Alice in Undertale
By Lolitafreak88
Chapter 7 Are We Out of the Woods Yet?
"when was the last time you had this level of fun if I may ask?" Sans seemed eager to continue talking to Alice about this positive topic.
"Well specifically when I was sitting on the riverbank with my dear cat Dinah and we were discussing a world of my own." Alice recounted.
Alice felt somewhat of a welcome relief at telling Sans about her fondest memories above the Underground. As though she had been bottling them up all this time and felt passively saddened by those thoughts. Now being able to share them felt really heart-warming to her and gave her more courage than ever before. Sans seemed to like her answer as he chucked and said,
"a world of your own huh? sounds like a simple idea but there can be so much more to it. what was in this world of your 'bone'?"
"W-well… in my daydreams I had always envisioned creatures that were like ordinary creatures but had special powers. Like the ability to converse and dress themselves and form opinions. I also dreamed of beautiful places and activities that were one of a kind. I have to say though that this world isn't quite the same as mine but I am very much enjoying it." Alice replied with a graceful arm position.
"yeah… probably a tourist's delight for those who are not from around here. the sad news is that this is technically a prison for most of the monsters down here. some adapted well and all i really need is papyrus to be happy anywhere but not everyone is so fandabbydozy. still just be yourself and don't lose your mind-games." Sans teased with another pun.
"Ehehe… I shan't lose my reason or any games down here. Some people do say the best people in the world are mad but I'd rather stay the way I am."
Truthfully the people who said that often were the people in Alice's head but there was always something genuine about mad people. Honest, to the point, often jovial or alive and making the most out of their lives. Sans definitely did seem like that kind of person and Papyrus too. So she was feeling relaxed, comfortable, and safe around them. Still she had a feeling she was beginning to dilly-dally and she knew she had to get to Snowdin for warmth and comfort. So Alice curtsied politely and stated,
"Um I feel I should probably carry onward though. Papyrus probably has more puzzles in store. Thank you once more for the conversation Sans. You are very lovely to talk to."
"u-uh… y-you don't really need to shower me with so many compliments. i didn't bring my umbrella after all. but anyways go break a leg." Sans had a strange blue blush on his face as opposed to a human's red blush as he replied jokingly.
With a feeling of gratitude and some youthful joy, Alice moved onto the next area. She was quite surprised to find a table with a plate of spaghetti doused in tomato sauce on it as well as a fork. On another table that was more round than the other lied a strange box with a handle, buttons, and a small screen. It appeared to be some kind of cooking device but Alice was unfamiliar with it much like some of the things she found in Toriel's kitchen. Among other noteworthy things was another mousehole along the hilly walls of the forest and a note lying on the ground. Seeking the note first, Alice began to read. 'HUMAN! PLEASE ENJOY THIS SPAGHETTI. LITTLE DO YOU KNOW, THIS SPAGHETTI IS A TRAP… DESIGNED TO ENTICE YOU! YOU'LL BE SO BUSY EATING IT… THAT YOU WON'T REALIZE THAT YOU AREN'T PROGRESSING! THOROUGHLY DUPED AGAIN BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS! NYEH-HEH-HEH, PAPYRUS.'
"Never before have I met an individual who gave away all the answers to his puzzles before the participant. He truly has a rare gift." Alice couldn't help but make fun of Papyrus a bit to herself.
It was amusing and kind of endearing of him to essentially take it easy on her with these puzzles and allow it to be easily solvable and passable. Sans had helped a lot in the last puzzle but it appeared that Papyrus was even trying to explain to her his supposed cleverness of distracting her with frozen spaghetti. As good as it looked, it seemed far too cold and had been out for far too long to be worth trying. The mysterious box appeared to have a plug to connect it to something but Alice wasn't very keen on what. She peered into the mouse hole and heard the cries of a small mouse much like the ones in the ruins. Alice felt quite determined when she realized the mouse would not stop until they had found a way to heat up the spaghetti. With this encouraging thought in mind, Alice kept going. In a rather large open space with trees and snow, she found another sign. It said, 'Warning: Dog Marriage."
"Dog marriage? Wonder if those are as much fun as human marriages." Alice thought aloud.
As she began walking along though, she soon encountered what was revealed to be Lesser Dog. It appeared as a white dog, standing on it's hind legs, dressed in a very stoic suit of armor with a stone dogger made of pomer-granite. It appeared to be quite harmless and was rather happy based on the expression on its face. It was even panting softly. Alice remembered Doggo and how she had pet him into submission so she wondered if the same tactics would work again.
"Don't worry dog. I don't intend to do anything harmful." Alice cooed as she began to pet the dog.
To her surprise though, once she laid her hand on the dog, it's height seemed to slightly increase from the neck up. It essentially grew taller as it began to pant even more. Alice's curiousity proceeded to ignite from there and she began to pet the dog even more consistently. Sure enough, with each pet, the neck of Lesser Dog extended more and more. Soon it was at the height of Papyrus with Alice having to jump up to pet it. Lesser Dog's excitement knew no bounds and Alice continued to get critical pets on it that thoroughly increased it. All throughout this petting session, the overstimulated Lesser Dog barked and panted.
"My goodness. I always imagined mushrooms that made you grow taller if you ate them from a certain angle but I never anticipated such growth like this." Alice exclaimed as she realized there was no way to stop this madness.
It soon began to reach the height of a totem made by an indigenous tribe and Lesser Dog could not hear Alice's cries for it's attention. Interestingly enough with further pets, Lesser Dog's head turned around and seemed to now lower to the ground with the overall length of it's neck still exceedingly high. The faraway barks of Lesser Dog soon became much easier to hear and Alice could once more pet it. Eventually though, Alice began to grow a bit tired of the constant petting and so she decided enough was enough. After all she was starting to worry she had a petting problem.
"Well your fur was very soft and I enjoyed petting you but I believe it is time that we cease this encounter." Alice spoke as composedly as she could.
Once she said this, Lesser Dog's head suddenly rapidly began to shift upward and then shrink down at a furious pace. Then it's neck literally snapped back to it's regular size and Lesser Dog's original form was present again. Alice laughed nervously to herself and then continued to make strides around the area. She found a mound of snow when she went left and a wall of spikes that blocked off an entryway to the right. Perhaps I need to dig through the snow for the switch, Alice thought. Digging through snow with bare hands was indeed very cold but Alice felt alright. She detected a red 'X' in the snow as though marking something, but there was no switch to be found.
"Hmm.. perhaps there was something in the other path?" Alice asked herself as she decided to retrace her steps.
As she returned to when she first initially entered the area, she went forward this time. She found a small patch of ground and began to reason that the 'X' was referring to a specific spot on the ground. When she searched that designated area, she found a simple switch that was hidden in the snow and triggered it. That should do it, Alice reasoned proudly. Sure enough, when she returned to where the wall of spikes was, the spikes had sunk into the ground and opened up the way. Alice clapped happily to herself for solving the puzzle and began to continue onward. However as she crossed the bridge and was about to follow a new path, she noticed something quite startling coming towards her. Two hooded figures dressed in black with notable white dog faces and paws peeking out from their outfits. They were also carrying two battleaxes as they marched towards Alice.
"What's that smell?" Said a distinctly rough, male voice.
"(Where's that smell?)" Said a more feminine yet still determined voice.
"Smell…? D-do you mean me perhaps?" Alice asked as she felt awkward at being described as a 'smell'.
She then noticed the two shrouded dogs doing a strange rondo around Alice, moving as though they were dancing to jazz music. When they stopped, they surrounded Alice on her left and right sides. Alice felt quite uncomfortable and nervous as she figured out these two were probably aligned with Lesser Dog and Doggo. Which means they must be after me as well, she thought worriedly.
"Thanks for letting us know where you were smell. You smell weird enough to eliminate…" The male voice spoke ridiculous words but in a horrifying tone.
"(...Eliminate YOU!)" Cried out the female voice as both her and her partner took their battleaxes in a warrior's stance.
"Ahhhhhh!" Alice screamed in fright as she simply had nothing at the moment to counteract battleaxes.
The duo was revealed to be Dogi and consisted of Dogamy who was the male and Dogaressa who was the female. They appeared to be a married couple and were most likely the ones who resided at the side-by-side posts Alice had saw earlier. They also only knew what they smelled and that Dogaressa found her hubby lovely. Alice found it very sweet that they appeared to love one another so much but of course their intentions at the moment made it impossible to compliment them just yet.
"Don't touch my hot dog." Dogamy warned.
"(He means me.)" Dogaressa explained.
"I-I would never- ahhhhhhhh!" Alice screamed as she found herself dodging two axe swings respectively.
"Let's kick human tail!"
"(Do humans have tails?)" They spoke in unison which only made their love more endearing to Alice.
"No… humans certainly don't have tails… although…" Alice began to think reasonably about this.
It seems they are reliant on smelling their targets so perhaps if I disguise my scent I can convince them I'm not a human? As the two dogs were practicing for the next couples contest, Alice decided that her best option for now was to roll around in the dirt and snow so that they wouldn't detect her scent. Being naturally a very clean person, Alice cringed a bit before she threw herself on the ground and rolled around childishly. She felt bad about dirtying the cape that Sans had so kindly given to her but she was scared of being chopped up by those axes more. The dogs however still aimed their axes at her, causing Alice to roll evasively.
"No. 2 Nuzzle Champs '98'!"
"(Of course we were second.)" The dogs reminisced as they attempted to slice Alice.
"There are contests for nuzzling? Huh. There certainly does seem to be a lot of curious events and traditions down here." Alice asked herself curiousy.
Then to her amazement, Dogamy and Dogaressa approached Alice and sniffed her again. They looked to one another in bewilderment as it seemed something was different from what they originally had assumed.
"What! Smells like a…"
"(Are you actually a little puppy!?)" He and she exclaimed respectively.
"Arf… Arf…!" To complete the illusion, Alice actually barked like a dog and pet both Dogamy and Dogaressa to seem affectionate.
It felt very silly to do this but it seemed to be working as both dogs seemed very impressed. It was clear what Alice was doing was something they really enjoyed and also seemed unfamiliar with.
"Wow! Pet by another pup!"
"(A dog that pets dogs… Amazing!)" They each exclaimed as they were in awe of the idea.
"Yes, it seems like most dogs around here do enjoy petting so petting one another would be a wonderful expression of love." Alice claimed to get them further on her side.
And with that, the axe swinging ceased and both dogs cheerfully hugged Alice
"Dogs can pet other dogs?"
"(A new world has opened up for us…)" They spoke cheerfully before kissing one another lovingly.
"Thanks, weird puppy!" Dogamy said before he kissed Dogaressa lovingly.
"Well you are very welcome… although I'm not really that weird…" Alice curtsied politely though did sound slightly skeptical in her verbal response.
Dogaressa smiled and she and the love of her life went off down the path. Alice sighed a breath of relief. So far these dogs were fairly formidable opponents and could've easily finished Alice off had she not known Toriel's advice. She was starting to wonder about her DETERMINATION though as she had not seen the rabbit or felt that rush of power flowing like it had done in the ruins. She hadn't needed it direly right now but it would be reassuring to learn how to channel it for any unexpected and dangerous encounter. Either way, she had succeeded as a pacifist and even as a love counselor of sorts and this gave her the confidence to go down the new path. She still cringed a bit about how dirty she had gotten and so she tried to clean herself the best she could. As she did, she soon came across another puzzle from Papyrus. There was a switch like the ones from the ruins, a sign, several mounds of snow, and a mark on the left and on the right that were of two blue 'X's. It was very interesting to Alice and didn't look as dreadfully easy as the previous ones so she read the sign.
"Turn every X into a O. Then press the switch. Hmm… well that still sounds a bit easy but I suppose as long as it's not handed to me." Alice commented to herself.
She was feeling a bit competitive and ready to tackle one of these puzzles herself and not have it explained or answered instantly. So she stepped on the right blue X and to her amazement it quickly turned into a O. Alice frowned as that also seemed far too easy for a solution if it turned into the right mark as soon as she triggered it. It was at that moment a piercing screech, or at least very loud and enthusiastic cry, hit Alice's eardrums.
"WHAT!? HOW DID YOU AVOID MY TRAP? AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY… IS THERE ANY LEFT FOR ME?"
Alice gasped and when she looked over, she saw Papyrus on the other side of a line of spikes, his hands clasped giddily like a kid at a birthday party. He must be talking about the spaghetti from earlier, Alice realized. Alice wasn't sure how fragile Papyrus's spirit was when it came to spaghetti and she didn't feel like lying was a wise move this early on in the journey. After all, Alice had been genuinely quite interested in trying it but it had been cold to the point it was inedible. So Alice decided to be honest with the skeleton.
"I'm very sorry Papyrus but it had already been much too cold to eat… but I do wish to try it maybe freshly cooked at your home." Alice offered sweetly.
"AH… NO… I LEFT THE MICROWAVE UNPLUGGED DIDN'T I? WOE IS ME… BUT YES YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT ALICE. YOU'LL GET TO TRY MY COOKING SOMEDAY SOON AND BE PROMPTLY AMAZED BY MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS I WILL MAKE YOU ALL THE PASTA YOU COULD EVER WANT! HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH NYEH!" Papyrus replied after giving himself some confidence through Alice's offer.
"So you're now a master chef as well? I thought you wanted to be a member of the royal guard?" Alice asked.
"WELL UNDYNE HAS BEEN TEACHING ME HOW TO COOK. SHE SAYS IT'S ALL PART OF THE TRAINING PROCESS! IT'LL ALL BE WORTH IT IN THE END…" Papyrus then seemed to pause as he appeared to have a reflective expression.
Before Alice could ask anymore, he departed, leaving Alice to complete the puzzle. Alice went to the left 'X' and sure enough it turned into another 'O'.
"There's simply no challenge!" Alice groaned and folded her arms in disappointment.
Suddenly her negative opinion of Papyrus babying her and giving her puzzles that even a baby could solve began to arise again. He seemed rather clueless when it came to a truly good puzzle or at least was making so many beginner's mistakes that the fun had been sucked out of it. That's no way for any member of a royal guard to behave, Alice believed firmly. As she thought deeply about this, she activated the switch which indeed lowered the spikes down into the snow again and allowed her to carry onward. Interestingly enough, Papyrus was standing there near the entrance. Alice spoke to him a bit flatly,
"I solved the puzzle Papyrus… it only took my first try…"
"WONDERFUL JOB! OH AND BY THE WAY! MY BROTHER STARTED A SOCK COLLECTION RECENTLY. HOW SADDENING… SOMETIMES I WONDER WHAT HE WOULD DO… WITHOUT SUCH A COOL GUY TAKING CARE OF HIM? NYEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus replied.
Perhaps have more difficult puzzles, Alice grumbled to herself. Though she did find the idea of Sans, who wore slippers with no socks, starting a sock collection being very unusual. It also appeared as though Papyrus often did think about San's well-being which was a brotherly and kind-hearted thing to do. Alice in the end concluded Papyrus was difficult to read and if he was someone who was still interested in capturing her to become a member of the Royal Guard, it would be at most a bit hard to face him. After all, he had a brother to look out for and take care of. Alice decided to keep on going. As she did so, she found another puzzle and to her amazement, it looked VERY difficult. There were X's everywhere along the ground with the respective mounds of snow and another switch. As she analyzed the puzzle, Papyrus came bounding over.
"ALICE! HMMM… HOW DO I SAY THIS… YOU WERE TAKING A LONG TIME TO ARRIVE, SO… I DECIDED TO IMPROVE THIS PUZZLE… BY ARRANGING THE SNOW TO LOOK MORE LIKE MY FACE. UNFORTUNATELY, THE SNOW FROZE TO THE GROUND. NOW THE SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT! AND, AS USUAL, MY LAZY BROTHER IS NOWHERE AROUND. I SUPPOSE WHAT I AM SAYING IS… WORRY NOT, HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SOLVE THIS CONUNDRUM! THEN WE CAN BOTH PROCEED! MEANWHILE, FEEL FREE TO TRY THE PUZZLE YOURSELF! I'LL TRY NOT TO GIVE AWAY THE ANSWER!" Papyrus explained the situation with dramatic flair.
"Well I must acknowledge you certainly have indeed made this puzzle much more challenging than the others," Alice stated, clearly impressed.
Finally presented with a challenge worthy of a curious girl, Alice began to tackle the puzzle. Alice found that the mounds of snow did block certain movements and that going over them twice would revert them back to an X from an O. She bit her lip as she focused intently on trying not to make too many mistakes and solve the puzzle without any sort of aid. Some paths that she thought would be correct didn't work out but she did have some freedom to maneuver around and could use the switch to reset them all to X's. After several attempts of trial and error, Alice believed she had found the correct path. Papyrus, who was watching every movement, looked excited as Alice gracefully stepped along the X's. A trail of O's followed in her footsteps and when the little girl's ballet ended, every X had been successfully turned into a O. Alice activated the switch and cheered for herself,
"Wonderful!"
"WOW! YOU SOLVED IT! AND YOU DID IT ALL WITHOUT MY HELP…" Papyrus said slightly disappointed that Alice hadn't asked him for hints.
"Oh but you did thoroughly explain the inspiration behind the puzzle and that was very useful to me." Alice remarked to cheer him up.
"AWW… YOU ARE TOO KIND ALICE. YOU REALLY DO CARE ABOUT PUZZLES LIKE I DO! WELL, I'M SURE YOU'LL LOVE THE NEXT PUZZLE THEN!" Papyrus grinned.
"Oh my… exactly how many puzzles are left? I'm starting to get a bit antsy…" Alice inquired.
Tired from this more challenging puzzle, and curious to see SNOWDIN, Alice was definitely feeling ready to be done with the puzzles for today. Papyrus though 'tsked' Alice and wagged his fingers.
"THAT'S MY SKELETON IN THE CLOSET! YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO SEE FOR YOURSELF! NYEH! HEH HEH! HEHEHEH!" Papyrus cackled, clearly a trademarked laugh at this point, and rushed towards the newly accessible path.
"... Oh dear." Alice sighed exhausted.
She was soon brightened up however by the appearance of Sans standing by the pathway. Still her favorite of the two brothers for his balance of charm and wisdom, Alice greeted him,
` "How do you do now Sans?"
"this is how I do and it's what I like best so… i'm do-ing swell. good job on solving that puzzle so quickly. you didn't even need my help. which is great, 'cause i love doing absolutely nothing." Sans joked in his usual relaxed manner.
"Why is that?" Alice giggled.
"well i just feel more rested and comfortable. being a sentry watching for humans is a very 'nervous system' so i definitely just like making people smile more." Sans answered honestly.
"That's very kind of you… I would talk more but quite frankly I'm a bit tired and I would love to get to Snowdin to rest." Alice admitted wearily.
"well my brother still isn't done yet but just hang in there alice. you're really making his day." Sans reassured Alice with a pat on her shoulder.
Alice wasn't used to such a bony feeling of contact yet so she slightly trembled. Still his words did make her feel better about being a bit ready to conclude the puzzle fest. Alice nodded and continued to go down Snowdin Forest. As Alice did go to the next area she almost laughed upon seeing Sans instantly there with Papyrus. This teleporting thing is certainly a bit ridiculous, she thought amused. There was a strange sort of floor of many different tiles of varying but similarly grey shades and a big machine with buttons on it. Papyrus noticed Alice's arrival rabidly like a guard and spoke,
"HEY! IT'S THE ALICE! YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS PUZZLE! IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT DR. ALPHYS! YOU SEE-"
"Huh? Alphys? Who's that?" Alice interrupted.
While it had been rude of her to do that, Alice had just never heard of a strange name like that and it even sounded remarkably similar to her own. Plus seeing how interesting they had made Undyne seem in their descriptions, perhaps they had more to say about this Alphys.
"she's the royal scientist for the king. she's a sweet thing but she's kind of-"
"WE ARE BEST INTERNET BUDS! SHE'S VERY OPINIONATED AND WARM AND DOESN'T TROLL PEOPLE!" It was Papyrus's turn to interrupt somebody and it happened to be Sans that he interrupted.
"... Internet? Troll? I don't really know of those terms…" Alice spoke insecurely, having bad memories of when Toriel first showed her the cellphone.
"OH. WELL THE INTERNET IS WHERE YOU CAN FIND LOTS OF INFORMATION ON DIFFERENT TOPICS, PLAY GAMES, COMMENT, SOCIALIZE, AND SEE THINGS. TROLL… IS WHAT SANS DOES HALF THE TIME TO ME." Papyrus leered at Sans in a frustrated way.
Sans just snickered a bit, clearly enjoying Papyrus's flustered demeanor. Sans winked and said,
"it's easier to show than tell later to you human. and maybe you should explain the puzzle now papyrus?"
Alice felt some glee that it seemed Sans had listened to her intently and was trying to help her reach Snowdin quicker by hurrying his brother's puzzles up. As for what she learned… she was still rather bemused. But the Internet did sound quite godly and revolutionary, as though it was an advanced library. Alphys sounded like a rather nice woman, or more likely monster, and that she was an avid user of this internet. Alphys also had connections to the king as the royal scientist… So she may be responsible for some of the developments that have gone down here, Alice considered, I should keep that in mind. After all, while her fantasy land of Wonderland didn't really rely on science it was clear the Underground did have some aptitude with applying science to nonsense. It could also prove useful for finding more information about the nature of this world.
"AH! YOU ARE RIGHT BROTHER! YOU SEE ALICE…"
Papyrus went on to explain that Alice needed to cross this floor of tiles where each tile had a different effect. Electrocution, water, doing nothing, scents of oranges, slippery soaps that smelled like lemons, piranhas, it quickly got all very confusing for Alice. The explanation was very long and Alice was beginning to have a slight hunch this puzzle would be answered for her like the earliest puzzles. Papyrus then asked her if she needed him to explain it all again. So grinning, she simply answered,
"No, I believe I understood all that."
"GREAT! THEN THERE'S ONE LAST THING.. THIS PUZZLE… IS ENTIRELY RANDOM! WHEN I PULL THIS SWITCH, IT WILL MAKE A PUZZLE… THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE! NOT EVEN I WILL KNOW THE SOLUTION! NYEH HEH HEH! GET READY…!" Papyrus called out excitedly as he activated the machine.
The once grey tiles quickly became a spectrum of different colors, flashing to and fro like a rainbow. Strange, robotic noises ringed the air as Alice had to avert her eyes from the dazzling display. The flashes and changing layout of the tiles sped up to make it almost impossible to see what was going on. After what felt like a minute of changing and vibrant hues, the final layout was settled and the sounds ceased. Alice looked over to see… a perfectly passable path of pink tiles which Papyrus had said wouldn't do anything should she cross over them. Alice's hunch about this puzzle answering itself was right though she had to acknowledge Lady Luck had aided her.
"Well… that was… um… very sorry Papyrus." Alice apologized for Papyrus as she did feel quite bad that his puzzle epically failed like this.
Papyrus didn't answer and instead did something very unusual. He spun around and around and eventually spun his way further down the road. Alice felt a mix of emotions from surprise to joy to deep concern towards Papyrus but decided moving onward was most important. Once again though, after crossing the pink tiles, she turned to gather San's thoughts.
"actually, that spaghetti from earlier.. it wasn't too bad for my brother. since he started cooking lessons, he's been improving a lot." Sans said something that Alice hadn't expected to hear.
"Ah, he did mention Undyne was teaching him. That's very dedicated of him to learn how to cook to take care of his beloved brother," Alice said optimistically, holding a finger up as she made her point.
Sans looked away briefly and slightly frowned when Alice had said that. Alice was worried she had said something out of tune before Sans smiled again and said,
"yeah… i bet he'll be able to make a hearty meal one of these days. anyways you better keep going. there's only one more puzzle left and if you think 'pink', you'll succeed for certain."
Alice laughed as he was poking fun of how the path of pink tiles was responsible for Alice's success in this puzzle. So without anymore reason to stay around, Alice kept going deeper into the path. To her astonishment she saw a sight that was very whimsical… yet slightly creepy. There were many snow figures of what appeared to be long necks and dog faces like that of Lesser Dog. There was also another shrine-looking post that must've been one of the dogs. Alice was a little worried, remembering how tough the dog patrol members (Except Lesser Dog) had been thus far. So looking into the post, she found a box of pomeraisins on the floor. The sign next to the post said 'AWARE OF DOG pleas pet dog.' Seems this dog doesn't know how to spell properly, Alice thought. Still the clear display of the dog trying to perfect the art of making a snowdog made Alice feel quite determined, especially since she was fond of making snowmen. As she continued on her way, she saw a strange deer-like monster dressed rather stylishly.
"Hello there sir. Have you seen a skeleton in a very flashy costume run past?" She asked as she curtsied.
"No ma'am but I did see a dog just rush in here, filled with inspiration. It kept trying to build a snowdog that expressed its own emotions.. But, as it built, it kept getting more excited about the sculpture.. Its neck got longer and longer, and it added more and more snow, until… It was rather sad to watch, but I couldn't turn away."
"... Hmph. I believe if you had that much time to judge, you could've helped the poor thing." Alice scolded as she was unimpressed by the spectator's judgemental attitude.
"sorry but they aren't really bright to begin with…" They replied dismissively.
Alice had no interest in further conversing with the rather condescending monster and so she carried on her way. When Alice found herself in the next area, she saw it was an ice skating rink combined with the X's and O's puzzles from before. However Alice was not used to going on the ice without ice skates and so she clumsily slid on the ice.
"Ohhh… w-whoaaaaa… t-this is soooo… ahhhhhhhh!" Alice eventually slid too fast and fell off the ice.
Rather scared she closed her eyes and found herself landing on her back in a pile of snow. Dazed, she woke up to notice two snow figures that looked rather familiar. One was a lump of snow with the word 'sans' written on it in red… ink? Whatever it is, Alice thought, it certainly seems long-lasting. Alice smiled as she saw the name of the kind-hearted skeleton before turning to the other snow figure. It was a snow Papyrus, with Papyrus flexing his frozen water muscles quite splendidly and a piece of cloth wrapped around its neck. Alice felt warmed by the knowledge of the brothers having clearly been here before to make these snow versions of themselves (Even the lump of snow reflected Sans's laziness) and got to her feet and went back to the ice rink.
Keeping in mind how slippery the ice would be and analyzing where the X's were and what directions she needed to go, Alice made her second attempt. With improved technique and skillful maneuvering, Alice was soon able to turn the X's into O's again and activated the switch. A snowy bridge made itself apparent and Alice happily found herself sliding into a thicket of trees. It was a bit scary as she couldn't see where she was going but at the speed she was sliding, it was only a matter of moments before she reached the other end. As she emerged, she found that a snow bird had perched on top of her head. Shaking it off and feeling her head now being slightly chilled, she moved forward.
But as she did, she soon found herself confronted by a strange new creature. It appeared to be some kind of reindeer with several spots on it and rather sharp-looking teeth. There were Christmas Trees and very unusual stuff hanging on its antlers and Alice soon learned she was facing off against Gyftrot. Some teens "decorated" it as a prank which made Alice feel quite bad for the creature.
'Hohoho! Go ahead and laugh…" It said glumly, sounding frustrated and anxious.
"I-I'd never laugh at someone who was feeling miserable… oh!" Alice gasped as she found several large present boxes flung at her.
One of them was blue and recalling the blue attacks Sans had described, Alice stopped moving. The blue present box flew through her harmlessly. Smelling the scent of fresh pine needles cleared Alice's head as she realized she needed to help Gyftrot.
"I'm very sorry that you got pranked on by the others. Here, let me help you." Alice offered as she removed a childhood picture of Snowdrake and his parent from the antlers.
"That's a little better." Gyftrot said relieved.
Some rapid-fire snowfall though had Alice awkwardly dancing around to avoid getting hit and she succeeded in such. Next she proceeded to remove a stocking filled with chicken nuggets.
"... Now why on earth would anyone put chicken nuggets in a stocking?" Alice asked flabbergasted as she discarded it. Gyftrot was looking a lot less irritated but this time, a piece of snow from the snowfall did hit Alice and strangely hurt. Refusing to give up, Alice discarded the last significant piece of junk she had found on the monster's antlers. The barbed wire made of pipe cleaners was removed and Gyftrot happily said,
"A weight has been lifted."
With their problems having been taken away, Alice happily spared Gyftrot and even pet it comfortably for a few moments before it left. Alice then took notice of her new surroundings. There appeared to be a petite doghouse and several piles of snow scattered around, as well as yet another sign. These signs are a growing trend throughout the Underground it appears, Alice thought. Alice took note of the sign that simply said 'Arf' as well as the fact that these piles of snow were known as snow poffs. She did manage to find 30G in one of the snow poffs but definitely, otherwise, surprisingly… they were all snow poffs. Until Alice reached for the last snow poff that was down the path. A white tail emerged from the snow poff, leading Alice to step back worried. It must be the dog! She thought alert. Sure enough, an adorable doggy face also emerged from the snow poff and barked twice in a cute way.
"Aww… how very sweet". Alice couldn't resist making a comment and clasped her hands together.
But then she suddenly took note of how the dog emerged from the snow poff. They were much, much taller than the small dog-house seemed to indicate and were dressed in a full suit of armor. Of course it wasn't as tall as Lesser Dog's neck could get but the point was obvious. It also was wielding a strangely smiling spear and overall, despite its smile, it appeared ready to confront Alice like the other Patrol members. Indeed, it was… the Greater Dog.
"Uh-oh… um… nice doggy?" Alice asked hesitantly and beginning to sweat.
To her horror, it seemed the dog was so excited that it thought fighting was just play. It proved this by flinging a spear at her that shifted from blue to a regular metallic sheen. Alice managed to pass through it while it was still blue but couldn't help but be worried at how strong it would've been had it hit. With a scent of freshly squeezed puppy-juice in her nostrils, Alice attempted to bypass the dog. But not wanting to be ignored, it inched closer to her and barked loudly. It appeared it wanted her affection but Alice wasn't sure how she would be able to show it without getting pierced by a spear. Petting had been a top-notch battle tactic against all the Dog Patrol members thus far so she decided to pet it. Greater Dog curled up in Alice's lap as it was being pet by her delicate touch and got so cozy it went to sleep. However it woke up mere seconds later.
"Is it really that excited…?" Alice asked with an embarrassed smile.
Greater Dog patted the ground with its front paws as another spear was flung and avoided by Alice. Maybe I should try to get it tired…? Alice thought. Picking up some snow from the ground, Alice made a snowball and threw it for the dog to fetch. Perhaps because it was merely snow, it splattered and blended in seamlessly with the rest of the snow upon the ground. Greater Dog proceeded to pick up all the snow in the area and piled it on top of Alice herself.
"Mmphh… nnnh… huff! T-that's not… what I had hoped for…" Alice exclaimed after managing to wrestle herself out of the snow.
Fortunately, her idea did make the dog more tired and it rested its head on Alice. Alice, feeling chillier from the snowy experience, pet Greater Dog once again and it sunk its entire weight onto her. Alice found herself slowed by this and realized she needed to pet more. That last puzzle… better be easier… than this… Alice thought as she struggled to carry all that weight. With a decisive pet, Alice managed to reach Greater Dog's pet capacity of 100-percent and the dog flopped over, feet dangling in the air. It was now finally content and Alice spared it before falling onto her knees exhausted.
"W-well… th-that hopefully… was the last of them…" She said to herself in between breathes for air.
However, Alice was pleasantly surprised when the dog actually leapt out of the armor to reveal itself to be a rather normally sized dog that had just engineered a much larger suit of armor. It wagged its tail excitedly and licked Alice's face, causing the English girl to laugh.
"T-thank you.. that was very fun doggy." Alice got up to her feet and thanked the dog with a curtsy.
Even if it isn't very vocal, Alice thought, proper mannerisms still hold true. The dog then leapt back into the armor but this time it seemed that it's tailed rump was hanging out and that it wasn't in straight. Alice was about to offer correcting this to Greater Dog but it walked away, the tail wagging with each step. This baffled Alice as it clearly couldn't have reached the armor's legs to puppeteer the way it had entered. Overall, it had definitely suggested some sort of trick was within the armor that allowed Greater Dog to command it. Feeling curious but figuring that Greater Dog wouldn't be seen again, Alice kept going. She spotted something rather scary. It was an incredibly long wooden bridge with ropes for support and it was hanging over a gorgeous view of the forest and lake. The view was breathtaking but it made Alice a bit paranoid about being so high up on what looked like a traditionally unsafe bridge. There's nowhere else to go but forward, Alice gave herself much-needed good advice and kept going. She made sure to hold onto the ropes as she walked along the bridge in case of a disaster. Eventually, as she neared the other end of the bridge, she saw Sans and Papyrus again on new land.
"ALICE! THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE! BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!" Papyrus decreed.
Alice then gasped as six things, held by ropes, descended down from the sky. They appeared to be a torch, two spears, a cannon, a mace, and… another dog? Alice was more concerned for the dog than for herself and asked,
"But why is the dog hanging up so dangerously like that? I thought you were trying to capture me…"
"W-WELL… THIS DOG… VOLUNTEERED. AND ANYWAYS. ONCE I GIVE THE WORD, THIS GAUNTLET WILL BE UNLEASHED! CANNONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL SLICE! EACH PART WILL SWING VIOLENTLY UP AND DOWN! ONLY THE TINIEST CHANCE OF VICTORY WILL REMAIN! ARE YOU READY!?" Papyrus asked.
"No… release that poor dog at once! I don't want to see it get hurt!" Alice pleaded, even more scared for the dog.
"URGH… NO! I SHALL NOT BE SWAYED BY YOUR LOGICAL DEMANDS! I! AM! ABOUT! TO! DO! IT!" Papyrus seemed hesitant but his words held power.
Alice cringed and even tried to protect herself from whatever may have happened but as it turns out… nothing activated. Even Sans had took notice of this.
"that, uh, doesn't look very activated." He said.
"WELL! THIS CHALLENGE! IT SEEMS… MAYBE… TOO EASY TO DEFEAT THE HUMAN WITH. YEAH! WE CAN'T USE THIS ONE! I AM A SKELETON WITH STANDARDS! MY PUZZLES ARE VERY FAIR! AND MY TRAPS ARE EXPERTLY COOKED! BUT THIS METHOD IS TOO DIRECT! NO CLASS AT ALL! AND I'M DEEPLY WORRIED FOR THE DOG! AWAY IT GOES!" Papyrus reasoned as he dismissively shook his hands at the Gauntlet.
Alice facepalmed in sheer awe at the epic fail of Papyrus completely letting Alice go which directly contradicted his earlier monologue of wanting to capture a human. She was glad that the dog would be ok but she couldn't help but realize that he WAS babying her. That was rather disappointing but it also had some element of curiousity to it, as though he was clearly avoiding pulling the trigger on capturing her once and for all. Given that his brother was here, Papyrus had a distinct advantage and yet wasn't using it at all. It was as though they didn't want to capture Alice even though he had sounded like he needed and dreamed of doing it. What could it all mean? She thought as the Gauntlet was carried away. Alice wasn't sure what to say though and let Papyrus continue talking,
"PHEW! WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT!? THIS WAS ANOTHER DECISIVE VICTORY FOR PAPYRUS! NYEH! HEH! … HEH?"
Papyrus sounded very insecure in his laugh this time and went off again down the path. Alice looked to Sans for guidance as she finally crossed the bridge.
"i don't know what my brother's going to do now. if i were you, i would make sure i understand blue attacks." Claimed Sans.
'Sans… Papyrus doesn't want to capture me does he? If he really wanted to… he'd have had you help him more directly and have used that gauntlet to corner me." Alice asked.
"...!" Sans flinched at Alice's words.
Such a reaction meant that Alice's observation might've been right on the money and Sans definitely looked shaken. But there was something out of the ordinary about this shaken up expression. It looked as though Sans was more shaken about 'had you help him' as opposed to 'doesn't want to capture me'. Which meant that maybe Sans had wanted to help Papyrus more directly but there was some special factor about it that prevented him. Maybe it was the fact Papyrus did seem like he wanted to prove himself to Undyne which would mean capturing the human themselves. Not to mention the fact Sans had no interest in capturing Alice. Alice suddenly regretted her observation as Sans looked rather anxious and clarified,
"I-I mean… he does seem to be enjoying challenging me with his puzzles and perhaps he doesn't want that to end right?"
After laughing nervously, Alice waited for Sans to respond. Sans seemed to recover his composure and turned to Alice saying,
"something along those blurred lines at any rate. i mean i don't know everything about my brother but yeah… i think he's enjoying getting to know a human for the first time ever. anyways, i got some news for you… along this path… is SNOWDIN. and i think you're gonna like it here."
"S-Snowdin… at last…!" Alice gasped so relieved she could've burst into tears.
To Be Continued...
