Chapter Text
Have you ever woke up and not known where you are? Not like waking up the night after a party confused with a vague idea of your location, like full blown having no idea where the hell you are. You, yourself have never had any experiences like that, well until today.
It was dark and cool where ever you were and the only sunlight was shining down on where you were laying. The sunlight illuminated you and the golden flowers underneath you in a somewhat dramatic fashion. The flowers must have broken your fall.
They were absolutely striking, you’ve never even seen golden flowers like these before. On the other hand they seemed to be the only thing alive down here, which was kind of depressing,
But nonetheless, the flowers were pretty. You sigh to yourself, you should probably stop crushing them by laying on them. A strangled noise escaped through your throat as you sat up. Everything was numb, your whole body felt the way a foot feels when it falls asleep. The needle-like tingling went through your entire body, and your brain was trying to break free from your skull or something with how awful your head was feeling.
Hands cradling your head, you couldn’t help but to sigh. This just sucked. The distance between light and you seem to burn itself into your mind. With a fall like that you could be in worse shape. Wiggling your fingers, and then your foot, you slowly got up to your feet. Biting your lip, you step forward sluggishly. It could be so much worse.
You slowly make your way forward, hands out in front of yourself to prevent from bumping face first into anything. You also were squinting like no one’s business trying to see in this darkness. After a while of looking like a fool, your eyes get use to unfavorable light conditions and you lower your hands down because there was literally nothing in front of you. Or like anywhere for that matter.
After walking a little bit longer, you prove yourself wrong. Turns out there is something down here. There was an archway in front of you, on that looked suspiciously manmade. You couldn’t see what was beyond it, there was only more darkness. You bit my lip. Well, the archway itself was pretty neat. There was a fancy symbol on top of it and there were columns.
“It’s like I’m in ancient Rome or some shit.”
Hearing your own voice gave you enough courage to walk through the archway. It was the same voice you always have heard, hasn’t changed a bit. It was comforting in a way.
“Howdy!”
You squeeze your eyes shut, it was so bright in here! When you finally are able to open your eyes without them burning like hell, you quickly close them again and began to rethink everything in your life had had come to this moment
There was another one of those golden flowers in front of you. This one though, was in possession of a face. And it was smiling? Like a fake customer service simile? Maybe flowers just naturally simile like that? Oh god, you couldn’t believe you were debating with yourself how flowers smile. Is this real life.
It was looking at you expectantly too, oh wait.,had it said something to you as you walked in? You think so but had been so preoccupied with the brightness of the room burning away your cornea. You panic slightly, how does one even talk to a flower? How do you even tell a flower you are sorry for ignoring it?
“I uh…Sorry did you say something?”
A look flashed across its face, most likely annoyance, before its smile returned. Well shit. You’ve done pissed off the flower.
“I was just saying Howdy! My name is Flowey the flower, you-“
You couldn’t stop the laugh that exploded from you.
“Flowery that flower,” You snorted, “Geez, how did you ever get such a creative name? Fucking sup’, I’m humany the human.” You started laughing again.
Oh god, you were being a dick to the flower.
OK well, in your defense the flower named itself Flowey. Flowey the flower. That is so basic.
Flowey seemed to have dropped his nice act all together. The look on his face, it was…a little more sinister than just annoyance.
“Y’know, you are a little too old to have accidentally fallen down here.”
You just shrug, unsure of what to say and a little too nervous to say anything.
“Well golly, I guess no matter how old you are the underground still is new to you. Someone is going to have to show you have things work, I guess little ole’ me will just have to do.”
Flowey’s fake-y smile was back in play. Your mind couldn’t help but to linger on the look that was on the flower’s face seconds ago though. He said he was going to help you or something but…
Well. You did make fun of him, You guess you’d be annoyed to. You smile at Flowey.
“Thanks pal, that southern twang you got going on is pretty sick. How did you even get that by the way, you like, live in a hole in the earth. I know good and well you ain’t been to the south.”
There you were kind. Although you don’t think Flowery was too impressed with your compliments. He blinks at you, looking like he was not too sure of what to say, maybe even a little bit irritated.
Hey, who was being the jerk now Flowery. Didn’t even say thank you.
“Anyways, let me show you how things work down here!”
There was a flash, your eyes shut reflexively and when they opened what you saw made you gasp. Hovering in front of you was a violet heart. Literally what the fuck.
“See that heart right there?” You nod numbly, your mouth hanging open in shock still, “That is the very culmination of your being! It starts off weak but by gaining LV, you gain strength!”
You blinked. “L-V?” It wasn’t the most formally formatted question but Flowey got what the gist of what you were putting down.
“Yup! It stands for Love! The underground can be a scary place so I’ll give ya’ some LV to start you off! You want some Love don’t cha’?”
This kind of sounded like some bullshit but…you glanced at the shinning heart in front of you. If that bullshit was legit well, you guess this could be too.
“Hit me up big boy.” Although you said it with confidence, you cannot hide or stop the shaking of your hands. This was all just too much.
“I..OK…” little white pellets surrounded the flower, “Down here we share love through friendliness pellets-“
“Oh my god”
You couldn’t stop the obnoxious laughter, you really couldn’t. This was ridiculous. “Friendliness pellets”, “Flowey”, it was all so ridiculous.
“Try to collect as many as you can!” Flowey’s voice lost all its friendliness as he shot the pellets towards you, his face somewhat angry. Probably at being interrupted for the third time.
It all happened so fast. Pain shot through your arm and both your legs. Your knee’s hit the floor with a loud bang. You reach towards your arm was pain flared through it and your fingers came back covered in blood. You gasp, in too much pain to muster up a scream.
“W-what?”
“You aren’t very clever are you?” Flowey’s face was twisted into something absolutely evil. Every bit of that over the top sweetness was gone from both his voice and face. Your hands shook and you could feel your eyes beginning to water.
You were going to die…fear crawled up your throat, you could feel it closing up. You were going to die because fucking friendliness pellets.
“That look on your face,” That sinister laughter echoed through the room, “Idiot. Did you really think anyone was going to just hand you LV like that? It’s kill or be killed down here, and why would any one pass up an opportunity like this? You are more weak and stupid than the kid!” Flowey’s laughter once again filled the room, a circle of pellets began closing in on you.
You couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move or even yell for help. The only thing you seemed to be capable of doing was watching the pellets slowly close in on you. You look back up at
Flowery, his sinister face was probably going to be the last thing you ever see.
Suddenly, a ball of fire knocked the evil flower away. He flew away, screeching. You look up to see a goat-like monster.
“It is okay my child do not cry, that terrible creature can no longer touch you now.”
You were suddenly aware of the tear rolling down your face and the tear stains on your cheeks. Oh, you were crying. You rubbed your eyes and attempted to smile at the monster.
“T-thank you.” The tremble in your voice was as hidden as well as the tremble of your hands.
She smiled gently towards you, which is saying something because she was able to look gentle and friendly with fangs. Literal fangs.
“My name is Toriel, I am the caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through here every day making sure no one has fallen down, it has been quite a while since a human has fallen down here.”
“I’m Jordan, you’re uh, not a friendliness pellet fan are you?” You joked weakly.
Toriel smiled at you, a little confused. You guess she didn’t hear anything fuckwy had to say.
“I’ve never heard of such a thing child, it sounds silly.”
You couldn’t stop the smile that worked its way onto your face.
“Yeah, I know right? Stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of.”
Toriel held her hand out towards you and you took it with only a little bit of hesitation. Flowey if anything showed that you can’t be too trusting down here but…Toriel has been nothing but sweet. A genuine friendless, nothing about it felt forced. Plus she doesn’t even know anything about that friendliness pellet shit.
You gasped, remembering that you had gotten hit. You haven’t felt pain or anything. Feeling your arm and looking down at your legs, you saw no wounds, only dried blood and small holes in your clothes where you had been hit.
“What..did you..how?” You couldn’t even form a sentence. How was this even possible?
Toriel let out a small laugh, covering her hand over her mouth.
“I couldn’t guide you through the catacombs injured, come let us leave this room.”
The two of you walked through another archway, and this room was a lot bigger than the last. It was actually kind of nice, there were a lot of red flowers, two smancy looking staircases and a bright yellow thingie? Toriel just walked by as if it was nothing out of the usual, so you just shrugged it off. Shit, you were just attacked by a flower and saved by a goat. That’s got to be the least weird thing you’ve encountered so far. Ignoring it, you followed Toriel into the next room.
“Welcome to your new home, Jordan. Allow me to educate you in the operations of the ruins.”
You watched, mouth opened wide shamefully, as Toriel stepped on some pressure pads and then pulled a lever to unlock the door. Your stomach dropped. Oh god, please don’t let this be going where you think it is..
“The ruins are full of puzzles-“
You groaned in horror.
Toriel smiled at me, half amuse and half apologetic. “Are you not too fond of puzzles Jordan?”
This place was absolute hell. There were puzzles literally everywhere. Thank god for sweet, sweet, goat-angel Toriel who has been basically solving these for you because you literally have no critical thinking skills. In your defense though, the teachers always had let your classmates and you skip the critical thinking skills textbook questions.
Your stunted development was on their hands. You sincerely hope Toriel didn’t see the dull incomprehension that reflected within your eyes each time a puzzle drew near. She most likely did and that is why she just went ahead and solved them for you. Ugh, so sweet. Even though she made you walk a WHOLE hallway by yourself.
It felt wrong to be sarcastic towards Toriel, even if it was just in your thoughts, she is too pure to make fun of. She literally taught you to fight by talking to monsters, like aw. That isn’t have you defend yourself, although it did work on that frog thing. Or it was working until Toriel stepped in with her glare of death.
You sigh, resting your head fully on the pillar you’re sitting against. Toriel had left a little a while ago to take care of some ‘business’ and you had been waiting here for her to get back like she asked.
But, god it was taking forever.
You wanted to just go off on your own but, the idea of getting lost or hurt was too daunting for you. Plus there were puzzles out there. You looked down at the phone Toriel gave you, maybe you should call?
Grinning, you dialed up her number, maybe she will be done with whatever she was doing.
“Hello?”
“Sup’ Tori.” That was okay to call her right? You are friends, like she did puzzles for you. That creates a bond stronger than blood.
“Oh, Jordan!” Toriel sounded happy, you guess the answer to whether you can call her Tori was a yes. “You have not left the room, have you? There are a few puzzles I have to explain and it would be dangerous to try and solve them yourself.”
“Don’t worry, I am not going anywhere near a puzzle.”
You could hear a snicker from her end of the phone. “Of course, I have nothing to worry about do I? Please wait for me, alright?”
“Will do ma’am!”
How could I disobey that?
Ten minutes later you were wandering around.
You felt a little bit of shame but look okay, you aren’t a patient person, there was an attempt.
In the next room there was another one of those frog things. It let out a ribbit once it caught your gaze. Um. Maybe it was saying hello?
You wave towards it awkwardly, and then continue on your way. There was no way you were venturing into the opening next to the monster. Nope. Definitely not straying from this path. You could get lost or even worse, there could be a puzzle. Oh hey, another one of those yellow thingies.
You stopped and stared at it curiously. It look exactly the same as the one you saw earlier with Toriel. It even sparkled the same way. You wonder what the deal with that was. Maybe it isn’t that strange, the red flowers were also everywhere too. Something told you though, that it wasn’t the same.
You should poke it.
You watched it shine at you tauntingly.
You should totally poke it.
As soon as you touched it, a warmth went through you. It flowed throughout you, from your head to all the way down to your toes. You felt like you could do anything at all, regardless of what it was. You felt DETERMINED.
You let go of the shiny and stood still as the feeling left you. That was…that was some kind of high. You squeeze your upper arms, uncomfortable. Doing so made you notice the holes in your cardigan were gone. Uneasiness filled you, drugs weren’t something to mess with. And whatever this was...went beyond that. You definitely weren’t going to poke one of those again. You’d rather do like 50 puzzles and eat two-thirds of a cup of dirt.
Well, that wasn’t fun. There was no point in dwelling though, you would be here all day. With that in mind, you kept going. At least, you tried to continue on. In your way was a fairy creature, a whimsum, your mind whispered to you.
The floated there meekly, which you have no idea how that is being accomplished. How do you float meekly? You and the Whimsum stared at each other awkwardly, you trying to decide what to do and them not attacking for some reason. You guess the only way to handle this is, um, manners?
“Excuse me.”
The Whimsum floated away meekly, dropping a gold coin in the process.
Whoa. Is that like actually gold? Picking up the coin, you tried bending it. Oh, that was definitely not bending. How did people even test to see if something was real gold? Didn’t they do that thing where they bite it or something? That probably wouldn’t be a good idea though. You just picked it up off the ground and what if the Whimsum didn’t wash their hands recently or something?
You shoved the coin in your pocket and went on your way.
You seriously hate puzzles so much. If you fall through one more hole in the ground or have to deal with anymore sassy-ass rocks, so help you. Why are there so many holes and spikes here any ways, like who took the time even to put these here?
The next room was fairly empty, just a mouse hole, some cheese and a shiny-
“Nope, Nope, nope! Not today shiny.”
You power walk yourself to the next room. Which was also small, just some red flowers and a ghost saying “zzzz” out loud repeatedly. Same ghost dude, same.
As much as you related to lying on the ground and doing nothing whilst pretending to be asleep, the ghost was in your way. You crossed your arms. Guess you were going to have to ask them to move.
“Excuse me ghost sir, but I am in need of passage.”
Perfect. Absolute A plus work there, Jordan. Your politeness knows no bounds.
You felt my soul being pushed out of your chest. Ugh, you should have just hopped over the ghost or something because you was not feeling another battle with a monster. Especially one that doesn’t appreciate manners.
“Um, Sorry I didn’t mean to uh, wake you. I don’t really want to fight right now, can I just like walk past you or…?” You shot the ghost a friendly smile. He began to cry. You tried to dodge his tears but you got hit once or twice. You just couldn't help that you’re slow and can’t smile in a comforting friendly way. There was an attempt okay!
“Hey, wanna hear a sick joke,” Humor solved everything, you twirled your hair and pulled it across your upper lip, “I mustache you to move!”
That actually wasn’t funny what-so-ever but it seemed to cheer the little guy up some. You braced yourself for another attack. You were going to dodge this time, this cardigan was too expensive to be burnt by those acid tears.
The attack never came.
“Sorry, I am just not feeling up to it right now.”
Bless his little heart.
“I feel ya, being as great as we are really wears you down.”
He seemed less timid now.
“I have a joke too,” His tears began shooting upwards and formed into a hat. “I call it dapper blook, my normal name is Nastablook.”
You couldn’t back my obnoxious laughter. “That’s comedy gold man! My name is Jordan, nice to meet you!”
“It was nice meeting someone nice in the ruins today, I usually come to just get away. I guess I should get out of your way now..”
You waved goodbye as you watched Nastablook fade away. Absolutely. Amazing. You and this ghost literally just bonded over meme’s. That has to be the best ghost you’ve ever met. Like didn’t even do any of that haunting shit. Nastablook needs a worlds best ghost coffee mug.
God, you are so glad to be down with those stupid switch puzzles. You just didn’t have the memory for that kind of stuff. Your shit memory also earned many bruises from falling through floors. “Don’t step on the leaves” your ass.
You stare blankly at the tree in front of you. You were really tired…you..just want to go home. You shake your head. Whatever. Nothing to do but go forward, Jordan. Stop staring at the stupid, tree punk.
“Oh dear, that took longer than I thought it would.”
Oh hey, Toriel must be staring at this ugly tree too. You peek around the tree and waved at her.
“Hey Toriel! Sorry for not listening and all, I kind of got bored,” You shrugged, “I totally should of though, look at all these nasty bruises. Those fake floors really got me.” You laugh, smiling at her.
Toriel looked shocked to see you but then smiles back before rushing over to you.
“Oh dear, those indeed look nasty, let me heal those for you.” She shook her head. “Do not apologize Jordan, I should have not left you alone for so long.”
“Don’t sweat it Toriel, I would have found a way to get hurt regardless- whoa! How are you doing that? That’s awesome!” You watched as your bruises faded away where Toriel’s hands touched.
She blushed a bit. “Oh it’s just a little bit of magic, same as before.” She grinned, “Now that we are done getting rid of those bruises, if you would follow me, I have surprise for you!”
Bless this sweet goat’s heart. Also, healing magic was totally awesome.
You follow her into her home (deciding to just ignore the shiny that was in front of it). Toriel seemed really excited to show you her surprise. She was so nice.
As soon as you both entered the house, the scent of something sweet hit you like a train. Seeing your face, Toriel beamed.
“Do you smell that? Surprise! It is a Butterscotch-Cinnamon pie!”
Oooh, so that is why she asked whether you liked butterscotch and cinnamon. So considerate. You wonder what pie she would have made if you hadn’t like either.
“I thought we might celebrate your arrival, I want you to have a nice time living here. Tomorrow I will even make a snail pie for us.”
Wait what. Living here? Snail pie?
“But that is not all, I have one more surprise!”
Toriel led me down a hallway, you follow dumbly. Your mind was still reeling from what Toriel had said. You both stopped in front of a door.
“Here it is! A room just for you, I hope you like it!” She pat your shoulder and shot you an award winning smile. Then she blinked.
“I should probably go check on the pie, make yourself at home, dear!” Toriel rushed toward where ever the kitchen was, leaving you to stare blankly at the door. Was this all really happening? One shaky hand took hold of the door knob.
With a twist the door opened, leaving you with a view of the room Toriel gifted you. You instantly focus on the bed. You throw yourself on top of it.
There, sprawled out on the bed a kind goat had gifted you, the reality of your situation sunk in. You had fallen underground somehow, gotten attack by a flower and had to solve a shit-ton of puzzles. Now, Toriel wants you to live with her? You are sure that living with her wouldn’t be bad, she is the nicest goat you’ve ever met after all. They was she was talking with such finality in her voice, it filled you with unease. Did that mean there was no way out? For the first time since all of this started, a tear rolled down your cheek.
You were so scared.