The only thing they knew was that they were confused.
Huge flowers around them, the small child climbed off, barely noticing the seeds that stuck to their clothes and hair.
'Did I... fall...?' It was barely a question, they knew they had to have. They could barely see anything when they looked up, 'That's a long fall.'
They felt amazement, they had survived that?
Everyone knew the legends, nobody who climbed MT. Ebott ever returned. And yet..
For a few minutes, excitement overcame them. Giggling, they grabbed the stick off the flowers and rushed into the next room to explore. They had not taken a moment to think about more than that, having not considered even briefly there might be danger.
They were startled when they came face-to-face with a flower.
"Ah!" They fell over, backing away.
"Howdy! I'm FLOWEY! FLOWEY the FLOWER!" The creature had a voice that echoed, with ever or not that was the cave was beyond them, "Hmm... You're new to the underground, aren'tcha?"
Slowly, they nodded, their heart racing.
"Golly, you must be so confused!" Something about him was... disturbing, "Someone ought to teach you how things work around here. I guess little old me will have to do."
They stood up, shaking, and prepared.
"Ready? Here we go!"
Suddenly, a bright and glowing red heart appeared in front of them. They felt like screaming.
"See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!"
"...Soul?" They stood. He didn't react.
"Your SOUL starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV." He didn't give them time to speak, answering their question like he had millions of times before, "What's LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course!"
The emphasis on 'love' was confusing, but the young child didn't care. It sounded promising.
"You want some LOVE, don't you?"
They nodded. They wanted to be strong, and something like that sounded appealing.
"Don't worry, I'll share some with you!" He winked, and a tiny star appeared briefly, "Down here, LOVE is shared through... Little while... "friendliness pellets."
Growing a bit suspicious of this flower, they ignored their suspicions. It was called love, right?
"Are you ready?"
Confident, they nodded.
"Move around, get as many as you can!"
Though their natural instinct would be to dodge them, they ran straight into the pellets.
Pain filled their body, and they wanted to scream. But at the moment, they couldn't seem to make any noise louder than a soft, "H... Help..!"
"You idiot."
They coughed, falling to the ground.
"In this world, it's kill or BE killed." His smile was wider than ever, and far more disturbing than before, "Why would ANYONE pass up an opportunity like this!?"
Pellets surrounded them, and breathing heavily, they forced themselves to yell a slightly louder 'Help'.
"Die." The flower began laughing.
They felt terrified. They didn't know what to do... They were going to...
Suddenly, they felt different. Their injuries disappeared and they felt more.. determined.
Flowey didn't have time to question it before a fire ball hit him in the head and someone else came into view.
Barely hearing any words she said aside from 'Greetings, I am Toriel, the caretaker of the RUINS', the small human looked up at the lady. She looked like a goat, but they weren't concerned with that. She seemed nicer.
She told them to follow.
"Can I trust her..?" They asked themself out loud.
'She's not like that flower.'
Startled, the young child looked around for the voice.
'...You won't be seeing me.'
"Where are you?"
There was something that sounded vaguely like the 'I don't know' noise that they knew people often made.
"Are you a human?"
'Yes.' They replied, 'I was.'
"You said that Toriel wasn't like that flower..."
'She's not. Actually, most monsters aren't.'
Feeling braver, they followed after Toriel with a, "Whatever you said."
Toriel showed them how to do puzzles, and they rushed through the ruins fast as they could once she left.
However, they encountered a monster.
"What do I do?"
'Fight, act, item or mercy.'
Choosing to fight, they used their branch to swing at the frog-like monster.
It was only another hit before the monster was low on HP.
'Froggit is trying to get away.'
Having missed that comment, they hit the monster once more, thinking it would give up soon.
They let out a scream when it turned to dust before them, shaking.
'...'
"I..."
'How about I help you.. You don't need to fight them, really.'
"Um... Okay.. I trust you."
With help from their friend, they learned how to spare monsters. They were scared, but the monsters were scared too.
Humans told stories of monsters as though they were bad, but in less than a day they learned otherwise.
Despite their mercy, it wasn't easy to spare all of them. They didn't feel patient enough, the horrible pain filling their body at a simple touch... They felt exhausted running and walking all the time, yet they couldn't stay still and rest.
It seemed almost as if they should have listened to Toriel and stayed in the room.
Sometimes, they simply gave in to what they seemed like common sense - self defence.
Two Froggits, three Whimsuns and a Vegetoid.
They weren't sure how it felt, really, they just knew it felt different. It was there, and they had a suspicion that Chara could tell, too. They weren't quiet when they disapproved of their actions, usually, but even though they had a strong feeling they disapproved, they had said nothing to them.
Three Moldsmal's later was when they started feeling more neutral by the minute.
Their LOVE increased to three.
They managed to make it the rest of the way without any more lives lost. They had arrived at Toriel's house, and they were quite thrilled. Their hands dusty, as was their stick, they talked to the kind lady, exhausted and unable to focus on the conversation.
They had been glad to discover she gave them a room of their own, and had barely caught a word she said. They collapsed into the bed, exhausted.
It didn't take long for them to fall asleep.
When they woke up, they found a piece of pie on the floor. They took it and put it in their pockets.
"Now how do I get home..?" They asked their friend.
But they were oddly silent, and they decided to ask someone else.
Toriel, they noticed.. Behaved rather oddly.
She kept changing the subject.
"You want to leave so badly? Then fine.. Prove yourself." She told them, "Prove to me you are strong enough to survive!"
Before they knew it, they were in a battle.
Setting fire on a child seemed cruel, even if her intentions were the opposite.
Swinging a stick in hopes of hitting someone... They heard and felt it hit, the sound almost satisfying. They kept swinging it, desperately, the heat of the fire flying past them was intimidating, no matter the distance they could feel the intense heat.
Breathing heavily, they looked up and gasped. In front of them, where Toriel had been, was replaced with something else...
They barely realized it before she was a pile of dust.
Their love had increased to five.
They dropped the stick.
'You threw the stick on the ground like the piece of trash it is.'
Their tone had an unusual bitterness to it, and the young child had an idea why.
They pushed open the door, using all their strength. Something did feel stronger, it wasn't as though their hands hadn't been dusty before.
The path was quiet without Chara speaking, though it was interrupted by the same, echo-y voice.
Every word spoken affected them deeply. By the time the stupid, stupid flower had disappeared, they just fell to the ground, speechless, trying not to think about what just happened or Toriel.
They stood up a few minutes later, still not feeling great, and they were immediately hit with cold. They supposed it was nicer than the fire that had been shot at them, but none of these thoughts seemed particularly happy.
Chara refused to speak while they walked through the snow.
Left to their own fear, they sincerely wished this was not happening.
It was horrible, a horrible feeling. They did that, and they couldn't fix it. Well, they supposed, they could just reset...
It was so quick, they had just been blindly swinging. They didn't expect someone as strong as Toriel to fall at their hands... They were only a child, after all, shouldn't it have been the other way around?
There was a snap behind them, and they turned around quickly to look. A big stick they hadn't even noticed they climbed over.
'It's been snapped like it was nothing...'
Their breath was visible in the snow-like area, and terrified, they ran to the bridge.
"Human." A voice said slowly, "Don't you know how to greet a new pal?"
It was like they were frozen, they didn't know what to do.
"Turn around and shake my hand."
The fear disappeared when what sounded to be a fart noise rang out. There was a guy in a hoodie who laughed, "Heh, the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. That's ALWAYS funny."
They grinned, looking up at the figure.
"Anyway, you're a human, right?" He asked, "That's hilarious. I'm sans, sans the skeleton."
It was hard to focus on what he was saying, they still felt tired. The words just couldn't register properly for them.
When he stopped talking, they squeezed through the gate and looked down the path.
"Actually, there he is right now." They heard Sans say briefly, "Quick, behind that conveniently-shaped lamp!"
Confused for a moment, they did as Sans told them to.
'Are you okay...?' Chara asked. They sounded concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
It wasn't exactly true, but they didn't know what else to say.
A few minutes later, Chara spoke again, 'I think he's gone now.'
They were more than glad to get out from behind the lamp, not too fond of standing around like that.
The young child started to walk away before Sans interrupted them by asking a favour.
It wasn't long until they ran into puzzles and monsters, solving puzzles and sparing monsters if they could.
Puzzles were confusing, but feeling more awake, they were able to solve them.
Papyrus actually seemed nice, despite what they had been doing.
Some puzzles seemed unfair, others they had no opinion of. By the end of Snowdin, they had made a decision.
After several captures, they spared Papyrus, but they had refused to befriend him. They'd leave it like that.
Regardless of what they wanted to do, they left Snowdin with their LOVE increased, even if the amount of monsters they had defeated was little. They had gained a new weapon, though it was mostly just fitting for the area to them.
Waterfall, as they learned it was called, was beautiful.
The puzzles were almost fun, and they enjoyed it. Every time Undyne showed up, things were more complicated. But they managed to get through it in what felt like a short amount of time, despite how they preferred it over other places. Even with the creepy whispering from the flowers.
Monster Kid was a friend and far too innocent. They had saved them, and hoped they were hope now.
They were going to have to face Undyne.
It didn't seem scary until they actually did it, and they didn't feel the same regret until they heard her call them out. She was furious, and they felt guilt.
"You'll have to learn to face danger head-on!"
They could block the spears and heal, but they couldn't spare someone like her.
After several deaths, they fought.
Hotland was a very literal name, and the lava was perhaps the most terrifying part.
They could fall any moment.
The calming part, however, was when they met a yellow lizard named Alphys, who admitted to having observed their journey and joined up with them. It was nice to have friends, well, more like allies.
They stared at a bag of dog food, when a voice spoke up.
'It's a bag of dog food. It's half-empty.'
Chara didn't stop narrating, but they didn't talk much other than that.
"Chara...?" They asked out loud, hoping for an answer.
'...Yeah?'
"Why are you so silent..." They felt like they knew, but they wanted a confirmation, "You talked a lot more in the ruins..."
'I'm sorry,' Chara told them, 'I was just being stupid, is all.'
"About what?" They asked curiously, exiting the lab.
'It's not important.' They said, 'I was just thinking.'
They knew it was more than that, but they didn't want to bug them about it.
Feeling tired of walking and just tired in general, they sat down and rested. Monsters who were too much trouble to spare meant nothing, it was easier.
A frying pan was helpful, in many different ways. The game shows annoyed them, but one in particular annoyed them the most.
The puzzle from Snowdin reappeared, though Mettaton expected them to remember all those stupid rules.
Stepping in water, they jumped back when they saw fish appear out of it, terrified.
They felt a sort of bitterness, glaring at Mettaton who was more focused on his song.
Flames closing in on them, having to fight him...
It was all a lot.
They didn't like piranhas, or fire, or Mettaton.
They didn't like the CORE, or the monsters that they ran into. They found it was far easier than it had been before, and almost questionable that it hadn't been this easy prior to that.
Mettaton's battle was a hard one, but they managed to make it. They passed through the rest of the CORE to New Home, feeling bitter.
Alphys had lied and tricked them, set piranhas and fire on them... Mettaton wanted their SOUL just so he could fulfill his dreams, leaving the monsters in suffering. Neither things made them look great.
New Home was various shades of grey, and there seemed to be a certain feeling to it.
Nostalgia.
Their hands and clothes covered in dust, they continued and listened to the story the monsters told them.
"The king and queen had lost two children in one night."
Monsters had reasons, but they had their reasons as well. They couldn't help but feel bad, regardless, and Chara was quieter than usual.
"You should be smiling, too."
They had a heart locket now, though they didn't wear it. A knife would be helpful in the future, however.
"Aren't you excited?" Followed by a, "Aren't you happy?"
They felt bitter, guilty and sad. Their expression, evidently, didn't give that away.
"You're going to be free."
A/N: There aren't many neutral run Frisk's out there, but here's one. Since they're a kid, they're bitter about dumb things.
Their LOVE is 12 by the end of this. Doesn't mention all the monsters they killed or whatever but I did pick out specific ones. Forget some of them now...
I rushed this, but I think I'm out of my UT phase again, so I just wanted to get this done.
Thanks to Piper Poptato Chisp for helping with the title.