Archive of Our Own ^beta

The soul and Kris were no longer one.

As they adventured through the dark worlds together, the two ended up finding the vessel — the body that the soul had built for themself.

Carol Holiday allowed it to take refuge in her home. Though, this wasn’t purely from the kindness of her heart. No, no , the soul was meant to be means to an end — that end being finding her.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, for Kris, they were no longer necessary to her plan, but they did still serve some use.

The soul, now the Vessel, clung to Kris like a stray dog. Carol could not grasp why they would cling to Kris of all people, but she could make due with it. Their liking for Kris gave her some leverage over the Vessel.

The night of possessing their new body, she prepared dinner for the Vessel, and invited Kris as well. There were many freshly cooked dishes spread across the dining table Family Style. Baked ham, mashed potatoes, even gingerbread cookies. It was more than the three of them could likely eat. Empty plates were already sitting in place, and Kris and the Vessel took their seats.

Kris’s hand reached for one of those delicious looking gingerbread cookies, but before they could grasp it, a hand swatted them away.

“Our guest should be served first,” Carol stated bluntly.

She gathered a large portion of mashed potatoes and placed it on the plate that belonged to the Vessel, who leaned back in their chair absentmindedly, picking at their face. 

Looking down at their gradually filling up plate, they suddenly jolted into awareness. “T-Thank you, Mrs. Holiday.” They dug into their food before she could even place some honey-baked ham onto their plate.

Carol patted them on the back as they ate. “Of course. Remember, you are always welcome to have as much as you like.” She grinned, heaping some green beans on top of the other food.

Their plate was a hodgepodge — ham drenched in mashed potatoes, green bean juices soaking the gingerbread cookies, all in a grotesque mess. Kris couldn’t help but gag as they watched, but it seemed the Vessel didn’t mind, if the way they scooped their spoon into the slop was any indicator.

Kris had almost started liking the adorable red heart, but seeing it like this — as some guy sludging food in their mouth — made them reconsider. The way it acted, it wasn’t anything like what Kris had gotten used to. As a soul, it would jump around excitedly like a child, roll in its cage like a dog. And now that it had found a new body, it lounged like it owned the place.  They almost considered the possibility that it would have been better if it just stayed as a soul without a vessel.

Kris eyeballed the two of them as they rocked in their chair. They watched as Carol served herself — giving herself a moderate amount of the entree of the meal. Their fork tapped against their empty plate impatiently. Carol and the Vessel were already chowing down, and Kris had yet to be served. It almost made them worry… Did they forget about me? They lips curled inward. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Carol noticed Kris’s peculiar behavior. Raising a brow, she asked, “Are you not going to eat, Kris?” Her hand covered her food-filled mouth as she spoke.

Kris blinked rapidly. “H-Huh?” They stared down at the sprawling dinner table in front of them. It was a surprise the table didn’t burst from the weight of all those dishes.

The sheer abundance of food laid out in front of them. Carol’s eyes drilling through their skull. All of it felt like a weight on their shoulders, heavier than whatever that table was carrying.

Kris peeked towards the Vessel, who’s eyes were laser focused on their meal. Proper manners would have been to wait until everyone had food on their plate before you dug in, and they had a clear disregard for that. Are you really that stupid? Or are you just being an ass? Either way, it put them on edge.

It seemed the only thing they could do was to get some food on their own. Kris told themself this was for the best, given Carol’s serving style.

They reached for the cookie platter, grasping just a single cookie in their hand. As they looked at it, they weakly muttered, “...Thanks.” 

That cookie…

It smelled like it would taste so good.  

Kris took a deep breath in and let its aroma penetrate their senses. The gingerbread cookie was adorably decorated like a human — eating it almost felt like cannibalism. Still, they brought that cinnamon-smelling cookie to their watering mouth. And before they could chomp down—

“Ah, I’ve forgotten. We must say our prayer before we eat.” Carol rested her fork on her plate.

Kris held the cookie dangerously in between their teeth, a wide, unnatural smile appearing on their face. Of course… Of fucking course. They slowly lowered the gingerbread man, though not before discreetly licking up its frosting.

The Vessel paused from gorging themself as they heard her words, their mouth covered in crumbs, a look of shame appearing on their face. “O-Oh… my bad.”

Carol led a prayer dedicated to the god of their religion, the Angel. Kris couldn’t help but quietly giggle at the absurdity, given that the Angel was sitting a foot away from her. 

And she knew that.

This was just… wrong.

It wasn’t just the prayer. It was everything!

The way Carol slopped piles of mashed potatoes on top of gingerbread cookies on the Vessel’s plate. And they sat there, gorging themself without a care for how those flavors disgustingly mixed on their plate. The scene only got worse, as Carol offered to feed them if their arms were getting tired, an offer they cheerfully accepted. 

Something was clawing its way up their throat, though Kris couldn’t tell if it was heartburn or vomit.

Fortunately for them, they wouldn’t have to watch this for much longer.

Vriiiing! 

A ring tone pierced through the clattering of utensils. Kris felt their phone vibrate, though it was on silent mode. That ring tone belonged to someone else. 

Carol reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone, and glanced at the contact information. She grasped the Vessel’s hands apologetically. “Ah, if you’ll excuse me. I need to take this call.”

She hurried out of the room, leaving Kris and their former puppeteer with an all-you-can-eat buffet. 

The room quickly grew silent. It seemed Carol was the one who was doing most of the talking before. The Vessel continued to cram food into their mouth, either not noticing, or not caring, about the awkwardness that had arisen between the two of them. Kris, on the other hand, had begun swirling their spoon around the small serving of mashed potatoes they had gathered. The circling utensil made a scraping sound against the ceramic plate. The sound grew louder, and as it did, the Vessel’s brow noticeably twitched downward.

The Vessel rested their fork and wiped their mouth. They paused, glancing side to side, taking a deep breath before beginning. “S-Sorry. Can you stop that? That sound hurts my ears.”

Kris made one final circle around the plate. Louder. Slower. “Mhm.”

The Vessel’s face tensed, but still uttered a thanks as the sound did indeed stop like requested.

They went to dig back into their food, but paused as the fork almost reached their lips. From the corner of their eye, they could see Kris’s gaze dig into them. “Wha… What?”

Kris’s eyes darted away, and their hand waved dismissively. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” They asked unconvinced.

“Yep.” 

The Vessel swallowed hard — not food, just their own saliva. Their words came out shakily. “You’re, uh, not very talkative today, huh?” A sheepish smile manifested on their face as they quickly muttered, “Well, I suppose you’ve never been much of a talker.”

Their eyes squinted as they tried to get a read on Kris, but it seemed impossible. They always seemed to have the blankest of expressions. And that blank stare felt like judgement .

The Vessel’s mouth moved on its own — It seemed to do that a lot when they felt pressure on them. “I’m kinda surprised, y’know? I thought we’d have a loooot to discuss.”

Kris bit down hard on their ham. “We have nothing to discuss.”

“ Like, nothing nothing or nothing you actually wanna talk about?” Their nervous grin only grew wider.

A stillness spread throughout the dining room.

That, the Vessel supposed, counted as an answer.

The only thing that could be heard in the dining room was the clinks of metal against ceramic — as well as the Vessel’s open mouth chewing. Those squishy-squashy noises made Kris shudder. The moist sounds wormed their way into their ears.

Maybe making conversation was better. At least then, they wouldn't have to listen to these horrid noises.

They filled the air with whatever words happened to leave their mouth. “It’s just…” 

The Vessel glanced up, stopping from eating to have their full attention on Kris. 

Kris fidgeted with their fork as they spoke. The words seem to slip from their mouth — words that were too intimate.  “...It’s just weird now.”

“Weird?” The Vessel's eyebrow raised.

There was a pause before Kris continued. “Weird ‘cause you’re…” They swallowed hard, trying to keep the words from escaping. “...a person now.”

They retorted back, almost too nonchalantly. “Always have been.”

Kris rolled their eyes in a performative manner, making sure they caught every glimpse of it.

“R-Really!” The Vessel’s fork clattered against the table as their hands shot up, waving frantically. “It’s true! I’m a human just like you!”

Just like you. Kris slammed their fist down, causing plates to jump and nearly topple off the table. “Stop fucking around like that, Soul.”

The Vessel jolted up, freezing like a deer in headlights. Their shoulders sunk as they turned to face away.

For being just a spirit, Kris thought it sure did sulk like a pathetic loser. It reminded them of all the times they saw that soul jitter in fear around them. This patheticness, however, was far less endearing. It acted like an entirely different person now that it was the Vessel.

Though, maybe the soul hadn’t actually changed that much. The soul did still act like a child. Though before, Kris was only able to see its childlike wonder. Now, with a body and voice, they had a full view of its immaturity.

Kris shoved those thoughts away before they could dwell on it any longer.

They poked and prodded their food, and, as they noticed the Vessel watching, their eyes met the ground. Their mouth slightly opened, not to eat food, but as if to speak, though they shut it as soon as they had opened it.

Noticing that Kris seemed to have something caught on the tip of their tongue, the Vessel gave a small nod, as if saying ‘go ahead.’ 

They tapped their plate a few times before mumbling, “Feels wrong calling you ‘the soul’ now that you have your own body.”  

The Vessel paused, and then hummed in acknowledgement.

A shaky breath came from Kris’s throat. What they were about to ask wasn’t just any question — it was an acknowledgment of something they were so desperate to deny.

“What’s… your name?” The words slipped from their mouth softly.

“My… name?” The eyes of the Vessel widen, a glaze soon forming over them. “A name, huh?” 

When the character creator had asked for the vessel’s name, they had reluctantly typed theirs in, ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ , only for the next screen to be the one actually asking for their own name. They quickly deleted what they had typed and sat pondering. This was a moment they were so desperate for, a chance to shape their body and call themself whatever they had liked. Though when the moment had arisen, they were paralyzed with the endless possibilities.

In the end, they just named it “Vessel.” Surely they’d figure an actual name out at some point? 

Though five days later, they had somehow become one with the in-game character, perhaps a sort of brain emulation.

Now they were being asked to name themself here in this very moment. And they still didn’t have a clue what to call themself.

Letting a deep sigh out, they hesitantly mumbled, “Haven’t, uh, thought about it yet.”

A confused grunt escaped Kris. “You weren’t given a name?” Figures, Kris thought. Names are for people, not whatever they are.

The Vessel shook their head. “No, no! I do have one. It’s just…” They weakly trailed off, muttering something about not being "a fan" of the name they were given.

Kris sat puzzled, until, reluctantly, their eyes softened in recognition. A deadname, huh? They glanced away, frustrated over this shared history — humanity —, until they cleared their throat to introduce a new topic. “Food’s pretty good, huh?”

“Seriously?” They shot Kris an incredulous glare, one Kris did not cower under.

Their indifference shocked the Vessel. Feeling powerless like this made them squirm. We're fighting again. A grimace flickered onto their face, but still, they cleared their throat and attempted to extend an olive branch.

The Vessel glanced around nervously before beginning, “I was thinking maybe…” An audible gulp came from them.

“What?” Kris huffed out.

Letting out a heavy breath, they tried to regain the courage to finish their thought. “... the piano again?”

“Hmmph.” Kris rested their hand on their chin as they looked away. 

The Vessel fiddled anxiously with their hands. “So… whaddya think?” 

“I think it’s a great idea that you’re demanding for me to play a concert for you as you sit there listening, twiddling your thumbs.” The Vessel had already exerted so much control over them, and now it was seriously screaming, ‘Dance, Monkey, Dance?”

Their arms quickly shot up in a defensive pose. “Ah, no, no! I was thinking maybe… a duet…?” Kris’s head turned to acknowledge them, though the sudden eye contact startled them. “Well, I mean, you don’t have to, it was just an idea that popped into my head and—” 

Kris rose from their chair, which stopped the Vessel’s rambling dead in its tracks. The Vessel’s eyes followed Kris as they made their way to the piano, sitting themself on the center of the bench. They turned their head towards the Vessel and beckoned them, who soon hurried over like an obedient dog. They had left no room on the bench for them, so the Vessel stood uneasy behind them.

Kris messed with the keys as they thought aloud. “There are a few songs I know that are for two sets of hands. We could also just play a standard piece, and I will take the melody line, you the chords.”

The Vessel hummed. “Well, I’m not that great of a pianist.” 

“Mmh, yeah.” Kris’s eyebrows raised in agreement.

Suddenly flustered, the Vessel spat out their next words. “I’m much better at singing, is what I meant. I’m not actually that terrible at piano.”  

“Of course,” Kris said sardonically.

Continuing to tinker with the piano keys, they ran their fingers chromatically through the notes. “So, I guess I’ll be your accompanist, huh?” 

“Yep!” They gleamed. “We could do a classical piece, a folk song, maybe musical theater, but I already had something in mind—”

“Can’t I pick?” Kris stopped fiddling with the keys and shot them a glare. “You get to be the soloist. At least let me choose a piece that’s fun to play.”

“W-Well!” The canvas that was the Vessel’s gray face was painted with red. “It’s a lot easier to sightread on the piano than it is to sightsing. You could pick a song that I know nothing about!” They bit their lip, realizing their accidental jab towards themself. “I mean, I can definitely sightsing. Y’know, I actually took a class where we learned stuff like that, and I passed with higher than a 100. It was like a 102 or 104 or something. I think even higher. Like, I’m actually—” They drew in a quick breath, stopping themself. 

The Vessel slowly let that breath out and looked down, frown appearing. “Look, Kris, I… I paid a lot of money for the sheet music for this song. I, uh, don’t wanna waste it…” 

Kris’s head drooped down. They knew better. It wasn’t them who was wasting the Vessel’s money. The Vessel was the one who made the irresponsible purchase in the first place! 

But as they felt a chill crawl up their spine, one so familiar to them, especially in the Holiday manor, they could only respond in the way they had learnt how.

“R-Right, sorry.”

Kris’s apology went unacknowledged as the Vessel hurried onto the next subject. “I have this song in the files of my, uh, computer…” They trailed off, realizing that they could be saying too much about the nature of this world. “Just… give me a second.”

Before this mind emulation had happened, the player had installed the Undertale Mod Tool. Even in their form as the Vessel, they still had access to this, as well as every other thing on their computer, which included the aforementioned sheet music.

“Shouldn’t be too hard adding it in the game. Just gotta mod it,” they mumbled to themself. I guess I should upload it as a sprite? If I upload it as is though, it’d probably be bigger than this house, but if I size it down too much, I doubt Kris would be able to read it. The Vessel grunted. Damn! This is harder than I thought! I should’ve just taken whatever sheet music Kris had!

Kris stared as the Vessel seemed to space out. They didn’t have any idea what they were doing. It seemed the Vessel just did these kinds of things sometimes. It was kind of… funny, they had to admit — seeing their former puppeteer act like a program that was buffering. Kris couldn’t help but snicker.

The Vessel seemed to suddenly come back to life. “Ooookay, that was…” difficult . They swallowed that last word back down their throat, not daring to utter it. 

They rummaged through their pockets for an embarrassingly long amount of time. Their face grew red as they murmured an excuse to Kris, who watched with much amusement. Damn, GameMaker Engine! When they had figured out how to upload the sprite into the game, they had turned it into an object and added it to their inventory. The problem was that the program didn’t exactly state where their inventory was.

After rummaging through all of their pockets, they had eventually found the sheet music tucked in their shoe. Pulling it out, they handed the crumpled paper to Kris. As it left their hands, they mentally facepalmed as they remembered they had forgotten to check if it looked like actual sheet music or was a bunch of pixels. With that and it being crumpled, the Vessel was quite worried about its legibility. “L-Lemme know if you can actually play this.”

Kris scoffed as they scanned through the notes on the paper. “This is easy stuff.”

“I didn’t mean— Whatever. I’ll need you to transpose it down about…” They mentally measured the space in between the notes. “...a fifth down.” Their hand rested on Kris’s shoulder, which caused Kris to flinch. “And that would be in C major, if you didn’t know.”

“I know how transposition works,” they grumbled back. Great. Another challenge for them.

“So you can do it?” 

Kris sighed exhaustedly as they scanned through the contour of the music. “I can , but can’t we just play it in the original key?”

The Vessel tsked. “I’d rather not. It’s a little high.”

A snort escaped Kris. “Ralsei can sing that high.”

“And so can I,” the Vessel bit back. “I just don’t like singing above the staff. Makes me sound like a Disney princess. I’d rather sound like…” Their finger spun around as they searched for an example. “... a tenor.”

Kris’s brows rose. Ah. It was that kind of thing. Still, they huffed, muttering, “Sure. Yeah. I’ll transpose it.”

They chirped, “Awesome sauce!” Kris rolled their eyes in response.

The Vessel dashed to the crook of the grand piano, resting their hand on top of it for support. Their head turned to Kris and they let them know they were ready to begin whenever they were.

“Y’know, if you need to read over my shoulder, you can.” Kris smirked.

“Don’t worry about it!” They shot them a toothy grin. “I…” Their hand pointed to their head. “...already got it all up here.”

Kris nodded in response, and they spread the sheet music out. Their eyes squinted trying to make out the notes and staff lines from the crumpled up paper. They made note of any patterns and any changes from those patterns — getting a sense of those things would make sightreading the piece a lot easier.

Andante . That was the tempo. Moderately slow. If the Vessel had already memorized this piece, then they likely practiced it at that pace. 

So Kris began the intro, playing slowly. Even though they were sightreading, their fingers moved with ease, making very few errors. 

They reached the end of the piano solo and held the final note, a dotted quarter note — one, two — and released a beat too soon, already reaching for the next chord to set up the vocal line.

The sudden chord yanked the Vessel's cue forward. Their voice cracked out, a beat too late. Heat rushed to their cheeks — had they miscounted? Their eyes darted toward Kris for confirmation, but Kris’s gaze stayed fixed on the keys.

They fiddled with their sweater as they mentally cursed themself for missing their entrance. Not wanting to let that happen again (and embarrass themself further), they began to subtly count the beats with their fingers. 

A tap of the index finger. 1.

A tap of the middle finger. 2.

A tap of the ring finger. 3.

Their fingers beat evenly. It was something that they had almost become attuned to, being thrown off as they began to notice themself tapping their finger a little behind Kris’s supposedly-steady quarter notes.

They dismissively shook their head and adapted themself to Kris's pace, believing themself to have just slowed down because they were too focused on their singing. Though as it happened again and again, tapping at times before the pulse and at times after it, they felt as if they were going mad. They weren’t this horrible at music. No, no, it had to be Kris who was accidentally speeding up the tempo.

The Vessel raised their foot and plummeted it into the ground with a loud thud. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3.

They glanced at Kris and gestured to their foot, as if signalling, ‘Follow my lead.’

Kris raised their eyebrows in acknowledgment and played along to the tempo the stomping set. The Vessel’s shoulders sagged in relief. The two were finally playing harmoniously with each other again.

As the song began to near its end, the Vessel braced themself as they prepared for the change to a higher key, F major.

Their fingers dug into their pants as the key change approached. Any moment now .

The Vessel took a deep breath before singing the next line in this new key. Their silky smooth voice echoed throughout the Holiday manor, reverberating off the high quality wallpaper. They closed their eyes as they submerged themself into the melody.

Though, as they sang more and more, their face slowly warped into a wince. 

Something was off.

They wondered if maybe they were singing too quickly, leading to strange harmonies and unnatural polyrhythms.

This was something they needed to investigate before they hit that glorious, booming final note. 

The Vessel sang quieter as they tried to get a better grasp on the accompaniment. It just… didn’t sound right. That’s when they realized…

A semitonal discrepancy.

What they were singing and what Kris was playing was a single note apart. That difference led to a horrible dissonance between the two.

The Vessel’s face contorted as much as it possibly could as they still sang. How do you fuck up like that? If Kris was the great pianist that everyone made them out to be, the Vessel was having a very hard time believing it. The way you play those keys aren’t similar at all! Going from playing mostly white keys to playing mostly black ones was drastic. It was so absurd that…

…

Their head slowly turned to Kris, eyes wide.

Kris had already been looking. And that asshole…

They were grinning.

The Vessel’s mouth involuntarily twisted into a smile. They couldn’t believe it. This whole time, Kris had been rebelling. How had they been too stupid to not realize it until now?

Damn you, Kris!! They tried to adjust to the key Kris was playing in, though they hated how it forced them to sing even higher. Their throat tightened as the notes soared up further and further.

The grand finale was approaching — a spectacular long note to end the piece on a bang. The Vessel breathed in from their diaphragm and, when it was time, they let the note boom throughout the room. As they closed their mouth, they listened to their voice reverberate throughout the room. The metal spoons and forks on the table began to vibrate as they resonated with the Vessel’s sounds.

As their final note began to fade out, they closed their eyes and prepared themself. It was time for Kris’s closing piano jingle.

Plink! Plink! Plink!

Plunk!

Kris ended on a dissonance, instead of a resolving tone — a final ‘fuck you.’

The Vessel squeezed their eyes even more shut in irritation.

Leaning back on the piano bench, Kris started to slow clap. “Bravo,” they said, voiced laced with sarcasm.

The Vessel refused to look at them and said nothing in response. Kris was looking to get a reaction out of them, weren’t they? If that was the case, the Vessel wasn’t going to let that happen — they weren’t going to let them win this battle.

Kris’s hands paused midair, their face having a hint of disappointment. They scratched their forehead as they glanced off into the nothingness. 

Their face got red as, in their mind, they replayed all of their pointed remarks, all of which felt clever in the moment, but now, they just seemed so… childish. Their lips turned inward and they let out a groan. This was definitely going to be a memory that would keep them awake at night. 

The Vessel, still in front of the piano, fiddled with their sweater sleeve. If they wanted to play harmoniously, they’d have to be on the same wavelength. As it stood now, the two were butting heads, more so than ever before. They wondered why that was. Having a body and a voice probably contributed to that. It allowed them to more easily express themself, the good, bad, and ugly. If this is what being a person — themself — meant, then maybe they were just… that unlikable.

They bit their lip and turned to Kris, not yet uttering a word. They waited for Kris’s eye to catch them, and once they finally had their attention…

“Well, I’ll, uh, let you pick the song next time.” They sighed, tapping their fingers against the piano lid.

Kris rolled their eyes and didn’t respond.

The Vessel wondered if they’d ever share an actual duet.