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The day was normal enough, busy as usual, and rather noisy, but only if you were to ignore the two little oddities at the end of his bar countertop.
Two humans, two girls that could have been older than their early teens, who had been rather good at keeping to themselves, all things considered. The shorter one held eyes that were always shifting, watching everything that moved, the opposite of her companion; who held eyes that seemed to only have a focus for her companion.
Grillby knew a crush when he saw it, he was young once, after all, even if he was a monster and they were humans. What became more interesting to him, almost immediately, however, was the wisps that he felt moving around the children. It was almost like a wave, a wave that reminded him of those human mages in the war…
He moved a bit closer, cleaning the counter, both as a disguise and just because it was generally dirty. Grillby was a monster of cleanliness, after all, he wouldn’t be as successful as he was if he didn’t make sure his fellow monsters were comfortable.
As he got gradually closer, though, the shared words between the two humans became clearer.
“–and I’m just saying that you’re definitely someone who has the potential.”
“Chara, just because you have your fancy, sharp party tricks, doesn’t mean the rest of us do.”
“Ugh, for the last time; my magic isn’t a party trick–!”
“No, no, I’m not saying that at all…”
Grillby hummed to himself, mulling over the conversation silently, even as it continued beside him. Not just one human that could use magic, but two , neither of which seemed to be afraid of the monsters that sat on all sides of them at once. In fact, they looked more at home here, in a bar, than they might anywhere else.
This was… a very good thing.
He felt that now, more than ever, might be a good time to approach the two. So, he did, in very short order.
“Excuse me,” he began, sliding into place in front of the two teens, which immediately caught their attention, seeing as he was made of fire, “but I couldn’t help hearing you two speaking of magic?”
The two humans blinked up at him and then spared quick glances at each other, a silent conversation passing between them in just a few seconds. The one wearing green was the first to speak to Grillby, although she didn’t seem very happy about it.
“Yeah, what’s it to you?”
Grillby huffed, amused by her hard attitude, “It’s quite rare for just one human to use magic, let alone two, and in the underground at that… this wouldn’t be why two human children are in the underground, would it?”
The one in green, Chara, the other girl had called her, only continued to give him a deadpan face. The other girl, however, well… she flinched, an immediate giveaway to the elder man. For her part, she looked rather apologetically at the girl in green, who now looked like she wanted to choke her friend.
“Frisk!”
“I’m sorry–!”
“Calm yourself, children,” Grillby hushed them both, “your past is your own, I won’t pry any longer. I do wonder, however, as to whether or not you might humour me with a test?”
“A test?” the girl in purple, Frisk, asked.
“Yes,” he nodded, “something that we use to see the magical aptitude of our children if that would interest you?”
Frisk didn’t consult her friend this time, only nodding vigorously at the prospect, when Grillby turned his attention to Chara, however, she seemed to sag in defeat. But, nonetheless, a small smile graced her features.
“Well,” she said, “you heard the boss.”
Grillby nodded as well as he could with his head of fire, and excused himself from behind the bar counter. He moved through the hall in the back with ease, and climbed up a set of stairs, as his bar sat right below his actual house, making it quite easy to find what he was looking for. He had to rifle through his closet for a bit, as they were buried with the rest of the things he no longer used.
Eventually, he found what he had been looking for; two clear cylinders of a glass-like material. He hummed, content, and made his way back down the stairs and into his bar once more. Grillby handed one each to the children as he reached them, he watched them inspect them before he began to explain.
“I hear that one of you can already use magic,” he said, crossing his glowing arms, “but I’ll still explain regardless, for both of you.”
He took a deep breath, “when a monster pulls on magic, we pull on the energy within our souls. It’s why our fire is not real fire, it emulates the pain, but it causes no heat, our water cannot be drunk, and our ice cannot truly freeze. Our souls do not contain the actual elements, so we can only copy it, humans, on the other hand, are different.”
“Their souls are mighty, strong, and robust, but they contain no magic within them, only some have the ability to channel it. ”
He let that sink in for a moment, before he continued, “Humans draw on the energy around them, they pull it from the very air itself, so, in essence; their supply is unending. Only determined by your own stamina and affinity.”
“So…” Frisk twirled the tube in her hand, “how do these work then?”
He tapped the counter, “they’re made from the crystals that are littered throughout the underground, they are usually used for lighting, as they channel fire magic quite well. But we found out many years ago that they could be used to determine other things; aptitude, and affinity. Even for humans.”
“Just channel your surroundings,” he explained, “imagine the bone of your foundations, and your soul shall do the rest.”
They both nodded, although the girl in green looked far more nervous than the other, he shrugged it off. If there was something that she was truly worried about, she would stop herself, if not, she would proceed.
Frisk began first, closing her eyes, and clutching the cylinder tight in one hand, and when Grillbny reached out to her soul with his own, he felt a myriad of things.
Falling, hiding, running, screaming, ripping, tearing, unmaking, redo, disappointment.
Drowning.
And that was all only from the surface, he shuddered, not wishing to know what this child had gone through. Although, he could surmise that some humans were just as bad as they had been hundreds of years ago.
He moved on from her, yet still kept careful watch, and moved to the girl in green. He barely skimmed the surface of her soul when he felt like he was looking into a lake. He could see nothing, no gleaming hints, or hidden truths, only his own failures staring him back in the face.
And then it happened; hands.
The hands of the damned, those he had killed and those that had died beside him, thrusting out from the lake, dragging him down, and down, and down…
They were laughing.
But then he was standing back in his bar, without having moved at all, looking directly into the red eyes of the girl in green as she twirled the cylinder in her hand. Instead of being empty, it now contained a gleaming crimson mist, silent and gruesome as it consumed all within.
“Have fun?” she asked, not breaking eye contact.
He was about to respond, to apologize when another glow caught them off guard. They turned, looking at Frisk, and watching with matched expressions as her cylinder began to glow a bright lavender, which then shifted into an even brighter violet, before it finally glowed brighter, and brighter–
And then it shattered.
Not many seemed to notice outside of the trio, maybe the guards, who had sensitive hearing, but other than that; no one seemed to notice them over the sound of the music. Grillby sighed in relief, although the results of the test perplexed him.
The brighter the glow, the higher the aptitude, this he knew, and both of theirs had glowed far brighter than all he had seen before. But for one to shatter, as if it was struck… he may need to consult someone with far more knowledge than himself.
“I’m so sorry–!”
He waved off the apology from Frisk, “worry not, I’ve had these for many, many years, they only seemed to be collecting dust. It has, instead, revealed something most curious to us all…”
He trailed off, barely noticing as Chara seemed to ask him a question.
“Where did you get these from anyway? I can’t imagine all monsters just have them on hand, right?”
Grillby shifted his gaze to her, “yes… I was a part of the Human-Monster War, it was procedure that some of us carried these on our person in case we needed to see how low our magic ran.”
Of course, there were other reasons than that, but he wasn’t explaining that to a child.
Chara’s gaze seemed to shift a little, a bit more downcast than before, and surprisingly, she pushed herself off the barstool. Immediately grabbing Frisk’s hand, which elicited a blush from the latter of the two.
“Come on,” Chara murmured, “let’s go.”
Frisk looked like she wanted to argue, but something in Chara’s expression quenched her need to protest, and she nodded wordlessly. Walking ahead, leaving Chara behind for a moment, and just as he thought she was about to leave, she turned back, and put the cylinder basic on the countertop.
“Ask before you go Soul-Skimming next time,” she intoned, her eyes seeming to glow for a split second, “it’s considered rather rude, where I come from.”
Grillby blinked, surprised that she even knew the term.
“I–”
“Oh,” Chara cut him off, “and… I know I wasn’t there, obviously, but, I’m sorry for what my people did; for making you all fight.”
And just like that, without another word, she turned and left, following Frisk through the front door as she held it open. The cold air only entered for a few moments until the door shut, cutting him off from the sight of the two humans. He sighed, there was a lot to think about, and he was seriously considering giving Gerson a visit, it might be–
He flinched, as he picked up the leftover cylinder, inspecting it closely. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he began to laugh. It started quiet, but then it quickly got louder, boisterous even, and soon others began to take notice.
“You sly little fox…” he smiled as he looked at the tube, at its cracked exterior, really, he was surprised it was even still holding together. But, it made sense, Frisk had obviously never used magic, hers was raw, unrefined, new, and like fresh static during a storm.
However, this girl’s was refined, sharp, and steady, just like a blade before it sank between the ribs of another. Yes, the only option here was that the girl had been holding back, very much so.
He continued to laugh, thinking about the future, about his daughter.
Yes, he could see it now, these kids were going to change the world.