at him, slamming directly into the wall behind him as he bolted backwards.

“Ow, not funny Kris!” Berdly squinted at the human as Dess laughed loudly. “And stop laughing, December!”

“I’m sorry- I’m sor- (how the hell did you guess my full name?)” Dess deadpanned, shook her head, then went back to laughing. “I-It’s just I didn’t expect you to slam into the wall like that!”

Berdly dusted himself off as he stood up. “You two will pay for this, you know!”

“Sure,” Kris rolled their eyes. “It was a prank, dude, I’m sorry,”

“You better be!” Berdly grumbled.

“How are we gonna pay anyway?” Dess shrugged as she went back to leaning on the wall behind her. “You believe in divine intervention or someth-”

CLANG

“OW! Motherfucker!” Dess yelled as the grate of the vent above her hit her right on the top of the head.

“Hahaha!” Berdly let out a laugh. “Now you know how it feels,”

“Shit, ow… that is the dumbest coincidence ever,” Dess groaned as she clutched her head.

Kris walked forward, holding their hand out. “You good, Dess?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Dess groaned as she got up. “How the hell did the grate fall off?” She said as she looked up at the incredibly large vent.

“I dunno…” Kris shrugged as they looked at the vent alongside. “You wanna boost me up to it?”

Dess shrugged as she made the boosting position under the vent

“Of course you’d want to crawl around in a dusty air vent,” Berdly crossed his wings over his chest.

“I like being in small spaces, it’s fun,” Kris declared as they were boosted up to the Vent, crawling inside like the tunnel rat they were and loudly clanging their way through the ventilation system…

“Let us know what you find in there…!” Dess shouted out, nearly impossible to hear as Kris made their way through the metal vents, letting out small coughs as the dust made its way into their lungs.

As Kris crawled through, they elected to keep a mental note of where the vents lead, in case they wanted to scare Noelle or something.

The Unused Classroom’s Vent lead to the hallway that lead to the Gymnasium, and had another path that lead to the Gymnasium itself… Kris crawled into the Gymnasium, stepping down a rack of sport’s equipment as they left the vent…

Kris made their way to the cramped Storage Closet soon after, finding yet another jackpot… another vent they found another vent to crawl inside.

Using a rack of electric guitars this time, they climbed their way to the brand spanking new vent, now used to the dust circling through. They quickly crawled through, making note of how this vent had paths that lead to the Librarby and the Computer Lab respectively…

There no more vents beyond this point, none that Kris could get to quickly, anyway, so they looked to the floor dejectedly and slumped their way out of the Librarby, through the halls of the school and finally back to the Unused Classroom…

“Holy shit, you actually did it,” Dess let out a small chuckle as a dust covered Kris walked into the unused classroom.

Berdly sneezed. “You didn’t even bother to dust yourself off, as expected from a lazy Protozoa such as yourself!” The bird crossed his arms as he finally left the unused classroom. “I hope to NOT see you around, Krismas!”

“Holy shit, he guessed my name too,” Kris mumbled.

“It’s like he has a talent other than being annoying,” Dess snickered.

Kris chuckled back. “Nah, couldn’t be,”

“THE FUCK DID YOU SAY TO ME!?”

Dess and Kris both jumped up as they heard the yelling coming from the hallway.

“Guess Stabby got mad at someone,” Dess shrugged as she began to walk into the hallway to watch the scene. “Let’s make sure no one dies,”

“It’s not gonna be that bad…” Kris mumbled as they were lead into the hallway, watching the scene unfold before them.

Susie tightly holding Lancer up by his shirt, making direct, enraged eye contact with the short, round boy as Frisk was desperately trying to get between them. Berdly watched the scene too, just as stunned as Dess and Kris were.

“Oh, I was just trying to be intimidating like you!” Lancer said with a genuine smile. “Ho ho ho!”

“Hey Susie, Susie, calm down!” Frisk said, trying to be encouraging even as their words fell on deaf ears. “I-I’m sure Lancer didn’t mean it!”

“I knew she’d snap eventually…” Berdly grumbled.

“You’re not doing a good job, you just look pathetic!” Susie let out a deep, mocking laugh. “With that laugh? You’re not scaring anyone,”

“Wow, I’m learning so much!” Lancer said cheerily, Susie’s face curled into a more confused, yet still frustrated expression.

“Uh… yeah you are!?”

“So, work on the evil laugh…” Lancer mumbled, then let out a squeakier, yet more threatening laugh than his usual ho ho ho. “Is that good Susie?”

“Uhhh… yeah I guess it was a bit scarier?” Susie shrugged as she dropped the bouncy boy on the ground, the boy landed with a cartoon splat noise.

“H-Hey, I heard yelling!” Ralsei said as he ran down the halls, stopping in front of the people already standing. “What’ going on?”

“Uh…” Frisk mumbled as she looked around, eyes locking onto Susie and Lancer, the former staring at the latter in bewildered confusion instead of anger. “I actually don’t know, but they’re not fighting anymore! That’s good!” Frisk nodded with a smile.

“Yep, Susie gave me tips on how to be scarier, thanks Susie!” Lancer giggled.

“No problem, Lancer,” Susie let out a husky laugh. “Let’s go scare that orange guy,”

“Oh yes, he’s super scared of you!” Lancer proudly declared as he waddled his way down the halls, Susie walking closely behind him.

…

“Huh, guess she made a friend,” Dess chuckled as she and Kris walked forward.

“Shock of the century…” Berdly let out a snooty laugh as he too walked off. “I will be taking my genius elsewhere!”

“Whatever you say buddy…” Dess grumbled under her breath, shaking her head as the bird left.

“Oh, hi Kris, Dess!” Ralsei smiled.

“How long have you two been there?” Frisk asked.

Kris grumbled. “None of your business-”

“We got here when Susie started yelling,” Dess shrugged.

“Oh, sorry about that by the way…” Frisk scratched the back of her head nervously. “I should’ve tried to break it up earlier,”

“I mean… neither of them seem particularly hurt. I’d say you did good,” Dess gave a reassuring smile. “Even if Stabby nearly did beat up that Lancer kid,”

“You uh… probably shouldn’t call her that,” Ralsei shook his fluffy head. “But yeah, they seem to be happy!”

“For now, I’ll try to make sure they don’t get into any trouble,” Frisk said with a nod as she left for the hall…

…

The rest of the day wasn’t particularly eventful, and eventually day turned to night. Kris decided to head to their room…

It was a pretty standard room, comfortable, but not particularly unique with a bed tucked into a corner, a bedside table, a desk and a door leading to the bathroom. There was also a large mirror in the corner of the room… Kris looked at their reflection.

The same as usual, red eyes with bags under them and messy hair cut into a bob… which for some reason now had a hair standing up like an antenna, weird…

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Kris didn’t jump, as the knocking at their door was incredibly gentle.

“Hello Kris, um… did you wanna give me your laundry?” Ralsei asked from the other side of the door. “I wish to help everyone out with it,”

“Coming!” Kris called out as they opened their closet to see the exact same clothing they were currently wearing copied and pasted, weird…

Every day at this school was going to be just as weird, huh?

Kris handed the clothes to Ralsei who was carrying a basket filled with everyone else’s clothes. They sent him off with a wave, and soon fell facefirst onto their bed…

Chapter Text

DING DONG BING BONG

Instead of a traditional alarm, Kris was awoken by the sound of the announcement bell ringing, and the TV in their room flashing on…

“Hello hello students, it’s now a beautiful CRISP 8:00 AM morning! Get some breakfast to start the new day right!” Tenna, who’s head had apparently healed from getting shot earlier was sitting in a comfortable, fancy looking chair as he gave the announcement.

Kris let out a groan as they crawled their way out of bed, moving to the bathroom to actually get ready for the day… a rarity for the human…

They spent most of it trying to brush their hair, but this single hair just wouldn’t stop standing up like an antenna, stupid thing was…

Kris let out a groan of defeat, giving up as they decided to trudge down the halls to the Cafeteria for breakfast, taking their usual seat at the table with Noelle, Ralsei and Dess.

“Hi Kris!” Ralsei said with a kindly smile.

“The hell’s going on with your hair?” Dess said, snickering behind her hand. “You forget to brush it this morning?”

“Fahaha, Dess, that’s mean,” Noelle said with a small giggle.

Kris let out a sigh. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice that, this one hair just won’t… go down!” Kris grumbled as they tried to push down the rogue strand of hair.

“You haven’t cared about your hair looking like ass before, what’s changed?” Dess snickered some more.

Ralsei shook his head and sighed, before giving Kris another big smile. “I think it looks good, Kris!”

“Well, at least someone isn’t a total dick here,” Kris said, then glared at Dess with a hatred surpassed by nothing else.

“Oh c’mon Kris, you have an antenna coming out of your head,” Dess rolled her eyes, leaning on the table. “It’s funny is al-”

CRASH

The idle chatter of the Cafeteria stopped dead in its tracks as the large figure broke through the roof and crashed to the floor, Tenna then instantly stood up, straightened his tie and looked around the bewildered room of students as the Knight soon flew into the room, taking its place at Tenna’s side.

“Well well, that got everyone’s attention, didn’t it?” The TV Headed Man said with a wide smile. “Which is good, I have a special ANNOUNCEMENT for the whole cohort to hear! Does anyone wanna guess what it is?”

Silence…

Tenna cleared his throat nervously. “A-Anyone? Anyone at all…”

Still silence, Susie and Dess visibly glared at the TV Headed Man and his associate. The Knight eventually jabbed Tenna in the side to get him to continue.

“Right, well. Today’s announcement is our very first motive for you all, you lot are a resilient bunch, taking awhile to get your hands DIRTY!”

“Motive?” Frisk mumbled to herself.

“What do you mean by that?” Catti hissed.

“Oh, the moment I’m gonna announce it you start talking over me, kids these days amirite?” Tenna chuckled to his associate, who silently nodded in response. “Anyhow, starting from now. If you bunch don’t get killing soon, I’ll start turning the heat of this school down, down to negative a hundred degrees if I gotta!”

Everyone stared down the TV, the room in a mix of confusion and fear as Tenna made his announcement, a motive to force everyone to kill came as a surprise even considering the situation they found themselves in, Kris found themselves turning to their side to look at Ralsei, then at Dess, then at Noelle… could any of them…

“Now that’s the reaction I was looking for: despair, chaos, all the fun of the KILLING GAME!” Tenna laughed. “Now, with that. I’ll leave you kids to your business, get killing soon!”

Tenna stomped his way out of the Cafeteria, the Knight floating closely behind. Leaving all of us in despair filled silence, pondering if anyone would do it, if anyone would take the plunge and-

“Nothing’s gonna happen,”

Everyone in the Cafeteria turned to look at Dess, a confident, determined smirk firmly planted on her face as she spoke. “None of us are going to kill eachother, I can promise that. It’s gonna take more than some temperature tomfuckery to get at us,”

“I agree!” Frisk gave an enthusiastic thumbs up in agreement. “If we all work together I’m sure we’ll be more than able to just… avoid this whole Killing Game!” The human added, determination sparking in her eyes.

“We should keep meeting here!” Ralsei added. “To make sure we can always discuss how we can cooperate,”

“The guy who cleans my clothes has a point,” Snowy snorted as Ralsei’s furred face flushed pink.

“Dude, we should totally ask that fox chick to help us once she wakes up!” Skate added, slamming a tentacle on the desk.

Fuku Fire nodded. “I agree, but uh… maybe calm down a bit?”

“Hehe, sorry!”

“She did try to help us escape…” Catti mumbled as she tapped away at her Tenna-Tablet. “So that’s worth something, maybe…”

“I think if we- lift her up and down like the weights I use to train my- lower body. We could have her out of that coma in no time!” Jockington declared proudly, slithering around his seat next to Catti.

“That is… not how that works, but I like the enthusiasm?” Dess shrugged with a smile that soon curved into another smug smirk as she looked over at the only other adult in the room, Pizzapants. “Hey PP, maybe you could be our mascot,”

“Even when we’re working together I still can’t win,” Pizzapants let out a groan. “…Do I at least get to pick the costume?”

“I-I could make you one!” Ralsei said with a smile. “I’ll try to find time between watching over our guest in the Infirmary and-”

“Okay, don’t break a bone making me a mascot suit, little buddy,” Pizzapants chuckled. “I don’t even like my job anyway…”

“O-Oh okay…” Ralsei looked downward.

“Oh, speaking of watching over the Comatose Woman, why don’t I do it today?” Frisk suggested. “Y’know, while you’re doing laundry and all that,”

“That’d be very nice of you, Frisk!” Ralsei nodded joyously. “Speaking of, I should get to washing now! Goodbye everyone!”

“See ya around Ral,” Dess waved goodbye as Ralsei left alongside a few others, the rest of the Cafeteria generally waved him out.

As Ralsei left, Kris felt Dess jab them in the side as Noelle stood up from her seat as well. “Kris, you should help him clean,”

“Huh, why?” Kris looked up at the deer lady.

“Um… because it’d be a nice thing to do?” Noelle shrugged nervously. “I don’t want poor Ralsei to work himself too hard,”

“Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…” Kris let out a long, dramatic groan. “Fine, I’ll help the fluffy boy clean and stuff,”

“Great, have fun Kris!” Dess said with a smile as the human left alongside Noelle, who gave them a small pat on the back.

“Fahaha, why are you pouting, Kris? You do your own laundry by now, right?” Noelle chuckled as the duo walked through the halls.

Kris sighed dramatically, throwing their head back. “Just because I’ve done it before doesn’t make it less annoying,”

“Fahaha, I suppose that’s… fair?”

…

Soon enough, the duo reached the up until now unexplored Laundromat, a bare, yet long and clean room lined wall to wall with washing machines and dryers… which is probably what they should have expected from a Laundromat. Berdly, Ralsei and surprisingly enough, Temmie were all in the room, carrying and in the case of Temmie just kinda standing around baskets of clothes.

“HOI! Krissy and Noelle!” Temmie bounced up and down, waving feverishly at the duo.

“Oh, hello you two!” Ralsei smiled, nearly dropping the clothes from the mild shock of seeing people come into the Laundromat.

Berdly pushed up his glasses smugly. “Has Kris decided to finally be responsible for something and do their own laundry?” The bird laughed smugly.

“Tem also do her laundry, YAYA!” Temmie cheered, despite the fact that no one had asked.

“Um… yes?” Noelle answered Berdly with a nervous chuckle and a shrug. “Both of us have, actually. Dess did kinda uh… pressure Kris into helping Ralsei,”

“Dude!” Kris sighed, sounding 100% genuinely hurt by Noelle calling them out.

“Oh, Kris. You don’t have to help me if you don’t want to. Trust me, I can handle all of this myself-”

“No, no it’s fine. I uh… actually wanna help?” Kris shrugged, they actually didn’t want to help at all, but they felt… compelled to for whatever reason.

“Oh! Well, let me know if you ever need to take a break. I can always do it for you!” Ralsei beamed a smile.

Kris shrugged as they walked towards the baskets of clothes, situated next to a sewing kit that seemingly belonged to Ralsei. “Whatever…”

“It’s a shocker to see some maturity out of you, Kris!” Berdly said smugly as he grabbed a basket of what Kris assumed were Skate’s clothes, judging by the fact that it was a pile of the exact same school uniform. Kris’ eyes glazed over to a pile of white button up shirts, and a devious smirk spread across the human’s face as Noelle went to help Berdly.

Berdly turned to the deer as the two both carried a basket of clothes to a nearby washing machine. “Did you put Kris up to this?”

“Ah, no. It was actually my sister,” Noelle said.

“Really? I expected that one of intelligence such as ourselves would have been the better influence on them,” Berdly turned his head and puffed out his cheeks.

“I mean Dess is pretty smart!” Noelle argued. “Just uh… a little lazy I suppose? I do manage her band for her, after all,”

“Ah, a job worth the talent of the Ultimate Manager. You’ve done something impressive with your smarts!” Berdly let out a sneery laugh

“Fahaha, I suppose so. You’re the Ultimate Student, right? What do you do?” Noelle asked, a warm smile on her face.

“Ah well- I uh…” Berdly trailed off as he absentmindedly loaded clothes into a washing machine, Noelle doing the same. “I- am going to go into a great University! Or at least I was…” The bird grumbled out.

“Oh, more school?” Noelle turned her head curiously. “That sounds… not super interesting, s-sorry,”

“On the contrary, my superior smarts will allow me to get very far ahead in life!” Berdly declared proudly as he walked over to the baskets of clothes, grabbing the already clean basket filled with his shirts. “Oh, it appears someone cleaned these for me. How nice, you don’t mind if I change in here, right?”

“Not at all,” Noelle shrugged.

“Do what’cha want,” Kris said from one of the washing machines on the other side of the Laundromat, an odd smirk on their face.

“Tem get head stuck in machine, so Tem not see anyway!” Tem said as Ralsei tried to pull the cat-dog thing’s upper half out of the washing machine.

“I-I don’t even know how you did that…” Ralsei mumbled.

“Great, because all this cleaning has got me sweating up a storm,” Berdly let out a sigh of relief as he took off his old shirt and put his new one on. “Ah, the feeling of freshly washed- WHAT THE!?”

Ralsei and Temmie both fell to the floor as the former finally got the latter unstuck from the washing machine, allowing both to see Berdly, with the lower part of his shirt cut turning it into a crop top.

“WOAH! You’re looking so COOT Berdy!” Temmie giggled as she stood up instantly.

“Wh-WHO DID THIS TO MY SHIRTS!?” Berdly squawked as he scrambled through the entire basket worth of shirts, finding that they had all been cut.

“Look on the bright side, dude, it suits you,” Kris said with a small chuckle.

Noelle let out a chuckle as she turned around. “Fahaha, what’s doing on?” Berdly-”

“KRIS cut all of my shirts in half!” Berdly yelled, pointing a wing shaking with rage at the human.

Kris shrugged. “You’ve got no proof,”

“You were the only person who could’ve done this!” Berdly accused. “You PROTOZON!”

“Also Tem saw them do it, but didn’t say anything!” Temmie said with a wide, brainless smile on her face.

Ralsei let out a pained groan as he slowly lifted himself up from the floor. “Um, I think you look good, Berdly! You shouldn’t feel so down!”

“I do not feel down, I feel enraged that Kris would ruin my clothes!” Berdly stomped as the human suddenly bust out laughing. “That PROTOZON!”

“K-Kris!” Noelle attempted to scold inbetween her own fits of laughter. “Fahaha, I-I’m sorry Berdly, they do stuff like this sometimes,”

“If anyone sees me like this I’ll- I’ll-”

“Hey nerds,” Dess said as she peeked her head through the Laundromat’s door, Skate peeking her head out as well.

“Pfft! Dude, what did you do to your shirt?” Skate let out a snicker at the blushing bluebird, now glaring at Kris with the rage of a thousand gamers. “You coulda just like… asked Ralsei to knit you a crop top or something, I dunno,”

“I’m willing to knit for any of you!” Ralsei said, flashing his usual kind smile.

Berdly let out a grunt of frustration. “That’s not-”

“Alright, alright shuddup,” Dess interrupted. “I’m holding a huge karaoke party concert thing in the music studio, and… I’m gonna need you guys to help me set up tomorrow,”

“I’d be up for it!” Noelle nodded with a smile.

“Count me out, I have… better things to do in the morning,” Berdly crossed his arms.

“Oh, I could make food for it!” Ralsei nodded. “Maybe I could get Fuku to help with that too,”

“Oh, that’d be sick!” Skate cheered.

“YAYA! Tem could bring TEM FLAKES, so that everyone have TEM FLAKES!” Temmie waved her hands around as she yelped in excitement.

“Well, if everyone else here is helping I might as well,” Kris shrugged. “I am not immune to peer pressure,”

“You would have to be peer pressured into being helpful, yeah,” Dess snickered. “Well, alright. Everyone except for the guy who was too embarrassed to ask Ralsei to just make a crop top for him come to the music studio first thing tomorrow. Invite everyone you know,”

“I’m not even going to bother anymore…” Berdly grumbled, crossing his arms and pouting as he left the room.

“Oh, I should invite Susie!” Noelle said with a beaming smile.

Dess scratched the back of her head nervously. “Ah, uh… yeah sure, if you want. Anyway, I’m thinking I’ll hold it about 9 PM ish? Somewhere around nighttime, for funsies,”

“Fair enough. Speaking nighttime, I should head back to the Infirmary soon,” Ralsei said as he left the Laundromat. “Goodbye everyone! I will see you tomorrow!”

“See ya Rals,” Dess said. “I should prolly go too, have fun in here!” With that, the deer woman left the Laundromat alongside Skate.

…

“Why did you do that, anyway?” Noelle asked.

“Hm?”

“The… crop top thing, why did you do that?” Noelle had a dopey smile on her face from thinking about it.

Kris shrugged. “It was funny, hope Berdly didn’t take it too hard,”

“Hopefully…” Noelle mumbled. “Hey uh… does it feel colder in here, or-”

“Huh, it is…” Kris said as they wrapped their arms around their body for warmth. “Shit, Tenna wasn’t lying about the motive, was he?”

“N-No, he wasn’t…” Noelle let a dejected sigh escape her lips. “It’s… getting a bit late, I should head to bed,”

“Yeah, g’night Noelle,”

“Goodnight Kris!” Noelle said with a wave as she walked back to her room, Kris did the same…

…

It was really cold, now that Kris properly felt the chill hitting their body. Lightly shivering as they fell into their bed, actually deciding to put on the blanket to sleep…

Chapter Text

DING DONG BING BONG

“Good morning students, it is now 8:00 AM. Looks like today’s gonna be another TV-TASTIC day here at HOPE’S PEAK ACADEMY!”

Kris groaned their way out of bed as the morning announcement ended, a cold chill running through their body as they threw of the blankets, it wasn’t unbearably freezing, but it wasn’t warm either… not exactly a great thing to wake up to… Kris soon left their room and headed to breakfast.

“Hello Kris, seems like you’re the last one here again!” Ralsei said with a smile. “Not that that’s a bad thing, of course!”

“Eh, they’re always pretty late,” Dess said from her spot next to Ralsei, she was at a table with who Kris assumed were the people who were going to set up the party alongside her and Kris: Temmie, Noelle, Skate and… Frisk. Kris decided to take a seat next to Noelle.

“So, you guys all know why I brought you here, right?” Dess asked, waving her hands around in excitement.

“Yeah, you’re planning a party in the music studio, right?” Frisk answered, everyone else gave general mumbles or nods of agreement alongside her.

“Alright, sick, sick!” Dess flopped into a more comfortable position, resting her spine and arms on the back of the seat. “I’m thinking… Ralsei and Frisk should be in charge of food, and drinks and all that jazz, and the rest of us do ‘moving shit’ setup,”

“Well, I could bake some yummy cakes for everyone!” Ralsei nodded.

“I’m not bad at cooking, and… admittedly I’m not very strong, so I probably should help with making food,” Frisk added, a smile on her sleepy looking face.

“Okay cool, Noelle. Didja invite everyone the night before?” Dess pointed at her sister.

Noelle nodded energetically. “Of course, Temmie helped me too!”

“Yaya, Noelle help us invite SUZ even though she VERY MEAN and deny!” The cat dog thing nodded energetically until Frisk tapped her on the head to get her to stop.

“Oh, sick everyone already knows!” Skate gave a toothy grin, then turned to face Frisk and Ralsei. “I’ll get Fuku to help with catering then, trust me, she’ll love it! I’ll meet up with you guys after!”

“Sounds good, we should be done by six or whatever,” Dess shrugged as she lead her group out of the Cafteria, Kris letting out a relieved breath as they left with her.

As they entered, Dess leaned against a jukebox with two microphones sticking out of it. The machine was labelled “KARAOKE MASTER, 1997” “Okay, I’m gonna need two people to bring in some folding tables from the storage room, I’ll get all the musical shit set up,”

“Ooo, Tem an ELLY can bring in da tables. YAYA!” Temmie cheered.

“Right, I-I’ll try my best!” Noelle smiled and nodded as she left alongside Temmie, leaving Kris as the only person with nothing to do.

“Well well well, picked last for something once again, huh Kris?” Dess chuckled. “Help me set this Karaoke thing up, or uh… practice Piano or something,”

“Wow, such kindness from my best friend,” Kris rolled their eyes as their eyes glazed over to the grand piano in the corner of the room. “I might practice, though…”

“Well do it then, it’s like… the thing you’re best at,” Dess jabbed the human in the arm as they went back to setting up the Karaoke Machine. “Who knows, it might help me set this- damn thing up, ugh…” Dess grumbled as she fidgeted with the settings of it.

Kris let out a small chuckle as they sat at the piano, preparing their fingers with a satisfying crack as they began to tap the keys. Playing a soothing, calming song familiar to them and the people they know. Dess nodded her head, relaxed as she continued to mess with the settings of the Machine, time passing quicker as music filled the room…

…

“Woah, dude. That’s like really pretty,” Skate chuckled as she gently laid down a couple bottles on one of a few food-stacked folding tables that had been brought in already by Temmie and Noelle… Kris’ piano seemed to have attracted an audience.

“It super coot! Tem love things that are super coot!” Temmie cheered and clapped her paws together. “Yaya! Yaya!”

Dess suddenly let out a snort as she raised her eyebrow at her friend. “Kris, was that the lullaby I used to sing to Noelle when she’d be too scared to go to sleep?”

“D-Dess!” Noelle yelped, a blush creeping on her face that coincided with her nose glowing bright red.

“Yup!” Kris said with a firm, confident nod.

“Das ADORABLE!” Temmie cheered, jumping up and down in excitement.

“I’m just teasing, Elly,” Dess chuckled as she patted her sister on the shoulder. “Looks like you got most of the tables in, that’s good,”

“Yeah, it wasn’t too bad with both of us. Temmie is… surprisingly strong,” Noelle said as she looked over at the joyous little thing.

“Tem do lots of things with money, money will let Tem go to best colleg evar!”

“Sure, once we’re out,” Dess chuckled. “And Skate, did you get Fuku to make beer for this party?”

“Ah, uh… maybe?” Skate scratched the back of her head nervously. “I-I mean we’re all pretty close to 18…”

“I-I haven’t drank yet…” Noelle mumbled.

“Underage drinking? Now, as the oldest and wisest person here-”

“You’re only 2 years older than us!” Kris called out.

Dess cleared her throat loudly. “As the oldest and wisest person here, I say… fucken’ do it, man. I drank when I was 17 and I turned out fine,”

“Woop wooop!” Skate let out a cheer. “You’re the best, man,”

“Tem no think this is the goodest idea… but Tem too busy thinking about having fun to care!”

“Yeah, we’re gonna have a lot of fun, everyone is,” Dess said. “What time is it, by the way?”

Noelle checked the silver watch on her wrist. “A-About sixish?”

“Perfect!” Dess cheered. “Okay, gather everyone you can. Get outta here! Unless you want a headstart at eating or something,”

“Temmie want headstart eating!” The cat dog thing held her hand up as she stared intensly at a plate of strawberry frosted cupcakes.

Dess shrugged. “Fair enough, everyone except Temmie get outta here, get people!”

And so, everybody except Temmie and Dess soon burst out from the Music Studio, quickly bringing everyone to the party. Everybody except for Susie…

6:00 PM

“Haha, dude it was cool of you to set this up, Dess,” MK chuckled as he looked up at the antlered girl who was leaning against the table, holding a red cup of beer in her hand.

“This party even came with underage drinking, that makes everything better!” Snowy chuckled as he took a sip of the beer in the cup nestled in his wing. “Alcohol keeps ya warm, y’know?”

“Eh, thank Skate for that, it wasn’t my idea,” Dess shrugged. “I should probably thank her, it’s made this party a lot more interesting, heh,”

“I personally think it’s not something a genius such as myself should partake in!” Berdly crossed his wings and complained from the end of the table, even though no one had asked him to. “Alcohol spoils the brain… not that you protozoans would understand that,” Berdly said, a smug smirk forming on his face.

Dess rolled her eyes, Snowy looked the other bird in the face and smirked himself. “Lay off it, wouldja? We oughta start calling you Nerdly,” Snowy mocked.

“Hmmph!” Berdly turned his head haughtily. “I will not let myself be baited into rage!”

“He’s not doing a great job,” Snowy whispered to MK, who simply shrugged as best as he could in response.

Somewhere else in the large, but not huge room. Skate had a small audience surrounding herself as she shouted drunkenly into the microphone of the Karaoke Machine, slurring out a 2000s era pop song.

“Fahaha, wow, she’s really getting into it, huh?” Noelle laughed, standing next to Fuku and Catti.

“At least she’s having fun…” Catti tapped at the screen of her Tenna-Tablet.

“We should all be, having fun at this party!” Jockington twisted around the racks on the walls. “I know, I am!”

“I mean, it’s an excuse to hang out, isn’t it?” Fuku Fire let out a small giggle, then turned back around to face Skate on the stage. “You should sing Free Bird next! Free Bird!”

“You’re fuggen’ RIGHT Fuku!” Skate drunkenly cheered, blushing as she pointed at the Bartender, then began to wave her arms around. “I’m gon’ do it, guys, guys watch. I’m gon’ do it!”

7:00 PM

“Eugh, what is that horrendous drivel!?” Berdly complained, covering his ears with his wings as Skate screamed her way through Free Bird, including mouthing out the guitar portion.

“I think it’s pretty good,” Kris shrugged as they took a bite of some pie that Ralsei had made for the party.

“Are you lacking ears alongside intelligence?” Berdly huffed. “Typical for you, Kris!”

Kris smirked. “Are you still mad about the crop top thing?”

“YOU MADE ME LOOK LIKE A FOOL!” Berdly pointed accusingly at the human. “And for that, one of these days, you will pay!”

“That is-” Kris got a cold shiver suddenly, causing them to grumble before they returned to their usual silly disposition. “Not the greatest thing to say in our current situation,”

“Shut up!” Berdly grumbled as he stomped his way somewhere else, Kris giggling as he did so.

Ralsei gently placed his hand on the door, staring through the window as he prepared to leave… until-

“Hey, Leaving so soon?” Frisk asked, placing a gentle hand on the goat’s shoulder, causing him to jump a little. “You helped set up this party, you should stay!”

“Oh, I’d love to Frisk, but… well, I need to make sure that the fox woman is doing well,” Ralsei said, turning around to face the human. “As a healer, it’s my job to reduce any burdens she might be feeling,”

“That’s… understandable, I suppose,” Frisk nodded. “Are you sure you don’t want to take some food with you?”

“I-I’m sure there’ll be some left over,” Ralsei gave a halfhearted smile as he walked through the door, Frisk watching him walk right towards the Infirmary through the window.

“Hopefully…” Frisk mumbled to herself, then sighed as she walked back towards the centre of the party.

Noelle walked up to her sister, gently tapping on her shoulder. “H-Hey Dess, you should play something!” The girl asked as her sister turned around. “Oh, uh- do you wanna play something?”

“Oh, what me? But I’m just so- of course I wanna play something, I’ll get Skate off the karaoke machine…”

The older deer soon grabbed an electric guitar off the wall, then sauntered up to the machine and ever so gently nudged Skate off, the tentacled girl stumbling off and looking behind her, a somewhat offended look on her face before she realised who nudged her off.

“Ohhhh shit! Guys, Dess is gonna play us a song and shit!” Skate pointed giddily at the deer.

Dess smirked as a crowd began to form around her. “Alright, alright. Don’t rush perfection, I’ll start us off with something popular,” Dess let out a chuckle as she began to strum on the guitar while using a mic stand to keep the microphone level with her mouth.

8:00 PM

“WHEN THE DEMON HEART IS CRYING”

“AND THE BLOOD IS GUSHING BRIGHT”

“RAISE UP YOUR BAT FOR THE BURNING FIGHT”

“WHEN YOUR HOPE IS SLOWLY DYING”

“AND YOUR FUTURE’S LOST ITS RIGHTS”

“RAISE UP YOUR BAT AND FACE THE FRIGHT”

“LET’S KNOCK ‘EM DEAD INTO THE KNIGHT”

Noelle clapped along to the beat of the song, looking doe eyed at the stage, Kris stood next to her. Looking contend, but in a more neutral, less fangirly way than the antlered girl.

“WOO WOO YEAH! YOU’RE THE FUGGEN’ MAN DESS!” Skate cheered as she leaned against Fuku, the flames that made up her head flashing pink for a moment.

“Maybe I should’ve held back on the alcohol…” Fuku mused as Skate leaned further into her.

“Ooo, the music makes by hood covered ears tingle!” Lancer giggled. “But alas, the toothpaste boy isn’t here to see this, and to bake me another cake!”

“Um, I mean you could always ask him,” Frisk shrugged as she looked down at the rotund boy. “He left for the Infirmary,”

“Did he? He did? Of course he did, he’s truly a healer that knows only one bound, the Infirmary!” Lancer declared proudly. “Tally-ho, the human girl!” He then waddled his way out of the music studio, moving straight for the Infirmary.

“Uh, bye Lancer!” Frisk waved as he left.

“COME FOLLOW ME INTO THE DARK”

“WITH YOUR HEART AS THE ARK”

“WHICH SHALL SHINE THE WAY”

“BECAUSE I’M WITH YOU IN THE DARK”

“WITH YOUR HEART AS MY MARK”

“WHICH SHALL GUIDE YOU THE WAY”

“THROUGH THE WAVES”

“COME FOLLOW ME INTO THE DARK”

“WITH YOUR HEART AS THE ARK”

“WHICH SHALL SHINE THE WAY”

“BECAUSE I’M WITH YOU IN THE DARK”

“WITH YOUR HEART AS MY MARK”

“WHICH SHALL GUIDE YOU THE WAY”

“THROUGH THE WAVES”

“WHEN THE DEMON HEART IS CRYING”

“AND THE BLOOD IS GUSHING BRIGHT”

“RAISE UP YOUR BAT FOR THE BURNING FIGHT”

“WHEN YOUR HOPE IS SLOWLY DYING”

“AND YOUR FUTURE’S LOST ITS RIGHTS”

“RAISE UP YOUR BAT AND FACE THE FRIGHT”

“LET’S KNOCK ‘EM DEAD INTO THE KNIGHT”

Dess let out an exhausted breath after the next couple times she had finished playing the song, the audience she had gathered being encapsulated the whole time…

“That was, exhilarating my friend!” Jockington cheered as he twisted around the air. “However an athlete like me, must be on top of his sleeping game. I will be leaving now!”

“See ya around Jockington!” Dess waved goodbye with a smile as the snake slithered his way out of the Infirmary. “Now, anyone else wanna-”

“CAN I GET AN AUTOGRAPH!?” Pizzapants suddenly shouted as he ran up to Dess, a pen and paper firmly clutched in his hands.

“Uh… sure,” Dess mumbled as she signed the paper. “Have fun with that!”

“YES! Now I can get blackout wasted in peace!” Pizzapants ran over to the corner, grabbing an entire bottle of beer off of a table as he went.

Catti sighed. “I’ll check up on him, liked the music Dess…”

“Thanks…” Dess mumbled, then let out a small laugh.

“You doing a service for us Catti!” Temmie cheered.

“Hey Pizzapants, uh… how’s getting wasted?” Catti asked as she crouched down to be at Pizzapants’ level as he sat on the ground, leaning against a wall.

“Oh, it’s going great emo catgirl. This is like a Blood Crushers concert except I’m freezing my ass off!” The man grumbled.

“I’m goth not- nevermind… you also listen to Blood Crushers?” Catti said as she sat next to the man.

“Oh of course little buddy, it’s in right now!” Pizzapants declared. “And also the lead guitarist for it is standing right there,” The orange cat said as he motioned towards Dess frantically. “a-and like damn she’s the same age as me, y-y’know what I’m saying?”

Catti shrugged. “Barely, you’re not making much sense,”

“Hey, at least you’re listening. From one service worker to another, you gotta know how good that feels, right little buddy?” Pizzapants looked up at Catti wistfully, yet also with the usual tiredness he had in his eyes.

“Yeah, I still wish I had more clothes than this uniform,” Catti grumbled as she pulled at the collar of her shirt. “It just barely fits me,”

“Hey, that’s something that I’m doing better with. Another point for Pizzapants!” The mascot grumbled.

BZZZ

The Tenna-Tablet in Catti’s pocket suddenly buzzed. She pulled it out, tapped on it a little and then returned it to her pocket. “I gotta go,”

Pizzapants shrugged. “See ya around Catti,”

Catti nodded, then left the Music Studio.

9:00 PM

At this point in the party, Snowdrake had walked up the stage and began to say whatever jokes came to the Bird’s mind.

“Oh man, this takes me back to a story my dad used to tell me. He assisted this skeleton detective guy once, and every time he solved something, he’d say ‘no bones about it’, and every time he said it his boss got angrier and angrier,” Snowdrake chuckled as he told the story, standing on the Karaoke Machine. “One time, they were looking for a body for a murder that happened. Routine thing, y’know? And they open a closet and another skeleton jumps out and attacks his boss, and my dad goes ‘Well, looks like there were bones about this one!’ And they were both so mad they just stopped fightin, took himself straight to jail so he didn’t have to hear it again!”

People laughed throughout the room, loudest of all was Temmie, who nearly fell into Noelle.

“Ah, be careful Temmie!” Noelle sighed.

“Tem sorry, joke was just really funny!” Temmie laughed, then paused for a bit. “Why you not laughing, Elly?”

“Oh, w-well. It’s a little stupid, but… I’m kinda bummed out that Susie didn’t show up,” Noelle sighed wistfully. “I mean, I-I didn’t really expect her to want to come, I just thought that… I dunno maybe she’d wanna- um…” Noelle face flushed a light pink as she spoke.

“Really? Tem would go anywhere if Noelle ask her!” The cat dog thing proudly declared.

“H-Huh!?” Noelle yelped, jumping back a bit from shock. “I-I mean, the sentiment is appreciated, but wh-why?”

“Well, you’re super duper coot! Just like Tem, and Tem love coot things!” Temmie beamed at the antlered girl, her nose glowed red in response.

“A-Ah thanks, that… makes me feel a bit better, actually,” Noelle giggled.

“You welcome, bye!” Temmie said as she began to leave the room.

“Oh, you’re leaving?” Noelle asked.

“I have a supah cool business thingy to go to, bye bye!” Temmie cheered and waved as she left.

“Oh, have fun with that!” Noelle cheered back as she waved Temmie out the door.

10:00 PM

“Attention my dear students, it’s now 10:00 PM. Nighttime, Gymnasium's off limits!” Tenna declared over the speakers, though we ignored him.

“Hey, h-hey Dess, Dess!” Skate called out to the deer as she leaned on Fuku’s shoulder. “Play- play another song, it’s been too long, that shit was fire dude!”

Fuku giggled from her side. “It was nice, made this feel like a real concert,”

“Hmmm…” Dess held a hand to her chin, her other arm was holding her guitar. She then reached towards a cup of soda on the table. “Sure, a couple more songs couldn’t hurt- oh shit!”

The guitar suddenly slipped out of her hands, falling to the floor and causing a string to snap with an ear grating twang. “Ah, son of a bitch!”

“H-Hey Dess, I heard something break, what-” Noelle looked down at the guitar alongside Kris. “Oh crap!”

Kris gritted their teeth. “That’s really bad, uh… do you want us to get a replacement from the Storage Room or-”

“Nah, nah. I can fix it,” Dess picked up the guitar off of the ground. “I’ll be back in a bit, there’s a guitar fixing kit in my room!” And with that, the deer left the Music Studio.

“Wait, how does she have that in her room. Did she ask for it?” Berdly said, quirking an eyebrow in confusion.

“Oh uh, everyone got an item related to their talent in their room,” Noelle explained. “I got an abacus, for example,”

“Oh…” Berdly mumbled. “Well, that is good to know. I’m sure this mystery item will assist greatly in my studies!”

“I swear that’s all ya talk about, little buddy, you gotta branch out!” Pizzapants declared from his spot on the floor. “Party, invest in Crypto, watch all your money go down the toilet forcin’ you to work a fast food job! C’mon!”

“I am not taking advice from a vagrant such as yourself!” Berdly crossed his wings and huffed.

“Vagrants have given me some of the best advice I’ve heard!” Snowdrake declared from his stage. “It’s all about never ending up like them, but it’s still good advice! Heheh!”

Idle conversation continued throughout the Music Studio, Kris was leaning against a table, drinking a soda and waiting for Dess to come back.

And they waited, and waited, and waited until…

10:25 PM

“Hey uh… Dess is, haha- taking a while, huh?” MK chuckled nervously as he looked around the room.

“Now that you mention it… twenty five minutes feels like a long time to fix a string,” Frisk put her hand to her chin, then let out a cold shiver.

“Sh-Should we go looking for her?” Noelle asked.

“Probably… should prolly be one of you two, though…” Skate mumbled as she pointed her finger between Noelle and Kris. “You guys know her and stuff…”

“Or you could both go,” Fuku added.

“Sounds good…” Kris mumbled as they walked away from their spot at the table. “Let’s go Noelle,”

“Y-Yeah, see you guys soon!” Noelle said with a nervous wave as she trailed behind Kris…

…

The walk through the hallway to the Foyer was silent, mainly because Kris and Noelle were quite tired, but also because any conversation would naturally lead to them talking about why Dess hadn’t come back…

She couldn’t have been… y’know, right?

They soon reached the deer woman’s door, Kris gently placed a hand on it and hesitated, hesitated…

“K-Kris? C’mon, open it already,” Noelle chuckled nervously.

“I-I’m gonna, I don’t know why I’m… hesitating-”

“WAH!” Noelle let out a screech as the door opened on it’s own, revealing Dess holding a now fixed guitar. The older deer also let out a small gasp.

“What the hell are you two doing?” Dess chuckled.

“You were taking awhile, so we went to check up on you,” Noelle explained. “Um, sorry-”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Guitar stringing just took a bit longer than it should’ve,” Dess shrugged, then let out a small yawn. “Should probably head back to the party,”

“Yeah,” Kris nodded as Dess and Noelle followed behind them.

“Oh hey dudes,” MK said as they passed the trio in the hall. “Looks like you found Dess, haha,”

“Yeah, thankfully!” Noelle said with a smile. “Are you leaving the party?”

“Well duh, haha, I gotta head to bed,” MK said. “Berdly also left, he went the other direction,”

“Fair enough,” Dess shrugged as she led her crowd of two back into the Music Studio, going her separate ways with MK.

The party didn’t last much longer, barely even made it to 11:30. Everyone was tired enough that they decided to just head to their dorms, walking in a large, sluggish crowd…

…

Kris slammed themselves onto their bed, then tightly wrapped themselves in their blanket to stave off the cold…

Chapter Text

DING DONG BING BONG

“Good morning students, it is now 8:00 AM meaning that it’s another BEAUTIFUL day here at Hope’s Peak Academy!” Tenna laughed as he finished the morning announcement.

Kris felt sweat cover their body as they tore the covers off of their bed, getting out of their room to head to breakfast with more energy than they had had in the last few days…

They walked down the hallways leading to the cafeteria, opened the door to the cafeteria and took a seat next to their usual friend group: Dess, Noelle and Ralsei.

“Hello Kris, did you have a good night?” Ralsei said with a smile.

“Yeah, the rooms are pretty good,” Kris shrugged. “How’d you sleep, man?”

“Oh uh, okay? I sleep in the Infirmary so…” Ralsei trailed off.

“Dude, why?” Dess questioned, gesturing towards the boy.

“Well, I need to watch over our guest, right? It’s better if I sleep in the Infirmary so I can always keep tabs on her,” Ralsei mumbled out.

“I-I mean I could take on the shift if you want,” Noelle requested.

“Ah, it’s really fine!” Ralsei said with a smile and a nod. “It’s my job to reduce any burdens anyone is feeling, okay?”

“A-Ah um, alright…” Noelle mumbled. “Still, if you ever-”

CRASH

“Hello one and all!” Tenna shouted as he landed smack dab in the middle of the Cafeteria. “Oh, what a wonderful day for an extra special BONUS MORNING ANNOUNCEMENT!”

“A what- what are you doing here?” Frisk asked.

“Yeah, we’re not killing anyone!” Skate shouted.

“You sure, cause I’m looking around this room aaaand…” Tenna trailed off as he made a theatrical motion of putting his hand sideways on the top of his screen and looking around. “I can’t find our funny, silly, kindly ULTIMATE BUSINESSWOMAN anywhere!” Tenna declared with a shrug. He then energetically pointed at his audience of students. “Where do YOU think she is?”

The entire cafeteria fell silent, everyone looking around to see that Temmie was nowhere to be found.

“I-It’s not like her to just skip breakfast…” Frisk mumbled under her breath.

“Maybe she, didn’t sleep super well so she’s- taking a little nap,” Jocking said with a firm nod.

“Best case scenario…” Catti shrugged. “Anyone else noticed how warm it is now?”

“A-Ah, now that you say so, it is… not cold anymore…” Berdly grumbled to himself.

“Agh, son of a bitch…” Pizzapants grumbled to himself.

“Warmer, warmer, warmer!” Tenna cheered. “You’re getting warmer, literally,” A canned laugh track could be heard coming from the walls.

“I-I’m sure she’s fine, she has to be, right?” Ralsei mumbled to himself, panic clear in his shaky voice.

“Tenna, just cut the bullshit already,” Dess’ words cut through the tension in the room. “Clearly you have something to tell us, just spit it out,”

“Ah, well uh… I mean, RIGHT ON THE MONEY Dess!” Tenna cheered. “I want all of you in the Gymnasium pronto, I got something to show ya!” The TV Headed man dashed his way out of the Cafeteria, leaving everyone in a brief stunned silence.

“Welp, we should get going,” Dess declared as she got up from her seat. “C’mon, it can’t be that bad,”

Everyone soon began to follow the guitarist out of the room, walking in silence through the halls of the school… at Kris’ side, Noelle whispered something that only the two of them could here.

“H-Hopefully…”

They were soon at the door, hesitant to open it because they knew what was going to be on the other side… eventually, they got the nerve and slowly opened the Gymnasium’s large doors to let everyone inside…

and what they saw would be etched into their minds for as long as they lived…

Kris’ eyes glazed down as they looked upon the terrifying sight before them. Temmie, who had been missing since the morning laid face down on the floor, still and lifeless beneath the Gym’s vent. The back of their head dented and bleeding, blood pooling onto her shirt and the floor around with a small trail leading to a blood stained weight next to Temmie’s head.

She laid there lifeless, murdered by someone who she had likely considered a friend…

DING DONG BING BONG

“Attention students, a body has been discovered. Head to the Gymnasium pronto!”

DEADLY LIFE, BEGIN:

STUDENTS REMANING 15/16

Chapter Text

“CONGRATULATIONS, one of you have finally bit the bullet and committed this TV-TASTIC KILLING GAME’s first murder!” Tenna bowed energetically to an imaginary audience.

Noelle was the first to make a sound, a shrill screech that had mixed with the screaming of a couple others in the Gym as they looked down at Temmie’s corpse.

“Great googily moogily, she’s gone!” Lancer screamed, putting his hands to his face.

“What the fuck is going on!?” Skate shouted out.

“I-I, how could someone do this?” Fuku cried. “I-I thought-”

“H-How, how did this happen!?” Frisk yelped. “Who-”

“I-I don’t know, how could someone do this shit!?” Pizzapants shouted as he began to point around the room. “It’s one of you, who was it?

“I-It can’t be one of us, w-we were all friends, right?” Ralsei mumbled nervously.

“That’s what we thought, but apparently there’s a murderous rat among us,” Snowy chittered in anger as he looked the room with his eyes peeled in suspicion.

“Well, it’s not me, man,” MK said. “Can’t be me,”

“Guys, guys, what if its: none of us?” Jockington suggested, nodding their head. “We’re all friends here, right? None of us would, kill Temmie,”

“I’d like to believe that, but I don’t think Tenna would “ruin” their own game by Killing one of us,” Dess said as she glared up at the TV Headed Man, who gave a smile and a wave in response.

“This is fucked up…” Kris grumbled under their breath as they looked at the scene of panic and terror before them.

“Truly, i-indubitably…” Berdly let out a gag from the smell of stale blood that filled the air of the Gymnasium.

“Now now, everyone. Pay attention to what I, your HOST has to say,” Tenna announced, everyone soon stared at him with various looks of anger and fear. The TV Headed man cleared his throat. “Now that the first murder has occurred, all of you have a certain amount of time to Investigate find EVIDENCE to prove your point and find that dastardly BLACKENED hiding amongst you!” The man said theatrically. “Once that’s done, a TV-TASTIC CLASS TRIAL will occur, where you’ll discuss evidence, then vote for who you think the killer is!”

Some began to hyperventilate as Tenna continued his explanation of what they’d have to do. They already knew the rules, of course, but no one thought that they’d be doing this soon… and not to someone like Temmie, either.

Temmie, she was odd, but always stayed positive and was kind to everyone she came across, and here Tenna was talking about her death like it was a game to him. It made Kris grit their teeth in anger.

“Well, you all seem to get the memo. I’ll leave you to it, see you in the CLASS TRIAL, students!” With that, Tenna finally disappeared, leaving the students and the corpse in despairful silence…

“So, what do we do now?” Frisk asked to the crowd, letting out a sigh.

“We investigate,” Dess declared as she walked in front of everyone. “It’s gonna feel shitty to listen to Tenna, but if it’s the only way for all of us to survive, we’re gonna have to do it,”

“I-I suppose…” Ralsei mumbled. “If it’s for all of us to survive, I’ll do my best!”

“M-Me too! Temmie was a friend of mine, s-so I’m gonna do anything I can to find out wh-who did this to her,” Noelle yelped out, scared, but determined.

“Indubitably Noelle, and as the smartest person here, I too shall investigate this crime!” Berdly declared, raising a wing as he began to investigate Temmie’s body, soon everyone was investigating, some stayed in the Gym, some left to investigate other areas of the school that may be involved with Temmie’s murder.

To avenge Temmie, and to survive, Kris decided to work as hard they could to figure out who did this. For their sake, for Temmie’s sake and for the sake of everyone else in this school.

THEY’D REVEAL THE TRUTH

INVESTIGATION: START!

Kris looked around the Gymnasium, firstly listing off the people that had decided to stay there besides themselves of course: Noelle, Dess, Berdly, Snowy and Pizzapants. Kris decided to approach the Holiday Sisters first.

BZZT

The Tenna-Tablet buzzed from within their pocket, before they’d go meet up with Dess and Noelle, who were currently standing around Temmie’s body they’d check whatever had caused the notification…

TENNAFILE #1

VICTIM: TEMMIE CHANG

LOCATION OF BODY: GYMNASIUM

CAUSE OF DEATH: BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA TO HEAD

Description:

The victim is Temmie Chang, the victim was killed via blunt force trauma to the back of her head. There are no other wounds on the body, her body was discovered in the Gymnasium.

+TENNAFILE #1

It was almost entirely information Kris already knew, but any evidence at all is good enough, they supposed. Now, they moved towards Dess, Noelle, and by extension Temmie’s body, lightly tapping the blonde deer on the shoulder.

“Ah, h-hey Kris. Are you gonna investigate?” Noelle asked, turning her head curiously.

“Well there isn’t much else to do,” Kris shrugged. “I don’t want to die, and… Temmie was nice,”

“That’s the spirit,” Dess patted them on the back. “Noelle’s having a bit of trouble inspecting the body, anyway,”

“I- y-yeah, I am. It would be nice if you could do that,” Noelle admitted with a dejected sigh.

Kris nodded as they crouched down, their face scrunching up as the smell of stale blood and rot got stronger the closer they got to Temmie’s body, the girl laying face down on the ground in a puddle of now dried, brownish red blood…

That the first thing, most obvious thing they took note of, the fact that the blood was seemingly long since dry.

+DRIED BLOOD

Next they inspected the wound on the back of Temmie’s head closely, she was missing her baseball cap which made it easier to see the huge dent in the back of her head, there were no other visible wounds on the body, so it’s safe to say this is what did her in. They also looked over at the weight, they picked it up to inspect it a bit closer… it had, a shockingly low amount of blood on it for how big the wound on Temmie’s head was. Though, Kris didn’t know too much about wounds like this, so maybe that’s normal. Still important to keep in mind.

+WOUND ON TEMMIE’S HEAD

+DUMBBELL

Kris thought that was the last thing, however, something striked them as a bit off about the body… the wound was on the back of their head, but their was dried blood very visible on the back Temmie’s shirt. Odd considering there were apparently no other wounds on her body…

+BLOOD STAIN

Kris took one last good look at Temmie’s body before deciding to go back to Dess and Noelle, the former of the two nodding at Kris as they stood back up.

“Wow, you investigated the hell out of that body,” Dess said with a small chuckle. “Sorry, not funny. You find anything interesting?”

Kris shrugged. “The Dumbbell’s not as bloody as I expected, and there’s blood on Temmie’s back even though there’s apparently no wound there,”

“Hm, interesting,” Dess put a hand to her chin.

“Y-Yeah, we should keep exploring the Gym until we run out of l-leads. Then we’ll go somewhere else

“Somewhere else?” Kris turned their head curiously.

“I-I mean the dumbbell is pretty obviously from the storage closet, s-so maybe we check there next?” Noelle said with an awkward shrug. “And then maybe the Music Studio after that,”

“Sounds like a plan, Elly,” Dess said as she smiled at her sister, Noelle smiled back.

“Thanks, let’s get to it, then!” Noelle said energetically, Kris and Dess now elected to follow her lead. Unfortunately, she had decided to walk towards Berdly, who was standing under the vent near Temmie’s body.

“Aha, Noelle, my fellow monster of intelligence. Have you come to talk about my findings?” Berdly said with a smug smirk on his face, even with the current situation. Berdly will still be Berdly, Kris supposed.

“Well, yeah. Have you found anything?” Noelle asked.

“Hmph, of course I have… unfortunately it’s locked to me,” Berdly said as he pulled a Tenna Tablet out of his pocket. “This was Temmie’s, and I attempted to get it open, but it is locked behind a password!”

“A little weird to take her stuff, but I guess it’s fair,” Dess shrugged. “Why were you trying to open it?”

“Well, it seems strange to me that Temmie would leave the party for the Gymnasium of all places,” Berdly began, pacing around as he spoke. “My theorum is that she was invited here by the killer, and they used the texting function of the Tenna-Tablet to do it!”

“Th-That sounds like it could be true, um…” Noelle twiddled her thumbs as she spoke. “Before Temmie left the party, a-at about nineish I think? Sh-She told me she was going to a ‘super cool business thingy’ “

“Ah, evidence of my theorum. I thank you very much, dear Noelle!” Berdly said with a proud smirk.

+TEMMIE’S TENNA-TABLET

+TEMMIE’S LAST SIGHTING

“Oh my god, Berdly had a decent idea,” Kris chuckled, they had long since walked past Berdly and were currently staring up at the open

“You say that like it’s uncommon,” Berdly crossed his arms and turned his head away. “I will not bother with the likes of you, I will instead focus on getting this darned Tablet unlocked!” The bluebird declared as he walked to a different corner of the Gym.

“Sure, whatever,” Kris shrugged. “Anyway, this vent’s kinda weird. The body is pretty close to it,”

“It is, it is,” Dess put her hands on her hips and nodded. “We should investigate it more thoroughly after everything else, though,”

“Fair enough,” Kris shrugged.

Noelle nodded in agreement.

“You look kinda sad, did you wanna go crawling around in there again?” Dess chuckled.

Kris looked down. “Maybe a little…”

+VENTILATION SYSTEM

“Well, only one thing left to do. Talk to people, your favourite,” Noelle joked as she patted Noelle on the back. The trio turned their heads towards Snowy and Pizzapants, who were investigating… something together. They walked over to them.

“Hey Snowy, PP,” Dess said.

“Ugh, Pizzapants was already bad, don’t make it worse!” Pizzapants grumbled as Snowy snickered.

“Anyway, what did you want? We were at Dess’ party, so we’re innocent,” Snowy declared.

“We know that, we’re just here to ask if you have anything to add to our investigation is all,” Noelle explained.

“That’s the thing, we’ve got nothing!” Pizzapants shouted exasperatedly. “All the good evidence was taken up by you and Nerdly over there,”

“Maybe be a better detective? I dunno,” Kris shrugged.

Snowy cleared his throat. “We do have the fairly obvious. The stuff that’s on the Tennafile and the fact that the Gym closes at night,”

“Oh, that’s actually a good thing to keep in mind!” Noelle said. “Thanks Snowy,”

“Ah, don’t mention it. At least I’m doing more than PP,” Snowy let out another snicker.

“You’re lucky you’re 17, or I’d kick your ass…” Pizzapants grumbled.

+GYM RULES

Deciding that they had fully investigated the Gym, the group of three elected to head out into the hallway, intending to check the Storage Room. On their way, however they encountered someone that the trio (sans Noelle) didn’t exactly want to see right now.

“H-Hi Susie!” Noelle yelped as she saw the lizard standing in the hallway, arms crossed, hair covering her eyes.

“What do you want?” The reptilian grumbled out.

“Calm down, we’re just investigating,” Dess warned. “Speaking of: where were you last night?”

“In my room…” Susie grumbled as she left the hallway. “And uh, Noelle…”

“H-Huh? Yeah?” Noelle gave Susie a smile.

Susie smirked back. “You shoulda told me there was gonna be beer at the party, I woulda showed up,” Susie let out a husky laugh, then walked down the hall.

+SUSIE ALONE

“W-Well that’s good to know…” Noelle blushed.

Dess sighed. “Let’s just go to the Storage Room,” She said as she led Kris and Noelle into the somewhat small room. Various bits and bobs strewn about near the Incinerator: Jockington, Catti, Frisk and MK were also in the room. Standing around and looking at various parts of the room. Overall, the atmosphere was tense and cramped, which Kris wasn’t too surprised by given their circumstances.

“Oh, hello!” Frisk said with a wave which made Kris recoil just a touch, MK also gave a smile as the trio entered the room. “Are you also investigating the Storage Room”

“W-Well yeah, we have to,” Noelle said as she walked towards the duo, who were standing near a shelf of gym equipment. Noelle inspected it. “There’s a dumbbell missing, I guess that confirms the weapon,”

“Haha, yeah,” MK laughed uncomfortably.

“That means the culprit was here at some point,” Kris said, then shrugged. “I dunno when, though,”

“Yeah, uh… while we’re here, we should probably clear up where everyone was,” Dess said. “I mean, mostly everyone was at the party the entire time,”

“Yeah, u-um… MK, you left around 10:30ish, right?” Noelle asked.

“Yeah, about when Dess got back,” MK explained. “Berdly also left around then,”

“Right, right,” Kris nodded, keeping that in mind. Figuring out everyone’s alibi would be important. “Noelle and I also saw Dess at the dorms,”

“Yeah, I actually somehow managed to take 20 minutes to fix a guitar string,” Dess chuckled.

+KRIS AND NOELLE’S ACCOUNT

Frisk chuckled a bit too, then nodded. “Well Kris, if you’re getting alibis, I’d interview everyone who left the party,” Frisk suggested with a firm nod. “If they can give a good explanation, than we can consider them innocent faster.

“Well, that’s a little naive, but sure,” Kris shrugged as they moved towards the Incinerator where Catti and Jockington were, the snake wrapped around a shelf of musical instruments… one of which was missing a guitar… Kris kept that in mind for later, too.

+MISSING EQUIPMENT

“Y’know, you’re kind of a jerk to Frisk,” Dess grumbled into Kris’ ear.

Kris shrugged. “It could be her, interrogating’s all about pressure,”

Dess rolled her eyes. “Sure,”

“Hello! Kris and the- Holidays!” Jockington said, his voice as loud as it usually was.

Catti was near completely engrossed in her Tenna-Tablet, only briefly looking up to lock eyes with the blonde deer. “Hey Noelle, what did you want?”

“W-We’re doing interviews. You two left the party, wh-where were you?” Noelle asked.

“I went- straight back to my room!” Jockington declared. “So, I’m not a suspicious snake, just a- regular snake!”

Dess sighed. “You kinda need proof for stuff like-”

“I can confirm, he has me watch him sleep,” Catti explained. “It’s why I left too, he texted me,”

“I need my best sleep- to maintain my best form!” Jockington nodded firmly and confidently.

“Oh, heh,” Dess let out a light chuckle. “Kinda weird, but I guess that’s good to know,”

+CATTI’S ACCOUNT

Dess looked around, noticing that Kris was no longer next to her. She soon saw them standing over the Incinerator, looking down into the flaming pit.

“H-Hey, is that still on?” Noelle said. “Th-That’s why it’s so hot in here,”

“Oh fuck, I thought I was molting for a minute there,” Dess sighed as she bent down to flick the offswitch. “Guess this is something else to keep in mind, right?”

“Well, obviously,” Kris nodded.

+INCINERATOR

“Well, guess this is it for the storage room. Let’s go,” Dess said.

“Y-Yeah, let’s,” Noelle said as she lead her friends out of the storage room. They walked down the hallway, making a stop at the infirmary as they saw Ralsei and Lancer standing in front of it.

“H-Hey Ralsei, we just wanna ask you some stuff,” Noelle said. “M-Mainly where you were after you left the party,”

“You too Lancer, I see you down there…” Dess chuckled as she squinted at the rotund boy.

Lancer let out his brand new laugh. “I am here! And after I left I spent my time with toothpaste boy!”

“That’s right!” Ralsei said with a polite smile and nod. “I returned to the infirmary after I left, I had to make sure the Fox Girl was recovering well,”

“And then I walked in and demanded that he make me cake until we both fell asleep at twelve!” Lancer declared proudly.

Ralsei blushed from the embarrassment. “That’s… about what happened, yes,”

“Well, good to know, thanks Rals, Lancer” Kris said with a nod as they moved for the Music Studio alongside Noelle and Dess.

“You’re welcome Kris!” Ralsei said energetically.

+LANCER’S ACCOUNT

+PARTY DEPARTURE

The trio entered the Music Studio, all the party stuff still set up from yesterday. Skate and Fuku were standing around a table, though they soon focused on the three new people in the room instead of whatever they were talking about.

“Oh, hey dudes!” Skate waved energetically at them.

“Hello, did you want to talk about anything?” Fuku asked.

“We’re mainly checking here just in case, but uh… you helped set up my party, right? With the rest of us and Temmie?” Dess asked the purple monster.

Skate nodded. “Yeah, was pretty cool too. Fuku, Frisk and Rals did all the cooking and stuff, too,”

“Yeah, though, I guess in the current context were in that makes us a bit suspicious, right?” Fuku said. “I can promise the food wasn’t tampered with in any way,”

“I-I probably would’ve noticed, I have kind of a weak stomach,” Noelle sighed.

+PARTY PLANNERS

“Well, that sucks,” Skate shrugged. “I was kinda drunk for most of the party, so uh… I dunno what happened,”

“We’ll probably get to explain it to everyone during the trial anyway,” Dess shrugged. “The party ran from about six to eleven-thirty,”

“Yeah, I-I was pretty tired after and everything” Noelle said. “I-I guess that means Temmie was killed during the party,”

“It makes sense,” Kris shrugged. “It has to be one of the people that left too, then,”

“Mhm,” Dess nodded. “Before nighttime, though, cause she died at the Gym,”

“A-And she left at nine, which is still considered daytime,” Noelle nodded. “So, you’re innocent, Dess!”

“Course I am, ya dummy,” Dess rubbed her fist against the top of Noelle’s head. “Why would I set up a party just to kill someone? That’s awful,”

“Though, the alternative is that someone took advantage of your party to kill Temmie,” Fuku added, then jumped up a bit. “Ah, that’s quite depressing to think about, isn’t it?”

Dess shrugged, then her face scrunched up in anger. “It’s what happened, and I’m not gonna forgive the asshole that did this,”

+DESS’ PARTY

DING DONG BING BONG

“Attention students, I need all of you at the Totally TV-Tastic Elevator on Floor 1. Class Trial starts soon!” Tenna proudly declared.

“W-Wait, we never got to check out the vents!” Noelle said with a yelp.

“Shit…” Dess grumbled, then let out a sigh. “It’ll be fine, I’m… sure it’ll be fine,”

“We can only hope,” Fuku said with a heavy sigh of her own.

“Let’s get moving,” Kris said as they began to walk with the crowd of four in toe, quickly making it down the hall, past the door to the Library and to the large door to the Elevator… the rest of the Students soon made their way there, standing around the door. A mix of fear, anticipation and dread all on their faces…

“Well, this is it,” Dess broke the tense silence.

“I-I never thought we’d be doing this,” Frisk added.

Noelle let out a depressing sigh. “I don’t think anyone did, I still can’t believe it,”

“Well, as long as someone did it. I will have to get to the bottom of it!” Berdly declared. “No matter how hard it may be,”

“It’s always you, you, you, huh Berdly?” Snowy mocked.

“Dude, chill out,” MK said, jabbing Snowy in the talon with his foot. “We all gotta work together on this, y’know man?”

“That’s right!” Ralsei said firmly. “A-And the more we work together, the faster we can find this killer, I-If they are amongst us,”

“You say if like it isn’t all but confirmed,” Susie sneered as she leaned against a wall.

“Yes, one of us are the bad guy here!” Lancer declared, then, for the first time his face dropped. “Which… does make my stomach a little upset,”

“As much as I want to believe that none of us are capable of this, like Jockington does-”

“Hello!” Jockington said as Catti continued to speak.

“I can’t see any other option here, one of us betrayed our trust, and now we find them,”

“It’s a really dark thought…” Fuku mumbled to herself.

Skate put a comforting hand on the Fire Elemental’s shoulder. “Hey, dude as long as we’re doing what we can. I’m sure we’ll be fine,”

“I hope, our lives are on the line here!” Pizzapants complained. “I gotta keep on living, y’know?”

“We all will, we all will,” Frisk reassured.

“I sure hope…” Kris added.

As the conversation finished, the elevator door slowly opened with a shudder and a shake, exposing the dingy platform, everyone soon stepped onto it.

It was cramped and hot, yet no one complained. It was so tense that no one could find the nerve to talk… except Dess, who bent down to talk to Kris and Noelle.

“Hey, I know you’re scared,”

“Y-You noticed?” Noelle sighed.

“Yeah, yeah I noticed,” Dess chuckled. “Listen, I’m terrified too. Maybe even more than you somehow, but… you both need to work through that fear and try your best to find this killer,”

“I-I’ll try,” Kris said.

“Agreed,” Noelle said, with a nod that displayed a slight bit more confidence than before. The elevator soon stopped, leading everyone into a circular room, ornate doors on the walls and a fancy red carpet on the floor. There were sixteen podiums each labelled with a name, and one which had a stand with a picture of Temmie’s face crossed out on it, asshole…

Speaking of the asshole, Tenna was sitting on a throne at one end of the room. The Knight floating next to him, arms crossed and looking down on the students as they shuffled to their places.

“Hello one and all, to the first ever CLASS TRIAL, we have an all star cast, an all star murder, and an all star mystery for the ULTIMATES to solve!” The man declared proudly, striking theatrical poses as he spoke. “Now, without further delay…

“IT’S! CLASS! TRIAL! TIME!”

15 of us are locked in this place, all to the find the one that killed Temmie.

Temmie, who while a bit of a strange person, was nothing but kind and sweet to the people around her.

One of us here killed her, and now all of us have to find out who that is.

For her sake, and for the sake of the rest of us. I’ll reveal the truth

CLASS TRIAL: BEGIN!

TRUTH BULLETS:

TENNAFILE #1

DRIED BLOOD

WOUND ON TEMMIE’S HEAD

DUMBBELL

BLOOD STAIN

TEMMIE’S TENNA TABLET

TEMMIE’S LAST SIGHTING

VENTILATION SYSTEM

GYM RULES

SUSIE ALONE

KRIS + NOELLE’S ACCOUNT

MISSING EQUIPMENT

CATTI’S ACCOUNT

INCINERATOR

LANCER’S ACCOUNT

PARTY DEPARTURE

PARTY PLANNERS

DESS’ PARTY

Chapter Text

CLASS TRIAL: BEGIN!

TRUTH BULLETS:

TENNAFILE #1

DRIED BLOOD

WOUND ON TEMMIE’S HEAD

DUMBBELL

BLOOD STAIN

TEMMIE’S TENNA TABLET

TEMMIE’S LAST SIGHTING

VENTILATION SYSTEM

GYM RULES

SUSIE ALONE

KRIS + NOELLE’S ACCOUNT

MISSING EQUIPMENT

CATTI’S ACCOUNT

INCINERATOR

LANCER’S ACCOUNT

PARTY DEPARTURE

PARTY PLANNERS

DESS’ PARTY

---

Tenna cleared his throat. “Now then let’s begin with a basic explanation of our very own CLASS TRIAL! During the Trial, you’ll discuss evidence and eventually VOTE for who the killer among you is! Vote correctly, and only the killer will receive punishment, but vote wrong and everyone besides the killer gets punished, and they’ll be allowed to leave this Academy!” The Knight remained silent next to him.

“Well, here we are. We have to discuss what we think happened to Temmie, right?” Dess said. “But… I don’t know where to start,”

“I-I don’t think any of us do,” Ralsei mumbled. “None of us thought this would happen… especially not to poor Temmie,”

“But, it has…” Frisk let out a deep sigh. “So, we have to do… this,”

“Where do we start then?” Skate asked. “Cause like, there’s a billion topics, and not much time to talk about all of ‘em,”

“Actually you have plenty of time, the Trial ends when the AUDIENCE falls asleep,” Tenna declared.

“Audience? I-Is this being recorded?” Noelle yelped.

“He’s just messing with us, Elly,” Dess reassured.

“Well, now that the preamble is outta the way. Does anyone wanna suggest a topic?” Snowy squinted his eyes as he looked around the room. “Anyone at all?”

Berdly let out a snooty chuckle. “Well, as a matter of fact. I do! Perhaps we start with when Temmie died!”

“When Temmie died?” Fuku Fire turned her head curiously. “That was seemingly omitted on the Tennafile, it only told us stuff we already knew,”

“Which was on purpose, the Tennafiles can’t say anything that could expose the culprit!” Tenna declared.

“Aha! So time of death is important!” Berdly confidently pointed a wing to his chest. “Of course it is, a genius such as myself could always get that!”

“Your brain is just bursting through your skull, isn’t it?” Dess sneered at the bird.

“Well Nugget Boy, you gonna tell us how this helps or nah?” Susie said, grimacing at Berdly.

“Yeah, Nugget Boy. We simply must know! Ho ho ho!” Lancer parroted what Susie had said.

“Well, if you’d all stop interrupting me. I could get to it!” Berdly grimaced back at trial room.

Berdly’s trying to make a point, but he’s so annoying that people are interrupting it… looks like I gotta help him out, ugh…

NONSTOP DEBATE

START!!!

“Time of death being important is kinda obvious…” Catti shrugged.

Dess nodded, then crossed her arms. “Yeah, what point are you trying to make?”

“Well, if you’d listen. I know a way to prove the timeframe in which Temmie died!” Berdly declared with a smug grin.

“You mean nighttime?” Skate quirked an eyebrow. “It’s kinda obvious that Temmie died during the night, dude, we woulda caught the killer if she didn’t,”

GYMNASIUM RULES

“NO, THAT’S WRONG!”

“Temmie couldn’t have died during the night, though. No one’s not allowed in the Gym at night,” Kris explained.

“That’s right, step one foot in the Gym or Cafeteria after nighttime, and my associate woulda split you in half!” Tenna let out a chuckle after he spoke. The Knight nodded next to him.

“Oh right, that is apart of the rules, yeah…” Skate chuckled awkwardly. “Sorry dudes, made a mistake,”

“It happens to all of us,” Frisk nodded reassuringly.

“Well, not to me, and apparently not to Kris, because that’s exactly what I was going to say!” Berdly claimed, crossing his wings and nodding. “Temmie could not have died during nighttime, nay, she could not have even been anywhere NEAR the Gym during nighttime!”

“We get it, Nerdly,” Snowy let out a snicker.

“Do not call me that!” Berdly squawked.

“So, she was killed before nighttime, a-and in that case, during Dess’ party,” Noelle said as she looked at the ground dejectedly.

“Hm… uh, just before nighttime isn’t a super specific timeframe, though. Could we get something a bit more clear?” Frisk asked around.

MK turned his head. “Like, when specifically she died? I guess after she left, did anyone see Temmie leave?”

I’m pretty sure someone did…

TEMMIE’S LAST SIGHTING

“I KNOW WHO IT IS!”

“Noelle, you uh… you saw Temmie before she left the party, right?” Kris said, turning their head to the deer girl standing next to her.

“R-Right!” Noelle nodded. “I-I actually saw her leave, sh-she said he had to go to a business thingy, o-or something like that. I-I should’ve told her not to-”

“No, no it’s fine,” Dess interrupted. “It’s not your fault, I’m pretty sure she would’ve gone to the Gym anyway,”

“I-I guess…” Noelle rubs her arm sadly. “Thanks Dess…”

“No problem,”

“So, she was lured to her death…” Catti said matter of factly.

“That is very, very… disturbing!” Jockington said, though is tone of voice didn’t change in the slightest.

“Okay Temmie wasn’t the smartest cookie out there, but I doubt she’d just walk to the Gym alone for any ol’ whatever,” Pizzapants said with a shrug.

“Are you sure? Temmie was as gullible as one could be!” Snowy declared.

Dess jabbed Kris in the side to get their attention. “Someone died and he’s still finding a way to be a jerk,” She grumbled to them with a smirk on her face. Kris let out a small chuckle back.

Frisk cleared her throat firmly. “So, she was lured to the Gym by the Killer, but how? It’s not like we found an invitation on her or anything,”

“I know if I was invited somewhere, I’d take the invitation with me!” Lancer declared with a toothy grin. “You always have to let them know that you got it!”

“I… f-feel like you being there is evidence enough,” Noelle said, confused. “B-Back on topic, sorry, uh… maybe there’s some other way Temmie was lured over?”

Maybe, this feels like something that’s going to become a whole discussion…

NONSTOP DEBATE

START!!!

“Temmie was lured all the way over to the Gym from Dess’ Party, w-we know that much at least,” Ralsei let out a small shudder as he spoke.

“I think from her perspective, she was just being invited somewhere,” Frisk suggested. “Did anyone overhear someone inviting Temmie to the Gym?”

“No, not even to get ripped and shred,” Jockington declared. “Which is what I would invite someone, to the Gym for,”

“Well, that’s good to know, no-one heard a thing,” Catti sighed. “And we didn’t catch a note, either…”

“Well, I searched the body pretty thoroughly, and while I didn’t find a note per se…” Berdly began. “I did find something that could act as an invitation, you see,”

TEMMIE’S TENNA-TABLET

“I AGREE WITH THAT!”

“You found Temmie’s Tenna-Tablet on her, right?” Kris asked.

“That I did, that I did,” Berdly nodded confidently.

Noelle nodded. “R-Right, you did say that when we talked to you,”

“Well, what was on it Berdly? Did you ever manage to actually open it up?” Dess asked, raising an eyebrow as she did.

“Ah, well no… there’s no way to get into it!” Berdly declared. “Marking a roadblock in our quest for information!”

“That’s right folks, Tenna-Tablets are password protected. Not a soul’s gonna see your PRIVATE INFORMATION…” Tenna looked around the room skittishly. “Well, except for me of course!”

“That’s great, I trust no one more than the person forcing us to kill eachother!” Snowy declared sarcastically.

MK chuckled nervously. “Well, if there’s no way to get into it then, heh, I guess there’s no way to confirm anything?”

“Yeah, it’s kinda shit, but it’s better than nothing,” Kris said with a shrug.

“So, Temmie got invited by the killer to the Gym using the Tenna-Tablet, alright, that’s good,” Dess breathed a small sigh of relief. “We’re actually kinda getting somewhere,”

“Thing is, any of us could’ve done that,” Catti shrugged. “You can’t block numbers or anything, any of us could’ve texted her,”

“Well, why don’t we check everyone then!” Berdly raised a wing up. “We-”

“NOPE!” Tenna shouted. “Checking a bunch of messages? Sounds like a whole snoozefest to me, eh Knight?”

The Knight floated expressionlessly.

Tenna sighed. “I’m starting to think you don’t wanna be my Co-Host,”

“Welp, Tenna has spoken,” Dess grimaced. “It’d be… boring apparently if we checked everyone’s messages right now,”

Berdly sighs dramatically. “Well, I suppose we should just keep discussing then,”

“Well, to me that kinda confirms that Temmie was invited via being texted,” Frisk said. “I mean, even if it would be ‘boring’ if it meant entirely nothing than I’m sure Tenna would’ve just let us see them, right?”

“That makes sense, I guess we’ve confirmed that, then” Fuku said.

“We’re getting closer! Friends!” Jockington declares with a confident nod.

“Let’s keep this going then, I say we move back to what Noelle said,” Dess ordered everyone back to the topic. “Elly, when did Temmie leave for the Gym again?”

“A-About nine,” Noelle confirmed with a nod.

“Okay great, she was killed at about nine PM. That combined with the Gym being closed at ten gives us a pretty big list of suspects,” Dess said.

I think I know who those suspects are…

PARTY DEPARTURE

“THIS IS IT!”

“I think I know what you mean, everyone who left the Party before nighttime is a potential suspect,” Kris explained.

Dess nodded with a confident smirk. “So, that makes our current list of suspects: Ralsei, Lancer, Jockington, or Catti,”

“O-Oh, uh… I suppose me just up and leaving would make me suspicious, huh?” Ralsei said nervously, twiddling his thumbs together.

“Well, I know for a fact I didn’t do it,” Catti declared.

“Yeah, me neither! I am quite bad at holding things!” Jockington argued confidently.

“Ah, but… I’m not really a killing kind of bad guy,” Lancer explained. “I’m more of a dark prankster,”

“Yeah!” Susie argued. “Don’t go accusing Lancer, it can’t be him,”

Berdly chuckled smugly. “Well, none of you have very good argu-”

ROAR

“O-Okay, maybe Lancer is innocent!” Berdly yelped out, then quickly straightened himself up. “Everyone else however, is quite suspicious if I do say so!”

“Wait a fucken’ minute, is that why Catti’s always on her Tablet!?” Pizzapants pointed at the other cat as he called her out. “You son of a bitch, you were texting Temmie the whole time, weren’t you?”

Catti rolled her eyes and grumbled at the sudden shouting. “That’s just a coincidence, I have an alibi anyway,”

“Yeah! Catti and I have alibis!” Jockington declared, still as confident as ever.

“Well, what a coincidence. Toothpaste Boy and I also have alibis!” Lancer declared.

Ralsei gave a nod of agreement. “That’s right, neither of us could have done this,”

Shortening down our list of suspects has only caused more chaos, looks like I gotta fix this…

NONSTOP DEBATE

START!!!

“No way in hell Lancer did this shit,” Susie grumbled, suddenly really invested in the trial.

“You keep saying that, dude, but he hasn’t actually given us an alibi,” Skate shrugged.

“Maybe quit talking over him! Dumbass!” Susie shouted.

“L-Let’s all try to calm down, okay?” Ralsei said meekly. “Um, Lancer and I have an alibi-”

“So do me, and Catti!” Jockington declared, completely interrupting the goat boy. “I was in my room the minute I left! Catti can confirm that,”

CATTI’S ACCOUNT

“I AGREE WITH THAT!”

“Yeah, Catti can confirm that Jockington was in his room the whole night,” Kris nodded in agreement with the very confident looking Snake.

“Right, yeah. I was watching him sleep,” Catti admitted casually.

“You were what!?” Snake yelped.

“I already thought you were creepy, but this is ridiculous!” Snowy sneered at the catgirl.

Fuku nodded politely. “So, Catti and Jockington are innocent because Catti watches Jockington sleep for… whatever reason,”

“It’s for a good reason!” Jockington declared. “The best reason, in fact!”

“He has me watch if he’s sleeping well or not,” Catti shrugged. “It’s his idea anyway,”

“Oh, that’s… still pretty weird,” Skate shrugged. “But uh… guess if you’re both fine with it I can’t really complain,”

“And Jockington texted me to come to his room like, five minutes after I saw him leave the party. Which I don’t think is enough time to kill Temmie and clean off all the blood that would’ve gotten on him,” Catti added

Dess nodded introspectively. “So, it’s between Ralsei and Lancer, then,”

“Ho ho ho, but that begs the question. Do either of us have alibis?” Lancer said, accusing himself.

Yeah? I feel like they both have alibis at least…

LANCER’S ACCOUNT

“HERE IT IS!”

“You literally do, you said that you spent all night harassing Ralsei in the Infirmary about cake or something,” Kris shrugged.

“Aha! That I did!” Lancer gave a beaming smile.

“Yes, since I had left the party, I had been in the Infirmary looking over our guest,” Ralsei explained. “And then Lancer came in and begged me to make a cake for him, uh… we both eventually fell asleep in there,”

“You slept in the Infirmary?” Frisk asked, sounding a bit concerned. “Do you do that a lot?”

“Well yes, I need to make sure she’s recovering well is all,” Ralsei nodded. “And it’s not that bad!”

“That’s not great, you could’ve just asked me to watch over her,” Frisk shrugged.

“Or me, I really don’t want you sleeping somewhere that seems so… uncomfortable,” Fuku added, looking equally concerned.

“I-It’s really fine, let’s just get back to the trial, okay?” Ralsei said.

Frisk sigh. “Right, right, so, you and Lancer have an alibi too,”

“Not a complete one, though,” Pizzapants suddenly piped up. “I think goat boy did it!”

“W-What!?” Ralsei yelped.

“Uhh, when dude? Lancer would’ve totally seen him leave,” Skate argued back.

“What about before Lancer left? There woulda been plenty of time for Ralsei to wander on out, and I imagine that no one would’ve been able to see where he ended up going!” Pizzapants declared.

Oh look, Pizzapants is making another terrible point, even if it does have a bit of merit… there is 100% a way that someone could’ve seen where Ralsei was going, though, because…

MUSIC VENUE DOOR HAD A WINDOW

“HERE IT IS!”

“Actually no, the music venue’s door had a window on it. If anyone saw Ralsei leave, there’s a good chance they’d be able to see where he went,” Kris started.

“That’s right!” Frisk said, Kris grumbled a bit as she interrupted them. “I saw Ralsei enter the Infirmary from the Music Studio, Lancer left pretty soon after that. If Ralsei was the killer, he wouldn’t have had nearly enough time to kill Temmie then come back,”

“Well uh… well eh- ah fuck fine, I was wrong!” Pizzapants grumbled. “Well, all of our suspects got airtight alibis, son of a bitch…”

“Well actually,” Berdly raised his glasses smugly. “There is one more suspect, you know? Someone who wasn’t even at the party at all!”

“Hmm? I can’t think of anyone like that,” Lancer declared nervously.

“Yeah, what the fuck are you trying to say!?” Susie growled.

“Just say you think it’s Susie, pal,” Snowy snickered and shook his head. “I mean, I think so too. She’s been violent from the start!”

A spotlight was shone on the Reptilian Girl, her face continued to scrunch further in frustration as she was accused.

“I-It happened awhile ago, a-and Kris has forgiven them, right?” Noelle hastily defended, hastily turning to the human in question, who just kinda awkwardly shrugged in response.

“That doesn’t really matter,” Catti squinted her eyes at Susie. “If she’s our primary suspect, she’s our primary suspect,”

“Yeah, like Snowy said she’s been doing this kinda thing from the start…” Burgerpants joined the crowd of people eyeing up Susie suspiciously.

“And she’s a reptile, more susceptible to the cold temperatures caused by that motive!” Snowy declared.

“Okay, now you’re just being racist,” Burgerpants grumbled. “But, our point still stands, if Susie don’t got an alibi, and everyone else who is suspicious does. Then she has to be the killer!”

“I-I’m sure there’s another p-potential culprit, o-or a theory-”

“Listen, Elly. I’m really sorry, but as long as the murder had to have happened before nighttime, it can kinda only be Susie,” Dess let out a dejected sigh, looking at the ground to avoid making eye contact with her sister. “She’s the only one without an alibi,”

“I was in my room, dumbass, I already told you!” Susie shouted.

“That’s not an alibi, though. You’re just stating where you may or may not have been,” Catti grumbled out the explanation. “As long as no one can confirm that you didn’t leave your room, you did it,”

“W-Wait!” Noelle yelped out.

“Elly, please. I know-”

“N-No, no I promise I have an argument!” Noelle interrupted her sister with another desperate yelp. All eyes were on her, and she was sweating profusely. “Wh-What if someone was able to see someone entering the Gym?”

“Hm?” Fuku turned her head curiously.

“There’s no one like that, if there was they woulda spoke up by now!” Pizzapants argued.

“U-Unless they didn’t realise!” Noelle added, clearly making up the argument in her head.

It seems like Noelle is just trying to defend Susie, but… part of me thinks she could be right. Maybe someone’s account helps prove that someone would’ve been in line of sight of the Gym’s entrance during the party…

NONSTOP DEBATE

START!!!

“Th-There has to have been someone, right?” Noelle yelped out as the spotlight began to shine on her.

“There’s only one entrance into the Gym, and last we checked no one was in that hallway,” Pizzapants shrugged.

“Wh-What about from the Music Studio, y-you could see someone enter the Gym’s hallway from the Music Studio, right?” Noelle yelped.

“Only from one side, though. Only someone going from the Foyer to the Gym would be seen,” Frisk explained.

“Are we sure there isn’t a door that peeks into that hallway?” Lancer asked, turning his head nervously.

“Pretty damn sure, we would’ve noticed it by now at least,” Dess sighed. “Listen, Noelle. I get you don’t want it to be Susie, but-”

“R-Ralsei! Ralsei would’ve been able to catch someone entering the Gym!” Noelle yelped, suddenly I realised that she was right.

LANCER’S ACCOUNT

“I AGREE WITH THAT!”

“Wait, holy shit you’re actually right,” Kris called out, getting everyone’s attention to turn towards them. “The door the Infirmary is positioned in a way that allows it to see someone going into the Gym’s hallway,”

“R-Really!?” Noelle yelped in joy.

“Hmm, thinking about it. It actually is,” Frisk nodded with a smile. “I’ve been in the Infirmary for long periods of time before, and I’ve been able to see well into the only entrance into that hallway,”

“Okay, alright that’s great,” Kris shrugged.

“Wait so, Lancer and Ralsei should be more than able to tell us if they saw anyone go through that hallway, right?” Fuku Fire turned her head curiously.

“I saw nothing, nosiree!” Lancer gave a salute as he spoke. “Not even the tiniest mouse or largest TV Headed Man,”

“I’m not sure I saw anyone through the Infirmary window either,” Ralsei added. “So I guess that means-”

“I’m innocent, yeah. Already knew that,” Susie grumbled. “But uhh… thanks anyway, Noelle,”

“A-Ah, you’re welcome Susie!” Noelle yelped, her face being dusted a slight shade of pink.

“Okay let’s not celebrate too hard,” Snowy grumbled. “Your girlfriend or whatever’s not the only suspect, that’s guh-reat…” He rolled his eyes as Noelle turned even more red. “But, it means we don’t have any more leads,”

“We’re back to square one pretty much, yeah,” MK chuckled nervously. “That really sucks,”

“Super sucks,” Skate grumbled. “Where are we even meant to go from here?”

“Yeah, does anyone have any ideas?” Dess asked to silence as she looked around the trial room. “Anyone?”

The only way for Temmie to have been killed in the Gym was for the murder to have happened before nighttime, but… Ralsei and Lancer were in the Infirmary all night and would’ve caught anyone trying to go through.

I need to think about this, figure out when Temmie actually died…

N I G H T T I M E

“I GOT IT!”

Crawling through the ventilation system of their mind for an answer. Kris shouted out their new theory. “Temmie had to have been killed after nighttime,”

“But, you can’t enter the gym during the night at all!” Snowy shouted out. “Let alone kill someone in there!”

“Yeah, I thought we already established that, dude,” Skate shook her head.

We did, however. Now that I think about it, Temmie being killed after nighttime is the only way for there to be any suspects, but no one is allowed in the Gym at nighttime, so…

TEMMIE WAS KILLED OUTSIDE OF THE GYM

“HERE IT IS!”

“Then Temmie had to have been killed outside of the Gym and moved there later,” Kris suggested. “It’s the only thing that makes sense to me-

“YOU GOTTA BE JOKING!”

“And you’re not even being funny either,” Snowy grimaced at Kris as he interrupted their point.

“I’m not joking? You’re a real dick, you know that right?” Kris grumbled at the bird.

“Maybe, but I’m the only smart dick in this room. Smart enough to see that what you’re saying makes no sense at all!” Snowy declared as he prepared his rebuttal.

REBUTTAL SHOWDOWN

KRIS VS SNOWY

START!!!

“Killed outside of the Gym, are you crazy!?” Snowy shouted. “Because you gotta be crazy to go back on what we know all of a sudden!”

“And I get it, you want Stabby McGee to be safe, but making up a whole new theory…”

“That’s impossible, you got it?” Snowy squawked. “Temmie had to have died in the Gym!”

---

“You’re just saying that it’s impossible,” Kris grumbled. “You wanna provide any kind of argument beyond that?”

---

“Course I do!” Snowy scoffed. “I know for a fact that Temmie was killed in the Gym, cause there was no way to move the body there afterwards!”

Snowy’s beak gained a smug smile. “Didn’t you say it yourself, if the killer tried to drag Temmie’s body through the hallway Toothtaste Boy and Pointy-Head woulda seen ‘em for sure!”

VENTILATION SYSTEM

“I’LL CUT THROUGH THAT ARGUMENT!”

“There was definitely another way to get into the Gym, though. The school had an entire ventilation system,” Kris explained.

“A what!? Since when!?” Snowy yelped.

“Oh did the vent in the Gym actually lead somewhere?” Fuku Fire asked, turning her head curiously. “Do you know where it lead?”

“Well c’mon, since you’re the expert on vents. Tell us,” Snowy crossed their wings and sneered.

I did crawl through them for like… probably a little too long, so I should know where the vent in the Gym leads…

THE UNUSED CLASSROOM

“HERE IT IS!”

“The vent in the Gym leads to the unused classroom. The one that’s all shitty and gross and stuff,” Kris nodded.

“That’s where ya found me when you first got here,” Susie chuckled proudly.

“So, you crawling around in a vent all day came in handy,” Berdly smirked. “I suppose I misjudged your intellect after all… NOT!”

Someone died and he still manages to be this annoying, goddamn.

“So, are you saying Temmie died in that classroom?” Fuku turned her head curiously as she asked. “I mean, if it connects to the Gym than I suppose I could see it happening,”

“Ehhhh… still seems a bit fishy is all,” Dess shrugged. “I mean, the killer would still need to go to the Gym to deposit the body, right?”

“Technically yes, but… I imagine you wouldn’t be killed for simply sticking a hand or your head into the Gym, right?” Frisk asked as she looked up at Tenna.

Tenna nodded proudly in response. “Of course, as long as you don’t step foot into a RESTRICTED AREA. You’re hunky dory I say!”

“Well, I guess that’s good to know,” Ralsei nodded.

“Ohoho, I suppose that makes it completely possible that our killer dragged the saleswoman’s body from classroom to assroom!” Lancer declared.

“Ass… room?” Skate chuckled.

“I could not think of a good descriptor of a Gym that rhymed!” Lancer declared joyfully.

“So, it’s entirely possible that Temmie was killed outside of the Gym, then moved there later,” Frisk nodded.

“Hm… I dunno, I usually trust Kris… for some reason, heh, but this does seem like a stretch,” Dess shrugged.

“Plus, we’re left at square one in terms of culprits,” Snowy grumbled.

“You’re just mad that Kris totally kicked your ass in an argument,” Skate crossed her arms confidently. Snowy grumbled under his breath.

“Well I personally wouldn’t trust a thing Kris says anyway,” Berdly smirked. “They aren’t a true intellectual like I,”

“Ignoring Berdly, Temmie dying outside of the Gym goes against pretty much everything we’ve discussed so far,” Catti sighed.

“You’re only saying that cause it doesn’t make you innocent anymore,” Susie grumbled.

Catti sighed in frustration. “So what if I am? I still think it’s probably you,”

“Ladies, ladies. Let us not fight, but instead peacefully debate who bashed Temmie’s head- in!” Jockington declared, moving his head from side to side to imitate spreading his hands.

“Well, looks like none of us can agree on shit here,” Pizzapants grumbles.

“It’s not great, we’re split right down the middle,” MK sighed. “We’re not gonna get anywhere unless we-”

“HOLD THE PHONE!”

“Did you say split? SPLIT DOWN THE MIDDLE? You’re split on where Temmie coulda died!?” Tenna shouted out enthusiastically, nearly bouncing on his throne.

“Y-Yeah, heheh. What are you so excited about?” MK asked.

“Cause that means that Hope’s Peak Academy gets to show off its very own MORPHENOMENAL TRIAL GROUNDS!”

“This bitch morphs?” Susie shot up from excitement before returning to their usual, pissy and disinterested look.

“You of all people know what Morphenomenal means!?” Berdly yelped. “Well colour me shocked, Susan!”
Without much delay, or warning (which made Noelle yelp). The podiums everyone was standing at began to glow and float, soon moving to form the two sides of the debate…

WHERE WAS TEMMIE KILLED?

THE UNUSED CLASSROOM

Kris, Noelle, Susie, Lancer, Ralsei, Fuku, Skate, Frisk

THE GYM

Snowy, Berdly, Catti, Jockington, MK, Dess, Pizzapants, Temmie

DEBATE SCRUM

START!!!

BERDLY:

“There’s no concrete proof that Temmie died in the classroom, hmph!”

SKATE!

“Dude, there’s no proof that she died in the Gym either,”

PIZZAPANTS:

“We found the body there, that means she died there bud,”

FUKU!

“The body could have easily been moved through the vents, though,”

SNOWY:

“You sure the Tenna-File doesn’t say she died in the Gym?”

RALSEI!

“The Tenna-File didn’t have any information about where she died on it,”

CATTI:
“You’re only arguing that Temmie died outside of the Gym because you want to defend Susie,”

SUSIE!

“Who gives a shit if they’re trying to defend me!? We’re outta shit to discuss about Temmie dying in the Gym anyway,”

JOCKINGTON:

“Are you- sure we’re all out of evidence to discuss?”

Ugh… FRISK!

“There’s no other evidence in the Gym, we should be discussing other areas,”

MK:

“I’m still a little confused as to what Temmie dying in the classroom does for helping us solve this,”

NOELLE!

“Well, for one. I-If she died in the classroom then it’s possible for her to have been killed d-during nighttime,”

DESS:

“That just takes us right back to square one!”

I GOT THIS!

“We’re not at square one, this gives us a lot more evidence to discuss,”

CROUCH BIND!

…

“THIS IS OUR ANSWER!”

“I think at this point, the only way for us to continue forward is to assume that Temmie died in the Unused Classroom,” Kris said.

“Well if that’s so, then riddle me this KRISMAS!” Berdly shouted out, raising up his wing proudly. “If Temmie was moved from the unused classroom to the gym through the vent, than why is there no blood on it, hm?”

“That’s- actually kind of a fair point. There would’ve been blood coming out of the vent at the very least,” Frisk shrugged.

“A hole in the theorum, should have considered this Kris!” Berdly smirked.

While Berdly is an asshole, it is an actual hole in our argument, but I think there is a way the wound could have been covered while Temmie was going through the vent…

NONSTOP DEBATE

START!!!

“There are still holes in your argument, Kris,” Berdly said smugly. “And to think, you’d try to drag Noelle down with you!”

“She also came up with the theory too y’know?” Dess scoffed. “Weirdo…”

“They could’ve just used like, a towel or something dude,” Skate shrugged.

“Or maybe some duct tape?” Fuku suggested. “Wait, no. Some of it would’ve gotten stuck on her head for sure…”

“Maybe they used something that couldn’t get stuck?” Frisk suggested. “Like a… like a towel or something?”

“We can only speculate, as long as there’s nothing that could be used to soak up the blood at the scene, we got nothing,” MK chuckled uncomfortably.

BLOOD STAIN

“NO, THAT’S WRONG!”

“There actually was something that coulda been used, and it’s also covered in blood,” Kris said. “Temmie’s shirt, there was a big bloodstain on the back of it that didn’t really link up with any of her wounds,”

“Right, the Tennafile says that she only has the one wound on her head,” Ralsei nodded.

“Oh right, that bloodstain did stick out a lot,” MK said.

“Ah, a theorum of Kris’ that makes a modicum of sense! Congratulations, my dearest rival!” Berdly laughed confidently.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t act like you were cheering them on at all,” Dess handwaved the Bluebird’s ‘compliment’ away.

“W-Well, I suppose that’s a fair point,” Berdly preened the feathers at the top of his head nervously.

“S-So, the killer used Temmie’s shirt to cover up the wound while they moved her through the vents,” Noelle established with a nervous nod. “That m-makes sense to me, in that case I guess the classroom and the vents are the only place the killer went-”

“AHA, wrong again Krismas and Noelle!” Berdly declared, pointing at the both of them as he preened his feathers condescendingly.

“H-Huh?” Noelle yelped.

“Ugh, what is it now?” Dess grumbled.

“You say that the killer didn’t go anywhere but the Gym and Classroom after they left,” Berdly let out the fakest, smuggest chuckle ever. “However, the weight they used to kill Temmie clearly came from the Storage Room!”

“There was a weight missing from the storage room,” Frisk said with a nod.

“So, the killer had to have went there. Before they killed Temmie too,” Snowy said as his beak formed a smug smile.

“The only way they’d be able to enter the storage closet is either through the hallway, which we’ve ruled out, or through the Gym, which would’ve broken the rules,” Dess let out a small groan as she finished talking. “Which either means we gotta find a whole new theory, or- I dunno, maybe there’s a 2^nd vent that leads to the storage closet-”

“There is, though,” Kris spoke up, frustrated.

“How- how big is that ventilation system?” Dess quirked an eyebrow at the human.

“Good question, Kris, you explored that whole thing. Why haven’t you told us the ins and out of the ventilation system, hmmm?” Berdly quirked an eyebrow, though in a more annoying manner than Dess.

“I didn’t think it’d be super relevant until now. Lemme try to think of where everything lead so you’ll stop whining,” Kris sighed as they tried to connect the dots between everything.

“I am not whining, I’m bringing up a perfectly good-”

“L-Let me help!”

Kris looked over at Noelle as she interrupted Berdly’s complaining her stand suddenly rushed to be next to theirs, the deer let out a small screech, but calmed down soon enough.

“Noelle, what are you doing?” Kris let out a chuckle as they looked over at their friend.

“Um well, trying to h-help you? Uh… you remember where the v-vents lead to, right?”

“Pretty much, but I guess some help jogging my memory could be helpful too,” Kris nodded.

“Great!” Noelle smiled. “Then, let’s do this together!”

COLLABORATIVE CRAFTING

KRIS & NOELLE

START!!!

“So, the vent in the Unused classroom lead to the Gym, b-but there was also an opening that lead to…”

“The hallway that lead to the Gym,”

“THAT’S RIGHT!”

“From that hallway, they’d be able to enter the storage closet… w-wait wouldn’t they still have to use the Gym’s hallway to exit then?”

“Actually no, there was another vent in the Storage Closet that lead to the computer lab. They’d be able to completely bypass the Gym’s hallway altogether,”

“GREAT!”

“O-Oh that’s great, and um… you can prove they weren’t able to just use the Gym’s Hallway while Ralsei was asleep anyway, r-right?”

“Ralsei and Lancer slept in the infirmary, one of them would’ve seen or heard someone,”

“WE’VE GOT IT!”

Noelle’s seat moved back to its usual spot as Kris cleared their throat. “I think we have everything involving the vents figured out,” Kris said. “The culprit used the vent going from the Unused Classroom and the Gym and the Gym Hallway, to get the murder weapon and to kill Temmie, then they used a vent in the Storage Room leading to the Computer Lab to get away without going down the Gym Hallway,”

“But, what about the- oh wait you already answered, that!” Jockington nodded with a wide smile on his face.

“So that’s how we missed the Temmie Basher, they didn’t even pass our sacred hallway ever!” Lancer declared, nodding firmly.

“I-If I had known about the vent, I would have at least tried to check,” Ralsei mumbled apologetically.

“You really don’t need to apologise, you didn’t know,” Dess reassured.

“I suppose that does explain the particulars of how the murderer transported Temmie and themselves,” Berdly nodded, the tip of his wing on his chin.

“And how they got the murder weapon,” Fuku Fire added. “They must’ve been planning this for a long time, I imagine they got the weight before they killed Temmie, right?”

“I don’t see why they wouldn’t grab the weapon before they killed Temmie,” MK said.

“Why go out of the way to make killing her more inconvenient, right?” Snowy joked.

“…Anyway, none of this really leads to any particular culprit. All we’ve figured out is that it could’ve happened after nighttime,” Dess shrugged.

“You’re saying we’re at a fucken’ dead end, are you kidding me?” Susie grumbled.

“I’m sure there’s more evidence, right?” Frisk said nervously as she looked around the room. “Did anyone see someone go into the storage room before the party? Dess, you sent someone to go get tables from there for the party, right?”

“Uh… yeah?” Dess looked around nervously as Frisk asked the question.

“Well, don’t leave us waiting. Who’d you unknowingly go to get the murder weapon?” Snowy chided.

Noelle’s breath hitched as she realised who her sister had sent, her eyes widening like, well a deer in headlights.

“Well uh, I sent-”

“She sent me, Temmie and Noelle,” Kris butted in, interrupting their friend. “I didn’t see any of them grab anything but the tables,”

“H-Huh? I-I mean yeah!” Noelle yelped, just a bit too eagerly, but it wasn’t all too noticable. “Kris and Temmie came with me, Temmie’s surprisingly strong, fahaha,”

Dess stayed silent for a moment as she looked Kris up and down. “Yeah, then Kris decided to start practicing piano for a bit,”

“I can confirm, it was pretty sweet dude!” Skate said with a chuckle.

“I mean it’s my talent, ideally I should be good at it,” Kris shrugged.

Dess snickered and shook her head. “You know ‘thank you’ also works, right?”

“Well I guess that confirms that, unless Skate saw someone else go into the storage room or something,” MK shrugged as best as he could.

“Ah, sorry but nah, I was too busy uh…” Skate trailed off, looking around awkwardly.

“She was a bit busy convincing me to make alcohol for everyone,” Fuku giggled behind her hand.

Skate’s purple face was dusted a light shade of pink. “Dude, you’re making it sound like I begged you or something!”

“You… um, kind of did?” Ralsei turned his head.

Frisk giggled. “Yeah,”

“You guys suck…” Skate tried to hide her face with her hat.

“That reminds me, some of us got pretty drunk at the party-”

“Totally unprofessional, if I do say so myself!” Berdly smirked as he interrupted Dess. “Carry on,”

Dess sighed. “Anyway, that’s probably why Temmie was… well, easy to convince to go to the Unused Classroom,”

“Are you- dude, I would never-”

“I’m not saying you did it, don’t worry,” Dess nodded, reassuring Skate. “Just that someone took advantage of the situation,”

“Well I was pretty fucken’ wasted, I couldn’t have done it!” Pizzapants suddenly shouted out.

“You saying that makes you sound suspicious, but yeah, he was very drunk,” Catti said with a nod.

“I do not drink to preserve my- beautiful body!” Jockington declared proudly.

“U-Um, I-I feel like we’re going a bit off topic…” Noelle mumbled, but everyone was already speaking over her.

It does feel like we’re going off topic, I was just about to figure out where we could go next from what I had said about the storage room… maybe she’s just trying to distract from the fact that I lied?

…

NONSTOP DEBATE

START!!!

“Is it truly relevant if anyone was drunk? It doesn’t take the undisturbed mind of a genius such as myself to swing a weight!” Berdly said snootily.

“Uh yeah, I’m pretty sure someone could only plan something like this sober,” Dess shrugged.

“I suppose but… is there any way to really gage if someone is drunk?” Fuku shrugged.

“You’re a bartender, you should know!” Snowy said, pointing a wing at the fire elemental.

“Dude, back off…” Skate said as she peeled her eyes at the bird.

“I mean, I didn’t drink at all and uh… I feel like there’s a fairly obvious reason it can’t be me, haha,” MK chuckled nervously.

“U-Um, shouldn’t we save this for a bit later?” Ralsei asked. “I feel like we haven’t fully discussed what Kris’ account of the storage room means,”

“Does it mean that much?” Dess said as she looked at the goat boy.

“I-I mean it could! I do have a theory in mind, but-”

MISSING EQUIPMENT

“I AGREE WITH THAT!”

“Is it the theory I have in mind?” Kris asked as they turned their head to face the goat.

“Um… well that depends on what you’re going to say,” Ralsei said, giving the human a nervous smile.

“Yeah, he’s not a mindreader, Kris,” Dess gave a smirk. “What’s your theory, Kris?”

“Well, it’s a bit weird, but it’s something that I’ve had in mind for a bit,” Kris said. “What if the weight wasn’t the murder weapon at all?”

“Huh!?” Dess yelp.

“That changes the whole case!” Berdly shouted. “Wait… how does that change the whole case?”

“Cause it means they had to get the murder weapon from outside of the storage room,” Kris said. “Which means they got it from the-”

“WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?”

“Huh?” Kris turned their head, utterly confused as Dess spoke over them.

“Okay, I kinda get what you’re trying to say, but… I just can’t shake that it’s well…” Dess gritted her teeth. “Totally wrong,”

I mean, I guess I can kinda understand it being farfetched but… I didn’t expect Dess of all people to argue with me unless…

She has some kind of ulterior motive?

…

No, no. She just- disagrees with the theory is all…

REBUTTAL SHOWDOWN

KRIS VS DECEMBER
FIGHT!!!

“I don’t think you and Noelle going to the storage room together really disproves that the weight was the murder weapon,” Dess shrugged. “I mean, what else could it really be?”

“It was the only thing heavy enough to kill Temmie, and I don’t really see the point of using a whole ‘nother weapon only to go into the storage room for the weight anyway,” Dess said. “And besides, they also could have just grabbed the weight beforehand, we never really disproved that,”

---

“Well, if the weight was missing from the storage room, me and Noelle would’ve noticed that, right?” Kris asked. “I think that proves that the weight was taken during the murder,”

---

“Would you have noticed? I don’t feel like it’s the kinda thing I’d look for anyway,” Dess shrugged. “And it’s not like we have any other weapons anyway, the weight was the only thing missing from the storage room”

MISSING EQUIPMENT

“I’LL CUT DOWN THAT ARGUMENT!”

“Actually the storage room was also missing a guitar,” Kris said.

Dess jumped back in shock, before quickly composing herself. “The hell? What do you mean, I didn’t notice that!”

“W-Was there really?” Noelle mumbled. “Are you sure you a-aren’t just-”

“There was…” Catti added. “A lot of us were in the storage room not doing much during the investigation, so it was kinda easy to notice something like that, at least for me,” The cat woman shrugged.

“No need to brag about having working eyes,” Snowy complained as he rolled his.

“I think it’s- very impressive actually!” Jockington said, nodding enthusiastically.

Catti gave the tiniest of smiles to the snake. “Thanks,”

“Well if we have two accounts confirming that there was a guitar missing from the storage room then… I guess we gotta consider it,” Frisk nodded, her eyes closed as she was deep in thought. “I did kinda think there was something off about the storage room,”

“Are you sayin the guitar was the murder weapon!?” Pizzapants exclaimed. “Why didn’t we find it then?”

I mean that’s pretty self explanatory, but still…

INCINERATOR

“Did you actually need my help for this?”

“There’s an incinerator in the storage room, they must’ve used it to dispose of the guitar,” Kris said with a shrug. “Hell, the incinerator was turned on, remember?”

“Oh…” Pizzapants mumbled.

“I-It was…” Noelle mumbled.

“Well that confirms that it was used at the very least,” Frisk said, putting a finger to her chin.

“Well. I mean you can’t really prove for sure that it was used to destroy the missing guitar,” Dess said as she laughed nervously. “And uh… even if the missing guitar was the murder weapon, the killer would still have to-”

“There were guitars in the music studio,” Catti chimed in, staring down the older deer girl.

“Huh!?” Dell yelped.

“I mean, obviously, are you saying one of those were the murder weapon?” Berdly quirked an eyebrow. “But then, what would be the point of taking a guitar from the storage room?”

Berdly actually has a point again, though I feel like I can explain it…

TO OBFUSCATE THE MURDER WEAPON

“THAT’S IT!”

“They must’ve taken it with them after they disposed of the guitar used to kill Temmie,” Kris explained. “In order to cause confusion as to what the murder weapon was,”

“B-But the dumbbell had blood on it, i-it can still b-be the weapon, right?” Noelle stammered out a defense, everyone already thinking what she was thinking in relation to the guitar.

But… there was always something off to me about the dumbbell…

LITTLE BLOOD ON THE DUMBBELL

“For the supposed murder weapon, it wasn’t very bloody,” Kris explained. “I didn’t think much of it at the time, but… thinking about it now. The killer must’ve put a light amount of blood on it in order to make it look like the murder weapon,”

“Ghk!” Noelle made a noise of terrified frustration.

“Hmph, it would’ve been easy to take the dumbbell from the storage room,” Berdly said with a confident nod. “Thanks to Kris’ dusty adventures, we know that-”

“Don’t… say it like that,” Kris grumbled, looking less amused than they normally did at how weird Berdly was.

“R-Right, the killer had easy access to both the Gym and the storage room, completely unable to be seen by those in the Infirmary!” Berdly declared. “Which, as you’ll all know made the trick of the vents ever so obvious!”

“I think we’ve been paying a good amount of attention, dude,” Skate rolled her eyes.

“Like me!” Lancer nodded confidently.

“Yeah, like you!” Susie said as she smiled at Lancer. “You were pretty helpful in this trial, the nerd too!”

“Um… thanks?” Ralsei said, turning his head slightly.

“So… we’ve figured out quite a bit more information on this case, but. What does it all mean?” Fuku said as she turned her head.

“Y-Yeah, Kris. What are you t-trying to say?” Noelle asked, looking like she was seconds away from hyperventilating, as-

“I think I know what they’re about to say, actually,” Dess said, looking directly at Kris with a kind yet wistful smile on their face, a look of acceptance. “I think they’ve figured out who the culprit is,”

Noelle’s eyes widened in terror as she shot Dess a brief look.

“Wait, really?” Frisk asked, looking around in shock.

“You’re not fucking with us, right?” Susie grumbled.

“Better not be,” Snowy scoffed. “C’mon Kris, tell us who you think it is already,”

“I’m going to,” Kris said. “I just…”

Need a bit of time to think? No, I think I kinda already thought about it from the start.

The last person I’d want it to be, the last person I could think it would be…

But the only person who makes any sense, smiling at me from the cold…

WHO IS THE CULPRIT?

DECEMBER HOLIDAY

“IT CAN ONLY BE YOU!”

Kris let out a deep, defeated sigh as they looked up at their friend. “Dess, it’s you, right?”

Dess stood there in silence, her eyes closed as she sucked in a deep breath. Noelle looked like she was on the verge of tears, her eyes wide with terror as she huffed and heaved.

“Dude, what?” Skate shouted.

“I-I mean, the evidence does make it look like her, but…” Ralsei mumbled. “Can we really be sure?”

“The guitar is suspicious…” Snowy squinted his eyes at the guitarist, still and calm as she was.

“Is that all, though? I mean- she did leave with her guitar…” Pizzapants grumbled.

“Oh dude, she did!” MK said in shock.

“No one else would’ve been capable of grabbing the guitar in the studio without it being seen as… odd at the very least,” Fuku nodded.

“Dess has been a natural leader to us, h-however,” Berdly said, her confident facade cracking for a moment like it tended to do. “Are we sure? It would be quite the betrayal,”

“I’m used to that kinda thing…” Susie grumbled.

“Well, Dess. Do you have anything to say?” Frisk asked. “We don’t want it to be you, but… with all the evidence we have. I can’t see another culprit,”

“Heh…” Dess let out a dry laugh, and then a sigh. “You… you got me,”

“Ohoho, a confession!” Lancer declared.

“You’re admitting to it?” Frisk asked, somewhat shocked at how sudden it was. “I-I would thank you, but… you-”

“Maybe she’d rather admit to the darkness in her soul than let it fester,” Catti declared.

“Perhaps she still- cares for us after all!” Jockington nodded in an attempt to reassure the crowd.

Susie shook her head. “Doubt it, she tried to kill us all so she could escape,”

Snowy turned to the dinosaur. “Didn’t you also-”

Susie gave the bird a menacing glare.

“Eh, we’ll focus on that later,” Snowy shrugged. “For now, why did you-”

“D-Dess, stop it…” Noelle mumbled.

“Huh?” Dess said as she looked at her sister. “Elly, you don’t have to-”

“Stop! It can’t be you, i-it can’t!” Noelle yelped.

Kris let out a frustrated sigh. “Listen, I don’t want it to be her either-”

“Then why are you saying it’s her when it’s not!?” Noelle shouted, fresh tears forming in the deer’s eyes and streaming down her cheeks.

“Oh jeez, this isn’t funny at all,” Snowy said, getting a cold shiver up his spine.

“No shit…” Catti raised an eyebrow at the bird.

“Elly, please-”

“No! Sh-Shut up. I-I’m sorry Kris, b-but I have to prove you wrong!” Noelle yelled as she pointed at her friend.

“I… WON’T HEAR THAT!”

Noelle, please. I know you want to defend Dess, I want to defend Dess, but… it can only be her. She’s admitting to it, please…

…

Even if it won’t work, I still have to try to convince her…

REBUTTAL SHOWDOWN

KRIS VS NOELLE

FIGHT!!!

“E-Even if the guitar is the murder weapon, th-that doesn’t mean it’s Dess!” Noelle said with a miserable hiccup. “A-Anyone could’ve stolen the guitar, th-there were plenty of guitars, i-it was a music studio!”

“P-Please just… stop accusing Dess, okay? I-It can’t be here, i-it just can’t!” Noelle yelled. “I-I know it isn’t her, I-I just need to think o-of how- how…”

---

“Noelle, please…” Kris said, pleading with their friend to give it up, their voice an exhausted whisper. “She’s confessed, she doesn’t want you to-”

---

“We saw her!” Noelle yelled out. “We saw her in her dorm, don’t you remember!?”

“I-If she really killed Temmie, sh-she would’ve had blood on her clothes, o-or she wouldn’t have been wearing her jacket, but…” Noelle’s breath hitched as she swallowed down the bile in her throat. “H-Her jacket was clean, a-and it’s not like she had any way to hide it!”

INCINERATOR

“Please… just stop!”

“She could’ve thrown her bloody jacket in the incinerator,” Kris explained.

“Ghk!” Noelle let out a choked breath of frustration and fear.

“That’s what I did,” Dess explained, looking dejectedly at her hooves. “There’s replacement clothes in everyone’s closets, that’s why there was no blood, Elly. You don’t have to defend me any-”

“No…” Noelle said, full conviction in her normally meek and small voice. “No, I-I won’t believe it… I’ll never believe it,”

“Good bit of delusion always helps,” Snowy snickered.

“Dude,” Skate grumbled. “Uncool,”

“I- there’s nothing you can s-say that’ll convince me… th-there was no way Dess would’ve done that, she would never have manipulated someone like that, wh-why don’t you believe her?”

“I do believe her, she’s-”

“I DON’T CARE!” Noelle yelled with an sniffle, out of breath from her prolonged outburst. “There’s a hole i-in this whole plan, a-and I’m going to expose it. Th-Then you have to believe me!”

There’s a good chance… I’ll be able to refute it, but I’ll have to let Noelle get through this first… so we can finally move on from this.

PANIC TALK ACTION

NOELLE HOLIDAY

GO!!!

“SHUT UP SHUT UP!”

“I-It can’t be her, right!? Right!?”

“D-Dess, why are you going along with them!?”

“K-Kris, stop. I-It’s not funny, Kris please!”

“Stop! Stop! Stop!”

“I-It just can’t, it just can’t!”

“Dess, why aren’t you defending yourself!?”

“Please stop, j-just stop!”

“D-Dess isn’t a killer,”

“Th-There has to be more evidence, right!?”

Noelle’s breathing soon calmed, as she finally came up with a hole. Even if a small one, in Kris’ argument.

“I-I was with Dess all day, she never went on her Tenna-Tablet. Sh-She had no chance to invite Temmie to the classroom!”

DESS ALONE WITH TEMMIE

“IT ENDS HERE!”

“H-How!?” Noelle shouted as Kris came up with the final rebuttal.

“When Dess sent us out to get everyone for the party, Temmie stayed with her,” Kris explained. “That was her chance to invite her,”

“Th-That’s- th-that can’t be. Sh-She wouldn’t… w-wouldn’t…”

“Elly, please,” Dess pleaded, tears rolling down her face. Though in small amounts compared to her sister. “Just- just stop, it’s over,”

Noelle stayed silent, sobbing and heaving to herself.

Frisk let out a depressed sigh. “Is it over? Can we finally-”

“No, I-I want you to explain it,” Noelle declared.

“What?” Kris asked. “Explain what,”

“Everything, everything about this case, s-so I can finally- just- finally know everything about what happened… p-please…” Noelle sniffled.

“I-” Kris found themselves found almost at a complete loss for words. “I will, for your sake, and for Temmie’s sake and for the sake for everyone else here…

“HERE’S EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THIS CASE!”

CLOSING ARGUMENT

ACT 1:

“This case starts the day before yesterday, the culprit had decided to throw a party. I’m still not sure if this was initially part of their plan, but… considering how they used it I’m starting to think it was,”

“The culprit had gotten Me, Noelle, Skate, Ralsei, Frisk and Temmie to help set up the party with her. Skate had decided to convince Fuku to make alcohol for the party, while Frisk and Ralsei handled all the food… that left Noelle, Temmie and I to go to the storage room to get tables for the party,”

“Once setup was done, the culprit had ordered us to go out to invite everyone. Except for Temmie, who stayed behind. The culprit used this time alone with her as their chance to invite Temmie to a secluded area later on in the day,”

ACT 2:

“Everyone except for Susie had shown up to the party, which for about the whole night. One by one, though, people started leaving for one reason or another, I assume the culprit would be keeping track of this to see if they needed to change their plan at all,”

“Ralsei left at about seven to go guard the Infirmary, Lancer followed them soon after. Jockington left at about eight, and Catti left at his request to check on his sleeping,”

“At nine, Temmie had left as the culprit had asked her to do earlier. Having her leave before nighttime was vital to their plan,”

ACT 3:

“At about 10:30, the culprit decided to properly put their plan into action. She had found an excuse to leave the party that wouldn’t make her seem suspicious, the string of their guitar breaking and having to go to their room to repair it,”

“In order to minimise the chance of the people in the Infirmary seeing them, the culprit elected to take the long way to the unused classroom by going through the foyer, once inside, they met with Temmie. I don’t think she expected what would happen next, she didn’t have a chance to fight back as the culprit slammed the guitar into the back of her head. Killing her instantly,”

“For the next part of her plan to work, she’d have to cover up the wound to prevent blood from leading back to the Unused Classroom, so she pulled Temmie’s shirt over her head and took it with her into the vent alongside the guitar,”

“She used the vent first to travel through the Gym hallway undetected, so she could quickly dispose of the bloody guitar and her clothes using the incinerator, she then grabbed a guitar and a dumbbell from the storage room and went back into the vent,”

“She dumped Temmie’s body into the Gym, alongside the dumbbell in order to give the allusion that Temmie had been killed in the Gym, thus making it impossible for her to have died after nighttime,”

“After finishing in the Gym, Dess went back to the storage room to use the vent there to travel to the library, and head back to her room, probably to replace her jacket…”

“However, after she had been gone for so long. Noelle and I got concerned, so we looked for her in her room. This actually helped her alibi, as it seemed as if she had just taken a long time repairing her guitar… soon after she came back the party ended, and we all returned to our rooms…”

ACT 4:

“The next day, Tenna came into the cafeteria during breakfast in order to direct us towards the Gym, where at last we discovered Temmie’s body, blood long since dried from the day before. Killed by someone that we all trusted…”

“That someone, the only person it can be is you… right Dess?”

“There, that’s it. I’ve explained everything,” Kris declared with an exhausted sigh.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Can confirm,” Dess nodded, hunched over and sorrowful.

“I-I guess it’s over then,” Frisk sighed.

“What now, though? I feel like we-”

“Now!? It’s V-V-VOTING TIME! My dear students!” Tenna declared, standing up from his seat and raising his arms in celebration. “In a moment you’ll vote for the MURDERER among you… will you vote for the right person, or the DREADFULLY WRONG one?”

VOTE FOR THE KILLER

…

DECEMBER HOLIDAY

As everyone finished voting, a large screen slowly floated down into the middle of the trial room…

---

DECEMBER HOLIDAY: 14/16

NOELLE HOLIDAY: 1/16

WHO IS THE KILLER?

…

…

|DECEMBER|DECEMBER|DECEMBER|

CORRECET!!!

---

“Well there we go folks, you were one hundred percent CORRECT, the beloved guitarist of BLOOD CRUSHERS was the murderer behind Temmie’s death!” Tenna said as he beamed and danced in the middle of the trial room, the Knight floating behind him.

“Well, I-I guess it’s over now,” Berdly mumbled nervously. “Wh-What happens-”

“Why…” Noelle mumbled, rage clear in her harsh yet quiet tone.

“Huh?” Dess said as she looked at her sister, both scared and confused.

“Wh-Why’d you do this, Dess?” Noelle asked as tears dripped from her eyes, even after all the crying the deer had done before. “Wh-Why you- I thought I c-could trust you, why!?”

“I-I’ve been meaning to ask Dess the same thing,” Skate said. “We trusted you, man,”

“Maybe she was always like this,” Snowy sneered.

“Okay, not even the best musicians can hide being evil for that long,” Pizzapants declared incredulously.

“I-I don’t want to believe that you’re a bad person, Dess, b-but… you’re not telling us why you did this,” Ralsei said with a deep sigh. “Please, just-”

“I can’t say,” Dess shrugged, her face and voice strained as she said the words.

“Wh-What do you mean, h-have you been hiding something from me!?” Noelle shouted.

“Dess…” Kris mumbled, unable to muster any words beyond her name.

“I-I’m telling you, I can’t say,” Dess said, she gave the lightest of glances towards the knight before returning to staring down at her shoes. “I-I didn’t want to hurt anyone-”

“Th-Then why’d you kill her!?” Noelle shouted. “Wh-Why, please, just tell me why!”

“Now then, we’ve prepared a very SPECIAL PUNISHMENT for December Holiday, the Ultimate Guitarist!” Tenna said with a laugh.

“P-Punishment?” Noelle gasped.

“It was in the rules, I-I’m-” Dess felt the words die in her throat, sweat dripping down her forehead and fear take hold on her face. “I-I’m-”

“Let’s give it everything we’ve get ITS! PUNISHMENT! TIME!”

“W-Wait, please. No!”

Noelle’s pleas were ignored as Tenna jumped up to his throne, pulling a gavel from behind him and slamming it down on a button that appeared before him…

G A M E O V E R

DECEMBER HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY

TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!

Dess stood in the middle of the trial room, eyes darting around as everyone stared at her with looks ranging from disgust, to confusion, to sympathy, with all three being on the face of her sister as the two made eye contact-

SNAP

A metal collar snapped shut around Dess’ neck, a chain attached to it lead to one of the many doors surrounding the trial room, and before she knew what was going on the chain distended into the door dragging Dess along with it…

She eventually landed in an impossibly large field blanketed with a thick layer of snow, as the collar was released Dess shivered and looked around only to see Noelle with her backed turned to her.

THE TUNDRA TOUR

Ultimate Guitarist

December Holiday’s Execution: Executed.

Noelle began to walk further into the tundra. Dess ran after her sister, shouting out to her as-

TWANG

A razor thin, barbed string struck Dess in the face leaving a bleeding gash. Dess groaned in pain, but shook her head and pressed on as Noelle continued to walk, Dess trudging through the snow in an attempt to catch up.

More string struck the older deer, first covering her arm in slashes and bruises, then tearing apart her jacket and chest. Dess’ breath condensed and her fingers began to turn black and bleed. The cold attacking her almost as much as the endless amount of strings that slashed her entire body until the flesh was raw with cuts and blood, however, she pressed on to get to her sister…

She reached out a hand, Noelle was right in front of her. a chance to get the attention of her sister, lost in the cold.

Noelle turned around… revealing that it wasn’t Noelle at all, but the knight wearing a wig to look like her, with one slash of its sword Dess’ head was cleaved cleanly from her neck, a terrified expression stuck on her face…

…

“WOOHOO, EXTREME! COWABUNGADERO! I haven’t had an execution like that in 12 years!” Tenna declared as he looked around the trial room, silently staring up at the screen.

The silence was broken by Pizzapants letting out a terrified scream.

“Wh-What the fuck was that!?” Susie shouted.

“Ough… I don’t feel too good…” Lancer complained as he clutched his round stomach.

“I-I don’t think anyone- what the hell just happened!?” Frisk yelped.

“I- an… oh god…” Fuku sounded like she was about to hurl.

“I-I didn’t think it’d be that… inhumane!” Berdly yelped.

“O-Oh god…” Ralsei leaned against a well, desperately looking away from the screen.

Snowy shook his head. “I can’t even make a joke about this, this is just fucked!”

“We have to! Make sure this never happens guys!” Jockington nodded fearfully as he curled in on himself.

“Better said than done,” Catti mumbled. “I think Dess was the last person who we thought would kill someone,”

“A-At least she’s resting now, right?” MK added.

“How the fuck are you meant to rest after dying like that, dude!?” Skate shouted.

“I uh… dunno…” MK mumbled.

“L-Let’s not lose our minds here, this is bad, but-”

“But what?” Kris asked antagonistically.

“B-But… I-I don’t know!” Frisk yelped. “B-But I- we’ll figure something out, and-”

“Sure…” Kris rolled their eyes and grumbled, trying their best to not make eye contact with the screen, they then turned to the deer who had just…

“Noelle!” Kris shouted as the deer fell to the floor with a loud thud, fainting at the sight she was forced to see.

“Oh shit, Noelle!” Susie let out a shout as she ran to the deer’s aid, picking up the thin girl.

“What are you doing?” Frisk asked as she too ran over to the two.

“Gonna carry her back to her room, duh!” Susie said. “You got a problem with that or something?”

“O-Of course not!” Frisk yelped.

Kris let out a sigh as they looked down at Noelle’s unconscious form. “Guess she couldn’t handle it… let’s just go…”

“Yeah, w-we’re better off not dwelling on this!” Ralsei said with an odd, strained smile as he began to walk towards the elevator back to the school. Everyone followed behind him in silence…

There was an odd feeling as the students walked through the halls of their new home, two people now gone from the crowd… there was a feeling that they were being watched that Kris felt spread through their entire body as they stood next to the Noelle carrying Susie. Though, they chalked it up to the nerves of having watched-

“Hello,”

“WAH!” Pizzapants let out a scream at the shock of someone they hadn’t seen before… well at the very least they hadn’t seen standing up since they first got here.

The fox woman, alive and well stood in the hallway, looking the crowd up and down with curiosity and apprehension.

“Y-You’re awake?” Ralsei asked nervously.

“Yes,” The fox nodded. “Thank you for taking me here after I got well…”

“Yeah,” Kris said with a sigh. “Who are you, anyway?”

Ceroba looked around as if she had just remembered the answer. “Ceroba, Ceroba Ketsukane…”

CHAPTER 1: THE SNOWGRAVE

END!

YOU GOT THE WORN GUITAR

REMAINING STUDENTS: 14/16

Chapter Text

Instead of questioning the new arrival, everyone elected to head to bed after the exhausting trial. Then started the day anew by heading to the cafeteria for breakfast… the newcomer, Ceroba had elected to sit in her own corner of the room. The air of dread was thick over the entire room. With everyone being basically silent due to the lack of… Noelle, yeah Noelle was missing from the cafeteria, Kris noticed.

“Ah, it appears it’s just the two of us,” Ralsei mumbled as he looked up at Kris.

“Yeah, I kinda get why Noelle’s a no show though,” Kris shrugged.

Ralsei nodded. “Y-Yeah… hey, why don’t we talk to the new person?” He said with a smile, trying to change the topic as best he could.

Kris looked over to the fox woman, who was staring into space as if she was trying to remember something…

“Whatever,” Kris shrugged as Ralsei lead them to the woman, who moved her head slightly up to look at the two as they approached.

“Hello,” Ceroba greeted simply.

“Hey, we just wanted to welcome you here,” Ralsei said with a smile and a wave. “U-Um, there’s a bit of a situation going on right now, and I-I want to reassure you that-”

“Are you referring to the Killing Game?” Ceroba asked, quirking an eyebrow. “I understand how it works, I promise I won’t allow myself to go through with something so horrible,”

“I trust you!” Ralsei said with a smile.

“You seem weirdly familiar with this whole thing,” Kris said.

“I… suppose I should, me and Martlet were here to try to stop this, but…” Ceroba trailed off, then let out a sigh. “I cannot remember how we hoped to even stop this, or if there was anyone behind us. It is… unfortunate to say the least,”

“Is… Martlet the bluebird girl you came with?” Kris asked.

Ceroba nodded. “Yes, I had known her for awhile before she…” Ceroba let out a deep sigh as she trailed off. “Is there anything else you want to talk about?”

“A-Are you sleeping in the infirmary permanently? I-I could offer you my room if you need!” Ralsei said.

Ceroba shook her head. “No need, the beds are fine and besides. I’d be uncomfortable using someone else’s room,”

“Okay,” Ralsei nodded, almost looking relieved

“Well, if you don’t have any other questions. I think it’d be best if I explored more of-”

“Hey,” We all turned towards the new voice in the conversation, Susie, rubbing her hands together like a child about to tell their parent that they drew on a wall.

“Hello,” Ceroba said, her expression curving into one of mild discomfort.

“I just uh… wanted to say sorry for…” Susie scratched the back of her head nervously. “Uh… say sorry for trying to stab you and stuff,”

“Oh, you’re apologising to her!” Ralsei beamed a smile at Susie. “That’s great!”

“Yes, it’s not much of an issue now,” Ceroba nodded.

“Oh, alright phew,” Susie said with a chuckle. “Welp, glad we’re good. Now I can get back to-”

BANG “GOOD MORNING STUDENTS!” Tenna yelled as he kicked down the door on his way into the cafeteria, causing Fuku to let out a screech.

“What are you doing here?” Frisk yelped.

“Can’t even give us a day to mourn, what a dick!” Snowy declared, pointing a feather at the TV Headed man.

“Listen dude, we’re not falling for another motive,” Skate crossed her arms and sneered. “So like, back off!”

“Now now, I’m not here to announce another motive. Why would I do that so soon? I’m just here to say that the BASEMENT is officially open for business!” Tenna spread his arms wide in celebration.

Berdly let out a dramatic sigh. “You interrupted an important meal such as this for a basement? I’m sure a plebian like Kris would enjoy such a thing, but I am not one for such…” Berdly’s smile hit peak smugness. “Stupidity,”

“I mean, if it’s just a basement. I don’t exactly see the point of it,” Fuku shrugged.

“What? C’mon, it’s a great basement! There’s everything kids your age need!” Tenna declared. “An arcade, theatre, electricity, a pool and even, hit the drums, Knight!” Tenna called out to the roof, an drumroll started audibly playing. “A room containing all kinds of SECRETS!”

“Secrets?” MK turned his head curiously.

“I’m sure it’s a whole load of horseshit,” Pizzapants. “I know I got nothin’ to hide!”

“He didn’t say they’d be our secrets,” Frisk reassured. “And besides, I think he’s messing with us,”

“Well, you’ll just have to-”

“He is, and I’m getting quite tired of it,” Ceroba sighed as she interrupted Tenna, causing him to look at her.

“Oh, right. I forgot to mention the new, 29 YEAR OLD student joining you, Ceroba-”

Ceroba responded to her introduction by reaching into one of the folds of her kimono.

“AH! NOT AGAIN!” Tenna let out a yelp as he ran off, Ceroba smirking as she did.

“Holy shit, that was cool as hell old lady!” Susie let out a raspy laugh, Ceroba shot her a brief glare but soon returned to her neutral expression.

“You’ve still got your gun on ya?” Pizzapants gulped as he asked.

Ceroba shook her head. “No, I believe that knight took it off me,” She then stood up from her seat and began to leave the cafeteria. “I believe we should explore the new area, just to check if there is anything that could help us escape,”

“Yeah, gotta check every nook and cranny,” Frisk nodded.

“And there’s some fun stuff there, anyway,” Skate chuckled.

Berdly nodded smugly. “The arcade will be of much use to a near godlike gamer such as myself,” He pointed a wing at his chest, making Kris roll their eyes and chuckle to themselves.

“And the pool sounds pretty fun!” Fuku nodded.

“Pool- wouldn’t being submurged in water kill ya?” Snowy asked, looking confused at the fire girl.

Fuku shook her head. “I’m on fire, not made of fire,”

“Ah, I see,” Snowy nodded as he got up from his seat too. “Let’s head out, that theatre will do me a whole lotta good, hehe,” The bird let out a chuckle.

Everyone seemed to be having a good time, good enough that Kris was able to ignore the guilt building up in their throat at where Noelle could be, she-

she’s probably fine, I’ll check on her later.

…

With that, everyone headed past the spa to the basement of the school. They were met with one long hallway with a bunch of doors on the side. Kris pulled out their Tenna-Tablet to get a better look at where everything was:

Kris stood just at the bottom of the stairs, Ralsei and Susie were standing behind them.

“Well, I suppose there isn’t much exploring to do,” Ralsei said. “This shouldn’t take us too long,”

“How the fuck is it a secret room if it’s right there,” Susie said as she motioned towards the big room labelled “SECRET” on the map.

“Maybe we should investigate it first then!” Ralsei said with a smile.

“Huh, I was gonna go at it alone, but… I guess exploring with you guys is fine too,” Susie shrugged.

“I don’t mind,” Kris said as they put their Tenna-Tablet back into their pocket.

“Well, it’s settled then. Susie, you can lead the way!” Ralsei said with a smile.

“Huh? Oh, alright uh…” Susie trailed off as she looked around the hallway. “Let’s uh… eh, fuck it. Kris, you decide,”

“Me?” Kris motioned towards themselves. “Uh… I dunno, the Arcade’s closest, so I guess we’ll start there,”

“Sounds great Kris!” Ralsei said with a smile.

“Yeah, glad we’re going somewhere not boring first, lead the way dude,” Susie said as she gave Kris a pat on the back to get them moving, the human chuckled in response as they lead their friends to the Arcade…

The room was pretty big and lined wall to wall with arcade machines, decorated with what looked like ancient video games and newer titles that were for some reason still being released to arcade machines. There was also a snack bar and a prize bar. It reminded Kris of an arcade their parents would have taken him for their birthday.

Or Asriel’s…

Or Noelle’s…

Or…

“Woah, holy shit. This place is awesome!” Susie said with a chuckle and wide smile. “They even got food, I haven’t eaten all day!”

“D-Didn’t we just have-” Susie was already eating literally everything at the snack bar, interrupting Ralsei. “N-Nevermind,”

“Wow Susie, I did expect to see you here!” Lancer said, revealing his presence as he scampered onto the top of the snackbar, Berdly was also with him.

“Oh, sup Lancer, you want some?” Susie asked as she threw a fully unwrapped chocolate bar into the air, Lancer jumped up and caught it in his mouth, gobbling it all up in one bite.

Berdly let out a dramatic sigh. “It seems even in the den of a true gamer I can’t escape plebians messing around,”

“Yeah whatever birdbrain,” Susie shrugged as she continued to eat.

“Yeah, whatever!” Lancer agreed, even though Susie had made zero point.

“And Kris! You’re normally with Noelle, where is she?” Even though he was trying to project his usual amount of cockiness, Kris could tell that there was something a bit… off about the question, like he was asking it out of actual concern instead of just being an asshole.

“Um, are you worried about her?” Ralsei asked. “Cause, I’m sure she’s okay. I checked on her this morning, she just doesn’t want to leave her room…”

“She doesn’t wish to leave her abode, eh?” Berdly put a wing to his chin.

“That’s what he said,” Kris shrugged.

“Hmmph, I’ll talk to her myself then, see what’s wrong,” Berdly said confidently as he stepped his way out of the Arcade. “Goodbye Krismas, and the rest of you plebians!”

“Goodbye Berdly!” Ralsei said with a wave.

“Why was I singled out there?” Kris mumbled to themselves, then shrugged. “Whatever, we should probably get going now,”

“Yeah, I’ve already eaten most of the good snacks anyway,” Susie shrugged as she got up from the snackbar, stretching a bit. “See ya around Lancer,”

“Goodbye Scary Susie!” Lancer said with a goofy smile. “I will consume as many milk duds as my tender body can take!”

“Hell yeah, that’s the spirit!” Susie gave Lancer a high five before She, Ralsei and Kris left the arcade.

Kris just sorta lead them to the next room, the human deciding on the theatre because it was closest. The group of three entered into a long room with rows of comfortable looking seats on one end alongside a projector a popcorn machine and a slushie machine, there was a fancy wooden stage hidden behind red curtains on the other side of the room. The kinda thing you’d see in a school except clean and well funded. Pizzapants and MK were in the room, the former standing near the snack machines and the latter seemingly just kinda looking around the area.

It kinda reminded Kris of this cinema Noelle, Asriel and-

…

“Hey uh… Kris, are you okay?” Ralsei asked, snapping the human out of their trance. “You just seem a bit out of it is all,”

“No, I’m fine. I guess I’m just a bit tired today is all,” Kris let out a pretty fake sounding yawn to sell it.

“You’re tellin’ me,” Pizzapants said as he poured popcorn into a bucket. “I’ve had to load up on energy drinks in the kitchen just to stay awake today, little buddy,”

“The kitchen has those?” Kris turned their head.

“Yeah, they all taste like chalk though,” Susie shrugged, then smiled to herself as she thought of the taste of chalk.

Kris let out a groan. “Ugh, count me out then. I can’t stand shitty energy drink taste,”

“I don’t usually drink energy drinks either,” Ralsei added. “They make me shaky,”

Kris nodded, then looked around the theatre a bit more. “Where’s Snowy, I feel like he’d get a lotta stock out of this place,”

“Haha, yeah. He was here a moment ago,” MK said. “Apparently he found the secret room more interesting, though,”

“The hell, did he manage to get in?” Susie squinted her eyes at the door leading out of the theatre.

“I uh… dunno man. You can go there to see if you wanna,” MK said.

“The hell are we waiting for then, we should head over!” Susie declared.

“Right!” Ralsei nodded as the two walked out of the cinema, Kris followed behind then. They waved goodbye to the two men in the cinema before they left.

Kris soon made their way to the front of the large, black and white door labelled “SECRET”. Standing next to Ralsei and Susie who was standing behind Snowy, who was leaning on the door.

“Oh, have more of you come to bother me while I try to investigate our host’s secret room?” Snowy asked. “Well, it’s hardly a secret, but still,”

“Have you been able to get in?” Susie asked with a grumble.

“Not in the slightest, maybe the real secret is that it leads to nothing hah,” Snowy let out a cackle. “That’d be stupid!”

“M-Maybe, if you want I could help you investigate!” Ralsei offered.

“Eh, I don’t need your help Pal. I’m sure the key to this place’ll just reveal itself in no time,” Snowy smirked, then waved a wing at the group of three. “Now go, I gotta think and youse aren’t helpin’ me at all,”

“Didn’t wanna help you anyway, dick,” Kris grumbled as they walked away, Ralsei following them closely.

“Yeah!” Susie parroted as she too followed Kris, the group of three electing to move to the Generator Room.

Unlike the other rooms on this floor, at least the ones the group of three had visited so far. The Generator room was a grey, industrial cube with a large generator on one end with a bunch of switches connected to it. There was also a plugbox connected to the generator itself near a pile of a bunch of other plugboxes and extension cords sort of just haphazardly stacked.

“Oh it’s you…” Catti said from the corner of the dark room as she gave Susie a brief glare before turning to look at the other two people in the room. “Hey,”

“Hello Catti, um… are you all alone in here?” Ralsei asked as he tentatively stepped towards the girl.

“Yeah, I like the darkness. It’s comforting,” Catti said as she tapped away on her Tenna-Tablet. “Why did you three come here?”

“To explore, duh. There could be something cool in here,” Susie said as Catti scoffed.

“In the generator room?” Kris chuckled.

“Yeah, in the generator room!” Susie smirked back as she grabbed an extension cord, inspecting it closely and then swinging it around a little. “This is a cool thing, and it’s in the generator room,”

“Um… maybe d-don’t-” Ralsei was interrupted by the plug of the cord hitting Susie square in the face.

“GAH FUCK!” Susie groaned as she clutched the part of her cheek that was hit.

“Susie, are you okay!?” Ralsei yelped as the boy came to Susie’s aid, inspecting the wound closely.

Catti sighed. “What the hell did you think was gonna happen?”

Ralsei gently patted the spot on Susie’s cheek, a green glow briefly emitted from his hands. “There, should be all better!”

“Really? Oh, shit it actually is all better!” Susie gave the goat boy a smirk. “Hell yeah! Thanks Ralsei!”

“You’re welcome!” Ralsei smiled.

Susie stretched. “Yeah, well, if there’s nothing else here we should probably head out. C’mon!” The dinosaur girl said as she and Ralsei left the room, Kris soon trailing behind-

“Hey, Kris,”

“Hm?” The human turned around to face Catti, the callout quiet enough that they only barely heard it. “What is it?”

“How’s Noelle? I haven’t seen her all day, is all,” Catti sighed.

Kris thought for a moment then let out a disgruntled sigh. “I actually don’t know either, I-I should check on her later today,”

“Yeah, I think it’d be good if you talked to her. You’re… both going through the same thing, sorta,”

Kris shrugged. “Yeah, sorta… see ya around, Catti,”

“Bye Kris…”

Finally, the group of three had made their way to the last room they had to explore, the Pool. A large if pretty standard room taken up by a large square pool in the middle of it. There was a door leading to a storage room and a three doors which lead to changing rooms labelled “M, F and NB” which Kris found… kinda odd considering they were the only non-binary person here. They did think it was nice to have their own changing room, probably.

“Oh, hello!” Frisk smiled and waved at the three, she was sitting at the edge of the pool, looking into the water. “I didn’t expect anyone else to come in here,”

“Hi Frisk!” Ralsei smiled back at the girl.

“Why? I thought all of us were exploring,” Kris grumbled.

“Right yeah uh… I kinda got here after everyone, so I thought I was the last,” Frisk chuckled.

“After everyone? Are there other people in he-”

“OF COURSE!” Jockington shouted as he jumped out of the water, causing Susie to let out a yelp.

“Dude! You got water on my shirt!” Susie grumbled.

“Ah, Susie- I am very sorry!” Jockington nodded, his usual outfit had been replaced with a tube made out of swimming trunk material that was covering his lower body. “I felt like- coming out at this very, moment!”

“That’s… real cool, man,” Susie grumbled.

“Who else is hiding around here?” Kris said as they shook the water out of their clothes and hair like a dog.

“Well, the new girl’s looking at the storage room,” Frisk said as she motioned towards the door to the storage room. “Fuku and Skate are in the girl’s changing room,”

As she said that, the two women walked out of the room: Fuku was wearing a pretty standard looking blue one piece swimsuit, kinda like the type that would be provided by a school. Skate in turn was dressed in a pretty standard black bikini and a pair of shades.

“Woah, hey dudes. I didn’t know you guys were showing up!” Skate said as she ran towards the group of people, waving wildly as she did.

Fuku trailed behind her and flashed everyone a sweet smile. “Hello, were you also going to use the pool?”

“Well, no. We were just exploring the basement is all,” Ralsei said as he gave a smile back to the fire elemental.

“Yeah, we should probably get back to that,” Kris said as they shot a brief glare at Frisk before they began to walk towards the storage room.

“Oh, bye then!” Fuku said with a wave, Skate also waved the group of three goodbye.

“You will all be, seen!” Jockington nodded as Kris and co. walked into the storage room.

“Frisk, you don’t need to help me look for- oh!” Ceroba shot up a bit as she turned around to face the gang of three. “It’s just you three, what brings you here?”

“Exploring,” Kris shrugged.

“Yeah, we’re just exploring the basement, I assume you are-”

“The hell are you looking for?” Susie interrupted Ralsei as she squinted her eyes at the fox woman.

“Ah, right. I’m trying to find the key to the secret room,” Ceroba said as she continued to reach into one of the pool’s supply cabinets, which lined the wall of the relatively small room. “Though it doesn’t appear to be here,”

“Oh…” Susie mumbled. “Well, that’s cool I guess,”

“If you need any help looking, let me know alright?” Ralsei said with a smile.

Ceroba sighed. “It’s really fine, you’ve done enough for me anyhow,”

“M-Maybe…” Ralsei mumbled.

“Well, we’ll leave you too it,” Kris shrugged as they left the storage room. “See ya,”

“Yeah, see ya around!”

“Bye!” Ralsei said with a wave.

With that there was nothing left of the basement to explore, no stone left to turn. Kris passed by Frisk, Skate, Fuku and Jockington having fun in the pool as they left the pool room. For some reason, they felt the need to shoot Frisk a glare that she couldn’t see before they left the pool room for their bedroom…

…

They got back pretty quick, and soon plopped themselves down onto their usually comfy bed and stared up at the ceiling, the light turned off as to not hurt the human’s eyes as they stared into the white void above them. They stared.

And stared…

and stared…

“I think it’d be a good idea to talk to her, you’re both going through the same thing… sorta,”

The words bounced around Kris’ head, they weren’t stupid, they knew that Dess was dead, and that both they and Noelle had known her since they were all kids. How Dess was like a sibling to all of them, how Dess…

Dess…

Kris let out a disgruntled sigh as they got up from their bed and left their room, walking through the hallway and eventually reaching Noelle’s room. Then stared…

and stared… and hesitated, hesitated to even knock or speak to let the girl know that they were there, that they wanted to be let in, to-

“Hey,”

Kris jumped as they heard the voice of Susie from behind them. “Dude, don’t scare me like that,” Kris said with a chuckle.

“Yeah yeah, sorry,” Susie chuckled back. “Anyway uh, what were you doing here?”

“I was gonna… talk to Noelle, what are you doing here?” Kris asked back as they leaned against the wall.

“Huh weird, I was also gonna uh… talk to her,” Susie shrugged, looking deep in thought for a whole 2 seconds before her eyes widened in joy. “Dude, we could talk to her together!”

“Uhh… sure, why not?” Kris shrugged as Susie put her hand on the doorknob, pretty much throwing the door open-

“WAH!” Noelle let out a screech. “O-Oh, it’s just you two. H-Hi…” Noelle mumbled, there were bags around the deer’s eyes and a general unkemptness in her appearance with her blonde hair being unbrushed and matted.

“Hey Noelle, is it alright if we come in?” Kris asked.

“Yeah, it’s alright,” Noelle shrugged lazily, Susie and Kris took seats next to the unfazed deer.

“So uh… you been alright Noelle?” Susie asked the first question, which was good considering that it was the last thing Kris wanted to do right now. “I mean, we haven’t seen you all day,”

“You didn’t go to breakfast, either,” Kris added.

“Yeah, y-yeah I didn’t…” Noelle sighed. “B-Berdly brought me food a bit ago, so I should be fine,”

“You sure? Cause I mean… it’s not really like you to stay in your room all day,” Kris said. “That’s more of a me thing,”

Noelle let out a chuckle. “I guess, b-but I guess everyone we know is full of surprises nowadays, huh?” The deer’s face curled into a frustrated expression.

Right, the thing Kris had actually come here for, probably Noelle too. “I’m… upset about Dess too, y’know?”

“I-I know, it’s obvious, but… I-I don’t know how to say it,” Noelle let out a groan of frustration. “It’s like- I’ve spent my entire life with her, a-and it’s like I barely even know her now!” Tears of frustration began to form in Noelle’s eyes, few dripping down her cheeks.

… Silence, awkward, tense silence until Susie decided to speak up.

“I’ve been betrayed before too uh… never this bad, obviously, but like,” Susie sighed. “People I trusted doing shit that got me in trouble, y’know?”

“I- don’t think anyone’s b-been betrayed this bad before, like ever…” Noelle sobbed. “I-I miss her so much, b-but I never want to see her again, I-I. Wh-Why is this happening to us? Wh-Why did she-”

“She couldn’t say,”

“H-Huh?” Noelle turned towards the human.

“She told us she couldn’t say, what if… this is gonna sound stupid. What if she thought we wouldn’t get hurt?” Kris suggested. “We as in: you and I,”

“R-Really?” Noelle turned her head. “I-I mean in that case: she still tried to g-get everyone else killed, but… I-I guess that makes me feel a bit less betrayed…”

“Woah, I’m literally right here,” Susie chuckled.

“S-Sorry!” Noelle yelped.

Susie let out another chuckle as she patted Noelle on the back. “It’s fine, dude,”

A faint blush spread across the deer’s cheeks. “Th-Thanks um, good to know!”

“Well, guess you’re back to normal now. As normal as you can be,” Kris shrugged as they got up from Noelle’s bed. “I’m gonna go to bed, see you two around,”

Susie yawned. “I should head out too,” The dinosaur got up and began to walk out of Noelle’s room.

“Oh uh, before you go!” Noelle yelped out to her, making Susie turn around. “Uh… thanks for carrying me back to my room!”

Susie shrugged. “Anytime, it’d be kinda shitty not to,”

…

And with that, Kris retired to their room. Finally getting the first decent sleep they had gotten since the first trial.

Chapter Text

DING DONG BING BONG

“Good morning students! It is now eight A M!” Tenna declared. “Go fill yourselves up in the cafeteria posthaste!”

“That’s a really weird way to put it,” Kris said as they glared up at the screen, quickly got ready and then left their room, encountering Noelle in the hallway.

“O-Oh, hello Kris!” Noelle said, smiling at her friend. She looked a lot better than she did yesterday, her hair now not being as matted as before.

“Hey Noelle,” Kris greeted back. “You heading to breakfast,”

“Everyone is, aren’t they?” Noelle asked.

Kris shrugged. “I guess,” They then proceeded to walk to the cafeteria together, taking their usual seat at a table with Ralsei, Susie and also Lancer because Susie was there.

“Oh, hello Noelle!” Ralsei greeted the deer with a smile.

“Good to see ya since yesterday,” Susie chuckled.

Lancer nodded approvingly. “You sure do have a presence, soft cream girl!”

“Um… thanks?” Noelle chuckled. “I-I guess I’m glad to be back,” She then proceeded to look around the room, noticing Ceroba sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, staring contemplatively into space. “O-Oh, since when was she out of the Infirmary?”

“She’s been out since the trial,” Kris explained. “She seems nice though,”

“Yeah, and she wasn’t even mad at me for trying to stab her!” Susie declared with a goofy smile. “Pretty sweet deal if you ask me,”

“Fahaha!” Noelle laughed. “I-I suppose so?”

“Th-That’s for the best, it’s best if we’re all friends here!” Ralsei said with a smile.

“Ohoho!” Lancer laughed, and then proceeded to not say anything afterwards, confusing all involved.

Joyful conversation filled the cafeteria, and a general sense of calm washed over the crowd of people eating, it was nice, like a time before Temmie or Dess ever died, like the last time they could all trust eachother…

So of course, he had to go and ruin it.

“Well hello STUDENTS!” Tenna shouted out as she burst into the Cafeteria, hands held high in celebration. “Do you know what time it is?”

No answer, just the cafeteria looking at the TV Headed man in annoyance.

“Ahem uh… is this thing on, haha…” Tenna laughed uncomfortable as he tapped his hand. “Anyway, it’s MOTIVE TIME, time for my lovely contestants to be given their next JAW DROPPING, EYE POPPING, SISTER KILLING MOTIVE!”

Noelle flinched a bit, but managed to stay calm as they looked at Kris sneering at their host.

“Well, don’t keep us waiting,” Snowy grumbled impatiently.

“Dude!” MK whisper yelled at the bird.

“While the wait is boring, it is better than the alternative,” Berdly added, then pointed at Tenna. “That this uh er… GUY thinks that we like his stupid games!”

“Yeah!” Skate added.

“Well, at least someone’s interested. You kids could learn from example here!” Tenna chuckled. “This chapter’s motive is the BEST FRIENDS FOREVER FOREVER MOTIVE! Once one of you finally gets the guts to kill, you can take a fellow student with you!”

A silence fell over the cafeteria, quickly interrupted by.

“That’s it?” Snowy asked. “Sounds kinda lame if you ask me, heh,”

“Why’d you use forever twice in a row?” Berdly scoffed. “So unprofessional,”

“I-I feel like that’s not as big of a deal compared to- y’know,” Noelle motioned at Tenna. “H-Him trying to get us to kill eachother again,”

“Which isn’t gonna work!” Frisk shouted out. “We’re not falling for that again!”

“But what about the VIEWERS AT HOME? They wanna see you tear eachother apart!” Tenna declared. “You gotta-”

“And we’re not going to do it again,” Ceroba declared from her spot of the cafeteria. “Especially not now,”

“You’re old news, idiot!” Skate blew a raspberry at the TV Man.

“Yeah, fuck you!” Susie shouted out as Lancer let out his iconic Lancer laugh.

“You kids are no fun today, I’ll be in my TRAILER!” Tenna grumbled as he stomped his way out of the cafeteria.

“Well, that sure was something,” Fuku said.

Ralsei nodded. “Y-Yeah, I feel like we’ve been coming together recently!”

“We’ll- keep this up, and- no one will ever die again!” Jockington declared confidently.

“That’s… pretty hopeful, but… maybe we need that,” Catti shrugged.

“Shit, whatever gets us outta here,” Pizzapants shrugged. “I’d believe in the fucken’ flying spaghetti monster if he’d swoop down and let us leave!”

Frisk let out a chuckle, then suddenly stood up in her chair. “Well uh… how about we keep this whole sense of unity thing going?” She asked as everyone looked over to the human girl.

“Well, you gonna say something?” Kris chided as Frisk was seemingly desperately thinking of the next thing to say, the human was then jabbed lightly in the side by Noelle.

“Ch-Chill out, dude,” Noelle whispered towards the human.

“If you’re having trouble, I can say it,” Skate offered.

“No it’s fine, it’s fine, just uh… finding the words,” Frisk shot Kris a brief, sorrowful glance before returning to looking at the general crowd around her. “I was gonna hold a pool party in… well in the pool, there’s swimsuits for everyone in the changing rooms, so we could probably just do it now!”

“Sure, I’ve got time to kill,” Catti shrugged.

“That sounds like- a very, good time! I love, exercise!” Jockington declared.

“I-I imagine it’s more just an excuse to hang out, b-but… it sounds fun!” Noelle said with a cheer.

“I’m buoyant!” Lancer declared.

“Yeah, what he said!” Susie added.

In contrast to everyone else’s joy, however, Snowy let out a cruel snicker. “Are you sure you wanna hold a party so soon? I mean, you remember what happened last time, right?”

Noelle shuddered in place, as most of the crowd elected to glance at Snowy in silence.

MK chuckled uncomfortably, even more uncomfortable sounding that his chuckling normally sounded. “Dude, seriously. Quit being an asshole,”

“What? I’m just saying-”

“I feel as if this isn’t a good time to dredge that up,” Ceroba butted in, interrupting the boy.

“Oh, what do you know anyway? You just got here,” Snowy motioned towards the older monster. “Pretty suspicious if you ask me, I say we keep an eye on this one,”

Ceroba let in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and then proceeded to leave the cafeteria.

“Wh-What the hell!?” Snowy yelped out, offended at Ceroba’s refusal to engage with him.

“Dude, she totally just blew you off,” Skate snickered as she got up from her seat, leaving the cafeteria alongside Fuku.

“Yeah, I don’t think the 29 year old woman wants to argue with you,” Frisk said as she too began to leave alongside the rest of the people in the Cafeteria.

“Better luck next time, man,” MK said with a chuckle as he walked past, Snowy continued to grumble to himself in the cafeteria.

…

Soon enough, Kris, Susie, Lancer, Ralsei and Noelle were walking (waddling, in Lancer’s case) through the halls of the school, towards the basement for the impromptu pool party.

“He’s such a loser,” Susie suddenly said.

“Th-That’s kinda mean…” Ralsei mumbled.

“Who?” Kris asked, turning around to face the dinosaur.

“Snowy, he’s a fucken’ loser, and an asshole,” Susie declared.

Noelle let out a sigh. “H-He does keep bringing up… wh-what happened, it’s-”

“Really shitty of him, yeah,” Kris said.

“I-I think he’s just taking his anger out on us, or something,” Ralsei shrugged.

Lancer put a hand to his chin, puffing out his cheeks deep in thought. “Isn’t that a bad thing, toothpaste boy?”

“U-Um well… I-I suppose it is if you uh… say so!” Ralsei said, a panicked smile on his face as he nodded in agreement.

“I mean, it’s bad whether we say it or not, dude,” Susie said, looking just a bit concerned at the goat boy.

“Y-Yes, of course!” Ralsei yelped. “Sorry Susie!”

Kris and Noelle both shot eachother looks of concern as the group of five eventually entered the pool room…

“Oh, I didn’t expect all of you to come here at once…” Said Catti from a folding chair sat next to the door, she was dressed in a black two piece swimsuit with a skull pattern on the top.

“H-Hey Catti um… why aren’t you in the water? It looks nice,” Noelle said, her nose glowing a very slight shade of red.

“I’m on lifeguard duty, or whatever…” Catti shrugged.

“Oh, well if you ever want to go in. I could always sub in for you!” Ralsei said with his usual too kind smile.

Catti rolled her eyes as she went back to tapping away on her Tenna-Tablet. “Whatever, I’ll think about it,”

The five of them walked further into the pool room, quickly being stopped by Frisk before they could take note of their surroundings. The human girl was dressed in a cute and frilly two piece bikini with a blue and pink striped pattern that matched with her sweater.

“Heya, glad to see you guys here. That makes all of us except for Snowy,” The girl said with a nod, her face falling in concern as she mentioned the bird.

“Oh he’s mad mad, huh?” Susie let out a chuckle.

“Madder than my Dad after those protests!” Lancer declared joyfully.

“Haha y-yeah, those were very uh… bad…” Ralsei mumbled nervously.

“Yeah I uh… was kinda there,” Frisk shrugged. “A-Anyway, you guys should get changed, there’s lockers for everyone in the changing room with like… personalised swimsuits, it’s great!” The girl gave a smile.

“Y-Yeah y-you look great in yours!” Noelle butted in, a blush clear on her face.

“Thanks Noelle! I took a peek at yours and it’s super cute too!” Frisk said as the five left for their respective locker rooms.

“I know what you are~” Kris whispered to Noelle, causing the blushing deer to let out a groan, then a chuckle.

“Faha, you’re the worst, Kris,” She said as she and Susie walked into the women’s changing room, Kris made their way towards the non-binary one…

…

It was literally just a room with a singular locker with Kris’ name on it. Which makes sense, they’re literally the only non-binary person in this entire school, but it still felt kinda odd, kinda lonely even. Not a super unfamiliar feeling, but not a great one. God, that was so emo, Kris chuckled to themselves…

Might as well see what they packed for them, anyway. Kris opens up the locker and looks at the swimsuit inside, consisting of blue swimming trunks and a blue rashie with pink sleeves. Kris quickly moves out of their old clothes and into the swimsuit. It’s comfortable, that’s good, in spite of their generally strange vibe and emo nature they actually do like swimming.

They exit their changing room, Ralsei and Lancer exit at around the same time. Ralsei’s wearing a decently long green swimming skirt and Lancer’s wearing what looked like the exact same clothes he was wearing before, just shinier because of the material.

“O-Oh hey Kris, your swimsuit looks really good on you!” Ralsei said.

“Thanks, yours looks neat too, I guess,” Kris shrugged, a thankful smile somehow formed on Ralsei’s face despite how half hearted the compliment was.

Kris soon waded into the pool, Ralsei and Lancer elected to sit on the edge.

“You guys aren’t coming in?” Kris asked the two as they paddled further into the pool.

“Oh, I may come in soon if that makes you feel better,” Ralsei said with a nervous looking smile.

“Ah, no it’s fine. Just curious,” Kris corrected.

“I’m waiting for Susie!” Lancer declared proudly.

“Welp, good luck with that Lancer,” Kris shrugged as they waded further into the pool, towards the other people swimming around in it, those being: Fuku, dressed in the same school uniform esque swimsuit she was wearing yesterday, Skate dressed in a black bikini. Pizzapants, who was kinda just twiddling his thumbs in the corner of the pool, he was wearing a pair of swimming trunks with “LIFEGUARD” imprinted on them, complete with a whistle. Lastly was Frisk, who was standing near Fuku and Skate.

“Oh, hey dude!” Skate energetically waved at Kris, one of her arms were casually wrapped around Fuku’s shoulder.

“Hi Kris,” Fuku gave a small, polite bow, Kris noticed that every part of her that was below the water was pitch black. Which made sense, they didn’t really know what else they expected to happen. Fuku seemed to notice Kris staring at the water and let out a small sigh.

“Are you surprised?” She asked. “Again, I’m not made of fire, I’m just… well, on fire permanently,”

“Yeah, I remember now… does being on fire forever hurt?” Kris asked.

“No, my skin- my actual skin isn’t affected by it,” Fuku shrugged.

“Isn’t that sick!?” Skate let out a laugh. “She gets to look badass and cool and shit without burning alive!” Fuku giggled and turned a slight shade of pink as Skate wrapped her arm even tighter around the fire elemental.

“That does sound really cool, don’t you agree Kris?” Frisk said as she looked over at the other human, who in return elected to swim towards Pizzapants to avoid talking to her. “Oh…” Frisk let out a sigh.

“Eh, dude. Don’t worry about them,” Skate said as she patted Frisk on the shoulder. “You’re cool, they’ll come around,”

“Yeah, I’m sure they’re just… hm,” Fuku put a hand to her chin, not being able to come up with a word for it.

“I know what you’re trying to say, don’t worry. Hopefully it’s just that…” Frisk said with another sigh.

…

“Oh, hey little buddy,” Pizzapants grumbled, putting on a tired looking smile as Kris approached.

“Hey Pizzapants, why’s Catti on lifeguard duty and not you?” Kris asked with a smirk.

Pizzapants let out a groan. “I dunno, man, why did they give me another work uniform instead of actual clothes? I can’t escape work even on vacation, it’s hell out there little buddy! Don’t get into the workforce, do some artsy shit!”

“I’m… already doing that, I’m a Pianist,” Kris shook their head dejectedly.

“Oh yeah, right,” Pizzapants nodded. The two then sat there in silence, Kris going from glaring at Frisk to glancing around the pool room in general: MK was the only person (other than Catti) in the pool room that wasn’t in the pool. He was wearing his normal clothes, and soon enough Kris elected to climb their way out of the pool, telling Pizzapants that they’d see him around before approaching MK.

…

“Oh, hey dude. What’s up?” MK asked with a smile.

“Hey MK, you uh… not gonna swim?” Kris asked.

MK let out a chuckle. “Wow, I wonder what gave that away, haha. Maybe I’m afraid I’ll get disarmed in the pool or something,”

“PFFT-” Kris began to let out a squeaky, breathy laugh. “H-Holy shit,”

“Yeah, it helps to joke about it,” MK said. “Besides, I’m mainly just here to hang out,”

“Fair I guess, it’s not like there’s much else we can do. This wasn’t planned super hard,” Maybe for the best, Kris thought before shaking that thought out of their head.

“It’s cool though, haha, sporadic hangouts like this are fun,” MK said with a nod.

“I guess so… wonder what’s taking everyone so long in the changing room-”

“Well, I was looking for the key to that room again,” Ceroba said from behind Kris as she walked up to the group of two, causing Kris to jump a bit in shock.

“Oh, shit hey Ceroba,” Kris said as they got a better look at the fox woman, she was wearing a red top and a white swimming skirt as her swimsuit.

“What’s up dude?” MK asked.

“Nothing much, I do think I should at least try to enjoy this,” Ceroba said. “That is why Frisk put this together, right?”

“I guess,” Kris shrugged. “How did you get a swimsuit anyway, you joined this whole thing pretty late. Kinda doubt-”

“Tenna provided one to me directly,” Ceroba said. “I don’t have a locker of my own, though, so I will have to borrow someone’s,”

“You can borrow mine,” MK said. “It’s not like I can swim anyway, haha,”

“Right, thank you,” Ceroba gave a small bow before she made her way towards the pool, entering the water near silently. A bit later, Jockington, wearing literally just a tube made out of swimming material around his lower half suddenly burst up from the water, letting out a confident, yet tired sounding breath.

“How long have you been under there?” Ceroba asked the Snake.

“Only a few- minutes!” Jockington said, sighing to himself. “My breathing exercises are getting rusty, new person,”

“Breathing exercises? Well, I suppose I can’t judge you,” Ceroba shrugged as she relaxed further into the water. “I would recommend not drowning yourself in the future, however,”

“I would never!” Jockington declared as he jumped out of the water. “I am the happiest I have, ever been ever!” The snake proudly declared as he slithered towards Catti.

“That’s not the point I was trying to make,” Ceroba said as she continued to relax in the pool, away from the others.

…

“Catti, Catti! How was my time- Catti Cattenheimer?” Jockington asked as he slithered towards the larger woman, who looked down from her tablet to face the Snake.

“I was supposed to be timing you?”

“Of course!” Jockington shook his head dejectedly. “Well, Catti- how do you, think I, did? Timer or no timer?”

“Hm… like, you were under for about 20 or so minutes. Impressive I think, or not, I dunno. You’re a snake I don’t know if that’s impressive for snakes,” Catti shrugged.

“It is, thank you Catti- you’re a true friend!” Jockington flashed a confident smile at the cat before slithering his way back into the pool, jumping headfirst into it but without so much as a splash.

Catti let out a snort as he left, before she went back to doing whatever on her Tablet.

…

“Sup fuckers!?” Susie loudly yelled as she exited the changing room wearing a white tank top alongside purple and yellow swimming trunks. Noelle soon walked out of the women’s changing room as well wearing a Christmas themed two piece swimsuit, actively staring at Susie’s tail and mumbling to herself as she did so.

“Susie! You’ve appeared!” Lancer cheered as the dinosaur ran up to him, picked him up with one hand and slammed him into the pool, jumping in herself soon after.

Berdly suddenly walked through the doors of the men’s changing room, wearing a pair of white swimming trunks. “Well hello PLEBIANS, as you can see, I am- WAH!” The bird let out a squawk as a wave of water hit his entire body, absolutely soaking his feathers and his glasses.

“Oop, sorry Nerdly!” Susie called out from within the pool.

Lancer floated on his back next to her. “I am the bounciest boy around, I had to show them all,”

“I… don’t think anyone was doubting that,” Frisk giggled.

“D-Don’t worry Berdly,” Noelle said as she walked up to the boy, cleaning the water off his glasses with a nearby towel.

“Fear not, dearest Noelle. For I choose to forgive Susan for these transgressions!” Berdly nodded cockily.

“Shit, good enough for me,” Susie shrugged and huskily chuckled.

“Y-Yeah g-good thing…” Noelle mumbled to herself as she trotted on over to Susie, just kinda twiddling her thumbs next to her as the dinosaur girl relaxed in the pool. Berdly soon entered and swam up to Kris, who had entered like a bit ago.

“Hello Krismas, I see you finally bothered to show up,” Berdly scoffed. “Late, of course, even though we all left at the same time. How do you even do it?”

Kris kinda stared at then confusedly. “Did you swim over here just to give me shit about being late? Does this party even have a timeframe?” Kris snickered.

“Of course, and the timeframe for being late is when you arrive, because you’re always late!” Berdly crossed his arms and huffed. “Anyhow, my greatest riv-”

“Are those fake nipples?” Kris asked as they looked down at Berdly’s chest.

“Wh- I’ve always had nipples!” Berdly yelped defensively. “To even accuse me of faking something so basic, clearly, you’re jealous of-”

Kris casually flicked one of the fake nipples off of Berdly’s bare chest. Then let out a chuckle. “A-Are you actually insecure about not having nipples, dude?”

“NO!” Berdly screeched as he covered his chest. “I-I have them! Th-They’re just uh… hidden!”

“Bro…” Kris snickered. “If I could like… get rid of my nipples and give them to you, I would,”

“Really?” Berdly quirked an eyebrow, but for the most part looked entirely thankful. “Why would you even wanna do that?”

“I’m trying to max out this whole androgyny thing anyway,” Kris shrugged.

“Well, good luck on your journey Kris. I believe as lifelong rivals-”

“We have known eachother for like one week, but go on,” Kris snickered.

“Lifelong rivals, we must support eachother in our pursuits!” Berdly patted the human on the shoulder.

“Sure, whatever…” Kris smirked and shook their head, feeling as if whatever Berdly just described feels like… the exact opposite of what Rivals are.

The Pool Party went on for awhile, with not much else of note happening in Kris’ head. Eventually, the human decided to re-enter their changing room. It was getting late and they had decided to leave…

…

“Hey, Kris- holy shit you don’t have a shirt on!” Frisk yelped as she walked into the changing room, rapidly covering her eyes and turning away as she spotted Kris.

Kris grumbled. “This is a changing room, what did you expect?”

“I thought you’d be changed by now, you’ve been in here awhile!” Frisk yelped as she continued to face the wall. “Just… let me know when you’re done, I wanna talk to you,”

Kris sighed as they continued to get changed out of their swim trunks and into their normal clothes. “About what?”

“Let’s just… wait until you’re done changing, alright?” Frisk said with a sigh of her own.

Kris grumbled something under their breath as an awkward silence came over the two humans.

…

“…Why do you hate me?”

“Jesus!” Kris yelped as Frisk asked the question. “I thought we were waiting until after I was changed?”

“You are changed,” Frisk said with a frustrated, yet nervous look on her face as she turned around. “And answer the question, I want to know,”

Kris let out a long, drawn out sigh. “Fuckin… I dunno, I don’t hate you, but-”

“Why are you such an asshole to me, then? I thought you were just shaken up from getting kidnapped at first, but…” Frisk let out a grunt of frustration. “You’re just… really shitty to me specifically for… no reason, I don’t get it. What did I do to you?” She points at the human.

“You-” Kris lets out another, frustrated sigh. Realising now of all times that Frisk has, in fact been nothing but nice to them. “Fuck, this isn’t something I think about a lot guess I’m uh… not used to seeing other humans I guess,”

“Are you… scared of me?” Frisk asked as she walked closer to Kris.

“I guess that’s the way I’d describe it?” Kris mumbled. “A lot of what I hear about humans back home is that they’re pretty shitty, so I guess I kinda expected you to be the same,”

“That’s… well, I guess it’s better than nothing. At least I have…” Frisk’s face grew less frustrated and more concerned. “An explanation as to why you’ve been-”

“Shitty to you, yeah, really shitty,” Kris sighed. “I’m uh… sorry about that,”

“Well, that’s a start!” Frisk said with a smile and a nod, extending her hand. “Let’s be friends now, okay Kris?”

Kris hesitated for a moment, before deciding to shake the girl’s wet, wrinkly hand with their equally wet, wrinkly hand. “Yeah, friends or… whatever,” Frisk let out a small chuckle at that.

“…Did anyone else see you come in here? This is a changing room,” Kris asked. “Like, mine specifically to be exact,”

“I… didn’t think of that,” Frisk sighed. “I should’ve waited until everyone else left I think,”

“Eh, probably,” Kris shrugged. “Though uhh… was probably good to get over with early,”

Frisk flashed a relieved smile at Kris. “Thanks and, yeah, yeah it was,”

…

Kris left the party soon after without too much fanfare, just sorta waving goodbye to their friends. They soon walked back to their room and promptly collapsed on their bed.

Maybe things would be alright here, there was no clear way out, but… they were on their way to being more comfortable around the people they were living with. At the very least, they probably didn’t hate Frisk as much anymore, that was nice.

Chapter Text

DING DONG BING BONG

“Good morning STUDENTS, get ready for another… actually these days have been kinda BORING recently. Get ready for another MINDNUMBINGLY BORING day here at HOPE’S PEAK ACADEMY!”

Kris groaned out of bed as Tenna finished up the morning announcement. The human quickly made their way to the cafeteria. They took their usual seat on a table with Noelle, Ralsei and Susie.

“G-Good morning Kris,” Noelle said with a small wave.

Ralsei nodded towards the human in turn. “Hope you’re having a good day, Kris,”

“Day hasn’t even started yet, dude,” Susie smirked.

“Yeah, Ralsei,” Kris chuckled.

“Of course!” Ralsei nodded with a nervous smile on his face.

As a silence fell below the four people eating, Kris looked around the Cafeteria, getting nervous sweats as they realised something. “Hey uh… Susie, where’s Lancer? He’s normally with you,”

“Oh, yeah don’t worry dude. I got Pizzapants to hang out with him,” Susie said with a confident smirk, motioning towards the orange cat man sitting with a look of resignation and despair on his face in the corner of the cafeteria, Lancer was yapping in his year.

“Oh, neat,” Kris shrugged.

“Yeah, I’ve been telling him to hang out with other people. Cause like, I dunno he’s cool,” Susie shrugged. “Should get out more, too,”

“That’s nice of you, Susie!” Ralsei said with a smile.

“Y-Yeah, I’m glad you h-hang out with us, also!” Noelle added as a blush crept onto her face. “I-I know that’s not what we’re t-talking about, but I thought I’d mention it!”

“Hell yeah, thanks Noelle!” Susie gave a wide, toothy grin of sharp, yellow teeth.

“N-No problem…” Noelle mumbled, her nose glowing a shade of red.

Everything in the cafeteria was nice, Tenna didn’t even come in to yap about them not killing eachother or whatever he’d be mad about.

…

I mean, Snowy looked like he was about to talk, but that was a mild inconvenience at most.

“Hey hey, listen up!” Snowy shouted out, getting everyone to look at him as he stood on his seat. “Youse all like events right? I’m holding my comedy routine in the theatre, anyone can show up and see what earned me crisp millions before I ended up in this dump,” The bird said with a confident smirk on his face.

Everyone just kinda stared up at him, a few expressed some minor interest in coming along.

“Yeah sure, whatever,” Pizzapants shrugged. “Whatever gets this little-”

Susie shot the man a dark and menacing glare.

Pizzapants gulped. “L-Little uh… fucken’ guy to stop talking about protests his Dad put down,”

“Ten in the last year alone!” Lancer declared with a goofy smile on his face.

“It sounds fun, but uh… I think we’re all a bit tuckered out from hanging out yesterday,” Frisk said with a nervous chuckle. “I might not be able to pay much attention, you sure-”

“Hey, maybe I’ll start off talking about what you were doing in Kris’ changing room?” The smirk on Snowy’s beak grew wider. “I mean c’mon, we all wanna know,”

“I-I was just talking to them!” Frisk yelped out, even though no one had asked for an explanation.

“Are you sure, because-”

“Dude, back the fuck off,” Kris grumbled at the bird. “You’re just being an asshole now,”

“Since when did you two get so chummy?” Snowy’s smirk grew wider.

“They said back the fuck off dude, I’ll make you,” Susie peeled her eyes and growled at Snowy.

Snowy shivered a bit, before stepping onto the floor and waving their hands around in a disarming fashion. “Alright, alright calm down. Jeez, none of you can take a joke,” The bird scoffed. “I’ll be setting up in the theatre, see ya there!” He said with a chuckle as he finally left the Cafeteria in peace.

…

“God, what a loser,” Kris shook their head in annoyance.

Susie groaned. “Tell me about it, dude,”

“W-Well I don’t think- um… nevermind!” Ralsei stopped himself, then gave a nervous, clearly forced smile.

Noelle eyed him in concern, but didn’t comment on it. “Y-Yeah, I guess you and Frisk are uh… friends now, right?”

Kris shrugged. “Maybe? I dunno, I was just not being an asshole,”

“I-I guess, still, what you did back there was good,” Noelle flashed the human a smile, before turning to look behind them. “Oh, h-hey Frisk!”

Kris turned around to see their fellow human standing next to him. “Hey Frisk, what’s up?”

“Nothing much uh… just wanted to thank you for calling Snowy out,” Frisk said with a smile. “You too, Susie!”

“It’s nothing dude, I would’ve called him out either way,” Susie let out a laugh. “And I’ll kick his ass if he-”

“Well, let’s not go that far,” Frisk said with a nervous laugh, holding her hand out. “Besides, I doubt he’ll do anything warranting that,”

“Ah yeah, uh… right,” Susie nodded.

“Well, I’m glad everything’s fine then!” Ralsei said with his own formal nod.

“I… guess so,” Frisk shrugged, then shot the group a smile.

Not much of note happened after that, so Kris elected to leave the cafeteria alongside Noelle, who followed closely behind the human.

“S-So uh… is there anything you wanted to do?” The deer asked her friend as the two walked through the school’s still pristine halls.

Kris turned around to face her. “Not really, just kinda got bored of being in the cafeteria,”

“F-Fair uh… I’m gonna go find Susie i-if that’s alright with you,” Noelle said as she flashed the human a meek smile.

“Why would I mind? Go be gay, gay girl,” Kris smirked as Noelle lightly jabbed them in the side.

“Fahaha, shut up, y-you’re terrible,” Noelle giggled as she prepared to leave Kris behind. “S-See ya around,”

“Bye!” Kris said with one last smirk as they went their separate ways with Noelle…

…

Then found the overwhelming urge to go to the Theatre, even if the last person they wanted to see right now was Snowy, and the last thing they wanted to hear was one of Snowy’s jokes. They found their legs practically moving on their own as they trudged towards the room. It was an odd feeling, like they had something to do there but didn’t know what it was.

…

And soon enough, Kris was in the theatre. Snowy was on the stage letting off what were probably zingers though, Kris wasn’t paying attention to him as they looked around the sparsely populated theatre. Seriously, the only people of note were Fuku manning a popcorn stand (she presumably had alcohol there, too) Pizzapants and Lancer, who were probably getting food from there, Ralsei and MK, who was like, Snowy’s only friend so it made sense as to why he was here.

“Oh, hey Kris!” Ralsei says, a large smile on his face as he greets the human. “I’m surprised you’re here,”

“Yeah, I am too,” Kris shrugged. “Guess I got uh… curious,” Kris mumbled out the explanation, it was easier than the actual reason they had showed up, anyway.

“That’s fair, Snowy’s actually quite funny when he isn’t being um…” Ralsei trailed off, he 100% knew what he wanted to say, but… needed a push, y’know?

“A huge dick? Yeah, yeah he is,” Kris smirked.

“I-I suppose that’s a way to put it,” Ralsei mumbled as the fluffy boy curled in on himself like a hermit crab.

“Yeah…” Kris mumbled. “I’m gonna go talk to Pizzapants, you enjoy the show dude,” The human said as Ralsei waved them goodbye with a smile on his face. Kris soon made their way to the food stand.

“Oh, hey what’s up little buddy?” Pizzapants said with a tired looking smirk.

“Yellow person! It’s you!” Lancer said as he pointed at Kris.

“It is me,” Kris nodded. “How have you two been holding up?”

“You know, I’ve gotten used to hearing his dad’s atrocities,” The orange cat shrugged. “They’re no less horrifying, but I am desensitised,”

“As am I!” Lancer declared with a silly smile on his chubby face.

“I-I’m not…” Fuku mumbled from the counter, shivering and looking like she was about to throw up. “Also hey Kris,” She said with a meek bow.

“Hey Fuku, didn’t expect to see you here,” Kris said. “And also working… for whatever reason. What gives?”

“Ah, I guess I just felt bad for Snowy, I-I mean everyone kinda hates him, so…” Fuku trailed off as she scratched the back of her head nervously. “Also I’m not serving drinks today,”

“You’ve served drinks underage before, I mean- you’d be doing it now, if you were,” Pizzapants argued.

“I know, Pizzapants, I know,” Fuku said with a nervous sounding giggle.

“I mean everyone hates him for good reason,” Kris shrugged. “Even if he is actually kinda funny sometimes,” Kris paused before MK let out a laugh from the other side of the room, not the usual nervous laughs he let out, an actual laugh.

Fuku giggled too, she then pulled out her Tenna-Tablet and began to type a few words. “I suppose so,”

“Who ya talking to?” Pizzapants asked.

“Ah um… just Skate,” Fuku said with a smile.

“Right, you two are friends, right?” Pizzapants said. “I don’t got a lot of friends, but Skate seems cool,”

“She is,” Fuku gave Pizzapants a wide smile. “A very lovely person,”

Kris rolled their eyes and smirked. Great, now they knew two lesbians who were awful at being lesbians.

BRRR BRRR

Speaking of, Kris felt their Tenna-Tablet vibrate from their pocket. They pulled it out to read a text from Noelle

Hey Kris, Catti wanted me to invite you to her room. She needs a 4^th person for this thing she’s doing.

This might be a really elaborate plan to kill me, Kris thought, but they shooed away that thought from their head. Partly because is someone had Noelle’s Tenna-Tablet she was probably already dead, and partly because that was a really dark thought and Kris had been trying to avoid those as of late. Kris typed out a response.

sure whatever be there soon

Tysm Kris!!

Kris smiled at their tablet as they prepared to leave, waving goodbye to everyone in the Theatre before swiftly exiting the room. They breathed a sigh of relief as Snowy’s irritating voice left their ears, sweet silence following them as they walked through the halls of the school, up the stairs to the first floor and towards Catti’s room. The white cat in question, Noelle and Jockington were all waiting for Kris with varying looks of excitement on their faces (Catti actually looked bored, more than anything, but that was pretty normal)

“Hey Kris, we- expected to see you here!” Jockington declared with a firm nod.

“Y-Yeah thanks for showing up with uh… pretty much n-no notice,” Noelle chuckled nervously.

Catti shrugged. “I feel like you’d be lured into a trap pretty easily, but this isn’t one, so it’s appreciated,”

Noelle let out a short gasp. “Catti!”

“Nah, she’s kinda right. I would one hundred fall for that chicken leg on a rope thing,” Kris said with a confident nod.

“I would also- fall for that!” Jockington agreed. “I love chicken!”

Catti let out a snicker. “Sure, alright… let’s actually do this thing,” The cat girl said as she lead the group of three into her darkened, neat room decorated with posters for various emo bands on the walls. In the middle of the room, there was a diamond with a book in its centre. Neatly laid out candles faintly lit up the room.

“Oh shit, is this like a ritual or something?” Kris asked, pointing to the diamond.

“Yes, I got this book from the Library. I am holding this ritual to increase the chances of us living, or whatever,” Catti shrugged as she sat at one edge of the diamond. “Sit at a point,”

“I-I’ll sit next to you!” Noelle said with an excited yelp, practically rushing to be next to Catti, the cat girl’s tail shifted a bit in response.

“I will also- do that!” Jockington chuckled as he too sat next to Catti.

Kris let out a dramatic sigh. “I’m always picked last for evil- well…” Kris stumped a bit as they sat at the last remaining point. “Neutral? Benevolent? That seems like the right word- benevolent rituals,”

“We can’t all be winners,” Catti shrugged as she carefully read the book in the diamond, nodding along as she got what she needed from it. “We all need to join hands…” She looked over at Jockington, who as always was incredibly pumped for whatever this is. “Or just… touch in general, any body part works,”

“Grab my tail- Krismas!” Jockington said joyfully as Catti took a handful of his head.

Kris grabbed onto the snake’s tail. “Does everyone know my actual name now?” They sighed as they joined hands with Noelle, who, blushing profusely joined hands with Catti.

Catti shot the deer a small smile before returning to a neutral expression. “Alright, I will begin the chant,” Catti cleared her throat.

“Quicquid est, nihil curo, miau.”

“Quicquid est, nihil curo, miau.”

“Quicquid est, nihil curo, miau.”

“Quicquid est, nihil curo, miau.”

Everyone’s arms (and Jockington’s entire body) glowed an eerie yellow as Catti continued to chant the same words over and over. The cat’s eyes were open and unblinking and Kris felt as if they would collapse at any moment…

And then it all stopped at once, everything went back to normal.

“H-Holy shit…” Noelle said, clutching her chest and breathing heavily. “D-Did anything uh… d-did anything change?”

Catti looked around the room casually and shrugged. “No, maybe it worked, maybe it didn’t,”

“That was- a thing that happened!” Jockington said firmly.

“He isn’t wrong,” Kris shrugged as they got up. “It’s getting pretty late, gonna head to bed,”

“M-Me too, goodnight Catti!” Noelle said as she shot Catti a smile. “See you tomorrow,”

“Okay,” Catti nodded.

“I will sleep here- so that Catti can- watch!” Jockington declared as he promptly fell on his side and began to loudly snore…

…

It didn’t take long for Kris to wave Noelle goodbye and head to their own room, falling onto their bed and into a deep sleep. It had been pretty peaceful these last few days.

Here’s hoping it stays that way.

Chapter Text

DING DONG BING BONG

“Good morning students! Are you all excited? I’m excited for another TV-TASTIC day in HOPE’S PEAK ACADEMY!”

Kris let out a yawn as they pulled themselves out of their bed, which they were actually getting used to sleeping in now, neat, or not neat considering it probably meant they were getting used to the Killing Game too.

Well… there hadn’t been any killing in awhile, so maybe there was nothing to worry about from here on out, Kris held onto that hope internally as they made their way to the cafeteria, they did a quick headcount in their… well, head and deducted that everyone was in the cafeteria, so nothing to worry about on that front. They let out a relieved sigh as they sat at their usual table with Susie, Ralsei and Noelle.

“Dude, did you seriously go to Snowy’s comedy show thing yesterday?” Susie said with a snicker as she stared down the human.

Kris let out a sigh as retreated into their sweater. “Ugh… Ralsei, did you tell her?”

“I-I’m sorry, if it makes you feel any better, I-I was also there!” Ralsei yelps out an apology.

Kris snickered. “No need to apologise dude, we’re fine,”

“Yeah,” Susie said with her usual husky laugh. “Why’d you even go? I know Ralsei just felt bad or whatever,”

“Wh-Which I kinda get, he’s lonely…” Noelle mumbled. “I-It’s mostly his fault, but he is lonely,”

“I uh…” Kris trailed off, they themselves didn’t actually have an answer to Susie’s question. They felt like they were being forced to go, almost, like-

“I-I think they were just curious,” Ralsei butted in, sneaking a brief look of concern at Kris. “At least, that’s what they told me,”

“Eh, fair enough,” Susie shrugged, then leaned back in her seat. “So, were the jokes good or dogshit?”

“They were fine,” Kris shrugged, shaking their head a little. “I dunno, I wasn’t really paying much attention-”

“KRIS!” The human in question jumped up as Berdly squawked out their name, Kris rapidly turned their head to look at the bird.

“Fuck, dude you scared the shit out of me. What do you want?”

“Ahem, Krismas Dreemurr! I wish to challenge you to a battle like no other, as your gaming rival I-”

“You wanna play SSF?” Kris said as they leaned against their seat. “That’s what this is about, right?”

Berdly struck a dramatic pose, his wing resting on his forehead. “How did you guess!?”

“Um… i-it’s all you talk to me about,” Noelle added. “Th-Then again, I’m not Kris…”

“It’s a popular game, nugget boy, and like… you’re a gamer or something,” Susie shrugged.

Berdly gasped in shock, then facepalmed with his wing, despite lacking a proper palm. “Of course you wouldn’t understand the intricacies of being a GAMER. Kris, follow my lead. Ladies and also Ralsei, come if you wish,” Berdly chuckled snootily as he began to leave the cafeteria.

“O-Okay-”

“Fuck you, I am a gamer!” Susie growled, interrupting Noelle as she got up from her seat. “We’re going so I can kick Berdly’s ass!”

“O-Of course!” Noelle yelped, her face now beet red.

“It could be fun!” Ralsei said with a smile as he got up.

Kris shrugged. “I was gonna go anyway, lead the way nerd boy,”

“Not my name, but I shall!” Berdly hmmp’d and began to march his way to the computer lab, leading his band of very odd pilgrims to their den…

The computer lab was as sterile as ever, though it had a sort of charm to it because of this. Kinda like most actual computer labs. Berdly soon motioned towards a series of computers.

“We can play Super Smashing Fighters via LAN in here, you see,” Berdly said with a crossing of his wings. “So I can destroy every last one of you, of course,”

“Um, i-is this game only four players? I-If so I’m more than happy to sit back!” Ralsei said with a smile as he sat one on of the seats. “I’m not much for games like these anyhow,”

“Y-You sure?” Noelle mumbled out.

“Yeah dude, we can take turns if you-”

Ralsei shook his head as he interrupted Susie’s concern. “I’m sure, more than sure. You all have fun, alright? I’ll wait here,”

Everyone looked around in silence for a moment, trying not to make eye contact with the goat. “Whatever you say, man,” Kris mumbled out as they sat at a computer. Noelle, Susie and Berdly soon all did the same, all booting up the classic fighting game Super Smashing Fighters.

“Of course you’d use Fat Italian, Kris, you’re as basic as they come!” Berdly huffed haughtily as he selected his character.

“I-I think he’s a good character!” Ralsei added. “Anything you choose is good, Kris,”

“Thanks?” Kris turned towards Ralsei and shrugged before facing Berdly with a smirk. “You’re literally playing as the blue bird by the way, dude, it’s weird,” Kris snickered.

“I’ll have you know she’s meta!” Berdly declared.

“Green Lizard’s the meta character dude,” Susie declared with firm nod.

“Hmpph!” Berdly crossed his wings and shook his head. “She’s the biggest noob character around, Susan. She’s nowhere near tournament-”

“I-I mean, I play her all the time!” Noelle declared hastily as she selected the same character as Susie. “Sh-She’s uh… really good, y-yeah!”

“See? Noelle’s smart,” Susie nodded. “That means she’s right!”

“Ugh… it’s impossible to argue with these protozoans,” Berdly sighed dramatically. “Let’s just begin, so I can stomp all of you!”

“Sure buddy,” Kris rolled their eyes.

(One very intense match of Super Smashing Fighters that I don’t want to write out later…)

Each screen showed the results of the very intense match.

1^st KRIS

2^nd BERDLY

3^rd SUSIE

4^th NOELLE

“Wh-Wha, PREPOSTEROUS!” Berdly squawked out. “How could you, a plebian such as yourself beat a master gamer such as I!?”

“Shit I dunno, guess I’m just like uh…” Kris fake trailed off as a smirk grew on their face. “Better than you?”

“Aw, I got last…” Noelle mumbled.

“You kinda let me win there, Noelle,” Susie said with a smirk. “Are you going soft on me, dude?”

“H-Have I ever b-been hard on you?” Noelle mumbled with a blush on her face.

Susie looked deep in thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Fair enough,”

“I-I think what’s more important, is that you all did your best!” Ralsei announced with a wide, calm smile on his face. “I’m glad you all had fun,”

“Hmphh, I suppose I can accept this turn of events…” Berdly peeled his eyes at Kris. “…after a one on one rematch, Kris!”

“I’ll kick your ass again, then,” Kris said with a chuckle, cracking their knuckles as they sat down and prepared to-

…

It became dark, a darkness so sudden that it was impossible to properly get used to, that it completely blanketed the computer lab in blackness.

“Wh-What the hell’s going on!?” Noelle yelped. “Wh-Wha?”

“The power went out!” Ralsei realised with a yelp, he quickly snapped his fingers and created a ball of fire in his hands to light up the room, not by much, but far more than their Tenna-Tablets would have been able to.

“How the hell did that happen!?” Susie shouted out.

“Must be something with the generator…” Berdly mumbled, holding a wing to his chin. He then pointed it in the vague direction of the door the computer lab. “Let’s head there posthaste!”

Berdly then ran towards that vague direction, crashing directly into a wall full force.

“Are you okay?” Ralsei said as he walked up to the bird, using his free hand to help him up.

Kris chuckled. “Okay, okay… how about instead we walk there,”

“G-Good idea, my gaming rival!” Berdly said as he dusted himself off, he then turned towards Ralsei. “Goat boy, you must lead the way with your light!”

“Are you sure I should- I mean, of course! I-If it’s what you want!” Ralsei gave a small salute before he lead the group of four through the darkened, twisting halls, Susie kept nearly tripping over shit, grumbling under her breath as she held onto Ralsei’s sides for better direction. Noelle decided to hold onto Susie, even though she could see relatively fine. The group eventually reached the stairs to the basement, where they encountered-

“Ceroba!” Berdly said as he pointed a wing at the fox, desperately using her Tenna-Tablet as a light. “What are you doing around here?”

“The generator room,” Ceroba said. “I was trying to find the generator room on my own, though, perhaps the light from this tablet is… unsuitable,”

“No shit, c’mon, use Ralsei!” Susie declared as she motioned towards the goat, more visible than anyone else in the room.

“I will do my best to help you, Ceroba!” Ralsei added with a nod.

“H-How are we even going to fix the generator? I-If it is broken…” Noelle mumbled.

Ceroba let out a short, sharp breath. “I’m not sure, perhaps we could contact Tenna-”

…

The lights soon shot back on, after a brief silence, Skate suddenly stuck her head out of the door to the Spa. Fuku slightly behind her.

“Dude, what the hell’s going on!?” Skate asked, confusion and frustration in her voice. “Did you guys walk here through the blackout?”

“We were gonna look for the generator, Skatherine!” Berdly pushed up his glasses. “Unlike you, content to laze about in a Sauna,”

“Dude!” Skate raised her arms with an annoyed look on her face.

“I do glow in the dark…” Fuku said with a sigh. “I… maybe could’ve helped you, sorry,”

Noelle let out a sigh of relief. “I-It’s fine, at least the blackout’s over,” Noelle looked around the now lit up halls briefly, her eyes watering a bit from the sudden change.

Kris nodded, putting a hand on their hip. “Yeah, here’s to hoping that’s the craziest thing that happens all-”

DING DONG BING BONG

“Attention students, after a long PAINFUL wait, a body has been discovered!” Tenna on the screen declared. “Head to our groovy POOL to begin the INVESTIGATION!”

Without thinking, or even saying a word. Kris bolted their way to the basement, nearly stripping over the stairs as they ran down them, then through the long hallway, They nearly tripped over an extension cord leading from the generator room to the pool room itself, but in the end nothing stood in their way as they ran through the open pool door…

What they saw next would never leave their mind, they weren’t even able to acknowledge the other people in the room with them as they looked down at something bobbing in the water, a burnt black end of the extension cord loosely wrapped around the form bobbing in the water… Snowy, Snowy’s burnt black and bloody corpse bobbed in the blood filled water, filling the air with the sick smell of rot and burning flesh. Even after all they had said, all the time they had spent bonding together as a group, someone killed again…

DEADLY LIFE, BEGIN

STUDENTS REMAINING: 14/17

Chapter Text

The rest of the student body soon poured into the pool room upon the announcement. Though, Lancer, Pizzapants and MK were already in there.

Noelle let out a terrified screech.

“What the hell!?” Susie looked at the body full of rage. “Who the fuck did this!?”

Frisk looked around the room frantically. “S-Snowy, why would someone kill Snowy?”

Fuku sighed, looking as if she was going to throw up. “Wh-Why would someone kill at all?”

“Yeah, I thought we agreed not to do this shit again!” Skate yelled out.

“Y-Yes we did… w-we did…” Ralsei mumbled as he tried his best to look away from the body bobbing in the water.

“Clearly, someone didn’t get the memo…” Catti grumbled.

“Not cool, dudes. Whoever it was, fess up!” Jockington demanded as she shook his head in disappointment.

“Like that’s gonna work,” Pizzapants grumbled.

“Well, what ever happens now?” Berdly asked. “Are we supposed to invest-”

“DID SOMEBODY SAY INVESTIGATE!?” Tenna declared as he fell down through the roof. “Yes! YES! Now is the time to start INVESTIGATING, to prepare for the groovy CLASS TRIAL ahead!”

Kris sighed. “We gotta do that shit again,”

“I’ll leave you all to it, once the investigation ends I expect you in the trial room ASAP!” He declared, then walked out of the pool room.

A silence fell upon the room, contemplative, waiting for anyone to speak up.

“I… suppose we know the drill by now,” Ceroba sighed. “Let’s just get this over with,”

“Yeah, do your best everyone,” Frisk said wistfully. “If we stay determined, we can make it through this together,”

“Yeah, right. He wasn’t great, but he was our friend. We gotta do our best here,” MK nodded. Most of the people in the pool room soon left to investigate the entire basement floor. The only people remaining were Kris, Susie, Catti, Ralsei and Berdly.

Snowy… was kind of an asshole. The last person I’d want to talk to here, but he didn’t deserve to die, and especially not like this.

For everyone’s sake, I need to investigate this case thoroughly. I need to reveal the truth.

INVESTIGATION: START!!

“Hey dude,” Kris turned to face Susie looking down at them. “Let’s investigate this shit together,”

Kris thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. “Sure, guess it’d be faster if we did it together,”

“Yup, I’ll follow your lead. Unless I think your lead sucks, then I won’t,” Susie nodded.

Kris chuckled a bit, then let out a breath. “Fair enough, let’s get to it,” They then pulled out their Tenna-Tablet and began to scroll.

“You calling someone- or, oh shit the TennaFile!” Susie nodded. “Fuck, I nearly forgot about that,”

“Yeah, it was kinda useless last time, but it might have something in it,” Kris said as they finally found the file on Snowy’s death.

TENNAFILE #2

VICTIM: SNOWDRAKE ISEBOLTT

TIME OF DEATH: 1:30 PM

CAUSE OF DEATH: ELECTROCUTION

PLACE OF DEATH: POOL

The victim is Snowdrake Iseboltt, he was killed at around 1:30 PM by being electrocuted in the Pool.

“Oh, it actually has information on it this time,” Kris nodded. “One thirty, it’s one fifty right now,”

“So he died pretty recently,” Susie nodded. “Good to know, yeah. That’s about it, though, how he died is kinda obvious,”

“Yeah. Still, keeping it in mind,” Kris said.

+TENNAFILE #2

“Alright, where do we begin actually investigating…” Kris said as they looked around the room, taking note of everyone to look at: Catti standing near Snowy’s body, Berdly standing just outside of the pool supply room, Ralsei standing near the door out of the pool. In terms of things to investigate there was pretty much just the extension cords all connected together leading out of the pool room, the end of it being burnt black in the pool.

Without saying a word, Susie stomped her way towards the cord and looked at it closely, Kris followed her. “This probably leads to the generator room, only place I could think of that has like… any kind of outlet,” Susie declared.

“We’ll check there next once we’re done here,” Kris nodded. “The end’s completely exploded, too,”

“Makes sense,” Susie shrugged. “Electricity and water don’t mix,”

“Actually they do mix, it just doesn’t usually go well,” Kris snickered.

Susie lightly punched them in the shoulder. “Shuddup nerd, you know what I mean,”

+EXTENSION CORDS

+EXPLODED CORD END

“Well, you two seem busy!” Berdly declared smugly, looking up at the group of two as he leaned against the wall.

“You’re doing a whole lot too, clearly,” Susie grumbled. “What do you want?”

“I just want to let you know that we have a very useful alibi!” Berdly declared. “We were together throughout the entire blackout!"

Kris rolled their eyes. “I already knew that, dude, I was there?”

“Of course, just wanted to make sure you don’t forget, Krismas,” Berdly chuckled. “Also I explored the storage room, there isn’t anything to note in there,”

“I didn’t think there would be?” Kris shrugged. “Nothing electrical in there, just inner tubes and shit,”

“Of course, continue your investigations now. I need to come up with a theory in my head,” Berdly nodded.

“Good luck with that, dude,” Kris shrugged as they moved onto the next person.

+OUR ACCOUNT

+THE BLACKOUT

That next person ended up being Catti, who was closely looking at Snowy’s body.

“Oh, hey,” Catti mumbled as the duo approached her. “If you’re here to check out the body, there isn’t much. It’s kinda just burnt to shit,”

Kris shivered a bit as got a slightly better look at the body bobbing in the water. It was burnt black, and the broken cord was loosely on top of it, but too damaged to conduct electricity anymore. “We can… see that,”

+SNOWY’S BODY

“We’re actually here to ask about where you were when he died,” Susie nodded.

“That makes more sense, I was alone,” Catti admitted with a shrug. “So, it could be me. It isn’t, but it could be,”

“Hmmm… well at least you’re honest about it,” Susie shrugged. “Hey, can you see in the dark?”

“...No? That’s a stereotype,” Catti sighed.

“Yeah, shit whatever, sorry man,” Susie shrugged. “C’mon Kris, let’s-”

SPLASH

“Hello Catti- and others!” Jockington announced as he splashed the three with water. “I got that- thing I found!”

“What the hell were you doing in the pool, dude?” Susie grumbled as she looked down at the snake as he spit a key onto the floor.

“He didn’t mean to splash you, chill out…” Catti grumbled back.

“I saw something at the- bottom of the pool!” Jockington nodded as he motioned towards the key, burnt but still maintaining its square shape. “I think- Snowy had it on him before he died!”

“Weird… could just be his room key,” Kris said as they picked up and pocketed the key.

“Nah, the room keys are circular,” Susie nodded. “That’s a square, I think,”

Catti glared at Susie confusedly before looking back at Kris. “Yeah, it’s a square key. It opens something else,”

“Good to know,” Kris nods. “Maybe it opens the secret door?”

“Holy shit, it could!” Susie said, then let out a husky laugh. “Man, this detective shit is easy,”

Kris chuckled as Catti rolled her eyes. “Sure is, dude,”

+BURNT KEY

“Alright, we’re done here. Let’s talk to Ralsei and then… I dunno test out what this key does,” Kris shrugged.

“Got it,” Susie nodded as she walked over to the goat boy, Kris following closely behind as they left Catti and Jockington at the pool.

“Oh, hello you two!” Ralsei said, keeping up a wide smile in spite of the situation. “Not that I don’t appreciate it, but… why have you come over to me? We were together throughout the whole blackout,”

“Yeah, just wanted to make sure we know what we saw,” Kris said. “Your light was really helpful back there, by the way,”

“Thank you, for us and for Ceroba!” Ralsei said with a smile and a small bow.

“Right, we did see Ceroba before the lights came back on. Near the stairs, too,” Susie said, putting a hand to her chin. “Kinda weird,”

“Do you think it’s- it can’t be her, right?” Ralsei turned his head, his face shifting to a look of concern. “She just doesn’t feel like the kind of person to do this,”

So was-

“You never know,” Kris shrugged. “We should look through everything first before coming to conclusions, though,”

“Yeah, right, sorry,” Susie scratched the back of her head. “See ya around Ralsei,”

“Bye you two! I’ll be here if you need me!”

+RALSEI’S FIRE MAGIC

With the pool room pretty much done, Susie and Kris walked out into the Basement Hallway. Lancer, MK and Pizzapants were all standing around the door to the Arcade, while Noelle and Ceroba were standing outside of the door labelled “SECRET”. The cable in the pool was leading to the generator room, which is where Kris and Susie assumed the other three people were.

“Oh shit, what’s up Noelle?” Susie says as she runs towards the deer girl. Kris shrugs and just kinda follows her.

“O-Oh hey Susie, Kris. Me and Ceroba were just um… inspecting the door,” Noelle said as she motioned towards it.

“Right, it’s a bit shocking that we still haven’t found the key to it yet,” Ceroba said with a shake of her head.

“Well, we found it. We think, like, a couple minutes ago,” Kris said as they dug in their pocket and showed the key to Ceroba.

“Where did you find this?” The fox said as she inspected the key closely, though didn’t grab it.

Susie shrugged. “Jockington found it in the pool,”

“Well, l-let’s test it out!” Noelle said, Kris nodded and put the key in the hole, turning it to slowly open the large, creaking door. Dust poured out of the other side, making the human cough as they looked into the room…

Completely empty and dim, save for a singular table with a folder labelled “SECRETS, TOP SECRET” sitting on top of it.

“Well, that’s redundant,” Kris grumbled as they walked into the room alongside the other three. They opened the file only to reveal…

“What the fuck? It’s empty!” Susie complained as she picked it up and looked at it every which way. “Bullshit, did Tenna make us look for an empty file!?”

“Maybe, he is an asshole,” Kris said, sounding just as annoyed as Susie, though more quiet about it.

“No,” Ceroba shook her head. “It’s more likely someone already took everything inside and just… left the file itself here,”

“Th-That makes a bit more sense,” Noelle mumbled.

“Well, at least you agree that he’s an asshole,” Kris shrugged. Ceroba let out the tiniest chuckle.

“Where would whatever the hell was in the file be, then?” Susie grumbled. “You think the killer took it?”

“Or Snowy, Jockington did find the key like… in the exact same place Snowy died,” Kris shrugged. “Maybe he found the key before all of us?”

Ceroba nodded. “That seems likely, perhaps you should search his room, then?”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a fucking genius, dude!” Susie said with a wide, goofy smile.

+EMPTY FOLDER

+SECRET ROOM

“W-We should check that out last, I think,” Noelle said. “U-Um… b-being around here is kinda making me queasy, d-do you mind if I wait near his room?” Noelle asked, looking a bit guilty for that.

“All good,” Kris nodded.

“I don’t see why not, go,” Susie nodded.

Noelle blushed a bit and smiled. “Th-Thanks, bye!” She said as she left the basement…

“Well, if you have nothing else to ask, I’ll be investigating something else too,” Ceroba said.

“Wait, wait,” Susie called out. “Uh… you were pretty close to the basement, alone. You mind explaining that?”

Kris nodded. “We’re not accusing you of anything, it’s just kinda weird,”

Ceroba nodded. “I understand, don’t worry. I had been meditating in the foyer before the blackout… I actually saw Snowy walk past me,”

“Really?” Susie’s eyes widened. “When, dude? Didja talk to him?”

Ceroba shook her head. “No, and I saw him at around 1:00 I’d like to say,” She nodded. “I had been in the foyer since 12:30, and then once the blackout began I had stumbled my way to the basement stairs using my tablet as a light,”

“And then we saw ya, alright,” Susie said with a nod, tapping her hand to her chin as if she was thinking really hard.

“Thanks Ceroba,” Kris said as they prepared to leave the secret room, Susie following behind them.

Ceroba nodded and gave a small smile. “Anytime,”

+CEROBA’S ACCOUNT

Kris and Susie moved onto the next thing, which ended up being the generator room. There was a plethora of stuff to investigate in the cramped room: Frisk, Skate and Fuku were all in there for one, a blood stain on the wall with a couple feathers on the floor beneath it, the plugbox connected to a socket in the wall which connected to the extension cords. There was a lot to look at, is the point.

“Hey Frisk,” Kris said as they and Susie walked up to the girl, who was currently unplugging the extension cords from the plugbox. “Why are you unplugging that?”

“Oh, yeah this does look kinda weird,” Frisk nodded. “I’m just making sure that no one else gets hurt by it. Even if the wire’s completely broken, it’s better safe than sorry, right?”

“Fair enough I guess,” Susie shrugged. “Was that plugbox always plugged in, or nah?”

“It wasn’t plugged in when we first explored this room,” Kris explained.

“I imagine the killer plugged it in beforehand,” Frisk nodded as she stood up. “This wasn’t a heat of the moment thing, this was… very planned out,” She shuddered.

“Eugh, that’s fucked up to think about,” Kris shivered a bit too at the thought.

“Yeah…” Frisk mumbled, scratching her arm.

“But, if it’s right, it’s right,” Susie shrugged. “We just gotta work with that,”

“Right, right…” Frisk nodded solemnly.

+PLUGBOX

“Well, that’s about all that’s over here,” Kris shrugged. “We’ll leave you too it, Frisk,”

“Yeah, see ya around!” Susie said as she walked over to Fuku and Skate on the other side of the cramped room.

“Goodbye,” Frisk smiled as she went back to investigating the plugbox. “And um… good luck during the trial, Kris!”

Kris nodded. “Same to you, dude,”

With that the two finally walked towards Skate and Fuku, both of whom were standing around the bloodstain, Skate’s hand was gently placed on Fuku’s shoulder. The two girls soon turned to look at Kris and Susie.

“Oh, hey, what’s up dude?” Skate asked as she put on a nervous smile, it was pretty normal to be nervous given the current situation.

“Are you here to ask us anything?” Fuku asked with a sigh.

“Well yeah, duh,” Susie nodded then shrugged. “I mean, we kinda already know where you were during the blackout, but it’d be nice to know anyway,”

“We were um… on a date,” Fuku giggled. “In the spa, of course,”

“Blackout scared the shit out of us for a bit, but it wasn’t too bad,” Skate shrugged. She then let out a grumble. “Sucks that this happened after, though,”

“Yeah…” Kris nodded, the blackout wouldn’t be as bad for them because of Fuku. She’s on fire, fire lets off light, great observation, Kris, you’re a genius. “Well, that’s good enough for us,” They shrugged.

“Yep, onto the next thing, Kris!” Susie declared.

“See ya around, dude!” Skate said.

Fuku nodded. “Mhm!”

+FUKU’S ACCOUNT

The two moved on to looking at the last thing of note in the generator room, that being the stain of blood on the wall and the feather sitting below it.

“It’s one of Snowy’s…” Kris said as they looked down at the feather.

“What?” Susie turned towards the human.

“The feather,” Kris clarified. “It’s the same colour as Snowy’s, you think he was knocked out here, or something?”

“It’d explain the blood, yeah,” Susie shrugged. “It’s still wet, all of this happened pretty recently. Freaky shit,”

“Kind of an understatement, but yeah,” Kris nodded as they took note of everything they had found. They left the generator room soon after.

+BLOODSTAIN ON WALL

+SNOWY’S FEATHER

“Alright, what do we got left in here before we go meet up with Noelle?” Susie asked as she stretched a bit.

Kris tapped their chin a bit, then pointed at the crowd of three near the stairs: Pizzapants, Lancer and MK. “We should probably talk to them before we head up. They were there before I came in,”

“True, I was kinda shocked when you just uh… ran off like that,” Susie said with a chuckle.

Kris’ eyes widened a bit, but they soon let out a breath and shrugged. “Guess something just came over me? I dunno,”

“Eh, whatever,” Susie shrugged as she stepped towards the group alongside Kris.

Lancer noticed them first, pointing at the dinosaur woman and cheering. “Susie, it’s you, and the green shirted as well!”

“You bet your ass it is!” Susie smirked at the boy.

“Oh, what’s up dudes?” MK said, flashing a nervous looking smile. “What did you want?”

“You here to ask about what we saw? Cause we got a lot to say,” Pizzapants’ face grew into a smirk. “Something that’s gonna blow this case outta the water,”

“Well shit, I’m as excited as I’ve ever been,” Susie shrugged. “What is it?”

MK sighed. “We were all together in the Arcade when the blackout happened,”

Kris raised an eyebrow. “Really? That doesn’t change much-”

“That’s not all, that’s not all!” Pizzapants yelped out. “We saw a light during the blackout, coming from under the door… opposite from us. Then it moved towards the pool and went up the stairs from there,”

“Oh shit,” Kris’ eyes widened a bit. “That actually is kinda helpful, good job, Pizzapants,”

“There’s a first time for everything, I guess,” Susie smirked.

“Darn right!” Lancer declared.

“Ughh…” Pizzapants let out a groan. “Whatever, little buddy. Do with this what you will, I think it’s gonna be huge,”

Kris shrugged. “We won’t know until later, thanks,” Kris said as they left for the stairs alongside Susie.

“See ya around, haha!” MK said with a nervous chuckle

+PIZZAPANTS’ ACCOUNT

“Guess this is gonna be the last thing, huh?” Susie asked as she and Kris walked towards the dorms.

“Pretty much,” Kris shrugged. “We’ll probably be outta time once we’re done with this, anyway,”

“True, true. Then we gotta like… figure out who did this,” Susie grumbled. “It’s bullshit,”

“Total bullshit, yeah, but while we’re here we just kinda…” Kris trailed off, then let out frustrated sigh. “We kinda have to do this,”

They soon came across the deer girl, Kris cleared their throat to make their presence known without scaring her. “O-Oh, hey Kris, S-Susie!” Noelle flashed them a smile.

“Sup Noelle? You ready to explore this shit?” Susie asked.

“Um well… th-the door is locked, K-Kris, you know how to lockpick, right?” Noelle asked.

Kris nodded. “Yeah,” They then turned towards Susie. “I used to lockpick my way into Noelle’s room to scare her, it was funny,”

“Fahaha, it was not!” Noelle pouted, even as she let out a chuckle.

“Hmmm…” Susie put a hand to her chin for a moment, looking deep in thought. “Nah, I got a better idea…” She slams her foot into the door, breaking it open instantly with a loud thud as it smacks against the wall of Snowy’s room.

Noelle blushed as she looked between Susie and Kris, the human just shrugged. “Yeah, that works too. Alright, let’s get exploring,”

“You’re welcome guys, anytime,” Susie chuckled huskily as the three walked into the room. Kris had decided to keep track of the fact it was locked, might come up later.

+SNOWY’S LOCKED ROOM

It was pretty much the same as Kris’ room, though admittedly a bit more clean. There were a couple points of interest in the room, namely the stack of papers on Snowy’s desk and his Tenna-Tablet, which was laying on his bed.

“Holy shit!” Susie half yelped, eyes wide as she looked at the top piece of paper in the pile. “MK’s actual name is Monster Kid?”

Kris and Noelle looked at the file.

TOP SECRET: MK, ULTIMATE MISSIONARY

YOUR REAL NAME IS MONSTER KID

“Oh shit it is,” Kris let out a small chuckle. “I guess these are everyone’s secrets,”

“Well yeah, obviously,” Susie shrugged.

“G-Guess this proves that Snowy had found them first,” Noelle let out a sigh then looked around the room briefly. “D-Do we read through them or…?”

“Nah, that’d be shitty,” Susie shrugged.

Kris nodded. “Agreed, besides all we really need to know is that Snowy had them on hand,”

“R-Right sorry,” Noelle mumbled.

“Nah, nah it’s fine,” Susie shook her head. “You had an idea and it sucked, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t say ‘em,”

“Fahaha!” Noelle chuckled. “A-Alright well… let me know if you w-want my input on anything, then,”

+PILE OF SECRETS

“Well in that case, why do you think Snowy was keeping all this shit?” Kris asked as they motioned towards the pile of secrets. As Noelle thought of an answer they turned on the Tablet.

“Password locked, makes sense,” Susie grumbled.

“Yeah, though they do have a notification… they talked to someone,” Kris said as they pointed to the text icon on the screen. “Probably just before the murder,”

“Hmm…” Noelle tapped her chin, her face falling a bit as she seemingly came up with something. “M-Maybe he wanted an accomplice?”

Kris turned their head towards her. “For what?”

“F-For his own murder, maybe he tried to blackmail someone to help him kill someone and it… backfired,” Noelle shivered a bit at the thought.

“How the hell would anyone- oh shit, the motive!” Susie shouted out. Noelle warily in agreement.

“Maybe he convinced someone with the promise of letting them leave with him, and threatening to reveal their secret,” Kris nodded. “Sounds plausible, guess he’s either a real asshole, or he just really wanted to go home,”

“L-Let’s hope for the latter, i-if I’m even right at all…” Noelle scratched her arm nervously.

+TENNA-TABLET NOTIFICATION

+BFFS 4EVER MOTIVE

DING DONG BING BONG

“Hello students! I, Mr. Ant Tenna now declare INVESTIGATION TIME officially over! Head over to the elevator posthase to begin our very special, second CLASS TRIAL attendance is mandatory!”

“I guess this is it…” Noelle let out a sigh as she left Snowy’s room. “H-Hopefully we have enough,”

“Yeah, hopefully…” Kris sighed as they left the room as well, Susie following behind them… it didn’t take long at all for them to reach the elevator doors, where everyone else was already standing.

“It feels… surreal to be back here again…” Fuku said with a sigh.

“I know, right? We let someone fuck up again, dude,” Skate added with an equally depressed huff.

Frisk shook her head. “We didn’t let anything happen, someone just… couldn’t take being in here anymore,”

“This place does fucken’ suck, to be honest,” Pizzapants shrugged.

“Shit or not, no one should have to die here,” Ceroba said as she lightly jabbed Pizzapants in the side. The man grumbled a bit.

“Agreed, this is… very unfortunate,” Ralsei said with a small sniffle. “I’m praying that Snowy’s soul can find peace,”

“Me too,” MK added solemnly.

“Speaking of finding peace, when is this door gonna open?” Catti complained.

“Oddly excited to get this trial underway, hm?” Berdly squinted his eyes at Catti.

Catti pinched the muzzle of her face. “I don’t think anyone’s excited for this, Berdly,”

“Indeed! This is going to be, a bad time!” Jockington added.

“B-But if we work together, I’m sure we can get through this!” Noelle yelped out encouragingly.

Catti sighed. “I guess that’s a better way to look at it,”

“Damn right it is!” Susie added.

“Indubitably, we shall take down this killer by working as a class!” Lancer added. “Except for the person who did the killing,”

“Of whom we have no inkling of,” Berdly added smugly.

“We will soon,” Kris shrugged as they glared at Berdly.

Berdly hmmph’d and nodded. “Of course, Kris. My brains will see us through this,”

“Sure, Nerdly, your brains,” Susie grumbled to herself.

The elevator doors opened soon after, and without so much as another word everyone stepped inside of the cramped space… even though there were less people to populate it, the air still felt as suffocating as ever to Kris, and to the rest of the students as well…

And then it stopped, opening up into the trial room. Tenna sat upon the throne on the far end, The Knight floating next to him as everyone took their places at their stands, an extra one had been erected for Ceroba.

“Take your seats everyone, and get ready for a wonderful, beautiful, TV-TASTIC CLASS TRIAL!” Tenna cheered, throwing his hands in the air as he spoke.

“Now… without further delay…”

“IT’S! CLASS! TRIAL! TIME!”

Snowy wasn’t a nice person, in fact, he was kind of a dick all things considered, but…

That doesn’t mean he deserved to die, no one deserves to die. Especially not like he did.

For his sake, and for the sake of everyone with me.

I’ll reveal the truth!

CLASS TRIAL: BEGIN!

TRUTH BULLETS

TENNAFILE #2

EXTENSION CORDS

EXPLODED CORD END

OUR ACCOUNT

THE BLACKOUT

SNOWY’S BODY

BURNT KEY

RALSEI’S FIRE MAGIC

SECRET ROOM

EMPTY FOLDER

CEROBA’S ACCOUNT

PLUGBOX

FUKU’S ACCOUNT

BLOODSTAIN ON WALL

SNOWY’S FEATHER

PIZZAPANTS’ SHOCKINGLY USEFUL ACCOUNT

SNOWY’S LOCKED ROOM

PILE OF SECRETS

TENNA-TABLET NOTIFICATION

BFFS 4EVER MOTIVE