#and eventually he and napstablook decided to move to snowdin together

[theamityelf]

How would the battle between Makoto and Flowey look like in a neutral ending? If Frisk falls after Makoto has spent several days (weeks?) in the Underground, will they leave together in that ending? Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Oh boy, fun question.

So, the buildup to this is, Makoto has been living in the house next to Napstablook (Mettaton's old house) and just generally being a social entity in the Underground for some length of time. Like, I'm thinking from-Hope's-Peak-age-to-SDR2-age. (Though neither Hope's Peak nor SDR2 is canon in this AU, of course.) Or maybe just the length of the time gap between THH and SDR2. Basically, I'm imagining at least a year has passed, because Makoto doesn't think it's fair to have to kill a monster to leave, so he's trying to find another way.

And he's been keeping a pot of well-fertilized soil in his house, for Flowey to visit.

Flowey, who has been bored with the Underground for a while now, has been getting a lot of enrichment from the changes Makoto brings. Past humans all eventually reached the point of getting killed by Asgore (except Nagito, who died some other way). Makoto is the first human to really move in and spend this much time living among the monsters without deciding to take their chances with Asgore and the Barrier, and he's given Flowey new stuff to do and new interactions to have. He's not satisfying Flowey, but he's something.

When Frisk arrives, the Ruins portion of their walk is the same as in Undertale canon (Pacifist Route), except Napstablook vanishes when they approach (like in certain No Mercy Routes) without doing the initial Napstablook fight, because he sees another human in the Underground and pretty much immediately goes to tell his next door neighbor, Makoto.

(This is way more than you asked, but I promise at least some of it is going to be relevant.)

Flowey is stalking Frisk like he does in Undertale canon, but he also takes the time to "chat" with Makoto.

"Sooo," he says from his flower pot, while Makoto is getting ready to leave the house. "Looks like someone already told you the news. Your nasty habit of dodging bullets continues."

"Have you met the new human?" Makoto asks.

"Met them? Yeah, you could say that."

Ghost Nagito observes, "That's a new tone."

"What's that mean?" Makoto asks.

"Listen up, Old Human, because this is your only warning: Don't interfere. This world is-"

"Kill or be killed?" Makoto guesses. "You know I don't agree with that."

"Buddy, I don't care what you agree with. If you value your SOUL, don't interfere. I'm playing with the New Human, and there's no need for you in our games." He sinks into the flowerpot and vanishes.

"Rude," Nagito says.

Makoto goes to help Frisk. With the River Person's help, he's able to meet them in Snowdin Forest. (I imagine Flowey tries to keep them from meeting by subtly sabotaging things, similar to how he deactivates puzzles in canon if Frisk kills everyone, but Makoto's luck stymies his efforts, and he is able to meet up with Frisk.)

General story and character stuff happens, but the main point is, Makoto tells Frisk pretty much right away that the only way to pass through the barrier is to kill a monster, and he tells Frisk that he and Alphys have been working on a way around that problem. Mostly Alphys, he readily admits, but he's been learning and helping where he can! Honestly, he undersells his role in things.

(Alphys still hasn't showed him the True Lab, because she's still too ashamed, especially now that he's friends with everyone, but he's convinced her to at least study what she can about him and his SOUL.)

Those who believe that Alphys can still have a breakthrough pretty much agree to leave Frisk alone, but those who are too demoralized to hope for that continue to see Frisk as a disposable human compared to Everyone's Friend Makoto. Those guys are pretty much plotting to take Frisk to Asgore or kill Frisk themselves as soon as Makoto leaves them alone.

(Sans is actually an interesting factor there, hope-wise, but for the purposes of this post, the only thing that matters is that he doesn't interfere with the journey and also doesn't meaningfully help, in either direction, when people are conspiring against Frisk.)

Makoto helps Frisk to settle down, sharing his house with them. Basically being a big brother to them. They like him. For a while– maybe a week, maybe a month –it seems like Frisk will be willing to wait for Makoto and Alphys to figure out a different way to break the Barrier.

But one day, Frisk goes to Asgore's palace on their own. Seems like they really want to go home, even knowing it will cost their life or Asgore's.

The Asgore fight happens while Makoto is rushing to the palace trying to stop Frisk, and he arrives at the palace just as Flowey steals the SOULs. Both Makoto and Frisk black out from the sheer eruption of power.

Makoto wakes up completely wrapped in Photoshop Flowey's vines. He's being held aloft, his feet far off the ground, his whole body in Flowey's hold.

Blearily, he sees Frisk standing opposite the unearthly creature Flowey has become, staring up at the flower's face with determination.

"Wait!" Makoto croaks out. "Guys, don't fight! Where is everybody?"

"Pipe down," Flowey says, his voice reverberating in the space. "This is between me and Chara. I would have taken your SOUL, too, if I weren't so full already."

"No you wouldn't have," Makoto says. And he adds, "Frisk, are you oka-?" But he's interrupted by a vine that gags his mouth.

"Oh, just shut up already, idiot!" Flowey exclaims. "Always in the way!" (He didn't want to hear Frisk's actual name. Because this is between him and Chara.)

From there, Flowey tries to have a normal Photoshop Flowey fight with Frisk, and means for Makoto to watch helplessly (like, it's a dual-purpose "sibling fight" with Frisk and an attempt to prove to Makoto that ultimately the world is kill or be killed).

In actuality, the fight ends up half as long, at most, because while Frisk is doing their normal part of the fight, Makoto is struggling and biting and doing what he can from his limited vantage point. He isn't given freedom of movement, like Frisk, which is fitting since his SOUL is a different color from theirs.

The mechanics for Makoto's side of things are a combination of purple SOUL mechanics (perseverance; the same mechanics as the Muffet battle, where the SOUL jumps between different strands instead of moving freely) and green SOUL mechanics (kindness; the same mechanics as the Undyne battle, where the SOUL must shield itself from attacks).

The reason the fight is half as long is, Makoto is also getting help from the SOULs Flowey stole. So, Makoto has a fight phase where, on a literal level, he's getting enough of the vines off himself that he can call for help, and then once he calls for help, he frees one of the six human SOULs. Presumably he gets three and Frisk gets three; it could be four and two if one of them is working faster, but the specifics there don't matter. Whatever the case, it means more than one SOUL is being taken from Flowey's influence at a time.

When all of the SOULs are free from Flowey, Makoto gets free of the vines and goes to fight beside Frisk. Makoto still has his green soul shield mechanics, and he uses them to protect Frisk from Flowey's attacks, where he can.

And he's trying to talk to Flowey, but everything is so fast and loud and also Flowey periodically goes a thing where he strikes the ground and causes a shockwave that throws Makoto back several feet. He tries to tangle Makoto in his vines again, but it doesn't work when Makoto is awake to stop him.

Eventually, they get Flowey down to his minimum level of HP, at which point he does that little dramatic "You...! You...!" and then brings himself to full health, like, "You idiots."

He kills them both over and over again. I'm tempted to let Makoto's luck interfere, there, but let's say it doesn't. Flowey does that thing where he kills them and brings them back, just to show that he can, then he surrounds them with bullets.

"You really though you could get out of this that easy?" Flowey says, and though he's been focusing on Frisk this whole time, now he seems focused on Makoto.

(Makoto's slightly injured and maybe has a nosebleed.)

"You still think you can cooperate your way out of the Underground?" Flowey laughs cruelly. "No. Your little friend wanted to leave, and they were ready to kill to do it. So how about this: one of you gets to live and move on to the Surface, while one of you stays right here and dies to me as many times as I want. And your old pal Flowey will even let you choose which one's which. Whoever asks first. Whoever can be the first one to ask me to let them leave, they're free to go. Free to let the other one ROT!"

Makoto and Frisk meet each other's eyes. They're still panting from the fight (and the multiple rapid-fire deaths they've both endured), and despite all the time they spent together, there exists a discomfort on the air. A slight tension, as if on some level they're still meeting each other for the first time. It's not distrust, but it's a lot of other things. Frisk's shame, their fear that Makoto thinks they'll do it, their worry that they might deserve to be betrayed. And Makoto's concern, his apprehension, his acute awareness of the unfairness of the situation.

The SOULs are all free at this point. They could turn on Flowey, could end this. But Makoto can sense that they're waiting, watching. They want to know if Flowey is right. They want to see what will happen.

[maddieandangel]

New comic for my Undertale roleswap AU, also introducing Mettaton's design! Papyrus said a thing that he Probably Should Not Have, and is very lucky to have time-rewinding powers right now dghgsf

[fishdings]

Please explain everything about this AU I know you'll like it

:D!!!

Okay, Fishdings is basically an AU where Gaster is Undyne's dad and his name is Fishdings Angler!

He's still the royal scientist though, he works for Asgore and specialises in multiversal studies, coming up with ways to bust out of the underground, the CORE, SOULS and whatever mechanical bullshit the adhd mindset decides he should build today.

The canon Gaster followers are, of course, his coworkers, as are the Goners.

He had a sister named Shelley (a geologist) who reproduced via asexual reproduction twice. She had two daughters who she named Shyra and Shyren. Sadly, not long after she created Shyren, she was killed by the JUSTICE DETERMINATION child, Caper.

Oh also here's a list of the fallen human children and their soul powers:

Chara: Determination (i think)

Idyll: Patience

Antic: Bravery

Spice: Integrity

Llark: Perseverance

Caper: Justice

Revel: Kindness

Frisk: Nothing (get rekt, despite everything u continue to just be urself)

Despite mourning his sister, Fishdings was also jealous that she had children and decided he should attempt to carry out something similar! He set up in the lab basement a là powerpuff girls, and combined the powers of HIMSELF*, RAW COSMOS AND GOLDFISH CRACKERS! He was content with this mixture, but OH NO! he accidentally knocked in a flask of LIQUID JUSTICE DETERMINATION, a lá powerpuff girls! (like I said, he was studying souls)

*(he can use magic to shift between having legs and having a fish tail, and mid shift it's goopy. He used a lump of this goop)

From this mixture a five year old child sprung fully formed and immediately attempted to fight her creator. And won. Fishdings was very very proud of his five minute old daughter and immediately took her to his boss so she coukd get lessons in combat. While she attempted (and failed) to beat the living shit out of Asgore, he came up with the perfect name: UNDYNE.

Once Undyne got too tired to keep attempting to fight, Fishdings decided to take her to see her relatives. They took the ferry (obviously) and Undyne got to meet her honourary uncleaunt Riverperson.

Riverperson has legal custody of Shyra and Shyren (they and Shelley were inseparable when she was alive), but as they are busy ferrying people around half the day (and trying to build a bigger boat) they mostly leave the girls in the care of the Blooks.

Undyne meets her cousins and their babysitters: Maddy, Blankstablook**, Napstablook and Hapstablook. Maddy, the eldest at 13, is the only one who actually babysits (the others are no help) but all of the ghosts insist they babysit too.

** Blankstablook is the ruins dummy

Shyren, one, is excited to meet her new cousin and they are fast friends. They frequently run around the house together screaming. Shyren is a very musical baby and Undyne just likes yelling.

Shyra, six, is... less fond of Undyne. As her mother was killed by the justice child and Undyne is made of justice determination, she resents her new cousin a little. She eventually warms up to her though, and they grow up very close.

Shyra and Shyren live in the house that we know in the game as Undyne's, in Waterfall. The Blooks live literally right next door, making babysitting convenient. Undyne spends half her childhood here when Fishdings is busy with science stuff.

Undyne and her dad live in the top floor of the lab. It's really just a bed crammed into a corner with various photographs pinned to the walls around it, but there's a tv in the basement. So. Undyne is free to run around the lab as long as she doesn't touch anything dangerous. The other scientists become quite fond of her over time too.

A few years later, Fishdings decides that Undyne is getting too old to live in the lab with him, so they buy a house in Snowdin for Shyra, Shyrup*** and Riverperson and move into their old place. The Shy sisters are okay with this! Snowdin has way more kids their age, and there's a schoolhouse so they aren't alone at home all day. The Blooks are happy to make the trip to visit sometimes too.

*** Shyren discovered they're non binary and so is Shyrup now

When Undyne's 15 her dad falls into the CORE. How? Not sure yet. Anyway, Undyne is so filled with JUSTICE DETERMINATION her hair glows gold and she vows to find him. It takes a few years, but they eventually figure out he's trapped in the void, build a portal and send a now 17 year old Undyne in to get him out.

The only problem is Fishdings is now liquid. He lives in a vat for a while, until he's eventually solid enough (slime consistency) to move around on his own. He immediately commissions a giant fish tank on the top floor of the lab, fitted with the void portal in the corner and takes to doing multiversal/void research in there.

The other scientists are relocated to a bigger lab in New Home so Fishdings can leave his slime and half built portals all over the damn place but they still visit sometimes! Fishdings visits the other lab sometimes too but mostly stays in a fishbowl on wheels so to not drip on the carpet.

Another year or so later, Fishdings gets word of a young scientist named Alphys who built a fabulous robot, that now has his own tv show. He arranges a meeting with her and hires her on the spot, giving her free run of the basement for whatever science related shit she pleases. He allowed her to use the basement because he wasn't using it, definitely not because he saw Undyne making heart eyes at the lizard monster...

Not long after that, Shyra "falls down". Fishdings and Undyne are devastated, and Alphys vows to find a way to revive Shyra and other monsters who have suffered the same fate.

The amalgam incidents carry out as they did in canon, except this time Fishdings finds out about it. It's difficult to hide four (five? six??) goop monsters in the basement when you have another goop monster two floors up who likes to pop down sometimes (nosy).

He encourages her to come forward about it, so the Amalgamates are returned to their overjoyed (albeit slightly confused) families. Undyne and Shyrup are, of course, overjoyed to have Shyra back! Except now she's also Moldbygg and Aaron, and goes by Baked Bread.

Two humans fall into the underground when Undyne turns 24. Their names are Revel and Frisk. Will they kill everyone or will they be pacifists? Depends which fanfic Killer and I will eventually write you read...

...

So yah. Other than Gaster being a fish and present and Undyne's dad and the amalgams being free and sans not existing and Shyrup and Baked Bread being very very relevant, not much else changes.

There are aesthetic changes ofc: Fishdings puts fishy motifs into everything he creates, and being head scientist means the rest of the Underground take to using fishy motifs in their everyday lives.

Fishdings made the puzzles in the ruins (he used to go down there to visit Toriel before she decided to close it off altogether), so they also look fishy. His puzzle skillz inspired Shyrup to make a few music themed ones of her own in Snowdin. Fishdings made a lot of the puzzles in Waterfall and Hotland too so again, FISHY MOTIFS.

Mettaton is Mermatriton bc he and Alphys were too inspired by the overabundance of fishiness.

Um that's all I can think of to say for now, oh expect in the fanfictions Killer and I will eventually write, the SOUL controls Revel on pacifist and Frisk on geno. So yeah!

Sorry this took a few days for me to answer lol, had to spent a while typing.

[ut-paper-story]

Undertale: PaperStory - Hotland Story

(I have decided to split Hotland and the CORE into separate story parts so as to not make the post like a million words long. I apologize for the inconveniences this may cause.)

Here you’ll find: -Beginning -Hotland  -MTT Hotel & Restaurant

Ruins | Snowdin | Waterfall | CORE | New Home | Post Neutral | The End

-Beginning-

After having barely escaped Undyne's wrath, the group takes a small break by the water dispenser, and have some water before continuing on. It is then that Paper notices that Chara has finally appeared again, where were they?! Chara doesn't really bother explaining, so Paper doesn't ask... Cue Stemphany tries to lead the group to the elevator, but then the blocking beam appears.

"WeLL, OkAY then." The crew tries to have Kongo fly everyone over it, and it works!.... Except, the elevator doesn't work. So much for that plan.

The crew walk into the lab, and they spot Alphys, the Royal Scientist, currently bickering with Mettaton about wall-related topics. When Paper and his friends try to get the duo's attention, Alphys and Mettaton awkwardly turn at the group, and Mettaton suddendly is like "..." "OH SHOOT, I ALMOST FORGOT, I NEED TO GO SET UP A DRAMATIC BATTLE SOMEWHERE ELSE. TODDLES!" And he just ditches Alphys and leaves her to try and make sense of what just happened.

Alphys introduces herself, and explains that that was Mettaton. "I-It's likely you guys know him..." She mentions to Paper's partners. (Theoretically, depending on your active partner, there'll be a different reaction. Kongo doesn’t care, and Merry’s just not a fan. Stemphany loves MTT tho.) Alphys upgrades Paper's phone, and sends the crew on its way, and warns them about the danger that is Mettaton.

-Hotland-

All in all, hotland does stay relatively the same. At least, up until you arrive at the first show: Cooking with a killer robot! In this show, there's no jetpack, but napstablook is going to be the cake tester! The crew must put together a cake to cheer up this SAD, SAD GHOST ;-;. You only get one try to make the cake, and napstablook will either give you a smile of approval, OR... dissapear through the ground because paper's baking skills are debatable at best. Should the latter happen, Mettaton will ask you to get an ingredient for him, as he will make the cake so that it doesn't actually kill ghosts, which will lead into the jetpack minigame.

The bomb game has the added twist that you have to actually fight off the bombs, not just deactivate them. And the final bomb becomes a mini boss whose timer you have to increase to be able to beat it, think King Bob Omb from Paper Jam. Once the crew manage to defeat the bomb bot, Mettaton opens a trap door under their foot, and make them fall into a deeper, hotter cavern section of hotland.

The area is a dungeon-like section, and there are torches that need to be lightened up. Somehow, though, they were already turned on when they got here... They decide not to think too hard about it, and keep going forward. Eventually, though, they come across Pyre whilst in the middle of trying to reach out for a flame a bit too high up for her liking. The crew approach Pyre, and he asks "How'd you guys end here? I was just trying to get home and chill out. You know, playing games, eating sweet coal... But then the trap door just, opened out of nowhere!" The little flame seems a bit exasperated, and she asks the crew for help which, Paper and the crew accept to do.

* Pyre has joined your party!

Pyre can light up torches, melt snow and ice, and can do stylish moves much more easily.

With the little one's flames, and the crew's skills, they manage to open the staircase that leads to the exit. Merry seems kind of cautious, since Mettaton could be just around the corner, to which Pyre is like "Wait, you guys are with METTATON?!" Paper is like "Well yes, but--" and Pyre instantly joins the party for real despite them telling him that MTT's kind of out for Paper.

The crew arrive into Mettaton sing along musical, Paper surprisingly seems to get stage fright, so he tries to hide behind mettaton for most of it. Meanwhile, Pyre is just dancing along with Mettaton- much to the robot's surprise. After the song ends, it leads into the tile puzzle section, but THIS time, Paper can't just fly over it with Kongo, as the ceiling was brought down a bit. He's gonna have to do it legit. He obviously fails, and it leads into a fight against MTT. Which is short lived because of the yellow mode. Pyre is not happy with Paper for having """defeated""" MTT, meanwhile Paper just feels something is off.

-MTT Hotel & Resort-

The crew arrive over to the hotel's doors, and what do you know- Sans is standing by the entrance. He offers the crew a nice meal, which Paper agrees to almost inmediately- so the gang kind of just follows as well. They all go inside the restaurant, and have a relatively nice meal. After they finish eating, Sans asks Paper to go out with him for a moment. Paper's a bit weirded out, but agrees to anyhow.

Once in the bridge that connects hotland to the CORE, Sans asks whether or not going back "home" really is worth it. He's got friends, food, and he could offer a place to stay... Paper nods, he is very well aware of that, but he'd rather be back on the surface. Sans just sighs, and shrugs. "welp, i tried." he says. He then goes on to talk about his relationship with the old lady behind the big door in the Ruins, and yada yada yada.

After their chat is over, Paper and Sans make their way back with the gang, who's almost done eating. And then Sans lays the bone-chilling question:

"so, who's gonna pay for all o' this? i only offered you to come, i never said i'd pay."

Everyone stays dead silent for a good bit, but Sans laughs his ass off, as he then says that he'll pay for them. The crew sighs in relief, and a bit later, the skeleton makes his way out of the restaurant, wishing good luck to the team. After they're all well rested, the group packs up their stuff, and heads into the CORE...

[advocatewrites-blog]

Into the Unknown Part 4 Chapter 1

Into the Unknown

Fandom: Undertale, Coraline (book), Over the Garden Wall, Paranorman, Gravity Falls (season 2)

Characters: Frisk, Norman B., Dipper P., Mabel P., Coraline J., Wirt, Greg, the Cat, the Frog; Sans, Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Asgore,; the Other Mother, the Beast, Agatha P., Bill Cipher, Asriel D., Chara D.,

Pairings: Not the focus. Alphys/Undyne, with mentions of Papyrus/Mettaton, sans/Toriel/Asgore, and Wirt/Sara. Due to the nature of Undertale and the dating segments, there is also interpretable Papyrus/Wirt, Undyne/Mabel, Alphys/Dipper, Napstablook/Norman, Mettaton/Norman, Mettaton/Mabel, Sans/Dipper, Sans/Norman, and Sans/Greg.

Rated a high +K for violence, mild language, horrific elements that may be disturbing to younger readers,  mentions of child abuse and bullying, character death that is sometimes permanent, and mentions of suicide that may be triggering. These elements remain relatively unchanged from their source material, which most all are for children, but discretion is advised nonetheless.

Disclaimer: Undertale was created and owned by Toby Fox. Coraline was created by Neil Gaiman and owned by Bloomsbury and Laika. Over the Garden Wall was created by Patrick McHale and owned by Cartoon Network. Paranorman was created by Sam Fell and Chris Butler and owned by Laika. Gravity Falls was created by Alex Hirsch and owned by Disney. Any other work mentioned or homage are property of their respective owners. This is a fan-made, nonprofit work that only seeks to entertain. Please support the original franchises.

“so I’m a sentry in snowdin forest, right? I sit out there and I watch for humans. it’s kind of boring. fortunately, in the forest, there’s this HUGE locked door. and it’s perfect for practicing knock-knock jokes. so one day, I’m knocking ‘em out, like usual. I knock on the door and say ‘knock knock’. and suddenly, from the other side…I hear a woman’s voice.

“‘who is there?’ so, naturally, I respond. ‘dishes.’ ‘dishes who?’ ‘dishes is a very bad joke.’ Then she just howls with laughter. like it’s the best joke she’s heard in a hundred years. so I keep ‘em coming, and she keeps laughing. she’s the best audience I’ve ever had. then, after a dozen of ‘em, SHE knocks and says ‘Knock knock!’ I say, ‘whos there?’ ‘old lady!’ ‘old lady who?’ ‘Oh! I did not know you could yodel!’

“wow. needless to say, this woman was extremely good. we kept telling each other jokes for hours. eventually, I had to leave. Papyrus gets kind of cranky without his bedtime story. but she told me to come by again, and so I did. then I did again. it’s kind of a thing now.”

The human is still listening, eyes wide and mouth full of burg. Its LV is at 5, meaning it’s still definitely a murderer. But it’s hard to remember that after seeing it pass through the puzzles his bro set up with a smile on its face, watch it engage with them. Watch it Spare.

“one day, though, I notice she wasn’t laughing as much. I asked her what was up. then she told me something strange. ‘if a human ever comes through this door…could you please, please promise me something? watch over them, and protect them, will you not?’ now, I hate making promises. and this woman, I don’t even know her name. but, someone who sincerely loves bad jokes…has an integrity you can’t say no to.”

He doesn’t know what he’s thinking. He can’t shake the boat in a meaningful way; everything is on a schedule, and nothing he does changes. But he has to know.

“do you get what I’m saying? That promise I made to her…do you know what would have happened if she hadn’t said anything? buddy…

You’d be dead where you stand.”

He didn’t mean to speak so forcefully; slip out of his font and use the tone he uses when he Judges. But the effect is immediate. The human’s eyes widen in fear and it runs still.

In a way, that’s all the answer he needs.

But then it starts crying. The other occupants of Grillby’s start to look at them, and he squirms under the attention. It raises its hands and starts to move them. It’s crude Hands, not helped by how much it’s trembling. He manages to get most of it.

Didn’t mean—accident—thought she would stop—didn’t know—not me—not myself--

How old was this kid anyway? It’s shorter than he is, and that’s saying something. Their hands shake too much and there are bruises on their legs and under their sweater. Old enough to kill? You don’t commit genocide on accident, but if they were half as upset about it then as they were now…

What did they mean by not myself?

I’ll fix, they sign. I’ll go back and save her. I promise.

*RESET

He sees it that time. The world stops. He watches it move backwards, like someone were rewinding a tape.

sans wakes up in his bed, like he always does. Usually, it takes him a long time to gather up the energy to restart the timeline again. He’ll lie in bed until Papyrus wakes him up and demands he go to work, and sometimes after that. This time, however, he jumps out of bed and makes some corrections to his notebook.

don’t trust them

Four are the Stars An Undertale/Gravity Falls crossover By the Poor Sap Advocate

Chapter 1

“How’d you think we ended up down here?” Dipper asked as he looked around.

“We fell, of course,” said Mabel, who was in the middle of making herself a daisy chain out of the more squished golden flowers. She gestured upwards, where just the faintest glint of blue skies and sunlight could be seen.

“Do you remember falling down somewhere?”

“Nope!”

“I don’t remember Gravity Falls having any mountains big enough for…this,” said Dipper.

He tried thinking back to what happened. He remembered Mabel was planning a party for the reopening of the Mystery Shack, they were hanging out in the gift shop…flashes of red and blue…then nothing.

“And how are these flowers growing, anyway? There’s like no sunlight down here!”

Mabel looked back down at her daisy chain in confusion.

“Do you still have your grappling hook?” Dipper asked. “Maybe we can—”

Mabel was in the air before he could even finish that sentence. She loved using the grappling hook, especially when she had a legitimate reason to use it.

Mabel scaled upward towards the highest ridge of the cliff. She grabbed onto the ridge with one hand, then jumped as she tried to grab the ledge above. Her hand stop on the sky. There was a loud booming noise, as though someone has struck a gong. The sky began to ripple like waves in a lake.

Mabel tumbled back down onto the golden flowers.

“MABEL!”

“What was that?” Mabel said as she sat back up, as though nothing had happened. “It feels like I just ran into a wall.”

Dipper’s mind started racing. There was something at the top of the mountain, something not normal. More Gravity Falls weirdness to investigate.

He took another look at Mabel and the distance she fell, and decided he would investigate it once they were looking down at it again.

“There’s a cave this way,” said Dipper. “We can probably hike our way down from here and see if there’s another entrance that’s not blocked by paranormal entities.”

Mabel pulled herself off the ground and dusted herself off.  “You lead the way, bro!”

She had a new sweater on, a blue and violet striped design with a red heart in the middle. And for some reason, it felt very familiar to Dipper.

Frisk found themselves in the woods once again.

It was not the Unknown again, they put together quickly. It felt too…different. In fact, if it weren’t for the heat and the sun above, they could have thought they had made it back to the forests in Snowdin. It felt like magic was in the air.

Another thing different from the Unknown was how quickly they were able to find humans. And how many there were in one place. The sounds of crowds and traffic were audible within seconds, and they wandered towards its source.

It was hard to describe what they found. It was less of a house and more of a hovel.

“Alright, step right this way! The first tour of the new and improved Mystery Shack!”

The Cat wouldn’t be able to find them for a while. They could kill time, at least. Frisk wandered into the group and hid behind legs.

They were actually surprised that they were found so quickly. The Mystery Man leaned close to them, one eye inspecting them closely.

“Don’t think I didn’t see ya sneak in, kid,” he said. “Your parents in this group?”

They shook their head and shrugged.

“You gonna pay your way in yourself?”

They had to dig through their pockets a bit, but they managed to find a gold coin from the Underground and handed it to him. What shock he had that a child was carrying gold wore off on him quickly. He inspected it carefully, even going so far as to biting on it, before deciding he was satisfied and turned back to them.

“I don’t see too many kids with solid gold on them,” said the Mystery Man.

Frisk responded by giving him another gold coin.

“Good answer! Right this way, kid!”

Dipper took a step, and fell through the floor.

This was about the fourth time he had done that, and frankly it stopped being funny after the second. Mabel propped herself up on the pedestal and waited for him to come back.

“Hey, Froggit, you’re looking good today!” She called.

The Froggit in question gave an embarrassed burble, dropped a few gold coins, and hopped on its way.

“Why do they have so many puzzles leading up to their house?” Dipper asked as he emerged from the vent system.

“Maybe it’s a monster thing,” said Mabel. “Did the journal have anything about a kingdom of monsters?”

“Not that I remember,” said Dipper. “I just wish Grunkle Stan had given the journal back before all this happened.”

He took another step, and fell through.

Mabel took a bite out of the spider doughnut.

“Ew…crunchy…”

Dipper tumbled back upstairs.

“No journal’s gonna make you good at puzzles, bro,” said Mabel.

“The answer’s down there,” said Dipper. “I just can’t remember it all the way. Here’s another question: why would monsters have puzzles that are so easy to solve?”

“Maybe they’re just waiting for a stupid enough human to solve them,”

“They wouldn’t be waiting for human down here.”

“Toriel was.”

“And you trust her?”

“What?” Mabel asked. “She’s a delightful goat mother, how suspicious can you be of her?”

“I’m just saying,” said Dipper. “We’re stuck in the land of monsters, you were literally bounced off a shield preventing us from escaping, I almost got killed by a flower, and there’s this nice old goat woman who wants us to be her children.”

“You’re just being over-suspicious. She’s perfectly fine!”

“There is something I must do,” said Toriel. “Please stay here.”

She put her book down and made a beeline for the staircase. Dipper’s blood ran cold.

“…perfectly fine….” Said Mabel.

“We’re going,” said Dipper, already running to catch up with Toriel.

“That was a pretty cool snail fact though!”

It was hard to describe the Mystery Shack. If Frisk had to, they would say it was not worth the 2G. The decorations were fake; some insulting so, and some just insulting. The real mystery of the mystery shack was how readily everyone bought it.

They exited through the gift shop, fitting considering the rest of the tour, bought a map of the area with what gold they had left, and returned to the woods.

They had hiked through the forest long enough that they were decently hidden when it started to get dark. The Mystery Man may have taken their gold, but it was unlikely that anyone else would.

There was still no sign of the Cat.

Once they found a clearing far enough away that they wouldn’t be spotted, they curled in on themselves and fell asleep.

They were only asleep for about an hour when they woke up to the sounds of the Cat’s low growl.

He stood in front of them, ready to pounce. His eyes were focused on the bush in front of him, so much so that Frisk wondered if he could even see them. When they shifted and waved at him, he jumped into the bushes.

A very human-sounding voice screamed out.

It took Frisk a few tries of trying to grab him and pulling his tail to get the Cat to withdraw from the bush. Something was in its mouth. No...someone.  They were humanoid, barely the length of Frisk’s arm. Most of their hair was tucked under a red cone of a hat.

It was some kind of monster, Frisk realized. A gnome, if they had to guess.

Frisk looked to the Cat disapprovingly. The Cat rolled its eyes, but put the gnome down all the same.

The gnome didn’t respond. It ran past before Frisk could ask it any more questions.

The Cat said something, complaining about the gnomes trying to capture him and ride him into battle, but Frisk was only half paying attention. There was magic in these woods.

Author’s Note: