Alanna pushed herself up, and realized that she had been sitting in the snow for far too long. Her legs almost gave underneath her as she scrambled to get away from the flower.
"Wait where are you going?" The voice should have sounded shocked, but it sounded dark. Amused.
"I'm going home," Alanna said without any real thought. She tried to inch away, but felt a familiar pull at the center of her chest.
"Don't you know?" Flowey's grin stretched and twisted into something truly monstrous. "You can never go home!"
The world flickered black.
Alanna's consciousness split and she watched as the snow reflected the glow of her soul. Flowey fell quiet as he stared at her. The burnt orange options were away from her; it was Flowey's turn. There was no glow in his chest…. stem? Alanna wondered if that was normal.
"Your soul," Flowey breathed all malice gone from the flower's face.
Alanna instantly tried to cover her soul, but her it simply shined through her hands. Instantly a gentle protective warmth seemed to settle around her body. She watched in abject horror as the flower emitted a half circle of what looked to be spinning white seeds.
"Fighting isn't that hard," Flowey said eyes locked on her own, "in fact. It feels good. Don't you want to feel good?" The seeds shot out towards her, and she pushed herself to the side. Dodging the seeds was relatively easy for Alanna. If she wasn't terrified at the situation Alanna would have savored the feeling of flying. Instead she bit her lip as the options pulled back towards her.
| FIGHT | | ACT | | ITEM | | MERCY |
Alanna lightly reached out, and chose to talk.
"Flowey, why are you doing this? You said yourself that I was too interesting to kill right now." The options fell away from her as Flowey stared into her soul.
"You idiot!" He sneered more seeds forming in a spinning formation around his head. "Do you really think that Her tactics are going to work?" The way Flowey said 'her' seemed torn between reverent and hateful. "What happens when you come against someone you can't talk down?" The seeds went darting towards Alanna, faster than before. She hardly had the time to move before one skimmed her shin leaving what felt like a trail of acid in it's wake.
Blood splattered to the ground, but the burning feeling quickly dimmed. Alanna wondered if the cold was helping in any aspect, but she could hardly feel the frigid air. Beyond Flowey the snow-covered landscape faded into pitch black.
Flowey was laughing, a twisted and mangled sound that jumped octaves without any warning. "Don't you want to go home?"
She did.
"Of course I do," Alanna said glancing down at her glowing soul.
"Then fight," Flowey's voice dipped into a demonic bass, "that's the only way you can get out."
Flowey was right, but she couldn't stomach the thought. Alanna's soul was shedding that beautiful moving light. It reminded her of a coal, but brighter, slower. There had to be some way to do get out without harming anyone. If getting to the surface meant changing herself on a fundamental level Alanna would happily choose to rot down here.
Alanna was filled with Determination.
"Just let me go."
"Wrong answer," he laughed sounding manic, "but you'll learn. They all do eventually. Even if it means you die," the word sent a stab of panic through Alanna's mind, "over and Over and OVER AGAIN."
A ring of seeds spawned around Alanna slowly moving in towards her. They were everywhere. Flowey was laughing the grating sound of it working its way underneath Alanna's skin. Alanna began to reach towards her own form of magic, but the seeds suddenly stopped still a foot away from her skin.
"How interesting!" Flowey crooned. Alanna followed his gaze to see Sans, standing casually out in the snow, hands in his pockets, eyes trained on Flowey. "Howdy!" The greeting felt cold and angry.
"heya."
"Alanna, I didn't know you spent your time with this smiling trash-bag!" Flowey didn't glance to her, but stared down Sans. The two seemed to be locked in some sort of staring contest.
Sans chuckled, but otherwise simply stood there calm and composed.
"Flowey," Alanna said quietly, "let me go."
The seeds inched ever closer as Flowey's attention returned to her. He giggled, eyes flickering to Sans every few seconds. "Even he learned the lesson over and Over and OVER. Didn't you?"
Near Flowey, Sans' eyes became dark voids.
"Okay that's enough!" Alanna's voice rang out shattering the dark moment between the two. She then realized how terrifying it was to have the them turn to stare at her. "Um," she breathed her bravado gone, "can you just…not? Please let me go, and have this," she pauses, "whatever this is somewhere I'm not?"
"I was just playing!" Flowey said the attack suddenly disappearing and his name shifting into a bright yellow. Alanna felt her breath release as the turn shifted to her. "Be seein' ya!" Flowey quipped cheerily as Alanna decided to spare him.
*You Spare Flowey! You receive 0 EXP and 0 Gold!
As soon as Flowey was spared the ground roiled beneath him before he shot into it, leaving the scene. Alanna's soul reunited with her body and she lost her breath at how cold she was. Her feet hit the ground, and her legs gave out slamming her into the snow. Her leg burned. Alanna gasped and struggled to pick herself up out of the snow.
"here." Sans was suddenly there helping Alanna up. She flinched away from the contact slamming into the Ruin doors attempting to get away from him. Sans' smile twisted slightly, and he stood back hands back in his hoodie.
"Sorry, I just…" Alanna was instantly fascinated with the blood that had trailed down her leg.
"you need help?" Sans took a small step towards Alanna. "pap was pretty worried about you when you didn't come back. you must be cold." He said eye-lights taking in her appearance.
"I'm fine." She said pulling her jacket tighter around herself. It didn't help. The colors around her seemed to have shifted and deepened. Even the snow was showing more color and life than it had before. Her blood stood stark against the white of the landscape, looking more like ink than the darker substance that it was.
"you don't look it," Sans took another slow step forward, almost treating Alanna like a wounded animal. "howsabout this?" Another step. Alanna knew that Sans was taller than her, but most of the time he seemed so short. She supposed it was because of his brother.
Papyrus was so tall.
"we can take a shortcut back to the house. that way paps won't have to see you worse than this." Sans was only worried because of Papyrus. The realization hit Alanna and left her staring at the skeleton dumbly. Of course Sans would be here because of that.
"I'm fine," Alanna said shrugging away his offer. She attempted to walk past Sans, but he seemed to still be in front of her even though she swore that she had just been walking past him.
"you've been nothing but trouble since my bro brought you in. even the kid doesn't come home ruffed-up every day." Sans took a step forward. Alanna held her ground. "papyrus is already attached to you, and you getting hurt constantly is hurting him." She could hear the threat in his voice.
"Let's get something straight." Determination burned through Alanna. How dare he threaten her when he was the one to hurt her in the first place? What sort of twisted logic did he run on? "You don't get to police my movement because you love your brother. Just remember that you were the one who attacked me, not the other way around."
"my bro will worry himself sick over you."
Alanna laughed as a darker thought struck her. Sans went deathly still. "Have you ever heard the term victim-blaming?" Sans still didn't move, but somehow she knew that she had caught him off-guard. "Victim-blaming is exactly as it sounds. You take an incident…like being attacked," she said sharply her eyes locking onto his eye-lights, "and instead of blaming the aggressor, the one who chose to attack the other person, you blame the victim. It can come in many forms." Anger had reduced her voice to a low growl.
"wait-"
"You blame the victim because they were wearing a certain type of clothing. Or that they were walking alone. The problem with this logic is that the victim did not commit the act. The aggressor did."
"hang on, kid. i'm not saying it's your fault." Sans said holding his hands up in a peace-making gesture.
"And yet you're blaming me for Papyrus worrying about me…because I get beat up too much."
Sans breathed out, a strangely impressed sound. "damn," he muttered running a hand over his head. "you got me there."
Damn right I do, Alanna thought harshly. At this point, however, the fire of Alanna's anger and determination was being stolen by the cold. She really had made a stupid decision wandering out in the snow for so long.
"can we at least get you out of the cold?"
Alanna instantly shook her head, starting to move past Sans. She might have wanted to get home faster, but her pride was refusing the help from someone who didn't really care about her.
"don't freeze out here just because you're pissed at me." His tone had softened. "what good will that do? paps and the kid would be furious, and trust me, you don't want that." Another long pause. Alanna's feet started to go numb. "i can convince him to make spaghetti without the glitter."
Alanna felt her body give in before her mind. She let out a long-suffering sigh. "Fine," she said turning back towards the skeleton. His smile seemed to brighten considerably.
"pretty metal of ya' to keep that bite down." He said holding out a hand. As much as she didn't want to, Alanna laughed at the pun. She placed her hand in his, and was instantly surprised by the warmth. Alanna didn't really realize that she had made a sound until he began to chuckle, looking down at her hand in his. "you're like ice, kid." His other hand came to rest over the top of her hand, enclosing it in warmth.
Alanna wanted to shy away, but the movement was so gentle and calculated that she found herself leaning slightly into him instead. "I've been out here a while." She found herself saying tiredly.
"yeah, I noticed." Sans said letting go only to grab her other hand to enfold into the warmth. "what were you doin' this far away from snowdin anyways?"
"The Ruins," Alanna said turning to look at the door. "I came back. I was hoping…" She trailed off sighing heavily. "I wanted to go back, if only for a minute."
"why?"
Alanna bit her lip. "I don't know. I guess I wanted to talk to her."
"she's the one who gave you this, huh?" Alanna's gaze was drawn back to Sans as he let go with one hand and reached into his hoodie pocket. There was a small metallic sound as he tugged a necklace out into the open air. Not just a necklace, the necklace that Toriel had given Alanna before she sent her off. Alanna took a step back tugging her hands away.
Alanna stared at the object. She had noticed that the necklace had been missing while lying awake on the couch the first night. It had saddened her, but the little object hadn't seemed important before now. She reached out and Sans dumped the necklace into her palm.
There was no hesitation as Alanna clasped it back around her neck. "You found it." Alanna herself was not sure if her voice grateful or accusatory.
"yeah," Sans shifted uncomfortably, "the kid wanted to wash it. there was a lotta blood. i was supposed ta' give it back…"
Alanna took a deep breath and pushed away her anger. It wouldn't help to be pissed off at him. It was obvious that he didn't trust her and she knew that she didn't trust him. She would have to learn to live with it, or in this case, ignore it.