The Underground is awfully quiet.

You lay in your bed in Snowdin. No sun shines in through the window. Of course it doesn't. And it's no one's fault but yours. After all that work to get to King Asgore, he was...and Flowey took the human SOULs. And even after all that, you chose to let Asgore's SOUL disappear. You chose to stay in the Underground. To be honest, what up there is so much better than everything down here? Like Sans said. Good food, bad laughs. Although maybe he was just trying to convince you to stay. And somehow, despite the disappearance of the SOULs, things didn't get so much worse in the Underground. Flowey has been gone for a while. Toriel has returned to rule as queen. Papyrus joined the Royal Guard after the abolishment of the anti-human policy. Sans is Sans. Undyne finally got a breather as captain of the Guard. You even made up with Alphys and helped her stop hiding secrets from her friends. Down here, you may not have literal freedom, but it's home. Well, for both of you. You feel a cold nudge on your shoulder all of a sudden and see the ghostly child floating right above you.

"Do you really intend to sleep through the whole day? I am getting bored, and you have slept enough."

Right. The ghost. Of course all this comes with a catch. Chara. The first fallen human. Toriel's adoptive child. The moment you set foot in the Underground they, for some reason, just decided to rise from the dead and start following you around. The amount of physical contact they can really make with you and other things is limited, but they can talk, oh, they can talk your ear off. And they frequently do, commenting on things you interact with like you're not looking right at them. And there seems to be no way out of this. The child floats right above your place in your bed, deeply sighing like you're the one being ridiculous here.

"Come on, partner. We do not want Sans to use the airhorn again, right? I want to see Undyne. And Alphys, and Mettaton...we have things to do, rise and shine. Or not, I suppose, there is no sun here."

Chara's tone is insisting like a kid who was just told they can't have a toy. That first half is at least true, they are mature, but the fact they haven't aged in the who knows how many years they've been dead shows. But this is life. They're always around. Despite everything, it's still you and Chara.

"Partner..."

They groan, trying and failing to push you.