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+ ENTRANCEWAY TEST DRIVE MEME +

HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU?!

You are overjoyed at the sound of a new voice, you are drawn into the nostalgic delights of an old favourite, you are captivated with curiosity about a new game, entertained by the eventuality of your participation AND YET--

--there are still some hurdles left to climb. BUT FEAR NOT! Whether to test or to hone, to prepare or refine, whether to socialise or scout, you are now right where you need to be at the

♥ ENTRANCEWAY ♥
TEST DRIVE MEME

► Try out any new characters and new Mirrors here! Have a go at the setting, thread with its current players, and see if Wonderland is a good fit for you and/or your character. Post a top level comment, tag into other people's starters, enjoy yourself!

► Thread your character's arrival, set a scene with them as long-established inhabitant, or let one of our past events inspire you. Any starter is fine, and both prose and comment spam are welcome!

► Please only note that any threads on the test drive meme are not game canon, and cannot be used as part of the activity check OR as samples for any future applications. Thank you for understanding!

► Intrigued? Check out our...

NAVIGATION | INPUT & INQUIRIES | TAKEN CHARACTERS | RESERVES | APPLICATIONS

AND THAT IS ALL, throw yourself into the tag fray, and enjoy! ♥

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[It's kind of pointless to visit the gardens, they realize. Nobody needs to take care of the flowers. They take care of themselves. No weeds to pull, no withering blossoms to deadhead, nothing to prune, nothing to plant. It's perfectly pretty, all the time, without any tending to or nurturing.

They visit anyway.

They shouldn't love flowers anymore, they think, after everything that's happened, but they still do. Think about golden flowers. Think about a joke about two kids who played in a muddy flower garden.

And then... they see him.

Him. Really, actually, truly him. Not a flower, not an empty shell that he says to not think of as really him. Their best friend.]

It... it's you.

[Asriel Dreemurr.

They should just stay quiet. They should run. They should do their best to be gone for a long time. It's not even the right line, that one's for Frisk, they're not supposed to be using it now. But it spills out of them, and their feet feel rooted to the earth. Every part of them feels frozen, because this... is this even real? Did he hear them calling him? Are they... what do they even feel right now? Wonder? Relief? Heartache? Dread? Anger? Shame? They cannot understand themselves at all.]

[Stand up slowly. Gain your bearings. Take stock of your surroundings and figure out a plan. Because this is new, this is different, this is wrong. He shouldn't be on the surface. Shouldn't be around other people who are finally happy and away from him--

And he almost falls over again at that voice.

I... I can help! I can be useful!

A shaking claw rests over his forehead but he doesn't turn around just yet. He's afraid to. But he wants to. But he's afraid. So many timelines, so much had happened, but it was them, he knew that voice. Not Frisk, not any other human, no more misunderstandings.

Asriel glances over his shoulder, briefly.

He wishes he hadn't.

He falls back to his knees and grips his forearms tightly, digging into the wool of his sweater. What does he even say? What can he say after all this time, after... so much.

He looks again, a little more this time.]

H...

Hi, Chara.

[His fangs clench immediately, like he'd regretted speaking as he'd done so.]

[They... don't know how to proceed. There's only one timeline where Asriel is truly himself, and they know the decisions he makes in that timeline. He lets go. Tells them to let go, too. Decides they weren't a very good person, decides he'd rather have had Frisk all along.

Chara isn't sure it's very good for him, seeing them again. Chara sort of thinks it would have been better if they really had been gone, and just... stayed gone. They try to smile, because they can always manage a smile, but they scrunch the ends of their sleeves in panicking, nervous fingers.]

Oh. You've fallen down, haven't you?

[...That's not funny.

They start to lift a hand, think maybe they could offer to help him up, but reconsider almost immediately. They're not sure he'd really want them to touch him right now.]

[Strange, isn't it? He can't even look at them. He hears them coming closer, feels his fur stand on end when they start to try and help him up, but there's a sense of incredible relief that washes over him when they don't.

He didn't hate Chara. Never could. But between waking up here and immediately seeing them, he... he needs time.

Asriel adjusts his position instead, sitting down and pulling his knees to his chest. He's afraid, yes, but he's not going to let it show. Not to Chara. Don't be a crybaby in front of Chara. He just sits in the patch of weird, foreign flowers he'd never seen before. It was fitting enough for him, anyway.

A weird, foreign flower.]

So did you.

[His voice is quiet and even. Not having a soul for so long helped.]

Farther than anyone would have guessed.

[They back up a little bit. Better. They know distance is supposed to be a bad thing, is supposed to be something a good person doesn't want, but they just... they can't imagine touch helping at all.

Chara crouches down. Wraps their arms around their legs. Stares at the ground, instead of at Asriel. Eye contact is confrontational, creepy, scary. Demanding. Things they think they should be trying very hard to not be.]

...If you have questions, I can perhaps explain. Or... I can go away, if you would prefer.

You already went away.

[It comes out quickly, nearly cutting off the last of Chara's sentence. He realizes it and clamps up again, holding his own legs tighter. Hands. Legs. A real body. Why hadn't he turned back into a flower yet? Why had he been brought to the Surface, instead?

Unless this wasn't really the Surface. Chara's here. Chara's been gone. So that means...

He sighs a little.]

...you said I fell down. Is that why you're here, too? Is that why...

[He's not Flowey anymore.]

[They shake their head, still not looking up at him.]

You're alive. We're both alive. ...Don't be scared, I'm not going to use it on you.

[They think he's going to be scared anyway, but they unfold enough to pluck the switchblade from their pocket, pop it free. And your hand is a foolish place to get a cut, it makes it hard to grip or make a fist and it keeps re-opening, but they score a line across their palm, put the knife away again as quickly as they can. Hold their open palm out. Not dust, not something brown-black and rotten and inky. A welling stripe of blood, determination-red.

See? Alive.]

It's called Wonderland. It's a different world entirely. There's... consider it... a new game, perhaps?

['Don't be scared', they say. Usually, it's easy to not be but he still tenses up all the same when he sees that blade. Asriel takes a step back, breath caught in his throat for a moment, then--

...ah. It's... that. He knew about it, knew it had been a habit of theirs, but he never actually... watched it. Fear quickly subsides into something more subdued, his own claw reaching out for a moment before that's withdrawn as well.]

Please don't do that.

[If anything, it's harder to watch than having that knife come on him.]

I don't understand what's going on. This isn't supposed to happen. This doesn't follow the script, Chara, I...

[A new... game? A new world. How did they exist here?]

[...Not a good choice. They knew the knife would scare him. Just saying they wouldn't use it on him doesn't mean he can actually trust they wouldn't. They cover their hand to the knuckles with their sleeve, fold their arms, tuck it out of sight. Start to smile at the dirt, because they still can't look at him.]

No more script, or so I'm told. You're going to hear a lot of "things can be different here," I'll bet.

It's... like a Reset that none of us had control over. A... second chance? You can have a perfectly happy ending that you can be a part of, perhaps. How lucky for you!

[It hurts more to be this... distrustful of Chara.

Between everything that had happened with them to begin with, all those timelines, all those Resets. The good ones, the bad ones, the ones he can't even remember the outcome but there's still vague memories of them. Chara confronting him after he had killed Da-- Asgore. A knife being drawn. Begging for his life and Chara raises the knife but there's a pause and--]

I'm not supposed to have a happy ending. Frisk is. You are.

It doesn't matter where I am, Chara. Without a soul, I won't... be me anymore. It's still going to happen.

[They're a little bit relieved they haven't looked up yet, because their smile must have gone completely and utterly strange. They are? Frisk, certainly. Frisk's the friend he wished he always had. Let Frisk be happy, right?

But Chara... golly, if that isn't a bit of a backpedal! Where's the happy ending in already being gone, in being begged to let go, remove themselves from the world, because they're the last remaining threat? Not the greatest person? Probably someone who's already torn everyone's happiness away countless times?

They sort of wonder if he doesn't mean that. They sort of wonder if he's saying that because he's... afraid of making them angry?

They sort of feel sick, and don't fully comprehend why.]

Well. You can have whatever sort of ending you decide to have. Happy or not.

Just don't be so quick to turn all mopey. Determination is the resolve to change fate, is it not? You are in a new world, and therefore a new set of rules apply.

[They look up, just a little. Still not at him, but... at the ground near his paws. Spread their hands a little, though they still hide one up their sleeve. Don't want to be icky, right?]

Our fates were similar. Our SOULs both went to pieces long ago. Despite that... I remain in this form. You're welcome to disagree, but I am tentatively hoping that I am still me. Shouldn't the same be possible for you?

[He gets to... decide his ending? If only it were that easy. His ending was sitting in the Ruins until he turned back into a flower, and just... staying there, until everything resets again. That was his ending. And nothing could change it.

Not even an entirely new world could fix him.

But he still doesn't understand - how is Chara alive at all?]

I don't understand any of this.

[And maybe he does sound a bit dejected by that, still.]

You're just alive? Just like that? I know humans can come back with Determination, but... it's like you said. I'm here because of the SOULs. You're... gone, Chara. At least, in the last timeline.

Even then, I didn't get it.

[The bad timelines. The ones where it's not Frisk, not truly.]

I guess it doesn't really matter how or why now, huh?

[Right.

They're gone.

Still glad they haven't dared meet his eyes. They thought they'd gotten beyond this habit of ducking their head, hiding behind their bangs. They thought they had cut away the weaker parts long ago. But here they are, hiding their face! Like even this is just a memory being force-fed into Frisk's mind.]

Make sense of it however you wish to. You'll have time to puzzle it out. We've been here for months already.

[Clenching fingers. Toying with sleeves. Smiling for noooo reason!]

I... will understand if you want space. I'm not quite as good at being gone as you believe me to be, but I have been told that I do a very good job of pretending to be things that I'm not.

[It's a lot to process at once. Even after having everything explained to him, he still doesn't quite... get it. Or understand. It is what it is, and Chara's alive. And he's here now, too. Only he doesn't know how long it'll still be him.]

I need time, Chara.

[To piece things together. To fix things between the two of them. To be sure he won't be the one who goes to pieces again before they do.]

But I want you to understand. I could never hate you. I might not be happy with how things turned out, but... I still love you.

[...Painful.

They tighten up. Bow their head until their forehead hits their knees, grip themselves like they can squeezes themselves down into something so small it's invisible. Curl in until they can't shrink anymore. Not because he needs time, but because he talks like... like it isn't already the end. They can't. They can't understand it.]

I wouldn't blame you if you didn't. I wouldn't blame you if you hated me. I... I really put you through hell, huh?

[They cannot begin to look at their own actions and see anything that is worthy of love. They just... they fear, they think. That his trust will be his undoing again. That Chara will prove poisonous and horrible and vile again, that their love will only be something hurtful. That maybe the way he ended up making sense of it... maybe that's the best way. Maybe they shouldn't doubt him, either. Maybe it would be healthier if they neatly snipped themselves out of his life and fill the blank space in with something nicer.]

[Yes, and no. Asriel had resisted. Asriel had caused his own death by not fighting back, and in turn, Chara's. If anything, he was more responsible for that than them. But at the same time, it had been Chara's plan to begin with. He had agreed to it. They'd worked together up until that point. So really, it wasn't the fault of one or the other. Things had just... ended badly.

And Flowey was a whole other ballgame.]

I got to see the Surface at least once. That-- well. At the time, that was more than I could say for most monsters.

[It just. Ended up badly.]

I'm not happy with how the plan turned out. And honestly, I'm... not happy with you. But at the same time, I think I can understand where you were coming from? I mean, it's not your fault I wound up as a flower.

[He pauses. Are they even aware of that? It was them in the bad timelines, but...]

Everything I did, I just... wanted to see you again.

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welcome to hell! welcome to hell!

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