Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You are going for a hike.

Mom expects you back by dinner, but you have plenty of time to get back.

You love going up the mountains. You have a walking stick, which you don’t really need for anything, but you like sticks.

This one is nice and pointy. You could use it to draw by the creek.

You have heard the stories about disappearances, but the mountains have always been safe for you.

Other kids are jealous, or scared. But that is your life, and you like it.

You don’t quite recognize this path. Cool.

Not too much poison ivy, which is great. Poison ivy is awful.

You keep walking until you find a cave.

You tread careful, but then you slip, and then you fall down a pit. You can’t see the ground below you.

You close your eyes and wait.

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You feel something soft beneath you.

When you open your eyes again, you are in a patch of red flowers.

You are not hurt. Not more than a scratch on your cheek.

Good thing you have a band-aid.

You fish your last band-aid out of your pocket.

It is not a pretty one, with patterns. You like those ones better, but you go through a lot of bandaids, and they can’t all be pretty.

When you get your own job, you will buy all kinds of nice band-aids.

Mom always tells you you shouldn’t buy cigarettes or alcohol, anyway.

Chapter Text

You didn’t even break your arm.

You’ve broken a lot of bones. The nurse says that when you’re older you will have to be more careful, that you won’t bounce back so easily, but that won’t be for a long time yet.

You get up , and you don’t even feel hurt. You decide to smell the flowers. Just for kicks.

You walk into the next room. There you see a little tangle of wires. You kneel down to look at it.

(???) “oh, hey… you’re a human, right?”

This tangle of wires can talk? You nod.

(???) “my name is tanger. nice to meet you.”

You nod and smile.

(Tanger) “do you know about monsters?”

You’ve heard stories, but nothing that would allow a pile of wires to talk, so you shrug.

(Tanger) “that wasn’t really an answer, but okay…”

That was mean.

(Tanger) “i should warn you, though. some monsters are going to want to kill you.”

You are not very comfortable with this.

(Tanger) “oh… don’t worry. i can keep you safe if you stay here.”

You don’t want to stay here. You want to get out. You take a step back.

(Tanger) “no… don’t do that…”

You can’t get past him.

(Tanger) “just calm down. stay here...it’s safe.”

You don’t like this. You try to talk him down.

(Tanger) “don’t worry… it doesn’t hurt.”

And then a bone hits a couple of inches from Tanger.

(Tanger) “oh no… i’ll be back… don’t worry.”

You are worried about a lot of things.

Chapter Text

When you look back at Tanger, they are gone. Thank goodness.

And then there is a skeleton twice as tall as you in front of you.

(Skeleton) “HELLO, HUMAN! I AM PRINCE PAPYRUS. I AM VERY SORRY YOU HAD TO DEAL WITH TANGLE. THEY CAN BE TERRIBLE TO DEAL WITH.”

You nod quickly.

(Papyrus) “I AM GLAD THAT YOU UNDERSTAND, HUMAN. I WILL HELP TO GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE OLD CASTLE.”

Oh yeah. He’s a prince. You don’t think that princes of kingdoms trying to kill humans usually help them. Unless he is a traitor. And he saved you. So you’ll follow.

Papyrus takes you through the castle.

(Papyrus) “THIS IS A FAIRLY SIMPLE PUZZLE. YOU NEED TO GET THROUGH THE PATCH WITHOUT FALLING DOWN.”

You fall down. A lot. But you get it eventually, and there is a staircase.

After a couple of times, you figure out that there is a pattern on the ceiling.

And then you get to the other side. Papyrus got there while you were beneath.

(Papyrus) “YOUR DETERMINATION IS ADMIRABLE, HUMAN. I WILL SHOW YOU A COUPLE MORE PUZZLES, DUE TO YOUR SLOWNESS.”

Monsters might just not be very polite.

You do a couple of switch flip things. Not the one about which lightbulb is warmer, but you think that you might get to that by the time that you’re done with the spike traps.

(Papyrus) “I BELIEVE THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO MAKE IT BY YOURSELF. I WILL HAVE FOOD FOR YOU WHEN YOU ARRIVE HOME. FEEL FREE TO TAKE YOUR TIME.”

And then he dashes away.

You don’t feel quite safe here, but you know how to survive. You will do it.

There are little monsters here. They try to hurt you, but if you run, or talk to them, they stop.

You buy a couple of strange-tasting apples laying on a plank of wood.

To be honest, the puzzles are more annoying. But there’s a trick. There’s always a trick.

You start looking for the tricks first.

And then you run into a sleeping dinosaur.

The dinosaur is blocking the path. You poke her.

(Dinosaur) “Uh. Please don’t do that.”

And then there is electricity.

You apologise.

(Dinosaur) “Oh goodness, are you hurt? I’ll just go…”

And the Dinosaur runs off.

And you can’t even see her. Monsters are fast.

You keep going. The puzzles get harder, but you get better at spotting traps.

And then you see the prince.

(Papyrus) “OH MY! YOU ARE FASTER THAN I EXPECTED, HUMAN.”

You nod.

(Papyrus) “I HAVE MADE PASTA. PLEASE COME IN.

You do.

He lifts you up to a table, and serves you pasta that is shaped like a circle.

It is sugared. You do a better job cooking, but you eat it anyway. You take another one for the road.

You ask the prince how to get home.

(Papyrus) “ARE… ARE YOU SURE THAT YOU WANT TO LEAVE?”

You nod.

(Papyrus) “BUT ARE YOU REALLY SURE?”

You nod again.

(Papyrus) “REALLY, REALLY, REALLY SURE?”

You nod more aggressively.

(Papyrus) “IT IS DANGEROUS OUT THERE, YOU KNOW.”

You narrow your eyes.

You try to tell him about the monsters.

(Papyrus) “YOU ENCOUNTERED SOME OF THE MONSTERS? OH, THAT IS GREAT. THEY ARE INTIMIDATED BY ME, I THINK. IT MUST BE MY ASTOUNDING PRESENCE.”

His cape flutters, without wind.

(Papyrus) “DID THEY ATTEMPT TO HARM YOU?”

You nod.

(Papyrus) “I SUPPOSE YOU ARE SOMEWHAT PREPARED. BUT THE KING, MY BROTHER, HAS KILLED HUMANS BEFORE. I WILL TRAIN YOU TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE READY. BUT FIRST YOU MUST FIGHT ME.”

Okay.

You dodge and dodge, and talk and tell him you don’t want to hit him.

And then he turns you blue.

And you jump.

And you keep going, keep dodging.

And you do your best to try to convince him that you don’t want to fight.

And eventually the bones get slower. And smaller, and you dodge more easily.

(Papyrus) “I DO NOT WANT YOU TO GET HURT, HUMAN. I DO NOT WANT HIM TO HURT YOU.”

You keep going.

(Papyrus) “YOU KNOW… HE DIDN’T EVEN TELL ME. I JUST REALIZED THAT HUMAN SOULS ONLY CAME OUT WHEN THEY DIED.”

Really?

(Papyrus) “HE SAID THAT HE WAS PROTECTING ME, BUT I DID NOT WANT TO BE PROTECTED FROM OTHERS DEATH. I WANTED TO HELP PEOPLE. I DIDN’T WANT TO DEAL WITH HIM AGAIN.”

You think you understand.

(Papyrus) “I’M SURE THAT HE WILL BE TOO LAZY TO LAST THIS LONG AGAINST YOU. NYEH HEH… HEH.”

You’re sorry.

(Papyrus) “I’M SORRY IF I DID NOT PREPARE YOU ENOUGH. I DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO THIS. TELL… TELL SANS I SAY HELLO. TELL HIM IT IS BONE-LY AROUND HERE, FOR ME, WILL YOU?”

You nod.

(Papyrus) “THANK YOU, HUMAN.”

He walks away from you, and you open the red door.

You see Tanger. You shrink away.

(Tanger) “there’s no need to be scared… good job with all the helping.”

You move around the edge.

(Tanger) “i wonder how well you’ll do against sans, though… he’s pretty scary.”

And you bolt out the door. You hear Tanger sighing in the background, but you do not want to risk it.

Chapter Text

You pass through the door. You don’t really need to, but you don’t trust the wire-tangle. They are a liar and tried to force you to do… something.

They weren’t fast enough, but you don’t trust them, still.

You don’t understand what they want with you, but they lied. They lied first off. They told you that there was danger where there was little. They did not try to protect you. So you will keep watch.

When you look around, you see snow-covered trees. You are colder than you should be.

It was just warm enough in the last room. How does it work?

Well, wires can’t talk, usually so you suppose this might just be a monster thing.

You walk down the path, hoping that you will find a place to stay.

You are wearing a sweater, but you do not have gloves. You didn’t need to wear a sweater, but you did anyway. You’re glad.

And then you step on a tripwire. And you hear a bell ring.

Dang it. Ah well, they were going to figure it out eventually, and maybe you can talk to somebody.

There is a presence behind you. You… you didn’t expect it to be that fast.

(???) “Hey, don’t you know how to treat a pal? Turn around and shake my hand.”

You do, and they look human. And they got something on your hand. Yuck.

(???) “Heh. The old chocolate sauce in the hand trick. It’s always funny.”

You wipe it off on the snow and glare at them.

(???) “You don’t think so? Ah well. Anyway… introductions, right. I’m Chara the human. You’re a human, too, aren’t you?”

You nod cautiously.

(Chara) “That’s kinda unfortunate. You see, I’m basically a monster. Been down here forever. But the king still wants another soul.”

You do not feel comfortable,

(Chara) “Really nice he hasn’t killed me, right? Even though I’m just a catastrophe waiting to happen. That’s all humans are.”

You disagree.

(Chara) “Well, I guess I’ll just have to keep an eye on you. Can’t have you messing with my reputation.”

You nod.

(Chara) “Kill anyone, and I’ll make you pay. Kill my brother, and you’ll  r e a l l y regret it. Got it?”

You give a thumbs up. You do not feel like giving a thumbs up.

(Chara) “Okay. I’m sure that when Asriel sees you, he’ll want to play with you. So just… play along, will you? No need to be mean.”

You nod.

(Chara) “Great.”

Chapter Text

You come up on Chara later down the path, with a little goat boy.

(Brother) “Oh my gosh, Chara, is that a human?”

They shake their head.

(Chara) “I’m pretty sure that’s a lamp.”

You turn around. There is a lamp a couple of feet from you.

(Brother) “In front of the lamp, silly.”

You wave.

(Chara) “Are you sure that’s a human?”

Chara’s brother pouts.

(Brother) “What else would they be?”

Chara shrugs.

(Chara) “A monster? What you think just because they look like me, they’re human. That’s profiling, Rei.”

They sound happier talking to monsters.

(Rei) “Hey! Well, I guess there’s only one thing to do then. Hey, are you a human?”

You nod.

(Rei) “See? I knew it.”

Chara smiles.

(Chara) “They could be lying.”

How long is this going to take?

(Rei) “Why would they lie about this, Chara?”

Chara raises an eyebrow.

(Chara) “Maybe they want your attention.”

Rei blushes.

(Rei) “That-that would be a lot of effort for someone they don’t know.”

Chara shrugs.

(Chara) “Guess you’re worth it.”

Rei looks you up and down.

(Rei) “I don’t think that they’re a monster, but either way, we can do puzzles together! Human, will you participate in puzzles with us?”

You don’t really have anything else to do. You really don’t think you’re getting home in time for dinner. Plus puzzles are kinda fun. You nod.

(Rei) “Great! You can walk them to the puzzle, while I get a couple of things set up.”

He sprints down the path.

Chara walks up to you You step back.

(Chara) “Calm down, partner. I don’t plan on hurting you unless I have to.”

You nod quickly.

(Chara) “He might fight you, but I don’t think that you’ve killed anyone yet. Just keep that up.”

You nod.

(Chara) “Good. You can do the puzzles with some help.”

There are switch puzzles, and slidy ones.

The last couple of ones you have to order Chara around, and sometimes they do the wrong thing on purpose. After that, you sometimes have to lie down and whine.

(Chara) “Promise I’ll do it right this time.”

You wave them away.

(Chara) “What, you want to do it yourself?”

You sink further into the snow.

When you are done with puzzles, you see Rei up ahead.

(Rei) “Wow! That was quick! But there is one last puzzle. One that requires all three of us to complete it.”

Asriel does half of it himself, and Chara moves when he tells them to, so you win.

(Rei) “Alright, you’ve won! Doyouwanttogoonadatewithme?”

A date? Sure. You nod.

(Chara) “Who wouldn’t want to date the astounding Asriel?”

Chara glares at you over Asriel’s head.

You smile at him anyways.

He shows his house to you. It is nice. There are a bunch of chocolate bars in the fridge. You grab one, just in case.

You love the couch. It is the same color as Asriel, and you point it out to him. He considers it, and then curses Chara for telling him to get it.

You laugh.

He shows you his room, where he has a star chart that Chara made, a jar of colored pencils, and a flowered blanket.

You clap, and he shows you his back-up scarf, which is covered in souls and hearts, and you play with him for a while.

Chapter Text

Asriel pulls you aside.

(Asriel) “I just thought that I should warn you, uh. Mom might try and kill you. It’s not because she hates you, it’s just that she wants to take care of Chara. And there’s only one soul left, you know. No one’s going to hurt Chara, don’t worry! I’ll take care of them. But Mom doesn’t really believe that. So you should watch out.”

You are glad that Asriel wants to take care of you. But you are sure that you can do this.

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You cannot do this! You cannot do this!

Fire surrounds you on the bridge, but just chars, as far as you can tell.

You can pick out some patterns if you check fast enough, but there is a lot of fire.

And then  she burns part of the bridger off, and you jump and knock your head

You wake up in a patch of red flowers, and find a quiche in a fridge, and decide to not call Asriel, because his Mom is intense and you don’t feel like talking to him right now.

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You finally fight Toriel on a mountain in Waterfall. She gives a speech about the safety and responsibilities of monsters.

You ask her if she is trying to save Chara. She goes silent.

You tell her that you will not let anyone hurt either one of you, and that Asriel is a good fighter, and that no one in Snowdin would hurt Chara, because Asriel cares about you.

You hold up the back-up scarf. She shifts on her feet.

When Toriel fights you, it feels weak. You are glad.

You take out a chocolate bar during the fight, because fire hurts, especially when you aren’t getting breaks.

You are almost sorry about how sad she looks, but not quite sad enough to explain yourself.

When Asriel calls you, it is too much. She tells you to leave.

But Asriel calls you to her house, and she makes nsail pie with you, and threatens you to not hurt her ex-husband, because the kids still care about him.

You think that she might care, too but that’s none of your business.

Chapter Text

You show up at the door of what looks like a lab out of the movies with terrible experiments going on.

You call Asriel for a little pick-me-up. He’s very cheerful.

He tells you that his dad works there, actually, and that his dad is a little bit of a dork, but he’s really good at taking care of Chara when they get sick, so no human has anything to fear from him.

You are not completely reassured, but it is more than you had before.

You knock on the door. Asriel’s dad opens it.

(Dad-guy) “Chara, is that you? I’m glad to see you, but you should have called. Oh. You’re not Chara are you?”

You shake your head.

(Dad-guy) “Are they alright?”

They’re a bit weird, but yeah. You nod.

(Dad-guy) “Uh. I’m really sorry, but Undyne’s coming over soon, and she has an act for me to see. I’ve been teaching her about color-changing magic-”

And then a fish-lady smashes through the wall.

(Undyne) “Hey, Asgore! I’ve got a couple of things I’ve been working on, and they are SUPER COOL! Uh, hey. You’re not Chara, are you?”

You shake your head.

(Undyne) “AWESOME! Asgore, you’re going to need to hold on for a while, I’ve gotta fight them.”

You don’t want to do that.

(Undyne) “Just need to set up the camera’s. Alright, human! Let’s DO THIS!”

And you are frozen in place. Ah well, it’s not like running has ever helped you with much.

(Undyne) “As I am an honorable warrior, I will give you something to defend yourself with.”

Sounds fair. Asgore is muttering in the background.

Huh. Asgore and Toriel. Asriel. Cool.

It hurts. It hurts a lot when she hits you, but you have a quiche and a bag of chips and some strange apples, so you can handle it.

You do not hit back, because you hit hard, and you do not want to hurt anyone, but you do a good job of batting away the arrows, before you are down to one-fourth heath.

(Asgore) “UNDYNE! That is enough.”

Undyne stops hurling arrows at you.

(Asgore) “Can’t you see that they are hurt?”

Undyne looks at you.

(Undyne) “I mean, their soul looks weird, but isn’t that just what human souls look like?”

She appears to be asking you.

(You) “That hurt.”

She blushes.

(Undyne) “Sorry. I guess I just got a little too caught up in the fight?”

You shrug.

You give a thumbs up.

(Asgore) “Are you alright, child?”

You eat an apple, and give him another thumbs up.

Undyne checks her phone.

(Undyne) “Oh man, no one was even watching. Well, a couple of people were, but I did a great job with my attacks.”

You shrug.

(Asgore) “You could have seriously hurt them!”

Undyne tilts her head.

(Undyne) “I wasn’t trying to.”

Asgore shakes his head.

(Asgore) “They're human. You could have seriously harmed them. Their bodies don’t work like ours do. They can’t be hurt by green attacks, or blue attacks if they're staying still, or orange attacks if they're moving, but otherwise you could have killed them!”

Undyne looks startled.

(Undyne) “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

You stick your hand out. Undyne takes it gently.

You shake her hand.

(Undyne) “Is that a human greeting, or something? I guess that makes sense, if you get hurt so easily.”

You shrug.

(Asgore) “Chara does it, I believe.”

You walk away from this discussion. You’ve got a king to fight.

(Undyne) “Wait!”

You turn around.

(Undyne) “Can we still fight? I’ll be careful, I promise.”

You think about it.

You would be alright if she hit you. It’s okay when people hit you as long as you get healed up, and she doesn’t want to hurt you. Like at all. And Asgore, Asriel’s father, wants to keep you safe.

You point at Asgore,and then Undyne, and give a thumbs up.

(Undyne) “If Asgore tags along? Sure! I’m sure he’ll keep you safe.”

Asgore looks uncomfortable.

(Asgore) “Are you sure, child? I am not the best guardian.”

Who would be better? Maybe Papyrus? Papyrus would be better, but he’s not here.

You pat his chest.

(Asgore) “Alright. I will do my best to make sure that you are safe.”

You give him a thumbs up.

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Undyne makes you a training course. 

It looks pretty cool, and much less lava than Undyne tried to put in.

There are lasers, and a little healing pool, and a couple of blades.

The blades will be cool. You will not die. Not today.

Asgore looks on with discomfort.

You both help Undyne set up the cameras. There are a lot of them.

Asgore is very good at calibrating cameras.

You dash through the orange lazers, and only get a little sting.

You dodge the swinging blades.

You swim through the green pool, and it is a little like the way that you though that jello would feel, but even though it takes a while for you to surface, you do not feel like you are drowning.

Undyne is monologuing in the background, but you are coming for her.

Next up is the blue lasers, and you dash and freeze and dash, and tackle Undyne to the ground.

Apparently Undyne was not expecting you to move so fast.

(Undyne) “OH MY GOSH! WHAT THE HECK? YOU HAVE DEFEATED ME, HUMAN.  I suppose I must let you pass. CURSE YOU!”

And then Asgore shuts off the camera.

(Undyne) “Was anyone watching?”

Asgore looks at the numbers.

(Asgore) “Yeah?”

Undyne looks at the numbers.

(Undyne) “AWESOME! Thanks for your participation, human! And thanks for all the help, Asgore!”

You give Undyne two thumbs up.

(Undyne) “Is that like double the good?”

You nod.

(Undyne) “AWESOME!”

Undyne then crashes through another wall.

Asgore turns to you.

(Asgore) “I can see that you are very helpful, human. But Toriel would not surrender so easily. What did you do to convince her?” 

You tell him that you promised her kids would be safe. You tell him that you will take care of the king.

(Asgore) “I am very sorry, human. But there is no way to pass through the barrier without killing the king.”

He walks away from you very quickly.

You shrug. You’ll figure it out. You just need to make sure the king doesn’t want to fight you any more. You’re very good at that.

Leaving would be nice, though. You have a mother to get back to.

But if you cannot, you cannot. You will stay with Chara, and deal with them.

Chapter Text

You go into a beautiful hall. It is tiled with what looks like gold.

There are columns of white stone.

You touch them. They are nice and cool.

You hear a cough, and turn around.

(Chara) “C’mere.”

You walk over. They look you up and down.

(Chara) “You haven’t killed anyone, have you?”

You shake your head.

(Chara) “Good. Heh. You might even be better than I am.”

You watch them talk.

(Chara) “Guess I underestimate you. Well, we’ll see when you fight Sans, eh? You are kind, but Sans won’t give you an easy out.”

You nod with force.

(Chara) “Found something to fight for? You’ll need it.”

And they walk off.

You go into the next room, you see a skeleton about your size.

(Sans) “heya, who’s… oh.”

You wave.

(Sans) “you… you really came. don’tcha know only one of us is going to make it out of this alive?”

You shake your head.

(Sans) “all of you are too much… just… if there’s anything else you need to do, go do it. while you’re still clean.”

You almost shake your head, and then you remember. All the monsters that you didn’t help. And Alphys. You need to help here.

You tell him not to move while you’re gone, and then you dash back.

You do not see Chara smiling at you.

Chapter Text

You… actually don’t know where Alphys is. Dang it.

So you decide to ask Undyne. You know where she is, roughly.

And you find her.

(Undyne) “Ay, HUMAN! What’re you doing?”

You tell her that you are looking for Alphys. You notice Undyne’s blush.

(Undyne) “Why you looking for her?”

You shrug. You don’t know how to explain it.

(Undyne) “Well, I guess I trust you. LET’S GO!”

You follow Undyne into Waterfall.

(Undyne) “Don’t know why she lives here, but she does.”

You do not know either, but you shrug and follow Undyne.

There is a house which is as normal as any of the houses get. It is, if you had to pick an adjective, messy.

You knock on the door. And wait.

A couple of minutes later the door opens to reveal an disgruntled Alphys.

(Alphys) “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t think anyone-Undyne?”

She blushes.

Undyne smiles wide and toothy.

(Undyne) “Been a white, huh?”

Her voice is softer.

(Alphys) “O-oh yeah. But why are you here, human? I-i hurt you.”

Undyne looks at you strangely.

(Undyne) “Really? Alphys isn’t very stabby,”

You shrug.

Undyne remembers.

(Undyne) “OH YEAH! Humans get hurt kinda easy. Don’t worry, they’re pretty nice.”

You smile.

(Alphys) “It’s not just that! I-I just… keep messing things up.”

You shake your head. Undyne looks concerned.

(Undyne) “What are you talking about? They’re okay. I’m okay, you’re okay.”

Alphys starts to cry.

(Alphys) “Papyrus…”

Undyne looks confused.

(Undyne) “What about him? He left. Not great, but it’s his choice.”

She sounds a little bitter.

(Alphys) “He’s alone. And I try to help him, but I can barely get there most days! Sans asked me to keep an eye on him, and he’s your friend, and I can’t do anything, and you’re making these amazing things, and I can’t even talk to someone twice a week!”

You decide to get Alphys some tissues. When you get back, Undyne is hugging Alphys.

(Undyne) “Don’t worry. I’m here.”

You decide to leave those two by themselves.

You go around to help some monster and then head back to the castle. You’re ready. You can fight.

Chapter Text

You pass the hallway where Chara used to be, and you go into the next room.

You stand in the throne room, and wait for the king to notice you.

It takes a pretty ridiculous amount of time, but you think that he might be trying to make you leave.

You stomp the floor, and he turns around.

(Sans) “no need to be so aggressive.”

You don’t like that. You don’t like the way he talks about you. But you shrug.

(Sans) “alright. come on. let’s go.”

You get ready. Adjust your sweater. And then Papyrus rushes in.

(Papyrus) “HUMAN, I HAVE COME! I COULD NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN WITHOUT MY INTERFERENCE!”

You wave.

(Sans) “hey bro. what-what are you doing here?”

Papyrus poses.

(Papyrus) “SILLY BROTHER, I WOULD NOT LET EITHER OF YOU HURT EACH OTHER!”

Sans looks uncomfortable.

(Sans) “uh. nobodies getting hurt here.”

And then Asriel busts in.

(Asriel) “Hello, human! I have come to see you off! Oh, hello Papyrus. What are you doing here?”

Papyrus poses again.

(Papyrus) “I HAVE COME TO MAKE SURE THAT NO ONE GETS HURT.”

Asriel looks confused.

(Asriel) “Why would-”

And then Chara saunters down.

(Chara) “Hey bro.”

Asriel shakes his fist.

(Asriel) “You interrupted me!”

Chara shrugs.

(Chara) “Sorry. What were you saying?”

Asriel looks up. 

(Asriel) “Oh whatever. I forgot.”

And then Toriel shows up.

(Toriel) “My children, what are you doing here? Chara, you are not supposed to be around… here.”

Sans waves her down.

(Sans) “they’re in no danger.”

Papyrus pipes up.

(Papyrus) “NO ONE IS IN ANY DANGER, MISS TORIEL.”

Toriel looks surprised.

(Toriel) “Papyrus? It’s been a while.”

Papyrus looks uncomfortable.

(Papyrus) “NYEH HEH HEH… YES, MISS TORIEL. I HAVE COME TO STOP MY BROTHER. LUCKILY SANS DECIDED NOT TO HURT THE HUMAN.”

You nod before Sans can say anything. And then Asgore comes in.

(Asgore) “What is everybody doing here? Oh. Chara, other child, hello.”

You nod.

(Asgore) “Papyrus, it’s been a while. I think that Undyne’s coming, so you should be prepared for that.”

Papyrus perks up.

(Papyrus) “YES?”

And then he is being lifted into the air by Undyne. You see Sans ready some sort of attack, before he realizes what is going on.

(Undyne) “PAPYRUS, YOU JERK! You haven’t even been inviting Alphys in? How dare you?”

She has a smile on her face, though, and then Alphys is clinging to Undyne.

(Alphys) “Oh no, he probably didn’t even know I was there!”

Undyne lowers him onto the ground.

(Undyne) “He should have checked. He knew you were around. WHAT WERE YOU EVEN DOING, YOU PUNK?”

Papyrus shrugs.

(Papyrus) “MAKING PASTA. I DIDN’T REALLY WANT TO MAKE THE MONSTERS UNCOMFORTABLE. THEY DON’T LIKE BEING AROUND ME.”

Undyne looks sad.

(Undyne) “AW MAN. Sorry I doubted you, I guess. I should have known you were trying your best. Alphys was just feeling down.

Alphys has her head buried in her hands. Everyone is watching them, except Sans.”

(Sans) “might want to take this outside.”

You try to tell him that if you two have settled your immediate fight with his brother, then you do not want to fight him.

 You also pull out your pasta circle and offer it to him. He seems to understand that a lot better.

(Sans) “so, what is this? you bring my brother back, unite the kingdom, just to stop me from stabbing you?”

You shake your head, but he doesn’t seem to notice.

(Sans) “Well, i guess it worked. see you round.”

And then he just wanders away. Well, until Tanger grabs his leg.

Oh no

Chapter Text

Tanger ties all your friends up.

And Sans and Chara. You guess they didn’t kill you, which might be the first step towards friendship.

Anyway. You are not tied up.

You snarl at Tanger. You make a dropping motion.

(Tanger) “oh no. that’s not going to happen. sorry and all, but i have someone that i need to get to. they might be inside you, so i need to check that out. if not, well, power is good too.

There are things that look like your soul floating around, and then he absorbs them. You do not like this.

(Papyrus) “TANGLE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I’M YOUR FRIEND RIGHT?”

Tanger ignores him, and attacks you. Not hard, but strange.

(Sans) “i thought that everyone was going to lay off the human.”

He glares at Tanger.

(Asriel) “Yeah! Come on, just let them talk, they’re super cool.”

You blush a little.

(Chara) “You don’t really think that you can defeat them, do you?”

Tanger seems annoyed.

(Undyne) “YEAH! They’re gonna kick your butt.”

You smile.

(Alphys) “And-and if they won’t… we will. We care about them. I’m not just going to let you hurt my friend.”

You feel good.

And then Alphys hits everyone by accident.

(Alphys) “Oh goodness, I-I’m so sorry!”

Papyrus looks a little injured, but waves her down.

(Papyrus) “IT WAS AN ACCIDENT, TRYING TO HELP A FRIEND. IT IS NO PROBLEM. BUT MAYBE LET SOMEONE ELSE TRY?”

Alphys looks down

(Tanger) “this is distracting.”

And then he squeezed them into upside down souls.

(Tanger) “Do you remember me now? Hastablook? Melissa?”

You do not. But you act. 

You wish that you knew what he was talking about. But what you can do is  try to tell him that you will be his friend. You do not know who his friend is.

(Tanger) “no, you’re not supposed to do that.”

You wish that he would tell you what was going on.

(Tanger) “no. you have to have them.”

You wish that you could make him feel better.

(Tanger) “if you don’t have them then they're gone. and they aren’t gone.

You are sorry.

(Tanger) “no. no. no. they are there. i just need to…”

And then there is a wire squeezing your soul. And it hurts.

 and you are gone.

You feel the memory of sticking your hand through something not quite tangible. You feel the memory of a sandwich through you. You feel the terror of shuffling through the city in digues.

You remember what it is like to possess something for the first time. It feels wrong. You try a lot of things. Most of them don’t work. The ones that do don’t feel right for long.

Your cousin would not disturb anything by bossesing it, except welcome mats, and he stopped doing that when (the king) told him to warn him first.

You remember hiding your friend Mellisa from sight, even if it made you uncomfortable to possess something, it would be worse to let them get hurt.

Your cousins Napstablook and Dumpstablook even help sometimes. Madstablook is better at distraction.

The king comes knocking. You manage to hide Melissa, but she is scared.

You can’t let them hurt your family.

They want to die.

You’ll be like them.

You will take their soul.

It doesn’t work.

It hurts.

It should have worked.

But two ghosts working together hurts.

You collapse.

And Napstablook is not alright.

You’re sorry.

But you won’t let them hurt this one.

You’re gone. It’s time to move on.

And then you feel like yourself again.

You shake out your limbs, and then you look down to see Tanger. No, Napstablook.

(Napstablook) “they’re gone. aren’t they?”

You nod.

(Napstablook) “they were disappointed in me.”

You swallow your sadness.

(Napstablook) “it’s not your fault i’m stuck in the past.”

You don’t care.

(Napstablook) “i’ll let them go. i-i should go find my other cousins. it’s been a long time.

You reach out to hug him. It doesn’t quite work, because he is not in the metal, but you put your hands around his shape.

He starts to cry. It sort of stings.

(Napstablook) “uh, i forgot to ask. what’s your name?”

You tell them that your name is Frisk. You don’t think anyone’s asked.

(Napstablook) “i’ll talk to you later. i-i need to go now.”

You wave him away, before you remember the souls.

(Napstablook) “you know, i could probably break the barrier. you want to see that?”

You clap. And it falls.

And then your friends are back.

Chapter Text

You bring all the monsters out of the mountain and into town. Well, you will.

Mom’s house is just outside of town. You ring the doorbell.

(Mom) “Oh, sweetheart. It’s late. What-what happened.”

She sees the monsters.

Asriel waves.

(Mom) “Definitely had too much to drink.”

And then she goes to bed.

You offer them some salad. Everyone seems somewhat concerned.

You’ll just introduce them later. Mom will like them.

She’ll know how to deal with people