The brave heroes stood before a monster from their past. A haunting specter they had once humiliated, beaten and moved on from. Now, bearing a partner in crime, and the possibility of destroying our brave protagonists. At least this was how Chara was envisioning it in her head. The knight having lost her trusty sword. Her sunny dispositioned compatriot weak, like herself.
Truly it was their darkest hour. A time of trials. A time of trivializations. Tribulations? She wasn't 100% on which one was the right word, but definitely that. And like any brave protagonist, soul shining bright before them in this final hour. She reached into the dark, and...
Chara used Run Away.
Flowey gasped. "B-bail!"
"Nope, nope nope!" Chara remarked in equal alarm.
Sprinting to the best of her ability, out. She made contact with the cracked ground tiles, the ones suggesting her inevitable future was falling. Initially doing well, the Froggit turning towards her, croaking again. As the strange mold creature roared in equal measure. Springing after them, in a fashion not unlike a slinky. Which she would normally find amusing, were it not for the Frog leaping up, latching on to the ceiling, and darting down after her.
Sensing this her soul flashed once more before her. Diving out she hit the ground. Flowey promptly extending his vines to catch the ground. Pushing them forward more. The Froggit slamming down behind them. As she got back to her feet, she looked towards the door. Turning to start that way.
A series of butterfly like wisps were produced by the Froggit, soaring out in the direction she was going. A sidestep, and a stagger seeing the ground break. Flowey letting out a sound of alarm, extending his vine to catch them. Pulling her back up. A turn on her heel bringing it around to a spot that was stable.
As she turned to face the way they were going, she noticed the slime thing had latched to the wall. Firing of a speck, which exploded in front of her. Several more on the way.
A piece struck one of Floweys vines, breaking it. Her balance failing, leaning back just enough to avoid the little pieces. Before leaning in and moving forward. Getting nearer to it, several of the others exploded.
"Flowey, do the thing." She requested.
"What thing?" He asked, as she dove forwards, hitting a point on the ground which crumbled. "C-chara!"
His vines latched out as they began to fall. Down, into the dark. Reaching out he tried to grasp a point, only for the vine to be snapped from an attack. Seeing their imminent crash, she closed her eyes. Slamming against, and hitting a bed of leaves. Which kicked up around them. The light from above, gradually fading out. Leaving only faint traces through the cracks to illuminate the area.
It took a little while, before one of her eyes opened. Pain wracking her body. Feeling like...she couldn't quite move. But she wasn't sure why. After a moment, Flowey leaned into view of her eye, frowning some, before the sound of a crinkling wrapper could be heard. The flower pushing the piece of candy into her mouth. It tasted like licorice, and melted away with only a partial chew.
A sudden breath filling her lungs, followed by a groan. Pushing herself to a seated position. The flower humming and frowning some.
"We have...really not done great at this." Flowey noted.
"No..." She huffed.
"Maybe...we should have used the candy to heal your foot?" He suggested.
Chara let out a sigh. "Maybe. It'd sure beat being one-foot in the grave." She smiled some. "Heh."
"Idiot." He replied smiling a little despite it.
"So...what do we do now?" She asked.
"Go back up and fight them?" He suggested.
"Can we win?" She asked.
"Probably not." He hummed.
Chara sighed, looking around the room. "Well...we're already here."
The room below the walkway was peculiar. It had a lot of what she presumed were red leaves. It was a little hard to tell, given that the walls were an off-red, and everything was dark. But they were organized strangely, into long or designed patches. But she couldn't quite tell why.
What she did notice, was a sign. Stepping across and through the flowers, with only a mild limp now, she moved closer. The Flower clearing his throat, giving her a look. She paused, not getting to near it. For the possibility there may well be a trap. Though she believed she had determined an indicator finally. She recalled that every trap she'd encountered had dust around it.
Looking over the sign. There oddly wasn't any dust. Feeling confident in this idea, she stepped forward. Hearing the flower wince, as they came to stop in front of the sign.
"Wow...so little faith." She noted.
"To be fair, you've not had the best luck so far." Flowey noted.
"S-shut up...idiot." Chara huffed, while turning to the sign. "You've been screwin up too."
He quieted down after that, as they read the sign. It read 'Please don't step on the leaves.' Her attention turning back to the leaves, and then up to the floor they had fallen through. She pondered it, before starting to follow along the path without the leaves. Every now and then checking above. She had a hunch.
Coming back to the start of it, she noticed a section for crawling back up to the top. Before hearing a section of the ground above crumble. Breaking as a familiar Froggit came falling down.
"Ughhhh, I hate this guy." She grumbled.
"Ignore it, and let's hurry out." Flowey suggested.
She gave the creature, presently looking confused, one last glare. A bit of dark briefly welling in her eyes. Before turning and beginning to crawl back up. They really weren't in any shape to fight at present.
Crawling out of the slot, once they'd climbed up. She groaned some. Getting back to her feet, brushing at her dirtied clothes. Looking up and around, she noted the presence of the slime creature, standing...or, well, whatever it was doing exactly, before the pathway through.
"Gotta dodge those hits." Flowey commented.
"Yeah, I know. I'll try." She huffed some.
Stepping closer the world flashed red and black. Her mind projecting an image of their options once more. Now with her health, and Floweys side by side.
|Chara - 6/20| - |Flowey - 7/12|
|Fight| |Act| |Item| |Mercy|
She debated trying to fight, but recalled her lack of weapon. Instead looking to the others. She didn't have any items left, so that didn't really matter. Leaving her with the ability to Act, or show Mercy. Something it most certainly hadn't.
Choosing to Act, she noticed a slight shine to it. A redness to the word, projected by her mind. Similar to what was present when she decided to spare the Froggit the first time. She felt anger well up in her chest. It couldn't be that simple.
Chara used Spare.
Flowey used Act
|Check| - |F-Action| - |Intimidate|
Flowey used F-Action.
Flowey attempted to do a similar wiggle to the kind the Moldsmal was doing. The monster responding in kind. What a meaningful conversation. Chara meanwhile huffed, and simply gestured to the side. Showing she wasn't going to attack.
The Fight ended. They got no xp, and no g.
The strange monster slinkied to the side. Going back to where it was originally. Getting nestled in the corner, nice and cozy. Seeming to care very little about actually attacking them.
"T-that's all we had to do?" Chara asked in surprise.
"Hmm, oh yeah, sometimes they're tired or just not interested." He said. "It's...much easier when that's the case. You can just Spare them, and they'll not attack you. At least until they wake up more."
She drew in a sharp breath. "Whatever...let's just go."
Crossing over proved to be a breeze, knowing what to do. With only one or two near slips in the process. The next room being decently lit like that one was. With three rocks, and a small bridge bearing spikes. The intent of the puzzle then, wound up being fairly obvious.
They moved the first two without issue. But the third proved to be...alive, and stubborn. Chara attempted to ask nicely for it to move, and it was resilient to that. So Flowey started an argument. The two going back and forth, getting more heated, before she again asked nicely for the rock to move.
"Yeah sure, whatever." The rock huffed. "Stupid ass flower."
Flowey once more wore his scary face. "I'll grind you to rubble you-"
She covered his mouth. "You have a great day sir."
The pair continuing on, as the flower did his best to continue arguing, even muffled. As the duo finally crossed the bridge. Safe and sound on the other side. He managed to slip from her grasp for a moment.
"And don't you forget it!" Flowey yelled back angrily.
"Chill out Flower Power, no need to rock the cradle, when we just got past it." Chara noted in mild annoyance.
"The nerve of that guy!" He growled.
Proceeding into the next area, it proved to be a small hall, with a table. Giving it a glance, she was confused to see there was cheese on it. But almost didn't care. Plopping against the wall, she slid down, and groaned some. Her feet feeling sore, with the blood having dried for the most part.
Wiggling her toes, she noted how destroyed her shoes were. Wondering if Toriel would be upset. Then again, they hadn't run across while on their path. So whatever she was doing, it had to be pretty time consuming.
"Don't suppose you can see that save point?" Flowey asked, gesturing to the air.
"Sorry, no." She muttered, looking around for one of hers. But it wasn't present. "Mine's not here either."
"It's fine, we're almost there." He noted.
"Awesome." She muttered, feeling tired.
They got to rest for a moment, before a familiar voice echoed from the room they came from. The rock, talking to someone. They exchanged looks, rising and wandering to the door. To see...Froggits. Three of them, with one very familiar one in the center. Pushing at the rock, who was stubbornly refusing the move.
"You've gotta be kidding me?" She asked in disbelief.
Floweys eyes darkened. "We should have killed that thing."
"Yeah...well, we're here now. So-" She growled some, turning to the only door left ahead of them. "let's just keep going, before it can up."
"Yeah...yeah. Fair, fine, yeah." Flowey sighed.
With that she continued forward. Proceeding down the only path left to them. Briefly glancing at the cheese on the table. Then to a mouse hole, where a small mouse could be seen. It looked as dinged up as she felt. Imagining that it might one day get the cheese, gave her the strength to Persevere.
No purple light shining, to save her progress.