It was a good thing her arms weren't stuck; if they were, Ginger's bow would have been rendered useless, and she wouldn't have been pointing her trusty bow right at the disturbing spider monster that'd ensnared her in her lair.
"We received an anonymous tip about a human passing by," she explained, summoning the webbing to rise higher over the human as she stifled an eerily calm giggle. "And the dear caller offered up a generous pay for your SOUL. Not only will that little donation help the spiders trapped in the Ruins, but there's no doubt your empty body will serve as a wonderful addition to my recipe."
"I recommend you find another secret ingredient."
She fired one of her arrows at the spider, aimed right for her shoulder. But she was swift enough to dodge it, and in turn rose the webs even higher.
"You don't even go for the vitals..." she sighed, in an almost disappointed manner. "It seems humans are just as much cowards as they are cruel."
"It's a warning fire," Ginger corrected. "Keep toying with me, and I might just change my mind."
"Toy with you? Why, that's a wonderful idea, dearie~! My pet will most certainly find you entertaining."
"What?"
The spider whistled, and out from the dense cobwebs came a creature spawned from the depths of the human's most horrible nightmares! A sickly purple creature with large, emotionless voids for eyes and four skinny, pointed legs. It bore it's sharp fangs, which were even sharper and more disfigured than those of Undyne, and let out a deep, hellish noise.
And then it proceeded to come right at Ginger, full speed ahead! She was certain it would've disfigured her at the least if its owner hadn't called it off.
"Now, now, my darling; not yet," she tutted to it as the creature skidded to a halt. "For the time being, we're going to play nice. You wouldn't want to ruin your new plaything right away, now would you? Ahuhuhuhu~!"
The horrible beast inched towards her more slowly, and she struggled to break free of the web. The bottom strands came loose, and she managed to hop away from it before it could come too near; a difficult task, seeing that her legs were bound to each other, and she ended up falling to the floor. Again, she was thankful that her arms were still free, or the only thing breaking her fall would've been her face.
"I'm warning you, spider," Ginger threatened again as she aimed another arrow at her opponent. "I don't wanna have to use this, so I'll give you one more warning!"
"Oh, don't be so blue, dearie. In my opinion, purple would suit you much better!"
Another wave of magic energy washed over her; similar to Undyne's green magic attack, but it felt less...restricting. The webs encasing her dissipated, replaced in an instant by three sturdy, purple strands of it stretching all the way across the lair in a column, looking almost like an odd web ladder of some sort.
Ginger's SOUL made itself visible again; it had now turned from scarlet to violet, matching the shade of the webs she clung to.
"What's that supposed to do?" she inquired curtly, wondering what the spider monster would try on her next.
"Well you see, dearie, when you're purple, you can only move up and down along the webs; there is no in between. However, you are free to go from side-to-side. Let's see just how well you fare this way. I will be impressed if you come out of this in one piece. Uwh hee hee hee hee~!"
The hideous creature let out a bellow of a roar, then opened its gaping maw at her. Spider-shaped bullets began approaching along the webs, a few spaces in between them. The human held onto the webbing firmly; she was going to have to use the webs themselves to dodge the bullets.
She went up to avoid the row of spiders along the bottom, then down to the middle to get by the ones coming across on the top. They came fast. Too fast, really, and the last bullet coming along the top row brushed against her, disappearing in place of the telltale shoot of pain that coursed through the impact spot. Ginger winced, then threatened to draw her weapon again once the bullets ceased, giving her adversary a sharp glare.
"I've seen a lot of ridiculous things down here, but this is the screwiest by far!" she snapped. "Sorry about the wolf spiders in the Ruins, but there's probably a better way to get them out than killing me!"
"Wolf spiders...So, you know more about us than I thought you did, it seems," the spider girl acknowledged, her eyes widening just a tad.
"Yeah...So you mind letting me go so we can do this some other way?"
"Let you go? Don't be silly! With the generous pay that lovely fellow offered us for your SOUL, skipping out on this opportunity would be such a fool thing to do! So why don't you be a dear and stay still so I can wrap you up to add into the batter, hm?"
"You wish."
Another series of spider bullets came at her along the strands of web, and the human climbed along them like a ladder to dodge them. It was odd; it seemed like whenever she jumped up or down to another strand of web, the one she was jumping to seemed to...pull her to it, like some sort of odd gravitational force, and she spent merely a second within the space between the lines. The spider monster was right in saying that there was no in between.
It was a good thing she'd trained so much to counter the speed of monsters' magic bullets in Snowdin, or she would have been getting hit a lot more than she was; this spider had a knack for speed, just as the human did, and it made for a good two-way challenge.
"Speed against speed...Interesting play," Ginger remarked.
"Oh, I've more than speed on my side. It's breakfast time, my pet! Have fun, you two~!"
The spider's 'pet' came back over and emitted a low gurgle, and its owner summoned up a few more rows of webs for her human victim to climb up above the first three. The disturbed victim felt the purple strands begin to give under her weight, and they started to lower.
Right towards the hungry open mouth of the menacing, muffin-shaped monstrosity.
Now she was not only climbing ever upwards to avoid being chewed to bits, but also having to avoid the rows of spider bullets coming after her along the strands of cobwebs. Everything came and went so quickly, she could barely think straight. Climbing, bullets, the voracious predatory creature beneath her; it was too much, and it was too fast. By the time the monster finally decided to cease the merciless barage, she was near battered to bits by all of the white bullets she'd collided with, and she could feel every bit of damage dealt.
"Hmm...Normally, I wouldn't use ingredients that've been bruised," the monster said to her. "But I am willing to make an exception. Besides, in the worst case, I can always just cut the bruised parts away and use the fresher bits! Ahuhuhuhu~!"
Ginger audibly gagged; she wasn't sure if it was the image of the monster preparing her dead body in such a way that made her Spider Donut almost come back up or if it was just the heavy, metallic taste of blood in her mouth beginning to pool...Or both. Regardless, the little bit of color left in her face drained.
"Why so pale? You should really be proud...Proud that you're going to make a delicious cake~! Hee hee hee hee hee!"
The human was barely able to muster a response, hanging onto the webs for dear life, as the spider pet was still beneath her, snapping its jaws open and shut.
"Come on..." she panted. "Can't we talk about this...? I mean...Most other people down here probably wouldn't...You know...Appreciate you killing me...Besides the spiders, I mean...Uh...Might I ask...I know it was anonymous, but...The guy that tipped you off...Did you see the person? I just wanted to know...What they might've looked like."
"Hm...Well, he certainly had the most charming smile," the spider recalled, a magenta blush coming to her lavender face. "And quite a handsome face; very angular, none of those baby curves, and he was so GORGEOUSLY built..." She sighed. "He even winked at me before retreating to the shadows...But it was strange. When I saw him vanish among the darkness, it could have sworn I saw him...change shape...? How queer..."
"Huh...Sounds like you've got a bit of a thing for this guy..." Ginger noted, seeing her captor becoming lost in her thoughts just imagining him. "Uh...Say, I'll make a deal with you. You let me loose and continue your, eh...physical description, and I'll see if I can find him somewhere out there; if I can get you two in the same place with each other, we'll see if anything unfolds between you two, you know what I mean?"
A small smile formed on the spider's toothy face.
"Oh, my goodness. Well, that actually sounds like-"
But it was gone as soon as it appeared.
"...Wait a minute," she oozed. "I know what you're trying to do...!"
"Uh..."
"I should have suspected...You're trying to break free so you can escape. And you asked me about him so you could seek him out and wreak your vengeance on him!"
"Um...Not per se. When you-"
"Tut tut, I want to hear nothing more. I believe it's lunchtime, my pet~! This time, show our guest how we deal with scheming weasels like this poor, delicious sap."
The creature bellowed deeply again, and the web trap started back up, going even faster than before, and the spider bullets being even more plenteous. Ginger had no food on her except for the butterscotch pie, and he had no time to reach for it; the bullets came too quickly, and the monster below threatened to put her out of her misery.
Finally, her hand, slippery with her own blood, failed to grasp the web above her, and she fell to the ground with a loud 'thud'. The spider and her pet hovered over her, the former wearing as smug and as creepy a grin as ever as she ran her black tongue over her lips once more, and the latter baring its mouth full of fangs.
Ginger was badly beaten; one of the two dozen wounds she'd received was a deep gash in her side, bleeding profusely out onto the ground, her left eye was swollen shut, she could barely see out of the other one, and she was barely able to move her limbs.
The beast slunk out of view, and its owner watched as it clamped its deadly jaws down on the human's right leg. The now hapless victim winced, suppressing a pained scream, a single tear trailing down her bruised face, turning red as it picked up the smeared blood.
"Why, my pet! If you like it so much, then I'll be sure to give you plenty of the leftovers! Any, ah...Final words, human? Hee hee~..." the pastry chef giggled.
The human emitted her parting curse through clenched teeth, propped up on her shaky arms.
"...Suck...my...cloaca..."
The spider monster, for the first time since their meeting, was truly speechless, and stared down at the human with five wide eyes.
"...Well...It seems we will need to clean this one good before we use it in the batter, doesn't it, my pet? It's absolutely filthy..."
The creature pulled on her leg, and there was a sickening sound of tearing flesh and dislocating bone as the limb was painfully and violently torn clean off its owner's body. Ginger yelped, then collapsed...then cried.
"You brought this upon yourself," the young pastry chef tutted, treating the situation no differently from correcting a rebellious child. "Alright, my pet, we've done enough, I'd say...Let's not have it keep suffering."
The last thing Ginger saw was the horrible creature open its bloody mouth one more time and plunge her into the darkness of its jaws.
...
...
"...What happened...?"
A void...An endless expanse of darkness that extended to the farthest reaches of infinity. And there was nobody occupying it but herself.
Why was she here? The last thing she remembered was the horrible abomination the spider monster called her 'pet' swallowing her up head first.
...Was that why she was here?
Was she...was she...
"...dead...?"
If so, then what was this place? Was this some purgatory where she had to wait for something to come? Her own personal hagsmire, where she would never see anything or anyone she ever loved again? Or was she supposed to find something? A light, maybe...Anything besides darkness would suffice.
She ran aimlessly, searching for...something. She didn't know what, but she knew she would know it when she saw it. If she kept going in one direction, maybe she would find what she was looking for.
Finally, from somewhere within the vast expanse of nothingness...She could have sworn she heard something.
It was very faint; so faint that her own heartbeat obstructed the noise...But how was her heart beating if she was no longer alive...?
She caught another bit of the soft noise. It almost sounded like...music? Where would there be music coming from? Had the white gadfeathers come to guide her to glamora, strumming their gold harps? Or was it a mob of hagsfiends bringing her their tune of woe...It certainly sounded woeful.
But neither angel nor demon made itself present.
Instead, there came a voice. One as deep as thunder, and it came from all around, echoing across the void.
"You cannot give up just yet...You are the future of humans and monsters!"
Who was this? Where was he? Was it...Glaux speaking?
"Chara!" it boomed again. "Stay determined!"
It couldn't be...Was the voice even speaking to her?
Chara...She knew she heard that name once before...But where? And WHO was Chara, anyways?
The voice went silent.
"Wait..." she called. "Wait...No! Come back!"
All of a sudden, something...No...TWO things appeared before her...Words.
Options.
...She had two options, staring her right in the eye.
-Continue
-Do Not
Continue...? She would rather continue to some place than stay here for eternity. She reached out towards it...
And it began to glow brighter.
Was this the light that one was said to see?
"I can't give up...I WON'T give up...!"
She reached out even further...
"I have DETERMINATION."
And continued.
...
...
Ginger awoke to the sensation of dirt pressed up against her face.
She opened her eyes; she was lying on the hot, dry ground just outside of the spiders' lair. Once she realized where she was again, she sprang up to her feet, shaken by what she'd just gone through with the spiders.
Wait...Her feet? Both of them? Hadn't that beast...
The human looked down at herself; she was as good as new. No gash in her side, both of her eyes worked fine...And her leg.
She felt up and down it, just to make doubly sure it was really there. She remembered it being ripped clean off, yet there it was, still attached and in fine shape. She kicked it out just to be sure, rapping her knuckles along the bony front of it. It was definitely real.
"Wait a moment..." she realized. "Did I just...Load?"
Flowey. He said that whenever she would die, she would always be given the opportunity to come back to her last Save Point.
A chill went up her spine, in spite of the muggy atmosphere of Hotland.
"...I died?"
So she died at the hands of the spider monster and her pet, but now she was back. She'd been afraid of finding out what a Load would be like, should she be torn from her mortal coil, but looking back on it, it hadn't really been all that bad...Save for the whole dying part, that is. First, she was in a void, then she heard the faint tune coming from somewhere in the darkness, and then came the voice. She was not Chara, but even still, it seemed to urge her on...And then she was given the option to return.
But she still had a few questions.
Who had called out to her in the void? And more importantly, who was Chara?
Ginger thought for a moment...And then remembered.
"The Trash Zone..."
Undyne had still been on her tail, and had just plunged her into the dump by breaking the bridge. Before she regained her senses, she'd been faced with some sort of...odd vision. She'd seen the world from the eyes of whoever this Chara person was, back in the Ruins. But she'd been greeted by someone unfamiliar, being neither Flowey or Toriel.
WHO had come to her in the vision was another mystery, and her memory was too hazy to even remember what he looked like.
...But right now, it didn't matter.
She looked down at the Save Point beside her. It was shining brighter than usual, a sign of her return to said point.
So then, just like when she willed herself back in time in the Ruins, virtually no time had passed since her last Save? And the spiders in the lair had no memory of killing her? Taking these things into account, Ginger decided that this was a good thing. They would do everything the same way as last time.
Which meant she could plan ahead, since she knew exactly what to expect.
"...Ha. Ha ha...Heh heh heh heh..."
Her relieved laugh curdled into a foxy snicker. Since she knew what to expect this time, SHE could be the one playing trick cards now.
"Let's see..." Ginger pondered. "She trapped me in the webs, then did the whole purple SOUL thing...Then those crazy attacks, and then...That was when her pet showed up, right? And what happened next was what lead to that happening...Her pet...I could handle the first attacks fairly well. It was her pet that threw me off. Not to mention it ate my leg..."
She looked down at her limb again. In this timeline, she'd never lost it to begin with, but in her mind, it felt like she'd just...gotten it back.
Oh, well, she said to herself. That never happened now. Just gotta make sure it doesn't happen again, is all...
She looked above her leg, now, her eyes passing over the white stripes going across her orange shirt.
"...Hmm...Maybe I should change that."
It was hot, but if it mean risking life and limb, she would gladly trade comfort for the intimidation factor, so she slid her messenger bag off and extracted her signature cloak.
"I still gotta thank Snowdrake for this thing," she noted, hoping she'd get the chance someday, if not now.
For extra security measures, she drew her bow and arrows before proceeding into the lair, making doubly sure that her hood was pulled over her head far enough to obscure her human face within the shadows it cast.
If she looked spooky enough, maybe the spider girl would have second thoughts about attacking, so she cautiously proceeded into the lair with quiet footsteps. The cobwebs laced about the room were the same as before, all over the place and in every nook and cranny.
And then came the voice.
"Ahuhuhuhu...Don't you remember what he said, my pet? He said that there was a human coming through..."
What he said...She was speaking of the anonymous entity that tipped her off, whom the spider monster seemed to be somewhat infatuated with.
That gave her another idea.
"Who?" Ginger called back. "The handsome fellow with the angular face and dapper smile?"
Everything suddenly went strangely silent, and before she knew it, Ginger found herself faced with the young baker; she'd emerged from hiding to block her path this time around instead of ambushing her from the north. She seemed a might...startled by what the human apparently knew, but still stood her ground.
"...So...You know how WE know, do you...?" she almost snarled.
"You don't get this far down here without half a brain. Now...About your plans for me. Shall we instead settle this like civilized folk?" the human responded, noting the small... teapots it looked like that the monster held in one of her three pairs of hands.
"...I don't trust you."
"Ditto. But can we both agree that this needn't end with someone getting killed?"
"Hmm..." the spider almost grumbled. "...How strange. The person told us just how much you hated spiders. And how you reveled in stomping on them with your huge feet and tearing off their legs one-by-one in the most painful ways imaginable."
Ginger visibly shuddered at the memory her vivid description brought back.
"Really?" she countered. "Might I ask how he knew these things?"
"...I cannot say. We didn't ask any questions once we got the offer for your SOUL...Probably because we didn't put any of it past you."
The sound of the spider's pet growling lowly in the shadows caught their attention. Its owner shushed it from where she stood.
"Not yet, dearie...Not yet."
"Pray tell, what lurks beyond my line of vision?"
The young baker didn't answer, but instead shot her hooded guest a suspicious look before scanning her over.
"...You are no doubt the human we were warned about," she acknowledged. "But what, may I ask, happened to the striped shirt he told us you were wearing?"
"This, you mean?"
With a flashy fling of her ominous cloak, she revealed the more vibrant shades of orange and white beneath it...As well as the bow and arrow she'd drawn.
"You came armed, did you?" the chef sneered, narrowing each of her five eyes at the sight of the weapon.
"Could you get one of your spider buddies to spin me a web? Orb, to be precise? Shall we say...Over there?"
She pointed out towards the far corner of the lair, just above the exit towards the left.
"Nonsense," the spider tutted. "I'll do it myself."
With a flick of her fingers and a flash of white, she summoned up an orb web of white magic right in the requested spot.
Right when it formed, Ginger squinted an eye and drew back one of her projectiles, aiming at the orb web, then let go. The arrow flew right into the center of the web, and the sticky target caught it by the tip. The spider monster stared on at Ginger's scarily excellent marksmanship.
"...Do you mean to frighten us?"
"Not per se," the human answered. "Just showing you what I can do. I trained a lot back in Snowdin in the case I should encounter any hostiles, so they come in handy. Now, where was I...? Oh, yes. About this, ah...Awkward situation I've walked into. Shall we discuss it?"
There was still a skeptical glimmer in the spider's eyes, but she let slip another one of her small, toothy smiles.
"...Why certainly. So, then...Would you like something to drink?" she offered with that oozy voice of hers. "We have water, milk, juice, spiders, hot chocolate-"
"Spiders?"
"Spiders it is, then."
"No, that wasn't-"
But she was already pouring her a brimming glass of spiders from one of the pots in her hand. They were all dead, fortunately, and they were stewed in a steaming, frothy liquid that released a tart odor into the air that overtook the dusty scent of the cobwebs.
She handed the human the cup, and the latter took a quizzical look, though she wasn't particularly disturbed. Ginger had just never tried spiders in this more...liquid form.
"What's the matter?" her host taunted. "Do you think your taste too...refined for our confections?"
"O contraire," Ginger defended, casually taking a sip of the spider beverage. It was as tart as its scent, and was a might crisp, producing a warm sensation in the back of her throat even after the hot liquid passed through. And was that a...cephalothorax that she picked up in there? It was rounder than a leg, and had a different texture, with all of the organs still inside it.
"...What do you call this?"
"That would be Spider Cider, dearie. Made of whole spiders; not just the juice."
"I can tell," she nodded, taking another, more eager mouthful of the surprisingly appetizing refreshment. "Spider Cider...Don't you also sell this stuff in the Ruins?"
"The Ruins...Why yes, we do. Is that where you first came from?"
"That's how the story goes; I fell down a hole, traversed the Ruins and made my way all the way here. I happened to pass by your little setup in one of the smaller rooms as I was finding my way through the old catacombs, and since I was low on sustenance at the time, I used what little gold I had accumulated at the time and put it towards one of your Spider Donuts."
"You...donated to our cause?"
"You were unaware of that, it seems?"
"Well...Yes, I was. I do apologize; the technology outside of the Ruins isn't quite as...advanced as the open world...At least, what we consider open here underground. They communicate with us out here via telegram, so perhaps they sent to us concerning your generous donation already, and it simply hasn't arrived yet. I'll see about your purchase if and when we receive the message, how does that sound."
"Sounds fine with me. Pleasant little things over in there," she flattered. "Two quaint little Wolf Spiders crawled out from the hole to serve me. Nice fellows, they were."
"Wolf Spiders...So, you do know of the two spider clans?"
"Clans?"
She diverted her attention away from her Spider Cider and looked the young monster in the eye, now genuinely intrigued.
"Two clans of spiders inhabit the Underground; the Wolfhouse Clan trapped in the Ruins and the Gardenleap Clan roaming the rest of the Underground. Each clan consists of two spider species; Wolf and House Spiders and Garden and Jumping Spiders respectively. The Wolfhouse clan has been confined to the Ruins ever since we abandoned them to move the capital to New Home at the mouth of the cave. They originally wanted to stay there, but over the several generations of spiders that have passed since then, they now want to spread across the rest of the Underground like the rest of us did. Unfortunately, conditions under here have intensified since then; the tundra has grown so much colder with the magic blizzards being conjured so much more often, and the poor dears can't pass through to Waterfall without protection from it. Otherwise, they would all die out before they even reached the first town...That's why we're trying to raise enough funds with our bake sale to get them out."
"And how long have you been at it?"
"I first got the idea around, say...three years ago? I've always had a passion for the culinary arts, so I also thought this might be my chance to make something out of it. I'm sorry to say that I haven't had much in the way of success. And no matter how high the prices are, I don't seem to be getting any closer to my goal."
"Erm...Hear me out," Ginger suggested, finishing off her cider. "This might sound counterintuitive at first, but have you considered lowering your prices?"
"But what would that do?"
"Sure, you might have high prices, but that alone isn't going to get you to your goal. You've also gotta take the consumer into account; see the less something costs, the more likely someone's going to decide to put their hard-earned money into it, and therefore, the more you'll get in return. Plus, satisfied customers are likely to return, so they'll spend even more of their gold on future products, you see what I'm saying?"
"...Hm. Putting it that way, it makes sense. Perhaps I should have taken that business course in ninth grade," the spider said to herself aloud.
"I say you make your prices here in Hotland double the amount of the Ruins location. People have more dough to go around out here, so they'll willing to spend the money. This one fellow I ran into said that he paid full price for one of your Spider Donuts; 9,999G, right? Sounds like quite the pile of coins."
"Oh, it is. He's our only full-paying customer here in Hotland so far...Oh, silly me. You're out of cider, aren't you?"
"Don't trouble yourself over it, I'm content. And these are made of real spiders, so I'm finding myself slightly more full over them than the usual monster dish. Satisfying, to say the least; I've no idea why your typical human finds the idea of such things appalling. I hear most don't even like snails."
"Oh, well...You seem to separate yourself from most humans in that regard, don't you?"
"I...Don't associate with other humans a lot," Ginger told her. "I prefer to go my own way. I'm a wanderer by nature. That's...Uh...That's actually what landed me down here in the first place; roaming around like the vagabond I am. In all honesty, I'd prefer the company of monsters over humans tenfold."
"Would you now?"
"Yes, yes, I would! I have been so far, let me tell you! Ha..."
Ginger smiled. Things were going so smoothly now that she'd nearly forgot that this was the same monster that had her brutally murdered in an erased timeline. And now they were discussing the spiders in the Ruins, and it was as though she'd completely forgotten about the offer given to her in exchange for the human's SOUL. Hagsmire; she had yet even to lay eyes upon that awful-
Another low growl interrupted her train of thought.
"No, no, my pet. You may not eat this one...I don't think. Now be a good girl and introduce yourself nicely."
The creature emerged from the shadows; it really did look something like a hideous cupcake with legs. A fitting choice of a pet, considering its owner's line of work.
Fortunately, it didn't seem as quick to attack this time around. Not with its mistress ordering it to do otherwise, and the creature approached the hooded human slowly, and without baring its teeth quite so much. Ginger had the urge to shrink back at the sight of it, trying to conceal her initial fear of the beast, as she knew just what it was capable of. But instead of mutilating her leg, the pet cautiously sniffed her hand, barely brushing its wide, blunt snouth up against it before backing up to sit beside its commander. It let out a higher-pitched noise at her.
"Now, now, my darling," the spider monster said to it. "I'll let you have a treat if you behave yourself."
"So, this one's yours, is she?" Ginger remarked. "Does she, ah...have a name?"
"Oh, yes; her name is Puffy. You should have seen her when she was just a little maggot; what a squeezable little dear she was. Like a little puff pastry...Hence the name."
"Ah, I see..."
The human was glad at how she'd handled the situation this time around...Perhaps she shouldn't have been so quick to use her arrows back then. She hadn't the patience for a battle, so she'd been quick to defend herself with the thought that she could get it over with quickly...That'd only ended in her demise. She almost felt foolish for firing her bow when she had, despite the situation being particularly dire. She'd dealt with more powerful forces before using cleverly executed communication; she was skilled on the battlefield, but her true strength was diplomacy, so that was what it appeared she had to be to win in this situation.
A diplomat; a smooth, courteous diplomat. That would take her where she had to go.
"So...What got us here in the first place?" she continued. "Ah, yes. The tipoff you got. Now, about this, ah...anonymous entity. I haven't seen him in person, but I've heard a few things about someone like him, so I assume there may be a connection. This fellow...Besides being utterly, breathtakingly handsome, what exactly did he look like?"
"Oh, yes. I...suppose, if I put your advice into play, it might make up for his little offer. Em...Well...He was very tall, I'll give you that."
"How so?"
"Six feet. Maybe a few inches over...I swear, he looked like a male model, he was so glamorous. And he was...very strangely humanoid. With his head of black hair, and his broad shoulders...Ah," she sighed. "...I didn't think it fitting on any man beforehand, but he looked surprisingly good in pink."
"Pink, you say? How curious..."
"I'd say so. And...It was very odd, but when he vanished back into the shadows after our little discussion, I could have sworn I saw him...morph, so to say, into something... shorter. And less refined. It was hard to tell; normally I can see just fine in the dark, but in this case, it was almost as though the lights were dimmed as he departed. So my eyes weren't quite prepared for the change of brightness...How inconvenient. But I swear, the lighting cast down on him made him look even MORE gorgeous. Ahuhuhuh~!"
"Sounds like quite a looker," the human acknowledged. "I'll likely know him when I see him. He never mentioned his name, did he?"
"No...He said that he didn't want anyone to see him the way he was. Something about a surprise, I think? Yes, that was what he said."
"Hm...Well, anyways, I should tell you that I'm off to meet the king; most everyone else knows who I am and where I'm going, so I might as well not keep secrets."
"King Asgore, you say? Well, that certainly gives me...conflicting thoughts. On one hand, although I believe your advice will make up for it at least some, the generous pay the handsome gentleman offered us will be gone...That and the fact that he may not let you leave without a fight."
"I hear he's a big, loveable oaf; I should be able to get somewhere with him."
"Yes, yes, that is true...However, out of the seven humans that died before you, he does have the blood of one of them on his own paws, I must say. It happened when I was just a spiderling, but it happened. The first human to fall after he enstated his new policy on them; the five others that came after were done either by the Royal Guard or... well, in a couple of cases, they did themselves in."
"Wait...Did you say seven humans?" Ginger noticed. "If seven humans fell down and I am the eighth, how is he Barrier not broken yet?"
"The first human. The one that came before all of the others...It really is a tragic tale. Too tragic for this time and place. All I can say is that the ill human died peacefully, but the SOUL she gave up was lost."
"...How unfortunate."
"As for the last six, there is not much I know...Except that the king himself only has the blood of the one on his own hands. The Royal Guard disposed of all the others, after that happened. A shame, too...If they'd saved what was left, I might have been able to use some in my spider pastries to give them an extra kick! Ahuhuhu~...Hee hee...My apologies. Not to shun you for it, but I don't believe you humans to share the trait of consuming our own kind when they pass on, do they?"
"Uh...Not typically. Not to my knowledge, at least."
"You don't seem very bothered by the fact that King Asgore has killed a human before."
"It usually takes quite a bit to perturb me, but if it's something genuinely unexpected, then I might be thrown off guard. Take, ah...Puffy, for example. Right now I'd say she's a dear, but if she came after me in a dark alleyway, I probably wouldn't think the same way...I'd be too busy running."
"Oh, my, yes. Well, she can be a bit of a handful sometimes. But you've got nothing to worry about...Oh, dear, goodness me. I must be keeping you too long, aren't I? You best be on your way, dearie, or you won't get to New Home for another day, perhaps. You've the CORE to traverse before you even think about reaching the castle."
"Another word of advice; perhaps consider setting up another location in New Home? I hear it's getting overcrowded, there are so many monsters there, so I imagine at least someone there would be willing to buy."
"That's an excellent idea, dear human! And my most sincere thanks for-"
Both of them caught sight of what looked like a small black and white Jumping Spider skittering across the floor towards them from the entrance. Despite its small size, it was managing to carry a comparatively enormous piece of paper in one of its tiny legs as it came closer.
"Hm? What've you got there, little one?" the spider monster asked as she took it from the little creature.
"A telegram from the spiders in the Ruins! Yes, yes, this is exactly what I was awaiting! Let's see...It says here that not only did you not harm a single spider during your stay there, but also donated to the cause of getting them out of the Ruins with your purchase of a Spider Donut! Yes, yes, dear, thank you so much!"
She used all six of her hands to shake just one of the human's, she was so ecstatic. Ginger had expected them to be a might more...cold and clammy. But this had proven not to be the case.
"Well, ah...It's not a worry. I'll be heading out, then I suppose, but expect to see me again someday. And good talk, miss...um...Beg pardon, but I don't think I ever got your name, now, did I?"
"Muffet, dear. And you?"
"Ginger Wingren. Pleasure to be of your acquaintance."
"Pleasure's all mine, Ms. Wingren. Ah...That fine fellow who gave us the offer for your SOUL...He must have been talking about a different human in a striped shirt. But you? You'll always be welcome here! If you're in for some japes, however, I could always wrap you up and let you play with my pet! Ahuhuhuh~!"
To this response, Puffy let out a deep, excited-sounding gargle of a noise.
"Ah, uh...Yeah. That's...An idea. Well...gotta run!"
"Be seeing you, dearie! Ahuhuhuh~!"
Ginger hastened her gait as she passed over the webs along the floor. They seemed...less sticky than she remembered, making them far easier to walk over.
Finally she came to the exit. And right when she stepped foot out of the spiders' lair, she zipped to the side of the path into a corner, let her legs cave in underneath herself and heaved out an exhausted sigh of relief.
"Thank Glaux..." she spat out hoarsely. "It's over. It's all over. Agh...Not going in there again. Too many bad memories...At least she knows how to cook, I guess."
She stood to her feet again, and then looked down at her leg one more time. She would likely never forget the trauma of having it ripped clean off...despite having never really lost it to begin with. Everything down here was so strange, so foreign to what she thought she knew...
One thing was for sure, she would never look at spiders the same way again.
Ginger let out one more breath to slow her unsteady heartbeat, then brushed the dust she'd collected from the lair off of her cloak before stowing her bow and arrows back where they belonged. She rolled her eyes at herself; she hadn't used her weapons very wisely the first time around...
And she was determined to change that.
The young human was just about to start on the road again when something on the wall caught her eye. A poster, it looked like; more specifically, an advertisement for...
"METTATON: THE MUSICAL
A tale of two star-crossed lovers,
kept apart by the tides of fate.
LIVE PERFORMANCE:
3:00 p.m., Oct. 25"
"Huh..."
Ginger pulled out her cellphone and checked the date and time; October 25th, 2:58 p.m. Mettaton was likely just about to go on stage...wherever that would be.
Good, she thought. That means he won't be around for a while.
She continued, and beyond the small room of purple bricks was what appeared to be a mural. The human passed by it; it was a painted mural of a village in the distance, sat underneath a glittering, starry night sky. And just in front of the mural, up ahead, was...
A castle tower? Despite it apparently being a stage prop, it was surprisingly elaborate, complete with windows and other openings, a staircase, and...
Wait.
A stage setup. Didn't she just read something about-
"OH...THE HUMAN?"
She'd hoped too soon.
A.N: I'm gonna let slip a secret; I've...never actually played Undertale myself. I've just watched playthroughs.
I hear that the Muffet battle is particularly difficult, so I thought 'Hey! Why not make Ginger die the first round and we'll see how she reacts to that?' The game mechanics for Undertale are interesting things to interpret into written form, seeing as they're actual elements within the in-game universe, and I want to be as accurate with my writing as possible in writing things like that out. Do you think I make her undoable death too brutal? She got her entire leg bitten off before she died. That was pretty gory, eh? Eh...Whatever. Sometimes, you need to show/depict a little gore to tell a story.
But let's face it, this whole thing is just an opportunity to show off my status as a meme connoisseur. XD
Well, thanks for followin', peeps! Remember to R&R! :D