rebornflora:
For a moment, his smile fades ─ No, he was right. It was a reality that Asriel wanted to run from ─ because in the end, no matter how much he grew… no matter how much he aged… Nothing changed from the moment he’d met Chara. He was still afraid. He was still so afraid.
And that fear controlled him. It was suffocating down here─ after all,
* The ruins are very small once you get used to them.
The smile returns, remembering his mother’s words to Frisk all that time ago. It was true, the longer he stayed here, the smaller this place became. It hurt, separating himself like this ─ As much as he appreciated Frisk coming down now and again to visit, it still didn’t replace the ache of knowing that…
…He didn’t have a family anymore. Chara was dead, and his parents were on the surface. Was it worth it? Accepting Frisk’s soul and surviving down here…? Of course, he wanted to keep his body ─ his compassion, and his capacity to love others.
But it was that same love, that caused him such pain.
"────my strength was never my own,” he muses aloud, taking in a deep breath and sighing it out, “─before frisk, i relied on chara in order to be strong, and now ─ here ─ it’s just me. you can probably tell that it’s… hard. i have no one to lean on now. i wonder if frisk’s sacrifice was… worth it.”
“─but sometimes, i think it is worth it. i get to stay here, and watch the ruins, and guide any lost monsters back to the surface. mt ebott is regaining its reputation. not everyone who falls down disappears anymore ─ i’ve found a purpose that helps monsters. i might not be the prince i was destined to be, but at least now,”
“─at least now i don’t have to cause harm anymore.”
There was a long pause, before he looks to his counterpart ─ eyes large.
“…so i suppose i should ask you the question i ask everyone when they first meet me,”
“───why did you fall down here?”
He half-prepares for that statement, with all its loaded notions, to spark another something. Dark-padded paws lift somewhat, showing off their talons-- but they drop harmlessly back to his sides when there's nothing but contemplative notes. It's reassuring: while, certainly, he could keep playing the proud and teasing monster among monsters.. it was probably unnecessary here.
If anything, this certainly was a lovely place to live. Flora slowly took everything over, with fall leaves and golden blooms in far more places than before, and still the light streamed down.. what an elysium to call a prison! But, however Asriel could understand that, childhood curiosity and a soulful of stolen determination compelled him otherwise. He always wanted to see the sun and the moon, the sky full of stars, and never as he limped and bled.
"Of course it's worth it, whatever they did for you. You're alive."
No need to ask, it was plain to the eye: the other’s soul glittered with something peculiar. He was no exception, what with the stolen sentiments of the dead being the spring in his step... but a red soul? He could only wonder how the other half was doing: what came of humans like that?
But guess as he would, the notion remained; it was so much better than nothing at all.
“Haha.. something always pulls me back here, even after everyone’s left.”
He could move on however much he wanted, but it never changed that everything still remained. New life brought about new understandings, realizations that never would have sparked long ago.. even if it was just picking through his father’s repetitive diaries, or trying to read the stories told by abandoned shoes.
“Because, maybe if I look at it all again.. I’ll find something new.”
