A/N: DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything! I don't even own like half of this fic, since half of it's dialogue from the actual game! This is more of a theory fic than anything else, so don't think that I really own anything!
Chapter 1
Part 1- The Ruins
Long ago, two races ruled over Earth: Humans and Monsters. One day, war broke out between the two races. After a long battle, the humans were victorious. They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell. Many years later…
Mt. Ebott, 201X: Legends say that those who climb the mountain never return…
A loud thud disturbs me from my sleep. I blink open my eyes to see a kid, lying face down not far from me. They aren't moving. I rub my eyes, and think that I must have been sleeping a very long time. Wait, not asleep. Dead. I'm dead. The kid shifts a little, and looks up. They must see me, they're looking straight at me. I wonder if I'm invisible. Neither of us speak. I walk over to them, and offer a hand.
"Need some help?" I ask. They don't say anything, or make any motion to accept my help. "Hey, I'm trying to help you. It's kind of rude to ignore me," I say, snapping my fingers. They finally take my hand, after missing it a couple times. At least I am corporeal. I pull them to their feet. They're kind of wobbly, and they haven't let go of my hand. They look around, eyes barely open, if at all.
"It's dark," They whisper.
"That's because your eyes are closed, stupid," I say. They don't respond. Or open their eyes. I begin to tug their hand, and they follow easily.
"Where are we going?" They ask. I shrug.
"We can't stay here forever, I guess," I answer.
"Could you describe where we are?" They ask, after we've walked a couple steps. I stop, and they run into me a little bit.
"Um, sure? You're in a dark cavern, with a really tall ceiling. You landed in a bed of flowers. Oh, and there's a couple of pillars to the sides," I say.
"Thank you." They nod.
"Yeah, but why?" I ask.
"I'm blind," They answer simply. I blink for a couple seconds.
"Oh," We walk a little bit in silence, down a dark stone hall. I feel like I remember it from somewhere, but I can't place it. "Then would you like for me to continue to narrate?" I ask.
They nod. "Yes, please."
"You're approaching some pillars, an entrance into a new room. It's still very dark." As we step into the next room, a small flower is sitting in a patch of grass.
"Howdy!" The flower says. It has a face. Are flowers supposed to have faces? I think not. "I'm FLOWEY. FLOWEY the FLOWER!" It says.
The kid looks at me in slight alarm, and I tell them, "It's a flower, sitting in a patch of grass. It has a face, and it's smiling." The flower doesn't acknowledge that I spoke, which I think is also odd.
"Hmmm. You're new to the underground, aren'cha? Golly, you must be so confused. Someone ought to teach you how things work around here!" I stare at the flower in curiosity. "I guess little old me will have to do." I have a bad feeling about this. "Ready? Here we go!"
"The room got darker, and there's a heart floating in front of you," I tell the kid. They just nod. I wonder if I should explain to them the rules of combat?
"See that heart?" The flower asks the kid. I laugh a little at its choice of words. "That is your SOUL. The very culmination of your being!" The kid uses an outstretched hand to move the heart around a little. It looks like they know where the heart is without me having to tell them. Which is lucky, or else I'd have to basically fight for them. And where's the fun in that?
"Your SOUL starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain lots of LV." My attention drifts off a little, since I already know all this. But the flower continues. "What's LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course! You want some LOVE, don't you?"
"You really don't want any LOVE," I tell the kid. "It's a misleading name." They look at me in confusion.
"Don't worry, I'll share some with you!" The flower winks, and a pellet appears.
"Those are bad," I warn. "You don't want them, they'll hurt you."
"Down here, LOVE is shared through little white 'friendliness pellets'! Are you ready? Move around, get as many as you can!" Of course, the kid doesn't take my helpful advice, and runs straight into the pellets.
The flower's face turns borderline demonic. "The flower's face turned very scary-looking. Lots of teeth," I say nervously. The kid looks scared, and grips my hand tighter as they feel the tension in the room grow. A cut appears on their hand.
"You idiot," The flower says, its voice changed from before. "In this world, it's kill or BE killed." I nod in agreement.
"It's right, you know. That's the only way to live here." They just shake their head. The flower continues to ignore me.
"Why would ANYONE pass up an opportunity like this?!" A ring of pellets surrounds the kid's heart. They can evidently feel that, must be some kind of soul-seeing, or sensing thing. I don't really care. "DIE," The flower says, chuckling demonically.
As the circle closes in, and the kid grows more and more panicked, it stops. "The flower looks shocked. Some fire magic appeared! The flower is gone!" I smile. The kid shakely smiles back. A woman steps out, and my smile drops. I duck behind the kid's back, and crouch down so that she won't see me. I remember her. The kid turns around in confusion, and taps my head. "Um, yeah. A lady in a purple dress is here. She has long goat-ears, and is covered in white fur," I say, my eyes closed. I don't want to look at her. I still hate her too much. They turn their attention back to Toriel.
"What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth..." She says. "Ah, do not be afraid, my child. I am TORIEL, caretaker of the RUINS. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down." I guess that I'm the cause of that. I hadn't realized before that the place me and the kid woke up was the very same place I fell. "Are you looking for something?" She asks, as the kid turns to look down at me. They turn back to her and shake their head. "Well, you are the first human to come here in a long time. Come! I will guide you through the catacombs." She holds out her hand to the kid, and they take it hesitantly. "This way," She says, leading them down another black corridor.
I trail behind, wondering why Toriel hasn't acknowledged me yet. I mean, it's not like she wouldn't remember me, right? How long had I been dead? Can she just not see me? The kid could. Wait, actually they can't. I wonder if there's a reason they can hear me. Ah well, I'll just keep them around out of curiosity.
"You go through more pillars into a new room," I say. Toriel still doesn't do anything. "The walls are purple, and the floor is also purple. There's some dead leaves on the ground, and ahead is the entrance to the ruins." We all walk to the entrance, and the kid looks around. Even though they can't see. "Um, the shadow of the ruins looms above." I glance at the kid while Toriel waits at the top of the stairs. "Filling you with determination. And you're fully healed." They smile at me as the cut on their hand disappears. We move forwards. "That was a SAVE point," I say. We go up the stairs. "It's where you'll start again if you die." They look at me worriedly. "Don't worry, you probably won't die." We continue into the ruins.
"Welcome to your new home, innocent one. Allow me to educate you in the operation of the RUINS." Toriel says. She walks in a careful path over a series of tiles. The kid pokes me.
"Not important," I say. They stick their tongue out at me. "It's not," I whine. "She just walked over some tiles and flipped a lever. Everything's still purple, there's a sign on the wall."
"The ruins are full of puzzles," Toriel explains. "Ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them." I snicker again.
"Toriel left the room," I say. The kid walks up to the sign I mentioned, and pokes me. I roll my eyes. "It says: 'Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both walk not the middle road.' It's the key to the puzzle. You can't step on the middle tiles," I explain. They nod, and follow Toriel out of the room. "You're in a new room. There's vines on the walls, there's a couple of signs, and there's a bridge over a river. Toriel is a couple steps in front of you."
"To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches. Do not worry, I have labeled the ones you need to flip." Toriel walks down the room some. The kid walks up to the sign.
"It reads: 'Press [Z] to read signs!' Um… I guess… I don't know what that means," I admit. they walk to the other sign, on the wall. "Stay on the path." I read. "There's a path. I don't think it actually matters, to be honest," I shrug. Never mattered for me. They look at me weird. We walk over the bridge, and I point out a switch to their left. The walk over to it, while I read Toriel's note. "Please press this switch. -Toriel." We flip the switch. Toriel nods and walks a little farther down the room. We walk over another bridge, and to the next switch. "Please press this switch too. -Toriel," I read. We flip the switch.
"Splendid!" Toriel says. "I am proud of you, little one! Let us move to the next room." The kid beams at the praise, while I roll my eyes. They're not four, you know! They're like… I don't know, ten? We walk to the next room. "As a human living in the UNDERGROUND, monsters may attack you. You will need to be prepared for this situation. However, worry not! The process is simple. When you encounter a monster, you will enter a FIGHT. While you are in a FIGHT, strike up a friendly conversation. Stall for time. I will come to resolve the conflict. Practice talking to the dummy," She says.
We walk up to the dummy. "You encountered the dummy," I say. "You have four options, FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, and MERCY. Pretty self-explanatory."
"ACT," They say, and select the dummy.
"Check or talk?" I ask. I hate having to spell everything out for them. But without me, they'd get absolutely nowhere, and there wouldn't be anything interesting in this world.
"Check," They say.
"The Dummy has 0 Attack, and 0 Defense. A cotton heart and a button eye. You are the apple of my eye," I sigh. "...Dummy looks like it's going to fall over. Your turn again."
"Talk," They say.
"You talk to dummy... It doesn't seem much for conversation. Toriel seems happy with you." I look sideways at a grinning Toriel. "You won! You earned 0 XP and 0 gold."
"Ah, very good! You are very good," Toriel says. We continue into the next room. "There is another puzzle in this room… I wonder if you can solve it?"
"There's a path on the floor." I, of course, already know the solutions to all the puzzles. They haven't changed since I died. I won't give up the answers, though. "More through here, there's a sign on the wall. It says- wait, Froggit attacks you!" I'm cut off as we enter a FIGHT.
"Act," The kid says without hesitation.
"You can check, compliment, or threaten," I say.
"Compliment," They answer with a smile.
"The Froggit didn't understand what you said, but was flattered anyway," I say boredly. "Toriel appeared and scared the Froggit away." I feel like that's cheating. "You won! You earned 0 XP and 0 gold… Again." I continue where we were earlier. "Anyways, the sign says: 'The western room is the eastern room's blueprint.' There's a floor made of spikes in front of Toriel, be careful," I warn. We all approach the puzzle when Toriel stops us.
"This is the puzzle, but… Here, take my hand for a moment," She says. Oh, this is so cheating. Unfair. She guides the kid through the spike maze perfectly, as I walk behind them. "Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now," She says. I scoff. We enter the next room. "You have done excellently thus far, my child. However… I have a difficult request to ask of you…. I would like you to walk to the end of the room by yourself. Forgive me for this." With that, Toriel runs away from us. The atmosphere grows surprisingly very tense, very fast.
"Don't be scared, you baby. Just walk forwards," I say. They hold out their hand. I take it and pull them quickly through the room. This is ridiculous. We stay on the path, though. It's a long room. Finally we reach the end, where a pillar suspiciously lurks. "Toriel came out from behind the pillar," I explain. The tense atmosphere dissolves instantly.
"Greetings, my child. Do not worry, I did not leave you. I was merely behind this pillar the whole time. Thank you for trusting me. However, there was an important reason for this exercise… To test your independence. I must attend to some business, and you must stay alone for a while. Please remain here. It's dangerous to explore by yourself. I have an idea." Toriel rustles in her pockets for a second. "I will give you a cell phone. If you have a need for anything, just call. Be good, alright?"
"She's gone," I say. The kid looks down, disappointed. They move to sit down. "What are you doing?" I ask.
"Sitting."
"I mean why."
"She said to stay here," They say.
"And yet, we're obviously not doing that," I say, rolling my eyes again.
"Why not?"
"Because no. I'm leaving you if you don't follow." I turn and walk out of the room. "I'm going!" I call. "I'm gone…" I whisper.
"Wait!" I smile. The kid runs up to me, and I hold their hand again. "You're a bad person." They frown.
"I've been called worse," I shrug.
"That's-" They're cut off when the phone rings.
"Hello? This is Toriel. You have not left the room, have you?" She asks. The kid shoots a glare in my general direction as I frantically shake my head. But they can't see that, can they?
"Just say no!" I say out loud.
"...No," They answer.
"Good. There are a few puzzles ahead that I have yet to explain. It would be dangerous to try to solve them yourself. Be good, alright?" She hangs up.
We look at each other and laugh.
Reviews and critique are always welcome and appreciated!
EDIT 1: Also shoutout to bsferguson1 for pointing out a spelling error
EDIT 2: I promise this story gets better from about chapter 5 or so, so if this chapter or the first few are kinda off-putting, please stick with it at least until then!