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Sometimes, you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed. That… was the closest explanation that Papyrus had to what was happening to him today.
He woke up feeling like something was wrong. Even before he opened his eyes, he felt something, like his battle body was just too tight, like his ribs were just too small, like the essence of magic and hope inside of him was the wrong color, and it shone on everything with a sickening light that flattered nothing.
Something sounded all around him. Whispers he couldn’t quite hear, and couldn’t hope to understand. Whispers that only added to the heaviness he felt inside his chest. He tried to chase each one to glean some kind of meaning from it, but he lost track before he could understand, which only added to the feeling that everything was wrong.
And that was before he opened his eyes.
After they opened, Papyrus learned he was right about everything being wrong.
The feeling of irritation didn’t leave him as he discovered the mystery unfolding around him. It was like he was a puzzle piece someone was desperately cramming into a slot where it didn’t belong, chipping and warping all of his edges, the smooth, rounded corners of his piece only now showing their harshness and rigidity. The things that would normally pass over him easily were instead caught on the bits that had nowhere to go but out, wearing on him; cutting at them.
He didn’t belong here.
He wasn’t a human. He wasn’t a child.
He was Papyrus, even if only one person in the whole underground seemed able to understand. And something here was wrong.
He knew it was wrong from the moment he awoke, and he knew he was wrong when ‘child’ cut into him so badly that he had to cut something else, and the one right in front of him proved a perfect target.
He lashed out. He hit harder than he ever had in all his lives. He hit harder than he ever thought he good.
His perfect control… was…
This was wrong.
Everything was wrong.
This was wrong this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong and then--
It was… better.
Everything fit just a little more.
The place for him was a little less tight. One less piece to grate against him, to rub the wrong way.
He felt… better. Not right. Not whole. Not fitting.
But better.
And it only bothered him in a distant sort of way that he was not the type to kill. That this too was a piece that didn’t belong. It may not have belonged, but it was cut just for him. It matched all his curves and edges, and it didn’t hurt him the way everything else did. It was snug, but it interlocked with him perfectly.
And he felt guilty about it, sure. Of course he felt awful.
But that edge no longer chaffed, and there was one less piece of the puzzle to work against him. The LV matched him, even if against everything else, he was an aberration.
Nothing fit right.
His own name cut at him, at everything, for a split second cut through the puzzle like a thousand tears before it all reassembled and he was caught wondering what had happened.
It stunned him more than Undyne’s spear just moments later. She never hit him so hard. She never killed him before.
He shattered and it all fell back into line, his piece fit just as poorly as the puzzle locked back in place around him.
And this time he was wiser.
The battle body chaffed and rubbed and suffocated at his edges the same way everything else did, but that could be amended. The ribbon fit like a glove.
She was still in the way, and this time the relief was that much greater when he eliminated her.
His errant soul surged with power in his chest. Still the wrong color, still an imperfect fit, built from something else beyond hope love or compassion, but as he found ways to change himself, he found a way to make that piece inside him fit, like a ribbon around his finger, like shadow around light, like a newfound determination.
And he could feel that determination itching, as he stood on the edge… as he felt something clicking into place. As he made a decision.
As he found a way to change the puzzle that had changed him.
He had an idea.
Full size images: https://imgur.com/a/pnamkTn