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Hi Alphys. It's Frisk.

How much time do you think it would take to build a CORE here? Do you think it could be done?

[Well this... catches her off guard. Why does Frisk want to know about the CORE? But she considers it, texts back as soon as she runs a few figures.]

uhhh maybe
if we found something to convert to magical energy
or found a way to siphon the mansions but like lmao if we could do that we wouldn't actually NEED the CORE so
anyway
with the core in hotland its geothermal
er
the lava. the lava does it
so the heat went through it and converted to Magic
but about time
depends how many people worked on it???? i guess?????
i mean i didnt
i didnt make the first one so
idk exactly
asgore might know how long it took

[That's...that's right. She didn't make the first one, did she? Frisk doesn't know what motivates them to respond in the way they do, but they do.]

I see. Do you know who made the first one?

It would just make a lot of things easier, I think.

Edited 2016-08-14 05:13 (UTC)

the first one??
uhh the royal scientist before me or uh a while ago
it already existed when i was young
my dad used to take me

wait no, that's
hang on

no sorry thats not right
i dont remember exactly i dont think it was there when i was a kid??
everybody did this big shift at one point when hotland became accessible

but
no my first house was there i remember the light from
damnit
no thats not right either

[Why... why isn't this working. Her first house was in Hotland, wasn't it? So the CORE existed. But also her dad taking her places when it was... when the Underground was smaller? Did that happen? She lost her dad, pretty young, didn't get to see her graduate, was it around then? Was he around then? Maybe she imagined that, too. Alphys rests her head in her palm, sucks in a breath through her nose, tries again.]

it was the previous royal scientist
dont remember when exactly
a long time ago??
ive looked at the plans before but it shifts so
its hard to track exactly what it looked like or older sections
again asgore might know but

hang on i feel like i have notes or smth

[She goes digging through her room, trying to remember if she had the plans of the CORE on her when she showed up here. Probably not. She tries asking the closet and gets nothing. Too specific, probably, so she returns to her phone, stares at it for a bit. There's something she's missing here, and it bothers her.]

nnnnope no notes
didnt come w me lmao oops
maybe ask asgore abt the monster who designed it
i mean he mustve been pretty famous
dad always talked about how g

[She drops the device. Fuck. No, no, this is why none of it makes sense, this is why, it's him, it's that monster, had to be him, those plans she didn't understand, running, the feel of a coat through her fingers and too late too late too late

it's a little while before there's another response.]

uh
previous royal scientist yeah
idk i dont think itd be
talking about this is
its
theres probably no need for a CORE here im not sure im qualified its
not mine not me

[This is interesting. Frisk watches the texts pour in, frown beetling darker and darker on their forehead by the second. It's like watching a woven blanket be unmade, the strands of yarn unraveling in a slow, arduous unspooling of fabric across a planar surface.]

But Wonderland already has a Core of some sort. Maybe that's what's keeping us here.

Wouldn't a CORE be enough to provide more power than that? Enough to send us all home?

[They're pressing too hard, maybe. Too much. But they have to offer an incentive here.]

i don t
i dont know
ive never studied it and
its on the mirror side i couldnt get there if i wanted to
and even then its

[Are... are they trying to ask about that monster?]

frisk
is this about the CORE at all

[They could always lie. Misdirect. They're getting better and better at it, they think, or maybe that's a gross exaggeration based on their own wishful thinking. But then again, maybe not.

It's easier to lie over text.

They could pry harder, they suppose. Take her off guard. It seems like she knows something about - the man who came from the other world. Him.]

Yes, it is. Ford's portal didn't work, so we need a new plan, don't we? Wouldn't the CORE generate enough power to override whatever Wonderland uses to keep us trapped here?

[Stay focused on the objective for now. The plan.]

i mean it
thats all theory
youre converting energy to energy and things get
lost in the process

[Goddamnit why did she say it like that why is she still thinking about this. She tries to keep writing.]

energy burns out during conversion
so youd need something more powerful than wonderlands CORE to power it
and we dont
have that
i mean wed be talking like forces of nature
i dont know if it would even be possible
its complicated

But there's lots of other scientists here. Like Ford, and other smart people. Maybe they'd be willing to help make something like that.

[Things get "lost in the process," do they? Hm. Interesting.]

What about the portal? It's not doing anything now but taking up space. But it seemed to generate power for a little while at least.

i
i dont know
its all really dangerous anyway and

listen theres
the CORE is complicated
it took years to concept and build
and with no guarantee its gonna work its
not a good plan
really
theres a lot of forces at work and
i dont even know if id be able to make it

[Wasn't her wasn't her wasn't her, not her fault. Probably. Maybe.]

Not even with all the smart people here? I'm sure they'd all love to work on something like that together. It could be a project!

[Perhaps they're overselling it. Too excited. Too delighted. Too eager and childish.

Perhaps, though...there's someone else they could approach. Multiple someones.]

We have all the time in the world here.

[And not even the world has infinite time.]

i mean
yyyes but
its
frisk i dont know hhow to ex plain
this

[Her hands are shaking too heavily. Everything feels muffled and off and like she's in a completely different world. How does she explain this... without explaining it? How does she say anything?

She knows she needs to stop, put down the device and walk away, but she keeps typing, trying to anchor herself to something, anything.]

listen
the CORE was dangerous
functional but
its not
its not a good idea im sorry

[They're probably coming up against something they shouldn't press into further, but they're seized with a wild, feverish energy, that familiar burst of

* Determination.]

If it was so dangerous, why did everyone keep it around? It was useful. Ford's portal was dangerous, and they still used that. Dipper wouldn't have gotten us all together to destroy it if it wasn't dangerous. Said it could cause the end of the world.

What if it's worth the risk?

[What if it's worth the risk. It rings in her ears, brings up something she doesn't understand, because none of it's at all put together. It's the feeling of holding a stack of papers. It's the feeling of gripping a bony hand, too tight, too hard. It's the feeling of her bare feet on the hot metal of the CORE, too late, too late, too late.

She doesn't know what this is adding up to. She doesn't know where it started, in the first place.]

i
idon t konwo i odnt know id ont know

im sorry im sorry im sorry
i don twant anyone else to get hurt i dont
there s a lot of things from the underground that happened and
theyre not
its not all clear i dont

i cant do this
we can find something else
anything else
please

[Ah. They've overstepped their bounds.

Clearly.

It should be disconcerting, the way their first instinct is the familiar chime of * In my way. She has ceased to be useful. Panicking, most likely. And then there's the thrill of empathy, of worry, of concern. They force it down, back, away. It isn't contributing properly.]

Never mind. Forget I said anything.

[They could ERASE this conversation from her memory, maybe. That's a possibility. Reach for their latest LOAD.]

Sorry to worry you.

[It takes her a while to compose herself long enough to reply.]

its ok you didnt know
theres just
theres a lot that happened in the underground
before you were there

sometimes its better if it
stays there
you know

Of course. Don't worry about it.

[Too patient maybe? Too even-tempered?

Ah well. Their last LOAD glimmers temptingly but it's situated far back - too far for them to feel much like repeating the same actions over again. They don't feel like trying to trick Chara out of their own suicide attempt a second time, especially since Chara won't fall for it a second time.

So they leave it at that.]

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text, night of 8/13

eheheh

=)

WOO [1/??]

[2/??]

[3/??]

[4/??]

[5/5] SO YANNO

oh gee

geez louise

oh geez rick

w-were goin into hell morty, we're j-j-just doin it

save me a seat rick

you're already here morty

good i get front row seats

youre at the equivalent of throwing your chair into the sun

oh good one step closer to being thrown into the sun

strap a rocket to the chair, boom, problem solved

=)

8) 8) 8) 8)

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