It's been a long time, I know, and I'm sorry. I've been busy, I've been sick, I injured myself, I haven't been doing so hot and I took a break as a result. I had a note here explaining why for awhile (in the previous chapter), so I'll leave it up for a bit since it explains better. I'm back, we're almost halfway done, I hope you're excited because I am.
I'm behind on the new Steven Universe episodes but I'm pretty sure Jasper showed up this week and stuff happened, so let me get this out of the way before someone asks. The ending for this story was planned out pretty much the same day I started writing this, and nothing that happens in the show after Super Watermelon Island is going to change it. I'm still going in with the same ending. It might change something minor in the next chapter, but that's pretty much it. That should save trouble for everyone involved, since I'm sure someone will be curious.
And if one person's wondering, more are as well, so I want to say this, too. This story was mostly inspired by the altered Undertale opening images where people photoshopped Jasper in the fallen human's place. While many of the joke Jaspertale comics and such put Jasper in Frisk's place, this essentially sticks Jasper in where Chara would've fallen. No humans have fallen at this point. Chara's not at the Dreemurr home right now. Hopefully no one's been too confused by this... We are in fact in the year 201X!
Without further ado, I hope capslock doesn't bother anyone's eyes too much, but it's only for this chapter, don't worry.
"Jasper?" Asriel's eyes peeked over the arm of the couch, staring at Jasper's face. "Are you awake?"
"Been awake for hours," Jasper muttered, slowly sitting up. She didn't rest as much now as she did when she first fell Underground, but there wasn't anything else to do when the Dreemurrs all went to sleep. Unless she was planning a way to leave the Underground, it was her go-to activity for boredom. She yawned, turning to look bleary-eyed at him. "What's up?"
"Undyne's on the phone for you," he responded cheerily. "She wants to talk, but if you were still asleep she said she'd call back later."
Phone? Asriel was holding the rectangular device she'd seen his dad use before...was that what it was called? She took it from him and held it up to her ear. She was pretty sure that's how it worked. "Hello?"
"You're holding it upside down," Asriel informed her. He pointed up at the phone. "You're talking into the part that you listen from, and you're listening to the part you talk into."
Jasper nodded and adjusted it accordingly. "Hello?" she repeated.
"Jasper! There you are!" Undyne's voice on the other end was full of static. Jasper could hear her, but the audio wasn't the greatest quality, and there was no video or visual. This 'phone' was easily inferior to anything on Homeworld, but it worked at least. "I was beginning to think you were asleep after all."
"Me? No way," Jasper replied, a smirk on her face, even though Undyne couldn't see it. "I'm always ready for anything."
"Good." Undyne laughed, which came out heavily distorted on Jasper's end. "That's exactly what I want to hear, because if you're up for it, I've got your first assignment."
A few days had passed since Undyne and Jasper's training session. Asgore and Undyne had trained together since then, and she and Jasper had had a chance to talk. About future sparring opportunities, and future assignments. But they'd shot the breeze about whatever, too. What had began as mutual respect was beginning to develop into something more like...what was Asriel's word for it? Right. Friendship.
Making friends was the last thing Jasper had planned on doing here, and now she had...four? If 'family' counted as 'friends'. She still didn't really see them as family, though, and found 'friends' to be a more accurate description. She supposed it was all okay, in a weird way.
"Just say the word, captain," she said.
"Ah, cut the 'captain' crap. It sounds way too formal. Just call me Undyne. Hey, you wanted to learn more about the Underground, right?" Undyne redirected the conversation back on subject before Jasper could respond.
Jasper had no idea why Undyne wanted to cut the formalities, and was honestly surprised. She wasn't used to that. But if it was what Undyne wanted, she'd try her best to adjust. Not wanting to waste more time on an unwanted topic, she replied. "Right. If I'm stuck here, it's better I know as much as possible about it. Whether I'm defending this place or not, it'll put me at an advantage if anything happens."
"Yeah, I get it. And since you want to be active as an honorary Royal Guard, I think that'll help. Heck, I'm in charge, I'll make it happen!" Undyne told her.
"Really? So, what are my orders?" This piqued her interested even more. Jasper was getting excited now, and her voice rose as her excitement grew.
"Alright, slow down! If you want to learn more about the Underground, then culture ties right in with that. And puzzles are an important part of it. They've started fading out of use, and I don't really care for that crap, so you won't learn a lot about them where you are. That's where your assignment comes in."
"Puzzles, huh?" Jasper mumbled, more to herself than Undyne. Culture? Puzzles? She wasn't sure about all that. She was a Quartz, after all. Quartzes were soldiers made for fighting, battle, and not much else. She was more than happy to follow the rules on that, and didn't step out of line. What Undyne was describing would fall under a more technical gem's territory. Peridot, maybe, but not her. This was what she wanted, but it sounded...boring, honestly, and her enthusiasm was quickly dropping to mild disappointment.
"Yeah!" If Undyne had noticed this, she didn't point it out. "With puzzles, it's better to get really hands-on, see them for yourself, and Snowdin's the place to go for puzzles. We recruited a new sentry recently, a monster named Papyrus. He loves puzzles, and takes care of most of the puzzle maintenance in the area. So your assignment, should you accept, is to go to Snowdin and help him out for the day. And while you're there, he'll tell you everything you'd ever want to learn about puzzles. Probably more, too, knowing him."
"...Okay." Jasper still wasn't convinced on this puzzle thing. It still sounded pretty dull, honestly. But even if she hadn't been looking for something like this, she wouldn't dream of questioning orders. Plus, it wasn't like she had anything better to do. Sitting around at the Dreemurr's home and doing nothing made her feel useless. She needed to do something. She just would've preferred sparring, or training, or something. The stuff she was made for.
Undyne laughed again. "I'm not big on puzzles, I know that feeling. But I get the feeling that you'll like them when you learn more about them. It's good to give them one chance, and hopefully you'll enjoy it, at least a little. But if you don't, I'll never ask you to deal with them again."
They continued to talk for a few more minutes. Having never been to Snowdin, Jasper had no idea how far away it was until Undyne told her. Thankfully, though, there was a solution to this. A ferry ran through most of the Underground that could get her to Snowdin much faster than on foot. Asriel could take her safely to the ferry, and this new sentry would be waiting at the stop in Snowdin. Since the ferry ran most of the day, she could take it on the way back as well.
Asriel, of course, would've loved to go to Snowdin with her. However, his mother deemed Snowdin too far away without herself or Asgore with them. And in any case, he'd been falling behind in his schoolwork since Jasper had arrived, and needed to catch up. Jasper didn't know what schoolwork was, but didn't care enough to ask at the moment. She caught the important part, that Asriel wouldn't be there.
It was strange, honestly. She'd grown used to travelling around with the kid, and hadn't really gone much of anywhere by herself. By now, it almost felt weird going without him, but she didn't need him to hold her hand all the time. She'd be perfectly fine.
She would just...miss him, she supposed. At least, he said he would miss her, and she assumed what she felt was the same.
But he was still able to walk her to the ferry. The trip there was short, and mostly filled up with a fretting Asriel. Jasper frustratedly assured him she would be fine. She was more than capable of taking care of herself. Every once in awhile a situation like this would occur, usually with Asriel, that would test Jasper's patience. She was getting used to it and handling it better, but it was still difficult for her. Thankfully, Asriel never seemed to notice. If he did, he didn't seem to mind.
In due time, they got to the ferry. Asriel and Jasper said their goodbyes, and Jasper boarded the ferry. Asriel stayed and watched her go off, only going back home when she was out of sight.
"Tra la la." Jasper didn't notice the monster in the front of the boat until they started singing. She supposed they must be driving the boat, but all they were doing was sitting there. Well... She'd seen Toriel use fire magic to cook before, and Asgore had used it to train, so maybe this monster could use magic involving water, or maybe wood, to drive the boat down.
"Beware the one who comes from the other world... Tra la la," they sang.
...Was that supposed to refer to her? Jasper felt a chill. She never truly felt like the Underground was home or anything. She was more of an outsider than anything. But she hadn't been this aware of how out of place she was since she first woke up down here. Sure, she'd been to other planets with beings unlike her, but she never really...spent time with them before, got to know them and learn about it. All in all, it was a feeling she didn't like, and wanted to get rid of immediately.
And surely she'd have that chance soon. The ferry arrived safely at Snowdin.
"GREETINGS!" A monster Jasper could not find the words to describe was waiting, and waving, at the ferry stop. (Later, she'd learn this monster was something called a skeleton. The term only confused her more.) As she stepped out of the ferry, the monster approached her. "YOU MUST BE JASPER. I'M PAPYRUS. UNDYNE ALREADY CALLED ME."
"She did, huh?" Jasper was a loss for words. Not from surprise, since she had figured Papyrus would know she was coming. She'd be surprised if he hadn't. No, she was just...taken aback, almost. This monster was incredibly friendly, talkative, and loud. Moreso than Asriel in all of those areas, though she wouldn't use 'loud' as a descriptor for Asriel most of the time. All in all, her first impression of Papyrus from just a few seconds of knowing him was that he was obnoxious, and she didn't think she liked him. She was dreading this mission more.
"INDEED, SHE DID! UNDYNE TOLD ME EVERYTHING! AND SHE PICKED THE RIGHT SKELETON FOR THE JOB!" Papyrus told her. "WOWIE...IT'S VERY EXCITING TO HAVE HELP RECALIBRATING PUZZLES. AND I LOVE TELLING OTHERS ABOUT THE JOYS OF PUZZLES! YOU MUST BE AS EXCITED AS I AM!" He beamed at her.
Jasper stared blankly at him, radiating dismay if anything. If Papyrus noticed, he paid this no mind. Instead he simply started to lead her to the puzzles, chatting the whole way.
Compared to most monsters Jasper had met, Papyrus was short. This didn't make him a short monster. The comparison was simply misleading, since most monsters Jasper had met were rather tall. She'd seen many shorter monsters in passing, so she knew this initial thought wasn't entirely accurate. He was around the same height as Undyne, if not a bit shorter. Jasper was definitely taller than him, at the very least. He also seemed quite young, one of the youngest monster she'd probably met, other than Asriel. And he was outgoing. She didn't even need to say a word, because he filled up what would otherwise be silence quite easily. Discussing his favorite puzzles, family, friends (which he assured her he had plenty of), and anything else he could think of.
Supposedly, he had a brother named Sans, who was busy working elsewhere and wouldn't return home for awhile. If he was anything like Papyrus, Jasper almost hoped she wouldn't get to meet him.
Soon enough, the two reached an area outside of town. The snow was arranged strangely here, almost like tiles...until Jasper looked more closely, and realized it actually was tiles and not snow at all. A machine sat off to the side, which she paid no attention to, because she didn't care about machines at all.
"HERE WE ARE!" Papyrus stopped as they approached the maze, causing Jasper to stop as well. This was the part where she might actually learn something useful. "THIS IS THE TILE MAZE. IT'S...A NEWER PUZZLE, MADE BY A SCIENTIST NAMED DOCTOR ALPHYS. I DON'T THINK WE'LL HAVE TO DO MUCH MAINTENANCE HERE, BUT WE SHOULD STILL TEST IT."
"Alright..." Jasper scanned the puzzle over once more, still not quite sure what this was. "So what do we do?"
"STAND ON THE OTHER SIDE," Papyrus told her, gesturing towards the area he was referring to. Once she got there, he continued. "I WILL TURN ON THE MACHINE, ACTIVATING THE PUZZLE. EACH OF THE TILES WILL TURN INTO DIFFERENT COLORS WITH DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS. BUT YOU WON'T NEED TO SOLVE IT. THE TILES THEMSELVES SHOULD BE FINE, WE JUST NEED TO MAKE SURE EACH COLOR WORKS CORRECTLY. SO ALL YOU HAVE TO IS STEP ON THE TILES I TELL YOU TO. IT SHOULDN'T TAKE LONG."
She nodded. That was simple enough, she could do that with no problems. Silently, she stood still as he flipped on the machine. The puzzle whirred into life, and the tiles each flashed different colors rapidly until settling, each on different and random colors. That done, Papyrus flashed her a smile.
"FIRST, STEP ON A RED TILE," he said.
She tried to do this, but found herself unable. Maybe this was harder than she thought. Was she somehow...walking wrong? Or was the puzzle messed up? "I can't," she informed him.
"GOOD, WE'RE OFF TO A GOOD START!" He clapped his hands together once. "RED TILES ARE IMPASSABLE. YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO WALK ON THEM. NEXT IS A PINK TILE."
Both of her feet moved easily onto the nearest pink tile. She paused. "Nothing happened, but I could step on it."
"GREAT! PINK TILES DON'T DO ANYTHING."
They went on like this for a few minutes, testing every color, and many color combinations. The only thing they didn't check was going through a blue tile that was next to a yellow tile. According to Papyrus, you shouldn't be able to step through a blue tile in that situation, but it would shock if someone tried, and he didn't seem to want Jasper to, even if it was relatively harmless. Honestly, Jasper didn't want to be shocked at all, so she was perfectly fine with this decision.
"OKAY, THAT'S FINISHED!" Papyrus shut off the machine. "EVERY TILE WORKED EXCEPT FOR THE GREEN TILES. BUT WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING TO FIX IT, SO WE'RE DONE HERE. I'LL JUST LET UNDYNE KNOW IN MY DAILY REPORT LATER. ON TO THE NEXT PUZZLE!"
Together, they walked further away from town. Papyrus chattered the entire way, while Jasper asked a few questions here and there, but remained silent otherwise. The more time she spent here, the less she liked it. She'd seen a puzzle firsthand, and that was great and all, but she still didn't know anything about them. Not only that, but the more Papyrus talked, the more he got on her nerves. He was so...cheerful, naive, outgoing, oblivious. He'd mentioned his ambitions to be a member of the Royal Guard several times, but she could tell from just meeting him he'd never last in real combat. He'd never make it in a war.
This whole thing was beginning to feel like a big waste of time. If puzzles really were that important, couldn't someone else tell her about them?
They quickly reached the next puzzle. Panels with symbols on them littered the ground, and according to Papyrus, this puzzle was solved by walking over each panel exactly once and then hitting a switch. This puzzle was incredibly easy to solve, and took Jasper maybe a few minutes at most. Once she was finished, Papyrus applauded her.
"YOU SOLVED IT SO QUICKLY! YOU'RE QUITE GOOD AT THIS. BUT THIS PUZZLE SEEMS TO BE WORKING PERFECTLY FINE," he observed. "SO OUR WORK HERE IS DONE AS WELL."
"I'm not so sure." Jasper crossed her arms, glaring down at the puzzle. "It works fine, but it's way too easy. I doubt you want whoever these are for to get past them too fast. We ought to make it harder."
"HMM..." Papyrus turned his gaze onto the puzzle as well. There really wasn't any difficulty in this puzzle. Nothing prevented anyone from stepping on any panel at any time, so it wasn't...solving the puzzle, as much as it was just passing through. "I SUPPOSE YOU'RE RIGHT. WE COULD MAKE THIS MORE DIFFICULT. PERHAPS WE COULD ADD SNOW WALLS, AND MAKE IT SOME SORT OF MAZE, OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT."
Was every puzzle in Snowdin a maze? Whatever, it didn't matter. A maze was harder than the puzzle was as it was, so she agreed. And besides, Jasper was no puzzle expert, so it wasn't like she had any ideas on how to make it better herself. So the two got to work, forming large snow walls everywhere around it. They would have to leave the puzzle solvable, of course, but at least this could pose some challenge.
"...Papyrus." They worked in silence, complete silence for the first time since Jasper had arrived, for some time before she spoke up.
"YES?" Papyrus asked.
"So, puzzles are...cool, and all." She was choosing her words carefully. It seemed impossible to upset Papyrus, but it would be best to try to appeal to his interests if she was asking for information. She wanted to leave the impression she liked puzzles, at least, and that that was why she wanted to learn more. Papyrus used the word 'cool' a lot, especially describing himself. It must have some positive meaning. "But what's the point? I mean, why are they here? What do they do?" She frowned. "I can't figure it out. It doesn't make sense."
"OH, RIGHT." Papyrus rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I WAS SUPPOSED TO TELL YOU ABOUT ALL THAT, WASN'T I? I NEARLY FORGOT, BUT LIKE THEY SAY, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!" He grinned. "WORRY NOT! I WILL TELL YOU ALL ABOUT PUZZLES, AND HOPEFULLY ALLEVIATE THE CONFUSION YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW."
Their work did not stop for the explanation. They kept building up the snow as Papyrus talked and Jasper listened. For once, she was completely interested.
"PUZZLES ARE...HM." He frowned as he smoothed out a section of a snow wall. "YOU KNOW ABOUT THE BARRIER, RIGHT? THE BARRIER TRAPPING ALL MONSTERS UNDERGROUND?"
Jasper nodded. She was very familiar with that barrier, having come face to face with it and being unable to go through.
"MONSTERS AREN'T DOWN HERE BECAUSE WE WANT TO BE. THE HUMANS PUT THAT BARRIER UP LONG AGO TO SEAL US DOWN HERE. MOST OF US HAVE NEVER SEEN REAL STARS, AND CAN ONLY DREAM OF FEELING THE SUN ON OUR SKIN," Papyrus explained.
She looked away for a moment, busying herself in her work. The barrier trapping them all down here...that brought back unpleasant memories.
"ANYONE CAN ENTER, BUT ONLY SOMEONE WITH A POWERFUL SOUL CAN ESCAPE. NO MONSTER'S SOUL IS CLOSE TO POWERFUL ENOUGH, SO WE MAKE DO DOWN HERE," he went on. "AND SINCE ANYONE CAN ENTER, WE HAVE TO BE PREPARED FOR THE POSSIBILITY THAT A HUMAN COULD ARRIVE. IT HASN'T HAPPENED YET, BUT IT COULD, AND THAT'S WHAT THE PUZZLES ARE FOR."
A counter-measure for a human attack, from the sounds of it. Interesting.
"PUZZLES ARE...HOW DID THAT BOOK PUT IT? ANCIENT FUSIONS BETWEEN DIVERSIONS AND DOORKEYS. THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO SLOW HUMANS DOWN, IF THEY CAN'T STOP THEM COMPLETELY. MOST MONSTERS KNOW THE SOLUTIONS, SO WE CAN GO BACK AND FORTH FREELY. IN SOME PARTS OF THE UNDERGROUND, THEY'RE STARTING TO FADE OUT OF USE, BUT PUZZLES ARE IMPORTANT! I REFUSE TO ABANDON THEM, EVEN IF ALMOST EVERYONE ELSE HAS. AFTER ALL, IF A HUMAN FALLS DOWN HERE, WE NEED TO BE PREPARED!"
Interesting indeed. "That's...way cooler than I thought," Jasper admitted. "But why put all that work into slowing them down? Why not just fight them directly?" That would be the honorable way to do things, really. And Undyne at least had lead her to believe that monsters were honorable beings.
"THAT'S WHAT UNDYNE THINKS, TOO. AND SHE'S VERY STRONG SO IT MAY WORK FOR HER," Papyrus replied. "AND OF COURSE, MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL GUARD TRAIN TO BE ABLE TO FIGHT HUMANS, AND AS A SENTRY, I DO AS WELL! BUT TRUTHFULLY, IT MIGHT NOT BE THE BEST METHOD." He rubbed the back of his head once more. "I'VE NEVER SEEN A HUMAN MYSELF, BUT EVERYONE SAYS THEY HAVE POWERFUL SOULS. SO POWERFUL THAT ONE HUMAN ALONE WOULD HAVE A MORE POWERFUL SOUL THAN EVERY MONSTER'S SOUL COMBINED. THAT'S HOW THEY WERE ABLE TO TRAP US DOWN HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. JUST ONE MONSTER, OR EVEN A FEW OF US WORKING TOGETHER, MIGHT NOT BE ENOUGH TO STOP EVEN ONE HUMAN BY THEIRSELF. IN MY OPINION, IT'S BETTER TO SLOW THEM DOWN WITH PUZZLES, AND TRY TO CAPTURE THEM THAT WAY."
He coughed. "BUT, UM, DON'T TELL UNDYNE I SAID THAT! SHE'D BE FURIOUS. AND THAT DOESN'T MEAN I'M NOT PREPARED TO FIGHT A HUMAN. I AM. I'M JUST...NOT SURE IT'S THE BEST APPROACH, IS ALL."
Jasper didn't quite believe that last part. As much as he wanted to believe it, she doubted he could take on another monster, let alone a human, if humans were as powerful as he said. But what he said made sense. If monsters truly were weaker than humans, then monsters needed to adapt to their situation. It may not be the most honorable way to go about it, but there worse methods. These puzzles were more useful than she thought.
She had to admit, it piqued her interest. In puzzles, of course. And in monsters, absolutely. But it got her interested in humans as well. She had no idea they were supposed to be so strong. Though gems were much stronger, of course, but perhaps there was more to humans than she had first believed. It was all a lot to dwell on, and she had plenty of time to do so. She probably wasn't going to be able to leave any time soon anyway, much as she hated to admit it.
With Jasper much more enthusiastic now, the two continued on. Once the snow walls were finished, more puzzles were tested, fixed, and recalibrated. Eventually, they reached the end of the Snowdin Forest and had to turn pack. Papyrus spoke more about puzzles the entire time, and Jasper paid closer attention than she had at first. It wasn't long before they got back to Snowdin Town once again.
Her opinion of Papyrus was largely the same. He wasn't material to be a soldier, and he really needed to face reality. She definitely wasn't his biggest fan, or even close. But she had to respect his love for puzzles, just a little. He truly put everything into taking care of them.
"AND HERE WE ARE! BACK IN SNOWDIN TOWN," he announced as they got back. "UNFORTUNATELY, IT'S TIME FOR MY DAILY REPORT WITH UNDYNE. YOU DON'T NEED TO REPORT ANYTHING, SO THERE'S NO NEED FOR YOU TO GO TO WATERFALL. BUT FORTUNATELY, THERE IS A SOLUTION! MY BROTHER SHOULD BE DONE WITH WORK ANY MINUTE NOW."
He was true to his word. Jasper blinked, and before she knew it another monster (a skeleton monster, as she would later learn) was standing in front of a house at the edge of town. This turned out to be Papyrus' brother.
"THERE HE IS!" Papyus grinned, dashing towards him. Jasper followed him closely. "WHILE I GIVE MY REPORT TO UNDYNE, YOU CAN HANG OUT WITH MY BROTHER! HE'S NOT AS COOL AS ME, BUT I'M SURE YOU CAN LEARN A LOT FROM HIM, TOO. HAVE FUN! NYEH HEH HEH!"
"wait, what?" his brother asked.
Before she could get a word in, Papyrus had left her with his brother and was dashing off towards Waterfall.
Jasper stared down at the short monster in front of her. He was dressed lazily, in clothes that were at least clean but far from professional or stylish. He was a bit taller than Asriel, but shorter than most other monsters, and much shorter than her. He smiled nervously at her, scratching at a cheekbone with one of his fingers.
"heya. the name's sans." He stared up at her for a moment, before walking towards the door to the house. "uh, you can come in, i guess."
Well, Sans seemed less obnoxious than Papyrus, at least.
I'll try my best not to take so long next time. I don't think I'll be as busy now, I'm less injured than I was and I'm no longer sick, but I'm still having issues related to why I put off updating this in the first place, so we'll see. And it'll help if the next chapter isn't this long. 4,000 words, gosh.
I don't think there's any doubt what'll be going on in the next chapter.