#oh damn i guess i did write about chara ANYWAY

[chasmbreach]

i wrote this in a frenzy at 3am. i love undertale so much you don't understand

2:55: i hate it when my brain starts thinking too much in the fucking late ass hours of 2:45 am anyway, i got recommended fallen down piano with reverb on yt again and yknow, obviously i gotta listen to the hella peaceful ass helllll music because it just do be really beautiful yknow? but then i thought about how when monsters fall down, they're considered fallen monsters? i'm forgetting my exact undertale lore, but wasn't it about how the monster was dying of old age, or just having a weak SOUL in general? which was why alphys did her experiments and the whole point of the DT experiments to prevent them from dying. and i know your best friend is the first song you listen to when you begin Frisk's journey through the underground, but i'm just thinking about how he's probably not done that to all of the other children that have fallen before Frisk, considering that Toriel is always there to help the children and care for them.  So, tying back to Fallen Down..., all of the kids that fell into the Underground had "fallen" in the sense of if they were a monster, they would've been dying. all of the children who fell into the underground had a sense of not wanting to continue their lives with the other humans, which is why they decided to fall into the hole in hopes of finding release from their lives.  they've been emotionally dead for a long time. that's where they start, and that's their emotional state when they decided to fall. they're children who don't have the will to keep going, but then toriel comes in and takes care of them, they want to feel loved, to be a child, to be a human where they can just be. it's why each and every one of them make the decision to go through the ruins door, to experience living

2:56: anyway this is bullshit analysis it's nearly 3am i don't think i made sense

2:56: me getting emotional over fallen down for the 27345394 time

2:58: gods i love undertale characters i fucking love toriel and her flaws, because it's what makes her seem like well rounded person who has motivations and grief, and that grief is what makes her so, so unique in how she presents herself

3:00: i fucking love papyrus because he is so skroigly but also because he believes in you. even in the no mercy run, he isn't naive. he isn't, good god. yes he sees the best of people, but it does get more than that. he loves. he loves so much. and isn't that just difficult in this society sometimes yknow?

3:02: i fucking love undyne, because despite her slightly misguided anger towards humans, she is, after all, representing of justice. she wants the bring the best out of everyone. she's critical, but she can identify when she's wrong. she just exudes so much confidence and is such a big motivator, it makes it so hard to dislike her.

3:04: i fucking love alphys, and isn't she such a complex character when at first glance. she really isn't that complicated in terms of how much analysis of her personality really needs. she wants to help, but she afraid to do it wrong. she wants to be the best, but she never feels her best. if she hides her mistakes, then nobody needs to know that she was a "bad person," when she was just trying to do what she thought was right.

3:05: i fucking love metatton, and after reading ALIVE AU it made me love him even more. yes, he's selfish, but he still wants the best for alphys. he's the type of monster who doesn't outwardly show he cares, but he will absolutely be there when you need it most, to bring you back and to make sure you're ok. 3:06: he also has some regrets and grievances, don't get me wrong, this is probably the most unknown character for me haha, but he makes me think about how, in reality, there really is just one life, and that one life you should make the most of it.

3:08: i fucking love asgore. a sad old pitiful shell of himself, but filled with so much pain and regret for all the things he's done. he wants to mend his wounds, but he cannot bring himself to. he feels as if his decisions were his to bare, and he must deal with his own consequences. he needs a hug, but he'd never accept one.  he doesn't think he deserves forgiveness, but he does. he really does.

3:11: and of course, sans. well, i know he is famous because of megalovania, but in the end, he really makes me sad, maybe pity. depression is a bitch. the amount of hope he exudes when he sees the sunrise during the pacifist makes me cry. he never thought he'd get here. he never thought he'd be okay enough to be there for papyrus.  because isn't everything for him?  even when you kill papyrus, he doesn't do anything except call you a dirty brother killer.  he's so, so tired. really, he's just putting up a mask every day. and he is literally the exact opposite of papyrus yeah?

3:12: anyway. i didn't think i'd type so much haha 3:12: love letter to the game that made me feel

3:15: i think, because the story really makes you think about decisions, that your decision to reset, will affect everyone? makes this world really real for me. don't get me wrong, i love omori. the story is really good and i love it to bits. sunny has an incredibly complex history with his emotions but... the story will always just feel like just that. a video game character on a screen.

3:23: hmmm. i'm thinking again. i think what really did it in for me is this old comic i saw even before i got into undertale and saw a playthrough of it.  it was simply drawn, but basically someone wanted to replay undertale after the true pacifist route, and flowey comes on screen right? but then the comic artist wrote about how they couldn't do it. they couldn't reset, because it had been probably a few months or like a year since they've played, and Frisk had probably done so much in that timeframe, it would be incredibly cruel to take it all away because "you were curious" to play the game all again and it also ended with someone else commenting "undertale: the game you never play again" or something like that

[chill-pills-yandere-haven]

God is Underpaid, Overworked, and Touch-Starved. Triple Threat! Pt.2

An: Not as yan over here (mainly because we are missing a few details from a different perspective) but we get more genshin charas in. Also, do we like the Araashita povs? (I write for myself so if I can pump one out and I like it I'm definitely posting it, but what do you all think?)

Tw:Religious themes, yanderes, tell me if I missed anything

And you were still falling.

How high up did you fall from? Was gravity even working right now? You stopped screaming after about ten of the longest seconds of your life. Honestly, at this point, you wanted to hit the bottom.

Whatever the bottom was.

"-ao! Gt then!" Words were being shouted, yet were too jumbled to know what was happening. You just kept falling.

And falling. Maybe hitting the bottom wouldn't be so bad.

And falling. Maybe death was at least a little better than being cooped up inside all the time, your only friend a damn AI.

And falling. How pathetic could you be?

Until you weren't.

There was a deafening woosh resounding in the air. Despite still being in mid-air, someone caught you. Their husky voice murmured something to you as they somehow slowed your fall.

Eventually, you touched the ground.

Carefully, the figure that saved you put you down. Leaving you to stumble onto the ground, somehow getting your knee caught on something.

"Ow, oww!" You gave a small cry as you pulled your knee out. It had gotten caught on some thorns resulting in a paper-cut-like wound. Curiously, what dripped out appeared to be liquid gold instead of blood.

"What the- did I drink my vodka instead of water?" Seriously considering the possibility of you being drunk off your mind, you failed to notice the oos and awes of the people surrounding you.

"It is them! It's the creator!" Cheers erupted in the small audience, causing you to look up from your thorn scratch.

Someone was kneeling in front of you, a hand out for you to take. W-wait, was that, Zhongli? You rubbed your eyes with your hands and blinked for a moment. Yep, definitely the a-hole that gave you a straight seven hours of work trying to buff his attacks.

"My grace, please allow me to take you to your abode. I can carry you if you wish," Zhongli spoke... What the hell? You guessed that you not only mistook your vodka for water, but also that you somehow developed a weed addiction despite never using weed in your life. Zhongli had a soft and gentle yet loving tone?

You took his hand anyway, you felt like you were going to faint and die at the same time. Carefully, he picked you up bridal style and began to take you somewhere.

Somewhere along the way you had fallen asleep, now tucked into a ginormous and comfy bed with many pillows and blankets.

How much time had passed? Groggily, you opened your eyes, rubbing them.

"Oh, crap, how much time did I spend asleep!? Ahh, I need to get Ayato done!" With the thought of Ayato, you sprang up from the bed, only to be gently pushed down by someone.

"My creator, please be at ease, you are safe here. If you need anything, I am but your devoted and waiting servant," Yep, Zhongli was still here.

"Also, if I may ask, who is this Ayato you speak of?" At the mere mention of Ayato, you groan. Did you find Ayato to be one of the most attractive characters yet? Yes. Did you find his spaghetti code as attractive as his abs? Hell no.

"Hydro bitch boy from Inazuma who can't pick a damn struggle and stay with it. Probably also fucks his servants... Just saying, you never heard it from me!" Zhongli was of course even more confused with your wording, but you were probably still high so that didn't matter. You could see him blush very visibly when you said that last part.

Zhongli then looked over to the clock on the side of the room. Well, you thought it was a clock anyway, it seemed to be going backwards and had weird symbols on it.

"Your grace, it is almost time for the welcoming ceremony we've planned for you. If you would like to, you can change into any of the outfits of the seven nations prepared for you in that wardrobe there. It is perfectly fine if you choose not to as well, you look wonderful in anything you wear," Zhongli gave you an adorable smile that honestly made you screech at how cute he was.

Thump, thump, thump.

Holy hell, was someone running to here? Zhongli suddenly brought out his spear and shielded you both, muttering something about the security.

The door flung open, revealing a panting...

Araashita?

Ok then, high, drunk, and probably a lab rat for a new hallucinatory drug.

Considering that everything you do in this hallucination probably won't affect your real-life... You can do whatever you want!

With that knowledge, you ran up to Araashita and embraced him. You could practically hear Zhongli's confusion as he deactivated the shield.

"Mm, nice. Damn, best lucid dream, high or drunk experience I have ever had," You muttered to yourself as you rubbed your face into his chest, God he smelled good.

Muffled yells and bangs came from the outside room, making you flinch even closer to Araashita.

"Oh, uh, I um kinda... Broke into your room here so yeah. Also, they see you as God so they think of me as a threat to your safety, and they most likely want to kill me so I kinda made an invisible wall by coding it in, I'll remove it after, I promise. But what I'm trying to say is that we have like seven to ten people banging on that door trying to kill me, oops!" Araashita gave a sheepish smile as he explained.

You began to walk towards the door.

Araashita gave you a little look of caution until you smiled back at him. You grabbed the doorknob and twisted.

A couple of meters away were almost fifteen Genshin characters frantically attacking the air that acted as a wall between them and your door. You let out a small chuckle. When they saw you, they only got even more aggressive in their attempts to destroy the wall.

"It's okay everyone! This is Araashita, he's one of my friends," You explain to the array of game characters that just gets more and more confusing to look at.

Albedo, Kazuha, Venti, and Aether seemed to be trying to combine their elemental skills to get over the wall. Childe and Keqing were trying to hit the wall as fast as they could. Kaeya was leaning on a wall as though he knew this would happen. Then there was Barbara, who was singing to the wall?

"Ahem," You prompted Araashita to step forward and to delete the wall. Begrudgingly, he made a couple of swiping motions with his hand, showing a screen, doing something with it, and moving it towards you. It was a floating screen with a keyboard under it, something you had only seen in sci-fi movies. On it showed the game files, the code all laid out for you to see. In a bright highlighter yellow was the code for the wall. Araashita had coded it to be indestructible and too thick for any characters to clip through.

With a sigh, you simply selected the code and deleted it. This action caused Kazuha to fall from the makeshift tower he and the others were using to get over the wall. Luckily, the samurai boosted himself up with another burst of wind, landing gracefully.

"Oh, dear creator, we are so grateful that you are okay. How do you feel, how's that scrape feeling?" Venti was the first to speak up, his eyes lit at the sight of you.

"I'm okay, but I guess I'm kind of confused. I get that I'm having some sort of high drunk fever dream experience here but where the hell are we? I'd be disappointed if this wacky dream didn't make at least a little bit of sense." You were fully convinced that you were hallucinating, so what was the worst that could happen from letting your hallucinations know that they were, well, hallucinations?

"We are in an underground cave system I created. Right now, we should be somewhere along the borders of Liyue and Mondstadt. Your grace, I should also inform you that this is not any sort of 'high drunk fever dream experience'. Everything you are going through now is completely real, your grace. Your scraped knee should be sufficient proof of this," Zhongli explained to you with the clarity and conciseness of an advertised product of Grammarly.

Wait, did he say everything was real?

Crap.

Zhongli also said something about an injured knee though, meaning that if you touch it and it doesn't hurt then this has to be a dream!

You rolled up the pants you were wearing until your knee with the scrape was exposed. The scrape was a lot different than any normal scrap you had had before. Except most of it could be attributed to the fact that the dried blood of the scrape was gold instead of crimson which probably alarmed you the most.

Pressing on it just a bit, you felt a sting of pain. Meaning this was entirely real.

You should probably be figuring out what this is if not a wild hallucination then. Right? Yeah.

Yeah no. You just decided that if you were supposedly the God of a video game, you weren't going to waste your time looking for explanations. You were going to do whatever the hell you wanted.

Didn't Zhongli also mention something about a ceremony or something?

Time to party!

[catzula]

hi bae congrats on 600!! ok so uh. something i like about myself is i am really straight forward and try not to sugarcoat things, and for the chara of my choice, could i have atsumu?

A/N: I had so much fun writing this ngl (simps too hard for Atsumu) Also, Ro!! I hope you like this baby!!

If you'd also like to participate in the event, you can access it from here!

Honorable mentions: 1.2k, 1 curse word, fluff!

Synopsis: "Atsumu?" You call out, and he can't help but notice how soft your voice sounds.

"Do you have a problem with me?"

Atsumu Miya didn't like you. 

He didn't like you, you knew, and he didn't try to hide it, either.

There would be a frown on his lips whenever you were around him, a scoff audible when you spoke, whether you meant it for him or not, a snarky comment made its way from his lips too, though, rarely. 

You couldn't say you knew each other well. You had a few classes before, greeted each other maybe once every two months, might have spoken willingly one time, and that was it. So there wasn't much of a reason for Atsumu to be so utterly annoyed with you, but there he was, cursing to himself when he saw he was stuck in yet another break-out room with you. 

Because of how close your student numbers were on the class list, whenever the professor made break-out rooms, you were almost always there, waiting for him and sighing when you noticed him.

Atsumu couldn't pinpoint the reason as to why he didn't like you, even his brother, the antisocial, liked you. But there was something about you that made the blonde feel uneasy, stirring something in him that made him want to run away, and run away, he did.

He often opted to turn his mic off when he saw you staring back at him on his screen, even though he hated to admit, very prettily, too, glancing at you once or twice in the whole period of ten minutes.

You usually mimicked his actions, choosing not to say anything to the blonde, but something was different that day.

You pressed your lips together, and he could tell you were a little bored and a little nervous. For the first time, you hadn't turned your mic off, scrolling down your phone, but instead, you held your gaze on the screen, eyes wandering over the faux blonde a second or two before you spoke.

"Atsumu?" Your voice was soft, but it startled him. "Can I ask a question?" You took the grunt that was barely audible as an answer.

You waited for a few seconds before you decided to speak again, hands drumming on the table nervously. You had this question running on your mind for a while now, and you decided you had put it off long enough.

"Do you have a problem with me?"

The way you spoke was nonchalant, and it was as if you're asking about the weather. There was even a ghost of a kind smile that was resting on your lips. Atsumu wondered if he had heard you right, and your smile only grew when his warm-brown eyes narrowed.

"What?"

"Do you have," you repeated, "a problem with me?"

You still had that damn smile as you talked, and Atsumu found his eyes falling on it each time you spoke a word. "I don't think you like me, and I was wondering why."

Maybe it was the way you asked, as if you didn't care if he liked you or not, but you just wanted to know why, like a simple curiosity as a kid wonders why the sky is blue, and it irked something in him.

"You're right." Atsumu shrugged, eyes narrowing slightly to see your reaction to his words. "I don't like you."

He had meant to be mean, to wipe that kind smile off your face and maybe even see you hurt, and he clenched his teeth when you chuckled, instead.

"Figured as much. I want to know why, though. Did I do something to bother you, or is it simply our characters not getting along?"

"You're annoying." He scoffed, and you rolled your eyes.

"Oh, so you're just prejudiced." You pursed your lips and explained when he cocked a mocking brow at you. "You don't know me well enough to call me annoying."

Well, he didn't know you were the type to call him out on his shit like this or how pretty you looked when you were angry. And he certainly didn't know how much he liked it.

You feel your heart skip a beat when Ataumu sent you an amused grin. It was unfair how good-looking he was.

"Of course, I do." You heard his voice, and it made you huff out a laugh. "Do you, really? When was the last time you even spoke to me?"

Atsumu hated the way you cock your brows at him almost mockingly, and he could feel the way you're sharpening your claws on the other side of the screen. He had to admit he found it kind of... hot.

"Last week on the break-out room." He shot back with an annoying, know-it-all raise of a brow, but you dispersed it without missing a beat. "Nope, the moment you saw me, you turned your mic off and looked at your phone the whole time."

"The week before that, then." He rolled his eyes, "No, you did the exact same thing then, too."

"Then the week-" Atsumu starts to speak, but his voice falters. When did you talk last time? Did he even speak once in any of the weekly break-out rooms? 

"That's that, then." You checked the time and smiled once again, a smile of victory you didn't care to hide. Both of you knew you won this round. Oh, the time's almost up, anyway. See you later!" You waved, leaving the break-out room with one of your bright smiles that he was used to seeing like you hadn't just had a conversation about how much he didn't like you. 

Atsumu only then feels the first spark of interest in him.

~

Now that Atsumu wants to be in the same break-out room with you, he never falls in one. 

It's like some goddamn voodoo magic. He couldn't help but smile whenever he heard the sentence, "now I'll be dividing you into break-out rooms." And God knew he heard it often, but whenever he clicked the button, go to room 4, it was always someone else waiting for him there, and never you. 

It caught him off-guard when you did appear on his screen, again with a kind smile. "Hi, Atsumu!" You waved, and Atsumu found his heart missing a beat. 

"Hi," He muttered your name, quickly trying to clear his desk from all the empty cups and plates. "It's been a while."

"You're right." You laughed it off, trying to discard how good he looked still as you quirked a quizzical brow at him. "You look like you missed me."

You had expected Atsumu to stay silent at your remark, waiting for him to turn his mic off as he always did, but it was a (pleasant) surprise to see he didn't. 

"Is something wrong?" You pursed your lips, and he noticed how your brows furrowed in concern. 

"Why would there be?"

You shrugged. "I thought you found me annoying. I didn't think you would want to chat."

"You were the one who told me I didn't know you well enough to say you were annoying, weren't you?" Atsumu quickly retorted, taking note of the slight wavering of your lips into a smile. 

"Touche. So, what is it, or are you trying to prove me wrong and actually trying to get to know me?" 

Atsumu shrugged, only to find you chuckling at him. "Caught red-handed, I guess." He mutters, joining your laughter. The next few minutes, Atsumu found himself having more fun than he probably ever had in a break-out room. 

Oh, fuck, he thinks to himself, right before he clicks the turn back to the main room button. He can't wait for the next time he falls in a break-out room.

with you, of course.

[wonderland-in-bloom]

kingyo-chan...literally

[second year boys]

HEEEEEEY GUYS!!!! (i promise requests will be opened soon) so this is going to be something a little bit different! as many of you know, i usually write reader inserts but today i decided to be writing something with just the boys for the sake of fueling my satisfaction of interactions with the boys, and idk i felt like writing something for myself today~ and i have a smol question....are y’all okay w/ chara x chara? like yaoi/bl/shounen ai bla bla (although a is still kinda confused who she ships who with lol) i’ll also happily take requests of a canon chara x canon chara (if y’all are comfortable w/ it of course) :))

this oneshot will consist of the second years: riddle, ruggie, the octavinelle trio, the scarabia duo, and silver! and i’ll be labeling this oneshot in my masterlist as twst boys!

anyways hope you guys enjoy this -3-

♡

“LISTEN up you dogs!” a very familiar scream pierced the air and made its way into all of the student’s ears. divus crewel officially started class. today was quite a special occasion as the whole second years had a conjoined alchemy class. azul was thrilled, after all it was his best and most liked subject, thus he was just beyond excited. he wondered what kind of task professor crewel would give them that day. “today we’ll be focusing on a potion which can transform those who drink it into mermen.” 

some of the octavinelle students cheered, including the octavinelle trio. “yay!!! maybe we can use this to bring some of the students down back to our home hmm?” floyd cheered. “indeed, floyd. it will certainly be interesting.” jade added. “however!” professor crewel’s voice boomed again. “i will be picking your partners.” groans could be heard around the room. “damn it! i can’t be with you then jamil.” kalim whined. jamil awkwardly chuckled but thought to himself, thank god. riddle was panicking to himself and fidgeting immensely. please don’t let me be stuck with floyd. please don’t let me be stuck with floyd. please don’t let me be stuck with floyd. PLEASE ANYTHING BUT THAT! professor crewel took out the list of names written on parchment paper. he cleared his throat and this was when riddle started to feel even more anxious. “jamil viper and azul ashengrotto.” jamil sighed in relief. he didn’t have to be in such a hassle. azul just smirked. jamil was a clever person, and they wouldn’t have any problems working together. 

“jade leech and kalim al-asim.” kalim cheered. “pleasure working with ya, jade!” jade just smiled. “of course. the pleasure is mine.” yes it was rather a chaotic pair...but at least it wasn’t going to be that disastrous. “ruggie bucchi and silver.” ruggie sighed. he didn’t exactly have a problem with silver but they weren’t that well acquainted either. he was just thankful he didn’t get someone problematic or chaotic. riddle sunk in his chair. he knew exactly what this meant. professor crewel went through all the names of the students, and riddle knew that everyone had a pair. and all that was left....was floyd. “floyd leech and riddle rosehearts.” riddle slammed his head on the table, causing a student beside him to jump in shock. “why out of all people...why?!” he muttered to himself. he soon felt an arm slung around his shoulders. “yaaaaay! it looks like we’re a pair kingyo-chan!” please kill me now.

“fufufu, it seems as if riddle-kun and floyd are a pair.” azul chuckled as he stared at the two. jamil was already up and ready and lit the flame to the cauldron. the two of them knew it was going to be easy peasy. “i hope nothing bad goes wrong.” jamil just sighed as azul started to read out the instructions for the potion. “ah kalim-san, please be careful.” kalim jumped back from the lit up flame below the cauldron. “phew! almost got burnt there.” jamil’s ears twitched and furrowed his eyebrows as his furiously threw the ingredients into the cauldron. “it’ll be alright, jamil-kun.” azul assured him. “hopefully.” he mumbled to himself as he started to stir the concoction. 

“ah, one fish tail please silver-san.” ruggie and silver did surprisingly well. ruggie just read the instructions out loud while silver just followed in pursuit and did everything ruggie said. surprisingly, they worked well together compared to the other pairs. “do i stir now?” ruggie shook his head. “it says here to wait for thirty seconds.” they were actually functioning properly. who would guess? as ruggie was about to stop the stopwatch, his ears perked up as he heard a shriek from beside him. “WAAAA~I THOUGHT YOU SAID LIZARD’S TAIL?!”  kalim was panicking as he put in the wrong ingredient into the cauldron. jade was trying his best to calm him down but also not lose his shit. “kalim-san, it’ll be alright. we’ll just conjure another batch after this.” jamil heard all of this from where he stood and gripped the wooden stirrer so tight it was almost crushed under his grip. “i do not trust anyone else to be his partner. not even myself at times.” he was basically just a tired mom at this point. poor jamil. 

meanwhile over at floyd and riddle’s cauldron, it was quiet. awkwardly quiet. by the power of the queen of hearts, please don’t let anything bad happen. riddle kept to himself and stirred the potion. “ne, ne, kingyo-chan~ aren’t you excited to try this potion out?” riddle gulped. “it’s against the protocols for students to be trying out the potions without official permission from the professor. besides, we better be careful to not get in contact with the potion, or else...” floyd pouted as he started to pour the concoction into a vial. at first he carefully eyed which one but eventually got bored and distracted from his task. he didn’t even look at where he was pouring the potion until he heard a gasp from beside him. riddle was covered in their potion. “uh oh...” there was a poof of red colored smoke. when the smoke cleared, floyd looked down to see...a small red goldfish flopping on the floor. “k...kingyo...chan?” he scooped up the little goldfish in his arms. it continued to flop around. 

“but the potion was supposed to make you into a merman...not an actual goldfish...” floyd wondered to himself as he stared at the small fish in his hands. riddle wasn’t able to speak but he was thinking to himself how much he needed water. if he could speak, he would scream at floyd and demand to put him in water. he was a fish after all. but alas he wasn’t able to and just continued flopping around. “what happened here...OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT?!” azul came over to see what happened and his jaw dropped when he saw the goldfish in floyd’s hands. “riddle-kun....is now a kingyo.” azul panicked. “JAMIL-KUN GET SOME WATER IN A LARGE BEAKER. NOW.” jamil heard the panic and worry in azul’s voice and rushed. 

he ran, water occasionally spilling out of the beaker but he managed to make it in time for azul to scoop up ‘riddle’ from floyd’s arms and into the beaker. he was able to swim around now and breathe. phew. he was safe. “HOW ON EARTH DID THIS HAPPEN?!” azul screamed slightly, getting attention from the other students. “oya oya, floyd what did you do?” jade sighed as he saw the commotion. “WAAAAAH! IS THAT RIDDLE-KUN?!” kalim gasped as he tried to get a better look at the goldfish in the beaker held by jamil. “KALIM! OI! CAREFUL!” jamil scolded him as he tried to steadily hold the beaker. professor crewel stepped closer to the incident. he scolded floyd for being so irresponsible and not careful, but also riddle for not watching what floyd was doing. in the end, he just told azul and jamil to quickly come up with an antidote to reverse the mess. meanwhile ruggie and silver were watching from afar. 

“shishishishi, i wonder what they got wrong.” silver took a closer look from where the two of them were standing. he glanced at their cauldron. floyd and riddle’s potion was raspberry in color, while silver and ruggie’s were a mauve color. the instructions stated that the mauve color was how the final potion should be. he then remembered how the color was a raspberry-like color before they added the fish tail. “ah. they forgot the fish tail.” ruggie thought about it for a while before he snapped his fingers. “of course! good analysis silver-san!” 

“sheesh, what is with everyone else and the fish tail. such an easy task to do but everyone apparently messes it up. shishishsi what an interesting day today is.” 

♡

yours truly wants to make a comic w/ astra and le boys but haduh the dedication isn’t there ;-;

love, a♕

[prismatictale]

Starter for @dadster-and-skelesons

(*This is starter for @dadster-and-skelesons*) (*Possible triggers: blood and knife cuts*)

The judgment hall, a place once immaculate now is a decrepit sight, icicles and determination litter the halls from to bottom, broken ice walls, shattered ice hands, fractured and broken gaster blasters... And on the center of it all stands two kids, both being a few years apart from each other, one with a knife in the their hand, and the other with blood. “d-dammit” the cyan soul kid spoke, fallen on his knees as he pressed his hands against the deep cuts on his chest, his hp had reached 0, and so he felt the abyss slowly beckon onto him. “i-i guess this was inevitable huh...” the kid stuttered, falling onto the ground as the color of his eyes slowly faded and so they slowly closed, the kid watching his killer casually walk towards the throne room as his vision got more and more blurred, slowly his eyes closed as he uttered his final words “c-...c-ha..ra” --------------------------------------------------------- Darkness, the all round incompansing void of death, that’s all he could see, all he could feel, until suddenly, a blinding light flashes through his consciousness, he suddenly awakens in shock, in the same desk he fell asleep on the night before, he looks around in a mix of panic, shock and disbelief. The kid looks around frantically and tried to calm himself down, realizing he is somehow still alive a few seconds after the initial shock wore off, with a heavy breathing he presses his hand against the place where he was struck before he died, he couldn’t feel anything, he wasn’t sure what to make of this. “what ...happened? Didn’t I...die?” He speaks slowly, getting himself up from the chair and putting on his lab coat. “Maybe it was just a nightmare,but...it seemed...just so...real” he sighed and exited his room, quickly calling his sibling’s cell phone, he needed to make sure that was just a nightmare. “come oooon chara pick up! Where the hell are you anyways” he mumbled to himself as he exited the house he shared with Gaster, Snowdin seemed awfully quiet today, that’s weird to say the least. “Not a single monster in sight, it’s almost like...oh no.” with a sudden realization he rushes towards hotlands, lucky he had access to gaster’s secret tunnels that were hidden under the entire underground, that guy was always a recluse, so he did everything he could to not come in contact with non essential people.

10 minutes passed, he finally reached hotlands, still, no one in sight, his fears were starting to become reality, was that a nightmare...or was it a premonition? He didn’t have the time to ponder right now, he quickly rushed to his sibling’s station, if what he saw in his nightmares was real than his sibling should be fighting the hu...man.

He stopped dead on his tracks, in front of him stood his sibling, cut down like bundle of vines, the culprit nowhere to be found, and their soul slowly fading.  “n-no...not again!” the kid spoke as he fell down in front of the corpse, tears ran down his eyes like waterfalls as the human sobbed after his dead sibling...the nightmare was becoming a reality. He then noticed the soul, slowly bouncing up and down, it’s colors fading ever so slowly, without a second more passing he grabbed their soul, he wouldn’t let them fade away again, not this time. The human rushed back to the lab, every minute the soul lost a little bit of itself, time was of the essence. He kick open the door to his house and ran down the underground lab, looking for only thing that could give him enough time to do anything. He was tired, exhausted both emotionally and physically, but he couldn’t give up on them, not this time. He desperately searched within the piles of discarded and or broken prototypes that Gaster made through the years, all of them failures in one way or another. Finally he found what he was looking for, the prototype for a soul container, he placed their soul inside of it and prayed that the machine was still functional.  ... ... ... Slowly, but surely the machine turned on, the container was sealed and the soul stabilized, he had some time at last. “fucking hell...*sigh* Now what the hell do I do?” he spoke exhausted and defeated. He sighed deeply and looked at the floor, slowly, he started crying again “this...this is not fair! Why did they die again! Why them?!?” he cried out crying. “it...it should have been me...” he sobbed ... ... ...

Slowly he calmed himself down until eventually his tears stopped flowing, he stared at the soul and back to his heart shaped locket, he couldn’t stop thinking bout them and their time together, how they showed him that not all humans are hate-filled. Grinding his teeth he got up and after a deep breath said: “no. I won’t give up, not this time” he spoke painfully, looking around for a specific machine, it was the newest prototype and the least tested, but it was his only hope. “where is that damn thing?” he thought while wondering through the piles and piles of prototypes. “theeere you are!” he said relieved. He pushed the machine close enough to plug it into a electrical socket and waited for it to turn on, after a few minutes he started working on it. The hardware was finished and ready to go, but the software needed some work, otherwise this whole idea might go up in flames, literally. “dammit gaster, why do you insist in writing in wing dings!” he sighed annoyed. After about an hour he managed to get the machine working...somewhat. He wasn’t sure it would even work in the first place, and it was so unstable that it would break completely after one use. He started at the soul and frowned determined, he picked the small size container and placed it inside the inside pocket of his lab coat, it was small enough to fit there but large enough to make it appeared there was something big there. He took one last heavy breath and turned the machine on, it’s deathly sounds rang through the lab before a white flash consumed the room.

[riskeith]

HIIII hope you have been well my dearest last airbender hehe. i have so much exciting things to share <333

so first off, i did two wish rolls the other night and guess what? on one roll i got BOTH bennett AND qiqi!!!!!! (the other one was just weapons but 🤷🏽‍♀️) i love them both so much i literally ascended them the second i got them. i still can’t believe my luck. so now my team looks like: traveller, noelle and those two. i’m having a little issue bc i don’t have a long range combat character but i love them all too much to change anything. which means i struggle sometimes maybe if i roll for someone else in the future i might change but rn i’m LOVING them. have you ever had luck like that?

AND i started watching haikyuu again and i forgot how funny it is. i usually don’t laugh out loud while watching things but i was literally chuckling while watching some moments. i’ve only watched 10 eps-ish but i fell in love with it again at the first ep already. i cant believe i dropped it before i’m so stupid.

ok that’s all the updates i had hahaha ! i was like buzzing waiting to tell you lmaidhdhdbd 🥺

oikawa is SO pretty it’s insane. when he showed up i was like yeah.... that’s him. that’s the pretty boy. but then again pretty much everyone is pretty in haikyuu who the hell are we supposed to focus on hehdhd the art style is just that good yk?

ships that have silent (+ points for angry) yearning are just superior. and usually they fall in the enemies/rivals category which is lovely. nothing is finer than watching people struggle with their feelings like mmmmmm... tasty. also as good as rareships can be, popular ships are popular for a reason yk? like canon content isn’t everything ofc but if canon can back it up in some way more people tend to be interested heh

wanna know something super weird? when i consume content i always fall for the stotic bois with angst backstories first but after i finish the shows i always miss the cute happy babies and that makes me obsessed with them? idk it’s crazy like voltron for example keith is literally my favorite character of all time but when i finished voltron i was literally bawling bc i missed lance so much help

well i guess we’re talking about voltron now HAHA 😭 dude s3 was a fucking blessing i can’t believe we got that and they just cut it off cold. the leader and his right hand man dynamic makes me yell to this day 😭😭😭 remember all the scenes where they continuesly reassured each other 😭 the ‘leave the math to pudge’ scene lives in my head rent free no joke dhdnhdbdud... s3 was just them loving each other tenderly and dw stole it from us.. ALSO PLEASE WRITE THEM AGAIN LITERALLY BEGGING 😭 pls 🥺

dude our government doesn’t give a shit we literally have politics traveling around and chilling without masks. they don’t care at all we barely have any restrictions so people don’t care either. it’s a mess here ngl.. :/

can’t wait to hear from u again... mwah!

hi hi!!!! is this gonna end up being 2 replies in one day for you again HAHAHA i’ll try not to disappear after

!!!!!!!!!! QIQI AND BENNETT??!!?!!!!!!!! oh my goodness… oh my goodness!!! i can’t believe you got a 5 star before me fjskskkdd but big deserve 😭😭😭😩😩😩 i’m so happy for you nejdnskamxlxmm holy shit!!!!! that’s so cute tho that’s such a cute team… and big mood!! who cares about team dynamics/fighting styles all that matters is that you like them 😩 but also does that mean you currently have 3 sword users and 1 claymore on your team jdjsndnsm. i also used to not have a ranged fighter on my team but it just got so inconvenient lolol. and no my luck is actual ass :( so often i only roll weapons, and when i do roll charas it’s like. all the base free ones djdkskdk

haikyuu is SO funny!!! everyone’s humour is so >>>> omg they’re just silly boys… are you restarting it from the very first ep? and it’s all good if you dropped it before bc you’re coming back to it now and that’s what matters 😩 keep me updated tho! i’m so excited to hear what you think

HFJDNSKSN sorry i went mia and made you wait chksjs WHICH REMINDS ME!! omg i’ve been meaning to tell you and keep forgetting but i downloaded genshin on my phone last week for my trip and it’s so??? difficult? like mad mad respect to you for being able to play on mobile omg… maybe it’s just bc i was used to pc already but damn.. djsjjs

HAHA yeah just admiring the visuals instead of focusing on the story.. we’ve all been there 😩 sometimes you just gotta rewind and take 48394993 screenshots of the one scene you know? who let them be so gorgeous..

yesssss the mutual oblivious pining is so good.. like they’re enemies to lovers but they’re also IDIOTS to lovers… or my fave headcanon which hurts so bad… the one person (keith) pining for their rival (lance) but it’s unrequited and they’ve just accepted that and are kinda resigned to it but. they just want them to be happy above all else :’) :’(

and honestly you are so right like if the popular ship are foils and have all these parallels between them and a deep backstory and stuff that’s so good too there’s so much food AHAH

omg that’s kinda cute tho.. like once you’re done you enter the honeymoon phase w bubbly outgoing charas.. (speaking of honeymoons when’s ours 🤪) speaking of lance he deserved everything lmao.. he deserves everything PRESENT TENSE!!! wow we are really talking about vld in 2021 huh

LEAVE THE MATH TO PIDGE!!! I AM SCREAMING JUST THIBKING ABLIT THIS TOO!! WHAT THE FUCK DOCYOUCMEAN KEITH. WHY DIDNYOUCSAY IT WITH THAT SMILE. LANCE WHY DIDNYOU SMILE LIKE THAT IN RETURN. LEAVE THE MATH TO- KEITH EXPLAIN??? WHA WERE YOU WDOIDJGNDKDNSKFKDKFNDNNCMS the way that lance went from ‘despising’ keith and hating being beaten by him in everything to SEEKING OUT HIS ADVICE AND COMFORT???? IF THAT ISNT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS like their relationship progressed so so so so so so so so SO much in that one single season… like. i cannot BELIEVE that was real???? no fucking way. like. we were literally so close.. SO FUCKING CLOSE!!!!!!!! my god the trust they had in each other..… LANCE SEEKING KEITH OUT!!! lance accepting keith as the leader before even keith accepted himself EVEN WHEN LANCE HIMSELF SO DESPARATELY WANTED TO BE THE BLACK PALADIN bUT RECOGNISING IT WASNT WHAT THE BLACK LION WANTED AND i have to stop or else i’ll literally never stop typing chskdkdkndcuksncjxjskcoskosnaksj

hhhhhhh i wanna write them sometimes i get hit with the feels SO SO BAD (like just then? LOL) but i haven’t properly written them in so long i feel like i don’t even know how to anymore D; but anyway do you have any prompts? i have so many wips (i have one fic that i said was gonna be my Final klance fic but lmao i’m never gonna finish it at this stage so i guess i’m also not done writing klance? lmao) but after a while i just. have no desire to go back to them anymore fjdjjx so something new might spark my motivation! but also no promises sorry i always say i’ll do shit but never do JEKSKS altho i will try!! i’ll try bust out at least a drabble even if it ends up as an unfinished wip as well lol 😩

oh fucking rip that’s so horrible i’m so sorry you have to deal with that :((( legit it’s so upsetting to see so many governments just. complacent and not caring about this issue at all like?? this is your job? you’re literally meant to be doing all these things to help us right now and you’re just not. which i guess unfortunately also makes sense bc they’re the ones who would suffer least. it’s so frustrating lmaoooo >:(

:***** i’ve stayed up again bc i am Not intelligent fjskdk but i’m looking forward to your response!! goodnight and sweet dreamssss (for when you next sleep LOL) 💗😘

[apenapaperandadoofus]

PLEASE SHARE IT. PLEASE, I NEED IT.

ASK AND YA SHALL RECIEVE

Keep in mind I was about 12-13-ish when I wrote it and I was in my angsty stage so this gets a bit dark pft

here are the first 2 chapters -there are like 9 in total I think- if ya want the fnaf one then tell me bc I actually have to translate it and everything bc I wrote it in Spanish lol 

.

.

.

TW mentions of abuse sorta and alcoholism

"Come back here you lil' shit!!!"

"I'll kill ya, I swear to God I'll kill ya!!!"

I could hear him behind me, stumbling and crashing into things, with that stupid glass bottle in his hand.

I have to keep going or he will really kill me. I kept running zig-zagging through the trees trying to lose him.

"You little fuck!!! How dare you run away from me after all I've done for you?! I was the one that gave you a roof under your head, the one that fed you and took care of you and THIS is how you repay me?!"

Yea right. I'd rather be in the streets than have to live with you in that damned house again. C'mon (Y/N) you're almost there!!

"I'll do the same thing I did with them to you!! You'll end up like all those kids, like all those dirty bastards!"

CRASH!

A flash of lightning crashed behind me.

Keep going, keep going.

Suddenly, as I keep climbing up I see something.

A cave.

Yes!! Now I can finally get rid of him! I quickly started climbing, finally getting into the cave. It was really chilly, but it would at least protect me from the rain, and since it was nighttime and he was drunk he'd have no chance of finding me.

Or that's what I thought.

"Ahh, there you are my dear (Y/N)~ You are quite slippery you know? You remind me so much of her, my little Frisk. But you both had to escape from me didn't ya. Do you know what happened to Frisk dear?"

He chuckled and came closer, while I was walking backward trying not to stumble.

"I killed her." He smiled. " It was an accident, I didn't want to, but she was being a naughty little girl~ [EW WTF WHY DID I WRITE IT LIKE THAT LMFAO GREAT WAY TO MAKE HIM CREEPY AF AMANDA]" he came closer, and the smell of booze reached my nose.

"G-get away from me you creep!"

He laughed and pushed me, making me stumble and fall down. I tried to crawl away but then he started kicking me.

IM ALSO NOT PUTTING THIS PART BC IT WAS CROSSING THE LINE A BIT AND I WANTED TO MAKE IT DARK ANYWAY THE THING IS THIS SHIT ESCALATED REALLY QUICKLY AND I GASPED BC HOLY SHIT WHAT WAS WITH ME

Basically, he said more creepy shit bc I wanted to make him a huge asshole, but I still don't feel comfortable putting it and I'm sure for other ppl its uncomfortable too so uh, lets just say the guy was just really really bad and wanted to do really bad things to uhh, the reader 

This, this guy had the nerve to- ugh!!

"S-stop it"

He quickly grabbed me by my hair and brought my face closer so we were locking eyes.

"Y'know no one cares about you! You're nothing! But if you stay with me you'll see I can be a good guy! I promise I  will treat you better! I will do anything for you. You just have to be a good girl and stay in your room."

"No!!"

I quickly spit on him and kicked him in the stomach. I was not going back there, not going to suffer through all that again. I got to my feet and ran deeper and deeper into the cave

"You can't escape (Y/N)~" I heard from behind me.

I ran faster. I'm not going to let him win. I'm not.

" You'll just end up like Frisk!"

Crash!!!

I yelped and tripped on a vine, falling into a hole, hearing his echoed taunts getting farther and farther away.

Is this it?

Is this how I die?

Will I really end up like Frisk?

No.

I won't die. I can't die. Not today.

Those were my last thoughts before I was surrounded by darkness.

Chapter 2 [this one is more fun  I lol]

"You little bitch!"

"Come back here!"

"You'll end up just like Frisk"

"I promise we'll get out of here....

Frisk"

I woke up with a start. My head dizzy from the fall.

Where...am I? Who's Frisk? Why can't I remember anything...? Hold on, did I loose my memory? What the-

"Heck!!" I heard someone say behind me. I quickly turned around, and saw a kid who looked to be around my age, floating a few feet away from me. Their hair was up to their shoulders and they were wearing shorts with a cute green stripped sweater.

"Seriously?! And just when I get used to being dead?! Do you hate me that much world!?" The kid yelled while waving their fist at the top of the cave.

Huh.....

Wait.....

Dead?

Am I dead?

If so where the heck am I?

Is this what the afterlife is like? Being stuck with a 10 year old ghost kid? Is it because of that one time I stole a ring pop from John? Because if it is he totally deserved it, he wasn't even gonna eat it!

"Am I really dead..?" I whispered.

Suddenly the ghost kid turned around and looked at me.

"Wat?" They asked.

"Am...am I dead?" I looked at my palms trying to figure out what was going on.

The kid sighed.

"No. You're not dead you dummy, you just fell down into the Underground, and somehow that awoke me...huh... that's weird."

Oh. So I'm not dead. That's nice I guess.

"Um, wait, the Underground?" I stood up, and stretched a bit, trying to check if everything was alright.

"Yea. With monsters and stuff. You just fell down from Mt.Ebott. You'd be the second human here to fall down."

Wait. The second one? I thought six more had disappeared in here a while ago.

"You mean the seventh human." I corrected them.

"Noooo, I mean the SECOND human, jeez are you deaf or something?"

They glared at me as if I was the dumbest person they had ever met.

"Nuh-uh. If there's one thing I remember is that 6 humans had fallen before me"

"Well then you remembered wrong because last time I checked I was the only one. That fall must've really damaged your brain" they chuckled.

I rolled my eyes. They really were stubborn and they were pretty rude too! If it were up to me I would've walked away by now but since I am down here somewhere I don't know with MONSTERS, I should really have an ally and they seem to be my only hope. Maybe they're nice once you get to know them, so I should really try to befriend them.

"So uh, ghost kid...what's your name?" I looked at them with a sweet smile, trying to be friendly.

"My name is Chara. And I was the first human to fall down here. What's yours?"

"My what"

"Your name, you idiot. Don't tell me you forgot that too." They smirked.

"Pshh I didn't forget my name!" I puffed my cheeks and looked the other way. I honestly had no idea what my name was but I wasn't going to let that ghost kid treat me like a dumbass again.

"Fine then, what is it?"

Shoot.

"U-um i-its uh..."

Let's seeeeee... what's a good name? Oh jeez what are some good names I could use right now?

As I was panicking suddenly something came to my mind.

"Frisk." I said.

I have no idea who Frisk is, but it felt just right. And it was the first thing that popped into my mind so.

"Oh. That's a peculiar name. But we'll then, Frisk. What are you going to do? Do you want to go back to the surface?" They eyed me with curiosity. I honestly had no idea what I would do. But I just had this urge to go back to the surface. But there was nothing up in there for me was there? I mean maybe I had a family or something's that's looking for me right now. Or maybe I could just be a homeless nobody.

"Do you promise me we'll get out of here?" "Yes. And we'll go and look at the stars in a field of golden flowers, like the ones in your book. It's a promise."

"I want to go back up."

That seemed to get Chara's attention.

"R-really? You want to go back up there? With those assholes?" They scoffed.

"Yep. I just feel as if I have something important to do over there. Like a promise."

"Ah...well, if you want I can show you the way! We can go meet these monsters, they took care of me while I was in here! They could help you!" They smiled and started going ahead of me.

"Uhm, sure, I guess! That'd be cool!" I said as I started walking behind them. If I manage to get those monsters' help, I'll be out of here and try to get my memory back and fulfill my promise.

CRINGY I KNOW BUT WERE GETTING TO THE PICKUP LINES AND THOSE ARE HILARIOUS IN A BAD WAY LMAO MAYBE I CAN LATER POST THE OTHER CHAPTERS PFT

Chapter 3 

"So uh..Chara..will these people have food?" I asked while walking behind them.

"Food?" "Yup" "You're stuck in a place full of monsters and all you can think of is food?"

Before I could answer though, my stomach let out a loud growl. I giggled.

"I guess that answers your question."

We became quiet again until Chara turned around and looked at me.

"So how old are you?" "I'm about to be twelve" "You're pretty mature for a twelve year old" they scoffed. "Well you're pretty immature to be whatever age you are." Chara laughed.

"I'm thirteen. So that basically means you have to do everything I say since I'm the older one" they stuck their tounge out.

"That's not fair!" I proclaimed. "The world isn't fair." The smirked. "Your face isn't fair"

"Damn, Frisk, you got me" they said with mockery.

"Shut up"

They laughed and then looked at me with a serious expression. "No but really, if you want to survive here you'll have to listen to me or else you'll die. And if you abuse the SAVE point it'll stop working. If you loose determination too."

"Woah. Wait what? A save point? Determination? I am really confused right now"

"Ugh, I'll explain later. Right now we have to get to the RUINS."

"Is that were you lived when you were stuck down here?"

"Tch, why do you care? And I wasn't stuck. I lived here because it's the only place were murder isn't the first option and monsters aren't assholes."

"Hey, stop being so rude, I just want to find out more about you! I really want us to have a good relationship if you're stuck with me for a while!"

"Just mind your own business."

"Ughh you're so-"

I suddenly stopped walking when I saw a single gold flower in the middle of the path.

"Why'd you sto- ohh that's creepy."

"It's just a flower. It won't do anything."

I kneeled down to look at the flower better, for some reason this flower looked different than all the other ones.. I was about to reach out for it when all of a sudden the flower turned around and smiled at me.

"Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower!"

What. The.

This flower could talk?! What?!

"Oooook Frisk this is definitely creepy, don't touch it and walk away."

I ignored Chara and smiled at the flower. They seemed friendly, so why not?

"Hey there! I'm, um, Frisk. I'm new around here."

Flowey noded and smiled at me.

"Oh! So since you're new you probably don't know how the Underground works! I guess lil' old me will have to teach you! Ready?"

"Frisk I'm not really getting good vibes from this guy." Chara said again, this time a little bit more serious.

"Shhh" I stood up and looked at Flowey, nodding.

"Thank you Flowey!! You're really nice! So how does this all wo-?" Suddenly I was being surrounded by darkness, with Flowey standing in front of me.

"Where is-" I suddenly stopped talking when I saw a red...heart? In front of me.

"See that red heart over there?" Flowey asked me.

I nodded.

"That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!"

"Woahh, that's so cool!"

"Your soul starts off weak, but it can get stronger if you gain a lot of LV."

Suddenly Chara appeared beside me and shook their head.

"Frisk I don't think he-"

"Frisk! You may be asking: Flowey, what does LV stand for? Well, for LOVE of course!!"

Oh. I guess in here is not that bad if their policy is like the place where the Carebears live.

"Fris-"

"You want some LOVE don't ya? Well don't worry! I'll share some with you."

After he said that a few white pettals appeared in front of Flowey. I guess that's how you get some LV right?

"Frisk, I'm serious right now, do not touch the bullets."

I looked at Chara.

"Thanks but what bu-"

"DOWN HERE" Flowey yelled to get my attention. I turned to look at him with a nervous smile, he just rolled his eyes and kept talking.

"LOVE, is shared through some....little...white... friendliness pellets!"

Ok. Now that was definitely suspicious. And where those the bullets Chara was talking about before? Jeez this guy really got me, but I mean. He's a flower why in the world would he kill me?

"Are you ready Frisk?! Catch as many as you can!" Then, the...white friendliness pellets, started moving towards me. How in the world was he doing that?! This place is so weird, filled with talking flowers and dead kids suddenly becoming alive again. I just want to go home!

"Frisk!! Watch out!!" Chara yelled beside me.

"What?"

I looked at Flowey and saw the pellets getting closer to me. Before I had the time to dodge they got me and I felt a huge amount of pain. I fell to the ground on my knees, gasping for air, trying to make it go away.

What was happening?! I quickly looked behind me when I noticed that the yellow bar that was once full, was suddenly empty. It said 1/20.

Chara rolled her eyes.

"You dummy! Those were bullets! And to even top it off you have literally one hp left!"

"One hp...? Wait Chara what is goin-"

"You idiot." I heard a creepy voice say behind me.

I slowly turned my head around, looking at Flowey, with my eyes widening.

"F-Flowey?"

"In this world, it's killed or be killed!"

"Wha-what?"

"Why would ANYONE pass up an opportunity like this?"

"Chara!" I yelled trying to get up, but a couple of bullets appeared beside me and surrounded me, trapping me where I was.

"DIE. " I heard Flowey yell, while the bullets started closing in on me.

Maybe I could dodge them? Or find a way to escape? Where was Chara and why weren't they helping me?

I heard Floweys's laughter get louder and louder while the bullets got closer and I shut my eyes.

I guess this is the end now. I will really die. Did I seriously think I would survive in this Underground world? Really? They're monsters for God's sake! Of course I would die here. And I wouldn't be able to fill my promise. My eyes started tearing up. I could feel the bullets really close now, about to touch me when-

All of a sudden, a fireball hit Flowey in the face, making him disappear with the bullets. Chara appeared beside me.

"Phew! That was close! At least she got here in time! I told you he wasn't a good person Frisk! If you want to survive here you'll have to do exactly what I tell you to do, or else you'll die." They nagged me.

I tried standing up once again, trying to see who saved me.

"What a horrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth." Came a sweet voice from above me. I felt their hands go in my back and a weird warm feeling surrounded me.

When the warm feeling was gone, I didn't feel pain anymore. That was weird. I finally managed to stand up, and looked at the lady who saved me.

She's a.....goat? Lady? Monster?

She had a really pretty purple tunic, with a weird white symbol in the chest area.

She smiled at me and waved her hand.

"Ah do not be afraid my child. I am TORIEL, caretaker or the RUINS. I pass down here everyday to see if any humans have fallen down."

I looked at Chara, who looked to be about to cry. Maybe this was the monster they were talking about before? The ones that took care of them probably?

I shook my head and smiled at Toriel. She did look like she had good intentions, and yes, they did save me from that wretched flower. But I wasn't going to be dumb enough to fall into the same trap again, so this time I had to be cautious.

Toriel smiled back, and turned around, grabbing my hand.

"Come, my child, I will guide you through the catacombs!"

And with that, she grabbed my hand and walked with me, leading the way.

[proxylynn]

Underfell: File Name not Edgy Enough #24

Chapter 24: Drama

WARNING: I WANT NO RESPONSIBILITY OVER SPOILING THINGS FOR OTHERS. THAT BEING SAID, THIS IS HOW FILE NAME NOT FOUND WOULD FUNCTION IN THE AU OF UNDERFELL. BEFORE YOU READ THIS, UNLIKE THE NICE TIME OF UNDERTALE, THIS WORLD IS KILL OR BE KILLED. THIS STORY WILL BE GRAPHIC, GORY, USE SWEARS LIKE NOBODY'S BUSINESS, AND DEAL WITH SENSITIVE SUBJECT MATTERS. FOR EXAMPLE, THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE READ THE FILE NAME RELOCATED SPOOF WILL KNOW HOW I PICTURE THIS VERSION OF LYNSIE COMING TO THE UNDERGROUND. IT IS NOT AN ACCIDENT. IT IS NOT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING DUMB. IT IS BECAUSE SHE CHOOSES TO END HER LIFE. SO TAKE THIS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. I MADE IT BECAUSE I NEEDED TO LET SOME OF THIS EDGINESS OUT OF MYSELF. WHICH I GUESS MAKES UNDERFELL LYNSIE EVEN MORE TRUE TO WHO I REALLY AM. ANYWAY, ENJOY. ^_^

You know...I used to love darkness. It was the one element that felt the most kind to me. Now it's a different story. At this point I hate it. Nothing good comes when I'm in darkness anymore. If I'm not dreaming then I'm being used by a maniacal scientist as his personal experiment.

{What are you doing here?}

Or this crap happens.

"Seeing as I don't get a choice in these matters, I should be asking you that. So...Why am I here, Chara?"

{Go away.}

"Why so serious? You've been avoiding me like the plague."

{You've been listening to Gaster behind my back.}

I sigh.

"Are we really about to do this?"

{Do what?}

"A childish back and forth of 'how could you do this' b.s."

{I warned you not to trust him. And what do you do? You cut deals with him.}

"You've been rummaging in my head. Not very nice of you, bro."

{Don't call me bro. Family doesn't backstab family.}

"Heh...You've been dead so long you forget what humanity is like. And I didn't backstab anyone."

{Yes you did!}

"How? How does seeking aid from the best source of soul knowledge so I don't go kill-crazy backstab you or the family?"

{That's not the point! You didn't listen to me! Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me?!}

Where is this coming from?

"Dude, calm down. You're a kid. A dead kid. You should be used to no one listening."

The darkness rumbles with thunder. Energy swirls around like wind or unseen water. A form begins to take shape, distinctly that of a male child. The boy is pale-skinned, has bright pink cheeks, piercing red eyes, as well as light brown hair, and dressed in a red sweater with a black stripe across the middle, black pants, and brown boots. This is Chara...at least...Chara pre-death. And oddly he's intimidating.

{I am so sick and tired of people not listening to me.}

"*scoff* Join the club, kid. You really think I ended up here because others heard what I had to say? You can't expect me to ignore help because you tell me no. It's MY soul. MY problems. And I will deal with them MY way. Not anyone else's."

The energy gets stronger. It's starting to become visible as it clashes around him.

{Not again...I won't let it happen again...}

I don't like the looks of this. But what can I do about it? It's not like I have power here.

"Look, I'm sorry if I piss you off. I have an annoying tendency to do that. It's not intentional. I..."

{I won't let you kill Asriel again!}

Confusion seems to be my normal state of mind these days. Does he actually mean me? Is he having a moment like Sans and thinks I'm Frisk? Could he even be thinking of Gaster? Or is he calling out all the other past humans to fall before me? Either way, I'm not going to get through to him. The look in those eyes of his gives me the message loud and clear. Talking is pointless. Now I'm left to do the one move I've done all my life...brace for impact.

{Not again! NEVER AGAIN!}

As expected, his rage causes the energy to lash out at me and all I can do block. Damn things cut like knives. I can't tell if bleeding is possible here but it feels like it.

"*mutter* Geez...And I thought I had issues. *grunt* No one is out to kill Asriel! Calm down!"

He doesn't say a word. Yet the energy intensifies. Hitting harder. Pushing back. Pushing me away.

"*strained* Do you think this solves anything? That lashing out at me keeps him safe? Harming me only puts him in more danger!"

Again, he's not in a mood to listen. The energy is cutting away at me more. I won't be able to take it much longer at this rate.

"*snarl* Damn it, Chara! Don't be like Toriel and put your problems on me like it's my fault!"

For only a moment there's a break in his attack and I think that maybe...just maybe...maybe he sees that this isn't the right way of handling the situation. This hope is dashed when he suddenly rushes me and grabs my shirt. The look he has. So spiteful. It breaks my guard.

{If we're really family...You won't come back here again.}

He blasts me at point-blank range and everything flashes from black, red, and then white.

"*gasp and cough*"

God, I hate this shit. Each time I wake up I feel closer to dying. Like one day, I'll open my eyes but be unable to breathe or I won't wake up at all.

"Bad dream?"

...Or I'll wake up in an unknown place with lord only knows who.

"With the wack you took, a little nightmare is the best outcome you could've gotten. Though we still can't rule out brain damage quiet yet."

I can't see anything apart from the ceiling. A brace of some sort is restraining my head. I can feel bands on my wrists and ankles. And something else...something cold.

"Hmmm...Vitals look stable. Then again, it's been a long time since I've had to human hooked to this thing. Oh well."

Great. From bad to worse.

"Not a big talker, huh? Or are you just slow to take in what's going on?"

I am in no mood for this crap.

"In any case, the short version is you're now in Hotland. No one knows you're here. And if you ever want to go home, it's best that you cooperate."

The sigh that leaves me is one oozing with boredom. I'm numb to this. I've been here too long to care.

"You're taking this oddly well, human."

"I'm in no position to care. I'm restrained in a place I don't know. You already have points on me I can't bounce back from. So why not skip the spiel and be blunt. It'll be easier on us both."

There's a scribbling noise.

"Subject is reasonable yet bitchy after having woken up."

Okay...Now I have some clue.

"You're Alphys, right?"

By the sudden startle that shakes her, she wasn't expecting me to know.

"H-H-How do you...?"

"People talk. It's not like there are others down here that know what a human is and have done things to them before. Makes for a very select list of names."

She huffs through her nose.

"Perhaps you'll be of more interest than your predecessors after all. Aside from your soul that is."

She taps on something and it makes me snarl in discomfort. No wild guess needed that it's my soul.

"You're a first. I've never seen a human soul infused with magic before. Though it is funny how it can be afflicted with something so common to growing children and you are...clearly not one."

I try to not think about that stupid issue of soul puberty.

"Yeah, well...What can do? Stuff happens."

"Lucky for you...it's a condition that is easily fixed with some stabilizing magic. You might be able to feel it. It's rather cold. Much like everything else in this world."

So that's another mystery solved. I'm basically getting the equivalent to hormone balancers. The question...Why?

"Seems a little odd."

"How so?"

"No offense, but experience has taught me that no one does something for someone else down here without there being a reason. So spill it, doc. What reason could you have for treating my condition?"

There's a sigh and a loud click before the slab I'm on begins to move, slanting me to almost stand. Now I can see the room better, the machinery, the odd patch on my exposed purple soul, and her. A slightly corpulent reptile-monster that appears smaller than she is due to slouching. She has yellow skin/scales, wears spiral-shaped glasses, a red and black striped sweater with a matching black skirt, and topped off with a classic white lab coat with a few frayed ends.

"If you must know...He insisted on you being fully healed. I swear things would be more interesting if I didn't fix you. But no...he was going to annoy the piss out of me. And frankly, I'm not in the mood to tear him apart for scrap."

He? Oh...Him.

"Ah, I see. Mettaton is a crafty guy. Must be his inner ghost."

She gives me a questionable look.

"Why would you say that?"

"Because I know his cousin and he told me."

She groans and adjusts her glasses with her middle finger.

"That information is not for the public to know. You'd be wise not to spread any rumors about it."

"*scoff* Please. If I haven't blabbed by now than I ain't blabbing ever. Besides...There's no point telling anyone anyway."

She scribbles on a pad.

"You'd be wise to keep that mentality."

I roll my eyes.

"So where is he? Dude went so far as to have his flunky give me my second bat to skull injury and drag me here, the least he could do is show himself before overly explaining some elaborate plan."

She stops writing to look at me.

"HE is getting himself and I quote 'ready to shine like the star he was born to be' end quote."

If ego was hot air that metal body of his would be floating like a parade balloon.

"But what you said makes me wonder. You've watched his shows before, haven't you?"

"Enough to notice predictable patterns. Sure, the first show is fresh. But then he repeats the same theme in every show the rest of the day. It's hard not to notice."

"Like he tries too hard and looks like a moron."

"I wouldn't say that. It's endearing that he tries when it comes to an idea he likes. Whether or not the audience likes that sort of thing is subjective. You can't please all the people all of the time. Only some people some times."

"Try none and ever. Ratings have been in the dumper. The only small increase to have happened was that time he tricked you into phoning in. Heh...I still can't believe that worked."

"I'm not heartless. I don't want to see anyone hurt or die if I can help it."

She goes back to scribbling.

"Subject is a bleeding heart idiot."

I struggle to shake my head.

"Not the first time I've heard that and it won't be the last. Yet you can't honestly tell yourself that there isn't at least one person you'd risk it all for."

She pauses. Her scribbling stops to tap the pad. But this is not a long pause before she resumes again.

"Side note...If the subject is this stupid, how has it lived this long and what does that mean for surface humans?"

I can't roll my eyes hard enough.

"So you'd do anything for that fire elemental, huh?"

This has my attention.

"It's one thing to associate with monsters. Most are ignorant of what a human is. Making it easy to blend in and not be killed. But to be romantic with a monster? And to have been so dumb as to do so in public no less? That's just begging for trouble."

My glare has her smirking.

"Be a real shame if something unfortunate were to happen to him."

"You do not want to go down this road. Not on those tires."

"You are in no position to stop me if I do."

"Trust me, doc. You don't want to make me angry. Bad things happen when I snap."

My seriousness is not taken seriously.

"I'll be sure to enjoy studying every moment of it."

I sneer daggers at her.

"Humans are such pathetic and pitiful creatures."

"And yet we won the war. Go figure."

That earns me a very nasty look.

"I think you need to learn your place, human."

"I'm strapped to a table. I think I know my place."

"Let's double-check that..."

She reaches into her pocket and suddenly I'm thrashing harshly as electricity is sent shooting into me. After the longest five seconds ever, it stops. I'm left panting through my teeth and smoking faintly.

"Seems your tolerance is stronger than expected. Still...that should be enough to remind you to behave. Right, human?"

I want to defy her. I know I can. But the situation is not favoring me. She holds the power and knows it.

"*huff* Whatever."

She smiles and heads for the doorway.

"This will be interesting. That much is sure."

The door closes behind her and I sigh. Is it wrong that I miss the days of Papyrus beating me? Fuck my life. Okay...Time to make a plan.

[Meanwhile: The Ruins]

Fear. Fear is laced on the wind. Paternal fear of a mother for her child. When Toriel's voice was met by silence alarms went off. When she found the doors open when last she had shut them panic sank in. Her child's belongings were left behind, including the flower called brother. And one look at the snow beyond the door only added to her worry. The pristine snow was a disheveled mess. Footprints. In every and all direction. The worst part is the snowfall beginning to fill in the indents.

Searching.

Screaming.

Scanning for any clues as to where her child was. Yet she was lost. Second-guessing which set of tracks were the human's and uncertain if the ones she first picked were indeed the right ones. Scrambling, she picked another set and stuck to it. Swerving and swiveling through trees like dogs along a pole line. These tracks seemed hopeful enough. Stretching further into the distance than previous sets. At the rate she was headed, she would find herself in town and the location of the child would then follow suit. Just a little more. Just a bit further and then the real path shall be clear.

Yet...Why were the trees still constant?

The environment the same?

Where was this going?

...

The bridge.

These tracks made her head back towards home. Never faltering as they beelined for the bottomless pit. No deviation. No hesitation. Just clear forward motion to death. Her heart stopped. Everything stopped. She just stood there. Staring into the abyss. Contemplating just how deep or where it led. Could the human...did she...was this her fate? No...NO! There...There had to be a way to check. The...Oh! The phone! If she was in that pit or not, the ringing of that simple phone will provide her with answers.

[RING...]

She held that object muffled in her paws. Listening to the wind and anything at all.

But there was nothing. Simply the sound of snow landing on the world.

This...gave her hope. Hope touched the monster's soul for the first time in ages. Yet this begged the real question...Where is she? Perhaps some aid to this situation will be necessary. Seems like a visit to the town is in order.

[A cold walk later]

The hour is late. No one is out and about. Except for one. One that has very limited options at her disposal. In all their talks and jokes, Toriel never learned what Sans's house looked like. With a nervous lump in her throat, she approaches the bar and trembles as she knocks on the door of the obviously closed establishment. As one would guess there is no response. So she continues to knock, pressing with her urgency. After about five minutes of the most polite pounding on a door ever, a faint light approaches.

"*grumble* We're closed. Can't you read the sign?"

She ignores the annoyance due to the situation.

"Please, I need your help."

There's a pause. The door clambers open enough to show part of Grillby's face.

"M-Mrs. Dreemurr?"

"Forgive my rudeness. But I must speak to you about Lynsie."

"I didn't mean for it to be so big! It's just a hickey! I didn't hurt her, I swear!"

His defensive words confuse her and this makes the panicked man of flame become shamefully aware.

"You didn't know about that...Did you?"

Her eyes squint in judgmental frustration.

"I did not."

A small snort of steam comes out of her snout. Grillby, feeling like shit is going to end badly, slams the door in fear. Her own fear, overwriting her motherly rage, has her pounding on the door.

"Open this door!"

"I don't want to die!"

"Please! My daughter is missing!"

"...What?"

He opens the door fully now, knowing well the former queen would not lie about such a thing.

"She's missing?"

"Yes. I can not find her. Only footprints from many bodies."

She is surprised by the real concern coming to Grillby's face. He is quick to go for his phone but she shakes her head.

"I have already tried. She does not respond."

"Hmmm...This is sounding like an abduction. Has there been any notice left for you? A note? A call?"

She mopes.

"No. Nothing. I was hoping you might have a clue. Was there anything odd you noticed on your way home?"

He shakes his head.

"Unfortunately, no."

Her heart sinks. Seeing this has Grillby goes into support mode.

"Don't lose hope. We don't have much left. You know her better than I. She's prone to getting into trouble. But you know what?"

"What?"

"I know someone that can help. Just...Let me bundle up. If you can imagine, the cold and I..."

"Understood."

Grillby shuts the door and Toriel waits outside.

[Elsewhere: the Ruins]

"Ugh...my head..."

A dazed and delirious Flowey stirs in the dark confines of a bag. Unzipping a pack from the inside is bad enough, but doing so with leaves for hands is fucking ridiculous. And while hungover to boot. After some time, mixed with muffled swearing, the great escape is complete! The flower is free! Yet...Something is amiss. The bag he was contained in was not in the bedroom as he would have expected and the doors leading outside are wide open. This isn't right. It is time to ditch the pot and sink his roots into the ground to do some stealthy investigating. Covert flower style.

[Meanwhile: in Snowdin]

"Are you certain we will not be bothering them at such a late hour?"

"Don't worry about that, Mrs. Dreemurr. It's part of their job to deal with stuff like this. Plus, you're the Queen and they are in charge of looking after her. If they don't want to go through hell, they'll help."

"I hope so."

Grillby guilds Toriel the out of place house on the edge of town. Of course, they lived in a place like this. Why she expected different she didn't know. The curtains were closed yet glowed with the light of activity still going on inside. Muffled chuckling could be heard behind the walls. She recognized it easily...Sans.

"Sounds like someone's having a good time."

"Is it normal for others to be up still at such an hour?"

"Depends."

"Depends?"

"You know. Reasons. Some can't get these kinds of moments during day hours. Others just can't fall asleep all that well. Him? I think his reason is therapeutic. Ending the day on a laugh to forget all the bad stuff. But that's just my guess."

She pouts as he knocks on the door. Sans's puns when behind the Ruins exit were always on the borderline of being sad, she never thought much of it other than guessing the outside was just terrible. Now, learning more and more, she couldn't dismiss it as easily as before. But such thoughts are broken with the movement of the curtain and door opening seconds later to show the confused skeleton.

"what happened?"

Even with no word said, Sans is smart enough to know that their being here means nothing good.

"She's gone."

Sans's sockets widen.

"...get inside."

Further goading wasn't needed and once inside the door was locked much to the former queen's concern.

"now what do ya mean she's gone?"

"Not getting Papyrus? You know how he gets."

Sans sighs.

"fine...hey, pap! get your ass down here!"

A loud thud bangs the inside of a door upstairs.

"*MUFFLED* I TOLD YOU NOT TO BUG ME!"

"the queen's here! the human's gone!"

Rampant scuffling rushes to a door that is flung wildly open.

"SHE'S WHAT?!"

Toriel fiddles with her fingers.

"My child is missing. I believe someone has taken her."

Now in serious guard mode, Papyrus joins the group.

"ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT SOMEONE HAD THE GALL TO COMIT SUCH A BRAZEN ACT IN MY TERRITORY?!"

"what clues do you have that she didn't just pull a stupid stunt like last time?"

She swallows dryly.

"There were tracks. Lots of them. All scattered about the snow that were not there before. It looked like some person or persons were trying to make it as difficult as possible to distinguish what track lead where."

Papyrus growls lowly.

"SANS, CONFIRM THIS AND SEARCH FOR ANYTHING SHE MIGHT HAVE OVERLOOKED."

Sans nods and teleports out.

"Overlooked? I searched those woods for what felt like ages. I overlooked nothing."

"DO NOT TAKE IT AS AN INSULT. IN SITUATIONS OF PANIC, IT IS EASY TO MISS DETAILS. I AM MERELY CHECKING FOR THE BEST RESULTS. AND, AS LAZY AS MY BROTHER IS, HE HAS SHARP EYES. IF SOMETHING IS AMISS, HE WILL FIND IT."

"Awww..."

Grillby smirks.

"You actually complimented him. Shame he wasn't here to hear it."

Papyrus folds his arms and glares at the elemental.

"AND YOU'RE HERE, WHY?"

Grillby copies his pose except his expression is that of cocky smugness.

"I think any monster worth their dust would be man enough to care about what's happened to their girlfriend. Don't you?"

Papyrus opens his mouth to say a condescending remark but then doesn't due to his mind registering what was just said and putting things together now that it's clear.

"YOU...YOU! YOU'RE THE ONE HAVING THE INAPPROPRIATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ENEMY!"

"If you want to put it that way, yes."

"YOU'RE SICK."

"And loving it. What's your point?"

A weird energy could be felt between them as if they had something to say yet weren't, and it was making Toriel feel rather uncomfortable. Though part of her was miffed at Grillby for being too blatant about being with her daughter while she is present.

"YOU KNOW NOTHING GOOD WILL COME FROM MAKING YOURSELF SO VULNERABLE."

Of all the things Papyrus could've said, no one saw that coming. Yet Grillby takes it well.

"I've been spurned before. If it happens again, it won't sting so much."

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT."

This had the flaming man sneer and bite his tongue, holding back words that weren't ready to be said at this moment. Papyrus turns his attention to Toriel and she flinches.

"I NEED YOU TO TELL ME EVERYTHING."

She nods.

"Understood."

[Elsewhere: Snowdin forest]

The old lady wasn't kidding. The path outside of the Ruins looked like the frenzy made on kids the last day of school. The only difference was these tracks were randomly deliberate. Whoever made these wanted them to be seen. Not a thing normal folk do around here unless goading others into a trap. Following them would be pointless. They likely only go where they wanted them to go and covered up the real tracks. Bastard smugglers. They know what they're doing. Though someone was a little sloppy. A few stray drops of blood dot the tread of a couple of tracks. Who told them about a human being down here?

[RING]

Must be Papyrus. Maybe Toriel shared something helpful.

"sup."

"WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND SO FAR?"

Guess she didn't say much.

"not a lot. but from what's here, it looks like the work of the body snatchers."

"IN SNOWDIN? ARE YOU POSITIVE?"

Why would he not be?

"it's like the reports undyne briefed us on. a group goes about making distractions and cleans up the evidence made by the single soul doing the dirty work."

As if life down here isn't hard enough.

"ANY LEADS?"

Sans looks back towards the Ruins.

"her boot tread doesn't go past the exit door all that much and i found a few stray drops of blood. my guess is they laid her ass out with a sneak attack then carried her off. such active numbers couldn't have just got here all at once or it would be too noticeable."

"YES, IT'S POSSIBLE THEY WENT THERE ONE AT A TIME THROUGHOUT THE DAY AND HID TILL THE TIME WAS RIGHT."

"bet it helped that this was our worse day."

"TRUE. THESE PRICKS ARE CLEVER."

Is it really clever to take advantage of a missing worker and one too distracted to pay attention?

"don't praise them just yet. i might have an idea of where they come from."

"REALLY?"

"yeah. some moron decided to wear mtt brand shoes. you know? the expensive ones that have his likeness on the bottom."

"HMMM...MTT BRAND ITEMS AREN'T COMMON OUTSIDE OF HOTLAND. THERE'S NOT A LOT OF JOBS IN THE OTHER ZONES TO MAKE GOLD FROM."

"yeah. so either someone saved up for ages or we're looking at scum from hotland."

"YOU DON'T SUPPOSE ALPHYS IS INVOLVED?"

"Then what are you doing with the human? Because, frankly, it should've been sent to my lab by now."

"wouldn't surprise me. bitch knows about the human. and i've had the feeling she's been behind most of the reported disappearances. but you know undyne would never question it. thirsty fish bitch."

"IF TRUE, THEN THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET VERY DIFFICULT."

"so...they told ya anything?"

"BOTH OF THEM REPORT NOTHING UNUSUAL LEADING UP TO THE HUMAN'S ABDUCTION. THOUGH THE QUEEN MENTIONED THE GIRL RECEIVING A PHONE CALL BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED."

"a phone call?"

"THE QUEEN ALSO NOTES SHE HAS SEEN AN UNKNOWN NUMBER POP UP IN THE HUMAN'S PHONE. WOULD YOU HAPPEN TO KNOW ABOUT THIS?"

"can't say i do. it's not like she told me about..."

"Hell, you used Mettaton for that tile puzzle. The guy's been obsessive ever since seeing her. He hasn't stopped talking about being so close to the human since he came back from Snowdin Forest."

"It was Mettaton! He traced my phone number from the other night."

"It's Mettaton. He called me again. And you know that he knows what I am."

"*soft* BUT DID I JUST HEAR THAT SOMEONE IS LAYING THEIR NASTY HANDS ON MY HUMAN?"

The realization hits Sans like a brick to the skull.

"...*whisper* oh shit."

A faint ringing can be heard.

"HOLD ON. SOMETHING'S HAPPENING."

The soft voice of Toriel answers a random call, possibly from the kidnappers. But her worried tone quickly turns to excited hope and the word child is heard.

"COME HOME, SANS. YOU'LL BE NEEDED FOR RECOVERY EXTRACTION."

"got it. be there in a sec."

He hangs up and sighs. This was worse than he figured if Mettaton was indeed the culprit. Damn machine was the reason for a RESET on what was a peaceful timeline. Well, at least there are some things he can count on when it came to the human. The girl was no damsel in distress. He just hoped nothing triggered her soul to turn black. He teleports back home completely unaware of the flower spying on him the entire time and intends to follow to find out more.

[HOTLAND LAB: around the same time]

Alphys has left me alone for a good long time now. Letting me assess my surroundings and bonds. They're tight. While one of my wrists is slightly loose. It's a trap. A ploy. She wants me to try. To make an escape attempt. I can do it. The issue is what happens when I do. Probability is not on my side. A scientist of unknown IQ has my on their turf and has who knows what in the line of traps lined up for prey that it has studied for years. Mines. Turrets. Lasers. Gas. Flamethrowers. Swinging blades. Spike pits. Razor wire. Possibility is limitless. Yet the possibilities only worsen if I remain here. I hate double edge swords. Damned if do and don't. Argh...Fuck my life.

"*wince*"

Yanking my wrist through the restraint brings back memories of the skeleton's shed. Seems like this is my role in life. Getting taken and escape. So annoying. At least that damn thing didn't dislocate. I need to keep quiet. Though it's kinda pointless. I'm more than likely being monitored in some way. Still, my odds are better if I adhere to being paranoid and ninja my ass through this place. Belt restraints are effective but old fashioned and flawed, easy to get out of if you have a free hand. I'm free in less than a minute and rips the patch off. Medical or not, I don't like my soul being out. It makes this already messed up thing even more messed up. If my paranoia and overthinking brain are on point, then the door is most likely unlocked. There's probably even a set path I'll be forced on too. Drive the cattle to the slaughter, or so they say.

A light touch on the door has it open to a dimly lit hall. Totally giving off horror movie vibes. The air has a faint stale scent, this area most likely hasn't been active in a long time. The darkness makes the hall look exceptionally long. But down it I must travel and travel I do. My steps echo like I'm walking in an empty school. Giving me unease. Like, at any second, someone or something will pop out. I haven't felt so skittish since my middle school days dodging campus security to cut class and leave the building. I'm too on edge. A slight humming isn't helping my equilibrium either. Did she set up some sort of audio mind scrambler? Am I overthinking shit? It's a 50/50% on either at this point. So I change tactics. I run. If something happens it'll at least happen quickly.

Yet...I don't seem to be going anywhere. I pass countless doors without turning a corner. I must be going deeper into insanity or something isn't normal about it. It's almost like it's...

"Son of a whore!"

I stop and grab onto the edge of a door frame. Only for the floor and walls to pull me in two directions.

"A möbius strip? No...A treadmill. Very sneaky either way. Almost didn't catch on if it weren't for that humming getting louder when I ran. Heh...Willing to bet the motor is basic and can't push past its standard limits. Which means..."

I start running backward, the hum grinding loudly as momentum builds before stopping and allowing the convener to drag me in the direction I was headed before.

"You can't correct the way it moves until it slows down to the bare minimum speed."

I ride the out of control road up to where a door, unlike the rest, becomes noticeable, this thing has a knob. Flinging it open and jumping out saves me from that dumb endless hall. One annoying trap beat. Who knows how many more to go. At least this area looks normal enough. It's open, much like a normal living space, but it's not that exactly. The interior is faint red. There are two floors, the ground floor is what looks like a workplace and the second floor is a more personal space. I'm on the second floor.

"The hell...?"

The door behind me shuts itself, sealing to blend with the wall and its knob covered by a decorative mask of an angry looking cat-girl. Everything up here seems out of place and clearly belongs in some oddball bedroom. Beside me are five fully stocked bookcases containing all sorts of things. Alphys's obsessions and hobbies, comics, anime figures, an ice cream machine, unopened letters, etc. litter her room. It's honestly very creepy. Especially the wall posters of that same angry cat-girl that have eyes that follow you. I bumpy slide down the escalator handrail, not trusting the walkway to not be a trap, and feel instant unease once my feet touch the tile floor. On the ground floor, there is a large screen that's probably been used to monitor me, a fridge with a supply of instant noodles, a messy desk with her computer surrounded by odd instruments, and a washroom. This place is creepy. Where's the exit?

*RUMBLE*

The building shakes faintly though the sound was rather loud.

*RUMBLE*

It feels like it's moving...closer?

*RUMBLE*

*RUMBLE*

*RUMBLE*

*RUMBLE*

"The hell is going on?"

The lights suddenly go out. All is very still. Till...something explodes and sends into what I guess is a wall.

"SURPRISE!"

The lights come back on and reveal Mettaton, who is now posing after bursting through a different wall.

"SUCH A FABULOUS AND RANDOM ENTRANCE. DON'T YOU THINK SO, DARLING? HUH...DARLING?"

I am less than happy shoving rubble off of me.

"Unnecessary and overly flashy. Yep...That's a Mettaton entrance alright."

"TOO MUCH?"

I dust myself off.

"Just a tad. Though, I'll give you points for it being memorable."

"BUT IF GIVEN THE CHANCE TO RATE IT?"

"Um...7 out of 10."

"HMMM...NOTE TO SELF, NEXT TIME ADD FIREWORKS AND LASERS."

Is it cute that he's trying to be cool?

"So...Is being whacked with a bat your way of saying I was taking too long to get here? Or is that how you treat all your fans?"

His screen flashes.

"OH! NO. THAT WAS MORE OF AN IMPROVISATION ON BURGERPANTS'S PART. I DO HOPE YOU CAN OVERLOOK MY POOR JUDGEMENT IN HIS COMPETENCE."

I rub my head.

"I'll give you a pass this time. Mainly because I'm thick-skulled. But no more headshots. It sucks being unconscious so often."

"FAIR ENOUGH, DEAR."

"Well, you got me here. Caused a little trouble maybe? So now what? What does a bot like you want from little ol' me?"

"OH, DARLING...WHERE TO BEGIN?"

He rolls over to me and my creep vibes are tingling. Especially when two of his four hands start posing my arms and the other two cup my face.

"AMAZING. I'M ACTUALLY IN THE PRESENCE OF A REAL LIVING HUMAN. I'VE HEARD STORIES AND SEEN FOOTAGE, BUT I NEVER THOUGHT I'D EVER GET...TO TOUCH...YOU."

What the...? Why is he saying that in such a captivating tone of voice? And why is it making feel like a dumb cliché girl? I thought Alphys fixed my soul's emotional sensitivity? I shake it off. Now's not the time for this.

"Getting a bit handsy don't you think?"

I usually save that joke when talking about Gaster, but this fits the situation too. His screen blanks for a moment at my playful voice, though I feel stupid on the inside, before flickering randomly and he lets me go.

"MY APOLOGIES. I LET MY EXCITEMENT GET THE BETTER OF ME. PLEASE...FORGIVE MY ILL BEHAVIOR."

It's so hard to get a read on him. His TV self and off-camera self are like night and day. I don't know if I can drop my guard around him just yet. This isn't normal. I'm out of my element and still dealing with lots of unknowns. Better to play safe than end up sorry...or dead. I sigh and clap my hands.

"Be kind, let's rewind."

A "?" appears on his screen while I offer my hand to him.

"Howdy, Mettaton. It's nice to finally meet you. I'm Lynsie."

He's confused, that much is certain. Though it's short-lived as he swoons dramatically and falls into my arms. Dear lord! He's heavy! Must be the junk needed to work those four arms.

"MY GOODNESS. AFTER BEING TREATED SO RUDELY, YOU CHARM ME WITH A SIMPLE GREETING? OH, WHAT MARVELOUS CHEMISTRY! I KNEW YOU'D BE PERFECT FOR THIS."

I knew there was something sketchy. I drop him.

"Once again, I encounter the creature known as selfish d-bag. I'm going home."

Not sure where the exit is but I walk away from him anyway. He, of course, scrambles to get us and zips in front to block my path.

"NO, NO, NO, DARLING. YOU HAVE IT ALL WRONG. PLEASE DON'T BE SO HASTY TO LEAVE."

"Then to prevent my irritated departure you must answer me these questions three. Doing so truthfully will have you see me remaining here with thee. But...if deception is sensed, then you shall be cast into the Gorge of Eternal Peril. But since it's under renovations, I'll resort to smacking you instead."

God, I'm a nerd. Like he, or anyone else down here, knows Monty Python and the Holy Grail. However, the idea of a game seems to excite him.

"A Q&A? OH, DARLING, DO ASK AWAY. MY ANSWERS WILL SURELY BE THE STUFF YOU LONG TO HEAR."

I hold up a finger.

"First question...What are your plans for me since you have me here?"

His top set of hands twiddles their fingers while the bottom hands move as one does when dramatically speaking creatively.

"MY PLANS? OH, NOTHING MUCH REALLY."

I cock my eyes.

"Mind telling me what exactly what that is?"

"DO YOU WANT THAT TO BE YOUR SECOND QUESTION?"

I sneer.

"No. But you're not doing this right."

"HOW SO?"

"While you technically answered the question, you did so in the laziest and non-informative way."

"VERY WELL. I SHALL BE MORE INFORMATIVE WITH MY NEXT ANSWER."

"Thank you."

A second finger is put out.

"Second question...Nothing weird happened while I was unconscious, right?"

"*GASP* DARLING! THAT IS VULGAR OF THE HIGHEST DEGREE! WHILE I SHALL ADMIT..."

His hands cup my face and hold my shoulders.

"SEEING SUCH A HAPLESS FLOWER LIKE YOURSELF BE BROUGHT HERE. HURT AND UNRESPONSIVE. A LESSER MONSTER WOULD BE TEMPTED TO DO ALL SORTS OF THINGS. FORBIN THINGS. ANYTHING WOULD BE ON THE TABLE. LIMITED ONLY BY IMAGINATION..."

His voice is different. Completely monotone. All too personal. A shiver trembles down my neck. He lets the hands drop from my face but not the shoulders.

"BUT I AM NOT LIKE THOSE WEAKLINGS. I KNOW BETTER THAN TO PLUCK A FLOWER BEFORE IT BLOSSOMS. AND OURS IS ONE THAT IS JUST STARTING TO BUD."

I hate so much right now.

"DARLING?"

"Too much info."

"WELL, YOU DID ASK FOR MORE."

"Then...*sigh*...Never mind."

"AND YOUR THIRD QUESTION?"

My third? Oh! Oh shit!

"Yeah, my third question...Did you or your goon bother to inform Toriel of this impromptu adventure/kidnapping in a way that won't result in property damage/loss of life?"

"WELL..."

Big red flag warning! Fuck being nice! serious time!

"Where's my phone?"

"HUH?"

"I know it's not on me. Do you think I can't tell if there's suddenly no weight in my baggy pockets? Now if you want to escape death at her hands or mine, please...Hand it over."

He throws his hands up.

"DARLING I DON'T..."

*Bang*

He is surprised by the sudden strike.

"Don't make me do that again. Now, please, give me my phone."

"I PROMISE, DARLING, I DON'T HAVE IT."

I want to hit him again, but my throbbing hand is screaming. Change of plans.

"Give me your phone."

"W-WHAT? WHY?"

"Don't make me break my hand in repeating myself."

He rumbles and a phone shoots out of a port on his side.

"YOU ARE SCARY WHEN SERIOUS. HERE."

"Thank you."

I reach for it and he pulls back.

"AH AH AH. FIRST, A LITTLE PROMISE. YOU CAN USE THIS, BUT THEN YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING FOR ME."

I growl in building annoyance.

"WELL? THE CLOCK IS TICKING."

I don't have time for this crap.

"...Fine."

He giggles and hands it to me. I scroll through his past calls. My number appears under some others all marked as SLAVE #...I guess he fits in down here more than I thought. Metal boss from hell. My phone could be with any of the goons so I thank my lucky stars that Toriel's number is burned into my head. Time to brace for impact.

[Snowdin: Skeleton House in present time]

Sans returns home in the kitchen, needing a drink to replenish his magic if he's to teleport any more tonight. He steps into the room to see the other three all trying to listen to the small phone at once. Guessing they are too focused to remember phones have an intercom function.

"Child where are you? Are you hurt?"

"A little sore, but otherwise okay."

Oh...never mind then. They're just being weird.

"As for the where I assume this is the Lab in Hotland. *muffled* There are no other labs in the Underground, right?"

"*faint* THAT'S CORRECT, DARLING."

The electronic voice is recognized by all except Toriel.

"Young one, who is that with you?"

"Would you believe a robotic TV star?"

"*faint* OH, DARLING, YOU FLATTER ME."

"Make that a robotic TV star with an ego bigger than Papyrus's."

"FUCK YOU, HUMAN."

Papyrus interrupts.

"Oh wow. I expected this but had my doubts Nanny would actually do it. Who else is there?"

"You had us worried, pussycat."

There's a pause.

"Don't tell me you thought he took me?"

Toriel laughs nervously.

"*groan* Mom..."

"ENOUGH WITH THE CHIT CHAT. ARE YOU ABLE TO LEAVE ON YOUR OWN OR NOT?"

"Hmmm...As far as I know, I'm able to go. But I have to do something for Mettaton first."

"Why?"

"I had to promise to do a favor to use his phone. Mine might be in the hands of some goon."

"What is it you have to do?"

"That's a good question. *muffled* Yo, what's this thing I have to do?"

"*faint* NOTHING TOO DIFFICULT. I JUST NEED YOU TO BE YOURSELF FOR THE NEXT...OH...LET'S SAY TWO HOURS."

"*muffled* What?"

"*faint* I THINK IT WOULD BE EASIER TO UNDERSTAND IF YOU TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO TURN ON THE TELEVISION."

The mood shifts ominously.

"*muffled* You can't mean what I think you mean."

"*faint* GO ON. TELL THEM."

"Uh...Turn on the TV?"

Sans grabbed the remote before the other could scramble and with a heavy feeling in his soul hits the on the button. The screen comes alive to a timer counting down. The caption above reading "Live Once In a Lifetime Event Special". The timer has less than five minutes remaining. Panic strikes. Papyrus steals the phone.

"GET OUT OF THERE, HUMAN!"

"Okay, ow, my ears are bleeding."

Grillby snatches the phone.

"Lynsie, you need to get out of there. You're being set up to appear on TV."

The next sound the group hears is the phone clattering to the floor and sprinting feet hitting tile flooring. Other sounds can be heard. Mechanical and aggressive sounds. Then...the line goes dead.

"SANS, GO GET..."

"i can't."

"What? Why not?"

"all she said was she's at the lab. do you know how big that place is? i need to know exactly where or i'm just wasting magic."

"But, Sans, you promised me you would..."

"i know tori, i ain't forgetting it. i don't want her exposed to the underground either. trust me on that. but i can't just poof to a secured building. alphys is probably expecting interference. and trust me, it's not a good thing to just pop in with no quick plan to get out."

Suddenly the TV begins beeping. The timer clocking down the remaining ten seconds. And all they could do was watch and wait. At the timer's end, the screen darkens to black before a flashy title screen appears while glam-rock plays. The image then cuts to live footage in a weird game show looking room and then...

"GREETINGS ALL YOU BITCHES AND BASTARDS. WELCOME TO A VERY SPECIAL EVENING OF ENTERTAINMENT. TO START THINGS OFF...A QUIZ SHOW!"

Mettaton flamboyantly parades around.

"BUT WAIT. WHAT MAKES THIS SPECIAL THAT IT WARRANTS LIVE BROADCASTING? WELL, YOU INGRATES, IT'S BECAUSE WE HAVE A GUEST THAT'S GOING TO BE WORTH WATCHING. ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE OUR LEADING LADY...THE ONE THE ONLY..."

The camera jumps to a stand where a spotlight illuminates onto the bound and gagged human. Arms restrained behind her back and ankles cuffed to the floor.

"THE HUMAN!"

Her glare is full of rage and the beastly noises escaping the gag as she trashes in the binds make her look as dangerous as the humans of old.

"THAT'S RIGHT, A REAL LIVING HUMAN. YOU MIGHT BE QUESTIONING THE AUTHENTICITY OF THIS CLAIM. YET I ASSURE YOU, SHE IS THE REAL DEAL."

One of his hands stretches out towards her. She recoils from the grasping appendage but she can't move from the metal hand that proceeds to taser at the chest. The pain makes her screech and her light blue soul briefly emerges. Upon seeing the heart, Mettaton stops the attack.

"AS YOU CAN SEE, HER SOUL IS CLEARLY THAT OF A HUMAN'S. SHE IS 100% HUMAN AND NOT CGI OR SOMEONE IN CUSTOM. FOR NOT EVEN THE GREATEST ACTOR OR SPECIAL EFFECTS CAN MAKE A HUMAN SOUL. AND DEFINITELY NOT ONE SO LOVELY."

The assaulting hand tease touches where the soul came from and the human cringes. Though she's not the only one. Toriel is appalled and Grillby is fuming.

"OH BOY! I CAN ALREADY TELL IT'S GONNA BE A GREAT SHOW! EVERYONE GIVE A BIG HAND FOR OUR WONDERFUL CONTESTANT!"

All four of his hands clap as he moves over to podium across from her.

"I TAKE IT YOU'VE NEVER PLAYED BEFORE, GORGEOUS?"

She huffs loudly through her nose.

"NO PROBLEM! IT'S SIMPLE! THERE'S ONLY ONE RULE. ANSWER CORRECTLY...OR YOU DIE!"

Mettaton laughs evilly yet the human rolls her eyes. The others look to Sans again.

"don't look at me. i have no clue where that room is."

Their attention goes back to the screen as the Fair Fight Field actives as if they were in battle.

[METAL CRUSHER begins to play in the background.]

[Mettaton attacks!]

"YOUR MOVE, DARLING. YOU GET ONE FREE TURN BEFORE WE START."

The girl weighs her limited options.

[FIGHT]

[ACT]

[̴͝SP͜͞E͡L̵͜L͟͠͏]͘͢

[ITEM]

[MERCY]

Her confusion is warranted. An unknown option could lead to bad things.

[ACT selected.]

[New options available.]

[CHECK]

[CRY]

She huffs and makes a choice.

[CHECK selected.]

[Mettaton – HP: 9999 ATK: 300 DEF: 999 – His metal body renders him invulnerable to attack.]

Her eyes nearly bug out of her head.

"NOT A BAD FIRST MOVE, DEAR. IT'S NEVER BAD TO CHECK ME OUT."

A screen mounted behind him blinks on.

"LET'S START WITH AN EASY ONE!"

A question appears on the screen.

[What's the prize for answering correctly?]

A) Money

B) Death

C) Freedom

D) More questions

Four buttons pop up on her stand.

"CHOOSE CORRECTLY OR BE MET WITH TERRIBLE PAIN."

The look she has is one filled with hate. Yet she complies and presses the D button with her chin. A pleasant fanfare goes off.

"RIGHT! SOUNDS LIKE YOU GET IT! HERE'S YOUR TERRIFIC PRIZE!"

Her turn is skipped due and the screen puts up another question.

"What sort of crap is this?"

Grillby interjects.

"Her turn was skipped. How is that even possible?"

Toriel ponders.

"leave it to that quack to figure out a way to break the rules."

Sans says between drinks.

[What's the king's full name?]

A) Lord Deathbeard

B) Killer Killington

C) Asgore Dreemurr

D) Krampus

The human quickly presses the C button and the fanfare goes off again.

"CORRECT! WHAT A TERRIFIC ANSWER! ARE YOU SURE YOU'VE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE?"

She nods.

"ENOUGH ABOUT YOU. LET'S TALK ABOUT ME!"

She groans as the screen brings up another question.

[What are robots made of?]

A) Hopes&Dreams

B) Metal&Magic

C) Blood&Guts

D) Hate&Spite

She pops her neck and presses the B button. Once more the fanfare plays. This time Mettaton gets some attitude.

"TOO EASY FOR YOU, HUH?"

She shrugs.

"WELL THEN...HERE'S ANOTHER EASY ONE FOR YOU "

[Two trains, Train A, and Train B, simultaneously depart Station A and Station B. Station A, and Station B are 252.5 miles apart from each other. Train A is moving at 124.7mph towards Station B, and Train B is moving at 253.5mph towards Station A. If both trains departed at 10:00 AM and it is now 10:08, how much longer until both trains pass each other?]

A) 31.054 minutes

B) 16.232 minutes

C) 32.049 minutes

D) 32.058 minutes

She's hesitant now. Her eyes hold uncertainty.

"Oh no..."

Toriel mutters.

"We have yet to go over such math lessons."

"THEN SHE BETTER BE A GOOD GUESSER."

The human's eyes dart from button to button. She has no clue. She picks one at random...A. A buzzer goes off.

"WRONG! WRONG! WROOOOOOOONG!"

Mettaton points at her and fires a laser blast into her left shoulder. If it weren't for the gag her cries would be excruciating.

[HP ██████████████████████████ 26/36]

She pants, biting the gag to brace some of the pain.

Toriel is understandably horrified and Grillby is worried. Though Sans and Papyrus are impressed.

"SHE'S GOTTEN TOUGHER."

"the is no pushover. the tin can is gonna learn that the hard way."

"SORRY, DARLING. BUT THE CORRECT ANSWER WAS D. MAYBE YOU'LL HAVE BETTER LUCK WITH THE NEXT QUESTION. THEN AGAIN...DON'T 'COUNT' ON YOUR VICTORY."

The next question pops up.

[How many eyes are in this jar?]

An image appears for a split second.

A) 54

B) 53

C) 55

D) 52

Not given much time to study the image, she once more has to guess.

"What kind of game is this? She is not being given a fair play."

Toriel complains.

"ACTUALLY, AS WRONG AS IT LOOKS, HE IS FOLLOWING THE LAW."

Papyrus corrects.

"You must be joking."

"he's not. one of the laws enforced after you left the king was to stop humans at all costs while giving them some form of a chance. the tin can is giving her multiple choices and only inflicting minimal damage. if he wanted to, he could just off her right there."

Explains Sans.

"As much as I don't like it, it makes sense. With one soul remaining to break the barrier extremes are bound to be made to get it. For what is the life of one human when held next to the entire Underground?"

Grillby comments and Toriel frowns. Even she sees the point in that. But that does mean she likes it.

The human contemplates her choices and seems to do a mental coin flip before pressing the D button. This time, the buzzer sounds.

"COMPLETELY UTTERLY WRONG!"

Mettaton blasts her again in the right shoulder and her roar is bloodcurdling.

[HP ████████████████ 16/36]

The bloody gaping holes in her shoulders make her slump over against the stand. She won't last much longer if this keeps up.

"THE CORRECT ANSWER WAS A. YOU MIGHT WANT TO TRY HARDER FROM HERE ON."

An annoyed groan was her reply.

"HMMM...MAYBE YOU NEED SOMETHING ELSE. LET'S PLAY A MEMORY GAME."

The screen produces a new question and image.

[What monster is this?]

The monster shown is half of a Froggit's face.

A) Froggit

B) Whimsun

C) Moldsmal

D) Mettaton

This one seems like a no-brainer yet the human seems unsure. Mostly because blood loss makes it hard to think.

"WHY IS SHE HESITATING? THE ANSWER IS CLEARLY A."

Papyrus bitches.

"Really? You think it's that easy?"

Grillby retorts.

"THEN WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS?"

"I'm surprised you do see it. It's obviously D."

"BULL CRAP. I BET YOU 10G IT'S A."

"Fine. Just don't be upset when you're wrong."

After thinking long and hard about the question, the human presses the D button. The fanfare plays.

"I'M SO FLATTERED YOU REMEMBERED! LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT THE WHOLE IMAGE."

The picture unfolds to reveal Mettaton wearing a shirt with a Froggit's face on it.

Papyrus's jaw clenches as Grillby folds his hands behind his head with a smug attitude.

"You need to listen to pussycat more often. She did say he had an ego bigger than yours."

"FUCK YOU."

"Just pay me by week's end."

Papyrus grumbles while turning back to the TV.

"YOU'VE BEEN ON A ROLL SO FAR. BUT CAN YOU GET THIS ONE?"

The screen brings up a new and rather odd question.

[Would you smooch a ghost?]

A) Heck Yeah

B) Heck Yeah

C) Heck Yeah

D) Heck Yeah

The human and the watching group all share the say "what the fuck" look.

"GO ON. CONSIDER THIS AN ACT OF MERCY."

She sneers and reluctantly presses the B button. With no wrong choice to make, the fanfare plays.

"GREAT ANSWER! I LOVE IT!"

A steaming Grillby hates it.

"HERE'S A SIMPLE ONE."

The screen pops up the next question.

[How many letters in the name Mettaton?]

A) 11

B) 6

C) 8

D) 10

A relatively easy question except for the number of Ns at the name's end increases and eventually goes out of the screen with the numbers in the answers increasing accordingly.

"How in the world do you answer that?"

Toriel puzzles.

"it's c."

Sans says softly to the confusion of the others.

"for a second, the real numbers were there. c had eight, which is the right answer regardless of the increasing."

"Here's hoping she saw that too."

Says Grillby while adjusting his glasses.

The human is beginning to look paler than normal. The strain on her body and mind making things difficult. She wearily presses the C button, mainly due to landing on it after a slight dizzy spell, and the fanfare plays.

"OF COURSE THAT WAS EASY FOR YOU!"

She grunts against the stand, pushing herself to keep going even as her body wants her to stop.

"Come on, pussycat. You can hold out just a bit longer."

Grillby says to himself before flinching at the feel of Toriel's hand holding his. She gives him a motherly smile and it helps calm his nerves for now.

"YOU'LL BE SURE TO KNOW THE ANSWER TO THIS ONE!"

The screen pops up another random question.

[What's a pretzel's favorite color?]

A) Black

B) Yellow

C) Red

D) Dusk

This had to be one of the odder questions to be done though tame. The human wastes no time picking a button. Either to end it faster or knowing it, who's to say. But her head thuds onto the B button and the fanfare plays.

"CORRECT! YOU'RE SO LUCKY TODAY!"

The amount of blood pooling on the floor says otherwise.

"TIME TO BREAK OUT THE BIG GUNS! HERE IS YOUR FINAL QUESTION."

The screen shows the question.

[How bright is this text?]

A) 85% Bright

B) 84% Bright

C) 86% Bright

D) 83% Bright

This made little sense. The question text was the same color as all other questions. How was this even answerable to her when she can hardly even look up at the screen?

The group is just as confused. How do you tell the percentage of brightness to text?

Though after some time of no movement from the human, Mettaton rolls around his podium.

"DARLING? ARE YOU ABLE TO MAKE A CHOICE?"

A tired moan drones out of the gag.

"TELL YOU WHAT, I'LL BE NICE AND HELP YOU OUT."

Mettaton zips over to the slumped over human.

"MY MY. SUCH A MESS YOU'VE MADE BACK HERE. GOOD THING NO MESS IS TOO BIG FOR MTT BRAND INDUSTRIAL CLEANER. IN STORES NOW."

The robot plugs his latest product in the middle of a show...real classy.

"what a jackass."

Scoffs Sans.

The other soundly agree.

"OKAY, DEAR, ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS STARE AT THE BUTTON YOU WANT TO ANSWER FOR AND I SHALL PUSH IT FOR YOU."

She tilts her head and stares.

"IS C YOU'RE FINAL ANSWER?"

She exhales long and loud through her nose.

"I'LL TAKE THAT AS A YES."

He unnecessarily extends his arm in a twisty and bendy way before pushing the C button. However...Buzzer sounds.

"OH BOY, THAT'S EMBARRASSING, HUH?"

This time he blasts through her right leg making her buckle in pain to the crimson soaked floor.

[HP ██████ 06/36]

[Background music briefly pauses in silence]

"WELL WELL WELL. THAT SETTLES THAT, DOESN'T IT?"

To much befuddlement, Mettaton proceeds to remove the restraints and gag from the broken girl.

"*weak* W-What are you doing?"

"SUCH A SILLY QUESTION. IF YOU DIE THE SHOW HAS NO DRAMATIC TENSION! WE CAN'T GO ON LIKE THIS!"

She's in no position to fight this or wants to. He collects her from the ground and seems to gently hold her in two of his arms. So much red coats just about everything. He then addresses one of the many hidden cameras in the room.

"I KNOW WHAT YOU ALL MIGHT BE THINKING. BUT METTATON, WHY AREN'T YOU GOING TO KILL THE HUMAN? YOU CLEARLY HAVE THE CHANCE. TO THAT I SAY, NO. SHE WON THIS GAME. AND THEREFORE, SHE PROCEEDS TO THE NEXT ROUND OF OUR LITTLE GAME. THAT'S RIGHT! THIS WAS JUST THE FIRST ACT! NEXT UP, MORE DRAMA! MORE ROMANCE! MORE BLOODSHED! STAY TUNED, LOSERS...! NOW IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME...THIS LOVELY LADY NEEDS TO HEAL. WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK AFTER THESE COMMERCIAL MESSAGES."

The broadcast fades into commercials. The four of them are left with more questions than answers. But at least one thing is going in their favor. Mettaton wants to keep her alive. Perhaps in the next show, she'll appear in a location that's more recognizable and rescue can be done before anyone else tries to get her. Though the four of them weren't the only ones watching the show. A small indent in the window and ground below were all the tells of the sneaky flower. His mission now clear. Save his sister.

[Hotland Lad: Medical Room]

Alphys finishes setting up life-support systems by the time Mettaton wheels in with the now very near dead human.

"Put her here."

He need not be told twice.

"Some first act. She's almost dead."

Less of a reprimand and more of a statement by Alphys while she begins plugging the human into the machines.

"I WAS WORRIED NEAR THE END. HAD SHE MISSED ANOTHER QUESTION I MIGHT HAVE NEEDED TO GO OFF SCRIPT. MAIN CHARACTERS CAN'T DIE SO EARLY IN THE SHOW."

"You're just lucky I can fix this."

"WILL SHE NEED LONG TO HEAL?"

Alphys sticks in an IV drip and taps it for bubbles.

"Don't rush this. Your blast, while clean, went through a lot of muscle and bone. Not to mention all the blood that'll need to refill. That kind of stuff will need longer to repair."

"BUT...WE CAN'T JUST LEAVE COMMERCIALS GOING TILL THEN."

The annoyed scientist shoots him a look.

"Then I guess you need some filler till then."

Mettaton cringes.

"FILLER?! SUCH A DIRTY WORD. WHAT WOULD IT EVEN BE?"

"How about you figure that out elsewhere? I need to work. Or do you want this to take longer?"

That had him speeding away as she then shouts.

"And clean up all this blood! This is a lab! Not a butcher shop!"

She was unsure he heard all that but focused on monitoring the human.

"*sigh* You are so lucky I'm bored or you'd be under my knife right now."

The human involuntarily twitches, earning a smirk from the spectacle-wearing lizard.

"Maybe you'll heal sooner than expected."

Oh, how she enjoyed her work.

[pekorosu]

finished reading beyond!

okay so, it was much better than i thought it would be. i had pretty low expectations due to lukewarm reviews.

and i kinda get why some people would be irritated. it reads like it’s leading up to a sequel except… THERE IS NO SEQUEL AAAAAAAAAAA

or at least, that’s how i felt at the end of it.

so, the first two chapters kinda helped contextualize several things that bugged me while i was reading the main story. the first one explained why inukashi was so dead set on helping nezumi&shion out during the final arc despite being so against it at first. 

and the second one provided some backstory for nezumi, which explained why he wanted to leave at the end of the main story. that was something that boggled the fuck out of me because the only thing foreshadowing it was inukashi describing him as a wanderer at heart. and i don’t consider inukashi a 100% reliable narrator when it comes to nezumi, since those two aren’t exactly the best of friends.

this time though, we’re finally hearing about it from nezumi himself. and it’s adorable seeing baby!nezumi being courted by wandering musicians and being like hOT DAMN i wanna be a wandering musician too! lol. so my speculation ended up being completely off base; i thought it’d be for a noble cause but he actually just wanted to travel the world, see the sights and sing a lot while he’s at it lol.

oh and shion being an obnoxious drunk was GREAT lmao.

which brings me to the latter half of the book… shion was pining so hard and i am so here for that good angst. it was very reminiscent of the beginning of the series, except 10x more painful bc this time they actually have history together. 

and nezumi was all “shion is now a part of the past, i have to let go of the past if i want to move on and live my life” and i’m just like… SO WAS IT A LIE??? WAS THAT PROMISE TO MEET AGAIN A LIE??????? I KNEW IT, YOU PIECE OF *SHAKES FIST*

that said, shion’s gradual descent into questionable behaviour was the point of interest for me. i mean, i already suspected this was where it would go by the end of the main story so it wasn’t all that shocking to me… but still. it’s so saaaaddd.

if the main story’s ending could still be classified as “vaguely hopeful,” then this short story basically just slam dunked it into Big Time Ominous.

i mean, can you blame shion though? it’s so funny that nezumi’s like “one day i will be free from the shackles of vengeance” and now that he is, he doesn’t realise that he’d inadvertently gone and slapped those shackles onto shion instead. and now shion has to navigate the world of ~politics~ while suffocating under the dreadful weight of his oath to never let history repeat itself, to not fail his loved ones and all the people who died, and the guilt, the horror, the stress, all of it, just blaring constantly in his mind, when all he really wants to do is probably read bedtime stories to a bunch of toddlers and write love letters to nezumi… that’s a recipe for disaster, man.

there’s also shion’s long lost dad. i actually enjoyed his appearance! i mean yea he did seem a lil cartoony towards the end there like “gotta dig up all that gold and just fuck around with people’s lives lol” BUT i would totally be up for a sequel where shion’s dad is the antagonist, while shion progresses down that dark, dark road of “the end justifies the means.”

and then maybe nezumi comes back, sees that everything seems fine, except it’s NOT… it starts from something small before unraveling into a huge mess that shion has gotten really damn good at hiding. maybe it turns out that shion and shion papa have ended up tag teaming. oh, maybe shion #2 (the baby) could find a way into the story too. maybe he gets to be the protag of the sequel! …too many shions? lmao

sorry i’m just a huge sucker for Good Chara Turns Bad Because They Thought They Were Doing The Right Thing (ft. Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right) storylines, so shion going down that route, plus all that pining after nezumi and nezumi being SO DISAPPOINTED in him would hit all the right buttons for me hsjhdkjsfjs 

but ofc, i would like for that to culminate in a redemption arc and a happy ending. it’d be really fucked up for shion to go full-on dark, as much as it is interesting…….. that’s better left for fanfic, right? right.

anyway since it’s been years i’m guessing the author isn’t interested in writing a sequel so if there’s someone out there who wrote a sequel fic please PLEASE SEND ME A LINK HTANK U

[skyhopedango]

stuff I’ve been watching lately

So I got buried in work and all the stress and mental and physical exhaustion that comes with, plus some personal stuff happening on the side that left me without much energy to do anything at all. I did watch some anime, though.

Double Decker EX#3

I miss Double Decker. :( I just realized that I never got around writing about EX#3, so in a nutshell - I enjoyed it (duh), although I can’t help being a bit disappointed at the lack of Doug & Kirill interactions. Like, they’re the title characters! As a pair! But Doug comes this close to sitting out the episode again, and in the end we don’t even get a photo of them together. I guess they were going for more of an ensemble vibe here, and also “off” mode Doug is so low energy it’s apparently really difficult to get him do anything, but still. Oh well, it was a cute episode anyway, it just made me hunger for more.

Also, what is it with Doug having these adoring younger dude fans? Doug, you cradle robber. I guess the real reason he’s (supposedly) not popular with women is that the women see all those twinks swarming around him and just assume that he’s gay.

And Derick & Mila are canon now, I suppose? Yay, congrats to them.

Also, dem legs and that bunny girl thing. Yes, thank you.

Anyway, season 2, please? pretty please? PLEASE

...

And now, the spring season which at this point I just don’t get. Like, all these shows that feel like they should have been airing like ten-fifteen years ago, and people being all “oh so refreshing! so new!” about them... Am I turning into even more of an old fogey? (I am.)

Fruits Basket 2016

I just don’t feel this one. I understand a lot of people love it, and more power to them, but me, I honestly don’t understand why it even exists other than the first anime being such a huge hit in the US, and this weird nostalgia wave that’s been going around for a while now. (And yes, I know the manga was very successful in Japan but that was the manga, it was a hit before it got turned into an anime, and it’s been how many years since it ended? Yeah.) So anyway, it’s all the tropes and character archetypes played painfully straight, and it’s all stuff that’s just very much not my cup of tea and that I’ve gotten a lot less tolerant of with time. If it wasn’t for Nakamura Yuuichi I would have dropped this by now but alas, he’s there. I’m probably going to drop it after the Ayame story, though.

Before anyone gets on my case - it’s not that the show is bad. It’s competently made, and I suppose it’s awesome if you’re a Furuba fan or if you’re just really into this genre. Me, I’m neither.

Fairy Gone

This is another one that feel more and more of a chore to watch. There’s few ways to lose me faster than with throwing dates and place names at me and expecting me to keep them all in mind, and this show turns this into an art form (holy crap the episode that did this like four? FIVE? consecutive times). Also, the pacing is all screwed up - this whole show would work better as a novel, but as TV storytelling it’s really clunky. It also threw all these characters at us and now expect us to care about them, but we barely even know our two leads at all. And what we know about them is not enough to make me care about them. Hell, what even is Marlya like? Her personality is kind of vague at this point.

I’ll give this to Fairy Gone though - it’s certainly more ambitious than Sirius the Jaeger was, and it’s doing a better job balancing its story and its worldbuilding with the scope of the show. I really like the world design, and also I’m enjoying the human chara designs, aside of that goddamn permablush on the cute girls. (Things like that are why I can’t take this show seriously at all.) With better pacing, and more focused character writing... and with better and more interesting characters...and more interesting visuals... and more interesting storyboarding... I’d enjoy this show a lot more. Alas.

(At least they cut back on the songs. Those bothered me not just because the fights weren’t nearly as impressive as the show thought they were and the songs just helped to accentuate that, but also because if you try to make every fight epic then none of them will be epic.)

I see people being all “so refreshingly original!” about it and I’m like “...this is exactly something that Gonzo would have done way back as a prestige original project, except with more mechs”. Like, right down to the conspicious CG. 

Carole & Tuesday

OK, at this point I know I’m sounding like a miserable wretch who doesn’t know how to have fun, but honestly - I just don’t get this show. Or rather, I don’t get how it is possible that after all this time, in the year of our lord 2019 this is the anime that Watanabe Shinichirou makes.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very well-made anime, visually far more interesting to watch than either Furuba 2019 or Fairy Gone. It’s definitely a very competent, very professional show. It’s just that... really? Two girls with their songs and a lot of heart, against the cold and inhuman world of showbiz and music produced by technology and performed by soulless idols. The naive but plucky rich girl and the street-smart, badass poor girl, helped by a down-on-his-luck producer dude and a younger, resourceful dude; the jaded idol girl who sings without a heart; Miyano Mamoru being Miyano Mamoru (I’m so, so tired of this shtick of his). And so on and so forth and... really?

It’s tropes upon tropes upon tropes, and instead of doing something interesting with them, the show just plays them painfully straight, in the most unimaginative ways possible. Seriously - how did Carole & Tuesday even become friends? we don’t know, we got a scene of them jamming as a shorthand for “1. connect over music, 2. ???? 3. best friends!”. Or there’s how their producer is a dude because he’s from head to toe a stock character and him being male is part of the package - if he was a woman the writer would have had to think outside the box. Or how Miyano Mamoru was probably just told “go in there and do your stuff” and they created a character around it. Really, none of these characters have an actual personality, they’re made up of tired old tropes played straight. And the story is also as straightforward and boring as possible. Competently made? Sure. Uninteresting? Absolutely. With each episode I feel less and less interested in the show because I just don’t care about the characters and I don’t see how the story would change that later down the line. Like, there’s nothing to care about. 

And again, this is the kind of show that feels like it should have been airing like ten or fifteen years ago. It definitely has that mindset - look at the way they handled the producer dude’s ex-wife being a lesbian.

Mayonaka no occult koumuin

Not much to say about this one - it’s cute. It’s nothing original, it’s not reinventing anything, but it’s not trying to, either. It’s the sort of comfort food that is not your favorite comfort food, but close enough that you like to munch on it once a week. The characters work, they have chemistry, the stories are decent enough so far. It’ll probably get some character songs that I won’t listen to because I don’t care that much.

.

.

.

...Damn. The summer season can’t come fast enough. That at least has some shows that I’m actually interested in.

[elvensemi]

The Curse Ongoing (Part 2): The Fortune Teller

Sometimes I write things for my D&D campaign. Weary uses a neopronoun because using they/them was too goddamn confusing in the context of a group, and you all just have to cope with that, okay.

[Part One] 

Weary had trouble believing they'd actually gotten out of the town of Barovia with so little trouble... in the relative scheme of things, in any case. Some wolves, which had gone poorly until it hadn't. Ey ran idle fingers across the letter they'd found on the corpse in the woods that the wolves had been so curious of. From the old Burgomeister, about Strahd. Pieces of a puzzle, but ey already knew what the picture would look like when it was done.

And now ey was here, in some tent with an old woman who knew who ey was, knew who they all were. Why had ey agreed to a fortune reading? Ey knew eir damn future already.

She gestured to the card on the right. "This card tells of history. Knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy."

"Sounds neat," announced Chara, reaching forward to flip over the card. It was eerie to behold, a hooded figure looming over two undead with pentagrams on their horned skulls. Weary wrinkled eir nose in distaste. Ey needed no occult arts to tell em eir enemy was a damned undead. Didn't they all know that by now?

"The Necromancer," the old woman informed them. "This card represents unnatural events and unhealthy obsessions; those who follow a destructive path... A woman hangs above a roaring fire. Find her, and you will find the treasure." Her voice had gone weird, neutral and droning, her misty eyes had grown mistier. Ey did not care for it. Then, she gestures to the card closest to em.

"This card tells of a powerful force for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope." Ey perks up, curiously, reaching out to the card. Ey hadn't been certain ey'd take part in this little game, not when the children seemed so interested, but a holy symbol certainly caught eir interest. Ey flipped it; the card underneath bore an image of a large man, some kind of lord by his garb, pointing at a thin man, who was hiding a dagger behind his back.

"The Traitor," she told them. "Betrayal by someone close and trusted; a weakening or loss of faith." Ey stiffened, fingers curling hard enough they nearly tore the corner of the letter. Eir jaw twitched; she'd seen eir symbol, even knew eir name. She was surely doing this on purpose. As if faith had ever been eir strongest suit, hmph. "Look for a wealthy woman. A staunch ally of the devil, she keeps the treasure under lock and key, with the bones of an ancient enemy."

That boded ill for em getting eir hands on that holy symbol, then. Ey wanted nothing to do with any ally of the devil in Barovia. Disinterested, ey looked away, scowling. The others, however, were entranced as she gestured to the card on their left.

"This is a card of power and strength. It tells of a weapon of vengeance: a sword of sunlight."

"Weapons are my strong suit," announced Zur-snag, who had been watching curiously from Weary's back, leaning onto eir shoulder. Now he scrambled forward; Weary leaned forward accommodatingly so he could flip over the card. It showed a picture of an odd man holding a mask, winking and smiling.

"The Charlatan... Liars; those who profess to believe one thing but actually believe another." No one here, ey suspected, but ey couldn't help eir eyes from drifting slightly over to Phin, the young paladin who stood in the back corner, arms crossed and scoffing. "I see a lonely mill on a precipice. The treasure lies within."

They all perked up in unison at that. "The mill!" Chara exclaimed. "Lil G--"

"She just said his name," Weary said, frowning.

"That was a name? I thought she was dying."

"Chara!"

"No, I get that a lot actually," the boy in question, more often called Bambam but more accurately called an adorable little brat, interjected.

"Anyway, you got a deed for a mill, didn't you? In that fuck--"

"Language," Weary said, automatically. Chara rolled her eyes.

"In that weird house," she corrected, then stuck her tongue out at Weary.

"Yeah, I totally did! It's legally mine now and everything!" Bambam said proudly.

"There is only one mill in Barovia," the fortune teller, Madam Eva, informed them.

"I guess we're going there first," Weary decided. "Do you know how to get there?" This, ey directed at Madam Eva.

"Follow the road." It was Weary's turn to roll eir eyes. There was only one damn road. No shit they'd be following it.

She gestured next to the card closest to her. "This card sheds light on one who will help you greatly in the battle against darkness."

"Oh, new friend?" Horse asked curiously, reaching forward to flip the card over. They were still in their marionette get up, mask and everything, but it didn't seem to bother the fortune teller at all. The card was as unsettling as the first one had been, a gaunt, cloaked, undead figure on an equally gaunt mount, wielding a sword.

"The Horseman! Death! Disaster in the form of loss , a horrible defeat, or the end of a bloodline."

"Oh, great, it's good news," muttered Phin sarcastically from behind them.

"I see a dead man of noble birth, guarded by his widow. Return life to the dead man's corpse, and he will be your staunch ally."

"Um," Weary said, clearly uncomfortable. "That's actually kind of the opposite of what I do, so."

The woman simply gestured to the final card. "Your enemy is a creature of darkness, whose powers are beyond mortality. This card will lead you to him!"

"Finally, the good part!" Bambam exclaimed, moving forward. Wincing, Weary blocked his hands, which prompted a very angry glare. Ey didn't want to know where Strahd was, except maybe in order to avoid em. If this lady thought otherwise, she was out of her mind... well, she clearly was at least slightly, ey supposed.

"You can barely see onto the table, let alone reach," Weary said. Not a lie, though a rude observation. "Let me help." Ey lifted the child--always so light, alarmingly so--onto eir knee, then flipped the card over emself. This card held the picture of an androgynous figure in tight clothing, a fan covering half of their face, smiling eyes looking over the top.

"Ah." The woman grinned wickedly up at him. "The Tempter. One who has been compromised or led astray by temptation or foolishness." Eir jaw twitched in irritation again, more at her grin than anything. And this was meant to be a card for a child? Ey held the boy a little tighter, glaring back at her. "I see a secret place-a vault of temptation hidden behind a woman of great beauty. The evil waits atop his tower of treasure."

A place to damn well avoid, then, though Bambam lit up at the mention of a 'tower of treasure.'

"Let's go there!" he announced.

"We'll go to the mill, if it's on the way." Weary said firmly. Ey stood up, placing Bambam back onto the ground. "Why don't you go see if the Vistani would be kind enough to share their food and camping spot with us tonight?"

The others filtered out, murmuring amongst themselves about the reading, already debating meanings. Weary stayed behind, eyes drifting over to the old woman.

"Madam Eva, was it?"

[askmicrowaveayem]

MAYEM: Just Like Me - Pt. 1

[Previous]

[Archive] [Cast]

Gaster and the boys decided to stick around for at least a few weeks, just to make sure that everything was going to look at least a little up for the new family. The doctor continued to work on the CORE with his double and his machine during the night when he didn’t feel like sleeping whereas Sans and Papyrus mostly stayed at home and made their younger selves feel safe and happy.

They taught them some of the easier science they knew, read them books they had brought, and just generally tried to give them a few weeks of ‘normal childhood’ even if being watched by an older version of yourself from another timeline was anything but normal.

Their father on the other hand kept on working, also taking time to teach his double things that he probably wouldn’t get to for years, if ever. He wasn’t sure if his influence had permanently fucked up this timeline forever or helped it out, but he would be damned if he didn’t at least try to save his alternate from the same fate he did.

He knew they both had a rocky past, he couldn’t fix that… but he would try to make his future at least a little brighter.

Gaster just… hoped it would work. He really… really hoped it would work.

Before he left he also made the cross-dimensional radio he had talked about, or at least the blueprints. He wasn’t sure if it would work, but he gave it to his double nonetheless should he ever need to use it. It was easier to come up with than he thought. Once you got the hang of making things work across dimensions like the time machine things became easier and easier the more you did them.

Yeah just gonna whip up a walkie-talkie that shoots across dimensions in a week. No big deal.

He hoped that his double would never need to use it.

--

Gaster never did use the inter-dimensional radio.

He was tempted to try it, sometimes, but he knew it wasn’t--just for calling up people at random. Not that he was any good at that, anyways. But sometimes he did sort of hope his double would show up again, if only for another long talk, or a spar that no one would ever really get hurt in.

The few weeks the doubles stayed were some of the least stressful in his memory. Even if it meant more people around than he was used to, even if it meant noise where he was used to quiet--having another pair of hands helping at any moment was great. Knowing the kids were being looked after, that Papyrus was beginning to have confidence in himself, that they were both getting a hint of something resembling peace and security--that he wasn’t working all alone.

It was nice. He was grateful. He knew it couldn’t last forever. He’d planned for when it would end. And he would be all right. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t miss his double and whatever weird form of camaraderie they’d managed to form over their brief times together. Because the world was an ugly, awful place, and they were both pretty fucked up from it. But they’d both survived so far. And maybe they could both do one better in the future.

It was hardest on Papyrus when the day came that the trio finally left. He clung to his elder’s arm and didn’t want to let go until Sans could finally coax him away.

He didn’t speak for three days, but he didn’t fully recoil. He started insistently cleaning the kitchen. Helping put things away. Reading and writing and practicing his magic until he could finally turn bones blue.

And they were on their own. Him. His two kids. Growing up.

Whatever changes Gaster’s twin had made to their timeline with his interference and presence, Gaster was determined to say they were largely positive.

Even if it didn’t catch him when he finally fell.

--

Five years passed before the trio decided to take a little detour.

Gaster had made a very big note on where his double’s timeline was, just in case he ever did receive that call or felt like checking in on him. This was the latter.

The years had been busy for them, if not unsucessful. Chara avoided them at all costs it seemed and they were heading into further and further away from their original timeline. It made them come across some… interesting places. Even more interesting than the one they had stumbled upon all those years ago.

Papyrus and Sans swapping personalities. Everyone being an asshole for no reason. Everyone being… Temmie. That… that had been one hell of an acid trip. It would be nice to come to something ‘familiar’.

The machine landed gracefully this time inside the dark forest between the ruins and Snowdin before the trio stepped out into the cold air.

Gaster looked surprised at their change in location. Snow? Why had they landed in Snowdin instead of the lab or the capitol again?

Worry bubbled up in his chest, but he quickly snuffed it out. He didn’t need to start worrying before he knew there was something to actually worry about. He had tried to take that to heart, it was something his double had infected him with.

They began to head through the forest before finding the pathway that lead into the quaint little snowy village.

--

It hadn’t been five years for Sans.

It had been twenty years.

Twenty long, wonderful, awful, nightmarish years.

He hadn’t been in Snowdin for most of those, but he’d been in Snowdin for long enough. He still had that curiosity in him, that spark that hadn’t been quite snuffed out yet, that let him want to map out every single inch of a new place. So he knew Snowdin, now. He knew Snowdin, and the locals, and every foodjoint in town, and most than anything, he knew the forest. The forest was his place.

And he knew right away when something changed inside it.

He walked around one tree and came around the other side in a whole other part of the forest, watching a trio of strangers shuffle down the path.

Except, they weren’t strangers, he realized as they came close.

Nah. He knew those shapes.

For a moment, he choked up, seeing--seeing his dad, walking towards him. His dad walking beside him? Another him. And Papyrus. And his Dad Walking Towards Him.

And then his expression settled, and he knew what that disturbance he’d felt in the forest had been.

Shit, fuck. Oh well.

He didn’t want to do this.

But they shouldn’t have come back.

He stepped into the path in front of them.

--

The three stopped in their tracks. Gaster wanted to look happy but he found his smile lacking. Sans looked at his double right in the eye sockets and just… knew. Even Papyrus smiled and waved, but it soon just sort of petered out and his arm went back to his side.

In a way, they all knew. They all knew without having to say a word.

Gaster was the first to close the distance between the two of them. Sans and Papyrus hung back. Once he was close enough he spoke, his voice quiet and almost shaking.

“... He’s gone. Isn’t he.”

--

Sans nodded, keeping his face blank and trying to sound indifferent. “You missed him by a couple years, yeah.”

It had been a long time since he’d said anything about his father except for lies.

--

Gaster let out a very long, very defeated sigh. He put his face in his hands and just… crumpled. He crouched down, hugging his legs and burying his face into his knees.

Everything he did amounted to nothing.

“... What happened?” He eventually asked, although didn’t lift his head.

--

Sans just sighed, standing over his dad’s double, intentionally not looking at him. He kept his hands stuffed into his pockets and looked around languidly.

“Wasn’t a time machine, if that helps,” he said. “Nah. While messin’ with the Core’s pressure chamber, he found some weird behavior of the particles if he looked close enough. Got curious. Started wondering if they were connected to soul physics. Origins of magic. Wanted to take a closer look and ended up finding the bastards were hopping around everywhere with no regard to distance, time, or patterns.”

Sans shrugged.

“It ate him.”

--

The doctor shook his head. By now the other two had closed the distance as well, standing on either side of their father.

“hey.” Sans said, looking at his double. “hows pap?”

This was him he was talking to, of course. He knew how he felt and knew that the only thing really on his mind was probably his little brother’s happiness.

--

“better than ever,” Sans said, sharing the same thoughts as his double. This time, he looked him in the eyes. “doesn’t remember a thing.”

And then he couldn’t look at them anymore.

“that’s why i’m gonna have to ask you all to leave.”

--

“yeah. i understand.” Sans said. This was all too familiar.

He kneeled down and put a hand across his father’s shoulder. “dad we gotta go. pap can’t see you.”

Gaster sucked in a quick breath and nodded before very abruptly standing and spinning away, quickly walking back to the machine. He didn’t look at the other Sans as he left. Papyrus gave his younger older brother a sad look before doing much the same, his head hanging low.

Sans was the last to remain. He said nothing, the glowing dots of his eyes staring at his double before they eventually faded and the smile permanently plastered across his face twitched downward at the corners.

A hand reached out to pat his twin on the shoulder and give it a firm squeeze before turning to leave as well.

--

Sans said nothing as he watched them go.

He was glad they’d gone without a fuss. That his twin was on his side.

He’d liked to have gotten caught up, maybe, he guessed. But that wasn’t going to happen. Not here, not now. It was enough to know they were still alive.

He had his own shit to deal with. He didn’t need to worry about anything else.

He teleported along the trees, following them back to the ship just out of eyesight.

At least he could see them off.

--

Sans could tell that they were being followed but didn’t make any point of letting the others know. Gaster probably would have too, but… well, he was very preoccupied.

He stopped a few times as they walked back to their machine, Papyrus having to grab his shoulder and lead him along. It almost looked like he had mentally shut off.

His double was experiencing the same thing he had.

What if Chara found him? What if they didn’t?

What if he really had died? That would be for the best, surely. … What if they were trapped in the void? It was like reliving it all over again.

Was this fate? Did that shit actually exist? He recalled the conversation he had with his double all those years ago and couldn’t let it go.

Maybe Seer was right.

--

Sans kept following at a distance, watching over them and making sure they made it to the machine. A time or two, a monster wandered close to their path and Sans intercepted them, stalling and turning people around with wide smiles and quick conversations.

It wasn’t much. But they’d get back to their machine without any trouble.

He hoped his dad was dead.

He really fucking hoped it, because if not, then that meant Sans had destroyed the machine that could get him back. Because he’d wanted to live, and Gaster was already gone, and he fucking hoped his dad was dead and the trio of time travelers left and never looked back. Maybe they’d find another universe with a Gaster just similar enough that they could pretend.

Maybe that would be for the best.

The machine was almost in sight.

--

Sans was the first one to climb inside, just as eager as his double was to get them out of there. He knew what he was going through and knew the best thing they could do was leave and never come back. His double would maybe see the stars or… see his life end in front of him. Maybe both one after the other.

A part of him wondered if his twin’s fate had been one he had seen years ago. He didn’t let himself linger on the thought.

Papyrus helped his father in before closing the door behind them. The machine whirred to life and just as quickly as it had came, it was gone again.

--

A moment before, and a moment after the machine vanished, it lingered on the edge of Nothing.

There were, mathematically, infinite infinities. The space between 0 and 1. The space between 1 and 100. Each different. Each unique. Some overlapping or curling inside each other, digesting each other like stomachs.

And silently, slowly, on the moment of here-and-gone, something reached out and left a message on a torn piece of paper

which had Gaster’s hand, but he had never written it

it said

--

It wasn’t until they landed on the other side that Gaster noticed the note. While their machine parked itself in its usual place and the crew somberly began to make sure everything was still in order before heading home, he found it.

He stared at it.

That bastard was alive.

A part of him jumped with joy while the other half screamed.

For the first time in a very long time, he didn’t know what to do. Gaster mulled over the note for months, but he knew that the void was an endless expanse of infinite nothing. How could he possibly find his double among it all? He hadn’t even been able to find Chara.

He hoped his double could figure out something on his end. He hoped he figured out how to mess with the code just like he had. He hoped he could string something together out of the nothing to bring them close. An antenna. An… anything. Just anything would do.

Without telling the boys he set their course for the next while to jump towards timelines close to the one his double was originally from, just in case.

It was all he could do.

--

The moment Gaster realized his double was aiming for worlds close to his own, he started looking for it.

That was how Gaster began to send interdimensional prank mail.

The void was pretty devoid of people to mess with.

Haha. Devoid.

...he needed better jokes.

--##NEW THING##

His double’s interdimensional jokes were going to make him pick up drinking again.

It was… very strange. He hadn’t been able to send notes like this while he was in the void, not unless he put himself under serious duress. But these were playful, stupid little jabs at him so clearly they weren’t taking too much effort.

The bastard.

Either way he kept them all a secret, not wanting to tell his boys that they were hunting for his double. If they knew they would both probably tell him it was nuts, even Papyrus knew how infinite the void was. There was such a tiny chance that anything would happen that there was really no point at all to doing it when you had a much bigger enemy to face.

Still. He was glad his double kept up his sense of humor. Each note made him smile, even if it was outright insulting him.

During one of their many jumps there was a small hiccup. This had happened once before and it was always terrifying, but they could manage it. The machine stopped halfway between timelines and stopped in the void. It didn’t land with a crash or thud, but complete and utter silence.

Darkness stretched as far as the eye could see. There was no air. No sound.

There was nothing.

--

There was

……?

Less than Everything.

It caught his attention and dragged it there. Held onto him. He couldn’t divert, not if he’d tried. Not if he’d wanted to.

He was standing in a fire and someone had just put out a small patch of it a little to the side, and even though he was still on fire, things over there looked a little bit cooler.

Sending notes helped him focus. Helped him pull his mind away from the i n f i n i t e and ground himself back in himself. Following one timeline or one person or one bad joke was another moment he had to himself. Writing one scathing note and slipping it in perfectly to the moment of departure between timelines was a test of concentration.

In the same way, he was able to pull himself together--pull himself from being stretched for miles and miles and all his atoms being lightyears apart--and tug himself in a direction.

There was a direction. And it was emptiness.

He dragged the whole of himself towards it. No legs, no arms, with whole galaxies in his mouth, and things much too big for someone used to being so small.

The light and color and sound and sensation and SPACETIME followed him, curling off what he remembered of his coat.

He headed into the first quiet he’d heard in forever.

--

They all knew something was wrong as soon as they tried to speak and nothing came out. Papyrus looked like he was going to panic for a moment, Sans quickly reaching out to him to calm him down. The first time he had seen what the void was like he had a panic attack. It was just so… dark and… endless. It scared him. It scared Sans too.

Gaster signed to them to stay calm before opening the door and slowly peeking out into the nothingness. It was strange. He should have been terrified of this place, but… after awhile you couldn’t be. Hundreds, possibly thousands of years had felt like they had passed with him trapped here. The silence was welcome almost. The entire expanse of the nothingness was him.

The doctor stepped down and onto what could be called as the floor, his entire lower body suddenly merging with it. It was easier to move that way, as though his body knew it was supposed to be here.

He wanted to check their surroundings and make sure things were safe before getting to work.

--

He came to a place he’d never been to before.

There was nowhere he’d never been to before.

He reached one hand out, then ten, then a hundred, and felt over the divide. It wasn’t much of a divide. It was a mottled, rabid landscape that didn’t know how to smoothly meld from one side to another. It was a precipice. It was a mountainscape. It was a… void?

A real void. On the other side. A void, with nothing in it.

He wondered what would come with him if he just… went. For a while. Where he would go. There was nowhere he’d never been before.

He crossed the divide. The noise and light and sound stayed with him, but they were muffled.

For the first time in forever, they were muffled. He heard a hundred Sans and Papyruses calling out to each other, rather than a billion. Thousands of waterfalls, instead of a million roaring oceans. He could see and hold his body together with more ease than he could’ve imagined a moment before. And he could feel his own mind and hear his own thoughts with so much more alacrity.

He moved further into the void.

Because even though it was a void, he felt certain there was something inside it, and it hummed with a familiar vibration he wasn’t about to ignore.

--

Gaster closed the door to the machine behind him, knowing that it was very discomforting to both of his boys to see the nothing that lay beyond.

He moved around to one side of the machine and looked around nervously before beginning to unscrew one of the side panels. He already knew the culprit behind this mess, some dumb trip of wire that could be fixed in a matter of minutes.

Still. These were… very tense minutes.

The doctor constantly looked over his shoulder, waiting to see if any windows happened to pop up or a red glow appeared. If Chara showed up here he couldn’t fight them.

He would lose.

--

A dim glow appeared on the--if the void had one, it would’ve been the horizon.

Tinted red. Then blue. PurpleyellowViolent Bloody Red

--

Light was very hard to miss in the void.

As soon as he saw it Gaster froze, then spun around and furiously started working as fast as he could.

--

After the light came sound.

Even in nothingness, sound always seemed to move just a little bit more slowly.

Footsteps. Clothing ruffling. None of those things were actually happening, Gaster had no feet and no real clothes to ruffle, but--the idea was there, in a memory, in his head, of what movemnet used to sound like.

He spotted the ship shortly after, and felt the different sort of vibrations that Existed because that machine Existed and the shape in front of it on the control panel Existed and since it Existed that meant Gaster could t o u c h  i t.

And he was beside the machine.

--

Gaster would have screamed were he actually capable of it in the void.

His eye sockets sprung open and he… stared. At himself? Not himself?

what.

--

He was a Gaster. And a ball of lightning. And a dead human, standing upright, smiling a dead smile. Instead of starlights in his eyes, he just had star clusters, and when he opened his mouth to make a sound, a thousand other Gasters’ voices screamed out like torture.

And when he moved his hands, he said, G a s t e r ?

--

He… really had no idea what the fuck he was looking at.

The sound made him recoil and throw his hands over where his ears would be. Sound shouldn’t exist here. Light shouldn’t exist here. This was WRONG. This was HIS PLACE and HE KNEW WHAT COULD HAPPEN HERE.

He looked at the signs and his body began to relax.

‘... Kidster?’

--

Gaster smiled. It still looked pretty well like a smile.

You fucking goop, he replied, ecstatic.

--

Holy shit.

Gaster dropped his tools, his body moving towards his double in a wave before wrapping his arms around him.

--

Gaster rippled.

He curled into the hug, wrapping his own arms around his double’s ‘shoulders.’

It was like the quiet he’d been chasing finally reached out to him, and everything finally… relaxed. If he spoke, it woud’ve been with one voice. If he’d looked, his eyelights would have been his own again, without effort.

Contact with his double canceled his ‘void’ out.

He wondered if it were the same for his twin.

But that was a thought for later.

For now, he just hugged back as tightly as he could.

It was good to see him again for real.

--

Gaster hugged him for longer than he had ever held anyone else before that wasn’t his sons. He stood there, arms wrapped around his double and afraid to let go. It was… it was obvious that they had experienced something radically different. He wanted to ask about it, wanted to talk.

But… later.

The nothing held onto the infinite for a bit longer before slowly, finally pulling away. His smile was broader than he had ever seen it. ‘You look in a lot better shape than I do for being ripped to pieces.’

--

He didn’t want to let go.

He let go.

It all came flooding back, and he--spread, for a moment, like a gas being released out of a container, before he managed to drag himself back together, particle by particle. He managed it in time, focusing hard on his double’s words, and grinned back.

It’s not that much of a surprise, he said, I was always the better looking one.

--

Gaster looked completely and utterly offended, ‘WOW.’

Hesitantly he turned, an oily black appendage rising from the ground to hand him back the tool he had dropped. As much as he wanted to just stand and talk to his double, he knew how dangerous this place was and needed to get his boys home safe.

Speaking of which…

‘You wanna hitch a ride out of this shithole?’

--

I don’t know if it will work, Gaster said, but fuck yeah.

He could have continued existing in his void. He’d grown accustomed to it. Started to meld, truly meld, into the fabric of reality, but--

But he missed being small. And he missed not knowing. And he missed his kids, and giving them hugs as something other than air particles.

And he’d lose nothing (or, haha, everything, if they were being accurate) by trying to go back.

--

Gaster smiled and went to work, a few more strange appendages rising from the blackness around him and turning into white hands just like his own so he could sign and work at the same time.

‘I have the feeling that… you weren’t trapped here all this time.’

--

Gaster’s signing produced sounds, like everything else about him. He existed in sound and motion, even in a place that completely lacked it.

This place is new, he said, and I hope you appreciate how strange it is for me to say that at this point.

--

‘Uh, I can kinda guess?’ Gaster signed with his new hands. ‘You look about the opposite to me. The… everything and noise and… christ. man.’ He shook his head, ‘You’re really disorienting, you know that? It’s very weird to hear things and see things in this place.’

They were opposites, weren’t they? Again.

Fucking typical.

--

Sorry, Gaster said, still unable to stop smiling. Apparently, not even an indefinite time in the void could stop him from apologizing for things. This is the quietest I’ve been since… I became like this. It’s so quiet here. Is this your void?

He’d come to about the same conclusion as his twin, but damn.

He was honestly pretty okay with that after all this time.

--

‘Yep, this is it. Impressive, isn’t it?’ He said flatly, obviously knowing that it was anything but.

‘Yours was better, I hope…?’

--

Gaster laughed. It was static. It is very different. This place is peaceful.

He was looking around as if he’d never seen something so wonderful to just look at.

--

Gaster laughed with his hands and his expression turned a little grim. ‘Sure let’s go with that.’

He guessed it would be after his double had experienced what looked like everything.

--

Gaster tried to look a little abashed. He seemed to be having a bit of trouble shaping his face into the proper shape for it. Sorry. It’s just. Something different after so long is, it’s nice. I can actually think for once.

He understood how staying in a place like this for so long would’ve been maddening, especially without his own personal cacophonic symphony in the back of his head, but for the moment, it was just nice to have the moment.

He’d been living moment-to-moment a lot.

How are repairs coming? Are the kids here?

--

‘Shouldn’t be too much longer. The fix is pretty easy. You wanna do say hi? They’ve seen some crazy shit already, so if you explain yourself I’m sure they’ll be happy to-’

Gaster never finished his sentence as a blinding red light appeared behind them. It was a massive window not unlike what his double had seen him open a few times in his world, but this one was covered with a bright, happy, smiling face made up of zeros and ones.

He stopped everything and slowly turned to look at it, the white dots of his eyes having turned into animated, dancing scribbles as the look on his face turned from joy to complete and utter horror.

Chara had found them.

--

His double knew how to fix the machine. Not him. His double couldn’t not fix the machine. They’d all be stranded.

He didn’t know exactly what was going on, but--but he’d always remember Chara.

Still, he wasn’t prepared for the creature he saw in the window.

His double had to finish the machine.

Maybe he could hold them off? Buy time? Maybe. Maybe he could.

This void wasn’t his territory. He didn’t know it. He didn’t understand it. But he was part of his own domain, back in his own void, and when he summoned his bones and blasters, they came.

He fired them off at the window, hoping something hit. It all roared and cracked and warbled as his attacks flew.

Fix your machine.

--

Gaster had to do everything in his power to rip his eyes away from the window. He gave his double a look of panic before quickly going back to work.

The window shattered… only for 10 more to take its place. Each one began to fill up with zeros and ones.

01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01001000 01000001 01000001 01001000 01000001

--

Gaster’s smile widened.

Widened.

This creature was a fool if they thought they could defeat him in a game of numbers.

There was So Much More to draw on.

More blasters and bones, all snarling and flying towards the windows.

If this creature was a hydra, he would simply outnumber the heads.

(he could not be infinity forever without disappearing from this space) something deep in his gut told him. But no matter. He didn’t have to be infinity forever.

He just had to be infinity for long enough.

--

Just a few moments. A few moments was all he needed.

Each time his double blasted away a window, more appeared. At this rate it would just be a never-ending battle of… everything. Despite the void being nothing, it was also infinite. Infinite nothingness.

While the two fought Gaster quickly finished the repairs and signed for his double to follow, slamming the panel closed before gliding over towards the door to the machine.

He threw it open, both of his boys startled at the noises they had been hearing but both with strict instructions to always stay inside until he came back whenever they happened to end up here.

--

He saw his double signing (from fourteen different angles) and had to pull himself back togther before following.

In the few moments it took, dragging what he’d had of himself back into a bare few points in X, he had to stop covering for his twin while he tried to follow onto the ship.

--

The boys looked even more panicked upon seeing the other Gaster.

Their father signed a quick ‘it’s okay’ before making it over to the control panel and feverishly getting things running again. He hadn’t even bothered to reform legs, wanting desperately to get them all out before Chara did any damage.

He punched in coordinates before there was suddenly a red spike swarming with code speared through one end of the machine through the other side.

It went straight through Gaster.

--

Gaster made it inside and tried to make himself as compact as possible to keep out of the way.

He could only watch as the red spike pierced his double.

He s̶̨̤̬̫̟̳͉ͮ̓̋ͭ͘͟ḩ̤̠͎̝̞͖͔̱̦̟͙̦̥̗͖̱͆ͭ̓̃̉͐̇͌̓̎͂͊̅̀̉̆ͪ̌͐͝ͅr̤͍͚̰͉͍̻̮̬̹̪̩̻͚͔̀ͨͮͤ̊ͩͤ̋ͦͭ̉̀́̀͠͞i̠͓͇̩͇̩̞̯̮̖͈̹̞̩̲̟̼̩ͫ͗̂́ͭͤ̔͟͜͠Ę̶̛̪̹͚̖̰̥̜͙̀ͫ͋̋́K̡̛̘̭̤̩̣̭ͭͤ̽̑̇ͩ̈̇̂̀ͤͣ̑̏̏̇ͅĘ̐͆̔̒̊̈̑ͥ͛̃̿ͪ̑̊̑̏̾̒҉̶̶̩͈̪̖̱̪͈̣̩͡ͅD͈̩̙͔͈̳̩̟̣̳̟̻̭͚̼̣͎͗̅̎͑̕͘͜͟

[that-fandom-pan]

Hyruletale - Act 1

The Ruins Part 1

Toriel certainly didn't waste much time leading Chara into the Ruins. He had to scramble up the stairs just to keep up with the tall blonde woman, and even then she had already reached the first room, which seemed to be home of a puzzle make of six buttons on the floor, arranged in lines of two. Chara looked down at them, curiosity suddenly overwhelming him. Toriel smiled gently.

"Welcome to your new home, innocent one. Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins," she took a couple of steps forward into the puzzle, "This place is full of puzzles. Ancient fusions of diversions and doorkeys, and one must solve them to move on. Each shouldn't be too difficult for you to figure out, since they all have some form of description or hint to help you."

Chara kept his eyes on Toriel, slightly nervous, "What's the one for this one?"

"Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both walk not the middle road," the taller guided the child to stand beside her, facing the buttons, "Allow me to test you. Considering that clue, what do you think you must do the solve this puzzle?"

Hesitant, Chara looked over the puzzle again, "Both walk not the middle road... Hmm..."

Toriel waited patiently for his answer as he kept looking over the puzzle, thinking hard about how the hint linked with the buttons and switch before him. Maybe if... The middle road...

"Do I need to press the buttons on the left and the right, but not the ones in the middle?"

The taller woman smiled warmly and walked over the four buttons Chara had pointed out, before flicking the switch up. Much to Chara's relief, the door opened with a very satisfying clunk.

"Exactly right, my child. Come, there is much more I need to teach you," Toriel offered her hand to the human child, who gladly took it, smiling all the while. She led him through the door, deeper into the Ruins, entering a room with two streams running through it. There were three switches embedded in the walls, two with tiny golden letters etched into the stones beside them. Chara looked around, a touch confused.

Toriel smiled warmly, releasing his hand as she moved slightly further into the room, "To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches. Don't worry, I have labelled the ones you need to press."

She turned to watch Chara quietly, as he wandered around, studying the writing closely. Each dictated the exact same thing: Please press this switch - Toriel. He chuckled quietly at the blatantly obvious hint - could it even be called a hint? - to the puzzle, flicking the two switches up. Spikes he hadn't noticed when he first walked in sank into the ground with a thud.

"Splendid! I'm proud of you, little one," Toriel smiled, reaching out to Chara once more, "Let us move on."

Chara paused for a moment, glancing back at the third switch, the one he hadn't touched. He must have been staring for a while, because Toriel leaned down a little to whisper in his ear.

"That one doesn't work at all. I suppose it needs to switch up its game."

The human couldn't help himself; he burst into peals of surprised laughter, making the taller woman chuckle lightly as she lead him through the slightly run-down passage, coming to a halt in front of what appeared to be a harmless training dummy. He tilted his head in confusion.

"As a human living in the Underground, monsters may attack you. However, the process is very simple! When you encounter a monster, you will enter a Fight. While you are in a Fight, strike up a friendly conversation and stall for time. I will come and resolve the conflict," Toriel smiled, releasing his hand, "How about you practice with this dummy?"

Focused only on the dummy, Chara nodded, slowly approaching it. A semi-familiar tugging sensation made him wince from the memory of his encounter with Flowey - damn that humanoid weed, she was probably watching him right now - as his scarlet Soul appeared before him.

"So... Just talk to it?" Chara glanced to Toriel for confirmation.

"Exactly right, my child."

Turning back to face the dummy, the human hesitated as he thought about what to say, "... Um, hi?"

The dummy did not reply, and Chara's face fell in disappointment; though he should have known better than to have expected a response from an inanimate object, it was kind of strange something placed in such a deliberate position wouldn't house another monster, or even simply be possessed. He sighed softly.

"Guess you're not much of a talker, huh?"

The taller woman smiled broadly at their conversation, watching as Chara's Soul sank back into his chest, much to his relief, "Ah, very good. You are very good," she murmured, reaching to take the child's hand once again, "Come. There is much more I must teach you."

Side by side, the human and the 'monster' continued on into the Ruins, deeper and deeper into the Underground. Ivy lined the walls on either side on them, reminding Chara of an old castle, or a derelict manor of some kind, and they were wandering the paths of the garden, or the ancient hallways that had long since collapsed. Toriel seemed at home in such a place, but then again monsters had lived down here for who knows how long. No wonder they would fit in down here.

I wonder how long they live for...?

The child's pondering was interrupted by Toriel's voice, "There is another puzzle in this room. I wonder, can you solve it?"

Chara, slightly startled, looked out at the room before him. It was bare. No puzzle to be seen at all. Confused, he remained silent as Toriel led him onward, her voice whispering the clue to him.

"The western room is the eastern room's blueprint."

Before he could question her, another monster, about half the size of Chara himself, hopped out from practically nowhere, scaring the child almost out of his skin. His scarlet, unscathed Soul was pulled from his chest, and he hesitated as he tried to figure out what to do. Staring at the monster, he realised that it looked quite similar to the frogs he'd seen a lot in the ponds near where he used to live. Lost for what to do, Chara took a shot in the dark and chose to compliment the strange creature.

"That was, um... an impressive jump...?" Great going Chara, that was really convincing.

Luckily for him, it was convincing enough for the giant frog, who hesitantly replied, "Er... I don't quite understand, but thank you anyway."

It croaked in surprise as Toriel approached the pair, sporting a fierce glare that would have turned milk sour. With a quick hop, is disappeared from sight, dashing away in fear. The red Soul sank back into Chara's chest, and he let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding in.

"What was that?" He looked up at her, slipping his hand into hers once again.

"That was a Froggit, one of the most common monsters here in the Ruins. Be careful around them, my child. Most monsters here would not hesitate to attack you."

The blonde woman led him further, halting when the stone floor morphed into metal panels covered in spikes. Chara gulped nervously, looking up at her for any more hints. She appeared to be having a battle with herself.

"This is the puzzle, but..." She told him, pausing before coming to a decision, "Don't let go of my hand."

Toriel stepped forward onto the spikes, which vanished into the panel beneath them and didn't resurface. She guided Chara through the deadly traps, creating a pattern that mimicked the battlements of a castle. Any fears that Chara may have had evaporated quickly as the both exited the puzzle at the other end of the room easily and completely unharmed. Toriel let out a shaky breath and smiled down at him, her sapphire eyes sparkling.

"Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now."

Chara nodded slowly in agreement. That had to be the most dangerous puzzle he had ever seen. He hurried to follow the motherly monster through the doorway to the next corridor in the Ruins, which was, to his surprise, completely empty.

Toriel didn't notice his shock, or if she had she didn't show it, "You have done excellently well thus far, my child. However... I have a difficult request to ask of you," she paused, almost as if she really didn't want to request it at all, "I would like you to walk to the end of this room by yourself. Forgive me for this."

Turning tail, she hurried off into the passage, vanishing within the vines and shadows of the far end. Chara, terrified and confused, reached after her, watching her disappear. To him, she had left him behind. However, if he wanted to continue, he knew he would have to steel his nerves and take another step into the unknown tunnels of the Underground.

So he did just that.

Holding his breath, the human child began to walk as quickly as he could, worried that if he slowed down by half a step a second, his trembling limbs would turn him around of their own accord and send him right back to where he started, or worse, further back than that. Approaching the darkness ahead, he let the air he was holding back go, before sucking in more and bracing himself for whatever was ahead. Hopefully not some hideous beast he didn't want to fight. He kept his warm red eyes trained forward, almost not noticing the tall pillar beside as he tried to ignore the pounding of his heart in his ears.

"My child."

Chara almost leapt out of his skin as Toriel's gentle voice called to him from behind the stone spire. He gasped in relief and turned to face her, one hand moving to rest on his heaving chest.

Toriel merely chuckled at his reaction, "Oh, dear. Do not worry, I didn't leave you. I was merely behind this pillar the whole time. Thank you for trusting me. However, there was an important reason for this exercise... to test your independence."

Chara sighed in relief once more, thankful it was just a test and not a life or death situation. Reassured, he smiled up at his guide, who returned the gesture before she glanced over her shoulder.

"I must attend to some business, and you must stay alone for a while. Please remain here. It's dangerous to explore by yourself."

Chara tilted his head, "I can take care of myself!"

Toriel lowered her head, blinking multiple times over, "Not against monsters like the ones here in the Underground, child. I have seen it many times," her tone sounded mournful, as if she regretted something greatly, and Chara had reminded her of it, but she quickly perked up again, "Oh, I have an idea! I will give you a cell phone."

The device she handed over to the human looked more like a box than a cell phone, but when he opened it, it most certainly was the latter. The screen glowed brightly in his face, almost blinding him since he was becoming used to the fairly dim light of the caves.

"If you have a need for anything, just call. Be good, alright?"

Looking up, Chara nodded vigorously, "Okay."

Toriel chuckled and turned away, leaving Chara behind, who watched after her before leaning against the pillar behind him. He barely lasted a minute before he started to get restless. His foot started tapping relentlessly, he kept flipping the phone open and closed to try and keep himself entertained, but nothing was working. He had to move on.

There was nothing else he could do.

He left the room.

Just as he took his first step into the Ruins alone, a sharp ring cut him off. Startled, he almost dropped the phone in his haste to answer.

Before he could say anything, Toriel spoke, "Hello? This is Toriel. You have not left the room, have you?"

Shoot.

Quick, lie.

"Uh... no."

Toriel released a relieved sigh, or at least, that's what Chara could hear through the speaker, "Oh good. There are a few puzzles ahead that I haven't explained. It would be dangerous to try and solve them yourself. Be good alright?"

The human nearly let out a sigh if his own, glad he had pulled off the fib, "Okay."

He could have sworn he heard Toriel smile through the phone as she hung up, and he slipped it into his pocket to keep it safe. Taking a few steps forward, he noticed the Froggit from before, and shyly waved to it. It motioned for him to come closer, and, despite his fear, he did.

However, his terror was unnecessary as the small monster began to speak, looking up at him with a shy expression that almost mirrored his own, "Excuse me, human. I have some advice for you about battling monsters. If you Act a certain way, or Fight until you almost defeat them, they might not want to battle you any more. If a monster does not want to fight you, please... use some Mercy, human."

Chara liked the sound of that. Befriending instead of killing? Sure, he could do that.

"Of course I will."

The Froggit let out a happy croak and said its goodbyes before hopping off to some unknown location. Chara watched it go before he turned away, coming face to face with another golden star, much like the one he had encountered before.

"I guess these are some sort of Save Point..."

Reaching out, his fingers had barely brushed the surface of the star before what he quickly named the Save Screen opened in front of him, with the familiar File and buttons he remembered from the last time he had used one of these. He pressed the same buttons in the same order, Save and then Continue, before he crumpled his way through the red leaves at his feet, heading deeper into the Ruins, and hopefully, towards his way home.

[FILE SAVED.]