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Hmm.

[They doubt Sans would forget something like that. He's always had a pretty good memory, hasn't he? Hah. Yeah. That's a funny joke, and they feel bad for thinking of it.]

I don't think he'd hold it against you. I know he can be a little scary sometimes, but he's really nice. And he tells really great jokes.

I believe you. [River's just really bad at first impressions.] I'll... try again someday.

[She pops another candy into her mouth thoughtfully.] It's nice that he's here.

Yeah. It is. He's...he's had some difficult stuff he's had to deal with. But that's not his fault.

[Ha-ha. No, it's not. It's theirs.]

[River stares at Frisk.]

He's your friend. He likes you.

Yeah.

[Probably skimmed that off their surface thoughts. Easy enough with them. They've always worn such things on their sleeve.]

But it's complicated. I mean it's, it's always complicated. But that's not his fault either.

[River doesn't want to be... intrusive. She curls up on the bed and hugs her knees, resting the side of her head against them thoughtfully. This line of thought isn't good. They're treading dangerously close to what they fought about in the library. She doesn't know what to say. She doesn't know what's right.]

I guess... we always make things complicated.

[Frisk laughs, though there's not much humor to it, ducking their head as if embarrassed.]

I guess we kind of do. But that's not really...we didn't ask for this. Not either of us. The most we can do is just try and, and do our best with it.

[Frisk isn't laughing because anything's funny, but it's not... bad laughter, not really, so a small smile hangs around the edges of River's lips. Plus, Frisk is saying something like it's not entirely their fault, which is encouraging.]

Yes... That's right.

[She kind of always messes up somehow, though. She bites her lip.]

Just wish there was less trial and error. Never did like resorting to brute forcing a problem. Wish I could just know what I should do.

Someone should've given us a manual.

[That one is a straightforward joke, Frisk's shoulders shaking in a more solidified chuckle. What To Do If You've Suddenly Found Yourself With Psychic And/Or Improbable Time Powers, Volume I.]

[River gives a small giggle.

But she wonders if she would've gotten one if only the Academy had more time to test her, if she would've been less an alpha release of herself.

She frowns at a candy and eats it almost angrily.]

Both exceptions. Both early releases. They'll be writing manuals based on what we do.

[Frisk unwraps another and pops it into their mouth, rolling it around with their tongue.]

Maybe. Maybe we can just be anomalies together.

An anomaly... Something unprecedented, unaccounted for, something that exists outside of rigidity and structure.

I like it. Not even forces of entropy, entropy exists within the system. Entropy is accounted for. We're larger than that.

[Entropy. That's one of those big words, like quantum and metatemporal and stuff, a word they remember reading in one of those big books in the library. It's a word that stands for...decay, they think. Or the universe's general equivalent.]

Yeah. We're...undefined. Get to define ourselves. No one tells us who or what we are except us.

[Defining oneself. Something River struggles with. Here, I'm not a monster. Or no one can shoot like that that's a person. She's been sure she's something different than human, fought against that. This is the one topic on which everyone else is better informed than she is. She's not a person, she's Serenity, she's not a monster, she's nothing at all...

An anomaly. That comes closer to describing her than anything else. An anomaly. She can be an anomaly.

And the best part of that is, she's not even alone in it. Her friend is an anomaly, too.

Her friend.]

Being exceptions makes us exceptional.

I'm glad you're my friend, Frisk. You make more sense than anyone else.

Really?

[It's a weird thought, that they make sense to anyone when they can hardly make sense of themself on a good day. But it's not an unwelcome them. The initial thrill of shock soon fades into a startled smile.]

I'm...glad you're my friend too.

[Was it weird to say? River looks away, kind of embarrassed.]

It's just that... it's hard to define what I am. To think that I'm simply undefined... I hadn't considered it.

Well, I'm technically a, um...spacetime anomaly. [They sound out the word delicately. They're not entirely sure what it means, but it's got to mean something important; it sounds awfully complicated.] That's the definition of undefined. But I'm...still here anyway. So it's okay to feel alone, but it's okay to...not be alone. 'Cause you're not.

Spacetime anomaly... Right. Because you can do everything again and again. Endless days.

[She wouldn't want that power. She can barely stand to experience anything once.]

I'm the only one from my time. The only one from my 'verse. Hardly anyone else even speaks Mandarin here. Suppose that's only one way of being alone.

[Yeah. Again and again and again and again. It can be convenient, but mostly it's just a burden they want off their shoulders.

Frisk draws their legs up to their chest, draping their arms across the tops of their knees.]

Mandarin? Is that the...other language you talk sometimes? It's - it's really pretty. I mean, it sounds really pretty.

Yeah. Most everyone's bilingual in my 'verse. English and Mandarin. You grow up speaking both. Or at least all the swear words.

[She looks at them suddenly.]

Bet you could learn.

Could you...could you teach me?

[Suddenly they sit upright, eyes sparking with a strange enthusiasm. They've never had to learn another language before, and it actually sounds really fun.]

[She grins.]

You want to learn the swear words first or last?

[Frisk snorts, giggling.]

How - how bad are they?

Basic ones aren't too bad. Lots of cursing ancestors. 他妈的, it's the most common one, cursing some nebulous mother. [Like Mom? ...Let's ignore that for now.] Follow the tone, too, 's important, or else you're saying something else. Tā māde. Now you say it.

[Oh wow. They're about to learn a language. And they're about to learn - bad words in that language. Frisk sits up straight, attentive, and tries to sound out the words in the same way River said them.]

Ta...mah-deh?

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[action] for fun i tried to read this aloud and instantly remembered i cant speak chinese

[action] whoda thunk

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