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Darkness. That’s all Clover could see. As for what they could feel: something cold. And hard. Maybe stone? That was the last surface they were on before their consciousness faded, albeit with a few leaves underneath. They seemed to recall something or someone approach and try to speak with them, but they couldn’t really understand a word of it before they…
They died.
But… then… how could they be here, wherever “here” is? They could move, so it had to be somewhere physical. And rather cramped. They could feel pressure on all sides, as though they were being squished. Particularly at their head and feet. They tried to move around to see if they could learn where they were.
THUD
Ok, a very closed space. Got it. They noticed a slight sliver of light and reached for it, finding it to be a stone slab. They tried pushing it back to see if they could get free of their strange confinement.
Success.
They pushed it back just enough for them to be able to get out. At which point they promptly fell flat on their own face. They stood up, rather wobbly, and looked back, their face shifting in horror.
It was a coffin with their name engraved on it.
They quickly decided to get away and try to find some place to go, but everything felt rather… weird. They kept tripping and falling over, and their vision still seemed to be off. After all, their hands were yellow now! And yet they still kept moving, up that first flight of stairs to find themself near the throne room, or so the sign next to it said.
(So you’re in a castle…) they thought. (Probably that ASGORE’s castle. Which means you should be a bit close to where you died… You should go check it out.)
They kept going, through a strange golden hallway to an elevator. Naturally, when one sees a mysterious elevator, they simply must go through. In doing so, they went into New Home, very close to the pink-leaved tree that they died under.
Except, it was strangely gone. Roots and everything.
Clover pushed forward (backward?) until reaching the elevator they went through with Martlet not too long ago. For them, anyways. They had no clue how much time had actually passed. After they got off the elevator, they were back in UG Apartments. Or… uh… MTT Resort?
While staring at the strange fountain of a box spewing water, Clover happened to look down at the shiny floor and froze.
They saw how they had changed. And what’s more, they recognized it.
They had chocolatey brown fur with a sandy beige trail going from the tip of their new snout, down their torso, and to the underside of a tail, the tip of which was a four-point star. Their hands had turned into yellow claws, they had wings on their back that they suspected were too small to use, tufts of fur on each side of their head, long extra-brown ears at the very top, and yellow freckle-like spots on their snout, brown half of their tail, and a few on the membranes of their wings.
At least they still had their old clothes that they had on them. Except the shoes. The shirt was probably why they didn’t notice that their arms were also covered in fur now.
However, despite all of this, they had already known this look, since they had met someone who looked exactly like them. They even had the same clothes and name.
They were now absolutely sure that they had already met themselves before, back in the Wild East. In hindsight, it was rather obvious that that Clover was Clover, but why would anyone think that there would be two of one person in the same place at the same time? Or just in general?
Clover wondered, if they could find Clover, could they be able to pass each other off as being of the same species? They had met monsters that looked identical and had the same name, it wouldn’t be too hard to pull off. But at the same time, Clover remembered that Clover…
(Ugh, this is getting confusing. Calling the other you by the same name the whole time just feels really weird, even if it was correct. You have to think of something else. What was it that Ceroba had called them, again? Wasn’t it something like… Kurōbā? Yeah, that was it.)
(Oh. Oh, you just got why she did that. Kurōbā is the Japanese word for “clover.” That explains all of it. How did you immediately understand that? No, stop, back to the original topic.)
Clover remembered that Kurōbā already had a family in Ceroba. Things could get weird for them both if they met up, since Kurōbā had probably not mentioned to Ceroba that there was someone who looked just like them since they didn’t know at the time. So it might be better if they just don’t meet up at all.
Speaking of not meeting up, Clover noticed that they hadn’t encountered very many monsters at all. Which is weird for a supposed resort. Then again, the prices seemed to be insanely high. It did seem rather late though… maybe they all just went to bingo.
Clover decided to just take the time to explore the Underground. Wouldn’t have to be afraid about dying again if they were a monster now. They took an elevator down to a new, unexplored part of Hotland. It took them right in front of a white box of a building labelled…
Oh. That’s where Ceroba had wanted to take them.
Clover decided to just move on, finding themself by a river with a person on a surfboard-looking thingie. The person took Clover on a free ride, bringing them all the way to Snowdin. Specifically a new part of Snowdin they hadn’t seen before. It was a whole new place! And soft snow to cushion any and all trips due to having just been revived! (That’s why they were tripping, right? It’ll wear off in a day or two. Hopefully.)
Eventually, Clover came across a purple door that reminded them of the one in Dalv’s house. Perhaps it was another entrance to the Ruins place. As one does when they find a large and quite frankly foreboding door, they went inside.
It was a long walk, but eventually Clover reached familiar ground, as they had found the room with the floor they fell through (though the hole seemed to have been patched up). A bit further ahead they found the place they fell onto: that patch of golden flowers. And in the middle of it was… Flowey! But he looked… a bit sulky, all wilted and stuff.
“How many times do I have to tell you to leave me alone, Fri—” he said, stopping when he turned around towards the footsteps. He looked a bit confused, so Clover decided to give him a little wave. It still took Flowey a bit to process it, but eventually he just yelled out, “CLOVER?!?!”
Clover moved closer to Flowey in order to talk more easily. “Wha— Clover, I— How are you here? Do you remember anything at all?” Flowey asked.
Clover closed their eyes to think. They remembered dying… then there was a bit of a blank… they did remember being able to move while as just a SOUL for a bit, and then… Flowey using them and the other SOULs.
Clover stood up and glared at Flowey, the latter of whom stuttering out “Wh— Come on, pal! What’s a little fun between friends, huh?”
Both Clover and Flowey stood there for a bit before Flowey tried to make his escape, saying “Gotta go!”
Luckily more animalistic instincts kicked in for Clover, who pounced and grabbed Flowey before he could escape.
“CLOVER, LET ME GO!” he yelled. “I’M SERIOUS, IF YOU DON’T, I’LL KILL YOU!
I’M NOT KIDDING!”
After a brief tussle, the two wore each other out.
“I’m not gonna apologize for using you, if that’s what you want,” Flowey said. “I mean, I’d been doing it since we first met, so nothing’s really changed.”
Clover glared.
“Ugh, fine. ‘I’m sorry.’ Is that what you wanted? Are you happy?”
Clover gave a slight smile.
“You know, it’s nice to see you actually show emotions. No more dumb baby face all the time.”
As if mocking him, Clover stared at Flowey with the aforementioned “dumb baby face.”
“I hate you.”
—
It had been about two-ish weeks since Clover had met up with Flowey. They had decided not to leave for the Surface (since Flowey had told them that the barrier had broken), as they were rather scared. Of what, they didn’t say, but it was something that they seemed to not want to see after having been dead for three years.
That was, until Frisk came by.
Apparently, Frisk came by to try and convince Flowey to come to the surface with them, which he stubbornly refused. This time Clover was there too, and there was more success. All it took was a conversation with Clover (Chara did most of the talking) to get Flowey to begrudgingly agree.
The first place the Frisk had brought Clover to was the seven statues made to commemorate the seven humans who had died in the Underground, from Chara all the way up to Clover. Upon nearing their statue, Clover started overhearing a conversation.
“Hm… I can’t tell if anything looks off…” Martlet pondered. She turned to her companion and asked, “What do you think, Kanako?”
Kanako studied the statue carefully, up and down. “Mmmm…” She turned to Martlet. “I think it looks good!”
“Great!” Martlet exclaimed. “I’d expect nothing less from my apprentice!”
Kanako looked at the other statues made. “I’m glad King Asgore got all these built for the kids, but I can’t believe he let you work on Clover’s. You don’t even work with stone.”
“Well…” Martlet chuckled weakly. “It’s more like your mom threatened him into agreeing… I don’t think she trusted anyone else with Clover’s statue. Speaking of, let’s start heading home!”
“Alright, Aunt Martlet!”
(So that’s Kanako. She looks a bit different than when you saw her in Ceroba’s memories. More… muted in terms of colors. Are those snakes in her hair and tail? You wonder what happened.)
Clover took a step back and accidentally stepped on a stick, snapping it, and alerting Martlet and Kanako. Clover quickly turned around, a little bit scared.
“Dude, what are you hiding for?” they heard Chara ask.
“Oh-Hey!” Martlet called out to them. “You’re Frisk, aren’t ya? That kid that saved us. It’s nice to meet you! It’s nice to meet you, by the way. It’s awesome up here!”
Clover was a bit relieved that she didn’t notice them, but continued to look away.
“What the hell are you doing?” Flowey asked.
“Get out there, coward,” Chara added.
“Hey, are you from the East?” Martlet called, clearly to Clover this time. “Are you lost? I can help you get back.”
Clover nervously turned to greet Martlet. She had already met someone who looked like them, and had known that one for three years now, she was bound to see that it wasn’t them. She was bound to realize that it was Clover and not—
“Oh, Kuroba.”
(Ehn?)
“Hey, Clo,” Kanako said. “Thought you were out with Mom. Guessing she sent you to come collect us?”
Clover was a bit confused. There was no way that Kurōbā, or Kuroba, as they heard was the pronunciation now… and also apparently their regular name as well? There was no way that Kuroba still looked the same. At the very least they had to have become taller than five feet. Or five and a half considering the ears. So how could they confuse Clover for Kuroba? They decided to play along and just nod to Kanako’s question.
“Gotcha,” Kanako said. “We were gonna drop by Uncle Star before heading home, if you wanna come with us. He should be making a few finishing touches up on the new saloon. Dina’s already there as well.”
Clover turned to Frisk, who just shrugged, waved, and then left. Guess Clover had to head with Martlet and Kanako.
It was a rather short flight in Martlet’s basket from the statues to the outskirts of town, where the saloon was being built.
“We’re here!” Martlet said cheerfully.
(Surely, if anyone is going to recognize you as you and not Kuroba, it’d be Starlo. Right?)
As soon as the trio (Group? The snakes in Kanako’s hair and tail seemed to have sentience. Clover didn’t know what to make of it.) made it inside, Clover could immediately hear what Starlo was muttering to himself.
“Hmm... Lookin’ pretty good... Might be done soon.” He noticed that the visitors were there and turned around to greet them. “Oh, hey there! Didn’t see ya come in! Nice a ya to join us.”
“Hey, Uncle Star,” Kanako returned the greeting.
“Hm?” Starlo looked at Clover.
(There you go, finally someone who notices you and is going to say something abou—)
“Oh, howdy Kid. Didn’t know you were with ‘em. Thought you were out with yer mother.”
(EHN?)
“Well, they showed up shortly after Kanako and I finished our…” Martlet looked a bit down. Made sense considering they still thought Clover was dead. “Our project.”
“Oh, yeah…” The mood seemed to be a bit downcasted.
“How’s it lookin’, anyhow?” Starlo asked.
“It looks great, if I do say so myself,” Martlet said, bringing the mood back up.
“Ahem,” Kanako scoffed, with a bit of a slight elbow jab into Martlet.
“Kanako was a big help,” Martlet added on. “What with all the hands-on-deck they can provide.”
“That’sss right,” one of Kanako’s hair-snakes spoke up.
“Don’t forget about usss!” another said.
Starlo turned to Clover with a confused face.
(Ok, surely now someone will notice you, right? Starlo’s face is filled with confusion, he’s going to notice.)
“Say, Kid... I gotta ask… Why’re ya wearin’ yer old clothes?”
(EEEEEEHHHHHHNNNNN?????)
“Oh, yeah... that IS strange,” Martlet finally caught on. “And how do they fit?”
(Because… you’re not… Wait, how did she just notice?)
“Oh wait,” Starlo said. Clover was hoping it was because he had noticed. “Didn't ya find out you can shapeshift recently?”
(EEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNNN?????????)
“Oh yeah, they did,” Martlet added.
“Exactly. Could be that they’re tryin’ it out with a more familiar look.”
Clover didn’t have the energy to provide an internal reaction anymore. They nodded to go along with whatever they were saying, albeit a bit confused considering the shapeshifting thing.
“Gotta say, though,” Starlo said. “Yer a lot less talkative than normal.”
“Oh, well soooorry,” a voice came from behind Clover said. If they were still a human, they know their face would’ve gone pale. While everyone else looked towards the source of the voice, Clover ducked behind the counter to try and stay out of view of themself.
“K-KID?!” Starlo exclaimed in confusion.
“Jeez,” Kuroba said in joking annoyance, “I don’t say hello the moment I walk in, and you say that I’m ‘less talkative than normal?’”
“Wha—” Starlo stammered in confusion. “W-Where didja come from?”
“I was out shopping with Ka-san, where else would I have been?” Kuroba replied.
“It’s true,” Ceroba confirmed.
“B-But… if you’re there…” Starlo turned towards Clover. “Then who’s this?”
“Hm? Who’s who?” Kuroba asked.
Clover realized there wasn’t really anything they could do, so they turned the corner to face the other them.
(How in the world did the two of you get mixed up?!)
Kuroba did look similar to Clover, considering they had all the same monster traits, but there were a few very major differences. Kuroba had dyed their hair blonde, had some hair covering their right eye, wore a ribbon like Ceroba’s to hold their ponytail in the back, was wearing what seemed to be a leather jacket (Is that… your-slash-their old vest?), had ripped jeans, a white tank top underneath, was notably a bit taller, and had a deeper voice.
“Oh, hey Clover,” Kuroba said calmly. They turned to Starlo. “So, Uncle Star, what was that ab—” The realization hit them like a brick as they took a step back. “WHA-WU-WO-D-D-C-CLOVER?! I... duh... wuh...”
“So ya know ‘em?” Starlo asked.
“Y-Yeah... I do... Um…” Kuroba answered, still in shock.
Kuroba looked around nervously, trying to scope the place out for anyone they didn’t trust. It was just Dina in the saloon with all of them. If there was anyone outside of those that Kuroba considered their family that they trusted, Dina was definitely top of the list.
“There’s no strangers around, it should be fine,” they whispered to themself. Kuroba turned back to everyone else. “W-Well... we all know them.”
“We do?” Martlet asked.
“Y-Yeah, that’s... that’s Clover,” Kuroba answered. “You know… Clover, Clover.”
“So you mean to say…” Ceroba caught on.
“Eeyup,” Kuroba confirmed.
“But… they look just like…” Martlet said, looking between Clover and Kuroba.
“EEYUP,” Kuroba confirmed a bit louder. “So, uh, hi! Name’s Kuroba. Uh. And I had met most of you before you met me.”
There was an array of emotions on everyone’s faces. Kanako seemed… relatively unsurprised, surprisingly. There was some shock, but it mostly looked like she had already known to some capacity.
Martlet seemed almost on the verge of tears, but managing to hold them in. Clover guessed that she had just missed them a lot.
Somehow Starlo seemed even more on the verge, like if he started crying then there would be a new Nile River.
Ceroba’s was the most surprising, as she just seemed rather disappointed in Kuroba. Clover thought that maybe she was trying to not show her shock, for some reason. Perhaps because she realized that she had unknowingly tried to kill her child.
Kuroba continued. “And those I did meet tried to kill me.” They turned to Clover. “Ain’t that right Clover?”
Clover just shrugged their shoulders in response. They weren’t sure why, it just felt like something they had to do.
“Thanks, Clover,” Kuroba mumbled. “Look,” they brought their voice back to its normal level, “this is a wild thing to try and lie about, right? Like, I COULD have just said ‘they’re my sibling from before.’ But that would have been… Well that wouldn’t’ve sounded good.”
“So you’ve been lying to us for years?” Ceroba asked, shaking her head.
“Yes. No. Um,” Kuroba was flustered. “Anything about where I was from and who I was: Yes. Anything else: No. I would not have been brave enough to make a fake backstory. And then have to back it up, somehow. Speaking of which… We should probably try and figure one out for me and Clover. But that can wait until later, though. So… new sibling?”
Kuroba turned to look between Ceroba and Martlet. “Ma? Ka-san? I mean, you’ve done so once before. It’d be kinda rude to decline, right?”
Ceroba crossed her arms. “We don’t really have a choice, do we?” she asked.
“Realistically, prolly not.”
She sighed. “Very well. I was getting some déjà vu, anyways.”
“Ok,” Kuroba clapped their hands, “guess we should head home then, huh? We did buy some perishables.”
They all said their goodbyes to Starlo and proceeded to leave, Clover taking the longest as they were trying to walk carefully to not trip over themself. When they had left the saloon, they were surprised to see Kuroba there waiting for them.
“Heh, took ya long enough,” Kuroba said. “The others went on ahead, we’ll catch up. This gives me the perfect opportunity to…” they paused for a moment to be dramatic. “Exposit on you! But doing it while standing around is kinda boring. Gotta be efficient, y’know? I’ll meetcha at the corner up ahead. Getcha a bit more used to walkin’ with a tail, and all. And then the exposition begins.”
As Kuroba said, they went to the corner and then turned to watch and wait for Clover. They decided to take it slowly once again for the same reason. When they made it, Kuroba gave them a reassuring smile.
“Hey, congrats on gettin’ here without falling flat on your face. Granted, it wasn’t really that far… (Plus it woulda been really funny.) But still, credit where credit’s due. Anyways, now it’s time for me to start expositing. So c’mon, let’s get goin’.”
Kuroba turned around and cleared their throat before starting to walk and talk to Clover.
“So to start, Ma and Ka-san. See, after you died, Ma started to feel lonely living alone despite not having had a roommate before. So Ka-san and I went back to the manor so that she could move in with us. Some time later, they started dating. Apparently I was the cause, or at least a catalyst.
“Eventually, the two got married. It happened, like, a few months before the barrier broke. Anyways, ever since they got married I started calling ‘em ‘Ma’ and ‘Ka-san’ since it’d be confusing to call them both ‘Mom,’ ya know? Kan calls Ma by name or ‘Aunt Martlet’ since that’s how she called her before. They’d met when Chujin was alive.
“Another thing that's happened recently was that I reconnected with our old friends. Admittedly, a bit scary, since I wasn’t sure how much they’d changed. Thankfully they’re still the same old dorks from before. The other week, they started on the topic of ‘monstersonas,’ or how they’d look as a monster.
“Anyways, they then asked me what my ‘humansona’ would be. Given I already knew how I’d look from three years ago, I just sorta described that but with my current clothes, hair length, hair style, and dye. And then while talking ‘bout it, I suddenly changed. Just like…”
Kuroba snapped their fingers, turned around, and, in a puff of smoke, suddenly changed their appearance wholesale into exactly as they had described.
“That.”
Clover was quite literally taken aback with shock, seeing Kuroba change from a monster to a human.
“Pft, ha! Your face! Priceless.”
Kuroba changed back and the two continued walking.
“In any case, what else, what else… Maybe my name. Because I’m sure you’re wondering about the change. After you died, it felt a bit weird to continue going by your name, even if it was my own. Actually I had thought about changing it while you were still alive. Anyways, I decided to go by Ka-san’s nickname for me (which I don’t even recall her ever using around me), that being Kurōbā. You know, since that’s just literally your name in Japanese. Then, after about a year or so, I decided to swap to Kuroba. Mainly because having to elongate the o and a were a little bit annoying. So I changed it from the katakana クローバー to the kanji 黒羽, which literally means ‘black feather,’ but can just as easily also mean ‘dark feather,’ which we have on our wings.”
Clover looked back to confirm, and sure enough, there were darkly colored feathers that seemed to form a line near the bottom, as well as the tips of their wings being that darker brown.
“Anything more? Oh, Kan. So no doubt you’ve seen the changes to Kanako. I mean, you first saw her in Ka-san’s memories during your fight with her and then you meet Kan yourself and he (yes, I said he) is completely different. Completely gray, goopy body with that pink eye in a socket-shaped… I’m not even sure, probably pattern, serpentine companions in their darker gray hair and one who just is the tail, and two lighter gray ears that look sorta like ours (I should probably ask it about that later.) Back to the story.
“See, Kan’s something that… Doctor Alphys,” there was some disdain in Kuroba’s voice there, “calls an ‘Amalgamate.’ In short: A monster whose body is composed of multiple monsters due to an excess of something called ‘Determination.’ The reason that Kan’s one is because Alphys used Determination to try and help the fallen down wake up.
“It did work for a time, if her word is to be trusted, but due to the fact that there was a decent amount pumped into them, their monster SOULs and bodies couldn’t handle it and started to melt. We are made of magic, after all.
“Anyways, Kan’s body is made from her and a whole family of Sir Slithers, those snake guys in jars from the Dunes. An interesting possible side-effect is that Kan doesn’t really care about what pronouns she uses. I mean, some monsters who used she/her are in there (like Kan), some used he/him, they’re literally multiple people so they/them, (apparently Alphys treated them sorta like objects or something, using it/its for them all), does not care. I try my best to alternate between any set, but I will admit I do tend to use she/her more often considering I’ve thought of her as my younger sister for three years. At least it’s not misgendering.
“You know, I wonder if Kan would mind using neopronouns. We’ll have to try that out some time. I mean we’d have to try and come up with some, but it could probably use whatever until something seems to click. And if Kan doesn’t like them then I won’t use them. Just as simple as that.
“Oh, just remembered something else about Determination. So I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but our SOULs are very unique, since they seem to be a mix of human and monster. Makes sense, duh, but still interesting. Our SOULs can safely hold onto Determination to an extent: we have a limit to the amount we can have before we risk Amalgamating like Kan. How can you tell you’re nearing the limit? You’ll start experiencing some Palpitations.”
Clover’s face became rather confused. Did Kuroba mean heart palpitations? SOULs are shaped like hearts. But there was something about the way they said it that made Clover feel like it had a capital P.
“Palpitations are extremely dangerous and can risk us falling down. I think my first experience was after I learned that Ka-san had sent Kan to the Lab. It won’t make us Fall right away, but we will collapse. There are usually signs, but if we get extremely stressed or overworked, it can almost happen in an instant. Basically it’s a unique version of a heart attack for us. So yeah, make sure to rest properly, and if you feel your body start to go heavy, tell Ma or Ka-san and they’ll immediately get you some help.
“Um, I think that’s pretty much everythin’ important. Which is great since we just arrived.”
Kuroba gestured towards a large house that looked slightly reminiscent of the old manor in the Underground.
“Impressive, huh? Ma managed to get a permit to build a house and has been working tirelessly on it. Only finished it recently, so we’re still in the process of moving in. You came at the right time.”
Kuroba guided Clover to the entrance before stopping at the top of the steps to the porch. They turned around and extended a hand.
“Welcome home, Clover.”