Stellartale: Nullity's Dreamer

His Resurrection

"Nano-DT Sequence complete. Welcome, Asriel 111217 Dreemurr."
A calm man-voice. Icy cold. An after-rain smell. Not-quite elevator hum.
I stretch in a round glass pod, flexing soft bluish pants and shirt. Warm jets of sweet fog fluff my pelt dry.
"Asriel, I'm Frisk. You've been dead for a long time." a child's voice this time.
Frisk's voice. I met her didn't I? And what's she, my friend, doing in this weird place?
I look where her voice came but find only empty air.
I paw the glass and look out across a huge white room with a far window-wall as wide as Asgore's castle. Huge metal castles float against a starry black sky of loose pinkish clouds, a few metal birds riding blue fire. The stars! I'm finally seeing them with my own eyes, no more Barrier.
No. Where did the Barrier go? Why am I in this sleek room with real stars? Where's mom Toriel and dad Asgore? And my best friend Frisk?
"You're showing stress signs, Asriel Dreemurr." The pod's man-voice again. "Would you like to ask something?"
Mom. Dad. This pod in this room. I think of one question to sum it all up, fearing the answer. "What's the time?"
"2237 years have passed since you last died." I last died in that grass cave, the bright world above beckoning me even as I turned to dust. Asgore and Toriel are dead, right? Or maybe they're alive but forgot me.
"Where is this?" Too late, I said it. The pod projects images: patchy spiral with light green blob on one part, edge dot labeling where I am. Adagie hab-station, Kayhon-89 edge-sector, outer Orion Arm of Milky Way Galaxy. I don't know what those mean. "Please comply with all laws and cultural norms of the Delta Ascendancy of Earth. Sorry for any distress I've caused you, Asriel. Shall I run anti-stress protocols?"
I pant hotly, clouding the glass as tears burn my eyes. All I've ever known is gone, replaced with this Delta whatever place and its weirdly made stuff. Where are mom and dad? No, I don't want to find out. "Nothing. Just let me out."
The pod turns liquid and dribbles away. The warm room air brings no smell, like someone had scrubbed all dirt from the air. I climb out, almost stumbling as my legs tingle awake on the plastic-like floor. I push myself to the cool window wall, ready to face the stars. No ground, just more stars and pinkish clouds below, another metal bird. Howdy, there's no below or above out here. I scrape my horns on the clear wall, shivering at how small I am. How did they build this room up here?
Pale light pools next to me, casting the image of Frisk the human child, still into that blue and pink stripe shirt. I almost want to embrace her in this strange place. Are mom and dad like that too now?
I talk to Frisk. "Hello there. It's kinda strange how you're here but not really here."
Frisk's outline shimmers like a ghost. "I like it here in the CLOUD with Mom and Dad. I don't miss my old body either."
"So you died? Mom and dad too?" My legs feel weak. Why did I have to be alive now with no parents?
Frisk nods, annoyed. "We don't really die anymore. I mean we kinda die, but can't help it. Meet me here."
A rainbow SOUL icon pops into the air. Frisk floats away into white bubbles.

Enable CLOUD Access?

Should I link my SOUL, the culmination of my being, to this cloudy place where Frisk now lives? The chance was offered to me, and I might need it later.

Yes

Energy, trillions of Human and Monster SOULs dancing in every possible thought or emotion. Information, those thoughts and emotions piling into complex forms and works of art that exist only as light. With such power I could crush ten billion Barriers, burn the world and all its timelines. But I need info badly.
"Where am I and what time is it?"
The CLOUD answers.
2237 years ago this Frisk broke the Barrier, freeing Monsters from the Under. Together humans and Monsters spread across the stars and met other beings.
Other beings? The CLOUD answers that too.
The crystal Multianimus each have many small SOULs that act as one. There are no single dominant traits in their society. Upon death their SOULs disband as single beings. Their leaders lied to these Delta people about a nonexistent machine, so now the Delta people don't buy their stuff or let them in.

"Asriel, are you OK?" Toriel's voice. I almost cry with relief. Is Toriel still Toriel if she's a SOUL in cold machines?
You're dead, I avoid saying. "Hi. Mom, I didn't think you were... How's it like now?"
Toriel glimmers in a light pool, smiling in her purple robes. "We're OK here. If you want you can check out our History Club." she glimmers out.
She sends me a map of the metal castle I'm in, plus a yellow trail. "Go to this room. From there you can leave this hab-station. Stay safe."
"Thanks" I say, pretending to understand. Tired with joy, I cut from the CLOUD.

Down the hall I stumble into a large windowless cell with cold metal floor tiles. A patchy spiral glitters just above me, like a map.
Dead-end room, no doors, no way out. But I have to trust Toriel's word for it.
I randomly swipe the spiral-map, trusting the empty joke as I hit "confirm".
The room beeps as red dots dance over my body: "Unknown object."
"Object ID: Boss Monster." A numbing blue beam flashes down and consumes me as the floor blazes black.
Wait, no-, I've barely resumed living, and now-
The world flashes away as I rush in all directions at once.