#spiralfes 2020

[thetruename]

(Starter for @0racleray​!)

It’s late that night before Chara decides to do any exploring of the festivities going around the city. If Chara was completely honest with themselves, the very idea of “festivities” sounded horrible. They still remembered when Asriel had pulled them into the monsters’ weird, off-brand holidays, but that was different. That had been with Asriel. Now they were alone.

Nonetheless, when it’s late enough that most people have gone home, Chara does a little looking around. And they find, in Cotes Ward, an outdoor star garden - full of stars and planets and celestial bodies that bring a smile to their face right away, and also full of...

Oh, no way. No way.

Cocoa! Chocolates! Tea! This was made for them!

They’re so excited when they see the tables full of food and drinks that they don’t even notice the girl, only slightly older than they are, that is also at the table, until they’ve already started gathering food. When they do, their face falls - and then a fake smile, quick as a blink of an eye, snaps across their face.

They raise their hand, and with it, a knife...

For cutting tiny cakes, of course.

“...Greetings.”

[rubberhosing]

A nightclub for villains and antagonist-types? Well, she has to go there! She has to beat up all those no-good ne'er-do-wells, give ‘em the ol’ one-two! That’ll teach ‘em to mess with the good guys!

Except... as she found out soon after entering, she couldn’t fight while she was in there. She couldn’t even extend her limbs and do a little roughhousing! Well, ain’t that just a load of applesauce.

But, she had gone all this way. Might as well get to know folks. Not like she was having much luck doing that elsewhere.

She sits at a table and flops dramatically across from some weird-looking alien, with a big hat and strings on his hands leading up to some wooden boards. He looks in the dumps - real down ‘n’ out.

“Y’know, I kinda feel outta place in this joint. Just me?”

(For @forsakenpumpkin​!)

[atlas-the-hollow]

Slowly, Atlas has retreated into solitude. 

There is nothing for them in the tiny palace of the Pale King, and the winding roads of Spirale seems to have swallowed what friends Atlas has made. The city seems to change constantly, bringing in new people and taking the old away, hosting festivals that span all corners of the city. Atlas tends to avoid them, still uncomfortable around the crowds of chitinless folk and the stares they cast their way. But there is one that catches their attention. A sort of vigil for the lost. 

It’s dark when Atlas goes to the river, all the better to see the candlelight dancing over the water’s surface. There are a great many people that Atlas could light a candle for, but at the forefront of their mind are the little voidlings. Their bodies lay piled and forgotten at the bottom of the Abyss. There is no one to mourn them, no one but their own lingering wills and Atlas themself. 

They light a candle for the voidlings lost and kneel beside the river, submerging their cupped hand to let the candle float along its surface. They watch as the candle gently bobs away, joining the rest, but they keep their gaze upon the dancing lights. 

[thetruename]

(Starter for @patiencethin!)

Out of all the festivities going on across the island, one that sounded especially appealing to Chara involved, what else, but violence. The chance to beat up some humans in a safe, foam-filled environment sounded like a good bit of childish fun.

So Chara geared up, taking a foam sword (the closest thing they had to a foam dagger, they supposed) and a foam shield and approaching the nearest, scariest-looking human to challenge them to a match.

The scary-looking human they chose was a six foot tall, scarred, human adult in what was clearly a mask. They looked like they had some battle experience, so this should be fun. There was no sport in fighting someone weak, after all.

...Hopefully this human wouldn’t think they were weak, just because they were a child.

“Greetings,” they said to them. “I am Chara. Up for a match?”

[thetruename]

(Starter for @palevurm!)

Chara is bored.

Despite all the fesitivites going on across the island, Chara doesn’t care for most of them. They involve too many people, and more importantly, too many humans.

But... there is one event that catches their attention. Across Fibonacci Ward are places that, it is rumored, sell things that can’t be found across the island. Things from home.

And Chara dearly, dearly misses their locket. The lack of its familiar weight across their neck, on their chest, is more agonizing than the hollowness of their lack of a soul.

They spend an entire day travelling across Fibonacci, finding most of the objects useless, but eventually, they find it, sitting on a vendor’s shelf... an upside-down heart in gold, a locket that doubles as a music box, that opens and reveals the words “BEST FRIENDS FOREVER,” carved into its inside by a knife.

...They can’t afford it. Not, at least, if they plan to eat.

Desperate, not letting it go lest someone else take it, they rush over to the nearest person passing by, not even caring if it’s a human or not. Fortunately, it’s not - it’s a bug monster, or sort-of-monster, like Quirrel, with horns on their head like a crown. Chara rushes over to them, not caring a lick for politeness or propriety, and says:

“Please! Please, whoever you are, buy this for me! I’ll do anything.”

[thetruename]

((Starter for @aid-lombard​!))

Chara had... rather missed the point of some of the festivities. The idea of the one involving the giant tree in the center of Cotes was, of course, to let the alruane lead you up around the tree so you could sit on its canopies. But, for Chara, all they were was fascinated with the alraune itself.

Despite the alraune’s continued attempts to lead Chara towards the plant staircase leading up the tree, Chara was just barraging the poor plant person with questions.

“Do you eat? Or are you photosynthetic? Do you have roots? Your flowers are lovely, by the way. What kind are they? Do you require watering them or anything? What happens if it doesn’t rain?”

Someone better stop Chara, because they’re certainly not going to on their own...

[thetruename]

(Starter for @sneezeonsunshine!)

Of course, it goes without saying that Chara is attracted, like a fly to honey, to any event involving chocolate. And that event, in this case, is the “home goods store” where seemingly everything is made of chocolate.

Until the unfortunate times when it’s not. But those times don’t seem to stop Chara, who bites without hesitation into everything in sight regardless of how much it threatens to break their jaw.

They’re mid-way, in fact, to biting into a doorknob when they notice a young girl about their own age passing them by, and they freeze like a frightened animal.

It takes them a moment to notice the young girl is... not unlike them. Something about her, about the way she carries herself, or maybe just some mysterious aura that she gives off, reminds Chara so much of themselves that they actually start to approach her.

They don’t notice that their mouth and chin are still covered in chocolate as they walk behind her and say, their eyes wide and almost manic...

“You’re like me, aren’t you?”

[thetruename]

((I’m feeling frisky (har har har) so here’s another starter call for Chara, this time Spiralfes themed! They can be found in any of the following places, so also feel free to use this as a reference for your own starters:

- No Place Like Home Decor, trying to find their locket

- Zero G’s, Zero Cares

- Ophiuchus Tree Tower

- Maze By Pixie Light

- Candle Lighting for the Lost

- Star-den Tree Party

- A Foam-idale Foe

- Arte Feste

- Candy Camoflage

Like this post for a starter, cap of 5!))