PATCHWORK SOUL - NEW MEDIUM

Bloomba Kaboomba Chapter 102

"Okay. Are you ready?"

"No."

"Oh, c'mon. Chara, look. Just... Okay, just look at me, I'll hold the thing, the lens is right here." Asriel tapped his thumb over the small lens of the camera built into Frisk's phone.

"Make sure it's on ghost mode," Frisk advised.

"Oh! Yeah." Asriel snickered and double-checked the settings. "Yeah, that'd be smart."

"No, leave it off." Chara's eyes glinted. "Let them see my real face."

Asriel scoffed and Papyrus snickered, strolling over to her and patting her reassuringly on the shoulder.

"Come on, sister, it's going to be fine! You'll do great!" He beamed, his eyes glimmering. "They're going to be so happy to see you, I'm absolutely sure of it!"

Chara crossed her arms tight to her chest. She leaned back against the wall of the cavern and looked off at nothing. She puffed out a little sigh. "Maybe it's too dark here," she muttered.

"Nah, it's fine," Asriel said with a grin. "Cameras now are a ton better than that clunky junk we had as kids."

"Hm." The girl's face scrunched up a little.

"Az." Frisk nudged her brother gently. "She's nervous."

"O-Oh. Right. Um."

"Here!" Papyrus waved his hands and a row of bones plunged into the ground around her in a wide, out-of-frame arc and began to glow softly with white light. "Is that a bit better?"

"It looks good to me, but, uh—" Asriel tilted his head. "Sis, do you...? Uh. D'you wanna sit, or—"

"It doesn't need to be a long message, if you don't want," Frisk said.

"Are you planning on going over the whole thing?" Asriel asked.

"Do I have a choice?" Chara wondered.

"Well, kinda, it's not like Frisk and me won't be around to explain."

"I don't mind doing it!" Frisk assured her.

Chara sighed. "...Fine, get me a seat."

Papyrus was about to take off, but Asriel wrapped his magic into the ground just beside his sister and popped the grass up into a little, solid mound. She raised a brow and cautiously pressed on it with her palm before sitting down.

"Not bad, fuzzball," she said.

"Thanks," he said. He aimed the camera at her again, frowned thoughtfully, and then backed up and knelt down. "Okay, I think that looks good." He waved to Papyrus and the skeleton swiftly jumped out of frame. "Just lemme know when you're ready to start."

Chara's brow furrowed. She pulled at the hem of her tunic-like shirt as if to straighten it out and readjusted herself on her seat. Stiffening her posture, she held her legs rigid as she folded her hands in her lap. She drew in a slow, steadying breath and blew it out again, letting her shoulders sink a little. "Okay." She nodded, mostly to herself. "Go ahead."

Asriel hit the record button and stuck his thumb up.

Gleaming, honey-coloured eyes locked onto the camera lens unblinkingly. "Greetings, mother; father." Chara frowned. "No, that's... too formal. Hi. Hello. Howdy." She rolled her eyes at herself and her gaze darted towards the others.

Papyrus stuck his thumbs up and Frisk clasped her hands together and nodded.

"It's fine, keep going," Asriel said.