DELTARUNE AU - INCARNATE
CHAPTER 0 - FIRST CONTACT
Kris was angry. Noelle could tell that much.
She let her eyes roam back and forth between her childhood friend and their new… acquaintance. They were walking down the street, side by side, without uttering a single word.
Well, Kris wasn’t uttering a word. The new guy was, in fact, invested in an heated conversation with Susie. They were so far away that she couldn’t even hear their voices, but judging fro how much the dino was cracking up, it must have been a fun topic.
Susie resumed her talking, completely unaware of the visible one sided tension that had been building up between Kris and the newcomer who, on their part, seemed totally unbothered.
Speaking of the new guy. When Noelle had seen them outside the church that morning, she thought she had been seeing doubles. They were Kris’ almost exact carbon-copy. Accurate to the inch. Same height, same face, same body type. Same clothes, even.
But it seemed like colors had been drained out of them: their skin was pale, almost grayish, and their hair looked like someone ad poured a mix of ash and coal right on their head. Even the shirt and the pants were of a different, colder hue.
Their eyes briefly met. The stranger’s were of a vivid, fiery red. They lingered on her for a second too much, and she shuddered. But even after they looked away, she couldn’t shake of the feeling that she was still, somehow, being watched.
However, they were not Kris, and looking at the two of them, side by side, she was even more sure of that: her friend kept their arms crossed and walked with their head low, eyes fixed on the ground. With dropped shoulders and a back slightly arched onwards, they didn’t exactly scream “most confident person in town.”
Grey dude, however, was a whole different story. They exuded confidence and carefreeness in a way that the girl couldn’t properly describe. Was it, perhaps, the relaxation in their posture? Or maybe the way they were quite literally waltzing and pirouetting on the spot in a way that seemed far too childish for a teenager such as them?
Their overall behaviour seemed to state “the world is my playground and I’m gonna make it everyone’s problem!”
Their eyes met for the second time and, again, she couldn’t shake of the feeling that she was somehow being seized up, like a deer ready to be mauled to death by hungry wolves.
What a morbid thought.
For a second she considered flipping them off and heading through the gates of her house, as far away as possible from those crimson irises.
Wait, no. That would have been outlandishly rude. What would have her mother thought of her?
And they were back talking to Susie.
Then Kris finally raised their head and saw her.
She could have sworn their face went white.
Her childhood friend began to frantically gesture towards her, while not so sneakily pointing at grey dude, as if they were trying to communicate something. Too bad that due to their absolute gremlin nature they were not making any sense whatsoever.
What, Noelle gestured back.
Kris began to vigorously shake their head, then pointed at her, then at their doppelgänger, then at her again, and started to make big crosses with their arms.
Huh? What the hell? Why were they telling her to avoid the guy? Not that she was opposed to the idea, but…
Just as she was about to ask for more details, Susie spotted her. This led to the very foreseeable outcome of the dino grabbing the two other kids by the arms and basically dragging them in her direction like empty sacks of potatoes.
Noelle chuckled at the scene.
Then she remembered that it was Susie that was approaching and began to absolutely freak the hell out.
“Hey.” The girl weaved when they reached her.
“H-hi, Susie. How… how’s it going? What, uhm, what bring you here? I mean, you and the others, not like, heh, you you, heheh, likeIwasn’tthinkingaboutyoucomingherealonjusttoseemeeheheh… heh… heh.”
She asked, sorta, kinda, mentally chiding herself for her crippling awkwardness.
“Ahh yess, we, well, we do good, I mean, I’m doing good. And yes, we’re here for, ehm…” Susie, thank the angel, was just as awkward as her.
“Uhm… Group project. The, yes, the group project… thing…” Kris kindly interjected.
Their voice… Noelle resisted the urge to hug her friend, but it was their voice that she just heard. Their actual deadpan, mumbly voice… In fact, the girl felt like she wanted to cry. It felt so long since she heard it… even if Kris had come to talk to her just the night before…
“Oh, actually… - Susie interrupted her chain of thought - I get it that we are late but, well. There’s this guy here, we found them, like, totally passed out on Kris’ front porch and, well, Toriel asked if they could tag along with us so, well…”
“That’s a lot of wells.”
Noelle groaned at Kris’ terrible pun, and noticed that grey dude was now hiding right behind Susie peeking in her direction with curious eyes. Huh, how interesting…
“C’mon dude, what’s gotten you so shy all of a sudden? It’s just Noelle, she doesn’t bite, unlike me!” With a noisy laugh, the girl pushed her new pal forward in her direction.
Noelle felt a surge of pity as she watched the newcomer stumble in front of her. As they stabilised on their feet and straightened their back, she couldn’t suppress a giggle.
Kris was looking at the two of them with wide open eyes. They were so still that they might as well have been… frozen… solid.
Nope.
Thinking of ice and snow was the last thing she wanted to do.
“Uhm…”
The teen avoided her gaze, and rubbed their arms together in an awkward way. A couple seconds passed in total silence before Noelle decided that she had to take control of the situation.
“So… - She started, extending her hand - you must be new in town, since, you know, I’ve never seen you before… well, I am Noelle. Nice to meet you!”
“Noelle. That’s a pretty name… for a pretty girl. Greetings, you can call me Vess…”
As they vere about to shake her hand, she retracted it as fast as she could, as her vision faded, if only briefly.
That voice. That… voice…
Vess… their smile was warm, friendly even, but to her it felt like a mockery. Their eyes, shy and curious, now looked like they were laughing at her. Their expression… so genuine, and yet so twisted.
And their voice, their nightmarish voice, that was burned in her mind just right next to the image of candid snow… a voice that was similar to Kris’, and yet so different… so seductively smooth… so soft that it made her feel like she was being wrapped in cold, fine silk…
It was right there…
It was really there…
This wasn’t a dream…
This was real…
No…
No!
NO!
When a cold hand touched her shoulder, Noelle screamed.
