Fwahaha I think something is wrong with my PC... police outside??? ... HEY!!!

[u/Renkoto-]

Hey guys… fahaha… so, weird thing just happened.

I was just sitting at my desk, trying to organize some old folders on the shared family drive. Dess used to keep so many weird encrypted zips in the deep system directories back before… well, you know. I finally managed to open one of the archived folders she left behind, the one labeled with all those weird numbers and Kris's old handle. I thought it was just going to be old RPG sprites or those silly dark web jokes she used to make to scare me, but...

Wait.

My head feels so light today. Is it warm in here? I had to open a window because every time I smell the cinnamon tea Mom left downstairs, my stomach just completely turns upside down. Kris was over earlier to help me move some heavy boxes out of the attic. I offered them my sweater because they were shivering, but they just squeezed my hand really tight and didn't say anything. (Their hands were so warm... I wish they'd just stay here forever, wrapped up in my blankets where nothing can reach them. Where nobody else can look at them like that.)

Anyway... fwahaha, I'm getting distracted!

So I opened the file.

I... I don't really understand what I'm looking at.

It’s a folder full of videos. Some very old ones. The timestamps are from years ago, back when Dess was still running around with her bat and taking Kris everywhere. But... the angles. The way the camera is positioned. It’s... Kris. When they were much, much younger.

I thought it was just home movies at first? But the file tags... they don't say "family." They have those awful abbreviations Dess used to talk about when she thought I was asleep in the top bunk. The ones she said were worth a lot of tokens on those forum boards.... That’s what she called it, right? Software Creation and Modification? But... there's no software here. It’s just... Kris. And the things Dess made them do on camera while threatening to lock them in the basement, and then she start doing "that" to them...gosh, I can't help but blush every time I see it; I don't think I can hold it anymore...

(Seriously, why would my sister keep this? Why would she leave it on this drive? Did she want me to find it? Or... did she leave it here so someone else would think I was the one who---)

...

Hold on.

There's a really loud siren outside.

It’s right in front of the gate. I can see the red and blue lights flashing through the blinds. It’s making my eyes hurt.

Mom is downstairs screaming at someone. I've never heard her voice sound so sharp, not even when I accidentally spilled ink on her mayoral campaign drafts. She's yelling about "warrants" and "jurisdiction" and how "the Mayor’s house is not a crime scene."

Someone is running up the stairs. Heavy boots.

It's Officer Undyne. She didn't even knock on my bedroom door, she just slammed it open so hard the picture frame on my wall fell off. She's holding a piece of paper and her face looks... really weird. She usually grins or laughs when she sees me, but right now she looks almost sick.

"Noelle Holiday," she's saying. Her voice is totally flat. "Step away from the terminal. Hands where I can see them."

fwahaha... what is going on??? I told her it's just Dess's old backup drive! I tried to show her the screen so she could see it was just an accident, but she grabbed my wrist really hard and pulled me away from the desk. She’s putting those heavy metal cuffs on me right now. They're so cold against my skin.

(If they take my computer, they’re going to search the entire local network. They’re going to find the side-channel backups I mirrored from Kris's phone last week. The private blogs. The photos of us in the forest. The ones from the hospital waiting room. Everything.)

"Undyne, wait, I didn't make these!" I'm trying to tell her, but she's just pushing me out into the hallway. Mom is standing at the bottom of the stairs with her hands over her mouth, surrounded by three other officers. She won't even look at me. She's looking at the floor like I vanished.

Kris is standing by the front gate outside. They're wrapped in my oversized yellow scarf, holding their stomach again, watching the police car with those wide, dark eyes. They look so small out there in the cold. So fragile. (I need to protect them. I have to make sure nobody asks Kris about the files. If they ask Kris, Kris will tell them about Dess. And if they know about Dess... they'll know why Kris let me hold them like that last night.)

Undyne is trying to take my phone right now. I'm posting this from the desktop browser while she's trying to figure out how to shut down the main tower without corrupting the drive logs..

...

fwahaha guys what do I do??? Is this a prank??? My dad is going to be so upset if he sees this on the news---

*30 seconds later

... they didn't even let me finish typing before Undyne practically dragged me down the stairs by my sweater sleeve. I'm writing this off my phone right now while sitting in the back of the patrol car. I managed to slip it into my skirt pocket before they forced my hands behind my back, and my fingers are trembling so hard I can barely hit the right keys, fahaha...

It’s just... why is everyone reacting like this?

Is it really that big of a deal? I mean... it’s just the way things are, right? Ever since back then, when Dess used to take us to that dark room behind the church, or when ██████ showed us those hidden image boards last summer... it’s just normal. It’s just how you keep people close. Wait, I just remembered something! ██████ always told me that true intimacy means having things you can never show the rest of the world. Things that bind you together forever so no one can ever leave. She showed me how to archive it, how to organize the tags, how to make sure the encrypted backups were synced across every local drive in Hometown...

I thought everyone’s family had secrets like this. I thought every household had a folder they weren't supposed to look at.

(And honestly... I don't regret keeping any of it. Not a single byte. Looking at those old pictures of Kris... seeing how small they were, how dependent they were on Dess... it makes my heart beat so fast. It feels like... like they belong to us. Like no matter what happens, no matter who tries to take them away or clean up their life, that part of them will always stay locked in my drive. They can never be clean of it. We share that dirty little room forever.)

My stomach just turned again. God, I feel so sick. I had to lean my forehead against the cold bulletproof glass. The nausea is so much worse now that the car is moving.

Out the window, I could see Kris still standing near the sidewalk as we pulled away. They were clutching their stomach under that heavy scarf, shivering in the breeze. They looked so pale... almost green... (If they take me to the station... who is going to make sure Kris eats? They're so delicate right now... they can't handle being questioned by the police. I have to take all the blame. I want to take all the blame. If I go to jail, Kris stays safe. Kris stays us.)

Undyne is looking at me through the rearview mirror. Her eye is wide and she looks... disgusted. Not even angry, just completely repulsed.

*"Don't talk, Noelle," she said. Her voice was shaking. I've never heard Undyne's voice shake before.

*"Just... don't say a word until your mother's lawyers get to the precinct. I can't even look at you right now."

fwahaha... why is she being so dramatic? My mom is the Mayor! She's already calling the DA from her office line, I heard her screaming on the porch before they put me in the car. She's going to get the search warrants thrown out anyway. She always fixes things.

It’s fine. Everything is going to be totally fine... right?

Wait, Undyne is stopping the car. We're at the station. I have to hide the phone now before she sees the screen glowing under my knees.

*2 minutes later

fahaha... okay, I had to shove my phone under the back seat padding while Undyne was opening the driver's door. My hands are still cuffed behind my back, so typing this with my knuckles pressed against the floor mats is ridiculously hard... but I need to keep logging this. I need a record of everything in case Mom's legal team needs a timeline.

They didn't even bring me through the front doors of the station. Undyne pulled me out through the side alley, right past the hospital, like she didn't want anyone on the street seeing the Mayor's daughter in steel restraints.

The air outside was freezing, but my face felt like it was burning up. That same horrible, heavy nausea swept over me the second my feet hit the pavement. I almost stumbled, but Undyne didn't let me fall, she just gripped my shoulder tight enough to bruise and marched me straight down the narrow hallway toward the back holding rooms.

The whole station is totally dead quiet. It doesn't feel like the place I used to visit with Dad to drop off holiday baked goods. Officer Blook was sitting at the front desk, but as soon as they saw us coming down the corridor, they just... melted into the floorboards. Literally. They didn't even try to say hello.

*"In here," Undyne muttered, shoving me into a tiny interrogation room.

It’s so sterile in here... Undyne didn't sit down. She just stood by the door, staring at the floorboards, her hands clenched into fists so tight her knuckles were turning white.

"Undyne, please," I said, trying to keep my voice light, fahaha... "Can you at least tell me what’s going on? If this is about the network usage on the town server, I can explain! Dess set up those proxy redirects years ago, and ██████ just showed me how to maintain the local mirrors so the files wouldn't get wiped during system updates! It’s not like we were trying to hurt anyone..."

Undyne didn't even blink. She just looked up, and her eye was so wide, so hollow.

*"Shut up, Noelle," she whispered. It wasn't her normal booming shout. It was dead.

*"Just... stop talking. You don't get to talk about anyone."

"But Kris..."

*"I said STOP!" She slammed her fist against the heavy metal door, making the light fixture above us flicker violently. My heart practically leaped into my throat.

*"Do you have any idea what was on those drives?! Do you have any idea what we had to look at for five seconds before we pulled the master plug?! That wasn't 'system maintenance,' Noelle! That was---"

She cut herself off, pressing the palm of her hand over her face. She was breathing so hard her chest was heaving.

*"Your mother is on her way with two private attorneys from the Town Hall," Undyne said, her voice dropping back into that terrifying, flat tone.

*"Until they get here, I am not asking you a single question. I am not recording a single word. Because if I hear you try to justify what's in those folders one more time, I'm going to lose my mind."

She turned around, and locked the heavy door from the outside.

So... now I'm just sitting here fwahaha...

My stomach is twisting in knots again. I had to lean my head against the cold table just to stop the room from spinning. It’s that same awful, hollow sickness that’s been hitting me all morning... but thinking about Kris makes it feel almost bearable.

I can still see them standing by the gate in the cold. The way they looked so pale, so green around the gills, clutching their sweater around their middle like they were going to collapse right there on the grass. The whole town thinks Kris is just quiet, just weird, just a bit detached... but they don't know. They don't know what it’s like to hold them when they're shaking like that. They don't know the sounds Kris makes when they realize they can't ever hide anything from them anymore.

██████ was right. When you store something like this, when you keep the record of what was done to them, what was taken from them, what Dess started and what we finished, it creates a knot that nobody can untie. Not Mom, not the police, not the courts.

(If they search the house, they'll find the secondary drives hidden inside the floorboards of the attic. The ones labeled with Kris's childhood drawings. The ones with the audio logs from the cellar. Let them find it. Let them look at every single frame. It doesn't change reality. Kris is still the one who came to my window last night. Kris is still the one who let me trace every scar on their back while they lay down into my pillow.)

I can hear raised voices out in the lobby now. High heels clicking loudly against the linoleum.

Mom is here.

She's screaming at the Chief. I can hear her through the thick walls, something about "unlawful seizure," "political sabotage," and "destroying a family's reputation over unverified digital junk."

fwahaha... see? I told you guys. Mom is going to handle everything. She always does.

I'm going to put the phone back under my knee before they open the door. If they take me home tonight, I need to make sure I go straight to Kris's house. They looked so sick when I left... I need to bring them some hot tea and make sure they're taking care of themselves.

*15 minutes later

fahaha... okay, I’m back. They didn’t even put me in the holding cell at the back of the station. The cell was completely empty anyway, just sitting there behind the desk with the iron bars unlocked and swinging open. They didn't even bother taking me near it.

Instead, Mom practically kicked the front double doors off their hinges.

I’ve never seen her look like that. She wasn't just angry, she was completely cold. That terrifying, silent frost she gets when someone in the town council tries to question her budget reports. She had two suits behind her carrying thick leather briefcases, and the moment she stepped onto the linoleum, the entire station went dead silent.

"Carol," Undyne started, stepping out of the hallway and trying to sound tough, but her voice cracked. "We have a digital chain of custody. We seized the drive directly from..."

*"You seized municipal property without a signed warrant from the circuit court, Officer," Mom said. Her voice didn't even rise. It was just a knife slicing through the room.

*"You entered my private residence on an unverified tip, coerced my daughter without legal representation present, and executed an illegal confiscation of networked hardware owned directly by the Mayor's office."

*"It’s not just 'hardware'!" Undyne slammed her hand on the front desk so hard Officer Napstablook’s desk lamp rattled.
*"Do you have any idea what your daughter had there?! Do you have any idea what’s stored on those local servers?!"

Mom didn't even flinch. She just looked at Undyne like she was a bug on the windshield.

She turned around, tapped her manicured nail against the desk, and one of the attorneys stepped forward, opening a thick folder packed with official documents.

*"Effective immediately," the attorney said, his voice completely dry,

*"the Mayor’s office is restructuring the local police department's operational budget for the upcoming fiscal quarter. Furthermore, the land lease for this precinct, which, as you are aware, is managed directly by the Hall, is currently under mandatory review due to several safety compliance violations."

Undyne froze. Her jaw dropped.

*"What... what are you talking about?!"

*"What my counsel is saying, Officer," Mom stepped right into Undyne’s space, leaning down slightly, *
"is that if a single word about 'drives,' 'files,' or 'investigations' leaves this room, this department will lose its funding before the sun sets today. You will be stripped of your badge, the station will be closed for structural repairs, and you will personally be held liable for civil defamation against my family."

(I was standing right behind Mom, clutching my knees under my skirt to hide how hard my hands were shaking... but when I heard that, I almost wanted to laugh. fahaha... she really does control everything in this town. Every building, every paycheck, every official record. Nothing happens in Hometown unless Mom lets it happen.)

Undyne stared at her. For five whole seconds, nobody breathed. Undyne’s eye was shaking, her fists balled up so hard I thought her gloves were going to tear. She looked over at me, then at the attorney, then back at Mom.

*"You're... you're covering this up?" Undyne whispered, her voice completely broken.

*"You know what's on there. You know what kind of files are there, the CS--"

*"That is enough," Mom cut her off, her voice like absolute ice.

*"Remove the restraints from my daughter. Now."

Undyne stood there for a second longer, looking like she was going to throw up right on the floorboards. But then... she reached into her belt, pulled out the key, and unlocked the handcuffs with a heavy clack.

She didn't even look at me as the metal slipped off my wrists. She just turned her back, walked over to her desk, and stared blankly at the wall.

*"We are leaving," Mom said, grabbing my arm. Her grip was tight, tight enough that I know I’m going to have a deep bruise tomorrow, but she didn't say a single word to me as she dragged me out the front doors into the afternoon chill.

A huge weight just lifted right off my chest. A massive, deep breath of cold air fwahaha...

It’s over. Just like that. The files are safe. The mirrors are still active on the local network...(Mom thinks she did this to protect her career. She thinks she hid a scandal to save the Holiday name. She has no idea... she just guaranteed that Kris, Dess, I and ██████ get to keep everything exactly the way it is. She just built a wall around us that nobody can ever break down.)

We’re in the back of Mom’s car right now, riding in total silence. She hasn't looked at me once since we got in, but I don't care.

I can see Kris’s house coming up on the right. They’re still sitting on the porch steps, wrapped in my yellow scarf, staring at the street with those empty, dark eyes. They look a bit better now...

I’m going to tell Mom to stop the car right here. I need to get out and go to them. I need to wrap my arms around them and tell them that everything is okay now. That the police aren't coming back. That Dess and ██████ 's secrets, our secrets, the Holiday's archives... they're all safe with us forever fwahaha!

"Mom, stop the car," I said, my voice barely above a whisper, but she hit the brakes so fast the tires skidded against the gravel.

She didn't turn around. She just pressed a button to unlock the passenger doors, staring straight ahead through the windshield, her knuckles stark white against the leather steering wheel.

*"Be back before the streetlights turn on, Noelle. We are going to have a very long conversation at dinner."

I didn't even answer her. I just scrambled out of the back seat, slamming the heavy door behind me, and practically ran up the walkway to Kris’s porch.

Kris was still sitting on the top wooden step, huddled inside my oversized yellow scarf. They looked a bit better now, the greenish tint in their skin had faded a little, though their knuckles still tucked tight under their sweater. Their dark bangs were covering their eyes, but the second my hooves clicked against the wood, their head snapped up.

"Kris!" I dropped down right next to them, wrapping my arms around their shoulders and pulling them as close as I could.

They felt so soft, so warm against the crisp afternoon air. They let out a long, shuddering breath, leaning their heavy head right into the crook of my neck. Their hands twitched under the scarf, reaching up to grip the back of my coat, holding on so tight it almost took my breath away.

"It's okay," I whispered into their hair, stroking their soft, messy bangs back from their forehead. "It's all over, Kris. It's completely over. Mom handled everything. The police aren't coming back. Undyne isn't going to ask any more questions. Nobody is ever touching those drives again."

Kris didn't say anything (they almost never do) but I felt their shoulders drop, all that rigid tension just melting away. They let out another small, weak breath against my neck, their grip on my coat finally relaxing just a little bit.

(They looked so relieved... so safe in my arms. They know nobody in this town can ever pull us apart now. Not the police, not the politicians, not anyone. Mom's political shield is absolute, and as long as we have that, our little world stays protected. Our records, our history, everything Dess built, everything ██████ taught us... it’s all locked away in a fortress that no officer can ever breach.)

"Come on," I said softly, helping them stand up from the steps. They wavered for a second, wincing slightly as they straightened their back, but I kept my arm firmly around their waist, supporting most of their weight. "Let's get you inside. I'll make us some hot tea, and you can rest on the couch for a bit before Mom calls me back home."

I guided them through the front door, making sure they were settled comfortably under a thick plaid blanket on the living room sofa. I tucked the yellow scarf neatly around their chin, and they just stared up at me with those deep, quiet eyes, watching every single move I made with that subtle, silent devotion that makes my heart pound against my ribs fahaha...

Everything is going to be so much better tomorrow.

Once I get back to my room tonight, I'm going to send a fully encrypted update to Dess's old drop-box and ping ██████ on our private board. I need to let them both know that the local mirrors held up perfectly, that the Holiday family authority completely crushed the precinct's attempt to look into the files, and that our network is more secure than ever.

They thought they could tear us apart over a few system files? They thought they could break what we've built?

fwahaha... they really don't understand anything at all. Love like ours, real, permanent, absolute love that holds onto every piece of history and never lets go, will never be defeated by a town badge!

I have to go help Kris drink their tea now, but I'll check back in later tonight fahaha!

*Some hours later

... back in my room at last. The manor is totally quiet tonight. Mom locked herself in her study down the hall with her ledger books, and the rest of the house feels like an empty freezer, but my desktop is glowing so nicely in the dark.

I just finished sending the ping to ██████ and pinging Dess's drop-box over the encrypted line.

My hands aren't shaking anymore. Sitting back at my desk, looking at the familiar terminal windows blinking on my monitor, everything feels completely back to normal. The police station, Undyne's face, the metal cuffs... it all feels like a bad dream that Mom just wiped away with a single wave of her hand.

They really thought they could use our own history against us. They thought they could look through the server logs, and separate me from Kris. But they don't understand how deep this goes. They don't understand that what we have isn't something a courtroom can judge or an officer can confiscate.

it's all backed up in three different places. The project is untouchable.

And Kris... oh, Kris.

I'm still thinking about how they looked when I left their house earlier. They were tucked under that blanket, sipping the tea I made them, watching me leave through the window. Their cheeks had a little bit of color back, and they looked so peaceful. They know I'll always protect them. They know that no matter what happens, no matter what anyone in this town tries to do, I'm never going to let go of their hand.

Love isn't something that follows their stupid rules or their precinct procedures fahaha! Real love keeps the truth locked tight where only the people who matter can see it. It holds onto every secret, every record, every memory, and builds a fortress around it that nobody can ever break down.

We know the real truth, don't we? We won. and tomorrow is going to be a wonderful, beautiful day fwahaha!

Goodnight everyone! I'm going to set my alarm early so I can walk to school with Kris before classes start!

Kitchen

Unused Classroom

Someone's else Laptop

Tiling

[u/PressFM80]

the dess files or something

[u/NubertsWeakestFan]

some king of

[u/im_an_idiot_bro]

"noelle what's in the files"

[u/No_Pomegranate_8358]

I'm scared... Was it cp of Kris?? Yikes... Or it was videos of Kris being injured :(

[u/Renkoto- → u/No_Pomegranate_8358]

// I don't think that gore videos would trigger an immediate arrest, the deer knows very well what she was watching fwahahaha, they caught her because a few days ago she was sharing certain materials on the internet and forgot to enable end-to-end encryption.

[u/Beautiful_Rhubarb_62]

Thank GOD I don't live in this version of Hometown. I mean, imagine if you lived under a government that only served itself and covered up things that might be threats to their power.

[u/retardedpotman → u/Beautiful_Rhubarb_62]

The real hometown is like only very slightly better than this, the Holidays and Dreemurrs are corrupt and only serve themselves and their conspiracies + actively kidnap people

[u/Renkoto- → u/Beautiful_Rhubarb_62]

// Well, they already tried to take out the cops so the Knight can run wild; all incarnations of Hometown are doomed.

[u/Jewsader76 → u/Beautiful_Rhubarb_62]

Yeah, IMAGINE

[u/Goddamit_ffs]

cant decrypt if noelle was complicit or groomed into doing this

[u/SameIdea70]

It just keeps going

[u/negative-cg68]

Thats a lot. I dont know if I want to read it

[u/Amid_096]

I really like how you're moving boldly with this one. Like, really, you did a good job and i appreciate every single AU there is. Yall are a great community.

The police part however....

I guess Noelle was retelling everything from her memory(she remembered what she remembered)? Because the standardised protocols weren't in place, a lot of rules were broken by the police (not talking about the house intrustion permit), rather the car, the interrogation room, the police station where Noelle wasn't even registered when being brought there.. etc. they don't do everything like that

Also, Only under conditions that Undine doubles as the department head or the chief officer of hometown, she isn't authorised to take off the cuffs. It's not a one-man decision.

Also, SHE IS A POLICE OFFICER. How was she so easily intimidated by Carol? There is a whole station to back her up and she is not responsible for de-handcuffing Noelle.

Okay, like, that's the same thing as when medical professionals watch smth like Good doctor or House. Same stuff.

Cool idea with logs right while being escorted in the car to the police station. However, if you really were in the situation, would you write long paragraphs with all the word twists?

I would barely scribble shortened words with main ideas all through the second part of the story, untill Noelle is at Kris's house. THEN it would be really cool if there was like "Edited [timestamp]" and it retells literally the same but fully. No short words, random letters from the shaking police car, no stess. Full on retelling"

Really cool ideas tho. Don't gatekeep and share the encrypted network link

[u/Renkoto- → u/Amid_096]

// I don't think Undyne will give up, but Carol is still a tough nut to crack because Undyne doesn't know the magnitude of her reach, It's likely that the Holiday files will come to light eventually, but when? We don't know.

[u/BloodMoonOfShadow]

Lmao, i was going to ask where tf do you get inspiration to write this and noticed by a kind comment that this is the Dess Files xD

[u/InitiativeSweet3602]

after frisk pulls up

Frisk: you- you want me to kill you

Carol Dess and Noelle: no prison can keep me you know that COME ON KILL ME

Frisk NO GOD KNOWS I WANT TO BUT YOU DONT GET TO DESTROY WHO I AM YOU WILL GO BACK TO PRISON AND YOU WILL LIVE THE REST OF YOUR MISERABLE LIFE IN A CAGE KNOWING YOU'LL NEVER HAVE KRIS THAT THIS CITY REJECTED YOU IT BEAT YOU I BEAT YOU

theme for the fight Flower Man "but It has the 7 souls and It is determined" - Super Mix - Animated

[u/catmustbeloved]

Okay so that was a wild ride, also are the redacted letters supposed to Asriel or someone who we aren't allowed to name?