Understuck

by jojotier

In a bid to free the entirety of the Underground across all timelines, Gaster locks the Homestuck Gods out of their universe, kidnaps Dave, and then leaves Frisk in his place. Now Dave, reduced down to a child, must navigate the Underground while his friends try desperately to work against the slow unwinding of the old universe as time itself begins collapsing around them.

3. Part 2: Going to Toriel

= = = } DAVE: Get your head out of the clouds!

Wow, those thoughts you just had are kind of weird. Just where the hell did those thoughts about determination come from? It isn't as if there's much to be determined about, other than getting through these Ruins to whatever door leads you out and hopefully to some places that might have some information about the fucker who dragged you into this place.

You decide to just scrap this line of thought, because the giant goat- Toriel, that's what she said her name is- is waiting for you, watching with a bemused look. You can think about whatever weird, childish voice you heard in your head later, when you're alone and able to actually listen to yourself speak. You don't want to be seen as crazy by this monster woman, not so soon after you met her. You aren't sure what she would do to you then, but with her size and yours at the moment, you can definitely guess that it can cause real damage.

You follow after her, and she seems pleased enough to have you following her, which is weird. She keeps smiling at you, even though she doesn't really know you, which is also weird as fuck. You'd smile back, but you aren't really sure if that's an appropriate course of action, or if that would just break your cool facade or what. You are a kid again, after all, meaning that you'll have to work double time on maintaining optimum cool levels. After all, who suspected a kid in an oversized sweater to be anything cool? You've already lost enough points with your fashion, even though you didn't choose this at all. You'll have to find a new look. If you're lucky, maybe you'll just find some shit laying around. You simply pull your sweater down a bit and pause, thinking that maybe you heard a snort of laughter behind you.

You look, but there's nothing there. You guess that you're just imagining shit.

You seriously hope that this being a kid shit doesn't have any effects on your mental state. You really don't want to be throwing temper tantrums, especially since you're technically sixteen years old, and you sure as hell don't want to do some stupid childish shit that will cause you to get your ass kicked to the next calendar year, where you'd just be neck deep in horses. Fuck those things- those might have been Dirk's thing, but you weren't exactly a fan of big ass hellbeasts like those, that's for sure, especially hellbeasts that can cause more damage to your much softer body now that you're a little under four feet and haven't built up muscle yet, leaving your scrawny ass way too vulnerable. Gotta figure out a way to build up the patented Strider fortress again, make sure that you aren't quite as weak or easily hit.

You'll have to solve that entire issue with age shit later on. You might be able to scrape up some of the dredges of the god tier ability that's gone now, if there's some left, coffee grounds left over from the particularly horrible and bitter cup of fuck you that life just shoved down your throat. Maybe you can at least make yourself a few years older, to about when you were able to start scraping up enough food for yourself so that you aren't malnourished as shit.

The next room has a heavy stone door, just as purple as everything else, and Toriel walks over to some weird white pedestals in the floor. Then she steps on them in some pattern, and lo and behold, the door opens with a simple lever pull after that before you can properly think the words 'open sesame'. Toriel turns back to you and smiles, in that giddy little way that she has, saying, "Welcome to your new home, innocent one!" Innocent? You? You want to snort. God, if only she had seen some of the shit that you and Karkat had done back on the meteor, drawing all those dicks in Rose's book and watching those gross romcoms together. You are far from innocent. You don't mention that, though, instead letting her finish, "Allow me to educate you in the operations of the Ruins."

Oh God, this is all like the tutorial for a game, at least to Toriel.

When you realize, a few moments later, that Toriel's name is a goddamn pun, you want to shove your face into the purple stone blocks of the wall and groan into whatever black as shit void is inside of them. You don't want to interrupt this motherly figure, though, and besides, listening to her quietly is actually keeping you from doing some stupid and uncool shit like what you feel the urge to do.

"The Ruins are full of puzzles, ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to proceed from room to room." Why the hell are there even puzzles here in the first place? Does it have to do with some bullshit quest nonsense, like in Sburb? Is it to test people's wits or intelligence or whatever non sequitur thing that really can only help stall for time in a quest and make it longer? You seriously hope that there is an explanation for this other than some bullshit answer of 'maybe it's just how the world works'.

"Okay, but why the hell is this place filled with puzzles?" When you see Toriel's face shift, you suddenly regret the words that came out of your mouth. It's weird, because back with Bro, you never really got a stern look like what she's giving you. You usually got an even colder glare than usual before you got your ass kicked. You expect a hand to raise, but instead, she continues to look at you sternly, watching you carefully even as you take a small step back.

"My child," she says, and weirdly enough she doesn't sound that angry, "I would appreciate it if you did not use such language. It is not appropriate for you, yes? Now, as for why there are so many puzzles, there is a simple explanation for that."

That's weird. That's so fucked up. Her face is already softening, expression shifting from stern to a soft little smile that showed her fangs. It sort of makes you want to run the fuck away, get out of dodge, because the nice ones always end up hitting the worst and she's probably nothing short of a harpy out of hell. You'll have to be on guard for that, and not let whatever weird warmness in your heart (or is it soul?) distract you from it. To cover up the fact that you're currently on vigilance for the moment when she snaps, you say, "Then yeah, an explanation would be great, because normally the explanation consists of 'that's just how it f-, uh just goes'." Nice one, Strider, you just saved yourself from any wrath for now.

"No, I assure you, the reason these are here are for a very good one! Think back to any history lessons you might have had- after the war between humans and monsters, we were all driven here, Underground." Whoa whoa whoa, hold the goddamn phone. They were all just driven down here? You wonder what the hell would cause all of that. "We feared that the humans might come down through the seal and kill us, so we set these puzzles to impede their progress so that we could retreat farther down." And that seemed to conclude that explanation, which actually… makes a lot more sense than you would have thought. You thought that this was all going to be some shitty mechanic, but no, it has a part in the laws of this world.

"Alright. That makes sense." You cede, and she nods in quite a satisfied way, walking into the next room. You follow after her, and immediately find a few levers on the wall, two of which have bright yellow arrows pointing to them. Toriel seems to think that you apparently have the intelligence of a five year old, because she proceeds to carefully explain what the next puzzle is without even pausing to let you get a word in edgewise.

"To progress, you will need to trigger several switches." She smiles, moving ahead and over a small bridge while gesturing to the switches on the wall. "Do not worry, for I have labelled the ones that you need to flip." She smiles warmly at you and waits, and you take that as your cue to keep going.

You go to the first switch, and say, "Yep, you definitely did label them. I'm fairly sure that if there was a hole cut into the ceiling, they would be able to see this sh- stuff," You already feel like you're going to have a shit time remembering not to cuss in front of the giant goat monster, "from outer space. It's brighter than all the stars in the Milky Way and Andromeda, like several enormous stars just imploded in on themselves in a pretty small tract of the empty void of the universe." One switch is flipped, and then you move to flip the other, all while Toriel regards you with some look on her face. It's not really anything bad- fond, maybe. Kind of like how Karkat looks at all of his shitty romcoms.

"My child, how can you be a knight but also know how it is in the sky?" She sounds amused, and as you flip the switch, the spikes at the end of the room are down. You're about to answer her when she moves over to you, clapping her hands excitedly. "Ah, splendid! I am proud of you, little one. Let us move to the next room- perhaps you would also like to explain how a knight has gone to the stars to another friend." She moves on, and you pause for a few seconds.

That's so weird, and really, it's kind of… nice. All you really did was flip a couple of levers, which were already brightly labeled to begin with. It's not like you just created a universe (even though you sort of did) or survived being dropped ten stories from the rooftop during a strife, and even then, even during those times you were never told that someone was proud of you. You feel stupid, because right now, you want to smile, even though you really just did something mundane and even though you need to pull yourself out of the stupid wallowing that you keep slipping into. Somehow, you keep being drawn back to thoughts of how it was with Bro. Oh boo fucking hoo, you had a rough childhood and your biological daddy wasn't nice to you, so much so that it was abusive, big deal. You have bigger problems than that, problems that didn't need you to be thinking about that, especially since now it's over. Namely, getting out of here before what's-her-name completely flips the switch and goes harpy bitch on your ass.

You're pulled from your thoughts when Toriel pokes her head back into the room, looking at you worriedly. "My child? Is something the matter? Do you, perhaps, feel apprehensive about proceeding through this place?" And of course, contrary to any of your thoughts she seems for all the world to just be a worried little lady who's wondering why you haven't moved ahead yet. So of course, you start walking, shrugging a bit to forget all that stupid emotional baggage.

"Nah, it's cool. I just found, uh, a cool looking bug." That's a lie, but her smile is still sincere even as she nods, leading into the next room.

She turns to you, gesturing for you to step up to a training dummy. You don't remember seeing them often, since any on the meteor were swiftly and systematically destroyed with quick precision by any trolls training with them. "Now, as a human living in the Underground, monsters may wish to 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." Well, now we're talking. This shit is what you know. This is the shit you're good at. In fact, you could even say that you are the shit when it comes down to fighting. You hate it, sure, but at least now you're at a familiar subject. Besides, what does it matter if you wreck another monster? You squeeze your hand around the hilt of your sword, when Toriel suddenly throws a high arcing curveball that completely swerves away from you with no intention of ever knocking against your noggin.

"While you are in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation! Stall for time, and I shall come to resolve the conflict."

What?

You stare at Toriel for a moment, because there's no way in hell that shit actually works. If something comes after you, if a monster comes for your throat and is ready to rip into it, you need to be ready to slice them into ribbons so that they don't try again. That was drilled into you from day one, and pounded into your skull with a jackhammer during Sburb after that fight with Union Jack. You may try to be a pacifist, but ultimately, that has to fail sometime, right? There's always going to be at least someone who's going to be determined enough to want you dead. But then again, you guess that this is a good thing?

Finally, you actually have a choice here. You don't have to go in guns blazing like normal. So when Toriel gently instructs you with the words, "Practice talking to the dummy." you actually loosen your grip on your sword. You know the dummy can't hurt you anyway, and even then, you can afford to humor Toriel on this. You can afford to be a pacifist in this case and not completely dismantle the thing.

You look at the dummy and then suddenly, it's like that entire situation with Flowey and those boxes, except this time, there are four floating buttons in front of you. FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, and MERCY all flash a bright yellow at you, and you think you know what the fight button does already. You don't need that tutorial. The Mercy and Act buttons, though, those are new. Back in Sburb, it was always a fight or flight situation- you either killed the hell out of those imps and ogres or you let yourself die.

You still aren't entirely sure about all this shit, but you press the Act button, and then there's the option to talk or check out this thing. You sort of want to get this over with, though. The way that Toriel is watching this battle from the sidelines, looking at you expectantly with that weird smile on her face is sort of freaky, and the sooner you get it all over with the better, in your opinion. You just choose to talk, saying a quick hey. It doesn't seem much for conversation, and you're about to agree with that when you realize that there was a voice that you would be agreeing with in the first place, what the fuck.

As the box dissolves and you look around yourself, looking for whatever little shit was messing with you at that time, you suddenly realize that you had a totally sweet rap that you could have belted out then. Shit, next time, what you need to do is rap at the thing. You'll have to keep this in mind if she gives you another dummy that she wants you to pacify into submission. You're torn from your thoughts when she says, in such a goddamn sincere way that it actually makes your heart ache, "Very good! You are very good, my child."

She walks on to the next room, and wow the way that she calls you 'good' shouldn't make your chest feel all weird and tingly. This isn't some fucked up porno- you should feel pissed to be referred to as good, because fuck that noise, you're Dave Strider. You are the epitome of cool.

Even then, you're following after, even letting yourself get closer to her. Fuck, she's what any kid would want- sweet as an apple pie left out in the sun too long and patient as any exasperated parent with a wailing two year old might be, always there and offering encouragement and praise that would make anyone embarrassed. Even as she hums, musing aloud, "I wonder if you can solve this puzzle?" it's all with this fondness, like she actually wants to be around the little shits that all children were.

Of course you're quick to reply to her, because you don't want to tip her off to anything that you're thinking about. "Yeah, I can solve this all pretty easily. What d'ya think this is, "let's play Earthbound with junior in the womb"? I could totally get this." You look along the ground and, weirdly enough, the dirt in that area is lighter than normal. You guess that probably has some significance, and that's confirmed when you look at a piece of paper on the wall, saying that the next room is that other room's blueprint. Toriel stands guard near that bed of spikes while you jog back quickly and have a look, and then you're back, totally able to get through this. "Yeah, I got this. Just let me go ahead through here, and then we'll be fine.

Toriel is about to move, but hesitates, looking down at you for a moment before saying, "I'm sure you see that this is the puzzle, but… Well, take my hand for a moment." She really doesn't really give you too much of a choice, because already her hand closes around yours in this really gentle way, like she's afraid that she'll break all the bones in your body if she presses down with even one pinky. You want to say, newsflash, you don't have glass bones and paper skin or break your arms and legs every day, so she can lay off on the handholding. You may look eight, but you really aren't, and even if you were eight you still wouldn't need to be coddled like this because you're made of tougher stuff than that.

You don't say that. Instead, you follow her through the spikes and stay close to her, just in case.

When you make it on the other side, she looks down at you, still holding your hand even as she says, "My apologies, my little knight, but it appears that even puzzles like this are a little too dangerous for now. Perhaps when you are just a tad older." She squeezes your hand, as if trying to reassure you, before letting go and then walking on, leaving you to just stand there for a moment and try to reason with yourself, because there's no way in fucking hell that it's this easy. There's always a catch- your biological mother is technically your age, for instance, your brother stopped doing this when you were five and needed to train.

You still haven't figured out just what this goat woman's angle is, or if there isn't one, how the universe is going to fuck you up the ass with sharpened icicles and end up making this situation hell for you. You don't linger this time, not like the last time- you don't want Toriel to get too worried, after all- but even then, you really can't shake off a thought that's sort of bubbling up under your skin.

Why the hell do you want to call Toriel "mom"?

You look up at Toriel and she says, looking as proud as a goddamn pet owner at the Westminster Dog Show, "You have done excellently thus far, my child. I would expect nothing less of a knight, of course, but even the bravest might have some trouble with the request that I have. I'm afraid that what I ask of you will be difficult." She looks nervous now, and this is it, this is exactly what you were waiting for. The catch. The "difficult thing" that life was going to shove right down your throat. You aren't even sure why you let yourself be phased at all by any of this. You should have just spent more time preparing yourself.

Instead Toriel says, "I would like you to walk to the end of this room by yourself. Forgive me for this." Well, that certainly was a thing. That wasn't what you were expecting at all. You were expecting something else, like maybe she wanted you to kill something, or read the entirety of the Bee Movie script while annoying 90s pop played in the background.

You just shrug and say, "Alright." You watch as she walks away as you start walking by yourself, left alone with your thoughts. Funny, the one chance you have in this place to let your thoughts torment you most, let them cause major earthquakes in your brain and make the hippocampus split apart with volcanic eruptions and you are cool as a cat hanging around a jazz club in the peak years of speakeasies. Being alone isn't that bad, even if you do end up a bit disconcerted by the silence. Being with someone so overwhelmingly, completely motherly, that was throwing off your A-game.

The walk is fairly uneventful, and when you get to the end of the room, what you find is Toriel peeking from behind a rather large pillar. Then she's coming out, smiling so warmly that fuck, there goes your heart again. You actually should probably get that looked at by a doctor sometime, because you don't actually think that living for three years on a goddamn meteor and eating alchemized food of questionable quality is actually good for you. "Greetings, my child. Do not worry, I did not leave you."

Those words shouldn't strike a chord, but they do. "Yeah, trust me Toriel, I didn't worry about that for a second." And you're actually pretty surprised that you can say that sincerely, because you literally just met this woman, and you had no prior links to her She isn't like Dirk, who you sort of vaguely knew but also didn't, and she wasn't like Roxy, who you definitely knew after a bit. She was a complete stranger to you.

"Dave, you do not know how much that means to me. Thank you for trusting me. However, there was an important reason for this." Wait, there is? Shit, was this like some sort of weird test? You always fucking sucked at those. "This was to test your independence. I must attend to some business, and you must stay alone for a little while. Please remain here- it's dangerous to explore by yourself."

Honestly, you are completely nonplussed by any of this. Being left alone for a bit while Toriel did her own thing? That was alright. You can handle a bit of alone time. You're about to say so when she suddenly picks right back up, digging around in the pocket of her dress. "Ah, I have an idea. I will give you a cell phone! If you have a need for anything, just call."

Whoa, that was literally the last thing that you expected. When she hands you the most outdated piece of shit in existence, you take it anyway, asking, "Wait, how the he- heck do you get cell reception down here? How do you even have phones?" And furthermore, why the fuck was she just carrying an extra phone in her pocket?

She smiles, chuckling a bit before answering, "Well, that's a mystery for now. I will explain to you after all of my errands have been completed. Be good, alright?" You nod and then she gives one last little smile before she's gone out the room.

For a few minutes, you just hold the phone in your hands and wait, using the time to both wait for Toriel to be far enough away and mentally process that massive tutorial that you were just given. In any case, after a few minutes, you decide to step into the next room to, what else, do some exploring. As nice as this apparent goat mom was and as sweet as it was that you got a new (or rather, hella beat up and prehistoric) cell phone, you couldn't just stay cooped up in one little space for too long, otherwise you might just go insane. No, a Strider's a drifter, and they sure as hell don't take orders from anyone. Besides, this place seemed so goddamn tame that it was almost nauseating.

So really, what's that worst that can happen?

= = = } JADE: Report to your friends that the worst has happened

Your name is JADE HARLEY, and this truly is the very worst thing that could have happened!

You were there when the Door disappeared, leaving a child there, and of course the very first thing you could do was disappear to move around the space beyond the platform, trying to find the Door again. After all, even if it wasn't where it was originally, it had to be somewhere. There are the laws of equivalent exchange in order- there is still a gateway open between this place and your new universe, so therefore that meant that the Door had to be somewhere! You had searched everywhere you possibly could throughout that empty space.

You had looked in the void of nothingness, among the horrorterrors that lay just a bit beyond that, and then around the Universe Frog itself, trying to find just where the hell the Door went, and that's when you found something perturbing. You had tried to approach the Door when you found it, but ultimately, it disappeared before you could even touch the handle. You found the Door in such similar ways to this several more times, but every time, it simply moved away, just out of your reach. Not even your speed or omniscience could track it, and more disconcertingly, you aren't able to see into your frog. You don't know what's going on with Dave.

That turn of events brings you to now, floating gently back to the platform where all your friends, human and troll, stand. Terezi seems to be conferencing with Rose about something, while Dirk is watching the human child, no real expression crossing his face. Jake and Jane and Roxy are in a small group together with John, and then there's Karkat with the Mayor, watching as the little kid in the cute sweater that seemed a little bit too big on them tug on Kanaya's skirt, pointing to the small plans for Can Town.

It's so strange, but at the same time, interesting! The human child doesn't seem to be in the least bit afraid of the trolls, despite being so young. In fact, they seem to actually be really comfortable with them, if the way that they settle down into Kanaya's lap as she sits down on the ground is any indication.

You smile at that before heading over to where Rose and Terezi are, ready to give your little report of the events that you'll have to tell them about. You wait for them to finish talking, with Rose's finishing statement seeming to be, "Well, we shall simply have to see about that." Then they take notice of you and they turn, with Terezi grinning widely and Rose looking rather grave, as she asked, "And what have you found, Harley?"

"Well, I found the Door, but we aren't going to be able to go through it." You explain, frowning a bit, "Whenever I got close to it, it just disappeared again! It seems that whatever force took Dave is actively keeping us out of our own universe, keeping the Door from being accessible. Not to mention, we have another problem. I can't see into the universe." Rose seems a bit alarmed there, and the smile seems to be dropping somewhat on Terezi's face. For a moment, the three of you look to each other, thinking about the next thing to say. Rose worries her lip in her teeth for a moment, before she makes a sort of startling admission.

"I can't See into it either." That's definitely disturbing, and then Terezi gives a small growl, cursing to herself. She turns her head towards you (or like, an inch to your left, but close enough in your general direction that it feels as if she's looking at you), and then she's talking too.

"Dammit! I can't see any outcomes for Dave. I can see all the outcomes for us- there are so many ways that this timeline can tank. But I can't see shit in there!" This is definitely bad. Not only could no one get to the Door, no one was even able to see into the universe that Dave was pulled into. You thought, before, that it wouldn't be this bad. After all, the trolls had been able to see into your universe before, so why would this be any different? Apparently, though, this entire situation was definitely something special, because the Seers couldn't see.

"We've been blinded." Rose says, letting out a small breath. "Something is keeping us from seeing what's going on with our universe and our friend. Whatever is happening, we will have to proceed with caution."

"Not to mention, we'll have to work twice as hard now," Terezi chimes in, annoyed by this situation. "We're essentially useless in the sight department. Fuck, we're Seers who can't See- this isn't just going to be a minor inconvenience. Someone planned on this. Someone knew that we could See, and is interfering."

There is an uncomfortable silence, because just what could be strong enough to blind two Seers?

After a moment, Rose ends up saying, "We all will have to figure out modes of living, in the meantime. Since we have some time to think on that, why don't you introduce yourself to the child? I'm sure that they would love to meet another new face."

"Right!" You say, deciding to cheer up just a bit. After all, kids were always so cute and adorable! You can't imagine that anything bad could ever come out of this, even if you've never actually seen a human child in real life and in the flesh. Then, however, you pause for just a moment, looking over to the human child before turning back to Rose. "Uh… I sort of can't tell if they're a girl or boy?"

"Oh, that!" Terezi snickers, shaking her head, "The John human tried to ask them that, whether they were male or female, but they just puffed right up and put their hands on their hips. Then they wrote that their gender was 'Papyrus'. After that, Rose just guessed that they were nonbinary and didn't want to be called either!"

"Oh, that makes sense!" You say, because it honestly does, and then you go off to talk to the little human child, leaving Rose and Terezi to talk to each other and to Vriska, who walks into their group and just invites herself into the conversation, as normal. You crouch down near where the human child is currently situated, giggling a bit because somehow, while you were talking to the two Seers, they had wiggled their way into Karkat's sweater and are currently looking at everyone, smiling quite a bit with their head poked out. This certainly is a treat for you! You don't think you've ever seen Karkat so alright with touching anyone, or having a human climb on him, much less a 'human grub'!

Kanaya is chuckling even as you say, "Well, hey there! My name is Jade. I don't think we've met! What's your name, kiddo?" The kid squirms a bit, and then they have their arm free of the grey sweater that they're surrounded by. They point to some chalk words on the ground, and then you're able to not only see their name, but the entire explanation of everything that they had told the others. You have a read, and as you do, the smile drops from your face.

/I am Frisk./

/The man who doesn't exist normally brought me here. I was resetting./

/Not sure how to explain. It's a very long story. Longer than most stories, anyway./

/I can explain it./

/The short version is this- Whoever was pulled through the door is now the Fallen Human. They fell into the Underground, where people called 'monsters' live./

/They are not human. They are better than that./

You stop yourself before you can read anything else, wanting to take your time examining everything later on. You turn back to Frisk, with the smile on your face back at full force. "Alright, Frisk it is! So, how do you do?" The human child nods, holding a thumbs up sign to show that they're alright, but for some reason, you can swear that they get closer to Karkat. As if they're trying to put as much distance between themself and you in the most discreet way possible.

/They are not human. They are better than that./

Just what could they mean by that?