Surprise: The Surface Sucks!
Features of The Story!
Humanity conquered the stars over a millennia and Earth has been reduced to a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Surface monsters are feral and non-sentient.
Humans are actually skeleton monsters with fleshy armor and fancy souls.
Frisk (No gender) is now a skeleton due to losing their determination to the barrier.
The weather is always a fun topic—natural disasters take place every week: Flooding, hurricanes, tornado—you name it!
No reset shenanigans.
Frisk was a failure!
By human standards, anyway…
Their determination was lost courtesy of the barrier.
As a consequence, their soul had become frail, glass-like.
It had become a monster one.
Frisk sat at the bottom of a literal hole they had dug themselves. Their entire body was crusty with dirt and tears.
At the bottom they underwent what was commonly known as a conversion. Humans that lost their soul's core power fell apart and Frisk was no exception.
It started with their face, the skin shagged briefly like an old person's before sliding off completely. Their nails flaked off, and the flesh of the fingers just as easily.
Bone.
It was the only thing that remained as the conversion ate through everything else. Frisk lost their eyes, their ears, their tongue, and nose.
But remarkably, as they gripped the sides of the hole and propelled themselves to the top, their senses never before took in the world with such stark clarity.
Suddenly, their vision was crisp and clear, no longer held back by the limitation of eyeballs.
A patch of grass is what drew their attention. Never could a single blade be recognized before the conversion, as Frisk had been born with particularly bad vision. The blades of grass would have been perceived as a greenish blob, nothing more.
Frisk reached out a skeletal hand, combing the grass over gently. They snorted in amusement as they pulled away—fascinating—they could still feel things!
They looked at their hands, made even smaller when reduced to bone. The rest of their body was looked over.
Bone, bones, bones—that's all what was left.
Good.
The conversion had gone smoothly then. Frisk shuddered as they recalled instances of conversions gone wrong. Of those who had died too violently, or what happened when souls were too weak to finish things properly.
On such occasions, when the flesh wasn't rendered from the bones fast enough, a zombie was created. The human would lose hold of their mental facilities and the magical connections that held a skeleton together would get confused by all the excess body parts…
Frisk shook their head…or er, skull now. As they did so, blood and perhaps bits of brain matter splattered about.
Everything had gone smoothly, they reassured themselves.
Unfortunately, their sense of smell was the next thing they noticed.
They looked down into the hole, curious.
Their remains stunk to high heavens, despite being hours old. It must be due to the fact a lot of it looked melted…yuck.
Frisk rubbed their bones nervously, growing self-conscious. They were naked now, their clothes had been taken off as to not interfere with the conversion. They didn't dare fetched their clothes now—and even if they did the outfit would have been way too gross to wear…
Plus…Frisk looked to the sky. The clouds had gotten dark and thick. It would rain soon and nightfall was fast approaching. Getting caught in the dark wasn't a good idea! And the rain could get particularly deadly.
Frisk felt remnants of their determination as they walked at a fast-pace, scanning the area for any shelter.
They looked in all directions, finding nothing but desert and the cliffs they had climbed down from Mount Ebott. A forest was to the side, a little out of the way, but they subconsciously shook their head no.
Danger.
Forests were always dangerous. Monsters, monsters roamed those places!
Frisk chuckled, slapping themselves in the face as the noise half-startled themselves.
Good to know that their hearing had greatly improved too!
The chuckling had an echo and vibration to it as the sound bounced around in their skull—neat!
Frisk frowned the best they could—with their frozen teeth and stiff jaw.
The monsters that lived in the forest weren't the same as the ones they had met Underground. That place had been magical, ripped right out of a fairytale! They hummed in approval at the adventure they had and they planned to return now that they had perfect vision!
They wanted to know what their friends looked like! They needed to see an echo flower! Oh, and the lava in Hotland!
They looked down at their hands, not sure how to feel about the glaring white bones, but they again chuckled—softly this time. The conversion would have happened to them eventually…
Frisk again looked around, briefly considering going deeper into the desert expanse. They didn't know the area, not one bit. Frisk had entered the territory with their family, who were nomadic merchants. Frisk had only been separated from them when raiders had attacked the town they were staying in.
Bones began to rattle as the bad memories came back. They had been on the outskirts of town during the attack, exploring, as they were known to do. When fire and screams began to well up from buildings they ran up, high into the mountain…Mount Ebott.
They had lost their glasses in the running-sure something evil was chasing them! Frisk didn't dare stop. They saw firsthand what happened to children who didn't run fast enough!
And then the weather turned bad. Ducking into a cave for shelter didn't seem foolish at the time. Of course, the cave was dark and with their already abysmal vision, it was no surprise Frisk had fallen down a hole, into the great Underground below…
Frisk looked to the sky and anxiety spurred on their determination as things had grown darker and a wind began chilling their bones—still damp and pink from the bloody conversion.
Sighing, they began to retrace their steps. Heaving themselves back onto a cliffside and for a few seconds admired how they managed to do so without muscle. Funnily enough, they felt like they've never been stronger in their life as they waved their boney limbs about—there was not as much flesh to weight them down as before—supposedly.
Unfortunately, said lack of weight made them more susceptible to the wind and they cautiously gripped onto the sides of the cliffs—feeling as if they might blow away.
And blowing away just may become a reality. They glanced at the sky, it was getting darker still. The wind had not even come close to its full pull.
Frisk gulped. They had been taught that Earth's weather wasn't always so deadly, but to solve the problem since, thousands and thousands of community shelters had been scattered across the planet.
It was a shame Frisk didn't know of any in the area. They looked up to the peak of Mount Ebott—thankfully close.
They felt a little funny returning to the Underground so soon—it had only been a few days after all, but it was Frisk's only option for shelter.
A clash of lightning emphasized the point as Frisk stumbled back into the Underground, the place was dark and no monsters seemed to be about.
Odd, but could be chalked up to the weather.
Eventually Frisk was able to make out the silhouettes of New Home and they could make out that the place was a lot more colorful and lively than when they had first seen it. They briefly recalled seeming grainy splotches of grey and black.
They hummed in approval—the place seemed like it had a party earlier in the day. Streamers and confetti covered buildings. Now that Frisk was looking for it, they could hear the whispers of music and the scent of baked goods on the streets.
Frisk smiled softly. The Underground was way better than the Surface!
At that revelation, they suddenly felt tired and their bones drooped as they fell onto their bottom. Sleep came to them easily within the shelter of the mountain.