Fallen Down
Something was off.
You had just destroyed and recreated the timeline- again- but things were different this time.
First off, the golden bed of flowers you were so used to waking up on were wilted and stained blood red. Shame- you had rather looked forward to the bed of flowers after every reset. No matter how many times you did it, fighting Sans had never failed to take a lot out of you. You sigh as you roll over in your bed of flowers. Nope. Not half as comfy.
You lay on the not-so-comfy bed of flowers and stretch your arm out, inspecting your hand. Pale skin...fingers long and slender...creases in all the right places...this was your body. Your body, not Frisk's. You weren't entirely sure, but you could tell you were older. Roughly 16 or 17...you feel a bit weird, considering you yourself had never lived to that age before..."that" incident.
Still. An adolescent body would prove more durable to monster attacks, and would be far easier to traverse the whole underground in. A pity it wouldn't have much of an effect on your attack stat: monsters, being mostly comprised of magic, take damage in accordance to your killing intent. I mean, how else does a small child like Frisk go around facing an entire civilisation of monsters? Also, you had a red jacket over your green and yellow striped shirt, and long jeans instead of...whatever the hell Frisk always wore. You had always been bothered by the cold in Snowdin, and finally having a jacket was a true blessing. It was strange how you couldn't purchase a jacket anywhere in the underground, and the only monster who had a jacket...you shivered at the thought of those pupiless eyes.
These changes were convenient, that's for sure.
But you couldn't figure out what exactly caused these changes. You roll off the bed of dead flowers with a grunt, only stopping to stretch your limb before you start walking. What could've caused things to change so much? Was it something in the previous run? No, everything had been the same; Sans gave you a bad time, Flowey betrayed you before destroying Asgore as one last (pathetic) plead for mercy, and you had destroyed the timeline and reset to a different one. Everything had been the same in your previous run…what could possibly have been different...
You were so lost in your thoughts that you hadn't realised you had arrived in the next room. It wasn't till Flowey spoke that you were snapped out of their thoughts.
"Howdy! I'm Flowey. Flowey the Flower. Gosh, you must be new to the undergr-"
Flowey stopped short as he took in the sight of the pale skinned demon in front of him .You smile.
"Hello, Asriel."
"Ch-Chara? B-but...you're-"
The trembling yellow flower stopped yet again as you lick your lips. The traitorous flower- no, the traitorous prince of monsters cowers in fear as you take your knife out, its deadly glint of steel only second to the malicious glint in your eyes. You lick it's edge, causing a trickle of blood to drip down the unholy blade. Monster dust from the previous run dissolve on your tongue like salt, and you laugh like the maniac you are as you raise the atrocious blade.
"Goodbye, Asri-"
Wait, hold on…what…? You stare at the knife in your hand. You had been so used to swinging that thing around that you forgot you aren't supposed to have it after a reset. How did…?
By the time you snapped out of your thoughts, Flowey had burrowed into the ground. You curse under your breath. You had hoped to get rid of the weed as soon as possible.
You sigh as you put your knife back in your pocket. The Locket was around your neck, too- how your equipment managed to stay with you after the reset was beyond you, but having the two precious items with you…
Hah. Saying they filled you with determination would be a lie. You were still
confused as all hell, and for the first time in endless timelines, you didn't know what to expect. But you steel yourself as you continue on, DETERMINED to face the unexpected with a smile and a knife to the throat.
This determination was immediately diminished as "the unexpected" that showed up was unlike anything you could've prepared for.
"Oh! Are you alright my child?"
You were taken aback by the caretaker of the RUINS. Toriel was different- her purple robes were replaced by what seemed like armour of sorts, similar in design to that of Undyne's(you mentally shiver at the name), but silver in colour and embroidered with the Delta Rune in the middle of the chest plate. Underneath the long pleated white skirt were two shining silver boots.
But her change of wardrobe wasn't the thing that surprised you. No, this was something you had never expected to see in a thousand years;
Toriel was young.
The goat-woman was no longer large and towered over you- although, you realise, she could easily be just as tall as she was back then, just that you weren't used to seeing her in your now adolescent body..
Instead of her usual large build, she was slim and slender in build, but the noticeable bulge on her arms showed that she was anything but weak. Hell, she even had a Monster Sword(it seemed that even the ancestors of the Dreemur Royal family were bad at names) sheathed at her right side. Toriel had always been ambidextrous, and you reason that she wielded her sword in her left hand so as to cast magic with her right; a habit of hers, and you vaguely remember her telling you why back when you first fell, but you can't seem to recall what she had said. Probably wasn't important anyway.
Despite all this though, one thing remained the same: her eyes. The goat-woman, despite seeming ten times younger, still had the same soft, kind, and motherly eyes. The same eyes that earned the immediate trust of the other 6 humans. The same eyes that managed to convince even Flowey that maybe, just maybe she'd be able to make him feel something.
And we all know how well her interactions with those 7 went.
"No bruises...most humans end up bruised pretty bad after falling down a mountain like that...oh! I apologize, I haven't introduced myself! I am Toriel, caretaker of the ruins. What is your name, my child?"
You blink. After Flowey had recognised you, you had figured that monsters around here would recognise you since you were in your own body.. Well, Flowey was aware of the SAVE file, so it wasn't too surprising that he knew and Toriel didn't. You worry for a fleeting moment that Sans would recognise you, but you remember that although he was aware of the SAVE file, he had never seen your actual body. What a relief.
Your mind wanders back to Toriel's question. What was it again? Oh yeah, your name. Funny…you couldn't seem to remember it.
You try hard to remember. You know your real name of course; but in previous timelines, it was a rule of thumb to use the name you had selected at the title screen.
So what was it?
Klowbi? Nah, that was two resets ago. Antisans? Nah, that was back when you were afraid of the annoying pun-loving skeleton. Papyru? No, that was even before Frisk had given up their soul...
Wait…Frisk…?
It all made sense now.
Why everything was different...why things had changed.
That was it.
Their name.
You gulp and look down. That's what you get for tryna be cheeky! You curse to yourself and feel your face burn as you feel your sin of curiosity crawling on your back.
Why did you…if you had just resisted the temptation...
"My child?"
Toriel stares at you in concern.
"If you don't feel like telling me, it's okay…"
You take a deep breath.
It's now or never.
"...My name is...
...
...
...
...
...
Frisk."