File -1: Purple Mage’s Abode
rogue-value:
Roselyn pinched at the bridge of her nose. Five souls. It could have been six, had Roxy not managed to survive this ordeal. Monster souls were incredibly weak compared to human souls. It would take the combined strength of every monster in the underground to amount to her, or even most young adults. A child though, was a different story. “We should do something, but I’m not convinced yet that telling people is the correct path forward.” “Roxy. Do you know what primary traits those souls had?” She quietly questioned. She was fighting back the fury she was feeling over the scenario. What kind of a sick person murders children? “Uhhhh. Yea actually. Everythin except for Kindness ‘n determination was there. Another kid fell in recently. After me. Their soul is determined. So, if they end up dyin too. That’s six.” Roselyn felt her stomach tie itself into knots. Not only was Asgore collecting these souls but he almost had one of every trait. Knowing that a determined child was down there gave her a little bit of hope however. If that child had any sort of luck in using the power of their soul, they’d be much harder to kill than most others would be. They could give themselves second, third, and fourth chances. As many as they needed to make things go right. “You said they are desperate, and hurting. Why is that, Roxy?” Roselyn went on with her questions. Roxy crossed her legs and frowned, falling silent. From a story context this was really fucked up. She knew that. She was tempted to tell them it didn’t actually matter so much, but she didn’t want to expose them to the fact that they were living in someone’s computer. She had to keep going on with this narrative. “The king ‘n queen of monster kind had a son named Asriel. And that kid became friends with the first human child to ever fall through the barrier. The king and queen raised that kid as their own. But. Chara. That child. Became real ill. And ended up dyin. Their final wish was to see the flowers of their home village again. So Asriel took their soul and added it to his own, usin their combined power to pass through the barrier without breakin it, and took the kid’s dead body to the village.” Roxy was getting a little emotional now. Tears were forming at the corners of her eyes. She sniffled quietly and wiped at them. “The people in that village seein a monster carryin a dead kid became enraged. They thought Asriel killed Chara. So they killed Asriel. This sent the king and queen into a deep depression. Asgore swore to have vengeance against humanity both for starting a war with them and locking them behind the barrier, and also murderin his child. Fastforward many years, and we’re here now.” Roselyn was dumbstruck by the tale, and how it was delivered. Was that really what happened? It wasn’t something she had much knowledge of, that was distant history. Before she was alive. She knew the circumstances of the war, and the creation of the barrier, but this was news to her. She reached out towards Roxy and placed a hand delicately on her shoulder.
Dave nodded, mutely. They needed to do something, but the possibility of wide-spread panic would only set them back from doing something productive and meaningful towards fixing the situation at hand.
It really didn’t help that Asgore had almost every single trait of souls at his disposal, and that another kid was down there. His own soul was like the kid’s - determined. The boy could only hope the child was able to use it to escape and stay alive down there.
Roselyn kept questioning her daughter and he simply watched and listened. He kept his eyes trained on the girl, listening intently to what Roxy was saying. In the middle he noticed the tears forming in the corners of her eyes and for a moment he moved to reach out, only placing his hands on his knees and gripping them tightly.
He had the same thought as the Purple Mage - was that really how it happened? Is that how the barrier came to be ? The imprisonment of monsters due to a misconception created by humans ? He was vaguely familiar with the legends, but nothing of this detail.
Moving a hand to push underneath his shades to rub at his eyes, he heaved a quiet sigh.
“This is just fucked up..”
So, really, what were they supposed to do now ?
Roxy was quite a storyteller, he had to give her that. She sold all that bullshit amazingly well. He felt a little off watching that, the entire scene, where the two other people felt and were afraid of the danger that might as well never come, since well, he was definitely not planning to play the game in way that could doom anyone. That was a deal he had with Roxy. While they were talking, he half watched the screen and turned on his other laptop, borrowed from Uni friend and touched on the screen, idly working in #D program to create more reliable and realistic graphic settings for the game. It will take a while, days, weeks, he might as well start now and see how it goes. With his free hand, he moved to text Roxy again. ‘Are you actually planning to remain in Jericho? They will sooner or later realize there are gaps in your story. And we will need to limit our chats to neutral topics on the dash, since that Dave guy has a blog.’