Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In her town, everyone knew the story: long ago, a boy had visited his grandmother in town, learned the myth surrounding Mt. Ebott, and climbed the mountain with the intention of trying to help the monsters escape. He was full of compassion, so she was told, and seemed to feel that monsters – or anyone else for that matter – didn’t deserve to be stuck underground, without the sun.

Grace thought, growing up, that that decision was overall idiotic.

I’m sure the Monsters never trusted him, she always thought whenever she heard the story, and taking his soul would probably be the most logical choice, right? It’s our fault they’re down there, if they are at all, and they have every right to take revenge, don’t they?

Then why. Why did her only friend have to climb the mountain? Why were they so stupid as to climb a mountain filled with man-eating Monsters? Grace couldn’t imagine her friend being quite selfless and foolhardy enough to climb the mountain to save them, but she also didn’t think she seemed sad enough to throw herself to the Monsters on purpose.

A long time passed. Grace was all alone, with nobody but H_____’s mother for company, when she wasn’t out looking for her kid. She couldn’t wrap her head around it; what could her friend have wanted so badly that they left behind their mom and best friend? Grace knew the only way to find out would be to ask them herself.

Climb the mountain. That was all she could think about for a whole month after she made her decision. Prepare. Climb mountain. Find idiot.

She had a full backpack: camping gear, her nicest boots, a battery pack for her phone with all the cords, and a sturdy walking stick. Under the guise of taking a hike through the surrounding woods, she was able to escape the watchful eye of her friend’s mom. Then, bag and stick in hands, she took a brisk pace up the mountain. The day grew long, and before she knew it, she couldn’t really see her town through the intense greenery that surrounded her on all sides.

It wasn’t supposed to be a long hike, just a test, but that all changed when she spotted the faintest sliver of a color that wasn’t green, brown, or gray.

“H-----…?”

But her exclaim was covered by a small figure’s sneezing. They didn’t’ seem to notice Grace was behind them, nor that she’d just called out a name, and continued walking. It was a kid; maybe ten or twelve years old, wearing her best friend’s favorite colors. Grace had to stifle a cry of frustration. She wasn’t about to ruin this kid’s independent morning walk… but she wasn’t about to let them wander all alone though, either. They were way too far away from town for that, and it wouldn’t be right for her to be the reason this kid’s parents never found them.

Grace followed them a while – their sweater was bright and unmistakable – before losing them for a moment and almost deciding to give up. As she turned a corner, she saw them - staring into a huge chasm, determined to see what was down in its murky depths. Grace didn’t want to scare them should she be found, so she snuck as close as she could to them without being spotted. All of that was for nothing, though, since the kid began to fall into the hole! Grace surged out of her hiding place and caught them by the arm, pulling them out of harm’s way -  but lost her own footing.

She began to fall.

It was a quiet drop: normally, she’d be screaming, but, it felt like something was breaking or slowing her fall. She should be terrified since she should die from a fall like this. But she didn’t. Grace was comforted by her own confirmation; she knew that if she could have chosen again and only have the kid live and her fall to death?

She’d do it again.

Chapter Text

Ow. My head was throbbing. Something soft had cushioned my fall, but it was still just dirt underneath. I caught one in my hand and opened my eyes to inspect it, only to find my eyes blocked by another… set of eyes?

“AHHH!” came the voice in front of me. In surprise, I sat forward, joining in her screaming.

“AHHH WHAT IS HAPPENING?”

“I DON”T KNOW????”

“HOW AM I HERE???”

“WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??”

We suddenly stopped in unison and screamed.

And then we laughed. Then, the girl in green began to speak.

“Okay… well now that we’re done with all that...” she held out her hand with a friendly but sad smile. “Um, greetings. My name’s Chara. What’s yours?”

I hesitated, then attempted to take her hand. It, um, phased through.

“Hold on.” I shifted my hand until I managed to get it in a sort of realistic spot to pretend to hold Chara’s. “Hi, I’m Grace. Do you know where we are? And why you’re so hard to, you know, get through to?” I laughed.

“Oh no. Not puns. you’re reminding me of my mother...” she chuckled and made a sad face before going on. “Um, it looks kinda like the front of the RUINS? This is where I fell...” her eyes went wide. “OH. Well, that’s probably how you got here too, right?”

I shifted back a little. “Wait you fell too? Are you the kid I was watching? Dang and was trying to save you, too. How did you change clothes so fast? Was I really out for that long? Wh-”

Chara interrupted me. “Oh, no, I… I was probably from a long while ago.” she turned away for a moment before continuing. “I...” she gulped, swallowing her fear, “I think I might be dead? I was dead before, but I don’t know why I’m up again.” she turned back to me again. “unless you… did something?”

“I don’t think so?” I said, attempting to stand up despite my headache. “all I did was fall...” I began brushing petals from my jeans – it was apparently a flowerbed that broke my fall – and looked back at Chara.

She seemed lost in thought.

“Well! I think we should get going,” I continued, standing up. “can’t stay in this one room forever, now, can I?”

“...You’re taking all this rather well...” Chara raised an eyebrow.

I hesitated before answering. This isn’t the kind of thing you usually admit to so soon after meeting someone, right? But I can't think of a reason not to, either, so... “I’m not exactly unused to the idea of weird things. I’m a geek, plus, the town makes sure I’m well-versed in the folklore.” I laughed and turned away to avoid Chara’s reaction. I heard her snort before I began walking away.

“Wait! I don’t know how to… float… or whatever… yet!” Chara yelped, struggling to figure out an efficient way to keep up. So I idled for a minute as she got her bearings so I could help her figure it out. Not that I had any experience in this, either.

“Try… standing on the floor?” “Imagining where you are in space?” “Using some kind of energy to push yourself in the right direction?” After much trial and error, Chara found out that she could sort of move through the air if she believed she was moving of her own accord and not some weird mixture of fate and irony.

<3      <3      <3

In the next room there was another flowerbed. I turned to Chara with a puzzled look that said are there just flowerbeds everywhere in the Underground? I thought there wasn’t any sun? And Chara shrugged. I shrugged back and entered the dark room.

Suddenly, another flower appeared from the middle of the patch, but this one was different. It had this... sickeningly cutesy smile in the middle of it’s face, and it’s eyes looked almost real. I found out why within a few seconds.

“Howdy! I’m FLOWEY. FLOWEY the FLOWER!” he said. His voice was friendly, but it was more the tone of an employee talking to a customer than the tone of a friendly stranger. A kid might have been convinced, but not me. My eyes narrowed immediately.

“Hmmm… You’re new to the UNDERGROUND, aren’tcha? Golly, you must be so confused.”

“...Yes, my name is… Melanie...” I lied hastily. It wasn’t necessarily smart, but I knew that fairies, at least, needed your name to control you. “This place IS really confusing.”

“Someone ought to teach you how things work around here! I guess little old me will have to do.”

Chara shifted uneasily beside me. “I don’t think he can see me… but his voice sounds really familiar for some reason...”

“Ready? Here we go!”

Suddenly, I felt my SOUL move within my body. It glowed from inside my chest, a bright, happy yellow, in stark contrast with my mental state. It was the freakiest thing I’d ever seen in my life; humans don’t have the power to touch or mess with our SOULs, right? I shivered.

“See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!”

At FLOWEY’s sugared request, I looked down at the bright yellow heart in my chest. It gave me another start, thinking about how my SOUL, my entire personality and emotions, were culminated in this glowing heart. It was right there. How easy would it be to take it from me, if it’s so obvious and bright?

FLOWEY continued as if I weren’t about to have a panic attack. “Your SOUL starts off weak, but you can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV.” a smirk appeared on his face that gave me a shiver. “What’s LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course!”

“You want some LOVE, don’t you? Don’t worry, I’ll share some with you!” He gave me a cutesy wink and stuck his tongue out. A feeling of dread washed over me. I discreetly turned to Chara, who seemed just as freaked out as me.

“Grace…” Chara started, “…LV doesn’t stand fo-”

“Down here, LOVE is shared through...” FLOWEY unknowingly interrupted. “Little white… ‘friendliness pellets’.” Above him, FLOWEY seemed to make these little white seed-shaped things appear above his head.

“Grace, that’s magic.” Chara interrupted again. “They-”

“Are you ready?” FLOWEY went on, keeping me from hearing the end of Chara's sentence. “Move around! Get as many as you can!”

My instincts all screamed at me to dodge. I swerved around, avoiding the oblong magic things as they shattered on the ground.

FLOWEY’s face twitched. His voice was just a hint more exasperated, like a D*sney employee having to deal with an insulting customer.

“Hey buddy, you missed them.” he said, his eyebrows furrowed. “Let’s try again, okay?” FLOWEY quickly prepared another set, and didn’t say anything until I’d ‘missed’ all the ‘friendliness pellets’ again.

His voice had lost all its honey this time. “Is this a joke? Are you braindead?” He started, voice getting louder as his frustration filled the air. “RUN. INTO. THE. BULLLETS" Surprised at himself, he suddenly backtracked- "friendliness pellets.”

I blinked. It was like he somehow pressed a backspace in real life - I'd never seen someone do that before.

That was the last straw. Was this a joke? Was the flower braindead? Or maybe monsters are wildly irregular with what kids, teens, and adults look like? I wasn’t sure about that, but I WAS sure on one thing – I was NOT letting those magic bullets touch me or my SOUL.

FLOWEY’s face shifted. His smile seemed genuine this time, but not for good reasons. He smirked with a look of respect. His words seemed to shake with invisible rage as they hit the air, malice on every word.

“YoU kNoW wHaT’s GoInG oN hErE, dOn’T yOu?”

I was frozen. How could something with such an innocent form be so filled with pure evil and perversion?

“yOu JuSt WaNtEd To SeE mE sUfFeR,” FLOWEY continued, surrounding me with an unbroken circle of bullets.

“Die.”

- He said with frustration, and suddenly the bullets began to close in on me. I ran frantically around, looking for some weakness in the magical barricade of homicide while FLOWEY’s manic laughter filled my head with static. Chara followed me closely. 

“Try that cluster! It looks like – oh,” She cursed. “It’s the same. Go look at that- no no. Hold on I’ve got you, just hold on-” She was saying as we slowly dissolved into tears, my movements becoming more panicked by the second.

Just as I thought I was about to take my final look at the world, a green glow appeared around me, almost imperceptible. When the bullets touched my skin – all at the same time – they barely left a pain like a static shock. Surprised, I looked up. A stupid, fleeting thought like was this all just a joke? Flashed in my mind, but FLOWEY’s shocked and annoyed face told me otherwise.

Suddenly a flash of light started me from my pointless reverie. It was… a fireball? Like a real, DND style fireball. It filled up my eyes with light as it was hurled in the face of FLOWEY, burning him harshly. The chaotic weed seemed to feel he was outnumbered at that point and sunk into the ground, running away. I turned to see who or what could have done something so outside common sense when a kindly-looking goat woman ran into the room worriedly.

“What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth...” she said, looking me in the eyes with concern. “Ah, do not be afraid, my child,” she continued, “I am TORIEL, caretaker of the RUINS. I pass through this way every day to see if anyone has fallen down.” Toriel looked down thoughtfully, holding her hands over her chest. “You are the second human to come down here in recent time, but before them it had been much longer” putting her hands down, she shook her head before gesturing at the opening behind her. The second human? I thought, hope swelling I my chest. But before I could ask, Toriel continued.

“Come! I will guide you through the catacombs.” she said, beginning to turn to the doorway. “This way.”

“Okay then...” I said, giving Chara an inquisitive look. To my surprise, Chara was looking at Toriel with a complicated expression. “Chara,” I said quietly enough for the goat lady not to hear, “Do you know her?”

Chara gave a start. “...Yeah, I do. But let’s wait until you can talk freely for me to explain. I don’t… I don’t think I can face-I don’t know how well she’d handle me still being… around.” Chara sighed off the awkwardness. “For now, just know that she’s probably the nicest person you’ll meet here other than dad. You can trust her.”

“Dad?” I began to say, but Chara shook her head, so I just shrugged and began following the monster. Past the arch were two sets of stairs, and in front of them was a monster lady who seemed relieved to see I was following her.

“Sorry ma’am, I just-”

“It’s alright, my child.”

“No, I didn’t come with you. That wasn’t very nice of-”

“It’s fine, my child.” she took my hand kindly, trying to comfort me.

Toriel’s face had a puzzled expression that only lasted a millisecond before being replaced with a genuine smile. “Well, we musn’t dawdle! I’m sure you’re tired after such an experience. Let us proceed to the next room.”

As she began walking towards the door at the top of the stairs, my eyes were drawn to a small, yellow star shining in between the two staircases. I moved to ask Toriel what it was, but she was already within the threshold of the next room. Instead, I turned to Chara.

“Can you see this?” I said, pointing at the glowing four-pointed star.

“See… what?” she said seriously.

“This star thingy?” I said, moving my body to be out of Chara’s way to see.

“No…? This is just a wall, Grace.” She raised an eyebrow. “Dude, you have weird reactions to everything… is this a joke?”

I shook my head. Quietly, I raised my hand to touch the star. I could hear a weird sound in my ears, like half a doorbell ring, and then…

“Is this… like… a video game menu?” I said out loud. Chara’s face was filled with astonishment as they attempted to touch it (with all attempts failing as they had with her touching anything else).

“What… the… heck…?!?” Chara said, a hand tensely grabbing her hair. “...Is THIS?”

“Didn’t I just describe it? It looks like a video game menu. What’s this… SAVE? RESET? Wait.” I spluttered almost incoherently, the realization dawning on me with a shaky breath.

“...LOAD…

“...

“...c-can I…

“...

“...control time… with this?” I wasn’t thinking clearly. Nope. No way. This isn’t real. What kind of joke is this?

“Hey Grace? Can YOU see THIS?” Chara said, pointing at something directly in front of her. I looked at the wall straight ahead.

“No…?”

“Okay. So, let’s just trust that we both can see something the other can’t.” Chara said, swallowing. “Okay so it’s just some words. It says, in parenthesis, ‘The shadow of the ruins looms above, filling you with a desire for JUSTICE.’ Oh wait it’s changed. ‘HP fully restored.’ huh. Does that mean you get healed every time you touch one of those things?”

I would have responded but I was interrupted by Toriel.

“Are you coming, my child? There are much prettier spots in the RUINS, you know!”

I shrugged at Chara as I turned for the door. In the next room, Toriel was standing next to a closed door. As I walked in, she began to explain.

“Welcome to your new home, innocent one. Allow me to educate you in the operation of the RUINS.” she gestured at the few lines of buttons on the floor in a diamond-shaped pattern behind a switch and a plaque on the wall. “The RUINS are full of puzzles, ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys.” She apparently was the type to move her hands while she talked – her hand accidentally hit the switch, which made the clunk sound of an obviously incorrect answer, which made her giggle.

“I don’t think that was the correct answer, ms. Toriel.” I snorted.

“Oh, very funny my child.” she continued laughing with me a minute.

When we’d finally calmed down, she attempted to make a serious face at me. “But seriously, these puzzles are nothing to mess with. One must solve them to get from room to room, and they can even be deadly. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them.” she said, implying that I solve this puzzle on my own.

I took confident steps immediately to the plaque on the wall, feeling Toriel’s gaze on me all the while. It read:

Only the fearless may proceed

Brave ones, foolish ones

Both walk not the middle road

I stared at the text for a minute. What? Usually, hints are more straightforward than this… I looked at Toriel’s encouraging face, and she gave me a thumbs up. Well, I guess if she thinks I can do it…

Fearless… brave… foolish…

Wait, is the only important line the last one? I looked at the line again. No… middle? Ah, only the outside ones…! But which outside ones? I stared at the buttons again. Well, I guess there’s only one middle line…

I stepped on the outermost buttons while avoiding the middle two, pressed the switch, and crossed by fingers. There was an immediate clack as the ancient gears moved against each other and a crash as the door came down. Toriel clapped, but Chara seemed frustrated. I’d purposefully avoided looking at her while I was doing the puzzle, so I (apparently) didn’t notice her painful expression of annoyance.

“Come ON that was so easy! I could have helped you, too.” she said, stressing every other word.

“I know I know, but I thought you helping would ruin with the spirit of the puzzle. Besides, you probably had her to do it for you, that’s why you knew the answer, right?” I whispered under my breath as Toriel beckoned me into the next room. Sighing audibly, Chara relented.

“To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches. I’m sorry, I have labelled the ones you need to flip. It ruins the puzzle for a big kid like you, right?” Toriel gave me a supportive but sorry smile as she crossed the room to observe my progress.

After I watched her get to the other side, I walked straight forward and saw a sign that read:

“Press [Z] to read signs!” In quotation marks.

“But I can read signs already? What am I missing here…?” I mused, holding my index finger to my mouth. I looked to Chara, who seemed just as confused. Staring at it again, a thought came into my head.

I pressed the letter [Z] on the sign.

“Press zee to read signs!” it twittered joyfully.

...

Me and Chara doubled over – the sheer ridiculousness of putting so much effort in something useless like this was hilarious. I could even hear Toriel giggling to herself from across the room… whether she was laughing at the sign or at me, it’s impossible to tell.

Getting back on my feet, I took another survey of the room. I giggled a bit at the sign on the wall ahead of me - it read, “Stay on the path” as if someone were going to walk over there just to stand there to read it. To my right, there was a bridge and a single switch on the wall, surrounded by vines and redrawn writing I couldn’t read. Across from the bridge was a set of low spikes that, though impeding our path, I was almost certain I could simply hop over – or even simply walk across in my hiking boots. Upon further inspection, the handwriting was much more legible. It read:

Please press this switch.

-TORIEL

I cocked an eyebrow. Either this is a simple trial for kids, or a dangerous trap. Toriel’s smile was fairly genuine, but the only person who was on the same page as me was impervious to falling on a pit of spikes or being pierced by poison arrows. I turned my incredulous face to Chara, who was on my left.

“She’s really not the underhanded type, Grace. This is… just a simple puzzle, I think. Go ahead.”

I turned back to the switch when Toriel cleared her throat.

“Is it possible you need some help...? This should be easy for you.” she said patiently. “Press the switch on the wall.”

“No, no,” I said, embarrassed. Chara laughed into her hands. “I guess I was just overthinking it, is all.”

Toriel grimaced. “I suppose that’s a natural reaction to seeing a puzzle so simple. Do not worry, the puzzles will be far more interesting further into the catacombs.” Toriel shifted between her feet. Is she late for something?

I flipped the switch, trying desperately to quell the awkward vibe that had latched itself to my stomach. Toriel moved into the next phase of the room; TWO switches! How scandalous!

Chara chuckled behind me, pointing at the writing next to these switches.

Please press this switch too.

-TORIEL

And next to the ‘wrong’ one,

No no no! You want to press the other switch.

-TORIEL

Sighing sheepishly, I flipped the obvious switch, enjoying the satisfying THUNK as the spikes fell weightily. Toriel clapped her hands together (Or are they paws? Wait, she’s a goat, so shouldn’t they be hooves?). “Splendid! I am proud of you, young one. Let us move to the next room.”

As Toriel left the room, I turned to Chara once again. “Do you think she was praising me for the puzzle work, or…?”

“Definitely the trust.” Chara nearly tripped in midair as she lost herself in thought, muttering under her breath. “It feels like she’s been using this as a test of some sort for a while now. Or maybe it was meant to be a two-way street…?” the apparition mused, spinning in the air. Once she noticed, she shrieked and flopped around to ‘regain her balance’ – a dumb concept, seeing as she’s basically in zero gravity all the time.

Entering the next room, I was greeted with Toriel presenting a… training dummy?

“As a human living in the UNDERGROUND, monsters may attack you.” Toriel explained, gesturing to the dummy. Sometimes she would hit it while moving her arms about, but she would apologize every time she did. “You will need to be (sorry) prepared for this situation. However, worry not! (Sorry!) The process is simple.”

Toriel walked forward and gently placed her enormous hand on my shoulder, leading me to the dummy. Chara followed, curious but amused.

“When you encounter (sorry,) a monster, you will enter a FIGHT.” Her voice got deeper at the end of that statement, but she immediately attempted to cover it up. “While you are in a FIGHT, strike up a friendly conversation (sorry). Stall for time. I will come to resolve the conflict. Practice talking to the dummy.” She was hitting the dummy less, now that her hand was on my shoulder, but that doesn’t mean her hand wasn’t in my face the whole time. Chara laughed.

Toriel let my shoulder go for me to address the dummy. Having a closer look made me confused. Was this really just a dummy? I stared into it’s eyes.

“Go ahead and try talking to him, nothing to be embarrassed about!” Toriel attempted to assure me.

“Not very reassuring, maman,” Chara said, rolling her eyes. “you’re telling her to talk to herself, it’s gonna be weird. It’s not like she has multiple personalities or something…”

Maman? Wait, ask later.

I stared at the dummy. My SOUL came out suddenly, surprising me. Was this thing… a monster? I rubbed my eyes, looking again.

“Hey, uh, not to alarm you or anything, but there’s more words in the air over here.” Chara said, eyes fixed on a spot on the wall. I tried to ignore her – not out of malice, but because Toriel was watching. Chara seemed to catch my drift because she continued. “it says: DUMMY – ATK (I guess that means attack?) 0, DEF (defense I guess) 0. ‘A cotton heart and a button eye, you are the apple of my eye’? That doesn’t even rhyme correctly.”

I continued to stare at the DUMMY. Sighing, I attempted to make conversation.

“What’s the weather… wait, do you know what weather is? Is there a way for it to ‘be like’ down here?” the DUMMY didn't answer as I trailed off. Chara read another passage aloud: “it says, ’It doesn’t seem much for conversation.’ Well, TORIEL seems happy with you.”

Toriel turned around, shoulders bouncing as she restrained her laughter.

“Whoa, there’s another screen! This one says, ‘YOU WON! You earned 0…” Chara stopped, eyes narrowing before continuing. “Gold. Zero g.”

Scrupulous, I thought to ask her about it when I remembered Toriel’s presence. We’d better get some time alone soon, I thought, or this kid’s secrets are gonna kill me…

“Ah, very good! You are very good.” Toriel said, finally turning around. I rubbed my neck – what a bad day to be so awkward!

Chara and I followed Toriel into the next room. The motherly goat seemed pretty excited about this next puzzle.

“There is another puzzle in this room…” she said with a cheesy, mysterious air. “I wonder if you can solve it?”

As I followed her into the room, I took silent note of the strange pattern on the ground before entering the hallway. However, before I could enter, a frog-looking thing stepped in front of me.

“Oh, a Froggit, eh?” Chara said, eyes glistening. “Oh, and the text says, ‘Froggit attacks you!”

Okay, what did I learn? I thought, looking at the possible amphibian. I learned I’m terrible at small talk… I already knew that I guess. Ah, if I distract it, then...

“Your… eyes are really pretty!” I said – compliments are the only idle chat I do well, anyway.

Chara piped up again. “It says, ‘Froggit didn’t understand what you said, but was flattered anyway.’ Huh, I never knew they had any kind of intelligence!”

As soon as I complimented the frog(?), the goat woman turned around, probably to reject the compliment, only to find her susceptible quarry in the middle of a FIGHT!? Toriel gave it a glare that could cut marble and it fled. Turning around, she walked straight past a sign that read:

The western room is the eastern room’s blueprint.

As we reached the ‘eastern room’, Toriel stopped.

“This is the puzzle, but…” she thought for a moment before continuing. “No, you’re a big girl. How old are you?”

“I’m nineteen.” I said inquisitively. “Why?”

“Ah, then I believe you will be alright. Would you like to close your eyes as I cross, or would you like me to watch, just to be safe?”

“Hmm… I’ll close my eyes. No, wait, if you do that I’ll hear you and know the answer. Better wait for me then.”

Toriel nodded, but despite her own chastisement for underestimating me, she continued to watch with anxiety. Why was this poor goat lady so nervous about me?

I shuffled my feet near the spikes on the floor. Was this some kind of sensor puzzle, like in Z*lda games? Dragging the front of my boot in front of the spikes, I tapped every third one until- CLACK! The spikes went down in a square in front of me. Taking a deep breath, I stood on the open space. Toriel gave a woot! Of encouragement.

“That’s the ticket, young one!” she said. When I turned to look, she was smiling, but not quite relieved. Chara attempted to tap me on the shoulder.

“Hey, Grace? Do you think this has anything to do with the riddle from earlier?”

I nodded, though I pretended it was directed at Toriel. A zigzag, right? Slowly, I walked forward, tapping the spikes every time I was about to move into sharp territory. Eventually I made it to the other side – not without snagging my hand on the spikes though. I didn’t notice at first since I was worried about tripping up, but my hands were out for balance when I lifted a foot from a spiky part and it came up and grazed one.

Finally, I reached the other side and relaxed. Mentally exhausted, I let out the air I was holding. I could hear Chara doing it, too. Toriel was applauding me and laughing with relief as she came over, but that quickly turned to worry when she saw me.

“My child, you are… bleeding?! Are you all right?!” she said as she rushed through the pointy maze – annoyingly easily, I might add.

“What? Oh, I nearly forgot!” I said, looking at my hand. There was a big cut along my left palm, and my hand was covered in red. Chara seemed shocked and turned around, looking like she was trying not to hurl. Though, what she could even vomit is up for debate…

Looking at my hand again, I addressed my caretaker. “I’m… okay, I think. Dang this hurts… sorry for not telling you, I’ve never been the type to yelp or cry much when I’m hurt.”

Toriel didn’t seem amused. “Trying to be strong isn’t necessarily a bad thing, my child. But if you are hurt, I would like to know immediately, please.” She reached for my hand, but didn’t touch it. A green glow came from her hand, touching mine and seemed to seep into my wound. I felt a new but familiar weight… was she touching my SOUL without removing it? Looking down, I saw my SOUL glowing from inside my chest, but it was green this time instead of yellow.

“Whoa…!” it was more like a reaction than anything. Toriel chuckled, causing the flow of power to become uneven for a moment. The discrepancy of weight reminded me how heavy it felt for someone else to touch your soul – like a weighted blanket was put on your heart. It was warm, and I could feel my skin stitching closed on my hand – which was a weird feeling, like your skin slowly becoming strings that connected over the wound, but it was comforting.

“There we go, good as new!” she said, letting go of my hand and my SOUL. Touching my still bloody hand, I noted that my palm had a small scar on it, and that it was incredibly hot, like a feverish forehead.

“Wow, that was incredible…” I mused, attempting to rub my hands clean.

“Healing magic is nothing particularly special, my child.” Toriel was holding her hands together, not looking at me. Was she embarrassed?

“Well, it’s my second experience with magic and the first good one so…” I let my sentence trail off. Toriel smiled.

“If that’s how you feel, I suppose I’ll take the compliment,” the gentle monster said, holding a knuckle to her chin. “Though, it may be only to quiet your further teasing!” she smiled mischievously.

Chara and I laughed.

“Guess she’s always going to be the same,” Chara snorted, “Though she definitely got sassier in the time I was gone!”

“Well, I suppose it’s time to move on. Most puzzles aren’t as dangerous as this, so you will be fine for now.” The motherly goat said, taking my hand. She closed her eyes, thinking for a moment before leading me into the next room.

The next room was less of a ‘room’ and more of a hallway. It was incredibly long and had nothing in it besides a pillar at the end.

“You have done excellently thus far, my child.” Toriel shifted between her feet. “However… I have a difficult request to ask of you.” She closed her eyes a moment. “I walk to walk to the end of this room with you, but then I would like to ask you for a favor. Forgive me for this.”

She then ushered me to her side. Chara floated to her other side and attempted to at least pretend to hold Toriel’s hand. I had to try to stifle a smirk at the sight of it.

“Something the matter?” Toriel said, smiling at me.

“I suppose not,” I said, trying to come up with something on the spot. “Well, this whole adventure has been much more humorous and much less deadly than I expected…”

“This has been much funnier than I could have predicted, to be sure.” Toriel said, putting her hand on her cheek and closing her eyes as she grinned. “I am glad you seemed to stop worrying so much. Whatever that weed was, they seemed quite threatening when I showed up.” She paused a moment. “…are you sure you’re all right? I’m certain this hasn’t been a terribly good experience for you.”

Chara stared silently at the floor.

“I’m… okay... Believe it or not, it’s not the most shocking thing for me to experience, so…” I left the thought open, looking away from the mother and daughter. “Actually, can I ask? Those puzzles back there. They seemed fairly juvenile until the spiked bridge. Why is that?”

“Well, the spiked bridge is an ancient one, built when we first fell,” Toriel almost hit me in the face while moving her hand in a sweeping motion, as my eye level was about at her elbow. “Oh, I’m sorry, my child. The others were… well…”

“They were you, right?”

“Yes, they were. The mechanisms were made long ago, but I had to do some engineering to get them to work. They were left to rot once the rest of the Underground was civilized. Plus, the riddles were much harder before, and I usually expect children to be the only ones climbing the mountain. Goodness, that was a long time ago…”

“You say that like you were there when it happened. Wasn’t that during, like, the medieval a-”

“Oh, we’re reaching the end of this hallway!” Toriel interrupted. She may have been right, but it was obvious she was hiding something. Chara seemed… uneasy.

“My child,” Toriel started, walking ahead a pace or two and turning to face me. It was a bit nerve-wracking, seeing her for how tall she was. She was at almost seven feet tall, or more! “Thank you for trusting me. However, there was an important reason for these exercises …to help us get to know each other and to… oh, I’ll say my piece later.” She always looked me in the eye, which normally would make me feel uncomfortable, but for her it made me feel more secure, more seen.

“You said you needed a favor?” I said, breaking the silence.

“Oh, yes. I nearly forgot. I would like to attend to some business, and you must stay alone for a while. Please remain here. It’s dangerous to explore by yourself, as other monsters may try to attack you – if only to protect themselves, mostly. I would like to help you prepare before encountering them.”

“…okay, Ms. Toriel. I trust you…” I muttered. I still felt suspicious – not of her bad intentions, but of her good intentions. I don’t know what I would do if she’d helicopter me once we got where we were going. It’s not like I’m an eight-year-old with a stick. Noting my sheepish look, Toriel sighed, then her eyes lit up.

“I have an idea. I will give you my CELL PHONE number. If you have a need for anything, just call. Be good, alright?”

With that, Toriel opened the door at the end of the hall and left. Chara sighed loudly as soon as the door was shut.

“FINALLY, I can talk like a normal person.” She said, swooping in front of me.

“Looks like you’ve got the hang of floating while I couldn’t talk to you, too.” I said, smiling.

“Yeah, since mom can't see me, I was able to get some practice in while you two were playing with ancient baby puzzles!”

“Hey, they weren’t that bad. You saw me get hurt, too, didn’t you? There’s gotta be ones that are more fun later.” I said, showing her my scarred palm.

“…Your idea of ‘more fun’ involves bodily harm? Don’t think mom would like that much.”

We continued to chat this way for a while, enjoying the presence of another youth. I may be a legal adult, but not really a real adult. The RUINS were ominous and full of noise, but it almost seemed like a perfectly reasonable teen meetup.

“You know, I don’t think Ms. Toriel ever got my name. She’s called me ‘my child’ this whole time.” I suddenly realized.

Chara thought for a moment. “You know what, I think you’re right! I mean, it took her ages to finally hear my name. She really makes an entrance for herself, doesn’t she?”

Instead of answering, I smiled and let a beat pass before talking again. “You know, I don’t think I know anything about you. How do you know Toriel? You called her mom, and more than once. I guess I don’t know much about Toriel either though…”

Another moment’s pause.

“…she was my mother, in all but blood – obviously I'm not a Monster, myself. When I fell to the Underground, she took me in, but…” Chara started to tear up at the end of her statement.

“You died soon after, right?” I started, mostly to stop her reverie. “It’s… sort of obvious you’re a ghost, so…”

“…yeah. There’s… wait a minute.” Chara looked away for a moment before continuing. “…you mentioned a ‘medieval age’? What’s that?”

My eyes widened. Wringing my hand in my hair, I stared at the wall.

“That's... hmm. Do you know how long you’ve been dead?”

“Huh?” Chara turned back to me. “N-no, I woke up where I was in front of you. It really was just as much of a shock for both of us – maybe more for me, since the last thing I remember is As…” she looked down, covering her mouth. “Death. I remember dying.”

“…What about the year you died? Do you know?”

“…”

I decided to drop it. This reality check was for Chara to figure out, and if she needed me, she would ask.

Then my phone rang. Chara was startled by it every time, since it (obviously) was her first time ever hearing one.

It had rung a couple times before, the first time to tell me that her errands were taking longer than expected, and the other two alerted me that a white dog had stolen her phone. What bad timing for this one!

I pressed the ‘receive’ button. “Hello?”

“…” the sounds of snores came over the receiver.

“I guess the dog still has her phone?” I said, trying to still keep an eye on Chara, who seemed about to have a nervous breakdown. I wanted to give her a hug so badly…

“Helloooo?” the distant sound of Toriel shouting came through the speaker. “Little puppy…?”

“Chara,” I said, covering the microphone (the dog seemed to snort in his sleep when I said her name), “I swear I’m gonna figure this out. We at least have each other, right?”

Chara looked up, tears in her eyes. I wanted to cry, too. “Yeah, I guess so.” She said. “This is just so confusing for me…”

“I will give you a nice pat on the head!” came Toriel’s voice again. The snoring stopped.

“Me too. I promise, I’ll- ”

“…if you return my CELLPHONE.” Toriel interrupted again. I stifled a smile as the snoring of the dog resumed.

“What is it?” Chara wiped her eyes.

I hung up the phone. “I promise, I’ll tell her you’re around.”

Chara seemed taken aback. “Really? Wouldn’t she think you’re crazy?!”

I smirked. “Nope. As long as you’re up to prove your existence, we’re Gucci.”

“What’s – never mind. But what if it messes up and she still doesn’t believe you? Aren’t you worried at all?”

“Certainly. If you don’t want to, I can just leave it as is. But if you do, my promise still stands.” I stood up, putting my hands in my pockets. “Besides, I’d give anything to talk to my mom again. You have the opportunity to do what I'll never have, so you better take it, kid.”

“Wait, what are you saying? You-”

“Let’s go. Your mom isn’t going to be missing her phone for long, but I don’t think I could take any more of this. I want to have a chance to get through some puzzles without your mom’s babying.”

“But you had to be healed from the last one!”

“Potato, potahto. C’mon, I’m sure you could lead me through here, easy!”

Chapter Text

Chara simply sighed as I opened the door for her, earning a confused look from the Froggit on the other side. Wait, are the eyes of a Froggit the ones on top or the ones below? Could it be the worst option, that they both are…

Before I could further question the intricacies of Froggit anatomy, my phone rang. 

“Hello? This is Toriel.”

“Yeah?” I said, not expecting such a call.

“You have not left the room, have you? There are a few puzzles ahead that I have yet to explain.”

“Uh,”

“It would be dangerous to try to solve them by yourself.”

“I know you feel-”

“Be good, alright?”

Click…

Chara sighed. “She’s pretty overbearing sometimes, huh? She always seems to call at the wrong – or, I guess, the right – times.”

“Hmm. You have a point there.”

I looked back at the room when suddenly the Froggit caught my eye – it seemed to be bouncing in a way to grab my attention. I went over to it like it wanted.

“Ribbit, ribbit. (Excuse me, human.)” for some reason, I understood that it was saying something. Chara was already flummoxed out for today, or else she might have screamed. Instead, she just turned her back and pretended to look at the beautiful view of a small room full of leaves.

“…yes, zer?” I responded. I could hear Chara’s psychic attacks already…

“(I have some advice for you about battling monsters. If you ACT a certain way or FIGHT until you almost defeat them…” the froglike creature paused for dramatic effect, “They might not want to battle you anymore.
“If a monster does not want to fight you, please… use some MERCY, human.) Ribbit.” 

I thought for a moment about the sincerity of what this slightly ridiculous creature was saying. This wasn’t something to laugh about.

“… I will, I promise.”

Chara laughed as she flew back to me. “You really giving out promises all over the place, huh? Or is that just some kind of weird trait?”

I shrugged, ignoring her. “Thank you for telling me.” I directed this statement at the Froggit with a nod, which he returned. Looking around, I saw there was a room to my left. 

“Guess we’ll do this one at a time – I’m not too fond of lists, but that’s the best way to search every room!” with confidence, I turned directly into the room and saw-

“…Just a bowl of candy?!” Chara yelled with frustration.

It was a fancy room with water flowing down channels on the sides and decorated with vines and a single, solitary column-shaped table. On the table there was a huge bowl – a bowl filled to the brim with candy in colorful wrappers.

“Huh,” Chara said, knuckle to her mouth, “I think this is the bowl dad used to use on All Hallows Eve. Wonder what it’s doing here?”

“I dunno. Though I guess there’s no way I would though, huh?” I said, approaching the stand. There was a note that simply said ‘Take one’ on the table. “Hmm, maybe I’ll just help myself to one or two…”

“I think that sounds like a good idea,” Chara said as I reached for the bowl. “Monster food isn’t going to feel the same as human food though, so be prepared for that.” 

Once I’d grabbed my first piece, Chara got excited again. “Grace, Grace, there’s another block of text!” I tried again to see what she could, but to no avail. 

“What’s it say?”

“It says, ‘You took a piece of candy. Make sure to put it away safely!’. Huh, guess whoever wrote this was pretty worrisome of people stealing each other’s candy. But why, though?”

“I don’t know. What were you saying about monster food?”

“Oh, that. Yeah, monster food is immediately absorbed by your SOUL, so you won’t feel it passing through you, and you won’t need to use the bathroom.”

“Whoa, really?” I said, staring at the ordinary-looking hard candy. “Anything else I should know?”

Chara grinned. “Yeah. The best part is that it heals your SOUL. You know, since it goes directly to it? It’ll fill your stomach, but not nearly as fast as human food, since it’s becoming energy for your SOUL. It’s probably the healthiest cuisine you’ll ever eat, if you ask me. Made me feel so good…” her ramble was so cute to me. She was so passionate about it. 

“All right then, guess I’ll take some more!”

“Wait…!”

I grabbed two more from the bowl. For some reason, I felt bad. But I only had enough for me, Chara and Toriel, technically.

“Grace! It said ‘take one’! Not ‘take three’!” Chara whined. 

“Yeah, but if I get hurt out there, I certainly don’t want Ms. Toriel seeing. That would just make her suspicions proven. Then I wouldn’t have any freedom, right?”

“She… well, maybe…” she was still apprehensive. 

“See? I’m not trying to be inconsiderate; I’m trying not to die-” I said, grabbing a small handful from the bowl. Chara gave a little shriek as the bowl fell to the ground, spewing colorful sugar everywhere. Staring at the mess, I suddenly realized.

Have I really thought about dying before? 

Am I nervous about it, now?

…

…Should I be?

Chara facepalmed. I barely registered her flitting about, fussing over a mess she couldn’t clean. I shook my head, trying to stop disassociating. When I came to, Chara was staring in a random direction again.

“What does it say…?” I asked, hopeful it would distract her from scolding me further. And that it would distract me.

“It says, “You took too much too fast. The candy spills onto the floor. Look at what you’ve done.’ That’s…” Chara looked at me again. “actually kinda funny, haha.”

“I’m sorry. For not listening to you.” I said, averting my eyes.

“It’s… okay. It’s possible I was making a much bigger deal out of it than necessary…”

“No. I was rude and inconsiderate and-”

“and worried about ending up like me. I get it.” Chara said. When I turned back to her, she wasn’t looking at me. “I’m certain I make a... a horrible reminder of what’s possible…”

“Nah, I really don’t see you that way, Chara.” I said walking closer to her. “It’s Toriel that reminds me of fleeting mortality, not you. You don’t remember the ages since… you know. She does. I’m so… small compared to her. In a multitude of ways…”

"..." Chara took a moment to fake a smile, deep in thought. “...Hey, at least you weren’t MY height when you met her!” Chara and I laughed at that one.

Leaving the room, I noted that there was only one door we could go through left. However, as I walked forward, I was interrupted by what would become my first ever normal FIGHT.

“Hey Chara, what is this?” I said, staring at the meek-looking bug.

“That’s a Whimsun. They won’t necessarily attack you, I think. Why?”

“Then I guess I just need to talk to it? Um…” I looked at it with pity. It looked like it was about to cry. “…Are you-”

Before I could say anything meaningful, Whimsun burst into tears, running away.

“Here’s another ending text. It’s the same as the last one…” Chara always seemed thoughtful when she saw one of those screens, but why was she the least descriptive with them too?

“Nothing new? At all?”

“No, nothing new.”

“…”

As we continued on, I noticed that the hallway was cracked on the floor. There were suspicious vents on the wall straddling the cracked area.

“Well, this couldn’t be more obvious, huh?” Chara said, rolling her eyes. 

“Yeah, but I don’t know if I can leap to the other side… Oh no.” I said with realization. "I might… I might FALL if I step on that… I gulped.

“What is it? It’s obvious you’ll get out.” Chara said questioningly. Of course she didn’t understand…

“I…” I struggled to say it without feeling like I might sound foolish or desperate for pity. “…”

“C’mon, what is it? You afraid of some boiling lava or something? I can assure you that you’d feel it if the CORE were here…” 

The CORE? “Nope, that’s not it either. I,” I sighed deeply, attempting to avoid feeding my own fear, “I have sensory issues and I… I really, REALLY hate heights…”

Chara froze. “But you fell to the Underground, right? This isn’t much different – in fact, it’s much smaller than that fall.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t mean to fall in the first place…” I said, looking into her eyes.

“Really? Most people who fall came here for the hole.” She folded her arms. “Either to fight monsters or otherwise...”

“I mean, yeah I was looking for something. But it wasn't the hole. I fell in because some kid was about to…”

“…Jump?”

“Yeah. It didn’t look like, well, that though…”

Chara sighed. “Fine, I’ll check under the floor for you. I promise I’m not gonna find anything scary, okay?”

“Well, it’s not the landing I’m scared of…”

“Ugh, whatever.” 

“Also, I passed out for most of the fall. I don’t remember it.”

“Alright, alright, miss Pansy Pants. I’m going.”

Chara dove under the floor. It was strange to figure out that her voice carried through the air like there wasn’t any floor – side effect of being incorporeal, I guess.

“Yep!” she yelled from under the floor. “Nothing to worry about, it’s a HUGE pile of leaves! In fact, it looks like fun… I’m jealous.”

Closing my eyes, I took a couple of steps forward – and a couple of steps backward. I squished my thumbs and clenched my teeth. Nothing to be scared of. You fell a thousand feet earlier – though you were unconscious…

I jumped. Feeling the floor crack was terrifying. I felt the painful lurch in my core burn as it made it’s way through my chest and to my fingertips, but the landing was fine. I felt nothing of landing. Chara seemed to take that as proof she was right (even though she wasn’t) and attempted to pull me to the vent. 

After climbing through the vent, we went to the next room. This time, there were more spikes. However, before I could cross the threshold to get to the riddle plaque, my phone finally rang again. 

“Hello. This is TORIEL. For no reason in particular… which do you prefer? Cinnamon or Butterscotch?” you could hear the mischievous smile in her voice.

“Oh, butterscotch all the way. Why?”

“Oh, I see. Thank you very much!” 

Click.

“Well, that’s fairly suspicious.” Chara said, ear close to the receiver.

“Well, at least it’s for a good reason and not a bad one. I might be getting more sweets!” I said triumphantly. Chara rolled her eyes.

“Like you need any more, you hogger.” She stuck her tongue out at me.

“Hey, you know why I did what I did! It was for safety.” I said as I started into the room.

“Yeah, yeah. You just want sugar.”

“Hey-”

RING! My phone rang again.

“Uh, hello?” I said, annoyed to be in two conversations at once. 

“Hello? This is TORIEL.” She said, a twinge of worry in her voice.

“Yeah?” I cocked an eyebrow and Chara rolled her eyes again.

“You do not DISLIKE cinnamon, do you? I know what your preference is, but… would you turn up your nose if you found it on your plate?”

“What’s this all about? No, I’m not very picky with cinnamon, I just prefer butterscotch. I like cinnamon with sugar on toast, so…”

“Right, right, I understand. Thank you for being patient, by the way.”

Click…

I felt a twinge of guilt at that last statement. I had been the person to push us out of the room, anyway. Shivering it off, I turned to the sign on the wall: Three out of four grey rocks recommend you push them.

“Huh.” Was all I could say. I easily pushed the grey rock out of the way – only to be interrupted by a Froggit!

“Ugh, another one?” Chara whined. 

“All right, uh, your coat thingy is pretty?” I complimented the frog thing.

“Meow.” Was all it said in return. Wait, was this thing a cat, too?

“Uh, if it’s important, the text says what it did last time: Froggit didn’t understand what you said, but was flattered anyway.’.”

“Well, guess it’s his turn to decide.”

I stared at the frog(?) intensely. 

“Ribbit. (Blushes deeply)” 

I could sort of understand this thing, too. Suddenly, he jumped at me, his paws(?!) had claws that scratched me!

“Whoa, this yellow bar started turning red a little!” Chara exclaimed, pointing at nothing. 

“I have a health bar? And you didn’t tell me?!”

“Health… what?”

“Ugh, sometimes, Chara…” I said. I coughed. “is there a number next to it?”

“Yeah, a fraction. It says, ‘23/28’? What’s that mean?”

“I bet that’s how much my SOUL can handle…” I said, trailing off as I looked in the direction Chara was. 

Froggit was terribly confused by all this commotion. They seemed reluctant to fight at all, anymore. I looked at the frog, who seemed to be quite done but stuck by societal convention to stay in this FIGHT with me – after all, they started it. I sighed. Guess I can’t take up his time just to figure out how FIGHTs work…

“I SPARE you. You can go.” I said. The word ‘SPARE’ just sort of popped into my head. Froggit hopped away gladly.  

“There’s another one of those end of FIGHT texts.” Chara whistled. 

“Anything different, this time?”

“Yeah, you got two gold for this one.” She said. And, sure enough, there were two pieces of gold sitting where the Froggit used to be. 

“It didn’t need to do that…” I said as I picked up the pieces. They were about the size of quarters, but doubly thick and four times as heavy. 

“He’s probably grateful that a human – especially one talking to voices - offered him MERCY when he was the one who started the conflict. This isn’t even enough for a doughnut or a candy bar, so don’t sweat it.”

“Yeah, but it’s gold, C.” 

“Don’t call me C. And no, it’s not. It’s actually fool’s gold – I checked when I was alive. It’s fairly prevalent down here, so instead of real gold – which there really isn’t much of – they used iron pyrite.”

“Oh. Okay then, guess I’ll just be grateful.”

“Exactly.”

Moving on to the next room, we saw another vent and a TON of cracked floor. I just about wet myself.

“Come on! I can deal with haunted houses, raging fire, and the possibility of drowning, but this” - I pointed at the possible pitfall – “This is hell!” 

Chara furrowed her brows at me. She seemed equal parts frustrated at and sad for me. “…Let me look. Again.” And then she went under the floor again. It was moments like these that really reminded me she was a ghost… 

It didn't take long for her to return.

“I’m back!” She yelled, coming out of the floor. 

“What did you find?”

“I found a bunch of leaves in a pattern and a sign that said to keep off them. I don’t really get it…”

“Oh, what pattern?” I said encouragingly.

“Let me see… it was like a zigzag? But it started from the top down and it… agh, I’m not going to be able to explain it! You’re gonna have to see it!”

I gulped loudly. Chara sighed. A moment went by of us thinking when-

“Ah, what about this?” Chara said, pointing at the air. “Why don’t you slide down the vent? Then you could see the pattern and go back up without having to fall!”

“…Oh yeah! Great idea, Chara!” perking up, I turned back to the chute behind me. I got into it and slid like I was on a playground – or at least I tried to, since the incline was slight so that I’d be able to climb back up it. At the bottom, I poked my head out of the tunnel to see if I had to come out. Seeing the cracked ceiling above, I shuddered at how high it was. 

“Come on, Grace,” Chara said as she spotted me. “It’s not that high…”

“Uh, yeah. Still don’t want to fall, either way.” I took a moment to commit the pattern to memory. Thank goodness I’m a geek, I thought as I stared. Or else I’d never understand this puzzle…

At the top of the vent, I looked out at the cracked stone. Realizing that the beginning of the walkway was directly at the wall, I took a shaky step forward from that starting point. There was a small CREAK, but…

“See? You’ll be fine.” Chara said, pretending to take my hand and lead me on. 

“Well, maybe,” I gulped. “That was only… ugh… one.”

We went on in a similar fashion as I completed the puzzle. At the end, we both fell to the floor, both in relief and from laughing at ourselves. 

“You know what?” I said as our fit concluded. Chara ‘sat up’ to look at me.

“What?”

“I don’t know what I’d do if Toriel found out my weakness. I might not ever be allowed in the RUINS to try puzzles ever again!”

“Wait, why would you want to? That was awful for you, right?” Chara raised an eyebrow. 

“Well, yeah. It was hellish. But how will I ever grow? I think this experience was really eye-opening.”

Chara looked away, thinking. Instead of a response, she simply ushered me forward. 

Chapter Text

The next room had no sign, but was similar to the other rock room in that – well, it had rocks. It had a spiked bridge as well, and several sensors on the ground in front of the rocks. Just like before, the rocks were fairly easy to move, until…

“WHOA there, pardner! Who said you could push me around?”

A rock. Was talking. To me.

“O-oh…” I said, at a loss for words. “Um, um, if you wouldn’t mind, I kind of need you to…”

“HMM? So you’re ASKIN’ me to move over?”

“Y…yes! Yes, that’s what I’m asking.” I couldn’t even look at it (Him? Them?)

“Okay, just for you, pumpkin.” And the Rock slid over – about three inches.

I walked over to it’s ‘landing point’. “Um, Mr. Rock?”

“HMM? You want me to move some more?” I nodded. “Alrighty, how’s this?”

And he sure moved. It was just. Uh. The Wrong Direction.

“Excuse me, rock?” I said sheepishly, trying not to seem needy. Definitely don’t want to be on their bad side – which, by the way, what would that look like? “That was the, um,” I looked away again, “wrong direction??”

“HMM? That was the wrong direction? Okay, think I got it.” And he finally slid into place!

“Thank you so much!” I said, giving him an awkward pat, which made me feel like he blushed about, for some reason. Walking forward, I had a start when the spikes suddenly came back up.

“SERIOUSLY?!?!?!” Chara screamed, knowing full well I was the only one who heard – in fact, I’m almost certain she counted on it.

I cleared my throat loudly. “The Rock?” I said, trying not to annoy it. “That was, urm, how do I say this… I need you to-”

“HMM? Stay there? You’re giving me a real workout.” Begrudgingly, the stone slid back onto the switch.

“Thank you, kind sir.” I said, not sure how you’re supposed to address a rock.

“Aren’t things easier when you just ask?” they said as a response. As we walked away, I’m sure both me and Chara were considering whether or not he said it ironically. As we entered the next room, I was surprised to see yet another of those four-pointed stars.

“Hey, Chara?” I said, pointing.

“Is it another one?” she said greedily.

“Yep. Another four-pointed star. I’m gonna touch it again!” I said, reaching out. It was warm, and this time I could appreciate the feeling of it’s energy coursing through me – I’m guessing to take a reading on my physical, mental, and time-oriented state.

“The… ‘flavor text’, I think you called it? It’s here, and it’s different.” Chara spoke without looking at me.

“Oh really?”

“Yeah. It says, ‘(Knowing the mouse might one day leave its hole and get the cheese… it fills you with an assurance of JUSTICE. File saved.’ What does it mean by ‘file’?” she said the word wrong, like she'd only ever read it.

I closed my eyes to think. “…I feel like I have a good guess… but I don’t really like the implication that much…”

“Why? I don’t know what paper files are but what is this doing?” Chara said, floating closer again. “What’s concerning about it?”

“Well,” I averted my eyes from her face, crossing my arms as I attempted to form my thoughts. “It’s similar to a video game, so…”

“A what?”

“Never mind. All that matters is that we pay attention if something happens to me.” I wasn’t very confident in my theory, but if it was true…

“…you mean… if you get hurt, right?” Chara seemed shaken at the thought. “Pay attention? Why?” she seemed to want to say more, but nothing came. Instead of responding, I walked over to the table with cheese on it. The cheese was stuck to the table.

“Grace?”

“I may be wrong. It’s best not to guess at this point.” With that, I began to enter the next room.

“…” I could feel Chara staring at me, not moving.

“If you’re right, then…but you’re not gonna try and find out, right?”

I attempted to ignore her as I walked away. Chara stayed put, presumably to think. In front of me was an hourglass-shaped room, but in the thin part, there was –

“Another ghost?” I said, pitch heightening at the end. Chara quickly came to my side. He was shaped more… cartoon ghostlike, I guess?

“ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ… ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…” the ghost was just saying ‘Z’ out loud repeatedly, pretending to sleep. “ZZZZZZZZZZ… are they gone yet… ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…”

Frankly, I had no clue what to do about them. Talking to them would be rude, regardless of whether or not he was pretending to sleep. But walking through them would be worse – I’d walked through Chara a couple of times before, and she said it wasn’t very pleasant (kind of like having a very hot heat wave crash through your body that was somehow denser than air. It was strong enough to push her a bit). Waiting would be just as bad, because it would make them feel responsible for ending the confrontation… what to do…?

“Sorry, Grace. I think you need to move it with force.” Chara said quietly.

I sighed and relented. I was going to have to be rude, no matter what answer I came up with. If I keep Toriel waiting, who knows what might happen..

“There’s another text thing,” Chara whispered, “It says, ‘Here comes… Nap-sta-blook’? That’s… not a name I’ve ever heard before…” She was eying ‘Napstablook’ incredulously, waiting for them to confirm or deny our suspicions. They stared at her.

I gave them a smile, trying to seem civil. “Excuse me. How… are you?”

“heh…” Napstablook looked just a little bit happier, but they also seemed to be sending out attacks without meaning to – since they took the form of tears, I assumed that was the reason they seemed so lonely.

Guess it’s time to bring out the ol’ Grace charm. “Hey Napstablook, why was the ghost refused service at a bar?” I said while dodging bullets.

They were genuinely not prepared for such a suspicious question! “…i don’t know, why…?”

I smirked. They fell for it! “Because they didn’t serve spirits there!”

“heh heh.” They laughed again, looking at the floor.

“Excuse me, but can you-”

“REALLY NOT FEELIN UP TO IT RIGHT NOW, SORRY.” They muttered, but it was fairly clear. They didn’t let me explain myself! How would they know what I meant?

Seeing how his reaction effected me, Napstablook seemed to think I deserved some cheering up, as well. “…can i… show you something?”

I nodded.

“let me try…” suddenly, Napstablook’s magic was flying on top of their head, forming a… top hat??? “i call it ‘dapper blook’. do you like it…?”

I pretended to take a moment to observe it.

“C’mon Grace, he awaits your response!” Chara exclaimed, a big smile on her face. 

“It’s so cute!” I said, big smile on my face. “I-”

“oh gee…” Napstablook interrupted again, but this time I wasn’t upset at all. They seemed about to cry. “i usually come to the RUINS because there’s nobody around…  but today i met somebody nice…” they paused. “oh, i’m rambling again.”

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Chara said, floating closer to the genderless apparition.

“oh… sure”

“You can see and hear me, right? I haven’t been around like – well, this – for long, so I’m not very used to it…”

“oh wow… you’re a human ghost? that’s rare… most of the time, humans turn into SOULS when they die, not ghosts…” Napstablook seemed pace nervously, somehow – hard to get across when you don’t have feet.

“You see, the only person who’s been able to see me since I, well, woke up, other than Grace, is you. Do you know why that might be?”

The specter frowned. “no… i don’t really know much about human ghosts… i was only ever interested in music, so i didn’t pay much attention in school…”

“…oh well. Guess it wouldn’t be that exciting if I didn’t have some suspense in my mystery.”

“sorry… i wasn’t much of a help…” Napstablook muttered, their top hat fading. “. i’ll get out of your way”

Before either of us could stop them, Napstablook disappeared.

“Well that happened, I guess.” I said, crossing the bed of leaves where Napstablook was napping. “Ooh, what’s in this room?” I said, walking straight foreward instead of to the left, which was brighter and obviously the path foreward. Inside, there were two spider webs and a sign, which read:

Spider Bake Sale

All proceeds go to real spiders.

“I wonder how that works? Do they have a place to bake? Do the steal or buy from grocery stores for flour and eggs and stuff?...Oh wait, monster food works differently so… hmm…” I raised an eyebrow.

“You’re overthinking it, Grace”

“Well, maybe. Did you never ask Toriel where monster food came from, Chara?”

The apparition looked away, flushing – again, blood where?? – and folded her arms. I shrugged and placed 7 of my 8g in the web. Spiders in the web took my money and slowly dragged a big, baked donut to me.

“Ewww… do you want to know what the air words say?” Chara asked, trying not to look. “It says, ‘Some spiders crawled down and gave you a donut.’, weird.”

I rolled my eyes. Didn’t know Chara had such a squeamish side. Grabbing the donut, I noticed Chara wasn’t turning back around.

“…What’s… ‘Spider Cider?’ Is that some kind of apple cider spiders make? How…?” Chara was mumbling.

“I mean…” I started, trying to keep a straight face, “It may be something even grosser?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll try to buy some, then we’ll see what the text says about it!” I turned to leave.

“…”

As we entered the room I’d skipped before, we saw three Froggits standing in a line. The first frog sighed deeply at either my approach or the other froggits, I couldn’t be sure.

Ribbit, ribbit. “(My friend never listens to me.)” they croaked (Chara did some in time translations for it.). “(Whenever I talk, they skip through my words by pressing [X]. That’s right…….Pressing [X]…………………………)” while they spoke, Chara waved her hands to grab my attention. I couldn’t see anything where she was pointing, but I took her word for it.

“There’s a [X] on the air words box thingy, Grace! I wonder if that’s what they mean? Can monsters see this usually?”

In the time Chara was explaining herself, the frog had finished his long pause. “(Well, at least you listen to me.)’

This made… absolutely no sense to me. I decided to just nod and leave it alone. In the same room, we encountered a Loox that seemed down in the dumps – I talked to it kindly and spared it, it leaving me with 5g. Now with 6g to my name, I decided I’d only find more monsters willing to FIGHT me in the next room. Don’t want to start FIGHTs on purpose, right? I wasn’t some bully trying to take someone’s lunch money, but I’d never used gold before and didn’t really know any other way to get it. Luckily, I ran into another Loox who reacted exactly the same way, gave me 5g (making me 11g rich!) and running away.

“What’s up with the monsters giving me money again? I don’t remember doing anything to warrant payment?” I finally voiced my opinions to Chara.

“I don’t know for sure… maybe they’re paying you for deciding to Spare them? I mean, monsters are all told from the time they’re born that humans are violent and cruel. I mean, I myself believe- never mind. But yeah, you’re reaction to everything has been pretty weird so far, even to me.” Chara rolled her eyes.

“…Well, I mean…., I am kinda grinding for g right now, so I’m not all that great, you know?” I said, stepping toward the next room. Before I could get far though, I got a call on my phone from Toriel.

“Hello? I just realized that it has been a while since I have cleaned up. I was not expecting to have company so soon.” Company… so soon? Like, she’s had people fall at a rate? “There are probably a lot of things lying about here and there. You can pick them up, but do not carry more than you need. Someday you might see something you really like. You will want to leave room in your backpack for that.”

“…Okay, Toriel. I’ll try to remember that. Though I’m sure I could put a whole Froggit in here, haha!” I said, laughing into the receiver. There was a pause before Toriel responded.

“…How do you know Froggits? You’ve only encountered one, and I never said what they are called. Ah, do not worry though. If you have left the room only a little ways, I do not blame you for being curious. Did one of them tell you?”

“Um… yep! They told me their name and we chatted for a while – didn’t know they could make you understand croaks, it’s kinda cool!”

“Alright. Well, I must get back to making- running my errands. I will call when I am coming back for you, my child. Do not worry, I will not come unexpectedly.”

I tried not to laugh or sigh into the receiver. “Yep. Well, …um…uh…talk to you later?”

She chuckled. “Yes, my child. Goodbye!”

*Click

“Well, that happened.” Chara put a hand to her forehead. “Why did she bother you with that if she didn’t think you were gonna leave the room? Seems weird to me.”

“Well… I get the impression this isn’t Toriel’s first rodeo, if you get what I’m saying?”

“Whatever a ‘rodeo’ is… whatever. You mean that mom’s been taking care of kids falling before, right?”

“You don’t kno- yeah, that’s right. Do you think… you’ve been…” I left the statement open as we entered the next room, in case Chara didn’t want to answer. She didn’t.

On the wall was a sign that read:

There is just one switch.

…and on the floor…

“More… cracks? falling? Please no nono no-“ I attempted not to cry. The wall next to the sign held the same went I’d crawled up the first time, and in front of me were six decorated cracks in the floor. Unprompted, but still rolling her eyes as she did it, Chara poked her head through the floor cracks, one by one.

Finally returning, she pointed at each hole as she explained. “This one in front of you just has a Vegetoid down it – they’re fairly harmless, and talk even less than Froggits. The hole to the right of it just has a ribbon, but I think that might keep monsters from hitting you as hard since you’ll look so cute, so I'd suggest taking it. Middle left is the switch, but to the right of it I said ‘hi’ to Napstablook so if you wanted to do that he’s right there. The left one near the door is empty, and to it’s right is another Vegetoid. So, what do you wanna do? How many times are you willing to fall?” She said with a reassuring smile.

Perhaps she suddenly realized how tough falling into the underground should have been for me – I decided not to tell her that the magic barrier broke my fall. I thought for a moment before walking towards the middle left one – the switch.

“I’ll… try some of the others, but I don’t know how far the fall is and I don’t know how much I’ll be able to take.” I said, seeing Chara’s disappointed face.

It took nearly five minutes to make myself fall on purpose – we finally decided to scare me into falling by having Chara distract me by touching my SOUL (which apparently she can do). Landing roughly on some leaves, I let myself breathe for a few minutes before standing and moving the switch. With a thunk!, I heard the spikes fall above me. Climbing back to Chara, I took a deep breath before cannonballing into the room with the ribbon, failing to resist the urge to scream as I did. I picked it up, looking at how faded it was before tying it to the end of my blonde braid. Hmm… red’s not really my color, but I can rock this. As I continued falling – sparing Vegetoids, FIGHTing other monsters on the way – it got a bit easier every time. Not to a comfortable degree, just a manageable degree. Chara made things easier, for sure. When we finally made it to Napstablook, I had 24g and a lot more confidence.

“i fell down a hole… now i cant get up…” the ghost complained, but didn’t seem all that worried about it. “go on without me…”

“Well, ghosts can fly, can’t they…?” I said, cocking an eyebrow.  “You’re good, bud.”

“oh… well… thanks” he said, disappearing.

“Well if you could teleport, what was the problem in the first place??” I said, shaking my fist in mock frustration as Chara giggled.

“Well, guess that’s all out of the way, now.” Chara said. “Let’s go on, shall we, partner?”

In the no unblocked room, there were tons of pillars with switches next to them and a sign which read: The far door is not an exit. It simply marks a rotation in perspective.

“There isn’t a puzzle in this room – these switches are for people trying to get back out.” Chara said, flying past me preemptively. “The answer is the green one though, if you were curious.”

“I believe you.”

In the next room, there was a pillar right in front of me. Before Chara could say anything, I instinctively pressed the switch. A satisfying clank sounded before either of us could talk, and I started for the next room.

“G…Grace! You can’t just- ”

“It was right though, wasn’t it?” I said, looking behind me at her.

“Yeah, this time. But there are a couple more of these and if you press the wrong one, you’ll fall!” She said, looking more worried than before.

“…oh.”

This time, I made sure to read the sign. Pressing the right switch for each of the remaining rooms was actually fairly easy, since the puzzle answered itself. Before I could reach the end of the last room, I had a final battle with a Vegetoid and some monster called a ‘Migosp’ whose attacks were really annoying and gross (locust bullets? No thank you). However, once the Vegetoid was gone, Migosp stopped attacking me and started to dance.

“I’m never going to understand every monster, am I?” I said. Looking at my 35g, I wondered out loud; “Am I going to be able to go back to the spider bake sale? I really wanted to know what that weird text says about spider cider…” Chara rolled her eyes for the fiftieth time today. Eating some monster candy to heal – Chara always made sure I was aware of my HP level, and that Migosp hurt – I entered what seemed to be like a ‘driveway’ to Toriel’s house. There was a decorative walkway and some leaves, but also a road towards a strangely noisy area to the right of Toriel’s house. Of course I went to the wrong road first.

“Ribbit, ribbit. (Just between you and me…)” a Froggit was near the entry to the noisy area. “(I saw TORIEL come out of here a little while ago. She was carrying some groceries. I didn’t ask what they were for… We’re all too intimidated to talk to her.) Ribbit.”

Past the door was the ruins of what must have once been a lively city, but now was home to what appeared to be residents within the hundreds. Still a lot, but not nearly as many in comparison. I stood, staring for a long while. The architecture, despite being worn with the years, was exquisite. Since there was no sun in this place, all the Renaissance-style buildings were unfaded, and despite their obvious age, they seemed well taken care of. A wind whistled through the eaves, though it didn’t feel like the crisp air you’d expect from a skyline – it was stuffy, like air conditioning in an old house. To my left was a toy knife, which I picked up without really thinking.

Chara was quiet.

Walking back to the ‘driveway’, I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.

“Whoa… that was beautiful.” I said, turning to Chara.

“They were so old… what in the world…?” Chara ignored me as she mused to herself. She was never going to let me convince her what year it was, no matter how hard I tried, was she?

In front of Toriel’s house was a large courtyard with a leafless tree. Walking up to the tree, I suddenly heard Toriel’s large footfalls as she talked to herself.

“Oh dear, that took longer than I thought it would.” She said as she closed her door. I heard her dial my phone and it rung in my hand as she tried to call it, and, hearing it ring, she rushed over to me. “How did you get here, my child? Are you hurt?” She was trying not to touch me, but couldn’t help looking me over. “Not a scratch… Impressive! But still… I should not have left you for so long. It was irresponsible to try to surprise you like this.”

“Surprise?” I said, raising my eyebrow.

“Err… Well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer. Come, young one!” and she started back toward the house. I turned to Chara, who smirked.

“Just wait and see.” She said, putting a finger to her mouth.

After using at the SAVE point in front of Toriel’s house, I walked inside to see the goat monster waiting for me - though Chara complained that she didn't get to read the 'air quotes' (using a pun to try and break my cover).

“Do you smell that?” she said as my absolute favorite smell wafted through the house. Butterscotch… oh man!

“Y e e s s…?” I said, trying not to seem so weird about one of my obsessive flavor preferences. Both Toriel and Chara smirked at my reaction.

“Surprise! It is a butterscotch- cinnamon pie. I thought we might celebrate your arrival. I want you to have a nice time living here. So I will hold off on snail pie for tonight.”

My catharsis was splintered by my gut reaction to such a suggestion. Welp, better ask Chara if her mother feeds you snails at every meal, or else I’m going to be very hungry here!

“Well…” I started, but didn’t know what to say in response. Before I could think of something, Toriel went on.

“Here, I have another surprise for you.” Leading me into the right hallway, Toriel seemed to think about taking my hand but decided not to. “This is it… A room of your own. I hope you like it!” She rubbed my shoulder tenderly before stopping abruptly, saying something about the pie burning and “Make yourself at home!” before running off.

In the room, Chara let out a sigh of relief. “FINALLY we can talk again.” She said, pretending to plop onto the bed. It was the prefect size for her, which didn’t bode well for me. Children’s toys neatly put away at the foot of the bed, a dresser full of mostly small sweaters, a bookshelf full of monster children’s books – no preparation for older humans falling. Furrowing my brows, I sat on the bed next to Chara.

“…You know, the fact that Toriel is so prepared for a kid is kinda concerning. Has there never been an older human to fall?”

Chara pursed her lips. “I wish I knew. I know I’ve technically been here the whole time but I don’t remember a single thing. It’s like I have amnesia, or my SOUL was resting but not ‘at rest’ so I wasn’t really gone? Who knows…”

“Well, we know you’ve been dead a long while, right? I know you don’t want to talk about it, but it’s only become more obvious as we explore and hear stuff from Toriel…”

Chara shuddered. “You know how creepy it is to think that I’ve missed so much? I’m trying not to think about it, okay?”

I closed my eyes. “Yeah, but remember how I had to fall all those times and you helped me, but I was the one who had to do it to continue moving?”

“…what? What does that have to do with- oh. And I teased you so much about that…”

“I’ll help you with this, I promise. Plus, I promised to tell Toriel you were here if you wanted – that should help, right?”

Chara shook her head. “Not… not yet. Let me try to figure out my feelings first…”

Nodding, I stood up. “Well, I’m gonna fall asleep if we keep sitting here, so I’m gonna explore. You can follow if you want, but you don’t have to since you’ll be so close. Go ahead and talk to your mom, even if she can’t hear you, I’m sure you’ll feel better knowing she’s actually there!”

Chara thought for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll be back. Don’t break anything or I’ll keep you up all night!” She said, phasing into the wall.

All of a sudden, I realized how alone I really was down here. Not like that’s any different from above ground, but…it's still creepy. Chara was right, the age of this place was disturbing.

Chapter Text

The toys were so old. Or at least, most of them; they didn’t interest me at all.  On the bookshelf there was a dusty, empty photo frame. Staring at it, I got the impression that Toriel took the photo out because it must have reminded her of someone she misses. Next to the bookshelf was a box of kids’ shoes in a disparity of sizes – no consistency in style, either. Some boat shoes, some kid heels, some sandals – and one pair of worn black boots that looked almost familiar.

“…WAIT.” I covered my mouth, anxious that Toriel might have heard my reaction. These are Chara’s shoes, the ones I see her wear! They’re practically falling apart in my hands though… perhaps when I eventually leave, I can try to sell these? I was thinking while holding the shoes when I suddenly stopped. …can I leave? Will the barrier let me?

Shaking my head as I placed the brittle leather back into the trunk, I walked back out of my room. In the hall there were these swampy plants that I didn’t remember the names of, but I still tapped with my fingers as I walked by. The next room was certainly Toriels – the bed was bigger than a twin and the journal on the table was filled with puns.

“I can see her making a ton of these.” I mused to myself as I carefully flipped  through the pages. The front of the journal was all torn out, but there was a name written in the cover that had been scribbled out – ‘Gorey’. Weird name. Then again, Toriel isn’t exactly… hmm, well I’d better stop reading her private diary, that’s rude. Ignoring the bucket of snails, I turned back towards the room when the bookshelf reminded me of something.

In the bookshelf there was an encyclopedia of subterranean plants.

“Ooh, maybe I can find out what those hall plants are?” I said, searching the pages for a picture of the corndog plants. Ah, there it is!

“Typha – a group of wetland… ah, ‘brown, oblong seedpods’, these are them!”

The next room over was under renovations – I made a mental note to ask Chara to look inside later. Looking in the mirror, I saw how covered in debris I was – leaves, dust – and shook my head. Taking nearly five minutes, I attempted to get all the stuff out of my blonde hair and the fibers of my sweater, resigning to asking Toriel how she washes clothes and bathes later. My blue eyes were a little sunken, reminding me of all the sleepless nights I’d had since I decided to chase after H_____. It made me think about why I was here. Why I would throw caution to the wind and go to a place where I might die… but then again, nothing’s been so lethal thus far. Maybe a little painful, but only out of fear for their lives, right? Completely JUSTIFIED. Turning around, I walked back towards the stairwell area.

“Chara? What’s up?” I whispered, noting Toriel’s footsteps in the room across from me.  Chara was floating above an open drawer on the other side of the banister, a blank look on her face.

“I… didn’t go any further. This… this is…!” she pointed in the drawer. In it was an old calendar from the beginning of 2019, a year ago.

“…oh…” was all I could say. Without another word, I shut the drawer.

“…Grace…?” Chara managed to squeeze the word out with some difficulty, “This has to be fake, right?”

“No.”

A pause.

“…that means-“

“Chara… I gotta talk to Toriel now. Can we please talk about this later?” I said, feeling sheepish. I’d already felt enough today and could use some levity. Chara nodded, but didn’t follow me into the living room.

There Toriel was, reading by the fire. The fire was obviously magic and I could even touch it – looks like Toriel was very good at control! – so I spent a minute staring into it, watching it twinkle with power. My face went dark for a moment, right as Toriel noticed I was there.

“Oh, hello young one! The pie has not cooled down yet. Perhaps you should take a nap?”

“No, I’d rather not be asleep just yet…” I said, stifling a sigh. I wanted to be here, to talk to this lonely mother.

“You’d rather stay up and chat with me, then?” Toriel sat upright. “Um, I want you to know how glad I am to have met someone here. There are so many old books I want to share… I want to show you my favorite bug-hunting spot… I’m trying to prepare a curriculum for your education, but I’m afraid I’m not sure what your level is, yet. I suppose that we will discover that together!” she smiled warmly, with a bit of excitement.

“Yeah, I’m not sure how monster education is, or how much you guys know that we don’t – it’ll be fun to figure out!”

“Haha, yes, it will. Actually, this may come as a surprise to you… But I have always wanted to be a teacher.”

“…” I gave her a look of disbelief.

“… actually, perhaps that isn’t very surprising. STILL.” She pouted comically, then went back to smiling cheerfully. “I am glad to have you living here. Oh, did you want something? What is it?”

I thought for a moment. “Could we talk over some pie?”

She seemed taken aback a bit, like this was the last thing she was expecting to be asked for. “Oh, of course, but you know – the pie needs to set up. It is pudding, after all. How about you take a nap-“ she looked at my eyebags pointedly, “- and we will have some tea and pie tomorrow for breakfast? How does that sound?”

“That… that sounds amazing, actually,” I finally let myself yawn. “I’ll go… do that.” Suddenly, as I was walking back to my room, my exhaustion finally returned – emotional from losing and searching for my friend and Chara’s story and facing my fear of falling by going headfirst, then physical from all the walking. Rubbing my eyes, I started towards the hallway.

“Sweet dreams.” She called after me.

I didn’t see Chara in the stairwell area, but decided she must be somewhere around anyway. Hazily I climbed into the bed, which was just about as big as I expected. Curled in a ball, I conked out within minutes.

<3     <3     <3

“Hey Grace, do you want to go with me?”

“Of course, d__.. I’d love an excuse to ______.”

“Aww, I wanna go too, Grace!”

“We should have all gone together, Grace. Why didn’t you come with us?”

“Yeah, Grace. Why weren’t we together?”

Black ooze pours in from all sides. There’s no escape. Where am I? Why am I here? Will this take me to them? Who are they?

Where is that screaming coming from?

…

Is it me…?

…

Dark.

Dark.

Yet darker.

Fall-

I woke with a start. The light was off, and I was alone. I checked.

After a little bit, I got up and turned on the light. I noticed I’d slept in my clothes and grimaced; I was sure to smell wonderful. Turning to the closet, I picked out a yellow sweater with a purple stripe that happened to fit and some new pants. Gonna have to ask Toriel to take me clothes shopping when I get the chance, huh? Maybe I’ll get to wear one of her robes?  Walking out into the hall, I saw Chara staring at herself in the mirror.

I yawned as I approached her. “Good morning, partner. Get some kind of rest?”

She pursed her lips as she shook her head. “Nnnope. Looks like I can’t. But look! You can see me in the mirror too, right?” She pointed at the glass. Inside, I could in fact see her reflection – just as translucent as always.

“Yup, clear as day. Though, can you see that you’re see-through?” I said, gesturing to the mirror.

“Yeah, I’m trying to ignore that…”

Shaking my head, I looked in the mirror a bit to try and get an opening to talk about… well, everything that’s been happening. Instead, Chara started it.

“So… I’m dead, and have been a long while. Phew… you’d think that should have given me peace of mind but when members of your family are immortal… ugh, my head hurts.”

“No, it doesn’t?” I pointed out. She scoffed.

“You know what I meant. I’m confused. I know we both died but-“

“I’m not dead??” I said. I’m even more confused now. What ‘s she implying?

“Ugh, not you, my- never mind. So I fell in the underground nearly five centuries ago and don’t remember any of it… what. The. Hell. I remember falling and living with mom and dad, and dying, but the rest is… hmm…” She scrutinized her thoughts for a long while before continuing. “Yep… g o n e. What. In the. Underground. Why?”

I bit my lip. “Probably because you died? Maybe falling children slowly woke you up until I came – I’m older so I might have more SOUL power, or something.”

“Wait… falling… children? You mean you aren’t one of the first?”

“I… I’ve been told lots of stories about them, growing up. H_____ did, too. They climbed the mountain and I went after them, they fell before me. I only came here to save them but… I don’t have a good feeling about that, now.” I didn’t cry. “It wouldn’t be the first time I was out of touch with the schedule of things… and Toriel mentioned I was the ‘second’ in a good long while, right? And if H_____ were still here, then where are they? If they’re not here, then, process of elimination-“

“They’re out there, aren’t they?” Chara said, looking toward the stairwell. “Mom hasn’t said anything about what it’s like outside the RUINS, so we can’t be sure-“

“No, but I’m prepared. It’s all I can do.” I paused to take a deep breath. “Chara, I need to ask you something, again.”

“Sure, what do you need?”

“… I want to know if you want to tell Toriel yet.”

“WHAT? I told you LAST NIGHT that I didn’t want to, and-“

“I know. But I don’t want to keep secrets from her – plus, we won’t have to talk in secret, and Toriel won’t be so lonely. Don’t you think that’s better?”

The apparition was lost in thought.

“…tomorrow…” She said.

“Okay.”

“Wait, I didn’t even elaborate though?”

“Ehh, it’s obvious what you want. But you only get to delay the inevitable once, you hear me young lady?”

Chara sighed deeply and gave a halfhearted salute. “YeS, mA’aM.”

Walking to the living room again, I saw Toriel setting out two settings at the table – two plates, two mugs, two forks. There was a large pie in the center that seemed to be steaming – perhaps thanks to fire magic – and a huge serving dish filled with scrambled eggs and bacon. There was enough to have fed my whole family. Once she noticed me standing in the threshold, the kindly but large monster gestured for me to sit down.

“How did you sleep, my child?” Toriel said as she loaded two plates with bacon and eggs – though one significantly larger.

“… as well as I ever sleep, considering.” I looked away from her eyes. “The bed’s a bit small and most of the clothes are too, so it’s kinda hard to get fully comfortable yet. Very soft though!” I ate some of the food she handed me – delicious! This woman really knew how to cook. Or, whatever it takes to make monster food. Chara was right though, monster food isn’t nearly as filling as human food. No wonder Toriel needed so much of it…

“Well, that’s about what I expected for last night. I’m sorry, I did not even sleep in my own bed, which would have fit you – I should have thought to move you to it… Oh! On that note, would you like to borrow some of my clothes instead? I have a few from when I was younger that you might like!”

“Hmm… I might have to take you up on that, Toriel. They look really comfy-“ I nodded in her direction – “But for now all I’d like to know is where you shower and stuff?”

The conversation continued in a similar manner for a while – where to shower, where I could – ahem – relieve myself until human food was out of my system, if I could go with her for groceries -

“Is it possible to see what’s downstairs? I’m assuming that’s the way out of the RUINS.” I said as I munched on bacon. Toriel stopped moving and looked at me severely.

“My child… you wish to know how to return “home”, do you not? Down there is the exit to the RUINS. A one-way exit to the rest of the undergound. But, I cannot in good faith let you down there – even if I trust you would return. This is because every human that has fallen down here meets the same fate. I have seen it again and again.” She twiddled her fork in her eggs as she spoke, not looking me in the eyes.

“They come.

“They leave.

“They die.”

She closed her eyes now, obvious pain from the loneliness and years being unable to stop kids from leaving. “If you leave the RUINS…

“they…hmm…

 “Monsters will kill you. I want to protect you from this fate, do you understand?”

I couldn’t say anything. Of course, monsters had been trapped underground for over five hundred years. Hope must seem almost foreign concept to them. What else could they do but take revenge on their captors? A certain (but not completely fallible) JUSTICE could be seen in that.

“Yes, of course I understand, Toriel.”

There was nothing but the sounds of forks scraping dinner plates for a while after that. Right as we were about to start on the pie, I woke from the trance the warning had placed on us.

“…Grace.” I said awkwardly, as Toriel picked up the pie server.

“Well, I suppose we did not bless the food in the first place…” Toriel said, lowering the utensil.

“No, it’s… my name. I don’t think you ever asked, and it never came up, so you’ve been calling me your ‘child.’”

“Ah, how silly of me. See, I am simply an old lady, nothing to be scared of!” she said, giggling.

“Wait, did you think I was scared just now?” I said, smiling.

“Well, I did just tell you that if you leave, you will… you know.”

“Ah, no. I’m just the queen of awkward, so.” I stopped talking and smiling to prove my point, to which Toriel laughed at me and continued serving pie.

“It seems we both need some help talking to people again, huh?” the ancient goat remarked with a chuckle as she placed my heaping helping of pie in front of me.

“Haha, yeah, I wasn’t even very good at it before… before…” I trailed off, realizing what I was about to confess. What good would telling her that be? I thought, when I suddenly noticed her watching me. “…before H_____ went missing.” I said, letting out a breath. “My best friend. I met them when I was five years old, and I’d been best friends with them ever since.” As I continued my story, I noted how Toriel closed her eyes every time I said the word ‘friend’, like it was a bad word she didn’t have the authority to punish me for saying.

“So you fell because you wanted to find them?” Toriel said, a bite of pie on her fork.

“Ugh, no. It’s even stupider than that – I saw a kid about to fall in. They were all alone in the middle of the woods, why couldn’t I have just saved them and taken them home so I wouldn’t be so worried about them still? How could I have been so clumsy?” I stabbed a bit of the pie with my fork. “It’s always been this way with me though – wrong place, wrong time, clumsy.”

“Well, good thing you’re not going to be on any stairs anytime soon!” Toriel joked, trying to bring levity back to the conversation.

“Hey, I still fell plenty of times on my way here,” I shuddered as I spoke, “I could trip on air, you know?”

Toriel cocked an eyebrow. “Oh, my. That’s the first time I’ve seen you scared, my- Grace.” She corrected herself. “Are you all right?”

I looked away. “It’s embarrassing to say for such an old kid, but I… I have a big fear of heights. Can’t handle them at all. Never could… but I manage as best I can. You know you can cheat some of the falling puzzles by climbing down the vent, right?”

“Wait, really? I’d never thought of that. Perhaps I should make some sort of one-way door? Hmm…”

“PLEASE don’t, Toriel. I’ll never get around the RUINS that way!”

The motherly goat laughed. “Oh, you know I only tease.”

<3     <3     <3    

Once we finally finished our pie and golden flower tea, Toriel brought a cushion so I could sit in front of the fireplace while she sat in her armchair so we both could read. I found an interesting history book (“History of Humans and Monsters” by Gerson Boom) and got cozy on the floor. After a long summary about the peaceful history above ground, there was an even longer, more detailed description of the war. Monsters and humans being killed on either side, and killing in equal measure. The monsters had not ever hit a human first however, and that made me feel icky. The end of the book was a description of the battle that led to the barrier being built, and how seven humans sacrificed their SOULs to build it. Monsters were left behind on the other side, however any that were deemed ‘unnecessary’ were killed – which entailed killing all except one, whose duty was to use the SOULs of the sacrificed humans to create the barrier (since humans cannot absorb human SOULs, they can’t use them properly.). The monster was promised freedom… and then killed by the same human. It was in this way that all monsters were condemned. The next passage is as follows:

Trapped behind the barrier and fearful of further human attacks, we retreated. Far, far into the earth we walked, until we reached the cavern’s end. This was our new home, which we named… “Home.” As great as our king is, he is pretty lousy at names.

This part made me stop. “Toriel?” I asked finally, looking up at her.

“Yes, my child?”

“I saw the city just outside of the house, isn’t that ‘Home’?” I sat up as I spoke.

“Yes? Something strange?”

“If the barrier is at the other end of the cavern, but so is King Asgore (I had to stop from calling him ‘Gorey’, like in the margins of her diary), whoever he is, then which place is ‘Home’? Because it doesn’t say if you fell into the underground or not…” 

“We walked.” Toriel sat up in her chair, marking her book. “It did not take nearly long enough. It… it was as if the humans were still right behind us with their bows and their swords, ready to take our lives in the name of power and safety. Do not misunderstand, I knew why they might fear us… it is… almost reasonable to fear us, for what we can do. But that did not warrant the… retaliation. It was a long time coming, too – not just a gut reaction, but a decision, and-“ She cut herself off. “I do not suppose that was you question, was it?” She finished.

“No, but I get it. So, these RUINS… they’re ‘Home’, right?”

“That’s right.”

“It may seem stupid to ask, but… are you her king now? I know the term can be different for-“

“Oh, no. Well, maybe… I am the only ‘boss monster’ here, after all. It’s less a political position and more of a social one, at least in the RUINS. The… king…” She said the word with a sort of snarl only a boss monster goat could, probably, “Resides in ‘New Home’, the new capital. Once we were comfortable, we built a new capital city, just beyond the main power source for the underground: the Core. And just before the main entry of the barrier. Ah, but I am rambling. I’m sure history is boring to most…”

“No. Actually, it’s… kinda my favorite subject. Besides music and English, maybe. This is all too interesting to find boring to me.” I stared at the worn book in my hands – I only had a couple chapters until the end. “Actually, are there any more of these? I’d love to learn about the rest of monster history – either before or after this book.”

Toriel sighed. “I am so sorry, Grace, but most monster history books obscure parts or are simple for children. Most of the time, monster history is an oral tradition, told to older children once they come of age… mostly because monsters argue about whether to tell the whole truth or not – or even what the truth is. For example, the book you’re holding was actually not usually found in libraries because it is so honest. Monsters feel a bit of shame, knowing that they both broke their rules to fight and they didn’t even win.”

“And I bet they don’t want their kids to become like them, so they hide the truth, right?”

“Yes, correct! It’s strange, is it not? Instead of facing their sins, they just want to forget them. Oh, dear, what a subject though! Would you like to hear an amazing snail fact, instead?” her demeanor changed quickly, maybe because she didn’t want to think about bloodshed anymore. She had seemed excited to teach, but this was in equal measure with a terrified sadness that had touched her face the whole time. I couldn’t blame her.

“So, what’a’ya got?” I said, folding my arms in suspense.

“Did you know that snails make terrible shoelaces?” she barely contained her smirk as she said so. We both laughed!

“Why did anyone think of something like that?” I exclaimed between chuckles. “It doesn’t even connect!?” I made a pun without meaning to, but Toriel caught me without blinking-

“Well, I think it is – sub-slime, myself!” She punned, both of us breaking down into more giggles.

“Hey, be careful not to laugh so much!” I said, trying to look serious. “You don’t want to get an… SNAILment!”

It was in this way that we spent the hours before it was time for bed. Toriel left for a time to fetch a larger bed for me, during which me and Chara hung out and chatted, but otherwise the day ended uneventfully.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Toriel let me sleep in, but was eager to spend more time with another person.

“Oh, we must enjoy some activities together, now. Do you wish to garden? Perhaps we shall hunt for bugs! Or we could spar? For exercise?”

“Hmm,” I started, considering the options she gave me. “I love flowers, so maybe gardening – though I am sort of a germaphobe. Same reason for no bugs – I’m sorry, Toriel, I know you’ve probably been waiting a long time, and the first mature person to fall doesn’t like bugs. Sparring sounds fun, but I’m not going to attack you – you’re too sweet, I’d feel terrible!”

Toriel chuckled. “Well, in that case, we must try them all! Err, except the bugs, if you do not like them. That is… fine.” She put on a comically sad face, “I will simply have to continue going all on my lonesome!” smiling again, she took me by the hand out into the yard. There, she placed me on one side and herself on the other before explaining the rouxls.

“Now, when it comes to sparring, it will seem like a normal FIGHT when in fact neither of us want to hurt each other. That is the gamble involved, I suppose.” I began to wonder if this were another trust exercise. “We both take turns attacking until we decide one of us to be the victor – either by how tired they are, how much they still want to FIGHT, or if the other simply overpowers them. Some people like to make their own rules, say, ‘the first to hit the other wins’, but I think it’s up to the players. I will try to be careful since I have not fought anyone in a very long time though.”

“Well, if your fireplace magic is any indicator, you’re super precise.” I said. My gaze landed on Chara for a moment, who seemed near biting her fingernails. What is there to worry about? I even saved when we got out here…

I discovered both ‘what there is to worry about’ and ‘what’s a boss monster’ within the first few minutes of sparring. Toriel didn’t just use fire magic, she used fireball bullets – meaning the whole FIGHT involves not getting burnt, plus sweating the whole time. It took four tries for me to win, and it ended up sort of a technicality (Toriel let me win because she saw how hot I was getting). It was at this point that Toriel finally decided that I should attempt to hit her, since she was finally warmed up. Holding H_____’s toy knife, I was faced with a monster that wanted me to get good at FIGHTing, for my protection. How could I even brandish my ‘knife’ at her?

“You have excellent form, Grace. Have you ever fought before?” Toriel said once we were finally having even matches.

“Oh, yeah. I used to do karate at my da-“ I stopped myself before I could even get the word out, my face falling suddenly. In doing so, my dodging rhythm was ruined and Toriel hit me square in the chest with a burning hot firebullet.

I couldn’t help but scream as burning agony flooded my chest, feeling like a white-hot knife had been plunged into my chest. Except the burning heat rippled away from the point of impact like a wave.

“Oh %$%$%, are you okay, my child?!?!” Toriel cursed as she rushed to me.

I shrieked as I tried to sit up, trying to get a look at my stomach. “Owww, yeah, that’s hot” I said, trying to lift my shirt up so nothing touched my tender skin. My stomach was covered in angry welts, skin peeling and some still sizzling. It was the grossest, most painful thing I’d ever seen firsthand. Falling back, I stifled a sob.

“I’m so sorry, Grace. I thought I was keeping my mind in control but I suddenly saw how much you looked like-“ Toriel rambled as she worked, calling magic from her SOUL in a much greater amount than before. Chara, floating above, couldn’t look at me.

“Grace,” Chara said, still looking away, “your HP is at about 5. Mom… she did 23 points of damage, that’s…” she accidentally took a sneaking look at my exposed, fried skin, and stifled a gag.

I ignored her and closed my eyes, focusing on resisting the pain. It stung this time, my skin cells feeling like they were bubbling as they came from the bottommost layers and surfaced, repairing and replacing that which had been damaged. I clenched my teeth, trying not to squirm.

“Please be patient. It has been a while since I have used extensive healing magic like this. I’m so sorry for getting angry – I was even talking to you! – but seeing your face just now reminded me of… well, I am sure you can guess. It is no excuse though. You are my friend, and I feel terrible. You… remind me a bit of my children… “ I started to realize what she was doing at this point; talking to distract me, so I wouldn’t notice the pain as much. “Foolhardy and kind – willing to give up your own life for the security of those you care about. It is no wonder that you have a yellow SOUL.” Reaching as if to touch where my SOUL was shining in my chest, she remarked, “JUSTICE… a respectable trait for a SOUL to have. You are the second JUSTICE to fall…”

“Wait…erg… really? I’m the second?” I responded between shallow breaths.

“Yes,” Toriel took a deep breath, her magic shifting as she did. Moving her hands more generally (rather than over the stabbing area), she explained. “The first JUSTICE to come was probably the oldest of the children before you. He was 13 when he fell – not quite a teenager, but not quite a child, either. He said you called that age… tween, I think? Well, it does not matter. He was kind, but a little obsessed with what was ‘fair’, haha.”

As the old goat laughed, I could feel the warmth of her magic ripple. The main hurt had subsided at this point, and I could watch Toriel as she spoke now.

“Well… I’ve been told I can be a little ‘rule-driven’, myself…” I said, laughing and wincing.

“Yes, but you would not pull a gun on me for cheating at chess to prank you, would you?” Toriel smiled thoughtfully. “You are definitely more of the knife or spear type, to me.”

“Har, har,” I laughed sarcastically, rolling my eyes. Oww. “Does that make me the knife one of us two? Or do you still spear me?”

Toriel’s laughs at puns were always loud, like it was the funniest thing she’d heard in a long time.

…in retrospect, they probably were.

Once I was healed enough to stand, I let Toriel carry me inside. Normally, I would have simply healed at the SAVE point, but that would have been suspicious. So, healing the (monster) old-fashioned way it was. Tea and oatmeal were lunch that day, though monster food makes everything less hearty, so I’m sure nothing she could give me would really make me nauseous.  

“Hey, Toriel?” I said, lying in bed and trying not to bend my midsection. Toriel, who was removing my plates, turned back to face me.

“What is it, my child?” she didn’t look me in the eyes. Chara gave her an annoyed look.

“…it’s okay, you know?” I said, trying to catch her eyes in mine. “It’s only natural, in a FIGHT, to want to do well… and you’re taking care of me, so what could possibly make you this sad about it?” I tried to sit up, pretending not to feel the tenderness of my stomach as I did – and gave her a smile.

“…”

Toriel didn’t seem to know what to say, so I continued.

“I’m not hurt all that badly. My HP has to be at about twenty-six, now, right?” Chara nodded. “You weren’t trying to…”

Toriel sighed, sitting on the bed next to me. “Human, a monster’s magic reflects their SOUL, or their will. We may not have as strong of determination as you, but we do have some. It is this will that gives form to our magic in the shape of our bullets, which reflect our personalities and desires. I… I hurt you because, in that moment, you… your face… ah, I cannot excuse myself here.”

“Go on, please.” I said, my curiosity winning over my courtesy.

“Well… your expression. It… wasn’t exactly like what I was remembering, but it made me remember…the war. Between humans and monsters.”

There was a pause as we looked into each other’s eyes. A certain understanding hit us both as we considered each other.

“Oh, wow, Toriel. That was PTSD. Toriel, please don’t blame yourself too much for that. Humans… we’re capable of despicable, horrible things. I read about them in history books like the one mr. Boom wrote, we all do. I can’t imagine what you might’ve been remembering...”

“PT- what? Please do not excuse me. I’m an adult and a boss monster, and I didn’t even make sure I was ready spar with you. With anyone... that was incredibly selfish.”

“Selfish or not –“ I took her hand, “- You’re a good person, and your intentions were good, so, let’s not worry too much about it anymore, okay? I’m doing well now, and we should just put this behind us.” Is this what she meant by my JUSTICE SOUL?

Nodding, Toriel kissed my cheek before silently taking my plates from the room, muttering another apology as she went.

Toriel’s GUILT made me nervous. Not because I thought she’d hurt me – heaven knows how little I thought THAT was going to happen again – but for a different reason that I didn’t quite understand. Brushing my thoughts behind me, I turned over in my bed, ready to sleep. Before I quite fell asleep, I heard Chara humming in the air next to me. It wasn’t a song I’d heard before, but it felt nostalgic to me… maybe because of how thoughtfully and bittersweetly she sang it?

My sleep was dreamless that night.

<3     <3     <3    

“‘Seeing how well you and the motherly monster treat each other in such a tidy home fills you with JUSTICE.’” Chara recited as the familiar chime of saving sounded. “Man, it’s been a long week, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah, I guess it has been,” I said, hand on my now lightly-bandaged abs.

They healed pretty well, with the exception of a small mottling in the area just above my bellybutton. The sweater had been destroyed, but Toriel and I had spent the week knitting two new ones that fit me better. One was sky blue with a yellow stripe, the other was pink with a pattern of white lines and zigzags, crosstitch-style. I’d tried to make Toriel one, but it was only about half done now (she’s like seven feet tall!)

“Do you wanna keep knitting now? Or do you wanna keep failing to find Boom’s second book?” Chara teased. She wasn’t too keen on my crafty and nerdy tendencies, but couldn’t make me do anything unless…

“If you want me to do something more exciting, you know what it’ll take.” I said, smirking at the specter. “You’ve been avoiding it long enough, and I think Toriel deserves to know the truth: her daughter’s been here the whole time.”

Chara’s eyes widened. “I know you’ve been pushing me towards that, but… don’t you think it’ll hurt her? I mean, I’m not really much less dead now than I was before – I’m a freaking ghost, for dad’s sake.” She folded her arms, palm to her cheek as she continued. “And… I’m not sure what to say…”

“You’ve had plenty of time to think about it, dude.” I said, turning to the house.

There stood Toriel, face full of strong and confused worry.

“…Grace?” she’d been calling me by my name ever since the accident. I guess she decided she’d better start treating me as a young adult, rather than a child. “Who… who are you talking to? Who’s had time to think about what?” Chara quickly flew into my field of vision, panicking.

“Grace! Grace! Tell her you were talking to yourself! I’m not reeaadyyy!” She almost started crying at the end. I nodded as imperceptibly as I could.

“I was… talking to myself. You know I do that all the time, right? I’m crazy, haha.” I tried to laugh it off, but Toriel wasn’t convinced.

“Yes, you do. But that was different. You usually have this singsong way of talking to yourself… or it sounds like you’re both people in a conversation. This was one person. Are you feeling alright? Not seeing anything that isn’t there?”

I smiled, trying to fight a smirk. “Nope, definitely not seeing something that isn’t there. Just…” I looked away, trying to think of an excuse. “Thinking about where Gerson’s next book might have ended up…?” I could feel myself trying to blush, knowing it was a terrible excuse.

My surrogate mother raised an eyebrow incredulously.

I couldn’t meet her eyes. Feeling her magic start to activate in an attempt to intimidate me into telling, I closed my eyes.

“FINE, you win.” I gave Chara a look that said It’s go time.

“I win… what, exactly?” Toriel said, mom voice still activated. She folded her arms.

“You win… an explanation.”

“I’m listening.”

“Please, Grace…” Chara pleaded, puppy eyes activated. “Don’t make me do this! She’s not going to understand!”

“If we’re going to stay here, she deserves to know, Chara!” I mistakenly used her name – I was going to let her stay anonymous until she was on my side, but…

“Grace!” “Grace!”

both of my conversation partners screamed my name at the same time, making me look away for a moment so I could squint and try to ignore the ringing in my head.

“How… how do you know that… that… name…?” Toriel spoke quietly, her paws holding her mouth. “That’s impossible…!”

“It’s hard to explain, but she’s here, Toriel. Chara’s right here!” I gestured in Chara’s direction, but then let my hand go limp as I remembered.

“…this isn’t funny, Grace. Please, do not say that name. If this is some play to make me feel better because you read that name somewhere, you are mistaken.” Her face was hard, ancient sadness carved into her eyes above a solemn expression. If Chara really had been dead that long, who knows what pain Toriel would feel, thinking I were playing about it.

I took a long, deep breath and let it out as a sigh, trying to take as long as I could to think. I wish I’d gotten the time to prepare, like we’d planned-

“Ms. Toriel, I swear I would never joke about this. None of the shoes have her name on them. There isn’t a single picture in the house. If I were to try to be malicious, don’t you think I’d have done it before now? She’s here, your daughter’s here-“

“NO! She cannot be!” Toriel was crying. Hot, angry tears began to fall from her eyes in a slow stream. “I do not believe you! She died long ago, and there is nothing I can do to see her again! Do not give me such terrible hope!” she gasped at herself, suddenly remembering with clarity why this hurt so much. It was like ages of memory had crashed into her.

All I could do was wait patiently for her to continue. It wasn’t my place.

Toriel looked up, finally; she swallowed.

“…do NOT… do not tell me she has been here so long. That she has seen me… that she has been so reluctant to speak with me, all this time. That… that she has waited-“

“She hasn’t been waiting. At least, not as long as all that…” I couldn’t help myself but interrupt. Chara, the remnants of tears still in her eyes, was nodding vigorously, thumb up. “She… she woke up when I fell…” I couldn’t help but wax on, telling Toriel about my short adventure thus far – falling, waking, screaming (a LOT of screaming), falling again – and Toriel’s expression softened as the story unfolded.

“I… I believe you. There is no way that person you are seeing is not my child. Just for safety’s sake, however, may you describe what she looks like?”

“I can, but-“ I gave Chara’s disappointed face a glance, “-first, Chara wanted to try something. While she wasn’t necessarily excited to tell you she was here, she was excited to prove it. Go behind her, Chara!” I exclaimed. Toriel looked around herself in vain, trying to see the specter as she floated into place.

“What am I supposed to do?” Toriel questioned patiently.

“Chara’s going to tell me what number you hold up with your fingers, and I’m going to tell you. That way you at least know I’m not crazy…”

“I do believe you yourself said you were crazy, though…?” Toriel jested, trying to lighten the mood once again.

“We-well-well YES, but that’s not what I meant!” I argued, but Toriel was laughing at me already. Sighing, I waved at her to ‘get on with it.’

Chara broke into an explosive laugh.

“What’s so funny, C?” I said, using the nickname they didn’t like on purpose. She just made her mom cry, what did she have to laugh about?

“Hey, I said not to call me that!” Chara complained, stopping abruptly.

“Yeah, I know you don’t like that one, but what’s wrong?”

“She’s doing ‘Here’s the Church, Here’s the Steeple. No numbers!”

I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting a laugh.

“Well?” Toriel said, mischievous glint in her eye.

“You’re doing ‘Here’s the Church, Here’s the Steeple.’”

Toriel’s eyes widened a bit, but stopped before she relaxed completely.

“And… what does she look like? Don’t think I forgot about that, Grace.”

I turned to look at Chara, watching her as I spoke so I wouldn’t get anything wrong.

“Hmm… medieval style clothes… dark brown hair in a bob… white undershirt with a green and yellow surcoat… brown hose… and the same boots that are in the bedroom, though these are in much better condition.”

“Wait, you found my shoes? When did this happen?” Chara asked. I ignored her.

Toriel seemed… confused. She didn’t seem to know how to react to all this. Turning to where I was looking (at Chara still), she opened and closed her mouth several times.

“Mom…? You still there?” Chara said, waving her hand in front of the goat’s eyes. I repeated her message.

“She’s asking if you’re still awake.” I smiled a bit, brows still furrowed. Toriel blinked a few times like she was a robot that had just been turned on.

“Ah,” was all she said for almost a minute. She blinked again. Then- “Give me a moment. Um…” She turned around mechanically, her once animated arms limp at her sides. “How. About. We. Go back. Inside…?” she didn’t wait for us to answer.

Following her back inside, I sat on my usual reading pillow (Chara in the air beside me), as Toriel plopped into her chair, hand over her eyes. Turning to Chara, I put a hand in front of my mouth to block sound as I whispered:

“Should I esetray the imelinetay?”

Chara seemed taken aback. “But that would mean you’d have to… no, not worth it. Just… ugh. Personally, I think that went about as well as it’s ever going to go…” She rolled her eyes. “The, um, bad bad stuff didn’t even come up, so personally this is a win. Plus, I’ll get to talk to mom now… even if it has to be through you, I’m satisfied, I think.”

“Hmm.” I tried to make my disappointment as anonymous as I could. Chara definitely had some issues to talk through with her mom… but what could I do?

Toriel lifted her head. “What are you- you two whispering about?” her voice was small, and delicate. Like any bad news would break her.

“Uh… well, I guess it’s alright to say,” I put my knuckles to my mouth, thinking about how to word it. “We were… talking about how it went. Telling you, I mean. Obviously, this wasn’t our first choice on how to do it, but we weren’t sure how you’d take it, considering… well, I don’t know the circumstances of how she… but it doesn’t matter. What matters is it was long ago and you’ve obviously been carrying that pain all this time. I’m hoping…” I couldn’t look into her eyes anymore. “I’m… I’m hoping that this helps, instead of hurts. She doesn’t want me to say it, but-“

“Then don’t!” Chara interrupted.

“Hey! Um, anyway – Chara needs you, too. She’s been holding something in for a long time, I can tell, and she needs her mom. I wish I didn’t have to hear all this stuff that isn’t my business, but if you two are okay with it, I can be Chara’s voice.”

Chapter Text

Everyone was staring at me.

Ugh.

It’s not like this isn’t the obvious conclusion or anything…

“C’mon, don’t tell me you weren’t already thinking that. It’s the only way for us to all communicate with each other.”

Without realizing it on Toriel’s part, she and Chara were looking back and forth from between each other.

“Grace, I want to believe you, but what if I say something you don’t wanna repeat? Like, I dunno… mom looks fat?” Chara scrambled to find a reason to not talk through me… which almost hurt. Did she really not trust me…?

“Well, for one, you’d never say something like that – or at least, not so stupidly or on purpose. Besides, you heard how I was doing it before; I make sure to use your name when I’m speaking for you. I swear, I won’t muddle your words or use your name to say things you would never say – unless it’s for a joke.”

“For a joke?” Toriel seemed a bit hurt.

“Well, yeah. Like say, you set a snail pie out on the table and I say: ‘Chara says we should be eating butterscotch instead.’ It’d be funny- but otherwise, I won’t keep things from either of you. It’s inconvenient, since some emotion will be lost in translation, but it’s all we’ve got. Unless you think you can possess me?” I turned to Chara.

“I… maybe? We’ve never tried anything like that, so I know as much as you, Grace.”

I nodded. “Well, I’d probably have no clue if you tried to when I was sleeping or something, so I wasn’t sure. Not that that would be insulting to me – I’m not really doing much right now, so if I can be helpful-“

“What?” Toriel interrupted. “What are you saying? Possession doesn’t insult you?”

“No, not really. Sure, losing autonomy will suck, but if it means a mother and daughter finally get to talk again after death, who am I to get in the way? If Chara had practiced on me while I was sleeping, then it wouldn’t have affected my feelings at all. Really, I just want-“

Toriel pulled me into a big bear goat hug. She was warm. She smelled like butterscotch and grass. It was… the first hug I’d gotten in what felt like eons. My knees buckled beneath me, but Toriel supported me.

“I appreciate the sentiment behind it, but you must value yourself more than that, Grace.” She began petting my loose hair, then moved to rubbing my back as she spoke. “I am not a naïve old goat. I know why you feel this way, without you needing to say so directly. I… believe we could try it, if you’d like, but not so drastically as you say. Let us start with you as translator, then move up from there,” she released me, moving her paws from my back to cupping my face.

…

“…Yes, ma’am.” I whispered, holding her hands gently. We stood like this for almost a minute.

…

“We are both broken teacups, it seems.” Toriel smiled sadly as she spoke. “Losing so much makes you do crazy things, right? Though, I suppose… the same can be said of Chara. I can only imagine what you went through to make you hate your own people so much.” She turned to look away from me, trying to find her daughter – even if she knew full well that she would not find her.

“…they aren’t my people. Grace is the first person I’ve met who’s gotten past the ‘tolerate’ stage…” she gave me a sarcastic smile, but her eyes were genuine.

“She says… humans ‘aren’t my people’. And that I’m the only one who’s convinced her otherwise?” Chara nodded.
“I know. She has always stuck by that phrase… though I suppose it has not been long since she last used it, for her.”

“On that note, I guess it’s time.” Chara said.

I let go of Toriel’s hands, her doing the same. “Time for what?” I said, Toriel following my gaze and folding her arms.

“Time to tell the truth.”

“She says it’s time to tell the truth..” I said, eyes widening and voice coming out sort of whispery.

“Uh… how about you guys sit back down? This might take a while, especially since Grace needs to translate after every sentence.” I relayed. Me and the goat mother got back into our relaxed seats before Chara continued. I repeated every sentence, and Chara always made sure to pause at the end. Toriel closed her eyes.

“Honestly, I don’t remember much of my childhood. I think I was either an illegitimate or an otherwise accidental baby. Either way, nobody really wanted me around. I wasn’t treated very well in any place I was sent to – either I was always under incredible scrutiny, personally insulted by kids and adults, alike, or… physically. You know.” She seemed to be trying to talk to herself, to keep her emotions from spilling over. It was all matter of fact, her emotions from years of anguish having definitely been squashed down for years. “Either ignored or hurt, I don’t think I have a single happy memory of the surface. 

“One day, I was sold off to a rich nobleman. ‘Noble’ was just a title though – there was nothing honorable about him. He wanted me for something twisted – I don’t really remember what, but I knew I was probably going to die… and that it’d be painful." Chara shook her head, a mixture of annoyance and disgust on her face.

“I ran away. I knew that if went to the mountain, nobody’d ever see me again. I didn’t want to see humans anymore, anyway, so it was all up for me. I’d heard of monsters, but only the idiotic fables human parents tell their children to make them behave and not act stupid. I’d rather have a 50% chance of death over a 100%. Plus, then it would be my decision.

"..

“Nothing in my life was happy until I fell.

“I was ready for the hole to swallow me up in peaceful darkness, to maybe even be killed by monsters, aiding their escape from the dark, but all the ways I could comprehend it going were completely wrong. You were the only people to treat me kindly or to even bathe and comfort me in my whole life, and I-“ she suddenly broke, crying bittersweet tears. “I couldn’t even return the favor correctly! I meant to save you, and all I accomplished was ruining our family and breaking your heart!!"

“…I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry, mom… I really messed it up.”

The room was quiet for a minute, us all waiting for Toriel to respond.

“What did you mess up? You died because you were sick, and then… Asriel…” she left the sentence hanging, waiting for me to respond for Chara.

“…it… it wasn’t him. In fact, most of it wasn’t him; it was me.” Her eyes were still wet, but Chara seemed calmer now that she was being asked.

“You guys had been arguing a tiny bit. Do you remember that? You were trying to find a way to break the barrier without hurting anyone, and dad was trying not to let you get any hopes up about it. Me and Asriel were suddenly aware and concerned with escaping the underground – though, admittedly, for different reasons. Asriel wanted to escape to see the sun, the stars, and breathe the air. He was kind and smart, but also… really naïve. I, on the other hand, wanted monsters to… well, they’d never do it, in retrospect, but I wanted monsters to come out of the underground and conquer humans the way we conquered them. Then it would be fair, I guess. And then I could take revenge on everyone who denied me the love only monsters had ever given me.”

Toriel nodded. She sat up straight, eyes still closed. “We are finally at the part I know nothing of, now. How did you… die that way, if it were on purpose? You were sick in a way we monsters didn’t understand…”

“…buttercups…” she grimaced, holding her stomach at the memory and phantom pain. “I poisoned myself. I wish I hadn’t done it that way – I was trying to avoid pain. But I didn’t really have a choice - if I’d done it some other way, I’d have been healed with healing magic right away. Once I was… gone… Asriel and I enacted our stupid plan.

“I made sure to focus on leaving my body as a SOUL – I’m unsure whether that was helpful, though, even now – and Asriel was right there, hands open and ready to catch it. It was at this point that he suddenly realized how serious I was about this, - as if me dying wasn’t enough - and he began to beg not to go through with it. Just six SOULs would bring us to LV 6, at least. Especially since they were strong humans… but that wasn’t even what he was worried about!

“Somehow, above all the things a peaceful monster could be worried about in that moment… he was… he was worried about me. I know I’d worded it in a way that made it seem like I’d still be around, but over time our minds would probably melt together, so we’d be alone again…”

“You planned for that?” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“I mean… I didn’t exactly plan to live the first time, so how was this any different than a best case scenario of my original plan? I mean… I’d gotten everything I needed in life, finally, and this was... my way of… well, paying back, I guess. Ugh, it was stupid. How could I forget we were both children, and that we’d share control, and that… Asriel isn’t like me. I wasn’t a good planner… or a good sister.” somehow she paced in the air, then sighed.

“We went out... Finally, I had a taste of what I wanted most of all; both being a monster, and having a chance and a reason to attack humans. Placing my body near the flowers – the only thing I’d loved about the surface – we prepared some magic to take human SOULs. However, the humans had the advantage – they were prepared for us, like all paranoid humans are. They’d seen us place my body, and obviously assumed we’d killed me. How stupid… the only time anyone’s shown concern for me, and I was already freaking dead!

“We had a bloody battle. The humans had the upper hand, of course, since they surprised us. It was so… loud. We… we lost. Asriel didn’t want to FIGHT anymore. He forced us to grab my body to bring back underground – since I hated it so much here, why rest there?

“Enraged, I made us swipe a few more people on the way back, trying to grab their SOULs as I was being led to my grave.
“… and you know the rest… we returned, too wounded to absorb any more SOULs. I brought back only one – courage.

"It’s ironic, really; we brought back the essence of human courage in a vain attempt to ignite the same in monsters. I really… really hate humanity. I still wish I was a monster. But even though I wanted to… I’m glad… to be here again.”

<3 <3 <3

We all went to bed silently that night. Staring up at the ceiling, I pondered Chara’s story.

She… was trying to kill herself to avoid dying from someone else… she pushed her brother into taking her SOUL when she killed herself for real… wait, hold on…

I sat up, turning to my left – where Chara usually floated and sang me to sleep, since she really didn’t have anything else to do at night, and wasn’t really touching air, so she could sing rather efficiently.

“Hey, can I ask you a question?” I said, interrupting her melody.

“Hm~ huh? Uh, yeah, sure. I don’t know if I can do anything too heavy right now though…” Chara sat in the air in front of me.

“Okay. You don’t have to answer if it brings up bad memories, but – why did you and Asriel think it was so completely your responsibility to SAVE the underground? I mean, I get it, but why was it your responsibility, specifically?” I tiled my head to the side as I spoke.

“Oh, did I not mention that? I guess I was talking to mom, who already knew, so I guess it makes sense that I didn’t say.” Chara ‘stood up’ in the air, giving me whatever curtsey she could when she couldn’t touch anything. “The Dreemurs, or my family, are the royalty of the underground. I am Princess Chara, the second and adopted daughter of the royal family,” she put her hand to her mouth in that whispering gesture, “So you’d better start treating me with respect, peasant.” She laughed as she fell backwards into the air, holding her stomach.

“Wait, so that makes Toriel…” I said, raising my had to get Chara’s attention again.

Chara sat back up again, sitting cross-legged in the air with her hands on her feet.

“Well, I’m guessing she ‘was’ is more accurate now… I’m not sure what happened, but if the only mention of dad is in the margin of her diary…”

“Then they’re definitely separated somehow. Gerson mentioned that Asgore is the king of monsters, but that was so long- oh, wait, nevermind. I can put two and two together – Asgore is still king of monsters since bosses live forever (Gerson mentioned that), and they must have split over his law that made humans illegal. You know, that whole ‘they will kill you’ thing Toriel was talking about.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that… o h…” Chara’s eyes suddenly widened at the realization.

I put a hand on my neck. “Yeah… I don’t know how I’d feel about it if my dad had done something like that, either.”

We were both silent for a moment. Chara hovered down to mimic sitting on the bed next to me, hands clasped as she was deep in thought.

I decided to break the ice. “Well, I guess I should-“

“You always talk about your family in past tense. Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt… or remind you. But it seems strange to me, that you insist on speaking that way, if… you meant to hide it.”

I…

I don’t really remember what happened after that. Were we silent for a while, and then quietly decided to turn in again? Did Chara apologize and I accept? I don’t know. I DON”T know. I DON”T KNOW.

“Hey Grace!”

A small figure waved from across the driveway, scooter’s handlebars in hand as he continued screaming incessantly for my attention as I idled in front of the garage.

“Grace! Grace! Grah-chei!”

That… name.

“What?!”
I was annoyed. Why was I annoyed to see him again?

“Watch this!”

As he rode down the slightly inclined driveway, J____ popped a wheelie on his scooter, mail in hand.

“Wait-!”

Crash.

There was… blood.

Why was there this much? It’s just a scraped knee.
It’s just a scraped knee.

Just a-

“How could you?”
An angry voice. I didn’t recognize it, but it sounded like it was my m__.

How could I what?

“How could you not be there for him when he ___?”

Fell…?

Fell.

Fall?

Falling…
…
…
…
…
…….
…………..
…………………….
………………………………………………………………………..
So

much

red.

I woke again with a start. The lights were still off – as they should be, there is no sun underground so day and night are interchangeable. I rubbed my eyes, turning to see a very worried Chara. I blinked.

“Whoa, what’re you-“

“Hey now, you were having some kind of nightmare, you don’t need to ask questions. You were trying to say a name, but I couldn’t really hear it. J-something. If this is because of my rude question, ya gotta tell me, dude! That way I’ll know not to ask when it’s so dark and spooky!”

“…maybe… but I think it’s fair trade off after you spittled all your beans yesterday. I am a JUSTICE SOUL, after all. That’s how I run…”

“Ugh, fine. But I’m not letting this go, we’re talking about this later!” Chara excalaimed as she floated over to subconsciously try to turn on the light.

“Sure, as soon as we talk about how much you’re hiding your emotions behind this sarcastic and funny façade.” I teased, stretching as I got up to do what Chara was trying desperately to.
“Hey, same to you, pal. Ugh, I’m gonna get real sick of not touching things at this point.” She complained, giving the lamp one final intangible slap.

“Nice dodge. Hmm, pink or blue sweater, today?”

“Right back at you. Hmm, how about blue, today?”

Chapter Text

I propped open the fridge door, eyes rooting through its contents. Milk, eggs, strawberries… everything in there was monster food of what humans would’ve had to farm in some way. Leaning down, I suddenly noticed something different; a name-brand chocolate bar, looking very lonely. Smiling, I grabbed it.

“Hey Chara? This is human food!” I said with wonder, showing the Sheyher wrapper off to the ghost. "It's chocolate!"

“Uhhh… what’s chocolate? That’s some weird trash. How is it so colorful? Bet it’s expensive…” Chara raised an eyebrow, peeking at the wrapper from all sides.

I stumbled back weakly. Holding a hand to my forehead, I gasped dramatically.

“What?” Chara had her arms out as if to catch me. I closed my eyes, smiling.

“Guess we have incentive now. Chara!?” I looked her dead in the cheekbones (I would have done eyes but…)

“Yy-yes ma’am???” Chara stuttered, surprised.

“You are GOING to possess me. There’s NO WAY I’m letting you go on without trying chocolate.”

<3     <3     <3

After telling Toriel that me and Chara were going to take a walk into the RUINS, I took us to the F4 room to practice. Three Froggits weren’t there, and the ant-sized one was out of the way anyway, so we had the room to ourselves.

“Okay Chara. It’s time to get possessing!” I said, hands on my hips and a big grin on my face. “This is gonna be soooo cool!”

“A-are you sure? I-I don’t wanna hurt you…”

“Oh, c’mon Chara. It’ll be fun! and then you can touch stuff, talk to aunt Toriel, and taste things again.”

“………Okay. If you’re sure. I hope I can get back out again afterwards…”

“I’m sure you can. And if not, I can just… well. LOAD. And it should be fine, right?”

“A-ah. You mean… one of us kill your body?” Chara fidgeted with her hands incessantly, a panicked smile on her face. “I’m just… still gonna be nervous, y’know?”

“Oh, yeah. Dude, same.”

“S- never mind. W-well… here I come, I guess-!”

I opened my arms as if we were getting ready to hug. Long ago, I’d write stories about characters with little friends in their heads – a ghost, a computer chip, a demon – and because of that, I was super excited to try it.

Goodness knows I wasn’t ready for the consequences.

≀

My  name is                             It’s me , your best                     I’m  sorry, your                        Please… wake up…                           Kis s the frog,                 What  good 

are you even  FOR,                                           Reme mber what mom said?             Why do n’t you go  play b y yo urself?                       Do you  doubt  me, Asriel? 

                               Grah-chei!            How could you?                      Do your creepy face!      Recipe as ked for cups of                 oh  yeah I c an just  DRINK sprink  les  

                                      Oh, yeah,  I           we  should cosplay                         whoa how’d                    I HATE LAD DERS              no don’ t t ake my            please  don’t  

say                                                                     I’m so sorr             I don’t know if it’s w hat I want any -           two cups of flour        ‘water’ you   left the cap    

                scente d markers                              when we tried t o make                          t hat’s a nice na                                          why was I still    

                                you’re right

Help me                        where am I                              dark                     I hate the dark                        I love t he dark                 a  m an’s eye

You’re   not  my  mother, she ’s                       you’re my              fr iend 

 A___...                 Asri el…

≀

Andwe’ll doittogether,right?Ineedt oclimbthemountainOkay,Doyoumi ndwatching?You’resuch acrybaby.FollowtheidiotSix,right?Wejusthavetogetsix…Idon’triderollercoasters!,areyouready?Yikse es!...Iloveyou,mom.IfinallylearnedhowtomakeA___’sfriedeggs!I…I…Myfavoriteanime?Wehavetogothr oughwiththisplan,evenifwedon’tli keit,Asriel. Seasonedsaltismygotospice;i tgoeswelloneverything! AHHHSTAYAWAYFROMME!There’snomoremilk,dangit… Please…wa keup…WhydidIhave tobetheonestillalive?Sorry,A zzy!YinandYan gfriendshipnecklaces,Ilikethewhiteone,howaboutyo u?’BestFriendsForever’,huh?mymo useisoutofbatteries.Ugh,mom,Ihatebooks! Weneedmorerice,H_____’smom.Canwenotlookinthemirroreevryday,Idon’tlikeit.AHHHHHWHATISHAPPENING? I DON’TKNOW????HOWAMIHERE ???WHATDOESTHATEVENMEAN?

We blinked. Who was… shouting? Suddenly, we felt very out of air… oh.

We gasped for air, willing the body to stop panicking.

“So-

“Many-

“THOUGHTS.”

It was like we were taking turns speaking, but the mouth was being moved by the other person.

“Let’s-

“Sit-

“Downnnn?”

Controlling the mouth was hard. Both of us, as humans, had the natural inclination to control the body mainly by ourselves, without anyone else. After several minutes of trying to wrench control from the other person, we finally decided, together, to just bend our knees and hope landing on my butt on stone won’t hurt too badly. We landed on my pelvis, hard.

“O-

“wwww-

“ww.”

Speech slurred into each other’s will, making it disjointed and annoying to try. We shook my head, trying to clear it. One voice is enough, but two in your head? That’s just

LOUD.

“We came-

“Together when-

“we talked to each other,

“Right?

“Then, we just have

“To communicate

“with each other.

We paused together, thinking. What if Chara- Grace has – has control over – movement and – speech and – I get to – I’ll do – talk? – the walking? Ugh, this was gonna get annoying if we didn’t untangle our thoughts soon.

“Th-that wasn’t so hard, right partner?” my voice came out shaky, Chara’s slight French accent sounding funny on my voice seeing as I couldn’t really speak French well myself.

I slowly stood myself up, trying not to focus too hard on my head less Chara lose her grip on my face and voice. It’s not that – you – bad, but – think – it’s also not – so? – that great.

It was like our head was full of cotton. Neither of us had complete vision. I held out my arms to steady us so we didn’t fall again.

 Can I have – but then I’ll – most of the – say some – thoughts, please? – funny things. Can we separate – we can try! – our minds?

Sounds like we’re – Yeah, we’re – almost there! – almost there!

“Hurgh…” Chara said with my mouth. I held our head, closing my eyes so the world would stop spinning. We tried not to puke, but fell forward and skinned my knees.

“Owww!” Chara yelled, yanking movement from me as she fell backwards, holding my knee. “Why’d we wear shorts?!”
“I don’t know? They were comfy and easy to wear?”

“Didn’t you know we’d be hurt?”

“No…?”

We shook my head. Okay, I think we’ve separated a – Yeah, I think we can almost think – lot now. – by ourselves.

“UGH!”

I don’t know who said that one. Maybe both of us. We closed my eyes and waited, both of us claiming thoughts over time until –

“Okay, I think we’ve got it now.” I said. Scratching my head. “That was the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me.
“Yeah, I think so too. It feels weird, too, right?

“Oh yeah! It’s like your red SOUL is sitting on top of mine…

“Right? Like I’m shadowing you, but both of us refuse to absorb the other?

“Exactly!”

We were both using my mouth now; our thoughts were separate enough for us to ignore each other – but it was still kinda like listening to both a tv and the computer it’s broadcasting out of.

“What’s a tv…? Oh wow, that’s weird.

“Oh right, you can read my thoughts now. How is it?

“I see why you… talk that way, now. I’m sorry about-

“Nope, don’t talk about that, please.

“I guess it wasn’t very long ago…”

We sat in silence for a minute.

“So THAT’S what butterscotch tastes like to you – no WONDER you get so excited.

“Were you… rooting around?

“Yeah? Aren’t you?

“Um, no…? For one, that’s rude, and two, I’m concentrating on being separated.

“Oh, well sorry. But uh, you really shouldn’t blame yourself for-

“OKAY NICE TALK TIME TO GO CHAT WITH AUNT TORIEL.”

I stood us up, walking us carefully back to (Old) Home. Chara held my arms as we walked, digging her nails into my skin a bit.

“…What is it?

“…I’m sorry. I still think you should talk to someone about it, but-

“It’s… fine. I understand. How about we just eat that chocolate and some other stuff when we get back then?

“That sounds good.”

When we got back, Toriel was waiting at the door, tapping her foot.

“You two were gone for nearly an hour! The RUINS are not all that big. What could you have been doing?”

“C’mon mom, that isn’t that long at all.

“Yeah, the results justify the sacrifice, in my opinion!”

Toriel was confused at first, but then-

“That accent… Chara, is that you?!?” She dropped the knitting needles she was holding and ran forward, slamming me with a hug faster than I could have imagined nearly seven feet of monster could.

“Mom-!” Chara barely managed to squeeze it out of my lungs, thanks to Toriel’s mighty hug.

“My child! Chara! You’re really here! I can’t believe that we got a chance like this!” She was weeping, caressing my hair, kissing me on every inch of my face (though that’s not hard, size comparison-wise)

“I mean, I’m here too, aunt Toriel-

“Y-yeah, we’re trying to keep it together but it’s really hard. And weird.”

Toriel stiffened. Slowly, she let us go, looking into our eyes. This was a little funny, since Chara had no problem with looking into people’s eyes and I do. So as we fought for control, it was a spastic pass back and forth of us looking into Toriel’s eyes.

“Wh-

“Is something-

“-at’s wrong?

“wrong?”

I shook our head, trying to set us back up so our disjointed speech didn’t freak Toriel out. She seemed surprisingly okay with all of this so far…

“My… children, do not worry. I expected it to be somewhat like this, when you suggested possession. Are you two alright, though?”

I cleared my throat, throwing Chara into the legs. She immediately squatted once to complain, but otherwise let it go. “It’s kinda like our thoughts and memories are two pieces of Velcro-

“What-oh!-

“- That we have to try really hard not to let touch. It doesn’t help that we have such… similar backstories. We-

“Grace has a lot she’s blam-

“I’m FINE. As I was saying, uh… yeah, Chara could talk to you herself this way. We were coming home to have her try chocolate for the first time ever!” I clasped my hands together, which Chara reciprocated.

“Yeah, I can remember it in Grace’s memories and it tastes amazing already!”

“O-oh! Well…” clearly us interrupting myself all the time was starting to get creepy to her. Her smile was genuine, but she seemed kinda awkward.

As we shambled toward the doorway, Chara suddenly grabbed the frame and pulled us back towards the garden.

“You really want to- okay I guess.

“Thank you.”

Chara bent down and held a red rose to her face, inhaling its scent and sighing. It smelled great, like always – but to Chara, it had been at long while since she’d smelled one, and I was remembering that with her.

“My children?”

“Co-

“ming!”

We sat at the table, stewing in our thoughts. Slowly, we noticed something; simultaneously, as we stopped focusing on severing our brains, we were getting better at it, but also the less we focused on it, the closer to getting stuck again it became. I closed my eyes, trying to rest. It was all very emotionally draining.

Suddenly, Toriel arrived back at the table with the chocolate bar, chocolate and strawberry ice cream, and a slice of The Pie. We didn’t really notice at first of course, so she tapped us on the shoulder.

“WHA- “HUH-!:

We made a funny sound, jumping in the chair and falling backwards – which made us both scream again thanks to my fear of falling.

“Ow… my

“my head.”

Toriel laughed. Getting up from her seat, she picked us up without any effort and placed us back in the seat.

“I can tell walking is hard, I can’t imagine standing. There you are, my child- children. Goodness, this is strange!” she put a hand to her cheek as she chuckled. “I have both children, but as one adult-shaped child! Well, you must try it, my dear.”

“Which should I try first?

“Let’s go with chocolate, first. It’s the mildest we’ve got here besides pie, and we wanna save that for last, right?

“Right. So, like… this?” she tore the wrapper open. It wasn’t very graceful but I nodded. The taste was like any chocolate bar I’d ever had before, but this time I let myself become one with Chara’s experience:

It was the most beautiful thing I-she’d had in my-her life.

So delicate and sweet, and yet the bitter just offsets the sweet in the most perfect way, melting on the tongue and-

Chara began to cry. She apologized, wiping my tears as we wept. Toriel got up from her chair again, kneeling next to us and holding us close.

“Welcome back home, Chara.”

Chapter Text

“Ooh, nice robe!” Toriel teased as I came into the kitchen, long blonde hair up in twin buns and sleeves rolled up. Today was baking day, and Toriel was going to teach me how to make her h e a v e n l y butterscotch-cinnamon pie!

“Aww, thank you! ‘Goat’ my style from the best!” I threw up finger guns as the kitchen burst into laughter and groans – Chara had started to get really sick of my jokes since I’d got here a month and a half ago.

“Well, you’d better not be… ‘kid’ ding me!” Toriel punned, hand over her heart as she continued. “At least, not when it comes to how clean your hands are!”

“Nope, nothing ‘sud’ spicious here!” I chuckled. “Yeah, I washed ‘em. Are we ready?”

“Yes, we have all the ingredients right here. Now what we’re doing first is the crust. We’ll need-“

“Three cups flour, one cup shortening, and a half to a cup of water…” I droned, years of thanksgivings embedded into my mind. I was always bad at remembering measurements (not numbers in general, got those easy for some reason.), so mom made me memorize these.

“Goodness, that came out of nowhere. I don’t suppose you’ve done pies before?”

“Yeah… lots.” Was all I could manage to say. I shrugged it off. “Sorry for interrupting. Let’s get back on this!”

The past month had been spent much more happily than that first, heavy week – gardening, studying any monster history I could get my ‘aunt’ to tell me, Chara having long talks with Toriel through possessing me – and I hadn’t felt so good in years. I loved wandering the RUINS, trying puzzles over and over again until I had them memorized, and visiting the mostly empty town with Toriel. I hadn’t LOADed in weeks. However, a strong voice in my head was growing louder as the days went on. It reminded me, every now and then, why I was here; to find H_____. I knew, long ago, that there was no way they were still… around. But my sense of duty wouldn’t stop nagging at me, telling me to get back on the road. I tried to silence these thoughts, but… a huge part of me knew they were right. I couldn’t live here forever – and, if I got out, I might be able to bring help. Like, new humans to break the barrier, or…

“You’ve been rather quiet, Grace. Whatever is the batter?” Toriel made a joke to ease the tension of her question, but her eyes gave away her motherly instinct. I must have let some of my emotions show in my reverie.

I stuttered a bit. “Don’t you mean… whatever’s on my PIE-nd? We aren’t working with batter.” I said, my trademark half-smile trying to cover up the fact that my amount of worry was about the same. It didn’t seem to work. Toriel grabbed the crust full of pudding and talked as she carried it to the freezer.

“I see. Yes, that. I know it has been a long while since we last talked about the future, and I can guess… *that* is what has been on your mind.”

“I mean… I was memorizing your pudding recipe, too...”

“Of course you were. But you only make that face specifically when you are thinking heavy thoughts. You are, for all intents and purposes, the only person I have seen in months, and before them, years. You are like my daughter. I know you, my child.”

“Well I *have* been calling you ‘aunt’, Toriel.” I smiled.

“…That is not the point... Something’s bothering you, and you find it hard to say. That is what I’m getting at, anyway.”

“Aunt Toriel,” I said, staring at the floor, “It’s going to hurt you to say this. That’s why I’ve been waiting to think of the right words”

“Ah.” Toriel fiddled with the oven mitts in her paws, thinking. “I must allow you to say it, though, as the statement cannot match the hurt of the curiosity… I think. The unknown is much scarier, you know?” She looked back at me, hands back in their usual talking function. “I think even you saying I am a horrid person would be better than not knowing what it could be.”

I sighed deeply. Doesn’t she know already what would hurt her most?

“I think you should tell her,” Chara said, floating near. “You need the closure, even if we stay in the underground forever. Besides, there’s so much you haven’t seen, and you’re strong!”

“And what did Chara say?” Toriel smirked, folding her arms. She was getting good at knowing if I was talking to the specter and knew exactly what to say to get on my nerves about it. Toriel led me to the table for us to sit.

Sigh. Well, here goes nothing. “Aunt Toriel, I usually try to be honest with you if I can help it, but I don’t want to leave on bad terms, so I will take almost any rules you wanna give me about it.”

“…leave…?” It suddenly hit Toriel. Her eyes widened, hand on her forehead as she fell weakly into the counter. “You…you want… want to…”

“I mean, not permanently! And not immediately, either. I’ll wait for almost however long you need – besides forever, obviously. I just… don’t think I can be inactively making H_____ wait any longer.”

“H_____… I can’t believe I forgot how important they were to you… or perhaps I was ignoring it.” Toriel covered her mouth.

I held my upper arm. “It’s not your fault, aunt Toriel. I let this go on far too long. I didn’t know how to tell you though, when I was… was… finally finding a family, again.” I looked straight into her eyes – something I was not known to do to anyone. My vision blurred. “Believe me, I don’t really want to leave, at all. But… H_____ was the reason I came here in the first place. I owe it to them to find out what happened.”

“Are-are you sure? I… It is… dangerous out there. We could stay here, and you would not have to fear anything… unreasonable.” Toriel was floundering. It hurt, knowing I’d have to make a rebuttal at all.

“You’ve been training me all this time for something, right? I just need to know what’s happening out there, so I’ll be prepared. I can’t stay without completing my mission, Aunt Toriel.”

The boss monster sighed. Gesturing to the table, Toriel sat me across from her.
“As you know, we monsters were trapped down here about 700 years ago. I still remember it, even now.” Toriel almost knocked over the vase as she spoke. “But we didn’t start out wanting to take human’s SOULs. In fact, we weren’t sure what we were going to do at all. We had no plan when Chara fell.” She nodded and put her hand out in the direction she thought her adopted daughter might be. She was wrong of course, but neither of us made a fuss about it. “Me and G-the king thought that, maybe, if we could somehow show the humans we meant no harm, then maybe we could convince them to let us go. I don’t know why we thought that, but it has been so long, now, that I’m not sure what our reasons were in the first place. We reared both children in the name of the future… but perhaps that was a cruel thing to do…” Toriel looked sadly back in the direction she believed Chara to be in. The ghost made up the difference. “I am so sorry you thought that you had to do something like that.”

“I know. I’m sorry, too. I can’t believe I pushed Asriel into doing something like that. I’m so sorry.” Chara responded. I could tell she was fighting tears, holding her arms in a way that made her look like she might fall apart if she let go. She turned to me and I nodded.

“She says… ‘I know. I’m sorry too.’ She can’t believe she asked Asriel to do something like that. C’mon, it’s… it’s…” I didn’t know what else to say. How could I comfort her when it’s something so fixedly NOT my business?

There were nearly two minutes of silence, us all staring at each other as we considered our relationships these past weeks. Finally, it was Toriel who deigned to speak.

“I understand. But… if you leave… may it be sometime next month? I am not ready. I cannot… let you go.”

“But, Aunt Toriel, I’m not leaving forever. I- “

“I know, m-Grace. But there is a possibility, that, once you are out there… you will not have the chance to come back. You see, the RUINS are locked on that side, and I’d need to be there to open them. The chances of us both being there at the same time, plus that you are not being chased… I don’t know.”

I stood, hands pushing me away from the table.

“What if… you can prepare us, then maybe I’ll be okay. If we continue sparring, and you tell me what you know about the rest of the underground-”

“Yeah!” Chara piped up, “I could watch out for danger!”

“Right! Chara could be my warning signal! Just, please… please Toriel… I have to try. For them.”

I don’t know why I was so desperate. I mean, H_____ was certain to be already... What was the point of all my perseverance, my self-imposed duty, when it was already too late? But this was all I could do to feel like I hadn’t given up.

“…I know you want to go home, but-”

“Toriel.” I said, sharply. Everyone’s eyes were on me, silent. “I,” I looked away, “I don’t have anywhere to go home to, not really. I mean, H_____ had a mom I was living with, but…”

“You did not live with any extended family?” the goat’s eyes softened as she spoke, words careful.

I didn’t respond. Sitting down, we both waited a bit before changing the subject.

“Sooo… is she gonna make a decision?” Chara said, folding her arms. “I’d like to know what’s going on with everyone else, myself. Like… Asriel. I wonder where they… spread his dust.”

I sighed, resting my head on my hand. “What’s it gonna be, Toriel? You can say no, you know. I’ll listen… it’s not like I’m really missing anything down here, anyway. Besides maybe a corporeal friend, and some sun.”

Toriel pursed her lips.

“Give… me…” she stopped, closing her eyes and holding a hand up to count. “… eight days. It will be the fifth by then. We will prepare you for the underground and set up a time when I will wait for you at the door. I do not want there to be any chance for you to be left out in the ‘cold’.” She chuckled a bit.

“Is there some joke I’m missing here?” I said, lifting my head and an eyebrow as I smirked at my adopted aunt.

“Ah, I completely forgot that I have not told you about the underground at all. I am so sorry, Grace, for babying you. I have not been quite fair to you about that, have I?” she sighed, eyes downcast and a sad smile on her face.

“Nah, it’s not as bad as you think, aunt Toriel. I’d say we’re both some pretty messed up adults…”

<3 <3 <3

The next eight days were spent preparing me for the underground. Toriel hadn’t actually been out there in ages, but she knew what to expect. Sentries, Snowdin forest, Waterfall, the CORE… what King Asgore would be like… it scared me, knowing how much monsters wanted my SOUL. It’s almost creepier, knowing people want you dead for a reason. Makes you want to give up on purpose, knowing you’ll save lives…

I was burned a few times in our sparring sessions – something that made Toriel pretty nervous about sending me out. At least she didn’t remember when I LOADed; which only happened two times, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right? It only happened the first two days, anyway.

…

Burning to death is horrible.

It’s agony for the first few minutes as your blood pours through cooked vessels and your skin blisters into hard splotches, but then suddenly you can’t feel it. The fear of losing your nerves amplifies your panic in spite of the relief, and then you notice the cold. For some reason, you’re cold, and numb. Your panic subsides to horror as you feel the life drain out of you. Toriel couldn’t save me, but seeing her expression when she deals you a fatal wound hurts almost as much as receiving it.

Chara tried to talk to me about the deaths. I wouldn’t. There’s always this moment of apprehension, when you die, that maybe this is the last time the weird universe sees fit to let you live. It’s terrifying, feeling your body give up, when your mind desperately wants to keep going in spite of the immense pain. That’s too much for a kid to bear. It’s not fair to Chara to make her think about that, when she has so much time to think at night.

Eventually, I had no problems reading her patterns or attacking with restraint. I didn’t particularly like hitting her (I fought with H_____’s plastic knife, still), but I was really accurate and Toriel was always proud of me when I sparred well. I was deft and quick, but not agile – I can trip over absolutely nothing.

Finally, it was the day before I was to leave the RUINS to find H_____. H_____ had already been through the RUINS, months before I fell. Toriel had no idea why they fell, or why they even left the RUINS, but she said there’s sort of a linear path out of the underground – besides the elevators in the CORE, anyway. So I’d have very few problems catching their trail. I woke up that morning to Chara’s eager face.

“Morning, sunshine! I can’t wait to see what’s changed in the past 5…500 years… ugh, still not used to that.” Chara’s excitement faded as she accidentally hit her own sore spot.

Sitting up, I stared at my full backpack leaning against the dresser.

“Chara, there’s no sunshine here. You of all people should have… ex‘specter’ed that!” I snorted at my terrible joke.

“Haha… hey, no! How dare you make fun of me being dead, that’s just disrespectful!” Chara turned around with her arms crossed in mock insult. I smirked.

“Hey, don’t give me the cold shoulder. This isn’t like you, you’re the ghost of your former self!” I giggled.

“Hey you used that yesterday!” Chara turned, smiling. “Can’t you at least be original? I mean, I gotta be transparent with you-“

I began laughing, holding my mouth as opening my mouth started a yawn. “Well, better get prepared for my final day at the house for a little while.”

<3 <3 <3

Wearing my favorite yellow shirt, I turned into the living room to see Toriel sitting in her chair, knitting hurriedly. As I came in, though, she quickly hid it behind the chair. I didn’t look: I knew ruining a surprise ruins it for everyone involved.

“G-good morning, my child. I MEAN, Grace.” She said, standing.

“No need to strain yourself, aunt Toriel. I mean, I am sort of your child, at this point… right?”

She said nothing, but smiled. Leading me to the table, she loaded my plate with my favorite breakfast foods. Crepes, sausage, omlette… and b u t t e r s c o t c h p i e.

“Dangit, Toriel. I’m still having breakfast tomorrow, you know? No need to pull out all the stops today.” I said this, but I was loading my crepes with strawberries and digging in at the exact same time.

“Well,” Toriel said, watching me with a warm smile, “I do not mind. I planned on this ever since we agreed.” She began to eat from her own, much fuller plate. “Really… I have shared my meals with no one for years, so this is simply making up for it- sh-crap!” As she said this, her gesturing at the table caused her to knock a glass of orange juice over, spilling it all over the floor. I snorted, suddenly reminded of her profanic tendencies.

“Ms. Toriel!” I said with mock horror. “Such lAnGuAgE!”

She looked up, her face shocked at first my jibe but then filled with realization. “Ah, Grace. But shouldn’t you know by now that I am knowledgeable of all things? And this includes the… ‘pro’ fane!”

We both howled with laughter as Chara groaned.

“Oop, sounds like Chara’s being a… tough ‘cuss’ tomer!” I said, hand to my mouth mischievously.

“Ah, she’s always been one to curse the witty!”

I barely heard myself and Toriel over Chara’s whine this time-

“You know, I really liked that one at first but then you two goofballs had to go and overdo it – like ALWAYS.”

But I could see a smile forming-!

“C’mon, Chara! Goat it together!”

“…no…!”

This punsanity continued in a similar manner until breakfast was over – I’ll spare you the play-by-play, now.

When we were clearing the plates, Toriel suddenly grabbed my hand.

“Grace.” She whispered in my ear. It was a full sentence. The kind a parental figure gives the oldest sibling to grab their attention without alerting the younger ones. I looked to Chara, who was staring absentmindedly at the magic fire, before nodding.

“Mhm?” I tried to be quiet. Chara didn’t move.

“When we are done, I have a favor to ask of you. I… do not want Chara to see this. It would not be fair to her. But you must be absolutely certain you understand how serious I am, before you leave.”

I had a fleeting inclination to argue that I understood what she meant already – almost too well – but fought it down easily. “Okay. But how will I keep Chara from seeing? They’re kinda tied to me.”

“I know. Just ask her… she’ll listen to you. I’ve been nothing but possessive, and she would deem me unreasonable.”

Nodding, I turned to Chara. “Hey, C?”

Tearing her eyes away from the fire, Chara furrowed her brows at me. “Hey, I told you not to call me that! And right after pun torture, too. Ugh.” She pouted.

I rolled my eyes. “Chara, I know, I was teasing you. But I need to be real with you for a sec, okay?”

“…Sure…?”

“Okay. Um, aunt Toriel wants to show me something, and…you can’t see.”

“What? WHY?”

I closed my eyes and hugged my arms. “Because… she doesn’t think it’d be suitable for someone your age. You may be technically old, but-”

“Hey, I’m 14! And I’ve seen plenty of horrible things! What will it take for-”

“Dude, calm down. I get it. But just because you’ve seen terrible things doesn’t mean terrible things won’t still affect you now. For all I know, it’s the bodies of humans who’ve fallen. Monster funerals are different from human ones, so maybe they weren’t sure of the rites…”

“Ugh.”

“Exactly.”

“Well…fine, I guess. But you’d better come back quickly to garden!”

“Sure.”

Turning around, I have Toriel the thumbs up. Nodding grimly, she beckoned me out into the RUINS.

I’d… never even seen this path before. Was there, somehow, a switch I didn’t know about? It led out into a rare sunny spot with a field of golden flowers. I shuddered at the flowers before I even realized what the place was even for – why I was even being led here.

So many. I counted at least twelve.

“…What. What is this, aunt Toriel?” I said, aghast. The headstones were all fairly uniform – a stone brick from the walls of the RUINS, marked with a name carved into it and a heart in differing colors. Some had epitaphs, others didn’t. Some had different objects or symbols carved into them, mostly recognizable with a few outliers.

“They are… my children.” She walked forward, placing a single flower from the bouquet in her paws at the foot of every grave as she continued. “…I have had a long time to take care of most of them. Some, like H_____, I could not stop from entering the rest of the underground. They were one of the independent ones – like you, Grace. I do not know what happened to them. But these children were all ones who either stayed or came back. Though, like you, I suppose not all of them could be considered ‘children’ by the end.”

I took part of her bouquet and started the second round of the graveyard. Toriel had a lot of different kinds of flowers – enough to match each flower to the SOUL color on every headstone.

“Humans… are extremely determined. Lisa, Carmichael, and Jennifer were the ones who lived with me longest. Nearly 100 years old each, and they passed with pride, despite our entrapment. All three were determined to stay with me, though they all refused to tell me exactly why, in all that time.” She stood motionless, in front of a cyan headstone bearing the name ‘Lisa’. Shaking her head, she went on. “Not all died that way, though… the RUINS are not only very small, but they also filled with monsters led only by their instincts. I was… horrified, but not surprised to discover many having… ‘fallen down.’ I know this isn’t an accurate term for humans, but it is all I know how to call it.”

Holding up my last flower – a yellow rose – I was suddenly hit with many things; déjà vu, grief, and fear. I knew what she was trying to say. She probably didn’t know about Flowey, despite being here so long, since Flowey probably respected her power as a boss monster and avoided her. It wasn’t some innocent Froggit that had killed all those kids, it had to have been…

I held the flower closer, staring intensely into it. “I know what you’re trying to say, aunt Toriel.” I touched the petals gently, marveling at how fragile it was. We were.

“Then you must understand why I am so against you leaving. I can’t… I can’t lose you, too.” Toriel placed her final purple iris at her feet.

Perseverance, huh?

“I’m sorry to do this to you, Toriel…” I smelled my yellow one before turning toward the door.

“Ah. So that’s why…” Chara said, looking out into the graves with a sad smile. “I know, I know, I swore not to… but it’s boring being a ghost who can’t touch anything, you know?”

I sighed. It was directed at both members of my audience, but I tried to not let it slip that Chara was there – no point in getting her in trouble.

“Aunt Toriel?” I said, turning back to her.

“Mm?” she was staring at the last grave I’d honored, not looking up when I spoke.

I paused, thinking carefully for the right words. “Thank you for showing me this. I know now just how serious you are – and brave. I know it must have been hard, showing me this, when it might have condemned you in my eyes. Since some may have assumed it was you who… you know. But danger doesn’t daunt me. Until I got here, H_____ was the only reason I stayed a… around. If I can’t figure out what-“

“You do not need to repeat yourself. I… I believe you too, my child.” Toriel walked back towards the door, guiding me by the shoulders out of the depressing room.

“Oh. Right. I forgot that I do that.” I winced as she squeezed my shoulders, the motherly attitude almost too much after something that- was so heavy.

So heavy.

Was I… truly justified in leaving? Or was I simply curious and floundering for an excuse?

Chapter Text

The next morning, I dressed slowly. I needed to leave, but I also didn’t want to. I was perfectly happy here. Sometimes, I wonder if things would have turned out differently had I stayed down there. Better, or worse? Waking up at six didn’t help my problem solving skills, either. Chara was silent all morning, but floated about from room to room, ‘touching’ and looking at every little thing as if she were never going to see them again. I barely registered her as I prepared.
Brush hair and teeth.
Braid.
Jeans.
Yellow shirt.
Pink socks.
Boots.
Gloves.
Scarf.
Snow coat.
Standing before the mirror, I gave myself a nod before walking robotically to the garden. I meant to go to the living room but my feet moved without me really noticing. When I finally ‘woke up’ from my stress-induced haze, I was kneeling next to the yellow roses, staring blankly into their kaleidoscope of petals. I blinked twice.

“Ahh… well, not letting you go to waste, right?”

I picked the rose. I would have preferred the pink peony, but they were too pretty – plus, fate told me this was what I needed. Placing it behind my ear, I suddenly heard Chara nearby.

“Hey, did you do something? There’s some more – what did you call it? ‘Tasty text?’ – over here. It says, ‘Yellow rose. Feels significant. …being cute makes monsters not want to hit you’? Well it’s true but… whatever.”

“Huh, so it became an armor? Guess I have to keep it, then. Hope it doesn’t wilt when we get near the CORE.”

From inside the house, Toriel called me. Letting myself back inside, I joined the goat monster at the recognizable, but beautifully laid-out table.

“Aww yeah, twice in a row!” I said, this time no hesitation as I dug into the butterscotch crepes and scrambled eggs.

“Hey, that’s bad manners!” Chara teased, pretending to punch me in the shoulder.

I looked up at her. “Yeah, well you’re not exactly sitting at the table are you, wise guy?” I smirked, getting a lukewarm but overall positive response.

When we were done, Toriel stood, not reaching to help me with the plates. “Hold on, Grace.” She said, holding up a paw. “I will handle that myself today. I’ll have… plenty of time. Instead, I need to give you something.”

Turning around, she went to her large armchair, which held a package in brightly colored wrapper that I frankly should have noticed sooner.

“What’s this?” I raised an eyebrow good-naturedly.

“This is… a physical representation of my thanks for being here this last month and a half or so. It’s also so… you don’t forget my hugs, and to remind you that you promised to come back.” She said that last part with a touch of uncertainty. She still didn’t trust me to come back: whether of mine or someone else’s accord.

“Thank you so much, aunt Toriel!” I exclaimed, not even having ripped the paper yet. I opened it.

Inside, there was a beautiful, hand-knit sweater in pink with a sky blue pattern. It was remarkably thick and warm, and closed with buttons in the front. So much work went into it – not only were there blue patterns, but the texture was chunky and clean. My eyes lightened up immediately.

“Oh my gosh, Toriel. This is absolutely beautiful!” I picked it out of the box carefully, placing the wrappings onto the table. Holding it up to me, I noted that it was a great fit at I twirled once. I hugged it. “How did you know? How did you know my favorite colors, and my size, and-“

“My dear, it is a mother’s- well, loving aunt’s job to pay attention. Especially when handmaking gifts.”

“I bet you just took one of my shirts from the washing and measured against that.” I gave her a sly smile.

“Hey now, no need to ruin the mystique!” Toriel shooed me towards my backpack. “Now, I’d suggest you wait to put it on until you are out there, since it is warm in here.””

Yes, ma’am.” I saluted, still holding the sweater.

Toriel shifted between her feet, putting a hand into her pocket.

“Now, there is one last gift. I do not suggest you take it lightly, and you must promise me to be careful, but I noticed what kind you lean to, and- ”

Toriel handed me a long, silver box. Tentatively, I took it and lifted its lid.

“A knife?” It was really pretty. It had a slightly curved red handle, and a silver blade with a sheath. I hooked it to my belt on my right hip. “I… understand. I’ll try not to use it at all… if I can. I don’t want to hurt anyone, but if I feel like I have to…”

“Then I want you to protect yourself. Please, try not to kill, though.”

“…Of course. Why would I do that? Monsters have proved, time and time again, that they won’t do you harm if you give them the chance.”

“Even so, there are still some who will still want to FIGHT. I must strongly warn against it. Perhaps humans do not talk of this, but… killing changes you. Not many are sure of the specifics of why though.” She sighed, holding out a hand. “Well, we must be done with heavy topics. We have a habit of that, don’t we?”

“Oh, yeah. Definitely.” I took her hand, but she didn’t move.

“Are you completely ready? Not leaving anything behind?”

“I’m ready. I can’t wait to come back.”

We walked carefully down the stairs and into a long purple hallway. Toriel had let go at the top of the stairs, so now she was leading the way, just as she had at the beginning of our time together. Despite there not being any cold yet, I shivered. Toriel was suddenly icy, unresponsive. I motioned as if I were about to speak several times but couldn’t seem to find the words. My aunt was just… walking. No emotion in her steps. What was wrong?

Suddenly, as we reached a door, she stopped me and walked over to it, turning around as she spoke.

“You want to leave so badly… you are just like the others. There is only one solution to this. Prove yourself… prove to me you are strong enough to survive.”

It sounded almost scripted, like she’d been considering the words for a long while. All of a sudden, my SOUL began glowing, strong and yellow, out of my chest. She was… FIGHTing me! Not just sparring-!

“Toriel! What’re you doing!” I couldn’t think of any conversation topics.

Before I could say more, Toriel sent out a small wave of firebullets, hitting me in the face but not really burning me much.

“22/28!” Chara shouted as she always did when we were sparring.

Toriel was acting aloof. I furrowed my brows. What else could I do? It wasn’t like I was going to take my knife out on her…

I stared at it as I continued to dodge the light attacks. Or maybe… she meant for me to…

I brandished H_____’s toy knife instead. Her eyes widened for only a moment at my choice. I only did a few points of damage before I realized I couldn’t make myself hurt her much at all. I sighed, throwing it to the ground.

“I’m not going to hurt you. I won’t.”

Toriel looked through me, not speaking. I was hit with more bullets.

“17/28!”

“9/28!”

“6/28!”

Why isn’t it working? This hurts a lot… I thought, pausing on my turn for a moment to lift my shirt and check my small burns. They weren’t severe on their own, but together it was pretty intense. I fought my impulse to touch them. Suddenly, I was reminded of something Gerson wrote:

‘Monsters refuse to FIGHT first, but when we do, we respect both the strength and the intent of the human. If a human shows that they do not want to FIGHT anymore, monsters are to relent. But only when the humans show they don’t want to FIGHT, not just by word. Monsters are too frail to rely on word alone.’

I blinked, looking at my burns. Taking one of my monster candies, I ate it and healed up to sixteen out of twenty-eight before Toriel threw some more fire at me.

Toriel took a deep breath. I smiled, running to and picking my knife back up as I advanced towards her.

I swiped in her direction, missing on purpose. A fireball landed on my back, this time burning through my shirt a bit.

“AHH!” I reacted. Burning was one of those things you can’t help but respond to, despite my level of pain tolerance. Toriel flinched a bit, taking a very small step backwards.

“What are you doing,,,?” she said. She told me before that she could sense my HP, somehow. Did she know?

“Uhh… you’re at 2/28, Grace. You need to heal again, and soon!”

I reached to my pocket – full of emergency food – and stopped. I mean, it’s a mock battle, right? I dropped my hand, staring at Toriel in mock defiance as I stood my ground.

As I suspected, her bullets went nowhere near me. Jackpot.

It was predictable, but somehow Toriel didn’t seem to get that I was pulling the same move as earlier. Taking my real knife this time, I ran as fast as I could and – missed.

“Attack or run away!” She said, looking through me. I nodded, understanding the exercise. I ate a to-go crepe.

“Alright, you’re back to 12/28 now.” Chara reported. She was avidly NOT watching the FIGHT.

Me and Toriel traded blows some more – or rather, I swiped at the air as she minutely burned me.

“And what are you proving to me this way?” a small smile appeared on her face.

I took one last swipe, nearly stabbing her foot. “Yikees, sorry!”

“It is- now wait a minute. Did you…?”

“I’m proving that I’m persistent and annoying, and I’m not going to kill you, but I’m also not going to stop. I will not kill people, and I won’t be killed.”

Toriel smiled brightly. My SOUL went back to normal as she pulled me into a loose hug. A wave of relief hit me as her green magic filled the air around me, healing my burns. Since it was a lot of little burns and not one big one stabbing my organs, it was much easier to heal – still stung, though.

“My goodness, Grace, but you do give me a scare! So you knew it was a fake battle?”

“Yeah. If you really wanted to hurt me, you could. I know that all too well.” I grimaced, remembering all the times I died or was burned badly in battle practice.

“I know.” She hugged me tighter now that I was healed to full. “I know we did not have much, but… we had a good life here. I understand, though. You would just be unhappy trapped down here forever. The RUINS are very small once you get used to them. It would not be right for you to spend the rest of your life in a place like this.” She let me go, squeezing my shoulders as she went on.
“My expectations…
“My loneliness…
“My fear…
“For you, my child… I will put them aside.”

Pushing back my braid, she planted a kiss on my cheek. I stopped her and did the same.

“I love you, aunt Toriel.”

“I love you too, Grace. And of course I love you, my child. Chara?”

“I… I…” Chara sighed. “I can’t believe I’m saying goodbye again, already…”

I nodded, my stomach twisting a bit as I realized that it was my fault we were leaving at all. “she says… she loves you too. She doesn’t want to leave.”

“Me, either.” Toriel closed her eyes. “But you must move with conviction, now. Do not live with regret – it will rip you apart forever if you do.” Kissing my forehead again, she released me. Before she could turn to hug the air (Chara), I shook my head, giving Chara the hand signal we agreed on for her to possess me (ASL ‘K’). Nodding, Chara flew into me. I let Chara have full control.

“M-maman? It’s me.” Chara spluttered, hands behind her back. She was looking at the floor. I gave her a small nudge, almost making her trip. Looking into Toriel’s wet eyes, she held her hands out. Toriel held them tenderly.

“Chara… I hope you accept that advice as well. I am so proud to call you my daughter. I may not approve of what you were trying to do, but… please know that I understand it came from a place of love.” Toriel cupped my cheeks in her hands, staring into Chara’s red eyes. The glow of her SOUL was reflected in Toriel’s large eyes. It was beautiful. I could never be seen that way. Toriel hugged Chara tightly.

“Ow.
“Sorry, Chara.” I said.

“Oh goodness, Grace’s pain tolerance is certainly high, isn’t it?” Toriel said, letting us go. I subconsciously reached back for her but fought the urge. I immediately regretted it.

Chara grabbed the arm I almost moved. “Mooom, Grace wants a hug too but she’s too dumb to ask!
“Hey, I didn’t!”

Toriel laughed. “Well now, that won’t do, will it? Let her go, Chara.” She shooed Chara out and as soon as my eyes were blue again, she wrapped me up gently in her arms. She was much more careful this time, which sort of annoyed me.

“Come on, aunt Toriel. I’m not gonna break just because of a hug.” I complained, hugging her tighter. It stung a bit, but that was okay to me. Toriel rolled her eyes and didn’t move.
We sat there for a moment.

“I’m coming back. I promise.” I breathed in the butterscotch smell that always seemed to stick to her clothes – well, that and snails.

“I know.”

“You don’t trust me.”

“It’s not you I distrust, Grace. I…” Her hold loosened.

“I swear not to make you hurt. I don’t even know if-“ I don’t even know if I can, now.

“…”

“Be seeing you, aunt Toriel.”

“Goodbye, my children.” Toriel let us go. Without another word, as if she could barely make herself move again if she hesitated, Toriel turned, and left. She was slow though, and held my hand as long as she could before letting go.

I opened my eyes again. Chara was behind me, staring after her mother. Opening my backpack again, I retrieved the pink sweater and put it on, covering the burn marks in my yellow shirt. Putting on my snow coat, gloves, scarf, and hat, I pushed the door open.

Past it was another passage that was on a small incline upwards. Brighter and brighter light fell into my way – something I was unused to, after so long in the RUINS. I had to rub my eyes a few times as I went on. Inside the next room – unusually dark for what the path had led me onto so far – there lay-

“Oh no. Not again…” I said. It had been at least three weeks since I’d seen that weed….

“Clever. Verrrryyy clever. You think you’re really smart, don’t you?” he condescended to me, smirking at my annoyance.

I folded my arms, rolling my eyes at him. “Well, yeah actually. Did you think that was a real FIGHT? Nah, me and my aunt were just- ”

“Yeah yeah. But in this world, it’s kill or be killed. So you were able to play by your own rules. You spared the life of a single person.” His smiles were never pleasant, but this one was sinister. “Hee hee hee… I bet you feel really great. You didn’t kill anybody this time.”

“Yeah, and I’m not gonna kill anybody in any following time, either!” I said, exasperated. “You’re not indoctrinating me into your dumb little philosophy, ultracrepidarian.”

“What does that even-“ He rolled his eyes. “But what will you so if you meet a relentless killer?” he interrupted my answer. “You’ll die and you’ll die and you’ll die – until you tire of trying. What will you do then?”

“Hold on there, busybody. How do you know about that?” I narrowed my eyes at him, even more annoyed and creeped out by this thing. I couldn’t really call him a person, but he wasn’t an object. He always seemed to be… missing something that makes one a person, or something.

“Does it matter? I still know.” He laughed. “Will you kill out of frustration? Or will you give up entirely on this world…” his eyes went black. “… and let ME inherit the power to control it? I am the prince of this world’s future. Don’t worry, my little monarch, my plan isn’t regicide. This is SO much more interesting.”

“What are you even talking about? I demand-”

He burst into mad laughter, dropping into the ground.

“Ugh… what is WITH that guy?” Chara whined, egging me to continue forward.

“I have… no clue. He’s terrifying and dangerous though, so I say good riddance – best that he stays stuck in the RUINS. He doesn’t seem like he’ll attack Toriel, at least.”

“Yeah, she’s probably a big shot in comparison, power-wise.”

Walking into the outside – burned.

“I’m so glad I don’t technically have eyes.” Chara laughed, holding a useless, translucent hand in front of the light.

It was so BRIGHT after weeks in partial darkness. Blinking stupidly, I stood in front of the doors for a solid minute as my eyes readjusted. Looking around, I saw desolate, snowy forest and not much else. There was some sort of gate or fort at the end of the visible path and a single bush to my direct left.

“Ooh, there’s a camara over in these bushes!” Chara said, having begun patrolling as soon as we exited to protect me because of my blindness.

“I’m sorry, a what?” I said, turning to look and rubbing my eyes. Inside, a camera was set up on poles inside the bush, the light indicating it was videoing my every move. “A camera…?”

“Yeah, a camara. You know, one of those magical monster thingies that can capture an image in time?”

I blinked. “Ah… we can do this without magic, Chara.”

“Wait what.” She stared at the ‘camara’, shocked. “We can?”

“Yep. Doesn’t need magic and probably better quality video, considering. Also, ca-MER-a, Chara.”

“Oh…” she flushed (somehow). “Got it.”

I smiled and shook my head at her as I turned to keep walking.

“H-hey! Don’t you think this is worrisome?” She exclaimed, trying to pull me back.

“Well I mean, if it’s already seen me, what’s the point in panicking now? I’ll deal with what happens as it does, Chara.” I continued walking.

“Yeah, but… you at least have to admit how c-c-creepy it is, out here. Maybe we should go back?”

“No. Way. I’m sorry, but Toriel already told me to live without regrets and I’m not breaking that-“

CRACK!

I turned around.

The heavy stick I’d just passed had been smashed like it was nothing.

“No-no turning back, now…!” I continued forward, stubbornly walking instead of running. If a monster wanted to FIGHT, then bring it on. I just (sort of) convinced a boss monster to drop the FIGHT, so who’s to say anyone else would be any harder!

There was this… whooshing sound, somewhere behind me. Turning around, I saw no one.

“O k a y.” I squeaked humorously, trying to laugh my fear away.

Suddenly, right as I reached the fort thingy, I heard…

“Footsteps!?” Chara began silently panicking, flitting about like a mosquito.

” H u m a n .”

A beat.

“D o n ’ t y o u k n o w h o w t o g r e e t a n e w p a l ? T u r n a r o u n d a n d s h a k e m y h a n d .”

His voice was sort of… strange. I didn’t know how to put it. It wasn’t even how uncomfortably slow he said those words, but something like… an accent, maybe?

I decided to oblige him.

PPPPPFFLLLLLLHHHHHHH

I filled my cheeks with laughter air as a dumb fart sound filled the air. Staring into my eyes was a very short skeleton in a blue hoodie. He seemed extremely satisfied with my reaction, eyes brightening (literally) at the sight of my face.

“heheh… the old whoope cushion in the hand trick. it’s ALWAYS funny.”

“Haha, yeah, that’s great! I’ve never had someone do that to me, before!” I laughed, shaking his hand and making the prank device let out little ‘Ppptt!’s. The skeleton seemed a little confused to see me so jovial about this, but levity was what I needed after a boss FIGHT and his little scare.

“heheh. yeah, it’s great. anyways, you’re a human, right?”

“Uhh… ayup! No use in hiding it, I guess.”

“that’s hilarious. i’m sans. sans the skeleton. im actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now. but… y’know… i dont really care about capturing anybody. now my brother, papyrus… he’s a human-hunting FANATIC.”

“Oh wow, guess I’d better not run into him then…”

“hey, actually, I think that’s him over there. i have an idea. go through this gate thingy.”

“Uhh… this one?” I pointed at the wooden structure ‘blocking’ our path.

“yeah, go right through. my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone.”

Walking through as I was told, I could hear Chara’s exasperation behind me, like a creepy supernatural force. I had to stifle a chuckle. Down the path, I could see a small reddish-orange blur coming down the path. To my left was a weird-shaped lamp and an official-looking post – probably to catch humans coming out of the RUINS. Before I could ask, Sans spoke.

“quick, behind that c- weird lamp.”

Nodding with a smile, I ignored his instructions and hid behind the much larger pile of snow, instead. He gave me a right eye wink before turning to his brother, who just arrived.

He was a much taller skeleton, dressed in what looked like a knight costume with vermillion accents. His voice also had a funny sound I didn’t quite get, but it was different from Sans’, and he was much louder.

“sup, bro?”

”YOU KNOW WHAT “SUP,” BROTHER!" he furrowed his brows (somehow, without eyebrows) and folded his arms. " “IT’S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN’T. . . "

“RECALIBRATED.

“YOUR.

“PUZZLES!

“YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!?”

“staring at this- snow. it’s really… ‘cool’. do you wanna look?”

"NO! ! I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THAT! !” " the obviously younger skeleton began stomping his foot in frustration. "WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH HERE!?! I WANT TO BE READY! ! ! I WILL BE THE ONE! I MUST BE THE ONE!"the monster posed dramatically, cape flying in the stale cave wind (that also blew bits of snow into his eyesockets, which proves his tenacity more than anything). My, was he a bit loud though.. "I WILL CAPTURE A HUMAN! THEN, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS. . . WILL GET ALL THE THINGS I UTTERLY DESERVE! RESPECT. . . "

“RECOGNITION. . .

“I WILL FINALLY BE ABLE TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD! PEOPLE WILL ASK, TO, BE MY, “FRIEND?” I’ WILL BATHE IN A SHOWER OF KISSES EVERY MORNING.”

I flinched. Ahh, maybe that’s what annoyed me about him at first; a kinship.

“hmm… maybe this snow can help you.”

“SANS! ! YOU ARE NOT HELPING! ! YOU LAZYBONES! ! ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOGGLE! YOU GET LAZIER AND LAZIER EVERY DAY! ! ! !” the young skeleton began stomping his foot again. I covered my mouth from laughing – he was actually kinda endearing, in his insistent way. Perhaps not unlike…

“hey, take it easy. i’ve gotten a ton of work done today.” He winked. “a skele-ton.”

Sans almost obviously winked at me, shrugging with his arms out.

Uh oh. Considering how he’d ignored the first one, how was Papyrus gonna-

“SANS! ! !” the taller skeleton loudly complained, giving me just the cover I needed to let out a laugh.

“come on. you’re smiling.” Sans teased, looking away from us both in mock indignance.

“I AM AND I HATE IT! SIGH. . .” Papyrus shook his head sadly, a hand to his forehead.

“WHY DOES SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME. . .HAVE TO DO SO MUCH JUST TO GET SOME RECOGNITION. . .”

“Aww, he’s really trying to-“

“wow, sounds like you’re really working yourself… down to the bone.” Sans unknowingly interrupted Chara. Winking his left eye, his eye glowed under it a bit as he pressed ‘play’ on a recording of that ‘ba dum tiss’ on a phone in his pocket.

I think I love him.

“UGH! ! ! I WILL ATTEND TO MY PUZZLES. . .AS FOR YOUR WORK? PUT A LITTLE MORE,” he smirked.

“ “BACKBONE” INTO IT! ! ! ! NYEHHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE ! ! !”

He turned to walk away, but then seemed to decide he needed to put a final say –

“HEH!”

Before he finally left for real. I rolled my eyes, smiling.

“Well, that happened, I guess.”

“ok, you can come out now.”

Coming out of my hiding spot, I noticed that Sans hadn’t moved yet.

“Hey, why’re you-“

"“you oughta get going. he might come back. and if he does…” he winked.

“… you’ll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes.”

“Well, yeah, that’s no… laughing matter!” I chuckled a bit at my dumb joke. Sans laughed too, but seemed troubled.

“have I heard that one before?” he did that weird magic trick where a man of bone raises his browbone before continuing. Suddenly, he noticed I was still just standing there.

“what’s the holdup? look, there’s nothin to be afraid of.” Left wink. “it’s just a dark cavern filled with skeletons and horrible monsters.”

“Isn’t that a little rude to the rest of your people? I mean, not to mom-ster you…” ahh crap, I got too used to pun battles with aunt Toriel and now I’m doing it with this random guy? Weirdo.

“…heh… y’kno, your jokes sorta remind me of someone…”

“Wait really? Who?”

“ehh nevermind. i’ll tell you some other time. i’m tired.”

I pursed my lips, annoyed. “Fine.” I said, turning around. Looking out onto the road, I took a deep breath, and-

“actually, hey… hate to bother ya, but can you do me a favor?”

“Yeah?”

“i was thinking… my brother’s been kind of down lately… he’s never seen a human before, and seeing you might just make his day. don’t worry, he’s not dangerous.” Sans looked away thoughtfully.

“even if he tries to be. tha-”

“Will do.” I interrupted him this time, laughing a bit at his shocked expression. He eventually warmed up again, remembering how he’d done it to me.

“…i’ll be up ahead.” He said, turning the exact opposite direction.

“Huh.” Was all I could say, turning back to the sentry station beside me. There were bottles of ketchup, mustard, and relish sitting inside. Weird.

Chapter Text

“G-Grace-Grace! What are you doing!? Mom said to avoid monsters but now you’ve… made a promise with one? What the merde?”

“Hey, language!” I said, walking forwards towards the first new SAVE point I’d seen in a long while. “It doesn’t seem unreasonable to me. Plus, if I’m double crossed, it will not be because I was the untrustworthy one!”

“UUUGHH!” Chara folded her arms, refusing to read the flavor text of the SAVE point.

“Don’t you think you’re overreacting? Considering what aunt Toriel and you have said about monsters thus far, I’m not all that worried about dying. Getting hurt maybe, but I don’t think monsters really want to kill me. I think they feel like they have to.”

Before Chara could respond, a large bird seemingly made of snow waltzed in my path. They were quite short and looked like a young teen.

Icy bullets flew into me as they fearfully approached, inexperienced and clumsy in their attack patterns.

“Ice jokes are ‘snow’ problem!” they punned desperately.

I giggled a bit. Oh man, is the entire underground like this? This is great!

“It says, ‘Snowdrake is pleased with its “cool” jok- OH!” Chara was distracted by me dosging to the ground. Instead of getting up, I lay on my side, hand on my chin and a leg up with a grin.

“Hey kid, you’re pretty good.” I winked. “But, can you stop ‘hitting on’ me, please? You’re gonna give people the wrong idea!” I laughed as Snowdrake’s eyes widened.

“You… like terrible puns, too!”

“Yeah, that’s just about all I do well, haha.”

“Well, you know what they say about people who like bad jokes – they’re trustworthy. Alright, I’ll leave you alone.”

As soon as the monster teen left, Chara gave me my stats.

“You got 12g from that one – maybe they’re trying to apologize?”

I shrugged. “As long as I can continue to support myself out here, I’ll be good. Oh, what’s up here?”

“Grace!” Chara called after me as I went down the left path.

There was a thin river up there, with a fishing rod affixed to the ground…

“Guess I’ll ‘bite’. Let’s see what this is about?” I’ll spare you Chara’s moaning. All that was attached to the end was a photo of a weird-looking monster and a note:

(Call Me!
Here’s my number!)

“Yeah, not happening.” Winding the line back into the river, I went back to the only other interesting thing around: a box and a sign.

*(This is a box. You can put an item inside or take an item out. The same box will appear later, so don’t worry about coming back.
Sincerely, a box lover.)

“Huh… so it’s some kind of magic or technology that monsters made that connects a bunch of boxes over a great distance? – I bet the mail system is amazing here!”

“Oh yeah, I don’t think anything came late – not that we expected it to,” Chara was inspecting the sign, too. “I thought it was because of how small the underground is, but we never received anything later than ‘on time’. How are you holding up, by the way?”

“Oh, the cold doesn’t bother me (snrk). I think my burns were healed by the last SAVE, and I haven’t been hurt too badly by anyone except Toriel, so I think I’m doing great! I just hope we make it somewhere warm to sleep in time for me to pass out…”

“Yeah, that’d be for the best I think. Hey, you wanna use that box?”

“Well… I don’t really have much yet. I opened my backpack to CHECK. Most of my camping supplies were left with Toriel, since I wouldn’t really use them, but I kept my water purifying bottle, lighter, scissors, and fireproof gloves. Food-wise, I was okay but I could still carry more:

♥ Spider Donut
    Spider Donut
    Stick
    Butterscotch Pie
    Strawberry Crepe
    Strawberry Crepe
    Monster Candy

“And I don’t see a reason to- ooh hey, what’s this?” I had absentmindedly reached into the box while I was talking – I like to call it the ‘Christmas effect’ – and found some pink leather glove. It had obviously belonged to a kid once. A human one, if I went by how accurate it was to my own hand. I could just barely even wear it. I took off my regular glove and put the pink one on. “What do you think? Too much pink?”

“Ehh… well at least it’s practical. Now you won’t have to worry so much about hurting monsters when you hit them.”

“…isn’t this MORE directed at their body than their SOUL? You know, their weak spot?” I said, pulling the plastic food box full of butterscotch pie out of my backpack and placing it in the chest.

“I guess I hadn’t considered that. Hold on, what are you doing with mom’s pie?”

“Hey now, this is a special pie. The only one I’ll get for a long while. So I’m putting it away so I don’t accidentally eat it. Plus, cold is good for pudding!”

“Well… I guess those are good enough reasons. But what if someone steals it?”

“Oh, then I’ll have to break Toriel’s rule about hurting monsters.”

“Oh no. You really are obsessed with butterscotch, huh?”

Laughing at my morbid joke, we continued down the path. However, Sans and Papyrus were just ahead.

“SO, AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE,” he was saying when he suddenly noticed me. Looking back and forth between each other, Sans and Papyrus made for an entertaining audience.

“SANS! ! OH MY GOD! ! IS THAT… A HUMAN ! ? ! ? ! ? ? ! ? !”

Sans looked far beyond me however, and squinted his eyes. Did Papyrus point at that? I wasn’t sure if I had or hadn’t noticed.

“uhhhh… actually, i think that’s a rock.”

“OH.”

“hey, what’s that in front of the rock?”

“OH MY GOD! ! !” he yelled, turning to stage whisper to his brother.

“(IS. . . IS THAT A HUMAN)”

(yes)

“OH Y GOD! ! ! SANS! I FINALLY DID IT! ! UNDYNE WILL… I’M GONNA… I’LL BE SO…

“POPULAR! ! !

“POPULAR! ! !

“POPULAR! ! !

“… ‘AHEM’ HUMAN! YOU SHA.LL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU! ! !

“I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU!

“YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL!

“THEN…

“THEN! ! !

“I’M NOT SURE WHAT’S NEXT. IN ANY CASE! CONTINUE. . . ONLY IF YOU DARE! ! !

“NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH! ! !”

Aaaaaand he ran away. Confidently!

Sans stayed and talked to me.

“well, that went well. don’t sweat it, kid. I’ll keep an eyesocket out for ya.” And then he walked away, too.

“Um,” Chara said, seeing my dejected face. “I don’t even have a choice, but if I did I’d stay with you, Grace.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know Chara. Can’t wait to catch up with them though, they seem like a hoot to me!”

“Why do I even bother…”

Up ahead, there was a large cardboard box with some narration on it.

“YOU OBSERVE THE WELL-CRAFTED SENTRY STATION. WHO COULD HAVE BUILT THIS, YOU PONDER. . . I BET IT WAS THAT VERY FMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN!

(NOTE: NOT YET A VERY FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN.)

“What, no ‘Nyeh heh heh’? I’m disappointed here, Papyrus.” I said, brushing my fingers over the pen marks.

“You talk like you know him already – you haven’t even talked to him yet!”

“Well, you’re right. But I knew someone like him, once. He didn’t have the same quirks – they were more like mine. But-“

“Quirks? Like your fear of heights despite climbing a mountain full of mysterious monsters? And then you ran to save a child from falling into its depths but then fell yourself? You’ve fallen more here than you ever did before, I’m sure of it.”

I walked on as we spoke. “Well, yeah. But I thought of that part as a testament to my courage more than anything…”

“Nuh uh, you’re just clumsy.”

“Guess I can’t exactly argue with you there…”

After FIGHTing another Snowdrake and getting 12g more (making Grace 72g rich), they came across another sentry station – though out of all the ones they’ve seen so far, this one was of the highest quality. Me and Chara agreed that it had to be a REAL royal guard here, and that we should keep our guard up. However, we soon found out all the caution was sorta unnecessary since the poor dog was half-blind and was really excited with playing catch with me and my stick.

“I just can’t believe you kept that thing, AND that it was useful – simultaneously!”

“…okay well once you’re done patronizing…”

“Hey-hey that’s… alright you win this time. Haha!”

An ice rink lay ahead of us, with a single sign in the middle. I was failing to read it when Sans suddenly appeared in my line of sight, shocking me into falling face first into the ice.

“Sans!” I whined as I rubbed my sore forehead. He just laughed.

“sorry, guess that just ‘slipped’ my mind.”

I squinted at him. “Well, it is sorta ‘ice’ to see you, anyway.”

“heheh. yeah, i’m pretty ‘chill’.”

“UGHHHHHH shut up you two!”

“oh hey, here’s something important to remember. My brother has a very special attack. If you see a blue attack, don’t move and it won’t hurt you. Here’s an easy way to keep it in mind. Imagine a stop sign, when you see a stop sign, you stop, right? Stop signs are red, so imagine a blue stop sign instead. Simple, right? When fighting, think about blue stop signs.”

“Yes, it... right. Not confusing at all.” I winced.

“well, you could ‘stop’ me at any time, kiddo. heheh”

“I’ll just take that as a ‘sign’ of our ‘bud’ding friendship.”

“ooh, a two-fer. well, don’t let me keep papyrus waiting for you.”

And he walked to the left path – the indirect one.

“Welp, guess it’s time to keep goooOOO-“ aaaand I slipped on the ice.

“Oh my gosh Grace, are you okay? I know how much that hurts.”

“Ugh. YES.” I whined, getting up agonizingly slow. “I grew up in a place that wasn’t very cold though, so you might have to give me a minute here…” I fell forward when I was halfway up, barely stopping myself from landing on my face. “…ow.”

“I wish I could help you…”

“Nah, I got it. It’s just my pride keeping this from going efficiently…” I complained, sighing as I sat on the ice. Getting on all fours, I successfully made it to the other side – though it did take a minute.

“So that’s what you meant. Ha, didn’t know you had a side like that.”

Sitting on the bank, I raised my eyebrow at the ghost. “Really? When it was my pride that made me fall? And brought us out into this cold in the first place? You can’t even wear a jacket out here, for Pete’s sake.”

“Are you talking about the saint-? Anyway, don’t worry. I haven’t really… noticed changing temperatures much at all. I’m fine. What’s not fine is that dog over there chasing us down!”

Sure enough, a dog was marching(?) down the path, shield and sword in hand. It seemed strangely excited to see me, and while the sword strike was able to take me to twenty-two out of twenty-eight, it still seemed affectionate. Before I even thought of anything, I’d instinctively reached out my hand to pet it. Before I barely lifted my hand though, Lesser Dog got excited.

“(Pant, pant)”

“Hmm…” I put a finger to my lips, seeing how the dog’s neck grew when I pet him the first time.

“Oh no.” was all Chara could say.

The rest of the battle went as expected – Lesser Dog’s neck grew and grew, and eventually I had to let him go should he not have a chance to go back to normal. Barking excitedly, he placed 60g in my hand with his mouth before scrambling off spastically.

I snorted. “That was probably the best thing I’ve seen all day!”

Me and Chara laughed until my stomach hurt.

Up on the branching path, there was a single, solitary snowman.

“Or are you a snowwoman? It’s rude to find out.” I said, smiling humorously.

“Um… yeah.” The snowman said, making me jump. “Hello. I am a snowman – not a snowwoman. Have not seen one of those in ages… I want to see the world… But I cannot move.”

“AHH I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to be rude I was just-“

“No, I understand. We are rare monsters, after all, and cannot move, so most would believe us to be inanimate. But, if you would be so kind, traveller, please… Take a piece of me and bring it very far away.”

“Um.. alright, but you know you won’t be actually experiencing anything this way.”

“Well… I believe I will feel it, if just a bit. Do not worry, I will not melt – I am cold, but not actually made of ice. Please, traveller?”

“I will. I promise to bring it back.” I relented, opening one of the side pockets of my backpack that happened to be empty. Reaching towards the poor monster, I waited to see him wink before making a small snowball out of his base and packing it away firmly.

“Thank you… good luck!”

<3 <3 <3

“Hmm… I think we’re actually doing pretty well!” I said, trying to fight the wince that came with the pain of the most recent encounter.

“I would agree with you if you weren’t bleeding. Ugh, Snowcaps really have sharp bullets, huh?”

♥ Item
    Stat
    Cell

           Grace
           LV 1
           HP 10/28

           AT 0(12)         EXP: 0
           DF 0(10)           NEXT: 10

           WEAPON: Grace Knife
           ARMOR: Hand Knit Sweater
           GOLD: 173

“Hmm.” I was holding my bag open, staring at my items. “The trusty stick, that new pink glove thingy, a Spider Donut, H_____’s toy knife, the crepes…”

“Um, hello? Earth to Grace? You’re bleeding.”

I looked down at my leg, shocked back into reality from my reverie.

“O-oh! I almost forgot!” I took one of the monster crepes and put the whole thing in my mouth – crepes themselves aren’t super dense, much less monster ones.

“And you’re back to full, good. Ugh I bet that was cold, huh?”

“Ehh, it was a sweet one so it’s fine.” I licked my lips. “Actually, the whipped cream I hate so much actually tasted kinda like ice cream so it was better.”

“Weirdo.”

Up ahead, Papyrus was berating Sans once again.

“YOU’RE SO LAZY! YOU WERE NAPPING ALL NIGHT! !”

“i think that’s called… sleeping.”

“EXCUSES, EXCUSES!”

Suddenly, the two noticed I was standing there.

“OH- HO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES!”

“Yep! Hello!” I waved. Papyrus nodded appreciatively.

“IN ORDER TO STOP YOU… MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES!”

“Ooh, sounds fun! I just hope they don’t hurt too bad.”

“WELL, I DON’T KNOW ABOUT THAT, BUT I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE… QUITE SHOCKING! ! !

“FOR YOU SEE, THIS IS THE INVISIBLE. . .

“ELECTRICITY MAZE! ! !” the skeleton said with flair and a hint of mischief, putting a hand to his face as he smirked with pride.

“WHEN YOU TOUCH THE WALLS OF THIS MAZE, THIS ORB WILL ADMINISTER A HEARTY ZAP! SOUND LIKE FUN? ? ?

“BECAUSE!

“THE AMOUNT OF FUN YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE,

“IS ACTUALLY RATHER SMALL I THINK. OK, YOU CAN GO AHEAD NOW.”

“Well, if you insist – I’ll be over there quick as ‘lightening’.”

Papyrus smiled at my joke. Perhaps it wasn’t the joking, but the caliber…? Ah well. I thought as I walked forward – only to be ‘shocked’ by Papyrus getting zapped instead of me.

“Ahh oh no I’m sorry!” I said, stepping back. “I saw you were holding it and didn't-“

“SANS! ! ! WHAT DID YOU DO? ! ? !”

“i think the human has to hold the orb.”

“OH, OKAY.” Papyrus nodded, carrying the ball through the maze to me… not on the outside. Carefully but confidently, he stomped his boots into the snow towards me. “HOLD THIS PLEASE!” he said as he reached me, reaching up to place it on my head. Holding it in place, I nodded and waited for him to walk back. Which he did. The way he came. Leaving large boot prints in the snow.. I sighed – man, I was hoping to be challenged by a puzzle but he showed me the answer. I’m sure he doesn’t realize it but still…

“OKAY, TRY NOW!”

Cautiously, I stepped forward. I accidentally held my arm out, zapping myself slightly. It was so weak; it didn’t even lower my HP: it was like a static shock from a trampoline. A bit painful, but not debilitating in any way whatsoever. Sill holding the ball on my head, I made it across no problem.

“INCREDIBLE! ! YOU SLIPPERY SNAIL! !”

I flinched a bit, remembering the snail pie (the kind with the shells off, thankfully) I’d been force-fed by Toriel. Ugh…

Papyrus didn’t seem to notice.

“YOU SOLVED IT SO EASILY. . . TOO EASIL Y! HOWEVER! THE NEXT PUZZLE WILL NOT BE EASY!

“IT IS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER, SANS! YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED!” Rolling his eyes, he stared at the half height punmaster with an annoyed expression.

“I KNOW I AM! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH! !” And he ran backwards away.

“Wow, that was kinda impressive, huh?” I directed it at Chara, but Sans was first to respond.

“hey, thanks… my brother seems like he’s having fun. by the way, did you see that weird outfit he’s wearing?”

“Yeah? I thought it was a guard uniform or something. Though, I guess he isn’t in yet, huh?”

“yeah. we made that a few weeks ago for a costume party. he hasn’t worn anything else since… keeps calling it his “battle body.” man. isn’t my brother cool?”

I thought for a moment. I haven’t known him that long, but he’s been nothing but a loveable goofball this whole time… he’s really funny and works hard… he’s dedicated to what he does, even when it doesn’t seem to be going how he expects. 

“Yeah, he’s cool. He’s pretty brave too, considering what monsters have probably known as truth about humans.” I smiled, thinking about our short time together.

“huh. you’re a brave kid, too.” He responded calmly- though his eyes darted to my sheathed knife more than once, which made me wonder if he really trusted me at all. Not that it really was my place to judge such a notion.

“Huh? Whattaya mean?”

“i mean… a cave full of monsters, and you just waltz around like nothing can kill ya. heck, you’re talking to someone with the power ta turn ya in to the king right now. you’re not some naïve kid. you know the weight of this situation.” he was… I wanna call it ‘closing his eyes’ as he spoke. Or rather, his eyes stopped glowing.

“I know what you mean. But if my experience in the RUINS told me anything, it’s that monsters don’t really want to hurt me at all. Even if they understand their own situation, being trapped underground, they… still don’t really wanna hurt anyone. That’s why I trust you both.”

“really? That’s why you’re not scared? You really are a weird gal, uh…?”

“Oh… OH! I can’t believe I never told you my name. Put ‘er there, Sans.” I offered a handshake. “I know we already did this, but I think it’s appropriate. My name is Grace, and I’m a young adult human.” I was sure monsters were probably pretty confusing age-wise (since Toriel was five-hundred plus) so that was to clear anything up. Sans took my hand.

“nice to meet you, human Grace. I hope you make it through here and that my bro doesn’t succeed in catching you.”

“Likewise.”

Releasing our hands, I nodded at Sans before turning away. I knew he was just gonna walk the wrong direction and somehow make it where he was going, anyway.

To my left, there was a blue bunny monster leaning morosely against a food cart. Raising an eyebrow, I approached.

“I don’t understand why these aren’t selling… It’s the perfect whether for something cold…” he was musing to himself, having not sensed my approach.

“Hello…?”

“OH!!!! A CUSTOMER!!!” he nearly screamed with excitement, jumping on his feet and clasping his hands. “Hello! Would you like some Nice Cream? It’s the frozen treat that warms your heart! Now just 15g!”

“Hmm… maybe? What kinda flavors you got?”

“Oh, we have orange, vanilla, chocolate-“ Chara sighed at that one, “-strawberry, bubblegum, cotton candy-“

“Ooh that one, please!” I said, pointing at the pink and blue swirled pre-packaged confection in one of the twenty-one tubs in the cart. How he could manage that many was confounding, even in spite of being monster food. Smiling brightly, the Nice Cream guy pulled out one of the prepackaged cones and handed it to me.

“Here you go! Have a super-duper day!”

Digging out my bag full of gold, I counted out the fifteen carefully and handed it to him. Going behind the register, the blue bunny happily placed them in. After waving goodbye, I crossed the bridge to see what looked like a golf course.

“Uh… am I supposed to put this snowball in the hole?”

“Looks like it. You wanna try? I’ve never seen this part before.” Chara put her head into the large snowball absentmindedly. I folded my arms and went to pick up the snowball. It was really slippery, but my arms were big enough to pick it up and just… place it in the goal. With a resounding thud, it landed in the hole – and a yellow flag popped up. Looking down at it, there was a tiny box and a note that read:

*YELLOW – Your sure-fire accuracy put an end to the mayhem of “Ball.”

There was 3g in the box. I raised an eyebrow.

“Wow. That was … not really worth it. This isn’t even enough for a chocolate bar, if the comparison to Nice Cream means anything…”

“Yeah, but… it’s free, right? No point in being ungrateful for gold.”

“Yeah, but… ugh I guess you’re right.”

Walking back towards the new snowball, I suddenly noticed Sans.

“Sup, Sans? Anything new?”

“yeah, actually. i’ve been thinking about selling treats too. want some fried snow? it’s just 5g.”

“Uh sure. If it’s monster food, it’ll at least keep me alive…”

“did i say 5g? i meant 50g.”

“Ahh but Sans, now I’m more curious. Now I gotta know what’s so good the price is going up. Yes, lay it on me, bone-man.”

“really? how about 5000g?”

“No way you’d actually do that.”

He raised an eyebrow (magic) again.

“oh really? 50000g. that’s my final offer.”

I just stared at him. I nodded gravely. If I was going to be in so much debt, it might as well be over a joke, right? He held out his phalanges and I solemnly placed my gold bag in them. Looking inside, he smiled.

“what? you don’t have the money? hey, that’s okay. i don’t have any snow.”

I shook my head, sarcastically depressed. “How could you not have any on hand, Sans! How am I going to feed my addiction now?” I could barely keep myself from smiling.

“sorry, kid. but there’s ‘snow’ way of getting any without going through me.”

“Man, and I was really ‘banking;’ on this pick me up, too. How dare you set up shop and ‘flake’ out on me!”

We both sat there and giggled for a bit, Chara holding her face in her hands as we carried on.

“Ughgh can we just GO already?”

“Alright, guess I better get a move on – don’t want to keep the Great Papyrus waiting!” I turned to the right, the first branching path, but there were only ‘his’ and ‘hers’ guard posts there. Well, that and a weird sign.

* SMELL DANGER RATING
* Snow Smell – Snowman
WHITE Rating
Can become YELLOW Rating

“Ewwww…” I laughed as I continued.

* Unsuspicious smell – Puppy
BLUE Rating
Smell of rolling around.
* Weird Smell – Humans
GREEN Rating
Destroy at all costs!

“Guess dogs really are colorblind, huh?” Chara said, reading over my shoulder. The color words were all written in their color, but ‘green’ was written in red. I snorted.

“This is actually really cute. Monsters are so pure in a lot of ways, aren’t they? At least, in comparison to humans.”

“Yeah, I’ve always thought so… they definitely have their priorities in better order, at least.”

“… yeah…” I stared at a frame on the wall of the station – there was a family of dogs with three puppies. “Yeah.”

Chapter Text

Running back to the only other path onwards, I bumped back into Sans and Papyrus.

“HUMAN! ! ! I HOPE YOU’RE READY FOR. . .” We all stared at the ground. A single sheet of paper lay there. There was almost an audible blinking from me, Papyrus, and Chara.

“SANS! ! WHERE’S THE PUZZLE ! ! !”

“it’s right there. on the ground.”

Papyrus just stared.

“trust me. there’s no way she can get past this one.”

Seeing Papyrus’ annoyance, I could barely contain my laughter as I defiantly marched up, staring directly into their eyes, and –

Sat down immediately, in the snow, to pick up the crossword. Pulling a pencil out of my backpack, I got to work finding every word. I could feel Papyrus staring holes into my head, too shocked that Sans’ puzzle was stopping me longer than any he’d given me before. Surprisingly – or perhaps unsurprisingly – the longest were the easiest (giasfclfubrehber) and things like ‘hot’ were really hard. I worked slower than I usually would, too – I really like crosswords, but I miss annoying my siblings even more. It took about fifteen whole minutes for me to finish, even when I spent some time wondering if the ‘cig’ in ‘cigars’ counted as a different word (it wasn’t). Once I was finished, I looked up at Sans and Papyrus, trying to hide my mischievous smile as I handed it in.

“Done!” I said as I put the paper in Sans’ hand.

“SANS! ! ! THAT DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!”

“whoops. oh, you uh, missed this one.”

“Wait really? I thought I had that one. It was right here, right?”

As Sans nodded, and, as he took my pencil to mark my ‘incorrect’ answers, went on.

“i knew i should have used today’s crossword instead.”

“WHAT! ? CROSSWORD! ? I CAN’T Believe YOU SAID THAT! ! IN MY OPINION… JUNIOR JUMBLE IS EASILY THE HARDEST.”

“what? really, dude? that easy-peasy word scramble? that’s for baby bones.”

“UN. BELIEVABLE. HUMAN! ! ! SOLVE THIS DISPUTE! WHICH IS HARDER?”

“i… UH… Jumble?” I spluttered, still watching Sans to see if I got any more wrong.

“HA! HA! YES! HUMANS MUST BE VERY INTELLIGENT! IF THEY ALSO FIND JUNIOR JUMBLE SO DIFFICULT! NYEH!

“HEH!

“HEH HEH!”

Scratching my head, I turned to Sans, who handed me my ‘graded’ word search.

“thanks for teasing him, it was really funny. also, thanks for saying “junior jumble” just to appease my brother. yesterday he got stumped trying to “solve” the horoscope.”

“Haha, yeah. I thought he could use some loosening up. He seems tense, plus – seems like he’s missing out on some good teasing.” I returned Sans his good-natured wink. “Maybe it’s because something happened, but I’m not sure he’s ready for human relations, yet. Or maybe I’m wrong, I don’t know…”

“heh. you may be right… but you know, maybe humans could use a guy like him worrying, right?”

I pondered this thought for a moment, but when I turned back to respond, Sans was gone.

“Figures.”

Just past where Sans and I were talking was a strange area. There was a plate of spaghetti on a table and a microwave. It was so spontaneous that I actually stopped in my tracks for a moment. On the ground there was a note that read:

HUMAN! ! PLEASE ENJOY THIS SPAGHETTI. (LITTLE DO YOU KNOW, THIS SPAGHETTI IS A TRAP… DESIGNED TO ENTICE YOU! ! ! YOU’LL BE SO BUSY EATING IT… THAT YOU WON’T REALIZE THAT YOU AREN’T PROGRESSING! ! THOROUGHLY JAPED AGAIN BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS! ! !)

NYEH- HEH- HEH,

PAPYRUS

“Oh of course. Also, this is one hundred percent Papyrus’ handwriting. It looks like how his voice… sounds? Feels?”

“Huh? What do you mean? I mean, sure that’s definitely how I imagined his handwriting, but you seem to be talking about something else…”

“It’s… complicated. Do you not hear that funny accent or whatever when they speak?”

“No?” Chara said, putting her hands on her hips. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“…Nevermind, then. It doesn’t matter, I guess.”

“You’re so weird.”

Looking at the spaghetti, I was actually kinda excited to know what monster pasta tasted like (since all monster food has this underlying flavor -kinda like an earthiness, but different? It's magic flavor), but it was frozen to the table. Frowning, I took my knife out and stuck it under the plate.

“Um... what are you doing?” Chara said, floating next to me.

“I… want… to… heat it up…” I struggled to pull the plate up. “I… wanna know… what it… tastes like! Ahah!” I exclaimed, successfully prying the plate from the table. Luckily, the plate didn’t break, so I rushed to the microwave-!

“Grace, stop trying. It’s… I’m sorry. It’s… unplugged.” Chara said melodramatically, a hand to her forehead as she posed. I laughed, grabbing a large plastic baggie and stuffing the spaghetti in it.

“Well, no skin off my back, I guess. If I have to try eating cold spaghetti in a desperate FIGHT for my life, then so be it. Free food is still free.”

“Yeah, but… now Papyrus has japed you.”

I gasped. How could I let myself be fooled! I sighed resignedly. “Well, I suppose I will just have to live with a little japing…”

After saving, I walked forward. Ahead there was another dog-related sign (Warning: Dog Marriage) and a tree. The tree had something glinting in it that I recognized.

“Another camera? That’s so weird. I guess it’s for their safety, though…”

Seeing how the way directly ahead was barren and dropped off a cliff, I of course went out to investigate. Two trees flagged a slightly indented patch of snow. I cocked an eyebrow, shoving snow around in the square until I found-

“A switch?” Chara said, practically on my shoulder. Shrugging, I reached down and flipped it.

“There, I bet that was blocking the way or something.”

“Hey! You can’t just- just flip a random switch? Who knows what it did?”

“Well,” I said, turning back, “It’s always been good for us, before, right?”

Chara shook her head. As we turned around, we were stopped dead in our tracks; there he was, bothering a Snowcap and looking at his phone while in a conversation. The indominable, the infamous, the torrible –

Jerry. (ugh)

Snowcap attempted to avoid Jerry by throwing an attack, but we were all reminded Jerry was there since it sneezed without covering it’s nose. First, I ignored Snowcap and dodged it's attacks.

"The wi-fi here sucks." Jerry complained, glued to their phone. They weren't even watching the FIGHT.

Annoyed, me and Snowcap gave each other a *look*, turning to Ditch Jerry.

Finally alone, I was able to spare Snowcap (again) and continue on. After SPARing it, I turned to Chara.

“Ugh… and I was starting to think monsters were all great…” I commented as I went back to walking. It was staring to really feel cold now, and I may like cold, but I’ve no resistant to it.

“Hey, no need to get so worked up about it.”

We had passed a patch of loose powder and went over what I recognized to be spike holes when, across the bridge, we met with Dogamy and Dogaressa.

“What’s that smell?” Dogamy sniffed the air.
“(Where’s that smell?)”

“If you’re a smell…”
“(… identify yoursmelf!)”

They scampered about, sniffing the entire area before returning to me.

“Hmmm… Here’s that weird smell… It makes me want to eliminate.”
“(… Eliminate YOU!)” Dogaressa pointed her axe at me.

Their bullets weren’t all that hard. I recognized how their attacks worked pretty quickly, and could dodge just fine. However…

“Grace… this isn’t going anywhere! You can’t just swipe at them to tell them you’re not gonna hurt them! You need to do something!” Chara yelled after four turns of swiping empty air and dodging most of their attacks.

“What am I gonna do? There’s nothing to hide my scent with or anything…” Suddenly, I remembered that the dogs could hear me talk, but my fears were unfounded. My ‘imaginary friend’ conversation was easily hidden by the Dogi being absolutely sickening with each other.

“What about the dirt?”

I stared at the ground reprehensibly.

“…What is it, now?!” Chara said, pointing out another incoming axe swing.

“I… I…”

“15/28 hp, Grace!”

“UGGHH!” I complained, taking off my new sweater and putting it in my backpack in one motion. Tossing myself to the ground, I tried to get as little mud on myself as possible. In doing so, I accidentally knocked my head into one of their axes, taking me down to ten HP and cutting my face. Leaving my bag on the ground, I quickly swiped at the blood running towards my eye as I advanced. Deliberately running towards their faces, I did an even slower, wimpier swipe than usual as I attempted to make them smell me. Dogamy first, then Dogaressa as they started considering that I might be a ‘blue’ smell – a puppy.

“Are you actually a-“

Another hit to the face. I was gonna have some annoying scars from this, that’s for sure… Annoyed, I ran up and pet a dog. They freaked out!

“Careful Grace! You’re only at 9/28 HP!”

I nodded, taking a breath and trying not to think about how bloody and bruised I was. I was sluggish, and losing the ability to focus. I took a strong axe swing to the upper of my left arm in the next attack, not quite reaching muscle but hurting like hell.

"2/28!"

Wincing and trying to keep my arm still, I ran forward to try and pet the other dog.

“Dogs can pet other dogs???”
“A new world has been opened up for us…)”
“Thanks, weird puppy!”

They handed me 20g each, apologizing for hurting a ‘puppy’ and stalked off.

“…” I stared at the 40g in my hands. “Welp, guess I was wrong about monsters again...

"now they’re just plain creepy!” I laughed, making me cough. I’d been jabbed with an axe handle earlier. Lifting my shirt, I could see a purple bruise forming on top of my mostly healed burns. I winced, sucking air through my teeth as I brushed my fingers over them.

“Whoa, you okay?”

“I can tell you one thing, Chara;” I coughed again, “It doesn’t say I’m two HP from dying for nothing. UuUgHGh.” I lay back in the snow, turning around so my face and torso faced towards it to cool down. “Having someone be that pure AND that violent at the exact same time is an abomination. Creepy…”

“Don’t be rude, Grace.” Chara said, laying out near me and attempting to pat my back. “I guess you could get that gross spaghetti out of the way? Or a cold crepe?”

“Ehhh…” I didn’t really want to move. “I haven’t had my butt handed to me like this since Toriel killed me last. …Then again, at least I wasn’t burned this time…"

“C’mon Grace, you’re gonna get sick out here.”

After about five minutes of waiting for the pain to subside, I sat up, clutching my stomach with one hand and my still-bleeding arm in the other. Grabbing my backpack with my main hand, I took a crepe and shoved the whole thing in my mouth. Immediately, my pain was much smaller, and the cuts on my face and torso were almost closed. My left arm stopped bleeding completely. I sighed in relief.

“I TOLD you to just eat already. ” Chara whined, shaking her head. “14/28, by the way. Ugh, sometimes I wonder if I’m the older one, here.”

“Well, I mean… kinda.”

“No fair, don’t use that card!” Chara playfully phased a fist through my shoulder. “Rude.”

Moving on, I came across a weird setup of snow with blue Xs and a large silver switch on the ground. It took me only a couple seconds to realize what this was.

“Yay! New puzzles!” I exclaimed, running up and stepping on the silver button. “…Guess not this one, then…”

“You always seem excited by them… guess the ones in the RUINS got really boring, huh?”

“OH yeah. You can say that again.” I said, stepping on the Xs and turning them into Os. “Guess the silver switch MUST do something, right?” pressing it, the spikes in front of me fell down with a clack.

“…You know there was a sign that told you that the entire time?” Chara pointed out. I just shook my head.

“Nope, had no clue. BUT. Have you EVER known me to read the sign before trying a puzzle?”

“... Ya got me there.” She sighed. “I’ll just have to deal with it, I guess. Haha.”

I was startled from my conversation by The Great Papyrus standing just beyond the spikes, since his first reaction to noticing me was to yell:

“WHAT! ? HOW DID YOU AVOID MY TRAP? AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY. . .” suddenly, he looked a little sad.

“IS THERE ANY LEFT FOR ME? ? ?”

“Well, I tried to, but it was frozen and the microwave wouldn’t work. So I just took it with me, instead – so I can find a way to heat it up later. I haven’t had spaghetti in months!”

“REALLY! ? WOWIE. . . NO ONE’S EVER WANTED TO ENJOY MY COOKING BEFORE. . . WELL THEN! ! FRET NOT HUMAN! I, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS. . . WILL MAKE YOU ALL THE PASTA YOU COULD EVER WANT! FRESH NEXT TIME! HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH NYEH!”

Gesturing for me to follow as he cackled, Papyrus led me towards another X/O puzzle that seemed to be in a familiar shape.

“HUMAN! HMMM. . . HOW DO I SAY THIS. . . YOU WERE TAKING A LONG TIME TO ARRIVE, SO. . . I DECIDED TO IMPROVE THIS PUZZLE . . . BY ARRANGING THE SNOW TO LOOK MORE LIKE MY FACE.”

“Yeah, that sounds cool, Papyrus. Something go wrong?”

“WELL, YES, UNFORTUNATELY THE SNOW FROZE TO THE GROUND. NOW THE SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT! AND, AS USUAL, MY LAZY BROTHER IS NOWHERE AROUND. I SUPPOSE WHAT I AM SAYING IS. . . WORRY NOT, HUMAN!” He posed proudly, cave wind seeming to come from nowhere just to whip his cape dramatically.

Man, I love this guy.

“I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SOLVE THIS CONUNDRUM! THEN WE CAN BOTH PROCEED! MEANWHILE, FEEL FREE TO TRY THE PUZZLE YOURSELF! I’LL TRY NOT TO GIVE AWAY THE ANSWER! ! !”

“Okay, Papyrus. Sounds like fun! Let me see…” I gave the skeleton a nod and walked over to the puzzle. There was a part of me that really wanted to just jump over bits of snow to get the puzzle, but something told me Papyrus wouldn’t like that much. Chara flew high, giving me instructions as I went along, though they weren’t always helpful.

“Start with the eyes! No wait that’ll block you from getting that one… reset it! How about we try the mouth? Then go back for the nose?”

It took almost twenty minutes of trying different routes into the Papyrus face before we finally got it (left eye, nose, all teeth, then up to the second eye and around the back of the head, by the bye) and Papyrus gave us some applause when we were finished!

“WOW! ! ! YOU SOLVED IT! ! AND YOU DID IT ALL WITHOUT MY HELP. . . INCREDIBLE! I’M IMPRESSED! !”

“Heheh, thank you Papyrus!” I couldn’t help but be delighted; this monster was so personable to me, without even needing to try. Chara smirked at me; I’m sure she knew what I was thinking. “I bet you knew the answer a long time before me, though.”

“THAT DOESN’T MATTER! WHAT MATTERS IS THAT YOU MUST CARE ABOUT PUZZLES LIKE I DO. WELL, I’M SURE YOU’LL LOVE THE NEXT PUZZLE THEN! IT MIGHT EVEN BE TOO EASY FOR YOU! ! NYEH! HEH HEH! HEHEHEH! ! !”

And he ran ahead. Sans, whom I hadn’t seen before, was standing on the other side of the spikes. He was smiling (well, more than he had to) but also seemed… confused.

“Heya, Sans. What’s up?”

“oh, i just wanted to say good job. on solving it so quickly. you didn’t even need my help. which is great, ‘cause i love doing absolutely nothing.”

“Hey now, I’m sure it wasn’t completely nothing. I’m not stupid – you’re keeping an eyesocket on him, right? I don’t blame you at all.” I smiled in the direction Papyrus ran off to. “I don’t think, even if he were trying to hurt me, I would be able to lay a finger on him… he reminds me a bit of what my little brother was like. Depends…”

Sans’ eyes grew bigger. He moved towards me a bit, like he wanted to do something like grab my hand or shoulder, but he couldn’t seem to commit to any action and put his hands back in his pockets. Closing his eyes, he sighed.

“ah. well, thanks for hanging out with him, even if it makes you think… well.”

“Don’t be, it’s been nice, talking to someone like that again. That kind of good heart and innocence are hard to come by, and his seems fairly strong too. I don’t know, I haven’t known him very long, but partially I’m going off of you, and-“

“don’t worry, i get what you mean. He’s refreshing to be around, and more liked than he thinks. i better go meet up with him though.” Sans didn’t move, but clearly the conversation was over.

I sighed.

“That bag of bones isn’t gonna talk to me anytime soon, is he?” I whispered to Chara.

“I don’t know… looks like he’s hiding something, or… I don’t know. It’s hard to read aloof people.” Chara floated upside down in front of me. “Well, whatever it is that’s happening with him, he’s right. If you wanna go on a date with Papyrus, you’ll have to get on with the puzzles!”

“Hey now, I never said I was interested in him like that!” I complained, folding my arms indignantly as I did what I was told. In front of us lay a piece of what almost looked like dance floor in an 'arrey' of greys. Across form it, Papyrus and Sans stood, Papyrus’ hand resting lightly on a large switch.

“HEY! IT’S THE HUMAN! YOU’RE GONNA LOVE THIS PUZZLE!”

“Oh, okay! Can’t wait!”

“IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT DR. ALPHYS! YOU SEE THESE TILES ! ? ONCE I THROW THIS SWITCH. . . THEY WILL BEGIN TO CHANGE COLOR! EACH COLOR HAS A DIFFERENT FUNCTION!

“ RED TILES ARE IMMPASSABLE! YOU CANNOT WALK ON THEM!

“YELLOW TILES ARE ELECTRIC! THEY WILL ELECTROCUTE YOU!

“GREEN TILES ARE ALARM TILES! IF YOU STEP ON THEM. . . YOU WILL HAVE TO FIGHT A MONSTER! !

“ORANGE TILES ARE ORANGE-SCENTED. THEY WILL MAKE YOU SMELL DELICIOUS!

“BLUE TILES ARE WATER TILES. SWIM THROUGH IF YOU LIKE, BUT. . . IF YOU SMELL LIKE ORANGES! THE PIRANHAS WILL BITE YOU. ALSO, IF A BLUE TILE IS NEXT TO A, YELLOW TILE, THE WATER WILL ALSO ZAP YOU!

“PURPLE TILES ARE SLIPPERY! YOU WILL SLIDE TO THE NEXT TILE! HOWEVER, THE SLIPPERY SOAP. . . SMELLS LIKE LEMONS! ! WHICH PIRANHAS DO NOT LIKE! PURPLE AND BLUE ARE OK!

“FINALLY, PINK TILES. THEY DON’T DO ANYTHING. STEP ON THEM ALL YOU LIKE.

“HOW WAS THAT! ? UNDERSTAND? ? ?”

I held a finger up, thinking over the large spiel he’d just dumped on me. Most of the stuff he said made perfect sense, but the stuff about oranges and lemons was kinda confusing. Were lemons the ones that attracted piranha, or the ones that didn’t? Guess I might as well try and if I get stuck, I don’t think Papyrus will do anything but capture me…

“Uh… yeah. Think I’m good?”

“GREAT! ! THEN THERE’S ONE LAST THING. . . THIS PUZZLE. . .IS ENTIRELY RANDOM! ! ! ! ! !

“WHEN I PULL THIS SWITCH, IT WILL MAKE A PUZZLE. . . THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE! NOT EVEN I WILL KNOW TH ESOLUTION! NYEH HEH HEH! GET READY. . . !”

And he pulled the switch. A cacophony of colors flashed across the board, flaring wildly, changing faster and faster until it formed it’s complicated patter-

A straight line.

*snort*

I couldn’t help it. Covering my mouth, I fought fits of ironic laughter as Papyrus just… stood there, paralyzed. Weakly, he walked away without another word. As I passed Sans with a wave, he stopped me.

“i was thinking about what you said earlier about the pasta. actually, that spaghetti from earlier. . . it wasn’t too bad for my brother. since he started cooking lessons, he’s been improving a lot. i bet if he keeps it up, next year he’ll even make something edible.”

“Oh really? I thought it looked okay… if a tiny bit burnt. I’ve made a lot of spaghetti before, maybe I… could help? Sometime? Ugh no… he has a job, I can’t put him on the line for that.” I looked at the snow beneath us, considering it.

“so you really understand his position here, huh?”

“I’m sorry he feels he has to do this… though, from what he said earlier, he doesn’t even really know why I’m ‘illegal’, does he?”

“no… no. i don’t think anyone’s had the heart to tell him. especially with how much he wants to be a royal guard. i don’t know what he’d do if he found out… its too late to tell him, too.”

“I mean… it’s only fair.”

An awkward pause.

“…what?”

“We trapped you guys down here so, so long ago… how desperate you all must feel. There can’t be many alive who’ve seen the sun or felt rain anymore. It’s a terrible situation… can you imagine what humans would have stooped to if we were in your place? I can’t even make myself angry at monsters for-“

“stop.” Sans’ eyes were dark. I started.

“Oh my gosh, I really went on a creepy rant, didn’t I? Sorry about that.”

“it’s not... it’s… you really think that?”

“Well, it’s not that I’d lay down and die. I just get it. I don’t feel like I’m in the position to judge when humans have done much worse to ourselves without any prompting at all.”

“just ‘cause some people do bad things doesn’t mean it’s okay for us to, grace…”

He seemed to be talking to himself and me in equal stride.

“…” I didn’t know what to say. He was right, and I may not have meant it that way, but… “I wasn’t… ugh…”

“Never mind. Don’t worry about it.”

We were silent for a bit. I really didn’t know what to say. I don’t think there was anything I could say to explain what I meant. Without a word, I turned to leave. As I started again, Sans mumbled something behind me that I didn’t really get – and probably wasn’t for me to hear.

“who are you? i don’t know what i’m looking for anymore…”

<3 <3 <3

In front of me, there was a large area with not much but a guard post, a chill monster… and a ton of snowdogs with too-long necks that were all falling apart.

“Well that was awkward-“ Chara was ‘sitting’ on the snowdog to my right. She looked a little annoyed. “You weren’t exactly wrong… in fact, I think I’d have been a *little* more graphic about human nature…”

“I mean… I could have been. I dunno. I just always felt monsters deserved some MERCY for doing what they need to do to escape… even if it’s unpleasant. BECAUSE it’s unpleasant. Humans… we’ve had to eat each other to survive, before. How can we place any blame on monsters for doing something similar?” I shut my eyes, trying not to think about how hypocritical humans might be if monsters were set free. Chara nodded.

“I’m with you there, 100%. Monsters deserve the surface much more than we do.”

“I… don’t know if I’d go that far, but yeah. Monsters, out of the two peoples, deserved this the least.”

Inside the sentry station was a box of raisins that looked like little dogs. I picked one up, prepared to try it, before my subconscious got the better of me and I decided against it. I heard Chara let out a panicked breath when I did.

The sign just outside of the station was really cute:

*AWARE OF DOG
*pleas pet dog

“Aww… maybe I will when I see you.”

“Uhh Grace? You’ve actually pet this dog already.” Chara said, pointing to a family photo on the wall of the post. In it was Lesser Dog, Dogamy and Dogaressa, and a bunch of other family members and a small white normal-looking dog. They looked really happy.

“GOSH.” I covered my eyes.

“I know, I feel the same way. No more extra dogs to pet…”

“Oh, yeah.”

Brushing it off, I went to SAVE and chat with the deer monster that was here.

“Huh, you sure like talking to yourself, huh?” He said, nodding towards the guard post. “Though I guess, being human, you don’t find many friends here, so it makes sense.”

“Ah. Uh. Um. Yes? I talk to myself all the time. It’s kinda useful for separating my thoughts.”

“Oh, then maybe that dog should have talked to himself too?”

“Which dog?”

“Lesser dog just rushed in here, filled with inspiration. It kept trying to build a snowdog that expressed its own emotions… But, as it built, it kept getting more excited about the sculpture… It’s neck got longer and longer, and it added more and more snow, until…

“…
“…It was rather sad to watch, but I couldn’t turn away.”

“Aww, poor Lesser Dog. I didn’t even pet him all that much.” I lied.

“We both know that’s not true.” Chara said, sticking her tongue out at me. I squinted at her discreetly.

“Heh, so you pet ‘em more than 3 times? That’s definitely too much stimulation for a dog monster, haha. They’ll love you forever though!” The buck laughed.

“Yeah, seems that way!” I chuckled. “Well… as long as they’re okay and happy, I guess. I’m not even a-“ I felt a shiver up my spine. I couldn’t say the next couple words – ‘dog person’. Something was keeping me from saying it. The deer seemed to understand.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. That’s normal.”

“What?”

“Yeah, nothing weird about that. Hey, you were on some kinda quest or something, right?”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Sooo… I was just having a smoke…”

“Ahh, gotcha. Well, I'll leave you to it. Was nice meeting you?”

“Likewise.” He nodded dismissively and turned, a lighter in his hands. I shrugged and left.

Chapter Text

There was a LOT of ice ahead. I gulped, seeing the Xs and silver button – along with the lack of guard rails on the side. Without another word, I took the path that led below the ice to delay my punishment.

“Yeah… this is gonna be fun, huh?” Chara said as she went up to look at where the squares were lined up. Beneath the ice, there were two snowmen – well, more like one incredibly detailed snow Papyrus and a lump of snow with ‘sans’ written on it in red marker – somehow.

“How did he…?” I shook my head. Walking back up the tiny hill, I saw Chara figuring out the puzzle.

“Okay, this doesn’t look that bad. You just have to start with this one and go counterclockwise to every X that lines up.” Chara smiled triumohantly. “Finally, you don’t have to fall! Isn’t that great?”

“Aww, you didn’t have to do that…”

“Uh, yes I did? The only thing that scares you is falling?” Chara scoffed.

“Well, that and dying. It’s painful having your nerves shut down all of a sudd-“

“Well, let’s avoid both of those!” Chara laughed nervously. Flying overhead, she directed me in completing the puzzle. There were some moments where she got annoyed, seeing how her ‘all counterclockwise’ thing wasn’t working, but eventually we made it to the button with all O’s. Slowly, a piece of snow-covered stone rose up that I couldn’t see from any position on the ice. With a quiet *THUD*, it set in place.

“Hey, there we go! See, you didn’t fall and we solved it kinda together!” Chara smiled as she went ahead. Yelling behind her, she warned: “It’s still mostly ice, but no fall past here. Just let the ice take you!”

The bridge kinda inclined downwards, so I sat on my butt, sliding forward. I could feel some snow landing on my head – it was kinda nice at first, but eventually it got strangely heavy?

“Ugh, what is this?” I said, reaching up to take it off.

Chara snickered. “It’s a tricorne, a pirate hat!”

Suddenly, I smiled brightly. Once on the other side, I got up and looked at my reflection in the ice. Just as Chara said, there was a giant snow pirate hat on my head. I shook my hands in excitement, but before I could get my phone out for a picture, it broke apart on my head.

“Aww… I love pirates.” I complained, brushing bits of snow out of my braid.

“Wait, you like pirates? But they’re awful!!”

“Yeah, it’s because they’re cruel that they’re so interesting! Not because I think they made very many good choices… except maybe Edward England? Black Sam Bellamy was pretty good, too. There was a time when kingdoms were giving out letters of Marque which let people become pirates as an actual job. Plus, the pirate code and their personal democracy were really cool!”

“You keep saying ‘were’. Do you mean that there aren’t pirates anymore? That would sort of explain why you can be interested…”

“Well, they aren’t the same anymore. They’re much worse, care less about people and more about the money they’re getting, and their fashion style is just plain sad. Sure, old time pirates did more of the pillaging villages stuff, but now pirates mostly stay on their ships if they plan to pirate and its kinda creepy to think about. Plus, Isn’t it cool that there were girl pirates too? And two got out of being hanged by faking pregnancies – or was it that they actually were pregnant? I can’t remember and underground internet doesn’t connect to human internet, dang. Well, anyway, did you know that they wore eyepatches to-“

“I’m sorry, Grace, but I think we should… you know.” I finally looked at my friend. She seemed sort of anxious, and a tiny bit annoyed. “Sorry, but you know how dangerous it is out here?”

“… right… yeah.” I sighed, eyes narrowing towards the ‘exploration’ path.

“Ugh… you’re never going to stop doing that, are you?”

An unsurprising, familiar face was there to meet me.

”what’s up?”

“…nothing much.” I sighed, shaking my head to clear my emotional blackboard like an etch-n-sketch. “Or, rather, I could say that the cave ceiling is ‘up’.”

Chara groaned loudly. I must have been really getting to her.

”Yeah, but don’t let the wasted opportunity get you ‘down’. Heheh.”

Sans winked his left eye. Rolling mine, I patted his shoulder as I walked down the branching path. He must have moved very suddenly, because I suddenly didn’t feel his shoulder beneath my hand and in a split second he was on the other side of the cliff shelf.

“Wh-what the…?” I gasped quietly. Realization suddenly dawned on me. I’d always guessed, but never relied on that assumption since it seemed so out of left field. I ran to talk to him again, but was stopped by another deer monster – this one was much less humanoid than the last one. He had tons and tons of ornaments and presents on his antlers, and seemed skittish. I realized pretty quick that he had been subject to some sort of prank. Reaching my hand out, I removed a small, confused dog from his antlers and readied myself for his attack.

Sure enough, in a bout of nervousness at people touching his horns, he sent out an attack. A bunch of ornaments came flying from him, but I was quick enough to dodge them all. This time, I took off a weird, lenticular bookmark of a smug teen. I immediately cast it into the snow with disgust. The deer smiled. This time, as I rushed up, I attempted to remove as many things as possible – ornaments, candy canes, and a childhood photo of Snowdrake and their parents came flying into the snow around me. I laughed as I did so. The deer seemed relieved. Reaching into a saddle on his back, he pulled out 20g and put it in my hand, I thanked him (especially since I had 241g now!) and he trotted away. Sighing, I turned back to the silent skeleton who’d been watching.

“You!” I pointed at him.

...

”are you lost?”

“No! You can teleport!”

”I dunno what ur talking about.”

“It’s-! You..? N-never… nevermind.” I deflated rather quickly. He wasn’t going to admit it no matter how I asked, so I just dropped it.

”say… are you following me?”

I sighed. “Yep, you caught me. I’m the ‘humerus’ police, your jokes are too funny!”

Sans smirked.

”You’ll never take me alive!”as he said this, he took out a trombone from seemingly nowhere and ‘shot’ himself with it, teleporting away as he did.

“Ugh, Sans!” I complained to the ceiling. “I knew you could teleport! And why don’t our chats last longer?!” I shook a fist to the sky. “Why, brother?!”

“…I don’t think Sans, or the roof can hear you, Grace.” Chara placed a ghostly hand through my shoulder. I smiled at her halfheartedly.

“I know… I just think we’d be great friends, that’s all.”

“Yes, of course. But… aren’t you guys kind of friends… already?”

“Yeah, I’d say that’s accurate. But I want to hang out, you know?” I turned to walk to the next area.

“I’m sure you will. They seem like nice monsters.”

I nodded, but was interrupted from speaking again by seeing a field full of snow poffs. Chara narrated for each one, teasing me for my insistence to search everything.

“And this… is a snow poff.”
“Snow poff…”
“Is it really a snow poff?”

“Alright I get it you’re annoyed with me for this already, but just wait! I’m gonna find something nobody else has, I swear-“

I stopped in my tracks. In the second to last snow poff left to search, I found it – 30g just sitting in the snow!

“Aww yeah that’s what I’m talking about!! Look at this!”

“Is that 30g? In a snow poff????”

“Oh yeah. Now we’re in business. Let’s see the next one!”

Inside the next one, there was a small dog that seemed like he was made to fit in what I’d assumed before was a toy dog house – in a way it was a ‘toy dog’ house! Before I could go ‘aww’ though, it suddenly rose out of the snow- an ENOMOUS dog. I gulped. It seemed too excited to register it was hurting me.

“Bark bark!” It’s barks were weaponized, one hitting me in the chest that felt like a punch as it made me stumble.

“Down to 24/28, boss!” Chara reported. I smiled. He’s definitely not trying to hurt me. I slapped my legs.

“Come, boy!”

The giant dog bounded towards me, flecking slobber towards my face (but missing because dog anything touching my face makes me gag). I reached my hand out to pet it, now that it was in petting range-!

Greater Dog curled up in my lap. It goes quiet for a moment, gentle rise and fall of the large dog only indicator that it was still alive.

“Impressive!” Chara exclaimed. “Never seen a dog fall asleep that fast, before.”

Smiling, I pet it some more when suddenly it awoke and started jumping around again! It’s so excited!

It’s next bark attack hit me again, dealing five more damage.

“Oww… this thing’s bullets are heavy.” I winced, the bruise from Dogi still being fresh-ish despite my food numbing the pain and closing my cuts. Sighing, I picked up a snowball and threw it for him to fetch. Hadn’t really thought that through, though, since he couldn’t find the EXACT snow I’d thrown, so he picked up all the snow in the area and brought it to me, dumping it over my head. I was even colder than before… Shivering, I barely noticed as I sat that Greater Dog had rested his head on me, warming me up…

A spear appeared suddenly, going back and forth between blue and white as it flew into my face. Shocked, I decided not to move and luckily the spear was blue when it hit me. Letting out my breath, I turned to pet the Greater Dog. In response, it’s entire weight rested on me –

“So… heavy…!”

I continued to pet, Chara giggling every time the dog squished me under his greatness. Suddenly, Chara exclaimed:

“Oh hey, his name is yellow in the script délectable now! Didn’t that Froggit say that if their names were yellow, you could spare them?”

“Oh yeah, I remember that too!” I turned to Greater Dog in my lap. “I refuse to FIGHT you. Please, can we keep moving? You know you’re a good boy, right?”

Greater Dog barked contentedly and bounded out of his armor to lick me in the face – turns out he’s tiny after all! – and gave me 40g.

“Well, that went great I think!” I said, wiping my dogged hands on my jeans.

“You seemed a little uncomfortable, actually.” Chara pointed out.

“I’ve never been all that fond of d- of them. Dogs. H_____ had some when we were kids and they used to jump onto my tiny child shoulders to bark and lick my face. Really creeped me out for them.”

“But you seem so happy to see big dogs now?”

“I got over it, mostly. Bigger dogs always make me nervous though – as evidenced by my awkward mood with that last one. But I’m good. Used to pet them and stuff too.”

A narrow strip of land ahead of led to what looked like an incredibly long, wooden bridge. On the other side of it, Sans and Papyrus could be seen arguing about something. Probably something trivial. Smiling, I ran to near the other side when Papyrus stopped me.

”HUMAN! STOP FOR A MOMENT, YES, RIGHT THERE. FOR THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE! BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!"

Clicking a button, Papyrus caused all sorts of dastardly things to appear: spears, fire, a dog… all incredibly dangerous!

”When I say the word. It will fully activate! ! ! Cannons will fire! Spikes will swing! Blades will slice! Each part will swing violently up and down! Only the tiniest chance of victory will remain! ! ! are you ready! ?

”Because!

“AM

”about

To DO IT!"

We waited a good five seconds before looking back at Papyrus, who was staring at the remote in his hands, pressing the big red button repeatedly,

”well? What’s the holdup?"

”HOLDUP!? WHAT HOLDUP!?” I’M… I’M ABOUT TO ACTIVATE IT NOW!"

"that uh, doesn’t doesn’t look very activated.”

”WELL! ! ! IT SEEMS… MAYBE… TOO EASY TO DEFEAT THE HUMAN WITH. YEAH! WE CAN’T USE THIS ONE ! ! ! ! I’M A SKELETON WITH STANDARDS! ! !

”MY PUZZLES ARE VERY FAIR! AND MY TRAPS ARE EXPERTLY COOKED!

BUT THIS METHOD IS TOO DIRECT! NO CLASS AT ALL! AWAY IT GOES!”

”PHEW!” Papyrus let out a gasp of relief as he put his remote in his pocket.

”WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT!? THIS WAS ANOTHER DECISIVE VICTORY FOR PAPYRUS!

“NYEH! !

"heh!"

"..."

HEH???”

As Papyrus turned to leave, I caught Sans’ eye, He beckoned me this time.

”Hey kid, I got something to tell ya. I got some advice for fighting my brother.”

“Oh yeah? I’m not gonna hurt him, if that’s what you were worried about.”

”yeh, I knew you’d say that. All I’ve got to say is this… DON’T. capiche?”

“Yeah, yeah – I know I scare you, but I’d never hurt Papyrus, I swear.”

Sans squinted at me. ”can I hold ya to that?”” he said, gravely. I put a hand in the air and one on my chest.

“I swear to never hurt him for all time. Is that better?”

...

”sure, lets go with that…”

This time, Sans walked next to me, hands in his pockets. I shortened my step to fall in with him. Absentmindedly, I fiddled with the rose in my hair.

”I’ve been meanin to ask you about somethin. Did you meet… the old lady in the RUINS?”

I could see his eyes flip between me and the path as he said this, like he was nervous to know the answer. I smiled, stopping in my tracks. He did, too.

“Yeah, I know her. My aunt is really nice, but she’s real bad at controlling her magic when she’s sparring.” I laughed a bit, holding my stomach. Sans raised an eyebrow.

”how’d you know what I was talkin about?”

“Well… there’s only one old lady you could know, since the monsters of Home don’t really leave the city and no one else is ‘not creature’ enough to come to this door to talk to someone. So that only leaves my aunt. Did you want her name? or did you want to wait and hear it from…?”

Sans seemed deep in thought. It seemed like he subconsciously left me behind, walking forward without saying goodbye. I brushed it off.

“Ok. Good talk, I guess.” I chuckled.

<3     <3     <3

Finally, we’d made it to Snowdin Town! A large banner welcomed us – it wasn’t very creative, but got across the warmth (in spite of climate) the town held. A wave of relief hit me like a flood; maybe that’s why Sans seemed to think I was tense? No monsters were trying to hurt me – in fact, it seemed as if they thought I was a monster of some kind. Nobody batted an eye as I walked past them. To my left was a shop that seemed like a convenience store almost and an inn. I was exhausted, but I resisted the urge to pay for a room. A rush of relief hit me as I entered the toasty shop; a roaring fire was in the fireplace. Behind the counter, a purple rabbit monster smiled at me as she hastily ran in from the back.

“Hello, traveller. How can I help you?” she had a southern accent that brought me right back home. I shook her outstretched hand warmly.

“Well, I’ve never been here before. Watta’ya got?” As we let go, the rabbit woman gestured at every item she named.

“I have a Tough Glove, you can use that for trainin’ or manual labor, if you need that. Or to protect yourself, I guess. Oh, and this bandanna goes with it if you wanted to buy something to match!” she held up a single, pink leather glove and a bandanna with abs on it. Gasping, I pulled out the pink glove I’d found in the box a while ago-!

“Well, I’ll be damned. You found it! Ah’ve been lookin’ for it everywhere since my kiddos ran off to play with them. You know what? How about you try one of my Cinnamon Bunnies, on the house!” she excitedly handed me a cinnamon roll shaped like a rabbit, packaged in a cutesy, resealable wrapper.

“Wow, thanks!” I exclaimed, taking a bite off one of the ears. It was delicious! No cinnamon roll had ever been this sugary or cinnamon-ny before! Any other cinnamon roll I’d ever had, had been mostly bread. But this!? Perfection. Plus, the description on the wrapper and the counter said it heals 30hp, which took me to full.

I blinked. The empty wrapper in my hand confirmed my fear. I’d barely registered eating it all. Sighing, I turned to the shopkeeper. The name on her badge read, ‘Tenshu’.

“Mrs. Tenshu? How much are those…?” I said, tentative finger pointing to the display of at least three dozen Cinnamon Buns.

“Well, normally they’re 30g, but since ya helped me and ah’ve never seen someone eat one so fast… I think I could sell it for 25g.” She smiled appreciatively.

“All… right, then… how about two? I need to drop some stuff off before I can buy more.”

“Just two is fine by me, don’t worry! Most monsters seem to think they’re too sugary…”

“NO way.” My jaw dropped. “This is in my top ten ‘best things ever eaten’, now! how dare they…” I turned to the monsters on the street with accusing eyes.

“Now, now…” she scolded me, bagging up my two buns. “That’ll be 50g.”

I handed her the money from my gold pouch.

“Thank’ya kindly. Say, I can’t remember the last time I saw a fresh face around here. Where did you come from? The capital?”

“Well, kinda? I’m from somewhere higher in elevation.” I had a hard time coming up with an explanation.

Chara flew behind the cashier, waving her arms and saying:”Say you’re from Hotland!”

“- and hotter.” I added with a wink. She smirked at me.

“Well yes, I assume that’s where you meant. You don’t look like a tourist. Are you here by yourself?” She leaned on the counter, elbow up on the register now. I leaned weakly against the wall.

“Yes. I came down here all alone. But I’ve made friends! Like, Sans and Papyrus are really ‘chill’.” I punned instinctually, and once I noticed I slapped my forehead.

“Ha ha! When I’m bored, I just sit outside and watch those wacky skeletons do their thing. They’re brothers, I think. They just showed up one day and…

“… asserted themselves.

“The town has gotten a lot more interestin’ since then.”

“Oh yeah? Well, I’m already aware of those two’s ‘hijinks’. It is rather entertaining, though! But what else is there out here?”

“Grillby’s has food, and the library had information… If you’re tired, you can take a nap at the inn. It’s right next door – my sister runs it.”

“Yeah, I was just about to go there next. Oh! By the way… is there any interesting history of this town I should know?”

Tenshu began tapping the register – taptaptap…taptaptap…taptaptap… it was annoying, and really distracting.

“You’re at least a teen and you don’t know?”

“O-oh, not exactly. I’m just a… just a…” taptaptap “history… buff…”

“OHHHH. Well, all I’s know is that a long time ago, monsters lived in the RUINS back there in the forest. And, long story short, we all decided to leave the ruins and head for the rest of the caverns. Along the way, some fuzzy folk decided they liked the cold and set up camp here in Snowdin.”

“Yeah, that’s all I know, too.”

“AND, don’t think about tryin’ to explore the RUINS… The door’s been locked for ages. So unless you’re a ghost or can burrow under the door, forget about it.”

“So that’s what she meant…” Chara muttered to herself, arms crossed in the air behind Tenshu. “Nobody can get in without someone already being there, huh?”

“I’d love to see it one day, know what all the fuss is about.” I fibbed. Chara snorted, but Mrs. Tenshu seemed convinced.

“Oh, yeah. the RUINS are sure to be full’a secrets and puzzles from ages past! Did you know that they were once our capital city?”

“Yeah? we just talked about that.” I raised my eyebrow.

“No no no, I mean BEFORE we were underground. We used to hide in caves so much that we incorporated it into our capital nearly 1,000 years ago! The King spent his childhood there.” She was looking out the window wistfully now, thinking. “It’s hard to fathom that the king has seen the sun before…”

“Are there no cracks to the sky here?” I questioned.

“Nope – we’re too low from the ceiling to see ‘em, anyways. But… we all know deep down that freedom is coming, don’t we? We can wait a little to see the sun. As long as we got that hope, we can grit our teeth and face the same struggles, day after day… That’s life, ain’t it?”

“That’s how it always goes… the world really is lacking a lot in the ‘realistic hope’ department, ain’t it?”

Tenshu sighed, then turned to me. “It’s true. How sad is it, that we have to endure things like this when it could be better, huh? If only humans weren’t so cruel. I remember my great-grandmaw talking about humans… how strange it was, that they could be filled with love or filled with spite in everything they do. They’re just real complex, ya know?”

“I think everyone is. Humans are just… much better at expressing their opinions without restraint.” I picked up my backpack from the floor, turning toward the door as I did. Tenshu seemed thoughtful. “It was real nice to meet you, Mrs. Tenshu!”

“Glad to have met’cha too, kid. See ya around!” she waved me off with a smile.

The door bells rung as I swung outside, back into that delicious, cold air. I took a deep, freezing breath.

“Man, I love snow. It just didn’t get cold where I grew up…” I looked up into the ‘sky’, trying not to think.

I closed my eyes, breathing in the cold smell of the snow and the warm smell of the Cinnamon Bunnies. After so long of being around less than five people, it was kinda nice to know there were more around. I stretched my fingers.

“…Grace? Were you going to move yet?” Chara was tapping her foot in front of the door to the inn, arms folded. “I thought you were cold and exhausted?”

I furrowed my brows. “Yeah, yeah. I’m coming.”

Turning abruptly, I let myself into the inn. I could feel Chara behind me, muttering a small apology. I shook my head.

Chapter Text

A peach-colored bunny lady stood stoically behind the front desk of the inn, smiling at my approach. Her whole business seemed the complimentary opposite to Tenshu’s warm and homey storefront – the inn was spotless and seemed professionally run in spite of the kid bobbing up and down on his toes behind the counter.
“Welcome to Snowed Inn! Snowdin’s premier hotel!” she called to me with a smile.

Drawing my attention from the child fishing lure, the rosy rabbit held out a confident hand. I shook it with as much matching energy as I could muster.

“Why thank you, ms… Okami!” I replied, squinting at the nametag on her blouse.

Mrs. Okami’s smile brightened (which I didn’t think possible) before suddenly darkening, her eyes moving to my hand in hers.

“Ma’am, are y’all from around here?” she said, tilting her head ever so slightly to the little boy next to her. I raised an eyebrow.

“I-“

“Because I’ve never met you before. Shall we go in the back and have a drink, share stories?” she pressured me fervently. I nodded.

“Sorry little buddy, guess I’m gonna be stealing your ma for a bit.”

The kitten sighed dramatically. “Mama, you always do this when new folks’ come in ‘ere!” his southern accent was the strongest yet, and it was adorable.

“Well, you’re just gonna have’ta wait, huh?” Okami scolded, pushing his head a little teasingly. “You run along now, I have some business to attend to.”

Sighing heavily (again), the kid burst out the front doors like a flood. I squished my fingers, trying to placebo worry away – what if she was about to turn me in to more ruthless guards? Do they exist? Maybe she’d take me to the king?

Grabbing my hand firmly (in that way moms do when they’re taking a young child through a crowd), mrs. Okami smoothly led me into the back room. It was a bit dim, but not creepy; there was just extra supplies and sorted keys back there. Okami led me to a table, grabbed a string I hadn’t seen, and pulled it, turning on the small light. She coughed into a fist as she looked back at me.

“So, you’re a human.”

I spluttered a bit. “I-I-I… yes, I mean… you’re not-“

“Goodness, of course not, hun. Just the opposite, actually. I’d like to help you integrate in this town. I saw y’all up an’ wandern’ around all skittish, and I want to help you.” The more motherly rage she seemed to feel, the more southernisms came through her pro façade.

“I looked nervous?” I tilted my head to the side.

“Of course you did. You’re human! You’d have’ta be nuts if you weren’t. I know us Snowdin folk don’ look that threatening, but King Asgore is likely to steal your SOUL if one of us happens to catch ‘ya.” She placed a knowing paw on my hand, giving it a squeeze. I stared at it, placing my other hand on top.

“…and you’re not turning me in so a thousand can go free because…?” I sat back a little, facing her but not moving my hands.

“Well, you’re just a kit, ain’t’cha? I always said, ‘I’d rather take from those willing to give and I feel like could’, and I stand by that. You-“

“With all due respect, ma’am,” I slid my hands gently out from under hers, looking away from her soft eyes. “I’m not exactly a ‘kit’. I’m nineteen. That’s why I’m so nervous… because y’all are justified in taking me, over most that came before.”

She rolled her eyes. “…all you’ve done is prove my point, girl. Not only are you too young to die, you’re also too reasonable… the world needs more people like that.” She sighed heavily, reminding me of her kid – perhaps she doesn’t realize that he got it from her? “I’d hate to see somethin’ like that happen to a kit like you.”

I thought for a moment. “Fine. But I’m not staying here for long – Papyrus knows me, and he’s waiting. I need to see the Underground like I said I would before I settle anywhere.”

Okami scowled.

“You jus’ wanna prove me wrong for calling you ‘reasonable’, don’t’cha? I’m saying I’ll keep you safe until another human falls – one old enough and rude enough to warrant takn’.”

“That might take longer than I’ll live, mrs. Okami.” I replied severely. “I may hate change, but I can’t just stay in some attic for the rest of my life…”

Looking away, Mrs. Okami made a sound similar to a whine, but I didn’t take it as childish. She sounded righteously frustrated. Finally, she sighed and nodded reluctantly, turning back to me with a pained smile.

“You really are an ornery child, aren’t you, Ms...?”

“Grace.”

“Ms. Grace. I bet your momma is proud of your bravery, bu-“

“I’m sorry,” I interrupted, “I know how much you want to protect children. But I can’t give up.” I absentmindedly touched the flower in my hair. “Not when I already ran from the last motherly monster I met. It would be dishonest.”

“…” Okami peered at me. As realization dawned on her, she realized she couldn’t look me in the eye anymore. “I was… inconsiderate. I apologize. But I still think that you should try not to move fast, I’m sure the guards already know you’re here…?”

“Oh yeah, I’ve already fought them, actually. They’re pretty good, for probably never having tried to fight a human before.” I sighed, rubbing my arms. “To be honest, I don’t even like dogs, but they were pretty cute.”

Okami laughed.

“He-hey, it’s not that funny. I got down to two hp more than once.” I winced, remembering all the claws, teeth, and heavy weapons tearing through my skin.

There was a moment of silence as she got up from her chair and examined me. Of course, my HP was full, but I still bore scars from not just the slashes of the guards, but she also found the burns on my midsection from my practice duels with Aunt Toriel. As she turned back to her seat, she facepalmed.

“…right. Of course. Dangit, don’t they know that if they kill you, they’re gonna have to grab and possibly absorb your SOUL within a couple minutes or else you might float away or somethin’? Dumb dogs… I’m glad you escaped, there might not have been any hope in either direction if you hadn’t…”

I smirked to myself, hiding it behind my hand and a worried expression. Dying sucks, but at least it isn’t the end for me…

Okami walked toward the door, gesturing for me to follow. I conceded, smiling after her. As we left the back room, I remarked:

“Man, monster mothers are some of the strongest-willed and morally-robust creatures I’ve ever encountered. How do y’all do it?”

Okami laughed loudly, rubbing my shoulder in a way that almost made me cry.

“Well, ma’s are just made into the people we go to for advice and spend years keepin’ everybody in order. Tha’s just the way we are. Plus, there’s somethn’ about having kids that changes you – makes you willin’ to do anything for kids, ‘cause you know how fragile, special, and important each one is.” She turned, placing hands on both my shoulders now.
“…and if you don’t have one, and find yourself needn’ – you can always come back to me.”

I.
I couldn’t recognize that I was breathing.
Was I?

All I could feel was wet shirt on my cheek. I was hugging Okami so tightly that a part of me worried she was taking damage. I tried not to worry about it. The day- no, the last year – of stress was dissolving into tears on her shirt. I couldn’t imagine hearing something like that again. it was almost like forgi-

No.

Suddenly, my body went rigid. Startled, Okami stopped petting my hair. I gulped. I knew I didn’t deserve this, but I just didn’t want to let go.

“What’s w-“

Before Okami could finish, I felt a tug on my sweater, making me snap my head down to look.

“Ms.? Are you okay?” it was the kid who’d been behind the register. In spite of his momma telling him to go, I guess his curiosity had been stronger.

Wiping my eyes, I tried to stop my tears from coming back as I squatted next to him. “What’s up, little guy?”

“You and momma were talkin’ a long time, so I tried to listen but I didn’t really get it. What’s your name? Why are you crying? My favorite toy is this one, you wan’ hold it?” he held up a stuffed bunny that had definitely been a hand-me-down. Or would it be a paw-me-down in this case?

I rubbed my eyes. “We-well, your momma had to just check up on me. I was crying because your mom is really nice and cool, and I’d love to hold it for a moment, if you don’t mind.” I gently grabbed the bunny from his outstretched hand and cradled it softly for a moment before handing it back.

“And your name?” he said, squeezing the doll.

“Oh, of course. It’s-“

Okami tapped my shoulder and whispered into my ear. “I don’t think we want him spreading your name all over the place if the skeletons know you, hun.”

“…Mercy. I’m Mercy.” I answered out loud. ‘Mercy’ was just something I made up, since it’s almost synonymous with ‘Grace”. Okami fought her amusement.

“Oh. See you later!” the kit ran haphazardly toward the door, stumbling inside and landing face-first into the snow later. I chuckled, fighting the tears that had tried to form again. As we stared after him, Okami spoke.

“I’m sorry for reminding you so much of… and….”

“Don’t… don’t apologize. It’s not your fault. It’s- I mean. Thank you. How much for a night?”

Okami seemed almost insulted. “No ma’am. I am NOT taking your money, young lady.”

“At least let me pay you for your time, or washing the sheets when I’m gone, or something?”

“Nope. Nuh uh. No-how. I ain’t doin’ nothin’ like that. And washin’ stuff is practically free underground, just like food.”

“Food’s free? No, you deserve to-“

“I deserve to do a kindness for a young stranger, young lady. And that’s final. Y’hear me?”

“…” I hid my smile, remembering how many ladies she reminded me of from when I actually lived in the south.

“Well?” she insisted sharply.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. Now you go ‘n get some food, then come back to me right away. No child of mine will be fightin’ no skeleton today.”

“Yes ma’am.”

We smiled at each other a moment before I left.

Just past an igloo with a sign, there were more rabbit monsters. One was pointedly staring at the other, and the one leading the smaller rabbit on a leash was pointedly NOT looking at them. I decided to talk to the bunny leading another bunny on a leash.

“Hello-“

“Isn’t my little cinnamon just the cutest? Bun-buns are so adorable… Tee hee!”

“What are y-“

“bun-bun-bun-bun-bun…”

I rolled my eyes and walked back to the staring guy.

“That lady over there,,,” he said as I approached.

“Yeah, she’s creepy, right?”

“Yeah, something about her disturbs me.”

I nodded. They folded their arms, staring rudely. I scrutinized the lady.

“Is it weird for rabbit monsters to lead rabbits on a leash?” I said, cocking an eyebrow.

“I think so. I don’t think kids should be on a leash, myself.”

“Ah.”

I suddenly remembered that monsters might all have varying life cycles. Maybe kids looking like animals is normal??

“Let me think about it. Wanna talk later?” they gave me a nervous thumbs up before looking back at the creepy lady.

“Sure.”

Walking away, my eyes were drawn to a large Christmas tree surrounded by presents with water-damaged paper. I cocked my head to the side.

“What is this?” I meant it as, ‘what are monsters celebrating here, religion-wise?’, but the large polar bear next to me deigned to respond with a story.

“Awful teens tormented a local monster by decorating its tree-like horns.” He explained, placing a present under the tree labeled ‘Teddy’. “So we started giving that monster presents to make it feel better. Now it’s a tradition to put presents underneath a decorated tree. Guess it was a good thing those teens tormented that monster…?”

“I mean, cause and effect aren’t always connected morally. Just because something good happened, doesn’t mean that the end justified the means, you know?”

“Huh, never thought of that. Oh, howdy there, stranger!” he said, holding out a paw. “Welcome to Snowdin! Glad to see new people around here. The underground isn’t that big, so living around the same people every day…”

I took his hand firmly. “It stagnates your evolution of thought and limits your view?” I smirked. “No need to be so dramatic, sir.”

He looked at my hand thoughtfully. He shook it twice, then let go.

“Hey now, I didn’t say all that – but it’s true. Don’t suppose that was your reason for leaving wherever you came from?”

“Hmm… I guess? That’s partly accurate, anyway.”

“How did someone as smart as you get all the way down here? I’m sure they want people like you for those groups of thinkers in the capital.”

“Ahh, well, I’m not the sciency or magicy kind of thinker, so maybe that’s why. Life is an amazing riddle, and I just do my best to answer.” I may have been flexing a bit hard, but it’s hard not to when someone calls you smart. He smiled warmly.

“I guess I can’t argue with that, hu-ma’am.” He winked as he stood. “Be careful about handshakes, they’re contagious.” Putting his hands in his pockets, he walked towards a bunch of houses. I looked at my palm, considering.

“…he knew…? Because of…?”

On the other side of the tree, a child was standing and humming to themself, an old tune I didn’t recognize. But as I stared at the packages under the tree (found one labeled "SANS" in precisely wrapped red paper, and "papyrus" in a brown gift bag with no tissue paper.), I heard their humming evolve into a quiet melody:

“I sing of a maiden that is makeless;
King of all kings to her son she chose
He came all so still to His mother’s bower
As dew in April that falleth on the flower.
Mother and maiden, was never none but she:
Well may such a lady Asgore’s mother be."

At the line, ‘He came all so still to his mother’s bower’, Chara began singing with them, her beautiful voice reminding me of nutmeg and fire. I listened all the way through and made my way to the child.

“The king truly is the hope of the underground, huh?” I said, reaching a hand out for them to shake before realizing. “Oh, I’m sorry.” I bowed slightly, trying not to stare at their lack of arms.

“Oh, that’s fine. I get it all the time. Oh yeah! king Asgore is awesome! He’s gonna free everyone, I guess. But he beats Undyne at FIGHTing, no matter what! He’s so powerful!”

“Huh, must be.” I folded my arms.

“Yo!”

I started. “I-uh- what’s up, kiddo?”

“You’re a kid too, right?”

“Oh, no. I’m nineteen.”

“Whaaaat? But you’re wearing a striped shirt! You’re a kid.” He thought for a moment. “I wonder if that weird skeleton is an adult or a kid.”

“Again, not a kid- but that doesn’t matter. You talking about Papyrus?”

“Nah, I’m talking about the short one! He’s so small, and sometimes he wears a striped shirt. Hmm… maybe that makes him a teen?”

“Maybe? Huh, guess I’ve never asked him how old he was.”

“B-but you’re an adult! Shouldn’t you know already?”

“That’s not-not how it works, kid.”

“Yeah, he’s gotta be a teenager, that makes the most sense right?” He squinted at my shirt. “Yo, you sure you’re not at least a teenager?”

“I mean…” I rolled my eyes good naturedly. “There’s still ‘teen’ in my age, so I guess? I’m legally an adult, though.”

“What does ‘legally’ mean?”

“Ehh, you shouldn’t worry about it, kiddo.” I looked around. Suddenly, I noticed that there weren’t any monsters that looked like him around. “Yo, your parents know where you are?”

“Uhhhhhhh…”

“That’s what I thought. You should make sure your parents know your whereabouts before you wander off, next time. Don’t know when you might fall off a cliff or something.”

“Heh, yo, you sound like my sister. She’s always nagging me about stuff like that. ‘Be careful, Kidron. You’re not gonna have someone to open the door someday!’ ugh, I hate her.”

“Sounds annoying.”

Kidron went on for almost thirty minutes telling me this whole story about how their sister would always nag them about their little freedoms. I listened as attentively as I could, but nothing really stuck. All I could remember about that conversation was how cute this kid was. Saying goodbye, I turned around and saw what looked like a bar.

“’GRILLBY’S’? Sounds greasy. And perfect… nothing monsters make is very filling for a human.” Chara commented, floating towards the door. On cue, my stomach growled. I looked inside; all the dog sentries I’d beaten were inside, drinking and playing card games and chatting. I blinked.

“Maybe… not? But they seem so happy… hmm…” I turned to the whimsical teddy bear standing next to me. “Excuse me, but do you know when the dogs came back? And if they were in a good mood when they did?”

“Huh?” He stopped humming to himself, shook his head, and stuck out a hand. “Oh, pleasure to meet you too. I’m Redfield, and you are…?”

Taking firmly the outstretched hand, I smiled. I can keep up with him, even if he couldn’t with me. “L-likewise. I’m Mercy. I was just wondering how the dog’s shifts went, if you saw them come back. Do you know if it’d be safe to go inside without getting ambushed with affection?” I lied about my reason for asking, but I felt this was a better reason.

Smiling, he held my hand with both of his. “I think they seemed almost too happy, to be honest. So you might have a chance at a burger, but nothing much more than that.”

“Ahh.” I gently removed my hand from his. He seemed sweet, but a little touchy. “Well, good to know. Maybe I’ll wait a bit before coming inside. Hey, you seem like an authority figure, how’s life in this town?”

“Well, this town doesn’t have a mayor. But if there’s ever a problem, a skeleton will tell a fish lady about it. Thaaaaaat’s politics!”

“Oh… yeah?” I said, folding my arms.

“And the two ladies in the library are fighting for ownership of the paper, but the librarian owns it so that’s not going to go anywhere.”

I could tell he was leading into more conversation surrounding politics.

“Yep, that’s politics all right. Say, I’m gonna go look around this pretty town for now, see you later?”

“Oh… okay. See you later, hu-Mercy.”

Sighing silently, I passed the bar and went straight for the libraby.
The… what?

“The-“

“Yes, we know. The sign is misspelled. That Sans did it and never came back to fix it. Welcome to the library!” the librarian ended cheerfully, brushing me off towards the six bookshelves they had. Nodding, I turned to the books. I gasped as I scanned the shelves, seeing a name that made me squeal.

“Gerson! Gerson Boom! I found-“

“SHHHH!” one of the four (living) people in the room shushed me! It wasn’t as if they were reading or anything…

I shrugged and pulled it off the light green shelf – the shelves seemed to be separated by color, of all things, not letter or number.

MONSTER HISTORY PART 4
Fearing the humans no longer, we moved out of our hold city, HOME. We braved the harsh cold, damp swampland, and searing heat… Until we reached what we now call our capital. “NEW HOME.” Again, our king is really bad at names…?

Leaning against the bookshelf and sitting on the floor, I read the mid-grade novel. There wasn’t much in it, sadly, but reading Gerson’s writing voice was relaxing. Most of the book was, in fact, stuff I already knew – with some parts left out or even missing pages. The rips were clean, exactly like the sort of coverup I was expecting. I sighed, closing it.

“Anything new?”

“Nope.” I rested my chin in my hands, thinking. “At least now I understand the ban…”

“What was that, dearie? (cough, cough)” One of the old ladies at the table turned to me, staring at the old book in my hands. She smiled. “Doing a research assignment, right? I remember those days. When I was younger, my teachers gave me word searches when they ran out of assignments. I thought they were a waste of time. But look at me now… I’m the number-one word-search creator in the entire underground! Why, in fact-“

“Oh, did you do the Ice-e puzzle Sans gave me a while ago? That was pretty challenging!” I closed the book, standing up and placing it on the shelf before returning my attention to the wise lady.

“Oh, stop, you’re just saying that. (cough, cough.)”

“No no, he even graded me – I got an eighty percent… hah… I love word searches but that was strangely hard.” I shook her hand. “Thanks for that.”

“Really, no big deal.” She said excitedly. She seemed tickled pink that a teenager would be interested in her work.

Waving goodbye, I stared at the closed door.

Chapter Text

“You can’t keep avoiding it, you know?” Chara said, floating through the door. “Gotta go FIGHT-“

“You mean, talk to the dogs?” I interrupted as soon as I was on the other side of the door. Chara shrugged.

“Yeah, sure, I guess.”

“Plus, I-“ I yawned involuntarily, letting my eyelids droop. “-should probably be getting some food first.”

Chara nodded.

Once inside, I attempted, awkwardly, to find an empty seat. Only one was at the bar, in front of its quiet bartender. He… I guess he looked up at my approach? It’s kinda hard to tell when their face is made of fire.

“So, I’ve never been here. Whatta’ya got?” I said as I sat down.

“…

“…

“…”

“Grillbz said that he’d offer you a glass of water, but he doesn’t touch the stuff.” The bird monster at the counter ‘translated’ Grillby’s silence.

I pursed my lips. “Don’t worry man, I’ll order off a menu.” I knew full well that I couldn’t read monster, but I let Chara read it for me. Grillby shrugged and ducked down to get me a menu. Some stuff had pictures, but mostly I had Chara read it for me.

“Could I have a Scotch Egg with some fries on the side? Oh, and how about a hot chocolate? Or, can you do mocktails?” I said, raising my hand to Grillby since he was serving a table. Once he came back, he took my order without saying a single word and noiselessly walked to the door behind the counter.

Nothing happened at first.

“Do you think he makes it all himself?” I whispered to Chara.

“Yeah, that’s gotta be it. Sucks not having any staff.”

I sat with my chin in my hand, taking my ring off to absently roll it on the bar. Chara stared off into space, looking at the alcohol shelves.

“The capital’s getting pretty crowded, so I’ve heard they’re going to start moving here.”

I turned to the punky pony sitting next to me, who seemed to be staring at my ring.

“Hmmm… I don’t want to see the erasure of our local culture.” He finished, tipping his sunglasses at me.

“Yeah… I’m new, but I’m not from the capital. This place seems… so peaceful… I bet I could live here forever…” I stifle a yawn as my ring falls flat to the table, my hand weakly slapping it as I try to continue rolling it. I resign to spinning it like a top.

“Yeah, Snowdin is great! Nothing happens here, which is actually nice! So I get why people are flocking here, but I want to preserve what we’ve got. In spite of that… I definitely want to see some citiy slickers slip onto their buts!” He laughed jovially, and I tried to laugh along. Seeing my exhaustion, he nods and returns to his whiskey.

I nap in my arms. Chara is humming to herself. The air is filled with the smell of alcohol and woodfire, and the clink of glasses is almost in rhythm…

“Man, this place may have a weird name, but the food is amazing!’

D__ was sitting across from me. The rickety chairs were kinda greasy, but he was right: the food was worth it.

“Getting out of the cold is the best part.”

A___’s green eyes were red, and so were his cheeks.

“It IS nice and warm in here.”

It’s warm.

The table’s wet?

Were the tables red before?

“Where is everybody?”

Why am I the only one?

I was trying to…

It’s on my hands.

...

It’s so gross.

*thunk*

I screamed.

Everybody was looking at me.

I stared at the full plate in front of me, stunned. “Oh uh I uh sorry guys, had a bad dream hahahaha…” I cringed. Who screams in public? “Th-thanks for the meal, Grillby. How-how much I owe you?”

Instead of pointing at the bill he’d set on the table, Grillby gently took my hand and gave it a squeeze – he was never hot enough to burn, but it felt that way after the freezing cold. His flames pulsed slowly, mimicking breathing.

“Oh-oh. Gotcha.” I took some deep breaths in slow succession. In………. out………..in…………out…………

“Thank you, Mr. Grillby.”

He glowed brighter for a moment. He signed, “feel okay, human?” which made me stare, but he didn’t even acknowledge that as he patted the bar in front of me and moved to the sink to wash. I took another breath.

“Much better, thank you…”

The meal was uneventful for the rest of the evening (unless you count when the dogs started doing drinking songs for almost an hour) and I was headed back to the inn before I knew it.

“Soo… you’re just NOT going to talk about it?” Chara said, possessing me slightly so she could hold my hand. I squeezed back, almost tripping in the snow as I felt her for the first time in ages.

“I don’t think so… not yet. It just… hasn’t been all that long since it happened, that’s all.”

“Ah. Well, I still think it would be good to tell me… it helped me a lot when I was alive, to explain to my family what happened to me. Certainly I could understand?”

She was right. She could understand. She’d had to stab someone’s eye out and take bread from the hands of a dying person to survive before. That’s no laughing matter. But…

“You probably could.” I stared down the empty street – the light hadn’t changed much, but the clock in Grillby’s said ’12:45’ when we’d left, so everyone was probably in bed.

“So?” she said, moving into my field of view.

“You can’t help me with something that’s my fault to begin with. I’m the- I’m the one who wasn’t there. Why couldn’t I have… convinced them not to go? Why’d I have to be the one left behind and alone? Why-“ I started yelling without realizing – “WHY AM I ALWAYS THE ONE LEFT BEHIND?! WHY DO I SEE THEIR FACES ALL THE TIME? IN EVERYONE! TORIEL, THE RABBITS-!”

“Grace, quiet! We can’t-“

“Even you.”

I limply held my arm to her, letting it fall pathetically against my side. Chara stared quietly, mentally fumbling at an answer or a piece of advice. But she had none. She realized I was right; she could understand, but there was no helping me until we both believed we could be saved.

“You remind me of both of them. My brothers.” I kneeled in the freezing snow. “Why… why do I see them everywhere? Is this retribution for my narcissism?”

“…”

Chara kneeled next to me. She sighed.

“It’s because you loved them. Here’s a secret…

“…I see Asriel everywhere too.”

I looked up to her, confused.

“I saw him in maman’s smile… in your teasing… in the skelebros’ innocent shenanigans… it hurts, knowing it’s my fault, but for some reason… I don’t feel like he wants me to feel bad about it. It’s like him being everywhere is reminding me that the time we spent together changed me for the better, and he wouldn’t want me to feel sad. I don’t know how to explain… it’s like… he’s reminding me through other people that he’s still a part of me, and I a part of him. I’ll never stop hurting, but the hurt is good, too. It’s not like what I did was good, just that… I deserve… to forgive… myself?” The last part was a question, squeezed out through sheer willpower to convince her new friend. She didn’t’ like it – she wasn’t convinced she meant it.

I rubbed my eyes, heaving but grinning. “…fine. For now, we both forgive ourselves – at least for tonight, right?”

“We’re just doing this for each other, huh?”

“Oh, for sure,” I exclaimed, standing. “But at least we should sleep okay, right?”

<3 <3 <3

Wrong.

“How’d you sleep, Grace?” Chara teased from above.

“No fair, you can’t sleep so I can’t claim I did either.”

“Yeah, but I’ll accept your lie, I guess.”

I groaned. “I slept okay.”

Chara rolled her eyes.

After I was dressed and ready, I clambered down the stairs.

“Good mornin’, Grace!” called a joyful Okami from the counter. “You look like you had an okay sleep. Which is incredible, because I heard you mumbling all night…”

“Good morning to you too, Mrs. Okami. How are you?”

“Fine, fine.” She said, turning away to look at the guest book in front of her and waving me toward the breakfast hall. It was more of a hall-WAY of sorts, bridging the gap between the inn and the shop, since the shop was also Tenshu’s house so she could make the breakfast for guests. Okami would often send Tenshu a list of the number of guests staying so Tenshu didn’t get overexcited and make too much. She did, anyway.

As I entered, Tenshu flagged me over to her side at the buffet area.

“Mornin’, kid! How’d you sleep?” she exclaimed, handing me a plate and obliging to fill my plate without asking me what I wanted (or if I wanted to).

“As well as I always do, Mrs. Tenshu. I-“

“And I can guess what that’s like, right hun?” she stopped mid-pour on giving me gravy for my biscuit, peering into my eyes. In response to my silence, she smirked and nodded. “Well, that’a’be expected of being in the underground for you, I ‘spose.”

“Wait, how did you…” I dared not suggest it, just in case she meant something else. She sighed (family trait) and led me by my shoulders to a seat across from an already full plate. After I was seated, Tenshu hopped over to the empty chair. I was about to pray over my own food when I stopped, curiously observing Tenshu.
She was tenderly holding her hands in the shape of wings, palms against her chest. Her eyes were closed as she held her face to the ceiling. Quickly, I went back to my own praying position, but waited to listen. After a beat, Tenshu whispered:

“Please, send us the true Angel, that we might see the beacon of tomorrow… protect us in our struggles and help us to have what we need to see that day. Thank you for what you have done thus far. Verily, the monster Tenshu Usagi.”

I couldn’t speak. I quickly said mine and felt its passion was lacking in comparison. It was quiet for a moment, except for the clack of silverware against the plates.

“So-“
“You’re-“

We laughed.

“You go first, ma’am.”

“Nah, you’re the guest. You go.”

I sighed. “Fine. So I’m guessing you know my secret?” I said, head lowered but staring nervously up at her. She smirked sadly, then turned suddenly to look in every direction. Both she and Tenshu had to have had at least six children each, give or take a few. So the idea of one eavesdropping was not hard to imagine. Once she’d deemed the coast clear, she turned to me, voice dropped to a low whisper.

“Yes, I know you’re human. Okami told me while you were out. I could kinda tell, but I wasn’t sure. You’re such a bitty thing, in comparison to the humans I’ve seen.”

“You do know humans start out as children, right? Also, doesn’t that make you-“

“Yes, and no. All I know about humans comes from books, and monsters aren’t always very… accurate in their descriptions. Are human children as small as monster children?”

“Y-yes, maybe even smaller, considering!” I dropped my fork in surprise. I hadn’t considered that monsters might have lost so much knowledge after so long. “Some babies come out too early, and can be smaller than a grapefruit. But yes, human and monster children are about the same size – and energy level.” I groaned. “There’s no keeping up for us old folks, huh?”

Tenshu smiled at my joke, but didn’t say anything. I was about to apologize since I might have hurt her feelings when she spoke again.

“You are a child. Do not let anyone disregard your status as someone who deserves protectin’.

“…what?” I said, picking up my fork again and eating some cold eggs.

“I get the feeling that the reason you’re so comfortable surrounded by monsters that feel obligated to take your SOUL is because you feel like we’re justified for doin’ so. That’s wrong. Do you hear me, young lady?

“Um, yes ma’am. I hear you. But humans have treated you guys like unwanted toys for half a millennia, and we’d be hypocrites for blaming you for doing whatever it takes to escape the buried toy-chest. We’ve done far worse to ourselves in similar situations – torn our own bodies apart, killed our jailers, eaten each other – all in the name of ‘survival’. We humans have a lot of respect for and protect personal safety and freedom, and yet we’ve robbed the purest people of those very things, and for what? To hog it all ourselves? To claim we ‘forgot’ like you’re just some household chore we hate doing? It’s blasphemous and torrible, and I can’t stand hearing you guys blame yourselves so very harshly for it.”

Tenshu closed her eyes, forming her words carefully.

“That don’t mean it’s your responsibility, hon. And we are still in control of our own actions – we’re not goin’ crazy down here just yet, we have enough food to not… that, and we haven’t torn ourselves apart lookin’ for an answer that isn’t there. We may be trapped, but we’re more or less… fine.
“Let me tell y’all a story.
“When I was young, I was a member of the royal guard. I was…” she sighed, putting some fingers to her forehead in annoyance. “For the sake of the story, I gotta say I was really good. I even defeated Gerson, once. Nobody’s beaten the king though, not for real. Anyways, I was stationed in Waterfall – the next area over – because its terrain makes it challengin’ and I was one of the only ones who felt like she could watch it effectively.
“I was right.
“One night, I was doing my rounds when I found one: a human, for the first time in years! He was terrified of everythin’, but especially of me and my huge sword. Seeing how young he was, my gut reaction took over – he died within seconds. It startled me like I know it shouldn’t, seein’ his body… the blood… the open eyes… the… purple SOUL hovering above him…
“I knew this to be a human SOUL, but… I just couldn’t take it. I had many thoughts all of a sudden…
“ ‘We don’t deserve to escape if all we do is steal the future of others.’ ‘Why do our innocent and young children deserve the future more than theirs?’ ‘The people are not responsible for the actions of the king, why should we be pawns in an age-old struggle?’
“I mainly stay outta’ politics, but… I refuse to sit around and let the other adults around here use something that happened ages ago as justification for their actions.

“I’m not doing that ever again.”

“…”

I was speechless. A difficult accomplishment, I’ll admit, but…

was I about to be out-philosophy-ed by some random rabbit monster?

Tenshu stood, carrying her empty plate toward the kitchen. She returned just as I was finished gathering mine to follow her, and took them from my arms without either of us saying anything. After she’d turned around, I called to her retreating back:

“You didn’t deliver his SOUL, did you.”

<3 <3 <3

After breakfast, I decided to wander around Snowdin, as I hadn’t gotten very far when I’d stopped by the rabbit family businesses yesterday. Standing right next to the inn, there was that igloo I’d seen earlier. Having not spared it a glance before, I elected to check it out this time. There was a sign:

(Don’t want to walk to the other side of town? Try the undersnow tunnels! They’re efficiently laid out.)

“Hmm… what do you think?” I whispered. Chara shrugged.

“Eh. We could try them?”

I nodded, taking a step inside-

Directly into an ice slide.

I shrieked as I slipped, sliding many feet along the tunnel until I suddenly realized that the slide hadn’t been very long, and I’d been gliding across flat ice for at least a few yards. Shakily, I stood, peering around me. Once my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I noticed an iceless area in the middle, with two slick parts on either side – mine being the right side. I scooted over to the middle, walking along it towards the opening. There was a set of stairs and the connection to the left slide at the exit, which is probably what I’d fallen down in the first place on the opposite side. I sighed, climbing my way carefully out the mouth of the other igloo.

I stepped out into this little space between two buildings – one being a two-story house with Christmas lights, the other being what I could only assume was the adjoining shed. I tried the shed door – it was locked.

“Let me try.” Chara offered, not waiting for a response before jumping through the wall and peering around a while before coming back.

“What’s in there?” I asked.

“It’s… some kind of prison? The bars are too wide to really do anything, though. It’s locked from the inside.”

“Yeah, I guessed as much. But, locked from the inside? What would be the point of holding someone there?”

“I have no idea. Seems counterproductive, right?”

I nodded, turning to leave the shed. I didn’t knock at the door of the house, lest the inhabitants noticed I’d attempted to just walk into their shed. Instead, I checked the mailboxes. One was overflowing with unread junk mail. The other was labelled “PAPYRUS”, and was closed. My curiosity overpowered my propriety, and I opened it.

There was nothing inside.

I closed it quickly, like I’d accidentally opened his sock drawer. As I walked back toward the Librarby, I sighed.

“No… no wonder he… hah.” I smiled in spite of myself. Chara raised an eyebrow at me. “No wonder he wants a friend so badly.”

“You mean… you think he doesn’t have any?” Chara’s voice was timid, worried. I waved her off.

“Not necessarily - don’t worry about it. I think, by the end of this, he’s going to have at least one friend.”

“Oh yeah? And who is she?”

We giggled, catching a few strange looks from the maybe two monsters who were awake and not already at work at this time. I shrugged it off, turning to the only part of town I hadn’t gotten much time exploring. Up ahead, there were two little slimes playing some sort of ‘house’ I didn’t recognize and a much bigger one who seemed to be keeping an eye on them.

“I love your mustache, sir.” I complimented the bigger of the three, receiving a motion that seemed not unlike a grin (though I wasn’t sure).

“Thank you, miss. Ah, to be young again. The world sure felt boundless. You better not take that for granted, young lady!” He gave me a… wink? Before turning back to his kids. Looking back up, I spotted what seemed to be the other parent of the family through the front windows of the house. They were painting.

I looked around. There was a whole neighborhood here, behind the stores that served as the town’s façade. Out of curiosity, I knocked on the nearest house.

“Ahh, what a beautiful knock…! Maybe if I don’t answer, I’ll hear it again.” mused a voice from inside. I waited a minute, trying to see if they’d let me in if I didn’t give them what they wanted, but nothing happened. I didn’t give them the satisfaction.

Chara laughed. “Wow, I knew you had a spiteful edge. Thanks for proving my suspicions, haha.”

Rolling my eyes, I walked over to where there’d been a loud *SPLASH! * every few moments since I’d come over here. Standing at the shore of the ice beach was a large wolf monster, grabbing the large (manufactured???) cubes of ice from a conveyor belt and lobbing them into the freezing water. I decided not to bother him while he was at work.

“Well, that’s strange.” Chara said, leading me to the little cave area behind the town. “Usually there’s more than one… I hope that guy’s alright.”

“Whoa, what’s this place for?” I said, staring out into the seemingly endless channels on either side of the river in front of me. The waters were still, but the place didn’t seem all that abandoned.

“Oh, this is where the Riverperson lives, I think. If they haven’t changed or… switched ownership. They have a thing for ferrying people anywhere in the underground for a small fee. They’re super reasonable, though. I’m sure if you were in a hurry they wouldn’t ask for anything. When I was alive, it costed 5g.”

“Oh wow, that’s nothing at all.” I exclaimed.

“Right? But it looks like they’re not going to be here anytime soon. How about we go back?”

“Sure.”

We spent the next four or so hours with Tenshu and Okami’s kids, me having been voluntold last minute to watch them for a while until they could scrounge together a more qualified sitter. I wasn’t very good at it, but I did find out that kids really liked it when you play them the ocarina. I was glad I’d kept it in my backpack before leaving Toriel’s.
We were all playing different games together in small groups when suddenly I felt a tug on my pant leg. It was Momota, Okami’s kid that always hung out behind her front desk with her.

“What’s up, kiddo?”

“I wanna ask ‘ya something.”

“Shoot.”

“Why were y’all cryin’ yesterday? Why’re ya so tall? Why do youse keep lookin’ in some random direction and smilin’? It’s real creepy, sis.”

I laughed. “Well, I was cryin’ because your ma’ reminded me of mine, and I don’t… have her around anymore. I’m tall because I decided I liked the food mom used to make me eat, for the most part. And I’m smiling at nothing ‘cause I hate looking at people’s faces but I feel happy. That good enough for you?”

He stared. “You’re a weird adult, ya know tha?” he said, gesturing for me to lean over. When I’d done it, he rubbed my forehead. “But that’s fine, ‘cause Momo’s gon’ keep you safe! As long as you’re one of our guests, Momota ain’t gon’ let no one hurt you!”

with that, he let out a yell, drawing a plastic sword on the nearest monster kid. I laughed as they both toppled to the floor, picking myself up from it to help them to their feet. Once righted, the two began an impressively aggressive sword battle, which every other kid joined. I had no clue whose kids were who’s, and felt relieved when, at lunchtime, the new sitter arrived.

Chapter Text

Sans TheSkeleton was lazy. Or at least, that’s what his brother told him every morning. He didn’t really care; hardly ever woke up past 11 if he could help it. Which isn’t really possible most days when you had the coolest, most energetic guy ever for a brother.

…Who woke you up at 6 AM. Ugh.

“Wake up, you lazybones! I’ve been scouting all night in case the human comes to the end of town, and when I got back here all I found was my unconscious brother. We have to leave now if we don’t want to be late…Let’s get you to your station!”

Sans turned over under his covers, grumbling. With a huff, Papyrus grabbed Sans’ entire bed burrito with him in it, dressed him, and carried him all the way to his nearest sentry station. This one wasn’t so far outside town, but Papyrus knew Sans’ ability to link them all together, so he wasn’t worried.

“Now, I’m going to stand guard for when the human finally decides she’s ready. You make sure there aren’t any more coming, yes?”

”sure, pap.”

”Oh, and one more thing-“ Papyrus grabbed a stuffed paper bag and dropped it onto the desk in front of Sans, making him jolt. ”Make sure you eat that, and not some greasy junk food again! I swear, you’re going to pass out from lack of nutrients one day…”

Papyrus poked his brother in the forehead with humorous aggravation before clunking back off through the snow. Sans smiled at his brother’s thoughtfulness, tapping the bag absentmindedly before falling asleep again.

For the past 3 months, his dreams had been… decidedly different.

They used to be about a kid, no older than 12. They would travel through the underground – sometimes making friends, sometimes killing them. The memories had gotten mushed together. Sans couldn’t really tell you which ones were the most reasonable course of events, which parts led into each other, or whether they were truly visions at all. Papyrus seemed to think they weren’t, but Sans had always had his suspicions until that night. That was when the dreams… changed. Suddenly, the kid was replaced by an adult, a blonde chick. She seemed unique, in that she spoke, and she waited. She wasn’t in a hurry to escape, which seemed… weird to Sans. Why go through such a dangerous place at all, if you don’t plan to leave?

All this just proved what Sans already believed: the visions were real, and dangerous. What if he did something he wasn’t supposed to, and messed up the timeline?

…

…

Sans stood in the golden judgement hall.

There was muffled whimpering coming from below him, and his hands felt.. sticky? What would make them… sticky?

He couldn’t see her.

There was a change. In the air? In the words? In the

The whimpering stopped.

That familiar sound. What was it?

steel cracked through bone.

A shaft of red…

Sans woke with a start. It was so much shorter than the rest of his visions, and yet that wasn’t the shocking part. Rubbing his sockets, he noticed that one of the two spaghetti lunches had fallen out of the bag and into the snow, top having popped off to reveal bright red shining against the white.

sticky…it was… blood…? Blood…

Sans shook his head, grabbing the fallen lunch with blue magic and replacing it on his desk. He stared. Sans had never seen a vision of this sort of… ending… with the new human. Shaking his head, he sat up, rubbing his sockets as he stared at the clock. It read 12:13… he’d been asleep for nearly 5 hours. He smiled.

”finally, catching up on my shut-socket. Welp, guess that’s enough hard work for now.”

He stretched, grabbing his wallet as he teleported back into town.

Ɛ> Ɛ> Ɛ>

I was sitting on a bench outside Grillby’s when Sans suddenly walked up, hands in his pockets. He sat next to me on the edge of the bench.

”sup, kid.”

“Hiya, Sans. What’re you doing here? Don’t you have to be looking out for when I leave town?” I joked.

”guess you’ve never seen a guy with two jobs before. Two jobs means twice as many legally required breaks. So I’m having grillby’s for br-lunch. Wanna join?”

I closed my book, thinking. “Okay, sounds good.” I stood, following him through the door. Inside, the dogs and other regulars were back, but they didn’t seem to notice me behind Sans.

”hey, everyone.”

“Hey, Sans.”
“(Hi, Sans.)”
The dog couple that nearly killed me a second time.

“Greetings, Sans.”
A large monster with huge teeth, but seemed good-natured.

“Hiya, Sansy~”
A young adult bunny monster who seemed REALLY drunk.

“Hey Sans, where were you this morning? You didn’t come for your usual breakfast and brunch times.”

”eh, I’m just doin them both at once. After all, there’s always a ‘brunch’ of opportunities.”

The club erupted with laughter. Sans, clearly appeased, gestured to an empty barstool.

”here, get comfy.”

As I sat down, I could hear the unmistakable whoopie cushion fart from my seat. I rolled my eyes.

”whoops, watch where you sit down. Sometimes weirdos put whoopie cushions on the seats.”

“Yeah, uh huh. I made sure to look before I sat, and there was nothing there. I wonder how the perpetrator was able to manage that?”

”I bet they were someone super talented. I’ll have to give them kudos, heheh.”

“Yeah, sure buddy.”

Sans grinned wider. I had no idea how he did it, but he did. ”anyway, let’s order. Whaddya want…?”

“Hmm… how about a burger?” I asked, confused. Was he about to pay for both of us to eat? Why?

”hey, that sounds pretty good. Grillby, we’ll have a double order of burg.”

As Grillby left to cook our burgers, sans took out a blue comb and began… pretending to comb his ‘hair’?

“Hey now, who you trying to impress? Practically offering to pay, and then making sure your hair is perfect? You might as well propose while you’re at it.” I gave him a sarcastic wink.

He seemed dubious. ”uhh… no? I’m just hangin with a bud and not paying when you offer is rude?”

I laughed. “No, uh, I’m just messing with you.”

”...gotcha.”

We laughed at ourselves then, when suddenly, Sans turned to me, serious.

”so, what do you think… of my brother?”

“He’s really sweet and cool. I think he’s deserving of a lot more affection than the monsters here seem to deem him worthy of.”

Sans blinked. ”obviously he’s cool. You’d be cool too if you wore that outfit every day. Heh, he’d only take that thing off if he absolutely had to. Oh well. At least he washes it – and by that I mean he wears it in the shower.”

“Hey now,” I complained, thumping his chest with the back of my hand (it stung). “Don’t be telling all your brother blackmail in one go, then it’ll be boring to hear about it later.” I smiled. “But yeah, he’s cool.”

Sans smiled, proud of himself.

”oh, here comes the grub. Want some ketchup?”

I shook my head. “Nah, I’ve never cared much for the stuff. More for you?”

”heck yeah.”

And, to my horror and utter disgust, he unscrewed the bottle and just – just – drank it like a beer. I covered my gag with a cough. After we’d gotten situated eating, Sans went on.

”anyway, cool or not, you have to agree papyrus tries real hard. Like… how he keeps trying to be part of the royal guard. One day, he went to the house of the head of the royal guard and begged her to let him be in it. Of course, she shut the door on him because it was midnight. But on the next day, she woke up and saw him still waiting there. Seeing his dedication, she decided to give him warrior training.”

“Oh yeah? and how’s that going?”

”It’s uh, still a work in progress.”

“I mean, there’s no other way to improve, right? Besides, I’m sure I’ll find out how strong he is when he hands me my butt later today or tomorrow.”

”You’re leaving already?”

“Yeah. Gotta get back on that open road. I’ve kinda got an idea about the barrier… I’m not sure, it’s just a thought right now. It’s not a fully formed plan yet...” I put down my burger, looking him in the eyesockets. “I can’t promise he’ll listen, but it still might work if he does, you know?”

Sans did something akin to pursing his lips.

”ehh. it’s worth a shot I guess. What is your plan?”

I closed my eyes, trying to find the words to explain myself. For a beat, there was silence, when suddenly, as the clock struck seven, music started playing in the bar!

“Whoa, did somebody fix the jukebox? It’s actually playing!” Came the punk horseman to our right. He was bombarded with humorous jabs from the rest of the bar.

“It’s coming from the speakers, you idiot!”
“(Yeah, no need to yell so suddenly!)”

“It’s from the speakers, Bunto you stupid punk.”

Bunto, who suddenly realized what’d happened, began laughing with them, raising his hands in defeat until everything quieted down again.

“Heh, guess he wasn’t the right ‘speaker’, haha.” I laughed, turning to see Sans’ reaction. He smiled at me.

Suddenly, he put his ketchup-soaked burger down and faced me, sockets wide. ”I knew it. I had to really look, but I knew something was weird.”

“What? What? What are you talking about, dude?”

”yup, I see it. That’s so weird. You have a font.”

”…huh?”

”ok ok. So, this is a skeleton thing, but we can see and sorta hear the fonts people speak in. it used to be a distinguishing thing between skeletons since we’re so similar to each other, but theres so few of us now that it didn’t really matter anymore - Until today. That’s why I didn’t notice before – plus, your font is really close to the one everyone uses. But why would you have one? It just doesn’t make sense…”

”Okay, okay, wait. You mean that funny accent I heard from only you and Papyrus was…?”

”You can hear them, too, huh? I wonder if… is it possible? Do you have a skeleton in your family?”

“Not that I...that’s why I…? No way…”

I floundered, stringing meaningless words together.

”yeah, that’s gotta be why you hear our fonts. Maybe you’ve heard it before? From a family member?”

I flinched.

Chara grimaced. “Maybe that’s not the best thing to bring up, comedian.”

”…grace?”

”I’m okay. I… nobody else in my family could do what I can do, no. I didn’t hear any funny accents growing up, either.”

”And you’re sure? Do you know much about your family history?”

”No, we never really knew much about my dad’s side. My great grandma or someone refused to give us information on religious grounds, so I don’t even know the name of my great- great- great- grandmother on my dad’s side.” I held a hand to my chest, considering the possibility and what it meant for me. ”...So you think I might be part monster?”

Sans rubbed his neck sheepishly. ”yeah. it’s possible. I mean, how else could all this font stuff come up? It’s probably not a huge percent, especially since your family didn’t mention anything about it. Im sure there’s nothing weird about you if it hasn’t come up before, don’t worry.”

”Yeah, of course. I’m too old for some sudden skeleton puberty, I’m sure.” I laughed nervously. I peered at him, dubious. ”…Right?”

”how old did you say you were, again?”

”…nineteen…?”

Sans had his hand on his mouth, scrutinizing me. ”hmmm…..”

”Oh, please…”

”im just messing with ya, kiddo. you’re good.”

I couldn’t eat. Of course, I knew I was weird a LONG time ago. I poked my burger, considering all the things I’d done before. I wanted to ask him more questions, but I didn’t want him to be any more suspicious of me than I already knew he was.

Sans picked his burg back up. It hung wetly between his phalanges, it was so soaked in ketchup. Sans thought for a moment.

”oh yeah, I wanted to ask you something.” Sans’ white pupils disappeared. ”have you ever heard of a talking flower?”

”Yes, I’ve heard of him.”

Sans balked. ”are you implying that a flower is a person?”

I nodded, trying to forget my emotions from earlier.

”Yeah. He’s a flower named Flowey. He followed me all through the RUINS, and I wouldn’t be entirely shocked if he’s followed me out here. As soon as I fell, he tried to lure me into running into his bullets without much success. I can tell he’s done crueler things in the past, just by his reaction to me dodging his magic. In fact, he’s probably tried to take SOULS for himself before. Not a very nice or stable guy, if you ask me…”

The skeleton blinked twice, dropping the fragments of his wet burger. ”and I thought it was an echo flower. You haven’t gotten there, so I wasn’t sure you’d know of ‘em, but if you say something to them, they’ll repeat it over and over...”

”Okay. What about it?”

”what about it? Well, papyrus told me something interesting the other day. Sometimes, when no one else is around… a flower appears, and whispers things to him.

”flattery…

”advice…

”encouragement…

…

”…predictions.

”weird, huh? I used to think someone must be using an echo flower to play a trick on him. Now you’re saying there’s a person that’s a flower? That can be talking to him directly? That’s just plain creepy. Please Keep an eye out for him, ok?”

”Yeah, I’ll look out for him if I can. I mean, I can’t exactly watch when I’m trying not to die, but I’ll do my best.”

”I appreciate it. Thanks.”

Sans took my hand and squeezed it gently as he said this. It seemed out of character. Just as quickly as he’d done it, he’d let go and jumped up from his barstool (or rather, jumped down – he wasn’t very tall.) and turned for the door.

”oh, by the way… I’m flat broke. Can you foot the bill? It’s just 10000G.

”It most certainly is not, you charlatan.” I laughed, getting up to follow him. ”I’m sure I can afford it, just let me get my wallet-“

”I was just kidding. Grillby, put it on my tab.

Sans waved to the hotman, who shook his head dismissively but wthen waved him out the door. I waved back at Grillby, who as always said nothing, but waved back to me anyway.

I stood, watching Sans idle in the doorway, raising an eyebrow at his hesitation.

”by the way… be careful. If you’ve had any signs of magic before, you could get more as you grow older. And magic isn’t supposed to be all that healthy to humans… for a multitude of reasons.”

”I will. I sw- swear to be careful with what I have.”

Sans turned to look at me, pupils gone again. ”and what do you have?”

I shook my head. Sans sighed, looking down. When he finally looked at me again, his pupils were back and he shrugged.

”ehh, alright then. See ya around, kiddo.”

I sat back down, waiting for Sans to leave. I didn’t hear him go, and woke up at the bar again. rolling my eyes, I sat up, grabbing my backpack, when Grillby touched my arm. Instinctively, I flinched, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“you’re a magic person?” he signed. I barely made out the signs from my rusty high school education, but I nodded.

“Yes.”

“Humans have been like you before, you’ll be fine.” He rubbed my head, putting a hot chocolate in a to-go cup in front of me before continuing to run the bar. I smiled at his back, picking up the drink and leaving some gold on the bar in front of me before leaving.

Chapter Text

I sat on a log out in the forest surrounding Snowdin, away from curious eyes and ears. Sipping my hot chocolate, I hummed to myself - or rather, to myself and Chara. It took a few minutes for her to get impatient with me.

"Sooo... are you going to explain what just happened, or are you going to be cryptic like that comédienne?" She folded her arms, staring holes into my half-closed eyes. I sighed loudly.

"It's... it's not exactly... something I have an easy time explaining, Chara. Not even my own mother knew. The only person in the world I felt comfortable telling was my big brother, and I shared everything with him. When I was really young, I used to promise my family that if I ever got superpowers I'd tell them, but... it's totally different, seeing the task in reality. You suddenly wonder how much it'll change their worldview, what they'll do, if they'll fear you... it's..." I made an exasperated noise. "You know?"

"Superpowers? You can do real magic?" Chara's eyes lit up.

I frowned, taking a long sip of cocoa. "...That's all you got from my vulnerable speach?"

"I don't... I don't like using it. I-"

"Why didn't you tell maman, then?" Chara perked up. "She could've taught you to use it and stuff!"

"It's, uh, not all that special. I'm not sure if I can even do dama-"

"I'm so jealous, Grace. I wish I could've had magic to play with Asr-"

"N O ."

I stood, letting my chocolate fall to the ground. Chara fell backwards in shock.

"...Grace...?"

"You can't understand how this feels." I turned around. I didn't want her to see... the burning. "Spending You spend every moment wondering if you're doing enough - whether that's taking responsibility for your power, or keeping it in check. I'm not a kind-hearted monster, I'm a hormone-fueled, angry, spiteful human. I'm not - I wasn't ready for power like this when I was sixteen, and having no one at all who can relate or teach or help me with it... that doesn't help at all! All I can do is try to keep it contained and secret until I'm all alone!
"That's the thing, Chara! I'm already alone!
"...
"I had the power to save them, Chara. I know it. My arrogance cost me my whole life, and you-" I turned to face her, tears stinging my eyes and blurring my vision. "You're jealous? Of me? You want to play with what's become a symbol of my faliure at being responsible for myself!"

I knew I was going too far. Chara didn't deserve me yelling at her. She'd never understand me if I refused to be direct. I knew. But I couldn't care.

...

Why was Chara...

blue?

She wasn't transluscent anymore. I stumbled back, suddenly realizing what I'd done. I hadn't noticed my outstretched arm before, but now I could feel the magic pouring through my arteries. My fingers were glowing blue, and I could feel a weight in my hand that you couldn't see. Chara was squirming - I could feel it shaking the bond to my hand - and she began to shiver. There was some spurts of power all around me, connected, but I couldn't make myself look at them. All I saw was little flecks of yellow in the corners of my eyes.

"Aïe! It's heavy in... where?" Chara vainly tried to grab her own SOUL. "The air... it's so cold... Grace, don't let go!"

I stared blankly.

Suddenly realizing what was happening, I threw her into the snow, attempting to let go.

"Grace!" Chara complained, floating towards me.

I heaved dryly towards the ground, holding onto a nearby tree and attempting to keep from actually puking (since all that'd be left would be stomach acid, since monster food doesn't make it to the stomach.). Chara fused with me a little, attempting to calm me down.

"It's okay, you're okay. nothing happened to me. see?" she held her arms out. It seemed, on the surface, to be a pure show of support, but the possession gave me a look at her true intentions.

"Please... please don't... I can't do that again."

Chara pushed my head jokingly. "Come on, I'm sorry I pushed you into it. But nothing bad happened! You did blue gravity magic, that's so cool! I could feel the snow on my face, the cold wind, the smell of Snowdin - I could even feel the weight of your SOUL on mine!" Chara grabbed my hands, pleading eyes in my face. "I FELT things, Grace. Please try again, won't you?!"

I took my hands back gingerly, clasping them to my chest. "You do realize that if I made the wrong move, my making you touchable means you can be HURT too, right? I could've HURT you. I don't know what I would do if you dissapeared, Chara."

"Mmm... well I would hope you'd 'chara' little of your time power to bring me back if that happened. But, you know what? I'm dead, Grace. I shouldn't even be on an adventure like this in the first place. But I'm here now, and if I have any chance at feeling like this is more than a dream, I'd like that. Please... let me stand in the snow again. Please..." Chara's eyes were downcast.

"I... it's... you..." I absentmindedly looked at the snow. My hot chocolate was still there, reminding me of what Grillby'd signed:

“Humans have been like you before, you’ll be fine.”

I pursed my lips. It WOULD be interesting to see what happens. Chara got on her knees, clasped hands in front of her.

"Please, partner?"

I took a deep breath, left hand over my heart. I held up my right, nodding. With a gasp, she jumped into range of my hand, giggling and dancing. I tried not to swear as I attempted to force it out on purpose again. I'ts probably terrible, not feeling anything. Isn't that a form of torture? Being shoved in a sensory depriving chamber for months? I closed my eyes, focusing on the familiar, hot sensation I'd just felt, deep in my core. That energy I'd tried so desperately to un-familiarize myself with. I moved it carefully from my SOUL and into my heart, then, as precisely as I could, I led it through arteries through my body - from my heart to my core, from my core to my arm, and, finally, from my arm to my hand. I pooled the energy into my fingertips, making them ache. I focused all my energy into turning it blue, but it stayed where it was, glowing slowly brighter yellow through my hands.

"Whoa..." Chara's eyes glittered as she looked at me. When I finally looked at her, I noticed she was looking at my eyes, not my fingers. "How come you haven't shown me your glowing yeux before?"

I bit my cheek, trying to split my concentration. "My eyes... always... do this... I just tend... to close my eyes... when I'm thinking..."

"So that's why I didn't see them. They're so pretty... your eyes were blue before, but now your irises are glowing yellow... your sclérotique are black though..."

"Uh... yeah..."

I was always a little self conscious about my eyes when I did magic. Even when I showed my brother my powers, I'd attempted to keep my eyes hidden - it's kind of creepy without the context I know now. Not to mention trying to ignore my guilty feelings, trying to use it now. In spite of my concerns, Chara watched them with delighted curiosity.

I furrowed my brows. The magic wasn't changing color.

"Ugh, I wish I knew what the gimmick was to this..."

"Maybe if you actually touched my SOUL with it? It was really heavy last time."

"Hmm... okay. maybe that's the trick." I pulled the magic out of my fingers, staring intensely at it as I led it through the air towards my incorporeal friend. Once it was linked to her SOUL, the tine pulled taut and hard, like I was holding her up on a pole attached to my wrist.

"Ah, you did it! I can feel i- IT'S SO COLD" Chara suddenly yelped, nearly breaking my concentration.

"Hey, you're making me lose focus! Do you want me to drop you?" I exclaimed, shaking her in the air in frustration and for emphasis. I put her down, smirking a little as she flinched at the snow on her ankles.

“Aie! You did that on purpose, didn’t you?!”

I frowned. "Of course. That's what you get for pushing me." I couldn't help but laugh a bit as she attempted to walk on her own, but she had a hard time walking away from my point of reference. She could take only a single step out of my placed spot before being shoved backwards.

"It is gravity magic, technically. Al- he had a hard time messing with it too."

"Oh, why can't I just be free?" Chara sat in the snow with a huff - but squealed as the snow froze her butt for the first time in probably years.

"Because then I'd be alone, and that probably wouldn't be very good, I'm sure you can tell."

"Well... yes. But in spite of that... I'm sure you'd LIKE more privacy." Chara sat gingerly in the snow and began writing something in it that I couldn't see from my angle. "I know we've been trying very hard to keep the peace, what with us sharing every waking moment together. Or rather, YOUR woken moments." She smirked at that before continuing. "But I also get the impression you miss being alone a lot... or would like to be alone with some of the people we've met. That's why I can be so quiet, sometimes - reminds me of... nevermind. I don't know... you've been so quiet with ME lately. You're meeting a lot of new people, and I'm sure you'd like time to think quietly between things, especially since we've been butting heads so often on such heavy subjects..."

She didn't look at me the whole time she was talking, like she was sorting through her thoughts on the spot. She probably was, seeing as we'd never been apart besides when I'm asleep - and she'd have to be quiet then. I stood, focusing on keeping her in the same spot as I placed a hand on her shoulder. When I made it there, I saw what she'd been making in the snow.

It looked like two children playing - herself and a goat monster. As soon as she realized I'd been looking, she scuffed it out with the heel of her hand. As powder began to fall, she rubbed her hands together for warmth.

"I always do this. I'm just not made to be around people." Chara muttered under her breath. Perhaps the only reason I heard it was because I was connected to her SOUL, but I'm glad I did. Chara spoke aloud now, holding my hand on her shoulder. "Why did I push you this? You desperately didn't want to. It hurts you, I can see you're trying not to cry. I'm so insensiti-"

I hugged her.

"If anyone's insensitive, it's me! I cry and carry on when anything to do with my family comes up, just because I feel responsible for... anyway," I rubbed her hair, ignoring the odd sensation as the magic passed back through my hand into her. "You're not alone. We probably butt heads so much because we're so similar, haha."

"The same?" Chara asked, pushing me away. I smiled sadly at the irony.

"Of course. We try to make friends with people, with each other, say jokes and puns, and otherwise distract ourselves from our immense guilty feelings. We’re brittle as heck and argue with each other on moral or personal investment grounds. Pain tolerance. Impertinence. Fake confidence. We have all these things in droves, and in spite of our self hatred – we pretend to be important. We… I want to be important. Even if I don’t deserve it or act like I need it. I want to be alone because facing others is exhausting for a number of reasons: on one side, because people are impossible to understand, and the other, it feels like everyone can see my sins… WRITTEN on my face, because I don’t know how to read myself. Do you understand?”

Chara had nodded the whole time until I began talking in the first person. She raised an eyebrow.

"I've been meaning to ask... why do you feel so strongly that it's your fault when you told maman and I that you weren't there for it?"

"That's because... I-" I started.

Sharp pain raced through my veins, forcefully pulling my magic from the air. I screamed, grabbing my arm instinctually as the hot magic dissolved into a burning sensation, heating my arm until it began to steam in the falling snow. The flame pooled through my careful paths, searing it's way through my body into my SOUL. Pain in your body is one thing, but pain in your SOUL is... different. It's like hearing grief, or tasting pain. It's indescribable, but recognizable.

...

...

I woke up. I was face first in the snow, nose numb. Piles of it were forming on my body from the storm that had been a trickle before. I slowly moved my head to the side, where I saw my cold chocolate cup in front of me. What was I sensing?

Yelling?

"G....! Gra.... for the love of the angel wake up! You're getting too cold, wake up! No one can hear me to save you, please!"

Who knew my name? Who was this voice...?

Why did it...

Have a French accent?

"Ghmmgnh..." I managed to make some sort of sound, my brain was so fuzzy. I tried to wake up. "Who"ssss stheeree?"

“Merde! Grâce, réveille-toi ! Je ne peux pas t'aider, tu dois t'aider toi-même!”

"Wha...?"

I could feel her touch my sore SOUL, making it tingle like a new scar. She shook me, using my body to turn me towards the sky. It wasn’t any darker, besides more clouds, but it felt like it was late. I blinked slowly, raising my unhurt arm to block the snow from landing in my eyes.

"Oh Dieu merci, you're finally awake." Chara paced in the air above me. Grabbing my SOUL in one hand, she used the other to pull me into a sitting position from my shirt. Then she slapped me.

"Hey, what the heck?!?!" I exclaimed, rubbing my cheek.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were awake for real. You need to get to the inn, right now! Or scream, or something! For what matters, you're all alone out here!"

I nodded weakly, still rubbing my cheek. As I began to push myself up, I winced as I put pressure on my right arm. Something wasn't quite right with it. Once I was standing, I decided to check my stats.

>♥ Item
Stat
Cell
Grace
LV 1
HP 12/28
AT 0(12) EXP: 0
DF 0(10) NEXT: 10
WEAPON: Grace Knife
ARMOR: Hand Knit Sweater
GOLD: 211

”hmm…”

♥Spider Donut
Spider Donut
Cinnamon Bun
Cinnamon Bun
Monster Candy
Pocky
Stick
Biscuit and Gravy

"Okay th-the-then." My teeth were chattering like I'd never felt before. I couldn't make them stop. "N-now, th-th-this-!"

I weakly picked up my backpack, slinging it over my left shoulder. I noticed Chara's eyes on me as she flew in panicked circles around my head, searching for anyone who might be in the area at this forsaken hour.

I was so tired.

Exhausted.

My fingers ached. My ears ached. My nose ached. I couldn't feel my toes, and they felt stiff in my boots. My chest was really cold from taking the brunt of my weight in the snow. My core was freezing, like I'd never known a warm place. Chara stared with furrowed brows, biting her nails.

"I could try possessing you? Together we might be able to make it to safety." Chara offered.

I shook my head. "n-n-n-no, I w-w-w-want to g-g-et there by m-m-m-myself. I c-can do-o it. Unless... I g-g-guess I c-c-c-c-ould d-die. Th-that would b-be fassssster."

Chara gasped, shaking her head vigorously. I smirked weakly at her attempt to protect me. Gesturing for me to follow, Chara was turned around when I let myself flinch at the cold.

We spent the next while in mostly silence, with an occasional 'boo' from Chara to keep me awake. There were many flakes in the air, and the darkness of the lack of sunlight peeking through the mountain made it incredibly hard to see I tripped, landing face first in the snow again as my right arm was out of commission.

I was facing the sky. Snow was landing on my face, and my limbs felt like heavy logs. It was like being in an iron maiden full of needles instead of spikes.

We both said nothing as I stood on my own, cursing silently. I'd always preferred the cold, so the thought of dying to it now was like a slap in the face. I refused.

Darkness...

"Grace, you're going to be alright! Don't lose hope! It can't end now. Stay determined..."

Whose voice was that?

Muttering...

"S...a-n...s...?

I barely got the word out when I heard something.

*crunch... crunch... crunch...*

The distant crunch of footfalls.

It stopped. Suddenly, there was a sound I'd never heard before. It didn't really feel like how sounds are supposed to work. It was less like the air had been pushed by other air and more like...if a section of air was suddenly much denser than it was before, like air was swapped or shoved out of the way. I couldn't comprehend it, but I couldn't open my eyes to check, either.

What felt like arms picked me up. They weren't warm, but neither was I so there wasn't any difference.

"you can't be so reckless, kiddo. you're lucky i don't really sleep at night, otherwise..."

I could hear the voice as it rumbled next to my ear. I barely pondered where it came from, before passing out.

Chapter Text

I woke on my side, staring at my emaciated arm. Purple veins stared back at me. It was almost cartoonish, and I laughed – which made my SOUL ache again. Rolling my eyes, I turned over to see where I’d ended up. It was…

”A… racecar bed…?”

It looked sort of like a fourteen year old’s dream room. Fire carpet, action figures, Advanced Puzzle Construction for Critical Minds… wait…

”Must be Papyrus’ room, huh?”

I sat up, resting on my left arm. The covers were nice and thick, but the making of the bed suggested it wasn’t used much.

”Huh… like big brother, like little brother huh. I wonder where they are? Why did Papyrus let me take his bed without capturing me?”

“I can answer that.” Chara stuck her head down through the ceiling, revealing herself.

”Oh, of course.” I said with a yawn.

“So Sans apparently takes random walks through the forest at 3 am for no reason, and he heard you say his name as you almost passed out. He brought you here and told Papyrus what happened. Like, exactly what happened from his perspective. Papyrus was genuinely freaking out – you should have seen it, him grabbing different blankets and hot cocoa and whatnot to try and revive you. He really freaked about your arm – said something about… ‘overdoing’? ‘Overdrive’? ‘Over workout’?”

”Overwork? Maybe this is something monsters feel when they first start doing magic or something like that.”

“I hope so…”

Just as she said that, the door burst open. Therin stood the Great Papyrus, holding a plate of tastefully unhealthy looking pancakes.

”good morning, human! Are you feeling better today? You gave everyone a big scare – I know I was furious! ! ! – but I’m glad to see you awake after 12 hours of sleep. Humans must be strong, to be able to withstand such cold when they have skin!

As he set up a breakfast in bed tray, I noted that his hands shaking slightly.

”I’m- I’m okay now, Paps. Well, all except for-“

I gestured at my wounded arm. Papyrus stopped setting up food to scrutinize it. His hands weren’t in gloves anymore, so I got a good look at them. They were strong, I could tell, and he carried a sort of elegance that only someone who learned to fight or dance could. He stared at my veins curiously.

”I had a feeling something like this was happening.”

Papyrus rubbed my arm, gently. It hurt a little at first, but that dissolved into relief as whatever it was shifted into the open parts of my veins and was taken back to the heart, where the blood could be sent out to be cleaned. I wondered how a monster without flesh knew about such an anatomical thing.

”Oh thank goodness…” I sighed, feeling my body relax as the pain subsided. Papyrus put a hand to my forehead, and I cocked a brow. ”Can you even feel that?”

”Well, it’s not like I have no sensations of temperature! Why do you think I wear this scarf?”

I thought a moment.

”Coolness factor?”

”well, yes, that is part of it I suppose. But otherwise, I do in fact get cold! ! ! . . .just not very easily.” Papyrus put the plate of pancakes on my tray, patting it before turning to sit at his computer desk. There was a moment of silence as I dug into the food, Papyrus watching. It didn’t feel all that awkward for some reason I couldn’t put my finger on. Maybe his genuine concern? I turned to him, cocking my head to the side.

”What’s up? You don’t need to watch me so carefully, I’m not going anywhere with this arm –“ I raised my arm – ”And I’m sure you have work to do. I suddenly remembered what the bear outside of Grillby’s had said about the ‘politics’ of Snowdin, and how, even though Papyrus wasn’t yet a royal guard, he probably had an order to warn others if a human came through, since he was a sentry “Have you told the fish lady about my appearance?”

Papyrus’ eye lights disappeared (‘closing his eyes’?), and he thought for a moment before they returned. ”Well… you are the priority of my mission! I can’t just let you stay hurt like that! It wouldn’t be a fair fight! ! !” The younger skeleton scrutinized me. ”In fact, what happened that made you pass out in the middle of the forest, anyway? You’re fairly strong, I can tell, and it doesn’t seem like you would wander around like that for no reason…”

I put down my fork. Darn innocent, goodhearted people. They always notice things too easily…I looked down. ”Did… Sans tell you what we discovered yesterday?” I thought being vague was best. You never know what big brothers won’t tell their siblings.

”Sans doesn’t always tell me all that much, but this time he did! ! ! Which is why I, the great papyrus, wasn’t surprised at all when I heard you speak in a different font just now! you are in perfect hands, ms. Grace not-quite-a-skeleton! This wound on your arm is not permanent, do not worry for I can heal it! And if you ever need the great papyrus, here is my phone number!”

His tune changed drastically once he got stuck on the subject of himself again. Somehow, he managed to convince me he was both selfless and self important – as I’d come to discover earlier, but it really was a different thing to see it in action. Or perhaps he was unnerved by the thought of a part monster. I knew I was, a little. Papyrus got up and handed me his phone. It seemed a lot like an early 90’s cell phone – a block of plastic and bits of metal, with an antennae popping out of it. It had tons of stickers on it though, with the majority being of variations of the phrase ‘cool boy’ ‘jog boy’ or ‘great boy’. Others were muscly arms, plates of spaghetti, and a singular hot dog. I put his number in my phone, and before I could put mine in his, he took it back, grinning.

”yes, perfect! Now we can communicate with each other! But, human, what sort of phone is that?”

He was pointing at my own smartphone. It was a touchscreen, which I realized he’d probably never seen before.

”Oh, this? This is a smartphone. It can take calls, text, and connect to the internet. Plus, it can play music!”

”wowie!”

I turned it on. It was nearing death, but luckily I’d brought my charger with me on this adventure. Using my left arm to plug it into an empty socket near the bed, I turned on “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi (since it was the coolest song I could think of that didn’t have any badmouthing in it.). Papyrus’ sockets went wide in amazement – he picked up my phone and held the speaker side to his ear, smiling and dancing to the beat. He mimed guitar playing and laughed as he handed it back to me.

”that’s so cool, human!” he sat on the bed next to me, bobbing his head to the beat of the new song (Carry on Wayward Son). ”I wish we could do this with phones down here, not just mp3s. I like your music!”

I grinned, nodding. ”Yeah, rock music is super cool. It used to be a little controversial, though.”

”really? But it’s so rad! Why?”

”Because adults at the time thought it would make their kids do bad things, like drugs or conform to specific politics. Sure, there were some rock bands that did do or sing about those things, but for most people rock music was just a way of expressing deep-rooted feelings. It started in the fourties, about eighty years ago or more – that’s probably why you haven’t heard much of it before. Plus, songs like this one are uplifting and about surviving through hardships in spite of temptation and pain. It’s really interesting!” and relatable…

”wowie, Grace. Do humans do that often? Attack each other for using cool music? Must be because they haven’t heard it or because they’re jealous! What other music do you have?”

I raised an eyebrow. ”Oh yeah, all the time. But, before that, isn’t there something you’re forgetting, Papyrus?”

”no??? I don’t think so???”

I sighed, taking my last bite and gently pushing the tray away from my body so I could curl up. I had to hold my legs with my left hand mostly.

”Capturing me? I don’t want you to stop being my friend, but isn’t that your job, sentry? You probably can’t afford to take care of me this way, right?”

Papyrus stood and began pacing the floor, eyes closed. Just as it seemed he was making a decision, Sans came through the door.

”sup, kiddo. how you holding up?” he said as he closed the door and approached my bed, silently asking for my arm. I obliged, noticing how the veins were now a reddish pink, at least.

”Good. Just showing Paps a bit of human music and the like, mostly. Oh, and asking him why he’s so okay with helping me when he should be capturing me, haha. …Trying to ignore how ‘bone-tired’ I am...”

Sans grinned at me slightly, but his face went back to normal as he checked out my condition. All the same things Papyrus did, except he checked my eyes and legs, too. I seemed to pass his check, as he gestured Papyrus over to give me a heal. My arm seemed to be much better, now only bearing a net of thin, light scars over where my veins lay underneath the skin. I could put my hand in a reasonable fist again, and once we were done, I practiced picking up the sheets.

”Wowie, thank you guys so much!”

Papyrus beamed. ”but of course! ! ! the great papyrus had to do it. How else would we have a fair fight, human??? Now, I’m going to make my report to Undyne today, and you’d better fight me this time!” He patted my head before rushing through the door like a flood, probably back to the place I knew he probably spent every day since I got here – the edge of town towards Waterfall.

I rubbed the raised scar lines my arm absentmindedly, stopping to turn off the music. All of a sudden, I noticed Sans was still here; I blinked, looking up at him. He was staring at the floor – or he would be, if he had his pupils glowing.

I walked over to him to hold his shoulder. ”What’s wrong, Sans?”

He sighed, gently removing my hand from his shoulder. ”would this have happened if you hadn’t learned your heritage, grace?”

”Probably n– are you trying to somehow spin this into being your fault, Sans? Because it’s not, you know. I’m the one who went out to experiment and got all worn out without telling anyone phy- where I was going. I’m the moron, Sans. Not you.”

”Yeah, but I’m supposed to keep an eye on you. I got lazy and I… anyway, I shoulda warned you about magic burnout. You coulda died back there, kid. of course youd play with magic once you learned you might have some, and of course you wouldn’t know anything about it. Ugh. I’m the older brother here, you know? I should be-“

”-You see me as a younger sister?” I interrupted, smirking. I knew the thought should make me sad, but…

”Uhhhh…. No no no I meant papyrus. I have brotherly instincts, you know?”

Me and Chara laughed. ”that still leaves you having older brother thoughts for me, you know. When did this happen?” I teased, smirking and slapping his back (making my hand sting).

Sans sighed. ”I knew I shouldn’t have told you. I dunno, somewhere between nice cream and now, I guess?”

I continued chuckling. ”And-and how do we know you’re the older brother? I *am* nineteen, you know?”

Sans joined in the laughing then, holding up a finger and waggling it. ”Hey now, I’m a true monster. I could be over 100 for all you know, young lady!”

I squinted my eyes at him. ”How old are you, then?”

Sans gulped, pulling his collar away from his neck as if he ever felt too hot when he didn’t have skin somehow.

”Uhh…2… 23…”

I raised my hands in defeat. ”Fine, fine. You’re the eldest sibling, bro. …By the bye, when am I no longer welcome and have to get outta your house? Or can I play with Papyrus’ action figures for the next five hours?”

Sans ducked out from my grip and stood in front of the massive pirate flag on the wall, hands in his pockets. He sighed, rubbing the back of his skull.

”nah, im not kicking you out. Wouldn’t recommend staying long, though – at least, not without warning papyrus first. Though, I’m sure he’s already called Undyne at this point, so theres not really a point unless you could go back in time. The whole underground’ll be looking for you soon… I wish you could just stay here with us… be… ne-never mind.”

I stood, walking to stand beside him, considering his ramble. It was a little too hard to ignore the discrepancy of our heights, standing next to each other. I laughed a little.

”what are you laughing at?”

”It’s… a little in spite of myself. I wanna tell you something, Sans. I’m mostly going through the underground to explore. I didn’t initially leave the RUINS to escape anything, since I… don’t… have anywhere to go. At least, here, I’ve found people who care. The lady in the RUINS, she’s like an aunt to me. You two are a lot like my brothers. The bunnies mother me. I’ve never had so much family before I… lost mine. “I had two brothers, exactly like you, growing up. There was my older brother, who was smart and kind, he wanted to be an astronaut – and he was shorter than me, too. Then there was my younger brother, who was sweet, energetic, a little bit annoying and self-centered, but incredibly lovable. He was also shorter than me though, so there’s where the comparison dies, haha.”

It was like I was in a trance – for some reason, I could find the words easily, and use them.

”there was a time we were all together, in harmony, because we loved each other and were safe under the wing of our parents. Then me and my big brother left for college, and left our younger brother behind. The family got together, and I… wasn’t… and…”

I couldn’t continue. I closed my eyes, trying not to think about what I’d just admitted.

”I…“

”you don’t have to. I understand. My dad vanished long ago. I just wish I knew where, or if he’s… but yeah. I wish you could stay, too, but I think Paps just ruined that for us, heheh. If only… nah.”

I smiled at him, rubbing his back before I ran to the door.

”It’s okay. Besides, I’ve been in one place for too long now. I need to get going or I’ll be in you guys’ way – I’ll just come visit all the time or …something. It’s fine.” Opening the door with my left, I flexed my right arm: no pain! ”And now, thanks to you guys, I might have a shot! Thanks for treating the symptoms of my foolishness, haha. See you around.”

I didn’t wait for his reaction.

<3 <3 <3

At the end of town, there was a constant whiteout blizzard. It wasn’t necessarily aggressive, but instead was tranquil and foggy. Chara led me through it, claiming she could see what appeared to be a light shining through the gloom. After a few minutes of trudging, I finally saw Papyrus’ red-orange scarf and boots glowing against the white.
There was a rhythmic sound I couldn’t quite place until I got closer. I realized it was the sound of heavy boots pacing in the snow, keeping excellent time, actually. Papyrus gave a start at my approach, but quickly regained composure, coughing animatedly into his clenched fist.

”Human.”

He folded his arms, staring off in a way that seemed like he was attempting not to look anywhere in my general direction.

”Allow me to tell you about some complex feelings. Feelings like… the joy of finding another pasta lover.
“the admiration for another’s puzzle-solving skills.
“the desire to have a cool, smart person think you are cool.” as he spoke, he slowly began looking at me, but once he met my eyes, he immediately stared at the ground, smiling all the while.

”these feelings… they must be what you are feeling right now! ! !” boldly planting his hands on his hips and feet at his side, Papyrus grinned widely at me, laughing awkwardly a little as he continued. ”I can hardly imagine what it must be like to feel that way. After all, I am very great. I don’t ever wonder what having lots of friends is like. I pity you…
“lonely human…”

I winced. Papyrus, noticing, winked at me.

”worry not! ! ! you shall be lonely no longer! I, the great Papyrus, will be your. . . “. . . “No… “no, this is all wrong! I can’t be your friend ! ! ! you are a human! I must capture you! ! ! then, I can fulfill my lifelong dream! ! ! “Powerful! “popular! “prestigious! ! ! “that’s Papyrus! ! ! “The newest member. . . “of the royal guard!”

Chapter Text

"Do we have to fight, Papyrus? I'm not here to do that..."

Papyrus sighed. "so you won't fight... then, let's see if you can handle my fabled 'blue attack!"

Suddenly, I was surrounded by blue bones. They spun, coming for me at even intervals.

"Remember what Sans said! Don't move!" Chara danced around me, pointing out bones as they flew towards me so I knew when to stay still.

"Uh, yeah, I'm staying still. I'm not a-"

Suddenly, the blue bones stopped - my SOUL was back to yellow, too. I sighed in relief and turned back to Papyrus.

"I'm not an idio-" Before I could finish, a white bone no higher than my shin came barrelling at me, sweeping my leg and breaking the skin. Papyrus winced, but recovered.

"You're blue now. th-that's my attack!" Papyrus laughed nervously before sending out some more non-blue bones."Behold!"

I dodged these just fine, but the next ones... not so much. "how high can you jump?" Papy asked... it wasn't very high.

As I jumped, I kept catching my feet on the tops of the bones – losing HP in the process.

"It's not like I can hold an arrow key to make my jumps higher! Jeez, Pap!" I complained as more bones hurled at head height. I dodged some by going to the side, but still got hit by one. At a not-so-chill 08/28 HP, I began to cry a little to myself.

"Grace? The assaisonnement words say he is... 'trying to keep it cool'? What does that mean??" Chara said, peering at the invisible text as I swerved away from a bone attack.

"YEAH! DON'T MAKE ME USE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!"

I whispered under my breath what Chara'd read as I held my side. Chara’s eyes went wide as she continued. "OHH. He is trying to stay calm? Does that mean he doesn't really WANT to hurt you?". I gasped, turning my head towards her abruptly - but immediately got hit with almost four attacks in succession. Bruised and with a bleeding nose, I looked up at the sweet face of this young skeleton with pleading. I didn't want to die again. To go to that dark place, with that unidentifiable but somehow familiar voice waiting for me. Wait what was I thinking of? With a grimace, Papyrus walked up to me and chopped me in the neck. Before I blacked out, I saw him smile sadly - and beyond my closed eyelids, I heard him say,

"You're too weak. I was easily able to capture you.. I will now send you to the capture zone. Or as sans calls it... our garage??? You're in-"

I didn't really hear anything else after that. Other than maybe laughter?

Rustling. A pair of boney arms? Green light, and then... relief.

Darkness. Calming, and serene… for once. A building appeared. We were going in it. All the way up to the-

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

I screamed, scaring the dog sleeping nearby, who dashed out. I gasped for air, holding the back of my neck as I did so. Blinking, I willed my eyes to refocus, and once they were almost clear, I shifted to a kneeling position. "Okay, deep breaths." I breathed a slow singer's breath, letting the air deep into my belly, and held it for a couple seconds, letting it out slowly. After doing this three times, I finally looked up at Chara...

She was backed up into a corner, eyes wide as she stared at me. She was shaking.

"Oh Chara it's all-"

"It is NOT all right at all, and you know it. What was that? I've never seen you scream and pleurer like that! What happened? What did you see?" Chara scolded as she floated over to me, slowly going from terrified to 'maman' as she continued.

"I'm sorry I just... dreamed that I fell off a skyscraper. Yeah, it's nothing too serious." I waved my hand dismissively, rubbing my neck.

"What's a skyscraper? ...Never mind."

She scowled, staring me directly in the eyes. I looked away, sweating.

"You always keep the serious stuff from me, why do I even bother..." Chara gestured around, pursing her lips. "Look where we are! It's the skeleton brothers'.. 'garage', I think they called it?" The room was obviously used to house a pretty pampered dog. Looking around, I realized I was lying on a very small dog bed - well, just barely enough to hold me like a bean bag. A bone squeaky toy, dog bowl, and a new-looking note were scattered around me. I stood, feeling the familiar sensation of recently-healed cuts and scrapes all around my body.

"He even got the cut I missed from the lovey dovey dog couple over there -"

I reached to rub the back of my shoulder, uncomfortable with the strange sensation of millions of tiny strings being resealed together.

Sighing, I leaned over to pick up the most conspicuous new addition to the place (besides myself and my ghost friend). The letter was signed, but I really didn't need that to know it was from Papyrus.

Sorry, I have to lock you in the guest room until Undyne arrives. feel free to make yourself at home! ! ! refreshments and accomodations have been provided. -nyehfully yours, papyrus

Chara smiled. "He's somehow very easy... and very difficult to read."

I smirked back. "Maybe he's a little like me - pain is temporary, so why wallow in it?" I scratched my arm, thinking. "Don't compare yourself to normal people, Grace. You're crazy and take pain like a madwoman. Papyrus is... sweet? But he can fight very well. And he isn't afraid to do it, either... like he knows exactly what he's doing."

She gasped. "Grace... do you think he is hitting you with very specific points of damage? Is he... that good?"

"..."

I stared at the letter, hands starting to shake but stopping just as fast. Looking up, I closed my eyes and sighed. "I think this means the opposite of what we were afraid of."

"What?"

"This means he's NOT trying to hurt me. He's paying extra close attention to me so he DOESN'T kill me. Maybe... he wants to keep me alive? Why would he do that though?"

"Who knows... maybe it's his morals? Come on, Grace. This doesn't take a lot of thought."

I sighed. "We can only hope. Welp, guess it's time to go.”

Chara raised an eyebrow, confused.

“I need some lunch if I'm going to fight again... both for my health, AND my sanity."

<3 <3 <3

As I opened the doors to Grillby's, I was stunned to find it eerily empty. Behind the bar, Grillby was sanitizing cups by basically super-heating them and then wiping the ashes off with a chilled towel. Fighting my urge to laugh at the sight of it - since that's probably the only way a fire elemental can wash dishes - I casually sat on a bar stool.

"Pour me a cold one, 'G." I joked, winking at his warm chuckle. Something told me he rolled his eyes jokingly and he pointed at a sign that read 'ID Please.' "Just some hot chocolate, then. And whatever food you recommend from the menu?"

Grillby nodded and began to prepare my lunch. I leaned my head in my hand, using my other to trace the lines in the wood. "Hey Grillby?"

The bartender stopped, turning to acknowledge me.

"...What do you think of Papyrus?"

He moved his shoulders as if he were sighing. Placing the hot chocolate and a cordon bleu in front of me, he ducked behind the counter and came back with a notepad and pencil. Walking around the counter, he sat gracefully on the stool next to me and began to write.

'i think he's kindhearted and strong, but a bit naive. he does his best at everything he does, and he's actually quite proficient at fighting and puzzles - but he really couldn't hurt a'

He stopped writing suddenly, staring at me. Looking at myself, I suddenly realized I may have been healed by Papyrus - but bloodstains don't just go away. I rubbed at one on my arm without thinking, causing it to spread a little.

"So that explains the random chilliness I was feeling outside... hahaha..."

Grillby held a hand out, asking for mine. When I let him, he carefully pulled up my sleeve. At first, seeing no open wounds, he seemed to relax - but he surprised me by holding my arm close to his face. It kinda burned, like putting your foot too close to a space heater.

"Ouch, Grillby, what's going on...?"

He took up his pen.

'they look sort of familiar to me. scars from battle, right?'

He pointed at the line of scars that came from magical overwork - still a bit pinker than other ones - and a burn scar that went up my shoulder. It was a little small, so I hadn't noticed it yet.

"Oh... yeah. Those. Um... yeah. You know, right...? It's obvious, huh?"

He let go, grabbing his pencil. 'some of those look old, even with monster healing.'

I bit my lip. "I fell down into the mountain, you know. It-"

Grillby tapped the page once, and wrote. 'no, older than that.'
He pointed at a spot on my hand. Averting my gaze, I shut my eyes tightly. Stings. I stared at the page intently, avoiding his attention.

'see? you know what i mean. - he wrote, tilting his head at me. I huffed. -i worked with a lot of humans, a long time ago. i was a slave. they would capture us fire monsters to use in royal saunas, to heal people, and be forges. well, any they could get their hands on. i was lucky to escape my masters around the middle of the war, but i barely managed that.'

He let out a rumble not unlike a sigh, and unbuttoned three buttons of his white shirt. Just under his 'clavicle,' there was a large crack in his flame wall, leading to a coal-like center. His 'body' was fuel - not unlike humans, I supposed. Instinctively I reached out with my left hand to feel it, but it burned me! Grillby sparked worriedly, grabbing a chilled towel from behind the counter to hold against my finger. I held it tightly to the burn, brows furrowed at my own stupidity.

"I'm sorry, that was really... I'm sorry." My throat was tight.

The barkeeper tilted his head and stared at my wincing with (barely visible) furrowed brows.

…!

"What the-" Grillby was burning green...!

He clasped my hand, burning just a little brighter - and the pain was gone.

Removing the towel, my eyes grew wide as I recognized that Grilbz had just healed me, leaving no scar or anything behind.

'i was always good at healing magic. that's... one of the reasons humans wanted me. For about half of the war, i was a nurse for the humans. i felt so awful helping the enemy, but i also couldn't just let people die. there were many people i just couldn't'

Grillby suddenly stopped. I put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't stop. Please...?"

But what could I say?

'save them all. it's expected, in war. i know that.'

He took a deep breath.

'eventually, i became numb to the pain and suffering around me. my efforts were only that - not infallible. but effort. i did my job.'

Grillby scribbled on the page. Folding his arms, he tapped his chin with the pencil before continuing.

'one day a bunch of humans came in with a monster, demanding that i save her. it was only when id finished that i noticed she’d also been begging me for something - but to stop. she was chained up and couldn't do anything to stop me, but she may have had information the humans wanted? she actually attacked me with magic to retaliate. she wanted to die with honor.'

'why did she want death so badly? what could possibly be so vital to keep from the humans? true, i’d already given up – i believed that humans would win no matter what since they were so strong they could keep me in control easily.'

He continued. 'after i was done, they began to drag her away. i asked the guard why they had me heal her if they were probably going to just kill her anyway?'

'he said she knew who the spy, mssr. Gaster, was, and that she’d been running to tell her king about it. since she knew where the king was to tell him – unlike the many stragglers the humans usually found sneaking around the woods – they brought her back here to see if she’d talk. i followed the guards carrying her to the quiet chamber torture chamber and didn’t understand why she looked so familiar.'

'i returned to my station to mull this new information over. then, almost an hour later, it hit me. her name was lucida sans, and i had loved her when we were teenagers until i was stolen away and destroyed. now, all enslaved fire monsters are were fed a very low stream of food and forced to do lots of work, so that we’d be vulnerable and not powerful enough to really fight back. in fact, all rooms were stone and most everything we were able to see were unflammable. suddenly, i realized. There was more than one thing left i could burn in there to regain my strength.'

”Y-your clothes?” I questioned ironically; I knew the true answer.

'the guard. you may be mostly water, but you’re not inflammable. distraught at my own callous murder (and sudden nakedness, probably), i raged, burning everything around me. i wanted to kill everyone – how dare they take something else from me right in front of my eyes? they could hurt me all they liked, but lucida? the air itself seemed to burn red as i reached the room, my smoldering ash blinding me as i tore the iron door from its hinges. i swear i couldn’t see anything, but i finally felt like a healthy fire for the first time in ages. '

'suddenly, i heard a small laugh. nobody should’ve been left alive, but lucida managed it somehow. i realized that i was naked in front of the only monster i’d ever fallen for.'

Grillby chuckled dryly, and I matched the laugh.

'when i checked her, her HP was drastically decreasing. she was dying. she was burned along with the humans. as she began to fall down, she told me who the spy was: her flamboyant brother, messr. Gaster, who would later create the barrier.'

“Wait, create the barrier? But docteur Gaster was... how could he have?”

”A name! Monsieur Gaster created the barrier? Man, I - oh, I’m sorry for interrupting.”

Grillby carefully patted my head, the smell of a couple hairs frying filling the air.

'she asked me if i could bring the news to king asgore. all i could do was nod… the humans had removed my-'

The flame scrutinized me, trying to come to a decision. I gave him a pitying look in response.

”No need to protect me…” I said. ”I’m not a sensitive sort, not even to that kind of thing. They… I’m sorry. They took your tongue, right? A tongue of fire…”

'tongue. Yes. i couldn’t even tell her i loved her. before i could even try, a human came to see what all the commotion was about. this- He pointed at his cold scar, still visible through his shirt. -was from that human’s canteen. they covered their weapon with water and went to slash at me. i was still covering lucy, so she couldn’t even try to protect me. a moment later, my dear friend had thrown a bone attack through their heart, right where they’d stabbed me to my core. as the human agonized over their wound, i turned back to see lucy smiling at me for the last time. she told me the fight wasn’t over, that monsters may be safe someday, and handed me her necklace.'

The old fire took an old iron chain from his waistcoat pocket, a coat of arms hanging from it.

'it may not have been soon enough to save us from the humans, but at least she didn’t die for nothing. i’ve had almost a thousand years to mull it over, and there’s one thing i know for sure.'

Taking my hands in his, he dulled his flames into embers so I wouldn’t be burned – exposing his coal-like core. It felt nice, like a warm sauna stone. I could feel not only the bumpiness of the rock, but also numerous lacerations, fine but still just beneath the surface. He squeezed slightly, then let go to finish his statement on the now slightly toasted paper.

'just because life is terrible, and leaves its mark on you, doesn’t mean you lay down and let it. you can always change how you want to feel about the things that are happening, and eventually, you’ll always feel that way the first or second time. both monsters and humans learn that the world isn’t fair. nobody is completely immune to life’s struggles. but that also means you’re not alone. i’m here whenever you need someone to vent to, okay? those skeleton brothers seem to like you, too. i think you can rely on them. they won’t let you get hurt for real, i promise. you can rely on them.'

'they are lucy’s nephews, after all.'

I gasped. “They are? How? I thought only boss monsters like you and the King could live forever?”

'it’s true, he was boss monster! there were many more monsters around back then, so naturally there were more boss monsters. he only passed fairly recently though, and the only one who was with him when he fell down never told anyone what happened to him.'

”Who was with him?” I could hardly keep myself from asking, but the answer only gave me more questions.

'it was papyrus gaster. nobody even knows why he was there in the lab with him, without his older brother. not that they were unsafe, of course – he was a little… obsessed? but he did his best as the late royal scientist and as a parent. his boys loved him.'

As the tense part ended, I realized I’d finished my cordon bleu. Looking down at my plate, I noted a bloodstain on my sweater. The wound was no longer there, but there remained a sign of it like a warning of times to come.

”I know he won’t really hurt me, I really do. I just wish I knew what to say to make him stop! I don’t know how, but I already care about him a lot. I don’t want to be sent away, and I also don’t want us to FIGHT. Do you have any ideas, Grillby?”

As the barkeeper pondered, I noted Chara’s silence. Her brows were knotted as she darted her eyes into every corner, perceiving nothing at all. “How would he be there, AND there…?” she seemed to whisper under her breath finally, then huffed and crossed her arms – clearly, it was too confusing to think about any longer so she just gave up.

'stand your ground.'

Grillby wrote,

'stand your ground, don’t give up. papyrus respects perseverance and bravery. he is very strong but can get tired fairly easily since he doesn’t sleep as much as sans. once you get him all worn out, he might listen to you. then, you tell him to be your friend – he doesn’t have many of those. i think he might help you, then.'

”You think that will really work?”

He shrugged.

'you might as well try. seems as likely as anything, i think. he does really want to be in the royal guard, though'

”Well, worth a shot. Much better than just hoping I can sneak past him! …Don’t worry, I know I can’t for sure.” I giggled.

Chapter Text

Grace was focused on a light decorating the town's Christmas – sorry, Giftmas – tree. It wasn’t broken, she could tell, but it was an old-fashioned bulb that needed to be twisted more. As it flickered from death, to life, and then death again, Grace scowled.

”Kind of like me, huh?”

“Huh?”

I caught Chara's gaze, then looked away so I’d stay as inconspicuous as a half breed human could. A child dashed to the tree, telling anyone who would listen that his sister had wrapped one for him this year.

”What did Grillby mean by ‘stand your ground?’ It’s not like I wasn’t desperately trying. I thought I was dying, and I... I lost, fair and square.” I mused, not really looking for a response. I itched my arm where the drying blood was still chilling me in the crisp air.

Charalotte didn’t answer me, but instead scratched her jaw (does she even feel that?), closing her eyes.

“How in the world could docteur Wingdings Gaster have created the barrier, gone back through it, and then still be friends with the king and queen? I knew him, he was very polite.” She finally looked at me, a small sadness in her eyes. “I wish I could have said goodbye. I’m so glad he had children, and that we get to know them – but I miss him. How in the world could even monsters forgive him for creating the barrier this way? I… I’m not making much sense, I know.”

I pursed my lips before suddenly having a realization.

”Maybe he created it to protect monsters? What if it’s like this; mr. Gaster creates the barrier while inside the cave with the rest of monsterkind while humans charge from the outside, and he’s able to keep them out that way but mistakenly traps monsters inside?”

“That can’t be right, docteur Gaster was not very good at big magic and the barrier only keeps things in, not out. How do you think you entered so easily?” She rolled her eyes. “They say anything can enter, but only a certain amount of SOUL power can exit.”

”Really…? Just who was-“

Kidron ran up to me then, bobbing up and down. “Did you know that my-“

As he continued his long explanation, Chara leaned over and said “We should go somewhere more private…”

Once Kidron had been satisfied with his explanation (and gone off to some other poor shmuck to do it all over again), I breathed a sigh of relief and entered the inn. I was about to go up to my room when Okami entered, holding a dishrag.

“Hm hm hm…” she was humming until she saw me.

“Holy sh- hon, you nee- need a shower. I-I-I can’t… WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU, YOUNG LADY?!” She ran to me, horrified at first but eventually deciding to be angry, and put her hands on my shoulders.

”I-“

She began pushing me to the back room, helping me out of my clothes and cursing under her breath while I was still trying to figure out what the heck was happening. I only got it when I heard “…all that blood…” as she tore my snow coat off of me. I couldn’t meet her gaze after that, but eventually she got to my shirt and I drew the line there.

”I ca-can do that one myself, thank you!” I yanked my shirt down, tears welling in my eyes. ”…sorry. This is just a lot.”

Okami’s eyes widened, and she gave a nervous laugh. “I’m sorry for invading your space, but you scared me half to death, young lady! I’ve seen blood before, and I KNOW you’ve lost a lot of it…”

”Papyrus healed me after the battle, don’t worry.”

“Regardless! I can’t have one of my kits walkin’ around like that, no can do. Off to the showers with y’all, and I’ll try and find some sort of replacement for your stuff, alright?” She was softer now, eyes glued to the pile of soiled clothes she’d just removed. My right boot had a hole in it now, right above the ankle, where a bone had pierced through. I looked down at my blood soaked pant leg and pulled my jeans up to reveal the fairly nice patch job Papyrus had done for me and gave a half smile.

“That skeleton boy should know better than to leave you with something like that…” Okami said, scowling at the apparently shoddy healing job.

”I’m kind of surprised Mr. Grillby didn’t notice it, then. Though I did burn my hand on him at the time…”

Okami didn’t even look at my hand but began healing the worst of my Papyrus-inflicted scars. “Mr. Lyer may be the best healer in town, and trustworthy to do a fine job, but even he can’t heal wounds he can’t see. Perhaps he simply forgot to check you before letting you go?”

“Psst.” Chara waved her hand. “She means verifier – ‘check’ - la magie, not a normal docteur checkup.”

I attempted to do an unnoticeable nod. I assumed it was kind of like checking someone in a video game, since all magic followed rules like that.

“Alright, the bathin’ room is just past that sleepin’ room, on the right,” Okami said, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. “Should be simple, it doesn’t run on magic or anything. You can leave your clothes outside the door, I’ll clean the rest of ‘em too.”

I nodded more conspicuously, reaching to pick up my clothes but Okami swatted my hand and waved me off. So, off to the bathroom I went to get freshened up.

As I got undressed, Chara turned around to give me privacy.

”So, now that we’re finally alone,” I turned the shower knob to what I assumed was a good hot temperature, ”What were you going to say about monsieur Gaster?”

“Docteur. He was the royal alchemist.” Chara said. She was still facing the opposite wall, away from the mirror. “He was very smart, but a little obsessed, I think. He was actually trying to find a way to break the barrier using something other than SOUL pouvoir.”

”Poh-vwah? Oh! it means power, right?” I entered the shower then, enjoying the feeling as the water almost felt like it was burning my toes, fingers, and nose.

“Exact. He used to come to Home all the time, bringing a lot of machin and other strange things. He always seemed really fatigued – probably because of sadness and effort. It hadn’t been much more than a hundred years since his grande sœur – sorry, elder sister – died, when I met him. She was… the skeleton in monsieur Lyer’s story.”

I peeked through the curtain. ”Wait. Mr. Grillby had a crush on Sans’ and Papyrus’ aunt? And… Grillby said that her brother created the barrier. So what does that mean?”

“I wonder if Lucida-Sans had another brother? Nobody mentioned him to me…”

As I began to shampoo my hair, I considered the possibility of that. A second brother, one who was probably skilled at magic in comparison to his siblings… If he’s the one who created the barrier, then wouldn’t that mean…

”I wonder if he’s still out there, somewhere. Wandering the outside world. If he created the barrier, he’d be outside it, right? So…”

“Since he’s a boss monster, like the rest of his family, it’s certainly possible. But why would he do that? What benefit could he possibly have for trapping his entire race?”

I had finished conditioning then, so I put my hair up temporarily so it could soak in. ”Maybe that WAS the benefit? To be spared from the eternal prison?”

Chara gasped.

“That… actually makes a lot of sense. He could have been chosen for his skills in magie – which we can assume due to his ability to even create the barrier without any help besides human SOUL pouvoir – and told he’d be set free from the shackles of his own barrier?”

I shook my head. ”Nah, that actually convinces me that they probably killed him afterwards, since they probably wouldn’t trust him not to have a family eventually. Meaning some half breeds like me would be… around… to…”

I trailed off, realizing. It was crazy to suggest. That would be a horrible thing to say. No way.

“To…?”

I put my hand on the wall, willing myself to let go of the idea. There’s just no way. It can’t be true…

…

“Grace…?”

”Sorry, got some soap in my eye,” I lied. ”Anyway, if they were truly human supremacists, they wouldn’t hesitate to keep the future bloodlines clear, right? I’m sure they were already wiping out any half breeds they could find… like… my ancestor. Whoever h- they were, they were probably hunted for sport… or something worse.”

“…oui, tu as probably right.” Chara forced her voice out, a low growl barely audible above the rushing water around me. She was using more French than usual.

”Something wrong?”

“Ce n'est rien.”

”I’ll take that as an ‘nothing’.” I was just standing awkwardly in the water at that point. I frowned, folding my arms. ”If only we could learn more about this. Even Gerson Boom’s ‘The History of Humans and Monsters’ doesn’t talk about those siblings specifically, and has its own holes, otherwise. it’s strange that he wouldn’t even say the monster who locked them up was a skeleton… I suppose he thought it was unnecessary or something. Regardless, I really want to get the full picture of this. I guess it’s not that pertinent right now though…“

“We could ask maman? She might know since Mademoiselle Lucida-Sans was her childhood friend?”

I ripped open the curtain.

”WHAT. WHAT?”

“Ahhh! I, I mean, uh,” Chara stumbled, covering her eyes immediately. “Uh, ah, Lucida-Sans and her entered the royal guard together, she said it was for some ‘quest’ but I’m wondering if it was about monsieur Lyer now since she hasn’t mentioned it yet…?”

As I went to dry myself, I huffed.

”That’s some incredibly vital information, mademoiselle Charalotte Dreemurr. This puts this conspiracy against the crown directly next to it, and that’s significant. We need to talk to her, n-“

I stopped. I was half clothed in one of the robes Okami had pointed out for me to use earlier, but my clavicle area was exposed to the hazy air. It looked… unusual. Taking my towel in hand, I wiped the fog off the mirror and my eyes widened.

A burn. It went from around my sternum to tickling my collarbone, and was around three whole fingers wide at the thickest part. It… didn’t hurt, not really. I gasped.

As the realization of what it was dawned on me, I itched the top of my burn, trembling.

“What are you looking at?” Chara said, finally turning around to see what I was making a fuss about.

”This…” I said, moving my robe again so she could safely see the whole thing.

Chara peeked at first but eventually realized it was safe to look. She furrowed her brows.

“The… burn? Just looks like something left behind from Toriel’s terribly balanced sparring to me.”

I nodded. ”I… I think this was from a past death. In fact, I think… this is from a burn that killed me?”

“Okay… so?”

I scoffed.

”SO… why is it still here? Why do I- am I… am I going to just… keep them all?”

Chara held her hand in frustrated claws. “All what???”

I let my hand fall down, looking away from the mirror.

”…”

”All… of my…”

”…All of my death wounds.”

“-!” Chara squeaked. “-You mean-!”

I began searching for them – a burn here, or there. I only had three, but I knew for sure where they would be… because who forgets where you were killed last time?

”…yep. Every single one of these burns, besides this one-“ I pointed at my stomach, where Toriel had hit me and insisted she heal me so I had no choice but to keep it, ”- were wounds that inflicted fatal damage to me.”

“…mert.”

I sighed, closing my robe. “I know we don’t like to talk about it, and it’s rare, but it does happen. I just wish I’d known sooner. Maybe Okami can do something about these… though she may go blame Grillby, and I would be loathe to bother him.”

“…you bounce back quick…” Chara sneered as she followed me out into the hallway.

”No, it takes a couple minutes to come back to life, if you remember.”

“I meant… about the scarring realization? You seem… surprisingly calm about it.”

I twitched my head as I entered my bedroom.

”…I guess my philosophy is…I already have a couple anyway, what’s a few more…? I don’t know…” I plopped down onto the bed, pulling up my sleeve to reveal my newly scarred arm.

<3 <3 <3

Fire flew near me, burning my shoulder – I tried not to show it though, since I wanted Toriel to at least eventually FIGHT me seriously.

“…ow” I squeaked out, but thankfully Toriel seemed busy preparing her next attack. I squeezed my shoulder for a second, trying to ignore the pain.

“Well done, my child. It is only your fifth sparring session and you have already mastered the single fireballs!”

”There are other kinds…!?” I whispered under my breath. oh no…

“Grace! You’re only at 3/28-“

”Wait wha-“ I was cut off then. A giant hand made of fire came at me, slamming me in the face and searing my chest. I couldn’t even feel much anymore. It was going so fast – am I really able to mess with time? How was that supposed to work? Will this be the end, only because I can’t lift muscles that aren’t there to open my menu?

I could feel my flesh becoming weaker. The desire to keep on trying, in the fear that I couldn’t come back from this, was fading. It all… didn’t matter anymore. This was the end…

No.

I can’t do that.

WAKE UP. NOW!

Forcing my eyes open, Chara was crying above me. She tried to possess me, but I tried to bat her away. She didn’t deserve to die with me. to feel that again.

I. AM. NOT. GOING. TO. DIE.

I can’t. Why am I going to die from this, now? When I-

”Ghkl-!” I spurted, rasping.

I was dying. Dying. No. Not now. I can’t, I

The last thing I saw was Toriel’s devastated expression.

And her agonizing scream.

…

…

‘It cannot end now!’

”..?”

Everything… was dark. It almost felt like I could hear music coming from somewhere beyond this area, but I couldn’t make out the tune. It was almost like… a nothingness. My body had given up. It couldn’t handle the stress Toriel had put it through…

”!!!”

…

I couldn’t make a sound.

‘…Stay determined…’

I missed part of that. The voice was incredibly deep, and rumbled from inside my head. Well, wherever the center of my consciousness was, anyway. It felt familiar for some reason, like a memory from long ago. I couldn’t see or hear anything in the… ‘physical space’ of this place besides the music, and even that was almost like a hallucination. Very real, but also not…

”-!!!”

I really couldn’t speak. Nothing hurt anymore, at least, but I wondered for a moment if this was purgatory or something until two words filled my vision.

Quit Continue

I was puzzled. Could I even do anything with these? I focused on trying to move my hand (without seeing any) but suddenly wondered.

”…?”

I was just a bunch of yellow and white fragments. There were more yellow than white, but I recognized it instantly as my SOUL in pieces. I wondered what the white bits meant – maybe my monster genes? – before returning my gaze to the only other visible things.

I tried again to reach out, not seeing anything, until I felt a rush pulling forward to the ‘Continue’ – It felt like I was flying or falling, and I began to panic until-

“Grace…?”

I jumped, freezing in place. I could hear both Toriel and Chara talking to me, but not what they were saying. I excused myself, taking careful steps towards the bathroom.

Chara was still talking to me, but I ignored her. I grabbed the doorknob, and noticed my hand was shaking. I took a breath and entered.

“…I know I didn’t die the same way, but I’m sure I could help if you’d just- Maman! Grace is… oh, right…”

I sat on the toilet, trying to understand what I was feeling. I died. I really died. It hurt. It was scary. I died.
I died. I died. I DIED. I DIED!

My tears came fast and hot. I hiccupped a lot, and sometimes I made a frustrated noise before sobbing again. I wiped at my face, trying not to let my face stay wet very long. Falling gently from the toilet to the floor and onto my knees, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was going to happen every time. Am I going to die much? I hope not…

As my tears hit the floor, I suddenly became aware of how pathetic I looked – snot was dripping down my nose and my eyes were getting raw from me wiping at them.

”Breathe, Grace…” I told myself, angrily. I hated crying in front of other people.

I could do it. My breathing would get regular, and then I would think about all that sensory input and fear and it would start going again. I forced a tightness into my throat in an attempt to stem the flow of tears, but eventually, my focus would break again. I clawed at the tile, frustrated.

I stared at the pinkish floor, trying to find patterns in it. There was a flower and a boot in one.

This kind of awful back and forth went on for a few minutes before I was able to calm down. During that time, Chara had been trying to get through to me but I couldn’t let her – it was just one more stimulus that I couldn’t handle in addition to everything I’d just experienced.

I was sitting on the edge of the bathtub, exhausted, when I finally listened to Chara.

“I died too, you know.”

I looked up at her and squinted. ”Now’s not the time, y-“

“Oh, now you decide to listen to me. I was trying to help you!”

”…I know. I’m sorry for crying to much…”

“And another thing!” Chara said, folding her arms. “You don’t have to apologize for crying, that’s the natural thing to do quand tu meurs putain! So don’t feel like it’s something shameful this time, because it isn’t.”

”…why do I feel like you just said a very naughty word?” I gave a half smile, wiping my face with a tissue.

Chara blushed. “I… that isn’t important right now. What is, is… are you okay now? I know when it happened to me, it was really hard for me and Asriel to work together because… I panicked a bit.”

”Why wouldn’t you, you died for real-“ I flinched, but ignored it and slid down next to the tub. Chara went with me.

“Because it was the plan, I shouldn’t have been so… lâche ? le froussard? Cowardly, that’s the word. It was scary though. Feeling your body give you up, it… was so cold. I’m sure you had trouble being cold though…”

”No… it was cold at the end. I was being really stubborn though, right?

“It was scary. Maman was going back and forth on healing you, and I tried to tell her not to – even if you couldn’t really come back, like that weird SAVE place seemed to say you could, it would be better to let you rest in the – in the condition you were in. It was bad…”

”…I understand,” I stood up, gingerly touching where I’d been hit but instead feeling the relief of nothing. ”I’ll try to be more careful from now on. I don’t want to ever feel that again.”

“Wait, wait, what was it like in there?”

I flinched again. ”I’ll… tell you later.”

<3 <3 <3

I stood before my bedroom’s vanity, staring at the scar on my chest. It was the very same one from that flashback.

”Now’s a good a time as any to explain what I saw in there.” I used a low voice. My eyes were drawn to what I’d left on the vanity top last time I was here, thinking I wouldn’t need it.

“In where?”

”In my deaths,” I picked up my knife, looking at my reflection in it, ”It is nothingness. Not cold, not dark, not painful. But also no feeling at all… It’s actually a little peaceful, and I can hear music playing from somewhere.”

I wondered if it would be a good idea to try out the experiment. It might prevent me from embarrassing myself or revealing secrets I’ve shown to Grillby or Okami… Chara would always be a different story, but I could live with that.

“Music? I feel like I know what you’re talking about. Was it this-?” Chara hummed a few notes.

”Hmm… it’s always too far away for me to be sure, but I think that may be right? I’ll listen next time.” I tried to sound enthusiastic, but I think it didn’t land because when I turned to look at her, she seemed annoyed.

“You’re not really listening, are you?” she mumbled… but then.

“…why do you have that…?”

”I…” with an exasperated sigh, I put it back down on the vanity but kept my hand hovering over it. ”…was wondering… if I could mess with time on purpose… if I… ugh that’s stupid. Why would I ki-“

A knock pounded against the door, technically innocuous but breaking the fragile tension with an uproar.

Chara shrieked a bit, covering her mouth.

“Ah saw the bathroom was empty so ah assumed you were done, bunny.” Tenshu’s sweet but sassy drawl came through the door as she opened it, not waiting on my answer. I closed my robe as fast as I could, getting a little laugh out of her.

“Aw, there’s nothin’ to be worried about kit. It’s just me,” she held up the laundry basket she was carrying, “-and your hand-me-downs! Ah couldn’t do much about your poor snow boot though, so hopefully my old rainboot patch job will work until Waterfall.”

She placed the hamper on my bed as she talked, pointing out the patch of bright yellow where the bone had been embedded into my leg not that long ago. I shivered. I noticed Tenshu glare at the knife on the vanity for a moment, but then she turned to me.

“You’re not thinkin’ about fightin’, are ya?”

I rubbed my elbow. ”Well… it’s best to always have some sort of defense, right? Especially since… that fish lady, Undyne I think? Knows about my existence, so…”

Tenshu’s purple eyes widened.

“Papyrus already made his report? …how have you not been caught yet, hon?”

I shrugged. ”I’m not exactly sure? I wonder if Papyrus is stalling or something…”

Tenshu tapped her lip and began taking the clothes out, laying them out in dressing order.

“Well, you’d better take advantage of that then. You want to go home, right?” She gave me a wink, taking the emptied basket under her arm and turning to the door.

”…I don’t- never mind. Thank you for the clothes, mrs. Usagi.”

She raised her eyebrow but then shrugged. “You’re very welcome, young lady. Ah wish y’all luck.”

She left. Most of the clothes that were laid out on the bed were simply patched and/or had the stains removed the best they could. A raincoat and new rain boots were also added; the coat was sky blue with a pattern of pink hearts, both upside down and right side up, and had a stripe in the middle. It went to my shins and had wrist gaiters in the sleeves to keep the water out. The boots were pink and had a yellow heart on the outside with yellow soles. As I got dressed in my favorite pink and blue sweater and the new jeans they gave me, Chara was looking at the mirror. I sat in front of it to braid my hair next to her.

Chapter Text

Chara watched me inquisitively as I split my hair down the middle, tying up one side so I could braid the other without random strands interweaving with the wrong side. The ghost grabbed her own hair for a moment, then got distracted by her translucent hand.

“You have a plan, right? For what we’re doing? We need to find Harlow.”

I stopped, thinking, then closed my eyes and began braiding again.

”I know. But I do worry now that all we’re going to find is a… body.” I said matter-of-factly, tying up my left side so I could begin braiding my right.

Chara was taken aback. “You seem… oddly fine with that…”

I pursed my lips, sighing. ”I accepted that reality a while ago… we weren’t all that close anymore, but I really do have to find them, I… I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t. But regardless of that, I don’t think-“

“Wait. You thought they were dead before you even climbed Mt. Ebott…” Chara’s eyes softened. “But you said you wanted to save them?”

”I was trying to be… gentle about it. Or maybe I was lying to myself… I don’t know. If this ‘Undyne’ character is as ferocious as people make her out to be, and there are other royal guards even a bit like her, then…” I trailed off, pausing my plaiting again. Chara’s brows were furrowed. ”Harlow is - was - physically weaker than me. She wouldn’t be able to FIGHT or dodge attacks the way I can. Harlow was a bit of a shut-in – someone who doesn’t go outside often, er…”

“I think I get what you mean. Comme un casanier, hein?”

I finished up my braid, tying the end finally. ”Er… yeah, sure? But yeah, they weren’t very active… anyway, we were coming to the inn for something, right?”

“Hmm…? There’s been so many things happening that- oh right! We were going to call mère to ask about this third Gaster frère et sœur?”

I got up and turned to her, tilting my head as I reached for my phone.

“Oh! Mes apologies, I forget you do not know pas le française …”

I smiled, looking at the shriveled yellow rose sticking out of my backpack. ”My mother did.”

Chara gasped. I ignored her and finished dialing Toriel on my phone.

…

…

“Hello? Is that you, my child? Are you all right? Are you coming back already?”

”Hello! Yes, sort of, and no.”

Toriel hummed. “…you are only doing… sort of all right? Nobody has hurt you too badly, have they?”

I gave a half smile at my patched boot.

”…nope. How are you doing? Not too lonely, are you?”

“You liar… You don’t sound that all right, either. I’m doing fine, but yes it is a bit lonely. I have been a lonely old lady for quite a while though, I am not that susceptible anymore.”

”I know, aunt Toriel.”

“Are you eating well? I hope-“

”I’m very sorry aunt Toriel, but I want to make sure I ask before I forget again,” I sighed. ”We’ve been hearing a lot of interesting things about the history of the Underground lately…”

“…yes?”

”Specifically, the creation of the barrier.”

“…ah...”

”I talked to this fellow named Grillby Ly-“

“BEE!?!? You talked to Bee?!” Toriel roared excitedly, louder than the speaker of the phone could handle.

I winced, instinctively holding the phone away from my ear. ”…ow, that was way too loud Aunt Toriel.”

“Oh dear! I am sorry, Grace.” Toriel sounded almost sad. “I have not seen him since my self-imprisonment, I am afraid. He and a certain skeleton named Lucida-Sans were my childhood friends, you see.”

“Oh? She’s going to talk about it?” Chara flew to ‘sit’ beside me, cupping a hand to her ear.

“Hello? Are you still there?” Toriel asked.

”Sorry, Chara was speaking. She seems very interested in this – as am I.”

“Well then, I am happy to oblige whatever I can teach you about my friends. Though, if you spoke to Bee about this, then I am sure you are aware of what… nature, these stories may pertain to should I tell you every detail.” Toriel started her statements with the joy of teaching, but as she seemed to realize what this could mean, her tone lowered to a seriousness I hadn’t heard for a while.

”Of course. He told me about how the humans took his tongue, how he had to use a human for fuel to escape, and how they… tortured Lucida-Sans for information. I’m not the type to flinch, I assure you.” Chara looked at me strangely when I said that. I itched my leg.

“Well then. Ask away.”

I pondered this. I wasn’t usually the type to hesitate because I usually assume people prefer a direct question to beating around the bush, but this was something about not only her best friends who went through traumas without her but also the very person who trapped his entire race underground. Should I be more tactful about this?

“Do not fear, it has been over 700 years since these events. I am not going to crumple from a simple question, my child.”

Toriel has gone back to using her favorite pet name, it seems…

Alright, then… I have to ask about Lucida-Sans’ other brother. Who was he? What was his name? Did you know him?” My old blunt habit came back out once I began to speak, and I cursed in my head about doing that when I’d already overthought it just now.

“I… do you mean… Wingdings? He was an incredible alchemist and scientist, he created the CORE that fuels the underground. Did you know that ‘CORE’ stands for ‘Converter Of Recurring Energy’, not super creative, I know, but it really is infinitely efficient!”

I was surprised. ”That… is actually very interesting! But I meant the… you know. The other one.“

“Oh. I… well…” Toriel fumbled over her words, mumbling them half-heartedly. “He was… uh… a magician.”

”But can’t we all use magic?”

“Yes. But he was a prodigy.”

I scowled. Toriel was being unusually clammy; she was usually bursting with answers and explanations, really living up to her name (Toriel Cutseine). Of course it had to be the most interesting thing ever that she had to be gatekeep-y about.

”…aaand his name was…?”

Toriel made a frustrated noise that was almost like a bleat.

“He was… the youngest brother. W… Webding. Webding Gaster.”

So the siblings go Lucida-Sans, Wingding, then Webding, from oldest to youngest.

”I wonder why he would do that…? What did he stand to gain? I guess he must have been pretty skilled to create something like this…” I thought out loud.

“Yes. He was. He wanted- no, he did it to be spared I think. I do not know… he was an enigma.” Toriel kept catching herself, her true nature fighting her feelings for dominance. “His big sister was a member of the royal guard with me, and-“

”Wait, what? You were queen, how were you a royal guard too?”

“Well, you know,” Toriel said bashfully, “there’s a certain… connection… that can come from being in such close proximity and… the relationship…”

”Oooh! Aunt Toriel that is so cute!”

“Would you two stop flipping back and forth so much? I’m getting whiplash from this atmosphere!” Chara complained as we began to gush over Toriel’s ancient love life.

I laid back, kicking my feet off of the bed. ”So how quickly did you guys start to show chemistry you think?”

“Well, there was this time that he dropped his quill, and nobody was in the room with us so I went to grab it – but so did he.” Toriel giggled, then sighed. “How cute he was that day! We accidentally touched, but then we were holding each other’s hands – until a servant walked in to deliver a snack! We were so embarrassed, tee hee.”

”Oh wow, what-
There are more important things to talk about than this!” Chara interrupted by possessing me. “aïe !!
”Well it could be important, you don’t know that! Like, for instance,” I addressed Toriel again, ”Did you have any love rivals?”

“Actually…it… uh- never mind. Is that Chara?”

“Oui, c'est moi !” Chara pointed at herself(?).

“Has she been lying to me about her mental and physical wellbeing, Chara?”

“Sans aucun doute.
Sans?”

“That makes sense. You will take care of her, will you not?”

“I will.
Wait we weren’t done. If you were in the king’s study alone with him, does that mean you were his personal guard?”

“…yes. We became very close, over the course of a few years, until we got married. Web- HE was the best man, actually.”

”The plot thickens. Best man? That’s awfully close... It’s hard to think of you as a tough-as-nails personal royal guard to the king, too.

“Well, I was actually a rough-and-tumble sort of child – I only softened up around Asgore, and then much more when we had Asriel. It helped during the war, to be trained and strong… I protected my king just as oft as I had before.”

”Can I ask more about Webding? He seems super high up for just a random boss monster of his era, and-“

“Oh!” Toriel interrupted. “I have just realized, you said something funny earlier. Something about ‘don’t we all have magic?”

I accepted the change of conversation. She REALLY doesn’t want to talk about it, huh? That’s okay, I can just ask more about it later.

”Yes, what about it- OH MY GOSH, I can’t believe I forgot to tell you!”

“What is it?”

”I… I’m actually – apparently – um, uh… part monster? I don’t have much, but I’m part skeleton!”

“WHAT?! That is amazing, what incredible luck that you were the one to fall… have you used magic? I will tell you now, it will not be easy for you. Magic is inherently toxic to humans, so you have to learn in a very careful way.” Toriel seemed ecstatic but concerned.

”Yeah, so, about that? Uh, well, I, uh… accidentally used blue magic while arguing with Chara and hurt myself?”

Chara facepalmed while Toriel gasped through the speaker.

“Oh no! Where was this? You did not get hurt in all the snow, did you?”

I sucked air through my teeth.

”…I passed out from hypothermia.”

Toriel made an exasperated noise.

“…young one…”

”But I was found by one of these two skeleton brothers out here and he helped me! Both of them did, actually…” I smiled to myself, furrowing my brows. “They healed me and taught me some of what to do, they’re really awesome guys…”

“Oh my!”

”Well, I’m actually having some trouble – you see, the younger brother is actually a sentry for the royal guard, so he’s obligated to capture me to take me to the king. He doesn’t really want to, but it’s his duty so he has to FIGHT me…”

“Ahh. That makes sense. Well, all you can do is FIGHT them and win without killing him, right?”

”Mhm… but he’s super strong. I already got kno- I mean, captured once. What am I going to do?”

“Well, I can help a little. After all, I was surrounded by skeletons during childhood – I should be able to explain a few magical techniques. Have you drawn a weapon before?”

“Weapon?” Chara said – she’d left me a couple of minutes ago once the conversation was constructive again.

”I don’t think so. That’s separate from the… they’re called bullets, right?”

“Yes. A weapon is usually stronger than a bullet and is a style based on what you would wield best. Mine, for example, is a longsword. They are sometimes more intuitive than bullets, but it is rare for a monster to prefer them – and in that rare few are usually stronger monsters than usual, due to their difficulty in use and tendency to be more physical.”

”How would I go about doing that? Is there some trick to it?”

Toriel backtracked. “Oh no, I should probably not tell you. You will try to just do it and hurt yourself. I have seen Wizards do it before they were ready and it is not pretty.”

I sat up. ”Well, I’ve done blue magic and some bones before?”

“That is wonderful! Learning all by yourself must have been quite difficult – though I suppose you had those skeleton boys out there with you?”

”Uh… well…”I spluttered. Chara looked at me inquisitively.

“You’ve used magic before I met you? Comment dans le monde – how in the world did you not know what you were?” Chara inquired, tilting her head.

“Are you still there, Grace?”

I sighed. ”…no. I did some of those before I fell, with my... But I thought it was something else, you know, since monsters are pretty much considered legends upstairs. I don’t know… my family never talked about it and I didn’t know of a single other member who inherited magic. I wonder why that is, actually… but yeah, I’m not sure if those… events? Really helped me with learning magic at all since I sorta passed out during both of them…” I rambled, trying to get my full explanation in before someone responded without the full picture.

“Well,” Toriel started gently, “This means that you are a Wizard. It is a term for a human with magical capabilities. With study, practical application, and determination, you too should be able to draw a weapon – it being more physical magic makes it more natural for more human types. It will help to gain a stronger understanding of your monster anatomy and how it connects to your human anatomy, and while magic will always be a bit painful for you, you will eventually be able to master it and be able to express yourself just like any other monster. However, you said nobody in your family mentioned anything about it, right?”

”Yes?”

“So your monster connection must be fairly low. You will probably have to learn to siphon determination from your human SOUL through your monster SOUL to get more damage – it is a process called DT Transferring, and it may be difficult, but eventually, your attacks will do more damage than they are probably capped at as of now.”

”You really do want to be a teacher… not a very balanced sparring partner though.” I silently shuddered.

“That is my mother, Grace.” Chara scolded, so I mouthed an apology.

“Oh. Well… yes, that is probably accurate. I was once a royal guard myself, so that is probably why. That, and I am also a Boss monster, if you recall.”

”I’m very grateful to you for doing that for me – I was able to overcome the flinch response everyone gets when they first start FIGHTing for real, thanks to you. I’d say that’s worth a couple of scratches.” Chara shuddered.

“I am glad to hear it. Well, let us help you to stop losing fights, shall we?”

”Yeah!” I was getting excited about this. Getting up, I turned the phone on speaker and laid it on the bed, stretching my fingers.

Thus began an evening of magic Wizard training. Toriel told me that in her day, Wizards were usually both the teachers and relatives to other Wizards, often either strongly for monsters or… very against. Either they were happy families that helped each other figure out the drawbacks, strengths, and possible rules of individual Wizards’ magic/determination, or they were born to be living weapons for the humans to use against monsters. She said that magic is toxic to human flesh so most Wizards felt a bit of pain using it, but she theorized that I might have a much harder time of it since it seems I am very far away genetically from my skeletal ancestor.

“When you have used magic before, were you picturing how it moved or reacted?” Toriel inquired.

I put my hand on my chin, humming to myself. ”Kind of. It’s like… lava, or fire. I feed it through my arteries – those are what my blood flows through – from my heart, or maybe SOUL, and into my fingers. It can get super hot, but it’s usually slow enough that I can bear it. It burns though, and sometimes it pools in my fingers and makes them ache…”

“That… is not good. You said you are part skeleton, correct?”

”…yes?”

“Well, then your magic should follow wherever you may have monster parts. That should prevent it from scarring your blood channels and make your output more consistent. Humans have skeletons, so…”

I gasped.

”That makes so much sense, how did I not think of that? …Though, I’m afraid it’s too late for your worry.” I pulled down my sweater sleeve to scratch at my arm, suddenly noticing the itchiness since it was mentioned.

“…because of the ‘passing out in the snow’ incident, yes?”

I sighed.

Toriel continued. “…did you learn anything about your magic from that?”

”Yes, actually. I learned more about how blue gravity magic works correctly. It’s almost like having someone on the end of a pole, except a bit lighter – then again, I only did it on Chara, and she’s a ghost so she doesn’t actually have any mass.”

“Hey! I do too have… wait, ‘mass?’” Chara interrupted, seemingly offended by what I’d said. “Well, calling me a ghost is still insensible. Je suis un… esprit? Euh…”

Toriel was about to speak but suddenly stopped.

“What was that? I heard something strange just now. Like wind?”

”That was Chara. Wow, I guess some human superstitions are correct! Gho- I mean, spirits CAN be heard through a phone!”

“Really?” Chara perked up, coming to float in front of the speaker. “Bonjour, maman? C’est moi, Charalotte!”

“Now this is an amazing surprise! This would have been so much better than possession or telephone games. How are you, my child? You are a bit muffled, but I can understand you with a bit of effort.”

“I am… okay. It’s been a lot, but I’m curious to see how the underground has changed since I’ve been dead. I want to see Asriel, mère. I want to give mssr Dreemurr a piece of my mind. We aren’t done yet… though I think Grace could use a break maybe? She’s been in a couple of… combats intense?”

”Not from magic lessons! I want to learn everything I can. And I should be fine once I pass Snowdin, right?” I looked to Chara, who shrugged.

Toriel sounded grave. “Have you gotten hurt by the monsters out there, my- Grace? I will not hesitate to come out and take you back if you are in trouble.”

”U-uh, nope!” I pulled my sleeve down, “I’ll be okay if- well, it hasn’t been as bad as all that, I just want to up my skills for defense. The capt- no I mean, I…” I took a deep breath, shaking my head.

“You do not feel like you are in major trouble and want to keep fighting, yes?” Toriel was slow and careful. “I cannot say that I am pleased, but… as you are not a child, much less mine, it is not my business to butt into. I understand your desire to get closer to your monster roots as well.” The worried mother sighed.

”Yes, that’s it. I’m sorry that I’ll make you worry, but I need to get stronger if I’m going to continue. I won’t hurt anyone, I just can’t. I… hate the idea of using it, actually – but maybe I’ll become a healthier demi-monster if I do. I’m tired of lashing out by accident, I’m tired of trying to use it and hurting myself, and I’m tired of feeling like it’s unpredictable and dangerous. I want to remove the vagueness and superstition.”

“Ah- well,” Toriel began, voice cracking a bit. “Then I will do what I can. Hmm…”

Toriel thought for a moment. Chara raised her eyebrow at me and I just shrugged.

“I believe the first step is understanding the relationship between the parts of your SOUL. Your SOUL should be in multiple parts, yes? I am guessing you have seen it since you have been in… altercations before.”

”Yeah, I have. I think I saw something like that, I don’t know – I don’t get a lot of time to look since, you know, I’m usually in mortal peril?”

“Of course,” Toriel cleared her throat, “My point is, there is a sort of transaction that occurs within a Wizard – whichever is the bigger part can be transferred into the energy style of the smaller part, though it will never be exactly the same. Usually, some determination will be the same, though this is good because it acts as a protection from the magic.”

”So… if I can learn to ‘DT Transfer’, I won’t be as hurt by my magic depending on how much I use of either? How do I do that?” Furrowing my brows, I began to root around with my magic to find this ‘split’, listening to Toriel.

“Yes, but there is a cap on how much per determination or magic you can use, depending strongly on your percentage of monster genes. And I’m guessing it isn’t very high since you show no outward traits…”

Chara piped up. “Actually, her eyes glow yellow and her sclérotique are black when she uses magie!”

“Really? Well, that is a good sign. It is rare to see someone so far removed – and I’m guessing at least 4 grandfathers – show such signs of magic. Perhaps you have a better chance than I thought?”

”Yeah, I hope so… hey, I’ve been playing with my magic internally as you explained and I think I can feel this… barrier? Difference? You were talking about. It’s a tiny piece that feels… lighter than the rest, and there’s this kind of skin around it that I can break through. It’s super weird… and mixing the two makes it heat up the way it always does when I use magic. I’ve never done this with such precision, it’s kinda giving me a headache, haha.” I was able to make my SOUL visible, and I watched as I forced one side or the other to break the safety net, making it glow and get warmer. It felt good though, like a warm memory – since my SOUL was outside of my body, the heat wasn’t near my flesh and could radiate safely. ”Whoa… it feels kind of like… drinking hot chocolate at a Christmas party. I’m looking at it and I can make it act like a lava lamp…”

“Wow, good job! Sounds like you are getting the hang of it… now, can you do it with your SOUL inside your body? Once you do that, we will try filtering your human determination – the yellow – through the monster SOUL, the white. Then we can try leading it through your bones to your fingers. It will probably still ache there while you figure out your magical output though.”

I put my SOUL away, trying to manipulate it inside my chest. ”Output… wow, this is getting kinda hot, ouch haha.” I laughed as my SOUL’s heat was kindled, focusing on keeping it as low as possible. Looking up at the vanity mirror, I could see the yellow glow through my sweater and my eyes-

I looked away.

“Careful, my child! Try to keep the amount of magic low.”

”Yeah, I’m getting it.” I winced. Trying to keep it contained was more like keeping water in your hands than it was like containing a fire. It slipped into my flesh, burning if left in one spot for too long.

Wait… water in your hands? Why not use it against itself?

I began to move my human SOUL around the magic, covering it like a bottle with a single hole. Once I’d done so, I remembered what Toriel said we’d do next – I began to feed it into my sternum, and out through my right ribs. I could see it glow in the mirror.

“Maman? Grace is moving the magic into her arms. Je peux voir ses os briller – I can see her bones glow, and she’s made it to her shoulder…”

“Impatient, are we?” Toriel scolded, “Well, does it hurt? Are you maintaining it well?”

”I think it’s okay… it’s mostly warm, not hot, and I… think… I can…”

The yellow glow was difficult to maintain as it tried to enter my blood as it always had. I could feel the familiar sizzle whenever it managed to. And yet the I was slowly getting it down to my elbow, then my wrist, and-

THUD!

I hadn’t been watching what I was pointing at, but a glowing yellow bone was stuck into the dressing table…

Chara eyes went wide. “Uh oh.”

“What? I heard something just now, did something happen?” Toriel exclaimed.

I sucked some air through my teeth; My fingertips ached. Hanging my head, I made my way over to the scene of the crime.

My bullet had hit my knife dead on, punching a hole clean through the blade. I watched as it dissipated, showing the perfect circular cavity it had made, denting the blade slightly from its prior perfect balance.

Chara gasped. “Oh no, your knife! C'est cassé… It’s broken…”

I picked up the knife, inspecting it. I pressed the flat side against my hand, trying to bend it back into a straight line, but instead the blade snapped, its integrity weak against my magic. I sighed, dropping it back to the damaged surface. Looking at my outstretched hand, I cocked my head to the side. Pulling down my sleeve, I traced my fingers over my skin and followed the light scars as far as I could go.

“Are you alright, Grace? What happened?” Toriel startled me out of my daze.

I jolted, rolling my sleeve back down. ”Augh-yes, I’m okay! I shot a bullet without meaning to though… I’ll have to apologize to Mrs. Tenshu or Mrs. Okami when I get the chance, I damaged the vanity…”

Chara chimed in – “And her knife is broken. Will we be okay?”

“Oh no! Are you hurt at all, Grace?”

I extended my fingers, testing them for damage again. ”No, I… actually, this is the first time I’ve done that and it didn’t hurt besides my fingertips. This is amazing! I feel like-“ I jumped up and down for a moment, smiling, ”I’ve never done that without it hurting me or someone else, this is awesome! …I do feel bad for the dresser, though… and my knife… but if I get good at this and fighting without hurting my assailant, I might not need it?” I looked at myself in the mirror, and I was suddenly shocked to see that my eyes were still glowing. But it wasn’t yellow?

”…green…?”

“What was that, my child?”

”My eyes are still glowing – my SOUL too – but my eyes are green, not yellow. Is this normal?”

“Oh! I know that one. That is so amazing, Grace. You should ask your skeleton friends about it, I am sure they know what it means.” Toriel sort of explained, her grin evident in her voice.

”Yeah? Well, guess I’ll have to go ahead and ask next time I get a chance!” no sooner had I made that claim, I saw movement out of my window. It was Papyrus, tromping quickly through town and stopping every person he could to talk to them animatedly about something I couldn’t hear but could certainly surmise.

Chara, following my eyes, nods. “Oui, tu should get ready to try again soon. I’m sure he is worried…”

“Well, if you must,” Toriel began in response, “But you simply must call me more, I am ALSO worried over here for you. Do you need a new weapon? I am not sure that simply magic and dodging will suffice…”

I sat back on the bed, turning it off speaker so I could hold the phone to my ear again. ”Well, I’m pretty good at it. And my dad, uh, taught karate when I was a child. I’m sure I could outpower a monster if it came to a fistfight, and I never cut a monster with it anyway…”

“Your-! Uh, that makes a lot of sense, actually. I wondered why you were so… knowledgeable about these sort of things. But please, promise to call again soon?”