Things are tense between Frisk and Chara after Frisk died at Toriel’s hands. Chara’s instinct is to defend their mother, but Frisk, traumatized, isn’t having it.
A flicker of uncertainty crosses Chara’s ghostly face. “She did not mean to. She’s not like that,” They say, not meeting Frisk’s tearful eyes. “She was trying to protect you.”
“Oh wow, and she did such a great job of that!” Frisk seethed through watery eyes. “That’s what all great moms do, murder their own children.”
“But you don’t care, you hate me!” Frisk whirls on Chara, nose to nose with the startled apparition. “Bet it was real fun to watch me get burnt to a crisp, huh? Bet it was just hilarious thinking about how I might’ve never-- I… I might’ve never seen my family again…” The hot, furious energy deflates out of them, replaced with an embarrassed hand wiping away their tears.
Chara reaches out a hand, unsure and caught off-guard. The hand hovers there for a moment, then retracts. Frisk takes a shaky breath and continues down the corridor.
They don’t see Corpsey again in the ruins, but his ominous, raspy laughter follows them wherever they go.
That night, as Toriel tosses and turns in her bed, unable to shake a profound guilt that she cannot place, she is visited by the rotting corpse of her long dead child, who taunts and mocks her inability to fix anything, to keep anyone safe. She wakes up the next morning shaking, convinced that it was just a nightmare. But there are muddy shoeprints on the floor next to her bed that she doesn’t remember seeing before.
In Snowdin, Frisk meets Sans and Papyrus. Sans warns them that the residents of the town are jumpy these days, with a few murders that took place recently and rumors of a demonic ghost haunting the town. The brothers help with diverting Royal Guard patrols from their path (Papyrus’s lieutenant status helps with this).
Frisk tries to keep a low profile, but after getting into an argument with Chara, gets jumped by Doggo who assumes them to be the evil human ghost that’s been haunting the town. Frisk, their death at Toriel’s hands still fresh on their mind, kills him in self defense. This drives a further wedge in between Frisk and Chara.
“Load back,” Chara says icily.
“What? No, he tried to kill me!” Frisk’s knuckles go white as the snow at their feet as they grip the dusty plastic knife for all its worth.
“Because he thought you were a threat,” Chara bites back. “Which clearly, you are. If you could just explain--”
“Explain what, exactly?” Frisk snaps. “That I’m not an evil haunted zombie? That I’m a regular human? Haven’t we already established that the entire Underground wants me dead?”
“You have power. You are functionally immortal. You have a responsibility to use that power to minimize harm.”
“So I’m not allowed to defend myself now? I’m just supposed to let these people kill me?”
“Yes,” Chara hisses out. “It is the least you could do for them after everything your people have done to them.”
“My people?” Frisk asks, bewildered. “What did my people do?”
“Your people. Humanity. You killed millions and then trapped the survivors down here to rot.” Overwhelming hatred distorted their expression.
“First of all, my parents were Columbian immigrants, I’m not sure what a bunch of white people did a thousand years ago, but my family had nothing to do with it, and it’s bullshit to say that I’m responsible for it,” Frisk says, taking a step forward. “Second of all, newsflash, Einstein, you’re human too. So if I’m responsible, then so are you. Why don’t you die for them?”
“I DID DIE FOR THEM!” Chara’s form distorted beyond recognition, for a split second they looked almost demonic as they loomed over Frisk, who stumbled backward in fear.
It was only for a moment, though, and they flickered back to looking like an angry, grief-stricken child. “I did die for them,” Chara repeated. “And it was not enough.”
Frisk looked down at the dust mingling with the snow, guilt bleeding in now that the initial fear had worn off.
“Please,” Chara pleaded, sounding exhausted. “Please load back. Try to end the fight without either one of you dying. Just try.
Frisk thought about whether they could go home and look in their mama’s eyes and tell her they had killed someone. Could they live with themself if they didn’t try? “Okay. Fine. I’ll try.”
Frisk loads back and is able to pacify Doggo. Unbeknownst to them, after they move on from the area, Corpsey kills Doggo.
Sans’s warnings turn out to be true, with Snowdin’s residents being very jumpy. Simultaneously though, Corpsey has gathered a mini cult following of cryptid enthusiasts, with Papyrus being the leader. He dresses Frisk in a Corpsey mask and a Corpsey fanclub shirt as a disguise. Frisk explores the village and gets a gauge on the monster population. Most people are scared of the evil ghost demon child that is rumored to be behind the disappearances, other people are skeptical and assume there’s some serial killer and have distaste for the royal guard for not solving the murders.
In the Papyrus hangout he reveals that he’s actually friends with Corpsey and insists Corpsey is actually a really good guy! People are just scared of him because he’s stinky and spooky. He’s not a murderer! He’s just quirky. Papyrus started the Corpsey fanclub in order to improve Corpsey’s public perception. It didn’t help, it just attracted the cryptic/true crime/conspiracy theory lovers. Oh well.
Undyne shows up to investigate the report of Doggo’s disappearance. She gets on Papyrus’s case about the whole Corpsey fanclub thing and sees straight through Frisk’s disguise and attacks! She insists that Frisk murdered Doggo, and when Frisk can’t fully deny it, Papyrus reluctantly sides with Undyne.
During the fight, Frisk appeals to Papyrus’s conscience and insists they didn’t kill Doggo, getting his guard down enough to flee from both of them
