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Prickles of what could only be pain; the complete darkness, which oddly also seemed light, and also neither, expanding and contracting around you with every breath. These were the only things you knew at the moment.

Wait... breath? So you were breathing. Okay. There's a start.

You took a moment to marvel at the fact that you could do things in this nonexistent, yet existent plane of... er, existence. Whatever it was.

Scattered bits of a phrase floated to the front of your consciousness, and you reacted by slowly reaching out, almost like you thought you could touch them. You couldn't.

Suddenly, the strange nothingness began to fade, and the space around you grew lighter.

Your eyes fluttered open, and your already twitching fingers gingerly travelled through the air to the back of your aching head as you sat up.

Where were you? You had no idea. Upon inspection, your surroundings were similar to a cave or cavern in their appearance, the walls and ground were a rather boring grey hue, and you were sat on what appeared to be a patch of carefully-tended-to golden flowers and some odd grass. (You later wondered how they grew there, as the entire room was stone-like.) You felt bad for crushing them, even through your mild disorientation, but felt even worse when you tried to stand up and nearly fell back down again from the throbbing pain in your head. You absently guessed that you must have hit it against the unforgiving, hard surface of the ground; while the flowers were soft and lovely, they could hardly make up for the force with which you had hurtled through the air towards them.

You winced and let out a quiet hiss as a particularly painful throb pounded through your skull. You furrowed your brows and kept your hand softly pressed to the back of your head. Your frown deepened as you the word "concussion" flew through your mind. You almost shook your head to clear it before realizing that that would be a terribly foolish thing to do, unless you enjoyed pain.

You didn't.

After another slow, careful glance around, your gaze was drawn to a sort of hallway, or path. It seemed to lead somewhere, and you figured you probably shouldn't just sit in a patch of flowers all day-- especially if you were injured, and you were fairly sure you were at this point.

Your mind clouded over for a moment that passed as quickly as it came. You whined, quietly wishing you hadn't taken that fall, as you ambled your way over and down the short hallway to find yourself in front of a strange archway.

You paused a moment before cautiously peeking inside to see... an ominous yellow fellow sprouted from the ground. His grumpy expression quickly changed to an overly upbeat one as he noticed your presence, and your insides churned, the ominous feeling growing stronger, and buddying up with anxiety and curiosity.

"Howdy!" the cheerful flower greeted you, his unfitting smile stretching wider.

'Howdy'? you thought to yourself, surprised. 'What an odd way to greet someone.'

You smiled nervously, nonetheless. "Um, hello." you murmured in response, despite your seemingly unfounded worry.

"I'm Flowey; Flowey the Flower!"

You nodded politely and started to reply with a "Nice to meet you," but you were cut off before you could say anything. The corners of your mouth tugged down in a momentary show of irritability and you winced at a sudden throb of pain. (The concussion struck again; you'd almost forgotten about it for a moment there.)

"Hmmm... you're new to the Underground, aren'tcha? Golly, you must be so confused."

You blinked owlishly. 'Yeah, I am. Your point?'

"Someone ought to teach you how things work around here!"

And all of a sudden, the terrible feeling intensified, and your common sense said to you, 'Excuse me, but isn't that what bullies and thugs say before beating people up??' and you nervously took a step back.

Flowey's face contorted into something demonic, and his voice was even more so when he spoke.

"You know what's going on here, don't you?"

Chapter Text

Previously, on Time Goes On:

Flowey's face contorted into something demonic, and his voice was even more so when he spoke.

"You know what's going on here, don't you?"

~~~~~

You trembled at the sudden change and felt your heart skip a beat-- Flowey's grin only stretched wider as he noticed this.

"Well then," he started, "you'll know you don't want to touch these."

And suddenly, the air around you was filled with a string of quick, consecutive popping noises as several white pellets appeared in the air above you. The pellets had surrounded you, and you noticed a small red heart before you. As fear coursed through you like a wave, the heart gave a little jolt; what was all of this? Obviously the heart was a part of you, if it responded to your unspoken fear so immediately and appropriately, but how? How was it out in the open, and what exactly was it?

You immediately wanted it back where it belonged.

At this, it floated back towards you-- or, more specifically, your chest-- at a reasonable pace. You wondered if this thing escaping had been the cause of the little pause in your heartbeat, or if you were perhaps just imagining things. Judging from Flowey's expression, however, you weren't imagining it. (Unless, of course, you were imagining him, too.)

"Avoid this!"

You were abruptly broken away from your thoughts when the little pellets began closing in. You blinked in shock, and found that the pellets were fast; you'd missed half of their movements by blinking. Acting on instinct, you jumped as all the pellets converged and landed just after they bounced back in the directions they'd come from.

Flowey looked very unhappy, and looked as though he was about to say something when he paused to listen; he mumbled something to himself before popping under the ground, though not before adding a nasty, "I'll be back."

Whatever it was that frightened him away was past your ability to hear-- you figured the plant could probably feel vibrations through the ground or something-- but you weren't sure you wanted to stick around to find out what it was. You looked around for a place to hide, and failed, finally deciding on simply curling up in a dark corner of the room in the hope that maybe whatever was coming wouldn't notice you.

It wasn't long before you heard footsteps.

They grew louder and clearer until they came to a pause. There was a feminine-sounding gasp, and a rush of footsteps leading over to you. You tensed up.

... A sweet voice echoed in your ears.

"Child... are you alright?"

Chapter Text

Previously, on Time Goes On:

... A sweet voice echoed in your ears.

"Child... are you alright?"

~~~~~

You slowly lifted your head, turning your face up to look at the newcomer uncertainly. As your gaze met theirs, you blinked in surprise.

'Oh. So it's NOT just talking flowers. I guess they can't be all bad, considering they scared away that... that thing, Flowey. But then again, maybe they're WORSE, and that's why--'

Your thoughts were cut short by the same sweet voice tutting and commenting, "Oh... Oh dear. My child, your head is injured, and you appear to have acquired a few other injuries as well. Please, allow me to help you."

They sounded female and motherly. Would it be okay to presume that they used feminine pronouns? You supposed it probably wouldn't hurt to ask.

"Um... well, okay. But, uh, would you mind telling me what I should... er, what I should call you?" you mumbled awkwardly. No, no, no, that wasn't what you meant to ask! But, you supposed, it couldn't hurt to know that, either.

"Hm? Oh, of course! How silly of me to have forgotten! I am Toriel, caretaker of the ruins- and possibly you, now. What is your name, young one?"

Oh yes, that name sounded slightly more feminine than masculine. You figured it'd be safe to assume her female. If not, she'd correct you, right? "Aha, it's fine." you smiled sheepishly at the kind goat-lady. "My name is [Name]."

Toriel smiled. "What a lovely name!" She offered you what would be a hand or hoof in any normal situation-- you guessed you would call it a paw, though, based on its looks-- before a look of realization crossed her face. “Oh!”

You looked at her questioningly.

“Can you stand?”

You blinked, and slowly nodded. “Um, well, I think so.” You appreciated that she took the time to ask before pulling you to your feet-- which is what happened next-- but really, you had a concussion and a few scrapes; there was nothing wrong with your legs or feet. You figured you’d probably be fine.

As you were effortlessly tugged to your feet by the hand of Toriel-- pretty much literally-- you realized she’d mentioned something rather important.

“Wait, what? Ms. Toriel? You mentioned that you were the… what was it… ‘caretaker of the Ruins’?”

Chapter Text

Previously, on Time Goes On:

As you were effortlessly tugged to your feet by the hand of Toriel-- pretty much literally-- you realized she’d mentioned something rather important.

“Wait, what? Ms. Toriel? You mentioned that you were the… what was it… ‘caretaker of the Ruins’?”

~~~~~

The kind goat-woman looked over at you... and down. She was probably six or seven feet tall. "I did, and I am. I imagine you probably don't know what I mean by that, however. Please allow me to explain."

You replied with a soft affirmative and prepared to listen, your feet moving forward as Toriel began to walk.

"This place that you have found yourself in is only a small part of the Ruins, as they are quite expansive. A long time ago, they used to be home to all monsters, but now it is just me and the select few who chose to remain." she explained.

You nodded slightly, mindful of your concussion, then furrowed your brows. "Monsters?"

Toriel blinked in surprise. "Do you not know the legends? The stories of how humans banished the monsters to the Underground?"

You gently shook your head. "No, I haven't heard about that... or maybe I have? I'm having a little trouble thinking clearly, and my mind feels kinda fuzzy...."

She stopped and stepped in front of you before kneeling down and grasping your hands. "That is not good, child... are you sure you can stand? Would you like me to heal you now? It would be best if we waited until we reached my home, so that you could lie down on a proper bed, but we can make do."

You blinked a few times in quick succession, feeling slightly overwhelmed with the choices and the suddenness of it all. "Uh... um, I guess either is fine? Whichever you think is best is okay with me, Ms. Toriel...."