Chapter Text
After touching a strange yellow star (Chara had muttered something about the stars being new), Frisk followed Toriel up a set of stairs and into a room with a confusing array of rock-looking things on the ground.
"Welcome to your new home, innocent one. Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins," Toriel gestured towards the confusing rocks. She then stepped on some of them, which made them go into the ground. "The Ruins are full of puzzles." Oh, that was a puzzle? Frisk hated puzzles. "Ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys." Dive- what?
"One must solve them to move from room to room," Toriel explained. "Please adjust yourself to the sight of them."
She lead them into the next room, where she instructed them to flip several switches. On the second one they had gotten a bit confused due to there being two switches in that area, but thankfully Toriel was there to help.
The next room contained a dummy, which Toriel said they had to talk to. It was... nice, actually. The dummy didn't make fun of them (neither did Toriel, which was a pleasant surprise).
The room after that contained a somewhat dangerous spike puzzle, but luckily Toriel had memorized the path and lead Frisk safely across.
They entered the next room, which was a very long hallway. Toriel looked nervous.
"You have done excellently thus far, my child." she started. "However... I have a difficult request to ask of you. I would like you to walk to the end of this room by yourself. Wait here until I am no longer in sight, please."
"Forgive me for this," she whispered. Toriel turned and walked away. Frisk stared after her, confused. What was happening?
Toriel was soon out of sight, and they then remembered what they were supposed to do. Oh, right, go to the end of the hall. Easy enough.
Frisk speed-walked down the hallway, Chara following right behind them. Their ghostly companion didn't speak much, though to be fair neither did they.
After they reached the end Toriel appear out from behind a pillar, looking slightly relieved. "Greetings, my child. Do not worry, I did not leave you."
She then went on to talk about having to leave, and that Frisk should stay in the room so they were safe. She handed them an old cell phone, gave them a warm smile, and left.
Which, in retrospect, was probably not a good idea. Especially since Frisk was prone to getting into mischief. Not that Toriel knew that.
Yeah, they left the room. What reason was there to stay?
...
After interacting with yet another one of those yellow stars, Frisk went up into another room. Chara followed them, spotting a bowl of candy sitting on a table. A sign said 'Take one'. Frisk ignored the sign and took two pieces of candy. The audacity!
"You took more candy. How disgusting." Chara sneered. Frisk didn't even react to that. They put both pieces in their pocket and walked out of the room, without even a glance in Chara's direction.
How rude.
They talked a bit with a Froggit, then proceeded into another room. Chara followed, still fuming.
...
The next room was seemingly empty. Frisk, unaware of the large cracks in the ground, stepped directly on one. The floor broke, and they were sent falling.
"Frisk?!" they heard Chara yell in surprise. Frisk landed in a large pile of leaves, which seemed to swallow them whole. They stood up, gasping for air.
Chara floated down beside them, a slightly disturbed look on their face. "Are you okay?"
Frisk nodded. Indeed, the leaf pile had softened their fall considerably, and the only thing hurt was their pride. Chara was looking around the room, probably trying to find a way out. Their hypothesis was confirmed when Chara pointed at a hole in the wall.
"I've figured it out. Crawl up this tube right here to get to the other side." they said. Frisk did as instructed, and true to Chara's word, they ended up on the other side.
They went through the doorway and came across what seemed to be a puzzle. Their phone rang.
"Hello? This is Toriel." came Toriel's kind voice. "For no reason in particular, which do you prefer? Cinnamon or butterscotch?"
Frisk thought about it for a moment. They hadn't had much of either, but remembered cinnamon having too much of an overpowering taste for them to fully enjoy it. "Bscotch."
Not even three minutes later Toriel called 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?"
They thought about it again. "Um, depends. Cinnamon by itself is too much for me. But I guess I wouldn't mind it with somethin else."
"Right, right. I understand, child. Do not worry, I promise to use less cinnamon. Thank you for being patient." she replied.
Frisk looked over at Chara, who was looking thoughtful. "Is somethin wrong?" they asked. Chara shook their head. "No. It's just that I always had problems with cinnamon, too."
"Oh."
...
After more of those damn puzzles, Frisk and Chara came across what looked like a bedsheet ghost pretending to sleep.
"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzz..." the ghost muttered. They whispered "Are they gone yet?" before continuing to repeat "z" over and over again.
Frisk tapped the ghost lightly, hoping they would move. The ghost shot up, frightened.
They started crying, making Frisk feel bad. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!" they said, giving what they hoped was a reassuring smile. The ghost seemed to cheer up a little.
"Geez, Frisk, for a second there you looked like you had seen a ghost, you were so pale," Chara said, grinning. Did they just..?
The ghost laughed softly. They both looked at them, slightly surprised that they could see and hear Chara.
"I wanna show you two something," they whispered. "Let me try..."
Tears formed in their eyes, which went to their head. A hat was created out of the tears. "I call it Dapperblook. Do you like it...?"
Frisk gasped. "I love it! It looks so cool!" they said truthfully. Chara rolled their eyes, but agreed that it was a pretty cool hat.
The ghost looked embarrassed. "Oh gee..." they looked down. I usually come to the Ruins because there's nobody around... But today I met two nice people..."
They peeked out from under Dapperblook. "My name's Napstablook, by the way... ...Oh, I'm rambling again, aren't I? I'll get out of your way now." And with that, Napstablook disappeared.
"Bye bye Napstablook!" Frisk called out, waving to the air where they once were. "We'll see you later!"