#happy children's day | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

starlight-torment · 2 years

Text

Valiant Souls: A New Perspective - A Shining HOPE

Morning came as quickly as she went to sleep. The sunlight bathed Lydia's face, waking her up. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up and she surprisingly felt great! Maybe the positivity of yesterday had some effect on her, who knows?

She heard her stomach growl.

Well, maybe not that great. She should've eaten something last night but she can't do anything about it now. She'll pass by the cafeteria and grab something to eat.

Lydia reached for her nightstand drawer and grabbed a hairbrush and started brushing her hair. When she was done brushing her hair, she noticed that she left her phone in the drawer for 2 days and she didn't even notice! Man, her parents were probably angry with her for not giving any news, but it's not like she has much to tell other than Charles has d-

Nope, we're not doing this today.

She tied her hair in a ponytail and grabbed her phone, she turned it on and went on the internet. She was immediately bombarded with videos and pictures about the monsters in their camp.

"What the hell?" Lydia muttered, how did these videos get on the internet? Did someone pass by their camp and saw the monsters? No, unlikely. Citizens can't normally come here without being accompanied by a soldier or being allies with the government. Maybe one of the soldiers posted it? Who?

Lydia had a guess, but she couldn't prove it, because it could be any soldier. They hadn't warmed up completely with the monsters, so anyone had a chance of being the one who uploaded the pictures and the videos.

In any case, she would try to find the culprit later. For now, she had to help with the monsters. She got up from her bed and changed her pj's to her uniform, she put on her hat and her scarf and left her tent.

She was immediately greeted by Konrad and his twin, Calvin, who were just about to enter her tent to probably wake her up.

"Lily, did you see the news?" Konrad asked her, without hesitation.

"Uh, yeah! I just got up and remembered I had a phone. Anyways, does anyone knows who submitted the pictures and the videos?" Lydia asked while walking with the twins to the cafeteria tent.

"Nope, and General's furious with the situation." Calvin said, looking more serious than he ever looked in his life. "He said that everyone's tent is going to be searched to find the culprit."

"You didn't wake up yet so we decided to pass by and wake you up to tell the news." Konrad said.

"Ah, but man, why would someone do that?" Lydia complained. "They've been stuck underground for maybe centuries, losing HOPE of seeing the surface again, and then when they're finally free, people paint them in a bad light just because they're different from us."

They kept silent for a while until Lydia sighed and whined when they were halfway to the cafeteria tent.

"Man, I'm so hungry, I didn't eat anything for two nights in a row, and I still have to hear my parents scolding me for not giving any news about me."

"What?" Konrad says, looking extremely concerned. "You haven't eaten anything for TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW? WHY LYDIA?!"

"I didn't feel hungry, okay?" Lydia said, shrugging at him. "I didn't feel hungry so I went straight to sleep."

"Why are we walking slowly? We have to go faster to get you something to eat! Urgently!" Konrad said while grabbing Lydia's shoulders and making her move forward faster.

"Bro, calm down." Calvin said, tapping his brother's shoulder while keeping up with their pace. "I know you're worried about her, but she won't die just because she didn't eat for two nights."

"Oh, is that so?" Konrad said while glaring at his brother. "Yeah, I agree with you, but have you thought that she should've FAINTED or at least feel LIGHTHEADED?"

Calvin was about to say something, but whatever he was planning to say didn't come out. He probably didn't want to argue with his brother so early in the morning. Actually, he once told Lydia that he hates arguing with his brother early in the morning for two reasons: It was too early for it and he wasn't paid enough for it.

They got to the cafeteria tent and entered it, and they immediately saw some monsters sitting at tables, Frisk and a couple of soldiers were distributing meals to everyone.

They reluctantly grabbed some ready-to-eat meals and sat at an empty table. Lydia unwrapped her MRE, grabbed her spoon, and started to eat her lemon pepper tuna.

Her eyes widened as she ate it, "Damn, I don't remember eating anything this good!" she thought. She looked over at the twins and their expressions were the same as hers. They quickly finished their food as if they didn't eat for several days and went straight to Frisk who was giving food to a monster about their height that looked like a dinosaur but with no arms.

"Hey! You're Ambassador Frisk, right?" Lydia called them out.

Frisk looked at them, apparently shocked to see the soldiers coming to talk with them. "Yeah, and you..?"

"My name is Lydia, and my friends and I wanted to-"

She was cut off by Calvin, who was excitedly waving his MRE package – or what was left of it. "Hey kid, who made these things? They're so good!"

Frisk stared at them for a second then smiled at them, "Oh, my mom made these, she's a great cook!" While saying this, they pointed to the kitchen side of the tent. "If you're looking for her, she's there finishing the last packages to the monsters."

Lydia made sure Calvin apologized to her for cutting her off and thanked Frisk for the info – She also thanked them – and ran to the kitchen, where they saw Toriel using magic to make the MREs.

It took a while for her to notice them, but once she noticed them, she waved her big white paw and smiled sweetly at them. "Oh, hello my children. Do you need something?"

"Goddess…" Lydia said while looking at Toriel with bright eyes.

"Definitely a goddess…" Calvin said, looking totally affected by Toriel's aura.

"Huh?" Toriel looked at them, confused.

"Give us more of one of your blessed meals, goddess." Konrad said while bowing to her.

"What is happening?" Toriel asked as the three of them bowed down to her.

After they got a few more rounds of the amazing food they've ever tasted in their lives, Lydia, Calvin and Konrad talked for a while until Lydia decided to finally face her mother's wrath once she video calls her, since they were waiting for the tent's search to start – and also to finish.

She finally pressed the video call icon and waited for a couple of seconds. The twins were behind her, wanting to watch the show unfold and to see her misery, "What good friends I have right there, enjoying my misery." she thought.

It rang a couple of times until a female angry voice blasted through the phone. " LYDIA LERONHEIT, HOW DARE YOU TO NOT CALL US TO AT LEAST SAY GOOD MORNING TO LET US KNOW YOU'RE OK? YOUR FATHER AND I HAVE BEEN WORRIED SICK ABOUT YOU, WE THOUGHT YOU WERE CAUGHT IN AN ACCIDENT OR SOMETHING EVEN WORSE, ESPECIALLY SINCE WE GOT THE NEWS THAT THE MONSTERS ESCAPED UNDERGROUND. WHAT IF YOU MET ONE OF THEM AND THEY HURT YOU OR KILLED YOU?"

Lydia stayed there, frozen, looking at nothing while holding her phone in her hand for dear life, while the twins were laughing behind her. She slowly moved her head to her phone. "I…missed you too??"

Konrad, who finally calmed down from his laughter crisis, appeared from behind Lydia's shoulder and waved at her mom, "Hey auntie, how are you doing?"

"Oh, hello Konrad, dear, I'm fine, thanks for asking." Lydia's mom's voice suddenly became softer when she saw Konrad. Lydia swears that her mom likes more the twins than her own daughter. "I hope that this daughter of mine is not causing you any trouble. Anyways, how are you and your brother, Calvin? Is he with you?"

"We're both fine, auntie, and yes, he's with me, wait a second." Konrad looked at his brother who was still laughing and dragged him by his sleeve. "Hey, Calvin! Stop laughing for a second and say hi to auntie!"

Calvin looked over Lydia's shoulder and saw Lydia's mother in the video call, he stopped laughing a bit and waved at her. "H-Hey auntie..haha, ho are yo-uuu hahaha!"

Lydia wondered how it came like this, with her mother knowing the twins, Victoria, Rupert, Charles, and Norm – she also knows Drake, Josh, and Quentin's names but she never saw them – but she obviously knows the answer.

One night, at one of the sleepover parties she threw in her apartment, her mother video-called her and she asked who were these people she was with, Lydia ended up introducing one by one to her mother and from that day on, everyone except Rupert – but she knew he also called her auntie in secret, he just didn't want to admit – started calling her mother auntie.

She was so deep in her thoughts that when she tuned back in, it was the exact time when her mother was asking something to Lydia, "Sweetheart, where's Charles? Normally he's with you and the twins."

The air suddenly became thick between Lydia and the twins. God, she really didn't want to bring this subject up to her mother, she loved Charles almost the same as her, so it was quite unfair to her. Besides, bringing Charles up, being in thought or talking, apparently gives her panic attacks, so she wanted to avoid this, but it seems there is no way out.

Lydia looked at the twins and Calvin whispered to her, "Should we tell her?"

Konrad whispered, "We should definitely tell her, it's only the right thing to do, after all, Charles was so important to her as he was to us."

Lydia whispered, "Yeah, but I don't want to see her sad, besides, I don't know if we're allowed to tell it yet."

"Guys? What happened to Charles? And why are you whispering?" Lydia's mother called them out with a bit of worry in her voice. It was now or never.

Lydia took a deep breath, tugged in her scarf with her other hand, and kept her gaze in her mother's eye, "Mom, I don't know if you know this, and I don't even know if we're allowed to say this yet, but you know that the Toppat Station has been destroyed, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"So…" Lydia bit her lip. God, it was so hard to tell this without crying, she wondered how Henry had the strength to keep his tears from falling when he was telling her what happened. "…Charles and another guy were the ones who destroyed the station, but Charles…he…he…"

Fuck it, she couldn't keep the tears from falling anymore, and she just let them flow, "Charles died, mom! He's dead! He's a valiant hero for sacrificing himself for the guy that went with him, and he left us with so much time unspent and grief and I- I- please, let me go home, mom, please…!"

"Oh, dear…"

Lydia almost let her phone fall, if it wasn't for Calvin to safely take it before it fell. She went to Konrad and hugged him tightly, and a few moments after, she felt him hugging her back. "Calm down, Lily. Deep breath in, deep breath out."

Lydia didn't hear exactly what Calvin was saying to her mother, because her mind was getting foggy, but she thinks she heard him say something like this: "Hey auntie, I know you might have some questions, but please, let Lydia be for now, it has been a hard week for us since his death."

She didn't know how much time has passed since Calvin ended the video call for her and they spent the majority of the time calming her down, but it was almost noon when she finally calmed down. The twins asked Lydia if she wanted to rest in her tent but she just gave them a fake smile and told them that there was still a lot for them to do before she rested.

Reluctantly, the twins followed Lydia to Mettaton's tent – who asked a million of questions about if she was okay and why her face was like that – and they watched a preview of what their first show will be once they get out of the camp. One thing Lydia noticed that she didn't see the first time she met them was the presence of an orange cat-like monster, who was hiding behind one of the beds. When she asked Mettaton about it, he answered that it was one of his old employees who begged him to participate in his band as a background character.

It was a bit past noon when Lydia, Calvin, and Konrad went to the cafeteria tent again and had some more rounds of the MRE's – Toriel sadly saying with a kind smile that she couldn't keep making exceptions for them – and right after that, Norm called them to go to General's tent because the search was finalized and he wanted to talk with everyone who had their tents searched.

While they were on their way to General's tent, Lydia noticed that Bob and Bill weren't on their way, she asked Norm and he said, "Bob and Bill are guarding the front gate, for, y'know, in case some reporter or intruder might want to do something funny."

It seems reasonable, it was already a headache to know that someone leaked pictures and videos on the internet of the monster's return, they didn't want another headache to deal with reporters and intruders.

Once they arrived at General's tent, Lydia saw that Rupert, Victoria, Quentin, Madd and some other soldiers were already in the tent, and when they arrived, they met with General's furious glare. Lydia and the twins went rigid and stoic once General's glare met them. "God have mercy on us. Whoever did this made a pretty good job to unleash General's fury." Lydia thought.

"You all know why you are here, right?" General's voice boomed so loudly that Lydia thinks the whole camp might've heard. "Yesterday, one of you took delicate information about the monster's return and posted it on the internet, causing the public to think about the worst that can happen."

Lydia noticed someone entering the tent but she was so afraid of General's gaze that she didn't dare to look to see who it was. "And because of that, your tents have all been searched, and fortunately for you all, we haven't found anything incriminating yet. But the SECOND I figure out which of you leaked that information to the internet, you will be tried with TREASON, among other, lesser charges. Not only have you endangered the monsters, innocent creatures who haven't yet done anything to deserve being treated like criminals, but you have also endangered your fellow soldiers! Even now, our higher-ups are struggling to form a coherent response to the intel leak that will satisfy both the common people and the foreign powers that have been putting pressure on us to reveal the monsters' location! For now, you are all free to go, but you are confined to the campsite. And if ANY of you cause ANY sort of problems before the situation is resolved, you will be tried as co-conspirators. Understood?!"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"DISMISSED!"

The line of soldiers filed out all neat and orderly. When Lydia was leaving the tent, relieved that she was dismissed from staying there another second with General's fury, she noticed that the person who was entering the tent earlier was Henry, who was now with a backpack on his back, and she waved at him with a tired smile.

When Lydia and the twins were finally far away from General's tent, entering Lydia's tent, the three of them collapsed in different locations, Lydia collapsed in her bed, Calvin on the ground, and Konrad beside the nightstand, almost making it fall.

"Oh man, I thought I was gonna die the moment he glared at us." Lydia said, while taking deep breaths, she didn't notice she was holding her breath this whole time, and it seems the twins too.

"Yeah, don't even start." Konrad said, carefully standing again while taking care to not knock down the nightstand. "I was praying to God to let us see the light of day again."

"Hey…is Calvin alive? He hasn't moved at all since we collapsed here." Lydia asked.

They both looked down at Konrad, who really didn't move at all since they collapsed, so Konrad walked up next to his twin and kicked him.

"Don't die yet, idiot. We don't want another death in our bag!"

"Leave me alone!" Calvin whined, "I'm scared, let me hug Earth a bit, will you? I thought I was gonna die and I was already saying goodbye to everyone I know! If this happens again, I'm gonna ask to move us to another department, another!"

"Ah yeah, speaking about moving…" Lydia sat up and reached for her drawer, taking out a bunch of papers and organizing them, "I'm going to go back to his tent to give this to General. Y'know? The documents for me to become a pilot."

"You're going to go back after THAT? Are you crazy?" Konrad looked at her, shocked.

"Eh, me and Charles are indeed a bit crazy, otherwise he wouldn't have had the greatest plan to crash his helicopter and I wouldn't be inspired by him and creating my own greatest plan." Lydia said that while getting up from her bed and going to her tent's entrance, but, a hand grabbed her ankle and she turned to see Calvin holding her.

"Noo, don't go! You'll die if you go back and we'll miss you!"

"Don't worry Calvin, I'll come back alive to you both." She said while crouching to pat Calvin's head. "And if I don't make it alive, I want to Call Me Maybe to be playing in my funeral, otherwise I won't go, Hahaha!"

She got up and was about to leave when she turned back to say something else. "Ah, one more thing, don't mess my tent while I'm gone, okay? See you later!"

Lydia exited her tent and began to walk towards General's tent. While she was at it, she observed every monster that walked past her and she began to think how their lives were back in the underground. Thinking about it made her heart fill with KINDNESS and it made her feel calmer about going back to General's tent after the whole ordeal.

When Lydia was nearing General's tent, she thought that she was seeing a green light emanating from the tent, but she quickly dismissed that thought, since she had a more important issue than that.

She entered the tent while looking at her stack of papers and said, "Hey General, I know it's a bit too soon after that happened, but I want you to appro-" She looked up from her stack of papers and her eyes widened while letting the stack of papers fall to the ground.

There was a green heart on the table in front of General and beside Henry. While a million questions about what is this thing that was on General's table were running around her head, memories in her head with Charles played like a once happy movie.

She doesn't know how much time she kept staring at the green soul, but it probably was enough time to General call her. "Lily? What were you going to say?"

She slowly walked up to the table, ignoring the papers she was supposed to give to General, and stared at the green thing with her mouth gaped. She swallowed thickly and asked, "I- Wha- What is…this..?"

"It's a soul. A human soul." Henry answered. What? Human soul? So this is what they look like? She only heard about them in stories that her mother told her when she put her to sleep when she was a kid. So this is what was inside Henry's backpack? But who did this soul belonged to? There must have had a reason why Henry brought it to General in the first place. She could only think of one person who could radiate this energy and that has died recently, but she didn't want to believe it was real.

She looked up to Henry and asked, "Is…is this..?"

"Yeah, it's Charles." Henry answered, with a smile on his face that he didn't have before when she first met him. Lydia looked back at the green soul – Charles – and she reached out her palms, and then let Charles rest in Lydia's open palms. Calm silence swept over the room, and Lydia felt like wanting to cry for a second time today.

She stuttered, "B-but how..? Where did you...?"

"I found him at the crash site, I went there before someone named 'Meg' and her team went there to clean up the station debris." Henry said with a tired face, Lydia thought that he needed at least 3 beauty sleeps to get rid of the tired face - or some rounds of coffee. "And even if I tell you how, I don't know if you'd believe me."

"I see..."

After two minutes or so, she looked at Henry again and she felt that she was really crying – she didn't notice it before. She asked, "Can he hear us? If so, can I try?"

"In theory, yes. He should be able to hear us just fine." Henry answered, "In practice, it's a bit more complicated."

"Aw, dang it…" Lydia muttered under her breath.

"After you die, your soul enters what my sources call a 'sleeping state'. In this state, Charles' soul isn't creating DETERMINATION, and that'll eventually cause his soul to deteriorate and fade." Lydia stiffened at that. She couldn't think of losing Charles again right after she met him again. "If we can wake him up, we can stop that, but waking a sleeping soul isn't easy."

"What do you need?" Lydia asked, immediately standing straight, while feeling DETERMINATION she didn't know she was capable of having before.

"The monsters." Henry answered, "Their knowledge of souls and magic vastly outweighs any source left here on the surface. If anyone in the world can help Charles, it's them. General sent Rupert to bring the king in here, so he should be back here soon."

"You can try talking to him, Lily. Neither I nor Henry had results, but I think it doesn't hurt to try a third time again." General Galeforce said, looking at Lydia with kind eyes.

Lydia stayed there, looking at Charles for a moment, and then she said, "Hey…Charlie…you scared us quite a bit, huh? If you do it again, I won't invite you to my sleepover parties anymore!" Lydia sadly laughed and continued to look at Charles. The green light washing over Lydia, like a warm blanket on a rainy night, radiating the KINDNESS she missed so much. Yep. It really is Charles. No one else could radiate that much KINDNESS as Charles could, even Lydia herself lost to Charles at that.

She softly smiled and said, "Don't worry, Charlie, we'll take care of you until you're feeling better, and then we'll be back on kicking criminals' asses before you know it, I promise!"

Charles did not respond.

"I love you Charlie, I hope you know it. See you soon, br- partner."

Lydia carefully put Charles on the desk again, and they stayed quiet for a bit. Then, she remembered what she was here for in the beginning and turned back to the tent's entrance and began to collect the papers she let fall. While she was at it, she heard Henry and the General talking behind her.

"So… the monsters have a monarchy?" Asked Henry.

"Yes, though Asgore is hardly the kingly type." Lydia felt his gaze outside the tent, where the monsters were hustling and bustling about, trying to develop some semblance of normalcy in this crazy life they'd been thrust into. "I've seen him around camp a few times since our first meeting. He's less like what you would expect the king of monsters to be and more like… that old man from up the street who's become everyone's unofficial grandpa."

"Ah," Henry said, "And the ambassador?" Oh, poor Henry, he was in for a reality shock when he sees that a kid is the ambassador, though she doesn't say this to Henry, she wants to see his reaction without being warned of it before.

"Frisk is… also not what you would expect of a monster ambassador. Just keep in mind that you need to treat them with the same respect that you do the king, even if they're a bit of an… unconventional choice."

Lydia finally finished collecting her stack of papers, she stood up and walked towards the General's table. "General, this is why I came here in the first place, though with Charles' return, I'm having second thoughts about it."

She handed the papers to General and stayed quiet as he carefully went through them. After a while, he looked at her with widened eyes, "You want to change your position to pilot?"

"Yeah, I was planning to since I thought there was no way Charles would come back, and I thought it was only fair if I honored his memory by becoming a pilot, but since he's back, I'm unsure of what to do now." Lydia rubbed the back of her neck while tugging on her scarf with her other hand. There isn't a one hundred percent sure they'll be able to bring Charles back, – at least his soul is here – so she thought it's best if General kept the papers in case she changes her mind about it.

General Galeforce stared at her for a moment, then he sighed and put the papers inside his drawer, "Fine, Leronheit, I'll keep the papers here until you make a proper decision if you really want it or not. And I want you to think about it throughly instead of just going with your emotions, understood?"

“Understood, General.” Lydia said, “Ah, and about the person who leaked that info, I know I shouldn’t point fingers to others, but I have a strong guess that-”

Before Lydia could finish her sentence, the entrance flap of Galeforce's tent flew open, and a hulking mass of fur bent forward awkwardly to enter. It was King Asgore, still wearing the casual clothing she saw him wearing at breakfast, but had grabbed a crown and a regal purple cloak on the way over, which made for an… awkward and interesting combination of garments.

Trailing behind him was Frisk, looking smaller than they are besides Asgore.

"Ah, King Asgore," General Galeforce greeted the duo with a bow. "Ambassador Frisk. Thank you for heeding my summons so quickly."

Lydia looked over to Henry and almost burst out laughing when she saw his shocked face, exactly as she thought when she imagined him hearing the ambassador being a literal child.

"The pleasure is ours, General," Asgore responded. His voice was deep and booming, but also polite and regal. For all his failure to look the part, Asgore certainly sounded like a king.

Frisk, the little ambassador, didn't respond. They moved to stand next to Asgore and stared first at the General, then at Lydia, and then at Henry. Lydia looked over to Henry and she saw him staring at Frisk with curious eyes. She could've probably thought that he was still thinking about how a child could be an ambassador, but instead, she thought if he felt the same thing she felt about Frisk, a feeling that she couldn't comprehend.

A feeling that there was something odd with this kid, something that wasn't natural.

Maybe only time could tell them what it is.

___________________________________________________________

Notes:

Hello guys! It has been a while, I have been studying for endless tests that are coming up, so that's why I have been posting nothing - also, my laziness doesn't help when I'm drawing.

I only noticed now that I forgot the eye bags on the first illustration, but oh well, it's too late for that now.

Anyways, since we've reached chapter 3, I'll open my ask box while I'm writing chapter 4. You can ask me anything! Even about the characters! And sorry if the story is a little bit cringe, this is the first fanfic that I actually continue, and not abandon like I did with the last one.

Oh, Happy Children's Day by the way! I hope everyone has a great day, and remember to drink water!

See you on the flipside!

2 notes · View notes